Day 21: Starwars

       As I was coxing today, I realized how great it would be if everyone was a character from Starwars. I would designate myself as Padmé. :P I have to admit that I am a little bit of a closet Starwars junkie. And if I am admitting to things right now, I might as well fess up to my love of Star Trek. Well there ya have it. Actually I learned a pretty cool fact about Starwars the other day. The language, Quechua (a Peruvian language I think) which is thought to be a dying language was sought out by George Lucas to use in Starwars movies. So if you listen closely in the older movies you might be able to pick some of that up, if you speak Quechua that is. 

      I was expecting to row a single this afternoon along side an 8. So when I got to the boathouse I decided to get all of my jumpees out of the way as I was anticipating to be in for a hard practice. But once everyone arrived, we realized we had enough people to take out a 4 and a 6 (which is really an 8 with 2 people missing). In order to do this, I was asked to cox the 4. I actually do not mind coxing, and I think it would be pretty cool to cox an actual race. hmm There must be someway I can swing that... But after practice was over, I was really glad my jumpees were already done. 

      We are now getting everyone ready for the Head of the Hooch which takes place in TN in early November. We wish to fly down the race course like the Millennium Falcon races to rescue Luke Skywalker after Darth Vader tells Luke he is his father in the Empire Strikes back. Ok enough Starwars, I get it. haha But we really do want to go fast, and we will!


Today's Spanish word? Carrot! :) Carrot = la zanahoria 
4200 completed, 10800 left!! Thank you for the support everyone! And look for a video either tomorrow or Saturday! :D

Day 20: A little Spanish with my blog? Don't mind if I do

I knew today was going to be exhausting. But I have to say that I am beat! Besides my hectic work day, I did not get the best nights sleep last night, and everyone knows how that can be. Does anyone know where the saying 'Running around like a chicken with your head cut off' came from and why it is associated with not having a moment of free time? I suppose if I had my head cut off I would not really have a whole lot of free time either, never the less it is still odd. I suppose you could liken my day to that. haha

 But I knew I had my cooking class to look forward to this evening. So I have to say I was bummed when I got a phone call late this afternoon canceling my class. But I guess grateful at the same time that I could have a little veg time (post jumpees of course). So I came home from work, did my jumpees in the court yard (did not know my complex had one till I did a little exploring the other day) and called it a day.

So also I am going to start doing a new part of my blogging. I am attempting to add to my Spanish vocabulary these days. And it just so happens that I have 1000 flash cards with Spanish vocab words on them. How convenient! So, every day I am going to pick one from random, and post it here so you all can learn with me! So today's randomly chosen word, is (drum roll please) Silly! haha What a great word to start off with. Silly = Tonto(a)

And now I am going to call it a night. Thanks to all of my supporters, I now have about $120! I am almost half way to my monetary goal on day 20 of my project. :) 4000 finished, 11000 to go!!! Yay!

What day is today?

Ok I know today is day 19, but I am really getting up there! At least that is what I thought until I realized that I still have 57 days left. OY! That seems like a lot of days. haha But here I am plugging away at my goal. I am happy to say that I have yet to miss a day! I still am trying to get a video up here of me doing jumpees. I cannot tell you how many times I have done jumpees in slacks or a skirt (not recommended) at work because someone did not know what a jumpee was. (Which is normal, I recognize that I am the abnormal one here.) But I need to be able to direct them to my blog, where oh so conveniently there is an example of my jumpees. haha I am hoping that by the end of the week I will have that up for everyone.

Oh! I am very excited for my cooking class tomorrow! I cant wait to see how that goes. But it is impinging on jumpee time. So I will have to be creative with when I do them. Today, I left work, got down to the boathouse, and knocked out half of my jumpees before the rowers showed up for the afternoon row. Todays row was soooo much better than last week's. Shout out to Patrick for filling in a seat last min. I was coaching, and we took out an 8. I have to say they got in some pretty good strokes today. I keep forgetting that it is getting darker earlier these days, so by 7:15 it was mostly dark and we headed in. After practice I knocked out the last 100 for the day. And I headed to Sonic for dinner, where I got a delicious burger and grape slushy for $3.04! Gotta love half priced burger Tuesdays. If only I could get the purple slush stain out of my mouth....

