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This information comes from Robyn at Robyn's World Online. She said we were able to copy and paste from her site and since I'm at my mom's (just got here a couple hours ago) I'm only going to add a quick piece of personal information:Youth depression and bipolar is seldom discussed. It affects 7% of all children in the U.S., yet only a small fraction receive treatment. We plan to launch an outreach campaign to inform parents about the symptoms of mood disorders and how to find help. The outreach will be accomplished via:
-Detailed Communication Plan
-Online ads
-Bi-weekly webinars
-Weekly podcasts
-Daily social networking
-150,000 brochures & 3 mailings to psychiatrists
Experienced CABF staff members will coordinate the webinars, podcasts and volunteer training. Our trained volunteer corps of 100+ around the US are ready to assist new families and youth who reach out to us in crisis. CABF has the capacity to refresh the lives of so many more youth!
Thank you all so much for your continued support and votes for this cause. It is very near and dear to my heart! xoxoxo DAILY VOTING METHODS
The Pepsi Refresh voting allows you to vote daily in EACH of these ways for CABF, plus you can vote for 9 other organizations each day also to spread the love!
Please consider hitting the Share This button after you vote which will post it to your own Facebook wall and hopefully inspire others to vote
If you have an iPhone please download the app and vote daily too!BONUS FOR YOU - WIN AN iPAD That’s right, CABF is going to give away THREE iPADs if they win! You just have to sign up for their daily email reminders about voting in order to be entered. Super simple!
Do you have a cause that is also participating in this program trying to get a grant? Please share in the comments so we can vote for them as well!
So, as most of you know, Minnesota was hit by a pretty big snow storm last Friday night and into Saturday. I was so thankful that we didn’t have to go anywhere and I didn’t have to work all weekend! YES!
Later in the afternoon I saw our neighbor riding around in his Bobcat. Buddy plays with his son. Doodle and I were sitting around the house doing pretty much nothing when I saw the Bobcat going by. I jumped up and said, “Please come to my drive way, please come to my driveway.” I wasn’t expecting him to. He’s never plowed our driveway before. When he turned into the driveway, Doodle and I both yelled, “YES!” And he was done in about 5 minutes. Man I wish I had a Bobcat!
I had gone out right away (10am in Mimi wake up on Saturday time) and shoveled the sidewalk and made a b-line for the path for the boys to take to get to the bus. We have a really big yard and they have to trudge thru a lot of snow to get to it in the mornings.
Tuesday night I was letting Rugby out to do his business and all of a sudden I realize there’s a path in my yard. Like an intentional path.
I did a double take. Were those tire tracks in my yard? What the…
Someone came to my house, at some point, and plowed a path for my boys to walk to the school bus in the mornings and after school.
Isn’t that the craziest thing? I have no idea who would know that my path was filled up, that they didn’t have their usual path. I’m going to make a couple of calls tomorrow because this will drive me nuts.
I’ll check with the people I think it could be: KB (who blew all my leaves this Fall), LP (who knows of my neediness), the neighbor D who plowed my driveway, our neighbor down the street? I’m baffled.
If I run into road blocks I will just chalk it up to a God thing, which it is regardless of whether or not I find out who did it or not.
Whoever it is, thank you for blessing my boys with the bus path.
*An update, even tho you don’t know it’s an update. Wednesday morning my youngest told me a different neighbor 3 houses down came over and plowed the walkway! Rugby likes playing with his Border Collie, Lucy.
Sorry I haven’t been able to do a lot of visiting of Wordless Wednesday participants. I’ve had computer issues since Thanksgiving. You have NO idea how long it takes me to get anything done.
Thankfully a friend is going to work on the computer while we’re gone on Christmas vacation. Hopefully when I get back I’ll be able to get thru everyone who visits and links up!
Remember, Inlinkz.com no longer allows photo links for free so I will only be using text links for now. Thanks!
Ok, I realized it a long time ago, but watching all these stupid sweet movies has really solidified it in my mind. A woman somehow meets this amazing man, they fall in love in ways we could only dream, run into conflict, and repair their relationship and live happily ever after. Oh and they’re both beautiful and have the perfect music softly playing in the background.
First of all, I have a crappy track record with men. And I mean years of crappy. Started with my dad leaving when I was 6 and ended with my 2nd marriage in the crapper. Crappy all around.
Yes, you read 2nd marriage. Obviously I can’t do this right.
