The Day My Childhood was Destroyed

I was being lazy and just lounging around in bed this afternoon morning and I’m not entirely sure why this random memory of my brother destroying my childhood popped into my head. As a kid I was pretty vocal in the fact that I always wanted to be an only child. The brief three years I was an only child were amazing, I had so many toys and was showered with love and affection from my parents all the time. And then he came along. The new baby stole all the attention, he followed me around, hugged me, wanted to play games with me and I wanted nothing to do with him. Unless I needed to scapegoat to get out of trouble and even then the parental units saw right through my schemes.

As a kid I was an avid My Little Pony and Troll doll collector. My room was covered in naked trolls, some with the magic, wishing jewel for a belly button and thousands of My Little Ponies and their matted, colorful hair. Sometimes they would play together, other times they were mortal enemies.

One gloomy and horrible day I came home from school and had my snack of peanut butter and graham crackers with a side of Scooby Doo cartoons. I knew something wasn't right as it was unusually quiet. Normally, baby brother was hugging me or drooling on one of my precious toys, however on this atrocious day, he was being eerily quiet and was no where to be seen.  

I put my snack on the coffee table and slowly made my way to my room. I noticed that the door was closed and I could hear the faint sound of jibberish talk and mild humming. I slowly opened the door, holding my breath, and completely unsure what I would find in there. My eyes scanned the room but I heard his voice first.

“Oh you look very nice with the new hair cut.”

I flung the door open and saw him. My little brother was sitting in the middle of my room, my Troll dolls scattered around him and a tiny pile of red, green, yellow, purple Troll hair next to him. A pair of those elementary school safety scissors was in his grubby little hand and an innocent Troll doll in the other.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Is what I managed to screeched before he looked at me with those simple, blue eyes and a giant, satisfied grin across his face.

“Look, I gave them buzz cuts!”

He said, completely unfased with my anger, as he held the poor little doll up like a trophy. I’m not completely sure what happened after that, I may have blacked out from complete rage. Or what actually happened was that I burst into tears and ran crying to my parents. Who in turn took that little jerks side stating they were JUST toys and I was overreacting to the dolls getting a hair cut.

The hair was the lucky part.

Oh Trolls, I'm sorry.



We Have a Winner!!

First off, I want to thank every single person that helped with the Toys for Tots Fundraiser. My goal was to hit $100 and when I started this I figured I would get probably $20. Well, with everyone's help and contribution we made $109! How awesome is that?!!? After work, "Chris," "Sean" and I went to Wal-Mart to purchase brand new toys. To be honest, after doing a quick walk through of the toy aisle I felt a teeny bit overwhelmed. There were so many toys that I had no idea what to get. I had built up this lavish fantasy in my sleep deprived brain that "Walking on Sunshine" would play in the back ground while I ran all around the toy department just tossing everything that was on the shelves into the shopping cart. Instead, it was me holding up a mini Avenger's toy asking if boys like dollies and then promptly told, "it's an action figure!"

I bet you want to know what's in the bags??

Are you really that surprised to see Nerf guns?

I bet you're just DYING to know who the winner is? Well, before I tell you I need to explain the hiccup I experienced with the number generator. My plan was to let technology do the work for me. I would just plug in the numbers 1 and 500 and it would go ahead and pick the winner for me. While I had several numbers in play I did not take into consideration that there were 491 numbers that were unaccounted for. And here's what happened.

As you can see...It did not turn out the way I had planned. 

Then an idea came to me. A local radio station (Magic 95) and the Lawton Fire Fighters were going to be at the toy drop off site. So my plan was to go completely old school, write everyone's name and number on a piece of paper and ask one of the fire fighters to pick the winner. I can be such a genius sometimes. (Ignore the fact that this is the third time I'm typing this and hoping this will post).

So, mom (my special helper) and I went to the drop off site only to find an empty Magic 95 car parked in front of the store and the fire truck at the other end of the parking lot. We carried the toys over to the fire truck where the cutie pie fire fighters were just as confused as we were as to where the toys needed to be. Mom and I headed back to the Magic 95 car when mom decided she would ask someone in the store only to find the radio DJ in there buying a pair of pants. Toys were dropped off and one of our lovely fire fighters picked the winner. I guess NOW would be a good time for me to tell who won the FREE DINNER FOR TWO before I ramble on to another side story. So. Here. We. GO! THE WINNER IS....

CONGRATULATIONS SAM!!!!!

