11-11-11

Today's one of those unique dates that only come around once every century where the date and time will be exactly the same for two perfectly palindromic seconds in the day – one second in the AM and one second in the PM.

At 11:11:11 on 11-11-11, the date/time will be all "1's." Pretty cool, right?! Like I said, this phenomenon only happens once a century. The last time this phenomenon occurred was November 11, 1911. That was the day of what is now known as "The Great Blue Norther" which was a cold snap that affected much of the central United States. Many cities broke record high temperatures early that afternoon, but by nightfall these same cities were dealing with single-digit temperatures. This is the only day in many Midwest cities' histories where the record high AND low temperatures were broken in the same day.

Temperatures in Kansas City had reached a record high temperature of 76°F (24°C) by late morning before this cold front moved through. By midnight, however, the temperature had plummeted to 11°F (-11.7°C – a 65° difference) in only 14 hours. In Springfield, Missouri, the temperature difference was even more extreme. Springfield was at 80°F (26.7°C) before the cold front moved through, but two hours later, the temperature was 40°F (4.4°C).

Well, just be aware that at 11:11 (and 11 seconds) something truly unique will be occurring. If you blink, you'll miss it! And if you're old enough to be reading this, you'll undoubtedly be dead the next time this phenomenon rolls around (November 11, 2111). Who knows, the Second Coming might've happened by then.

"Money Bags" follow-up

Yesterday I wrote about wishing I were rich and that I had a stockpile of money so as to have unlimited funding for all of my wants and needs. As I've thought about that post over the past 24 hours, I have a few more thoughts to add to it. First, I'm going to start by sharing a quote that I recently saw somewhere and liked:

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we DON'T have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we DO have."

There wasn't a lot of money to go around when I was growing up since my parents raised our large family of nine (seven girls plus Mom and Dad) on a single income (my mom worked as a stay-at-home mom). I often remember wishing for more – more clothes, more gadgets, more "things", more opportunities. There were so many things that I thought would be fun to do, but when opportunities came about I didn't even give it a second thought if I knew it cost money. But what I never stopped to realize and appreciate at that time was that I always had everything I needed. I didn't have a lot extra, but I had everything I needed. I definitely didn't have all of the things that some of the people I knew had (especially families that only had a few kids), but I'm sure I had a lot more than many people I knew.

When I was 16 I got my first job. I loved working because I could buy myself many of the things I wanted. I'll share one example. When I was 18 I bought my first (and only) car*. In high school a lot of my friends had their own car, but their parents either bought it for them, or helped them make the payments. At the time I thought how nice it would be to have a car just given to me by my parents. However, after buying my own car I realized how much more I appreciated it since I bought it with my own money. I'm so glad I had to work for what I wanted. I don't think most kids have to work enough for what they want these days and they get sucked into the "entitlement trap" where they think they are entitled to the best of the best because that's what "everyone" else has.

Looking back, I'm so grateful that I grew up not having all of the things I wanted because I now appreciate things so much more than I would if I'd grown up always having the best of everything. So when you're a parent, what do you do when you want to give your child everything, but you know it's not good for them?

*Someone recently left a comment on my blog asking me what kind of car I was driving when I had my accident. In 2002 I bought a 1998 Chevy Prizm. Although the brand of the car was Chevy, it was Toyota made, so my mom and I felt good about buying it knowing it was a Toyota made car. 

You know, I had my car for almost 18 months and I never even took a picture of it. I wish I would've! The only pictures I have of it are post accident, but I'll post a few of them anyway:

Money Bags

Oh how I wish I were rich! I don't need to be filthy, stinking rich – I'd happily settle for just being "well off." :) It would be nice to have an unlimited stockpile of money to buy all of the things I need and most of the things I want without having to worry about where the money to afford these things would come from.

I'm incredibly blessed and I have a lot more than many people in the world, so I can't/won't complain. However, I would love to have the funding to be able to give back and pay it forward. I think one of the responsibilities of the wealthy is to share their wealth and abundance with others. It seems like a lot of times  those that have the most are the ones that are the least willing to share what they have with others.

I know that wealth is no guarantee of happiness and at the end of the day things are just things. Actually, there have been scientific studies conducted that show that the people who have the least are actually the happiest and most generous people. I guess when you know what it's like to want for something you're more inclined to share what you do have (no matter how small) with others.

Speaking of generosity… I'm a very generous person. (I'm not mentioning this as a way to boast; just more stating a fact. I know it's important to keep your humility in check, but at the same time I don't think there's anything wrong with mentioning a positive characteristic we possess as long as we don't take it too far.) I LOVE buying gifts for people! When people talk, I listen and I remember. It brings me so much joy to pick out gifts for people as I remember the things they've said they like. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I wish I were Santa Claus because bringing joy to others is so gratifying and truly a gift in and of itself.

Book Club Birthday

My book club met last Tuesday and it was special because it was the third anniversary of when book club started. I started it three years ago since I love to read, and also as a way to be able to socialize with some of the different ladies from church. We always meet at my house (since most people don't live in handicap accessible houses) and it's just fun to be able to discuss books and chat while eating something yummy. My mom always makes a yummy dessert which is nice because any social gathering is better when there's a sweet treat to be had!

My book club isn't too large (there's usually an average of 8 to 12 of us, depending on the month) but I enjoy getting together each month. We always spend at least a little time discussing our current book, but then the conversation tends to branch out to different topics, some of which have been very interesting.

Since the book club is small, I pick the books about half of the time, which on one hand is fun when I have a book I'm excited about, but on the other hand, sometimes it gets difficult trying to line up a new book each month. Oftentimes there are books that I would like to use, but I never choose books if I don't have access to at least several copies. (I don't want the club members to feel like they have to spend money on a book if they want to participate in book club.) We are fortunate to have a library system close by, but it doesn't have as large of a selection of books as I would like.

If anyone out there has read a good book that they think would work well for my book club, let me know! Suggestions are always very much appreciated!

Super Hawkins Bros.

Last year two of my sister Kristin's kids dressed up as Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. video game. My sister's boys love playing Mario Kart on the wii, so this year her entire family dressed up as different characters from the game. Kristin's family lives in California, so I had to settle for seeing pictures on Facebook. :(  Everyone looked adorable, so I just have to write about it on my blog and post some pictures. I know I might be partial, but I think they're all so cute!

Kaleb (7½) is Luigi, Ethan (6) is Wario, Jared (almost 4) is Mario, Aaron (21 mos.) is Toad and Scott, their dad, is Waluigi.

The Mario Bros. and the bad guys:

Mario and his and his antithesis Wario, Luigi and his antithesis Waluigi:

More cute pictures:

My sister went to a trunk-or-treat at church and she decided to decorate her van in the Super Mario Bros. or Super "Hawkins" Bros. theme. If you're familiar with the videogame, then these decorations will make sense. (They even carved Mario Bros. themed pumpkins.)