MY FRIEND RYAN

This post is about my friend Ryan Hess from High School. His family is going through a really tough time right now and my heart just breaks for his family. I just want to vouch that it's absolutely legit. He's a good man, very deserving. Please repost this on your blog if you want to. I know there are many of you out there that have lots more readers than I do.
***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***
My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.
How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?
Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)
Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:
OLIVIA McCLURE – Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076Fax # : (520) 629-1849E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov
ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!
How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:
PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook…whatever you can think of.
Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!GO TEAM RYAN HESS!(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message!)

Happy Birthday Will!

My baby boy is now a one year old! His birthday was actually back in April, but I am a horrible blogger. He is such a great kid. So easy going and happy all of the time! We didn't do much for Will's birthday, just a small family party, Sam was able to come though, and that was the best part! Will loves to eat, always has. At his one year checkup he weight 26 lbs 13 oz and 31 inches tall. Looking back in Sam's baby book, Will is the exact same size as Sam was at one year. I am happy he is growing so healthy and strong, but sad he is no longer a baby. It's funny, it seems I am always anxious for time to pass, waiting for Sam's next day off, waiting for residency to be over, waiting for life to get easier?, etc. But when I really think about it, I don't want my babies getting any older!

Wow, I haven't updated my blog for over a month . . .

We have been busy and not busy all at the same time. Basically Sam was working night float (2.5 months of him working the night shift) and I was trying to maintain my sanity. Night float ended right before Thanksgiving, and we were able to go to WY. We ate good food and Josie had so much fun at her Grandma and Grandpa's house. She rode horses and played with the kitties. She would love to have a kitty of her own, and we are still trying to decide if we could make that work at our house. Will was sick so he wasn't his happy self, but was fairly pleasant.

Sam is now working a susposedly "easy" rotation but has not gotten home earlier than 7:30 once this week and he is on call this weekend. Yipee! Lucky for me night float trained my well and I have no expectations. Anyways here are some random Halloween pictures. . .

Target Photo Shoot

My mom and I took the kids to Target to get pictures taken (Josie's 3 year and Will's 6 month). They turned out pretty good in my opinion, especially for the amount of prints I got for only $60! Gotta love a bargain. It was a bit chaotic at times, someday I would love to afford for a photographer to come to MY house to photograph my kids. One can only dream . . .

Edited to add:

I just added a new song to my blog, "Let Them be Little," makes me bawl my eyes out every time I hear it. I don't want my kids to grow up, I want them to stay just how they are!

First Day of Preschool

Today was Josie's first day of preschool! She was so excited, but also a little nervous too. She had to have her special kitty ride in the car with her, but she was brave enough to go into school without him. It's hard to really get a 3 year old to talk and explain things in great detail, but from what I got out of her, everything seemed to go great! I really like her teacher and it should be a fun year!


And, here is a photo of the boy, I feel like if I post a photo of Josie I need to post one of Will to be "fair." So here he is being smiley and happy before we took sister to school.

Curly or Straight?

Josie is lucky enough to be blessed with naturally curly hair. We almost always just wear it curly because it looks so cute and is so easy to fix. But today we decided to make it straight. Josie loved it and called it her "Sleeping Beauty hair." I have a feeling that as she gets older I will spend many mornings making her curly hair straight! I think I still prefer curly, what do you think?


Baby Will is just getting cuter and fatter by the minute. At his 4 month check-up he weighed in at a chunky 22 lbs. Don't worry his head and height are big too. He is just big all around! We love this rolly, polly, & jolly guy!

Princess Will

Compliments of sister Josie