Fun Monday - RAK

MommyWizdom is our host this week, and she's helping us to remember that it's the season of giving.
The Assignment for this week was:

1) Your job this week is to go out and perform a random act of kindness. Now, before you freak out, please read on. This is actually really easy!! This act may be for someone you know or for a perfect stranger. It can be big or small, it'll all up to you. Obviously, it should be something within your means. For instance, don't go out and buy your next door neighbor a car and then complain to me that you can't make your mortgage payment, ok?
Your choices were to:
2) Blog about what you did and why. How did it impact the person(s) you did it for? And better yet, how did it impact you!? How did you feel after you did it? Would you do it again?
Or
3) If you've had a random act of kindness bestowed upon you (recently), we'd love to hear about it. How did it impact you? How did it make you feel?

I try to live my life remembering to find the blessings in each day.  Early in our marriage, DDS and I were poor.  I don't even think poor is a strong enough word for it.  Yet, somehow, we always managed, and I believe that God led people to do those Random Acts of Kindness when we needed them most.  Remembering those times, I'm always quick to try and use my resources when I know someone needs a hand.

I have a RAK in the works, but can't blog about it yet.

Every year, my section adopts a group of seniors at a local nursing home that don't have any family to provide Christmas for them.  We collect money and donations, and try to get them everything they ask for and more.  This year, in order to make sure we could really do some good for them, we organized a bake sale and silent auction.  When I say we, I mean one of my employees and myself.  It's a lot of work, but we raised over $300 in a few hours.  Our seniors want things like underwear, socks, brushes and such.  It makes me sad to see their list, as there is very little "frivilous" stuff...mostly because they don't need or have room for most things we all want.  They may ask for a small radio, or headset, or maybe a vcr, but never anything really big.  So we make sure we get everything on their list, maybe even extra sweats or something.  In addition, we try to buy some toiletries that are a little nicer than what they get just living in the nursing home.

We go and deliver the packages a few days before Christmas.  I cry the whole time.  Not sobs, just tears.  These people are so appreciative, not just for the stuff, but also for the company and attention.  Many of them decide to wait until Christmas day to open their gifts, but there's usully at least one person willing to open their items with us there.  I love to watch their excitement and joy over these simple items. We've talked in the past about trying to do something for them around Easter or something, but haven't ever pulled it off.  I'll have to post a reminder on my calendar.

I swear it's coming

I've started the Christmas tree story, but I've been too tired, too bah, to upload the photos and finish it. And now, I'm beat. I've been hanging with my mom and working on Christmas presents, and tomorrow is Monster's birthday party, so I'm off to bed. Night all.

Fun Monday - Christmas is coming!

I'm hosting this week, and I asked everyone to share their top three Christmas songs, and their favorite Christmas item. Since I dreamed up the topic, I should know what my answers would be huh? But I've really had to think on this topic.

I love Christmas songs, pretty much all of them. Narrowing down my favorites is hard. But...here goes:

3. Silent Night - We always sing this at church as the candles we each hold are lit, on from the other. It's so beautiful, and it never fails to make me cry. I have a feeling it will be worse this year.
2. Mary Did You Know - I've heard several versions, but I love them all.
1. Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant - This is just a great song.

You can see that I really relate to Mary's part of this story. I always wonder about her experience. As a mother, I could totally "get" the meaning of the song, but as a mother to a litte boy it was even more powerful. I know that he was God's son, and that God gave his son to save us. But Jesus was Mary's child. She carried him, and gave birth to him. She loved him and nurtured him. Can you imagine the anguish she must have felt when he was killed? Even believing fully that he was the son of God, and that he would rise, I still imagine there was immense pain. To me, Christmas is as much about all she went through to carry,give birth to, and then raise and love Jesus, as it is a celebration of his birth.

And I chose this video of Silent Night as the group singing it is from my hometown. I'll try not to hold it agains them that they went to college at my schools rival. They are all very talented men.

