Magic of Magic Kingdom!

So to start where Roger pretty much left off, Charlotte did, indeed, wake up at about 2 AM. Rather, she was awake when I went in to check on her. We read some books and I struggled to keep my eyes open but about 3:30/4 AM she was asking for chocolate milk and wouldn't you know we hadn't stocked up before our evening ended. Roger was a saint for going out to Wally-World (that gift card we just got sure came in handy) and getting needed supplies.

I went back to sleep for a bit but we were rarin' to go by about 8:30. I just hoped that she wouldn't melt down before lunch. We picked up Beth, our paparazzi for the day, and navigated our way to the Magic Kingdom.

Once we got there, we immediately got on the train and journeyed over to Mickey's Toon Town Fair. This was where we got to meet Mickey and Minnie and see their houses. After looking through their houses (a self-guided tour), we got to the the line for "THE MICE" and immediately our super-duper-ooper-schmooper GKTW access passes kicked into action. The Disney employee ushered us into the secret passageway and we had a much shorter wait. When we went in to see Mickey and Minnie, they were so sweet and spent so much time with us and Charlotte. Roger and I both got very heartfelt hugs from Mickey. You could tell that even though he doesn't "talk", he was empathizing with us and sending his good wishes. So sweet! After many pictures and the signing of autographs, we made our way to the next area of characters. We had the choice of seeing the princesses or the fairies. Since we knew we would be lunching with the princesses, we selected the fairies. Again, access is a good thing. There was over an HOUR wait to see the fairies but we got in after about a 15 minute wait. We took Charlotte out of her stroller as we made our way into "Pixie Hollow" and as soon as she saw the fairies, she let go of Roger's hand and went straight to SilverMist. The three fairies there today were SilverMist, Rosetta, and (of course) Tinkerbell. If you don't know these characters, you better brush up on your Tinkerbell movies! Charlotte talked to all of them and she was immediately a little chatterbox. Roger and I were just kind of left in the background to watch. I, personally, saw how happy she was and just started crying. I couldn't help it. The tears were just flowing. I'm not sure how long we got to visit with the fairies but it seemed like forever. They really took their time with her and made every effort to make her feel special. It was so great!

After that, I almost felt like I could leave and be happy. It was that good!

Then it was off to Fantasyland where we rode many rides, got to meet Ariel in her grotto (again, a fabulous meet and greet) and see a smokin' brass and drum marching ensemble play Disney favorites. Those Disney musicians are the best! We pretty much saw all of Fantasyland before it was time for lunch at Cinderella's castle. We had a brief meeting with Ashley, the mom who arranged our Princess lunch. It was nice to meet her in person and be able to thank her. Their family is vacationing at Disney this week as well and gave us their reservations to Cinderella's table. We feel so blessed!

We went through to another meet-and-greet with Cinderella and then up to our lunch. The meal was true fantastic Disney cuisine: I had a mixed green salad with pan-seared salmon, craisins, and blue cheese. Roger had the same salmon but with jasmine rice, and Beth had the pork tenderloin. (Charlotte had a hot dog: fine cuisine, indeed!) Dessert was a cream cheese-chocolate torte that was DIVINE. During the lunch, all of the other princesses (Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Belle) came around to each table and talked, took pictures, and signed autographs, We also had a fabulous view of Fantasyland from our table. All of the princesses gave Charlotte smooches, leaving their lipstick imprints on her cheeks. By the end of lunch, she was covered in kisses!

After lunch, we made it downstairs but Charlotte was asleep after less than 20 minutes in the stroller. We decided to walk a little bit (if for no other reason than to burn off some calories). Roger and I took the opportunity to ride Thunder Mountain and then we headed back to the entrance. We did get to see a little bit of the parade. We headed back to GKTW and Charlotte just woke up about 7 PM.

I can't even begin to express what a great day this has been. It's so nice to be able to enjoy the park with Charlotte and see the joy on her face when she meets the characters. Another nice thing is that since Roger and I have "done Disney" many times before, neither one of us feels the need to see every aspect of every park. We're just kind of taking it at HER pace. Tomorrow will be another day at the Magic Kingdom and my cousin Sarah and her husband and daughter plan to join us.

I apologize that there are no pictures to post (yet) but I promise that there will be some coming. Beth took over 300 (!!) pics of us today and I've already seen a few that are great. We will be posting pics and video soon although much of it I'm sure will not get downloaded until the end of our trip.

Thanks to everyone continuing to keep up with our story. We promise to post when we can but if we don't, it's just cause we're having too much fun!

Rachel

We're in Houston!

Well, the flights were good, the weather is hot and humid, and the family putting us up for the time being is amazing. Thanks Meredith for this connection.

Charlotte was a dream and we couldn't have asked for a more well behaved girl.

We're currently staying in an area northwest of Houston called Jersey Village. Nice little neighbourhood, but oh, is Texas flat!