So, after watching all these movies the last week or so I’ve been trying to figure out who I am and who I want to be…kinda. Follow me here, okay.
I want to be a woman who inspires those around her. I want to make people feel like they’re better because they know me. I want to add to people’s lives. I want to build people up, encourage them. I really want to be all the things I’m not.
I have no ambition (to be addressed in a future post). I can be crabby ESPECIALLY when I’m PMSing (I’m really not a pleasant person). I have ADD so I tend to react immediately instead of thinking things through. I am very self centered and rarely think of the happiness of others. I’m pretty reliant on others and generally have little to give back.
So, the contrast between those two items doesn’t bode well for my life ever becoming a Hallmark movie. I have no idea how to bring who I’d like to be into the life of who I am. Sure it’s easy enough to say, “just do it” but putting it into action seems impossible. I live moment to moment and have never planned anything out. Even when I do plan something out I hardly ever follow through thanks to my ADD.
Detour…If you’ve never believed in ADD you should follow me around for a week. I’ll make you a believer. I’ve lived with it all my life and two of my kids have it. Thank goodness I’m not hyperactive (no commentary LP) or who knows what more of a mess I’d be.
What do you do when you struggle with who you are and who you want to be? I’m middle age…an old fogey by my own standards. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Yada yada yada
If I’m stuck in my hard and fastened ways how am I supposed to turn my life into a Hallmark movie? I realize that Hallmark movies aren’t real, but don’t we all want some part of the fairy tale? Well I do at least.
Anyone have a violin to play a sad song for me? Boo hoo woe is me. I know. I need to get over myself. I love my blog because it’s so cathartic!
Hey, if Hallmark were to name a movie after your life, what would it be?
Hello sweet and cold boys of mine. Winter hasn’t officially arrived, but the snow and cold has. I do have a number of requests as we come into the next 6 months of our lives.
Couldja do me a few favors?
○Keep your mittens/gloves together. When you take one off, put the other one with it. Look around you at school and make sure they BOTH go into your locker.
○Hats, they’re meant to be worn on your head. To keep you warm. To cover your ears. Not wearing your hat means your extremities are being exposed.
○When you come in from playing outside wouldja take your snow pants OUT of your boots and hang them up to dry? Keeping them in a pile means they stay wet and you can’t wear them at school. That means no outside playing but standing against a wall and freezing your butt off. Doesn’t sound like fun to me!
We can do this boys! We can get thru the next 5-6 months and only go thru a couple pairs of hats and gloves, right? Come on, don’t make a liar out of me! And if you come across the matching gloves/mittens would you mind bringing them home to their mate?
Love,
Your dry and warm Mama
Be sure to visit all these other great WW participants: A Beautiful Mess, 5 Minutes for Mom, and Mama to 4 Blessings.
Inlinkz.com is changing how they do their links so from now on my WW links will only be text starting next week. Sorry. I just can’t pay for the photo links. =)
UPDATE: As of tonight, the above photo HAS become the cover to our Christmas card! Thanks for your comments!
Ok, so we are milk drinkers. And when I say “milk drinkers” I mean buy me a cow so I can attach a straw. That’s how all of us are. Sure, my boys would prefer pop, but give them time.
My girls and I could easily go thru a gallon of milk in a day. We have a crazy addiction to milk. Always have.
So, my oldest, Baby, is away at college for her 2nd year. For the past couple of months she’s had…belly issues. She hasn’t been feeling well. Finally went to the campus doctor and he thought she might have irritable bowl syndrome (IBS). She’s been on some medication to see if it has an effect.
Then I thought she might be dealing with a lactose intolerance or have allergies to gluten. Those are two things I can’t possibly imagine living without!
We love our Skim Milk…yes SKIM
I was shopping for her yesterday, wanting to send her a little care package for finals. Guess what she can’t have:
Cheetos
Milk Chocolate
Cheese String
Pizza
Cereal
Zucchini Bread (butter in mix)
And those are just things off the top of my head that I couldn’t get her!! She tried Silk as a milk alternative, but it wasn’t going over well. I know there’s Lactaid and some form of medicine that is supposed to help the system be able to digest milk better.
Well, she has been dairy free for about 4 days and is feeling better! I’m am so thrilled to hear she’s feeling better, but you don’t understand the bitter disappointment that she could be lactose intolerant.
