A worthy cause

Ashleigh and her friends are running in the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan's 5k (click here), in memory of sweet Carly. Team name: Carly's Angels. Reason being; Carly LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Ashleigh's friends! Even tho, Carly is now, likely their angel watching them from above, we all thought the team name was quite fitting. Those girls cheered her on and visited her throughout our experience with this evil, nasty cancer. Carly had more big sisters than any kid I know!

The girls are trying to raise at least $500. I realize most of you who read this blog, are not from Michigan. However, leukemia was a HUGE part of our lives with Carly. She was diagnosed with it in Sept '04 and from that day forward, it was our life. Countless hospital stays, tons of toxic chemo drugs, several surgeries, several bone marrow biopsies, several very near death experiences, many clinic visits and blood draws, X-rays, ultra sounds...the list goes on and on and on.

Although Carly was born with Down syndrome, and stood about an 80% greater chance to develop leukemia, none of us are exempt from this horrible blood cancer. Not me, not you, not your children. This is a very worthy cause and one that will always be near and dear to our hearts.

Ashleigh has participated in the Relay for Life before. She and her team raised a very nice chunk of change! That time, she walked in 'honor' of our sweet girl. Her team will now walk in 'memory'. Which makes us all so very sad.

If you find it in your hearts, to help with this worthy cause the girls would greatly appreciate it. Any amount at all helps. Again, click here, if you care to help out .

Puts a smile on my face.

I believe Carly has mastered yet another task. Small task to some. HUGE for Carly!

Carly has been able to draw shapes for quite a few years now.

However, her smiley faces were simply a circle, with a bunch of dots in the
center.

She did this on her own. With no prompting from me.

She called for me to come see what she had drawn.

And I all but fainted on the floor.

I made a BIG deal over it and embarrassed her terribly.

Until I suggested she draw one for sissy too.

And draw she did. In fact, she drew four smiley faces in a row.

One for sissy, mama and grandma and one for Paul (as she calls her dad)!

I tried to convince her to write her name on each picture, but no such luck.

Needless to say, Carly and her smiley faces, put a smile on my face.

Daddy Daughter Dance 2010

Saturday night was big night for Carly and her daddy.

It was the Daddy Daughter Dance at the school.
Striking a pose, before heading off to the dance!

This little girl LOVES her daddy!

Just another pose for the heck of it!

They came home about 15 minutes early.
Paul said Carly kept asking for "momma"!
I would have loved to have gone.
Or been a fly on the wall.
Something!

I guess she had fun. That's what she told me.

Paul says she's quite popular. Several little girls were running up
to her all night. They were trying awful hard to get her out on the
dance floor with them. Carly wasn't having it though.
Eventually,
Paul did finally get her to dance a couple of times.

She seems to be overwhelmed, right at first, with big gatherings.
She does eventually 'warm up' and then she enjoys herself.

None-the-less, she missed her "momma"... Even though she LOVES
her daddy so much.

Happy Birthday (a day late) to Carly!!

Happy Birthday Carly!

Only a day late in blogging about it. I wasn't feeling too well, therefore no blogging yesterday. I did edit pictures very late last night. It was after midnight and I figured I may as well wait on the whole darn thing!

click to enlarge collage

I can not believe that our little gal turned 8 years old!! Although, there are times that I feel she is much older. Given all she has been through during her first 4.5 years of life.

We had a quiet, small little birthday party for Carly. Just our family of 5 and my parents. Simple, but sweet. Carly prefers smaller gatherings anyway. We've decided that we will give her a big ole birthday bash in 2 years. When she's 10. That's not very far off. Yikes!

The collage above is made up of birthday pictures, of course ;o) . Carly and her favorite, Ashleigh (who left today, to go back to her life in Kalamazoo). In one of the pictures, Carly is showing us how old she is. She is trying very hard to master 8. That darn left hand/fingers just don't cooperate for very long.

Carly is having quite a hard time tonight. She is already missing "sissy". She wants her back home. We told her that sissy went back to her house. That was the wrong thing to tell Carly. She had a livid fit. Wish us luck the next few days, while Carly goes through "sissy" withdrawals!

The Graduate!

Finally...she is DONE with college! ! ! However, she informed us that she is likely going to go on to Grad School....Let's hope she lands a job that will pay for Grad School!

These are pictures that my mom took with her camera. I just realized that! I was too busy wiping tears from my eyes to snap pics after graduation.

Very happy gal in the above picture!

Mom snapped a couple of pic's after we had our celebratory dinner in downtown K'zoo. It was freezing outside.

I have several more pictures. Although, I haven't had much time to mess with them. It's getting busy, busy, busy around here. As Christmas is vastly approaching!

At any rate, I just wanted to share some of our excitement with you all!
Happy Monday everyone! I'm off to the store to purchase food for Christmas dinner.

I Will Never forget.

September 11, 2001. Do you remember where you were? What you were doing? I sure do. I was drying my hair in my master bathroom. I had my TV on in my bedroom, watching the Today Show. I was getting ready to go to the grocery store.

I realized something was up. I turned off the blow dryer and stood and watched one tower with smoke bellowing out of the upper most part of the building. I listened to Katie and Matt talk and within just a couple of minutes. I see the other plane. I actually recall screaming out loud, "Oh my God, it's going to hit the other building". And then, it did. I instantly got chills up and down my spine.

As I sat frozen and watching the coverage, fear swept over me. I needed to call Paul. I was scared to death for the kids, they had just started school for the day. My parents were out of state on vacation. I was freaking out. I called Paul. He was working at Detroit Metro Airport that day. Of all days. No one knew what the heck was going on. We all thought for sure, we would hear of more horror. And then we did. Pennsylvania. I was completely freaked out.

By the time I heard of the crash in Pennsylvania, I had already started on my way to the get groceries. As I drove and listened to the radio. I must admit. I was terrified. I wanted Paul away from the airport. I wanted to turn around and head to the kids school. I was crying like crazy. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I was 5 months pregnant with Carly. Not a great day for a pregnant lady for sure.

I walked into the store, and people were huddled around a TV that hung just inside the stores door. Watching the live coverage of what was going on in New York. Then I heard about the Pentagon. I hadn't heard about until that moment. I nearly fainted. I know I was weak in the knees. All I wanted to do at that point is get home. Home was 22 miles away. It may as well have been 2200 miles away on that day.

As I got home and put things away, I of course turned the TV back on. My oldest brother called me that afternoon. He's the one who recently retired from the Air Force. We chatted for a bit about the days events. Both of us pretty much in shock.

I was concerned for my other brother. He did a lot of traveling. I called to see if he was gone or still in the area. Thankfully, he was home that day and not in an airplane.

My parents also called that day. They were out West. They didn't know if they should head home or what to do. They were numb, like the rest of us.

I will never forget the images of that plane hitting the second tower. I will never forget watching the people scurry about the streets of New York City. I will never forget the images of seeing people hurl themselves out of windows trying to escape the smoke and flames. I will never forget watching, as the Twin Towers fell to the ground. I will never forget hearing those frantic calls from the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. I will never forget the images of the Pentagon.
I will NEVER forget September 11, 2001.