Help a sister out.

That's my sister, Jayne, at Dreams Work. She goes there each day during the week so that she can get out of the house and experience enrichment activities.

Dreams Work offers day services for severely disabled adults who have graduated from local schools at the age of 21. When Jayne was preparing to graduate, my mom knew that she would need services, so that she would continue to learn and grow like she did in school. As my mom usually does, she spearheaded the effort to start Dreams Work, so that Jayne and others like her would have a place to go each day. It was quite the effort - fundraising, grant writing, looking for a building that could be the facility, more fundraising, searching for activities for the clients to participate in each day.

The goal of Dreams Work is to improve the quality of life for adults with special needs, assist caregivers with the challenges of providing care for disabled adults, and to provide hope for people with disabilities. As you can see by the photo of Jayne, she really enjoys her time spent there each day, and getting to see her friends every day.

This Wednesday, Dreams Work, Inc., will celebrate its seventh anniversary. Kansas Medicaid provides monies for clients to attend Dreams Work, but that money barely covers the cost of staffing Dreams Work. In order to continue to provide enrichment, private donations are becoming even more important.

Would you help me honor my sister and my mom by celebrating Dreams Work's seventh birthday by donating? It's easy to do - just go to the Dreams Work website. On the top right, there is a donate link. All you have to do is click there and enter your information. The donation is tax-deductible, and everyone who donates after reading this post will be entered into a drawing for a handknit scarf and hat - perfect for this time of year. (I will custom-make the set for you - in your chosen colors, and it can be made for a man or woman.)

The Chittum Files averages about 40 readers each day, so if each reader donates just $7 (for the seventh anniversary), that's $280.

If everyone donates $17, that's $680.

If everyone donates $27, that's $1,080!

If I could talk you into $70, that would be $2,800!

I know that it's tough this time of year, and especially in this economy, to find the extra money to donate, but if you could you would really be making a difference in the lives of people like my sister, and you just might help make it possible for Dreams Work to stay open for another seven years.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. It really means a lot to my family and I. Please consider adding Dreams Work to your list of charitable donations each year. We're small, so we don't have the marketing machine (or money!) that most of your well-known charities have, so it's all a grass-roots effort. Every little bit helps.

Still here

We got back from Arkansas about 8 p.m. yesterday. Adam and Joshua were out at a Grateful Dead tribute show (yuck - the only thing worse than listening to the Dead play one song for 50 minutes is listening to a fake band do it!), so I settled in and watched a few TV shows from the DVR.

Along the way, I worked some more on the knitted Christmas extravaganza. Three gifts are done, much more to go. Thank God for Wool-Ease thick and quick yarn. It might not be the most expensive or boutique yarn, but it knits up quickly, feels good and will keep the recipients warm on the coldest of days.

I decided to stay out of the Black Friday craziness this year. Since we've got no kids to shop for, there's no reason for us to get out for great deals on toys. Adam did go out early this morning for some thing we need. Home Depot and Kohl's got our money this morning. Mom went to a few places. She called to see if I wanted to go, but I wasn't up for it. I would have gone along for the ride, but I was worried about how long we'd be out, and I wanted to keep working on my term paper.

I rolled out of bed at about 8 and went to work. I'm up to nine pages now, and I'm confident that I'll get it done by deadline. Some people might say "Why don't you just sit down and finish it, so it's not hanging over your head?" Trust me, I would if I could. After a few hours of work on it, though, the words start to swim on the screen, and I'm afraid I'm repeating myself. I think it's better to break it up into small chunks.

That's pretty much where I've been the last week - if you've been looking for blog updates and haven't seen them. Much too busy to do much more that tweet about what I'm doing.

Amy and her family are in town, so we're going out to lunch and to do some knitting this afternoon. It'll be good to see her - it's been a long time. I think I'll take the rest of today off from the paper. We want to get out our Christmas decorations and put that stuff up. I feel like if we don't do it this weekend, we won't do it at all!

