PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO THIS FOR MY FRIENDS & FAMILY THAT HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY BREAST CANCER

One of my dearest and most sweetest, childhood, bestest most loved friends in the world asked me to send this in an email...email's don't do justice like a blog does:-)

PLEASE DO THIS!

A favor to ask, it only takes a minute....

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

The BreastCancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their sitedaily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to anunderprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and clickon ' donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporatesponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchangefor advertising.

Here's the web site!

Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

I FIGURED I ONLY HAVE LESS THAN 10 FRIENDS, SO THIS WOULD BE MY WAY OF CONTRIBUTING TO THIS CAUSE, MORE PEOPLE VIEW MY SITE.

ICE campaign - In Case of Emergency - IRONY OF TODAY

Well, the irony of this is I am shaking right now as I type this. I just got back from picking Matthew up from school, and I got this email from my brother on the ICE campaign.

The other day while I was foolishly blogging about Tom Brady, I wound up being two minutes late for Matthew's school. I am a horrible mom and have felt the guilt of it since the moment I realized I have to get off the computer and go pick him up. I rushed through town (only a 3 minute drive) and almost got into an accident with a lady in my blind spot.

I made it there in time to have all of the other moms gone and Matthew waiting patiently looking through the glass doors at me as I drove up to the school. His teacher wasn't concerned as I apologized but I was astonished because usually there are still moms lurking around for 10 minutes and this morning, there wasn't. I have never felt so guilty in my life.

This morning, miracles happen for some strange reason and it is something the way things go. All it takes is one second, one minute and it can all come to an end.

I was talking to my best friend K in PA who I hadn't talked to in 3 months. I was determined not to be late so I casually and slowly got to his school 10 minutes early (like every other time) and talked to her on my cell phone in the car. I told her I love her and that I'm always thinking of her and wish I could be there to give her a hug.

I got out of the car at 10:58 when other moms started to show up and hung out right in front for Matthew to see me. A teacher peeked her head out of the door mentioning that school picture day is taking a little longer and that it would probably be another 10 minutes for them to come out. I joked with a few moms about being late the other day and now I'm early and he will be late. We joked about going to the dentist office and being late and being early and then waiting a long time.

Matthew ran out of the door ten minutes later and we headed slowly towards the car. He wanted to go play in the playground and I was trying to convince him first of going home to change his school picture day clothes first. He had on a nice pair of tan pants that I didn't want getting ruined. I told him we'll have lunch, get into play clothes and then head back out to a playground. He was sad because he saw his little friend there and wanted to stay and play.

I bumped into his other little friend L and his mom who was scurrying around like a mad hatter trying to get to her car, she had an important date and said she was having one of those mornings as she passed by smiling.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, taking a left onto the street and began to drive, out of nowhere a police cruiser stormed past me lights blaring and immediately speeding to somewhere.

As I got to the end of the road, where I would normally go through our quaint little common, it had 3 police cars and lights glaring so I took a quick right to avoid what looked like an accident that had just happened. It didn't look like much at first so I turned around a few blocks down to head back in that direction because that was the way I needed to go.

I got closer and witnessed a minivan with RI plates that had been hit horribly in the drivers side front end. The woman driving seemed to be already out of her car and on her cell phone. Matthew was watching so I was trying to keep my emotions down as I was witnessing this. I then saw another car. A four door later model blue car. It was completely smashed head on into a 300 year old oak tree. Policemen were inside the car trying to help but that was all I saw.

My husband told me once that once a tree is hit, that's it. It doesn't move or sway the way another car or another object might. The damage I saw and that I hope Matthew didn't comprehend, was devastating. There was debris everywhere and I drove slowly through glass and headed home.

I'm sick to my stomach, thanking God that I do Thank Him every night for my son, Thanking him that I told K how much I loved her, thanking Him for not having me be in that spot at that time this morning, thanking Him for Eric's calm and understanding voice on the phone.

Hug the ones you love, tell the ones you love that you're sorry or whatever you need, because in just one breath that's it.

When I witnessed my mom passing I had 25 years to prepare and knew it was coming. It was the most horrible thing anyone could ever witness.

To see someone possibly pass away right before my eyes as I drove by, it's so unfair and so devastating to me. Did that person tell their family they loved them? Were they going to school also to pick up their preschool or school age child or did they pick them up and were they in the car? Did they have anyone in their life that will notice that they are gone?

