Dr. Susan Love is making a plea to women, healthy women, that are willing to do whatever it takes to help fight breast cancer.  From the TodayShow.com, a message from Dr. Susan love, MD.

The time has come for all women to stand up and say that we are not going to take it anymore!  Breast cancer does not have to go on to another generation; we can be the ones who stop it once and for all!  Join the Love/Avon Army of Women for you [sic] mother, sister, friend and daughter so that no one ever has to hear the words “you have breast cancer” again!

What Dr. Love is imploring "healthy women" to do, is go to armyofwomen.org and join the movement to go beyond the cure.  The goal is to get a million women to join.  She said on the Today Show this morning that they do research on treatment and cures mainly with women that are in hospitals and battling breast cancer.  What they need is healthy women for research so they can find the cause and potentially the prevention of breast cancer.

It would truly be great if our grandchildren never heard the word breast cancer.  I know there is a lot of websites, articles and blogs about breast cancer, Dr. Susan Love and the Army of Women but the way I see it... I want to do my little part in spreading the word.

You can go to TodayShow.com and watch the video of Dr. Susan Love. 

If you are a women (and some men), you are at risk for breast cancer.  So as women let's join together and find the answers to prevent breast cancer from ever touching another women's life.

Screen legend and philanthropist, Paul Newman, who donated millions to charity, died today, September 27, 2008, from his battle with lung cancer.  Newman's career spanned over five decades. 

"Paul Newman's craft was acting. His passion was racing. His love was his family and friends. And his heart and soul were dedicated to helping make the world a better place for all," Foundation Vice-Chairman Robert Forrester said.  What a beautiful and poetic sentiment to be said about a man. 

One of my favorite movies of Newman's was Cool Hand Luke.  Check out the YouTube video from one of my favorite scenes in Cool Hand Luke.

Newman's role as Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite Robert Redford, skyrocketed his career and made him a household name.  With his good looks, cool manner and stunning blue eyes he was destined to appear on screen.

Newman was nominated for ten Oscars and won in 1987 for his role as "Fast Eddie" in The Color of Money.  His last film was the 2002 Road to Perdition where he played John Rooney.  And my five year old may not know who Paul Newman is... but he would recognize his as Doc Hudson from the 2006 animated movie Cars.

Go to imdb.com to see his filmography.

He loved racing cars and he became a race car enthusiast. Over the years he won four Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) championships, won the GTS class in the 1995 24 hour race at Daytona, and sponsored race teams.

In January 2005 Newman, then 79, escaped from his burning race car after it spun on track at the Daytona Beach circuit. He was not injured in the accident.

Newman was married to Joanne Woodward for 50 years.  He was also survived by five daughters and several grandchildren.  His son Scott Newman, died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978.

Mr. Newman will be greatly missed.  He left a legacy of charitable giving, from his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, a camp for seriously ill children and his proceeds from Newman's Own.  I believe it is this that he would much rather be remembered by.

RIP - Paul Newman.  Our thoughts are with your family.

Yes, you heard me correctly; PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace the cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

I am a proponent of breastfeeding.  I breastfed my son; I know the benefits of human milk.  I just have to say that I was truly flabbergasted by this when I first heard it. 

I have no problems with PETA.  I believe in humane treatment of animals.  Anyone who intentionally mistreats or harms an animal is a very sick and scary individual.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. 

Okay if this is their take on it, that cow's milk is meant for cows, then why wouldn't human milk be for... humans!

Which in so many words, is what Ben & Jerry told PETA.  You can go to WPTZ.com to read the rest of the story as well as the letter from PETA to Ben and Jerry.

In closing, I just want to say that just when I think I have seen it all...

I would love to hear your opinion on PETA's stand.  I hope to hear from you!

There has been a change in women over the last three decades.  Mostly good and some bad, as I'm sure some would argue; but one of the biggest changes is in the motherhood department.  Or should I say the lack of motherhood. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau report. "American Community Survey 2006 and 2006 Population Survey," today's, U.S. women are having fewer babies, and more women are choosing to be childless.

The data is from the Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey.  The surveys aimed to discover how many children are being born, to whom, and what the fertility rates are around the country.  Women aged 15 to 50 were surveyed about fertility between 2005 and 2006.

Although I didn't have my son until I was 38, these findings were astounding to me.

The report finds 20% of women today aged 40 to 44 have no children. That percentage is double what it was 30 years ago.

Here are more statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau report

• The average number of children a woman aged 40-44 will have is 1.9
• 67% of women who recently gave birth worked outside the home.
• 36% of women who reported giving birth for the survey were never married separated, divorced or widowed.
• Mothers in North Carolina, Mississippi and the District of Columbia were the lease likely to have never married.
• Of those 1.5 million mothers who were not married, 190,000 of them were living with an unmarried partner.

The Face of Poverty

• 25% of women aged 15-50 who'd recently given birth were living below the national poverty level.
• Fertility rates were twice as high for those living below the national poverty level when compared to those living more than 200% above the poverty rate.

International Moms

• 20% of all births reported in the survey were to U.S. moms that were themselves born in another country.
• In California, that percentage doubled, with 41% of moms being foreign-born.

