Time to SHINE {Pass.It.Forward}

Ever wanted to change the world?  Ever wanted to do something that made a difference?  Ever wanted to change lives?  Ever met Ashley from the SHINE Project?  She wants to change the world, make a difference, and change people's lives.  And she does it.  And she wants others to do it, too.

Today is a HUGE day for the SHINE Project as Ashley is announcing her newest project and website. This project is simple: Pass It Forward.  By giving forward, you can give back. 

Here's the best part...there's a pass it forward card. 

Back view of Pass It Forward card

Here's how it works in Ashley's own words....

Pass It Forward was designed to get people to do little things, everyday, that makes an impact on the community around them. Pass it Forward is designed around a card.  Each card is given a unique ID number. Lets say we're at McDonalds, and I decide to pay for the person behind me in the drive through. I'd give the cashier the card, and tell them to pass it along to the next car when they give them the food that has been paid for. I then go home and log into the website that was on the card, and find my unique ID number. I log into it, and add my information... My first name, city, and a description of what I did....

Let's say the person behind me was you, you would pass it forward to someone else, and then would go home and do the same thing. From the very beginning, you will be able to track where your card goes, and how many people you affect just by doing one simple act of kindness.

Doesn't that sound cool?  And easy to do?  It's like a virtual pat on the back when you register your card and see where and how it blessed others.  Here we are, you and me, with the opportunity to dig our hands in and spread the shine!  We can make this happen.  We can bring a little shine to people.  And we can see just how far our shine will go.  To say I'm excited about this project is an understatement!

As one of the bloggers announcing this project, I will be getting my very own PassItForward card in the mail very soon.  And when I get my card, I'm gonna spread the SHINE!  Then I will come back here and share with you all what I did to PassItForward.  Awesome sauce!

I know you are now as excited as I am, so, go now, do not pass Go, do not collect $200 and find out how you can PassItForward and spread the shine, too!

My Triumphant Return to the Blog (Take 2)

Happy New Year!

To quote LL Cool J, "Don't call it a comeback.  I've been here for years."

No, really, I know I have been absent for a while.  I tried to make a return in the fall, but as we can see that was an epic fail.  However, now I'm back in my element and I've made some New Year's Resolutions.  One is to be blog-present.  Even if it's just for a quick hello.  Because, really, who doesn't love when someone says hello!?

To kick off my blogging of 2012, I'm going to introduce a New Year's Resolution within a resolution.  {Whoa, mind blown}.  One of my other resolves is to do a Project 365 (or 366, since it's a Leap Year).  I will take and post one photo everyday for the entire year.  You can go to my other blog and read about Project 365 here and check out my Day 1 photo.

In regard to this bloggity-blog, there will be some awesome posts to come in the new year.  I've got a few tutorials up my sleeve, maybe some fashion, and just more about my general awesomeness. 

Here's to a fabulous 2012!

Random Summer Vacay-ness {and a WINNER!}

I'm nearly a week into my summer vacay and I have spent an equal amount of time busy and relaxing.  So far, David has gone to summer camp for 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings), Momma ran around crazy doing errands on Monday morning, we did the movies on Tuesday and made a trip to the local Game and Fish Office, Momma volunteered at church on Wednesday, Thursday is the water park, and Friday will have me spending some quality time at the local Social Security office.  Do I know how to live, or what?!  I also don't want to forget to mention some good Momma and David naps, in particular the 3 hour one on Tuesday.

The rest of the summer looks to be more of the same.  Though I am hoping for less running around crazy with errands.  There for sure will be a visit to Disneyland for a mini-family reunion, some definite cooling off in the mountains, and hopefully a jaunt over to San Diego for some beach and zoo time.  Oh, how these 8 weeks will fly by!




And now, for the moment you all have been waiting for....our 5-0 Giveaway winner is....

Gin Kelsey @ Life as Topher's Mama

Yay, Gin!  Send me an email with your address, and I will be sending you your fabulous tote!

Produce, Volunteering, and the 5-0 Giveaway

Off and on for the past year I have participated in a produce co-op, Bountiful Baskets.  It's easy, awesome, inexpensive, and delicious!  Each week they offer a variety of fruits and veggies (you usually don't know what you're gonna get until you get it).  There are also "extras" offered, like a case of tomatoes, or ethnic packs (Italian pack, Mexican pack), granola, breads, and even desserts.  It is really easy to order online, then you pick up your goods on Saturday morning.  It is a ton of stuff, even enough to split with another person.  If you have not already participated, check out their website for more info.

