The most stress-full-est week ever

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since our last blog post. At the same time, we've been a little busy. I will try to update everyone.

First of all, a big thanks to the Mechanicsville Moms for the Used Book Sale last week. We raised almost $300 for CJSTUF which is not bad for a bunch of books priced at $.50 and $1 apiece. The remaining books were donated to the Ashland Library for their annual book sale at the Hanover Arts and Activities Center (July 4th....mark your calendars!).

Secondly, the Cow Drop raised a little over $1000 for CJSTUF. That will help two families! How great! I didn't win the Disney vacation or the Romp n' Roll birthday party (oh, wait...) but Roger had a great time at the event. Huge kudos to Pam and Sharon, the Virginia Center Chick-Fil-A marketing gurus who help to make this event a success year after year. Much thanks to them for including CJSTUF in their in-store sales.

In the middle of all these foundation events, we have been armpit deep in moving the business. Anyone who has ever built a house knows the stress that comes with construction. Take that and magnify it a few 1000 times when you move a business. Not only are you trying to get everything up and running in a timely manner, but you still have a business to run, vendors to pay, and a staff to manage. We're getting there but this is not my favorite thing in the world. I have HUGE thanks to offer to:

My parents: Not only did they help with painting and moving but they always had dinner (or lunch) ready for me and for Roger when we came home each night. Plus they're always good for a laugh or two!

Our Romp n' Roll staff: They roll with the punches and have displayed their many talents in this process including painting, shop-vacing, and packing.

Our many helpers and volunteers: Along with our paid staff, we have recruited a few volunteers to help with loaning us LARGE vehicles and painting and hauling and unbolting shelves and hanging bulletin boards and....

My husband: Roger is a pretty handy guy and he is doing a lot of the "grunt work" these days. I, in fact, have felt pretty useless lately and he is just a bundle of positive energy. I really appreciate all his hard work.

So, yes, this past weekend was Mother's Day. I pretty much tried to ignore it. At the same time, I felt extremely loved and supported by many friends and family. I think between keeping myself busy and the many positive notes, small gifts, and other gestures of kindness that were nudged my way, I made it through. The extra stress in my life certainly doesn't seem to help with my wanting to cry (or scream) at the drop of a hat. Today we had to take the cat to the vet (more on that in a moment) and as I was waiting to pick up Mr. Tigger, this other woman comes out to the lobby to pay her bill and makes an off-hand comment about "having to sacrifice her first born child" to pay the vet bills. I almost let loose with a snarky comment like, "You think vet bills are bad...try REALLY sacrificing your first born child to brain cancer." but I held my tongue. I know the woman meant nothing by the comment. In another age, I probably have made comments in the same vein and never thought about the actual words.

So why, you might ask, did I have to get Tigger from the vet? Well, Roger came home earlier today to get a needed tool and grab some lunch and found Tigger very injured. Apparently, he had tried to climb a fence (or something like that) and seriously hurt his foot. The tendon was actually exposed! Roger dropped everything and rushed him over to the vet (did I mention how wonderful he is?) and they took him in for surgery. Now he's wearing a funny cat collar and has to stay isolated in a room for 10-14 days. Oh, and we get to give him kitty meds. Goodie. The ladies at the vet's office said he was a really good boy and when I picked him up, he was meowing at about 100 decibels. He's resting in the spare bedroom right now, looking awfully pitiful.

In Foundation news, we have received our applications for Financial Assistance Grants. We do have at least 10. We will review them at the board meeting next week and we will be very excited to award the $500 grants to our recipients in early June. More on that to come. Roger is talking with a local business and we may have some great PR events lined up soon.

Also, we are slightly further along in the process of getting our nonprofit status. Still nothing official but we're one step closer. AND I think that within the next month (or two) we should have some SWEET CJSTUF t-shirts and other merchandise available for purchase. Stay tuned.

So, in closing, please keep the positive vibes flowing for our move. We are aiming to be open by Monday with a ribbon cutting at NOON on 5/17. Come on out if you're around. You can always become a fan of our new location on Facebook for the latest updates and moving pics. If you haven't heard, we are dedicating our moving week (this week) to ReeseStrong. 10% of any birthday bookings or summer class/camp bookings through Saturday will go back to this Mechanicsville based organization that is very dear to our hearts. SOOOO...if you live in Mechanicsville or know anyone that does, check out our Romp n' Roll website and call us to register today (shameless plug, I know, but it's for a good cause!).

A busy week & a beautiful picture.

There are two big events of note this week so I wanted to pass along a few reminders:

1. The Used Book Sale hosted by Mechanicsville Moms is TOMORROW (Thursday, 5/6) from 3 PM-7 PM at the Romp n' Roll at Virginia Center. There will be used books for all ages AND baked goods. Come on out during one of the LAST Open Gym sessions at the Virginia Center location to get some great books.
   
