Charlotte went in to surgery at 10:08am.
We woke up at about 4:30am and got to the hospital before 6:00. The valet parking didn't open until 6:00 so we had to wait. In that time I could have parked in the garage, got validated parking, and been upstairs getting ready for the big day. But then I heard the road construction made it very difficult to manuver so it looks like we went the proper route after all.
As we got all ready for the MRI, Charlotte started getting antsy so we watched Caillou videos on the iPhone. Paid for itself several times over as far as I'm concerned.
When we went down to the MRI room, we weren't there long before the anesthesiolgist (woah! There's a $10 word!) showed up to administer the happy juice. At first she didn't want to let them at her central line so I distracted her with pics on the phone (more added value) while they hooked her up. In about 30 seconds, she got this very silly grin on her face and thought everything was extremely amusing!
Then they picked her up, took her in to the MRI room and she was gone. It all happened so fast I didn't get to give her a kiss but it was ok. Rompy, Mickey, and the hand-made pink and purple blanket (I can't remember who made it for her off the top of my head) are with her. Dug the Up! dog waits patiently with us here in the [SQUIRREL!!] 7th floor lounge.
By the way, CJ was very happy to tell everyone that she has TWO dogs now!
So after they took CJ, I found myself without a lot of direction since they sort of mentioned where I should go to wait only in passing and I was a little distracted. So I hung out there for a little while and talked to a young man and his mother waiting for an MRI. Very nice with the "Yes sir" and the "No, sir" and all that. Even with the tiff we're having with Caringbridge, I told them about CB and Hopecam.org. Turns out he is one of triplet boys and has a younger sister in Romp n' Roll's age range. So of course I gave mom my card. (Always workin' it)
So I eventually made my way down to the ground floor waiting room, got a bite to eat and settled in to wait. I promptly fell asleep. My buzzing phone woke me up - Auntie 'Retta was calling trying to find me. Ends up She, Grandpa, and Juanita Bonita were looking for me all over. They were just a floor above in the 1st floor waiting room.
I'm spoiled with the 7th floor so the other waiting rooms just wouldn't do. I pulled Loretta up with me and started the sign-in process early. I got the sign-in sheet filled out and saw plenty of folks who remember Charlotte including Heather from Child Life. They seem to be all ready for us.
CJ will be in room 614 of the PICU which means for now, kids can't visit and we have to space out the number of adults but after a day or so, we certainly want people to stop by. It can do nothing but good for her.
So now we're camped out, waiting for word. They are supposed to call anytime now with an update.
"Charlotte's Devon" is headed over to have lunch with us and Dean from Glen Allen Golf just called to let us know the total from the fun-raiser was $140! Thanks to all who came out.
Just heard from Nurse Janice in the OR. Charlotte is still in surgery and things are going as expected. If she's still in surgery at 2:00 they'll call with another update.
More details as they come up.
Latest update:
They were finishing up and might be done within a half an hour. Charlotte has been stable the entire time and everything looks good so far.
I don't think I'll be making it to Romp n' Roll this afternoon. Anyone in my Wednesday classes will be in the very capable hands of Miss Samantha. (She's been doing so well covering my classes lately, I think I might be losing some of my kiddies to her classes!)
Thanks to Devon for a very tasty lunch.
Stay tuned...
She is out of surgery and looking GREAT!
She is still a little loopy from the anesthesia but that's mostly making her act very funny more than anything else. She is gradually getting tubes, a-lines, ivs, etc. taken out. She is talking and moving all her limbs. Looks a little pale and will probably have a small transfusion but overall we can't complain.
Dr. Tye thinks he got a LOT of tumor. No word on percentage but he is reasonably confident that he got a very large amount. He said the pathway was really clear and he was able to get quite a bit. She will probably have an MRI tomorrow or Friday and they are going to aim for both head and spine to get a full picture.
Her tumor samples have been sent off to the MCV lab as well as a lot that will be going to Houston by Friday.
We have a nice room in the PICU...actually one of the ones we had last time with lots of space and a great, sunny view of the capitol and the governor's mansion.
I think that's all we have to report for now.
Thanks for all the prayers and support.
Rachel and Roger
Showing posts with label Glen Allen Golf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glen Allen Golf. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Announcements
Some announcements for the week:
0. There was a green old navy jacket (adult size xs) left at the Head Shaving Party @ Romp n' Roll in April. If it belongs to you, please come by or call to claim it. It's really cute and I would take it but there's NO WAY I'm an XS :-)
1. Mini Golf/Batting Cages/Driving Range TONIGHT 7-10 PM at Glen Allen Golf on US1 to benefit Charlotte.
2. The Five Below event @ VCC seemed to be a success and Charlotte's story has really touched on the people there SO they are repeating the event for the next TWO weekends. Get your flyers at Romp n' Roll and take them in to buy all your summer tchotchkes (sp?).
3. Don't forget about the Brain Tumor Awareness Benefit Concert with Susan Greenbaum and Cheryl Fare at Ashland Coffee and Tea Saturday (5/23) from 3-6 PM. The event itself does not benefit Charlotte directly but it is a great cause with great music AND there will be a 50/50 raffle for Charlotte as well. Much thanks to Susan and Cheryl for letting us piggyback on this. We are sorry that we will miss it.
4. A shout-out to Christy, Wendy, and Torrie for helping Roger with the FACES event at Virginia Crossings tonight.
5. A HUGE shout-out to Jackie Plank for continuing the fundraising efforts.
6. On that note: another date change. The home based business bazaar will be June 27th at St. Ann's Catholic Church. More details to follow but there will be lots of vendors (Pampered Chef, Arbonne, Longaberger Baskets, etc.) selling their wares and donating a portion of the proceeds to Charlotte. Start your Christmas shopping early! Also, I think a Silent Auction is in the works.
With all of these fundraisers in the works, we are very grateful. We just found out that the insurance IS going to cover our visit to TX as a "second opinion" (they will cover the visit but not the tumor evaluation since that is considered experimental). We did receive a second denial of our appeal for considering the stem cell transplant services as "in-network" at MCV. The insurance ombudsman feels we made a great case and that the insurance did thoroughly review our cause but they continue to maintain that they are not denying us coverage and that we can go to an in-network hospital or pay the out-of-network rates. Given that we do not know right now how many stem cell transplants/rounds of high dose chemo she will need and/or whether this will go on past this calendar year (since our deductible is for the calendar year), this will probably increase our out-of-pocket medical costs to anywhere between $40-100K. We will definitely be talking with MCV about negotiating cost but there isn't much point until we know the direction where MD Anderson will point us...
That is all I have to report. I hope to see some of you tonight. Then I must pack and we leave for the airport about 5 AM tomorrow! Whew!
Rachel
First off and VERY IMPORTANT, the little thermometer to the right isn't our idea. It makes it look like Charlotte will somehow get donations if you click there. I've asked them to remove Charlotte's name from it. Seem a little sneaky to me. I've already sent them a donation when we first started the site and I know several of you have as well. Might be the last one I send if they keep that kind of crap up
Be that as it may, today was a HUGE day! First off, I woke up, completely alert, at 4AM this morning. No idea why.
