Quick update before 5pm

So the good news is I dug in and sorted through my recipes and weeded out more then half!
Other good news is our fundraising for the Avon Walk for Breast Canacer is in full swing and we have so far raised $1550.00 of the $3600.00 to meet our goal!  Thank you to all who have participated and thoe who don't know they still owe me....
Happy Wednesday XXXOOO

Fundraising for us....football pool for you!

Hello All....Happy Thursday


As you know, I'm walking in the 2 day event for Breast Cancer in October. My team and I need to raise at least $3,600.00 to walk.

We are doing a Superbowl pool, and have the proceeds will go towards the walk. The other half - you could win!! Please let me know if you are interested.

It's $10 a box. $250 for the final, $150 for Halftime, $50 for 1st and 3rd. $500 donated to Avon Walk for Breast Cancer! Let me know if you're interested, thanks for your support!!!

****please note this is the brain storm of my co-walker, Team Captain Morse****

Help....

I need to find the motivation to start training for my walk in October....not that I'm in bad shape by any means, but it still requires me building my endurance for a 20 mile day back to back.
What I need is a soundtrack, one that is built by friends and family.  I want each of you to send me a message to my personal email sullygirl2009@gmail.com and give me a song that we shared and your memory of it.  I'm going to download it to my ipod and use it as part of my training and walk.  If we don't have one, then I am okay with a random motivating song, just tell me why you chose it.
I look forward to hearing from you and expect to have a HUGH library and a lot of memories to keep me going.  I know a few will make me cry and other laugh, I look forward to those emotions to keep my momentum.
XXXOOO
http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=2175&px=6317506

Happy 2012

Last night I was reminded that I do not update my blog enough and for the 2 people who actually care enough to read it, that's just not fair!  I'm not going to make some stupid New Years Resolution and tell you I am going to keep up, because I will only break it like every other resolution I've made in the last 30 years.  5 years ago I gave up New Years Resolutions, but I do set goals for the year....still working on my BIG one from 2011 and that is my recipe mess.

So, medical update...I'm officially fixed and all is well.  I'm as healthy as I can be with the exception of the 10 lbs I gained over the holidays which I am fixin' to work off.  With my family history and my own scare, I have decided to walk the Avon 2 day Walk for Breast Cancer out of NY this October.  I will be changing around my blog shortly to reflect my dedication to this cause.  I have always been an advocate for Breast Cancer, but doing this walk this year means I'm ready to make a difference.  I will be walking with my bestie Stacey and our team name is the RACK PACK.  We are open to taking on others interested in walking.
If you would like to make a donation towards my walk please follow the link below:
http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=2175&px=6317506

So keep an eye out for the changes to my site and my fundraising efforts.  This is for all my friends and family, near and far who have had cancer touch their lives.  Cancer is cancer and finding a cure is key!

XXXOOO

Life is NOT "what not"...

Life has gotten "semi" back to normal, but still crazy.  How do people with more then one child, a job and a life get by?  I have one child, a job and a life and barely make it some days!

Things have been a little more hectic now that we are back to school and my PTA obligations are in full swing.  It seems we go from one event/fundraiser to the next.  With the Halloween Spooktacular behind me, now all I have to do is get the banking done for the 10 events before it and I will still be behind 10 more!  I'm struggling with the taxes and extremely frustrated.  But enough complaining!

I went for a consultation to finally have my tubes tied...that's good right?  Well, you would think so, but I had to use a whole new Dr due to our new insurance.  Not really thrilled so far considering he sent my for a mammogram because he found 2 lumps, and those lumps didn't show up on the mammo so then they did an ultrasound and it was nothing, but yet an MRI was "suggested".  Oh and on top of that I have a bacterial infection and the medication is causing back pain like there is no tomorrow...and the Dr office says it's "normal".  So I am all set to be sterilized on 11/11/11, lucky right?  I just hope this guy listened to me and remembers to take out my IUD (which is most likely the source of my infection according to webmd) because he didn't even want to talk to me about the procedure....UGH!

Okay DOUBLE UGH!

XXXOOO

I do not blog enough...do I?

Do I?  I want to, but it always seems like there is something going on and it gets pushed to the background. 
Lately I have just been bogged down in volunteering and PTA stuff and it seems night and day there is always something that needs to be done...lists made, money collected, ego's stroked.  This list goes on and on.  Today, I have gone through all I could and now you have my full attention.  So, let me tell you about our 2011 vacation.  Let me remind you this is the ONLY family vacation we take each year, all the others it's usually just Danny and I.

