Operation Undies…How We Did

Posted on October 1, 2012 by

Operation Undies held it’s annual clothing drive last Saturday.  It was a smash success bringing in hundreds of new and used outfits along with socks and undies to outfit several kids.

It was a big project to organize and I’m happy with the results.  But mainly I owe a LOT of thank you’s to many people around me who made this event a success.

First thanks to my family, my little girls who not only helped me set things up, but put up with me filling their play room with clothing donations and didn’t whine too much while I sat at the computer typing stuff, talking on the phone and just generally ignoring them, too much.  Also to my husband who prolly doesn’t understand my compulsions toward charitable service, but supports me anyway mostly by carrying stuff where ever I tell him to. 

Also the many Utah Bloggers who did their best to publicize this event.  Most of the people who showed up on Saturday were NOT people I knew before the event.

Thanks to Dani Lassiter. You may know her as the Oh Sweet Sadie Art and Gift Show owner and or the Goldilocks Bike Ride organizer.  I know her as a good friend who was willing to come help me set up the event in a way that was logical and easy to navigate.  In addition to all her helpfulness, she was also generally fun to be around and entertaining while she put on some of the more unique donations we received.

Thanks to Candle Warmers who donated prizes to four lucky donors who attended our Saturday drive. Thanks to Daybreak for donating the retail space on Soda Row where we hosted the drive.

Big, big thanks to my parents and personal friends Lindsay Y, BA, Michelle P and Christy R who were willing to come out and help me sort, fold and bag up the donations and ready them for delivery. Just like me, they were exhausted by the end of the day. I couldn’t have done it without them.

So here’s to another year of warm clothing for kids.  Thanks EVERYONE!

I’ll be continuing to serve this group through the Christmas season.  If you’d like a family to sponsor for Sub-4-Santa or would like to start a collection of some kind of basic necessity like, socks and undies, boots, shoes, coats, etc.  Let me know I’ll get you set up.

Posted in CALLING FOR HELP, EVENTS, INSPIRING PEOPLE, OPERATION UNDIES | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Operation Undies Flier

Posted on September 26, 2012 by

Hello Everyone! Just one more reminder about the Operation Undies Clothing drive happening THIS Saturday.

Here’s the flier I am trying to circulate. Feel free to share it.

I’ve literally done everything I know how to do to make this drive a smash success.

Now I am depending on YOU and the Universe to bring in the clothes.

If you need a reminder about why I am doing this and or who this clothing will go to, see here.

Thanks to my sponsor Candle Warmers for donating door prizes to be given away intermittently through the event. Also thanks to the folks at Daybreak for letting us use the retail space free of charge.  Their support has been invaluable!

I hope to see you there and hope you win a prize!

Tell your friends!

Posted in CALLING FOR HELP, OPERATION UNDIES | 1 Comment

The Best Time to Go to Disneyland?

Posted on September 24, 2012 by

So you’re planning a trip to Disneyland!  Lucky duck!  You’ll have so much fun*. Did you notice the asterisk star by the word fun? There’s a reason for that.

The reason is that it’s no fun to save up your money and anticipate a trip to Disneyland for weeks and months just to get there and stand in line for several hours each ride. It sort of kills the experience for me.

Over the years, we’ve learned from trial and error as well as a little internet research when’s the BEST time to visit Disneyland.

My personal favorite trip to Disneyland was in their off season. Specifically, we like second week of September, the week after the week of Labor Day.  Hotels are a DEAL. The park is SO empty!  For the most part we walked right on most of the rides. Also in September you can still have great beach weather and can catch an Angels Baseball game.

There are some cons of going in the off season.  Since it’s the off season they perform maintenance work on a lot of the rides.  There will likely be two or three rides that will be closed down for several weeks. Be sure you look at the Disneyland calendar so you know if your absolute favorite ride will be closed down the day’s your planning to go.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the day you selected to see what if any rides are scheduled to be closed for refurbishment. The calendar will also tell you what parades and other events are planned for the days.  It’s worth looking at BEFORE you plan your trip.