So much to do, so little time.

Twitterlicious

I've gone to the dark side. I'm now officially tweeting, along with the Wichita contingent, on Twitter.

I didn't blog from St. Louis since the Internet wasn't readily available, but I was tweeting pretty consistently. Twitter has been called "micro-blogging." That's what it's like for me. I have to figure out how to say what I want to say in less than 140 characters.

You'll notice that there is a feed from my Twitter site on the right side of my blog. So, if you feel like you've gone too long between fixes of Chittum blogs, chances are you can read the news down there. If I don't have the time or inclination to write a full-blown blog, I just might post a tweet.

Betsy says lots of Etsyians are using Twitter as a marketing tool, but I don't want to be a Twitter spammer. Would that be a Spitter?

I'm working on Christmas presents, getting caught up on grading, and keeping my head above water for the next week, until Thanksgiving break. Almost. There.

•••

Here's a funny from my J1 class today.

We are studying editorial cartoons, and the meaning and symbolism behind them. One of the students chose a cartoon about Obama's inaugural ball. In the cartoon, Obama staffers are saying they have everything they need for the soiree, but they need to know what to feed the "multitudes." The other guy answers back, "He said all he'd need is five loaves and two fish."

So, the kids starting discussing the Biblical allusion in the cartoon, and the fact that some people believe that Barack is the second coming. Some kids got it right away, some didn't. So, one girl explained it for everyone, and it was so cute - she said:

"You know, there's that one scene in the Bible where Barack Obama says he can..."

It was just a slip, but we all got a good laugh out of it. If there was a quote wall for J1 like there is for newspaper, that one'd be in the hall of fame.

TAG - I'm it.

I've been tagged in a game of random-blog-tagging that's making the rounds of the Wichita blogging nation. This is my 457th post, and it's the first time I've ever been tagged in a game like this.

I was tagged by Lori, a cool chick that I miss working with!

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. As a child, I was incredibly lucky. I won the most random contests. Unfortunately, this has not translated into mega millions lottery winnings in my adult life. Sometime around second grade, I won a contest on KFKF radio to be an honorary ball girl at the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game at Kemper Arena. I have an autographed basketball from the team, circa the Curly Neal and Sweet Lou days. I got to sit on the bench with the team. I don't remember much about it. I also won a trip to Disney World when I was in fifth grade - all expenses paid, for the whole family. And, any time there was a door prize drawing, I won it. Not so much anymore. We have door prize drawings at our faculty meetings every month and I haven't won one in a year and a half.

2. Even though we've totally remodeled my grandparents' house, so much so that it looks like a completely different house, I still sometimes go where things were in "their house." For example, this morning, I needed to throw something in the trash, and I went to do it under the sink. Our trash can is in the corner, but it was always under the sink when Grandma and Grandpa lived here. Also, I always go to the old silverware drawer, and open it, before I remember that we keep our silverware in another drawer. Old habits die hard.

3. In high school, I was named 1995 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year, and I got second place at the national level. I could have gone to San Francisco to accept my award at the national convention, but I didn't. I was stage managing the spring play, and it was the same week. Couldn't miss it and all the rehearsals. Denise was also a Kansas JOY, and I belive she, too, took 2nd at nationals.

4. I'm a Mac, and I have been since 1991. Trudging home (on the school bus) with a Mac Classic and the database list of the entire student body of Shawnee Mission North High School, sitting at my parents' kitchen table, working on mugs pages and index pages, I forged an indelible bond with the Macintosh. Today, Adam and I own: one MacBook, one old iMac, one U2 iPod, one old white iPod Shuffle, a new clip version iPod Shuffle, an iPod Nano and an iPhone. We have officially been assimilated. I've been through two hard-drive crashes (one on the laptop, one on the desktop) and I'm still loyal.

