Bowling for Autism...

...This Saturday night, we're sitting in Nanny's house in Florida but last Saturday, AR and I were bowling for autism. AR's sitter put together a bowling fundraiser. It was really a great deal...$40 for 5 people to bowl which included 3 hours unlimited bowling, shoes, pizza, and a pitcher of soda. $20 went directly to Autism Speaks and then she had raffles and other fundraisers. In total, I think she made a little over $300!

AR insisted on wearing her Pacman shirt and she loved the cosmic bowling lights.

She bowled with me every other frame. We actually did better when she helped me!

Of course our sitter and her family were there which AR loved (despite her face in this picture!).

This was our bowling lane (minus me) playing the Heads or Tails game.

And AR's best girl friend from the sitter's was there and shared the same lane as us. These two were loving it!!!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month!!!

...October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I'm sure we've all been touched by cancer in some way, shape or form. Luckily, in today's world and the advances of medicine, it's possible to beat cancer! I think Breast Cancer Awareness month brings to light ways that we can take care of ourselves and loved ones to help win the fight against cancer.

Facts About Breast Cancer:

*It is the most common cancer in women, no matter your race or ethnicity.

*Breast cancer affects both men & women.

*In 2009, 211,731 women and 2,001 men in the USA were diagnosed with breast cancer.

How to Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer:

*Limit alcohol and don't smoke.

*Watch your weight and be active.

*Breastfeed!!!

*Do monthly breast exams and mammograms if your doctor suggests.



AR wearing pink to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

I've partnered with some wonderful women and their Etsy stores to do share our support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We want to get the word out about Breast Cancer Awareness so check out all these great giveaways!
 

Melissa from Sprouts and Sprockets is giving away two (2) sets of these awesome Breast Cancer Awareness bottle cap magnets. You can find her on etsy or on Facebook. Here is her story:

After the loss of my oldest daughter and my brother shortly after, it was recommended to me that I find something I love to do and use that as an outlet for myself. 

That sparked a whole lot of creativity and interest from friends and neighbors. I sat down with a good friend over coffee and told her about my new adventure. With her friendship, encouragement and mentoring (along with a great shop name provided by my husband) Sprouts and Sprockets was born.

My twin daughters love to visit Mom when she is in the shop. They are my best sales girls. They think nothing of sharing products at school and letting their teachers know where to go to get the coolest handmade products.

It has been more than 1 year and I have a true passion for what I do. It warms my soul when I can make others smile when they get their Sprouts & Sprockets product. 

I started making breast cancer awareness magnets after a close friend was diagnosed. I wanted to spread awareness and make something that could empower women everywhere. 

Our next giveaway is from Bridget at The Hester Collection. She makes gorgeous bracelets and is giving away one (1) to a lucky reader. You can find her on etsy, Twitter, Poshmark, tumblr and Instagram TheHesterCollection.

When asked why Bridget makes bracelets for breast cancer awareness, she answered: I do these kind of bracelets because number one my husband is a cancer survivor (acinic cell carcinoma) I have a great friend who is fighting lung cancer and has actually been cancer free for about 4 years now. I have 2 family members that have had breast cancer. My aunt who has fought and won twice now and her daughter that lost the battle about 10 years or so ago. It has really touch my life greatly and I understand how hard it is to go through all of the steps it takes to get to the other side. Also I can never thank enough all the people who have helped us through our battle. I am forever grateful and will do what I can to help others.

Here is a description of the bracelet Bridget is giving away. This bracelet is 7 1/2 inches center line which will fit most wrists. It has fun pink paint spattered focal beads with gray accent bead along with silver spacers. The main focus bead is the ribbon bead and it is 1 inch in length and about a half in tall. It as a beautiful toggle closure that is a butterfly with a flower and for an extra touch it has an adorable butterfly charm.

