I'm interrupting your normally scheduled blogging life for a bit of an overly proud parenting moment...and to hit y'all up for money. ;o)

Eleri's having her first EVER fundraiser for her school. No, she's not selling wrapping paper, candy, or otherwise cheesy and overpriced knick-knacks that are generally peddled for these things. Nope, Eleri's in a Walk-a-thon!

Yeah, that's right...she's sweating for your money! (Well, maybe not sweating, but at least breathing a bit hard and burning a few snack time calories.) Anyhow, here's the deal...you sponsor her for a certain dollar amount per lap she walks. On October 19th her class will head out to the field at her school and start walking around the 1/4 mile track. The average number of laps for a kindergardener is 2 to 4. If you don't want to risk the possibility that she turns into some kind of endurance walker, you can either put a maximum cap on your donation or do a flat donation as well.

As I said, the walk-a-thon itself is happening on 10/19 and afterwards she'l have two weeks to collect the money and turn it in. Plenty of time for all you long distance peeps to mail in checks or cash. ;o) All the proceeds go directly to her school since it's being put on by the Home & School Club (our version of the PTA). I'll post how she does here, both in laps walked and total money collected. The top earner wins an ipod (which she wants more than life...and me too since I think I'll be forced to slit my throat if I have to listen to one more Hannah Montana or Jonas Brothers song).

If you want to sponsor her, either reply here or email me at orcatiff@gmail.com with your name, address, and $ per lap or flat amount you want to donate.

Thanks all!

A very close friend of mine made a request for prayers on his myspace page about a child of a friend of his this morning. I'm passing it on to all of you since more prayers and good thoughts can only help. Although it's not his kid, he was there for his birth and has been pretty much the father to this boy that he never would have had otherwise. He's not even two years old yet. Anyhow, here's the post in his words.

Yesterday morning Aiden was admitted to UCLA Medical Center. He is having a problem with his kidneys and has blood in his stomach, as well as the surrounding areas, including all of his extremeties. After fighting to breathe all night, he was put on a respirator this morning. He has been put on dialysis to help clean his blood and is being given antibiotics to help fight his infection. I can't give many details right now, as I don't have them yet. I'm asking everyone to pray for him right now and wish a speedy recovery. Further diagnosis and treatment depends on lab results which we expect to have in the next day or so. Thanx a bunch.

As you can tell, the situation is pretty dire. Please include little Aiden in your thoughts and prayers today.

There are times in life that you aren't allowed in the show. Maybe you bought the wrong ticket or maybe your backstage pass got ripped off or maybe the one-step-shy of-homosapien bouncer is standing in your way. In any case, the best you can do is push your way through the crowd, get slammed into the rail, and hope the players on stage catch a glimpse of you. That you stand out. If nothing else, you can say you were there.

I seem to be spending a lot of time against that rail these days. So much so that I'm beginning to feel a bruise forming across my stomach. It isn't even one show in particular. There's so many of them. I watch the players forget the lyrics, or overcome their stage fright, or shine like the stars they are...but I do it from the crowd. Faceless and one of many.

Sometimes they look down and catch your eye and suddenly you're Courtney Cox in that Bruce Springsteen video getting pulled up on stage to dance with 'The Boss'. But most of the time, you're just living the fantasy in your head and trying not to let the rail pressing into your gut knock the wind out of you.

It's ok though. It really is. Because I've been the show before and I'll be the show again. I'll always be my show and the times I'm in the crowd, hoping to be seen, are only when I'm taking a break from my own stage. And that's ok too. Sometimes you need to be the audience. Sometimes someone needs an audience. Sometimes you've just got to close your eyes, lift your lighter into the air, and silently sway to someone else's music.

I'm pretty sure this is one of those updates for the sake of updating...or to avoid doing the dishes. Either or.

I'm sleepy. And bored. And...nope, that's it. Sleepy and bored. I'd go to bed, but it's not even ten yet and somehow, in the world of the eternally awake Tiff, that just seems wrong.

I got a raise at work. Only a dollar an hour, but they instituted a monthly bonus for me too. So as long as I hit my goals, plus the raise, I'm making something like an extra $400 a month. Go me.

Oh. Came close to burning the mobile home down today. That is, if aluminum siding actually burns. Was making dinner and didn't notice that a piece of paper got stuck to the bottom of the pan when I took it out and put it down on the counter. So, yeah...once I put it on the burner the house filled with a rather suspicious toasted marshmallow scent. OK, so I didn't even come close to burning the house down, really, but maybe...if I'd tripped while carrying the slightly flame-erupted pan the two feel from the stove to the sink and the linoleum floor caught fire. It could happen. Anyhow, the toasted marshmallow/campfirey smell won't go away and now I want smores.

*yawn*

Argh. There are some days when I really just want to smack the stupid out of people.

As if that were possible.

OK, so I rarely post at all anymore and posting TWICE in one day seems like something that may just rip a hole in the universe and shift reality off kilter, but it has to be done...

