11:44 PM - Round 2, Day 16
Current mood: content

Today's give was volunteerism.

I spent the afternoon putting up lawn signs for the Democratic dandidate for our district's House of Represenatives seat. Fifty lawn signs, based on a list and map generated by his campaign team.
It was kind of nice, actually. Everyone else worked in pairs or three in a group. I took one of the two largest lists ( the other was fifty also, and given to a team of three ) and went out on my own. City map in hand, and armed with knowledge of the area, I was done faster than almost half of the group, and there were more of them with less addresses to cover.
Working independently and fliering for work comes in handy sometimes... plus it gave me two hours to just drive and shuffle about, and occasionally interact with residents that I don't otherwise see because they're not in our target area.

I'm honestly not even sure that I'll vote for him... when he was on the City Commission it was an an Independent, but as I was putting up signs, I saw that most of his supporting constituents also had McCain / Palin signs in their yard.

But Roy is a nice guy, I like him, and I like his son, so I did it as a favor to them both.

Before I decide whether or not I'll blacken the dot next to his name on the ballot, I need to do some additional research. Thankfully I have a bit of time to do so, and it's one of the only two things on the ballot that I am currently undecided about.

Voting preferences aside, it was worth the effort.

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1:50 AM - Days 11 - 15 ( or "Where the heck did my week go?" )
Current mood: tired

I've sat down to blog three times this week, and all three times I had to get up and go do something before I was even halfway finished.

Rather than give a day by day, because that would take volumes, I'll offer up a summary.

This week I:

- Cooked food for 100+ people
- Did all of the shopping and prep work for said event
- Mailed out six random packages of stuff to six people, who I feel will better benefit from said items than I have
( they'll be surprised when said packages arrive, which for me is the best part! )
- brought a slew of clothing to a homeless shelter
- took a day off from work to make holiday ornaments, and endedup making an extra two dozen to bring to a
retirement facility
- spent three hours on the phone with a friend ( and sucked up a ton of my cell minutes for the rest of the month )
who needed some moral support and a sympathetic ear
- sent 'just because' cards to some folks.... just because.
- bought some small things for my husband, because food and toys make him happiest
- made dinner for my newly no longer a jailbird kid brother, including buying stuff to make a sweet potato pie
( something I haven't done since the last Thanksgiving we did with my mother.. which was in 2004 )

Add in work, school committments and family time, and that explains why I haven't been able to blog. The intent has been there, and the actions are going at full speed, but the ability to slow down and evaluate and report.... not so much.

I'd like to say that things will be slowing down in the coming weeks, but they won't. I have a seven week committment to the school district that will commence on Thursday, but at least that'll only be on Thursdays.
Other than this week, anyhow. This week will have training and last minute warm up exercises before we begin.

A new week. More giving, going and doing. It's a bit frantic right now, but it still feels good.

Currently watching : Iron Man (Two-Disc Special Collectors' Edition) Release date: 2008-09-30

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11:25 AM - Round 2, Days 8 - 10
Current mood: content

...don't think that because I haven't blogged, that I haven't been giving.

I've been so busy that I haven't had the free time to sit still and blog!

Day 8 ( Saturday ):
Friday's heft and haul of office furniture ended up being a long day. So I laid low for part of Saturday, ended up missing the Clinton rally, and initially decided that I was not going to do a darn thing that wasn't enjoyable. I ached. A good, healthy ache, but an ache nonetheless.
Marie ( my best friend since I was in upper elementary school, for those who don't know her ) came by and she helped me finish up a project that I needed to get out the door ( a receive ), and from there we goofed around, ran some errands and I managed to sweet talk her daughter into babysitting in exchange for buying a book for her.
But it wasn't all R&R. The three of us ( Meems and I, plus Ward ) showed up for my office fundraiser and ended up staying to tear everything down - a give, with recruits! After I saying I wasn't lfting another finger for work crap all weekend.... well, I'm a sucker, but it needed to be done.

Day 9 ( Sunday ):
Did a slew of ad submissions for the school flea market, and worked on holiday gift crafts.

With much disappointment, I cancelled my events for the coming Thursday. I wa sso hoping to actually meet Neil Gaiman at the book signing. Driving all the way to a Chicago suburb for a pre-signed book and no interaction... forget it.

And so I focused of more purging to distract me; some into the trash, some into the 'sell' pile and some into the mess of stuff for the preschool.