I am praying for the people this morning affected in this accident and their families and other tragedies that happen every day that because we don't see them, we forget that they happen.

Here is the ironic email I got from my brother when I got home:

ICE campaign - 'In Case of Emergency'

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call.

Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this ' ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign

The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly.

It is a method of contact during emergency situations.

As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call.

He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE'.

Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest.

What you see AND What you don't see

This is as good as it gets these days for a picture of Mommy & Matthew. Taken by the moms Meetup group that I am part of.

We went to an unbelievable (thank God we had a group discount or I would have been disappointed) farm with our wonderful new friend N and her son R and other moms that are also apart of this same group.

Tougas Farm was actually beautiful with some animals and a really cool playground with an upper boardwalk type ramp for the goats to climb over (really cool), a tractor ride into a pumpkin patch, some apple cider and apple donuts.

My favorite part of the whole moment was entering this town, I was in PA. The beautiful leaves on the trees with the beautiful hills (not mountains) surrounding little valleys and it was a sunny day, to boot!

As you can see by my attire, I am sporting Eric's Patriots hat these days. I need more hats but right now, I don't have that luxury. I only have maybe one more month and my hair should be all one length again and I can stop wearing my hats all together.

I can't win, today I overdressed us. Home was nippy and the weatherman called for 58 degrees in Northboro, MA so I thought I was all set, sporting a nice turtleneck and fleece jacket and Matthew in his sweater and turtleneck with a jean jacket on. He later threw that at me.

After leaving the farm, we headed toward home and decided to have a "Friendly" lunch with coupon and to buy some much needed long sleeve shirts and sweaters for Matthew. Tomorrow is school picture day so we are now all set.

He went on some Spiderman and Batman rides also today so he is now satisfied and watching Frosty the Snowman as he anticipates Christmas.

He was awesome in traffic on the way to the farm today. He didn't care. He was mentioning what a beautiful day it was, what a beautiful truck that was, what a beautiful car that was. I mentioned that was nice and that he was my beautiful little boy. He said Thanks Mom. Your my beautiful Big Girl.

The other day he told me I was beautiful and I almost broke down and cried because I was the farthest thing from it.

After we left Friendly's and clothes shopping, he mentioned how beautiful today was, how it was such a great day to go to the farm, on the tractor, pick a pumpkin, have lunch at Friendly's with Monster Mash ice cream, go on Spiderman, go on Batman, go on Dump Truck rides and then buy some shirts....what a beautiful day...sigh...

He is so funny.

We are comparing his little life to ours growing up. We mention how, No,Our Moms didn't have us in playgroups, playdates, this park and that zoo.

But we also agree that the difference is, the moms now all work or most of them do. There are no family's hanging out on the block playing kickball. At least not in my neighborhood. And most moms agree with me that when you have large family in the area, that forms your child's family network, it is totally different and you are not spending every waking moment trying to fill that void.

Many children today (Unfortunately) don't have "that" family network, that social network and if they are an only child (chosen or not to be) they need rewarding and fulfilling moments to help add opportunities for them to be the most special person that they can be. By just sitting by and not creating positive moments in their lives, it's like you just want to leave it up to the world to create who your child is going to be.

I'm having too much fun, tears, rewards, crying, laughing, loving, proud mom moments now to give it up.

This has been my reward for being that stay at home mom.

I can't not post this today (after explaining to Matthew that Mommy loves Daddy but has a crush on Tom Brady-like him a cinderella in the movie)

From SI:

Overdue accolade for Brady

Patriots QB well on his way to winning first NFL MVP

Posted: Sunday October 14, 2007 10:15PM; Updated: Sunday October 14, 2007 10:35PM

Tom Brady threw a career-high five touchdowns to lead the Patriots to a 48-27 win over the Cowboys.
Ronald Martinez /Getty Images

IRVING, Texas -- He'd never admit it in a thousand NFL Sundays, but for more than a few years now Tom Brady has chafed at the only slight he feels he's endured throughout his illustrious eight-year career.

The popular perception is that Brady has won it all, and done it all. And that's close to the truth. But never has the New England Patriots all-world quarterback won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award.

