Growing & Growing

I am so blessed and I know this from the response our family has received for BINGO for BANYAN. A good friend I met a few years back while traveling to the AUSA conference just offered up one of my absolute favorite items for our Fundraiser. As an Army Family with several GoldStar family members as dear friends this ornament touches my heart. I loved it the minute she put it up months ago on her site. Now she is offering $10 of each Ornament purchased to come back to Banyan. Please go check out 1 Army Wife Designs order 
take a look around her page at all her wonderful items. Thank You Crystal for this offer. Anything to honor our Fallen always takes first place in my heart.

Here is the Facebook Event BINGO for BANYAN with so many Vendors offering the proceeds to our cause for Banyan. They offer shipping so even if your not local you can take advantage of their wonderful Pay it Forward attitude. Think about starting your Christmas shopping early right here on this Event. Thank You to everyone who is helping out.

BINGO for Banyan

BINGO for BANYAN in Yelm, WA on October 15th was set up by a local business / event planner. She just wanted to help us out so she is donating ALL PROCEEDS from that evening to our travel expenses. Right now we are all set to head to Colorado & drop Banyan off on October 19th. But eventually once he graduates we will need to fly back to Colorado to pick him up & of course that means more expense. With that in mind all the money raised on the 15th will go for future expenses. 
We once again have been blessed with a number of generous donations. We have another gift certificate for a Camp Chef Dutch Oven that when raffled off last February was a HIT! We have a Thirty- One gifts consultant donating her proceeds for the night. A local business that already donated for Jeremy's walk is going to donate gift cards to the local movie theater. These will be prizes for some of the BINGO winners. So many more wonderful people that are jumping in & helping out. If your not in the area but love Scentsy then a vendor has opened up a PARTY on her page with ALL PROCEEDS going to Banyan. The party is open from now until October 29th. They have some super cute Holiday items.
 Just so many wonderful things happening in our lives to make Banyan & Jeremy's Journey a success.  We thank God every day for our blessings and we do know how amazing he is when you ask he answers. I hope if your in the mood for a fun night out & want to meet Banyan you'll take time to come to BINGO for BANYAN on October 15th. Jeremy & Banyan will be in attendance for Banyan's last public appearance before he leaves for Colorado. Come say Hello & get some puppy kisses.

If you have Facebook you can RSVP to the Event as well.

SUDEP it Matters

A wonderful Fall day made it so enjoyable to walk the Yelm Tenino Trail for Chelsea today. The kids laughed , walked, jogged, & had fun! Banyan did amazing considering the amount of dogs we passed on our 2 miles. We celebrated our success  at the end with Dairy Queen . Jeremy & Banyan's Journey raised $3,320 + thanks to so many of our family / friends. With out all of your support and the support of our team members across the country this would not have been possible. We have now decided to start the task of possibly holding a Chelsea Walk next year in WA. I love to organize and my friend Dana who walked with me today has talked me into trying. Here are few pictures I loved & thanks for the wonderful support as always we are truly blessed beyond measure.

We Did It

I never thought back in July when Jeremy & I decided to start fundraising for the big Chelsea Hutchison Walk on September 23rd we would ever get so much support. We are over whelmed with the amount of donations made to our Team. We have several friends walking with us here in WA. As well as on-line friends who are walking in their states on the East Coast & Utah. Our team came together & raised over $2,600 dollars. That is one whole seizure grant for another family with money left over!! 

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You to all our family & friends for your generosity. As we head into the weeks before Banyan leaves for his final training in Colorado this is a great reminder that his training would not be possible with out The Chelsea Hutchison Foundation. That they have never met me or my family but they graciously stepped up to give us the grant for Banyan. Jeremy is over the moon that he reached his $800 Goal plus some extra. Miss Julie has promised him a little something that will keep him company while Banyan is away finishing his training.

Yes folks a Banyan size stuffed Golden Retriever. We will put Banyan's purple bandana on him when he arrives. This is Julie's she uses for fundraisers, but Jeremys will look very similar. He is so excited, he plans to call him Banyan Jr. Hopefully Banyan doesn't get to upset when he sees his life size replica. This will be our HUGE Fundraiser again next year. Until then we hope everyone knows how thankful we are for your support. We look forward to making an even bigger contribution next year! Please watch for pictures from our walk late Sunday night.

