CHBM Carnival edited

edited to add: The Mighty Hunter's dad is now cancer free. I realize that I didn't make it clear that he is a survivor. Sorry for any confusion. Also, some very sweet comments from y'all. Thanks!


The charitable cause that is dearest to my heart is The American Cancer Society.

June 30, 2007, will be 7 years since The Mighty Hunter's mother died. She had a very rare form of leukemia. The Mighty Hunter had prostate cancer and surgery for it in November 2006. When I was 5, my first cousin, died at age 10 of bone cancer. The Migthy Hunter's grandfather died of prostate cancer. Several of his great-aunts and uncles have also died of cancer.

His cancer risks are terrifying.

Our cancer losses are heart-breaking.

Each year, I attend our area's Relay for Life. I always take Stinkerbell. I think it is important for her to understand that sometimes the people we love get sick. Sometimes they die, but many times they survive. I want her to understand that I do this each year to remember how much I miss her grandmother. She never knew her grandmother; I was 6 weeks pregnant when she died. It is one night where I know we'll talk about her grandmother and how funny and smart and pretty and special she was. Our memories are all she'll ever have of her grandmother, but she can create her own memories of doing something in her memory.

Something to help others.

Find a Relay for Life in your area and attend. The event is generally free. But it is a fund-raiser. So, take some cash and support the Relay Teams with your donations.

Kay Carroll
Rother Carroll
Candee Parrish
Vernon Carroll
Jenny Kirby
JB Stinson
EL Bowen
Minerva Casey
Marvin Chandler
Nellie Stover
Tanya Rudder
Peggy Monroe
Roger McDowell



Cancer has touched each and every one of us in some way. When we lost The Mighty Hunter's mother in 2000, our lives really CHANGED. She was a very charismatic person; full of humor, love, life and smart as a whip. She fought her cancer with the determination and discipline of a professional, world class athlete. Given 6 months to live, she proved to her doctors that diet and nutrition can make a significant difference in quality and quantity of life and lived 2 years. During those months, she lived a life full of joy and grace and dignity. Having given her heart to her Lord as a child, she made sure to share this relationship with others at every given opportunity. She sang like a lark of her love for Jesus. She devoted her time to helping her family and providing for them in every way. She lived.

When I was five, an older cousin lost her leg and then her life to bone cancer. A beautiful, blonde-haired little girl of 10, she loved gymnastics and ganging up on me with my brother. But she never lost a strand of those golden locks to the radiation or chemotherapy. Or her perfect smile.

I will light candles in their memory. I will walk and talk about them, remembering their lives. Because it's their lives that matter. Not the cancer that snuffed out their lights. Their lives.

And I will walk in honor of The Mighty Hunter's dad and my mom's best friend. I will celebrate their victories over cancer. I will laugh with them and look forward to their futures. Because it's their futures that matter. Not the cancer that threatens them. Their futures.

Together we will listen as the names are read. We'll cry. We'll remember. We'll celebrate. We'll raise money to fight cancer.

Find the Relay for Life in your area and get involved.

>>>>>>

See that?

>>>>>>

That purple webbadge?

Yeah. It's important.

Look at it.

Click it.

Search your area for a Relay for Life event.

Sign up.

Get involved.

Join a team.

Start a team.

Donate.

Get others to donate.

Go.

Walk.

Pay your respects to the lost loved ones and the survivors.

Have a good time.

Do it.

It's important.

Get your finger up and move that mouse!

CLICK, DANGIT!!!

I hate this time of year.

I've already told you that in a previous post. It's sooooo busy. T-ball two nights per week. Church twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday evenings. Now, those are not at all what I hate about this time of year. It's the EXTRA stuff that really stinks.

The regular routines of life are not reduced just because it gets busier now. We still get up and go to work and pre-school each day. We still cook, eat, clean, wash, bathe, pay bills, buy groceries, etc.

But now we start adding things to it.

T-ball is the first and most important addition. As DH started his business last year, DD sacrificed her time just as much as DD and I. T-ball is our first opportunity to dedicate DD-specific fun-time as repayment on her sacrifices.

Then there's taxes. Is there anyone that enjoys tax time? Well besides those CPAs who really need to get a life!!!

Then there's the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. DH's mother died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia almost 6 years ago. (I'm sure I misspelled that.) For the last 4 years we've participated to varying degrees in the annual fundraiser (Relay for Life) in her memory. It's a really wonderful event. Some emotional moments, of course, but still lots of fun too. All in the name of cancer research. The Relay in our area is on April 7. My involvement this year is merely donating and attending. I've not had the free time to seek out any donations other than from us as a family.

Then there's Vacation Bible School (VBS). It's in June, but we're already starting to prepare and study and pray. It, too, is a lot of fun. But it's also a lot of hard work. More than the Relay for Life, it's an incredibly worthwhile effort and event. Our little country church goes all out for the kids.

Then there's the grass. Or wild onions, anyway. We have almost an equal mix of grass and onions right now. The grass/onions is tall enough to need mowing in just spots. The lawnmower is still at the implement place, getting serviced, so we couldn't have mowed it today if we had had the time!

Then there's doctor's visits. Both my parents had colonoscopies over the past 2 weeks! (Sorry, I just can't bring myself to put a link at "colonoscopies.") They both were given positive results and don't need to go back again for 3 years. This is particularly good for my mom. She has had to have a colonoscopy every single year for at least the last 10 years. And for a period of 18 months, she went every 6 months. She has a history of polyps, which have been pre-cancerous but always removed completely.

Then, for most of us in the US, there's Daylight Savings Time. It never bothers me too much, but I suspect this year that it will. You see, it's 3:04am and I've been up finishing up the tax prep crap, er, work. But I need to run all the clocks up an hour, so it's really 4:05am. And I'm supposed to get up and go to church at 10:45am. We haven't been going regularly lately, and I miss it. I miss the "fellowship" with my church family. I miss the worship too.

So, now I've gotten the tax crap, er, stuff, together. I'm sleepy. I'm shutting down Trixie and going to bed.