Seattle Brain Cancer Walk, June 28, 2008

Cranium Crusade:

In Memory and Honor of: Larry Titus, Michael Little, Kyle Charvet, Ruth Ross, and Mike Thornhill. I will always remember you! Thank you for inspiring me to do great things in life.

After knowing five people close to me who had been diagnosed with brain cancer, I decided to get involved. Suprisingly, there were no activities or events for Brain Cancer. I thought a walk would be the perfect fundraiser to raise money for Brain Cancer research. I partnered with Dr. Greg Foltz, a Neurosurgeon at Swedish Medical Hospital who had been starting the first ever Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment in the Seattle area. My goal for the walk was to raise $200,000. We ended up raising $120,000 dollars with over 550 people attending the walk. Because of the success of the walk, Swedish granted, Dr. Foltz's Center a 2 million dollar endowment and decided to take over the walk. This was the first event in 14 years that Swedish wanted to be apart of long term. That means the world to me, because my goal was to raise money for brain cancer research, but to also create an event where people and families with brain cancer could go participate.

I lost a close friend from high school, Kyle Charvet in 2006 to brain cancer. I lost my close friend from work May of 2008. And recently in November, I lost my last friend out of my five people with brain cancer. This is dedicated to them!

Thor Radford, my very good friend and photographer, attended the walk and took videos and photographs for us. He did an exceptional job. He created this whole video for us! If anyone is looking for a great photographer, Thor Radford, is excellent. Thanks, Thor!

The 2nd Seattle Brain Cancer Walk is May 30, 2009 at Mercer Island High School!

Sweet Little Avery

Nate and Jamie Hogle have just introduced Avery Marie:


To understand the miracle behind, Avery Marie, you have to know a little bit about Nate and Jamie's story. Because of complications, Jamie was placed on bed rest at 23 weeks into her pregnancy. This is not ordinary bed rest at home with movies and ice cream, this was bed rest at Evergreen Hospital until her due date (March 29th).

Jamie was not even allowed to sit up in bed. Her friends and family were there almost everyday of her bed rest, visiting with her, watching movies, eating, even Christmas! Nate stayed with her every night in the hospital room by her side to make sure she was okay. He also had the responsibilities of buying Christmas presents, decorating the babies room, remodeling the closets, working full time, and trying not to stress out about his wife.



Jamie did an amazing job at keeping the baby healthy to grow and develop. So after 56 days in the hospital, 32 weeks along, they could not stop the labor. And here is our sweet little miracle born, Avery Marie Hogle. She was born at 10:52pm on February 2, 2009, which happens to be Aunt Whitney's half birthday. The other ironic fact is that when Whitney was born, she weighed 4 lbs 14 oz, which happens to be the same weight as Avery.

She will probably have to stay in the hosptial for a little while, but she is doing great...breathing on her own, suckling and gaining weight. We can't wait for both Jamie and Avery to leave the hospital.

Drummer in Foreigner

This is Dedicated to Ed Hogle, drummer boy:

The Drummer of Foreigner was awesome. I kept picturing my Father in Law, thirty years ago drumming in a band with an Afro. He could have chosen the life of a drummer in an awesome band, touring all over the world to perform and show off his skills. I happen to like the life he chose instead. But here's to the past, Eddie!

Foreigner Continued...

Have you had enough of Foreigner yet?

In college, Dayne and Casey made another Foreigner Video to "I wanna know what love is" I thought I would share this video link with you as well. Another very good music video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us3p4l_CgbQ&NR=1


Here is a small clip from the Concert! You don't have to listen too closely to hear my attempt at singing along after having my raspberry cosmo! ;)

Foreigner

Ahh the love of Foreigner:

Three years ago, Casey and I went to see Foreigner at the Gorge and ironically enough, Justin, our good friend from high school, was there too, all dressed up in his 80's outfit. So about a year ago, Casey and Justin made a Jukebox Hero video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtXGrb3L0hM

Stacy, Justin's fiance' and I decided to buy Justin and Casey tickets to see Foreigner together for Christmas. Unfortunately, Justin made us wait for a half an hour in line for what he thought was the concert line, but it ended up being the line to have dinner at the Casino...there was no line for the concert by the time we got there. Ha Ha, the only good news is that we only missed one good song, Double Vision.

A little clip from the concert!

Frosty The Snowman!

Christmas Eve Snowman:

I just found this picture of the snowman that Casey and his Mom built on Christmas Eve and it is worthy of a post. ;) They spent at least three hours building this snowman, making sure he had fingers (even a thumb), a top hat, and some attitude, with his hand on his hip. It snowed that night in Woodinville over 10 inches. The power went out at 7am on Christmas Day and did not come back on until Christmas night at 7pm. It was a quite Christmas with delicious BBQ turkey, a warm fire, lots of exercise and over two feet of snow. Unfortunately, Frosty died due to a decapitated head the day after Christmas.

Two Year Anniversary

December 29, 2008

It hardly seems possible that our two year anniversary has come and gone already. Casey and I decided that this is the best possible anniversary date, because every year after Christmas, we can use all of our gift certificates for our Anniversary date. :)

We went and saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood, which was really good and then went to Palimino's for dinner. We spent a great day together. And I found a pair of business pants for only $9.88...the other reason to have your anniverary after the Holidays...everything is on sale!