Throughout the year I have been posting about one moms journey on her fight against breast cancer as we’ve even helped raised money for her and her family so that they could keep their house, car and put food on the table for her children. The posts about her and her journey may have slowed down, but that’s only because I have not had the time to keep up with those posts.. my family and I have been with her through every step and will continue to be. Wednesday, she just had her double mastectomy and is currently recovering while being in excruciating pain.

There are millions of stories like hers and some with a not so happy ending, which is why it is so important to do what you can to help support breast cancer programs and breast cancer awareness.

What Mom Fuse is doing to help:

• Donating 100% of advertising revenue to breast cancer awareness.
• More to come.. we’re just getting started with trying to help!

What Jessica is doing to help:

• Jessica is donating 100% of her October commission from her Guy and Eva jewelry sales to support breast cancer programs. The small programs that give so much to those suffering and fighting to save their lives. Those that purchase jewelry through her website http://guyandevajewelrymom.com will be entered to win free jewelry while helping support breast cancer programs.
• Jessica is also doing a local fundraiser in her home town to help raise money for a hair salon that gives cancer patients free wigs.
• She’s growing her hair and once it gets cut it will be donated as well.

What you can do to help:

• Donate to any of the breast cancer programs, either locally or online.
• Write a post to support breast cancer awareness on your blog.
• Participate in a program that is supporting breast cancer awareness.
• Save your Yoplait Pink links and send those in.. $.10 per lid will be donating to help

Those are just a few ideas I can think of off the top of my head.. there are tons of things you can do during the month of October and I encourage you to do them.

Help Save Lives.

Are you doing anything this month to help support breast cancer programs or breast cancer awareness? Please share with us your efforts, we’d love to know and try to help support you!

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To some women their hair is something they can rely on, something they can use to make themselves feel better, etc. To others.. it’s just hair, no big deal. Stacy loved her long curly hair and loved having it done, but as the hair came out the more emotional and real things became. Sure she had prepared herself for this.. even got some nice looking wigs.. but it’s not the same.

To show support for Stacy, both her husband and my husband shaved their heads today. It seemed like it was great for Stacy, like she was not alone in the fight.. and she’s not. Her friends and family will always be there to support her and help her through anything. I’m ecstatic that we can help her feel better.. I just wish there was more that we could do for her.

Last week Mom Fuse hosted a Twitter party in order to raise monetary donations for Stacy and her family. Our goal was $2,000 and we raised over $500 to help with their bills. To some $500 isn’t a lot.. but to them it meant keeping their only vehicle for another month and a reliable way to get to and from chemo treatments. They were overwhelmed when I had told them about their new Mom Fuse “family” and how everyone came together to help them.

We will still be accepting donations until help from the American Cancer Society and other resources come in because they can’t make it with 7 children and only one paycheck coming in without some help. If you would like to help Stacy and her family click here to read their story and donate. I would also love to get some items donated specifically for Stacy.. kind of like feel good items. Items like cosmetics, jewelry, nail polish, bath & body items, candles, books, movies, etc. For the donations of items for Stacy and her kids.. I’d be more than happy to offer you free advertising here on Mom Fuse, a 125×125 button advertisement on the home page of Mom Fuse.. as well as promoting you on Twitter & Facebook. So if you have anything you would like to donate to Stacy, please contact me directly at inf0(at)momfuse(dot)com. Even if you’d like to donate some kids items I’m sure their kids would love to have some new great stuff, feel free to contact me. Their kids’ ages range from 8 to 16.

I also want to thank everyone that made a donation to Stacy’s cause, donated items for the Twitter party giveaway, spread the word about what we have been doing, and everything else that was done.

Special Thanks to Lindseralla.com because they have created a special blend of spices for this family.. and anyone who purchases, proceeds go directly to the family! Purchase a blend of spices from Lindseralla.com

Special Thanks to MEAD as well because they donated a care package containing back-to-school supplies for the kids!

