24 Hours of Booty

For the past several years, my sister has participated in the 24 hours of Booty bike ride to raise money for cancer research. Her goal this year was to ride 175 miles, and she managed to not only meet but exceed her goal. In the rain. While dealing with 2 flat tires. Geesh!  The donation page is still open for business, so please feel free to show her some support if you are able.

National Pancake Day

In case this is of interest to you, February 24 - Fat Tuesday - is National Pancake Day. You really can learn something new every day...

In celebration, IHOP will be serving a free short stack of pancakes to visitors throughout the day. They do request that you make a donation to a children's hospital, preferably the Children's Miracle Network since that is their charity of choice.

If you have an IHOP near you and like pancakes, you might want to stop in on the 24th.

VisionWalk success

Thank you to everyone that supported the VisionWalk with us. Thank you cards are almost done and will be mailed out tonight.

We'd had a penny war at work, and Alex spent Friday afternoon sorting, counting, and rolling the change for the VisionWalk. It took almost 3 hours to determine he'd rolled:
$14.88 in pennies
$11.50 in nickels
$9.00 in dimes
$13.75 in quarters

That was really quite tedious. I don't believe we'll be doing another change-collecting fundraiser for a while!

We were blessed with a gorgeous day for the walk. Some may have said it was chilly, but I thought it was great. Even my fellow walkers who believe living in Florida means it should be hot all year round agreed that by the end of the 5K walk, they had warmed right up. We didn't end up getting our t-shirts until we arrived, so we just pulled them over the clothes we were wearing. I really wasn't looking like such a slob when I arrived...

I heart my KitchenAid mixer

After many years of limping by with a wimpy little mixer, I was very blessed to receive this Kitchen Aid professional mixer for Christmas from my parents last year. I've used it numerous times during the year, but it seems I only had somewhat small batches of things to make.

But wait... here comes the fall! This is the time of heavy-duty usage. Bake sales for school, bake sales at work (we had one this week to raise money for the VisionWalk that it coming up this Saturday), holiday cooking... ah! Cooking and baking heaven!

I gave it quite a workout tonight, making these pumpkin cookies for tomorrow's field day. I made a double-batch, and this thing powered right through it like it was nothing. It was fantastic! I love this thing. Thank you again to my parents for such a great gift.

Tallahassee VisionWalk 2008

Glen and Sharyn Davidson have employed me for 12 years. They are great people, and do a lot to help others. When approached with the idea of PATCares - our employee organization that holds fundraisers to benefit our community - Glen supported the idea so thoroughly that for several years, he personally matched all the funds that collected. (it now comes from company funds)

Unfortunately, Sharyn and at least 2 of her brothers inherited a macular degeneration disease from her mother and grandmother. Over time, her field of vision has shrunk smaller and smaller, and her ancestors have gone completely blind. The Davidsons have 4 children, one just a year older than Alex. One of them also carries the gene.

Amazing research breakthroughs have been made in the last few years, and there is hope for a cure. For a number of years, the Davidsons have held a big party at their farm to raise money for research. This year, they have decided to hold a VisionWalk. Much like the March of Dimes or Relay for Life or any of those others, each of us try to collect sponsorships for the walk, and then we show up that morning in solidarity and support for the cause. Alex & I are trying to raise $100 each. I realize times are tough and money is scarce. If you can find an extra $10 or $20 (or more), we would appreciate it. A little bit from several people would really help us reach our goal quickly!

To donate online, you can click here or on the VisionWalk logo on the right. If you prefer to send a check, mail it to me but make it payable to the Foundation Fighting Blindness. All donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you for considering it.

What $700 of school supplies looks like

Last week, PATCares held its 6th annual Italian Café lunch to raise money for school supplies. In case you don't remember, we do a school supply drive every year for the Tallahassee Foster Parent Association. The FPA sets up all the supplies in a room and lets the kids "go shopping" to pick out what they like and need for school. We had about $100 worth of supplies donated to us at work (and from some of my friends - thanks!), and we bought the rest. PATLive matches all the money we collect, so Alex and I went shopping last night to purchase $600 of supplies. It took us almost 3 hours!

It's an ordeal, since we have to try to think of what kids from 5K all the way through high school might need, and pick things in colors and designs for both boys and girls. We know they have a real need for backpacks, so we usually start with those. Understandably, a foster parent finds it easier to buy the $0.25 pack of crayons and the $1 pack of pens than the $30 backpack. I've noticed that some backpacks might be cute, but they don't even last until Christmas at our house, and I'm sure these kids have the same problem. The association chairwoman confirmed they would rather have a fewer number of good quality backpacks than a plethora of the cheap junk ones. So, we bought 12 bags that ended up almost $400. That left $200 for everything else. As you can see, we ended up with quite a number of things! We have notebooks, dividers, paper, duotangs, spiral notebooks, pencils, pens, erasable pens, highlighters, protractors, scientific calculators, erasers, crayons, report covers, glue, pencil pouches, and other assorted goodies.

Exhausting? Yes. Worth every moment of it? Absolutely.