Our love of milk…think of the one thing you absolutely adore to either eat or drink and you will understand our passion for milk. If we had a keg, it’d be filled with milk!
Do you have any food allergies? How do you deal with it? Going Organic is extremely expensive, but what choice does she have? How do you supplement when it comes to baking alternatives?
Do you have any recipes I could share with my girl? Thanks so much!
I know, my boys don’t have their hats on. Ugh, they were such stinkers & wanted to prove to one of the teen boys they dig how cool they were!
Make sure you check out these other Wordless Wednesday participants: 5 Minutes for Mom, Beautiful Mess, and Two of a Kind.
My 2nd daughter and 2nd son have friends who are siblings in the same grades as them. We have known them since Doodle was a baby.
“MW” has always been this amazingly responsible girl. She’s 17 now, but watching her grow up was a treat. Smooch and MW played basketball for about 4 yrs together. MW never ceased to amaze me in her outlook on life and her sensibilities.
When Smooch went through an extremely emotional time last winter/spring, MW was the one to inform us of the depths Smooch was at.
“LW” has been in the same classes as Doodle for the last 3 yrs. It came in handy once or twice when LW’s mom needed someone to pick her up.
See, L & M’s mom had various forms of cancer over the last 4+ yrs. JW, even being in Stage 4 cancer, completely believed God could heal her and refused to acknowledge anyone who said anything towards the negative.
I hadn’t seen JW for a long time. Summer came and went and then school was back in session. Last Tues I passed her in the elementary school hall during conferences. She had a cough, but said she’s always coughing. I didn’t remember that, but who was I to say anything? She looked good, just didn’t sound so great.
Sunday I got a call telling me she’d been rushed to the hospital. The call had come while I was at church and I didn’t listen to it until around 2pm. An hour later I received the call saying JW had passed away. They couldn’t start her heart again.
I am completely heart broken for JW and her family. JW won’t get to see her daughter graduate this year. She won’t get to watch her youngest daughter grow up into womanhood. She won’t get to watch her grandchildren grow up.
She has 2 grown children as well. Her oldest has 2 little ones. Her son lives with them and is the one who called the ambulance. LW wasn’t home at the time, and I can’t tell if that was a blessing or something she’ll regret. She is only 7 so it’s not as though she had a choice.
As soon as we found out, the boys and I prayed for the family. I have been crying off and on thinking about how it could easily been any of us who is gone in the blink of an eye. None of us knows the day or the hour in which our Savior will call us home.
My hope is that today, you know where your salvation lies. If you died tomorrow and left your loved ones behind, would they have a hope in seeing you again in eternity. If you have an illness that could take you from this world do you know that one day your body will be healed and there will be no more pain?
If not, my prayer is that you will seek Jesus. That you will realize He died for you, on a cross, for such a time as this. He loved you enough to give his life for you. God did not spare even His own Child because of His great love for you.
Dear one, I hope this day you will accept the free gift of salvation that is offered to each one of us before it’s too late. And guaranteed, one day it will be too late. Do not leave this life without knowing where you will spend eternity.
As the saying goes, “Even if you don’t believe in God, He believes in you.”
I wasn’t sure if my girls were going to make it to Thanksgiving dinner this year. With both girls working we had no idea if they’d be making it.
I was ecstatic to find out both girls were heading down to spend the day and night with my Aunt. I’m so thankful we have a family member who makes it back to her MN home for the holidays so we can spend the day with her.
Smooch headed down separately because she was going to spend the night with Baby at her dorm room. Unfortunately, Baby hasn’t been feeling well lately and got there just in time for dinner.
Baby didn’t care for the movie (too much gore) and decided to head back to her dorm room. She had to work the next morning. I was sad she was leaving and not going shopping with us in the morning.
Smooch and I finished watch the movie with the boys and then we got some shut eye. Our plan was to wake up at 5:30am to get some shopping done. The two places I wanted to head were Staples and Kohl’s. I needed a new printer (which I still haven’t gotten installed completely) and a new pillow.
Because of how far we were in line I decided to forgo the chair because there was NO way I was going to the back of the line! LOL
From there we headed to Brueggers for some breakfast of yummy bagels. I haven’t had a Brueggers bagel in ages. Oh, it was so good!
Then we went to Kohl’s where I have been longing to get a memory foam pillow. I almost got one last year, but they still seemed so hard. Not this year. Smooch was very helpful in testing them out.
