tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29900899410867556932024-02-07T20:41:39.196-05:00Justina's Random Acts of KindnessJustinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-76765722290520955712012-05-07T08:24:00.004-04:002012-05-07T08:24:42.524-04:00Think On These Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQZGsXXxO0uJQfcMUonlCfsfycd4fXTo4UG6xkpZMIBW_Gi6NIPfMcTI69GEut3s8bQU2quujgNL39R2KkofG0DJS96n3x5ouV5MU76IYZV1kxni8lgVOs4obsl9uiVi7kQK7n7jr4SJB/s1600/Phil+4-8+-+Page+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQZGsXXxO0uJQfcMUonlCfsfycd4fXTo4UG6xkpZMIBW_Gi6NIPfMcTI69GEut3s8bQU2quujgNL39R2KkofG0DJS96n3x5ouV5MU76IYZV1kxni8lgVOs4obsl9uiVi7kQK7n7jr4SJB/s400/Phil+4-8+-+Page+001.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-79465129855297616752012-04-20T10:40:00.001-04:002012-04-20T10:40:13.834-04:00RAOK #39 - You're never done.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I <strong>LOVE</strong> laundry . . .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>NOT</strong>. Actually, I deplore laundry... it is the most unpleasant chore that I have to do and the worst thing about it is YOU ARE NEVER DONE unless you do your last load naked. It's the most unfulfilling perpetual household task. <em>Ever</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I even have one of those mamma-jamma washer and dryers too, which you would think would make it less painful. Not a chance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year a sad sad day came . . . my washer broke. I don't know about your house, but at my house with four kids, if you have a broken washer for any length of time then laundry will soon be spilling from every orifice of your home. The repair people were booked, so I had to go almost two weeks with a broken washer. This is just NOT acceptable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So . . . we schlocked laundry to the laundromat. Not something I've done much of in the last 25 or so years.</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did this in college a lot. No one has a washer and dryer in their dorm <u>room</u>, of course, so as soon as the students run out of clean underwear, they are at the laundromat. In my case, my boyfriend, best friend, and I went to the laundromat every Friday night. We never ran out of underwear. <em>Obviously</em>, we were not very exciting. On Friday nights, almost every other college student was either on a date or out partying and therefore the laundromat was deserted and there were plenty of washers. We were the <u>good</u> kids, can you tell? At least there aren't embarrassing pictures out there of me doing stupid things in college that could ruin any future political career on which I might decided to embark. Also, my kids cannot justify any ill-advised behavior by using the excuse "Well YOU did it". I'll be happy if they follow my example by spending their Friday nights in college at the laundromat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The adult foray to the laundromat was just annoying. What a waste of time to sit around there literally watching clothes dry, thinking of all the things you could be getting done <em>while</em> washing clothes at home, being bugged by the preschooler for sugar drinks and a plethora of candy from the many machines there, and listening to the teenagers gripe about why they had to waste a Saturday at the laundromat. <em>Uh, because your teenage sister put an earring in the washer again and it ripped the rubber boot and now we don't have a washer that works. Go complain to her.</em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I don't know about any of that stuff I just wrote about from <u>personal</u> experience. You thought that<strong> I</strong> went to the laundromat? Ha! I missed all that fun because the husband went with the kids instead of me to save my back from lifting. I'm married to a <strong>great</strong> guy aren't I? No, you cannot have him . . .he is ALL mine!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK #39 is for the college students, broken washer people and washerless people. I made a special trip to the laundromat, went to a machine, filled it with quarters and put one of my little cards on there. Let us observe a moment of silence please in respect for all of the people who have to schlock laundry to the laundromat to do a task that is yucky even at home.</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you. Thank you very much.</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-13043958194759555682012-04-15T00:14:00.002-04:002012-04-15T00:15:16.146-04:00Touching Base...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm in the middle of a weekend celebration honoring my mom's 70th birthday! So fun and we're having a blast, eventually I will put up some pictures of all the crazy decorating I did. But I'm getting some complaints that I haven't posted anything in a few days and some of you are disappointed which makes me happy. <em>Yeah, that's messed up, isn't it?</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like it that you miss me when I don't write every day!! Thanks for caring and thanks for liking me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, welcome to some new readers also. I linked up my Spring Subway Art (<a href="http://justinarandomacts.blogspot.com/2012/04/raok-38-spring-subway-art.html" target="_blank">here</a>) to some craft blogspots that I read and I've had all kinds of people bouncing over from other blogs to check it out and hopefully print it to decorate their homes and doors. Very sweet, thank you new people!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned for some posts coming up detailing the rest of my RAOKS for my birthday and then I am doing a giveaway at the end of the birthday RAOKS . . . you won't want to miss it, it will be fun!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until I get a minute break from partying with my mom and sissy and family . . .TTFN! (<em>For those of you who don't speak "Tigger" language from Winnie the Pooh . . . that's Ta-Ta-For-Now!)</em></span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-67398974634584981342012-04-11T23:25:00.001-04:002012-04-11T23:25:52.430-04:00RAOK #38 - Spring Subway Art<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm cheating just a tiny bit. Just a <em>teensy tiny bit. </em>I've been posting my Random Acts of Kindness that I performed for my birthday mission - 46 in all to match my 46th birthday. My last post was RAOK #37 and I have nine more about which to write.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However . . . I've wanted to update my front door wreath with some Spring Subway Art and I just couldn't find anything that I liked. So, I made my own!! And I have some wonderful new friends that are following me from Pinterest and I just know that they will like this artwork. The only problem is that in order for someone to "Pin" something, it has to be posted on a blog or website. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK #38 is for my Pinterest followers and anyone else who would like a fun colorful Spring decoration. It is NOT one of the original 46 RAOKS, so I will actually post 47 RAOKs for you so you can see all the originals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you even care about this numbering thing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In case you aren't a Pinterest user, I highly recommend you do NOT start using Pinterest . . .because if you are like me, you will love it and it will be one more thing that you end up wasting time on your computer. But, I have to say I really have referred back to it several times and purchased, cooked, and crafted ideas that I have gleaned from there. It is actually quite fun and <em>very</em> addictive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a bow to Pinterest, here is my Spring Subway Art. Right click on it and "save as" a picture (to a file you can find later). Then go to the file and print it out as an 8x10 photo. It was built as an 8x10 so it should print out well. It should fit lovely right into a beautiful white frame that you can then display on a mantle or put inside a wreath, which is what I did. <em>Note this is for personal use only and please Pin back to my page and my original artwork.</em></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdz1rY2wFSFsRaa_AxgC8QzTXwv58_nzIkoKlD4a75yiOkirgEqnMVC41WBBCE8RNjjsuxq06e-t8cLAbiYSuge96TpMTnqVgZgTlLYNaJIR2rIinvF9sYBJTwqbLQNNuUZ9HqSqFodtO/s1600/Spring+subway+art+-+Page+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdz1rY2wFSFsRaa_AxgC8QzTXwv58_nzIkoKlD4a75yiOkirgEqnMVC41WBBCE8RNjjsuxq06e-t8cLAbiYSuge96TpMTnqVgZgTlLYNaJIR2rIinvF9sYBJTwqbLQNNuUZ9HqSqFodtO/s400/Spring+subway+art+-+Page+001.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-57105391883431003622012-04-09T18:23:00.001-04:002012-04-09T18:23:54.556-04:00RAOK #37 - Why do my kids think they can operate a crane?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that is neat about having kids around is that they haven't been tainted much by disappointment. They think they can do anything because, so far, life hasn't kicked them in the tush much and beaten them down yet (<em>you know, like all of us adults!). </em> While the rest of us are hanging up motivational sayings in our offices, reading books about how to get over our latest hang-up, tagging inspiring words on FB and pinning them on Pinterest, the kids are just going out and trying stuff and thinking they can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ignorance <u>is</u> bliss sometimes, isn't it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I could do with a little more "getting out there and trying it" versus "sitting around here and trying to motivate myself". How about you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, you know those silly crane machines where you drop down the hook and are rewarded with a stuffed animal when you pick it up? (<em>You know... like in Toy Story). </em>Those really look like fun to the kids, except for the part where you never can actually hook anything so it is a waste of money. Of course, the kids don't know that part of it. Somehow they think that they have magically developed the skill of a crane operator or of the character "Tank" played by James Garner in the movie <em>Space Cowboys</em>. <em>Remember the part where he operated the crane and won himself a toy? Yeah, well he was trained by NASA, kids!</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">With four kids of various ages, I've been plagued for about 14 or so consecutive years with children intermittently wanting to play with those machines at the front of the store, the fair, a carnival, or wherever else they are placed to inconvenience parents and try to part us from more of our money. Of course since I say "no" all the time, they get the hint and quit asking for the most part. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've tried explaining what "the odds" are, and what that means anyway. Pointless, especially to the under 16 set who aren't working yet. Vegas analogy? No good for a 5 year old. <em>Hey little sweetie, when you are putting money on the roulette wheel, there is only a 1 in 38 probability that you are going to win against "the house". Isn't it obvious if they can afford a humonguous building that they are making way more money than the people who are gambling and therefore gambling and operating this crane are both a big waste of money? </em>Mom, what is roulette, probability, and why are you calling a humonguous building a house? I've never seen a "house" that big. And what do you mean we don't have "money" for that? Just go get more from that little machine at the drive-thru.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ahem.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">RAOK #37 was for the poor tired mom or dad who had to drag the little one to the store with them and the kid saw the "crane" machine. I taped some money on it so the parent could just, for once, not have an argument about why the crane machine is a waste of money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And if the kid actually operated the crane, won a prize and beat the house? More power to him!</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-18815564271746875432012-04-06T22:50:00.002-04:002012-04-06T22:56:18.852-04:00RAOK #36 - Someday I won't need these . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far, these organs have served me well. <em>For you squeamish people, I didn't put a real heart picture up there because I couldn't find one that wasn't graphic. You're welcome.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used to really struggle with my mortality and the fact that someday I am going to die. I'm still not terrifically fond of the idea of course and I'm hoping it doesn't happen anytime soon, especially before my 5 year old hits adulthood. But what makes my heart quiet and my soul rest is the fact that I know what is happening to me after I die. Not <em>EXACTLY</em> of course, I think God has a sense of humor and doesn't want to ruin the surprise by giving us too many details of the awe-inspiring events. I do love surprises.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems a perfect day to post my RAOK, which I will discuss in a minute, because today is Good Friday. However, in the wake of the Easter bunny and Cadbury eggs <em>*love*,</em> the true meaning of this weekend has been lost. I've tried not to make my blog "preachy" because my husband used to be an atheist (<em>he's now a die-hard Christian</em>) and he says the "hit me over the head hard with the bible and 'religion' " approach always turned him off. It was my soft way of discussing my thoughts and beliefs with him, non-judgmentally, that actually made him curious about Christianity and started him on a path that he's walking on now. It has to be each man or woman's individual choice and I'm not trying to cram mine down your throat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, I didn't want to let Easter pass without sharing the "good news". Jesus is real . . he walked this earth as a man . . . he was perfect and sinless and he willing went through terrible pain and separation from God his father in order that you and I might have our own sins and shortcomings forgiven and forgotten. He rose in 3 days from the dead. Scoff if you want to, but I know in my soul that it is true. I've felt Him, I've connected, I'm His, and I know what is happening to my soul someday when I die. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as my body, well, I'm not going to need it where I'm going. So RAOK #36 was my act of becoming an organ donor. I've always wanted to but I have now informed my family officially and sent a directive to my attorney <em>(Hi, Troy!) </em>to put a letter in my file with my will. He did inform me that I should go to the donor registry in my state to make it "official".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think the act of giving life to people who are ill with no hope of recovery has to be the greatest act of kindness there can be to them and their family. So assuming I don't die of some stupid disease that destroys my organs, they will go to several desperate people who need a second chance and will hopefully use that second chance to carry on the RAOK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about it . . donating. . . .your organs to humanity and your soul to Jesus. I know it will change your life, and probably someone else's too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Easter!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-54316856725008756322012-04-04T19:34:00.002-04:002012-04-04T19:34:55.392-04:00RAOK #35 - Please shut up. I have a kidney stone.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't have one right now! (<em>And I am not normally fond of the words "shut up"). </em>But in my lifetime, I've had several. I've also gone through labor to bear children and I can't decide which pain is worse - at least when you go through labor you get something at the end of it! It's sort of ironic that the pain of bearing an 8 lb child is about the same pain as pushing a stone smaller than a BB through your renal system. </span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things about having a kidney stone is that there is no relief from the pain except for those amazing drugs they drip through the IV when you finally get attended to at the ER. It doesn't matter how you sit, stand, or lie down, the pain is ever present. This can make you physically sick but it definitely makes you <em>EDGY</em>. Any noise is like a clanging cymbal, and light bears into the back of your eyes right through your brain to create a spectacular headache to go along with your generally miserable disposition. Of course, since kidney stones are not life-threatening and car accidents or profuse bleeding <em>are</em>, you oftentimes find yourself waiting for <u>hours</u> at the ER while they take the cases that are more urgent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Point being, you are sitting in the ER and it seems that inevitably there is some poor soul who is also there but they had to bring their kids along with them. Or perhaps the kid is the one who is ill. Either way, as you sit there in excruciating pain with a horrible headache and trying not to vomit, the kids are screaming, fussing and generally creating all kinds of havoc because they are bored. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On any regular day, I have an AMAZING tolerance for noise with my four kids and all their friends. Sometimes there will be other adults over and they will comment "Doesn't all this noise drive you crazy?" <em><strong>Nope</strong></em>. I have a finely-tuned and much developed skill set for totally ignoring it. I honestly have had 20+ teenagers here at one time and I wasn't one bit fazed or frazzled. Cool, huh?</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, the one exception is this kidney stone ER visit thing. When I am feeling <em>that bad</em>, I can't stand the noise. </span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So RAOK #35 was borne out of the memory of the desperation of those times! It was designed to provide relief for both the ER patients in the waiting room as well as the parent who is sick or desperately trying to entertain their little ones. I created several "activity boxes" with a variety of fun and safe items (that I mostly picked up for way cheap at Party City and the Dollar Store).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3ER3861N-JuXovM_iP01qsiJxbFBNmp8ptaLqngGt-X0qWfBuGzY2W9AQV0IC2-S9XZO9wa5jyk1znT0IL3xReWyMXeoV9UFQd7xtsrYdtoANHWo_JkPefIlximasybtc5Oa-1JOjpFm/s1600/IMG_6666+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3ER3861N-JuXovM_iP01qsiJxbFBNmp8ptaLqngGt-X0qWfBuGzY2W9AQV0IC2-S9XZO9wa5jyk1znT0IL3xReWyMXeoV9UFQd7xtsrYdtoANHWo_JkPefIlximasybtc5Oa-1JOjpFm/s400/IMG_6666+crop.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cars, crayons, activity books, little puzzles, Rubik's cubes, and some fun toy animals</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bought some cheap plastic shoe boxes and created a label for the boxes, then assembled and delivered them to my local ER:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGszj9kCJ_XxdRh5J3OX6_zE3-wT1NXVqF4dsTbo-qkUNfNEfgRjeMYx_h3xMFeOsesBfjbWSv0w2PLdcKvSaseXjjVMUPzOwWbygxhhj7LQnf7JtW_0KqjrwTSbp0bBg5ha7HASMorBJ8/s1600/IMG_6686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGszj9kCJ_XxdRh5J3OX6_zE3-wT1NXVqF4dsTbo-qkUNfNEfgRjeMYx_h3xMFeOsesBfjbWSv0w2PLdcKvSaseXjjVMUPzOwWbygxhhj7LQnf7JtW_0KqjrwTSbp0bBg5ha7HASMorBJ8/s400/IMG_6686.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cute girls at the ER admissions desk!</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They seemed excited to have them but the only bummer of the day is when they told me that they would not be comfortable "re-using" the boxes because of the spread of germs and no one to sanitize the items. So instead of having boxes that can be enjoyed over and over, I provided them with five boxes that will just be given to a child in need, which is still a good thing.</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">In retrospect, I might just make some of these boxes and store them somewhere here at home to grab on my way to my next ER visit. That way I can give it directly to the little noisy buggers myself! (<em>Just kidding... kind of).</em></span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-17568121211178838912012-04-03T20:05:00.001-04:002012-04-03T20:49:26.042-04:00RAOK #34 - Guatemalan Goodness<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBRhodHU-0d5b4FXPjd52vUgDC_HRL6kfFIQPisSQ8WSEMOOh7-Uc18liPQEKXQkp29lb5JxIko59s4iRbPYXfSaAAKDvdQAvgI-A8B2Sm0OrZN6xnya2VBa8G6l0V29GBaV4oRUAdsmW/s1600/IMG_0069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBRhodHU-0d5b4FXPjd52vUgDC_HRL6kfFIQPisSQ8WSEMOOh7-Uc18liPQEKXQkp29lb5JxIko59s4iRbPYXfSaAAKDvdQAvgI-A8B2Sm0OrZN6xnya2VBa8G6l0V29GBaV4oRUAdsmW/s400/IMG_0069.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>Little concrete block church in Olintepeque, Guatemala</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last summer, the hubs and the oldest daughter embarked on a life-changing adventure when they went on a mission trip to Guatemala with 10 other people. They worked at that cute little church shown above. It was the first such trip for either one of them and I admit I was jealous that they got to go! Someone had to stay behind with the other youths and since it was the first time to go to a totally different country, we agreed it was better for big daddy to go. So I was the designated parent at home. Next time....!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could go into so many details about that trip and everything they experienced and felt, but then this post would get way too long and I might lose my point along the way of what my RAOK was. Suffice it to say two things: The daughter came back and that Sunday after church she updated her Facebook status and said "It's kind of funny how I sat in a nice big air conditioned church this morning and the only place I wanted to be was a small dusty one where I could barely understand a word being said. God has definitely moved this past week."