Smiles!

We gave away our first Amtryke today for AMBUCS. It was amazing! The little boy, Jordan, who was the recipient was so incredibly happy. He didn't talk, but he kept leaning forward on the bike and trying to pedal every time Sharla would stop. He just wanted to keep going and going!

I can't possibly describe how amazing it is to change someones life just a little bit, but I hope Jordan has tons of fun riding his new Amtryke!

Cowboy Country AMBUCS

It's a great day to be an AMBUC! Check out your local chapter today and start creating mobility and independence for people with disabilities, or as I like to say, "improving lives one smile at a time."

Oh, Snap! = Wordy Wednesday

Since becoming a self-diagnosed blog-a-holic I've noticed that quite a few bloggers do a "Wordless Wednesday" post that is generally just a picture of such utter greatness it needs no words, but I don't like to follow the rules...ok, I do like to follow the rules, but I don't WANT to follow the rules so I stepped outside the box and started my own series.

Oh, Snap! Wednesdays - coming to already at a theater near you.

Oh, Snap! does contain a picture...or pictures...and words...lots of words. I mean, really? When has anyone ever known me to be "wordLESS?"

Well, here's the deal. I snapped exactly 2 pictures with my phone last week. Shocking, I know, so in order to keep my newly minted tradition alive I will post the photos from our AMBUCS Installation Banquet today along with many, many, many words and then add this weeks measly 2 phone pics to next weeks batch.

So nice of me isn't it? I'm always thinking of others. And bacon.

That's my daddy, on the right, being sworn in as the first Cowboy Country AMBUCS president.

Here he is receiving our official plaque. Ok, I'm sure it has some other fancy name, but I don't know what it is right now because I was busy taking these mediocre pictures and dreaming about the chocolate cake sitting in front of me.

This super cute banner was a gift from the Great Plains AMBUCS.

Oh my... What's a girl to say about this? First, that's me. Second, that's a bed pan. I was assured it had been bleached before they placed it in my hands. The bed pan also came from the Great Plains AMBUCS and was gifted directly to me because as Sergeant at Arms I will have the ability to fine people and collect monies from them for whatever I want. So, don't wear ugly socks to our meetings or I'll see them and you'll owe me a dollar!

This is a special banner given to us by the Enid A.M. AMBUCS. Once again I'm sure it has a special name, but the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake!

This is one of the two men who presented us with our Big Hats. I don't know the exact specifics involved with being a Big Hat yet, but I do know that you receive your Big Hat upon recruiting 3 new members to your club and you also receive a star pin for your hat to represent each person you recruit. All I can say is this dude has recruited a LOT of AMBUCS!

Mom and dad receiving their Big Hats.

Sharla and Cadence looking super cute in their Big Hats!

An AMBUCS first! A family of Big Hats!

My mom is the treasurer of our new club. Anna Blubaugh who is a past national president called her up to tell her how important being the treasurer is, and then...

She called me up with my shiny new bed pan (I'm not posting the picture here because I look like a dork and I'm the author of this blog so I have all the say in what is posted here and what you have to go check out on our Facebook page. Ha!) and then...

Every person in attendance proceeded to fill that shiny new bed pan with shiny monies to start off our new club with a bang!

And here's my momma doing her first official Cowboy Country AMBUCS Treasurer job. Counting our loot! We made off with just over 1600 dollars. Not too bad for a couple hours on a Saturday night.

Dad gives a mean speech. This is his first official President speech. I thought it was pretty good if I do say so myself. And I do.

And last, but never least! The shiny new bed pan filled with shiny monies! It's a little hard to see, but the bed pan isn't just shiny, it's engraved.

Cowboy Country AMBUCS, April 19, 2011 6:38pm Birth

Those Great Plains guys sure are funny!



Thank you for joining me for this weeks (unorthodox) installment of Oh, Snap!

Until next time, keep your bed pans handy!

AMBUCS Installation Banquet

Saturday we had our Installation Banquet for Cowboy Country AMBUCS. If you don't know what AMBUCS is you should definitely go look it up here and read about it. (I have a ton of pictures, but I left my camera at my parents' house so I'll have to post them later.)

This is our mission statement:

National AMBUCS™, Inc. is a non-profit service organization consisting of a diverse group of men and women who are dedicated to creating mobility and independence for people with disabilities.

So, the installation banquet is where all of your incoming officers are sworn in for the year, but in our case our entire club was sworn in because we're new. This is also the banquet where I used these:

Twine Cups

The great thing about AMBUCS, besides our mission of creating mobility, is that you don't just join a club, you join a family. I've only known some of our members for just over a month, but I already consider them to be really great friends. I'll be honest. At first I was extremely reluctant to join. I had a million reasons which all revolved around this, "I'm too busy." But now that I'm a member and I've been able to spend time with other members and been able to hear stories about what other clubs are doing I'm glad I joined and didn't go with my wimpy reclusive gut.

I don't know if you're supposed to feel selfishly good about doing good (I hope that made sense), but I do. I feel like by joining AMBUCS I'm already becoming more social and meeting all kinds of people which is a huge benefit for my wimpy reclusive gut. And like my momma always says, "you can never have too many friends." Then there's the added benefit of feeling good about helping people in need.

A couple of years ago when my dad was considering starting this club in our town (he's the president right now) some AMBUCS from surrounding clubs were coming here to build a wheel chair ramp for the wheel chair basketball coach at OSU. All I can say is it was way cool! To see all those people come together, some of them meeting for the first time, to build something for someone else and expect nothing in return was incredible. The smile on the coach's face was amazing. She was so happy to finally be able to invite her entire team to her house and not have to make sure someone would be there to carry them up her front porch. It's such a joy to see the change you make in someone's life.

I hope that's what our AMBUCS club will be able to accomplish. I hope we're able to raise money and give back so we can see hundreds of smiles on hundreds of faces.

Source

It's a great day to be an AMBUC!