For all that you have done  – Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

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2. Twitter Party & Giveaways July 30th 11am-6pm CST To Help A Family (Breast Cancer) When: 7/30/09 – 11am to 6pm CST (hashtag #momfuse) Why:...
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(hashtag #momfuse)

Why: To help raise funds for a family in need, (read about this family),  promote breast cancer awareness & win!!

Our goal is to raise $2,000 for this family (this will help them tremendously). Total so far: $392 donate

How You Can Help:

1. Donate any amount. Even $1 will help.

2. Purchase a blend of spices from Lindseralla.com – All proceeds will go directly to this family.

3. Tweet this: Twitter party& giveaways July 30th from 11am–6pm CST Help a Mom of 7 w/breast cancer. RSVP http://bit.ly/2AGVA6 #momfuse RT?

4. Join us for the Twitter Party and help us raise awareness for Breast Cancer (RSVP below)

How you can win:

Join us for a twitter party (hashtag #momfuse) on Thursday, July 30, 2009 from 11am – 6pm CST to help raise money for this family. I will also be tweeting about breast cancer awareness periodically through the party and doing tons of giveaways. Please RSVP using the linky below.

or

Tweet: “Family In Need: Mom of 7 Diagnosed with Breast Cancer http://bit.ly/b8NVq #momfuse #BreastCancer Pls RT” or using the hashtag #momfuse from July 21st to the end of the party July 30th will be entered to win.

If you’d like to donate a giveaway item, please email me at info(at)momfuse(dot)com.

If you’re planning on joining us please RSVP below. If you can spare a few bucks or cents to donate, please donate here. All money will go directly to the family for bills and expenses.

Help us spread the word about our part and tweet this “ Twitter party& giveaways July 30th from 11am–6pm CST Help a Mom of 7 w/breast cancer. RSVP http://bit.ly/2AGVA6 #momfuse RT?”

A big thank you to @ResourcefulMom @ momfluential and @ RachelFerrucci for all their help!

MEAD has also donated a care package containing back-to-school supplies for the kids!

RSVP For the Breast Cancer Twitter Party:

Giveaways

(thank you to these awesome people/companies who have donated items to help this family!)

GRAND Prize: Anyone who donates will be automatically entered into a drawing for a $100 Visa Card (2 winners will be chosen!)

Grand Prize Winner: Shirley C. & D.D. Miller

Spice Package from Lindserella

Spicepackage includes 6 – 4 oz tins.

Purchase a blend of spices from Lindseralla.com – All proceeds will go directly to this family.

Winner: @jessycat

k

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$20 Gift Certificate from Elle’s Studio (@ ellesstudio)

Awesome scrapbook company that creates tags, embellishments, stamps and more!

Winner:@ninemoremonths

k

Peace… Obsidian, Blue Lace Agate and Evil Eye Pendulum Bracelet …Divination Collection ($60 value) from Mer Curios (@ MerCuriosJewels)

A form of divination, the Goddess Pendulum Bracelet© is both fashionable & practical. Wear your divination tool wherever you go! From the Divination by MerCurios Collection

Winner: DebbieD

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Seagate FreeAgent Go Drive for Mac (thank you Seagate!)

Fast transfer speeds, easy docking station, and Mac compatibility.

All in a drive that travels with ease. Perfect For: Store photos, music, and other files, Carry your data anywhere you want, Sync data between computers, Backup files using the desktop dock.

Winner: @laurie_pooh

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All In One Breastfeeding Kit (thank you Pumpin’ Pal!) (approximate value $54)

The All-in-one Kit has all three sizes of Super Shields plus all of the accessories you need for more comfortable and effective breast pumping!

Includes: The Original Pumpin’ Pal Hands-Free Strap,One pair of all three sizes of Super Shields+Plus Superior Pumping Flange, and the “Pumpin’ Pal Pocket Guide to Breast Pumping” Book.