The other thing about visiting in the off season is the park has reduced hours usually from 10a.m. to 8 p.m.

Fireworks in the off season usually only happens on weekends. Also be aware that if you go in October you’ll see the super scary evil Halloween fireworks show instead of the traditional show.

There are some cool websites that may help you select your week to visit the park based on historical attendance.  It might help you avoid the experience my cousin Aly had last year when they went the week of Christmas thinking everyone would be home for the holidays.  Instead the entire world was at the Disneyland Park.  The park was sold out every day by 9:30 a.m. meaning the had the maximum allowable number of people in the park.  They averaged a ride a day.  Talk about frustrating.  The good news for them is when they complained they received free three day park hopper passes to return another time.

The attendance tracker will help you avoid unexpected especially crowded times.Hope your trip to Disney is the best ever!

Posted in DISNEY, GREAT FAMILY GETAWAYS, VOCAL TRAVELS | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Best Time to Go to Disneyland?

Five Reasons YOU Should Come to Operation Undies

Posted on September 21, 2012 by

Just in case you aren’t counting down the days until Operation Undies big kick-off clothing drive, I’ll just tell you…it’s NEXT Saturday!  I’m counting on a lot of support from friends of blogging and my friends and family to show up and to tell your friends about it.

I’ve assembled my Top five list of reasons I think you should come.

1.  It will be your day to liberate yourself from drawers and closets that are piled too high.  Imagine the freedom you’ll feel when you part from clothes that are stopping you and your children from closing their drawers.

2. You will feel warm fuzzies all season as you imagine some darling little people keeping warm with your clothing donations.

3. Soda Row is a fun place to be.  Cafe Bella Rue and Oopsie Daisy are MY two personal favorite shops.  But you come be the judge.  Stay for a little lunch.  You won’t be sorry.

4. Prizes from Candle Warmers will be given intermittently through the event.  Imagine how sweet your house will smell when you win one of the beautiful Candle Warmers.

5. The last reason you need to come is because these kids need people like you.  Please come drop off your clothes. We’ll both be glad you did.

Since I am counting on clothing donations to make this event a success, please consider sharing this event with your friends.  It’s easy to do.  Tell you’re friends why you’re going.  If everyone gives a little, a lot of little bodies will have warm clothing to wear this winter.

Here’s the details of where we’ll be and what we’re collecting.

  • New packages of socks and underwear in any size. Especially the smallest sizes.  Teachers at the school say the kids often come without any undies or some that are full of holes and 5 sizes too big.
  •  We want your best gently used clothing in any size (even grown up sizes).
  • New warm clothing.  If you see something on clearance, go ahead and pick it up.  We’ll find a little body that needs it.

Are you ready to put it on your calendar?  It’s Sat Sept. 29 from 10am-2pm in the Daybreak Community on Soda Row!  We’ll be next door to Oopsie Daisy Children’s Boutique at 11277 Kestrel Rise Road. The nice people at Kennecott Land have agreed to let us use some vacant retail space free of charge. There’s plenty of parking in front and back.

I’m also looking for a hand full of volunteers to come help me box everything up and label it at the end. If you’d like to help contact me here.

See you there!

Posted in CALLING FOR HELP, EVENTS, OPERATION UNDIES | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How to Blow Giant Bubbles

Posted on September 19, 2012 by

As summer is winding down I’ve was just running through the photos stored on my computer look at all the fun things we’ve done.

Some were big fun and some were little fun.  Either way, we looked forward to them and fun was had. That’s the important part.

As I was perusing, I found these pictures.  Our neighbor invited the moms in our hood over to a nearby park to blow giant bubbles. 

She found the recipe for bubble solution strong enough to create monstrosity bubbles.  She also provided the simple items needed to make it all happen.

