Walkrs 4 Knockrs Day 3 at Lunch - 4 miles til the finish!
After walking about 50 miles in the Breast Cancer 3 Day, slippers and a heating pad went from everyday items to absolute luxuries as I curled my incredibly sore muscles up into a warm bed on Sunday night. Accumulating blisters and tension was trivial compared to the motivation to keep trudging along forged by every smiling face, encouraging word and grateful expression of the people who came out to cheer us on and thank us for making a difference. Julia, Nichole, Adam and I walked Friday though a constant downpour in fifty degree weather and then Saturday and Sunday were sunny and cool days.
Deciding to accept the challenge of raising $2,200 and training to walk sixty miles took several months of conflict until I worked up the courage to commit. On the day I made that decision I was filled with an amazing life energy that invigorated me and filled me with passion for others and a purpose. Throughout the process as individual stories of loss and triumph were revealed, I realized that fighting breast cancer is a fight that is SO much bigger than me or you. In joining hands to take a stand beside the wary and lonely soldiers in the battle there is power and force unachievable by a sole individual.
Coming into the Finish
Having fought chronic and unidentifiable pain for a three year period illuminated how lonely physical battles can be and thus my finally overcoming that pain was the catalyst in my desire to walk the 3 Day. Over the three days we walkers experienced a full range of human emotion from hope, weariness, encouragement, drive, anger and frustration, pain, annoyance, sadness, resentment, fatigue and humor. In these times every kind word and positive reinforcement had a physical affect on our weary and painful bodies that literally drove us forward. This is the positive energy that we all have to offer others who are fighting their unique battle with pain, whatever that pain may be.
Knowing that there are people out there who need to be shown love and then providing that love are two separate things which require a decision to love authentically and to love consciously. I’m inspired to make this decision every day as the axis of my life’s purpose and encourage you to do the same. Sharing a simple “thank you” in response to a trivial or ordinary item can make a significant difference. It only takes a few short moments to utter these two words, but the impact can be felt for a very long time. The power of love extends its reach when we will love intentionally. Real love, authentic love, springs to life and is sustained when we make the choice to feed it with our deliberate passion.
I feel lost with the absence of a cause such as preparing for the 3 Day and look forward to the next idea that will spark a passion in me and in you to usher us into being fully alive. Share your ideas and your passions. Seek to embrace the moment. There is no better day than today to make a conscience decision to love and live. It feels so darned good!
Celebrating!
Filed under: hopes
The past few months working towards the Breast Cancer 3 day and working with the beautiful families I nanny for has been a whirlwind filled with ups, downs and many blessings. So many people have exceeded my expectations and supported me as well as the cause of fighting Breast Cancer with dignity and grace.
After putting in about 250 hours… Our fun fundraisers helped us to raise over $2700! The Fall Festival raised $1162, Garage Sales raised $740, Bracelet Sales $200, Scavenger Hunt in the Highlands $604 and then Individual donations total $4663 so far.
MANY THANKS to those of you who have participated in my training walks including Jenny, Angelo, Alex, Shana, Cammie, Mikey, Aspen and the Hilton Head STD’s.
Thank you to ALL of my individual donors:
Katie Agress, Elizabeth, Andy, Wakefield, Neely and Drew Ausband, Courtney Wright, Maury and Elaine Stead, Karen Zauderer, Christine Biasetti, Susan Bell, Anonymous, Sara Caines, Suzanne and Terry Cox, Becky Davis, Kathy Fox, Amye, Jim, and Lucas Harrison, Jessica Johnston, Michael Leen, www.VirtuallyAchieved.Com, Steve Lora and Alaina, Jane and Jerry Rogers – In Memory of Mother, Jenny Rogers – In Honor Of Helen Burgess, Cade and Ansley Smith, Shana Parrish, The Gables, and Angelo Morgan
Thanks to The Bakers, The Ausbands, The Palumbos, Nana Caines, Debbie Schroer, Kathy Nava, The Parrishes and Cori Gunter for donating goods sold at our Garage & Consignment Sale Sat. October as well as to JD Richey who donated the use of his house.
Thanks to Elvira and Angelo Morgan for making and selling the Messenger of Hope Breast Cancer Bracelets and to Carol Hagar for donating all of the materials.
Thanks to all of our Fall Festival and Scavenger Hunt Sponsors especially to Debbie, Bekah and Alex Schroer & Jill Srott! We hope you’ll drop by these locations to enjoy the services and goods that they offer…
Thanks to Daryl, Georgia and Cammie for bringing me to Miami in the middle of it all for a nice break J
Katy Jo and Cammie in Miami
Filed under: hopes | Tags: bracelet fund raising, bracelets, breast cancer, breast cancer fund raising
Help Walkrs 4 Knockrs raise $8800 to do the 3 day Breast Cancer walk. Order a breast cancer awareness bracelet for $40 and all of the profits are donated to our team. There are also other cancer awareness bracelets which are absolutely gorgeous for $55 (prostate, ovarian, lung, general, etc.) of which ALL of the profits will go to our team as well.
