I decided to try something different for once, instead of me wasting my money, I figured I'd see if someone could use a little of it. I'd heard about Kiva a while back, but never signed up. "I don't have the money," I told myself and to some extent I was right. I never have the money, because it's always spent. McDonalds, Taco Bell, Subway, etc eats money fast. And I can make a ton of excuses about how it's easier/faster/etc but the reality is that it's convenient and I'm lazy. I blow a lot of money on stuff that I have nothing to show for it, so I decide it was time to do something different. Instead I decide I would try and lend some money to someone who could (1) actually use it, and (2) might be able to do something better with it.
My first thought was, well where am I going to get the money? And then I realized I was sitting on some of my old ad revenue. It wasn't much, but I'd probably blow it on fast food anyway. So I committed myself to lending $25. It's not much, but it's a start for someone like me. Then I had to find a place to lend money. NPR had done a story on Kiva a while back, so I went online to do some research. While searching I also found Microplace and Prosper. Each was a little different. I really was excited about Prosper, because it seemed to be the idea of a community supporting each other, and that was awesome! But it's minimum bid is $50 and over my limit for this experiment. Honestly I found Microplace confusing and limited, so after a little more research, poking, prodding, and self-assurance I signed up for Kiva and did my first microloan. Now I just wait and see if everything works out for Victoriano. I wish him the best. Check out Kiva, if I've got $25 I'm sure you do too ;) If you got a little more and want to try and make some money of microlending, try Prosper. For me, I figure either-way someone spends my money, I don't see anything out of it, but maybe they will..
Labels: Family
¶ 12:23 PM 0 comments
It's one of the most jarring sounds you can hear, and one of the scariest sounds when you're a parent. And it's exactly what I got to hear today as Andrew and Caleb shattered the light fixture in my bedroom. So much for not playing in Mom & Dad's room when they watch a movie.
As you probably don't know, we have 2 TVs in the house. The living room has all the stuff hooked up, xbox, ps2, etc. Then the old TV is in mine & Jen's bedroom with only a DVD player. It's nice for a romantic Warm Delights Brownie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream & movie night. Also works well for when one of the kids is watching a movie/playing a game and the others get bored.
So the kids are allowed to watch movies in our room with permission, and the rules are simple:
1) Watch your movie.
2) No jumping on Mom & Dad's bed.
And in reality, I guess no rules were broken. They weren't jumping, they were standing on the bed, swinging my pajama pants around. It just so happened that my pajama pants caught on the light fixture. Instead of calling an adult to help (good idea), Andrew tried to get them down by pulling harder on the pants (bad idea.) He managed to shatter the light fixture raining glass down on to him and Caleb.
The shattering of glass was enough to get me from the living room to the bedroom pretty quite, and the site was pretty red. Andrew's sitting on the floor trying to pick up the glass, not realizing that his skull has been nicked and is bleeding like no tomorrow. Caleb is sitting calmly on the bed with a look on his face of, "I have no clue what's going on but I'm glad I'm right here." Grab Andy out of the middle of the floor and into the bathroom. Caleb seems alright, leave him be. Call for paper towels and Elijah comes running. As I'm working a bandage for Andrew's head, Caleb notices that he's bleeding on his leg and starts to flip out. Luckily Brad had come over minutes before this whole mess, so I call him into the room. Turns out Andrew's fine with a small nick, while Caleb has ripped through all the layers of skin on leg, creating a wound about an inch long and appearing to be infested with worms (actually just exposed fatty tissue.)
That's about the time I'm mentally starting to lose it. I really can't stand blood/wounds, which is odd for many reasons but I digress. Knowing that I can't help Caleb, I call Jen at work, tell her to come home. I check Andrew, he's stopped bleeding, good. Leave Andrew, 'Lijah, and Devon-roo with Brad. I carry Caleb to the care and drive him to the E.R.
About 30 minutes and 3 stitches latter, live is better. Now I just got to calm down, finish laundry and cleaning, and do my homework.. Life never ends.
Labels: Family
¶ 4:33 PM 0 comments