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second thing that both of them said was that we Americans "feel sorry" that people in other countries do not always experience the same wealth and amenities that we do. But, when they got down there they realized that the joke is really on us . . . because those people REALLY KNOW what it is like to depend on God for everything. We don't seek Him as much because we are more financially self-sufficient, but they truly understand what it is like to be blessed because they rely on Him for everything. Very thought provoking, eh??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Let me tell you about RAOK #34 and then I'm going to share some neat pictures. One of the necessary items for our group to have was an interpreter. The only one in the group who spoke much Spanish was my daughter who went through a language immersion program for five years and also has three years of high school Spanish behind her. But learning the language here and speaking it there are two different things! So the liaison from Guatemala arranged for a couple of interpreters for the group. Isaac and Raquel were the two interpreters and my family grew to love both of them while they were there. Raquel has never been to the United States and it is her dream to come here one day. So . . . RAOK #34 was my sending a letter to Guatemala to her with our desire to sponsor her visa to come here sometime this year. She is SSOOOO excited and we are too. We can't wait for her to come and stay with us and learn all about our culture here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They took many hundreds of pictures but I'm just going to post a few to give you a taste of what they experienced:</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make-shift medical clinic staffed by our team. Not surprisingly, the #1 complaint? Stomach issues!</span></em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQK05ck-Aw9C12u1sTMBTACr-Nsx1AW89MkvufmPE1yZv3JUpFfaqRaOi692sdqsSU93gnQ0MF9ebpzpA1hOBE7YadHCP4MV0nteZpaNgPuvVs-B8E1D09PfSuvHOHPzCsOjck1kNlZZ4/s1600/IMG_0389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQK05ck-Aw9C12u1sTMBTACr-Nsx1AW89MkvufmPE1yZv3JUpFfaqRaOi692sdqsSU93gnQ0MF9ebpzpA1hOBE7YadHCP4MV0nteZpaNgPuvVs-B8E1D09PfSuvHOHPzCsOjck1kNlZZ4/s400/IMG_0389.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>A make-shift dental clinic was staffed by a dentist on our team and his wife. Because there is little or no dental care available, they pulled <u>hundreds</u> of teeth. This is where my daughter spent the majority of her time working and my husband handed out toothbrushes and taught scores of children to brush their teeth!</em></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is some of our construction crew. With just a few people and in a short amount of time, they built a retaining wall for the church and also installed a ceiling with working electrical lights.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People came by the hundreds and waited for free medical and dental care that they either do not have access to or cannot afford.</span></em><br />
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<em>Unbelievably, the local fire department had neither a defibrillator nor training on CPR techniques. Our medical guy arranged for the donation of the defibrillator here in the U.S. and then provided life-saving training.</em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>A few members of the team were responsible for providing entertainment for the children and making them more comfortable with these "strange" Americans. This was especially important for those who would later have a scary dental or medical procedure. My daughter told a funny story that one of the little girls with wide brown eyes kept taking her finger and swiping it over my daughter's skin. She finally realized that the little girl had never seen freckles in her whole life!</em></span><br />
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<em>The husband is shown here with the widow of the original pastor of the church (in front) and family. At the Sunday service she told the congregation that she could "die in peace" knowing that her church was finally going to be completed and a ceiling installed - the answer to her prayers of many years. On another note, the hubs LOVES little kids - check out that adorable little baby hand on his face. If I wasn't, like,100 years old in baby-making years, we'd probably have more. I think he was ready to swipe one of those beautiful Guatemalan babies and bring one home to me though :)</em><br />
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<em>As you can see, he looks gargantuan next to the Guatemalans who tend to be smaller in stature than we. During the trip, many men and women alike made comments about how big he is as he TOWERED over everyone there!</em><br />
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<em>YES, they REALLY DO carry things around on their heads! I wonder if they ever get a headache?</em><br />
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<em>Some members of our team are shown here at the little church that came to mean so much to them.</em></span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-90224784365542227242012-04-02T23:27:00.001-04:002012-04-02T23:29:07.281-04:00Peacefulness<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did you miss me? I just returned from a deliciously long four-day weekend at a cabin retreat in the hills. The kiddos had Spring Break and this year we decided to go somewhere close and do something relaxing versus something touristy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the view from the Cracker Barrel rocker on the back porch:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifd-RmRUv-AlkOmNpBs4fT6rye08MGg3Uo3ypAmf5ydJHDgRgCRiW8o6cFhws1Zqqxem4ImmgBvjwB1PM79YZnmD_1YjvrxtYxu0aoCKif2sEaLJD2eEppphJzhgygn8rnhQOppSlBSHli/s1600/IMG_7147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifd-RmRUv-AlkOmNpBs4fT6rye08MGg3Uo3ypAmf5ydJHDgRgCRiW8o6cFhws1Zqqxem4ImmgBvjwB1PM79YZnmD_1YjvrxtYxu0aoCKif2sEaLJD2eEppphJzhgygn8rnhQOppSlBSHli/s400/IMG_7147.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Unedited photo from my camera. Have I mentioned I love my camera?</em></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_B3uOnqIpcfHC0OS1J0DDPvtOk8doc5lAIiEYuB19hHQtEZbj4jEcfHU_FWKHVMojib3g5JSeeOHxRo30JwKs_9rp8k6HNdsopVdd3JT0IksZsfR_pVNIw75JIyC319bZi7Z9oBfP1QF/s1600/IMG_7178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_B3uOnqIpcfHC0OS1J0DDPvtOk8doc5lAIiEYuB19hHQtEZbj4jEcfHU_FWKHVMojib3g5JSeeOHxRo30JwKs_9rp8k6HNdsopVdd3JT0IksZsfR_pVNIw75JIyC319bZi7Z9oBfP1QF/s400/IMG_7178.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5CiBION7iUH8WP7op6xpHsMTxmEkWBcjvQayMfDS_IL4MEvNnUxANLnNHdgD0zhEzwDreQKVsYIIsMj7sAdwHmOoZnK8zAvEcwdUE6UPrRU1siJ6R5ElpzkZgrWXNz4vuxNvenAQ5zVJ/s1600/IMG_7370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5CiBION7iUH8WP7op6xpHsMTxmEkWBcjvQayMfDS_IL4MEvNnUxANLnNHdgD0zhEzwDreQKVsYIIsMj7sAdwHmOoZnK8zAvEcwdUE6UPrRU1siJ6R5ElpzkZgrWXNz4vuxNvenAQ5zVJ/s400/IMG_7370.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>There are some of my favorite people in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.</em></td></tr>
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And here's the view OF the back porch:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUa7HgQWC535OInE36136Txl5wfS_vtR2xia9XGngnvIgho2UX9K6MB83jlr-HeIEahXTZeKkkw-YRL2cFb_REx9GGONmwBIk6DcIlm4WkiimUyd6GQYFAg8h_1isoCfk5_Q_3b0sC9Opt/s1600/IMG_7184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUa7HgQWC535OInE36136Txl5wfS_vtR2xia9XGngnvIgho2UX9K6MB83jlr-HeIEahXTZeKkkw-YRL2cFb_REx9GGONmwBIk6DcIlm4WkiimUyd6GQYFAg8h_1isoCfk5_Q_3b0sC9Opt/s400/IMG_7184.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Delightful! The weather was my perfect weather - sunny, high 60's, and pouring down rain at night. You could smell it in the air and hear it on the roof. With all those trees there, the air was so pure and clear and cool. One deep breath and you could just feel the tension and stress melt away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The vacation consisted of sleeping in, reading, napping, doing crafts, hiking, coffee, rocking, napping, sitting by a fire, eating, fishing (son and dad), napping, hot tubbing and watching movies (Kids only. Hubs and I were not interested in watching TV). Did you get the emphasis on napping? Two different days I found myself falling asleep in the wing back chair by the open window, even with the noise of the kids in the forefront. All I needed was some support hose and grey hair to complete the picture of an old granny falling asleep in the middle of a family gathering. It was great! I'm practicing for 25 years from now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning I woke up feeling so rested and ready for my week and I was reflecting over my morning coffee and devotions about how much I seek peacefulness in my life and how our weekend was the perfect example of it. The hubs and I are peaceful pretty much all of the time together. My kids and their friends were such a delight to be around with very little conflict or bickering and they all pitched-in at the end to clean up the cabin with absolutely no complaints. It was wonderful. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for unnecessary drama of any kind and I actually have found a certain level of disdain for people who seek it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really don't get it. I know adults in their 30s,40s, 50s and beyond who constantly seem to be in an upset about something or with somebody. They get bent out of shape over the smallest of things, waging a grudge against the slightest wrong, and seem hellbent on their latest vendetta. I say "Get over yourself already."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw a quote once that said "Life is not a dress rehearsal." * and that is the heart of what I was feeling this morning. This is my one life I'm going to have and I don't want to waste one minute of it not being as peaceful as I can. I want to let those slight injustices just roll off my back, give grace and have mercy upon people around me, and truly be an example to my children and others of what it means to live a life as free of unnecessary drama as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It doesn't mean that I'm not ever going to be righteously indignant over something, or that I am not going to stand up for what is right in the face of something that is wrong even if it creates conflict. Sometimes there <em>is</em> necessary conflict and you deal with it. But as for the petty junk that some people seem to thrive on, that's not going to be me.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpVitYuIRVN8wjLJqA19PQl-DEZVT5WZi-6nLrZKkkLEi_Avw-kw3PzZGaDInYeusNAJAwAVTF5wGskCd84mupRuvkkeVQ4iuKZwhlNVBm0rlHDyfEgaWdTE3wYymYX1GmAmsZAr0DYHk/s1600/Peacefulness+-+Page+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpVitYuIRVN8wjLJqA19PQl-DEZVT5WZi-6nLrZKkkLEi_Avw-kw3PzZGaDInYeusNAJAwAVTF5wGskCd84mupRuvkkeVQ4iuKZwhlNVBm0rlHDyfEgaWdTE3wYymYX1GmAmsZAr0DYHk/s400/Peacefulness+-+Page+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>*Upon investigation, it appears that the "Life is not a dress rehearsal" quote came from Rose Tremain, a British author.</em></span><br />
