Waiting for Spring

Destination: Port Angeles

 

It's late April and we are still freezing out here, but the bummer is that we can't even complain about it!  No way, not when my family in the Midwest is still having school cancelled because of snow!  At least the rain doesn't have to be shoveled.

 

A few weeks ago Aaron took the whole weekend off to attend an important artist workshop. Then at the last minute the class was cancelled.  What to do, what to do???  Aaron said he could just offer to work and I told him to hush with the crazy-talk (the lack of sun has affected his thinking).  Instead, I split from work at the first available opportunity and we met at the ferry dock on a Friday afternoon and ran away to Port Angeles for a two-night get-away. 

 

Waiting for our ride out of town.

 

It was a quick cure to the cabin fever and we had an absolutely wonderful time!  Turns out there's quite an arts community in Port Angeles, which is near the entrance to the Olympic National Park.  We took a long walk through "Webster's Woods" a 5 acre sculpture park, just packed with really cool installations everywhere we looked.  We were constantly surprised, "Hey!  look up there!...whoa, check this out!"  Most of the pieces were really site specific (colored pins stuck into tree trunks in funky ways to look like growths, mirrors hanging up in branches to give specific reflections...), but some of them were more of the "professional" type.  This cool Pi sculpture is by Micajah Bienvenu (www.artmb.com).   Aaron recogonized it instantly because Micajah was one of the speakers at the Seattle Metals Guild lecture series he organized back in 2008.



I like pi.

Port Angles can pride itself on the nicest customer service around.  It was definitely "small town" in the best sense of the words.  We saw a waitress hugging every customer who came or went.  At one breakfast I spilled my tea (I'm good for that sort of clutz move) and as I was dabbing it up with my napkin a waitress showed up with new napkins, a towel, and new tea all at once.  She said, "Don't you worry dear... if you don't make a mess, I don't have a job."  Well!  Aaron would say she found her dream customer.

Possibly the best part of whole trip was living without a TV. We listened to the frogs, watched the stars in the dark sky, and cuddled up and read books together. It's only been a few weeks, but we're ready to go again and highly recommend Port Angeles!

Hiking in Olympic National Park.

Go Mariners!

Five years ago Aaron mustered up the nerve to ask the question he knew the answer to.  As tradition holds we considered the baseball home opener, "Anniversary Observed".  It was one of the funnest baseball openers we've attended in a while AND the Mariner's won. We had a GREAT time with our other baseball friends stopping by to say hi throughout the evening.

Check out the GIANT new video screen!  It's something like 150 feet long and 50 feet high!  Biggest in baseball!  At least were the best at something...

Cookies and Ice Cream = Speedy Recovery

And then there's 100 year old Grandma Elsie.  Last week I got a call from Nurse Sue at work.   She says that grandma has broken her hip.  My heart sank.  I almost instantly thought, "Oh.  This is how it's going to end..."  Nurse Sue gives me what little information she has and asks if I want grandma transported to the ER.  I consented and immediately started working the phone to make sure Andy and Mary knew what's going on.  Without typing out every last detail...Andy meets her at the ER and that's really where our story begins.

Grandma Elsie when she was just 95.

The doctors ask, "Elsie, does your leg hurt?"
Grandma, "No"
The doctors ask again, "Elsie does your leg hurt?"
Grandma, "Nope."
Doctors lift back the blanket and lightly touch her toe and grandma yells out in pain.
Doctors leave.
Andy leans over and wispers, "Grandma, does your leg hurt?"
Grandma, "Oh yes...it hurts bad!"

They decided that there is no choice - we have to do surgery.  This sounds like risky business to me and Andy, but we know it's the only way we can make grandma feel better.

Grandma gets prescribed all the pain meds she wants. 

Next morning, Andy invites grandma's 95-year old brother to visit her.  I make sure he tells her that we love her. Then she heads to surgery.  We wait.  And, if I'm honest about it, I'm bracing myself for the next phone call and I'm trying to tell myself there are worse ways to go than when you're asleep.... whatever...you can tell yourself that all day long, but when it's all said-and-done, it's grandma Elsie we're talking about and it's too hard to think about it.

Andy calls and texts a variety of messages over the next four hours that go something like this:
Grandma just left for surgery.  No change in plan.  Should be a couple of hours.
She's in recovery.  Everything went as planned except no anasthesia.  They gave her a spinal instead.  Grandma was AWAKE for surgery.  (Seriously?  Seriously!)
Grandma is heading back to her room.
Eating cookies and ice cream.

