Donate to Leukemia Society for My Daughter Thalia

I am raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my 6 year old daughter who has Leukemia. Please donate any amount you are able (tax deductible of course!). Follow the link below for more info!

Come see her story here (be prepared to cry!):
http://teams.lightthenight.org/ThaliasThunder

E-Bay Live In Chicago

I went to eBay Live since it was in Chicago this year. I met with a number of vendors that had some great services and products for the World Neighbor store. I also met a number of very interesting characters there. Several of the eBayers were more interested in collecting the pins and free stuff than they were in talking to vendors and going to the education sessions. It appeared to be a tradition since all the vendors had there pins ready. There was one cranky guy named Tom (saw it on his conference badge). He apparently hurt his knee and he was tooling around on one of those little scooters. He always had a scowl on his face as he angrily asked questions of the vendors and demanded a free give-away. He cracked me up, what a waste of energy.

One of the best parts of the conference was when the gala on the final night. Demetria and I went to enjoy the dinner and the Chris Isaac concert that was planned. We had a great time and Chris was in fine voice. He was very entertaining and everyone of at the eBay conference loved the show. Of course, they were all begging for his picks and drumsticks so that they could sell them the next day on eBay!

The Rest of Thalia's Wish Trip

OK, now that we are back to the grind with work, school, cub scouts, baseball, soccer, doctors appointments, etc. etc. I will try to sum up the remainder of Thalia's wish trip with one big honkin' post. I will also continue to edit down the multiple hours of video in to edible bits of goodness for posting on YouTube.

Kualoa Ranch – vignette numero uno:
We visited the Kualoa Ranch for a flurry of excellent activities. First up was a tour in an old 6-wheel drive Swiss Pinzauer through the jungle trails and up a lush, remote valley for fantastic ocean and mountain views. The best part of the trip was Duke the dog. He rode along with us and the kids loved him. We jostled and jolted our way through the countryside in this back firing old beast. Duke was sure-footed and steadfast.
We also took a catamaran ride in the bay. Thalia was a true sailor, she wanted to hang out on the front of the boat "Titanic" style. Zacch and Thera were a little less enthusiastic. They buckled down and got through it pretty well. Everyone was excited by the big sea turtle which was swimming off the port side of the boat. We made it back to shore and we finished the day up with a great horse ride for the kids. No little ponies for these kids, we're talking the real McCoy stallions here.

Luau - anecdote numero dos:
Our Luau was awesome and a great treat for the kids. They had several activities and games for the kids. We all tried our hands at throwing spears at a hay target. Zacch was the only one to get that spear to stick. We also took turns rowing an outrigger into the bay, creating leis and getting tattoos painted on our arms. Thalia could not wait to see the fire dancer, this along with Zoe and the beach were the top three in her hit parade. We enjoyed the show of traditional dancing and the grand finale brought out Thalia's hero. This buff dude was whipping that fire around like it was a stick of iced wood.

Beach - tale numero tres:
To round out our vacation we headed to the beach, early and often. We tried to body board and surfboard, and we hung out in the warm waves. We didn't really spend much time in the sand as the kids wanted to be in the water. The good mother that Demetria is, she was never more than a foot or two away from them. You never know when that rip tide is going to come into that 1 and a half feet of water! ;-)

World Neighbor!!

Thalia's Rainbow

Please also see the URL at the end of this post for a special message to all our supporters.... As we were travelling back from Hawaii late Saturday night/Sunday morning, Thera had to endure a serious bout of diarrhea for her 8 hour flight. We thought it was a passing case of food poisoning - which in and of itself is not fun at all. Then we got home and she started having serious cramps, a low grade fever and finally lots of blood in her stool (sorry to be so graphic...but this is a health related page after all). Her doctor told us to get her to the emergency room immediately. I had to cancel my work trip to San Antonio so we had coverage for the kids (Thanks as always for the support Greg!). Well as parents of a child with Leukemia we of course expected and were preparing ourselves for the worst. In cases like this the wonderful world of the web is more scary than helpful. According to the web, she could have had hepatitis, juvenile diabetes, Leukemia, or any number of other life threatening illnesses. She lost 7 pounds in two days and was massively dehydrated. They ran a complete blood count and took x-rays to see if there was an obstruction. After what seemed like a century, all her tests came back clean...Thank GOD. They are currently running a culture which will take a few days, but it looks like she just has a particularly nasty virus or infection (salmonella, e-coli, etc.). The hospital gave her an antibiotic and pumped her full of IV fluids and finally sent Thera home at 1:30 am last night/this morning. The poor thing is still having severe cramps from the gas today, but she seems to be improving ever so slightly. Now I guess we can consider our Hawaiian vacation excitement complete! Here is a video that I made last night as I was nervously waiting for news from the hospital. This is a brief synapsis of Thalia's story over the last year with some of our Hawaiin vacation footage.