Well, in addition to ordering and picking up produce, this past Saturday I volunteered at my pick up site.  The Bountiful Baskets organization is not for profit, but a cooperative of people wanting fresh produce on the cheap.  It all runs on volunteers.  So on Saturday I showed up one hour before pick up time to lend a hand.  I didn't really know what to expect, but I soon found out that it's a lot of work!  A truck brings the produce to the site and it's all hands on deck to unload and distribute the food.  We are talking boxes and cases upon boxes and cases that must be opened and split among 60 or so individual baskets for the folks to pick up and take.  It was a lot of walking, carrying, bending, lifting, and more.  But, it was fun!  Plus, volunteers get a few extra items ;)




Ok, so I did it!  Well, you did it!  Actually, we did it together!  I do the writing, and you do the reading.  I'm up to 50 followers and I'm over the moon!  So, here is the official giveaway.  One of you lucky ducks will get this lovely tote bag.

Here's what you gotta do...

1.  Be a follower of I Heart Andy Gross and leave a comment on this post.
2.  Share about the giveaway on FB, twitter, and/or blog and leave a separate comment for each place you share.

Enter before 10pm on Wednesday, June 15th, and I'll announce the winner on Thursday, June 16th.

Hooray!

Somebody's Having a Birthday {Spoiler Alert: It's Me!}

Hellllloooooooooooo.  It's my birthday!!!

Love this day, not totally loving the age.  Howevs, I don't think of myself as *cough* 35.  Many peeps tell me I don't look that old.  Please, stop.  You're flattering me.  But, really, don't stop.  The thing is, when I think of myself, I don't think, Oh, yeah, that's a gal in her mid-thirties, for sure.  I actually have to remind myself that I'm not 25.  Like, the other night when channel surfing landed me on MTV watching the Real World Las Vegas for a minute 30 minutes when it hits me that I do not relate to these children young adults  because I'm like 10-15 years their senior.  Oh.  Yeah.

Well, it's good to be alive.  It's good to be living this life.  It's good to be having this awesome birthday when awesome people love me and give me awesome presents.  Awe. Some.

So, for my birthday, I thought I'd make a list of 35 random things about me, past and present...

1.  I traverse hallways dotted with nerf gun bullets and step over a variety of bouncing balls in my house at any given time just to get to the bathroom. 

2. I love Coke, not Pepsi.

3.  I could eat orange Tic-Tacs like nobody's business.  I mean, tilt-my-head-back-and-pour-half-the-container-in-my-mouth.

4.  I wanted to be a lawyer.  I even took the LSAT and applied to law school.

5.  The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies and in high school I played an Oz person in a school play.

6.  Speaking of high school, I was on the girls' varsity golf team.

7.  One of my favorite perfume scents is Grass by GapBody.  It smells like, you guessed it, fresh cut grass.

8.  I used to own a pair of mid-calf high black Doc Marten boots.  I liked to wear them with cut-off denim shorts and my favorite Beastie Boys t-shirt.  A picture of fashion, I know.

9.  I have one brother.

10.  I despise don't like birds in real life, but I love anything that has a picture or image of a bird on it.  I even have a bird tattoo. 

11.  My grandmother and mom were both born in Great Britain and didn't become US citizens until 1993 and 2001, respectively.

12.  My first car was a red Honda Prelude.  Loved that thing.

13.  I have more stories than is publically acceptable that involve me laughing so hard I peed my pants.  Two stories involve a shopping cart in a apartment complex parking lot and my bestie, Adam.

14.  I lived and worked at a Christian camp for a year and a half just outside Yosemite in California.

15.  A vintage Dairy Queen print hangs in my kitchen.  It was a wedding gift.

16.  The house we own is the only house the hubs and I looked at before buying.

17.  I met Robert DeNiro.

18.  I used to work for the Governor of Nevada.

19.  I went to the same high school as Carey Hart, the BMX racer and husband to Pink.

20.  I'm named after my paternal grandfather.

21.  My grandma makes my favorite dinner that I like to call "Chicken and Rice and Everything Nice."

22.  When I was very young I would curl up in my grandma's high back velvet chair and eat Kit-Kat bars while wearing a bathing suit, scarf, and boots in the middle of summer.

23.  My grandfather and I would have "cocktails" each evening.  His being vodka on the rocks, and mine being a Coke.  We'd sit at the wet bar in their living room and talk about our day.

24.  One of my son's first outfits was from Neiman Marcus.  I don't even have an outfit from Neiman Marcus.  The hubs calls it Needless Mark-ups.  And, for the record, I didn't buy it.

