Do you want to hear about a really great idea?

Do you want to hear about a really great idea?

Mom to Mom Sales! This morning my two daughters went to the Mom to Mom sale at our church. (Even though only one of them is a mom, they like to do things together. Sisters, go figure.) Anyway, Angela took 20 boxes of children clothes, most of it from preemie through 2T. She also had assorted baby furniture, cribs, high chairs that sort of thing, all of the stuff one gathers when one has twins. She also brought two little picnic tables her husband Ralph had made.

Angela priced every article of clothing she had a 25 cents. She gave boxes of stuff to Heartbeat (who collects infant needs for mothers who need help and choose life over abortion). All of the big stuff was in a consignment area. The doors opened at 8:00AM and people were lined up to get the bargains. By 10:00AM all of Angela's furniture was sold. At one point a mom and her little girl were shopping and the little girl wanted some Elmo shoes sized for a preemie. Her mom told her, "They won't fit you." To which the little girl informed her mom that she wanted it for her doll. Mom said she was not buying clothes for the doll, so Angela gave the shoes and an outfit to the little girl because "Dolls need to be dressed too." At the end of the day, Angela was selling everything you could fit in a grocery bag for two dollars.

So in this frenzy of second hand commercialism, you ask me, where is the great idea? It is here, for four hours a group of mothers got together and exchanged baby and children items. Some money exchanged hands (Angela cleared over $120.00). Mothers on a tight budget got some nice stuff. Heartbeat got donations and the Council of Catholic Women, who sponsored the event, made some money. Everyone left better off. Even the children, remember the little girl's doll? And Angela spent some of her windfall on buying her three children some new, to them anyway, toys. In today's economic climate that is a very good thing.

God Bless you and yours

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Biography

When I left High School, I attended Michigan Tech. I was studying Electronics and trying to decide what I wanted to do. I had gone there for Engineering but really wanted a more hands on career. While there I met a girl named Monica Bobak and we became close. I left school in the beginning of 1972 to find work. I was tired of school and tired of never having any money. Maybe not my best decision as I had a draft number of 63. I enlisted in June of 1972, before I could get drafted. I enlisted for 4 years to get into the army electronics school I wanted. In march of 1973 Monica and I were married. By September 1973, Monica was pregnant and I was on my way to Germany. Monica joined me there later. We had two children while we were in Germany, James in 74 and Angela in 76. In September of 76 we returned from Germany, I got out of the Army and got a job here in Flint working for Midnight Burglar Alarm. I started there installing alarm systems for $3.50 per hour, can you imagine that? In 82 Pamela was born. I worked for Midnight for 22 years and then they were bought and the new owner did not want me. In the interim I had done pretty much every job in the company and ended up creating and managing the IT department. So at 46 years old I am out of work. Fortunately I had learned to program computers and write software along the way so I got a job working as a programmer for a company that writes accounting software for the alarm and security industry. Best job I ever had. Let me see, down through the years, Angela married Ralph Prince and they are the parents of my three grand children Desdemona, Seraphim and AJ. They all live and work in Lansing. James married Adrienne, they don't have any children yet. They live here in Flint and James works for a company called OTC, writing sowtware. Pam got master's degree, She lives in Davison. She works as afund raiser for the YWCA part time while also working self-employed as a grant writer and artist. She married Zack Bailey and they brought my fourth grand child into the world, Patrick. I am retired now and spend most of my free time writing software for hand held electronics and robots. I'm very active in my faith. I worked for a time at being a free lance photographer as a side job. We added a second story to our house and have remodeled pretty much every room. I have made a workshop in the basement where I build my projects. I have also published a cook book "Santa's Cookbook for Men" published through and available on Amazon. I also work as Santa Claus, not for money, just for charities. I am a Hospice volunteer and do Santa there and in adult group homes, cancer centers, hospitals those kinds of things. I have had training in working with hospice patients, autistic children and wounded soldiers. I belong to the Knights of Columbus and Santa America.