ALSA Fundraiser

This is the letter I wrote to our Christmas list this year:

Dear friends and family,

You may have heard that our sister Kim has been sick for several years with ALS. Our family participates in a fundraiser for the ALSA each year.

Recap: While attending college and working multiple jobs in Idaho, our sister Kim was diagnosed in 2000 with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. They believed she had had it since 1997, when she was 19 years old.

ALS is a neuromuscular disease that basically kills the cells that carry message from your brain to your muscles. There is no known cause or cure.

The ALS Association is a non profit organization that helps people who have ALS and the people who take care of them. They are the only not-for-profit voluntary health agency dedicated solely to the fight against ALS.

You may have also heard that Kim died this past April. Despite the fact that the fundraising we do now does not directly affect a member of our family, we still think it is important to raise money for the ALSA. Let’s just think of it as a “thank you” for the support they gave her all those years she suffered. There really is no way to repay them for all they did for her physically, emotionally, financially etc, but we might as well try to compensate somehow, right?

Here’s what we’re doing to raise money this year:

Recipes: Kim was always fabulous in the kitchen. In previous years’ fundraisers, Kim used family recipes to help raise money for the ALSA. This year, I am picking that back up. For a donation of $25 or more, you will get Kimbo’s Cookies, Kim’s own cookies recipe that everyone swears by. For a donation of $50 or more, you will get Kimbo’s Cookies and 3 of her favorite recipes that our mom made when we were growing up: Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos, Mom’s Peppered Beef Brisket, and Mom’s Rocking Potatoes Salad. Along with the recipes, you will also get a good dose of Kim’s sense of humor and an understanding of why she was loved by everyone she met.

Raffle: This year, we are having a raffle to show our appreciation for our supporters. Here’s how it works: If you sign up as a member (physical or virtual) of our team at web.alsa.org/goto/kimmysladybugs, you will get one entry into the raffle. For every $25 you donate or help raise, you will get one raffle ticket.

Example: If Mike N. signs up as a team member and his friend Bradley N. donates $50 under him, Mike gets 3 raffle entries (1 for signing up, 2 for raising $50) and Brad gets 2 raffle entries and all 4 recipes.

Raffle prizes: (2) Kimmy’s Favorite foods bundle from Wildtree All Natural Foods including Wildtree’s Alfredo Extraordinaire, So Quick and Easy Pizza Dough Mix, Scampi Blend, Lemon Lime Cheesecake Blend, and Heavenly Chocolate Mousse Mix. ($61 value each)

(1) Hanging glass and marble butterfly garden sculpture, from Kim’s own garden.

(1) Set of 2 carbon stainless steel Thomas Santoku kitchen knives.

(5) U.B. Funkeys: Starter kit with Lotus and Deuce.

(3) Disney Pirates of the Caribbean Mix Max Plus Media Player with MP3, game, photo, and video capabilities, 1GB memory. ($64 retail on Amazon.com)

And then some…

To donate: We would prefer if you visited our team website at web.alsa.org/goto/kimmysladybugs and made a secure donation through there. Because the walk is on the 23^rd of October, the last day to donate will be the 22^nd so we can have everything ready to go for the raffle which will take place directly after the walk.

Thank you in advance for any support you are willing to offer to this cause that is close to our hearts.

The Hansen Family

Winners!

So I only got 28 comments, but I'm still going to give the first 2 yarns because I"m cool like that. Yeah, you know you love me. Well, if you're EvaSB or mamaTAVE you do. Congrats, now don't come back (unless you really want to).

I did, however, win 2 of the Sew Mama Sew giveaways, and since I am the coolest and I left an interesting fact about orangutans on another ladies blog, she has decided I deserve a special treat on top of her 2 giveaways. So  I essentially won 3 items! Tempting to give all three of my yarns because of this, but since I didn't even reach my limit for the 2 of them I don't think I will. Darn, looks like I'll just have to keep it. This makes me so sad. [/sarcasm] But what should I DO with it?

Giveaway?

Over at Sew Mama Sew they are having a giveaway day and while I don't really care about people visiting my blog (in fact, I really kind of like that nobody does since I only usually post once a month tops!) I do like sending things in the mail and giving things to people. Unfortunately, I didn't make a blog about a giveaway and send it in to them on time, which was by yesterday, but I still want to give something away! Like some of this yarn I've been spinning non stop like mad for no reason that is just cluttering up my life with more stuff. What am I going to do with it other than hoard it? So here's the thing, I'm gonna go enter a bunch of giveaways and if those pople doing the giveaways come visit my blog they can enter this possible giveaway. Or people from other places can enter too, like if I decide to make a post on craftster or something, because I might, you just never know. So below you see 3 yarns, hopefully. If I get 20people to post a comment on here, I will send one of them the first yarn. 30 comments, I will send the second one, 50 comments (just to be difficult, and because I KNOW I won't get that many and I really like that yarn) and I will send the third. What do you guys think? will this be a fun game or what? (I'm thinking WHAT!?)

