Light the Night Walk - BEAUTIFUL!

After about 2 months of fundraising for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society we finally went on the "Light the Night" walk. Team Blue Skies met at the Gardeschwartz Jewish Community Center along with probably several hundred other participants. Donned our Tshirts, received lit balloons, listened to music, herd several speakers talk about their battles with a blood cancer, watched the students of Baila, Baila dance studio
dance and chatted!!!!

Then we walked.

This is our HONORED team member wearing her survivor shirt and trying to light her survivor balloon. I can say - I walked for her - because I'm so grateful that she is fighting and surviving this battle. She is my little hero. It brings tears to my eyes because I am a selfish person. I don't want to loose my little girl (or any of my kids for that matter) but I know that this battle is a hard one and I wanted to do a little something to make the battle a little light for other families who are facing this diagnosis with one of their loved ones.

And despite all the fun, this seemed to be the highlight of the evening - The BATMOBILE!!!! I heard a rumor that this is the REAL Batmobile. And my kids were so excited!!!!!!!

If you want to donate to the walk - there is still time. LLS is still accepting donations for Light the Night until January 31, 2010. You may visit out team website or contact me for donation information - and to all of you who donated - THANK YOU!!!! Team Blue Skies raised nearly $1500.00....YOU all are awesome and I know many families will be blessed by your generosity!

Alyssa Update.

I know we haven't had one of these in a while (and probably won't until after Sept 28th) but here is an Alyssa Medical Update: We have follow up tests which include a CT Scan, An Echo CardioGram, Labs and a Pulmonary Function test as well as a Port Flush scheduled for Sept 17th. We have the Follow up appt with Dr. Winter, her Ped. Oncologist on Sept 28th. I am asking for everyone to pray for Alyssa's tests to all come out clean. That is the only thing I REALLY want/need for my birthday so please pray the L*RD will provide! Thanks to everyone who continues to keep Miss Alyssa on their prayer list. WE still feel that our L*Rd is holding us up through all of this.
Thank you to all of the folks who have donated to the LLS Light the Night walk including S. Traeger, S & N. Hopfauf, the D. Family and more! All of you are awesome and I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support on Alyssa's behalf.

More Thank You's

I just wanted to Thank a few more folks for their donations to our Lymphoma & Leukemia walk.
Thank you G & T Greenlee, and S. Traeger for your donations - we are now over 50% of our goal for the walk as a team!!!! All of your support is greatly appreciated. We are doing this for all of the kids and adults who are in the midst of this battle. We sure appreciate the support that LLS gave to us during this ordeal with Cancer - we want them to be able to support other families!!!!

Lymphoma & Leukemia Society - Light the Night Walk

AS team captain for TeamBlueSkies, I thought I'd update everyone on how our efforts are coming. WE have one new fundraiser/walker join the team - Thank you Erin Marshall!!! IF you'd like to join our team as a fundraiser/walker please sign up on our team page where it says JOIN at the bottom. http://pages.lightthenight.org/nm/Albuquer09/TeamBlueSkies.
We have also recieved a several very generous donations from several individuals - Thank you to Hector and Michelle, Erin Marshall, Jennifer Herring, Dr. Byron Wall, Emma Salazar and Marvin & Margaret Marez. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support of this walk we are doing to raise funds to find a cure and new medical treatments for Lymphoma and Leukemia. This organization has been a valuable resource for our family during Alyssa's diagnosis and treatment of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Please, no matter the amount you can donate to help find a cure for these cancers - we'd appreciate it. You can again click on the link above and donate online at our team's homepage or you can send a check directly to me made out to LLS please email me at NMgoatgal@gmail.com to send a donation to me and I'll get it to the LLS office.
Thank you!

