Looking to Make A Donation?

It's that time of the year when our hearts are full and we want to do something for our fellow man. Sometimes we are running around so much we don't know where to even look to make a great donation. Sure, I always drop my change in the Santa bucket but there has to be more.

 My oldest daughter attends Western Illinois University and she is part of an amazing fundraising project.

 "Dear Friends,

I hope you will consider supporting my participation in WIU Dance Marathon. All contributions will benefit and be divided among the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals of Greater St. Louis, St. Louis Children's Hospital and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Any contribution will help, and all donations are tax deductible.

I am on WIU's first E-Board as the Finance Chair, this money we raise doesn't just help the families financially but it helps lift some stress from these families and gives the kids a comfortable environment to be in, this event and organization is very dear to my heart, any amount will help me get to my goal by Feb 1st.

 Donating online is safe and easy! To make an online donation please click the "Support Me!" button on this page. Thank you for visiting my fundraising page! For The Kids!"

You can link to her fundraising page HERE.. this donation will go directly into a fund sponsored by WIU, not into my daughter's hands.. So if you are looking for a way to share your good fortune, give a thought to this noble cause..

 Shauni

My Children Continue to Amaze Me (and make me tear up just a bit)

I have been going through some issues and have been writing through them on three of my blogs.. ShauniSpeaks (about my struggles) Shauni's Faith (about my day to day walk with God) and Shauni's Dreams That Come (My Poetry) Sometimes I have a theme on all three blogs and sometimes I can't believe they were written by the same person.. And if I am confused, I can imagine what my reader friends think.. 

BUT I always add a little blurb on Facebook to share with my friends and family. Today.. I got this response from PITA Boy

PITA BOY: Mom why don't you write a book, about everything that has happen in our family...and does Walmart cash checks on Sunday
about an hour ago · Like

Me: I did write a book about when we were homeless.. never did anything with it.. and yes just go to Customer Service
37 minutes ago · Like

PITA BOY: Don't just write about when we were just homeless, write about it all. When you were young all the way to now talk bout how you raised us and everything we went through not just the homelessness...and thank you I will go when I get my check on Sunday

I particularly like how he offered me his support and encouragement while asking me a question and how it didn't detract from the conversation at all.. ADD much? LOL but seriously, that's how we roll!!

PITA Boy Meets His Niece

What most of you don't know is I have a rather spectacular stepson. Since the ex and I split when he was 17 I don't usually claim him. I mean his mother did a wonderful job raising him so I don't really get any of the

Aaron and His beautiful family

credit. He does claim my mother though.. Of course he does, she was grandma to him when he was just a little boy. Even went on his first plane trip, by himself, when he was 7 to spend time with her... 

He is all grown up now, 33 and starting a family of his own. He lives in Texas and someone tries to see him whenever he is up this way. This time it was PITA Boy, probably because he was the only one who actually still lives in the area.. 

Anyway, PITA Boy got to meet his beautiful niece for the first time!!

So there you have it!! The first meeting of Uncle PITA Boy and Baby Beautiful.. They seem to have hit it off!!

Great Picture of Blond Girl

Now, she is away at college, learning all sorts of new stuff.. I promise.. But she is also making friends and doing things like going camping..

One of her friends shot this picture and I think it is just AWESOME..

Seriously a great shot!!

Wondergressive

My oldest, aka Hair Boy, is a contributing writer on a blog called Wondergressive. I love to read this blog because it shows us what fantastic minds his generation has. Unique, well thought out posts about on about any subject.

I watched many of the writers grow from quirky teenagers to unusual adults and take great pride in all of their work (no, I do not claim responsibility for any of their talent). What I like best about these writers is that they stand firm in their ownselves, no conforming, just reality as they see it.

For those of you sure that the youth of today is going to destroy the world (yeah, don't worry the baby boomers already did that) fear no more! These kids show us just how much we have look forward to.

Just to share a bit of fun and to show you a small selection from this wonderful blog, here is Hair Boy's bio:


I am a 15 billion year old collection of organized atoms in the guise of a human. Thinking out side of the box has always been easy for me but that is primarily allocated to the fact that I seemed to have lost it ages ago. I swear I set it down right here next to my keys... For life of me I cannot find it. I draw knowledge from anywhere that I can. I enjoy hard work, critical thinking, and finding the bigger picture's challenge- whatever that may be. I enjoy riddles too!

See? Bright, unique and curious!

Happy Birthday Blond Girl

Wasn't she the cutest thing? I know I am a day late but I had to write this anyway.. Nineteen years ago yesterday my world changed Ok.. it changed in the fall when I realized I was pregnant with my fourth child.. My totally unplanned fourth child.

