What the heck?

I know I don't post much anymore but I am changing my email (after 8 years of the same account it's overflowing with junk and spam) and I wanted to change the email associated with my blog. But Blogger (which is controlled by Google) won't let me change to my new gmail account. Whatever.

Help Me Help Devon and Others!!

Help us support/honor Devon and stomp out blood cancers like leukemia!

The Light the Night Walk is at Victory Field on October 16, 2010. Check in is at 5pm, walk starts at 7pm.
If you want to join my team and raise money and walk, click here and at the bottom click on JOIN http://pages.lightthenight.org/in/Indianap10/DevonLeDune

If you'd rather just donate money but not walk or raise money please click here (and on the right you can choose to donate) http://pages.lightthenight.org/in/Indianap10/ARouse

Each team member has a goal of $100 and our team's goal is $500. I want to reach that goal and surpass it in Devon's name!! Will you join or donate? THANKS!!!

Sounds like it will be a neat night!
Every Light The Night walker is encouraged to become a Champion For Cures by raising $100 or more to help people fighting cancer live better, longer lives.
A Champion For Cures will receive night-of-walk benefits including a:
Light The Night t-shirt
Light The Night illuminated balloon
Wristband which entitles the walker to food and refreshments

How to become a Champion For Cures Raising $100 is easy!
Send your online fundraising webpage to 20 or more people and ask each person for a donation of $10 or more. Even if only half of the people donate $10 or more, you will have raised $100 and most likely more.

Funds raised by teams and individual walkers provide:
-Lifesaving blood cancer research
-Free educational materials and events for patients and their families
-Local programs such as Family Support Groups and First Connection, a peer-to-peer counseling program
-Comprehensive, personalized assistance through our Information Resource Center

Quick facts about Walk night:
-Illuminated balloons, Light the Night T-shirts and a wrist band entitling walkers to enjoy food and refreshments are provided to all walkers who become a Champion For Cures by raising $100 or more to help fight blood cancer.
-The Walk is done at a leisurely pace and take less than an hour to complete.
-Strollers and wheelchairs are welcome. However, for everyone's safety, bicycles, inline skates, wheelie footwear, skateboards and scooters are not allowed.
-Walks take place rain or shine.
-Pets? Please check with the nearest chapter about bring pets.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS ALONG TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!! We need donations and we need more team members to join and raise money!! I hope I'm not the only one walking that evening!!

Trying to get the word out

I know I don't have many followers but I wanted to get this out there.

I am team captain of the Devon LeDune Team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk. Please help support Devon and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by either donating to my walk or joining the team and raising money/walking with me!

Would you consider donating to my Light The Night Walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and to support/honor Devon? My goal is $100 but I'd love to surpass that!
http://pages.lightthenight.org/in/Indianap10/ARouse

OR, I'd love to have you on my "team"!! Join my team and raise money with me and walk with me at Victory Field on October 16, 2010. To be on my team and raise money, click here.
http://pages.lightthenight.org/in/Indianap10/DevonLeDune

Please Pray for my sister-in-law, Devon

Just copying and pasting........

I will be sending this out to MANY people so there's a chance you'll get it more than once, sorry. My sister-in-law, Devon (married to my brother, Chad) just had her second baby on July 6. She had an infection that wasn't getting better like it should so they did some further testing and found out she has Acute Myeloid Luekemia (AML). Because of this being a faster growing/somewhat more aggressive leukemia, they have to start treatment today. If she were to not get the treatment she would be given about 30 days. She will get chemo for 7 days and be in the hospital about 30+ days. Today she got her hair cut real short so that it will be easier when it falls out. She got her port put in for the chemo to be given. She'll get the first dose of chemo Tuesday morning. She is not allowed any visitors due to the chemo wiping out her immune system and we have to protect her from infection. That means the hardest part about all of this will be that she had to say good bye to her almost 3 year old, Davus, and her 7 day old baby, Jove today and she won't see them for the 30 days. If she responds to treatment, she has a 90% remission chance and a 50-70% cure chance. We are liking those numbers! While all of this is so very shocking and sad, we know that God had a hand in this. We know God didn't GIVE Devon leukemia but he's working miracles already. If she had Jove and then just went home the leukemia would have progressed but the symptoms would probably have been written off as "you just had a baby, of course you're tired" so we are so very grateful that God showed the infection and the leukemia to the doctors so that they can get a jump on this. Please pray, put Devon (and Chad, Davus, and Jove) on prayer chains, etc. Pray for healing, peace, faith. They are of course in shock, numb, angry, scared, and about every other emotion you can even begin to imagine during all of this. Devon is the most beautiful, precious, spirited, funny, spunky, wonderful person you can ever imagine and I know God will carry her through this. But she needs your prayers more than anything. She can not have visitors, she can't have food/flower/plants (anything with dirt or water) but she CAN have cards and emails.