Charlotte and I went down to Children's Hospital to get the fabled slides of the tumor which we will take with us to Houston ("Houston, Texas?!?")
This next event illustrated Cerisa's post brilliantly: While headed home, I asked Charlotte where she wanted to have lunch and she said the ever wonderful, "Chick-fil-a." When I said, OK, we're going to Chick-fil-a, she immediately said, "People eat there seven times a day!" If you don't know to what that refers, immediately open a new browser tab/window and go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJHqstPuNo
No, really. Go do that now...
Hmmm dee dum dummm
Great, eh?
OK so we get to CFA and we meet Mommy there. We had a great lunch, CJ had ice cream with her lunch, and Mommy and I switched cars and Charlotte.
I then went to VA Crossings Resort to set up the Romp n' Roll stuff for the FACES of Virginia meeting. I was actually getting a little nervous because the final count was edging up into the low 40s which is a handful under primo conditions and I knew this wasn't going to have those conditions.
I got to the resort and realized they weren't going to have the two separate rooms for the kids or the other, OTHER separate room for the older kids to play board games. I figured that's OK since I'll have my star volunteers, Torrie (Too Tall Torrie) Heathcoat and Christy Yeadon MAN Am I glad they were there! Couldn't have done this without them. Thanks, ladies!
After teaching my classes at Romp n' Roll, I zoomed over and found the place in chaos already. We got the kids a little focused with a song or two and an idea of what an obsticle course should be and they took it from there. They really seemed to love the springboard! There were a few "breaks" and lots of redirection but a pretty fun time was had by all.
So we made a lot of FACES parents very happy to be able to have a nice, relatively quiet dinner. I also think it got us a bit of new business. If you've never plopped your head into the pensieve that is the world of foster parenting and adoption, it's had to imagine what a tough job it is. Foster and adoptive parents need and deserve access to every little bit of resources under the sun! That's why I dig this FACES of Virginia Families organization so much. That's what they do. If you don't get suckered in by the little thermometer over there and have given as much as you want to CJ's fund, I can think of few other places as deserving of your support. Heck! Boss woman, Cate Neubanks is even going to yoga with us on June 6th.
I had a ton of help tearing down and schlepping out to the car so it was next to no time before I was on to the Glen Allen Golf Fun-raiser! I sort of came in on the tail end of things but it seemed like it was a very successful evening there as well. We'll get final numbers out as soon as we can.
We still don't have final numbers from the burrito eating contest at Qdoba. Still working on it.
Now I'm home, trying to stay awake to finish this before I go pack for tomorrow. Rachel has most everything ready and lined up, I just need to make it all fit in the suitcase.
Thanks for all your well wishes for the safe trip. See you in Houston.
Rog
p.s. We got the ReeseStrong doll and will be taking it to Houston.
0. There was a green old navy jacket (adult size xs) left at the Head Shaving Party @ Romp n' Roll in April. If it belongs to you, please come by or call to claim it. It's really cute and I would take it but there's NO WAY I'm an XS :-)
1. Mini Golf/Batting Cages/Driving Range TONIGHT 7-10 PM at Glen Allen Golf on US1 to benefit Charlotte.
2. The Five Below event @ VCC seemed to be a success and Charlotte's story has really touched on the people there SO they are repeating the event for the next TWO weekends. Get your flyers at Romp n' Roll and take them in to buy all your summer tchotchkes (sp?).
3. Don't forget about the Brain Tumor Awareness Benefit Concert with Susan Greenbaum and Cheryl Fare at Ashland Coffee and Tea Saturday (5/23) from 3-6 PM. The event itself does not benefit Charlotte directly but it is a great cause with great music AND there will be a 50/50 raffle for Charlotte as well. Much thanks to Susan and Cheryl for letting us piggyback on this. We are sorry that we will miss it.
4. A shout-out to Christy, Wendy, and Torrie for helping Roger with the FACES event at Virginia Crossings tonight.
5. A HUGE shout-out to Jackie Plank for continuing the fundraising efforts.
6. On that note: another date change. The home based business bazaar will be June 27th at St. Ann's Catholic Church. More details to follow but there will be lots of vendors (Pampered Chef, Arbonne, Longaberger Baskets, etc.) selling their wares and donating a portion of the proceeds to Charlotte. Start your Christmas shopping early! Also, I think a Silent Auction is in the works.
With all of these fundraisers in the works, we are very grateful. We just found out that the insurance IS going to cover our visit to TX as a "second opinion" (they will cover the visit but not the tumor evaluation since that is considered experimental). We did receive a second denial of our appeal for considering the stem cell transplant services as "in-network" at MCV. The insurance ombudsman feels we made a great case and that the insurance did thoroughly review our cause but they continue to maintain that they are not denying us coverage and that we can go to an in-network hospital or pay the out-of-network rates. Given that we do not know right now how many stem cell transplants/rounds of high dose chemo she will need and/or whether this will go on past this calendar year (since our deductible is for the calendar year), this will probably increase our out-of-pocket medical costs to anywhere between $40-100K. We will definitely be talking with MCV about negotiating cost but there isn't much point until we know the direction where MD Anderson will point us...
That is all I have to report. I hope to see some of you tonight. Then I must pack and we leave for the airport about 5 AM tomorrow! Whew!
Rachel
First off and VERY IMPORTANT, the little thermometer to the right isn't our idea. It makes it look like Charlotte will somehow get donations if you click there. I've asked them to remove Charlotte's name from it. Seem a little sneaky to me. I've already sent them a donation when we first started the site and I know several of you have as well. Might be the last one I send if they keep that kind of crap up
Be that as it may, today was a HUGE day! First off, I woke up, completely alert, at 4AM this morning. No idea why.
Charlotte and I went down to Children's Hospital to get the fabled slides of the tumor which we will take with us to Houston ("Houston, Texas?!?")
This next event illustrated Cerisa's post brilliantly: While headed home, I asked Charlotte where she wanted to have lunch and she said the ever wonderful, "Chick-fil-a." When I said, OK, we're going to Chick-fil-a, she immediately said, "People eat there seven times a day!" If you don't know to what that refers, immediately open a new browser tab/window and go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJHqstPuNo
No, really. Go do that now...
Hmmm dee dum dummm
Great, eh?
OK so we get to CFA and we meet Mommy there. We had a great lunch, CJ had ice cream with her lunch, and Mommy and I switched cars and Charlotte.
I then went to VA Crossings Resort to set up the Romp n' Roll stuff for the FACES of Virginia meeting. I was actually getting a little nervous because the final count was edging up into the low 40s which is a handful under primo conditions and I knew this wasn't going to have those conditions.
I got to the resort and realized they weren't going to have the two separate rooms for the kids or the other, OTHER separate room for the older kids to play board games. I figured that's OK since I'll have my star volunteers, Torrie (Too Tall Torrie) Heathcoat and Christy Yeadon MAN Am I glad they were there! Couldn't have done this without them. Thanks, ladies!
After teaching my classes at Romp n' Roll, I zoomed over and found the place in chaos already. We got the kids a little focused with a song or two and an idea of what an obsticle course should be and they took it from there. They really seemed to love the springboard! There were a few "breaks" and lots of redirection but a pretty fun time was had by all.
