Logan's class had a great Skype with Dr. Campbell on Friday at school. I can't imagine how much they've taken away from this experience and the knowledge they've been given about how their money will actually help the people of Haiti. I am so grateful to everyone that was involved.
The kids were covered in our local paper, the Ledger-Sentinel on Thursday and are currently up on our Patch: http://oswego.patch.com/articles/snapshot-churchill-fourth-graders-raise-300-for-haiti
Yay Logan! Next stop, Disney's Friend for Change!!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
helping haiti
What started with a short story read to the class resulted in a big surprise for Logan's teacher. After taking the next day off, she returned to school to find that her class was so inspired by the hardship and turmoil so many Haitians deal with daily, that they started their own impromptu fundraiser and on the first day, while at school, they collected $87!
Logan came home daily toting huge bags of change and cash, counted it and returned it to the principal the next day. Within a few days, the halls of the school were lined with promotional posters, collection jars had been delivered to all the classrooms and the kids even stood outside school bathrooms to ask for pennies. With no direction, operating on pure desire to help, these kids were accomplishing their goals!
As this evolved, I thought of only one person: Dr. Sylvia Campbell. I worked for her in Tampa during the mid to late '90's when she began traveling to Haiti annually to perform surgeries and give medical care to those in need. That was before the natural disasters that completely ripped this third world country apart. Nearly twenty years later, Dr. Campbell has gone to help up to four times per year with her organization, Village Partners International. In Mombin Crochu, they've now built a small clinic to take care of patients. They've expanded to visit other countries in need as well.
We keep in touch and I knew that she was currently in Haiti at the clinic on one of her trips. After getting the okay from Logan's teacher, I reached out to her to find out if the class could make their donation to Village Partners International. In my message, delivered to this small clinic across the world in real-time via Facebook, I reminded Dr. Campbell of a handmade, light blue paper rosary she gave me after her first trip there so many years ago, that still sits in my jewelry box today. Who would've imagined that I'd someday have a daughter whose giving spirit would lead us back together, who would be inspired to help Haiti, too.
Through tears, Dr. Campbell responded, saying she'd be "proud and honored to be part of the children's beautiful hearts and spirits!" The $300 earned by the kids in two short weeks will go to the organization's Food for Healing program, which provides meals for patients who typically don't receive any food. Not only does it promote healing, but it supports the local economy and provides jobs, too.
I am so proud of Logan's involvement in this! And thanks to Dr. Campbell, who has handwritten a letter for me to give to each student and will likely do a quick Skype with the class, these children will have a true personal connection to how their efforts will make a difference in Haiti.
How lucky we are for our kids to have this experience at such a young age! Logan and her class have inspired me to find more ways to give to others in need and hopefully someday, to travel to Haiti to help in person! When Dr. Campbell first went all those years ago, I knew it was something I wanted to do someday; now I know it's something I want our whole family to do.
To learn more about Dr. Campbell's and VPI's efforts, watch this you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-u6CkvxH9s
Logan came home daily toting huge bags of change and cash, counted it and returned it to the principal the next day. Within a few days, the halls of the school were lined with promotional posters, collection jars had been delivered to all the classrooms and the kids even stood outside school bathrooms to ask for pennies. With no direction, operating on pure desire to help, these kids were accomplishing their goals!
As this evolved, I thought of only one person: Dr. Sylvia Campbell. I worked for her in Tampa during the mid to late '90's when she began traveling to Haiti annually to perform surgeries and give medical care to those in need. That was before the natural disasters that completely ripped this third world country apart. Nearly twenty years later, Dr. Campbell has gone to help up to four times per year with her organization, Village Partners International. In Mombin Crochu, they've now built a small clinic to take care of patients. They've expanded to visit other countries in need as well.
