sticker club ponzi scheme

i got a letter about a week ago from one of my favorite cousins.  well, actually it was a letter for abigail from my cousin's daughter, inviting her to be in the "sticker club."  it only takes reading the letter to realize that it's a ponzi scheme... send one pack of stickers and get 36 packs of stickers in return.  with the copies and the mailing to friends and all the other instructions, i won't lie, it kinda sounded like a time consuming sort of pain.  but this was from my beloved cousin and i trust her judgement more than my own, so i decided to be a yes man and just do it.

i can't remember what it was but while i was sending them out, i googled "sticker club" and then my stomach sank.  apparently moms hate this stuff.  well... some moms are totally fine with it but some take this huge stance against it and reading a million comments people had written online made me step back and actually think where i stood with this.

i am happy to report that i am okay with it and i think sticker ponzi schemes are not a bad thing.  here's why.

the worst that can happen is that you gave a $.99 pack of stickers to a precious little child and received absolutely nothing in return.  that isn't a bad thing in my book.  ponzi schemes are illegal because they aren't sustainable and eventually there are people at the bottom that give without ever receiving.  when it's your entire life savings that you're going to use on retirement, this can be a very bad thing.  when you're "losing" a pack of stickers that will actually bring joy to a child, that is actually a good thing.  it's call a "gift."  moms commenting on these threads were ranting about everything from "this chain letter is bullying my child into participating" to "my daughter was like  'why would i want to send a pack of stickers to someone i don't even know?'" to "i just threw it in the trash because i didn't want to do it and i didn't want to look bad to the mom that sent it to me" to "my kid loved this and it made her day" to "i took this as an opportunity to talk to my child about pyramid schemes" to "this was a great way for me to explain letter writing and the postal system."  and it wasn't hard to find a blog post with a mom venting about how they think it's absolutely terrible and then there were 15 comments from other moms saying "i'm glad you wrote this!  now i'm not going to feel guilty about throwing the letter away!"

so i'm sure i could go on for ten more paragraphs about this but really, you send one pack of stickers and then you get between 0 and 36 packs of stickers.  if you get 20 packs of stickers, that's still a good deal.  if you only get two packs of stickers that's still a good deal.  if you get one pack of stickers you've broken even.  and if you get zero packs of stickers, you've done a good deed.  and who doesn't like to be charitable?!  i'm a psych major and i wish i remembered the name of this study i'm thinking of  (if you know it, comment below!) but the result was that the people in the study actually received more gratification from a task when they received no compensation.  and the people that were well paid for their time/effort received less gratification.  that's true for me.  like how i enjoyed nannying just fine when i was getting paid $20/hr for it.  but last week i spent six hours of my time watching kids that were not my own.  like i knew a friend had a lot to do before she went out of town so i told her to drop off her kid for a few hours while she got stuff done.  and then later in the week i watched another friend's kid for several hours while she and her husband when out house hunting with their realtor.  i enjoy that kind of kid watching much more than i ever enjoyed the paid kind.  it's just the nature of giving.

and here's the other thing.  the letter specifically states "if you can't participate, let my mom know."  here's my plan for any of my mom friends that tell me they don't want to participate... i'm just going to send a pack of stickers to whoever they were supposed to send them to.  that's it.  then their part of the pyramid ends but there is no adverse effect for any of the previously participating kids.  i don't mind buying extra packs of stickers to send to my cousin's kid... so, beloved cousin (you know who you are), if your dear daughter gets several packs of stickers from me... you'll know why.  ;-)

moral of the story: sticker ponzi schemes make kids happy and the ones on the end just learn to be givers.

that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

*i realize that there will be plenty of people that disagree with my opinion... and i'm okay with that.

i'm important

my vote counts!

with all the emphasis being placed on ohio (they say it has a 50/50 chance of determining the election), i forget that i'm living in a super tight race swing state.  until my honey brings in the mail and it looks like this...

that's three days worth of printed campaign ads.  and i never turn on our tv but honey assures me that if you're watching the local news or something (i forgot local news even existed) then about three out of every four commercials is a political ad.  blows. my. mind.

someone tell the obama campaign that he's the last person i'd ever vote for.  and please tell the romney campaign that we already sent in our ballots a week ago and they should direct their efforts towards the undecideds that really matter at this point!

also... my honey tells me i'm mistaken on the lack of balance but i'll just go ahead and continue thinking i'm right... but due to the fact that we seem to only get pro-romney/anti-obama (or at least waaayyy more than not) ads, i'm going to say that either the obama campaign is having trouble managing their funds (sound familiar?) or he considers me in the 53% that he doesn't care about.  okay just kidding.  i just made up that 53% thing although i am fairly certain that obama doesn't care about me and that we wouldn't be friends in real life.

