JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes 2011

We woke up to a temperature of 58 degrees, with a forecast high of 79...you'd switch to shorts, wouldn't you?

We'd laid out jeans thinking it'd be cold, but with a sunny day ahead, I made an executive decision for our family.  Ha!  That's the problem with being an executive..fault falls in your lap! ; )  But, might I just say..we have the best time on Walk Day, rain or shine! ; )  And let me say..it rained the entire walk! haha!  But most of our walkers braved the rain-and most with no umbrellas.  L. O. V. E. their spirit! : )

Our shirts and matching bows..only two got stolen off our table = two very sad girls. : (

Girl Scout Girls! : )

We were told to gather for a picture for the news!

Thanks, Sandy and Betty for walking!

Aww..sweet Amy and Claire!

Fellow party organizers: Danielle, Madison, and Dottie! : )

Bless Maddox's heart-she is SO cute!

Love, love, love our pediatric dental clinic-they showed up in rain to WALK!

My fellow PRE teacher: Tiffany with her kids: Gabby, Grace, Joseph, and Ann Marie!  Love them!

I think I took about 20 pictures of Nora's hair-she's a doll, and LoVeS her a Razorback!

Aww.. friends and Razorbacks, nothing better! ; )

Yep, we're number ONE! ; )

Thanks, Taryn, for some awesome pictures!! : )

That is one long sword!

He's twirling them and dancing!

Part of the warm-up: YMCA!

Ready for the balloon release-it was bigger than her!

Maddox with a Razorback cheerleader. ; )

Let the Walk Begin!

..and the Rain Began.

One lucky little boy!

Carol and Madie, Emily, Sandra, and Nora!

..after all our shirt drama...we won third place for our shirts! : )  and a Jump Zone party for ten!  WooHoo!

Allson, Kylee, Ashley, and Caroline, Ches' sister!  Thanks for coming! : )

The only way to ride a Razorback-with him encased in bronze! ; )

after the rain..we look a little rough. ; )

Sweet cousins: Allison, Kylee, Emily, and Ashley

..and with Ches' mom!  (minus Mary Claire!)

They were so adorable-pulling Mary Claire around!

..and pushing! ; )

Her turn to pull Andalynn!

Here was a picture of my mom and dad with me.  But they requested it be pulled.  Can you imagine?  Oh, the censorship I endure.

with Angie-love you!

oh yeah...forgot that was in here!  The beginnings of our 25 bows! ; )

Candace's students from Greenland-LOVE that they came out to support us-Thank You!!

And..our team picture.  Looks a little lighter than last year, but we were still minus some people. ; )  8:30 comes really early in the morning!  Love you, walkers! : )

Christy-always brings her best friends! : )  thank you for bringing your family too!

Her kids-Katie and Courtney!

Love me some Leigh! : )  We loved seeing our friend-teams this year-I want no more competition-I love them!

Me and my girl.  We were supposed to wait by this tent till it was time for her to go on stage.

On Stage?  Not her favorite.  That's her with the yellow balloon!

Those big fat balloons could be seen so high, and made me cry.  I'm a poet and didn't know it. ; )

The BEST part about our day?  Friends!

Rain or Shine.

Emily, Mary Claire, and Nora-cutie patooties!

A surprise Flash Mob danced-and they were GOOD!

Mary Claire and Chandler-with their goodies! : )

Mary Claire with Aiden's sister, Emma!

God bless our friends.  For sharing their umbrellas, for walking in the rain without one, for donating for our girl, for praying for a CURE, for holding our hands through this.  We love you.  We can't say thank you enough.

New Shirt Design..and Still Going!

T minus two days till our Walk, and we're excited...but not ready.

Our T-shirt Saga continues.  The University of Arkansas had yet to approve our design yesterday at noon, so we went to Plan B: make a new design.

It was one of the ones I'd planned for, and I'd already sent a picture (last Friday) to the girls, so Maryanne worked on it, and had it redone yesterday afternoon.  I can't tell you what happened between 4pm yesterday (besides me thinking it'd be printed first thing this morning!), and today at 1pm, when I got an email asking me to finalize the design..again.

So, guess what?  T-shirt didn't get printed today.  : (  Very upset Holly, but trying to roll with the punches to avoid more stress.  They'll be printed tomorrow, and how I'll pass them all out...I don't know.  I have company coming at noon, and we were supposed to take the girls to get a mani-pedi, but it's looking less relaxing and more driving.

