Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon Week, a week to educate students about the use of drugs and alcohol. St. Gregory's School chose to help out the Foundation on Tuesday. The had a pajama dress up day and students were able to bring their favorite stuffed animal to carry for a $1 donation to the Foundation. They received over $80! Then, every class wanted to help out by making cards. I took the cards, stickers, ribbon, punches, paper, and other supplies to a room at the school where each class took turns decorating.
I didn't count how many cards they were able to complete, but there were lots! This is such a HUGE help since last time bagging we ran out of cards completely, so we have animals waiting to be bagged with cards. This will help give us a good head start on those. Thanks to all the participated and to Mrs Halley for organizing everything!

Pumpkin Carving

It's that time again ...

where we carve 3 pumpkins for 2 girls to enjoy.

Another in Heaven

Aunt Mae joined Abby in Heaven on Sunday afternoon and will be laid to rest today. I'm sure they have found each other by now and that Aunt Mae has passed along kisses from Grandma-Great.

Aunt Mae with Abrielle at 6 months. I have later ones of them together, but these are the ones that stick in my mind when I think of Aunt Mae. She is just so happy.

Homecoming Pictures

My computer and I were arguing about these pictures to include in yesterday's post. I finally gave up, but got them to work today. Here are pictures of building the float first, and then of Homecoming.

Warren and Mike building the picket fence.

Elly testing out the swingset.

Robert, Tim, and Marc putting up the sun.

Be A Kid Again

The Homecoming Parade went well, despite running out of goodies to hand out about halfway through the route. It ended up being a nice morning, so the crowd was larger than what we planned for. Thanks to everyone that came out and walked with us!

Wendy, Peggy, Shannon, and I then sold raffle tickets before the game in the tailgate area. We sold over $200 worth of tickets. If you haven't gotten yours yet, there is still time. The drawing will be on November 7th at the last home game.

Homecoming Plans

Here's the scoop for the Homecoming Parade. The float has to be lined up at 6:55 am, but we, the riders and walkers don't have to be there until 8:30. The parade itself starts at 9. We were not able to finish the float on Wednesday night, so we will meet again on Friday (tonight) at 7 pm at the COOP Tire Shop to finish up. We will be handing out little notebooks and baggies of crayons, so bring your baskets if you are wanting to help hand out goodies.

love you

I am really liking participating in the challenges at GoodGriefBlog as they are keeping me motivated to scrap in my Memory album, albeit that some of the challenges are hard to do. The current challenge is "Have A Conversation" and I found it to be a tough one for several reasons. I "talk" to my Abby every day, multiple times a day, so what would I say in a letter. Secondly, when I arrived at CMH that day, Abby was out of surgery and the news had already been given that she would not be able to survive her injuries. I was able to hold her hand and tell her how much I loved her, how much we would all miss her, but that I wanted her to go to Heaven where she could still run and play. I made her a promise that she would never be forgotten. Here is my layout for the challenge~

The picture is from October 2006 when we were carving pumpkins. I love this one of her and JackJack. The heart I masked and sprayed with a glimmer mist to try to give it a bleeding heart effect. My letter to Abby is in the envelope sticking out from behind her picture. Here is what it says~

To My Princess
Can you see how much Mommy loves you and misses you every day as you look down from Heaven? I sure hope you can because there is no way for me to put it into words for you to understand other than to say that I have a great big owie that no Band-Aid can fix. Mommy’s doing the best she can right now and I am not letting anyone forget you. I hope you can see the smiles on other kids’ faces because of you.
I know I tell you all the time, but I have to tell you again that I am sorry that you had to go to Heaven instead of me. I tried my best to keep us all here. I’m sorry.
How I wish I could have held you one last time that day and rocked you in my arms. How I wish for one more hug and one more kiss. How I wish for one more giggle and one more “I love you Mommy”. I know that Mommy tells you every day, but I love you so much. There will always be that spot in my heart just for you.
Until I get to see you again, I will keep telling you every day ~ LOVE YOU!
Mommy

Willow Springs Dues

My cousin Melanie Pitts is a teacher at Willow Springs High School and also the sponsor for the Pep Club. She helped the Foundation out again this year by asking students to bring things we need for their dues. Here's what she sent up to us ~
Thanks Melanie and Willow Springs!

