We froze our butts off at the walk - it was a whopping 44 degrees, windy and looking like it was going to rain at 9:50. The walk began at 10:05 and a few minutes later, rain started to lightly fall. Rob ran to the car to get our umbrella, as did a bunch of other walkers. But many walkers weren't prepared for the rain. It took me about 10 minutes to "warm up" - my eyes kept watering and my nose was a faucet - but once I warmed up, the walk was much better. We were keeping a pretty fast pace as we had to keep passing slower people.
There were all kinds of people walking in the walk - young enough to be in a stroller, old enough to be retired, fit enough to be runners and/or other active looking people, un-fit enough to consider a 5K walk a substantial workout, and lots of four-legged furry friends (including 2 of the cutest GSP's I've ever seen)!
It was so cold, Rob put his kidney walk t-shirt on over his polartec jacket, then when he went back to the car to get the umbrella, on went another jacket on top of that. It just wasn't fair that the weather was so yucky. The day before the walk, which happened to be Rob's 37th birthday (more on that later), the temp reached 80 degrees. Then a little more than 18 hours later, the weather was a dreary 44. Ugh.
Here's a pic of Rob and I at the end of the walk.
Yes, I know, I look like a big time dork with my kidney walk hat on top of my beanie cap...but that should show you just how cold I was!
After the walk, we all gathered inside the RTP headquarters building where the Foundation's big whigs all got up to talk and thank everyone for coming out and raising money. We were hoping that we'd be recognized for our fundraising efforts because I was ranked in 5th place out of everyone for individual money raised. (See Triangle Kidney Walk home page)
Here's a pic of us standing with the Kidney mascot, who spent the whole walk dancing around to invisible music with hot 80's and 90's dance moves like the Roger Rabbit and the Cabbage Patch (oh those were the days, weren't they?)
I tracked down the director of the walk, Carina Montanari, to ask her about the "reward" we earned for fundraising more than $1000. Straight from the website, it says:
Apple Ipod Shuffle ($1,000.00 +)
Each individual that raises $1000 will receive a free Apple Ipod Shuffle, a Kidney Walk Baseball Cap, and Kidney Walk T-Shirt.
We found out that they will order the iPod rewards (for those who raised $2K or more, the reward is an iPod Nano) in a couple of weeks because they keep the fundraising tools open online for those last-minute donations that always seem to trickle in. So if you're reading this, and you meant to donate, you still have time!
I'm going to give the iPod to Rob when I get it. It will be an extra birthday gift for him. So Rob is 37 now, which puts him in the last year of his "mid 30's", as when he turns 38, he'll be pushing "late 30's"! Psssh, like I should tease...I'm the one who's sadly counting down the months, and eventually, days, until I turn the big 3-0. OH NOooooo! It's all downhill from there, right? ;)
I had to work like normal on Friday, Rob's b-day. It would've been nice to take the day off, but since I have a new nanny job (yes, newer than the one I wrote about 2 blog posts ago) I didn't feel right taking a day off so soon. So my new kids, Ben (will turn 3 in June) and Sophie (will turn 2 in October) and extremely adorable, fun, smart, and all that other cutesy-ness that I could describe, but I'll leave it at that, for your sake.
It's been an extremely trying work week for me as Super-Nanny, as Ben just started potty training and while he has had lots of successes (YAY! You went pee-pee in the toilet! You get a sticker and a high-five!), he's had just about as many accidents (it's okay, everyone has accidents when they're learning - said with a gigantic, warm, ooey-gooey "I love you anyway" smile on my face) So on Friday, I announced to Ben that when Sophie took her nap, that we were going to make cupcakes for Rob, and that he could help me decorate them and eat some. He was pretty excited.
The cupcakes came out awesome! The best I've ever made, I think.
We invited a few friends over to the house later that night for pizza, beer and cupcakes. It was a really fun night. For a present, I got Rob a nice pair of Wireless Headphones from Radio Shack!
With these headphones, he'll be able to watch movies at night after I've gone to bed (he sometimes stays up later than me) and keep the volume up loud enough for him to hear everything, without it waking me up.
Rob starts training for Home Dialysis on April 7, and it lasts 3 weeks. I have to be there for the 2nd week of training because I'll need to learn how to insert the needle and all that ucky bloody stuff that I don't like to look at. I'm sure you'll be reading blog posts about that when the time comes!
Thank you again to all of the wonderful people who donated to our Kidney Walk fundraiser! Have a great week!
