#20 Host a Fundraising Event

Since 2006, the Patton Preemies have been raising money for the March of Dimes. Every year we talk about how we need to be more proactive in planning fundraising events. One of the things on My List is to plan my very own fundraising event. So this year I made the commitment to make sure no matter what my event was on. After thinking about it awhile, I had the brilliant idea to host the 1st Annual Mr. Preemies Pageant. Exciting, I know! The idea was to have all the men I know put on a silly man’s pageant to raise money for MOD. After a couple weeks of planning, I had selected a date and a venue. Unfortunately for me and my event, no one seemed to share my enthusiasm. Little did I know how much people take themselves too seriously. After my idea being put down a handful of times, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. SO- it was back to the drawing board. With time running out, I settled on hosting a fundraising dinner at my home. Some of the other team members had done this before and were very successful so I knew mine should be as well. I stressed a little hard about having 21 ½ people in my tiny house but it worked out great in the end. We raised a whopping $390 from one small dinner. It wasn’t quite what I had hoped for in terms of my extravagant fundraising ideas but I can at least put a small checkmark next to it on My List.

#14 - #19

I know, I know I have been terrible about posting! A life list is not as easy as you would think it would be to keep up with. What I’ve realized is that I have been extremely blessed in my life in that I have already accomplished a lot of typical life list items. For example, I have:
- Swam with stingrays and dolphins
- Gone on multiple cruises
- Been to Canada and Mexico
- Gone sky-coasting
- Been to the beach
- Gone skiing
- Parasailing
Anyway, you get the picture. So creating my life list has been harder than I thought it would be. I have done a few things in the past couple of months though and attempted others that were list worthy. Here we go...

#19 Throw a toga party, jell-o wrestling included

I have always been adventurous and my list has pushed me to explore all creative options. When summer came around this year, I knew I wanted to host a fun party for all my friends. It worked out perfectly to have it in August because it was Kelly’s birthday, his best friend Frank’s birthday and our buddy Ryan was graduating from college. What could possibly be more fun than having everyone over in togas and celebrating them as Greek gods? Nothing! So we did just that. Everyone showed up in their finest sheets and we had a fabulous time. To make it all the better, I surprised everyone with a pool filled with special jell-o for jell-o wrestling. The idea was that when in Rome, we would do as the Romans did. We had several battles and all ended up looking like green goblins. Needless to say, it was fantastic! How many people can say they have wrestled in jell-o? I challenge you that!

#18 Up, up and away!

I haven’t been to a balloon festival since I was really little. I saw on the events calendar that the annual Gatesway Balloon Festival would be coming up in August so I marked the calendar. I was worried Kelly and I wouldn’t be able to go because we were so busy working on the blue house. I asked my sister if she wanted to go, but they were already booked for the weekend. It ended up working out though. A couple of our friends invited us to go on Saturday night. Saturday night was going to be the most fun anyway because it was going to be glow balloons (a night time display of the hot air balloons glowing in the dark). We headed out for Claremore which was supposed to be a 30 minute drive. We couldn’t figure out which way we needed to go so it took as twice as long to get there. We were running late enough to miss the whole thing. When we finally arrived, we found out that we had missed nothing after all. It had been too windy and none of the balloons had taken flight. I was completely bummed. I’m not sure I can exactly check this one of my list just yet considering I didn’t get to see a single balloon go up in the air. Maybe next year!

#17 Frosty Keg Float

I had been hearing about this alleged FKF for a couple years now. A couple of Kelly and I’s friends went last year and talked about how much fun it was. Not wanting to miss out and check something off my list, we signed up and of course I decided to go all out. The theme was red white and brew so I got Kelly and me patriotic outfits to wear all weekend. I was really nervous about camping all weekend and keeping up with everyone else. The weekend consisted of camping out down by the Illinois River on Friday night then floating early in the morning on Saturday. The float alone can be exhausting! It took us about 6 hours to float 6 miles! I managed just fine though and we had a blast. I also accomplished doing the most beer bongs while floating down the river!

#16 “Wax on, wax off.”

I know it may be hard to believe but I have never seen The Karate Kid. I finally watched it and here is my review: Sadly to say, I thought the movie was not quite what it was cracked up to be. I thought it was very 80s (bad acting and the plot was pretty lame). I also thought the kid playing the karate kid looked about 12 instead of a high school kid. At least I know now what it means to wax on and wax off. That’s about all I will take from it!

#15 “There will be generations because of what you did.”

Continuing on with my quest to conquer popular movies that have gone unseen, I rented Schindler’s List. I made myself move it to the top of my Netflix queue so that I would have to watch it when it showed up in the mailbox. I knew it wasn’t going to be the type of movie I would be in the mood to watch. I’m glad I decided too though and I sat through all 193 minutes of it. It made me feel blessed and fortunate and realize that we are always taking for granted everything we have as Americans. It was an inspiring story and I recommend everyone to watch it.