And now I cannot believe it is almost midnight, long day ahead of me tomorrow....
Shout out to my latest donor!!
3800 (!) completed, 11200 left :D

Day 18: The Walk

Today I attempted to walk to the Big Dam Bridge from my apartment. Had I left maybe 30 min earlier than I did, I might have made it. haha But as it was, I got about a half a mile away and began doing my jumpees for the day. Then it started to get dark. So I decided that I would turn around and periodically do jumpees on my way back. It was actually pretty nice as I broke the jumpees up along my walk. The weather was also ideal. The air had just enough of a crisp feel to make the evening fallish. And the sunset was beautiful. I like that it is getting colder now, this weekend was really the first time it has felt like fall this year.

So I did my jumpees, and when I got back I sat down to my lovely dinner and to see what was on tv. And lo and behold, there was a classic movie on that I just could not pass up. Groundhog Day. You know the one with Bill Murry, Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliot where Bill Murry's character relives the same day (Groundhog's Day) over and over again until he can get it right. Love it. I especially love it when it comes on, on other days than Groundhog's Day.

Also yesterday my brother found a scorpion in his room!! Crazy! It was itty bitty. But apparently those are the most lethal, so it was good he found it, but scary at the same time. *Note to self: do not leave shoes unattended or baby scorpions will crawl in*

3600 down. 11400 left! Wooo! And I just would like to note, Classical music can be so calming. :)

Day 17: Back from Perryville

I think it is safe to say, Fall is here in central Arkansas. The weather is crisp and the leaves are turning. Although there is a little bit of a phenomena with the leaves here that I have not seen before. The summer is so hot here that the leaves are literally burnt around the edges. But I think it makes them all that more unique. I need to plan my first pie baking event. Apple pie is one of my favorites. But for tonight I will just stick with some fresh chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.

Today Heifer University ended. I really appreciated the opportunity I had to go and it was a good reminder about what we are doing at Heifer. Sometimes I think everyone gets so involved in their specific projects that it is good to be brought back down and reminded of who we are helping and what it is all about. When I got back from the ranch I immediately fell asleep and took a 2hr, much needed, nap. After nap time, came jumpee time. And while I would not say I enjoyed them, it was not quite as hard as yesterday.
This week is going to be one of those hectic crazy weeks. But I know I am going to learn a lot, and hopefully I have sprinkled enough fun stuff in there so it will not be too crazy. Like Wednesday evening I am taking a cooking class! We are making jambalaya and key lime pie. I cannot wait for that!

Shout out to my most recent donor, thanks for the support! 200 more down. 3400 completed. 11600 to go! :)

Day 16: The Challenge

So I just wanted to take todays post to remind everyone why I am doing this challenge. Today, even though I am at Heifer Ranch learning all about Heifer's works, ironically, I began to forget why I am challenging myself to complete 15000 jumpees. I am doing this to help make someone's life better. My donation will, hopefully, help someone bring themselves up out of poverty. They will be able to buy food for themselves, send their children to school, or invest in their community. This is really not about me, and I feel like I need to keep that on the forefront of my mind.

Today was hard. Really really hard. I have been out at the ranch now since Thursday afternoon. I woke up early this morning intending to do my jumpees and get them out of the way, as I did yesterday. But when my alarm went off at 6:15, I could not get out of bed. I was so tired. I figured I would do them after the days activities, but when that came, I still did not really want to them. I think today was really the first day that I did not want to do my jumpees. I considered skipping them for the day, especially after my large dinner and 2 s'mores.