WHAT?  Does he mean he's eating cookies and ice cream?  Um.  No, he doesn't.

Nurse tells Grandma to pick a clear liquid for dinner: beef broth or 7-up?  Grandma says, "I want cookies".  The nurse starts to read the list of clear liquids to pick from, "Cookies!" she demands and apparently grandma must have been yelling.  A short time later another nurse walks in with cookies and ice cream, "When you're 100 you can have whatever you want."  We couldn't agree more!  Four hours after surgery, grandma was eating cookies and ice cream.  Aaron is so, SO proud to be related to grandma Elsie.

Grandma continues a steady stream of pain-killers and dessert and drifts off to sleep.  Andy curls up on the hospital couch.  It's a slumber party...and apparently the Respiratory Guy wants in on the action.  A little after midnight he wakes grandma up.  She's NOT HAPPY (and neither am I when people wake me up at midnight...um, Aaron).  He wants her to breathe into the little tube that makes the balls bounce up and down.  I'm sure the point is to ward off pneumonia, but grandma isn't interested.  I sense she might have been a tiny bit hostile about it...and looped up on drugs. She leans back, closes her eyes and then out of nowhere just starts to belt out the national anthem.  "Oh say caaan yoooou seeeeeee?"  The respiratory guy looks at Andy and says, "well, that's probably more lung exercise than we were going to get any other way." He makes a check on her chart and leaves.

Andy spends another day with her and then heads home.  On the fourth day, I call the nurses station, "She's doing fine...but she doesn't really eat her food.  She just eats cookies...".  I confirm that this is normal.

She just looks so tiny in her hospital nest of blankets.

And then as fast as all started, it was over.  They sent her back to the nursing home and in less than a week she was back in her own bed at the nursing home.  No special skilled nursing care, just back in her old routine...skipping her meals, eating her cookies.

Mary tells me she hasn't looked this good in a long time, proving cookies and ice cream are medicinal.

Amazing.

 



Mid-morning dessert.  (Aaron calls these "elevenzies".)

SUP-ER LOGAN!

It's been a long time since me and the socks have gotten down to business.  I thought winter might come-and-go without one single project even getting started!!  I've been distracted by a long list of unexpected house projects (for example, see our blog entry on the flooded crawl space), but a few weeks ago the stars aligned... and so did the socks.

 

Inspired by this photo of my co-worker's 4-year old nephew:  

 

 

Cutest kid, eh?

 ...I created SUP-ER LOGAN!

You can see SUP-ER LOGAN shares the love of the color blue.

He's sporting yellow "goggles".

His pillow case cape says it all: SHAZAAM!

This was one of the funnest critters to make. I really liked trying to re-create the essence of the photo.
SUP-ER LOGAN is destined for his Forever Home with his name-sake in the wilds of Wisconsin.


In other news - the Seattle Metals Guild Lecture Series has resumed!!  Aaron volunteers for the SMG setting up the series (7 years now!).   Last week was the second lecture of the year, with speaker Jenny Fillius (www.jennyfillius.com).  She is a tin "upcycler", which means she takes old cookie (and other) tins, cuts them up, and nails them back together again to make really cool wall hangings.  We'd have to say anyone with a shred of a sense of humor would LOVE her presentation.  Absolutely hysterical with great photos of her tins spilling out everywhere.  And, of course, images of her work.  She does wall pieces - sort of painting sized - that are very clever, all with cut up tins.

This is Aaron, as the sign suggests, welcoming everyone to the talk (he does a great job!).

Finally, on Friday it was time for our annual tradition: Leave work early and go to the NW Flower and Garden Show.  Apparently, it's the second biggest F&G Show in the nation.  We enjoyed smelling and touching all the flowers and this time of year, it's exactly what the soul needs!

Here I am by the Hobbit House display, one of the amazing full-sized demonstration gardens.

In an unprecedented event, Aaron and I made it all the way through the show and did not spend one cent!!! Unheard of!!! It wasn't for a lack of cool stuff.  Had we had a recent lottery win, we may have purchased this $28,000 fence.  You've gotta admit: It is amazing, and it was made by a metal artist right here in Seattle.  It goes on the bucket list of things we dream about.  I think imagining this fence around our front yard was worth the price of admission.

