HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Again it has been awhile since I've posted, but that is one of several resoulutions I have made for the new year:

1. Continue to try and "simplify" my life. This has helped me slow down and realize what is really important in my life...

2. Pay off our debt...we really need to start this hard process. Budgeting will start us off and getting rid of some our "wants" will help a lot...

3. Work on a huge scrapbooking project. "My life 365" Keep looking as I will be posting every so often to show off how this project will work.

4. Healthier Living.....this will have to happen to help us lose weight and avoid any health issues as we move towards "middle age" this year....YIKES!

Here are some pics of our holiday....Enjoy

Thanksgiving Dinner: We are very grateful for all we have!

Ian and I at his holiday party at school...

Happy Siblings on Christmas morning...

A little creating over the holiday...I made this for my sister-in-law Norma...

Using a dollar spot monthly planner and "blinging it up" with some "Stylin'" paper from Close to my Heart.

I will update you on my newest project tomorrow on Day 1!

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

Terrie

5.2 Million!!!!

Hi all,

Long time, no blog, but I have 5.2 million reasons why......

The 3-Day is over and we raised 5.2 million dollars to fight Breast Cancer!!

Yep, blisters and sore muscles and all, I'm quite proud!

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend...

Day One at Freestone Park in Gilbert at Opening Ceremonies...

Home Sweet Home at Benedict Park in Tempe G-90.....

In Old Town Scottsdale on Day 3 only 1/4 mile from the holding area....

The whole gang at the Holding Area after we crossed the finish line!

It was such an honor and so much fun to be able to do this with Kaye this time!

Daniel asked us what we talked about all those miles and we just smiled and said sometimes you don't even need to talk, it is just good to BE together....

Kaye was a rock throughout the 3-Days. She had trained much better than me and was so encouraging even when I was hurting soooo bad! She is all ready to plan her next 3-Day and although I don't know if I would walk it again, I know that my family and I will definately so our part to keep fighting for the cure!!

I wished I could have spent more time with Kaye's kids Allison and Daniel as they have grown up into such nice young people. I hope our families will be able to spend some time together again soon.

Kaye treated me to a "Hot Stone" massage on Monday after the walk and I'll tell you there isn't anything much better than those warm stones on your sore muscles! Thank you soooooo much Kaye.

I hope to be back in the next few days with some holiday creations coming out of the studio....I haven't been in there much in the last few weeks and I miss it!

All for now,

Terrie D

Oh My....Time got away from me AGAIN!!

I'm so sorry...I don't know if anyone is even reading this, but if you are, I apologize cause I can't seem to keep up. I was going to have Bryan upload pics from our vacation and of course with school starting for the kids and now his students are back, I didn't have the heart to bug him about it. I'm off tomorrow, so I will try like crazy to get something put on here....

My Close to my Heart Open House is this Saturday and of course in my usual style, I decided to make some changes to the studio, so it is a MESS right now, so I have to do that too tomorrow, but I promise I will get those pics on and some new ones by the end of the week....
Wish me luck!

I have gotten some training done for the 3-Day, so that is a good thing...
3 miles on Tuesday last week a couple on Thursday and we hiked for over 2 hours yesterday, probably not too many miles, but definately some training!

Talk to you soon,
Terrie

I'm trying to test out having a link. If you want to see what I am linking to click here.

MIA?

Oh my, how time flies when you are driving around in a car!


Sorry for the almost month delay, but it has taken me this long to get back in the swing of things.





We had a great time on vacation....


The kid's trip from Tulsa to Iowa was highlighted by riding on this....


Then we headed on down to Galveston to get on the ship the Carnival "Ecstacy" to celbrate Bill's 70th birthday. Here is a pic the three of them, Bill, Robyne and Bryan had taken on formal night....

We had a great time and really enjoyed spending time with Bryan's family. We went on two excursions while in our ports of Progresso and Cozumel. Here are some pictures of the ruins in Dzibuzal. It was hot, but the trip was fascinating.

