(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday - Senior Hottie Linkup

1990

Really, with the hair, it needs no introduction.

 I lived in midwestern America and my sense of fashion was just like everyone else's at the time. 

the first and only time I wore a strapless dress. It was my date's favorite color

One of the pictures from my official senior photo session in the school cafeteria. Vests and long sleeved shirts buttoned all the way up with a statement pin were highly fashionable that year.  

This look is all over my yearbook. I loved the comedy-tragedy pin I had on in this picture

graduation night with my BFF. She is STILL my BFF too!

Linked up with  a Belle, a Bean, and a Chicago Dog here:

Small Giving Can Make a Big Impact!

 I met the Love Drop team at the Blissdom blogging conference recently, and have spent the last several weeks getting to know Lauren, J. Money, and Nate through twitter conversation, email, and reading just about everything I can get my hands on related to Love Drop. I like to do my research :)

J. Money, Nate, and Lauren

photo courtesy of Rachel at Southern Fairytale

Simply put, they are my kind of people. Authentic is really important to me, and there is no pretense to any of them. What you see is what you get. And they don't make much secret to the fact that what they have been through in life has fueled their compassion for others. They know we're all the same inside, and we all need support and community sometimes. It has inspired them to find simple, reachable ways to change the world.

The basic idea behind Love Drop is called micro-giving. You can go here to sign up to contribute as little as $1 a month, more if you want to. The big idea is that if hundreds or thousands of people do it at the same time, the $1, $5, $10 per month add up in a really impressive way. People from more than 100 countries are already part of the team.

The Process

Each month they take suggestions from Love Drop team members who know an individual or a family struggling to cover some expense, and the team comes together to cover it for them. Examples of the expenses are things like their mortgage, medical bills, or groceries, things you might expect.

However, for the Love Drop team, it’s about much, much more than money. They also want to help the recipients of the Love Drop mission get back on their feet in tangible ways: by offering love and support, by strengthening their local support system of friends and family, and sometimes getting business local to them involved in helping as well. Love Drop tends to focus on people in particular who are working to give back to others, even though they are struggling at the moment.

The story of every month's Love Drop gets told in increments each week, through videos, pictures, blog posts, and interviews posted on http://LoveDrop.us. The team reaches out to people who have expressed interest in helping through social networks and via email to find more resources and generate buzz, if you will, and at the same time, they are building an active, engaged community around the Drop recipient. At the end of each month, founding team members Nate and J. Money spend several days promoting and making the Love Drop in person, shooting video and posting on social networks to keep the rest of the team all over the world involved in what they are supporting.

February's Mission

This month, Love Drop is trying to raise $13,000 to place and train a highly skilled service dog with a family touched by autism through 4 Paws for Ability . More information about this months mission can be found here.

They are just under $9000 toward the goal, it's down to the wire, and I have posted here hoping that you will be inspired to join me in giving. The February mission is THIS WEEKEND! If you can, please sign up to be a part of the team. If that's not in your finances right now, then help me spread the word on twitter, facebook, and any other social network you are a part of.

Would you post this for Love Drop?

The Love Drop for Ethan and Alex is this Saturday! Small giving can make a big impact: http://bit.ly/gwwqby #autism @LoveDropTeam

Thank you for listening. This is really important to me, and I was compelled to share.

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Additional links for you:

Become a member of the Love Drop Blogger Network

http://www.lovedrop.us/blogger-network

More information about Love Drop

http://www.lovedrop.us/faqs

A Question and Answer Session with Nate St. Pierre of Love Drop:

http://www.spinsucks.com/entrepreneur/love-drop-making-money-by-giving-it-away/

An Interview with J. Money of Love Drop:

http://finance.feedables.com/story/7433776/Interview-With-Love-Drop-Co-Founder-J-Money

Project We - First Entry, Week 1: New

This is the first in a series of weekly blog posts I will be making with my oldest daughter. I will write mine, and link to hers. If I can get the widget to work, you can follow the link to JennyOnTheSpot's blog and her Project We.

New

I got a new laptop!!! I have never owned a laptop before, and am thrilled with the ability to curl up in bed and watch movies and tv episodes, be on twitter and facebook, and to be able to use wifi at Starbucks and Barnes and Noble when I can get away to think for a while. My friend Andy got this laptop for me, it is a Dell (I have owned several desktops from Dell), it is refurbished (pre-owned but looks and behaves as if it is factory perfect), and it is a perfect size and weight to be portable. I am most looking forward to the ability to take it to blogging conferences to take notes.

