Hi Everyone :) It's Angela Time Again :)

Good News! More progress on the Tips for Tatas Event. First of all i have gotten three raffle prizes from local businesses. The first is a Sterling Silver breast cancer charm on a leather necklace (value of $70) from JWR Jewelers (THANKS SO MUCH Mrs.Pattie and Mr. John!!) The second donor is from Body Plex Gym (Thanks Joe!!). They donated two one month free tanning memberships, a 3 month free membership, and also one hundred one month free coupons. We will use the one month free coupons as an advertisement for the first one hundred "Tipppers" for Tatas. The third raffle prize is one hundred dollars cash donated by Exclusive Pallet (Thanks Dad!!). In other news with the Tips for Tatas night, Boun (my boyfriend) has graciously agreed with his busy schedule to provide a home cooked spaghetti dinner as a thank you to all the servers that will be working for free that night.

In other news, trying to find a site for the Tailgate I came up with a great idea. Why not try to use the local high school? So far no luck in contacting anyone though :( I'm not losing hope though. If not Jennifer has been working on Herman C Michael Park also. Also, I haven't had a chance to run this by the other members besides Mel, but i think it would be a great idea to hold a flag football game after the tailgate to give it the "real" tailgating feel. I hope it works out :)

Have a great week everyone!!

Angela

One Day, One Day, One Day!!!

As I wrote the title of this blog (located at www.savethemelons.blogspot.com ), I thought about the classic car salesman on television when I was little yelling at the top of his voice, "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!" With great excitement, he would announce the "sale" that they dealership were having in his loudest voice.
I have to admit, it made me chuckle at first, but then I stopped and thought about it for a couple of seconds. What if we took that same enthusiasm and applied it to breast cancer? The salesman was announcing a car; We are announcing the quest to end breast cancer! Shouldn't we put that same enthusiasm if not more when we are trying to save lives? I think so!

Each "ONE DAY" in my book, stands for something different:

1.) ONE DAY we our we won't have to live with the fear of hearing those words, "You have cancer."
2.) ONE DAY we no one will suffer from surgery, chemo, radiation or death from this deadly disease.
3.) ONE DAY we will find a cure!


Today I'm going to do something a little different from our regular blogs. I usually don't ask much, other than donations. But maybe you feel like you can't afford to give right now...maybe you wish you could walk in the 3-Day, but something has held you back, maybe you are a daily reader and wish you could help just a little more.

Now you can.

I am going to challenge you. Where ever you are reading this. Take a moment and read aloud the title of this blog. Use your best "car salesman" tone. You don't have to shout, unless you want to, of course. Just read it aloud. You are probably going to get strange looks, but that is the point! Simply smile and tell them that you have said that to raise awareness to breast cancer and, of course, show them our site.

If there is no one around you, copy and paste this blog and send it out to loved ones with a brief explanation of what we are doing and why this blog is so important. Be the enthusiastic breast cancer spokesperson! After all, you could save someone's life by raising awareness; and, a life is priceless. :)

Be sure to come back and leave a comment about your experience or responses. There are sure to be some funny reactions and we would love to hear them! To do so, click on "Post a comment". Then, type your comment and choose Name/URL. Enter your name and then click "Publish your comment" You don't have to sign up for anything- promise!

Until next Monday, Monday, Monday...keep thinking pink!
Melissa

Just Another Saturday!

Hello again, everyone! Well, after several weeks of not much to report, we're starting to pick up again and have some exciting things in the works. We really began trying this week to secure a location for our July fundraiser, Tailgating for Tatas. It is hopefully going to be July 19th in the Athens area, and once we know more we will send out invitations and let everyone know more details. I think it should be a lot of fun.

In addition to getting that off the ground, we are in the process of planning our next team meeting and training walk. On Monday afternoon at least 3 of the team members are planning to walk, which will be nice since we haven't all gotten together in several weeks. I just hope the heat isn't too overwhelming for us... I can't believe it's only the beginning of June, and it already feels like an oven outside at 10:00 in the morning. We need to start planning our longer training walks, and I think we will discuss that at the next team meeting. The schedule that The 3 Day sends out suggests doing 2 long training walks 2 days in a row, so I want to discuss that and see how feasible it will be to get everyone together for that. I hope we can at least split up into groups of 2 or 3 if we can't all get together because I am much more likely to walk when I have someone to go with and talk to.

I believe that a couple of our team members had a shoe fitting this morning, and next Saturday Stephanie and I are going to a fitting in Athens. My mom has said she will buy me one of my pairs of shoes for my birthday, so I'm excited about that. After that we will do a training walk with the people that show up for the fitting, so there will be more on that next week.

