Committed......

A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend, Marilyn, asked me if I wanted to do the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk in 2010. I didn't hesitate and said yes. I officially registered earlier this week. Then I had flashbacks from 2005. In 2005 I walked 60 miles in three days to raise awareness for breast cancer. It was an amazing event and something I will never forget.
I was flipping through my scrapbook looking at the 2005 walk and came across the letter I wrote the day after and wanted to share some of it with you all.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day/60 Mile walk has now come and gone. How was it? Hard. Very hard, but well worth every step. It was an amazing journey! I cried a lot, laughed a lot, learned a lot and walked a lot.
We started the journey at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning. The first day was the easiest - imagine that. We walked about 23 miles that first day - through the zoo and the beautiful trails in Eagan. Along the route we are inspired by the people cheering on the sidelines. They bring us popsicles and treats and thank us over and over for walking. Some are survivors. They follow us from cheer station to cheer station to keep us motivated. Incredible!
They did a revised opening ceremony that evening due to the rain in the morning. How emotional! Some of the walkers got up on stage to say why they walk. Some walk because they are survivors, some walk because they have lost somebody they love and some walk because they have been told they can no longer be treated and most likely won't be at the 2006 Breast Cancer Walk. Makes you feel guilty about complaining about the newest blister you realized you've gotten.
Day 2 - ugh, my feet are a little swollen and I've realized that I have a blister between by big toe and my second toe on each foot. My team (Fight Like A Girl) is off to a little slower start today. The pain and my emotions get the best of me. I broke down in tears thinking that I wouldn't be able to walk the remaining 10 miles of the day because of the blisters. My team swooped me up, found me some different band-aides, gave me some Motrin and I finished the day.
Day 3 - My feet feel pretty good and it's hard to believe it's day 3. We're all feeling pretty good and make it lunch at the 12.7 mile marker. We know we only have 5 miles left for the day before we reach the end. The balls of our feet are on fire, blisters start to hurt and your calf muscles are so tight, they've become numb. Be we've made it 55 miles. We cross the finish line to see the smiling faces of our friends and families. We just broke down in tears - so happy to see everybody, so happy, yet so sad to be done.
People have asked me - how do you keep walking? Why not jump into the sweep van to the next pit stop if you hurt so bad or get tired? Here are my reasons to keep walking when I could have given in:
*You look next to you and there is a elderly lady walking right next to you
*You look over and see somebody who has jut finished chemo treatment
*You look at the back of a walker's shirt and there is a picture of somebody that they are walking in memory for
*You look over and there is a girl who is 7 months pregnant walking with her mom who is now cancer free
*You walk because you have amazing teammates who you keep you motivated
*You walk because your Great-Grandmother, Grandmother and Aunt-In-Law are all survivors
*You walk because the 3 sisters on your team lost their mother to breast cancer 3 years ago
*You walk because you believe in a world without breast cancer

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."

If you want to join our team, we would love to have you! Just leave me a message (as well as a way to contact you) in the comment section and I can fill you in with the details.

It's Been Awhile.....

It's been over a month since my last post. What can I say other than I've been busy enjoying life.

• Towards the end of July, we took a little family trip to the Dells. We had a great time although the weather wasn't fabulous. We learned that our kids enjoyed our hotel pool just as much as the water parks. Colton had a first - he rode a roller coaster. This is my child who prefers to keep his feet on the ground. Mike was itching to go and Colton said he'd go with. Colton kept his eyes closed for all but 2 seconds of the ride. He was proud that he did it, but that was the end of the rides on that trip! I took only about 8 pictures that whole trip. I wanted to put the camera down and enjoy the company of my family - it was wonderful!
• Mike and I headed down to Missouri for his cousin's wedding. He sang a solo and did a fabulous job. Meanwhile, the boys headed north to my mom's. They were there for 8 days! I missed those little buggers, but they really enjoyed some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

• I have been so far behind on ordering pictures. Yesterday I ordered 321 photos from July 2008 through August 2009. Eeks.