ps- this video is a week old... but it made me smile.  and laugh.  especially because it came from cnn.

sisters make everything better

this morning we went to my doctor's appointment (more on that in the weekly update) and then filled up the car with gas and then headed to target to kill a little time before picking up our free lunch.  you see, my blogging sister emmy had a living social voucher but no restaurants in her area to use it on so she offered it to me.  in my area they were mostly all in denver but one happened to be right by my doctor's office.  so this morning after my appointment, i called emmy and she got everything worked out for me so that baby girl and i could have a delicious and free lunch!  thanks emmy!  and she kept me company on the phone throughout all of the driving, target, etc.  it was fabulous.

while we were at target, baby girl found a few things she wanted to take home with her.  i know i've said it a million times but i'll go ahead and say it again... i hate spending money.  hate. it. 

so instead, i took a few pictures of her with her items and then we said goodbye to thomas and abby and actually made it out of target with ZERO purchases!  amazing!  although if i'd thought of it at the time i totally would have picked up some pumpkin seeds because i've been craving those like crazy for the past 36 hours.  it's okay though, i think we're going to carve pumpkins while we watch the debate tonight for fhe.  are you praying for mitt?  i am!  anyways... back to target.

 

 

 

we go for the one glove look.  and every time we go to the shoe section of target she gets SOOOO excited for these abby slippers.

i seriously was tempted to get these things for her because i knew how happy it'd make her but i'm not about to set us up for a daily battle of "no, you can't wear your thomas hat and abby slippers to walmart and story time at the library."  maybe those slippers will show up in her christmas stocking.

also, i just kept thinking... can i just have her wear these things for halloween with a sign that says "i'm not dressed up.  i'm just a girl obsessed with thomas and abby" because i'm thinking that'd be great.

enjoying some philly cheese steak sandwich

 

the place was right on a super busy road and baby girl LOVED watching the mass of cars and trucks driving by.

 

emmy, thanks again for lunch and for hanging out with us this morning!

ready for my other sister story?!  saturday night, my christopher and i decided to attend the adult session of stake conference for the stake next to us since his dad would be speaking there and it would be nice to be there to support him.  christopher went early for priesthood session and then just stayed.  so when it got close, i got baby girl up from nap, drove her to the babysitter's (who was just getting home from work or else i would have dropped baby off earlier) and then headed to this stake conference.  i'd put the address in my gps and it said i would get there 2 mins before it started.  just enough time to park and race in.  perfect.  except that it didn't work that way.  are you familiar with the dreaded "you have reached your destination" when you know you're not in the right spot?!  because that's what happened when it said i was there and really i was just next to a neighborhood with no church building in sight (unless you count that lutheran church up the street).  the sun was setting and i could barely see so i turned around a few times and tried to look for a church building but it wasn't happening.  by that time, the stake conference had started so i couldn't call my christopher.  i couldn't even text him because i knew he was sitting front and center on the second row.  i called six people but no one was picking up.  i needed someone to be at home on a saturday night with internet access to help me figure out where i was going.  and who saved the day?!  my oldest sister, liza!  i was so relieved to hear her voice!  even though i'm sure all she heard was stress.  i filled her in (not very well) on my situation and gave her the address of the church and the cross streets for the intersection where i was and she guided me to the church building.  oh thank goodness because i was so stressed out, i was sweating profusely, and, of course, wanted to cry.  i'm fragile these days.  i ended up walking in almost twenty minutes late but got there in time to hear all of my father in law's talk.  he specifically mentioned how his two eldest sons were in attendance and his daughter in law carrie as well and how that meant so much to him.  it made me so grateful that i didn't have to give up and head back to parker.  then i would have cried for sure.  so liza, (do you even have time to read this anymore?!) thanks for saving my saturday.  it means the world to me.

and those are just two simple examples of why sisters make everything better.  especially when you're pregnant and emotionally unstable and anti-social and MIA.  if only everyone could have sisters as great as mine.

pregnancy brain almost made my night suck

instead of writing "night" i accidentally wrote "life" which should give you an indication (if you've never experienced it personally) of how dramatic pregnancy hormones are.  and i'm already a super emotional person so i'll just go ahead and one up you on that.

even though i knew honey would be out of town, i've been excited about watching the debate tonight.  i had sweet visions of baby girl, snuggly blankets, and kettle corn dancing through my head.  but this afternoon my sister in law invited me to a card making night at church.  my first inclination was to say no.  kinda because of the debate but mostly because i tend to feel anti-social when i'm pregnant.

