She sent out boxes full of gifts to cancer kids, their brothers, their sisters. She followed their stories and always sent encouraging emails and support.
She reached out to cancer families and made their journey a little brighter by letting them know people care.
Then she met a total douchebag. A douchebag by which all douchebagdom will be measured. The douchebag had bought the business (NgiNeThemba Designs & Domains) that registered her domain name for her website…where she helps the kids with cancer…THAT one.
Douchebag told the young lady that if she didn’t pay him $2000…all the money she had for her gifts and cards and goodies for the sick kids…he would sell her domain name out from under her charity or WORSE, he would just redirect the domain name to send people to a porn site.
YEAH.
DOUCHEBAG.
After consulting lawyers, there was no way she could get around paying the douchebag for her domain name.
She gave the douchebag all her charity money so that there was no chance that a cancer family trying to find her website would find a naked-girls-NOW kind of site.
She now has no money for her kids.
BUT she has the chance to get her money back due to a petitioning process. She found out that if she can get enough petition signers to support her claim to the domain name, a court can rule that she has rights to it and the douchebag has to pay back the $2000.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the time to sign the petition. It’s already reached it’s goal, but we want the judge to be overwhelmed, we want no mistakes of how strongly we feel about a douchebag that would send families looking for cancer help to a porn site.
If you are inspired by this young woman’s mission to help families, she can always use donations to provide thos boxes full of love and compassion. Consider making a donation of any size to her crusade, in honor of Peyton or another cancer child or just in thanks for the healthy children you know.
I never directly ask, but if you Stumble, Twitter, Digg this post, we can get the word out as far as possible to help Jennifer.
**Updated to add: This article is running in the Tampa Tribune highlighting my crazy mad addiction to social networking and my internet…MY internet, ya’ll…so, go read it and check out that cute kid in the picture.**
The kids and I…sadly no Peter…got to attend a Christmas party at the Children’s Cancer Center sponsored by the Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s defensive line.
I got one word for those guys: GINORMOUS!
Oh, and really spectacularly nice. And so sweet with the kids. And generous with their time. And more than willing to listen to every story and meet every person there. And I can’t count apparently.
It was funny, watching these little kids’ eyes about fall out of their heads…not because of the celebrity status of these guys…but in amazement of the sheer magnitude of them. One toddler was watching them walk by and his little head was thrown so far back so he could actually see the players that he eventually lost his balance and just went right over and WHAMP flat on his butt.
The Buc’s players hold a place in my heart because we got to meet them last summer during Peyton’s wish trip to Orlando. Now, truly? Buc’s training camp wasn’t really part of Peyton’s wish trip, it was Daddy’s part of the wish trip, but we all still had a blast. Peyton got to be a Fan-Of-The-Day and after training, we got to meet every player, who stopped to say hello and sign autographs and mingle with our family. Pete was FLOATING!
At the Christmas party, watching these enormous guys interact with all the families clamoring around them for photos and autographs brought back some serious memories of the last time I’d seen them…Peyton bald, chubby from steroids, just finishing up her radiation, and so happy.
The Christmas party saw a new little girl…a healthy little girl with a head of hair and no cancer in her body. It was awesome.
These are fighters.
Courageous warriors.
They wage a war most couldn’t.
They are the first line of defense in a fierce battle.
They give it their everything.
Bodies that take a beating in every effort to defeat their opponent.
Me (after some deep breathing and a few muttered curses directed at his father): Not if you’re a farmer. They use hoes all the time.
The Boy Child: Oh. Ok.
A moment of quiet and….3….2….
The Boy Child: Is there any other time it’s a bad word?
How deep do I really want to go into this one? Am I truly going to go there? I should have been a truck driver, living a life of quiet solitude, out on the open highways of our country…being the Snowman to someone’s Bandit…not fielding these conversation grenades my son keeps lobbing at me.
Me: Yes. If you use it to describe…a…er….woman…it’s not nice…it’s a bad word…umm…just don’t ever let me hear you use it or I’ll throw something sharp at your head, got it?
A quick nod lets me know that the message has been heard and acknowledged.
