My ship finally came in.... well at least my raft did! LOL!

[CeCeCreates]

CeCe, Only you would think of your sister first and then get you some shoes. I found a really nice shop in Spokane that just sells wide shoes and I stocked up.
I still say hit that man on the head with a rock and get that other card back. If you can't bring yourself to do it I will be right there. Just looking at me will scare him into it.

LOL! Right now I have BOTH cards in my wallet. Shh, don't tell the robbers though! Or dh. And I don't think I am the only one who would think of putting my sister, etc., first. We are all a pretty nice group here and we all love to do things for others. I think crafters are just that kind of people, and why we give so much of our creations away, or at least under charge for them.

[kate3]

You are right we give our stuff away and it is never cheap to buy so we can make that stuff. Why do we do that? I know because it is fun and yes I would have helped my sisters or brothers but except for one they are all wealthy. Make that 2, I am not on the wealthy list either. We all take care of that one but it was still a lovely thing you did. I would pass out if my siblings did it for me, it might make a hole in their millions, lol. Two out of 10 send me a Christmas card, once 3 of them did.

[Retta]

Oh CeCe what a great surprise!! I will have to check out those shoes.

[kim]

What a wonderful surprise for your sister and I know how you are feeling. It is more fun to buy for others and surprise them rather just shopping for yourself. I only have DS and DH and a very small family to shop for on the holidays. I love to shop, not browse through the malls mind you, but buy things. I get my fix by buying for the little kids (3rd cousins and great nieces and nephews) and then there is always the Toys for Tots and similar organizations. Of course, I've been doing my share to support the online stores and the USPS, UPS and FedEx.

It's a good thing your DH isn't married to me....I'd have bopped him on the head and took the cards. No, that's not true. He never would have gotten close to the cards in the first place! But my next favorite thing to do is shop and buy things for DH...he won't buy for himself.

And Kate, you should tell some of your relatives that money can't be used when you are dead. It's what you do with it while you are living that makes a difference. AND that does not mean stuffing it into a bank to earn interest. You only NEED so much. A little more for security. And a little more for a cushion. After that, it's all surplus. We are not in a contest for who has the most money when they die, wins. But we are in a contest for whoever dies with the most craft supplies, wins. I think I am in the running for this one.

[kate3]

Kim, I am so taking my craft stuff with me. I may have to be buried in a storage unit but it is mine. Yes, I think I am in the running too.

I have one sister who's husband turned a couple of spare millions into gold years ago. It is now worth over 50 million dollars. It amuses my husband to watch the gold prices on the news to see how much it goes up and down. I heard him laugh one night because gold had a small plummet and they lost 5 million dollars but it was back in 2 days. To me I can only imagine monopoly money when he talks about it. That amount to me doesn't seem real and you are right they cannot take it with them. These 2 are the meanest with their money but for some reason they take care of the one that needs it most, more than anyone else can. For that I love them and I know if I was truly in need they would be there but I have food and shelter. Many years ago when $1,500.00 was a huge fortune to me I needed to borrow it from them with an hours notice and it was in my bank account no questions asked. Then, they knew I could pay it back in 3 weeks. So I wasn't a high risk investment.

[kim]

I just don't think I want the responsibility of THAT kind of money! I just want "enough". I don't want the government telling me what to do with my money or who to give it to....but there are very hard working, deserving people out there that bad luck visited, hospital bills, etc, that could use the "surplus" of others. I LOVE the story of the couple who won the lottery, his wife had cancer and was in remission, and they were older. They gave it away to some worthwhile charities, saying that they had all that they needed....each other. I burst into tears when I saw that story. DH and DS thought I had lost my mind. I don't have a LOT but I do so love to share. Ds was always like that too. He would give his toys away all the time, even food/candy. I just love to make people happy. I may not have made a huge mark on the world, but I hope that when I die, people will say that I was a nice person.

[kate3]

I just don't think I want the responsibility of THAT kind of money! I just want "enough". I don't want the government telling me what to do with my money or who to give it to....but there are very hard working, deserving people out there that bad luck visited, hospital bills, etc, that could use the "surplus" of others. I LOVE the story of the couple who won the lottery, his wife had cancer and was in remission, and they were older. They gave it away to some worthwhile charities, saying that they had all that they needed....each other. I burst into tears when I saw that story. DH and DS thought I had lost my mind. I don't have a LOT but I do so love to share. Ds was always like that too. He would give his toys away all the time, even food/candy. I just love to make people happy. I may not have made a huge mark on the world, but I hope that when I die, people will say that I was a nice person.

