Leave Leukemia & Lymphoma in the dust!

I need to ask a favor of my readers ... I need to you help my good friends, Mitzi & Jill. They are on their way to completing a large goal and they'll be doing a lot of good for charity along the way.

This summer, in June, Mitz & Jilly will be running in the Seattle Marathon! I don't even like to drive 26.2 miles in my car ... but they will be RUNNING the whole 26.2! Last October, the two of them ran the Kansas City half-marathon and it motivated them to train for a whole one. I was cheering my girls on from the virtual side-lines because for the KC race, I was helping Ashley & Drew celebrate their BIG day! I hope to be able to cheer them on in person this summer! That is the goal I'm setting for myself.

They are training for the run with Team In Training, which is a division of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. They will be working to raise $4,100 each to help fight these blood cancers. If they raise that amount, they will be able to fly & stay with the team to be fully prepared for the big run. The great thing is that most of their raised money goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Here are a few facts about Leukemia & Lymphoma and TNT for those of you that aren't familiar:

• This group has been around for 21 years!
• TNT is the world's largest endurance sports training program, providing coaching and support for people to cross the finish line at marathons, half marathons, triathlons and 100-mile cycling events.
  
• Since it started, over 360,000 participants have raised more than $850 million for lifesaving cancer research and to help blood cancer patients live longer, better lives.
• Every 5 minutes, someone new is diagnosed with Leukemia or Lymphoma. Every 10 minutes, someone dies from one of these blood diseases.
  

Here is how you can help to make a difference!

Mitzi is running for our good friend, Andrew Naylor, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma a few years ago. He had a difficult battle and now thanks to research & treatment options, he now has a clean bill of health. Jill is running for the team's honor patient, Greg Kutey, a local husband & father three kids who is fighting his own battle.

Here are the links to the girls' websites where you can make a donation. Any amount helps! Both girls were asking for donations of just $14 today in honor of Valentine's Day. Of course, you can donate more than that if you'd like. If you look at their pages, you can see that the girls are well on their way to making a difference in the fight toward ending these blood cancers! Every dollar makes a difference!

Mitzi's Team In Training Site: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnrseatl09/mpetersaay

Jill's Team In Training Site: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnrseatl09/jchittum

I've been told that if the girls surpass their total goal of $8,200 ... they'll take me with them as a traveling member of the Campaign Committee. After all ... they'll need some someone to take pictures, blog about the run, and encourage them to eat more pasta (as if any of us needed an excuse to do that)!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any donations to them ... I want to do what I can to support the girls to show them how proud I am of their hard work!

Dream a little Dream

... for Jayne!

PLEASE go read the post that Jill has written about Dreams Work. The goal of Dreams Work is to improve the quality of life for adults with special needs, assist caregivers with the challenges of providing care for disabled adults, and to provide hope for people with disabilities. Jill's sister, Jayne, goes to Dreams Work Monday through Friday and LOVES being there with her friends.

It is a great foundation and program that runs with the help of Kansas Medicaid monies, but also needs private donations to be able to cover the majority of the program. I've met Jayne and I've heard Jill and her Mom talk about what a great opportunity this is for families in the Kansas City area. Groups like these are needed for Jayne and her friends! As someone who loves to find a great charity, Dreams Work is definitely added to my list. Please head on over to The Chittum Files to read more from Jill! She even has a drawing for a hand-made hat & scarf that Jill will knit herself for one lucky person who makes a donation to Dreams Work!

The best kind of dinner plans:

Involve friends, food, laughter, games and good times!

Tonight I had my first get together at my new place. I had my teacher friends (and spouses) over after a L O N G week! When we get together, we try to each bring something for the meal, which is really nice for me since I don't cook. I, of course, left work late, so Adam & Jill basically beat me to my house while I was going to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner.

Right when I got home, a very scary thought crossed my mind: I don't think I have enough dishes and silverware for this many people, and I definitely don't have enough seats for everyone! It's a good thing they all love me regardless, because we had a great time anyway! All the changes I've made around here that I got to show off made up for the lack of seating! I LOVE IT HERE and I love that I get to share it with the people I love.

Here's the view of the living room from the loft upstairs. You can tell that we had to do some furniture rearranging. Elizabeth & Mitzi are sitting on the loveseat we brought in from the dining room. The TV trays Mom thought I was crazy for buying helped so not everyone had to eat on their laps. I also just realized that noone even thought about eating at the table. What were we thinking? Somehow, there will still room for everyone to play Guitar Hero!


Adam & Jill rocking out. Minnie on the couch on the right-hand side. She found lots of new friends tonight.


Self portrait. Adam & I ... I love that Minnie is licking his face in this one. She LOVES Adam, so this picture pretty much sums up their relationship.


The newlyweds, TJ (we like to call him T Pain) and Amy playing their first song on GH.


Mitzi and Rachel. Can you see Mitzi's kick-ass Guitar Hero T-shirt?

So serious!


Here's another group shot. The seating was limited and if you were interested in actually watching the TV, it was very limited! Brenda & Mike came over after they went to dinner. Good thing they ate elsewhere ... they might have had to eat in the laundry room! :)


When you get married, you are forced to sit on the floor and share the tiniest TV tray ever made! :)


The pictures are out of order ... here we are all getting settled with our plates.


