Long Overdue

Where do I begin? 

 April, instead of bringing showers, it brought us Shriners Maple Sugar Bowl banquets!

The first one for the football players...

and the second was for the cheerleaders and band members.

Taylor was on cloud 9. Ashtyn was pretty excited too but obviously a tad jealous.

We cured that, at least temporarily by the beginning of May when we went back to Springfield Mass for the 

Melha Shriners Circus!

 

And we had a blast!

The girls of course had to stalk the clowns ;) 

CLOWN LOVE <3 nbsp="" p="">

"Fix It"

June came along and brought with it A HOME! We finally FINALLY have a home again! In between moving and unpacking and running around like a bunch of crazy people, we snagged a few moments to go out and have fun as a family ;)

The day after we bought the house was our annual Shrine On Springfield walkathon for Shriners Hospitals. It was a much smaller group this year due to the multiple graduations that were happening that day as well as 3 different alumni "happenings" and parades but we still raised $1733 for Shriners Hospital in Springfield and we had a fun time doing it. "Fix It" even came up from Mass for our little shindig and made the girls' day ;)

Then it was back to craziness.......

July (and especially Grammy) brought us a trip to Old Orchard Beach Maine......

.....and then sent us to see TAYLOR SWIFT! 

Which was an experience I can't say I ever want to relive. The show itself was fine, good even, but getting into Gillette Stadium was stupid! Then the first 30 or so employees we dealt were so beyond idiotic and down right mind numbing....... its no wonder some people just go postal. Wow! Luckily we met a few employees who had common sense, personalities and were completely down right awesome and turned our (or at least my) anger into a fun time. Liv, Auntie Momma and Boss Man, you guys saved the day ;)

We got a little soaked....... but all in all they enjoyed their first concert.

But if I ever even think about going to a place......

that seats 60,000 people again....someone slap me please!

Then it was time for another Sugar Bowl event............. the Golf Tournament. Ashtyn got to drive a golf cart at the country club and decided that was "the best thing EVER".

And then came the crowning of the King and Queen at the pre-game banquet last Friday

followed by the Saturday parade..............

 and THE GAME!!!!

 Tayt and her buddy Dan

We then all got a little R and R when the girls spent this past week visiting our Lakes Region family. Jeremy and I got to dust off our motorcycles and finally ride them. And the girls had their days filled with all the usual Chaos and Mayhem type fun.... Making trips to see some "Tabbies", heading to Maine for another adventure in Old Orchard, feeding reindeer and visiting with Santa up at Santa's Village, camping, baking, shopping, bubbles, bicycles and having a blast. 

I don't know about you but I'm exhausted just thinking about all of this ;) 

That's all I've got for now but there's plenty more to come........

Shrine On Springfield 2013 paperwork

This has already been a busy year and its continuing to get even crazier, but I'm excited to share the paperwork and info about our 5th walkathon for Shriners Hospitals for Children.

As always, every single penny collected goes directly to the Shriners Hospital in Springfield MA to help kids receive the medical care they need for spinal and orthopedic conditions as well as cleft lip and palate.

Children treated at Shriners Hospitals receive top of the line family-centered care AT NO COST and Shriners Hospitals relies on the generosity of Shriners and people like you and me to continue this mission.

Please consider making a donation to this wonderful cause either by sponsoring someone you know who is walking or securely online at www.tinyurl.com/sos2013 and help kids like my daughter Taylor continue defying the odds!



(Click on the pages below to open and print them)

Save the date

Just a quick ditty.....

Tabbie love

Little Miss Taylor has been quite the busy bee and making Mommy busy too ;)

Tayt just received a HUGE care package full of letters and picture from the Bethlehem NH kindergartners on top of the thousands of tabs they have been saving for her. She was pretty excited to say the least.

That following Friday Grandmama, Auntie Lisa and GG went down to Shriners Hospital in Springfield to present our 6 month old tab pile which consisted of approximately 650 pounds. We didn't get to go on this adventure because Taylor was sick but we did finally make it down Monday to drop off another 25 pounds of tabs that were dropped off in our North Walpole well over the weekend. And while we were there, little Mayhem was also fitted for her 6th Armie. She's still sticking with Dora the explorer and boots the monkey but this one is purple.

Saturday brought more tab love when we were invited to the BPOE in Springfield Vt so that the Elks members and Moose members could present the tabs they have been saving to Taylor personally. We were also able to visit with some Shriners who were there :) and now on top of all the excitement with the 60th Maple Sugar Bowl and Taylor's "queen status" we'll be making a few other appearances too.

I can't even try to keep up.....

Here's a quick glimpse of the last month:

Little Miss Taylor was chosen to be the Queen of the 60th anniversary Shriners Maple Sugar Bowl! But I'm so excited for her and she's bordering on psychotic over it. She can not wait to get a new "ball gown" and of course a princess crown and ride in the parade with her Fezed friends (especially the clowns). The game isn't until August so you'll have to wait for those pictures ;)

I submitted the applications and whatnot for our 5th Shrine On Springfield walkathon and I will have the confirmed walk date soon!

