Fun With the Ryan House -- and the Coyotes!

We stayed at the Ryan House over the weekend and had a great time, as usual!  Kyle played the Wii most of the time, with a therapy swim and some drum practice in the music room sprinkled in.  Lauren and Jenna spent virtually the entire weekend in the craft room or playing with Snickers the therapy dog. 

We packed so much fun into forty eight hours that I anticipated us skipping school today just to recover, and then I got a neat phone call from the Ryan House.  They extended an invitation for us to practice with Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Jason LaBarbera this morning.  We went and met Jason and his wife, and the kids careened through the rink with him for a while until the rest of the players arrived for their scheduled practice.

Lauren with Raffi Torres and Jason:

We enjoyed watching the practice.  The NHL is in a lockout situation this year, so various players seem to have coordinated their own group practice sessions to keep their game sharp.  Our usual favorite Coyotes players were there along with a handful of players who play on other NHL teams.  I imagine Scottsdale in the winter isn’t a bad place to wait around for the NHL season to start!

After practice, Coyotes team captain Shane Doan chatted with Kyle.  As usual, Kyle was unimpressed with just talking to a player—he asked to shoot pucks with them on the ice.  Jason and Shane opened the doors to the ice and spent 20 minutes setting up the puck and letting the kids shoot it into the net, while staff and a Zamboni waited around for them to be done.  We got some pretty great pictures!

And a couple of cool photos that a bystander thought to take of us:

Many thanks to the LaBarberas, and to Shane Doan and the patient staff at the Ice Den for a really *cool* morning full of some neat opportunities!

Ryan House Run 2012

Okay so I have, like, a ton of friends who walk--or, more ridiculously, run.  What's up with those weirdos, eh?  We have cars, dudes.  No need to run.  Seriously, runners are weirdos.

So hey yeah, I am a weirdo.  I run.  I technically haven't run in a few weeks, but in general I can run and I'm conditioned to run (for example, if zombies were to chase us I could probably run faster than the slowest person around, which is really all that matters when it comes to zombie chases).  But now I have a better reason to run.  And so do you.  Or hey--you could even just WALK!  I don't judge.

The Ryan House Run at DC Ranch in north Scottsdale is three months away.  You can sign up for the 5K, the 10K, or the half-marathon. Or even the 1 mile family fun run.  Team Double Trouble needs more than two people on the team this time (thanks for last year, Jess!).  This event is so much fun, does so much good, raises so much money, and is so newbie-friendly that you ALL should register!  Five kilometers is just 3.2 miles.  Thirty minutes of your time and effort.  Easy peasy.

If you wish to challenge yourself with the 10k or half-marathon, that's up to you--but you can still use this link to register with Team Double Trouble.  I will run(ish) the 5k.  Team Double Trouble will meet at DC Ranch early, give fist bumps, then off to our starting places.  Following our events, we shall meet up again afterward, give more fist bumps, compliment each other on our Lululemons, agree that we haven't been to The Herb Box in forever and we should go back soon, compliment the weather, and in general have a great time.  Even if you can't commit to the race, you can show up to cheer me on, bribe me with a mochachino, peruse the raffle tables and gamble a few bucks to win a wine basket or sports paraphernalia 

I've already blogged about what a great cause the Ryan House is.  Sign up to do it with me this time.  Right now is the perfect time to start training for it--the Couch to 5K program was even designed for non-runners.  Your heart will thank you.  I'll thank you.  Simply put, I want to see your face on March 3rd, 2012.  C'mon, Phoenix!  I know you want to see me all hot and sweaty and gross before I've even had enough coffee to be pleasant to you.

Fine--for those of you who will won't get off of your derriere's long enough to run, but still wish to support the cause, donate to The Ryan House via Team Double Trouble here.  It's for the kids!  As usual!

Born to Run. phhhtttt NOT. But kind of.

I hate exercise--just ask my doctor. Since I was 16 years old, he's begged me to do any sort of cardio. I sit there on his paper liner and squint my eyes and jut my chin out in thoughtful, optimistic consternation as he bullet-points all the reasons why people would bother exercising and agreeably nod my head. And I still don't get it. Why run when you can walk? Why walk when you can drive? Am I right?

Usually I hate moving my body at all for mostly any reason, unless there's hooch involved in the before or after. And I'm not competitive--oh God no. But I started running last year. You could say I've channeled my inner Forrest Gump, maybe. But the best part is that I've found an amazing cause to run for--who could say no to respite, palliative, and end-of-life care for little kids and their families? London has it. Vancouver has it. How many cities in the US have this? Two. And one of those places is here in Phoenix. It's called the Ryan House, named after our personal friend Ryan. His family built this amazing facility in downtown Phoenix (adjacent to St. Joe's) from the ground up. Families of critically and terminally ill children from anywhere can come to Phoenix and reserve a stay and enjoy a well appointed room with world class medical and respite care for their child--for free.

If you've been blessed with such an extraordinary child, you know how time consuming and stressful it is to be at the beck and call of pulse oximeters, feeding pumps, body turning schedules, suctioning needs and more. If any of you families with medically fragile children visit Phoenix, you can contact the Ryan House in advance to take care of paperwork, and then enjoy your time here as a family, worry free. The nurses at Ryan House are the best of the best--and most of the doctors are the doctors we've chosen for our own kids, before the Ryan House existed. Everything about the Ryan House is world class, believe me--even the playground. What--you don't think a playground can be world class? Go visit. You'll see.

And this is why I am getting off my lazy, self-centered ass to run on 5 March 2011. That's right--I'm competing. I'm running a 5K to raise money for Ryan House so that more families can take advantage of this amazing home and amazing nursing staff. If you happen to be a runner, there's also a 10K and a half-marathon--it all takes place in Scottsdale in March 2011. If you're not a runner, then give me your money. I challenge anyone who reads this to donate $4 to my cause. Sure--$5 would be nice, but that somehow sounds like a lot more than $4. If the 64 subscribers to my blog each pledged $4, that would equal....like, a whole lot more money than this liberal arts graduate can count.

My family qualifies to stay at the Ryan House because two of my three children have a terminal disease. So, I run for my kids, too. I also run for myself, to prove that I can do something amazing. The last amazing thing I did was to mail merge 264 address labels on an Excel spreadsheet. Before that? Well, I went to Costco with three kids, by myself, on a Sunday--omg stop clapping, it's embarrassing. But to be honest, I haven't done anything else so amazing since carrying twin babies to 36 weeks gestation. After being on bedrest for 11 weeks. Uphill. In the snow. Both ways. (the clapping, though! knock it off!)

Runners--learn more and join Team Double Trouble on March 5.

Readers--send your $4 this way. And mention Team Double Trouble in the notes.

"Meh", you say. I hear you, I hear you. You need something compelling for your $4? I present this. But if you shed a single tear, you owe my team $25. (not that I could put a dollar amount on a baby's life. I just mean that certain stories compel people, and it's all for the Ryan House anyway.) This family--this mother--so encapsulates what it's like to lose a child--and a compassionate environment such as The Ryan House can be a key emotional component to coping with such a tragedy. Donate for her. Her. I've never met Faith. But I run for her. One day I hope to meet her. She's amazing.

And then go kiss your kids. Because nothing else matters. I don't care whether you throw your bills at me or not--just go kiss your kids. If you don't have kids, kiss your dog. And if you don't have kids or a dog, well, kiss a grapefruit (I don't know, what do you kiss in this situation? My grits? My ass?)

Word.