three

It's the 3rd of the February.
Can you donate $3?

Just Three dollars.

On the Third of each month.

A small monetary help and a reminder to pray for the Three girls raped every 45 minutes in Kenya.

In a place like that, rape happens every day. It is literally an everyday -every hour- occurrence:
More than 20,000 children are sex trafficked in Kenya.
Parents often force their daughters into trading sex for food in the slums.
13,000 Kenyan girls are kicked out of school -if they were lucky enough to still be in school- for being pregnant.
25% of pregnant women in Kenya are HIV positive.
Annually, 26,000 women die from having an illegal, unsafe abortion in Kenya
and 1500 women die in childbirth every day across Africa.

The Mercy House is striving to serve girls in just these situations in Kenya.
Consider joining me in The Power of Three this year to support them.
Three dollars is not that much.
But 3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3 (you get the idea) IS.

Better yet, can you spare more than that?

Can you donate supplies??

We have it so good here. So good.
Even when we think we don't.

gifts

I've been thinking a lot this season about Christmas gifts and spending. I know spending and finances have been on the minds of a lot of folks, especially this year, but even aside from trying to save a buck or two, I've been feeling a real urge to pare down our Christmases more each year. Just the basic thought of Do More Spend Less. I ran across this video last week that only emphasized my convictions.


I don't mean to be preachy. I just wanted to share what's been on my heart as we get ready for Christmas this year. I just wanted to give a gentle reminder of how abundantly blessed most of us are in this country. A reminder that we don't have to look far to find people, families, children less fortunate than we can even imagine. A reminder that while we are stressing about how much to spend on Cousin Fred, there is someone else with a bigger problem. A life or death issue. In both our country and in far off places.

I know sometimes people go into the holiday season with every intention to be charitable, but then not much ever comes of it because they might just be at a loss of where to go, of what to do. So real quick, I thought I might just list a few simple, simple ideas for you if you're looking for a direction in giving.

Operation Christmas Child
Angel Tree
Toys for Tots
Heifer International

If you're local, you may have heard of the ShoeMan. A St. Louis man has made it his mission to do his part in providing drinking water to a village in Kenya. His method? To collect shoes. He works with a clothing recycling company who pays him 35 cents per pound of used shoes. He's turning in shoes and collecting that money to finance a gift of a well-digging rig in Kenya. Imagine the gift of free drinkable water to those people. And all we have to do is give the ShoeMan the shoes our kids have outgrown, the shoes we bought and never really wore, the shoes that we have that have gone out of style. Our MOPS group brought in shoes today and I was amazed at the bags of shoes covering the table and piled under on the floor. Shoes that were just sitting around our houses. It was such a stark reminder of the over abundance of things we have in this country... this huge pile was a small group of womens' "discarded" footwear and to think that people in other countries die every day from diseases picked up through their feet or go from birth to death having never worn a pair of shoes.
Here are some articles about both the shoe drive and the mission to finance the well-digging equipment along with contact or drop off info if you are interested.

Here also is a link to Living Water International if you want to simply give to that cause.

I'm not familiar with many other local ministries or opportunities specifically in the area yet, being this is only our second year here.

Have you thought about Christmas beyond the gifts under your tree this year?
What is your favorite organization to give your time or resources to?
Is that a holiday time thing for your family or something you do year round??

get a grip

I thought this was hilarious.
But also sad because it's oh so true.

We are so very, very spoiled....

tomayto tomahto

Kim's coupon convo on Monday got me thinking...
I'm curious-- which do you say??

• coupon: cue-pon or coo-pon
• aunt: awnt or ant
• theater: the-ah-ter or theee-a-ter
• envelope: en-velope or on-velope
• quarter: qorter or qwarter
• caramel: care-amel or care-mel or car-mel
• mature: mature or matchure
• adult: uhdult or ahdult
• grocery: gro-shury or gro-shree or gro-sury
  
• pajamas: pajamas or pajahmas
  

and what about these?
milk: milk or melk
across: across or acrosst
wash: wash or warsh
any word with ing at the end: running or runningggg

After you answer me those in your comments ( I told you, I'm curious! Please answer!!), check out this list and maps. Interesting stuff!

i'm tired

I guess it's Thursday, isn't it? Well here are my thoughts.

