plus point five

the month was november and christmas was fast approaching. i made my list and checked it twice. near the top was something i expect made an appearance on many a christmas wish list...an eye exam. it's true. these are the things i wish for. and my mom was kind enough to entertain my wish come christmas morning.

while i've never had need for an optical apparatus in the past, i'd recently noticed a small bit of eye strain after an evening in front of the computer. since i hadn't been to an eye doctor in over ten years [when i last had vision insurance] i figured it was time. i patiently waited as they blew annoying puffs of air into my eyes, fully expecting to pass with flying colors. instead, i was prescribed very low strength reading glasses. plus point five to be exact. the comical thing is that while reading glasses are readily available at drugstores and dollar generals, my eyes are too good for those options. it's impossible to find anything lower than plus one 'off the rack' so order them i did. i went with the two pair deal, since it is ironically much cheaper than just one, and here's what i ended up with...

pair number one

pair number two

the jury's still out on a favorite. today i'm leaning towards number one, though pair number two has a surprise greenish-yellow color on the inside that is rather delightful.

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the harvesters half party

about a year ago i discovered something really fun...harvesters [our local food bank] hosts birthday parties! the idea is genius. you invite your friends, volunteer together for a couple hours and then head over to the party room for cake. all for free! and pretty much everyone knows i love free.

i was so excited to throw myself a bash but alas, they were all booked up for the month of july. luckily i'm pretty into celebrating my half birthday as well, so that's what we did.

to start off, we mixed in with a group from a local lions club and packed bags of food for the backsnack program. basically kids from low income families get a small bag of food to take home each weekend. kim actually has some students in her class that benefit from this program, which made it extra fun. a few of us worked on the assembly line filling the bags while the rest were in charge of keeping the table stocked and breaking down boxes.

once our work time was up we headed over to the party room to enjoy my delicious lemon half cake, compliments of missy.

the party people

sarah . joy . joshua . shelly . missy . kim

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the airport pictures i've been waiting for

i've been hoping and praying for these pictures for awhile and i smile from ear to ear every time i look at them. they combine two things i have come to love...adoption and blogs.

when i was younger i often said i would one day adopt a kid from africa. i didn't really know what i was saying. i think my thought process went something like this: i love kids. african kids are terribly cute. this must be a good idea. i've since given the idea some actual grown-up thought and adoption is still something i'd like to pursue someday.

the pictures above are of the via family. their daughter alethia came home yesterday. it was a beautiful day. it's been a long, hard road for them. not as long as some, but long just the same. i met this family through my second new love...blogs.

the via's and i are what i like to call 2nd degree friends. not in a black belt kind of way, but in a 6 degrees of kevin bacon kind of way. they went to seminary with my friend lindsey and i got to know them through their blog. we've actually e-mailed back and forth a bit [she was my original cvs resource] and are kind of like real friends now.

i remember when i first heard that someone i knew was writing a blog. i thought they were nuts. why on earth would you want to type out your personal thoughts and memories for the world to see? i would never do that. well, as a wise lad once said...never say never.

originally i used blogs solely as a way to keep up with my 1st degree friends. [aka people i actually know] i've always loved knowing what everyday life looks for others, even before facebook and social media put it at my fingertips. i started writing a blog on a whim, and i'm oh-so-glad i did. it wasn't until recently that i realized this, but i'm not just sharing my life with others, i'm gradually writing my life story. i've come to love reading other blogs that reason...i love life stories. i've always been a fan of biographies, specifically ones with a good storyline. there have been multiples times in the recent past that i've come across a good blog and proceeded to read it from beginning to end. [or technically from end to beginning...that is a major drawback] at first i felt a little guilty about it being a time-waster, but then i realized it's really just an online biography. and i love them. 

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