Elan's Blog: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Justin Bieber and SkySky (Skylar)

OK so you are totally out of things if you don't know that any and all living, breathing female 11 year old is all about the Justin. So coming up in January HE is coming to CHARLOTTE!!! NO WAY you say, YES way I say!

So why am I writing about Justin Bieber??? (Besides the fact that Erik is jealous of his hair?). Well our good friends in Charlotte - Jason and Rachel have adorable 11 year old Skylar (and 3 other fantastic ladies too but this story is about Skylar). Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting her is instantly in love and wants to steal her for their own (or at least borrow her for a bit). Apparently Rachel was reading to her girls some of our blog postings and Skylar started asking about the one regarding my Pearson colleagues and the Elan Fund. She left the room and appeared a few minutes later with $12 cash and said she wanted to mail to Elan! HOW BEAUTIFUL, right? Now if you know the family they are all about hard work and not just handing cash over to their kiddos - Rachel said Skylar had really worked hard for the $12. Now this $12 isn't just any old $12 but her money going towards her Justin Bieber ticket for his concert in Charlotte in December/January. Apparently Rachel told Skylar that if she saved enough for her ticket then Rachel would pay for the parents to go with Skylar. Now time is definately not on Skylar's side even if the news report about the concert being sold out was wrong:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/06/04/154299904/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-sold-out-concert-even-for-justin-bieber

So for her to send us her hard earned cash is such a loving jesture! We don't want to rob the girl of her joy of giving to Elan of course, but do want to figure out a way for her to go to Justin's concert afterall! I am seriously concidering of contacting Justin somehow and share her story. He did afterall visit another AT/RT kid a few months ago (ironically the same week Elan was diagnosed). I only found this out when I was researching AT/RT that week and it was the number one google search for AT/RT. HE seems like a sweet guy:

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/north/12007747447853/mrs-bieber-joins-justin-on-the-today-show/

So if anyone has Bieber connections let me know! Anyway, we just once again can't get over the support we have been getting from all over the place! It is amazing who rises up to be a support! We love you all!

Here is a picture stolen from Rachel's FB page of Skylar's Bieber look - so cool! Apparently (according to Rachel's post) the arm warmer was homemade out of a sock - those girls, so crafty!

Cindy, Mike and Kids in Terre Haute - Wed

A quick blog to share a great day! (Once again I am days later posting this - sorry!)

Elan had his treatment at 7 AM so that gave us an entire day of fun. It was conveniently the day I had to turn my laptop in for work so FREE! Mike and Cindy live in LA with their 3 absolutely charming and beautiful girls. We haven't seen each other for 18 years!!! Can you believe it??? The last time I saw them was at their wedding! they only make it back to the midwest every year or so just like us so never synced up. Mike's grandma (who I think he said is 95!) lives about 3 hrs from Bloomington so we met 1/2 way in Terre Haute at the mall - great location since it was 100 degrees out! Elan's treatment has left his skin a bit "sunburn" lets say so he needs to stay in the AC right now or shade - but at 100 degrees we all need to be out of the sun.

So unbelievably kind of them to reach out to us and organize this meet up. They are only here like I said once a year or so and have a TON of family to visit all over the place. They had their trials with their oldest having Down Syndrome so really some loving and caring words shared. So amazingly upbeat and some great advise too on handling Elan's present and future! Mike - we have Mozart playing right now :). Their oldest is Ailia (9) is now in "regular" school and doing fantastic! Brings so much joy to see her so happy and enjoying life! Emily (5)is sooo personable and Finn became BFFs right away. Little Ivy (2) - so sweet and kind and Elan hooked up to her right away. Ailia went between all of them and had a blast!

We had lunch at the foodcourt and then let the kids go wild on the coin operated machines one never says yes to - boy did they have a blast! See the loads of photos for proof! After leaving them we headed to the "crossroads of AMerica" - nothing to drive out of your way for :)

Notice it is a Pink Panther train - my boys love the old pink panther cartoons!

This is Ivy's flamingo - a bit hit!

I love this series of shots - a virtual roller coster

Don't we look alike? Erik said we both look like grandma Neca - we do! Hadn't realized before.

Love this one!

Emily is such a model here :)

And here :)

Here is the crossroads of america- not much here but the plack and a statue of the Max Ehrmann a poet who mused here in the past. He wrote "Desiderata". The only thing we didn't do was drive by the Federal pen... save for next time:)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Photos from past two weeks

Boy do the days go by fast! Here are a few things we did which I didn't get a chance to blog about:

Took the boys to the Brown County State Park. Cute lodge to eat at buffet style - so 1950's! It is a place back in the day kind of like the movie Dirty Dancing where families go for a week and eat at picnic tables. We had the BEST seat - check out the adorable family picture and view in the back!