Wordless Wednesday: Thank you God for my friend

I praise God that after a rough year of chemo, my best friend has survived her 2nd bout with cancer and is still here....blessing everyone she meets.

At this year's Relay for Life event - CJ, looking healthy and beautiful!

In October 2008, getting close to finishing up her chemo...

At Relay for Life 2008 - right before CJ started chemo....


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Stanky Leg

At our annual Relay for Life events one of my friends is the DJ. He does a great job at this keeping people motivated throughout the night and offering a variety of songs for young and old alike. We enjoy doing group dances like the Electric Slide, ChaCha Slide, Chicken Dance, Superman and a few others. This past weekend during our Relay event, he introduced this song - Stanky Leg. He admitted that when he heard this song he thought it was the most ridiculous song he's ever heard but he figured the kids would like it...boy, was he ever right (on both counts!!)

This song is STUPID!!!!! But the kids went crazy and they KNEW this dance!
Check it out -

Relay for Life - recap

Our Relay for Life event was this past Friday night. When I posted about Relay for Life last year I told you how I got involved in this annual fundraiser and about my best friend CJ's longtime battle with ovarian cancer. At this time last year she was diagnosed with her 2nd recurrence and was to begin chemo again. We were not sure what the future was going to hold for her or if she would even be with us this year for Relay.

I praise God that she has beat it AGAIN and she is here and thriving!


The theme of this year's event was "Holidays." Our team chose Columbus Day and one of the crafty men on our team built this...




This is Jimmy (Mr. Crafty - the man who built the ship) - he is saluting the survivors as they begin the Relay and walk by in the first lap known as the Survivor's Lap.

CJ is on the left side holding the banner and the young girl on the right side of the banner is Jackie - she is Dakota's age, a good friend of ours and a cancer survivor herself. I will tell you more about her family in another post - they need lots of prayers! They are leading the Survivor's Lap


This is CJ's beautiful family


This is my dear friend, Mardi who was a huge help this year! This was her first year helping us with Relay...it won't be her last - she did a great job!!


Last but not least....my goofy husband -

My friends' blessings

This family with 5 children, one of whom has battled cancer, are some of my best friends. The twins are Dakota's age and homeschoolers too. They were nominated by our Children's Director at church for an Extreme Makeover. They will receive $5,000 and then $5,000 to donate. We are so thrilled for them!!!

From VBS 5th night

Relay for Life

Image via Wikipedia

Every year I participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event to raise money for cancer research. I got involved in this when my best friend CJ got cancer several years ago and started her own team, Walk By Faith.

We have so much fun at this event. If you aren't involved in a Relay would you consider joining our team or making a donation? All donations can be made through my team page and they are tax-deductible.

If you would like to get involved, find a Relay event in your own hometown and join a local team or start a team of your own. These events are fun, family-friendly, energetic all night affairs that get the whole community involved!

Relay For Life 2008

Our theme was "Three Little Pigs - Don't Let Cancer Blow You Away..."
The festivities began at 6 pm with the survivor laps. We didn't make it there until about 6:45. Everything was in full swing by then.

More of our decorations. Normally me and Sammy (CJ's husband) are racing around trying to get the tent decorated and set up while CJ finishes up working before heading out to the Relay later in the afternoon. This year though Sammy had other obligations to worry about so he was way ahead of things -- he and their daughters made up all these decorations a few weeks ago. I didn't do anything to help decorate this year. They did an awesome job!
Debbie, CJ and I standing under our tent. Debbie and I had walked several laps already. CJ was so tired last night. She is taking next week off to spend with her family before she has her surgery week after next to remove the new tumor that has appeared. It was a sad night last night knowing she is about to go through this all over again.
CJ and her beautiful family. Her daughters, Chelsea and Cassidy and her son - Caleb. They adopted Caleb in November 2006. He is a precious boy!
This was about midnight. We were waiting for a certain event to be over so we could leave. CJ and Caleb were exhausted by this time. She could barely stay awake and Caleb finally gave it up. There were so many people that came out to support our team last night - more than we have had in the past. Word has gotten out the last 2 days about CJ's health problems and people wanted to come show their support.

Relay for Life

My best friend is an ovarian cancer survivor - for 6 years now. I told her story here if you'd like to read about her miraculous recovery. Because of her, my family has gotten involved the last few years with the American Cancer Society's annual Relay For Life. We have such a great time at this annual fundraising event.

This was CJ & I at our 2006 Relay for Life booth.
Can you tell we had a Spongebob theme going on?

In 2007 we didn't get to decorate as much as we wanted to because CJ & her husband had their new baby and we were all pretty busy during this time. Her husband and I kind of threw some decorations together at the last minute - I completely forgot to take a picture of our tent last year!

This is CJ and her precious baby, Caleb, taking her victory lap around the track to start the Relay events. This is how they start the Relay off - all the survivors take a couple of laps around the track.

I LOVE to dance! I talked Dakota into getting out there with me and dancing last year. Our favorite dance was the Cha-cha Slide. He learned the Electric Slide too.

CJ hasn't been feeling very well for a few months. She has been going through some testing and she had found out that most of her tests results were good. However, she was in CA last week on business (I was working for her while she was out of town.) While she was gone she got word that her doctor needed to see her right away - so we are all praying again that this isn't anything serious...my sweet friend is just praying for God's will.

Me and CJ (on the right) and another great friend of ours,
Debbie (on the left).
This picture was taken at a Sunday School social back in October 2007.

During one of our weekend "girls" getaways her husband brought his boat out so all the ladies could ski and ride around in the boat. He brought their sweet baby and CJ and Caleb took a little nap together. I snuck in and took a picture of Caleb lovin' on his mommy!

Caleb and his daddy on the boat...he LOVES to ride (and drive) the boat. This family is such a special family - I love them dearly and I am praying for my precious friend and her latest round of tests she has had to go through.

If you have never participated in Relay for Life, I encourage you to get involved. If you would like to make a donation to our team, Walk By Faith, you can do that here. Or you can go to American Cancer Society and find a local event to get out and support.

Road Trip

So today I am in Ocala, FL writing from a hotel room. I'm waiting on my best friend to finish up a meeting she's at and then we'll be heading back home. Throughout the year, she has to attend city council meetings for various counties all over FL and she'd rather drive than fly and take the chance of her flights getting delayed or cancelled. I will often go with her just to keep her company or to help her drive. We have a great time talking in the car and catching up. We attend church together but our lives are so busy these days we might go a couple of weeks without talking to each other.

My friend has 2 daughters who will be 20 and 18 this year. They are a beautiful family. Her husband is the worship pastor at our church. Greg & I and the two of them used to do a lot together until November 2006 when they adopted a newborn baby boy - now their life is chaotic! LOL It's such a sweet story though.

They had tried to adopt in 2001 (I think that was the year?) and my friend went to the doctor to begin hormone treatments which would allow her to nurse her new baby boy. When the doctor ran bloodwork they discovered she had stage 4 ovarian cancer and they operated that week. What followed next was a year of chemo, radiation and sickness for my friend. She was told she had 6 months to live. She is still here - 7 years later - thriving, beautiful and healthy and they were able to adopt another gift from God 15 months ago.