$10,000 giveaway

So, did the title catch your eye? Nothing like a little bait to increase the traffic to your blog right? lol

So, no I am not giving away any money. Heck, I am not giving away anything. But since you are here anyway, why not take a minute and humor an old blogger.(not booger)

As I have done frequently in life, i have imagined what I would do with lots and lots of money if I....

• A. Won the lottery


• B. Had a rich relative die and leave me lots of money


• C. Came up with a million dollar idea that some super rich person bought


• and so on and so forth

It has always been fun and I think i would be quite the responsible money handler just given the chance. I have heard that money corrupts and that I would just blow it anyway, but hey, give me the chance to prove you wrong. I know i do not need money to be happy....BUT IT WOULDN'T HURT!

So my question today is. What would you do with $10,000 if it came to you out of the blue with no strings attached? I know this is not an easy question to answer. And since I wouldn't ask you fine stalkers to answer anything I was not willing to answer myself....here it goes

first off, $10,000 would not even touch the debt I owe so paying off debts would not be what I would see as the best use of this money. But it is not going to pay off my house either.

I know, I could put it away for the kids and college. Or I could take it to vegas and try to grow it to millions. Maybe I could just give it to someone even worse off than me. Tough decision to make, even if the money is imaginary. I mean, you have to be serious about this, right? lol

Anyway, this is what I would do(I think):

Go on a really great vacation. Not anything elaborate. Just something we may never get the chance to do again. And then, yes, I would put the money in a bank account and hope I could add to it later for all I am hoping to help the kids with.

So, boring? Maybe......So let me know what you would do with $10,000.

Have a great day!

Friendship

What is friendship?



I thought i knew what being a friend really meant. But I decided to look up the meaning . Here is what wikipedia says of friendship:



Friendship is the mutually cooperative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as the exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for some, the practical execution of friendship is little more than the trust that someone will not harm them.


I think this value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:
the tendency to desire what is best for the other
sympathy and empathy, honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart and mutual understanding.



I personally do not think you have to necessarily have all the similar interests. For example, my spouse and I do not all like the same things with the same amount of passion. This may be sports or television, the type of movie or color schemes of a particular room. I think, by the way, of my spouse as my best friend. The kind of friend that you think of first when something good(or bad) happens because you want so badly to share that with them. Life really is better when you are sharing it with someone.

What is strange though is that I never really had "best" friends growing up. I had a lot of friends but not that "best" friend that was always there for me and vice versa. I started to think about that.


Why did I not have a best friend growing up? After serious reflection I think I know that answer. I am incredibly selfish. There, I said it. Not particularly proud of this but I see it for what it was. I had really good friends so I examined these relationships. I found that these friends were the very epitome of friends as described in the opening of this post. They thought of my wants and needs or shared my desires and so we got along splendidly. But it was only because we were in the same after school activities or went to church together that "I" was their friend. I don't think I was ever that friend who went out of his/her way to look after those friends.



What my spouse has done with me is amazing. I have noticed that I have been shown by example what the true meaning of friendship is. When I looked up friendship, what I found described their attributes in our relationship to a tee. Now does not that feel awesome! You bet it does.


I think during my 200+ years I have grown and matured and I think I have developed some very good friendships. But these are only because of the fact that I was able to learn how to be a better friend. I have learned to listen. To be willing to do something that maybe is not my favorite thing to do because it is theirs. To be willing to go out of my way in order to help/serve someone else.



So, what kind of friend are you?



Do you have many friends around you who really can be defined by wikipedia's definition of friendship?



Are you that kind of friend?

We have but one life to live.......

Okay, I am stepping out of my box just a bit. No, I am not playing some kind of mind or word game but just want to talk frankly.

Life is hard. There, I said it. Anyone want to disagree with that statement? Anyone?

What is interesting is that at every stage I have ever been at in life, that stage had it's problems and there were things I was struggling with. And then, later on, I would look back and realize that I grew because of those struggles or I was not really struggling as much as I had originally thought.

Do any of you find that is the case with you?

I know that problems I am dealing with currently: recent lay off, financial issues, repossession etc are serious and have caused many a sleepless night over the last few weeks especially. My REAL problem? I know that these are none of what really and truly matters. But I cannot convince myself to take things in stride.

I really do believe that we are only here on earth for a short time in eternities time frame. And yet, I cannot get rid of the dark thoughts that insist on intruding into my head. You know the ones; I'm a failure and things would be better if I was just out of the picture. I know better than this and I still cannot completely dispell the sense of failure every time I think of what my family is going without.

I don't really know what direction I am heading....in life or in this blog post......just that I do have a deep conviction that I can deal with whatever is dealt to me. But because
I realize that I have only fallen half way down to where I am certainly heading, I dread the day to day.

Add having to deal with all that still has to be dealt with (schools asking for more and more money for kids activities for example) it is daunting. With a steady but underpaid job I am kept busy and that is good, but there are those moments when everything is off at night...........It is a madness....

Thank goodness for the ipod.......I do not know what I would do if I could not fill the silence and keep out the dread.

Well, enough venting I suppose. Thanks for visiting the blog and hopefully we will keep up more regularly with y'all.

So by the way, how did you like the guest blogger recently? I thought it was a great success and hope to have her back. If anyone has other ideas for guest bloggers, let me know.

Have a great day stalkers!

Movie Night

So, when you have no money, what do you do for fun? I mean, there is a house full of kids, the weather is not accommodating to outside frolicking and everyone is getting stir crazy.

MOVIE NIGHT is the answer. Sometimes all it takes to make a great night is popping in some old movies you have not watched in awhile, put on some comfy old clothes and turn off all the lights so we can munch on home made popcorn and treats.

That is exactly how we spent last night, and plan on spending each night this weekend. First off its cheap and fun and sometimes you just have to school your children on the classics.

I found out none of my children had ever watched Karate kid. What? that is not acceptable. They need to get my references to "painting the fence" and "waxing on and off" lol.

What other movies have my kids not seen?

Here are some must see cult favorites of mine and you be the judge of whether or not they should be "must sees"

• Teen Wolf
• Bill and Teds Excellent adventure
• Home Alone
• Gremlins
• Krull
• Beetlejuice
• clue
• Short Circuit
• Adventures in Babysitting
• Tron
• Back to the Future
• A Christmass Story
• The Dark Crystal
• Soul Man
• Dream a little dream (the corey's)
• Ghostbusters
• The Last Starfighter
• The Money Pit
• Starman
• Summer School
• The Pirate Movie

So, i know this is a long list to some of you and a short list to some others of you. Any of them stand out to you? As I was thinking back on some of these I think I started laughing out loud. One of the kids asked what was so funny. I could not explain it, some things you just have to keep to yourself.

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So, have you watched any of these movies or some like them lately? Did they hold up to the way you remembered them? I once had a Back to the Future Marathon because none of my kids had seen any of them. I had not remembered some of the language in those movies. Not bad, but I was a little taken back. I think those movies definitely still fit the bill but one that didn't was enemy mine. I could not even list that movie. Great idea for a movie and I had fond memories of it(I was probably 10 or so when I saw it) But it is awful bad now. I couldn't force myself to sit through the whole thing.

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So, what movies on this list would make YOUR list?

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Which movies didn't make my list but should be there?

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Have a great day stalkers!