After we dropped off our bags at the house, we went to get some Italian food nearby. Then back to the house and some crashing.

I hate to admit it but I'm feeling a scratchyness in my throat that usually means a cold coming on. Great. There's also a gauntlet of pioson ivy just outside. Why are some of the coolest plants so dangerous?

As I said, our hosts have been wonderful, not letting us pay for any food or the Italian lunch. They also informed us that an "anonymous donor" heard our story and arranged a $1000 donation to the cause. WOW!

We had a great dinner of rotisserie (sp?) chicken (YUM!), fruit, and angelfood cake. Charlotte finally got to see the Tinkerbell Movie. Twice. It's actually moderately funny in places with some adult humor and good "bad" puns. CJ was glued to the TV for both viewings. Then she came into the bedroom, read several books we brought along and then zonked for the night.

Tomorrow looks like a Houston Astros-Washington Nationals game is in the works for us. Whether or not I cover it officially, we'll be there.

Thanks for everyone who came to the party last night. "Successful" is an understatement.

More positive vibes and supportive energy need to go out to another of the families I follow on CB. Zac Talley passed this week. Those DIPG tumors are wreaking havoc among the CB community. His site is www.caringbridge.org/visit/zactalley
Time for bed for me. Need my strength.

Rog

A Big Day

Big day followed by big day.

Charlotte did very well yesterday considering her anti-social tendencies these days. The football player visit at the clinic ended up being very cool and video of the crew singing "Frosty" was on CBS 6 yesterday. She was singing right along.

Then we headed back to RNR to get things set up for the concert. We cut things a bit close but it all worked out. Even the weather cooperated!

When I couldn't be at the concert last night, CJ hung out with Uncle Kolbey or Mommy. She was very excited to see "Mr. John" John Robison who heads up Southern Horizon (my Civil War era band). When Rompy showed up, Rachel had to tell her it was Daddy before she would come close.

Rachel already gave you the numbers but it doesn't really tell the story of how cool the vibe was last night. Everyone was having a good time and I think we surprised the Chick-fil-a folks with how successful the evening turned out.

Thanks to everyone involved. Definitely a group effort. And today will be just as nuts!

Now for get well wishes to someone else: our wonderful utility infielder and ebullient front desk staffer, Margie Madrigal has been quite under the weather and is recovering at Henrico Doctor's Hospital. Please put her on the lists.

I'm including a photo of the 501st Legion of Vader's Fist, Rompy, Mommy, and the princess in front of the VA Blood Services bus. The storm troopers kept aiming their weapons at Rompy for some reason and Obi Wan tried to "fix" Rompy with his light saber!

A very good time and more will be had tonight. Hope to see you all there.

Update:

What a great party! I don't think Charlotte's birthday party could have been much better. Thanks to everyone who was able to come out and give the princess her send-off to TX. We had a GREAT crowd and I think even Charlotte had fun for a bit. She certainly ate a lot of cake!

There are many people to thank. First, thanks to Jeni for making the beautiful (and yummy!) Tinkerbell cake and to our NM/CO family for ordering the yummy DQ ice cream cakes. There is some (but not a lot) left over. That goes to show you what a crowd we had!

Next, a HUGE thank you to our staff, many of whom were there tonight and worked hard to make this party a success while being "off the clock". Roger and I appreciate the time and effort you all put into your work and especially the time you put in "unpaid" on Charlotte's behalf. The party would not have been quite the success it was without you. BIG thanks to Annette for guarding the desk, Anna and Lindsey for guarding the moonbounce, Anthony for doing a lot of cleanup and blowing up balloons, Kolbey and Annette (and Michael and Babz too!!!) for assisting big-time with cleanup, and I'm probably forgetting specific things but THANK YOU to all the Romp n' Roll VCM staff who were able to be there tonight. This warrants a further shout-out to Margie who is still very under-the-weather. We missed you this week and wish you a speedy recovery!!

Another big thank you to the family and friends who just helped with every little thing tonight (putting out napkins, blowing up balloons, taking out the trash...you name it!). Many of you have future careers leading romp n' roll parties...

Thanks for the cards and (yes there were a few) gifts. Some of you even got sneaky and brought presents "for Roger and Rachel because you only said no presents for Charlotte." Nice. Some of the cards that were handmade by the kids are really great! I got an extra SPECIAL present this evening. A bunch of you (and you know who you are) all chipped in and got me a FULL SPA DAY at Divas which I plan to use sometime after I come back from these first few days in Texas. What a very special and much needed gift. You bet I will use it!!! I understand Meredith was the Queen Bee organizing this effort but thanks to all who contributed as well.

So we are home. Charlotte is asleep. We are (mostly) packed. Just down to the final few items and then it's time to get a few hours' sleep before a big trip to the airport EARLY in the AM.

Our next post should be from TX.

Rachel

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