St. Judes

Gymboree as a company supports St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital. Wow! I can't say enough about this place. Those of you who are familiar with Phoenix Childrens Hospital can appreciate ST. Jude's as well. St. Judes is a non-profit organization that helps find cures and treats kids with cancer and any other life threatening illnesses. I always saw the comercials and adverstiments about it and would donate here or there, but never really got into it until Gymboree as a company supported St. Jude's. This summer we will have the opportunity to go down and visit the ST. Jude's facility. 85 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to st. Jude's and the treatment there. As a company Gymboree raised $1.2 Million dollars and that is only the cost of one day to run St. Jude's. This year we have an amazing goal of 1.8 million dollars as a company, below is a story of just one of the patients at St. Jude. I know times are tough, but if you have it in your budget or in your heart to Give Thanks for the Healthy kids in your life and Give to those that are not please donate to St. Jude's. I don't know any of these patients personally but I can't help but cry and feel connected to them everytime they send me artwork, or I read their stories. I just love to get my customers on board and donate to the kids of St. Judes. I don't know if it's just the time of year, or it makes me really thankful for the children that I have and that they are healthy. But I do know that if something were to ever happen, I would hop in my car and drive my kids to St. Jude's. Please Read the story below, it will touch you. There are many more stories or statistics on stjude.org.



Patient of the Month
November 2008
Brook Johnson2 years old

Diagnosis:
Brook was found to suffer from atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) in August 2007.
Brook's Story:
When Brook was 18 months old, her parents, Melissa and Brian, noticed Brook kept tilting her head to the right.
They didn't worry too much at first, but when Brook continued to tilt her head and also seemed off balance, they became concerned. And when Brook’s right eye turned inward, Melissa knew something was terribly wrong. For weeks, Brook was in and out of the doctor’s office, her family desperate for answers. Melissa is a registered nurse, so it was both her mother’s instinct and her training that prompted her to ask for a CT scan and an MRI.
The results were devastating: Brook had a rare and aggressive brain tumor identified as atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT). She underwent a nine-and-a-half-hour surgery where doctors removed most of the tumor. While Brook recovered, her parents reviewed the doctor’s treatment protocol, which seemed harsh for such a young child. "All I could think about was how sick Brooke would be," Melissa said. "We wanted her cured, but not at the risk of being too sick to function." Melissa and Brian decided to search for alternative treatment for their daughter. Their search led them to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
At St. Jude:
A week after her arrival at St. Jude, Brook underwent a second brain surgery, followed by four months of chemotherapy and radiation. “She’s a little miracle,” Melissa said. “If we’d stayed home, I don’t think she’d still be with us.” Brook spent her summer at home with her sisters, swimming and playing. She continued oral chemotherapy and visited St. Jude for regular checkups.
Recently, Brook’s family learned her cancer has returned, and they are back at St. Jude. Melissa is grateful for the care Brook continues to receive. “We just think the people who donate to St. Jude are amazing,” she said. “The care, the treatment, everything is the best. St. Jude is like home.”
November 2008
To help give hope to children like Brook who are fighting life-threatening illnesses, please become a Partner In Hope.

Update

Being a parent is so much fun, but has its challenges too. It's been so fun seeing my little Annika succeed in school. Annika goes to a private school Challenger. It kills my financial book, but oh my gosh it pays off so much! I never thought private school was any better until I had my daughter put into one. Annika is only 3 and knows her shapes and how many sides they have. She also knows all of her letters and the sounds that go along with them. I don't remember any of my other kids at 3 knowing that information. Well today it was so cold only 45 for the hight. It's officially now only 30 degrees and it's snowing. I don't know if I'll ever be prepared for the winter, but it's here and will probably stay until after april. These are the months I wish I was still back in Phoenix soaking up my warm weather. This past weekend Greg's parents were in town for Halloween. We had so much fun dressing up and going aroudn trick or treating with the kids. On Saturday we went up to Lagoon and spent all day there. That is such a fun place. My little Annika loved the roller coaster rides. Emilie only liked a few rides and then cried on all the other ones. Chandler and Blake were the dare devils and loved all the big rides. It was actually fun hanging out with my 13 year old son and having him make fun of me because my tummy would tickle when I would go on certain rides. I remember being his age and wanting to go on all these exciting thrills. So I just went to my first official hard rock concert. Greg and I went with some friends to the Metallica concert in Salt Lake City. It was a pretty good show. I've been to other concerts and stuff but never a hard rock one. It was interesting to see all the different types of people that were there, but it was so much fun. I have so many pictures to post, and I'm hoping to get to them tomorrow. I've been so busy at work these last few days. We had to put up all of our holiday stuff and get ready for the season. This weekened we are doing our circle of friends event where we take 30% off your entire purchase so I've been insane with holds and just people coming in to see our new stuff. Its a great time to come in and get really good discounts. Christmas will be here before we know it. Well off to bed, daylight savings has been really affecting me this time. Hope all is well with everybody!

