Chance to win free stuff!

A new friend is having a giveaway on her website. Check it out!

http://dedeland.blogspot.com/2010/01/cellu-shape-giveaway.html

Melinda

**It's almost the First Day of Autumn** How about a new Scarf??

First day of Autumn: September 22. How much fun would it be to get a new scarf for the first day of Autumn?? I'm excited about this Scarf Exchange that my friend Ginger invited me to. If you would like to participate with us, click on the link to join in on the FUN!!

http://katieballa.blogspot.com/

Love ya!!

Melinda

Hi Everyone,
A lot of you know of Gavin Smith, the 4 year old son of one of my best friends from college. He will have been fighting cancer for a year this March. My friend Stacie Smith, the mom, is the strongest and toughest mom I know. We were sorority sisters in college and she was in my wedding. I wanted to do something special for Stacie & Gavin to help out with medical costs that they are incurring as Gavin is going along with his cancer treatments. He has had 2 MRI’s and thanks to God they were both clear!! But treatment cannot stop as this type of cancer is very progressive.

I am hosting a PartyLite fundraiser online for Gavin’s medical fund. A portion of the sales will go to the fund, PLUS I will be donating all my commission. ALL orders from February 1-13 will go toward Gavin’s medical fund. PLEASE order!! No matter how small or big the order, you will be helping Gavin. He is a FIGHTER!! My website address to view the catalog is www.partylite.biz/melindatice (click on PartyLite Product and then By Catalog). You can also view the February guest specials on my website which range from $10-$60 items and when you purchase $40 worth of product, you get any item in the catalog at ½ off. You can order unlimited quantities of the sale items due to the cause – I can fix the orders for this!! All you have to do is email me or call me with your order and I will total it up. Credit Card is best form of payment, but I do accept cash & checks also. Gavin’s Fundraiser will end February 13th and orders will be placed on February 14th (how appropriate, Valentines Day!!).

If you want to read about Gavin’s Journey, please feel free to go to http://smithscooptexas.blogspot.com/.

Gavin's Story
In March of 2008, Gavin was diagnosed with an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) that had spread from his brain to his spine. If you're just joining us and wish to catch up on Gavin's cancer story from the beginning, please go to the March 23, 2008 posting and work your way backwards. Thanks for your interest. We appreciate your prayers.


Thank you for your prayers and let’s make this fundraiser the best!!!

Melinda Tice

(405) 203-6823 cell phone

So, I haven't been as faithful as I thought I could. There are so many thoughts that I would like to share, but as you can see, the time is almost midnight! So I want to share something that has been on my heart. One of my really good friends from college is going through the worst thing I could ever imagine. Her oldest son who is 4 now is battling cancer. In March it will be a year since he was diagnosed. I'm a faithful reader of her blog (The Smith Scoop). She is the most caring and wonderful mother in the world. My heart aches everytime I read a new post. Stacie is so strong that I wish I could have her strength, courage and faith. She draws it from God and all of her family & friends. I pray every day, numerous times, for her and her little Gavin and of course her family. Gavin is a FIGHTER!! I believe in my heart that he is going to get through this. If you, my friends, could pray and fight along with Stacie & Gavin, we could win this battle together! With prayer and faith, anything is possible.

Love and Strong Prayers,
Melinda

Karina's First Nightmare

Karina had a VERY scary dream last night. She told me in detail what her dream entailed. She said her and her friends were being chased by a scary dinosaur. They ran toward a house that was orange with blue windows. She said when they went into the house there were these small mice (some were frozen-- Chronicles of Narnia??) that were telling her where to hide from the dinosaur. The dinosaur was taking big steps and were catching up to them and eating her friends.



Karina said this was the scariest dream she has ever had. She said when she woke up she was really scared, and wanted to come into our room... but she said she fell asleep again.



I just wanted to share Karina's first nightmare! She never has talked about having a scary dream before. When she was telling me about it I wanted to laugh because just the way she told it made it so dramatic (if you can believe that!).

Family Vacation

We had a very nice family vacation this past week. We traveled close to 12 hours to South Padre, Texas and I have to say, the drive wasn't so bad. Ok, I should say the ride wasn't so bad... Kolby drove. We left Oklahoma, Thursday night, Aug 28 at 9:00pm. Eva feel asleep before we hit Norman and Karina was out soon after. They slept most of the way. We were so thankful to our friends, the Campbell clan, for letting us borrow their DVD player... it was definately a LIFE SAVER!!




My family from my Dad's side were planning a very special Surprise party for my Grandma who had just turned 76. This was one of the main reasons why we were traveling so far... & it was a much needed vacation. My family, my sister's family, my brother's family & my dad arrived on Friday. My uncle decided that he better let my Grandma in on one of her surprises so she was not overwhelmed on Saturday (her birthday surprise party). He went and picked up my Grandma and brought her over to his house where we were waiting for her. I wish I would have taken a picture of the look on her face when she saw us. She did a TRIPLE take!! She was sooo HAPPY to see all of us.

Saturday my uncle and family decorated the backyard for my Grandma's surprise party. It was hard to not tell her, but she had no clue what was going on!!! The MEXICAN'S know how to throw a party. It was so much fun... HOT & HUMID, but fun! My Grandma was once again SURPRISED and very happy.

