Happy Blogiversary to Me!

One year ago yesterday I started up Life’s Little Adventures with this post. I had no clue what I was doing, only that I’d read a few blogs and thought it seemed like a great way to keep family up to date on our lives. I intended to write an anniversary post yesterday, but I was distracted by the whole charitable giving theme.

Over the past year I think my ability to put my thoughts out there has improved. I’m able to express myself alot better than I was before, and I’m less self-conscious about my most innermost thoughts and feelings. I’m not sure yet if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s most definitely true. I’m able to say things here that I probably wouldn’t say out loud, and yet my family and friends still hear me. Perhaps it’s a more cowardly way of telling people off? Or a more gentle approach? Who knows? But, it works.

Also, I’ve met several very interesting people. My blogroll has grown and evolved to include several members of my family and more than one person that I’d call a friend, even though I’ve never met them in real life. My life is better for blogging, that’s for sure.

In honor of this milestone, I’m going to post something that I’ve always wanted to post. Something that, just now, after an entire year, I’m able to post. Because it’s only been recently that people have begun finding me with internet searches. So, without further ado, I present to you Weird Search Strings That Have Lead People To My Blog:

1. Alissa Died–well, no, I didn’t. But OK.
2. photos hillbilly backyard vegetable gardens
3. Spell Callie–I think you just did…
4. To have enough food is good and to have friends is nice but to have both is a true blessing– you are right.
5. Little Adventures Clearance
6. How do I find an ingrown toenail?–I think you’ll know if you have one!
   
7. Authentic Narnia costumes–well, mine wasn’t authentic, you know…
8. Naked chicks dancing around naked--how that led here I don’t know
9. What? What! What.
10. Party party party ’til the cows come home home home.

So, there you go. Of course, I didn’t include several (OK, most) of them, because it’s truly sick what people search for on the internet. And I don’t want the actual nasty phrases posted here for them to find again. Wackos.

Have a nice day, ya’ll!

Generosity

A few minutes ago I was having a conversation with several of my co-workers. General stuff, and somehow or another we got on the subject of charity. More specifically, angel trees and the Salvation Army bell ringers that are so prevalent this time of year. I had shared my practice of changing $50 to one dollar bills and stuffing some in the Salvation Army buckets each time I go into a store, and someone else had told us what they had gotten their ‘angel’ for Christmas.

I was really surprised to learn that one particular co-worker doesn’t believe in charity. She doesn’t believe in sponsoring a child from the angel tree, or a child from a poor country, or in putting her spare change in the Salvation Army bucket. She feels that she works for her money and everyone else should, too, and if they’re “too lazy to get a job” (her words, not mine) then it’s their own fault that they don’t have enough money for gifts or for a holiday meal.

Now, this woman and her husband make nice salaries. I wouldn’t say they’re rolling in money, but they’re definitely comfortable. Together they make a good bit more than Andy and I bring home. They have 3 children, who get all that their little hearts desire and then some. They are regular church-goers, attending a local Baptist church twice on Sundays and again on Wednesday night.

I have to say that I think she has a very selfish attitude. To not give, when you most definitely could, just seems wrong. She went on to tell us that her family doesn’t even donate or give away old baby clothes or toys. They’ll sell them at consignment or throw them away. That little fact in particular really bothered me, because I passed alot of my children’s clothing on to her once my boys had outgrown it. I never dreamed she was profiting off of it, even if it was only a few dollars. Or throwing it in the trash?! Oh my.

I am not rich. And I’ll be the first to admit that my children have alot of stuff. They’re getting nice gifts for Christmas. But it’s important to help those that cannot help themselves, and no matter how stupid or selfish or lazy some parents are, that’s no reason for their children to be punished. The fact of the matter is, alot of those parents are trying really hard. Some of them are in really bad situations, having left abusive partners or having lost jobs that they could not afford to lose. And they’re not asking for things for themselves, they’re just asking for a nice Christmas for their children.

