My neighbor who is walking with me in this year’s walk (October, in New York City) emailed me earlier this week and asked when we’d start training. I think I already did! Jim and I were in Amsterdam, The Netherlands last week, and we walked ALL over the city for 5 days straight. We took a cab once, from the airport to our hotel, and we took a streetcar tram once, when it was raining. Aside from that, we walked EVERYWHERE, easily 5 miles a day.

My daughter was the recipient of a great sleeping bag and a camp pillow for her birthday. The sleeping bag was a gift from her father and me, and the pillow was from her Aunt. Catherine will be breaking in both items with trips to camp in May and June, but come October, I’ll be giving the sleeping bag and pillow a REAL test. You see, Catherine is camping in warm climates, inside buildings with bunks. I’m going to be sleeping in New York City, in a tent, in October. And Jim wondered why I wanted a super insulated sleeping bag?

With the Christmas season came the need to do a bit of rearranging in our garage. Decorations needed to be pulled down, and we needed to make space for the presents we needed to hide as well. As we did all of this, the thought occurred to me that once again, we have a lot of junk to get rid of. I was in this position lat year and ended up having a yard sale to benefit my 3-day walk. I know that at least ONE of my team members is in the same position, having seen her garage with my own two eyes. I think I’m going to look into planning a garage sale, maybe in March, to once again kick start my walk fundraising.

A week or so ago, I mentioned on my main blog that my sister was an eco chick – in fact, she’s going “green” for Christmas by only sending out recycled cards, which are harder to find than you might think. She’s into recycling and she takes canvas bags to the grocery store, and she’s also always blogging about other ideas on how to conserve energy and resources.

For once, I get to show HER something about going green that I found, and it’s an online carbon and green lifestyle calculator that gives you a GreenIQ- How Green Are You? I took the short test and answered questions about my driving habits, how much gas I bought, and what kind of other traveling I did. (I’m sure it helps me that I only drive to the office once or twice a week, so even though I have an SUV, it’s not used much. Aside from the drive to work, I only drive too and from school for the kids, and that’s 2 miles way.)

I also answered questions about my utility bill, and that’s another area we’re probably conserving some energy in. When we built our home in 2006, we added some extra measures to insure that our home would be well insulated and protected from the sun’s heat, and our electricity bills have reflected that. After that, it was on to questions about using organic and eco-friendly products, and we’re definitely deficient on that!

The end result was a GreenIQ of 27 – which isn’t terribly good, but it’s not terribly bad either:

You are aware of the environment and how your lifestyle affects it. If you don’t, you sure hide it well, as you are naturally making decisions and choices that promote the longevity of this planet. But there is still a lot more that you can do, and we think you know that. Our product suggestions and tips can help increase your GreenIQ and reduce your carbon and environmental footprint.

We’ve got some work to do in this house. What’s your GreenIQ?

Still not sure what to get me for Christmas? Feel free to donate to my walk for 2008 – it’ll be a tax deductible 2007 donation for you! My fundraising goal for the 2008 walk is $1800, and while I know I can make it, it’s always a daunting figure looming over you, especially when I look at my “total raised so far” and see it stuck on $0.

For that matter, donate to ANY charity right now – tis the season, and all that! Don’t have money? The gift of time is always welcome

I stopped over at my friend (and neighbor) Gigi’s house last night for dinner while the kids were at choir practice, and she told me she joined my Avon Walk team! I’m so excited! Now there are SIX of us walking together in New York City next October. We’ve got my friends from the 3-Day, Tara and Kim, and my friend Deb in New Jersey, and Kim’s friend (also named Kim!) who is also in New Jersey!

My friend Deb joined my Avon team last month. This morning, I received an email from her that I wanted to share here. I hope my advice helps Deb, and anyone else who is thinking about participating in a charity walk.

I open my book (Avon Walk) last night and start reading it. I read about the sleeping bag, the tent, and packing a backpack for it, and collecting money, and about the night before, and I start to go…Overwhelmed much? Then I realize, it’s my fear of failure, I think. I mean, crap, if other people can do this, I can too.

