October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in case all the pink surrounding you didn’t notify you of that fact already. In 2009 I chose to walk the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk, in which a person fundraises a lot of money to walk 60 miles in 3 days. It is both the best and worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. As part of the training to prepare to walk that far, one does a weekend back-to-back walk of 18 miles one day and 15 miles the next day. My 18 mile day came when it was pouring down rain. To make it worse, my walking partner wasn’t able to join me. Here’s what I learned from that rather miserable day:

1. An additional pair of tennies would be handy for when you are on the opposite side of the track from your car which houses your rain poncho.

2. Anyone wearing a fanny pack on their bum is probably a 3 Day walker.

3. Start with Aleve, take a break with more Aleve, finish with Vicodin.

4. Having a hubby bring you protein at the 2/3 mark makes the final 1/3 much more bearable and him a hero of the nth degree.

5. You can listen to 450 songs on your iPod in 7 hours.

6. 18.2 miles is an excellent way to end constipation….for the rest of your life.

7. Your wet t-shirt (No, I wasn’t in some guy’s lame excuse for a contest…besides no one wants me in that kind of a contest.) doesn’t dry out in your car in 5 hours, no matter how carefully you drape it over the head rest.

8. 2 bottles of water, 2 G2‘s and a large sweet tea are necessary for hydration.

9. Axid taken several times keeps one from embarrassing him or herself while walking in public.

10. Flat feet will tell you all about their existence about Mile 12.

11. Shin cramps are just a 40 something’s body’s way of saying “Let’s warm up, shall we?”

12. If the forecast says, 40% chance of rain, plan on being wet…permanently.

13. People who walk/run the track backwards are annoying.

14. People who cannot control their dogs on the track make the people running backwards look intelligent.

15. A pair of dry sox is heaven.

16. Sunglasses make a good rain deflector.

17. If you bring the blister Band-Aids, you won’t need them.

18. If your hubby rubs your feet afterward, you’ll worship at HIS feet, if you can walk that far. 🙂

Friday’s Post: The next most stupid thing I’ve ever done…

You might also like: Lessons Learned from the Breast Cancer 3 Day Garage Sale, Lessons Learned from 2 and Lessons Learned from Attending Women of Faith

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Book Club Devotees: Life Interrupted has already brought me to tears…in a good way. How about you?

Last week’s Word of the Week (WOW) was depone. Merriam-Webster Online says that depone means testify. Based on the amount of stuff I write at this blog, some of you probably wish that I would depone less. So, instead of doing further deponing, I will get right down to business and try my best to guess the definition of this week’s WOW, which is: miscible.

miscible: (ˈmi-sə-bəl) 1. what MaryAnn should think about the Bachelor/Bachelorette series on TV 2. a category of stuff (That’s the technical term.) in which categorization is nearly impossible. 3. any item on a woman’s to do list that others deem demeaning (like cleaning a toilet!) or frivolous (like making sure your kid wears clean underwear) or ridiculous (like noting the color of your kid’s nose “offerings”).

What’s your guess for miscible? Guess away!

Wednesday’s Post: Doing the Stupidest Thing in the World Because It’s the Only Thing You Can Do…

You might also like: Word of the Week: depone, Word of the Week: tourbillion, Word of the Week: orgulous, and Word of the Week: boffin

In 2009 I made the really faulty decision to walk the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Awareness 3 Day Walk. One walks 60 miles in 3 days and pledges to raise $ 2300 for breast cancer research. Many people walk in teams and I was no exception. I walked with 3 women who all wanted to support my dear friend, Kim, who was battling Stage IV breast cancer valiantly. While the walk was in early November, we were still approximately $ 2300 shy of the $ 9200 we needed to raise in order for all of us to walk.

We then made another faulty decision: to have a garage sale at my home in hot August. Did I mention that my garages are not air-conditioned??? I put up a Facebook event page and regularly let folks know the interesting items that were also regularly being deposited in our driveway each day.  We had so many clothing items that we eventually just made signs that said, “All clothing items $ 1.” We’d probably still be pricing items individually, if we hadn’t.

