Thursday Thunks: Puddle Jumping Through Spring, When I Grow Up, I’ll Need a Bigger Kitchen Table, Etc.

This week’s questions were brought to you by Berleen, the color Cotton Candy Pink and the number 3,333,333,331.

  1. You are driving down the road and there is a puddle in the road. A big puddle. Not one that will really wreck your car or anything, but a big puddle. There is no other cars in front of you or behind you – do you drive through the puddle or drive around it? I’d probably drive right through it. When I was a carefree teenager I’d always drive through puddles, loving every minute of it, now it would depend on who was in the car with me and how nervous mommy I was feeling that day.
  2. Go to Google Images, type in any word that comes to mind and post the 1st picture you see.

    I searched for Spring, because it’s what I’m wishing was here right now…
  3. A college calls you up and says that you have been selected to take get any degree that you want on their dollar…. what do you choose? I’d be torn between a masters in library science (so I could be a librarian someday) or anthropology (so I could be Temperance Brennan from Bones).
  4. Are you blogging on a laptop or desktop? A desktop, a beautiful iMac to be specific.
  5. Which store, excluding a grocery store, do you shop at most often? It’s probably a tie between Walmart and Target. We’re pretty boring in that way. If those don’t count either? I’m guessing it’s the bookstore.
  6. My daughters tried out for the school musical last night. Were you ever in a school play/musical? Which one? I was in one of those murder mystery dinner things once in high school. Before that I was in Goldilocks and the Three Bears (playing Goldilocks) and a nativity play (I was Mary) for my church’s sunday school when I was around 5 or 6. You’d think with such big title roles I might have persued theater more, but it wasn’t really my scene. I think it’s fun though, I love going to the theater.
  7. I read yesterday that a school PTA group wants to try to ban white bread, cakes, brownies or any other “treat” from their lunch menus… plus make kids’ lunchboxes brought from home not include any “junk food”. Thoughts on that one? I think that the more you restrict from kids, the more they will seek it out on their own. They could reduce the amount of junk and that wouldn’t bother me – but by not offering them anything, it’s only going to make them endulge in an unhealthy way when they do find junk food (and they will). I think it’s more important to teach kids why healthy eating is important and why anything not in moderation is unhealthy.
  8. How many people can your kitchen table seat? I think we could fit six people at the table, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable and we only have four chairs so that’s how many people we DO fit at the table at any one time. Four. My answer is four.
  9. What time is it right now? 9:29 a.m.
  10. Walk out the front door of your house/apartment, turn right, walk 2 blocks. What do you see? I probably see an emergency room visit, because there’s a huge state highway there (if you’d had me turn left I’d just be walking through my apartment complex’s parking lot). I’d have to walk through some trees and probably hop a fence to get there though, so I’m hoping common sense would prevail and I’d just opt not to continue the full two blocks. Just please don’t double dog dare me, okay?

Because We Can All Make a Difference, Even While Blogging

So by now I’m sure most of you have heard of the great 5 Minutes For… Blogs - well this morning I read a post on 5 Minutes for Mom that truly brought tears to my eyes – I’d heard of Parker and his mother, Tammy, the managing editor for 5 Minutes for Special Needs in a few other posts, but never really gave it much thought – because sometimes it’s hard to see past our own lives and hardships, no matter how trivial they are once in perspective.

But when I read the title of this post, “Blogs can change lives… wanna help us change one?” my thoughts were quite obviously, “Um YES!” So I click and read this story of Parker and his mother Tammy, who doesn’t have a laptop which might not seem like a big deal if you don’t know her whole story – I mean I know a lot of us don’t have laptops (I just gave mine to my husband last night when his old laptop finally bit the dust, without a moment’s hesitation I might add – I don’t need mine, he does). But Tammy’s options – not so easy and her situation – truly heartbreaking but also upliftingly inspirational:

Tammy’s son Parker has a myriad of life-threatening, critical health concerns which have devastated their family of eight financially and which make Tammy home bound with Parker. Parker can rarely leave the house – and Tammy can rarely, if ever, leave Parker’s side.

