Back home....

As soon as the party was over, we headed for the annual family vacation at Gulf Shores. We had a great time and the kids are nice and BROWN. We got home on Saturday and later that night, both kids were sick! Bryant is fine now and Colette had to go to the ped today to get antibiotics for an ear infection! But it is so nice to be back to "normal".

So I kept a copy of the newspaper article to show at the family reunion. Did anyone else see it? Does anyone have a copy I can have? I wanted to put one up at church, but I only have the one copy. It was in Saturday, July 5, on the front page of the Metro section. I have noticed several new locations on the blog so I hope something good comes from this media attention!!

The party was wonderful! I had so many helpers, it was really a busy time, but I didn't feel stressed about ANY aspect of it. Thank you to all of you who came and spent your evening figuring out what I needed done! ha! Believe me, I am learning what *not* to do with every event! I think it went well and I hope you will want to come back for another event!!!

I hope to have the photos uploaded in the next day or so. I did get photo releases on each child there, so I finally get to post the pics of our decorations and helpers!! If you were there and took photos, please email them to me so I can add yours to the album. My email is chemomoms@yahoo.com.

I think the kids (and parents) favorite part was the shave ice machine. Once the party was winding down and some clean up started, several of us loaded up 2 carts with all the extra burgers, chicken, chips and cokes and took them to the 4th floor. There were many parents who were unable to leave their child, so this is what I try to do to make ChemoMoms different. We pushed our carts down the hall, knocking on the doors and bringing the party to them! We took the balloons from the cafeteria and gave them to the kids, along with beanie babies provided by Child Life. The parents were (as usual) surprised that we offered the treats to them too. They would hesitate until we reassured them that it was for them too, and then you could see the expressions on their faces...I can't explain it, but I know how it feels. :D

The funny part was how many parents wanted snow cones! What is up with that? I am the same way! I always want a banana snow cone if I can get one. Maybe because we are all kids at heart! I will try to include the shave ice machine again in the next event, which will probably be a Movie Night in September.

Which leads me to the next big deal: September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Last year I made metallic gold stickers and passed them around my community. I also made real gold ribbon lapel pins (with the tie tack backs). This year I would like to sell them online to raise money for ChemoMoms. I scrapbook so I just used some of my tools at home and made gold ribbon stickers that were great to use on MANY things I mailed out last year. I just passed out the lapel pins (but they did take a lot of time and effort). I will try to get some pics of them and see if anyone is interested in buying them. I already have an order (thanks Megan!) that I will be shipping to Indiana when Megan holds her Alex's Lemonade Stand (which raises money for childhood cancer research).

I am also going to hit the hospital HARD to try to get them to raise gold ribbons all around the campus. I have some ribbon already (Hobby Lobby already has CHRISTMAS decorations!) so it is VERY easy to locate wide, wire-edged ribbon. Hopefully I can use the contacts I have at WKRG and the paper to get Mobile in on the "secret" about September!!!

The Movie Night is also in the works. I did one last year and it is MUCH less hassle than July 4th. Just have some popcorn, maybe the shave ice again, and play a newly released, family friendly movie and it is great.

Another dream I have is to have a luncheon for the hem/onc doctors, nurses and staff during the month to thank them for their tireless efforts and honor them for all they do. Maybe someone in the catering/restaurant business would like to help me do this. Of course, all donations are directed to USA Children's & Women's, so it would definitely be a charitable contribution to the hospital. I just get the idea going and do the legwork.

Let me know what you think about these ideas...I want to do more than just the one movie night this year.

With HOPE,
Tammy