Watch out world!!

I'm quite beside myself tonight. I just got off the phone with Jenny, my cousin and graphic designer extraordinaire. She's just finished the design for my fund raising letter and postcard! All you folks (assuming that someone other than my mom is reading this blog) will be getting a letter from me soon, and it makes all this feel much more official.
Thanks in advance!

The picture below is Jenny and LK getting ready to get into some trouble on a recent trip to Mexico. Jenny is the all time best travel companion--ready for anything and always fun. For anyone who asks nicely, I'll tell you about this one time in Italy where there was a Vespa, 13 kiwis, a guy with really great shoes and a sleepless night...Thanks for everything, JenJen!!

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

I just love a little Paul Simon. It always puts me in a happy frame of mind, and it reminds me of my time in Spain. I lived in a barrio several miles outside of the center of the city where my classes were, so I had a combination of bus and walk every day. I took over a walkman (you youngsters these days won't even know what that is! we had to walk uphill both ways AND couldn't watch videos on demand!!) and had all these mixed tapes that friends had made. However, by the time I got to Spain, I was a little tired of all those songs after the month Jenny and I had traveled around. So, one day, I splurged at the local El Corte Ingles (think department store/super Target) and bought Paul Simon's greatest hits. I listened to it every day after that. It was so nice to hear whenever I got homesick as I walked to and fro.

So I've been walking lots lately, although this time I've got an MP3 player. How I've come up in the world...and I have a world of music. Whenever I get tired of Paul (as if!), I can switch over to a little Spanish rock to put a spring in my step as I work on training for the 3-Day. You'll all be proud to note that I have walked everywhere from 3 to 5 miles a minimum of 3 days a week after I signed up. Still thinking that 20 a day is going to be rough (I know that's nothing for my tougher friends out there, but still!). It's been nice to get out. I put LK in a stroller, and we head. Sometimes she gets to bring a friend. This picture is of Sara (our next door neighbor) and LK during a recent walk. This training business is hard!!! (Especially if you're getting pushed around...)

Why does it matter? Breast cancer by the numbers.

So, if you're taking a look at this blog, you're either a really good friend of mine who is afraid I'll bother you until you do so, or you're someone who has a stake in ending breast cancer. You could be someone in both categories because:

• One in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.
• An estimated 182, 460 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in America in 2008 alone. In other words, in the U.S., breast cancer is expected to be newly diagnosed every three minutes.
  
• 85% of women with breast cancer have no family history.
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death for all women and the number one in respect to cancer deaths in women between the ages of 20 and 59.
  
• Every 13 minutes a women dies of breast cancer.
• However, 96% of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer free in five years.
• Mammograms can detect cancer up to 2 years before a lump can be felt.
  

The monies raised by the Breast Cancer 3-Day go into funding education, research and even helping fund mammograms in high need areas. If you've got a hanky at hand, be sure to watch the video below.

Here we go!!

So, it's Sunday, May 3rd, and I'm beginning this blog as my lovely cousin works on my fundraising letter that I'm going to send out about the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day walk in Atlanta. Am I lucky or what to have family wildly gifted in design?? She's also pretty passionate about nonprofits herself. All you Georgians should check out her webpage--www.ourgreenatlanta.com.

Anyway, hopefully I should be able to keep this pretty updated over the course of the next five months as I train, beg prettily for money and get y'all excited about the 3 Day. For anyone who doesn't know, The Breast Cancer 3 Day is a 60 mile walk over the course of three days. Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust, funding important breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. Their website is here: www.the3day.org/