Blogoversary Winner

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who participated in my first Blogoversary challenge and in helping make this fundraising effort for the Alzheimer's Association a huge success! I've been receiving cards in the mail every day this week and I love it!! Many of you have been sending packages of several cards and I appreciate this so much!

Ok, ok...on to the announcement....I used random.org to choose a winner for the Blog Candy giveaway and here's what they came up with:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

43 

Timestamp: 2009-04-04 08:22:02 UTC

So, that means hanksmom is the winner!!! I have to admit to feeling a little giddy when I came back to my blog to look to see who #43 was! Hanksmom, or Leslie as I know her, fellow Hawaii resident (she lives on Oahu) is my good friend Sarah's Mom. She is such an amazing lady and so deserving of this big pile of goodies!! I finally met Les in person in February when her and Sarah came over to play stamps. I've actually been meaning to post these pics for awhile now, so what better time to share them than now? Here's a pic of me, Sarah and Leslie at "Maui Craft Day '09" - when I met Leslie for the first time (Maui Craft Day '09 was really just the 3 of us getting together at my house to stamp one friday....but one day MCD will be a huge annual event held at the Kahului Community Center or Lahaina Civic Center and crafters will travel from all over the world just to craft with us...ha!).

Congrats Leslie!! Thank you for playing along, thank you for letting go of your daughter so she could move to Maui where I could meet her and gain an amazing new stamping friend, thank you for just being so awesome!!! :-) E-mail me your mailing address and I'll get you your coupon codes and mail you your goodies!!

For those of you who might have missed the chance to play along for the blog candy, you can still contribute to the cause by mailing me your cards to be included in the charity auction that will kick off my Stampin' Out Alzheimer's event in May. You can read more details about my plans and find the address to send your cards HERE.

I was deeply touched by the kind words of encouragement many of you left and not surprised at how many of you also are dealing with the heartache of watching a loved one's memories, personality and independence be slowly stolen by this difficult illness. I wanted to share with you a couple of websites that have been helpful to us, especially my Mom, as we learn to cope with my father's condition and plan for the future. KnowItAlz is a single source for the caregivers and loved ones with an emphasis on the lighter side of living with Alzheimer’s Disease. DxJunction is a fairly new site that is growing quickly. You can get and provide help to other patients and caregivers with a variety of diagnoses. It's very much like an online support group. My Mom especially has found this site to be extremely helpful. And of course, there's a wealth of information at the Alzheimer's Association website. Also, if any of you have a loved one with this disease and feel overwhelmed or need to talk, please don't hesitate to contact me. I know firsthand how beneficial it is just to be able to vent to someone who understands what you are feeling and dealing with.

Thank you again to ALL of you. I really can't find the words to express my gratitude to all of you for your help in this. It means so much to me that all of you would take the time and effort to help me with this endeavor that is so important to me. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!