Impromptu Volunteering

Today the kids and I were walking through town and decided to partake in some impromptu volunteering or as my son said 'we are volunteering without telling anyone' :) The local dfcs office puts pinwheels out for child abuse awareness: 'Pinwheels for Prevention of Child Abuse'. Well, recently we had some pretty strong winds and storms come through so these pinwheels were blown all apart and scattered instead of standing up and spinning pretty. The kids and I walked by and stopped to look at them, I asked 'you wanna fix them?' and the kids said 'yea, sure!' so we sat and put the pinwheels back together as best we could and stood them back up in their places. As we were working on them someone drove by and yelled out the window 'looking good ya'll, keep up the good work!' :) We got some funny looks from people coming in and out of the office, but oh well, we had fun working on them and did some good at the same time...

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and for more than 10 years the Catoosa County Family Collaborative (CCFC), area students, and citizens have placed pinwheels at different spots in the community to represent children who have been abused or neglected in Catoosa County. Phil Ledbetter of the CCFC said about 11 abused or neglected children are represented by one pinwheel and there are 100 pinwheels total.

Spread the Word for Charity

After my last blog post, someone from hotelscombined.com contacted me to let me know that they will donate money to the charity of your choice if you spread the word about their comparison price service. Check out this page where you can see how $5, $10, or $20 will be given to the charity of your choice.

JDRF Walk

Today, April 25th 2010, the kids and I and a couple of friends walked in the juvenile diabetes walk held at Coolidge Park. We try to do this every year, have since Korina was diagnosed. We have a team name ~ Korina's Krew ~ and we keep talking about having t-shirts made, but always forget until it is too late. Also every year we try to raise money for JDRF~Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, in hopes of finding a cure. This year we set our goal at $200 because we knew everyone's pockets are tight, but we managed to raise $300! Thanks to our loving family and friends.

The walk this year was pretty grueling for me, I am too out of shape :P We ended up climbing some steep hills and walking across the bridges four times along with the rest of the route. I am sore! But we enjoyed it :) And the kids really liked playing in the fountain there too.

Look how windy it was this day! We had an especially hard time walking straight while crossing the bridges. This is on the Walnut Street Bridge, a walking bridge in Chattanooga, TN.

Our young Krew members: Debbie, Trista, Korina, Kerstin, and Konrad

Kerstin showing off her new shirt

Debbie is looking for Korina in the hedges :)

Ah, Debbie found her and Korina is on the run!

Kerstin is freezing after being in the fountain!

Korina on a statue at Coolidge Park

Konrad on a statue at Coolidge Park

Some of our Krew members riding the Coolidge Park Carousel

Konrad on an inflatable

Korina in front of an inflatable

Life

Life has been crazy lately. We have had lots of changes going on, lots of things to get used to, and lots of stuff to do. The kids and I have moved, and in so doing have downsized. So one thing we have to do is figure out what to part with and where to put what we didn't part with. Another thing to get used to I am divorced now. It has been very emotional for me. More so than I thought it would be after knowing it was coming for so very long, practically since the day we were married. I am not sure that he ever really wanted to be married to me to begin with, guess I should have left well enough alone back then... My granny says it is very similar to going through having someone die. I think she is right. I often feel like a part of me has died now. He and I are trying to have a good relationship though, not just for the kids, but because we are friends. That doesn't seem to lessen the pain though. Everyday it hurts and I am very sad.