So we made a lot of FACES parents very happy to be able to have a nice, relatively quiet dinner. I also think it got us a bit of new business. If you've never plopped your head into the pensieve that is the world of foster parenting and adoption, it's had to imagine what a tough job it is. Foster and adoptive parents need and deserve access to every little bit of resources under the sun! That's why I dig this FACES of Virginia Families organization so much. That's what they do. If you don't get suckered in by the little thermometer over there and have given as much as you want to CJ's fund, I can think of few other places as deserving of your support. Heck! Boss woman, Cate Neubanks is even going to yoga with us on June 6th.
I had a ton of help tearing down and schlepping out to the car so it was next to no time before I was on to the Glen Allen Golf Fun-raiser! I sort of came in on the tail end of things but it seemed like it was a very successful evening there as well. We'll get final numbers out as soon as we can.
We still don't have final numbers from the burrito eating contest at Qdoba. Still working on it.
Now I'm home, trying to stay awake to finish this before I go pack for tomorrow. Rachel has most everything ready and lined up, I just need to make it all fit in the suitcase.
Thanks for all your well wishes for the safe trip. See you in Houston.
Rog
p.s. We got the ReeseStrong doll and will be taking it to Houston.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Help with a F.A.C.E.S. of Virginia Event
Hi All,
Roger here. We have an event coming up on Wednesday for which we need volunteers.
The F.A.C.E.s of Virginia (the foster family/adoption support group I've mentioned before) is having a meeting at Virgina Crossings Resort and Romp n' Roll is donating an evening of Romp n' Roll To Go. We set this in the calendar a while ago and with changes in our schedule and the RNR Spring schedule, I can 't be at the entire event.
I need at least two people to oversee rooms with play areas. There will also be a room with board games for older children which we've been asked to providewith an adult.
I will set everything up during the day and come back after my classes to finish out the event and tear it all down
All you need to do is make sure the children don't bleed all over each other. (JOKE!)
Please call my cell phone (540) 220-4922 to confirm. If we get more than the alloted number of volunteers, then great. If for no other reason than to see what an awsome organization F.A.C.E.s of Virginia is. (Poor grammar)
This also the evening of the Glen Allen Golf fun raiser. After I get there to tear down, you should have plenty of time to go to that.
Thanks.
Time for FRIDAY MAYHEM!!!
Roger here. We have an event coming up on Wednesday for which we need volunteers.
The F.A.C.E.s of Virginia (the foster family/adoption support group I've mentioned before) is having a meeting at Virgina Crossings Resort and Romp n' Roll is donating an evening of Romp n' Roll To Go. We set this in the calendar a while ago and with changes in our schedule and the RNR Spring schedule, I can 't be at the entire event.
I need at least two people to oversee rooms with play areas. There will also be a room with board games for older children which we've been asked to providewith an adult.
I will set everything up during the day and come back after my classes to finish out the event and tear it all down
All you need to do is make sure the children don't bleed all over each other. (JOKE!)
Please call my cell phone (540) 220-4922 to confirm. If we get more than the alloted number of volunteers, then great. If for no other reason than to see what an awsome organization F.A.C.E.s of Virginia is. (Poor grammar)
This also the evening of the Glen Allen Golf fun raiser. After I get there to tear down, you should have plenty of time to go to that.
Thanks.
Time for FRIDAY MAYHEM!!!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
What a Good Day!
What a good day! While I'm still not over feeling exhausted all the time, at least I'm not a bundle of nerves and anxiety over the unknown. that helps a lot.
Charlotte had a great day with visits from Wyatt and Heather, walks around the neighborhood, lots of exercising, and lots of eating.
We have a plan and an itinerary. We will be flying on Air Tran out to Houston on May 21st and returning on May 23rd. Our meeting at the clinic is on May 22nd. Thanks to our wonderful network of resources, we have learned about shuttles from the airport to the hotels/hospital area (hence no need for a rental car) as well as some good hotel accomodations for our stay.
Also, thanks to our wonderful staff at Romp n' Roll (as well as help from a few of the other Romp n' Rollers in the Richmond area), I think we've just about got coverage at the store covered while we are away.
We are still planning on surgery on the 27th. My mom leaves tomorrow to go back to Florida (bye Granny!). Roger's dad (Grandpa) and Juanita Bonita will be back her on the 26th in preparation for her surgery and we're getting some other "ducks in a row" for the weeks to come.
It's nice when the stars seem to align.
On a not so good note, it looks like the insurance appeals are not going to go as hoped. After our second appeal letter, Humana continues to maintain that we are well within our rights to choose MCV and they are well within THEIR rights to charge us an out-of-network rate for choosing MCV. End of story. The short answer is that I will follow up with our rep from the insurance commission and possibly make one final appeal through our delegate representative who has been following the case to see if he has any "pull" but I think the 8-ball is telling us "all signs point to NO".
Thank goodness to those of you who have led the charge on those fundraisers because we are gonna need them!!
Speaking of which, it looks like the Glen Allen Golf event has been rescheduled for next Wednesday (May 20th) from 7-10 PM. Mini-golf, batting cages, and driving range. Pray for sunshine and come out to see us off to Houston!
We also have the shopping events this weekend. Saturday 5/16: Five-Below (at VCC). You need to bring a flyer. We have LOTS of flyers at Romp n' Roll. 10% goes to Charlotte so stock up on your summer pool noodles, bouncy balls, and other un-necessary junk....
THEN Sunday 5/17 at Everything But Water (bathing suits, etc.) in the Short Pump Mall. I don't know if you need a flyer of some kind for this but 10-15% should go to Charlotte and I understand that there will be a chick-fil-a wheel with prizes and opportunities to help there as well (with food???). Thanks to Torrie for arranging this.
It looks like we will be getting back into town after the Brain Tumor Awareness concert at Ashland Coffee and Tea (featuring Susan Greenbaum and Cheryl Fare). I am SO sorry that we will miss this because I know it will be great. Please come out and support the event for us! There will be a 50/50 raffle for Charlotte and a chance to hear some great music.
That is all I have to say for now. Rumor has it Charlotte will be making an appearance at a Princess class tomorrow. And I get to watch the season finale of LOST tomorrow night. And did I mention that I get my new iphone tomorrow? Should be a good day....Signing off...
Rachel
Charlotte had a great day with visits from Wyatt and Heather, walks around the neighborhood, lots of exercising, and lots of eating.
We have a plan and an itinerary. We will be flying on Air Tran out to Houston on May 21st and returning on May 23rd. Our meeting at the clinic is on May 22nd. Thanks to our wonderful network of resources, we have learned about shuttles from the airport to the hotels/hospital area (hence no need for a rental car) as well as some good hotel accomodations for our stay.
Also, thanks to our wonderful staff at Romp n' Roll (as well as help from a few of the other Romp n' Rollers in the Richmond area), I think we've just about got coverage at the store covered while we are away.
