HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

In Memory of Dad

Dear Family and Friends,

I would like to start by thanking everyone who sponsored my team in last year's Walk to Defeat ALS®!

Through your generous support and participation, we helped the Tennessee Chapter raise more than $350,000 statewide and celebrated the progress we are making in the fight against ALS.

As most of you know, I support the ALS Association because I lost my dear, sweet, amazing father, Clinton, to this horrible disease. It is a disease with no treatment, no cure, and no known cause. In some cases it appears to be hereditary, and in some cases it does not. ALS is a complete mystery. In most cases it strikes randomly, and it almost always kills within 3-5 years of diagnosis. It is a horrible disease which slowly paralyzes its victims, robbing them of their ability to walk, talk, eat and, eventually, breathe. Most die from loss of lung function—in essence, they suffocate.

I'm sure many of you are like me in that your family has been affected by many different diseases. In my own family cancer is prevalent, as is diabetes. Both of these have taken the lives of close family members. But nothing I've ever seen is as awful as ALS. It is a horrible disease and WE MUST FIND A CURE.

Please help. Give whatever you can...every $5 gift makes a difference.

A large percentage of the money raised by our Walk stays right here in the community where it is spent to help ALS patients and their families deal with the enormous financial burden brought on by ALS. Care of an end-stage ALS patient can cost as much as $200,000 a year. This disease is not only emotionally devastating to families, but financially devastating as well. Our chapter does our best to help through programs like equipment loans, respite care and communications assistance.

My hope for this year's Walk is to raise even more money and bring more friends and family with us on Walk Day! To do this, I am again asking for your support by making a gift to The ALS Association or by joining me as a participant on Walk Day.

Simply click on the link below to visit my personal fundraising page and donate directly online or join me as a Walk participant. You may also choose to send your contribution in the form of a check. Please make all checks payable to The ALS Association and send them to me at the following address:

Charla Lancaster
17 Thorndale Court
Nashville, TN 37215

Thank you again for supporting me in the fight against ALS. I appreciate your generosity and participation.

Click here to visit my personal page to donate.

Baby Isaac

If you pray, please say a prayer for this family today.

http://sgirl79.blogspot.com/

Fat and Happy

We just wrapped up a wonderful afternoon with food/friends/family, and I'm now full of roast beef and mashed potatoes and feeling very content. My Mom is in town and that's always an excuse to get everyone together for a big, raucous meal.

I always love having my friends and family in my home, and it doesn't happen often enough that we have a houseful of people as we did today. It makes me very, very happy.

Speaking of food, I ran out tonight and purchased The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. I've been a fan of this show for a long time and was excited to hear that they'd produced a cookbook. I haven't cooked a thing out of it just yet, but I'm loving it already--so much fun to read and as informative as the show always is. I can just hear Lynn Rossetto Kasper's voice as I'm reading the book (I love, love, love cookbooks you can READ, not just pull out when you need a recipe). So for you cookbook lovers--this is a good one!

True Colors

There are many things I could say about McCain's VP pick, but this is the one thing that stands out to me the most:

I am shocked...SHOCKED...at the onslaught of women judging Sarah Palin for her choice to be a strong, influential, working mother. It may not be the choice I would have made, but she seems to be a capable, confident woman, and I'm completely taken aback at the sheer number of what I thought were progressive women judging her for the choices she's made.

SHOCKED!

GO TROY!

We had a fabulous time at the game last night. It was certainly a walk down memory lane...I haven't been to a Troy game since 2003.

The highlight of my night was chatting with Dr. John Long, the longtime, highly-revered director of bands. I could not believe my eyes when I saw him...I have no idea how old he is now, but I thought he was old as dirt when I was at Troy. He looks great! It was such a pleasure to talk to him and to Ralph Ford, the current director of bands, who was an assistant when I was at Troy.

And, of course, the halftime show was amazing. As always.

Oh, and the football game was awesome as well! Troy 31 MTSU 17!!

The Joys of Home Ownership

So our house has foundation problems.

We had a contractor come out to check it out today...next step, I'm afraid, is a structural engineer. This could be big bucks, and I'm a little sick about it.

Hopefully our home insurance will cover all or some of the cost of repairs, depending on what they determine as the cause.

You can see in this photo the crack in the front exterior wall of our house (the bay window has shifted forward almost an inch).

The good news is that the damage seems to be limited to just the bay window, which, we're told, is not on the same foundation as the main structure of the house. The bad news is it's shifted significantly, and I'm afraid the entire window is going to fall out into the front yard!

Good times!