The Little Ice Storm!

Here is some cute photos of the dogs (mostly Bonnie) playing in the ice/ snow. Clyde has pretty much refused to go outside today, but Bonnie, Dolly and I have been out playing!

The only photo I have of Clyde before he slept on the heating pad all day!

Bonnie and Dolly! Also, the only one I have of Dolly.

And now Bonnie! She seemed to like the ice/ snow more than the other years.

Weeee!

Playing in the ice/ snow. She liked to have me throw some snow so she could chase it like she chases the pool cleaner. Which, of course she checked about a hundred times to see if it was on!

It was a very busy day! She ended up falling asleep on my shoulder.

Happy Holidays!

   Hello everyone and a very, very belated Happy Holidays. I have been so busy I am just now getting around to this! I hope you all had a happy holidays! We did! A crazy one too!

    Bonnie and I were going to be Rapunzel and her lizard Pascal for Halloween, so I ordered a costume online. But my card was declined, and it didn't notify me till a few days before Halloween! So, G's hockey team was going to a Stars game and he wasn't using his ticket. So for Halloween I was a Stars fan! It was fun. I like going to hockey games and hanging out with G's team.

   I spent Thanksgiving and my 18th birthday with my friend Katie and her family in California! It was a lot of fun! We went into San Francisco and I got to see the Bay Bridge lights and go to Ghirardelli Square! I also bought clothes. AND the Seahawks beat the 49ers, on Thanksgiving, which was also my birthday! 

To top it off, when I got home Bonnie was waiting at the airport for me!  (Oh, ya, and on the flight there I had the WHOLE row to myself! YES! It was great!) One of my presents was supposed to arrive in the mail when I got to Katie's and it didn't get there until right after I left for the airport! Darn!

  A couple weeks after that I flew to Seattle to hang out with my family and go to a Seahawks game! I also got to go see the Space Needle and go to Pikes Place Market! It was nice to be back in Seattle I haven't been back since I left 12 years ago. AND to top it off the Seahawks beat the 49ers again! :)

It was pretty cool -  I flew in on 12/12 (the ultimate 12th Man Day haha) and then the Hawks won on the 14th and I flew home the 15th...the day they retired the number 12 for the fans back in 1984! Also, I was allowed to board the plane home early, because I was wearing a Russell Wilson shirt! 

At the top of the space needle!

My cousin and I with the SeaHulk and his wife!

  Then I came home and went to school the next day and took 2 finals that I wasn't even able to study for, because honestly...why would I spend any of my 3 days in Seattle studying? So I hope I passed! I took the rest of my finals and I got out of my culinary class. I have more about that in another post.

  Finally! It was break and I got out a day earlier than everyone else, because of the way my classes worked out with the early release days! I wen to see the Broadway show of one of my favorite movies "ONCE" and it was really good! The next day I went to a Christmas party for the hockey team! It was fun and quite entertaining watching them sing Christmas carols for the people at the nursing home, until I was told I had to go help the players sing. G wasn't even there -  he was visiting New York!

   I also made a gingerbread log cabin, except I just skipped the frosting and used hot glue....

I also made cupcakes and cookies and they were really good!! Mom and I put up the tree and I decorated it.

  On the 23rd we were asked if we could do an emergency fostering from one of the vets near by, so we picked them up on Christmas Eve. They were very cute sisters named Nessa and Elphaba, the only problem is they didn't tell us who was who! So we call them Blue and O because of the colors of their collars. That made a total of 5 dogs at our house, but all of them get along sooo well! Now over a month later they are both adopted and Clyde misses his girly O.

Sleepy pups!

Dolly and Nessa (Blue) checking something out.

Elphi O as we called her sometimes was here a couple weeks longer than Nessa.

She made herself right at home. (and there's a Bon Bon burrowed in the blankets in the back ground)

A typical wrestling session - girls against Clyde. Don't worry Clyde is fine. He loved it! He would always go right back at them. 

   Back to Christmas Eve. We went to Buca Di Beppo, like we do every year, for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas was fun! Our pups got new toys, which all 5 dogs have had fun with! Bonnie loves, LOVES, L.O.V.E.S. her toy she's played with it almost non-stop everyday! I got a new camera!! YAY!! I've got some really good photos already! I also got nail polish and pens and squishy sand! It's like playdoh and sand together! I'm really 6 years old lol :)! I also got one of those spirograph things. I loved the one I had when I was little, but I lost it. Now I have one again! I also got a book about Kalispell, MT (where my grandma lives). It has really funny police reports and they turned them into a book! I also got gift cards and a candle!

