Let the countdown begin

In a little over 60 hours, Allen and I will be starting our journey for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure. The 60 mile route starts us at Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills on Friday, has us looping and camping in Livonia for two nights, and ending at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn on Sunday.

Everyone, repeat after me: Please don't rain, please don't rain, please don't rain.

Thank you.

I'll be trying to report in from the walk (at least through Twitter or Facebook) to let everyone know how it's going, but I will for sure be keeping track of the entire experience while we're there, and I can't wait to share it all with you guys.

So far, I can tell you at least this much: This has been quite a commitment - and we haven't even started the walk yet! Ironically enough, that actually feels like the easy part! The fundraising piece of it has definitely been the most exhausting, stressful, and trying piece of this so far. A $4,600 required donation to raise between Allen and I is a lot of money. The rest is just endurance. We're not quite at our goal yet, (and you can still donate at the links above!) but I have hope that we'll get there.

A quick note to those who have supported us so far:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

We know our emails out to everyone have been annoying, along with all of the events, the Facebook alerts, Evites, raffle tickets, everything. But many of you not only supported us emotionally through all of this, you have put in your own time and money, and that has taught Allen and I lot about what great friends and family we have. We are very, very lucky.

If you're here in the metro Detroit area this upcoming weekend, and would like to come see what all of this is about, please click here to get all of the spectator information you need - including cheering areas all throughout the Farmington Hills, Livonia, Plymouth, and Redford areas. Also, from what we understand, the Closing Ceremony is a very cool and emotional experience, and friends and family are also welcome to that. All of the information is in that link.

Everyone I know who has done the walk has said it is an experience that changes your life. I'll have to wait to see that for myself, and I know that we'll have lots of pains and blisters when we get done with this thing, but I also know we'll also have a lot of love to carry us through it. Wish us luck!

Things going on

Ho man - I've been off of school for a solid 10 days, and I have to admit, I think I'm enjoying it a little too much right now. I can't believe my semester starts up again on Monday. I'm slightly regretting this whole "let's take two spring accelerated classes so I can have them done by June" thing. Yikesss. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm hoping it will be worth it to have two more classes behind me and to get July and August off (even though July and August already seem to be filling pretty quickly here).

In other news - Lisa and Mike are married! WOO! Their wedding celebration was on Saturday, and when I say celebration, I mean celebration. Lisa looked gorgeous, there was wind (lots of it), but there was no rain! And there was eating, drinking, dancing, laughter, more drinking, some spills, catching up with lots of folks, and oh yeah...drinking. I know there were a few people hurting the next day, (and I don't just mean the bruises) but it was definitely one for the record books. My favorite picture for the night:

Man, do these guys know how to throw a party or what? :)

Congrats you two :) Now onto the next wedding, where the Keifer people are throwing the party, so you know it'll be a good one!

The next couple weeks will be filled with some exciting stuff as well - we'll be doing some training walks for the 3-Day (you can still donate at our links on this page too, by the way!), Allen got me tickets to the Goo Goo Dolls (my fav) for my birthday so we'll be going to that next week, and most importantly, Allen and I will be going to visit my sister in Florida for my birthday as well!! I'm so excited to go down there, I haven't even seen her place yet. We have a whole weekend full of activities, and it is going to be a blast, I can't wait. She has also been kind enough to continue to send me pictures of her pool in Florida, which is cute now, but will get annoying in the winter ;)

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

So I know I haven't posted in a while (my bad), and I have plenty to update on, but first I want to tell you all about something Allen and I are participating in this year - the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure.

We will be walking 60 miles over the course of three days with thousands of other women and men. Net proceeds from the Komen 3-Day for the Cure are invested in breast cancer research and community programs. One person is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes in the United States alone. But ten times that amount of women are considered to be high risk due to their family histories - including myself.

I want to help put an end to these risks to research new technologies, treatments, and preventative methods. That's why Allen and I are walking so far - to do something bold about breast cancer. I'll keep you all posted on this incredible adventure and the training we take on for it!



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If you would like to help contribute to our fundraising efforts, please use the link at the top right to donate. Between the two of us, we have committed to raising almost $5,000, so we can use all the help we can get!