For Mrs. Dull

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  I won’t ask you for money but I will ask you to (please) REBLOG this because spreading awareness to just one single person is worth its weight in gold. Thank you 10 million times in advance! I owe you. xoxo

Today, November 13th, is the first ever World Pancreatic Cancer Day.

Did you know...

• PC is terminal. We hope for miracles (because they do happen), but when diagnosed late, there is no beating this disease. 
• PC patients are rarely diagnosed prior to finding it at Stage IV and it’s often referred to as the “silent killer” of cancers.
• PC is the 4th leading cause in cancer related deaths in the US.
• PC has the lowest survival rate out of all major cancers.
• 73% of those diagnosed will die within one year. 
• Only 5% of PC patients have a five-year survival rate.

My next-door neighbor, Jean Anne Dull, was diagnosed on Christmas Day 2013.  She went to the ER with excruciating pain, thinking that possibly she had an intestinal blockage or kidney infection.  Instead, she had Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer.  In the ten months after her diagnosis, she fought her illness and lived each day to its fullest.  

Please educate yourself about this particular kind of cancer and know the signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for. 

And Now We Bring You... The Storm

So here we are - three weeks later.  The tote is still stocked and I never leave home without it.  The vests are still green, although one is MIA.  We've added cookie costumes to our repertoire, fresh from Etsy, and we still have two girls who are each about 500 boxes away from their goals.  Cue the nervous breakdown.

Go ahead and say it...  But you volunteered for this gig - you basically ask for it every year!  Can it.  I've heard it all before, people!  This year has been really tough for cookie sales for the girls.  Pre-sales were going on when the weather in our area was bitterly cold, so it was really hard for anyone to go out and sell cookies door-to-door.  Then there's the issue of The Powers That Be pushing the sale back a month later than usual, making booths start after Presidents' Weekend when all of the shoppers are out frivoisly spending their tax returns.  And let's not forget this fledgling economy.  Or the increase in the cost of a box of cookies this year.

I still haven't colored my hair.  Those three grays stare at me and mock me in the mirror every morning.  How can there not be more than three??

Then Tuesday we received an e-mail.  Cookie sales will be extended by one week.  Seriously?  Are you screwing with me right now?  Is this a sick joke?  Am I being Punkd?  As much as I was prepared to share in the girls' disappointment in not reaching their lofty goals of 1250 boxes each (an iPad Mini is at stake here, people!!), I was also chilling a bottle of Glenora in my refrigerator to celebrate making it through another season with my sanity and dignity intact. Funny how life throws you curveballs.  Now we've got another seven glorious days to deal with not only our cookies and other regular activities, but also a new sport, softball, and all of its ridiculous practice schedule.  The only saving Grace is the fact that A - it's seven days; B - I can follow a calendar; and C - wine improves as it ages.

The Quiet Before the Storm

The cookies are in; the tote is stocked.  The vests are green and the money box is ready...

It can only mean one thing.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE BOOTHS ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN!

I was going to do my hair color the other night, but I thought, Why bother?  It'll be turning gray by this weekend.  Didn't you know?  Silver highlights are in these days!

Pray for my sanity!

Quiet!!

We are at my parents' house for a visit right now, and the only reason we're allowed to speak is because of the extended rain delay for the Daytona 500.

God Bless NASCAR!

Again??

Yes, friends, it's that time again.  Time for me to lose my mind.  It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

Booth sales start in three weeks.