"Anyone Else Getting Nervous Yet? I Know I Am!"

 It is less than 2 months until the official start of the 2014 Marine Corp Marathon!  My brother just posted a question on my Facebook a few days ago and my dad, brothers, and I all responded with "nervous, excited, scared, etc"  But I do have to say, I am a lot less scared than I was a month ago.  I had taken a week off of my training for our summer vacation and as I sat at the resort with a Twisted Tea in one hand and nachos in the other, I started to get very fidgety about actually running 26.2 miles in less than 100 days!  I mean, who in their right mind voluntarily signs up to do such a daunting thing on top of 4 kids, a business to run, school activities, kids sports, church, clubs, and all our harvest/field work we have to do in the next 2 months?  I have never claimed that I am the sharpest knife in the drawer, but as I sat there I came to the conclusion that yes, I may not be very smart but if my husband and I can train and do this, then we can do anything!

So ever since we got back from our summer vacation, the switch has been thrown.  We are dedicated to following our training schedule, have changed our nutrition, been getting adequate rest, and are in full-blown marathon-mode.  Andrew gets up early in the morning to get his run in, and I do mine in the little "cracks" of my day so sometimes it is in the morning, sometimes lunch-break, sometimes right before I get the kids off the bus, sometimes around the football field while my kids are practicing, and even a few times after the kids have gone to bed for the night...but I get it done.  I really have to say that my husband is my hero when it comes to doing his training.  His plate is so full he barely even gets to go to bed at night.  But he committed to doing this back in the spring, and he will see it through because if you have ever met him, that is just the way he is.

 I am already proud of my family and the amount of time and effort we have put into training and getting 'marathon ready'.  But, I do have to say that flying into our nations capital, lacing up our shoes, having those pre-race jitters during the National Anthem, and finally hearing that gun go off will be something that I will never ever forget and never be able to put into words how significant of a moment that will be in our lives.  This is definitely a "Bucket List" moment for us all and I challenge you and your family to go out and do something so significant, so memorable, so moving that it changes who you are.  Spending hours and hours running with just you and the pavement definitely molds you into a different person.  I am glad that this isn't easy, or simple, or quick.  I revel in the fact that I have to have pain, aches, sores, tiredness, blood, struggles, and even some tears to be able to do this.  It means that I am alive and capable of so much more than I ever thought I would be!  Take those doubts, reservations, and restrictions off yourself and do something that is so challenging that it SCARES YOU!  What are you scared off?  Now image how you would feel if you actually did it!  Take a moment...what are you capable of?  What have you always wanted to do?

Tired of Seeing the ALS Bucket Challenge Yet?!?

So the "rave" all over Facebook for the last week or more has been this 'ALS Ice Bucket Challenge'.  Some of you may even be getting down-right sick and tired of seeing it.  My friend, Kristen Nickerson who is the America's Farmers Northeast Region Farm Mom of the Year, sent me an e-mail a few days ago nominating me to do the challenge.  For about a week or so before that I had seen plenty of friends, family, neighbors, strangers, even celebrities take a short video of themselves calling out some names of who they challenge then the final hurrah was the ice bucket going over their head and some sort of laugh, scream, squeal, or shout of "That was COLD!'"

Well, Kristen set the bar pretty high so we had to rise to the challenge.  This is Video Link of my family doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152655250269920&l=4525738952428274749

It was a fun experience and I'm sure that we made some memories for the kids.  But, pause for a second...that isn't the reason that all of us are lining up to voluntarily dump ice water on ourselves.  So what is the reason?  What is ALS?  Why has this taken off to be such a social media craze?  So I did some research to answer those questions:
 "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed"...(http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html)

But, who actually started the Ice Bucket Challenge and why?  Take a moment and meet Pete Frates, 29, former Boston College Baseball Star who had an amazingly bright future, until he was diagnosed with ALS.  Here is his story, click on the link and meet the man behind this phenomenon:
 http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/id/11366772/in-als-fight-pete-frates-message-loud-clear-ice-bucket-challenge

So after seeing that, doesn't it make you want to line up and just dump a bucket of cold water on yourself?  Now some people are poking fun at it such as this:




Or this:



Or even th

And there are the "Haters" that have posted negative things as to why you shouldn't, or how much water it is wasting, or people aren't actually donating, or the money isn't actually going to the research or whatever.  But, to those people I say, look someone in the face with this horrible disease of ALS and tell them that:

This is Anthony Carbajal and him, his mom, and his grandmother all suffer from ALS.  Here is his story: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-heartbreaking-als-ice-bucket-challenge-that-may-finally-quiet-all-the-haters-2014-8

So whether you choose to dump ice water on your head or not, lets get back to the fact that there are people that have this horrible disease and it hasn't gotten a lot of attention as compared to others in the past.  So what if you are tired of seeing it in your Facebook Feed.  Let ALS have the spotlight for once!  I'm sure the people that have the disease are sick and tired of having to suffer, struggle, and fight against it every day.  Let them finally revel in the fact that millions of dollars have been donated for research to help find a cure!  And finally, let us all show that we still care about each other.  Show your heart, your compassion, and your support, because the world definitely needs it!