CherylLaVon

Swap-bot Admin Note: We marked Cheryl as having "sent" the remaining three swaps that she was in before she passed away so that her email address (her husband, Frank, checks it) would not continue receiving notices about being past due.

I'm married to Frank, @Cartoonist here on swap-bot who Rachel graciously allowed to come trade here too... mother of 4... Stephen (deceased 11/14/86-7/15/05), Kathryn 19 is taking a year off before going to college to obtain her Masters in Library Science so she can become either a Librarian or a Museum Curator... Frankie 12, and Andrew 10.

I have 5 step-kids all grown adults, and 4 grand babies by two of the kids.

We have a male dog, Captain Jack Sparrow who turned a year old in November and is a Jack Russell Terrier/Doxie mix, we also have a dozen or so fish.

We live in Northwestern, PA about an hour south of Erie and an hour north of Pittsburgh.

My favorite saying as of late is Love Much and Laugh Often which I've even found charms for to add to some of my dotee dolls I make!

It's my friends here on swap-bot that have taught me that I'm very much loved and with them I always laugh often! They inspire me and keep me strong! I could never ever find the words to let them know how very special each and every one of them is to me. I feel truly blessed.

My friends who have donated gifts in my honor to the Hospice of Crawford County, Inc. are so very special that I wanted to honor them here...

@TerryF aka Terry Franks of Canada, thank you SO much for such a heart-felt and thoghtful gift!

My FAVORITE group is Nickelback, but I love Fleetwood Mac, Bread, Santana, The Doors, Smashmouth, Savage Garden, Blondie, Aqua, C & C Music Factory, Papa Roach, Nirvana, Godsmack, Staind, Aerosmith, Ace of Base, 3 Doors Down, B-52s, Devo, Bad Company, Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox 20, Blink 182, Poison, David Bowie, Brad Paisley, Weird Al Yankovic, Carrie Underwood, Johnny Cash, Roseanne Cash, Kelly Clarkson, Coldplay, Creed, Sheryl Crow, Cyndi Lauper, The Go Gos, The Bengals, Weezer, The White Stripes, The Judds, Shania Twain, Reba MacEntire, Daughtry, The Dead Presidents, Disturbed, Vanilla Ice, Eminem, The Eagles, Eiffel 65, Eric Clapton, Faith Hill, Foo Fighters, Nelly Furtado, Third Eye Blind, TLC, Trace Adkins, Tricia Yearwood, Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, S Club 7, Sarah McLachlan, Seal, Shakira, Shiny Toy Guns, Madonna, Simon & Garfunkel, Ashlee Simpson, , Solja Boy, SoundGarden, Stevie Nicks, Stone Temple Pilots, System of a Down, Hoobastank, Hootie & the Blowfish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roxette, Incubus, Tesla, The Pussycat Dolls, Kid Rock, Kiss, O-Town, Avril Lavigne, Leeann Rimes, Lifehouse, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Natalie Merchant, Madonna, Marcy Playground, Meredeth Brooks, Melanie, Van Morrison, Patsy Cline, & Loretta Lynn to name a few :D

I used to play concert violin so I even still have a place in my heart for classical music although it's by far not my favorite.

My true love is alternative rock but there are many songs that I will attach a deeper meaning to.

I LOVED Shawshank Redemption, The Lake House, The Notebook, Gorillas In the Mist, Man Without a Face, What Women Want, American Pie, As Good as it Gets, To Kill a Mockingbird, Sixth Sense, Pay it Forward, Twister, Tombstone, American History X, Steel Magnolias, Fried Green Tomatoes, Michael, Phenomenon, Grease, Shrek, Mean Girls, Canary Row, Of Mice and Men, A League of Their Own, Sister Act, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Rainman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Green Mile, oh boy this list can go on for miles!

My favorite genres though are comedy and drama.

Growing up my daddy was a theater manager and one of my first 'adult' jobs was to manage a video store if that tells you anything about how much I LOVE movies!

CSI Las Vegas, anything 'reality' TV, documentaries, comedies etc.

I don't watch hardly anything on TV though because I have way more fun on the computer which is how I won my...

on swap-bot games forum! YAY!

I like to crochet even though I only know one stitch :) (The shell stitch) and don't get into the swing of things until midway through the blanket I'm making with it.

I like to mess around with fuse beads and would like to get into doing bead work.

My first Dotee Doll Miranda the little Mermaid Trick-or-Treater was born 9/6/8.

Chyou (Chinese for Fall/Autum) is a doll I made for the Autumn Leaf Dotee Swap that I'm hosting. She was born on 9-30-08.

Risque Roxie is a doll I made for the Red Hot Dotee doll swap. She's got bleach blonde hair, a matching sequined bra and g-string panty set, boobage, junk in the trunk and a butterfly tramp stamp.

Aleta is the doll I made for the New Years Party Dotee. She was born 12-29-08 just in time to go celebrate the New Year with her new mom!

