A very good birthday

It was my birthday this past Saturday. It's kinda weird to think I'm 25 now. When I was in my teens, I thought I'd have my life all figured out by the time I was 22.....three years later, and I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up!

But this post is not about existential musing and pondering. I want to share about what a great week I had and how glad I am that I got to relax and spend time with my family (even though I see them all the time since I live at home...). I feel like I can be too "down" and serious on here at times, so I'm going to focus on all the good stuff I did the last seven days. :)

As an aside, I can nitpick about the things I don't like about work, but one of the things I appreciate a lot about Half Price is vacation days accrue and roll over from year to year. So, I've got a decent amount saved up and decided to just take a week off before it gets really crazy (besides the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, June-September is our busy time of year). And everyone at work wants to take a vacation during the warm months to enjoy a little bit of summer. I didn't have to fight anyone to take a week off at the end of March. And I didn't feel as bad about being gone, because stuff wasn't piling up quite as bad as it will be in the middle of July.

Originally I was planning to buckle down and work hard core on art every day....but that didn't really end up happening. I did get some art making in, but I mostly just read, ran errands that had been piling up and drove around to various fun activities.

Monday, I read most of the day and then went to my weekly yoga class in the evening.

Tuesday is my regular day off, because I volunteer that day in the afternoon with Free Arts MN at Earl Brown Elementary doing art projects with kindergartners. That's always a highlight of my week. You can be feeling like crap when you walk in there, but by the time it's done, you feel amazing. The kids just run in and give hugs and high fives and just love that you're there to make art with them. We can do what I think is a simple project and they'll absolutely love it. It's a good reminder for me to enjoy the little things in life.

In the evening, I had my church community group over at my house for dinner. Everyone brought a dish to share, and we just hung out, ate and talked for two hours. The most interesting item that someone brought was a bag of oranges.

Wednesday was a pretty full day: In the morning I met with one of my pastors and another person from my church at Wilde Roast Cafe for my membership interview. It's not like a job interview, but just to check that you're not some wing-nut whack job or something. It's a good way for the pastors to get to know new people better, hear their stories and learn what people's passions and interests are. Also, Wilde Roast is awesome--they have the best chai tea I've ever tasted.

After my interview, I had to book it over to Juut Salon Spa in Roseville. A friend from church with curly hair that always looks great gets her hair cut there, so I thought I'd check it out. I've never actually been to a salon before, so I was a little leery. But it was awesome! The guy who did my hair loves curly hair and actually knows how to cut it properly. We had a great conversation about tattoos, hair, and other random topics. He was super cool and just really nice--he did not give me crap at all about the fact that I don't get my hair cut every six weeks or whatever. He just kept gushing about how gorgeous my hair is and that he wants to be the only one to cut my hair from now on. It's always nice to be genuinely complimented. :) And he styled my hair really nice, because I was going to go renew my driver's license after my appointment. Now that's good service! I definitely felt fantastic when I walked into the DMV later.

Thursday, I went over to Beloved to chat with one of my tattoo artists for a little bit and check out the art in their gallery. I continued the art trend that night when my Mom, Andrew and I went to the Walker to see their current exhibit, Likelike. (fyi, the Walker is free on Thursdays after 5pm) We took a detour to the Wedge co-op for dessert afterwards. I pretty much only ever buy snacks and junk food there!

Friday was another day of driving around: From St. Louis Park to have my leg braces adjusted, to New Hope to get my tires rotated, then home. Later, my Mom took Andrew and I downtown Minneapolis to Macy's flower show. It's starting to become a tradition, because the show always falls right around my birthday. We ooh and ahh over the flowers, wandering through the beautiful colors and taking in all the wonderful smells, then head downstairs to the candy counter. Yes, an old fashioned candy counter where you can buy treats in bulk or individually. They sell really good chocolate, and something is always on sale when we're there. I'm actually savoring one of my birthday truffles right now! :)

Saturday started out with a wonderful surprise: My Dad handed me an envelope and wished me a happy birthday. Inside were two tickets to see Celtic Woman on Sunday night!! I absolutely love their music and have been saying for years that I would really like to see them live. I was completely floored--I had absolutely no clue they were in town and never would have guessed that my parents would buy me tickets to see them! I'm not one to overly display my emotions, but I was over the moon! I couldn't wait for Sunday night to come, that's for sure!

