*quick reminder*

We'll post more on the walk later today & tomorrow, but before we forget, on the heels of one event comes another! In just two weeks, on Saturday, October 11, at Family Church on west Kellogg in Wichita, we'll be hosting The Kyrie Foundation scrapbooking crop!

Saturday, October 11, 2008, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Family Church, 11135 W Kellogg Wichita, KS

For those of you new to the idea of a crop, it's simply a big chunk of time and a comfortable place to bring those scrapbooking supplies and photos (or any other project you've started) and make some creative progress while chatting with your girlfriends, making new friends and swapping crafting tips. You can stay for as little or as long as you want! Maybe you have a friend that couldn't make the walk; bring her along to the crop! This is the perfect place to work on any Christmas cards, Thanksgiving invitations, Halloween treat sacks, scrapbook layouts, brag books, holiday decorations or handmade holiday gifts & tags.

If you're a newbie to paper crafting, come anyway! We'll have a shared tool station with paper punches, stamping inks and an electronic die cutting machine to make all sort of shapes & letters! Plus, I'll teach you everything I know. ;) There will also be experts on hand from ScrapFunAttic who know much more than I do, and remember: scrappers are really, really, really nice people.

And boy howdy, is this a great deal! Just $40 for the whole day and that includes lunch from Jason's Deli and a delish dinner. Plus--get this--a goodie bag that's loaded! There will be at least $20 worth of freebies in this little sack, like specialty 12x12 papers, designer stickers, Martha Stewart idea sheets, Making Memories measurement rulers, Glue Dots and more!

And if that weren't enough, we have a few surprises, too, as well as a ton of super-fab prizes in our raffle, like a high-end scrapbook prizes from K&Company, Inkadinkadoo stamp & ink sets, Amy Butler Creativity Bags and the grand prize: an amazing (and expensive) true-color OTT-Lite lamp!

There will be a free-will donation massage therapist on hand to work out any kinks, too. Love that!

Thanks to our generous friends at Scrappin' Boot Camp, you can register and pay online with your credit card at Scrappin’ Boot Camp! You can also order a specially designed shirt for this event there, too.

If you'd rather pay by cash or check, simply e-mail Christy Freeman at christycmc@sktc.net. If you'd like to be there, we really need you e-mail Christy ASAP because seats are limited!

Special thanks to:
ScrapFunAttic
Scrappin' Boot Camp
Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine
Glue Dots
Karen Foster Design
Making Memories
McGill
OTT-Lite
Sakura
EK Success
K&Company

Wow.

We are all still reeling, still in awe, of the magnitude and success of Saturday night. As part of the event team, from our perspective, the evening couldn't have been any more perfect. The weather made for a beautiful Kansas sunset hour, so many families came to have fun together, our volunteers were AMAZING and thanks to our incredibly generous sponsors and attendees, we exceeded our financial goal!

There are so many people to to thank, like Keri Breeding who is due to birth her third child in the next 10 days who headed our registration all night long, like Todd Pauly who was our grill master extraordinaire, like our Snack Shack crew who doled out the water like crazy, like Travis Rink who emceed the entire event, like the Friend family who donated generously on all fronts: financially, time-wise and with those homemade desserts!, like Jo Degner who womaned our super-fab silent auction, like Bill with Accent Mobile Music who donated his entire evening, like our stellar game volunteers and the massage therapists from Heritage College and Dorothy and her special friends! The sheer amount of goodness pouring from so many different sources was awesome to behold. Many more thanks to come in the following days.

We chose to create this kind of event for many reasons, like this:
So that friends could come together as family.

And this,
So that parents & kids could have fun together in a good, safe place.

And this,
So that a devoted grandpa could make sweet & perfect memories with his adoring granddaughter.

And so that Kyrie's family,


and Anna's family

know that we are one day closer to a cure for every child diagnosed with a brain tumor. The Wilkinson family was our special guest for the Twilight Walk. Their four-year-old daughter is a true fighter--she is why we're in this battle alongside her--so that she and her family get to have a full lifetime of moments & memories.

We'll post more great photos soon! Until then, know that you all made good happen this weekend.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Hey all. Just a reminder that online registration for the Twilight Walk CLOSES tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. If you want to ensure correct t-shirt sizes and have a speedy, quick registration process, please go online and pre-register. If you're unable to do so, we will still be elated to have you join us! We are so excited to see everyone tomorrow night. The air is ELECTRIC!



Also, if you happen to be listening to the radio on your commute home today, please tune in to KFDI, Kyrie's mom and dad and her Aunt Megan are special guests today between 3:30 - 5 p.m. VERY EXCITING!



See you all tomorrow!

