My husband...my redemption

Today, my hubby, the rugrat, and myself were having lunch at Wendy's. Two men entered dressed in uniform. We knew they weren't Army or Marines, so my husband approached them and asked, "What branch of military?" They replied, "Air Force." My husband proceeded to give the cashier his credit card and said, "This lunch is on me."

In the car on the way home my husband said, "There you go hunny. I was inspired by your giving challenge."

Is he great or what?!?!?

Priceless

Simon Cowell's wardrobe - $5,674
Simon Cowell's hairstylist - $678
Simon Cowell's look of disbelief - priceless

More pathetic

Here we are, almost a week later, and there has been no "giving", no flowers, nothing to report for my 29 Day Giving Challenge. I truly thought leaving that last post would encourage, force, mandate that I have something to report the next day. Unfortunately, the next day was met with a sickly child who stayed home with me for the remainder of the week where we had a flurry of doctor appointments. The rugrat has been complaining of tummy pain for quite some time so we have been meeting the doctor every week to rule out everything. This week was a treat!! We have been collecting stool samples! Yea! Yeah...you know stool? Crap. Poop. S%$t. The brown stuff, sometimes green. God knows with the rugrat! We go back next Thursday for a report on what they found in the samples.

Pathetic

It has been five days and I have not done anything for the 29 Day Giving Challenge. I feel terrible. In addition, I did not go to church today. One of the ideas at 29Gifts.org is passing out flowers. Tomorrow I will buy a bouquet of flowers and pass them out. I'm not sure to who yet, but I'm giving away flowers. I'll came back and update tomorrow night.

Tuesday August 19, 2008

29 Day Giving Challenge - Today I was at CVS Drugstore and outside was a homeless woman. I thought about giving her the money in my purse, but figured she would use it to buy whatever put her there on the street in the first place. So I approached her and asked her if there was anything she needed in the store. I suggested something to eat, like a Lunchable or something, and she liked that idea and requested ham instead of turkey...well okay then! I picked up a Lunchable with ham, two bottles of water, a small pack of Hawaiian bread, and some soft chocolate chip cookies. She was thankful and and seemed very touched although...

The worst part - when I brought her the bag, she said, "I don't drink water." That was kind of yucky because I think everyone drinks water. I replied with, "Well...that's what I got."

The best part - My two-year-old watched the whole thing. I have heard it's not what we parents say, it's what we do that they pay attention to.

Monday August 18, 2008

29 Giving Challenge - ZIP - The day runs away from me and before I know it I'm in bed.

Another example of the difference between men and women

Went back to chuch

I went back to church today. This time I brought hubby and the little rugrat. The little one wasn't too sure what was going on with all the singing and prayer, and for a moment quietly watched and assessed the situation. When the time came to share peace with your neighbor he became quite shy, yet when the pastor approached us he began talking up a storm. It was interesting to me. After approximately ten minutes of service, he was done and off he went to the playground with dad. I enjoyed the service and really want to find a place I can attend regularly, but I'm not sure this is the one. They are changing their Sunday service from 10:45 a.m. to 9:30a.m. on September 7th and I don't think that's going to work for us. I'm also concerned that their attendance, at that particular church, has dropped in half and it doesn't appear as if they'll survive these economic times. That’s a bummer...because it's right around the corner from us and would be a great mini walk during the fall. I'll be checking out some other churches that have early evening services on Saturday and/or Sunday over the next few weeks.

29 Day Giving Challenge - I gave a five dollar bill at church. This particular five dollar bill came from hubby's wallet.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

What a great day! Saturday morning Grams and Auntie picked the rugrat up at 11 a.m. Grrreeeat! My hunny and I had the day to ourselves. We had lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant then off to the grocery store. Yes, the grocery store. Although not the most romantic, it was nice just the two of us leisurely strolling through the market without the anticipation of the rugrat getting rambunctious, screaming, or yelling out some sort of demand of wanting to go home. After that, there were a few hours of lounging then it was off the Dodger game! We haven't been back, just the two of us, since he proposed in 2004. It was a pretty great game too! The Dodgers took it into extra innings and got the crowd roaring! So thrilling! The night ended with an awesome display of fireworks!

29 Day Giving Challenge - Three dollars to the woman right outside the Dodger Gift Shop Clubhouse. The nicest thing about giving that three dollars...I didn't know it was Think Cure night at Dodger's Stadium.

As it should be

I'm not a big fan of the military, but there is something to be said about people that enlist and fight for our country. This commercial evoked so much emotion for me so I wanted to share.

Today...