We are still planning on surgery on the 27th. My mom leaves tomorrow to go back to Florida (bye Granny!). Roger's dad (Grandpa) and Juanita Bonita will be back her on the 26th in preparation for her surgery and we're getting some other "ducks in a row" for the weeks to come.
It's nice when the stars seem to align.
On a not so good note, it looks like the insurance appeals are not going to go as hoped. After our second appeal letter, Humana continues to maintain that we are well within our rights to choose MCV and they are well within THEIR rights to charge us an out-of-network rate for choosing MCV. End of story. The short answer is that I will follow up with our rep from the insurance commission and possibly make one final appeal through our delegate representative who has been following the case to see if he has any "pull" but I think the 8-ball is telling us "all signs point to NO".
Thank goodness to those of you who have led the charge on those fundraisers because we are gonna need them!!
Speaking of which, it looks like the Glen Allen Golf event has been rescheduled for next Wednesday (May 20th) from 7-10 PM. Mini-golf, batting cages, and driving range. Pray for sunshine and come out to see us off to Houston!
We also have the shopping events this weekend. Saturday 5/16: Five-Below (at VCC). You need to bring a flyer. We have LOTS of flyers at Romp n' Roll. 10% goes to Charlotte so stock up on your summer pool noodles, bouncy balls, and other un-necessary junk....
THEN Sunday 5/17 at Everything But Water (bathing suits, etc.) in the Short Pump Mall. I don't know if you need a flyer of some kind for this but 10-15% should go to Charlotte and I understand that there will be a chick-fil-a wheel with prizes and opportunities to help there as well (with food???). Thanks to Torrie for arranging this.
It looks like we will be getting back into town after the Brain Tumor Awareness concert at Ashland Coffee and Tea (featuring Susan Greenbaum and Cheryl Fare). I am SO sorry that we will miss this because I know it will be great. Please come out and support the event for us! There will be a 50/50 raffle for Charlotte and a chance to hear some great music.
That is all I have to say for now. Rumor has it Charlotte will be making an appearance at a Princess class tomorrow. And I get to watch the season finale of LOST tomorrow night. And did I mention that I get my new iphone tomorrow? Should be a good day....Signing off...
Rachel
Monday, May 11, 2009
Something of a Plan, Finally
Hello everyone,
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. We sure did. We opened Romp n' Roll up for open gym and let the kids have a good time. The crowd was pretty good.
Charlotte's numbers have been so good lately that we have come off the germophobe box which is great because I'm no good at being a germophobe. We even had visitors from St. James The Less. The Shiffletts came by with a Mother's Day present from the Sunday school class. Annabel (or "Annablell" as Charlotte calls her) is one of CJ's favorite friends and they had a lot of fun tickling Annabell's sister Piper on the knees!
We also took her down to Romp n' Roll to play and met up with The Hayes family from Montessori House. Anja is another of CJ's favs.
We then went to Panera with Granny and Uncle Kolby (walked from RNR in fact!) for Mother's Day dinner and then to Coldstone for dessert!
When we came home, I gave the princess a bath and settled in for the evening. A little bedtime drama having to do with a thrown book and not being tired but nothing too bad.
Overall, it was a very nice Mother's Day and as we've stated in various places, seemingly extra special.
The history of Mother's Day came up in conversation and after a little online research (We're kinda geeks that way), we found some very interesting information. I always went with the prevailing wisdom that it was just a fake holiday invented by Hallmark to sell cards. "NOT SO LIZZARD BREATH!" (there's your trivia question for the day) Turns out it's more of a peace movement/community organizing event with various religious roots. Here's one website that chronicles just a bit if the history.
http://www.momscape.com/articles/momsday.htm
As for the more serious side of things, no final word yet on anything.
Nothing.
Zip.
Nada.
Zilcho.
Feel left hanging? Us too. We're at that stage again where we really can't plan anything until we know more.
We'll let you all know as soon as we do.
Happy Monday.
OK, so we finally have something of a plan. And as usual, it looks very little like what we were hinting at last time I wrote.
After a good amount of back and forth between Rachel and Dr. Tye, it was determined that the MD Anderson team could, indeed, use the samples Dr. Tye removed during Charlotte's 2nd surgery as well as the last MRI scan so she doesn't have to have surgery this time until after we go to Houston.
That makes flying much more attractive as we won't be worrying about how she is going to handle travelling a week after a major brain operation although I was quite looking forward to the road trip in Grandpa's camping truck.
We wanted to see about Angel Flight but they would only let one parent go and we actually found a halfway decent rate on Airtran.
We've had some very generous donations come in recently which will take care of our travel expenses. Another reason to thank everyone!
That makes the schedule look something like this:
Thursday, May 21: Fly from Richmond to Houston
Friday, May 22: Meet with MD Anderson Drs.
Saturday, May 23: Fly back to Richmond
Tuesday, May 26: Check into MCV
Wednesday, May 27: Surgery #3
We'll probably be in the the hospital at least a week post-op recovering. Time to stock up on Morphine, Tylenol, and Dora videos!
We're hoping to get various family members here to help with things starting the 27th (maybe the 26th) including Grandpa and Juanita, Aunt Phyllis, Granny (again but this time WITH Grumps...I mean Gramps!), Anyone else who wants to drop in.
The Staff at Romp n' Roll has been forwarned that they may be asked to do some extra stuff (as if they haven't been asked before!) I'm confident, we will be able to work something out.
Another note about our staff at RNR. Throughout this whole experience, they have been the best staff any business owners could possibly have any right to hope for. They've come in at odd times, covered myriad classes, volunteered hours of work over and over and kept the business going when we were balls of stressed out goo! They are more perfect examples of how we couldn't do it without our support network.
We apologize to our customers for the revolving instructors but at least the replacements seem to be doing a great job.
Other news: The Glen Allen Golf Fun-raiser has been tentatively moved to Wednesday, May 20th.
Big new Fun-raiser in the works! Dr. Anna Madland of Atlee Chiropractic and Bill Roberts at WHAN 1430am Radio and I did a little mind melding and hashed out a little more of the "Yoga-thon" idea. It will be 100 "yoga-ists" doing 100 minutes of yoga And we would like to try doing this during the Strawberry Faire in Ashland on Saturday, June 6th. People would sponsor yoga-ists for $1.00 per minute and if every person on a mat got every minute sponsored, that would make $10,000 raised! So that's our goal. "Can we build it? Yes we can!" (Who knew President Obama liked Bob The Builder?
We want to get it going relatively early in the morning to avoid the heat so it will probably start 8:30 or 9:00am. We need 10 instructors and 100 (or more!) people to do the yoga. I know with our network, Dr. Anna's, and the Greater Ashland listening and reading public, we should have next to no trouble getting it together.
After the event, stick around for one of the coolest days of the year.
As per usual, Jackie Plank is knee deep in this one as well. Contact her at jplank@oscient.com to sign up or to sponsor a minute. Day-of sponsorships welcome if there is space. So please spread the word!
Thanks,
Rog
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. We sure did. We opened Romp n' Roll up for open gym and let the kids have a good time. The crowd was pretty good.
