The Angels Among Us

You know people say that there are angels walking among us and I finally have proof that they really are.  What I am about to tell you still makes me a little misty eyed thinking about it so if you are a sensitive soul get out your tissues. 

 

My parents have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt they are extraordinary, kind, selfless, beautiful people that I am so honored to know.  This year my parents decided that they were going to donate part of my dad’s bonus check to the food bank or pick a kid off of the angel tree to help out for Christmas.  After some serious discussion they came up with a better plan for the money.  They called me on my cell phone and asked me if my friend I hang out with all the time (she is really cute like a little doll, that is what I will call her Dolly) had received any presents or money from her ex in the mail for her daughter.  Her daughter is Tooter’s best friend and they are only a week a part with the exact same tastes in life.  They even have deadbeat dad’s that do not take their responsibilities serious.  I told my mom I was almost to her house I would just stop in. 

 

I got to her house and she pulled me into her bedroom and asked me again if Tooter’s Best Friend (TBF) had presents under the tree and if her dad had sent her anything.  I told her that he did not send anything and with money being really tight Dolly had presents under the tree but not a lot.  That sealed it we got Dolly on the phone and asked her what TBF needs or wants for Christmas.  She did not know what to say on the spot like that so we told her that we would give her a few minutes while my parents got ready to go to the store and they would call her back. 

 

The whole time my mom was telling me what her plan was I kept thinking in the back of my mind, “Do not cry, do not cry!!!”  I did not want to be tear stained in front of Tooters and have to try and come up with an excuse.  So we tossed around a few ideas and came up with getting her some snow boots since she is wearing tennis shoes in the ten tons of snow we have received and a snow shovel like Tooter’s since she has such a blast with it.  We called Dolly back and let her know they were off to the store and if she thought of anything else no matter what it is to call them back on the cell.  I stayed behind with Tooter’s and my brother who had come into town for a couple of days. 

 

After a little while my mom calls me from the store to ask if TBF has a bike.  I told her that she does but it is to small for her.  Well that settled it TBF was getting a brand new big girl bike for Christmas that will last her for the next couple of years at least.  My mom told me to get Tooters to another part of the house when they pulled up so that they could go out and cover the bike up with a blanket until they could get it over to Dolly’s house.  We decided that after Santa left the house that night (I had it arranged for him to come to the house and even bought some cheap dolls with a couple of outfits for the girls to open up with him.) and the girls are playing with the new toys Dolly and my dad would sneak out of the house and stash the bike and other stuff at her house for the next morning.  Bless my beautiful parents they even bought a gift certificate to Kohl’s for Dolly so she would have something from Santa to.

 

Well while my mom and I were taking a look at the presents and talking about them I noticed that the snow boots looked funny.  I picked them up and they were super light with no tread on the bottom.  Then I noticed the size it was 13-1, shoes are not sized that way just slippers.  I pointed this out to my mom so we left Tooter’s with my dad and brother so we could go look for real snow boots.  We checked three stores before going back to the store she originally got them at, they were told that was all they had.  Something told us that we needed to check again.  We hit the shoe isle and there on a low shelf in a box that had not even been opened was a pair of purple and black very cute snow boots in TBF’s size.  OMG they were meant to be hers so we scooped them up and exchanged the slippers for the boots. 

 

We talked to Dolly and TBF the next day, they said it was a wonderful Christmas.  TBF could not wait to show Tooter’s her presents from Santa and invited her to come and play the next day.  Dolly got a little sniffly on phone when I asked her if she got the little bag with the gift certificate in it.  She still cannot believe what my parents did for her.  I told her just enjoy it and buy something nice for herself with the gift card or save it and we could go shopping together.  I can still hear the gratitude in her voice and it makes me feeling wonderful knowing someone in my family did that for her.

 

This whole thing made my heart swell up with pride for having the parents that I do.  This whole act of kindness still makes me misty sitting her writing about it.  I just hope and pray that someday when I am more financially sound so that I can have an amazing opportunity to pay it forward.  Someday many many years from now I will sit down and tell Tooter’s the story of a Christmas made perfect just by giving and hope she will continue to have the generous nature she has now and help out some else out like her grandparents. 

 

I hope every one had an incredible Christmas like I did!!  Happy New Years everyone and remember to be safe.