I think I'm going to just check out of the blog reading world for awhile.
I'm really really really tired of reading post after post about politics and what people think is right and fair and moral and religion vs state and all that. Really tired.

I don't want to hear any more about what you think the path of our country will be now that the presidential decision has been made. It's done, and only time will tell whether your vote was for the "right" or the "wrong" candidate regardless of whether they ended up in the White House or not.

I don't want to hear any more takes on who it's okay to marry and who it's not and why. We've all heard both sides and your rant about it one way or the other really doesn't make any difference. We've all heard it. We all know it.

I really don't like reading blogs like that.

Our country is certainly not changing overnight and it's going to take a lot of good and bad steps both forward and backward to get our nation back on the right road of recovery, both economically as well as this tricky path of religion meets government meets ethics meets real lives.

There are no right answers that fit everyone. There just aren't. There are no simple solutions.
And when we think we have the right answer for everyone, that we have the right solutions for this day and age and the people and issues we live amongst... we are being just as foolish and ignorant as we accuse the people we're "fighting against" of being.

Plus, I really just don't like reading blogs like that.

Regardless of what each of us believe in, I think it's ridiculous to snap a picture of yourself flipping "them" off with your wedding ring. What exactly does that say?

Regardless of who each of us supported in this election, I think it's immature and disappointing to make a game out of seeing who can come up with the most "creative" (disrespectful and twisted) uses for the campaign paraphanalia of the losing candidate. I mean really; aren't we more adult than that?

I'm just tired of it all. I had hoped that once the ugliness of the campaign was over and we got through election day in one piece, once that was behind us, our country could move forward, and we could go back to good bloggy reads like our kids who chopped their own bangs off and the pile of leaves they jumped in and the funny thing that happened to you at the mall and the 813 attempts at Christmas pictures and just NO MORE POLITICS!

I understand all of this is part of history. That these are very big parts of National history as well as being things each of us might stand for, passions, causes that might be important to us. I understand if you feel it's a big enough part of your life that you have to write about it. But when I see it on every stinkin' blog I turn to... even if it's saying the same exact words I would have typed myself... it makes me loathe the whole "argument" whatever it is, the whole issue, the fact that it's always in my face. I don't read political blogs for a reason. I read blogs for enjoyment, not for getting politically riled up or watching people feed off of each other in that realm.

It just all ends up making me sad.

So I'm thinking I may steer clear of a few of these heavy blogs for awhile. Or maybe I should just ask them to send out a notice when their posts are on a political diet.
I get frustrated when I like a blogger and their usual blogging and then unfortunately get turned off by a few too many righteous political posts.
And please note that righteousness is rampant on both sides of all the issues. It has nothing to do with "sides" here.

What are your thoughts on the plethera of political posts on good old fashioned "mommy blogs" as of late?

i hope we're fixing it the best way we know how

courtesy of the storypeople blog

winning weekend

So if any of you enjoy The Pioneer Woman and the lovely, lovely multiple pages of her lovely, lovely website, you know she has many lovely, lovely contests.
Those of you who don't enjoy her, you should.
And those of you who aren't familiar with these contests of hers, well, you're missing out.

Although, I never win. Even though I've been playing along and entering even from way back when, when it was merely hundreds of comments entering rather than thousands (9739 on the last contest to be exact). And yet I never win. Nothing. And we're not talking book giveaways here; we're talking $500 to Amazon.com or DSLR cameras or Kitchen-Aid mixers or any random wonderful I'd love to have it prize. She's awesome that way.

Anyway, like I said, I've never won. Whether it's a random drawing contest or one of her good old fashioned Give that Photo a Name contest. Always a loser. This past week she held 2 separate drawings for $500 at Sam's Club/Costco. Plus two more surprise bonus winners of $250 each. Mmm, yeah, that would have been nice. But no. The losing streak continued.
I found myself thinking about that Friday night... how many times I've thrown my name in the (ginormous) hat at her website. In fact, how many bloggy contests I've entered in general... and never win. Wah, wah, wah, poor me.

