New Caring Bridge Page

Oooh....NEW CARING BRIDGE!!!
There are updates to this site as you may have noticed. Some great features include:
o We can now put over 50 pics on the photo section (before we were limited to 12)
o The links section has been changed to RESOURCES and has more flexibility. Our Care Calendar, bracelets, and other information have been updated there (it disappeared for a while).
o We get to see some pretty interesting stats about our website and we can also track the other Caring Bridge sites that we are following regularly too!
Anyway, on that note, I thought you would be interested to know that the 61K+ hits that our site has generated is the result of over 630 unique visitors! Just goes to prove that 1) Charlotte has a lot of fans and 2) You folks are repeat offenders (if not addicts!). Thanks again for your continuing support.
I haven't written in a few days but Roger has kept you updated. Yes, I am sporting my new haircut. For those of you who know me well, you know that my hairstyle seems to change with the season. Until Thursday, my hair was the longest it had been since before Charlotte had been born (after which I proceeded to go much shorter and then gradually grow it out again). Anyway, while I am not brave enough to shave my head, this was the next best thing, I guess. I'm getting used to VERY short hair again but I think I like it. Charlotte seemed to like it too as she gave me a big smile when I came back from the haircut. I even brought home some hair "for the birds" from the hairdresser's. So a quick shout-out to Karin at Diva's for always helping me look as beautiful as I can possibly look! She's been cutting my hair for over 5 years and she's great!
Roger is out in WV as we speak and playing a Civil War Ball with Southern Horizon. For those of you that know us, that sentence just doesn't seem bizarre, does it?
Charlotte had a fabulous day with a playdate with her friend Abby from church that included lunch and lots of kid time. I understand from my mom that she has had a wonderful appetite all day and stayed VERY busy. She finally conked out around 8:30.
I have been very on the fence about trying to get her in for PT/OT next week. First of all, it's very difficult for them to try to get us "in" as Children's stays very busy with their clinic but I also feel like she has just been doing so well. We tried to get her back into therapy the week we ended up back in the hospital and it was oh-so-frustrating to have that setback. Anyway, I have decided that maybe we will just enjoy this upsurge and let Charlotte rest and rejuvenate as much as possible before Thursday/Friday's craziness.
As many of you know, my parents are now here and oh is life so much easier again! It just allows Roger and I to focus our efforts on work and not have to worry quite as much about Charlotte (As evidenced by what will be almost 20 hrs of work at Romp n' Roll on my part over this weekend alone!). This is the first opportunity they have had to see Charlotte since her diagnosis (she had seen them in Florida just prior to her first hospitalization) so I think the Mutual Admiration Society is very much in effect on Slash Ct.
Many of you have inquired about further details for the Head Shaving party on April 10th. Plans are definitely still in the works but we have to hash out some final details. My guess is that timing will be late afternoon/early evening to accomodate work schedules, etc. Jackie, our fun-raising guru will hopefully meet with us in the next few days and give us some solid news...we appreciate your patience as well as everyone's willingness to help and support!
The piano-moving may move (HA) to after Easter due to logistics with schedules. We will let you know when we have a different date.
FINALLY, I want to give a shout-out to Melissa, Katherine, Liz, Miriam, Amanda, Anna, Kim, Bruce, and about 50 other people who I am forgetting to mention by name: These wonderful women (and even a few men) just spent the last few days organizing and running the Mid-Atlantic Regional Music Therapy Conference in Richmond. This has been a labor of love (I'll use that term a little loosely!) on the part of the members of the Virginia Music Therapy Association for over a year and a half. Melissa and I had been local co-chairs of the event and had been in the middle of LOTS of planning, budgeting, and all kinds of other craziness when this speed bump hit our lives. One of my first calls was to Melissa (mainly because she works at MCV and I knew she would find out sooner or later that we were there) and her first directive to me was to STOP worrying about the conference. Anyway, the rest of the team rallied around Melissa and from what I understand, the conference was a giant success. I was sad to have missed it all and I owe everyone on the local committee a drink (or 3). I owe Melissa a whole KEG! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you ALL have done!
Ok, I have written enough of a novella for one evening so I promise to sign off! Let's pray for some sunshine, eh?
Rachel