What I’ve Been Up To Lately Vol 3

 As always, I have my bad blogger hat and t-shirt on to write this post.  Besides my birthday post, I haven’t written anything since March!  Tsk tsk.  Sorry about that!  :) Here’s what I’ve been up to in random order:

Easter 2015

As usual, we spent Easter at my parents’ house.  My parents heated the pool and all of the kids got to swim. I also made this year’s bunny cake!  If you aren’t aware, it is a family tradition that me and my sister make a bunny cake.  My sister refuses to help anymore, so I was “forced” to make one by myself.  It's a hard life. :)

SCBWI Houston Conference

I have tried to attend the Houston SCBWI conference for a few years now, but I always miss it.  In 2013 I had just missed the Houston conference but went to Los Angeles one instead.  Last year, the Driving Jacks 5K was happening so I couldn’t make it.  This year, I got an email about the LA conference again but can’t go since it is too expensive and thought about the Houston conference.  I said “I wish I could go to that one, but it’s always in April” and then thought “Wait, it IS April!” and proceeded to google when the 2015 conference would be.  As luck would have it, it was the next day!  Haha.  I almost missed it for a 3^rd year in a row.  I have since been involved in the local chapter and being the event planner and over achiever I am, I offered to help coordinate the 2016 conference. 

Astros Suite Tickets

My work gave us Astros Suite tickets for doing a great job on the events!  I have always wanted to go to a sporting event and sit in the suites.  Bucket list item!!!!!!  The seats were great, the fajita bar was tasty, and the wine was delicious.  It was a fun night!  I took my friend Tracie to the game and we had a blast.

Jamberry Nails

Ignore the fact that I need a real manicure

My sister introduced me to Jamberry Nails a few weeks ago and I have been obsessed ever since.  I started off with 1 set of nail stickers but have now hoarded my way to 12 sets. Oh goodness.  Luckily, my mom and sister also have several sheets and we all trade.  My toes and fingers have never looked so cute.  I am always debating what color to get when I get a pedicure, now I can have fun stickers that stay for a long time.  (Seriously, my pedicure ones stayed for just over a month and my fingernails stayed for 2 weeks).

Children’s Museum of the Woodland’s

I took Kali to the Children’s Museum in the Woodlands and at first she didn’t know what was happening.  She likes to sit back and observe for a while before jumping into the action.  Once she felt secure enough, so started to play and there was no stopping her.  She played dress up, ‘drove’ a car, slid down the slide, got soaking wet in the water play section (she was having fun, I couldn’t stop the fun!), and built lots of tall buildings.

Baseball player signing

My work hosts an annual Astros Day where they have 3 players come out and sign sports stuff for everyone.  I don’t need more clutter in my life and don’t collect any sports stuff.  I called my dad to see if he would want something signed and he said a baseball.  Jose Altuve, Marwin Gonzalez, and Luis Valbuena were all there to sign items for us! 

Royal Caribbean Cruise

I went on a cruise in May with my friend Clarissa!  We went to Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan.  I had a blast and fell in love with cruising.  I can’t wait to do another one.  Somewhere between Belize and Roatan (where I got in the water) I got a SUPER bad ear infection that still hasn’t 100% healed.  I think it was when we went cave tubing in Belize.  I should really write an entire post about just my cruise…let me get back to you on that.

Fondue Restaurant 

For my birthday my friend Terrie took me out to a fondue restaurant.   Bucket list item!!!!  I have always wanted to go to a fondue place but it’s kind of expensive just to do for no reason.  We went to The Melting Pot off Westheimer and it just happened to have a review that said it was the most romantic place to take a date. LOL. As you may or may not know, I am a self-proclaimed marshmallow freak and when the dessert fondue came out, I was so excited.   Yum!  They even gave me a signed birthday card when we were leaving.

 Cole Turns 4!

 Cole turned 4 at the end of April and they hosted a fish fry for him.  He requested a cake with m&m's on it and that is what he got.  

I think that’s all for now!!  I will be back with a post about the cruise, my birthday, and my trip to Venezuela where I met a real life Willy Wonka!!!

Easter 2014

Easter Sunday started off with Jabba wanting to go outside to kill poor, innocent lizards.  We never have lizards around the house, Jabba makes them basically extinct around our area.  It's really sad.

