Flip Side Giveaway!

Amanda Marley-Clarke  is our tile winner! 
Congratulations!!












     Mollycoddle tile!

Molly has volunteered to giveaway another one of her tiles. We have coordinated and she is going to start making Flip Side tiles for me. You may choose this tile or another of her 6" tiles. More Flip Side quotes to come.


To qualify for the giveaway, you must "like" the mollycoddle.com Facebook webpage (comment that you did)  and follow my blog (any of the follow links).


Let me introduce you to the woman behind Mollycoddle tiles.

Amber Housey created this video to share with you Molly's tiles and studio. 

I am lining up more future Flip Side giveaways. You will get updates on my blog.

Walk in Someone's Shoes Wednesday

Every shoe has tongue,
They all have a sole.
Every shoe has a heart
And a story to be told.

No matter what they look like

Whether old or new,
They are all quite different
Every single shoe.

Take the time to learn
What they have to say.
You may make a friend.
On that very day.

Here's a shoe to ponder.
Someone you might know.
We think she has it all.
She's had her highs and lows.

"I think the biggest misconception about me is that I'm this spoiled brat. 

But I'm not. I'm the total opposite."

Born on February 17, 1981 in New York City.

Three younger siblings.

Her childhood was spent in palatial dwellings in the priciest neighborhoods.

Arrested for cocaine possession.

Had a DUI.








Yes, it is Paris Hilton.

We All Know Someone on the Flip Side

We all know or knew someone like this!!

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.”

" He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me half the books.Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown , and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak Graduation day, I saw Kyle. H e looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. " Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends... I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.

Sibling Rivalry

My sister, Heather (left) and me (right) in front of my Grandmother's House

My husband and I were watching Modern Family last night. It is, in our opinion, one of the funniest shows on tv. We really enjoy it. Some of it we can relate to (ok a lot) and some of it we are glad we don't and some of it we wish we could.  The episode about Phil having symptoms of ADD...ME! The dippy things that Gloria does...ME! My husband says it makes me cute. The episode where Mitchell joins a flash mob and Cameron gets mad because he couldn't be a part of it....ME!

Last night, the younger daughter was graduating from middle school at the top of her class and had to make a speech. She and her sister do not get along very well because they are very different. Alex is the smart one who thinks she is a nerd and isn't pretty like her popular and pretty sister, Haley.  Haley tries to convince Alex not to use the speech she wrote because it ripped on all of the popular kids in school. She didn't want Alex to end her middle school career and begin high school with the memory of defiling the kids in her grade. Alex didn't agree until Haley explained that the popular kids have their "stuff" to deal with too has her "stuff".  She told Alex that was failing a class, had to go to summer school and might not be able to go to college with her friends. In the end, Alex realized that when she stopped to look at the flip side and walk in her sister's shoes, they both had their own "stuff" to deal with.

THis is me, too. I have a twin sister named Heather. She is awesome. She is funny and vibrant and smart and successful. When we are together we just laugh and laugh. We are also very different and have been our entire lives. We are fraternal twins which means two different eggs developing at the same time. We were wombats. I have brown hair. She wears red hair like she was born with it. I am 5'7". She is probably 5'10" or 5'11" (I am guessing). I am smaller in stature. She boisterous and outgoing. You know when she is in the room. I am a wall flower in recovery. She is super smart. She didn't have to attend classes to do well. I worked my butt off just to manage a C sometimes. I, by NO means, was a "popular" kid in school but we had different kinds of friends. She was drama club and Dungeons and Dragons. Though, I was in drama club, I didn't fit in. I was teen magazines, make-up and boys (who didn't give me the time of day). If my sister and I were in the same room, you would not pick us as sisters, let alone twins.

Many years ago, she and I had a heart to heart about growing up. She told me she was jealous of how I looked and how skinny I was. I often thought, when she was getting teased about her weight (which we realize now, wasn't a weight problem at all but a perception problem by everyone) how unfair it was to be born twins and be so different. She harbored some resentment for me. What she didn't realize was that being as skinny as I was, was just as bad as being fat. I was teased too. I was an underdeveloped toothpick. I don't quite know if any toothpick is ever developed but that was me.

I told her that I was jealous of her outgoingness and how smart she was. I struggled everyday of my schooling career. It was sheer torture. How I became a teacher was pure diligence and drive. I wanted to help kids who struggled too. I wanted to help all kids to respect each others differences and value them. I wanted to be like my sister in so many ways. We should have been blended together and redistributed. She was stunned to hear my point of view. I still look at how courageous she is. She travels, she moves all over the country, she has interesting jobs, she has no problem meeting new people, she is so funny and fun to be with.  I love that. I value that.

I value my life too. It is who I am and i have made it the way I want it to be. I have made my mistakes and owned them. I have worked hard to get right where I am and I have a ton to offer. I don't label myself with my past but learn from the good and the bad. I learn from my sister and all of the people I meet.  I try not to judge people but try to get to know them. Everyone has something to offer. Every person we meet is in our lives forever. What we do with that is up to us. I still struggle with self-perception, self-confidence and self-worth. I am not perfect. I will not allow those things to linger in my mind. I want to boost those negatives into positives to touch lives. So here I am world and ...

HERE I COME!!!