We keep in touch and I knew that she was currently in Haiti at the clinic on one of her trips. After getting the okay from Logan's teacher, I reached out to her to find out if the class could make their donation to Village Partners International. In my message, delivered to this small clinic across the world in real-time via Facebook, I reminded Dr. Campbell of a handmade, light blue paper rosary she gave me after her first trip there so many years ago, that still sits in my jewelry box today. Who would've imagined that I'd someday have a daughter whose giving spirit would lead us back together, who would be inspired to help Haiti, too.
Through tears, Dr. Campbell responded, saying she'd be "proud and honored to be part of the children's beautiful hearts and spirits!" The $300 earned by the kids in two short weeks will go to the organization's Food for Healing program, which provides meals for patients who typically don't receive any food. Not only does it promote healing, but it supports the local economy and provides jobs, too.
I am so proud of Logan's involvement in this! And thanks to Dr. Campbell, who has handwritten a letter for me to give to each student and will likely do a quick Skype with the class, these children will have a true personal connection to how their efforts will make a difference in Haiti.
How lucky we are for our kids to have this experience at such a young age! Logan and her class have inspired me to find more ways to give to others in need and hopefully someday, to travel to Haiti to help in person! When Dr. Campbell first went all those years ago, I knew it was something I wanted to do someday; now I know it's something I want our whole family to do.
To learn more about Dr. Campbell's and VPI's efforts, watch this you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-u6CkvxH9s
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
eight years old!
Riley's ultimate love is still gymnastics, but she's latched onto Zumba as well, as one of her coaches is an instructor. Not only is she flipping and upside-down most of the day, but she is demonstrating her funky dance moves all over the place. She lives for the attention of an audience. She's started taking piano as well and is loving every minute of it. She knows the names of bands that I can't even pretend to, and she has every lyric of every song completely memorized. (This is not always a good thing!) Anytime you want to goof around and dance or sing, Riley's your gal. Actually, she's usually game for anything!
Riley loves school, has lots of pals and has fun wherever she goes. She has a grasp of things I couldn't imagine to at her young age, and I'm not just talking about the bars. She tells me that she goes to bed the night before a meet visualizing what she wants her routines to look like. She already knows the power of her own will and is starting to realize how to put it into action. Just like Glinda the good witch says to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, "You always had the power..."; we've tried to deliver the same message to our kiddos. Riley has gotten the message.
Riley is a great sister; the perfect middle child. She doesn't often get caught up in drama and shakes things off easily. She's more comfortable moving on than dwelling in anything and I love that for her! Of course, the envelope-pushing that peeked in around this age for Logan has reared its head with Riley, too. She's a champion foot-stomper and like me, she can emit a hefty, telling sigh. But she quickly gets over the things that don't matter and for that, I'm glad.
I have so many wishes for this wonderful girl who brightened our world in unimaginable ways just eight years ago today at 9:05 AM. After 24 hours of labor and 21/2 hours of pushing, I was barely afloat, but when Riley arrived, I would have gladly done it all again for her. She is beautiful and creative and loving and giving, and intense and smart and driven and STRONG. I love watching her make all her dreams come true. Every good thing will come her way, this year and beyond!
Happy Birthday to my sweet Riley girl. I love you!
Monday, January 30, 2012
tied for 1st!
Riley had a great meet this weekend at the UGA Cowgirl Invitational.
There was some stiff competition from other states and she still managed
to tie for 1st Place All Around, but took 2nd because her tie-mate (and
teammate) had the highest individual event score. It was a complete
thrill and a huge confidence-booster for Riley, who felt great. I can't even describe how Mike and I (and Logan and Finn) felt!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
gourmet girls and a date with daddy
Our weekends have turned into complete blurs - filled with kid-related activity from beginning to end. This weekend was no different. Gymnastics practice and floor hockey were followed by a quick family gathering for Logan's and Riley's birthdays and then the Daddy-Daughter Dance at school. What a great day!
I have to say, I love my gourmet girls. Their palettes are bordering on "adult" at the ages of 8 and 10. They want to try every kind of ethnic or unfamiliar food they see, from sushi to Thai. This is very good news for parents that love to cook and eat. There were no grocery store sponge cakes for their birthdays, oh no. These girls don't mess around and while it's a lot of work, I love every minute!