I headed to church to volunteer and celebrate Easter.  My church has a new HUGE cross fountain that was just finished and I took a picture of it.  A few months ago, they had let us all write our names on white paper to put on the inside of the cross when it was being constructed.  Kind of like our names were at the base of the cross.  Pretty cool.

Afterwards I drove to Spring to see my family for lunch.  We had BBQ and hung out by the pool pretty much all day.

My mom had gotten the kids all of these random toys, so of course the adults had to play too!

Planning a Color Run and Raffle

This is take 2 of the How to Plan a 5K fundraiser post from a few years ago.  The 2014 Driving Jacks 5K and raffle raised just over $8,000 via a color run and raffle.  These are a few things we did to make our color run and raffle successful. 

Note:  This is a supplemental post on how to plan the Color Run and Raffle portion of the 5K.  If you want to know how to plan a 5K in general, go to the post above. ^^^^^^

Edit:  I have now created an entire website about planning a 5K and also ebook with forms, spreadsheets and sponsor packets.  Go to www.HowtoPlana5K.com to purchase the ebook to have access to the forms we used (including a bonus section about creating color runs)

A few other changes for the 2014 race
1.  We had three categories this year:  A timed 5K (not typical at color runs, but added participants), a non-timed 5K, and a Sleep In and Hit Snooze Option-best idea ever!  These are the people who wanted to donate to the 5K, but couldn't make it that day.  We mailed them their official 5K shirt after the race.  The price was the same as the color run ($20).

2.  The volunteers had tie-dye shirts this year instead of purple ones.  They also had to sell at least $30 in raffle tickets to get a tie-dye shirt.

3.  We changed the route up this year and people loved it!  The same route each year gets boring, this year it went through the azalea trail at SFA.

4.  Social media-this year we created a FB page for people to "like".  In the past, we have always created events on FB, this time we created an actual page.  Go here to like us! :)

5.  We had a sign for the participants to take pictures in front of that was donated. Loved it!

Color Run F.A.Q.

Did you need a lot of volunteers?
We planned the 5K the exact same way as a regular 5K, but instead of needing volunteers for a water station only, we needed them for throwing color on the patrons.  We had about 6-7 volunteers at each station, and two stations had 1-2 people at the water stops (just before the participants got to the color station).

Edit:  I have now created an entire website about planning a 5K and also ebook with forms, spreadsheets and sponsor packets. 

Can we make the color?
Well, we started to make it, but that was a disaster!  While it was drying, it got mold on it and we couldn't use it.  Making your own is MUCH cheaper, but you have to do it correctly, or it will be a waste of time/money.  To give you an idea, to make 150 lbs of color powder, it would have been $100, but to buy it, it cost us $675.  I am not 100% sure why ours didn't turn out, but I think it had something to do with the water/food color/powder consistency and/or that we stored it in a garage.  If you do make it, I would suggest leaving it in a temperature controlled room without a lot of moisture to avoid the mold growth like ours had.  Also, when we did make it, we went to a food supplier and bought 50 lb bags of corn starch and then added water/food coloring.  You can buy corn starch at Wal-Mart for $1/lb, but we got ours for $20/50 lbs-see a difference?  Make a small batch before you decide if it is worth your time and effort.  We watched a Youtube video on how to make it.

So, where did you buy the color then?
We bought ours through Chameleon Colors.  They were nice, professional, and shipped it to us in a short amount of time.  They already have boxes of it made, so we didn't have to wait.

How much color do we need?
We had about a lb per participant.  I researched it and it said anywhere from 1-2 lbs per person.  We found that 1 lb was plenty for all of participants and we even had some left over!  We had a 25 lb unopened box and a little bit of other color as well that we used for the fight at the end.

Did you have a fight at the end?
Yes, in the registration packets we gave all the participants a snack size ziplock bag of color.  Plus, we had the leftover color from the color station in a pile in the middle.  There was a HUGE cloud of color.  Some runs have a color cannon, but we just had them throw it at each other in a 'fight'.

Did you give your participants some in a goodie bag?
Yes, we made snack size ziplock bags of color and gave it to the participants in their goodie bag.  They sell color packs where you can buy them already pre-made, but we decided that we didn't need to buy them.  They were 'fancy' and we were a small race that didn't need all of that.  We added about a handful or two to each ziplock.

