Finding the positive in the dreaded time change

Let's just start with the fact that I stayed up WAY too late last night, the night of the dreaded time change. When I came home at 3 a.m. (pretty late, even for me), and added in the time change factor, and now it's 4 a.m. *yawn*

But the upside is that I'm staring out the window now, trying to determine how late I'll have to walk in the evenings... which is great, because the mileage starts to pick up this coming week. I've been doing the 3- or 4-mile walks pretty easily (time-wise). But this coming week includes two 3-mile, a 4-mile and a 5-mile walk. That four-mile and five-mile walk aren't really treadmill material, so I'm hoping to head out ... and with the lingering light, it just might be do-able starting this week!

For a quick fundraising update: We did a quick bottle drive in the neighborhood this past week... on Sunday and Monday, Stef's kids went door to door for four streets, handing out pink fliers stapled to pink garbage bags (read Stef's post about that experience). Then on Saturday (after our mall walk), we drove the kids around to pick up the stuff. We figured it would be a $50 fundraiser, at best, considering we only did four streets this time.

We were shocked at the results.....

This was all from one house. The guy had been saving his bottles for a friend's daughter's softball team, but they found a different fundraiser and he never used them. He kept waiting for an organization to do a drive, but no one was doing one. The day the kids showed up with the fliers, he was  making plans to take the bottles back that week. Instead, he put them out for us. There were at least 45 12-packs, a dozen six-packs, and a half-dozen of cases of cans. Probably $50 to $75 worth of bottles.

And the rest of the houses? They came out in support in a big way. After we dropped off our first load, we drove around to the other houses and filled the back of the van. Alyssa and I took just that load back to the store and came out with $95.

So an easy fundraiser will probably raise close to $175. And with minimal work for us ... the only cost was the pink paper & pink garbage bags. The total time invested was about 3 hours (run the fliers around = 1 hour; pick up the cans = 45 minutes; return 1 load of bottles = 1 hour).

What was priceless though: The incredible support and generosity of our neighbors, and the fact that it was an activity we could do with the kids.

Next up: More bottle drives! Brackets for Boobs! A spaghetti dinner at the campground!  Lots of fun coming up this spring... and more daylight to enjoy it in....