Ally's fundraiser Eve

I am running on pure adrenaline now. I woke up this morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all. I was crabby and every little thing kept going wrong. I am past exhaustion from the past two weeks of daily radiation, daily chemo, and party planning. Whew. It is amazing how much of a mess can build up in my house!

However, I am feeling much better as Ally finished her last radiation ever today!! Hooray. She chose to go to IHOP for a celebration. We had never been there. She ordered the happy face pancake, which was quite appropriate for the day. Oh by the way, Ally says she wants to work there when she grows up. hee hee She also got to bring her butterfly mask home with her and has already shown it to a few of her friends.

She also got her last, I believe, dose of ARA-C. Chemo didn't go so well today...our nice home nurse Pam couldn't get a blood return from the port...which means you can't get chemo...she went out to the car in order to get a new and bigger needle to insert in Ally's port. Ally started crying and sobbing (very sad to witness for poor Aunt Jess who is pregnant and emotional). Well the crying must have gotten the blood moving enough that all the sudden her port worked. Thank the Lord. That would have been a bad day if we would have had to repoke her without EMLA creme on. We dodged a bullet.

Maybe I should mention we had one more big event this week. We got our family pictures taken last night! The one and only Erin Cobb was in town from Alabama. She had taken our pictures last May...just a few days before Ally was diagnosed. She has been a loyal blog follower and friend and raised a lot of money for LLS in the fall. She generously decided to hold eight mini-sessions and donate the entire payment to my Dad's Man of the Year campaign. That amounted to $2000 she posted today for our cause. Thank you so much Erin. Not too many people would be willing to donate their time and talent to that degree. You are one of a kind and we are so grateful. I will share some pictures soon.

So the party is coming. Rain or shine. I don't think the rain should make a difference as most everything is inside a tent. Everyone keeps asking me about the definition of casual. It does mean jeans, nice shorts, etc. Pretty much anything except maybe tube tops or bare midriffs...isn't that what they always used to say in school? Use your own judgement.

I am most grateful to my father who has opened up his home and spent countless stressful hours being "in charge" of this party...while I was taking care of Ally and mostly in the background. Having almost 600 people over to your house is no small task. It is huge. And stressful. And today when I saw all the things people had donated for our cause I could do nothing else except cry. Thanks to everyone who helped us get ready. And to my sister in law Jess for cleaning my house today. And especially to my sister and Gavin, Jessica, Larry and Suzanne, and Nicki who sat in my kitchen for about 3 hours tonight assembling all the programs, bid tickets, and seat assignments. Not a fun Friday night, but all for a good cause. Our girl....ALLY.