Number 100 Beat a Life Threatening Disease

January 3, 2008


Here I am in my second least favorite place in the world* - the hospital - battling cancer. I had a super team of doctors and wonderful nurses and technicians who brought me back from a really bad place. Just four months after this photo was taken, I was walking the Survivor's Lap in the Relay for Life (I'm the one in the white hat that my friend Tonia made for me)

*Once in the army, I was naughty and they made me clean out a (very) used trash barrel. It was really big so I actually had to crawl inside to do it and found out, in a very personal way, the meaning of the expression "bottom of the barrel." While this was not as life threatening as cancer, I WANTED to die so I will have to call the inside of this trash barrel my least favorite place in the world.

Number 101 Continue your Gene Pool

I already had two children when I started the list (Becky and Rick, below) and the chemotherapy fried my ovaries so this was a tricky task. Fortunately, my daughter and her husband, Josh were expecting a baby when I became ill. Toby Logan Gullage (T Lo G, if you're friend) was born during my very first cancer treatment giving me a reason to live. He and I have a whole lifetime to live together now full of horsie rides, and playing fly-fly and watching "Bunge Bob."I can't wait!

Number 8 Realize Your Childhood Dream

July 20-July 25, 2008

Like the rest of America, when I was a kid, I was in love with the Mercury astronauts. I was sure I would become an astronaut and couldn't wait for my turn in space!! The Teacher in Space Program brought it even closer for me. Well...I'm pretty sure I couldn't pass a flight physical now so I had to make an adapted version of the dream - I went to Teacher Space Camp and I had a blast!!!

(Left)I was selected to be the Mission Commander. Here I am at the controls of the Endeavor simulator. Really, this is not as easy as it looks, I was a sweaty mess by the end of the mission.

(Right) This is me with the rest of the Endeavor crew. I found out it takes every person doing the best job they can do the get the mission completed. We had a great crew and their commander didn't crash the shuttle! Whew!

I also learned cool stuff to take back to my class. Here, I've made a model of a satellite out of candy. We also learned to make REALLY cool bottle rockets, got to meet some astronauts, built some solar shields and I even ran into a former student of mine!

We took the same training that the astronauts take. Here I am escaping from a submerged helicopter and swimming to meet up with my team (right). We also took anti-gravity training (cool!) and were tortured by this cetrifuge (didn't care for this... BLURP!)

(Below) This was kinda cool.

This is me riding a zipline

This is an actual space capsule that went to the moon

Number 54 Make a HUGE Purchase

August 13, 2007

I grew up an army kid and was raised in military quarters for a good deal of my life so home ownership was a big deal for me. I also figured that, if I had a mortgage, it would be really impolite to die without paying it so this was a bit of a life insurance policy for me. ("Study first propriety: for she is indeed the polestar" - Calverley). So this house was my HUGE purchase.

Okay, it needed a little work but I fell in love with this house as soon as I stepped into it. The owner lived in Washington D.C. and had been using it as a rental property. He wanted to get rid of it quickly, as his ad indicates:

REDUCED! Large home with fixer-upper potential on the 18th hole of the C******* R*** Golf Course in a great neighborhood in H*********. Priced well below market value! Quick access to shopping and F*** S******. Sold as-is. * Heated Two-Car Garage * Picket-Fenced Yard w/Jungle Gym * Large Screen Porch * Wood Burning Fireplace * Side by Side Refrigerator, Range/Oven, Fan Hood, Dishwasher, Disposal

Owner Facts:
·Single family
·4 beds
·2.0 bath
·2084 sqft heated space
·Lot 22,651 sqft
·Built in 1976
At-a-Glance Features:
·Attic
·Ceiling Fan
·Fenced Yard
·Fireplace
·Lawn
·Patio

It also had a really odd floorplan:

Still, some paint, a new A/C system, some plumbing repair, upgraded electrical....it was still a bargain! To quote Linus from A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Maybe it just needs a little love". Wise words indeed. I'm having fun fixing it up little by little and...it's mine!!

Number 35 Play a Part on Your Favorite TV Show

May 9, 2009
I went to college with one of the producers of "My Name is Earl." He was a real honey and arranged for me to have a small walk-on roll on one of the episodes. Here I am on the set with my brother. They treated us like royalty! It was what my brother described as "mother-fricken awesome"- really that's how he put it. It was really incredible!!

I was on the episode "Inside Probe, Part 1". I played "Woman" ( I AM WOMAN - RAWR!!). In this episode, we are watching on surveillance video where Randy had been trying to steal videos from a video return bin and has his head and arms stuck in it. I walk up to return a video and, finding the opening blocked, shove the video down his pants. One of my son's friends caught it off the TV airing

They let us play on the sets too. I sat on Earl and Randy's bed in the motel and messed around in Joy and Darnell's trailer (They have a waterbed!) and went to the Crab Shack and even posed on Catalina's stripper pole in Club Chubby. We got to take pictures with the cast (the ones who were there filming that day) and they gave us an autographed picture of the cast and an autographed script. A really super day!!!! (Thanks for this, Michael)

Number 55 Finish that dissertation and graduate

April 30, 2009

When I became ill, I was in the middle of my doctoral dissertation. I had to put it on hold and my university was kind enough to let me keep just 1 semester hour during this time so I wouldn't have to drop out. It was rough getting back into the swing of it especially since it had several hundred illustrations and my hands were hurting big time from the chemotherapy so it was hard to draw.

My dissertation was entitled Military Children and Holistic Education: A Narrative Reflection on Classroom Practice. Sadly, you will not be able to read it for a bit. At the request of the Department of Defense (who signs my paychecks), it has been sequestered for five years for concerns about national security but it will be online for all to see after that. I had a successful defense on April 30,2009 and became DOCTOR Allison as can be seen on my classroom door below:

Many thanks to the world's most patient dissertation committee, Dr. Richard Flynn, Dr. Wendy Chambers, Dr. Delores Liston (chair) and Dr. Dan Rea. This was a pretty cool day because it was also the date that my big Hollywood adventure appeared on TV (See #35)

Number 86 - Bury Some Treasure

May 3, 2009

With a map and a compass and a corked bottle in hand, we took a boat to a rather deserted island near where we live (won't say which - the treasure hasn't been found yet!) VERY early in the morning. Accompanying me on the trip were Lona L. and two very special girls (both of whom used to be in my class), Sarah and Tayler, who donated their hair to make wigs for cancer patients.

We also brought our bathing suits and lunch 'cuz we wanted to have some groovy, splashy fun too! It took us about 45 minutes to get there and we were already sunburned by the time we arrived.

In our treasure chest were beautiful shiny baubles and trinkets like an old-fashioned key and a silk butterfly and a glass seahorse and a string of crystal beads - standard items of treasure.

We had to hike over quite a few sand dunes to get the the beach we wanted (pant, pant, pant...). I thought I was gonna die!! Lona (below) looks a little pooped too.

But we FINALLY made it! We took a refreshing swim and the girls gathered pretty sea shells and sharks teeth to add to the treasure chest.
Something new I learned: Lona explained to me while we were swimming that, if you pee in the ocean, you are supposed to scratch your head as a courtesy signal to other swimmers. Hmmm...never knew that. Just been letting it fly all these years without announcing it.
So, then we got out the compass and the map and counted the steps and the girls buried the treasure chest in a super secret location.

Then, Tayler stuffed the map in the bottle (This was NOT easy)
and Sarah threw it from a bridge we chose on the way home. A great day!

GOOD LUCK TREASURE HUNTERS!!!