Our tabs-on-hand count is up over 2,565,000 and growing!!!!!!! Holy cow!!!! I can't really absorb that. I couldn't even get them all in one picture. I'm going to try again when we drop them off Friday, and I'm sure someone will succeed in grabbing a good pic. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has made this possible and continues to save Tabs For Taylor!

Speaking of Fridays drop off, we're headed down to Shriners Hospital ( if you hadn't figured that out yet) to check out Tayt's "Boots" Armie and see if its time for the third color of Dora fabric to be made into her 6th Armie .....oh my.

Last week's visit with GrandMaMa and Papa was not enough for the girls so were kidnapping my mom to go down with us and since my Grandmother "GG" is up from Florida maybe she'll come along too. We shall soon find out.

Other than that is SSDD: hanging out with friends and family, birthday parties, school stuff for Miss Ashtyn and lots of playing in the snow. And if it involves any form of chaos or mayhem..... That's how our day/month/year went ;)

Feztival of Trees

After all sorts of ever-expected chaos, we finally made it to Concord to see the Bektash Shriners Fez-tival of Trees! Here's a little sample for your enjoyment ;)

My pick for favorite tree. You can't tell from the picture but all the balls on 

this tree are made with beach sand and sea shells. 

Its just what I want for Christmas......tropical weather ;)

 The Spinning Tree....4th of July on one part, butterflies on another.

I can't remember now if there was another themed side but these 2 were beautiful anyway ;)

 The mini trees

 Just one of the many beautiful wreathes 

OH MY GOODNESS I FOUND SANTA CLAUS!!!!

And if that weren't exciting enough Santa then blew their minds by telling them how he saw them over the summer in Vermont and gave just enough detail so they knew it was true but didn't give away where exactly he saw them. Way too cute! 

 And of course, I snap a frowning faced Tayt who not only doesn't want to leave Santa's side, she's also had more than enough of me shoving the camera in their faces this past week :(

 

 Oh the man tree. Well, I want this one too! Who wouldn't want a ton of new tools!

 I just love the purple tree

 And the itty-bitty hand knit stocking tree

 Keeping the Clown in Christmas.... LOVE IT!

 Tayt's pick for the winner! 

 "Look, its Rudolph!"

 Another awesome and favorite tree. Drier vent and bubble foil insulation palm tree!

 Rubber Duckie Tree!!!

 Tayt had to run and hug her two favorite trees Goodbye. 

Goodnight Bektash. Happy Holidays!

More from Melha

This is just a small sample of the photos shared with me from our night at Melha. 

These photos are all copyrighted and being used with permission from the owner. 

Thank you Chuck for sharing these wonderful pictures.

www.baconstudios.com

 © Copyright 2011-12 Franklyn C. Bacon Sons - Photography, Charles W. Bacon, Photographer - All Rights Reserved

Time for the Fez-tival of Trees

We're headed to Lake Winnipesaukee to visit my Mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving this year and it just so happens that the Bektash Shriners are having their annual Fez-tival of Trees this week too! I first heard about these Fez-tivals from the Kora Shriners website but their Temple is so far away from us that I can't just randomly sneak off over there. Luckily, after some searching online ....yes, I have "real internet" again!...... I found out that some other Shrines also host these Fez-tivals and Bektash happens to be one of them. So since we are going right by Bektash, we're going to swing in to their Fez-tival to see all the beautiful Christmas trees. I can't wait!

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"Holiday Magic for All Ages"

All fully decorated artificial trees will be raffled on Nov 25th at 4 PM

Silent Auction- bidding closes on Nov 24th at 4 PM

Visit with Santa

Children's Games

Gift Shop

Refreshments at the Candy Cane Cafe

$5 adults, $4 seniors, children 12 and under are FREE

 Nov 17 1-7p, Nov 18 10a-7p, Nov 19 10a-4p, Nov 20 & 21 10a-7p, Nov 22 closed for Thanksgiving, Nov 23 & 24 10a-7p, Nov 25 10a-4p. 

Bektash Shrine, 189 Pembroke Rd, Concord, NH.

 Learn more by visiting their website www.bektashshriners.org  or you can email  info@bektashshriners.org

A night with the men of Melha

After my presentation at the VT Shriners Ball this summer, we were invited to the Fall Ceremonial at Melha Shriners in Springfield MA. 

