Monday, May 23, 2011

Money Free Week

Do you think you could go an entire week without buying anything? Yeah, spending zero money, like no cash purchases, no debit transactions. Nothing.

I’m curious to see if I can do it, so I’m going to try. Mostly just to see if I can, like a social/economical experiment. Yes, Tyler thinks I’m weird too, but I think it will be kind of fun.

The rules are that I can’t buy anything with cash or a card. I can use gift cards if I already have them. I can’t make Tyler buy anything for me, but I don’t necessarily have to limit his purchases too if they’re for him only. So he can still go out to eat for lunch but he can’t buy lunch for me.

The week started yesterday, which was easy enough to do on a Sunday, and goes through Saturday. So, let the fun begin...

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Please Be Careful

I had a really scary experience yesterday which I want to post about to make other people aware of.

I went to pick up my Young Women for our activity and after arriving at one YW's house and finding that she was not home I began backing out of her driveway to go pick up the next YW. I had seen our Bishop's youngest boys ride by on their bike minutes before so I consciencely looked for them. Not seeing them I assumed they had rounded the corner and were a safe distance away. I backed out slowly and before I got past the sidewalk I hear a crunch or some noise, knowing I had hit something.

I threw the car into park, jumped out immediately and found the youngest boy laying on the driveway crying. He was not hurt but more shaken up, and understandably so. I'm not exactly sure if I hit him directly or hit his big wheel bike. I asked him if he was okay and watched him ride off so I knew he was fine. His brother who is only a few years older saw it play out and was a bit shaken up as well.

I had to pick up my other YW and I didn't see the boys' mom so I made sure that both boys were okay and left. As soon as I got to our activity I called the boys' mom but she didn't answer. I called her again later that night knowing how frantic she must be wanting to know exactly what happened. You just can't get the full story from a 5 year old.

I didn't get ahold of the mom until today when I saw her post on Facebook about the situation and called her again. This time she answered and I explained what happened. From her point of view and through the eyes of her boys I sounded like a terrible reckless lady who basically did a hit-and-run. I realize I should have forgotten about my YW and immediately told her what happened. I explained everything to her and she was grateful that I called. Ultimately were are both so relieved and feel so blessed that we were all watched over.

All in all there were definitely guardian angels watching over this little boy and also over me. I normally would back out faster - which I will never do now - so I know I was blessed to be more cautious. I am so grateful that this didn't amount to more and I'm glad this little boy is okay.

Please be more careful when you back out and just driving in general. I can not imagine how my life and the life of this little boy's family would change forever if things would have turned out differently.