Success!

We had a great bake sale today! We ended up raising a little over $400. The weather warmed back up today so we quit a little early. All of our chocolate goodies were melting and we were getting a little sunburned. It all went great and we received a lot of compliments on both the food and our set-up. I think the extra effort we took in our presentation really paid off. Thanks to everyone who helped make and eat our baked goods! My homemade dog treats were a bit hit as were the great cake bombs and brownies some wonderful friends made for us.

The next sale will be on October 10th at the Atascocita Kroger (West Lake Houston/1960).

Getting Ready for the Bake Sale!

Baskets of Goodies
Walnut Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Cookies!

Cupcakes!

I'm excited about tomorrow...and SO nervous! Much love went into making all the goodies, so I hope people will come and enjoy them.

Looks like the insomnia is back again. I think the stores putting all the holiday merchandise out so early is really getting to me. Jason and I both stayed in a lot this week and seemed to struggle more than usual. Funny how you have a good day and then follow it up with a bad week. We both miss our boy so much. I have new flowers for his grave, but I can't bring myself to go out there. I know I can't handle it right now. I've been out there plenty in the past, but for some reason, I can't go right now.

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the month of October and it hasn't even arrived. I have another class that meets on Thursday nights, my normal Saturday class, a cardmaking class, a party to throw, and 2 bake sales. On top of that, I need to study for the content test I have to take soon for the teaching program. You would think with all that going on I'd be staying busy, but I'm not. I just sit and stare at the computer or TV. My motivation is ZERO right now. I hope I can get all of my baking done on Saturday for the sale we are doing on Sunday. Wish me luck...or at least some good friends who will rescue me from the blahs.

Bake Sale Poster!

Just wanted to share the poster I made to put on the bake sale table. I hope we can use it for all the sales.

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here.

It is getting tough to leave the house again. All the stores are pushing Christmas so early and just the sight of it really tears my heart open all over again. I even cried walking past the Halloween costumes at Target this week. I'm not sure how you find joy in any holidays when you are missing the one thing that made you be excited about them again. I miss my baby boy so much. I have been trying to put together a post for the bake sale today and I can't look at pictures without breaking down. I don't want to be fundraising. I want to be playing, reading books, teaching, kissing, loving. What did I do to get crying instead?

On a more positive note, we now have 3 bake sales planned in our area. Sept 27th, Oct 10th, and Oct 18th. So many thanks to our friends Bill, Rebecca, and Sara for helping us get that set up and agreeing to work them with us. A big thank you goes out to my friend Brandi and her gang up in Maryland. They will be having a fundraiser night at Waffle House on Oct 24th to help us raise money for Unite for the Cure. Waffle House is donating 20% of their profits from all sales between 4 and 9pm. How awesome is that? It sounds like they have a few more plans going too, so I'm excited to have them helping us out.

I also want to thank my wonderful mom. She has been working so hard up in Kentucky to help fight SMA. She has already sold all 227 of her cook books and has more sold if we decide to reorder. She has had a bake sale and garage sale and raised over $400 as well. She's been working hard and I'm so glad she's fighting alongside us. I love you Mom. I love all my family up there who have been helping her. Keep going guys!

Good Night Beautiful Dallyce

SMA claimed the life of another beautiful baby girl today. Such a beautiful angel. Keep fighting with me so I don't have to post this anymore. We want happy stories filled with cured babies. I hate to know we have added another family to our angel group. It is very heartbreaking.

Few Random Pictures

After almost 4.5 years, one wall in the living room is finally NOT white! Jason painted this wall as an accent wall. We have a lighter color to go on the rest of the room. I'm very excited.

Jason brought me this beautiful gift last night! We always seem to miss the roses in the backyard. They die before we got to see how pretty they are. He found this perfect one and brought it in for me. I love him so much. So thoughtful and sweet.

Someone was very interested in Animal Planet the other night!

Best Buddies

Believe it or not, we are almost out of cook books! I think Mom has less than 20 left up in Kentucky and we are running pretty low here too! I'm so happy that we are selling them so fast. We are considering doing a reorder, but I need to see if there is still a demand before we do that. Thanks to everyone who purchased one! I hope you'll come back and tell us which recipes are your favorites.