5. I'm a little preoccupied with state football playoffs right now. BV is steaming toward the championship game, as is Derby. One of my former students plays football for Derby right now (he's a senior), and one of my current newspaper students plays on our team. I might have to ask my mom to sew me a long-sleeve T-shirt that is a mix of the two schools' colors if they meet in the championship. Each team only has to win one more game to set up a face off.

6. Pauly Shore kissed me in an elevator once, and I have the picture to prove it. One day at school, one of my students asked me "Is that your husband?" when she saw the photo.

I tag:
Amy
Cary
Kim
Betsy
Mitzi
Candice

You're it. Let's see what you guys can come up with...

(Moving) Pictures to Prove It - Championship Video

Here's El Guapo in all of our glory.

Be sure to look for me "diving" for first...

We are the champions, my friends

Despite freezing temperatures and a brutal wind chill, El Guapo was en fuego Thursday night for the semi-final and finals for the MOKC WAKA kickball championships.

Our semi and the final went into extra innings! There's weird rules for extra innings in kickball. It's not like baseball where you just keep playing like normal until a team ends an inning scoring.

I got the call from GM - I had to come out of the bullpen and pitch during both games, in the extra inning. I'm pretty sure when they told me that, I probably looked like the proverbial deer in headlights. I prefer anonymity in my kickballing - I don't want the responsibility of pitching. Especially on the night we're playing for the league championship!

What if I walked four kickers in a row? What if somebody kicked it back to me and I didn't catch it? What if I couldn't make the throw to first? What if I died of insecurity right there on the mound? Okay, well, it's really more of a "spot" than a mound.

I took a few practice pitches. I took a few deep breaths. I heard encouraging words from the sidelines. I focused. I became one with the ball.

First kicker up? A dude. I STRUCK HIM OUT - LOOKING! Sucker.

That was the confidence builder I needed. I was still scared shitless, but it was a lot more fun after I knew I could get the job done. I'm pretty sure after that first strikeout, I celebrated like I had just won the World Series. Seriously. I was jumping up and down, hooting and hollering; Rita, playing third at this point, ran over and hugged me.

Yeah, I probably looked silly, but here's the thing - everybody else was cheering too. Pretty sure they were cheering out of relief, not excitement as I was, but I'll take it anyway!

I'm not gonna lie - it was pretty freaking cool.

Dave and Andrea celebrate!

Duuuuuude - We Rule! Check out the game ball, the sombreros, and the Championship Belt there in the middle. The league folks were there shooting video of the blessed event, so as soon as I hear of the link, I'll put it up here, so you can relive my, I mean, our glory...

I'm so glad that Azie and I happened to be talking one day and kickball came up. I have had so much fun this fall playing with this team. Playing co-ed rec softball in Wichita really helped me make some of the best friends in my life to this day, and I hope that my kickball relationship with El Guapo is long and strong.

Of course, I'll be out of town this Thursday for the end-of-season party, but I think we should totally have our own team end-of-season party in a few weeks.

Viva El Guapo!

Voila!

We had the extended family over for birthday cake and dinner Sunday night for Dad's belated birthday. It was the motivation I needed to finally get the Kraft Korner (or Crap Room, as Adam is fond of calling it) finally cleaned up and somewhat organized.

Basically, all that junk you're looking at has been there since we moved in right before school started. It's the remnants of what was in our spare bedroom/office at the apartment, and it was all thrown in boxes during the move.

Read: I didn't want to deal with it then, and I really still don't want to deal with it now, but it must be done.

Saturday morning, it looked like the above photos.

Sunday night, before dinner, it looked like this:

Ahhhh. Finally, some organized living. (Yes, I know our chairs and table don't match. Get over it.) Maybe we'll just call it shabby chic.

There's the built-ins, finally cleaned up.

My big project was getting my junk organized, Adam's was coordinating the hanging of the mirrors. As you can see, he was spent. But, those mirrors look pretty damn good. We weren't even thinking about them when we picked paint colors, but I think they look really good with our paint and furniture.

And, every time I look at them, I'll think of Dave and the Lovings, since they were wedding presents from them!