Let’s Use What We’ve Got

We have all been give talents, gifts and a key set of knowledge. And there are some of us that also have MS. I am one of those people. So I got to thinking, why not use one to help out the other?
My husband, James, and I are in the horse industry. We have horses and we love horses. It is our livelihood. He trains, we show, and we both work in web development and promotions in the horse industry through our business, RanchForeman. He also is a roper, a tiedown roper to be specific. We have a very unique network of friends and professional contacts that share our interests and that also want to help out a good cause. My husband and I put our heads together and thought that we could make a difference in the MS community, and we would do it though putting on an event with which we were familiar.
We had the perfect venue in mind. Through a work project, we met a generous man that recently put in a new private facility in the San Antonio area to raise his own bloodline of horses to train and market as roping horses and barrel horses. Another tiedown roping fan. What a perfect fit!
Stan Sigman of Namgis Quarter Horses was instantly interested in using his facility to raise money for MS. James and I were willing to do whatever it took to put on the event and bring the money in.
“My good friends, James and Tonni O'Brien, have personal experience with Multiple Sclerosis. When they approached me regarding a charitable event to benefit the MS Center of South Texas, I thought it would be a great opportunity to raise awareness for the MS Center as well as support the great sport of Tiedown,” Sigman said.
While we went into this with a “If you build it, they will come” attitude and the realization that this would be A LOT of work, we knew a few things needed to happen to make this great. First, we imagined this event as if we were simply an attendee and asked ourselves what it would take to be an event to write home about. We needed a great facility, good food, a mid-sized crowd, an entertaining announcer, good weather, some good door prizes, and most importantly, head-liner performers.
We already had a great venue. Lord willing, we would have the weather. Local restaurants could supply the good food. We set our ticket price so that our crowd size would remain under 500. We brought a fabulous rodeo announcer out of retirement to announce the event.
Ok, so now we needed the best tiedown ropers in the industry. How do we get that done? Show them the money and get on the phone! James started calling professional cowboys. He was determined that this should be an event that the best in the industry couldn’t turn down. By asking lots of questions and getting feedback from the ropers, he knew what it would take to get them here. Then, it was time to get the money. Enter: sponsors.
Sponsors made this event possible. By bringing in the top cowboys, we knew we could bring in the crowd. It would be a unique crowd – a rodeo fan group of about 400-500 people that had a passion for tiedown roping. And that spoke to the sponsors to which we presented the idea of the event. It was work, and we were told no a few times. But with continued determination, we had a title sponsor and ten $1500 sponsors. They made it a $10,000 added event, while also giving a trophy saddle and buckles to the winners. These types of prizes were a big draw for the competitors. This event was going to happen!
It was time for our promotional expertise. News releases went out to get coverage in the trade publications. Professional posters, fliers and invitations went out to our cowboys, spectators, sponsors and each piece referenced the Web site where people could go to get more information. We got involved with Dr. Gazda’s MS Center of South Texas. The director, Janet Kaufman, jumped in with both feet and helped spread the word. Volunteer, Debbie Linck, arranged local media coverage, capturing a radio spot with radio personality Katrina Curtis for Janet, James and myself. Buzz was flying and we were enjoying ourselves!
Volunteers were lined up. Janet brought volunteers to represent the MS community. We recruited the arena help and sponsor hospitality. These volunteers were key to the success of this event. We were sure to put the right person in the right place, where they could excel at their job.
Several trips were made out to the venue to ensure that all bases were covered. The team at Namgis Quarter Horses was at the top of their game and everything was on schedule to happen as planned.
The evening prior to the event was an anxious time, to say the least. (Just writing that sentence and remembering that time made my stomach flip a little!) We did everything we could do to prepare and went home to try to get some sleep.
The day of the event was amazing. God was smiling on us that day. We woke to find a cool morning that was going to warm up to a beautiful day. The stock was ready for competition. Over 50 volunteers were ready to work hard. The sponsors were there to represent their businesses. The cowboys showed up and were impressed with the beautiful facility. Former NFR Champions Monty Lewis and Fred Whitfield were there to compete. Many NFR qualifiers and top 50 cowboys completed the rest of the lineup. The spectators were in their seats and ready to see some great roping.
The event started right at 1 p.m. with an invocation. The first cowboy rode into the box and the event was off! Spectators sat in the stands and enjoyed unlimited food and drinks. Some strolled around and looked at the Namgis horses on display. Forty-four cowboys roped two calves each. The top ten fastest times went on to a short-round. During the competition, door prizes were given away by drawing, including an autographed Clay Walker guitar. After the ten cowboys roped their third calf, the winner was announced. The First Annual Namgis Premier Champion was Blake Huckabee. The cowboys’ prize checks totaled over $31,000, but the most exciting part for us was presenting the check for the amount we raised for MS! At the time of the check presentation, we had raised $20,000. By the end of the day, we added an additional $7,000 to that total, for grand total of $27,000!!!!
It was almost surreal. We had done it! And when I say “we”, I mean over 25 sponsors, over 50 volunteers, 44 professional cowboys and their horses, 400 spectators and one good Lord. Thank you so very much to everyone who helped. You are no doubt the reason this was great!
We set our sites on accomplishing something we knew we could do. Our interests and gifts are quite different than the average American, and we are proud of that. So many wonderful fundraiser events are available. But I am the first to tell you that I am not a bike rider, or a marathon runner, or a baker. I am in the horse industry and I work with promotions. What is your expertise? You have one. I just know it! Each one of us can make a difference, no matter how large or small. Jump in a get your feet wet! Or in our case – dusty.