My favorite Christmas item is our Christmas tree. We aren't putting ours up this year until just before Christmas, and of course I can't find the picture of last years without searchin a bunch (hello New Year's Resolutions), but it is my favorite. I love so much about the holidays, but the beautiful tree, filled with lights and all of my family's memories is my favorite.

Fun Monday - I'm HOSTING!

So I'm crazy and I volunteered to host Fun Monday next week, December 8th. And hopefully I'll figure out Mr. Linky below. ETA: Who wants to host next week? ETA again to say that mommywizdom has volunteered to be our hostess for next week. Thanks!

So here's your topic...

It's the Christmas season, and I want you to tell us what are your three favorite Christmas Carols and a picture of your favorite Christmas "thing". It could be a Christmas tree, or your mantle, or a church, you in a Santa hat.

Thanks y'all. Can someone tell me how to make this a sticky post?

Fun Monday, Crazy Neighbors

Ari is our hostess this week. And what a timely topic for me.

Here goes: Tell us about your all-time worst Neighbors from Hell. You know, the family of Irish clog dancers who once lived in the flat/apartment above you? Mrs. Nextdoor and her banshee-like multiple orgasms? Mr. and Mrs. Hard-of-Hearing with their television on full blast? The guys across the street who set off 4th of July fireworks starting in March and didn't stop until the first real snowfall?

When we first moved on base many years ago, we lived next to the Green Bay Packer Fans. They had a logo in rocks in the front yard. The flag flew out front (with the bright light that shined into our room. At least, until my husband loosened the bulb a couple of days in a row.) But the back yard...they had put up an awning, created bleachers, and they would sit out there and watch the games. Every time the Packers scored, they blew an air horn. This was their ritual, no matter what the hour or weather. I was 8 months pregnant when they played a Monday night game. My hubby warned them that if the air horn went off after 9:30 and woke myself or the girls, the police would be called. I was a mean, cranky pregnant woman. He retired and they returned to Wisconsin that spring.

Next was the family that had a bunch of kids...and not a lot of supervision. There were a few others there as well.

We had new neighbors move in last fall. We were excited, as they seemed okay and had kids that were PB's age. They recently moved because they had flies, ants, and maggots. Somehow, I managed not to point out that the maggots were there because of their cleaning habits. Unfortunately, it now sits empty, and I picture the maggots crawling all over the inside of the house. I'm hoping someone does something with it soon, as I believe they were renting, and we haven't seen anyone enter the house in over a month. We live in a relatively nice area...I hope it doesn't end up in foreclosure forever.

Make sure you visit all the other Fun Monday Participants.

Fun Monday, High on Life

Mariposa has stepped up again to host our Fun Monday this week!

High moments...in our lives! If you could share to us 3-5 high moments in
your lives...this could be funny moments...the you can't believe you did it
moments...the "I told you so" moments...or the times we asked the ground to go
open and eat us moments! You need not write a book to explain them, the
highlights will do.

Wow, this is kind of tough.

My wedding had a lot of those funny moments. Both DDS and I caught some sort of stomach bug the night before, and in two different locations we both started praying to the porcelain god at 4 am. Our wedding took place at 4 pm. We were feeling better by then, but weak. I made arrangements for someone to have some candy to give me in case I felt faint. Less than 5 minutes into the ceremony, I felt faint. No one would hand me the candy. They brought me a folding chair, a program, a wet cloth. My husband and best man brought the unity candle to me. It was like a comedy...all I could do was laugh. We even had to sit on a piano bench for our receiving line. Everyone thought we were just nervous, but really, we were sick.

That's all I have at the moment. I'll come back to edit if I think of more.

Fun Monday - Talismans

Margaret from M is for Misanthrope is our hostess this week, and our assignment is:

Do you have a piece of jewelry or other item that holds great personal significance for you, and that you wear or keep with you every day? Show us a photo of your talisman, and tell us why it is so important to you.