Chris, Iain and I also worked on the back yard. Chris took down several small branches earlier last week, and we spent a chunk of Sunday afternoon on clean up. I bundled up branches while Iain picked up the leaves and Chris tore down even more branches for me to bundle up, and swept the roof. A lot of work, but we had fun doing it.
Chris found a way to turn that into a give - he cleaned up branches from a tree ( that is not even our tree, but some of the overhang was touching our house and would soon be damaging our shingles... said tree owner's response to the problem was "if you want it fixed, chop away. I don't care but I'm hot helping!" so chop away we did ) that were damaging another neighbor's fence, and made arrangements with him to help remove more of the branches over the coming weekend.

It'll all go out in our brush pile ( which we have to pay to remove via city brush tags and leaf bags ), but better that we pay for it than it take up space and look awful in the neighbor's yard. We helped him remove several lengthy branches two years ago and they are STILL in his backyard, now a haven for skunk and whatever else decides to nest there and draw vermin to our block. Yuck.
A give for the neighbor, and for the rest of our side of the street, so that we're not all further invaded by nuisance critters due to one peron's lazy ineptitude ( I am not overly fond of said neighbor. It's because of him that we have to faithfull and vigorously mainatin a boric acid perimeter around our house. They have roaches so badly that you can sometimes see them crawling in the curtains... ewwwwww ).

Day 10 ( Monday ):
Worked all day, and worked on coloring book packets for the Harvest Festival. I printed them off on Friday, but still had to touch up the site codes with white out ( I'll give credit to the links on the back page, but kids don't wanna color corn and pumpkins with a passel of weblinks on the paper ).

After I got home, I made stuffed green peppers for the family ( and stuffed calzone style sandwiches that sucked. The dough I bought was too easily soggy ).
When dinner was wrapped up, I made a half a dozen or so bookmarks for Santa Claus Inc. ( www.santaclausinc.com ) that will be sent to an SCS  friend who is helping with the program.

I'd been putting off working on the bookmarks, and had purchased several that I've found on clearance for ten to fifty cents apiece, but last night I had a really good time tinkering with some previously unused stamps. Fairies and fall leaf splendor came to life as I inked and colored.
Hopefully the recipient kids like them as much I as do.

It's still too early on Tuesday to determine what the day will hold... but I'm sure it'll be busy and worthwhile.

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8:41 PM - Round 2, Days 5 and 6
Current mood: vibrant

It's been one heck of a day, so this post will be very brief.

Day 5 ( Thursday ):
I worked on gifts for my kids' pen pals. I've been so busy that I just haven't had time to complete everything I set out to do at the beginning of September ( and back to school was supposed to mean more free time... ha! ).

I also sat in as a mentor for a parent meeting to help a neighborhood school get an effective parent ground as well as a PTS / PTO up and running. Their building desperately needs it ( really, what school doesn't? but there's is in rough shape and could easily decline at a rapid speed ).

Form there it was home to half a dinner and do some crafting ( gifts for xmas ) and watch ER.

Day 6 ( Friday ):
I donated four hours of my time, the loan of my debit card ( I wrote myself a reimbursement check ) and my strength to move a slew of donated office furniture.

My co-worker Jane, our board VP and myself did the loading and Jane's family and my brother in law, Jeff, came hand helped unload ( went MUCH faster! ).

I'm tired, but it's a good tired. I needed that workout.

Now I have scoured all the sweat and ick from my hide and we'll soon be departing for the school carnival.
An expense that isn't really in the budget, but it's worth it for the family time. My gift to my kiddos for doing so well at home and trying very hard at school ( for Jennah that part is easy... the boys... not so much ).

Have a wonderful night, all!

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1:55 AM - Too lazy to type it again...

Anyone who wants to see what I don't post over here, including some cute pics of my yahoos and such... here's my 'other' blog, linked up to Saturday's events.

http://peltonfamilycraftyblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/orchard-madness-or-what-we-did-with-our_22.html

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12:31 AM - Round 2, Day 4
Current mood: pleased

Nothing about today went as I'd originally planned. And I am 100% okay with that.

My give for the day was in the form of information, support and compassion.

Miss J needed some labwork done and Chris has taken ill, so it was two visits to the doctor for the price ( of gas ) for one.
Chris went his own way and I went in with Jennah.

As it turned out, my apparel choice ( my Free The West Memphis Three t-shirt ), would spark many a query, starting with the gal who was shadowing my physician for the day.

