Starting a Movement

This post is so full of emotions...happy, excited, a little bit of sadness, inspiration...and on and on. I apologize now for the length. I only hope you'll stick with me and find it worth the read.
My friend Melissa and my sister AnnMarie and I have organized a team of walkers to participate in a walk to raise money for St. Jude's Hospital. This is HUGE for me, I'll tell you why.

Throughout the month of September I read a blog written by a mommy who's daughter was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor at just 21 months old. Every day for 31 days she wrote a post about Donna's Cancer Story, each day representing one month of Donna's battle. Each post detailed what Donna went through each month, from brain surgeries to the most intense chemotherapy treatments to stem cell harvests and implants, more chemo treatments and proton laser treatments.

For 31 months Donna and her parents (nicknamed Mary Tyler Mom and Mary Tyler Dad) were in and out hospitals. They watched their daughter, their baby, struggle with not feeling well, vomiting, loss of appetite and thirst and pain. Because this particular cancer is so rare, there is no treatment path to follow. They (MTM, MTD and Donna's team of doctors) had to take things day by day and formulate treatments how they felt would be best. They treated her and fought for a cure, not just to 'treat' it. Through it all MTM and MTD shielded Donna from whatever they could, trying to not 'burden' her with the details of her illness. And Donna...for being so small, was Super Woman. She smiled and showed her parents how to Choose Hope.

Shortly after Donna turned 4 years old (October 19th, 2009 to be exact), that beautiful baby I had fallen in love with through 31 heartbreaking blog posts passed away. MTM wrote that Donna knew she was going to die, asked her mama who else she knew that was dead. She learned in preschool (which she attended to the very end) that bones cannot talk. What a smart cookie.

I cried reading each and every post. People kept asking me why I was reading something so sad. My response, how could I not? I felt like it would have been a dishonor to Donna's memory, to the strength of her mama and daddy, to not read and share. It made me appreciate my own babies so much more. If I start feeling frustrated with a tantrum or smart talk, I remind myself Donna's parents wish she was still here to throw that tantrum, or talk back.

Her story is incredible. SHE is incredible. And amazing. Her parents are amazing and inspiring. Reading this blog started something in me. I did a little research online and found Pediatric Cancer receives little funding, minimal awareness. Until I read Donna's story, I had no idea September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, or that the color for it is Gold. As Donna's mama stated when starting her blog, Gold is the new Pink.

While I will always be a Breast Cancer supporter and will continue to do walks to raise money, Pediatric Cancer is now my primary cause to support. Donna inspired me. Through her I wanted to DO something, to make a difference. Through her I am Choosing Hope for those still fighting against the beast, cancer.

The walk for St. Jude's came at a perfect time. This is just the first of I hope to be many things that I can do to make a difference. So far we have a fantastic team started, and it's growing. Our donations have started coming in. I get so excited every time I am told someone has joined our team or a donation has been made. This is an AMAZING feeling!!!

So now I am going to not only encourage you to read Donna's story, but to feel inspired and go to our page to make a donation. I encourage you to share her story and our page with friends and family. I want to start a movement! I promise you it's worth it!

St. Jude's Give Thanks Walk, Detroit Our goal is $1000 but I am hoping and praying to exceed that. Choosing Hope!!!

Our team name is Donna's Warriors, in honor of an angel taken far too soon.

Read. Share. Be inspired. Be a Warrior.

**** Photos are courtesy of MTM's CaringBridge journal.

Kenny Chesney - The Good Stuff

I just love this song..... I always hear it at perfect moments.

Day 11: Something Fun

I decided to lump my "something fun" and pictures from doing the Making Strides walk last weekend into one. This is the second breast cancer walk I have done and not only is it for a good cause but I have fun doing it. This wasn't as big as the Race For The Cure I did in May but I was in excellent company.

Doing these walks gives me such a great feeling. I am already looking forward to RFTC, which I am hoping to recruit more walkers for to make a team.

Overload

I think I am experiencing blogger overload. I feel like I have so much I want to write and post about and no time to do it. And at least one will be a long one so I hope you won't be scared off by the length and will stick it out to read the whole thing. I hope it'll be worth it and I'm hoping to have some very good things come of it.

Here are the things that I have been busy with:

1) Wedding planning!!! We met with our travel agent this past Sunday to finally start all wheels in motion. Right now our task is to get all necessary paperwork and passports in order and turned in by December. I will be the first person to admit I am terrible with paperwork. It'll take a little extra effort on my part to stay on task with this to get it done. But it's pretty important so that encourages me :)

2) I seemed to have stalled on my Photo Challenge. So I need to get caught up on these somewhat. Stay tuned...

3) I did a Breast Cancer walk this past Saturday. It was cold but we had a good time. I will do a post with pictures.