Winner: @ahensnest

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Daisy Chain Tote (thank you baby star!)

Tote includes BPA-free wipe case and changing pad. inside the bag is a wide zipper pocket on one side that holds an included changing pad.

Two open pockets on the other side hold the wipe case and a bottle or cell phone.

Winner: @jamiain

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NVM|9 Fistlet from NVM|9

Winner: @Jfarside

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$20 Amazon Gift Card (thank you Got Free Ecards!) Got Free Ecards is the best resource for Free Ecards, Free Printable Cards, Free Birthday Ecards and Free Printable Birthday Cards

Winner: @AlainaFrederick

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Save the TaTas pink T-shirt and Bumper Magnet

Thank you Laurie  @laurie_pooh for this awesome donation!

Winner: @MomTV

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Name Your Tune CD (value: $20 each)

Name Your Tune is an exciting new children’s music compilation that is made-to-order and personalized for each child. Children will hear their name more than 80 times throughout 14 much-loved songs. A great way to enjoy music, have fun, and learn together!

Thank you @NameYourTuneCDs for this awesome donation!!

Winner: @jackiemacd

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Earthluxe organic leaf romper (value: $38)

Thank you @Jfarside for this awesome donation!

Winner: @ccboobooy

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Thank you,
Jessica, Founder MomFuse.com

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I like to believe that we here at Mom Fuse are all about helping moms, usually we post topics and articles on different parenting related issues but this post is more special and dear to me than any post I’ve ever done.

Recently a good friend of ours, Stacy, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and their family is in desperate need of some financial assistance. She was employed as a nurse and brought in most of the money but she’s recently had to quit her job because of the cancer and chemo treatments. Now that she’s no longer working they are having a terrible time keeping up with the bills and things for their 7 kids. Her husband is working his butt off trying to support the kids, pay rent, pay bills, and trying to keep their car while maintaining the house, making sure the kids are fed and taken care of, taking care of his wife who, and so much more.

Their rent alone is $800 per month and that’s not even counting all the other bills they have, including a car payment. Now, with the trouble of keeping a roof over their head and food on the table, they may have to sell their car in order to get some extra money, but then they won’t have a reliable way to get to treatment and other appointments. Can you imagine having no car with 7 kids during the summer with tons of doctor appointments to try and make it to?

It’s been extremely sad around here with everyone trying to figure out what they are going to do and how to help. I know money is tight everywhere but if you could spare a $1 or even ten cents by using the Donate button below, every little bit will help. My husband and I are donating as much as we can afford, but that’s not enough to cover hardly anything, and I would love it if our wonderful Mom Fuse community could come together and help this awesome family and support them in their time of need.

How You Can Help:

1. Donate any amount. Even $1 will help.

Our goal is to raise $2,000 for this family (this will help them tremendously). Total so far: $257

2. Join us for the Twitter Party and help us raise awareness for Breast Cancer (RSVP here & you’re entered to win some awesome prizes)

3. Tweet this: Twitter party& giveaways July 30th from 11am–6pm CST Help a Mom of 7 w/breast cancer. RSVP http://bit.ly/2AGVA6 #momfuse RT?

or Tweet: “Can you spare $1 to help a Family In Need: Mom of 7 Diagnosed with Breast Cancer http://bit.ly/b8NVq #momfuse #BreastCancer Pls RT”

or using the hashtag #momfuse from July 21st to the end of the party July 30th will be entered to win

If you can’t make a donation, don’t feel bad.. like I said, I know times are tough. We would appreciate any help spreading the word by retweeting our tweets on Twitter, posting links back to this post, and spreading the word about helping this family.

Join us for a twitter party (hashtag #momfuse) on Thursday, July 30, 2009 from 11am – 6pm CST to help raise money and win prizes! If you can join us, please RSVP here.

Updates & Messages from the family:

Stacy is only able to eat saltine crackers.. she can’t keep anything else down. The family is having an extremely difficult time paying bills (home, car, electricity, everything).

