A Little Bit of Walking, A Little Bit of Partying and a Whole lot of Fun

This was a very busy weekend for me, we had two parties to go to, lots of work to be done on the site and had to head downtown to walk the 5K for a great cause.

It was a wonderful weekend full of family and friends, Saturday we went over to my in-laws to celebrate my father-in-laws' birthday. Isa was in her usual spirits and the grandparents were eating her up. I have been teaching her the words to Feliz Cumpleaños (Happy Birthday) for over a week now in order for her to sing it at her grandfather's birthday. But she got stage fright and was not able to perform. All in all it was a great Saturday, the food was finger-licking good, the conversation was easy-going and we ended the night watching my new favourite show, Entourage. Love it.

I had to turn in early on Saturday as I was going to pick up Her Bad Mother at the indecent hour of 7am, 'cause we had to be downtown to meet up with the others for 7:30. And because I always panic that I will miss the alarm and wake up really late, I kept waking up every hour before I really had to get up. So I was up at 4 am, 5 am, 6 am... you get the picture. Needless to say we got downtown fine and after a great deal of cell phone tag we were able to meet up with the other walking comrades.

For those who may not know, we were taking part in in The Scotiabank Toronto Marathon in support of Her Bad Mother's nephew Tanner who has Muscular Dystrophy. It was such an eye opening experience for me because I had never taken part in any of the walks and had noooo idea how big of a production it would be. I wish that I had brought my camera but like my cell phone I left the house without it.

It was an amazing experience for me and one that I hope to make a tradition off. I found those that were doing the half and full marathon awe-inspiring. It was also so much fun meeting the other fabulous blogger ladies and put a face to the blog. If you stop by let me say that it was very nice to meet everyone, hopefully we can get together again...but maybe not so early.

...On to the second part of Sunday.

I got home and was 'invited' by Isa to play with her, she likes to boss me around and tells me to sit down on the floor and play. She also tells me when she likes to nap and when she likes me to watch Dora with her. I was finally able to convince her to sleep and headed to bed myself. But my sleep never came, I lay in bed in the darkness for two hours willing sleep to come...it did not.

And so, I got up and got things ready for the Big Birthday Bash. Just like the Summer Birthday Bash, we were all getting together to celebrate the birthday of all the fall babies. It was a huge success with everyone coming and having a fun time. The kids played, ate, danced, ran around, fought and made up. We adults ate and drank and got caught up on our lives. By the end I was ready to pass out from exhaustion but was still able to watch the end of the Season Two of Entourage.

Season of Giving

This past Christmas the Husband and I decided that we would not get presents for each other and my in-laws and instead we would take the money that we would normally spend on gifts for each other and donate it to charities.

We really don't need anything and it just feels so good to give to those who can do so much with our donations. Since we have started our own business we have been very tight with our budget, but we took our money and donated to two charities.

-The Food Bank, because they can stretch the money that they receive so much more than we can. In fact they can get 1Lb of food for each dollar that we donate. This is way more than what we can get if we shop at No Frills.

-The Children's Help Phone, because children should have always have a place were they can go for advice and support.

My MIL donated to OXFAM and with her donation they were able to get 5 goats, 30 chickens, a few pigs and much more.

I can't begin to tell you how great it felt to have done this...I will certainly do this again this year and will probably make it a family tradition. I know that once we get the business off the ground and actually making some money we will be giving back more. We also hope to have links to charities that support mothers and children all over the world. As well as have some charity events.

Since I grew up in a third world county I saw poverty all the time and I say children begging on the streets with little or no clothing. I was really affected by this and have always felt like helping but for some reason I have never gotten off my butt to actually do so. Now after I had my own child I have come to discover that I really need to do something and that I don't have to jump off the deep end but calmly walk in.

And that is just what we have done...I will just take this as a start and think of over ways to help when the cash is tight. It is just that I have always hated going around to people and asking them for money, thought I could find ways of volunteering.

The moral of this post is that giving to other is so rewarding, and if you are able to do so I highly recommend that you. Give to whomever you like whatever you can because every penny goes a long way.

EXTRA EXTRA

This post is to advertise an auction that will be starting tomorrow Wednesday December 13, 2006. It is for Her Bad Mother's nephew Tanner who suffers from a form of Muscular Dystrophy.

Very good friends of hers have put together an aution with the proceeds being donated to MD Canada in Tanner's name.

So check it out at Her Bad Auction...place a bid and see if you get lucky!!

Cheers everyone.