You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles, and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die."

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?

The Answer:
Place 1 white marble in one bowl, and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (40 white, and 50 blacks). This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with just one white marble, therefore life! BUT even if you choose the other bowl, you still have ALMOST a 50/50 chance at picking one of the 49 white marbles.

So how did you do? What would you have done? Can you image being in a position to make a choice like this? I stumbled upon this yesterday in the mail from Duke University TIP Program and knew immediately that I wanted to share this with you. It wasn't until I was typing the answer that I realized why this particular brain teaser resonated with me so much. See I was once faced with a 50/50 proposition and I knew the answer to my "teaser" would also change my life significantly. The possibility of an untimely death was also involved.

In December, 1999 I discovered that the breast cancer gene BRCA1 was in my family and that it was probable that my mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 31, had this gene. It was explained to me by a certified genetic counselor that this meant I had a 50/50 chance of having it. If I fell on the good side of 50/50 I would have a normal population of breast cancer risk. But if I fell on the wrong side, I would be at high risk for not only breast cancer but ovarian cancer as well. It was my choice whether or not I wanted to undergo genetic testing to find out which side I fell on. What would you do?

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles, and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die."

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?

Answer tomorrow.

After a little digging I have also found out that previvor was one of 20 words under consideration for the New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year for 2007. Unbelievable! Locavore ended up winning but we were in the running which is absolutely amazing.

Locavore was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” Kudos to them.

So, I then checked Merriam-Webster.com to see what was up over there. Their Word of the Year for 2007 was w00t. The defininition is of expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay". An example of how to use it could be, "w00t! I won the contest!" I also discovered that previvor was submitted anonymously on Sept. 15, 2007 to their open dictionary and from another source discovered that it was actually their Word of the Day on Sept. 18, 2007. w00t for that! (Sorry, couldn't wait to use it!) Apparently Merriam-Websters process for choosing the words is a voting process which this year was from May, 2007 thru December 7, 2007. This means previvor could not have been in the running since it had been submitted during the time the voting was open. So, fingers crossed for next year, or following years. Afterall, w00t was submitted back in 2005!

I would love to eventually see previvor in the dictionary, both Merriam-Webster and the New Oxford American. w00t! That would be terrific!

Quick post to say hello from San Antonio. Been here since Wednesday for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference. A lot of fun and feels great sharing information on FORCE. Being here reminds me of why dh and I are in the process of redefining our families priorities. It's an amazing experience to see all the researchers and doctors who are here for breast cancer. Further, to see all the work being done for the high-risk group is amazing as well. It grows and grows at each conference.

There are five of us here; our executive director and three other outreach coordinators (from Houston, LA and Chicago) - plus myself. What's amazing in itself is three of us are pre-vivors. Normally I'm here with mostly cancer survivors and it's challenging because pre-vivors have our own set of issues. It's great to sit and talk with other women who completely understand everything you have gone through and different challenges we still face. I had never met the other women (with the exception of Sue, our executive director) but you would never know it. As soon as we meet, we share our stories and from that moment on it's as if we've always known each other. It's very surreal. We have been sharing what we have done in our communities and exchanging ideas of what we might want to do going forward.

It's awesome!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. My mom passed away from breast cancer when she was 35 years old. I miss her. Please visit FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered if you need information on hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

Just received this email from my step-sister who is the Senior Regional Director - Midwest for Autism Speaks:

"A Cure for Autism" is one of the top 25 semifinalists in American Express's Members Project competition. Autism Speaks is the "Fulfilling Organization" for the project, which was submitted by the mother of nine-year-old twin boys with autism. In order to advance to the next round, we need enough votes to land in the top 5. If this project wins, Autism Speaks can receive
up to $5 million from American Express. Voting for this round ends at 11:50PM EST on Sunday, July 22. If you are an AMEX cardholder, please visit: http://www.membersproject.com/Health_Fitness/50, and vote for "A Cure for Autism."

Please help us get the word out to as many people as possible!

Starting this off by saying sorry no pictures but I am including links this time!

The Beaudoin bunch was busy again as usual this weekend. It all started Thursday evening when we had an event at the Rascals ballpark. Fun time had by all. Took up the entire evening but was a blast and Chad got to go again this year. He took a friend with him and got to eat dip 'n dots, cotton candy, hotdogs and soda to name just a few. Quite amazing that he didn't have a stomach ache.

