Giving Thanks Doesn't End Here

This is where I get serious and do my best to get in touch with your softer side.......as I take you don't memory lane. My memory lane.

Five years ago, most of us sat down to our usual Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Some of us probably were unfortunate enough to have strep-throat. Some others may have just had surgery or lost a love one. Not everyone had a great day.

This is a picture of my grandson Andrew five years ago, toasting his father, and giving thanks..to be alive. Andrew had just turned three, and was diagnosed with leukemia when he was two. You can read his story here. He didn't even have the "good" leukemia....yes there's a leukemia that they actually call the good one. Try telling that to any parent with a child diagnosed with any leukemia.

Tell that to Marey. Marey's teenage daughter Ali, was also diagnosed with leukemia. Fast forward five years and she is accomplishing so much with her life. You can read her story here.

Over the last five years, I have come to know hundreds of children with cancer. It pretty much became my life. I read Caringbridge Sites every night checking on kids. I can honestly say I have been to more funerals for children in those five years than all the ones for adults in my life.

Marey and Postcard Cindy, (a name she was given by a cancer dad she never met in person), have been holding fundraisers every Christmas season to help two families keep their heads above water while there child goes through bone marrow transplant. Even with the best insurance, some families travel cross Country, incurring housing and living expenses above and beyond the norm to save their child's life.

This year, they are holding a raffle over at Marey's blog, ELEMENTO-P . Go on over and check out the items being raffled off. There are some beautiful handcrafted items, and I personally made the one blanket which is similar to the ones I deliver to the Peds/Onc ward here in Central Texas for Christmas.

These are the two children Marey and Cindy are helping this year:

Ivan, a 17 year old man whose relapsed leukemia has sent him to transplant. He is at LPCH and is doing well. He is the oldest of 6 children and we would certainly love to help them out this season.

Austin is another relapsed 4 year old leukemia patient. He had 2 years of treatment, relapsed and is now going to transplant. You can read more about him at his site.

If you are still reading this....Thank you. Now go check out Marey's blog, and check back often for new items to be added. I have a link at the top of this page on the left.

NAME THAT BEAR....please!

I'm having a contest!

Wouldn't you like to win something like this?

Or how about one of these?

Well, the answer is yes you could, if you were entering one of Pioneer Woman's contests The Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

But I love you too, and I want to give you this.....

a WalMart Gift Card valued at $25. I can hear you saying, it's about time yeah!

I have been very fortunate ever since I won two football pools started my blog back in March. I've met so many bloggers over the Internet and some in person...like Her, and Her...on my Major Road Trip to Phlugerville Tx.....and Him, and Him and Her in Los Angeles CA. So, this is my way of saying thank you, and let you know how much I enjoy all of your blogs.

Now, for the contest. Here's what you do. See the slide show in the column on the right? See that pitiful cute little "astronaut" bear? Well, I've been featuring my little astronaut bear in my posts for quite some time, and he's never had a real name....and a reader recently reminded me that he needs one. So, please submit a name in the comment section.

Since I don't have more that six a zillion readers, I won't be using a random computer generated winner picker. No, it will be a random grandchild's grubby little hand picking the winner out of a hat.

So, rack your brain, and shuffle your feet....then come up with a perfect name for my little bear.

Please! Just one entry per person!

Contest ends Friday, October 31st at noon PDT.

That's right, get your entry in before you go trick or treating. I will announce the winner at 6 PM on Friday....unless I can't find a grandchild with grubby hands.

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WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE

Game 1: at Rays, PHILLIES TAKE IT 3 -2

Game 2: at Rays, RAYS TAKE IT 4-2

Game 3: at Phillies, PHILLIES TAKE IT 5-4p

Game 4: at PHILLIES TAKE IT 10-2

Game 5: at Phillies (if nec.), Mon., Oct. 27, 8 p.m. ET
Game 6: at Rays (if nec.), Wed., Oct. 29, 8 p.m. ET
Game 7: at Rays (if nec.), Thurs., Oct. 30, 8 p.m. ET

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY
...please come again when you can stay longer and leave a comment. I may even feed you...if you want.

Today my sitemeter told me that over 15,000 people have visited Grandma J’s site. I can’t even imagine, because no one read me the riot act or left a mess behind. I only had to delete three comments, and two of the three were spam.

Now, I hate to admit this to you, but honestly? A good amount of those “visitors” weren’t coming to see me. No, in fact even when they got here, they didn’t even take the time to look around or say Hi, or Bye. They came here via Google. I took quite a bit of time today to see exactly what they were Googling.

Here are my most frequent visitors in order of frequency, but not necessarily in order of importance as you will see.

1. ShamWow....in many different forms, just Sham, or Vince of ShamWow, or Sham Rags, Sham Cloths, and this is what they got. With pictures and unlike Vince, I gave my unbiased review.

2. Unibrow....or Unibrow Lady. I kid you not! And this is what they got.

3. Love Your Colon....(in various forms). And this is what they got.

4. Now, this was actually the number two all time visitor Google search. I lied to you. But I saved it for last because it is such a hoot, that you may leave me for “her” and never come back. And that, dear readers would break Grandma J’s heart…for real. But I have faith in all of you, and I want to share this site with you. I was curious because my sitemeter has all the searches for this site coming from Poland, but it’s in English with no accent, and sure does seem American to me.

It's a search for Grandma Joy.