Theo was off of school this week! Nurse Stephanie came back from her trip, we were super busy at work, and I was panicking about Sami's Law. It was a very long and busy week!
Northern Integrity is going to be participating in a charity golf game this month and we are donating four items for a raffle.
I've been working hard on getting the item together and they are finally ready!
We are donating a golf bag with this awesome towel and a Northern Integrity towel.
And we are donating three golf trunk organizers filled with golf balls, tees, towels, bourbon, hats, and these hilarious golf ball shots.
[Golf ball shots]
[Northern Integrity golf towels]
[Hats with our logo on the side]
[Don't they look great?!]
We also got a bunch of SWAG to send to our employees 😁
[Safety vest with our logo]
Theo finished his Zonisamide wean, so he had to get labs done. While we were in the waiting room we saw Cory Lee on the TV! He's a wheelchair user who travels the world and documents it all on his Instagram and Blog. He's very inspirational!
I've been watering our plants daily and I don't know what is going on with these bushes on the side of our house. They come back every year, but a couple of them are really struggling.
What is happening here?! May I should just rip them out and put in a cute bonsai bench.
Josh went golfing and saw some cool dinosaurs and I finally beat Mario Odyssey!
I kept taking pictures of my progress and sending them to Luke and Andie. I really needed some encouragement!
The last two weeks have been VERY stressful when it comes to trying to get Sami's Law passed. There was lot of confusion on who was going to sponsor the bill after it left the House and went to the Senate.
We almost ran out of time twice, and the day before the last day of the session a lobbyist group representing colleges and universities showed up and threatened to derail our bill at the last minute. I got a message late on Friday night from Senator Collins asking for my opinion on the new amendment. The colleges and universities don't want to put adult changing stations in the stadiums. It's similar to what the High Schools were fighting us about. Do they not know that disabled people also like to go to football games? Give me a break!
We compromised with them and moved the bill forward. I was glued to my computer all day on Sunday because I knew the bill was either going to pass or fail. We had no time to spare.
[No, I'm not worried...]
I then heard our bill called and I started recording:
It passed! If you wait until the end of the video you will hear me yelling 🤣
46 to 12 which means we have a veto proof majority!
I got a message from Senator Collins who let me know it passed and it was on it's way back to the house. It needed to be passed again in the house because of the last minute amendments that were done in the Senate. At 2:41 AM I got a message from Representative Briel that the bill passed the House again and Governor Pritzker promised to sign it. Even if he vetoed it, both the House and Senate had veto proof majorities!
I want to thank Representative Briel and her staff for putting up with me and taking on this bill. We had to battle lobbyists together and it was a tough fight. I'd also like to thank Senator Collins for sponsoring the bill in the Senate. Even though there were some technical issues and confusion she kept up the fight and got the bill passed there too. AND of course I want to thank every one who sent in witness slips, sent in witness statements, testified in person, made phone calls, and sent messages to their Senators and Representatives! We were able to get a bipartisan bill because of all of you! Our fight it not over, but this Law will help bring dignity to so many is our community. Thank you!
