my moment

Every now and than I have a moment.

A moment in life where you stand back and look at it and not only learn from the moment but change it into a life lesson, that might change the way you do or look at things in the future.

This last week I had two "moments" that actually taught me the same lesson.  One of them, I thought I'd share with you.

What would you do in the below situation?

Last Saturday I'm walking up to the rhea lana's line.  (Children Consignment event in NWA).  It's 12:30, the doors open at 1.  It's a little chilly, most people are hungry, and from what I estimate there are about 50 people that were already in line. 

So as I walk up to get in line, I notice that the line is going out into the parking lot.  I thought to myself, that's not going to work.  What are these people thinking? After all, Most people that get to go to the consigner sale at 1pm, have been there several times before, and are familiar with the rhea lana's process.There were probably a few hundred people still set to arrive before 1pm and we had the line weaving through a parking lot, with cars, little children, cars coming and going, and within 100 feet of a major highway. It was soon going to turn into mass chaos. I asked the lady in front of me...do you think we should try to move the line?  The lady looked at me with big eyes (as if it was a big task).  So I said to her, well there are several people coming and I don't think we should have the line going out this way through a major parking lot and into a highway.  Shouldn't we try to move it to the sidewalk right there?  (There was a sidewalk safe from cars that the line had always lined up on in the past). The lady just kind of shook her head and said ya, that's kind of what I thought too.  A lady in front of her turned around and said to me - this is just the way the line was when I was here (as if I was blaming her). Another lady in front of me said she thought everything would be fine. I know this sounds silly, but I truly found myself knowing the right thing to do which was move the line, and it wasn't going to be an easy task and I felt like the other people knew the right thing to do but it was easier just to sit in line and not say anything or do anything to change it. Well a few minutes later a few people arrive in line behind me as I knew several several more people would as it got closer to 1pm.  Well now we were literally in the way of traffic.  Now I turn to the people behind me and say, don't you think we should move the line over to the sidewalk?  They said, yes I do, and looked at me.   So I said, well....how are we going to do this?  We have to get 50+ people to pick up there stuff and stay in line and walk over to that sidewalk......the people behind me just said, ya it's not going to be easy. Obviously they were not going to do anything either.  

Here comes my "moment"

I stood there and took a deep breath. Was I going to stay quiet and go with the easy choice? All I had to do was stay in line and play on my iphone....  or was I going to try and do the right thing.  I knew I had to get these people to move, I knew it was the right thing to do, and I knew no one else was going to step up and help me do this.  I told the lady next to me I'd be right back.  I got everyone's attention in front of me, and slowly got everyone to move over to the sidewalk.  I helped one lady move her stroller, and another lady carry her bags.  A few minutes later - the line was on the sidewalk, everyone was safe, there was plenty of room for the line to grow, and the traffic jam cleared, and cars could come and go by the store now.

I walked back to my place in line and everyone was smiling.  They said good job, I couldn't have done that, I smiled and said, oh yes you could have, I didn't think I could either.  The other lady said, that was the right thing to do, and pointed out to me how long the line was now that it was getting closer to 1pm. Another lady actually turned around that had heard the whole conversation and said, thank you for doing that.  My mom than joined us in line and I got to tell her the story again with the ladies next to me laughing and agreeing with the story.

There was my moment, it could teach so many lessons, but let me share with you how it changed me.

Have you ever looked at someone  and told them.....let me know what you need, don't hesitate to call....but all you had to do is just say those words and never really had to put any actions with them?  I mean - how many times do we say, please let me know I can do anything, but than walk away and never have to do anything at all?

This week I was given the opportunity to put actions along with my words.  Someone I had said all those things to, actually needed me, and called. I was grateful for the opportunity to help.

This week I also got to show several people in a rhea lana's line how to put actions with their words. God gave me the perfect opportunity to step up and be a good example, and I stepped up to the challenge.

Sometimes in life we just have to do things.  Just do them. Its that simple. Stop just thinking about them, stop just saying we'll do them.  Stop thinking about how hard it might be, or how easy other options are.

