Walk for Food Allergies.

Exhausted after the run.

Pretty Scenery

My pumpkin...trying to mimic it's face.

After the 10k

My fist. My angry "my team ditched me" face.

Jogging

Jack and me

"Walking 4 Ben"

Showing off the back of the shirt

Right after my face got painted

Dancing! I love dancing, and the bird is a good dancer!

Brenda Mee and...me

So, this morning I participated in the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network’s (FAAN’s) "Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure" in Boise. It's the first time it's been held in Boise, but the organization is headed up by country singer Trace Atkins. If you guys watched "The Apprentice" this last year, if he had won, the money was going towards this organization, because his daughter suffers from severe food allergies. The event raised funds to find a cure for food allergy and to educate others. As of right now, so far today's event raised 23,000 dollars, and attracted atleast 500 people.

Now, I don't have any food allergies actually, but I know people who do. My darling Ben for example is deathly allergic to pumpkins. Which is ironic actually because I was born on Thanksgiving, and have had my share of pumpkin pie, and all sorts of things relating to pumpkin, whereas he doesn't go near it. It does make me sad though to know that he'll never enjoy the simple things like carving a pumpkin, roasting pumpkin seeds, smashing pumpkins, eating pumpkin pie, or more simply, shopping for a pumpkin. He has to wear gloves just to touch the shopping carts this time of year.

So, for the event I made a schnazzy shirt. It said "No thanks, I'll P.A.S.S!" on the back, with a picture of a pumpkin, and then on the front it shows that "P.A.S.S." is my new found lovely acronym for, "Pumpkins and Squash Suck!" (Kudos to Erica for help on it). The shirt rocked. I got interviewed by Brenda Mee with KIZN 92.3 FM, and she took a bunch of pictures for their website. Apparently, pumpkin isn't a typical food allergy, and a lot of folks were suprised when I mentioned how bad Ben's allergy is.

So, maybe this doesn't concern you, or directly effect you, but hey, it was for a good cause, and I love supporting a cause. This year I got to participate in the "American Cancer Society's: Relay for Life" celebration, and if it wasn't for Ben dragging me into it, I never would have realized how passionate I am about helping others.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been, well, if Ben was there. My whole team bailed on me at the last minute, and so I was alone, but I know... as well as I know that the sun will rise each day, that if Ben was here, he would have been there for the event...and it would have been Heaven, as it always is in his company. He would have even suffered with the fact that there was pumpkin painting at the event...

Scratch that...or if Erica was there. If she could have come up, I know she would have been here rooting me on like she always does. Or even Kelli. Those 3 people seriously mean the world to me....and make my life so much easier and more fun.

So, besides pumpkin painting, there was an astro jump, different costumes, contests, food (though I stayed away from it), prizes...it was a ton of fun.

You could do one of 3 walks at the event: 2k, 5k, or 10k. Which is about: a little over a mile, 3 miles, and a little over 6 miles. So, since I do about an hour's worth of walking a day, I went with the 10k. It was a breeze...I was suprised to see so many little kids doing the 10k walk though. One dad asked his 4 yr old if she was ready to go back in the stroller, or wanted him to carry her, and she loudly proclaimed, "NO daddy! I can do it! Sheesh!" It was hilarious.

Other fun activities would be dancing with the Boise Hawks mascot "Humphrey", meeting "Jack Sparrow" (super hot pirate man), dancing, and meeting some new folks...and playing with the kids. It was so much fun...no seriously, it was. Although, when I got home I was exhausted and passed out in the recliner...my uncle took a pic of it, and it's funny.