Bowling for Campers

For the past two years Shane Sampson, our local Young Life leader, has arranged for kids to "earn" some or all of their camp cost by particiapating in a Bowl-a-Thon. This year I decided to join them getting sponsors of my own. Shane said we would get paid per pin, counting the best two out of three games.

I don't think I have EVER bowled higher than a 90. As a matter a fact, in the 80's I would go bowling on Saturdays with the "singles" group of a church I was attending. Singles consisted of me, my brother David, my mom, my future sister-in-law Marla, a single mother named Holly and her 6 year old daughter....well you get the idea, we were a diverse group. I think I have bowled twice since those days back at the Branches of Faith, so as far as my game goes, I am not that big a threat to any of my sponsor's pocket books. Let's put it this way, back in the 80's, the 6 year old consistently beat me. I hated her.

So at 5:30 p.m. this evening I showed up at Sully Lanes in Aransas Pass hoping to reach my first goal, which was finding a ball that weighed less than 8 lbs. I found a lovely pink one.

During the course of the night I got two strikes and two spares, however my score for game one was 87. All games from this point on had plummeting scores due to exhaustion. I knocked down 83 pins in game two. And game three was a dismal 53: gutter balls galore!

To my sponsors, I say THANK YOU!

I was able to raise $131.40 for campers.

To all others, if you would like to sponsor me

"after the fact" feel free

to send a check made out to Young Life.

You can put "camp" in the memo!

Labrador of Love

Yesterday on the way to Sonic, I saw a Labrador unattended at Walgreen's. Later as I was leaving Sonic (Dr. Pepper in hand) I saw the little guy trotting up the road. He was definitely out on the town unattended, so I nabbed him. My thinking at the time was this would be an easy rescue because he has tags.
We got home and I found out his most current tag was dated 1998. But not to worry, they were issued by a local vet. So I called the vet at his house and he said, he doesn't keep records back that far. RATS!
The vet suggested I call the local paper and more often than not pets are reunited with their owners without ever having to put an ad in the paper. Being that it was Sunday, this meant I would have to keep Bo (that's what his name turned out to be) over night. Cookie was NOT happy.
Bo, a black lab, was still very young. Obviously those tags were a lot older than he was. You could tell he was being trained to hunt. He would sit on command and shake your hand if you asked several times. What a sweet boy. I knew his owners were worried.
So today I was able to connect with his owner by calling the paper. They came to retrieve their Retriever and there was a joyous reunion. I was rewarded with 18 fresh eggs from their very own chicken coop. And from the way they talked, when it comes to their eggs I have unlimited access.
Now get this twist, when she opened the back door of her SUV Bo AND Cookie jumped in and laid down ready to go.

It's Kitten Season

Spring is in the air and you know what that means, puppies and kitties galore.
And if there is a kitten to be found, somehow I am the one who finds it. I'm doing my part tomorrow to prevent over population by taking in all my impregnable kittens (Buttons and White Kitty) for a spaying. AND Bo, who has the potential to impregnate, will not escape the knife either as he is going in for a neutering.
I have not discussed the procedure with the "kids" so as far as they know, tomorrow will be just another day. But we all know it will be a day that will change them forever. Uhhh, Bo's changes more visable than the others....if you know what I'm saying.
Pray for me as I have to have them there by 7 a.m. And then pray for them, as I cannot afford the "pain package" that the vet always tries to push on me.

So the top picture is of Buttons and Bo (Bo in front).

Buttons is in the sink.

Bo is curled up with the White Kitty.

What did the fat lady sing?

As you learned in my previous post we had so much "rummage" donated to Young Life's Yard Sale that it was spilling out into my drive way and yard. Well now that it is over, all I can sing is, "exhaustion is just another word for nothing left to move!"

Young Life Committee members and some high school kids work Thursday night pricing and setting up. At the end of the evening what we weren't able to cram back in the garage we "hid" in the back yard.

Shane and future campers hard at work!

Friday night however we had to set up for the next day and leave it out all night ready to go. To prevent pillaging, Shane and 4 high school students set up the mattresses and "camped" out guarding the stuff.

My hope for the sale is that we would raise $1,000.00. That's enought money to help sent two kids to camp. Saturday morning a barage of buyers bought enough of our junk to send five kids to camp. We raked in $2,500.00.

I had a great time and am so thankful for the help that Shane and the committe gave me (esp. the last three days). Please click on Cat's Photo Albums in the links at the right of this post. I have a lot of great pictures of the event and I want you to see the faces of the people that helped me.

One Man's Junk...

Denise wants me to post again, but I am busy....very busy. My garage, that I worked so hard to completely clean out, is now busting at the seams with "rummage". I am comforted by the fact that none of it is mine.

During the garage sale I had with Shane and Cyndea about a month ago I got the bright idea that we at Rockport Young Life should have a rummage sale to raise money for Young Life campers.

So the committee heard my idea and unanimously agreed that we should do it. We set the date for April 21st, 2007. I then sent out a mass email to all the donors on our mailing list. The stuff started pouring in. I guess when they got my email they began cleaning out every nook and cranny of their homes. I started receiving, clothes, bedding, furniture, household gadgets and appliances, lamps, rugs, Papasan chairs (3), garden pottery, art work, books and the list goes on.

What started out as a trickle turned into a flood of rummage. There is no room in my garage to park my car or even walk for that matter. As soon as I organized an area and cleared a space, some generous soul would stop by and fill the hole. It's incredible.

People would much rather give away their junk than throw it out. Here's an example, I was sorting donated items yesterday and found in a bag some pant legs.....not pants, just the legs. Why is it so hard for us to just throw it away?

Someone donated this questionable book. The pictures are too risque for a Christian organization to have laying around, so it's not going in the yard sale. I will however offer it to the highest bidder here on-line. I promise to mail it discretely in a brown wrapper.

