The case of the NED.

I'm more than a little late writing this, but now is better than never.  Right?  Zach just wrapped up his 3 year cancer check and we are in the clear!  August will mark his official 3 year mark since we first heard those magic words, "Zach is NED".  Such sweet words.  Better than winning the lottery.  We are planning a superhero party for Zach now.  I think all kids that battle cancer should be considered superheros, so why not have a party and do it up right?  Any excuse to get together and have fun - count me in.


We've been busy bees working on delivering toys and gearing up for our 2nd Annual Cruizin' for Childhood Cancer Motorcycle Ride and Community Fun Day. 


The event will be held September 10^th from 8:30am – 4pm.  There will be live music, vendors, face painting, a bouncy house, lunch and raffles.  This year we are having live music performed by Jamie Leigh Bryant, Dick Feyer, The Shakedown and BOCO DJ & Karoke.  We also will have Martin General Hospital performing free blood pressure and glucose checks along with other vendors. 


There will be BBQ sandwhich plates selling for $5/plate.  Plates include a BBQ sandwich, chips, drink and dessert.  How can you not have fun with all that? 

We would also like to extend an invitation for your business/organization/church to have a booth at the event.  The vendor fee this year is $15 with a small donation of your product to be put in the drawing for a door prize.  All vendor fees, waivers and door prizes must be turned in by September 1st.

Event address:

712 Washington Street

Williamston, NC 27892-2648

For more information on Zach’s Toy Chest please view our website or Facebook page.

www.zachstoychest.org

www.facebook.com/zachstoychest

Please contact Event Coordinators Faye Leggett 252-799-16976 or Brandy Edwards 252-792-6420 if you have any questions about the event or would like to participate as a sponsor, vendor or volunteer.

Come out to the event, have fun, raise awareness for childhood cancer and money for Zach's Toy Chest so we can continue to supply the local clinics with toys and other essential items the kids need to survive the long days of treatment.  Be part of the coolest crew around.  Just do it.  Do it for the bald kids and any other slogans that will motivate you to take part this year.

Bee-otch

So the time has come that Zach has learned one of many words he shouldn't say.  Don't ask me why I thought those little ears wouldn't hear me, but as I'm telling Adam about our experience of having Zach's pictures made and about the lady (Bee-otch, not just plain B*tch) that was taking the pics...Zach decides to listen for once and then repeats the word over and over again.  Then it got interesting.  He started putting it together in a sentence and laughing, as in, "Daddy, you are a Bee-otch!  hahaha!"  hmmm. 

I know as parents first of all I shouldn't have said that word, but second - we shouldn't laugh when he says things like that, but man was it funny.  In my mind, I wasn't thinking about what he was saying, but how he said it.  It was one of the clearest words he's ever said.  On top of that, he used it in a few different sentences and was able to get the sentences correct.  Examples: "You are a bee-otch.", "My Mama said you were a bee-otch." and my personal favorite, "Why are you being a bee-otch?" 

All this from a kid that has been going to speech therapy to help him pronounce words correctly...it seems to be working better than I'd originally thought. 

So far we've put a lid on the word and he knows he isn't supposed to say it again, but you never know when he'll decide to put it to good use in the future.  I'm thinking Walmart or Christmas will be the place he'll decide to use his new word.  Always keeping it interesting at the Leggett Family Christmas! 

Obviously, Zach is doing quite well these days and I couldn't be happier about that.  He helped me make our first ever gingerbread house - you tell me how you think it turned out.

It was pretty until the roof wouldn't stay on since someone kept eating all the icing.

He goes back to Duke on Monday, December 20 for a six month check up.  He'll have lab work, urine tests and a physical.  We've been given a wonderful gift this year - we're far enough out from treatment Zach doesn't have to get a scan this time and doesn't go back to Duke until June 2011.  Merry Christmas to me! 

We're also going to plan on taking toys to Duke that day to make the most of our trip.  The toys Zach's Toy Chest donates are the only toys the Valvano Day Hospital receives.  I am hoping to keep their toy chest stocked again this year.  We'll see! 

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers - I truly believe they have gotten us where we are now and will continue to help us in the future.  Merry Christmas!