I have some RANDOM stuff coming at  you today (but some “real” posts for next week I’m working on.)

Until then…

Did you know I have an odd obsession with llamas? I DO!

So up in Hudson last week, I couldn’t ignore the Everything Alpaca store.

…and so I came home with a friend. His name is Colombo, and he will be joining me in Australia. (His sock friends, finger puppet friends and Christmas ornament friends also came home with me.)

I saw a flash sale at Draper James on the Internets, and now I just want to buy more fun stuff for my apartment — especially before my cookie swap! I’m so grateful my friends hosted one for me last year. I do miss C. Wonder.

Remember my Victoria’s Secret posts earlier this year? Turns out they are doing a pant + sports bra combo for $55. GET ON IT.

Moving on to deeper things…

This week, my lovely Uplift ladies hosted another Strong Women Uplift Each Other event, this one about women’s health issues, ranging from lady cancers to STDs. One of their instructors/trainers talked about her experience with breast cancer. “But I’m healthy,” she said. And so she put off her mammograms until she couldn’t any more because she found a large lump in her breast that ended up to be cancer. I’ve always been good with keeping up with my doctor’s appointments because, well, my mom wouldn’t stop harassing me if I didn’t…but just a reminder of how important preventative medicine is.

I’ve been hearing/reading a lot more lately about makeup with cleaner ingredients, and the scary crap that’s put in most conventional makeup, including known carcinogens and ingredients that interfere with developmental and reproductive functions, etc. A Beautycounter consultant was one of the panelists, and initially I was completely skeptical that she was just going to try to sell us stuff. But as she talked about the discrepancy between US regulations and EU regulations in skincare, it was enough to make me do some research. The consultant talked about the EWG having a tool to help you discern what is and isn’t safe in your personal care products. My current makeup — not so much. I certainly have more research to do, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be perfect with my beauty products, but I’m running low on moisturizer and foundation anyway, so it was enough for me to order moisturizer/cleanser and foundation. (Pro tip: they have a line with Target now, so that’s where I ordered the moisturizer from.) I also decided it was time to switch to natural tampons and am giving Lola a try. (The code tblanchfield1 gets us each $5 off.)

I mentioned last week that my mom and I had filmed this for work, and that I did. not. like. how I looked in the video. To be honest, I still freaking don’t, at all, but this is not about me. This is about my beautiful strong mom, and how not only did she overcome cancer, but she SLAYED this interview. Like, to the point I asked her if she’d had a secret TV career I never knew about.

I don’t take for granted a day how lucky we were that she was able to come out of such a tough experience on the other side — and I don’t take for granted my amazing coworkers (AND our DB community) who are such special people. I don’t know how I didn’t cry when we filmed this (I think I just stared down JD, our host,) but as I saw the beautiful comments come through our live chat this morning, I was so overcome with emotion.

Even if you don’t watch it (but please do!) — remember this: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. It was almost this exact time last year, and my mom was about to come in to watch me run the marathon and knew she didn’t feel right but wouldn’t take no for answer until they got to the bottom of it.

Thank you, too, to all of YOU who supported me through this tough time over the past year.