I try to be charitable all year round. It’s easy to find causes with Andy working the job that he does–he knows of many, many families that need help. But at Christmastime, it seems extra important. I’m giving my $50 the Salvation Army, and I was going to leave it at that. But now I’m thinking we might could do more. So, I think to make up for the selfishness of others (because I’m sure she’s not the only one that feels the way that she does) the boys and I will go tonight and get some angels from the tree downtown. One for each of them. And they can choose what to purchase for their angel, and we’ll drop it off together.

I’m not saying that folks should put themselves in the poorhouse to give to charity. Really, if you can’t afford it, it’s alright. But if you can afford nice clothing and toys for your children and yourselves, certainly you could afford to buy one extra toy or outfit for a child that otherwise might not get a Christmas. Right?

Meet My Mom

I think I forgot to tell you guys that my mom has a blog now. Possibly I linked to it once, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually mentioned it.

So, my mom has started blogging. Check her out over at Life is Good!

More on Christmas

I guess there will probably be alot of posts between now and December 25 concerning Christmas stuff. Traditions, activities, and memories. So just get ready!

Tonight we followed our own family tradition and took the boys to Broadbent’s to choose an ornament for the tree. Broadbent’s is a local store that has a Christmas Shoppe all year round, but during the Christmas season they go all out. Every year since we’ve been married Andy and I have chosen a new ornament there for our tree. Each year since the boys were born we’ve gotten them an ornament, too. And as soon as they’re old enough, they get to choose their own ornament.

So, after picking them up from the sitter, Andy and the boys and headed to the “ornament store”, as Drew calls it. It’s about a 10 minute ride, and they were thinking hard about what they wanted all the way there. As soon as we walked into the store, however, all thoughts flew out of their little heads. They were absolutely overwhelmed by all the Christmas ornaments and decor.

The store isn’t huge, but it’s cram-packed full of stuff. Easily 25 trees of all sized, each done up in a different theme. Tables and tables of Santas and snowmen and trains and gingerbread. Christmas music playing from speakers. An entire room dedicated to Christmas villages, and another just for nativity items.

After about 15 minutes of wandering, they had each chosen their special ornament for the year. Drew chose a blown glass cat, complete with a feathery collar and striped tail. Nick chose a big Santa, holding the traditional green toy sack. I chose a carved wooden ornament, painted a lacquered blue and dotted with hand-carved wooden daisies and ladybugs. And I did visit the nativity room, but nothing was right.

After the shopping, we decided to eat supper at Cracker Barrel, which was right there near Broadbent’s. It was during this meal that I discovered something very interesting: Santa Claus was named after Nick.

I guess they read “The Night Before Christmas” today at Trish’s house, and Nick realized that Santa’s name is St. Nicholas. He’s decided that Santa must have been named after him. Hmmm. I asked him if he didn’t think possibly Santa had that name first, seeing as how he has been around for years and years. Nope. Santa was named after Nick.

Anyway, after eating we were browsing around in the Cracker Barrel store. Isn’t that the rule? Can you eat there and not shop? I found a snow globe with a nativity scene in it. It was pretty enough that I picked it up–and discovered that it was musical. I wound it up out of curiosity. It plays Silent Night and it sounds exactly like the nativity scene that my parents have. Of course, I had to have it. I didn’t even look at the price–I just took it straight to the register. Fortunately for me it was only $14.99, and on sale, even, so I only paid about $12.00.

So, we came home with 3 new ornaments and a small piece of my childhood contained in a small glass globe. I won’t be needing to set out that Wal-Mart nativity after all. I’m still on the lookout for the perfect one, because it’s important to me to have one. But by purchasing this nativity globe with the essential wind-up music, I’ve bought myself some time. I can wait for the hanging Gloria a little longer.

Silent Night

When I was growing up, holidays were a big deal in our house. My mom had decorations for every occasion, ranging from cardboard cutouts that hung on the walls to ceramic statues, wreaths for the doors, and all sorts of neat stuff. Of course, we had more decorations for Christmas than for any other time of the year.

Some of those things stand out so clearly in my head. They are part of the holiday. They are so clear in my memories that they mean Christmas to me.

