On Giving Up and Giving Back

I shared a few days ago about how much I miss this space, but how difficult it has been to find words. My heart just wasn’t in it, I had quit. I wanted to be passionate about it, and I wasn’t anymore.

That’s hard for me to admit, because if there is anything I am not, a quitter is pretty much right there at the top of the list. I’m an adapter. A “roll with the punches” kind of person. Maybe it (whatever “it” is) isn’t going how I planned – no worries. Plan B. Or F. Or LL. I learned a long time ago that planning has value, but flexibility has MORE value. Know what your end goal is, but understand that the path to get there is NOT a straight line, no matter how hard you try.

So this “quitting” thing? It’s really not sat very well with me.

Part of my quit, I think, came from not having that end goal. There is no end goal with this space. It’s the best “roll with it” scenario I could have given myself! It’s MINE! I can do what I want to! I’m not here to make money, I don’t have a bunch of affiliate connections, I’ve got a few ads on here with the idea that maybe I’ll have a little income to cover the cost of my domain, but this isn’t a full time job or anything. I don’t promote the space because, well, it’s mine. It’s public, and sometimes I feel like I’ve written something that folks might want to read. Sometimes I write things that are important to me, and that I want others to know about. In general though? This is my space. It’s about me. It’s a place where I can share things that need more that 140 characters. I can document our lives a little, and one day the kids can look  back and share in some of the memories with me.  But there is no “end goal” – no target for hits per day. No revenue goals. Not even a posts per week goal.

With no goals, no guidelines, I didn’t have the focus to be here. To write here. I was so focused on doing other things, I lost the focus I needed to maintain this piece of me.

I’m not sad about it though. Really, this is just another step along the way, and my focus was in good places. I’ve been working, leading our elementary PTO, participating in charity events, and enjoying my family. We’ve travelled a little, visited some. I lost my grandfather, but celebrated an amazing man with people I love. I barely mentioned it, but a year ago, my 10 year old daughter and I participated in  St. Baldrick’s event and raised over $6,500 for pediatric cancer.

I’ve given. Time and again, I’ve given. I am not in a position to always give monetarily, but let me tell you something really, REALLY important.

It’s not always about the money.

More often than not, those folks you want to help? The group you want to support? They just need a little of your time. Can you work a school carnival booth? FANTASTIC. Your 30 minutes means the kids can play the games. Can you type? That group needs someone to put together some thank you letters to volunteers and donors. Clip Box Tops & such. Photocopy handouts for a teacher. Chaperone a field trip. Work a Book Fair. Read with students who are struggling readers. No kids in school? That’s ok – adopt a local elementary, they’ll likely adopt you right back.

Heart in other places? EMBRACE it. What can you do to help? Is there a family you know who is facing a challenge? Can you watch the kids for a couple hours so mom and dad get a break? Wash and vacuum the car? Come by and flip laundry, maybe sweep and mop the kitchen?

Volunteer at the food bank once a month. Offer to walk the dogs at the animal shelter. Visit the elderly – they may just need a friend.

Give back. Give of yourself. It doesn’t have to cost you a dime, but there is NOTHING that will fulfill you more.

I gave up a little here. I gave back in so many other places. I’m ok with that.

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time,

There was a girl. She was busy, as is common for girls who are also moms, employees, wives and the like, but she felt like she was missing something. Some creative space of her own, where she was all of those things, and could share about them, and learn from others, and others could learn from her, and together, all were happier.

So, she wrote.

For three or four years, she wrote regularly. She shared her heart, her photos, her recipes. She talked about books she read, and sports her kids played. She talked about charities she believed in, products she tried, pets she loved – whatever was on her mind.

She just wrote.

Somewhere along the way she slowed down. And then?

It stopped.

The words stopped. They just weren’t there anymore.

The photos were still taken, the food still cooked. She read books, and watched games, supported charities and held a dog as it crossed over the rainbow bridge. She buried loved ones, celebrated marriages and births. But there were no words.

The girl missed them, the words. And she would come back to the place where she shared them and try to find them, but they were not there. Every day she visited the places where others shared their words, hoping that she would find hers hiding among theirs, but they were not their either.

Eventually, sadly, the girl stopped looking for her words. She went to work, she took pictures, she laughed with her children, but she no longer sought out the words.

