Pics From the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Research Walk

Below are some pictures from the Heartland Team that participated in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Research 5K walk.



The Ride to the Walk














The Pre-Walk Smoke














The Heartland Team















Warming Up















Hoofing It...Power Walkers Unite!!!














The Recovery Period












It was a great time! I would encourage everyone to join in next year, even if you aren't a Heartlander...

Weigh Cool

I'm glad that my blog has done some good in the world. I want to give a shot out to my friend, Beth, who is joining the body sculpting challenge. Once she is in the great Hoosier state, I will have a new workout buddy. I can't wait!

I participated in the 5K Breast Cancer walk yesterday, and it was so much fun! I didn't even feel like it was exercise. Special thanks to Kat, David, Eddy, Corrie, Jessica, Bob, Teddie, Georgette, Heather, J Dub and kids, Erik and wife, Maria and kids, Alex, Angie, KeeKee and Tarayah for joining me. I'm convinced that by next year I'll be able to run it with 1 year of dedicated exercising under my belt. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'll get some pics from work and post them.

Mission Possible

I work at a fantastic company, Heartland Payment Systems. Our CEO has created a "Fitness Club" for all interested employees which consists of free salads daily for lunch, aerobics classes (my fav is Hip-Hopercize by Tanika of TNT Fitness), and a state of the art fitness center packed full of the newest and best weight training equipment, as well as a Playroom for the times that you have to bring the kiddos along to your workout sessions. We are tracking our weight loss, and at the end of the 20+ week contest, members of the club have a chance to win either an all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii, tickets and a trip to the Superbowl, or a $5000 gift card for a new wardrobe. Our company is very good to their employees.

The days of making excuses are over. It is time to lose weight, get fit, stay lean, and live longer. One of my coworkers, Teddie, has convinced me (somehow) to meet him at the gym at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to workout before we have to report to work at 8. I'm not sure how he talked me into participating in this early morning torture session, but I've committed to being there. Thanks to Corrie, who selected the equipment, I will be utilizing muscles tomorrow that I didn't even realize I had. I'm hopeful that this time around, my body will not go into such shock, and I won't feel quite such a burn for the next few days. Please don't make me relive the left calf incident from last week. I hobbled around for days until finally, my leg didn't feel like a "Charlie Horse" was coming on.

When the exercise starts paying off, I'll be sure to post some "After" pics. There is a skinny girl instead just dying to get out and strut her stuff.

Pics of the offspring

I've been asked by my lovely grandmother, Dee Haymaker, to add some pictures of my children. Fine...here you go. Enjoy!

Landon: The Early Months

Landon: Now at 18 months

Lauren: The Early Years

Lauren: Now at 5

I'm Not Mean, You're Just Stupid

Back by popular demand, it's me, Cara G. It's pronounced 'care-uh'. Don't even come at me with 'car-uh' or I'll smack you right through your face. No, just kidding. Or maybe not. It's really a tough call with me sometimes, and I recognize that I am a meanie.

I am on a mission to be nicer. Vanilla Nice-that's my rap name. No, really...I have realized that I am a great big ball of fire, and I'm good with that. My moods swing like the rope (not the pole) that Georgette hurt herself on. Maybe it's the stress (see previous post) or maybe it's just that in my older age, I'm growing more and more weary in dealing with petty issues. Come on, we're all adults here. Let's face the facts that there are just some really stupid people in the world.


Okay, I feel much better now. On to more interesting topics...like the "Cara Fever".

I don't want to reveal too much about this serious affliction, but let me tell you brothers and sisters, it is real. I think it's my innate ability to remain aloof and emotionally unattached. I can get the boys to come a'runnin'. It's insane! Maybe it's because I joke and make 'em laugh and make them feel so good about themselves, and then I just get up and walk away to talk to someone else more interesting. I don't know. It must be a challenge to see if they can actually snag me. Sometimes I tease and hold my arms out in front of me, moving them up and down, saying "I am the Puppet Master", but sometimes I wonder if I really am. It's too bad most lie about having girlfriends (or worse...wives), but either way, I am so not looking to date. I'm fresh out of a 7 year relationship, and I sure don't want another headache. I'm very content just being single, happy, free, and independent. If you ever hear about the "Cara Fever", just know that sometimes it lays dormant, but it always results in periodic outbreaks, and there is no cure.

I love being me ;)

Eat That Frog

Alrighty, folks. What are we up to? Post #3? After a 12-hour day at work, I would like to focus today on time management (or my lack thereof).

Ever feel like you are going a bazillion miles a minute? Ever feel like you have been thrown in deep water without a second to swim up to the surface to take a quick breath? Ever want to just throw your hands up and say "I GIVE UP!!!"? Well, friends, I hear ya!