Fast foward to Saturday morning.
We had plans to trick-or-treat at The Magic House's Not-So-Haunted-House fun event for the kids. We wanted to be there bright and early to try and miss the worst of the crowds. But. We also wanted to stop by the Grand Opening of a new Sports Authority store down the road from us, as we had plans to buy Sawyer a hockey goal for his birthday and wanted to take advantage of the early bird sales and special coupons. Plus you got a free canvas bag if you were one of the first 150 customers or something. Woohoo!

So I sent Ryan down there early, while I got the kids in their costumes. I also asked him to first stop next door at Walmart first to pick up some face paint and hairspray to finish up our trick-or-treaters. While in Walmart, and on the phone with me, he realized he had grabbed the wrong coupon for Sports Authority. He also mentioned the line to get into SA was already around the corner of the building. To save time and money, I told him just to grab the Walmart goodies and come home; that we would take the better coupon we had here at the house over there later in the day. He agreed.
I have never been so glad that my husband ignored my instructions.

Ten minutes later I get a call from him:
I think I just won $500 at Sports Authority.
Wha--?!!
Turns out when he got outside, the doors were opened, the line was moving, and he decided to just run in and browse around, maybe just pick up the goal afterall in peace (and without the birthday boy around). He got in the back of the line and when he eventually got to the front door he actually let a couple of people who were just walking up go in the door ahead of him (lesson learned: it pays to be nice and considerate!).
As customers filed in the door, they were handed free hockey pucks, the canvas bags, and mystery scratch off cards to win $1, $5, $10, $25, or one lucky $500 to spend in the store that day. Ryan took the card that was handed to him and went on (without scratching it) to peruse the Blues fan gear. A few minutes into his browsing, noticing most everyone around him was talking about "I got $5 off!", he thought, gee I guess I should take a peek at mine too.

And proceeded to reveal a little number in the amount of $500!!

So he calls me and tells me this and tells me I should get down there to the store. First I was a little confused, and then I was like, Are you sure we have to come down there now?! It's 8 o'clock in the morning, the kids are decked out in their Halloween costumes, and we're going to be late to the Magic House. So he checks with the manager to see if he can come back, (and ask Is this for real?!) and then everyone's congratulating him, announcing him over the intercom, and he's suddenly a Sport's Authority celebrity!! ha!
Turns out the card was good for the whole day ($500 is not an amount I'd want to have to spend on the spot!!), so we went ahead with our trick-or-treating morning, had lunch out and a household naptime, and then shipped the kids off to a babysitter so we could wander around SA for two hours sans kids to spend the money.

We got lots of Christmas/birthday presents for the kids (and shhh... for a couple of other family members too) and spent a couple hundred on ourselves as well. For Christmas, yeah, that's it.

It was awesome because they really did have a ton of good Grand Opening sales and specials going on, so we got a ton of stuff. I got two pairs of shoes (which were greatly greatly needed... the last pair of athletic shoes I bought were picked out for me by a friend at the Nike employee store... when I was pregnant with Savannah. And yes, my feet grew with both of my pregnancies! I've been seriously looking for new shoes for the last six months or so, but I just could not get over the price of a good pair of tennishoes!!!) that I am ridiculously excited about. And two shirts. Ryan and I both got Blues apparel to wear to our game date with Birthday Boy Sawyer next weekend, and while Ryan hemmed and hawed over a new putter the whole two hours we were there, he ended up with just some random clothes as well.

I've never been on a shopping spree like that... and I have to say it was exhausting! Even though it was "free" money, it was still so stressful to be trying to spend it 'the right way' and balance out things we wanted with good deals and/or investments. Sadly, $500 can go very easily.

