COOKIE's FUNdraiser Weekend 6-3-06

Dearest Friends and Family,
WHAT A GREAT DAY WE HAD!!!! TONS o' work, TONS o' stuff, and TONS o' wonderful, beautiful people to shop and eat and drink with us! We had people from all over, all walks of life and for all reasons. We had something to offer EVERYONE, from toys to electronics to beds to clothes of all sizes and styles. We had friends, relatives and as the day worn on, we made new friends. It was the hottest day of the year and we were fighting over the shade that one little umbrella could provide once we got into the afternoon hours. We were open for business until about 4:30pm. At that point, we picked our tired butts up and began packing everything for it's final transportation. We had about 50 bags of clothes left that were picked up by a church that will donate them to a mission in Mexico. We filled three truckloads of boxes and took them to the Goodwill. Believe it or not, with that much left over, we sold about 3 times as much as that! But above what we made in money, we had a really, REALLY FUN day! Thank goodness there were a lot of us to work the event because we were inundated with about 30 people from 6:30am, continuing throughout the day! We had bbq'd hot dogs cooked on our neighbor John's NEW bbq. We had delicious taco boats made with Fritos and canned chili from Costco. We had cold, sweet lemonade poured by none other than our Parker (and whenever he got bored, any of the other neighbor kids that jumped at the chance to do the honors!). AND, we had so many baked goods that we ended up giving boxes of them away! King's Hawaiian donated 3 large boxes! Cookie's Girl Scout Troop was responsible for getting those for us! Ramona's Bakery donated boxes and boxes of cakes and cookies and muffins too!

Our neighborhood Fire Station came by in the afternoon looking for Parker. They put cones in the street and let all the kids have a turn at spraying water all over the street and at each other! Parker was too shy to go out there but the kids all had a blast and he enjoyed watching them.

We had people drive up and get out simply to give a donation. One young man pulled up on a great big red motorcycle. He had a big gray beard down to the middle of his chest and he was fully decked out in his motorcycle garb. He parked right in front of the yard sale, walked up to our "cash guy" and gave a donation and turned around and walked back to his motorcycle. Everyone just stopped and watched him and they all began clapping and cheering as he got back on his bike and rode away, waving. It was a really cool moment.

Bottom line, we sold a lot of stuff, we gave away a lot of stuff and we made a lot of money for all of our hard work. I, personally, cannot say thank you enough to all of the folks that donated their "treasures", helped unload boxes, and worked their tails off for US. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are SO blessed and we KNOW IT!

The call came in to us at about 10:00am that COOKIE's counts were coming up! COOKIE is making WHITE BLOOD CELLS! COOKIE and Shelee were on the phone with me and we were all crying as I shared the news with everyone gathered around me. At the FUNdraiser, we had a dvd continuously playing that COOKIE had made the night before. She said that she was sorry she couldn't be there because "she was busy trying to make white blood cells"! Well, she did it. We're on the rise and there's no stopping her now!

COOKIE's other grandma, "Grammy", came by the FUNdraiser, took some really cute pictures to take to the hospital and went to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Shelee and COOKIE. They had a great afternoon. Grammy is a very talented artist and she brought some embossing for COOKIE to do her own personal trading cards and thank you notes. They had a so much fun and it took their minds off of not being able to participate in the FUNdraiser with us. That's what I call teamwork.

We got the opportunity to go to the hospital today (Monday) and Parker and COOKIE got to spend some quality time together again. This time without masks. Look at those smiling faces. They are so absolutely adorable together. Ahhhh, if only it would last forever. :)

This is a "good news" blog. It's been one wonderful thing after another this entire weekend. We are moved beyond just words at how lucky and special we all feel. It makes all of the hardship and anguish seem small compared to how full our hearts are this very night. Thank you, one and all, for caring and sharing with this family. Our goal is to overcome this obstacle and give back to whomever we can throughout our lives. We're surrounded with love and generosity and we truly know that we could not endure this without everything you've given to us.

God bless you and yours. I'll be back soon with more update on my girl....
Lovingly yours,
Cookie, The Grandma