So Who is Having the Most Children?

• Hispanic women average the most children at 2.3.  That's higher than for Asians, non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, although second-generation Hispanic women have fewer babies than their mothers did.

Most Delays in Having Babies are for School

• Women with a bachelor's degree or more college education had the highest fertility rates between the ages of 30 and 34 (133 births per 1,000 women).
• Women who did not complete high school had the most birth rates between the ages of 20 and 24 and 25 to 29 (199 births per 1,000 women and 146 births per 1,000 women, respectively).

It is interesting to see that not only are women having children later in life, but either opting to not have children at all - or by waiting to finish school and start careers, they have missed their window of fertility altogether.

Whatever their reasons...more and more women are foregoing motherhood altogether.  If you have an opinion about these statistics, we would love to hear them.  Hope to hear from you!

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau report. "American Community Survey 2006 and 2006 Population Survey." News release, U.S. Census Bureau.

The actor and his wife share their story for the first time on television to draw attention to hospital mistakes that kill as many as 100,000 Americans a year, according to CBSNews.com.

Quaid says that more people die from hospital mistakes than aids and traffic accidents, yet it doesn't get the same attention.  His goal is to bring these medical mistakes to the forefront. 

The Quaids, who welcomed their twins, Boone and Zoe, on November 8, 2007,brought their babies to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center later that month because they were suffering from a staph infection.  While hospitalized, the babies were accidentally administered 1,000 times the necessary dose of a blood thinning medication (Heparin) used to flush out IV lines.

"We all have this inherent thing that we trust doctors and nurses, that they know what they're doing," Dennis tells '60 Minutes,' "This mistake occurred right under our noses ... the nurse didn't bother to look at the dosage on the bottle. It was avoidable, completely avoidable."

This is so true, especially when it comes to our children.  If our children are hurt or sick we have to trust our doctors, nurses and hospitals to care for them. 

Of course doctors and nurses are human, and unfortunately accidents can happen...but when it comes to life and death situations our hospitals need to be diligent in doing everything possible to NOT let mistakes happen!

You can read the Quaid's story at CBSNews.com from March 2008; and tune in tonight, August 24, 2008, to '60 Minutes' at 7:00 p.m. EST and watch the Quaid's interview.

Yesterday morning, August 21, 2008, just before school was to start, fifteen year old Ryan McDonald was shot and killed in his high school's cafeteria.  At 8:11 a.m. Jamar Siler, a fifteen year old fellow student at Central High School shot Ryan McDonald in the chest.

Central High School is located in North Knox County in Eastern Tennessee, a community that is still reeling over the recent church shootings approximately three weeks ago.

You can go to WBIR.com and read the timeline of events as they occurred today as well as read more about the case.  I want to use this time and place to talk more about my thoughts and feelings in regards to this tragedy.

I am a mother, so as soon as I heard that there was a shooting in of all places, a school, I felt a sense of panic.  My son just started kindergarten this year, he wasn't in school on Thursday because he only attended one day this week and starts full time next week, but I could imagine how I would have felt if he were not with me. 

I know every parent who had a child in Central High School yesterday must have been beside themselves with worry.  It was I know, a very scary day yesterday for thousands of parents, grandparents and other relatives of the approximately 1200 students that were at the school yesterday. 

Just as I'm sure is the case anywhere that something like this has happened, people start talking about taking their kids out of public schools and either homeschooling or enrolling them in private schools.  I absolutely understand and have had the same feelings and discussions with my husband.  However, I have to be logical and realistic.

What I mean is that for one - I will not live in fear or project that fear onto my son.  That does not mean I won't teach my son to be cautious.  We should all listen to our instincts and be aware of what is going on around us.  And another thing is that this could have happened anywhere!  As I mentioned above just three weeks ago there was a shooting inside a church.  And you hear of people being killed in their own homes, shopping malls and various other public places all the time. 

So does this mean I just keep myself and my family locked up in our home away from the world?  No.  I can't or won't do that.  I just have to hope and pray that my son will be safe when he is away from me. 

That being said, I want our schools to be safer!  I want to know that my son's school is doing EVERYTHING humanly possible to protect him and keep him safe.  I do feel confident that my son's elementary school does take all the precautions to do just that. 

My husband and I discussed homeschooling our son; and decided for our son, at this time, it would be better for him to have the social aspect of school.  And we already agreed that when he enters middle school we will re-evaluate this decision.  If at anytime we are not satisfied with our child's education or have concerns regarding his safety we will pull him out and home school.

Before leaving I want to say one other thing about Knoxville.  It seems we have had a lot of press/media lately; with the church and now school shooting.  But I want people to know that this is a community of faith-based people.  A community that cares and will be the first to step up and help others in need.  We have suffered some senseless tragedies lately but we will over come it and come out stronger.

My thoughts and prayers are with Ryan McDonald's family, the students and faculty of Central High School and their families.

Young Brenden Adams towers over his entire 6th grade class.  In fact, Brenden Adams towers over his entire school! 

On Primetime Medical Mysteries last night they covered a story featuring Brenden, the boy who can't stop growing.  He is a kind and lovable twelve year old; normal in all aspects but one.  And Brenden IS the only one of his kind.

