All it took was 3 days...

and my life is forever changed. I participated in the breast cancer 3 day this weekend. It's a 60 mile walk over 3 days to raise money and awareness about breast cancer. I'm pretty sure most people are aware of breast cancer so it's definitely about fundraising for a great cause. The Dallas 3 day raised over $7.5 million dollars that will benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the National Philanthropic Trust. It will go towards research for a cure and early detection programs. I will start by saying this was the most physically demanding, hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Thinking about it, I can't believe I walked 60 miles. But when I look at all the blisters on my feet I'm like oh yeah I walked 60 miles. :) I trained so much that my muscles aren't too sore...it's just those pesky blisters.

The first day was by far the easiest. We had a team (Scooby Booby Doo!) and we split into 2 groups due to different walking paces. I trained at a pretty fast pace so I was happy to walk at a fairly quick pace. It was quite a bit different walking the route vs. training. First of all, we walked mostly on sidewalk (alot of it uneven), but I trained mostly in the street or on the treadmill. I also trained alone or with a few teammates not with 2600 people and stoplights. There was a lot of stopping and starting on the route.

Day 2 was a little harder because I was tired from the first day. We walked as a team on day 2 and had so much fun playing silly games, complaining about our pain, and meeting other people, oh and eating. Seriously, it was like a 60 mile buffet. Every 2-4 miles there was a pit stop of some sort where you could fill up on water/gatorade, get snacks, use the restroom, and get medical attention if necessary. Additionally, there were people along the route cheering us on that had buckets of candy, snacks, etc. It felt like all we did was eat!

Day 3 was the hardest and the last 2 miles were the most difficult. By day 3, I was walking with blisters, my toes were tired of being crammed in my sneakers and I was just flat out tired. My feet felt like they each weighed 30 pounds during those last 2 miles. No one had the energy to play our goofy games and we were just concentrating on finishing. And we did just that....finished. Every single step of every single mile. We rocked it and I'm so proud of my teammates. You girls rock!!!

I can't even describe the feeling of finishing. It was a mix of so many emotions-accomplished, thankful, grateful, honored, exhausted, proud, excited, the list goes on. I felt so accomplished that I had pushed myself, blisters and all, to walk 60 miles to support a cure for breast cancer. I've never felt a feeling like that. Being part of something so much bigger than me or my team. Being part of something that will benefit women (and men) all over the world.

Thank you to everyone who donated towards my fundraising goal of $2300. You are all awesome and I appreciate you so much!!

Thank you to everyone that sent me emails, texts, and letters at camp (you know who you are). They were so encouraging and made me feel so loved and supported!

A special thanks to those that came out to cheer us on and met us at the finish line/closing ceremony (you know who you are too). It was the cheering people that motivate you to keep going when your legs are tired and you just want to take off your shoes and burn them. We were all commenting that we wished the whole route was just people cheering for us. It would have made it SO much easier, especially the last few miles of each day. LOL! It means so much that you took time out of your day to come out and encourage us. It was so refreshing too to see people we knew out cheering for us! I love you all very much!

The cheering stations and cheering people were one of the best parts of the walk. It was very emotional to have complete strangers telling you what a great job you're doing and how you still look beautiful after having walked 45 miles. Having people high five you and tell you that they have family members that are survivors of breast cancer. It makes me cry just thinking about how rewarding that was. Meeting real breast cancer survivors that benefit from the research that is funded by money we raised....indescribable.

I want to do it again for sure. Not sure if it will be next year or not but I will definitely do it again at some point. It all started with me seeing the commercials for it. I kept thinking that looks so cool, what a great cause, I should do that. Then I thought "why am I not doing that?" and so I signed up. It's a big commitment and takes alot of time training and preparing but it's so worth it and I'm so happy I did it.

Here are specific things I'm taking away from the 3 day:
- Portapotties are not THAT terrible (all of ours had toilet paper too so that helped)
- Those smucker's PB&J sandwiches are fantastic
- Gaby is hysterical and one of the funniest people I know
- Joy has a giggle disease
- Cynthia can somehow keep her makeup in tact after walking 20 miles
- I can do anything I set my mind to
- It's possible to walk 60 miles and not lose 1 lb. At least I didn't gain weight which they said we might from retaining so many fluids!