We all congregated in the park and let the kids experiment.

You can probably tell, but fun and amazement was had by all!

This is a simple fun hour of fun.  If you wanted to try it on your own, here’s the recipe.

Here’s what you need to make it happen.

A bucket, some wooden dowels, string, dish soap, wide and shallow basin, glycerin, water, big hoops and a little breeze.

Here’s the Recipe:

1/2 cup dish washing detergent

4.5 cups cup water

4 tablespoons glycerin 

Measure the water, soap, and glycerin. Mix gently and let set unless you have unruly children who can’t wait. Please note that the longer you let the mixture set, the larger the bubbles get and the longer they fly in the sky.

Have Fun!

Posted in PLEASANT EVENTS | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Around Moab

Posted on September 14, 2012 by

One of my favorite places to think about and repetitively visit is Moab Utah.  I fell madly in love this desert landscape a few years ago when I was hired on to be part of a special project.

What special project you ask?  Well since you asked, I’ll tell you.  The Around Moab Audio Tour.

Mitch White, a fifth generation Moabian, brought me on to do some of the research and writing for his idea of taking tourists on a three hour tour guided by an audio recording from the CD player of their cars.

After growing up in Moab, Mitch knows all the right places.  He know every nook and cranny in the whole county.  As the narrator of the album, he’ll tell you all the MUST SEE sites.

In addition to telling you about the best restaurants and cool places the audio tour takes you on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road.  The scenery you see and the stories you’ll hear are incredible and very interesting if I do say so myself.

The tour came out last year.  Once I got my hands on a copy of the finished product, we headed straight down to Moab.  Because it’s funner to travel in packs, we came with cousins.

Our first stop was at a place called Matrimony Springs.  Fresh drinkable water pops right out of the rock wall.  We filled our bottles.

We caravanned through some spectacular scenery.

Do you feel like you’re in the middle of the movie City Slickers?  That’s because it was filmed here.

We finally made it to the top of the La Sal’s.  What a view.  I’m sure you can see for several million miles.  This photo, as beautiful as it is, doesn’t do this vista any justice.

I felt like I’d made a real victory standing on top of the mountain holding a project I’d spent almost a year working on.  It was a pretty amazing feeling.

Everyone in the caravan seemed pretty amazed by the view.

The loop road takes you high into the La Sal Mountains.  It’s not at all what you expect to see on your trip to red rock Moab.  But they’re here too.  The La Sals are some of Utah’s tallest mountains.

Moab is a pretty fantastic trip for locals.  For a four hour drive it’s a pretty amazing destination.   Where else can you see stuff like this?

I mean really.

I mean come on really.

And…September/October are the VERY BEST months to take your trip.  It’s NOT hot and it’s NOT crowded.  Hotel rooms are always a little more pricy than I wish they were in Moab, but they’re usually pretty decent rooms and it sure beats camping.  We like staying at the Super 8, because we’re SUPER fancy people.  They serve a lousy breakfast, but it’s free and you can’t beat that. And we only had one mouse (that we know of) in our hotel room.  He found my snacks inside my back pack.  The nice people at the SUPER 8 provided us with a complimentary mouse trap.  And then sent a man to come to sweep it up after the mouse lost it’s battle for cheese.

As for the Around Moab audio tour.  I think you can buy it in the gift shops in town. I wish I had mobettah info than that.  If anyone has seen it down there, let me know.

If you’re feeling like the summer has passed you by and you haven’t done anything you wanted to do…Consider Moab.  I’ll post my Moab How-To next week.  Check back for advice on how to see the best Native American rock art and the best family hikes.

 

 

Posted in DAYTRIPS, GREAT FAMILY GETAWAYS, PLEASANT EVENTS, RED ROCKS-SOUTHERN UTAH, VOCAL SOKOL LOCAL, VOCAL TRAVELS | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Who Doesn’t Need a Daily Delivery?