Did the color come out of the shirts?
We had a info sheet on how to get rid of the color that we put in their participant bags.  I just googled how to get the color out and typed it up in word.  I am not sure if it came out, I stayed away from all that color! :)

Was the cleanup bad?
We had four color stations, 1 was easy, 2 were ok, and 1 was a nightmare.  3 of them we put a plastic tarp down to minimize the mess.  We got a roll of it at Home Depot for around $20.  We laid it down on the ground and duct taped it.  The volunteers were on each side, throwing the color.  It helped the mess A LOT!  At the first stop we were able to use a leaf blower to clean up and it was a breeze.  The next two had a few patches that we poured water on, but the last stop was a disaster. They didn't have a plastic sheet down and the color was everywhere!  I know that if we didn't have a sheet down on all of them, it would have been a lot worse.  We used the left over water from the water station buckets to clean it up, and then refilled them instead of lugging around a water hose.  We also had a push broom to help clean up.

What supplies did you buy specifically for the color portion of the race?
We bought plastic sheet roll that is super thin (sort of like those restaurant glove material) to keep the mess minimized.  We also bought squeeze bottles (6 for $5 at Sam's) to throw the color and a push broom for clean up (we actually borrowed that).  Plus the color too.

Did you have a timed start?
Most color runs do not have a timing system, they just say start and you finish when you finish.  I am a runner myself (and love giving out awards) and we figured we would get  lot of registrations having both a timed and non-timed race.  It was an added expense $800, but it worked out.

Where did you get the awards?
OMG!  Aren't they awesome?  I wanted something custom made this year, so I looked on Etsy and found a seller that makes custom awards.  His name is John and his site is called I Love Geocaching and he is AWESOME to work with. We got them in the shape of Texas and there is a cutout heart where Nacogdoches is, plus our logo.  I added a lime green ribbon to make them into ornaments.  We also used Crown Trophy to make some plaques for us for the overall winners.

Did everyone wear the same shirt?
We had the participants wear their white participant shirt (or any white shirt they wanted), but the volunteers had tie-dye shirts to wear.  We bought the shirts directly from the manufacture since it would cost about double for the screen printing company to provide them.

Edit:  I have now created an entire website about planning a 5K and also ebook with forms, spreadsheets and sponsor packets. 

Raffle F.A.Q.'s
How many raffle items did you have?
I believe it was around 44.

How did you get raffle items?
We made a list of the people we wanted to donate and then sent them a letter telling them about Driving Jacks and asked for the donation.  We mailed/dropped off/emailed about 140 requests and got back about 50 raffle donations plus sponsors.  A lot of them were people we knew that wanted to donate and who had businesses or worked at businesses.  People to ask are friends to sell items (like Mary Kay, Scentsy, etc), sports teams, tourist attractions in the area, restaurants, etc.

Who did you sell to?
Everyone!  We ran out of time, otherwise we would have set up a table at a grocery store or Walmart type store.  We mainly sold them to our friends and family.  I personally sold about $400 in tickets, the top person sold almost $700.  I tried to post about it on my personal FB page about once a week.

How many people sold raffle tickets?
Ummmm.  About 30?  I am not sure, but that sounds about right.

What were you 'big' items or top prizes?
An Apple iPad (donated) and a GoPro Camera (bought)

Where did you keep the tickets?
We had a raffle drum that I borrowed from my stepmom. I didn't want to buy one just for this event, but I am glad we had one.  I think you can get them for about $100 online, but a lot of elementary schools or car dealerships have them-ask if you can borrow one.

Did you give your top sellers any prizes?
We purchased three gift cards for the top two in sales ($50 and $25) and one random winner ($25). In order to be in the contest, you had to sell over $30 in tickets.

Who drew the winners?
We had someone who did not buy  tickets or sell tickets draw the names.  I didn't want someone to think it was rigged or anything, so we chose someone who didn't have anything to do with the tickets.  We also recorded it for anyone to see (just in case).