Bosque Farms Fair/Medical Updates

As most of you know we've had a rough year here at CBF Nigerians. I am TIRED.
We were planning on showing at the Aug. 1, 2009 ADGA Youth and Open show in Estancia but because we decided that our tight budget was better spent on hay, CAE testing the whole herd and a new buck who should improve our herd in both the milk pail and the showring we decided we were calling in quits for the year after the Bosque Farms Fair show. This is a 2 hour in the evening on Friday at the local fair. It's really just for fun!!!! I hope more folks come show this year than did last year (we swept EVERY class last year but every goat there had our name on it even if we didn't own it!!!! BUMMER!!!) I would so like to see an even better turnout this year - just for fun though many folks are probably planning on using that time to get ready for the Saturday show. Aside from the news that we will (GOD willing) be adding a new buck to our herd next year we are also going to take two does to get sonogrammed on Friday and since a lease buck we were going to get didn't work out I'm hoping these two are pregnant. I had a back up plan and I will use it now. I will be accepting a reservation (no money until birth) on the two does that are due (mid to late Sept and Oct 2) Everything but a doe kid out of Tirzah will be for sale. Bucks will be wethered and sold as pets unless we get a blue eyed buck kid out of Joie - that is reserved. Then we will begin our breeding plans in as early as October. For those of you interested in doe kids out of our herd this spring here are the tentative plans. If Tirzah isn't pregnant - she will go visit Joie's beau from last year in October, Piddlin Acres KR Tapdance, First doe is owner reserved. Next is CBF TD Kokoro Kiseki - she will be going to visit MCH Lost Valley ML Nekoda *S in Nov/Dec along with CBF CS Paint Th'Sky With Stars who will go visit MCH Flying Goat Jazzy Blues *S for a linebreeding on MCH Lost Valley KW Orion *S. This breeding also will bring in PrairieWood Player *D who was breed leader last year for one day milk test production!. Jazzy's dam earned her star this year as well at our club's one day test. Owner reserves a doe kid from Nekoda and Koko. Little Darkwind Blue Denim Coral is so small right now that I have NO current plans to breed her unless she hits a major growth spurt between now and December. IF she gets big enough to breed over the winter she will go visit our own CBF TD Daredevil who is owned by Camino Allegre in Belen, He is out of Joie and Tapdance. That's the plans for now. IF any of the above mentioned breedings interest you please let us know. Hope you all have a fun rest of your show year and Good luck to all our readers who are heading into State and County Fairs - we wish you all the best for big wins!!!!

That is all for the goat news. Now for the medical news - ha - there isn't any BUT We signed up to be team leaders for the 2009 NM Lymphoma/Leukemia Society 'LIGHT THE NIGHT' walk.
We are looking for sponsors for our team. If you are at all interested, please feel free to go to our team websitehttp://pages.lightthenight.org/nm/Albuquer09/TeamBlueSkies to donate on line or email me and you can donate to us through snail mail. The walk takes place on Sept 26, 2009 and we welcome any and all donators and walkers to come and join us!!!!!

Update on a past Organization of the Week.

Not too long ago I featured Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as our Organization of the week.
The folks from this Organization are awesome and we are getting a chance to help them out.
I was asked to be a team captain for their Light the Night walk/Fundraiser. I agreed.
IF anyone is interested in walking with us - The MORE THE MERRIER!!! IF anyone is interested in donating to them please visit our team website. WE are walking to honor Alyssa and she is going with us as our honored member. Alyssa has named our team Team Blue Skies.
our website is http://pages.lightthenight.org/nm/Albuquer09/TeamBlueSkies .
I'd like to share a little statistic with you all . In 1960 the cure rate for children diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma like Alyssa was only 5%. In 2000 the cure rate for children diagnosed with Hodgkin's was 96%. WE personally would love to see the cure rate be 100%. We would rather not see one single child die from Lymphoma. The cure rate change is very good for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Leukemia as well but we'd also like to see these be 100% as well.
NO parent should have to loose a child to these diseases!!!! We are so blessed to still have Alyssa!!! Please, if your heart is in it donate to this organization so they can find a cure for Hodgkin's and all of the Blood Cancers. WE would appreciate your sponsorship for this walk.

Organization of the Week - Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

This week's organization is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Their main goal is the cure of blood cancers. This organization is awesome. They have tons of information for folks who are dealing with all of the blood cancers as well as support groups and free disease information. They do lots of fundraisers and help families and people who are going thru these cancers with copay assistance etc. They also have a very unique fundraising opportunity for folks who love to run, walk, hike, bike etc. They train marathon runners, walkers, bikers and hikers and those folks get pledges and raise money at some of the largest marathons in America for the Society.
This past weekend a walker went to San Diego and did a marathon with Alyssa's name on her Jersey. We are incredibly honored by this and want to thank Nancy Jay for doing this on Alyssa and all of those folks who are dealing with Blood Cancers. WE also want to Thank the office staff of the New Mexico/El Paso Branch of LLS for their compassion and support of our family during our dealings with them. If you need any more information on the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society their web address is http://www.lls.org/ and the phone number to the local chapter is 505-872-0141. If you are interested in walking, running, biking, hiking to raise money for the LLS please give them a call - I know they'd love to talk to you! They have a lot of other neat fundraisers also so give them a call about any of those: I know there is one involving CHOCOLATE for all you chocoholics out there and one called Light the Night which we are going to try very hard to take part in. Also their Man/Woman of the Year program is a neat fundraiser as well.