I thought I would make them up at some undetermined time. But then I really thought about it for a moment. If I were living in an impoverished situation and I needed to feed my family, would I just take a day off because I didn't feel like it? I would not even have the option . If I take a day off, my family continues to starve. So I went out in front of the visitors center, next to the water buffalo paddock, and jumped. It was hard, and not what I actually wanted to be doing, but away I went. And I have to say, I am so glad I did them. My 200 today made me really think about why I am continuing to do this, and I have to say that I cannot wait to do my 200 tomorrow.

Another 200 down. 3200 finished. 11800 to go. Help me get to my goal, and help a person/ family/ community bring themselves to a better place in life, a better standard of living. :)

Day 15: Heifer U

So one thing I forgot to mention in my post yesterday was the reason I came back out to Heifer Ranch. I am attending what is called Hiefer U 101. It is basically a general overview of Heifer history and projects and a some cool experiences at the ranch. Today I got up early and did my jumpees before breakfast just like I said I was going to do. Had a stellar breakfast at the dining hall (eggs and biscuits and gravy, delish) and headed to the Guatemala barn where we did a group activity deciding how the worlds population was spread out and where the worlds consumption is. All and all a pretty interesting activity.

Then it started to rain a much needed rain. We headed out in said rain on a tractor hay ride around the ranch. Our first stop was at the camel paddock. We all got to feed one of the camels pieces of apples. Then we headed to the Global Village 2 (GV2). We were split in half. Some went to the Mozambique camp and some went to the Tibet camp. I was in the Mozambique camp and we made Nshima which is a cornmeal and water mixture cooked down into either a paste or a more solid bread. We then sautéed some veggies with a little oil and curry powder and mixed it all together. Not too shabby for cooking outside over an open fire.  After lunch we did a quick tour of the rest of GV2 and headed over to a conference room to listen to a presentation from Dilip Bhandari from Heifer's Asia/ South Pacific program on Heifer's work in the field.
After dinner we had a presentation from our group leader, Todd, on Heifer's history. We watched a movie on Dan West, the founder of Heifer, and I have to say it was quite inspiring. We then did a couple of exercises outlining the mission statement of Heifer and a timeline of Heifer events.

200 down. 3000 finished!!! Hollaaa! 12000 to go. Keep puttin the word out everyone, I am on my way towards my goal! Thanks for the support y'all!

Day 14: Back to Perryville :D

Today has been a hectic day. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, so I decided to have an extra strong cup of coffee. Probably not the best idea because I was jittery for the rest of the morning. I did my best to channel that energy into my work, and was mostly successful. haha Around lunch time I had been invited to attend a fashion show for Breast Cancer survivors. So I went to that, and I have to say it was quite moving, especially when all of the models (who were survivors) walked down the runway holding up signs for how long they were cancer free.

After a bit more work, I headed home to pack real quick (which always takes longer than expected). Made a quick stop at Sonic, so I could have something cool to drink in my non-air conditioned car on my way to P.Ville. Made it to the Ranch, dropped my stuff off at the lodge we will be staying at and headed to dinner. This trip to the Heifer Ranch will be much different than my last one, mostly because I will be sleeping indoors. haha I am definitely looking forward to this experience. After dinner we had a nice orientation where we watched a movie (Passing of the Gift) and reviewed the 7M's. (Milk, Muscle, Money, Manure, Motivation, Materials and Meat)
After our orientation we headed back to the lodge where I changed and began to do my jumpees. As I have said I am now doing my jumpees pretty quickly. Today I did them in about 25min. Not too shabby. I am going to try to get up early tomorrow and do my jumpees early. Just so I can get them out of the way for the day.  
200 more down. 2800 finished to date. 12200 to goooooo! Woowoo! Also I would just like to say I have just learned more about the mating life of bees today than I ever cared to know...

