How good it feels...

Photo (left to right): Maggie Lachmayr, Bob Crutchfield, President/CEO of Christian City, Pat Sams, Phyllis Bennett, Victoria Hughes, Janet Dunn, Belinda Fitch, Debi Lenox, Dana Forse, Angela Bean, Chair of Volunteer Committee, Angela White, Randy Hall, Heidi Becker, Director of Marketing and Development at Christian City, State Representative Matt Ramsey, and Missy Ramsey

I participated once again this year in the Chair-ity Event, helping to raise much-needed funds for The Children's Village at Christian City. (That's me behind the two elves in the photo above) What a fabulous group of volunteers! What a wonderful cause.

I may have shared my feelings on giving and how I choose who to support before so skip this paragraph if you remember this particular soapbox! I was the local president of a large national charity for a number of years. We raised a ton of money for the cause. Along the way I also joined in efforts to raise dollars for other well-known organizations. Until I traveled to the headquarters of one of the groups. I realized where a lot of our hard-fought donations were going!

I started doing research and decided that I would only support organizations I could see, touch, visit, and get to know personally. I support a wide variety of local groups - the Joseph Sams School, the Promise Place, Southwest Christian Care, The Breast Cancer Survivor's Network... I know I'm missing some... but I'll end the list with "my" charity of choice, Christian City.

The volunteers and staff at Christian City are a stellar group of people who do so much to help so many. They not only support children through numerous programs, but they help our senior population. They're now working on a new program which will provide assistance to adult children with special needs. That's going to be a program I'll be getting behind 100%.

Christian City is well-run. Everyone I've ever gotten to know is committed to what they do and they all go way above and beyond. I'm so impressed with every aspect of their mission and the way they go about the business of helping others.

It makes me feel good to do my tiny, tiny part to help this great organization! I wish I could do more.

The Chair-ity Event is an annual Christmas event that raises money through sponsorships, donations and the auctioning of chairs painted by local artists and other donated items. It is completely volunteer driven. We just held the event and raised over $30,000. Not bad for a 2-hour event. Next year we're going to raise more.

I am primarily in 'charge' of collecting and managing the artists. Many fantastic artists donated their time and talent to paint some of the cutest and most beautiful chairs for the event. I've looked on-line at similar chairs --- our artist's chairs would sell for over $500 retail! I also try to keep up with the website for the event and do whatever else that's needed. Everyone works their tushes off to make the event a success!

This year we held the event at the Dolce in Peachtree City. Very wonderful group who worked with us and truly gave a lot to support our efforts!

Ah well, I'm ramblin' now... it's easy to do when I start writing (or talking) about something important. It's Christmas -- I hope you'll consider checking out Christian City's Children's Village and maybe you'll feel led to sponsor a child.

Like to get involved in next year's Chair-ity event (our 5th annual) or another fund-raiser to support the group? janet at georgiafrontpage dot com.

Monday, Monday...

I took yesterday off. Yup, gave myself a day off. I only spent maybe a half-hour on the computer... shock! Went out to eat, watched Avatar on the tube, vegged all day. It was nice.

Noel November on Saturday night was fun. The food at the Towne Club Center in Peachtree City is superb! I thought the Noel folks had hired a caterer and went looking to find out who they were... only to be told it was the regular chef at the Towne Club. I told them the food was enough to make me want to sell my home and move in immediately . I did learn that the public can stop in for lunch or dinner, they'll let you hold meetings there, etc. A friend told me that they'd recently changed chef's and the food improved substantially. That's second-hand info...

I went to Noel November last year and it seemed to me that the money being spent by attendees at the auction this year was a LOT less. Last year trees sold close to a thousand dollars, this year they were getting $200 - $400. I left before the auction ended so maybe the prices increased later.

I hope they raised a lot of money for the causes. I know the Realtors who put on the event worked at the Clothes Less Traveled in Peachtree City to raise money prior to the event. The Clothes Less Traveled does a phenomenal job of supporting numerous local charities. Love the organization!

