Project Night Night

It all started with a facebook post. A friend of mine on facebook posted a link to a cause that she really thought was great. So of course, I clicked. It was called Project Night Night. Basically, what Project Night Night does is provide a Night Night Bag to homeless children. In each bag, there is a blankie, a book, and a stuffed animal. It is all put inside a tote bag. The bags are distributed to local shelters who then give them to children that check into the shelter. The bags are theirs to keep. Kids often show up to shelters with absolutely nothing of their own - this give them a little comfort and something they can keep forever.

As many of you can relate, since having kids, I can hardly bear to think about bad things happening to children. Not that it was tolerable before I had Keira, but since having my own, I can't even watch tv shows where something bad happens to kids. The thought of little children having to live in a shelter is heart breaking. To think about those children having nothing, is heartbreaking. It is making me tear up now just writing about it. I make no secret of the fact that I think my family is very blessed. We have a nice house, two cars, never have to worry about where our meals come from, we go on vacation, have plenty of clothes, etc etc. All the necessities and then some. So this random facebook post, felt like a personal little message to me to get involved. And give back.

At first, I was just going to do it on my own. But then decided, what if I could do it bigger? We just joined a new church and thought maybe I could get the church involved. Now, ya'll know I am not the most out-spoken of people - we really don't know anyone at church (and it's a big church!), so to randomly call the church office and say "Hey, I know you have no idea who I am, but I've got this great idea and was wondering if you could help me" is a big deal. And I actually chickened out a bit and e-mailed (I love e-mail!) ... so now the whole congregation is getting involved. It is in the church bulletin, the pastor talked about it last sunday, and it is in the newsletter that gets sent home. When we went to church on sunday, after news of this project had been in the bulletin for only a week, I decided to check out the drop box, not really thinking anything would be in it yet, but just wanting to check it and make sure the box was where it was suppossed to be. And to my surprise - there was TONS of stuff! I was so excited. After just a week, we already have enough stuff to fill 10 bags. And this drive will run through the end of September!

So this is my latest endeveor. If you are curious about the organization, below is the website. If you want to donate items, just let me know! I am collecting new or gently used books, new stuffed animals, and new or handmade blankets (crib size). The tote bags we purchase from project night night, so if you would like to make a monetary donation to help cover some of those costs, you can do that too (it's tax deductible!). We need as much stuff as we can get - the shelter we are donating these (SafeHome - a shelter for victims of domestic violence) to gets lots and lots of children every year. Or if you want to do your own drive, check out the website on how to get started.

Once we are done collecting, I'll let you know how we did!

http://www.projectnightnight.org/

Mini Update

Just a small update from me since I have been so bad with this lately! I have no pictures to share :(

Hallie: I am sick, just cold sick, not pukey sick. But it's been bad enough that if Keira wasn't in preschool 3 hours every morning, Wade would have had to stay home. I have been exhausted to the point of not being able to keep my eyes open, but can't sleep because I am sooo congested. And I have a cough. And I can't hear because my ears are stuffed up. You feel sorry for me now, don't you?!? I am actually feeling somewhat better today. Hopefully tomorrow is even better. The only good news is that all the orange juice I have been drinking is making the baby crazy and she has been moving non-stop. Which always calms my nerves! I actually think she is starting to get squished already (YIKES!) as I can feel her little body parts better now. I am thinking a big baby!!

Wade: Made lots of progress on the honey-do list. Swingset stuff is done, garage almost all cleaned out, deck is finished, and a few other things done too. Painting scheduled for this weekend. Also fantasy football drafts this weekend (for him and me!) so we'll see how much painting gets done!

Keira: LOVING preschool. NOT loving fridays because she doesn't have preschool. It is hard to explain to a 3 year old why she goes some days and not others. Anyhoo, she got to bring the share bag home this weekend (their version of show and tell) so her task this weekend is to decide what to bring in to share on monday. She is very excited. She is still growing like a weed and I swear will be taller than me by next year. She has been into making up knock knock jokes lately. They, of course, make no sense, but she thinks they are hilarious. I am also loving the hour between when she gets home and when she takes a nap as she is super mommy's girl then. Lots of kisses and hugs for me!

Oh and I forgot to mention this Project Night Night thing I'm doing. More on that on the next post!

Socks

Keira needed new shoes. We have been wearing sandals all summer long and she had grown out of her tennis shoes. So we ran up to get some shoes and I forgot to bring her socks to wear to try them on. We were in a hurry and I grabbed what I thought were the right size, opened the package and put them on her ... well, they are a little big. We kept them anyway, she will grow into them eventually, but in the meantime, she has been having fun pulling them up to her knees!

First Day of Preschool

So, today was the first day of preschool! Keira was very excited to go, no nerves at all from that girl. She was so impatient in fact, that she did not want to get her picture taken at school this morning. I don't know where this pose came from - she is a little drama queen. Once we got there, she marched right in and put up her backpack and made herself comfortable with the toys in the room. Basically said see ya later mom! I had a much tougher time with it. It was sad to leave her there - at school. Makes me feel like she is so grown up! And it was weird being in the house by myself. I haven't gotten too many details out of her yet about her day other than they have vegetable crackers and cheese with chocolate milk for snack and they played ball and got to roll the ball to a friend. Hopefully we'll get more details as the week goes on. Good news is that she is still excited to go back tomorrow!

The to do list just keeps growing

Seriously, I don't know how we keep adding things to the list, but we do. I am afraid there will always be a to do list. Would you like to hear it? I am sure you would Loyal Reader - why else would you be here? So here goes ...

Paint downstairs bedroom (it is currently an icky blue), fix garbage disposal plug, build railing around and mulch in swingset, clean out the play room [I'm talking massive throw out and box up a lot of junk], move all playroom stuff to downstairs bedroom, move downstairs bedroom stuff to sub-basement, move trampoline outside (which requires it to be taken apart and then put back together), move all baby stuff from sub-basement to nursery, buy crib (our old one was recalled [please do not ask me about that whole debacle]), buy bedding for said crib, buy multiple other things for new baby as the only thing we have bought is diapers, weed the garden, trim front bushes, pull out one bush in front and replace with something else, pull out one bush in back and replace with something else, finish staining the deck (wade has one little spot left where the wasp incident occured), clean out garage. Oh my gosh, I can't even go on. I hope there isn't much more.

So you know how our weekends are going to be spent for the next few months ...

The things kids say

Keira has a few bug bites that unfortunetly, she likes to pick. And she picks them till they bleed. So we have been trying to break her of this habit. Today when I caught her doing it, I told her, "Keira don't pick that". She turns to me and says "Mommy, I wasn't picking, we don't pick bug bites. We only pick are noses when they are icky." And yes, we were out in public at the time. :)

One more video - tap again!

More Video - Tap

Another Video

Recital and 77 days to go!

Here are a few videos from the dance recital today. It was too cute. One of those things you'll always remember. Keira had fun! Enjoy the videos!

Oh and I checked the calendar today .... only 77 days to go!!!

Hmm, I think I may have to put the videos in individual posts.?? Anyway, here's one!

Tea Party

We went to a Tea Party today at a Tea Room in a little town just north of here (a MOMS club event). It was so much fun. The tea room had a whole little area full of hats, feather boas, jewelry, etc that the girls could dress up in before they had their "tea" (pink lemonade) and dessert. Keira had lots of fun!

In this one, she is practicing keeping her pinky out!

Hmm, what to post?

I swear I am going to get better about posting on this thing once Keira gets into preschool. I swear - well, except that I try not to ;) Here is my quick update:


Keira - starts preschool 4 mornings a week on Monday August 17th - that is like a week away! She keeps asking if she can go now! She is very excited. We got all her school supplies and had fun shopping. Her latest thing is asking people how old they are. She is very concerned about everyone's age and if they are older or younger than she is. I am talking, she asked the cashier at target how old she was today. I try to explain to her that this is not polite, but that seems lost on her. She has also continued her love of crafts. Everyday she asks what craft are we doing today Mommy. She keeps me on my toes! Gymnastics have finished and dance is done next week - next week we get to go in and watch while they do a little show, I am pretty excited about that!


Wade - I have been keeping Wade busy with lots of honey-do lists. He painted Keira's room last weekend - Pink. Oh my. It is pink. Keira loves it - me, well, we'll see. She almost demanded it be pink though. Any other color and she would have been super dissappointed. He ended up having to work a lot of last weekend which was suppossed to be his bachelor weekend since we were gone, so he was not pleased about that!



Me - the garden is doing awesome and is wrapping up, the cucumbers just finished, I have tomatoes coming out my ears, and have 7 cantaloupe growing. The rest of the stuff is finished ... Keira and I were in chicago last weekend for the Shower. It was fun to meet some of Suzie's family and friends, Keira had fun spending the day with Uncle Ryan at the zoo ... I am starting to freak out that we havent' done anything for this baby yet, nor bought anything for this baby yet, nor picked a name for the baby yet, but I am sure it will all get done eventually ... pregnancy hormones have me feeling a bit lousy, kinda nauseous and super weepy, seriously I can't get through an episode of anything on TV without crying ... been watching big brother and wondering what is up with the speeches people are giving this year, ouch are they mean ...


Peanut - Peanut has unfortunetly been sick and had to spend about 3 days at the vets office. Don't even ask about the bill. Ugh. The joys of pet ownership. She is all better now though. Peanut is one of those animals that will eat ANYTHING. I mean, seriously, anything. An indiscriminate appetite is what the vet calls it. She has eaten whole socks, toys, rocks, play-dough, tissue paper, etc etc etc. This is why she gets sick. We try to keep things picked up, but let's face it, I am not a neat freak and I have a 3 year old daughter that doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word clean up - well unless I sing the clean up song - she loves to clean up if we sing the song! So, anyhoo, she is better and back to her old self ... scrounging for anything that looks like it might be tasty.

More soon!