Day 13: Coxswain

Today I came down to practice today to help out with the Learn to Row class that was going on. We had 6 rowers show up, so we decided to take out at 8 with seats 3 and 4 empty. That left someone to cox the boat and someone to coach/drive the launch. I volunteered to cox, as I have been here in Little Rock for about a month and have not filled that position in the boat yet. I think I have coxed once before in my life. And that was like 6 (or more) years ago. Anyways lets just say it was an experience for everyone. First of all coxswains are ment to be small skinny girls that can easily fit into a narrow seat which is usually at the stern (or back) of the boat. I was not born to fit in a coxswains seat. haha But it surely was an experience.
We did a lot of drill work and got some really nice strokes in (despite my terrible steering). It took me about 1/2 of practice to figure out the steering, and coaching, and switching pairs in and out all at the same time. It was definitely difficult. Anyone out there who coxs, you have my full respect. Thank you to all of the rowers who came out today for putting up with me today!
It was a fun, different experience, that I would not mind trying again (just not on a regular basis) haha. After practice I did my 200 for the day. They really are getting better. Today about the last 50 were tough. But before that, it was smooth sailing. haha I finished them up and went out to dinner, where I tried shrimp and grits. I love shrimp, and I love grits. Where is bad? No where in sight, thats where. So delicious! Anyone who has a chance to go to the Faded Rose, should try it out. Pretty darn good!

Shout out to my newest donor!! I will be out at the ranch tomorrow through Sunday, but no worries I will still be posting! 2600 down, 12400 to go!! :D Thanks all!

Day 12: Productive

Do you ever have those days when not everything went exactly as planned, but you ended your day feeling like you accomplished something? Today I had one of those days. I was super productive at work, which always feels nice.

I went to practice a little early so I could do my jumpees before we went out on the water. I got there and almost immediately realized we were going to be bombarded with rowers who do not come down on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE it when rowers come down, but it was hard to figure out where we were going to put everyone. I ended up deciding we should take out 2 4s. So in order to take out 2 4s we needed to rig a second 4, which needed to get done now rather than later, so we could get on the water on time. So the jumpees went on hold. Anyways the line ups were a bit screwy, and that caused the whole practice to be a bit screwy. But when we got in and the boats put away, I was able to get my jumpees done pretty quickly (while blasting music which is always the best).

So even though practice may not have gone exactly as planned, it was a good day. And I am now exhausted. And let me leave you with this website- http://www.wastedfood.com/ I do not agree with everything this guy talks about, but he does make a few valid points regarding the waste America makes. Any whoo 200 more behind me. 2400 down, 12600 to goooooo!

Day 11: Multitasking

So I this evening I made dinner and did my jumpees on the porch at the same time! I know, I know you don't have to say it, you are impressed. What delightful cuisine did I whip up tonight you ask? Fajitas! mmm I could not wait to have my jumpees done so I could eat my fajitas. And I have to say they were pretty good. So in between my jumpees (which I was doing in about sets of 20) I would run into the kitchen and chop chop chop and mix mix mix. It ended up making the 200 for the day seem to fly by.
Also today I got lost. Very lost. My GPS died, and my Cal has been holding the charger for it for weeks. I went to the post office (watch out fam in Fla) and then could not find my way home again. Thank goodness I had a full tank of gas as I drove all around Little Rock. haha I finally made it home where I began my jumpee/ fajita extravaganza.

Quick shout out to my bestie Ali! She went through all of the effort to make me some of her delicious banana bread (with chocolate chips!) and something must have happened in the mail system because it took over 2 weeks to get here. And when I opened it today, it had molded. :( But it is the thought that counts! Miss ya Ali!! Also this is my puppy that I keep talking about. Her name is CJ (aka The Baby or Cejerson) and I miss her!

2200 down, 12800 to go. The number is getting smaller y'all! Night!

Day 10: Heat Wave?

Hot. Hot. Hot. It is fall, so shouldn't the weather be cooling down? One would think, but it is HOT out! I think weather.com says it is 93 right now. To the person who controls the heat I would just like to make a personal request for maybe some 70deg weather. Thanks that is much appreciated! This morning I got up and headed down to the boathouse to help with the last day of our Discover Row class. I can't believe how much everyone has learned and improved in the 3 days we have been working.