I spent the day-time on Saturday at the Apples & ArtFest in Fayetteville. It was also fun. The attendance could have been better. I think part of the problem is they're not on any main roads, you have to know how to get there. It was a lot of crafts. I came home with some cool pieces, sold a few of my own, spent a lot of time talking with friends who stopped by... It was a good day, think that if I do it again next year I'll make Christmas ornaments, smaller items in the craft-price range.

The apple cobbler and zucchini-apple muffins were drooling-good! Laurie Bean made them, sold them (with a little help from Mom and a cousin). They also sold red-velvet-cake-in-a-cup, which was a big hit. Laurie is a chef, caters... everything I've ever tried that she made is excellent.

I have one more charity to go this year and that's the Chair-ity Event to benefit The Children's Village at Christian City. Let me know if you'd like information, tickets, to make a donation..

It's Monday and I'm back at work. First thing I had to do was figure out what was eating up the memory on my computer, slowing my system. I think I may have it fixed, we'll see. I thought I'd fixed it once before and it came back...

OK, enough ramblin', I'm going back to work. Monday, Monday...

It's the giving time of year... local artists are giving, too!

Thought you might like to see a few of the chairs that will be auctioned at the Children's Chair-ity Event to benefit the Children's Village at Christian City. The event is December 2nd, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the Dolce in Peachtree City.

I have tickets! Give me a call at 404-290-3638 and I'll be happy to deliver them (or send via snail-mail). The cost of the ticket equals the amount it takes to take care of one child for one month at Christian City. It's not as much as you'd think, it's only $30.

They're always in need of sponsors for the children so think hard about taking care of a child for the entire year by giving $30 per month. These kids have sometimes suffered horrific circumstances before coming to Christian City. I've been out there many times and met the kids, seen the love they receive... and met some of the grown-up kiddos who went on to live happy, productive lives as a result of the care they received at Christian City.

This is a favorite event of mine! It combines the talents of many local artists who donate their talents to paint the chairs with the big hearts of many in our community who volunteer, donate or attend the event.

I don't give to "big" charities any more. I worked with them for years, then realized how much of my efforts went into paying salaries and big taj-mahal type office buildings... I read the percentages they actually gave to the cause I was supporting, saw horror tales on the tube about problems, and finally decided my giving efforts would only go to local charities that I could visit, look into, get to know.

The people at Christian City are fabulous. They give, and give, and give... I hope you'll consider giving.

Just a footnote - while Southwest Christian Care (hospice, etc.) was started by the same folks that started Christian City, they are two completely different organizations. When you give to one, you're not helping the other. They work together, support each other, but have different functions. I support both.

On fixing those hurting feet...

Recently I've been experiencing some major (to me) foot problems. I won't go into all the technical gobbledygook I've been told and learned while trying to fix said problems. Basically, the pad of my foot hurts when I put pressure on it right under the toe area. Bones are pushing a nerve which is swelling and causing a lot of pain. My toes were hurting and cramping, and I was walking on my heel to avoid putting any pressure on the pad as it felt like it was badly bruised.

I tried fixing it myself with padding, soaking, massage but nothing helped so I trekked over to see my fave podiatrist. He's great. He told me the problem, said I needed a cortisone shot to stop the swelling. I said no, we tried pads. No help. Second visit I did the shot with pads and taped toes.

Shot didn't help and it wasn't exactly fun although not as bad as I've heard. I'm a wimp when it comes to needles, will pretty much do anything to avoid a shot, so you should know I was hurting pretty bad to acquiesce to the thing... especially since I don't like anything foreign being pumped into my bod.

When I went back for the next visit we tried the "boot". It holds your foot stable. Hated it.

I had to do a show in Florence, South Carolina --- three days of standing on concrete from 7 something in the morning until after 6 p.m. I spent the day switching shoes. Crocs, the boot, two different sets of tennis shoes... nothing really helped. The boot made me walk lopsided and my knees started hurting and swelling.

My son, who was with me, has bone spurs in his feet and he limps at times from the pain. He was also going back and forth to a podiatrist. 

The second day I was there a couple walked up and we got into a friendly conversation with the husband. At one point he glanced down at my son's feet and said 'bet you have bone spurs'. We both did a double-take. He then said he probably had problems with painful corns and he'd bet he had plantar faciitis. Wow... right on the mark.