I visited with the family today and Stacy is feeling the side effects from chemo and doesn’t feel well. After all the bad new they’ve received, they’ve finally received some good news. The cancer has not spread to her lymph nodes yet and the doctor is expecting a good result from the chemo treatments. Yay! Stacy, her husband, their family & friends would all like to thank everyone for their donation, no matter the amount.

Thank you,
Jessica, Founder MomFuse.com

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As a new mom.. I did learn a few things!

1) Babies love messes.. no matter what kind of mess it is and they will ALWAYS throw it on the floor, especially our daughter, so put some kind of table cloth or tarp down under their high chairs! Our son was, to my surprise, a bit neater and actually tried using the spoon for his ice cream cake. Our daughter on the other hand was hands on with everything and had it everywhere. She didn’t even want to bother with a spoon.

2) A new toy is a new toy.. no matter how extravagant it might be and they seem to prefer the more simple toys. Our twins got a few toys and clothes for their birthday. They received flashy toys will all kinds of lights and sounds but those didn’t compare to their new simple stuffed animals some friends got them. They loved those stuff animals so much, they fell asleep playing with them and still had to have them this morning when we came downstairs.

3) Whenever daddy offers to help.. be cautious! You never know what he’s up to. When my husband offered to feed the children breakfast for the birthday, I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to let him take over and head upstairs for a nice long shower. When I came downstairs our son was wearing his sister’s pink belt around his head. (I guess the pink belt was the only thing handy for this disguise!)

4) 1 year olds.. do not seem to like birthday hats!

A few more pictures from the party..

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Since this week’s theme is favorite photos, I searched high and low for a great one.. we have so many favorites though, it was hard to find just one.

This picture is of our son, Wednesday is the the twins’ 1st birthday and they both got a birthday card in the mail yesterday from their grandpa, this is one of the pictures of our son enjoying his birthday card. He was so excited!

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Sure.. she looks innocent!

Tonight will kick off our eventful, and hopefully peaceful, weekend celebration with a concert from Heidi Newfield in just a few hours. Now admittedly, I’ve only heard one song from her solo wise – Johnny and June – but I love it and will truck my twins and my husband all the way up to the park in order to hear that one song. Am I crazy? Probably.. But I don’t get the chance to get out much and this is the one thing I’ve been waiting to do all year. Once I hear the song, we can go.

This is the.. "I don't want my face washed" look

Hopefully tonight and the rest of the weekend will go much better than the day has already.. the twins have been unhappy and extremely fussy all day, I’ve been bitten twice by K, and C keeps getting trouble because apparently he finds toilet water amazingly fun. Eww, I know. I’ve tried everything to keep him out of the bathroom. If I shut the door, someone goes in and ends up leaving the door wide open. If I shut the lid on the toilet, he figures out how to lift it just enough to get his arm in there. On a side note.. what is it with babies not wanting their faces washed? You should have seen me chasing them around with a wash rag… (see pic above and to the left)

Saturday, the 4th, we have a parade to go to in the the morning, some cookouts to attend and then hopefully the chance to watch the fireworks. I was hesitant to go to the fireworks at first because I just knew they would be too loud for the babies’ little ears.. so we’ll watch from a distance. I’m really excited to see the look on their faces when those colorful lights explode into the sky and then fizzle out.

If we survive the weekend and I actually get some good pictures taken, I’ll write about it on Sunday and share our eventful weekend with you.

Have a great 4th!

Jessica

Founder, MomFuse.com

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Blogs and word-of-mouth marketing are the new way to effectively market products and ideas to consumers.

With this idea in mind, we have created Mom Fuse POP (Post Our Pitch) alerts which specialize in helping journalists, business owners, marketers and more connect with bloggers… mom bloggers more specifically.

