A Complete 180

...or 360 if you're reading this, Jason Kidd.

This week started out pretty tough. Maybe I was just tired from my busy weekend. Maybe I was just hormonal. Whatever the reason, I took a few setbacks a little too seriously early in the week. But, it's now the end of the week and things are looking up.

Let's start with the Cake Challenge. I've been trying to finalize a few details like getting an emcee, the last judge, and obtaining firm cost quotes. Finally, those issues have been resolved. Newspapers are starting to print the press release and registrations are coming in. We're on our way!

Then there was my knee. After my walk on Monday I was convinced there was something wrong. The doctor didn't say too much yesterday. Told me to take ibuprofen and gave me a paper describing some exercises. He put in a request to my insurance for an MRI, but it's not likely that he'll have to order one. I did, however, go to book club last night and Christine, my physical therapist friend, gave me a complete, thorough consultation. She knows her stuff and I felt better having her see my knee rather than just describing my symptoms to her over the phone or email. Because I clearly do not know my stuff. She diagnosed me with a slightly torn LCL. It should heal completely in 4-6 months, but after doing her exercises, moderate walking, and icing every night, I should feel significantly less discomfort in 4-8 weeks.

So, I'm feeling better about everything today. And the icing on the cake? The big buy-out of the Michael Scott Paper Company. Finally, Charles Minor is out and Michael, Pam and Ryan are back where they belong--at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Oh, what a relief!

My Knee Troubles

Not too much training going on yet. The kids and I did manage to walk to and from school on Monday, but that's just 1.5 miles. And Matthew and I went to Bounce Jungle on Wednesday. He loved the inflatable basketball court, and the place was deserted so we had it to ourselves for quite a while. Their satellite radio must have been tuned to hits of the 80s, and when "Eye of the Tiger" came on I got a little too crazy. That song takes me back to the glory days of McKeesport Tiger basketball and even after 15 years it still pumps me up. Too much, it would seem, because I overdid it on the bouncing and aggravated my knee.

I'm going to the doctor today. I'm optimistic that there isn't anything really, really wrong with it, but I'm going anyway to make myself feel better. It's still bothering me after nearly five weeks, so I just want to get it checked. He'll probably tell me to take Advil and maybe send me to physical therapy. With 60 miles hanging over my head, I just want to be sure everything's the way it's supposed to be. It's likely atrophy because I'm afraid of hurting it more so I haven't walked (or done any other form of exercise) in a while. In fact, the other knee is starting to hurt. Further proof that it's all in my head.

We have an emcee!

After a long month of waiting and a whole lot of phone tag the past few days, I finally got a call back from 12 News. Destry Jetton, the host of Arizona Midday, is going to emcee the Cake Challenge for the Cure! Very exciting! Arizona Midday, the channel's early afternoon human interest-based news program, is also interested in doing a segment to promote the event. They can't promise anything, but wouldn't that be fantastic?

I Survived Saturday

It was a tough day, but yes, I did survive it. I've recovered so now I can tell you all about it.

Let's start on Friday. I spent the morning baking cupcakes and making pink lemonade for Jennifer's friend's bunco night fundraiser. In the afternoon, I frosted the cupcakes with pink icing in a flower design.

Jennifer made chocolate covered strawberries (with pink chocolate accents), molded chocolate pink ribbons, a pink trifle, and a fruit salad that was mostly pink. She decorated the table with pink tulips and it looked so pretty. I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera. She was also bartender and made pink cosmopolitans and strawberry daiquiris. Her drinks were big hits! I don't mean to imply that they didn't like the food. I'm sure they did, but we left before they had dessert because we had to get up very early Saturday morning.

The alarm went off at 4 o'clock and I hit snooze at least twice. I got to Sherri's to help set up around 4:45. There was so much stuff. I couldn't stay at the garage sale very long, but I'm told it was very successful. Our team made over $1500! Not too shabby.

