Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Purple Day, Hammies & Brochures...Oh My!

I had so intended to make a Purple Day post, but just didn't make it yesterday. Rachel and I wore our purple (shirts, nails, bracelets, and the bands on Rachel's braces), and tried to spread the word in our limited fashion. I was not very organized this year, but I hope to do better next year. 


Here we are...

We also have a new family member. Her name is Akane, pronounced either ah-KANE, or ah-KAHN-ay. Rachel says either is fine. She's very different from Namine, who we lost a few weeks ago. She was very special, and we miss her still, but having Akane does help some.

Akane....


In addition to all this excitement, we now have 3 more brochure stands going: Brett's Aunt Cuyla took one to put up at work, we placed one at Elsinore Framing and Fine Art Gallery, and another at Affordable Framing. We thank them all for their support of our efforts.

I had the pleasure of adding $195 to our thermometer total today, and we're now at almost $10,300! We have a ways to go, but we hope that having the brochures out will really start to pay off soon. Still, we've been very blessed by the amount of giving that folks have done already, and it may take more time, but Rachel will eventually get her dog.

-Kelly


Thursday, March 15, 2012

More Brochure & Donation Goodness

Please excuse me if I ramble today. I'm really wanting to get everything that I need to written down before I forget, but I know I'm going to miss something. The weather and busy-ness have me a little whacked right now.


Since the last update, we have been contacted by a lovely person who found one of our brochures at Coldstone Creamery, made a donation, and then encouraged her friends and business contacts to host a brochure stand. We're hoping to start getting lots of emails about that. In the meantime, she gave us the name of a friend who owns Dawn's Pet Grooming, who did agree to let us leave a stand.:)


My Mom was able to place another stand at 6th Street Wine and Deli in Junction City, so we now have a total of 7 stands in place. In addition, we've handed out several brochures to folks here and there, so we hope that donations will really pick up now.


In addition, donations have continued to come in fairly regularly, and today I received email notifications for donations that put us over the $10,000 mark on the thermometer! Every time I make an increase on the thermometer, I stop and think about what great friends we have, even though we don't even know all of their names, and it humbles me. Thank you all.:)


Rachel had a neurology visit in Portland today, so we slogged there and back, but she is doing well, and we don't have to change anything right now. There is always room for improvement, but making med changes can be tricky, and it's a huge balancing act. We take things very, very slowly. We have excellent care and support at Doernbecher, and it'll be hard to move on to adult neurology when the time comes.


So, please keep sharing our story, and sending us good luck vibes. We can feel them.


-Kelly



Friday, March 9, 2012

Raise The Woof Is A Busy Place

Hello again, everyone! My goodness, the gaps in my writing are getting wider, aren't they? Need to get a handle on that.


Here's what's new at Raise The Woof:


1. Rachel's VNS incision continues to heal well, and the stitches are finally working their way out now.
2. School continues apace, and takes up most of our time, but is still so much less stressful than attending regular public school.
3. The beautiful, professionally printed brochures arrived, so we have begun getting them out into the community a bit. So far we have stands out at our dentist, Dr. Albert Maziarz of Sunnyslope Dental, in South Salem; Spud Brothers Pizza in the Evergreen Plaza; Cold Stone Creamery on Center St NE; and at Big Town Hero on Center St NE. In addition, my mother placed a stand at Blachly-Lane Electric Co-op in Eugene. Thank you all for your support! It means so much.


Here's a photo to show you how they look in the stands:


4. We lost our little Namine the Hamster yesterday. She passed away suddenly while we were out for the day. This is a big loss for Rachel, and we'll be having a little garden funeral later this afternoon.
5. The lighted garlands have been selling like gangbusters, and we are pleased to be able to increase the thermometer by another $180!:)


The sun has just begun to shine every few days here in the mid-valley, so I've been working on getting Rachel out to the park whenever I can, between studies, rest, fundraising, etc. We need to do more walking, so we'll be ready for the Epilepsy Walk on June 15th in Portland. Not much time left.


I'm really hoping that the brochures will help us boost our funding even more quickly, and I'll be able to come in here, with big numbers to add to the total. Thanks so much for hanging in there with us.


-Kelly