Female in Motion

The Hubster and I took a little trip last week. Well, actually it was a pretty large trip, at least for us. We spent two days at the National Institutes of Health. That's right, the one in Bethesda, MD. NIH is a massive, 40-acre complex of 31 buildings, each one a specialty for a different illness. As you may know, The Hubster suffers from a very rare blood disorder (MGUS) that is related to multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. He has signed up to participate in a five-year medical study for the National Cancer Institute. In exchange for a small stipend, he gave 13 vials of blood, a full, body-scan x-ray, and bone marrow from his hip. Pretty sweet deal, huh? The folks at the NIH, NCI and Bethesda Marriott treated us like celebrities. We were pampered from morning 'til night. Everyone there was so welcoming, friendly and concerned about our comfort. If anyone tries to tell you that people from Back East are rude, they are hanging out in the wrong places! We were privileged t...

Every year, 781,00 people die of a disease that is 100% preventable and treatable. Children under the age of five are the hardest hit. Not only does this disease cause a horrible physical toll, it costs the country of Africa $12 billion every year in lost productivity. This mosquito-borne malady was wiped out in the United States 60 years ago. Want to know what it is? Imagine No Malaria is working tirelessly to see that every family in Africa has the tools they need to prevent, diagnose and treat this disease. This group wants to eradicate malaria in Africa by 2015. The World Health Organization's 2010 World Malaria Report showed incredible progress in the fight against malaria. Deaths from this disease are down 10% from last year. Because of groups like Imagine No Malaria and Malaria No More, awareness and contributions are up. How do you make malaria a thing of the past, all over the world? Make insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets cheap or free and available to everyone. Educat...

Sorry, I'm tardy! This blog entry is a day late because I just got back from a mother/daughter trip to Savannah, GA. My mom and her sister, my Aunt Nancy, cooked up a great idea: take their daughters on a girls-only trip. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Barry had visited Savannah previously, but guys hate old house tours and fancy gardens and antiques and shopping, so he said to come back and bring some girls. Boy, did we have a blast! I am so grateful to my mom for the opportunity to go to this beautiful and historic Southern city. Savannah is bursting with charm, stately homes, well-preserved history and citizens with impeccable manners. The climate was humid, but in a coastal sort of way, with plenty of cool breezes and warm sunshine. I marveled at city squares filled with live oaks loaded down with Spanish moss. (Which by the way is neither Spanish nor moss. It is from the pineapple family and filled with chiggers.) The parks and gardens were awash with the bright colors of spring flowers...

While visiting my "Texas Belle" last weekend, we had the opportunity to do some serious heart-to-heart talking. She has learned some things in her first year-and-a-half of marriage that took me much longer to comprehend. I raised some pretty savvy chicks! Guys are different than girls. I know this is a startling revelation. God simply did not build them the same way as us. They don't look like us, talk like us, think like us, or smell like us, for that matter. Here are some simple rules that might help you figure out who that hairy thing is across the breakfast table each morning. Female in Motion's Guide to Guys for Bewildered Babes 1. Guys don't know things that we don't tell them . You can give them all the hints in the world, but if you don't tell them flat-out, they won't know it. 2. Guys rarely suffer from emotions and can't always identify when they're having one. I once asked The Hubster when the last time was that he felt an emotion. ...