donation time and goodbye xbox360

first off. I was on the fence with the microsoft xbox360 for the longest time. I finally found something to make me decide to NOT get it.

Living Water

Good friends of ours invited us to a gala to help raise money to build and fix water wells all over the world. It just so happens a lot of people don't have clean water to drink. 14,000 people die daily due to preventable water related diseases.

so do I really need 3 gaming systems? DS, Wii AND and xbox360? I have little time as it is so why do I really need to play more games. I don't. So I took the $300 I got from my birthday and donated it. In this way I won't feel like I can still buy one since it's out of my budget. I also took the profits from my windows vista ultimate sale and donated that too. Probably should have donated more but that was a good start I think.

As much as I don't like microsoft, Bill Gates and his wife have donated so much to the community and they actually have a water well donated. Money was given to me for a reason and I need to be responsible enough to release it.

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I won an ipod nano! Praise the Lord

Oh Snap!

Someone in my winzy group just won me an Ipod Nano. Yes you heard me. All this person did was use winzy to search the internet and he won an ipod nano. Since he joined winzy under me I also got a nano. I opted to get $149 Amazon credit just in case they are sending old nano's. I planned to get a nano next year for my birthday but I guess I'll get getting it sooner.

All I can say is God is good. Ever since we heard that sermon about giving to god ( and not giving your leftovers but your top 10%) he will give you more in return. I thought that was pretty funny since I grew up giving $20/week as a family. tithing is a personal subject and those forced into doing it are doing it for the wrong reason. After going all out and tithing I've received 4 shirts, $15 amazon credits, $10 calling card, hawaii trip for 4 for 5 days, ipod nano, xbox live points, ipod shuffle, 2 xbox 360 controllers, $80 from epinions reviews, $100+ from fatwallet, $10 adsense, nintendo wii remote, $25 worth of goozex credits

Of course a lot of it comes from having good friends that will help me out like Franklin. That dude busted it for windows live and winzy and I'm glad for that.

I had one of the best weeks last week when I was talking to our friend Jane. That girl is funny. Anyhoo I talked to her about being my electricity customer and she came back the next couple days calling me saying "Lawrence, I know I have other options for my service but I want to support you in your new business venture and I want to be your customer". Dang, I was tearing up. That is some touching stuff considering that week before I had talked to 30 people and I've heard the weirdest excuses to not being my customer.

1) I like reliant and their higher price
2) I don't like change
3) I don't want to give you any of my money (what is funny I don't get anything from them)
4) I don't mix business with pleasure
5) I don't want to cause I'm lazy
6) I don't like you enough
7) What have you done for me
8) $20/month really isn't worth my hassle
9) Are you trying to scam me

Now don't think for a moment I didn't have people bend over backwards but I've faced a lot of rejection in 14 days. Way more than expected but from this experience I have gotten a thicker skin very quickly. Plus I talked to a friend who as in the Ignite business and she had the best quote that fit what i was going through "Family and friends will give you a kidney if you need it, but they might not be willing to be your energy customers."

As my dad has stated. No one owes you a explanation for their "no" regardless how close or tight you are with them. And in 2 weeks I've grown up a lot. All in all I'm a better person and God still takes care of our family regardless of how corny I am. ;)

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Break from the Disney Talk…

Would like to praise Jesus for:

1) Nate sleeps from 9pm to 6am, feeds for 30min then sleeps another 2-3 hrs. He was able to sleep one night 12 hours!
2) Nate being able to sleep by himself without much crying. I had to hold and rock Ally for 30min-1hr every night till she was like 10months old.
3) Ally being awesome in her room. She has no toys in her room yet she can wake up at 8pm but she will just roll around and sing to herself to 9pm when Jessica finally wakes up. She has tried to break out of her room only 1 time and that was when we first put the child lock on her door.
4) Food from parents – We get food delivered to our house ~3 times a week. Jess only has to cook once every 2 weeks cause there are so much left overs.
5) My job – I’ve gotten 3 raises in one year and I stay home so much more. Plus I don’t drive cause I Van pool so rush hour = longer nap.

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