thank you

[A big thank you to everyone for their support and encouragement. I am trying so very hard to be positive during this whole medical and family drama for my little darling and you are helping more than my clumsy words could tell you. I especially appreciate those of you who are, unsolicited, spreading the word. Like roman sock. And dot and mae. (also a good chance to meet lovely new blogs!). It all just makes me feel so hopeful for the world in general--all sorts of rosy hues I'm seeing! --Valerie, Marian's lucky mama]

packaging the superstar necklaces

We've been working really hard on the snowglobe necklace kits and I hope you like the thank you notes. Mom said to do them quick but I wanted to do everyone's name on it. We'll mail the last of them tomorrow. You can still get them if you want but there are a hundred more. But I hope you still have a nice day. Thank you, we need to get this money to Caitlin Smiles for you want to help!
This picture is blurry because this is how fast I was when I did it, you know.

my hair when I was in kindergarten

We put this picture up because I used to have long hair like this and now I'm totally different. I still have my stuffed animal lambie but now I cut my hair when I was in first grade. But I like it short. And also it's darker. We cut off of all of the blonde.

hair cut salon

This is me hugging my daddy before I get my hair cut. I love my daddy. He is very fun. I'm getting my hair cut because one of the pictures on my blog says that I'm getting bald on my bone marrow transplant. And this is why I'm getting my haircut. I'm getting my hair cut because it will be a mess when my hair falls out. And there won't be a big clump there of hair and a big clump there of hair and a big clump there of hair around the hospital and also for it to not get messy.

It was fun getting my hair cut and at the the end I did a very silly dance and I really like it. One of my friends comed with me, and her name is Hailey. It was fun getting my hair cut and of course I showed Hailey my haircut and she was surprised about it. She really liked the cuteness and the love that I did with it and also the cuteness. And I cut enough to give to Locks of Love and that my mom did, too, even though she doesn't like her hair short, but I think it's still really cute.

I especially I washed my hair in a sink. There was a little spot where your neck could rest. I was too small that I couldn't fit my head in the sink to wash my hair. I sat on a lady's lap and her name was Lisa. And there's a picture of me holding my hair that I'm gonna give to Locks of Love. We are gonna mail the hair to Locks of Love and they gived the hair to kids that don't have hair.

ordering superstar tees

[Marian with her uncle Justin, sporting one of her tees at our family reunion this summer]

**edit: ordering instructions now on the blog's main page**

Mom note:

Thanks so much for all of your kind notes and interest in the superstar tees. I'm ironing out the order & hope to submit it tomorrow. To start, I'm going to just order a batch of 3 dozen to sell, then see how it goes from there. In later orders, other colors or styles may be available, but for now, we are ordering light blue printed with white, because Marian is demanding it (her "most beautiful like the sky" color), and choosing Gildan tees, because they are my picky husband's current favorite, fit-wise. You can see the men's here, the ladies here, and the youth here.

If you want to order a superstar tee, please e-mail me at three_goats@yahoo.com, with "superstar tee order" in the subject line. Let me know what style and size you want, and the address where I should send them. I would prefer you just pay via paypal, using the same e-mail address, but if you want to send me a check or money order, also indicate that, and I will send you back my mailing address. One tee will be $10, including shipping, and additional tees $8 each (for local folks, ie, no shipping hassle involved, make that $7 & $6).

When you get your tee shirt, please send us a photo of you wearing it (digital to the same address is fine; I'll print them), so we can put them all up in Marian's hospital room: the superstar supporters who love and believe in our very brave, extra-charming girl--the original superstar!

2/29/08 update: our first order of shirts should be here in about a week, and will be mailed promptly. Response was better than I expected (thank you!), and I waited while orders kept coming in, then went on vacation...but we ordered extra little superstar treats to include as a tardiness apology. And ordered over 100 t-shirts, even before we sent out our friends and family newsletter! I ordered a couple extra each of the most popular sizes, so some may still be available, but also plan on doing another t-shirt order on March 21st--there's your deadline. Thanks!

I'm published!

whipup.net posted my snowglobe necklace tutorial today!

You can find it here!

what I'm working on for project superstar

[you probably want to click & view the photos bigger so you can see her sweet concentrating hands. Her mom really enjoys that, anyway...]

snowglobe necklaces

[We made snowglobe necklaces on Saturday, and whipup.net is going to use our tutorial on their website. I'll post the link when it's up; she hopes to squeeze it in before the end of the month. In the meantime, here's Marian's effort. We love this project because it repurposes the medical supplies we are swamped with. For those of you whose homes aren't bulging with little shot bottles, kits for this project are the first project superstar fundraiser item available for purchase at purplepetunia.etsy.com.]

project superstar

My bone marrow transplant is in March. Right now I'm starting to make plans. I want to earn money for kits. First I'm earning money for new crafts for me, and then I'm earning money for Caitlin's Smiles. I need to bring brand new craft supplies [to the hospital] 'cause they don't have any germs and you can wash them off with a wipe.We are calling it project superstar because I made this great superstar T-shirt and my mom and dad and sister think it's really cute and also my aunts and uncles and grandma. I first made this picture for a treasure hunt and then we decided to use it for our family reunion. We're going to make new ones with light blue because it's my favorite color and this is why I like it: the bright, beautiful of the blue blue blue sky and I love it so much it's gonna make me cry.
Last week my mother and sister and me goed to Caitlin's Smiles. We helped doing craft kits and we made cards and we decorated bags. They give the craft kits to the kids at the hospital who are sick and they pass out 4-5,000 a month. And that's how many bags they pass out a month. And I liked helping so much that I'm about to cry. My class is going to help and they're going to make cards at creative activities. We're going to have some parties at our house to put together craft kits. Then I'm going to earn extra money with Project Superstar and give it to Caitlin's Smiles.

Some of the things that I'm going to sell for project superstar are star wish necklaces, superstar T-shirts [at cost, for support, not profit], beaded barrettes, drawings, porcelain hamster playsets, my sister's books, and snowglobe necklace kits. I'm going to sell them in my mom's etsy shop, purple petunia, and she'll give the money to me.

[mom note: thanks to all of those who love Marian and want to help her. She's really excited about this project, and supporting it will mean a lot to her. It's kind of unusual to plan a BMT so far ahead of time, and I thought that having a service project would give her something positive to focus on as she waits. She is also taking her research very seriously...we'll post her BMT informative poster here when she finishes it. It is, of course, very detailed! When we're in the hospital, we'll be limited as to what she can take and use, but mail and drawings and photographs will be very important. She thinks that it would be great if you sent her jokes, since she heard on one of her learning DVDs that jokes help. We are reprinting her superstar tees and distributing them at cost + shipping. I think that photos of all of her favorite people in their superstar tees will be something wonderful for her to have on the walls of her hospital room during her long stay. We'll keep you posted here.]

Bone Marrow Transplant

I'm gonna have a bone marrow transplant in March. We are really lucky that we got a match right away. Audrey my sister is going to be my match. I'm going to start my chemo first. All of my hair will gonna fall out and then I'm going to have all of these neat scarves and hats on and my aunt is gonna crochet some hats for me. And I'm gonna be at home for a bit of days then we're going to go to my real bone marrow transplant when it starts. Then we'll be in the hospital and I'm gonna wait for my new immune system to work. I'm going to get my sister's blood factory.

Christmas presents

I made really good presents this year.

For Grandma Donna (acorn babies nativity).For Mama (her favorite animal).For Daddy (his favorite bike).



For Mrs. Serr (these drawings made into glass-marble magnets).