One Year Anniversary!

Last year, on August 14, 2012, Caleb endured a bone marrow transplant and Brooklin endured a three hour bone marrow harvest.  I am so proud of them both.  Caleb for being so courageous and brave during his month long stay in the hospital and Brooklin for her immediate willingness to be his donor.  A lot has happened this past year; some hard things, some amazing things, but the things that stand out the most are the numerous miracles we have experienced.  God gave us the hardest things we have ever had to go through, but he also surrounded us with angels...literally.  I am grateful for this experience.  We are unable to fully comprehend the sweetness in life without having the experience of tasting the bitter.

Top: Transplant day  Bottom: One year later

Transfusions 6, 7, and 4

Caleb went in on July 6th to get transfused with his 6th and 7th bag of red blood cells and his 4th bag of platelets.  It was supposed to be pretty straight forward, but the blood bank did not communicate with the doctors and what was supposed to take five hours ended up taking about 11 hours.  The doctors told us that they were ready for him, and that they had already radiated the two bags of blood for the transfusion.  The blood bank noticed that the radiated blood was three days away from expiring, so they sent two new bags off to be radiated (which takes 4 hours) and failed to let anyone know.  Consequently, Caleb and Darwin had to sit in the hospital for several hours waiting around for things to happen...which made them both grumpy. =P

At Tripler for another transfusion

Anyway, Caleb got what he needed and didn't have any reactions, so he was able to come home really late Friday night.  While he was being transfused, Darwin and I went out to P.F. Changs to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary, which was July 8th.  So glad we could sneak a date in and so happy that I've been married to such a great man for 18 years!! 

17 Years And Counting

Hooray for anniversaries!!  This year make seventeen for Darwin and I!  First, I'd like to look back at what we looked like then...

This is the photo that was in the newspaper

My "Addams Family" pose

Look how young we all are!

This is NOT Brooklin!  This is my baby sister Marnie!  She was only 18 months old!

This picture is funny on so many levels!!

Miss many of these people!  Only the grandmas are still alive today

This is at the reception.

Me and my mom...and her huge glasses

Me and baby Marnie

The dress

The monkey face!

Now for today...

I told Darwin that I either wanted to go on a zipline or to Kualoa Ranch and do a tour there.  He opted for the zipline.  Now, he called ahead and set something up and I only knew that it was a zipliine...nothing else. I was so excited in the car on the way to the zipline, I could hardly stand it!  I had my camera and I was going to get to go cruising through the trees and get some epic shots of Hawaii.  I mentioned this to Darwin in the car, and he said, "It's not really that kind of zipline."  Apparently...there are no REAL zip lines on Oahu!!  The one he found was at a mini-golf place in Kaneohe!  It was maybe 100 yds and had a weight limit.  The only thing to cruise over was the mini-golf courses!  I was really bummed...really...  Darwin wanted me to try it out anyway.  We went over to pay for our ride, and it turned out that Darwin was a few pounds over the limit, so I had to ride it by myself!  The man who suited me up treated me like I was 12... "Hi!  What's your name?"  me: "Melissa"  him:  "I bet you can't guess what my name is!"  me: "Uh, it's written right there on your helmet..."  etc.  Darwin took pictures and then we played a round of mini-golf and then went out to eat at Bubba Gumps for dinner.

After dinner, we went out to see Transformers 3 and then finished off the evening at Starbucks.  I had a hot chocolate with coconut syrup and a birthday cake pop, Darwin got hot chocolate with a raspberry shot.  We played Settlers of Catan on the iPad and drank our hot chocolates there in Starbucks before heading home.  It was a good day, even though I was bummed about the zipline.

Tomorrow, Darwin leaves for his 10 day fishing trip to Kodiak with his dad, my brother, and my brother's father-in-law!  I hope they have a great trip!!

15 years

Darwin and I have been married for 15 years today. He bought me 15 white roses...and I bought him a new grill. =) We went out to eat at the little Mexican restaurant by Costco (love the beans and rice there...and pretty much everything else too!) The day was slightly subdued because we attended a funeral earlier in the day (I will post about that after this), but I'm so happy we have had 15 years together. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father helped us find each other at the right time, and that we were able to be sealed in the Boise, ID temple. I love being married to my best friend!