Quick 3 Day Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know how much I'm loving my 3 Day experience!!  44.2 miles down, 15.8 to go.  Can't wait to see my family at Closing Ceremonies tomorrow!!

A Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure Walker in SERIOUS NEED!!!!

Hello,

I have taken on an incredible challenge. On September 24th - 26th, I will be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men taking this journey with me.

It's for an event called the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. Net proceeds from the Komen 3-Day for the Cure are invested in community-based breast health programs and breast cancer research. The research funded focuses on decreasing breast cancer incidence and mortality in the next decade. Susan G. Komen for the Cure works hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I need to raise $2,300 to help bring us closer to that goal. I am also an official Training Walk Leader, so I can help other women prepare for this journey. We walk together several times a week, logging countless miles.

I've been spending the past few weeks preparing for the event and have really made a lot of progress. So far I've raised $1400 - only $900 to go! My training is also going well. I've walked over 100 miles in the last 24 weeks. I can hardly wait to hit the road with the thousands of other women and men who are joining together for this common cause.

Please consider making a donation. If you can't give all at once, you can spread it out over four months, using the payment plan option, if you donate online at The3Day.org. Please also ask your employer if they will double your donation with a matching gift.

Here is my link to my personal page to donate: http://www.the3day.org/site/TRC/2010/SeattleEvent2010?pg=peditor&fr_id=1471&px=4587524

Unfortunately, breast cancer has become an all too common occurrence among women and men throughout the world. Now is the time to take action to help end this disease. Without a cure, one person will die of breast cancer every 13 minutes in the United States. I hope that you'll share this incredible adventure with me - by supporting me in my fundraising efforts. Donate for your mother, your wife, your sisters, your daughters. Donate so that none of these women have to fight the uphill battle a diagnosis of breast cancer brings. One in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. That's why I'm walking in the 3-Day for the Cure. To do something bold about breast cancer - because everyone deserves a lifetime.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Sincerely,

Molly Gets Stuck

After our ER trip the other day, we went to my parents' house for dinner.  When we're there, we let Molly run around outside with their dogs.  In case you didn't know, my parents also have cows.

At our house, we have a shallow watering trough that we keep filled with water in the backyard.  Molly plays in it, and sinks her toys in it, and drinks out of it.  It's only about 2 feet tall.

At my parents', they have the same trough, but its a lot deeper, for t heir cows to drink out of.

Can you see where this story is going?

While sitting around in the kitchen chatting, I decide to peek outside and check on Molly.  I don't see her, so I start calling her name.  She was nowhere in site.  Then, I could faintly hear her crying.  But I had no idea where she could be stuck.  I happened to glance into the cow pasture, and see her little blonde head poking up out of the watering trough.  I ran as fast as I could out there, not knowing just how much water was in there/if she could touch the bottom.  Luckily, there was only about a foot of water in the trough, so her legs were covered and her belly was wet, but she wasn't drowning.  She just didn't know how to get out!  She obviously thought this trough was just like hers.  I had to lift her wet little petite rather heavy body out while she squirmed around.  Behind me, back at the house, I could hear everyone else dying of laughter.

Looking back, it was quite hilarious seeing her in there.  At the time though, it scared me half to death!

This, people, is why I do not have kids!!!!

Just What My Anxiety Needed... Not

Yesterday, Josh went off to work like usual.  I got ready for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure team BBQ.  I brought my Cake Balls I had made, as well as a green bean casserole.  I arrived, and had a ball.  It was so much fun talking to teammates more, meeting their families, eating all kinds of delicious foods, and really bonding.  And of course taking silly pictures. 

I was in the middle of entering someone's phone number into my Blackberry's address book when Josh called.  I simply hit "Ignore", planning to call him right back as soon as I was done typing.  Then he called right back.  And then texted me.  I figured I should check the text from him since it must be important.  And what I saw in that text instantly caused a lump in my throat the size of a watermelon.

"I need to go to the E.R.  Can you come give me a ride?"

