My Ebenezer

Yesterday was an amazing day with the kids. We spent the morning at the neatest little park with a great splash pad and play area for both kids. They played hard for two straight hours.

In the afternoon, the high school down the street had its annual homecoming parade - much to Speedy’s delight. He’d been looking forward to it all day long and asked if he would wear his Pirate costume. We let him dress up and then I had the idea to give the kids on the floats a target to aim for with the candy.

To say it worked like a charm would be an understatement. The kids went nuts throwing candy into the bucket and Speedy giggled and laughed more than you could possibly imagine. He would stand right in front of the bucket and then laugh as candy hit him in the face and on his chest - we finally convinced him to step to the side but I honestly think he liked the candy coming right at him. All the high schoolers thought it was adorable that he had dressed up and when he would yell “THANK YOU” after they threw candy, they’d throw even more. About halfway through, I suggested that he blow kisses to the girls - I didn’t really think he would do it, but as soon as he realized they threw even MORE candy when he did that, he did it over and over and over again. The girls went crazy throwing candy at him and the boys liked trying to make it into the bucket.

We’ve always gotten lots of candy from this parade and have even used it as our halloween candy before. This year, we have enough candy for three houses to use for Halloween and one very pleased pirate.

Princess liked the candy and enjoyed putting it into the bucket, but she was not thrilled about all the yelling and throwing and sirens. She has definitely reached that fearful age.

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Is anything more annoying that the constant drip drip drip of a leaky faucet? Okay, so maybe there are lots of things that are more annoying than that, but lately this one is really bothering me. The faucet in our bathroom has a little leak and daddyo hasn’t had time to fix it yet.

Of course, my thought is if you’re going to take it all apart to fix it anyway, we may as well look into some new faucets, right? Like aMoen faucet with some super cool features. And as long as we’re looking at new faucets, we may as well get the new tub you promised me when bought the house, SIX YEARS AGO. So maybe that isn’t exactly what you promised, but you did promise to upgrade the bathroom to at least a jacuzzi tub.

Boy, I sure could have used a big jacuzzi tub last night. Calgon, take me away. The kids and I were playing in the front yard yesterday when my neighbor came over for a little visit. As I was telling her about my day, she told me she had plenty of wine at her house and I was welcome to come over and help myself. I told her I may take her up on that after I got the kids in bed. Daddyo came home when I was bathing the kids and I could hear him laughing and talking to someone so I assumed he was on the phone. He came into the bathroom and told me that our neighbor had brought over some wine. I laughed and said, “she must really be feeling sorry for me after our conversation. I guess she could tell I wasn’t feeling so great.” I said this thinking she had brought over a glass of wine. Much to my surprise, she had brought over THREE BOTTLES of wine. Guess I was worse off than I thought.

So I got to enjoy a nice glass of wine while I took my bath in my old bathtub with a drippy faucet. Maybe two glasses. It was nice, but it would have been even nicer with a new Moen faucet. Perhaps you are wondering what was so bad about my day? Rather than tell you, I think it will be more fun for you to guess. See if you can complete the paragraph below:

When I picked Speedy up from school, his teacher said, “can you stick around for a few minutes?” OH CRAP. This can not be good. So I waited until she could talk with me and she explained that Speedy had……….

So what do you think Speedy did at school? LauraP, you can’t play this one since you already know. But how about the rest of you? We’ve been seriously lacking in the comments department lately, so take your best shot.

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Have I mentioned that Stella’s new foster family rocks? I know it is a good sign when all of the other kids in the house call the parents “mom” and “dad”. She should be starting her new school today so let’s say a special prayer that everything goes well for her.

Watching the Texans football game on Sunday, one of the players got hurt pretty bad. Bring out the stretcher bad. Head coach on the field bad. I was very touched by four football players who knet in a cirlce and held hands to pray for their teammate. Most of the players took a knee and I’m sure many of them prayed, but there was something about seeing these four kneeling together with their hands linked that caught my attention. Four giants finding strength on their knees.

Driving down the street I saw a man collecting money on the side of the road. His sign read: Just Hungry. Please Help. “God” bless. Now what does “God” mean? Why the quotes?

I’ve been getting a sinus headache every afternoon for the past few days. I’m not talking about a little discomfort either. I’m talking lay on the couch and want to die pain. Hopefully, today will not be the same as yesterday.

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So I was reading some of the information about this marathon I signed up for, and I realize that there is actually a time LIMIT. Oops. I was thinking that we could walk it at a fast pace, but not too fast, now I realize I’m going to have to really truck it if I want to finish the race. And I do. I’m thinking now that I may actually have to run a little bit in order to finish before everything closes down. Holy Crap. What have I gotten myself into?

Oh well, I’m going to do it. I have never in my life run in any type of sporting event. Except in seventh grade I tried out for the track team, but I only did it so I could skip PE. ????? I almost made the team, too. And I really didn’t want to.

Anyway, so I figure if I can get myself into shape enough to run a marathon by January, surely we can raise the money to meet our goal.

Donated: $270
Left to go: $5000 - $270
(hey, it’s a marathon, not a math-a-thon)

By the way, the fundraising campaign is not aimed solely at the blogging community - I do have friends IRL who are participating as well! I’m thinking we should do something fun, like everytime we hit a certain goal I have to post a ridiculous picture of myself or something. What do you think? We’re at $270 now, once we hit $1000, I’ll do something embarassing. Self portrait. Video of me doing the chicken dance. Why anyone would want to see that…..I’ll never know. I’m open for ideas here. Whatever it takes. Let’s do this for Stella.

