Our old CF Commercial that plays on MCTV. Still working on this years.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Raised $720 at CiCi's Pizza Tonight for CF!! YEA!!

We had another successful fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis tonight at CiCi's Pizza!! We raised $720 total!! Woo Hoo!!! 
I designed the sign above and got them made at Staples and put them up around town. They didn't turn out too bad, but next time I need to make bigger ones:) I only had one person, my neighbor John, say he saw the sign and that's how he knew to come. It was a pretty busy tonight, but I'm not sure if it was b/c the sings or not. Maybe I'll put them at different intersections next time :)
The above pic is of Lil' Chris and Ayla helping me pick up the last sign at the end of the night. Believe or not, this was at 9pm and it was still light out! I LOVE SUMMER!!!

Congrats to Sean Conway for winning the 2 Indians Tickets!! Have fun at the game and thank you again for your donation for A Cure 4 Lil' Chris and ALL who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis!!


BIG THANK YOU to my AWESOME Kohl's girls for helping out and helping us get the $500 grant from Kohl's. That makes $2,500 now that Kohl's has donated!! Isn't Kohl's the BEST!?!
THANK YOU
Jill P.
Laura T.
Esther H.
Jolleen


Thank you to my AWESOME neighbors John and Kenadie, Lori A. from work, and Oma and Opa for coming out to support us!!


Also, thank you to Aunt Steph, Uncle Greg, Tyler, Nathan, and Lincoln for coming all the way from NJ just for this fundraiser....just kidding, they are in town for a couple of weeks ;-) LOL


A HUGE THANK YOU to ALL who donated!! Every penny is so vital in funding the MUCH needed research for better meds and hopefully a CURE in Lil' Chris' lifetime!!


Thanks,
M
PS. Please continue to keep Lil' Chris in your prayers :)

CiCi's Pizza CF Fundraiser Tonight 5-8p!!

Join us tonight, Wed June 20th, 
at the Wooster CiCi's Pizza between 5-8p for  
A Cure 4 Lil' Chris 
and ALL who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis!! There will be face painting for the kids and 
a raffle of 2 Indians tickets game of your choice!!! 

Hope to see you there!!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

3rd Annual Great Strides Walk for CF





We had an AMAZING day for our Great Strides walk for a CURE for Cystic Fibrosis!! It was wonderful to see all the support from so many people! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED, RAISED MONEY, SPONSORED THE WALK, DONATED PRIZES FOR THE WALK, OR CAME AND WALKED WITH US!!! IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US!!

This year was our 3rd annual walk and it was Lil' Chris' first time going. In the past, he stayed home with a sitter since there is a risk of cross-contamination between him and the other lil' CFers. This year we decided to let him go since he is getting older now and we promoted the walk and raised money at his preschool. He was soooo excited when his buddy Kyle from his class came!! Lil' Chris and Kyle played under a tent a little bit away from the pavilion. I just couldn't take Lil' Chris and be able to do all I had to do AND worry about him getting too close to the other CF kids, so we bought the tent and my hubby put it up! Thanks Honey!! It was a little tricky trying to go back and forth between the tent and pavilion, but it was worth it! Kept my mind at ease:) We still have not gotten his last throat culture result back yet. I'll have to call Monday.


We were soooo THANKFUL that Panera Bread supplied the yummy bagels! I LOVE Panera!! BIG THANK YOU to Domino's and McDonald's too!! The pizza's and happy meals were a big hit!!! The fruit from Buehler's went pretty quick too:)


David L. was a hit with the AWESOME balloon animals he made for the kids!! Thanks David!! 

There were also CF frisbee's for the kids and CF tattoo's(I accidentally put Lil' Chris' on upside down LOL;). Pat Catan's didn't make it there(I totally forgot to call and confirm with them...oops), but the fire truck did!! They had to leave for about 10 minutes for a call, but fortunately it wasn't anything serious and they were able to come back. Lil' Chris LOVED exploring the big "Fire Red" as he calls it:) LOL
We had a new director this year, although she has been with the chapter for a while, this was her first walk that she ran. She did a GREAT JOB!! She also has a son with CF, so she knows how important these walks are to the CF world. THANK YOU KATHY FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!
BIG THANK YOU again to Sprint Preferred Wireless for your huge sponsorship and towels for all the walkers!! Loved your big signs! We took our group pic in front of them:)

Thank you Wayne Savings Bank for your Rose Sponsorship!! It was so nice seeing your sign up in the garden of roses:)


Thank you Speedway for donating the ice!! It was nice having cold drinks on such a hot day!!