Wedding Tears

Our girls love their Timmy! He has always been a part of the family and even lovingly referred to as Uncle Timmy. When they were younger, Mady and Abby would fight over him, each claiming that he was theirs and not the other ones. Timmy spent a lot of time with our girls and he was even one of Abby's special pallbearers. Well, Timmy got married this weekend and of course we are all so happy for him. But I also had tears. Weddings are just tough. Especially father-daughter dances knowing we won't get to have that with our Abrielle. It's also hard for me to watch Marc dancing with his other two girls when there should be three there fighting for their turn. Elly reminded me so much of Abby that night at the dance too. She was out on the dance floor all night long ~ clear up until the last song. It brought back so many memories of our little Abby dancing the night away.

Here's Elly with her Timmy~

Parade Prep

The Homecoming Parade is Saturday! We will be meeting on Wednesday night at 7 pm at the COOP Tire Shop to work on putting the float together. The theme is "Be A Kid Again" so we are going to make a playground. Bring your "playground equipment" and come help us decorate.

We have not been given a line up time yet, but I will let everyone know as soon as we do.

Ghost Stories

The last 4 books Mady has checked out and read from the school library have been ghost stories. Maybe there is no connection at all to our lives and she just likes reading this type of book, but we can't help but wonder why she keeps choosing these instead of the Shiloh books she was reading. I know she used to tell us she could hear Abby in the wind, but she doesn't anymore. Is she past that age of innocence where contact doesn't happen any more? Is she trying to process ways to reach her sister to still have conversations? We don't know and at moments wonder if we should be concerned. When we ask, she just says, "I don't know. I just like them I guess." It seems as if each day still brings something new, even after 2 1/2 years.

The Broken Chain

We little knew that morning
that God was going to all your name,
In life we loved you dearly,
in death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you,
you did not go alone,
For part of us went with you,
the day God called you home.

You left us peaceful memories,
your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you,
you are always at our side.

Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one,
the chain will link again.

--Author Unknown

Prayers for Deryk

Chris and Aron Degase's little boy Deryk was born with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) and has been in Children's Mercy Hospital battling RSV for two weeks now. He is improving but I am sure the family would appreciate prayers for this to continue. Here is the address for his CarePage and a site for more information on SMA. If his address does not work for you (not a member), go to CarePages and search for Deryk. You will have to register with your name, but that is it. Then the link on my blog will work anytime for you to check in on him.

https://www.carepages.com/carepages/deryk/

http://www.fsma.org/

The Little Things

There are still days that we are caught off guard by something, causing that lump to jump up in our throats and the tears to well up. Most of the time when this happens, it's not something big that has been planned out or anything we could have prepared for at all. It's always the little things that you just don't suspect.

At supper the other night, Elly was playing with her supper instead of eating it, and started making little circles in two different spots. As she was making one she had a little sing-song in her voice and was saying "Molly". The second spot of circles, she did the same thing, only saying "Abby". This just totally caught us off guard. We are not sure how she put the two together because we have never said that Molly was in Heaven with Abby or anything of the sort. (We asked each other to confirm) When Molly died, we simply told Elly that she went bye-bye and was all gone ~ terms she could understand. Plus, she doesn't talk about Abby unless she sees her picture and then she will tell you who she is, but that's it. Somehow though, the two were in the same thought process for her that night and brought tears.

~Also, we're having some computer issues, so bear with me until we get them figured out. ~

Donation

A family that recently had their little boy in the ER wanted to give back to the Foundation and here's what they gave ~

I love it when someone is touched and thankful for what the Foundation is doing and wants to make a donation!

Heaven Bound Balloon

The newest challenge at www.goodgriefblog.com was to get a kid's perspective. Thoughts swirled around of all the different takes I could have on this challenge, but I finally chose to do a layout on how Mady includes Abby in celebrations still. This is actually of the first time she decided to send a balloon to Heaven to Abby ~ her first birthday without her here.