So I got home around 12 and decided to do my 200 for the day on my porch again. Which has been working out for me, but did I mention that it is hot? I am not sure I have ever sweat so much! haha A little gross but the truth. A little stretching and I am done for the day. Yay! Hopefully I will have another relaxing afternoon and will be able to cook my self a nice dinner, as I have not really had too much time to do that lately. 
So if you have some free time I suggest you check out this pretty cool website called Free Rice. Free Rice has two goal, they strive to provide education to everyone for free. And they want to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. Basically how it works is you answer a vocabulary, language, math, art, science or geography question and if you get it right the site will donate 10 grains of rice to a country in need and the more questions you get right the more rice you collect. It is addicting and today I learned that the word 'stopgap' means makeshift. Did you know that?
So I am now 2000 jumpees down! Quite exciting! Only 13000 to go, Wooo!! Hope y'all are having a great weekend! :D

Day9: Learn to Row and a relaxing afternoon

Hey All! I apologize for yesterdays short post, but while yesterday was busy, nothing super exciting happened. Today I got up early today and headed down to ABC to continue our Discover Row program. We have 5 great people enrolled in our discover row program, and boy did they work hard today, (as did the coaches!). After Discover row was over I punched out my 200 for the day. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that the jumpees are getting easier! I finished in about 25min!!!! Considering it has been taking me about an hour or longer to finish I am quite excited with this new development.

Post jumpees consisted of getting gas for my car (which I have been putting off for days now, and could no longer do haha) and getting groceries and lunch with Cal. We took the afternoon pretty much off and relaxed. I had some great conversations with my parents (*Hi Mom, Hi Daddy!*) and realized that no matter what you just have to keep on flying!

A quick shout out to my Grandma Jan who is my latest donor! Thanks Grandma!! :D I am now up to $75!!  That is about 1/3rd of my goal!! Not too shabby for day 9! I have now completed 1800 jumpees and have 13200 to go! 66 days until the end, so 66 days to donate!! Also this means 66 days until I see my family and baby puppy again! I miss them all :) Thanks again all for reading and keeping the spirit alive!

Day 8: Short Post

Unfortunately nothing exciting really happened today. Went to work. Did my 200 for the day. Helped out with a discover row. And now am headed to an early bed. I am thinking I will have more to write about tomorrow (Hopefully)!

1600 down. 13400 to go. :D

Days 6/7: The Jumpee police and a little trip to Perryville

Well, we have a lot to talk about! First of all, yesterday, I got up extra early so I could do my jumpees early and get them out of the way, as I knew I was going have quite the busy day. As I was doing my jumpees, two things happened. The first thing that happened was a transformer blew like 20ft away from me! It was freaky. The runner who was next to me and I jumped about 25ft in the air. haha, it must have been a site. haha I continued with my jumpees when the second thing happened. I found myself wanting go home and crawl back in bed, this was about 150 jumpees in. And then, do you know who arrived? THE JUMPEE POLICE! haha They said I was going to go to jumpee jail if I did not finish my last 50. I did not believe them, so I started to walk for home, thinking I would finish up the last 50 today.  But then the jumpee police came back, they forced me to finish my jumpees, because they knew I would not want to do them today. But let me tell you, I have learned my lesson. I never want to see the jumpee police again!

Then I went to work for a millisecond before I headed off to Heifer Ranch. The Boss thought it would be a good idea for me to get the full Heifer experience, and I can't say I disagreed. So, off to Perryville I went. 45min later I arrived, and began my 24hr journey. I met up with the 25 new volunteers and two teachers (here from Austin to check out Heifer Ranch for a potential field trip) and a couple of experienced volunteers who kept us in line. They took us around our future homes for the evening, which they called Global Village 1(GV1). They had an area for each of the areas of the world that Heifer works in: Guatemala, Thailand, Appalachia, Zimbabwe, the slums, and refugee camps.  All groups were assigned a pregnant mother (me for my group)(and we had to carry around a water balloon for our whole stay) and a person with a disability. (Also we named our baby Noodle) haha
I was put in the refugee camp with 4 others and part of our experience was that we were given no resources (water, wood or food) and because we were 'displaced' from our country we were unable to verbally communicate with any of the other sites. This made things a bit challenging, but that would most likely be how it would actually be if we were refugees.

