New Do and New Stop on Monday

2/11/13

I decided to get my hair cut today... really short! Not sure I like it...actually, I know I don't! Since it's short (and with bangs), I had to put lots and lots of bobby pins in it to hold back my bangs while canning tonight! 

It really didn't matter if my hair was falling down though because I had Canning Princess Tami helping me all night! She was sooooooo helpful-- she would get out and grab any cans that I spotted alongside the road:) I would yell, "Can!", stop the truck, and Tami would jump out to get each one! 

We have such great C4C friends-- at one of our stops, Tami and I got out to collect cans. We saw the owner coming down the driveway holding out her hand and talking on the phone. We stopped collecting (thinking that she was wanting us to stop).... but then we heard her say, "Do you want Cans4Christ to come pick up your cans? Ok. What's your address?" WOOOOOOOOOW!!! One of our regular stops helped us get another stop!!! How awesome is that??? What a blessing this family is to C4C!!!  And there's more good news.... the new stop had at least 15 WalMart bags full of crushed cans!! HOOOOOOORAY:) 

Today was a good day... minus the haircut;)

Vacation and CANS

2/10/13

Our Canning President, Kates, and Canning King, Jared, were up in Virginia/Washington DC on vacation, they spotted some hidden cans in a barricade. 

This pic was taken on Kate's phone while they were walking. 

You've got a good eye, Kates:)

We cannot get away from CANS!!! 

I love that our Canning Crew continues to find cans EVERYWHERE-- even on vacation:)

Recycling Center with Answers post2

2/9/13 continued

Well.... we have the answers to yesterday's post for you today!!! Here are the questions: 

1. Did we make it back to the recycling center before the went on their lunch break?
2. How much did we collected from the six bags left at the C4C trailer?
3. Did Trav/Sav start a new tradition for Recycling days?

After our first trip to the recycling center, we booked it back to the church to load up again! We only had 50 minutes to drive back, load up, and unload again. As soon as Trav pulled into the church parking lot, I set the timer to see how long it took us to load.

 

Total load time.... 1 minute! LOL! We were on FIRE {well, Trav was since I was just taking pics- LOL}!!! We jumped back into the truck and headed back to the recycling center, which is about 15 minutes away.

That being said- let's do some Math: we drove 15 minutes back to the church....loaded and jumped back into the truck for 1 minute....then drove 15 minutes back down to the recycling center. Q1: Did we make it back to the recycling center before the went on their lunch break? YES!!!!

That brings us to Q2: How much did we collected from the six bags left at the C4C trailer? 

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled for trip #2: 66 

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 2/9/13: 3,265 pounds!!!!! 

Usually, this is the end of the post-- but we have one more question to answer! Q3: Did Trav/Sav start a new tradition for Recycling days? YES!

Our last visit to the Recycling Center {HERE} ended with a lunch and milkshakes at the local Chick-fil-A.  Trav and I stopped there again for lunch. While we were eating, someone went around the restaurant asking people to donate blood.... I haven't done that in a long time....so I went in the Big Red Bus. 

Congrats everyone!! Cans4Christ is doing awesome!!! Keep collecting your cans and random metals:)

Recycling Center with Questions post1

2/9/13

It's time again! We really need to take the cans in to the recycling center! Here's a picture of what the back of the truck looks like...

 

and here's a pic of what the trailer looked like the other day...

Put that together and that means we are headed to the recycling center ASAP! 

We were so busy trying to unload and rebag the trailer that we forgot to take pics of what the trailer looked like this morning! However, I did take a break to snap a picture of our ECC member, Jay. He dropped off some cans while we were there! AWESOME!

Thanks, Jay!! Keep 'em coming!

While unloading the trailer, we found a bag with a Christmas sticker on it. We are thinking this is from our Canning President's mom, Pat!!! LOVE it!

We finished up at the trailer leaving behind 6 super large black bags. They just wouldn't fit--even with the new web! Look at how full the truck bed is! 

We headed to the center with our first load and it was actually kind of quite there-- that's because it was like an hour before lunch! We were lucky to have two guys helping us unload the truck.

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 141

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 2/9/13: 3,199 pounds!!!!! 

