The 3-Day. It's finally here! Time to Cheer!!

It's hard to believe that what started for me in February will all start this Friday, October 24th!

We are ready are you?

WE NEED YOUR HELP!! We are looking for Cheerleaders! Not wearing cute little skirts or making pyramids while flirting with the captain of the football team, but BREAST CANCER CHEERLEADERS!!

If you think you are our person, then reply to me here or walkforthecure@yahoo.com. You can also call my cell. If you need that number, leave a comment on here with your email address and I'll send it to you! If you'd like to go with a group, I'll direct you to my cheerleading captain, Melissa Willmert. (Or if you know her, drop her an email or give her a buzz.)

********IMPORTANT: YOU WILL NEED MY CELL NUMBER!! ON THE DAY OF THE WALK, PLEASE USE THIS NUMBER TO SEE WHERE WE ARE AT**********

We will also have a group from my home church, Fellowship, so you are welcome to join them for a BLAST! You'll get the inside scoop on where we are at during the walk and much more (you actually get to draw on pretty posters-whoo hoo!)

You won't want to miss out.
TRUST ME!!!

The cheering station schedule and other information is below.


Hope to see you there!

Melissa & Team Miles & Memories for Melons

Cheering Stations:
Cheering Stations are a great way to show your support along the route to encourage walkers and let them know that you are with them every step of the way. Seeing familiar faces cheering them on can provide that extra burst of energy that gets them to take that next step or go the next mile. Create banners, hold up signs, bring some music and make some noise - anything to make them smile, get energized and keep walking.



Friday, October 24:

9:00 am - 11:00 am
North American Mission Board
4200 North Point Pkwy.
Alpharetta, GA 30022

Saturday, October 25:
9:15 am - 12:00 am
Oreck Vacuums Store
5005 Peachtree Pkwy.
Norcross, GA 30092

11:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Duluth Monarch School
3057 Main St.
Duluth, GA 30096

Sunday, October 26:
7:45 am - 9:30 am
Lowe's
4950 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.
Chamblee, GA 30341

9:30 am - 12:00 pm
Deka Athletics
375 Pharr Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30305

(Melissa's Monday) She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes!

Stone Mountain to be exact. Oh- and I never knew I was scared of stairs....until walking down them after I had walked 19 and 16 miles in one weekend!! Oh yeah, you read me right. A total of THIRTY FIVE MILES! I was amazed that I even had it in me.

Now for all of those who know me, I'll start with answering your questions before they can even be asked:

1.) Did you eat???

YES! I ate.

2.) You can't afford to loose weight. Did you?

No, I did not loose any weight. As a matter of fact, I came home 3.5 pounds heavier. REALLY.

3.) How is that even possible???!!

Because of water intake and constant eating to maintain nutrients, fluids and calories....yep...I probably ate more than my entire pregnancy in one weekend. PLus, most weight is lost through muscle confusion, meaning you need to train in other ways such as cardio and other various forms of fitness to loose weight quickly.

4.) How do you feel?

Umm... About like my legs are going to fall off. Literally. My feet are actually fine, but the hills from walking are what hurt me the most.

To preface the story for full meaning, I'll explain a little.When you sign up for the 3-Day, they send you out this wonderful packed FULL of all kinds of information to get you started. Inside this packet is what will become one of your most prized possessions: your 3-Day lanyard and badge. It's a necklace/ID that they provide you with that have all of your goals to be successful in your walk and fundraising. Each goal has sticker. Each time you meet that goal, you get to place it on the special place for it on the badge. The first couple are pretty simple. For example, logging onto your 3-day website or reaching your 1st $500 in donations.

For me these little stickers have become part of my life. Since March, I have slowly added them to my badge. Each time, I would look at the sheet where each little sticker that was not placed on the badge and wonder if I would have the chance to move them over to it. At some points, the 10 mile sticker looked like it was sooo hard...and the 18/15 mile sticker looked impossible! The $2,200 raised sticker was laughed at nervously and the online check-in sticker was haunting me.

So, when I tell you that this morning as my husband drove, I quietly took my badge out and placed my last sticker for the 18/15 mile walk onto my badge and smiled you have to understand this was a HUGE milestone. I took my fingers and rubbed the stickers down, to make sure those things were going to stick. After all, I worked hard for those suckers!

As I pressed the last one down, I caught my husband glancing over at me. He chuckled to himself and then asked, "What are you doing?" I replied that I had just put my last sticker on. How does he reply?

