Latest donor to Addi's Cure:

Americo - Michael Merrimon and Gary Muller

Michael Merrimon deserves a special thanks because of his involvement with cancer. He had a family member diagnosed with cancer, and he really knows his stuff. He also has a business that discovers drugs for cancer. He is really doing a lot for cancer, so for him to donate to Addi's Cure is special.



Today I went to the dentist, not to bad. Work was great, and we are at 60 plus now for employees. I think we are going to end this year up 32.6 percent. We are very lucky at FIG.

Christi and Addi are doing well also. Addi is so funny. I will get Christi to put up some new photos soon. Have a great night.

Here is the latest donors to Addi's Cure:

Insurmark
Carolyn Zajac Luby
Lori Bochner
Jenn Thomas
Darryl Chouinard

We are now at $20,810.

I do have some sad news. Mike Dixon, one of my friends who has lung cancer, died on Saturday. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. He was a good man who like me, did not deserve to have this disease. Addi's Cure will be making sure that we try not to let these deaths happen.

Hello Everyone, it is me Christi again...
I just wanted to say hello and tell everyone thank you for thinking about my family over the holidays, we had a great one! I ate way to much! Kansas was good, I didn't get to see as many friends as I would have liked to, but maybe over Christmas we can get together, everyone back there is having babies, so that is crazy. As for a Dad things are looking up. He met when an oncologist when I was back there and they found out that the cancer has spread to his lining, but they don't believe any futher than that. The lymph node test came back negative, so we all hope and pray the surgery got it all. 14 spots around the cancer tissue site came back negative as well. He is on the mend, but he is trying to do to much. So for all you Kansans if you see Larry Morgan out on a job site, send him back to his truck! Just for another couple of weeks, sorry Pa.
As for Bo, I love him, but he sure does get himself into some messes. He obviously put a facemask on that had poison oak on it. His rash is pretty much from the neck up...he is feeling better, but if you are allergic to poison oak, lucky me I am not, stay away from him. We will get him better by Christmas, I hope! It not I will take Christmas anyway, anyday with him.

Thanks too all and see you soon
Christi

Also a big Happy Birthday to our Princess Peyton, she is 3 Today!

PS - I attached a family photo of Addi's first Carolina game, don't worry, I will get to KU next! Way to knock off Florida, I have never been so proud.

Quick one tonight. We had a blast on thanksgiving. Went hunting and got poison oak.... Maybe will type better tomorrow!

Christi and Addi came back tonight from Kansas. I was really happy to see them both. It seems that Addi has grown some, and she was happy to see her daddy.

Last night I did a presentation for Merritt's (my cousin) business class at Western Carolina University. It went very well. I was very surprised after the presentation when she presented me with $800.00 she raised for Addi's Cure. I only report them number because it is UNBELIEVABLE! College students gave out of the goodness of their hearts. Poor college students that are waiting tables, etc. It really was special to me. I have them listed below with all of the other donors. I really appreciate all of the donations, but I remember what it was like in college, and it just was special.

I went to Duke today for a check up. No scans, next time. I did talk to Susan, Tracy, and Dr. Crawford about Addi's Cure and what we should do with the money. There is some interesting research going on at Duke, and we have several options. Duke even talked about being able to give progress reports for the website, which should be up soon.

Here is the latest donors to Addi's Cure:

Jonathan Rice
Don and Heather Carlson
Candi Thomas
Lauren Story
Jami Bracey
Kappa Sigma at WCU
Ashley Thompson
Delta Chi Fraternity at WCU
Sigma Alpha Epsilon at WCU
Alpha Xi Delta at WCU

Thanks everyone, that brings us to: $18,636.00

GREAT JOB!

It has been a little lonely without Christi and Addi around while they are in Kansas. I have been working a lot, and playing with the dogs. We really had a good week at FIG, and met with a lot of really good people. I really like doing business with quality people. This weekend I am going to play a little golf, and of course watch the MI vs OSU game. I think I am going for MI for Dennis Brown.

I am also going to spend some time with my god daughters this weekend. They are really cute little girls, and Peyton and Patterson are their names. I can only suspect that they will be getting in trouble with Addi later in life, although I am not sure which will be leading.... (I think it will be Peyton in the lead, Addi pushing her as well, and Patterson following because she is so laid back...)

Hope everyone has a good weeekend, leave me some comments!

Wanted to let evertyone know that things are going well. Christi and Addi went out to visit her father in Kansas, so it is just me and the dogs at the house. Christi's dad is really doing well after surgery, and they have not found any more cancerous cells in him. GREAT NEWS.

Going to play a lot of golf this weekend and rest. I have a busy week next week and of course it is Thanksgiving. I am thankful for a lot of things.