Unfortunately, while at Kohl’s I ran into a VERY RUDE employee and she ticked me off so much I nearly left my full cart right at her feet. I did go talk to one of the ladies managing the lines to tell her the situation I had run into.
They had boys clothing on 3 different rows on one rack. The sign on the far right bar didn’t match up with the brand OR price in front of it. I asked the gal if I was reading it wrong. She said, “No, that’s for the middle brand. The other two brands are different.” I told her that it might confuse people because the sign is above a different brand and that maybe the sign should be over the right pants.
She “informed” me that, “The signs can ONLY go on the outside NOT in the middle.” She was such a snot when she told me I stared at her totally shocked and told her she didn’t need to be rude, and that I was just asking her a question because I was confused. She said she wasn’t being rude and, “Have a nice day, goodbye.”
To say I was stunned is BEYOND how I was feeling. I was all about attitude and said, “Are you kidding me? I have a question and this is how you’re going to treat people?” I then walked away before I said anything else.
For the record, even though the sign was with the wrong brand, the price didn’t match the “correct” brand either. It was for $32 Urban Pipeline Jeans and the ones on the MIDDLE row were $36!
Well, with that out of my system, we headed over to Target. The only thing that kept me from walking away from my Kohl’s purchase and spending my money somewhere else was the nice line lady.
My Smooch totally scored with movies at Target. I was happy to have picked out my Christmas present from her: P.S. I Love You for $4! Now I can stop begging Baby to bring her copy home from college.
It was a pretty good day altogether. I had much to be thankful for! How about you? How was your Thanksgiving? Did you go shopping in the wee hours of the morning? Any amazing deals you’re proud of? Run into any crabby people like I did?
Are you looking for a gift for a child that’s personalized and not like the gifts all the other kids are receiving? Check out the National Geographic Kids Atlas of My World!
There you can upload your child's/children's photos, see & choose from several different personalization options (ranging from where the child/children go to school, information about their pet, things they love/enjoy & more), write your dedication and then see what the final product would look like!
Last year when I was visiting our local Hallmark for Christmas gifts, I saw the Recordable Storybooks for the first time. I thought they were such a spectacular idea. Having all of my family out-of-state having my parents record a Storybook for my kids is simply priceless.
Simba N Sammy
Please visit these other awesome Wordless Wednesday Participants: 5 Minutes for Mom, Beautiful Mess, and Look What Mom Found…
We live in the boonies, but the theater they were going to was in a pretty popular town, but waaay outside of the cities which I’m sure was a zoo.
Back in ‘89-‘90 when Michael Jackson was touring the States I was a late teen/ early 20’s and waited overnight to get some sweet 4th row tickets to his concert. I bought like 4 of them. A month or so later he cancelled. Not sure if it was the entire tour, but he wasn’t visiting Seattle. I was so ticked. I mean, I waited overnight for these tickets and getting so close? Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes. At least I got my money back!
Have you ever done something like this?
Flipped, by Warner Brothers Studio and DBA West, will be hitting shelves November 23rd, just in time for the holidays.
This really isn’t his smile, but part of it. Can you see in the small upper right photo that his nose always goes to HIS right when he starts to smile? This makes me giggle all the time.
Be sure to check out these other Wordless Wednesday participants: A Beautiful Mess, Mom Spotted, and 5 Minutes for Mom
OverviewEli the Stable Boy tells the story of a young man who longed to be a shepherd like his father, but was given the task of getting the stable ready for the sheep to come down from the hills. Little did he know, all his hard work was actually preparing the place where the Promised Messiah would be born.
About the AuthorKeith Ogorek is the marketing director for Author Solutions and a huge fan of self-published books. This book was inspired by a story he would tell his daughters at bedtime when they were children. It was their encouragement that prompted him to publish this story.
ABOUT THE BOOK: 
Cathy Bryant is a former public school teacher who handed in her chalk for a private music studio and writing career. Her passion is to write heart-stirring stories that show God’s life-changing grace. Cathy is the owner of the popular blog, WordVessel, and has written devotions for The Upper Room magazine, two devotional books, and online devotional sites. She’s the wife of a music minister, the mother of two grown sons and a beautiful daughter-in-love, and the Nana of Harrisen. A Texas gal since birth, she lives in a century-old Texas farmhouse with her husband and a phobia-ridden cat. 
