Got EBB?

How much mud could a mud mama run if a mud mama could run mud?

Try and say that one 3 times really fast!  Well, all I can say… those Mama’s can run tons of mud amazingly!  Team EBB represented in full force on Saturday at the Lozilu Mud Run as the largest team with over 60 members!  We had a start time at 10:20 and started it off with the DJ playing OPP by Naughty by Nature, which got me doing jumping jacks of joy!  I was so excited in fact, that I biffed it through the first mud river trying to splash everyone.  Yep the photographer was right there and snapped a picture of it!  SO awesome!  The obstacles were super duper fun, the costumes were FREAKIN’ rainbowlicious and I could not have asked for a better group of women to kick cancer in the butt crack with!  Between the heat and mud we looked like chocolate covered tamalees by the end.  It was so hysterically fun and the best time I’ve had in a long time!  A very very special THANK YOU to everyone who has let Elizabeth’s life touch your heart and not just at the surface, but deep within to your soul.  Thank you for wanting to make a difference with who you are and the causes that you stand for.  Thank you for recruiting others, thank you for spreading the word, and especially thank you for covering yourselves in tons of mud as a gesture of your love for Elizabeth! 

So even with all of the fun times, I still managed to have two moments of tears on Saturday.  The first was when I saw Elizabeth’s friend Zoe standing there ready to run for Team EBB.  I am tearing just thinking about it as I write. You all may remember Elizabeth meeting Zoe on the 7^th floor at PCH New Year’s Eve.  Her and Elizabeth hit it off immediately and everyday after that when she was in the hospital she would ask me, “Is Zoe here?”  “Can we go and see Zoe?” She adores her so much!  Elizabeth is 5 and Zoe is 17, but Elizabeth has a connection with her and they are both bravely kicking lymphoma in the knee.   Seeing Zoe in the fight for her own life standing there tall, bald and proud with a look in her eyes saying “Cancer you have messed with the wrong girls and YOU WILL NOT WIN was enough to make any mama tear.  She is amazing and I am honored that she came out.  The other moment was when someone asked me how we came up with the tag line “Kicking Cancer in the Buttcrack”.  I began tell the story of how my friend Natalie headed up a cheer when Elizabeth was first diagnosed which went…Rah Rah Ree, Kick Lymphoma in the Knee, Rah Rah Rass, Kick it in the (other knee).  Every time Elizabeth gets ready to go into surgery or under anesthesia we chant that cheer over and over, but Elizabeth quickly began adding different body parts to each new verse.  Her favorite is always Rah Rah Ree Kick Lymphoma in the BUTTCRACK!  The memories of all she has conquered and bravely faced over the past seven months is overwhelming for this mama to think about when it comes to my beautiful five year old child.  I get very emotional thinking about it.  My heart aches to hear about other children continuing to be diagnosed and knowing what it is like to take on the biggest, scariest, toughest battle as a family.  Although we have got our very magical date of August 23, 2013 when Elizabeth will received her very last chemotherapy and we will start to be at clinic a little less, there is always a kiddo that is going to be there a little more and that breaks my heart.  I WILL NEVER EVER STOP FIGHTING FOR THESE CHILDREN!  Thank you thank you thank you for showing so much love and support!