Wow. That wasn’t so bad. No, it was not. I can totally handle these tough questions! I AM SUPERMOM! Watch your step, I’d hate for you to stumble on my cape.
The Boy Child: What’s it mean? Why is it bad?
Oh, KILL.ME.NOW!
Me: It’s just means that someone is sort of a bad person.
The Boy Child: Like a murderer?
Me: No! No! What are they teaching you at your school?
The Boy Child: Bad like how?
Me: Would you like to go to journalism school someday?
The Boy Child: *blink blink*
Me: It’s a word for a woman who dates a lot of guys all at the same time *edited for child sensibilities because I am SO NOT going into the cash handling side of it, not on the threat of death*
The Girl Child pipes up from the back seat: She’s a cheater!??
Thank you, Carrie Underwood, I hope you develop a nasty rash.
Me: Yes, that works as well as anything, it’s a word for a woman who cheats a lot. Let it go.
The kids quiet down and I can hear them mentally munching on that little tidbit of knowledge.
The Girl Child: So, why do people cheat?
Me: HEY, GUYS! There’s Dairy Queen, let’s get an ice cream cone.
Everyone: YEAH!
Tackling the tough questions? EPIC FAIL!
Someday, ask me when my drinking problem started and I’ll probably direct you to this post.
**HA! THAT got your attention, didn’t it? It’s also a raging lie, but this babylicious post is courtesy of my friend Steph @ Problem Solvin’ Mom. Seriously? If your babymaking parts don’t do a little dance after seeing all this yummy goodness you are just a ROBOT…dead inside…completely inhumane! I am on my way to Alabama right now (sans kids) to spend the weekend with my husband. Alone. Just me and him. No kids. Whatever will we do with ourselves? Heh. Thanks, Steph, for giving my readers something sweet and wonderful in my absence. {{HUGS}}
Do you ever wonder how much of our kid’s likes and dislikes come from taking our lead? My daughter, Sweetpea, is definitely her own little person. She has what I consider to be an adorable, outrageous personality - some traits are definitely from me or her Dad, and some totally her own.
She has recently become partial to frogs - she has a frog lovey that she’s just started to show a preference for over her other loveys (prior to this any old doll or blanket would do, just as long as she had something to hold) and she points out the frogs to me in all of our story books. She has 3 plastic bathtub toy frogs that she carries around with her through much of the day. Wonder where she got this affinity for frogs? I’m wondering if it might have started here:
Or, maybe here?
The evidence is inconclusive at best as to whether we had anything to do with it, but I have my suspicions.
Skeptical? What about her love of apples and strawberries? Maybe all kids are partial to fruit…it is sweet and delicious, of course, but I’m wondering if this had anything to do with it?
Need a close up to better decide? Mmmm, whats not to like about that, huh? I have to say, I’m not sure if it’s berries and apples I’m craving now, or maybe another baby…
On to my point, before I forget it! My husband and I are at odds on almost every movie that one or the other of us loves. He likes scary movies, I hate them. I like chick flicks, he hasn’t watched one since we got married… I have never liked Bambi, Pinocchio, Mary Poppins or The Wizard of Oz - hubs says they’re classics. (sounds like something his mother told him, huh?) It will be interesting to see what kind of movies Sweetpea likes.
One thing we can agree on when it comes to holiday movies - The Year Without A Santa Claus is the best ever…Sweetpea seemed to like the characters when we posed with them last year. Hangin with Heat Miser Chillin with Freeze Miser.
I’m hoping she enjoys watching the movie with us this year - I’ve already scanned the TV schedule for when and where we can check it out. Hubs does a great song and dance along with the Miser brothers…I’m going to do everything I can to get it on camera this year. I expect Sweetpea will be dancing right along with him - at least I hope so!
My name is Anissa, wife to a supertechnojunkie, mother to 3 of the craziest kids short of the padded room, owner of a neurotic dog and author to this blog that shares all the insanity all the time! My youngest, was diagnosed with ALL Leukemia in July 2006 and inspired the start of this site. There are tears, laughter and lots and lots of love, all the blessings life can bring.
You can always contact me at Anissa.Mayhew (at) gmail (dot) com
