"For One More Day"

"For One More Day" is a book by Mitch Albom (author of "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven"). "Tuesdays.." is one of my favorite books and I really like Mitch Albom's writing style so I decided to buy his latest book to read on my flight home from New Orleans. (btw it is a really quick read at only 197 pages). The book is great...but it was what his book made me think about that really got to me.

The idea (without giving away too much of his book) is nothing new. What if you had one more day, one more chance to say goodbye, or say sorry, or just be with someone you loved before they died. The idea of having the opportunity to let go-not being forced.

I won't bore you with all my thoughts and feelings on this subject. I started and want to finish a book entirely based on this subject and the idea of healing. What I will say is that I hope some how- not knowing exactly how things work on the "other side"-that the person I want more than anything to have one more day with knows how much I love and miss him!

Bill, Bob, Chuck, and Dick

I don't have a clue how we get these names from William, Robert,Charles, and Richard. It is strange to me, but it is so.

I don't know when it happened but I really love people's entire full first name. There was a time I just called everyone whatever they told me they wanted to go by, but I find myself wanting to call my friends by their full name (ie Timothy) or even their first and middle name (ie Michael Adam).

Case in point: I have 5 sisters who all have beautiful names and for the past few years I really have been trying to convince 3 of them to go by their full first names...maybe later in life?

Danielle (goes by Dani)
Kaitlin (goes Kati)
Alexa (Ali)

Chelsea and Camryn go by their full nameds and I (contrary to my above statement) go by my nickname Kylee (full name Kylene)

Speaking of strange things with names. My mom didn't give any of her daughters middle names...she says it's so we can have our maiden name as our middle name..I think it's because she despises her middle name (Ellen). On the other hand both of my brothers got beautiful and strong full names (middle names included): Grant Marcus Shields and Clay Richard Shields.

Then came along the youngest in my family: Camryn. When she was born we wanted to keep up the trend of all the girl's nicknames ending in an e sound ( kylee, chelsea, dani, kati, ali) so we thought we'd name her Camryn and call her Camry (yes like the car) and it never stuck. However, the strangest thing happened...my mom started calling my sister Camryn Elisabeth (remember she doesn't really have a middle name). Then after a few years of calling her this my mom started to shorten her name and started to call her just Lizzie or Lisabeth etc. The weirdest thing! My mom was calling my sister by a name that wasn't even hers...weird, but it worked.

And so it goes...it's all in a name and I love finding out why people are named what they are and what they want people to call them. I love that my roomate has a few different names and different people in her life know her by different names....I find that very intriguing! (I love my K. Marie Thompson).

So what about your name?

So you have allergies...

This is me at age 7. This is an allergic reaction to something. This is what happen to me from about age 7-10 all the time. We could never figure out what was causing my allergic reactions because it was never consistant.

We did figure out a few things...I was allergic to cats(I think that the above picture is becasue of a cat), cut grass (I'm allergic to the enzyme that is released into the air when grass is cut), metal (I found this out when I started to wear jewlery), and any number of trees, weeds, and flowers etc.

After a few years of me getting sick, never being able to breathe, and lots of allergic reactions--I asked my mom if I could go get tested for allergies from an allergist. Remember that this was back in the day before all these new allergy drugs were out and allergies were common knowledge. No one really went to an allergest unless they had an anaphalactic allergy (allergic to peanuts and if you eat one or even get near one you might die). So my mom was hesitant.

Finally I did go get tested and I was allergic to about 80 of the 81 things they tested me for. The nurses both freaked out when I started to react to all the pokes of allergens they had given me. They had never had anyone react to so many of the allergens at once. They had to call a doctor in and swab all this lotion on me. The doctor was shocked also and gave me a shot of epinephorine(adrenaline) and had me breathing on this hand held breathing device.

I learned from that point on that I had what was called...Severe Allergies (no brainer name). So I learned to avoid certain things, to sleep a lot, to drink lots of water, and I managed to survive 6 years of allergy shots. At one point I was doing 3 shots 3 times a week! Hooray for medicine!

Through the years I have grown out of some allergies and picked up some new ones. It has been a challenge, but I'm learning how to take care of myself and I feel blessed. That first doctor that tested me said I was not too far away from being one of those kids that needed to live in a bubble. He told me that I was allergic to the air and atmosphere and that I would be sick all the time because of that. Well, I'm sick a lot, but I am very blessed to be as healthy as I am!