Then, one day, the words dropped in to visit. And again another day. Not nearly as often as they once did, but they stopped in. And the girl enjoyed her time with them.  She invited them over, told them to drop in any time.

Slowly, that fractured relationship seemed to heal. It may never again be quite what it was, but perhaps one day they could again be close friends, the girl and the words.

Overhaul

I clicked over to here the other day, this little space that is my corner in the internet, and looked at my blog. REALLY looked at it. For the first time in a long time. Not as the author, not from the inside, but as someone might who didn’t know me.

Theoretically, I looked at it the same way you do.

I realized how neglected it’s been. I always worry about my lack of writing in this window of time that is the tax season, but I never really worried about how it looked. About it’s visual appeal. I had laid it out in a way I liked, I liked my color scheme, I was proud of the dark text on light background, no captcha and no auto-music.

But I looked at the header, and realized that those kids? I’ve not seen them in a LONG time.  Same with the profile photo of me.  I’ve not done a very good job of updating, maintaining, or developing what I have here.

I’ve grown and changed. My children have as well. What I share in this space is about so many different angles of my life and who I am, who we are as a family, and visually, this space doesn’t really reflect that for me.

So, I’m adding a blog overhaul to my list of things to do after tax season. I’m not going to be able to do much with it before then, but I’m looking forward to playing with it, building it back up, and making it feel like mine again!

And I’ll keep the dark text on the light background, no captcha and no auto-music. Pinky-swear.

Do you have other things you love or hate about blogs you visit? I’m open to tips and suggestions!

words

the words are trapped inside me.

they wrestle with one another, jumbled in my mind, but never seem to fall together anymore into sentences.

into complete thoughts.

perhaps it is because I just keep going, and don’t sit, waiting for them to blossom into the beauty I know that they can be. to soon, I try to pluck them from the mess and make something of them.

I am not a patient person, and waiting on something like this, something that should be so simple, is hard.

so many things to share, to make permanent in this space, and they flit through my mind like butterflies. dancing on the breeze, bouncing from flower to flower, and then?

gone.

I am unsettled. lost in my thoughts, lost in the spaces I call my own. part of me wonders if I can make them pretty again, if the beauty can be restored. part of me is convinced it is to late. part of me laughs at myself, thinking about how it is just one more thing I will have left unfinished.

I counterbalance the lack of patience with an overabundance of stubborn. I know that this? this jumbled mess that I’m buried in? it will pass. there is far to much stubborn in me to sit and take it for very much longer.

but until it does, I shall watch the butterflies.

Cooling Off

Not sure how the weather is in your neck of the woods, but around here, it's hot! Letting the girl cool off a bit before the sun gets to be too much to take.

(I'm also playing with camera apps on my phone, and trying to figure out if I can "place" pictures where I want them with the Blogger app. If you have hints on that, feel free to share!)

Relive, relaugh, relove.

I don’t know why I keep thinking it’ll work differently.

Tax Season ends, and I think “Oh! I’ll have time to blog again!”

Only, I don’t, not really. We have baseball, and softball, and I’m still at work, only without my support team. I go back to more volunteer work at school. Suddenly, I look around, and tax season ended a month ago, and I’ve posted, what, twice?

Lame.

Then I remind myself that I’m blogging not because I have to, but because I *WANT* to. Because I want to remember snippets of our lives. I want to record the moments before they are lost in the hustle and bustle of the mundane.

I want to take moments like this

  and this

and this

and freeze them forever.

(Melissa focused on a project at WonderLab on our field trip last week. Jeep snarfing down a foot-long cheese dog in under 9 minutes after coming home from Bradford Woods, and Eli enjoying a shake at Jiffy Treat after I got home from a weekend in Florida.)

I’m so grateful to be in a position where I’m getting to live in the moment, I truly am. We’re experiencing life, and what it has to give to us. My fear? My fear is that when these days have passed, and my children have flown the nest, that I won’t have these memories, these windows into the moments, to turn back to. To relive, relaugh at, and relove.

So, I’ll just keep trying. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll get better at posting stuff.

Exclamation Point Overkill

Y’all!

I’m still around! I swear it!

Holy wow, the last several weeks have been crazy. Baseball has started, my best friend brought her son into the world, I’ve been to Florida and back, we finished up tax season, the list just goes on!

