Monthly Archives: November 2009

No NaBloPoMo for me

Last November and then again this past September I did a little thing called NaBloPoMo.  I posted every single day for the entire month.  It’s always a challenge to get a post written and up every single day, but it’s also fun to kind of push myself.  Some of my NaBloPoMo posts were pure crap, but I managed to get a few that I’m pretty proud to have written and that I’m gladshared.  Posts that I probably wouldn’t have written if I hadn’t been trying to come up with something, anything to write about.

Each month I get the info on what the next month’s NaBloPoMo topic will be.

From today’s email from Eden, the NaBloPoMo goddess:

For those of you looking to take another crack at daily blogging, the theme for December is MITZVAH and it comes with a challenge: to give something, to someone, every day of the month, and then blog about it. The goal is to act with kindness, obviously — I don’t want to be responsible for people giving each other black eyes. Your gifts can be as large as volunteering or donating to charity, or as small as a kind word to someone who needs it.

Doesn’t that sound like a great idea??  31 days of full of random acts of kindness.

I’m just not committed enough to blog it everyday.

But I still want to do it…kind of.

Every day for the month of December I am going to “give something” and I’ll be posting it on Facebook and Twitter, hopefully with a #31daysofgiving hashtag(if I remember and can get it to fit).

So I did a little Google search and lo-and-behold, Glamour magazine already had that idea last year and continued it again this year.  (They have some great ideas, but there are a lot of ideas they don’t have listed and there are a lot of things that you can come up with for free!)

I’m not posting this to garner praise or attention.  I’m posting this to try to get more people to do this.  Try it: give something each day for the entire month of December.  And if you fail mid-month?  Guess what?  You haven’t failed.  Because if you give just one thing, then it’s worth it.

I set up this little website so that we can all share ideas of things to give, where to give, what you’ve given, etc.  It ain’t purty, but I think it’s functional.

Each day I’ll put up a “What did you give today?” post and you can feel free to tell us what you gave or plan to give by clicking “Reply”.

I hope some of you will take this challenge with me.  Who’s in?

Bridget's Black Friday Giveaway

**This giveaway has ended.  However you can still find lots of these at the Tiny Tree Boutique on etsy.**

——-> The winner of this giveaway is PeapodSquadMom!  Congrats, Monica!!

———–>  Because there were so many entries for this giveaway, I have decided to give away one more!!  That lucky winner is: brandij07!

So have you spent all your money?  Did you get up before the sun and brave the crowds?  Buy a 50″ TV for $100 after waiting in line 6 hours?

Yeah…me neither.  I was hunkered down in bed with the kiddos.  I’m actually still in my pjs.  I’m not ashamed.

BUT for those of you who are all spent out, and still need a little somin’-somin’ for one of your girlfriends or a teacher or your mom(or maybe yourself!), I have the perfect solution: recycled Scrabble tile pendants.

When I found these on etsy, I fell in love.  Hard.  They’re unique.  They’re fun.  They’re affordable, but well made.   They’re perfect for so many people.  She even makes cuff links, pins and rings.

See how cute they are?

Christmas, Disney, Twilightfancy, fun.  She can even make custom ones like this:

So how can you win one Recycled Scrabble tile pendant from Tiny Tree Boutique?

Easy.

  • Simply post a comment here, telling me which pendant is your favorite.
  • Tweet about this giveaway and then comment here, leaving the link to your tweet.
  • Post about this giveaway on your facebook page and @ me, so that it will show up on my wall.
  • Show some bloggy love and link your blog readers to this post.  Don’t forget to leave a link in the comment section below.
  • Follow me in your favorite reader(like Google Reader) and leave a comment here saying that you did.(If you’re already following me, comment about how you’re already awesome.)

That’d be 5 chances to enter, if you were counting…

This giveaway starts right now(Friday, November 27th) and goes until 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, December 1st.

I will then use random.org to pick a winner.

**This giveaway is for a Recycled Scrabble tile pendant only.  Chains or cord necklaces may be purchased separately from Tiny Tree Boutique.
**Custom pendants are available for only $7.50 at Tiny Tree Boutique’s etsy shop, but are not eligible for this giveaway.
**I contacted this seller about doing a review and giveaway.  I did not receive money to do this review, but I did get a free pendant.  Of course I’d already purchased 12 pendants, so I loved this product before I got a free one!

Disney, here we come!

Bags are packed.
Car snacks are made.
Camera batteries charged.
Prayers have been said.

And none of us can go to sleep.

(I’m taking my computer, but I’m not expecting
to have a whole lot of time to blog.
But there will be pictures.  
Oh the pictures…on my flickr stream.)

Another Anissa Post

There are currently at least 368 other posts already written about Anissa. (Scroll down to the bottom to see the Mr. Linky.)  I haven’t written a post yet because honestly, I haven’t really been able to process it all.  I’ve been reading, obsessively checking for updates on her CaringBridge site, contacting friends in the Atlanta area and praying.