Arizona

Okay so we arrived in Arizona on Sunday night and Wow! what a change in just a year. I can't believe what's changed, how many things have been added. It was nice to just hang out at mom and dad's house and see what's going on with the family. It's always fun to stay up late with my sister Melissa. Thanks to her she has now got me on facebook, but it's been fun to re-united with old friends and family. I do miss Arizona so much, but I do love the seasons in Utah as well. Today we went over to Tempe Market Place to exchange some clothes my mom had bought for Emilie. It's so different now by ASU. Wednesday I go to lunch with Rebecca Mingle, Migaela Guinn and Rebecca Bingham. I just love these girls. We had so much fun growing up and it will be nice to get together. Anybody else want to get together while I'm here, I'll be at my mom's house and the number is still the same.

Rock Band

I don't know about anybody else, but we love wii especially rock band. We love to play it as a family, and he have so much fun doing it.

Holy Cow it's cold!

Oh My Gosh! it's been so cold here the last couple of days. It has been in the 30's and we had a little bit of snow this weekend. Of course the snow is all melted, but with the winds up where we live it feels more like the 20's. The first snow fall is always magical and very pretty, but it does get old come February. I know this is the beginning of the winter season. We were trying to get family pictures scheduled, but I had a hard time finding a shirt for me to wear, as well as it was really cold.
we just figured it will be cold whenever we do our pictures and we'll just try and make it fast. It's been a last couple of busy weeks for our family. Emilie just turned 8 and we threw a birthday party for her this last weekend. It was fun, but there were a bunch of crazy girls everywhere. With work I've been busy helping our newest store Janie and Jack open in the Fashion
place Mall. It's the cutest store ever, very expensive, but very nice in detail and quality. It's always worth checking out. I can't believe our trip to Arizona is finally here. It has been too long since we've visited and I'm looking forward to arriving there and spending time with all my friends and family. Plus the warmer weather will be nice as well. Can't wait to see you all. You are in my thoughts and prayers everyday.

Seattle Trip

I was in Seattle on a business trip the 9th through the 13th. Wow! Seattle is such a great place. It's beautiful and the people are so nice there. You never know what you are going to get going somewhere where you have no clue where anything is, how people are going to react to you and what not. Gymboree sent me up there to help train some new management teams, as well as help with some troubling stores. I felt it was a great honor to be representing the Salt Lake District as well as my store itself. Out of all the people they could chose they chose me and one other manager Stacey. Although the hotel was kind of dumpy, we really didn't spend much time there at all. Stacey and I enjoyed our time together and getting to know each other. We stayed in Bellevue washington which is a ritzy area, kind of like Scottsdale would be known. The mall that we worked at was a high-end mall. I thought I would just clients that felt we owed them something. But there's something about the people in Seattle. They are all friendly and love to talk. I never had one bad experience with any of the customers. They all greated you with a smile and loved to talk. It's different then what I'm used to. I thought i was just me (or I thought they were having a great day). Everyday it was like that. On my trip I really learned to love people. I've always had a great time getting along with people, but I loved everybody I came in contact with. I was kind of sad when it was time to come home, but I did miss my family and it was time to come home. Seattle is such a beautiful place, if you ever get a chance to go up there it's so much fun. Our Family will be down in Arizona the week of the 19th, if anybody wants to get together I'll be at my mom's house.

Back To School

All of my kids are back to school and getting back into all of their routines. Blake is in 7th Grade, Chandler 3rd, Emilie 2nd and Annika is in a private school for all day preeschool. Blake is enjoying school and getting used to having 8 different classes and lots of homework. Chandler and Emilie are liking their school like always. My kids are blessed to be going to such a great school, where there are great kids and families as well as the test scores are awesome at this school. I can't say enough about the area we live in the schools my kids attend. My little Annika is so cute. Just so little with her big backpack on and lunch box. The school she is attending is a private school located in our development that was just built. It's so nice that there isn't any more than 20 kids per class and there are three preeschool teachers in her class. She loves to go to school and has learned so much in just the last two weeks of school. It works out so nice with my work schedule because she goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday all day and I usually have Thursday off and then on Tuesdays she plays with a friend. She gets mad on the days she doesn't have school.

We've been crazy at work with Back to School sales and now the baby sale. Everybody should check out Gymboree's Baby Sale it's awesome stuff for a great deal!! I can't say enough about my company I work for. It's so awesome. It's a lot of work, but is rewarding as well. I enjoy being able to manage a staff and improve the lives of those around me. I am on my way to Seattle this next week for Business. I was selected from my distrcit to go up there and help train some managers in a few stores up there. There are a couple stores that have had it rough with some old managers and they left the stores a mess, and I was selected to go up there and help train the employess the correct way to run a store. I felt like that was such an honor to me, as well as it just helps get my name out there in other markets as well. I've always wanted to go to Seattle, alothough I don't know how much time I will have to play, but I'm sure I will enjoy my time there.


