Wordpress

I had originally set up both blogspot & wordpress blogs hoping to be able to play with each and then decide which I wanted to post to .. not realizing that I was live as soon as I hit the 'create account' button, I 've had to improvise a bit. In the end, it appears that I am having a "little" better luck on the wordpress site. I am trying to keep this one updated as well and hope to post to both. In the meantime, if you are looking and don't see any recent posts, then please visit us at:

quest4thebreast.wordpress.com

Taco Soup

I got this recipe at a Weight Watcher's meeting a few years ago and made it recently. Now my DH is addicted to it so I make it frequently. You can modify it to your own liking!

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey
1 small onion
minced garlic, to your liking
1 pkg taco seasoning 1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
kidney beans (I use 1 can of regular and 1 can of spicy, rinsed and drained)
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 bag frozen corn (if you can find fire roasted, like at Trader Joe's, even better!)
V-8 juice

Brown ground meat with onions and garlic. Drain off any visible fat. Stir in packets of taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix. Start dumping in remaining items. Add V-8 juice to your liking .. more for 'soup' less for 'stoup'. Heat through. Top each bowl with a dollop of lowfat sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips. YUM, YUM!!
Great low fat, fiber friendly meal!

~ Chanin

It started with a haircut ...

... well, sort of. Breast Cancer has always been a thought in my mind. My dad's sister Phyllis died from Breast Cancer when she was 30, leaving behind three young children. Granted, that was a long time ago and I had never met her since my dad was only about 10 when she passed but I still remember thinking while growing up "gee that was awfully young". Even though she is a relative on the paternal side of the family, you still can't help but wonder about the hereditary aspects of the disease.
Besides my aunt, it seems as though I have always known of someone that had the disease or knew someone that knew someone that had it.
Jump to current day. Last fall I found out that one of my very close customer's had found a lump and would be getting a biopsy. Prayers flowed but the results came back and it was malignant. Test after test was done and the doctors felt confident that they had caught the cancer early. There was no need to do a mastectomy but the cells did spread into the lymph nodes of her left breast. Surgery was scheduled and the lump as well as the affected lymph nodes were removed.
Early this year she began chemotherapy. Prior to starting she was telling me about it and how she would be taking a newer type of chemo that only had a 40% chance of her losing her hair. At the time, my own hair was about down to my shoulders. I told her that if she lost her hair from the chemo then I would cut mine off as well ...
Round 1 of chemo was given the beginning of February and things were looking good ... no hair loss yet. Then we talked again .. the hair was coming out in handfuls so she planned to have her niece shave her head that weekend. I immediately called my hairdresser and set up an appointment for later that week.
It is now the beginning of June and my hair is still short. She has just finished her chemo and her's is starting to grow back like the soft down of a new chick! I've decided to keep mine short. I'm sure that i'll enjoy that a lot more when I'm walking in the Phoenix heat!
~Chanin

Welcome!!

Welcome to the “Quest 4 the Breast”! The purpose of our blog is to keep our friends & family up to date on our progress for the Arizona 3-Day.

What is the Arizona 3-Day you ask?? WELL … the 3-Day is just that .. a 3-day, 6o mile fund raiser for breast cancer research. I was crazy enough excited to sign up for this ‘journey’ when one of my bff’s texted me early one moring and asked if I was interested in doing the 3-day with her. Perhaps I was still asleep when I told her “YES!” because I recall my first thought being “is she freakin’ nuts? 3 DAYS — WALKING???” To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of the 3-day before but, being the type A personality that I am, I HAD to find out more .. and I did. Before I knew it, I was a woman (possessed) obsessed with the idea. A few days later, I signed up – followed shortly thereafter by my bff, neighbor and step-daughter!!

Now, Arizona was not the first choice. See my bff lives in Reading, PA so she asked me to do the walk in Philadelphia. Since the timing of that walk was not good for me and frankly, since I also grew up in Reading and had been to Philadelphia numerous times I thought “hum, why not go somewhere that we’ve never been before?” so Arizona it became!
And thus begins the journey of our 3-day!

~Chanin