First Donation!

Thank you Krystal and Brayden!

Team Nova 2008!

I was recently approached by someone I know... she runs a local organization and is looking for charities to work with for their next fiscal year... she asked me if Team Nova would be interested and wanted some more information about what Team Nova is and what we do.

Team Nova has taken on a bit of a life of it's own, which is pretty encouraging. Truthfully, we're no different or better than any other group that signs up with the American Heart Association's Heart Walk. But it's so important to us that I guess I tend to talk it up as if it's more than just another team. He was my son after all, I guess it's easy for me to feel as though it's bigger and more important, ya know?

Then today, I received a comment on Nova's Heart, and a Friend Request here on Myspace from a mother who lost her son last month. Landyn lived 2 months, and passed away the day after Nova's birthday. His mother Megan has just begun the journey - Just 6 weeks in... I'm sending her my thoughts and warmest wishes.

Anyway, because of these things, I was reminded that the old page was down because the 2007 fundraising event was over. But they usually start it back up for the new year in January, so today I went to see if they were accepting team sign ups yet. They are, and I signed up - set the team goal at $10,000, and despite the craziness in my life at the moment, I'm setting off to solicit donations and support again.

$10,000 is a pretty lofty goal, but I honestly think we can do it, because I'm dedicated to it. Because it's important to us and more important still to parents who will continue to face the devastation of Congenital Heart Defects until we raise the funds and awareness to do the research needed to understand and prevent them.

Want to support Team Nova? We'd appreciate your support.
  Click here to learn more and donate online, or print off a donation form and donate by mail!

Poetry!?

Unnoticed
© 2007 Erin Monahan


Summer passed without the fireflies
and mostly without campfires too.

There seemed to be only fire ants and sweat
and a few gatherings with friends --
some of whom have since moved on, like hope
for thunderstorms on unbearable August evenings.

Now Autumn stands at the edge of the yard,
hands held behind its back, shyly kicking at the dust
like the new boy who isn't quite welcome
at the neighborhood Labor Day parade.

And I wish I could run to him, laughing
and pull him onto the back of my bicycle and ride off,
playing cards snapping in the spokes,
let our hair blow back into July afternoons,
back to roasted marshmallows, and watermelon
that dripped, unnoticed, onto our shirts.



Unheard
© 2007 Erin Monahan

There's a mockingbird in the dogwood,
and a mourning dove on the wire. Neither
takes notice of the other. So it is.

It's October,

and yet, ninety degrees in the pumpkin field,
where seeds are splayed from the hulls of the dead.

They've come to feast on gnats,
and pay no mind to the music...

Team Nova 2007 Kicks Off for real

This post will float until the 2007 Heartwalk on September 15th. Look below for new posts

Team Nova 2007 has had a slow start this year, but I'm hoping that's abut to change. I've finally had the meeting with the AHA Rep. Her name is Brenda (Laurie from last year is blissfully married and left the AHA to enjoy being a family :) Congrats Laurie! I'll miss you!)... and meeting with the Rep is always a bit of a kick in the pants. I can't believe how fast this year is flying by! We're halfway through June already! September 15th will be here before I know it!

So far, I've personally raised $650... a far cry from my $5000 goal! But Ang has joined Team Nova from Indianapolis and raised $300 (as well as creating her own team, for which she's raised another $300! Amazing!)

And Gretchen, dealing with her own child's medical issues, is running a yarn raffle again this year, and has raised $1270 $1300 for Team Nova! Gretchen is such a wonderful woman... Not just because she's such a avid supporter of Team Nova, I mean, she was going to work out an agreement to arrange the marriage of her 7th child Lydia to my 7th child Nova... without ever even meeting me! (Cuz that's what's important ya know, knowing the other inlaws... LOL) I still maintain that they'd have been a beautiful couple!
Lydia

Nova

So, in all actuality, the running total for Team Nova 2007 is $2275... Just $2725 short of the goal! And only 3 months to make up the difference!

So I'm going locally, to businesses, to ask for donations, I'm planning a raffle of my own as well. And I'm hoping that, when the new school year begins, the childrens' schools will support us again the way Kassi's supported Team Nova 2006!

And yes, you guessed it, I'm going to start at it here as well. ;)

So, want to help me squelch this sinking feeling that I'll never meet my goal?

You can help by donating to Team Nova 2007 via the American heart Association's Web Site.(Don't forget to check the Matching Donations list to see if your company is one that matches charitable donations! If they are, your donation could be doubled by your employer! There are 185 pages of companies that match donations, so there's a good chance yours does!

Or you can snail mail a check, made out to The American Heart Association of Charlotte NC, and mail it to me at
Erin Monahan
2509 Old Charlotte Hwy
Monroe NC 28110
And I will forward it with my other cash donations to our AHA representative, to be added to our Team Nova donations amount.

Still trying to get ahold of a Wii?

Go here :)

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZerinm704

 

Less

than a day left on them :)

Raffle for Team Nova by my friend Trish :)

Trish is going to raffle off a hand made afghan (that I will make after the raffle in colors of your choice) The money made will go to the AHA for team Nova. It will be one entry for $3.00 or 2 for $5.00 go to paypal.com and send the money to erin@poeticacceptance.com and be sure to put "afghan raffle" in the note space. The raffle will run until Sept 7th.


Here is the afghan design I will be using........




Congenital heart defects are the #1 birth defect. In the US alone, over 40,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect. That translates to 1 out of every 100 births.

(To put those numbers into perspective, only 1 in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Downs Syndrome.)

