Cutler’s Cross For A Cure

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As I just mentioned in my previous post, my very crafty and talented mother has been working tirelessly with her great friend “grandma” Pam in building Cutler’s Cross For A Cure.  She is donating all profits to the LLS as part of our ongoing fundraising efforts.  I believe before she came down there were still around 10 left, but they were being shown at a craft fair in O’Fallon by a friend of ours and hopefully will be sold out.  However, if you are interested in ordering one, please contact Carol at cjkjf@sbcglobal.net or via phone at 618 531 5876.  I’m sure, if sold out already, she would be happy to take orders and start slaving away again once she returns home.  🙂  They are like snowflakes, no two are the same, so get your order in for an original one of a kind.

Light The Night Eve 2012

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On the eve of Light The Night, with my house full of my sister’s and their kids and my mom, aunt, and “grandma” Pam snoring away in a close by hotel, I am sitting here in amazement at how much money we have been able to raise thanks to all of our incredibly generous family and friends.  Thanks to everyone, we currently sit at over $8500 with still more donations on the way.  Thanks to some company matches that are still outstanding, we should easily surpass our goal of $10,000 and this could not be possibly without the help of my family back home.  My mother organized a dinner at McCallisters’ where 10% of the proceeds were donated and they managed to raise $450.  Not to one up that, but Becky worked with her church and my mom and Angie to put together a bake sale this past Sunday, manned by my incredible nieces and nephews, and then held a lemonade stand that raised almost $850.  My crafty mother also has worked tirelessly with “grandma” Pam to make some Cutler’s Cross For A Cure where all profits are being donated.  I will have another post shortly with pictures and ordering instructions if you are interested.  So far these have raised over $100.

I am giddy with anticipation of what we can do next year with some more organization and planning in place.  It’s efforts like this that will someday help put a stop to blood cancers so that others will not have to go through the same experience as our precious Cutler.

We will be representing in full force and bright orange tomorrow night with our Team Cutler shirts of over 20 strong.  I will remember my camera and will take plenty of pictures to share.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in donations and thoughts and prayers.

It’s not too late to spread the word as donations are accepted through the end of the year, here is our team fundraising page.

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

Lemonade Is Sweet

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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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The Hillbillies Are In Town

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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.

Where In The World Is Kobi, Kobi Penland?

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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.

The Next John Riggins

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Mason scored his first touchdown yesterday by showing Riggins like speed and determination to get into the end zone.  I realize that may be a bit dated of a reference, but he was my favorite running back growing up.

He has also shown some promise as a pass catching tight end, perhaps more suitable to his speed, or lack thereof.

Murphy Child’s Lemonade Helps Fight Cancer « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

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Murphy Child’s Lemonade Helps Fight Cancer « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth.

Here is a follow up video from Friday night.  CBS came out to the house to get footage from the actual stand and once again they did a great job.  Even if the nice anchor woman had a bit of trouble with our last name at the begining.  🙂

I am proud to say it was a huge success as we raised about $1500.  Another huge jump from last year.  I will try to post a picture or two from someone else’s camera soon…in all of the celebrity, I forgot to get my camera.

Cancer Survivor’s Lemonade Stand Helps Other Kids « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

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Cancer Survivor’s Lemonade Stand Helps Other Kids « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth.

We are famous!  🙂

The local CBS affiliate came out today and did a piece on us and our annual lemonade stand.  They are planning on coming out tomorrow for footage of the actual stand.  No pressure whatsoever to get a big turn out for that.  I will say it was very interesting to see what all goes into producing this small clip.  Arezow, the reporter, and Jaime the cameraman were awesome to work with and a lot of fun.

Turning Lemons N2 Aid 2012

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It’s that time of year again for the Lemonaid Stand.  Yes, I am  using a different spelling because 100% of the money that we raise as part of this multi family effort will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as part of our annual Light The Night fund-raising effort.  This was started three years ago when one of our friend’s daughter wanted to have a lemonade stand and considering the impact that LLS has had on our lives they were quick to say ok as long as the proceeds were donated to the LLS.  It was thrown together very last second and we were able to raise $160.  Last year we put a little more planning into it and were able to up that amount to $860.  This year, we are in the local paper again and are setting up fliers at both Cutler’s and Mason’s school, so hoping to continue to grow.

As is now customary, we will have lemonade, cookies, snacks, some adult beverages, a bounce house, and snow cones.  For the adults concerned about catching the local college game, I will even have the tv set up in the garage.  Last year was a tremendous success so here’s to hoping for a continued growth of our annual stand.  The lemonade and snacks are free for any donation.  No donation is too small.

So mark October 6th on your calendar, the stand will open at 2pm and go until 6pm.  We usually extend well beyond 6pm, but that’s the unofficial gathering.  Our address is:

429 Whisperfield Dr

Murphy, TX  75094

If you can’t make it but still want to help make a difference in the effort to squash blood cancers, you make a tax deductible donation at our Light The Night team page.

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

Thanks again to all of those that have already donated.  No second donation required to join the party.

I Presents You Make The Call

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On my trip to Alaska a year ago, I was fortunate enough to take a trip by plane to a remote location to observe brown bears in the wild.  Out of jealousy of not going, my lovely wife and our good friends Mike and Andrea insist their trip to the Anchorage Zoo was pretty much the same experience.  So I present to you the opportunity to put this argument to rest.  Below are sets of photos from both experiences.

Here you will find the pictures of very bored and unchallenged bears held in captivity.

Here you will find happy and energetic bears living the life of the wild.

To help further the argument, here is a photo of their ride to the zoo and mine to the wild.

Here is a photo of my foot print next to that of a bear that just walked past us.  To give you an idea of how big they are, I wear a size 12.