So, You Wish To Help Those In Need... (Website info incl.!!)

But you don't know where to go or where to start?

First of all, decide if you wish to make a monetary donation, item (food, clothing or toys and books) donation, or donate some of your free time (like in a Soup Kitchen).

Once you have decided which way (or ways) to go, then figure out your ending budget (as to stay within your means of monetary comfort level).

After you do steps one and two, then you need to find a place (or the places) to go to as to make your donation happen.

As someone who has had to have help around the holidays with getting gifts for my children (food was never an issue for us), believe me when I say that the recipient(s) of your generosity, love and compassion are beyond grateful, your willingness to help those in need, are NOT lost. Especially when it comes to seeing the smiles on our children's faces come Christmas morning.

To the people and the organizations that had helped us in the past, THANK YOU!!!

Now, as a tradition in our family (of two parents and three kids), we donate spare change as we can throughout the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season. Also, we donate to the Salvation Army's "Angel Tree" Organization.

I see it as giving back and paying it forward, being that they and a couple of churches have helped us in the past. Now, we aren't as strapped as we used to be. And it teaches my children a valuable lesson in giving, caring and what it means to help your community.

When we go to the mall, we let THEM each pick a child of their choosing (boy or girl), and they choose the age range (usually their age) and then my husband and I try to find a child that is 3 years old or younger.

Then, we take them to places like Family Dollar or Dollar General and have them buy a book (or coloring book), one or two age-appropriate toys, and at least one outfit and some socks.

After that, we let them help pack or wrap the gifts and place them in to a shopping bag (grocery size) and we place the tag with the child's number on it.

Within 72 hours, my kids are taken back to the mall and THEY place their bag(s) of presents for their child under the Angel Tree.

So, here below will be some Charitable Organizations, with their website address and a small description of what they do. Or they may be sites to help direct you to things like your local Soup Kitchen, or Shelter..

Have a safe, fun, happy and GIVING Christmas/Hanukkah season, everyone!


Toys For Tots is ran by the Marine Corps. You bring them unwrapped, unopened/used toys, and they donate them to your locality's kids in need.

Soup Kitchen Locality Directory List is where you can find a place near you to serve a hot Holiday Meal to those in Homeless Shelters.

ASPCA is the site to go to if you wish to help organizations that help treat, house and find new "forever homes" for animals. They are in desperate need all of the time for food, animal toys, supplies like blankets and towels and even bathing supplies.

Angel Tree helps supply Christmas gifts to deprived, in-need children who's families cannot afford much this year (out of work, laid off, disabled and cannot work) because food and medication are more important, as well as heating and shelter this Winter Season. You can donate books, toys and/or clothing.

Goodwill will accept your gently-used or even NEW items to put up for sale in their shops. Their items are sold for extremely low prices and will help those that CAN afford to buy (a few things)for their family members. Plus it puts your community's citizens to work. At your locality's various donation stations and within your community's stores.

Christmas Charity is your ultimate, one-stop-shop for charitable organizations that not only include those mentioned above, but MANY, MANY others as well. For the USA and abroad, as well.

I Think I Was Given Bad Shrooms, Man!!

You know, it's bad enough that Dominos Pizza has now given my husband the WRONG pizza (we use Delivery Service) twice out of the last five of our orders. He ALWAYS gets the Meatza (where it is ALL meat, not a speck of veggie on it because he's a typical man and just rolls like that).

When Dominos last messed up before this, they gave him the one with BOTH meat AND veggies. I specifically said (seeing as I had a brain fart and couldn't remember the actual pizza's name) ALL MEAT, not with ANY veggies. I trusted the girl on the other end of the line to KNOW what I was talking about, seeing as she IS an employee and all.

Last night we went ahead and ordered pizza, seeing as my plans to make a spaghetti dinner were kind of ruined.

See, I have not one, but TWO big refrigerators in my kitchen as I type this. One is the pretty new (but barely used) one that we set up last night. This one has a WORKING water/ice dispenser. But Scott had to clean it really well with Bleach Spray. That alone sent me to tears and in to burning breathing...Even with windows OPEN.

The other of course, is the old one that also too needs to be cleaned. Scotty wants me to clean it BEFORE he moves it. Riiiight!!! I can barely get around in that tiny kitchen with those two giant fridges up in there. I'll wait until he and his brother MOVE IT out of my way, even though it means lots of trips up and down the basement stairs.

And I have totally gotten off track..Back to the bad mushroom pizza and the screw up. (=

The kids got their pizza and started munching right away. As did I with my green peeper, onion and (apparently Psychedelic) mushroom pizza. Poor Scott got a Pineapple and Bacon pizza. And the box (after looking at it) said the CORRECT pizza with chicken and bacon added. But the WRONG pizza was in it. Niiiice.

Poor quality, but this as close to "Psychedelic" as I can get to, let alone WANT TO get to...



My poor husband had to wait yet an extra thirty-five minutes to get his CORRECT pizza and chow down.

We got to keep the Bacon and Pineapple pizza, so I took a piece and tried it. Pretty good, actually!

At first all was fine and dandy for me, sleep wise. But then about an hour or two of being in bed, my youngest comes in in semi-tears and said she had a bad dream and asked if she could sleep with us. So, I became "monkey in the middle", squished between her and her Daddy.

Sometime after that, began the uber scary dreams of zombies, gross and gruesome violence that ensued from being chased by the undead creatures, and other manic and weird dreams.

I think this one best describes the look on my face in the vivid dreams of being chased..



Here's to a much better, zombie-less filled tonight. I'm done with being chased thanks to mushrooms that give me more than a kick.

McDonald's is changing the world.

McDonald's. It's been a kid-friendly staple for over fifty years. Who knew that when Ray Kroc first opened his little burger joint's doors, that it would be the mega-empire it is today?

It wasn't (if I remember correctly) until the middle 1970's that Happy Meals started to appear. Back then, it was either a hamburger or cheeseburger, with a small fry and a kid-sized drink.

Today, there are various types of Happy Meals. From burgers, to nuggets, to even a Snack Wrap. Plus you can now choose fries or "Apple Dippers", and either a milk (or chocolate milk), Apple Juice, or a fountain drink (AKA soda).

The other day, I had taken my kids for a breakfast. I had no milk, so no cereal. And I wanted to get out of the house anyways. At first I didn't seem to notice, but when I went to throw some trash away, I did.

Usually, you can see the small, plastic boxes where you can drop coins in to the box's slot. All proceeds in that box goes to the Ronald McDonald's Charity House for your general locality.

There, now in a huge window display poster, it now reads that Happy Meals and McDonald's was bringing even more smiles...and hope to kids and their families.

Namely families with sick, hospitalized children.

To my memory, if it serves me right, my parents, a time or two, had to stay at the Ronald McDonald Charity House while I was hospitalized. Plus, even though it was for a (grown) uncle, I and his (then) girlfriend and were able to stay a night at the Ronald McDonald Charity House here for this area.

McDonald's has (for the most part) always been committed to children and their families. They help HUNDREDS of families every year, around the United States.

When families, and their children must travel long distances for medical treatment, or the child is transferred via ambulance or helicopter to a distant hospital, then this is where the RMCH comes in.

They house the family (and sometimes the child too, if they are not admitted to the hospital), feed them a meal, let them shower and rest. And the RMCH has as much of a comfortable environment as possible. To make it as much a "home away from home" as they can make it.

I'm so happy that children and their families have somewhere to go, and feel safe, and be comfortable, as well as relaxed during their child's most trying time of life. And I'm happy to be a part of it. I love giving back to those that helped me and my family when I was a child. Be it RMCH, Children's Miracle Network (CMN), or Shriner's Organization.

Without them all, I don't know where myself, my parents or the millions of families like ours would have (or would in the future) do without them.

I have been laxed on posting. And that's fine with me.

Reason being, my family (as in all three kids and the husband) were all together for the entire weekend. Well, if you don't count Friday night's stay for Hayley at a cousin's house. But to have all three of my kids, myself, and Scott home together under one roof is a rare treat.

Especially being that on average, Scott works on the weekends. Primarily on Friday and Saturday. And Hayley has to go and do full weekend visitation with her biological father every other weekend.

Add in that at practically any moment now I could get the call, we are awaiting the arrival of my new Great-Niece, Kiarra Sage. My niece is in labor as of yesterday and that baby could finally decide to drop and plop any time.

Life (real life that is) is more important at times than the Blogosphere or Facebook, or even MySpace. And sometimes, we have to take a step back and live in the moment of having the people we love around us. Not be on here blogging til our fingers fall off.

This past weekend, as I earlier said, my oldest Hayley went and spent the night at a cousin's home. On Saturday, we took the kids, the said cousin, my brother-in-law, his son and ourselves to the movies. Some of us had watched "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs". Some of us then also watched "Astro Boy".

On Sunday, after taking my brother-in-law and nephew home, my family and I went and had a wonderful drive through the country side. And we also stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken for a bite (and to pee REALLY badly).

Over all it was a really nice weekend. It was good to get out and do something 'simple' as a family. To have some fun and some togetherness. Not worry about blogging or anything else that was trivial compared to my kids and I (and the hubby) having a great time making lasting memories for them to later takl about with us when they are grown.

This is one of the reasons I hate Retail Life!

As a former Retail Sales Clerk myself, I understand. Businesses are set to making money. And grocery stores will never become a "thing of the past", being that we as humans, must eat. But to eat, we must spend our hard earned money to buy the food.

There is currently a massive snowstorm hitting us, the Carolinas and most of the Mid-Atlantic. So far, there is a minimum of about fourteen inches on the ground, that started to fall last night. It won't end until sometime this afternoon.

What is just deplorable and shocking to me, is that ANY AND ALL grocery stores in my area are still opening, forcing their employees, such as my husband to drive in this stuff. Yes, the shelves need restocking. But can the managers not close the doors for one freaking damn day so that their employees don't have to risk life and limb to get to their job, where most likely, business will be at a stand still?

Nope, they certainly cannot! How dare the store managers actually think about their employees instead of lining their pockets with salary wages!! After all, the making of a potentially fast buck is always better than making sure that your employees are safe and sound.

This is one of the reasons I decided to be a Homemaker. I knew that they would want to jeopardize my safety, and the safety of my children to have me come to work in these kinds of weather conditions.

It was a crazy evening. Filled with fun, laughter and love.

Where? At my Brother In-Law's of course!

He is the man when it comes to cooking. Not to knock down my hubby. After all, his pork chops are to die for. But the cheese burgers were pretty good last night. Simple, but oh so delicious!

After feeding six starving children (after all, they all think that they are dying of hunger on a daily basis), which included my three, a cousin, a nephew, and a niece, everyone kind of went their seperate ways.

The smaller kids watched a movie and played in the bedroom upstairs. The older ones went down stairs to the bedroom to play Fasion Show and Chutes and Ladders (nice combo!).

My husband, his brother and I just sat in the living room, watching the movie Sahara with Penelope Cruz and Matthew McConnehey (still can't figure out how to spell it).

At nine o'clock, the fun ended. It was time for the decent drive home. Then my oldest daughter went home again with her cousin to spend yet another night.

This morning, it will be cleaning time soon. My husband is home, so I know he will help me, being I am on several restrictions for my eye's recovery from surgery.