Nearly 4000 of the 40,000 born of those with a congenital heart defect will die. That makes Congenital Heart Defects the leading cause of defect related death in children.

Even though Congenital Heart Defects are the most common birth defect, they remain the most unheard of. Without raising awareness, the advances we're hoping for won't be available. Funding for childhood cancer research is five times higher than that of CHD research, although twice as many babies die from CHD's.

And yet, most people have never even heard of Congenital Heart Defects unless their child or another family member is diagnosed with it. Two of my children were diagnosed, and died, of CHD.

Donate to Team Nova (American Heart Association/Heart Walk 2007 - Charlotte NC) Today and help us help other parents. Or, if you can't donate, please repost this.

random stuff

I got a card from the nurses in CVRU yesterday evening. No, it isn't his birthday, or the anniverssary of his death, or anything at all. It was truly just because... just because they're awesome. It made me cry. In a good way :)

I pre-register for my GED tests in the morning. Just a month and 10 days before I can actually take the dang tests.

I'm still waiting for the lightbulb to come on over my head... you know, the one that says, "Ohhhhhh, THAT'S what I wanna be when I grow up!" I did put in an application last night with CMC-Union though. Sure, it'll be me sweeping floors on night shift, but you know what? It's a start. Well, it would be if they'd hire me without a GED, which they won't.

First, I want to say: I'm really journaling about all this to keep myself motivated, and to have a written accounting to look back on, in case I want to see how I was doing in which subjects at any particular point. I'm sure you guys are sick of reading it! Sorry!

So I took all the real pretests in class tonight. (Well, I took Reading last week, Science, Social Studies, Math and Writing tonight.) All my scores were high enough to qualify for taking the actual GED testing. Unfortunately I have to have 12 hours in class before I can register for that. So I've done everything I can/was supposed to do, and finished it in 9 hours. I still - in order to ensure that I get credit for the 12 hours so I can take the dang final test - have to sit in class Thursday night, for another 3 hours, doing nothing.

THEN, on Aug. 2nd I PRE-register for the GED tests (wtf is their fascination with those three letters? PRE... pretests, more pretests, then a post test, then... a GED pretest, then, pre-registration... *sigh* I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere cuz I'm still in the "pre" stage!)

And then sometime after 8/21, I'll actually get to take the GED tests. I have to wait WEEEEKS for something I had pretty much finished in 9 hours.

Have I mentioned that patience is not my strong suit?

So anyway - actual in-class pretest scores, which DO count (and must be a 500 or more to qualify for pre-registration) are as follows:

Math: 520 (yeah... not the greatest, but on the GED test, I can score as low as a 410, so I'm safe.)

Social Studies: 610 (Carla made a 750! YOU GO GIRL!)

Science: 680

Reading: 690 (I'm actually disappointed with this score... I can do better.)

Writing:  I took the multiple choice part, and the actual score is impossible to calculate because of the essay that we don't write/get scored in class, but at this point, with just the score from the multiple choice portion, Mr. Johnson said even if I score the lowest possible score on the essay part, I still meet the 500 point requirement. Thank you Mrs. Myra Helms for being the most awesome senior English-Lit teacher ever! (For those who make fun of my spelling/grammar issue... Ha! See, it does serve a purpose!)

Now if only I had a dollar for every point I scored on my tests, my life might not fall apart. I can't wait till the end of August to take the real thing!

Want to hear something funny? Obviously, I never graduated high school. Class of '89 walked without me. That never bothered me - the 'not walking' part anyway. But when Carla and I finish these classes and actually have our GEDs, we get to walk in the SPCC GED graduation ceremony in May 2008. I didn't think that would be that big of a deal to me, but I'm kind of excited at the idea.

Took all the pretests online

*sigh* I've done more tests for my GED than I've taken pregnancy tests... and consider who you're talking to, that's a lot!

Now keep in mind that these don't actually count - they're like practice tests so *I* can gauge where I'd stand on the actual GED tests right now if I were to take them.

I have to earn both a minimum score of 410 on each test and an average score of at least 450 on all the tests with a minimum total score of 2,250 and no single test score below 410. Make sense?

So, my online scores were:

Science: 620
Reading: 600
Social Studies: 580
Writing: between 550 & 650 (my best estimate because there's an essay part that effects the actual grade here, and obviously, I don't know how the instructor will grade my essay)
Math: 480
Giving me a total of (using the lowest Writing grade) 2830 points, and an overall average of 566, which meets all the minimum requirements plus some.

I'm happy with that :)

I'm still going to study the math more, and brush up on my essay writing skills, but for now, I'm content.

Wednesday Observations

Osmosis doesn't work, for the record - not for learning anyway. I literally fell asleep IN the math book, face first on the couch last night. Then, this morning, I did the math preGED test online. Didn't score quite high enough... missed one too many. More studying is in order :)

Took 2 language/reading pretests in class. Aced them.

Working on Social Studies now. I learned something - I suck at charts, but not as bad as I suck at Trig so I can deal.

The instructor is pretty cool with letting us handle it as we see fit, as far as what subjects we do, and when, and with the timing of the tests. So I'm going to do the Social Studies preGED in class Tuesday, then head for the Science. Once I score high enough on those, I can totally concentrate on Math, and I can study my ass off over the break and be ship shape for the actual testing when we start the Fall semester.

I have to sleep though. The couple hours I've been getting (because I'm up all night studying) isn't helping any. Sleeping brain cells are simply not absorbant.