1+1+1+1=4

I know. A long awaited post. What happened to me?

As indicated in my title, the total is four. As in, that's how many part-time jobs I now hold.

On Monday, I started at Baker Publishing Group as an Administrative Assistant for the Visual Communications Department.

Think that title is long?

My other titles are (in order of shortest to longest titles):

• Wedding Coordinator
• Jr. High Youth Director
• Administrative Assistant to our Associate Pastor for Adult Education

I constantly define that last one because I am not the admin assistant to the Associate Pastor. That would require more hours. Hours more like the new job. Also defined as a full, part-time job. Get it?

Let me explain; my AA in Adult Ed. is four hours/week. My AA in Visual Comm dept is up to 30 hours/week. If I were assisting our Associate Pastor in full capacity, it would be more like 30 hours/week. But it wouldn't be fair because no one else on staff has an assistant. But the other ministry departments have full, part-time or full-time staff. For instance, the Children's Ministry? Full, part-time staff person (I think she works 35 hours/week). Youth Ministry? Full-time, plus others below her in specific areas of ministry like me in Jr. High.

Now that I've explained that, let me explain that I am not crazy. Four part-time jobs is not too many.

For Wedding Coordinator, that's a consultant job. I'm paid when there's a wedding. We only have one on the calendar for 2015.

Jr. High Youth Director, it's ten hours/week for the school year. Most of the work takes place on Sundays. Plus, I have already planned out Sunday mornings through the school year. Sunday nights are planned out through December.

AA in Adult Ed, honestly that job may not exist after the end of the calendar year due to budget cuts. If it does continue, I have worked it out with my new boss that I can work half a day and then go work my four hours at the church, one day a week.

Hence my lack of blogging. I was visiting mom and dad when I got the call from Baker. I came back home and we have just been busy, busy, busy.

Last Saturday was the .1k and it was a blast. Team Bald Ego formed once again. We had a fundraising goal of $500. By Friday night, we were $225 short of the goal. The date was earlier (last year in was in November) so we had fewer team members.

Bill and I were taking a walk and I thought of a few other people I could ask to donate. When we finished our walk, I sent out an email.

One of those people is a Quotarian. She donated last year and has always been a great supporter of me.

Before I went to sleep that night, I said a prayer. I asked for a fundraising miracle.

Saturday morning, I was drinking my coffee, checking my email, and mentally preparing for the race ahead of us (just kidding). I got a text from the Quota member asking me how to donate to the .1k. I walked her through it. (I think it takes longer to donate than it does to race!)

About ten minutes later, an email popped up telling me I had received a donation. It had put us over our fundraising goal! We had been given that miracle!

Bill, Heather, Kathy F. (she was there somewhere, we never did find her), Chandra, Jason, and Addison were all a part of the team. We have decided, for next year, we will dress up. We are Team Bald Ego, after all.

Needless to say, I did not take any pictures of the race. We still had a lot of fun. We hope to come back next year with a bigger team. If you can't make it, you can still donate! I'll keep you posted on information.

I could have made this into two posts… to make up for my lack of posting. But I didn't. We'll see how often I can keep writing. Come back tomorrow for another explanation. I promise it won't be as long.

going the distance

A few Saturdays ago we "raced" a .1k to help raise money for Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. Our dear family friends', the Friar's, have two sons, both of whom have this. We participated last year and had a great time. We get to run down the best bar street in the city, and then celebrate by having a beer, or two.

This year, we were ready. We had a team, Team Bald Ego. When I set up the page, it asked me for a goal for our team. Each team member registers for $25 which counts toward the goal. I set the goal for $500 thinking if we asked our parents and friends who live further away we might be able to reach it. We ended up with eleven team members (twelve if you count our goddaughter)!

Not only did our team numbers blow me away, but so did our fundraising. We ended up raising $725!!! I can't thank our friends and family enough. I'm sure you can still donate, click this link to go directly to our team page. Or wait until next year. We've been challenged to raise more money and have a bigger team. (Overall the event raised over $35,000!) Chandra and Jason accidentally recorded Fox 17 news and there we were! Unfortunately, I cannot find that footage online. You can read more about the event, watch a video and look at pictures here. 

I have to say it was fun last year, but this year was a blast! Our team was raring to go. Bill threw down the gauntlet and started talking smack about beating me. Jen, one of our team members, jumped on board and the next thing I knew the three of us were at the front of the pack. The rest of our team held back. They just wanted to make it to the finish line. They had no idea there was going to be an actual race.

Neither did I.

I must say, Bill is pretty fast. He also threw an elbow keeping me from getting a good start. Not that it would have helped me. He was halfway up the street before I even had time to blink. I realized I had lost Jen, so I turned around to find her and she was as far behind me as I was behind Bill. I let her catch up to me and we continued to the finish line.

Bill was easily in the top ten finishers.

As the rest of our team crossed, we cheered for them. Then I realized Heather was crying. She was so overcome with the seriousness of it all, and the hilarity, that she was laugh-crying. That was my favorite moment. We take our .1k serious. And then we laugh about it.

Next year we have to come up with a group costume. This year there was a team of four guys and one girl. The men were dressed in hunting camo and the girl was a deer. They carried her through the entire race, and I'm sure she felt more like a hunted deer as they all pulled her in different directions.

Perhaps next year Bill can control his racing urges and we can stick together as a team. Especially if we have a costume.

We really do have to make it better next year. We were the second largest team there! Plan on joining us or at least donating in 2014. Team Bald Ego will fly again!