Relay for Life

This was my first year participating in Relay for Life. I had so much fun and I hope to do it again! Wow! What a neat event. I was on a team with some gals from my ward and a couple of Donna's friends. We were the Pink Ladies. Most of us know someone who has battled breast cancer and so we kind of focused on that. However, it was such a cool thing to see all the other teams and who or what their focus was. I thought a lot about Louis' Uncle Mike who passed away a year ago from cancer and my cousin-in-law, Paul who is fighting cancer right now, and the many other friends and neighbors and family that I have known who have been affected by cancer. It was a super emotional 25 hours!

Friday we spent the afternoon setting up and sweating to death! Then we had pizza and began walking. There was an opening ceremony and later on, a luminaria ceremony. The track was lined with white paper bags decorated in honor of those fighting cancer, or in memory of someone who had died from cancer. Inside was a tea light. They played beautiful music as someone read the names of all those on the luminarias. It was really cool.

Carol, Claudi, Donna, and Stephanie

Amber, her sister, Dana, and Amber's mom

Donna and me.... I think I'm getting better at the self-portraits!

Saturday morning after the early morning paper route... the walking continued. It was a fun day! Lots of fundraising going on, my favorite, the dunking booth! It was pretty comical to watch. I bumped into one of my former Mia Maid's from my old ward! It was great to walk with her and catch up on what she is doing now. They had an opportunity drawing and silent auction... no, I didn't win, but Donna and Stephanie did! Man! One of the things they had was a booth to donate to Locks of Love. I have always wanted to do it, but never had hair long enough to leave me with "enough." I decided to just ask how short it would have to be.... and then my friends added some peer pressure, and with the excitement of doing things for a good cause, I chopped off my hair! This is the shortest I have gone! I am in shock, but it felt so good to actually do it!

whoa!

check that out! Three thick ponytails!!! Yay!!!

I am still getting used to it.... it looked great under a baseball cap! And the good news, Louis liked it! That was unexpected.

At the closing ceremony, they had each of us hold a red balloon which symbolized "fighting back." We each made a resolution on what we would do in the next year to prevent cancer. Then we walked a 'final lap' and let our balloons go. It was a pretty neat experience! I hope to be able to do it again!!!

It felt so nice to get home to a hot shower and try out my new haircut! It's going to take some time to get used to, but I think I will love it soon. I already love how fast it is to wash and dry.

It feels so nice to have the hair off my neck! Aaah. Minus the new sunburn.

Louis liked the oily, no-shower, slicked back look better, but Kaylee and Charles thought I looked pretty good like this. :)

What do you think?