Go Scooby Booby Doo!!! I love you girls!

Opening Ceremony
Opening Ceremony

Every elementary school we passed had tons of kids and teachers out cheering for us. It was awesome!

My BFF Kate!! She came to cheer us with her 2 girls

Me and Cynthia with the Energizer Bunny. They were a big sponsor of the 3 day.

Our tent. Okay so I bailed on camping and this is why. Our tent was at the very edge of the campsite and it was SO windy. This is the tent with my 35 pounds of gear inside. I hate camping in general and knew I could not sleep in that and get up and walk 20 more miles.

Me and Barrett

Me, Preston, Zach, Alex and my Dad!

The bra mobile. There were so many creative decorations along the route.

Stop the War on Our Racks!

Gaby!

My teammates stretching. Cynthia, Gaby, Joy. We stretched out at every pit stop, red light, stop sign, etc.

These "girls" were at the end of the route everyday cheering for us.

One of my gnarly blisters. There are plenty more but I will spare you. This was at the end of day 2 so I walked with that bad boy on day 3. I popped it first and wrapped it up. Ew gross.

A World without Breast Cancer. That's what we are striving for.

My awesome family that came to the closing ceremony to watch our victory walk. They are awesome!!! (Dad, Barrett, Mom, Alex, Me, Mark, Zach, Preston, Brian, Brandi)

A first time for everything

Some of you may know that I discovered a mass just to the left of my sternum about 5 weeks ago. I went to my regular doctor to get it checked out and she sent me to a breast imaging specialist. I had my appointment today for my mammogram and ultrasound and am happy to report that I am cancer free and the mass is just tissue that is non-cancerous. Praise God! I've been praying about this appointment since I found the mass and am so relieved and thankful that everything is fine. It makes me realize the importance even more of doing the breast cancer 3 day this weekend. There are so many women of all ages affected by breast cancer and all the research being done is helping women detect things earlier and helping save lives. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Birthday Boy!

Following our little Malhiot family tradition, we started with breakfast at Ballard Street Cafe on Saturday morning to celebrate B's 2nd birthday!! Being that his birthday is Halloween, the waitresses were all dressed up. It took less than 2 minutes for Barrett to spot one dressed as a scarecrow complete with full makeup on her face. Let's just say he completely freaked out. He refused to eat, cried, "mommy hold you", all of that. He wouldn't stay in his seat for anything and he would cry whenever he saw her and if she walked out of sight his eyes would dart around looking for her. It did not go well until they brought him a piece of pie for his birthday and then we made a mad dash out of there.

Next it was off to a Halloween party at the Joynt's house. Barrett wore his Bam Bam costume and had a great time playing with Delaney's toys and playing outside. Next it was naptime so little guy would be ready for his party.

Almost everyone came in costume for B's party and we had a great time! We are so blessed with wonderful friends and family and we had a great turnout. Barrett was a little apprehensive at first (mostly because my mom had clown make up on but she washed it off and all was well) but he warmed up and had fun playing with his friends. He received so many great gifts and we are so greatful to everyone for their generosity!

Next it was trick or treating time. Did I mention we had a really LONG day??? My dad and aunt stayed at our house to pass out candy while Mark and I (dressed as Barney and Betty Rubble) headed out with Preston, Zach (my oldest nephews), Kimberly (my 13 year old cousin) and Barrett to score some candy. We met up with our neighbors, the Flintstones, and our friends across the street. For the first 10-15 houses Barrett was in his "mommy hold you" mood so I carried him while the big kids ran from house to house. After about 30 minutes, he said "I trick treat." I set him down and proceeded to walk up to each house and say "trick treat". He'd get his candy and say "thank you, bye". He'd look at us and point to the next house and say "I go that house?". And he'd head up there. It was really cute and he was really into it. He probably would have kept going except it got cold and it was late.

All in all, we had a great but exhausting day. We were so thankful to have an extra hour to sleep in on Sunday morning.

Looking at everyone as we sang Happy Birthday

This kid loves cake. For days leading up to his birthday it was "I have party, I have cake."

