Where There's a Will, There's a Way, White Rock 2011!

Wow!

We had a huge week last week celebrating our kids!

After a fun night in the local Christmas parade and lighting the city tree, I decided to scratch my plans to leave early Friday morning for Dallas in time to make the opening party for patients at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

I love this t-shirt party & we go every year...

but this year, I just let it go.

(That kind of became the theme for the weekend.)

We still went to the hospital as we needed to pick up some med supplies for Ellie & drop off some things for the race.

I took our annual picture in front of the big Christmas tree.

(sweet Will - still wearing the same Santa 

outfit he wears every year - (it's 18 mt size!)

(Ellie was not having it with that giant bow on her head.)

Friday night, several of my college roommates got together.

Ya'll.

I had not been with these girls without our children or husbands in years.

Years I tell you. (Like 4+)

And it was GOOD for my soul.

That may sound cheesy but if you haven't spent time with some of your best friends - like really good good time without little people who need their food cut up or who want to nurse or who need timeouts and possibly with a bottle of wine and maybe with a yummy restaurant and lit candles on the table instead of crayons and oh my goodness - glorious.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time.

And there are things we can talk about that I can't talk about with anyone else.  There's something about living with people  and being with people who knew you before you were married or had kids, who knew you back when you were skinnier ( :)) and fun and spontaneous...

it's just wonderful.

And they give me such grace to be a not very good friend most of the time and to just be me.

Oh how I loved every single minute of our evening together.  I begged them to come up to the hotel room even after dinner so we could hang out longer (even though my kids really needed to go to bed and I really needed to tape Ellie but decided to do it in the am.)

Forgive the rambling.  This was definitely one of the top highlights of the weekend for me!  Thanks, Shae for driving to town & Kelly for driving to town & Laura for organizing the night!  I love you all and cherish your friendship.  You blessed me!

On Saturday, we ended up not doing the 5K with Will running - it was raining hard & too cold.

I hated to miss it this year but I also didn't want sick kids & I knew there are plenty of years ahead.

After short naps, I woke up Will to take him to the PALS Christmas party.

PALS is a support group for people with limb differences.

We've never been able to make any of their events before so I was thrilled this one worked out for us.

They had a magician. 

I thought he was creepy but Will loved it!

Santa Claus made an appearance and I saw the most heartbreaking thing -

Will walked up to him & patient waited his turn to talk to him about some serious Christmas business.

And Santa looked right over his head and moved past him.

I've never seen Will's face look so crushed and dejected.

And I was not having that at Christmas.

So I marched right up, grabbed his hand, & went straight to Santa and got his attention telling him my little boy wanted to see him.

Santa gave him about 5 seconds.  

I may love me some Santas but this one?  He better hope he doesn't get coal this year.

Just saying.

We hung out for a few more minutes at the party before heading next door to our own party -

for Team Where There's a WILL, There's a Way!

Our long time family friends, the Salisbury's from NC came to town & were a huge help with the party!

Our little fam (above) just before the party

 & below with Cookie & Lovie

(who without I couldn't do a pre-party.  My dad spent all afternoon baking tons of his famous cookies to serve & my mom handled all the details & the setup along with Susan!  A huge thanks!!)

Ellie rolled all over the place for her audience

John did some therapy with her!

(Notice those cute butterfly jeans - thanks Lisa W (a blog reader) for sending them!)

It's fun to have kids coming to the party now!

Will & his great Uncle Dan

Somebody gave this girl a cookie.  I do believe she loves chocolate!

the team at the pre-party

Will's sweet pre-K teacher, Mrs. Sundee- came to town for the party with her husband and three kids.  We so appreciate you, Mrs. Sundee & thank you for driving in with your family!

I met Alex & Liz for the first time in person!  They are blog readers who contacted me via email that they wanted to run for Will!

They came in from Lubbock & Nebraska for the weekend!

Wow!!!  

So fun to meet them and thank you for giving of your time to run for our son!!!

at the expo

Will did a team cheer for the cameras at the expo

I caught him thinking he was big stuff in his Lovie & Cookie's hotel room - drinking a fresca & chilling in the bed :)

After our pre-party, some of us headed to a local restaurant in the pouring rain for dinner.

Alex & Liz were brave enough to join us.

And apparently I forgot to take any more pics at dinner!

R & I did not sleep well all night.  We kept waking up to check the weather.  And when I didn't believe my phone, I kept sneaking to the window to be sure.

The water seeping in under the windows was not a good sign.

It was cold!  

And wet!

Very, very wet!

I had been so sad to not be running this year - my first year not to run the race.  But my relay team didn't work out & I just didn't get it together this fall with Ellie's therapy schedule to train for the half or the full marathon (ha - not sure another full marathon is in my future during the next 16 years)

I was so sad.

But I figured I could still go cheer & this way I would be available to get our tent set up for our team near the finish line.

The tent needed to be set up between 5:30-7am on race day.

Thanks to the weather, my sadness went away.

And then I decided to let the whole tent idea go.

Because honestly?  What runner who is soaking wet & freezing and exhausted from running so far wants to hang out in a tent?

No one. 

They want to get out of there and go take a hot shower.

In fact, I knew some of our runners would not be running if the weather is bad (some ran on their treadmills in hotels!)

And I wasn't sure I could even get the tent up in the dark and rain.

So plan B- meet at the Scottish Rite tent.

Unfortunately, when we got to the race, we couldn't locate the Scottish Rite tent.

Apparently, all of the officials I asked couldn't locate it either.  And neither could some of our runners who emailed me!

Oh well - there's always next year!

As I watched the race live on tv from my hotel room in the morning, I was laughing at the sportscasters.  They kept saying that this weather wouldn't bother runners and it was no big deal...

but then you would see the runners behind them - looking miserable, with their heads down & ponchos or trashbags covering them.  

It was humorous (you know - if you were watching from a warm hotel room.)

Will & Cookie & I braved the weather to pick up R & some other runners & to look for the TSRHC tent at the finish line.

While we were there it began lightning & thundering.  There were rumors they may have to shut the race down but thankfully, they didn't.

25,000 runners- that would have been a big challenge!

Searching for Daddy inside the family pick up area

We found him!

He was cold & tired & dehydrated (he was so miserable running I don't think he stopped for much water!)

Will & Cookie & Dr. McKinsey - who flew in from Kansas City to run for Will!

Thanks, Dr. M!

(& while he was picking up his race packet, his rental car was stolen!)

What a year!

After hot showers for the runners, we all headed to lunch.

Claire starts as an OT this week at TSRHC!

Look who made the back cover of the newspaper insert!

What a fun surprise!

This is the Dallas skyline.

Can't see it?

That's because it was raining so hard. 

And foggy.

We love this weekend every year & are so thankful to those of you who make such an effort to be a part of it!

This year, we exceeded our fundraising goal of $10,139.  I don't know our final total yet but it is somewhere around $12,000 I think!

YAY TEAM WTAWTAW!!!

We had runners & spectators come in from KS, NE, IN, NC, TX, & MN!

Thanks to the Ferrells, McKinseys, Liz, Uncle Jimmy, & the Salisbury's for travelling so far!

Thanks to all who braved the miserable weather to run for Will & all kids treated at TSRHC!

We appreciate you & admire your tenacity!

What a story you'll have, right?

Thanks to all who participated on the home team & wore your shirt to show support.

And thanks to those who gave their money - Scottish Rite makes our lives more normal and we so appreciate your generosity!

What a year.  We'll be back next year - hopefully with sunshine!