Paying it Forward, Backward and Sideways

"Instant karma's gonna get you, gonna knock you off your feet.  Better recognize your brothers, everyone you meet." - John Lennon

Earlier this month I was on a flight from Chicago Midway to DC.  After takeoff I was moving around in my seat and noticed a Blackberry in the crack between the seat and the seatback.  I considered for a moment whether or not to turn it in, and decided to keep it and find the owner myself.  You know it would have been more lost than found in the airline's lost and found department.  I contacted the owner the next day, got her address and mailed the phone to her at my own expense.  No problem I said to her, paying it forward you know.

A week later to the day, I was in line at a sandwich shop and had realized when I got to the cashier that my debit card was missing.  I had left it at my previous stop!  As I stood there panicked the lady behind me offered to pay my lunch.  It was, ironically, almost the same amount as what I paid to mail the phone.  Exactly a week later!

The next week I get a thank you note from the woman whose phone I returned.  It was very nice and she was so happy to have her phone back with work and some personal stuff she had going on.  The funny thing was, as she travels almost constantly for work, that the phone showed up at her house on the one day she was home this entire month!  I thought, wow, I have to tell her about my lunch incident.  So I remembered where she worked and guessed at the email syntax and shot off an email.  Her response this morning was nothing short of amazing! 

She said she had a story to share with me, and here is her account:
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"The girl in front of me was limping and struggling while all the people behind me were tisking wondering what the hold up was.  I asked her, "Are you okay?" She said she was, but her flip flop broke and she could barely walk. Without even thinking, I just said, "What size are you? I'm a Nine...." She nodded in agreement and I quickly took off my flip flops and said, "Here, take mine, I have two pairs of shoes right in my bag."
She said, "You're giving me your SHOES????" Everyone in the line was looking at me aghast.  I said, "Someone just mailed me my blackberry I left on a plane in DC....I have about nine more pairs to give away to pay that one forward." Everyone laughed and the whole line lit up with smiles.  I popped on my high heels and walked through the terminal -- feeling just great!
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Ok, so really, you just can't make up stuff like this!

It makes me wonder, if now that girl may help someone she would have otherwise walked past, and maybe some of those other people that overheard would do the same.

Maybe I can change the world after all, just as I had planned, one person at a time.

Why The Hell Did I Buy That?

I am a recovering shopaholic.  I was the queen of retail therapy.  One of the excuses I used to tell myself when I wanted to make an obviously unnecessary purchase was that "someday" I would use it, and its easier to have many things if you spread the purchase of them over time.  This has actually worked for me on many occasions, especially with household goods.  I horded stuff at my townhouse, often upacked in the original box stacked in the garage, in the hopes of using it when I moved to a larger house.  Once I was in a house, I purchased stuff for future events, like hosting a party, or improving the decor.  

So about 3 years ago I purchased these wall-igraphy things from a store in Culpeper, thinking "I'll put these up after I repaint my bedroom".   They are handwritten appliques, which say a phrase or word, and when applied to the wall it looks like someone painted them.  I thought they were pretty cool.  So I bought two and stashed them for when I painted my bedroom.  Well that finally happened about 2 weeks ago.

So tonight I was cleaning Bailey's room and I found them on her bookshelf.  I thought "well, damn.  Now I can put these up!"  So I took them into my room to check them out.  The first one said "dream".  I opened it and was first disappointed to see that it was block lettering and not fancy lettering.  Then I pulled the adhesvie strip back a little to see how it worked, and I was secondly disappointed to find that the color was tan, not black as I intended.  Ugh!  I cannot put tan lettering on blue paint.  It needed to be black.  So back in the box it went with a one-way ticket to ebay. 

I pulled out the second box and looked at the outside of it.  This one says "It doesn't get any better than this!"  Yes, with an explanation point even.  At least it was black, but what kind of crap is that?  Why the hell did I buy that? Well I can't put THAT on my wall!  After a long day of trying to work on a complicated personal project, and do my regular work, and make breakfast, and make lunch, and failing miserably at keeping Bailey from destroying my house, and dishes, and laundry and more work (shall I go on?)

I'm thinking that this stupid thing shouldn't say "It doesn't get any better than this!"...it should say "Is this as good as it gets?"

I would totally put THAT on my wall.

