The Sisterchicks ran the race for the 3rd year in a row. Although the emotion of the Race for the Cure isn’t as new to me, it is still as real. There are still women dying of breast cancer. I HATE CANCER. There were thousands of people at the race last Saturday wearing pink shirts, tutus and tiaras—all to honor the strong women in their lives who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The first two minutes I was there, I wasn’t really thinking of those women. All I was looking at were the shirts. Who had cute ones? Which ones had funny slogans (uh…breast friends forever…)? Did any of them look cooler than ours?

Then I saw a man with a homemade puffy paint monstrosity of a shirt. And I kinda rolled my eyes at him.

Until.

I saw his young elementary aged son behind him. Also wearing a puffy painted shirt that read:

I MISS YOU, MOM.

And I pictured him and his dad at Wal-Mart picking out puffy paint and buying white tshirts. The dad realizing how important it would be to do something to honor his wife and the mother of his child. The little boy working his hardest to make a beautiful shirt to honor his mom. His father, realizing how different the shirt would have turned out had his wife been there to help.

This is why we run.

I HATE CANCER is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Saturday was the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in Atlanta. For those of you that don’t know, that’s THE breast cancer fund-raising event. My sisterchicks and our mamas did it last year and it was such an amazing experience we decided to make it a yearly event. It’s an awesome way to celebrate Mother’s Day!

This year we did the 1 Mile instead of the 5k. It was definitely a lot shorter–so not as much talking time, but wow, was I exhausted at the end of the day. Of course, it could have been because I had to walk MORE than a mile to get to my car and back.

It’s fun to be with your best friends and their moms. It’s a fun, tight-knit, surprisingly serious event. If I’m going to give time, money and energy to an organization, it’s usually going to be one that is doing something for Jesus. Or at least for kids or hungry people. But let me just say that looking around and seeing the THOUSANDS of people that banned together, that walked together, that made tshirts together and had obviously cried together at one time and hopefully rejoiced, too…well, it makes you proud to be a part of it!

5 of our 6 sisterchicks, along with our mamas, some friends and even some of our baby chickies!

I was very sobered at how many people were wearing pink racing numbers. This meant they were survivors . Not just older women. I saw several moms of little kids sporting the pink numbers. (see our survivor above? #830! Yay, Glenda!)

I thought back to last year and the people we walked for. We walked for new people this year. I wonder if we’ll have to walk for someone else new next year. I pray not. I pray that next year we can write on our backs…

“In Celebration of…LIFE!”

I want to see my sisterchicks grow old with their families. Not battling breast cancer and sickness. This is not what I meant for this post to be about. But as I looked around at all the survivors, I was just struck by their differences. Cancer is not a respecter of persons. But thankfully, neither is God.

Back to the race, after our little 1mile jaunt, we got to hit up the expo where we were inundated with FREE STUFF. We got apples, oranges, bananas, peanut butter, ice cream, bagels, key chains, chapstick, drinks, scarves and even toilet paper! Staci said she felt like she was trick-or-treating!

look at us race!

Becky & Staci have their posts up about the race, too. They got a ton more pictures than I did. Just don’t look at me too closely…did I even fix my hair that day? Sheesh! Oh, and here’s one more pic—of Lydia. She was so excited about our race. “It’s just for girls” she told me.

Lydia wearing her own chickie shirt and her pink ribbon “cape”

The Sisterchicks Race for the Cure is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Remember when I did the Race for the Cure? And I briefly mentioned I got to be on TV? Ahhh, yeah! Well, I TIVOed the segment, burnt it onto a dvd but can’t seem to get it on the computer. (so, any hints would be appreciated!)

The entire segment was full of interviews on different types of women who were at the Race. She interviewed us because we were 6 daughters and 5 moms who had been affected by breast cancer. There was another segment of an older woman who had survived breast cancer. But the segment that got to me was a young mom with a little baby. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 months previous while she was still breastfeeding her infant son. They didn’t go into much detail in this little news segment but the girl was crying (yet strong!) when she said, “I’m only 31 years old and it can happen to anyone!”

Here we were all excited and invigorated for walking for our grandmothers and aunts, while this girl the same age as us was walking for HERSELF!

This leads me to WhyMommy. She’s a young blogger who has been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer. It’s not discovered by monthly breast exams and a lump. It’s symptoms are similar to mastitis. (And I’ve had that twice. It is not fun!) I’ll let WhyMommy tell you about it:

We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that there is more than one type of breast cancer?

I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.

Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.

Inflammatory breast cancer is often misdiagnosed as mastitis because many doctors have never seen it before and consider it rare. “Rare” or not, there are over 100,000 women in the U.S. with this cancer right now; only half will survive five years. Please call your OB/GYN if you experience several of the following symptoms in your breast, or any unusual changes: redness, rapid increase in size of one breast, persistent itching of breast or nipple, thickening of breast tissue, stabbing pain, soreness, swelling under the arm, dimpling or ridging (for example, when you take your bra off, the bra marks stay – for a while), flattening or retracting of the nipple, or a texture that looks or feels like an orange (called peau d’orange). Ask if your GYN is familiar with inflammatory breast cancer, and tell her that you’re concerned and want to come in to rule it out.