Ummm.... EXCUSE ME?!  I instantly thought the worst.  Josh must be dying.  He's been in a horrible accident.  He's having a heart attack.  OMG..... HE'S GOING TO DIE.  You'd think I would have been slightly more logical, and thought to myself, "It can't be that serious.  He's texting and calling me.  He's asking me to come get him from work and drive him there in my car.  Instead of calling an ambulance.  So obviously its probably a minor injury."  But no, I couldn't think like that.

So I called him.  And he said he had a cut on his hand, and probably needed stitches.  He was going to drive himself, but the guys at work wouldn't let him since he was looking kind of pale.  Him and a coworker were hooking an implement up to a tractor, and somehow Josh's hand got trapped in the hitch and cut/squished.  But no broken bones.  So I left my BBQ in a hurry, racing to get to Josh's work.  His cut was/is approximately 2-3 inches long, and was about 1 inch wide before the stitches.  Pretty deep too, but not through any tendons or to the done.  It just looked worse than it was.  So off to the ER we went.  The whole visit surprisingly didn't take as long as we had thought it would.  They cleaned the laceration out really well (there was dirt and grease stuck in it) and then stitched him up (5 stitches in all).  Then we got the discharge papers, and off we went. 

But, as I wrote about here, I just didn't need this experience.  My anxiety has been increased, as now we have to deal with his work's Worker's Compensation insurance program since it was an on-the-job injury.  And I feel the need to constantly take care of Josh and his wound.  And its just one more thing added to my list.  Like the straw the broke the camel's back....

Impending Doom

I tend to be a very "live in the moment" type of person. Sure, I plan for down the road, but its all in my head. I hardly ever act on anything until its actually here in front of me, and I have no choice.  I also tend to feel/think that if I ignore something, it will go away.  My mom used to get so irritated with me over that.  Not a very successful way of living, but its me.

Lately, however, I've had this sense of impending doom.  Constant fear.  I feel as though something terrible is just around the corner, waiting to happen.  Everytime I or Josh gets in the car to drive somewhere, I'm sure there's going to be an accident.  When Josh was hunting by himself, my gut told me he was going to cut himself with his skinning knife and bleed to death.  Or someone is going to break into our house.  Or my house is going to break down.  Or I'm going to get cancer.  Every.  Single.  Thing.  Scares.  Me.

This is a totally new feeling for me.  And I can't stand it!  I'm constantly double checking electrical outlets to make sure I unplugged things.  Calling Josh 50 times a day, and feeling a lump in my throat if he doesn't answer.  Thinking every single sore throat or headache is a major medical trauma waiting to happen.

I have no clue what sparked this new-found fearfulness.  Nothing traumatic has happened, nothing has changed, no one is sick.  I just feel as though I have this massive black cloud right behind me, waiting to downpour.

Can someone bring me an umbrella?

The Season Begins

Josh and I are both avid hunters, and September marks the beginning of us really getting down to business.  This past Monday, Labor Day, Josh, Molly, and I headed up into the woods.  It was a lazy hunting day, and I of course brought my camera along.  Josh hates when I do this, as he says whenever a camera is brought on a hunting trip, you will be unsuccessful.  But I do it anyway. :)

I snapped a bunch of photos without him really knowing (or at least he acted like he didn't know; he could have just been ignoring me).  Here are a few of my favorites:

And in other news, Molly got her first bird yesterday!  We've been training her to be a duck hunting dog, and so far she had never had any experience with live birds.  Yesterday, Josh and her were in the woods, and Molly sniffed out a grouse.  It flew up, Josh shot it, and Molly retrieved it!  They were both beaming when I got home; I don't think Josh has even been more proud of her!  Here's a picture of the two of them.  Its out of focus slightly because I had to act quickly, and I couldn't get Molly to look at me.  She was too focused on getting that grouse!

Bump, Set, Spike

While camping in Lake Chelan a few weeks ago, we played a volleyball game on the sand court they had at the campground. Well, everyone else played, and I took photos. What else would you expect?!

I can't even remember which side won, but it was fun regardless!  And you'll notice Molly is in a lot of these photos; the volleyball we were playing with is "her" ball from home, so she just had to chase it back and forth across the court.

Memories like these are exactly why I love our family camping trips.

