30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 5

When I was pregnant with Elle I signed up with every formula company out there for free samples and coupons. Then I sold them all on ebay. I still get stuff once in a while and last week I sold some coupons for $10 off formula. The person who won the auction wrote me and asked if it would be ok if there was a little delay in paying because she was finding herself a little short on money. I told her it was no biggie and to just pay me when she could. So today she paid me for the auction and wrote a nice note thanking me for being so nice.

I'm going to get her stuff ready to mail tonight and I'm going to include another $10 that I got in the mail yesterday. I know what it's like to be in a tight spot and I thought maybe that might help out a little bit. And, since I'm in such a good mood I won't even mention to her that she could be feeding her baby for free! (I know, I know. There might be a good reason she's not nursing. Don't bother to point it out to me.)

What did you do today?

Blogrolls are love

Thank you to the people who told me to get myself a reader. I love it. I want to add every blog I see to my reader just so that I'll always have a ton of stuff to read when I click on it. I love it so much that I have decided to get rid of my old, outdated blogroll and just add a list of recently read items from my blog reader. I like the way it looks and it gives people some new blogs to browse if they're so inclined.

I've had a lot of fun browsing other people's blog rolls in the past. I've discovered some real gems out there. I wish I had discovered hera long time ago. I love her thoughts on Gapmoms and I love this post for lots of reasons but mostly because it talks about the same thing I did here. I love it when people agree with me. (Ok, so she wrote hers first but I swear I wrote mine before reading hers.)

Anway, I'm loving the heck out of my blog reader. It really doesn't take much to make me happy.

I'm laughing with him, not at him

Yesterday I had a meeting at school to go over the results of Joseph's assesments. It was really interesting to hear what everyone had to say about him. The things I found the most interesting were some of the things the school's autism expert had to say. (I respect her opinon a lot, she was the one who first assesed Joseph back when he was really little.) She talked about how during the observation she saw him walk around with his hands in front of him, with his fingertips touching. She also said she saw him cross and uncross his fingers a lot. Those are some little things that I a) don't know to look for and b) see him do so often that I don't even notice them anymore. She (and a couple of other people who observed him) also noticed a kind og sing-song pattern and tone to the way he talked. Again, I hear it all the time so I just sort of forget he does it.

A few things I was glad to hear them talk about were the way he has difficulty in establishing eye contact and how he seems to lack empathy. That makes him sound like a lost cause! It's really not as bad as it sounds because he really is a caring little boy. Hejust doesn't really seem to understand how his actions make other people feel. He's only able to understand how things make him feel. He's learning though but I was glad to hear the things that we have noticed about him be confirmed by someone who really knows what she's talking about.

When I got home from the meeting I read the entire write up of all the assesments and two things just made me laugh out loud. These might not be funny if you don't know Joseph but they're just so him.

"The teacher said it was time for questions for a student who was showing her violin and Joseph raised his hand. A student was called on who made a statment and Joseph commented aloud 'That is not a question.'"

"The teacher next stated that it was time to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Joseph stood up immediatly and the teacher praised him for being ready. However, he grabbed a tissue, dabbed his nose and threw the tissue away as the Pledge was being said."

Oh, my little boy.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 4

I had something special planned for today but I can't do it because Joseph and I are both sick and running fevers so we can't leave the house. Instead I made a donation to Habitat for Humanity. I have more hands-on type of deeds planned but I'll have to save those for a day when I don't feel like my head has been run over by a bus.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 3

Ok, Day 3. All I know for sure is that I am in a monstrously bad mood today. It might have something to do with the fact that the weather just said we could get up to 6 inches of snow today. Sometimes I hate Minnesota so much!

Joseph's school is taking part in in the American Heart Association's Jump rope for Heart. In Joseph's words "We have to raise money to give to 'hostiples' so they can buy new medicines." Isn't that a good cause? And yes, he still says "hostiples" and frankly I hope he never stops because I think it's so cute.

Anyway, I set up Joseph's on-line donation page (you can find it here) and for today's good deed I'll be donating money to that cause.

On a hilarious/sad note, Joseph told me that his school doesn't have any jump ropes so rather than do that, all the kids are just going to go in the gym and jump together.

I know there are a few people out there doing good deeds because I've seen my banner on a few sites. Leave me a comment about what you're doing, I would love to hear about it. Don't make me beg. More.

What's killing Jen today?

I have wrestled with a high chair. I have done battle with my neti pot. I have fought with fiber. I have come out on top every time. So what nearly killed me today? Gather round children and I'll tell you a story 'bout a gal named Jen, poor Minnesotan, trying not to get dead.

I was talking on the phone today and I noticed something itchy on the front of my right shoulder. I figured it was a crumb or something on my bra strap so I kind of pushed the strap aside and kept talking. I slowly started to notice that the itch wasn't going away. I kept talking on the phone but the itch was getting worse and worse. When I got off the phone I pulled my shirt aside and looked at my shoulder. The whole front and top my my shoulder was red. What the heck? I look my bra over and can't see anything on it that should be giving me problems so I put a little lotion on the red area, fix my stap and make another phone call.

This phone call was to the therapist at my surrogacy agency. I have to check in every week or so just so that they know I haven't gone crazy. Or something like that. Whatever the reason they want to talk to me is, I of course want to present my "best self" while speaking with them. Here's the thing though. It's hard to present your best self when your entire right shoulder feels like it's on fire.

Two minutes into the phone conversation and the itch starts back up again. Only now it's spreading to the back of my shoulder and down onto my chest. I can feel huge, painful welts rising up. I keep chatting with the therapist but what I really want to do is scream "MY BRA IS KILLING ME!" and run outside and roll in the mud topless. I try to keep a casual tone to my voice as I remove my bra while I chat.

I somehow manage to end the phone call without saying anything weird and I go to look in the mirror again. There is a huge red rash going all the way from the back of my right shoulder, over the top and front of my shoulder, down the front of my chest. The front of my shoulder has large, raised welts all over it.

I don't know what caused this. I never found anything wrong with my bra and eventually the rash went away. What could have caused this? Maybe I'll look online and see if I can find some all natural pill used to cure undergarment allergies. I just hope it doesn't have fiber in it.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 2

I haven't done my deed yet today but I'm going to post about it now because I will be doing it this afternoon. I am going to drop off a bunch of stuff at Anna Marie's. I have some clothes and shoes and bath stuff from my MIL that I'm going to take over. I also have some baby clothes and toys that we no longer need here that I'm going to take over. I was going to save some of that stuff for a garage sale but I think I would rather see it go to someone who really needs it. I'm also going to get together some bathroom stuff to take over too since they're always in need of basics like shampoo and soap.

Anna Marie's is one of my pet causes and I take stuff over there several times a year. I wonder if I should look into doing some hands on volunteer work there? Can't wait to hear what your deed was for the day!

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 1

I decided to go global for todays deed. I wanted to give this website I found a try. For my first deed I went to Kiva.org and donated some money. If you've never heard of Kiva it's acutally pretty cool. From the site: "Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back."

The site is really easy to use and search so if you're so inclined, give it a look. Check out the profile of the person that I donated to here. You can see me listed on her page as a donor. Neat!

Leave me a comment! I can't wait to hear what you're doing!