Life as a Leach

It is Giving Tuesday!  As always, our family is participating in The Red Shoe Shuffle on April 10th to raise funds and awareness for   Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore​ .  We love this amazing house and all it stands for! From now until Friday (12/4), Matt and I will MATCH any donations made to our Red Shoe Shuffle page, up to $500!!  In addition, we will also donate $10 for each person who joins our team. ALL donations from the Red Shoe Shuffle go directly to supporting families staying at The Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore while their children receive medical care.  You can rest assured that your donation will be used wisely. If you have been thinking about joining us for the Shuffle, now is the time to register!   You can do that here.  Be sure to join our team, The Joy Runners!  If you can't shuffle with us but would like to support our team, you can double your donation! Please click here to donate.  Thank you f...

There have been so many blessings that have come out of our journey the last five years.  At the top of the list is most certainly the Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore.  The staff has created such a warm community there, and it really is our home away from home.  We love it and shout that from the rooftops! We were so honored that they invited us to their Hamburgala fundraiser.  The kids presented flowers to the chair of the committee, and we all held signs to direct people to dinner.  It was such a fun evening and a great way to raise money for the new house! Abby loved her new dress and enjoyed twirling in it! Caleb got so many compliments on how sharp he looked. Abby decided to practice her princess wave for Disney World while we waited for the shuttle to take us to the Gala at the Four Seasons .  :) Our menu for the night. Everything served included McDonalds ingredients!  (but much fancier!)...

Tomorrow afternoon, Abby and I will be heading to our home away from home--RMH!  She has a pre-op appointment at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, followed by a long audiology appointment to get her hearing aid molds done and get some training on the hearing aids.  I'm happy that Abby will have a little time to enjoy RMH after appointments! Matt will come up Monday evening after taking Caleb to my parents' house.  Then, Abby's surgery to remove the hardware in her jaw will be bright and early on Tuesday morning.  The surgeon is being very noncommital about this hospital stay, based on Abby's shenanigans the last time!  We are hoping that it will only be a few days on a regular floor with no PICU stay, but who knows with Abby! During this surgery, the anesthesiologists will scope Abby to determine her airway status.  We are hopeful that she will go from a 4+ airway (no visibility and extremely difficult) to a 2 (partial visibility and mildly-moderately difficult). ...

If you "like" their page on Facebook, The Saavy investor will donate $5 to the Baltimore RMH!  How easy is that?!?!  3 likes pay for a family to stay at the house for a night.  21 likes allow parents to be close to their child during a difficult time for a week.   It's so simple, but it means so much.  Please click the link to like the company! https://www.facebook.com/441813502533940/photos/a.520030668045556.1073741828.441813502533940/722756457772975/?type=1

If you are local and love consignment sales as much as I do, you should head to Twice Loved at St. John Vianney on March 28th-30th.  If you go, print out this flyer and present it when you check out.  A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Ronald McDonald House!  You have to have the flyer for them to get the percentage, so don't forget to print it out!

If any Abby Fans are interested in purchasing a Joy Runners tshirt to support The  Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore , we are selling them for $15! My amazingly talented sister designed them and we are getting them professionally  printed at a local tshirt design company. They will be purple, in honor of our Purplelicious girl, of course! (I'm sorry I can't figure out why it is sideways.  It looks right when I load it!) Children's sizes range from XS (4) to XL (18-20) Adult's sizes are S-5X Ladies cut (cap sleeves, slightly fitted, order a size up) are XS-3X If you would like to buy one, please send me an email message at juliebleach@yahoo.com with your sizes. Checks can be made payable to Amy Bevard (she will write one check to the tshirt company and another check to RMH for the donated portion). They can be shipped for an extra fee to cover shipping (I'll try to keep it as cheap as possible!)  We need to have the orders by Thursday evening. Thank ...

This little cutie is on the ad that was sent out by RMH Baltimore about the Give a Hand fundraiser going on at McDonalds.  If you haven't already, please consider visiting McDonalds and purchasing some Give A Hands to support the Ronald McDonald House.  All Give a Hands purchased in Maryland will go right to our second home in Baltimore!  (Or, if you aren't local, your donation will go to your local RMH, which is awesome too!)  Thanks so much for your support! 

