Leaps & Bounds

We are already over 1 week into May. Do you know what that means? It's time to announce the June fundraisers.

Pampered Chef Catalog and Internet Show - Orders can be placed now through the first week of June. Email me for more information. We are approaching wedding season and Pampered Chef products make perfect wedding gifts. Do you know anyone having a birthday? Did you forget Mother's Day? Have you purchased a Father's Day gift yet? Do you want to get a head start on your Christmas shopping? This is a perfect time! 10%-15% of the sales will go towards my 3 Day Walk benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Leap's Frozen Custard & Coffee - Leap's will donate 25% of sales when you bring in a flier on June 13, 14, and 15. Send me an email and I will send you the flier.

Tastings Wine Bar - Wine Tasting Event (date TBD)

It should be a fun month!

Lunch Photos

As promised, here are some pictures of the desserts from the benefit luncheon this week. I made a 2 tier cake, cupcakes, and a cherry crisp. Erin made brownies and we also had cookies.

The Lunch Bunch

Today I had a benefit luncheon at work and it went really well. I sold lunch tickets for $10 per person and had 30 people sign up. My plan was to donate the money left over after I paid for food but my co-worker Chris volunteered to buy all the food anyway so I am able to donate the total $300. I got one 6' sub ($29.99) and one 4' sub ($19.99) from a local grocery store. I also bought chips, potato salad, pasta salad, broccoli salad, watermelon, drinks and cookies. I had some people volunteer to bring homemade desserts too. Total cost for food was only $100 and that fed 30 people with tons of leftovers. My co-workers loved it and some asked when I was having the next one. The best part was that this event helped get the word out that I was walking and raising money so in addition to the lunch ticket sales I also received $400 more in online donations. I would like to thank Stephanie and Shana for their help in organizing the event and Erin for helping to get the word out. After the $300 is applied to my fundraising account I will have over $900 towards my $2200 goal.

It's been a long day and I am exhausted so I will post some photos later.

Fundraising Update

I have completed 20% of my fundraising. WooHoo! But there is still a LONG way to go. Right now I have 3 big events planned for May. On Wednesday is the benefit luncheon. There are about 30 people signed up. After the food is paid for I should be able to add about $200 to my fundraising account. I ordered the sandwiches today and bought soda, chips, and watermelon. I will get the sides and make desserts tomorrow and pick up the sandwiches on Wednesday right before lunch.

Last Friday I solicited more donations for the volleyball tournament from local businesses. Thank you to the following businesses that donated so far:

Johnny Rockets

TGI Fridays

Fazoli's

Nik & D's Chicago Style

Sprouts

Pick Up Sticks

Wings & Rings

Rubios

McDonald's

Tastings

Green Chili's

Emerald City Smoothie

Hungry Howies

A few more business also said they would donate too. I will update and post the final list soon.

The poker tournament is this weekend. This is sure to be a fun time. Patricia is currently planning all the details.

The first May bake sale also went well. I made chocolate chip cookies which seem to be a hit.

It seems like all the May events are coming together nicely. Thank you to everyone who is helping me plan events, all the donors, and all the participants.

Mountain Climbing

Saturday morning Chase and I got up early to hike the White Tank Mountains. We've done several hikes in the White Tanks but this was the first time we've been down Ford Canyon Trail. The full loop is long and strenuous with lots of hazards. We decided to take the trail to the abandoned dam and turn around. It is about 4.2 miles to the dam (8.4 miles for our total hike). We started at 7:30 am and finished just before noon. The first two miles were a nice, easy stroll. The last two before the dam were tough. I am starting to realize that the hiking trails in Arizona are a different level then what I was used to. Even on some trails I thought were strenuous there weren't any warning signs. When you see a warning sign you know it will be challenging. We continued anyway. There were some pretty difficult rock walls to climb and some steep trails. We finally made it to the dam and it was a total let down. The river bed was dry but we passed some pools of nasty standing water. We also saw lots and lots of lizards. It felt really good to finish such a challenging hike. We stopped for some pizza on the way home. Chase took a nap for the rest of the day and I went to work. We are planning to hike another trail next weekend.

Who Says It's Only A Game?

I have lots to catch up on from last week. On Monday the Astros were in town so I took a break from the training to watch the game. I ended up walking about the same number of miles anyway since I walked around the stadium several times before the game and half way through the game. It was a nice change of scenery. The treadmill can get monotonous.

My hometown Houston Astros lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a good game though. I realized that I've been away from Houston too long. I only recognized a few players from the Astros. One of them was a former Diamondback. I still proudly wore my Astros shirt.

Bake Sale #5

This week I made brownies and brought them into work. They went over really well. I'm glad I bought several boxes of brownie mix. Brownies and chocolate chip cookies definitely seem to be favorites among my co-workers.