Of course there was the tree. And the ornaments. My parents have a very eclectic selection of Christmas ornaments. There are the Shiny-Brite glass ornaments that came from another generation’s trees. The collectible ornaments from various vacations. Handmade ornaments–sequined balls, crocheted stars, and beads in the shape of snowflakes and stars. The ornaments for each child engraved with our names, plus one for Roscoe–our dog in the 70’s. The tree always has colored lights, and bubble lights. And it’s never artificial.

Also part of Christmas is a red plastic bell with artificial holly on the top. It has a light and an electronic music box inside, and the light pulses with the music. I love it. And in the bathroom goes a Santa bank, and a little plastic Santa from the 50’s or 60’s. He’s in a chimney, on a spring. You can push him down into the chimney and he pops back out. Yes, the bathroom gets decorations, too.

Perhaps the most important thing, to me anyway, is the nativity scene. It’s nothing fancy, purchased from a discount store in the 70’s. It includes a creche, that has a light and a wind up music box that plays Silent Night. Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are attached. Then there’s a camel, a donkey, some sheep, and a shepherd that you can arrange yourself. And Gloria, the angel, who hangs from a peg at the top of the creche. I love the nativity scene. For a long, long time it’s been my job to set it up. There are 2 green hand towels, as old as the scene itself, that serve as grass. It usually went on the bottom half of a large, cube-shaped end-table. I spent alot of time arranging and re-arranging the figures to make sure they were just right. When you wound it up, it played for forever. Silent Night. I love the sound. I can hear it in my mind right now. There was more than one night that I wound it up and fell asleep listening to it play.

My brothers had a wonderful time messing with me. They loved to move the pieces around just to watch me fix them back. Sometimes they’d add an army man or a dinosaur or a Hot Wheel, just to be funny. Or maybe they’d temporarily remove a piece. It’s all part of the tradition.

When I moved out on my own, I began looking for my own nativity scene. Unfortunately, none of them are right. I can’t find one that fits into my ideas for the perfect Christmas. Mostly, it’s Gloria. I want her to hang on the creche. And you don’t usually find that–the angel stands off to the side. Or maybe the manger doesn’t play music. Or the figurines look too cartoonish. Or they have the right look, but they’re all glued down. Or it’s great big, or little tiny. I did find one, once, on e-bay. It was the exact one that I remember from my childhood, just missing one of the sheep. They wanted $450 for it. I couldn’t do that. This one is close. Gloria hangs in the right spot. The figures have the look I’m going for. It’s not musical, though. I’d miss Silent Night. And I’d need to purchase the sheep and camel and shepherd separately. That’s alot of $$. It’s tempting, however…

Last year, after Christmas, I broke down and purchased one on clearance from Wal-Mart. It’s almost right. It’s the right size, and the figurines are close to what I need them to be. But the angel doesn’t hang–she stands. And it doesn’t play music. I still don’t know if I’ll put it out or not.

I’d almost rather not have one at all than to have the wrong one.

edited to add: mom, do we have a photo of the nativity scene anywhere? i’d like to share…

Photo Sunday #9: Let the Sun Shine

Visitors, a wedding, and a nifty new gadget

Being as I took the easy way out for my post last night, I’ll do my best to be a bit more forthcoming this evening.

On Thursday evening my youngest brother, Doug, and his wife, Kellie, arrived for a visit. I was excited simply because we don’t see each other often–we live far apart and our schedules don’t coincide at all. The boys were excited because Kellie is their favorite person in the entire world. Kellie arrived at the house and I nearly ceased to exist. She was in charge of the bath, and stories, and coloring, and bedtime. Fine by me. I was ready for a break. We had a great time–a picnic and exploring on Friday, and then they watched the boys for me while I photographed that wedding. They stayed all the way through dinner and until bedtime, and then headed home. It was a really nice visit.

Now, about that wedding. I think I did an alright job. I’m still editing the photos, but when I get them finished I’ll put a selection up on the Life Moments photo blog and let you know. I gotta tell you, though, it was way more stressful than I thought it would be. I was so worried that I’d forget someone or totally miss something obviously wrong. And this morning my arm and shoulder muscles are a little sore from so much time holding the camera up. But all in all I think they’ll be happy. I hope so, anyway. And I gave out some of my cards to the guests with children (they asked! I didn’t just solicit business at someones wedding) so I may get some additional portrait shoots out of the experience.

