March of Dimes Walk!!!!

Wow, sorry for the delay getting these photos up. I got behind, forgot to empty the camera and got busy with other things this week. The walk was amazing! It was hotter than heck out and it was a 5 mile walk, but so worth it. I enjoyed it a lot and enjoyed making our team shirts. The front said "Team Parker" with a turtle and the back said "March for Babies 2009". Parker's outfit said "NICU GRAD." I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the support and love you all gave us. Next year, we will be working hard to raise more money, but please remember, you can give to the March of Dimes at any time! And now, without further adeu, here are some pictures!!!!

Parker's Sign along the street!





At the starting line - a mass of people


Mommy and Parker getting ready to walk!


Daddy is ready to walk!


Parker resting at a rest area!


Mile 1 of 5


Team Parker: (L-R) Christina, Teresa, Drew and Parker, Kim and Kara


Drew and Kim headed up the first hill!


The Finish Line!!!


Parker and Mommy at the end! My little NICU GRAD!!!

Tidbits - What's on my mind!

Hi friends!

Today on Tidbits I am going to share a little bit of everything on my mind!

March of Dimes Walk
Yesterday was the walk! Because it was the first year that I did it I wasn't sure what to expect. I had these ideas in my head, but you can only be so prepared. Let me tell you, it was way more exciting and long than I expected. I certainly didn't expect 5 miles to be so long...it doesn't seem like it would be long, but holy cow! I am proud to say that we did finish the 5 miles with very few stops (towards the end I did start to get sick, thank goodness for Steak and Shake!) We finished strong and very proud to have been a part of such a great event. Yes, I even shed a tear or two or 70. There were a ton of other's there, though I have clue what the actual number was! My team consisted of Drew, Parker and me, as well as our friends Teresa, Kim and Kara and one of my blogger friends even walked with us (Thanks C.). We ran into one of Parker's nurses from the NICU! That was exciting and unexpected and so good! We didn't get to see anyone else, though she did say there were some others there! It was cool to see other family teams and their posters. Ours was out and I was so excited, I am also excited because we got to keep it if we wanted to! Parker did so so good! I was expecting a meltdown from being too hot or not getting a diaper change - but no, he sat in his stroller with his incredibly cute outfit and played with his toys and talked! I think we finished in an hour and 45 minutes. After the walk we spent the afternoon resting (while Parker spent it playing!). I am not too sore today, my blister on my foot hurts, and the random sunburn I got on only one arm and only on the back! Pictures to come - I haven't dumped the camera!

Saturday
Saturday was a good day too - just really busy. That morning, Parker and I got up early and went to a soccer game to cheer on M. He is the son of my good friend C and B and we promised him we'd come to a game. He adores Parker and visa versa. His team did well and won!!! We came home and our friend Teresa came over to help me make our team shirts! (We were the only team there with hand maid shirts!) After she left I headed to a coupon class hosted by Ellen of ThriftyChicMom. She is an insane (good insane) couponer and she shared her tips! I look forward to getting into it. I have clipped coupons, but I have never been so organized and thoughtful in my shopping. After that I went grocery shopping for a little bit of stuff and came home and relaxed.

Parker
This little man is giving mommy and daddy headaches! He gets into everything, pulls up on everything, bumps his head on everything (nothing serious) and is just running amuck! This weekend he has started crawling more and more and he pulls up on anything he can. It's crazy to think a week ago he barely did anything but roll and now...yah, not so much. He's such a big boy and he is doing so well!

Today I am going to do some spring cleaning! Our house is so cluttered and especially our walk in closet - A MESS! i am planning on getting some new clothes since I can't fit into most of my summer clothes from last year. We are going to tennessee in two weeks so I want to get some new things for that trip. Also, I need to get all the winter clothes put away too. Plus, with how sore I am it will be a good break before I am busy later this week!

I am done, thanks for reading my novel! I hope to get pictures up later today of the walk!

