Days that make you say "Ah"

Today I had the wonderful experience of being a part of a special experience for a young girl and her mother. It all started on Tuesday.

Tuesday Morning @ Toys

"Good Morning, Tigard Toys R Us, how may I help you?"

The woman on the other end of the phone line asks me to look for a specific bike. We don't have it. 

I find it at another Portland location, ready to go like she wants. I offer to ask them to hold it until she can get there to pick it up.

That's when she says "I am calling from Oklahoma."

Oh.

She then proceeds to tell me the following story:

She has a friend from high school (many years ago) who has a 12 year old daughter. Mom is Kelly, daughter is Sophie. Kelly saved up for almost a year to purchase one of the higher end bikes for her daughter. 1 month after Sophie got the bike, it was stolen. The woman on the phone (Kendell) wants to replace the bike. Kelly does not have the time or the resources to drive out to the other store to pickup the bike. 

SO

I call the other location and ask if they can transfer the bike to our store. They are willing to. (It can take up to 3 weeks for the bike to get to our store. I tell them to go ahead and start the transfer. I get back onto the phone with Kendell and explain how it's going to happen. Once we had the bike in our store, I would call her back and we would take payment over the phone and then arrange with Kelly and Sophie to come pick it up. She agrees, and we hang up,

Tuesday afternoon

I get a call from the manager of the other store, who tells me she will be bringing the bike over that afternoon in her personal car since she needs to come to our store anyway. Awesome. I call Kendell back and tell her the good news. I told her I would call her Thursday when I work again and take payment and arrange pickup. She is amazed and grateful.

Thursday morning (today)

I check to make sure the bike is here and spiffy. It is. I call Kendell and take payment and get the information for Kelly and Sophie. She can't believe that her plan has actually worked!

I get off the phone with her, and call Kelly. I introduce myself and tell her we have a bike for her to pickup. She tell's me that Kendell had emailed her and told her to expect my call. While crying, she asks if they can come in to pick it up while I am there. I let her know that I will be here until 4 pm. 

Thursday 3:30pm

Mother and daughter walk into the store. They walk over to an employee and ask for me. I am pointed out, and they come over. "Are you Sophie?" I ask the girl. She breaks into a huge smile and says yes. "Well then, I have something for you." I call to the back and ask them to bring up the bike. Sophie can barely stand still, and Mom is trying not to cry.

The bike is wheeled up to the front of the store. Sophie sees it and squeals. On the front of the bike is a sign "Dear Sophie, Keep on rockin', Love Kendell" (I know, I am a sucker for a good magical story.) Mom is shaking and crying. (ps, it's a really cool bike) I get a hug from Sophie, and Kelly asks if she can take my picture with Sophie and the bike. Of course! (it's a little embarrassing, but what can I say?)

We talk for a little while, letting Sophie check out her new bike. Sophie and Kelly both give me a hug and head out the door. Wow.

Yes, I cried a little. 

And that is why I love my job. 

another year older...

Saturday was my birthday.

I turned 29.

I am now 363 days away from being 30. 

I know, I know, just enjoy being 29, but that thought is in my head!

It was a pretty good birthday. I worked all day, (even wore the stupid birthday crown and balloon that we give to the kids at work.) and then my sister Anna came up from Salem on the train, and we played!!! We went to the Oregon Chorale concert (simply wonderful), headed to Gustav's for the after party (SO GOOD!), then came home and enjoyed a movie (Joyful Noise).

You know, there is nothing like having a super fabulous choir sing you "Happy Birthday" in like, a bazillion part harmony. I went back to see my friends during intermission, and when I walked in a few of them yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and then I hear "We must sing to you." So they start it out and everybody just joins in. I am sure half of them weren't sure who they were singing to, since they were around the corner, but they all sang anyway. I loved it. I really miss singing with that group. I will be back among their ranks in the fall, thank goodness. 