At this ceremony they welcomed new members into their Shrine. This activity is not usually open to "outsiders" but for this ceremony they invited 8 of us to join them. During this celebration, the new members performed a skit. I'm not sure how much of that skit is privileged info so I'll only share a brief, edited bit. Towards the end, as a member narrated the actions happening on the stage, the Masons built a temple. On the top of this temple were stones with different symbols that are very meaningful to the members. They lifted the last of the stones to the top of the temple and the symbol on this one was the Shriners' emblem. As I watched from back stage I was having a hard time keeping myself together. Once the Temple was complete, a child (my eldest daughter Ashtyn), was wheeled, in a wheelchair, out onto the stage and the Shriner picked up the crutches and then the child and carried her.

"No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child" - Abraham Lincoln

I can't even begin to tell you how hard it was not to cry. Even as I write this, I'm tearing up. This is what Shriners do and have done for almost 100 years and all that they do, they do to help children, and one of those children is mine.

After the performance, we watched a video of 2012's Patient Ambassadors and then presentations from the three guest speakers. Two are current Shriners Hospitals patients, and the third, the scary part, was myself. There was a 4th Shriners patient there with us as well but he let his sister Molly do the talking. She did an absolutely wonderful job, as did Meg Moore. It was great to hear their stories and memories of their visits to the Springfield hospital. Its funny, we all had the same fears and now share the same thoughts and experiences, even though our needs and reasons for being there are completely different. I was already nervous about speaking to begin with but then Molly wheeled out onto the floor to share her and her brother's experiences and their love for the hospital, and then Meg wheeled out to do the same as she shared hers with the aid of her computer speaking program, it was all I had not to melt.   

I know that Shriners Hospital does amazing things. I've seen a lot of their miracles first hand but I still sometimes forget just how much they do. And while to some people, having one hand would be the end of the world in their minds, Taylor's needs are so small and she can do anything. Some of the children Shriners Hospitals help, just like the three wonderful patients we met tonight, even after the miracles are done, they are still unable to speak or walk and do other things a lot of us take for granted. 

My presentation began with my video/slideshow of Taylor. I changed it up a little bit so it wasn't the exact same one I showed in Vermont but it still had the same effect. Everyone listened to Lady Gaga sing "Born this way" and watch Taylor begin as a little blip on the ultrasound monitor, receive her first, second, all the way to 5th Armie, see the loving family she has, the Shriners and friends we've met along the way and the finale, one of the best things I have ever experienced.....

...... proof that the Springfield Shriners Hospital would stay open!

And as the video plays, Taylor is dancing around going "That's me! This is my movie" and just captivating the audience. Then, when the music ends, the three of us head to the podium and instead of me talking to the crowd, Taylor took the mic and attempted to tell them something about herself when she was a baby and then said "Thank you" to everyone in the room. They all applauded her and then played her video again so she could dance around some more. Then it was time for me to hold back the tears and try to speak. This was a little easier to do than concentrate as the girls took the stage behind me. They climbed up, they climbed down, they jumped, and just went goofy. As I got to the part of "nothing will ever slow her down" we all kind of laughed as I thanked them for loading the girls up on chocolates, sugar cookies and coca cola before the ceremony. I shared with them a few of our experiences at the Springfield hospital and made sure they know that we love the staff  and even mentioned just how awesome Brock, Jim, Rob and Debi are. 

I somehow managed to get through it without tears and for the second time a bunch of grown men in the audience did not. I met with some of them during the intermission and they shared with me their stories of how they were once Shriners patients or their children were or are and one gentleman was going through a similar ordeal to my ultrasound right now. 

I'll never get used to Shriners thanking me. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't do what I do. They are the miracle workers. I'm just a grateful mom trying to thank them for what they do for all the kids out there.

Our night ended with enjoying the different Shrine groups introducing themselves and showing off their talents. The marching band, the drummers, the highlanders.....let me rephrase that: THE HIGHLANDERS! I get to see them maybe once a year, if i'm lucky. AWESOME! I love bagpipes!!! , the bikers (haha "American made rides up front, all others to the back! YES! ) , the clowns. BRING ON THE CLOWNS! 

Lookout "Schmeckles" I think Ashtyn's in love with "Fix It". And "Clueless", you better get to Clown College, these guys know how to make balloon animals. "Cheer Up" , you had them at "hello".

The girls went out with the clowns as they did their performance and had a blast! And then as the other groups came out, Ashtyn and Taylor bounced balloons on the stage as the "higher ups" tried to listen. Everyone thought it was great as I nervously watched, waiting for the over-tired crankiness to become unstoppable. We said our final goodbyes as they set up for dinner. I knew at any moment Chaos was going to self combust. We headed out to the parking lot and Ashtyn began to sob. One of the Shriners was out front with his Lady and she came to the rescue. She brought the girls over to her car and let them pick out a toy for their ride home. This stopped the waterworks long enough to leave the parking lot but I had to promise her a happy meal to ensure the rest of the ride went smoothly.

Thank you everyone at Melha for showing us a wonderful time and for everything you've done and everything you do.........changing the world by caring for kids and helping those kids defy the odds!