New Layout! (Plus other Random Thoughts)

So I wasn't really digging the layout that I had, but I totally love this one! The reason why I didn't like the old on was because you had to scroll all the way down to see my profile, followers, blog list, etc. I like that you can see it on the right hand side now. Plus, this one is way cuter!

This past weekend we did one more thing for the bags, which was a lullaby cd. I had seen on another CDH families facebook page that they played lullaby music for their son, and I thought it was a great idea. I was out and about on Friday and saw a lullaby cd for only $2! Then I got crazy and had to buy everything to make 50 cd's. Which cost a lot more then $2! All in all, it probably cost about $1.50 per cd, so I don't think that's a bad price at all.

After our news article came out, a lot of people have contacted me to donate items, which is fantastic! I am super excited about this. I hope that everyone follows through with donating things, because if so, we should have four people donating itmes, and one group of people donating. Which could get us a lot of donations. Either way, it at least got the word out about MJ's Memories and people were able to read about my beautiful baby boy.

Tomorrow we leave for Nevada for Thanksgiving! I am very excited to see Willie's family and visit them. But it is bittersweet because I always imagined our first trip out there with both of our babies. I even used to stay up at night thinking about how we were going to be able to handle two babies in an airport. So going out there will be very hard for me. The holidays in general scare me to death. I really don't want anything to do with them. I just want to fast forward five weeks and have it be January already. We are not decorating this year, nor do I want to.

We will be very busy after we come back from Nevada getting ready for our big Art Show on December 5th. We will have to make a ton of bracelets to get ready to sell. I really hope that we do very well at this next show. The last one we did, we sold 24 bracelets, which totally surprised us. Our goal was 10 bracelets. And that one was super small, and not very well advertised. This next one is very well advertised and will have three times the amount of people there. Plus it is pretty close to Christmas so people will have an extra reason to buy stuff. My sister and her boyfriend are coming to help us, which will be very needed! Although my sister and I already have plans to leave them at the table for a bit while we go shop! Just to give you a mental picture, my husband played college football and her boyfriend just finished his senior season playing football in college - so they are both very manly, big men. When we leave them these two will be selling bracelets, its already making me laugh!

Another Busy Week . . . and We're in the News!

Well first off, before I start anything about what we have been doing, I gotta post a link to the Toepka Capital Journal, who came and interviewed us about MJ's Memories. We made the front page!!



http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-11-15/project_keeps_babys_memory_alive



Also, as of 10 am on Monday morning (the day the paper came out), I have received three emails from people who would like to donate things! How amazing is that!



So anyway, on Thursday of last week, after I posted last, Willie called me and said that he had an opportunity for us to get into an Arts and Craft Show on Saturday. As much as lounging around all day sounded appealing, we decided to go ahead and do it. It only cost us $25 to get in, so we only had to sell 5 bracelets to at least make our money back. It was a very small show, so we decided that our goal was to sell 10 bracelets. It would also give us an opportunity to prepare ourselves for December 5, when we go to the big art show in Kansas City. The show was from 9 am to 4 pm, and we brought Will along to help us sell. And he really did! We ended up selling 14 bracelets, and we have an order for 10 more! It was really funny because when Will was awake, we sold more bracelets then we he slept. Guess on December 5 he won't be sleeping at all! (Yeah right, then he'll be grumpy and screaming).



Anyway after our amazingly successfull day on Saturday, we were spent! But my parents were in town and we had been planning all week to make baby eye masks, or baby bling, as my friend Chanda calls them. Chanda lost her daughter, Ireland Rose, to CDH the same day that I lost MJ. Chanda makes them beautifully, I don't know if mine are as good as hers, but yesterday was my first time on the sowing machine since high school! Here is a link the her blog:



http://mybabysbling.blogspot.com/



So anyway, last week when my sisters were in, we picked out some fabric, and yesterday, with my mom, we got down to it! We had a great assembly line going, My mom traced the pattern, Willie cut them out, I sowed them and turned them inside out (to hide the seam), Wille trimed the edges, my mom ironed and finishe sowing the hole by hand. Willie has decided he is our project manager, which I am very glad! He is super organzied, which I am not, and he has it down to a great system. Here is a picture of our bags to the left.