Thank you to my Kohl's peeps for coming and supporting Lil' Chris and CF!! Kohl's so far has donated $2,000!! Gotta LOVE Kohl's!! :)
Thank You to...
Tiffany M.
Barb N.
Rebecca G.
Steph W. & Family
Amanda P. & Quincy

I can't say THANK YOU enough to all my friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and even complete strangers for donating to help us find a CURE for Cystic Fibrosis for Lil' Chris and ALL who suffer from CF!!! Our walk raised over $16,000!!! That's AWESOME!!

TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE CF STAND FOR CURE FOUND!!!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Great Strides Walk is TODAY!!!

Can't wait to see everyone at our walk today, June 9th!! Meet us behind Ida Sue School at 9am for some Panera Bread bagels and cream cheese, fruit from Buehler's, cookies, Coffee, various drinks chilled by ice from Speedway, Domino's Pizza, McDonald's happy meals, and bags of chips from  Frito Lay.


There will also be a craft table from Pat Catan's, a Wooster fire truck(if no accidents or fires that morning), balloon animals, and more games and lots of prizes!!

Thank you to Stacy A. and Amy for donating a ton of Bath & Body Works baskets!! They look AWESOME!!! 

Thank you to my friend, Christi, for donating beautiful rose earrings that she made to sell at the walk to raise money for CF!!  They are only $5!!


Thank you to my neighbors Sean and Michelle for donating a Coke basket and a Bath & Body Works basket for the walk!! Someone is going to be pretty happy when they win those!!

Big thank you to another neighbor, Meg, for donating a basket for a newborn shoot with her company Meg Bowman Photography!! She takes some pretty AWESOME pics too!!! The basket is about a $150 worth!!


A HUGE THANK YOU to Kevin for getting Sprint Preferred Wireless to be our $300 sponsor and for the Sprint goody bags to give away to each walker!! THAT'S AWESOME!!!


Big THANK YOU  to my Kohl's associates for volunteering to help out so that we get ANOTHER $500 grant from Kohl's!! That will make $2,000 so far from Kohl's this year alone!!! WOO HOO!! Our goal is $5,000, we CAN do it!!


THANK YOU SO MUCH FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART TO ALL OF THESE WONDERFUL COMPANIES AND FRIENDS THAT HAVE DONATED TO MAKE THIS WALK A SUCCESS!!! Without you, we wouldn't have a walk that raises thousands of dollars for such a GREAT cause of finding a CURE for CYSTIC FIBROSIS!!

M
PS. Click on any blue links above to learn more about those companies. Each one that donated was from the Wooster area.

It's not too late to donate. Click on the Great Strides link at the top of this blog on the right!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

One Week til our CF Walk!!!

There are sooooo many things I want to write about and pics and videos to post, but I just don't have the time right now. Our Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis is in ONE WEEK from today!!! I can't wait!! Then I will have time to post all that I want to post...hopefully:)

My goal is $7,000 and so far I am at about $4,200. I'm still waiting on 2 $500 grants from Kohl's for the 2 CiCi's events I recently did, and still waiting on the percentage from the receipt from those nights too.

I have some more CiCi's events lined up for the up coming months... the next one is on Wed June 20th from 5-8p at the Wooster's CiCi's Pizza!! The raffle will be 2 Indians Tickets again!!

My last CiCi's fundraiser we raised another $730!!! Congrats to Lisa B from Kohl's who won the 2 Indians tickets!!

BIG THANKS TO MY Kohl's girls as always for helping us get the $500 grant!!!

Our neighborhood goal is $500 and so far we are at $400!! Woo Hoo!! Almost there!! Can we hit $500 by Sat?? :)

If you would like to sign up to walk next Sat or to sponsor me for walking, click here!

BIG THANKS to my last 2 donors...Agnes K.(one of my FAV CF moms:), and Jason M(yes, I have the BEST DM EVER!!!)

Thanks so much to all who have donated so far!!
M

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Vest Bear Arrived!!!! Woo Hoo!!!

BIG THANK YOU TO TRACI LIBERTO, a fellow CF mom, who told me about a cool Vest Bear Buddy that Hill Rom Vest company was giving out to lil' CFers!!! All I had to do was call Hill Rom and ask for one and they were on back order when I called, but we just received it the other day!!! WOOHOO!! 

