Welcome to Pay it Forward

THE RULES:

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me. (it will be a surprise but I promise to make it something fun)

2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! (cheeky) If you are not one of the Top Three Commenter's on this post, you can still play along. Please take the button and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

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My own commentary...
I have a friend who occasionally does give aways on her blog. It has been fun to be a part of. I thought, hmm I should do something like that. So now I can feel like I am a little more fun just like Heidi. ;) Thanks goes to my niece Mindy for posting this originally. Since I was one of the first three to comment on her blog I look forward to whatever the handmade item will be. (no rush by that comment - she has the cutest twin boys and a very busy 3 year old, who is also adorable)

I should have known better

Lets rewind about 28 years to a my easy high school days (yup it was that long ago). It was a beautiful day, I think afternoon. I was sitting on the front porch of a good friend who lived up the street. He was the oldest of 5 boys and when his family moved in this family kind of became like a second family. Another boy was also on the porch with us. He lived across the street. So we are chatting doing whatever you do in high school. The rest of this story became my favorite funny story to recall years ago. So the friend who lived across the street I guess had not done some chores and his mom came out onto their front porch and was hollering across the street at him. She said "Tim I need you to get your laundry in now"! He said "just a sec mom". You could tell she was becoming frustrated. Finally in a VERY heightened voice she said “I DON’T HAVE ANY SECS DO IT NOW!” OK we were in high school and this statement just killed us. We were laughing so hard we were crying – which didn’t make her frustration any better. In our mind his mom just exclaimed to the entire neighborhood that she doesn’t have any sex.

Now let’s fast forward back to this past Sunday morning. Dan is all ready for church and felt entitled to come in on our computer and begin a game of Spore. There really wasn’t much time to be starting up a game and so I asked him to get his things together and be ready to get out the door. After my few attempts at this he said “give me just a sec mom”. In my frustration and completely forgetting the incident 28 years ago I said “Dan I have given you plenty of secs, you need to stop now”. I realized what I said and in that brief moment of recognition I thought maybe he wouldn’t catch what that sounded like. But I couldn’t help it and said oh that didn’t come out right and he immediately busted up laughing and continued to laugh all the way to church. I was worried it would become the joke of the day but he informs me that he did not bring it up thankfully. OK he is only 10 this should not have been funny but he has had LOTS of questions lately so . . . I just should have known better.

Speaking of knowing better, one should not give a 5 year old the bottle of ketchup to doctor up their hot dog. He LOVES ketchup so I might have seen this coming. If that wasn't enough I let him put on the mustard. What kid would put too much mustard on right? I probably did know better but I guess some day we have to let go and let them learn. By the way he ate this dog with every last drop of the ketchup and mustard with no complaints.

My body is my canvas

Every day is an adventure with Sam and for Sam. Monday Sam arrived home from school and announced it was Warthog day! I wonder if anyone has told Punxsutawney Phil this. He was telling me this before he was out of the bus and pointing to the trash and saying something about a hat and no hats allowed and he had to throw something away. The bus driver just looked and smiled. Later I learned that the groundhog hat that he had colored with marker became an issue on the bus and he was asked to throw it away. Sniff sniff, I wanted to see what the hat looked like. It was clear from his shirt, face and neck that he had enjoyed the project. His hands were quite clean except for the nails which clearly showed signs of heavy duty art construction.

As a side note, and a relieved update to the missing glasses; YES, his glasses were found last Friday in perfect condition, still in the case (although cracked) in the parking lot. I had been in and out of that same area and parking spot several times last week and didn’t see them once! Fortunately it was so cold last week that nothing was wet, just frozen. THEN I get a call yesterday from his teacher. School was out but the bus had not delivered the boys. She expressed her regrets at informing me that his glasses were missing again. There was a change in who was doing what at lunchtime routine and the glasses didn’t make it into the case. They scoured the playground as best they could and they were nowhere to be found. Heavy sigh, we knew these glasses would be an issue. We were just lucky for the first quiet month with them. After Sam arrived home I waited to ask him about them until he was really excited about something else. Sam can tell great stories and doesn’t always give a straight answer. It is often hard to tell what is truth and what isn't. His surprising response was that he put them in his lunch box. Sure enough there they were along with all the leftover bread crusts and crumbs. They were definitely dirty but still around!! YEAH another dodged mishap.