Charlotte's numbers have been so good lately that we have come off the germophobe box which is great because I'm no good at being a germophobe. We even had visitors from St. James The Less. The Shiffletts came by with a Mother's Day present from the Sunday school class. Annabel (or "Annablell" as Charlotte calls her) is one of CJ's favorite friends and they had a lot of fun tickling Annabell's sister Piper on the knees!
We also took her down to Romp n' Roll to play and met up with The Hayes family from Montessori House. Anja is another of CJ's favs.
We then went to Panera with Granny and Uncle Kolby (walked from RNR in fact!) for Mother's Day dinner and then to Coldstone for dessert!
When we came home, I gave the princess a bath and settled in for the evening. A little bedtime drama having to do with a thrown book and not being tired but nothing too bad.
Overall, it was a very nice Mother's Day and as we've stated in various places, seemingly extra special.
The history of Mother's Day came up in conversation and after a little online research (We're kinda geeks that way), we found some very interesting information. I always went with the prevailing wisdom that it was just a fake holiday invented by Hallmark to sell cards. "NOT SO LIZZARD BREATH!" (there's your trivia question for the day) Turns out it's more of a peace movement/community organizing event with various religious roots. Here's one website that chronicles just a bit if the history.
http://www.momscape.com/articles/momsday.htm
As for the more serious side of things, no final word yet on anything.
Nothing.
Zip.
Nada.
Zilcho.
Feel left hanging? Us too. We're at that stage again where we really can't plan anything until we know more.
We'll let you all know as soon as we do.
Happy Monday.
OK, so we finally have something of a plan. And as usual, it looks very little like what we were hinting at last time I wrote.
After a good amount of back and forth between Rachel and Dr. Tye, it was determined that the MD Anderson team could, indeed, use the samples Dr. Tye removed during Charlotte's 2nd surgery as well as the last MRI scan so she doesn't have to have surgery this time until after we go to Houston.
That makes flying much more attractive as we won't be worrying about how she is going to handle travelling a week after a major brain operation although I was quite looking forward to the road trip in Grandpa's camping truck.
We wanted to see about Angel Flight but they would only let one parent go and we actually found a halfway decent rate on Airtran.
We've had some very generous donations come in recently which will take care of our travel expenses. Another reason to thank everyone!
That makes the schedule look something like this:
Thursday, May 21: Fly from Richmond to Houston
Friday, May 22: Meet with MD Anderson Drs.
Saturday, May 23: Fly back to Richmond
Tuesday, May 26: Check into MCV
Wednesday, May 27: Surgery #3
We'll probably be in the the hospital at least a week post-op recovering. Time to stock up on Morphine, Tylenol, and Dora videos!
We're hoping to get various family members here to help with things starting the 27th (maybe the 26th) including Grandpa and Juanita, Aunt Phyllis, Granny (again but this time WITH Grumps...I mean Gramps!), Anyone else who wants to drop in.
The Staff at Romp n' Roll has been forwarned that they may be asked to do some extra stuff (as if they haven't been asked before!) I'm confident, we will be able to work something out.
Another note about our staff at RNR. Throughout this whole experience, they have been the best staff any business owners could possibly have any right to hope for. They've come in at odd times, covered myriad classes, volunteered hours of work over and over and kept the business going when we were balls of stressed out goo! They are more perfect examples of how we couldn't do it without our support network.
We apologize to our customers for the revolving instructors but at least the replacements seem to be doing a great job.
Other news: The Glen Allen Golf Fun-raiser has been tentatively moved to Wednesday, May 20th.
Big new Fun-raiser in the works! Dr. Anna Madland of Atlee Chiropractic and Bill Roberts at WHAN 1430am Radio and I did a little mind melding and hashed out a little more of the "Yoga-thon" idea. It will be 100 "yoga-ists" doing 100 minutes of yoga And we would like to try doing this during the Strawberry Faire in Ashland on Saturday, June 6th. People would sponsor yoga-ists for $1.00 per minute and if every person on a mat got every minute sponsored, that would make $10,000 raised! So that's our goal. "Can we build it? Yes we can!" (Who knew President Obama liked Bob The Builder?
We want to get it going relatively early in the morning to avoid the heat so it will probably start 8:30 or 9:00am. We need 10 instructors and 100 (or more!) people to do the yoga. I know with our network, Dr. Anna's, and the Greater Ashland listening and reading public, we should have next to no trouble getting it together.
After the event, stick around for one of the coolest days of the year.
As per usual, Jackie Plank is knee deep in this one as well. Contact her at jplank@oscient.com to sign up or to sponsor a minute. Day-of sponsorships welcome if there is space. So please spread the word!
Thanks,
Rog
Sunday, April 26, 2009
You're Awesome for Keeping Up with Us
Sunday morning and we're about to go over 76,000 hits. Don't you people have anything else to do? :-)
I KEED! I KEED! You're awesome for keeping up with us and we feel so supported even by just that number continuously rising.
The "Living With Cancer" Lisa Nichols Richardson Memorial Dinner went very well and at last count, we had a very rough total of over $1000 raised for Charlotte! Thanks so much to everyone involved especially Tina Adkins and Ann Mattio for asking us to be a part of it, constantly treating us as if we were doing THEM a favor. Rarely have I seen CJ overwhelmed by attention! :-)
A band called Fat Skippy played and they were pretty decent. Good party band if anyone is looking. Fatskippy.com (I think)
We had a very nice breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel and Charlotte, as usual, had people literally gawking at her cuteness in her "Bald Chicks Rule" t-shirt, Ariel skirt, and Tinkerbell hat. The real finisher, though, was her pair of sunglasses. She started pulling this diva attitude thing that would have been really annoying normally but had us all in stitches this morning. It was like she had no time to be bothered with answering questions with anything other than perfunctory grunts. The princess had become a rock star.
And darn if the only ones who could get her to acknowledge them were the cute college boys in the rocking chairs out front as we were leaving! I need to make a trip to Green Top soon (to get my shotgun!).
Mommy went a little nuts (in a good way, I'm sure Dear) and cleaned the downstairs in a whirlwind burst of energy. All except for CJ's living room domain that constantly remains in a state of destruction. We'll get there on that. Looks good.
I am working on RNR stuff and updating the website (as you can read). For those of you with Facebook, please go to one of our sites to see what other events are coming up. I'll get more stuff up tonight.
Obama's 100 days parallels CJ's experience so we'll be marking the occasion at the hospital with methotrexate, vincristin, zofran, and poup. (Not sure of the spelling of any of those.) 100 days of diagnosis...wild.
At the benefit dinner yesterday, I had a profound realization of CJ's physical limitations when a bunch of the remaining kids, including Charlotte, went to play on the playground. I saw children younger and smaller than CJ running around on the equipment and throwing themselves around like nobody's business while at the same time, Charlotte, who still had a tremendously good time, had to move more cautiously. The best example was the slide. The steps were great and designed in such a way to be very easily navigated by everyone but the slides themselves were a different story. They had a handle at the top so children could grab it, swing under, and drop down the slide really fast. I saw several kids do this including the very young ones I mentioned before. Then as Charlotte got up to the top, it was a challenge just to sit down and get her to push herself over the edge.
