Misc. Nonsense | Mommy to Three Monkeys!

Apr

Shaving My Head for Penny!

By mommy23monkeys · Comments (28)

I’ve always been a little bit of a nut and willing to do most anything…depending on the circumstances. When everything started happening with Penelope, I naturally wanted to help raise money for them. I came across a blog post of Kristen where she announced she was going to shave her head to raise money for pediatric cancer research…St. Baldricks.

I was intrigued.

My mother egged me on…”you should totally shave your head!”

hahahahaha….not.

BUT. Then I started to really think about it. It’s just hair. It will grow back.

Maybe I could do this. Maybe I will do this.

So, I’m doing it.

Starting today, I will take donations from you. Right on my sidebar you can donate and track my progress. Every single penny I raise will go to Pennies4Penny.org and my beautiful cousin’s medical bills. She is only just beginning her fight against Stage 4 Neuroblastoma and has a very long and expensive road ahead of her. Why not donate to her and in return, you’ll get some entertaining video of a bald lady?

I even have it on a hunch that Penny’s mom & dad might join in…no promises, but you might be getting 3 or 4 bald heads out of this little adventure.

When the day comes and I have raised $5000.00 I will have a head shaving party! I will video tape it and post the video and pictures here on my blog. The hair that I cut off will be donated to Locks of Love.

Please help me reach my goal!!! You won’t really even be “helping” me, but a sweet little girl who just celebrated her 1st birthday. A little girl that should be looking forward to the rest of her life, not looking out of the hospital window. A beautiful child who should be learning to walk, but can’t because of the grapefruit size tumor that is pressing on her spine. This little girl:

Categories : Misc. Nonsense

Comments (28)

Apr

Company’s You Should do Business With (part 1)

By mommy23monkeys · Comments (17)

For the last several weeks, I’ve not done much but work on Penny’s auction. It was a lot of hard work. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into when I thought, “wouldn’t a little auction be fun?” But I would do it again in a heartbeat because 1) it helped my family and 2) I learned that there is still amazing kindness in people.

I only actually “pitched” a few companies at first. When I emailed them explaining our situation, I offered some ad spots here on mommy23monkeys.com if they would donate for me. I quickly came to realize that I would not be able to give ad spots to over 50 sponsored prizes! My sidebars just are not that big! So I decided I would do some “thank you” posts instead. I’ll break it up so that this one post doesn’t take 20 years to read. But here are some of our amazing sponsors that donated, without question, without expecting anything in return. They donated because the company heads are generous and caring people. People that care about the fight of a little girl they had never even met. These are the kinds of business’s I want to do business with…and so should you!

The Surf Diva Surf School in La Jolla, CA. They were actually introduced to me by the La Jolla Mom. They offer surf clinics and camps to the women of San Diego. They have been the #1 surf school for women for over 12 years! I really would love to learn to surf. Too bad you won’t be catching me in a bathing suit anytime soon.

The Pretty Peacock. OMGosh! The Pretty Peacock offers stunning handmade artisan jewelry. I could not have worked with a more generous and amazing woman than, Ana, the owner. In addition to donating a beautiful pendant to the auction, she has activated a FREE SHIPPING CODE on orders placed through The Pretty Peacock website. Order something online and enter the code PENNY. Any time someone uses this free shipping code, The Pretty Peacock will donate $5.00 more dollars to Pennies4Penny! Just in time for Mother’s Day Shopping!

aden + anais specializes in beautiful newborn swaddling blankets made of muslin. Their store offers blankets, bibs, towels, washcloths and more. All made of muslin and ready for your newborn to snuggle into.

Collagist is an online store for all your collage, photo and canvas print needs. Collagist creates a unique product just for you. They also have a Facebook Fan page that you can join here http://www.facebook.com/collagist

Build a Bear Workshop specializes in bringing your Teddy Bear to life. They offer parties in store or you can custom order your furry friend online. The people at Build a Bear created a unique Lamb just for Penny’s auction.