Jaune is the first Polymer clay faced dotee I've made. She was born 12-30-08.

Jayme is my doodled dotee. She was born 1-4-9. I embroidered her doodles.

I've saved almost everything I've ever made for swap-bot swaps to my flickr account :)

I LOVE Dark Rich colors of all kinds especially Burgundy, Midnight Blue, Brick Red (They don't make that crayon anymore can you believe THAT!?!?!?) Plum, Amethyst, and I love all things shiny. I prefer silver to gold and black to white.

If I were a teenager I'd probably be one of those little Gothic creatures that roam the earth. I'm not dark in spirit, but I think Gothic things are interesting to say the least. I love cemeteries and headstones the older and creepier the better.

On the other end of the scale I love fairies and angels, sprites and gnomes.

I love pansies and birds of paradise and hummingbirds.

I love arctic animals like Polar Bears, Penguins, Eagles, Seals, Foxes, Whales and Dolphins.

I love Native American things and all things to do with nature.

I'm really disappointed when I receive things that are dirty, torn, or smell of heavy cigarette smoke. I'm terminally ill with lung cancer so the cigarette smoke is a pretty big issue with me. A bounce sheet thrown in with paper items, a dryer sheet or a shot of Febreeze with cloth items goes a long way towards masking that heavy cigarette smoke smell.

I'm allergic to incense too but love sachets and potpourri.

I also don't use skin softeners, lip balms or the like so gifts of those things just go to waste on me.

I pledge to other swap-bot members to:

Rate for every swap i take part in.

Rate as soon as i am able to get on-line after swap is received.

Rate Fairly, I will only give a 1 rating if a swap hasn't been received and that no contact has been made from the sender. I promise to pm member first to give them the chance to resolve the situation first.

I will only give a 3 if i feel that the swap didn't meet the requirements and that the partner chooses not to correct the swap.

I will try and leave a message on all ratings to state what i received and what i was happy with, even if its just a thank you.

I will not use slander or badmouth anyone when given a rating, facts is all that is needed when rating a 1.

If I've done a swap with you, I've sent you the very best I could send and then some. I expect the same from my swapping partners.

I would never send you junk, I expect you to hold up to your end of the deal.

I always will mark if I've sent a swap as soon as I send it. If I've marked it sent and you haven't gotten it, PLEASE let me know so I can either give you the Delivery Confirmation Number, or can resend the swap if it was something as small as a letter that wouldn't have gotten Delivery Confirmation or a Customs ID number added to it.

If for some reason you got the swap and wasn't happy with it PLEASE let me know so I can fix whatever the problem is. This should never happen as I will ALWAYS check your profile and try and send something especially FOR YOU, but my interpretation of your likes and dislikes could be different than you intended them on your page. I'm all about making my swap partner happy so don't ever go away mad!

If you've gotten something that wasn't really you, please ask me before you waste the postage to send it to me if it is our swap because chances are that if you thought it was trash it probably was. On the other hand, if you've read my profile and it's pink and I like pink and you don't, well there's a good chance I'll say "Yeah! Go ahead and pass it on!"

I'm really easy to please, I just don't want taken advantage of.

I've never had anyone have to angel a swap for me (I've been swapping since November on yahoo groups), and other than the case of my untimely demise, it will never happen. However, I will usually angel a swap if I have the means to do so. So, if you're looking for an Angel for a swap, send an email my way and I'll help if I can :D

Some people know, and some people don't, that on top of having Multiple Sclerosis, I am terminally ill with Stage 4 Neuroendocrine Cancer. I just found out that my cancer has spread throughout both of my lungs, my sternum and my lymphnodes. My Oncologist is setting up hospice care for me on Monday the 19th of January. That is when I will find out the results of my PET CT scan that I just had done last Thursday.

No more chemotherapy for me. Now I am just going to try and live the life that I have left having fun and doing as much fun stuff with my family as time allows.

I've been asked why I still swap, why I don't just focus all of my time and energy I have left on my family.

Facts are, my kids are in school all day and my husband who is my caregiver has his own things he does during the day and I refuse to just lay in bed and roll over and die just because I have this stupid cancer in my lungs.

As long as I'm able to do so, I fully intend to keep enjoying life, in the most normal way possible, which keeping true to form for me since I started swapping in November 2007 (before the cancer) means that I'm going to continue to enjoy blogging on myspace, playing in the forums, swapping and communicating with my online friends.

As long as I'm still signing up for swaps, I'm doing so because I'm feeling well enough to complete the swap. I'm only signing up for swaps that I can have completed before the sign-up date closes so PLEASE don't worry about getting flaked on just because I'm sick.

If I DO end up in the hospital with complications from my cancer, please feel free to PM my husband @Cartoonists here on swap-bot and put something like "I need an update on CHERYL" in the subject line.

Frank, my husband is the go-to guy when I get sick.