put on your thinking caps peeps...we are in need of:
ok, so some brainstorming has gone on, and this suit drive is on!! the date will either be May 31st or June 21st...i would like to do the May date, but i also don't want to rush it. i want to make sure that it's planned well and ready to go with ample time to advertise. the awesome thing is that i talked to my apt complex and they want to help put it on. SWEETNESS!
so here are some ideas/thoughts:
*location: esplanade park in addison circle (area where jazz concerts are held in the summer)
*time: 10 am- 3 pm (is that a good time...wanted to give people to have time to see signs and go home and get stuff)
*need signs in the area, directing people to the park; also a large sign for the location
*music? what do i do about that?
*need rolling clothing racks bc clothes have to be on hangers (ask adidas and vanity fair, both are located in the building i work in)
*extra hangers??
*bins to collect nice accessories, scarves, handbags (also a bin for non-interview items that people bring)
*make flyer...errr....get darce to make the flyer :)
*what about asking local restaurants (avanti, pastazios, astoria cafe, greenz) to offer some kind of discount/coupon to people who donate? think they would??
*need volunteers to help at the drive- accept clothes, sort them, help take them to WTC in dallas (guys, this is where you'd be of great help!)
*becca with attitudes and attire is emailing me a receipt (to duplicate) to give people to use for tax write-off
*advertising ideas:
-flyers at work places of volunteers or...anyone who wants to help advertise
-see if IBC's women's ministry can help advertise...or maybe just email lots of women
-put small flyer in showcase boxes on 1st floor of each building here at post apts
-get flyer printed in post's newsletter
-darcy is making a banner for people to use on their myspace/facebook- yay for that!
-hand out flyers to businesses in the area
whew...i'm beat. are there any doable ideas in there? any suggs? please help friends!!
for more info... ATTITUDES AND ATTIRE
:) loves!!!
ok ladies, it's GO TIME. this org "attitudes and attire" has been weighing on my heart for well over a year. and every time it would pop into my head, i doubted myself. but you know what? we really can do this.
go to the website- www.attitudesandattire.org and let's organize a suit drive. we all have plenty of nice clothes that either don't fit well, are "out of season" or we just don't want them anymore. but we can give them to the Attitudes and Attire boutique and allow low income women a chance to wear a nice suit for an interview. we can give them that first boost of self-esteem, the boost that comes with feeling good and confident about yourself. the org also has workshops, image consulting, and job training which includes positive self-image, appropriate workplace behavior and appearance (many volunteer opps there!!). it's a truly super organization for women. check out the website, read about it and the success stories, and then contact me and let's get this party started.
"kelly, what are you going to do with your life?"
"i'm going to get what i want....shoes!!"
so the really, really cool thing is that i ordered these little ankle-strap flats yesterday afternoon at 3:55. yes, i was at work...ordering shoes again. ha. well i get an email this morning that says to thank me as a customer on www.zappos.com (which is already free shipping and free returns, just like www.piperlime.com), they're going to send my shoes over night at no cost! they arrived at my office before lunch. that's pretty amazing. and they're pretty amazing. zappos and the flats.
i was reading an article by MP Dunleavey called "the cheapest way to save the earth" and here is an excerpt from it...
Not only will greening your lifestyle save you some money, it could even make you a fortune, according to money guru David Bach in his new book, "Go Green, Live Rich."
The subtitle is "50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying," and Bach does deliver some excellent tips. Some of my favorites:
Save $500 a year by not drinking bottled water -- and spare our landfills and oceans a deluge of plastic.
Save $1,400 a year by opting out of junk mail and catalogs -- and shopping less. Bach asserts that Americans get 40 pounds of catalogs per person each year. That's a lot of trees and way too much financial temptation.
"Green bag" your lunch instead of eating out, and save $5-$10 a day and 12 million plastic salad trays (my extremely scientific estimate). Bach says the yearly savings you'll reap by not paying for takeout and all its nonbiodegradable packaging is $2,250.
i guess since Earth Day was April 22nd, i'm all revved up. this is my second day in a row trying to save the world. ha. oh and fyi, today is arbor day...
