525, 600 minutes ......5192 dollars.....autism awarness....Priceless!

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love

As I sit here, crying....and this song plays(how fitting)...letting it out ....not sure I can stop anytime soon and that is ok! I am thinking of the past year in my life. Actually not quite a year ago I went to Las Vegas and my first CHA. It was a great experience and I just loved being there and seeing all what was new. I also met this lady , Ali Edwards, all I knew was everyone wanted to be around her. I had seen her work on 2Peas and also in Creating Keepsakes magazine, but didn't know much else about her. We met and I felt that little "click" but sometimes you just feel that click , and the other person doesn't. Well then she again turned to me and said " you have a happy face". We laughed and I didn't think much else about it. Not sure why she thought that , never been told that by anyone else, but just went with it. I was really looking to meet Stacey Jullian more then anyone else since I had just read THE Big Picture. It had given me a new light on scrapbooking and I just wanted to thank her in person for writing her thoughts down in a book, and being who she was. Well needless to say we didn't meet, she was probably in so many meetings she never got to be out on the floor.
So fast forward a few weeks and I write to Ali asking if she would like to come to PA and teach. We corresponded and she said she would if the dates worked. So we worked that out and decided she would come to Scrappin Away Vacations in January 2007. From that day I started planning the event.
I started reading more blogs and also created my own. WOW a year ago... so one Sunday I even decided to go back to when Ali's blog started, to get a little insight into her life. I was going to have this woman at my event for 4 days, thought I better do a little research. Well it turned into more then research, with each blog post I started seeing this amazing person, that was a mom to an amazing boy. A mom that took me thru the process of discovering that her son was autistic. It was an amazing journey written in her own words. Right then I knew that we would be raising money for autism at our event. We pick one cause or charity at each event and this was a no brainer as they say.

Shortly after we got to planning my dear friend Denise also called me and she wanted to help in anyway I needed to raise money. She just took the ball and ran with it. 2 Great baskets came to light. Great ladies answered my call to have some art pieces for the auction as well. Raising over 1500 dollars because of these ladies! Raffle prizes donated 2400 dollars and the baskets almost 1300 dollars , making a grand total of $5192.00 raised for autism awareness.

Still can't stop crying, I didn't do this alone, 210 woman in one room for 4 days did this! Ali did this! Simon did this! Josh did this! I am blessed with an amazing little boy, I am so so blessed. Ali is also blessed with an amazing little boy, who needs our help and awareness so that he just becomes more amazing everyday.

So to Ali, you are (yes I am going to say it again) a TRULY amazing lady, that I am so blessed to have in my life and one that I hope to continue to grow with, we can have a virtual cup of coffee every so often and continue to share in each others lifes, (Just don't keep me up till 2 am!)
Simon, you don't know Josh yet....but you will meet him soon. I know you will become life long friends as well!

To everyone that made everything possible this weekend, bless you! You are a powerful group of woman and you have and will continue to accomplish great and wonderful things. As we leave here this weekend, we will take a little piece of love with us. Knowing that we have shown our love to amazing people that may not be able to tell us or express this to us, but maybe just maybe we will make more aware and we can be the voice that is needed. Still crying....wow I had allot to let go, it was very emotionally wierd this weekend. Pictures will get downloaded hopefully in the next few days...stay tuned this story is not over!
Peace,
Rollie