But I also had some fun things planned for Saturday too: My Mom and I went shopping together, which I always enjoy getting to hang out with her one-on-one. In the evening, Leah, Andrew and I went to the Brave New Workshop to see The Danger Committee's latest show, Love and Other Painful Mistakes. They perform at the MN Ren Fest as well and are my favorite act to see there. To describe, it doesn't sound that cool, but they're awesome.

Juggling, knife throwing, comedy, potential disaster. What more could you want?

After their show, the guys answered the audience's questions, and it was just really cool to hear some of the things that go on behind the scenes. We were also able to catch some free improv just upstairs too. I definitely got my money's worth for an evening full of entertainment. I haven't laughed that hard since I watched A Very Potter musical with my friend, Holly--which means I almost peed my pants.

So, Sunday--church in the morning, which is always a treat. Then off to a baby shower for my cousin's wife who's due in May. It was great to hang out with some fun relatives and coo over cute baby things.
And then, after dressing up a little, because why not?....my Dad whisked me off to Celtic Woman.

I love Celtic music--I adore these ladies' singing.

And it was absolutely magical. I really can't describe it, I enjoyed it so much. I loved everything--the set, the lights, the gorgeous dresses, the dancing...but their voices...WOW. It's one thing to listen to them on TV or online, but in person it's absolutely phenomenal! My Dad and I were both grinning and just had a great time. Words just can't do justice to how I felt and how much I loved it and getting to share the experience with my Dad. I felt treasured and blessed and loved and celebrated. It was the perfect gift and will be a very treasured memory. So, yeah, my Dad is awesome (he even dressed up, because he knew I'd appreciate it). And my Mom had a hand in it too, because she sounded me out without me even remembering that she'd asked. It was the perfect finish to my birthday week.

Bone Marrow Transplant Update

Andrew and my Dad flew out to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland earlier this week. Andrew's team of doctors have decided to wait a couple years for a variety of reasons before proceeding with the transplant. I also got a packet of information sent home for me to read. I can now explain what process I'll go through to donate my bone marrow.

I'll get an injection over the course of two weeks that will increase the blood in my body. They don't break into a bone or anything to harvest the cells that are required for the transplant. It's similar in a way to donating plasma: they remove the needed cells and put the rest of the blood back. It's about a 4 or 5 hour procedure that I'll go through to harvest the specific cells they need.

Most likely side effects for me: achy bones because my bone marrow will be in overdrive. Possible headaches and skin rashes. Tiredness. Weakness. So, nothing too horrible.

I'm kinda bummed that they've decided to wait on the transplant, but I understand the reasoning behind it. It just gives me time to get super healthy!

Diseases, drugs and now...a cure

I actually have some good news to share on the Andrew being sick front!
Some of you already know about my brother, Andrew, and his diseases, but I'll give a brief overview for those of you who don't.

Typical teenage boy, so NOT enthused.

Andrew was born with Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD), the same illness that my older brother, James, who died in 1988 had. CGD tends to run in families although it is VERY rare. It's estimated that only 1 in a million people have it. Andrew's taken medicine for CGD his whole life and been hospitalized many times over the years. He knows what it's like to be a human pin cushion very well--I couldn't even guess how many times he's had blood taken.

At the end of 2008, we found out he also has Celiac Disease, which means he can't eat anything with gluten in it (i.e. anything containing wheat). Thankfully, living in a major metropolitan area, we can find good gluten free food pretty easily. Pizza Luce, one of my family's favorite restaurants, even has an excellent GF menu. They justifiably advertise as Minnesota's Best Pizza. So, Andrew adjusted to his new diet, gained a lot of weight and grew like a weed.

