Thanks Luv--I was just down there yesterday as a matter of fact. It is amazing to see a nice, upper middle class neighborhood and you look over at one house and the second floor is nothing but a wallpapered baby room and studs sticking up. We have 2 families directly effected and have worked hard to secure food coupons and get trees cut down. The other family was reluctant to accept help since they are financial secure, but I explained that it wasn't charity. If nothing else it was our gift to them to perhaps take the children out for dinner and movie and maybe escape thinking about things for a while. The mom accepted which made me very grateful. I am continuing to support and work towards these families recovery. It just never seems like it is enough you know.

d

Wow d, that is fantastic!!! I've foolishly agreed to take on the fundraising at our middle school next year and I was just thinking of asking the principal to put on his thinking cap and come up with a list of needs, so we have something to promote. Having a specific goal always seems to make a huge difference when you're fundraising.

Now that you have the school fundraising wrapped up, will you jump into the relief efforts even more? I just couldn't imagine losing everything you've worked years for in a matter of minutes. My heart and prayers go out to all in your community.

Phew--it's over and it went extremely well. 2500 dollars in ticket presales and then over 1000 dollars in concessions alone. Since we sold raffle tickets a dollar a piece, 6 for 5 dollars and then 100 for 50 dollars and 250 for 100 dollars...well we sold a LOT of tickets. That price jump really seems to work and was a little technique I picked up on these boards. We had over 60 baskets and believe it or not it was all over done and cleaned up in 3 hours. But I am so sore and in so much pain today that I swear I am really happy to have this as my last one....have a great one!!!

d

Wow, d, six boards in one school year. That is impressive! Good luck tomorrow.

Hmmm--I enjoy eating things that cause me to poop rope. I'm up to my head in Basket Bingo and the close out of the year. Plus we had a tornado in our town that took out a bunch of homes. Talk about a priviledge -- I was the face of the group of parents that contributed close to 400 dollars to one family to replenish their refridgerator stocks. The county is very slow in working a donation center and honestly would have turned it all over to me when I inquired about it if I'd made one overt move.
I would be able to do it (there's a lot of military training now on this type of stuff given our peacekeeping missions) but my first obligation is to the school and closing out the year. So I'm doing small rally up type things to support where we can.
No caffiene CC--have your hands stopped shaking or your body started .
Well tomorrow's the big day that I hope will raise enough to buy one more activ board for the school. At 5.2K a pop donating 6 in one year is pretty impressive in my book--we've got 5 cinched but the 6th will depend on tomorrow. Wish us luck.

d

Here you go, Luv! Of course I bought the big bag so there's plenty to share. Cellular biology, huh? Wow. Shorty is taking Mandarin Chinese. I don't think my meager high school (c- average) French will help with that homework!


Big news. I have been caffeine free for a whole week now. No Starbucks for 7 full days. Its sort of a miracle. Well, really its just that mystery abdominal pains are stirring a renewed desire to clean up my act.

Know what's fun about being in your 40s? Nothing. Unless you consider learning new words like "multi-grain" and "colonoscopy" as fun..... Where's d when you need some Erma Bombeck type humor to cheer you up?