Fifth Fundraiser down - three to go

So last night I had my Hot Dog On A Stick fundrasier. Hundreds of flyers were given out, around town and at the mall while it was going on. I had four friends who came out to support me. Unfortunately by 7pm, it had slowed down A LOT. I hung out by myself hoping to see some other friend or relative show up to support me. Unfortunately that didn't happen. The mall was very quiet and almost dead. I'm not sure of my profit yet but I will average about $30.

So three more to go. This Saturday I will be in Lemoore on the Navy base selling my hair bows. Hopefulyl I get some good profits. Time is running out and I'm hoping for at least one successful fundraiser out of the 8 that are planned. So far five down and none have been very successful. The most was $100, which isn't too bad, but not a big dent in $2800.

Sept 4th I will be having a Tastefully Simple Party. All are invited! My house 6:30pm - YUM! Come hungry!

Sept 6th is our biggest and hopefully most successful fundraiser! It is our End Of Summer Boutique. Information below so please please come and check us out!

Shaving Legs

Do you know how hard it is to shave your legs after running 8 miles on hills? hahah . . I know weird title for a blog but damn! IT HURT! Trying to lift my legs enough to shave them. You know, I had to look somewhat nice for church tomorrow so it was a must. I felt like I needed one of those old granny seats to sit on and some bars on the wall to pull myself up! Ok, ok, so maybe that's a bit dramatic. But really . . I was very sore.

The hill run at Shaver Lake was gorgeous today! We got up there around 6 or a little after and I started running at precisely 6:27am. It was so beautiful to watch the sun come up as we hit the road to run. If I had been sitting still it might have been more beautiful. But instead I was concentrating more on trying to somehow get up those dang hills. They were definitely tough ones! By mile 1 I was looking for a bathroom . . man I had to pee! (Sorry for TMI). But by mile 3 my body had forgotten that sensation - and no I did not pee on myself while running . . hahaha Sorry - I'm in a insanely weird mood tonight . . .hehehe. Anyhow, By mile 3 my asthma started kicking up. Thank goodness for my new inhaler. It was tough enough to run in this elevation but I knew it was going to be more tough with my asthma.

I finally made it to the turnaround point and started my journey back. By mile 6 I thought "Hey this isn't so bad - I think I can do 12 today". But by the time I hit the hills on mile 7 I knew it wasn't going to happen. I hadn't gotten a good run in in a few weeks (the problem with having a deployed hubby and no one who can watch my kids in the early morning hours). So I finished the 8 mile completely-full-of-hills run and tried to relax. I stretched out tons but my thighs were still sore. I could feel the muscle building as I stood there . . hehehe. I finished the run at 7:58. So 8 miles on hills, 1 hr and 31 minutes, giving me 11:37 miles. Not too bad considering the amount of hills.

A wonderful team mate sold yummy breakfast burritos and thank goodness there were extras because I hadn't preordered (What was I thinking??). Then another team mate told me she wasn't going to come to my Hot Dog On A Stick fundraiser this coming Tuesday because it wasn't one of her fav foods. Completely understandable! But then she shocked me by donating to me. She, too, is running, and raising money. Yet she is so sweet she hands me $30 towards my goal. The thing I love about groups like this and other's I have been involved with in my life, is that the longer you're with them, the closer you become . . almost like a family. All the years I was in marching band growing up, it was a family. My playgroup - we're like family . .very very close. And TNT . . just like Family! So now (after donations go in) I'm about $600 from my goal. I only need $100 a week! I'm stoked!

I have four upcoming fundraisers to go in just the next two weeks! This Tuesday - August 26th - I'm doing a Hot Dog On A stick fundraiser. All you have to do if you live in Fresno is go eat there between the hours of 6pm and 8pm. If you go there, I'll be standing there handing out fliers. Simply give them the flier when you make your purchase and you have then donated 20% of your purchase towards my goal!

The next one is August 30th. I'll be doing a booth in Lemoore on the Navy Base selling my hair bows and bow holders.

The next one is on Sept 4th. I'll be having a Tastefully Simple Party here at my place at 6:30pm. A percentage will go towards my goal.

Last but not least is a End Of Summer Boutique. We will have ten different vendors at my house selling their goods. A percentage will be going towards mine and my friend Chandra's goal. I have a great feeling about this. It's from 11-4pm and I hope to see you there!

a huge disappointment - again

So I come home from being gone for two days and once again sending out letters to those I think would support a friend or a relative. And again I come home to no "TNT Donation" e-mails. Nope - just a negative one. "Sorry - met my budget for donations this year" You know what bites more??? That the ones that negative letters come from are those that I have busted my butt in doing things for either them or their relatives for the past several years.

When you watch children at an unbelieveably - can not live on - wages but yet they can't do anything in return. Or those you have volunteer over and over and over again to help out, can't even give yo ua measely drive through hamburger meal of $5. People who you have bent over backwards to assist in the years prior but can't even return a "yes I can help" or "no I can't".

I HAVE $1200 more to come up with and I have a very bad feeling it is coming out of pocket - on top of moving expenses, and other necessities I am seriously going to need. My kids birthdays and Christmas's might be on the line if I can't get this up and going. Am I frustrated?? You don't even know the extent. Those people you think are there for you because they are family or close friends . . . just turn their heads and either say no or totally ignore you. Do I need to re-evaluate my friends and family? I think so.

WOW!