Deb

Deb, the easiest thing to do is the donate money to walkers. Walking is the hard part. We walk because cancer isn’t easy. Imagine being a new mom, who just found out she’s got breast cancer. Or a grandmother to 7, who found out her cancer can’t be cured, and this will be her last Christmas. Cancer is hard. Chemo is hard. Dying isn’t fun. This may sound melodramatic, but it’s true. Compared to all of that, raising money, camping, and walking is the easy part.

Take it step by step, and you won’t fail. You can raise the money. You have plenty of friends and family members who will donate to your cause. If you still need help, have a fundraiser! Stand out in front of a grocery store and beg for loose change. Stalk the people you work out with at the gym.

Make a list, and gather your supplies. If you forget something, they will be 2,000 other campers willing to help you out. Walkers are among the most helpful and friendly bunch of people I know, and they won’t hesitate to lend you a hand.

Camping? My idea of roughing it is staying at a 2 star hotel, but I camped. I slept in a tent, I showered in the back of a truck, I went without air conditioning. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you look at this event and it seems like you’re staring up at the side of a mountain. Once you start raising money, and working towards your goal, you’ll realize that you’re now halfway up the mountain, and it wasn’t even that hard.

Take it one step at a time. You CAN do this. You can do anything you set your mind to!

You may or may not know that my sister, who walked with me in the 3-Day last year, has a blog. On it, she talks a lot about her dog and cereal (her 2 great loves!) but she also talks about pancreatic cancer. If you’re wondering why someone who walks in breast cancer events is blogging about pancreatic cancer, it’s because her mom has pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed earlier this year with the cancer, and is currently undergoing chemo.

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, but we’ve found that most people don’t know much about pancreatic cancer at all. You probably know someone who died of pancreatic cancer in your personal life, and you definitely know of a few famous people who died of it. People like:

• Actor Brock Peters, who played Tom Robinson in “To Kill A Mockingbird” – one of my favorite movies.
• Actor and directory Michael Landon, who played Pa Ingalls on Little House.
• Actress Joan Crawford, one of the greatest female actresses in the 1950’s.

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of all cancer deaths in the U.S, but it receives the LEAST amount of federal funding among all cancers.

Before the 3-Day walk this year, I went off to the drugstore for supplies to carry with me. I needed to get blister band-aids, plenty of Advil, and my very own tube of Freeze It. I knew from doing the walk in 2006 that my calves would be killing me by the end of the first day, and I also knew I didn’t enjoy using greasy pain relief creams. Sure enough, my calves were screaming at me with every step I took on that first day of walking – step after step after step will bring on that kind of pain quickly! When we were done walking for the day, and all showered, I grabbed my tube of Freeze It and rubbed it all over my calves. Freeze It Gel is amazing – I already mentioned that it’s not greasy at all, and it doesn’t have that old lady smell like the other pain relief gels have. I’m too young to smell like a nursing home!

By the end of the 3rd day, you can see I was a mess. My ligament was hyper extending, and my shin splits were marching to the beat of their own (very slow) drummer. I was rocking an awesome farmers tan, and had dunked my hat in cold water so many times it permanently shrunk. And I’m planning to walk AGAIN next year? Let me tell you, I see a lot more Freeze It in my future! You can use it for a muscle strain, or sore, over exerted muscles, arthritis pain, or for an aching back or neck. So…I can use it during the walk, when my calves revolt against me, and after the walk, when my back aches from camping for 2 days Just rubbing it on feels good – it tingles and it’s warm, and then cool…it’s instant relief!

What do I have to do to get Freeze It to sign up as a walk sponsor??

When I started our team for the Avon walk in NYC next October, I knew for sure it would be me, Tara, and Kim walking. I didn’t expect anyone else to join us, but I’m sure glad others have! My online friend Deb joined as soon as I formed the team, and a friend of Kim’s from NJ joined this week as well. I have a neighbor interested in walking, and I’m trying to convince my sister to join us as well. It’s going to be exciting enough to pound the streets of New York City for two days, but it’s going to be amazing to be surrounded by wonderful friends like these!