CHERUBS Needs Volunteers

We are in the last week of the January voting for the Pepsi Refresh Project.  We are in desperate need of volunteers to vote.  Are you aware of all of the ways you can vote EVERY DAY?

You can vote 5 ways EVERY DAY:

1. at Pepsi's site - http://pep.si/voteforkidshealth

2. by text (see codes below)

3. by Facebook Application - http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=263136462520

4. by iphone - http://ax.itunes.apple.com/us/app/pepsi-refresh-everything/id398265175?mt=8#ls=1

5. by android - http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/lifestyle/pepsi-refresh-project_nfii.html

Vote for all 10 charities at http://pep.si/voteforkidshealth

* ACTD - #64 in $50,000 (moved up 1 spot). Text 103679 to Pepsi (73774)

* Alyboo and Izybee Foundation - #47 in $50,000 (moved up 4 spots). Text 105431

* Birmingham Royal Oak Medical ...Group - #37 in $25,000 (holding). Text 104303

* Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky - #44 in $50,000 (moved back 2 spots). Text 104476

* CHERUBS - #18 in $25,000 (moved up 5 spots) Text 101202

* Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters - #12 in $250,000 (moved back 1 spot). Text 104850

* Congenital CMV Foundation - #21 in $5,000 (holding steady). Text 104946

* MedZou Clinic - #23 in $50,000 (moved back 1 spot). Text 103787

* Visually Impaired Preschool Services - #35 in $250,000 (moved back 1 spot). Text 104721

* YMCA of the North Shore/Salem YMCA - #43 in $50,000 (moved back 1 spot). Text 105253

 

We need every vote we can get to help out critically ill babies and children.

 

That isn't the only way you can help out with CHERUBS.  We are looking for volunteers to help with CHERUBS directly.  We are looking for hospital angels in Minnesota.  Also we need people to help raise awareness in Minnesota about CDH.  Maybe you are interested in contacting your local paper and/or tv and radio stations.  There are so many other areas of volunteering available.  The list is practically endless.  If you are interested in helping out, please feel free to contact me or CHERUBS directly.

Thank you.

New Year's Resolutions Revisited

We are almost half way through the first month of 2011.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Where does time go?

How are we doing on those resolutions?  I've improved, but I'm not where I want to be on them.  But, the way I look at it, I have a whole year to improve.  After all, it is a resolution for the whole year.  By the end of this year, I want to be better than I was the previous year at that time.  Maybe I don't see it the way I should, but each to his own, right?

I've been focusing more on my family.  I'm trying to get projects done that I've promised over and over again to complete.  I've been watching what I eat a lot more.  And that doesn't just mean watching it go from my plate to my mouth. : )  I've been trying to make more balanced meals for my family.  Trying to eat at home more than out.  I'm trying to work with my son on his homework.  He is having a hard time focusing at home and in class.  And we've been spending more time as a family.  Must be working because my daughter even mentioned it the other night on how much she appreciates us being able to sit around and talk at night after dinner.

I've been trying to do volunteering in different aspects this year.  I want to know my volunteering is making a difference.  I still volunteer at my son's school, but more for the teacher than as a whole.  I've been trying to come up with more CDH awareness ideas.  So far, one is that my son's science fair project is "What is CDH?".  Since he's still in 2nd grade I can help him out with it a little more than I would next year.  I decided it was a perfect way of bringing awareness to his school.

Keep working on those resolutions.  Even if the year didn't go exactly the way you intended, in my eyes you still have another 11 1/2 months to work on them.

New Year's Resolutions

Today is the first day of 2011.  The time of the year when people make resolutions, a commitment that they are making (usually to themselves) for the next year.  A time to start with a clean slate. Maybe they pledge to work out more, eat healthier, find a new job, volunteer more, quit smoking....  The list is endless.  Did you make a resolution this year?


Each year I contemplate if I'm going to make a resolution for the year.  It is usually to work out more and eat healthier.  I'm usually pretty good about it too.  For a month.  By the time February rolls around, I am right back to my old habits.  I admit I'm addicted to sugar.  I start off with all of the candy that the kids received over Christmas, because the Halloween candy is long gone by now.  Then comes Valentine's Day.  I'm ok with the chocolate, but those Brach's sour cherries are my downfall at this time of the year.  You can only find them from now until the middle of February.  Then comes Easter with the jelly beans.  Jelly beans!  To me, they are the best candy ever created.  So much, in fact, that my husband proposed to me by hiding my ring in a ginger jar full of Jelly Bellies.  Then I get upset with myself that I gave into all of it and packed on a few pounds, just in time to start pulling out the shorts.  Yikes!!!  But when January 1st rolls around, I'm ready to try to make the same pledge.

So, if I'm going to make a resolution, it is going to be one that I know I can stick to for the year.  Our pastor once said his resolution was to never turn down free pizza.  That's the kind of resolution I can keep.  I once joked that my resolution was to not make a resolution for the year.  And since it was a resolution that I broke immediately, I didn't have the guilt over the other 364 days of the year.

This year I am making a resolution.  It is "To Do My Best".  To do my best at what?  Whatever I am doing.  To do my best at being a mother, a wife, a sister and daughter.  To do my best as an employee and a volunteer.  To do my best as a friend.  To just do my best.  After all, isn't that what I tell my kids?  They may not win a game, but as long as they did their best, that is all that matters.

So here's to a brand new year.  A year of doing my best.  What's your resolution?

Happy New Year!!!