I've had a busy past couple of days at work, well, actually a busy past couple of years. My job is fantastic, and I love the work I do, where I work, and who I work with. I don't think I'm so naive to say that I'm a lifer, but I certainly see myself at Heartland for the next 10 years or so. I look forward to getting up and heading to work. My team is absolutely amazing, and I am so proud that I am associated with such fine folks. I think it's probably rare to find people at my age who enjoy their careers as much as I do.

By the time I'm home from work, I barely have enough time to cook dinner/eat, help Lauren with homework, bathe the kids, and put them to bed. It's amazing how I find time to post on here, check my MySpace, send a few hotboxes on LouMojo, check my personal e-mail, check my work e-mail, and send text messages. I avoid Yahoo Messenger like the plague, because it seems to suck up all of my free time when I do login. Gosh, I wish I wasn't so popular. ;)

I read a book a few months back regarding time management called, "Eat That Frog". The premise of the book was that we are faced with a bunch of ugly frogs every day. Some small, some huge. It's best just to tackle the biggest frog, and get that one out of the way, and then focus of the little stuff. E-mail is probably my biggest time drain at work. I get approximately 250 e-mails/day, and most of them require research or some gifted, inspired, politically correct response. I wish I didn't have to spend so much time sugar coating and making recipients feel warm and fuzzy, but that's the name of the game sometimes. Today, I stayed late just to put a dent in my e-mails, but I didn't even get half of what I wanted to get accomplished.

Rob (the soon to be ex-husband) always said that work was my life. I was quick to correct him that in reality, my kids were my life, and work was just a way to buy them all of the things I wanted them to have. He always was a tightwad. My career was a contributing factor to the demise of my marriage, but not in a negative way as you might have suspected. By growing in my career at HPS, I was able to become self-sufficient. I can now provide for my kids on my own, while still maintaining a very comfortable lifestyle without a second income.

So, thank you to HPS for paying me, and thank you to me for working my butt off. And thank you to all of the readers who have just read my never ending ramblings. And thank you to Chinatown Buffet for this wonderful chicken fried rice I have consumed while writing this post. Now, where is that fortune cookie?

Peace and love.

Church Observations

Please let me preface this blog by saying that I hope to not offend by the following thoughts, but I felt compelled to capture this and hopefully let my readers see things from a different perspective than they may be used to.

Girls and boys, I want to talk about church in today's blog. I've recently returned to attending church after a long hiatus. I was raised in church, and stayed in church until I moved out of my parents’ home as a teenager. I left church for many reasons, and don't so much feel like getting into that stuff today, but I do want to review a few of the observations since I've returned.

People love to talk about the good stuff. I often hear testimonies about miracles that God has done through healing, returning good medical test results, and making bad situations better. I think we should all realize that God isn't a genie granting wishes. You should still testify and believe even when that sickness lingers and when the test results that come back are discouraging. When that kid of yours is still out living the wild life and isn't listening to your direction as a parent, you should still be willing to testify that even though things are rough, you still believe there is hope. If we all focus of the good stuff, when bad stuff comes along (and it definitely will), we won't know what to do. Life sucks sometimes. That's the reality. To me, the true test of a Christian is how they handle the bad stuff.

Everyone's not happy. I cringe when people want to voice how great their life is in church. I think we should all realize that we have people in our church going through some really hard times. We should all be sensitive to the trials that our members and visitors are facing. Of course, everyone will clap when you want to praise your life and the blissfulness that you feel, because we're genuinely happy for you, but it's also easy to get down on your own situation when it looks like everyone around you is living a perfect life and having such an easy time with things. For example...I'm happy that your son was accepted to Yale. However, the lady next to me has a kid that just dropped out of high school. I am happy that your marriage is fantastic and your husband is your hero. However, me and the guy in the pew in front of me are both going through nasty divorces. I'm happy to hear that you got the biggest promotion of your career, but the gentleman 3 rows over is struggling to find a job to feed his kids and provide medical insurance for his family. I'm not saying that we should never speak of good things, but we should all be cognizant that people around us are hurting.

Sometimes the best presenters aren't professionals. I love nothing more than to see a person who doesn't claim to be a "singer" get up and belt out a tune that is coming from their heart, even though they may hit a sour note from time to time. Some of my best memories of singers at church include Bill Nichols and Peg Burden getting up and singing the Lighthouse song a cappella. I can see clearly the vision of Peg with that gorgeous, beaming smile (even as she sang) with Bill looking up as if to sing directly to God. They meant every word that came out of their mouths, and everyone in the building could feel it. Whew, I get goose bumps just recalling that memory. I love when Leigh Ann King testifies. She isn't boastful, and is very nervous, but every word that she says comes from her heart, and you can tell that if she didn't get up and speak, she would just explode. I can remember testimonies that my own grandfather, Lawrence Haymaker, would deliver. Even as a kid, I recognized that he wasn't a man of many words, so when he stood in church to say something, a hush would fall over the crowd to hear what this quiet man had to say. His words were impactful and again, heartfelt. These are the memories that made an impression on me.

