Pay it Forward

I decided to play a Pay it Forward with my friend Michelle. Her blog is here. Michelle sent me to a very talented lady, Diana Hansen, who made my new fun signature. Her blog is here. So here's the scoop:

The premise is the very simple act of just doing someone a favor without expecting anything in return, and if you would just "pay it forward" by returning the act of kindness and generosity, then it might be possible for a global outpouring of decency toward all mankind.

A blogger (A Mother Singing) decided to start her own "pay it forward" project. Now it is my turn to pay it forward. How does it work?

Here are the rules: I will send a gift (of my choosing) to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this "PIF" exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blog. The only thing you have to do in return is PAY IT FORWARD - on your own blog.

So, if you want to get a goodies from me, and are willing to do the same via your blog, let me know! (Note that you'll need to give me your real (snail mail) address... which you can do by private email.) Just leave a comment and I will get with you.

So, who's up for it? This world does need a little kindness, don't ya think?

**I encourage EVERYONE who reads this to Pay It Forward to someone they encounter today or tomorrow. You might give up your seat on a bus, let a car in line in front of you, or just compliment someone. You never know what your simple act might do!**

What's your Real Age?

33.6

So my birthday is coming up soon, sooner than I would like. (This is not a shameless hint for birthday gifts, really). I am really feeling this one. When I was young and knew everything, about a million years ago, I never dreamed that I would be this age with a baby. I thought I would have 4 or 5 babies by now and they would be ages 8 and up. It's amazing how things change along the path of life.

This post isn't a walk down memory lane. I was surfing around online today and found a site called Real Age. So I wondered what my Real Age really was. After answering some personal questions, I got an answer I didn't expect. I was so excited and it kind of lifted the dark birthday cloud looming over my head. Mine is 33.6. Anything younger than your calendar age is good. What's yours?

A night in the Life of...

I am not sure why exactly I am posting this. Maybe I think you all are way more interested in my life than you are, maybe I am hoping against hope that your night lives are or were similar at one time and there is hope for one day getting a good nights sleep. Maybe I just need to know I am normal.

Here goes...
8:00 pm is bedtime. We got home at 8:15 pm. Change baby, get her to bed, she falls asleep almost right away.
9:00- Still trying to talk Bug into getting into bed. Prayers and tuck in time around 9:20.
9:20-10:00- Dishes and clean up. Look at the pile of unfolded laundry and sigh. Promise myself it will go away in the morning. Beg the cat to come back in, lock up the house and go to bed myself.
11:45- wake up to the cat hissing and screeching at the window. I have this odd phobia of looking out of the window at night for fear I will actually see someone in my yard. Cat's having a hissy fit, for real, so I get brave and peek through the blinds. There's a raccoon in the yard. Probably scavaging my ripe tomatoes. Couldn't they go for the zucchini???
12:15 am- calm back down enough to fall back asleep.
4:20 am- Meg wakes up for the first time. Not bad, she's been asleep since around 8:30. She's mad I won't nurse her anymore and lets me know how upset she is. I rock her and walk her and put her back to bed.
5:40- Meg's up again. Still mad for not getting her comfort nurse. More rocking and explaining that it's still night night time and she needs to go back to sleep.
6:45 am- She's up again. This time I bring her in bed with me, which still doesn't make her happy. She fusses and squirms for 15 minutes and decides she's hungry and wants a banana. She's up for the day. Adam slept through the night and gets up on his own at about 7:40.

I did get a good 4 hour block of sleep. That's good enough, right? Tell me, please, your nights go like this too and there is hope, someday, for a full nights sleep.

10 Things You Should Know About Bug

Bug had an assignment the other day to write a list of 10 things you should know about him for his teacher. Below is his list.

1. That I am elergic to milk.
2. That I like to help.
3. That I have a baby sister.
4. That I play poiano.
5. That I like Monopoly.
6. That I like Amarcin food.
7. That my dad is in the Navy.
8. I like watermelin.
9. I don't finish my homewerk.
10. I like orgnizing.

WHAMO

I guess I am a day late for a wordless Wed. I got WHAMOed today though and thought I would share my lovely pictures with you all. Some really nice young guy was in a really really big hurry and ran through a stop sign at about 20 mph over the speed limit. I didn't have a stop sign, and saw him flying through. I tried to stop in time, I really did. Didn't quite happen though. I caught his rear fender and spun half way around before I got stopped. Lucky for him he a.) had insurance and b.) sustained very little in the way of damage. I had Meg in the car with me, she's fine. I am a little stiff and sore now, but I was fine for a few hours afterwards. I am not quite sure the car is driveable, although I drove it home. The headlight is out, and there's quite a wobble in the tires now. Probably not a good sign. Too bad it wasn't all superficial.

So, I am shopping for a new carseat. Any recommendations?

Cut and Color

I had a great hair cut today. I love my friend and stylist. She's good and finding what works for you. I colored it myself this morning, just to get rid of the gray and for a little lift. So, just in time for another looming birthday... Here's the new look. What do you think?

CTR

This is a long story, as most of my stories are. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, I understand.

This weekend was Labor Day weekend and after church on Sunday we went to Snohomish to visit Grandma Cozette and Aunt Linda and family. We had a great time, but I knew timing would be horrible coming back on the ferry, so we decided to drive around to come back home and stop at Ikea on our way.

Ikea is quite a drive for us, so we don't go very often and when we do we usually eat there too (they have a restaurant). So we shopped for a while, trying to get some fun things for upcoming birthdays and Christmas gifts as well as the last of the back to school stuff. We parked our cart and went to get dinner. Meg was in a bad mood and wanted to feed herself, and made it very clear we were to leave her alone while she ate. Her dinner of choice was, of course, Mac and Cheese. The slimiest thing possible. By the time she was done, she was covered, the floor was covered and the table was covered. Messy, but self confident. Adam and I had dinner too, then shared a wonderful piece of chocolate chocolate cake. Yummy.

We finally make it to the check out desk, and I have to use the self check out counter. One of the things I bought that I thought was $3.99 was $7.99 and I had to have it taken off. So all of this stuff was going back in the cart when I was done scanning. By this time, Meg's mood has not improved and she is in full melt down mode. Holding her isn't working, not holding her isn't working. I actually overheard some guy in the next lane over make some snarky comment about "Some people's kids..." I held my tongue. Our bill comes to about $90.00 and we high tail it out of there.

I schlep my kids across two parking lots, with one screaming and one not paying attention to where he's going and walking into people and finally find my car. She's still screaming, he's tired and his knee hurts. We start unloading stuff into the trunk of the car when we pick up the sling that she wouldn't sit in and find a small glass lamp that hadn't been paid for hiding underneath. {SIGH}

Suddenly he's very concerned about this. He wants to know what we are going to do. We can't take it home, that's not right. He's thinking of solutions, she's still screaming and I am thinking that showing my son the right thing to do is better than explaining it, no matter how hard it can be.

We grab the lamp, the crying baby and the now alert boy and I walk back across two parking lots and back into the store. We again stand in line, wait for the cashier to be available to help us and explain what happened. She says "It's not worth very much. I can't believe you came back." To which my brilliant son responds "We decided to Choose the Right. We believe in being honest."

I hope that he is always able to Choose the Right, even when it is hard. I hope he is able to set a good example for others. I hope he is able to show his integrity always. I hope he can be a good missionary through being a good example. Most of all, I hope he always remember how he felt on the way back to the car when he smiled the whole way back and said "Mom, I like choosing the right."