Seriously, as is always the case for me, tax season ends up being pretty nuts, and as we get closer and closer to the deadline, it gets crazier and crazier. As a result, here I am again, having not posted in WEEKS, and trying to catch up with everything.

We’ve had some fun things happen, and I can’t wait to share a few of them with you. I’m working on posts now, and will try to not overwhelm you all with them all at once. I just wanted you to know that I’m *not* dead (although I am pretty stinking tired still) and that I will be back up and kickin’ out posts ASAP!

Looking forward to sharing some great stories with you all soon!

 

A Winner and Some Random Thoughts

It’s that time of year again.

The hours are long. The time to write almost non-existent.

As such, I’ve failed to post my winner for the My Memories Suite!

Without further ado, and with thanks to Random.org, let’s pick a winner, shall we?

 

Congratulations, Elizabeth! I’ll be in touch!

In other news, the kids are back in school. My Christmas tree is still up. (Probably should be dealing with that instead of writing a post with no real point to it, huh? Professional procrastination.

Those of you who have prayed for us, for our challenges with our son,  thank you. Please don’t stop. It’s still very up and down. These next few months, always a challenging time anyway, could be even more so. We’re still working on it all, and it provides me a great deal of peace to know you all are out there thinking of us.

It’s late, and I’m struggling to stay awake at this point, so I’m going to call it a night! Have a wonderful week.

My Memories

I have really great intentions. I have boxes of paper, special scissors, cute little corner things. Dozens of prints, waiting to be trimmed, framed, embellished.
In my mind, I create beautiful scrapbook pages. My kids’ pictures are perfectly cropped with detailed edges and immaculately aligned mats. Journaling is color-coordinated in flawless handwriting, with nary a scribble in sight.
In real life? I have a couple different scrapbooks that I MIGHT have finished two or three pages in. The edges are crooked. The mats don’t match up quite right. Journaling? Yeah, I’m not sure my kids didn’t write those simple paragraphs.
I’m full of brilliant ideas, but not so good with execution. Add into the mix that my life is a digital one – I blog, I tweet, I Facebook. I use a digital camera or my cell phone to take pictures. I rarely print any of them. As such, the idea of a digital solution appeals to me!
I was given the opportunity to use MyMemories Digital Scrapbooking Software. People? I can do this. See!?

I did this as a 5x7 page, and could have totally used it as a Christmas Card!  (Except, I took to long. But now I’m ON it for next year!)
And now I’m envisioning birthday invitations… fun post-vacation postcards… And oh.my.word, first day of school postcards to the grandparents? The kids could share their own little stories of the first day, and that photo we always take? The happy grandparent gushing of it all…
There are great premade templates to get you started, and literally hundreds of pieces to build your own layouts within the MyMemories Suite, plus tons of great additional packages. The scrapbook software itself is very user-friendly, with several export options, allowing for sharing in print or online. You can even make video montages of your favorite pages. (What a great idea for a wedding or baby’s first birthday!)
I might even get around to doing something like a baby book for each of my kids, since pretty much every picture of them ever is digital. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
I’ve had a blast playing with frames, photos and embellishments, and I want YOU to get to play along! The great folks at MyMemories are going to let me give one of YOU a copy of their MyMemories  Suite v3 - a $40 value!
So, here’s how to enter:
1. Leave me a comment telling me what your FIRST project would be – a montage of the kiddies? A beautiful image from your wedding? A photo of grandpa with that trophy fish? Share that memory!
2. Head over to the My Memories site and poke around, then tell me what scrap pack you’re in love with – I’m eyeing this Winter Fantasy 3 pack! Be sure to leave it in a separate comment!

3. Tweet about it! You can say what you’d like, but be sure to include @MyMemoriesSuite , @TaxMegan, and a link to this giveaway! Here’s an easy copy-paste for you, if that will help! 

I want to win @MyMemoriesSuite scrapbook software from @TaxMegan at http://bit.ly/sZH56J

Once you’ve tweeted, shoot me a link to your tweet as a separate comment here!
You’ve got three possible entries for an endless collection of memories – what a great way to start the New Year! Entries will close at 11:59pm Eastern on Thursday, January 5, 2012.
Don’t want to wait? Ask me how to save $10 on your purchase of the My Memories Suite!

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of the My Memories Suite at no cost to review, as well as a copy to give to one of you. All opinions here are my own. At the close of the entry period, the winner will be selected using random.org to identify the “winning” comment. Any questions regarding this giveaway should be submitted by email to me at allabunchofmomsense (at) gmail (dot) com.