To order, simply leave a comment on this blog or email katyjos@gmail.com
If you’re highly ambitious and really believe in this cause, we welcome you to participate in the bracelet fund raising program by getting involved with a group of people who would like to volunteer to make a few bracelets (so much fun in a group!) and then spread the word and sell them at church, work, the gym, to friends, to family or anywhere to anyone. Just leave a comment or email katyjos@gmail.com.
Filed under: Alpharetta, breast cancer, life | Tags: 3 day, battles, breast cancer, cancer, courage, depth, fighting cancer, fund raising, hike, hiking, love, soul, walk, walking
This past weekend I discovered. I am forever changed by the power and comprehension of soul to soul love which transcends physics, space, time, intellect and form. This love always existed in my heart but this past weekend was the first time that I came to understand the implications of the depth of love. Every moment driving home from Memphis I was absorbed in this love and the 7 hours felt like 5 minutes. This love has been transforming my life and is opening my eyes to many joys.
Angelo, his niece Miah and me
Tonight, walking along a beautiful trail on a mid-August night and breathing in the warm mossy air the simple awareness of being alive was overwhelming. Excitement and joy for the very breath in my lungs flooded through my body and strengthened it as I walked to train for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. This moment is all we have and this journey of life is full and wonderful when we live in each moment. After months of excuses for why I shouldn’t or can’t walk 60 miles or raise $2200, I decided to stop living in fear and just give it a shot. It’s been several weeks after that decision and today hope, ambition and a will to overwhelmingly succeed have replaced the fear.
Four years ago I rode a crazy horse out in California and managed not to fall off when I probably should have thus starting some unexplainable pain. 1 year 2 months ago doctors finally discovered I’d torn my abdominal muscle and did the surgery to fix everything. Having fought this ongoing battle with pain in my core has been a journey. Walking 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day will be a monumental milestone in my recovery. Humans fight all sorts of battles in all sorts of ways from physical to emotional and toothaches to the loss of mobility. These personal battles develop our character and serve purposes yet are much more livable when we have others who stand up beside us to fight for us when we are weak. I love women and I love boobs so I’m standing up alongside those fighting the battle with breast cancer and walking 60 miles to share in fighting for a cure.
I invite anyone and everyone to support me and my team as we train, raise funds and walk in the fight against breast cancer. Support the many women fighting against pain and cancer every day by taking a stand and actively participating with my team or another team’s fund raising and training efforts as there are many opportunities to get involved.
This is my fund raising website so click here to get involved or donate!
“Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no. If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you, no humility, no compassion.” – Eckhart Tolle
I walk for survivors of cancer and fighters of cancer: Jamey Rogers, Richard Johnston (Jessica’s Dad), Maury Stead, Miss Sue Hill , Sharon Carberry ,
Jenny Rogers Alpharetta, GA
Hal Higgins, Atlanta, GA
Candace Monllos (my aunt) Atlanta, GA
Nancy Grace (on left) with Carrie Hagar of South Carolina
Ken Gootee, New Orleans, LA
Abby Gifford, Nashville TN
And in memory of Pam Hydrick
Filed under: hopes
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- Twins Turning 9
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- Mikey – my primary charge almost 2!
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- Neely and I facepainting during sis’s naptime
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- Kept my fave from Nashville for 4 overnights
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- Cammie age 1 and the sweetest baby ever
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- Jonathan and Mikey – 2 months apart swimming on Mondays
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- My Family at Easter
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- Baby shower for Lucas I planned with Jenny and Shana
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- Best friend has her baby – Lucas James July 24th
This summer has been full of fun! I’ve been teaching swim lessons to 7 year old twins, a group of one year olds and a group of 2 1/2 year olds in which I learned as much from them as I hope they learned from me. Every week I watch Cammie (1), Mikey (22mos), Jonathan (20 mos) and three girls Wakefield (7), Neely (3) and Drew (2) which has kept me on my toes. Anytime I’m not swimming or nannying I’ve been cooking, event planning or spending time with my beautiful family and long-distance boyfriend and his beautiful family. I’m just wrapping up the book A New Earth which has opened my eyes up to living in the very moment every moment and letting go of my ego (as I use the word “I” and “my” throughout this post – clearly it’s catching on huh?)