Stan Sigman, former CEO of AT&T Mobility and cowner of NAmgis Quarter Horses, presents check to Janet Kaufman, Director of the MS Center of South Texas.

A Breath of Fresh Air

[Note: Hello!!! Yes, I am still alive! Talk about taking a vacation from a blog. My apologies. I have no excuse. I will blame it only on laziness! :) ]


I love this weather. It was about 70 degrees today with an ever-so-slight breeze. And it just smells good. It smells fresh. New. I live in south Texas and it gets hot here. HOT. Any of you who have MS know that is not ideal surroundings. So these past few days have been incredible. I can't stay inside. Housework and some of my professional work gets put in second place, or maybe third or fourth... I ride. I work in the yard. I sit on the porch with my husband and have a cup of tea. I go sit at the barn and talk on the phone. I am going to enjoy this. We don't get days like this very often.

I encourage you to do the same. Especially if you live down here. We only get a handful of days like this each year. Don't waste them by staying inside. Take a vacation day. Just go experience God's beauty. He made days like this just for you!

To rest or not to rest? That is the question...

Ready, set, GO!!!! That is how I used to start my day. Everyday. I'd hit the ground running with an idea of the 189,000 things I was going to accomplish that day. I never got them all done. Not even close.

The Western society that we live in rewards hard work and accomplishment. 80-hour-a-week workers are a gem! Unless you're the worker...

So, when I got diagnosed with MS, I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments to my lifestyle, but I had no idea how much I needed to slow down. I needed to slow down regardless of my newly found condition, and I am betting that you could use a little slow down as well. Am I right??? Even God rested...

"In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested" (Exodus 20:11 TEV).

Pretty cool.

Busying yourself doesn't always make you productive. In fact, the busier you have been that day, the more tired you will be that evening. When I am tired, I am not sharp. I close my ears. I close myself off. I cannot give to my family, my husband, and the creatures God has put in my trust. I'm quicker to snap at James and quicker to snatch on a horse, when what I need to do is just let God lead me. But if I have taken no time for myself or Him that day, I am not "leadable".

Each day I schedule down time. I usually require a nap in the afternoon. And what better way to get relaxed than to spend a little time with the Lord? So in my hour, I do a devotional, read my Bible or simple sit and listen to what God has for me that day. Then I sleep a little while. My afternoon after that resting time is typically fantastic!

Know what the crazy part is? It is extremely hard for me to take that hour each day. I would much rather keep working on the current project (you know, project 91,236...) and go, go, go! But it is much better to go willing to rest rather than have my body quit me for the next two days!!!

As I have mentioned in a previous post, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that our body is a temple. Take care of it so you can be ready and refreshed when God calls you to do his work. Need a nap? Then go take one. It's OK.

Acupuncture is a great option...

It has been a while since I posted about my acupuncture, so as a refresher, I decided to try this avenue to improve my sleeping. I started it about 3 months ago. While being very pleasantly surprised at the sleeping results I gained after about 3 weeks of it (once a week), my hair was blown back by the other things it helped with. I had been having some recurring but recent MS symptoms when I started going to him. Mostly numbness and tingling in my feet and legs, and also in my hands. By the 3rd treatment, those new symptoms had disappeared. They reappeared a couple of weeks later, but after a treatment, they improved dramatically again!

With acupuncture, the doc works on the body as a whole. While his needle placement was working on relaxing me and balancing hormones to improve my sleep, my circulation was revved up a bit. Circulation increases blood flow and blood flow increases nerve response. Very cool.

I am a fan. I would recommend this to anyone. For me, now I get to sleep without taking a sleeping aid. If I get some new symptoms, I'll got back to try to speed up the process of getting back to normal.

I encourage you to try it, but please get a good recommendation! I gotta give a plug to the man I go to, Scott Taylor. Check out his Web site! How did I find this guy? A friend of mine went through the invitro process. She went to him for several treatments around that procedure and it was successful. She is now pregnant with twins! After a success story like that, I felt pretty sure the man knew what he was doing!