Posted on September 12, 2012 by

My friend Heidi at her baby shower, getting ready to welcome her first child. Don’t you remember how wonderful it was to be showered with gifts!

I mentioned that I’m affiliated with Intermountain Healthcare’s Intermountain Mom’s on Facebook a few times over the last few weeks.

Today I’m talking about their Facebook Daily giveaway called the Daily Delivery.  Each day you can enter to win all kinds of fun baby supplies.

Looking at the prizes has made me reminisce about what it was like being a new mom. Most of my memories were very fond even though I struggled a lot with my babies in the beginning, especially trying to assemble all the things my babies needed. The Daily Delivery knows what you need and wants to give it to you, FREE!

Since we’re talking about baby supplies, one of my fondest memories were all the baby showers and gifts I received.  I also LOVED the crib we chose.  Tears build up when I think of all the time I spent watching them sleep in that cozy crib.

Last weekend I gave our sweet crib my friend Heidi.  She’s getting ready to have her first baby.

It was hard to part with that sentimental piece of furniture, but it took up so much space in our storage room and it seemed like such a waste to keep it since we’re not planning to use it anytime soon.

We delivered our crib to her just before she had a baby shower.

Don’t you remember how fun it is to be showered with gifts for your baby?  After the baby comes, the presents stop rolling in.  Wouldn’t it be great if the gifts and baby supplies could keep coming?

Here’s your big chance…If you haven’t already liked Intermountain Mom’s, consider doing it.  If not for the free advice from Nurse Dani or being part of a community of new moms, do it for the Daily Delivery and your chance to win the stuff you need. Who couldn’t use some free diapers?

Regular Daily Delivery Facebook Fans can win their choice of these options as the daily prize:

1. Diapers. Available in newborn to size 6
2. A Formula Gift Bag including two cans of formula (your choice of Similac or Enfamil), six bottles, four breast milk containers and two insulated cooler packs
3. Handy specialized breast feeding Boppy Pillow

If you don’t currently have babies, you can win them for a friend or family member. There are so many new moms out there who would love you forever if you gave them free diapers. They make great baby shower presents!  It’s not technically re-gifting.  It’s just passing the gift along.

Intermountain Moms Daily Delivery wants you to be the prize winner!  If you don’t win today, you might win tomorrow. All you have to do to enter to win is respond to the Daily Delivery post and win the prize!

I have also been authorized to offer one of my readers a GRAND PRIZE DAILY DELIVERY PACK which includes a combination of all three Daily Delivery prizes. It’ll be like a baby shower being delivered to your front porch, but with out all the lame games!

Here’s what you gotta do to enter for the grand prize.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The contest for the grand prize runs until NEXT Wednesday.  Enter now, but while your waiting for that to transpire, go ahead and try your luck for the next week on the Daily Delivery on Intermountain Moms.

Posted in THOUGHTS ON HAPPINESS | 11 Comments

A Labor in Lemonade

Posted on September 10, 2012 by

We started a new Charity Lemonade Stand tradition last year over Labor Day weekend.

Since we’re not boat people we don’t do much over the long weekend, so we decided this would be a fun helpful thing to do.

We are donating the money to Operation Undies, our own little charity supporting the kids at the Centro de la Familia.

My girls were really excited about it all week long.  We started our preparations early in the week.  We bought Lemonade, we made signs and baked Snicker Doodles to sell. We also did our best publicize our stand the on the blog and on Facebook.  By the time Saturday rolled around we were ready to go!

We got our stuff all set up and began the sale.  Unfortunately it felt more like fall outside than the last few days of summer.  It wasn’t real hot. In fact, the kids had to cover up their cute lemonade themed outfits with warm jackets to keep up with the cool weather.

Luckily we had a few loyal customers show up in the first hour because despite how cute we all were, no one seemed real thirsty for lemonade. 

After about an hour the sun came out and we were able to take off the jackets.  With the sun out, we started having a few cars pull over to buy a can of lemonade.