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<br />Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-70967412491294425072012-03-27T17:37:00.000-04:002012-03-27T17:41:50.234-04:00RAOK #33 - Picture this...with your tongue out.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm going to be in SO MUCH trouble when this post goes up! Ah, what the heck though right? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My family is so adorable... and sort of .. weird. In a good way though. If that's possible. Anyway, they seem to have a thing for sticking out their tongues or making goofy faces when I take their pictures. They're going up on the www with their tongues out and I say that serves them right for always being annoyed that I want to take their picture.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtVf_m2D6Bi-UERy1PVNH-520TLgHq0B4XNNgGFx-0ejp-ez3ULRZRm_pSgClmjxoDKjwnfpqJnCCH0gd_sgKKoB4aSMSuPRmd5N8JyFbwAjgHwvI78jloHa3khM7xnLDCsdnRHNMa-D_/s1600/DSCN4743.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtVf_m2D6Bi-UERy1PVNH-520TLgHq0B4XNNgGFx-0ejp-ez3ULRZRm_pSgClmjxoDKjwnfpqJnCCH0gd_sgKKoB4aSMSuPRmd5N8JyFbwAjgHwvI78jloHa3khM7xnLDCsdnRHNMa-D_/s400/DSCN4743.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite their annoyance and reluctance, I know that someday they will be thankful that I was that freak-o mom who always had a camera with her. I am <u>already</u> glad! When I have gone to scrapbook all these moments we had together, I am SO aware of how much I would have forgotten if I hadn't captured it on film (first) or digitally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pretty much everyone has a camera these days. (Admit it, even if you don't carry a camera you probably have one on your phone!). HOWEVER, what I have found to be true is that hardly anyone ever sends their pictures off to the relatives so they can enjoy them too. Poor grandma and grandpa!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK #33 is something I did for a family member and you can easily do too. It will really add to the quality of life for your poor loved ones who never get to see pictures of your kids sticking out their tongues! (<em>Oh, sorry. That was just me, wasn't it?)</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Load those digital pictures up to an online site like Walgreens or Walmart then do a search for the zip code of your loved one. Find the nearest location, then put grandma's name and address on the order. You can be really nice and pay for it with a credit card but <strong>you don't have to. </strong>Unless it is a huge order, they can pay for it when they pick it up! It's sssssssoooooooo super easy and I can't tell you how happy it makes the grandparents to get new pictures of their grandkids to carry around and hang up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last note and I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! PPPPPPuuuhhhhLEASE... back up your pictures! That means your iPhone, your digital camera, and your memory cards. I know heartbreaking stories of people who lost all the baby pictures they took when their iPhone crashed, someone who lost a camera that had 6 months worth of photos on the memory card, and another person who lost the memory card itself (those things are so tiny!). Take a minute <strong>RIGHT NOW</strong> AND GO DO IT. And don't tell me you don't have time, you have time for Facebook and you're reading my dang blog right now! So get off here <em>(come back later though, ok?)</em> and go back up your pictures.</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-16963985624922353442012-03-25T22:41:00.000-04:002012-03-25T22:44:18.660-04:00RAOK #32 - Pizza for Patriots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_VqHRAm4p28lDXm7zVGTuse7XlhdVuBhp81E3s5Hp_AGpSELr7O-hpgp7AvGOU52o1G7t-9IHPHOfQ-VvrlFMg8FaNnpctVrdYEOhuuIJH1Es0kQAfodv5DLn0cMt-WTZfGBPkxHdziV/s1600/pizza.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_VqHRAm4p28lDXm7zVGTuse7XlhdVuBhp81E3s5Hp_AGpSELr7O-hpgp7AvGOU52o1G7t-9IHPHOfQ-VvrlFMg8FaNnpctVrdYEOhuuIJH1Es0kQAfodv5DLn0cMt-WTZfGBPkxHdziV/s320/pizza.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I usually try to come up with some clever post title to entice you to come read my blog. Today, I didn't have to because the blog post name is the company name!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While scanning the www for ideas for my RAOK mission, I ran across a company called Pizzas for Patriots. I think everyone agrees that those in the military are our heroes as they make sacrifices daily that the rest of us really don't. If they are deployed, many times they are barely afforded any basic comforts like sleeping in a delightful Tempur-pedic bed (<em>every single night when I nestle in my bed under the covers I groan and say "I love my bed, I love my bed, I love my bed." I am always so happy to see it!). </em> They may not get hot showers, they may be in miserably hot or cold conditions.... we all know the drill and we think about it and are thankful for all they do for our country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I never thought about though was how lonely it must get for them longing for the familiar comforts of home. . . like pizza.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not a pizza nut like my kids are, but if I haven't had a piece in a few weeks, I'll start wanting one. Some of these guys and gals haven't had a real piece of pizza in MONTHS. . . and there are plenty of other foods that they enjoy at home that they are not getting in Iraq and Afghanistan for sure!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pizza for Patriots is run by a retired military man and his wife. They work with several pizza providers and arranged for DHL to tranport these pizzas to deployment areas like Afghanistan. What a super great idea!! I'm not sure how the pizza tastes after it goes from here to there, but I myself always like pizza better the second day anyway and I bet those guys don't care!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can make an online donation for any amount to help provide pizza for patriots, which I did for RAOK #32. Someone somewhere far away will be enjoying a piece of pizza with my name on it (figuratively of course)! And the next time I eat pizza, I will remember to pray for the guy/gal who ate my pizza and say a thank you for them and the sacrifices they have made!</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-58407589056733969792012-03-24T23:20:00.003-04:002012-03-24T23:21:02.302-04:00RAOK #31 - Rx for Wellness<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a lot of ways, I think I'm a pretty good mom. But I think all parents are plagued about the things we know we need to do better. Hopefully we take steps to fix those areas that need improvement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the ways that I have been less-than-successful is when it comes to taking medicine or administering it. I really <u>want</u> to be on top of that kid needing the antibiotic <em>three. friggin'. times. a. day. for <strike>one thousand years</strike> fourteen days. </em>But for some reason I am not as good as I need to be about it. My mom says that I legitimately have too much going on to remember everything (which is why my family calendar is online, color-coded, updated daily, and looked at about 10 times a day). I'm obsessed with my calendar, and I don't forget or miss much when it comes to things we need to do or places we need to be. The Rx, however, is a different matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few months ago, in the throes of winter and all six of us taking turns getting sick for weeks on end, the lightbulb finally went on and I developed a chart for the refrigerator. We all get into the fridge multiple times a day and it is hard not to notice the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper staring me in the face. I have finally developed something that makes me more successful in this area, and also eliminates confusion between me and the hubs when we are both doing the medicine man routine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my birthday post, I mentioned the preschooler was home sick the whole week. I ran out the chart and posted it, but then realized I can't be the <strong>only</strong> one who stinks at this, right? (<em>Right??) </em> So I developed a generic chart for all you peeps who take meds and forget them or are parents who are struggling with it. RAOK #31 was done the week of my birthday but I'm just getting around to posting it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a sample of the completed chart:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note there is room to write the day and date, and three sections for meds: 2x daily meds, 3x daily meds, and the pesky "alternate Tylenol and Motrin every three hours for a fever" section that EVERY parent surely needs! Who can remember at 2am whether the last time out of 20 you gave Tylenol or Motrin? This chart helps you track the time and the type so you never have to guess again or scramble for a piece of scrap paper to write it. You wouldn't want to accidentally write it on the letter stating you won $5 million in the Publisher's Clearing House, now would you??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the printable version. If you can't get it to work properly, email me at<span style="color: #741b47;"> justina {at} soarr dot com</span> (<em>it is spelled out so spam crawlers cannot grab my email and start sending me junk. If you use it, type it in the way you normally would with the asterick and period etc.</em>) <strong>To your good health (and your kids'!!)</strong></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhR5x1vHcC1xx9hY-HifInBL66bJdC4XANdrT39u35CzWmB3yrxu8RuMaXY5xcSry7hGgFCFI3jWWkNNuxzVTIWdsUAFuSld1ew7cuXep3Fy328m7LS5nRzn4UTcrs2ro7jD3bOdE2BCq/s1600/scan0011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhR5x1vHcC1xx9hY-HifInBL66bJdC4XANdrT39u35CzWmB3yrxu8RuMaXY5xcSry7hGgFCFI3jWWkNNuxzVTIWdsUAFuSld1ew7cuXep3Fy328m7LS5nRzn4UTcrs2ro7jD3bOdE2BCq/s640/scan0011.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-87542089026576604482012-03-23T17:04:00.001-04:002012-03-23T17:21:50.338-04:00RAOK #30 - College cutie care<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27s-GpWDFdn7vnuwqC0jrjcB2DHAjnwNq_pyDGLhkg3XZWWy_0Zl8adNvG6LymaKqFZT1evH2-mh0gZZHYqdsy7qzNikzvCNcab-m9CB7_JkYpQvTR9vzvl-yhWvvHwwsrb7dQqyJM1_y/s1600/Lucas+-+Page+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27s-GpWDFdn7vnuwqC0jrjcB2DHAjnwNq_pyDGLhkg3XZWWy_0Zl8adNvG6LymaKqFZT1evH2-mh0gZZHYqdsy7qzNikzvCNcab-m9CB7_JkYpQvTR9vzvl-yhWvvHwwsrb7dQqyJM1_y/s400/Lucas+-+Page+001.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This cute guy is not my son. But I sort of feel like he's my son. Because he's the son of one of my BFFs and his sister is one of my daughter's BFFs. Confused much yet?