Thank You!!

A great big thank you to all of you who showed your support and donated to our team this year for Great Strides!!! We did make our goal :) Yesterday we got to go to Oaks Park and hang out with the hundreds of others who put together teams to raise money for the CF Foundation. I believe they announced our walk raised $150,000!! Wow! I wasn't very good about trying to create a team so our little team consisted of our family, my good friend Lori, and my brother. We decided to let Elizabeth stay the night with a friend the night before and stay with her while we were at the walk. I know she was so bored last year as she's not allowed to really play with the other kids. You just don't know who has CF and there is a very strict 3 foot rule at these things, those with CF have to keep 3 ft away from others with CF or those they just don't know. I'm glad we let her go to her friend's as those two I hear had a wonderful time together :) Anyway, it was gorgeous out, we all got a nice sunburn :) The walk was great, even found a path that shoots off and goes through another nature park so we turned into there just for the shade!

Lori, Seth and the Blazers mascott. So here is where my ignorance of sports comes into play, I still have no idea what that thing is. A wolf? A cougar? Huh? Whatever, Seth thought he was cool.

Lori works for Farmer's so we stopped to get a picture by the Farmer's sign :)

Someone took various comments off of people's team pages and printed them up and put them all over the stage. We found the one Beth and Dean Peden had posted. It says "We love you Elizabeth and want you around a long time". Thanks guys!

This is Lindsay. She runs the show every year! What is interesting about her is her daughter also has CF. Her daughter's name is Elizabeth Rose (though she goes by Ella). She is one year younger then our Elizabeth Rose AND she has red hair!! We found this out when one day the doctors got confused by the two Elizabeth's on the chart. They happened to have an appointment the same day we did. The girls have met but as I've mentioned before they won't ever be able to hang out together.

Yellow Belt

I found out last night that I did pass onto my yellow belt and I'm very excited about that! There were four of us that tested and we all passed onto the next level. We won't receive our belts until next week but it's nice to know now. I always get so nervous that I won't pass. I was very pleased with my sparring this time. I've been doing more of the fitness kickboxing and resistance bands and getting in to train more so I'm sure that all helped. I felt much stronger and better able to get in there and fight back. My kata wasn't the greatest, it never is. Kata seems like it should be so easy, it's just memorizing forms. It's the one area I just don't do so hot in though, I chalk it up to lack of grace :)
Rob and I were talking about karate the other night and discussing how one of the great things about it is that you learn to get hit. Seems a bit silly but how many of us are afraid of getting punched? I know I was, I'm not one for pain. But one skill I'm learning is how to take a punch or a kick and not whimp out. I love that! Last night was great because we got to work on actual kickboxing. We had to wear our boxing gloves and head gear and actually try and hit each other in the face. In Enshin there are no face punches so haven't ever really gotten punched in the head. Have been kicked a couple times but they were light :) So, while we weren't really making direct contact to the face it was still good to see I could get hit in the head and not freak out. Of course we were going light, we like each other, don't want to hurt anyone :)
Anyway, really enjoying myself. It's been fun to learn new things about myself. Thought I knew myself so well :) LOL I am definitely looking forward to wearing that yellow next week!!

Meet Moe and Bo

We finally went and did it! Lori and I went to Build A Bear and got our birthday bears. Well, hers is a turtle :) I walked in and saw the Camo Bear and had to have it! There weren't any left so I was told I could buy the demo one sitting there. I didn't need the experience of stuffing my bear so I was good with that. He's all decked out in his gi now and Lori's turtle got a fishing outfit. We named them Bo Beasley and Moe T. Randall.

Hopefully after next week I get to change his belt to yellow :)

Toddler and Silence Just Don't Mix

You'd think after four kids I would know what it means when there is absolute silence with a toddler in the house and it's not nap time.

Today this is what it meant. Seth found a box I didn't even know I had, in a bag downstairs with all my colored pencils in it. There was one purple marker.

Pretty sure it made it in his mouth too as his tongue is slightly purple. Also pretty sure he tried coloring his pants as he kept looking at them like he was trying to find his art work but they are black so it's all good :)

Some funny pictures

I forgot I had taken these last month. The school had a crazy hat day and Jonathan wanted a really different kind of hat to wear. My dad had heard this conversation and a couple days later brought over these flight helmets that belonged to his dad. The kids had fun trying them on. Jonathan did choose one to wear to school. Not sure how he managed, the helmet was very heavy, but he wore it! He said the kids at school thought it was so cool :) I think they look like they are ready to head off onto a space mission!

Seth really is afraid in this picture.
He got over it once he was allowed to try it on :)
Elizabeth had to try it out too.

The past week in pictures

Saturday (April 4) was too gorgeous a day to be indoors. We went to Ecola Beach and had a blast!!

Last Thursday (April 2) was Seth's 2nd birthday. I can't believe my baby is 2 now!!!

Stuff

First off some really great news!! Elizabeth swallowed all five enzyme capsules whole at lunch today!!! I just could not believe it. She just decided she was going to do it. I told her if she went a whole day of swallowing every single enzyme she'd get to go back to Build-A-Bear. I guess that was enough motivation. I told her we could work up to it slowly but then she just decided she'd swallow them all at lunch today. For anyone who hasn't seen her in the past, she's had to break open the capsules into her mouth and swallow the little enzyme beads. Yuck! It's like swallowing sand. The capsules are kinda big and as soon as they get wet they stick to everything so she's had a bad experience with them in the past. I really never thought the day would come when she'd finally swallow them whole. Just another step for her being able to take charge of her CF!! Wow, the silly little things we get excited over :)

This past weekend we had the opportunity to head to Seattle and visit with Celest and Karen. The kids stayed behind with the brave Hess family :) We had a great time, it was so nice to get away for a bit. We did spend quite a bit of time lost at several different times, I thought Portland was bad. Seattle is terrible to drive in. We just had to keep going back to I-5, only way we could for sure find where we needed to go. They took us to Pike Place Market Sunday morning. I thought I'd never been there before but as soon as I saw it I totally recognized it from some forgotten memory. My mom or dad used to take us to the waterfront and I guess we must have visited the Market at some point. It was fun to see all the cool stuff they were selling. We picked up some smoked salmon for the kids as I found out previously they all like it. Had some of the best clam chowder ever down there and later found these giant apples covered in caramel and chocolate and all kinds of other stuff. Really yummy :) Rob even got a picture with Homer Simpson, hahah.