I Went Purple for Maddie

Purple is a significant color for Maddie's family, so in honor of her, I have changed my background color to purple.

To find out more about Maddie and her family, please visit these pages:
www.marchformaddie.com
http://undomesticdiva.typepad.com

And PLEASE - help me reach my goal for March of Dimes by clicking on the banner on the left!

Thank you!

Madeline Alice Spohr

Madeline Alice Spohr

November 11, 2007 - April 7, 2009

I didn't know her. I haven't even really been following her story for very long. But today I found out she passed away and it totally broke my heart.

It's one of those things where you follow someone online and feel like you start to get to know them. Currently, for whatever reason, whether it's my job or my age, I've loved to read about other people's mothering experiences. When I came across the Spohr's page, it was such a heartbreaking, yet heartwarming, story, and it sucked me in. Heartbreaking because of Maddie's struggle, and heartwarming because she made it.

What I learned was that Maddie was born prematurely, and spent several months in the ICU. Once she was released, she still had lots of medical difficulties due to her early arrival, and was in and out of the hospitals dealing with it all. "Raising a baby... and insurance premiums" was the blog's catchphrase, capturing the good humor the family had about their struggles. Through it all, Maddie fought, and was a sweet, charming, and absolutely beautiful little girl.

I woke up this morning, logged into Twitter, and learned that Maddie passed away overnight. I was shocked, and as I said, even though I didn't know her, it really shook me up.

Their website - www.thespohrsaremultiplying.com - is down because the site can't handle all the traffic. But Maddie's mother, Heather, chronicled her pregnancy, and Maddie's life, and now death, on that blog. But you can read about them on another blogger's site here and also read all the posts others have written about this sweet little girl.

I am walking in the March of Dimes' March for Babies on April 25. Until today, I didn't have much passion around it. I supported the cause, and was happy to join my fellow colleagues to walk, but I had never been exposed to a story that really spoke to the cause before.

Now I have, and I am renewing my efforts. I plan to walk in honor of Maddie, and I'm upping my goal from $100 to $200. I want to do this for her, and you need to help me. Please, if you can give just a few dollars, I would be appreciative. You can donate directly on my page by clicking on the link to the left, or clicking here. I have 17 days, and I know I can do it!

I also have March of Dimes bracelets for sale - $2 each. All sales go directly to my account, and you will have something that will remind you of your donation, and of Maddie's story.

If you would rather donate directly to Maddie's March of Dimes page, you can do so here . A PayPal account has also been set up to assist Maddie's parents, Heather and Mike, with any upcoming expenses. You can donate by sending money, via PayPal, to formaddie@hotmomreviews.com.

For those of you who have already donated to me, another HUGE thank you to you. It means even more to me now.

For those of you who can't donate money, then please donate good energy, and send it the Spohr's way. Thank you.

Update on Dr. Joe

Joe with his new computer!

So, Joe has had some exciting things going on and I wanted to make sure everyone knew about it! First, he scheduled a time with a gym next to his office for him to come in and offer free chair massage for their clients. This was a couple of weeks ago and he saw a few people during his time there. He sent them follow-up letters, and one of those people called and made an appointment to see him! As most of you know, he's been treating a friend of ours a couple times in the office, which has been so great to get him back in the game, but this is his first patient he actually brought in from his own marketing!

He also came up with an idea to send all the schools in the Alexandria area a letter, offering to come in and do chair massage for the teachers. Well, it just so happens that teacher appreciation week is coming up, so THREE schools called back and accepted his offer!

And to top it all off, he bought a booth at the Red Cross Festival in June - which everyone has said is the best place to generate business. It will be all him, for two days, offering chair massage.

Such great stuff on his calendar, and it was all from his marketing ideas! He feels so great actually doing these things for him, as opposed to bringing patients in for someone else.

Everything is falling into place. :-) Hope everyone else is doing well too.

I'm Back!

So, there are a very select few of you who actually read this on a daily basis who have been extremely unhappy because of the lack of new posts. I have been soooo sick the last week and a half (basically ever since I came back from Wenatchee) and have barely made it to work, home, and in bed - let alone anything else. But, you'll be happy to know I'm back and feeling sooo much better, so get ready for some new stuff.

This last weekend was the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. Because I was finally feeling up to going out, Joe and I met Stuart downtown and we walked through the cherry blossoms to the Jefferson Memorial and watched some of the stage shows that were going on.



It ended up being really warm that day, and both Joe and I got sunburns on our heads (because we happen to be the palest two people in the history of the world) but it was so nice to be outside in nice weather.


I thought these were such great photos - this is Stuart showing off his artist ability:



Along with our fabulous day out in D.C., we also found out some very exciting news this weekend! Joe's cousin, Malinda, got engaged to her boyfriend, Quentin! Congratulations Malinda!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know this is late, but I just wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day! I had my traditional green beer, and Joe made me green mashed potatoes to accompany our burgers and green beans. We had green-frosted cupcakes for dessert. So fun!

Weekend Trip to Wenatchee - Part II

More Pictures!!

Here I am holding beautiful Miss Ava Marie, my cousin's new baby girl, who is 4 days older than Mason, who my mom is holding. Ava is so beautiful and so much littler than Mason - it was so much fun meeting her!

Here are the moms with their beautiful babies. My niece, Kaylie, with Mason on the left; my cousin's wife Christina, with Ava, on the right.

My whole crazy family who met me for dinner at my favorite restaurant the night I flew into town:

(The Wok A Bout Grill in Wenatchee, is literally my favorite restaurant in the world. If you ever find yourself in Wenatchee, go there - you will love it!)

Here are the dads, with their babies. Nathan, my niece's boyfriend, with Mason, on the left; and my cousin Dustin, with Ava, on the right.

Cousins holding cousins!


Seriously, do they not just melt your heart?? I wonder what they will grow up to be - do we have a future engineer, pilot, teacher, rock star, artist, actor, or veterinarian on our hands? It's going to be SO much fun watching them grow and seeing who they become.

Weekend Trip to Wenatchee

I had a fun, crazy, whirl-wind weekend! I caught a plane at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning to Seattle. I had to be up at 4:00 a.m., so it was not a pleasant experience. But, it was worth it, because I was taking a trip to visit family. I grew up in Wenatchee, Wash., and most of my family sti

ll lives there. My mom picked me up from Seatac Airport and after a quick stop to visit a good friend of mine, we headed to Wenatchee.

Most of the reason I decided to take this super-quick trip home, was to see my niece and her brand-new baby boy Mason. I couldn't bear the fact that I wouldn't meet this newest member of our family until Christmas - so I made the trip.

Here is the family:

My beautiful niece, Kaylie, and her boyfriend, Nathan, are raising this precious, perfect bundle of joy. Mason is such a good baby, so handsome and sweet, so they are definitely doing something right!

Seriously, how cute is this child??

He is so loved by so many people. My mother, his great-grandmother, is no exception.

Neither is his great-grandfather, my dad!

But Mason is totally in love with my brother, his grandpa. He smiles at him and it is just heart-melting. It totally turns my 6'4" bear of a brother to jelly.

Mason has an aunt and uncle as well, and I couldn't forget them. Sadie - a sweet Boxer that keeps an eye on Mason and has incredible motherly instincts:

And Ozzy - a crazy, super-happy Pug mix who loves each person he sees the best! best! best! until he sees the next person and then he is so so so happy to see that person too! It's too funny.

More pictures to come as I get them from family. Of course the only ones I had on my camera are of the baby and the dogs. So me, I know. But it was an incredible trip and now I just need about 16 hours to catch up on sleep....