Parades, Pitbulls and Pink--This Was My Memorial Day!

Carrying the Daisy Flag!

Yesterday my daughter marched in our town's annual Memorial Day Parade with her Daisy Scout Troop.  The girls walked nearly 3 miles in the heat, which even at 10:30 in the morning, was over 80 degrees.  The good news for me at least was I got my 3 miles of walking in that morning.  And got to experience what walking 3 miles is like in heat that oppressive.  We had sunscreen and water but still, it was sticky, sweaty and just plain hot!  Hopefully it won't be that hot when I walk in the 3 Day.

My Little One just before Parade!

This is us falling a little behind!

The parade overall was a great experience for me and Talia at least.  I know it was hot and probably not the most pleasant of conditions, but so many people came out to watch the parade that it seemed to energize most of the girls.  I know it helped me to keep going.  We did see a few people on the parade route who were in uniform and that really helped us to remember just why we were doing the parade.  All the sacrifices that people in the armed forces, as well as their families have made over the years really hit home when you see that.  To me a parade like this is not unlike what I picture the 3 Day will be.  Hundreds, even thousands of people out there supporting the same cause.

The parade ended at the local fire house where they had free hot dogs and drinks for all the participants.  Iced tea had never tasted so good!  And then we met this little girl:

This is Gina, she is a 5 year old pitbull that my little girl and two of her school friends couldn't resist taking a picture with. She was so sweet and gentle that I almost couldn't believe she's a pitbull.  I had to take a photo because she was so friendly and because she was wearing pink!  Also, I thought she was pregnant but her owner informed me that no, she gave birth a year ago and was not, in fact pregnant.  Sorry Gina, for putting my foot in my mouth once again!



Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  But we should never forget why we get the day off for Memorial Day, and thank a veteran for their service and sacrifice.  And remember those who were not able to come home.  If anyone is interested in seeing a great movie that shows how war can affect families (and there are lots of them out there), see Brothers with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman.  Very poignant, sad, and violent.  Not appropriate for kids. 

Faith, Hope and Love,


Angela

The Ta-Ta Sisterhood Third Annual Cookies for the Cure

This year's Third Annual Cookies for the Cure at Christine Camper's house was a huge success.  We raised nearly $600 towards Christine's fundraising goal of $4000.  This is also the first year that my daughter Talia has taken on a more active role in my fundraising.  To earn a patch for Daisy Scouts, she helped me bake cookies for the sale and also she helped make signs at the sale.  Take a look at all my Daisy's hard work!

Mixing

Stirring

This was the day before the bake sale.

The next day, we arrived at Christine's house around 9 in the morning to set up.  Below are some pictures of the layout of the bake sale.

Talia is making a sign for the bikini top cookies!

The pink ribbons leading customers up the driveway!

A majority of the team, from left:

Tricia, Marissa (Christine's daughter), Christine, Cherrill, Heather, Lisa, me and Talia.

Customers signing in so we can thank them for coming!



The finished driveway sign!

Almost forgot about Chloe, she helped to bake too!

I would count this year's team leader bake sale a big success!  The weather was beautiful and we made a lot of people happy with our sweet treats!  We baked chocolate chip cookies but there were some wonderful bikini top cookies donated by the Yorktown Cookie Company, Cupcakes in a Jar donated by Over the Top Cupcakes of Stuart, FL, and a bunch of other stuff that team members, friends and neighbors of Christine's took time out to donate for our bake sale. 

Events like this make me so proud to be a part of this team!  Great job everybody!

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

Lighten Up, Francis!

OK, I realize that the last thing I posted on here kind of had an angry tone to it.  Hence the "Stripes" reference at the top.  Well, today I found probably the funniest response to that Time Magazine cover that was posted by MommyJuice Wines, a Facebook page I regularly follow.  I am not sure where she found it originally, but enjoy it!

I have not completely lost my sense of humor, OK?  Who hasn't faced dilemmas like these?

Laughing Out Loud!

With Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

Are You Kidding Me Right Now?

The first time I saw the cover to this week's Time Magazine I came across it on Facebook.  It was posted on the timeline of a friend.  A friend of my husband's actually, who happens to be male.    Here it is for those who may have missed it.

Let me preface this by saying, I have no problem whatsoever with breastfeeding your child.  There is nothing more beautiful than the image of a mother feeding her young child, the bonding, the nutrition.  I have read some studies that say that breastfeeding, can help reduce the risk of breast cancer.  Breastfeeding is a good thing!  Love the breastfeeding.  Did it myself until the pediatrician recommended that I supplement with formula.  I lasted for about 3 months of this with each child.  So I would say that under those circumstances, not too bad.

I have friends who have breastfed their kids, one year, 18 months, two years, three.  None of that makes a difference.  If the kid is happy and mom is happy, that's great. 

What I have a problem with is Time Magazine making a cover out of it.  When did it become okay to show this kind of stuff on the cover of a worldwide distributed magazine?  To me Time crossed a line here.  I don't like it.  And I also don't like the caption.  It is very insulting to a mom like myself.  I breastfed my kids for only 3 months.  Does that make me any less of a mom?

I think not, Time Magazine.  If I didn't already have a subscription to your magazine, I wouldn't touch this one with a 10 foot pole.  Normally I love this magazine. 

