All Star Fundraising

The following post is a short descprition of how All Star Fundraising got started and what we do.

Seven years ago Austin and I opened a pizza restaurant in Lewisville Arkansas with my sister and her husband, Tim and Amanda Harper. Austin was in his second year of college and I had one class (a correspondence class) left. Tim was pastoring a church, teaching, and coaching in Lewisville. The restaurant was slow during the summer months so we decided to start selling our pizza's as a fundraising product. We bought a shrink wrap machine and printed our own fliers. We had a few groups run with our pizza's.



We then decided that we would look for other products to supplement the pizza. Tim had sold Butter Braid in the past with his football players so they got online and inquired about becoming a dealer of the product. We met with a representative for the company and signed on to become a Butter Braid dealer. We also made our own cookie dough in the pizza restaurant and packed it in 5 lb tubs (lots of work).



After about six months of preaching, coaching, and a new position of Regional Fellowship of Christian Athletes director, Tim decided that he had too much going on to pursue the fundraising business. Austin was going to school full time and also playing college football at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. Shortly after the business began he realized that he couldn't grow the business and continue to play football. He quit football and changed his major to business. After one more year of school Austin decided to pursue the business full time. We talked with other dealers and saw the great potential Butter Braid had to offer. Over the past six years we have grown our business at a rate of at least 50% per year. We have grown to be one of the top dealers in the country.



Now we only carry Butter Braid brand products with the Butter Braid pastry as our main product. It accounts for about 95% of our sales. Within the last few years we have hired a few employees, all of which happen to be family at the moment. Our marketing area consist of NE Texas, North Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Memphis metro area. The first few years we only had the Texas and Louisiana areas. About three years ago we picked up Arkansas. Austin's mom Sheila began working with us to cover the Arkansas area. Two and half years ago we decided to move to Southaven, Mississippi (a suburb of Memphis). We had been looking to hire an employee to cover the Texas and Louisiana area for us. My brother Adam and his wife Amber became available and were willing to move to Shreveport. We have been soooo blessed to have our family work with us. They have been awesome. The first year that we had all three employees our sales doubled.



What our company does is help fundraising groups plan and run their fundraiser using our products. Austin's office is in our home. I bake samples of the product and he will take them out and "sample" potential groups. If a group decides to run with our product we help them plan their sale dates and send them a start up packet. At the end of the sale they call us with their order. We then deliver their product the following week. That's the basic day to day operation of the business. It is a seasonal business that runs along with the school year so we have a lot of vacation time. If anyone would like more information on the product or the business you can go to the website at http://www.butterbraid.com/ .



So much for the short explanation of the business. Sorry it's so long.

New Home

For those of you who haven't heard we bought a new house a couple of weeks ago. We will probably close in a few weeks. We actually had house plans drawn up several months ago, but in recent months building supplies have gone up so much the builder actually recommended waiting a while to build.

We have been looking around from time to time to see if we could find a great deal in this "buyers market". We haven't been just real determined that we would buy soon, just keeping our eyes out in case. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this house on the Internet. It is a foreclosure and was an awesome deal. The buying process was a little different though because it was bank owned. They took offers from three different people and then choose which offer they wanted to accept. Our agent told us that these things could sometimes take weeks so we weren't really expecting everything to happen as fast as it did. The week went something like this:

Thursday - house was listed on the website

Friday - saw the house on the website

Saturday - drove by to see if we liked the house

Sunday - agent took us inside to look at the house

Monday - made an offer on the house

Tuesday - called us and accepted our offer

When we made the offer on Monday we thought it would probably be several days before we heard anything. We were excited and a little in shock. We had looked into several possibilities, all of which had not worked out.

This house is 1,000 square feet bigger than our current house and the payment will be within about $50 of our current payment. It is only two years old and was being leased by the builder. We wanted something with a separate dining room and a fourth bedroom we could use as a guest room when we have another baby (no we are not pregnant). Most of our family is 3-6 hours away so when they come they stay a couple of nights and it's nice to have that extra space. We also needed an extra room for Austin's office since he works from our home. This house has all of that plus a bonus area upstairs that will make a great playroom and a hearth room down stairs. The home has three bedrooms and two baths down stairs and two bedrooms (guest room & office) and one bath upstairs.

