Lemonade is sweet and the funds that we raised with it is even sweeter!  Thanks to our many friends and family, the wonderful people in the area, and the publicity of CBS news we managed to raise $1500 despite some rather chilly weather.  Some very cold people gladly braved the inclement weather to come visit and sip on some ice cold lemonade and eventually some very warm hot chocolate.  Melanie, as usual, was a saint and worked the kitchen almost nonstop to insure we had plenty of hot chocolate and snacks.  As usual the evening ended with a few of us hunkered down in the garage with a few cold beers and a football game on the tv.

Every year we have continued to grow and this year continued to push that effort.  My dream is that someday it becomes too big for our house and hopefully next year the weather will be more cooperative and push us further in that direction.  For now I am shocked and very pleased in our efforts.

Below are a couple of pictures that Letty was nice enough to share as for some reason I had completely forgotten to get my camera and take some pictures.

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You know the hillbillies are in town when your neighbor asks you if there has been some drinking going on…when in fact there wasn’t any, instead it was just my crazy Aunt Pat and her mad driving skillz.

You know the hillbillies are in town when Charming Charlies calls and asks that you please come remove your mother and her entourage from their store because they are tearing down the jewelry displays.

You know the hillbillies are in town when Blue Fish calls and asks that you please remove the same entourage because they are spoon feeding the other patrons in the restaurant and then eating from the same spoon.

I love my family.  Fortunately they have reinforcements on the way as my sisters are expected to arrive this afternoon.

For any former Carmen San Diego fans, please read the title to the tune of that song.

Our dear friend, family member, and Cutler’s former nanny has moved on to bigger and better things and is now living in London.  You may remember her miserable attempt at providing posts to our blog, but it’s possible you may have missed one of the three or four that she did.  Apparently the change of multiple time zones and countries has done her well and she is now actively entertaining me on a regular basis with a blog of her own.  Check her out at www.lollygagginginlondon.com.  She’s got a special talent and is well worth the read.

Until three years ago, 9/11 was a reminder of the evil that resides throughout this world.  Now three years ago to the day, 9/11 is a reminder of the pain and helplessness you feel when your 6 month old child is diagnosed with cancer, but it is also a reminder of how an already strong family comes together in good times and bad times.  When I think back to being 5 minutes from the house on our way home from the oncologist telling us that he thought Cutler’s rash was just a rash and probably nothing to worry about only to get the call that we must return immediately I can recall almost every detail.  If I close my eyes when I think back to it, all of my senses bring me back to that day.  I remember having to call Melanie, who was in the car behind me and telling her we needed to pull over and get in one car and head back to the hospital.  I remember Melanie convincing our pediatrician to tell us what was going on before we got to the hospital.  I remember wondering what in the hell Leukemia was and how was this going to play out.  I remember praying harder than I have ever prayed before on our way to the hospital and just repeating over and over again that Cutler will beat this.  I remember how hard it was to leave Melanie and Cutler at the hospital for the night as I had to pick up Mason from school and take him to Amazing Jakes as was previously planned.  I remember trying to choke back that horrible pizza and trying to put on a face for Mason so that he wouldn’t know what was going on despite not having any desire to eat.  I remember getting a much needed laugh from Mason as we played our way through all of the games after suffering through the pizza.  I remember getting on the internet to research AML after getting Mason to bed and almost on que getting a call from my boss telling me not to worry about work and giving me the subtle recommendation to shut down the computer as reading about it instead of hearing from the doctor was a mistake.  I remember my friends and family dropping everything to help us through our tough times.  There are many things that I remember from that day alone, but what stands out in my mind is that there is a whole lot more good in this world than there is evil.

Best Brothers

Did you know that September was National Blood Cancer Awareness Month?  Slightly ironic considering it was September nearly three years ago that we were introduced to Leukemia with Cutler’s diagnosis.  Thanks to incredible organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society the survival rate for the most common form of Leukemia, ALL, has jumped from 3% in 1964 to 90% today.  This is one of the many reasons we raise money for the LLS via our annual Light The Night fundraising effort, including our upcoming Lemonade Stand.  That announcement is coming soon.

http://pages.lightthenight.org/ntx/Plano12/teamcutler2012

As a warning, I will be trying to post some good facts every couple of days throughout the month along with some stories and photos from our journey to health for Cutler.  While it would be easy to move on and try to forget those painful times, I think it is important to celebrate what he has overcome and never forget so that we know how blessed we are and to give us motivation to continue to defeat this horrible disease.

Our healthy boy almost three years later thanks to LLS.

With providing all of the updates on Grandma Lewis and her health, I realized I have seldom mentioned Grandma Fricke, or as known to the kids, Grandma Boo.  I don’t get to provide too many updates on her because she is in such good health and going strong at the young age of 90.  She’s a technical genius with her computer creating cards for all of us for every special event and continues to amaze me with her never losing any of her facilities.  Here’s my shoutout to Grandma Boo!

While we were home, mom showed us that she is still very young at heart and wanting to be one of the girls with Jordan’s group of friends.  Apparently they do a lot of modeling shows for each other?

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While visiting Melanie’s mom over the weekend, Melanie and I were granted a pass to go out for the night.  Upon our return, when checking on the boys in bed, Melanie called for me to come in there where she pointed out that Mason had fallen asleep with his baseball glove…with his hand still in it…and the ball in the glove.  Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture for fear of waking either of them, but I walked away with a huge smile on my face and in my heart.  One down, one to go on winning them over to one of the greatest sports around.

We took a trip home over Memorial Weekend for my nephew’s, Cody, high school graduation and my niece’s, Jordan, 8th grade graduation.  More on the trip to come, but while we were there we were able to visit with Grandma Lewis and she has continued to amaze all with her recovery from her ankle and knee surgery.  If you all recall, a few months ago it was assumed that she was not going to recover.  She has since started to eat enough to maintain and seems to be in reasonably good health.  She has some good days mixed with bad days, fortunately for our visit it was a good day as she even remembered who I was.  I was very proud of my boys as they were extremely sweet and loving with her which help put a smile on her face.