Baseball, Birthday, Barbecue, and Bone Marrow

(Okay, I'm taking a little liberty with the title of this post, but I wanted it to be cohesive)!  This past weekend was jam-packed with activities, so there's a lot to cover.  On Saturday, Jer and I watched the US v. Ghana soccer match with our friends Brian, Sharon, Justin, and Stari.  I'm still a little bitter about our loss, so I won't spend a lot of time on this topic!  I will say that my favorite part of the situation was making jokes about our opposition's name by incorporating them into existing song lyrics.  "Make 'em say Uhhh....Uhhhh.  Gha-na-na-na."  Or "Never Ghana give you up.  Never Ghana let you down."  Yeah, we're corny like that.  After the soccer match, we headed out to Frisco to watch the Heroes Celebrity Baseball Event.  The Foundation that sponsored this game "is a non-profit initiative providing Dallas inner-city youth the opportunity to participate in team baseball, basketball educational and cultural curriculum, all while building self-confidence."  Some of the celebrities/famous athletes in attendance were Mike Modano, Warren Sapp, Jason Kidd, Mark Cuban, Donald Faison, Demarcus Ware, Daryl Johnston, Mike Hamlin, and Drew Pearson.  I love these types of events because they are for a good cause, and the participants have time to sign autographs and take pictures with their fans since it's not a professional game.  The heat was ridonkulous, of course, but we still managed to have a great time!  I garnered a few autographs and took a picture with Mark Cuban.

 He smelled like money

Jason Kidd

Mike Hamlin, Mark Cuban, and Jason Kidd

On Sunday, we headed over to our friends John & Jenn's new place to have a housewarming/barbecue/pool party.  It was great to soak up some sun and enjoy a couple hours with old friends.  There were six of us there who were Bishop Dunne alumni, so I guess we had a mini-reunion of sorts!  I love those guys and enjoy every opportunity I get to see them.  We also spent part of Sunday with my sister and her family since it was my brother-in-law Trey's birthday.  Trey is easy to shop for.  What was our gift to him?  A case of Sugar Free Rockstar...and he was thrilled about it.  Haha.  Of course that also meant we spent some time with my niece, Olivia.  That kid is growing up way. too. fast.  It still amazes me each time she makes a complete sentence, but I guess I should get used to it!  She's a cutie pie. 

   watermelon...yumm!

Very happy about her daddy's birthday!

We had to call it an early night on Sunday since I had to be at the hospital at 7am on Monday morning.  I underwent apheresis in order to extract white blood cells for donation to a boy with leukemia.  I previously donated bone marrow to him earlier this year, but apparently it didn't fully graft and he needed a boost to fight the remaining cancer cells.  After filling out paperwork and drawing a few more blood samples, I was finally hooked in and ready to go at 7:40.  I was having blood extracted from one arm, which was going into a machine to separate out what they needed from me, and then the remaining blood transfused back through my other arm.  My right arm was the extraction one, and I wasn't allowed to move it.  The left arm was the return one, and I was free to use it the whole time.  It was a little nerve-wracking since I'm not even comfortable donating blood like Jer does regularly, but everything went well.  The arm they were extracting from started to get pretty sore and uncomfortable, but nothing unmanageable.  Apparently the pressure in my right arm wasn't remaining strong, though, so I had to squeeze a little stress ball every few minutes to increase it.  That wasn't fun.  There was already pain in my arm, and that just amplified it with each squeeze.  Finally at 11:40, the process was over and the needles were removed.  Since I hadn't moved my right arm for four straight hours, and had endured the stress of the needle and extraction for that long, it felt like a ton of bricks were laying on it.  I didn't even want to pick it up off the bed!  It's still pretty sore now, 5+ hours later, but I think that will subside soon.  It's a very small price to pay compared to the benefits it might have for that young boy!  I encourage everyone to join the National Marrow Donor Program if you haven't already.  You could save a life!

My arch-enemy, the red stress ball