A special fund has been created under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act in the name of Reed Parker Hodson
Special Needs Medical Fund. Contributions to this fund may be made by clicking on the 'donations'
link in the sidebar, or at any Zion's bank,or by emailing Tammy at:hods5mom[at]aol.com.
This fund has been set up to help with medical bills as well as speech and physical therapies.

Look!  In Parker’s Sidebar!  That RME button!

Filed under: Frequent Flyin At The PCMC, $28.00 For A CANULA?, Fantabulous-ness, Praying For Parker, An Attitude of Gratitude — Tammy & Parker at 10:54 am on Tuesday, May 6, 2008

There is a new company called Revolution Money Exchange who’s out to give PayPal some competition… They are offering $25 to everyone who signs up for an account before May 15 AND signing up is FREE! I’ve done my homework on this and it’s legit, but you don’t have to take my word for it… You can learn more about the company yourself by reading this USA Today Article.

On the advice of friends, I signed myself up. It took about 3 minutes. Then it took about two days and a couple of extra steps to have my checking account verified. The money made it’s way into my bank account within just a couple of days. If you’re familiar with online banking, then you’ll be comfortable signing up with this company… They are FDIC insured and do require a Social Security Number. After you sign up, make sure to log into your account and “accept” the $25 that will be waiting there for you. Then you can request to have a check mailed to you, or have it transfered directly into your bank account like I did.

And guess what? For each of you that signs up through the link on Parker’s blog, $10.00 will be added to Parker’s medical fund! Then you can put a link on your own blog, or email your friends or whatever and make ten bucks for everyone that YOU sign up. I know, it sounds too good to be true… but it’s really not.

Now… what to do with that extra cash??? We’ll be putting it towards Parker’s next surgery on May 16th. Which works out really well since this offer with RME is only open until May 15th.

And can I tell you about the medical bills we have piling up? Okay. I could. But you would be sooo bored having to hear about them all. It would take a reallly long post to list them all. sigh……

The link is in my sidebar… Go sign up… We can thank each other later!

Thanks to those of you who have signed up! You have until May 15 to spread the word and make a couple of extra bucks yourself!

And for those of you who have offered to even donate your $25.00 earnings for signing up with RME…….

Thank you.

Once Upon A Time…..A Princess Story

Filed under: Fantabulous-ness, How Cute Is THAT? — Tammy & Parker at 9:19 pm on Sunday, May 4, 2008

Once upon a time there was a beautiful maiden who dreamed of being a Princess.

Or Tinkerbell. Kinda depended on the day.

The beautiful young maiden grew into a beautiful Junior at LP Highschool.

Lo and Behold, it was announced that the time for Junior Prom was nigh at hand. And to make events even more exciting our beautiful maiden won a local Cinderella Contest! She wrote the winning essay! Go McCall!

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So off to Frenze’s we went to pick up McCall’s FREE Prom dress!

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Sooo many dresses…….so little time!

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Of course ALL beautiful maidens absolutely HAVE to text each and every one of her friends to tell them that she is picking out her prom dress RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.

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And shoes! Can’t forget shoes!

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500 pairs later and the beautiful maiden (finally) finds the perfect pair!

Before she knew it the magical night had arrived. And our beautiful maiden was transformed into an absolutely gorgeous princess.

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Did I mention that she was gorgeous?

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These pictures don’t even come close to capturing the magic of the event. A few modifications had to be made to the gown to make it modest and befitting a beautiful princess. But the end result? Stunning. Simply stunning.

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McCall’s date cleans up pretty well himself, wouldn’t you say? They made such a cute couple.

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McCall was then whisked away to an enchanting evening.

Sometimes dreams really do come true.

The End

Here Comes Trouble

Filed under: A Day In Our Life, How Cute Is THAT?, An Attitude of Gratitude — Tammy & Parker at 11:32 am on Friday, May 2, 2008

For some time now Parker has employed his beloved Butt Hop Boogie to get from Point A to Point B.