POP Alerts Benefits (for bloggers):

• Connect with advertisers, marketing professionals and more for free
• Help gain exposure to your blog
• Monetize your blog
• Opportunity to offer your readers contests and giveaways

If you’re a blogger, sign up for these free alerts here and then grab the POP banner code to help spread the word!

POP Alerts Benefits (for professionals):

• Gives you the opportunity to reach an unlimited amount of highly influential mom bloggers whether it’s a review opportunity, the introduction of a new music artist looking for blog exposure, contest and giveaway information, interview opportunities with authors and/or entrepreneurs and anything else you think would benefit from blog coverage.
• Gain exposure for your products/services (or your client’s)

If you would like to submit your pitch to influential mom bloggers please visit the Send A POP Alert page.

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How did you get involved with the Real Housewives of NYC?

Through my career as an actor and Simon’s involvement with film production, we both knew quite a few people who work in film & TV production in the city, some of whom also work in reality TV. We heard that a show was being put together about parents in NYC, and knew they were looking for people with very young children. That was in 2006, and it was over a year before we began filming, and by then the show had morphed into “Manhattan Moms,” which was still not “Real Housewives.” After our first season was filmed, Bravo decided to make our show a spin-off of the successful “Real Housewives of Orange County.”

Did you enjoy being on a reality television show? Would you do it again?

Being on a reality TV show was a new experience, and Simon and I are always up for that. We had no idea what to expect as we didn’t watch any reality TV whatsoever and weren’t aware of how the process worked. We both had various levels of acting experience so initially jumped into season determined to make a good & exciting show. Once we got a better handle on the process, we realized that viewers really wanted to believe that what they saw on the show was all there was to us, when in fact selective scenes can distort and make something that is a very small part of our lives way seem more important than it is. We worked very hard in season two to make sure we were resolutely ourselves, and pushed against any attempt to direct us away from any action or words that would be inauthentic.

Did the show have any effect on your life our your family?

The show has affected our life in many ways, mostly positive. It does take up quite a bit of time, and you might not expect this but it’s a bigger time commitment when the show is airing versus when the show is filming. When we film, it’s just having a crew of 10-20 people along with you as you live your life. When the show is airing, it’s press appearances, writing blogs for Bravo, doing interviews, etc.

You seem to have a lot of critics out there, with the majority of them saying you are pretentious. What would you say to them if you could and how do you handle the negative feedback?

Most people reject what they see as different from themselves, sometimes in an effort to convince themselves that their own situation is preferable to the other person’s. What is pretentious to one will not be to another. My behavior is normal to me and my husband’s is normal to him — ultimately I can’t control what others think is pretentious and it’s a waste of energy to try.

You have a new book coming out soon.. can you tell our readers a little more about the book and why you decided to write it?

We’re very excited to be writing a book about our experiences raising two very young children in the big city. It’s a collection of stories about things that have happened along the journey of parenting young kids, the good, the bad and the ugly. After each story we talk about what was good, what was not-so-good and how we dealt with whatever happened, and it’s in a “he said, she said” back-and-forth so that you get both parents’ perspective. The parenting books that have resonated the most with me have all been “stories from the trenches” which to me are more helpful than a list of to-do’s. I hope that people will read it and be entertained, inspired, and maybe even validated in their own parenting methods.

Is there a second book in the works? Or may in sometime in the future?

We’ve had many fans & a few publishers ask us when we will write a book about finding and maintaining love, and are exploring that possibility now. Nothing to announce yet, but we’ll keep you posted!

As a new mom of twins, I’m always interested to see what other product moms can’t live without.. Do you have any?

Congratulations on your twins!! What products could I not live without as a new mom? A top-of-the-line pump if you are nursing, sleep sacks for chilly nights/naps & those little soft velcro toys you can attach to the babies’ wrists .

Any parenting tips you would like to share?

Trust yourself as a parent, and know that what works for one child will not necessarily work for the other.

Read more about Alex and Simon and their family life here.

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