Training....I think?

It was such a beautiful evening last night, that my dog, Loomis (pictured at left), and I took a nice stroll through the neighborhood. I don't know how long of a walk we took, but we did walk, which is the important part. I've never really measured the route, I don't have a pedimeter, and I didn't look at the clock when we left or when we came back. I think I will drive the route tonight and see how long it was.....and report back for the next walk we take!


While I don't know how far we went, we did have an enjoyable evening talking with neighbors, interrupting basketball games, and making indoor dogs jealous - you should have heard them barking as we passed their houses! It felt so good to be out in the fresh air. All in all, we had fun even though I had to keep Loomis moving - he is such a magnet for kids! He is so outgoing and loves people so much that he wanted to stop and let everyone we came across pet him to death. I'm glad he is easy going enough to keep a pace, without too much of a fuss. As you can see from the photo, I was not dragging him along, he was leading the way. Such a good dog!

I am so glad I have such a great walking partner for the neighborhood. I'm hoping he can keep up with me for lots of training walks as they get longer and longer.

Fundraiser 1.5

Pictured at left is my second test cake fundraiser. This was a strawberry cake with pink frosting and watermelon sprinkles (closest to pink I could find). Once baked, I found the cake to be too fragile to cut into the ribbon shape as planned, so I decorated the top instead. It turned out beautifully!

I sold the cake by the slice, completely on the honor system in the employee breakroom over two days. I raised $24.00 off of this single 13 X 9 cake. While it wasn't a big fundraiser, it did raise awareness, especially within our Spanish speaking employee community. There is absolutely NO information currently available in Spanish regarding the 3-Day event, so I had a few of the bilingual workers explain what I was doing and why - the cake helped!

This was such a hit, they asked that I bake again next month. I'm going to do a different type of cake each month, with different decorations. If I can make $24.00 a month for the next 7 months, this fundraiser may clear $168.00! Not bad for a cake a month, right?

I want to thank the employees of BHI in Cartersville, GA for their support of my participation in the 3-Day event!

A Big THANK YOU to all my donors!!!

Special thanks go to all of my current donors: Sarah Steiferman (my first donor!), Patty Oaks (my biggest donor!), Anne Castrop, Molly Johnson, and Becky Weber!!! Thank you for your donations, they are going to the most worthy of causes!


With their help, I have reached another goal: my first $500!!!

Please feel free to check out The3Day.org - there you can find more information about how your donations are aiding the cutting edge research and programs designed to educate, screen, and treat breast cancer, both locally and nationally!


So far, I have raised a total of $650.00, which is a FANTASTIC start - (thanks Sarah, Patty, Anne, Molly & Becky!) - but I'm not there yet! I need another $1,650 to reach my goal of $2,300. So, if you haven't already donated, can you help? You can donate through this blog (click the black box that says 'Donate Now'), through my facebook profile (click the donate button under my friends list), send a check made out to 'Susan G Komen' with my name on the memo line (mail to: 3 Day for the Cure, PO BOX 660843, Dallas, TX 75266-0843) or call 1-800-996-3day (1-800-996-3329). Anything from $5.00 to $1GAZILLON dollars will help me reach my goal!! Okay, maybe a gazillon is too much to ask for....so I will ask you to give what you can. If you can give nothing more than $0.00 (because even I know that the economy sucks), please feel free to pass this request along to family, friends, neighbors, fellow church members, your favorite bartender, complete strangers, and the next police officer who stops to ask you what you are doing - because you never know who can give and who can't!

I want to thank those that are supporting me: financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically!! That includes my team: THE SISTERHOOD OF THE PINK SNEAKERS, my family (especially my loving husband), my neighbors, and everyone else who has given me ideas, believes I can do this (I'm still a little unsure), and lends words of encouragement. I really do appreciate everything!!!



THANK YOU!!!!!

Fundraiser # 1

The Sisterhood of the Pink Sneakers (Cartersville) has scheduled our first fundraiser - A BAKE SALE!! It is scheduled for the weekend of 5/1/2010 @ Belk's (more detailed details to follow closer to the date) - and I am getting a jump on the baking part of it - I want to make sure my baked goods are EXCELLENT before putting them out for sale.

I plan to bake a pink ribbon cake for the bake sale. I didn't want this bake sale to be "just another bake sale" or confused with Food Network's "Great American Bake Sale." I wanted to bake something unique: something to draw people to the table; something that makes the statement "Breast Cancer Awareness;" something that would be easily seen from across the parking lot. The pink ribbon does all of that - especially at 13" high! I started by researching cake pans on the internet and found a ribbon cake pan for $50! $50 - can you believe that!!?? The $50 price tag was a bit out of my league, so I decided I would shape the cake by hand. I've never done this before and I wasn't sure how it would work out. As the Food Network Challenge emphasizes: "performing tests prior to the event is crucial." But, I also didn't want to waste the test cake. The first solution: bake a cake for my husband. So, I asked my husband to pick up his favorite cake mix (lemon) and favorite frosting (cream cheese) for this first shaping test (this is the cake you see pictured here). As you can see, it isn't perfect - the frosting wasn't what I was going for, and the shape was a little off - but the cake, now that was a different story! My husband LOVED this cake! Now, if only it was a strawberry cake with pink frosting!

In talking with my friends at work about this test cake they were bummed that I didn't bring any to work so that they could eat it! Then they asked if I was going to bring in the strawberry cake once I baked that one. Then, one of my friends suggested the best idea!!! Now my next test cake - as I want to make it pink and perfect - will be taken to the office and sold by the slice! This way, I feed my co-workers, test my baking skills before the event, keep from wasting cake AND raise money!

So, by thinking a little "outside the box," this bake sale has turned into two fundraisers! Now, I just have to bake the best cake ever! Twice!!