Thursday, October 30, 2008

An odd commercial for sponsoring a child

Just a short post on something I saw on TV yesterday that made absolutely no sense. There was a commercial for a children's charity for children overseas, and the spokesperson was a well known former child actress asking us to sign up and sponser a child, and by doing so, you'll provide the child with food, clothes and an education, AND have the love and gratitude of your particular child. Now that's all fine and good, I have no problem with that. What I found odd, was what they used as the carrot to dangle in front of the public to get them to sign up. The first 3 months you can sponsor a child for FREE! So for the first 3 months, how is this child going to get the promised food clothes and education from your sponsorship if you aren't paying anything, thus not truly "sponsoring"? After 3 months, it'll be $22 per month, but buy then, will person who signed up remember to budget that in. Who knows, I'm sure that there are some who will. We're also told that we'll receive a letter from the child we sponsor. So if we get the first 3 months free, should we expect a letter from "our child" in that first 3 months that says, "Thanks for nothing!"

This isn't buying a car or a piece of furniture with the promise of "no payments 'til after New Years!". It's rather sad that a charity feels that they need to offer this kind of motivation to get sponsors.

Ok, I'm off of my soap box for now.
Lp

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

We have a stash.........

of tape!
I don't know what it is that is so fascinating about tape with kids. I know that I loved tape as a kid, but I don't remember why. But today's topic title was inspired by my kids when my son asked my daughter if she had any tape in her "stash". My son has such a fascination with tape. My daughter had one when she was younger, but now sees that it's only a necessity for wrapping gifts and fixing pages in her books. My son uses tape for building things and hanging things up. He uses it to hang up pictures on walls, to tape yarn to shoeboxes ,hoping to hook it up to one of the cats so they can pull it like a trailer, or in the case I'm seeing right now, taping it to the back of himself so as he's picking up clutter, he can put it in the box. However, he's realizing that the tape won't hold the box and everything he's putting it in.

Before my son discovered tape, there was plenty available for gift wrapping, closing boxes to mail, and preparing to paint. Not anymore. We are always rather hardpressed to find tape in the house. I have hidden it and he's found it.

Maybe for Christmas, we should just give him a box of tape for his own........that blue painter's tape so as not to wreck the paint on the walls.

Lp (as I end this, he is still trying to tape a box to the back of his shirt)

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Fun facts About This Mom

My husband did this several months ago, so, I thought I'd come up with something similar. Anyway, trivial stuff about me! Enjoy!

1. Until I was married, I had had maybe 2 coffees, and I didn't know how to make coffee. I married a major coffee drinker, and learned from him how to make it and my coffee intake is now every day, more than once per day. A friend of mine refers to it as "Mama's Little Helper", and I would have to agree.

2. My desk is currently covered with teacher's manuals, school books and the kids art papers, a large printer. My desk seems to be the "catch-all" here in the livingroom.

3. I haven't ridden a bicycle in at least 20 years

4. Current favorite soda is Wild Cherry Pepsi

5. I've been to a Star Trek convention (I went with Kevin when we were engaged. He got Marina Siritis' autograph).

6. Favorite comic strips are "For Better or For Worse" and "Stone Soup"

7. When I was in 6th grade, I went to a Christian School and we went to our state capital to hear Jerry Falwell speak. There were several tv stations and protesters there as well.

8. I've been to Canada twice. The first time I went to Edmonton with my parents and I was about 4 or 5. My mom and I swam in a hot spring and I think that it was snowing there too. The second time I went was on my honeymoon and we went to Victoria B.C.

9. I've never flown on an airplane. All of my traveling has been done by car

10. I've visited at least 10 states

11. I took piano lessons for 2 years (most of my lesson time was spent listening to my teacher tell stories about her youth).

12. I'm not a huge cat fan, but because my husband and daughter are, we have them in the house. We have 5 of them.

13. We are organic gardeners. Actually my husband does most of the gardening and I do the harvesting and preserving.

14. I went to a taping of "Who's The Boss" nearly 20 years ago.

15. Celebrities I've seen. The cast of "Who's The Boss", Scott Baio, as he was entering the parking lot of the tv studio, as we were leaving a taping of the show. Marina Siritis from "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

16. amateur photographer (I took a photography class 20 years ago, but it would help if I took it again since we now have cool digital cameras).

17. I used to work for the 2nd largest computer software company in the world (hopefully it's still the 2nd largest).

18. I grew up with dauchsunds as our family pets.

19. Related to Daniel Boone as I'm a descendant of his older brother Samuel.

20. My first 8 years were spent around a dairy. My granddad owned the dairy and my dad managed it. For 8 years we lived out in the country surrounded by cows. If anyone who lived in Lane County back in the 60's and 70's ever drank Lloyd's Milk, that was from my granddad's dairy.

21. There is a quilt with my name on it in the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Burr Oak, Iowa. My fourth grade class made a 9 patch quilt and donated it to the museum.

22. When I was in college, I studied to become a television director

23. I'm mostly Scottish, then Danish, Welsh, and a little Native American. My maiden name is an Irish one, but I think that's about as far as it goes.

So anyway, fun little facts that you never knew, and probably never wondered about, but now you do!

Lp