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Okay, forgive the advertisements that will soon be showing up regularly. I’m going to donate the money I make advertising to my own fundraising campaign for Stella and others like her.

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So part of my job is online training - I do a lot of talking over the internet and connecting in real time with people around the world. The technololgy has come so far, you really can’t tell that you are talking over the internet vs talking over the telephone line. Because I work out of my home office, I’ve often considered getting a seperate business line instead of using just my cell phone for work calls.

But then I stumbled upon PBX Phone System and now I think I have another solution. This is really cool for people like me who work from home - in fact, the company I work for is completely comprised of people like myself, working from home offices all over the country.

After browsing the site, I think I’d go for this phone just because it looks cool. Actually, the Complete Broadband Phone System comes with a speaker phone and pre-programmed “softkeys” to drive Virtual Office features. And did I mention it looks cool? ha ha ha You can see I’m in this for the right reasons, huh? In my case, I’d want to use the “Unlimited Extension” plan because it offers free calls to multiple countries - and like I mentioned, I often work with people around the world.

There are lots of plans to choose from, including a “Fax Metered Extension” which provides the industry’s most reliable fax solution based on the T.38 ITU standard for sending faxes across IP networks in a real-time mode. You should definitely jump on over to Packet8 and check out the PBX Phone System.

I can hardly wait to see what they come up with next.

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Those of you keeping up with Stella’s story know what it means for a child like her to have an advocate. Most kids in foster care do not have advocates at all. By now you know a lot about Stella’s story - some of her history, her recent placements, her limited options for the future. Not all foster kids look like Stella.

“Tim” and “Katie” were taken into custody after their mother left them with a homeless man at a convenience store. Being left alone with strangers was an unfortunate occurrence that the two children had grown accustomed to while in their mother’s care. During visits to their foster home, their Child Advocates volunteer, Deena, discovered both children could graphically describe how their mother cooked crack with “a spoon” and smoked it in front of them.

The rampant child abuse in our society is simply astounding. If somthing you’ve read about Speedy and Princess’ story, Stella’s story, or even Child Advocates in general has touched your heart, I hope you’ll agree to help make a difference. I know not everyone has the time or even the inclination to become a court appointed child advocate - everyone has their own calling in life and this one just happens to be one of mine.

So I’m asking you to click for Stella. Click the link below and make a donation that will go directly to Child Advocates. I’m going to participate in a marathon - technically, a half-marathon - and I’m looking for sponsors. I will join other volunteers and walk/run (mostly walk) 13.1 miles in an effort to draw attention to the abused children in our community.

I am asking you to help. I rarely participate in fundraisers of any kind because I don’t like asking people for money. I’m going to shamelessly ask, beg and plead for sponsors for this event because I fiercely believe in the cause. Although the event does not take place until January 2008, I’d like to finish my campaign prior to Thanksgiving to avoid holiday spending issues. None of the money collected will ever be in my hands - it is all set up to go directly through the website sponsoring the fundraising campaign.

The information packet said I should have a fundraising goal and the first thing that came to mind was $5000. Yep, I know that’s asking a lot for one person to collect from other individuals, but I’m sticking with my first instinct. I’m working towards that goal and have already figured out that we can do it if we can find:

20 people to make $25 donations
20 people to make $50 donations
15 people to make $100 donations
4 people to make $500 donations

It seems much more doable when I break it down. Do it for me. Do it for Stella and Speedy and Princess and Lucy and Sam and Johnny and the countless other children who need someone to stand in the gap for them.

Click here to visit my fundraising page and make a donation. I’ll eventually put a graph or something on my sidebar so you can track our progress. Help me help Child Advocates help abused children.

Thank you for your support. You rock!

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Stella will be moving to another foster home tomorrow. I spoke with the new foster mom on the phone tonight and she sounds wonderful! When I asked her how long she and her husband had been foster parents, she told me that they consider this their ministry. I’m praying that this is where Stella will find the love and support she needs to survive this world.

Please pray for these foster parents - pray that God will give them wisdom and discernment, patience and an overwhelming love for Stella. Pray for Stella, that she works hard to make this placement work and that she gains the self-control she needs to manage her anger in any situation. Pray that this is her miracle.

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So seriously, something is wrong with our society.

I mean, is it really necessary to arrest Great Grandma for not watering her lawn?

And I think the biggest issue here is that you let your son wear girly shoes. Ugly girly shoes.

Gamers, we have a problem. Soon there will be ads with a 1-800 number for people with gaming addictions. “If you or someone you love has a gaming problem, call today.”

EDITED TO ADD: CROCS: BOYS LOOK FUNNY WEARING THEM. PER.EEEE.UD. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve been told. If you are a male, those crocs you wear look ridiculous on you. Girls can barely get away with them. Guys shouldn’t even try. DOWN WITH THE CROCS!

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I awoke this morning to the sweet sound of Speedy’s voice next to my bed: “I jus don’t feel vewy good. I just need to snuggle.” How could I resist? I seriously doubt the “i don’t feel very good” statement - he just knew that was his ticket into our bed. Seems to be feeling fine this morning other than waking me up at 5AM.

It’s going to be a long day if I don’t find something to do.

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