We were properly awed. He then looked at my tennis shoe encased feet (no boot at the time) and correctly told me where I was hurting.

Then he told us that we were wearing the wrong size shoes. Ummm... measured at the shoe store, bought the shoes, they seemed to fit... Turns out he owns a shoe store, Jack's Comfort Shoes, and boy did he know feet and shoes!

I won't go into all the stuff he told us, although I'm sure you'd like to know, right? He correctly 'diagnosed' every ache and pain our poor feet shared with us every time we put pressure on them!

We wanted to go to his store and buy some shoes but couldn't due to time constraints. We both spent part of the following week doing some Internet research, verifying the things that he'd told us.

The next week we planned to be in Columbia so we made plans to go early and visit his shoe store, get fitted properly.

Didn't quite work out. However, we did find a place in Columbia that had pretty much the same philosophy. We went there and had them measure and suggest shoes. They didn't quite come up with the same thing the Florence shoe store owner did, so I had them change out my shoes until they worked like the guy from Jack's said they should. They added extra arch supports for my high arches and put in the little med-pads to spread my bones while I walked. We played with it until I knew it was right.

I spent three blissful, pain-free days walking on concrete floors, same hours as the Florence show. I was shocked and amazed. I really didn't quite 100% accept what the Jack's owner had said until I experienced it!

Last week we found a store here in Tucker, Georgia that has a comparable philosophy and "fits" properly. None of the stores, including the one in Tucker mentioned one important thing that the guy in Florence insisted upon --- and that is that you make sure your heel doesn't slide around in your shoe.

See, most of us measure based on length and width. We may find a shoe that fits us in both aspects, but it leaves our heel moving a little to a lot from side-to-side. My son has bad dryness on his heel --- he thought it was dry skin. The guy in Florence (and I'd use his name but I lost the business card, arrrggghhh) said it was due to his foot moving around in the shoe.

My heel didn't slip out of the shoe, but when I fit the width for the top of my foot I always had room to move sideways. If my heel didn't slide back and forth, the top of the shoe would start to pinch after I'd worn it for a while. I'm not talking about slipping up out of the shoe. It's the kind of movement you don't notice until you're paying attention.

I also thought my pronating was due to my legs, knees, posture, etc. After getting fitted and tested, I realized I had high arches. I pronate, slide inward, when I don't have proper arch support. Duh.

I've become a convert and I know when I slip my foot into a shoe whether it 'fits' properly. I picked up some pads at the Village Shoe Service in Tucker and have rigged some of my shoes (including my Crocs) so they have arch support and extra padding where I need it. The guy in Florence said he won't sell Crocs, horrible for your feet. My podiatrist said they're fine to use as slippers around the house. I compromised by adding the supports!

OK, long post and I didn't cover a fraction of what I learned over the past couple of months about my feet!

I'm still pain-free and am in the process of replacing every single pair of shoes I have (given time and dollars!). Once I learned how my shoes SHOULD fit and feel, it's not necessary for me to spend a small fortune on each pair. However, I'm willing to spend whatever is needed to get good support and continue to walk without pain.

Oh, one quick note --- I'm not wearing clunky medical ugly shoes. I'm in a pair of 'normal-looking' Brooks tennis shoes. And as for dress shoes, there are many, many that are comfortable and stylish, pretty, dainty looking.

Bottom line -- go at least once to a GOOD shoe store, not one where they pull out the old silver thing to measure your foot. Go to one where you get on those machines, can discuss your specific foot issues, get someone with years of experience and training to help you find the right shoes. Go to a store where they'll add the little pads under the cushion to give you the support you need.

And a tip -- never go shoe shopping early in the day. Your feet swell as the day goes on. Shoes that fit in the morning may hurt in the afternoon.

I highly recommend Village Shoe Service in Tucker, Georgia (http://villageshoeservice.com/) and
Jack's Comfort Shoes in Florence, South Carolina 1506 2nd Loop Road, phone (843) 662-4551
(I hope that's the right store! All I remember is that the store had the name "Jack" in it... if you find more than one with Jack in the title, call and talk to them about how they fit shoes).