Snow Snow GO AWAY!!!

Out my window at work!! Brrrr

Well it looks like we are going to have a white Christmas after all here at the Nuthouse.  I have decided my household needs a name since I get tired of listing all of us lol.  It has been snowing off and on for days now, and you know I am about over it.  Luckily my dad likes to come over in the mornings and shovel my driveway for me so I can get out for work.  Bless you Wanderer!!!!!

 

 

Speaking of shoveling Tooters did something that I wanted to share, and believe me I am not really thrilled about it.  My dad called me at work yesterday and asked me to come give him a ride home since he locked his keys in the car at the store.  So naturally the good daughter that I am got up and ran out the door to rescue him.  When I pulled up to the car there stands my mom shivering, my dad looking a little frustrated, and Tooters busy shoveling snow next to the car with the mini snow shovel my dad bought for her.  She was very proud that she was clearing a path for her grandma. 

 

After we got the keys taken care of I returned to work to finish out the day.  Late in the afternoon it started to rain.  Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I always thought when it got to freezing the snow was suppose to come down not the rain.  Anyways it was like 25 degrees, windy and raining.  I called to ask Tooters if it was raining out her window too, it is an on going thing we do making sure if it is snowing at my work it is snowing at the house.  However the Wanderer informed me that Tooters was too busy to come to the phone.  Here I am thinking that Hannah Montana is taking priority over me and I got a little hurt.  Usually when she hears me on the phone she comes running to talk to me, but not this time.  Naturally I had to ask what she was doing and this is what the Wanderer told me:

 

“Your daughter is busy outside shoveling the snow in the grass so that the dogs have a path to walk on so they can go pee.”

 

Now I can just imagine the whole scene in my head and start to laugh.  Tooters is probably shoveling as fast as she can and there is Sugerbooger my mom’s dog bouncing around outside of the path playing in the snow.  It is funny to watch her do this because she is a very small white Pomeranian that cannot walk in the snow she has to bounce through it.  Dusty-Do is behind Tooters in the cleared path watching her, but only for a moment and high tailing it back into the house.  She is like the Wonder Pup she does not like the snow. 

 

Then it dawned on me that it is raining and I let the Wanderer know this, you know just incase he forgot kids need to be in the house in the rain.  He told me he knew but she has her hat on and is having fun.  You know there is just no winning some days where grandpa is concerned. 

 

This morning we woke up to even more snow and Tooters was ecstatic because now she had a real excuse to use her new shovel.  So this morning instead of my dad shoveling the driveways I did it with lots of “help” from my little one.  By the time I finished my driveway and his I was frozen.  I took a second to look at my handy work and I started giggling.  There are straight consistent lines where I had shoveled across the driveway and on top of it are all these wild lines where Tooters had helped.  When my dad came out to see why we had not come in the house yet and Tooters ran up to him saying, “Boy grandpa aren’t you glad you bought me this shovel now you do not have to clear the driveway any more, me and my mom can!!!” 

 

Holy freaking crap I think I just got volunteered for a new job the rest of the winter because the shit eating grin on my dad’s face said it all.  So everyone next time it snows please take pity on me and send lots of warm thoughts for my poor tortured toes!! 

 

I posted some more pictures below that are out my window at work from yesterday right before we got dumped on again.  Everyone stay safe for Christmas with all the bad weather and stay warm.

My Sweet, Sweet Little Stinker

Christmas is a time of family, giving and thinking of someone other than ourselves.  Well ever since my divorce holidays are kind of rough for me.  Even though I have my beautiful daughter and my wonderful parents that live here in town, I still feel like the holidays are a little reminder that my little family was torn apart.  Not only is it that Tooters and I were left to face the world ourselves I feel bad that I am not able to give her the presents I wish I could give her.  Instead I settle for making a huge deal of Christmas and being with family.  I am also passing on a saying to her that my mother taught me as a kid, “It is better to give than to receive.”  The other one that we have been working on is, “It is not the size and expense of the gift it is the thought that counts.”

 

We have been working on understanding the meaning of these little pearls of wisdom for a while now and OMG I think she finally got it the other day.  What she did made me actually sit down and cry underneath our little Christmas tree. 

