Tour de Cure recap: Go team La Prima!

After the bike ride

The big day was finally here. The American Diabetes Association's NOVA Tour de Cure for diabetes in Reston, Virginia. The bike ride event and happening were amazing. With lots of riders and supporters, live music, great food and even a kids' fun tent with tattoos and balloon artist. Red riders (riding with diabetes) received special 'Red rider' jerseys decorated proudly with the words "I ride with diabetes" which attracted lots of warm and welcoming cheering from the crowd when spotted during the race and especially at the finish line. With 'go red rider' and 'you are why we ride' words from the crowd, our daughter felt comfortable enough to wear her 'red rider' jersey, a present from Bob Sierralta from the American Diabetes Association, with pride.

This tour consisted of 89 teams and 878 riders in total who have raised over $400K!

As I mentioned in my previous post Tour de Cure, my better half and his colleagues from work decided to join the efforts by riding with the La Prima team, formed and captained by Mr. Dave Evans, owner and president of La Prima Food group and Catering by Seasons, who was also one of the event's sponsors. Their team included 19 riders who have so far raised close to $8,000! And the numbers are still increasing! And has my hubby said to our daughter in the videos taken during his ride:"Lia, this is all for you!"

To all of you, who organized, donated, rode bikes, volunteered, cheered and supported, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Together we will make it possible. Together we will stop diabetes.

With Mr. Dave Evans (right) 

Tour de Cure

He does it for her

So the American Diabetes Association's  Tour de Cure is coming up and my better half is preparing for his bike ride. His rider profile on the Tour de Cure website has attracted many supporters, including family and friends. Their generous donations go a long way and with their amazing support we have by far exceeded our fundraising goal. There are no words to express our deepest appreciation to all of you who have donated, supported and liked. We are lucky to have such good friends and family!

Some info: The Tour de Cure is a series of fundraising cycling events held in 44 states nationwide to benefit the American Diabetes Association. In 2013, more than 65,000 cyclists in 89 events raised more than $26 million to support the mission of the American Diabetes Association: "To prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes".

Hubby's work, La Prima Food Group Inc. has been a proud supporter and sponsor in the past couple of years and this year again will provide the food on the day of the event. The owner and president, Dave Evans, which is also on the list of donators, will also be riding. He has formed a bikers team and invited his employees to join. The medal he has received last year from this wonderful partnership with the American Diabetes Associaion is proudly decorating our daughter's room.

For us it is not just a bike ride. It is not just about those 29 million people affected by diabetes, it is about our own private diabetes story, it is about our daughter. Since our daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 5 years old, we have been determined to not let diabetes STOP her from doing the things she loves and hope that together, one day in the near future, we'll be able to STOP diabetes.

Career day or what it's like to be a scientist Part I

After learning that kids nowadays mainly dream about becoming dancers, singers or chefs (well, TV shows are all about that now) and less and less about any of the S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related professions I decided to volunteer as a speaker on career day at my children's school. To tell the kids a little about what it's like to be a scientist and give the list of professions a bit of a balanced look, at least for one school. Although a TV series about scientists would be nice...

I decided to make a Powerpoint presentation. After over 14 years as a scientist, hundreds of lab meetings and formal and informal presentations, this has become the way I feel most comfortable presenting and also make sure I stay on track and within time limits. But this presentation was different, it was meant for the toughest audience of all - kids. 

I wanted it to be educational but more importantly fun and interesting while not exceeding 20 minutes so I can leave about 10-15 minutes for questions. And to include visuals. Since most of the material I work with is considered hazardous I had to stick with photos. So I took pictures of my lab space, my bench, my desk, the tubes and pipettes. And brought my oldest daughter (a.k.a child #1) to model the safety gear  - the lab coat, goggles, gloves and general lab safety procedures. I also included photos of myself with colleagues and mentors at the lab from college to graduate school and today and some information about why I chose  this career path, which skills helped me along the way and what are the pros and cons of this profession as I see them. I tested the presentation on my own kids and after some modifications per their suggestions and quite a lot of giggles, I felt it was ready to be launched.

For career day I came with my usual sport-casual attire that I wear to work and a lab coat. The counselor was very specific and introduced me to the kids as a molecular biologist rather than just a scientist.  The kids, I must say, found that extra piece of information very exciting. They were fascinated by even the smallest piece of information and liked my cartoon-like illustrations that were featured on my presentation. I was glad I had left ample time for questions because boy they had so many interesting questions that I just wanted to hear and answer them all (well, at least the ones that I had answers too, these kids are smart!). They wanted to know about school, if I was a good student and if I liked math... I kept my answers politically correct but was honest. I told them that as a child I didn't really liked math and didn't really like to study much either (except a handful of subjects, biology was one) but I also said that I now regret not putting more efforts into math because I now see how all of these things that I thought were just boring become handy, and I meant it... They also wanted to know if I have already found a cure for a disease. I had to tell them that these things take a lot of time and persistence and they consist of small discoveries that build up, and that I feel proud and lucky to be able to take part in making these discoveries that pave the way and facilitate the bigger ground-breaking discoveries, even if I won't be the one to get the credit eventually.