For Logan, it was a chocolate cheesecake with a cookie crust and chocolate whipped cream on top. For Riley, a lemon meringue ice cream pie with a gingersnap crust. Both should have sat in the fridge up until the last second for easy cutting, but even though they were messy, they were DELISH!
After a quick party, the girls and Mike got dressed and headed to dinner and then the dance at school. They had a wonderful time and they couldn't believe Daddy wore a tie. (With jeans.) They each got a slow dance or two with Daddy and lots of giggle time with their friends. Mike had a great time, too.
Love this lifetime memory stuff - what a day!
I have to say, I love my gourmet girls. Their palettes are bordering on "adult" at the ages of 8 and 10. They want to try every kind of ethnic or unfamiliar food they see, from sushi to Thai. This is very good news for parents that love to cook and eat. There were no grocery store sponge cakes for their birthdays, oh no. These girls don't mess around and while it's a lot of work, I love every minute!
For Logan, it was a chocolate cheesecake with a cookie crust and chocolate whipped cream on top. For Riley, a lemon meringue ice cream pie with a gingersnap crust. Both should have sat in the fridge up until the last second for easy cutting, but even though they were messy, they were DELISH!
After a quick party, the girls and Mike got dressed and headed to dinner and then the dance at school. They had a wonderful time and they couldn't believe Daddy wore a tie. (With jeans.) They each got a slow dance or two with Daddy and lots of giggle time with their friends. Mike had a great time, too.
Love this lifetime memory stuff - what a day!
Friday, January 27, 2012
waking up from a long winter's nap
I have been asleep for 4 weeks. Looking back, my Topamax experience has been a wild ride and while I'm disappointed that it wasn't the easy fix that I was hoping for, I'm glad to say I've tried it and now I know better.
I went in with an open mind, not paying too much attention to the online complaints about this drug's horrible side effects and for the first two weeks, it wasn't so bad. My initial fatique dissipated and I must admit that I enjoyed my out-of-character lack of appetite. Life is a lot easier when you're not dreaming up fun dishes to cook each night! I laughed at my inability to find the right word at times and only experienced minor frustration with my suddenly absent concentration skills. Afterall, it would all go away at six weeks - that was how long I was committed to trying it out. I hunkered down, toughened up and dreamed of headache-free days.
But when week three began at a higher dose, my body hit the brakes like nobody's business. What felt like fatigue soon changed to something unrecognizable, that in hindsight I can only call depression. While throughout the day I thought things like, "I feel like I'm dying," or "This must be what people going through horrible treatments like chemo feel like," I still felt the need to go on, to make it work for both my family and me.
A trip up the stairs resulted in full-blown stars and lightheadedness, I lost the ability to be social in anyway without almost painful levels of concentration and my motivation to do anything fell off the radar. I was losing about a pound per day and rememberring the previous day as if I'd been totally drunk. I didn't care what I looked like or wore and as soon as Mike came home at the end of a day, I went right to bed, only to sleep in fragmented bursts, broken up by unsettling dreams and sleepless hours. This fed my unimaginable fatigue, making each day harder than the one before, and leaving me in tears at some point each day.
Sunday morning, I read an article by Neil Patrick Harris, the story of his lifetime relationship with partner, David Burtka. It was well-written and moving and made me realize one thing, I had felt literally nothing in the last four weeks; I was not engaged with my life at all and I missed my life. I called Mike and told him that I had to get off the Topamax.
So, I did. I am. I'm on the end of the 5 to 7 days it takes for what turned out to be poison for me, to leave my system. I am feeling things, I am happy, I have motivation and plans, I no longer feel like a spectator in my own life. Oh yeah, and with the return of my life came my headaches. And my appetite!