Again Trav helped unload this massive mound of bags while I waited to check out. I think I got some better pics of him throwing the bags this time:) 

Come back tomorrow to find out if...

1. We made it back to the recycling center before the went on their lunch break
2. How much we collected from the six bags left at the C4C trailer
3. Trav/Sav start a new tradition for Recycling days!

Extended Canning Crew

2/9/13

Welcome to ANOTHER edition of the "Extended Canning Crew"!!! Read THIS post for more details. **NOTE:: We would love to see YOU as part of our ECC!!

We are so thankful for friends and family that save cans for us. It's even better when neighbors start to ask about it (well... sometimes they ask why we have a pile of bags in our driveway... but that leads to us talking about C4C!). After one of these conversations, our neighbors Peg and Bill save cans for us each week! Today we walked out to find two bags near our truck tire. 

 THANKS so much, Peg and Bill!!!

If you would like to be a part of the "Extended Canning Crew", take some pictures of your family or yourself collecting cans, crushing cans, or dropping off cans at the C4C trailer and send them to {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

**Please include: names of all people in the picture, explain what you were doing and how much fun it was, as well as your email address.

Forced ECC

2/8/13

I was overwhelmed when I pulled into the church parking lot today-- the Cans4Christ trailer was overflowing with about six big bags sitting next to it. I knew that Trav and I would be headed down to the recycling center tomorrow so I just went inside and continued with my scheduled meeting. 

But as soon as I walked inside the office, several people informed me that cans and bags somehow made it across the yard and near the back road. We thought maybe someone moved them... or there was a can bandit in the neighborhood... but then I remembered that there was a storm the night before with lots of wind! I didn't even see these bags when I pulled in-- I was in shock from the overflow that I missed the extra bags in the yard! LOL!

After being told three or four times about the cans and bags, I decided to start asking people to help me collect them back up. Everyone was "busy"....except for Belinda M.! 

Belinda is a HOOOOOT! She drove us over to the side yard because it was too far to walk-- and it was kind of hot out:) 

You can see that the wind was STILL blowing pretty hard while we were picking up the bags. 

Here's what the trailer looked like after we finished picking everything up.

Look at all of those cans!!! You might not be able to see all of the big black bags-- but there are about six large bags full of cans next/in front of the C4C trailer! LOVE it!

And here's a picture of Belinda afterwards! I labeled this post "Forced ECC" because I kind of forced Belinda into helping me--- but I bet you anything that she is now hooked on "canning"! LOL:)

THANKS, Belinda!!! Welcome to the Extended Canning Crew!!! Let's do it again soon:)

2nd Time-- 2x the FUN

2/4/13

We have mentioned our friend Courtney several times on the C4C blog... but this is her 2nd time joining us for the Monday Night route! 

I tried to take some fun pics...but of course my photography skills proved to be less than the best:) 

Oops-- a bit blurry! 

Much better:) 

Kates joined me as well! As always... and without fail... Kates spotted several cans in "our spot". **NOTE: I think I'm going to make this spot a regular pick-up! LOL! 

Good eye, Kates! Esp. since I was driving a bit fast down this road:)

This trip was extra fun (or 2x the fun) because we spotted a NEW pick-up location! It's always great adding to the route list!!! More cans = MORE money for our church building fund!! 

Kates was so sweet--she left a note and a C4C flyer in his mailbox:)

We finished up the night with a posed picture-- it looks like these gals had a great time tonight!!! Fun is always on the agenda for C4C:) I looooooove canning with my friends!! 

Extended Canning Crew

2/3/13

Welcome to ANOTHER edition of the "Extended Canning Crew"!!! Read THIS post for more details. **NOTE:: We would love to see YOU as part of our ECC!!

This week we actually took a picture of our friend Jeff R. We caught Jeff with a can during our Super Bowl party, which wasn't really a Super Bowl party-- we had a "food, fun, family/friends, and board game" night! We never even turned on the football game! LOL! 

 THANKS so much, Jeff!!! One can at a time:)

If you would like to be a part of the "Extended Canning Crew", take some pictures of your family or yourself collecting cans, crushing cans, or dropping off cans at the C4C trailer and send them to {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

**Please include: names of all people in the picture, explain what you were doing and how much fun it was, as well as your email address.