I would like to ask everyone to pray for the family of a special friend of mine. She found out she had lung cancer 5 days ago and died this morning. I knew her through work, and she was a lovely lady. It has been a big shock to her family I am sure, so please pray that they deal with this tragic time the best way they can.

Here are some people that have given to Addi's Cure in the last little bit:

Anna Wiseman
Valerie Sancibrian
Carolyn P. Weaver

We appreciate every dime. I have been in talks with Dule and they are very excited about what we are doing. Have a great weekend.

Christi, Addi, and I are back from Hawaii and everything went well. We went over on a business trip with a company called Americo. They were great hosts and then we extended a little bit just to get some family time in. Kristen W. came with us as the "babysitter" and she did a great job with Addi when we had functions. I played golf twice, and played with Addi by the pool. She had a blast. Christi had fun as well, and it was nice for her to have someone there to help her with Addi when I was gone to a meeting, or golf.

While i was there, the majority shareholder of the firm told a story that i thought was inspiring. He talked about his dad being told he had two years to live in 1983 because of cancer. That is why he can in and took over the company. He was very happy to tell us that his dad was celebrating his 80th birthday while we were on the trip. I went up to him at one of the dinners to tell him I appreciated his comments. He was very knowledgeable on cancer and even has a cancer drug discovery business. He is a very nice man. Christi and I sat at his table for the last evening and met his wife Ellen as well. Good people.


We are almost done with the website for Addi's Cure. Here are the latest donations:

Kay Falandys
Rob Tekolste
Mary Garrison
Marylyn Katzer
Angie Cretors
Rachel Mestad
Esfandyar Dinshaw
Larry Gregory
Shelly Melcher of Asset Protection


We are well on our way to our goal of $50,000 by the end of the year. Please ask friends, etc. to donate so we can make it. I am excited and Addi's Cure will be a huge success for years to come.

On a health note on me = everything is still going well. I feel great. One of the reasons I do not update the blog as much now is because i am out living! You never know when the end will come, any of us. Let's take advantage now!

FIG, my company, had a guest in today. Mark Zesbaugh, CEO of Allianz Life, came in to address everyone at FIG. It was a real treat. Eric Thomes and Clay came in with him. Eric made an announcement about how Allianz and a lot of their employees personally were going to help sponsor Addi's Cure. (It made my Mom cry!)

It was a very nice gesture. I have truly felt blessed that so many people are willing to help this endeavor out. All of the companies I work with have tried to do something for Addi's Cure, at least from personal support. Unbelievable!

As of today, Addi's Cure is at $16,140 just off the blog and people spreading the word. We need to get to at least $25,000 by December so I can match it. I am so pumped about this. Here is a list of people that have donated today:

Tom May
Allianz Life of NA
Todd Carlson
Ruth Fay
Pam Smith
Cathy Larson
Denise Venus
Mary K. Meyer
Nancy Golling
Lois Jeronimus
Scott and Jacqueline Fryklund
Daniel Halek
Lynette Mastous
Eric Thomes
Mark Zesbaugh
Heidi Wachholz
Ann Crawford
Chris Geist
Ron Barret
Brenda Schmitz
Kyle Casey
Dan Rourke
Don Urban
Dave Sipprell
John Amann
Dee Trowbridge
Brian Gengler
Kerry Kassulker
Brian Peterson
Matt Jarvi
Dave Vornwald
Curtis Kushinski
Samantha Schleder
Troy Cordell
Matt Perry


I will be in Hawaii with Christi and Addi next week so I might have limited access to the blog. Please know that I am so thankful for all of my friends and extended family. You are all making a difference in my experience with Cancer in a very positive way!

Hey Everyone it is me Christi...I have good news. My father made it through surgery and things are looking up. Without the results back from the lymph nodes, his doctors are cautiously optimistic that the tumor was contained and they were able to remove it all. It was a rather large tumor, but it wasn't fully attached to the walls of the colon which is very good news. His surrounding organs looked clean showing no signs that it might have spread. We hopefully caught it in time. Now that you know more about my Dad than you wanted to, my entire family wants to thank you for your support and prayers. I especially do, a lot of people asked me what they can do to help, I have one thing to ask: Just know that life is a precious gift, kiss and hug your children, tell your parents you love them everytime you talk to them, call that friend you have been meaning to call, embrace the holidays and spoil everyone rotten and make sure your husband or wife knows that they are the most important person in the world. Let's end 2006 with a bang and make 2007 the best year ever!

Thank you again and let's keep praying for good results for everyone with cancer, for me, both my men.