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jr. is one of those teenagers to whom I was referring in one of my earlier posts (<a href="http://justinarandomacts.blogspot.com/2012/03/raok-8-teens-make-difference-too.html" target="_blank">here</a>). He's one of those young men that restores your faith in the future. Not only is he totally nice but he's a responsible student, good citizen, and a Christian who lives out the faith. He was co-valedictorian of his graduating class last year. If you ask him who his best friend is, he will tell you without shame that his best friend is his dad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last two years, he was my life-saver. Every morning my daughter had to be transported to her private school a few miles down the road. When the hubs traveled, that meant that I had to wake up the littlest one and drag her out to the car just to get the oldest to school. It was a huge hassle and usually didn't result in a good start to the morning, especially if I had to take a warm delicious sleeping baby out of her warm delicious comfy bed and carry her out into a snow storm. Not fun!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So for the days the hubs was gone, I started asking Jr. if he would swing a little out of his way to get my daughter. He always did it willingly without complaint. One time, the wires got crossed and he and his sister ended up at the school without my daughter. He took an <em>unexcused tardy</em> and came back and got her because he's that responsible and didn't want to leave me hanging. He even bailed us out as recently as his spring break from college a few weeks ago when our car was acting funny and he followed his dad and my daughter back to our house to make sure our new driver was safely home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jr. went off to college last fall to pharmacy school. I'd been thinking about a way to thank him for all he did for me the last two years and I thought a little college care package might just do the trick (RAOK #30). I remember being in college and looking forward to the letters and care packages from home, it always made me so happy! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I started by grabbing all the good things I knew he'd love - Oreos, Little Debbie's, Red Bull . . . you know, the staples of a freshman's diet. Then I brainstormed for other ideas and realized "What am I thinking? BOYS want food... not magazines and trinkets!" This stash should last him and his friends... what?.. about a good two days right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks, Jr., for all you did and I hope you are loving college.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Also, can't end the post without a shout out to his sister, Tia, who is really like one of my own kids! She's a special young lady too and I didn't want to spark any sibling rivalry with this post... but her care package is waiting in my pantry :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">P.S. The mom and I are taking resumes for available females for this prize of a guy, but just know the requirements for approval on dating him are more stringent than college admission!</span></div>
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</div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-31986009571945644782012-03-22T23:34:00.002-04:002012-03-22T23:38:36.405-04:00RAOK #29 - A T-shirt saves the world?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several weeks ago I stumbled upon an organization called "Sevenly" (<a href="http://www.sevenly.com/">www.sevenly.com</a>). They have capitalized on a very simple and powerful marketing concept - they sell unique, one of a kind T-shirts and hoodies that are only available for one week. $7 of each purchase goes towards their "cause of the week".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They haven't even been around for a year yet, but they have already raised over $300,000 for their various causes!! I bought my first shirt several weeks ago ... then another week ... then another week. I find I'm a bit addicted to them. They change the cause every Monday at 1:00pm EDT and their causes are incredibly diverse. The week I did RAOK #29, it was for a domestic violence shelter which touches me because women I am close to from more than one branch of my family have been affected by this and I also personally know some friends that have as well. They raised $15,239 in one week for Sheltering Wings!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="rg_hi" data-height="183" data-width="275" height="133" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6SevFz5weVDJEbwycrEIM_D8ZbtsLhciqCjpUO4P6usSbTkXQnw" style="height: 183px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 275px;" width="200" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shirt I bought for domestic violence.</span></strong></em></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="rg_hi" data-height="289" data-width="175" height="289" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSGJL3zq73c1gSuCq57xVrWq8upBqlrPkzHctTm3KTaHfqxKz_p" style="height: 289px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 175px;" width="175" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NO, they are not!</span></em></strong></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="rg_hi" data-height="189" data-width="267" height="189" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPus-62qillEdeMqFnPy5mrHVbSmDP1yiUryeKDoq88Biq1SmzhA" style="height: 189px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 267px;" width="267" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CURE Childhood Cancer</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week's cause is for Clean Drinking Water in India. Children are dying for lack of clean water and the money raised through this week's purchases will be used to drill three wells.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dudes (and dudettes) at Sevenly have segregated their company's mission down into 7 major categories: slavery, water, hunger, aid, poverty, medical and disaster. The twist is that each cause only lasts one week and they only produce t-shirts to fulfill their orders. Once a T is gone, it is gone. Every shirt and hoodie is a limited edition design. The design team is edgy and probably young, and the Tshirt and hoodie quality is <strong>dynamite</strong>. ... soft, very high quality, and wash well. This is not your scratchy buy-for-$5-at-discount-store-and-slap-a-logo-on-it kind of shirt!</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I highly encourage you to check out </span><a href="http://www.sevenly.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.sevenly.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. When you get your goods in the mail, their packaging says "WHOA DANG. Look at you changin' the world and stuff"</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Exactly</strong>.</span><br />
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</div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-24123742051100770572012-03-21T17:11:00.001-04:002012-03-21T17:14:50.929-04:00RAOK #28 - Rock 'n' Roll<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are some defining moments in everyone's life when you know that things are never going to be the same again. The end of high school, your first love, marriage, children, deaths of family and friends.. . .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And your oldest teenager (your first baby) getting her driver's license and backing out of the driveway without you for the first time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This momentous occasion happened to me just two short weeks ago. . . right in the same time frame as the depressing diagnosis about my knee pain AND the birthday that threw me closer to 50 than 40. My mortality has hit me square in the face....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm going to go eat some chocolate and I'll get back with you in just a second.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, I'm back. Thank God for Girl Scout Thin Mints, the non-prescription anti-depressant for aging women everywhere. <em>Hmm, I think I'm onto a marketing strategy here. I need to contact Girl Scouts USA immediately so they can capitalize on my brilliance.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, I have to confess that I have not been near as worried or upset about my daughter driving as I ought to be. This is primarily because almost every single weekday since August 21, I have spent at least 2 1/2 hours in my car - <em>every. stinking. day.</em> It's a long boring story but our children are not all in the same schools, they have a variety of extracurriculars, youth group, and the annoying "I have a __________ due tomorrow" phenomenon that occurs in American households on a weekly basis. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Tip for you parents of younger kids? STOCK UP on posterboard and cake mixes/frosting the next time you see a sale and store it in your house anywhere you can. I promise, you will thank me at 9pm some night!! And if you don't have eggs? You can substitute 1.5 cups of carbonated beverage for the eggs and oil and still come out with a decent cupcake. Yeah . . .been there, done that.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My faith in God and the fact that my daughter is an honor student, responsible, and conscientious has a lot to do with my alarming lack of worry. She really has become a good little driver. But a lot of it is also due to the fact that I FINALLY HAVE MY LIFE BACK.<em> (Well, a little bit). </em>When she pulled out of the driveway to pick up the siblings, the sense of freedom I felt from the prison I call a car was absolutely exhilarating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Being that I am not a totally bad mom, that brings me to RAOK # 28 - Rock 'n' Roll. My kids are typical teenagers in the fact that they love to listen to music. They actually have pretty broad tastes ranging from Christian, pop, and country. The one thing I noticed about my daughter is that she will change the station when she doesn't like what is on. What teenager doesn't do this? My concern, however, is that moment of looking down. As a new driver, I don't want her doing it! So, I went through iTunes and created a playlist for the teens that I knew they would love and I burned a CD for them. This keeps them happy with music, and it keeps Mama happy knowing that she won't be running off the road trying to change the radio station. The kids were <em>very</em> excited about their CD!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It's also a little RAOK for all you locals on the road! :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">P.S. I can't end the "Rock 'n' Roll" post without putting a picture of me and Jon Bon Jovi on here. Front row seats last year for my birthday. AMAZING!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I took this with my camera!</span></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-88742626919350015652012-03-21T07:11:00.000-04:002012-03-21T07:44:45.880-04:00RAOK #27 - Knight-in-Training<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have followed my blog from the beginning, it is pretty clear how much I adore my daughters. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I adore the son too but I haven't talked much about him yet, so in the never-ending and pointless quest of every parent to always appear "fair", I wanted to do a RAOK that would be special for him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, the son is a handsome charmer. He can tell a story and has never met a stranger. He's only 14 and is already 6'0" and 210 and obviously as a boy, he's not done growing. I remember the day I noticed he was eye-level to me. I'd been watching for it to happen and it did, the last day of school 2 years ago. Since then he has shot up almost 11 inches! Amazing process, this adolescence thing. Expensive too - I can't keep the boy in pants that fit!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus far we have found that raising a boy in today's cultural climate is not easy. Training a boy to be a man in a society that constantly undermines men is tough. For example, you can hardly watch a TV program without the dad/husband/main male character being portrayed as a fumbling buffoon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is probably not going to win me any points with whatever feminist readers I have, but I believe that the traditional roles work better than this mixed up "anything goes" point of view that our society seems to embrace. I am not saying that women should not be afforded opportunities or fair pay. If you know me, you would know that it would be totally hypocritical of me to say after being in a successful career for years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The point is, though, our young men need to be trained and empowered to be leaders of society, of community, and of family. I believe that the traditional roles of men should be honored and men should be supported in what they do, not belittled. Young men need to be taught the right way to be men, to be protectors, to be honorable, and to stand up for what is right. . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So for RAOK #27, I designed a poster and ordered it for his room. Our son loves history. He loves medieval legends, tales of dragons, King Arthur, the knights, and Civil War stories<em>.</em> He and his dad adore weapons and warfare history of all kinds - swords, daggers, and guns <em>(Don't freak out now. We don't have a mini Waco compound here. However, do know if you break into our home, we are well prepared!!)</em> I did some research on the "Knight's Code" and developed a good list of character qualities from it that we are trying to instill and that I would love my son to possess as a man. The poster also has a really cool picture of a bad-boy Knight on it that he will love. We'll frame it and put it in his room over his bed and I know he will read it over and over. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Hopefully, this and our training will sink in and we'll have ourselves a real live Knight one of these days!! Young ladies, watch out ;)</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-81682599857812831942012-03-20T07:57:00.002-04:002012-03-20T08:12:00.245-04:00RAOK #26 - MoNsTeR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Monster Energy Drink - legal speed for teenagers everywhere and breakfast for exhausted and overworked moms across the nation! <em>Actually, I prefer coffee in the morning and Sugar Free Red Bull for my afternoon energy boost, but that's just me.</em><br />
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What does it say about our society that we are all so tired you can buy legal amphetamines in a bottle at every grocery store, gas station, and superstore? Wikipedia says <strong>90%</strong> of North Americans consume caffeine daily. I'm sure there is some deeper meaning to ponder. . . but I'm just too tired.<br />
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Some lucky dog got their Monster fix for free after my RAOK #26. At this particular venue, the Monsters run $1.78, so I taped $2 and a card onto the fridge. It wouldn't be a complete RAOK without tax included, now would it??<br />
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Hopefully they took all that extra energy and did something nice for someone else. One can always hope. . .<br />
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</div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-11614477032785688112012-03-19T21:50:00.003-04:002012-03-19T21:50:41.476-04:00Love your neighbor...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7l57fsP-W0eNegze8WEEN9M6PgJgYBHHEhTZXhm3Yvb971BNwAP_CKHyZZwYRDlFZtHhIYE-vfPFPPpyUk_BPsOf0VBwemZrACe0W_kpaiuLl_QB2R7xKAvm_2oz-NdJ3R-XLW4X-8MLg/s1600/Love+your+neighbor+-+Page+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7l57fsP-W0eNegze8WEEN9M6PgJgYBHHEhTZXhm3Yvb971BNwAP_CKHyZZwYRDlFZtHhIYE-vfPFPPpyUk_BPsOf0VBwemZrACe0W_kpaiuLl_QB2R7xKAvm_2oz-NdJ3R-XLW4X-8MLg/s400/Love+your+neighbor+-+Page+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-36967338910180099242012-03-19T16:18:00.000-04:002012-03-19T16:18:08.947-04:00RAOK #25 - Crafty goodness! Lucky day!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm back! After a short hiatus for my birthday weekend, I am ready to get on with the business of sharing all of my fun RAOK that wrapped up my mission. If you didn't see my earlier post, I did complete the 46 RAOKs by my birthday weekend as planned. (Yea!!) However, I didn't have time to raise 4 children, do the RAOKs and write about them. So I chose to raise the kids and get the RAOKs done and then write about them afterwards. You will see the remaining 21 posts coming up here in the next few weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My birthday weekend started out with Craft Club. I moved here 4 years ago and knew no one. I figured out quickly that I was going to have to design opportunities to meet people so one thing I did was join a Moms' Group and offer to host a Craft Club. If you know me or read my profile, you know I absolutely love crafting and especially scrapbooking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has become a monthly tradition that is one of my favorite things I do all month. About one Friday night a month I gather up friends and we have A BLAST! We share all our personal stories and we laugh so hard every time. The hubs told me he's jealous and wants a Dad Group (<em>his would be a Gun Club versus a Craft Club though</em>) because he can hear us howling downstairs and having so much fun!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I scheduled the March Craft Club for the Friday before my birthday because we go until midnight (or after) and I knew that would ring in my birthday on a fun note. The gals surprised me with a sweet card, a cake, and some delicious frozen custard from a local shop around here. Yum!! I surprised them with a RAOK - <em>Is today your lucky day?</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I gave them each a $2 scratch off lottery ticket. Now, I personally don't play the lottery and hardly any of them do either. The odds of winning the lottery are less than getting struck by lightning so I prefer just to keep my money. <em>Although my dad plays and he won $17,000 once on the Hoosier Millionaire show! </em>But it is fun to scratch off the ticket and see if you won something. Especially if someone else paid for the ticket! It was great. Did we have a winner?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKEbnsCC86zw7vAHkVCfks-gaFf11sUrxa3-nLrH1fX4sE9FGdt7Cvh8m_48kJOmjNhWxqexiQAAtl0tOESFTUeinkBo-j9_LBiEOCHuxqNDBFj0IlacDUkIVlsKzrcbohqnXWERCZAojG/s1600/IMG_6694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKEbnsCC86zw7vAHkVCfks-gaFf11sUrxa3-nLrH1fX4sE9FGdt7Cvh8m_48kJOmjNhWxqexiQAAtl0tOESFTUeinkBo-j9_LBiEOCHuxqNDBFj0IlacDUkIVlsKzrcbohqnXWERCZAojG/s400/IMG_6694.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yep! Congratulations to Julie, who won $20! Woot woot!! I love Julie, she's just an awesome person, amazing mom, and so fun!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the printable I made up to attach to the lottery tickets:</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(By the way, in case of some of you astute readers are wondering, NO I am not writing and have never from the beginning written about my RAOKs in chronological order of when they were done for a number of reasons that are too boring to mention. It doesn't really matter, does it?)</span></em>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-24401828799468214082012-03-17T01:26:00.000-04:002012-03-17T01:26:19.175-04:00It's my birthday! Did I do it????<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mission was to complete 46 Random Acts of Kindness by my 46th birthday weekend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I do it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know a lot of you have been worried this last week as the posts slowed down to two a day and wondering if I was just totally going to blow off my goal. If you know me at <em>ALL</em>, you know that doesn't sound anything like me ;) Have a little faith . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I only had 12 days to do 46 things, I have been scrambling!! I realized a few days into it that I could either <em>do</em> all the RAOKS or I could <em>write</em> about what I was getting done, but not both and still hit the goal. The blog writing and picture posting sometimes takes longer than actually doing the acts themselves. <em>(One of my friends told me "But the blog is actually a RAOK in and of itself". Thanks!)</em> Also, I got thrown a curveball with a sick preschooler for 4 days this week and barely left the house until today! So I had to "punt". Some things I had planned had to be scratched and I had to do other things instead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also had a few people tell me that the posts were going up so fast that they could hardly keep up with all the reading and they wanted more time to reflect on what I was writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I made a decision to focus on getting the 46 done and write 2 posts a day. You have read up to RAOK # 24 at this point, but I have actually been way ahead of you since the very beginning. As of right now I am done with 44 RAOKs and the other 2 are ready to go and just have to be executed today. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as I report on what the other 22 RAOKs are, I think you'll really like some of them!! Thanks again for your support!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-55960894948519533222012-03-16T08:15:00.001-04:002012-03-16T08:24:25.759-04:00RAOK# 24 - Call me, call me any, anytime...