Project 365 Day 14, 15, & 16

Pictures of bags?   That was the best I could do?   Well, those bags were FULL of pop tabs and sample-sized toiletries that friends and family had donated for the Ronald McDonald House.    Friday was the two year anniversary of Eli's death and we followed our tradition of purchasing the linking crab toys (200 this year) to donate to the children's hospital.   We drove up and made our two stops at RMH of Houston and Children's Memorial Hermann to drop off the items.   I guess that's better than sitting at home drowning in our sorry.  

Coffee is great.  Coffee with a friend is the most special of treats.  On Saturday I woke up early and headed over to my friend Fran's for some coffee and girl time.   Those are the mornings that I cherish the most.   I miss having a best friend so much.   I love just hanging out.  Just talking, sharing, getting out all the pent up frustrations or sadness that always build up.   Most everyone I know here has kids which means no time to do anything but parent.   To meet up takes much planning and most of the time, the kids have to tag along.    Obviously that's not the idea situation for me, so I'm lonely.   Very, very lonely.    I keep joking with Jason that we need to move and become urbanites, but lately I'm not sure that I'm really joking at all.   Suburbs are for families and we don't fit in.   I hate it.   Anyway, that's my pity party for the week.  Moving on...

Finally, here's how I spent my Saturday night and Sunday.    I made 4 sets of each of these to sell at the consignment shop and on Etsy.   I now have 4 things in my Etsy shop.  :)    Now if I can just sell something!

Well...our first fundraiser (other than the cook book) is official as of tonight. I am so nervous that I will pour my heart and soul into it and nobody will show up. I have no idea how to plan an event so we'll see how it goes.

On August 1st, please join in our Family 5K to remember our son who would have been celebrating his first birthday on August 2nd. We are asking everyone to come walk and then stay and share some coffee and snacks together. This year is a small event as we are just starting out, so we hope everyone can pitch in and bring a snack to share. All ages are welcome! Please come join us as we remember the little boy who changed our lives.

Date:
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Time:
9:00am - 12:00pm
Location:
Dussen Park
Street:
12303 Sonnier Street
City/Town:
Houston, TX

I owe many thanks to my friend Kim for taking care of the details and knowing what to do to make it happen.

I have been blessed with so many amazing friends down here in Texas. For years I cried to Jason about my lack of friends; I always felt so alone here. Now I have many friends who are all working so hard to keep Eli's memory and spirit alive.

How? Here's an example: Tonight I talked to Kim on the phone about the walk. I sent out the Evite and Sara then asks if she can invite more people in the area. After that, I checked my email and Robin had sent me an update that she's been working on the federal application for Through Eli's Eyes. Another email arrived shortly after that from Megan with some pictures of the website she's working on for TEE.

How lucky am I? I will go to bed in a happy mood tonight knowing that people do remember Eli and are willing to devote their time to help us keep on remembering and doing good things in his memory.

Through Eli's Eyes

I wasn't sure when I should write about this, but why not today?

A few weeks ago I got a message from a mom here in our area named Robin. She follows my blog (Hi Robin!) and was also in my child birth class last year. After I mentioned my frustration with not having an official organization or foundation to do my projects under, she sent me a note that she would like to help change that. She just so happens to be an attorney who currently has some extra time on her hands. How amazing is that? We met today and she gave me the paperwork to get started. I wish I had the words to express how much it means to me that someone cares enough about me, about Eli, about all the families affected by SMA to do something like this. I have shed tears of happiness each and every time I think about it. I will be eternally grateful for her help and support.

The foundation will be called "Through Eli's Eyes". My good friend Brandy, who traveled all the way from Baltimore for the funeral, sent me the name right after she arrived home from her trip here. She had already decided that a foundation would one day be started and had a name for it. In her email she said "it has double meaning. You were talking about how beautiful his eyes are and I was talking about how they express his personality. But it also can be that the children with SMA (that the funds will be supporting) are seeing life in the same way that Eli did". How could I not name it that after those words? Thanks Brandy.