I have a note that my husband wrote to me several years ago on a small hotel pad that I carry with my in my purse.  Everytime I touch/see it, it reminds me that he loves me.  I also have two cards that he gave me with flowers that help me remember where we've been and how we've come through.  The first card says "things will be better, Our cars may be broke, our house may be broke and we may be broke, but our love will never break."  That card was accurate...it was all broken.  Several years later, he sent me flowers again, and this card says "Once I told you that we might have been broke, not anymore, Our house was broke, not anymore, our cars were broke, not anymore, Last but not least, I love you, not any less but more and more every day."  Next to that is a series of pictures of us when we were engaged.  We were young, and broke, but we definitely had love.  And still do.

I miss you honey.

Fun Monday - Veteran's Edition

Jan is our hostess this week, and her assignment takes into account Veteran's Day tomorrow.

Since Next Tuesday is Veterans Day, I thought it would be nice to salute our Veterans and show our appreciation. Photo requirement of something patriotic.

I am truly grateful for our all of our Veterans, but the citizen soldiers of the National Guard rank a little higher in my heart. I personally see the dedication that these soldiers bring to the Guard. They put in long hours when most people are off having fun. They sacrifice their jobs, their families, their hobbies to serve. They are frequently given old equipment and supplies, since they only use them once a month. Training for real world situations wasn't always available before deployments became the norm. They are looked down upon by many of their counterparts in the full time Army. To me though, they are the true heros.

Fun Monday

Our assignment this week comes from Bee Dancing

I'm relatively new to blogging, & I'm sure this has come up before, but I'd really like to know WHY you blog. Tell me how you got started or why you got started and why you keep it up. Plus there's a photo requirement: Post a picture of the one person/place/thing that most symbolizes the town or area where you live.

I think I have posted this before, but basically, I was reading someone else's blog. I had to register to comment, and so I figured I'd give it a shot. Now I'm addicted. I'm working on updating this blog, and making it more interesting :)



This is our Legislative Mall. This picture was taken during my husbands deployment ceremony, so you can see secret service and various other security people hanging out. It isn't like tht any other day.

Fun Monday

I need to get back into the Fun Monday group. I miss those posts, miss reading other people's view of a topic. And I need some blog fodder. Everything I want to post about takes time, and lately that has been in very short supply.

Can you believe Christmas is TWO months from Saturday? Where does the time go?

I'm not going to write you...

A love song, just a bit of a love story.

Woodland Mama is our host today. She says:

I am hosting this week, and the assignment was to write the 1st paragraph of an unusual love story. I admit it was hard, but I am look forward to seeing the results.

He had been watching her from afar. They had come so close to being together, but never quite managed to get there. His pining and yearning was causing him such heartbreak, his hard drive was starting to malfunction. Every day his user brought him to this cafe, and every day her user brought her to this cafe. And yet, they were never any closer than a couple of tables away. What he wouldn't give to chat with her, syntax with her.

Anyone want to write more?

Make sure to visit all the Fun Monday participants!

A Piece of Suessless Information for this Fun Monday

The ladies at Mama Drama have stepped up and offered to hostess this weeks Fun Monday. This is BIG! And I love the topic this week as well.

Remember way back in elementary school when you had to do a report on James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States and you told the class all about how he was shot after only four months in office? You also remember that he recovered after a week, but doctor's continued to probe at the healed wound causing complications and resulting in his death almost three months later? Okay, we all knew that about Garfield, but you also remember that James Garfield could write with both hands at one time and in different languages.!!! Why do you remember that? Maybe for you it wasn't James Garfield, but somewhere in your past education, you picked-up some little bit of useless information that you've never forgotten.
What funny trivial fact do you remember that you probably should have forgotten a long time ago?

In our family, we call this Suessless information, and my fact for you today is...the colors red and yellow increase your appetite, which is why the majority of fast food restaurant signs are those colors.

Be sure to visit all the Fun Monday participants!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Lisa's Chaos is our hostess for Fun Monday this week, and she's told us to ask you a question.  Specifically:

What is one thing you would like to ask your readers? Come up with a question to pose to your visitors and throw it out there on Monday. As we’re all visiting each other’s Fun Monday posts we should answer the various questions we come across.
OR
Show&Tell me about a bird, I’m easily made happy.

