The End Is Near

****They keep coming!****My sweet blog friend Kelly sent me a donation today! She is an inspiring woman who lives with her own stuggles and she donated to me. Me! Please stop by her blog and read about how amazing she is.
****And more updates!**** I am so blessed with great friends and family! Thanks to Tom and Margie, Lisa (a former Angel), and Roy and Rebecca!
****Update to the update****Thank you thank you to my blog friend Kim for donating to me AGAIN! And blogging about it, AND putting in on her Facebook wall! I am so grateful!
****Update****Thank you to my long time follower Jean for her donation today!! Love that lady:c)

I signed recomittment papers last night for my half marathon. That means I put down my credit card number so that my unfinished fundraising will be charged to me soon.

TNT made a deal with alumni this time. Tracy's birthday wish of having 40 friends join her for the race put our LLS chapter into a higher fund raising bracket. They've had trouble meeting their new goal. To get more people interested they told us that if we got three people to sign up under us we would save $500 for each person. I got my three and reached my goal thanks to amazing friends, family, some strangers, and some blog friends. I planned to continue to fund raise and share my extra with the three people under me. But now I'm faced with one of my three backing out and not recommitting. That means I suddenly need $500 more dollars.

I know that most of you don't personally know me, but I'm asking for your help. Remember I'm doing this to raise money for blood cancer research. And as well as doing the fundraising I'm training to run my second half marathon. I run three morning a week going at least three miles, hit the gym two mornings to do the bike and weights, and do long runs on Saturday. I live in Oklahoma and it's summer. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. I never knew I could sweat this much. Our long runs are being started earlier and earlier to try and beat the heat. There's not a time that it's cool. Last week we ran 9 miles and even starting at 5:30 in the morning, it was miserable. I've also had numerous weird and freaky things go wrong lately. Maybe I'll elaborate on that later. But I keep going.

Tracy gave us bracelets to wear that say "Keep Fighting! GoMitchGo!" I wear mine almost everyday and for every run that I go on. When it's hard and I'm hot and sweaty and trying to keep going, I look at the bracelet. Tracy and John lost their son. They went through two years of treatment and setbacks with him. Mitchell had countless spinal taps, chemo rounds, and stays in the hospital. In the end he lost his battle and Tracy and John lost their son. All I have to do is run and raise money. I have the easy part.

Will you help me? $500 would help me, but $5 would also help! Every penny gets me closer to helping with research and crossing the finish line.

I am so grateful to these people who have already believed in me enough to donate:

Kim-Kim and I follow each others blogs but have never met in person. She was my first donater and I am so blessed to 'sort of' know her!
Peggy-Sweet Peggy gave me a donation last time as well. I love my Aussie friend!
Anonymous-I received an anonymous last time for the same amount. I wish I knew who it was so I could personally thank them!
Kevin and Gretta-Shawn's best friend and his wife have blessed me both times as well.
Shandee-My sweet cousin. She's a repeat donater and I love her!
David and Valerie-Friends and neighbors. They doubled what they gave me last time.
Robin-My sweet cousin who inspired me to go into blogging. She donated to me last time and I'm so grateful that she still believes in me.
Lorene-A sweet friend from college. She is also a runner (an amazing one) and I'm so thankful that she believes in me.
Judy-Our sweet bonus family member. Sunday's just aren't the same without her joining us for lunch. She has believed in me both times.
Dr. John-He pierced my ears and was my first doctor.
Janis-My awesome Aunt. She's helped me both times.
Harold and Martha-These sweet returning donaters are my parents. I grew up across the street from them and they included me in their family to the point of telling people they have three children. I now live in their old house!
Claudetta-She is a two time donater. She was one of my mom's very close friends and was the main hostess for my bridal shower.
Marilyn-She was the secretary at my last job. She was the only nice person in the office! I found her on Facebook after several years and have loved being in touch with her again.
Mark and Debbie-They were our only friends in the first town we lived in after we were married. Thanks to Facebook we have gotten back in touch and get to see each other often. I will be joining them in October to run a race for those affected by cancer. Mark is one of those people. Happily he is now cancer free!
Lorna-This feisty little lady has blessed me both times. We serve on a board at church together.
Kent and Stephane-Kent is the superintendent of our school system. He is such a Godly man and our school is a better place because of him.
Bob and Barb-My cousins that are as funny as they come! They have helped me both times.
Scott and Elizabeth-My awesome brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Steve and Nancy-I was just blessed to attend their 50th wedding anniversary. Their lives have been touched by leukemia twice. Their donation had a little note that said they wished they could do more. I assured them that they had done so much!
Don-My cousin Don has donated to me both times. I know he is on a fixed income and I'm so thankful that he shares a little for this great cause!
Madelyn-I have known her for years and years. We now serve on the Foundation board together raising money for our school district.
Jody-Shawn's cousin the self made HCIC of the family. That's Head Cousin In Charge in case you were wondering:) When we met for the first time she talked about her 'undergunnies' and told Shawn she approved of me!
Marvin and Ruth-My great uncle and aunt who are both in their 90's! I know they live on a tight budget and I'm so grateful.
Mary-Mary is one of my mom's friends. She was my first Mary Kay representative and I love seeing her at our high school.
Howard and Pat-My amazing in-laws. They have always believed in me.
Susie-Shawn's aunt and mom's baby sister. She's helped me out both times. I love her!
Gigi-My grandmother. Let's talk about fixed incomes. She can make a dollar stretch farther than anyone else I know. For her to donate to me both times was hard, and I'm so grateful.
Ramona-One of the best cooks I know. We serve on the same board at church and her dry sense of humor keeps the meetings fun.
Kevin-Not only did this wonderful friend volunteer to come sit at my fundraising garage sale on a hot Saturday so I could go run, he also gave me a donation.
Don and Opal-My mother-in-laws best friend. I love seeing her when we visit their church. Her smile is infectious.
Phyllis-Shawn's aunt who lives on the other side of the country. Another person on a tight budget. She gave what she could and I so appreciate it.
Evelyn-My college English professor. She sang in the church choir with myself and my mom for years.
Mrs. Unruh-She is my absolute favorite teacher of all time. I had her for 5th grade and again in 6th for half my classes. Although she was challenging, she was loving and caring also. I still remember bits of most of the poems we had to memorize, the countries we had to memorize, and I can quote perfectly the list of adverbs. And who knows what parts of the buffalo the Indians used? I'll tell you at the end of this post.
Phil and Ann-I have known them my entire life and was lucky enough to work for them at the gift store a few years ago.
Robert and Linda-They have given to me both times as well. I grew up with their daughter and sang in the church choir with Linda. I have never seen her without a smile on her face.
Eileen-My wonderful great-aunt. She is another one who lives on a fixed income but gives anyway.
Beth-Oh my amazing friend Beth. She was a runner last time and went through the fundraising. She has donated to several of us this time because she knows how hard it is. I am blessed to be her friend.

So can you help? Like I said, $5 will help. If each of my followers gave me $5 I'd be over halfway there. If a few of you could give $10 or $20, I'd be there! Your donation is tax deductible and will change lives for the better.

To donate to me click here. To read more about the Whitaker family click here.

Thank you friends!

A. Indians used everything but the breath. I love that.

Where Did Summer Go?

About the middle of April I am sooo ready for school to end. It's usually dress rehearsal time for the all school musical and we still have our regular lives to live. Field trips are starting and the end of year craziness is just around the corner. I long for the lazy summer days of sleeping in, spending the day lounging at the pool, and enjoying grilled evening meals under our Magnolia.
Then about the first of August I am so ready for school to start! We're all bored, no one wants to swim, it's too hot to do anything else, the girls are fighting, and I miss having a schedule.

We're there now. They're sick of the pool, they're sick of each other, and everyone is tired of grilled chicken and salads.

The girls and I are planning one last quick trip to Branson for some time at Silver Dollar City and a little back to school shopping. But they almost lost that opportunity the other day with a doozey of an argument. A little threat and they were perfect angels. Luckily for them I really want this trip as well.

Even though I'm ready for school to start and our schedule to be back in place, I still feel like summer has flown by. Anyone else feel like that? I don't feel like I've done everything I'd hoped to do. Yes I got my yard work done, and we had several big parties, but the little things like having friends over for dinner, and letting the girls have more sleepovers just didn't happen.

Every year I say that it will.

But looking through my folders of Summer '10 pictures, we did a lot. A LOT. We had lots of family in town staying with us, we had several small family reunions, we had our usual group parties, and we went to some neat places.

Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

Here are a few of my favorite moments.

Cousin Logan loving the fountains in Bricktown.The remembrance fence at the OKC Memorial.Just a few pictures of the chairs. It's such a beautiful place.
Aunt Janis trying to give driving directions to two different lost cars of cousins.Even though we were together for a funeral, it was nice to have some extended family time.My sweet cousin Andrea. She's a generation above me but she acts younger than me! We were having a nice posed picture taken when she did this. Love her!This girl is the best watermelon eater I have ever seen in my entire life! Emily, you amazed me! There was only white left when she was done.The cute Ohio boys came to visit. They didn't have time during the summer to come because of soccer practice, but a death in their family brought them here. We were sad for the reason but so glad to spend some time with them.
McKinley knows how to impress the cute boys.They have noodle wars that hurt to watch and hear. I don't know how they get out of that trampoline still friends.Shhhh, Molli is meditating.It's always interesting to see all of our flotation devices in one place. On one body.I know I just shared these next two but they're so good I had to share again!Since Ashley's visit was a surprise she added her own welcome to the kitchen chalkboard.Remember the surprise?Oh that girl.We did make lots of trips to get snow cones. Today was one of those:)We once again lost countless pool toys.I took tons of pictures. This one might be my favorite. Gigi with all but three great grandchildren.Teaching the youngest generation the important things in life.We met our newest cousins who were just adopted from Africa. We watched one fly.We had lots of fire pit nights.There were cute girls all around:DWe ate lots of good food. Some ate more than the rest of us.The facial expressions after a booty bounce jump are always good ones.This man. He has skills. On the ground, in the air, and in the pool.Speaking of facial expressions. Really, do you think she's tired of just a simple smile?We call this Martha Washington hair. We see it a lot.And that's not our pool. I'm sure you all were confused.

I did tons of yard work. And cursed the day we bought oak trees for the front yard.
We rested more than usual.We took plenty of trips and made tons of memories.So I guess our summer was well lived.

Does it have to end?

Finally the 4th

Since Steven hadn't been around family for almost 20 years every greeting was exciting. Sadly I was usually busy getting something ready. This is the only shot I got. See the red spot on Steven's forehead? Think he wore the red shirt to coordinate? He had a little diving accident the day before. Think it had anything to do with the craziness he showed from the diving board? Me, too.

We of course had water balloon launching. But Steven found out that he could shoot pretty high doing it this way.
He cracks me up!

The rain held off during lunch time...but the older generation still dined inside.See my new dining room table and china cabinet?? I'm in love.The younger crowd dined outside.I think we could have eaten for days with the amount of food we had. Reagan waited until everyone else was through though and 'couldn't find anything good'. I hate hearing that.There were certainly plenty of drinks.Snacks, appetizers, and desserts were where I spent most of my time.I think I have a fair amount of counter space but not this time! We had to put the burgers and fixings on the oven.Even with all the food I was so busy checking on everyone else that at 6 that night I realized I hadn't eaten yet. I'd snacked here and there a few times but hadn't had a real plate of food. I remedied that by eating 4 ears of grilled corn. Who needs anything else?

With 55 family and friends around lots of cameras were out. I'm sure the picture he took of me is just as entertaining:DI think the youngest generation was only out of the water to eat for about 17.3 minutes. I remember being just like that. In this same pool.Carrie and Kevin had gotten a call from their oldest son Chris early in the afternoon telling them their house had flooded because of non-stop rain. Within two hours they were packed up and ready to head home to assess the damage. That meant Ashley was leaving:( This was the first time she'd been able to visit and we have no idea when the next time will be. We had hugs, pictures, and tears.Oh, and artwork. They pulled out just as the rain hit.
Our neighbors weren't bothered at all by the rain. They just sat under the tent and ate and enjoyed it.Slowly most of the guests left and the girls headed down the block to play at the neighbors house. A few hours later this walked in our door. I honestly didn't know it was Reagan!After the rain stopped and the sun went down about 11 children came back to swim. We got out the glow sticks we'd forgotten about during the fireworks and they took turns diving for them. Sure wish I'd been able to jump in and take a turn.But I was relaxing in my Adirondack chair hoping that I could sleep for five days. But that of course didn't happen. The next morning we packed and cleaned all day and left for Colorado early the next morning. I'm such a glutton for punishment!