A little follow-up

I must extend my thanks to the folks over at BlogFrog -

I tweeted to them, crushed, when voting closed early on the Hero Mom Contest. It was, however, the weekend, and they weren’t on hand immediately.

In the meantime, a kind soul stepped up and offered to cover the cost for Colette’s trip.

Tonight, I was contacted by a representative at BlogFrog.

They acknowledged that an error had, in fact, taken place. Time zone issues, changes from the norm, human error. It happens.

They obviously couldn’t give me that last 30 minutes, couldn’t put me into that top five spot.

They did, however, graciously and humbly apologize, and offer up a $100 gift card, which would have been our “guaranteed” prize for being in the top 5.

That card is, of course, going to be sent to Colette & Tammy, for Colette to use as spending money while in Nova Scotia. (That was our “back-up” plan anyway, just in case we didn’t win the whole enchilada.)

So, while that $2,500 would have been great, and having that nice, big donation for the folks over at Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation would have been AWESOME, we’re so blessed. Blessed. Colette’s trip is paid for, she has some spending money, we’ve raised some awareness for pediatric cancer.

Thank you again  to all of you who put up with all my tweets and such begging for your votes, and special thanks to each of you who voted and shared!

Women of Faith Weekend

I started a post about Women of Faith.

I was sitting in the floor of the concourse of Conseco Fieldhouse, tapping into an electrical outlet (tweeting kills my phone FAST!) on our lunch break on Friday, and I wrote.

And wrote.

And wrote more.

It’s too much. And yet, somehow, it could never possibly be enough.

How do you put into words the emotion that pours out of the women who are brave enough to step onto that stage? To share their pain, their fear, their failures?

How do you share how powerful Elmo’s “Sing A Song” can be when it’s performed by a mother and her child in front of 10,000 women?

Erica Campbell of Mary Mary with her daughter, Grace

How do you explain what it’s like to hear those 10,000 voices come together, in harmony, to sing “It is Well” with Natalie Grant?

How can you begin to describe listening to Sheila Walsh, as she clings to a small stuffed lamb, and reminds you that the shepherd will leave the 99 to save the one? Or the PIMPL* moment of Lisa Harper running at a “nekkid man” on a mountain?

*Pee In My Pants Laughing

How do you convey the emotions stirred up in your heart when Nicole Johnson talks about the broken pieces, and how they can be something beautiful? Or when Angie Smith weeps openly for the daughter who had weight in this world?

You can’t. You can’t really put into words what it’s like to share in the love, the laughter, the loss.

It’s so cliché. I really want to get out that movie announcer voice guy and say “You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You won’t want to miss…. Women Of Faith!”

But that’s just it. You WILL laugh, and you WILL cry. And you will walk away refreshed, and restored, and reaffirmed.

(And if you’re anything like me, you’ll walk away with a pretty new tote bag filled with books and CDs.)

I think that I’m going to have to have some time to break it all back down, and I KNOW that there will be bits and pieces of this weekend that will wash over me time and time again as I write. As I parent. As I live.

And for that, I am grateful.

I was provided two (2) tickets to the Indianapolis Women of Faith event courtesy of Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for two blog posts regarding the event. All opinions and images in this post are my own.

laying a little groundwork

So. Many. Thoughts.

I have so many things jumbling around in my head, and I don’t know where to start! So, I’m just going to start, and hope you are able to follow.

I read a ton of blogs where those brave mothers home school their children. I am not one of those moms. While I likely have the ability to do home schooling, I recognize that I do not have the patience, and as a working mother, I also do not have the time.

I also read many blogs where children are sent to private schools.

I don’t do that, either.

I am the parent of three children who attend our public schools. I am the product of those same public schools. When I was in my early teens, my mother became an employee off, and teacher in, the same said public school system.

And I like our system.

(DON’T LEAVE YET! I know, I know – these are strange statements I am making, but ride this out with me for a little bit!)

I have a choice as a parent, you see. I could do one of those things listed above – home school, private school. I really could. It would require other sacrifices in our family, our lives would be different than they are today, but had we decided to go one of those routes, the opportunities were there for that.