Lil' Chris LOVES it, even though he won't admit it all the time!!! It wears a Vest just like him!!! AND you can even pump it up and inflate it's Vest!!! It's pretty cool! It has velcro straps just like Lil' Chris' Vest too!!! Somebody was pretty smart when they invented this bear to help lil' ones to do their Vest treatments:) The best part is that it fits on all bears or stuffed animals or dolls that size!!! Ayla likes it on her bear :)


I asked Lil' Chris what he wanted to name the bear and he said "Chris!" I wonder why?!? :) My guess is b/c he can relate to it :(


Enjoy the video of him putting his Vest on and the bears Vest on and then doing the Vest treatment together and then taking the Vests off together. At the end is a lil' glimpse of when he doesn't want to do his Vest sometimes. He's usually pretty good about it, but he does have his moments!! It's just heartbreaking, but Mommy can't give in, b/c it's important for him to stay as healthy as possible!!! WE NEED A CURE NOW!!! Please take 2 minutes and donate today, just click the "great strides" link on the top right of this blog. Our walk is only 2 weeks from today!!!! YEA!!!




M
PS. Preschool Graduation pics coming soon! :) DON'T FORGET TO JOIN US THIS TUES MAY 29TH BETWEEN 5-8P AT THE WOOSTER CICI'S PIZZA FOR A CURE 4 LIL' CHRIS AND ALL WHO SUFFER FROM CF!! RAFFLE IS FOR 2 TICKETS TO AN INDIANS GAME OF YOUR CHOICE!! SEE YOU THERE!!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Annual CF Clinic Visit / CiCi's CF Fundraiser Results

Lil' Chris had his annual CF clinic visit on May 16th and he had a GREAT report! Lungs are CLEAR!! YEA!! For those who don't know, CFers go to a special CF clinic, usually at a Children's Hospital, every 3 months for a checkup. Then every year around their birthday, they have their annual visit, which is when they go over EVERYTHING!!! These visits usually are 2-4 hours long;( We have to prep for this visit by getting x-rays and blood work done beforehand. They said that his blood work looked GREAT!! The Dr. also said his x-rays looked GREAT too!! They aren't 100% clear in the pics below, but she said she didn't see any scarring yet! BIG YEA!!!!! Here are the pics from the past 5 years, one year was missed, not sure how that happened??....
5/21/08


6/16/10
3/16/11
4/4/12 First time standing up while taking x-ray
Click here to go to the post where he got his last x-rays taken standing up.

His weight went up from 41.2 to 43.8 and his height did too a little from 44.5 to 45 inches. His weight was in the 74th percentile(up from 66th last time, 3 months ago) and his height the 90th percentile(down a little from 92) and his BMI the 40th percentile(up from 20th percentile last time:) The doctors like CFers to be at the 50th percentile or higher for BMI, so this big jump is so nice to see!!!

The doctors made no changes to his meds, but they suggested we up his pressure to 5 instead of 4 on his vest for the first 20 minutes of his 30 minute treatment. We changed the setting on our Vest and he is handling it fine:)

Now that he is almost 5, every clinic visit(every 3 months) he will have to do a PFT(Pulmonary Function Test) which they will keep track of. Up until now, he has been practicing for it, but now they will keep it on record. Most kids can't even do it at age 4, they always are impressed with him:) He did a GREAT job and scored a 99 for his FEV and a 93 for his FEV1! Pretty good, but we want 100%!!! :) Next time...next time! You'll see in the video that he got one good one in the beginning, but he got tired after that. He's still learning. What he has to do is take a really deep breath and then blow out as hard and as long as he can. He's getting there:)


He got a throat culture taken too. He impresses me every time when he doesn't cry or anything!!! I guess he is used to getting it done every 3 months now. It surprises me that he doesn't say things like, "I don't want to go to clinic, they will try to shove a thing down my throat!" He never complains, even though he knows it's coming! He just takes it like a man! :) That's my boy!!! I will let you know when I get the results from it. He didn't have a cough going into this visit, so I'm not expecting any bad bacterias, but you just never know with Cystic Fibrosis. That last antibiotic finally kicked out that wet cough he was having for what seemed like months! He coughs every now and then, but it's dry, so I'm not worried about it. I'm so glad that I pushed to get him on that antibiotic, b/c they fought me on it saying it was just allergies. Please pray the results come back clear or no new bad bacterias!!

