HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all that I am thankful for you. If you are here, reading this page, then I am thankful that you care enough to see what it's about.

I am also thankful that my child is not in the hospital, we are not in another city to be near the hospital, and that she is going to be running and playing with her cousins in a few hours, with the hours of chemo and hundreds of needle sticks FAR AWAY from her memory. Instead, she is going to be arguing over who is Cinderella, which one is getting the white purse, and who is going to dance with Prince Charming (her cousin Matthew)!

That is my number one on my Thankful list.

I do have another special prayer request: Stash Phillips is a 12-yr old from Semmes. He had a brain tumor, had it removed, etc at St. Jude and was in remission for 9 months until August 07, when another type of brain tumor came back. Instead of aggressively treating it, St. Jude sent him home since he cannot have another brain surgery and his options were very few. Since then, he has been getting a mild treatment at USA CWH (the local hospital) but has been getting really bad headaches. His mom took him to St. Jude earlier this week because the recent CT shows the tumor is not responding and also is getting bigger. So his mom is dealing with not only being in Memphis for the holiday, but also getting some pretty devastating news on the holiday. Please lift the PHILLIPS family up in your prayers. His website is here: Stash

That sorta depresses me, but at the same time, it is families like Stash's that I am doing this dinner for today! I met another mom yesterday, and an older patient too. I told him he could call ChemoMoms himself if he knew his mom was having a bad day and needed some encouragement. He & I planned to send his mom some flowers - he said her favorite color is blue. I went to Target yesterday, but I didn't have enough money on me to get the big blue/purple bouquet, so I have to wait until 3 weeks from now when he goes back in the hospital. I plan to take her some flowers then. I was so excited to actually hear a patient say, "I want my mom to have _______". I think things are picking up for ChemoMoms again! This event has been MUCH more productive, using MANY resources available. I even have someone from the hospital who will write out the thank yous for me! YAY!

OK, I need to get off this thing - we have 4 turkeys WAITING to be FRIED!

With HOPE AND THANKSGIVING!
Tammy

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

We have a little friend, Ethan, who is from Mobile but currently in Birmingham. He has gone into the PICU yesterday with a SEPTIC blood infection. You can read more details on his website. Please pray that he has the strength to fight this bad bug. He has been through more than my child in his short few years, including dying for a few moments and suffering severe brain damage.

The Thanksgiving dinner is plugging along...I think everything is in place, I just have to start checking off my to-do list, which happens to be about 6 pages long!!!

I am excited though, and I hope someone feels HOPE on Thursday. I don't know who, but I am sure someone there needs it.

If you still want to help, please donate money to ChemoMoms using one of the "Donate" buttons on the side bar. I delivered 3 baskets the other day, but I am completely out of digital thermometers so I don't have anything to take to the USS Hope.

With HOPE,
Tammy

It's ALMOST here!

UPDATE: Monday morning - Does anyone have any CLEAN empty ice chests I can borrow? I have to cook the food here and then transport it to the hospital. I plan to use ice chests, towels and those heat packs to pull this off! Let me know!

Yikes! I am starting to get a little nervous! I am sure this will pass in the day to come, because I usually am just fine when its time to get serious and pull this off. But today I can be nervous because I still have time!

I have learned over the past 6 months and 2 events or so at the hospital, have everything planned ahead of time, and this time I am even drawing a layout map for the people who are helping me so I can give them a goal. Usually I have everything in my head, but not this time. I have several pages in a notebook with who is bringing what, what do I need to pick up, who do I need to call, etc. I feel like a party planner!

Today I am putting the pans and food together. The green bean casserole lady gets a pan with her ingredients, the sweet potato casserole lady and the the corn casserole lady both get pans too. Plus my grandma is making COCONUT CAKE with frozen coconut! I had never heard of that until this weekend! So I need to drop that off for her since she doesn't drive.

And I STILL need to go by Port City Rentals & Honey Baked Hams. I don't know why I get nervous about doing that kind of stuff, I guess I hate being told no. But I am going to pray and think positively that whoever I see will want to help out. This time around, I haven't really needed any corporate assistance! Can you believe that? (well, if you don't count some help from the hospital), but I have not needed to ask any company to donate food, because everything has been provided! Yippee!

