Getting Ready For Relay For Life

We are in the middle of a whirlwind right now. As you know, we are participating in the Relay For Life in Green, Ohio on Friday June 15. Lauren and I went to a meeting on Tuesday. We were to hand in any money we had raised by fundraising. Oh, geez. We didn't know we were supposed to be fundraising. I guess I wouldn't since I hadn't gone to any of the planning meetings. They always were on weeks Lauren had chemo. I did e-mail a nice lady named Amy that is heading up the relay. She was nice enough to give me a lot of info. Besides the fundraising we didn't do, we were to have a theme for our tent. The Relay we are doing has a theme to do with cancer taking a holiday and everyone is to decorate and dress in the holiday they have chosen. We chose 4th of July. Don't ask me why. I asked naively if Relay supplied the tents and tables. No, they do not. Thank goodness we have a large tent, the kind with a top and no sides. Gio has a few long tables we can use. We are also taking a small tent so we can lay down when we get tired. That will be after about one lap for me. The small tent is mostly for Lauren. Poor kid will have her chemo pump until a few hours before the relay starts. We are supposed to fundraise at the event itself. We are having a bake sale, popcorn sale, glow stick bracelets and necklaces, and we are selling Lauren's wristbands. I also got 200 brochures from the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. So I think we should be able to raise a fair amount with all of this. Gio has a popcorn maker at his house. We are going to pop a bunch and keep it in huge bags to scoop at the event. We are baking muffins, brownies, cupcakes, and making rice krispy treats. I am going to bake some of the muffins today and freeze them. My Mom is baking a bunch too as is Stephanie. We have to put them all in bags and tie a ribbon on them. We will have to do the rest of the baking on Thursday.

We have to decorate our tent in red, white, and blue since our theme is 4th of July. I have a bunch of American flags all sizes, hanging crepe paper stuff, garland, and we have made like 20 signs. Some are red, white, and blue and some are not. We hope to have the best decorated tent. Another thing we found out at the meeting is that every team is to have a "spirit stick" or "spirit hat". So we bought a felt top hat and are going to "bedazzle" the heck out of it. We have red, white, and blue flowers, sparkly stuff, a red feather boa, and a bunch of little flags. I will post a pic when it is done. Whoever from our team that is on the track must have the hat on at all times. I can't wait to see the guys with this silly hat on. What a riot.

Our relay team consists of Lauren and I, Mark, Giovanni, my Mom and Dad, and Ryan and Stephanie. Mark will help set up and stay until about midnight on Friday. It is awesome he can be off work on Friday, but will have to work on Sat. His boss is so great about letting him take time off for Lauren. My Mom and Dad will stay until about the same time as Mark. They have a wedding to attend the next day or they would be right there with us the whole time. My Dad is 80 and my Mom is a few years younger, but they have so much energy!! We are counting on the young ones to pull us through. The dynamic trio of Gio, Ryan, and Stephanie. I know they can do it. To keep everyone motivated throughout the night, relay has many contests for the teams. One is a Ms. Relay competition. One of the guys has to dress up like a girl for a beauty pageant. Another contest is to see how much glow in the dark stuff you can wear. We have all kinds of glow stuff. It should be a lot of fun.

If all this isn't enough, we have to go to Michigan on Tues. and Wed. for doctor visits and chemo. My sister, Linda, and my Mom and Dad are coming to Kristen's the night before and then to chemo on Wed. We will probably go out to dinner on Tues. Bruce and Kristen flew out Friday night to Seattle. Bruce's brother, Tyler and his sister, Andrea are graduating from college. They will be flying home on Sunday. We are sad they won't be able to come to Relay. They are equally as sad. They both have to work that weekend. Once their schedules are made way in advance, it is set in stone. We are getting used to it now. We just have to think someone's life is depending on them and they need them more than we do.

We had a nice lunch with our friend, Lisa on Wed. We went to our usual place, Rockne's in Fairlawn. We were sad our other friend, Sharon could not join us. She is just having an awful time. Last I heard she was admitted to the hospital yet again at Cancer Treatment Center in Illinois. I sure hope they get her straightened out. She has not been well for quite some time. We feel so bad for her.

Lauren is sad because Gio went to a Bachelor party trip at Hocking Hills. Happy he is having fun with all his friends, but she misses him. Those two just love to be together. Lauren has been feeling ok. She is having back pain and still has the pain in her upper chest. It is slowly getting better.

I want to thank all of you that have donated to Relay. We started out on Monday with $160. Most of that was from our entry fees. I have been pestering on Facebook every day. As of Friday, we have raised around $760. I can't remember the exact amount. So thank you, thank you, thank you. We are thrilled and so touched by your generosity. I hope to get some more donations and with the sales at the relay, I hope we can reach over $1000. Wouldn't that be awesome!! We will be thinking of all of you especially our CC friends that are in the fight, are in remission, or have passed. We are doing this for Lauren and all of you. We will find a cure!! Love to all of you.

-Pam




Wo and Lisa at lunch on Wednesday