Christine

Ok so Allysin keeps telling me to be honest so here goes. I am the Mother of this quiver full of children and I'm truly in the wait and see mode. As stated by Eve Allysin does come up with some out there ideas {don't know where she gets that trait from} and she is real good at getting people on board but it seems as soon as she gets everyone excited about an idea, she looses interest. It especially happens when I get on board because if I think something is good then she says its not. If I say something is white she says its black. You get the idea. I feel like the week before the run Allysin will get moody and say she's not doing it and I'll feel like I have to push to make her do it. Have you ever faced off a bull in the bull ring, well its kinda like that but worse.
     Still the posiblity of uniting our family is truly a desire of my heart, but does not seem to be based in reality. We couldn't get from our house to the Christmas Eve service at church tonight without major disagreements. How on earth are we going to train and run together in Run for the Cure. Good thing I believe in miracles. Help me Jesus. On top of my disire to pull the family together I know there is a longing to find a cure for cancer. A year ago thanksgiving my Dad was standing on a ladder yelling at my brother-in-law, telling him how to put the siding on the cottage. He had just found out he had bone cancer but still felt he had plenty of time. 2 wks later he was in hospital with an infection. 3 more weeks, he had fallen during his recovery and broke his hip. At which time he prayed and asked Jesus into his heart. After years of him being angry that I was a Christian, it was a long looked for miracle and I was ready for my Dad to go. I didn't want to watch him get sicker and sicker. I prayed for him to die. But God pulled him through his hip surgery and I had 2 really nice weeks of closeness. But the the bitterness and questions returned and a year ago today, he yelled at me how he wasn't a Christian. I went to last years Christmas Eve service crying and so angry at God for not answering my prayer for my Dad to die. This year I went to the Christmas Eve service crying because he was no longer here and I miss him. My Dad died last April, after 4 months of pain and agony at the hand of bone cancer. I cling to those 2 wonderful weeks after his hip surgery and a few special moments over those long months. So I'll start this journey to Run for the Cure in hopes that a cure can be found.
Blessings....Chris

Eve

Heyy
         I'm Eve the third youngest, fourth oldest of the six kids. When my sister Allysin told me about the idea of being in RUN FOR THE CURE I thought it was just one of her crazy ideas. She always comes up with these ideas but we just never do them, which I'm kinda happy about because I normally don't like her ideas, no offense Allysin. But apparently this isn't one of those ideas, she's serious.
        I told Allysin I do NOT want to do this, but actually I do. (hehe) I didn't want to do it because I don't like running and things like that. Like cross country, I didn't want to do that but when I did it turned out to be fun. Now I do want to do this run because there is actually a good cause to it and I can help benefit others.
        I like the idea of running for cancer because it supports my friends if they ever had cancer, I know people including myself who have relatives who had cancer and died and I don't want to see my friends or I die from cancer. So knowing I can help find a cure inspires me to run.
         I think the hardest part is when we actually go to the run in September, I think I'll probably have a freak out because I don't like GOING to things like this. I don't think the training will be hard, I think it will be fun. I am already a pretty good runner and this will just push me a little harder.
         I hope that this blog and people reading my families stories will help inspire others to RUN FOR THE CURE too.
Sincerely,
- Eve

Allysin

Hmmm...
       Describing yourself is always a challenge. There are so many different things you could say. Like I said in my first blog post I'm the second oldest of six kids. I'm in college, Bible College, more specifically. People probably describe me by saying I'm pushy and demanding. It's probably true. I love to organize and plan things. Hence why putting together this blog and planning thirteen weeks of training for the run is all my idea, and my job. 
          I love my family and really want to see them and myself step up and change the way we have been living. It just so happens that this fall with the stress that came with school I turned to the gym as a way of releasing that stress, and running quickly became my favorite activity. So the idea of running a 5k is so exciting to me. As well as just having that goal to really work towards is motivational for me. 
         I am really excited to see my family join together and work towards this. My sister and I thought about running for different causes, but cancer was the one that stood out the most to us. Our world has seen so much pain brought because of cancer. Not only for those who have had or have cancer but for the family members who have lost loved ones because of cancer. It breaks my heart every time someone tells me about a loved one being sick with cancer. The feeling of helplessness that individual experiences, knowing that there is nothing that they can personally do to help their loved one, is almost overwhelming. But doing this run, and raising funds for this cause I can finally do something to help. Although it cannot heal the hurt or remove the cancer I plan to run because of the hope that it brings. 
        My family knows best, I am a visionary, I have plenty of ideas, and most of them are really good, but I suck at following through. But this run is something I really want to do, I really want to stick it out and complete it. I want to see what can come if I persevere. I know my parents think that I won't stick to this plan to run, but I want to prove them wrong. I am doing this run to not only prove to my parents that I can say I'll do something and stick to it, but to also prove to myself that I can reach my goals. 
       I'm excited to see all my hard work pay off, and I'm excited to see my family come together over this. 