The rest of the day was nothing but fun. We had a great time at the neighborhood social. The kids enjoyed riding ponies and the barrel train:

I had to leave right after the lunch so I could get cleaned up for Beauty and the Beast. Elizabeth really enjoyed the show and the two of us had a fun afternoon together. We got home around 4 o'clock and I was pretty tired, but we all went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. I went to bed shortly after the kids and I actually slept longer than them that night--about ten hours.

Getting Ready

Yesterday, the team got together at Sherri's house to sort and price all the garage sale merchandise. Here's just a section of what we have. Sorry for the bad photo, but everything was so spread out over her yard. There's just so much stuff! Boxes and boxes, and racks and racks. We got a lot done yesterday and we're just about ready for Saturday. My job is to pick up the donuts and coffee at 5:30 am. I better go to bed early Friday night because I'm going to have a busy Saturday. I can stay at the garage sale just until 8:00 because I offered to help out at our neighborhood spring social at 9:00. That should last until about noon. Then Elizabeth and I are going to see Beauty and the Beast in the afternoon. We've been waiting for Saturday since Christmas!

Cake Challenge for the Cure

Isn't the logo great? My sister-in-law-to-be designed it. She's a talented artist so I knew when I told her a few weeks ago that I was having trouble finding something on clip art that screamed women coming together to fight breast cancer by decorating cakes that she would come up with something fun, eye-catching, and appropriate. And she did! Thanks, Meg!

Jennifer and I are gearing up for the big event. Well, the big event before the big event in November. First things first. The press releases have been sent out and donations are starting to come in for the raffle basket. Things are coming together.

Cake Challenge for the Cure is on Sunday, May 17th from 3-5pm. Five professional cake decorators will compete in a cake decorating challenge inspired by Food Network Challenge. At the end of the competition, pastry chefs will choose a winner, we'll auction off the cakes and raffle off the gift basket. The restaurant is providing hors d'ouerves and beverages and cute little cakes for us to sell for the net proceeds.

Nothing to do now except wait for the registrations to come in. Of course, you can just show up at the door, but the restaurant wants some idea of how many will attend so we're asking people to preregister. Please give me a call to preregister. We already have a few attendees and I'm sure it will really pick up once the newspapers start promoting the event. Very exciting!

And the competitors are:

AZ Cakes by Elizabeth

Graceful Cake Creations

Sugar Buzz Cakes

Vali's Custom Cakes

Vanlatte Custom Cakes

Rain Delay

So there was no garage sale yesterday due to rain. It never rains in Arizona. Never. Unless you plan something like a garage sale. The sale will be next Saturday, April 18th. I'm sorry if you showed up, but I'm sure you didn't. Who would when it was so rainy and cold? At least we have another week to get organized.

As much as I hate to complain about my knee (and you probably hate hearing about it), but when did I get so old? My birthday's coming up this week and I have to say that I'm actually feeling older this year. Yesterday's cold and damp weather made my knee hurt. What?! I was fine until we went to the Diamondbacks game and had to walk to the stadium and to our seats. On the plus side, the roof was closed so we were comfortable--and there was no rain delay there. We had great seats. Brian's friend's friend couldn't use his season tickets, so he gave them to Brian's friend. He couldn't use them, so he gave them to us. We could and did use them, and we had a great time. Even if the game wasn't so great. Here's the view from my seat.

Not so fast

Last night during Elizabeth's soccer practice, I walked around the fields. Or pitches, if you want to get technical. That sports complex in the evenings is like nothing I've seen. The sports complex itself is unbelievably massive and the amount of people playing and watching! I couldn't help thinking that I'm not in East Allegheny anymore. I don't know how many fields there are or how many games were going on, but let's just say that place was its own little city. What a gold mine that soccer league is!

In any case, I walked around for a while and logged 2 miles. My knee was starting to feel better, but it didn't feel good today. Because my training doesn't officially begin until June 9th, I think I'm going to take a break from the walking for a little bit. At least until my knee is all healed. I'm just so excited about the walk that I want to get out and walk. But, I have heard stories of people peaking too soon in their training and I don't want that to happen, either. I have a lot going on in terms of fundraising right now anyway, so I'll focus on that for a few weeks.