We also found our short-stacks of ten bagged Snicker Doodles to be a very popular item.  We sold out of those by the end of the stand.

How could we not be successful? Look at the quality of cute in these kids!

The girls were really into it, especially at first.  We had some help from our cute cousins who also helped us come sell.

This little guy was obviously just in it for the food.

We made him earn the cookies he ate and the Lemonade he drank.  When he wasn’t eating he wasn’t a very good salesman.  Luckily there was a playground nearby.  He made the most of that when he had his fill of the merchandise.

With the traffic we were able to stop and the loyal customers like my good girl-friend Amy who came all the way from down-town Salt Lake to patronize our stand and then stayed to help us sell, we considered the stand a huge success.

Alyssa performed acrobatic tricks to attract cars. I think it worked!

In all we raised just over $150 dollars.  We sold all the cookies but less than half of the lemonade we purchased.

If you missed the stand, but still want to support our cause, I’d be happy to sell you a can or bake you some cookies.  Let me know…We can arrange it.

The kids did a great job despite the fact that I had to force them to hold their homemade signs for the last hour. I was proud of them for sticking it out even though they sick of being there by the end.

Special thanks to my Sister-in-law Leslie who was generous enough make a platter of cookies to sell and let us barrow her cute kids to help us move the product.  Also thanks to my dear friend Ally who also donated a big batch of freshly baked cookies. We wouldn’t have made nearly the money without the volume of cookies to sell.

Next year, it might just be a bake stand.

 

 

 

 

 

As a reward for being such good sports, I let them paint their OWN fingernails when we got home.  Even though it has nothing to do with the Lemonade Stand, I thought I’d show their fine workmanship.

 

 

 

Posted in CALLING FOR HELP, EVENTS, OPERATION UNDIES, PLEASANT EVENTS | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Operation Undies on Soda Row

Posted on September 7, 2012 by

I have BIG news for all you Helpy Helpertons out there. Operation Undies annual clothing drive will be held Sat Sept. 29 from 10am-2pm in the Daybreak Community on Soda Row!  We’ll be next door to Oopsie Daisy Children’s Boutique at 11277 Kestrel Rise Road.

The nice people at Kennecott Land have agreed to let us use some vacant retail space free of charge. There’s plenty of parking in front and back.

It’s your chance to clean out and free up space in your closets.  I know everyone has a new crop of school clothes to pack into your wardrobes.  Don’t you hate it when there are too many clothes in your drawers?

The clothing will be warming kids from the Central de la Familia Head Start Schools.  My friend who teaches there reports that many of the kids severely under dressed for cold weather. For some, it’s their first winter in Utah and they’ve never experienced cold weather. Your gently used clothing goes a long way to give warmth to needy child.

With your participation this will be the biggest, best clothing drive we’ve ever done!

If you’re wondering what kind of things were looking for, here’s the list.

  • New packages of socks and underwear in any size. Especially the smallest sizes.  Teachers at the school say the kids often come without any undies or some that are full of holes and 5 sizes too big.
  •  We want your best gently used clothing in any size (even grown up sizes).
  • New warm clothing.  If you see something on clearance, go ahead and pick it up.  We’ll find a little body that needs it.

So come, invite your friends.  Stay for lunch Soda Row has many scrumptious lunch options. I promise after making your donations to these needy kids you’ll be smiling and feeling warm fuzzies all day.

Organizing this drive has been a serious time consuming project I’ve taken on NOT for my own entertainment.  The needs of these families are very serious. I just KNOW there are unused clothes in your drawers that will bring warmth to these kids and relief to their parents.  If we all do a little, it goes a long way.

Here’s my ONE impassioned plea…Please, pretty please share this post with your friends.  I don’t have enough readers of this blog to make this clothing drive succeed on my own.  I need your help to make this invitation to donate go viral in our community.  Please repost on facebook, talk about it on twitter, pin or just old fashion call your friends on the phone.  Does anyone talk on the phone anymore?

