Day 1: 3 miles down, 642 to go

You read that right.  642 miles left to walk! Our 3 mile walk today was just a drop in the bucket. 


I'll have to admit.  I was not very thrilled to go for a walk tonight.  It was cold and wet and just not ideal.  I would have been perfectly content if Andrew came home and said, "Eh, not tonight."  But he surprised me.  He's usually the first one to put anything off until tomorrow.  However, tonight he wanted to walk.  He pretty much told me to quit my whining and go put my tennis shoes on. 

The girls were all too excited to go on another walk.  With her harness on, Lucy knew she would be walking for awhile.  (However, even those long walks don't affect their energy levels.  They both came home and ran around the entire house and are still pacing or playing with toys.)  Before we left, we mapped our walk on MapMyWalk.com.  Once around the new and old part of our neighborhood is about 3 miles, so we lucked out.

3.01 miles to be exact

We've been blessed with nice weather this winter, so I hope Mother Nature won't decide to make up for it as we move in March.  It's really hard to walk when you have two energetic dogs pulling you over ice!  I'm not ashamed to say that my butt has met asphalt a few times this winter due to ice and dog walking.  Fingers crossed that we have clear skies and warmer temperatures (or even just not wind chill) for our next 3 miler on Thursday!  (Oh and did I mention it will be my half birthday?  Just saying :) )

It's not just a cause, it's family

"It's not just a cause, it's family."  My dad said this to me just a few days ago after he and my mom made an amazing donation to our walk.  My eyes started to well up with tears upon hearing that.  I cannot think of a better way to sum up all the reasons that I chose to walk.  This just isn't a cause that you donate money to and forget about it.  It is a cause with a face.  The face of mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, friends, wives, and even husbands, fathers, brothers, grandfathers, and uncles.


When I think about the 3-Day, I think about my family.  I think about Beth, Charlie, Andrew, Ben and Chris.  I think about my parents and my brother.  I think about my future children and how this could possibly affect them.  I hope that one day we can live in a world without cancer.  Until then, I'll walk to help end it.




On a side note, we start our training on Tuesday.  We probably would have gotten a jump start on it this weekend, but it's just a little too cold to bundle up and get the coats on the dogs to go for a 3 mile walk.  While my little ladies love going for long walks, it's just a little too cold for them right now.  So we'll officially start on Tuesday.  Only 24 weeks left!  24 weeks to train and 24 weeks to raise $5100!  Please visit our page to donate.

Muchisimas gracias

While our fundraising has gotten off to a slow start, I am still amazed at the generosity of others.  Even the smallest amount puts a smile on my face.  Actually, the kind words, thoughts, prayers, words of encouragement, etc. are what make me most happy.  With any of these fundraisers, money is of course important, but I think that the thoughts and prayers of others are what matter most.  People who don't even know Beth except as my mother-in-law want to know how she is doing and if my family is doing ok.  I think that is the best kind of donation that anyone can make.


However, while I love those thoughts and prayers the most, we still need to raise over $5000 between the two of us.  So I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the following people who have decided to open up their wallets as well as their hearts (and thank you doesn't even begin to describe my gratitude):
Cheryl Burbank
Marilyn McGuire*
Jenni Seibert
Jane Dickson
Judy Marshall
Jennifer Miescke
Marcia and Skip Marshall*
Christine and Gary Anderson
Anonymous*
Jean Reuter*


*Those who donated big! $100 or more! THANK YOU THANK YOU!


Please visit our team page 

The 3 Day

Andrew and I decided back in January that we would be walking the Susan G. Komen 3 Day.  It wasn't something that we hemmed and hawed over or something we always said we wanted to do some day.  It was a decision that we made one day through text messages and the next day at about 5:30am before I worked out or got ready for school, I signed us both up.  In our eyes, it wasn't a decision that needed a lot of discussion over.  We are going to do it, done.


Well, I should preface this decision a little.  We did put some thought into it.  We did have some reservations about it ($2300 each?  That's a lot of money to raise!).  However, there was never a question in our minds about whether or not we would do it.


In the middle of January when we were back at "home" in IL for one of our routine visits, Andrew found out that his mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.  The first time that she had breast cancer, Andrew and I weren't "dating" (I use the term loosely since we've pretty much been together since we were 8 years old).  Andrew was in middle school.  Beth had a ductal tumor that was removed and then went through radiation.  For 14 years she was in remission.  Suddenly this big C word was back.  Andrew told me in the car as we drove back to WI.  I immediately started sobbing as he told me what he had learned that weekend.  Andrew is not the type of person who wears his heart on his sleeve and I cry at the drop of a hat, so I wasn't all that surprised that his water works weren't on.


Over the next few days, we learned that it was a lobular tumor which has a greater possibility of spreading.  Beth soon had to make the difficult decision of how to proceed: lumpectomy, mastectomy, bilateral mastectomy.  And as she was deciding what time of surgery to have the following week, we talked and talked about what we could do.  What could we possibly do to show our support?  Beth eventually decided to have a bilateral mastectomy and we decided to walk.


On January 31st, Beth went in for surgery and we started our fundraising.  The surgery was a success and our fundraising efforts got off to a slow start.


Now I'm the type of person who doesn't like to ask for help.  So asking for money is extremely difficult for me.  I don't want to bug people and I don't like to put myself out there.  However, I don't have to go through chemotherapy like Beth does.  I didn't have to get a port put in yesterday to aid in that chemotherapy.  So walking 60 miles and asking people to donate to my $2300 goal isn't really that big of a deal now.


If you would like to donate to our team, please visit my personal page.