An Amazing Day In Words & Pictures

Race for Wishes 2011 Team Pink

For so many reasons, I am incredibly proud of my children.  The last few months though, as we made plans for this day, a day to honor Alexa, that pride has grown & grown.  As they discussed ways to honor their friend that they miss so very much, their love for Alexa & the Aigner’s has shown so very brightly.

While I may have done much of the footwork involved, ALL that we did yesterday was their idea….their vision of honoring Alexa and giving back.  And it was AWESOME!!

Team Pink’s Fearless Leader for the Race for Wishes 2011

 My girls in all their pink….

That bandanna on Abby’s wrist has been an ever present memorial to Alexa since before we lost her.  It’s with Abby when she rides her bike for the Ride for Wishes in the fall and anytime she is doing something that requires strength.

The morning was beautiful….not too warm, not too cold with sunshine and a mild breeze.  As we sat waiting for our Team to arrive, it was hard  not to smile as I watched my kid’s in all their pinkness!!

We could not have been more excited to see the Aigner’s and share all the goodies we had for the Walk to make sure everyone knew who we were walking for…..

The Aigner's

And we were SO excited to meet the newest addition to the family, Holly. 

Little Zach & Holly

While we may not have raised the most money, or had the biggest team, this group had some serious spirit going on!!!

Race for Wishes 2011 TEAM PINK

Shortly after crossing the start line, we released our pretty pink balloons up to Alexa.  We felt her very much there in spirit!!!

Walking for Wishes….

Crossing the finish line was reason to celebrate!!!

Celebrate indeed!!!

TEAM PINK 2011

It was something special to see Crys, Zach & Holly together….

And the reason for this morning, for this walk…..the Wish Kids….

Like last year, I needed a pic of my kiddo’s….

 

And our family pic for the morning…..just the way I like any picture of me, from the back….LOL

After a pit stop for lunch at Good2Go Taco, we were off to Trinity Hall Irish Pub for St. Baldrick’s!!!

St. Baldrick's 2011

 Zach & Chance “before” shot…..

Chance & Zach St. Baldrick's 2011

Team Cancer Sucks/St. Baldrick’s bling….

We were so very blessed to have an awesome group with us throughout the day!!!

The cheers were deafening as our boys got on the stage to start the process…..

And the shaving began….

Visions of the future….

We decided Chance looks like the monster from Young Frankenstein….LOL

Zach dubbed this, “business in the front, party in the back”

But what they did to Chance, well, it WILL go down in history I am sure…..it was THAT good!!!

The hats made the look I think….

It was at the point that the boys were sent from the stage to raise $150 to have this awesome look not be permanent…..their friends love them and they had their cash in less than 5 minutes!!!  I think the emcee was wishing she had said $300 at least!!!  LOL

The end result was, as it was last year, AWESOME!!!

Team Cancer Sucks 2011

Thanks to all that helped make this day special!!!! 

Thank you Aigner’s for giving us this chance to celebrate your little girl.

It was an amazing, incredible, awesome day!!!

Can You Possibly Say No To These Faces?

Realistically, those faces to the left, yeah, I can definitely say no.  But THESE precious faces?? 

I think not!!!  And I suspect you won’t be able to either…..and I am USING THAT!!!

These faces….

No…..saying no to these faces just isn’t happening.

For today, THESE are the faces of the kid’s asking you to join us in supporting them on Team Pink at the Race for Wishes, and Team Cancer Sucks this Saturday!!! Just click on the link at the top right of the page to go directly to their Team Pages!!

Most importantly, THIS is the face of the little princess we are honoring with both these teams…..

Please help us make it special and successful!!!!

Registration is only $25 for the Race for Wishes if you register by tomorrow at noon…..$35 the day of the walk. 

Chance needs some serious donations for giving up that beautiful head of hair!!!

JOIN US….DONATE….HELP US PAY IT FORWARD!!!!

Supermoon, Housekeeping & Gut Instinct

Photo by techgenie.com

What an amazing sight!!  I wish I could take credit for the photo above, but I am not in possession of a camera capable to capturing it so well, so I am happy to rely on others for preserving the memory.

