Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Ally's Army Hats

Ally and family are continuing to enjoy our chemo-free days. We have one more left....Thursday...and we are planning on spending part of the day at the zoo. Ally's choice. When she first got sick, her class went on a field trip to the Cincinnati Zoo and she had to miss it. Her first grade teacher Mrs. LeVesseur stopped by today, and gave Ally a very nice scrapbook from the whole year. It had a picture of her class at the zoo, but no Allison. So we decided today that we were going to change that!

We stayed busy all day. She had another lesson from her tutor, Mrs Brower. She even got some homework and they talked about Ally keeping a journal. Keep her reading, keep her writing, etc. We also made cookie cutter sugar cookies (why wait for Christmas) and she did some science experiments at the Booher house. Everyone is convinced she is going to be a scientist some day. I hope she is and I hope she finds the cure for cancer!
And yes, my boy (and girl) is wearing an apron. He WILL know how to cook when I get done with him. His father does not have this gene.
We did get Ally over to the Extreme Home Makeover site today. Not for the concert, she didn't really want to go for that, but just to look around. She seemed to like it because when it came time to leave she didn't really want to go! I had the HUGE HUGE HUGE privilege of putting a hardhat on and going into the house. My friend, Renee Alexander, hooked me up with her parents and they took me through. I am soo soo soo grateful (thank you Renee and Mr and Mrs Arnold). The house is beautiful and creatively done....wait until you see it on ABC. Kellie Pickler was filming a music video inside the house while I was in there. She was singing and people were dancing and I was just choking back tears because I was so happy to be in there. It was a very cool experience that I won't forget. No Ty spottings though...I heard he was having dinner over at The Greene. Here is what the house looked like tonight, less than 24 hours to go until MOVE THAT BUS.
And finally, we have a limited number of Ally's Army hats available for purchase. Again, all the proceeds will be going towards our fundraising goal for the Light the Night Walk on October 1. You can see the orange, red, yellow camo colored logo, which is very cool and was designed by Dom Stolfo's son-in-law Chris Fox. (thank you!) There are two colors for adults: black and khaki. There is just khaki in the youth size. They are $15 a piece. There are a few hats at our offices at the Pentagon Tower (3500 Pentagon Blvd in Beavercreek). The remainder are in the hands of our chief fundraiser and salesperson Larry Booher. Again, his email address is booher1@sbcglobal.net I am not sure how easily they can be shipped, but if anyone near Junction City would like one I know that John Barnett is an excellent package deliverer. He will be here on Friday and could bring some back with him. I think we only have about 50 or 60 hats in total, so get them while you can.
Please say a prayer that Ally is strong enough to make it through the zoo. We are planning on renting one of those big stroller-like things to push her around. Please pray that her bloodwork tomorrow will be sufficient to start chemo again on Friday. I don't really want to do it, but we have to keep beating this disease down.

"Each day comes to me with both hands full of possibilities." -Helen Keller
(Thank you Mrs. L for the Helen Keller book)

4 comments:

  1. OOh! I would love a hat! Can they be shipped to AZ? Also, let's do a little something through my site to get some funds raised!

    Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  2. The zoo tomorrow--cool! Hope she does ok. Sounds like a good idea to me. I was wondering if you were thinking of heading over to MOVE THAT BUS, but I guess after your trip today you really don't need to! Awesome that you saw the inside of the house.

    Of course I need a hat, but I can contact LBJ to get one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janel,
    the Hellen Keller quote is fantastic. I just read it three times- make that four. I hope the zoo is going well for you today, and I pray that Ally's counts are better. Just remember, you do what you can, when you can. I hope Ally can understand that too. It is a roller coaster, huh?

    So excited for your Extreme Makeover experiences, even without Ty. I actually like him more from the Trading Spaces days. I feel like he didn't try so hard...but who am I, right?

    Anyway, here's to a successful end to a well deserved week, and strength to start the next chapter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I so happy that you have had the bright spots in your summer with the Extreme Home Makeover, and these fabulous days with Ally. I hope the day at the zoo goes well and that Ally's counts are high enough for tomorrow, although I hate to think of her going back to that, I know it's good in the long run!
    We'll be in touch about trying to get through your way next week, hopefully there'll be some hats left by then!

    ReplyDelete