"You're what?"

Enters the laughter. Uncontrollably. I mean, I really think he thought I had lost it! Here I was having this wonderful, meaningful moment and he thought I had gone nuts. As I tried to explain it, he only looked at me more wildly, so I decided to just end my explanation with, "I guess it's a you have to be there moment.. but it's exclusive to 3-Day participants only." He shrugs and the moment is over.

Looking back, I always thought that choirs would jump up singing "Alleluia" when I finished with my badge of goals. On this day none of it happened. Instead, the feeling of knowing that I can do something that I never thought I could physically do was ten times better than any chorus of alleluias.

Okay, now that's out of the way...I have to tell you about the most amazing weekend! Jennifer, Angela and I decided to go to an overnight camp out training walk at Stone Mountain this past weekend. It was monumental for us. Not just because we walked 18 miles one day and 15 the next, but for many it was confirmation that we had accomplished one of the hardest milestones in the 3-day experience next to the actual 60 miles of the walk.

Angela was in charge of food and....well let's just say I think everyone that came would invite her on ANY camping trip. I'm pretty sure that we ate better than anyone else out there on the campground AND we were in tents! We had yummy pepper jack quesadillas, black bean & corn salsa with Mexican rice on Saturday afternoon and canned biscuits eggs, country ham and maple link sausages on Sunday morning. Keep in mind we all camped in tents with no electricity. In addition to these great meals with trimmings, she even made us "snack packs" for when we were walking! They had bananas, pringles, trail mix, tuna, pepperonis, slim jim's, crackers...I could go on and on.....she just out did herself! Thank you so much for putting so much thought into everything, Angela. :)

I learned one really neat thing about Jennifer. This girl NEVER complains. She is wonder woman...Seriously! Here she is twenty something weeks pregnant and walks WAY faster than me! Truly amazing. Oh...and she's a GREAT tent partner. No snoring, no moving, cuddling...nothing. She's perfect! I just hope that she can say the same about me... ;)

As for my body, let's just say that I think I found parts of my body that I didn't even know existed. How? Because they hurt! After walking our 19 mile walk on Saturday, I felt great. I couldn't believe it. We went to the laser show, came back and made smores and sang a silly shark song(Don't even get me started...it's one that is really cute and stays in your head FOREVER-Thanks Michelle Buice!). THEN CAME SUNDAY MORNING. I woke feeling pretty good and just laid there enjoying all the great sounds of nature...then I tried to move my legs- PAIN!!! It felt like they were both broken and my kids were sitting on them. It was horrible! The thought of walking all over again seemed impossible!

Thankfully, I'm one of those types of people that just hates being left out and told myself that I would walk just ONE circle around the mountain (which is 5 miles, btw). A couple of extra strength Tylenol and one circle around the mountain later, I was a new woman! It hurt, but the thought of the four women in my neighborhood that have or had cancer, my mother, and my great aunt who passed from it and I thought, Who am I to complain? They never had the chance to sit one round out! Suddenly, I had strength that is unexplainable. Amazing, isn't it?

Well, it's heading on midnight and I think I need to go get some rest. Believe it or not, but tomorrow's training schedule calls for 5 miles. Make sure that you read next week's post with me. I'll have information on how you can come be a part of our cheering section at the 3-Day and if you're unable to make that, how you can write letters of encouragement to my team mates and I so that we can read them at the actual walk.

Until then, keep thinking pink and living life!!
Melissa

It's Shannon Time Again!!

Hello again everyone! This week has been great. Last weekend my husband and I went to Watson Mill and walked there trails 3 times each and had a good time. It was beautiful; the weather was terrific. I am looking forward to yet another great walk with him this weekend. I am so glad that he is supporting me 100% in this journey. It has really helped me to keep motivated. I have been walking 5-6 miles daily to train through the week but most of my training is done on the weekends. I am also anxious to see how much money I raised with my party lite party. I am closing my show tomorrow night and I should be able to have that posted by the end of next week :) Well that is about all the updates that I have for this week; until next week keep our team in your thoughts and prayers. We all want to make it to the walk as a team and we are praying that we can each raise our amount.
~Shannon

Frantic Thursday (Friday)

