This is perfect

When I saw this I had to print it up. I have one hanging at my desk at work and one on my fridge at home.

I joined Fitness 19 last night. Since I am running out of daylight hours to walk, I can go there and use the treadmills. It was really pretty cheap to join and there was no long term committment or contract. Each treadmill has a TV attached, so maybe I can find the nature channel or something and pretend I am walking outside.

While walking Wednesday night this is the scene I got to enjoy. God has shown me such beautiful sunsets while I have been walking and each one of them has been a little different, but always stunning! I am quickly running out of daylight hours to walk in. Getting out of work at 4:30 and I don't get to the park until 5:00 and I need about 2 1/2 hours to get in 10-12 miles. Towards the end of my walk last night it was really getting dark. I think I may move my walk to the academic spine here at UB. It is a few buildings that are connected. I could walk indoors, climb stairs and there are places where the spine is connected with tunnels to other buildings. I also am looking into maybe Fitness 19 and using the treadmills there (boring!). Maybe if I change it up between the treadmills and the elipticals it will be a little less boring, but I sure won't be getting to see sunsets like these doing the treadmill.

So exciting

I met with Lou Anne and Colleen from Northtowns Pregnancy Center last night. It was an amazing meeting. It really renewed my excitement about doing this walk. They had asked me to think about some of my specific prayer needs and let them know so they could include them in their e-mails. I have thought of what I need prayer for most right now (I am sure it will change as things move forward) but here are what I would appreciate prayer for right now:
1. Prayer for favor on the sponsorship requests submitted with Verizon, Ryka, Hilton and the requests I will be submitting to a printer and a sporting goods store. Please pray that God will show me any other areas that I should ask for further sponsorship and open those doors for me also.
2. People to walk with me or drive along with me even if they can only commit for one state or one city. My particular areas of worry are Wyoming and Nebraska where I could go 40-50miles without approaching a town. Having someone with a vehicle who would be able to pick me up and take me to a motel at night and then drop me off in the morning where I had left off on my walk the night before. I have the same concerns in areas with mountains, I don’t want to be stuck on the mountain at night.
3. Continued health and protection for my family especially my mother and daughter
4. Protection and healing for my body especially my feet. I have ruptured my right Achilles tendon and broke my left ankle so I have issues with pain when it is rainy or damp or I overdo it (I will definitely be overdoing it :))
5. Pray that I remain humble and always place God first in all that I do. Pray that I am always listening to His voice and walking where He has me walk, and speaking the words that He has me speak.
Thank you so much. Prayer is what I need most in all of this!

I should have the link to their website in a week. I will place it here so that you can all go and donate.

God is so Good!

Yesterday morning I was doubting everything. I was asking God to let me know that this walk was of Him. I know I can't do this without him by my side, it is just too much for me alone. While I was walking last night this the picture above is what I saw. It was so awesomely beautiful. The water ahead of me had this beautiful pink tinge, like a watercolor painting, that caused me to turn around and check out how beautiful the sunset was. There were this little silver fish (minows?) jumping out of the water that had me giggling. It was a good thing there wasn't anyone around me at the time, they would have thought I was nuts. As I watched a bunch of ducks in the water with the silver fish jumping all around them, I realized that those ducks had everything they needed right there. God provided for them and He will provide for me. All and all, it was a great night.

Not waiting to live my life

I watched just a short part of the interview with Valerie Harper last night. I was way too tired to watch the whole thing. One thing she said really stuck out for me. She said that after her diagnosis she decided to live life to it's fullest. That is what I want, to live life to it's fullest, but I have no intention of waiting to find out I only have a short time to live before doing it. I guess that kind of sums up why I have decided to walk. I don't want to wait to live life. I want to experience all that I can of life now while I can still enjoy so much of it. There is so much out there that I haven't seen or done. I almost wish March was here now, but I am glad it isn't. I still have soooo much to do!

I walked 21.58 miles on Saturday. I can do this!! It was a nice easy pace. There were butterflies everywhere. That really made me smile. I got in 13 miles by 2pm and then ate some lunch at a nice little restaurant and relaxed for a while. I had a great phone conversation with a good friend while I was eating my lunch. Then I walked some more, checked out the wine and chocolate festival while walking and also checked out a garage sale.

This is what it will be like, getting in about 20 miles a day and taking time to enjoy the little things along the way. I do relize that there will be times when it wont be this great. Times when I will have to get 30 or more miles in to find the next town. Times when it will be rainy and cold and I will be miserable and just want to go home. But I am hoping that most of my time will be enjoying the little surprizes along the way like a nice little cafe with great food, the colors that God has used to paint the grasses, flowers, skies, water. Meeting and talking to new people, and most of all time spent alone in prayer and conversation with my Lord.

Started to request sponsorship

Hurray, it is Friday at last. I sent a proposal for sponsorship to Verizon and sent an e-mail requesting sponsorship to RYKA. I love RYKA sneakers, they are all I wear, so having them supply my sneakers would be great. I am trying to get Verizon to cover my wireless bill, Noelle's internet (she will be my main contact and will be the one sending out press releases for me)a notebook so I can continue to blog on my walk and an Ipod to have music on the road and the newer ones track your fitness (miles walked). We will see what comes of it. Keep me in prayer for these everyone please. That would be two major expenses taken care of for me. I'm gonna also speak to at least one major hotel/motel chain to see what they will do for me. It would be nice to have the sleeping situation somewhat taken care of before hand. I have also been contacting the visitor centers for all the states I am traveling through. The more information I can get the better.

I am supposed to meet with Northtowns Pregnancy Center sometime next week and Noelle is trying to get me a contact name at the Blind Association. Things are starting to move!!

Thank you everyone for your support so far and for all of the prayers!