I was finished.. the bottles were out of the house, my baby was out of diapers.. life was good.. and then life changed! I had many people share their opinions on what I should do.. how I should react and even if I should even have this child.. *rolls eyes* seriously there were those who thought my life would be better without another child, if not better then easier. 

It might have been but no way could I have ever have made that choice! Blond Girl was a stubborn determined child straight from conception.. I knew she would be big so they decided to induce labor.. this child over 10lbs turned at the last minute and we weren't able to induce (For the record big babies don't usually turn). Then we realized that she was going to be really big so the doctor said on a Friday.. we will just do a C-section on Monday.. yeah right.. this child was coming on her own terms.. That's right Saturday morning comes along and I am in serious labor..  Of course I still had the C-section.. just got to enjoy the labor pains that went along with it..

This child was my absolute easiest.. she knew what she wanted.. but had no problem going with the flow. Choices were easy with her because she enjoys life.. She was a beautiful child inside and out and over a lifetime she has only grown in her beauty. 

She is studying at the University of Wyoming now and it's hard to believe that those years are all gone.. Of course she may no longer be a baby but she will always be MY baby.. 

Love ya sweetie..

Mom

** Oh yeah she is my only actual teen left.. and I only have 364 more days before I won't have any teenagers! My children will all be twenty somethings!

Watching the Dandelions Grow

It's been an amazing journey but the time has come to admit that my children are all adults.. No longer is it my job to sit out in the rain on cold spring evenings to watch a painful baseball game.. No longer am I supposed to sit hour after hour watching swim meets.. No more choir or band concerts, no more spring musicals.. not more guiding their hands.. Now I get to be mom.. Not the mom they seem to want (because I am on my own journey) but the mom they have and yes, the mom they love. 

What I do want to say right now is thank you.. There are a handful of people who were there for my children.. Who parented them when I was struggling.. who offered a shoulder to cry on or an example of what a parent could be. Oh I don't think I was a bad mom.. I have healthy happy creative young adults as children.. and all are functioning well in society.. They will go as far as their dreams and drive can take them. But...

My first couple of people I want to thank are the Smirats.. We met this family when Hair Boy was 6months old. They too had a son the same age and these two were destined to become the best of friends. They were such great friends with such creative wits that the Highs School actually created a policy about keeping best friends out of the same class as much as possible. That's what you get when you have two young men who can finish each other's thoughts.. pretty scary when the rest of us can't. But this isn't about them. This is about their parents. Marwan is an amazing man who offered my son a father figure. Who took him golfing, who spoke Arabic to him (not enough darn it). Who was showed him what a father was supposed to be. Charlotte was even more of an influence. This amazing woman was there for my son in a million different ways. She loved him as much as her own children, she made sure he was happy and she understood his broody moodiness.. and loved him anyway. I can not even begin to imagine what Hair Boy's life would have been like had they not been a part of it.

The next family is the Tymecs.. What The Smirats were to Hair Boy the Tymecs were to PITA Boy and then some. When we first found ourselves living in a hotel, the Tymecs took PITA Boy in. Gave him his own space and showed him what family could be. In short they loved him. When Hair Boy was in his accident and I could not be located (I was on a girls scout trip) Judy stepped in and pretended to be me, making sure she had all the information and was ready to give permission for medical procedures.. but they found me first and she didn't have to. She and Steve moved on a few years ago.. but PITA Boy is trying to find his way as an adult.. and low and behold these amazing people have stepped up once again and are offering him a chance to get his feet set.. A Chance to become something... 

Then there are the Garcias.. Word Girl met Diana in the 6th grade (ok, I met Diana while they were in the 6th grade).. but these two soon became constant companions.. Her family, an immigrant Hispanic family took Word Girl in like a second daughter. When they found out that she was taking spanish they asked if it was ok if they spoke spanish to her.. HECK YEAH.. it  is partially because of them that Word Girl now has a minor in Spanish!! When we moved into a hotel AGAIN.. they opened their home to her and made her a very real part of their family.

And Finally.. There are the Kerns.. A Mother and daughter duo who changed our lives.. The girls met in kindergarden and became good friends.. SO good that when I went to California for Christmas (sort of.. I left in the afternoon) the Kerns took in Blond Girl.. I dropped my 5 year old daughter off at their house on Christmas day!! WOW.. over the years the two connected through Scouts but in Middle School they were together again.. their friendship growing.. At the end of 8th grade, when we were headed back to the hotel.. The Kern woman took in Word Girl and never really gave her back. They bought her clothes, paid for school trips, gave her lunches or money for lunches (and this was after she moved back home) They became family to all of us. Never forgetting us at Christmas or on Birthdays.. ALL OF US..

You can not buy the kind of support these people gave me.. This wasn't the family that I was born with.. this was the family that my children created.. I was so amazing blessed to have these people stand at my side to watch my dandelions grow!

Shauni