Eye Candy

CHRISTOPHER?




















or BRANDON?























Aww... so hard to decide.....they are both just SOOOO Pretty.

Relay Recap

I am still tired and a bit cranky because of my one nights' sleep deprivation, but I am deliriously excited too, because My team...."The Cure-Rageous Knitters" raised in total $2,789.00 for the American Cancer Society! Whoa pony! That's success right there folks.

Let's re-cap.

MY TOP 10 RELAY HIGHLIGHTS

NUMBER 10. A worm is NOT considered a bug. Oops, my bad. (you had to be there)

NUMBER 9. How my yarn saved my life. With help of course from Meleah's husband Troy at 6:30 a.m. It's Physics he says, that the plastics legs of my chairs will break off if I try to jam the mini-van hatchback shut with them still sticking out. So we tied the trunk down with yarn. Malabrigo to be exact. Hey, I was tired and just wanted to go home and crash.

NUMBER 8. Talking via cell phone to my best friend Laura while walking the survivor lap. She is my biggest supporter and she brought me to tears, reminding me not to minimize my cancer experience.

NUMBER 7. Realizing that being a survivor really pays off, you get lots of free stuff in your gift bag.

NUMBER 6. Feeling so proud when my husband erected our team banner that all of us worked so hard to knit a block letter for.






NUMBER 5. Watching one luminaria go up in flames on the track. And then realizing that coincidentally, it happened to be one in my honor. (boo-hoo *sniffles*) But I knew picking out our campsite next to the Eden Prairie Police and Fire Dept. would come in handy somehow. (besides, the gourney rides of course.)

Yep, that's my bag alright. Gone from "In Honor of" .......To "In Memory of" ....just like that. So So very sad.


NUMBER 4. Salsa dancing on the dance floor with Byron at Midnight. Hey, We definitely still got it!


NUMBER 3. Homemade baby diaper and frying pan for the scavenger hunt. It's true, knitters are a wild bunch of girls. Now, I've seen everything!


NUMBER 2. Walking hand in hand with Byron during the silence lap in memory of those for whom the luminarias were decorated for, and coming across one that was decorated in my honor from Jennifer Ficks son. It melted my heart completely.


AND THE #1 RELAY HIGHLIGHT

Doing the "Hey Hey we're the Monkeys" walk around the track at three o'clock a.m. may seem like a great and fun idea at first. (until, of course you almost pee your pants from laughing so hard) It definitely was a "Depends" moment.
















As you can tell it was a great time with friends getting together to stitch, bitch, eat and CURE-RAGEOUSLY walk for the cure of Cancer. I personally am looking forward to next year when I can do it all over again. I hope my team members feel the same, cause it wouldn't nearly be as much fun without the lot of them. Thanks to Joe and Hayley, Karen, and Beth and Katie, and all our friends and family who came out to relay with us. And to the gals who stayed all night long. Sue, Kelle, Brenda, Meleah, Christine, Ani, and Connie. Because of you, I was able to rest a lot!


And what would we have done without the donations. Thank you to all of our family, friends and neighbors who donated and so generously. I ended up decorating 127 luminarias for your loved ones and your love and support literally shone through when they were lit at the lighting ceremony. Thank you thank you thank you.

A huge hug and a thank you to Carrie over at Coldwater Collaborative for graciously and most generously donating lots of wonderful yummy yarn for door prizes to our team. Probably the biggest reason of all that most of the team stayed all night.














My friend Kelle (the knitting wizardress) couldn't have said it better than in her latest wonderful relay for life blog entry where she said

"I walk for the yarn"

No no no, oops that was me. Kelle said.......

"I walk in memory of those we have lost to cancer and I walk in celebration of those who have fought cancer and survived and I walk in hope of the complete annihilation of cancer in our lifetime. There doesn't seem to be one person that I have talked to that hasn't been or whose family hasn't been affected by cancer."


Now, How freaking poetic was that?

So start saving your pennies, cause I'll be doing it all over again next July.
I'm tired now. I'm off to bed.

Livvie's Love

I wanted to write a special post in honor of my daughter Olivia and her piano teacher, Miss Brenda. When Miss Brenda joined my Relay for Life team, she suggested to Olivia that she bead jewelry to sell as a fundraiser, and call it "Livvie's Love"
Olivia was so inspired by this idea. So, with tons of beads that Brenda had and we had at home and a small donation from our local beadstore, (Beadville USA) Olivia, with the help of a few neighborhood friends, was able to bead bracelts, chokers, earrings, zipper pulls, and anklets and go door to door the week prior to the relay, with her brothers to collect donations in memory of her Aunt Julianne and in Honor of Me, (her mama) for the American Cancer Society.

She was also so excited to attend the relay event and set up shop right in front of our campsite and sell her things with her teacher.

Get this! My little Livvie and Miss Brenda raised a total of $579.00 just from beaded jewelry donations alone.
NOW THAT IS INSPIRING! SHE IS ONLY 7.

GO LIVVIE! GO LIVVIE! GO LIVVIE! GO LIVVIE!
GO BRENDA! GO BRENDA! GO BRENDA! GO BRENDA!



Here's middle son, Ian, offering comedic releif in donating our money in exchange for gourney rides around the track. It all goes to the same cause.

GO IAN! GO IAN! GO IAN! GO IAN!





And Eric.... He helped out us Cure-Rageous knitters a bunch by walking/running 5 miles for our team that night. What a kid!

GO ERIC! GO ERIC! GO ERIC! GO ERIC!

I couldn't be prouder of my family right now.

i CAN actually knit!

Yes, it's been awhile since I've done anything remotely knitterly! But hey, I CAN actually knit!


















AND FELT!

















AND BLOCK!


















AND APPARENTLY ASK/BEG FOR MONEY. Which is something that I absolutely hate doing, but it's just for such a great cause.

I'm still prepping myself and collecting donations for next Friday's Relay for Life event. Thank you to everyone who has donated. It has helped so much. I promise to take pictures of the luminarias and the event and post them here, soon after I catch up on all my missed sleep next Saturday.

If you haven't yet donated and want to, there still is time. I am like this close to my team and personal goal. A $10.00 donation will buy a luminaria, which will be decorated (by me) and lit and displayed around the track of the field in honor or memory of someone you know that has been affected by cancer. Please consider giving. I am personally walking this year for my sister Julianne who died from a brain tumor at the age of 24 (when I was 17 years old) and for a family friend Jennifer who died two years ago from ovarian cancer. Surely, you must know someone who has been affected by cancer.

Click here to make a Donation to my personal page

It only takes a couple of minutes, but is so needed and so appreciated. Thank You!