That’s part of what parenting is, you see. A series of decisions that you make with the hope that they are the ones that will best serve your child(ren) over the long haul. And in our home, for our kids, one of those decisions was to embrace, not just attend, but EMBRACE, the public school process.

Over the last 5 years, I’ve gone from one kindergartener and volunteering in the library once a week to three kids in the same building, sitting on the PTO board, maintaining our school’s website, campaigning for a referendum, and being part of a culture that WANTS our kids to succeed. I’ve met people from different buildings, collaborated with other parents across our system, and communicated with our administration. Why? Because we all want the same thing – success for our kids. We have a common goal. We are not enemies.

There are some great things that are coming, and that have been building, in our school system. I’ve been lucky enough to get to see a bit of the inner workings of that process, and I am going to be sharing my thoughts on some of that here. Not right now. (Right now, I need to go to the office before my clients and coworkers kill me!) But soon, and going forward.

What a Whirlwind!

I know, I haven’t blogged in weeks, and it’s made 100 times worse because I’ve done a zillion things in that window of time!

My last post was about the cookies I made for Mario Marathon – we really did end up doing a personal delivery, and I got to be the coolest mom on the planet, at least for a minute! They MM guys were awesome, totally letting the kids hang out, involving them with different things in the event and just being fun. There’s footage of our visit on the Mario Marathon UStream page, but we actually stuck around for like 2 hours, and to post that here would probably run every one of you off, and we don’t want that. So, if you want to see it (and I will say, at one point in there they all do the Mario dance, including the kids, and it’s hilarious) you can check it out here. (We arrive at the 48 minute mark – we’re background noise at first, but it’s all downhill from there! Physical appearance begins at about 56:30 in.) To fill in a bit, though, here are some snapshots from Velvet Lotus Photography of our visit!  

Since then, we’ve logged over 3,000 miles on our van, over 56 hours of highway driving time. We’ve visited family and friends, played in the ocean, visited Hogwarts, attended IRS sessions and generally had a good time. There’s a lot to go with all of that, but I’ll leave you with this as a teaser for now, and be back to give you details!

It’s great to be back!

Please, help FindLauren

It reads like the start of a good mystery novel.

The beautiful young girl smiling on her way out of her apartment, off to meet her friends for an evening out on the town. A group meets up, hangs out for a bit, then decide to move on to a friend’s apartment. She wants to run past her place first, so a friend walks back with her – it’s getting late, after all.

Something happens there in her building, and they decide to just head on to the friends. There, she visits for a while, then it’s time to return home. It’s after 4am, she’s tired. She says goodbye to her friends and heads out, walks down the street, and vanishes.

The college community she lives in searches, her parents fly in to help hunt, surveillance videos are scrutinized, but she’s just gone. Gone.

Only, it’s not a novel. It’s not fiction. It’s real life, and it’s my little college town. The press conferences are held by people I’ve met. The streets are ones I’ve walked late at night, and early in the mornings.

I’ve shared bits and pieces of her story in these other posts, including sharing code for the button in my sidebar and the banner at the top of my page.  Here’s a more detailed timeline of what we know, and don’t know, about the disappearance of Lauren Spierer:

Friday, June 3rd at approximately 4:30am, Lauren Spierer was last seen turning a corner walking back to her apartment. She is reported missing later that day.

Saturday, June 4th, information is released publicly as police use K9 units to search the city. By Sunday, her parents are meeting with the police to determine what steps to take next. Posters go up all over the city.

Over the days that follow, the police embrace the press, holding daily press conferences, keeping Lauren’s name and image in the forefront of our minds. Search warrants are served, computers are seized, videos are obtained. Police can confirm that Lauren was at her apartment building prior to going to the friend’s apartment, but that she did not enter her own unit.  They can also confirm, based on video information, that she walked with another individual from her building towards the friend’s apartment building.

We’ve posted information about a white truck, thought to have circled the block around the time Lauren vanished. That truck has since been identified and dismissed as having any involvement.

Locally, we share each little tidbit of information, hoping, praying, that one of them with be the Something Small That Could Be Big. Praying that today will be the day that they do, in fact, #FindLauren.

I’ve watched press conferences and wept at the pain in her parent’s voices. They just want their little girl home. I’ve listened as they have pleaded with the person or persons who know what happened to their daughter, I’ve watched them struggle to speak of a Father’s Day without her there. As a mother, I cannot begin to wrap my mind around the anguish they are facing. To just not know.