Back on Track

I've been having some knee problems the past two weeks. Since I banged my knee into the piano bench, it's felt a little funny. There's no pain, really, but it just doesn't feel right. I don't know much about anything medical. I'm on a need to know basis when it comes to ailments. The more I know, the more I worry, so I just learn what I need to know when I need to know it.

I wasn't sure whether I should call my doctor or not so I asked my physical therapist friend Christine what she thought. Poor girl. She endured my analogies of taut rubber bands being plucked and however else I tried to explain my condition. She was very helpful, and I am now confident that my knee will be back to normal in a few weeks, if not sooner. With a 60-mile walk hanging over my head, my mind was getting a little crazy. Christine talked me off the operating table for the full knee replacement surgery I was planning on scheduling. She told me to walk every other day, do some simple exercises on my off days, and ice the knee in the evenings. I should be good as new in about a month. Heck, after talking to her, it already feels better. Relief is so relieving.

Garage Sale this weekend

The team garage sale is this Saturday, April 11th from 7 am to noon. We have tons and tons of stuff--kids clothes, toys, baby gear, furniture, electronics, books, movies, household goods, and more. And if that doesn't get you there, we'll also be selling Dunkin' Donuts donuts and coffee. Dunkin' Donuts offered us a better combo deal including both donuts and coffee so we decided to go with them instead of Krispy Kreme. It's better because there will be a huge assortment of donuts rather than just glazed and we requested that a lot of the donuts have pink icing. How appropriate!

Training and Fundraising

Because that's what the Breast Cancer 3-Day is all about.

The kids and I walked to school this morning and there wasn't too much whining. After we dropped Elizabeth off, Matthew and I kept going for a total of 2.6 miles. We even stopped at the park on the way home to play a bit. My knee is still a little stiff, but the more I walk the looser it gets so I'm just gonna keep on walking.

For those who are local, my 3-Day team is having a garage sale fundraiser on Saturday, April 11th from 7 am to noon. We have all kinds of stuff and a lot of it. Plus, we're going to be selling Krispy Kreme Donuts and coffee so you might want to come just for that! I'll send out an email with the address of the sale very soon.

Bribing for Exercise

Erika and I walked 2 miles this morning. Her friend April joined us, too. Elizabeth, Matthew and I are going to walk to school tomorrow morning, so I should get a good walk in early again. Lately, Elizabeth has been telling me she doesn't like to walk to school because it takes so long and is so boring. Later she admitted that she likes to go in the car so she can listen to her music. I told her she could sing the whole way, but she didn't go for that idea. Do you think she's too young for an iPod?

This eveing, she complimented me on my painted toenails and asked if I would paint her toes and fingernails. So I said, "If you walk to school tomorrow!" Now I'm resorting to bribery. I have to really make an effort to make the walk to school tomorrow super fun.

A Team Divided

The entire team got together last night. We talked about fundraising and I feel confident we can raise the money required to get us all to the walk. Everyone is very nice and they're a really fun bunch of ladies, but I was a little disappointed because it seems we're a team divided. Three members are having second thoughts and considering doing the walk in Phoenix. The rest of us still want to go to San Diego. The whole team doesn't have to walk together; we're allowed to split up so whatever they decide doesn't affect Jennifer and me too much. If the two of us have to go alone, we're still going to San Diego. We're a team of six and the tents at camp are two-person tents. If half of us do Phoenix and half of us do San Diego, I don't know whether two people will have to tent alone or with a stranger. But, that's for them to worry about, I suppose. I understand the other ladies' concerns about leaving the family behind for a weekend, but I've never, ever gone on a girls weekend anywhere. I've never gone with my friends to a spa for a few days or spent a weekend in Vegas or went on a shopping spree to New York. I figure this is my get-away. It just so happens that I'm raising money for a great cause and getting in shape at the same time. Sounds like a win-win-win to me!