It is my very favorite new thing. Maybe ever. :)


My daughter's entry for New is here:
furrymouse: Project We, Week 1, New

Wordless Wednesday (not really)

From Ali Edward's Digital Scrapbooking

Wordless Wednesday

The Fairy House, and an interview with Ella

This afternoon, Ella, Maddie, and their friend Brooke collected some nature items to make a fairy house.  Maddie suggested the idea, Brooke suggested the box, and Ella suggested the leaves and buttercups.

Some conversation about the contents of the fairy house:
we can use leaves for beds
we should use flowers for pillows
we put buttercup flowers as blankets
we made a bathtub with a container and filled it with clovers and flowers
we got pennies so they could wish on them and throw them in the bathtub
we could have made a stick roof but we didn't have time


Here is what Ella, age 10, hopes will happen:

"I hope that fairies will come and sleep in the beds, and in the morning they will still be sleeping so I can get a picture of real fairies!  I think they will be happy that someone cares for them and made them beds, also I think it would be embarassing if I saw a fairy naked.  A fairy in the bathtub!  She would go "aaaaah!" in her little tiny squeaky voice.  It would be cool if one of the fairies had a baby fairy.  Then I would be able to see a baby fairy!!! "

Pray for Allie's Heart

I first remember meeting Allie when I told her I was going to marry her son.  I walked right up to her after a concert at the park when I was about 11 years old and I said,  "I just want you to know, I'm going to be your daughter in law someday".

I was so sure of it, too.

I think the fact that my brain-to-mouth filter had not yet developed, and the fact that I was so doe-eyed over her beloved youngest son, endeared me to her.  From as far back as I can remember, she was happy to talk to me, she spoke to me as a friend or a peer rather than as an adult to a child.  I was in band once a week with her son through the 8th grade, and in choir and band with him all through high school. There were concerts, competitions, trips, and all sorts of opportunties for me to visit with her. 

She always welcomed me with a warm and enthusiastic hug. As I grew older, she wanted to know what classes I was taking, how I was doing in school; she would congratulate me when I did well at district competition in band, and rejoiced with me when I made All State Choir.  She was always very curious, animated, engaged, and genuinely interested in what I had to say.

I kept in touch with her after high school, visiting her at work when I was in town, and calling when I had news of a new baby or a move, or I just missed her.  We seemed to move past the child/adult barrier into woman to woman friendship very easily, without even noticing.  She celebrated with me as our family welcomed each of our four children, she would share her concern about that youngest son of hers (because he was a magnet for trouble and she knew I still wanted to know about him), about her older kids, her grandbabies, and what she was busy with.  We spoke during some difficult times for both of us, too, sharing heavy burdens, trusting each other with secrets and doubts, and rejoicing in the Providence of God to take care of the details.

We visited several times over Christmas this past year, and were immediately able to pick up where we had left off, even able to dive deep into family dynamic type subject matter in the middle of her workplace.  She has always made time for me.  She has always shared from her heart with me. In a lot of ways, she provides a strong link to home for me, even though she's not my mother. 

Allie's always had this very unique personality... often playful, very generous, worldly wise yet very optimistic, always expecting the best from people, with a soft heart but very strong shoulders.  She has been through an awful lot in her life, and you'd never know it by the openness and joy she gives off like a sunbeam.

I'm talking about Allie today, because she had a heart attack followed by immediate quintuple bypass surgery last week, and is not doing well in her recovery.  She has been moved to a larger hospital in a bigger city, in the hopes that some more knowledgable doctors will be able to set her on the path to healing.  She is responsive but well sedated, and her doctors don't really have a prognosis yet.  My heart is just aching for her and for her family.  She has 4 grown children, many grandchildren including a grandbaby that's 4 weeks old, and a grown grandaughter she hasn't seen in more than 15 years just waiting for her to wake up and love on them.


Please tak a few minutes to pray for her.  She is a wonderful, darling, sweet woman.  As much as I know that God would enjoy having her at His side, her family needs her desperately, and she has so many more people to touch with her goodness. 

Thank you.  Thank you for listening and getting to know Allie.  And for praying for her.