An update for Anisa (at special request)

Last weekend, Megan and I attended the Women with Bleeding Disorders Retreat at a camp near Houston. The retreat is designed to be educational, fun, and a chance to build friendships with people who have similar challenges.

We left Dallas on Thursday morning, flew into Houston, then got on a charter bus for a 90 minute drive to the camp. There were about 60 women and adolescent girls at the retreat. They came from four different states--Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Thursday night was the opening ceremonies, ice cream social, and then we got to sleep! Our emcee, Ed, was hysterical! He was the only guy there, however he does have an extensive Barbie collection. He is the education coordinator for the 4 state region. The man was so funny!

The mornings of Friday and Saturday were spent in a variety of educational seminars and break out groups for the young girls, women with disorders, and parents of the younger girls. It was a great opportunity to develop friendships, have open dialog and learn from each other. The afternoons were free to take part in the many activities, including horseback riding, canoeing, arts and crafts, swimming, reiki, yoga classes and skin care classes.

These are pictures of the lake, where Megan went canoeing with our "third wheel". They only allowed 2 people to a boat and I graciously let Mandy go with Megan.....it was a mistake! These are pictures of Megan just before floating off and a picture of the lake with many other boaters.

We took part in several of these, but also enjoyed some time together as mom and daughter enjoying each other's company!

We made several friends, but spent the most time with Lita and her daughter Nuki. They are from a very small town in Arkansas. We had a blast and laughed a lot with these two! This is the worst possible picture I could post of them, but most of our other pictures we were laughing too hard and the pictures were shaky!We also made friends with a mother/daughter named Michelle and Megan. That Megan and our Megan could be clones! They have many of the same symptoms of the disorder and we learned that our Megan has some symptoms that are related to the bleeding disorder that we had no idea about. Based on the information we learned from them and the clinic staff who were there, our Megan will probably have some changes in her meds and a few more tests. We'll keep you posted on those as we get results.

Friday night was a theme night....red carpet movie magic. We were supposed to dress up with boas, big sunglasses, gloves, etc. Very few people dressed up.....but Megan and I were totally dressed for the occasion! We were a little uncomfortable to say the least! After the dinner and Barbie show, they showed a movie and everyone had popcorn. We had already seen the movie and decided to hit the jacuzzi with Lita and Nuki instead.

Saturday night was Casino night....everyone was encouraged to come dressed as their favorite movie star. Megan and I watched from our hotel window to see who was in costume and saw only 4 people....so our costumes stayed in the closet and we went down to the lodge for the casino events dressed like regular people instead:)
Megan's stack of chips varied from really high to really low. I think I about broke even. This next picture is our "dealer" Ruby, whose daughter also has the bleeding disorder. We all had to learn the rules of Blackjack....and even made up some of our own rules!

The best costume went to Tootie....who was dressed as something about the red lantern parody of Gone with The Wind. Megan and I were pretty sure she was just dressed as a curtain.....regardless, she was hysterical!

After the gambling was complete, there were gift bags that were given out. But, gifts could be stolen! They started with the lowest chip winners. The higher chip winners could steal gifts from the lower chip winners! Megan and I ended up with a variety of gifts during the process. These gifts included picture frames, a cool necklace holder, a wallet, a galileo thermometer, and a few other things. We were both pretty excited when we got the galileo thermometer (me) and necklace holder (Megan). At the last minute, Nuki stole the necklace thing from Megan and she ended up with some crazy pseudo pearl necklace! Too fun!

Please keep your eyes out for a necklace holder that is formed like this: a 1920's lady, wearing a full length gown with beading, has all sorts of bling and then has brackets coming out of her hat
So, this is the information for 4 of the past 10 days without posting. I have to get ready for work this morning, so that's all you get so far! I'll post more later tonight about some other stuff!

Love,

Bets