Then Friday morning we had a wonderful lunch with a wonderful person named Olivia. I'm linking you to Patti's site because she has already covered all the details. It was such a joy and what a great meal. I really must get the recipe for Chicken Salad. I've never made it before and it was so yummy! Seriously good.

On the way home we stopped by a friends house to take a look at his son (age 12) new Legend series race car. Boy am I glad my boys got out of racing when they did because I saw both my husbands and son's eye get that "really want one" look. No boys, it's too late. We are done!

Next we met with a personal trainer who is going to give dh and I workout advise and instruction. We liked her immediately! Her personality seemed to fit just right with ours. At least that's what I'm saying before our first workout! Will have to keep you updated on this one. My first attempt at working out with her is going to be on Wednesday of this week. Need to get an exercise ball and some small weights. Oops, forgot to pick those up this weekend! Must. put. on. TO DO. list.

Then Friday evening we went to our nieces sweet 16 surprise birthday party. There is no way she is 16. No way! But, she insists she is so we had to go with it. LOL!

Yes, and we are not done yet... Saturday mornish we (JB, Chad, father-in-law, and myself) went to volunteer serving food at the Mary Ryder Home. What a delightful experience and one I am so glad to have shared with both my son and my father-in-law. We ended up being there longer then expected but we really had a good time. Chad and I manned the bbq sauce. Chad drove the cart and I put the sauce on all the ladies (and one mans) hamburger and hotdogs. So much fun! I could not believe some of those ladies had 3 hotdogs! The favorite were the deviled eggs and sugar free cake at the end. This is definately something we will do again next year and hopefully Alex will be able to attend as well. It was a memorable experience and was so sweet when the ladies would thank us for our help. The bbq was something they look forward to every year. Was great to be a part of it.

On the way home I made the guys stop at a couple estate sales. You know how much I love those! But, I just wasn't into them this time. Chad summed it up perfectly. Kind of odd going from the Mary Ryder Home where these ladies (and one man) are very low income and need a home and help to looking for material objects at estate sales. So, we stopped doing that and headed home. Just great to be with my boys (and thinking of Alex).

Saturday night was the first time we just hung out, with our neighbors again. So much fun and always a joy to be with them.

Sunday bright and early dh and I ran to the grocery store and got some food. Big deal at our house! Chad was oh so happy!! Then we spent the rest of the day at our neighbors house helping her get ready for their baby which is due in the next couple of weeks. They recenly moved in and have too much to do before the due date so neighbors to the rescue. We ended up putting up chair rail in the baby's room and the Dining Room. Put together 3 ceiling fans and hung up 10 window treatments. It was a full fledge Trading Spaces type of day - without the trading part. LOL! The plan was Chuck and I were going to do the chair rail but dh ended up helping him and I worked a majority of the day making blocks of wood for four window treatments to extend the brackets because they were cut too short (oops, wrong measurement - not me!). But it all got done and made us all feel really good to be able to help.

To finish off the weekend, this evening we went out to dinner with our niece to celebrate her actual birthday.

Man am I tired! Although we are normally busy, this weekend was unusually busy. I told dh that I didn't want another weekend like this one for awhile. I need some downtime. I need to be able to work on a quilt for this baby and work on finishing our kitchen update. Fingers crossed I'll have time soon!!!

First post for February, 2007. Where has the time gone?

Decided today to create my own sixdegrees.com charity banner for my blog. Check it out ---------------------------------------------------------->.

Such a good idea! (Wish I had thought of it!)

What happened to my blog? Why is my sidebar down at the bottom? I know HTML but this I can't figure out. Until such time I can get this fixed, please excuse the mess.

CathyZ's blog is back up and it's ironic that I should visit it this evening. Cathy's blog today was about a friend and neighbor of hers that passed away from cancer (melanoma). It's a beautiful tribute to her. I decided to visit her friends blog that is still up and was touched by reading her words and thoughts as she went through the last months of her life. It saddened me because I look at her two boys and I understand exactly what they are going through at this very moment, having lost their mom. Words absolutely cannot describe what they are feeling right now.

Same evening, few moments apart, I visit FORCE's website for our annual fundraising, awareness raising chat-a-thon. Our chat room is open and active 24 hours a day for two days straight. It's a unique and fitting event for FORCE. FORCE is a website about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. It's for individuals that are interested in learning about how family history can play a part in breast and ovarian cancer and how there is a link between the two cancers. I'm a veteran of FORCE and have been on the board of directors of FORCE for many years now. Unfortunately I've had to take a break from active participation outside of my bod responsibilities for a couple years as my focus has had to be on our families business but I will be back in full FORCE soon enough. This evening at the chat-a-thon, conversations were being had about some dear FORCE friends who have passed and one who are currently ill. Just brings up a lot of feelings.