After asking and my explaining, my doctor ( a tiny, almost hippiesh woman with a massive heads of gray and coal black loose curls and an infectious smile ) chimed in about John Grisham's novel and the recent updates with the court case.

I left feeling a bit more impressed with my crazy hippie lady physician, and pleased that I'd managed to get one more person to check out the WM3 website and possibly become a supporter.

But it didn't stop there. Two women in Sam's Club ( the little old ladies who do the food sample demos ) stopped me and both asked ample questions ( and neither took the stance of the prosecution! ), and the guy at the post office counter, Mitch, who I often BS with when it's slow, kept me there a good extra fifteen minutes, spouting off about how backwards and rude Arkansas is ( he's a Harley rider and has been for forty odd years; he's been subject to a good deal of ridicule and rude behavior over his chouce of relaxation ).

He said he'd check out the website and thanked me for the information.

West Michigan has almost no West Memphis Three supporters. If I gained for them even one more, it was worth it.

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12:13 AM - Round 2, Days 2 and 3
Current mood: content

Day 2 ( Monday) :
For the first time in over a decade, I made chicken parmesan.

Doesn't sound like much, I'm sure, but for me, it was a big deal.

After a full day at work, and knowing that I would be darting out the door to a PTSA meeting, I had a less than two hours window to create a dish from scratch and have it hot on the table for a family dinner before I departed for the evening.

It worked, and everyone loved it.

From there, it was on to the PTSA meeting. Being part of a very driven, insanely motivated core network of parents and family members is both wonderful and overwhelming.

There was much to be discussed and much that needs to be done. In the midst of it, I agreed to loan my fog machine and some rather pricy and fairly hi-tech Halloween decorations to a parent in our building, who is the regional coordinator for the RIF program.

From those who aren't aware, our esteemed Chief of Staff ( ha! ) cut the RIF funding by 100% for the 2009 budget. Thus, the RIF program is holding as many fundraisers as they can, and since I support the initiative, I figure that I can part with my things for 48 hours.
It's risky, and if something gets damaged, I'm S.O.L., but I have faith in Becca's ability to return everything unscathed.

...and I almost forgot...

I was planning to leave work an hour early so that I didn't have to rush home and scramble to cook, when my boss threw a resident at me because she didn't feel like dealing with said person.

I was beyond annoyed but I told my co-wroker to send her up anyhow, and went to work.

Said woman was in need of some things... food, furniture... she'd been part of a bad situation and was getting ran around in circles. And for added measure, she was without a acr to get her where she needed to go.
So I made some calls ( beyond my contract; we DO NOT do anything that resembles social work ) and helped connect her with a food basket at a location that had turned her away earlier in the day, because they'd hit their daily capacity.
But she had no way to pick up said food, so I volunteered to take her.

Before you say 'awww' and feel really bad for this woman, let me continue.

Doing what I do, you learn the discern the truly unfortunate from the leeches. This woman was most definitely a leech.
On the way to get said food basket, all she did was complain about how none of the other places she'd hit up gave her much stuff ( didn't they understand what she was going through? ) , and when she saw the quanitity on the cart that was waiting inside the door, another rant of ingratitude immediately started.

I bit my tongue and turned the car around in the direction of her apartment.

Then, less than two minutes into the five minute drive, said woman was asking for rides to other places, and asking if we could find money for her through any programs.

Again, my tongue was held, and I explained to her the value of notifying her childrens' school and the avenues she needed to travel next.

It took a great deal of my best game face mom patience to not call her a lazy leech and tell her to get the hell out of my car.
But I didn't, and I know that I am the better person for it.

However, I know that when she walks into my office again, she won't receive that much sympathy. She got her free pass.

Day 3 ( Tuesday ):
Because I was asked, yes, I DID get the day to myself.

I didn't get to sit home on my duff in my jammies, but I still enjoyed myself.

Before I made it back home, I spent an hour, still at the bus stop, talking with some parents, explaining some things to them that needed clarification, and went over some things that we'll be discussing at the parent meeting ( I'm mentoring their PAL program until they can fly on their own ).

From there, I spent the afternoon, schlepping about with Marie. Craft stores galore, one necessary but brief errand that was literally on the way, a yummy lunch and no major responsibilities.