In this journey of grief, I keep meeting so many amazing moms and families. I've talked about Laurie and Helen, now Robin, and some of you may go and read Victoria's blog that is on my sidebar. She and her husband Bill started the petition that we are always asking everyone to sign. If you have visited Eli's Our SMA Angels website, you have witnessed the work of my friend MJ, who has SMA but does so much to help out all the families and goes to college too! I love all of my fellow SMA folks, but I do wish we had all met under better circumstances. My love goes out to each of you tonight.

And a special thanks to Robin for sharing lots of beautiful baby smiles and laughs with me today.

Flyer

(Here is a flyer I made up to try and get some ads. If you need it, you should be able to copy it and paste it into MS Word. I have the file I can email out too!)

Help Cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy!

• Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the leading genetic cause of death in infants and toddlers.
• SMA is incurable, untreatable, fatal, and underfunded.
• 1 in 35-40 Americans are carriers. 1 in 6,000 to 1 in 10,000 infants are born
  annually worldwide with SMA.
  

This cook book is being done to honor Eli, who became an angel at only 5 months of age.

‘Cooking for a Cure’ is a great cook book being put together to raise money to help find a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. All proceeds from the book will go to FightSMA to help fund scientific research to end this horrible disease once and for all!

If you would like to help out, consider purchasing an ad in the cook book. It will be seen by many people around our area and all around the country. What a great marketing tool!

FULL Page: $75
1/2 PAGE (4 1/8" x 3 1/2") $45
1/4 PAGE (41/8" x 1 5/8") $30
PATRON Only the business or individual name will be listed – approx. 25-33 characters per line. $15

One small thing EVERYONE can do is sign the petition to urge our government to help fund research for a cure! You can find it at www.petitiontocuresma.com

Thank You

I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who helped out with our crab project! I got a beautiful thank you card from the group at the hospital thanking us for the donation. We wouldn't have been able to do it without all the support and love you all have offered since Eli's death. It means so much to know that we are helping out and giving back.

I just sent $200 to FightSMA today. That included many donations that were given on Baby Eli day.

My great friend Sara is working hard to help me get recipes for the cook book so that we can get it published before Eli's birthday. If you haven't sent me your recipes, be sure to get them in soon!

A few updates....

If you look at the picture above, you'll see a gold crown with Eli's name on it. It was purchased by a lovely lady named Pam who found my blog from a post I made on a scrapbook message board. She has been in contact with me several times and is such a sweetheart. She is saving pop tabs for us to help with our support of Ronald McDonald House. I have never met her, but she was touched enough by Eli's story to get involved. That is the kind of effort it will take to not only make the world a better place, but to fight against the horrible disease that is taking our innocent babies away from us. She shared a quote from Mother Teresa in her last email to me, and it is very fitting with what we are all doing... "We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love."

Along those same lines, the crabs arrived today! I left a message for the Director of Child Life at the hospital and I hope we can work with him to take those up next week! Thanks again to EVERYONE who donated to help this happen. It means a lot to share Eli's favorite toy with other babies! (and as much as Bandit is annoying me lately, we will keep him here at home I guess.) :o

Cooking for a Cure

I now have the cookbook kit and have the software ready to go. If you want to include your favorite recipes, email them to me! I would love to include everyone who has touched us during our time of tragedy.

If you would like to be on the cookbook committee, please let me know.

I hope everyone will participate by contributing a recipe and buying a book once we get them printed!

Baby Eli Day: March 7th

I was looking at the ants in my yard yesterday and seeing the huge mounds they manage to create by working together. Why can't we do that too?

On March 7th, please consider making a small donation to SMA research by sacrificing something in your life that day. Maybe instead of grabbing a coffee at Starbucks, you brew it at home and send the $5; or maybe you and your family stay home for dinner and donate the $50 you would have spent. It could even be something as small as not picking up that pack of gum at the checkout counter and donating that $1 you would have spent. Many people doing small things can make a difference!

Please consider doing this for Eli and all the other kids who are no longer with us because the research has not been funded enough to find a cure.

