Checking in..

Sorry I haven't updated lately- haven't had a whole lot going on. BUT I have came up with something for you all tonight! First- I have to take a minute to brag about my hubbs for a little bit. He has been working his butt off on projects around the house for me (who doesn't love a "honey-do list"?) and his latest project has involved sanding/restaining chairs so they all match our dining room. Now he has one completed (looks great!), one sanded and ready to be stained and just one more to go. He's been working away at those, even on the days where I am sitting on the couch watching recorded Ellen episodes. lol. However, more exciting news, we finally received the definite confirmation from the Army that Matt can be stationed here. He went before the board earlier this week and was told he is stationed here for a year, and it seems like it'll be something he'll really enjoy! :) No more worrying about them sending him back to Alaska- we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Speaking of people being wonderful, I received another amazing care package last night! Rebecca Wonderly-Pombosa sent me such a heartfelt package last night that I'll be honest it brought both tears, and a much needed smile to my face. There were many neat things in there- but two I have to suggest you check out if you have never seen them before are the clinging cross, and the book "50 Days of Hope". The book is awesome. Like I said, I just received it last night, and I'm already hooked. If you have cancer, or know anybody at all who has had cancer, it's a must. The author is a cancer survivor herself, she has went through cancer with several family members, and is now a cancer patient advocate. Without telling you ALL about it, I will tell you this much- she gives you just a quick blurb to remind you that cancer is only as big as you allow it to be. Cancer is not bigger than God, cancer is not bigger than your faith, cancer is not bigger than your hope, and cancer is not bigger than your joy. All things that are nice to be reminded of daily. Thanks again, Rebecca! You were always the most thoughtful person in highschool, but it's great to know I am still in your thoughts.

Other miscellaneous news- I finally went to get my haircut! I haven't had it touched since before the wedding, and it was beginning to look like a combination of a hot mess/rat's nest. So I had a good bit chopped off, the even better news, the chic cutting my hair said it is definitely not thinning yet!! YAY. :) I'm not sure if she knows what she's talking about or not, but right now I'll go with it. I'm attaching a picture so you all can give me some input. Other than that we are just hanging around the house this weekend, prepping for treatment on Monday. Another favor to ask, could you all keep me in your thoughts Monday? The last treatment was a little more uncomfortable than the first two, and I am really hoping it's not a trend. Thank-you!

Oh yeah, T-Shirts are in!! :) I can't wait to see all the pictures of everyone. Once again, thank you to everyone for your support through those, and a huge thank you to Kalen, Trisha, Dad, Jenna, Mom, Brandy and everybody else who has coordinated this whole deal. We love you!  Anyway- hope all is well and you are enjoying the weekend. We had 88 degree weather on our first day of Fall. I suppose there are some perks to living in MD.

:)

T-shirts are in!!

The T-shirts are in and they look great! Thanks so much to Kalen  for getting the idea going, Trisha for all her time coordinating everything, also to Jenna, T.O. and Brandy at South St for pitching in to get the word out about the shirts so that even more people will be a part of  Team Meghan. The response has been so wonderful and amazing!! A really big Thank -you is owed to everyone who has helped to make this endeavor possible for Meg.
As I tried to get across earlier this wasn't exactly my original idea but it has really seemed to have taken on a life of it's own and I can see many blessings to come from it that I hadn't thought about. The first one will be  that it is going to give Meg something to do when she is too tired to do housework but still wants to feel productive....She can figure out a way to collect everyone's photo in their shirt and get them to me so that I can get that letter off to Ellen and Oprah!! 
I will hopefully be taking Meg's and Matt's down soon so that they can start to wear them and get them signed as they go to all those wonderful appointments! They may have to backtrack a little though to get the signatures from the start. But hey..what else do they have to do right now??? LOL (that comment is just for you Meg..are you giving me that look yet?)
Once again Thank-you to everyone so much and as soon as you can get a picture in your shirt, either as an individual or as a group photo with some of the other "team members" send it to Meg so that we can start to compile them all in some type of format. I know that as we do that, it will bring smiles to both of them and also create a good memory to hang onto as she goes through this and when she is done on the other side of this "bump" in her life.

Happy No-Chemo Monday! Yay! :)

So I am stealing this title from my brother. Thank God I was blessed with three amazing brothers. I always thought I wanted a sister (in fact if you ask any of my family members, they'll confirm I whined about it for many years). However, the older I get, the more and more I realize how fortunate I am to have the brothers I do.