Birthday Month Gets Better and Better

It wasn't enough that we got a new roof for birthday month 2011...but this year Aaron carried on the tradition with yet another fine home improvement.

After several months of nearly no hot water in the kitchen, I lost it.  (That's right, only a small trickle of warmish water since Thanksgiving.)  All I wanted  was to wash my buttery spatula...which isn't easy with cold water.  Somehow I had come to my breaking point yelling out, "Can't we just have hot water in this kitchen!!"  (Aaron would say there might, just maybe, have been a curse or two in there as well, but I don't know what he's talking about!)  Probably about the time I threw the spatula.  Has anyone, besides me, noticed how aerodynamic rubber scrapers are?  Well, I'm sorry my Hubs had to pay witness to all that, because I know he doesn't appreciate the flight of the spatula the way I do.  He very calmly said he'd take care of it.  (eh hem..Aaron, I hope I thanked you.  If I didn't say it out loud, I did say it in my head.  I promise I did.)

The next day I get home from work to a kitchen faucet gushing burning hot water.  YEEHAW!!!  I was so happy I danced around the kitchen and planted a big smoocharoo on my Fella. I have the best Hubs in the whole-wide-world.

Then Aaron took me by the hand and sat me down.  He told me he had some news and I wasn't going to like it....

Apparently, part of getting the faucet fixed included a "free" inspection from the plumber. Hmmm, "free"?   I knew he was right; I wasn't going to like this.  The plumber says that our water-heater is on borrowed time and that we can leave it and risk flooding the mud room with 55 gallons of water, or, get a new water heater right now. 

I pointed out that the plumber had a vested interest in this diagnosis.  Aaron said he checked online and apparently 17 years is kind of a long time for water heaters.  I went to work the next day and ran it past my boss...he knows a thing or two about infrastructure, large and small.  When he didn't even ask one question and just said, "sounds like it's time for a new water heater" I knew the plumber was telling the truth.  Boss Man, is a thoughtful and methodical guy.  He doesn't just willy-nilly recommend a new water heater.  I expected a long list of questions, followed by a long list of options, followed by advice on how to do it ourselves.  When he jumped immediately to, "get that taken care of" I knew there was no room to negotiate. 

I called Aaron.  "I authorize expenditures for a new water heater.  Just don't tell me about it...in my head I'm pretending we're paying in pesos." 

By the time I got home, there it was: the shiny new hot water delivery system.  And let me just say the water all over the house is hot, Hot, HOT!  LOVE IT!!!!!  I can wash buttery spatulas for hours and hours and still have hot water to spare.

We also had some excitement with a broken sump pump.  The quick version of the story is: just days after the new water heater was installed, Aaron discovered that our crawl space was flooded with several feet of water. Okay, that sucks.  I said call the contractor.  He said "no".  I said, call a fix-it man.  He said "no".  I said, go get our way-ward-looking neighbor and see if he knows what to do.  Aaron said, "great idea".  Apparently in the next 90 minutes or so, our neighbor was in the crawl space with hipwaders and beer.  He fiddled with the pump and POOF in minutes the crawl space was drained!!! He's now my favorite neighbor and I'm feeling like I've had just about enough of house fix-it projects for the time being.

That's right...water at least up and over the first step.
One syllable: EWWW

Oh, and a new light switch was installed which doesn't sound like much, but that story has just begun...can't wait to see how it turns out...umm...
So that is how we end Birthday Month.  Hope everyone's houses are in good repair and you're off to a wonderful start of February.  Happy Groundhog Day!

Best Birthday Ever

Haaaaappy biiiirthday tooooooooooooo meeeeeeee. 

Can I just say it has been one of the funnest weeks I can remember??   I think it's because I really didn't have any expectations so everything that happened was a big surprise.  So thanks family for making birthday month a lot of fun.

My actually birthday started off with a bang.  I was on a crowded bus, heading to work, when I could see Mary was calling. I didn't answer because I couldn't talk easily on the bus.  Then 15 seconds later, I saw that the nursing home called.  My morning-brain went into a tail-spin and I immediately thought, "Oh no...grandma dies on my birthday!"  As my brain chugged through figuring out what I would need to do if grandma was gone and choking back the tears, I jumped off the bus and called my voicemail.  To my relief, there she was!!  Grandma was disoriented yelling into the phone, "Ann??  Ann...are you there???"  Grandma is alive!!! 

