Donations Save Lives and Warm Hearts

The American Society of Safety Engineers Louisville Chapter collected canned goods this season for the Dare to Care program. I mentioned Dare to Care in a previous post so check that out. We collected several bags of canned goods and some money for the program. Thank you, members of the ASSE Louisville Chapter.

A touching story to share already:
I took the money and canned goods to a community center that partners with Dare to Care and I also had a bag of stuffed animals that Ollie wanted to give away. When I went in and asked where to bring the canned goods a woman offered to help carry items in. She was there as a program participant, not as an employee. When I handed her the bag with the stuffed animals in it she asked if she could look through the bag. Of course, I said yes and she pulled out a little brown bear with a Harrison County Hospital shirt on it that Ollie got when he was getting blood drawn for a bout with jaundice at a month old. She asked if she could have that bear and told me her granddaughter was born at that hospital and she was a month old. She said she didn't have a lot to give them this year and would love to add that bear to the small amount she did have to offer. It made me feel really good to give such a small gift that made such a big difference. She also mentioned she was there to visit the food pantry to get weekend supplies for her family and thanked me for making a donation. She said she volunteers her time in organizing the food in the pantry since they've helped her so much in the past few months. She had very warm eyes and a sweet smile.

Do you know a family in your community that could use an extra gift or two? Maybe there is a food bank in your community you could share a few canned goods with? Is there an angel tree at the local WalMart or bank? Can you just share a smile or a helping hand? I've been traveling this season and have found that instead of smiles I get grunts and I get bumped and cutoff and hit with luggage. It's very frustrating, so give someone a smile or let the woman carrying the baby step in front of you in line. Are we so busy we can't spare five minutes?

I hope you have a great holiday season and I hope you'll find a way to make it a little brighter for someone else, too.

Thank you for those who are participating in rewarding programs. If you have a story you'd like to share here to encourage others to join in please leave a comment.

And So It Begins...

My references are squared away, I've never committed a felony, I like crafts and photography, I like to sing....I think I've just signed up for a dating service. :-)

This decision to help out the Boys & Girls Club of Kentuckiana (BGCK) came to me for two reasons.

Reason 1. I am the current president of the Louisville Chapter of American Society of Safety Engineers and we support the Dare to Care Food Bank (DCFB). The DCFB is an organization that was born out of tragedy. On Thanksgiving Eve in 1969, in Louisville, KY, 9 year old, Bobby Ellis, died of malnutrition. The community vowed another would not die under their watch and Dare to Care was born.

They collect non-perishable items and all types of fresh fruits and vegetables to serve the needy in the community. Overweight children may be looked upon by some who'll say, "That kid doesn't need my money or my food he looks like he gets plenty." But what education and a little tender heartedness will show you is that many impoverished families cannot afford high quality fruits and vegetables and the best meats to feed their families. They end up dining on spoonfuls of low cost, high fat, no nutrition mac and cheese and pound after pound of ground beef chuck. Night after night children are fed these foods and some children don't know what real vegetables look like. We certainly can't blame them for this.

These children need our help and Dare to Care Food Bank partners with the Boys & Girls Club of Kentuckiana to serve hot, nutritional meals as part of their program. So when children spend their summers with BGCK and spend their evenings after school there they are provided with these meals. Parents are able to save some money and hopefully are able to provide healthier meals over the weekends. However, for those who can't children are also provided with food through the Backpack Buddy program. Teachers stash food in the children's backpacks during recess or lunch breaks on Fridays. Teachers have reported seeing children eating the food on the schoolbus probably because they know they have to share at home.

So, you may ask why I'm not helping the Dare to Care program. Well, I am; we are. Josh and I are signing up to serve the children of the BGCK a night a week at the local club. The Louisville Chapter of ASSE is also collecting food and monetary donations to give to the Dare to Care Food Bank. If you are in the Louisville area I encourage you to get involved in some way with this group. Visit http://www.daretocare.org/ for more information. If you are not in the Louisville area I encourage you to seek out a food bank or other organization in your area.

Reason 2. The Salvation Army recently had to close some of their Boys and Girls Clubs in Louisville, KY, due to finances. However, the BGCK is re-opening them. I'd like to help support them so the organization can thrive and the boys and girls of Kentuckiana who are enrolled in the program can have a chance. I've signed up for a few individual programs that fit my skills set. If you don't know much about the organization you can visit http://www.bgckyana.org/ for BGCK or for the national site visit http://www.bgca.org/Pages/index.aspx to find a club near you and learn how you can help.

I'm looking forward to this endeavor. I think it'll change the way I eat a steak and the way I laugh. :-)

Rats, Beetles and Boogies. Oh My!

