All Good Things Start With "S"

I am such a bad blogger. I blame Dan. Not for a particular reason, but just because I can.

Anyway, it's been a busy week around here. Lots of "s" activites.

Stamping - I've become hooked on rubber stamping. I spend more time than is healthy on Splitcoaststampers.com reading tips from women who are way more talented than me, learning about new products and getting inspiration.

Shopping - This new hobby leads me back to my favorite hobby of course, shopping. Rubber stamps are expensive! Plus you *need* the extra stuff. Glitter and ink pads and paper and all kinds of embelishments. I've found myself talking in...

Slang - The website I spend too much time on, splitcoaststampers, has a special sort of slang for all things scrapbook related. Embellies (embelishments) SU (Stampin' Up) etc. This makes me talk in slang too. I feel so geeky. I'm typing to these women the same way I used to when IMing in high school.

Sisters - I have a big sis from one of the stamp groups I belong to. I know a little about her, but have no idea what her real name is or what she looks like. She sends me lot of presents and beautiful cards and other fun stuff, including chocolate. Mmm...chocolate. I also have a little sis, who isn't as chatty as my big sis. I sent her stuff, but no word yet on if she even got it!

Saving - as in "saving the animals." We had a fundraiser on Wednesday, which I somehow became the organizer of. The weather was awful and the American Idol finale was on, but we still managed to raise over $1000 from the people who showed up. The money funds a surgery for a pup that needed to have a leg removed due to a tumor. Dogs bounce back fast - within 24 hours of his surgery, he was playing with other puppies!

Searching - for a house. It's hard to house hunt right now. We don't know if we're moving or not - it's all based upon whether my parents sell their house or not. But we've started our search and found some great deals in Mesa, Gilbert and Maricopa. The ones in Maricopa are too cheap to ignore, but they're also a good hour at least from work. *sigh*

Sentimental - An old boss of mine passed away. His memorial service was on Friday, which I couldn't go to because of work. But a large part of me wouldn't have wanted to go anyway. I last saw him before he got sick, nearly two years ago. I didn't want to go see him like that. I wanted to be able to remember him as being healthy and strong. I wanted to be able to remember him as being the straightforward man who treated us like his family.

Serious - We went out to Best Buy today to buy Father's Day gifts. That's right, we're getting our required holiday shopping done in advance, we are so responsible. And I told Dan he could buy a new TV because the color in ours flickers and you have to literally hit the tv to fix it. But guess what? HE SAID NO. I'm considering taking him to a psychiatrist, but he said - and I quote - "No, I'm going to be an adult here. We don't need a new tv. Ours will work find for a little while longer."

Scheduling - We're planning a vacay. To Vegas again because I was outvoted. Don't get me wrong, I like Vegas. But we were just there in October and I would have preferred to go to World Wildlife Zoo as our vacation. Apparently "Glendale isn't a vacation Sara. It's 20 minutes away." Whatever.

Seeing - movies. We saw Ironman, Narnia and Indy. I had voted for Baby Mama and Made of Honor. I was outvoted. I'm not quite sure how I always lose the vote. There's only two of us in this marriage.

Sweets - We enjoyed delish cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory this week. And we picked up some fresh peaches from a local farm. Plus we bought peach salsa, which I almost drank from the jar it was so tasty. Plus we have Diet Mountain Dew Code Red in our friedge, which is one of my favorite sodas. My tummy has been happy lately.

Stalking - I just spent the past 3 hours reading my favorite blogs that I've missed all week! Dan's been good about reading them and giving me an update during my drive home from various meetings and volunteer stuff. But it's just not the same as when I read them myself. Probably because I imagine different voices for each of the blog's authors and Dan won't mimic those voices for me. He's no fun.

Gah, I don't like doing update posts. By the time I get around to them, I've forgotten all the funny things I've sad/seen/heard this week. Except these conversations...
Me: My hair is so freaking frizzy because of the humidity! I can't live anywhere humid. I've changed my mind about moving.
Dan: I've changed my mind about listening to you.

Dan: *while playing a video game* What am I doing? Why am I collecting these, they are worth nothing!
Me: You talk to yourself a lot.
Dan: It's better than me punching you in the face.
Me: *typing*
Dan: Are you blogging about that?
Me: Maybe.

I'm glad to see that a busy week and a lack of sleep do not stop us from domestic violence jokes.

Puppy Love

On behalf of the Arizona strays who are taken care of by Friends for Life, thanks for the moolah.

The auction was on Saturday night and it was amaz-za-zing. (Benchwarmers reference, anyone? Am I the only one to latch onto stupid movie quotes?)