Wow, that sounds so (deceptively) simple. A question for you? What do I want my hundres, tons few readers to tell me?

What is your favorite memory about kindergarten (or your first year of school)? This is in honor of my baby boy, My Monster, starting Kindergarten this week.

I remember two things...my teacher had long red hair, and everyone wanted her as their teacher. And we had these blow up letters to teach us the alphabet, and they were characters. I still remember that B was Mr. Buttons.

Make sure you visit (and answer) all the Fun Monday participants!

Isn't it lovely

The Lurchers is our hostess for this weeks Fun Monday. Her task for us is:

Show me your favourite photograph and tell me why it's your favourite.It can be one you've taken yourself or one someone else has taken, a snapshot or a more professional image. Is there a story behind it? Do you love it for the memories it gives or just because it's pleasing to the eye? Show me and tell me!

This is a difficult task for me, because the majority of my favorite pictures are of my family. And seeing how I have a no faces clause on my blog at this time, it narrows down my possibilities greatly.

This is a picture from vacation this year. It's PB and Monster exploring on the beach. I love the colors, and how small they appear. Mostly, I love how they interact together. This will have to be my favorite for this task.

Be sure to visit all the Fun Monday Participants.

If I were the queen...

I wrote this post last night and set it to post this morning. Imagine my surprise when I got home tonight and found it wasn't there...at all. ARGHHHHH!

Mommy Wizdom is our hostess this week for Fun Monday.
The assignment: If you were ruler of the world for a day/week/month/year (your choice on the time), you would...ex...make coffee free to all citizens. Or you'd abolish the penny. You may also specify if you're ruler of the world or just your country. Have fun with it; be creative. If you like to dress up, you may also choose to take pictures of yourself in your "ruler" outfit(s) and post them up with your entry.

If I were the ruler, I would make Blogger not lose my posts (lost it not once, but twice in 24 hours.)

If I were the ruler, I would make sure that every person had the basic necessities of life.

If I were the ruler, I would mandate three day weekends.

I had some really good thoughts last night, but in my current frustration, I got nothing.

happy birthday to?

Dungareesablaze is our host this week, and our assignment is:

Let's hear about your favorite “Birthday”, it needn’t be your actual birthday just a "birthday" celebration. You can use one you planned, one you attended, one you crashed, just a fun time for this FUN MONDAY.

This is actually hard for me. We have given our kids some great birthdays over the last 11 years. Skating parties and bowling parties and on and on. Some of my favorites...PB had her last party at a local orchard. They painted pumpkins, went through 2 corn mazes, had a hay ride, and spent a ton of time in the grain boxes (think sand box with soybeans instead). We had pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing. Our spa night was fun, even though it wasn't a birthday party. I have great ideas for the future as well, but I can't share those yet.

I love every birthday personally. Another year I was able to enjoy. What's not to love?

Whale tales

UROlive is our hostess this week and she has a whale of a task for us.

Hey, we are starting a new month and will be celebrating our Day of Independence soon in the US so let’s make the next FM a fun time. I would like to hear about your *whopper* of a fishing story. Yes, you heard it correctly whether it is fictional or non fictional I want to hear a fishing story from you. An example would be if you catch a minnow and tell it that you caught a swordfish (exaggeration is the operative word here). Did you hear me say show your photo(s)? Of course you did – be creative.

Saturday was our last day at the beach. Here in Delaware, you can buy a surf fishing tag that allows you to drive your 4 wheel drive vehicle up on the beach and park right there at the water's edge. The only catch is that one person in the vehicle must be actively surf fishing the entire time. So my hubby dutifully throws out a few lines while we are there. It makes the draggin of stuff so much easier :) We've done this several times before, and I don't remember anyone ever really catching anything. I really was beginning to believe that surf fishing was sort of like snipe hunting. But Saturday, I was proven wrong. The kids (and hubby) were digging up sand crabs, and hubby decided to try one out as bait. A few minutes later, he caught a little dogfish. By the time we packed up, he had caught quite a few, although none were large enough. That didn't matter to the kids, though. They loved reeling in those huge fishing poles, and the thrill of the catch.

