Two of my favorite people

Oh man, is it HOT!!!!

Remember these lovely cupcakes? All nice and pretty?

Well, I kept them nice and cool at work all day, but on the drive to the RMH they melted! Holy moly! I couldn't believe it.

Lucky for me I put them in the fridge for a bit and they did just fine. But how crazy is that?

I baked up some chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Smelled so good!

And when I got home Steven needed the car to go to class, so he took off, and I stayed home, admiring the great paint job Mark did. Loving the new color we picked out for this wall. We're going to be busy the new few weeks painting. I love how this looks!

Now where did THAT come from???

Hmmm, now where did all these sprinkles come from?

Crystal brought her sister Brooke over to decorate cupcakes. Doug took pictures. Beware.

We had pink and purple and white and come chocolate frosting. Lots of sprinkles were to be had. Guess we know where all those sprinkles came from!

Crystal did a great job helping Brooke learn the ins and outs of decorating cupcakes.

I love how this came out!

Doug is crazy.

See?

I told you!


Gads.

The cupcakes came out so bright and cheerful.

Looks like someone is ready for action.


There she goes!!! A fun afternoon.

A fun weekend for all

Last week Mark was at a meeting at the Fanno Creek Brew Pub where they make one of my very favorite beers, 'Reverend's Daughter'. He picked me up a jug. I just love my husband. So when our friends Pat and Sherry came over for dinner I knew what I would be drinking.

After dinner we were going to play apples to apples, but we found out Pat and Sherry had never played Wii and so we decided to show them what all the buzz was about.

Mark explained how to use the controls, and we started out with bowling.

Sherry did really well! Pat did very well!! We had so much fun.

Sunday morning we started taping off the walls so we can paint. Lots of work in our future.....

We drove over to Cari's for the afternoon. She and Richard were working in the garden.

Mommy sat in a chair taking pictures while Cari was working in the garden.

She takes a bow.

Mark discussed some ideas with Cari and Richard for the front yard.

I love the gateway at the house across the street.

More discussing going on.

I loved this shot of Cari.

Wonderful weather for hanging out.

Doesn't this just make you want to sit and rock and enjoy watching as the world strolls by?

Good morning Tigard!

Planned on sleeping in until 6:30 am, but found myself wide awake at 5. Darn. So got myself up, fed the cat, got the dog some peanut butter in his 'kong', make myself a cup of coffee, and jumped on the computer while the getting was good. Steven has been doing lots and lots of homework, so I can't very well take it away from him. I'm so proud of how hard he's working on doing well in school. Okay, so I don't get to the computer so much. It's a living.

In a couple of hours I'm going to head on in to Beaverton, going to the Nike campus for training. One of my friends, Shelia, is a team captain (that's her and me in the first photo) for the upcoming 'Portland to Coast' run and one of the requirements for each team is that they HAVE to provide three volunteers. She does a lot of volunteering, she's always been there for me, so I figured I would help her out as well. The volunteer training is at the Tiger Woods building, so I'm excited to go there and check it out.

The funny thing about this is when we signed up for our volunteer times you signed up for a 'hand off' slot. No times listed, etc. So I signed up, I got my first choice, and it ended up being for 5:30 AM outside of St. Helens! OUCH! LOL. Oh well, I am an early riser folks. Now I know why the folks that set this up didn't list out the actual times of volunteering.......

Hey Ellie, what's happening girlfriend?

While taking tickets at the Cure JM concert some of my favorite girls came by. Ellie (the one sticking her tongue out at me) and Alexis. How cool is that?

Ellie decided to get on out there and have some fun!

Hey Mickey!

She is so brave. She went right on up to ole Mickey and gave him a hug.

But all good times have to end. Bye Ellie: see you soon!!!

Cure JM

Saturday Mark and I worked at a benefit to cure JM: Juvenile Myositis. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own cells and tissues. This rare disease affects approximately 5,000 children in the United States, and it can attack almost all systems of the body.

While volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House one day I met Damon, who also works at Intel: his son Mason has JM, and Damon helped bring this amazing event to being. Mark and I were very proud to help.

Dutch Brothers was also proud to help. They have also done great things for Relay: I adore Dutch Brothers.

The stage set up was perfect.

And because of so many Relays there, I have a soft spot in my heart for Hillsboro Stadium.

Mark and I picked up our shirts and prepared to take tickets. Not by force, I promise!

There were many acts, with two young ladies the head liners. This young woman is Jessica: she is 19 and is from San Diego. She wrote a song titled 'Miracle', and she dedicated it to Mason. It is a lovely song, and her song inspired the concert. In everything I saw about this young woman she is kind and sweet and talented. She spoke to everyone who wanted to meet her, and I was impressed by her kindness. Here she's performing with a local HS choir.

I missed most of Jessica's singing due to working, but glad I ran out and took a few pictures. But what I heard while I was taking tickets was pretty darn good!

The other head liner was Savannah, a 16 year old from Hillsboro. She is also very talented (and sweet and kind), and has sung the national anthem for teams such as the Oakland Raiders, LA Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, and the Portland Beavers. She's quite a star on YouTube and from what I saw and heard I can see why. She was amazing on stage, and she gives quite a show.

Many celebrities making the rounds. Elmo was quite a hit with the ladies. The woman in red was in charge of us ticket takers and she was wonderful. And the gal in blue was one of our fellow ticket takers and she was a blast to hang out with.

Here's Mickey, working the crowd.

You rock Mickey!

There were vendors, selling a bit of this and that.

A very important message. I want to see it come true.

Here's Mark manning his post (while I goof off). Oh well, he's used to it.

These are some of the nicest folks you'd ever want to meet.

They had us cracking up. I gather one gentleman was leaving the stadium, talking on his cell phone, and he literally 'bounced back' off of the turnstile (it wouldn't turn the way he was going). Mark and I weren't there for that, but I guess these three young ladies burst into laughter when it happened, especially when they realized he was hardly fazed by what happened. In fact, they figure he wasn't even aware anything had happened. Man, I would have loved to have seen that!
Portraits were being done. Saw this while I was goofing off.

Great idea. I really liked this.

Rock Star: they're everywhere!

Some lovely ladies from Fred Meyers. They're so good about helping out in the community.

Hey Mickey, I already told you you rock! You're the man.

Oh, you're the mouse. That's it. Sorry about buddy.

When we asked if we could take their picture with Jessica (second from the left) these young ladies were THRILLED. They were so excited. Good to see these young ladies admire someone who is decent and worth admiring. That was worth the price of admission right there folks.

Elmo was back at it, making friends. This little guy was too darn cute.

Damon got up on the stage and talked about Mason. He spoke from the heart and I'll tell you, that means more to people than anything.

Savannah sang a song for all the families affected by JM.

Okay, I confess: I fell in LOVE with this little guy, from the moment he walked into the stadium. He kept waving at someone in the crowd and I just adore him. Don't you?

Jessica sang a song to Mason. Two very special folks here people. We're lucky folks like them are here and we get to know them and have them in our lives.

Family is what it's all about. I'm sure you can ask Damon and his wife what's important, and they'll be able to tell you.

Mason is the light of his parent's eyes, and I hope that they continue to give us opportunities to raise money to fight JM. Relay has given me the chance to raise money for cancer research, and that makes me feel like I'm doing something for my mom (love you). I'd like to continue to help raise money for Mason, and the other children whose lives are affected by JM.