Batism Gifts: What do you get?

I was recently invited to a baptism. I was excited for the occasion, to be able to visit with my family, and to meet the new baby. But as the date grew nearer, I realized I had no idea what to get as a gift. My cousin married into a family who were religious and attended Catholic church regularly. My family on the other hand is not religious, so I found I had no idea what was an appropriate gift for the occasion. After some searching and asking around, I came up with six gifts to buy for a baptism.

1. Keepsake box 

Keepsake box from PotteryBarn Kids

First Tooth and Curl Keepsake Box 
Baby Imprints Keepsake Box 
Wolf Designs Puzzle Box

These are pretty cute and are something the baby can keep in their room as they get older. Its also a great gift for parents.

2. Children's Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible from Amazon

My big Book of Bible Stories
Read with me Bible 
The Preschoolers Bible
 
This ones all for the child. They will enjoy the picture book and the parents will enjoy reading it to them. Although this gift only lasts so long, eventually the kid will pass this level of reading.

3. Baby Keepsake Bracelet 

This beautiful Cross Bracelet from Etsy

Vintage Antoinette My First Pearls
Kay Jewelers Color Stone Childrens' Bracelet
Sterling Silver Cross Pendant 

Super cute! But the child can only wear it while they are little. Even then its is something nice to keep around.

4. Personalized Gifts

Baby Girl Frame from Things Remembered

Personalized Baptism Block
Emerson Stroller Blanket
Ceramic Personalized Ornament

A nice photo frame can be displayed for year. This gift will last a long time.

6. Prayer Buddy

The Wee Believers Lil' Prayer Buddies

There are other cute animals that these Prayer Buddies come in. Each one plays different songs or prayer. They have Christmas buddies, Easter buddies, and even a Grace before meals buddy. This is also really cute for a young child, but they will soon out grow it.

I hope these ideas helped. For my gift I got a keepsake penny bank, and baby's first picture Bible.

DIY: No Carve Pumpkins

I wanted to add some fall décor to my place, and pumpkins are the perfect way to do it. The only problem is I hate carving pumpkins. I'm not big on messy projects, and feeling pumpkin guts between my fingers is not something I want to do any time soon. I'd also like to mention sharp knives, and rotting fruit on my table, as more things that suck about real pumpkins. So I started looking online for some no carve pumpkin inspiration. There were so many great ideas, I choose white pumpkins with gold decorations. It matches my living room décor well and it looks very modern.

I got these plastic pumpkins from the dollar store, along with white acrylic paint, sharpies, and gold sparkles. 

Just adding the white paint makes them look so much better.

I decorated two with gold sprinkles. I used hairspray to set the sparkles after the glue dried. So far its worked. I havent found any sparkles all over my place yet. The one in the back has chevrons, cause you cant see it to well.

How to Survive a Falling Elevator

Leaving work yesterday I got stuck in an elevator. I left work at the normal time, about an hour after everyone else, so the building was pretty empty and I got into the elevator alone. I got on at the 10th floor and pressed the button for lobby. The elevator started to go down then jerked to a stop. I looked up and I was only on the 9th floor. Immediately I was a little nervous, something was wrong, so I pressed the phone button to contact security. Almost immediately after that the elevator started to go up like usual and opened on the 10th floor again.

There was a man standing in front of the doors, he had pressed the button to go down and was about to step on, but I pushed pass him to get off.  The first thing I did was point accusingly at the elevator doors and say: there is something wrong with that elevator. I wasn't completely sure what was wrong. I was a little confused. I tried to explain that it started to go down, stopped, then came back up. That's not normal right?  I pressed the down button again explaining that we should probably try a different one. Unfortunately no matter how many times I pressed it, and waited, hoping the guilty elevator would go away, we kept getting the same one I was just in. He asked if we should take the stairs, but by then I had calmed down and was questing if I imagined the whole thing. It should be fine, right? We agreed that it seemed to be working fine, and both got in.

As soon as we got in and I pressed lobby, the elevator dropped quickly and came to a jerking stop one floor down. It felt the elevator was literally free falling a full floor before the brakes kicked in and stopped us from plummeting all the way to the bottom. It did this three times, before it came to a rest on the seventh floor. By then I was gripping the hand rail pretty hard, but I managed to let go and calmly press the call butting with my slightly shaky hand. Security answered and I explained that we were stuck in elevator 3 on the seventh floor. He said he'd look into it and would be back. So what did I do next? Googled how to survive a falling elevator on my phone.

How to Survive a Falling Elevator:


The good news - All elevators have built in brakes, that kick in if a elevator car starts to fall past a certain speed. The last time and elevator fell was in the 1940s when a plane hit the Empire State Building, and the one passenger survived. Betty Lou Oliver fell 70 stories and earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. To make everyone feel better, you're are more likely to be injured by elevator doors, or falling into an empty shaft, than a falling car. But if like me you are extremely unlucky, follow these tips.

1. Bend your knees

Lonely Planet suggests you bend your knees to absorb the impact. Hopefully you will may end up with two broken legs, and possibly a back. They demonstrate this in the video above.

2. Lie Down

Your second choice, which was proposed by a research engineer for the Center for Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is to lie flat on you back and protect your head, hoping to spread out the impact over your whole body. (you will still break all your ribs) This seems to be the most popular answer, and the one you should follow.

Know you know, Doesn't it feel better to be prepared.