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like Facebook. A lot. I don't spend much time on there anymore but what I like about it is that I can see what is going on with a friend or a family member with a click of a button. People that were friends of mine from 20 or 30 years ago are on there and now I know what is going on with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Back in my day" people lost track of each other pretty quickly. The generation coming up will have a totally different experience after they leave high school than we did. They may not actually <em>talk</em> to their friends from high school but they will know what has happened to them. . . where they went to college, what stupid things they did there (thanks to the pictures), marriage, babies, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <em>downside</em> to all this great technology is that we've lost touch in a totally different way. I can keep up with old friends but never let them know that I care about what's going on in their lives. I can pop off an email pretty quickly but I'm not going to find out how someone's day was. I can read a "Tweet" but it doesn't tell me their real story. For a country where we know everyone's business . . . we are sadly out of touch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK# 24 was to pick up the phone and call an old friend I haven't talked to in awhile. I chose my friends Steve and Cindy. I met them in January 1990 at the Poconos in Pennsylvania. It was a random meeting where we were sitting at one table for dinner and they were sitting at another. Somehow we started talking over the tables to lament how awful the resort was. They had been married the day before and flown in for their honeymoon. She had spent the night crying about how nasty her room was and spraying Lysol all over the place. The day before we had complained to the front desk about how nasty our room was and received an upgrade to a better room. A friendship was born.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We spent the week together and our lives were changed forever. For the last 22 years we have stayed in touch (<em>before Facebook!). </em>They live in the New Orleans area and I've visited them many times; ridden on their Mardi Gras float; enjoyed their crawfish boil; become friends with their family (shout out to Mr. Lloyd and Miss Irma and Miss Maggie!) and had the pleasure to watch their family grow by two great kids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been awhile since we have talked so I <em>picked. up. the. phone.</em> and called them. I ended up talking to Steve for about 40 minutes. That's when I made a real live human connection. We talked about all the personal family stuff that you don't put on Facebook, the updates on their family members I know from all my trips, how the kids are doing in school, and their dry-cleaning business. It's all the good real stuff that you really want to know about someone you love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Phone? </em>When it comes to making real connections, Facebook has nothing on you!</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-77271572915564812372012-03-15T18:38:00.002-04:002012-03-15T18:42:42.571-04:00RAOK# 23 - A Little Movie Lovin'<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah, movies. There's nothing like a 2 hour break from real life to be inspired, scared, thrilled, sad, or completely amused to the point of gut-splitting laughter. And buttered popcorn, in my opinion, should be considered its own food group with a Recommended Daily Allowance. Seriously. Sometimes the hubs will drop the kids off at the theatre, GO INSIDE, and pay $8 to buy me one of those big buttery buckets!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that I have always wondered is how in the world you are supposed to pick your "Favorite Movie"? I mean, really! Out of the tens of thousands of movies ever produced in the history of cinematography you are actually supposed to narrow it down to ONE? Yes, please pick between Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, Star Wars (any of them), E.T., Sound of Music, Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Forrest Gump, Lethal Weapon, Good Will Hunting, The Sixth Sense, any of the Bourne movies, The Matrix, and Rocky (<em>Have fond memories of me and my sis sitting on the couch one weekend when we were young adults and our parents were out town. We watched ALL four of the Rocky movies in a row that were out at the time. A Rocky Marathon! We found a lot of discrepancies. Good times, good times.). </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to mention any number of well-written rom-coms like Dirty Dancing, When Harry Met Sally, Miss Congeniality, and Legally Blonde; and the entire suite of Disney movies! I'm sure I'm forgetting ANY NUMBER of great movies on my own favorites list but there are so many I have seen multiple times that I can't even name them all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The biggest bummer about movie watching is when you pay big bucks at the theatre and the movie is a total disappointment. <em>Yep, there's two hours of my life I'll never get back</em> and $25 (remember, movie popcorn. $8 a bucket). Even when you buy a $5 movie in the clearance bin or rent a movie you still get annoyed if the movie stinks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK #23 is a little kindness at the Red Box! Now, I must sheepishly admit that I personally have <em>never</em> even tried Red Box. One reason is because we are lame. Apparently Red Box charges for every day you don't return the movie so for us, we might end up spending that $25 anyway on the rental. Also, we have Netflix and cable with On Demand movies. If we like a movie well enough, we'll buy it and add it to our vast enormous collection of movies. And let's just all agree right now . . . no one buys whatever comes out AFTER Blue-Ray! I'm tired of having to replace my movie collection every time new technology pops up!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR85O6EOBzYLR-bukpphRodf9YNpH5Uv35P9sQrUDXIU41dADga1k9zpfr2vw5ZpKrLjt76uOlwbZ7hL9QkOmc8S8wcGWZ7lrzMNBunT_nzoVnFfjNbUGfju4gprXHkcN-NDDXME4psA5r/s1600/IMG_0388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR85O6EOBzYLR-bukpphRodf9YNpH5Uv35P9sQrUDXIU41dADga1k9zpfr2vw5ZpKrLjt76uOlwbZ7hL9QkOmc8S8wcGWZ7lrzMNBunT_nzoVnFfjNbUGfju4gprXHkcN-NDDXME4psA5r/s320/IMG_0388.JPG" width="239" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh89p6lEjPT8GbPOvnIVgaepbDBqhNpTj34H9-UXqY9ONxih4QjCTMXN8rRrjmj1DNwpxgloJ3Po1ByyHO2mw5UyU3KTY8_R4Utrmt-RoWlfYzdkmW5pOMAPXncI9EqhAAt3x0ACsGpG47U/s1600/IMG_0390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh89p6lEjPT8GbPOvnIVgaepbDBqhNpTj34H9-UXqY9ONxih4QjCTMXN8rRrjmj1DNwpxgloJ3Po1ByyHO2mw5UyU3KTY8_R4Utrmt-RoWlfYzdkmW5pOMAPXncI9EqhAAt3x0ACsGpG47U/s320/IMG_0390.JPG" width="239" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here is a little "movie love" for some stranger getting ready to rent a movie at the Red Box. If it turns out to be a cruddy movie, at least they didn't waste their money .. . .just their time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S. Some random dude and his girl saw me photographing the money/RAOK card and said "Did you just see that on there or are you the one who put it up there?" I told him what I was doing and he was SO excited. Said that it went along with his life philosophy of "paying it forward'. I told him about the blog and gave him my web address. Random dude, if you are reading this, thanks for the encouragement! It's people like you that have made my mission fun!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S.S. Have you ever noticed that it is fine for a play to have a sad or totally tragic ending and we accept that, but if a movie does then we leave all mad because the ending didn't resolve well? Why is that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S.S.S. Did I miss one of your favorite movies? Write it in the comments below (you can post as "anonymous" if you are not a google user, just leave your name if you want me to know who you are!)</span></div>
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<br /></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-37772490821985640682012-03-15T07:04:00.000-04:002012-03-15T07:04:56.236-04:00RAOK #22 - Pennies From Heaven<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a fun one! It started out as a RAOK and turned in to a picnic for my family. When I told the kids what I was doing, a couple of them wanted to come along . . . then one of the daughters thought we could pack a picnic with some leftover chicken we had. Then, the hubby got in on the action and wanted to come too. It was a gorgeous day here and it was great to go out and get some fresh air and sunshine!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Little kids <strong>love</strong> pennies! Remember the excitement when you were little and you found a penny on the ground? That was before you knew that quarters were even better, right? ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAOK #21 was putting a big handful of pennies all over this playground for the kids to find this week. I wish I could be there to see their excitement!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>I must insert an annoying "mom" disclaimer at this point, because, well you know, I'm a mom! I put my pennies on a school playground, which means the kids would be K-6th grade. If you want to do this RAOK, please don't put pennies on the part of the playground for toddlers, who would love to pick up a shiny penny and eat it! </em></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpYJMkylMwFg_LHrI0phJMIRwc5CH08gdPAw4sCZOZSMk98yjAHfaPQNezCofpYMiUN8ISjlsZer5Ei1QjZbAilo2JuUpDYptIJOl1fOWE415u16VtDFdAybG55PyH5_gk9O92PeY55TJ/s1600/IMG_6577+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpYJMkylMwFg_LHrI0phJMIRwc5CH08gdPAw4sCZOZSMk98yjAHfaPQNezCofpYMiUN8ISjlsZer5Ei1QjZbAilo2JuUpDYptIJOl1fOWE415u16VtDFdAybG55PyH5_gk9O92PeY55TJ/s400/IMG_6577+crop.jpg" width="400" yda="true" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part of my fam, enjoying a picnic in the beautiful weather!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We left pennies all over the place! In nooks and crannies, on the ground, and in the slides!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBePj_ktfIMTAndsm6lro4TjwvxelVTcmfH9p4XeWEOMOz-cbwg2QAcy0kbU7dXQ55pVpDr3liKDZd6txk9qqoTv5hPqORMKYWM1CS9tu4OfPkNCV1VhtsqHHeAZwT8N-IH8BO-MKrf5Fb/s1600/IMG_6594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBePj_ktfIMTAndsm6lro4TjwvxelVTcmfH9p4XeWEOMOz-cbwg2QAcy0kbU7dXQ55pVpDr3liKDZd6txk9qqoTv5hPqORMKYWM1CS9tu4OfPkNCV1VhtsqHHeAZwT8N-IH8BO-MKrf5Fb/s400/IMG_6594.JPG" width="400" yda="true" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hubs and the girls. He's the perfect blend of the ultimate male and a big kid at heart!</span><br />
