We had a family friend come into town this month and visit. Nora made him feel welcome by putting every necklace she owns around his neck. I'm surprised he didn't catch the first flight out after that experience.



He brought his camera and took some sweet pictures of Nora and Kevin. We had a very good visit and are very blessed by our friendship with you. Come back, Mr. Jim!







This picture is from a few posts ago when Nora walked in with her sunglasses on (when we thought she was asleep). I forgot to include it or blogger wasn't working that day or whatever.



I love this "excuse me, mom, I'm on the phone" look she gives when playing with my cell phone.



It seems Nora discovered my lipstick when I wasn't looking. . .



We had a good time last weekend with AJ, Nora's BFF. The park picture cracks me up because you can tell by Nora's hair, the wind was awful! It was the fastest picnic we've ever had. We can't wait until Friday when AJ spends the whole weekend with us while his mom works!!! More pictures to follow, I'm sure.

I tried last night to post some pictures of a recent visit we had with a family friend, but blogger was uncooperative. I'll try again later. Instead, I posted a picture of my sister, so she would actually read my post. It cracks me up that some people refuse to read words in a blog unless it has pictures. So Tammie, since that's your rule, this is what you get. Hope you enjoyed your hot dog.

I wanted to post something I read recently. It blew my mind, and I'd love some thoughts on how to make individual changes to rectify these problems with poverty. I know that's the question alot are asking, but I really do struggle with how to change my personal life to meet the needs of these people. We've tossed around moving into a community where it would be easier to serve others, adopting a child out of poverty, but I really do struggle with everyday practical changes to make. We've already changed the way we spend our money by living on a small budget and asking do we "need" this or "want" this before we purchase anything. Changing your lifestyle financially and becoming a good steward of your money is such a peaceful way of life, I highly recommend it. "It" being some program to help teach you to manage money conservatively- our choice was Dave Ramsey's method.

I find myself reading these statements below and screaming "how can this be possible???" However, what am I doing in my life to make it not possible? Does throwing money at it really help?

Anyway, I'd love some reaction to this below.

Did you know that in our world today:


One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day -re due to poverty-related causes. That's 270 million people since 1992, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. (Reality of Aid 2004)


Every year more than 10 million children die of hunger and preventable diseases - that's over 30,000 per day and one every 3 seconds. (80 Million Lives, 2003 / Bread for the World / UNICEF / World Health Organization)


Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day with nearly half the world's population (2.8 billion) living on less than $2 a day. (UN HDR, 2003)


600 million children live in absolute poverty. (SCF, Beat Poverty 2003).


The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world's poorest countries. (Source:ChristianAid)


Income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallen by a quarter in the last 20 years. (Source:ChristianAid) More and more people are becoming poor.


800 million people go to bed hungry every day. (Source:FAO)


Americans spent:


8 billion dollars on Christmas decorations in 2007
2 billion dollars on Easter chocolate in 2008
40 billion dollars on dog food in 2007


How big is a billion? If you had a billion one dollar bills and laid them end to end they would stretch 97,000 miles - nearly 4 times around the earth.


If you stacked them one on top of the other they would reach 47 miles high.


If you counted to 1 billion - without stopping it would take you 16 years.

Check out this website called Ordinary Radicals. It's super duper.

Boo Tigers.

I wanted to record some funny stories about Nora in this post. She's getting to be so funny....not at all a baby anymore. I'm amazed at what comes out of her mouth sometimes.

Anyway, the other night we put her to sleep around 7:30. Nora is a great sleeper and rarely wakes after going to bed. Kevin put on a movie, and about 9:00 we hear little footsteps coming down the hall. She walks into the den, hair a mess, eyes squinting, passy in tow. She was too adorable to send back to bed, so I let her climb onto the couch and cuddle with me for a bit. After a few minutes, daddy puts her back into bed and low and behold, here she comes again. The second time we returned her to bed, Kevin and I gave each other a pep talk about how the next time she came out, she was going straight back into her room and this could not continue. (Besides, we were missing "The Terminal") So we start watching the movie again feeling pretty confident in our ability to be firm until she walks through the door with her blankie, passy, and sunglasses on. Needless to say we weren't very strict on following through with our plan. Too cute.

The other day we were at the mall and had gotten Nora an ice cream cone to eat thinking this would keep her occupied while we ran into the store to get what we needed. We're strolling through the Gap when I noticed her ice cream cone was leaking from the bottom. I panicked because we were in a store and I didn't want to make a mess. The only thing I could think of was to shove the rest of the cone into my mouth. Of course my thoughts were directed toward not making a mess of the place, not what my toddler would do when mom steals her ice cream and eats the whole thing right before her very eyes. She freaked. In the Gap. Freaked out. It's been several days, but Nora still will look at me and use her "ugly" voice to say "you ate my ice cream, mommy".

She loves to read to me. She'll make up words and in the middle of reading these words (which are funny in itself..just listening to what she comes up with) she'll look up at me and very loudly go "shhhhhh". "Quiet, like a mouse". She really loves school and obviously repeats what she's being taught there, only she wants to be the teacher. If we start singing a song with her she says "no, mommy, abcd". So we'll sing ABC's then I don't even have the C out before she says "NO, Old McDonald". This goes on until we sing the first word of every children's song.

Mostly she loves praise songs. I've never heard a sweeter sound than "Jesus" coming out of a 2 year old's mouth. Precious.

I thought of a few more:

Any time we get ready to walk out the door, she says "you got your keys, mommy?"

While watching the Tiger games, she was heard shouting "Are you kidding me?"
Kevin and I looked at each other, then replayed everything we had just said for the past ten minutes making sure it was rated G.

She always says "good job, mommy" or "good job, daddy" no matter what we just did. It's pretty rewarding after changing a very ripe diaper to hear those sweet words coming out of her mouth that we did a good job changing her. She's sweet, this one.