Anyway, we fell just short of our $45,000 goal after expenses, but hopefully with the donations that were sent in that week to the PO Box, which have yet to be tallied, we will have made our goal. In the meantime, here are the almost final numbers:
$41,500 - amount raised!
$600 - final winning bid for a custom made dress by Yours Truly.
$1,700 to $3,400 - Amount of raffle tickets entered for East Valley Scrappers Guild stuff. Thanks Ladies!
154 - number of paying attendees.
34 - Volunteers helping with setup, cashier tables, item runners and Doggy Dates.
7 - Number of dogs brought along that were up for adoption.
1 - Number of adorable black lab puppies that I wanted to take home with me.
0 - Number of puppies that Dan let me bring home.
$200 - winning bid for my parents' Suns tickets.
$6,350 - amount raised by surprise items. Some attendees were so into the auction, they offered up items from their dinner tables! Rounds of golf at an ultra-exclusive course, personal tours of the Diamondbacks facilities, artwork done by Ron Burns, a 3 night resort stay from any one of over 100 resorts.
10+ - number of strangers who upon hearing my name remarked, "Oh, I recognize your name!" I felt like a kinda celebrity.
4 - number of times I had to use a lint roller to get pet fluff off my black pants. (Hindsight is 20/20.)
1 - number of items I was tempted to bid on. John Travolta autographed a painting done by a former shelter dog, as well as a framed photo and a Hairspray poster. Winning bid was well over $1500. Dan would have been upset with me...
500+ number of items up for bid, ranging in winning price of $30-$3000

So all in all the event was fantastic! Next week, we'll be here, handing out info about Friends for Life and selling t-shirts. F4L is one of the 4 non-profit groups that Petfest gives free exhibit space as well as a portion of the proceeds. So please, come bring little Fluffy and Fido and visit us! You can help Dan keep me away from the adoption area. I think he volunteered to go just to prevent me from bringing home another pet...

Whoa, past midnight. Going to bed now... I need to break my internet addiction.

Ode to March

Sunny Happy Flower, originally uploaded by Klick Here.

It's finally March. This month is my second favorite month. (December, a.k.a. Christmas Month, being my supreme favorite.) This month is National Craft Month, which means that all my favorite stores are having awesome sales. Not just awesome, multiple word awesomeness. Awe. Some. It's also the month that the first day of Spring appears, bringing with it warmer weather and pretty flowers and an excuse to buy sundresses. That happens to be a holiday in Japan. Thanks, Wikipedia. And finally? It's my birthday month. Save up your pennies people, because Sara likes presents.

This month will be chock full o' fun too. Ren Fest is back and Carrie is working over there on Saturdays. We want to go visit her some weekend, once it warms up a little and hopefully on a weekend without rain. The charity auction for Friends for Life is also coming up this weekend. I'm excited to see all the auction action. And the weekend after is Petfest at West World. Dan and I are volunteering to sell t-shirts and hand out info packets about Friends for Life. It means that we'll see a bunch of cute pups wandering around and hopefully we'll find some cute gifts for our kitties. Because cats need materialistic validation as much as we do. The weekend after that is my birthday weekend, which means I expect to see all my friends and drink pina coladas or visit World Wildlife Zoo. (And as much as I joke about liking presents, no gifts please. Our closets runneth over.) And finally, the last weekend of March will be spent in Ohio, visiting my sister and seeing her compete in the MAC gymnastic championships.

So yes, this will be a month for Monster and Starbucks. I know I had the resolution, yadda yadda, but seriously? How do people cope without caffeine? Boggles the mind. It makes me talk faster, which in a way makes me more productive. And I wish it made me a clean freak, but I think you need meth for that.

Furry Tails Can Come True

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I am volunteering with Friends for Life. They're a non-profit animal shelter in Gilbert that focuses primarily on strays that are surviving on the streets. We adopted two of our kitties from them.

The major thing in the works right now is our annual charity auction, which will be held on March 8th. We typically raise about $45k from this one event, which is enough to keep the shelter running and all bills paid through the summer. I donated a custom dress. My parents donated some Suns tickets. The scrapbook guild I belong to rallied together and donated a total of 3 dozen cards, 7 photo books, 4 premade scrapbooks, a notebook and 2 photo frames. Plus we've had tons of other donations for things like jewelry, artwork, vacation packages and sporting event tickets. In total, there are about 150 lots of items that are going up for bidding.

Tickets are $80 each, (tax deductible!) and include dinner, dancing, entertainment and of course, the ability to bid on some fabulous items! We only have about 40 seats left. The event will be a lot of fun, the money will go to a good cause, and you'll get to see me! (I'll be the one taking everyone's money at the cashier table. My previous retail experience is finally paying off.)