A Calling of Sorts

About two months ago a friend of mine asked if I would take on the idea of starting a ladies bible study group. At first I was like no thanks I have to much on my plate but it's a nice idea. Then she replied with "what if it's at my home & only every other week?". I am pretty sure I stopped what I was doing & looked up at the sky to see if God was just staring down at me to see my response. I never sit still, those who know me know I go constantly. I am pretty sure this was God's way of smacking me up side the head to realize I needed to add a little more of him back into my routine. That going to church on Sundays was not filling me up. Plus my friend was so eager to learn about the bible, so hello can't say no to that at least not a second time.

 I called my dad to see if his church would mind donating  our work books as most of the ladies who wanted to join are young military moms. They have families & not a lot of extra to spend. Thankfully dad's church stepped up and bought us 8 study guides & the DVD that goes along with the series. Today was finally our first meeting & 5 of us ladies could make the group. It was an awesome discussion about melt downs, everyday stress, & false Gods. I left the ladies feeling recharged and hoping I made a difference with my input. I liked the idea that we decided to do more a round table discussion type bible study verses a hard core study . We have homework but we have two weeks to work on it between group. Life happens & with all the kids, plus throw in the Army it may very well take us two weeks to get our homework completed. I enjoyed the group and I am pretty sure this is what God had in mind when he made me take a step back from my busy life. He had me reevaluate my prioritizes to make sure they included him & spreading his word. I hope everyone has had a great Tuesday & takes a moment to realize like Jeremiah 29 11-13 states "¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.".  
That was our theme today- that God wants us all to prosper even on the rough days. YAY & Thank goodness! I also just love this song that another friend posted today & it really made me smile so I wanted to share.

Time is Running Out

We are down to the last 5 days to get our last $50.00 to reach our Goal of raising $800.00 for the Chelsea Hutchison Epilepsy Walk on September 23rd. Jeremy is super excited that he is almost to that magic number. With a little more help from our friends we can hit $800.00 I just know it! We received our walking t-shirts in the mail today and that just made the excitement level in the house go even higher! Our team is at $1830 dollars -Go Team Jeremy & Banyan! If we reach our team goal of $2,000 that means another family can get a grant for a life saving Seizure Alert dog. That just makes all the hard work so worth the effort. We love Banyan & would love to know we had a hand in letting another family have the same blessing . You still have time to go to Jeremy's Page to make any donation you like. It is all Tax Deductible so think BIG!! Thanks to all those who have helped us out already along the way. Your all ROCKSTARS!! Watch for pictures this Sunday after the walk with us in our purple.

Running & Climbing

This weekend was another glorious sunshine filled Pacific Northwest day. Paul & I spent the morning running in blue in town with a few friends & Banyan. We managed to go 4 miles at a 10 minute mile pace. Not super fast but Paul was trying to find a good pace for me to settle into with out feeling like I am dying. I hope to run my first half this coming summer 2013 & so now the training has begun. I am not a gifted runner so this is a personal item to check off the old bucket list. Turn forty run a half-marathon. I have enlisted my running buddies of course so it should be fun. I've picked the Seattle Rock n Roll marathon so we can run with the blue crew & have a blast!

 

 Banyan recovering with dad after the run. He did good but was pretty tired when we finished. 

After our run we came home to grab Jacob our youngest to head to the Ashford Mountain Festival. There where several guests speakers who all had summited Everest & Rainer multiple times. Paul was in heaven! They also had some cool climbing walls we knew Jacob would enjoy

The Glacier wall was Jacob's favorite & a little more challenging for him. He has climbed before but never ice climbing. He did really well & the guy helping thinks he should take classes. We both know he would love climbing more so we really need to look into this option. Gas is just so expensive & the closest climbing gym is in Tacoma about an hour away. We shall see maybe we can make it happen some once the weather gets gross.

Now we are just relaxing watching The Lord of the Rings, a guys pick for sure. It's a nice way to end a relaxing Saturday.