It WAS a beautiful moon to see and we enjoyed talking about it.  Did you know there are lunar time zones?

We enjoyed it even more because we were with friends for the evening.  Yes, Madison and I ventured out of these four walls for a little while Saturday night.  It was one of the few times in the past week with Miss M, she is just feeling THAT bad right now. More on that in a bit though.

We were invited to come and help celebrate a friends new US citizenship (he’s a Canadian), and jumped at the chance to spend some more time with this couple, as well as several other co-worker’s my dearest husband has that we LOVE.  Good food, a little wine (for me), and lots of entertaining conversation is so very invigorating.  The kids were the only young people there, and as always, thoroughly entertained all the grown ups….even if they did share stories and songs I thought were for our ears only…LOL.  Oh what people must think sometimes after a few hours with this crew!!  LOL  It was a lovely evening and Madison did “okay” with the exertion.  Emotionally, she and I both needed to get out, so in that way, it was the perfect evening.  Sitting on the back porch, enjoying the weather….laughing as the dog jumped in the pool or had the ball thrown over, and over, and over….laughing and loving on our friends….AND a supermoon!!??  Awesomeness.

{Housekeeping}

Just a couple of things before I move on…..

PLEASE join us or donate to our teams for the Race for Wishes and St. Baldrick’s at the links at the top right over there.  We only have 5 more days and need some help!!

Note at the upper left that Blogger now has an option where you can enter your email and receive notifications as well as the latest blog post in your email box!!  Go ahead, go for it, I know you want to<grin>.

{Gut Instinct}

I really have a love-hate relationship with my gut instinct.

When it comes to Madison, it’s just far too right most of the time, and it’s never what I want it to be.  I successfully ignore it far too frequently…..or wish just once it would be all wrong.

At the moment, my gut is screaming at me.  Continuing to ignore it doesn’t seem possible, and I suspect I will be calling our pediatrician tomorrow morning to see about getting Madison checked over.  We are one month out since the mono diagnosis and she is just getting worse!!  She hasn’t felt up to aquatic therapy two weeks in a row, has not felt up to going out and spending a couple of days at my mom’s, and really just has not moved much at all.  I insisted we get some school work done last week and while she had been struggling to get more than an hour in before, after about 20 minutes last week she was in an autonomic crises…flushing, overheated, nauseated with increased blood pressure, heart rate and respirations!!  And it hit fast and hard and took her at least 15 minutes to settle back down again.  Not good.  And as telling as anything else, she is being cuddly, wanting to snuggle regularly….while I LOVE me some snuggle time with my girl, this is SO NOT Madi anymore and I know it’s because she is just feeling so cruddy.  She actually managed the outing Saturday night better than I expected, no doubt in part because Brandy was letting her snuggle with her, but as we started working towards getting out the door she hit her wall and needed to leave right then.

My suspicion is that she might be anemic……far too much bleeding the last week or so between an insanely heavy cycle, 2 GI bleeds, and she’s bruising at her injection site again.  This might actually be the easy, best answer, but we won’t know till we get some labs done and see. 

It’s times like these that I worry the most about her heart having something to do with what’s going on.  It’s just so incredibly complicated to have a child with cardiomyopathy AND mito……the overlap in symptoms is just too insane to even begin to know what to look for.  The thing is, there is just no way to know….and I hate that….and it scares me.

I am just going to keep thinking anemia and try to get some help figuring it out.  She is worrying me though….and I hate my gut instinct at times like this.  And am, at the same time, grateful it’s so good when it comes to Madison.  UGH!!!

Grateful for a good one with Madison, in large part because it sucks so badly when it comes to Abigail.  I just cannot get a bead on that girl, and am regularly surprised when I learn she has been dealing with something for a while that she has failed to mention and that I have failed to pick up on.  It all eventually comes to a head though and I learn more than I ever wanted to know.

