Anything For A Good Cause – Well, Almost Anything!


WILD and CRAZY2

Hi! I’m Abbe and I live in a VERY small town in Southeastern Iowa. I grew up here and I pretty much love it. It’s one of those nice little places where you find out from your neighbors and friends what you’ve been up to. 😉 Typically around here, and in my family, it’s “stay under the radar” and “don’t rock the boat” so I was raised to be quite reserved. If I didn’t know you, I didn’t talk to you unless I absolutely had to. You could say I was almost painfully shy. I also was not into sports or anything because then I’d have to {shudder} INTERACT! I stuck with being a music nerd and good girl. And I loved my food. Eating, cooking, anything.
I ended up getting married to a guy who also grew up in my small town, we have two amazing boys, and we ate like pigs. It was pretty disgusting, looking back on it. Anything fried was awesome. Fattening and made of nasty chemicals? OF COURSE! I’ll have three!!!  Part of it was just ignorance of what is really healthy and how nasty fried foods and prepackaged foods really are for a person, and part of it was pure laziness. I ended up tipping the scales at a whopping 230 lbs. I saw that number and I decided that was not going to work. That was the beginning of my weight loss journey. And oh, what a journey it has been!!! We went from prepackaged chicken nuggets and French fries for supper to quinoa frittata with spinach and carrots. From frosted flakes for breakfast to eggs and yogurt. It’s been QUITE a change!
Along with a physical change, I have also gone through a mental change. I had never been an overly positive person, just average you could say. I noticed how good I felt after a tough workout and my attitude, the way I was thinking, simply started changing. I wanted more from life. Not just to sail through, under the radar, working my shift job to merely make ends meet. I started listening to leadership and self-improvement CDs, and I realized that the more positive input my brain had, the more positive thoughts I had, and the more positive output I was giving, to my family, my coworkers, and myself.
I have also somehow managed to surround myself with amazing people. I have a friend Kim who teamed up with me to start a choir locally for people with special needs. I also have an awesome friend Lila who suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis and yet always manages to be there for those who need her. The three of us started coordinating things, together and separately. I started running in 5Ks and then somehow found myself organizing them. (How in the heck did THAT happen?!?!) I just realized that life can be FUN, and sometimes that means making a few waves, even attracting some attention. But I decided that being happy, loving life and those around me, was SO much more important than what others thought of me or worrying about rocking the boat. I’m so far gone that I’m going ALL out and wearing a tutu this weekend while a run a 5K! Yes, a fully grown woman, wearing a tutu, running, {panting, most likely}, SMILING, EXCELLING, and most of all, enjoying myself.
Now it’s time for me to make a few more waves. We are walking our AS’s off with a goal of making it to the moon. The goal for this year is 478 million steps. That’s a LOT of steps!!! But I decided that if we (yes, we, the entire group, because we’re in this together folks!) make the goal of 478 million collective steps, I’ll do something WILD and CRAZY!!!  However, my brain can’t come up with any more wild and crazy ideas. Here in Iowa, it’s not uncommon to kiss a pig, but that’s used a lot. So it’s not wild and crazy. I also thought of dyeing my hair blue {temporarily}, but that seems kind of old news since every teenager has blue, pink, orange or green hair these days. Yeah, I’m going to REALLY push the envelope.  I’m going to let YOU GUYS make suggestions. {WHAT am I THINKING?!?! Can I really trust these people?!?! I mean, I don’t even KNOW them!!!} Then Jenna and I will whittle your suggestions down to 3-5 ideas, and again I’ll put my life in your hands. You all will get to vote on how I’m going to be wild and crazy. Anything for a good cause. Well, almost anything…
 

Kaufman family 1-1

Kaufman family 2

Please post your ideas for Abbe’s Wild & Crazy adventure below in the comments section.

 
 

6 thoughts on “Anything For A Good Cause – Well, Almost Anything!

  1. Abbe says:

    Hey! I survived the Shamrock Shuffle in my tutu! No tiara. It would either KILL my head with bobby pins or bounce off of my head! We need more people to weigh in here…otherwise it won’t be very motivating!

  2. Abbe says:

    Discussed this with some friends this evening. Somehow we ended up with me wearing a tutu, grilling, on top of a local business…Gotta love my interesting friends!

  3. Jacquie Gregor says:

    (Second attempt forgive me if this posted already)
    On May 4 at 5:00 p.m. “The Bad A.S. Walkers in AZ” will be walking to the top (closest to the moon we can get) of a Canyon in Tucson, AZ. http://www.sabinocanyon.com
    Once there we will unroll a banner that describes our journey up the canyon and sit for a picnic and a short “support group” meeting if desired.
    YAY!

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