Thanks Dean & Nicki -- Charlotte LOVES her birdy house!

Dean stopped by after work to drop off Charlotte's special bee-day gift...Uncle Dean original birdy house! Charlotte LOVES it. When we got back tonight she wanted in the house to see her birdy house! THANK YOU guys very much!!!

Last chance to win a photo shoot with Finian Road...

Just one day left until the drawing!

Last year, with the first Shoot to Fight Cancer, Shelley & family raised more than $1700 to benefit the American Cancer Society and their life-saving cancer research, education, cancer patient support, and advocacy.

There are 125 tickets available, for $25 each.

You have a good chance of winning a photo shoot with Finian Road (valued at $425) for you and your family.This year, we are adding a little bonus to the mix! The lucky winner will also receive a $100 gift certificate -- to the place of your choosing! Does Mom want a new outfit for the shoot? Choose your gift card from Nordstrom or J. Crew! Do you want your little ones to be dolled up? Choose your gift card from Gymboree or Old Navy! Does your husband need a little enticing to get him to the shoot? Choose a gift card from The Ram or Cabela's to persuade him. Wherever you'd like -- your choice!

The value of the total prize is $525 - and 100% of every ticket sold benefits the American Cancer Society.

Tickets are only available through 1 pm on May 1st - or as long as they last.

Here's how to get the tickets:

* Go to our online website for the Relay For Life.
* Click on the word "DONATE" near the top.
* Enter the amount you wish to donate under "select gift amount": $100 buys you 4 tickets, $75 buys you three tickets, $50 buys you two tickets, and $25 buys you 1 ticket. And you can always buy more than 4!
* Follow the prompts to complete your donation to the American Cancer Society.
* We are so close to the drawing - so even though you won't have your ticket in hand by the drawing time, you will still have a ticket in the drawing itself. :)
* Your donation is tax-deductible for 2009.

Afternoon fun with Karen & Ali...

I had the afternoon scheduled as vacation to watch Charlotte. First, we had lunch to celebrate Karen's Bee-Day today! She's 29 years old (again).... ;-) Happy Birthday Karen!




































Then we met up with Ali at Starbucks to give her some RFL info for the Chamber meeting tomorrow that she's going to attend. Great seeing you both!

Tigger or Energizer Rabbit???

Which really do you like better?

Dreaming Big for Doreen!!!

My friend Doreen is fighting stage 4 lung cancer. She has NEVER smoked! Her husband Rick is fighting stage 4 colon cancer. Please take the time to watch their story at http://www.lungtube.tv/ (part of the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation). Click on the "Love and Lung Cancer" tab at the top of the page. View at least the first three webisodes. Have tissues on hand, you're gonna need them!

Doreen continues to amaze, humble and INSPIRE me to continue raising money & awareness to find a CURE for cancer! Victor, Charlotte and I were lucky enough to see Doreen & her family last May at their 2008 Relay For Life of Stanwood. We won't be able to make it up there this year, but I encourage you to visit Doreen's Dream Team website and donate to their team.

I also encourage you to visit Doreen's blog: Life is Good: Hosted by Rick & Doreen - "Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride!"

Continuing to Dream Big for my friend and her family!!!

I had my friend Diana make this for Dor!. Got an email last night that she received and loves it! ;-) Hoping to get a photo of her wearing the necklace soon! ;-)

Good times at Five Guys Burgers & Fries...

Charlotte gives it "two thumbs up". After stopping by this new burger joint in Beaverton last week (after I got busted by the Mall Cop), we decided we'd give it a go tonight! The place was packed, burgers & fries (yes, I ate the fries) were really good! The only draw back is that everything is fried in peanut oil and they have shelled peanuts for you to eat as you wait in line...SO if you or someone you are going to eat with has a peanut allergy, you should probably not go. I won't be taking my little nephew Jack here on their next visit to PDX (he's got a severe allergy to peanuts).