Have you guys ever used the Swiffer Carpet Flick? We just got one, and it’s the neatest thing. It’s got this little sticky board that picks up all kinds of things off of the carpet. The boys adore it:

I think that’s the best thing about it. They actually fight over who gets to sweep with it. The bottom part of the sticky board got filled up really fast with dog and cat hair, so I wouldn’t rely on the thing to do heavy duty cleaning. But even with the bottom part dirty it picked up small pieces of lint, some stray pieces of cat litter and leaves. And I found out that the Swiffer folks are having a Holiday Home Tour contest where you can enter a picture of your excessive or unusual holiday decorations, or I guess just your home looking all festive, and win a prize. I don’t know that I have anything cool enough to have a chance at winning, but I’m going to send a picture anyway.

Tomorrow is photo Sunday, and perhaps on Monday I’ll share with you my quest for the perfect Nativity scene. Just so you know, I moved out of my parents’ home 10 years ago and I still don’t own one because I haven’t found one to meet my exacting specifications.

Cheating

I had a very busy day. My brother and sister-in-law were visiting, and I had that wedding to photograph. I am tired. I have a headache. So I’m cheating. Here are snapshots from my day. I’ll elaborate tomorrow, when I can think straight…

click to enlarge

A Day of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here. A day to recognize and give thanks for all the blessings in our lives. A day to spend with loved ones, both in person and through thoughts and memories.

There are many people on my mind today. My parents, who we will not be seeing today. I am lucky to have such wonderful parents. My brothers and their significant others. We are fortunate that Doug and Kellie are making the trip to visit us today, but we won’t see Chip and Shira. My grandpa, in Florida, enjoying the sun and sand. My aunt and uncle and cousins, who make me appreciate the value of a close family. My grandparents who are no longer with us. I miss them alot. Andy’s parents, who live far away and can’t come home. His grandparents and sister, who are just far enough away that a visit isn’t possible around his work schedule. Doris. Our soldiers overseas, fighting for causes greater than themselves. Mark and Mandy, simply because they’re in Hawaii and I’m not.

I have a good life. I have my health and a healthy, happy family. I have a roof over my head and food to eat and clothes on my back. I have friends, both here and in blogland.

Oh, and I have a turkey in the oven and, most importantly, spare stuffing cooking on the stove that I can snack on all day long.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Everybody smile

I figure, if you weren’t smiling before, you certainly are now. Who could look at that photo and not grin? Except, now that I look at it again, Drew looks more like he’s in pain than smiling. But I swear, they were both just acting silly.

It’s been a pretty good day. Really. And I’m glad. I was tired of being crabby.

Good things about today:

• Well, even though it’s Wednesday, it’s like Friday. Because I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. That’s right, a 4 day holiday weekend!
• And, the boss man let us go an hour early today. How nice was that?
• My friend Issa wrote the nicest stuff about me. She thinks I’m funny! How about that? Reading her post absolutely made my day.
• When I got to the farm to pick up Callie and check the cows, I found a new calf. It was not there yesterday, so it’s less than one day old. It looks healthy, from a distance. Mama wouldn’t let me close enough to get a really good look.
• Then, when I came home, Andy had already picked up the boys. They were calmly sitting at the table, coloring. Coloring pictures for me. How nice! And let me say, Nick is becoming quite the artist for only being 3.
• Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. My youngest brother and his wife are coming to visit, and they’re staying tomorrow night. I’m excited, and the boys are beside themselves. Kellie is their favorite person ever.
• I just now saw my friends that are in Hawaii on the television. We have the Kentucky-Memphis ballgame on on ESPN, and there they were in a crowd shot. Cool.
• Not only did Andy pick up the boys, he vacuumed the carpet and did the dishes. So I don’t have to worry about it after he leaves for work.

So, life is looking good. I’ll post tomorrow, but in case you guys are celebrating and don’t get to your computers, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!