Now, my friends, I’m asking you to help me. To help the Spierer family. To help Lauren.

If you blog, or tweet, or Facebook, please take a look at this list of easy ways you can help share Lauren’s name and face. Just sharing her information one time could bring the break the police need to bring Lauren home.

If you are local, or even regional, and  want to help in the search effort, there is information available here. It is my goal to find a day this week to leave the kids with my mom so that I can head out and search personally. If you cannot come here to Bloomington, consider donating to the search effort directly – funds are used to cover the costs of the flyers, billboards, etc that have gone up throughout the area.

If you have ANY information that might be helpful, please contact Bloomington Police at 812-339-4477 or call 800-CRIME-TV. Tips can be left anonymously. Further, there is a $100,000 reward being offered by Lauren’s parents. The statement “Anything Small Could Be Big” is to reiterate that no matter how insignificant it may seem to us, it could be the piece of the puzzle that makes the image clear.

To get continuous updates on the search effort for Lauren Spierer, follow @NewsOnLaurenS on twitter. Additional information can be found at www.FindLauren.com

Please, help us bring Lauren home, and uncover the truth of what happened that June morning.

 

Her daddy and her mom would be grateful.

So would our entire community. 

 

 

More for Lauren

It’s been nearly two weeks since Lauren Spierer simply vanished, walking home from a friend’s apartment.

The police have laid out timelines, images have been shared, posters and flyers hang all over our community, but still, we have not found Lauren.

A truck was captured on area security cameras, and is “of interest” as it circled the block around the same time Lauren was in the area.

 

The truck is described as a mid-2000’s Chevy, either a Silverado or Colorado. It is white in color, and may have “distinctive” wheels. It is a 4-door with some sort of lettering or logo on the sides (difficult to see because the image is while the vehicle is in motion.)

This is an image of Lauren on her way out for the evening the night she vanished:

(That is her dad holding up that image. The strength her parents have shown through this grueling two weeks has been nothing less than amazing, and proves to me that you can handle more than you ever think you can.)

Today, in the daily press conference, Lauren’s mother spoke. She held up that same image of Lauren and said “That could be you.” That thought has crossed my mind more times than I care to think about. 10 or 15 years ago, that could have been me. 10 or 15 years from now, that could be my daughter. Today, it’s Lauren Spierer, and it’s 15 minutes from my house, 10 from my job. It’s just blocks from many of my favorite restaurants. It’s around the corner and up the street from the library where I take my kids. It could be me, or my best friend, or my sister in law, but today, it’s Lauren. So as a community, we’re just going to keep working to find her.

Finally, I have added a simple banner at the top of my blog, along with the button in my right sidebar. Please feel free to grab either or both to include on your own pages. If you need help installing them, or need assistance in resizing, etc, please feel free to email me and I will be happy to help.

Code for Banner:

<center><a href="http://www.findlauren.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g123/taxmegan/Lauren_Banner.png" border="0" /></a></center>

Code for Sidebar Button:

<center><a href="http://www.findlauren.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g123/taxmegan/lauren.png" border="0" /></a></center>

Believing that we will #FindLauren.

Find Lauren Blog Button

Lauren Spierer is still missing.

Someone knows SOMETHING, and I have confidence that the truth will come, hopefully very soon.

In the meantime, please consider sharing this information.

I’ve created a simple blog button, please consider placing it in your sidebar. Just copy the information in the text box below, and include it on your page. (It’s a 160 width.)

 

<center><a href="http://www.findlauren.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g123/taxmegan/lauren.png" border="0" /></a></center>

Her family, friends, and our entire community would appreciate it.

 

5QF for June 3rd

Yay! Since I’m at home, waiting on the air conditioner repair man, I’m going to play along with Mama M’s Five Question Friday! I haven’t played in a bit, but hope to get back into the swing of things! After all, being a better blogger is #5 on my Summer Bucket List!

1. If you had to choose, how would you prefer to choose to spend money...on landscaping or a pool?

Pool. Although, we have one of those inflate the top ring above ground jobs, and it’s been really great, so landscaping would be ok, but I’m not really very good at keeping up with things like weeding. OH! Would hardscaping count? That’s where you do the decks and patios and walkways and firepits and stuff – I TOTALLY want to do that!