Where and when did you host the raffle?
The drawing was held at 11 am the day of the race.  We had time to finish cleaning up and then head to the office to draw.  I didn't want to lug all the prizes to the start/finish area and then worry about the wind and stuff.  It was easier to keep it all in one place.

What did you tickets say?
The State of TX is very specific about what needs to be on the tickets, I'm sure other states do as well.  I would check what your state requires.  Our tickets had our name, date and time of raffle, address, official rules, and the prize listing on one section.

Were you able to get ahold or everyone?
Yep!  We just called the number on the slip.  We did leave some voicemails, but they called back right away.  You always call back quickly when you win something!  It also helps to call everyone, leave messages if you have to, and then go back to the ones who you left messages for.  If they see a number a few times, they figure it is someone important.

Did you buy any raffle prizes?
We only bought one item, the GoPro Camera, all others were donated.  We needed to get the tickets printed and at that time we only had one 'big' item donated, so we voted to buy the other big item.  Some organizations buy all of their big items, but we only needed to buy one.

How much did you end up making from the raffle?
I am not sure the exact totals for the raffle.  We had sponsorships and registration fees to add up, but then expenses. It's hard to tell.  I do believe that without the raffle, we would have had a lot less profit, probably only about $3,000-$4,000 instead of $8,000.  (that could be bad math though!)

Where did you buy the raffle tickets?  Did you make them?
I got them online through a printer.  We order 4,000 of them and sold probably about 2,500-3,000. I don't have the exact totals in front of me.  We spent (with shipping) about $175 on the tickets.  I didn't want to print them ourselves because by the time we created them, bought the paper and ink, etc., we would have just spent that time on something else.  It is an expense, but worth it.

Edit:  I have now created an entire website about planning a 5K and also ebook with forms, spreadsheets and sponsor packets. 

Veronica Mars Movie Premier

A year ago, my sister Laura mentioned that one of our favorite TV shows, Veronica Mars wanted to make a movie based on the series and was using Kickstarter to fund it.  Laura and I both contributed to it and officially became backers and received updates about the movies progress.  Originally, the goal of the Kickstarter campaign was to raise $2 Million, but the Marshmallow united and raised that in 11 hours, and by the end of their campaign, they had raised over $5.7 Million with over 91,000 backers that donated.  Talk about fans!

A year to the day that the Kickstarter campaign was kicked off, the Veronica Mars movie was released.  The movie is on a limited release at AMC Theaters throughout the country (and will be available for digital release soon too) and backers were the first ones invited to the special movie fan event the night before.  I have always wanted to attend a movie release party...what does that mean?  Bucket List item!!!!!!!  Yep, #2 for the year.  Technically, it says 'attend a mid-night movie release' but I meant a movie that you have to stand in line for, get tickets early, and perhaps a fan item.  This movie premier was at 8 pm on a Thursday, not quite midnight, but it still counts to me!

About a month before the movie release, they sent out an email to Backers letting us know about the premier fan event and that they would let us by them starting at 7 am before they were released to the general public at 9 am.  Whoo hoo, two hours.  Laura drops the boys off at school at that time, so I was in charge of waking up early and buying them.  Well, I forgot to wake up early, but still was able to purchase them after a bit of a freak out when my phone wouldn't work!  I got two tickets and we were all set to go to the premier, we just had to wait about a month before it actually got here

The fan event premier was held at AMC Theaters in Sugarland, TX.  I had no idea how close Sugarland was from me, I thought I had to travel down 59-S, but I didn't.  It turns out, I only had to drive about 10 miles down Highway 6.  Cool.  Anyway, I got there early to pick up our tickets and scope out the line.  It was about 5 pm and there were already about 10 people waiting in line.  There were two theaters opening up for us, so I decided  to go ahead and get dinner first and then come back to get in line.  I have to sit about 3/4 of the way up or to the top at the movies, otherwise I get motion sick.  Plus, my cousin Stephen and his new wife, Lauren decided to come with us. I was told earlier that there were only 38 tickets left (out of two theaters), so I went ahead and bought their tickets for them, just in case it was to sell out.

This is about at 7 pm when they were letting us inside.  Keep in mind that this is about halfway through the line and there were about 100 people in each line.  Crazy marshmallows!

