Fall Festival

What a busy weekend we had. Friday night was Scrapbook for the Cure. There were 20 people there and we raised $180 for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Awesome! I, of course, got basically nothing done in my albums. I think maybe 4 pages. I spend too much time walking around, looking at other people's albums and talking. I can't wait for my scrapbook retreat! It's in just two weeks and I KNOW I'll get stuff done there!

Saturday was spent going to birthday parties and doing yard work. We were so busy, we didn't eat dinner until 8:00 that night. And as soon as the girls were in bed, I fell asleep on the couch.

Last night was the fall festival at church. It was a madhouse. So many people, so little space. I think we should spread out into the foyer for some of the games. It was crazy!

But Maddie won first place for her age group. She was the cutest bathtub I had ever seen. It was definitely one of the most original costumes there. And I honestly did not have much to do with it. Maddie had seen it online LAST fall and hadn't forgotten it. So she came up with the idea and what all to use as props. I just cut the hole in the tub and blew up balloons.

Becca was an absolutely adorable Little Bo Peep. Her costume was great, because the whole thing was free. We borrowed the costume from Amanda, the sheep from Trina and the staff from the church (Christmas program prop). We had a lot of fun! Can't wait for Wed. night!

Carla and baby Jaxon

Becca and her friend Ruthie
Jeff and Super-Jasper! I had a bunch of other cute pictures, but I have been having problems with blogger all morning. So I'll try posting them later.

Race for the Cure

Yesterday was awesome! I was so amazed by the love that was shown to the Evans family. We had 145 people on Team Evans. How great is that? We were the largest non-corporate team that participated in the Race. Wow. But, it was hard to stand there, taking pictures of everyone, remembering that Melinda was here last year. It was really hard to watch the survivor's ceremony. How wonderful for all of those women and their families that they are survivors of this terrible disease. But it is so hard to think that Melinda is not one of them. That, and seeing Melinda's brother tear up was hard.

Before I started running, I prayed. I prayed for Melinda's family. I prayed God would give me strength to make it through the entire race. I even said to Pam, Monica and Susan before we started, "if Melinda could go through all the pain and suffering she went through, then we can surely get through 30-40 minutes of running pains". So I really thought a lot about Melinda while I ran. I honestly don't even remember the last mile. I looked up and I was rounding the last corner to get to the finish line.

So I know you all are wondering... I did it! I ran the entire thing. A 5K, or 3.1 miles. God gave me the strength to make it through! It took me 37 minutes and 39 seconds. Slow, I know. But that's o.k., because I didn't stop. I really wanted to, but I didn't. I only passed about 5 other runners. All the "good" runners were just flying past me. I even had one of those fast walker people pass me! A walker. But boy was she fast. She was wiggling her little hips as fast and far as they would take her. My last year's time was 33 minutes. Still not fast, but a lot faster than this year's time. I guess that is what 20 extra pounds does to a person! :)

Here are some great photos of the race:

This is Mitzi and Hope. Aren't they just the cutest? Hope even ran through the finish line with her daddy!

These two pictures are our team. I can't wait to buy a photo of our entire team. But this was just before we had our team picture taken. You can see how many of us fill up the bleachers.

This is a VERY small part of our awesome team. Julie, Pam, Jenny, me, Odra, Julie, Joan, Zach, Bethany and Jacob.

Carla, Mel and Erin. Even though it looks like they are running, they walked the race- but I told them to RUN to the finish line. They did great!Erin, Me, Carla and Mel. Don't we look cool in our shades? Thanks for going with me girls!

This is Mark's mom walking with the two younger kids. Mark's dad, Melinda's brother, Marli, Melinda's sister-in-law and Mark. Marli was so excited about the race and everyone there. I gave her a big hug and told her we did it for her mommy because we miss her so much. That made me sad. But she just kept smiling. She is the sweetest little thing.

This is the Survivor's ceremony. It was amazing to see all of these women. You think of the families that belong to each one of these women. And the friends, coworkers, etc. Why is it that we can't find the cure to this terrible disease? So many women get breast cancer. I don't want it to take one more person that I know.

