The Race for the Cure

Last weekend, I dragged myself for 3 miles jogged in my first Race for the Cure in downtown Little Rock. What an incredible feeling that was! The Race was jam packed with 45,000 women in pink t-shirts, pink hair and pink wigs. Many of the "3 Miles of Men" even wore pink hats wrapped with boas. There were bikers honking their horns as you jogged past as well as belly dancers at one corner. I thought I might join the belly dancers next year(Not!). . .they were having much more fun than me!

The reason that I decided to participate is still unclear to me. I remember last year one of our church members talking about it and I determined then that I was going to do it with her. There have been so many women impacted by breast cancer and I really do not want to be among the group. So I have decided to "be the cure" by knowing my stuff. My stuff is as follows. . .

Do you know what the best way to prevent breast cancer is?

PREVENTION. . .get regular breast exams!

According to breastcancerprevention.org "All women need to take certain precautions to prevent breast cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) encourages you to talk to your doctor about screening through clinical breast exams (a breast examination provided by a health care professional) and mammography (x-ray of the breast). In between doctor visits, you should do monthly breast self exams. You and your doctor can plan a schedule of breast check-ups that is right for your individual situation. The American Cancer Society guidelines are shown below."

Age	Breast Self Exam	Physical Exam	Mammogram
20-39	monthly	at least every 3 years	baseline exam age 35-39
40 +	monthly	yearly	yearly

You can take an online test on this website if you have risk factors for breast cancer. I was not a high risk candidate, but there is always a chance.

This just in. . .it is a time for a nap. Hope I am leaving you well informed and part of the cure! Have a great weekend!

Be A Publisher

Have you ever wanted to have your blog thoughts captured on paper? Have you ever wished for all of those stray recipe cards to be bound in a book? Have you tried Snapfish or Shutterfly's digital scrapbook publishing and found it to be time consuming.

Well, my hubby went to Guatemala this past summer and decided to make a digital scrapbook to capture his time there. I had published a digital family scrapbook on Snapfish and he loved it. He actually bragged to his friends about my scrapbooking!! Well, then he had to "one-up-me" and found blurb.

Blurb is really cool because you do not have to upload any pictures. You just download their program. There are lots of layouts and last night I downloaded their most recent version and it is way cool. You need to check it out. I think a copy of all of your recipes bound in a book would make a great Christmas present to me. The interesting thing about blurb is that after you make a book you can actually sell it at a different price and make money off of it. Look at those mom-making-money-wheels turning :)!!!

Check out more ideas like these at Rocks In My Dryer.

Socks, the Cat!

"Yeah, Socks, that's why I bought that basket, to let you sleep in it. Forget the napkins that I like to put in there. Go ahead and sleep on em'. The guests won't mind wiping their faces with cat hair on their napkins."

Monday, Here I Come!

This post is to celebrate the fact that my Monday blahs are over that I have had for the last two Mondays. Between homeschooling my darling son and working about 30-35 hours a week for AL, I have not been looking forward to Mondays. Ok, so I know that I am counting my chickens before they hatch, seeing that it is still just Sunday evening. (which just a tidbit of trivia "count your chickens before they hatch" is a phrase coined by that Aesop Fables guy who wrote, The Milkmaid and her Pail. Just read that one the other day with that cute home school kid. Also, in case you didn't know, I am experiencing culture and education on the backside of life by homeschooling my son. I am learning along with him and am perhaps a little more interested than him.)

You know the saying, "Failure to plan is planning for failure!" That phrase is at the bottom of my collaborating home school teacher's emails and it is nothing less than true. I have planned to the best of my ability tonight hoping for success tomorrow. Hopefully next Sunday I can look at this post and say "check, did that, did that, Yay!"

1. prepared lessons for the WEEK
2. grocery shopped and made dinner list for the WEEK
3. made to do list for work (Phone Interviews, Follow Up With, and Conference Calls)
4. the best thing that I did tonight. . . I called someone from my daughter's school and told them that Mondays were too difficult for me to do prayer group and she was so flexible and we changed it to Tuesdays! That relieved like 98% of my burden. I was filling bad about not being a prayer warrior for my kids and realized that I cannot fulfill my duties as a working mom and actually get out of my house an hour earlier than normal to pick up my gal. Just not doable, without me being frantic about my work.
5. figured out something simple to take to small group tomorrow night and something difficult if time permits (the something simple will be a watermelon that we are still growing! and the something difficult will be caramel apples rolled in nuts; oh my word!!!)
6. this was pretty close to the best thing.. .I cleaned out the litter box that is in the bathroom off the side of my office. Usually I have to hold my nose while talking on the phone because it stinks so bad. . .not tomorrow! :) I can talk on the phone in a regular voice!
   

The only thing I have not managed to do is go to sleep. . .so post unedited I am signing off.