Tomorrow our little church is also endeavoring to raise money for good causes in our area by throwing a garage sale inside our church (where it IS air-conditioned). If you live in “my neck of the woods, ” do me a favor and drop by from 8 am to noon either today or Saturday, grab a few items you can’t live without, and help out some great children and people. Thanks! For those of us who have waged battle with “all things Garage Sale,” here’s what I penned in August of 2009:

1. Start a year sooner. 
2. Get another garage. Two double car garages aren’t enough.
3. Sell all cars, Sea-doos, lawn mowers and lawn sweepers prior to garage sale.
4. No matter how many times you sweep the floor of your spare garage, there will be grass clippings inside.
5. You can make a merchandise display out of bricks, a skateboard ramp, sawhorses, a trailer, shoe bags, a dehumidifier, a microwave cart, a TV stand, and a TV.
6. One rented round rack will hold 218 shirts.
7. Unfortunately, you will need 3 round racks, 3 t-racks and 2 straight racks.
8. Bags of clothes will multiply like rabbits and mysteriously show up on your doorstep before you leave for work at 8 am.
9. To hang said bags of clothes, you will need 1 retired teacher hanging clothes for about 8 hours a day for 5 days.
10. When she poops out, you will need 1 bank teller/teacher, 2 college students and 2 high school students to take over.
11. Don’t show the retired teacher a newly discovered bag of clothes the night before a garage sale…she might pronounce it, well, you know, something I can’t say online.
12. If the retired teacher won’t call it welllll….you know….something I can’t say online, the hubby will say worse.
13. Someone other than Imelda Marcos can have over a 1000 pairs of shoes.
14. To pick up a dryer, a mattress and box spring, a computer table and chair, an overstuffed chair, a dinette set, a desk, and a love seat, you will need the retired teacher, her husband, your husband’s colleague’s trailer, an aging Explorer, a Mercury sedan, a Ford Escape, your daughter, your son, the daughter’s boyfriend, a full tank of gas, a tarp, some tangled rope, some Boy Scout knots, 3 dollies, a peanut butter sandwich, a glass of milk and a trip to McDonald’s.
15. You can completely outfit an apartment or dorm room from the “junk” in people’s homes in our little town…and nicely!
16. Even if you say “No Early Sales”, there will be early sales. Just deal with it.
17. Countrytime Pink Lemonade is not only festive…it’s downright tasty on a hot, Texas day.
18. Don’t have a mega garage sale in Texas in August….let’s just say major farmer’s tan and the need for a lot of cool showers. (I think I physically wrung out my hair and shirt about 3 times per day.)
19. Those new sneakers and fancy socks you bought for the 3 Day do not lessen your Aleve consumption at the end of the day.
20. You can fit 2 mattress sets, 3 sofas, 4 tables, 15 chairs, 7 clothes racks, a TV stand, 2 desks, a laundry cart, and a lot of assorted miscellaneous all in our driveway. That is, unfortunately, only about 1/3 of what you have to sell.
21. Hangers get thrown out a lot…but to those with 218 shirts on a round rack, they are more valuable than gold.
22. There is a lot of humorous fodder for Sunday morning’s sermon to be found at a garage sale. See our pastor for more details.
23. What you think will sell immediately will be what you have left at the end of the day. As a counselor, this may be a great topic for a dissertation some day.
24. The surest way to get more shoppers is to consolidate all of your “remains” and make it impossible for your shoppers to get to all the leftovers in your garage.
25. The only way to survive a hot August garage sale in Texas is to have a meal out, preferably not at McDonald’s.
26. The Susan G. Komen organization is gravely mistaken about what is possible for fundraising purposes from 1 garage sale (They told us the max would be $ 1800…..so there!)
27. Our little town takes care of its own.
28. Our little town never fails to help those who aren’t their own.
29. Facebook, a church newsletter, a church bulletin, an announcement at church, Craigslist and word-of-mouth are the cheapest, easiest and best ways to promote fundraising endeavors.
30. The memories I have of this garage sale I took with me as I walked 60 miles in 3 days with 3 of the best ladies I know and then, forever after that. I was, and am, blessed.

The final amount raised? Drum roll, please….$ 2300 +!

Monday’s Post: Word of the Week time!

You might also like: Lessons Learned from Attending Women of Faith and Lessons Learned from Being the Rookie Parent

Warning: You might want to get your favorite beverage first. 

Note: The MIP Book Club started yesterday. Haven’t started reading yet? That’s okay…you’re only fashionably late. Go here to find out what you’re missing!

