Thurston County Youth Football League Jamboree

The kick off for our County League Football starts with our jamboree. All teams come throughout the day and play 15 minutes each offense and defense against different teams, two teams at a time on the field. It is a crazy day with tons of people coming and going. My husband is the official team photographer and I am the team coordinator. We volunteered to work the gate taking $1 donation entrance fees and marking people hands for re-entrance. We were so busy the time flew by!! It was so much fun, I saw many people I went to school with it was like a reunion!
Our T-Bird Major Varsity team did great. We can't wait for the games to begin. This is a team who has played together many years and have been undefeated for 3 of them and also have won the championship for 3 years in a row!

Send off Party For Mrs. Washington

Saturday we got together to celebrate our new Mrs. Washington. She is off for a week to compete for the title of Mrs. America. She modeled her fabulous wardrobe and she looked amazing! We are so proud to have her represent our state. Many former Mrs. Washington's attended to wish her well.
Carla is an amazing woman she is truly a Queen! I will be going to cheer her on for the preliminary and final nights. I am so excited for her. Our state won the MENC appearance award! From a combined effort from all of us delegates they totaled all of our appearances that were MENC specific. I am proud to have helped contribute to our effort and I firmly believe in what MENC stands for. Carla will get to receive the award on stage for everyone to see. It is truly an honor.

Sand in the City 2010

Sand in the City is and event to raise money for our local Hands on Children's Museum. Tons of sand that is stored and recycled every year is brought in and teams compete against each other to build the best sand sculpture. There are also tons of fun things for kids to do playing in the sand box, arts and crafts, games and much more. They also host a gala and parties in the evenings for adults. As a volunteer I helped greet visitors, handed out information and collected donations. It was a beautiful but chilly morning. My children grew up visiting the hands on children's museum and having birthday parties there. It is a great place to learn, create and have fun. So many volunteers give their time and talents to enrich our children.

Vacation Time!

Create your own free digital slideshow

Our family headed off to Florida for a well deserved Vacation. We stayed at the Portofino resort at Universal Studios. We've been here several times but the new Harry Potter area was new to us!! Staying at the resort allows you to get in to the park an hour early and thank goodness we did! We had to wait in very short lines and got to see and do everything each morning before it got too hot. When we would leave the Harry Potter area there would be a huge line of people waiting to just get in there and then once those poor people got in they had to wait in long lines for each ride or exhibit. Even the stores to shop in had waiting lines! It was crazy! We love the Harry Potter books and movies and it was so much fun to be in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts and feel like you were really there.
Our favorite drinks were the Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice! Butterbeer tastes like gingersnaps and butterscotch. It is so yummy! The froth is made seperately and that is the part that tastes like butterscotch. It does not melt in the cup and once you drink it down you slurp up the froth. I can't imagine what chemicals are in there but wow it sure tastes good!
After we spent time at the park in the morning we would go back to the hotel and swim in the pool but even that did not cool us off, the water was too warm in the pool! We took showers at least twice a day because it was so humid!
We spent one night in Disney World at the Beautiful Swan Resort. We had some points racked up so it was a free stay. We are not Disney Fans....I know some consider that a sin but it's true. So we did not go to any of the Disney parks we just hung out at Downtown Disney, Disney Boardwalk and the pool!
We had a great time as a family with only a few scuffles between the boys. I hope they will have fond memories of our time there. I am sure they will go back someday with their kids!!

Cinderella's Closet Ballroom Blitz

Our fundraiser for Cinderella's Closet raised $1015!! It was a horribly Hot night in the Ballroom, but we still had a great time. My son's band Friday Farewell opened and they rocked the house! A little too loud for the older crowd but still entertaining. Our band The Replay finished out the night in the sweltering heat! Thank you so much to Mrs. Washington 2010 Carla Richards for coming and supporting the event.

Unleashing her potential Sandra H.

I met Sandra at the CEF golf tournament. She was a cheerful volunteer helping to make things run smoothly. I found out she is a 20 year survivor of Hodgkins. She decided to celebrate her 20th year by doing a 20 in 20, meaning she is working towards being a part of 20 cancer related events this year. She just signed up to be a part of Team in Training which will run a 1/2 marathon in January. She has never done something like this before and is really not sure what she is in for but, she is forging ahead and working toward an amazing goal. She is able to bless other people with her experiences and understanding, and what a great way to celebrate by giving back to others.

Ironically(to me), she asked me what I mean when I talk about unleashing your potential, when what I heard from her was that that is exactly what she was doing! Sometimes unleashing your potential is not intentional or pre-thought out. Anytime you step out of your comfort zone and try something new you are unleashing the potential that was there already wether you knew you had it or not. You can grow from these experiences and often they will lead you down a new unexpected path. When trials or tragedies come into our lives it is difficult to see what good will come of it, especially when we are right in the midst of it. I know in my life there has always been good or growth that comes from those trials.

Congratulations to Sandra I am inspired by her and example and I wish her all the best!