I had gotten so used to the way she is, and have been so impressed by/proud of how far she has come, that I lost sight of how far there is to go. What's funny (odd) is that it didn't make me sad or feel sorry for myself or anyone else. Just kind of blew my mind in the way realizing the surreal nature of our lives tends to do. It also made me re-determined (real word) to help her improve physically as much as I can. As I've said, she's come so far already, I can't imagine she can't come that far again.
That's my mushy diatribe for the day. Get away from the computer and go enjoy the sunshine!
Well here I am at Romp n' Roll....(get ready for some FUN???) [Yeah, that's a little in-joke for all you die-hards out there!]
It has been a very good weekend after a very stressful week. Saturday was just an amazing series of events and everything worked out well. Roger already filled you in on the major details. I am very appreciative to Anne Mattio, Tina Adkins, and everyone else who helped to put the fundraising dinner together as well as everyone that came out to support it (and us).
Now I'm working on "stuff" at Romp n' Roll and trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends before the week begins. I keep jumping all over the place but at least I'm slowly moving forward.
Here are some ways that you (Charlotte's greatest fans) can help this week:
o I am still looking for someone who would like to design a simple poster or display board that we could take to fundraisers and events centered around Charlotte. It doesn't have to be fancy but it would basically have a few pics of Charlotte (we can supply those), a summary of her story, diagnosis, and treatment path, and then a place to display a calendar or list of other upcoming events. I'm thinking maybe something covered in fabric (?) and then we can use velcro to tack stuff up and trade out info. I would also love to use the board to promote great organizations that have already helped us like ASK, Connor's Heroes, Care Connection, etc. Anyway, if you have skills in this area (craftiness, graphic design, etc.) let me know. I did have one person with graphic desing skills offer up her services if someone was willing to help her.
o Register your child for a summer of fun (or birthday party) at Romp n' Roll! Yes, summer registration week is upon us and Roger and I will be busier than usual. A lot of you who follow us on this board are regular customers and we appreciate everything you do for us! One of the best ways you can continue to support us is by supporting our business or spreading the word. (Shameless plug, I know.)
Some other "official" fundraisers coming up towards the end of the week:
5/3: Qdoba Burrito Eating Contest at Willow Lawn. Register to enter the contest OR come out and EAT that night. Funds raised go towards Charlotte's health care expenses.
5/3: Need a bathing suit? Everything But Water at Short Pump Town Center will be donating 10-15% of proceeds from sales from 4-7 PM towards Charlotte. Go buy your bathing suit and then come to Qdoba!!
5/6: Glen Allen Golf (on US1 between Ashland and VCC) will be hosting an evening for Charlotte from 7-10 PM. Batting cages, mini golf, driving range...all with a portion of sales going back to help Charlotte. I think there will also be a longest drive contest and a closest to the pin contest.
So that's enough for now. I've got to get back to work and then go home.Thanks to everyone for your continued support and driving energy. You are really helping Roger and I get through this (and Charlotte too!!).
We are almost to round 3 which means that we will hopefully be near the halfway point of this marathon.
Happy day!Rachel
I KEED! I KEED! You're awesome for keeping up with us and we feel so supported even by just that number continuously rising.
The "Living With Cancer" Lisa Nichols Richardson Memorial Dinner went very well and at last count, we had a very rough total of over $1000 raised for Charlotte! Thanks so much to everyone involved especially Tina Adkins and Ann Mattio for asking us to be a part of it, constantly treating us as if we were doing THEM a favor. Rarely have I seen CJ overwhelmed by attention! :-)
A band called Fat Skippy played and they were pretty decent. Good party band if anyone is looking. Fatskippy.com (I think)
We had a very nice breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel and Charlotte, as usual, had people literally gawking at her cuteness in her "Bald Chicks Rule" t-shirt, Ariel skirt, and Tinkerbell hat. The real finisher, though, was her pair of sunglasses. She started pulling this diva attitude thing that would have been really annoying normally but had us all in stitches this morning. It was like she had no time to be bothered with answering questions with anything other than perfunctory grunts. The princess had become a rock star.
And darn if the only ones who could get her to acknowledge them were the cute college boys in the rocking chairs out front as we were leaving! I need to make a trip to Green Top soon (to get my shotgun!).
Mommy went a little nuts (in a good way, I'm sure Dear) and cleaned the downstairs in a whirlwind burst of energy. All except for CJ's living room domain that constantly remains in a state of destruction. We'll get there on that. Looks good.
I am working on RNR stuff and updating the website (as you can read). For those of you with Facebook, please go to one of our sites to see what other events are coming up. I'll get more stuff up tonight.
Obama's 100 days parallels CJ's experience so we'll be marking the occasion at the hospital with methotrexate, vincristin, zofran, and poup. (Not sure of the spelling of any of those.) 100 days of diagnosis...wild.
At the benefit dinner yesterday, I had a profound realization of CJ's physical limitations when a bunch of the remaining kids, including Charlotte, went to play on the playground. I saw children younger and smaller than CJ running around on the equipment and throwing themselves around like nobody's business while at the same time, Charlotte, who still had a tremendously good time, had to move more cautiously. The best example was the slide. The steps were great and designed in such a way to be very easily navigated by everyone but the slides themselves were a different story. They had a handle at the top so children could grab it, swing under, and drop down the slide really fast. I saw several kids do this including the very young ones I mentioned before. Then as Charlotte got up to the top, it was a challenge just to sit down and get her to push herself over the edge.
I had gotten so used to the way she is, and have been so impressed by/proud of how far she has come, that I lost sight of how far there is to go. What's funny (odd) is that it didn't make me sad or feel sorry for myself or anyone else. Just kind of blew my mind in the way realizing the surreal nature of our lives tends to do. It also made me re-determined (real word) to help her improve physically as much as I can. As I've said, she's come so far already, I can't imagine she can't come that far again.
That's my mushy diatribe for the day. Get away from the computer and go enjoy the sunshine!
Well here I am at Romp n' Roll....(get ready for some FUN???) [Yeah, that's a little in-joke for all you die-hards out there!]
It has been a very good weekend after a very stressful week. Saturday was just an amazing series of events and everything worked out well. Roger already filled you in on the major details. I am very appreciative to Anne Mattio, Tina Adkins, and everyone else who helped to put the fundraising dinner together as well as everyone that came out to support it (and us).
Now I'm working on "stuff" at Romp n' Roll and trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends before the week begins. I keep jumping all over the place but at least I'm slowly moving forward.
Here are some ways that you (Charlotte's greatest fans) can help this week:
o I am still looking for someone who would like to design a simple poster or display board that we could take to fundraisers and events centered around Charlotte. It doesn't have to be fancy but it would basically have a few pics of Charlotte (we can supply those), a summary of her story, diagnosis, and treatment path, and then a place to display a calendar or list of other upcoming events. I'm thinking maybe something covered in fabric (?) and then we can use velcro to tack stuff up and trade out info. I would also love to use the board to promote great organizations that have already helped us like ASK, Connor's Heroes, Care Connection, etc. Anyway, if you have skills in this area (craftiness, graphic design, etc.) let me know. I did have one person with graphic desing skills offer up her services if someone was willing to help her.
o Register your child for a summer of fun (or birthday party) at Romp n' Roll! Yes, summer registration week is upon us and Roger and I will be busier than usual. A lot of you who follow us on this board are regular customers and we appreciate everything you do for us! One of the best ways you can continue to support us is by supporting our business or spreading the word. (Shameless plug, I know.)