The journaling reads ~ Sending balloons to Heaven for Abby is just one way Mady shares special days with her sister. This was at her 7th birthday and the first without Abby. 4/07

Three Rivers

There is a new show on CBS called "Three Rivers". It aired Sunday night at 8 pm and centers around organ transplantation. The show was really good and worked at showing both sides of the stories. Here is a link that will allow you to watch the episode or to read about the show ~ http://www.cbs.com/primetime/three_rivers/

It would be wonderful if this show helps expel some of the common myths about donation and helps bring more people to understand that lives can be saved. So, if you get a chance, try and catch an episode on Sunday night.

Quilt Signed and Quilted

The Northwest t-shirt quilt that Sew For Fun has worked on for a raffle to benefit Briley's Heart Cart and the Foundation is now signed! All the football players and coaches for the Bearcats have signed the shirt squares. The quilt has also been quilted with paw prints and looks so good! Take a look ~

Tickets are also available at JASS Salon in Maryville. Plus, someone will be set up in the tailgate area before each home game with the quilt and tickets.

On My Soapbox

I try not to drag out my soapbox much on this blog, but am going to subject you to a bit today. I was reading the Northwest Missourian this week and found the Stroller's article to be appalling. It was titled "Your Man say high school is over." The first sentence started my anger. It says, "Your man wants to know why freshmen aren't out getting drunk." Well, lets see, maybe because they are underage would be a good reason. It continue saying, "When I look back on my freshman year I can remember parties and got too drunk and don't remember some parties. Those were the best nights. I remember getting so drunk only because I had to take care of my girlfriend the night before and wanted to return the favor. Now that's true love ...." It goes on to end by saying, "Now I hope this has given all of you enough courage to find your way out of your dorm rooms, and go have some good times you'll never forget. Or if your lucky enough, you'll never remember." Wow! Should we just have a big freshman drunk fest to make the author feel better?! I cannot believe this was published! Yes they put a disclaimer on the bottom stating, "The Stroller has been a tradition since 1918 and does not reflect the views of the The Northwest Missourian." Northwest is a dry campus, yet they allow this anonymous author to try and add to the pressure already felt by these new college students. Is this author going to pay the fines for the MIPs these students receive? Is he going to be held responsible when they get behind the wheel? Cause an accident? Instead, these freshmen should be praised for deciding that the path of education is more valuable than the drunken memories the Stroller thinks they need to have.

Imate Coloring Books

While I was at the Treatment Center, I was presented with 220 coloring books the inmates put together for the Foundation. They used donated wallpaper samples for the covers and hand drew some of the pictures inside for the kids to color.

Here is offender Giles Chapman presenting me with some of the coloring books. He has worked hard at overseeing the making of these by himself and other offenders and I want to thank him for helping out the Foundation.

The back of each book is stamped to show that they were made through the facility's Restorative Justice Program.I wanted to show some of the wonderful artwork that is included in these books~

Treatment Center Presentation

Let me start by saying that I commend anyone that works in the prison system because I don't think I could do it. I thoroughly enjoy my freedom and would hate to give any of that up ~ meaning being let in and out of places.

When I first arrived and after passing through security checks, I was given a body alarm. I must admit that this made me a bit nervous. (I had a wonderful escort and bodyguard with me the entire time though. Thanks Tate:) Now let me qualify the next statements by saying that the only time I have actually been in a prison was last December for the parole hearing. So, I was surprised to see inmates walking the hallways as we entered the building. I truly did not feel like I was in a "prison", but was very apprehensive still. We went upstairs to the classroom when I gave my presentation to about 20 offenders, all in on drug and/or alcohol convictions. After I was done speaking, I took questions and comments. There were some good questions and I tried to stay off my soap box in answering them. The instructor said he could tell I made an impact on them. There was just silence in the room. One young man said that that could have been him a few years ago because of the life he was leading. I said that I hoped he has changed and would not fall back into that path. They also had questions on forgiving the offender. I told them that I think that each one of them needs to take responsibility for their actions that got them there and try to make ammends with the victims or their family, if they truly mean it. This was definatly a different experience than speaking at the docudrama, but it is another way to change lives for the better.