In Cozumel we went into town to do some geo-caching and shopping and then rushed back to change and go to snorkel with the stingrays. Here are some of our pics from that....

Because we got back 3 hours later than anticipated to Galveston, we took Robyne, Bob, Bill and two others back to the Houston Airport to catch their flights back home and then we headed back to Marion.

The kids had been having all sorts of fun with Quentin and Dylan who are the grandchildren of Jane, Mom and Dad's neighbor. They also had spent some time with Nick and Brian, my cousin Mary's kids. Leah was especially excited to get a number of hand-me-downs from Madeline....she called to tell me she had done all of her back to school clothes shopping in a whopping 3 minutes!

We enjoyed a few more days in Marion and several evenings with Joe, John and Norma. We also got to have a fun evening with Uncle Frank, Aunt Pauline, Mary, Lee, Nick, Brian and Ted. The kids all played Blongo Ball and fished in the pond. So much fun!!!

I'm going to post now, but Bryan still has to download some more pics for me and then I will update with pictures to my blog. Please be patient with me....Bryan leaves for another trip next Thursday and work is crazy busy. Talk to you hopefully tomorrow!
Terrie

Only 3 days till we head out on VACATION!

The crunch is on now, only 3 days to get the laundry done, pack and get the kids ready to head to Iowa and us to head out on our cruise....Whew, it seemed like I had so much time and now I'm wondering how it snuck up on me so fast? Oh well, I've done it before, I can do it again...

How about an update from this week?

We didn't hear from Leah till Thursday afternoon, but she did really well on her first time away to Girl Scout camp. She arrived home at 6:15 on Friday evening and all of the Girl Scout troop met her and Madelyn so we could go directly to the Girl Scout/Phoenix Mercury Lock In. Both girls were dirty and tired, but we forged ahead....and we were not disappointed! The event was exciting (the Mercury won in OT) and fun (lots of events planned for the girls) Here are some pics to show you some of the action...

The girls were really excited when they got to see themselves on the "Jumbotron" Leah said it was a night of firsts...her first time going to a pro basketball game and her first time on TV! I think the cameraman zeroed in on them as they were all waving their "Rally flags" and screaming at the top of their lungs!

After the game, the Hip Hop squad performed, they had a Q & A session with one of the players, there was Pizza for everyone, they rotated to some really great sessions including games on the Suns and Mercury practice court, an hour in "The Jungle" a really cool game and climbing arcade and finally sleeping in some of the suites overlooking the court. It was a long night (ended at about 4am) but very fun.

When we got home, Bryan let me catch about 4 hours of sleep and Leah layed down for a quick "nap" and woke up 8 hours later to take a long shower to get the weeks worth of dirt off of her and finally sit down and just relax.

I hope to update you all before we leave for Tulsa on Wednesday....but if not, I plan on updating the blog while on vacation since we upload our pics along the way...Till then,

WALK ON,

WALK STRONG,

Terrie

Whew....What a Weekend!

Well, we made it through recital week and everything actually went really well!

Remember I told you I was nervous about Leah getting ready for dress rehearsal by herself? Well this is how her hair and makeup turned out (without my help!) I think she did a great job!

We attended the performance on Thursday night and we only got a few pictures that turned out.

Here is one where amazingly enough, she is right in the middle of the frame and totally in focus! I thought that was kind of cool that it turned out like that...

After the performance, Ian presented his sis with a dozen roses.....I made Bryan capture the moment!

Since we didn't get real good shots at the performance, I took a few at her last perfomance last night. I was the "dressing room mom," so these are candids, but fun none the less and at least you can see her up close!

She made some really good friends this year at dance...

Here she is with two of them!

Ok, as soon as we got home, we headed to bed as we had to have Leah down in Central Phoenix to catch the bus to Girl Scout Camp at Shadow Rim Ranch. She is attending the "Hike and Bike" session with her friend from school Madelyn. She put on a good front, but I think she was a little nervous? I'm sure she will have a great time and not miss us at all, but I must admit it is just not the same without her here tonight : (

Here are some shots from the drop off....