Anyway.
All that to brag on the fact that while I'm still very much a loser when it comes contests and freebies, at least I'm married to a winner!!
Thanks for sharing your little windfall with me and your family Ryan!

lockdown *updated*

Excitement around here today!
We woke to the news that a "person of interest" was running from police just a few miles from our house. The suspect is charged with a drive-by shooting early Tuesday morning in Madison, IL that resulted in the death of a twelve year old boy sitting in front of his tv doing his homework.
Apparently police were keeping tabs on a home in Wentzville (next city over from us) overnight where they believed this "person of interest" to be hiding, when a vehicle left the house. The police tried to stop it, the car ran and then the person abandoned the vehicle and ran on foot into some woods. Then a second vehicle was stolen, broke through a police checkpoint, led chase, crashed, and once again the suspect was running on foot. This was all before we woke this morning. Now they're still looking for him hours later.
They have police checkpoints on all the major roads surrounding and north of us and most of the schools called off classes before students arrived this morning; many others are on lock down. Did I mention we have an absurd number of schools in our immediate area?!

Anyway, our elementary school wasn't called off (although I'm wondering why, considering almost every other one around us is) (and our bible study at church was canceled for this morning) but they of course were advising everyone stay indoors with doors locked and garage doors closed. No one wanted their kids at the bus stop or even on the buses (when it drove by it was completely empty), and our neighbor offered to take all the kids over in her van. We are about 2 miles from the school. Just as we were going out to load booster seats into her van, and discussing whether or not we should bother sending them to school, another neighbor came out and said he heard a report of the suspect sighted at an intersection that is exactly (I measured it on a map just now) .8 of a mile from our school. At that same time suddenly there were three helicopters overhead. Well that was that.

We continued to mingle outside in my driveway, the little kids fascinated by all the helicopters and all of the school kids complaining about not wanting to miss school (they have great prizes for perfect attendance), and us adults wondering what was going on now, making calls to people, checking the internet for news updates. Then another neighbor came out and said it had just taken her husband 40 minutes to get from the middle school to home (normally less than 10 minutes away) and he saw a police helicopter land in the lawn at the retirement center at the end of our street. Um, yeah, I think we should all head inside now!

I still haven't heard anything new on the news. I can still hear helicoptors overhead.
Savannah's across the street playing with K in her house and Sawyer's mad at me because of course he was all riled up with the big boys outside and now he's remembered I promised him we could play outside today since he was "grounded" yesterday. I'm nervous now to go out in the garage and prep the garage sale because I remember yesterday Savannah was playing with the back outside garage door and I never checked last night to make sure it was locked. The door to the house is locked, but I just can't bring myself to open it. What if someone's hiding in my garage? Hmm... paranoid much?!

It's crazy that this is happening right here in our suburban neighborhood... and considering this murder/shooting this guy is charged with happened almost 36 hours ago, 40 miles away, on the other side of a major city, two major rivers, and in another state.

*ETA*
They just caught the guy in the last few minutes, just after 10 o'clock... up toward the freeway I think, probably about 3 miles from us. Whew. Glad that's done.
Also, I went out in the garage to toss some recycling and that back door was unlocked! I KNEW IT. I'm just glad the bad guy didn't know it!!

biology, shmiology

I did too much rambling on my TFT last week, so this week I'll keep it short and sweet. Or not so sweet, as this is not a very nice topic...
But short, yes.
I saw this segment months ago on the Today show and was appalled. I honestly was sitting there watching with my mouth hanging open and I could not believe my ears. And this article actually paints a much nicer picture as compared to the conversation Meredeth had with the Dr's on the actual spot on the show. They were flat out saying that we, as the animals we are, are biologically wired to not be monogamous and there shouldn't be such surprise that it happens and basically that if we are to follow our instincts we have to cheat on our mates.
I honestly could not believe what I was hearing. It was a flat out excuse for infidelity and what at times seemed to be a push for anyone on the fence about whether they would be unfaithful to their spouse, like look... every creature on the earth does it, so should we. Ew.