We really liked it, it's worth the trip! Plus, they were playing rockin' 80's music...what's not to LOVE about that?? ;-)

To The Parents of:

This came in the mail today...oh boy, our little pud is officially, official!

Open House at school is next Friday...how is she almost THREE already???

Sleeping Beauty...

As seen when I got home from work this afternoon...

Daddy live happily ever after...

As spoken by Charlotte this morning...this photo is from Saturday when Victor, Shawn & Charlotte went to a couple of war gaming stores. How perfect is this...there was a Relay For Life FUNraiser going on at the ZGames store in Vancouver and the gal helping with it and Victor talked about the FUNdraiser and Charlotte got her magical Relay For Life wand!

As seen on my drive home tonight...

glad we don't live in the midwest...I'd be looking for a funnel cloud today if that was the case...

Neighborhood parks..they are a GOOD THING!!!

Reason # 93 I love cellphones with cameras...I love getting photo pages like this during the day on my cellphone!

Hope on the Slopes 2009 Mt. Hood Skibowl

Victor, Charlotte & I will be a part of this in 2010!!!

One giant leap for Charlotte...

walking, digging, PLAYING in the sand at the beach today and NO crying or complaining (this is a first)! LIFE IS GOOD!!!

We decided to take a quick trip over to Camp 18 for breakfast and then Charlotte really wanted to dig in the sand with her new shovels from IKEA. She walked the entire time... this is a huge breakthrough for us!

Why I smiled today... good times in the sand with Charlotte!!!

Westside Quilters Quilt Show...

was this Friday and Saturday. I was able to stop by and check it out yesterday morning. Some really great quilts on display! If you live in the Portland area and are looking for a quilt guild to join, they are looking for new members. http://www.westsideqg.org/

I'm living in a box....

Good times with Nana & Papa tonight...

Busted, by the Cedar Hills Crossing MALL COP!!!

I have no pictures, but this is a TRUE story...Kristine & I were out yesterday morning canvasing the Cedar Hills Crossing stores, hoping to just get contact names and make appointments to come back and TALK to the store managers about Relay. (We call this Team Blitzing at ACS).

We were doing great...We did leave team packets with two very good leads and we were having FUN while talking to the businesses and the store employees...then (insert gloomy movie music)...it happens...we make the mistake of actually going into the mall...

We are looking at the cute puppies at the pet store and HE walks up to us...We are about to ask him if he'd like to know more about Relay and then he smiles and says "sorry ladies, you can't go door to door, that's soliciting"...oh my gosh! I seriously NEVER thought of us as doing that...we were NOT asking for donations, we were asking to speak to someone or make an appointment to come back to speak to them...We have a good laugh, he really was a very nice guy...he said he'd watched us walk into the golf store and was just waiting to see what we did (great, a stalker).

Anyway, he told us we could contact the stores directly via phone, so we went to the mall office to get a listing of all of them...We also find out that the Making Strides for Breast Cancer volunteer (he called them our competitor--had to try and explain we all work together and gave up on that one)....anyway, that someone was going to have a table out front for Making Strides in a bit.

So, Kristine and I piled back into my car...we drove across the street (which isn't part of the mall), hit up 6 more businesses, came back and talked to a very nice ACS temp/volunteer (Lisa) who is working for one of the ACS Staff Partners that I know...gave her my business card and told her to tell Amy & the other ACS folks my funny story.

I also had to call Karla and tell her "Kathy Cina got busted at the mall for soliciting for Relay" and the rest as they say is history...

Moral of the story...check WHERE you are canvasing and make sure you won't get busted for soliciting!!!

Why I smiled today...It was a beautiful day and I'll get "busted" any day trying to drum up more Teams, Sponsors and donations for Relay For Life!!!

Oh and if you are FREE Saturday, May 9th in the morning and want to come walk in Making Strides with Charlotte and I, feel free to join the team we are on -- Relay Council Rockers.

Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. It's LOTS of FUN!!!
Walk begins at 9:30 a.m.

Good times at IKEA & The Naked Sheep Knit Shop...

Charlotte and I headed out to IKEA this afternoon and had a great time! It was totally not crowded and the traffic was non-existent!

After IKEA, we stopped by The Naked Sheep Knit Shop in North Portland, it was a great find! I'll definitely be going back, maybe for a class sometime soon! I loved this small sticker on the bike rack outside the shop and had to get a photo of it with Charlotte.

Good times with M & M...

Rach and the kiddos came over for a bit tonight...Charlie, Maddy & Matthew love hanging out together...

Earth Day 2009: The Green Generation...

Artwork from Google...

http://www.earthday.net/earthday2009

Great new PSA from ACS...

As usual...idea stolen from Shelley's blog...thanks Shelley, I hadn't seen this yet!

Good stuff, watch this:

Everybody STOP!

As seen many times Sunday afternoon at Portland's Waterfront Park...

April is Donate Life Month...

http://organdonor.gov/get_involved/donatelifemonth.htm

National Donate Life Month was established in 2003. Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donors and to encourage more Americans to follow their fine example.

Make it known: I want to be a donor

• Register with your State Donor Registry, if available.
• Say YES to donation on your driver's license.
• Tell your family, friends, physician, and faith leader that you want to be a donor.
• Fill out and sign a donor card, have it witnessed, carry it with you.

Tell someone: The need is great and growing.

• More than 98,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant.
• Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.
• More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.

What a rockin' weekend!

Well, until about 12:10am this morning...Charlotte has been fighting a cold. She's still a bit congested, but at 12:10am she was not a happy camper. I ended up on the couch until 3:45am this morning...Victor & her ended up in our bed...she finally settled down around 2am.

Lots of great stuff this weekend. Children's museum just Charlotte & I (and 4+ bus loads of kiddos)..we only lasted about an hour and gave up on the caios (Jen, glad we didn't all end up going--it would have been too much Friday--we'll go another day).

Saturday a fun quilt show with Melissa & Ginger...then Victor & the guys went to the driving range and we all ended up over at Susie/Shawn/Tyler's place for a BBQ.

Sunday the three of us went to the Japanese Gardens, Portland's Saturday Market and met mom & dad for Mexican...bubbles on the front porch Sunday night...then a good night's sleep (we thought)...here are just a couple of "happy shots" from this weekend...Brody is the Golden Retriever standing next to Charlotte--I couldn't get the two of them to look at me at the same time (kids & dogs, never a good chance)...

LOVE this photo of Tyler & Maisie!

Missed it by "that" much...

The Forest Grove, Echo Shaw Elementary School "Mini-Relay". I thought it started @1pm on Friday...that's what "I thought" for last past 2 weeks...So when mom, Charlotte & I showed up @12:45pm and Angela (the wonderful volunteer/co-ordinator) of the entire thing tells me it was 8:45am-12:45pm I was totally bummed.

I still can't believe I messed up the times so bad...I really NEVER do this. I'm normally the one that is 15 minutes EARLY (to everything)...blast!

Anyway..we got to watch the kids in kindergarten do their last few laps. Charlotte got a purple Relay ribbon painted on her check and then we went back to mom's house.

Sounds like they had an excellent event...20 Relay teams walked, ran, danced, got educated and had FUN all for the sake of Relay! Great job Angela & company! I PROMISE I won't mess-up and will be there next year!

The sun came back today...

and somebody is feeling a little better tonight! ;-)

Cute for a Cure...

Thank you to both my friends Shelley & Mary for pointing this blog out to me today! Ironically, I saw this on Shelley's blog EARLY this morning and then Mary & I emailed each other EXACTLY at the same time a little bit later to point out this baking goodness!

Add this one to your blog roll call... http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ Great stuff!

Why I smiled today...happy, HAPPY blog goodness!