Monday, October 18, 2010

Reunion weekend!

We spent the weekend in Cornwall, CT with close friends from Williams who traveled from Boston, Baltimore, California, and NYC for our annual reunion. A friend offered up her family's vacation farmhouse for the event, which was a beautiful location and had a maze of bedrooms that fit us all comfortably. It was amazing that we had 12 adults, 6 children, and 2 dogs (not Cinco) in the same household and it was relatively sane and peaceful. The kids had a great time playing together and the adults had a great time watching the kids and relaxing together once the kids were in bed. Foster is a mediocre sleeper in new places, but luckily he slept like a rock our first night home.

Chillaxin before we hit the road

Kent Falls, CT

Foster and Hayden
Coolest pumpkin ever!

Foster and Ellie


Foster, Ellie, and Beatrice

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Never too early to start!
Beautiful Eliza

Adorable Connor

Friday, October 1, 2010

Blog for Breasts!

In order to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'm dedicating Foster's blog today to our favorite girls... our breasts! I don't think Foster will mind since my breasts nourished him out of preemie-dom and into strong boy-dom. It breaks my heart that those same breasts that provide nourishment, sustenance, and comfort to our young children can also threaten to take us away from them too early in life. To help with breast cancer research, I've joined the Army of Women and am recruiting you also!

The Army of Women initiative (www.armyofwomen.org), a program of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, funded by a grant from the Avon Foundation for Women, is recruiting 1 million women of all ages and ethnicities, with or without breast cancer, to sign up and participate in breast cancer research studies. If they can get 1 million women involved in research, we are one step closer to understanding the cause of breast cancer and how to prevent it. Participants will be involved in important research to discover THE CAUSE of breast cancer—how to stop it before it starts.

The members are contacted via an email to participate in groundbreaking, breast cancer prevention research studies. They can either sign-up for the studies online, or if they do not qualify, they are encouraged to forward the information to a friend or family member. Studies will require a variety of different things (women can be asked anything from filling out an online questionnaire to being asked for a blood sample). Every woman over 18 is welcome to participate, whether a breast cancer survivor or someone never affected. It's NOT just for those with breast cancer and participation is always, completely voluntary. In many breast cancer research studies, recruiting women is the biggest obstacle, and this innovative program is working to virtually eliminate this hurdle.

There are over 335,000 women already signed up, but still far from the 1 million goal. When you sign up, encourage your friends and family to joint also,  by using the "invite a friend" link: https://www.armyofwomen.org/invitefriend.