25.  I love writing with Sharpie fine-tip markers.

26.  I currently go by the following names:  Mommy, Mrs. Gross, Lolo, LG, LD, Scootch.

27.  I have gone by following names in the past:  Laur, LB, LBC, Bar-None.

28.  I have summered on the Jersey Shore.  But I was only 14.  Nothing like the MTV show.

29.  I love Hearst Castle.  If you haven't been there, go.

30.  Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet.  I have been there at least 100 times.  No exaggeration.  I would go back 100 more.

31.  Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my favorite.

32.  I own a pair of Birkenstocks that I've had since I graduated high school.  Seventeen years is a long time to have a pair of shoes.

33.  I have moved no less than 15 times, in my lifetime.

34.  I am addicted to Chapstick Original Flavor.  I have several tubes planted around my house, car, and classroom so that I am never very far from some dry lip relief.

35.  You probably would never guess, but Marie Callendar's restaurant has really good cheeseburgers.  My dad and brother and I used to go there for burgers a lot when I was little.  I love their fresh strawberry and fresh peach pies, too.

Well, here's to 35 more years, and 35 more random facts about me!

Random and Lovin' It

It's Monday.  It's Spring Break.  I'm feeling random.  Here is some of my miscellania mania....

David enjoyed a Sunday drive around the yard in the Jeep he got for Christmas.  He stopped the car, looked at me and said, "I'm going to the drive-thru.  I get french fries."

It's Yuma County fair week and that's a big deal 'round these parts.  It's such a big deal that every school in the county takes Spring Break during the fair.  My favorite part of the fair, aside from the food, is the carcass display.  I'm not really a morbid girl, but there is something about a carcass display that says you live in a small town.  It's my go-to meeting spot when I meet my friends at the fair.  See you at the carcass display!

My son hates getting his nails cut.  Really, really hates it.  I've gotten him to come around with the fingernails.  He "helps" me cut them.  The toes are a different story.  He screams bloody murder.  I have to pin him down and pratically sit on him to hold him still.  It takes about a half hour to get it done.  And everytime I'm surprised that the neighbors haven't called the authorities. 

I had a Pampered Chef party in January and was able to get the awesome stoneware Deep Covered Baker.  This thing can cook a chicken in the microwave and it'll come out rotissiere style.  A working mom's dream come true.  Yummy and easy.  I used it once and fell in love.  Then it came crashing to the floor as it fell out of the cupboard.  I cried as I stood over the shattered pieces on the kitchen floor.  But, there is a happy ending to this story.  Pampered Chef sent me a new one as long as I send back the broken pieces of the old one.  Honey, go garbage digging!

I made a super cute and uber easy bracelet from this tutorial from V and Co.  Like so easy a caveman could do it.

Have a great Monday!  Check back later today and read about the new featured blog!

Miscellaneous Levity

My last 2 posts were a bit heavy, so I thought I'd bring some miscellaneous levity to the blog today.  Here it goes.....

First, if you are like me and love hilarity and unadulterated sasrcasm, then you must go directly to this site and laugh your behind off.  Jon Acuff writes the blog (and wrote the book) Stuff Christians Like.   It's like a party for your funny bone.  His post from yesterday had me literally LOL.  Gotta love that.





I hear a lot of "the 3's are worse than the 2's" when moms discuss the ups and downs of raising a toddler.  I'm here to say that in my experience neither is better or worse than the other.  They both have their undelightful characteristics and moments that make any mom-in-her-right-mind completely and totally insane.  Good times.  I'm upto my elbows in the loveliness that comes from a 3 year old.  Here are all things David at the moment....

He loves to count how many buses we see on the road while driving to school each morning.

He is OBSESSED (and I'm not using that word lightly) with mops, brooms, and vaccuums.  I'm considering seeking professional help for him.  Do they have toddler support groups for that sort of thing?  My little dude may be a candidate for that TLC show My Strange Addiction.  Next up will be Intervention.  

He is the only socially conscious 3 year old I know that wears TOMS shoes and points it out to total strangers at the grocery store.

He knows every character on Sesame Street and Barney.

He knows the routes to church, school, and Starbucks.

He loathes getting his nails trimmed, but he loves getting his ears cleaned with q-tips.

He makes demands requests of which vehicle he wants to ride when we go somewhere.

He would rather get a dust pan and brush than a toy. (True story:  he declined every toy at Ikea and chose a cleaning tool as his prize for the shopping trip.)

When he sees something he likes or finds fascinating he says: Oh. My. GOODNESS!

  

I hope that brightens and lightens your day!