Friday, March 23, 2012

Hope

"Hope has two beautiful daughters- their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are" -St. Augustine

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Book of Love

Most of you who follow this blog know both Brandon and I or maybe just one of us, so I thought I'd change things up at bit and share "our" story. Probably boring to most but meeting this kid, Brandon, turned out to be the best thing in my life.

I guess it all started freshman year, I use to meet my friend from high school, JR, every Tuesday after BBH class for lunch at Pollock Commons. His teammate, Brandon Ream, had class with JR and also joined us. There you have it, our first introductions. Neither Brandon or I really remember much from those lunches nor speaking much so let's fast forward 2 years.

Of course we use to see each other throughout those years, we ran in pretty similar crowds, sharing mutual friends, don't all athletes? Well, it all started one night at the Shandygaff, May 2005. For those of you who don't know much about the PSU bar scene the Gaff is pretty much a hole in the wall bar that featured $5 Captain and Coke pitchers and during our era, all athletes frequented. By the way Brandon and I have only been back to the Gaff once since the day we graduated and vowed to each other we'd probably never step foot in there again. (except the night of my bachelorette party) Two of my vball managers and friends both went to high school with Brandon and mentioned to me that I may like "Ream" they were also talking me up to Brandon. Viola! That night Brandon Ream asked for my digits and we've been together ever since. Of course "The Daily Collegian" officially defined our relationship that fall when they printed that football punter, Brandon Ream was my boyfriend in a volleyball article. Let me tell you that was fun. Not!

In 7 years, Brandon and I have lived up our senior year in college together, survived almost 2 years long distance (I lived in Colorado and Illinois), worked through me moving jobless to Pennsylvania over 4 years ago, got engaged, planned a wedding, bought a house, got married and now are battling cancer.

Best 7 years of my life and I look forward to the next 100 with him.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Team Ream Believes

Brandon and I are fortunate to have amazing family and friends. This weekend was a true testament to the great people in our lives.

We have quite a few friends who are very involved in the organization, Coaches vs. Cancer that raises money for the fight against cancer. Friends of ours Mike and Malissa Martin brought to our attention that there was a 5K Run/Walk for the CVC and thought creating a Team Ream to participate would be a great idea.

This past St. Patrick's Day, About 70 people ran/walked a 5K route through Penn State's campus donning a TEAM REAM T-shirt (over 350 runners total) and did it for not only a great cause but in support of Brandon. Brandon enjoyed the race cruising campus via golf cart with Basketball staff members & Coach Chambers. I can say from deep down in my heart we are so appreciative of all the love and support we have received, it truly helps us push through each day.

Enjoy the pictures below and if you'd like to donate to a great cause visit www.cvcpennstate.org or you can email mikemartin1079@yahoo.com and he can direct all proceeds from TEAM REAM to the CVC. Already over $1,000 raised!

Again, thanks for a great day!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

March Madness

Brandon and I are often told that we're a pretty competitive couple. Not sure where people get that from, maybe it's that we believe losing in a board game is not an option or possibly we can turn anything we do into a competition OR winning is in both our top 5 favorite things to do. Our games of UNO and Phase 10 in the hotel have become pretty heated. Well today during our 2 hour wait for Brandon's MRI he convinced me to fill out a bracket. Bad idea. Our bed time tv tonight turned into him yelling VCU! VCU! and myself making up random Wichita State cheers. I know your thinking, "VCU vs. Wichita State, really Brandon and Sam?". Guess this time of year brings out the best in all of us.

Happy March Madness, Go Big Ten!

$20 on Black

I'll explain later

Friday, March 9, 2012

Pocketful of Sunshine

Back from the 80 degrees and sunshine of South Florida. State College was a whopping 35 degrees with flurries upon our return. Thanks Pennsylvania. We are looking forward to a weekend of rest, regrouping, and preparing for this upcoming treatment. Brandon battled through a not so forgiving cycle 3a and is ready to get after what lies ahead.
Below is a short conversation I had in Florida with our 3 year old nephew, Brener. Brener and I were playing with diggers and trucks on the beach while Brandon and Alistair fished from the beach into the ocean.

Me: Brandon, how are feeling?
Brandon: Fine.
Brener: Sammy does Uncle B leg feel better?
Me: Yes, it's getting better.
Brener: Good, I bet those fishing rods will help it feel better.

Love that kid.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

That is a lot of Christmas gifts to buy

Throughout this whole process Brandon and I have tried to focus on all the things we have to be happy about and all the exciting events in our future. One of those events happened yesterday. We are now the proud aunt & uncle of 6 nieces & 5 nephews. My brother and his wife had their first children, TWIN girls. Congrats to them and Uncle Brandon and I can't wait to hold our sweet little nieces. Thanks for bringing so many smiles to us already!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Reunited and it feels so good

I have to say that over the past years I have grown pretty accustomed to Brandon being gone for weeks at a time. Jet setting around the world with his Dad to China, Germany, Switzerland or even just California. Of course I missed him during these trips but I usually used this time to catch up on housework, bills, and spend time with my girlfriends. So I thought this time would be no different, well I was wrong. I did the normal "me" time activities but it was much more difficult to be away from Brandon. Especially because he has had such a tough go this time around. Yes, he was in sunny Florida but he was confined to the couch and felt just plain lousy. Extreme fatigue, no energy, sore throat, mouth sores, it was something new every day. Our face time conversations proved to be very hard for me to handle, I hated seeing him like that and I was unable to hug him. I just wanted to scream "Get me outta here!". (State College that is)

Brandon had his normal appointment with Dr. Green. Perfect timing because there were a lot of questions to be asked, what about this sore throat, energy issues etc. Diagnosis: Thrush, grrrrrreeeeeaaaat. Can he please catch a break? Luckily, we have a great doctor who prescribed him some good drugs and insisted that he come back to get check ups. He went back to Dr. Green yesterday and his throat looked much better but his platelet level was extremely low.

I'm writing this entry on our way back to Dr. Green, Brandon and I were reunited yesterday and I will be at this appointment this morning. Hoping his levels are on the upswing and we can avoid a transfusion. He is feeling better than a week ago and I like to think that HUGE hug I gave him at the airport helped a little too.

Stay tuned.