I guess that's about it here. I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying our blogs. I am glad to see that Shannon has picked up a day to blog so that we can get a different perspective from everyone (not that I didn't like reading your blog 2 days a week, Mel!). I'm sure Melissa appreciates the break, too! Until next week, keep thinking pink!

~Jennifer

*Friday Night Hope with Cynthia*

Hello guys. It is 11:47pm. I just got off work and have to be back at 10:45am. Even more fun, I'm working four shifts in the next two days...yay for doubles (not)!

I am very proud of my dear sister, Angela, as she was able to get some really great items this week to raffle off at an upcoming event! By really great items, I mean that I will be purchasing some raffle tickets in hopes of winning these prizes...which means, nobody else can buy raffle tickets but me. ;)

I, on the other hand, am Queen "stale-mate". I have no moves right now. Honestly, I don't really have time for move making.

Here's the break-down of my time:
65%: Time spent academically
20%: Time spent laboring (at Rafferty's)
09%: Time spent sleeping
03%: Time spent eating
02%: Time spent doing fun things with my fellow meloners
01%: Time spent cleaning, cooking, exercising

The up-side is this particular statistical data will only be accurate for the month of June. No worries though friends, fam & teammates! During this month, I'll be thinking of great new creative ways to fundraise and I'll be back rearing to go in July!!

Until next time...peace :)

A Thoughtful Thursday

This is my first time blogging so where do I start? I guess by introducing myself. I am the sixth member on the team. My name is Shannon Brown Kentnor. I am a wife of a wonderful man and a mother of two amazing children. I am honored to be taking this journey with five more incredible women. Okay now to the training. It has been taking a little more out of me than I expected it would. I am not sure if the 90 degree weather has anything to do with that or not. I am enjoying my training time now though. Before it was just something that I was trying to get finished with as fast a possible now it has become more like my one on one time with God. You see on Saturday after having the worst two weeks possible I went out for a training walk. I do not know what made me decide to go a different way than normal but for some reason I did. I was walking feeling like my life could not get any worse when I looked up from my self pity and saw my sign. Yes I said my sign. It was on a church sign that is right down the road from where I live and it said, "Your life is not spinning out of control, you are just on God's potters wheel." When I read that sign I had to stop and have a good cry. I realized that all of my trials and tribulations were God trying to get my attention. I did not realize just how far I had put him on the back burner. As everyone knows with kids, a spouse, activities, and then the training that I have been doing I had not been taking time out of my day to thank God for what I did have; a great husband, children who were alive (though sick), a house, a supportive family and friends that are always there for me. I now realize that when your life seems to be "spinning out of control" it may be God trying to get you to turn to Him. If it were not for these training walks I would have never saw the sign that finally made me open my eyes. So now as I get ready to close I am putting on my walking shoes and getting ready for yet another 6 mile walk and I am excited.
I hope that everyone is having a great week. Just think tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

A quick hello from Angela

i'll make it short and sweet this week.

I want to thank Julie for her donation to my 3 day walk fund first of all :) THANKS!

Next lets see, i was feeling down because one of the servers that had agreed to do the Tips for Tatas was let go...which brought the count back down to 5 servers not including me. And if you've ever waited tables before you know that the last thing you want when your waiting on people FOR FREE is to be stressed out. I want to make sure we have enough help so that everyone can just have a relaxing fun time. But this past week we got a new server and guess what? He's already signed up to do the event! :) Thanks Todd. So now i have 6 volunteers plus me and my assistant manager also to all work that night. Also, Justin, one of the servers who also does our trivia nights has agreed to announce the raffle. Awesome!

Anywho, guess that wasnt too short and sweet :)

Have a good week everyone!
Angela

Just another manic Monday...

It's not unusual for me to welcome Monday with open arms. While most, look at Mondays as a glass "half empty" kind of day, I've made it almost a self-imposed motto to look at it as a "glass half full" kind of day. Why? I have a fresh, clean slate; a new week to start over. I jump in feet first putting whatever failures of the past week behind me and move on. Why not? If I am pessimistic, what good will it do for me to wallow in self pity in what I didn't get done when I have a new week to look at accomplishing those very things missed the week before?

If you know me, I'm sure you're not too surprised by this...right? So Monday it is and here I am typing and here you are reading; ready to go! This week I have an extra reason to be happy and feel great. Despite my failure to walk two of the four days, I have already started to pencil the neighbors I have recruited to walk with me for moral support; and, what I need from the most, accountability! That is my new "fix" to keep myself in stride with the 3-Day training program. Okay, that and possibly something to do with my recent TERRIFYING dream that I showed up in October to walk 60 miles in flip flops and no training!!