We are coming up on the holidays.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.  A time of year that presents itself with so many opportunities to step up and do nice things for other people or to finally make a change  within yourself.  I don't know what your "Rhea lana's line moment" is in your life, but I hope that you get to experience one soon, whether it be unexpected, or whether you go out and create one for yourself.

The end :)

Custom Bag Party

I was excited to get to host a Custom Bag Party for Mike's Aunt Tammy aka Tracy's sister. We held the party last Friday October 11th.  I thought it went great!  A few days before the party I got the house cleaned up and decorated for fall.  A huge thank you to my mom for letting me borrow some decorations.  Her house is currently being remodeled so she decided she wasn't going to decorate for fall so I hopped on that and borrowed 4 tubs full of fall decorations.  Lets just say my house looked very fallish!

Drink staion

Guest bath

Guest Bath

Fireplace

I normally put banana's oranges and bread in here.  For the party I filled it up with fall pumpkins and put it on my fireplace.  I thought it turned out great!

Food table, it was barely big enough for all of the food!

Decorations outside the front door

Decorations outside the front door

Funny story....
I bought a huge mum the week before the party.  It looked so pretty, my sister helped me pick it out.  2 days before the party, when the mum was barely a week old, I walk out my front door and its dead!  As in brown branches and dead buds and all.  It looked aweful.  I called Walmart and told them I had a dead mum I wanted to take back and didn't have the reciept.  They said if I brought it back that night I could get a new one.  Well at 8pm we finally make it to walmart with 2 tired kids in the car and a dead mum.  I give Mike the please face and he volunteers to go exchange the mum.  Here is Mike walking back to the car with a beautiful orange mum!!!  He knew I would be excited. I snapped a picture of him making fun of me. We planted the mum the next day just in time for the party, and it still is alive and well today.

I took the kids to Sam's and let them pick out the biggest roundest pumpkin they could find!  I know, Sams and not a pumpkin patch.....but Sam's has awesome, can't get any better or bigger than this, pumpkins and for only $9.98, so that's where we went.  The one we got is huge, can't wait to carve it.

I bought a mum as the prize for whoever had the most points in the what's in your purse game!

I bought some violas for our back porch.  They are $1.78 for a 6 pack at Walmart. They take pretty cold weather pretty good.  This was the first time for me to put out the planters at the new house.  I just hadn't gotten to it until now. I was excited to decorate the porch a little for the party.

I bought the boys a new bag of sand for the sand box.  It was getting pretty low and this was the first time I had to buy sand since we first made the sandbox.  They enjoyed the new sand and play with it everyday.

My pretty NEW orange mum!!!

Big Sam's pumpkin, 2 pumpkins from mom for the boys, and their two tiny pumpkins from West wood Gardens in Springdale

Getting more ready for the party

One night while I was laying in bed, I thought we needed a game to play at the party.  It gives people something to do, and a way for them to win a prize, and always a great icebreaker to get people talking that might not know each other.  What better game to play at a bag party than a "What's in your bag" game!!!  I was so excited I thought about it and kept it a secret so that people didn't come with their bags stuffed, haha.  I think everyone enjoyed playing the game.  I could not believe that NO ONE got the bonus.  The bonus was 10 points for anything with a Razorback on it. I think a lot of people might be adding something in their purse razorback after this party, haha.

A big CONGRATS to my Mother in Law - Tracy for winning the game with 39 points! She took home the mum on the table. Jennie, my sister in law had 30 points and dug in her purse for a while looking for a hog, which would have given her 40 points and a victory, but no luck.  We finally determined Tracy the winner.  Good Job Tracy!

Mike bought me a beautiful mum for the party and to plant outside the front door

He also bought me some beautiful flowers!  I was excited.  I love when he surprises me with flowers

I got a new fall top for the party.  I was excited I found it.

Tammy worked hard and made a door prize bag for the party, pictured below. Everyone that came through the door got to be entered to win the bag as a door prize.  I was so excited my neighbor, Joyce, won the bag!  I think she was excited too.  I am so glad she got to come and see the house and visit with some of my family and friends. I think she had fun too, and she got to take home a custom bag for free!

Here are a few pictures of the bags Tammy brought to sell at the party. She is so talented.  My favorite party about the bags is that they are all unique, and they all have a story.  She can tell you where she bought or found certain pieces of the bag.  I loved this pink one up front on the right.  It sold that night.