Then over a year ago, he started complaining about his gut hurting. It just got worse and worse, he could barely eat and lost a lot of weight. There were a bunch of open sores in his mouth. The doctors found out his intestines were very inflamed and diseased. Pretty much from his mouth all the way through to his anus, he had inflammation and ulcers. One doctor said that Andrew should have been rolling around on the floor screaming, that's how bad it was. He was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and his main doctor referred him to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

CGD is rare, but Andrew's doctor is the world's authority on it and sees many patients with it at Children's Hospital here in Minneapolis. Andrew isn't her only patient having stomach and gut issues either. NIH is interested in studying these patients, because they're presenting similar symptoms. People with CGD used to not live very long, but now with medical advances life expectancy is much longer than it once was. The researchers are curious if these gut issues are a symptom of CGD or caused by the life long use of the drugs taken to keep healthy.

So, Andrew and my Mom have flown out there several times now since this summer, and he's been getting different drugs to help with the inflammation in his gut. The awesome thing is everything is paid for, it's cutting edge research, so my parents don't have to try to figure out how they're going to afford all the expensive drugs Andrew's taking. He's slowly gained a tiny bit of weight, although his guts are still messed up.

The most exciting bit of news is that a cure for CGD has been discovered! We'd heard years ago of bone marrow transplants being a possible cure, but at the time it was way too risky and dangerous, with a very low success rate. It was not something to be considered except as a last resort.

They have now successfully done bone marrow transplants for many CGD patients with great success! Another young man with CGD from Minnesota actually just had a transplant this past summer at NIH and is now cured. My parents have decided to move forward in the transplant process after much investigation and prayer. We've known about this since the summer, but were waiting to see if a matched donor could be found before we started sharing about it. The best donor is a sibling, because they're more likely to be an exact match.

My sisters and I had our blood drawn, but that didn't get done right. So then we did cheek swabs...which weren't the right size for the testing machine. We did the swabs again with the correct sized ones this time. We just heard back yesterday: I'm a PERFECT match for Andrew!! And apparently Leah and Hannah are exact matches to each other, so they know who to ask if either of them ever need a kidney.

We're hoping to do the bone marrow transplant next summer out at NIH. Thankfully, they will not need to hack into my hip to harvest the bone marrow. I'll write more about what I'll have to go through as I get more information. Even if they had to break my leg, I'd do it anyways. Andrew will be cured of CGD! Even five years ago, we couldn't have fathomed that there would be a cure.

For those of who have been praying over the years for Andrew to be cured, thank you. God has answered your prayers for a cure. I like to say, sometimes the Lord heals in miraculous, spontaneous ways, and other times He works through the knowledge and expertise of gifted doctors. It's amazing either way.

Year in review part 1: Family

The holiday season is upon us, and one of its many traditions: the Christmas letter. Usually it's subtle (or boldly overt) showing off: Timmy's soccer team won the championship! Bobby graduated valedictorian! Susy won a gold medal! Whatever. Not that sharing your family's accomplishments is a bad thing, but all the awesome gets lumped into one page or card sent at the end of the year. I prefer to hear about the good things as they happen, to share in the joy. And when crap happens, I want to be there for my friends to help in their time of trouble.

So, this is my Christmas letter/blog, but I'm not here to just toot my own horn and show off how awesome I am. I want to review this past year, the good and the bad, to show how good God has been. On Christmas Eve for many years, I've had a conversation with God that I journal. I reflect on the past 12 months, and thank Him for his goodness and grace in my life. I think about the hard stuff I endured and the joys I got to experience. The friends gained...and lost. I notice when a stage of my life has ended, and thank God for it and look forward to the next chapter. I mull over what the theme of my coming year will be.

At the end of last December, I felt that 2011 would be the year of relationships: forging new ones, renewing and fortifying my existing friendships, drawing closer to family, seeking to know Jesus more personally. And that was the theme for this year in many ways.

I feel closer to my family, celebrating our inside jokes and shared silliness. We revel in being weird and laughing, because we know that life can really suck sometimes. My parents continue to love God, each other and our family, living that out in every circumstance. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year! I like to sit in the kitchen and talk about whatever with my Mom. I enjoy taking my Dad out to eat, because he's good company too. I'm so blessed to have such loving parents who are so involved in my life and care not just for my physical needs but also spiritual.

