Time to relax

for now anyway!

Saturday was the day I had been working on for a solid three months, My Dinner Dance for Straton's Team! I must admit I have really mixed emotions on how this night went. I will start this off with how my day started:

I woke up at 6:15am because Straton had her opening day parade and game for softball. Well at 6:45 the parade was cancelled. We had her game as it was scheduled at 9am. Her game ended and an hour later and we proceeded to the Knights of Columbus to set up for the fundraiser. I was completely exhausted. I was so tired I felt like I was coming down with a sickness. It was not a good feeling at all. So anyway, we finished set up, I took the kids home to feed them lunch and lay the babies down for nap. I immediately walked out the door to go grocery shopping while the kids were sleeping ( yes J was home)! I made it home within an hour only to hop in the shower and get ready. Straton and I headed back to The Knights of Columbus to wait on the cake and food to arrive! This is when the night started...

At 5:30 my helpers ( my cousin and Aunt) showed up to help me. I had the Dj setting up and all we were doing was waiting on people to arrive. People were slowly coming in and I was so excited to see people there. I was absolutely thrilled that Straton's teacher showed up, she adores her and was hoping all day she would attend. Straton spent the first hour of the night with her playing riddly riddly ree and tic tac toe! I loved watching them and seeing how much her teacher really does care for her :) It was a very special moment not only for Strat, but for me as well!

Well 7pm had rolled around and it was time for dinner! We had a nice little crowd there. Everyone was mingling and eating. Things were going well as they did the whole night. It was a really nice evening. My mixed emotions about this was that I had reached out to over 2000 people with this event. I worked my butt off trying to sell and advertise tickets. At the end of the night I did a head count and we had 56 people there, myself included! J and I have more than 50 people in our families. This however did not at all ruin my night. I still danced ( even though the majority of the time it was by myself, LOL)! I was just so worried the whole night that people thought I was a dud who couldn't get people there. I didn't want people to feel like they wasted their money or even an evening when this fundraiser felt very dull. No one was dancing, few people knew each other and a lot of people ended up leaving early. Again this did not ruin my night!

I told myself the day of, no matter what happens I will let nothing ruin my night or stress me out. So I let nothing bother me. I waited until Sunday morning to dwell on what I could have done or shouldn't have done. I was really bummed that all of my hard work didn't look like hard work at all. I wanted people to see how much I wanted to make a change in this Foundation and for my daughter. By looking around at the event I don't think people could feel my passion and it really upset me. After recounting the money box for the 5th time I felt a lot better, because of the generous people who did come and support me they helped me raise over $1000 to give to the CCFA! 56 people raised $1000, that is remarkable to me :) I then decided not to be upset or heart broken over anything. These people wanted to help and they did. I couldn't be more grateful! Those are the people who matter, not the ones who didn't show. They deserved my joy and thanks, not my whining or venting about what didn't happen! Everyone who helped me put this on worked hard and I think all in all we had a fun night that helped a foundation fund more research :) What more could I ask for right?!

So I have decided to be thankful for this year, but to work even harder next year! I will plan better and make the changes that need to be made! I will not stop fundraising or helping the CCFA though, it will be an everyday thing for me! I will however say, I do not for the life of me remember what I did with my spare time before this fundraiser idea came to mind, LOL!!!!

A big thank you to all of my friends and family who supported me through this fundraising process and attending my benefit. I will never forget what you all did for us to help make a difference!