Dogs Where Heroes that Day

Eleven years ago today our great nation was brought to her knees. We where stunned but not into silence. Today eleven years later we still have soldiers in Afghanistan & Iraq fighting for those who lost their lives on 9-11. Another hero that day was our four legged best friends. They went into the rubble where no humans could go & found those lost. They brought peace to grieving families & comfort to those workers on the ground. We will never forget all those lost that day. This 9-11 I also ask you to remember those who showed they are truly man's best friend when called to action. Take a moment of silence & prayer for those lost as well as those canines who are gone but not forgotten today. They gave everything they had as well for our nation. 

Remember that the 1% still live daily with the effects of 9-11. That we aren't a nation healed but a nation that is still grieving the loss of every soldier who still stands to fight .

Four Legged Heroes 9-11 A touching video tribute to man's best friend.

Fish & Mud Equals Fun

I have to say the past weekend has to have been one of the best we've had in awhile as far as everyone in the family loving their activities. The husband woke up early Saturday morning & took off to fish with his buddies since the salmon are in the river. I hit up the wear blue run with a friend for a quick 3 miles. While the boys enjoyed the cartoons & video games. Then Paul & I headed to Portland, Oregon for the Warrior Dash. This was Paul's first ever OCR with me & I was excited!

I loved that we got to sneak away to spend a night together which is rare. We stopped along the way to do some shopping and had a good drive. After we got checked in we headed to dinner to meet up with our friends who where running with us on Sunday. We enjoyed a fun dinner before heading to bed to get ready to run. Of course I popped right up early Sunday morning, grabbed some coffee while I let Paul sleep for another hour. Then we where all off to wear our blue at the Warrior Dash.

 

Here we are all shiny clean, that didn't last to long.

This course had a lot of hills & switchbacks that really killed the legs towards the end. I was really feeling the short 3.12 miles by the time we crossed the finish. A lot of it had to do with the fact at the first obstacle I nailed my left leg on the floating barrels. I have a nice size bruise now. The freezing cold water made the muscle knot up & it just didn't stop until after I got myself warmed up over an hour later. 

 Before the pain....

Paul went over the barrel face first got a little wet & muddy...

Off from there we hit up a nice tall wall, cargo nets, barbed wire low crawl mud pits, & fire jumping. It was fun & we made sure to wait at the end for our teammates so we could cross the finish together. We completed the course in 50 minutes flat! Paul was so great making us laugh along the way & helping out several different people when they had some issue at obstacles. Josh pushed the pace a little faster then Ashley & I ever went- but we did our best. It was a fun race!

The big finish!

 He still loved me at the end! He said he would do one a year with me- so happy!

 Another OCR in the books for this group & sadly the last one I am registered for at this time. 

You might ask what the boys got out of our little get away that was their favorite thing?

Well of course we stopped off at Voodoo Donuts to grab them some bacon maple bars.

If your wondering about all our blue go to wear blue: run to remember

we wanted to remember all our Fallen Heroes . We run for them because they can't anymore. 

I loved my weekend with my husband & friends but now I'm ready for bed.

20 Days Left

We are down to just 20 days until September 23rd & our walk for the Chelsea Hutchison Foundation.  Jeremy is so excited that we are currently sitting at $459 of his $800 dollar goal. I am hoping & praying we can reach that $800 goal for him as well as the foundation. The Hutchison's never asked us to walk or help anymore then anyone else. But since they are so generously paying off the last financial obligation of Banyan's training in Colorado we are more then happy to give back anyway we can. Banyan & Jeremy both love to walk so this is a great way to reach out  to our community to spread the word about Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. Chelsea Hutchison lost her life to a seizure and her wonderful family has made it their mission to help spread the word so no other family has to go through a terrible loss. Thanks to their kindness many families now have Seizure Dogs in training like Banyan as well as EMFIT monitors that detect seizures in sleep. Both of these things help us parents sleep better at night knowing should our child seize we will be alerted.  Please take a moment & think about how helpless you would feel if you could not afford either of these things to help safe guard your child. Thanks to the Chelsea Hutchison  foundation I can sleep a little sounder and so can so many other parents. Now if you are able all we are asking is for a small donation of $5 to help us move in the direction of Jeremy's goal. Paypal is avaliable at the LINK below or you can mail in your donation to the Foundation itself in Jeremy's name. Thank You to all those who have already given so generously. We are Fur-Ever grateful for you giving hearts.

 Team Jeremy & Banyan

P.S.

We may get to actually walk now in Colorado if Banyan's new trainer is able to take him on September 23rd- so exciting!!