Thank you.
Rita & Jason

Here is the link of different ways to donate:
http://www.fightsma.org/index.php?make_a_contribution

If you would like to make a contribution by check, please make it payable to "FightSMA" and mail it to: FightSMA, 1807 Libbie Avenue,Suite 104, Richmond, Virginia 23226.
On a separate sheet of paper, please include:
Your Full Name
Mailing Address
Email Address
Phone Number
How you learned about FightSMA
If the gift is in honor or memory of anyone and if so, the contact information of the person who should be notified of the gift

Another option is a donation the wonderful organization set up by my new friend Laurie who also lost her little man to SMA. She has been such a help for me during all of this, so I would love for some of the donations to go to Marshall's Miles.

http://www.marshallpotter.com/donations.php

Marshall's Miles
c/o Southbridge Savings Bank
82 Worcester Road
Webster, MA 01570

Please pass this on to as many people as you can... Send it to your friends on FB, put up a flyer, or just send an email. This is so important to me and I appreciate anyone willing to help out.

You can also go sign the petition to cure SMA if you just want to do something simple...
http://www.petitiontocuresma.com/

Spinal Muscular Atrophy is an inherited genetic disease that results in loss of nerves in the spinal cord and weakness of the muscles connected with those nerves.
SMA is the #1 genetic killer of children under the age of 2.
SMA is estimated to occur in nearly 1 out of every 6,000 births.
The gene mutation that causes SMA is carried by 1 in every 40 people or nearly 7.5 million Americans.
There is currently no treatment and no cure, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)have selected SMA as the disease closest to treatment of more than 600 neurological disorders.
Researchers estimate that we are as close as only a few years away from finding a treatment and/or cure.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=75496011507

Donations Update

I've turned the extra space in the dining room into a storage area for all the groups we are collecting items for right now. I got a good deal on these bins and it makes it so much easier to keep everything seperated and organized. The bin on the left is the food pantry bin. I still need to go through my pantry and finish filling it up so I can take it to HAAM next week. The bin on the right is the Ronald McDonald House donations. My awesome friends Heather and Adam brought 3 or 4 bags of goodies to help fill up this bin. I will be taking it when I go up there on Saturday.

The bin on the left here is the women's shelter bin. I've managed to find some great deals on shampoo and toothpaste, so this bin is filling up a little faster than I figured it would. I still have a few items in the closet to add in before I go donate it all next week. The bin on the right is the stash we have to send to our soldier. I'll start getting another package together soon and hopefully find some Easter items to include in there too.

Things are going great with all of this and I hope we can keep it up for a while. I'm getting better at find deals and using coupons, so I am able to get quite a bit of stuff for my chosen charities. I'm going to do a challenge in March for each of them... I will be spending $20 for each group, getting as much as I can for that amount. I get a lot of stuff free or really discounted, so it will be fun to see how much I end up with!

Starbucks and donating!

To all of our local friends...
I went to the Starbucks inside the West Lake Houston Kroger and they are currently taking donations for muscular dystrophy. If you donate, you get a cute clover to write on and a 1.00 coupon for Borden milk. I donated $5 because that's what cash I had with me and the cashier told me I get a free coffee for that donation! SMA is included in the muscular dystrophy category, so hopefully those donations will help some other kids like Eli.

So...go donate and get your free coffee!!! I let the baristas know why I was donating and the lady behind me heard my story and she donated and put Eli's name on her clover. I was really touched by that; it is nice to see the good in others.

April 3rd: Relay for Life

I know some of you read Crista's blog and know about the Relay for Life that is coming up. I decided to go walk with them and I know we all still need sponsors. If anyone would like to sponsor me or anyone else on our team, please let me know. It's for a good cause! I am going to try to make up a basket for a raffle, so if you would be interested in that let me know too!

Projects and Donations

The crabs have been ordered! I was able to get 200 of them thanks to all of you who have donated money to help us with this project. I think there will still be some money coming in, so we will probably just go buy more from a local store and take them with the ones we are getting from the company. I'll update the final total when we take them up to the hospital. I hope they ship them in time for them to arrive by March 5th. We meet with Dr. Northrup, the geneticist, that day so I'd like to just take care of everything in one trip. We are getting quite a pile of things to take to Ronald McDonald House too! I'll post a picture of that before we take it up to the House next week.