Some other "official" fundraisers coming up towards the end of the week:
5/3: Qdoba Burrito Eating Contest at Willow Lawn. Register to enter the contest OR come out and EAT that night. Funds raised go towards Charlotte's health care expenses.
5/3: Need a bathing suit? Everything But Water at Short Pump Town Center will be donating 10-15% of proceeds from sales from 4-7 PM towards Charlotte. Go buy your bathing suit and then come to Qdoba!!
5/6: Glen Allen Golf (on US1 between Ashland and VCC) will be hosting an evening for Charlotte from 7-10 PM. Batting cages, mini golf, driving range...all with a portion of sales going back to help Charlotte. I think there will also be a longest drive contest and a closest to the pin contest.
So that's enough for now. I've got to get back to work and then go home.Thanks to everyone for your continued support and driving energy. You are really helping Roger and I get through this (and Charlotte too!!).
We are almost to round 3 which means that we will hopefully be near the halfway point of this marathon.
Happy day!Rachel
Friday, April 10, 2009
Last Night's Head Shaving Party was Amazing!
I forgot to send out probably the biggest (most?) kudos to Granny, the original Brazen Hussy (ask us), for standing her ground and being CJ's biggest advocate when we couldn't be there. It doens't take Fellini to figure out where Rachel and Charlotte get their maddeningly lovable firey streaks.
Speaking of her, the word from the hospital this morning is that she woke up happy. I actually got to talk to her on the phone for a bit. I asked her if she wanted me to shave off my goatee and she said no, 'I like your goateer on your face." So on it stays. I didn't shave the jowels this morning because I thought everything would be coming off. Sorry if I'm a bit scruffy this morning.
The interview on WHAN 1430am went very well and Bob got a $100 donation out of it. Good thing he rolled out of bed! :-) Thanks to Bill and Skip for being so willing to have us in the studio multiple times.
Spoke to Scott at Glen Allen Golf this morning confirming the prizes for today and revisited having the Spirit Night on Wednesday, May 6 from 7-10pm. Should be fun and my idea for the longest-drive and closest-to-the-hole contests is to sell golf balls used specifically for the contests via the government stimulus method. That is $1 per ball or $5 for three.
Hey Devon, hope you got SOME sleep last night.
Gotta go get Open Gym going. (Man! Annette does a lot in the mornings! :-)
An Update:
Here I am sitting at a very quiet Romp n' Roll. Open Gym is over, birthday party won't start till 3. I'm catching up on paperwork and listening to the Dixie Chicks' Lullaby. If you've never heard it, it's a must listen...calming to anyone...
And I'm probably about the happiest I have been in weeks. Last night's Head Shaving Party was an amazing event. Let's just put aside for the moment that we raised somewhere around $5K (!!!!!) for Charlotte's ever-growing medical expenses. There was fun, fellowship, head shaving and painting by some very brave and enthusiastic volunteers, great food, and the best part about it was that I did hardly anything to make this happen. There are so many people to thank but let me start here:
o To Jackie Plank for getting the initial ball rolling
o To Bob Flangan for grabbing the baton and sprinting to the finish
o To Amanda at Great Clips for coming by on her lunch break and shaving heads
o To my fabulous employees for coming out, showing support, cleaning up, signing in guests, bringing food, etc.
o To Chick-Fil-A at Virginia Center and Cicis Pizza for providing food and a visit from "The Cow"
o To the folks at Glen Allen Golf for providing a great prize for our head shavees
o To Margie (our resident Avon rep) for another prize
o To Annette's dad for yet another prize
o To my Aunt Phyillis for the Bose Wave Radio & CD player
o To the now bald heads in the HOUSE:
Mitch Hayes, Bob Flanagan, Jeff Reynolds, Mark Bishop, Wyn Price, Kolbey Hogeboom, Bruce King, Chris Murphy, Daniel Edwards, Xavier Madrigal, Aiden Feria....AWESOME!
We did have plenty of fine folks taking pictures. Please send them our way and we are happy to post on Caring Bridge and/or Facebook. If you are on the Get Well Charlotte Reynolds site on Facebook, feel free to post pics there as well.
Thanks to everyone for showing up. We had such a great crowd and it was so good to see so many kids playing...including the guest of honor, Miss Charlotte herself. She held up really well and we were very happy that she stuck it out as long as she did.
I snuck off midway through the event for some "girl time" with one of my best friends from college (Kelly) in town on Spring Break. We treated ourselves to pedicures and a Girl's Night dinner where we got to catch up and talk about LIFE...
Then her husband Nate, who is quite the chef, treated us all to breakfast this morning: French toast, homemade blackberry syrup, fresh whipped cream, and BACON for the whole family. Charlotte's favorite part? She dipped the bacon in the whipped cream!! That's my girl!
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: Charlotte pooped last night! Hooray! Hopefully we can keep everything going.
It was so great to feel the positive energy blowing in our direction last night. That's the kind of stuff that energizes me and keeps me going. Thanks again.
As mentioned in a previous post, bracelets are in at Romp n' Roll and some of you who paid earlier may stop by any time we are open to pick them up.
There is another fundraising dinner coming soon (April 25th) in Charlotte's honor out in Sandston and I will post the details on that soon. It is a $10 a plate all-you-can-eat feast. We will probably be selling tickets for that at Romp n' Roll as well.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy EAster. More posts later...Gotta go get ready for a Super Birthday Bash!
Speaking of her, the word from the hospital this morning is that she woke up happy. I actually got to talk to her on the phone for a bit. I asked her if she wanted me to shave off my goatee and she said no, 'I like your goateer on your face." So on it stays. I didn't shave the jowels this morning because I thought everything would be coming off. Sorry if I'm a bit scruffy this morning.
The interview on WHAN 1430am went very well and Bob got a $100 donation out of it. Good thing he rolled out of bed! :-) Thanks to Bill and Skip for being so willing to have us in the studio multiple times.
Spoke to Scott at Glen Allen Golf this morning confirming the prizes for today and revisited having the Spirit Night on Wednesday, May 6 from 7-10pm. Should be fun and my idea for the longest-drive and closest-to-the-hole contests is to sell golf balls used specifically for the contests via the government stimulus method. That is $1 per ball or $5 for three.
Hey Devon, hope you got SOME sleep last night.
Gotta go get Open Gym going. (Man! Annette does a lot in the mornings! :-)
An Update:
Here I am sitting at a very quiet Romp n' Roll. Open Gym is over, birthday party won't start till 3. I'm catching up on paperwork and listening to the Dixie Chicks' Lullaby. If you've never heard it, it's a must listen...calming to anyone...