Addi's Cure update:

Without doing anything but chat on this blog, you have raised $8,190 for this cause. It has been awesome. I have sent out some emails to various companies, so I am expecting them to step up. Doing a charity is harder than I thought, but I am having fun doing it. Many of you have given great ideas for fundraising, and super recipes for our cookbook. Thank you! I am excited and looking forward to Addi's Cure on a website soon. Here are the latest people that have given to the cause:

Brent and Megan Henning
Papa (Bo's Grandpa)
Dad (Bo's Dad)
Bruce and Janet Mullan (Bo's sister Caroline in-laws)
Producer's Web (this is an awesome company that FIG does business with. This was unsolicited which makes it even better!)

I did go to Duke yesterday and did all new scans. Everything came back stable, which is awesome. I think everything I am doing is helping.

Tonight Addi went trick or treating and had a blast. She is doing really well. Christi and I are very proud of her....

Addi, Christi, and I went to the mall today to mess around. It was a lot of fun. There is a store called Express, and it plays "techno" music. Addi stopped in the doorway as we were walking by and started dancing. It was a lot of fun seeing her. She has a big personality, that is for sure.

We did get some potentially bad news this week. Christi's dad found out he has colon cancer. While this is a blow, we are really positive that things will work out. We believe that the surgery he will have on Wednesday of this week will take care of it. Please make sure you pray hard for him, the family needs it. I think he has a good chance to have surgery and a full recovery!

I also ask you to pray for Christi. Today is our anniversary of when we first met 5 years ago at the now famous interview. Ask her about it sometime.... She does not deserve to have to male influences in her life having these problems. This has certainly stressed her out, but she has been a saint. Please say a little prayer for her as well.

Hello out there!

I am back from LA and I did see a doctor there. He is from China originally, and was very nice. I am drinking a tea made from herbs that he gave me. It is awful and stinks. Here is his info:

ABOUT DR. CHANG SHAN XIN
Chang S. Xin (a famous cancer specialist in China), L.Ac., CA. L. Herbs, U.S.A. O.M.D., M.D. (China)
Professor Chief Doctor and Senior Researcher of T.C.M., Laureate of Famous Doctor by China Government
General Herbs, Acupuncture, Cupping, Herbal Vapourtherapy. Specializing in Pains, Cancers, Non-Operative Treatments for Gangrene, Paralysis & Some Hard Treatment Diseases


He gave me a powder and a big bag of herbs. He is also shipping stuff back to me. We will see.

Addi's Cure Update

I have gotten several donations from people and I wanted to make sure I listed everyone:

Ron Bradley
Doug Ray
Boo Budddy
Robin Moorman
Matt Pardine
Brendon Allen
Jeaene Taylor

If I have not listed you and you have given, please let me know. I am trying hard to make sure I list everyone!

Quick update:

I am in LA right now and I am going to see a doc that Christi wants me to see. This guy is pretty famous in China. Terry Morgan sent us over his stuff and bam, here I am. I was on PHX on business and decided to take a day trip up to LA to see this guy. I will let you know how it goes.

Addi's Cure - Thanks Jeanne T. for the donation, very sweet. We have opened the account now so all of you should be seeing a letter from us soon showing your donation....

See you soon!

Some people have asked to see Addi's busted up nose...She did this the day before her birthday, this is on her birthday.

Hello from Cornelius....

I am on my way to Arizona tomorrow so I wanted to update everyone on what has been going on. Basically boring, except FIG has had the best two months we have ever had in history. Matt Hand and I played golf on Friday afternoon, then hung out with Christi and Addi today. We took Addi to the Renaissance festival and she was not having it....

I will be in AZ until Tuesday late, but I am playing golf twice so that is good.

I have gotten a lot of emails about Addi's Cure, and I appreciate it. I think we are going to do a fundraiser that is simple first, that being a cookbook. That being said, I would like everyone to send recipes to me. They need to be full deals with everything you need. I also want your name to put by it. It needs to be lunches, dinners, and desserts. Please send any you have to bojohnson2@hotmail.com and please ask your friends to help. We will try to do it for the holidays. I will let you know more details soon....

Curtis and Erin Morgan gave to Addi's Cure this weekend. We are over $6,000 so far.

This has been a very good week, we have a softball game so we are racing to that in just a little bit. Christi and I have been trying to find some fundraising events to do and people have sent a bunch of great ideas, we will let you know what we are planning something very soon. People have been extremely generous, it is overwhelming the generosity out there. This is an updated list of more people that have sent money:

Justin Jacquinot
Chip and Kathy Lee
Phil Graham
Daniel and Andrea Cain
Cody and Jennifer Foster
Jay West
Terry Morgan
Isaiah Smith
John and Kim Salvatore

I am very happy to say that the total is $5725.00. This is great. I am asking for one more favor - ask anyone you can to send a donation as well. They can send it to:

Addi's Cure
c/o Bo Johnson
19520 West Catawba Ave
Suite 200
Cornelius, NC 28031

My next line of fire is to ask some of the companies that I work with for dome help. I am hoping to raise $100k by December 31. It is really a big goal. I need everyones help.