My friends and I just formed a team Walk’rs 3 Knock’rs who are trying to raise $8800 to do the 3 day Breast Cancer awareness walk Oct 24-26th. Exciting! Stay tuned for more.
Filed under: breathe, career, dogs, happiness, hopes, job searching, meditate, women | Tags: cleaning, Cooking, Full-time job searcher”, job, job searching, online applications, postfeminist Western democracy, Resume, Susan Pinker, women, working
Have you job searched in the past few years? If so, then you understand all the dynamics of being a “Full-time job searcher”. Chime in if your experience is anything like mine.
You can’t sleep at night and when you do your dreams are of the places where you envision yourself working. Even before you break into a new position and uncover all the stressors that go along with that job you’re already having nightmares about it. At my last company (a start-up) when things got stressful and we worked 12 hour days we’d have what we call “Zoi-mares” – our subconscious’s literally exuded work.
You find online applications that take over an hour to be pointless because you’ve never met someone who was actually hired because they filled out an online application so you skip most of those jobs.
You forget what kind of job you wanted when you started looking and anything that pays starts to look appealing. Then, you send out a blast of applications for jobs you’d take but don’t really want and realize you’d be miserable and are back at square one.
You write your resume over 15 times because it just doesn’t encompass what you have to offer and looks, well… let’s say not how you want it to look.
You spend 12 hours a day in front of your computer and on the phone.
Cooking and cleaning are very appealing distractions and when you set aside job searching you do other productive things like rearranging your file cabinets or under your sink just because you’re so overwhelmed with the “search”.
You realize how stupid and wasteful of time watching TV is.
Each day you wake-up with a plan and it rarely works out that way.
Your dogs cry when you leave because they’re so used to being around you 24-7 that they get attached.
The upside of job searching is that my house is cleaner, I’m exercising and eating well, my dogs are happier and I have my life’s goals visualized better than before. The downside is, well, that I haven’t found a job!
I know one thing is true. At the end of the day I cannot settle for a job where I’m not doing what I want or working towards a goal that I believe benefits the world because I won’t be happy in the core of my heart. Susan Pinker (the author of the below quote) points out that this concept of doing what makes us happy has long-been seen as a weakness of women but is becoming more widely accepted and appreciated. Whew.
So I’ll take a long bath, meditate, eat fruit and veggies and drink enough water, create a new recipe, play with my dogs and enjoy where I am today. I hope you do the same no matter where you are today J
“Maintaining a close social network comes easily to many women, but until recently the skills required to keep people connected–being a good listener, communicator, and ‘mind reader’–seemed invisible next to more quantifiable traits, such as gifts in math or science. Whatever was associated with the male model of success was considered to have more merit. But now that empathy and altruism are being measured and linked to a longer, happier life, what was once taken for granted may acquire new luster. If most women prefer pursuits that connect them with others or allow them to make a difference over competing for the biggest paycheck, then the extreme male model of work will make them miserable or disconnected, as it did for many I profiled. The fact that they could change jobs to incorporate their wider interests is a benefit of postfeminist Western democracy. The ability to follow your inclinations instead of doing work that others think you should do is a feature of free society.”–Susan Pinker, from the Sexual Pardox: Mena, Women, and The Real Gender Gap (Scribner)
Filed under: hopes
I love personality tests every once in awhile probably because I normally feel pretty good about myself after I complete one.
Not only do personality tests but so do self-awareness and history identify the following as traits of my personality:
“An Animated Leader”
Creative
Analytical
Practical
Personable
Innovative
Intellectual
Honest
Strategic
Disciplined
Confident
Open
Earthy/Imaginative
I look at the world with a fresh and set my own trends. Routine is not my goal as I’m a go with the flow type. I march to your own drum and enjoy being in charge more than working and compromising with others. I have keen observational skills and thinking is your idea of fun. I have an affinity for the outdoors and enjoy the chance to get physical. I’m a natural teacher and leader. I am friendly and have a genuine desire to help others. I’m an undeniable go-getter who knows how to get what I want in life.
On the DISC profile I’m straight up d.i.s.c.
What are you? Knowing who you are is pivotal in being happy with where you are whether it is at home or in your career.
Check out the tests I referenced above and the BBC’s website on the brain.
Filed under: Alpharetta, Atlanta, Child Care, Parties, hopes | Tags: Alpharetta, baby, baby shower, baby sitting, babysitter, babywise, Backyard BBQ, Birthday Parties, camps, Child Care, childcare, Christmas Party, Cookout, creative, Doggie Delight, Event Planning, halloween, haunted, haunted hay ride, hay ride, Hosting, infants, Lemon Cups, Memorial Day, nanny, newborns, Night-nannying, Overnights, Parties, Party, pet care, pet sitting, productions, references, showers, social events, sorority, Swim Lessons, Tacky Sweater, Tutoring, valuable natural resource, wedding, wedding shower, workshops, Wynonna
Kids, Parties and Dogs hold a place at the center of my heart and I’m available for related work in Alpharetta.