The FB Faithful will know this one practically by heart, but it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month again and I hate what this awful disease is doing and has done to those who have made me what I am today. When I wrote this in 2009, I only knew these eight women suffered or survived breast cancer, but now, I could, unfortunately, add to the list. But these eight women and their families are what motivated me to do something crazy back then. Read on…

1. She is one of the sweetest women on the planet, but if you cross her, watch out…she was a mom to 4 very different children and grandmother and great grandmother to too many to count….she made the best homemade pies on the planet and could feed 2 as easily as she could feed 100 (all of them would be related to her in some way.) She was the wayward daughter who found her niche and found it important to live all of her life by her mom’s and her mentally impaired older brother’s side. She is one of the most caring women I know and she wouldn’t tell her family she was losing her battle until after her 90th birthday. Her name is Maribelle and she was my aunt.

2. She is art personified, in every aspect of her life and yet she has lived her life with a disability. However, you would never know that…that wouldn’t be artful, now would it? She is brilliant and she sees the unique talents of everyone around her and puts them to good use. She is a visionary, making connections no one else can. She believes in the worth of each person, no matter what hinders them and believes in you becoming more than worthy of what God called you to be. She was my mentor for 8 years. She is Mary and she was my boss.

3. She led a school as a principal. She once put her troubles aside to be at the bedside of her granddaughter when said granddaughter was forced to be in the hospital on the eve of her prom. The only telltale sign of her own troubles was a perfectly coiffed wig. She’s a serious woman, but you can tell that her family and those in her charge are her priority. She is Nelda and she is Laura Ann’s mother-in-law and Shayla, Miranda and Landon’s grandmother.

4. She is beauty personified, as well as grace. She is as content in an evening gown as she is in a cotton skirt and flip flops. Her smile lights up a room, not because it is a pretty smile, but because warmth and caring are behind it. She can laugh at the world when others would cry and charm others into doing her bidding in the most unassuming way. (It’s usually for a good cause!) She readily welcomes others into her home and they are welcome to stay as long as they like. When she makes you her friend, that friendship is for forever…you know? That Heaven kind of forever. She is Michaux and I’m blessed to have her as my forever friend.

5. She is the mother of my son’s childhood buddy. She is my Bible Study buddy and wisdom is her watchword. When I need knowledge, when I need a well-thought-out opinion, this is who I call. When I need a calming voice, she is also there for that, too. We may be worlds apart from each other in terms of logistical distance, but we are only a moment away from each other in our hearts. She is southern hospitality and an educator at heart. She is the mother of a very impressive young man, one she largely educated herself. She is Nancy and I’m blessed that Facebook has brought me closer to her son, Kyle.

6. She is my pregnancy buddy…you know…the pregnancy that was equivalent to the Immaculate Conception in terms of miracles? She, too, is my Bible Study buddy, and I can count on her for telling me the most ridiculous joke and being blatantly honest all at the same time. She nurtures little children all day long and considers it both a nightmare and a blessing all at the same time (well, who wouldn’t!). Her life has been anything but predictable, but you would never know it. She deals with it as if it were an everyday occurrence. She is April and she is my friend.

7. She was a virtual stranger to me just a few short years ago, but now I don’t think she would flinch if I just called her Mom. She broke down watching her daughter dealing with a ridiculous ordeal, all the while getting over her own ridiculous ordeal and dealing with her husband’s ongoing ridiculous ordeal. She bravely, angrily stared all of them in the face and her slim body wouldn’t take no for an answer. She is compassion and she is courage and I want so much to make it all go away for her. Her name is Shirley and she is Kim’s mom and BriAnne and Ben’s grandmother.

8. At a time when I thought there were no more best friends left in the world for a crazy person like me, this woman embraced my nuttiness calmly and actually allowed it to continue. She is a great mom, a wonderful wife, the hostess with the mostest, a phenomenal cook, the most efficient President of a volunteer organization I know and can run entire departments while battling a nasty disease on only 20 hours a week. When I think she can’t take any more, she calmly, resolutely walks onward, through the storm, and deals with each new blow with dignity, charm, and a little bit of humor. She was Kim and she was more than my friend…she was my inspiration to walk 60 miles to end this stupid disease called Breast Cancer.

Some lost their battles, but the rest continue on. They have families counting on them…they help more people in one day than I could ever hope to help in a decade…they deserve and deserved a lifetime. Pray for them…comfort them…cheer for them…I know I do.

Point to Ponder: Who are the 8 women in your life? What would you be willing to do for them?

Friday’s Post: Lessons Lessons Learned from a Garage Sale…

You might also enjoy: Best Quotes from the Dallas Women of Faith Conference and Lessons Learned from Attending Women of Faith