The bows are made, and I've attached half of them to french clip barrettes.  I got tired of standing, so I've quit for a while!  (I use the hot glue gun at a buffet-type table, but I should totally try it sitting down..)  There are 23 all together.  Gotta have cute girlies! ; )

We also got more rolls of ribbon to let the girls tie up their sleeves (if it's warm enough!), and I want some red fingernail polish for the girls to paint their nails if they want.  I did get our banners in the mail..and they are smaller than the ones I got last year!!  I never even thought to measure..I hope people can read them!  And..we got red polka-dotted fabric to cover our table, so if they mess up with the polish..no big deal! ; )


And...drum roll please..  I am still pregnant! : )  We had another ultrasound today, and that tiny heart is still going.  He said it looked like a teddy bear: tiny ears, and tiny arms/legs.  We got a picture from the front, but it's a cross-section, so kinda hard to see on a photo!  Still amazes me every time I see the doctor.  I had the full lab work-up today: four tubes of blood.  Ahh..yes, felt queasy, but I'm better at it by now.  Little Snickers, and I was good to go. ; )  So, a big nine weeks, and still going.  Makes me really wonder what the difference is..my surgery last fall? Or the progesterone I'm on?  My friends' and families' prayers?  Or D, all of the above?  Whatever it is, I'm thankful. : )

I go back to the doctor next Wednesday, and then I'm an official OB patient. ; )  The next three or four weeks will be kinda hard-I've only made it to twelve weeks since I had Ethan.  Just pray for God's will and for me to be accepting. : )  So thankful for all of your sweet words and prayers for us-we know they are holding us up!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  And I pray for blessings ten times over on you. <3

Walk Shirt Design! (and a fancy new word..)

Ok, I'll let you in on our current dramas...first, our Walk shirts!  I don't know why it's so hard this year, but I think it's because Maryanne who usually does our designs has been on vacation for two weeks!

Our theme this year is "Lights, Camera, Cure!"  We started with a Hollywood star with our team name in silver (on lavender) (and I was going to have everyone autograph their shirts in Sharpie marker on the star)...and slowly (Ches) changed it to red with white and *silver*.  Here is our current design:

This is Old Main, from the University of Arkansas campus (another drama-getting it approved!), and the kids are dropping their diabetes stuff, they're CURED! : )

The back: with our team name and our sponsors. : )

I wasn't thrilled with the kids' eyes on the front, but she made them smaller...and I have to move on.  I have lots more to do this week, and we've already pushed printing to Wednesday (and hopefully that's long enough to get UA approval!).

We are excited to walk, and it's getting closer...5 days! : )  I ordered new banners for our tent, here is a proof (and they should be here tomorrow!):

They don't go exactly with our shirts..but they had the big Clapboard Slate (I had to google to find out what it's called!), and it looked movie-ish enough! : )

And..I ordered 30 yards of red ribbon with white polka dots (and stripey little ribbon for the middles!) to make matching hairbows, but I've yet to see the ribbon in the mail..we will have to make our mailman cookies-we are salivating as he rounds the corner every day! : )  We must drive him nuts! : ) (..ooo-we can add nuts to his cookies!) (and the ribbon is HERE!)

It's the final days, and we are both excited and anxious.  The local JDRF chapter didn't do a group picture sign-up...they assigned times based on abc order, and they put us post-walk.  When everyone is sweaty and gone to their kids' ball games-we have four on Saturday!  I suppose next year we'll have to be Allstars for the Cure.  I feel like they should at least be a little accommodating, since we are asking our friends to come, donate, and walk.  Seriously, they are only walking out of kindness for our family (and some feel-good altruism?).

Next year's date is strangely opening up.. I mean every year, I wonder how I ever made it through and wonder if I have another Walk in me.  It is a serious undertaking in organizational event management.  

Let's take a look at our multi-hat job leading a family walk team.  Just for fun.
Letters (including reviewing friends' addresses, writing, inserting picture, copying at Kinko's, buying envelopes plus return envelopes, folding and stuffing, stamping, mailing)

Donations (incoming envelopes, thank you notes, writing/mailing personal thank you's and receipts, keeping a spreadsheet)

Registration (including registering people online, helping field questions for those brave enough to do it themselves, taking paper registrations, not to mention...encouraging people to walk)

Tshirts (including design, scheduling printing, keeping a chart of sizes, getting shirts ordered prior to printing, receiving, sorting by family or location, delivering) (oh, and make matching hairbows for all the girls!)