They also wanted to know if I get to make a lot of money or be famous... Well, that brought us back to discuss different important scientific discoveries and sparked a discussion about what success means to each one of us. I'll discuss more info from my presentation on Career day - Part  II.

I felt good about being able to contribute a little to these kids' future career choices and make sure they know that science is an option. I was also happy to see how it made my own kids proud. And also to read the thank you letters they brought home from their friends on the next day. I received great feedback, so many good comments and was surprised by the number of kids stated that my talk inspired them to consider science (they actually specifically said 'molecular biology') as a career.

Tae Kwon Do for family bonding

Getting a black belt in karate was a childhood dream of mine. I took karate classes at 6th grade and LOVED it. From my vague memory I think that I was actually pretty good. Problem was, being the only girl at the whole karate school, none of the boys was willing to spar against me and was left to spar against the instructor, I always felt he was letting me win. Then I started feeling too big for the kids class, and no adult or young adult class was there to the rescue. So I decided to file this plan in the dreams cabinet. Wasn't a dramatic decision though, at this age, like many other kids, I had plenty of other dreams to pursue.

 

About three years ago, after moving in to our new house, on my multiple trips to the grocery store, I started noticing at least a handful of people wearing some kind of martial arts outfit. It didn’t look like a Karate outfit but that was enough for me to check out where they all go.  Some questioning and a tour to the neighborhood dojo made me feel like that aspiring black belt 6th grader again. I made up my mind (and told that to my kids, which turned it into a commitment) to sign up for Tae Kwon Do. It’s not Karate but was close enough for me. Minor issue, I was 7 months pregnant. I am an eager supporter of physical activity during pregnancy, but only if it’s something that you had started doing pre-baby (6th grade doesn’t count) and only if it is not a potentially dangerous activity. So the plan was to wait until after the baby is born + at least 6 weeks, to get the medical clearance from my OBGYN. Agreed. The kids were very excited and supportive, that meant no backing off.

 

But with a six-week old baby that would cry in anyone’s arms but mine, a negative balance (in the thousands range) of hours of sleep (I thought I had gotten this part down already after two kids that now sleep perfectly through the night), oversized boobs (really, I couldn’t fit into any of my sports bras) and not to mention leaking milk…(even when not thinking about baby) I was almost about to give up or at least postpone the idea, but this is were commitment kicks in, my older kids were actually still excited about the whole idea and made sure to express it often. So I went there.

 

The place was very welcoming and the instructor, I mean, the master, made it feel like home. He let the older kids watch from the side (and sometimes even invited them to try by my side). The adults class ran 2 evenings a week and one morning on the weekends, I was lucky if I could bring myself in twice, but it was fun, I was working out and was also setting a good example for my kids that watched me kicking, braking boards and sticking to my commitments.

 

My baby, however, didn’t appreciate that very much. Getting a break in milk and mom supply for over an hour every time was clearly not part of his plan. And the older kids got tired of watching me and on top of all I had to return to work.  It is important to do something for yourself, by yourself, but I felt that my time at home was so sparse that I couldn’t spend any more time away. I also started feeling that I wasn't there enough for my kids, I know this was totally not an objective determination but for me this was the worst part. So from two classes a week it turned into once a week, and from once a week to not showing up at all and back to my dream cabinet it went. 

Flash forward to about a year later, my older kids became interested in martial arts. No, not because of their mom's not so successful attempts to get them onboard but thanks to a TV series called "Kickin' it" that made it look cool. So back to the dojo we went, this time for the kids class. Now I was watching them from the bench, with an old time spark in my eyes. 

It took about 2-3 classes until the instructor said I should join my kids for the kids class. I smiled, because I thought he was joking and because staying one additional hour for the adult class seemed impossible (schedule wise). "You are here anyway, why not workout and spend some time with your kids?" he said.

So the next week I came with my uniforms and belt. I figured that the kids class would probably be much easier than the adults class, but boy was I wrong... Watching the kids from the side, they made it look so easy... In real life though they probably burn about 2000 calories per hour if not more,  which is about twice than a kickboxing class. So I got a few giggles from kids seeing an adult in their class but, within less than a month, at least three more parents joined in and the kids class turned into a family class. There's even a place for family groups to compete in Tae Kwon Do tournaments! 

So now we go at least 3 times a week, the kids make sure we do. We work out to achieve a (now) common dream of ours and spend some time together. And littlest one doesn't mind anymore because he can now enjoy a one on one quality time with dad. He calls our class "Punch-A-Do".

Littlest one's funny moment

So just one of our quick jumps to the grocery store. Littlest one (a.k.a child #3) points to something he finds interesting. "Ginger" I say as he grabs a hold of the root. My toddler looks up into my eyes with a funny look on his face (well, our dog is a proud owner of this name too). Littlest one then grabs an apple from our cart and says his older brother's name with a big 'I get you mom' smile :-)