So many people have written so eloquently about Anissa.  So many people knew her better than I did.  But here’s my little post about Anissa, who is truly a wonderful person.

A few I found out that there was a blogger in my circle of friends who was moving to Georgia.  Curious, I added her to my twitter feed and I instantly fell in love with the oh-so-adorable-and-hilarious @AnissaMayhew.

Right before BlogHer in July, it looked like her childcare was going to fall through.  Being newish to town, she didn’t have a whole lot of options, and I tried to help her find someone to help with the kids.  We emailed and DMed about some possibilities but, I never expected her to remember me; there were a lot of people trying to help her figure out a plan.

But she did remember me.  I introduced myself to her at BlogHer, and I immediately got one of her signature smoosh-you-in-my-bosom hugs, and a “ohmygodthankyousomuch for helping me try to find help with the kids”.

And that’s the end of my Anissa story.  A chat here, a comment there.  Not much.  But enough.  Enough to know that her family has been through the ringer a few times: Anissa had her first stroke when she was 30.  Not long after that her baby girl was diagnosed with ALL. Peyton celebrated one year cancer-free just last week.  And now…well now the shit has hit the fan again.  And it sucks.

No, Anissa and I are not close friends.  But I miss her often-irreverent yet hilarious tweets.   I miss how she’s talk about bunnies just to flush something out of her Twitter stream…so that her mom wouldn’t see it.  I miss new pictures of her kids.

She needs help.  Go here to find out what you can do or click here to give a donation to the Mayhew family.
(I couldn’t get the button to work, so I just put a link to the HelpForAnissa PayPal account.)

If you’re one of my Atlanta friends and would like to help this family, please fill out this form.

Cinnawella's Cassle

Seven months ago we put down a deposit on a trip to Walt Disney World.
Asa was still wearing 3-6 month clothes and couldn’t even roll over.
Lydia was still wearing diapers, and said “Cinnawella”.
Carter still took naps and could barely write his name.

Today?  Well, things are very different around here.
Asa is wearing 12 month clothes, and can (army)crawl faster than I can run.
Lydia is potty trained(with an occasional accident), and says “Cinderella” with perfect diction(and lots of southern drawl).
Carter busts out full sentences (written on every spare piece of paper in the house), like the one today:  “God ♥s me”.   With the heart and the s and everything.

For 10 days now, we’ve been doing a countdown.
___days until we leave for Disney.
They are excited.
I am excited.
THREE MORE DAYS!!!

I was typing out our itinerary(yes, you read that right, and no, I will not accept snarky comments about this), and making sure I had all our dinner reservation confirmation numbers in order.  The show times listed, so we make sure we see what we most want to see.  The locations for the character greetings.  All noted.  I’m looking at a weather report now, trying to plan out our wardrobe.  (I know, I know…I’m a dork.  But this is part of the fun for me!)

As I was getting all this together today, guess what I saw taunting me from the small little corner of the page?

We also recommend: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

One click and I was head over heels in lurve.  I’ve never been to Disney at Christmas before.  And man, oh man…I can’t wait!

A Christmas parade with “real, live” toy soldiers and animated gingerbread cookies.

Cookies & hot cocoa(mind you, it’s supposed to be well into the 70s).

Pixie dust on the castle made of hundreds of thousands of tiny lights(which I found out today they start putting on in July so that they have time to get all of them up!)

Fireworks.

Christmas carols.  (And I die a little inside from excitement!)

And SNOW!!!   (I know it’s not real, but dooood…I’m from Georgia.  It doesn’t take much.)

Mouthwatering Monday: Cinnamon Roll-Ups

We’re all about some breakfast food at our house, especially the kind with lots of cream cheese and sugar.  🙂

24 slices(1 loaf minus the “butts”), crusts removed
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar, divided
1 TBsp cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter

 

Cinnamon rollups

Roll the bread slices flat with a rolling pin.

Mix the cream cheese, egg and 1/4c. sugar.

Spread mixture onto flattened slices.
(One smallish spoonful on each slice.)

Mix 1 c. sugar and 1TBsp cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

Melt butter in a shallow bowl.

Dunk each roll-up in the butter, to coat.

Roll in cinnamon-sugar.

Arrange on baking sheet.

Chill overnight.
(Really 2 hours is plenty…but I usually make them the night before.)

Preheat oven to 400°F and bake for 9-12 minutes.

Serve warm.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Last weekend we went to the UGA vs. Tenn Tech game in Athens.  Marshall was born and raised in Athens.  Marshall and I both went to school at Georgia.  He is a die hard fan for sure!  For a few years after we graduated, we had season tickets.  When Carter was a baby we still had tickets and regularly made it to games.  Then came the decision of a lifetime: keep paying for season tickets or have another baby.  Fortunately for Lydia, we chose the baby route.  (Although there were some times during her colic-induced screaming I wondered if we’d really made a wise choice!) (Just kidding!)  (A little.)