This morning at about 7:30 while I was getting into the shower, I heard little footsteps coming down the stairs. When I got out of the shower and back into my room, I found that my three-year old got up and dressed himself before coming down to snuggle. His outfit even matched, but his shorts were on backwards. Now, if only he could get himself breakfast.Tomorrow is my first day back to work in over a week. It's been lovely having the time off and it will be a rude awakening when my alarm clock starts blaring at 5am!

Family Reunion

Last weekend was our family reunion. Other than the weather being cold, it was a fabulous time! My grandparents had 8 kids over the course of almost twenty years (side note: how the heck did she do it?). We had a great turnout too, perhaps about 75% of the Ward crew pulled out their sweatshirts and jeans in July for some food, some visiting and games.

So glad we were able to grab a shot of the family that was there. I will treasure the memories and the photo forever!

I'm A Model If You Know What I Mean.....

I wanted to take Brett out and attempt to take some pictures of him for his 3 year old photo. Ever since Colton was born, I've gone to JCP's to do birthday photos up until he hit school age and then I'll let those be their annual photos.
I prepped Brett and told him that we needed new pictures of him to put in the frame because he' not 2 anymore and if he's good, I'd take him to the park and he can have a sucker. We had a deal. I brought along my little assitant (aka Colton) to help make him smile.....just incase.
He did so good. He was very patient with me as I was with him. We actually had a lot of fun. Below are just a few of the pictures - including some outtakes.

This is after he really got the hang of it. I thought we were done - Brett had other ideas. He said to me, "I want to sit here and then you take a picture." Ok.

I followed through on my promises. I played the safe mom and didn't let him have his sucker until after he played at the park.

Party Time....Excellent....

We had Brett's birthday party on Friday evening. I took the day off of work to get my house picked up, run some errands and spend 2 hours decorating a masterpiece uhrrr...I mean birthday cake. We had family and B's Godparents over for dinner, gifts, cake and ice cream. We were lucky enough that Mike's grandparents from Missouri just happened to be in town visiting. Brett was so cute. When we pulled into the driveway from daycare he saw some balloons on the mailbox. He asked me, "are those for me?" Once we got inside, there were more balloons...."those for me too?" He saw his Spongebob cake and just squirmed with excitement.

He received so many wonderful gifts and we had a great evening.

Happy Birthday!!

Brett,
I cannot believe that 3 years have gone by since you made your entrance into this world. You've changed my life forever and I'm am so grateful to have you part of my world. I thought I would capture some of your favorite things at this age:

• You love to be outside. You would stay out there all day and all night if I didn't make you come in.
• You are stubborn.
• You love to eat yogurt. As a matter of fact, you love to snack. Quite frequently I hear the pantry doors squeak open then the tupperware cupboard - 99.9% of the time this is you grabbing a box of crackers to dump into a bowl. For some reason, you require all your snacks to be poured into a bowl before eating.
• You adore your brother, but you love to tease him. Instead of playing with his toys quietly when he isn't looking, you make sure he knows that you are into his stuff, which turns into a big chasing game and you laughing.
• You have a great sense of humor and say the wildest things that just crack us all up.
• You have amazing blue eyes that sparkle.
• You love music and the louder, the better.
• You are a momma's boy (thank you thank you thank you)
• You are so very loved!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brett ~ July 3, 2009.

Lost Tooth

A couple of months ago, Mike noticed that Colton was growing a permanent tooth right behind a baby tooth. We took him to the dentist who told us it really wasn't a big deal and that everything would work it's way to where it needed to go.
On Monday when I picked the boys up from daycare, Colton came running up and told me that he had something hard and crunchy in is PB&J and then he started laughing hysterically. Come to find out, the kid bit into his sandwich, his tooth came out and he ate it.
Here he is without his baby tooth. I have to laugh because normally, you can get a picture of a toothless grin when they lose their first tooth/teeth. Not my kid. His is 75% of the way in already!