Throwback literally means THROW IT BACK. PLEASE.

I tried the AWESOME! AMAZING! YUMMY! FRESH-TASTING! CLASSICALLY VINTAGE! Pepsi Throwback today. (I know you’re sensing my enthusiasm is dripping with sarcasm.  Or maybe it’s SUGAR.)

All I can say is…

Meh. I’ve had better.

I’d rather have the fake sugar.

Maybe I’m not old enough (sah-WEET!) to remember Mountain Dew cans looking like that, either. I remember the Pepsi cans, but that Mountain Dew doesn’t even look remotely familiar.

This will be the only thing I will ask of you. Pinky swear.

I am asking for your support in a very special cause. As you all know, this is a cause that is very near and dear to my heart, as my husband Mark was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes over 23 years ago.

This year, I’ll be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $105 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people–a large and growing percentage of them children.

Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

That’s the bad news… and yes, it’s pretty bad.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.
I’m writing to ask for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference

Won’t you please give to JDRF as generously as you’re able? Whether it’s $1 or $100, every little bit helps.

Together, we can make the cure a reality.

SINCERELY, JENNI

Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:
http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87614454

We need more people like this in the world…

I promise not to turn my blog into a bunch of YouTube videos, but this one makes me cry. Thought I would share, because we need more people like this in the world.

Kinda makes you stop and think about what YOU can do for others, doesn’t it?

Yes, Virginia

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

(Reprinted from Newseum. The response to Virginia’s question was written by newsman Francis P. Church)

You can view the actual news clipping here.

Lo Lo … or No-No?

(Photo Credit: ESPN The Magazine / Lolo Jones poses for ESPN The Magazine’s 10/8/09 issue)

Olympian LoLo Jones, an Iowa native (heck, she even graduated from MY high school), will be appearing in a “Bodies We Want” special in the October 8th edition of ESPN Magazine. The thing is?

She’s posing nude.

And I kinda have a problem with that.

Don’t get me wrong– I think her talent, ambition and drive for success is an excellent example to set for young girls. As the mother of three girls, I can always point to LoLo Jones as someone they should emulate. LoLo Jones proves anyone can succeed with hard work and dedication. As an Iowan, I am proud of her. As a mother, I am proud of her. As a woman, I am proud of her.

But in a teensy eensy way, part of me questions her motive.

There. I’ve said it.

Yesterday morning, on one of the area morning news shows they were discussing LoLo’s picture, and her decision to pose for the magazine. She was interviewed on a local sports radio talk show a couple days ago, and she explained her reasoning.

Apparently, LoLo turned down the idea at first. But then afer some careful consideration, she changed her mind. You can read the full article here.   According to the story, LoLo “decided she would do it if she could take a tasteful picture that would send young girls the message they don’t have to be skinny or starve themselves.”

Stop the presses. This is where a red flag pops up for me.

I am all for sending a message to young girls, because I think young girls need all the help they can get in achieving a positive self-image. Yes, girls need to be shown that they don’t have to be skinny, and they certainly don’t need to starve themselves.  And had this been used as a photo shoot in “Seventeen” magazine, or “Cosmo Girl”, I would see that young girls would be the target audience for the message she so badly wants to convey.

But ESPN magazine? I don’t know much about their main target demographic, but I would venture a guess that it doesn’t include young girls. I asked my daughters, ages 13, 12, and 9 (all of whom are athletes) if they have ever seen ESPN magazine before.

None of them had.

I guess I’ve gone against the popular opinion of those in our state, or at least those in our TV viewing area.  I even had a hard time responding to the poll they created.    Here is one of the pictures from the photo shoot, and she claims it is not airbrushed (you go, girl!) and you can even see the scars she has from doing hurdles over the years.  It’s an awesome picture, an amazing picture.  She’s beautiful, she’s in shape, she’s just gorgeous.   Here’s the poll that was on our local news station’s website.    

(Photo Credit: ESPN The Magazine / Lolo Jones poses for ESPN The Magazine’s 10/8/09 issue)

What do you think of Lolo’s photograph in ESPN The Magazine?
Love it. Lolo looks athletic and amazing. 87.5%


Disappointed. Wish Lolo hadn’t posed. 12.5%

(Results not scientific)

So… there it is.   But I could have picked either answer.   While I love the picture, and I do think she looks “athletic and amazing”, I can also say I am disappointed, and wish she hadn’t posed.  FOR ESPN MAGAZINE.

Bottom line, how is a “Bodies We Want” feature in a (mostly) men’s sports magazine going to send a message to our young girls?

What do you think?