4) Mark and I took the boys to a cider mill on Sunday. We had so much fun. Camden loved the pumpkins! We just let him wander around to look at them all. He kept pointing and saying "hot!" (Hot is what we tell him when he tries to touch something we don't want him to touch lol). I was able to get some pretty good pictures of us. That'll be another post.

5) Donna's Cancer Story and trying to put together some sort of a walk or donation drive of sorts. This will be my big post. I've written about Donna's Cancer Story briefly before but I want to do one in more detail, one that does her more justice (other than the one written by her mama). This is serious business to me. It touched me and affected me so deeply and now all I want to know is what can I do??? I want to help bring awareness to childhood cancer. It receives minimum funding. I would absolutely love it if people would post comments after I write this one, who are willing to participate in something or has ideas on how to start something. I want a movement here! I want impact!

Anyways...as you can see, lots going on. I will try to organize my thoughts and start getting them posted.

Life

"If God had meant for today to be perfect, he wouldn't have invented tomorrow."

"There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy and its only reward is that it's easy."

"Life is like fresh fallen snow. Be careful where you walk because every step will show."

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it."

Lately I have been learning to pause more and enjoy moments, locking those moments in my vault of memories. Particularly with my family and friends. I cherish them so much.

I read a blog last month, written by a mother who's daughter was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor at 21 months. She lived 31 months, through surgeries, treatments, relapses, stem cell harvests and rescues. It was so heart-breaking, reading this mommy's anguish over her daughter's suffering, the strength between her and her husband to keep going, learning from Donna to just live. I cried so much reading this blog but it was so worth it. Please check it out, Donna's Cancer Story.

Even though Donna's life was cut tragically short by this beast, I learned so much. I appreciate my kids so much more. Not that I didn't appreciate or cherish them before, but it did help put things into perspective. Their tantrums are just not a big deal to me now, I don't let them frustrate me.

I am looking forward to a weekend filled with Mark, my boys and friends, and making more memories. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Have a fabulous weekend. Take pictures, make memories and cherish every moment. I know I will.

Women...

I saw this today on Facebook and thought it was worth sharing. I am always saying I hope I can raise my boys to be gentlemen... And if God ever graces me with a little girl, I hope to raise her like this as well....

This and That

Things seemed to have slowed down quite a bit for us since my sister's wedding, however we are not lacking exciting events.

Last weekend I was given tickets to the U of M game. I was so excited to give them to Mark and Parker as a surprise. Just a few weeks ago Parker told me he wanted to go to a football game this year, since he's never been. Consider that request checked off! The weather was PERFECT for a football game. Final score: 58-0 U of M. Did the other team even show up?? HA!

This was Parker's and my first time at the Big House. We had so much fun. Don't you totally dig the maize and blue mohawk? Little Boy caused quite a stir and gained some fans with that one.

I am excited to start working on the details for our own wedding. We have been talking about it for at least 2 weeks now but us actually sitting down with the computer, paper and pen to work on it hasn't actually happened yet. I've been exhausted in the evenings and falling asleep very early, leaving Mark to watch tv alone. :/

Have I mentioned lately how great he is? Really. A girl couldn't ask for a better fiance. I was a bit under the weather on Monday and he brought me flowers at work, a slurpee after I came home and when I passed out on the sofa before 8pm he tended to the boys and put them to bed. He also stood for 2 hours yesterday, folding the clean laundry I have been avoiding like the plague (don't judge me). He also gets up early every morning (even on his days off) to help me get Camden ready for the day, make lunches and take Parker to school.

How did I get so lucky, you ask? I'm not really sure, but I am so glad I did. There isn't a day that goes by I don't thank God for bring Mark into my life.

Day 10: Something I Made

Something I Made

Welcome Fall!! This is my favorite time of the year. With the cooler temperatures comes the cravings for 'comfort' foods. This past weekend the temps barely reached 60 so on Friday I made a huge pot of chili. I consider this my first time making it 'home-made' because I really just took the basic ingredients and added what I thought it needed. The boys both hated it but Mark and I thought it was great (or at least he told me it was delicious lol). Here's what I did:

3 cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 large can of tomato sauce
2 normal sized cans of crushed tomatoes
1 medium tomato, cut up
1 large green pepper, cut up
2lbs of ground turkey

Brown the ground turkey, strain. Add it to a large pot of the rest of the above ingredients.

Here's what I added to taste:

4 or 5 cloves of garlic, (chopped in the food processor)
3 or 4 tablespoons of chili powder
a little bit of Worcestershire sauce (about 1 tablespoon)
pepper
garlic powder

Mark likes a strong kick so in his own bowl he added chopped jalapenos and some hot sauce.
It made a lot too, so you can freeze the left overs and serve at a later date.

I think that's it. I just kept tasting it and adding what I thought it needed (clearly I didn't measure much) and it turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. This was kind of a proud moment for me since I used to be a decent cook but seemed to have lost my 'knack' and have had some kitchen debacles lately.

Let me know if you try it, or what your favorite 'fall' recipe is!