Anyway, after we quit renewing our season tickets, our trips to Sanford Stadium got a lot less frequent.  (Neither of us are very good negotiators when trying to buy tickets from a scalper.)  Last weekend we had the opportunity to get 7 tickets; enough for us, the kids and Marshall’s parents who live nearby.

We had a fantastic time!  See?

GameDay10a

But this post isn’t about any of that.  This post is about my sweet, smart boy.

Once we left the game, we were in the car passing all the chaos that is gameday.  My mother-in-law was in the back seat with the big kids and I heard them talking about all the things that they saw:  Lots of people wearing red.  A red tent with the “shor-sha”(georgia) G on it.  A red light.  A stop light.  A fence(they meant a road block thing). 2 police men.

We all saw the two policemen standing there…one white male, one black male.

Grandma: “Carter, do you see anything different about those two policemen?”
(I might want to point out that that question wasn’t totally out of the blue…we’d been talking about ‘same’ & ‘different’.)

Carter: Yes.  One of them has a hat.

Music never fails me.

Sometimes I write.  I don’t really think of myself as a writer, but I do write.

But there are times…when I just don’t have any words.  Words fail me.

But music never fails me.

I can be totally wrapped up by a beautiful performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony.
I can be brought to tears by certain hymns that remind me of my childhood.
I can be freed by the haunting melody of “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once“:
“Words fall through me and always fool me and I can’t react”
And let’s not even talk about the national anthem.  I tear up every.single.time.

Right now I have no words, so I’m going to share with you a song that’s been stuck in my head for a while now.
I couldn’t find a video or audio clip, but here are the lyrics:

There’s a whole lot of stubborn in this room
There’s a whole lot of pride that won’t let go
There’s a whole lot of stubborn in this room
That shows no sign of giving up control
I’ve drawn all the curtains
I’ve turned out all the lights
Scared to death somebody else might see
There’s a whole lot of stubborn in this room
And there’s no one here but me

There’s a whole lot of demons in this room
They want it all, and they don’t wanna share
There’s a whole lot of demons in this room
And none of them believe in fighting fair
Some sit on my left
Some sit on my right
They talk so loud it’s hard to disagree
I’m surrounded by the demons in this room
And there’s no one here but me

And I can’t quite remember how to pray anymore
I can’t quite remember what to say anymore
If it turns out that I can’t have my way anymore
How will I know which way to turn, when I walk out the door?
There’s a molecule of faith in this room
What they used to call the mustard seed
There’s a molecule of faith in this room
And a book that says that’s all I’ll ever need
I don’t know where it is, but I hope I find it soon
Cause nothing else will ever set me free
There’s a molecule of faith in this room
And even though it’s much too small to see,
If I have the courage to believe
I’ll find the one who left it here for me.

-Stubborn(Psalm 151), Lee Ann Womack

218

That’s how long it’s been.
Seven months and four days.
A blink of the eye and an eternity all at once.

Two hundred eighteen days since Mike and Heather‘s world changed.
Two hundred eighteen days that I’ve prayed for them, for their family.
Two hundred eighteen days that I’ve struggled with God on the “why”.

Why Maddie?
Why MikeHeather?
Why?

But today, on Maddie’s second birthday,
I’m setting aside the “why”
and focusing instead on the “who”.

Madeline Alice Spohr.
Beautiful, fun, intelligent daughter of Mike & Heather Spohr.
Bright eyes, animated face.
Maddie Moo.
Chicken Muffin Love Bear.
The girl who changed the blogosphere.
The girl whose story changed my life.
Inspired me to be a better mother,
A better friend,
A better person.

And today we will celebrate her life by eating cream puffs.
And today we will celebrate her life by making and delivering NICU family support packs to our local NICU.
And today we will celebrate her life by donating to the organization in her memory: Friends of Maddie.
(I hope you will, too.)

Maddie, I haven’t forgotten you.
I won’t forget you.
You changed my life.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego*?

*Does anyone else remember this show?

So…I blogged everyday in September and then fell off the bandwagon.

Where I have been since then?

I’ve been working on our church website.

HBCwebsite

I’ve been carving pumpkins and
playing Candyland with my favorite little people.

Pumpkin and game night08

I’ve been taking pictures everyday.

Oct15_c

I’ve been watching this little girl show the boys who’s boss.

Who's the boss

I’ve been kissing these kissable lips.

Fall Day08

I’ve been watching as a little brain goes into high gear
and learns faster than I ever imagined possible.
(And I’ve been watching as he exhibits my OCD tendencies,
insisting that each letter must be perfect.)

Nov 8, 2009 - homework

I’ve been enjoying fall.

Nov 3, 2009

But don’t worry…I’ll be back.