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive form of breast cancer out there, and early detection is critical. It’s not usually detected by mammogram. It does not usually present with a lump. It may be overlooked with all of the changes that our breasts undergo during the years when we’re pregnant and/or nursing our little ones. It’s important not to miss this one.

Inflammatory breast cancer is detected by women and their doctors who notice a change in one of their breasts. If you notice a change, call your doctor today. Tell her about it. Tell her that you have a friend with this disease, and it’s trying to kill her. Now you know what I wish I had known before six weeks ago.

You don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

Wow! Can you hear it in her voice? She’s ticked. She wants to kick this cancer! And she doesn’t want it to hurt anyone else. So, she’s encouraging bloggers to post this everywhere to spread the word about inflammatory breast cancer. Now that you’re informed, feel free to let others know. And please go visit WhyMommy and encourage her by letting her know you’re praying for her!

You know how I feel about cancer. I’ve seen God heal. I’ve got the WHYMOMMY button in my sidebar because I pray for her everyday. A girl I don’t even know. But God knows her. He made her. He loves her and His desire is not for her demise but for her healing and her abundant life!

Calling All Women! is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Thank you so much for all the sweet comments about my Race for the Cure. They really meant a lot.

But if I confused you and made you think that it was all fun and daisies and roses, I’d like you to click HERE and see how it really was.

And uhm…please don’t laugh too loud. You might wake my wounded pride.

Oh, and yes, you can buy the 16×20 poster size for a mere $55.95.

Update on the 5k is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Dear Grandmama Ann,

Last Christmas my sisterchicks had our big Christmas party. Somehow we started talking about how we had all been affected by breast cancer. Staci & Mandi lost their Aunt Sandy. Becky’s Aunt Stef fought and won her battle. Kristen’s mom, Glenda is a 6 year survivor. Mandy’s grandmother Mary died from breast cancer. And I lost you.

So, we decided to participate in the Race for the Cure. A 5k run with all the proceeds going to breast cancer research and care for breast cancer patients. You know, I believe the cure ultimately comes from God–through chemo, radiation or a stinkin’ big miracle like He did for Daddy. So, even though it sounds mean, I didn’t run just so I could give money and support an organization. I joined up for you.

Not only did my sisterchicks & I join up, we got our MamaChicks in on it, too! Plus some of our best girl friends and family members. We woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, donned our very own sisterchick shirts (made by Beck!) and made our way to downtown Atlanta.

When we got there there were literally 1000′s of people–not just women, either. Lots of men and even little kids. They were all there because at one time they heard the words, “She has breast cancer.” And it rocked their world. I can’t tell you how it felt down there. There was an undercurrent of emotion because we’d all been through this shared experience.

The first thing I noticed was the racers with squares of pink paper on their backs. It wasn’t their racing numbers. It was a paper that had the title “In Celebration of…” or “In Memory Of…” Then they wrote who they were running for. The first one I read was a grown daughter and dad. Hers read, “In Memory of my mom, Bonnie.” His read, “In Memory of my wife, Bonnie.” And that’s when it started for me.

I finally got to the table where I filled out my own “In Memory of…” paper. And I got the marker, prepared to write your name cute and fun so people would notice. And then I stopped. I couldn’t believe I was actually writing down your name “in memory”. As if you were just a memory or a thought I used to have!

I pinned that paper to my back then looked around and everyone at that table was crying as they wrote their mom’s name, or their aunt’s, sister’s, grandmother’s or cousin’s names. All through the day, I would turn around and see a group of women or a couple or a lone person sobbing their heart out.

I was shocked at how emotional it was. I wiped tears away all day. Tears for you. Tears for our family. And tears for the 1000′s of people who were wiping away tears, too.

Whew! Enough of that! The race was actually fun! We walked and talked. Mama and I even ran almost half of it. I made it in 1 hour and 5 minutes. There were 2 finish lines-one for regular folk like me and one for survivors! The survivors received a medal and a beautiful pink rose. I wish you had been walking to that finish line! But, I do know that the finish line you did walk down was better and more beautiful than that! And when I walk down it one day, you’ll be the one handing me a bouquet of roses!

I hope you know how much I love you. We never lived in the same state. I don’t ever remember celebrating Christmas together. But you’re my Grandmama. I love you and I’m thankful for what you put into Daddy and Mama to make me the person I am today.

I raced for you.

I’m so glad I got to be the one to make you a grandmother,
Amanda

(to read more about the race, visit Mama, Becky, Staci & Brandy‘s recaps.)

The Sisterchicks Run a Race is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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I’ve been up since 5 this morning because I participated in the Race for the Cure! I want to blog all about it on Monday, when I have time to think and my feet and legs aren’t aching.

But let me tempt you with this…we might have run into a news reporter and she might have just thought we were cute and fun and interesting and we just might have made it onto the evening news!

Woo-hoo! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

My Saturday is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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