This weekend was one of "those" weekends. I'll be completely honest, it was all just a bit too much this weekend, everything seemed too overwhelming and too much to handle, and was just one of those weekends that finding the "ups" and "positives" in this battle were challenging to say the least. As Kalen mentioned in his previous post, my third chemo treatment is here and gone, with unfortuntately a bit more side effects this time around, but we are still trucking along. But after struggling over the weekend, my support system came to my aid again and I woke up to an e-mail from my brother simply titled "Happy No-Chemo Monday" and it made me realize, you know what, he's right. If for nothing else, I need to be happy that today is a No-Chemo Monday! Today instead of sitting in the infusion center, Matt and I get to spend the day getting a little bit more settled into our house and our lives here. If nothing else, I need to count my blessings that I am here on this No-Chemo Monday, and I have to suck it up, "catch the ball life is throwing" and keep going. (Although I have to add, the ridiculously cute pictures of my nephew, Captain Chaos, that accompanied the e-mail also helped to boost this attitude..haha) So here is hoping that the rest of the side effects from treatment wear off quickly so I can get out and about some more because the weather is absolutely gorgeous right now here in Annapolis!

On a very positive note, Matt and I had another house guest this weekend! :)  His step-mom Ann made the trip out to visit us, and it was awesome, and long overdue to say the least. We did manage to show her around Annapolis a bit, although I think she enjoyed being away from "work" and "mom-role" more than anything. We did our best not to make her work TOO much- so hopefully she will be coming back soon. Thanks to my very patient husband and mother-in-law, we had a fun, relaxing weekend. Matt was even in a good mood because he had a chance to see Notre Dame AND the Red's win!!

At the polite "nudging" from the previous blog entry, I am posting an updated pic of Matt and I. Now, keep in mind we were at the airport awaiting our guest, so it's not our best of pictures, but you can at least see that we are doing well, and not driving each other completely insane, yet. lol.

Finally, I think I heard through the grapevine that the Team Meghan T-shirt order was submitted last week. I have to say again how blown away I am by the response you all put into this. I know I have said many times how much of a difference just getting cards, notes, emails, etc. help me get through day to day; seeing you all supporting me by wearing these t-shirts will be a whole different ball game! Thank you. Hopefully once everybody gets there shirts, we can get some pics snapped and posted to FB so we can see everyone sporting their shirts!

 I know a few people have asked about being able to make donations vs. buying a T-shirt; from what I have heard there will be a donation can set up at South Street Botanicals, as well as up at the Summit. I will be sure to update you all if I hear anything else on that front.  Keep the prayers, thoughts, good vibes, jokes, etc. coming. It means the world to us!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day..  Remember, we never know what tomorrow brings, so catch whatever ball it is that life throws to you today and run with it.

How is Meghan doing?

My apologies for errors, this is coming from my phone as Trish and Jenna are finishing up the first shirt order on the laptop.

Lots of people asking how Meg is doing and we have been so busy with shirts we haven't updated. It Is hard to keep tabs on her, since she is so far away.

She is in the middle of her third treatment as I type this. Long day at Hopkins, but all has been good thus far. A little more cold sensitivity this time around, but I imagine having the pump for two days is a bigger inconvenience. Bloodwork has been good so far and fevers kept at bay so no delays so keep the prayers coming.

Matt has been doing interviews getting himself squared away with the Army. That will be good for both of their stability and I am sure he is getting a little stir crazy. We are happy he is home.

Next 5 months or so should be a lot of the same. Meg has been in contact with UPMC docs in addition to the Hopkins folks. Both groups have been great. Hopefully Meg shares a picture soon! *hint hint*

Ok, thumb cramps. I feel like a teenager.

Sooooooooorrrrrrrryyyyyyyy

Ok I am so sorry I haven't ordered my T-shirt yet!!  I believe it originally was my idea and was what I had requested to be my birthday present from my other children so this will probably be considered a major oversight by all of them. So as soon as I can, I will go to Trisha's email and order them for Jim and I.
I was glad to see that Kalen had included some of how the idea got started with me when he posted about the T-shirts, but there is a bit more to the idea than just that.
Early in the beginning of this situation, I realized how much it was a team effort to get to where we are now (and right now it seems to be going better than expected) but because I attempt to make lemonade out of life's lessons (just ask meg) and I am always expecting my children to see the silver lining in things, I was looking for a way to bring some good out of a bad thing. So I thought that getting T-shirts for Meg and Matt to wear for their appts and also to keep a sharpie handy to get" autographs" from all the great doctors and other staff we have met and I am sure they will still continue to meet along the way. That way at least someday when Meg looks back on this period of her life she will also have some good thoughts to temper the bad and her heart will be warmed by the thoughts of how much moral support, prayers, assistance etc she has been blessed to receive.
Plus early in this situation one day Meg and I needed something to laugh about instead of cry we took time to watch the "Ellen" show and we said we were going to schedule everything from then on either before or after her show and the doctors and other nasty stuff like picc lines, nurses visits etc would just have to wait and understand!(I am ashamed to  admit we have done very poorly with that goal though!!) As I watched "Ellen's" show I began to wish I could somehow tell about Meg and Matt and the  story so that others could see as bad as life can be sometimes ....it makes such a difference when you are lucky enough to have the amount of support through family and friends that Meghan and Matt have had.
I do still hope to someday write in to "Ellen" and "Oprah" but I want to be able to "show" and not just "tell" the story so hence the T-shirt idea, I hope to get as many as I can together to do a "photo op" with Meg and Matt and everyone else in their shirts.
Then the idea grew to also include the possibility of using them for fundraising if the need should arise to help Meg out in that way.
So to make this long story even longerrrrrrrrrrrrrr..I will be ordering my own shirt asap and then down the road, call on everyone to don their shirts for a pic.If I can't get everyone together at one time, I may just do a college of  some type with a bunch of pictures.
Oh and by the way you 2 boys are way too old to be keeping score on who the nicest and most thoughtful one is...I think I have you both beat with road trips this year! 
 