And not to forget what a special day it is, here is a picture of Bryan wearing one of his gifts!

Actually he is wearing two, one (the shirt) that Leah made and gave to him when she was two (he wears it every year on Father's Day) and the second is the paper tie that Ian made for him in school before they got out. I think it makes him look rather sophisticated....don't you?

Hope your weekend was restful!

WALK ON,

WALK STRONG,

Terrie

Recital Week Starts at the Dodd Household!

Well, it is that time of year again, and recital week kicked off with a bang today at 1:00 with our tech rehearsal for the Green cast....

I will include pictures as the week goes on, but tonight we are all packed for dress rehearsal tomorrow (which I cannot attend as I have to work) Bryan will take Leah and sell concessions in the lobby during the dress rehearsal. Leah's hair is in curlers tonight and she will do her make-up (by herself) for the first time tomorrow. I gave her a few pointers like "less is more" and "use the eye-liner pencil instead of the liquid to avoid unfixable mistakes." I hope she listens... I will have Bryan take some pictures if he remembers.

Gotta go now, but will plan on checking in tomorrow..

Terrie

Busy Saturday!

Hi again, we had a very busy day today....

I went to the dance studio and did my first volunteer stint for recital week, selling tickets. Most everybody must already have theirs as business wasn't too brisk.

We have wanted to get rid of our lone Queen palm in our front yard for a long time and we decided today was the day.....

Here's a pic of Ian by our palm that was only about 6 foot tall when we moved in November of 1995...

We headed out to Moon Valley Nursery and came home with a Chilean Mesquite tree. We wanted some shade and decided with this quick growing tree we would save a lot of money to buy a small tree and then watch it grow the 6-8 feet a year instead of pay $350 to have a bigger tree planted right away.

OK, so we have a new tree...we need to get rid of the palm. Bryan digs around the root ball to loosen it up and then we call Bryan's Uncle Larry to bring over his truck and we proceed to very easily pull out the 15 foot tree.

Here is a pic of the kids by our newly planted Mesquite! We figured if we put them in the picture, we could watch the tree grow along with the kids!

Training for the three day is moving along well. I haven't been real good about getting my walks in early as I'm really enjoying sleeping in for now, but with the cruise coming up, I'm hoping some of our ports will allow Bryan and I time to get out and geocache which should offer some good mileage. I hope to post from my Mom and Dad's after the cruise so you can all see what we got to do on vacation.

Well, I'm tired and am off to bed now,

Walk On,

Walk Strong...

Terrie

I'm Baaaacccckkkk!

Hi again!

Well our Girl Scout trip to Disneyland is in the books and we all made it back safe and sound and tired.

Here are some quick photo's to show you what a good time we had........

Here are the girls right before going to the "It's A Bug's Life" show...

Here is Madison with one of the local's from "Pirate's Lair" formerly know as Tom Sawyer's Island.

And last but not least, one of the most famous residents of Disneyland poses with Leah!

I'm trying to get back on track now that the kids are out of school... Ian had a tooth filled this morning under anesthesia and then we had to run to the Girl Scout store to get the badges the girls earned this year plus some fun patches to remember all of our activities.

I also wanted to include a picture of the awesome rosaries our women's group at St. Gabriels makes for the newly baptized babies. I have been part of this ministry for several years and really think these rosaries are special!

My 3-Day training went extremely well while I was at Disney...probably about 5 miles trekked each day for 3 days!

Well that's all for tonight...The Mayo School of Health Sciences will have a ceremony to award certificates tomorrow, so I will probably have some pics from that. Till then......

Walk on,

Walk strong,

Terrie

Whoops!

It amazes me when I realize that I haven't updated in a few days....then I try to wonder what I have been doing that is so important that I can't spend two minutes to update this blog?? Well, here is a little run-down and what has been keeping me so busy....