Everyone in their Christmas clothes!

Just like me Bonnie was not a fan of dresses and more a fan of sweaters.

Also this happened! Dolly tolerated Bonnie!! 

   The next day mom and I both felt a little sick, but we still decide to drive an hour and a half down to Bluff Dale, TX to have dinner at a restaurant that was at the March of Dimes Signature Chef thing and was really good! But, we got down there just to find it's closed. Nothing online said it was closed! So we started to drive back sad, sick and starving! Luckily, It wasn't very late and Ft. Worth has other restaurant we like so we went there!

   The next day we had been planning on seeing Bob Schneider, but we were so sick we just couldn't do it and usually I can suck it up for a concert! I was just way too sick this time! We did however go to the Seahawk watching party and guess what I got to wear? My birthday present (that arrived late at Katie's) an official Russell Wilson jersey from my grandma! Finally here! It was delayed because of storms 2 times!

   We haven't done much else, but get better and take care of the dogs. New Years eve was very mellow because we were still sick, but Mom and I had fun making fun of the DFW New Years Special. 

Now, I'm back in school. Ugh, it's so chaotic.

Anyways, I have a lot of cool stuff planed. I am the Signature Chef Ambassador family for the March of Dimes, so I was asked to speak at a Kick-Off dinner in Fort Worth and helped teach a Family Teams Training. Plus more stuff coming up that i'm helping in! My mom and I also went to  Austin with about 100 other volunteers to meet with representatives at the state capitol to lobby for March of Dimes issues. I am  also going to Charlotte N.C. to learn more about the Hydrocephalus Association WALKS so I'm going to be more of a leader in the upcoming walk this year! I'm excited!

A good attempt got 3 of the 5 dogs in the photo!

Happy New Year!

The Walk!

    The WALK was today and oh my god I can't believe I'm writing this I'm so "walked out"! I had so much fun! My grandma finally got to come to an HA walk and so did some of my friends! :)

   First off, we had to get up at 4:30 am! That's probably the only time I was excited...well more "ok" with getting up at 4 in the morning. (Us and the other 2 head families packed our cars and the U-haul the night before.) We got the pups up and dressed in their team shirts and we got ready and headed over to Frisco. We had 2 cars from our house, 2 other cars and the U-haul all filled with stuff! 

   Of course, it was dark when we got there and the park didn't have lights on! We also got there only to find out the tables and chairs and the other tents that we needed had not arrived and wouldn't be there for another hour!!!

We all started taking the stuff to their places in anticipation of the tables and tents. Also, the cheerleaders didn't arrive when they said they would so my brother and his 15 year old friends and some other volunteers had to start making the balloon arch. (Something no one had done before!) So, that took maybe 10 volunteers away from doing other stuff that needed to be done before registration! The tents, chairs and tables finally arrived and we ended up getting set up pretty fast for all that went on...or at least I thought we did.  

   Once it was all set up and teams started coming in I got the pups and we went around and welcomed everyone.  We entered the t-shirt contest. We didn't win but our friends did! Yay! 

   Me and a couple other kids got to cut the ribbon and lead the walk, it was fun! I actually had a team this time, my friends walked with me and the pups only tried to jump out like 37 thousand times. Which is funny because they are so well behaved at these things, but all it took was us saying their names and they kinda got a bit embarrassed for being yelled at and would hide for a bit in their stroller and then test it again. Clyde jumped out and so we had him walk for a bit and he saw how it wasn't that great of an idea after all. He didn't try to jump out after that.

   The stroller is so funny to me since I have always had big dogs and now I have these 2 itty bittys! But, the reason we have the stroller is for Clyde since he has bad back legs and a bad heart so he can't walk that far - especially in the heat. I would tell people "Ya, it's because Clyde has bad back legs." and he would lunge out of the stroller and run off like "I dunno what you're talking about, my legs are working just fine!" With his tail flopping in every direction since he can barely control or feel his tail. I had to chase him around quite a bit.