2 1/2 Months, 4 Days, 8 Hours and 7 1/2 Minutes

Today is the first day of the last days of my sanity.  There is a lot to be said for not having to get up in the morning and get Hayden ready for the bus.....however......there is a lot to be said for having them in my face all the time as well.  As I'm sure every other parent of school-age children is thinking right now, I'm pondering my chances of mental and emotional survival through the next 10 weeks or so.  I put the over-under at 2 weeks before Mommy-meltdown.  Any takers?  I didn't think so.  The over-under for Hayden-meltdown is 5 minutes.  I have drafted a list of commonly-used phrases that I am going to record for playback so I don't lose my mind repeating myself every 5 seconds. I'm going to keep the tape on a constant loop like the music at restaurants (which you may not know about unless you've worked in one, and that by the end of your shift you hate every song on that night's rotation)....I figure my chances of the right phrase being played at the same moment something is happening are pretty good, like 75%.   The list goes something like this:

don't touch that
give me that
where did you get that
what's that noise
what's that smell
who did this
shut the door
shut the refrigerator
put on your glasses
where are your glasses
what are you doing
are you ok
where are you
where's the remote
stay out of my bathroom
get over here
get that out of your mouth
get down from there
get in the car
go sit in time out
stop screaming
Im on the phone
just a minute
wait your turn
what did you just say
don't you talk to me like that

While I was typing the list I said at least 6 things that are on the list.  Its going to be a long.....hot.....summer.

On a lighter note, the girls had fun at Hayden's class picnic today!  We got rained out, but had a good time in the classroom too.  I was happy that I was able to arrive on time, since according to Hayden (and anyone that knows me) I'm not on time very often.  She was having a meltdown the other day, and here is a snipit of the conversation.  As you are reading it, use a whiny, sobbing crying voice for Hayden's parts, and a calm, soothing voice for mine (ha!):

Hayden: "Mommy the awards ceremony is tomorrow, are you coming?" 
Me:  "Yes I will be there"
Hayden:  "No you won't"
Me:  "Yes I will"
Hayden:  "But you will be late!"
Me:  "No I wont"  {this is the part where I feel like a total a-hole because she's right.  I make a mental note to start getting ready at 7:00 a.m., or maybe even the night before}
Hayden:  "But you're always laaaaaaate" {insert more crying here}

What am I supposed to say to that?  Time to change the subject........

So I managed to be on time for the awards ceremony and Hayden was very happy about that!  And now I'm 2-for-2 since I was on time for the picnic today too!  But staying true to form, I still had to screw up something.  Apparently I had enough forethought to remember to bring the camera but not enough to remember to take the memory stick out of the computer.  Thank god for camera phones.  The quality isn't as good but it will do in a pinch.

This next thing cracked me up.  I sent Hayden around her class today during the "picnic" to get her yearbook signed.  She decided to get everyone's phone numbers at the same time.  I thought that was a pretty good idea, until I saw the end result, which requires no witty taglines.

In other news, Bailey's getting glasses!  Yesterday we picked up one of the two pairs of glasses.  Thankfully it was the Dora pair that came in first.  She looks so cute!  Even though the humidity was wreaking havoc on her hair.....

So by now you are probably wondering what gives with the title of this post.  Allow me to explain.

2 1/2 months until school starts (for both girls) and I get my days back.  4 days until the M3 Festival and a much needed break.  It took about 8 hours for Bailey's glasses to get lost (or hidden), and 7 1/2 minutes for someone to get a timeout today.

I hope everyone has a nice, relaxing summer!

Hayden's Kindergarten Concert

For those of you that are interested, I have posted below a link to the videos from Hayden's Kindergarten concert on May7.  You dont need to sign in or sign up for the site to view them.  If its been a while since you have seen her, she is the 3rd one from the left in the front row of the orange group. Enjoy!
http://guthridgefamily.shutterfly.com/

Dunk Tank or Don's John? :A story of panic in the porta-potty:

One of the most annoying things about having to take Hayden to soccer is taking Bailey as well.  She won't sit (shocker) and she constantly runs out onto the field because she wants to play too.  Thankfully, this past weekend her Aunt Jenni and Grandpa Rick were there to help subdue her while Hayden played uninterrupted.  Before the soccer game, as we were waiting for Jenni to come over to the house, Hayden gave Bailey some tattoos:

Bailey is about 99% potty-trained, she doesn't even wear pull-ups at night.  So I always have to be prepared for the "Mommy Mommy I gotta go potty quickly" announcement.  Of course, this announcement arrived about half way through the game.  Seriously?  We have to go in....there?  Well. ok.  Jenni, sure you don't want to take her?  No? Ok. Enter the dreaded porta-potty.  My very first, and surprised, thought was that it didn't smell (I'm assuming this is because it was not 90 degrees outside).  However, that does not negate the basic purpose, and therefore what you know is in there whether it smells or not.  Ewwww. Next I look to where Bailey will have to sit.  Oh...HELL...no.  I am not putting my beautiful little baby girl on that seat because - look!  She could fall in!  Please please don't fall in.  The instant I thought about her falling in I also thought, oh God, I would have to go in after her!  No no no no.  How would I get her cleaned off?  Is there a hose?  I don't think there's a hose.  I would have to steal everyone's little water bottles!  And what about the car?  I would never get the smell out of the car.  This cannot, under any circumstances, turn out the way my overactive imagination was portraying.  So I put the death grip on Bailey as she teetered unsteadily on that huge "toilet"...with what may as well have been molten lava below.  Ultimately, she never went potty.  I can imagine it is hard to go pee when you are being suffocated by your mother's octopus-like death grip. 

And so ends another chapter in the Joy of Mothering.  I will conclude with this little tidbit, a gift Bailey gave me while I was at a meeting the other night.  I woke up in the morning to find this in her room:

Bailey is what?

Happy Birthday to my little crazy Bailey! Right about this time (1:24 am) 3 years ago she arrived into our lives and things havent been the same since, and never will~hopefully! Bailey, girl you are something else! Happy Easter everyone!

Your Honor, the Defense would like to present Exhibits 1A and 1B for the Court's consideration.......

Bailey taking advantage of me while I am on the phone Part One....Tuesday. 

Bailey taking advantage of me while I am on the phone Part Duex....Wednesday.

The Leprechaun Cometh......

All I wanted to do today was get my nails done.  One hour of blessed solitude.  That's all.  I focus on that all day, how I need it, I deserve it, I want it.  I...I....I....So I need to get Hayden from school/daycare by 6.  It's 3.  Then it's 4.  I am now officially late (as usual); 25 mins to the nail place, an hour there, a stop at the grocery and 25 mins back home.....ok, I'm really good at math yet I still have managed to convice myself that I can make it back by 6.  I'm really pissed as I realize all I have time for is a trip to the grocery and then pickup Hayden.  No nails. All mad.  It takes a conversation with Mike, and a few minutes of pouting on my part, for me to figure out that I should pickup Hayden first, then take her with me to the nail place and the store.  DUH! I remember that she has been asking to go for a while and I kept blowing her off.  It would have been like every other time...."Mommy you said you would take me!"  "I know baby, but Mommy had to go before she picked you up."  And she would be sad and I would be like whatever.  So I decided I could sacrifice my alone time to make her day for once.  The moment I felt most like a terd was when, in the car on the way to the salon, we were talking about colors and Hayden said "I want to get whatever color you get because you are the best Mommy EVER!"  So I was really glad we did it, and she had an awesome time! 

More evidence of my level of distraction, or inability to see past my own nose, was brought forth on the way home.  We had the following conversation in the car:

"Mommy, the leprechaun took off my seatbelt"
"No it didn't Hayden, put your seatbelt back on"
"He did Mommy, he did, he took off my seatbelt"
"Well, just put it back on"

a few minutes later.....

"Mommy, the leprechaun stole my clothes"
"Hayden, the leprechaun did not steal your clothes, I will show you when we get home"
"Mommy he did, he stole my clothes and my shoes"
"Ok Hayden, sure. We'll see when we get home"

a few minutes later......

"Hayden, what is that smell? It smells like poop, what's going on back there?"
"It doesn't smell like poop"
"Yes, it does"
"Well.....maybe you bought poop at the store!"
Really?  "No, Hayden I did not buy poop at the store"

So, we get home, I am totally in my own world, and I take a couple things into the house.  I come back out to get the groceries, and Hayden is standing in the doorway of the van......totally.......NAKED!  Hahaha what? She undressed herself in the car on the way home and I didnt even notice.  So I figured out the smell must have been her rainboots, I guess they make her feet smell.  Found her clothes balled up in the back of the van.  Talk about distracted.  Not paying attention.  Unbelievable.  Hysterical.

And.....they're off!

I am rushing my first blog post to get this out to you guys so you can click the link above and vote for my friend Susan's nephew who sumbitted an idea to the PepsiRefresh contest on behalf of SERVE food center, serving Prince William County residents.  They need $50,000 for a new walk-in refrigerator and freezer to keep the donated food fresh!  SERVE's goals are:

•To serve 50,000 meals per year to residents in homeless shelters

•To distribute food to 900 families per month in the community

•To safely store over $1.2 million annually of donated food
 
This is an awesome cause, and they are currently in 9th place.  All entries in the top 10 spots get the funds!  So vote today - you can make a difference!  Voting lasts through March 31.  You can also get this information from my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/andrea.galler ~

Thanks!