Happy Arbor Day!
Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care. :)
ok, so i'm going all "save the world" on you...but here are a few sites that can get your wheels turning. after visiting these, i bet you'll want to help make a change whatever your particular passion may be :)
sprinkles cupcakes (last day is tomorrow!)
963 missions
recycling
AIDS services of Dallas
water is basic
dallas habitat for humanity
**check out the gift catalogs at these two websites...what a GREAT idea:
food for the poor
world vision
**local 5ks coming up for charity:
hope cottage
habitat for humanity
heartbeat 5k
friends of the katy trail
i feel a little jipped...today is the turkey day at subway where they give you a 6 inch for $3.02 (including tax). i know this because that's my normal wednesday lunch routine. well today i worked out longer than normal, so i was running short on time...and there was a great outdoors in the same parking lot as my gym. so i thought "i'll just go there and get a sandwich, it can't be that much more."
turkey sandwich- lettuce, cucumbers, black olives, oil and vinegar
subway:$3.02
great outdoors: $6.58
!!!! never again !!!
"This life of faith is such a mixed bag! Joy, excitement, despair, desperation, peace, danger ( that I have yet to experience) and absolute inexpressible enraptured love with and for God, the pain of change and then the thrill of discovery and 'being' His."
friends, i was just reminded (once again!) how important our words really are to one another. how easily they can build someone up and how terribly easily they can destroy someone. through words we can convince, manipulate, tear down, embarrass, and slander. but also through our words we can encourage, flatter, rejoice, raise up one another, and heal.
these tongues of ours can sure get us in trouble. Proverbs 10:19 teaches us, "when words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise." ditto Solomon. we also know from proverbs that "reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (12:18). and another... "the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (proverbs 18:21). wow. what's all this tongue talk? read that last verse again..."the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."
let's break it down. proverbs 10:19 says that if there are many words, sin will be present. but then it says that the person who can hold his tongue is wise. when you think before you speak, you might realize that what you were going to say isn't very encouraging. or you might conclude that what you were about to say would be boastful, or pin blame on someone, or call out someone's mistake. these things are just flat out unnecessary. we aren't the judge, and it's not our job to take revenge. but it is our job to love one another... scot mcknight taught at IBC one day and he explained the "jesus creed"...taken from Mark 12:30-31..."Hear O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." loving God and loving others...that's what we're called to do.
proverbs 12:18 says that the careless words can stab our friends, but that healing can come through people with wise tongues. i'm guessing a "wise" tongue is one who might live this jesus creed. i kind of think of the tongue jesus had and the words that his tongue spoke...is my tongue like his? and how can i make it more like his? when i'm freely blabbing, and going from one topic to the next or one annoyance to the next (oops!), i'm probably not stopping to consider jesus' tongue. would he let his tongue run so rampant?
the third verse from proverbs that i mentioned talks about the tongue giving power of life and death. ok, that's serious stuff. through this little tongue in my mouth, i have the power of life and death? i can speak evil words and cause physical death? ha, no not quite. but what about speaking words that show people life, that give people lives some meaning? and the rest of the verse says that "those who love it will eat its fruit." this is true, have you seen this in action? think about a gossip queen that you know who enjoys talking badly about others and delights in downfalls of friends because it's one more thing to get a laugh about...she's eating that "fruit" (major reference to the apple in the garden in genesis!). she's speaking ugly words and letting her tongue go untamed (james 3:7-8), and the more she does it, the worse it gets. i'm saying "she" but really i could say "me" or "us" here because we've probably all done it.
ephesians summarizes it,"don't use bad language. Say only what is good and helpful to those you are talking to, and what will give them a blessing" (4:29, Living).
on that note, i'm going to go complain to a coworker about something...only kidding...ha! i'm going to put these verses into action :) peace!
so bible study had just ended and i'm talking with darcy, crystal, and sandra...and bc of this odd excitement i have towards the keurig coffee maker, i start telling them how as soon as i leave church, i'm headed to target to buy me one. crystal chimes in "i'll give you ours, we don't like it." w?! really?! her husband jason is quite a coffee connoisseur, so he didn't like any of the flavors. which is ok. but i DO like the flavors and i'm not picky at all. maybe i should be, but i'm just not...well, regarding coffee that is. so isn't that just grand? i'm about to go spend a benjamin on this puppy, and crystal just happens to have one that she'll "gift" to me. lol....
