more pics and work on the brochure

so, we still haven't made it to the bank. i hope to do that when i am off with landon on Wednesday. i feel like then, even though i haven't heard back from the UVA woman, we can start selling some stuff. at least if i go to the bank and set up the account the money will be in one safe place and when i hear back from UVA medical center i can just write them a check. during Winter Break i began working on labels, tags, etc and well as a brochure. some components of the brochure have never changed, but other parts of it i must have changed 10 times! it has been so much fun playing with it and manipulating it! here how i figure the next steps should play out:

1. go to the bank--i feel like once i do this we are good to go.

2. send out brochures--this gives info on how to order/buy etc

3. sometime have a Landon's Love Party--i just thought i could have stuff set out for people to buy if they want to...otherwise it will be a great chance to see everyone. THANKS by the way, for your feedback on the party idea.

It would be really nice to have another snow day this coming week to work on Landon's Love stuff, but (as a couple of you reading will agree) I really cannot afford to be away from school anymore at this point given all that is going on!

ice day #2--time to make some stuff!

With a second ice day, i had some time to make more magnets and pins. granted, i should have been helping shaun clean out the basement or clean my huge mess out of the "office," or bother to do some school work, but this was far more fun! it is not complete, but i also made a tic-tac-toe game out of the same materials. i thought i could make the x's and o's magnets so that folks could play tic-tac-toe on the fridge! I need to figure out what i am going to use for the board...maybe ribbon. we'll see :-)

heard back from genetics :-)

Dr. Wilson wrote us back and gave us the name of a woman in a different department to contact at UVA! Even though we didn't get an answer, I feel like we are a step closer than we were! If for some reason they close school tomorrow for bad weather and it is safe enough to drive in the afternoon we might try to go to the bank to talk to them about setting up an account, but we'll see if that happens! A 2-hour delay is a gift as well--it was just so nice to be home today with my boys :-)

Pin Pics

not on a roll, but at least i did something...

i cannot say i am on a roll, but i did make and bake some more magnets today. I only made "love" ones and ones with hearts on them in the spirit of Valentine's day i guess. still haven't heard from landon's genetics doctor to see where we can donate the money, but i sent a follow-up email today. I finally had time to talk to the bank and it looks like we have to go in to set up a savings account. i REALLY want to start selling some things, but i want it to look as official as possible...i don't want people to be disappointed or think it's sketchy. Thanks to everyone for your support. I find work and my constant exhaustion interfering with this whole project, but i just haven't been able to find my grove since Winter Break. I have faith it will come and I will feel better about this endeavor soon.

After some wear...

...it looks like i am going to have to add some more holes to the pins...i have been wearing one around to see how it would hold up and i think i need to add more holes so the the wire is more secure.

school is really interfering with this little project...i vote that i quit and just do this for a living! can anyone else back me up on that :-) i didn't get to make any magnets or pins this past week and the stuff i made last week still needs to be painted. i'm trying not to get too discouraged...after all, we still haven't heard from genetics to see what organization(s) we can donate to anyway.

i hope to get more pictures up before too long, but that would require me to actually have made something new :-)

Back to Reality :-(

• I haven't been able to commit as much time as I would have liked this week to the Landon's Love Project since school has started back, but I was able to accomplish some things.

• The boxes we ordered to put the magnets in came in today and I don't know if I am more excited about the boxes or the magnets that are going inside :-) The picture is above. I made labels with the Landon's Love logo and put the logo on the center of each box. I am very pleased with how they have come out.

• Between last night and today I made the first couple of pins. They are really cute...a lot smaller than the magnets. They are like miniature versions of the magnets.

• I have been using Microsoft Publisher to make a brochure, tags, labels, and I've started on a catalog, which won't be used until later, but it is fun to work on it!

• We contacted Dr. Wilson (Landon's genetics doctor) requesting information on what organization(s) are available to donate to, so we are anxiously awaiting his response.

• We had our (almost) 4 hour tour at the Kluge Center today, which would be a great organization to donate to if the genetic research thing doesn't work out. They had to alter his current braces as he had grown out of them in only 6 months--they are supposed to last a year :-)

• I know my time is a lot more limited now that school has started back, but I hope that I continue to utilize the random 25 minutes here and there I might have to make magnets and pins and solidify the plan for communicating all of this.

Thanks to EVERYONE!

...for your interest in the Landon's Love project. We are still in the process of figuring things out and deciding how we're going to launch this whole thing. We are EXTREMELY excited nonetheless.

I've begun working on brochures, labels, and tags. We really appreciate the ideas from everyone. I am so excited to see how this all plays out!

Next steps: We need to contact the Pediatric Genetics department at UVA to find out what organization(s) we will be able to donate to. We are also going to talk to Eleyne, who founded Horses as Healers (a nonprofit) where Landon does therapeutic horseback riding on Saturdays.

Thanks again and we'll keep you posted :-)

Landon's Love--First Project: Magnets

here are some of the first magnets made for the Landon's Love Project. I'd love to have my act together before we go back to school so that i can set up a display in the teacher's lounge, but we'll have to see if that happens.

So it begins...

so, here we are...a new year! I've already written 2008 on about 10 things today!

I've never done a blog before, but have really enjoyed reading blogs that friends have created, so we'll see how this goes!

One of the real reasons we were hoping to start a blog is to promote our newest endeavor..."Landon's Love." As most of you know, our son has a chromosome deletion (4p) and we have been wanting to "do something" ever since we found out. It has taken a long time to come to terms with everything that has been thrown our way in the past 4 years and we are finally prepared to "do something." Over this wonderful holiday break we have developed a plan--to make homemade things--we're starting with homemade magnets--sell them and then donate all of the proceeds to genetic research. It took about 5 days to land on the magnet idea, so this might be a long process!

I made the first batch tonight and I am REALLY excited! We're still in the process of determining a reasonable price and how are we going to get the magnets "out there" for people to see, but we are extremely excited and finally feel like we are doing something in the bigger picture.

I'm sure keeping up with "Landon's Love" will be a challenge once we get back to school and work, but just like our determination to be there for Landon in every way possible, we will do our best to develop "Landon's Love" so that its products can influence people the same way Landon inspires us every day!