my heart is sad

i've been wanting to blog about wendjina, our compassion child.  she's five and from haiti.  abby loves writing her letters.  she loves getting letters from her too.  wendjina has helped ALL of us remember how much we have to be thankful for.

she entered our family this spring, after i saw a youtube video of people in haiti that were so starved for food that they were making cookies out of mud to at least fill their bellies.  it broke my heart.  i showed it to abby.  we decided that if we have money to go out to eat ever (and we do), then we needed to take action.  wendjina was the child we chose.  her picture captured me.

so today, we got a letter from her.  it was newsy at first, and then halfway through, i found myself sobbing as i read out loud to abby,

she tells you during the time of the hurricanes it was not good for the family at all because alot of damage were caused where she lives.  her parents lost all that they had.  now they are living in neighbor house.  she tells you the vacation did not bring joy to her.  she live a expensive life.  despite all God does not leave her.  she tells you she loves you....

they lost everything.  their meager bit is gone.  and i'm making christmas lists.  maybe the best thing we can do this year is give.  not more stuff to each other, but give things that will really make a difference...like food, water, malaria shots.  the list goes on and on.  one opportunity is to donate $5 to soles4soles.  for five bucks, you can provide two pairs of shoes to people who have never had shoes.  can you imagine never having shoes?  ever?  i'm going there now to donate.  and then calling compassion to see how we can help wendjina's family.  who needs another sweater for christmas?  i don't.

practicing for halloween

abby is in her room, practicing for tomorrow night.  to say that she is excited about trick o' treating would be an understatement.  it combines all of her favorite things--dress up, candy, people, family time, being outside and more people.  she is planning on being a ballerina.  who rides her bike from house to house.  nice.

well, today, to get a kick start on the main event, we got a phone call from our pharmacist.  the one we adore who we got to know so well during my years of migraines.  we haven't seen him in awhile, and he called to tell me that he had treat bags made for each of the girls.  and the bags were made with careful thought as to what julia could eat and what abby could eat.  okay, that is just flat precious.  makes me glad that we "do" halloween.  makes me thankful for community.  something about people loving my kids makes me dewy.  so here are the girls with their individual bags of loot.  not exactly sure how i feel about the stuffed ghost, but oh well!

abby and the ocean

my big girl loved the ocean (julia wanted nothing to do with the overwhelming ocean and freezing breeze.  within 10 seconds on the beach, she was "all done.  all done!")  

see her sprinting toward the water...fully clothed.

she's in.  and amazed.  delighted...

and freezing.

but there was no getting her out.  not with her daddy by her side.

she even got her nana and grammy to come out and build in the sand.

the next morning while i was packing, she and her daddy went out one last time....

early thrifty thursday--this is AMAZING!!

okay, this is an amazing deal.  you basically can get 12 burgers and any $12.99 item from OMAHA STEAKS for a mere $1.98.

link here for the details...

and if you would, on her step 2 link, could you replace it with this one instead so that i get the credit?  THANKS! 

oh, and it took me 6 hours to get my code from the first link.  just a heads up, but this does work!

------------

i got this e-mail tonight...so, no combining deals

Dear AMY SANDERS

Thank you for shopping at Omaha Steaks! We appreciate your business and

are confident you will be delighted with your order.

We do show when placing this order, a special offer for a free item was

combined with the $25 reward card. As stated in all promotions for free

items, offers cannot be combined. Your order will ship without the free

item.

SORRY!!!

movies and games?

we are leaving for vacation on thursday...going with the girls, my parents and jon's parents to lovely hilton head.  i'm excited, ready for a getaway, but the endless details to get our family ready makes me remember why we don't travel more.  :)

anyway, i'm writing to see if you have any recommendations for GAMES or MOVIES.  i'm fresh out of ideas, and i would love some fun games to play with the adults after the kiddos go to bed.  a movie would be nice too.  so, ideas people...give me your ideas.  please!

join me in my one woman crusade

okay, has anyone noticed how horrifically frightening the halloween displays are this year at your local grocery stores, pharmacies and the likes?  it has gotten to be a bit over the top.  there was but one store in our errands that we ran today where abby didn't have to close her eyes.  i mean, good grief, last week, i had a nightmare.  i have gotten fed up.  i'm all for some good time celebrating, and please, feel free to decorate, but this is just downright frightening.  so, i'm on a one woman crusade.  every store that had yucky decor got a request for the manager from me today.  then, i just informed them of how frightening their ghouls and hellish skeletons are to my children AND me.  i then asked them if they could consider keeping it all on one aisle instead of making the local walgreens a frightfest!  and to the stores that did well, that tastefully kept their horror to one location making it easy to avoid and easy for my child to relax, i said thanks.  because i don't want to be ungrateful when stores do something well.

what about your area of the world?  is it as horrible there as it is in good ol' gwinnett?  and anyone want to join the crusade??

more pretty pendants...for the little ones!

y'all are the best!  thanks to you, i might not be stuck with millions of pendants with no home but abby's room.  here are what's left of the little girl pendants.  oh, and don't forget, you can choose a zipper pull or a ribbon to go with the pendant.  all for $3.  and we do paypal too!  feel free to spread the word...i think these would make a great stocking stuffer!

sandersdesigns@bellsouth (DOT) net