My projects are all going well. We are almost finished with the first round of the crab project. I have sent 2 letters to our soldier so far and will be mailing out the first package to him tomorrow. My box for the food pantry is almost full so I will be delivering that soon. I also found a local women's shelter to donate the extra diapers and formula we have, as well as items I pick up free or cheap with my coupons. I have a bag with medicines, make-up, and assorted toiletries to include with the baby supplies.

I'm happy to be doing all of these things, but they still don't dull most of the pain we are feeling right now. I just hope we can keep up our good deeds....it does help me get out of bed, so I am thankful for that if nothing else.

Thanks again for all of the support! We love helping others and I love getting some new people involved!

Crab Fund Donations

We have had a few people ask about sending money for the crabs...

You can just mail checks to our house so we know what money goes to the crab fund. Just please put a note on there that it is for crabs. We are trying to make sure what money we get goes to the place the sender wishes to donate to, so the memo line comes in handy for that.
Our address is
18131 Pagemill Point Ln
Humble, TX 77346

To those who donated to the memorial fund... We are not able to find out who sent money as they set it up to be anonymous, so if you did send money, Thank You. I don't know how else to thank those of you who did, but please know that we appreciate it so much. The hospital bills are slowly starting to trickle in so that money will be used to help out with those.

Cooking for a Cure

Do you like that title? I have been working on a cookbook for years now and have never gotten motivated enough to actually finish it. I am thinking about doing it as a fundraiser for SMA research... What do you think? I'd appreciate some input on this one, especially from people who have done these type of fundraisers before. Also, I need recipes!! You can email your favorites: kyann22 @ yahoo.com (I put spaces in there to try to keep the spam messages down).

It will be a LONG process, so we'll see what happens. I'll probably use an online program to put it all together, so I need to see if I can let others have access.... I might need some typing help!

Ready to Make Care Packages!

Jason and I went shopping for our soldier yesterday and we will be putting together our first care package today! I'm so excited about it. We bought enough stuff to make packages for the first 3 months or so; I'll just pick up some odds and ends as I find them on my shopping trips. I'll post a picture of our first one before I tape it up. I can't wait to pick out items from this stash! We got a little info when we signed up; he had requested coffee, a mug, baby wipes, western novels, DVDs, and candy. I think we covered all that and much much more! I need to sit down and make a card to send this week too.

Soldier's Angels

I found a really awesome website last night where we adopted a soldier. We will send him a card a week and a care package every few weeks. I'm excited about doing this and I made this card for him last night. We are doing to put the care package together and have a "shopping night" where we go out and get all the items for it. I hope it will help us bond and do something good at the same time. We adopted an Army Sargent and I hope he enjoys what we send him.

Donations, Donations, Donations!

I have been working on getting some donations going to take to the hospital, Ronald McDonald House, and our local food pantry. I managed to get in touch with the company who makes the crabs and they are going to make an exception for me and sell them to me at the same price they give retailers. I just have to let them know how many we want to order. If anyone else would like to purchase some for the hospital, let me know. They will be $4 each. I'm not sure how many we are going to get, but I want to get as many as we can since this will be my one opportunity to get them from the company. The lady I've been talking to there is SO nice and wanted to know all about Eli and what we were planning on doing with the ones we bought.

For Ronald McDonald House, I have started filling up a bag of their wanted items and saving the pull tabs from my soda cans. If you are coming by the house, feel free to bring an item from the list and I'll pass it on when I take mine there. If you are local and see us on a fairly regular basis, consider saving your soda can pull tabs and encourage those you work with, family, whoever to do the same. They recycle them to raise money for the House, so I'll be making a jar to save those and donate. Again, I'll be glad to add yours in and take them with mine.

Finally, we have a box here for food for the Humble Area Assistance Ministries. It is a rough time for many families and the food pantries really need donations. If you have any dry goods or canned items you can donate, bring them by when you stop in and visit!

I think doing some good deeds and helping others will help strengthen my spirit and help me cope with all the emotions and hurt I'm going through right now. I appreciate any help anyone offers to do these along with me. For those of you who do crafts, I want to put together a night to make cards for our troops overseas, so let me know if you would be interested in doing that and we can get a night set up.