Pack the Park!

"Pack the Park" day for Evan was today. It was a rainy day but we got out in the mess anyways to support the little guy (he was discharged from the hospital today and gets to stay away until Thursday when they will re-test his bone marrow to find out if the chemo/radiation has worked this round).

 

Hadley looks less than thrilled (she looks SO serious but I don't think she has a 'serious' bone in her body!!) but she had so much fun running around!

 

Mrs. Shatto (teacher) and Mrs. Wright (parapro)!! I haven't gotten a picture of them together all year so I was glad to get that done today!

 

Gnate the nat (the Savannah Sand Gnats baseball team's mascot) came out to support Evan! Here he is with Santy and Holdyn :)

 

I ended up helping with the event while Pops and MawMaw chased the kiddos so I didn't get too many pictures.



Holdyn's Kindergarten Class

From our local newspaper:

Neighbors offer helping hand to Evan Nelms, family

Ribbon sales ongoing, festival set for Feb. 23

 

 (Holdyn is the 3rd child standing... and look closely and you can see the monkey sitting towards the back sitting on the floor wearing a yellow shirt!)



Dozens of students at Richmond Hill Elementary and Richmond Hill Primary schools showed up to class Monday decked in orange to support local resident Evan Nelms in his battle with leukemia.
And though Evan, a 5-year-old kindergartner in Patricia Shatto’s class at Richmond Hill Primary School, wasn’t there physically, he was there in spirit, represented by a large stuffed monkey that goes nearly everywhere with the class.
“Evan’s mother brought it in at the beginning of the school year,” Shatto said. “It reminds us that even though he is not here in body, he is here in spirit. We love and care for him because he loves and cares for us.”
Evan was diagnosed in April of last year with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare and aggressive form of cancer, according to his mother, Evette Cooper. By September, Evan had concluded all treatment and was in remission, but the cancer relapsed in early January, and within one week had spread to his bone marrow and his right eye.
Shatto said the children love having the monkey represent Evan, and they take it to nearly every activity the class participates in — including story time, lunch and other daily activities. The monkey sits in Evan’s seat and is cared for by 6-year-old student John Osteen who sits beside Evan when he is well enough to attend school.
John said Evan is one of his good friends. Even though John said he “feels bad” for Evan because he is sick, he said it makes him feel good to be in charge of the monkey.
“I love you, Evan,” he said.
Evan’s fellow classmates have also helped decorate Shatto’s classroom door, and they wrote notes to Evan to create a wall mural in the hallway depicting how much they care for him.
“We miss him so much, and he is our hero,” Shatto said.
In addition to dressing in orange, students and parents were asked to bring donations of $1 or more to be sent to Evan’s family to help with medical costs.
Evan and his parents are currently at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania while Evan undergoes chemotherapy and radiation while awaiting a bone marrow transplant. As of Tuesday, Cooper said Evan had received two rounds of “heavy-duty” chemo and nine sessions of sedated radiation to his eye.
“He is doing well,” Cooper said in an email. “He has gotten sick a few times but overall he is staying ‘EVANSTRON.’”
Cooper said Evan will continue daily radiation to his right eye for a total of 12 sessions, though he may not regain vision in that eye.
“The main goal is to get Evan back into remission with heavy-duty chemo and radiation. This may take a month to three months; we pray for remission,” Cooper wrote. “He has to be in remission to go to transplant. Bone marrow transplant is very risky ... (and) will take approximately 100 days.
“Doctors told us we will be here for six to eight months. No matter how long, we will stay to save our son’s life. Nothing matters except Evan and saving him.”
Cooper said Evan still does not have a bone marrow transplant match, and she encouraged Bryan County residents to register to become bone marrow donors.
“A desperate mother pleads for you to get tested — you may be the one to save Evan’s life. And if not Evan, then possibly someone else,” Cooper said.
Local schools aren’t the only ones banding together to help Evan and his family. Purcell said she and two other friends, Stephanie Merchant and LeAnn Flemmings, have come together to host a fundraiser for Evan’s family on Feb. 23 in J.F. Gregory Park.
Another ongoing fundraiser for Evan and his family is the “‘Orange’ ya gonna help Evan” orange bow fundraiser hosted by Cindy Udinsky.
“My son is in Evan’s kindergarten class, and so it just really hit close to home. And I thought if I was ever in this situation, I knew our school and community would come together and help support me if our family ever came into this situation,” Udinksy said.
Udinksy is selling big orange bows for $10 each, with all proceeds going to Evan’s family. She said she wanted to help in a way that would not only raise money, but also allow Evan to see how much he is cared for.
“I was trying to think of something different … and I went back to the bow on mailbox if you have a baby coming home from hospital,” Udinsky said. “And orange is the color of leukemia (awareness ribbons), so why not wrap this town in orange for when he comes home.
“So it’s not just monetary donations — yes, he is getting that, but now he can physically see something when he’s riding home and going to school. Even though he’s only 5 and a half, I think he’ll be able to understand, “Those are for me, people care about me and are supporting me.’”
As of Tuesday, Udinsky had sold nearly 40 bows in less than 24 hours. To purchase a bow, residents can call 912-308-3774.

