32 Days!!! The Thank you note.... to... EVERYONE (in no particular order)

Only 21% more to go!!!!!!

Wow! The walk is approaching so fast!! I think I might actually start to miss days of doing nothing but walking for miles on end... okay maybe not, but I will miss spending hours on end walking with my mom talking about anything and everything. Thank you for training with me and being there for me every step of the way mom. :) I promise I'll repay you someday... you know, when you are old and can't drive 90 miles an hour everywhere, and have to go to the doctor every other day. I will be there... to call Geoff and have him pick you up ;) Just kidding :)

On a serious note, Thank you mom for walking with me EVERY single day, washing most of my workout clothes EVERY day (not going to lie there, I only manage to get them in the washer and magically they are ready to go fresh and clean the next morning), for pushing me when I start wanting to cut the walk short, for going into the grocery store everyday and buying me an orange juice because I look ridiculous wearing a backpack, for coming up with stuff to talk about when I get sick of listening to my music and want to talk to take my mind off of walking and walking and walking, and for being my support system throughout this entire walk. I couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you to my dad, who always volunteers to walk with me (even though by the time he gets back from work I'm too tired to move) :) For all the support, cleaning out half of everything you own for me to raise money in yard sales, for sending out e-mail blasts to support my fund raiser (and being very successful at it), and for showing an interest in how much I'm walking and how much money I have raised. I appreciate all the encouragement.

Thank you to my brother, Geoff... who checks in once in a blue moon because he's too cool to call from college :) No but seriously, for donating even though you are a college student and for being so supportive. :)

Starting from the beginning...

Thank you to everyone who came to my first Breast Cancer party... I love you all...

Shea- Thank you for spending two of your Saturday's sitting in a hot garage with me for yard sales... and of course our favorite part, packing up... twice. I am sorry for driving you crazy with, "dolla dolla" ... not really. I just wanted to be able to say it to you again. :D Love you!


Becky (and Chris)- Thank you so much for all of the donations AND baking for the bake sale. As well as making muffins and cookies for our Saturday morning party. I love you guys, you are going to make the best parents... only a few more days!!!


Lauren- Thank you for donations, walking with me, and all the encouragement, as well as listening to me whine when something starts hurting from training. :) You are so sweet and I am soooooo lucky to have you as a friend. (and sometimes boyfriend) haha :D Love you!


Kenny- Thank you for donations, cooking and baking, sending out blast e-mails asking if I have walked yet today (haha), and all the support and encouragement!! As well as convincing me constantly I can eat desserts because I'm walking so much... bad influence ;) haha... I couldn't ask for anything more!! And you already know I love you too! :)


Adam- Your coconut squares were AMAZING!! Just had to get that out there. :) Thank you for baking and more importantly thank you for all the side help and information. Without you I would still be sweating out salt (sick) and eating and doing many more unhealthy habits! 20 of my pounds lost are all to you!


Chris- Thank you for helping me pick out my "bling bling" backpack as you call it :P And for helping me with my garage sale stuff, in the never-ending packing up. And just for all the support in general... and I hope that you even see this, since you didn't even realize I had a blog :D haha... dork.


Jessica- Thank you for the BOXES and BOXES of clothes and goodies!! You freakin' rock! And of course for getting me breakfast and hanging out with my crazy family!! I don't think I could ever forget the "putting the tables in the truck" with my aunt. Classic!


Beth- Thank you for the donations and for all of the support. Especially the pool days of relaxing after walking so far! Thank you (most importantly) for teaching me the Hoedown Throwdown. I will not disappoint you. :D


Laurie, Trannis, & Jessica- Thank you so much for your multiple donations and all of your encouragement and support. You guys are like a second family to me, I love you all!


Aunt Sandra- Thank you so much for ALL of your donations, letting me have the yard sale at your house, and for all of your support. I love you!!!


Aunt Cherry & Uncle Carver- Thank you SO much for hauling the tables from the church to Sandra's and for ALL of your donations. Thank you Cherry for helping out at the last yard sale and convincing people they needed to buy everything. :D Love you guys!