Logistics (including getting everyone to the same place at the same time, composing walk day info (when we have it..not yet!), making sure the Walk Day Info gets mailed out in time for far-away walkers, printed to hand out with shirts, or emailed, and keeping us somewhat together as we walk since we take a shortcut with so many kids on a mostly uphill route!)

Pictures (including getting a sign-up time, making sure our walkers know about the time, and then actually getting there, then making sure we/they get a copy)

Family (including entertaining before/during/after the Walk, trying to make it look effortless so your daughter doesn't know what a job it is.  And have some quality family time! : )


Ahh..gotta love having a disease you didn't want.  It makes you cry, lose sleep, spend money, work harder, advocate, and have to do things you never wanted to do.

Praying for peace this week and c-a-l-m at our house (today: two home sick, doctor's appointments, dentist, baseball game, choir...and tomorrow?  Mother's Day Out (I hope!), Bible study, conferences, and Bunco!)  Whew.  I'll be sleeping in my Cheerios again soon.

Love those Kids!

Hey, ya'll!  Sorry it's been so long, I'm trying to keep my face outta my cornflakes to get all my "stuff" done! : )  I'm exhausted, and my husband tells me I am snoring (I hope this is his *fancy* way for saying "sleeping") about two seconds after my head hits the pillow!  Ahh..the early months. ; )

Clay and Mary Claire had their first ACO (Art Center of the Ozarks) choir class last Monday!  They were excited, and it went really well.  But, wanna know something funny?  I had NO idea there was tuition!  I just thought, "Yay!  They made it, that'll be so fun!"  And then, Monday the choir folders came home, and I feel like such a dunce.  Why on earth was I thinking it was free?  Nothing good in life is free! ; )  I think we were supposed to pay the first half of tuition, but I was totally dense, and didn't know till we were driving home.  Um..I hope I can pay late?  And they have uniforms: one for casual, and one for performing.  heehee  I hope my boy stays as brave as he has been.  (He has a speaking part for his upcoming school musical too!)


And Ethan?  He's great-loving his Rainbow School (yes, he nicknames all of them) (it's really St. Vincent de Paul).  He has show and tell every week, and for "A" he took dogs (wrong, right?) for Animals (but he couldn't remember to call them animals!), then for "B" he took a baseball (yay, the parents finally get it!), this week is C, and I feel sure he'll take a car. : )  He only has a billion.  I'm just thrilled he loves it, and doesn't look back when we take him. (I know, kinda sad, but then you don't w-o-r-r-y!)  And my sweet friend Betsy and I are carpooling to Rogers, and it really helps on time.  If she moves to Rogers by Christmas (her plan), then we won't need to carpool anymore. : (  But she needs to be up there for her family.  Keep them in your prayers!

We have had two weeks of PRE (Sunday School) now, and I will just say it wears me out!  The kids are awesome-really!  I just love that age (second grade), and they are still game to be Adam and Eve or Elizabeth and Mary up front=*love*!  I have found my equal-or actually she's better!  I'm teaching with my friend Tiffany-and I didn't realize that someone could cover more in less time than I could, but she does! : )  She has set her sights bigger than me, and by golly she can do it.  We whiz through our time, and have a parent line after class waiting to check their kids out.  Our kids are gonna be so smart come spring! ; )

I made them all those little paper bag scrapbooks to use for the sacraments.  We gave them an assignment to fill out the first page: their baptism.  And to bring a picture for homework! : )  They are all sweeties.  We have one who hasn't been baptized, but he will be before spring, they are working on it. ; )

So..I'm still Carrying On.  I don't have an appointment tomorrow...Boo!  But I go on Thursday.  He wanted to try to skip one week of ultrasound, in case.. (something happens and I have to pay for all my ultrasounds-my insurance only covers it all if I deliver, if not..it's all mine.)  So, we agreed to go a week and a half, then maybe another week and a half (if I can do it!), and by then we should be able to hear it on doppler (free!).  Today is 8 and a half weeks.  I'm thrilled to be this far, but am nervous to take it for granted yet.  Another month or two...then maybe.  I feel totally fine though (other than the ability to sleep on the way home from lunch, just across town!).

I told my darling daughter (after some heavy, guilt-inducing pressure-by her, and a lot of leading questions-that girl is smart!), but I haven't told the boys.  I don't know why-maybe because they never ask?  Or because there was never a big "announcement" to the kids?  I'm thinking after 12 weeks.

Hope you have a blessed week!  Each day is precious, please let us appreciate it. : )