This is my 14th year providing child care and I believe more than ever in the words of Herbert Hoover, “Children are our most valuable natural resource”.
Additionally, hosting and planning events and parties has always been a hobby of mine. Halloween is my favorite holiday so I’ve done lots of Haunted parties. I’ve planned and hosted many children’s camps and workshops, sorority social events and productions, baby and wedding showers and numerous parties of my own!
As far as dogs go, I tend to get them and they seem to typically enjoy spending time with me.
Services Offered:
~ Overnights and vacation child and or pet care
~ Night-nannying for newborns and infants
~ Weekend/Weekday/Weeknight Child Care
~ Individual or Group Swim Lessons
~ Children’s Birthday Party Planning (games, food, favors, etc.)
~ Mini-adventures: (to parks, nature trails, Chattahoochee nature center, library, aquarium, zoo, etc.) – these work well when a new baby joins the household to get the older siblings out of the house and show them special appreciation
~ Parties and Event Planning: Event management, catering, flowers, decorations, Theme development, etc.
~ Elementary School Tutoring (specialty in math)
Rates:
Basic Child Care: 1 child $12 hour, each additional child +$1 hour, minimum 3.5 hours
Overnight Child Care: Basic Child Care Rate + $25 each night
Night Nannying: $65 for 8 hours, I sleep when the baby sleeps
Swim Lessons: 1 child $20 for 50 minute lesson, group (up to 4 children) $45 an hour and parents can arrange to do these at a pool of their choice or bring their children to my pool in Crabapple.
Mini-adventures: Basic child care rate + admission/gas fees
Tutoring: $35 an hour
Party and Event Planning: Starting at $25 hourly + supplies, Quotes available
Event Planning
These are pictures of (Clockwise From Top Left)
The cast of the Haunted Hay Ride from the Judd’s Halloween Party in 2005, My Doggie Delight Halloween Party for 20 in 2007, My Tacky Sweater Christmas Party for 15 in 2006, My Memorial Day Backyard BBQ for 30 in 2007
Filed under: career, hopes, life, mantra | Tags: 37 signals, balance, design, dr. bethel, dr. sheila murray bethel, face the truth, getting real, healthy, home, malcom gladwell, motivation, passion, peaceful, real, the tipping point, work
I’m listening to an audio series called Leadership Success and I’ll be sharing some of the points that have stood out to me over the next few weeks.
This morning I was listening to Dr. Sheila Murray Bethel who commented that unless we can answer yes to both of these questions we will not be free to be excellent leaders
1. When you step through the doors of work in the morning, is it a place you want to be? Are you happy with the mission of the company and the work you do there?
2. When you leave work and go home, is it a home you want to go to? Is it healthy and peaceful?
Simple.
Simple and statistically only 1/3 of people can say yes to both and only 2/3 to one of these questions.
What’s your answer?
We have exceptional potential inside us but have to face the truth before we can put on a face of courage and take the first step towards wholeness.
Dr. Bethel says, “On the topic of Motivation and Personal Excellence, I emphasize that while financial reward will remain important in our free enterprise system, the definition of success includes a better balance between our business and personal lives. The keys are excellence, achievement, and perspective in all aspects of life. Living a rich, fulfilling life comes from making a difference with co-workers, customers, community members and family. As we learn to live and succeed in our dramatically changed world, the power not only to build a career, but to design a life is the key to true success.”
Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, writes about “when you write a book” which I believe is quite applicable to working a job. He says, “When you write a book [work at a job], you need to have more than an interesting story. You need to have a desire to tell the story. You need to be personally invested in some way. If you’re going to live with something for two years, three years, the rest of your life, you need to care about it. “
Design a life. Find balance. Care about what you’re doing.
I do this quite often and believe it’s unhealthy – I get stuck designing my life instead of living. Time doesn’t stand still, though (unless you are Hiro from Heroes). It’s in living daily and facing and fighting our fears where the seed of design lies. Sprout, root down and branch upward to the sky. Find the water and find the sun at all costs and grow.
The guys at 37Signals write software development which I think is the same when we are developing a design for our lives. They say “With real, running software everyone gets closer to true understanding. Real things lead to real reactions. And that’s how you get to the truth.”
We should live every day with everything we’ve got and pay attention to our lives design and our passions.
Any more thoughts on the personal mantra? It’s the cornerstone of the design of your life and mine. More on finding a vision coming soon.