Hello, my name is Mandy and I'm a terrible blogger.....

I think the first step in getting help is admitting there's a problem, right? :)

Just popping on to post a picture of my kids! Taylor just turned 5!

Update on the boys who were burned

Here's the email I sent out today about the boys who were burned.

Our social worker went and saw the boys at Riley (8,7, and 3 that got burned in that house fire). The oldest are on the vent still and have the worst burns. The Kindergartener here has burns to the muscle. The 3 year old isn't on the vent but has burns over 45% of his body but they aren't as deep. Three year old and seven year old have developed infections. Right now they just need lots of prayers. Their immediate needs are being met by the hospital.
The dad is not able to comprehend much about middle school level so all of this is really overwhelming him. His mom is there and very supportive. They are obviously on the burn unit and the boys are in three consecutive rooms. We've given dad some money that he's going to use to buy a parking pass at Riley. He's in the RM House so he's getting meals. We gave him a gas card too. They are going to be there at least two months. Dad's lost all of his clothes. If you have anything he's a 32x32 and large-XL shirt (he's only in his 20s so younger hipper type stuff) If you have anything else you'd like to donate, let me know and I"ll get it to them.
Please pray for them. It's still very bad.

Please Pray for these Boys

Please read this story and pray for these boys. The seven year old is a student at my school. I know what it's like to have your child on life support and in a medically induced coma. I can't imagine adding the pain of burns and skin grafts. :(
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12258133

Happy Easter 2010

Just Needing Lots of Prayers for Friends

My heart is heavy right now as I think of those in my life who need prayer.

*Daycare providers young teen daughter is in PICU with RSV complicating her severe asthma. God is great that there's a neighbor near provider's home that will watch my kids and I totally trust.

*Lady at work has a one year-old grandson who is in hospital with respiratory distress, bronchiolitis, and RSV (boy, those names sure hit a nerve with me!)

*A friend of a friend has cancer and it's getting much worse. Friend is afraid that they will lose her soon.

*A colleague/friend at work has cancer that has spread from breast to lungs to brain and now in spine.

Dear God, I just lift all of these people (and the many more that I can't even begin to list here) up to you Lord and ask that you heal and comfort them.

Please Pray for Bronson

http://www.stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/

That's what I call customer service!!!

Back in Dec. I bought some Just Kidz brand (Kmart) doodle boards. Great price but they were all defective (I bought 10 for the daycare). I contacted the buyer for this brand, Y. Sagol and he apologized but I didn't expect much more (I had gotten my money all back). Fast forward to today.........
I open the door and have to sign for a package. It's a big box from Hong Kong! In it were doodle boards (12 of them!) plus a projection board (the kind with a light to help the kid trace stuff) and a letter from Soma International Ltd. saying they had fixed the problem with the boards and are sorry for the inconvenience and here are some ... See Morereplacements plus another gift. WOW!! I'm totally impressed! The boards all work so the daycare will get their Christmas gift on Monday. Taylor loves the projection board.WELL DONE Y. Sagol and Soma International Ltd. That's what I call customer service!!!
I won't hesitate to buy from the Just Kidz brand any more!