Hey everyone! Sorry I missed my scheduled blog yesterday; I still had people at my house from my party lite party. My party turned out good. I raised $100.00 thus far and the consultant is donating her check to the walk also. I just want to say a big thank you to my friends and family that showed up. Now I am making plans for the bake sale. Hopefully I can raise enough money from hosting a party lite show and two bake sales that I really will not have to go around asking for donations.
As far a training goes I have not trained at all this week. I am looking forward to go out this weekend and walking with my husband. We try to do 10 miles and then stop, take a break and do another 5 or 6. I am hoping that I am prepared for the walk when it gets here in less than 8 weeks! I am so excited! Well that is about all the updates that I have this week. Once again I am sorry for being late on blogging. Until next time please continue praying that our team reaches our goals so we can all walk together!
~Shannon

It's getting close!

Well, as Shannon mentioned, I had the very exciting experience of meeting my $2,200 fundraising goal this week! I had a feeling of accomplishement when I went to my webpage and was able to see that I had, indeed, reached my goal. Congratulations to Melissa, too! Now I have just been trying to figure out ways to add money to my teammates' fundraising so we can all be sure to walk in just a couple months.

Which leads me to my disbelief at how fast the time as gone. I got my "8 week update" newsletter/training schedule from The 3 Day via e-mail yesterday, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 8 WEEKS! It seemed like such a long way away when we started, but time has definitely flown by, and before we know it we will be packing up for our 3 day journey. Which makes me realize how much I think I am probably going to regret not training as I should be. I am determined to do the training walk in Stone Mountain in a few weeks; that walk is 18 miles Saturday and 15miles Sunday. I figure if I can do that walk then I should be pretty set for the real thing. I still need to buy another pair of shoes and a few more clothes to wear on the walk, but all of that will come together in the end, I'm sure.

That's all from here this week. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, and until next week, keep reading!

~Jennifer

Exciting News!

Hello again! I cannot believe how fast time is flying! We are now less than sixty days away from our walk (how exciting)! I want to start out with a BIG congradulations to not one but two of my team mates who have reached their goal this week and raised $2,200.00! Whoo hoo! Way to go! Another one is only $400.00 away! We are making progress! You never realize how hard it is to raise money until you are the one out there asking people for it. I have come to learn that it is not as easy as it seams (even for a good cause). As far as training has been going I am still going strong. Soccer season started today and that will give me a good hour to walk around the fields while my son and husband are out on the fields. I am looking forward to that. I am getting tired of walking on the treadmill. Well I guess that is all the news that I have. Until next time, please continue to keep our team in your thoughts and prayers. We still have a long way to go.
~Shannon

Mondays with Melissa

I know...it's not Monday. In fact, it's not even Tuesday technically anymore..the clock now reads 1:15 A.M.! I'm getting ready to go to sleep and I could not stop thinking about the fact that I missed my blog on Monday. It's not guilt that keeps me typing, it's the feeling that someone might have missed that daily glance at our blog. Therefore, when God says to listen to my heart. I listen!

If you haven't already noticed, there are several fun features on our blog: I was able to FINALLY figure out how to post the slideshow from our 11 mile walk AND we have music!! Make sure to scroll down to the end of the page and listen to the song labeled "boobs." It's hilarious!

Last week was pretty un-eventful as far as training goes. I only walked 3 miles one day and that was with my 11 month son, Owen, in tow, pushing his stroller up and down hills. This leads me to wonder, should I actually count this as 6 miles? It felt like it! (Haha) Even if it doesn't, I think if I can walk with an extra load (that cries and hurls toys out onto my path) then I should definitely be ready for anything on the 3-Day, right?

This week has been different, though. Not in training, but by the reality that we just hit the 2 month mark before the big day. I spent Monday night going over our team fundraising account and looking at all that we raised by t-shirt sponsorships and fundraisers. In total, we raised close to $3,500.00! That's amazing! That money has went back to my team mates to help them toward their goal. I have decided not to take any of the fundraiser money (other than my t-shirt sponsorship) and continue on with donations from friends. I now only have $99.49 left. The outpour of support from friends, families and local businesses is amazing! Please make sure to check out their websites on the side column of our blog.

As far as our back-to-back walk, we are still trying to work it out. Schedules for 6 women are crazy!! I'll keep you posted and if it happens, don't worry, there will be more pictures!

Well, it's almost 1:30 and if I continue typing I am at risk of not making any sense at all. Off to bed I go.

Until next week...

Think pink. Live life.
Melissa