Addi, Christi and I are very pumped about how things are going. See you soon!

Several things to get to today so please read all of this. Very important!

I want to thank Neal Karn for putting together a book for me with pictures and words of encouragement from a lot of my friends. It must have been very difficult to coordinate all of that, and I was touched! It was really awesome and I want to thank everyone for sending in stuff to Neal. It made me tear up....

I also wanted to give an update on Addi's Cure. It is very important to me that this project be VERY successful. We have started designing the website (Lauren and Anna) and letterhead, and I have everything to set up the banking except for the tax id number which should be here this week. We have brainstormed for our first event, and there have been several good suggestions: casino night, New Years Eve Bash, bike race, walk race, funny tri-atholon, bake sale, and many more. We are trying to have something before the end of the year. I would like to have two things annually, one in the spring, one in the late fall. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL ME OR PUT IN A COMMENT! Your giving has been overwhelming and I appreciate it. Here is another list of people who have given:

Chris and Crystal Dodds (Christi's sister and brother in law)
Larry and Terri Morgan (Christi's parents)
Mike Katzer (Christi's uncle)
Mike and Caroline Mullan (my sister and brother in law)
Tashawna Rodwell
Wade and Kenda Laughey
Terry and Anita Cook
God (not making fun, a nice girl sent me her tithe)
Kelly Stamey

These people sent in $1245.00, and the total so far is $3,870.00. Unbelievable!

Last but not least, I went to Norfolk this weekend to see a guy called Adam the healer. It was very interesting, and i learned several techniques for visualization. This is a guy I learned about on ABC, and so think he is a fraud. He never claimed to me to be anything other than someone who believes that each person has the ability to heal themselves. The science behind this is amazing and it shows how important it is to have the right environment around you at all times. This is not just where you live, but also the type of people around, what you eat, stress, etc. If anyone ever wants to check this guy out, you can go to dreamhealer.com and see for yourself. I learned as much about how to work with Addi as I did about me, so in both ways it was worth it.

Congrats to Merritt for being homecoming queen at WCU!

Love you all!

Today is all about Addi!

Today is my daughter's first birthday, and I am so proud. She is such an amazing little girl, so much spirit and personality. I can not even begin to express how much I love her.

We are having a party at a park here in town. She is going to have some little friends over to play, it will be fun. No ponies this year, she is too little, but there will be a bigger blow out next year. I would go ahead and schedule it, since the race may be the same weekend.

I know that a lot of people that read this are parents. I used to not understand how you could love someone so much that you would do anything for that person. I met Christi and felt this way, however, having a kid is different. If something does happen to me, I know that everyone might be sad, but it will get better for those people with time. Addi is a different story, because it would linger with her whenever someone asks about her daddy. I have promised her at least 5 years. I did that believing in medical science and God, knowing that they would take care of me after that.

Please say a little prayer for Addi today. She deserves it for one, and for two, she needs all the help she can get being my daughter.... :)

Sorry Bo fans, it's me Christi.
We made it back from Chemo #6, that last one in this cycle. Bo took it like a champ. We met briefly with the doctor, Susan, and from here on out we let Bo's body heal up and do his thing. I feel like this is the most important time in Bo's fight. We are strenuously concentrating on his diet, exercise and positive attitude, I think he has the last one down pat. The diet is moving up a notch. We are going to eat more green leafy veggies than any known person will eat. Bo is going to step up the exercise also, if anyone in our area likes to ride in the morning let us know, I can't keep up that well, tried, but hurts the Morgan rear. (Don't worry Terry, I won't let him work out to throw his PH Balance off) There is a theory that lactic acid feeds cancer as well, so we will just work out at a steady pace.

On a personal note, thank you to everyone praying for us, helping with Addi and supporting Addi's Cure. I think it is so important to educate people that lung cancer isn't a smoker's cancer. I get extremely frustrated when we tell people Bo has lung cancer and they say, "Oh I didn't know he smoked?" I kindly inform them smoking or not, no one deserves cancer. I think lung cancer is under funded because people blame others for having it because they smoked, that just isn't true. We have heard so many stories at Duke and from others of non-smokers having lung cancer. I figure the more people getting educated, hopefully, the more research and funding will happen. I told Bo today that I am going to write Oprah, Katie course and every other reporter out there about this and try to get someone to tell the whole story and Bo can then explain how he is fighting this and winning. Oh well, enough of that.
Sorry so long, but I talk a lot. Addi turns 1 Friday, the 13th! I wish we would have planned that better. So we are busy planning our little party. I am so excited that my Mom is flying out, I wish my whole family could be here, but I certainly understand.
Take care everyone and be safe
Love, Christi