You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

No, no, this post has nothing to do with the movie "A Christmas Story" or with Christmas for that matter.
Halloween isn't even here yet.
This post has to do with sippy cups, of all things.

Amber just asked me for her favorite sippy cup. It has a flip-up straw and has been very useful in helping Amber transition out of more bottle-like sippies. It has just one small teensy-weensy problem: whenever we flip up the straw, it squirts water in all directions!

After our first encounter with "the straw" Amber and I both learned to avert our eyes whenever we opened the sippy's flip-up lid. This morning, however, Amber was being careful as always, but I bent down to hug her at just the right time and...
BAM!
My right eye received the watery wrath of the flip up straw.

Owie = (

The keyword is "cooperation"

I had heard about co-ops before, but always associated the word with the little markets that sell locally grown products, or the community farms that grow produce and share it within a group of families. This all changed a year ago. Two sisters in our ward suggested creating a Babysitting Co-op. I had no idea such a thing existed!

These ladies had both been part of a co-op before and offered to be the ones to set it up. They created calendars, "tickets" (no money is exchanged, only babysitting hours) and medical release forms. I signed up, but was skeptical at the beginning. Would I have enough tickets when I needed them? What if Amber or I got sick on a day I was supposed to watch kids? Would Amber do ok going to different houses with so many different kids of different ages?

Fast forward a year... I couldn't be happier. Co-op is a great fit for my line of work. I usually work (outside the home) only 1 or 2 days a week and there has always been someone available to watch Amber. I've enjoyed having kids over at our house and Amber loves her Co-op friends. There are "free" days built into the calendar, when nobody has a co-op shift scheduled, just so people can pick up extra shifts if they'll need tickets later on. And last but not least, co-op has given me a chance to get to know some wonderful ladies in our ward.

Flickr Fun Quiz

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

I would tag certain people, but it didn't work so well last time (*cough* Deah *cough*), so if you'd like to do it, go ahead! (if not, fine then, be that way...)