This isn't one of the ones we caught Saturday. Those are still safely on the camera. This one is from another day, and is a fish tale for a later post.

Queen for a...

Mommy Wizdom is our hostess this week.
Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Guten Tag! Yes, it's true, Irish Coffeehouse passed the torch to me, I am the next host of Fun Mondays! I have thought long and hard...The topic for Fun Monday for 7/28 is:
If you were ruler for a day/week/month/year (your choice on the time) you would...ex...make coffee free to all citizens. Or you'd abolish the penny. You may also specify if you're ruler of the world or just your country. Have fun with it; be creative.If you like to dress up, you may also choose to take pictures of yourself in your "ruler" outfit(s) and post them up with your entry.

Hmm, this could be a tough one...

If I was the ruler of the country for a week, I would abolish the ability to sue because you lack common sense. The United States has become way too litigious these days, and it's a major cause of the erosion of our values. And so many times, people are suing simply because they didn't think before they acted.

I would increase mandatory paid maternity leave for all families. Mothers should not have to leave their babies at such young ages just to keep their jobs and incomes intact.

I would ban a lot of stupid televisions shows.

I know there are a lot of other things that I would do, but I really can't think of them right now. Things that help make the basics available for people who don't have them. Basics like healthcare and healthy food.

What would you do? Visit the other Fun Monday participants and see what we're all up to!

Quirky Fun Monday

Lisa's Chaos is our hostess this week and she has an interesting topic for us.



A quirk is defined as a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism. We are all unique individuals, having quirks that help make us who we are. I would like to know what your quirks are. Confess to one, confess to ten, you decide. Just come back Monday ready to spill the beans, the rest of the world may look at you like you are from Mars, but you‘re among friends here. We won’t laugh, in fact that eccentricity just may endear you to us more.

Hmmm, Let's see.

One of my quirks is that I can't drink water unless it is extremely cold. Mostly ice in a cup, or bottled water straight from the fridge. Once it isn't so cold, I don't want it anymore.

And actually, that's pretty much any beverage. Even on the rare occassions I want coffee, it's usually a half cup of coffee, some cream and sugar, and then cold water. I'm also not fond of soup. Warm liquids make me hot...so unless I'm freezing, I don't want them.

Be sure to check out all the Fun Monday Quirkiness!

Fun Monday, Those things you can't throw away!

Hula Girl is our host this week...and if my internet will continue to cooperate, I'll try and post!

Welcome to this week's Fun Monday. It's my first time hosting, so if I screw this up please let me know so I can fix it. My assignment for you this week was to show us those pieces of clothing you just can't part with, whether you wear them or not. It might be your grandma's vintage wedding dress, a jacket from high school, a t-shirt from an old boyfriend or those jeans you hope to get back into some day. It could be anything. Most of us have something like that we can't seem to throw away. Here are my items and below that are the links for everyone participating in Fun Monday. If I've left someone out, give me a shout. Check out everyone's website and enjoy.......and thanks for participating! If anyone wants to host next week, please let me know.

My first item isn't actually clothing, it's an item. My mom bought me this really cute cat lamp when I was pre-teen ish aged, and I still have the ceramic cat head. The lamp died, and I thought I had gotten rid of the cat, but apparently not. Hehe.

I actually just cleaned out my closet before I saw the topic, but I'll share the few things I did get rid of, and the few I didn't.

I had several tour shirts for Garth's first tour...just got rid of those. Had a wonderful blackwatch plaid flannel shirt that I LOVED, but I finally got rid of that.

I do still have a black suit that I will fit into again some day. I'll probably end up getting rid of it after I fit into it again, but I want to wear it at least once again. My wedding dress still hangs in the basement. I don't know why. I don't expect PB to wear it and it's not doing much of anything but hanging in the way. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of wedding photos. Someday, I'll have to tell you all my wedding story.

Sorry, no pics tonight. Having too much trouble with the internet. Maybe tomorrow if it's better.

Happy Fun Monday!