I still am so new to this whole blog, and I can't figure out how to upload some of my pictures from another computer. I promis I will get my Italy pictures up as soon as I can, Along with Back to School pictures and some other fun summer ones as well. Wish me luck on my business trip this next week.

why we moved to utah

I know alot of you are wondering why we moved to utah in the first place? Greg and I have felt prompted for a while that we needed a change. Of course Utah was not my first choice, and I never wanted to live here but it just kept feeling right. We had gone on Vacation a couple of summers ago to visit my sister Melissa who lives in Utah. While we were there we had so much fun. We loved that everything in the communities were revolved around families. We loved the weather and what not, but we still had not intentions of ever moving here. My sister is president of a mortgage company and as the market started to crash my sister had suggested to move to utah. She had some openings in her company and the market is pretty stable in Utah so Greg did his research and figure it was our time to move. Well as I did struggle living here for the first 6-7 months and was ready to move back to Arizona, I am enjoying my time here in Utah. I do miss Arizona as it will always be home but Utah is a great place to raise a family, and my kids love it! The weather here is awesome except for the winters, but the kids enjoy going in the backyard where we have a sleigh run and I can watch them from the kitchen window. This winter all of the kids will be enrolled in snowboarding school which should be fun. I will post about my italy trip, first day of school of the kids and other things in a little bit.

General update

I was going to upload some of our italy pictures but our main computer isn't working and so i'm on greg's laptop and it doesnt' have our fabulous pictures of rome, venice and florence. Italy is amazing and for those of you who could ever get a chance to go there it is so awesome. I would love someday to have a little villa up in tuscany. I was glad to come home when we did but after being home for awhile I actually do miss being there. Everybody is so nice, the food is amazing and it's just a fun little lifestyle they have there. The longer we were in Italy the more I appreciated living in the United States. We have some many ammenities that they admire of the americans. If you love to Shop, Italy is amazing for shopping. I am addicted to purses and I was able to get an italian purse really cheap.

This last week has been insane with our back to school sale at Gymboree. We were constantly busy in Arizona with sales and what not, but since moving to utah we do some amazing business anytime there is a sale. Who doesn't like a good deal right? And with all the people having babies here especially in Utah County, I have a hard time keeping baby product in. I absolutely love my Job! It has it's challenges but is rewarding as well. I absolutely love my staff.


So we got a new neighbor across the street from us and she is from Arizona! I can tell we will be great friends. They just moved from Flagstaff on Thursday. They have 4 kids like Greg and I and we have so much in common. I think Greg and I are going to be having dinner with their family after they get settled. It's so nice to see people from Arizona. Where we live it's hard to fit in to all the little clicks that are up here. These people have been here since the beginning of this development and friendships are already there and it's hard to be invited to those friendships. I love when people are new to the area because that is my way of welcoming them in and getting to know others that I might not have a chance to get to know otherwise.


School Starts August 18th, I can't beleive the school year is already here but I'm anxiously waiting for the kids to start school so we can get back on our routine. Blake just arrived home from Scout Camp. This was his first year going and he loved every minute of it. He earned a totaly of 7 merit badges and was pretty excited about it all. He shot a riffle and if you ask him he was a little scared about it. I can't believe my kids are growing up so fast. Blake is going to be 13 in a couple of weeks. He is an awesome babysitter and he loves earning money babysitting but I'm sure he gets annoyed about babysitting quit a bit. it's good for him. People in the neighborhood have also used him as well. All of his leaders just love him and think he's a great kid. Its so nice to hear compliments from others about your kids. it's scary to think I have a teenager. He's into the whole hanging out with friends, wanting cellphones, his i-pod, computer, WII Rock Band/Guitar hero. We have family pictures of a rockband war with Mark, Lori, Melissa, Greg and our family. We had so much fun doing it. Lori rocks out on the Guitar and she loves to Sing on the microphone.

I miss everybody, you are in my prayers.

Michele

First Blog

So I don't have time to sit and send everybody emails, so I thought I would try and do this blog thing to keep in touch with my friends and family. So Blake went to Scout Camp this week and boy is it quiet in my house. Greg and I decided that every year when Blake goes away to camp we will go somewhere with the other kids. Blake was really excited to go, he sure does enjoy packing all of his stuff in his hiking backpack and doesn't seem to mind to carry it around. Emilie did tryouts for a dance company here and made the company team. She seems to be quite excited, it's a lot of work, but she enjoys it very much. We just finished Baseball for Chandler and his first time up to bat he had a home run. It's back to school time at work and home, so the next few weeks will be busy getting ready for the kids to go back to school. Blake will be starting Junior High, Emilie in 2nd Grade, Chandler in 3rd grade and Annika is going to Pre-school. The kids have improved so much in School since moving to Utah last school year. I'm sure it has to do with the smaller classroom sizes then what they had out in Maricopa. The kids love living in Utah. They do miss Arizona and their cousins most of the time, but they have adjusted pretty well. It's nice that they can play outside year round. For Greg and I we like it for the most part, it's hard to adjust to an area that is fast growing like our home in Maricopa. I miss all the entertainment that we had in Arizona and all the yummy restaurants we have there, but I guess we something to look forward to when we come and visit. We will be coming to Arizona in October for a wedding and look forward to seeing everybody then.