Puzzle Time!

My heart

Half my heart is back in Texas :(

Tis the Season....

To be jolly SICK..... UGH... My dear husband has spread the flu around so kindly to his daughter and give the begining symptoms to me. Hadley has been running a pretty steady fever at 102.1 and that's exactly what it was at the doctor office today. They did a flu test and said it would take 10-15 minutes well that bad boy was positive in less than 5 minutes! We are all now on tamiflu as a preventitive measure. Giving medicine to Hadley is like trying to take a banana away from a monkey. It is NOT a pretty sight and lets just say more of it ends up on Robbie or myself rather than in her little tummy.... we are having to take some drastic measures this time around to get medicine in her. Oh the things you do as a parent!

Sweet boy at his Christmas party! We made a graham cracker reindeer together....

 Then we got to glue ornaments on a paper tree together :)

 Poor baby after her bath tonight. She was exhausted and begged me not to give her one but she had to get soaped up after being at the doctor. She passed out about 5 minutes after getting out!

 You never know where sneaky little Snuffy will hide next... He might even try to have a slumber party with you ;)

My loves

Today we ran a few errands.... How sweet are these two!

Hadley loves holding Holdyn's hand.... SO sweet!

 Look who came to our house tonight on a fire truck :)

 We needed a new rug for our dining room. Before Bay died, she got sick on our previous rug (and Hyres ate one as a puppy) so it was time for an upgrade since we didn't have to worry about Bay getting sick on it, and now that Hyres is a big boy, he doesn't have his 'bad puppy days' and destroying things so we knew we were safe to get a new one.

 MooMa and DooDa got it for us. Isn't it pretty :) Robbie says the room actually looks like a dining room now!

 

I am so far behind in blogger land. I still have pictures for both kids birthdays to post, so I will be doing that soon. For the past 2 weeks straight one of the kids have been sick, and I have been trying to get ready for Christmas and visitors coming, so needless to say other things have been put on the back burner. Baby Mathis arrives on Sunday (A week from today!! EEKK!!!) so I am sure you will be overwhelmed very soon with mushy lovey photos! Holdyn and Hadley are SO excited to go pick him up at the airport then head straight to see Santa with him, before it's too late!

Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies

I couldn't help but laugh..... love the holidays and loved this post. It really does feel like another full time job. (P.S. our elf "Snuffy" hasn't moved in 2 nights... the real reason: mom has been slammed with different things in life and has forgotten.... the kids think: Snuffy hasn't moved because they have been horrible the past 2 days... no lie on that note! Hopefully Snuffy can relocate tonight.)

 

By now we have all heard of the adorable little The Elf on the Shelf. Almost everyone I know has one. Some people even have two! (Now I'm having guilt for not having two, because apparently I need two because when my kids are adults they'll each want one from their childhood. Ugh. Not looking forward to that conversation with the Hubs when I tell him why we need another Elf.)

The Elf is a handy little thing to have. The little bastard keeps my children in check this time of year. When there is even a HINT of rebellion all I have to do is say, "Elf" and they snap back in line.

If he's so good, Jen, then why did you call him a bastard? you ask. I called him a bastard, because even though my children think he's magic, I'm the one doing all the "magic" and I totally suck at it. I forget to move him all the time and when I forget I have to spin even MORE lies than usual. ("No, Santa can't give you the $400 Lego Death Star. Even though he says he makes everything, he can't make Legos and he has to actually go and buy them and he can't spend that much money on you." or "Well, I don't know why he gave it to your friend last year for Christmas. I'm sure his mommy and daddy paid Santa to do that and we don't pay Santa." Thanks a lot, asshole parents who gave their kid the Death Star from Santa! As parents, let's all make a pact that any gift over $200 comes from grandma and grandpa rather than Santa, OK? It would make my life a lot easier.)