It's About Time...

2/3/13

...that I cleaned our canning gloves!

I'm sad that I didn't get a before pic... these gloves were GROSS! I made sure to wash them on the "sanitary cycle"!! 

I bet it doesn't take long before they get dirty again-- we are working with "cans" {LOL!}! 

Sunday Morning Best

2/3/13

Quick posts today-- just wanted to show how dedicated Jason is to Cans4Christ!!! When he sees us working outside by the trailer, he always is willing to jump in and help-- even in his Sunday Best!!! **I need to think of a Canning nickname for Jason-- email us if you have an idea;) 

JWP Letter

1/31/13

JWP sent us another letter the other day! **Click HERE for info on JWP and his prayers for Cans4Christ! 

Here's what JWP says about C4C this time: 

It reads: You guys are doing an amazing job with the "Cans 4 Christ" with all the cans you collect for the church building campaign. It's so cool you and your friends- "Canning Crew". I really appreciate what you're doing besides you guys would have achieve your dream from "Cans 4 Christ". 

Translation is a bit off-- but it still touches my heart! I love that he prays for C4C and our church!!! 

Friday Morning Help

2/1/13

This morning it was SUPER DUPER cold out (I believe it was in the 50s!!!)!! I'm so lucky that I had some help gathering cans today! Trav was available to come along and that means that Olsen joined in the fun too!

I was trying to get a picture of Olsen and Trav-- but my photography skills are not the best! LOL!

This is a bit beter--You can kind of see Olsen in the back, as well as my pink jacket. 

Even though it was cold out, Olsen still hangs his head out the window!

Trav got out and collected the cans by himself from almost all the stops today! What a sweetie! 

You can see Trav in the mirror-- he's putting on his gloves to collect this bin of cans.

Same as the Other Day but with Wind

1/30/13

I say today's bike ride was the "same as the other day" {referencing THIS post}... but let me start at the beginning....

Trav and I were able to get in a quick bike and canning ride before he went to work. I'm a bit leery and can't trust our bike trackers {see post mentioned above}... so I made sure that Trav and I started out at zero together! Here's Trav resetting his tracker:) 

We set off and instantly had trouble biking because of the wind! We don't mind biking into the wind-- but here in FL the wind tends to shift directions quickly, which means we are 99% of the time riding into the wind. LOL! 

Going a bit slower, we started picking up cans and having fun. I didn't bring my iPhone this time because it was charging, so Trav was taking pics while riding:) He yelled at me from across the road saying, "Smile!" and as I looked towards him he snapped this pic. I asked him why he was taking a picture of me, and his response was because "he is always on the blog":) 

Towards the end of our bike ride, the speed of the wind picked up. So for this last can, Trav had to literally hang on to his bike while using the grabber to get the can! LOL! 

On our way home I couldn't keep up with Trav-- the wind was too much for me! I ended up only going 6 miles per hour into the wind.

So why is this bike ride the "same as the other day"??? Well.... although we started out at the same time, and we rode the same distance never doing a u-turn/etc..... Trav still went farther than me! 

This is the first time we've shared a final bike/canning pic that is our shadow! We are trying to get creative:)

Miles: apparently I only went 2.95, and Trav went 3.01 miles :)

Bags: 1 bag

Canning Crew UNITE

1/28/13

I don't know if you remember that cartoon back from the 80/90s called "Captain Planet"? HERE's a link to the theme song and HERE for the cartoon intro (which is what I'm referencing for the title of this post-- esp. the part where the "planteers" hold up their rings to unite). 

I think the Cans4Christ Canning Crew held up our imaginary rings to unite tonight for our canning route;) The Canning President, Kates, and Canning Princess, Tami, both joined in the fun!

I have to say that Kates and I normally laugh during our route, but tonight there were extra giggles. For example, Tami would yell out "CAN!" and I would stop the truck so she could get out and get it. After awhile, Kates jumped in and then they both told me I had get out and get a can! I tried to explain that the whole idea of driving on Monday was that I didn't have to get out:) LOL!

 They saw several cans in the woods.... 

and Kates decided to go get them! 

We had a great pick-up tonight! I looooooooooove canning with my friends:}