I think I had a little bit of a different experience than most because I was there with so many like minded people, no one wanted to see anyone go hungry, so everyone decided to pool the resources (wood, carrots, rice, potatoes, eggs, onions, a little oil, a little pepper and water) and make a huge stew. Usually that is not how it goes down. People hoard their resources and barter for other things they want. But I ended up with a really great group of people. :D

When we got up in the morning (or for some of us got out of sleeping bags, not really woke up because we never really went to sleep) we had breakfast and we all had a few chores to do. The refugee camp had the pretty cool task of making bricks that will actually be use around the Ranch. 5parts clay, 1part cement, 1 part sand and some water. After chores we all did a skit of our experiences and and a wrap up talk. And then I was able to take these little gems for your reading enjoyment. This is either Briggs or Straghtin(?) one of the two water buffalo that reside at the Heifer Ranch! <3
        So on that note I am 1400 jumpees deep. That means I have 13600 to go! Shout out to my most recent donor! And a big shout out to the great staff at the Heifer ranch that let me tag along last night! Thanks for all the support everyone! And sorry this is so long!

Day 5: The first milestone!

Well here we go. I have hit my first mile stone! I have completed 1000 jumpees. I feel accomplished and tired. haha I must have done something right yesterday because I was not nearly as sore today as I have been. I was almost able to walk normally. lol Also I discovered today that Mandarin Orange Spice tea from Celestial Seasonings is delicious. It smells like fall, and I love fall. :D

There was a little more exciting news today. What could be better than hitting my first mile stone you ask? Well Cal, Patrick(who works for City Year) and I were appointed as coaches at ABC this evening. The board meeting had their monthly meeting and we pitched our idea to them. Basically the rowers want to improve, but the infrastructure has not been there to facilitate that. We then had our membership meeting along with a few jumpees (200 to be exact).  A quick shout out to Bri-guy who supplied dinner (delish turkey burgers) for the membership meeting. 


Did you know that according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Committee, one in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. How crazy is that? It makes me greatfull for what I have, but also makes me wonder how much of a difference my one water buffalo will actually make. But then I have to realize that the family that gets this great animal will greatly benefit from it, and it will change their lives. And once they pass the gift onto another family that family will benefit, and so on. Little donations, like the one I am trying to make, will greatly help to change the often devastating path the world seems to be going down. 


On that note, I will try to post tomorrow, but will probably be unable as I am headed out to the Heifer Ranch in Perryville for the afternoon/night tomorrow. I will of course do my 200, and will fully update you when I return. Peace and Love y'all. 

Day 4: This post would not write its self.

Do you see the time right now? It is LATE! Exhaustion has set in. As soon as I am done typing this post, it is off to bed for me. I actually cannot believe I have made it this far into the night. Today was hard in the walking department, and lets just say if I continue to feel this way I am going to have to quit my water habit. I was not smart about my jumping today. I assumed that I would have hours and hours to complete the day's 200 after work. But then it was beautiful outside and I got an invite to go rowing that I just could not turn down. So by the time I got down to the boathouse I realized I was not going to have the time I assumed I was.

 I decided I would quickly crank out 50 jumpees before we went out for a row. Well let me tell you a quick 50 jumpees after completing 600 over the past 3 days just does not exist. Lets just say I was glad the launch needed an extra bit of attention this afternoon as I slugged through those 50. haha The water was gorgeous, it was not too hot and even though my muscles were unhappy with my continuing to exercise more, my mind was at peace.

