10 for you and 2 for me

Our Lenten "sacrifice" is chugging right along. I'm excited each day to think of a way to show kindness to a stranger.

Yesterday we went to Target for a run and on the way home we were stopped at a red light. I noticed 2 men waiting at the bus stop. One was just pacing and the other was sitting on the bench listening to his ipod. I thought back to Rome when we had to take buses and the metro to get around and how long the wait can seem. Just then I spied a donut shop! Bling!! The lightbulb went off.

We turned into the parking lot of the donut shop and bought a dozen donuts. I used my pre-made RAK cards (which are in my purse at all times) and Dominic and I went up to the men and handed out the donuts. At first it was a bit intimidating, walking up to three (another man joined the wait) men. They were super nice and laughed when they read the card so that made me feel more at ease. The last guy even game Dominic a hug!!

Then we patrolled the area and gave out 3 more donuts to people waiting. One bus stop had a man and woman waiting. They were not together, they were not even sitting close to each other. After they got the donuts they began laughing with each other and talking. They both waved as we drove off. So nice to see!!

The last lady at the bus stop was all alone. She thanked me profusely and put the card in her pocket. She maintained eye contact and I could tell that she really appreciated the small act of kindness.

We had 6 donuts left and for the life of me we couldn't find ANYONE else waiting at a bus stop! We did, however, find a fire truck in an adjacent neighborhood with 4 firemen packing up. We quickly parked and ran to them with the last of the donuts and some cards. They immediately picked Dominic up into their truck and let him check out their gear!!

We had a wonderful time with this!

This morning we decided to RAK the mail carrier. We have yet to meet our carrier so we aren't sure if it's a man or a woman. We had a Hershey's bar left over from the girl scout RAK on Sunday so we taped a card to it and I included a hand-written thank you card and Dominic drew a picture. Cute!!

I'm really liking this idea!! Let's hope I can come up with something cool for tomorrow!

Two months later...

Has it really been TWO MONTHS since I last posted? Times have been so crazy here since we've made the move. I can't believe we've been in this house for 6 weeks already.

As you can guess, we've not done much in the way of playdates and such since the middle of January. Unless you count unpacking boxes, that is.

One thing that has gotten easier is Miss Jillian. She turned a corner behavior-wise late January. We've been loving her MANY smiles! Who knew this kid was so flirty?? My favorite is when she dons the "aw shucks" pose when someone smiles at her.

We've had unseasonably warm weather this winter and that's allowed us to play outside in our new backyard. That is perhaps my favorite part of this new house: being able to open the back door and boot Dominic outside to play and all the while I can see him from the huge wall of windows off the den! Superb!

Our new year's resolution this year is to volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. It's not easy to do with a 3 year old in tow, but I found 2 groups that revolve around volunteer projects appropriate for his age. YAY!! We are signed up to deliver meals for the Meals on Wheels program next week!

In a related note, last week we received our ashes for Ash Wednesday and we took some time to decide what our Lenten sacrifice would be. (Lent really snuck up on us this year!) Finally, at one of J's 4am nursing sessions it came to me: for the next 40 days Dominic and I will do one random act of kindness per day! So far we've only done two days so we'll have to make up for the 3 days we missed on the tail end of the 40 days.

Saturday we went through the drive-thru at Wendy's for lunch (long story) and I paid for the order behind me.

Today as I was leaving the grocery store there were 4 Girl Scouts selling cookies at a table. I noticed them walking in and made a note to buy each of them a candy bar. Since we bought 2 boxes just this morning after Mass, I told the girls that I wouldn't be buying cookies and that I just wanted to stop by and give them a little something for all the good they do for others. Their eyes lit up when they saw the candy bars and it made my heart smile as I walked away to their excited voices.

I'm loving the random-ness of it all. I even made some RAK cards to pass out as I do the good deeds to kind of explain what I'm up to. I suspect some folks will be a bit suspicious, sadly. I'll take a photo of the cards and post the pic later.

Any ideas for any good deeds that I can do? I'll make sure and post mine periodically so you all can participate with me, if you'd like.

