This one's for you, Nick.

It's no secret that, in our family, Nick is the athletic one and I'm the other one. It's always been that way. I've never been good at athletics, and Nick has been on countless teams in organized sports. Growing up, I've had to endure sitting through games of all kinds--baseball, football, soccer, and what eventually turned into his strong suit, basketball. I won't claim to have gone to all those games willingly (because I complained...a lot), but as I got older I could appreciate his abilities. I began to admire his speed, his strength, his agility, his resilience, and his passion for the game. I always wished I was as good at something as he was. I'm still looking for it.

Although there is no possible way I can ever live up to my brother's athletic accomplishments through walking, he is a WPIAL basketball champion after all, I might be able to beat, or at least match, his closet full of tennis shoes. In the past, I've probably bought a new pair of tennis shoes every 18 months or so. In the past few weeks, though, I've purchases three brand new pairs. I have two for training and one for every day wear now. How do I compare, Nick?

Cake Challenge for the Cure Success!

I reached half of my goal! It may sound strange, but raising $2300 seemed a lot more daunting than walking 60 miles. Now I can switch my focus to training. Planning the cake challenge was a lot of calling, emailing, and sitting down at the computer. My body could use some regular workouts for sure.

I think it's safe to call it a huge success. The event brought both Jennifer and me to our financial goals, the cake artists are already talking about next year, and although it was crowded and warm, all the guests seemed in good spirits and enjoyed the competition and the food. The event raised a total of $1700.

Sadly, I don't have any good photos of the event, but a professional photographer was there and is supposed to be posting a slideshow soon. Hopefully soon. I'll link to that as soon as it's ready. For now, these photos will have to do.

Here is a photo of the competition and all the competitors finishing their cakes and one of the judges (right) analyzing their work:

This is the 3rd place cake. The cakes had to have a breast cancer theme, but I loved that this team focused on the 3-Day Walk itself. Because we're doing the walk in San Diego, they showed how we're training in the desert and we end up at the beach in San Diego. This cake had so much detail and the artists (Sugar Buzz & AZ Cakes by Elizabeth) really went all out on the little things--little pink tents, rocks made out of chocolate that you would swear were real pebbles, and the cutest little shoes you'd ever want to eat! I really wish we could have had the audience come through in a single file line past all the cakes so they could all get a good look at them. And with the exception of the wooden sticks for the signs, it's all edible!

The 2nd place cake was done by Vali's Custom Cakes. She's perfected the purse design and made one with a breast cancer theme. It created quite a bidding war and finally went for $150 in the auction!

This is the winning cake by Graceful Cake Creations and Vanlatte Custom Cakes. I wish I had a photo from the front. The cake was big and beautiful and the color scheme of pink/white/black/silver won everyone over. The pink heeled shoe with rhinestones (only thing you can't eat) is adorable. Unfortunately, the base started to wobble after the competition, so they promised the highest bidder a brand new cake. Lucky for us, we all got to taste this strawberry-champagne flavored delight! Grace develops all her own recipes and this cake and her buttercream were amazing!
So there you have it. The first Cake Challenge for the Cure was a smashing success!

Oh, and if you were one of the many, many people confused by my previous post, it was written the night before I appeared on Arizona Midday with one of the cake artists to promote the event. I told only a handful of people beforehand (and most of them live out of state) because it was a live show and I was pretty nervous about it. None of my fans put it on You Tube yet, so I'm sorry I can't show it to you. Too bad.

Sometimes I Talk to Myself

FIL AN THROP IK.
FIL AN THROP IK.
FIL AN THROP IK.
FIL AN THROP IK.
FIL AN THROP IK.

It's just a conversation. No big deal. You can do this. Agh--the little red light! Live. Calm down. You can do this. FIL AN THROP IK. You've practiced that enough. That's not even the part you're going to mess up. You're not going to mess up. You know everything there is to know about this. You can write their names on your hand just in case. But you won't even need it. You're not going to look fat. Just keep your shoulders back. Not that far. Smile but don't look too happy. Be cool. I'm not cool. I'm the opposite of cool. It's okay. You don't need to be cool. Just be confident. Have we met?

The Results

Hey, guess what? My MRI shows nothing except a little inflamation. My dad says I must just have a really low tolerance for pain. Thanks, Dad.

My MRI

Tuesday I went for my first MRI. I didn't even know what an MRI was, so I didn't give much thought on what to expect. And I don't mean how it works. I know I will never be able to wrap my head around how a magnet can produce an image of the inside of me. Kind of the way I don't know how sound was able to show me a picture of my unborn babies. How do people come up with this stuff? What I meant is that I didn't know how long it would take and how weird the whole experience would be.

When I scheduled the test, the receptionist asked me a bunch of questions regarding body piercings, pacemakers, and permanent dental work. She never once asked me if I'd be bringing a child along or that it would be a good idea if I didn't. Thank goodness I talked my mother before I went or Matthew would have been tearing up the place for the hour and a half I was there. I scheduled the test for early in the morning, right after I took Elizabeth to school, so that I'd have to worry about just one kid while I had the test done. To my credit, I knew an MRI was more involved than an x-ray, but I was thinking it was more like those x-rays you get at the orthodontist. You know, the one that turns around your head for like 30 seconds and you're done. I didn't realize I'd have to wait 45 minutes in the waiting room and then sit still for more than a half hour. What if I had taken Matthew with me?

The test itself wasn't bad. They gave me ear plugs because the machine makes the most annoying sound over and over and over again. The coolest part by far is that they gave me blue scrubs to wear so I looked all Meredith Grey-y. Only not as dark and moody. I'm waiting for my doctor to call with the results.

I'm so glad I didn't see this before I went. It's quite an interesting slideshow. The photos of the big explosion happened in a hospital in Kennesaw, Georgia. I wonder if it's the hospital where my mother-in-law works....

The Week in Review

Sometimes living life gets in the way of writing about it.

I haven't been doing too much in the way of training lately. I'm doing Christine's physical therapy exercises and icing my knee every night. No change yet, but I'm optimistic. She said it could take 4-8 weeks from when I start doing the exercises so I just have to be patient. That's really hard for me. I want to get out there and walk, but I'm so afraid of hurting it more. Until I get the results of the MRI, I'm taking it easy. That test should tell exactly what's wrong so I know for certain what to do about it. Until then, I'm just leaving it alone.

Did anyone catch The Biggest Loser tonight? Those guys did a marathon! I've never watched that show before, but it's pretty inspiring to see what they've accomplished in just five months. I didn't go walking but I picked up the hand weights and got to it. Hey, there's nothing wrong with my arms.

Planning is coming along with the Cake Challenge for the Cure. Registrations are continuing to come in every day and it's so fun to see how excited people are about the challenge! I've been working on the event program and trying to think of a script for the emcee. Not too much new there.

The kids' schools and activities kept me pretty busy this week so by the end of the day I just wanted to relax. And once I get out of the habit of posting, it's hard to get back in the habit. I'm certain you don't want to hear all about life's mundane tasks anyway. Tomorrow I'll write all about my MRI. Did you know those take like 40 minutes? I sure didn't.