Ironic that two sites I go tonight are expressing those same feelings and thoughts. Of course it all makes me think of my mother, what I went through (which I will blog later about), family and friends. I've known way too many people who have been afflicted and affected by cancer; lymphoma, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, throat cancer - to name only a few. Cancer is such as horrible disease. It robs people of so much. It sucks.

Ok - enough of that. To bring me back out of my zone I hear Oscar boy SNORING away LOUDLY in the other room. LOL! I have to say he makes me smile and giggle absolutely every day. He reminds me to slow down and enjoy the little moments. The way he sits on us, the way he holds his head. The way my boys (and dh) interacts with him. My dh asked Oscar to jump in his lap the other day while he was sitting in his new chair. That just doesn't happen! I just look at him and laugh. Someday I hope to capture in a picture what I see - so far I have been unable to do it. Then I move to Zoe and think just how pretty she is. Chad made a comment about how different they are and I told him we have beauty and the beast (a cute beast but one none the less). LOL! We laughed. I've always looked at my kids this way but it's fun to see animals in a new light. I'm think I'm turning into one of those crazy dog people. LOL!

Sorry for the delay but here's the proof of our scrapbooking weekend. What a fun time we had. The biggest challenge was hauling all our stuff in there and then trying to decide if we wanted to keep it there overnight while we slept for a few hours. Here's a link to more photos. I tried to embed the photo album here but it didn't work like I had hoped. When all else fails, create a link I say!

What's so exciting is Patti, Tammy and I have another scrapbooking adventure in a couple weeks. We are taking an Ali Edwards class in Illinois which I can't wait for. Only thing is I haven't done a thing on my homework and some of my pictures that I want to use are on slides. I need to get working on that because it may take some time to get prints from slides!

Nothing else blog worthy going on here. Starting to get geared up for Christmas. Excited about Friday because that is when we get our Christmas tree!!! Love that! Also, can't wait until tomorrow because Thanksgiving is always wonderful. Can't wait to eat some turkey and mashed potatoes and sit and talk with my family.

To everyone - have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not very political and I usually don't get involved in controversial issues but this is different. My family believes in stem cell research as it offers a chance and hope for a cure for many devostating diseases.

My family could greatly benefit from stem cell research:

• My son is Type 1 Diabetic. He is faced with a life most of us don't understand. Children on shots living into their sixties will have close to 75,000 shots in their lifetime. Think about this, 75,000 shots in their lifetime. I use this example simply because this is something us non-diabetic people could identify with or attempt to grasp. But reality is diabetes is much more then shots. He is faced with a future of debilitating issues that I as his mother can't bring myself to fully internalize. Diabetes on numerous levels sucks and I want it gone. Stem cell research provides a hope for a cure.
• My family has been directly impacted by cancer, deeply. My mother died when she was only 35 years old of breast cancer. I was 12 years old at the time and an only child. It was a lonely horrible time in my life. I was at high-risk for both breast and ovarian cancer myself due to hereditary predispositions. There are numerous other cases of cancer both in my family and my husbands family. Stem cell research provides a hope for a cure so other children don't have to experience a loss of a parent to cancer.

I know that when we hear the words stem cell, the first things that pop into peoples minds are embryonic stem cells and human cloning issues. Important issues but what do you really know about those topics? Is that all there is about stem cell research? It has been my experience that those that don't agree with stem cell research really don't know much about it. If you fall into this category (and that's ok if you do) all I'm asking is that you open minded and do some research on the subject. Don't just say you are against something if you haven't educated yourself on the topic. And, don't just let others tell you what you should believe - no matter who they are. I challenge you to read up on the initiative and Amendment 2 in Missouri. Educate yourself to what is really going on. Understand it. Take the information you have learned to the sources that disagree with it and discuss it further. Get all sides of the issue. I challenge and ask you to then and only then to make an informed decision on your position on stem cell research.

To help get you started on your research, check out The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. This is a great site with a lot of useful information about the subject. The site also contains links to additional sites with even more information - the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is one of those sites. Use this information. Take the time to learn about it. You owe it to yourself and to others to make an informed decision.

That's enough of that for now. I've got to go because I"m in the process of doing my research. Afterall I need to be able to speak intelligently to others about the issue to those who ask questions or state inaccurate facts. Education is the power we have. No matter what your final decision - that's what it's all about!