Now he is using it to simply get into trouble.

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If this kid ever actually gets….you know…….healthy…….I could find myself in some serious trouble.

And to be perfectly honest? I simply can’t wait. :)

Amazing…..

Filed under: Fantabulous-ness, Praying For Parker, A Day In Our Life, How Cute Is THAT?, An Attitude of Gratitude — Tammy & Parker at 4:20 pm on Thursday, May 1, 2008

PFP#1

PICTURES FOR PARKER

The Original CrackerJackSite is inviting others to blog about this sweet, sweet, fundraiser and let others know about it. There is even a button you can add to your blog.

Can you imagine what a BEAUTIFUL book this could be for Parker to enjoy while he is healing from his surgery on the 16th?

And, Can You Believe:

Parker’s friend, Amy, from: BUNNY ROSE COTTAGE

And Kalya, Lucas and Michelle from BIG BLUEBERRY EYES

We’ve had offers from friends to donate items to sell with the proceeds to go towards Parker’s medical fund….so if I can figure out how to set something up I’ll let everyone know.

Parker’s snoring in his crib right now after an intense day of Mom trying to clear out his chest and lungs. I spare you the graphic details of what I’ve been dragging up from his trach today. But let’s just say that *YUCK* would be a very appropriate descriptive kinda word for todays adventures.

And I’m gonna take advantage of this time to SHOWER! Ya-hooo!

It’s alll about the little things, ya know?

Stressful

Filed under: Uncategorized, $28.00 For A CANULA?, Momma's On The Edge, Praying For Parker, A Day In Our Life — Tammy & Parker at 12:42 pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

That would be a good way to describe life around here the last several days.

We took Parker up for his GI testing last week only to discover that things hadn’t been scheduled properly for both tests. So we get to go back up yet again on Monday to have the second test performed.

After informing me of THEIR screw up, PCMC then pulled out a bill from Parker’s last GI visit and asked if perhaps NOW I could FINALLY pay them.

I told them to get in line. And to be forewarned because this was ONE VERY LONG LINE.

These trips up aren’t fun. They are stressful. And they are expensive. Very expensive. And I can’t put the gas for these trips on a credit card or payment plan. That is money I need to have upfront.

Last week’s testing showed that Parker is aspirating on liquids thickened (slightly) with the barium powder. He is going to need a feeding specialist to help with this issue.

And of course our insurance won’t touch a feeding specialist. And our school district doesn’t provide any kind of therapies to help with feeding problems.

Even though Parker is g-tube fed, he still needs to learn how to drink out of a cup and suck from a straw. Because of the aspiration issues he will need a feeding specialist to work with him to help him gain these skills. He can begin again with level one baby foods. But he needs to be under the care of a feeding specialist for this as well.

I am looking at over $50.00 a session out of pocket here. Yeah. That would be PER SESSION. I have no idea as to how to swing that.

For a split second Reed and I were feeling pretty good thinking that our Economic Stimulus check from the government would be able to pay off a few bills from Primary Children’s hospital.

Then we got hit with a new bill of almost SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS that we were totally not expecting.

And then there will be the bills from this up and coming surgery that Reed and I are anticipating.

Did I mention stressful?

My Mom mentioned that perhaps one way to help raise money for Parker’s needs would be to follow in the footsteps of some of my friends and sell a few things from Parker’s site.

A good idea, but I’m not sure what to sell. Or how to find the time to make the items to sell.

We’ve brainstormed having another Fund Raiser. In the past we’ve been so very careful with Parker’s donations from Fund Raisers and have been able to cover many, many of his needs this way.

These funds have literally been lifesavers. Very humbling lifesavers.

Parker’s Yard Sale from two summers ago was simply amazing. And very successful.

But it kind of takes a bit of a village and some very sweet friends and neighbors to pull off a successful Fund Raiser. Lots of time and planning go into these events. And I have no idea who may be willing to donate this kind of time and energy. It is a lot to ask.