March/April Accomplishments

Looks like I forgot to do this last month, hm...

Crafting
March
Denim strip rug
Bat bag
Spider pillow
Caterpillar tote x 2
Butterfly ATC
Fabric/cardboard postcard x lots
Silverware drawer organizer
NM quilt square
Book cover
Sock Monkey
Apron
Rice/lavender heating pad
Flour glove stress ball x 2
Crocheted jar x 4
Alter Leah’s dress straps
Cupcake purse
Crocheted Easter basket for Alice
Crocheted washcloth x2
Yarn of BFL! ~¾ oz
April
Rug with G’s old shirts
Spin yarn: cannot quantify
Thought bubbles
Ribbons for Kimmie’s memorial (~200)
Thought vase
More yarn
Etched jars (wildflowers) x3
Windmill pillow
Daisy pens x3
Bluebonnet photos in glass x2 (mother’s day gifts)
Crocheted frog
More yarn
Curtains for Alice’s room, Russell’s room, Mommy/Daddy room
Crocheted jars x ?
Mend – G’s PJs
Mend Judy’s skirt
Ply Yarn


Home Improvements
March

Patch wall
Backdoor bar
Valve for waterline in front yard!
April
New couch
Clear out shed
Demolish shed

Books Read
March
Cup of Clay by Carole Nelson Douglas
The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Congo by Michael Crichton
Bio of an Ogre by Piers Anthony
April
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
Taking Flight by Lawrence Watt-Evans


In other (read: real) news, Alice is now crawling on all fours, sitting up by herself, clapping, and even pulling up on things. What a big girl she is getting to be!

Also, I think I want to participate in Sew, Mama, Sew!s May Giveaway Day. Not because I want to draw any attention to my "blog" but rather because I like to make things and I have so many things my husband would love for me to just get rid of, what better way than a giveaway? What will I give? An Apron? A small ball of yarn? Ooh, I may just have to surprise you (1 dear reader that I have). I may just have to surprise myself.

February Accomplishments

 I know I missed a couple days crafting-wise, so I know I won't be able to say I at least worked on something crafty each day of 2010, but whatever. Here's what happened last month in the Hansen household:


Crafting:
Bean bags x 3
Finger sweater
Crocheted camisole
Felt mustaches x 8
Fabric/cardboard BIG postcard
Lung pin cushion
Ferris wheel card
Dog treats
“Chock” monkeys x 2
Waffle cookbook
Paper
Band-aid hair clips
Beck’s needle book
Sherlock hat
Sherlock pipe needle book
Yarn – rainbow ~ #? yards
Yarn – purple/orange ~ 17 yards
Crocheted jar x 1


Home Improvements:
Electricians
            Outlets in garage 4
Outlets in bathrooms 1per
Fan box in LR
            Light box in front LR
Fan in Bathroom
Check heater Plug
Outside light
Outside plug by electric fence
Water heater plug
Track lights in front room
Fan/light in living room
Repair electric fence
Move fence energizer down

Books finished:
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes A Day by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg
Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairytales
Yes, I read cookbooks and crafting books all the way through like they ar enovels before I ever do anything out of them. 
I just barely finished HCA last night at 11 pm. That was a hard read. 803 pages. Didn't understand a bunch of it because it was written 150 years ago with many stories about Denmark etc where I've never been, but I still read it. Yay for me!


And it really bugs me how you can't just copy and paste out of MS Word into Blogger. What the heck?

NESTING

Nesting is the key to... confinement, which is fine by me. I'm an introvert.

What I want...

I have a list of "Wants" on my computer. I think when I started it it was supposed to be between me and G but now it is all what I want. I have lists of "Music," "Books," "DVDs/Blurays," and "Other" on there. I don't want to feel ungrateful, I have a lot, but I am going to share some of what I want with you, and maybe I will do the links right...

 Let's start with books, shall we?

Non Fiction

-The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole at An Artful Life because why not? I'm might already be an artistic mother, but I can always learn more. I love learning more. 

-Home, Paper, Scissors by Patricia Zapata at A Little Hut OK, so I am getting this one FREE because I won a give away on her site, but I don't have it yet and I have been so excited about it since before it even came out. I don't even remember how I found her site, but I love it and I always have!

-Geometrics Crochet Math + crochet? How could life get any better?

-Bend the Rules with Fabric by Amy Karol because, again, I try what I might but I can always learn more.

-Drip. Dot. Swirl and Crumble. Crackle. Swirl Von Glitschka
Life is a Verb by Patti Digh

Fiction

-Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Adding zombies to anything will make it worth my while. Maybe this way I can read some of the "classics" and see what they are all about, eh?
-Overqualified by Joey Comeau, author of the comic A Softer World.

-I have yet to read any Anne Rice novels. I think I would like to.