This post is going to the dog(s)

OK, here's the skinny: We are closing on our new house in 4 days. That means in just 4 more days we will have the keys to our shiny, new (to us) home in our hands! We are super excited to be moving to such a clean and well-kept house. We'd love to keep it that way as long as possible, but with a toddler and a baby who's about to get mobile we know it won't be too long before the house gets a bit beaten up. Add a dog to the mix and there's sure to be some damage!

This got us thinking about our dog situation. When we first got Annabelle we were DINKS and had nothing but time to devote to our pooch. Weekend trips to the dog park were common. We knew all the other dog parents not by their name, but by their pooch's name!

We got Annabelle at the end of our first year of marriage and just as we began our journey to conceive. During the next two years Annabelle became our surrogate child: our furbaby. You can see more about her first few birthday party's here: http://thefriendshipodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-is-dog-just-dog.html

When I was pregnant with Dominic, Annabelle, not my husband, gained sympathy weight with me. We were able to get it off shortly after Dominic was born. Face time with Annabelle gradually began to decline. We took a total of two trips to the dog park as a family until Dominic got knocked down by one of the bigger dogs and we decided not to go back until he was bigger. Now that little Jillian is here face time with Annabelle is pretty minimal. Jillian is a high needs child and sadly Annabelle takes a back seat where the kids are concerned.

Once we move to the new house David and I are determined to have Annabelle be an outdoor dog. Not ideal, but we don't want her nails scratching up our new house! We'll have enough to deal with in keeping crayons off the walls and juice out of the upstairs carpet!

This decision lead to another discussion: how will Annabelle take to being an outside dog? Honestly, I think we'll have a revolt on our hands. Annabelle is used to coming and going as she pleases (via her dog door) and sleeping in the master's bed (not my choice). Is it fair to exile her to live in the great outdoors?

As sad as it is to admit, Annabelle deserves better than what we've been able to give her lately. She doesn't get any exercise, except when Dominic chases her around the house with a foam sword, and she's started putting on more weight. She needs more attention than what we can give her.

So.....we have decided to offer her to a loving family that has the time, energy and attention to devote to her that we currently don't have. It's a difficult decision and we are praying that someone will fall in love with her and take her in to their pack.

What is an ideal family for Annabelle?
** preferably have children (she does GREAT with our two little's)
** a family that likes to share (she loves to get treats)
** energetic personalities (she loves to play chase)
** patient attitude (as a beagle, she likes to bark at squirrels, birds, pedestrians, pedestrians walking dogs, bicycles, you get the picture, right??)
** I'm guessing she'd prefer to be an only furbaby (she loves attention)

If you think your family would make a good match for our Annabelle we'd love to hear from you!

The dog ate WHAT???

I'm so glad that I took a photo of the handprint ornament that we made for Dominic because very shortly after the photo was taken, the ornament disappeared. My first reaction was to question Dominic. He's known to leave things in odd places so I wanted to get it out of him while he still remembered where he may have put it. Not one to know to lie his way out of trouble yet, he told me that he in fact did NOT touch the ornament.

After asking hubby about it's whereabouts and getting the same answer that only leaves one more option: the dog! That dirty ol' dog must have thought it was a tasty treat just sitting out in the open like that and decided to make off with it in the midst of the night! Scoundrel!

Now we have to make another one!

I also had an impromptu photo shoot with the babes the other day. I made my mom a card using the photos:

What do you think???

We are having 5 of Dominic's close friends over Friday night for a special viewing of Elf in anticipation of the holidays! I put together a salt dough ornament mix for each family to take home and will be including an x-mas cookie cutter with it, too. We'll have all kinds of Christmas snacks and we're so excited to see everyone. I'll be sure to post pics of all the fun!

On the first day of Christmas...

Before getting to the meat of my post, I just have to share a rare find: Jillian is SMILING!

My poor girl isn't happy unless she's being held (help!) so I rarely get to take a photo of her while she's smiling. Isn't that a cute smile? And please let's not forget the legwarmers. melt...