Legoland California donated EIGHT passes to Penny’s auction! That’s nearly $800 in value. I am not generally mentioning the value of the prize, because I don’t really think it matters, but in this case it was exceptional. Legoland is a FUN place to visit here in Southern California. Unlike any other amusement park. This summer they are opening up a brand new water park, too that I can’t wait to visit. If you are in the area looking for something to do…this is it!

Alright, so there is my first 6 companies you should do business with. Please be on the lookout for more recommendations this week!

Categories : Misc. Nonsense, Product Reviews

Comments (17)

Mar

Amazed at the Kindness of Strangers

By mommy23monkeys · Comments (2)

I just know you were wondering….

Rhea…where have you been?

I have been online day and night for over a week organizing and executing the fund raising auction for my cousin Penelope.

It has been exhausting!

But I found something along the way that I thought was lost. There are still good people in this world. Heck, there are AMAZING people in this world. And here I thought they were all gone.

Strangers: companies and individual’s alike, all willing to donate items for auction to help a little person they had never and will probably never even meet. Even more people coming out to bid on these items and tweet the auction and tell their friends about it.

Astounding!

There are still wonderful and giving people in this world.

And because of this, I have been a very busy little girl!

Over the next week or so I will introduce you to some of the companies that helped out Penny. There were over 50 donated items! I get an email every day from someone else wanting to still donate. It’s crazy. And to thank them, and to pass on the good Karma, I will introduce you to them here. Then you will know that there are good, unselfish companies out there still willing to do good for the sake of doing good…not because they required any recognition.

And please know that I am still here. Once I have all the winning bidders matched up to the sponsoring companies I will start posting more. I made home made syrup the other day that was the BOMB. Can’t believe I’ve never done it before. So I have a recipe to share. Also, Anthony has his first Science Fair exhibition today so of course I need to talk about that.

So please be patient with me. I’m here.

Categories : Misc. Nonsense

Comments (2)

Mar

Road Rage

By mommy23monkeys · Comments (11)

Dear mid-sized, beige Toyota driving on Wildcat Canyon Road tonight,

I’m terribly sorry that my truck full of small children got in your way this evening. Had I known that going 5mph over the posted speed limit, up a dark and winding mountain road, was not fast enough for you, I could have stayed home and spared you the inconvenience.

I’m also sorry that when you got close enough to smell my kids fart, that I slowed down. I can see how you may not have known that I was part of that Facebook Group that slows down on tailgaters. Maybe I should get a bumper sticker? But I was trying to give you a subtle message that you were making me, and my truck full of small children, uncomfortable.

And when the road briefly straightened out, and you decided that it was a good idea to turn on your bright lights, pass me on the double yellow line and hang your middle finger out your window…I really appreciated that. I’d been waiting for an appropriate time to discuss the fine art of flipping people off with my 5 and 3 year old’s.

So, thank you mid-sized, beige Toyota. You made my night that much better by having been almost run off the road by you.

Sincerely,

Full-sized, silver Ford truck full of small children

Categories : Misc. Nonsense

Comments (11)

Feb

Installing Fonts With Windows 7

By mommy23monkeys · Comments (4)

My DH (“darling husband”…at least for today *wink*) bought all the parts needed to build me a new computer system as a Birthday/Valentine’s day present. I’ll write more on the specifics of it all later. Along with this new system, he splurged and got me Microsoft Windows 7 Professional . I had been using Vista on my laptop and while it was okay for me, the tech in him hated it.

Today is really the first day I’ve gotten to get in and play around with my new computer, and I had to reinstall Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Along with this reinstall though, I realized that I had to go through and find all my favorite fonts again.

I’ve probably never mentioned that I’m a font whore, have I?

I had a ton that I’ve collected and was not looking forward to reinstalling them all.

Begrudgingly, I went to my favorite font site and started downloading. It was then that I discovered just how freaking EASY it is to install fonts with Windows 7! I got all giddy like a little girl on Christmas. I decided that I would share my new found knowledge with all of you.

1st step:

Same as always, download and extract your font files. Unless you have your settings weirded out, the extracted files should end up in your documents file.