Keep an open mind. There is no telling what all you can accomplish. Have a great day!

Is this my MS?

A while back, I had gone shopping and purchased some new dark denim capri pants. They were cute! Being excited to sport my news duds, I wore them out the evening after I got them. For things like that, I don't think they have to be washed before wear.

This was also a time I was in an MS slump. I just hadn't been feeling good and was having a lot of symptoms. And to add insult to injury, my shots weren't going that well either. They had really been hurting me and leaving knots in my thighs.

I got home that night after the outing and got ready to take a shower. Obviously I undressed to find blue upper thighs! I though, "Oh Lord, what next? I feel like doo, my shots are dreadful, and now they are turning me blue with bruises!!!!"

So I got in the shower ready to feel sorry for myself. After a little soap and water, the blue magically disappeared. I put two and two together and realized it was from my newly purchased jeans. Not MS. Not my shots.

This tends to happen to me more often than I like to admit. I blame more on my MS than should be blamed on it. MS does not cause everything that is wrong with me. Those of us with MS need to remember that our bodies are otherwise pretty normal and even though we have one thing challenging us, we are not exempt from other ailments.

This story of a harmless incident is one that gives me a chuckle when I think back on it, but it bring me to a good point. Keep an eye on other things. The human body is amazing and complex. Pay attention to it. Head to toe. There is no telling what it is wanting to say to you!

It's not always where you go, but who you go with

My wonderful husband and I recently went on a trip. I'm from West Texas and I have a love for that country that will always be a part of me. We had been wanting to go for a while, but just hadn't gotten around to actually doing something about it. A good couple friend of ours had some cross-country driving to do because of a new location in the military. They were headed out west before they headed north, and wanted us to go with them.

We jumped at the opportunity to have a reason to go to "God's country". We really like Stoney and Ali. We have been gradually spending more time with them which had made us realize just how likeable they really are. They are good Christian folks that are walking with the Lord. This would be our first trip with them. Now having MS, there is always a little bit of underlying stress with traveling and most especially, not wanting to be the party-pooper when it's only 10 pm and everyone is having a great time, and I need to go to bed.

This is the first time I have been on a trip with someone else who has MS. Ali has MS. She was diagnosed a couple of years before me and has been a mentor for me. Most especially on how to keep a positive attitude and go on living a regular life. She runs and bikes and works out. She is an amazing photographer and her pictures inspire me as well. (check out her Web site) We do a bit of photography with our horse business development company, so it is so fun to talk photography.

It was such a treat to be on the trip with them. No only because of the quality of folks they are, but also because they know how it is. They plan for afternoon stay-out-of-the-heat and rest time. They know that we need to get back at a decent hour. They know what the "droop" is. They know the importance of low-stress. I always worry about how everybody is gonna take my need for down time. Are they going to think I'm sick, or bored, or mad? And not only that, most people just don't really understand. They want to, but just haven't experienced it. Either they forget, or they dote on you and the fact that you have MS. What a relief to have that worry taken away!

So thanks Ali and Stoney! We loved seeing West Texas with you and just hanging out with you. These are a couple of people I would go on a trip with anytime.

Consider these things when you plan your travels. I certainly don't want to discourage your travels with "healthy" people. But this "insider information" makes a great trip even that much better!

Listen to your mother (and your body)! Eat your fruits & veggies!

I wish that I didn't, but I like the junk food. I don't eat Big Macs every day or anything like that, but I eat what I can grab and go. I try to eat right, but I slip up now and then. And recently, I noticed something.

When you have MS, your body lets you know when it is upset. And it doesn't whisper to you, it usually yells at you!!! I have gotten to where I don't eat the greasy burgers, pizza and cupcakes very often (even though they are oh so good...). But the other day I had about a 3-day spread where I WAS eating stuff like that. We travel a lot and that's what we were doing. Traveling and hurrying. I hadn't cooked in a while, so we were living on fast food. After about day two, I was not feeling good. When day three came around, I just wanted to go to bed. Nothing else had changed. I had been getting my rest, which usually is what affects me. There wasn't any unusual stress. The weather was nice. After thinking about my diet the past few days, I put two and two together. I MUST EAT BETTER!

So I made an effort to clean up what I had just done to my body. I loaded up on the fruits and vegetables. I had a mid-morning yogurt party for the next few days. I ate grilled meats. I ate salads. An apple was my afternoon snack. I cut the sodas and only drank water. And low and behold, I started feeling about 99% better! I wasn't as fatigued. I was in a better mood. I was simply better.

The Bible tells us our body is a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Take care of it. If not for yourself, for the Lord. When you feel good, you can better do his work. Go have an apple!!!!