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January:

• Yet another hospital visit this time it was in January. High fever and an unbearable headache, soothed only with my favorite, dilaudid.

February:

• My lupie sister, Lilliana Guillien passed on Februrary 22, 2012 after a 12 year battle with Lupus. Liliana and I met while shooting and promoting the first National Lupus Ad Campaign to help promote lupus awareness in 2009. http://www.couldihavelupus.gov/ . We bonded through our lupus stories even after the shoot wrapped. May she truly rest in peace.

April:

• ColorRun – 4/22/12

June:

• World Famous Mud Run – Camp Pendelton 6/10/12

• Celebrating Lil’ Bro’s Graduation from UCI – Class of 2012!

Jeff and I met Stephanie and Isaac at our friends wedding in South Carolina this past April. They were the photographers for this momentous and beautiful occasion. Both of them were welcoming, warm and professional.

This pictures below are of Stephanie and Isaac on the rare occasions the camera was turned on them. Stephanie and Isaac have been together over 10 years and have been married for 6. Isaac just turned 30 years old this past year.

On September 12, Isaac was seen at Hoag Hospital in Newport. He had been complaining of headaches that the doctors he saw before brushed off as stress related. This time it was serious. He was experiencing blurred and double vision.

Once in the ER, CT and MRI tests were done which revealed he had in fact, a brain tumor. The tumor had grown large enough to press on his optic nerves which was causing his vision issues.

Doctors rushed him to surgery but was only able to remove part of the tumor as the remaining parts were against important brain structures that would be too risky remove at the time.

The surgery went well and now began the recovery process. Within the past 2 weeks in the hospital he’s had blurred, double vision, confirmation of a brain tumor and a complicated surgery to remove the parts of the tumor.

It was time to rest and recover.  But shortly after the surgery, Isaac suffered a grand mal seizure and a stroke that left his entire left side paralyzed.

As of today, doctors have found several blood clots in Isaac’s lungs and are unsure what is causing them. They are also unsure if they will find any in his brain, which may mean more surgery.

Please follow Stephanie @modernromance or her facebook page for updates.

For more information and to Help Heal Isaac, please click on the badge below. Stephanie has done a great job of staying strong and keeping positive in this very tough time. She is asking for assistance by any means, whether prayers, advice or simply donating to help fund his long recovery process.

“My goal is to get him the best care from here on out and stay in a rehab program even if I have to pay out of pocket. Isaac is by far the most amazing person I have ever met – he is my soul mate, the love of my life and my best friend…”

This story hits home with me in so many ways. I’ve been to plenty of doctors whose diagnosis to my aches and pains, hair loss and arthritis, has always been “stress related.” It wasn’t until I went into the ER with a 105° fever, fell into a coma, had my 2 stokes (my right side was completely paralyzed at the time) that doctors began taking my complaints seriously. To top that off, I was finally diagnosed with a disease I had never heard of, lupus. Tumultuous ER visit? Yep!

But it was with the doctors, family and friends who rallied around me plus in inner strength to get out of this mess and to recover that I was able to rehabilitate and start living life again.

If you have or know of anyone that has gone through something similar to Isaac, please reach out to Stephanie and lend her your experience and advice.

It’s the annual New Jersey Walk for Lupus Now event and I’m super excited that I’ve reached my second fundraising goal with a month to spare! I’ve since increased my goal to $500 and hope I can exceed this goal by walk day on 10/23/11.

Please help support me and the Lupus Foundation of America find a cure! Any and all donations are greatly appreciated.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christinatran

At the Los Angeles Walk in 2009

I stumbled across teacherwishlist.com while searching online for nearby volunteer opportunities a couple weeks ago. It was an interesting concept. Teachers upload a wishlist of classroom supplies for their students, parents or donors purchase the items to donate to the classrooms. Pretty simple.

Although I am not a parent, (pet-parents count too though!) I decided to check out the lists around me to see if I could help out with their needs. Once I entered my zip code, a search populated 10 schools within my area. I was somewhat surprised to only find 2 teachers, both from the same school, utilizing this site!

From their about page: In a recent survey of elementary and middle-school teachers, 71% reported spending an average of $462 per year out of their own pocket on classroom supplies and learning tools.* Teacher Wish List was created to thank teachers for their generosity. (How many other jobs require employees to pay for supplies?) This service makes it even easier for parents to continue to help teachers.

I guess most teachers aren’t aware that this site exists or maybe they feel a little strange asking for donations. I know some teachers send home a list of supplies that are needed for each student, so the responsibility then is on the parents to purchase the items. I see parents and kids roaming the aisles of Target and other local “everything” stores for their Back to School supplies, lists in hand!