Then I listened to Mary's voicemail.  She thinks that grandma somehow remembered it was my birthday and knew what day it was and put it all together. That seems a little bit impossible because she can barely remember anything...but maybe she did?   Who knows?  So I called Grandma back and we had a nice conversation...."Hi Ann...do you know what day it is?"

"It's Thursday."

"No!  What day is it for YOU!"  She quizzed me, probably in the same fashion people do to her all the time.

"It's my birthday!"

"Yes!  That's right!  It's YOUR BIRTHDAY!!"  Grandma wished me a happy day and wished me a the best year ever (her normal birthday greeting).  After that, I knew the day would be spectacular.

In the afternoon my team surprised me with cupcakes, which was, in fact, a total surprise.  I think they enjoyed surprising me as much as I liked the surprise. I was in the middle of a meeting when they bardged into the room wiht nutella cupcake and singing.  You just can't go wrong with nutella. We all had a good time.

When I got home, all the curtains were drawn.  I knew Aaron was up to something and boy was he!! He decorated the entire house.  And I mean - every - last - inch...was covered in birthday decorations.  He made a totally four-star dinner..from scratch.  And not just pasta, either!  I say kudos Hubs, kudos!  We opened presents and by then we were both totally exhausted we collapsed on the couch.

It was a good, good day.   Here are some random pictures...I'll admit they don't all go together or exactly "tell a story" but there were some of the highlights from last week.  Watch for all the decorations in the photos.

We had friends over for Game Night.  Here we are "pre-gaming it" with
homemade chocolate cake and ice cream.
 I picked this picture because you can see some of the decorations. 
Aaron must have worked for hours.



Martin and Cynthia joined us.

 



Aaron bringing out the main course.  Isn't he the best?

Dinner is served.  Tortilla crusted tallapia and veggies.  Nom Nom Nom...

 

My birthday 40 years ago.
The was my traditional birthday cake: an Angle food. 

Frozen Flamingos!!

It's busy times for everyone this time of year and we've barely had a moment to blog...

Here's some of the highlights from Christmanukah 2012...so far.

 

 

Frozen Flamingos!!!  It snowed this week and the flamingos had to fend for themselves.  Brrr.

 

 

Our cactus bloomed in early November. It's pretty spectacular.  I've taken it to work because it's SO big it doesn't fit in the house anymore. 

 

 

So far we've made at least three batches of marshmallows....they are just so darn ga-ooood!  This has become our holiday tradition...and I'm glad we stumbled upon something that will always remind us of holidays together.  We find ourselves noshing away on the mallows with a power-sugary trail falling behind us.  I guess that's so if we get lost, we can find our way back to the mallows.

 

 

The only cookbooks Anner needs between Thanksgiving and New Years -

 

 

Check this guy and his holiday spirit!  He's at the bus transit station and has a Christmas tree with him. It's not even bound up with twine.  I wasn't there long enough to see him board the bus, but I wish  I could have seen that!!  I wonder if they charge extra fare????

 

 

Anner and Santa. I was there with 3 year old Deano who was not going to have any part of the Santa biz...and I don't blame him.  Santa's a little freaky if you're three.  This particular Santa was kind of creepy (which might be normal for Santas in general), but I could handle it for the 10 seconds it took to get this shot.

 

 

 

We've done lots of cookie making, but nothing like my mom's 1000 dozen in 1966. Her record for Most Cookies in a Season still stands 46 years later.  Aaron hears this story and thinks to himself, "I bet I could eat a 1000 dozen cookies. Let's try it!!" But here's the kicker...she did it without an electric mixer.  Not a stand mixer.  Not a hand mixer.  A wooden spoon and a big bicep.

I have one word for that: Ufda!

 

 

Tonight the kids come for "Christmas dinner" which will consist of be snowman shaped pizzas. 

More to come later this week!

 

Happy Holidays!

Saving Thanksgiving

WARNING: I have something on my mind (not felt turkey headbands) and I’m about to leap onto this virtual soapbox.  This one right here – it looks like a good one.  You can’t say I didn’t warn you!

SHOPPING.
I love shopping.  It’s one of my favorite things to do with my girlfriends.  When my pals aren’t available to go, I’m perfectly happy shopping online.  Just ask my husband who knows what’s happening when I reach back for my credit card (I should just memorize the number, shouldn’t I?) 

HOLIDAYS.
I also love the holidays – all of ‘em.  I like the twinkly lights. I like the high-energy feel of downtown.  I like things that are red.