this will be purchased tonight on my way home from bible study (no leaders meeting tonight!)... should i be this elated about coffee? i think YES! www.keurig.com
i forgot one of the funniest things lauren did this weekend. we were eating at margarita ranch for lunch on saturday, and lauren was sitting in her high chair. a lady sat down at the booth behind us with way way way too much of a very bad perfume on. lauren held her nose and said "something stinky!" ha. and she was right. :)
my sister just found out that she's having a girl!! her name will be emily paige. how precious is that?! and lauren will make such a great big sister too. awwww, i'm so happy!
what a sad circus the whole FLDS polygamy trial has become. this makes my heart heavy and sad. for the kids. for the wives. for those fooled into believing that our god is this kind of god. he's a loving god who is for us. he's not a god who demands that young girls have babies as soon as they reach puberty. he's not a god who wants men to rule the roost while the wives take a submissive role. i feel like FLDS has created some rules/regulations that are not of God or biblical.
there's some give and take here...
1 Peter 3:1-2,7
The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty...The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them.
i pray that as christians, we can just keep spreading the love and god's word. so people see the truth. so that when they read about FLDS , their court case, and the 416 children whose little lives are at hand, they don't think that this is "christianity." what am i trying to say...hmmm...some people read things and lump groups of people together. so what i don't want to happen is this: non-christians reading this very extreme case of men calling whatever they're doing "religion," and these non-christians respond with "what kind of god allows that?" or "see, that's why i dont' believe in god" or "those christians are crazy." you know what i mean? i don't want people to be turned off from jesus bc of this. so this morning i just pray for the men, women and children of this religion that god can open their eyes and reveal his heart to them. what he wants for us and how we can go about doing his work. it's all about him. it's not about man-made rules and things that are motivated by us, it's about living like jesus and honoring him in absolutely everything we do. easier said than done, i know. :) but's let's try.
wow, there's way too much pressure for THE first blog. i couldn't sleep last night because awesome blog thoughts just raced through my mind. ok, i take that back. i could sleep. but really, how do you start your blogging career? i decided since i couldn't think of anything astronomical or seriously important, that i'd just say hi. that's all.
oh and one more thing...i'm meeting up with a sweet lady named Shea Boothe tonight for dinner. now this is a cool story. so see, i do have something to start this blog off in the right direction!
so 2 saturdays ago, my friend kp and i were dining on the patio at corner market (highly recommended). i'm bragging about how my dad knows tony stewart and tony had arranged for a heli to take us to and fro the big nascar race at texas motor speedway that was the next day. kp asked "who's tony stewart?" now that's awesomeness... trying to brag but it doesn't work when the person has no idea about whom you're talking. i think we have a very humorous god like that...just a little something to humble me. ha, thanks. so i'm explaining to her a little bit about tony, my upcoming first race, and my giddiness about the heli ride. so then when we're leaving, a lady sitting down at a table made eye contact with me and stopped me. she said that she couldn't help but overhear that my dad knows tony stewart (i have a volume control issue and regularly get louder than necessary when i'm excited). then she starts telling me about her five year old nephew- charlie futhey- who was diagnose
d on valentine's day with a very rare form of cancer- he is the 61st case since 1970. and guess what? he adores tony stewart. so after shea and her sister (charlie's mom) emailed and wrote the tony stewart foundation and i think chevrolet (does he race for chevrolet?), the futhey family was flown to the race and put up in a suite. which is stellar news for the family, however, this concerned aunt was afraid that charlie would be that close to meeting tony and then not get the chance. so she put me and my dad on it. i hate to brag, but we're pretty unstoppable. :) at least in this case! tony ended up calling my dad later that day and dad informs him of the situation. and here's the outcome:
l-r: tony, daryl (dad), sandra (mom), sister, and charlie in the front
how awesome is that?! HALLELUJAH!