When I got home, I networked between our Board VP, a wonderful woman whose company is donating much needed cublicles, desks and lighting to our offfice.
It took some finagling, but I think it'll be great in the end.

Before I call it a night, I'll be packing up some goodies to send out the door tomorrow via US Mail. Hopefully they'll be enjoyed by the recipients.

A bit on the anti-climactic side, but there you have it.

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1:35 AM - Day 1, Round 2
Current mood: content

See? I told you that I wasn't bailing.

It's been a week chocked to the brim with giving.

But I'll leave that aside and start with today.

Day 1:
I have spent so much time an energy over the past few days on giving to other people, that it was time to give a little bit back to my husband.
I used my MyPoints ( for those who don't know what MyPoints is, it's a rockin' online shopping initiative ) points and got Chris a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. It arrived yesterday, and between that, some member coupons and extra cash, he picked up two Star wars graphic novels he wanted and a Dashiel Hammett novel.

Before we hit B&N, I showed him this incredible spice store ( that is moving to our side of town, which made us both very happy ) that my boss referred me to, and bought him a few things that weren't needed for the kitchen but wanted.
Between the two, he was happy.

I packed up a slew of books that I picked up for a friend's daughter and will be putting those in the mail tomorrow.

And I weeded out more craft stuff to give to the preschool.

It's been a rough couple of months at our house. Things have been tense, but the situation has been a useful one. It was a lot less painful that it could have been, and in spite of the financial stress and the creative bill juggling, Chris and I have worked together as a team. Usually when the checkbook looks sickly, it turns into a battle, but this time we dealt with it without fighting about it, and have ( I hope! ) figured out an effective game plan for the next round of hour cut layoff insanity.
After weeks and weeks of phone calls and eventually submitting written complaints and become a nuisance at our mortgage company, all has been resolved and life is back to normal, and thankfully, without ever getting close to a forecloseure notice ( though as disgusted as Chris has been with Citi, if we'd received one, I think he'd have told them to shove the 1,400 sq ft. headache where the sun doesn't shine ), and with considerably less financial setback than we expected.

The boys will be in school five days a week, for six weeks, starting tomorrow, and I intend to utilize that time to give back to the school, my community and get some stuff done around the house that will result in giving away more stuff.
But first, Tuesday will be all mine.

I need a day to myself. Screen calls, or maybe just shut the phones off, stay in my pjs, watch some tv and work on craft projects.

No matter what I do, it's my gift to myself. One that is long overdue.

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11:37 PM - Day 29
Current mood: content

The final day of round 1 went ended very uneventfully.

My gives for the day:

I purged a slew of stamps from my stash and added them to the give bag for the preschool.

I made a coupon for a friend.

Okay, that part sounds lame. Let me explain.

It's part of a project on Splitcoaststampers. Someone nominates you to receive a $5 gift card, but they don't tell you who they are ( she knows so I've no worries about her seeing this and guessing ).

You buy a $5 gift card for someplace fun.... a craft store in her area, Target, McDonald's, Starbucks.. whatever... and mail it to her, but still don't fess up as to who you are. The recipient has to guess.

I didn't buy a gift card for this woman because I have access to order some things that she wants, but will not otherwise order for herself for quite a while, if at all, because she puts every spare dime into her business and helping it thrive... plus I can get the things she wants for cheaper than she can, and the cost of the two items together, even before shipping, will exceed the designated $5 increment.

But the gal has a heart of gold, and it's the size of Alaska, so she's worth every cent and then some.

I also got a handmade wreath for a friend / co-worker as a housewarming gift, and gave it to her at work, because she was feeling very down in the dumps about the move. She wanted the new place and the decisions with it, but has been catching a lot of somewhat unjustified lack for it.
So I wanted to show her that I supported her decision ( even though I'll miss having her as my neighbor ).

I am SO ready for round two, but I need to take a couple of days off and decompress. We've had a lot of stuff thrown at us in the past 48 hours... I just need some time to let it settle in and decide what happens next.

But rest assured, I'll be back at it before the end of the week. It's ben too worthwhile to NOT do it again.

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11:57 AM - Awwwwwww....
Current mood: pleased

Takei and Altman tie the knot

I saw this and that was excatly what I thought.

George Takei, for all the good natured flack he catches, seems to be a truly decent human being. Proud of his heritage and readily gives back to the culture he embraces.

I think that it's just wonderful.

Just what I needed to feel a bit of warm and fuzzy for the rest of the day.

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