Grandma- I love you! Thank you for the sleepovers and the donations and the food and everything else you do to always take care of us!!!


Jessie & Brian- Thank you so much for letting me have the last yard sale at your house, and for getting up at 6:00am and setting up tables from the church for me. You both are amazing!! Love you guys!


Thank you to my softball team for all the encouragement and support... whether it's asking how far I walked, or teasing me because I walked so far, or just asking questions about how things are going!!


Jenna- If I could pick any friend to do this with, it would be you. I know that you will keep me entertained, take care of me, and put up the tent because I will have no idea how. Then you will yell at me to help you (because at this point I will be dazed and zone out), and eventually we will get it set up. (I know you are laughing right now because you know this is EXACTLY how it's going to go).

I am excited to spend 6 hours in the car with you jamming out to country music, visiting the aquarium, then getting up at the crack of dawn and starting our journey.


*To anyone who has made it this far...wow... you are amazing... please send letters if you get the chance, you can send them anytime between now and October 13th in order for us to get them in time. If you scroll down about 3 posts... there is an address. :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

9 miles in the rain. Fun Stuff. Yup, I'm lying. :) I was going to skip walking and decided I might as well see how much fun the rain is in the event in rains in Atlanta. It actually wasn't that bad, minus the fact that I hate being wet and cold. :) I have ponchos, but I thought to myself, self, everyone in the neighborhood already thinks you are weird for walking up and down the streets with a backpack. Not to mention the days you decide to go walk late and it looks like I am walking home from high school, middle school, and elementary school. (Yes they let out about 30 minutes apart, just enough time to end up at the same point of the loop each time to walk home with the kids). I have gotten over the weird looks, what I haven't gotten over yet is the fact that some of the elementary school children I "walk home with" are taller than me.

You can stop laughing now.

So the poncho was not a choice. I did however find out that my backpack works great in the rain. Yay!!

So later in the afternoon, I was getting some stuff done around town and my right leg started hurting like crazy. Especially around the knee. I stretched it out and nothing hurt until I started putting weight on it again. Ouch. I have a tendency to lock my knees when I am standing because they are double jointed, so I think that might have contributed to the problem, but needless to say I was pretty much limping around for a few hours. The pain subsided after that, and then when I went to bed last night I couldn't fall asleep they were aching so bad. I have yet to figure out what caused all this because I have walked MANY more miles then this in a day and had no pains at all. So if anyone would like to shoot me over some advice or suggestions or anything.... please do! :)

Today I have decided not to walk. I thought I would give my leg a break and tackle a few papers and some discussion boards. Thoughts on whether the drinking age should be 18 or 21? :)

35 more days until Atlanta!! I still need to raise $570. Please contribute if you can, every dollar helps!!! :)

37 days, $570

Maybe I should start posting everyday :) Thank you for bringing me under the $600 level so quickly!

This morning I was looking at other 3days and basically I like to stalk to see what we are going to be doing, and I have yet to get through someones photo album without tearing up by the end. Which if you know me, is not normal at all. I don't cry. :)

I also realized I should share with you guys, especially ones who have already donated why (in more detail) that I am doing this walk. (And some of this story has been told me as I was so young).

My parents were married 10 years before they had me (I am the oldest). My dad's mom always teased my mom that she wanted a grandchild. I was born in 85 and was her one and only. I vaguely remember little things, like sitting in the car with my granddaddy when she went to the doctors (she had breast cancer), and stealing candy from her glass jar in their living room that she kept filled for when I snuck in there. I remember little parts of her being in a hospital bed in my grandparents bedroom and me having to leave the room sometimes for my mom and aunt to take care of her. As I got older I was filled in on details, my mom and I picked up and moved in with my grandparents right after I turned 3 so that my mom could help take care of my grandmother. She passed away in May of 1988.

All I really remember about her is the stories that I grew up on from my granddaddy. My favorite one was that he met my grandmother before he went into the service. She was actually ENGAGED and he still wrote letters to her throughout his time in the service and she eventually broke off her engagement and married him when he returned home.

As I got older, I experienced other people in my life who had breast cancer. My aunt, some of my friend's moms, while I was in college one of my mom's tennis partners lost the battle to breast cancer.

