She Aint heavy....She's my SISTER

Greetings my beloved bloggy peeps!  Allow me to introduce you to my darlingest sister.......Jenny!  Say HI JENNY!

Jenny and Troy on their recent excursion to Hawaii.

Isn't she just lovely?  Yes, well I think she is.  She is  a mere 22 months younger than I.  We have always been the best of friends or the worst of enemies.  I think that's just how it rolls when you're that close in age.....and girls.

For all of my blond haired, green eyed chubby, she was dark haired, blue eyed SKINNY!  No really, our whole freaking life...little miss sugar pants was a waif.  Nothing but legs and a sway back with a bubble butt.  She was obsessed with gymnastics and cheer and all things boy.  While I preferred a good book (ok whatever, she is the readingest nerd of them all), a secret stash of food and the telly.  However, for how opposite we were, we truly were besties,   when we weren't fighting that is....and rest assured, we had a PLETHORA of fights...we fought with some serious ferver.  NOTHING was off limits, be it hands, fists, fingernails, Mandy dolls (remember those, their hard plastic legs were lethal weapons), feet or words (she was VICIOUS with the fat comments, those took me down EVERY time.) we fought like pros.  But, when we WEREN'T fighting, we were laughing and giggling and working to make eachother crackup. And for some reason...I was the one who always got the "Allyson BE QUIET, you're stirring to many molecules" speech.  Jenny NEVER did.  WHATEVER!  Little twit.  We have a lifelong LOVE of big words.  Nothing was more hysterical to us than to use big, ridiculous words in our conversation or in notes/letters to eachother.  We would lay in bed at night and throw things across the room in the dark, trying to hit "a target", or talk and giggle until our Mom would come in and yell at us for STILL being awake.  We made tapes of eachother "tooting", 'cause NOTHING is more funny than lettin one rip. We were equally mean to our little sister Dixie (hi Dix) and would never let her be included in our nighttime games, or anything according to Dixie.  Then again, Dixie insists that we told her she was adopted and made her cry.  I have NO IDEA what she's talking about.  And you all KNOW what a memory I have.  But, let's get back to the subject at hand...Jenny.  She  was a hot hot hotty in highschool. It was a never ending line of boys, from forever until her wedding.  I was always just the sister, the good friend.  Wait, this sounds so depressing about me.  Strike that...it was all good.  Just trying to say...she was/is beautiful and my best friend(truth be told all my sisters are my best friends.  Lest anyone feel left out)  After my mission, I lived with she and her husband (she RUDELY got married right after I left on my mission, so I was not in attendance) for almost a year.  They were poor students at BYU, and I was just a foot loose and fancy free RM playing with my friends.  We spent MANY many nights sitting around their small coffee table playing wicked rounds of Phase 10, Speed, or Skipbo, or just watching a PLETHORA of TV.  It was a fun time! 

Jenny is funny, super smart, HARD WORKING, has a plethora of talents, extremely willing and giving of  her time and skills.  She's an amazing school teacher, one that is saught after and loved by her students.  In a word...she is AWESOME!

So, why this "tribute" if you will.  Well ok, I'll tell you.

It's about the diabetes.  DIABETES is EL SUCKO!!!

Out of all of us, most especially me of the fatty fattertons, SHE is the one that was very randomly and out of the blue struck with diabetes.

2 years ago, as she sat at my Moms kitchen table, drinking MORE water, and discussing how she just couldn't get enough.  I said, 'Um Jenny, I think you have diabetes.  Something isn't right."  She had lost weight without trying, uncontrollable drinking, peeing, etc.  So, sure enough, the next day at church, she checked her blood sugar with a girls machine and her levels were at like almost 400.  HELLO!  Needless to say, a roller coaster of epic proportions had begun.

(i stole this next part from my sis in law Lana)

She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in July of 2008. It is lame. Her blood sugar goes up, down and all around. Through all the frustration, she has seriously been so positive. She carries her little 'emergency pack' around with her everywhere she goes so that she can stab herself with insulin or scarf down rescue sugar when she needs it. :) (Which is totally something I'm going to start carrying around--RESCUE SNICKERS.) Anyway...

She started running in January of 2009. After having been run and exercise dormant for MANY years.  She started out with just short distances--preparing for the SheRox triathlon. Then she did a relay where she ended up running about 13-ish miles by the time it was over. And something (CRAZY) clicked inside of her. Since then she's done 3 sprint triathlons, a half marathon, a FULL marathon (and some other smaller races) and is now training for the St. George IRONMAN next May.  You read that right....she is training for a FULL IRONMAN tri!  Insanity, thy name is Jenny.  She's doing this while teaching full time, raising 3 kids, being the cub scout den leader, dealing with diabetes, etc.  She is insane...yet loveable.

So HERE is the deal....Jenny needs YOUR help.  She needs it A LOT!  And I'm doing my part to spread the word for her, and for her cause.  She is working her proverbial ass off to raise money in order to do the Ironman and to help try and find a cure for diabetes.  She has to raise $5000. She needs help to get her to the Ironman, and for diabetes awareness! (And I'll totally be there watching!) This is truly a hideous disease that affects far more people than it should.  Every day they make strides in their research, but they can't, Jenny can't do it without you.  So, I'm asking, please, PRETTY PLEASE, if you could spare anything, 1 dollar, 5 dollars, a PLETHORA of money...whatever, please do. If you feel like you can donate to this great cause, please follow THIS LINK.

You're the BEST my bloggidy friends!!!  Thanks for hearing my out, reading about my sister.  And mostly...THANKS for supporting her in this amazing effort.

Finger pricks and sugar wafers,


Allyson

GO HERE to understand.