I totally forgot to update about the weekend! It started raining a lot here in Texas last week and the weekend called for even more rain. We ended up rescheduling the bake sale. I debated and debated, but the rain chance for Sunday kept moving from 30% to 50% and finally up to 60%. We didn't have any type of canopy to sell under, so I figured it would be best to try it later. Our new date is mid-October and I'm excited. We are going to do a Halloween-themed sale and it should be fun and draw lots of attention!

Thanks to everyone who has sent money for books! Jason mailed 3 to New York, 1 to Pennsylvania, and 5 to Ohio today!

Garden Pests

These cutworms are having a blast feasting on my tomatoes. For some reason, this has been the years of pests for us. We've had bag worms on our crab apple, these things on the tomatoes, and the usual fire ants that are a staple in Texas.

Cats and cards

My craft room buddy.
I had already packaged this one, but wanted to still share it.
I wish we had fall colors down here...

One of my new favorites

Purple crab

Cards

I need to learn how to take better pictures of my cards, but I wanted to share more of them. We are selling more of them than what I even imagined, so hopefully we will earn a little money for Unite for the Cure. I just enjoy the distraction and going to do crafts with Rebecca. The donations are a bonus. :)

Behold the Power of the Internet....

Paper crafts have been a great escape for me lately. Making cards gives me something else to concentrate on and keeps me from thinking about other things so much. One of the best resources I've found for this hobby is called Splitcoast Stampers. They have message boards and a very organized gallery that is so wonderful to get ideas. I was recently reading about a new technique and clicked a link to visit the blog of one of the ladies on SCS. After looking at her amazing work, both cards and scrapbook pages, I left a comment.

Not long after that, I received an email from a lady named Sara...it was her blog I had visited. She creates digital designs for photos and they are amazing! You can add a border to your digital photos or chose your favorite picture and use the Christmas templates and have your Christmas cards ready to print! I am of course clueless about how that all works, but I know we have some smarter folks who visit our blog...

Now you need to visit Sara's blog because she is donating the Sept/Oct sales of her templates to Unite for the Cure! How amazing is that?? I love when strangers reach out to help. We have been touched by so many people over the past 8 months and it just keeps happening!

Thank you so much, Sara!!

Help, Help, Help...

Please don't forget there are currently two donation opportunities we really need everyone to participate in! One is Unite for the Cure...we are way behind the other families, so be sure to go help us out, even if it just $5!

The second is my weight loss fundraiser, Weigh to Go For SMA! I lost another 1.6lbs last week, so help keep me motivated by either making a one-time donation or send me a note and pledge an amount per pound that I lose!

We can't do this without your help!

I am waiting on one missing divider to come in from the cook book publisher and then I will start mailing them out! You have 2 options of paying:

1. Mail a check to me, including $3 for shipping on one book, or $3.25 for two books. (One can still be mailed first class, but two need media mail) If you need more than 2, email or comment here and I can work on finding a box and getting a shipping cost for you.

Send to:
Rita Wright
18131 Pagemill Point Ln
Humble, TX 77346.

2. You can use the PayPal link on Through Eli's Eyes. Just be sure to include your address and that is it for cook books (you can do that if you click "add special instructions to the seller" on the checkout page).

$12 per book, plus shipping. :) Thanks so much!

Today, well, yesterday now that it is after midnight, was a bad day. I was so down most of the day and I had no idea why. It didn't hit me until I went to bed...it was the 2nd. Even if I'm not aware, I know. I know I should be celebrating my child turning another month older...but I'm not. Instead my mind knows I am mourning yet another month that my arms are empty, that my heart is broken. It doesn't matter if I consciously think of it or not, I know. 13 months...I don't even know anything about a 13-month-old. I don't have a clue what I am missing. All I know is that this still sucks. This is still unfair. This is still not what my life is supposed to be.

The DeLorean Motor Company is now located about 10 minutes from my house, but I know the chances of one of them taking me back to the future are nil. If there was even a hope, I'd be pouring my life savings out to buy that damn car. If only life were like the movies sometimes....