It started out GREAT, the weather on our trip to TN was beautiful.  It wasn't a bright sunny hot day, but overcast and warm and it didn't rain (which is ALWAYS does).  Ryan and I didn't fight too much over driving or music selection.  We got to TN and the days were nice and I got to relax a bit when we were there.  Usually I go into mode and feel like I have to do everything for everyone, because I am there.
On Sunday morning we woke up and weren't in a hurry to get on the road, but were ready for the next 10 hours in the car and then 7 days of fun in the sun, fishing, ice cream and a good book.  Can I tell you that's NOT how it happened?  For some reason I downloaded the directions to my car improperly and we took a route that added 3 hours to our tip getting us in late, very tired and even more hungry.  The drivers on the road were rude (very unlike the south) and the traffic was horrible.  Okay, so we shake that off...
Monday morning we wake up and the boys want to go get fishing licenses and hit the pier, I want to get to the grocery store and sick up so I can hit the beach.  Done!
Tuesday, the same thing minus the grocery store.  I wanted to go over to Oracoke for the day since we missed out last year, but Ryan said we would go Wednesday.  While at the pier that morning, Ryan hears the Oracoke has been evacuated due to the predicted Hurricane, so much for that!  Now we start to wonder what is going to happen.  We start our planning, if the hurricane is due Saturday we will leave on Friday....or do we wait for the evacuation orders?  We hem and haw and decide we aren't going to ruin the nice days we still have ahead of us and get back to our vacation.
The days are beautiful, the sky is clear the waves are rough, but I don't spend much time in the water....only go in ankle deep to cool off.  Wednesday evening the town is a buzz about the storm.  I walk up to the local gift shop / book store to look for a new book again this year about the history of the Outer Banks and strike up a conversation with the owner.  She is a local and very sweet...every time I go in there she is very talkative and helpful and he book suggestions are always good.  I ask her what she thinks about evacuations and she said they usually do it 24 hours ahead so we still have a day or two.  She also said we should relax and enjoy the nice days ahead, orders won't be issued until Friday.  I had also been at the realty office earlier that day and that was also the consensus.
So I go back to the house and the phone is ringing, not my cell phone, the house phone to which I have NO idea what the number is....I answer.  "Good Evening, this is the Dare County Sheriffs Department.  Please note with the impending storm all visitors are under a mandatory evacuation orders.  Please proceed immediately and you are asked to check out and depart by 10am tomorrow morning Thursday August 25th".....FUCK! (sorry) 
Can you say Crisis mode?  I start going room by room, picking up dirty laundry to wash and dry and get packed.  We have to bring in all outdoor furniture and gather up everything we have spewed throughout the house thinking we had another 5 days.  We need to try and get the car repacked, now in a hurry, and on the road.
We make it out as you may have guessed.  It took us over 16 hours to get home because they started evacuations right up the coast, so as we hit major vacation areas the traffic hot worse and worse...and Interstate 95 was the evacuation route they opened.  Any of you who have traveled this road knows it's hell on a good day, but make it the only major road open it SUCKS ASS!!!  We spent 5 hours in Maryland alone because we hit just as DC was ending it's day and Ocean Beach was being closed.  We got home late that night and only took in all the food we opted to tote back with us....everything else would wait.
The next morning we got up and had to go into hurricane preparedness mode ourselves.  I got up and hit the grocery store before everyone bought the last of the milk and bread, because those were 2 things I DID NOT have.  I did get what I needed with the exception of water in bulk, I bought a few cases of bottled water to have to drink and I figured mother nature would provide us with the rest of the water we would need if we lost power.  So I put our heaviest pots outside for the rain to fill, took in all the furniture and stoed the rest of the outdoor "flying objects".  I filled buckets and took out candles and dropped the AC temp a few degrees so the house would stay cooler longer if we lost power.
Right about this time is when Ryan got called into work...state of emergency is called and off he goes.  FEMA was setting up a command center and God forbid they miss a meal!  He left Friday morning and came home on Monday night.  Danny and I fared well by ourselves.  The roof didn't leak and we never lost power, the only damage sustained was the one lonely branch (more twig then branch) fell in our yard.  We did have a casualty during the storm, my VERY low lying garden met it's demise and drowned....so we didn't get any cucumbers for pickles and even less tomatoes for sandwiches.

Do you think I earned another vacation?  I mean I did COMPLETELY miss mine....48 hours of driving and all I had was a long weekend.

September 12th

I spent the better part of yesterday between trying to avoid the reality of the day and tears.  Although I did not lose anyone I knew, it has always been a very emotional day for me.  I remember that day like it just happened and relive it every year in my mind.
On that fateful morning I was 6 months pregnant and successfully sleeping in until my phone rang.  I rolled over and ignored it, then it rang again...ugh!  Who would be calling my at this ungodly hour?  Don't people realize I am gestating here and trying to get as much sleep as I can before this baby arrives?  I lumber out of bed and answer the phone is my VERY best annoyed voice..."ahhh HELLO", it's my mother and she asks me how I can possibly be sleeping with everything that is going on...well mother I'm hatching your grandchild and I'm entitled to a little extra sleep!  I look outside our 2nd story apartment window in Fairlawn, NJ and it is a glorious day...you are right, how can I let this day get away from me!  I ask her what's going on and why she is up so early and calling me, "turn on the TV, we are under attack"..."huh?  Attack, what do you mean?"..."Jody, your father is in the city and I can't get a hold of him, you are the only line I can get out to".  I turned on the TV in the mean time, just in time to see the second plane hit and my mother gasp, probably for the second time that day.  I told her I would call her back, I needed to get myself together.  At the time Ryan and my brother in law were working in Westchester, NY.  I needed to call and be sure they were okay and then my sister and the girls.  Before that happened my phone rang again, it was my father he was in Lodi, NJ...he stopped at the shop and got held up and never made it into the city that day, but he couldn't get a line through to my mother, so I was going to be the go between.  I called my mother and told her my father was okay and still in NJ...one tragedy divered.  I spent the balance of that morning on the phone making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be and safe...they were!  In the mean time my mother insisted I pack up the dog and come and stay with her, she didn't want me alone and that close to the city.  It was days before things got "back to normal" for us, but for others, nothing would ever be the same.
As the days and weeks passed I found myself watching endless hours of coverage, people jumping out of buildings, walking away covered in debris, firefighters in full gear combing the falling buildings, a debis field in PA where a plane went down, families waiting to hear...it was endless and I couldn't stop watching.  My heart broke and I cried...I wanted to help but couldn't. 
Although a lot has changed since that day, if I close my eyes I can feel the warm sun on my face and the fear in my heart as I watched our lives and skyline change forever.