   After the walk we got our team photo taken :) and Bonnie and I put our handprints on the backdrop for the photos with the other people who had Hydrocephalus! It is also so much fun getting to talk to everyone and meet new people! So many people showed up! To be honest I didn't even know there were that many people living in the surrounding area who were affected by Hydrocephalus! 

   Then it was time to take stuff down which we kinda left to the guys because we had packed the night before and helped unload in the morning - it was their turn. People (mainly the boys) fought over the leftover Raising Canes sauce and we now have a bag of oranges and one of bananas, and also a bag of buns! There were still lots left too! The boys also brought the inventory of fruit down, because they threw it at each other. After we packed everything up and were just about to leave the fire trucks showed up for the walk... 

   We headed home unpacked the car sorted stuff that was ours and going to stay at our house, or go to someone else's or going to storage. Then we got back in the car drove over to our friends who had the U-haul un-packed our car and helped finish packing up the U-haul for them to take to storage and then we were finally done! Sorta, I got home and started a "keep, get rid of, change, and new ideas" list for next years WALK and my team, while the whole walk was still fresh on my mind. Knowing me all my ideas will leave my brain as I sleep! 

  It was a very good turn out especially for our first walk! I think we raised around $55,000 - we had originally thought we would get about $18,000!! And about 520 walkers showed up! We did really well! We all thank everyone who donated, shared something, sponsored, spread the word, walked, and volunteered!! You guys rock!! 

The WALK is 5 Days Away!

Hey everyone!

I am SO excited the WALK is 5 days away! Please, please, please come out if you can!! 

Thanks to everyone who came by Buffalo Wild Wings on the 10th and 18th! We got $145 dollars from the 10th! Yay! (We are still waiting to hear what we got from the 18th.) 

I have been so busy with the WALK! I'm making some props for our photo booth and they look really cool! :) I'll have to post pictures when I finish them! 

By the way, We are at 37% of our goal! Let's try to make it 50% by the 27th!! Here is the link to my personal donation page:  http://tinyurl.com/kjcw7yf

20% and Buffalo Wild Wings!

WE ARE ALMOST AT 20%! Woot Woot! Thank you guys! Let's keep it up! 

Also, did you hear that Buffalo Wild Wings in Highland Village is helping us out! On 9/10/14 and 9/18/14 they will donate 10% of all pre-taxed sales from any guest that presents this fundraiser ticket! This will be going on all day on both days! This is so awesome!!! Please come to the Highland Village Buffalo Wild Wings on the 10th and/or the 18th!!

September is Hydrocephalus Awareness Month!!

It's September 1st! That means it's the first day of Hydrocephalus Awareness Month! You can show your support and help raise awareness in so many ways! 

You can change your cover photo on Twitter or Facebook to one of theses awesome banners on Hydrocephalus Associations Facebook: HAM Cover Photos

(I will probably have this one!)

There is also this one (it might have a couple different choices): More Cover Photos

And you can even change your profile pic to one of these (or you could do a new banner and profile picture each day!)

HAM Profile Pictures

This is what they look like, but some say "I love someone with Hydrocephalus, my sister.", etc. They have one for basically every person/situation.

And you can post facts from this link: It's A Fact!

For example,

I CHALLENGE everyone who sees this post to change their profile picture or banner and if you're really "daring" post at least one fact a week or share some of the incredible amount  of information I will be posting! 

Yay! So wear blue and raise Awareness for Hydrocephalus and Hydrocephalus Research!

Update About the Walk!

Hey! We have raised almost 14% of our goal! $1,395 to be exact! That is awesome!! We are doing so well and hopefully raising a lot of awareness as well! 

I have seen a couple people do the ALS ice bucket challenge and before they even do that they have talked about raising awareness for Hydrocephalus too! That is so awesome! Let's keep it up!!

I want to thank everyone that has donated, shared, or mentioned Hydrocephalus! Anything helps. We love likes, but sharing really, really helps! 

The walk is only 31 days away! I am getting excited! There is still tons to do, I have stuff to do for my team, and there's still lots to do for The Walk. We are looking for volunteers to help us with coordinating the walk and sponsors for the walk! So if you or anyone you know might be interested let me know! :)

Oh!! And these tee's here:

TODAY is the last day you can order them. You can still order car decals though, please we have a million!