Oh bother!!!! That's what Poohh says and that's how I feel, I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog and now I've learned that someone referred another ACC Grandma here and I'm a bit embarassed at the state of my page. So visitor if you've been here and thought "what the heck this lady doesn't keep up her blog" you're right I'm an awful blogger! But just a quick recap since last, I surpassed my $4000 goal for Team Challenge and the Crohns and Colitis Foundation, raising abour $4500!!!!! Very proud moment. Then my Sisters and I traveled to Las Vegas for the Dec 6th half marathon that I'd been training for. It was unseasonably cold and wet. But i completed that 13.1 miles and enjoyed every bit of it!

Since then I've slacked a bit on my running, but have a new goal of a half marathon next Feb in NOLA with a dear online friend Celeste, so my training caldendar is printed out and posted on the fridge, hope to do a half somewhere in the Fall then again in Feb 2011. I'll be hosting the 2nd annual Guts & Ghouls 5k for CCFA in October sometime, hoping for another great turn out and lots of $$$ raised for CCFA.

Grandkids continue to do fine. Tori is about to finish 2nd grade and move onto 3rd WOW oh WOW who told her she could grow up so fast. She is a very sweet little girl and we love her bunches! Joel David is 20 mos and continues to rock right along with his developmental milestones, he's a bit delayed but not so's you'd notice that much. He gets PT and OT weekly and will soon begin getting Speech therapy.

Cassie is getting ready to return to college life taking two online classes this Summer with an eye toward an eventual BS degree in Social Work. She seems excited and focused on getting an education for something beyond the world of EMS which we all know you can't usually retire from.

I have no clue if anyone ever reads this or not but if so, then to you I'll say hopefully I'll do a better job of checking in every now and again.

25%

Did I say 10%? Whoohooooo! We are at 25+% as of this morning, many many thanks to all those sending in donations, every little bit helps and I appreciate it more than you can possibly know. Today I got a nice donation from fellow "Birds of a Feather" Lisa who has asked me to donate 1 mile to her friend Charlie who suffers from Crohns. I'll gladly do so and be thinking of Charlie and all the other IBD sufferers out there as I run 13.1 miles on Dec 6th.

I'm also tickled pink to have my first registration form in hand from Bitzie from Chester, thank you Bitzie for sending in your reg form and check for the Guts and Ghouls 5K on October 31st.

Team Challenge had a 3 mile group training run this morning at Creve Couer Lake, I didn't make it, it was rainy and foggy here at five thirty a.m. and I just couldn't bring myself to drive one and a half hours to run 3 miles. I know I'm missing getting to know my team mates, but I just hate to drive in bad weather to unfamiliar territory I hope my team mates will be forgiving.

Next Saturday the 12th I'll be running in the Popeye 5K in Chester hope to see some smiling familiar faces there who will want to take my registration forms and pass them along to ALL their running buddies! Also planning on signing up for a 5K in St Louis for September 27th in support of Ovarian Cancer Research.

10%

Ten Percent! That's the first goal you strive for with Weight Watchers, just losing 10% of your body weight makes a difference and gets you on your way to a healthier you! I'm remember how excited I was to get that 10% charm at WW meeting. So today I'm celebrating being 10% toward my $4000 fundraising goal for CCFA! Thanks to those who have made online donations and sent them in the mail your generosity is very much appreciated.

This weeks training schedule called for a 3 mile run monday (done) 3 mile run Wed (missed) but will run 3 miles this evening and then 2 mile run Friday. Group practice for a 3 mile run at Creve Couer Park Saturday, looking forward to getting to know fellow team members.

The Guts and Ghouls 5K is starting to get rolling the event is listed on Facebook with some interest being shown and also reg forms have been printed out and are ready to be posted. Oh almost forgot, selling "Celebrating Home" products until Sept 21st, candles, dip mixes, bread cookie and muffin mixes etc. Candles are 10 oz and are really nice smelling and long burning.

Guts and Ghouls 5K

Save the date event details and registration forms coming very soon!

Kick Off Event

Team Challenge held it's kick off party at the Forest Park Visitors Center Thursday evening. Thank you Tyler (Mal Mals great boyfriend) for the use of his Garmin to get me there and home, those that know me know I don't like to drive in St. Louis but I made it to and from just fine. The event was very well organized with information stations set up througout and plenty of helpful smiling people wearing Team Challenge Orange! Keeping with the Las Vegas feel we were given cards at each station to make a poker hand for later, yeah I didn't win anything but that's ok! They even fed us bbq, chips and guacamole and cake!!

I got to meet Karen and Jillian (our honored team mates who both suffer from IBD's) had pictures taken with those two special gals and will post them here when I get them. I'm not sure exactly how many people were there but it seemed like quite a few to me, quite an eclectic group in age range and physical ability I was so glad to see I was not the oldest (maybe LOL) or the least "runner like"

I got to meet Coach Davis who seems like a very nice guy and I hope to learn lots about running from him in the coming months. Today was the first practice and it was a 1 mile time trial, I did not make it today but plan to time myself this evening and e-mail Coach Davis with the results. We have a training schedule for the week and then a 3 mile run next Saturday morning.

Mama T's Training Partner

Meet Joel..............Mama T's training partner. We "test drove" a new jogging stroller last night to the tune of two miles. I thought it went well, Joel was less than impressed though with being held in a recling position, perhaps he needs to grow into it a bit more LOL.

Tomorrow night is the Kick Off Party for Team Challenge at the Visitors Center in Forest Park, I'm excited to meet the rest of my team mates as well as the trainers. Saturday is our first official training day, again at Forest Park, guess I'd better hone up on my driving skills in the City huh?

I'm thankful to those of you who have contributed to my fundraising page online THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. If you would be so kind as to just keep that going, send my link to your e-mail contacts and ask people to forward it on to theirs, we all fw fw fw silly things everyday so lets forward Mama T's Race for a Cause and see if we can meet my fundraising goal of $4000!!!!!

Still in the planning stages for the 1st annual "Guts and Ghouls 5k fun run/walk" planned for Sparta on October 31st, we'll have a 5k run/walk a 1 mile kids dash, medals for top finishers, and prizes for best "ghoul" costumes as well as attendance prizes, if anyone reading this would like to donate at the Corporate level $200 will get your business name on the race t-shirt or any monetary donation will be gladly accepted to pay for the cost of the race. Also looking for donations for attendance prizes. I'll be going door to door in the business community soon asking for your help to make this race a success and hopefully a yearly event to bring runners together for fun and a good cause.

Update on fundraising. I spoke with Spartas Mayor Link yesterday and got the go ahead to host a 5k fun run/walk in Sparta on October the 31st. I'm in the process of rounding up corporate sponsors and donations for attendance prizes. So stay tuned for upcoming news about the first annual "GUTS AND GHOULS 5K" to benefit the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA)

As far as training goes I ran 3.1 miles last night which is 5k, I felt really good and as I was running I saw a partial rainbow, that makes three beautiful rainbows I've seen in the past week and I'm choosing to believe that's a positive sign that this Team Challenge is something I'm meant to do!