The rest of the week, we relaxed by the pool, played at the beach and shopped around at the flea market and island shops.

Karina first touch of ocean water... she LOVED it!

Eva did not like the ocean water!


Karina couldn't get enough swimming. She wanted to swim everyday. I was happy to see her so happy. Eva didn't like the beach so much, but she did love the pool. She loved swimming back to me then Kolby. She didn't really swim, but she tried. She loved going under water and several times tried to jump out of my arms.

We made several trips back and forth to my uncles house and the condo we stayed at in Padre. It was worth the drive. I would do it several more times to spend time with my WHOLE extended family. I was very sad to leave. I also was not looking forward to the drive home since we were leaving during the day.

We started home, Thursday, Sept 4th, around 11:00am. The girls fell asleep as we had planned (during their nap time). They woke up 2 hours later. They did really well on the drive. We ended up staying the night in Hillsboro, TX which is just before Dallas . We arrived around 8:30 pm. I had told Karina we would go swimming once we got to the hotel. I was not expecting to get to the hotel so late. We had hit rush hour traffic in Austin so that was unexpected. I did let the girls swim for an hour and then we were dead asleep! We woke up to eat waffles and juice and I was sooo excited to hit the outlet mall! But I was very disappointed to find the Hillsboro was not as awesome as it was 10 years ago. Most of the stores were gone. We did do some shopping though. Kolby found a book in the 75% off book store autographed by Newt Gingrich. It was $3.74. He was happy with his find. We ate lunch at Black Eyed Pea and headed on home.

Our dogs were being cared for by Kolby's sister, Karen. She stayed at our house and made sure they were not lonely.

Even though the ride was LOOOOONG, it was truly a vacation I will never forget.

My Dogs BIG Adventure

This was a day that I somehow knew was coming. My sister was in town and I had the chance to spend the day with her. We left early and headed to the mall. Around 11:00 I received a call on my voicemail from our home security alarm people. They said our alarm to our house was going off and they wanted to make sure everything was ok... Since this happens occasionally, I wasn't too concerned. Kolby made a call and had them verify which door it was (which they said was the garage door leading to the house). Thinking it was the garage door, we went about our morning and afternoon. Rosa and I pull up to the house around 4:00 to see that the front door is WIDE open. I start to panic and run in the house. Everything was there, except my 2 precious, loveable dogs (Goldberg- Chocolate Lab & Lita- yellow whippet mix). I immediately start to cry and hop back in the car to go look for them. Kolby runs out back to see if they are playing on the back field. My sister calls the animal shelter and my Dad. I drive EVERYWHERE looking for our dogs. But, they are no where to be found!

Just last week me and one of my co-workers talked about this happening to her dog. I have feared this after seeing a little dog in the middle of the road last month. I've thought about how would I feel if that was my dog. I didn't think this would ever happen to the Tice dogs. They were apart of our family, why would they want to run away? I stressed about it for weeks. I came to a point that I had to give it to God to take my worries away. I know that He is in control.
On the way home... I prayed that God would lead them home... I prayed that He would lead me to them... I prayed that the animal shelter had them safe... I prayed that the dogs wouldn't be scared... & I prayed that I wouldn't have to tell Karina the dogs were gone...

My sister calls me to come home and pick up Kolby so we can see if animal control has picked them up. By this time I'm hysterical. When Kolby and I arrived to the animal shelter, the workers were so nice. They knew I was upset and did everything to console me. They gave Kolby and I ideas on what to do to find our "2nd set of kids". While waiting for the trucks to come in bringing dogs that have been picked up, I get a call from my sister. She tells me that they have found my dogs! They were in the middle of SW 104th and May heading back in the direction of home. My sister tells me she jumped out of her car and into the middle of the street to urge the dogs back on the side of the road. When she notices the cars are stopping for them, she gets out of the street. She then hears a BIG crash. One car didn't stop and rear ends a car which then rear ends another car. At this point the dogs get scared and split up. My dad, in his truck, goes after Lita and my sister's husband and my nephew, in the SUV, goes after Goldberg. In the meantime, Kolby and I run through the animal shelter to get to our car. We then hit every red light to get to the destination. While my sister is giving a statement to the police, my Dad manages to get Lita in his truck with the help of some neighborhood kids. My Dad gave them $4.00 for helping him! Lita was terrified! Gordy and my nephew's hunt for Goldberg was a little more difficult. Gordy had to pull into a gas station and run on foot to get Goldberg. Goldberg wouldn't let anyone near him. About 5 miles later, Gordy and my nephew get a hold of Goldberg! What a stressful day!!! The cops let my sister go after she gave a statement... no tickets for us or my sister being in the middle of the road since it was the guys fault for not paying attention and stopping! I finally calmed down when I saw Goldberg & Lita back in the house. Goldberg is limping around because the pads of his feet are worn down from the asphalt. They both slept all weekend. They did have a BIG adventure. As for the Tice family... we are getting a storm door installed on Saturday and the dogs tagged just in case they get out again (which I pray that this NEVER happens again).
Finally after the day had ended and we laughed about the whole situation... we gave THANKS to God that the dogs are safe and our family is back together again.