NO LIKE.
What I don’t like?  I don’t like Christmas music starting the day after Halloween.  HALLOWEEN??!!!  And that’s why I had to walk out of Sears on November 1st when Bing Cosby started crooning.  

I don’t like Christmas decorations in November.

I don’t like Thanksgiving being all but forgotten.

AND what I really, really, really can’t stand for is Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving Day!  What could anyone possibly need besides, perhaps, another pound of butter or some Pepto, that they can’t wait for Friday?  Nothing.   Nada.  Zilch.

Not only is it completely unnecessary, it takes away the one-and-only holiday retail workers see all season.   So here’s my shout-out to all my retail friends who I know don’t mind the busy season and certainly like to have a job but would just like to eat their turkey and watch the game.  It’s why I signed this petition to show my solidarity for Target workers who would like to have Thanksgiving off. I invite you to sigh too.  http://www.change.org/petitions/target-take-the-high-road-and-save-thanksgiving

Really, I think we can all occupy ourselves until midnight when the door buster sales start.  To prove it, I thought up
50 things I could do besides shop on Thanksgiving Day:

1. Watch the Macy’s Parade. I love a parade.
2. Read through all the ads in the big-fat-Thanksgiving newspaper.  I love that too.
3. Cook Thanksgiving Dinner
4. Eat Thanksgiving Dinner
5. Watch movies OnDemand
6. Eat Second Thanksgiving Dinner a few hours later
7. Make out with my Hubs  (these aren’t necessarily listed in order)(he made me say that)
8. Take post-eating nap
9. Bake cookies – the ones I never make because they take a lot of time…typically found in my Martha Stewart cookie book
10. Watch football.  I’m rooting for Texas all day long.
11. Play board games with my Honey.  Correction: WIN at some board games with my Honey. What’s the point if you’re not playing to win?
12. Make presents for my nephews
13. Catch up on Covert Affairs (guilty pleasure)
14. Practice for dance class
15. Prepare my Christmas/Hanukah list
16. Blog about the weekend
17. Write holiday cards.  Mom says the note inside the card is more important than the card itself. 
18. Go for a bike ride (okay, I haven’t ridden a bike in 10 years, but I could go for a bike ride.  I have a bike.  Maybe “dust off the bike” would be equally good.)
19. Write my grandma in the nursing home
20. Scan old family photos in honor of gram’s 100th bday
21. Sew a new sock critter – I have the perfect one in my mind
22. Go for a walk
23. Go for a run (“run” might be an overstatement, but in theory I could go for a run)
24. Do a TurkeyTrot  (“trot” …that I can do)
25. Knit (maybe “learn to knit” would be more accurate)
26. Yoga. Streeeeeeetch.
27. Watch TV
28. Organize my travel books
29. Work on a polymer clay project
30. Hang out with Aaron; he’s pretty fun (see lucky #7 above)
31. Post funny things on FB
32. Post pictures on Pinterest
33. Take pictures wearing my turkey headband
34. Comment on pictures on Pinterest
35. Make grandma’s 100th bday present (A silk flower for her hair that says “100”…where’s my glue gun?)
36. Make a poster on Snapfish
37. Practice braiding my hair
38. Juggle
39. Make a birthday cake for my boss
40. Clean the house ---oh wait, that one is done!
41. Enjoy the clean house
42. Write my niece in college
43. Plan our next big trip
44. Call my mom
45. Call my step-mom
46. Call my mom-in-law (I normally refer to #44-46 as “call the moms” but I needed some filler so I broke it out)
47. Text my best pal, Heidi Ho
48. Email my brother
49. Hug
50. Be thankful for a day off with my hubby

That about sums it up.  I’m leaping back off the soap box and going back to regular life now.  Hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving...and Black Friday.

We have a Winner!!!

We are just about recovered from a long, wonderful summer of shows, friends and all sorts of outings and activities.

 

The Salmon Days show last weekend was pretty spectacular!!!  Aaron won the Best Craftsmanship award...which is nothing to sneeze at.  Check out that ribbon!  I'm going to frame it someday.  It was well deserved and luckily it matched Aaron's shirt.

 

Seriously?  We're both thrilled.  It was just So. Much. Fun. to watch the judges walk into the booth and hand him the award.  Aaron was speechless.  We were at one show a couple of years ago when the judges walked directly towards out space and as I was reaching for the camera they swerved and went into the booth next to us.  Then they were heading out to give the next award and again they turned towards Aaron and then walked over to the booth directly across the hallway.  This time was waaaay more fun. 