After we got off the water (at almost 8!) I did another 50 jumpees. Which I have to say were not as hard as the first 50, I am assuming this is because my muscles were warmed up. So that was 100 down at about 8pm. I then headed over to Cal's for a late dinner and a little brainstorming on a project we are working on for the boathouse. It was there that she cheered me on through, what has to have been the hardest 100 jumpees yet. My muscles were tight and have I mentioned that I am exhausted? But with 10 jumpees left and my brain almost completely shutting down, Cal got up and finished them off with me. What would I do without her?

I would also like to comment that as fall has started to set in here in Little Rock, it is making me nostalgic for school. This is my first fall that I have not gone to school! Wow. Such a weird thought. Another weird thought, I just remembered the recipe for witches brew, which my friend Kirsten's grandma used to make us when I would visit. Witches Brew: Peanuts, raisins, marshmallows and chocolate chips. So delicious, I might have to make some this weekend. haha Also I really think my family should come visit me here in LR. They should also bring our baby puppy CJ :D
Against all odds I finished 200 more jumpees. You know what that means? 800 down! 14200 left! Thanks for all of the support! It's going great!

Day 3: Ouch!

Oh man, when I woke up this morning I was hurtin. Real bad. I could hardly stand or walk, and don't even think about sitting. No way Jose. My quads and glutes hate me today. Also not to mention yesterday was a long day. After I posted yesterday Cal and I got our selves together and began our afternoon of tailgating. I had so much fun. Everyone was loud and crazy and I LOVED IT! We ate great pulled pork sandwiches and surprisingly I forgot how much my legs hurt. haha And also surprising I did not do any jumpees.

The Razorbacks did win, it was a little bit of a blowout game, but still fun. Exhausted by the end of the night, I crashed early. Today has not consisted of much. There has been a Law and Order SVU marathon on all afternoon and being my favorite show, I have indulged. I have been doing jumpees during the commercial breaks. It spread them out, over a longer period of time, but every time I got up to do more, my muscles had frozen and  did not want to be disturbed. haha I actually cannot believe I finished my 200 for the day. Also my apartment is on the second floor of the complex and the people who live below me are sticklers about my roommate and I walking quietly. Apparently this has been going on for a while, someone will walk around the apartment and the people below us will come up and complain. Well, as I was doing jumpees today at my apartment, I decided that I did not really want to get yelled at for jumping on their ceiling 200 times. So I decided to do them out on my deck. I did not get any complaints and it was actually nice out, so it was really a win win for everyone. Day 3 has been the most challenging yet. But I stay committed. I know I can do this! 

As a side note, does anyone else hope to see drama on tonights VMAs? "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time" Ha what a joke. Hopefully we will see this guy.... 

600 down,     14400 to go

Day 2: Lake Maumelle and the Razorbacks

The water on the Arkansas River is flowing too fast to go out rowing today. The water at ABC's other site, Lake Maumelle is too low to row. So a few of us decided to go down to Maumelle anyways to de-rig a couple of boats and bring them back to the N. Little Rock site and do a little general house keeping. Well the Maumelle site is at a marina/ boat grave yard. Pretty interesting/cool/ a little freaky. haha We had a good show of people to help out. We did some trash clean up (Cal and I were pretending that all of the trash we found was evidence in a murder scene) (there were 3 murders in case you were wondering), and some of the stronger folk got a tractor and fished some random large metal pieces out of the water that would have impeded with our putting the boats on the docks. There I began my set of 200 jumpees.

I woke up this morning and was a little surprised at how un-sore I was. I am pretty sure it was my excellent stretching skills. haha. But as soon as a began jumping, boy did I feel it. As I got deeper and deeper into my 200, the worse it hurt. I did about 100 out at Maumelle. Then we drove back to the NLR site, bumpin to music the whole way. As we waited for the trailer with the boats on it to arrive, I continued my jumpees. The boats came (by the way we have an awesome pink boat! It's dedicated to the Susan G. Komen cause) and we put them away. I continued my jumpees. At about 30 to go, I realized that this is going to be a long 3mo. haha I am hoping that the more I do them, the easier they will become. So far I am struggling, but I did complete my 200 for the day. WOO!

