My Grandmother is Pretty Amazing

proof here. (:

Joplin, MO

My doctor-in-training brother-in-law Spencer went to Joplin recently to help with clean-up.

Click here for his post on his experience.

3x... 4x... 5x... the Charm?

I went to donate blood today. After being rejected at least three times (maybe more) this year because my hematocrit was too low, I was worried it would still be a problem. Turns out taking a multivitamin is a good thing. Especially if you're not a big meat-eater (such as myself). I was at a 13.?? and females need to be at least 12.5. Woo hoo!

I also was given a pin for having donated a gallon of blood (that unit of measurement just sounds wrong when you're talking about blood). I actually reached a gallon a long time ago. I think I'm close to two gallons now. Yay!

On the whole, it was a great experience - again. But I think the girl drawing my blood was fairly new. For the first time ever, my arm hurt the whole time the needle was in the vein. That was not pleasant. Even now, it hurts more than it normally does. Blast it all.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow's kind of a big day for me. I'll be working here -

- for the first time (I did sub for a friend once, but now it'll be a weekly thing), and I'm really excited about that.

I'll also be volunteering for this race -

- from 1 to 5 in the morning (technically on Saturday).

Crazy? perhaps. But not as crazy as the people running it! (though I admit I'd like to be one of those people someday)

And I'm pretty excited about that too.

See My Dad

He's the one on the left

Quoted a few times, his name is Chris Anderson

Update -

- on our fund raising blog. Check it out.

and tell your friends!

My New Adventure

Just this morning, I signed up to walk with the Susan G. Komen 3-day 60-mile Breast Cancer walk in San Diego this coming November. In order for me to participate, I need to raise $2,300.

My dad's father passed away because of cancer, and his mother is a breast cancer survivor. I love that I'm able to help this way and am really looking forward to it.

If you're able to donate (any, absolutely any amount is welcome!) please click here and donate* under my name - Eden Anderson - . I'm on the team "grads for girls."

Also, if you're interested in joining the team and walking with us, let me know.

For more information about the program, click here.

To answer the question about where donations go, the website says:
Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ fund innovative global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment. Every major advance in the fight against breast cancer in the last 27 years has been impacted by a Susan G. Komen for the Cure® grant. For more information about Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit http://www.komen.org/ or call 1.877 GO KOMEN.

For answers to more questions, click here.

I've also put a link in the left sidebar for donations.

Thank you!!!

*All donations are tax-deductible.

Help the Red Cross Help Haiti

I got this email from the Red Cross yesterday -

I signed up - for the 5 - 9 am shift (not looking forward to the early morning hours - I haven't seen that side of 5 am for a long time {unless it's been when I haven't been able to fall asleep} -, but it's the shift they're having the hardest time filling). I just wanted to send the word out so if anyone else can sign up, please do!

It probably took me a little too long to decide I was going to do it, but when I thought of my dad in Haiti... well... the decision became easy.

Happy weekend eve everybody!
(it'll be a super-early night for me!)

Disaster Relief

Last week we found out that my dad was going to go to Haiti to help in the disaster relief efforts. When he's done things like this before (hurricane Katrina, 9-11, Columbine, Indonesia, etc) it's been in a debriefing capacity. He'll help the volunteers deal with things that they are exposed to - since witnessing and working in the midst of all that devastation is naturally mentally draining. Based on the work gloves and work shirts he asked my sister to pack (he was on vacation with my mom and brother visiting my two oldest siblings when he got called away and had to fly out of CA on Sunday), it sounds like he'll be doing some of the physical work as well.

As my sister said, "I'll be following the situation in Haiti even more closely now. And be praying more fervently."

I Love Nice People!

I do. I really do. I'm talking about the nice people who do nice things for no apparent reason. It's just because they're nice.

Yesterday work ended early. A little before two, campus sent out an email advising offices to close because of the snow storm that had been going on for the majority of the day (I think we ended up getting more than 6 inches). I've never heard of that happening, but I don't look gift horses in the mouth. (in case you don't know what that phrase means, click here) So, I walked out to my car around 2:30 or so. I was mentally prepping for the need to scrape off the foot (slight exaggeration) of snow that I knew would be on my car. I stuck my key in the lock, opened the door, and realized that instead of this,

I was seeing this.

Okay, so my car really isn't that nice, and actually my car was completely uncovered. I just chose this picture because I think it's a pretty car.

And yes, in case you didn't pick up on it, I had the door wide open before I realized that there was no snow on my car. Once it clicked, I stepped back, took a look at the car to check that it was mine, then looked around at all the other cars to see what their snow situation was. It just wasn't clicking that my car would be uncovered when none of the others around me weren't.

As I was driving away I called my friend Sharla who also works in my building and mentioned the super-kind act that I had been the recipient of. I had an inkling of who it may have been, turns out I was right. She texted me later and confirmed that John, her boyfriend, had taken the time to dig out my car. So nice!

I had to scrape off my car this morning (took about 20 minutes to finish it) and was reminded of how grateful I was to have had someone do the deed for me the day before.

Really, Yay for nice people!