CHD Awareness Week

Feb. 7-14 is CHD Awareness week. A time to make others aware of what we heart families live with day in and day out. A time to educate the public about just how common CHD is and just how little money actually goes toward CHD research. A time to advocate for our cardiac kids. A time to show just how much passion we have about making a difference for the 1 in 100 babies that are born with CHD.

I have been trying to figure out how our family can make a difference. One heart buddy, Logan, and his family operate "Cuddles From the Heart" --- they make and collect blankets which they donate to CHD patients in the hospital. Logan's mom, Stef, is an awesome advocate for CHD Awareness, using her blog this week to present testimonies of heart moms and dads.

Anna Grace and her Mom and Dad (Tina and Brian) are going to be on a local news show this Thursday sharing about CHDs and how it has affected their life. How exciting! I already have it set to record! Tina has also established a Heart Moms' Night Out once a month in our area. What a blessing!
Another heart buddy, Derrick, and his family make BraveHeart Baskets to give to cardiac kids when they are in the hospital. As a matter of fact, Zach got one when he had his last surgery. It was like Christmas morning!

Zach with one of the gifts from his basket - the blue elephant

Saturday, Derrick threw a CHD Pancake Breakfast at Fatz in Columbia. This Saturday, he is throwing another pancake breakfast at the Fatz in Easley. He is one busy boy! The proceeds will help them make more BraveHeart Baskets. How awesome is that?!

How can our family make a difference for CHD Awareness week? I think our first step will be to get some tickets to that pancake breakfast and to eat some yummy pancakes!

Blogger's block

I seem to have a bit of writer's block lately --- or should we call it blogger's block? Or maybe I am just terribly lazy... or terribly busy... or all of the above! Anyway, I am still here and I am still keeping up with all of our heart buddies. I'm just not posting for some reason.

The only recent news that I have to share is that we rescheduled Zach's heart cath to the end of our Spring Break on March 31. They have to close the fenestration that they made during the Fontan. I had originally scheduled it around a school holiday so I would only have to miss 1 day of work, but with all the snowdays that we have to make up, we now have to go to school then. So, we will take a little "vacation" to Charleston during Spring Break. Zach is already anxious about it. He keeps asking, "When do we go to MUSC?" Of course, he has no sense of time, so I just tell him that it will be a long way off. Then, he will remind me that, "We need to go to that playroom!". It's good to know that he remembers how much fun the Atrium is!

Rebecca and her best friend, Sarah asked me to go out in the freezing cold yesterday afternoon to take some pictures of them together. I thought they turned out pretty good...

Of course, Zach had to get in on the action!



The Blizzard of Jan. 2011

It started sometime Monday in the wee hours of the morning and snowed all day long! We got about 5-6 inches of snow in all and some sleet late in the afternoon. It was pretty cold and there was quite a biting breeze. Nonetheless, we bundled up and braved the elements. We played in the yard for a while, but the snow was very dry and powdery - we could not even make decent snowballs or a snowman!

We finally decided to go sledding at the school across the road from our neighborhood. Once the sled packed the snow down the sledding was pretty good.

Wipeout!!

After sledding down the hill a few times, all Zach wanted to do was get in the way of those of us that wanted to sled. He would run and try to jump in the way of the sled every time we would try. Stinker! He just didn't understand that this would result in injury, I guess. His other favorite thing to do was to roll down the hill. No wonder he was so worn out! Bill had to carry Zach back to the house - he wouldn't even ride in the sled. When we finally got back home, Z had had enough! Cold, tired, and hungry!

We did not go out today at all. The snow had a layer of ice on top which made walking difficult. I think we all have a bit of cabin fever by now. School is already canceled for Wed. too! I hope we will be able to get out tomorrow... at least for a little while.

Blogging question

OK all you blogging experts out there... how do I get my header to be centered? I never recall having a problem with this before but the past couple of times I have updated the blog, my header is left-justified instead of being centered. This type of thing drives me and my Type A personality crazy!

Thanks for any help you can give!

Sure hope it isn't catching...

There has been some sort of epidemic going around our little CHD community lately. The long-lasting symptoms include vomitting in some cases, moodiness, strange eating habits, and extreme fatigue. I sure hope it isn't contagious! This 41 year old mom (me, I mean) wouldn't want to catch the same bug that Shannon, Jesse, Jen, Victoria, and Mandy have caught!


Our family is so excited for these families. We offer heartfelt congratulations and many, many prayers for all of you!

Christmas 2010 Update... finally!

Our Christmas break has been so fun! I have been so busy that I have barely been able to keep up with everyone else's blogs, nevermind updating our own. I was ashamed to pull ours up with the Fall theme still on it. Changing the look of the blog is a time-consuming process for me, the perfectionist that I am. Nonetheless, here is the new look. It may have to last until summer!

Christmas in our family is celebrated in stages. You'll see what I mean...

This is Round 1 with Bill's family at our house...

 The moms and the kids at the kitchen table

 Bill's mom, Nana Shirley with Debra, Mary, and Bill








We love to get together with our cousins!

 Time to open presents!

 Couldn't get him to sit still long enough to wrap him so we just put a big bow on top!

Zach and cousin Paige playing with his favorite gift - Toy Story 3 Landfill!







Round 2 at Nana Cherryl's and Papa DR's...

 Sweet!

 Nana loves it!

Stylin'!

 Oh, boy!

 Hugs for Papa...

...and Nana!








Gettin' ready for Santa on Christmas Eve...

Decorating cookies for Santa... or eating them?

 More sprinkles?

Cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and broccoli for his reindeer!








Round 3 at home Christmas morning...

 Look, they were here!

 Score!

 Dr. Zach got a surgeon's kit, complete with scrubs!

 Santa brought Zach a "camote control car"!

 Sissy's favorite team!

 Mommy can have her coffee on the way to work!

 Mommy got Zach a neat write-on-wipe-off book to practice his letters and numbers.







Round 4 at Grandma Jan's on Christmas afternoon...
Well, we didn't actually take any pictures somehow... BUT we did get to see a white Christmas for the first time! So, this is what we woke up to the day after Christmas...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! In all, we had about 6 inches!







 
Beautiful!








Rebecca making a snow angel







Rebecca and my mom

 Daddy and Zach trying to find a steep enough hill to sled on

 Gotta make a snowman!

 Can you see the HUGE snowball headed for Rebecca's head?

Zach is getting in on the fun now!

After a couple of days at my mom's we went to The Great Wolf Lodge. We had a great time playing in the water park and shopping! I have a couple of pictures on my phone that I have to download and post.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Merry Christmas!!!

From our family to yours...

Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!