Sigh.  Anyway, I walked 3.5 miles today, in 50 minutes.  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms I know.  Happy Mother's Day to my Grandma and my Nonna in heaven.  All of you have touched my life in such a wonderful way :)

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

I love my pink shoes! I love my pink shoes!

This evening I received my first mom's day present from my mom, my first pair of pink training shoes.  I LOVE THEM!  I have been using the Reebok RealFlex running shoe as a treadmill shoe for the past year, I wanted to try different pairs.  I looked at Nike, Asics, and New Balance, but I kept coming back to Reebok RealFlex.  This time I selected the RealFlex trainer shoe, because it has more padding in it and I think I will be able to last for a long time in these shoes.  I have walked as much as 8 miles in the RealFlex running shoe, but I think the extra padding will be much more comfortable.

Here are some photos in case you are looking for shoes to train in and want to check them out:

This is the name of the shoe: RealFlex Transition

This is how they look!  Pretty snazzy huh?

A view from the outside

This is the inside of the shoe

These are the shoes that I use for the treadmill!

My mommy friends will appreciate where I got the title of this post from.  My daughters' favorite book right now is "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes" and it's about this black cat who loves to wear white shoes.  The only problem is, he keeps getting them dirty.  But does he cry?  Goodness, no!  Because no matter how dirty they get, they are still his favorite shoes.  The story ends with him stepping in a big puddle of water.  The water washes away all the dirt from his shoes, and now they are wet!  But does he cry?  Goodness, no!  Because no matter how wet his shoes are, they are still his favorite.  And "it's all good."  Thank you, Pete the Cat!

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

Make Some Noise if You're With Me

I don't normally speak out about stuff like this, but I have to say, the death of Adam Yauch (aka MCA of the Beastie Boys) is something that has caught me off guard to say the least.  When you are 15 or 16 years old and listening to 3 white guys bust some rhymes, it never occurs to you that this stuff can all come to an end. 

I was a big fan of Licensed to Ill when it first came out.  I thought they were fun to listen to and also to watch.  It was great to see a group like this just having a great time and never taking themselves too seriously.  I have to admit I have not really been keeping up with them in the past 20 years.  I wasn't even aware they had been inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame recently. 

Adam Yauch was diagnosed with cancer of the salivary gland three years ago.  But one year ago, the Beastie Boys released an album called Hot Sauce Committee Part 2.  I was bored and playing with YouTube on my phone and came across this song that really spoke to me in a way.  Most of the time when you look at a band that has been around as long as the Beastie Boys, well, the new stuff pretty much sucks.  But this song doesn't.  I think MCA was trying to tell us something.  The song has some language in it that may be offensive--so turn it down low or don't watch with kids around.

Here's the part that resonates the most with me during this journey, and thank you MCA for spelling it out so clearly:

"Pass me the scalpel, I'll make the incision, I'll cut off the part of your brain that does the bitching, put it in formaldehyde and put it on a shelf, and you can show it to your friends and say "that's my old self."

I will be sure to remember that while nursing my blisters.  Rhyme in Peace, MCA. 

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

May the Fourth Be With You: Communing with "Nature"

This morning I took a 3-mile walk in a new neighborhood.  Since I live in a suburban area most of the walking I do involves trails in parks, or sidewalks in neighborhoods.  Hence the "nature" in quotes in title of this post.  For fun I decided to take a picture of all the pink flowering bushes I could possibly find throughout the course of my walk.   I know that all of them had to be deliberately planted there, but to me it's nice to see a well-kept landscape.

This isn't pink, but you don't see leaves
 growing out of a trunk everyday!

I love the big lush flowers--these are the
kinds I want to pick right off the bush!

I really like the pink and red bushes together here.

These tiny flowers were my favorites--wish I knew what they were.

These two are pretty similar but still pretty.

Today I walked 3 miles in about an hour.  If I hadn't stopped to take pictures I probably would have walked more, but I'm glad I did it.  Today was the first day I actually can feel like it's spring.  My sneakers got soaked towards the end of my walk because I walked through the grass, but on the plus side, it's warm enough to change into my new pink flip flops that I bought at DSW last week.

I won't post those photos until I've had a pedicure though ; )

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela

More Inspiration for Walking

Each day I am constantly reminded of why I am walking this October.  In addition to my Nonna, my cousin's wife's two sisters have both been diagnosed with breast cancer and have undergone treatment.  And today, I just spoke to a friend whose mom was diagnosed a little over a month ago.  She has to undergo six weeks of radiation, 5 days per week.  Thankfully she gets weekends off.  This is all to treat a spot that is about the size of a coffee bean.  Thank goodness it was caught early, but it just shows the importance of regular (annual mammograms).  I am pretty sure my Nonna never had a mammogram in her life.  It is something almost unheard of today, but still, some women avoid it because they just don't want to hear the bad news.

I can't stress enough the importance of those mammograms, and not only that, monthly self-exams!  Please, please, take control of your health and do this. 

I wanted to add another piece to this posting.  My pink sister, Joanna Montgomery is in a beauty contest sponsored by More Magazine.  This is an AMAZING woman and I urge you to vote for her.  You can vote daily, for one more week.  I think it ends May 9.  Read more about her by following this link:

http://www.more.com/events/contests/beauty-search-2012/joanna-montgomery

Thank you!  She is currently in 6th place but I think we can do better than that. 

Faith, Hope and Love,

Angela