Paying for the T-shirts

Alright, we decided Paypal was going to be easiest and cheapest method for paying for the shirts if you can't send a check.  We tested it out the other day and everything worked pretty seamlessly.

One thing we'll want to do is combine shipping if at all possible.  The less we pay in shipping, the more money that is made for Meghan and Matt.

We took down the Paypal link on 10/1/12 because we are submitting our last "online" order.  We are working out options for other ways to get a t-shirt if you still want one.  Email Kalen at kalen.fitch@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Oh no!  You don't have a Paypal account.  Worse!  You have never heard of Paypal.  Well no worries.  Just use the drop down to pick the number of shirts you are paying for and click the Buy Now button.  It will open a new page which has an option in the bottom right that says "Don't have a Paypal Account?".  It will then give you a form to fill in.

If this all seems a little too shady for you and you would rather just send a check, that is even better.  Get that puppy in the mail.  Here is our address:

Kalen Fitch
340 Metoxet St
Ridgway, PA 15853

Trish is going to send emails back to everyone that ordered a shirt via email.  If you don't get one back in the next couple days, that means she never got your email.  In there will be directions for payments, request for shipping addresses, confirmation of order, etc.  We are going to try to get the order in next Wednesday.  Our apologies for the folks who got their order in right away, some of our family members have been slow to respond.

Meg and Matt seem to be doing well.  Matt is doing some interviewing to figure out where exactly he is going to get placed (at least that is what I understand).  Meg has been keeping a dialogue going with the doctors as she gets little surprises and minor problems as she is on her off week.  As of now, no major complications, so let's hope that continues.

T-shirts and Stuff

Alright, I am looking for some feedback here, so don't be shy.

The deal with paying online for t-shirts is this:

1) We can just use Paypal.  It is simple and already set up.  The problem is, they will charge about a $1 per t-shirt to use their service.  That isn't too bad, but out of principle, I would rather find a better idea.  I would rather that $1 ends up in Meghan's coffers rather than Paypal's.  Regardless, it is a fallback plan.
2) We can set up a donation site, such as Chipin.com.  We could just have everyone donate $15 per t-shirt.  That seems too easy, and I know some of these sites charge up to 10% of the overall donation to use their site, so I am cautious.  Anyone ever use one of these types of sites for fundraising?  I think our options will be to use a newer site that may not be super easy to use, or an established site and pay too much money.  Obviously, anything over 6% and we would be better off just using Paypal.
3) We could go old school with sending checks and cash.  For you younger folks, cash is that green stuff that old people carry around.  I know, I haven't seen it myself since I was 12, but I have heard that in rural areas people still use it.  The reality there though is someone is chipping in $.50 for a stamp anyways.  I think that is what they are going for these days, but like the cash, I haven't used one in awhile.  Might as well use Paypal and save the hassle right?

I know lots of people read this blog.  Please give me your opinion on how you all want to handle this.  If you have a better idea, let us know.

On the subject of t-shirts, we have orders for about 20 as of right now.  Hardly any from family though.  I am not super surprised, because at least Meghan's side is notoriously scatter-brained.  As soon as we sort out this payment thing, we are going to set a date for closing of the order.  After that, none of you hammer heads better give me flack because you wanted a t-shirt and didn't get the order in. 

A couple of cool offers came in to help Meghan (and the hammer heads).  Xtreme is going to waive the setup costs for the first run of shirts.  That is awesome, because that will turn this into an actual mini-fundraiser.  Also, a local shop has offered to sell the t-shirts for Meg.  More details on that will be provided after we figure out how we are going to do it without anyone getting stuck with t-shirts.  If you are one of those folks who forgets to put your order in, and you are local, you will have the ability to buy shirts there.

Alright, I know some of you actually read the blog to see how Meg is doing.  Last I checked, she is relaxing in Annapolis and enjoying a quiet weekend.  No chemo next week and the side effects weren't bad last week.  Nothing major to report, which is always good news!

-Kalen