Hannah and I continue to share a room, dealing with limited closet space and different definitions of what "tidy" means. ;) Though it's fun to be able to raid each other's clothes when we have "nothing to wear." Hannah is a junior at the University of Minnesota, and will be studying abroad in New Zealand next semester. She's been praying and trusting God to provide all the money she stills needs as she's been filling out scholarship after scholarship.

Leah is going on over four years at Starbucks as a barista. Within the last couple months, she landed a job at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. If you don't know, First Ave is one of the premier clubs in the whole country! It's the perfect place to continue pursuing her calling in the music industry. She's also the manager for a band called Cosmonaut. I think God's going to be taking her some interesting places over the next year, that's for sure!

It's been rough year for Andrew to say the least. He's lived with Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD) his whole life, which is tough enough. But he was also diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2008, and over the last year and a half has been battling Inflammatory Bowel Disease. His insides are all kinds of messed up. Much prayer for his recovery would be very appreciated. But no pity please. I don't want to define him simply by his diseases though. He is Mr. Technology: he's a hardcore gamer and wants to work for Game Informer magazine someday. I took him on a tour of my alma mater, Northwestern College, earlier this year...which was super weird for me. I used to change his poopy diapers....and now he's almost ready for college! Craziness. There is hope on the horizon for his CGD as well: a bone marrow transplant can cure it, and we're currently in the process of seeing if one of us siblings is a match. Please pray that one of us is, because that would be AWESOME! You have no idea what that would mean for Andrew, to be cured from this thing he's had to deal with since he was a baby.

My older brother, Nate, just got back from his third deployment to Iraq earlier this week. He's also been to Afghanistan twice. I'm happy he got home safe and sound. We're all excited to spend Christmas with him and hang out. He's going to be stationed in Hawaii for a while, so I might have to go out there for a visit.

For the first time in years, my whole family got to visit with my grandparents earlier this year. It was super fun to have us all there and celebrate my grandma and grandpa 60 years of marriage. I really like hanging out with my extended family.

At the end of May, my sisters and I embarked on a two week cross country road trip. I'm pretty sure that'll be the only time just the three of us travel together like that, and we had a lot of fun. Hannah and I both were sick for most of it, but we didn't let that slow us down. We drove to Omaha, Nebraska to visit our aunt and uncle, then down to Arizona to stay with our dear friends the Barnes family. We had much fun and merriment at their house. It was hard to come home after being so pampered. It was definitely a good time. Along the way, I left Doily Ninjas in every state. Leah was kind enough to document where I left them, and my Facebook is full of their pictures. And of course, we had to have a couple photo shoots too. This is my favorite from the trip. That's Hannah and I jumping in front of an awesome sunset in the middle of nowhere in Colorado.

So my family definitely experienced ups and downs this year, but God has been good and gracious to us. It's exciting to think where He's going to lead us in the next 12 months. I'm thankful for each of them and our deep love for each other. We actually like being around each other (most of the time).

Next up, Part 2: Friends 

I despise cookie cutter Christianity

A while back I heard that Brio Magazine folded. And I was so happy to find that out. Let me explain why. As someone who grew up in fairly conservative Christian circles, Brio was the magazine to read if you were a girl. And I hated it. Sure, it had some good things to say, but the overall focus was modesty and purity. Like that is the most important part of being a Christian girl apparently. Actually, it was more MODESTY and PURITY!!! As if the pit of Hell would open up under you if your belly button ever saw the light of day or you wore *gasp!* spaghetti strap tank tops. Because that is the definition of a good Christian girl for some: you're modest and pure. That's it. As in the rest of our culture, it's all about the outward appearance, albeit with a different focus. Instead of pushing how sexy you can go, it's how covered can you get without dying of heat exhaustion?

We match our curtains!

There is definitely worse out there,
but I want to keep this family friendly

Brio was predominantly pink and shades thereof. It was as sweet and saccharine as cotton candy dipped in honey. "Oh, surely you exaggerate, Elisabeth." Exhibit A, ladies and gentlemen.

