Humbled...

What can I say but, "WOW!"
http://theresakrier.blogspot.com/
Theresa is an amazing woman who has also taken on the fight and has been featuring different Cancer Kids on her blog, drumming up support for RELAY and much more. This girl has a heart the size of Texas!

Right back at ya girl, right back at ya!

No more what??

So, a while back I blogged about the chords attached to my chest, stickies on my boobulars and the gadget stuffed into my pocket. Missed it? Read it here.

It is called a Holter Monitor and is kind of like a 24-hour EKG. Every time you have an "episode" (which for me was a fluttering feeling in my chest) you push a button on the small black box stuffed in your pocket and write the time and what you were doing in a little book.

Well, I went to get the results. My doctor unfolded a long paper and quietly studied it. Hello, sitting right here, gimme the news! WHY do they do that? The look and they "hmmmm" and then they look and they "hmmmm."

Here's the scoop!

I am not experiencing heart palpitations as I had thought. I have PVC. No, not like the pipe! PVCs are premature ventricular contractions = extra heart beats.

HE THINKS IT COULD BE FROM CAFFEINE!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Then he sent me for a 2D echocardiogram.
Lemme tell you, the next person that comes at me with STICKERS FOR MY BOOBS (or warm gell, for that matter) is gonna get slapped!

I laid on my side on a bed with my arm above my head in a dark room while a woman I have never met before lubed my left gazzunga and went to town. I was thinking how non-invasive this procedure would be if I was a man. And, and, if I was a guy I would never have to feel a speculum either. Charmed life!LOL!

So, I wait for those results but the tech (chief - lubricator) said, "Now, if I noticed something I would have you wait for a cardiologist. I am NOT doing that. I am telling you that you can GO!" In her own "on the down low" way, she was saying, "Move along. Nothing to see here."

So, apparently my Venti, iced, non-fat Carmel Macchiato order just grew by another letter...decaf! UGH!

Case in point, it is 1:02 am. My dear, sweet, LOUD toddler gets up at 5:30 am - decaf is about as good to me as a flip flop with no strap...does NOTHING for me!

Goodnight.
Don't forget to check out it's 4 the kids! It's live! Over 1500 hits on Wednesday!

It is your lucky day...

First, before I reveal the secret, please know the responsibility that is in your hands at this moment! If this new website can change one life before it's even designed (we donated $478.00 to CJ Shaw's family - carepage: cjshaw), imagine what it can do when it goes live.

Imagine the lives we will change....together!

So, are you ready to forward the link to everyone you know? Are you ready to put the logo on your blog? Are you ready to spread the word like wildfire?


So, are you ready? Are you ready to check out it's 4 the kids for the first time?! Just a minute...be patient!


Are you ready to go see the AMAZING designer Karen at Simply Amusing Designs? GO! GO! GO! Check her out! Revamp your blog! She is a magician!!


OH WAIT, before I give you the link, I am still looking for artists who want to share their talents and donate a portion of their proceeds to it's 4 the kids! I have about 6-8 artists who are getting their photos and descriptions to me as we speak so keep watching as the 4 sale page will be increasing in size soon!


And, I will forever be asking for children to post on the KIDS page.


So, simply go to it's 4 the kids !

Want to help by adding the html to your blog? Thanks in advance!
Leave a comment and I will leave the html in your comments! I can't figure out how to put it on here without Blogger telling me there's something wrong with what I wrote.

it's 4 the kids...

HOLY COW!
Thanks to an AMAZING woman and her AMAZING talents, I am almost ready to share with you the AMAZING SITE she created for me so we can move mountains and help families dealing with the monster we have come to know as Pediatric Cancer!

This is your official OPEN CALL, I am now accepting artists who would like to be featured on the site. I will need a photo of you and your wares, a blurb about what you create and about you, the price of your item and what percentage you will be donating to it's 4 the kids!

Also, if you have a "cancer kid" that you would like to see featured in the "kids" section, please send me a photo, a list of their favorite things and type of cancer they are battling. If your child has earned his/her wings, please include the year their wings were fitted.

You can mail all of this info to its4thekids@gmail.com!

Also, if you are reading this post, you have entered a binding agreement *wink, wink* to forward the link of the AMAZING WOMAN who made the (almost ready) it's 4 the kids website a reality to at least 10 people! I will unveil her with the link to the site soon! She put up with a lot from my non-computer-minded brain and made it all happen! Out of the goodness of her heart. If you ever THOUGHT of having someone do a custom design for you, SHE IS THE ONE!!

Peace!

When Chaperoning is P-R-E-T-T-Y!

Now, you take a small group of gifted children to a world-renowned arts facility for an afternoon of tours, talking with artists and getting your hands all messy with paint and I am as happy as a pig in sh--.....mud! Not to mention, I met them there...NO BUS RIDE FOR MOI!

The Goggleworks is an amazing place to have 30 minutes from our house! Being in that building makes my fingers twinge and creative ideas float around in my head like little tornados! And that is better than drugs, I tell you! Drugs like Sudafed or Motrin...geez, people, I am an artist in most ways but, drugs? No thanks!! I am freakishly strange enough all on my own!

So much inspiration and a group of amazingly well-behaved children led to some mighty creative moments this weekend - I was a busy NAMESAKE-er during naptime today!

Now, THAT'S the way to do a field trip! My career is back on track! LOL!

When Chaperoning turns U-G-L-Y...

I am a career chaperone! I love it! I have a third- and a fourth-grader and I have been homeroom mom and class trip chaperone every year for one or both of them. I anxiously await my youngest to start school so I can carry on my tradition! The trips are always to somewhere fun, the groups are small and the kids are very well behaved...