To be sure, Brady has earned a little satisfaction by beating a slew of league MVPs after they bagged the award. Just ask San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, Indy's Peyton Manning, St. Louis's Kurt Warner and Tennessee's Steve McNair. But with the emphasis in New England always, always, always on winning within the framework of the team concept, Brady hasn't amassed the kind of gaudy statistics that earn check marks on MVP voters' ballot.

Before now, that is. Before this season of domination being turned in by both Brady and an offense that looks as close to unstoppable as we've ever seen it.

No more calls, please. We have a winner. Your 2007 NFL MVP winner is wearing No. 12 for New England, and wearing out the rest of the league on a week-by-week basis. The latest round of results are in, and they echo what started becoming apparent from day one of this season. Brady is a man on a mission, and he's taking his Patriots along for the very memorable ride.

"It's truly amazing what he's doing, but the numbers don't lie,'' Patriots veteran safety Rodney Harrison said of Brady's day in New England's 48-27 showdown win against Dallas, the much-hyped duel of unbeatens in Texas Stadium. "I've had a chance to play with Ryan Leaf, and I've had the chance to play with Tom Brady, and every time I see him I want to give him a hug.''
What Harrison is really trying to wrap his arms around are the almost absurd numbers that Brady is rolling up this season. On Sunday against the NFC's last remaining undefeated team, he strafed the Cowboys for a career-best five touchdown passes -- a sixth was called back by penalty -- completing 31 of 46 passes for 388 yards, with no interceptions and a 129.6 passer rating.


With the receiving corps of his dreams on full display -- a feast after last season's Reche Caldwell and Doug Gabriel populated famine -- Brady found four teammates for touchdowns against the Cowboys. Slot receiver Wes Welker caught a career-high two touchdowns and notched his first 100-yard receiving game as a pro. Brady also connected on scoring throws once each with Randy Moss, DonteStallworth and Kyle Brady.

That onslaught gives Brady a staggering 21 touchdown passes in just six games this season (3.5 per game). On that pace, he'll finish with 56 scoring passes, obliterating Manning's NFL record of 49, set in 2004. Brady ducked any thought of chasing Manning's mark when asked about it in the post-game, but it would be sweet revenge for a quarterback who has always wondered what it would be like to have Manning's receivers and Manning's good fortune of having the same offense and the same offensive coordinator throughout his entire NFL career.

"I've always said, 'Peyton Manning has his receivers, why can't Tom Brady have his?' '' said Moss, who finished with six catches for 59 yards against the Cowboys, with a 6-yard first-drive scoring catch that got the Patriots started toward victory. "The only thing we're happy about is we're 6-0 and we came to Dallas and made it happen. There was a lot of hype coming into this week.''

That there was, but it's almost impossible at this point to over-hype the performance level of Brady and the Patriots passing game. Has an offseason shopping spree -- Moss, Welker and Stallworth were all new acquisitions -- ever had these kind of early returns? Brady is playing machine-like, making every throw a quarterback can be expected to make, and his confidence level appears at an all-time high. Even his teammates have run out of superlatives to describe the zone he seems locked into.

"Obviously it's going pretty well so far,'' Patriots offensive left tackle Matt Light said. "He's doing the things he's always done, but you just don't see many guys doing what he does on game days.''
Brady actually did his best work after he and the Patriots were forced to deal with some rare adversity this season. After surging to leads of 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 21-10 late in the first half, New England actually trailed the comeback-minded Cowboys 24-20 almost five minutes into the third quarter. But there was no flinching by Brady and the Pats, who went on to score 27 of the game's final 30 points, burying Dallas's upset dreams.

New England's final five drives went touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal, touchdown. The exclamation point was the 1-yard touchdown plunge by rookie fullback Kyle Eckel with 19 seconds remaining, a score met with an unusual amount of emotion by the generally business-like Brady. No doubt it was a message sent that the Patriots would show no mercy this season, especially when facing a team that some deemed ready to play on a level field with the three-time Super Bowl champions.

"This team, we're not going to panic when we get behind,'' Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "It's Game 6 of the season. It was a good opponent, but we've won some big games around here. We know how to play in big games.''

The Cowboys sacked Brady three times, as many sacks as he had absorbed all season coming into Sunday. But even though the Patriots had no rushing game to speak of -- they gained 75 yards on 29 carries, a 2.6 average -- Brady and the passing game still did anything it wanted to.
"We work hard,'' Moss said. "Tom Brady does not let us lollygag in practice every day. I'm not saying we're unstoppable, but.....''