2. (Scott likes to get things stirred up...) Death penalty, yay or nay?

I think that the death penalty can be appropriate. There are offenses that people commit that are so heinous, I cannot imagine the thought of our tax dollars being used for 50, 60, 70 years to provide food, shelter, and medical care. Tim McVeigh, for example – he’s the guy that orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing. You blew up a freaking DAY CARE, amongst other things. So, yeah. I’m not opposed to the death penalty.

3. What's the worst thing your kid has gotten into when you turned your back/blogged/showered/blinked?

Can I tell a “my husband wasn’t looking” story? Is that ok? ‘Cause I was at work, but this one is for sure the best one we’ve got.

The kids were little.. In fact it was about a week before Jeep’s 5th birthday, so they were 2,3 & 4. The boys had come to report to daddy that Melissa was playing in nail polish while he was trying to cook dinner. He went to find that she’d gotten some on the carpet, so he set to work on getting that cleaned up. While he did that, the boys went into my bedroom to watch TV on my bed, only it evolved into some form of football game. The story, to this day, is that Jeep said “hut!” and Eli kicked him. Off the bed. And it broke his arm.

I got a seriously frantic phone call at that point that literally was just “You need to come home. RIGHT. NOW.” I went home, he took Jeep for X-Rays and a nice blue cast. I don’t recall if dinner ever really occurred or not!

4. How often do you REALLY go to the dentist?

I used to be really, really good about it. Every 6 months, like clockwork. Now, not so much. Part of that comes from having no insurance, and part from having great teeth – I’ve never had a cavity filled (the one cavity I ever had was just starting in a baby tooth – we found it when the tooth fell out.) So, it’s not a good thing or anything, but I guess I only go if I feel like I need to.

5. What is your favorite animal (doesn't have to be a pet-type animal)?

Ohmigosh, this one is the hardest, because I really like most animals. I would seriously run one of those rescue centers. Not snakes, though. Can’t do snakes.

Ok, in our area, like 45 minutes from here I guess, we have a really cool Feline Rescue Center with lots of big cats. And they were awesome. And amazing. And I loved them.

And horses. I love those, too.

And dolphins, whales, sharks….

Plus my pet-type animals.

Yeah, nope. Can’t pick a favorite. Sorry.

 

Well… Still no word from the A/C guy. (He’s not real excited to be coming to my house anyway, but that’s a post for another day!) Hopefully he shows up soon, I’m missing field day at school for this! If you decide to play along with 5QF, be sure to pop over to Mama M’s and link up!

My Own Summer Bucket List

Julia from Work, Wife, Mom… Life! posted yesterday a “Summer Bucket List” that got me thinking. (She’s good at that.)

I have LOTS of things I’d love for us to do over the summer. While I work outside the home, I have this great, flexible job that lets me have a lot of time with my kids, too. These are a few of the things I want to make be our summer bucket list priority items:

1. Go camping: We have a great tent & lots of gear, but we rarely use it. I love to camp, but it just seems really overwhelming at times. No more excuses. I want to throw our stuff and the kids in the van and get all Nike about it – you know, just DO it!
2. Take my kids fishing: This will probably coincide with #1, which is as it should be, but I want to be sure it’s on the list as it’s own item. This weekend is Fish For Free weekend in Indiana, and we may even try to sneak in a quick worm drowning then, but I really want us to get this in there somewhere.
3. Visit my grandparents: I’m 32 years old, and three of my four grandparents are living. This is its own blessing, and I want to embrace it while I can. This is going to mean some road tripping, never a favorite, but oh so important!
4. PURGE!: My house is full of things we don’t use, don’t need, don’t want. It’s gotta go. The sooner the better. I’ve started on this project, but it’s going to take a while. I’m trying to be realistic. :-)
5. Be a Better Blogger: I want to write more consistently, and maybe (but only maybe) with some specific topics in mind. I say maybe because I’m kind of a random person, and I don’t want to feel like I’m confining myself to something specific. On the flip side, having specific topics might help with focus, which is good. We’ll see how it goes!

Ok, those are five things, all of which are very doable, that I want to do with my summer. Linking up with Working Mommy Wednesday!

Twitter = Friends = Giving = ROCKING!

I have learned over the last couple of years that Twitter is awesome. Much like blogging (but not as wordy!) you find some really amazing people out there that you can connect with.

I have my bloggy friends.