I had a friend ask me today if I had any ideas for doing a 12 days of Christmas activity with my kids. Funny enough, I have a few ideas that I have bookmarked and have always wanted to try out, but haven't had the opportunity to do so. Until now...

I got the book out a couple of days ago and looked it over again. These follow along with the carol, "The 12 days of Christmas".

Traditionally the 12 days starts on Christmas and ends on the 12th night, January 6th. La Befana's night.

Anyway, I promised her I would get the list posted so here I am. All through the house not a creature is stirring not even the spouse! (I just made that up! Clever, no?)

1st day: Make an ornament for the tree out of salt dough and paint a bird.
2nd day: Read a story about turtles or make a game of slow/fast (like red light/green light).
3rd day: Learn a few French words and use them throughout the day or cook something French.
4th day: Practice phone etiquette. (Never hurts to start early, right?)
5th day: Go out for donuts. (Get it, golden rings???)
6th day: Dye eggs. (It's not just an Easter activity.)
7th day: Make origami swans.
8th day: Make chocolate milk. (Or hot chocolate)
9th day: Do some new dance moves.
10th day: Pretend to have a knighting ceremony.
11th day: Use a bubble pipe to make TONS of bubbles!
12th day: Make a drum out of an empty Kleenex box and a balloon.

There you have it! Looking back at my list I think I WILL do this. Only thing is, we are packing up to move the first week of January. I might as well give it a go, right?

A lazy day for reflection

Today is a chilly 33* here. Little man is down with a low-grade fever and little lady is napping all bundled up in a cozy warm blanket. It's a lazy day all around. A perfect opportunity to reflect on the upcoming holiday season.

I realized that I've been pretty introverted the last couple of weeks. Not really sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that we had 30+ guests here for Thanksgiving and I was in full on hostess mode.

I really need to get back in the friendship saddle. Christmas is the perfect excuse to get back in the swing of things. Here's some things I have planned to help me re-focus:

**Attend any and all holiday parties that we are invited to.

**Make and deliver gifts for all of our friends and/or neighbors. Any ideas???

**Offer to help friends with wrapping gifts. Perhaps have a mom's night out where we have a wrapping party?

**Like last year I plan to have some of Dominic's closest friends over for a pre-Christmas party. Last year we exchanged favorite Christmas stories. This year I'm thinking we'll get the outdoors heater out, strike up the chimenea and roast marshmallows while we huddle together under blankets watching Elf on the garage door. (We have a projector that has yet to be used.)

That's all I've thought of so far. Any traditions that you guys do with friends that you'd like to share? Leave me a comment!

On another note, we made salt dough ornaments yesterday and painted them this morning. It was a super fun activity! We made ornaments for each of the kids, one for each of his cousins and one for his bestie, Andrew.

Here's the recipe for the salt dough:
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
Mix all ingredients together until it forms a dough. Roll out on floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake in oven for 2 hours at 250*F.

Camp Catch-up

Lagging behind again, I'm afraid. Here's the recap for the last day of our Fall Camp:

We read a short book titled, "The Halloween Play". It was a great easy read that allowed all the kid's to participate! I am quite impressed with how well the kids did all week with listening to the stories. There were the occasional picture hogs who wanted to stand right in front of the page to see the photos and block the book from the others in the audience, but they were so darned cute and interested we couldn't get mad.

I decided in lieu of a craft we would have a coloring page that I assembled prior to the afternoon camp. I had photos of the kids throughout the week and I simply printed out a blank scarecrow page, cut out the face and placed the kid's photo behind the hole. Easy! Each kid got to color themselves as a scarecrow!

I also came up with a really cool rhyme in order that we may do a little skit. This took quite a bit of time to come up with and I was excited about sharing with the group. However, we had two moms sign up to attend the camp at the last minute and for only ONE DAY??? Because I didn't have their kids information to write in the skit, I decided to scrap the whole idea. Sad. :(

We let the kids run around outside in the awesome weather instead and we moms got a little break from the noise.

All in all, another GREAT camp experience!! I plan on hosting another one in February in our new house. (More on THAT later, so stay tuned!!)