One Patriotic Boy

Tonight, in the tub, after Emma had already gotten out, Drew recited the Pledge Of Allegiance by heart.
Earlier today, when I picked Drew and Emma up from Mrs. Tonia's house, Drew met me at the door telling me he wanted to say "the Pledge." So I said, "OK." I looked at Mrs. Tonia like "OOOOKAAAYY" and she gave me a knowing look. Then Drew began. As you can hear for yourself, it's the cutest thing ever! I was so proud I welled up and probably made a babbling fool of myself. But I couldn't help it. See for yourself. What mother wouldn't be beaming with pride?

The Little T-Shirt That Could

"Fight Like a Tiger"

Everything big starts with a little idea that someone thinks up. I am so glad my sister, Karen, thought this one up!
Well, she just thought about the "Fight like a girl" t-shirts and thought, "why not Fight like a Tiger"? We both are proud graduates of LSU... Tigers through and through.
She got together with her friend, Kim and Kim's husband, who have a t-shirt printing business, Creative Impressions, and they began printing the idea last weekend. And voila!!! Instant success. These shirts have already raised well over $2,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!! And that's just in one week.
The shirts, although you can't tell it, really represent my mother. Mom's initials, MJ for Mary Jane, is hidden in the tiger striping of the ribbon. If you tilt you head to the left just a bit you can see it on the bottom left side of the ribbon. And there is the tiniest "MJ" just under the burnt orange ribbon (Leukemia's ribbon color).
We can't help but think about how emotional it will be to see the first stranger wearing these t-shirts. They are such a personal part of our family now, and we will be sharing that raw emotion with the general public. It's beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve... you all will be wearing our hearts on your sleeves.

Karen, my sister, the brains and persistence behind all of this.

Emma's Gettin' Friendly

Yesterday, when I went to pick the kids up from Mrs. Tonia's, Emma gave me a great surprise. Amber came in to pick up Zander and Emma looked straight at her, smiled, and then waved! I was so surprised because I had not seen her wave before. She just stuck that perfectly delicate little hand out and opened and closed it, opened closed it. It wasn't just any flailing wave, it was the most prissy little thing you've ever seen. We laughed so hard.
Then I pointed her in Mrs. Tonia's direction and she waved to her. She LOVED all of the attention that she was getting for her waving so she just kept on. Then, Mr. Nick came home and I thought I'd try it out on him to see if it was just a "girl thing." I pointed her in his direction and he started waving at her. And again, she stuck that sweet little pink hand out and waved and giggled. It was so sweet. She's going to be quite the girl.

I Love Dada

Today as I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I heard Emma say "I love Dada." I had her with me in the kitchen and she started babbling away and I was talking back to her.
It went something like this:
"daddada," and I would say, "no, really? Tell me more." Well she loves it when we chat like this, so she talks back to me, "dadaddaaa," and then she says, "IIIIII looooove dada." Or so it sounded to me. So I repeat it and she repeats me. I tried to keep repeating and getting her to repeat it so that I could grab the camera and get it on film. This was the best I could do. It was pretty good, but not quite what I heard the first time.

Calvin the Philosopher

Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change,
but pretty soon...everything's different.
--Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes

We scrounge our change, we find a $5 bill or maybe even a 20. You donate to the cause to find a cure, but your left thinking, "that's not very much," or "what could that possibly do?"

One day, the doctors and scientists will find a cure and everything will be different. What didn't seem like enough from us, will accumulate into everything to the patient that walks out of the doctor's office after being told that she has cancer.  And instead of feeling like she has just been handed her death sentence, she will feel like she is just experiencing an unfortunate inconvenience.
 Children will be amazed when they hear their parents talk about how cancer was the cause of death of so many of their friends. They will think that we lived in "the dark ages" and won't be able to imagine how horrible it must have been to die from such a common and curable disease.
We can no longer hope for cancer to just simply go away. We can no longer try to avoid it. It is here. All we can do is find a cure. A cure.  Not just a treatment.  Not just a chance to "buy a little time."  A true cure.

Every little bit counts and it all funnels in together to make a very large sum that will make an even larger difference.

It's The Circle of Life!!!!

Ok... maybe he's not quite ready to draw animations for Disney's The Lion King, but Drew's been working on drawing circles.  He is so funny about holding his pencil correctly.

Not too shabby for a 2 year old little boy.  I did not expect him to be able to focus on this.  

I thought it was so interesting watching him draw his circles on his little magnet doodle toy, that I just had to grab the camera to capture the moment.

He was so proud and excited to share his drawings.  Hmmmm... maybe one day he will work for Disney... who knows!?!

Savanah

Y'all, I cannot think of a more deserving family. I work with Emily, the mother in this video. She is an amazing person... so strong and always smiling and helping others. Please watch this video and become a fan on Facebook! It would be awesome for them to get their home made over to suit all of their needs.

Busy Bee!!!!

Between training, work, and family life, things have been very busy.  I hate it that I have not been blogging as much lately, but it's hard to sit down and focus just on this.  I've got a few posts coming down the pipes right now.  Just as a little "teaser," I'll be sharing about Drew's progress with Mrs. Tonia, his circle drawing, colors, letters and numbers;  I'll be sharing a little about fundraising and how that's going (these t-shirts are going crazy!!!), and updates on Emma.  