In the middle of the picture in a black t-shirt is JoAnn. She is an amazing woman. She is a survivor. Not just of breast cancer, but she has lost two husbands in her lifetime. One while she was pregnant. She was there for Melinda during her trial with breast cancer. And I know that she is now there for Mark during his trial. She can relate to them both. I firmly believe we go through things in life to help others. Maybe God had JoAnn go through her terrible trials to help Mark and Melinda through theirs. She is truly a gift from God.

This is the front of our t-shirts. I covered up the name of our town.

And this is the back of our t-shirts. I covered up Melinda's last name. This poem was given to Melinda's mom and a friend, Kathryn while at the hospital. Pam, you'll have to help me out with this story. Kathryn said she was talking to Melinda's mom when this woman came up to them and handed them this poem- handwritten. She said it had gotten her through some bad times and she hoped it would help Melinda's family. (Melinda had just passed away) Kathryn said the weird thing about it all, was just before the woman came up to them, she saw a glow out of the corner of her eye. She said while the woman talked, she couldn't take her eyes off of her. She had goosebumps the entire time she stood there. Then the woman walked away, and they never saw her in the hospital again. Kathryn swears she was an angel sent to them to help them with their grief. Cool, huh? I believe it.

The World Wide Web

It's kind of frightening to think that anyone in the world can read my blog. I try not to put last names on here, or even where we live. But I'm sure someone could figure it out. I found this thing today that I think is really neat, but it has scared me a little too.

If you look above my family picture, you'll see sitemeter. This counts how many people have visited my blog. It can show me at what time of the day people visit and from where in the world they visit. If you have your own blog, it will show me exactly who visited. So I know Pam and Amy viewed my blog today, but so did a bunch of "unknown"s.

I also saw that someone from Cedar Rapids viewed my blog. That's either family or a few friends we know. There were quite a few in my town and a town near me. But someone from Italy viewed my blog. ITALY! I'll tell you right now, without a doubt, I know NO ONE in Italy. Someone from Dallas did too. I know a few people in Dallas. But not anyone that would read my blog. Unless it's my cousin. John, are you reading this? I know Mel has friends in Dallas, so they could have gone to her blog and then gone to mine from hers. Who knows?

It's kind of scary when I look at the numbers. I put the sitemeter on my blog around 10:00 this morning. I have all ready had 51 page views. Who the heck is reading this junk? Really? I'm not that exciting, I promise.

Update

Still at 164. It sucks. I have been running my butt off. I ran/walked 5 miles on Wed. (I love trekking class). Then on Friday, I ran 2 1/2 miles. I also went to aerobics classes last week. I ran 2 1/2 miles yesterday and went to class this morning.

So why is this? Because I am not "watching what I eat". I try. I really do. But then blow it around 2:30 everyday. I get bored (and a little hungry). Then I try to do a healthy dinner, but then have dessert afterwards. I have got to change these habits. It is just so much work! I know I can do it though.

The Race for a Cure is Saturday morning. I think the race starts at 8:15. I AM going to run the entire 5K. I have put it in my mind that I can do it. I know I can. I can do 2 1/2 miles on a track, indoors. Running outside, with hills, is a whole different ballgame, but I know I can do it. I will be doing a lot of praying through the race. That will help me not to think about the pain I am in. I will pray for others and I will get through it! That's my plan anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

Parenting

What kind of parent are you? I started thinking about this yesterday while sitting at Maddie's gymnastics class. I was cutting a bunch of things out for Maddie's teacher. I had two pair of scissors for some reason, so I gave Becca a pair of scissors and she started cutting the scraps. Well, these weren't the little kids scissors. They were the large adult only type of scissors. But she was quiet. No screaming, no running around, no climbing all over me. And I was watching her. I wasn't going to let her run around with them. I'm sure there were some moms there watching me in disbelief, but I didn't care much.