LOL - OUT LOUD!

April Announcements

I want to take a moment to bring to your attention changes I have made to my side bar. In doing so, I lost things, like my photo album. But I quickly retrieved it and it now appears in "links".

And since I am talking about links, I suggest you go see who I like to check in on every now and again. Some of my favorites are: Farm Girl Fare, New Life Emerging, Mini Smith, and the NEWLY added Scrappin' My Life Away (my friend Denise's blog). Denise took me on a scrapbook store shop hop on the 4th day of Catherine. At the end of the day I had spent 25% of my grocery money for the month on PAPER. It was great fun and the paper made into tasty sandwiches.

Oh and by the way, today is Denise's birthday. She probably wants you to know she is younger than me, but I want you to know it is only by fractions.

Happy Birthday Denise!

The Project Linus Retreat

Every year the Rockport Chapter of Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org) has a 3 day, 2 night retreat at The Retreat House on Club Lake Road.

The first year they had it Sue Laza came to town and we went out there together. She showed up with her cute fleece blankets all ready to turn in. I on the other hand got sick. I don't know, some kind of bronchial pneumonia. So while Sue sewed labels onto blankets, I sleep on the couch under a human size roll of polyester batting. Sue became a blanketeer 2 years before me.

The second year I was sick again and didn't even show up. I still had not turned in one blanket, but this time my friend Cheryl brought to my house a "kit" of fabrics to make at home and turn in next year. The "kit" is the one featured in my last post: "On Becoming a Blanketeer".

This year I was determined to make it, even if it meant wearing a hazmat suit. Not only was I going for all three days, but I also decided to show up with 5 (O.K. 4) quilt tops all ready to go into the final steps of batting, backing, and binding.

Lori came down from Dallas and we decided to sleep at the Retreat House (www.theretreathouse.com). Cheryl and Stacy both took a day off work and each spent one night (consecutively). We had the freedom to come and go as we pleased. Some spent the night while others went home. Those who stayed could stay up into the wee small hours of the morning and then emerge the next day and sew for a couple of hours in their pajamas. We got to raid the fridge and take naps whenever we wanted, but mostly we made blankets.

As blanketeer's finished a blanket they yell, "TA-DA!" and then the place would yell back "TA-DA!" and she would get a round of applause. Kindness and laughter abounded while our pile of blankets went from 0 to 130 in three days.

My friend Mary Ann sewing on her Singer Featherweight. She is also the person who took most of these photos.

Project Linus' Chapter President Marsha Files (far left) receiving a SURPRISE gift quilt of appreciation. At the last retreat Cheryl (second from right) passed out 6 inch squares of fabric that had Linus and Snoopy on it. We were instructed to create a 12.5 inch block using shades of blue, AND to keep our mouths shut. We did it and when Marsha was presented her quilt we were all laughing and crying at the same time.

Cheryl's first TA-DA!

Lori's 1st TA-DA!

Lori kept flip-flopping on how she was going to finish this quilt. GET IT!

Stacy hard at work and me, well...

Stacy's first TA-DA!

My first TA-DA and the quilt that made me a blanketeer can be seen in my previous post. You can also see more pictures of quilts my friends and I made at the Retreat by clicking on Cat’s Random Pics to the right of this post. Once there, click on “my public gallery” and look for the album titled: Project Linus Retreat. There are 81 pictures and I KNOW some of you will not want to look at all of them, so I moved all of mine to the top of the list.

Your Welcome!

On Becoming a Blanketeer

First you must clear a space.

Then cut your fabrics.

Sew them together.

Laugh with others when they point out the caption on the bulletin board behind you, especially when it applies to your quilting experience.

TA-DA! Strike a pose for the paparazzi.

Project Linus

I want to tell the enterweb about my experiences at the Project Linus Retreat but then I realized that if you aren't a quilter, or "Blanketeer" as they call us in Project Linus, you would NOT know of what I am referring.

For some background information please (pretty please) click on the link below and watch this short news report on what Project Linus does and how it got started. Maybe you should get a tissue if you are the sensitive type.

Once on the site, click on the word "launch" under the cute child's picture. She's holding her blankee.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16711082/

Recipes from the Crypt

While sitting here at Command Central waiting for my computer to "defrag", I grabbed the recipe book my step-mother made for us before she died. The thing about recipes from my mother and step-mother's generation that interests me is they always give credit to who they got the recipe from. For instance, who is Ona Gifford? She is only known to me by her Chicken Spaghetti recipe. What about Coyla? Evidently she made an awesome cheese cake and now I have the recipe. And someone named Alice Beth was famous for making a great chocolate cake. My Aunt Fern (also dead) gets credit for a recipe titled: "Yummy Salad". It's made with those colored marshmellows from Kraft. I think I'll make it again for Easter.

At this time I would like to note that in my step-mother's recipe book there are two recipes that do not give credit to whom credit is due, the recipes are: Broccoli and Rice Casserole and Pineapple Ice Box Cake. I know that these came from Carlene so today I give her credit for them here on the web. Mom, do you remember where you got them? And do you know Ona Gifford?

Chicken Spaghetti from the kitchen of Ona Gifford (serves 10-12):

1 fat hen
1 pkg. long spaghetti
1 green pepper (diced)
1/2 bunch celery (diced)
1 large onion (diced)
1/2 lb. grated sharp cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)
2 pods garlic (minced)

Directions: Stew hen to make plenty of rich broth. Reserve the broth. Debone and dice the chicken. Skim 1 cup of fat from the chicken broth and saute all the vegetables and garlic. Add cheese, soup, chicken and spaghetti (that has been cooked in chicken broth reserve). Let simmer about 30 minutes to mix flavors. Umm, Umm, good!!!