The weekend was pretty much just Fun! Anna stayed over until Sunday evening, and we just hung out. Made super yummy food (of course.) Sadly, we didn't take ANY pictures of the weekend! We played with baby goats, ate, took naps (well, I did anyway) watched movies, and just enjoyed each other's company. I am excited to spend time with her (and ALL my sisters) again this coming weekend as we come to celebrate Kiri's high school graduation!

Man, that makes me feel old. I graduated 11 years ago. Now she is graduating! Kristel and the kids are coming as well, all the way from Utah. It's pretty much going to be a fun weekend. I am sure there will be lots of food. I hope so. I love food. But I digress.

I haven't seen Lily and Cooper (niece and nephew) in just under 2 years. WAY TOO LONG!! They are getting so big and grown up! We skyped on Sun, and they sang happy birthday to me. So fun.(I notice I like that word alot. Fun. Fun. it just makes me happy.)

Wow, stream of consciousness here. Welcome to my brain.

Celebrate another year gone!

Welcome beautiful Elise!

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of my family.

Meet Elise

I am fostering this sweet thing, but She will be with me for the next several years. Perhaps by then I may persuade her owner to allow my to officially adopt her. We have already had some great bonding time, and I feel like she has been part of my family forever. I need to majorly work out to keep up with her, but that is a challenge I am so willing to accept! I am waiting for an appt with the doctor to get her all tuned up, but that's all that's left to do!

Welcome Baby!

Fake it 'til you make it, baby!

Guess what I do now? Gardening...sort of. I decided I am tired of living in a place that looks like white trash rednecks live here. (no offense if you are a redneck) SO. I cleaned up the front walk and the front flower bed, planted some flowers and herbs, and weed whacked the portion of the yard closest to the house. (The rest of the yard needs to be mowed, but that will wait until my landlord comes home from Israel.

And then...(btw, did you know that weed whacking is absolutely addicting? Yeah, it is.) I decided to weed whacked the back yard. The fenced in portion. And while I was weed whacking my little heart out, I discovered the quaint little garden plots. 2 of them. 5x10, with a little brick walkway between! (I also discovered Roger, aka Satan, a snake of some sort. Threw him out of the garden, twice. Wearing gloves, of course. YUCK! If he comes back again, Roger is going to lose his head.) Being the ambitious person that I am, I chose to dig out the plots. Yup, by hand. With weeds higher than my waist. A total of 100 square feet. Hard clay, huge grass bunches, moss, rocks, nasty weeds, and don't forget the snake...

Now it's so pretty! (well, as pretty as it can be, which isn't REALLY pretty, but better than it was.) The yard is down to stubble, the garden is down to pure dirt, and I have turned the dirt to get it ready to plant some veggies. Just tomatoes and peas, nothing more. Maybe some strawberries.

All the flowers in the front garden are pretty! There is some sort of yellow ones, some sort of petunia (I think) purplish in color, Iris, Calalilly, and a couple types of green plants. No idea what they are. But they look good! And I have some parsley, thyme, mint and lavender. I will be putting in some rosemary too.

Now for the disclaimer: I have never had a green thumb. If anything it is a black thumb, which is why I am good at weed whacking (it's really just killing things. :-D ) I hope these plants are still alive in a couple of weeks. This is how much of a gardener I am NOT: I do not have any of the necessary tools for gardening. I am borrowing a rake and shovel from a friend (thanks Abby!), and I don't even own a watering can (yet) or a working outdoor faucet for that matter. This means that I take a bucket filled in my bathtub and a small cup and water all the plants by hand. Makes me feel domestic.

BUT...I am getting tan from spending so much time outside! And trust me, that is hard for me to do. Mainly my freckles just grow together.  Which isn't a bad thing.

Ok, I think that is about it. The sun is shining and I keep thinking up things to do outside! (The list of things I want to do to my house is getting longer and longer, but that's another post for another day.) I am off to play in the dirt some more!!!!

BUT:

Updating my "look"

These are the new ones I have (cuz they are awesome!)

And these are the sunglasses I will be getting as soon as I pay off those ^ 

Words Not Required

Aaaah...