What a great weekend we've had! Ollie turned 3!!! We were oh so busy Friday night baking all the goods for Saturday's Shrek themed birthday party. My mom and niece, Stephanie, came from WKY to help. And thank goodness they did. We baked a large sheet cake, a bundt cake and several mini bundt cakes. Let me just tell you the kitchen was HOT! We had a nice time, but I was sooooooooo ready for bed at the end of that night.

Saturday morning the fun really began with the decorating of the cake. Shrek's Swamp.

Here's the base of the cake and proof we really did make this cake and....

The final product...tada! Does that look disgusting or what?!?!

Stephanie helped a ton on this cake and it was much appreciated. I have a new respect for professional cake decorators.

So I'll save you the prideful details of all our hard work and reveal the final spread, but let's break it down...

Here we have Roasted Weed Rats! Aka...chocolate and black sugar coated strawberries.

Here we have Shrek's Boogies and Beetles. Aka...choco chip cookies and choco coated Nutter Butters!

We have Pumpkins. Aka...two mini bunt cakes stacked end to end and iced with creamed cheese frosting I dyed orange. They didn't get eaten, but we'll say it was because they were so pretty and had nothing to do with my niece, who will remain nameless, pouring the oil in the measuring cup and then failing to pour it in the batter. :)

To drink we served up Swamp Mud and Swamp Water. Yum!

The guest of honor, Shrek himself, was clothed in an outfit made by my brilliant and oh so talented mother. Isn't she amazing? You don't have to answer as I already know it!

And finally, a little pinterest.com decor! I love me some simple! I also sent Mom out into the bushes to collect the sticks. Thanks, Mom!

Okay, so I didn't exactly spare you any of the details, but wow did we have fun! It was totally worth it to see my baby laugh and carry on with his friends. He received all his favorite things: an iron, a mixer, a toaster, some bugs of the electronic breed, a sandwich maker, a McDonald's drive thru, a marble maze, tools and tools and tools oh, and some PPE to go with his tools!!!! That's my boy! He really did have a great day. Thanks to all our friends and family for coming! Especially Aunt Sharlet and Uncle Howard who tried to surprise us, but then got lost and had to call for directions. But we were still surprised!!!

Now that the party is over and Ollie had a great birthday I can and will devote more attention to my goal of volunteerism! Stay tuned for more about me, the people in my life now and the people we'll meet! I can't wait!

Turning 30!

Happy birthday to me! While I'm not thrilled that I'm 30 I'm not exactly distraught either. When I see 30+ year old women I usually think sofistication, put together and mature. My husband made a good point in that I can't exactly look back on my last 30 years and think, "What have I done with my life?" I have a wonderful family and room to grow, a successful career and job, a home, a car, all of life's necessities and then some. I've moved away from home, but I always have the option to go back and I don't have any enemies. So, that's my speech to myself on this day and then I'll get over it.

In my next 30 years, thank you, Tim McGraw, I want to focus on "what else can I do?". There are advancements in my career and education I'd like to make, more children one more child to grow, memories to fill a scrapbook with and one important activity that will take effort. Volunteering.

When I first decided I wanted to start this blog I thought I wanted to title it 30 at 30. I was going to set a goal to make a difference in the lives of 30 people or volunteer with 30 different charitable organizations. That became a challenge of logistics and it began to make no sense. I could teach a CPR class and reach 30 people easy, wash my hands, done. I could serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless and reach hundreds, done. I could spend one hour a week at random charities/not-for-profit orgs for 30 weeks and again, I'm done.

Instead I decided I'd start somewhere, anywhere, and if I donate 1 hour or 50 hours of my time this year and touch the life of 1 person, I've done enough. I want to find a place or places to volunteer and give back to my community in a way that is helpful and meaningful. Some call volunteering a selfless act, but really it isn't. If volunteering made us feel badly about ourselves or harmed us in any way we wouldn't do it. And what are we really giving up when we give our time? The hour we usually spend watching reality tv, the hour we spend on the internet, the hour we spend buying new shoes?

So, on this journey of overcoming 30 my goal for myself will be to look at who I am and what I've done and who I've helped and judge that instead of my age. My goal for you is to be inspired. If you help one person, dog or other because of this blog and what I'm doing then I'll shake your hand, maybe virtually. I would say, "then it'll all be worth it," but let's be honest, even if you don't it'll still be worth it because nothing we do is worth nothing.

Now, this blog will also be about highlighting other accomplishments and "tracking" my life and the lives of those around me. I had a previous blog about celebrating the days of the year, but it wasn't chronicling my life the way I wanted it to and received 0 feedback. So, for my family and friends, this blog is for you. And it's for me!

This post isn't picture heavy and we all love pictures so stay tuned for future blogs and tons of pictures.