Wednesday, February 29, 2012

March of Dimes 2012

It’s that time of year again!  Team Million Dollar Babies is back and ready to raise money for the March of Dimes.  We are gearing up to raise LOTS and LOTS of money to help fight against premature birth and birth defects.  This is the 5th year that the Million Dollar Babies has walked with the March of Dimes.  In the past four years, our team has raised $18299.75!!  We’re serious about raising money for babies. 

Did you know that in the United States, 1 in 8 babies is born too early.  That is about half a million babies in the US born too soon.  Worldwide, almost 13 million babies are born too early.  Premature birth is the number one killer of newborns.  Wouldn’t  you feel good knowing you helped fight against prematurity?  Wouldn’t it feel great to help find a cure for the number one killer of newborns?  We need to work to get to the day when all babies are born full term and healthy. 

I’m sure most of you know why we walk for the March of Dimes.  Lindy, Will, and Adam were born at 25 weeks and 2 days on July 30, 2007.  They weighed 1lb 9oz, 1lb 14oz, and 1lb 13oz.  Their birthday should have been a joyous occasion and instead it was the worst day of our lives.  We were beyond scared for our babies.  The day proceeded to only get worse when Adam passed away 12 hours after birth.  I wish no one had to ever sit by babies’ bedsides for months or bury their babies.  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Lindy and Will are 4.5 years old now and doing remarkably well.  They definitely benefited by research funded by the March of Dimes.  Specifically, something called surfactant gave their lungs a fighting chance those first few days.

Join us as we fight with the March of Dimes to end prematurity and birth defects.  It will be an amazing, happy, and glorious day when all babies are born healthy.

How can you get involved?

1.  Donate to our March for Babies personal page.  No donation is too small.  We take every dollar we can get!  (or click Donate Now on the MOD Badge at the very top)
2.  Join the Million Dollar Babies team.  Walk and raise money with the Million Dollar Babies team.  On my personal page click “Walk With Me”. (Or click Walk With Me on MOD Badge at the very top of the page). 

The walk is April 21st, at Corpening Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem.  Registration is from 8:30-9:30am and the walk begins at 10am.   Let me know if you have any questions!

And now a message from Lindy and Will:

Lindy says (very quickly), “Help save the babies!” Will says, “Thanks for your support. Please give again this year.”

Sweet Adam in his last hours of life. 000_1720

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Fun Weekend with Old Friends

It was another busy week in our household.  Drew left early Monday morning to go to “clergy fat camp.”  Ha ha.  It was actually a retreat for a clergy health initiative they are doing to try and get the clergy healthier and try to lower our health insurance costs.  He was gone from Monday morning until Wednesday afternoon. 

Our couple days without him were pretty laid back because Lindy was under the weather.  She ended up having a fever again on Tuesday and she got sick two more times Tuesday morning.  Mimo was already planning to come help me out so that was good.  She arrived early Tuesday afternoon.  I was able to go run a couple errands while she was here which was nice.  We didn’t end up going to gymnastics or to our Fat Tuesday pancake supper at church though.

Wednesday morning was the March of Dimes kickoff meeting and I needed to get there at 6:15am to help set up.  With Drew gone there was no way I could go without having someone come help me out.  Mimo to the rescue!  I checked Lindy at 4:30am and 6am before I left and she had no fever so Lynn got the kids up and ready for school and then took them to school.  We met back up at home and then we both went to pick the kids up and take them to music class.  They were both excited to see Mimo at music class.  Daddy got home early afternoon and Mimo headed out.  I really appreciated her helping me out so I could go to the breakfast.

Thursday Lindy had physical therapy.  Jill said she looked pretty good when she was walking fairly slowly but when she sped up she went back up on her toes.  She seemed a little disappointed  that she wasn’t staying down off her toes more.  Lindy was pretty tired and acting up just a little bit.  The girl is a nut anyway.  Drew and Will rode bikes, went to the library and stopped by a park on the way home. 

Friday I picked the kids up from school and Drew met us with sandwiches and we had a little picnic at the playground outside the school.  We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then headed to another playground to meet up with Katie and Claire and another friend Lauren and her daughter Isabelle.  It was about 75F outside so it was a great day to be outside.  There was some crazy wind but it was still nice.  We were on a playground that Lindy could do everything by herself (well everything but get on the swings but she didn’t play there much).  It was one of the first times I’ve ever been able to just sit or talk to other moms and not have to help Lindy out.  It was awesome!  We left the playground and went home for a short nap and then headed out for dinner downtown.  We met up with a friend, Melissa, from our old church whom we hadn’t seen in about 6 years.  We had dinner with her and her fiancee and we had a great time.  We miss her and hope we can start seeing her more often now!

Saturday I had two friends from college come visit.  Joanna (we lived together for two years) and Heather arrived around lunchtime.  We ate lunch here and then we headed to see the same play that Drew and I saw last weekend, the Mystery of Edwin Drood.  I loved it so much that I asked if they would be interested in seeing it.  They were both game.  The audience votes the ending of the play so I was interested to see how another show would end.  I loved it just as much the second time as I did the first.  This audience voted a different ending so that was cool.  Joanna and Heather enjoyed it as well.  We headed downtown after the play and had dinner.  We came back to our house after dinner and we played games and danced on the Wii.  A good old girls’ night!

Will started coughing on Thursday and then on Friday had a froggy sounding voice.  He seemed and acted fine.  Saturday afternoon his nose started running.  WOW – I never knew so much snot could come from one little 27lb body.  He got up this morning and said he didn’t feel great and didn’t feel like going to church.  Joanna and Heather left around 11am.  I’m glad we decided to skip church because of the amount of snot coming from his nose.  It’s flowed continuously all day long and now his nose is broken down.  He keeps telling me it’s ‘steaming’ but he means ‘stinging.’  We’ll see how he is feeling tomorrow morning and if the flow has slowed down! 