 

 



See how nice the ribbon looks in the booth?  Pretty snazzy!

While we were at the show we purchased this year's Anniversary Art.  It's a Captain America shield!  We've wanted something colorful on the back fence for a while and though we may have been thinking of something slightly more sophisticated, when we saw this we knew we had to have it!  Turns out it's made out of recycled oil barrels.  What's more American than that!?

Aaron's alter-ego came out as he was about to hang up the shield.

We also attended the wedding of one of our friends from the Brain Cancer Walk.  It was a pretty wonderful evening out - a great time with good food and dancing.  Plus, I like seeing my honey all dressed up.  Handsome he is!

Fun to dress up once in a while...
...and it was a chance to wear my purple suede shoes.  Don't get that chance often enough!

Speaking of the Walk, here's the full length video of the flash mob we were in.  We think pretty much our entire blog-o-sphere has seen it, but just in case you haven't, here's your chance.  Oh the precision!! (not.)

 

Can't forget our trip to the Mariner's Press Box.  Now that was super-fun!  Our friend Ben (Aaron's college roommate) had the hook-up via his dad who bid at the chance to sit in the press booth for charity.  Seeing all the stats and quick factoids squeezed onto a legal sized sheet of paper was pretty cool.  I want that delivered to my inbox every day!  We've gotta say that Rick Riz, Dave Valle and Kevin Kremin made us feel totally welcomed and like we were their only guests.  I'm sure they rotate a bunch of groups every game, so that's saying something.  We were there for one very short inning.  Such was the way of the Mariners this season, but we still had a great time.  As Aaron said, this was definitely the best blowout loss we've been to EVER!!!

 

 

  

Suddenly the weather turned this week.  The heat is now on.  The raincoats are out.  It's dark when we get up ...it's dark when we come home.  Must be time to bake some cookies.  Nutella chocolate chip - yum!!!

 

2012 Seattle Brain Cancer Walk: LET'S DANCE!

It's Monday night and another Seattle Brain Cancer Walk is in the books, but I've gotta say, it's still on my mind.  It was such an amazing event this year!!

Here are the numbers:
2,700 walkers (up from 2,000 last year)
140 patients and survivors registered (up from 100)
$675,000 raised!
I was on two teams this year. 

Some of the 2,700 participants walking around Seattle Center.

Team Tull - in honor of a colleague of mine, Steve Tull, who was diagnosed in December, raised over $2,000.

Worthy of Hope - in memory of John Norsworthy and my "normal team" raised over $9,000.

WOOT!  WOOT!

The money gets matched 9 times over…so this fundraising will really help the research and patients here in the Pacific Northwest.

How the walk started:
This being the 5th Anniversary Walk, the organizers wanted to do something really special.  One way or another they decided to have a Flash Mob start the Walk!  It's kind of a long story, but I was told about it (and then sworn to secrecy) a little more than a week before the Walk.  I couldn't have that knowledge and not do something with it -- secrecy or not!!  So I immediately told Aaron and then signed us up to be in the mob!  Despite our, umm, vast (yeah, right!) dance experience, I will tell you we were both pretty nervous about it. 

We went to two practices and then spent a week holed up in our house practicing, practicing, practicing.  It would have been quite the sight if you were around our office at 11pm watching us bounce around in front of the online practice video!  Then Saturday morning's opening ceremonies started and moments later we were in a group of 50 dancing our hearts out!  It was So. Much. Fun!  Our own little Glee experience!  Both of us can't wait to sign up to do it again.

It was all recorded and sometime soon full video will be available.  We'll send that link out once we have it.  In the meantime, here's an iphone recording from Aunt Janice (one of our Worthy of Hope teammembers).  If it looks like a black square on your screen, hover with your mouse and find an arron pointing to the right and click on it.  It should come up.

