So last week we went to the zoo.  We joined a group of all of 3 families who braved the cold to see but a few animals that they allow to brave the January temperatures.  (Not even the penguins were out.)

But we did get to go into the giraffe barn.

Have you ever heard a giraffe pee?  It sounds like a firehose.  As soon as I heard the sound of the tall mammal urinating and told Charming, he grabbed the kids and went running to witness the event. I couldn’t believe the speed of his reaction.  It was like someone said there was an available Nintendo Wii.

Now Engineer and Sugar have some pretty interesting prayers at times.  Engineers are usually understandable, with an initial "Dear Heavenly Father" and a closing "Amen".  But the stuff in the middle is sometimes a little muddled.  It’s as if he has interpreted what he thinks we said and translates it into how he thinks it sounds.  Sugar bases her prayers off of what Engineer says, so hers are even more random and unintelligible.

And yet the day after we went to the zoo, she felt it was important to tell Heavenly Father that giraffes, yes indeed, do pee.  Her prayer went something like this: "Blah, blah, hmm, hoo doo, And giraffes pee… and giraffes poop… hmm, hoo ha, Amen."

And then Engineer’s prayer this night was, "Dear Heavenly Father, I am thankful for this day.  Chocolate is so good and yummy, yummy and I can have a drink.  Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Who taught these people how to pray? 

…holding your sleeping baby in a dark room and just letting her sink into you.  Putting your cheek against hers and absorbing her sweet baby smell.  Loving her so much that you can feel how much Heavenly Father loves you and knowing that life is all about moments like these.

Me: (to Sugar)  What’s this?

(Correct Answer: Money)

Sugar: Ummm, Jesus? 

A long time ago it was the books.

Then (and still) it was Creative Memories.

And now… Mary Kay.  (How many of you have ever had a four year old son who can not only spell Mary Kay, but also recognize it?) 

Here’s the thing.  I signed up with Mary Kay because I like the products and I wanted the discount.  Now that I am involved with it, I am ready to go full force.

But I waver.

The scrapbooking thing hasn’t been super profitable for me for a few reasons:

1.I never saw it as a big money maker– just wanted to get my stuff at cost

2. Not everybody scrapbooks.  Some people have a negative association with scrapbooking. Many that do scrapbook don’t like Creative Memories 

3. I don’t know.  I’m boring?  I get really LOW sales at my CM parties.

(I love the products by the way, feel free to order directly from my website and have it sent to you.) 

So I love the CM stuff and I don’t want to quit.  But I love Mary Kay too.  And I get a bigger discount/comission.

Here is my problem: I have high expectations and I fear failure.

Part of me is optimistic, thinking "everyone has a face," "no one has ever said they don’t like Mary Kay– they usually love it" "Mary Kay parties are way fun," "Bigger commission means same low sales get bigger rewards."

The other part of me is like, "you haven’t been successful yet, why would it happen for you now?" "People are burnt out on all your little ‘businesses’"  "You’re still boring, you’ll be just as boring at this."

I keep waffling between being really scared and monstrously excited.  Why is this?  

I know what it is like in this type of system.  Yet I find it totally valid, and know that others have made it work for them.  I don’t even want to make a lot of money, I just want a consistent and steady business.

Am I crazy?

Any thoughts? 

I was teasing a friend yesterday who had no New Year’s Eve plans.  She said at the very least, she was going to watch all the Anne of Green Gables movies.

Well, Melissa, at the very least I thought for my New Year’s Eve I would do the following:

1. Go to bed at 8 pm

2. Wake up at 12 am thinking that something has exploded in my garage, go to see if Charming is okay and be informed that it was only an obnoxious firework, and that yes, it scared him too.

3. Drink a lemon-lime soda to celebrate the New Year.

4. Go back to bed at 1 am

Pretty dang exciting, huh? 

We returned home last night from my parents’ home after a 12+ hour drive. On our trip we stopped in a town that had some memories for Charming and I which has prompted me to write this post.  This post about charitable acts rendered to our family.

4 1/2 years ago when I was pregnant with Engineer, Charming and I took a trip to see my family and trade in our Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra (aka The Beast) for a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra (Beast 2) that my Dad had gotten for us.  We were very excited as the Beast was (we felt) on it’s last legs.  As it turned out, Beast 2 was more on its last legs than the Beast was, as the car threw an engine rod just before the last offramp to Pocatello, Idaho.

We were just able to drive off the offramp and coast onto a little residential street before the car totally died.

Just picture it.  We’d been married less than a year and I was about 3 months pregnant, and we found ourselves in the dark, in an unknown town with no cell phone.  We had already been on the road 9+ hours.  We got out of our car and just started walking, trying to find a phone or a mechanic or anything open.  It was late in the evening.  We eventually found ourselves in a mini-mart/video store.  A nice family who were renting a video overheard our conversation with the cashier and offered to help us. 

First, they made room in their car and drove us to our car for some luggage and then they took us to a Motel 6 (which would have been way to far for us to walk to).  The man gave us the name of his mechanic, who could tow our car and left us with his phone number.  In the morning the same man, picked us up from the hotel, and took us to the mechanic and later took us to the bus station (as we would not be leaving Pocatello with Beast 2).

What this family did for us, was perhaps so simple to him, and yet meant the world to us.  What would we have done being miles from home in a sleepy town?  For just a few hours, this family showed kindness on us, took us in in a sense, just because.  It was one of the kindest, most Christian thing any stranger has ever done for us.

The second act of kindness occured on yet another traveling adventure.  We were coming home on a plane from Florida.  We hit serious turbulence and pregnant me and toddler Engineer vomited much.  I used a barf bag.  Engineer used Charmings lap.  Engineer was covered in pukes and we had to strip him down, with nothing to dress him in.  When we got off of the plane (at our first stop, we still had another leg of the flight left) a couple in the airport (from our flight) approached us, and asked if our little boy had vomitted on the plane.  We of course said that he had.  She then made a very kind and Christian gesture, by giving us an Atlanta Braves t-shirt for Engineer.  She had just bought it, and it was about 6 sizes too big for Engineer, but we were so grateful that our baby didn’t have to be naked for the next 4 hours. 

So that’s it.  At this holiday season it is nice to remember random acts of kindness.  I hope I would do the same for someone else.

How about you?  Any stories of charity that you’d like to share.