Videos

I should be doing Progress Reports, but I'm not. I should be reading for book club, but I'm not (it's The Shack and I have to read it before next Thurs. but I'm just not into it...this is second time I've tried to read it). I will try to read some tonight though!
I am playing on Facebook and reading blogs.
I'll leave you with some videos of cuteness (yes, I'm biased).
Oh, and did you see this? So proud of my school system for making national news (insert sarcasm here).
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/35224766/
Grady laughing (and at the end accidentally kicking the phone...listen to him say "Sorry Mom") and then Taylor having to get in on the action too! :)

Please Pray for Aly

I have a cousin (2nd or 3rd, doesn't really matter though) named Aly. She's 15 and just found out she has stage 3 large cell lymphoma. Visit this link to join her Facebook prayer group.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=274895564197&ref=nf

I know she and her family would appreciate any and all prayers.

MLK Day: A Day of Memories and Celebration

Below you will find a link to last year's MLK post and a link to the story of all Grady went through. This year as I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in a bit on my day off from school and as I smile listening to my kids play, I am reminded of how different things were two year ago. MLK Day was Jan. 21 in 2008. I was scheduled to go back to work from maternity leave on the 22nd. You can read the rest of that on the links.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't count my blessings and realize how differently things could have turned out. There were times in the hospital that the doctors told us they had no experience with Grady's situation, they had no answers, they didn't have a prognosis for the future. Without his blood transfusion (among many other medical interventions) he was very close to dying. Side note: please give blood! It truly does save lives! I just gave Saturday and I'll give once again when my 56 days are up. There were times when we thought he'd never eat by mouth. I could go on and on, but I won't. Because, just like every other day since his journey began, I choose to celebrate instead of dwell. Today, I listen to Grady playing a triangle and calling it a square. I listen to him arguing with Taylor. I watch him coloring pictures. I laugh with him and as he laughs. I get aggravated with him as he keeps doing things I tell him not to do. I roll my eyes as he pretends to be a baby so that Taylor can be his mommy. I laugh at his powdered sugar covered face from donuts at breakfast (yeah, healthy, I know). Right now he's yelling, "Ride'em cowboy, weehaw!" and running through the living room. He needs a diaper change if the smell is any indication! :) He's rotten to the core, smart as a whip, a little parrot with everything Taylor does and says, a singer and hugger and kisser and giggler. We still have to do asthma meds, he still gets gagged easily...but compared to what others have to go through and what his life could have been, I know that we are infinitely blessed and I don't ever want to forget that. To this day (two years has never seemed so long ago or so close) I can still hear/see/feel/smell the 40+ days at Riley. I can picture it all. I don't eat Cinnamon Melts from McDs without thinking of our first breakfast there in the PICU on Tuesday morning. I can't smell certain hand sanitizers or soaps without being transported back there immediately. I can picture the halls, the people, the rooms, everything. It's finally not something that causes me to feel sick, it's just memories. It's a reminder of where we were and where we've come. I would never wish for Grady to be sick but I have learned so much from it all. The lessons have been many but the main thing I have learned is that God carried us through, made us all stronger, and will continue to carry us through.

So, this MLK Day, I leave you with this picture of Grady (and let you know that he's singing The Wonder Pets theme song while playing with his toys!) :) The green cape he has on is a Wonder Pets cape that Grandma Beth made.

MLK Day 2009 http://breathingsoundssoeasy.blogspot.com/2009/01/mlk-day-2008-vs-mlk-day-2009.html

Grady's Journey

http://breathingsoundssoeasy.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-had-planned-on-posting-this-in-jan.html

Bop to the Top

My friend is in a run-walk-crawl up to the 32nd floor of a local building in order to raise money for our local Riley Children's Hospital. Since Grady spent so many days there in such poor health and so many kids are treated at Riley this is a really special place to me. If you'd like to donate to sponsor my friend (Megan) in the Bop to the Top you can go here and pledge a donation.
http://www.firstgiving.com/MeganKing1