Let the festivities continue!

I guess I am glad I didn’t promise I would continue my Race for the Cure adventure in a prompt manner since it has been weeks now. My apologies, I have no excuse really except for my computer at home is totally dead, it is breast cancer awareness month and I packed up and moved across town, but other than that I have just been sitting at home twiddling my thumbs.

So to continue my Race for the Cure adventure…………I think I left off having just called daddy when I thought I had called Lindsay. I was a bit concerned about the progress of the day being the beginning was nothing short of rocky. However, I am pleased to report that race day went off without a hitch, at least for me it did. All my volunteers showed up to educated the participants and spectators on the importance of early detection and breast health.



The cheerleading groups, whom we like to refer to as Cureleaders were on time and ready to position themselves along the race course to cheer on the runners and walkers.







It was also my honor to introduce the winning cheer squad from online cheer completion we held. I was beyond elated to introduce them, just not so much beyond elated to be doing it on a stage with a mic in front of thousands.



My volunteers who helped me at the I AM THE CURE tent were eager and an extraordinary help throughout the day.



Matt came and ran the 5k, and did an outstanding job………finishing the race in approximately 22 mins. Yes, for all you math wizards out there that is averaging about a 7 min mile.



It was a wonderful day! There were smiles and love for those who have survived this awful disease, there were tears for those we have lost, there was hope, joy, victories and passion to one day find a cure.

A turn of events

It came and it went just like that. All the prep work, long hours, sleepless nights, short tempers and lots of hard work all came together on Saturday morning as we hosted the 14th Annual Tulsa Komen Race for the Cure and as fast as you could blink your eyes it was over.

Let me take you back to 5:00am as I was leaving the house and heading to the race site. I had everything I needed, minus a hoodie but that is beside the point. I pulled out of the garage and as normal for me these days I was running late, I rolled the stop sign at the end of our street, after all it was 5am who in their right mind would be out and about at that hour. As I came up to the next stop sign I saw a car round a bend behind me, I thought they must be going to the race as well because again who would be right now if they weren’t. I was just able to get that sentence to clear my cobwebbed mind when I checked my rearview mirror again and that car now had flashing blue and red lights. Are you kidding me, I am being stopped at 5am for rolling a stop sign in my neighbor where everyone is still asleep? I pulled over, pulled out my licenses and registration and was ready to receive a ticket for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign you almost couldn’t see because it was so dark or my eyes were still half asleep, either way. The police officer shined a big huge light in the direction of my car and yelled “PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!” I thought this is no regular traffic stop; I am going to be arrested. Now how am I going to explain that to the race committee………….”sorry I was not able to make it to the race I HAVE BEEN ARRESTED”……….not sure that would go over too well. I put my hands and arms as far out of my driver’s winder as I could get them along with my ID.

Ma’ma the reason I have pulled you over today is that we have had reports of explosions or gunfire in the area
Ummmmm, okay
You were leaving the area so I wanted to see if you knew anything about it, clearly you do not.
No officer, I am on my way to the Race for the Cure, I have been up since 4am and have not heard anything.
I can tell you were obviously not involved
Ummmmm, do I look like someone that can’t cause problems. Well maybe I do.
I am so sorry to have bothered you, have a great time at your race.
Thank you, you have a great day!

I ginned off to the race, going the exact speed limit and coming to complete stops at every stop sign. Once I finally got to the race site I had eager volunteers already waiting for me. I got them started and then called Lindsay to ask her if she could send her husband my way so he could help me put some signs in the ground along the race route. I got her voicemail left a message and then went on about my way explaining the procedures for the day to my volunteers. I was right in the middle of explaining the price wheel when my phone rang and it was my dad. This would not typically be odd, but being my parents are two hours behind us, meaning my daddy was calling me at 3:45am this caused a bit of concern. I answered…………

Me: Hello?
Daddy: Did you just call?
Me: No.
Daddy: Is everything okay?
Me: Yes, I am out at the race site getting ready for the day.
Daddy: Are you sure you didn’t just call?
Me: Yes, I am sure. I just called Lindsay, but I didn’t call you.
Daddy: Okay, so you are sure everything is fine.
Me: Yes daddy.
Daddy: I will call mom back and tell her you are okay.
Me (thinking): What you called mom?
Me: Okay have a great day, I love you!
Daddy: Love you.

Then like a bolt of lightning it registered to me...........I called daddy rather than calling Lindsay.

I will continue the rest of the adventure tomorrow.