SOOOO much of my flist is currently feeling down, hurt, sad, lonely, angry, depressed...you name it. I wish I could go through and give you all, individually, hugs and love and play you pretty songs on the guitar or whatever else you might need or whatever I can do to help. And I will, if that's what y'all need...just say the word. But in the meantime, how about some giggles? I hope they help...

So, I had this big ol' post I started when I got internet access at home FINALLY last week, but wouldn't you know my entire PC crashed before I had a chance to finish it?

Long story short? There were many big nasty viruses...They had huge, sharp... er... They could leap about. Look at the bones!

So, I'm a bit PC'd out at the moment, but the jist of it all was basically this:

Oh my holy...it's been two weeks since I updated? And I've only got like 5 mins to update now before the internet vacuum of my weekend. OK, highlights only and in list form:

1. Got moved downstairs at work which means no slacking on the net...EVER. I'm risking it now. Sad, but I'm getting hella work done.

2. I'M MOVING! Yup...as of 8/15 I'll be in my own place! Which means INTERNET WILL BE BACK!!! LJ, RP, AIM, Y!M, ALL OF IT! I'LL BE AN INTERNET FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH ONCE AGAIN!!! MUAHAHAHAHA! *cough* Oh...and hello? MY OWN PLACE! More on that later.

3. The car wasn't totalled. Don't ask me how or why, but the insurance is fixing the whole thing. The car shall be of the spiff again. YAY!

4. Ben...is love. Things are fantabulous. Paced and slow, but fantabulous all the same. More on that later. Maybe. ;o)

Ok, enough with the list. I'll try and get this thing updated with details on the life o' Tiff soon. If not before than definitely after the 15th...WHEN I HAVE INTERNET BACK AT HOME!!!!

Love and miss you all!
-Tiff

...is to make a mood theme using pics of the sayings on Taco Bell packets.

Oh yes, it shall be done.

Also, how do you answer this question when asked by your nearly five year old daughter?

Mommy, why don't they call it Burrito Bell?

I have been tagged!

This be for you, my lurvely akarui_sekai. I shall meet your meme challenge and pass it on, as so instructed.

( And away we go... )

OK, so now it's my turn to tag five others, huh? Alrighty. Passing the buck to: antonstrout, laura_boo, wndola, midnight_writer, missmiah

I'm a big picture person.

Strike that.

I'm an inside the big picture person.

I don't, not for one second, think that anything in this world happens without reason or purpose. I do believe that we can't always see the reasons or the purpose. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. That doesn't mean you don't look for it. Even if you know there's a distinct possibility you may never find it.

The person in the painting can't tell she's part of a masterpiece from where she stands.

I don't know why today happened. I don't know the reason and I don't know the purpose. I've prayed for the families, for the victims, for the shooter. And for myself...that I don't stop looking for the reason and that I learn from the search.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! And to my UK friends...Merry Christmas! ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful, miraculous, joy filled holiday of friends, family, and everything you ever wanted on your Christmas lists.

*hugs to all and to all a good night*

This makes me so unbelievably happy...

<td>The "I Love To Boogie" scene from 'Billy Elliot'...because I found it while looking for something else and Jamie makes me happy. And yes...that is Molly Weasley dancing with him. ;)</td>

Oh yeah...I'm a genius. *gigglesnort*

*blinks*

( Oh, internet...how I have missed you. )

It's too early for me. Somewhere along the thirty-one year old road, I managed to get a nightlife that's later than I had in my twenties. Well, part of my twenties....when I was in the Army. The rest was a Seattle blur and then LA cowboys and western music blur. Oh...I miss it. Might not if I could remember all of it though...oh well, blissful ignorance.

Don't got much to say this morning. So, why am I here? Well, I meade a mental promise to myself to not just update this thing when I'm all bummed out and hopeless. Makes for rather tragic reading. So, here I am...non-tragic and just the sleepy. See, look at sleepy, yawning Jamie Bell Mood theme thingy...Oh, I need him to curl up with...*sigh*

Mayhaps have found an apartment...was supposed to get a tour of the inside today but it got moved until Monday (yeah, that phone call got my butt out of bed *grumble*). Tis one of those untouched since the seventies places with the linoleum kitchen floor to prove it. However, it has a deck that literally hangs over a river. I want to have coffee on that deck every morning for the rest of my natural born life...or until I can afford a house with a better view. Hell, I'll ignore the kitchen completely (I pretty much do that no matter what - domestic goddess I am not) and camp out on that deck. God made Domino's Pizza and Chinese take-out because He loves people like me. If I'm lucky, I'll get to ignore the olive green seventies stove entirely.

So...fingers crossed for me and the Brady Bunch apartment with the river for a backyard. (Not joking...literally, no grass just a drop off into water and river rock. Soooo goshdarn purty!)

And look...tell me you aren't all bummed out and worried about the Tiff after reading this? Tis not possible. See, I can be cheery and non-worrisome. (Ignore the fact I got less than 3 weeks to move and no confirmed place to go yet). I'm a ball of sunshine, I tell ya!

*hugs to all*