Jade inspired me

Ok so Jade Janes Stellmon inspired this post...

Many of you know that Jade has MS. A lot of people in the Northwest have MS and we're still trying to figure that one out (research cost money).

Many of you know that my sister Michele has Down's syndrome. As we all know, people with Down's syndrome are the coolest (Clark Perrins, Tom Shanks, the Sainsbury twins, Juniper (she's one of my Ambassadors), and the rest are all really cool people). I honestly believe that people with Down's syndrome are better then all of us and that the luckiest people get to have one of these angels in their family. But like all disabilities, Down's sydrome causes health problems, mobility issues, and requires extra help to teach independence (that all costs money).

Many of you know a person with a developmental disability who would like a chance to pursue their education and become independent, but lack the resources (specialiazed computer software, needing an aid, and any other form of extra help cost money and the costs add up quick).

Let's all learn from Jade and get involved in something this year. Do you want to lose a couple pounds? feel good? meet new people? get a T-shirt that proves you are active in your community? be one of those people at the gym who are training for something? or simply want something to look forward to? I'm interested in all of the above, so this is what I'm doing about it.

April 4th at 8:15a.m. in Spokane is the Second Annual CommUNITY Fun Run (5K) supporting a scholarship to help people with Development Disabilities meet their goals. This event is hosted by the Arc of Spokane and sponsored by Easter Seals Washington (I work for Easter Seals). The T-shirts for this run are awesome. They have COMMUNITY printed on the front. Its only $14 to register. I just need to know by March 18th so you get a T-shirt.

April 11th in Clarkston, WA is the Multiple Sclerosis Walk. Go here to sign up to join Jade's team or simply make a donation to her. I'm sure their T-shirts are really cool too so you might want to raise the $75 to get one.

On May 30th at 11 am is the Second Annual Spokane Walk With Me. Walk With Me is a fun, family, community event to honor people with disabilities and those who support them. It is a 5K (or you can do the 1 mile route) walk through Riverfront Park. I organize this walk, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me when the people I know are at the walk. Like the MS walk, you don't have to fundraise to come, but if you want a T-shirt you need to raise at least $50. Our T-shirts are awesome and totally worth it. Click here to join or donate to my team.

Ok so I've just given you 3 reasons to look forward to Spring, to feel really good about yourself, to lose a few pounds, to enjoy three beautiful parks, to get new T-shirts, to meet new people, to brag about how involved you are.

If you want some fundraising tips check this out. You can literally raise $250 in a week without asking anyone for more then $25. I'm pretty sure that'd cover all three walks.

Get to it and let the fundraising begin.

p.s. DJ has been doing wonderfully with the basement and we are so close to being down there. The plumbing is getting finished today then its just sheet rock!

We are so grateful for our many blessings.

Many of you know that DJ has been consistently working out of town since July 14th, 2008. Since then, progress on our house has been slow and inconvenient. Who wants to work 5 12 hr days to come home and work on a house all day Saturday, then turn around and leave Sunday right after church. I know I wouldn't want to, and neither did DJ. So we've been waiting (sometimes not very patiently :)) for an opportunity to spend more time on our house. I think our needs have been pretty great. We bought the house knowing that it needed a total face lift. The house had been a rental for over 30 years, and not maintained. The kitchen was covered in grease stains, the bathroom was covered in mildew and hair (totally gross), the basement featured a toilet in the middle sitting on a 3 x 3 x 1 ft. throne (that's means it was on a wood box about a foot off the ground), and our personal favorite - the death stairs. With a lot of help from both of our families we cleared out the basement, put in a new stairway, put up new walls in the basement, put in a drain system for a basement bathroom, and re-wired the basement. So its been almost a year and this is all we've accomplished. So last month we made a effort to ask for a specific blessing.

For a long time we prayed that DJ's job would place him on a job in town, but since he chose the first out of town job, the company transferred him to another out of town job. With winter coming up, we knew his job would slow down. So we started praying that DJ would get laid off for the winter season. He finished a job last week and on the way home he was asking the foreman where the next job was. The foreman was telling him about a bunch of jobs they have contracted, but that they weren't starting till the weather warms up a bit. So he warned DJ that he was going to be laid off for a month till the jobs started. He immediately texted me letting me know. What a blessing this is for us. My job is sufficient for our needs, what we have been lacking is time. As I type this, he's at home putting up a wall. My dad has the next few weeks off so my parents are going to come over for a couple of days and help. So by March 1st, we should have a finished basement and a part of our home finished! I'll post up pictures as the work progresses for you all to see.

We know we were supposed to move into the ward we moved into, that we were supposed to buy this house, and that we would be blessed.