I, for one, would like to think we're above the animal urges and can control our so called "biological" desires. I believe things like love, honor, cherish, respect and um... what would you call it?... maturity?! should at least come in to play somewhere. I mean, come on. We are not animals. We have feelings and reasoning and the ability to make choices that affect other people.
Oh, I could go on forever.
I'll shut up now.
Just read the article.
And talk amongst yourselves...


And then, (okay, so maybe I'm not shutting up yet)
if you want even more to talk about...
have you heard of advertisements for "America's discreet sanctuary for lonely wives and cheating husbands"?...
No, not for people who want help or healing in those situations, but for "those who are just looking for something extra on the side".
Seriously? Websites for people looking to cheat? To be matched up with people looking for affairs?
I didn't want to post this and I won't link to them out of principle (but sadly it is not hard to find), but I just couldn't not mention it as I just cannot wrap my mind around that. Is this honestly what society is coming to? And people think this is okay? That people are able to make a booming business out of such a sad situation?

Pray for our kids, people. Pray for our kids.

thoughts for thursday

Hey, can you believe it? I'm actually doing a Thoughts for Thursday again! It seems like it's been for. ever. what with my little step back hiatus and then all the holidays and everything. So here we go... today I'm thinking about:

Do our kids get to be kids these days?
This has been on my mind for a couple of months and with my post yesterday all about my four-and-a-half year old, it seems like it fits to ponder these things today.
We all know how things have changed, just from when we were kids. Most often it seems the days of kids playing in the neighborhood, classic toys and all around childhood innocence is all but gone. We teach our kids to be wary of strangers, not to leave our sight, and who lets their kids walk to school anymore? Society seems to either over schedule kids or leave them to sit in front of tv or video games for hours. Playing violent games, no less. When I was 7 years old, I barely remember any tv (except for Saturday mornings)... I remember so much "playing". Lots of imagination and make believe. I remember running around the culdesac with the neighbor kids, riding bikes and making up adventures until dark. On this topic, check out this cool website I found the other day. Playborhood is a place where parents and communities are coming together to let kids be kids, so to speak. Check out the articles on that site... there's much food for thought. Also the about page and especially Playborhood founder, Mike's synopsis of what's in store for our kids these days and why he wants to do something about it. I think it's a great mission. As a stay at home mom I'm feeling compelled to be facilitating that for not only my kids, but for others who maybe can't be home during the week to just let kids "play". I don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but I'm willing to see how that might take shape. I don't want to take for granted the fact that I'm home with my kids and that because of that, it might be easier to give them those opportunities. I want to see if I can somehow be a part of that for others.

*****
That's all kind of a more general aside to the original thought I've been wanting to write about.
Along the same lines, in the past few months this has been bugging me.
Savannah's four-and-a-half. She's just starting to outgrow Dora and Blue and many of those preschool shows. She's still all about Disney movies and princesses and now likes Hello Kitty, Charlie and Lola and other shows like Arthur and Maya & Miguel. These are mostly about Elementary age kids doing elementary aged things.
Now, Savannah has a few friends who talk about Hannah Montana, she recognizes that logo in the stores and the same goes for High School Musical. I have to admit I'm a bit confused with this, as we are talking about 4 and 5 year old girls. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't it called High School Musical? And I do realize that it isn't actually intended for high schoolers and that it's probably a bit "below" many of them, but I do think preschool and kindergarten is a bit young for it. I've watched Hannah Montana once or twice, curious to see what Savannah was "missing out on", and it's a perfectly good show; I saw nothing objectionable or innapropriate... for maybe an 8 year old. I mean, they're in what?... Middle School in that show? They're dating and flirting and going to classes and while it's all fun and there are great lessons to be learned in the show, I just don't think it's what my four year old needs to be watching. If she's watching things like this at 4 and 5, what is she going to be watching by the time she's 10??! I just don't get it. Why do we want our kids to grow up so fast?
A blogger I read was super excited a few months back because she got tickets for her daughter and her to go to the big Hannah Montana concert (you know, the ones where tickets were selling for thousands of dollars?)... and her daughter is five! About the same time we went to a four year old friend's party and she was playing her favorite cd... Hannah Montana. Also this fall another friend was telling me all about her neice's 5th birthday party, the theme being High School Musical, with most of her gifts revolving around her favorite movie. I'm not saying this is bad. Sure, it might be great music, I think Miley Cyrus seems to be a great role model, and I think the premise behind the High School Musical movie is great... I just don't know if it applies to my daughter right now. I hope there are great shows and movies and singers like this for Savannah to get excited about... in a few more years. I just don't think she needs to be going to major concerts and into things like that at not even five years old.
Why do we want them to grow up so quickly when they already do it too fast on their own?