Please Help Us Out!!!!

Hello Friends!

Please read the below email I sent out today. If you feel compelled to help out, I would love for you to donate or join our team! You can click on the purple box on the right to donate, or the link the email. Also, please feel free to direct your blog readers here to help get the word out!

Thank you so much! I hope you realize that Parker means the world to us and it because of him that we are doing this!




Hello Friends and Family,

Our family is forming a March for Babies Family Team to help the March of Dimes work towards the day when all babies are born healthy. We are writing today to ask you to join us!

We are forming our team in honor of Parker James Northern our amazing son who was born 11 weeks early oh May 29, 2008 by emergency c-section. Our sweet Parker weighed only 2 lbs. 3ozs at the time of his birth and spent a total of 69 days in the hospital, coming home a week before his original due date of August 12. Those 69 days in the hospital were not only frightening, but had their shares of ups and downs, tears, and uncertainty. While we realize that there may have been no other way to change the outcome of our last summer, we certainly would never want anyone else to go through what we went through. By sharing our story, we hope to remind everyone of the urgency of the mission of the March of Dimes and inspire our friends and family to join our team.

Ours is not the only story of frightening, touch-and-go days in neonatal intensive care with our baby. Premature birth touches half a million babies and their families every year. Babies born too soon are more likely to die or have disabilities. Birth defects pose another serious threat – taking the lives of many babies and cause lifelong disabilities for thousands more. So it’s important for us to help the March of Dimes help moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies.

We are doing just that by participating in March for Babies as a Family Team. No one is working harder than the March of Dimes to understand the causes of prematurity and birth defects. March for Babies offers hope by raising funds for lifesaving research, education and innovative programs that offer hope for preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects.

We would like to invite you to join our family team: Parker Northern Family and Friends. Our team captain is Parker's mommy, Denise and she would love for you to participate in the march! The march will take place on April 26, 2009 at 10am here in Columbus, Ohio. The walk is a 5 mile walk which you an take at our own pace! If you would like to join our team and walk with us that day and join in our fundraising efforts, please click on our team link below and sign up to be on our team.

If you are unable to be on our team, we completely understand and would like to ask you to consider sponsoring us by donating to our team. Every little bit helps so please donate only what you can!

To donate or join our team, please stop by our family page located at: http://www.marchforbabies.org/627804

One day all babies will be born healthy. But we’ll have to walk to get there! Thank you for your help.

With much love and gratitude,

Andrew, Denise and Parker Northern

The Beautiful 16

Dear Friends,

Please meet the most beautiful children I have ever seen. These are the orphans that call the orphanage my church sponsors home. The are lovely kids, a delight, amazing, beautiful.


Asia's Hope: Cambodia from Clay Productions on Vimeo.

Please meet Jen, a good friend who is a missionary over in Cambodia loving our children.


Here I Am from Clay Productions on Vimeo.


Today, my good friend and amazing author, Marla Taviano will be donating all monies collected from book sales to our orphanage over in Phnom Phen. Please consider buying a book, or two, or three, prices are dropped today only!

- For information on our orphanage please visit: An Asian Vista
- To learn more about Marla's special book sales day please visit: Marla's Website
- For more information on Asia's Hope, the organization that we are partnered with please visit: Asia's Hope
- For more information on my church please visit: Vista Community Church

I hope that you consider helping out, but understand if you can't. But I would ask that you please take a moment to pray for our orphanage...the kids and Jen too! Thanks for allowing my to share this opportunity with you!

Scattered Brain

I am at a loss for anything horribly important to talk about today so I am going to make this a scattered post.

