Ally's Army hits Alabama

I wanted to post an update on Ally's project of raising money for the tornado victims in Alabama. We had a two day garage sale...well our neighborhood has about 45 homes that have the sale so we get A LOT of traffic. We cooked about 130 hotdogs and we had a nacho machine and water. We were super busy with it both days...and we ended up raising about $150 after we paid for some of the food. Here is a picture of my sister manning the sale (she is probably gonna hate me for this)
Melissa and I had to do some of the work when Ally was at school, but she did it the rest of the time.


We took the money and bought a bunch of supplies and then gave the rest of the money to help Coach Rob (swim coach) and his wife Melisa get to Alabama. They are originally from right around where the tornados hit. They ended up hauling a huge trailer stocked full of relief supplies from Beavercreek to Alabama this weekend. They sent me this picture of Rob in front of the trailer wearing his Ally's Army shirt, so I had to share.

We have had another busy weekend...starting out going to the Dayton Children's board retreat up in Columbus. Jerad is on the board of directors for the hospital (and has been since before Ally's was even diagnosed) On the second day he got up and told everybody Ally's story...and Jerad doesn't like to talk about it in public because he gets too emotional...it is usually my job....but anyway he helped to paint the picture as to how valuable the hospital is to so many. We are so lucky to have a designated children's hospital 20 minutes from our home.

We also had soccer, baseball, dance, and family pictures taken (thanks Erin). We even got to enjoy the opening weekend of Fox Hill swimming pool which the kids absolutely loved.

As you can see we stay busy all of the time...sometimes I find myself complaining that we are too busy....but I cannot complain for long. It will be two years this week since the dreaded day. How far we have come.

Ally had bloodwork done on Thursday and her ANC has creeped back up to 3600...even with Dr B increasing her chemo. I am guessing he will probably increase it again. I am waiting for him to look it over. She also has a spinal tap coming up next week. We get a bit anxious about these and ask for some extra prayers that she will do well and the fluid will remain clear. It is starting to feel like summer around here...and we have many plans to make the best of it.