   
2. The Chick-Fil-A Cow Drop is Saturday, May 8th from 11 AM-3 PM. Roger will be there with a romp n' roll obstacle course. You can buy $10 tickets at the Virginia Center Chick-Fil-A until Friday May 7th. $6 from every ticket benefits CJSTUF! You do NOT have to be present the day of the cow drop to win any of the fabulous prizes....but if you are able to be there it's always a fun event with kid's activities, family entertainment, chick-fil-a FOOD, and more!

Other than that, there is not much to report. Romp n' Roll's move to Mechanicsville is coming along. It's very stressful right now for all of us but it will all be over in a few weeks. I am grateful to my family and others who have been helping with painting. We also have our great employees and some other volunteers who are donating vehicles and/or their able bodies to help with the move. There is a lot to get done before May 16th but I think we will get there.

Emotionally, I've been a wreck this week. I don't think I've felt this bad since January. Everything just kind of slammed me in the face and between the stress of the move and other issues, missing Charlotte has just been an added stressor that's made me "on edge". I apologize to anyone who I might have snapped at or been less than courteous to this week. I am grateful for the many friends and family (and most especially my husband) who have been leaving lovely notes, special gifts (often anonymously) and just giving me extra encouragement this week.

To close, I will leave you with my new favorite picture of our girl. I just finished uploading a bunch of pics to Costco so I could actually get prints made. Going through the photos of our trip to Florida, etc. and this one is certainly one of the best, in my opinion. I nabbed this one during our Penguin Encounter at Sea World. Those eyes just speak volumes....

Reading and Writing

I returned from my retreat with a draft of the memoir...and the beginnings of a cold. I'm fighting the cold with zinc, vitamin c, and chicken soup. I don't have time to get sick.

So, yes. Many of you have commented for months that we should turn this story into a book. Thanks to our endless blog postings and some other things that I had already begun to write during the last half of 2009, I worked further over the weekend and emerged with a 37,000 word (or so) manuscript.

The draft of the book is kind of crazy. I actually have it printed. With a cover and binding. (Thanks Office Max). I keep telling myself, "It's just a draft." It needs editing and it may even need some more content. I have a few people, most assuredly members of Garrison Keillor's Professional Organization of English Majors, [You public radio nerds know what I'm talking about] who have already volunteered to take a glance at it and offer suggestions.

I'm also not-so-actively searching for a literary agent. I know that's the next logical step but I don't want to rush things. Like I don't have enough on my plate?

It was very nice to get away for a few days. I was by myself and literally in a cabin in the woods. Of course, it still had all the comforts of home (electricity, running water, WiFi) but I wasn't pulled every other minute to something in the house or to the phone.

In between typing I took breaks reading some literature that has crossed my path in the last few months. One book is called A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss by Gary Sittser. Great book. The chapters are very short and it's a pretty quick read but the content is powerful. His life had been touched by some pretty significant tragedy and through his grief and healing, he found some very powerful insights about what it means to deal with it from day to day. I could relate to his prose.

The other book is A Broken Heart Still Beats: When Your Child Dies. It contains short stories and excerpts from larger works by both famous people (Paul Newman, Mark Twain) as well as lesser known authors regarding their experiences dealing with their child's death. I haven't read much of the book yet BUT I was thrilled and surprised to see that one of the endorsing quotes on the first page was by Ashland's own Phyllis Theroux. Small world.

Reading and re-reading the manuscript brought back so many memories. I was very glad that we had taken the time to record so much in our blog posts. The bulk of my writing this weekend revolved around those final two months that we had with Charlotte so a lot of emotions came flooding back as I wrote.

In order for me to get away, Roger worked his tail off. We had a very busy weekend at Romp n' Roll with classes, a Kids Night Out, and a full slate of birthday parties so he is very tired. I'm grateful to him for all of his hard work.

Speaking of Romp n' Roll, for those of you who haven't heard the news, we are officially moving the Virginia Center location to Mechanicsville.





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Our lease at Virginia Center is up at the end of May and we needed to find a location with more affordable rent. The long term goal had also always been to distinguish ourselves geographically from the other two locations so that our "territory" had better definition. While some of this has been in the works on our end for a little while, it's brand new information to many of our customers and fans and the reactions have certainly been mixed. I certainly hate that we will lose some of our regular customers because of the move. We expected this would happen. At the same time, I am touched by the level at which some of our customers have been upset by this situation. I suppose that if we were just any old kid's place, our relocation would be a small blip on our customer's personal radar. The fact that people can get so out of sorts by the news tells me that we have a somewhat loyal following. That I like.

The next two months will be BUSY. We have already begun meetings with the architect and contractor. The space is built but the interior must be completed so that it looks like a real
Romp n' Roll so that will take some kind-of major construction. Fortunately, it looks like we can take many of the current elements of the store (our front desk, barn doors, etc.) with us so that should help with some of the expense. Be on the alert for a moving party! We will accept any willing hands (or trucks) when the time comes. I pay willing workers in pizza and beer.

So I think that will get you caught up for the weekend. Spring is definitely in the air. I walked around in short sleeves today! It was fabulous. Interestingly, at my retreat, there was STILL snow on the ground. Be gone Ol' Man Winter!