I rest my case

Here's the thing, I'm no hater. I'm a Christian, I love Jesus, I think His followers should be different from the surrounding culture. Teen fashion magazines in general are waaaay too sexualized, yet still offer some sage advice. I would love to see a teen magazine that bridges the gap between being culturally relevant and encouraging and nurturing a deep, vibrant, active faith. Brio was not that, in my opinion. It was sugary, sappy, fluffy christianity-lite. It tried to be too many things poorly. And don't get me started on the much hyped Brio And Beyond. It was supposed to cover deeper issues and such for older teen girls. The cover was different...and it literally had one extra article, otherwise all the content was the same. 

My sisters and I preferred to read Breakaway, which was aimed at boys. The difference alone in the covers tells you quite a bit. If you Google "Brio Covers" you see multiple images of smiling girls not really doing a whole lot of anything. However "Breakaway Magazine Covers" returns very different results, generally action shots of males doing something. (The passive vs. active imagery is a great commentary on how girls and boys are "supposed to behave," but that's another post in itself). Breakaway would actually cover tough, relevant teen issues, like cutting or addiction to porn or suicide. Matters of the heart and soul were well represented in addition to outward appearance (they had an ongoing section on exercise routines).

I'm weird, I know that--I've always had a desire to "go deep," striking out for the deeper waters of faith and thought rather than wading in the shallows of superficiality. But surely I can't be the only one who chafes against this portrayal of "feminine" Christianity? I wear skinny jeans, tank tops, jewelry, makeup (when the mood strikes)...but I also love long flowy skirts, peasant shirts and leaving my face au natural. 

My sisters and I are the prime example for not trying to lump Christian girls into one box:

Leah working security at Sonshine

Hannah surfing

Me in my Ren Fest best

We all love Jesus, yet we each follow Him in our own way. We don't follow what others say we should be, but what the Bible says a righteous Christian is. And it don't say nothing about wearing frumpy clothes and pretending like we don't have a brain.

At the end of the day, my point is not that I hate Christian publications (I don't), or that I never wear pink (I do), or that Christianity is stupid (it's not). It's just to call out that overemphasis on outward appearance and external actions for girls I've seen in the Christian circles I've run in growing up. We need to find that healthy middle ground and not swing to either extreme as we live out being women who love Jesus.

Green raspberries for breakfast

There are things we love not for what they are, but what they represent to us: Brie cheese will always remind me of college, because of the art department's gallery openings I regularly attended. The smells of a bonfire and pine trees recall my summers at Storybook. Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas was me and my roommate's theme song my last year at Northwestern. And raspberries evoke a very specific memory, one of the oldest that I can remember:

It's a steamy summer morning on the Iron Range of Minnesota. Enter a huge yard, filled with flowers and towering trees grown into the rickety metal fence almost the same age as my grandparents' century old Victorian house. Just outside the back door is a small garden, where two little girls are stuffing their faces with as many raspberries as they can reach. The blonde is my younger sister, Leah, and the curly red head, that's me all of four-years-old. We don't know much about gardening at this point; all we know is that what grows out here is edible. If the red ones are good, then the green ones must be okay too. We completely plucked those bushes bare from the ground to as high as our little grubby hands could reach. We hear the back door open and scamper away. My Grandpa walks out with his bowl of cereal in hand to add some fruit to his breakfast. He gets over to the raspberry bushes and looks around, trying to find any ripe berries that might remain. Leah and I were quite thorough. He looks over at us, our red stained faces, hands and clothes completely giving us away. He chuckles and shakes his head. "Those bushes were full just yesterday! I can't believe you cleaned them all off. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a stomach ache from eating so many, especially the green ones." He went back inside and I could hear him exclaiming to my parents and Grandma how quickly we had made short work of his berry crop.

The house is still there two decades later, though the berry bushes aren't, and my Grandpa won't be around much longer either. My grandparents sold it in 1992, and today it's my uncle's home--he bought it after two different owners almost ruined it. The interior of the house is completely different these days--my aunt and uncle renovated and remodeled the entire thing. I don't really remember much of what the inside used to look like; mostly I recall running around the yard and playing at the park down the street.  The back door garden is gone, but there's even more flowers around the yard as my aunt has quite the green thumb. The fence is still standing with the old trees grown up through it. The back door shutting sounds the same though. And I still remember where the raspberry bushes stood. I can hear the echoes of two little girls' giggling on a blue sky morning as they ate green (and all the red) raspberries for breakfast.