This last week, it came to a head.  Abby’s tummy is just barely working and it turns out she has been having headaches regularly, something she conveniently failed to mention to me.  She is an ignorer that girl…..and it’s enough to make this mom a little crazy.  I always understand her so much better when the real story finally comes out, but boy does she hate to give the medical stuff even a moment of her attention.  I am SO with her, but know it has to happen.  I just wish I could read her better.

We have a busy week this week….at least compared to the last couple.  All three see their motility GI tomorrow, Chance has an appointment with the pain clinic Wednesday, and I suspect I’ll be getting Madison in to see the pediatrician sometime this week too.  Please pray she can tolerate what we have on the agenda, and that we come away from these appointments with useful information.  Thanks as always!!!!

JOIN US!!! {WCMADW: All For Alexa}

Alexa

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE WEEKEND: Make A Wish & St. Bladrick's Foundation

As crazy as it is, we will be participating in TWO events in the same day this month.  On the morning of March 26^th, we will be a part of the Fun Walk at the Race for Wishes, benefiting The Make A Wish Foundation of North Texas.  That afternoon, Chance will be SHAVING HIS HEAD to benefit The St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

What makes perfect sense about it is that we are getting the chance to honor Angel Alexa at BOTH events…..what could be more right than that!!??

Alexa

Our family was blessed to meet, get to know, and fall in love with the Aigner’s back in 2007. They are an amazing, beautiful, strong family that continues to inspire us all.  Warrior Alexa fought a courageous battle, with her family, against Neuroblastoma. Along the way they touched so many, and became a very special part of our lives.  Alexa earned her angel wings in June 2008.  Our hearts will never be the same without her.

The Girls Wish Night 2008

We met the Aigner’s through the Make A Wish Foundation of North Texas, an organization that means so very much to us, as it does them.  So honoring Alexa while supporting such an amazing organization just makes so much sense.  Madison had the idea, and she & Abby have worked hard to get ideas together on how to honor this special little girl that day. This organization has touched so many family’s lives, not the least of which is ours & Alexa’s.

Alexa

Join TEAM PINK

We would love for you to join us that morning to walk in honor of Princess Alexa. WEAR PINK & YOUR TIARA’S!!! If you cannot make it out, we would so appreciate a donation to help us towards our goal. Just click on the link above to go directly to our team page.

Madi & Alexa

Abby & Alexa

Join TEAM CANCER SUCKS: Chance McNair

Alexa & Her Daddy 2008

Alexa shaving Dad's head 2008

We were honored to be able to attend our first St. Baldrick’s event to watch the handsome Zach shave his head for the first time in 2008.  As you can see, Miss Alexa could not have been prouder of her Daddy!!!  St. Baldrick’s is an amazing organization raising funds for childhood cancer. Only the US government provides more funds for research!!!

Crys loving on her man

As heart breaking as it was, we were blessed to again be there to see Zach shave his head in 2009.  While there that day, Chance with all his hair, decided that he would not cut his hair for the following year so that he could shave his head in honor of Alexa in 2010.

Team Cancer Sucks supporters 2009

Zach & Chance 2010

The boy’s hair was already unruly and long to start with, and it grew and grew over the next year.  And when the day came, he had himself a HEAD FULL of hair for sure.

So much hair in fact, that he had enough to donate it to Locks For Love!!  Yes folks, that’s TEN inches of hair!!!!

Chance sings 2010

A bit shocked 2010


 

Chance worked hard to raise money, exceeding his goal, and gave up all that hair willingly in honor of a special little girl, alongside her Dad and fellow teammates on Team Cancer Sucks!!

Team Cancer Sucks 2010

Zach & Chance 2010

Thank you Zach for giving Chance this opportunity to do something…to make a difference….for Alexa, for the other kiddo’s we’ve known and lost to cancer, and for those still fighting the good fight.

Another year of no hair cuts and Chance has a head full of hair again…..not quite as much as last year, but still a lot!!  Join us to see this special young man shave his head again!!!

Hair 2011

We sincerely hope to see you all there!!!  If not though, please do consider making a donation and please SHARE with others.  Help us exceed the goals we have set!!!

Angel Alexa…..you are ALWAYS in our hearts!!!

Alexa 2008

Pink for Alexa 2008

Abby's bike