But nothing. Brady's five touchdown passes was his sixth consecutive game with three or more to start this season, breaking SteveYoung's 1998 record. New England also has scored at least 34 points in all six games this season, and with 230 points thus far, it's averaging a mind-boggling 38.3 per game. If the Patriots keep that pace up, they'll finish with 613 points, which would beat the 1998 Minnesota Vikings' NFL one-season scoring record of 556 points by 57.

For Brady, the history that he's helping write doesn't stop there. Sunday marked his 100th career regular season start, and he's now 76-24 in those games. That tied RogerStaubach's NFL record for the best 100-game start to a career, and Brady did it on the same field that Roger the Dodger made his name.

"It's really early in the season,'' said Brady, deflecting all talk of records and making history. "The reality is that it's a win on the road and we're 6-0. Any time we're wining, I'm doing just fine.''

Brady's doing more than fine. He's the NFL's MVP so far this season, and showing absolutely no signs of letting any one catch up to him or his high-flying Patriots. He's always had the victories. But this year, he has the receivers, and the kind of overwhelming statistics that win MVP awards.

I'd say let's just give it to him right now, but of course Brady won't go for that. He's having entirely too much fun earning it his way.


(Now if Mommy could just sit down with Daddy and actually watch the game)

Anyone have any tips on keeping warm for the mama over here on the lake?

Alright I know I am a daily wimp but there has to be an answer out there somewhere, without keeping the heat on 24/7.

I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I love my house that my husband built. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. It's kind of like I think I can, I think I can...maybe if I say it often enough somehow I'll just make myself warm. I'm in Hawaii, I'm in Hawaii, I'm in Hawaii.

This is a picture of our little house, a million years ago before we did the addition:

As you can see the lake is 100 feet behind the house, and with old windows it was unbearable in the winter. We have a nice wood stove in the basement but unless we keep it always on it is still crazy down there. That is one of our next projects. Right up there with the garage. We would like to have like a family/game/hobby room down there with a nice big screen projector for movies for Mommy and Daddy to watch after Matthew goes to sleep, but not yet.

Now here are the pictures before the final painting was done. It is now all yellow and so beautiful, but for some reason with the lake being close and the amount of windows we put in, I am always cold. The temperature here is always 10 degrees colder than up the street and sometimes more shadier, so it is deceiving until you get off of our road and then it's like your in another world.

So like I said, due to how beautiful my house turned out, who am I to complain? I'm not complaining about the house. I'm complaining about my skinny body that has the incapacity to be warm. Eric will tell me to just put layers on or get under the covers. But then I don't get out of the covers and if I put anymore layers on, I'm going to start looking like an onion.

And it's only October 15Th:-) If you don't hear from me in a few months, send the people to peel the onion.

To get off of the subject, this morning Matthew was again so wonderful getting ready for school. He actually is reminding me now of stuff that I need to do for him, which is awesome. This morning, he was pointing to my kitchen window saying he needed the spiderman things!! I'm looking with a blank face at the window clueless as to what he was talking about because Spiderman isn't there and there is no Halloween spider webs. Finally he started pointing like a madman, claiming Mommy!!! My Spiderman things!!! I need them!!! And then the fog cleared and I saw that he had been pointing to his vitamins!! Yeah!!!! He asked me for his vitamins!!

Little things make me happy.

On the way to school he announced something funny. The other night when he wasn't around I mentioned to Eric that I wanted to go to PA for at least my mother's birthday to go to her grave. I haven't been there since August and I thought even if I just disappear and go myself for two days, it's OK. Matthew mentioned to me as were driving to school "Mommy, Maybe we can go see Grandpa and R in Pennsylvania sometime?" I told him how sweet that was but to remember that R lives in NJ and she would have to be visiting Grandpa and we would have to talk to her and plan it. I then mentioned that Mommy was thinking of going soon and that I was going to go by myself, but if he wanted to join me because he missed Pennsylvania that he could come too. He then said "I do miss Pennsylvania Mommy, I go with you."

So I guess that is planned.

Well my fingers have gotten a little warmer by typing, but now I have to go get him from school.