What are your thoughts?

*Just wanted to add... if you're ever looking for a great place to find rundowns of shows, music, or movies, both kids' and adults', Commonsensemedia.org is the best website I've found. It is especially family friendly as it tells you exactly what is or might be objectionable in the specific media your searching. They give a good age appropriate verdict and the reviews I've read vs. the things I've actually seen/heard they're all pretty much right on. Theirs are the notes I linked to for identifying the shows I talked about.

this is what I've been dreading

There are six cars parked outside of our house right now. They contained many children my daughter's age. They are all parked there to visit the little girl across the street. They were carrying gifts and treats and everyone was excited and happy to see each other.
And Savannah watched from inside our front room.

Now I'm not saying just because we're neighbors we have to be friends. But Savannah does consider this little girl her friend. One of her very good friends. They play together once every couple of weeks and Savannah without fail, waves Kristen off on the bus to kindergarten almost every morning.
Her mother and I, I would not consider friends. I'd call us neighbors. She's quiet, I'm quiet, we've just never had much to talk about. She doesn't seem too interested in my friendship.
But the girls are friends.

When we first moved here, the girls played together quite often outside. And about a month after we moved in, it was this little girl's birthday. Loads of cars, balloons on the mailbox, we knew it was her birthday, but never heard a word about it. I'm not saying I expected Savannah to be invited... after all, we had only been there a few weeks. But we were in fact invited to another neighbors' kids' birthday party right around the same time, and I have to admit I was a little surprised that we weren't included in this one. That's when I have to stop and tell myself that not everyone thinks like me. I would think, "Hey, new neighbors! They need to meet people and make friends and feel included!". I mean, heck, we invited all of these people to Ryan's big birthday party a month later! But not everyone thinks that way.

Anyway. Since that first birthday thing, I've noticed quite a few afternoon "playdates" (I'm only assuming) with cars lining our street (I counted 11 one day as I pulled in from the grocery store), mostly in front of my house, and kids piling into their house, including other people we know in the neighborhood. This is a regular occurence, and I just quietly close the front blinds and shrug off the fact that we're never included. And Savannah has always been none the wiser.

Until today.
First she asked me why all these cars were coming outside.
I said, "I'm not sure hon, Miss L. and K. must be having some people over." and ushered her back to the family room. A few minutes later I took Sawyer upstairs to tuck him in for a nap, and when I came down I found her perched at the front window again, this time with binoculars (?!). I asked her if she wanted to play a game, and she cut me off saying excitedly, "Mom! There's other kids over there! It looks like K's having a party!". I said, "Wow, fun for K! She must be playing with some of her Kindergarten friends. Do you want to come help me wrap some presents?".
Just then other neighbors (another 4 yr old girl) we know from way down the street pulled up. Savannah recognized their car and stopped dead in her tracks. "S and C are here mom!" And then she realized why S was here and saw her face fall. She almost whispered, "Oh, she's going to K's house." We watched them walk across the street and up the front lawn and in the front door and when Savannah looked up at me and I swear she looked like she wanted to cry, "I can't go because we weren't invited over there, right?"
"Not today honey," was all I could say.
She played with me for a little bit before she went up for her quiet time, and she'd every so often glance wistfully towards the front windows. I tried to keep her attention on other things, but I could tell it was really bumming her out. I mean, it is hard not to notice; the whole front of our house is windows. I just felt bad for her. She shouldn't, at not even five years old, be feeling left out and rejected with friends like that. It makes me mad and sad all at the same time. I mean, I don't expect for us to be included; I'm not blaming our neighbors or saying they're doing anything wrong. I'm mad that it's just one of those life's not always fair things and it's frustrating to see that in my daughter's face already. It's one thing when it's about sharing your toys that you don't want to share, and a whole nother thing entirely when it's realizing you're not wanted at a party.