That sums it up.  Here are pictures from our week.

I really needed to take my shower on Tuesday but didn’t know what to do with Lindy since she’d gotten sick twice that morning.  This was my view from the shower.  I put her and the throw up bucket and some books in my bathtub.  I figured if she threw up it was at least all contained.DSC_0634Playing Elefun with MimoDSC_0636DSC_0640Princess…Queen…Not really sure!DSC_0642I’ve been working on writing letters with Lindy and she wrote Will’s name all by herself!DSC_0645Lindy has been ‘thinking’ a lot lately.  It’s pretty cute!DSC_0647DSC_0648DSC_0650He’s cute too!DSC_0651Joanna and Lindy having a chat!DSC_0655Lindy loved the phone Heather!DSC_0657Cute Jack picture!DSC_0659

Monday, February 20, 2012

Nana and Papa Visit and SNOW

Friday night we had Katie, Kris, Micah, and Claire over to celebrate Katie passing her ordination interviews. She’ll be ordained as a UM pastor in June at annual conference. I tried 3 new pinterest recipes and we celebrated with pizza. Then Katie and I went upstairs to finish our skirts we had started earlier in the week. They turned out super cute! The dads and kids played Wii games while we were sewing.

Right after we finished and headed downstairs my parents pulled in the driveway. Mom had a long weekend for President’s Day so they came to visit. The kids were so excited to see them.

Saturday morning we got up and took the kids to gymnastics to make up for the class we missed when they had a dentist appointment a couple weeks ago. Katie and Claire were there as well since Claire missed last week. My parents enjoyed watching the kids and they got to see how Lindy does what she pleases in class! Drew took the kids home for a nap while my parents and I ran a few errands. After the kids woke up we went outside and rode bikes with them because it was so nice. The kids had to show Nana and Papa how they could ride their bikes by themselves now. (Although Lindy needs help steering) Will fell off his bike this time and it did scare him but he got back on. We ended up going for a walk because it was so nice out.

Sunday morning the kids had their first performance at church and it worked out great that my parents were in town. The group did a great job. Will sang proud and loud and Lindy stood still like I asked her too. The only minor mishap was when there were singing about having joy down in their hearts and Lindy lifted her dress to find her heart – and in the process showed her tights and belly to the entire church! That got a good laugh. What are we going to do with that girl?! We ate lunch at home and then Drew and I headed out on a Sunday afternoon date to see a play at the UNC School of the Arts. We watched The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was put on by the senior class and it was amazing. It’s hard to believe they were only seniors in college. Although they were all amazing, the guy who played the narrator was awesome. Charles Dickins died in the middle of writing this book so there is no real ending. The audience got to pick the ending of the play. How cool is that? It was a really fun show and we had a blast. When we came out of the theatre, it was snowing!!! Finally, our first taste of winter. It snowed all evening until about 10pm. We got 1-2 inches of snow. So strange seeing how on Sat. it was 65F.

We got up this morning (the kids were out of school) and ate breakfast and got the kids ready to play in the snow. We finally got them out and they had a good time. They got to use their snow shovels they got from Santa and they were happy about that. Things went downhill though. I turned around and Lindy was on her knees crying. I thought her hands must be cold. I got her up and she was crying and she threw up a little bit. I took her up to the front porch and she then vomited and got it all over herself. She was drumming up sympathy and acting dramatic but she seemed okay. My parents headed out, back to Ohio, and we came inside. She does have a low grade fever. I knew something was up because she didn’t eat her donuts this morning. That girl never passes up donuts. She was fine the rest of the morning until she fell down and hurt her thumb and started crying and threw up just a tiny bit more. She has something going on but I’m not sure what. I hope it doesn’t turn into a full blown stomach bug. I hope she takes a nap and wakes up feeling better. Will woke up this morning telling me his stomach hurt but then has acted fine ever since. My fingers and toes are crossed hoping we don’t all get sick!!!

Here are pictures from out weekend. 

Riding bikes on Saturday afternoon.DSC_0528DSC_0531DSC_0533Spiffy church outfits on Sunday morning.DSC_0535DSC_0543DSC_0552First Flickers of Faith performance.  Ah-choo at the end of the first song!DSC_0557The whole gang!DSC_0558Here is where things start to go bad.  She is pulling her dress up.DSC_0559See my heart?  And my belly?  Good thing she had tights on!DSC_0560Papa build Will a REALLY tall rocket for Will!  DSC_0565Snowman pancakes since it was finally snowing outside!DSC_0569DSC_0571Checking on the snow with Nana!DSC_0573Papa went and got some snow!DSC_0576DSC_0578Taking a bite of the fresh snow.DSC_0580Lindy dug in, no help needed!DSC_0582Finally able to wear snow shirts!DSC_0583DSC_0587Boxing on the Wii.  DSC_0592DSC_0594Playing in the snow today!DSC_0598DSC_0601Snow angels!DSC_0602DSC_0603DSC_0604Lindy did not want to do it.  Nana had to make her lay down and do it at first and then she finally did it by herself.DSC_0608DSC_0610DSC_0612Throwing snowballs at me!  See the snowball?DSC_0614DSC_0617DSC_0618DSC_0626DSC_0629DSC_0630DSC_0631

We enjoyed the snow while it lasted.  It got up to the mid 40’s this afternoon and the snow is gone! 

We had a blast with Nana and Papa and were sad to see them go.  Will keeps saying he wanted them to stay longer.   Me too!