So the doctor never ended up having him try the Pulmozyme for the first time in the doctors office like I was told. I guess that was just if we went with HTS instead of Pulmozyme, b/c some kids have reactions to HTS. My husband wanted to know if we could start it after vacation, and the dr saw no problem with that since it's only another month. I was kinda excited about getting started and going on vaca for the first time with it, but I guess it will be easier without it and that will make this our last vacation with no breathing treatments. Makes me sad when I think about it, but this Pulmozyme will be good for him. We want his lungs to be as healthy as they can be for when that CURE comes!!! Studies have shown fewer hospitalizations, lung infections, coughs, and antibiotics with the daily use of Pulmozyme, so I am ALL for that!!! I will post pics and videos when we do start it though:)

After our clinic visit, I had a CF fundraiser at CiCi's Pizza! BIG THANK YOU to my fellow Kohl's associates for helping out so that Kohl's would give a $500 grant!!
THANK YOU...
Jill P.
Kathleen S.
Jill S.
Laura T.
You girls are the BEST!!!

I was raffling off 2 tickets to an Indians game and we raised $170!!! Woot Woot!! Our winner of the raffle was our good supportive friends from church, Stephanie and Clay!!!! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR YOUR AWESOME DONATION AND FOR COMING OUT TO SUPPORT US!!! They have also signed up to walk with us on June 9th at our Great Strides walk!! Stephanie has been posting her Great Strides page on Facebook and everything to help raise money!! We can't thank you enough Steph!! You'll be surprised as to how many friends and family will donate when you tell them about Lil' Chris!! Small amounts from each one adds up to a lot!!

So our total for the night including the raffle, the Kohl's grant, and the percentage from all the customers receipts was around $730!!! WOO HOO!!!! THAT'S AWESOME!! Special thanks to our neighbors Tiffany and Ryan and their kids for coming, and also Lil' Chris' teacher Ms. Carrie and her husband Justin for coming!! Thank you all for coming to support Lil' Chris and for your generous donations for A Cure 4 Lil' Chris and ALL who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis!! 

BIG thank you to everyone who donated that night at CiCi's!! Cystic Fibrosis is not funded by the government, so these fundraisers that us CF parents do are soooo important in finding that CURE!!!

My next CF Fundraiser will be at the Wooster CiCi's Pizza again on Tues May 29th from 5p-8p!! Raffle will be 2 tickets to an Indians game of your choice!!!
ALL are invited and please help me spread the word, either my word of mouth or by Facebook!!

Thanks again for everything!! Keep the prayers coming!!
M
PS. Garage Sale/CF Bake Sale Results coming soon:)


Friday, May 18, 2012

"Change for CF" Results and Party

Today Lil' Chris' preschool had a pizza party for all the money they raised for A Cure 4 Lil' Chris and all who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis! It was an honor to join them in their pizza party and watch his friends celebrate in raising $173.57 to help find a CURE for CF!!! I loved watching Lil' Chris give his goody bags to his friends too as a thank you:) Ayla had fun at the party, she just joined right in:) LOL

Being protective of his lil' sis who joined their line:)

Being silly picking up Ayla

Pizza Party Time!!

He's the one who needs the calories the most, and he ate the least amount of pizza out of all the kids! LOL

He did eat his pretzels though :)

WOW!! LOOK AT ALL THAT CHANGE FOR CF!!! The kids did a GREAT JOB raising so much money for CF!!

Group pic with all the change that they raised!!

Goody bag for the kids as a THANK YOU!!

Lil' Chris passing out the goody bags to his friends:)
Ms. Carrie made this and sent it to all the kids to start the fundraising:) She did a GREAT JOB!! I love the pic of Lil' Chris! It's neat to see how much he has grown since the beginning of the school year:)

She also sent this home with the kids to get them to come to our walk on June 9th at 9am behind Ida Sue School!! One parent told me today that she signed up to be a team leader in honor of her friend in PA who has CF! What a GREAT way to support her friend and Lil' Chris!! WE LOVE YOU MS. CARRIE!!!
 BIG THANK YOU to Ms. Carrie for setting up the "Change for CF" fundraiser and for inviting them to our walk, and BIG THANK YOU to ALL Lil' Chris' Preschool friends for bringing in change for CF!! We appreciate it soooo much!!! THANK YOU!!!!
M
PS. Lil' Chris has been doing great, no cough!! YEA!!! CF Clinic visit update coming soon!