We had recital pictures last Saturday....Leah is in 3 dances this year, tap, jazz and hip-hop, so it was an all day affair. I will post pictures of her during recital week. Her costumes are really cute this year!

Last Sunday, we went to my friend, Lori Wynn's twins baptism as St. Gabes. Izzy and Gabby are some of the cutest babies ever and we were honored to welcome them to our church family. Here are a couple of pics from the day.

Monday morning I attended a breakfast for volunteers at the school and then stayed to watch Ian receive his "Attitude is Everything" award. He was so proud!

I was supposed to have "Play Group" on Tuesday, but I'm glad some of the girls cancelled at the last minute as Leah had forgotten to let me know she had "honors assembly" that day. Here is her pic...

The last day of school was Thursday and a half day, so like usual, I head out to get a few last minute gifts for the bus driver, front office people etc....it never ends! Bryan came home from work early to spend some time with the kids, so we head out geo-caching again. (We found two more caches real close to home) and then on Friday, Bryan spent his first day being Mr. Mom as the kids are officially out of school...it went OK, we'll see how that goes this summer!



Today we headed up to Crown King today to look for some caches and spend some quality time with the kiddo's. Ended up cold and rainy, so for part of the time they stayed in the car and watched movies while we searched! We will probably head back up there to camp after we get back from Iowa. Here are some pics from today!

We are really enjoying the cool weather after the 111 degrees we hit last week. It hailed yesterday and was about 50 degrees, so pretty cold for us but we're not complaining!

I'll check back next week, Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Walk on, Walk strong,

Terrie

"Friends for a Cure"

Well, it's official! Kaye and I have formed a team for the 3-Day....We are now and forever to be known as the "Friends for a Cure." Kaye came up with the name and I think she did an extremely good job! We wanted to celebrate our long time friendship and this name says it all.

If you would be interested in being a "Friend for a Cure" just click on my banner on the right sidebar of this blog and it will take you right to my site! We have set a high goal of $10,000, but are sure we can do it! We live far away from each other, but hope to be able to get together at some point before the walk to take a picture of our "TEAM."


Leah had her "Strings" recital on Thursday afternoon. She decided to try the violin in this 2 month course that provides an introduction to playing an instrument. She enjoyed it and plans on joining the strings group again in the fall. She also has learned some of the notes and transferred this info to the piano! This class also helped her with reading music...


I got a really awesome gift for Mother's Day this year....a handheld GPS! It is really fun and we have been trying to learn to use it since it arrived on Monday. Well, today, we went out searching for our first "treasure" and I'm proud to say we found it just behind our house on the mountain. Very, very fun and we are so looking forward to finding more! This is the "travel bug" we found. These are cool cause they "travel" all around via the people that geocache and move them. You go online when you find one and tell the person that originally placed it where you found it and when. This one has been to New Mexico, Yuma and most recently in the cache behind our house! We plan on getting one going soon!



I also have pulled out my "Why I Walk" book from the 3-Day in 2004. I plan to add to it with all my donors for this year....I was really excited how it turned out and am proud to honor all my donors and breast cancer survivors from 2004 as well as all the names I need to add to it this year. Make sure when you donate you give me the names of those you want me to honor in my book, plus know I will have your name in there for all you do to support me and the fight against breast cancer!



Well that's it for now, thanks for stopping by and we'll talk with you next week!
WALK ON-WALK STRONG,
Terrie

Wow, What A Weekend!

Let's just update you through pictures...

First we had Ian's last soccer game of the year....

they lost, but man those kids have a good time!

Then I had an Open House for National Scrapbooking

Month from 3-7 on Saturday Night!

This first pic is a card made by my friend Lori for her MIL

These are the "Clippy Boards" we made...Fun and Easy!

On Sunday, Mother's Day, Leah celebrated her

Confirmation at St. Gabriel's.

After lunch at an awesome Pizza Parlor, we went to

a very special place that all Mom's dream of going on Mother's Day....

