The Wells We Built

Two years ago around Christmas time, I set up a fundraising page for charity:water to help bring clean water to people around the world.  We are huge fans of this organization for many reasons.

One example of how effective charity: water is at carrying out their mission is how they follow up with every donation and communicate exactly how and where it was used.  I received an email from them a few months ago letting me know that the projects that my fundraising went to have been completed.  I was so impressed to see the detailed report they gave on just how this money was used!

Check out the latrine that was built at an elementary school in Ethiopia, which sounds so simple but will have an incredible impact on the people of this village.  They even provide the GPS coordinates so you can see exactly where it is.

The funds also went toward a well in Ethiopia that provides clean drinking water to a village of 220 people who used to walk 2 hours to collect dirty water.  Now, they walk less than 15 minutes and have an abundance of clean water!  It's really cool to see also how they have taken ownership of the well.

I hope you take a minute to check these out.  Some of you were part of these projects with your donations.  Thank you!

School Pics

Here's Mr. Mister's school picture.  He's looking so handsome and grown up!

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photo by Lisa Deaton

Mid Life Awakening

Is 30 too young to have a mid life crisis?  But I guess I wouldn't call it a crisis.  I'm not tempted to go buy a tiny red sports car and travel the world.  Quite the opposite actually, as both of those would be impossible at this stage of life.  I think it is better described as a mid life awakening.  An awakening to the fact that yes, I actually am getting older.  I know, 30 isn't that old.  But it's older.  And it's not slowing down.  Here was the scene of my awakening...

We are on the verge of buying a mini van today or tomorrow. We have one we like and are just finishing all of the thinking through of the details.  I don't fear being a mini van mom.  Actually, I've been excited for it because bending over with my 28 week pregnant belly and cramming the boys into the Civic has become harder and harder every week.  So I've actually been looking forward to this so that I can have more room.

But there I was, sitting in the driver's seat in the parking lot with the sun shining down and I noticed as I glanced in the mirror on that sunny afternoon that I had a few more gray hairs sparkling in the sun than I had ever noticed before.

Then I got out and looked at the outside of the van and could see my reflection once again.  Pregnant belly with baby #3, staring at a mini van with gray hairs sparkling.  How did I get to this place in life already?

That's more my question.  It's a great place to be.  I love it and am very content in this place.  It's just really hard to believe that was me staring back at me in the reflection.  Life just keeps going.  And it's not slowing down.

Halloween

I thought I'd post some Halloween pictures before Thanksgiving is here!

We carved pumpkins in early October (you can tell by the shorts and t-shirts).  It was a lot of fun - Mr. Mister was very involved this year.  He designed one of the Jack-O-Lanterns in the picture below.  See if you can guess which one :)  Mr. Newton was happy to spoon pumpkin insides from one bowl to the next.

The day before Halloween we had some friends over and the kids all wore their costumes.  It was a beautiful fall day and we got some great pictures of them in the leaves. 

By the time Trick-Or-Treating came on Monday, Mr. Newton decided he was done with the pirate outfit.  He cried when we tried to put it on him and I think he would still cry today if I held it up. He was a cute pirate though! He wore a fire helmet instead and still got a bowl of candy way too big for an 18 month old.

Mr. Mister definitely did not get tired of his Darth Vader costume!  He would probably wear it every day if I let him.