Big Love,

Melissa

Thankful Thursday

Well, my dear friend Megan called me a bit ago as she trekked southwest and asked me to be a guest blogger today. I'm not going to lie, my first reaction was, "NO WAY!" What a lot of pressure this is! My friend Megan is quite possibly one of the most talented writers ever. She can take a pile of words and bend them ever so gently into a wonderful group of phrases. I'm not so gifted this way, but I'll give it a whirl.

So, I sit here trying to pinpoint exactly what I'm thankful for...it's simply an impossible task. I am so blessed. I have healthy children, a husband who adores me, friends I've known literally since birth and new friends who I love dearly, both of whom are always there, talents and hobbies that bring me joy and a deep, abiding faith that gets me through all of life's ups and downs. I am blessed tenfold in my involvement with the Kyrie Foundation. My life has taken many twists and turns, and I fully believe that they all led me to Kyrie and her legacy. The friends I've made, the people I've met, the experiences I've had and the lessons I've learned in the last year and a half overwhelm and astound me. I have learned that you don't take moments or people for granted, giving and "doing good" are SO much better than getting and having good done for you. And most importantly, just like a little guy named David and a big 'ol guy named Goliath, when faced with a giant, you whirl a big 'ol stone at it. You don't just stand there trembling, scared and feeling sorry for yourself. You get up and let that giant know that deep down, inside your very being lies a giant much bigger that he. That's what the Kyrie Foundation is all about. We're whirling that stone in the form of a research grant. We are standing up to the giant that is named Pediatric Brain Cancer. So, many of you have helped us. So many of you have prayed, given of your time and money, sent words of encouragement, and joined our team of volunteers.

This weekend, we ask you to again stand with us. Join us at the 1st Annual Kyrie Foundation Twilight Walk. Come with your heart open and be blessed. The weatherman promises a gorgeous Kansas evening, the kind that makes you proud to call the plains home. Stand with us, that's all we ask. I think that when you do, you too will find yourself so abundantly blessed that you will find it hard to pinpoint just one blessing among many.

Big Love,
Melissa

And the winner is ...

ksfaith!!!!!

A highly scientific drawing conducted by Chad, involving names put into a ceramic cup and one being hand-chosen as the winner, yielded our very first cookbook prize person! Congrats and happy cooking!

ksfaith, just e-mail me your address, and we'll get this to you pronto.

A big thank you to all those who left comments, too. Your participation here means more than you know. And we hope that some of you will get to meet each other this weekend. How cool is that?

Thank you A-1 Singer Sewing! Thank you Pratt Industries!

A-1 Singer Sewing & Pratt Industries have been wonderfully supportive of Kyries, Kyrie's parents and the launch of the foundation.

A-1 Singer Sewing is a fantastic spot for quilters, sewing fans and those who love embroidery (like me!). When Kyrie was going through chemo, A-1 Singer Sewing graciously provided an air purifier for Jordan & Lacie's home--a blessing when the tiniest germ was deadly. They sell tons of "notions" as those fabric-savvy people call them as well as hi-tech, digital sewing machines and those wonderful air purifiers.

Pratt Industries was not only supportive when Jordan needed to be home with his daughter, but the workers in the Wichita plant have also been supportive and interested in the development of the foundation--especially when manly man Jordan wears his brown Kyrie t-shirt with that beautiful pink heart. Pratt Industries is a company that cares about the environment, too. They make boxes for the products that you buy from store shelves, and they make those boxes from 100% recycled post-consumer waste. Fantastic! If you visit their web site you can see how many trees that's saved as well as the saved water and landfill space saved. So good.

A-1 Singer Sewing and Pratt Industries are silver sponsors for the Twilight Walk. We thank each of you for caring about this little family from Kansas and what they will mean in the fight against cancer.

Thank you Art's & Mary's! Thank you Moonwalks for Fun!

Always been a big fan of the retro-styled packaging of Art's & Mary's Homestyle Tater Chips. Plus I like that they use the word "tater" and that their product is all natural. No weird preservatives or funky additives. So there are plenty of reasons why we've been eating these tasty chips with a good amount of fervor for the last two months.



And every time I see Art's & Mary's in a little deli or sandwich shop, I always tell the personnel how great these crispy, crunchy slices of flavor are. The Mixx, for example, is a fabu soup/salad/sandwich by the Kansas City public library on the Plaza. They know how glad I am that they chose to sell good, ol' Art's & Mary's.

And who knew that contained air could be so much fun?! We love that Moonwalks for Fun offers kids (and some kid-like adults) such pure FUN! Try not smiling when you're bouncing around in a moonwalk--it's impossible! Safer than a trampoline, bopping around in a moonwalk is still one of my favorite childhood memories. Jumping is an activity that deserves more accolades, don't you think? ;)

Art's & Mary's Homestyle Tater Chips and Moonwalks for Fun are silver sponsors for the Twilight Walk. We thank you for bringing such fun & goodness to this event!