That's right, our washing machine went out last week and there

was no way to get through till Tuesday when they will fix it, so off we headed to the Laundry Mat.

Hope your Mother's Day was awesome!

Walk on,

Terrie

Welcome Kaye!

Welcome Kaye!


I know you will be visiting since I shared this address with you this evening!


Well, what do you think? I check out so many blogs everyday, I thought this might be a great way to mend my ways and keep in better touch with my family and friends!


I wanted to include another picture from the 3-Day in 2004 as I know you want to get as much info on the walk as you can:

This picture was at one of the cheering stations along the route. This particular station was on Day 2 (Saturday), so the kids made up some really cute signs and Bryan brought them down to cheer. It is so awesome to have everyone out there clapping, cheering and yelling encouragement along the route. Even when it is not an official cheering station, people will set up their own little station and stand and clap and cheer as you walk by. Some will stay in one place for an hour or two and then pack up and move ahead and do it all over again a couple of miles down the road! You really start looking for these folks and get to know them. It is very moving when someone stands there with tears in their eyes and just claps as you walk by. You know they have lost a loved one and just want to show their support. I can't wait to experience it all with you Kaye, you are going to love it!
I have a really busy day tomorrow with Ian's last day of soccer and awards ceremony in the morning and then my "Close to my Heart" Open House in the afternoon/evening. We rushed around tonight to get Leah something to wear for Confirmation on Sunday morning at the 10:30 mass. I will probably spend a lot of my Mother's Day at the Laundrymat since my washing machine went out last week and the part for the repair won't be here till next Tuesday : 0
Till next time,
Walk On,
Terrie

Thinking Back

OK, I promised some pictures....Here is one that says a lot!

This is a picture after Day 2...I had worn new socks the first day of the walk and found out this is a big no no. You definately want to wear and wash anything you plan to walk 20 some miles in to make sure that you don't end up with blisters. This is also after I had spent over 1 hour in line to have medical look at my feet. As I headed out after getting my feet wrapped, I called Bryan to bring me second skin, mole skin, antibiotic ointment, and three kinds of tape to do my own blister care the next day. After I learned how to do it, it was a piece of cake and really wasn't all that painful.

Another lesson learned is that the walk doesn't consist of 20 miles each day, but more like 22, 24 and 14 miles each day and yes, 24 miles is a lot for one day!

One surprise I encountered is that you are a lot less sore after walking 20 miles than I thought I would be. As long as you are taking time to stretch throughout the day, it isn't that bad.

OK, that's all for today, but will write again soon with pics of one of the cheering stations.....

Walk on,

Terrie

Welcome Friends to my Blog!

As you can see from the entry below, I have been working towards getting this blog going for quite some time.....
I'm ready now!

As I begin my journey to another year in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, I wanted to find a way to keep in touch with all my donors and let everyone know how my training is going.

Thanks so much to Rosa Lee Walsh my good friend from St. Gabes who is my first official donor that responded to my online fundraising! Thanks Rosa Lee!

I am planning to get my "snail" mailing sent out early next week as it will officially be "6 months" to the starting line....I can't believe how fast the time has gone since Kaye and I signed up.

I am also planning to get Kaye, my best friend and inspiration to get signed up to blog, so you can see how our team is doing! Kaye is sooooo excited to be walking in her first "3-Day" and I am ready to start getting into the swing of things...I apologize for my late start, but with all the end of the year activities for the kids and myself, I've been a little overwhelmed : )

I also hope to show off some of my paper crafting creations from time to time...I hope you don't mind, but that does comprise most of my "free" time. It is my relaxation method of choice!

That's it for my first night, but tomorrow, I plan to pull out some pictures from the walk in 2004 and share some memories over the next few posts!

Sooooo....I guess I'm committed now as I plan to include this blog address in all my thank you e-mails and letters that I send out, so save this address to your favorites and check back often for updates and till next time...

Walk on,
Terrie