When I let my doctor's office know that I was quitting, they immediately tried to shove another preventative down my throat; this time one that alters the way your heart beats. I thanked them, but declined. Instead, I'm seeing a holistic chiropractor with hopes he can help me figure out how to heal myself. I'm jumping in with hopeful heart and knowing one thing for sure: this treatment has no adverse side effects. Right now, that's exactly what I need.
I went in with an open mind, not paying too much attention to the online complaints about this drug's horrible side effects and for the first two weeks, it wasn't so bad. My initial fatique dissipated and I must admit that I enjoyed my out-of-character lack of appetite. Life is a lot easier when you're not dreaming up fun dishes to cook each night! I laughed at my inability to find the right word at times and only experienced minor frustration with my suddenly absent concentration skills. Afterall, it would all go away at six weeks - that was how long I was committed to trying it out. I hunkered down, toughened up and dreamed of headache-free days.
But when week three began at a higher dose, my body hit the brakes like nobody's business. What felt like fatigue soon changed to something unrecognizable, that in hindsight I can only call depression. While throughout the day I thought things like, "I feel like I'm dying," or "This must be what people going through horrible treatments like chemo feel like," I still felt the need to go on, to make it work for both my family and me.
A trip up the stairs resulted in full-blown stars and lightheadedness, I lost the ability to be social in anyway without almost painful levels of concentration and my motivation to do anything fell off the radar. I was losing about a pound per day and rememberring the previous day as if I'd been totally drunk. I didn't care what I looked like or wore and as soon as Mike came home at the end of a day, I went right to bed, only to sleep in fragmented bursts, broken up by unsettling dreams and sleepless hours. This fed my unimaginable fatigue, making each day harder than the one before, and leaving me in tears at some point each day.
Sunday morning, I read an article by Neil Patrick Harris, the story of his lifetime relationship with partner, David Burtka. It was well-written and moving and made me realize one thing, I had felt literally nothing in the last four weeks; I was not engaged with my life at all and I missed my life. I called Mike and told him that I had to get off the Topamax.
So, I did. I am. I'm on the end of the 5 to 7 days it takes for what turned out to be poison for me, to leave my system. I am feeling things, I am happy, I have motivation and plans, I no longer feel like a spectator in my own life. Oh yeah, and with the return of my life came my headaches. And my appetite!
When I let my doctor's office know that I was quitting, they immediately tried to shove another preventative down my throat; this time one that alters the way your heart beats. I thanked them, but declined. Instead, I'm seeing a holistic chiropractor with hopes he can help me figure out how to heal myself. I'm jumping in with hopeful heart and knowing one thing for sure: this treatment has no adverse side effects. Right now, that's exactly what I need.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
really? ten?
It's truly unimaginable to me that TEN whole years ago Mike and I brought Logan Olivia into this world and began this wonderful and wild parenting odyssey! In what really does seem like the blink of my eyes, Logan has grown into such a beautiful young lady, with great manners, amazing creativity and such a wonderful sweetness about her. She's silly and giving and loving and honest - so many things I could have only hoped for my first daughter all those ten years ago.
This birthday seems like such a big birthday. Ten is closer to college than birth! (You may have just heard the deep breath I forced myself to take.) As a writer, especially as a writer that so frequently captures the daily ins and outs of our family life, I feel I'm especially sensitive to time and how fast it's actually slipping by. Even with that sensitivity, Logan's 10th birthday comes as a complete shock. As I climbed the ladder of her loft bed to wake her this morning, I just couldn't believe my baby girl was 10.
It's that simple. Not that she's 10. That she's my baby.
Happy birthday to my baby. My very first one. May your every wish come true.
This birthday seems like such a big birthday. Ten is closer to college than birth! (You may have just heard the deep breath I forced myself to take.) As a writer, especially as a writer that so frequently captures the daily ins and outs of our family life, I feel I'm especially sensitive to time and how fast it's actually slipping by. Even with that sensitivity, Logan's 10th birthday comes as a complete shock. As I climbed the ladder of her loft bed to wake her this morning, I just couldn't believe my baby girl was 10.
It's that simple. Not that she's 10. That she's my baby.
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