Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by my upline, Jessica, to take this challenge, and the picture was so fun, I had to take her up on it. The challenge was to post the sixth picture in the sixth folder in your picture files. So here's my picture:

This is my Mom sitting with a gorilla outside Rainforest Cafe in Atlantic City last year. We went on a bus trip together for the day, and I hope we do it again!! We had a blast. We just walked the boardwalk and gambled just a little bit (till we ran out of the money they gave back to us when we got off the bus!) but she won a hundred bucks in the process. She had this method: put in a five dollar bill and when you get up to a certain amount (say ten bucks) cash out and start over with another five dollar bill. ONLY put fives in the machine, nothing more. Now every time I see she has a five dollar bill I say "ooh, are we gonna gamble that?" :)

I don't really have anyone to tag, so unfortunately the game ends here (Jessica already tagged Trinity and I can't do a tag-back, ha ha). I just thought I'd share such a great picture. :)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Breast Cancer Fundraiser

Wow. I haven't been on here in a while...been quite busy with some stuff, but also very exhausted. Since my last post, I had my first SU! workshop which was pretty successful. Thanks to Patti for hostessing! Also since my last post I had a small scare after going to the doctor's office. I have a small lump near my armpit at the side of my left breast, and she ordered an ultrasound for it. Long story short, it's nothing abnormal, but my attitude towards breast cancer has completely changed.

My Aunt Sarah had breast cancer, and she beat it after having a lump removed and going through chemotherapy. A couple years after that, my sister had a scare and had to have a cyst removed, then my niece had a scare and had to have a cyst removed. Thankfully, both of those cysts were benign. When I found the bump in mine, I hate to admit I ignored it for quite a while, mostly because I didn't want it to be something bad. Stupid, huh? So I came to my senses and realized that duh...it's never going to go away and if it is something bad, it's just sitting there getting worse. It turns out they think it's a lymph node that's going haywire. I'm tracking the size of it to see if it is growing/shrinking with my cycle (my sister's suggestion because she has one that does the same thing) and there's still the option to work with a breast specialist and have it removed. I might just take the option...if it's malfunctioning, get rid of it. Better safe than sorry.

So on the tail of my scare, I feel like I want to become involved and raise money for a cure. I have three great nieces who will hopefully grow into a world where breast cancer isn't a threat anymore--where ANY cancer is no longer a threat. But such research to get to that day isn't cheap! I wonder how many women who are demonstrators for SU! or customers of SU! have been directly or indirectly affected, or how many of those women we've actually lost to the battle. I sort of thought that being a demonstrator gives me a great vehicle to raise awareness and money for the cause. So I thought I'd have a fundraiser.

I'm still bouncing around ideas, but I think I'm going to try to find a local hall that will donate the use of its space for a 12 hour charity crop and have a small lunch and some prizes/raffles. Any ideas for my project would be greatly appreciated and welcomed! I'm still in the very beginning planning phases here, but think that this would be a great way to raise some money. Oh, and the proceeds from any SU! sales that day would also be donated.

Think pink, and ladies, if you're reading this and haven't done your self-exam lately or had your mammogram when you're supposed to...get to it! This disease is real, and can happen to anyone.