Wanted: An "Extreme" Home And Your "Extreme" Help

Ty Pennington, the ABC cameras and the entire “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” crew just rolled out of town after making a dream come true for a very deserving family and a special coffee-shop owner in St. Louis.

Don’t go far, Ty. We need you back.

Ranken Jordan Pediatric Specialty Hospital is a Standing Partnership client that tugs at all our hearts. One of only a handful of its kind in the U.S., Ranken Jordan cares for sick and injured children who are well enough to leave a traditional hospital but still too ill to return home. Anyone who visits Ranken Jordan’s “wicked cool” campus (seriously, check this place out - it’s unlike any hospital you’ve ever seen) is touched not only by the courageous children fighting through complicated medical issues like traumatic brain injuries, cerebral palsy and complications from premature birth, but the families who are continuously by their side, helping children battle for every milestone and learning to cope with life-altering health issues.

But where do those families stay when they’re too far from home to drive back and forth every day (who can afford that?) and without St. Louis-area family or friends with an extra room? Right now, they either get a hotel room (expensive!), or they leave their children at Ranken Jordan and visit when they can - a heartbreaking option for families, especially when their participation is so integral to a child’s progress.

And that’s why Ranken Jordan needs the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team - or, frankly, anyone who can help them build a “Home Away From Home” for Ranken Jordan families. They’ve submitted an application to “Extreme Makeover,” but since the show gets about 1,000 applications a week, and they just finished building in St. Louis, we need an extra push to get their attention. So let’s rally, people! Here’s what you can do to help:
--Check out our official “Extreme” campaign web page and sign the online petition
--Post comments about Ranken Jordan’s request on web sites related to the show (you’ll find links to those sites here)
--Join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups and invite all your colleagues, friends and family to join
--Follow our Twitter updates through username RankenJordan
--Spread the word - talk, write, email, IM, Tweet, sing, yodel - to everyone you know!

C’mon, Ty. You know you want to come back to the ‘Lou ASAP. We’ll stuff you full of toasted ravioli, take you to the top of the Arch and introduce you to amazingly courageous children and families who’ll inspire you like never before. They need your help.

Cross-posted at Where Do You Stand?

Join The Crowd And Feed A Pet

If you're a pet lover (or even if you're not, just pretend for a moment), I have two favors to ask. First, join ZooToo - a fun online community for pet lovers. When you do, one pound of pet food will be donated to help feed homeless pets in St. Louis. The goal is to get one million members on ZooToo, which means one million pounds of donated food - enough to feed homeless pets in St. Louis for an estimated five years.

You may have already heard of ZooToo - they created the National Shelter Makeover Program offering a $1 million makeover to an animal shelter in need of a new facility. More than 1,000 animal shelters applied, and the winner was (drumroll please) Stray Rescue of St. Louis!

Even if you're not from St. Louis, please go ahead and join - it's a fun community, and you'll be helping some beautiful and loving animals who have gotten a raw deal and need our help. And who knows? Maybe next year your community's animal shelter will win the Second National Shelter Makeover Program!

And the second favor? Please forward this blog entry or the ZooToo site to all your co-workers and friends - we've got some hungry animals in the 'Lou who need everyone's help.

How Did I Get Here Again?

So I somehow ended up serving as children's church coordinator (grades K-5) at my church - and wow, do I stink at it.

I admire the heck out of teachers - they're just so dang creative. They come up with amazingly fun and interesting ways to teach kids stuff. I'm woefully lacking in this department - ask the poor princesses, who have looked at me with pity after more than one of my attempts to do some kind of craft project with them. It's always a disaster - I can't even cut a straight line with a pair of scissors, for goodness sakes!

Anyway, here I am trying to come up with fun and creative stuff for children's church. (I think they just needed a warm body, saw the "can't say no" sticker on my forehead, and thought, "Sucker!" They were right.) Thing is - I'm really bad at it. Thank goodness I have a lesson book to give me ideas, but I really don't have a clue what the average kid likes/dislikes/finds interesting/thinks is stupid. (I'm having panic attacks about Princess E starting kindergarten in the fall, BTW, for this very reason.)

Here's the deal - I grew up very isolated in the backwoods of Arkansas (cue the "Deliverance" music here). I didn't have playmates - heck, we didn't even have kindergarten. We went straight to first grade, where it was immediately apparent that while I did seem pretty advanced in the book-learnin' department, I had the social skills of a kumquat. Still kinda do - although I have managed to learn to fake it pretty well over the years.

Anyway, here I am, theoretically organizing our children's church (thank you, God, for our great youth minister who I just try to hide behind most of the time - but he was on vacation this week, so I couldn't - ugh), when I don't have a dang clue what I'm doing. And the kids look at me like I'm really strange. And sometimes boring. And not very funny.

I'm guessing I'm going to start getting those same looks from Princess E very, very soon. Oy vey. In the meantime, I've gotta find someone to replace me in this children's church thing, before I end up turning some very normal children into kumquats.

Anyone for Baking?

It's cookie time!

OK, not these cookies (although it's sinful how much I love those dang Thin Mints). This weekend the princesses and I are going to be baking a whole mess o' cookies to send to the soldiers of Alpha Battery/101st Airborne Division in Iraq. If you want to help bake it out (and send a little bit of home to our awesome soldiers), come on over to the castle this Saturday - and bring your favorite cookie recipe with all the fixings.