Thalia's Video Story

The Golden Zebra

Today we experienced a one of a kind event. We visited the Three Ring Ranch and our new friend, Zoe the Golden Zebra! Ann Goody our zoologist guide and owner of the Three Ring Ranch, along with her husband Norm gave us a warm welcome. Ann was a real pro in working with kids. She provides educational programs to local school kids as well as training for veterinary students. A number of the animals that are rehabilitation residents at the ranch are there based on the shoddy work of local vets. The ranch is federally licensed by the USDA to rehabilitate and keep exotic and endangered species. They care for the animals and provide a sanctuary for abandoned or injured exotics. They also are licensed to breed endangered species in cooperation with the Feds and the Species Survival Plan.

It turns out that zebra are a cranky and aggressive relative of the donkey, so we couldn’t get too close. However, the kids were able to feed the zebra and the zebra were able to roam free in the “zebra zone” with the kids off to one side on the grassy knoll. Everyone came out for a visit except Zoe. Turns out she is a bit of a diva so she stayed behind bars voluntarily. We saw and interacted with many different animals. Here is a partial list: chickens, chinchillas, dogs, horses, ducks, geese, parrots, owls, tortoises, llama, gazelle, rats, flamingoes and of course, zebra. They fed many of the animals, grabbed some eggs from under a chicken’s cha cha, and held several frenetic fuzzy friends. This was one of the most memorable experiences that the family has ever taken part in. Everyone was extremely excited.

BTW…Thalia asked the zoologist, Ann, the eternal question…is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes. Ann said that was a wonderful question! However, she had to politely inform us that we were wrong on all counts. The zebra is actually white with BROWN stripes. As the zebra grows older the stripes get darker, but if you look very closely you will see that the stripes are a deep, dark brown that appear black from afar. Well, you learn something new every day!!

The Kids Hit The Ocean

Our first full day in Hawaii and we headed to the water! Our first stop was to Kona to dive deep under the ocean in a submarine. When we were talking about this activity back in dreary ole' Chicago, the kids were not too hot on the idea. The fresh Hawaiian air must have pumped up their mana because they were all begging to go on the submarine now that we were in Hawaii. While we were paying for our sub tickets we were suckered into the "pick an oyster, find a pearl" tourist trap. But for a cost of about $5 a kid, we couldn't refuse. Zacch, Thera and Thalia picked out the ugliest oyster they could find and the nice lady cracked 'em open. Both Zacch and Thera got a perfect white pearl, and low and behold, Thalia got a perfect pink pearl (her favorite color!).

OK…now the kids were ready to go be submariners. We dove over 100 feet down and became one with the surrounding aquatic life. We saw two wrecks and thousands of colorful fish on the coral reef. We even saw a 5-foot, free-swimming eel, which the captain said, was pretty rare since they like to keep hidden. I leaned over and kissed Demetria since the captain suggested that it would be the "deepest kiss we would ever experience"…needless to say Demetria thought I was a touristy dork…Ah, Demetria Aloha No Au Ia 'Oe (look it up for extra points!).









Our next stop was to Hapuna beach, which is consistently rated as one of the best beaches in the United States. This was the first trip for the kids to a beach so this was a great way for them to get introduced to the Hawaiian lifestyle. Needless to say the kids all loved everything about the beach. The sand and the surf were perfect. The salt water in the eyes, nose and mouth took a little getting used to for them, but they all acclimated quickly. Since we left the beach the kids have all wanted to get back as soon as possible.

The Shipment from Mexico Made it!

I just received all the goodies that I purchased on my Patzcuaro, Mexico buying trip. They arrived crated and stacked 7 feet tall on a pallet... all 600 pounds of it. I quickly unloaded the fine crafts and art and started my inventory process. My biggest problem is that there are so many great things that I wanted to keep for myself! I may keep a few items, but I'm not in business to hoard all these masterful works. I am in business to get these into the hands of appreciative collectors while at the same time helping bolster the fortunes of the fine artists through a fair trade approach.

Every time I meet a new artist (regardless of the language barrier) I find this work so gratifying and fun. Every time I sell another of these great pieces of art I feel thankful that I have found my calling. Thanks to all of you who have been following World Neighbor's humble beginnings. I promise to make it an interesting ride!

WORLD NEIGHBOR