UNTIL TODAY!

I had no idea what I was in for! I arrived at my son's classroom just in time to be assigned with my group. SIX kids! 4 girls, 2 boys! They are 9 & 10 year olds, shouldn't be too bad, right?! It wasn't until we loaded the bus. My sweet son is in the it's-cool-to-ride-in-the-very-back-seat stage! And also the have-mom-sit-on-the-inside-so-I-can-still-chat-w-my-friends stage. This is all fine with me b/c then I can text friends and just chill.

Apparently, however, the bus drivers got wind of some kind of hold up on the turnpike so we started our trip on back roads. Up and down, around and up again. That danged back seat flings you all over to heck and back! I think I was bleeding internally by the time we got to the Camden Aquarium!

My six kids and I got our bracelets and headed in to a facility that most obviously over-booked the day. I swear it was standing-room-only at most of the exhibits! Kids were cranky, the adults were crankier and my group was starving! Do people no longer feed their kids breakfast anymore? We had a schedule to abide by so I couldn't feed them until my schedule said to head for the Skyline Lunchroom!

By this time I had lost kept an eye on my group, freaked out on scolded one child for her melt-down and tried to lose them made sure we all arrived at the lunchroom safely.

I think I would have been OK finishing the trip and heading home on my own. I really think the return trip did me in. No one should even be made to ride 90 minutes on a bus filled with 2-3 kids (apparently who ALL needed Ritalin) to a seat, only a handful of chaperones and enough video game paraphernalia to keep us off the Ben Franklin Bridge due to excessive weight.

There were kids singing to their iPods and I am being kind by saying "singing" - one girl just had her mouth open and all the sounds of hell were coming out of her face...I watched her thinking she was having a stroke or something but apparently the music was so loud that she THOUGHT SHE WAS SINGING!

Then there was a group of boys who had "linked" their Nintendo DS's and were playing some race game that causes you to lose all sense of how loud you are screaming in the nice lady chaperone's ears as you egg on your opponents with your trash talk. One small kid, whose mouth was bigger than he was, screamed, "OH, YOU ARE GOIN' DOWWWWWWN!" so loud in my ear that I saw stars and I honestly imagined myself head-butting him! ME...headbutting a 9-year old! That would be the LAST field trip of my career, I imagine! Maybe not such a bad idea...

The noise on that bus was deafening! COMPLETELY deafening!

When we finally arrived back at the school, I saw a dear friend leaving her bus looking frazzled. She and I have known each other since we were the STUDENTS on the field trip bus! And as I walked past her I said, " I have come to the conclusion that I could never be a bus driver." She looked me square in the eyes and said, "I have come to the conclusion that I will be stopping by the liquor store on the way home!" (thanks "B" - that was the best laugh I have had in a long time!)

Today, while dropping off a forgotten instrument at school , I ran into the gifted teacher who chatted with me for a minute about "my group" for Friday. Yep....just call me GFP, (Glutton For Punishment) - I am off on another field trip as "Queen Chaperone" on Friday, yes, like TOMORROW! I close my eyes, rub my temples and start my mantra, "It's aaaaallllllll blog fodder, it's aaaaalllllll blog fodder..." which quickly starts to sound a little like, "There's no place like home....there's no place like home..."

What a gift!

There is nothing like opening your email and getting a great big blessing of generosity inside! A couple posts back I was hashing out all of my hopes and dreams for its 4 the kids and soon after I received a wonderful email from Karen from Simply Amusing Designs. Her email said that she had been "following my crumbs" and was moved to help my designing the kids website - for FREE! I accepted after looking at her blog - HOLY COW THIS IS ONE TALENTED WOMAN - only to receive two more similar offers from other readers! Thank you!

Karen wanted to use MY drawings and my designs for the website so I have decided to use the 6 children whose families have touched my life and pulled me into their world so far that helping in some way was not even a question anymore. For those of you who visit the carepages go check out Mimi and Julian at juliansworlds, Haley at haleyworld, Coleman at colemanscott, John Eric at johnericbartels, Mikayla at mikaylavenwey and Crazy Bailey at superbay. For those of you who have never gone on the carepages you are missing out on life changing stories and precious children who will impact your life in a way you never imagined! It is free to register and won't sign you up for anything other than a peek into the lives of these amazing families!

I have had a lot of feedback over the past couple months and some of it has been less than fond. I have had people tell me that they have stopped reading my blog because it is "too depressing when all you do is talk about those cancer kids." Well, I see the reasoning behind that comment although it rubs me the wrong way because if we all turned our backs because it was too sad, who could "those cancer kids" look to for help?

I try and read between the lines when I get those comments and I hear this, " I come to your blog to laugh at what was stuck in your toilet, what your toddler did with a box of markers, etc! I look to your blog for relief from MY OWN chaos!"

This is why I have decided to take Karen up on her offer. Within the next week or so I will be unveiling my new website where you can go to make a purchase that will benefit these babies. And if your heart allows you, you can stay and take a peek around and meet some of God's precious angels who have been dealt a really rough hand. But you will also leave being blessed by the network of friends that were brought together through the carepages.

I hope that my new site will be a blessing to everyone who visits. I hope that all of my loyal readers will link to it. 7 years ago, while cringing at the baby screams as I painted a mural in a chemo room at CHOP I never imagine voluntarily walking back into that world again. It was painful and sad. But, now I see it as a blessing to be a part of something that is grounded in giving back, in being warriors.

its 4 the kids will be what it will be and by the Grace of God I hope it is HUGE!

Thank you Karen...from me AND THE KIDS!

(check out my NAMESAKE ebay auction - 100% of the proceeds goes toward its 4 the kids!)