Today was spent with the two boys! The morning consisted of Rice Krispies and hide and seek. This afternoon we cruised down to Malibu and had lunch with the hubby! That's always nice to see him during the day and the added bonus of getting to smell his scent is even better. I know, I know... that sounds like we're animals. But come on ladies, don't you love the scent of your man? After lunch we visited the local community center for some basketball and dropped off a bag of goodies.

I feel bad that I didn't give Wednesday, or yesterday. The day ran away from me and before I knew it the evening was here and it was time for baths and bed.

29 Day Giving Challenge - Me and the kids took a bag of canned goods and such to the community center for a local food drive.

This is fun!

29 Day Giving Challenge - Today I was buying Starbucks Gift Cards for Giftbaskets at my son's preschool. I paid for the woman's drink who ordered before me. I must say it was a pretty cool feeling! She begged me to tell her how to pay me back. I told her to not worry about it. However, I should have said, "29gifts.org."

Okay, so I've now learned two lessons - Give the $5 bill instead of two $1 bills at church and when giving to a person and if they ask how to pay it back I will reply, "29gifts.org"

Third day...

29 Day Giving Challenge - Today I said hello to my neighbor. I haven't said hello to my neighbor in almost a year. She and I had a falling out due to her constant intrusiveness in everyone's business. One day she was in my business and I snapped at her. She didn't like that and stopped talking to me. On the positive side, she hasn't been in my business for almost a year. The negative - she IS my neighbor and I would hate for there to be some sort of crisis. Unfortunately, for our neighborhood I'm not the only one who has an issue with her. All of the other neighbors have had some sort of issue with her at one time or another. However, today I said hello and she responded with a blip of sound out of the side of her mouth. Even though she was callous about it and it kind of hurt my feelings, I felt better about myself!! :)

Tonight I showered the little rugrat. I'm lucky enough to have a husband who gives him his bath every night, but tonight I gave him the night off! I love you, hunny!!

Church

Today I went to church service, just to go, for the first time in...you know I really can't say because it's been way too long...years and years. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school. My studies were centered on religion and it was mandatory that I attend church. I think, in a way, I felt forced to act and obey by certain rules. What kid likes that? So for a long time, when the choice was mine, I stopped going. Mistake? Maybe, but I'm learning things differently now.

I've been looking for something for my two-year-old. I want him to have some sort of higher belief in life. I don't care if it's Judaism, Catholicism, Kabbalah...don't care. I just want him to have someone to talk to when he feels he can't talk to anyone else. Why would I feel that way? About five years ago I was struggling with some anxiety. I was scared and wasn't sure where to turn. By this time in my adult life I had already moved about an hour away from everything I knew. One day, while struggling with this angst, I spotted a church St. Paschal - Saint, huh? That rung a bell so I turned the car around and pulled into the parking lot. Oddly, I could feel myself becoming nervous. I apprehensively approached the church and walked through the doors and within minutes I was crying inconsolably - thankfully, it was four in the afternoon and no one was around. The smell, the water, the altar, the pews...it was all too familiar. I'm not sure if the crying was because I felt guilty that I hadn't been in such a long time or what, I think it was guilt. Because here I was struggling and now I was coming to God for strength after so many years had passed. I was mad at myself that I didn't continue what I was raised to believe because even though I was crying uncontrollably there was something peaceful about being in that church. It was cleansing in a strange sort of way.

Today, I went to church. I put in a prayer request for my friends. When I heard the pastor say their names out loud to all these strangers it was incredibly moving, even now as I type that it's incredibly moving. I'm going back next week.

29 Day Giving Challenge - Today I gave $2 at church. However, now I wish I would have given them the $5 dollar bill I had in my purse.

Today is the day...

Okay, today is the day I am going to start sharing my blog with others. I didn't want to for a while because I was shy about what I had written thus far. There was only one person, besides my husband, who knew about this blog and read it. Oddly, she and I have never met face to face, but connected through a family photo session. I guess I felt if she really didn't know me it wouldn't hurt. She mentioned that the blog was really personal and that made me a bit self conscious (no worries, no harm done). I was kind of using the blog as a journal, personal thoughts, maybe therapeutically. However, I have come to the conclusion that I am missing a lot in the land of blogging because of my reluctance to share.

In the last 48 hours something dawned on me...about a month ago I shared a story with one person, through that one person tons of prayer, thoughts, and support came flowing through for this story. It was a really awesome feeling to know that because of that one email that I shared with that one person, so much came from it! I mean a really awesome feeling!!!

Tonight I realized not sharing of myself keeps others from sharing with each other. Who knows what kind of connection, help, or support someone may get from reading my blog. I've been connected to lots of blogs from others and those blogs are the blogs I read.

This day, today, tonight I am giving myself.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi -

Love it!