Samantha's benefit

This past weekend I realized just how much goodness there are in people. A while back some women I work with starting talking about Samantha Abbott. I put 2 & 2 together and realized her mom graduated High School with my TX sister. I graduated High School with her older sister & I had older sister's son's in my middle school afternoon program once upon a time. I'm also familiar with one of the grandmother's etc... Yes, in this small town it's like there's a "Kevin Bacon" connection everywhere with folks.

The benefit got planned pretty much inside of a month. All things considering...the state of the economy, the time of year, etc... We did good! I was all to happy to do what little I did do. I volunteered Fara & Joe, of course. :-) Last total that I heard on monday was around $11,000 in the fund right now. Ya know some people really have it to give, some people don't but give anyway, & others just ignore your emails & text messages. (I won't hold a grudge.) I'm sure there were a few of my "friends" who thought I was being a pest but I didn't give a hairy rats butt. For those locals who had parties, funerals, work, sickness, I totally understood. We had a great time at the auction (that was 3 hrs long!) & the blood/bone marrow drive went well. Like I said, all things considering, it was well done & I'd do it all over again. We may not have had the turn out we had originally hoped but there was a lot of love, prayers, & hope there. Samantha's grandma sent out an email thanking us & in it she mentioned that Sam said that she hoped she could repay the favor one day. :-) Fara & I served bbq plates & chili. She's truly an angel. Sadie Lou (who's appeared on "Ellen"btw) was there to entertain the kids, including Joe. She was awesome. Joe ended up entertaining kids too & believe me he won exactly what he wanted at the auction, too! (signed Steve Sullivan Preds jersey, Preds tickets, & some Christmas baskets)

Coworker Katrina wrapping gifts for donations. She used to work with Sam's grandma (Bobby's mom). She worked really hard on getting donations for the auction.
Brian (BB), another coworker of mine who does A LOT of auctions but this one he worked for free, of course. :-) He's good at running his mouth & keeping us entertained at work. (See Halloween posts for his wild costumes!) Quilt that Sam's great grandma made. Coffee County Mayor was Brian's assistant. These folks worked feverishly to get this together. Santa will certainly reward them all.

On my home front, the same as usual for me....spinning at the rec ctr, weights at harvey's gym, football games at LP Field, Christmas shopping (mostly online!), & work. We were told today that we will get 1/2 our pay cut back in Jan & $200 gift cards for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised. The auto industry is slowly climbing out of the gutter for us or so it seems. (Thanks to the Germans!)
We were blessed to be awarded a VW contract earlier in the year & now BMW is looking at us. Go Sales & Marketing team! Go M-Tek, Inc.! I know that one day I won't be working there but I'm pretty damn proud to be a part of the team right now. :-)

I'm counting down the days/hours till our flight arrives in San Antonio. We will be going to a Spurs game on the 23rd, a Christmas service on the 24th, hanging at house on the 25th, the Riverwalk on the 26th, & then back here on the 27th.

Merry Christmas!