I have my tax friends.

I have my sports friends.

And I have my charitable friends.

I mentioned in this post a year or so ago that via twitter I found the Mario Marathon. I won’t rehash too many of the details, the links are all there, but I do want to hit a few highlights, and give you an official heads up: We are now just over 3 weeks away from the start of Mario Marathon 4.

Long story short – a bunch of guys, supported by their wives, bosses, friends and other family members, hang out and play video games – specifically Mario games – for days. Why? To raise money for charity.

Child’s Play Charity purchases games, books, movies, etc for children’s hospitals across the globe. Mario Marathon’s first three years have resulted in nearly $125,000 being raised for the organization, with the growth being nothing less than astronomical. Year One saw $11,767 raised, which was huge. Year Two more than doubled that amount, bringing in $29,082. Year Three resulting in a whopping $82,082 being donated by people all over the world to Child’s Play via Mario Marathon.

Year Four is gearing up to be the biggest and best year yet. As it rolls out, you will see me talking about it in my twitter feed. I’ll be facebooking about it. And it will show up here.

It would make my heart feel warm and fuzzy if, should you decide you’d like to make a contribution, you’d link up and do so through the little widget on the top right of this screen.

Five Question (Not on) Friday

Ok,

First of all, I don’t know who thought that taking a holiday that’s a holiday in one city that happens to house most of the federal government, placing that holiday just adjacent to a filing deadline, and then observing it in such a way as to make tax season take an extra three days was a good idea..

But they were wrong.

So, I’m still trying to recover, and I decided I wanted to play along with 5QF. Only, it was almost a week ago.

And I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway.

I haven’t in a while, so to review, Five Question Friday comes from Mama M. and is pretty straight forward – she shares five questions, we share our answers and link up over at her place! Then we all pop around to see what other’s had to say. It’s a great way to discover new blogs, new friends, and have fun!

Today’s Last week’s questions are were:

1. What is your favorite sign of spring?

2. What was your best birthday ever?

3. What is your favorite dessert?

4. What is the best excuse you've ever used to get out of a ticket?

5. Do you wake up before your alarm, with your alarm, or after hitting snooze several times?

 

1. My favorite sign of spring? Easy. The end of tax season. It’s not really allowed to be spring until we’re allowed to come out and play! I know we’re getting close, though, when my tulips and crocuses begin to emerge.

2. Best birthday ever… My 22nd. We had found out just about a month prior that we were expecting, and I had my 1st prenatal appointment. We learned we were having a boy! (Yes. At the first appointment. I talk a little about that adventure here..) We also closed on our first home that day. Just a very positive, life-changing, holy cow I’m a grown-up sort of day.

3. My favorite dessert? I have to pick ONE? Maaaan. I have some serious sweet tooth issues, that’s hard. I love cherry cheesecake. And chocolate, but cherry cheesecake wins. At least today! Or cherry pie… Or, oh heaven help me, turtle cheesecake.

4. Honestly, I don’t guess I’ve ever done that. I have only ever gotten one ticket, and I’ve gotten a few warnings. I certainly thought I was going straight to jail one time, though, and got only a warning, and truth? I have NO idea why I didn’t get a ticket. I was 17 and a punk. My hair was green, my nose was pierced, and I was in Tennessee, driving my step-sister’s car WAY to fast. (Had recently split with a boy, and Alanis Morrissette’s “You Oughta Know” was on. I was on a roll.) So, I get nailed for speeding, and I’m digging for the registration and I can’t find it. I have at least 3 cans of Rave hairspray, a ton of photos, and a Sam’s Club case of tampons falling out of the glove box, but girl didn’t bother to put a registration in there anywhere. Yup. Convinced I was going to jail. Oh yeah – don’t forget my out of state driver’s license. Which, thankfully, had the same last name as that which the car was registered to when he ran the plates. And he just let me off with a VERBAL warning. I may never understand it.

5. I have a real hate-hate relationship with my alarm clock. As in I hate it, and it hates me back. It makes weird noises when I use my phone near it. It randomly decides to not go off on the worst possible mornings. And so, I beat it. Mercilessly. I am the master of the snooze button. I dislike mornings rather intensely, so waking up is about a 45 minute procedure for me.

Ok! That’s it. Stopping there so I can go try to catch up some more on blogs that I’ve been missing these last 4 months!