The supplies that were on the lists I looked at on the site were for Preschool and Kindergarten classes. Tissues, paper towels, stickers, puzzles, etc. These items were specifically for the classroom — for everyone to use. The requested supplies were everyday items that I could pick up at Target and wouldn’t break my budget either. So I decided to help out. I emailed the teachers and let them know that I wanted to donate the items on their individual lists.

I went to 2 stores and found all the items and in total for both teacher’s lists it only cost about $65.

Items from Preschool and Kindergarten class wishlists. This shows only one class. Just double what you see and that's the second class!

Target has this incredible dollar section right at the front entrance of the store. I found these and other age-group specific topics of cards, like geography, math, science, etc. But since I was purchasing for kids 6 and under, I felt these would be best suited for them.

$1 each at Target

Some may recognize these “Play Packs” from my haul video. You’re never too old to color!

"Play Packs" come with crayons, stickers and mini book.

I fondly remember making paper puppets out of white paper bags like these. You just glue a bunch of stuff on it, draw a happy face and then carefully stick your tiny 5 year old hand into it (not to open all the way) and ta-da! A new friend!

Supplies for paper puppets!

Both classes cheered for Silly Bands. I don’t get it, I must be getting old. But I’m glad the kids love them!

Silly Bands...??

The teachers were both very grateful for my donation. We made small talk and I told them I was always interested in teaching, the younger kids especially. Who doesn’t want to play with little kids and color all day?! Have juice and crackers for snack time — omg, a designated snack time?! Yes! I love the order within the chaos and the little smiling face aren’t bad either.

It’s a sad state the economy is in that the nation-wide bookstore chain, Borders is going out of business. I’m unsure how their online store is doing and if it will stick around in the near future.

There were 3 Borders stores in Bergen County. One was in Fort Lee and another in Paramus at the Garden State Plaza mall. Those 2 closed early and probably had a lot of customers clear out their merchandise very quickly. Also, depending on their lease, I’m sure they had to close their doors early since both are prime location spots for any new store. The third store is in Ramsey, about 30 minutes away from where I live. It will be open for 7 more days.

I went a couple weeks ago when they slashed their prices to 40%-60% off the merchandise. Upon entering the doors, I could not believe the sight I saw! Everything was discounted, ready to be bought. Even the fixtures and cafe tables, chairs, even the espresso machine itself were tagged to be sold! Left over paper cups, napkins, stands, shelves, racks, dividers, tape, straws,  etc., all things you’d not normally purchase at a bookstore were being sold. I ended up buying a few books and left feeling kind of sad. Not quite sure why though, when I should have been happy because of the deals I got on the books.

Today, I received an email that they’re discounting items down to 70%-90% off the store. So I headed back to Ramsey for a second look after my morning doctor’s appointment. The store was the same except parts of the store was roped off with shelves and other fixtures that were put on hold for returning customers. Most of the books were gone and if shelved properly, there would only be about 5 bookshelves worth of books. All the gift items and children’s toys were sold out and most of the cafe furniture was also gone. The DVD and CD racks were bare and the magazines left over were being sold at 90% off. I took this picture below of the cashier’s station. It had random graffiti but also sweet and kind words of how Borders will be missed.

Today I walked away with 9 books for $40. Another bittersweet steal. I may go back for one last look with Jeff before their doors close for good and the roller rink that’s to replace it opens up.

So if you’re a book lover and have some time to browse, head down to the nearest (and still open) Borders for some great deals.

Trying to find something unique to do on our weekends off, I stumbled upon Garretson Farm’s Butterfly Release in Fair Lawn. As stated on the website,the farm is “one of the oldest sites in Bergen County, this pre-revolutionary sandstone house is officially listed on the New Jersey State and United States National Register of Historic Places.“

The Garretson Farm is still in operation and is officially owned by Bergen County and operated by volunteers.

There are holiday workshops, monthly picnics and planting year round. This place has seen a lot of history and I’m glad I visited it.

Below are some pictures of pretty flowers from the garden with a beehive container and the historical building still furnished with old timey stuff like a yarn loom.

Herbs and veggies from the garden.

Here’s the loom and yarn!

And of course the butterflies!

So it’s kind of funny that we intended on going to this farm to see a butterfly release, but didn’t realize it was literally only a couple that were going to be released! In my mind I thought it would be just swarms of them, but it was just 2, 30 minutes apart.