So there you have it. This experience was not only fun but pretty humbling as well. I thought maybe this would be something I would do every year but actually I may try to find other causes through out the year to help with as well. And since this blog post seems a bit on the picture heavy side, here are some more to distract you while mom and I accidentally set the house on fire and see if the cutie pie fire fighters show up.

Merry Christmas. I got you a Frankie cat.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

This. Is. SPARTA!

Sometimes I get dragged into a situation that I’m not comfortable with. Usually when that happens I pretend I have something to do or somewhere else to be. Other times that awkward situation happens at work and I get that deer caught in the headlights look and have no idea what to do so I just pretend my phone is ringing and answer it. That tends to make the situation even more awkward when I’m in mid pretend conversation and the phone actually rings.

Recently, co-worker “Amy” was complaining that she was cold. Apparently, co-worker “LaRhonda” had a fan that was pointed upwards thus making the cold air bounce off the ceiling and onto poor “Amy.” I was minding my own business when “Amy” asked me, randomly I might add, if I was hot (I’m always hot if you catch my drift, wink wink nudge nudge say no more). I told her no, just a bit warm since I decided to wear a sweater. She then loudly proclaimed that she would fix this fan so that it would rotate between “LaRhonda” and I, because she was just trying to help us and I was apparently really hot. Now, poor “LaRhonda” was on the phone working when “Amy” started fiddling the fan and loudly talked about how it was just broken and she was just trying to help us. After a few minutes of tinkering and loudly talking to herself “Amy” called it quits and went back to her desk.

I foolishly thought it was over when suddenly “LaRhonda” stood up, yanked the cord of the fan out of the wall, grabbed the fan with the other hand and while holding it up in the air like a gladiator holding a sword yelled “What’s the problem? What do you want?” It was then “Amy” turned around, stood up and told her that she was cold and just trying to get the fan to rotate. “LaRhonda” told her that she shouldn’t have been talking so loudly while she was on the phone and just as quickly as it started the two separated and went back to work. All the while I sat at my desk like this:

                                                            

So, here’s an update on project Toys for Tots. I’m still looking for donations and I have set a goal of $100. I’m currently at $25, so I’ve got ¾ of the way to go! Just a reminder, the contest ends on December 14 at 5pm (CST) and in order for a chance to win a FREE DINNER FOR TWO (and not dollar menu at McDonalds dinner) all you have to do is donate at least $5 and pick a random number between 1-500. The winner will be selected by a random number generator and all the money will go towards buying toys for those kids who won’t have much of a Christmas.

I know that we’re all strapped for cash and that’s why I set up this contest. Funds for the dinner are coming out of my pocket (not the toy fund). I want to do something nice for someone else this year and figured other people would want to as well but like me, are broke. So, I figured a small donation of $5 would be a good start. With enough people donating we could all really help to brighten a families Christmas. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message. Donations can be made via my paypal account (rosie.billings@gmail.com) or with me personally if you are in the Lawton area.

                                                                        

Numbers in use:

2

28

99

Restaurants:

Applebees

Chilis

Olive Garden

Red Lobster

Texas Roadhouse

Outback Steakhouse

Buffalo Wild Wings

Toys for Tots!

Free Dinner For Two!

The holidays are a fun time for a lot of us but for some families it means that they aren’t able to provide holiday gifts for their children. This year let’s help those families! By making a donation of $5 or more, you will be entered into a contest to win a free dinner for two at a restaurant of your choice from the list below. All donations will go towards Toys for Tots and the contest starts December 5, 2012 and ends Dec 14 at 5 pm (CST).

The rules are simple:

Make a donation of $5 or more                             

Pick a number between 1-500

Provide your email address

Share this with your friends

To make a donation you can either use paypal (rosie.billings@gmail.com) or come see me in person. (Local Lawton peeps send me a message if you want to meet up somewhere in town). The winner will be selected by a random number generator and announced on December 14, 2012 via email, Facebook and this blog, so make sure I have your correct email address!

Let’s help make a families Christmas a little bit easier this year!

-Numbers currently taken
2
24
28
54
77
99
111
250

Restaurants:

Applebees

Chili’s

Olive Garden

Red Lobster

Texas Roadhouse

Outback Steakhouse

Buffalo Wild Wings

**Edit
You can have multiple numbers, ie $20 gives you the option to have one number or 4! So you have more than one chance to win! 

**This is open for US residents only. Sorry, my overseas peeps but don't fret! I'll be having a blog contest pretty soon that you guys can participate in too (that prize is pretty bad ass also)! I'll also be keeping a running total of the numbers used here as well as email and Facebook. So pick a number and put it in the comments section BELOW!