I officially got in line about 6 pm and there were about 30 people in line (two different lines, one for each theater) and I wasn't worried about not getting a seat since I was so close in line.  I was more worried about saving 3 additional seats, but luckily, once I found the row I wanted to sit in, the people next to me were great about helping me save them.  They let us go in the theater right at 7 pm, and they gave us a lanyard and a reunion t-shirt.  I loved it so much that I wore it on Friday!

Laura, Steven and Lauren got there about 7:15 pm and they got there free goodies as well.  I wanted to get a drink, but the line was outrageous!  I figured they would have more lines open for such a big theater, but only the main one was open and the line was about 30 minutes long.  Crazy!  If you wanted food or just drinks, you still had to wait in the same line so it took forever!  I debated whether or not to get a margarita at the bar, but decided against it.

The movie started out with someone from AMC interviewing the stars of the film on the red carpet.  Let me just say, Ryan Hansen is hilarious!  So funny.  Other cast members were funny too, but his answers were the best.  Then the recap of the TV series came on to catch anyone up that didn't see the show, but I had already seen the first 8 minutes of the movie online.  Throughout the movie, each time an old character came back, the audience cheered.  Even the characters that weren't too popular during the series.  The one-liners in the movie were so funny too.  I don't want to give away spoilers, but it was an awesome movie with a few surprises.  One person seemed out of place (James Franco), and I am not sure why he had to be included.  Don't get me wrong, I like James Franco, it just seemed weird that he was in the movie. (BTW, that wasn't a spoiler!)

GO SEE THE VERONICA MARS MOVIE TODAY!!!  IT IS SO GOOD AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A FAN TO UNDERSTAND IT.  Seriously.  GO!

I loved attending the fan event at AMC Theaters! I followed them on FB and Twitter so I can be in the know about other fan events that are coming up.  Hopefully I can start going to these things more often!  I thought you had to know someone to attend these sort of events, turns out you just have to follow their social media pages. :)

Corn Maze at Froeberg Farm

This past weekend I went to the corn maze at Froberg Farm in Alvin, Texas with my friends from my old church. It was so much fun!! First, we all met at Mimi's Cafe in Pearland to have breakfast. I had never been to Mimi's before, but I will say it was good. It was sort of a fancy breakfast place that had a french flair to it. They even had mimosas!!! I didn't drink one though, I had wine the night before and I was trying to be good. :) We got to Froberg's and got in line for the hayride and corn maze. There are two corn mazes connected together that are a pumpkin and spider web. The pumpkin one was super easy, but the spider was a bit more complicated. We powered through though. Group pic in the corn maze! We had two kids with us, one was a 2 year old and the other one was about 7 or 8. The 7/8 year old was the line leader and was super brave with all of the 'jeepers creepers' in the maze with us. He kept telling us to tell his dad (who was with us) that there were jeeper creepers in the maze and he would jump out and scare his dad. The corn stalks were pretty see through, so you could see someone 'hiding'. Kids don't know that though! After one such 'jeepers creepers' hide and jump out session he had gotten some dirt/corn stuff on him that looked like rust. He said what is that? and I told him it was scarecrow blood that the jeepers creepers left on the corn when they drug the poor scarecrows through the maze. He was totally freaked out! <----I am going to be a great mom aren't I? :) When we were back on the hayride, going back to the main farm store, it started to rain. We took pictures in the pumpkin patch and then went shopping in the store. I got lots of veggies for this week. I have been eating salad non stop!! is great and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a corn maze! The whole place is kid friendly and they have more games to play too. We only went to the corn maze (it was $10), but there were other games like face painting, rubber ducky water relay, and more.

Cape, Wig or Mustache Pub Crawl

On Friday night I went to a pub crawl sponsored by Yelp that benefited the Houston Food Bank.  Everyone going must donate 5 canned food items and either wear a cape, mustache or wig.  I choose a mustache.  You might just happen to notice that a Pub Crawl is a Bucket List item.  Whoo-hoo.

The pub crawl started at 6:30 at the Capital Bar in Midtown.  I drove with my friend Colleen and also met my friend Jill up there.  I had a margarita at the Capital, socialized a bit and then headed to the next stop on the crawl.