Bitter Sweet

This past Saturday Matt and I headed down the turnpike to Stillwater to watch OSU take on TU. This was a fun game for many reasons......

1) Going on a date to a sporting event with a good lookn' man, well it doesn't get much better.

2) My Aunt Mimi gave us two of her tickets since she was going to be out of town, so we got to live it up on the club level with my cousin Lori, her husband Chris and hundreds of our closest OSU friends. All the while feasting on free food and drinks.

3) This was a battle between my OSU Cowboy’s and Matt's TU Hurricane’s. Which there was just no way OSU could come out on the bottom, after all I had been talkn' trash for weeks about how OSU was going to whoop up on TU.

4) We got to spend time with friends and family.

5) We got to watch OSU put the smack down on TU 65-28



Although I left on the arm of a disappointed man, we still had a great time!

Budweiser Brawl game 2

Last night we had game two of the Budweiser Brawl and the outcome was not so favorable for the Bad News Balls. We have yet another loss under our belt, we reside now at 0-2. I feel the wind of change a comin’ though. Our team is going to start practicing, we are going start learning how to catch pop flies, run down line drives, and throw to get a base out.

Let the games begin again..........

I found myself in quite the predicament a few weeks ago. You see it was the end of summer league kickball and time to register for fall league. Here in lied the problem…..do I stay on a championship team destined to win a lot of games but I really don’t feel a part of or do I switch to a team not as prone to win as many games but is comprised of welcoming hearts and a special man. The dilemma was so perplexing that I just up and didn’t register for either team. I went to bed that night had a nightmare that I gained 500 lbs, got up the next morning fired up my computer and registered to play with the championship team.

As fate may have it the decision was not quite that easy. After I registered there was a lot of texting, emailing, and by 3:00am I was informed I had been successful switched to Matt’s team.

Thursday was our first game and who should we be playing but my old team. I tried to sugar up my old teammates before the game with bribes and cookies and candy and everything in between but nothing helped, they destroyed us 9-1. However, my new team is a lot more sportsman like when losing than my old team and it has nothing to do with the fact they are accustomed to the opposite of winning.

Hopefully this week I will have pictures from the Thursday night battle.

JB

Life's simply joys

I spent the Labor Day Holiday in Houston with my best friend Nicole and her family.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Since everyone got to look at a picture of a yummy yummy cupcake for days, well more like weeks before I was able to get back and update my blog, I figure I should share with you how to make the little bites of sunshine.

A few weeks ago I was craving cake, I am not really sure why because I rarely crave anything. However, I thought I better give into the craving or I may end up on the 6pm news for storming Reesor’s bakery. I had no idea what I wanted to bake, I just knew I wanted cake, so I enlisted the help of Matt’s sweet tooth, but not much to my surprise his response was “my sweet tooth is not picky (although not a fan of coconut). I’ve sampled your goodies, so I’m sure whatever you make will be fab-u-lous.” So he was of no help in uncovering the perfect cake treat to make.

After much deliberation I settled on Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes. I would just like to state for the record, these may be my new favorite cupcakes.



You will need:
• 1 box Strawberry Cake Mix (18 Ounce Box)
• 1 box Lemon Cake Mix (18 Ounce Box)
• 6 whole Eggs, Divided Use, For The Above Cake Mixes
• ⅔ cups Vegetable Or Olive Oil, Divided Use, For The Above Cake Mixes
• 4-½ cups Water, Divided Use, For The Above Cake Mixes
• 2 tubs Store Bought Strawberry Cake Frosting, 12 Ounce Tubs
• ¼ cups Decorative Sprinkling Sugar Pink, Yellow, Or White
• ½ cups Dry Lemonade Mix
• 36 whole Fresh Strawberries

Preparation:
• Prepare both cake mixes according to instructions on the box and put them into separate Ziploc or piping bags.

• Fill cupcake pan with cupcake papers and pipe both batters into each cup to create a mixed color cupcake – Make sure each paper cup is only 2/3 of the way full to prevent overflow when baked.

• Bake according to box directions at 350 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes and allow baked cupcakes to cool completely.

• Pipe strawberry frosting onto cupcakes.

• Mix 1 part sprinkling sugar with 2 parts dry lemonade mix and sprinkle onto frosting.

• Place washed and sliced or whole small fresh strawberries onto cupcakes and sprinkle again with sugar/lemonade mix and serve.

• Cupcakes can be refrigerated after preparation, and strawberries re-sprinkled with sugar and lemonade mixture just before serving


Make these cupcakes today, you will be glad you did!!
Jen



Recipe: Mommy Topics