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<br /></div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-22614963036649607562012-03-14T18:39:00.001-04:002012-03-14T18:39:04.861-04:00RAOK #21 - Do NOT Pinch Me<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrl2DJSYRvUxRhH1w_hHKoC1Fj0Clq5cILmrSIoWyVt9xoko36IQh4V0CDq4-qgm6q0A7dTLn6ViQvC0erBA_BOnOgpAncDFsmvjpJlfqV0s4yDTDlYK0PxS624UDY2PSDFNbfmwy9hyYM/s1600/220px-Irish_clover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrl2DJSYRvUxRhH1w_hHKoC1Fj0Clq5cILmrSIoWyVt9xoko36IQh4V0CDq4-qgm6q0A7dTLn6ViQvC0erBA_BOnOgpAncDFsmvjpJlfqV0s4yDTDlYK0PxS624UDY2PSDFNbfmwy9hyYM/s1600/220px-Irish_clover.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you know if you have been reading my blog at all, my birthday is on March 17, which is also St. Patrick's Day. Having a birthday on a "minor holiday" is sort of cool. I know someone whose son was born on Christmas. I would <em>not </em>like to have my birthday on a major holiday like that one. I hope that kid is at least getting double presents every year! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some funny things about having a birthday on St. Patrick's day:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ You will very likely at some point in your life be asked (about 4 dozen times) why you are not named Patricia (or Patrick). <em>Because I was due in FEBRUARY and my mom didn't know I was going to be born on March 17. And she already had my name picked out and she wanted to name me "Justina" not Patricia. </em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ People will ask you if St. Patrick's Day is on the same date every year. <em>(Well.. duh. If my birthday is always on St. Patrick's Day, does my actual birth DATE change every year? No. This is not like Easter and Thanksgiving where you have to spend 5 minutes trying to find a calendar with U.S. holidays on it to see upon which day it falls.)</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ You will probably get a green cake for your birthday every year until you are about 10 or 11 years old and BEG your family to get you a pink cake for once!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ People LOVE to buy greeting cards that combine St Patrick's Day and your birthday . . . I have no idea why. It doesn't bother me and I probably wouldn't even mention this except for the fact that my Grandma J, whom I dearly love and have missed tremendously the last 10 years she has been gone, gave me <em>the same birthday card design </em>three years in a row. I still don't know if Hallmark was too lazy to come up with a new design and that's what Grandma J had to pick from for 3 years running or if she stocked up one year and figured I wouldn't remember. It read:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #6aa84f;"><strong> </strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><strong>"A birthday on St. Patrick's Day means lucky, lucky you".</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ When you <u>have</u> received </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a birthday card for three years that reads <em><span style="color: #38761d;">"A birthday on St. Patrick's Day means lucky lucky you"</span></em>, it is best not to tell your children. Because every single year on your stinkin' birthday they will look at you lovingly and repeat that phrase for the entire week preceding your birthday. "Mom, your birthday is in 3 days. And <em><span style="color: #38761d;">a birthday on St. Patrick's day means lucky lucky you!"</span></em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ Also, one year for your adult birthday your family will present you with a beautiful green cake. You will say "thank you" and mean it, but wonder how in the heck they missed the story that you've told umpteen times (<em>at their request) </em>about getting a green cake for your birthday all the time when you were a kid. Then all four of your kids will start ROLLING on the floor laughing at how clever they are and then bring out your REAL cake, which is not green, but is a delicious 6 layer "Dream" cake from the local bakery. Good one, guys!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ You always know you have to wear <u>green</u> on your birthday. Every year. Or you will get pinched. On your birthday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This brings me to my point. One thing that I have never loved about St. Patrick's day is this moronic tradition of pinching people if they are not wearing green. St. Patrick was a saint who legend says performed miracles, baptized thousands of people, and converted people to Christ. The reason why the shamrock is linked to St. Patrick's Day is because Patrick used the 3 leaves of the shamrock to explain the Christian Trinity - a triune God that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one. (<em>If what I just said is Gaelic to you, call or email me. I'd love to explain.)</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What in the <em>world</em> does any of that have to do with pinching? (Or green beer for that matter.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I probably wouldn't mind too much except I have to wear green on my birthday every year because of some ridiculous tradition, and more importantly, some people pinch HARD. I mean, I've seen people grab flesh and twist and gouge until the other person's arm is really red and you <em>know</em> that hurts. I really don't find it funny much. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So, this year I am borrowing a printable from another website I read and creating these cute PINCH PROOF buttons. The blog writer goes to all this trouble to hot glue little pins to the back, but I'm not. I've printed them out on card stock and I'm just going to stick that thick double stick mounting tape on the back so people can put it on their clothes and then throw it away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm publishing this RAOK before I have actually done it because I don't want you to get pinched! If you don't want to wear green or don't have anything green just print one of these babies out before Saturday and have it ready to tape or safety pin to your clothes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My RAOK will be to have a baggie full of these and pass them out to everyone I see on March 17 that is not wearing green. Instead of getting bodily injuries, they'll get a pass this year!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm new to this blog thing but I don't want to be guilty of stealing anyone's thunder so go to <a href="http://darlingdoodles.blogspot.com/2012/03/pinch-proof-buttons.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Darling Doodles blog</span></a> to download the file and enjoy not being pinched this year!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7uPynssJjdDEgSiv_8h5ndwGUcrT2z2BUrBzFvFt1gLfXehRkS7SIVxnp0F7fl-ojjVEUjjNlEGpnKFLZER4APUxbJwVBiXGV3-d4JpigazUX2EjJ-MEgd1LxScqpxkQ0mGOqnrRsUPRa/s1600/DSCN2816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_7w5udk="2" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7uPynssJjdDEgSiv_8h5ndwGUcrT2z2BUrBzFvFt1gLfXehRkS7SIVxnp0F7fl-ojjVEUjjNlEGpnKFLZER4APUxbJwVBiXGV3-d4JpigazUX2EjJ-MEgd1LxScqpxkQ0mGOqnrRsUPRa/s320/DSCN2816.JPG" width="278" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMpvEu6bL6kuK9JqDmx_SHxOREFXxP2Y0tYiOZJgSXH-3PnbvsdFSyhU2sG-1611mrTa5yrJLBCBSi7zPjj3ZDp6JZZYT9evbHZGWPk326Lb-RMdLmSHFFooriyc0KFFobC3P9NXnUNk-P/s1600/Pinch+Proof+Tags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_fh1dif="3" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMpvEu6bL6kuK9JqDmx_SHxOREFXxP2Y0tYiOZJgSXH-3PnbvsdFSyhU2sG-1611mrTa5yrJLBCBSi7zPjj3ZDp6JZZYT9evbHZGWPk326Lb-RMdLmSHFFooriyc0KFFobC3P9NXnUNk-P/s400/Pinch+Proof+Tags.jpg" width="400" /></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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</div>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990089941086755693.post-90161375380909672902012-03-14T08:05:00.000-04:002012-03-14T13:40:17.897-04:00RAOK #20 - I'm Awkward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDcFvA61-vcO-dWOPdLT1h73QkQuDwtfpZutrz1dn81F6AgczpHL0rXA6upqsAM3illMUPpxkcZzJtQL3tWlxlVWjef3VFE7A2kRP1k-9r7CtbU30o91tALC8c7qNbEL2KbUN6BLY46AwY/s1600/scan0007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDcFvA61-vcO-dWOPdLT1h73QkQuDwtfpZutrz1dn81F6AgczpHL0rXA6upqsAM3illMUPpxkcZzJtQL3tWlxlVWjef3VFE7A2kRP1k-9r7CtbU30o91tALC8c7qNbEL2KbUN6BLY46AwY/s320/scan0007.jpg" width="268" yda="true" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True confession time. When it comes to acknowledging someone who has lost someone close to them or has a serious illness like cancer, I'm awkward. I have all these grand ideas and intentions in my head of things I want to say, write, or do. And many times I do nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's awful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's not because I'm not thinking about and praying for that person (because I am) or that I don't have the <em>heart</em> to encourage them. I think it is because I am afraid I am going to say the wrong thing or send something that reminds them of what they are going through. Who am I kidding? If someone has recently lost a loved one or has cancer or a serious illness, most of the time they're thinking about it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Putting myself in the place of those people, I am ashamed of myself. When they are experiencing what is likely one of the most difficult times of their life, they stop hearing from people. I am not the only one who does this. A <em><u>lot</u></em> of people do this when someone they know is going through their own personal hell. People just shut down and get all awkward and make excuses. Sometimes the person who is ill is acknowledged in the beginning, but as their treatment progresses and they are still in need of friendship and love, people sort of forget about them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are several people in my life right now who need my support. There will be future posts on this, but for today I'm going to focus on my Uncle Les.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He's 83 years old and still as charmingly ornery as he's always been. He's married to my Aunt Kathy who is a lot younger, but it never mattered because they go together like peanut butter and jelly. Secretly (I've never told them this before) I always watched them and admired their marriage. They always seem to get along well and he dotes on her in many ways. One time when I was about 20 years old I stayed at their house. He was retired and she was still working and I watched him get up early just to make a cup of coffee for her to start off her day right <em>(he made one for me too!). </em> I remember thinking that someday I wanted to be married to someone who would do all those little things for me. Fortunately, I am. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uncle Les has leukemia now and is undergoing chemo. Instead of being my usual awkward lame self, I did something about it last week. I bought a Get Well card and I sent it with a little personal note. I know. . . la-ti-freaking-da for me, right? But the fact is, I did <em>something</em>. Anything. I told him I loved him and was praying for him. . . I acknowledged the tough time he is having . . . and I gave him a tangible reminder that he is important to me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If there is someone in your life right now who is facing a crisis, pick up the pen or the phone. Stop procrastinating or making excuses. They need to hear from you right now, even if it is just a measly Get Well card.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If you think about it, say a prayer for ole Uncle Les too. Love you Uncle Les!</span>Justinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05412209275566376827noreply@blogger.com3