but i said yes because

1. isn't that what DVR is for?  so you don't have to watch live tv when you have something else going on? and  

2. i like to see other people make cards and be creative and i thought it would be good for baby and i to have an outing tonight instead of just sitting home and being restless.  

well, i had assumed it was at kelsey's church building but thought i should double check.  and here's where pregnancy brain kicks in... i thought if it was at her church building she would say "my building" or "the building across the street from my neighborhood" or "the newlin meadows building."  but she said "the stake center on chambers" which lead me to think it was the church building over past my in laws (still in their stake boundaries) that is also on a road called chambers.  my pregnant brain thought that she phrased it that way to clarify that it was the other chambers road... not the one right by her house.  so i drove 25 mins (that's a long way here in parker where everything is normally within five minutes of your doorstep) to the wrong church building and then when i determined that i was 100% most definitely in the wrong place, i loaded baby girl in the car to head back home.  which was sad because she kept telling me that she wanted kelsey (on the way she was whining for a number of very legit reasons and i promised her that if she would just be happy for the rest of the car ride, she could play with aunt kelsey... and she immediately stopped whining and was perfect and happy the rest of the way there) and i felt guilty for not being able to deliver on my promise.

so then i was an angry mess as i drove home and cried (what?  don't tell me you would expect anything different) and tried to place blame anywhere but on myself (right down to texting and the english language) and eventually received a tender mercy when the thought came to me clear as a public service announcement, "eventually you'll see that this is just as frivolous as when you cried about downeast shirts no longer on sale" and i instantly felt better.  i didn't feel great, but i felt less crappy and angry than i had five seconds prior.  i was worried this would throw me off and i'd be headed downhill for the rest of the night but thankfully that was not the case.  we went home and i turned the tv volume on full blast so i could catch bits of the debate while i half-heartedly read to abigail and tried to tune out her constant narrative of what she was seeing and thinking.  don't worry, i definitely felt guilty while i was doing this.  that means i still have a conscience.

and the night got better.  mitt did a great job with the debate (was it just me or did obama seem half asleep and a little irritated?) and baby girl was precious and kept making me laugh.  she's hilarious.

on the way home she kept asking for kelsey so i told her we'd play with kelsey another day but that we were headed home to watch mitt romney and obama on tv.  so we pulled into our neighborhood as she let our her usual "we made it home!  it's abigail's house!" and followed it up with "i wanna watch mitt romney obama."  HA.

"it's beach balls!  it's beach balls!"  totally caught me off guard and made me laugh out loud.

oh you still girl.

this also caught me off guard.  i realized she'd stopped her continuous talking and i looked over to see her  concentrating so hard to get these foam stickers (from joy school craft today) to stick to her face.  

it occupied her for a good long time (at least five minutes) so i took a video (oh alright, i took two... but here is just one).

a political post

who's pumped for the debate tonight?!  i have mixed feelings.  i think it'll be like watching a sports event but without a numerical score.  when it gets close, i'm going to be tense and watching through my fingers while my hands are covering my face.  i don't deal well with contention.  also, the sight and sound of obama makes me cringe in a very real and physical sort of way.  i truly wish i didn't dislike him so much because he is our president.  and probably will be for another four years.  heaven help us.

anyways, just earlier this morning i was thinking about how sad it was that even though the debate tonight will be like 30 minutes away from me, it might as well be on the other side of the world because i'm not going.  apparently none of the tickets were opened up to the public so everyone in attendance was hand picked to be there but don't quote me on that because i get my facts from facebook statuses.  i DO know one person that will be there though...

see that precious little blonde girl in front?  that is my dear neighbor and little beehive president.  this is the most adult 13 year old i've ever met in my life.  like, when i'm around her, i get super nervous about if what i'm wearing/saying is okay and appropriate.  i don't even get that way around her dad and he's in the stake presidency.  anyways, i guess these four kids won an essay contest (about why they wanted to attend the debate) and had in depth interviews with their teacher and school principle in order to qualify.  pretty awesome if you ask me.  maybe i'll invite myself to their house tonight to watch the debate since my christopher is out of town.  is it just me or are political debates kinda like the bachelorette?  they're just not that much fun without the commentary of a good friend.

ps- mitt (or "mittens" as i affectionately refer to him) gives me the warm fuzzies.  did anyone else see this thing about the doctored news clip?  msnbc trying to make mitt look like an attention whore when in all actuality he was just trying to deflect attention from himself and onto his vp.  what's not to love?