The third giveaway is from Elizabeth. Elizabeth's etsy store sells adorable purses and shirts. She is donating one (1) zebra Think Pink purse. She is also on Facebook. Elizabeth's husband lost his aunt to breast cancer and is the reason she creates items to sell for breast cancer awareness. This is her husband's story:

"When I was 10 years old my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time I didn't realize how deadly the disease is and how many people it affected.

As a child, my aunt was always there for me. I spent summers at her house and she helped raise me and treated me as if I was her own child. Even though she was busy touring, singing background for Dionne Warwick and the late Whitney Houston, she always made time for my cousin and me. We took vacations together, went to the beach, bowling, and roller skating. It was rough at home for me but her home was my escape.

I remember when she started chemotherapy and she began losing her hair. She felt she was losing her beauty but her strength to fight was so inspiring. Her breast cancer went into remission and she began to tour again and started recording her own album. She worked even harder and was more determined than ever, but it took its toll on her. Her hard work weakened her and the breast cancer came back. She started a new round of chemotherapy but this time the breast cancer spread too rapidly and she had to have one of her breasts removed. After that, even more bad news, the breast cancer was so far advanced that the doctors had to up the sessions of chemotherapy and radiation. This weakened her even more physically but not spiritually. She talked about how good God has been to her and her family. It was her strength in her time of physical distress that made her a hero in my eyes. The disease eventually took her life but her legacy continues to live on."

Our last giveaways afre from Kimm at Hooked on You. She has donated one (1) set of  lovely Breast Cancer Awareness earrings to give away. She has makes the cutest brassiere charms perfect for a bracelet, necklace or where ever your creative heart desires! She is also giving away two (2) sets of the brassiere charms. Kimm has a sentimental heart for survivors (my sister-in-law) and families of loss (my grandmother and great grandmother). Kim also donates to other organizations to raise awareness about breast cancer. 

In August, my mom's best friend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a crazy month from when she first got diagnosed to her 11 hour surgery and now she's already in chemo. The doctors are staying positive but it's been hard for Aunt Gissy. AR and I pray for her every night and love getting good reports about her recovery. I hope everyone takes the time to take care of yourself and catch any early signs. Be sure to tell all the Etsy stores how awesome they are for donating to get the word out about Breast Cancer Awareness.

 

Many breast cancer patients/survivors are urging people to donate to research so here are some great charities worth donating to: Cancer Is a Jerk, the IBC Network, Stand Up 2 Cancer and METAvivor Research & Support, Inc.

The giveaways will open at midnight on Thursday, October 10 and close on Thursday, October 24 at midnight. I will notify winners on Friday, October 25. Please share the word with all your friends!

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Shoes for Sale...For Africa!!!

...My good friend, Kristal, and her family will be moving to Africa in January! They will be long term volunteers through the organization called Heart for Africa. They're listening to God's calling and selling all their belongings, seriously almost all their belongings, in order to fund this trip.

 

It's true that after having a baby, your feet are never the same. This means that I have some pretty awesome shoes that I've only worn a few times that my big 'ole feet no longer fit in. While getting ready for family pictures, I decided to pull out the shoes that don't fit to make more room in my closet.

 

Then I had a clever idea! Why don't I sell the shoes and donate all the proceeds to Kristal and her family in addition to what I plan to give? What an amazing idea if I say so myself! :-)

 

I've known Kristal since 7th grade when I noticed that her binder in Health class said, "Speed" and underneath it said, "The Movie." (I hope Kristal gets a chuckle out of that!). Her mom has become my second mom over the years and treated me as her own. While we may not be as tight now as we once were, I always consider her a sister and wish her, Chad and their kiddos the best of luck! If you'd like to donate to their journey, please visit their Heart for Africa page.

 

Now on to the shoes, shall we? All sales, minus shipping will be donated to the Flentge Family. I will charge a flat $5 shipping for all shoes. If you are local, we can avoid the shipping, and we'll work out a way to get you the shoes. If you'd like to purchase, please leave a comment with your email address and I will follow-up with you. I will update this post as shoes sale. Thanks in advance!!!