They will say that and they already do. My daughter is like your DS. The first time I saw her do something nice she wasn't even 2. We were at an ice cream stand and she saw a little boy crying because he had dropped his. She wiped his face with her new dress and gave him her ice cream. While his mother was yelling, you dropped it and you aren't getting another one. My baby shut her up and she has never stopped giving in time, money or whatever someone needs. I like her too.

[kim]

DS is an only child. I was worried about him not learning to share, but he has always been very giving of material things. It was "people" he had a hard time learning to share. His best friend could only be HIS best friend and not some one else's. It took him some time to learn that people can be shared also. LOL.

Last year at Homecoming (which has somehow become almost like PROM) a bunch of kids were going to hire a limo to take them out to eat and to the dance. One of DS's best friends couldn't afford to come up with his share. DS asked me if it was okay, but he paid for his friends share anonomously. He didn't want the boy to feel bad so the coordinator of the whole thing just told him that it was all taken care of. I thought that was sweet of DS to think to do that and to not want credit but spare his friend's feelings. But then he always does that. Many kids that DS hangs around with have one parent or even two hardworking parents, but they don't have a lot of extra money. So if DS goes somewhere to eat and the other boys don't have the money, he'll share.

[kate3]

Kim, He is such a match to my daughter. They sound like the same person but she shared her friends which were mainly boys because they don't criticise just accepted. It is only now her friends are girls and a couple of boys. None of her friends go to school with her, she says they are all witches. She found her own friends in her after school job and they are lovely.They are all a lot like her.

[kim]

hehe...girls have a funny way about them. I know DS has had some witches in his life, but there are some very nice girls too. I pegged a lot of the little witches when they were little. But that is the way of girls. Boys are more "out there". When girls get mad, they get personal and get to you emotionally, like ostracizing. Boys are just physical...they tussle and it's over with. Bad thing is it is usually one girl who leads things and the others follow.

DS has really great girl friends and boy friends. They all just like to hang out together.

[CeCeCreates]

My first 2 kids were bullied. The boys and girls were all awful it seemed. They both did much better in high school. My youngest was lucky. She was in a wonderful class of kids all the way through. Growing up can be tough, but I think they came out ok.

[kim]

I once had an experience with a bully. DS was getting bullied and didn't tell me. On the bus home one day, he had had enough and pushed back. Got suspended from the bus for a week. He was worried that I was mad and I was. I was mad because he didn't tell me and that he took it for so long. And I told him that next time, don't do anything on school property, wait until you get off the bus. Well, the bully was busy telling DS that he was going to tell his dad and his dad would come over to our house. The boy's dad was a bully also. DH was gone, but I told the boy to just go ahead and tell your dad to come over. The minute he steps foot in my yard and wanting to do any harm to me and mine, he would regret it for the rest of his life. Normally I am not a violent person, but I don't tolerate threats or any one harming my family. The boy's father never showed up. Several other families have had problems with both the boy and his father.

[kate3]

CeCe, I am sorry they were bullied and I know they turned out great.
Kim, good for you and I am a lion if anyone hurts my child.
Mine was bullied from day one by girls and teachers. That is why she preferred boys as friends they just aren't as complicated, they mean what they say. Girls can start rumours that aren't true but coarse so much harm. If they knew what they had done to my daughter emotionally I still don't think they would have stopped. They can be heartless. When mine got to year 8 because then all of her friends were boys they started a rumour that she was sleeping with them all. That really hurt her because she looks at them like brothers. I expected boys of that age to say yes she is to look good. They didn't, they all came out fighting for her and I loved them for that because I couldn't make anyone at that school hear me.
We changed her high school and she has had peace ever since. She is so kind she deserves the peace, she is pretty and she doesn't want to die anymore. She never told us for years because she didn't want to make us sad. All of this started at 5 years old because she did something better than the most popular girl. That girl never let it go and her mother was the teacher and she was just as nasty as her daughter. You should not be allowed to teach a class if your child is in it. This teacher went up with that class for 3 years.
My daughter wore glasses for a couple of years. They couldn't stop her from joining the basket ball team so 2 weeks in a row they smashed the ball into her face and broke her glasses, she was 7 and it cut her face. The next week she turned up with contact lenses just for sports. She threw a 3 point point shot to win the grand final with seconds left. That gave them another reason to hate her. I never thought like this as a child. Only our children can break our hearts so much when we can't help them. Or they don't tell us so we won't be sad.