Four Year Old Me

When you are four years old and home alone with your mom, the last thing you do is worry. All you think about doing is playing, eating, and just messing around. Sometimes cleaning if that's what is in store for the day - tons of fun, right? One night when I was four, I was home with my mom and I don't actually remember what we were doing at the time, but when I looked back at her, she was having a Grand Mal seizure [loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions]. I honestly had no idea what to do, but I did make her lay down on the bed and I just hope with all my heart that my dad would be home soon. I guess I can say I was pretty lucky because it was only a few seconds later that my dad pulled into the drive way and took over so I could go into the other room and try not to think about what had happened. With me being four it was pretty easy to put it behind me within a few days, but over the years it has come back into my mind and made me realize how scary it was and how lucky I was that I wasn't alone for that long with her because I don't know what I would have or could have done. Needless to say, that is one of my first memories because it was the most terrifying thing I went though at that age - or any age, really.

One Very Long Week

On Sunday, Penny noticed that her bad eye was red and swollen. She went to her normal doctor and he said to come back the next day. She did as she was told and eventually he told her that he had no idea what was going on and that he was going to send her to a specialist in the Twin Cities. On Wednesday, I went with her for medial/memory issues and just to be there with her through this. Dr. Gupta (an amazing woman who was a real sweetheart) told us she had a corneal ulcer and prescribed her pills, ointment, and eye drops. The two type of eye drops work together to help treat this and they have to be taken every hour. They can't be at the same time so it ended up that she'd have to put in eye drops every half hour, alternating which ones she was putting in. We took her home and she tried to do it herself for a day, and she was allowed to sleep most the night and only have to get up once to put them in. However, she called me the next morning and told me she wasn't comfortable with that and wanted to be admitted into the Phillips Eye Institute, where she was seeing her doctor, so that they could take care of her and then she'd worry a little less about it.

So now she's up in the Twin Cities at the Phillips Eye Institute. After a long two days I just hope that everything works out okay and that she is able to come home on Saturday or Sunday, depending on if she's comfortable enough with that. I guess only time will tell and we will just have to hope for the best.

If Only They Knew

They look at us, they point as us
They talk behind out back.
It's not that they are being rude,
They just don't know how to react.
How do you face someone who's been ill?
Who face each day what we must?
They count their blessings and
thank God it's not them,
then quickly walk away.
If only they knew what the hardest
part of being ill really was.
It's not the doctors, the drugs or the tests.
It's the nervousness it can cause
And in people we don't even know.
That makes them uncomfortable around us.
They feel uncertain, and just want to go
Go home and thank God it's not them,
and that they are as healthy as they are.
They don't realize that they are suffereing also,
in ways that can be stronger by far.
Stronger than what we face,
and in ways that are much more unsure.
It's a fact that we've had to accept.
If they'd only relax and accept us
for the people we are at heart,
they'd find that that's the best medicine
and we've needed it from the start.

-Penny [PEPH]

Blanket Fundraising

One day I was sitting around watching TV (or playing video games, I'm really not sure...) and I looked down at the blanket on my lap and a great idea popped into my head. It wasn't just a blanket that was on my lap, it was a no sew blanket that my best friend (and her mom) had made for me when we were younger. It was then that I decided that it would be a cool idea to make some of these blankets and sell them for money for the foundation.


I started looking up the no sew blankets online just to see what other people were doing with them (looks wise) and it was then that I stumbled upon a new type of no sew blanket that I had never actually seen before.

Instead of two pieces of fleece, it is only one piece with a yarn fringe. I personally really like them because they are different from the no sew blankets that a lot of people already have. As of right now I don't have anywhere set up online to buy the blankets, but within the next month I should. When I do I will definitely put a link up here to it so people can look at the blankets we have currently made. We being my best friend, her mom, and I.


Pictures above are of blankets we have made (some are still available, some are not). If interested right now, you can contact me and I will see what I can do for you.