 
How the Walk felt:
GREAT!!  Every year it gets bigger and better.  The Walk is more about connecting people than it is about the money.  Yes, the money is really important…but the Walk is rooted in community.  This year, Aaron and our friend Karen Howard (his college roommate Ben's wife) came across a woman who looked lost. They said 'hello' and made a connection.  The woman said her husband had just been diagnosed. She had come to the Walk hoping to meet someone else who was dealing with what she’s dealing with.  She broke down explaining it to Karen and Aaron.  Because of heavy traffic she arrived late and the Walk was nearly over.  That didn't stop Karen!  She took the lady by the hand and said, “Well, let me walk you around and introduce you to some people!”  Just like that, they were off into the crowd.  And that really captures the day.  I know lots and lots of connections were made that help people get through their days.  We hear that many patients make “getting to the Walk” one of their goals as they fight their cancer.  We do our best to deliver.  Here’s a great story KOMO News did about the Walk which really captures it better than I can describe it: http://queenanne.komonews.com/news/community-spirit/785438-parade-crusaders-joins-fight-against-brain-cancer

Worthy of Hope -
Here are some team pictures.

Evie with our team sign.

Brunch at Barrio. 
They donated to the Walk, so we're happy to support them. 
Please pass the blood orange mimosa! Oh! And the food and company were superb.

Karen and Aunt Janice.

Aunt Janice, Karen, Anner and Aaron went to lunch the day before the Walk.  Aaron and I had to say, "oh we have work to do...we've gotta get going"...when secretly we had flash mob rehearsal to get to.  (hee hee hee)

This year we got Worthy of Hope coffee tumblers made. 
Mine is packed and ready to go for work tomorrow.

 

Tent of Honor. 

Every year, volunteers put up thousands of folded cranes and pictures of people we walk for. 



 

 

This was in honor of a colleague of mine, Steve Tull.  His wife and I worked together. 
They joined us for Brain Cancer Awareness Night with the Mariners.
On Walk Day they were taking their youngest to college. 
We had a "virtual team" in Steve's honor.

This is a co-worker of mine from HDR.  I didn't know her, but she had a lot of friends.
They work in Portland and sent pictures and stories for us to post.


 



Patient and Survivor Tent:

This is the area I help with every year.

 

This year we gave away over 100 Experiences to patients and their families.
Look how happy everyone is looking for the perfect thing for them!
This is a big highlight to watch.

 

Anner and Nan - P/S Tent Co-Chairs.
*LOVE* working with Nan.

We started setting up waaaay before day light.  Who wants to join us for a 4:30am set-up next year?



We have lots of beautiful displays...mostly thanks to Nan.
She even arranged the flowers.



This wasn't in our area, but it's too cool to not show off.
It's a gray, handmade brain cancer quilt that was used for a fundraiser.
Gray never looked so good!
 

It really was a magical day - getting up early to set up, seeing everyone arrive all excited to be part of the Walk, Flash Mobbing (and not tripping over ourselves!!!), doing the actual Walk and talking with all the patients and supporters, having a wonderful brunch with all our Worthy of Hope teammates and, I admit it, then getting home and taking a nap!  :)  Really looking forward to next year, but first, it's time to help Aaron get ready for doing Salmon Days in two weeks.

If you'd like to read a bit more about the results of the Walk, here's some more info from the SBCW newsletter:

Every dollar raised for the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk leverages an additional $9 in funding from other sources to advance brain cancer research and treatment in the Pacific Northwest.  This means that we are seeding the ground in our region for new research projects and treatment options. In our final newsletter before the Walk, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight and recap some of the key groundbreaking clinical trials that your support over the last five years has already helped.

• Toca 511 Trial – This is a genetically engineered virus used to insert a gene into glioblastoma cells that ultimately harms and hopefully destroys the cell. The Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish is one of only eight sites in the country participating in this trial.

• Temozolomide Trial – The Ivy Center team is leading this trial with the Seattle biotechnology company Accium Biosciences where researchers use a 15-ton particle accelerator to analyze tumor tissue to determine exactly how much of the chemotherapy drug impacts its target. By using this new approach, doctors hope to better optimize brain cancer therapy so they can deliver the right drug to the right patient at the right dose.

• DCVax Brain Cancer Vaccine Trial – A cancer vaccine used to train patients’ immune systems to attack and kill their brain cancer cells. The Ivy Center is currently the only location in the Pacific Northwest that offers this vaccine to newly diagnosed patients. This vaccine has made its way to the FDA and is pending approval.

We are passionate in our pursuit to find new treatments for brain cancer, and look forward to seeing further advances with these trials and hopefully more each year. We said it in our first newsletter, and we’ll continue to say it over and over again – your involvement produces results for people living with brain cancer. Your support matters and it is appreciated!

More information: http://www.braincancerwalk.org/