I am starting to make a list, "thaw dressing on Tuesday night", "pick up fryer from Craig's house", "chill cranberry sauce", "bring ladle for gravy, etc" How does Martha Stewart do it all?????!

With HOPE and EXCITEMENT,
Tammy
PS: ChemoMoms can still use your donations - I have used all the money that was given for donations (because mostly the items were given), so if anything comes up last minute, I will have to spend my own money (which is ok, but I am trying to keep ChemoMoms on its own!)

Need Food!!!

UPDATED: Friday, Nov 16 3:38 pm

Here it is - the weekend, and I think I have ALL the food donated!!! Yippee!
I went to the hospital today to go over some things and check out the site of the dinner. I was worried about renting some chafing dishes to keep the food warm, but guess what? There is a BIG buffet server with 4 pans and heat! PLUS a LARGE coffee pot! PLUS an ice machine! Praise the Lord!

I received a check today in the mail - thanks to MJ & her hubby - their daughter is a cancer survivor and they were very generous to help me in that way. I plan to use that money to buy the things I mentioned earlier, like the peanut oil and injector stuff for the turkeys.

Since my brother in law is loaning us his fryer, my husband will be able to fry 2 turkeys at a time that morning. Pray that the weather will cooperate since he has to do this outside at our house.

So have you been to Walmart today? Good grief - it is almost like the day after Thanksgiving already! I went at 9 am because I needed a couple of microwaveable meals and 3 thermometers to go in the 3 baskets I was taking to the hospital, and the grocery section was a mad house! I am going to send the kids off to grandma's tonight so I can venture back in Wally World sans kids. I got a good amount of decorations (thanks JT!) donated, so I hopefully only need to pick up a couple more tablecloths and candles/candleholders!


I am reposting the list of food we need donated and I am going to update this list as people let me know what they want to send. I am also going to put your initials if you are planning to serve, so folks will see how many people we still need to help.

Thursday, November 22 - the Jubilee Room at USA Children's & Women's, the room is reserved from 1 pm to 5 pm. The actual dinners should take place between 2 pm and 4 pm.

This is what I need donated:
FOOD:
turkeys (2 or 3) - we will be frying them earlier that day, if anybody wants to help do that, let us know! - ALL TURKEYS ARE DONATED!
pans of dressing (3-4) - ALL dressing is donated
sweet potato casserole - ALL sweet potato casserole is donated
green bean casserole - ALL green bean casserole is donated
mashed potatoes - ALL mashed potatoes are donated
potato salad - ALL potato salad is donated
cranberry sauce - ALL cranberry sauce is donated
gravy
rolls - ALL rolls are donated
assorted pies, traditional Thanksgiving desserts - 1 pumpkin roll is donated, 1 coconut cake is donated, 1 pecan pie and 2 miscellaneous desserts are donated
any other sides that you think would be appropriate - 2 dishes of deviled eggs are donated
sweet & unsweet tea (a few gallons) - All tea is donated
coffee (might be able to get some there at the hospital) - getting it from hospital

DECORATIONS:
Thanksgiving table arrangements - pretty much all decorations are donated
table cloths in fall colors - 4 table cloths are donated
any fall color candles/candleholders - some candleholders are donated

DISHES:
I am going to try to rent some dishes from the local rental supply place - they will even wash them!

SERVERS - UPDATED:
SG
MG
HG
CJ
VM
EM
BR
NM
RM
BS
CS

(let me know if you said you wanted to help and you aren't on this list!)


With HOPE (and LOTS OF HELP, I HOPE)
Tammy

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I have just received SEVERAL donations of GREAT items for ChemoMoms!! In fact, I think I have enough to use some items to make smaller goodie bags for the moms, wrapped up nicely, of course. If anyone still wants to send something, I shrunk down the list of things that I am just completely out of.....
DIGITAL THERMOMETERS (Walmart has some for $4.98)
Address Book/Calendar (can be a combo book, just remember to get 2008)
Mints/gum
Popcorn
Microwave Meals - I have seen some coupons for these lately. I didn't get a paper on Sunday, but if you find coupons, please let me know. You can mail them to me and when I get a chance to buy some things, I will be sure to use the coupons. (especially Hormel)

I will also post a list of food items that have been promised for Thanksgiving...it is slowly taking shape! Please comment if you want your dish added to the list!

With HOPE,
Tammy