Dollars for Dancing

My young mother Julie is having another birthday (thank God) on 10/20. She is participating in a Dance-a-Thon in Los Angeles to raise money for the arts.

Why you ask? (grin)

Well, her words are:

"Why, you ask? Because I still can! It's a birthday present to myself! October
20th is my birthday and I signed up to participate in Active Arts at the Music
Center's first annual fundraiser A Taste of Dance-A-Thon! Active Arts is a
series of admission-free to low cost events for the artist in everyone. For more
information on Active Arts please visit http://musiccenter.org/activearts.html."

Won't you share in celebrating her birthday with me by donating a few bucks? Her goal is a whopping $200 dollars. I would like to see her meet AND exceed this goal. Because she is...all that and a pair of comfy dancing shoes (instead of the bag of chips...he he he).

Just click on the title and off you go to read more about why she's dancing (why...because she can) and help keep the arts alive in Los Angeles.

Love you!
Michellene

Geocaching?

My sister Kristen recently visited Wisconsin. She and her fiance shared a nice vacation there with his family. She posted photos on her Facebook site (cool place once you can get in) and let me tell you, I was feeling pretty stupid when I came across photos about their Geocaching adventure.

My first thought was hmm...they are playing with GPS? Since her fiance was holding a GPS device in one of his hands...so I guess my first instinct was so far off from the truth.

Folks, there another world out there. It's an high tech treasure hunt and boy I think I have found a new obsession. (And I don't even have GPS....YET!)

Utilizing GPS and given coordinates you locate hidden treasures, sometimes just a log book but basically if you take something you leave something. But you have to be able to use GPS and your brains to locate it.

Oh boy....I so want to play this game...I am thinking I can do a scrapbooking geocache...or hmm...a cystic fibrosis awareness cache...or hmm...just a cache to have a darn cache...

I can't wait to find out more about this so I can get involved!!

Prayers for Jude

You know I have never met Jude or his Mommy and Daddy. But I recently read a note on Facebook posted by my sisters fiance David. It touched me so deeply.

Here's the note:

Dear Friends,We are saddened to update you with the news that Jude has been diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis (www.tsalliance.org). Over the last two days we have learned that Jude has tubers (benign tumors) on his brain which have been causing his seizures. He also has a couple of tumors on his heart, and we're waiting to hear news on his kidneys as well as other body organs. The prognosis for TS is hard to predict because the outcome varies so greatly from child to child. It will be several years before we will have a better idea of what this means for Jude's cognitive development and overall health.

Jude is still on the steroid ACTH which has allowed him to be seizure free for the past 9 days. We are praising God for this fact! However, he is NOT sleeping and grumpy for at least 20 hours each day...which of course is exhausting and very hard to watch as we feel so helpless. Needless to say, this has been the hardest week of our lives. We are now taking proactive steps to care for little Jude as best we can. Monday we will meet with his new doctors at UCLA which has a fantastic Pediatric Neurology department. With this sudden life change, we have come to the decision that we need to simplify our lives, so that we can best take care of Jude. For this reason we will be selling our condo as well as our car. We just don't need these extra financial burdens right now. Many of you have been incredibly gracious in your offers to help in some tangible way. We are humbled by these offers and we have identified some practical ways you could help if you're so inclined. Truthfully, your prayers mean most and we are grateful for your continued support in this way! Here are some of the needs...The stairwell in our house needs to be painted as well as our master bedroom (and some touch up paint around the house) to help prepare the house to sell as quickly as possible.We need someone to clean the house weekly while we try to sell the house. The multiple Dr. appointments and Jude’s sleep schedule or lack thereof :) make it virtually impossible to stay on top of this. People to help us pack items we wont need while trying to sell the house. (china, books, odds and ends).Any help marketing our house. Here is a link with the info on it.... http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/rfs/439540177.htmlWe continue to be comforted and amazed by your incredible love, support, and prayers during these difficult days. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.Love, Seth and VanessaLove... “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” I Corinthians 13:7

Please extend prayers for this family.