Trick-or-Treat OR Mooch & Take Advantage

This will be brief, but it has to be said. Trick-or-Treating has gotten out of hand. My neighborhood in LOVES Halloween and decorates really well. People come from everyone where to visit the house across the street that is always awesome. A cop even comes to direct traffic once it's dark to ensure safety and hope to avoid parking accidents. I always run out of candy before kids are finished walking around. It's quite an event and one I like to experience, but I have to vent - Trick-or-Treating has some rules, and people today are breaking them!
Rules: 

• Be under 13 years of age
• Be in costume - homemade, store-bought, even if it needs to be explained.
• Say "trick-or-treat"
• Only take the candy that is given to you and only FOR you.
• Say thank you
• Again, be under 13

Violated Rules:

• Repeatedly I had to ask some teenagers who they were dressed as, because they didn't appear to be in costume at all.
• I saw a few 10-12 year olds who had a 2nd bag for their "nephew" waiting in some unknown place. 
• I reluctantly gave candy to adults who were with their children, but with their OWN bags. 
• I asked several, no - numerous children what they should say to get candy. Most said please, then with some coaching, finally said trick-or-treat. 
• Once I let a girl with a good costume pick her candy, and she took a HUGE handful of tootsie rolls. I said - um...just 1 please. Then she didn't say thank you. 
• One teenager couldn't even come up with "Uh, I'm a high schooler" as a lame answer to what she's dressed as. She got so uncomfortable she just walked away. I felt slightly like a jerk, but had to stick to my conviction and enforce the rules above. 
• This isn't quite a violated rule, but I was slightly offended. A man was dressed in a gray sweatshirt with multiple paint sample colors attached to him. All were variations of the sweatshirt color. I looked him in the eye and said "Seriously are you 50 shades of grey?" He confirmed it and even suggested I count them all. I was disgusted. The only thing I could appreciate was the creativity in the delivery, but honestly - it just shouldn't have been done, especially as you walk your 8 and 10 year old daughters around the neighborhood. 

I'm trying not to become completely jaded about this tradition, and actually doing my best to protect the rules of the game :) In additional to all the ones that drove me nuts, I saw awesome bumblebees, Avengers, witches, Alice in Wonderland, a great TinMan and a lot of cute lion and monkey 2 year olds. I also had a lot of parents verifying that their child did indeed say "thank you" after receiving candy and held their hands as they walked down the road. I saw a couple parents dress up and walk with their kids, just because they wanted to be with them. They didn't ask for candy.

I want more kids like these at my house:

Run

Today was beautiful. It is most certainly Fall weather and I love every second of it! I want to drink it in and hold onto it all through the winter. The colors are the most vibrant and alive. I find myself saying out loud - are you serious!  And thanking God for such creativity.

I went to Salem Lake today and went for a run. True confession, it's been a while since I did a long run. But today was awesome and reaffirmed my decision to run a 1/2 marathon in December.

Salem Lake and I have a relationship. I mean really, I LOVE being out there on a trail and smelling the leaves and listening to them crunch beneath my feet. I love that I'm out doing something good for my body and taking time away from busyness. I love that everyone I see I find myself smiling at simply because we are sharing an experience. The colors are glorious and sometimes I even have a heart to hear with God. So I'm going to plan for more time with Salem Lake, because quality time is my love language :)

Water - taking the plunge

I took the plunge and started something. I've been thinking about it for a while, praying about it even. I've been asking God - what should I do? I care about the world and there are so many ways its hurting. What are you asking of me?

For over the last 3-4 years I've asked those questions, learned more about social issues affecting our world, and made some small changes (give more money, buy more fair trade, tweet about it, etc.). But as I was thinking of how I might celebrate living n Winston Salem for 5 years, I remembered a friend who celebrated his birthday by "giving it away" to an organization called Charity:Water.  This was a few weeks ago and I came across their September Campaign. They do a major project every year around their "birthday" and this year it is in Rwanda. So I took the plunge.

I want to help them. My mission is to raise $5000 in the next three months. I started the campaign through Charity:Water because it's time for me to do something. And to watch God bless the effort. And to see lives changed for the better. There are millions of people who walk miles every day just to get water to drink. Consider the children who skip primary school to lug 40-pound Jerry cans on their backs. The family members who try to nurse their brothers and sisters back to health after a waterborne illness has infected them.

So I'm asking anyone who can to donate for clean water. Every penny you give will go straight to building water projects in developing nations. And just like I have all of you as friends in my own community, we'll be able to see the community we impacted when the projects we funded are complete!To give go to http://mycharitywater.org/lindapollock

Status Update - on my list

I have a list. A "30 before I'm 30" list. And I'm currently 28, 10 months and 11 days old. Recently I took a look at my list. I am pretty aware of what I put, but I needed to just look over the whole list together. Here are some highlights thus far:

• Goal #14 - Blog weekly. Clearly the time between Sept. 16 and Oct. 11 is longer than a week. But I am blogging right now. 

• Goal #9 – Be a counselor for missionaries – Thanks to many of you, that happened this July when I served on the member care team for a missions conference.

• Goal #16 – got to an amusement park – Did that twice this summer. Kings Island with family and Carowinds with Kate. 

 

• Goal #13 - Visit my friend Lauren in MO. I got to visit her on frequent flier miles at the beginning of September. It was quite the cultural experience to go to the public library with a 2 year old...to a Zumba class. And it was great fun to reconnect with a friend while visiting a new place.

• Goal #6 – Get paid to train a team in the MBTI – Thanks to Heidi and her study abroad staff, I was their professional development training in September.

• Goal #15 - I said I would read 2 books a month. I'm actually do great with this one given that I've traveled some (which gave me time to read) and I've included audiobooks on my commute. I've even kept track of the books I read on Pinterest here:

It’s pretty cool to see the progress I’ve made so far. And I’m struck by how intertwined my goals are to the lives of the people around me. Relationships are such a critical part of my life and I am grateful for the life I’ve been blessed with.