So now we will be trying to sell our house and moving into another. We should be closing sometime on or before October 6th. I think we are going to be doing a lot of painting. We are anxious to get started. Austin is dying to work on the front lawn and landscaping. We will post more pictures as we do some painting. If there are long periods with know post you'll know why.

My Little Gymnast

Yesterday was our first class at the Little Gym. Bailey loved it. She is already asking to go back. Austin and I enjoyed it very much as well. It is always fun to watch your little one enjoy themselves. It took her a while to warm up, but by the time we left she was sing the songs and joining in. She was happy when the class was over and all the kids left. She said "All the kids are gone, now I can play". She thought she could have the whole place to herself. We will go once a week for the rest of the fall. I'm sure we'll have lots more fun.

Bailey the Hilarious

Since Bailey Dawn has been talking she has been making us laugh. She is the funniest child I have ever known. People say they don't know where she got her personality. She is so much more out going than Austin and I and just down right funny. I don't know if she has been exceptionally funny today or if I had just forgotten since she was away for a week.

This afternoon we decided that we would go to the zoo. Bailey was so excited. She has been wanting to go to the zoo for a few weeks now, pretty much since the last time we went. It was cloudy when we left and had been raining earlier but we have season passes so we thought we'd take our chances with the rain. Bailey got in the van and was in there a couple of minutes by herself while I was gathering up some last minute things inside and Austin was in the garage loading the stroller. When we got to the van Bailey had gathered all the change in her little hands and proudly said "I have some money if we need to get a milk shake". We died laughing.

Shortly after we left the house it started misting rain. We were talking about alternative plans and Bailey kept saying she wanted to go to the zoo. Finally we decided that we would go get lunch somewhere close to the zoo and see how the weather was afterwards. We had not decided where we were going to eat yet (Austin and I can never make up our minds). We told Bailey our plan and she said "After I eat all my pizza we can go to the zoo". She is so subtle. I said I guess we are eating pizza for lunch.

While we were waiting on our pizza to come Bailey was playing around and making silly noises. I started picking on her and imitating her noises. She stopped, looked at me and said "Mommy, that's my line". I thought where in the world did she hear that. All these things happened within an hour. You've got to love two year olds.

My Baby Is Gone

Saturday afternoon Bailey went home with Nana. Today Nana and PawPaw met up with Aunt Ericka, Bethany and Micah. They went to visit Austin's Aunt Leigh Ann and Uncle Bill in Texas who also have two young children; Madison and William. I know she will have lots of fun. She will be gone until Thursday.

The idea was that I could be at home and relax to fully recover from surgery. We have done anything but relax. We have been on the go every since she left. We haven't eaten one meal at home. We have shopped, watched movies, looked at houses and almost got a massage.

On our way home from lunch today we were talking about how nice it was to have some time for just us. We've felt like newly weds the last few days. Don't get me wrong we miss our baby girl and are ready to see her already but every couple needs time for themselves.

The whole conversation started when I said "I think we'll be alright when our kids leave home". I've never had that thought before. I've always teared up at the thought of my precious baby growing up. I still do, but I realize that Austin and I, at this point, have a relationship that goes beyond just mom and dad. So many couples get so involved in raising a family and work that they neglect the relationship as husband and wife.

We are so blessed to be able to spend so much time together as a family, but we need to be intentional about keeping our relationship strong. Bailey loves her family. She likes it best when we are all sitting on the couch together real close. It almost never fails that she says "We're all together". She has done this since she could put a few words together. I have always heard it said that the best thing parents can do for their children is love each other. I have seen this many time through Bailey and I believe that is true. Make time for each other. Your kids will appreciate it. After all, happy mom = happy family, right?