So how did I end up doing the 3day?

Last year I had some things going on in my life and I needed a new focus to distract me, so I decided I needed something that I hated to force me to be distracted. I chose running. I hate running. With a passion. My mom decided on her "bucket list" she wanted to have that she did a half marathon. So we jointly decided to sign up first for a 5k and work our way into it. Did I mention I hate running? :) When I started looking at all the races, I realized I didn't want to do any races that weren't benefiting something other than me running on the street for X amount of miles and crossing a finish line. So of course I chose a breast cancer race. This got me really into the raising money for breast cancer. I decided I wanted to do it again this year, but raise money for it.

A few months past (yes we did end up doing a half marathon, and it supported our troops!) and the Krispy Kreme Challenge, because I mean you have to do it once. :) But I came across the Breast Cancer 3day walk. I read a ton about it, and felt like not only will I be raising money for this, but I will actually be doing something hard that I have to put a lot of time and dedication into. Not to mention I have to sleep in a tent for two nights and use porta potties. I have never slept outside in my life and I have no idea what the inside of the porta potty looks like. Sadly enough, I was walking with Jenna the other day and asked her what one looked like, and she actually started describing a large blue and yellow thing that normally sits at construction sites. Apparently she thought I didn't even know what one looked like in general I stay so far away from any restroom that isn't located in my own house.

So, back to the story, I started my 3day journey with my grandmother in mind and my goal that I would contribute as much as I could to help end breast cancer. So that one day, there isn't a 3 year old little girl who only remembers her grandmother by stories told to her because her grandmother lost the battle.

38 days, $620

Time to update! :)

Last weekend my awesome cousin (Jessica) and her husband (Brian) hosted a yard sale (yes, the 4th and FINAL one!) at their house. They not only volunteered their property but Brian woke up at 6am to drive to his church and bring us tables AND set them up. We had a great turnout and sold most of the stuff that we had left, then we drove straight to the Good Will and dumped the rest. Not going to lie, I was happy to see it go :)

Thank you again to Jessie & Brian, as well as Aunt Cherry for spending another Saturday helping us, Kim & Sara for making a breakfast run for us, and everyone else for donating the baked goods and more items!!


I finally got a chance to walk with Jenna for the first time Sunday for 4 miles around a lake I had never been to, so it was a great change of scenery.

This week is 17 miles for 3 days straight. Today was the first day I actually had to stop halfway through because I became really dizzy after about 5 miles. I made it home after many short breaks, and we decided to call it a day. So I guess the 17 miles will be broken up this week into Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.


So I have 38 days left and $620 dollars more to raise before I leave!!! Please help me in doing this, even if it's only $5 or $10 dollars, every dollar is one dollar closer to the $2,300 goal!!!

Vacation Over :(

Vacation was awesome and much needed!!! Lauren, Shea, and I explored all of downtown Charleston over the long weekend and were educated on the history of "Charles Town", as well as ate, shopped, and well, ate some more. :) And best part of all, 3 girls, 1 bathroom, 4 days, and we didn't kill each other :) That's a strong friendship!

Here are some pictures from our trip...

The first is the Pineapple fountain where you can actually wade around in, or for some kids, they actually attempted swimming in it while we were there. :) The second picture is the bench from "Forrest Gump". And the third picture is my future home. Now I just need a future husband with a lot of money. :D It is also conveniently located two doors down from where Lauren & Shea are both planning on purchasing homes. :)













And back to the real world, I am currently eating lunch while I write this, and I have already walked 9 miles this morning. 7 more miles to go this afternoon along with a 5 page paper, discussion board posts, and a quiz. Yay me! :D

Last Last Post

Okay so that ended up not being my last post b/c I received information from the 3-day today including this....

If anyone is interested in sending me "real" mail to the event.... you can do so but it has to be post marked before October 13th and in an envelope (no packages or boxes allowed) ....

Send letters to:
Breast Cancer 3-Day Camp Post Office
ATTN: INSERT NAME OF PARTICIPANT
#370
880 Marietta Hwy. Suite 630
Roswell, GA 30075