So far here are the things we have completed and/or ready for our first 50 bags:



Eye masks

Decks of Cards

Baby Girl Bows

Handpring/footprint Kits



Slowly we are starting to get some donations in as well. Jen, from my group on babyfit.com sent us a huge box of donations, along with 10 handprint/footprint kits! If you are reading this, thanks again Jen! Her daugther was in the NICU for a few weeks due to being premature and Jen had preeclampsyia, which I had as well, but not nearly as bad as she did.



Things are really progressing well for us, I am so excited about the next few weeks! Next week we go to Nevada for Thanksgiving and to see Willie's side of our family. (We can't wait to see them). Shannon, my sister-in-law has organized a CDH Awareness Benefit the day after Thanksgiving, which I am super excited about! We are also going to be able to meet another CDH family that lost their son to CDH in March of this year. We met on facebook, so it is so amazing to be able to meet them. Then comes Christmas with my family, and my mom has organized a MJ's Memories benefit December 27, which we are also very excited for. All in all, as hard as the last few months have been, I feel like I am able to do something for MJ, even though he is gone. The song Second Chance, by Shindown reminds me so much of MJ. Here are the lyrics:



My eyes are open wide,

by the way

I made it through the day.

I watch the world outside,

by the way

I'm leaving out today.

I just saw Hailey's Comet she waved

Said, "why are you always running in place?

Even the man in the moon disappeared

somewhere in the stratosphere."



Tell my mother, tell my father

I've done the best I can

To make them realize this is my life

I hope they understand.I

'm not angry, I'm just saying

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.



Please don't cry one tear for me

I'm not afraid of what I have to say.

This is my one and only voice

so listen close, it's only for today.



I just saw Hailey's Comet she waved,

Said, "why are you always running in place?

Even the man in the moon disappeared

somewhere in the stratosphere."



Tell my mother, tell my father

I've done the best I can

To make them realize this is my life

I hope they understand.

I'm not angry, I'm just saying

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.

Here is my chance

This is my chance!



Tell my mother, tell my father

I've done the best I can

To make them realize this is my life

I hope they understand.

I'm not angry, I'm just saying

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance,

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance,

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.





Maybe MJ's second chance is up in Heaven, welcoming all the CDH babies, and our second chance to help all the families we can here on Earth, until we can meet again. Maybe . . .

What a Week!

WOW it has been a very busy and hectic week. Which I think will be the story of my life until 2010. My sisters came in to visit me and I had an amazing time with them! We tied a BUNCH of bows and simply had a blast. I don't remember the last time I hung out with just the two of them, so it was really fun to be able to do that. We got all of the bows tied, so mark off another item as finished in my bags!



My husband, Willie, also put together 50 handprint/footprint kits. Willie was measuring out the plaster of paris to put in the kits, and we have a pretty amazing story from this. When he was finished at the bottom of the measuring cup was a perfect footprint! I posted the picture we took of it up, we really think it was MJ saying he is happy with what we are doing! I am so happy that he sent us this message. It means so much to me!






Yesterday we went back to Children's Mercy to meet with MJ's doctors and go over his autopsy. It was very hard, but I think overall we are happy that we went. We got to see some of his nurses that we felt close to, and I so glad that we saw them. We also wrote them a letter thanking them for everything that they did for us. I can't imagine going through that experience without them.



I also have some other GREAT news! The Topeka Capital Journal (local newspaper) is interviewing Willie and I tonight about MJ's Memories! How exciting to be getting some coverage! I also received emails from two local tv stations who would like to interview us! I am so excited, hopefully this will enable us to get a lot of donations to fill tons and tons of bags! It really makes me feel good knowing that we will be able to help a lot of families. I know it meant a lot to me.