If you’d like to know more about this project or help with our other endeavors to provide relief contact me here.

Posted in EVENTS, OPERATION UNDIES, THOUGHTS ON HAPPINESS | Tagged , | 3 Comments

How to Chose Your Disney Trip Hotel

Posted on September 5, 2012 by

I obsess over picking hotel rooms, mainly because it’s fun for me.  I get a lot of satisfaction out of planning trips, so I try to make the process last as long as possible.

The right hotel can make or break your Disney trip. With so many to chose from, it’s hard to know which is best for your family.  After some painful trial and error of my own, I’ve assembled  a list of tips I hope is useful when selecting a room.

I can’t give a list of the BEST hotels, because it all depends on what your priorities are.  So…the first thing you need to do is decide what YOUR priorities are.  These are the items to consider before selecting your room.

  • Do you have kids that need naps?
  • Do you want to be within walking distance?
  • Do you need a suite for parental peace and privacy at night?
  • Are you going to be there multiple days if so, what is your parking plan?
  • Do you need a kitchenette or at least a microwave in your room?
  • How important is a free hotel breakfast?
  • Are you traveling with light sleepers?
  • Are you traveling in a group?
  • How much are you willing to spend to get what you want?
  • What else matters to you in hotel stay?

Once you know your priorities, it’s easier to look for a room that will accommodate your needs.  It’s very hard to find a room that does it ALL unless you are willing to PAY.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned you may want to consider when selecting your room.

Tip ONE:  If you’re planning to save money by being father away from the park factor in $15 a day to park in the Disneyland parking structure. Once you add the daily parking fee and the extra gas back and forth, the convenience off being close might be worth it.

Also, consider the hassle of the parking structure tram to the gate, especially if you’re bringing a loaded down stroller.  You have to empty the stroller of kids and other junk you’re bringing into the park, fold it up, board everyone and all your stuff on the tram and then reload it after the short ride to the park.

Take it from me, it’s a hassle.  I’d rather walk from my hotel to the park if at all possible.  In fact on our last trip we stayed at the Comfort Inn Anaheim Maingate located exactly 1 mile from Disney’s gate.  We walked our friends who were with us drove.  We beat them into the park every time.

Tip TWO: Travel sites like Getaway Today are very helpful, but…I have never had them get me the best deal on a hotel room.  When I’ve broken the prices down, I’ve found the price of the room is hiked WAY up. You can still get a great discount on park tickets even if you don’t buy your room through them.

To avoid this, use those sites to research and read reviews, but go directly to the hotel website to book your actual room. The prices for family suites seem to be especially expensive through travel sites. On our upcoming trip we’re planning to stay at the Best Western Raffle’s Inn.  I saved more than $500 (for reals) on our upcoming trip by booking directly with the hotel site.  Be sure to check all their rate plans, we saved extra money by toggling with the options there too. I also avoided paying for the room until we actually arrive.

Tip THREE: Read the hotel reviews before you book your room.  That’s the best way to know what to expect from a specific hotel.  You might find out what the hotel is really like aside from the alluring photo on the website.  Maybe the walls are paper thin and the hotel is next to a freeway.  If you’re traveling with light sleepers this place might not be the one for you. Check the reviews.

Look for trends in reviews.  If multiple reviews report the same information, you can expect this in your stay.  If one person says its the worst hotel ever, but the other reviews seem alright, don’t cross the hotel off you list.  Very often people who care enough to write a review have been biased usually by some horrible but unique to them experience.

Hope this is helpful in your trip planning.  I hope you get to plan a lot of FUN trips in your future.  Even if you don’t take the trips right away, it’s still fun to plan.  Taking trips is one of the things I look forward to most.

 

Posted in DISNEY, GREAT FAMILY GETAWAYS, PLEASANT EVENTS, VOCAL TRAVELS | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment