Freecycle

I belong to my local Freecycle group. If you've never heard of Freecycle go to www.freecycle.org and read up about it. But if you are too lazy to do that here is a brief description of what it's all about from their website:

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,663 groups with 6,353,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!

I have belonged to my local group for about a year or so. It's a great way to clean out and get rid of things that you know could really be used by someone somewhere and it's just too much of a shame to throw it away. I know that I could probably sell a lot of the stuff on ebay but that tends to take a lot of time and effort for not a lot of profit.

Just this last fall we were moving things around in the office and had a lot of extra "stuff" that we just didn't need anymore. Like 3-ring binders, stamplers, green hanging folders - stuff like that. All I had to do was send one little email "offering" it up for grabs and I was able to make someone else's day.

Now... on to why I'm really writting about this. Just tonight as I'm sitting here at home watching TV and going from knitting on a sock to playing around on the computer I get an email that someone in my immediate (same town even) area was looking for a coat for her pony. A friend of mine had given me a XXL pet coat for Alley to use in the winter when it got really cold but it was WAY too big for her. Instead of just getting rid of it I held on to it. I think I had plans of putting it up on ebay or something one of these days... but never did. I knew exactly where it was and I after reading her email I dug it out and sent her an email giving her the dimensions and condition of it. Within minutes (and I mean less than 5) I got an email back from her stating that it did sound like something she could use and that she could pick it up tomorrow. This would have been fine except that it's just so damn cold out there that I knew that her pony needed this coat TONIGHT! Keep in mind that this is all happening at about 10:15 pm and aproximatly 1 degree outside. So I emailed her again saying that I knew that it was strange to offer but if she was up to it I could meet her tonight at a local gas station to give her the coat so her pony wouldn't have be out in the cold without a coat for one more night. And that is just what we did.

Within 30 minutes of her original post she had exactly what she was looking for and I had found a "use" for that coat that I have been hanging on to for an unknown reason for a few years. AND most importantly an animal that has to bout out in this rediculously cold weather will be warm tonight.

Even though it's very cold outside - my heart is full and warm and for that I am truely thankful.

Brief update... well... I'll try to be brief...

Allrighty then... since my last post... that I haven't wanted to post again because I liked clicking on my blog page just to see my tattoo... even though I can just look down at my wrist and see it.

Thanksgiving 2007
Thanksgiving Day was traditionally spent at Aunt Karen's house. Had a lovely time... lots of good food... was only missing Andrea & G-Man who were on vacation in Disney World.
The following day was my Dad's 65th birthday. We all (Dad, Mom, Hubby, LJ, Aunt Lorraine, Uncle Mike and I) went to dinner at Delaware Water Gap Country Club. This was the same place that Hubby and I had our Wedding reception at. Still looks exactly the same and still had wonderful food!
Saturday my FAB, Uncle B, their two son's and their GF's were in town. I got to spend some quality time with FAB - we went to my LYS and took advantage of a great sale that was going on. Woo Hoo!! Later that night my part of the family got to meet S's GF for the first time. She's seems very nice. A little quiet but very nice.

The beginning of January was kinda bleak. Let's just say buinsess was slow, if you call stopped all together slow... it kinda made getting into the Christmas spirit a little delayed. The second weekend of December we got our tree. It took us a week to get it up with lights and finally decorated but once we did it looked great! LJ loves to turn it on and off and really leaves it at that. We had to move some money around to allow us to afford Christmas this year. We hated to do it but sometimes you just gotta do what you need to.