 

A couple weekends ago my boyfriend came into town and helped us put up all the lights outside plus the tree inside.  Well since then my little tree has been bare with no presents.  I only was able to buy a few things for Tooters this year and I was saving them for Santa to bring to her.  I finally could not stand it anymore and went to the store to pick up a few things that I could wrap for her.  They are nothing-expensive just little things like coloring books (she can color for hours at a time) and a blow dryer for the both of us since she is getting into that and mine is on its last legs/cord.   So I waited for her to go to bed and sat at my table wrapping presents so I could surprise her in the morning.  Let me tell you it could have been Christmas already. 

 

We sat down and I let her read all of the tags to me.  With each one that she read that was for her she got more excited.  I explained to her that she cannot open them until next week and she said ok.  Then that little sweetie looked up at me and said, “Mommy where are your presents?  All of these are for me.”

 

I explained to her that my presents were coming with Santa on Christmas morning and not to worry about it.  I also let her know that she will go shopping with my parents later on so that she will have something to give to me.  This seemed to pacify her and off to school/work we went for the day. 

 

The next morning my alarm clock went off and as usual I hit the snooze button, but unknown to me Tooters snuck out of bed and turned it off.  She tip toed into the hall closet and got out the only wrapping paper she could reach and went into the kitchen.  There she sat at the table while was still asleep and wrapped 6 presents for me and put them under the tree.  Later on my parents started knocking at the door to let me know my dad was shoveling the driveway for me, and that is what woke me up 15 minutes late for work. 

 

Tooters dragged me into the living room and showed me the fruits of her labor.  I asked her what all that was under the tree and why did she use the baby shower and birthday paper.  She said that was all she could reach.  Tooters said that she could not shop so she wrapped up some of her stuff and put it under the tree so I would not feel left out.  I told her that she did not have to do that, then she looked at me and said, “But mom remember it is the thought that counts and I was thinking of you with my heart.”

 

OMG I sat down next to her and cried while I hugged her.  Of course that night I talked her into unwrapping her stuff so she could have it back and that I would get her presents next week.  She agreed and what I unwrapped amazed me.  One of them was her purse that I still borrow from time to time.  The other 5 were books from her shelf.  She said that she gave them to me because I am always telling her how precious books are and how much I love to read. 

 

This all just blew me away because she is actually listening and learning from me.  So I am going to rub it in that I have the most special little Santa’s helper in the world wrapped up in 4 feet of sweetness.  I think this is something I will remember the rest of my life.  I hope you all have a chance to have an experience as precious as I did earlier this week. 

A Little Extra Hope For Us All

By definition hope means: to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment, to expect and desire, or to look forward to with confidence or expectation. 

 

This time of year it seems like we all have a little more hope than any other time.  We hope for peace, good holidays, safety for family, or many other things.  But there are some of us that hope for more.  We hope for the love of our families and a good person without expectations.  We hope for the wisdom to guide our children in hopes that they become the wonderful adults that we all know that they can be.  We hope for the patience and understanding for the times that the children are not at their best. 

 

Then there are those of us that hope for the more critical things in life.  We hope for enough money to be able to give our children something under the Christmas tree.  We hope for enough money to be able to keep the heat on and pay rent for another month.  We hope that with the economy collapsing around us we have a job for another month.  We hope to be able to buy food for another week. 

 

So with Christmas looming just around the corner maybe we should all take a moment and remember these people that are hoping everyday for something better to come along.  We need to give a moment to the troops and their families that are hoping daily for their safety.  We need to give a moment to the struggling parents, both single and married.  We need to give hope to the poor children without good homes.  We need to give hope to the people without a home.  We need to give hope to each other for every reason we can think of.  

 

I know that it is still a few days from Christmas but with the snow blowing outside my window I was in the mood to send out a Christmas message from Tooters, The Wonder Pup and myself now. 

 

Merry Christmas blogging world and here is some hope for all of us.

Found: One Lost Blogger

Well I have finally returned to the land of normal people.  Meaning I am no longer sick on my death bed and travelling.  I have returned to work and a normal routine which means I can get back to blogging again.  I will post something later today or tomorrow but to all my loyal readers I really appreciate you sticking with me even though I have not posted in  a while. 

See’ya laters!!!