Some other things I want:
-Green Star Juicer because I need a juicer and if I'm gonna get one, why not the best one?
-A spinning wheel. I want to learn to spin yarn so bad, you have no idea! I think it may be my most anticipated new craft to date! But where would I keep it? That is the big issue...
-If I can't have a spinning wheel because of space issues, I would at least like a drop spindle from Zebisis Designs. SO PRETTY!
-A food dehydrator so I can make stuff like jerky and fruit snacks and have that much less I'm spending at the grocery store. Sure, I will have to buy meat and fruit, but 1 lb of beef is much cheaper than 1 lb of jerky. AND I could make my own flavors, maybe use some Wildtree products on it, ooOOooh!!! Healthy stuff for my family, heck yeah!

So what do you guys think, am I too needy? I'm not saying I'm going to be unhappy if I don't get any or all of these things, I just thought I would share what's on my mind.

In other news, Alice got her first tooth today! Maybe early by some standards but she's already 2 months behind her brother!

Lists

I am a fan of lists so much so that last year I started keeping a bunch in folder on my desktop. I have a list of "Wants" that includes music, movies, books, etc that I want. I have a list of crafts I want to do/want to learn/need to finish. I have a list of projects we need to get done around the house. And this year I have started a list of ACCOMPLISHMENTS. This list I am keeping to help me keep track of what we have actually done because while I love taking things off of my other lists, when I do they just disappear; I have no record of them. That's not cool. So you wanna know what I did in January?

Crafting:
Sock monkeys x 4
Finger sweaters x 2
Felt cat toy
Etched glass
Cowl
Crocheted rose hair clips x 8
Crocheted hanging jars x ?
Book box w/ rub on letters
Stitch markers x 4
Bottle cap pin cushion
Paper
Paper bowls
Alice in wonderland ATCs x 3
Bird House
Caterpillar bag
Feather vial necklace
Apple trivet
Fabric postcards x 6
Felt mustache pencil toppers x 24

Home Improvements:
Fans in kids’ rooms
Quote on electric

Also in the word document I have a section for Books but since I didn't technically finish any last month, there are none on the list.

My goal this year is to do at least one crafty thing a day. I'm not saying FINISH one thing/day, but at least work on something. I have been doing swaps on craftster.org and those are helping me muchly greatly in the daily creation department. It is motivating and thoroughly enjoyable. It also adds to my anxiety. Ah well, that's a topic for another day.

Some random thoughts

Yay! Happy Holidays! I'm happy they're over. Russ now has too many toys and I really need to weed through them and see which I want to save for Alice and which I want to donate to something else. I am not looking forward to this. I got diamond earrings from G... let's just say he did better last year with the sewing machine. I will keep the rest of those thoughts to myself for now. He got, among other things, a super-dooper-bad-a** tool chest! I am the best wife ever you guys!


     So I was talking to my MIL at Christmas about the whole "Trying to only buy from the USA" goal I had (and failed miserably at) this year. Turns out she wasn't saying "It's pointless; why  bother?" like G led me to believe but rather "That's a really good idea. I'll try it, but OH! Darn near impossible!" It really made me happy that something I thought made sense to my MIL and she agreed. This doesn't happen too often. I usually have to hold my tongue when she expresses her opinion of my opinion just so G himself doesn't kill me for the harsh words I would like to share with him mother. But we agreed. And we agreed that it's just about impossible to take on such actions.


     And on that topic, it IS impossible to buy anything at Target Made in the USA. Yeah, my aunt gave me a gift card to Target and while we were there last night nothing I wanted was made in the USA. I ended up buying some pants made in Cambodia and some socks (to make monkeys) that were made in CHINA but that was all I could bring myself to buy. I still have 20$ and really don't want to use it but it's 20$, you know? Maybe I'll just put it towards the next season of whatever TV show we need the next time we need more visual entertainment.


     Vienna Sausages are yucky.


    Inspired by Rhonda at Down to Earth, I have quit using my dishwasher. In fact I haven't used it in over 3 weeks, which is much longer than most of my goals. My goal started with trying to get them done every morning, and while that doesn't always happen, nor does it happen everyday, I'm still only doing them by hand. I do get them done most days and the days I don't the reason is more along the lines of there not being enough to want to use a whole sink full of water on than me just being lazy. Some my question my motives but I think it's obvious: when I start the day doing something productive I have a more productive day. Makes sense, no? And, to be completely weird, I have found it to be rather enjoyable.


     It has come to my attention that people have commented on my blog! Oh! And not people I know, either! Amazing. I don't think I really have an opinion on this. Something I do have an opinion on, however, is people who leave rude comments. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but just because I don't have the same opinion as you doesn't mean I am unlearned or "haven't done my research." So if you're going to leave a comment, don't be a bitch about it, and if you find that difficult then at least don't be anonymous. Anonymous, rude comments suck and will get deleted.