And I'm probably about the happiest I have been in weeks. Last night's Head Shaving Party was an amazing event. Let's just put aside for the moment that we raised somewhere around $5K (!!!!!) for Charlotte's ever-growing medical expenses. There was fun, fellowship, head shaving and painting by some very brave and enthusiastic volunteers, great food, and the best part about it was that I did hardly anything to make this happen. There are so many people to thank but let me start here:
o To Jackie Plank for getting the initial ball rolling
o To Bob Flangan for grabbing the baton and sprinting to the finish
o To Amanda at Great Clips for coming by on her lunch break and shaving heads
o To my fabulous employees for coming out, showing support, cleaning up, signing in guests, bringing food, etc.
o To Chick-Fil-A at Virginia Center and Cicis Pizza for providing food and a visit from "The Cow"
o To the folks at Glen Allen Golf for providing a great prize for our head shavees
o To Margie (our resident Avon rep) for another prize
o To Annette's dad for yet another prize
o To my Aunt Phyillis for the Bose Wave Radio & CD player
o To the now bald heads in the HOUSE:
Mitch Hayes, Bob Flanagan, Jeff Reynolds, Mark Bishop, Wyn Price, Kolbey Hogeboom, Bruce King, Chris Murphy, Daniel Edwards, Xavier Madrigal, Aiden Feria....AWESOME!
We did have plenty of fine folks taking pictures. Please send them our way and we are happy to post on Caring Bridge and/or Facebook. If you are on the Get Well Charlotte Reynolds site on Facebook, feel free to post pics there as well.
Thanks to everyone for showing up. We had such a great crowd and it was so good to see so many kids playing...including the guest of honor, Miss Charlotte herself. She held up really well and we were very happy that she stuck it out as long as she did.
I snuck off midway through the event for some "girl time" with one of my best friends from college (Kelly) in town on Spring Break. We treated ourselves to pedicures and a Girl's Night dinner where we got to catch up and talk about LIFE...
Then her husband Nate, who is quite the chef, treated us all to breakfast this morning: French toast, homemade blackberry syrup, fresh whipped cream, and BACON for the whole family. Charlotte's favorite part? She dipped the bacon in the whipped cream!! That's my girl!
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: Charlotte pooped last night! Hooray! Hopefully we can keep everything going.
It was so great to feel the positive energy blowing in our direction last night. That's the kind of stuff that energizes me and keeps me going. Thanks again.
As mentioned in a previous post, bracelets are in at Romp n' Roll and some of you who paid earlier may stop by any time we are open to pick them up.
There is another fundraising dinner coming soon (April 25th) in Charlotte's honor out in Sandston and I will post the details on that soon. It is a $10 a plate all-you-can-eat feast. We will probably be selling tickets for that at Romp n' Roll as well.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy EAster. More posts later...Gotta go get ready for a Super Birthday Bash!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Another Good Day Overall
Hi everyone,
Another good day overall. Charlotte has been having some very good days lately and we've been enjoying them profusely. Rachel got her hair chopped big time! Looks good. I'll let her fill in any details from today but the big thing is that the 'rents are here. Granny and Gramps arrived safely at around 2:00pm. I heard CJ shared waffles and other food items with Gramps. That's their thing.
Got some dates for you all.
March 27th-Grandpa's B-day!
March 28th-Uncle Tommy's B-day and the Community Appreciation Day up at Miss Alyson's Countryside Childcare up in Ladysmith. Romp n' Roll donated something to the silent auction. If you're up that way, stop in and say hello.
April 4th-Primrose School in Atlee Commons Spring Fling 10am-1pm. They're raising money for A.S.K. in Charlotte's name. We (Romp n' Roll/Virginia Canter) are supposed to provide a play area inside the school but I can't be there the whole time so I need someone there to referee kids, hand out literature, and be an overall Romp n' Roll cheerleader. I can set it up and then come back afterwards to tear it all down and Rachel can be there around 11:30.
As usual, any help is appreciated.
As far as fun-raisers go, hold Wednesday, May 6. Glen Allen Golf (about a mile or so north of us on US- 1) just agreed to have a "spirit night" for Charlotte from 7-10pm. There will be many ways to participate. A portion of sales for the night will be donated to the cause. Here are some of the costs/donation amounts:
Adult Mini Golf $7/$2 donation.
Child Mini Golf $5.50/$1 donation.
Large Bucket of Range Balls $11/$3 donation.
Batting Cage 6 tokens $8/$2 donation.
There will be a longest drive contest and "closest-to-the-pin" contest
Dean from Glen Allen Golf is also donating some very nice things as door prizes for the head shaving party on April 10th so make sure you go in and thank him. Don't necessarily grovel at his feet like I did but make sure he knows you're grateful.
May 9 is the Chick-fil-a Cow Drop at the Hanover Airpark. We'll have a booth but as is becoming more and more the case, I have a gig that day way out of town (at the Mainstay Theater in Rock Hall, Maryland) so I won't be able to stay for long. That was a very fun day last year.
OK, I think I have most everything here. One never knows and maybe Rachel will insert anything I've missed.
Time for bed.
Another good day overall. Charlotte has been having some very good days lately and we've been enjoying them profusely. Rachel got her hair chopped big time! Looks good. I'll let her fill in any details from today but the big thing is that the 'rents are here. Granny and Gramps arrived safely at around 2:00pm. I heard CJ shared waffles and other food items with Gramps. That's their thing.
Got some dates for you all.
March 27th-Grandpa's B-day!
March 28th-Uncle Tommy's B-day and the Community Appreciation Day up at Miss Alyson's Countryside Childcare up in Ladysmith. Romp n' Roll donated something to the silent auction. If you're up that way, stop in and say hello.
April 4th-Primrose School in Atlee Commons Spring Fling 10am-1pm. They're raising money for A.S.K. in Charlotte's name. We (Romp n' Roll/Virginia Canter) are supposed to provide a play area inside the school but I can't be there the whole time so I need someone there to referee kids, hand out literature, and be an overall Romp n' Roll cheerleader. I can set it up and then come back afterwards to tear it all down and Rachel can be there around 11:30.
As usual, any help is appreciated.
As far as fun-raisers go, hold Wednesday, May 6. Glen Allen Golf (about a mile or so north of us on US- 1) just agreed to have a "spirit night" for Charlotte from 7-10pm. There will be many ways to participate. A portion of sales for the night will be donated to the cause. Here are some of the costs/donation amounts:
Adult Mini Golf $7/$2 donation.
Child Mini Golf $5.50/$1 donation.
Large Bucket of Range Balls $11/$3 donation.
Batting Cage 6 tokens $8/$2 donation.
There will be a longest drive contest and "closest-to-the-pin" contest
Dean from Glen Allen Golf is also donating some very nice things as door prizes for the head shaving party on April 10th so make sure you go in and thank him. Don't necessarily grovel at his feet like I did but make sure he knows you're grateful.
May 9 is the Chick-fil-a Cow Drop at the Hanover Airpark. We'll have a booth but as is becoming more and more the case, I have a gig that day way out of town (at the Mainstay Theater in Rock Hall, Maryland) so I won't be able to stay for long. That was a very fun day last year.
OK, I think I have most everything here. One never knows and maybe Rachel will insert anything I've missed.
Time for bed.
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