Christmas shopping this year was different than any other year for me/us. First of all we wrote a list of all we wanted to give to. Then we put a $$ limit on each person. Then we brainstormed and wrote down a few ideas for each person. We were quite organized about the whole thing. We also didn't purchase one thing online which is just UNHEARD of with me. I buy a lot online but not this year. I didn't really have a reason to as we were able to find just about everything locally. Which in the broader scheme of things is better for our local economy anyway. I did make two of the gifts we gave this year and both were receiveved really really really well. I made a scarf & hat for my Aunt Lorraine and a scarf for my Dad. LJ was the major focus of everyone's gift giving this year which was awesome! He got a lot of GREAT things. We havent' even opened them all up yet. Hubby and I got him a play kitchen which he just LOVES. At one point durring our family gift exchange he didn't want to open any more gifts because he was just too busy playing with his kitchen (which he calls his chicken). He even held up his hand to me and said very seriously "Mommy, I'm busy" and went back to playing with his kitchen. I received a set of Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeable Knitting Needles from M&D - they are SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! But now I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to cast on first! I did get a few knitting books so I'm sure I'll come up with something.

So there you have it... my rather brief (well... breif for me) update. I'll be sure to post again soon.

Oh... FAB... TAG!!! You're IT!!!!

Believe

WELL... HERE IT IS...

MY NEW TATTOO!!!

It's on my left wrist where it can cleverly be hidden by my watch whenever I choose to.

Now you may be wondering why?? WHY??
Why Believe????

It all started many many many moons ago... almost two decades worth one sunny day in 4th grade. A new girl walked into my class room... the teacher asked if anyone rode bus # whatever it was and I was the only one... so Tammi was seated next to me and so our friendship began and we've been friends ever since. There was a minor break when she went to private school for two years but we still remained friends. Then Freshman year of High School we were reunited once again. I can still remember our first day of school. She walked to my house then we walked together to the bus stop. We weren't even to the end of the sidewalk in front of my house when I asked her if she liked The New Kids on the Block - and her answer was yes! Then the next most important question was which one? As it turned out she liked Joe and I liked Jordan and our friendship has been locked tight ever since. (Hey Tam - didn't know I remembered all that didja?)

So the years went buy and we lusted after NKOTB. We had posters and pins and buttons and trading cards and videos and I can't even remember what else we had but we were BIG fans. Unfortunately for the two of us we never got to see them live in concert. Sure we saw them on TV and taped the Half Time Show of the Super Bowl they played... but we never got to see them live.

Fast forward to 2008...

We found out (I don't remember who told who or what) that NKOTB was getting back together!!!! We were both ecstatic! And this time around we were NOT going to miss them in concert. The problem we had was that Tammi was now in TX and I was still in PA and neither one of us had the money to go to the concert, much less together.

Then one day Tammi instant messages me that through a co-worker she was able to score 2 tickets to their concert in Houston, TX! At first I'll admit I was EXTREMELY jealous - I wished I could go so badly. Tammi was really my only friend that I ever shared my NKOTB fetish for and she'd be my only chance to have someone to go to a concert with. But I guess I was feeling lucky that day and hopped onto a travel site and lo and behold round trip tickets to Houston weren't all that expensive and if I were to stay at Tammi's place and tighten up just a little I could afford to fly to Texas and go to the NKOTB concert with Tammi - SO I DID!!!!!

As you read in my last post the concert was amazing. The guys still have ALL The Right Stuff and were hotter than ever!!!!!

Now up until this point Tammi and I have been throwing around some ideas to get matching tattoo's. We just didn't know what, we kinda had the idea of where, just not the what. Then... at the concert... while Jordan was singing "Baby, I Believe In You" I had an epiphany - we could get the word Believe on our wrists. See, not only does Jordan sing a song with Believe in the title but Joey has a song called "Stay the Same" which in the chorus of the song has a line that says "Believe in yourself...". What a WONDERFUL idea! That was it. It was set.
We were going to get Believe in script on our left wrists.

Two days later we were in a tattoo parlor having Believe indefintaly tattooed onto our bodies. What a wonderful experience! And what a wonderful person to share it with!

I love you Tammi, now and forever and always remember to
Believe in Yourself because Baby, I Believe in you!

(Ok, I know that last part was extreemly corny but deal with it!)