Bows, Socks, and Handprint Kits

Well, I am really getting going on buying things and getting everything put together. I decided that for my first 50 bags, I am going to do 25 girl bags and 25 boy bags. In the girl bags, I am going to make cute little girl ribbons and put them in the bags, so moms can put ribbons on their little girls hair. I am going to buy ribbon and put them together really cute. (Maybe put my sisters to work a little more this weekend?) I googled how to stick them to little girls hair, because let's face it, most newborn babies have next to nothing hair. And guess what makes them stick to their head - surgical lubricant! Never would have though that! So I bought 144 sample packs on amazon.com for $12. I gotta lotta lube on the way HAHA! Now I just have to get started tying bows! I think I want to do at least four bows per bag - pink, red, purple, and white. I might add more, who knows, if I get really into it.

Now for the boys (can't leave them out!), Will as these really cute socks that look like little shoes. They are so cute! But they will be a bit more expensive then the bows for the girls. The cheapest ones I could find were $14 for six socks. This is definitely were selling lots of bracelets will come in handy! I really want these, so the harder I work at selling these bracelets, the more socks I can put in per bag. I was thinking at least two pair, but I would like to do three. So it will be easy to wash them and get those cute socks back on those baby boys!

We got in our tins today for handprint kits! I am very excited about this, and I got plaster of paris the other day at Hobby Lobby for pretty cheap. So this weekend (if my sisters feel like working, that is) we will be putting together these kits. Things are starting to come together! Our goal of getting these bags out by January is totally realistic!

Sold my first bracelet online!

Woohoo! I am pretty excited tonight because I logged into my email account, and someone bought a bracelet! I am VERY excited about this. I was getting pretty down because we hadn't sold any (other than to my mom and sister - and they don't really count) yet. I was starting to think maybe the bracelet idea was not a good one, and it was gonna tank. Hopefully this will be the first of many, because surprisingly enough, making bracelets is NOT cheap. I thought that buying the beads would be fairly inexpensive, but that was not the case. All the beads I bought, I bought on sale 50% off, and we still put a lot of money into them. Basically if I don't buy the beads at 50% off, then I don't make any money at all, only a break even. So I have to buy strategically. So hopefully this first sale will start a trend and I will be able to get a few sold. If not, I always have my back up plan of attending craft shows. My first craft show will be December 5th in Kansas City. I want to make a lot of bracelets for this event, and I really hope that people will like them. It is an all day affair, so I hopefully we will do well. We have to sell a minimum of five bracelets there to brake even, as it costs $25 to be in the show. If we can do well there, I think I will try and attend a show every other month or so. I don't want to overdo it, and get burnt out, so I think that every other month will be a good plan. Right now I am pretty excited, I just hope that it will continue and I can do well.

This is all for MJ after all, and I just want to make him proud. I am so proud of him, and I can only hope that I can make him feel the same way he made me feel. I miss him so much, sometimes it just doesn't seem real that he is gone. But that is the reality, as much as I want to deny it, I just can't. MJ's Memories will mean so much to me, I just want to be able to do well.

Bracelets Made!

Well, I have really gotten started here! Over the weekend, my mom, sister, and I made about 32 bracelets for MJ's Memories. They look so good, I am so happy with how they turned out! I am really surprised at how good they look, because I was a little scared when I was buying the beads. And, WOW were the beads expensive. Thank goodness Hobby Lobby had a half off sale, other wise I would have to sell them for a lot. And I really didn't want to do that. I am selling them for $10 each, which is a really good price, I think. I know when my dad had cancer, and I was looking around for a nice awareness bracelet, all of the bracelets were around $20 each. I am VERY happy with how they turned out. I just hope that people will want to buy them. I have gotten good feedback from people on facebook, but still no one has bought them. I put a lot of money into the bracelets, so I hope to at least get the money back, but I really want it to be a good fundraiser for MJ's Memories. I will be attending a Craft Show in December, so hopefully I can sell some there, as well. Alas, I am having fun doing it, and I am doing it for MJ so I guess that is all that matters.

Bracelets are for sale at http://braceletsforawareness.blogspot.com/

I also ordered tins and bought plaster of paris to start making handpring kits over the weekend. Both of my sisters will be in, so hopefully they will be up for some work! Haha!