It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

A quick congratulations to Tera

this week's Football Snack Throw Down Winner!  

Check out Struble Suds (click on link on right hand side) 

for pictures and to hear what the judges had to say.  

More announcements at the end.

Ebb and flow.  Ebb and flow.  That's what comes to mind as I sit down this morning prepared to compose today's post.

The energy and activity on our blog moves in cycles...like life, like our moods, and like the changing of the seasons.  So maybe, with yesterday marking the beginning of fall, it is appropriate for members of Highlowaha to pause...to revel in all we've done this passed season and to look ahead at all the upcoming things about which we can get excited.

So that's what we'll do this week.  We'll spend a low key week looking ahead and planning for a few things on our horizon.  I will pick your brain about some projects I've been milling over and we'll generally enjoy each other's company.  

Here's some of what you can expect...

• Monday - Celebrate Friday's success and Mark your Calendar for our next fundraiser.  Emphasis on the word "FUN."
  
• Tuesday: Introduce a new Highlowaha initiative and recruit for November's first "taker."
  
• Wednesday: Whack a highlowaha dilemma.
  
• Thursday: Participate in a Highlowaha focus group
  
• Friday: Free For All and Vote on our next secret ingredient
  
• Saturday:  Simple ways to say thank you for National Good Neighbor Day (Sunday 9/28).
  

Now for a quick summary of last Friday.  If you want to re-live all the fun or see pics, scroll through Friday and Saturday's blog entries.  I don't want to rehash all of it, but I will say this...

As a group - newcomer and veteran readers... active posters and lurkers - we have a lot for which we can be proud.  We adopted a family for the holiday season and less than two months later, we've decided on a family to be the recipient of our gesture and we've raised our first installment of money to help pay for their holiday wish list.  

Friday's Pirate Bingos fundraiser was a success.  Thank you to everyone who was able to participate.  There were a few glitches, but no one ever lost sight of the fact that we were coming together as a community to support our Helping Hand Family.  In the end we raised $223.00 - $73.00 more than my stated goal!  Let me explain.

• $108.00 was raised in cash from Pirate Bingo
  
• $50.00 was donated by Lori in the silent auction for our Limited Edition Highlowaha shirt (thanks for the great idea, Sue).
  
• $15.00 was donated by Julie who was unable to participate in Friday's fun, but who wanted to show her support.
  
• $50.00 was donated, via a Target Gift Card, by Cheryl
  

Maybe today you'll brag about our success to a friend or two.  I know, I will.

And when I brag... I'll finish it off by saying... "And, you won't believe what we're doing next!"  And you know what I'll tell them?...

"On Friday, October 24 the Highlowaha community will take on their second fundraiser for our Helping Hand Family.  If you can believe it, we will be doing a...

 HIGHLOWAHA-BLOG-A-THON

But wait, it gets better.  Readers will be asked to sign up and to be on the blog for fifteen minutes, at a designated time during the day.  During his or her fifteen minute block of time, participants will co-author a story.  That's right.  We will use our time on the blog that day to write a story - tag team style.  Blog-a-thon person number one starts, then number two, then number three, and on and on until we've been on the blog for a full 24 hours.

And, because it will be so close to Halloween, our story will be a scary story.

How will we make money?  Each participant will ask a minimum of one person to sponsor their time on the blog... $1.00 per minute.  If the requisite 96 people participate we will make $1,440!

And, because so many of our readers have aspirations of writing a book... the idea is a perfect fit!"

That's what I'll tell them.

More Blog-a-thon planning to come.  But, today... just enjoy our ability to make big things happen.

Announcements:

Pirate Bingo: The winners of Friday nights Pirate Bingo prizes are listed below.  Sponsors of packages, I will mail you the addresses before end of day on Tuesday.

• Highlowaha T-shirt: Lori 
  
• Arts and Craft Box: Treye
  
• Sppoktacular: Heather
  
• Spa-in-a-box: Maureen
  
• Trick-or-Treat Smell My Feet: Krysten
  
• His and Her Target Cards: Nicole
  
• Movie Night-in-a-Box: Mike and Erica
  
• Twelve Handmade Cards: Tera
  
• Rainy Day-in-a-Box: Debbie from Louisville
  

Patch Work:  Congratulations to Cheryl and Maureen for earning Hostess Pirate Patches.  They earned them by hosting five or more people at their home for the evening's festivities.  Also, congratulations to Mike and Erica, Tera, and Nicole for earning Bingo Patches.  They earned their patches, because they were each winners of a round of Bingo.  You will receive them in the mail  before week's end.  Do you have your Patch work Denim picked out (pants, jacket, hat, bag, apron... you pick it)?  New to the whole Patch Work thing and have no idea what we are talking about?  Check out the post from 8/7, titled Patchwork 

Dallas v. Green Bay Patch:  Tera earns the Football Snack Throw Down Patch and Katie wins the Gold Star Patch for coming closest to guessing the final score of the game. 

Paint the Town Red:  Check out more about highlowaha's latest philanthropy by looking at the post from 9/13 (Paint the Town Red).  Helping is easy.  Drink Coke (or Coke products) and save your Coke Reward Codes.  Send the codes to your "Regional Director."  Check today's comments for your Regional Director (Heather, might you re-post?).

Now, let's hear from you.  Let us know you're here by commenting on something I mentioned or by telling us what you are looking forward to in this next season...

Signing off until tomorrow...