 - I can't believe my little critter is going to be 5 months next week. How on earth did he get so old? I adore my son, more than I ever thought I could have. I always knew I would love my children, but whoa baby is this love deep! He astounds me more and more each day. He laughed the other day for the first time, it was amazing...hasn't really done it sense, but he sure smiles a ton. He holds his head up well and I who knows if he is going to start crawling soon, he sure acts like it. Also, I think he is working on sitting up some! I had him on my lap and let go and he sat there for a couple moments before falling forward (no worries, I made sure my hands were there in case he went back! Thinking back to the day he was born, so little, so perfect, a 2lb blessing, now he is so big, so perfect and has tremendously smelly diapers! My little 8lb stinker :)

- I am so excited, today I found out that the FLOWER FACTORY is now doing membership for anyone and it's free. It used to be just businesses and you could get it through your place of employment, or an organization you were a part of. And now for a limited time, they are offering it to anyone. I am going to go in tomorrow or Friday and get it and look around! Oh man am I pumped, it's where we got my baby shower stuff and I got my cafe mocha kitchen clock there!!!

 - My play group is going to help a charity out this winter. It's called Patches of Light and we are going to do their hug bags. I am getting really excited. I think it's a great outreach! I think we may also try to adopt a family for christmas, I need to look into that more.

- I just found out that National Free Burrito Day at Chipotle is Oct. 31-Nov. 1. I am going to be in Indiana, but there has to be a Chipotle in the area we can go to! And all you need is to wear something made out of foil...I am thinking a necklace!

- I am getting really excited for Friday! First, in the morning, I am going to the Open Gym at the Dublin Rec Center. I get to see my friends from church and hang out and talk. Yah, Parker is a bit small, but it nothing else, it's a great time to just connect with others. And then later that night I am going bowling with the mommies in my play group. A mom's night out! I am looking forward to it and my friend Jen is watching Parker!

I am going to bid you a fond ado and enjoy some Gilmore Girls!

A Leap of Faith

I hope you are sitting down for this because I have something very important that I must reveal to you right now....My name is Denise and unfortunately I am human and have fears! On of my biggest fears/struggles is being a leader. Talk about being WAY out of my comfort-zone. But recently God has really been pushing me to step out of the zone and has been renewing within me an amazing spirit. 

This is the convo that started it all...or well, kind of the conversation I had with God: 

G: "Hey Denise, guess what, it's time you cross that line and jump on in to this new venture."

M: " Um, God, really? I mean, this is a huge fear and I am not into conquering a fear right now."

G: "I understand, but you say you trust me and you have put your hope in me, don't you trust me enough to lead you and guide you in this?"

M: " Of course I trust you God, but this is a huge fear and I am not ready and I just am not sure I will be ok, I am just not re-a-d-..."

G: "Denise, you can't half trust me, do you FULLY trust me? Will you put your life in my hands? Think about it, did I let you down with Parker. You trusted me then, why not with this?"

M: "Yes, and I appreciate how well you have taken care of my precious boy, but I am scared."

G: "Will you trust me and let me lead you?"

M: "You know what God, Yes, I will....you haven't let me down thus far....here I go..."

I jumped in and am now stepping out of my comfort zone. I have taken on a leadership roll in my mommy meet up group as an assistant organizer and I am loving every minute of it. I am in charge of charity events for my group and working on how to appropriately discuss things with the charities (I am bad at phone talking!) I am planning on stepping into a role at church again, working in the toddler room and planning structure for that room (can I tell you how THRILLED I AM?) God is really pushing me in all of these and I am taking the plunge with an open heart and while I am scared and timid...I am ready for this. I am looking forward to working with a charity in my life group and now with my mommy group. 

It's so funny how God works. I mean really...He is so cool like that. And I am thrilled to be "growing up." One of the charities near and dear to my heart is March of Dimes and I want to show Parker a spirit of giving, which isn't to say I am not a giving person, but I am always so scared and timid, but now, I feel like I can truly show Parker how special you can fill when giving to others and being willing to stand up for what you believe in (and at this point the Veggie Tales song "Stand Up" runs through me head....) 

I can't wait to see what God has planned. Pray for me on my journey! Tuesday's Tips tomorrow...stay tuned, you will love it!