The Fight Against Cancer

 Here are some facts that I have found while doing some more research for the Relay For Life. According to CNN new as of January 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/17/health/brawley-annual-cancer-report

"The decline in deaths from 1991 to 2009 is clear evidence of progress in the fight against cancer. It is far more powerful than other statistics such as increasing survival rates or declining incidence rates."

"There were declines in the death rates for a number of major cancers. Lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer make up nearly half of all cancers diagnosed in the United States. All four had greater than 30% decreases in mortality rates."

"The single biggest reason for this good news is reduction in smoking rates. Improvements in early detection and cancer treatment also contributed to the decline."

 The American Cancer Society and The Relay For Life hand in hand help educate people about cancer risks, find treatments, help provide for those who may have financial hardship and assist those without health insurance. For more information about how your donations help please visit their official web site at http://www.relayforlife.org

On the right is a video of the most awesome person I meet at the 2012 Relay For Life. This woman demonstrated strength that I do not have.

Link for video is here if you can not view it on this page.

http://youtu.be/kZZHXXFrCC4

This why we participate in The Kleberg County Bishop Texas Relay For Life.
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/SouthTexasEulenfeld

The American Cancer Society-Relay For Life 2013

 One of the causes that our family is passionate about is the cure for cancer. Since 2000 our family has been participating with our local chapter of The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. Our journey with the society started out when my husband was about 22 years old. In April of 2000 he saw the lights on at the Bishop, Texas high school football field and walked over to see what was going on. While there he found his old high school buddies and they told him what they were doing and why it was important for them to take part in The Relay.
 By January of 2001 my uncle Thomas Heredia was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This devastated my side of the family. The cancer had forced our family to argue about treatments, who would be the caregivers, what food to eat and where my uncle would live. No one in my family knew what to do.
 Around April of the same year my husband was asked by his friend if he and his band would  perform at the Relay For Life around 3 a.m. That year the Relay had been moved to Naval Air Station in Kingville, Texas. This was to keep everyone awake and bring something different to the event. Basically they crashed the event. It was a sight to see a group of  kids carrying an arm load of band equipment without anyone really knowing why they were there.

Freakstarr circa 2000

They played and was asked to come back the next year.

Shortly after that Relay For Life event my uncle had passed away from prostate cancer.

By 2002 Gary and I were married and we took a 2 year break from The Relay For Life but I think God had other plans for us.

In 2004 we were introduced to Silver Chapa who was the committee chair that year. He wanted someone to document the event. I was taking television classes at the time and volunteer to do it. So I asked some of my classmates to help me and we created a video for the event.
The night of Relay we interviewed all kinds of people and ask them why they participated. One of the things that we learned is that The Relay is not really a running Relay. Yes, people do walk all night but really they were there to show there support that cancer never sleeps so why should they. It was truly an eye opening experience. As we interviewed more people most of them had raised thousands of dollars to donate to The American Cancer Society and even more people were learning the risk factors that may cause certain types of cancer. After those interviews we decided to help with the Relay For Life in any way we could.
The last 8 years our family have taken on different roles as part of The Relay For Life. We have been team members, team captains, videotape producers and now serve as committee members.

This year we are asking for your help with our fight against cancer. Please donate to our family page at  http://main.acsevents.org/goto/SouthTexasEulenfeld

For more information please visit  www.relayforlife.org

THE MOST

This has been a very busy week for me so I posted a short clip of a local band called "The Most".
If you read my post in December you may remember that I talked about how my husband was playing a show with his band Freakstarr.

Below is a clip of the other band that played that same night. I am not sure why the clip is not of the best quality. Youtube has been compressing my videos and they are starting to look really bad. It may be time to upload them somewhere else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQLTA6UBKOE

You Can't Go Wrong With Chocolate On Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's day!
Today is the day of love, togetherness and CHOCOLATE!!

Last night my husband and I decided that it was best to go to the store and buy each other chocolate instead of the usual Valentine gifts. Every year we tend to buy each other gifts of love such as roses, chocolate, stuff animal and dinner only to come home and feel that we spent a lot of money on ourselves and it was a very force feeling of love.  It was almost like we were trying to prove to others that we really are in love.

Don't get me wrong about Valentine's day. I REALLY do love the gifts and there is nothing wrong with receiving them or giving them. However, for me after being married for a decade the best valentine present I have ever received is the gift of our marriage.

Please note that our gift is not perfect. It has been torn, broken, lied to, yelled at and sometimes the gift has to sleep on the couch. Despite all of that our marriage is the best Valentine gift that I have ever received.

Thank-you God for this gift of marriage.