Really you should go and read the post over at 5 Minutes for Mom, because I won’t do it justice without literally copying and pasting the entire thing into my post – but here’s the point of the post – after hearing Tammy’s story and thinking to herself how it just wasn’t right Janice – she did something about it – and she actually managed to get Tammy a laptop from HP (who is already helping students get ready for school with top of the line laptops for under $800 and printers for under $100) – how amazing is that? Just like that guys? This is the kind of difference our community can make when we work together and help each other out and just simply reach out once in awhile – because really, for HP, what difference does one lap top make and the publicity they could potentially achieve from this gesture could be huge – meanwhile the difference that laptop can make for Tammy? Huger. She says, so herself:

If I had a laptop I’m pretty sure I could rule the world. ;)

I could blog from the hospital………where, you know, we tend to spend a great majority of our time. And I wouldn’t have to fight my older kids for computer time. They use the desktop for homework, etc. Especially my kid in college year round.

How great is it that essentially the bloggy universe could make that happen for her? She can now actually DO those things and probably more! But the story doesn’t end there – our job isn’t finished. Because not only did HP respond to Janice’s request with a laptop (and a printer!) for Tammy, but they threw in a SECOND laptop and printer for 5 Minutes for Mom to give to SECOND family in need! And THAT dear readers, is where YOU come in!

They still need to FIND that other family – and you may be able to help. Do you know another family like Tammy’s perhaps that could truly benefit from the use of a laptop and printer, but is equally unlikely to afford such a treat anytime remotely soon? You could really make a difference in that family’s life by entering them for that chance at 5 Minutes for Mom! Here are the specifics of the the drawing they are throwing and the prize one lucky family will win:

We want you to nominate one student or family who you believe truly needs a new laptop and printer.

Try to think of a family who has extraordinary circumstances and whose lives could be changed by a laptop and printer.

You can submit your nomination on your own blog and sign the Mr. Linky below, or if you don’t have a blog, just leave a comment.

Please keep private details (including names and financial information) out of your story. If you feel you need to email us additional information privately, you can reach us at 5minutesformom at gmail dot com. Please put NOMINATION in the subject.

We will select a few nominations and then let random.org help us with the final decision.

Before we announce the winner, we will require that we talk on the phone with that family and confirm the situation. Please be HONEST.

Prize Details

Here’s the details on what HP is providing to our winner.

HP Pavilion dv5t Entertainment Notebook PC

  • Get extra protection from data loss with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection.
  • Play Blu-ray movies using the optional built-in Blu-ray drive.
  • Features a clean 15” diagonal HP BrightView Infinity display.
  • Create personalized, silkscreen-quality DVD and CD labels with optional LightScribe
  • Chat face-to-face or capture video clips using the HP Webcam and integrated microphone.
  • Simplify your password management with the integrated fingerprint reader.
  • Available from $799.99

HP Photosmart C4480 All-in-One

  • Print, copy and scan all from an affordable printer great for students
  • Save paper and ink using the HP automatic paper-type sensor that detects the paper being used and then selects optimal print or copy settings.
  • Print lab-quality photos in a few easy steps without a PC – simply insert a memory card and navigate the 1.5-inch color display.
  • Achieve fast and efficient printing and copying with speeds up to 30 pages per minute (ppm) black and up to 23 ppm color, plus photos in as fast as 25 seconds.
  • Available at $99.99
  • Print what you see – HP Smart Web Printing automatically adjusts web pages to prevent cutoff edges and optimize web printing by allowing users to easily combine portions of numerous web pages onto one page.

So if you think you know a family that can truly benefit from an opportunity like this, be sure to either post about it on your own blog and then link up over at 5 Minutes for Mom or go directly to their post and leave a comment if you are not a blogger – and of course you can also email if you feel that would be better.

So if you are reading this and thinking this applies to you – don’t wait!! YOU can make a difference TODAY!