Yeah. Stressful.

But our Brave Hero is so very worth it.

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Waiting to be ’sprung’ from his crib this morning.

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Total Joy! That is what this kid gives.

From My Missionary…….

Filed under: Uncategorized, Fantabulous-ness, My Missionary — Tammy & Parker at 9:52 pm on Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hey ya’ll! How is everything going? It must of been a crazy busy week! So how is Parker doing? How is his health and what is the latest with him and his health? Man I miss that little kid.

So, this week we got our boxes from Trish and her Mom. I laughed so hard. I was expecting them, but my companion Larry was not expecting it. I got my box, and picked up the other one. I said.. “Uh, grandados, this one is yours I think” He looked at me, and almost peed his pants. He opened that box faster than I have ever seen anyone open anything in my life.

It was like this was his first time at the candy store. Later, I gave him the letter from McCall (Thanks McCall!) and he was so confused.. He looked at his letter, and his box and said to me “Que paso con eso? Este is para me? Por que?” (What is up with this? Is this for me? Why?”) I started laughing.. Larry was just so excited it was ridiculous.. He still asks me who they came from.. I say the letter is from my sister and the box from my Mom’s friend. He still does not understand why he got boxes. I keep telling him you’re my companion. You’re basically my family and long as we are companions. Man, he was so excited, and he is so thankful it is amazing.

He is an amazing man, and it is about time somebody showed him how amazing he is through packages. Thanks so much Mom, and Trish. I can not say enough how much it touched his little Peruvian heart, and how much he loved it. I wanted to take a picture it was so amazing. He is so thankful, and loved it.

The work is quite interesting here in Huntington Beach. We are trying to get our ward more involved, but they would rather go to the beach than try and do missionary work it seems like so far. So we are again going to try a different approach to get people who actually want to listen to us. It is so hard to find someone who is actually interested. Mostly the people who invite us in to their house and want to talk, bring out their bible, and want to bash. People just get mad at the “Joe’s people” as they call us.

Not going to lie, man this work is so tough, and so hard. But I am being humbled everyday, and learning everyday. There has to be a reason for all of this, for me . But it is always an interesting experience. So many different views on religion, and other things that I did not even know. Apparently there is a new religion that this old lady started up a month ago, in Cali and people are starting to see what is going on over there. I swear there are new religions happening every day it seems like.

We are teaching a professional skate boarder his name is ***** and he skates for Bird House. He is on all of the Tony Hawk video games, and his house is HUGE. I think it would be cool to have a professional skateboarder in the Mormon faith.

We had a famous person come to our church last week. Guys will probably not know who this is cause I still don’t but all the ladies here say he is way famous. He is the guy off of 90210…….. the surgery guy who does surgery for other famous people or something?? Yeah, I don’t know who he is, but he came up to me in this maroon suit thing with a hat and said “You’re awesome, keep being a missionary” He then shook my hand, and left. With like the whole ward that I am in following him. Even the married people in my ward. All the women just followed him WHERE EVER he went.. I >was confused, but apparently he is famous for something. So that was pretty cool.

We also tracted on Mary Kates and Ashly’s house (from Full House) They talked to us through their speaker thing, which was cool. But they did not come out. I did not even know it was their house, until Mary Kate said “Mary Kate Olsen speaking” I said back “The Mary Kate, like the Mary Kate and Ashley from Full House?” She said “Yes, thats me”

I was really surprised. We talked for about 5 minutes through her house microphone thing, then she said she had to go. But there are a lot of rich famous people here in Huntington Beach. Too bad they don’t want to hear the gospel.

Normal week other than that, lots of tracting, lots of doors shut in our faces, lots of people talking bad about the church, flippin’ us off and things.

I might be transferred in two weeks. That is when this transfer ends. So, that will be interesting to see where I go, from Huntington Beach to Compton I hope. (haha)!

But thanks for all of your support, I love your emails and letters. Parker is in my prayers, and I love you all.

Elder Hodson

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