The Stingeries

Monday, April 30, 2012

Wordle and Our Week

I love alliteration! It's probably one of the only concepts I retained from English class and inspires the titles of most of my blog posts.

Moving on...

The boss I had in the last job at COP is one of my favorite people. He is a strong Christian man who I developed a good relationship with and could talk to about stuff beyond work. He is also the only person I know who could get away with asking me on a regular basis if I am pregnant and when am I going to have a baby. (5 years, Robert!)

A couple weeks ago he sent me this neat photo. He is a gadget guy and found a website called Wordle that will take a URL from a blog and create a word collage. Pretty cool! Apparently there are people out there who do read the blog! ;-)

Last week brought to a close my Tuesday Bible study. It was a wonderful lesson on John and I am excited to start Jeremiah in the fall! During the summer, I will be taking a study called "Loving Your Husband God's Way". I am looking forward to it!

Jason had his LAST CLASS!!! He is studying for his final tomorrow night and then he will be FINISHED!!! Graduation party plans are underway and I cannot wait for May11-12 to be here!

Thursday I had a lasik enhancement in the right eye. I had lasik last July (read here) and knew that there was a strong probability that I would need an enhancement because my prescription was so negative to start. Look here is my eye!

The enhancement went without a hitch and my friend Catherine came over to visit and to admire my sweet collection of Vera Bradley. (I went a little overboard since it's a retired pattern, but I bought everything half off so that makes it acceptable, right??)

This weekend Jason and I did ....(drum roll please)....almost nothing! (What? A person can't change overnight!)

Friday night we stayed in and made our traditional Friday Night Pizza Night cuisine. I bought Jason a pizza cookbook for his birthday in March and this was the first opportunity to test it out. I have to say our spicy four-cheese pizza on whole wheat crust was amazing! Probably in the top 3 we've made. Of course I did not take any pictures of the deliciousness. It was gone before I got a chance. ;-)

Saturday morning we slept in!! And I mean actually slept in! There were double digits on that clock when we finally got out of bed! We had a relaxing morning with homemade chai, latte, and donuts. They were delicious as well! (And apparently we are trying to gain back all the calories burned on the MS 150... )

We ran a few errands and had dinner with a group of friends that night. Sunday was similarly relaxing. After church we ran a few more errands and then did stuff around the house. Sunday night we got to see our friend Huy who moved to Saudi Arabia a couple months ago. We miss him and it was great to be able to visit with him!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Please Consider Donating

Earlier today Jason and I finished a two day, 165 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin. It's a fundraiser for MS - multiple sclerosis. (You can read a re-cap of it here.)

This year I was blessed to be riding for three friends who have been affected by MS.

My college classmate Mandi who was diagnosed just over a year ago with the disease.

Eric and Stacey Lutz volunteer with the MS Society and help to give back. I was honored to ride for Eric again this year and can't wait for him to ride with me next year (hint, hint ;-) ).

Lastly, my friend Cheryl whose mom Diane has been battling the disease for years and is struggling even more over the past couple of years.

Last year I was humbled and surprised to make Club 300 as #295 - meaning that out of 12,000+ I was one of the top 300. I was brought to tears over the past two days when people would thank me or tell me good job on my fundraising since they could see from my number that I was near the top.

Really I should be thanking you!! All of the many supporters who have given towards my goal. Last year I raised $6400+ and already this year I'm at $8000+!!! I want to raise as much as I can and would love to reach $12,000 and make the Tour de Champions.

If MS has touched you or if you would like to help me raise even more please visit my personal donation link here.

***Update***

I was able to get my last update/fundraising letter out this past weekend. I wanted to make sure and capture it here along with the amazing remarks my friend Eric wrote to me in response to the letter.

Here's my last letter -

Apr Final Fundraising Letter

And here are the sweet words that Eric responded to me that brought tears to my eyes -

Darcy,

Congrats!!! We were thinking of you all weekend and oh so wish we were there to hand you an orange

in La Grange and cheer you on. We want you to know that yours and Jason's support and dedication are

truly inspiring to us.

While the funds you raised are so beneficial and crucial in the against fight against MS, your dedication

lets us know that you care and offer the best gift of all... hope.

Eric and Stacey

MS 150 Weekend!

We are currently (freezing) on the van ride back to Houston. I can't sleep so why not blog, right? Kathleen is teasing me for blogging but I can't sleep. Might as well catch up! :-)

Jason and I are exhausted. I think we have full rights to be considering we just rode 165 miles over two days to raise money and awareness for MS.

If I had to describe Saturday in one word - painful. The wind was blasting NNW at 15 mph. Miserable. Our Chuck Norris-like strength helped some (click here), but it still wasn't enough. It was a long and painful day. I think Jason felt better when he heard a group of MS 150 veterans saying that it was one of the toughest days they could remember. Poor Jason... He didn't pick a good one to start riding!

But we made it to La Grange and still had fun along the way taking breaks and enjoying the ride.

We ran into Jason's aunt and uncle (separately) at two different spots. You might also have noticed the medic with Jason. On top of battling the fierce wind, the poor guy's eye started swelling and we had to get a medic to rinse it. He rode the remainder of the 20+ miles with a single contact. What a trooper!

When we got to La Grange I had a neat surprise - I am the 9th top fundraiser on our team!

We were so glad to be finished with the wind! 100 miles down, 65 miles to go!

Today we rolled out while it was still a little dark and got on our way to Austin. The weather was significantly better. Minimal wind and lots of sun (as evidenced by my thighs, calves, and nose).