The next stop was The Drinkery. The Drinkery and the Capital Bar are a bit far from each other so we took the Wave to get us there.  It is $6 for us to ride it all night and a very practical purchase.  The Wav had music playing and nice seats to sit in.  Try the Wave next time you go bar hopping  (or crawling).  Since I had a margarita at the first stop, I was able to get a Bud Light Lime  (or two) at The Drinkery, after all its “Liquor before Beer you are in the clear”. :)  I hadn’t seen Jill in forever so we hung out most of the night catching up.  Mustache’s!!!

Next stop, Dogwood!  Dogwood is super close to the Drinkery so we just walked there.  I didn’t know this, but apparently some guy that was on the Bachelor owns that bar.  No, we didn’t see him.  I don’t watch that show so I couldn’t tell you who he was or what his name is, but I did learn that he owns (or at least co-owns) it.  Dogwood was a very nice bar with a great patio upstairs.  We met a few guys at Dogwood and ended up hanging with them the rest of the night. 

Little Woodrow’s was next and we stayed there chatting for awhile.  We were in the bar area getting drinks (Flamingo Sunrise for me-I was done drinking) when two young 24ish guys came up to us.  They were both new in town (as in a week) so we chatted with them for awhile.  They offered to buy us a drink and tried to pick us up, but that is NOT going to happen.  I like my guys a bit older thank you.  #30andoverplease. Haha.  They were sweet, but way too young.  I have been told I only looked 26 (several times) recently, so maybe they thought I was younger than I am. 

The Wave took awhile to come back and pick us up, but the ride to the next location was fun. The bus was packed, but we arrived at the last bar, Nouveau Art Bar safely.  Jill left us then to head home (her other friends left when we got to Little Woodrow’s) and I went looking for Colleen.  I was really ready to go by then too, so as soon as I got there I asked Colleen to leave.  I should have driven myself because I knew that I would be ready to go before everyone else (but it was late!), but Colleen agreed to head home too. 

I got home around 12:30 am after a long, pub filled night.  I really had fun and maybe next year I will do it again.  I am not really a fan of going out to bars/clubs, but this one was for charity and I have always wanted to do a pub crawl.  Bucket list item-check!

Dixie's Tupperware Party

Last Thursday a group of friends went to a performance at the Hobby Center called “Dixie’s Tupperware Party.”  DTP is a real Tupperware party that you can order products that are shown by a man in drag named ‘Dixie’.

We met at 5:30 pm to eat dinner at Damien’s Cucina in the Midtown area.  I got there before everyone else and played on my tablet while I was waiting.  There were about 10 of us and we had to be on the free shuttle bus by 7 pm to get to the theater on time.  Damien’s was fabulous; I would absolutely recommend going there anytime, or for a dinner before a play.

Dixie came on stage in a blue dress with hooker heels and Texas size hair.  Dixie is a fast talking girl from the trailer parks of Alabama, who was forced to get a job by her parole officer in order to get her three kids back.  There was a crystal like bowl on the table of the parole officers desk and she was inspired to become a Tupperware sales(wo)man.  Moving up the ranks quickly, Dixie became Tupperware’s #1 sales (wo)man.

Dixie drank from her favorite cup that had a spill proof lid so she wouldn’t spill her wine (she drank actual wine on stage).  The show was hilarious!  We got to see her favorite products including a chip and dip set that the dip bowl rests inside the chip bowl for your cheese or your “Gawn, Gawn, Guantanamo”.  Dixie has a bit of trouble saying words like ‘guacamole’. :)

The show was a bit on the sexual side of things.  There were some very inappropriate jokes (that made you crack up) that were not very PC, but it was all in fun.  Trust me, if you name gets called for a giveaway, DON’T GO ON STAGE!   Everyone gets a nametag when you go in the theater with a number on it, if your number gets called you get to go onstage and she gives you a giveaway.  The giveaways are typical Tupperware products (miniature size) but you have to do/say stuff that would have embarrassed me!   It’s all in good fun though, just go with an open mind.

 

After the show you could purchase real Tupperware products and take pictures with Dixie herself.   Our shuttle was leaving so I had to take a quick picture and leave.  Apparently the top three sales(wo)men in the company are all men in drag who drive around the country selling products.  From what I hear, it’s hundreds of thousands each year.  Great job ladies, umm gentlemen, umm Tupperware person!