Next to me was another mom and her 3 year old daughter. We found out her name was Becca too, so the girls started playing together. The other Becca started walking toward the gym floor. She had probably taken 3 or 4 steps away from mom, then started spinning in circles. It was cute. Nothing wrong with it, right? Well, here is what this mom said: (all in a very calm voice)

"Becca, honey. You need to come back here. You are too far from mommy. Becca, do you hear me? If you don't get back here, then you are choosing to lose your freedom. Do you understand this Becca? If you lose your freedom, then you won't be able to play any more. (Becca is still spinning- an arms length away from mom). Your freedom is about to be lost. I am going to take your freedom away and you will be very sad. (Becca still spinning- she has got to be dizzy by now). I'm going to have to get the stroller and you will sit in it. Your freedom will be lost when you have to sit in the stroller. Get over here next to mommy or no more freedom. I know you hear me Becca. By not listening, you are showing me you want to lose your freedom. Ok, I'm going to have to start counting. Mommy doesn't like to count. When I start counting, then you know you will have lost all freedom that you did have. Here I go. I'm going to count now. Are you sure you want to lose your freedom? O.k. One, two... (Becca stopped spinning and took two steps and was next to mom)

I almost started laughing! I couldn't even tell you for sure how many times that mom had said the word "freedom". It was crackin' me up!

First of all, the other Becca was doing no harm. Secondly, she was two feet away from her mother. Grab her arm and tell her to sit down if it was bothering her so much!

Here's how the conversation would have gone if it was me:

"Becca, be sure you're out of the way of people." (Let her spin) After about 5 minutes of spinning- "Are you dizzy yet? Do you want to sit down? If she said no, I would say, "O.k., one more minute of spinning, then I want you to sit down." After one more minute, I'd tell her to come sit down now. If she still didn't listen, I'd either start to count, or get up, take one big step to her, take her by her arm or hand and say, "Time to sit with me now. Let's color instead of spinning."

End of conversation. No one lost their "freedom". Becca knows I mean business when I tell her to do something. I don't give her 50 chances to listen to me. In our house, if we have to count, the girls know what it means. When we say ONE, it means- you had better listen. TWO- means, you had better move faster! THREE means a spanking because you didn't listen. But we've done this since they were very little, so they get it.

So I guess I'm the type of parent that doesn't put up with a whole lot. Granted, it does depend on the day. But in general, I don't give the girls 50 chances.

Side note- still at 164. Had a bad weekend. Russ' sisters were here from Iowa. It seems like any time we have company that's a great excuse to eat whatever you want. I have got to stop this thinking! I went to aerobics on Tuesday. It was great. I took a trekking class today. I walked a mile before the class started, then ran/walked 4 miles during the class. Then I went to a 20 minute abs class after that. My stomach is going to be sore in the morning!

Memory Bands

Melinda has really been on my mind today. I know it's because I received 150 memory bands yesterday from her sister-law Becky. They are beautiful bands. I put mine on last night and haven't taken it off. It is a great reminder of Melinda.

One side says her name with the breast cancer ribbon and a soccer ball. The other side says live, love, smile. Melinda smiled so much. I really miss seeing her smile. So, I got on Becky's blog and watched the picture video they played at her funeral. I cried. A lot.

I'm sure that pain will always be there. Even if it's just a little. God will heal. I know that for sure.

If anyone wants a memory band, please let me know. They are $3 (or more if you want to!) The money is going to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation. We have a few mediums left (that's what I'm wearing) and a bunch of large ones.

The Race for a Cure is coming up in just 18 short days! I am so not where I need to be with my running. I can do a mile and a half pretty consistently. But beyond that is pretty tough for me. My goal right now is to be up to 2 miles by the time the race gets here. I'm hoping that adrenaline will get me through the last mile. Melinda endured a lot of pain. Physically and emotionally. So surely I can get through 30 minutes of running pains, right?

One last note: I went to aerobics for the first time since May. I was so tired at the end. I know I'll be sore tomorrow too. But, 163! It's going down at least! (I did have a few chocolate chip cookies last night though. I blame that on Matthew and Julie. I took them dinner and HAD to have a dessert for them. It would be rude to show up with no dessert, right?)