We talked as she got in bed for her quiet time, and I reminded her how much fun she had at her friend Sophie's house this morning. And then she was talking about her friend at school and how she wants to invite her over to play sometime and it'll be so fun cuz she has a little brother Sawyer's age and Sophie could some too and S from down the street and also K.
"I would invite K mom, cuz she's my friend and she likes to play with me... Do you think K likes to play with me mom... even though she didn't want me to come over today?"

"I'm sure she does Savannah. Did you know I like to watch you play with your friends because you are good at making your house fun for them and to make them feel good here. You like to share your home and you like to share your things and you like to share your friendships and that makes you a very good friend to have."

*sigh*

It's only just begun, hasn't it?

my generation

Do you remember getting up off the floor and walking up to the television to change the channel to one of the other five options - the 1980 version of “channel surfing?”

Did your mom heat hot dogs in boiling water on the stove?

If so, I think you’ll find this as funny as I did. I don’t know who wrote it; it’s one of the endless forwarded emails I received that was actually worth reading:

*******************************

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning … uphill BOTH ways ..

I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it! But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today.

They’ve got it so easy! Compared to my childhood, they live in a freaking convenience Utopia!

1. When I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog.

2. There was no email. We had to actually write somebody a letter … with a pen. Then you had to walk all the way down the driveway and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there.

3. There were no MP3’s or Napsters. If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the stupid DJ would usually talk over the beginning and ruin it!

4. We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that was it. Can you say emergency break-thru’s?...until the operators caught on.

5. And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either. When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was. It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn’t know. You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister.

6. We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics. We had the Atari with games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘asteroids’. The graphics were horrible. Your guy was a little square. You actually had to use your imagination. There were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever. And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died. Just like LIFE.

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating. All the seats were the same height. If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn’t see, you were just screwed.

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu. You had to actually read a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on.

9. There was no Cartoon Network either. You only got cartoons on Saturday morning. We had to wait ALL WEEK for our shows.

10. We didn’t have microwaves. if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a fire. If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing or a pan with HOT oil and real popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an
idiot.

11. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked in, we were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone - not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you had to go to the bathroom you were forced to hang up and talk to them later.

You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

relief

I'm still seeing so many things about help coming in to Hurricane Katrina victims. Just saw a commercial the other day. And now this season, lots of aide is requested for the aftermath of the California fires.
And though there were states of emergency declared in both Oregon and Washington with the storms and flooding earlier this winter, I don't hear much about it in the news or with people reaching out to help in that area. Daring Young Mom wrote a great post about the situation over there and the overwhelming cleanup and recovery involved in the flooding in Washington. That stuff hits home for me, as it's practically in my former backyard. I know all these places, I recognize these areas... only I don't recognize them. The damage and the homes and livelihoods that have been destroyed... it's unbelievable. Watch the video mentioned in Kathryn's post. Then donate if you can.
Also, pass along the message if you feel so inclined. I don't think the situation in the Northwest is getting enough attention. I know we have plenty of needs to give to in our country, but this happens to be a season where people are looking for things to do, ways to give and families to help.

In our rush of preparing for Christmas and this season of recognizing our abundant blessings, it's sobering to think of the families affected by the flooding who suddenly have no home, no Christmas tree, no presents... who are simply celebrating because they are alive.

is this ever going to stop?

I really don't think so.
I have a feeling all the lead findings and now this
are just the tip of the iceburg.

I'm thinking my kids will stick to asking for clothes and books for Christmas and they can play with measuring cups, wooden spoons, and build forts out of bedsheets. And we'll stick to shoe boxes and good old popsicles sticks for arts and crafts thankyouverymuch.