Breast Cancer Awareness Month

   Ahhhh, it's October, the real beginning of fall, when the smell of the leaves crisping mixes with woodsmoke and fresh cool air.  It's also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I had no idea that breast cancer awareness had it's own month until this year, when I participated in a blog hop.
   What, you ask, is a blog hop?  Well, this is what I saw.  If anyone has a better explanation then please jump in with it.  One person organizes the hop.  They pull in a bunch more bloggers to participate.  They offer up blog candy to get readers to hop to each site.  The participating bloggers all state the rules of the hop, offer up blog candy or not, and show us readers projects that they made or writings that they wrote. 
  It was really neat because of course I'm hopping a craft blog hop.  I get to see all these wonderful crafts and I get so many ideas!  I love the colors everyone was using - of course pink for breast cancer - but there were so many shades of it!  One blog talked about using walnut stain.  I've been wanting to, but I haven't picked any up.  Now I have to.  I loved the way it just made a perfectly pink project look vintage!
   So besides the crafts, there was talk of friends and family and their journeys with cancer.  It was ok to talk about all kinds of cancer, not just breast, and it's amazing the number of lives touched by the C-word.  Almost everyone has someone that has been affected.  My nana was the first person I knew that got cancer.  It started out as breast cancer and it eventually spread to her bones and took her away from us.  I don't remember my nana with cancer though.  Just a little.  What I remember about her is that she loved the soft pretzels that were sold by a vendor in the mall about a mile from her house.  When we would visit, if we went to the mall, we would bring her home a soft pretzel with a small cup of yellow cheese and she would be so pleased!
   Several years ago, at my yearly exam, my doctor felt a lump in my breast.  I couldn't feel it.  They sent me for a mammogram and there was something on the film and in the sonogram.  Because my nana had breast cancer they were quick to do a biopsy.  It was benign, and I was so thankful, and I get a mammogram every year now.  I'd rather be safe than sorry.
   That said, cancer runs in my family.  My aunt died of lung cancer.  My dad had prostate cancer.  I quit smoking two years ago.  Cold turkey.  I told myself I could buy scrapbook supplies with the money I saved from buying smokes.  I could pick up a smoke at any time and start again, but I don't.  Every day is a challenge.  I'm trying to beat the odds by exercising and eating right.
   I'm aware of breast cancer.  Check yourself every month, your girls will thank you.