This afternoon will consist of grilling, beer and football (Go Razorbacks!) (I do not really have much of an affiliation with them, but while I am in Little Rock the Razorbacks are a religion, so I will follow). Cal and I went out last night and I got a Razorbacks shirt, and tailgating will commence in about an hour for the 6:00 game. I have a vision of intoxicated jumpees happening this afternoon, and I just do not see that ending well. haha GO RAZORBACKS!

Day 1: Part 2

SO, I have begun my long journey of jumpees this afternoon. But lets back track a few hour first. I decided to go out to lunch today with my friend Cal. My roommate Tyler had raved about this pizza chain in Little Rock called Larry's pizza. It is only open for lunch, and if you're lucky, the nicest, most southern woman, named Kerri will be there to wait on you. It is buffet style, with a twist. As the hot pizza comes out they walk around the buzzing restaurant and give you your pick. Also you can request pizzas! Pretty cool. Be careful though, you can tend to loose track of how much you eat (especially when it comes to their cinnamon sticks or chocolate pizza). Any who, lets just say I ate my fair share, probably not the ideal meal to start off my jumpee extravaganza. Live and learn right?

So after work I headed down to the Little Rock Boathouse Club (come down and check us out) where I met up with Cal. The plan for this afternoon was to go for a row during the RazorRockRally. The Razorbacks are a religion down here. Tomorrow there is a game versus the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks. I will be in attendance with Cal and some new friends from City Year. But anyways back to the jumpees. I have decided that it is too much to do 200 hundred jumpees in one sitting. It has got to be broken up! Also stretching will be a key part to this process as well. I can tell you right now that walking tomorrow will not be pleasant. haha But those jumpees will not do themselves.

 Shout out to Cal who joined in for about half of my jumpees today! Moral support is great! Also shout out to my first two donors of the day, you know who you are!
200 jumpees down. Only 14, 800 to go  :D See y'all tomorrow.

Day 1: Explanation of the Project and the 1st 200

As some of you may know, I am interning at a company called Heifer International. The more I work here, the more I realize how passionate these people are about ending hunger and poverty and caring for the earth. I have decided that during my stay with them in Little Rock, I would like to raise money to donate a water buffalo to Heifer's cause. A water buffalo costs $250. In order to raise that money, I am going to do squat jumps, or for those of you who are rowers, jumpees. I am asking that you pledge to donate to me one penny for every 10 jumpees I do, with my end goal being 15,000 jumpees. That will mean it I complete my goal, you pledge $15 towards my cause by the time I am done. I have set up a PayPal account to make these payments easy. At the end of my time in Little Rock (November 23 is my last day of work) I will make my water buffalo donation with the money I have earned. Should I earn a surplus of my $250 goal, the extra will also go to Heifer. I have officially caught 'the bug', I drank the koolaid, so I am going to run with it, or rather jump with it.

So far I have received nothing but support from those who I have told about this. (Although my friend Ali, wondered why I would want to torture myself in this way, haha.) My Boss stated that he would be my first donor. My Dad mused that before this is all over I could end up on Good Morning America (not holding my breath). My Mom, a long time supporter of Heifer, says she does not envy me but is supportive none the less.

After work today I will complete my first set of 200 jumpees. If you have never done a jumpee, I suggest you try it, as a matter of fact, try 20. That way you get the real feel for it. I am currently imagining my mother (so far the only person who might look at this blog) (and the best mom ever *Hi Mom!*) standing in our dining room attempting jumpees. For those of you who are familiar with jumpees, you might say that 200 a day is not very many. But consider how many jumpees you do a week (for those of you who do them on a regular basis). Do you do 1400 a week? Every week? Probably not. I am hoping my pants still fit at the end of this expedition (as I am thinking my thigh muscles might be the size of tree trunks before this is over, not a pretty thought.)

That's all for now. Wish me luck on my journey and if you have any questions, (on Heifer, jumpees, the current size of my thighs... wait, never mind on that last one) do not hesitate to  ask! :-D