 

Up first, my favorite shoes ever! These are size 9 Fergalicious baby blue heels. Asking $20 OBO.

They fit very narrow.

Little bit of wear on bottom; worn just a few times. Oh and AR wore them once too!

Size 8.5 Vigoss; asking $5 OBO.

Small heel on these, maybe 2 inches?

I have worn these a lot and there's a nick in the heels but not too noticeable.

Love these too! Size 8.5 Steve Madden; asking $10 OBO. SOLD!

They are a khaki color with black leather.

Only worn a couple times.

Size 8 East Fifth; asking $10 OBO.

Great for a pop of red!

Only worn once

Size 8.5 Predictions; asking $10 OBO.

Maybe 3 inch heel

Only worn once.

Size 8 So(?); asking $10 OBO SOLD!

Grey almost flannel like

Worn once to church...too small when I bought them but I was in a pinch!

If you're interested, then:

1. Leave a comment with what shoe and your email address.

2. Flat shipping rate of $5 per pair of shoes (unless local)

3. You can PayPal me the money or mail it via snail mail.

4. I will ship the shoes within 3 days of receiving payment.

Remember this is for a good cause and you can make your own donation to the Flentge here. Thanks for your support!

Master the Met 2012...

...once again we pulled together team Stairway to Heaving and they all did a great job Mastering the Met. Here's the team from this year:

We had a few more teammates but some were sick or had to go out of town, it's just that time of year! Overall though, our team raised over $2,000 for the American Lung Assocation which is AWESOME!!! And everyone made it to the top and survived all 40 flights of stairs-you guys rock! I was supposed to climb but Maggie's husband Steve filled in for me.

While waiting there was LOTS of eye candy in the form of cute firemen! Luckily, I saw that a LOT of the cute ones work at the fire department just around the block from my house. Hello Cute Firemen, I'll be stopping by to have you install my carseat, thank you very much! Here is an attempt to get a pic of a cute one behind Holly, yes, I'm like a teenager!

Ronda's father passed away in January from lung cancer. She did an amazing job raising over $600 and wore a picture of her dad on her back. At the end of the race, she posted his picture on the "I Climb Because..." banner and wrote a note. I think she did an amazing job honoring her father:

The team with their Master the Met shirts they earned. So proud of all of them!!!

Great job team! Can't wait until next year!!!

THE Light Display...

...let me just say that this light display has been the topic of many arguments at our house. Instead of a trivia night, I thought it would be easier to make a light display and work the gate a couple nights at the local park Christmas light display. I should have picked someone other than my super, insanely busy husband to help me with this project! But in the end, it got done...

This is a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. This is a board with clean air facts:

Giant stocking and the present on top is "supposed" to move up and down. However, I think it's too heavy so we'll have to revamp that. Now, bonus points for anyone who notices what's wrong with this picture...

The total scene:

It's nothing too spectacular but it works. We'll be making a minimum of $600 for ALA so that alone was worth it. If you're in my area of town, please be sure to go tour this park!

Master the Met 2011...

Master the Met Year 2-I survived!!! Master the Met is a 42 flight stairclimb inside the Metropolitian Building in downtown St. Louis. All funds raised for this event go to the American Lung Association. You can read about last year's event here.

My half training called for an easy 2 miles today so I debated whether to run this before or after the climb. I was wanting to beat last year's time so I didn't want to run BEFORE and be all tired but I knew after climbing 42 flights of stairs, I doubted I'd want to go run another two miles. I decided to split the difference: I ran 1.31 miles to meet my ride, climbed the stairs then ran back home. I was THRILLED with my pace for the run there-faster than normal. (OH! Sidenote: I got a wristwatch with a timer for my birthday on Friday so I can actually time my runs now!!!) So half training for Saturday-DONE!