Since my kitchen's so tiny, we had to make a buffet line. Start on the left with plates and bowls, curve around and pick up food and lastly, get your silverware on the right. Then, quick run to find somewhere to sit!


Elizabeth & Mitzi. Thanks for coming, girls! I know you both had rough weeks.


Jilly & Rachel. You two look like you match in your hoodies!


Everyone left a little over an hour ago. The dishwasher was already filled and just finished running. Now I should be in bed since Mom and I are doing the American Stroke Foundation 5K walk in the morning at Shawnee Mission Park. Did I mention that Minnie is joining us?? Who wants to place bets on how far into the walk she lasts? I think I'll be carrying her across the finish line!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Your Donations ... Part 2!

You should notice that I'm blogging AGAIN, just about an hour after I last did. I've since been to Target and brought home 16 new dog leashes ... that were just $1 each!!!

So, here's my challenge to you ... I'd like to create my own "Big Give" here via the blog!

I challenge you to help me add to this dog leash donation. You can run out to Target yourself and get just a few leashes (in the dollar section!) and either send them straight to one of the charities listed below, deliver them to one of your local shelters (make sure leashes are something they need), send them to me to add to my stash, or send me some moolah and I will personally go out and buy as many leashes as I can find in town to add to my current donation!

• The Lange Foundation
• Angel's Gate Hospital
• Main Line Animal Rescue
• Wayside Waifs (local shelter in KC)

Please leave a comment to let me know how or if you are willing to help! My summer has officially started, so I'm ready to do my own little part to help these animals! :)

The Lange Foundation - a place for your donations!

I've already written about this, but I felt it deserved another post today. Oprah's show today was a rerun of the "Puppy Mills" show that ran a few months ago. I previously wrote about Angel's Gate Hospital, which is a shelter for dogs that are unadoptable for various reasons or were close to being put down at shelters all over the country!

As I watched the show again today (and cried just as much this time as I did the first time), I paid close attention when they reported on The Lange Foundation! This is another shelter that adopts old, sick, hurt and unwanted animals from shelters ... and it is run completely on donations! If you browse around on the site, you will see that they also accept gifts like towels, toys, beds, leashes and food! After reading that, I'm going to run back out to Target to pick up some of the leashes I saw in the dollar section this week! That will be a simple way for me to do my part!

One of the founders of the MLAR (Main Line Animal Rescue) said that they have adopted several thousand dogs, cats and rabbits from "mills" and about 99% of them are rehabilitated and adopted out to loving families and homes! He said that some of these dogs have never been out of their tiny kennels, have never run outside, or have never stood on solid ground because their cages are made of chicken wire. He mentioned that he knows the dogs are rehabilitated in just about 2 weeks, and you can tell because they start wagging their tails! :)

Go check out these sites and organizations! They all can use your help!

My new favorite charity: Angel's Gate Animal Hospital

A few weeks ago on her show, Oprah had Lisa Ling do an investigative report on puppy mills. I cried through the whole show wondering if past dogs we've bought from pet stores came from puppy mills. One of my very favorite pet stores has many of the designer, mixed-breed dogs and many of those are bred at puppy mills. As a potential pet buyer, you are allowed to ask questions from the pet stores: Where do your dogs come from? What sort of life did they have? Did you visit the breeder where they came from? That is your job before you actually buy the dog.

When I went to buy a dog, I had seen schnoodles at pet stores and loved them. I did my research on what kind of dogs they were and found local breeders so that I didn't need to buy from a pet store. I ended up finding Minnie at a great breeder in Warrensburg (Sleepy Hollow Kennels), and the owner was fabulous! She was more than helpful and you can tell that she really loves each and every litter of dogs that are born. Each litter gets to take turns sleeping in the house and they are raised as pets before they are sold to new owners.

So ... back to my story. This Monday on Oprah she had updates of past guests. One of the great parts was when several different pet shelters sent in videos telling how the day after her puppy mill show ran, they had record days for adopting the most pets they ever had! What a great feeling knowing that her one show helped to save the lives of many animals that needed homes.

Then, Jill Rappaport came on to do a report about one of her favorite shelters. She said that she doesn't have children and her pets (horses and dogs) are her children. She shared a story about Angel's Gate Hospice. Angel's Gate is a facility that takes in and cares for animals that they rescued from being put down at other shelters. They are animals that have severe disabilities and needs. They are animals that have abnormalities and defects from living in puppy mills. They are animals that no one wants. They are animals that are abused and neglected and abandoned. They are animals that need a nice place to live the rest of their lives.

The owner and founder, Susan Marino, quit her job to run this facility. She cares for each animal to the best of her abilities with a great team. It is an exhausting job because some of these animals need daily medical care and have needs like rehabilitation (because they were paralyzed) or "wheelchairs" because they have malformed feet and legs from being in a puppy mill. They basically adopt animals and try to let them live the rest of their lives in an open space where they can run around (even if it is on 2 legs or with the help of wheels) and play and be loved for the rest of their lives.

Please go watch the video of the clinic on Oprah's site. Susan works for no salary Angel's Gate is run completely by donations. Obviously they have some very severe needs when it comes to medical care for these animals and every dollar counts! They have a "No Adoptions" policy as Susan and everyone else at Angel's Gate has promised to adopt these animals for life ... they encourage everyone else to find the perfect pet to adopt at other shelters in their area!