A picture of the "iron lady" Tammy's husband Kevin made for her to display her bags.  Isn't it cute? What a perfect idea and neat way to display her bags.

Below is a picture of my hostess gift!  I was so excited to get a Custom Razorbacks bag.  Needless to say I have carried it every day since I got it.  It is so sturdy.  I love how it has so many pockets.  You can look all over NWA and not find anything like this, it is so unique. The first place I took it to was the soccer game the morning after the party.  I got a compliment on it!  I am excited to take it around and show it off.

A big Thank you to Tammy for letting me host a bag party for her.  I am so thankful for all of you that were able to come and see them in person, but also for all of you that visited her blog and read through her stories, and liked or shared my pictures on facebook.

Hopefully soon we can get Tammy a business page on Facebook and she can start selling bags on that as well as a few other venues. In the mean time if you are interested in learning more about Mike's Aunt Tammy or the bags she makes please visit her blog below and follow her story or have her custom make a bag for you!!!

www.trashbagsetc.blogspot.com

Mike is 33

Mike turned 33 on October 3rd.  We went to Branson the weekend after his Birthday to celebrate, but we also wanted to have a little celebration at our house on his actual Birthday night that Thursday.  I had the kids decorate him a card, than they each bought him their own card.  Max gave a scooby doo Birthday card and Alex gave a Mickey mouse card.  A funny story is I kept talking to the kids about "their" cards for daddy.  Well when it came time Alex took it over to Daddy, ripped it open, and said, my Birthday card.  When Mike tried to take it, Alex wouldn't let him and kept telling Daddy that it was his card.  oh well, its the thought that counts.  My mom got him a new chair that she let him open at the house so she didn't have to take it to Branson.  Me and the boys surprised Mike with a Hydracoach water bottle.  Me and Mike had been talking about it for months, and than we hadn't talked about it in a few weeks (purposely on my part) so he was really surprised when he opened it.  It is a bottle that digitally counts how many ounces of water you drink per day and even the average ounces you should drink for your weight, etc.  It is an awesome water bottle. I can't wait to get one for myself! HIs birthday night meal came from The Fresh Market.  We wanted a casual night in. We got a little bit of shrimp, a fancy chicken, and a half pound of bowtie pasta for everyone to share.  We also got Mike's favorite crab dip.  For his birthday dessert I bought him a Hersey dark chocolate pie.  It was really good.  I felt bad because completely not thinking I didn't take it out of the freezer until it was time to blow out the candles.  It was frozen!  duh.  Well I fixed the problem by throwing a few pieces in the microwave and it worked out good and of course tasted delicious. Alex had left over Birthday cupcakes of his that I had frozen so he got to celebrate with us too.

I think Mike enjoyed his Birthday celebration with just us and the boys.  I forgot to mention that afternoon we celebrated with friends and had Soup fest 2013 at Olive Garden.  The name soupfest is a name we made up last year when we went in 2012.  All it means is that we all (Lambs, Fox, and Schmids) go to Olive Garden and order all you can eat salad and soup for $6.99 and see how much we can eat :)  It's a fun tradition and this year it worked out we could go on Mike's Birthday. It was a little different this year since Mike's car broke down on the way to his birthday lunch and had to get picked up on the side of the road while we all were waiting for him....but....he got there and we ate and we had fun.

Happy Birthday Mike!!! Woohoo for being 1/3 of a century!  (That's a quote from you)

notice who opens the Birthday presents once you have kids

Max patiently waits his turn

a close up of all of Mike's cards he got for his Birthday

My awesome decorations

Hydracoach

New Park New Park New Park!!!!

There is a new park in Springdale, called Rotary Park.  It is so neat!  Everything is so neat and different.  We have already been twice.  The first time me, Kelley, and Alex stopped on the way to Marketplace for Dad's Birthday.  The second time I met my mom there with both boys so she could watch them there as they played while I ran and got my teeth cleaned at the dentist.  I am very impressed with the park.  I of course, took several pictures. I'm so excited to have another fun free place to take the boys to enjoy fun fall days where they can get some exercise and run off some of their "boy energy".