Bonus points to anyone who can help me figure out how to successfully ship some of this snow from my soggy backyard to the troops - I have a feeling they'd appreciate it much more than we do right now. :-P

Pass This One To Friends With Pregnancy Complications

Just an FYI that hopefully will help someone: if you know someone who's experiencing pregnancy complications and/or premature birth, please pass along this link to Sidelines National Support Network. They match women needing support up with volunteers - by email or phone - who have experienced the very complications they're going through, and who get - I mean really get - the fear, frustration and sadness that pregnancy complications can bring.

I can personally vouch for the service - I had a Sidelines buddy while on bedrest for almost six months with Princess Elizabeth - and I'm now a volunteer. So please pass the info along - and if you've got a friend on bedrest, give her a call. Trust me, she needs it!

It's Possible To Have Fun In A Hospital

If you're reading this from somewhere in the St. Louis region and are looking for something fun to do Sunday, Dec. 2 (after you recover from watching the Mizzou-OU game!), I've got a great one for you - go to a hospital.

Trust me on this one - Ranken Jordan Pediatric Specialty Hospital is hosting its annual "Shining Lights" benefit event this Sunday. Not only will you and your family (especially kids - even the smallest ones) have a ball, proceeds go to help Ranken Jordan provide sub-acute nursing care, rehabilitation and treatment for kids with complex medical conditions. It's one of only five hospitals like it in the entire country, and the care it provides kids - and their families - is just amazing. I was fortunate enough to take a tour a couple of years ago, and while I came out thanking God for my healthy children, I also thanked Him for creating places like Ranken Jordan and the wonderful medical professionals who care for such medically fragile children.

If all that doesn't spur you to buy a ticket, let's just go with the superficial - Ranken Jordan is unlike any hospital you've ever seen. The architecture is amazing - totally designed with the kids in mind - and you really have to keep reminding yourself that it's a hospital. Your kids will think it's the coolest play place ever, and you'll be spending a little bit of money for a very, very good cause. Check it out.

(Full disclosure alert: Ranken Jordan is a client of Standing Partnership - but, so are several other nonprofits. No one's asking me to tout this - I'm just doing it because Ranken Jordan rocks, the event's a lot of fun, and the princesses and I will be there having a great time - hope you'll join us!)

The Cookie Express Lands In Iraq

Y'all may remember reading one of my blog posts a few weeks ago about baking cookies for our soldiers in Iraq. I dropped off ten dozen chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies a couple of weeks ago at church, and I thought it would take weeks for the cookies to get to Iraq. Apparently, however, we've perfected express shipping to the Middle East, because the cookies already made it there!

I got a lovely email from Lt. Masood Manasia and the Soldiers of Alpha Battery of 3-320/3BDE/101st ABN DIV (AASLT) (I know nothing about the military and have no idea what any of that means - if someone can interpret, I'd love to know!). They thoroughly enjoyed the cookies and the support from the homefront, and they were so gracious to email their thanks for what seems to me to be the very least I could do to support them.

I emailed Lt. Manasia back and asked if we could continue sending cookies to his group. If he says we can, I'll schedule another cookie baking session soon - get your oven mitts ready!

And to Lt. Manasia and all the Soldiers of Alpha Battery - words cannot express how grateful I am to you for your service and your sacrifice to ensure that my family, my friends and my freedom is protected. I am humbled in the face of your unselfish sacrifice to our great country, and I pray to God every day that He will keep you safe, lead you in achieving your goals, and bring you home as soon as possible. Thank you, and God bless you all.

Peace On Earth, Good Will To Kids

This time of year, I know everyone is pulled in a million directions with charity requests. There are so many worthy causes, it's very difficult to choose where to put your charity dollars. So, let me make it just a little harder by adding another great one to the pile. I know, I'm here to make your life a little more complicated - no thanks are necessary. :-P

Please consider helping Operation Christmas Child by sending a gift-filled shoe box to a child in a developing country. You'll find all the details here - it's easy to do, and an especially great way to teach your own children about the desperate conditions in which many of the world's children somehow survive.

We'll be packing our shoe boxes this weekend - hope you'll pack one, too.

Bake It Out, Y'all!

Project time! My West County Community Church (for those of you not from St. Louis, we divide our "city" [which is actually more of a county than just a city - suburban sprawl heaven here] into sectors - West Co., South Co., North Co., etc. - don't know why - reminds me of the annexation of Berlin after WWII :-P) bible study group is sending homemade cookies to our soldiers bravely and selflessly serving overseas this Christmas. The cookies are due at the church Nov. 11.

I love baking - looooove it - so this is going to be seriously fun, and it's going to help a group of people I just don't think we can honor enough. If you'd like to help out and you live in the area, I'm planning a Cookie Baking Extravaganza in my kitchen Saturday, Nov. 10. Come one, come all with your favorite cookie recipes, ingredients, cookie sheets, etc., and we'll bake it out!

If you aren't a baking fan but would like to help the effort, drop off cookie ingredients and I'll whip 'em up. Or, we're going to need lots of tins and/or small tupperware containers to pack the cookies in, so those would be equally welcome.

Y'all let me know if/how you want to help. Even if you can't participate in this effort, though, please consider doing something for our soldiers this Christmas to let them know how much we love, support and miss them and pray that they come home safely.