Day 3 - Evening Walk

After dinner BJ and I decided to go for a walk around our neighborhood. We tried to see the race track that is about a block away from us, since we heard the cars all night last night, but we couldn't get close enough for a good picture. We ended up walking around the race track, and taking the long way back home. It was such a nice night to be outside.

Day 2 - Church

This morning for the first time in about a year (other than Christmas) BJ and I went to church together. Finding a church we can feel comfortable in here in Wisconsin is very important to both of us because we want our religion to be a big part of Sam's life. Though neither of us felt like this was the church we felt at home at, it was a good start for us to just go, and join other worshipers this morning. Hopefully soon we'll find a church to call home.

Day 1 - Sam's Corner

BJ and I will be living in our current 1 bedroom apartment until August 1st, which means Sam will come home with us to this small limited space. For the first couple weeks this will be her area, in the corner of the living room. Right now this space is filled with all of the baby stuff we have so far.

Project 365

I saw the idea for Project 365 on another blog I follow and thought it was a great idea. With the huge changes that will take place in our lives the next couple weeks, I want to document everything, even the small things. I hope to update all of the pictures here often, we'll see how that goes.

Week 33 1/2 Appointment

I had my 33 week & 4 day appointment yesterday with Dr. Wendricks. She helped me remember why I liked her so much. She answered all my questions, and made me feel better about the doctor's office. Hopefully the last appointment was just a fluke.

Samantha is growing as she should be, I am measuring at exactly 33 1/2 weeks. Dr. Wendricks said she is head down, so hopefully she will stay that way. I have one more appointment in two weeks, then I start going every week. We are getting closer and closer to her due date!

BJ and I bought the carseat this weekend, which makes me feel better because now I know we can take her home from the hospital whenever she comes. We are slowly getting everything ready for her arrival. Can't wait to meet her, though it's crazy to think that in less than 2 months we will be parents!

Trip to Aflac HQ

Thursday and Friday our office went with three contest winners on a trip to Columbus, GA to visit Aflac Headquarters. It was a busy, fast trip, but it was a great trip.

We flew out of Milwaukee airport at 7:00 AM Thursday morning. We had a little delay in our trip, and got into the airport about 20 minutes late, which started a trip where we constantly were running late. It all worked out though.

We got our rental cars, and headed to the Aflac Cancer Center. As I posted before, this place is amazing, and I can't thank our hosts enough for giving us the opportunity to experiance it.

We left the Cancer Center and headed to Columbus, which is about a hour and a half drive. We got to the Marriott in downtown Columbus, and got a little time to relax. The hotel is beautiful, and the beds were amazing!

Then we went to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse, Mikata. I love hibachi grills. The food was amazing, and we were able to meet up with two of our main headquarters contacts for dinner. It was great to see them, and we are so greatful that both of them drove straight from the airport to have dinner with us.

After dinner we went to a Comedy show at The Loft in downtown Columbus. The first commedian was ok, not great, but he did have us laughing a couple times. The second guy was great. I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. We are going to try to get him to come to WI for one of our State meetings later this year. After the commedian was done, I headed back to the hotel, which was right around the corner. It had been a long day, and I was ready for bed. The rest of the group seemed to have a great time checking out the bars downtown the rest of the night.

Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Aflac's Headquarters for a tour of the buildings. We had a great tour guide this time, who told us all about the history of the company and the buildings, and explained a little better how everything works within the company.

The highlight of the tour was the opportunity that we got to meet one of three founding fathers of the company, Paul Amos. Usually the tour includes a trip to see his office, but usually he is not there. This time he was there, and was so great to us. He let us take some pictures, and answered all of our questions, and spent a good amount of time with us. Everyone on the trip was so excited about the opportunity.

After the Headquarters trip we headed back to the airport, for a flight that was delayed an hour. We made it home safe though, and I think it was a great trip for everyone involved.

Aflac Cancer Center Tour

I know it’s been way to long, and I have a bunch of posts to catch up on, but today I wanted to share my thoughts on something I experienced today.

I have been working with Aflac for almost 9 years. I have been to our headquarters in Georgia 2 in the last 2 years, and I have heard of the Aflac Cancer Center many many times. Today was the first time I really realized what the Aflac Cancer Center did, and how important it is to so many families.

I might get some of this wrong, but here is the basic idea of what the Cancer center is. The Aflac Cancer Center is located within Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (www.choa.org). The cancer center focuses on treating and curing pediatric cancers and blood disorders. Tonight one of their doctors is being honored because they believe that he has found a cure for one common pediatric blood disorder. Not only does this hospital treat patients, they are also working to find cures for all childhood cancers, and the success rate is amazing.
I had been excited about this part of the trip, since I had been to our headquarters two times, and had not had a chance to visit the cancer center. I had worked with Diane Vaughn and Tyler Fletcher, who serve as Aflac’s main cancer center contacts recently at an auction to benefit the center. After the auction Tyler, Diane, and I worked to get a visit scheduled for this trip, which is a prize for contest winners in our state.

We got there late, and had some miscommunication on my part about parking, but when we finally got there we were treated like royalty. They had a catered lunch ready for our group of only 9 people! The Aflac Cancer center is supported so much by the Aflac Field Force, that they use these tours as a way to say thank you, even to our small group. During lunch Diane talked about the focus of the center, and a little bit of the background. It is amazing to hear her talk about the center, because you can here how much pride she has in the work that they are doing there. She said that the turnover rate at the center is very low, because people love their jobs and their opportunity to be a part of the great things the center is doing in the field of pediatric cancer.

After lunch, Tyler and Diane took us on a 90 minute tour of the center. The inpatient, outpatient, and research areas, and also talked to us about the bone marrow treatment area, which we were not able to visit due to the fragile condition of the patients immune systems. The center is decorated in bright colors, and makes you feel like you are not in a hospital at all. It was amazing to me how nice, and excited everyone at the center was. I can’t imagine dealing with the things that they deal with on a daily basis, and loving it as much as they do.
The thing that touched me the most was the little kids that were walking through the center, in their bright colored little hospital gowns. There were two little kids, who were maybe 4 years old, that I saw riding on a tricycle down the hall. Even though they were going to through something so painful for them, they still seemed happy. When I think of pediatric cancer I think of how sad it must be to see your child go through something like that, but no one in that hospital seemed sad.

The center works with the children and their families to treat the cancer, and also the emotional side of the cancer. They work with social workers to make sure that the children who have been away from school for too long are able to integrate back into school as seamlessly as possible, they have people who work with the kids to show them what is going to happen to them, and help the kids to communicate how they are feeling through age appropriate means. There is a school teacher on campus to make sure that the kids don’t get to behind in their school work. It would take me forever to explain all the little things they do, that make this place different than any other place I’ve ever heard of.

I know this has gotten long winded, and has probably been hard to follow, but I am just so excited that I had the opportunity to visit this amazing place, and to understand better how even though pediatric cancer is a scary thing, there are so many ways that this center is working to make finding a cure or seeking treatment that much better for the patients involved. If you ever get a chance to visit this Cancer center, or one like it, jump on it! I know my viewpoint has changed so much just through this two hour tour this afternoon. Thank God for the amazing people who work every day for the treatment and cure of all of these children who should never have to deal with half of what they do. These people are so much stronger than me, and need to be recognized for all they do.