Fundraising Like Mad Women

Our great volunteers

Garage sale goodies

We, T and I, have really been focusing on our fundraising the last month. It's been good and bad. A lot of time and a lot of energy... and a little money. But I have to admit that I have some of the greatest friends and family ever. They have been volunteering like crazy. Helping out in whatever way that they can. You All Rock!!!! So we had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago, and it went all right. I thought that if we told people that it was for charity they would be less likely to haggle, uh not true! There are some haggle happy people out there. Really?! You want to haggle me for a quarter when there is children with cancer, but to each there own. Whatever money we make goes to a good cause. So it was me, my sis, my mom, my cousin Lexi, and the best brother-in-law ever, Stephen.

Sheila, our winner!

So then we had another bake sale, this time up at my work.  It went really well. We made in an hour and a half what took us 8 hours to make at Wal- Mart. And my peeps really came through on this one. Kell and Aussie Mike baked their little Australian Arces off. God Bless your Aussies! They made this sinful confection called honeycomb, amazing melt in your mouth, expand your waistline, crack-like habit-inducing stuff. We also sold my last two cookbooks and raffled off a gift basket from William-Sonoma. Above is a picture of our raffle winner. Congrats Sheila!

So I actually enjoy some of this fundraising stuff. I like organizing and baking and decorating, however I am still a ways away from my goal.  I am hoping to win the lottery so I can just pay for it and be done with it. Next year, we are doing big events and hopefully raising crazy mad money. So more fundraising craziness to come.

Too Tired To Blog

Too Tired To Blog. Must Get Some Sleep. Need Sleep. Want to Sleep. Ah, Sleep, Oh how I miss you!

The Hills are Alive.... Part Deuce

Norman! I used to love Norman! It is my adopted hometown. The home of my alma mater and the greatest college football team ever. But now, I think Norman just might be the gate to hell and an evil little town and not for the same reason that my husband thinks (Silly OSU fan). It is evil because of those stupid, horrible hills!!! I was one of only two people that showed up in Norman today!!! I started off doing pretty good. I was trying to keep up with the other girl and was failing miserably, but it did increase my mile average by a minute. The first four miles went pretty smoothly. I ate some jelly beans and kept on trucking. Since there were only two of us and it is the hottest day of the year so far, we got personal service by one of our trainers. He was there with water at every mile marker! Thank you B!! Then came the last mile stretch. I rounded the corner, and what do I see?! The dreaded hill!!!! I started up it pretty gingerly and then lost any and all energy I had. I'm pretty sure I was going backwards at some point. But I somehow made it up to the top and the last half mile to the water jug! I did it! My first 8-mile run. Wahoo!!!! However, my sister did not attend this mornings run and because of that, T, we are even! ; ) Actually, you owe me a mile. : ) Love you! Anyway.... so after I finished my run I hauled butt (in my car) back to my mom's house, where we were having our fundraising garage sale! I have baked in the sun for 7 hours. Now I'm going home to take a shower and a nap, not particularly in that order. Just kidding! : ) So I want to give a special shout out to: Our trainer B for being the best waterboy ever, my friend Shelly for opening the garage and selling her butt off, my sister for sweating with me all day long (I bet that we are 6 pounds littler), and lastly for fat girl rock. The Gossip got my through the majority of my run today! Awesome!!!

BAKE SALE SUCCESS!

Some of our bake sale goodies!

In picture: Tamara (on left) and Me (in sunglasses)at our bake sale.
In picture: Our bake sale table, Tamara, Mom (in torquise), and Frefre in red).

This past weekend, my sister and I worked on our fundraising by having a bake sale in front of the Wal-Mart in Moore, OK. It was a great success! We didn't raise a ton of money but we definetly raised more than we thought we would. We had tons of goodies. We had some great volunteers (Thanks Mom!!! Thanks FreFre!!!)And we had some great customers!!! Some of my good friends and family came out just to support me. (You are AWESOME!!!!) Most people would stop and buy one or two little things. But for every three of those, we would get someone who had been touched personally by cancer and they would give us fists full of donations. Boy, did we hear some stories that day! Some sad, some happy, some just made me even more determined to keep doing what I'm doing. It's was overall a really great experience.

It was kinda of a slow start to the morning. I think that we got out there too early, because people were kinda cranky, a little rude, or they just ignored you all together. Like if they don't make eye contact, you don't exist. But I just kept smiling and waving and eventually they started coming over. I did, however, debate going and putting on my penguin costume to get people's attention. Thank God that it did not have to resort to that. : ) Though I will admit, I kinda like wearing it. Anyway.... the only time I lost my smile was when someone would stop right in front of our table and light up a cigarette. OMG! I used to smoke... a lot! So I don't have anything against smokers in general. It's gross, it's expensive, and it can kill you. But so can sushi, and I still love sushi. But you do not, let me repeat, DO NOT stop in front of the fundraising for CANCER tent and light a cigarette! I let the first couple of people who did slide by, but one guy not only lit up, but proceeded to stand there and smoke. So I said something out loud to my sister and the guy heard me and felt bad enough that he bought $5 worth of cookies. It was win-win in my book. Then we had some great little kids. One little girl gave us all the change in her coin purse. How awesome that kids that young are learning about charity and giving. Gives me a little hope for the future.

Now that I've gotten all that ooey gooey mushy stuff out to the way, let me just say.... There is a reason that there is a website called the people of Wal-Mart, and I think that we saw some all-stars!!! And I'll just leave it at that.

7 miles of Hell

Saturday was my first 7 mile day. I knew that it was not going to be a good day when I got up and I felt like I had 80 year-old knees. This stupid weather, while it may be offering some relief from the heat, wrecks havoc on my knees. But I got up and pulled on my running clothes anyway. We met up at Lake Hefner for our run, and I was geared up and ready to go. I got about 1 mile into my run and I just couldn't run anymore. My knees were throbbing and aching with every step I took. My sister hung back and encouraged me through the next couple of miles. I guess that I took much longer than anticipated because one of the coaches called another one of the coaches looking for me. I was still going, slowly but surely. When I got to the turnaround, my coach wanted to know if I had to stop off at the port-a-john again. VERY FUNNY!! : ) I started feeling a little better and started to run a little more, when one of my coaches drove by and told me to stop running and walk the rest of the miles to save my knees. So I walked a lot more than I wanted, but I finished my first 7 mile day.