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Gandy Fundraiser

As most of you know, my brother-in-law Tory broke his neck going down an inflatable waterslide over Memorial weekend at his daughter's 7th birthday celebration. After being air lifted to UMC in Jackson, he was diagnosed as a quadriplegic. After several surgeries, Tory started rehab sessions at Memorial Herman/TIRR Hospital in Houston and remains there today. He has been working hard at both physical therapy and occupational therapy and has come a very long way proving the doctors wrong by taking steps on his own again.

Tory has made tremendous progress, but he and my sister Julie have a long road ahead of them. In an effort to help Julie and Tory with their medical expenses, my family is holding a cocktail reception and silent auction fundraiser on October 18th. There will be live music performed by Tic Douloureaux and an open bar with appetizers. The event is at The Riverbend Ballroom in the Marriott Convention Center in New Orleans at seven o'clock in the evening. Tickets are only $50 a person. All donations will be deposited into a Love Fund established for the Gandy Family.

You can mail the check to either myself or my sister. We can put your tickets in the mail or leave them at the front door of the fundraiser, whichever you prefer.

We really appreciate everyone's support and prayers over the last several months, and hope to see all of you at the fundraiser.

Here's a list of some of the items up for auction if you're interested:
-Tuna Trip on Trigger (a 2008 54’ VIKING) valued at $3000
-(4) Cypress Suite tickets with parking passes on Thursday (1st day of the tournament) for the 2009 Zurich Classic of New Orleans professional gold tournament to be held in April 2009 at the TPC of Louisiana. Tickets are in a suite located on the 18th green and includes admission, food, and drink from 11:00AM till the end of golf for that day. The face value of the tickets is approx $300.00 each.
-Autographed Superbowl football by Eli Manning
-Autographed football by Brett Favre
-Autographed football by Vincent Young
-Autographed football by Steve McNair
-Autographed football by Adalius Thomas
-Autographed Hat by Brett Farve
-LSU Baseball jersey signed by baseball coach
-2 LSU Hats autographed by Les Miles
-LSU National Championship Football autographed by Les Miles
-Baseball signed by LSU coach Skip Bertman
-4 Tickets to a Hornets Game
-Autographed baseball by Will Clark
-Framed signed poster of Bryan Clay (won gold in decath)
-NFL Football signed by Archie Manning
-Framed signed poster of Jack Nichlaus
-1 week stay at a condo in Destin
-1 week stay at a House on Kiawah Island
-Two night stay including breakfast buffet for two each day at The Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa in Point Clear, AL
-Two night stay at the New Orleans Marriott Convention Center with breakfast for two and $100 dinner certificate to Wolfe's Restaurant
-Holiday Dinner for 10 prepared by Patton's Catering
-4 rounds of golf at Money Hill Country Club in Abita Springs
-2 foursomes at Grand Bear Golf Course
-4 Rounds of golf including cart at Oak Harbor Golf Club in Slidell
-2 Rounds of golf at Pinewood Country Club of Slidell
-3 Professional golf lessons with Richard Patterson at Money Hill Country Club in Abita Springs
-$100 Gift Certificate to Fashion For Kids Children't Boutique in Mandeville
-$50 gift card to Baby Bump Maternity boutique in Metairie
-2 $25 gift cards to Lady Soho fashion lounge in Metairie
-Photo Shoots with Children's photographer Nikki Spreen
-New Orleans Water Meter neckalce Pendant
-Gift certificate to H20 salon in Mandeville for Hair Cut and Treatment with Giselle ($82)
-$50 Gift card to N'Tini's Steak & Martinis in Mandeville
-$30 Gift Certificate to Buck's Saloon in Covington
-$50 Gift Certificate to Lola’s Restaurant

Babies, More Babies and Dogs!

This past Friday night, we had the chance to go visit our friends Stephanie and Brian Cook and meet their new bundle of joy, Samantha. The next day we got to visit with friends Keith and Nealy Frentz and meet their new arrival, Ella. Both families had a baby girl on the Thursday evening before Gustav and this was our first chance to visit with them. Also, both families have dogs, which entertained Chase for most of the visits :-)

Chase holding Samantha Cook

Not to sure what to think about a crying baby

Chase kissing on Maddie (The Cook's dog)


Chase holding Ella Frentz

2 Year Checkup

Chase finally had his 2 year well check up today. He got his final vaccine and the flu shot (we don't take any chances with his respitory problems)!

I could hardly believe my eyes when the big boy weighed in on the scale. He is 33 pounds! My baby is HUGE! This puts him in the 90th percentile for weight. His height was 35.5 inches which puts him in the 75-90th percentile. I think we have a football player on our hands!

Another note to my sisters: his head was only in the 50-75th percentile so quick picking on my baby's melon!

12 week update

I had my doctor's appointment this afternoon. It was the very first time I heard the baby's heartbeat. It sounded so amazing...and FAST! It sounded a lot faster from what I can remember from Chase's heartbeat.

Dr. Lobello said, "I think it's a girl"! I replied with, "Me, too"!

But Shane said that McCarthy's can only produce boys, so he doubts it's a girl. I am indifferent either way. I think it would be a lot easier and cheaper if I had another boy. Plus, now I know what to do with a boy. But it would also be nice to have both a son and a daughter.

I guess we'll find out sometime in late March :-) (Note to my sisters: yes, that means we are not going to find out the sex of the baby)!

He Did It!

Chase is such a big boy!

Yesterday after his bath, Chase told me had to pee pee on the potty. Well he always says this because he likes playing with his potty training toilet (he think's it's his special chair).

So I dried him off and sat him on his potty.

Chase then said, "No Mommy, big potty".

"Okay" I said, and then picked him up and put him on the big potty still thinking he wants to play around.

Sure enough he starts making pee pee on the big potty. I was so surprised and a little wet (you mothers who have already potty trained little boys should understand why I was a little wet). A few minor adjustments and Chase was making pee pee in a regular toilet.

I made a huge deal out of and Chase was extremely proud of himself. He even grabbed the toilet paper and tried wiping himself when he was done (I don't know where he learned that from, he-he)!

Chase has sat on the potty many times, but this was the first time he actually went on the toilet. I never knew that something this small would make me such a proud mommy! I guess it's time to start training him soon...any suggestions?

Hurricane Update

Well it's official: Shane and I are definitely not tree people. After Katrina threw two trees from the empty lot next to our house into our roof, we cut down almost every tree in our yard. Well Gustav thought it would be funny to have our neighbor's tree fall on the other side of our roof. We were the only house in our entire neighborhood that had any damage...lucky us!

We are very fortunate in that most of the damage was to the roof and attic, and only minimal damage was done to the inside of our home. But it is still an aggravation (an expensive one at that) to remove the tree, put temporary patches on the several holes in our roof, clear out the wet items in the attic and wait for the insurance adjuster to come out before we can even line up a contractor to fix it. Yes, we have a strong dislike for trees!

Chase was pretty funny about the whole thing. As soon as we pulled up to the house and he saw the tree hanging over our roof, he said "What happened?" When I told him a tree fell down, Chase replied with "Uh Oh, that's bad". He's so cute!

I hope everyone made out safely from the hurricane and I really hope that Hurricane Ike goes away!

Thank you so much to Christy Bourg and her family for letting the three of us stay there for our evacuation. We really appreciate your hospitality!

Before:

After:





Gotta love Max & Ruby!