Perhaps a little Vegas on my mind

Busy weekend. Fun, yet busy weekend! To begin with, Friday started off with attending a ribbon cutting for the grand opening of my good friend's first eco friendly "green" store here in the area! I know my family has a tremendous amount of respect for her and have learned a lot about taking actions to better our world and making it that much better of a place for the future of our kids! Here's hoping for the most success imaginable for her! Love you, my friend! And so glad there was such a turnout to support her and her efforts! She's worked hard and I'm glad to see so many others taking action as well! Even the county itself has discouraged the use of single use plastic bags. Now let's all try to save the forrest a little and bring in your reusable bags each time you shop...glad I can proudly say I've been doing this for a while now!!! After this, the kids and I hurried over to a pumpkin painting activity through an organization we are a part of...and that was fun! I was quite impressed with their artwork, and if I ever figure out how to upload more photos on here, I'll post some pictures for you to see their imagination and creativity coming to life. We were doing this at a park and it was a bit hot out there. I felt a little weak and actually had to leave, which was fine, because we all took great naps! About this park though, on this particular day, there were hundreds of people there. Literally! Inside the gym at the recreational park, Missions of Mercy was offering a free dental clinic to those in need and willing to wait patiently to have the work done. I'm honored and proud to live in an area where this is offered. From a person who actually has health insurance, the rising costs are incredibly hard to stomach and the lack of coverage even with a great policy is hard to understand. With my pre existing health conditions, I can never let my insurance lapse, for fear and knowledge that no other carrier would pick me up. So, we bite the bullet, pay insane amounts, and still pay insane amounts for all the procedures and tests I have done. So, I was excited to see the community and others giving to those who actually don't have health insurance and probably never will. We don't even have dental coverage on our plan!!! Onward, because I could vent about this forever...a sign we have major health care issues in our country that need to be addressed and taken care of somehow some way...I think we have some leaders working on that though. So after a wonderful nap curled up with my oldest child while the babe was in the crib, we played until Dad got home. THEN, I was out for a girls night out! Whoop whoop! One of my dearest and kindest friends invited some 15 plus friends over to her sprawling home (which I LOVE) to celebrate her upcoming birthday with drinks and a personal chef! Amazing company, amazing drinks (grapefruit and basil martinis), and amazing food!!! This was my type of celebration!!! I'm honored and blessed to have such great friends! On the way over to her house, 4 of us arrived in style and rode in a limo which one of the girls scored a great deal on for us!!! This allowed for us to not worry about too much consumption of any kind! ;) On the way home, I was the last of the girls to get dropped off. I sat in the very back, feeling a little like my girl Britney Spears, looking at the empty champagne bottle on the floor and listening to a song that kept repeating Waking Up in Vegas which I googled and found that Katy Perry sings...nice beat and catchy, though I don't typically listen to music of the day. When the driver opened the door for me to return to normalcy, I watched him pull away and realized there are a lot of people out there living this way. Fun as it was, I'll keep my modest family and home and friends here on the island! Then is was Saturday. My oldest had a soccer game, which we all look forward to each week. He really enjoys it...and I enjoy making sure the kids are outside burning off the energy. We were there for awhile afterwards since it as well meets at another park. Later in the afternoon, I took the kids to a trick or treat style festival at a local elemetary school where we admired the costumes and the kids had fun getting loads of sugar and playing games. It's so awesome that small as the area is, we can usually find lots of fun child related activities to do. Why I referenced this blog as Vegas, aside from the earlier story, here at the carnival the kids and I did the cake walk 3 times which had 20 spaces for people to participate in. And guess what...the kids one all three times! Perhaps I should take these lucky stars of mine and play the lottery and gamble!!! Just a little Vegas on my mind...been several years since our last visit to the Sin City, but I do enjoy it in small incriments. Best place to people watch and catch superb performances and dream a little dream! But I always remember that it's not true that all things that happen in Vegas stay in Vegas...my oldest child was conceived there and I'm so grateful that adage doesn't hold true and he's here with us today...lighting up my own little casino of a home!!! I'm rolling the dice and betting that today, Sunday, the day of rest and praise, is going to be grand as well!