Thursday Things

1) Columbine happened a month before my 19th birthday.  I was a freshman in college.  The news horrified me.  I can still remember, 13 and a half years later, that I was at work - at the Waco Postal Credit Union - when I heard the news.  I'll be honest, though, Columbine didn't bother me as much as this Connecticut shooting.  I'm assuming it's because of the different stage of life I'm in, the difference in being nearly-19 and 30-something, the difference in being barely out of high school myself and being married with kids of my own.  I'd never, ever say that people with children are somehow more affected by the events.  But I feel like it affected me, personally, so much more.  Both because I have children and because of the ages of my kids.  Avielle Richman was born ONE WEEK after my Jaidan.  Their birthdays are exactly a week apart.  I see the names of kids like Jack Pinto and Jesse Lewis and I wonder if they were into Batman and Power Rangers and all the things my little boys are into.  Did one of those kids have a Spiderman Stunt City wrapped under the tree waiting for him to open Christmas morning?  Almost everything I've read about those sweet babies, I've seen a habit or quality or characteristic that my own 6-year-old possesses.  It's heart wrenching..

2) I had originally planned to go off on a little schpill about how I feel about guns and gun control but I saw the #26acts campaign yesterday and, well, that's so much more important, right now, than on how one little Mom in southwest Tennessee feels about assault weapons.

Here's the deal: 26 random acts of kindness in honor of the 26 victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  My kids and I kicked things off yesterday by leaving candy on three card windshields and a gift card on a fourth.  We included  note with each one explaining what it was for and wishing the
 recepient a happy and blessed holiday.  Today we're leaving goodies in the mailbox for our mailman and delivering some to the neighborhood fire department.  This weekend, we'll hand out neighbor gifts.  And we'll have to see just what other little acts of kindness we can sprinkle across our city.

3) I made up five things of cookie dough yesterday in preparation for today.  Because today?  We kick off Baking-palooza 2012.  Which is, of course, the predecessor to Gluttony Fest 2012.

4) I love Gluttony Fest.

5) We were treated to this while grocery shopping at the commissary the other day:

Cheaper food costs.  No tax.  AND being serenaded by men in uniform?  Yes please and THANK YOU.

6) Guess how many of the kids' Santa gifts are wrapped.  Just guess!  Did you guess ZERO?  Congratulations.  You are right.  Now who wants to come and wrap all this stuff for me?  I pay in wine and Christmas movies.  And good company, natch.

7) Continuing my crush on Goodwill, I picked up this guy - the tall one - the other day for $2:



I also found a whole bunch of brand new - still with tags - Christmas themed bowls and platters.  I really need to quit buying stuff like that seeing as I have approxomately 80 of them . . .

8) My daughter has been going 90 to nothing for the past week now and she is wearing.me.out.  She is pretty much constantly into something.  She is once again refusing to nap.  She's waking up around 6:30 in the morning.  GAH.  She also through a collossal fit as we were leaving Target the other day.  I was completely embarrassed but God bless the older woman who put her hand on my arm, winked, and told me that every single mom had been there at some point before.

9) On that note, I just want to say how refreshing it is to experience just how friendly people tend to be this kind of year.  I was in Kroger yesterday and an older lady wished me a "Merry Christmas."  I spotted her several other times in the store and noticed she was saying the same thing to everyone she saw.  I just love stuff like that. 

10) I usually post something funny here but today I'll leave you with this:

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