Head to McDonalds sometime this week and buy a Give a Hand.  All donations will go to the restaurant's local Ronald McDonald House (so all Maryland McDonalds will donate to our Baltimore House!) I know some people have issues with McDonalds' food (although I seriously love their iced tea!), but consider sacrificing your diet to help out a good cause, just this once.  :) And I just found out that if you donate, you will get a coupon for a free french fry!!!!

I finally went to the doctor yesterday for an annoying cold I've had that wouldn't go away.  I always wait as  long as I can because it upsets me when I do go and the doctor says there's nothing he can do.  Welp, it was a good thing I went this time, because I had a definite wheeze and was working on pneumonia!  I'd already been taking my inhaler several times a day because of coughing fits.  Now I'm on a strong antibiotic, Prednisone, and a nasal spray. No cough syrup seems to be helping me get through the night, so here I am up at 3:00 a.m. with Prednisone Munchies and a hacking cough.  Blogging seemed like the logical choice. I mentioned our RMH friend Reagann a few days ago.  She is still in need of prayers and a miracle!  She has a syndrome called ROHHAD that complicates her respiratory status, among other things.  But this illness is unrelated to that.  The way I understand it (and I could be wrong because it's all pretty comp...

...and so little time!! I have lots and lots of pictures and stories to share, but I have been super busy.  Work is really picking up and my job has kind of morphed from teaching to doing mostly staff development.  It's very new and different, but I really like it! I do have a few cell phone photos I can share with you to give you a few indications of what we've been up to. We went to Disney on Ice with Starlight!  As always, the kids loved it.  We met a delightful Starlight family with a very entertaining son who kept me smiling through the entire show.  He was so sweet! This picture says so much!  Abby got sick with a little stomach bug on Halloween, which meant our festivities were limited to decorating pumpkins with play-dough while Caleb and Matt went to the fall festival at church.  We decided to make a Hello Kitty in honor of Reagann, a friend of ours from RMH who is fighting a very serious infection back home in Missouri.  S...

After being home for nearly a week, this Thankful Thursday goes out to the many friends we have at RMH.  Here are just two of many!!   It makes being away from home SO much more bearable when you are among people who "get" you...people who understand what it's like to be in and out of the hospital...people who realize the necessity of being germ-cautious...people who celebrate every little accomplishment right along with you...people who see kids, not disabilities. So thank you to our RMH family--ALL of you.  You all hold a special place in my heart, and we have a bond that most just cannot understand.   In related news, this article just came out sharing that research shows that Ronald McDonald Houses help kids heal faster.  I firmly believe this.   If you have never volunteered at RMH, please consider doing it.  Join us the next time we go up for an activity hour.  Make dinner.  Sort soda tabs.  Fill the mailb...

Our 4th of July celebration started a day early with some special activities at RMH.  They made American Flag snacks (break with strawberry jelly and bananas for stripes, and blueberries for stars) and fireworks in a bottle (glitter, pipe cleaners, and beads in water and baby oil).  They also went on a hunt for stars hidden around the playroom and won some fun prizes. Caleb obviously took the hunting very seriously... On the morning of the 4th, we went to Port Discovery and were pleasantly surprised at how not-crowded it was! Abby and Caleb both loved the car, although I fear the gender roles are already forming in these 2 pictures... There was an awesome drumming room there, which both kids loved.  The man in charge owns all of the drums and was so proud of his collection!  It was, ahem, kinda loud, but they loved it!! Abby's favorite place was the grocery store, where she "shopped" for quite some time! She also reall...

They can't wait to have one of their own again!

Matt was here with us at RMH for three full days, and we only had feeding therapy on one of them!  He is never here long, and when he is it seems like all we do is watch other people feed Abby or feed her ourselves.  So it was wonderful being able to do things here as a family of four. Here's just a sneak peak at a few of the activities we enjoyed together... A Nationals baseball game for Matt's birthday... The Museum of Natural History... The Vietnam Memorial... Fireworks at the inner harbor of Baltimore... Drumming at Port Discovery... I've missed my husband and the kids have missed their daddy.  It's hard having your family split in various ways for weeks on end, so this weekend was a good one.  Stay tuned for more detailed posts!  :)