It seems that he has a defect in his 12th chromosome that is causing his unusual and rapid growth.  It has affected his teeth; at 4 months he already had all his teeth.  He has had to have several removed to make room in his mouth.

When Brenden was first born he seemed normal.  However, at his three month check-up the doctor told them he was unusually long.  It didn't stop there he just continued to grow.

It is difficult on his joints, face and teeth.  He says that it get uncomfortable and painful for his joints sometimes.  He can't completely straighten out his arms and legs.

With his height and size 18 shoes he has difficulty getting into the family SUV and he would love a bed like Shaquille O'Neils'. 

Brenden has some good news now though.  His geneticist and doctors think they have come up with a way to halt and hopefully permanent stop his growth.  They inject him with testosterone.  The reasoning behind this is that testosterone will speed up the puberty process. 

As for now it is working.  Brenden has stopped growing, at least for now.

Brenden will more than likely always be the tallest boy in his class.  And his classmates and friends all say he is "normal" to them.

Check out this YouTube clip to see Brenden Adams and you will get a brief glimpse at an amazing twelve year old boy.  You can also read all about the story at ABCNews.com.

How traumatic it must have been for the children visiting Disneyland yesterday, August 14, 2008, to see their beloved Disney characters handcuffed and loaded into police vans.

This is what kids saw on Thursday at the Anaheim, California's Disneyland; Tinkerbell, Snow White and Cinderella, to name a few, were carted off to jail during a labor protest.  I don't think the 'Happiest Place on Earth' was so happy yesterday.

The 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland's gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute, according to MercuryNews.com.

The protesters were members of the Unite Here Local 681, made up of about 2,300 maids, bell hops, cooks and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel.

Their dispute is over non-competitive wages, trying to cut their hours, and taking away their seniority; but the biggest issue is with health care.

From the Mercury News:

At the heart of the issue is a free health care plan that has been provided to Disney hotel workers through a trust fund that Disney and other unionized hotels in the area pay into.

Briceno said that in exchange for the free medical plan, union members agreed in previous contracts to a lower wage for hotel workers in the first three years of their employment.

But Disney now wants to eliminate the free health plan for new hires and wants to create a new class of workers who put in less than 30 hours a week, said Briceno. Those part-time workers would receive no sick or vacation pay and not be given holidays, she said.

They are hopeful that they will reach an agreement soon. 

It is disturbing that Disney whose name is synonymous with family...isn't taking care of their worker's families.

Tonight on Primetime Crime, they will be recalling the grisly murders of an Idaho couple, Alan and Diane Johnson who were shot to death in their home in September 2003.

In late June, judges in the Idaho Supreme Court upheld a jury verdict that Sarah, the Johnson's daughter, had brutally murdered her parents in 2003, a case solved by DNA and the then-16-year-old's suspicious behavior shortly after the bodies were found.

Sarah's motive -- her parents tried to prevent her from seeing an older man.  Now Sarah Johnson has one last chance to convince a judge of her innocence.

For investigators, the first clues in the shocking case came when they discovered that Sarah had fallen in love with a Mexican man, who was in the country illegally. Alan and Diane did not approve of their daughter's relationship with Bruno Santos, a 19-year-old high school dropout from a poor home across town.

Relatives and friends stated that the Johnson family were arguing a lot and that Santos became the source of many heated family arguments.  Tensions mounted the Saturday of that Labor Day weekend, when Diane and Alan discovered that Sarah was sleeping over at Santos' apartment. When Alan picked up Sarah, he told Santos that he was to stay away from his daughter. He even threatened to report him to the police for having sex with an underage girl.

But Alan Johnson didn't get a chance to go to the police, he and his wife were dead that following Tuesday morning.

As investigators removed Alan and Diane's bodies from the house, they  noticed a coldness and distance from Sarah.  Just the beginning of her suspicious behavior.

I remember when this case happened, how horrified I was that a teenager, much less the daughter, could be capable of killing her own parents...and I'm still horrified.

You can read more about the Sarah Johnson case at ABCNews.com and tune in tonight on Primetime Crime on ABC at 10:00 p.m EST to see if Sarah can convince a judge she is innocent.

Yes, you heard me correctly, the body of a 500 lb. ape-like creature has been found in Georgia.  According to the Post Chronicle, a group called 'Searching For Bigfoot'  has scheduled a press conference for Friday, at a hotel in Palo Alto, California where they claim they will be able to provide DNA evidence as well as pictures of the creature.

Bigfoot was evidently found by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer in the woods in northern Georgia. They aren't giving out the exact location to respect the living members of the species.

You can see the Bigfoot pictures, one of the alleged Bigfoot in a freezer, and read more about it at www.searchingforbigfoot.com.

I have never believed in Big Foot, Sasquatch or the Yeti.  And I think the picture they show of this 'Bigfoot' lying in a freezer looks fake; but I think it would be pretty cool if it did turn out to be an authentic 'Bigfoot'.

So like you, I will wait till Friday when Searching For Bigfoot shows their proof...but I won't hold my breath.