Silent Auction for Alexis!

I came across this info from Kerin Gale from the Mixed Media Art group. This little girl is in need of our help. I have posted the following from her mother's blog ( following info on the auction). There will be a silent auction through June 14th. Here are the two pieces that are in the auction from me if you are able to place a bid on. For more info or other works for auction check out http://countryfolkart.blogspot.com/






Here is the mother's blog:
It was a regular beautiful summer day, August 16th, 2006- Wednesday…meeting my mother & taking my 2 daughters (Austin Rose & Alexis) for my youngest’s well baby check up and going out for lunch. While our wonderful pediatrician was palpitating her abdomen, I was anxiously voicing my concerns about cradle cap, crying in the car seat….never did I notice that our normally bubbly, happy doctor’s demeanor had completely changed. He finally took a step back and said “I’ve found something in Alexis’s abdomen, I don’t like; I would like you to get an x-ray & an ultrasound at the hospital…you won’t leave here today until we know what it is.”

My sensitive mother (grammy Stella) started crying…. I said “Calm down mom! It’s not like it’s CANCER!”

The day our world turned upside down!

By the end of the day, our fantastic doctor, Dr. Oriel, had made us an appointment at Children’s hospital in Seattle the next morning and was explaining some form of cancer called “Neuroblastoma”.

The next 2 weeks were a blur, our 11 week old baby was being stuck daily by needles/ IV’s, NG tubes to her stomach and going thru numerous tests. Once the biopsy of the “main” tumor was in, we met with the doctors for the new- Worst day of our lives…they confirmed she had a very large tumor from her left kidney, and adrenal gland, that was wrapped around her aorta and pushing on major organs and inoperable and many tumors in her liver and also in her bone marrow and leg bone. It was called neuroblastoma, a cancer that only affects 600 children in the US a year. Her disease was progressive, MYCN gene amplified, which put her in the high risk, stage IV, 10% chance of survival category. How can an 11 week old baby have this horrible, monster of a cancer?

Now, it is March, 2009. She has endured 22 cycles of chemotherapy, 12 cycles of radiation, an 8 hour surgery to remove her primary tumor, kidney and adrenal gland. She has had 8 surgeries total. 44 sedations, 9 blood transfusions, many platelet transfusions, over 600 shots and countless numbers of medications being forced down her. She also had a stem cell harvest done to keep frozen if ever needed. Her disease is now considered “stable” the only disease left in her is small liver tumors; which there is no guaranteed treatment to cure. We aren’t doing any treatment at this time, she still has tumors on her liver that have remained unchanged/stable for the past 14 months, so we are at home, enjoying each other & family & go back to the hospital for check ups.

Thanks to our loving Heavenly Father she is still smiling radiantly, laughing, sparkling & has one feisty temper in lieu of all she’s been thru! There have been countless numbers of miracles on the way and we are in hopes & belief that God isn’t finished handing out the Miracles yet!

Thanks to everyone who has allowed Alexis to touch your heart, and all of the prayers being lifted up daily. God is good, we don’t know his plan, every one of us has only a chosen number of days on this earth, whether your 1 or 30 or 50. Alexis is living each moment to the fullest & we are trying to take her example and do the same and be ready just in case it’s our last.

Please read Alexis’s story, sign her guestbook or leave a comment, and take the time to view this amazing little angel that God has graced us with. Thank you God!

Please pray for Alexis Grace…

Please help the little girl if you can in any way! Shipping will be added to the item after you win it. Shipping for the bird art is $2.00 and shipping for the shadowbox is $4.00 Best of luck!

Carpe Diem Weekend!

I don't think I can ever recall doing what we did this past weekend ever before. In the past, my husband and I in our dating years might do spontaneous things but never like this and never with the kids.

On Saturday, Mark had decided that he would take a mental health day from work and we went for a drive, a long drive, to see the trains in Strasburg. While we sat in the car for two hours an heard some complaining from the kids in the back, it overall was a rather enjoyable ride. We pull up to the spot where the GPS said the station would be and see that it is not quite the place we had remembered. Moaning and groaning in the back for food led us to look for a restaurant while we decided what had gone wrong. We stopped at a Friendley's with WI-FI ( very cool) and I searched on my itouch. The problem ws that the train station was indeed in Strasburg but we had gone to Stroudsburg. This was a 2 hour difference. Not good. What to do now? There wasn't too much in the area and we wanted to see the trains ....so we decided to stay the night at a hotel. Yeah, we had no clothes, no toothbrushes nothing but ourselves...a real adventure!!!! The kids got really excited. There was a K-Mart across the street so we stopped in and got some cheap clothe and toothbrushes for the night and decided to explore the strange land we have landed at.






Apparently there was a beautiful park called Bushkill Falls with amazing waterfalls not that far away. We decided to check it out and had an amazing time. I also discovered exactly how out of shape I was when my kids were running though the trail and I was lagging far behind.






We stayed at the Best Western and I think that was one of the kids favorite parts. We headed out to the antique shops the next morning and finally the train station. Mike and Jake had loads of fun going in and out of the trains pretending to be conductors ( Mark did too:). Too many goodies and too much money was spent but indeed I wouldn't have traded this moment of carpe diem or memories for anything!