I miss those days. Our church had a very humble beginning in a machine shop. We would get there early to roll out the carpet that covered the oil stained, concrete floor and setup folding chairs in rows. And likewise, at the end of each service we would all fold up the chairs and roll up the carpet so that the next morning, the machine shop could resume business as usual. What happened between those two events can never be recreated. The few members in the early days are still considered as the prayer warriors of the new church. As the church grows and the fancy buildings are constructed, we shouldn't ever lose sight of the original vision. Truth, Sincerity, Belief, Values, Honesty, Caring, Encouragement, Strength...these are the key words that I learned which served as my life lessons during the early days of the church. I am very blessed to have been raised up in that environment and having made the lasting relationships with church folk that feel more like family to me. I miss those days.

Me...YAY!

By the way, here's the most recent pic of me. Helps to put a face with a blog ;)

How cute! It's a brand spankin' new blog...

Howdy, all! I've noticed recently that all of the "cool" people are creating and maintaining blogs (namely Beth Spencer who is the most awesome person I've ever met {next to Jessie Smith who is automatically the coolest person I'm related to because she is so much like me, just a little nicer}). I'm definitely not one to allow my personal level of coolness to drop, so I'm joining the blog revolution. My life isn't extremely interesting, and I don't have a cause that I am fighting for, but I do love having an audience. I wouldn't say I'm shallow or attention-craved. I'm just extremely extroverted, and get completely energized interacting with other people.

For those of you that may be reading this and asking yourself, "Who in the world is this blogger?", please allow me to provide a little insight into where I am right now in my life.

I'm in the process of going through a divorce. Before you even start in about the sanctity of marriage and how I am a horrible person for leaving my husband, let me assure you that I honestly could not care less about what you think. Trust me, I have Deola as a grandmother. She doesn't sugar coat, and I've been beaten up enough about it over the past few months. I'm sorry if I am a disappointment to those that believe you should stay in a marriage, no matter what trials and tribulations may come. I'm a quitter. I recognize that. I own it. I embrace it. I celebrate it. I'm just not marriage material. I absolutely hate having to ask for permission and I don't like making decisions as a team. I don't need another Daddy, and I don't need anybody to help me make my dreams a reality. You may think I sound like a whinny, selfish brat. If so this is for you..."I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you think bounces off of me and sticks to you." HA! There...take that! Okay, so enough of the defensive divorcee babble for now.

My two amazingly brilliant children are Landon-18 months and Lauren-5. Lauren is Cara Jr. She is sassy, independent, strong-willed, and stubborn and doesn't let "No" stop her from getting what she wants. She's a little more sensitive than I am, but I blame that on her age. She never meets a stranger. Lauren brings so much joy into my life, and I really feel like her friend in addition to being her mother. I bought her a set of SpongeBob "Best Friends" bracelets for her birthday, and told her she could take one to school and give it to her best friend. She said that she wanted me to have it, since I was her best friend. If I were more girly, I would have cried. Instead I threw the pink bracelet on my wrist and wore it proudly with my suit to work. In 10 years, when we are fighting about her trying to date or stay out past curfew, I'll put that bracelet on to remember that at one time in our lives together, she actually considered me to be her best friend.

On the other end of the spectrum is my boy. Landon is needy, clingy, and shy. His personality is the complete opposite of mine. He refuses to go to Nursery Church every Sunday morning since I'm not there. What can I say? He loves me more than anyone else, and I like that. I never could see myself with a son before he came along, but now that I have him, I can't see myself without him. Lauren and I are very close, but there is just something special about a Mother/Son relationship. He definitely is a Momma's Boy. I hope that some of the clinginess will fade a bit as he gets older, but over the past year and a half, I haven't seen much relief in sight. Feel free to pass along any tips if you've experienced this situation with your kids.

For the first time in my short 27 years, I am living on my own. I know...it's pathetic. I never realized that I had taken so many little things for advantage living with my husband for the past 7 years. I have been faced with killing spiders and adjusting water heater temperatures. I've unclogged drains and used a cordless drill. I hooked up the PlayStation 2 and hung a shelf. I configured and secured my wireless router. Heck, I even broke into the bathroom when Lauren and Landon accidentally locked us out of it. Being on my own is scary and exciting, all at the same time. I've mastered renting an apartment, so the next challenge is finding, buying, and moving into a house. A house! A real house! A house that is all mine! My next big goal is buying a house within the next 6-12 months. I would love to stay within the Utica Elementary School district, because Lauren is just doing so great there, but I don't know that I really want to stay in Jeff. This is a work in progress, and I'll keep you updated on any developments in this area.

Okay, so now I'm boring myself. I think I've typed enough to help you understand what I'm thinking right now. Thanks for sharing my first blog. I sure hope you will come back for more.