Getting Down to Business

When Josh and I met, I was fairly happy with my body/weight/size.  Sure, I could have been more toned and had a little excess weight, but I was content.  Now, almost two years later, I feel like a cow.  I have gained so much weight that I can't even wrap my head around it.  At my smallest in high school, I weighed 115 and could fit into a size 4.  Not no more.  I won't even tell you what size I am now, because it makes me cringe.

So, I once again decided to try to change that.  I started looking into the Atkins Diet, and it intrigued me.  It also scared me.  I am a total carb lover.  Give me bread, give me pasta, give me doughnuts.  Anything involving dough.  So giving all that up was a daunting task.  Now, obviously you have to have some carbs in your diet; its just about limiting those, and getting healthier varieties of carbs.  Bye bye doughnuts.

I'm not completely adhering to the Atkins rules, but am using their guidelines.  I've started paying more attention to the carb/fiber numbers on packages, and paying less attention to the calories.  It has been a real learning experience to see the ridiculous amount of carbs I was taking in.  I've learned more about what kinds of foods to choose (veggies, things high in fiber, some fruits), and what kinds of foods to not choose (Cheddar bagels, muffins and doughnuts, pasta).  It has taken some getting used to, to say the least.

This is my first week of trying this out, and I am still desperately craving carbs.  But that's to be expected!  I've been making healthier choices, and being more conscious of just what I'm putting in my mouth.  And the best part?  I'm already down 3 pounds!

Here's hoping another 20 or so pounds just falls off this weekend!  (A girl can hope, right?)

Whole Food Diet: Revisited

Back in early July, I wrote about feeding our dog Molly whole food.  I figured two months have gone by since we started it, and I should probably revisit the topic and how its been going.

In one word:  awesome.

I love doing this.  I can't imagine not feeding her whole food now.  It is as much a part of our routine as doing laundry and washing the dishes.

I have stuck with the "Crock Pot Dinner" recipe that I originally started with, altering it here and there as need be.  I vary the meat she gets, ranging from whole cooked chicken, to beef liver, to beef heart, to whatever else I find.  Sometimes I cut the cooked meat up into bite-sized portions, other times I run it through the food processor so its more of a ground texture.  I still use brown rice.  And I still use a variety of veggies; sometimes frozen, sometimes fresh.  The other thing I've started doing is adding eggs, for additional protein.  I scramble a few, and then put them in the food processor.  By using the food processor on the meat and eggs, I can better ensure she is getting equal amounts of meat and eggs from serving to serving.  Also, once a day (usually in the morning), we put 1 tablespoon of fish oil (for the omega-3 fatty acids) on top of Molly's food.

Now let's talk cost.  Since we bought quarter of a beef this year from my parents, we were able to use the liver and heart and some other meat from that.  Which meant we weren't buying meat from the store or butcher.  So, the only cost is one 2 lb. bag of brown rice (~$2) and one 1 lb. bag of frozen veggies (~$1-$2), along with 5 or 6 eggs, which breaks down to about $.75.  If I do buy, say a package of beef liver, it runs about $2.50.  So for around $7, I can make a batch of Molly food, which lasts about a week.  To me, that isn't a bad price at all!  Next year, we plan on buying a half of a beef, and having a garden full of our own veggies, which will further cut down on the cost. 

Seeing how exited Molly gets when its time to feed her is what really gets me though.  If you take something out of the refrigerator or freezer, or microwave something, or heck, even if you're just in the kitchen, she goes nuts.  She sits down right away, but does this little "I'm so excited I can't sit still" thing where she shuffles around the whole kitchen while still trying to sit.  And if you take her food bowl (full of food) outside to her kennel, she runs ahead of you the whole way, spinning around in the air, never taking her eyes off that bowl.  She doesn't get this excited over anything else; just her food.

Also, her coat is shiny and silky, she isn't shedding nearly as much, her teeth are cleaner and her breath isn't as stinky.  She is staying lean and muscular, and isn't at all fat like a lot of Labradors get.  She's a lean, mean, duck-hunting machine!!

From now on, any pets we have, we will most certainly be sticking to our whole food diet.  Give it a try!