Envy is a symptom of lack of appreciation of our own uniqueness and self worth.  Each of us has something to give that no one else has.  ~Elizabeth O'Connor

Everyone has a Story

My husband, who is on the Flip Side bandwagon, handed me a Mitch Albom article called, Homeless Vet Goes Home the Right Way. It was another article about an unwanted homeless man who passed away and had no one to claim his remains. These are the same stories we've become so accustomed to overlooking because we say to ourselves, "There was nothing I could do." or "That is just going to make me feel bad." or "He was probably some dead beat." Whatever it is, we all share similar feelings. It is human nature. We are always being bombarded by stories of violence, negativity and sadness in the news, we have become 
antipatheticAdjective: Showing or feeling a strong aversion.

which is really hindering our ability to have empathy for others. It is a shame. We fail to take the time to hear the whole story, the story that may actually affect our lives in some way. 

This homeless man named John Hannah, did in fact have a story, a family who couldn't find him and a significant history. If it weren't for a funeral director who took his body to his modest funeral home to care for it and try to find his next of kin, he and his past would be discarded alone.  

Using his birth date, four digits from his S.S. number and his final ranking in the Navy, they found his family who had been searching for him for 15 years. He spent 20 years in the Navy and actually had health insurance and a pension. No one is quite sure why he ended up the way he did but they did learn he had lost his wife and he took it very hard. Even more amazing, he actually had a blog for years and followers who knew who he was. Though he was homeless, he went to the library daily to write in his blog. 

There are so many flip sides to this story. Empathy guided the funeral director to go in search of family for this stranger and expected nothing in return. What a sacrifice he made for another human being. He felt for this man and didn't want him to die alone.

Miscommunication or lack of communication or unknown circumstances caused a family to pull apart and lose touch. It is most likely, John thought his family didn't care, when in fact they were looking for him for 15 years and now he will never know that. Sometimes we assume we understand something or someone and don't take the time to really find the truth. Our fears overtake finding the truth. 

Then, there are all of his blog followers who knew him maybe better than anyone. I wonder if they saw him on the street if they would have taken a second look yet he captivated them online. We would have never expected to find that out about man living in a homeless shelter. 

I am not assuming I know what or how any of you would react to this situation or any other situations. I am merely generalizing about what I think are natural feelings and reactions that many people, including myself, have.  I am learning how to change my reactions and interactions with people and situations so I can be a better person, a more empathetic person and a more productive citizen in my community and world. 


Here is another one of my posts about "Walking in Someone Else's Shoes." http://amberhousey.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-honor-of-jack.html

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."
Mother Teresa

The Extraordinary Geek

I found this article that said kids should embrace their inner loser. What?  I had to read on. It was about those kids who feel they are lower on the social pyramid and don't feel they belong when in fact they are the ones who are the most interesting and have the great ideas. The author wrote a book called, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth. I don't think they will inherit it. I think they already have. If you ask many successful and creative people what they were like in highschool, many will tell you they were nerds. My child's pediatrician will openly say she was and is a nerd and she is also one of the most popular pediatricians in the area. I openly admit that I was a geek and still am in many ways. I embrace it.

So I was inspired to write you a poem related to this topic as a post today. At the bottom is a link to the article. Have a nerdy day!


Love the loser you think you are,
Embrace your inner nerd,
See the qualities that make you think,
Even if absurd.

It's your interesting personality,
And your quirky style.
It's your refreshing ideas,
That will take you the extra mile.

A social pyramid is a downward slope
Lonely at the top.
A social circle accepting all
Is really hard to stop.

Love yourself for who you are
The qualities so unique.
You are truly the special one
That extraordinary geek.


http://twe.ly/cEkb

Mom

Isn't it funny how life comes full circle in so many ways? As we are growing up, we challenge our parents (mothers) , cause trouble maybe, demand our independence, fight with our siblings and frankly, drive them nuts. What did they always say? "Wait until you have kids." We thought, we will never be like them. We will never say,  "Eat your dinner. There are starving kids in the world." Or, "Stop acting like that or I will embarrass you in front of everyone here." (though, in fact, we are more terrified of being embarrassed ourselves but we can't let them know that.)" Or, "What in the world are you watching?You are going to turn into a boob sitting there all day in front of the TV" Or, "Those video games are going to ruin your brain." We said we would be the cool parents who will not nag our kids and let them do what they want. What we find out is that they are a reflection of us as parents. That kind of sucks. We can't catch a break. What I mean is, our parents didn't want us to make them look bad and now we realized that what our kids do or how they act or how they turn out is all about how we raise them. We can't be cool parents or people will look at them and say, "Jeez, who's raising those kids? A zookeeper?" So, here we are saying all of the things our parents said to us.

It's ok though. We take the the things that we feel were effective and reestablish them in our raising techniques and we add new ones that will enhance our parenting even more. Most importantly, we make mistakes. That's ok too. Our kids will say someday that we did crazy things. Truthfully, its the circle of life. If things were perfect, they wouldn't want to leave and we wouldn't be ready to let them go. There is enough good or great things that make them want to come back.

On this Mother's Day, I thank my mom for working hard at putting up with the craziness we may have caused and loving me through all of the things that make me who I am today. She unconditionally loved me and stills loves me today. Even better, she loves me through my children now. She helps me with them and loves them with all she has. Seeing her do that, makes me say that this is what I hope to do for my kids someday. I Love you MOM for your hard work and love.