Fight Like A Tiger

This month, a friend of my sister's has donated her husband's and her time to make T-Shirts for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She and my sister spent some time designing all of the details.

They were designed with my mother in mind. The font that they used is called "Mary Jane," they included a "MJ" by the ribbon to signify who this is all for, and the color of the ribbon is the Leukemia ribbon burnt orange (which is why LSU allowed them to print these shirts... it is not really LSU Gold). The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society down in Louisiana was very excited to see them.
So now that they have everyone's "blessings" to print these shirts, we begin.
We will be selling these shirts for $10. My goal is to raise $4,200 (of which I've already made $1,900).
I am so excited to be making such a difference.
If you would like one, just leave a comment here, or email me through my Facebook page.

National Leukemia Awareness Month

This month is Leukemia Awareness Month.  I have posted this before, so some of you have already read it, I also read it today, so you may have heard it, but I think it's an important message and worth posting again.

Just as Elli Wolpe said at the TNT San Diego Pasta Party, I have always heard that when people tell the story of an event that changed their lives, they often begin with the words: "It was a day that started just like any other day..."

The same is true for us too.

It was a day that started just like any other day, my mother went to the doctor's office for an annual physical. She actually told him that she felt better than she's ever felt before (she and I had just started walking together at the YMCA). On that day, they told her that they wanted to see her again to run some more tests. Some of her "numbers" were abnormal.

When we received the news that she was diagnosed with cancer, we were devastated.

Luckily, the chemo worked, and after months and months of treatment my mother went into remission. But remission is not the same thing as being cured. We played the waiting game because incurable means it's coming back. Only we didn't know when. All we knew was that it would be on a day just like any other day...

And it was. I can't even write this part without breaking down, but I have to share the rest of my story. Please know that I am pouring my heart into this message to share it with you.

It was a day that started just like any other day, and we walked into the doctor's office together to recieve the news that the cancer was back and that there was nothing more that the doctors could do.

A day that started just like any other day, knocked the feet right out from under my entire family and all of our friends. That was in November. My amazing mother fought, treated only for pain, until March when we lost her.

I hope and pray that one day....
It will be a day that starts just like any other day, when they announce they have found a cure.

God bless those that are fighting, and may we find a cure so you and your families can rejoice on that day!

Please click here to make donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Your support for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society matters - to our family, families like ours, and families that are fighting for their loved one's lives... You are changing the world for people like us.

Geaux Tigers!!!!!

WAHOOOOOOO!!!! It's LSU football time! There is no better time of the year! Some call it Fall, some call it Autumn.... I personally call it LSU football season.  I've been waiting about 200 days for this!  Kick off in 10 minutes. Crawfish etouffe' was on the menu tonight getting us ready for the night. I truly can't even describe this feeling! There is nothing like it. Here comes the first moment of the year!  I love that we have about 10,000 fans there.  My sister is one of them.  Have fun and be careful Karen!  I love being part of such a thing.

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!

Our Little Scholar

Well, it's that time of year again already.  Even little 2 year old Drew is going back to school.  This past week he learned about the letter A, the color Red, the number 1, and Circles.
I looked forward to picking him up from Mrs. Tonia's everyday because he would run and greet me at the door so excited to show me what he did for the day.  It was one of the cutest things ever (and will continue to be so).  He would run to me from the play room, grab his work from the table, and say, "look mama, look!  I drew red."
Then he would take me through piece by piece of what each one was.  "This is a buga" (he over-pronounces his g's at the end of words).  Then Mrs. Tonia would say, "It's an ant for A Drew" and then he would say, "A. ah ah ah"  it was soooo cute.  I could totally tell what they worked on that day.
And that was just the first day.  It went on all week.
This week was red week, so everyday we tried to find something red to wear (we succeeded everyday but Wednesday)  Before this week, everything was blue at first glance, then he would try to figure out the color if you asked him again.  Now, he really is thinking about colors and what color different things are.
Friday was red show-and-tell day.  Drew brought, of course, Mac and Lightning McQueen.  He was mighty happy about that.
It was a great week and we are all looking forward B for Blue week next week!

Mrs. Tonia gave all the moms a calendar of lessons for the week. 

Drew was so proud of his chalk drawing.  Mrs. Tonia even laminated them for us.

A sample of some of the things Drew worked on during the week.

We were so impressed when Drew was able to tell his Daddy what he did that day and Daddy understood what he was saying without me translating anything.  He told his Daddy that they made apple pictures with the color red.  He was talking about these stamps.  He also told Daddy about how they went to sleep, woke up, and ate snack.

Where'd The Sun Go?

Apparently we don't get out much at night with the kids.  Tonight we did a little shopping and when we got home, it was already dark.  Daddy got Drew out of the car and Drew said so inquisitively, "Where'd the sun go?"  He was truly surprised that the sun was not out like it usually is when we get out of the car.  I guess it didn't dawn on him in the car that it was dark out.  We were too busy talking about red lights and green lights and he was too busy bossing Daddy around saying, "go fast, Daddy!  Go fast!"  We just say back to him, "okay Ricky Bobby!"