Our Friend's struggle

This message was written by my friend Margie. She serves in the YW with me and our kids play together. Her husband's diagnosis has been a shock to me and I have spent many hours trying to think of ways to help and what their family must be going through. Please help them. They are good people who have a big trial in their lives.


***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 1^st 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 6076

Fax # : (520) 629-1849

E-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!)

Where have we been?

So, I spent a week and a half in Utah visiting my family. It is always great to have so many helping hands and some great adult conversation. I sure love my family. I think I like my brothers and sisters more and more the older I get. I was really bad about taking pictures. So, there's not many to look at.

My mom made a list of things that we did so the girls could take it home and tell Brent about how great their trip was. It turned out to be a rather long list. Unfortunately, Emma left it on the plane. So, I'm going to have to go by memory.

• Swimming (complete with waterslides, lazy river, todllers pool etc.) Sydney LOVED the slides. She would squeel and put her arms up like she was on a roller coaster. I almost drowned at the end because I was laughing so hard.

• Riding Horses (even Aiden laughed while ridding)

• Going up to out timeshare condo in Eden (it was GORGEOUS)

• Rode Four-wheelers (I only tipped once-just a few bruises, this was my favorite thing. We found awesome trails, went on great jumps and just had a really great time. This girls even came for a little while one day)

• Went out to dinner (this was a big deal because the girls didn't really like their meal, and when the manager asked about it-they told him. So, he asked what they wanted instead-Ice Cream and they ordered it with/without cookies, cheeries, whipped cream etc. They thought it was WAY cool that they ordered whatever they wanted and go it for free) We went to Iggy's-my new favorite restaurant

• Played with, fed, and then (accidentally) killed two cotton tail rabbits that my mom had caught

• Went to the Children's Museum (there was a castle/knight/princess area-need I say more?)

• Went to the zoo. (The girls are a great age for this. Aiden wasn't interested until we got down close to a skunk. The skunk was interested in Aiden on the other side of the glass. Aiden didn't really appreciate the attention and started crying and trying to run away)

• We went and saw UP at the theaters. Highly recommend it. The little kids, big kids, and old kids all loved it.

Those were the big things I can think of right now. We did lots of little things while hanging out at Grandma's house. We watched movies, did the slip-n-slide, jumped on the trampoline, and had lots of fun with all of the barbies.

Thanks mom and dad, for everything! It was a really great trip!!!

Photography Parents....

We are normal parents. I promise. We took Aiden to the park for his 9 month photos. 24 minutes later we had taken 220 photos. Is that normal?

Aiden picked up a second tooth. I think it makes him look much more handsome.

Here are a couple of shots from the trip. There are more posted at our website.