A Tribute to some Special Warriors...

I wanted to have a special tribute for ALL the warriors that have passed from Melanoma. So I decided to get black balloons and write their names on the balloons and send them off on Christmas day. Here are the pics of me preparing the balloons the night before and sending them off the next day!!!! I send some brightly colored ones off for all of us, "The ground troops" that are still fighting the fight!!!!






The names of those special Warriors in no particular order are:

Bradley Dean Theilsen
Cat Melanie
Pamela Kay Heuslein
Frank
Jim Schlipman
Alison de
Jong Russell Chirico
Krissy
Cindy Blanc
Monica
MaryAnn May
Karen
Doris Mize
IMO
Dawn Stearns
Donnie Forbis
Barnara Brown
John Fla
Lauralyn
Jarrett Boston
Charles (He had his own balloon due to
birthday being on Christmas)
Frank M (Boston Area)
Gail Nikles
Jon Warrington
Lorik
Kathy from Texas
Howard
John in Florida
Trooper Drew
Randy Evans
"Green Monster" Ron
Camilla FL
Michael
Dan Siskowic
Kag (Kathy)
Shayna
Luckyangel
Lottaguns
Mike from OK
Cindy Trauble
Tony
Lyn from OZ
Karen from Indiana
Jarrett from Boston
Nate Thompson
Jimmy Bishop
Mike
Holly Beth Moody Broussard
Glenda Davis
Lesley Czyz
Kim Hanley from Iowa
Kim Wheeler
Shelia
Dawn C
Rusty
"Silly Jillie"
Ken Luke
Joe Tuso
Shelia NB
Bill Walley JR
Joann Horaney Atwood
Sarah Toller
Curt Faus Jr.
Dan Geise
Rob from Va
Mandi
Jaimie
Krissi
Beckyts
Brad
Lester Pickel
Michael George Miles
Calvin Webster
Michael Davilla
Ceri
Michelle Caldwell
Shannon
Heather
Eden
Julie Lyons
Garry Tyson
Barbara GA
Jamie
Maria Carroll Luna
Bryce Brown
Mike












I though it would be a nice idea to make some bright colored balloons and put some names of those of us that are here fighting this beast and send those balloons up with the other ones!!! I called us "The ground troops". I could not remember everyones names so I went to the board and looked some up. There are just so many of us so I blew up a bunch of colored balloons wo we could all take flight with our friends for support. So here are some pics of me preparing all of the balloons the night before for the journey.

















Here is the special Birthday balloon for Charles. His birthday is on Christmas day so on his balloon i wished him a Happy Birthday from all of us!!!!





Here I am out on Spring Street with my 2 little guys Zachery and Nathan and my best friend's little guy Ryan.





I get some help from Jenn,Ryan,Zachery and Nathan...

Nathan sends a balloon off!!!!
Zachery gives a hug to one of his balloons before sending it up!!!
Colored balloons for "The grounds Troops"...

Any families that would like any of these pictures sent to them please email me at cmonarch@ptd.net and I will gladly forward them to you.

For those of you that have never been effected by Melanoma let me leave you with a few facts:
One person ever hour dies from Melanoma.
60% of Melanoma's come from sun exposure the other 40% are from irregular moles.
EVERYONE SHOULD GO FOR SKIN CHECKS
Melanoma does not discriminate!!! You can be dark complected and still have it.
You can LIVE with this disease.
This disease DOES NEED Funding you can do that by going to http://www.melanoma.org/

Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through my house both Zachery and Nathan were sleeping so nice and quite was my house. I sat on my couch enjoying "Dublin Mudslide Ben Jerry's" new flavor when all of a sudden I heard tiny foot steps coming down the top stairs. I sprang to my feet to see who it was, I knew it had to be my little guy Nathan trying get a little peak!!! So I took him by his hand and lead him back up the stairs, got him tucked in my bed next to his brother and gave him a kiss. He went back to sleep and I went back to my ice cream....Grabbed my camera to take a pic of my two little guys. They looked so cute sleeping so soundly on this Christmas Eve....I love them so dearly and I know they love me!!!!!

A Birthday Celebration!!!!

Well we had yet another birthday celebration!!!! Nathan turned 5 years old on November 13th!!!





Another milestone for me~ I remember when he was only 8 weeks old and being told I had only months left to live!!! And now he was turning 5 and here I am to celebrating it with him!!!!














Here are some highlights from our gathering to celebrate Nathan turning 5!!!!

Nathan shows off his new talent of balancing a spoon in his chin!!!!



Ryan enjoys his cake too!!!


Owen takes a test taste before diving in!!!





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Zachery....Well we all know how Zachery is he just dives right into the cake!!!




And so did his side kick Brady!!!!




It was just a great night and I truly enjoyed having another year with BOTH of my boys!!!!
Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Love,
Mommy

A Tribute To Shannon...

Welcome to a very special entry. When another warrior and friend had lost her battle to Melanoma I was devastated beyond words. We had been friends for several years and she had reached out to me for support and I found it much too hard to call her back. I had just had the tip of my tongue removed and I was just so overcome with depression with the loss of many others on our support board and with my dear friend Shannon getting more sick that I was afraid that I would not be able to find the words to help her. So instead I just did nothing.... I emailed her and she understodd but I still felt guilty. She was such a great person!!! Then I got the call on Sunday morning from my best friend Jenn....the call that never
wanted to get...."Chris...are you awake??it's me Jenn...Shannon has passed away..." I sat up took a deep breathe and told her I would have to call her back and just sat in my bed and sobbed hard..really hard!!! I don't even remember if I called her back that day or not. I was so mad at myself!! How could I let my friend down like that??? I hit a wall so hard I crahsed and it hurt!!! I shut eveyone out and I was beating on myself and I wasn't letting up. Then one day at 4:30 I decided to get in my car and go down to my church to talk to my pastor. I didn't have an appointment but he had a few minutes to spare. He asked me if I thought that Shannon was mad with me. That made me think... He asked if I was mad at myself for not calleing her back that day or if I was mad that she had died from this disease and not me?? Was I upset with being a survivor??? He felt that maybe just maybe my real issue was with the fact that I was carry alot of guilt around because I have Stage IV Melanoma and have survived for longer than what was expected but yet many others around me are not. He said that I try to support others but them I fall short at the end and then I beat myself up for that and then what good is what I do if I do that??? He was right. If I want to do good and help other Melanoma patients and their famalies then I have to do it right!!! So I went home and got onto 2peas.com one of my scrapbooking message boards and made a plea for some help with making an memorial album for Ed and Allanah and Ryan, Shannon's kids. I posted my story and Shannon's story and a link to her blog so they could read her story and get a sense of what Shannon was all about. Before I knew it I had a ton of women responding and saying that they would help me out and make layouts. So the end reslut are these amamzing layouts that are now on their way to Ed. They filled up 4 albums!!! Layouts were sent to me from all over..Canda,California,Australia just to anme a few places. Some women took pictures right from Shannon's blog to use on the layouts. The thought and intense emotion that has gone into these is just amazing!!!! I could not have pulled this off with out the help of all of these very talented women!!!! Thank you!!!!