Almost to double digits! I can't believe it! I guess if I had gone just one mroe 1/4 of a mile further I would have hit 10 miles today!! I started out good, and at a good pace. No aches or pains. I hit about mile 4 and my asthma started to give me a bit of trouble. By mile 5 my legs started feeling like dead weights. I kept going and never walked though. That felt pretty good to say! By mile 7 the heavy weight of my legs no longer felt heavy. Actually, I don't think I felt my legs much by that point. My toes however started to feel pinched. I thought for sure I would see blisters when I took off my shoes. Anyhow, I did 9.5 miles today and am pretty proud of myself. My thighs are a bit sore, my abs feel a bit tight, my hips are a bit sore. I guess that just means those are all muscles hiding and trying to come out . . hehehe We started the run a little after 5am (not sure exactly the time) and I finished the run at 7:03. Not bad. Then I rushed off to meet friends at Starbucks at 730am. We then walked across the way to Woodward Park (probably about another mile of walking there) to particpate in a Breast Feeding Awareness 2 mile walk. Plus a mile back to our cars so I'm think I hit about 13.5 miles today in all.

WOW!

So anyhow, my donations seems to have come to a halt - but I want to remind you guys that fundraising is NOT OVER!! I still have just over $1200 to raise and I only have just about 2 months to get it done. It can't be done without your help so don't forget to make your contribution to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at my page.

Very disappointed and really bummed

So Chandra and I have been working hard (her even harder ) for about a month now on planning this huge event. We had so many people tell us that this Bunco Fundraiser would bring in so much money and it was such an awesome fundraiser. We had so much interest thrown at us with so many people wanting to participate. So we started our planning. Originally we tried to get to use a room at my church. Unfortunately they were booked and directed us to other churches. But by the time they had replied to me, time was being cut short and we needed to get the ball moving and get the word out. So we attempted to do it at my place. Well, we knew we had room for 6 tables - possibly 7. So a max amount of 28 people. We knew Bunco is a well loved game and many people we knew played it. And we figured we would have more interest then 28 people. So . . .we added a second time slot. Our original buy in was $20 with all profits going directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Awesome prizes were to be won. Starbucks, lia sophia jewelry, pizza hut, TGIFridays, and much more. How could we go wrong right?

Wrong. We put the word out. We threw out between 200-300 flyers. We posted on our playgroup thinking we had support from them. We put the word out on Myspace. We put the word out on Criagslist. And so many other groups. We had interest. But as the time grew near, interest declined. We lowered our buy-in to $10. We now put our profit from $280 each (with a full house) for each time slot, down to $140 each. Ok, this sucked but we knew we would at least gain something to help us out. More then we had. How could we go wrong? This information was now in the hands of close to 500 people or so.

Wrong. Today we started getting everything ready. 3pm grew near. Nobody. At 3:15 our first person showed. Ok, we have hope. At 3:20 our second person showed. Ok, a bit more hopeful. At 3:30 our 3rd AND FINAL person showed. Yep. 3 people plus Chandra and I. Not enough to play. We had 12 definite rsvp's. Definites! I guess definite is never definite.

We had one girl give us $20 as she walked out and another gave us $10. The other was going to give us money too but we told her to just hold on to it (she's part of our playgroup - the one person who came). One of our rsvp-ers got in a car accident so she is definitly excused of course.

So today - a month in the planning, tons of computer ink used, gas used (high in these days thank you), $50 plus in food, and now I'm sitting here with an earned $15.

So how do people do it? How do you seriously get a successful fundraiser when everyone you thought supported you . . ignores you? How do those you thought were close to you and would help you out with anything, just ignore you? Frustrating????? To say the least.

back in the groove

So last night a great friend of mine offered to watch the kids while I ran. We met at Starbucks at 5:30 and headed up to Millerton Lake. Chandra (my team mate) and I went with our coaches in their car. We were suppossed to start running right at 6 but the gates weren't open yet so we had to wait out on the main road til they opened. We finally got in, stretched a bit and started our run. The first half was on road but then we hit the trails. Talk about a work out. Trying to not run in the crevaces on this narrow dirt trail was certainly a challenege. Lots of twists and turns and hills. Before I even hit the trails my thighs were starting to burn but I just had to keep going, every step hitting to the beat of my music, trying to maintain the same pace through the workout. It was do-able. I reached the half way point for the half marathoners, had my gatorade and headed back towards our starting area. It was then that I passed my coaches as they were running in with part of the group. One of them turned back and came running with me. She was telling me I'm such a strong runner (since I was leading the half marathon group by a good distance) that I should switch to full marathon. That would be great, but without enough practice time I just don't want to put my body through that. So she suggested I just run with the level 1 marathon runners for practice. So I guess next time I'm out, that's exactly what I'll be doing. After not running for so many years, it's nice ot have someone tell me I'm doing a good job. I really thought that when I started this I would be running with experienced runners and I would look like a joke. I was so self-conscious and was hoping to just meet a few new people. Luckily even the experienced runners don't make you feel like the bottom of the pit. Everyone is awesome and I am so glad to be part of TEAM IN TRAINING!!!

Tupperware Fundraiser

Well tonight I had my Tupperware Fundraiser. I had 8 fantastic friends who showed up. I'm not sure how much I made for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society yet since my party isn't closing until Monday but I'm just glad people came out tonight! I actually saw a few things I am wanting to get so hopefully I can afford it . .lol.

Tomorrow a fantastic friend of mine is getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive across town and watch my kiddos so I can run with the team. This will be awesome because it has been a few weeks since I had a sitter to be able to go run. We are running almost 7 miles tomorrow so I'm hoping I can do it and really hoping I don't stop to walk at all. We are running up at Millerton Lake so that should be lots of fun. I wasn't planning on running so I hadn't really prepared today. So now I'm sitting here drinking up some water and will probably have a protein bar. I did however have an instant breakfast today so that gave me some calories and other "yummy" stuff I need to survive . . lol. I will definitly be paying back this friend with a yummy Starbucks. She's gonna need one by the time I get back . .lol.

So tomorrow I'll blog again and let everyone know how I did. Oh . . better run and charge my I-Pod! Adios!