LET'S EAT CAKE!!!

 It's interesting to me that our weather forecasts never seem to materialize.  Though we were scheduled for seven days of rain, our first epic day only resulted in clouds.  They started out dark and ominous but ended up sunny and warm.  Never let the weatherman suggest your clothing options for the day.

First things first, I hit the morning running at a fast pace, hoping to get three quilts quilted before heading out to the latest dinner donation.  I love this quilt pattern and think I will make one for the lodge, to hang over the stage.  It's amazing how the fabric looks folded and wrinkled here, but in actuality, it's perfectly flat while I quilt.

Never far away, Mr. Cooper waits patiently until I'm done so he can christen it with his little feet while I take a picture.  Not quite yet however, since I have company.  That delayed quilting for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, I went one way and she went another.  Sadly, I didn't have any extra dinner tickets for the event I was attending.  This is Love INC (Love in the name of Christ) ... the biggest and best organization in our local area.  They have an entire crew that works every day helping people get their lives together.  They have classes on budgeting, saving money, how to balance a checkbook, how to get a job, how to get a place to live ... and anything else they need, all for free.  You ask, they give.

It's one of the Elks favorite donation projects.  This once a year dinner is the biggest around, including several auctions, silent and LOUD!!  It's a major task to put on this event ... and they do an amazing job.

The building was packed to the brim, a full size basketball court and then some, filled with 55 tables.  We should take lessons!  We started out with an appetizer bar that was HUGE, with nacho containers you could fill to the brim.  When everyone was seated, the entire building was fed in less than 30 minutes.  Salad, tri tip beef, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans with tomatoes and garlic bread.  It was so loud we were actually texting each other.

Then came the dessert dash!!  My favorite!  You write on the envelope how much money you want to spend.  They pick them up and put them in amount order.  As they call your table number by order of how much you bid, you run up to the long tables and pick which dessert you want.  I think we were the fifth number called. 

We paid $450 for this amazing coffee chocolate cake.  It was probably the best I'ver ever eaten.  The Elks and I split this donation.  I like what this organization does and donate all I can.  All of the extra furniture I brought back from Arizona went to them also.  

Next up was their BED auction.  So many people around here cannot afford furniture for their apartments, including one lady with 11 ... that's ELEVEN children.  They found a donor who bought bunk beds that this group hauled to the house, put together and plunked mattresses on top so the kids didn't have to sleep on the floor.  And so they ask for donations of $100 each to buy beds and mattresses.  They collected 40 donations, plus even larger donations for bed and dressers.  It kind of makes you proud to know there are this many folks willing to help this organization.

Their latest project is the purchase of two big showers on a trailer.  I think they have two trailers now.  They haul these around to the areas where homeless hang out and offer them a free shower.  That's a first.  

At any rate, we demolished the cake since we had 16 Elks attend and left plenty of donation money at the counter.  I headed home to find my company's car in the driveway, so I quietly snuck in and turned the alarm on.  In no time I was out like a light.  

But my phone kept buzzing and waking me up.  In disgust, I finally got up to see what it was.  Company wasn't home after all, but was on their way.  It would not have ended well if she tried to come in the back door with the alarm on!!!

There's no rest today since the installation of new Elks Officers will be held starting at 2:00.  Ugh ... there's no time to rest.  I'll be gathering up my penguin suit.