We got to the Metropolitian Building and found everyone on our team. I decided to meander over to the registration table to chat with the awesome race director, Jamie (she seriously rocks!). Long story short, due to communication errors, we would only be climbing 40 flights! We went back and reported the news to our team and everyone was relieved. Me? Well, me being the crazy let's inflict as much pain on this oversized body of mine was honestly bummed! Last year, I did all these races to push myself and see if I could do it. This year, I was on a mission to beat my time from last year.

If you'd run the stairs before, then you got a "Met Vet" sticker to put on your bib. I put one on Terrance's oxygen tank (he was the only one on our team that competed in the firefighter with full gear AND oxygen!). Here's me showing off my guns picking up his tank for him, "GRRR!!! Being strong is hard work!!!"

And here's our Met Vet pic, left to right: Terrance, me, Holly, Stacey and April. Last year's team we only had 11, 8 "regular" people and 3 firefighters. Due to jobs, schedules and moves, we lost a few teammates .

BUT!!! We gained a lot more teammates this year and all of our old teammates supported us too. This year we had 15 on our team and everyone REALLY rocked it, I was SOOO proud of everyone. Okay, back to the story at hand. We took a bunch of team pictures, stood in line forever then FINALLY it was time to line up and I started getting nervous. I don't know why, it's not like I was in it to "beat" anyone other than myself. I messed with my MP3 player finding the perfect "pump me up" song. Finally I got to the front of the line and I jogged down the hallway to "the stairs." I started at a quick speed but still walk heading up them, ignoring all the volunteers cheering and just focusing on the floor in front of me. Around floor 3, I realized I was WAY too fast and said to myself, "Now Alyssa, you did this last year and screwed yourself." So I slowed down, after all slow and steady wins the race!

At "Floor 7" I finally decided to finally look to see what floor I was on: P7. Sweet! I'm booking it, I glance up at the next flight, Floor 7. LAME! P7 was the parking level 7!!! Floor 9, I got some water but then I held it for like 3 flights and didn't drink any. So I passed the second water station but I could've gone for some on the last floor but the volunteers weren't handing them out, they were telling you to go in the hallway....umm, no thanks-I'm on a mission here!

Somewhere before the halfway point, two of my teammates and I were all together. I looked up and saw a lady climbing the 40 flights of stairs in HEELS!!! I hit Maggie on the arm because I couldn't talk so I just pointed. That was BANANAS!!! Here's the lady after the race and this is EXACTLY the same shoes she climbed in-no joke!

No idea what floor but towards the end, there was some barfaroni I had to dodge-ew, ew, ew! I finally reached the top and my teammates were all there cheering me on!!! I got a bottle of water and waited for the rest of the team to cheer them on too. Terrance, who did the firefighter portion about 20 minutes before us in all his gear even waited at the top for all of us too! I definitely felt like this year was MUCH easier than last year but no way was it EASY at all.

Once everyone finished, we headed back downstairs to the after party. Hello beer and bananas!!! We *patiently* waited for the results. When they came out, I was pretty stoked: 40 flights of stairs in 11 minutes and 22 seconds. Last year, my times was 13 minutes and 36 seconds for 42 flights of stairs. 2010 average: 19.4 seconds/flight 2011 average: 17.05 seconds/flight I WIN!!! I BEAT MY TIME FROM LAST YEAR!!! Not to mention, I also just FELT better physically, too so that's a bonus.

What's up!?! We MASTERED THE MET!!!

OH! And our team, Stairway to Heaving, was the 4th highest fundraising team with $5,178.25. There were over 140+ teams. They also take the 3 fastest team members and add up their time to see which team is the fastest. Our team was 37th out of 140+. Way to go Stairway to Heaving!!!

Then we drove back across the bridge to head home and I ran my mile back to my house, coughing the whole way home but I'm happy to say, I Mastered the Met, I beat my time from last year AND I completed my half training for the day.

OH! I keep finishing this post and then coming back to it. Want to know something very weird? Last year when I did the Met, I was 26. This year when I did it, I was 28. Last year it was before my birthday, this year it was after my birthday, so I never got to climb the Met at 27. Weird, huh?