Infinite x's and o's
- Allysin

Beth

Hey!
        I'm third oldest of the six kids. My name is Beth Wiedemann. My family started this blog because they wanted to enter the RUN FOR THE CURE. At first I thought this was a really dumb idea, but when I started to think about it I thought it would be a great way for me to stand up for something. I don't normally do things like that.
        My sister Allysin told me about this first, and right away I was like this is so dumb why is she doing this? But when I heard what it was for, I started to think this really would be the right thing for me to do. I think this would be good because it is a way for our family to connect and grow stronger together. This is something that we are all uniting for.
       I think the biggest challenge is going to be remembering to practice and to go for all my runs and really training for this. I think that my physical activity has gone up a lot since last year but I still have a long way to go before I can run 5k's.
        I am excited to run for a reason. This is an awesome thing to do for everyone to try at lest once before they're unable to participate in something like this.
So I hope my journey will inspire those of you reading this to go out there and find a cause and participate in it. As well I hope my training will inspire others to be persistent and persevere in their dreams.

Lots of love,
- Beth

In The Beginning....

Once Upon A Time...
            There was mother who was passionate about family. She was married to her husband and together they had five beautiful girls and one handsome boy.As each one of the children grew older they developed unique personalities and interests. Often it seemed these interests would pull the family apart because each one wanted to live life their own way. This left their mother wondering how she would keep the family together no matter what happened in their lives. 


            And so that bring us to the present day. Hey, I'm Allysin, the second oldest of the six children. My older sister and I are attending college away from home. This holiday season we came home and together came up with a genius idea. This idea would combine my mom's, my older sister's and my passions into one goal. 


           As previously mentioned my mom is passionate about her family and wants nothing more then for us to stay close to each other even as life takes us on different journeys, she loves us all so much and would do anything for us. My older sister is passionate about charities and non-profit organizations, she is always looking for someway to benefit the global community. And then of course there is me. I am passionate about seeing transformation of my families lifestyle into a healthy, athletic one. 


          So you might be wondering what is this genius idea that my sister and I came up with? Well like I said, my sister and I are home for the holidays and we were talking and realized it would be the greatest thing if our family entered the RUN FOR THE CURE 5k coming up next September. We would enter our family as a team and run together. Now some of you may think this task is not so complicated but let me tell you trying to convince eight individuals that they all want to work together for the same cause is harder then it seems. As well my family has not always practiced an athletic lifestyle, and for some individuals it has been years since they have ran. But we have all agreed that we will give it our best shot.


          So why RUN FOR THE CURE? Well it is no secret that most individuals in North America know at least one person who has been effected by cancer. And my family is no exception to this. My grandfather, my great grandmother, and a close neighbor have all died from cancer. And our family would love to be able to raise funds to help discover a cure for cancer.


       This 5k is no easy task for my family. We will begin training in January, my sister and I will be heading back to college and so our family will use this blog to help motivate and encourage each other as we struggle towards this goal. We will train together, fund raise together, and race together. Our hope is that through this blog we can assist each other in overcoming the obstacles that stand in our way. As well we hope that through our struggles and victories we will inspire those who read our blog to get active, unite with your families and do something for the world around you. If our family can do this, so can yours! 


Infinite x's and o's

-Allysin

www.runforthecure.com