New bike!!! My parents got him this bike and boy was he excited. We put it together Friday night and hid it in the closet under the stairs. Mark went in there to get the camera on Saturday morning and of course Mark, Jr. (aka Barrett) followed him in there. He saw the bike and said "Dad, come here. Look. BIKE!!!!!"

Nana and Poppy came dressed as Handy Manny and Kelly (owner of the hardware store in Handy Manny). Handy Manny is Barrett's favorite show and pretty much the only thing he will watch. He loves it and can name all the tools and the characters.

Kimberly (bat girl), Preston (Ron Weasley), Zachary (Harry Potter), Steph (Betty)

Bam Bam and Barney

After trick or treating, lollipop in hand, sitting in his new chair with his new laptop. Life is good.

Melting Down

It's possible that we are entering the "terrible two's" and I hear the three's are even worse. Today at Little Gym, Barrett had his biggest tantrum to date. We do different activities at Little Gym and when we are done with each we put away any equipment that we used. Today, after the warm-up, we played with hula hoops. When it was time to put the hula hoops away, Barrett melted down. He started crying and screaming "that mine" as I took the hula hoop from him to put away. After about 3 minutes of screaming, I scooped him up and took him out of the class. We sat in the waiting area and had a chat about manners and sharing and all that stuff. He said he was ready to go back in so in we went. It was time for bubbles and balls and of course B goes straight for the footballs (there are 5). Another child came to get one and he melted down again. "That my shootball." Keep in mind, he had the other 4 but wanted to have all of them. WAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! He pulled down his pants in the middle of the mat and continued screaming and crying. I cracked up. I wish I'd had my camera because him in the middle of floor with his pants down screaming was a sight to see. When we got home, he took a 3 hour nap. Perhaps, he was just REALLY tired???? I think it was a combination of tired and getting to that stage of development that I'm dreading.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Barrett to a pumpkin patch in Celina that we'd heard good things about. He absolutely loved it. We didn't time it very well so we got there right about his naptime but since it was outside he did great!! He fell asleep within 2 minutes of getting back in the car.

Most kids don't like to wear sunglasses, hats, etc. Not Barrett. If it's sunny even the slightest bit he'll say "it bright, need sunglasses." He rarely takes them off and usually we end up taking them off so he doesn't have them on in all of our pictures. He wears them in the car too.

He's at that age where we can hardly get him to look at the camera and say cheese.

Getting some animal feed from the cup.

Feeding goats. He loved it and wasn't scared a bit. He would stick his hand in the fence and say "Goat, goat, goat. Come here. I have some food." Too funny!

He liked when their tongues would tickle his hand.

I'll just carry this one right over here next to this other one.

Two's not enough so let me get another one.

Apparently three isn't enough either, so let's make it four!

Now I'll sit on one. If you've been around Barrett for more than say 30 minutes you have probably seen him sit on something. If he has a ball, balloon, or the like he will sit on it. He thinks it's the funniest thing. Once he got a tiny magnet and said "mom, watch" and sat on it. It's very, very odd but incredibly funny.

"I sit punkin"

"I fall down"

"I do it again"

We let him pick a pumpkin to bring home which he was thrilled about. He calls it "my punkin" and he put it in his kitchen.

10.2009 Pics (so far)

Daddy and B hamming it up in the bounce house at Elise's birthday party. This was picture worthy because it's the first time B didn't freak out in a bounce house...and they are both really cute so that also makes it picture worthy. :)

Gigantic chair in front of an outdoor furniture place. Don't even get me started on what a hard time we've had finding furniture. We haven't found any yet and have pretty much given up until Spring when the new stuff comes out.

Sophia and Barrett. These two are little best friends. Sophia has actually said she plans to marry Barrett and that she would like a cotton candy machine and a donut station at the wedding. LOL

Barrett and Carter talking to each other on the phone.

Kids can have a lot of fun with a box.

B hearts his "nookies".

I'm not sure why he has the bats. He was using them like walking sticks. Maybe to help his balance in my heels??

He loves shoes. My shoes, Mark's shoes, other people's shoes. He always wants to try shoes on. It's nice and quiet when he wears my heels on the hardwood. Oh wait....

Heading back to the closet to put them away.

Bath time! Barrett loves taking a bath. Mark gives him his bath every night. If Mark isn't home, B usually fights with me about his bath and always asks for Daddy.