1st snow day.....

We got the call at 5:30am 11-02-11, that Aragorn's school was closed do to bad weather. So, it was decided PAJAMA day for all!!! Daddy had to work from home, but he got to do it in his pajama's that's something at least. We spent the day making a cool haunted house Grandma Spillman gave the boys for Halloween, we ate Halloween candy, lounged around, read, watched movies. It was a GREAT snow day. Eric did have to shovel at about 2 pm and the boys wanted to help. Them being outside lasted about 15 minutes longer than i thought it would, so about 25 minutes total. But they had a good time. It ended up being an awesome day.

Rohan ready for snow

Aragorn ready for snow

Helping dad

Not to bad for a 1st snow

Sad tree

Aragorn Helping

Rohan "helping"

The cool haunted house we did

This state.....

Has serious issues.

This is Rohan playing outside in 60 degree weather 11-01-11

This is Rohan playing outside in 30 degree weather 11-02-11

Great Birthday weekend......

I had a great weekend. Eric and I got to dress up and go out Saturday night. For my birthday he got me tickets to The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Dinner Show-Solve a hilarious murder case while you enjoy a fantastic four-course plated dinner. Just be careful! In this show, EVERYONE is a suspect, even YOU, and the killer might be at your table! The show we attended was a special Halloween show and you were encouraged to dress up. After much back and forth, we finally decided to go with a steampunk theme. Per Wikipedidia Steam punk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s.^[1] Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

If this picture were taking in the correct time, it would look kinda like this

                                    This is a good one of our hats.  I added the black feather & gears to mine.  It's a good one of Eric's costume too.  I think we pulled off the look pretty well.

Just me :-)

It's not something we would normally have chosen, it just so happened I had a lot of "steampunk" type clothes. The dinner was fun, a little cramped, and a little bit disorganized, but overall it was a good time. I would go back if given the chance.

Aragorn has his costume parade tomorrow, and both boys are looking forward to tomorrow night and Trick or treating.  We tried on costumes tonight, and i am so excited to sho you pictures tomorrow!!

I know.....

Some pretty awesome people. Listed below is some feedback I got about my R.A.O.K project. I challenged everyone on Face Book & my blog to do one R.A.O.K. this is what people said....

My Mom

“I  thought  I  do  one  of  those  random  acts  this  morning,  bought  2  big  bags  of  candy   and  took  it  into  McDonald’s to give to the employees”  She also donated funds to the Denver Rescue mission, and Salvation Army.

Becky

Sent a friend some of the honey from her bees as a gift 

Brianna

“I've got BIG plans tomorrow. Well ok, not big, little hand-size packages of yumminess for the train and shuttle drivers that are gonna drive so I don't have to. And I gotta admit....it's kinda fun. This whole, being a good person thing! lol Thanks for gettin everyone into it, you're kinda awesome!!”

Justine R.

“What an awesome thing to do for a month!!! did you write them down in anticipation? or did you just think of something new every day I think I am gonna try the 30 day challenge as well might have to borrow a few of yours tho”

Jamie H.
“We are making a monthly donation to the wounded warrior project. I don't know if that's random, but something I've been wanting to do for a while”

Michelle C.
“I bought little pumpkin decorations for everyone's work cubicles & handed them out”
And
“Gave a homeless guy begging for money the can of soda I bought right before I left work. :) I really didn't need it anyways.”

Mandi Z.
“Something I did do at the store, but I usually do this regardless; when at the store and I'm in line waiting to pay, I will let whoever is behind me with less items than me go ahead. Common courtesy thing but not a lot of people do it.”

Jennifer M.
“I helped someone clean off the car cause she couldn't reach the top does that count??”

The Birthday Post.......

As many of you know, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer this year.  The news of your mom having breast cancer, no matter how prepared you think you might be, is shocking.  I went through a lot of different emotions when she told me.  Sadness, pity, fear, anger.  All of them.  Anger being the one standing in the front.  I had already lost my mother in law to cancer, how dare it try to take my mother too.  I was mad at first, but I plowed through with her, keeping track of doc appointments on my calendar and checking in with her often.  Nothing changed, life went on as normal.  When the news came back that the mass they had found was in fact cancerous, she took one day to decide she would have a double mastectomy.  There was no talking her out of it. She didn’t want to have to deal with all of this again.  “It’s just too much time off work” she would say.  In June she had surgery for a double mastectomy.  I have never seen someone doing so well after surgery.  She was up and about the NEXT day, ready to sit through a game of marbles.  I was able to help my mom with things that she did for me as a child without blinking an eye.  I am happy to report she is now cancer free, and has very little chance of it coming back.

Having been through this with her, it made me see how fortunate I am, and how nice it is when people do random things to make you feel nice inside.  While going through this with mom, people I haven’t seen in years texted me to see how she was and to check in on me too.  Some poeple sent cards.  Others just a quick email to say they were thinking of us.  It made us both feel really good. 

I have been thinking about this since July.  But it was while I was searching blogs that I found this http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=1358 and I decided what I would do. 

The blog writer did 38 Random Acts of Kindness for her birthday.  After reading this, I was inspired to do my own Random acts.  What a great idea, random acts of kindness to celebrate YOUR birthday.  I started kinda late, so I didn’t have much time to prep, which means a lot of my RAOK’s were monetary, although it was GREAT it was in the end a little expensive.  And if I do this again, I will plan better so I can do more things for less money.  But I got the result I wanted, lots of happy people and a feeling of utter joy for me.  I ended up with more RAOK’s than I had planned, but hey I was on a roll. 

Here’s a list of what I did.

1.       Donated 8 bags of clothes to charity

2.       Made “blessing Bags” for the homeless.  Filled them as full as the bag would let me

3.       Let a women with 1 item go ahead of me in line (even though I had a cartful and both boys)

4.       Sent cards to friends just to let them know I am thinking of them

5.       Left 5 notes that said have a good day on them on random cars at Target. Joanne’s & Wal-Mart

6.       Bought a $1 donation to feed the hungry charity @ Taco Bell

7.       Donated a food item to the food bank of the Rockies at the dollar store

8.       Bought a heavy winter coat at goodwill that Eric can give someone

9.       Paid for the guy behind me at McDonald’s

10.   Gave money to sprouts for Autism Research

11.   Bought a bottle of lotion and gave it to the women standing behind me at Bath & body works

12.   Bought a Jamba juice for my friend Jamie who has been sick for a few days

13.   Donated $5 to breast cancer research at Ulta

14.   Bought a cookie scoop for my Best Friend Bria that she mentioned she wanted, but would never get around to buying

15.   Bought coffee for the person behind me at Starbucks…..there was no one behind me, so I gave the clerk a $5 and explained what I was doing, and asked her to pay for the next person that came through

16.   Rohan and I paid for 50 kids to ride the $.1 horsey at King soopers

17.   Took cupcakes to our local fire station-these guys were genuinely grateful for the sugary snack (they even gave RO a Jr. Fire chief hat that he wore the rest of the day)

18.   Took cookies to our local police station (of everyone I have done an RAOK for, these guys were the least grateful)

19.   Took flowers to Aragorn’s Teacher Mrs. Douglas

20.   Taped $1.25 to 2 different soda machines

21.   Took homemade brownies to the ER nurses at the children’s hospital at Aurora Adventist church

22.   Took coloring books and crayons to the kids at the ER

23.   Randomly taped $1 bills to toys at the dollar store

24.   Bought brownies for cops that were Chic-fil-a

25.   Bought a candy bar for the cleaning women at Wal-Mart

26.   Picked up trash at the park while Rohan played

27.   Gave $1 to save the music at Hot Topic

28.   Bought little gifts for our neighbors Sammie and William

29.   Went out of my way to recycle some ink cartridges

30.   Made another donation to Breast cancer research, but this time we got a cute lil dog

31.   Got my MIL a bracelet I thought she would like

32.   Gave candy to the crossing guards at Aragorn’s School

33.   Passed out candy to all the mom’s standing waiting for the kids to go into class

34.   Gave note of thanks cards to the milkman & mail man with a little treat

35.   Gave a card of love to my mom

36.   Gave a note and small bottle of lotion for Trista

37.   Gave a card and free Jr Frosty coupon’s for the W kids

38.   This is my one to grown on………It’s a secret to everyone but me and the recipient.  I’m glad I did it, and I hope the person appreciates what I’m trying to do.

My Challange to you.....

I would like anyone that reads my blog this week, to do one Random Act of Kindness between today & Thursday.  And then, report back to me what you did.  My email is aragorns_mommy@comcast.net.  Email me if you don't want to post what you did directly to the blog.  I will do a post Thursday to tell you why.

He's so much fun!