But back to our Elf. Our Elf has been a lazy SOB this year. He usually makes his first appearance Thanksgiving night (I get him out when I'm on my way out at 3 AM for Black Friday). This year we left town and I forgot. He waited until we came back and then he was ready join our family. Since then he's only gone away 4 maybe 5 times. We are always forgetting to move him. And it should not be difficult. I am literally moving him from the top shelf in my kitchen to the bottom shelf and back again. I'm such a loser that I can't even do that right.

I heard some over achieving moms talking one day about how they like to make their Elf do "naughty" things. What exactly does that mean? I asked. "Oh, you know, he bakes cookies in the night and leaves a huge mess for me to clean up in the morning." WTF??? "Yes, or one time last year, he took all the ornaments off our tree! Teeheeehee."

Teeheehee?!! Why in the world would I make my Elf do something like that? I'm the one who has to clean up his mess and redecorate my tree! All so my kid could ooh and ahh over the magic of the Elf for about 3 minutes until the next shiny object caught their eye? I decided these women were insane.

But then I started listening closer and realized they are not alone. There are entire blogs out there right now dedicated to naughty/fun Elf behavior. People like Danielle over at Blossom Bunkhouse. I read her blog and I got really pissed off. I should have known she'd irritate me when I read her perky-mom-who-loves-to-make-amazing-homemade-memories-with-her-kids-when-she's-not-secretly-downing-Valium-and-Vodka-so-she-can-be-so-damn-perky-and-fun title for her blog. (In case you haven't guessed, I'm proudly un-medicated and I have the mood swings to prove it.)

Blossom has 101 Fun Ideas to do with your Elf. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE. As a friend pointed out, there are only 25 days until Christmas - why 101?!!

I wanted to punch her as soon as I read her top 2:

1. Have a marshmallow fight (marshmallows everywhere).
2. Have a pillow fight (feathers everywhere).

OK, seriously? Does she have a clue how much a feather pillow costs? The hell I'm going to destroy it just so I can sweep it up again in the morning!

Or like I have time, desire or resources to make this red carpet entrance for a doll. I can barely get him out of the box and prop him up on the shelf. We haven't even read the book yet this year and she wants me to literally roll out a red carpet for him. When does she do laundry? When does she work? And most importantly, when does she sleep?

20. Make faces on school pictures with a marker.

I lecture my children constantly on appropriate materials to write on with markers. A photograph is not one of those things. It would take years to undo that damage if I did that. I'd have mustaches on every photograph in my home. "The Elf did it!"

24. Read a book.

Yeah, I tried that one on my own the other day (didn't even need Blossom's help to come up with that one). The Hubs didn't see him on the couch reading and he sat on him. Kids couldn't find him because he wasn't on his usual shelf. So much for trying to think outside the box...shelf.

32. Switch clothes from one closet to another.

And I do this when? 4 AM when everyone is asleep and I'm hauling dresses and jeans from one room to another? And we're assuming my children would even NOTICE I did this.

42. Take picture of child sleeping.

This is one I would do just to scare the snot out of them. I'd like to perch the Elf right on their sleeping heads and take a picture of that. I could probably whip that picture out in the summer when they're being bad and it would scare them enough to knock it off. I'll bookmark that one.

44. Knit a scarf or hat.

When I'm not trashing my house with feathers, flour or drawing on the walls I'll whip up a handmade hat, Psycho.

64. Learn multiplication facts.

Huh? Just set him on the table with flashcards? I guess I could do that, but it sounds as boring as my shelf.

80. Elf packs school lunches but mixes up everyone's lunches. (Each child receives sibling's lunch - great conversation piece at dinner.)

Or source of meltdown at school - you pick.

93. Sit on toilet OUTSIDE on front lawn - if you happen to have an extra toilet being stored.

WTF? Who has an "extra" toilet they can put in the yard? Either she's grasping at straws to get to 101 or she's white trash.

He's called The Elf on the Shelf, not the Elf who Skydives, Takes Bubble Baths and Shaves the Dog! Leave him on the shelf so the rest of us slackers don't look so bad. I think I'm just going to lay my Elf on his shelf, tape wires and hoses to him and tell my kids he's in a coma and hopefully he'll recover before Christmas. That should give me some flexibility.