Poster of Summer Fun

A friend of mine made a Fun Summer To Do List for her and the kids. I think we might try that.

Any ideas what should go on it?

-Lemonade Stand (it's so cute! It's an old metal trolly that we modge podged and stuck a red umbrella in the middle of).
-Farmers Market
-Circus
-Garden (poor plants I bought them 3 wks ago, and they're still sitting out back waiting to be planted)
-Canmore kids hike
-Make frilly/tacky flip flops with a glue gun and pom poms?
-Scavenger Hunts are always fun. . ."Bigger-Better"
-Homemade popsicles

. . . just like Jesus said.

Last night after Ky's cute little recital we went on a Mommy/Ky date and ended up discussing Stranger Safety in the middle of which she explained that I shouldn't worry, she knew just what to do:

"If a stranger grabbed me, I would say, "Touch Me Not."
. . .Just like Jesus."

Show up Naked with Food. . . a "open door" policy.

This is the name of one my dearest friends BLOG (CLICK HERE). She's amazing and I love her ideas! She is an advocate for marriage and has a very simple idea:

Feed and Take care of your man. I agree wholeheartedly.

When you put your spouse before yourself, you invite him to do likewise.
Lose yourself in the service of your sweetheart:
He'll reciprocate.

I promised to. . .

Let you know how you can help save children from being kidnapped and enslaved, here's one great way.

Check this website out, and donate 5 minutes if you can, to push send on some emails to corporations who have the power and the financial backing to really stop slavery.

If you get a chance to donate any amnt of time to this, please leave a comment, I'd love to see how much help we can generate just between friends. And, if you can pass the challenge on via blogs, facebook, etc. that would awesome too. :)

Scary mom's and roll away poo's. . .

Bridgey: "Mommy, you should put make up on so you don't look so SCARY."

He really took that FHE lesson on honesty to heart.




One of the funniest kid quotes this week happened at preschool, it was my turn to host. Bridgey's little friend came up to me taps my knee and say' so polite it cracked me up: "Excuse me, I . . . pooped my pants. Two Poops."

Sure enough, he was right 2 poos. Every mom know what I mean when I say it's a little tricky trying to pull off underwear filled with poo or poos. This was not one of my better times and those poos escaped, and as they are rolling across the bathroom floor this cute little guys says, "Well. . . that's awkward. .. " Who say's that, as a 3 year old? I was cracking up, he's the cutest kid!

And, finally what's with the weather this week? I love the snow. . . but in June? Poor little Bridge woke up Wednesday, took a look outside, and with the cutest frowny face said, "Mom, I don't want it to be Winter again." Neither does anyone else, buddy.

I'm sure you've all seen this, but it really just cracks me up.

Finally feeling empowered instead of just depressed...

Many of my family and friends know that Jess and I, along with some family and good friends have finally launched Child Rescue. Yay! It's off the ground and running and I can't believe the miracles that have taken place in the past 5 months.

There are so many wonderful people (Lindsay you know who you are) who have been gone above and beyond donating time, and resources. We've even had people call us asking what they can do or if they can donate, it amazes me. I wasn't expecting this sort of response.

It's just like Justin Dillion (from Call and Response) says There are children crying out , literally, now it's just up to us: How we are going to respond?

When I first started learning about trafficking and the sex trade, I felt hopeless, kind of paralyzed by my discouragement, how do you fight something so big? But, I continued along Jess' side anyways. It's not like I could say,

"I realize these horrific things are actually happen to children, but it makes me too sad to hear about." (although that's how I felt, it's still hard to hear about). Some days I can tell the children's individual stories and not skip a beat, other times it just hits me, my throat constricts, and I know I could just have a cry fest all by myself (today was one of those days).

Interestingly as I continued to learn and research I began to feel inspired and empowered by all the good works going on all around me. While it's true that there are brothels and children being exploited in just about every North American city, there are also good people fighting and responding to these crys in every city as well.

While there are great people fighting against these evils, there aren't yet enough to make a permanent societal change. That's where Child Rescue comes in. We hope to educate everyone we can about what's happening a few blocks from their houses, at local truck stops, spas, salons, old wearhouses.

Our hope is that you will get fed up enough that you will respond with an outraged voice loud enough for the lawmakers and politicians to take action and provide the local law enforcement agencies with enough funding, manpower, and legislation to end child slavery.

Please stay tuned for ways you can get involved and respond. They're are so many ways you can just help in only a few mins or just from home. Thanks for reading friends, this is dear to my heart.

Our First Child Rescue Concert! Dashboard Confessional, Relient K, Steel Train

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sendn a Shout out to all the Minivan Mama's!

Makin' Minivan Mama's proud everywhere!

"Where my MotherFathers at?"
"Straight own'n bake sales with my Cupcake Skills."

SLAVES: The going rate this Spring? $90 Bucks.

Many have deemed us a "Disposable Society", due to products built and sold so cheaply, that it has become the norm to consistently buy, throw away, and repurchase. But what about:

"Disposable People"?

"One thing I learned recently from reading Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery is that a practice that is growing in the fishing industry, which one of his interviewees, who was a policeman in Thailand, called the most violent type of slavery today, is where small boys are taken onto fishing vessels for ten months straight; they work 20 hours a day, they're kept alive on amphetamines, and at the end of the ten months their reward is to be shot and thrown in the ocean. You wonder why your fish is so cheap. I believe that we might want to at least be thinking about paying a little bit more money for the social and environmental impacts that we have in the way that we live." -Devin Stewart January 27, 2009

From the mouth of Babes. . .

Thankful Goodnight prayers.

Kyanne is thankful to "be an inventor, soon" and that she could "discover so many new things at the park with Best friend Lexi". (I'm assuming this is in reference to the lady bug that peed in the palm of her hand, I think she was more bemused by the golden goo than perturbed by it. That a girl. The intrigue of Buggy whiz.

Bridgey was thankful for his "babysitters even though, I don't like to be babysitted. And, for all my girlfriends, even though they messed up my room."PS. Bridgey's prayers are priceless. Often I find him saying his morning prayer, kneeling, bum up in the middle of a room, with a squeaky voice he reserves for small children and Heavenly Father. It is honestly so sweet, I unfailingly walk away teary.

Two other little convos worth repeating,

Ky's statement after Jess finished explaining sin and the need for the atonement. "Well, when I'm eight, I'm just not going to sin, dad." Said so sincerely and matter of fact. Like 'I pick option one, sin seems like a bother.'

Why is it important to dress modest?
"So, if a policeman pulls you over, you don't go to jail."
Seat belt safety. . . dressing safely, I confuse them all the time. I'm not sure how she came up with this but her serious tone of voice left me straining to keep a my face straight.

Adventures in London

• The open palm crosses all language barriers. They weren't interested.

• Eating a helpless little dead little snail. A bit squishy, and salty. . .

emmm... like snot.

• London Regret #1: Not making over to visit the Royal guards in front of St. James Palace. The 10 year old in me would have really liked to make silly face or two at the guards and see if they really don't react.

• Regret #2: not smooching in one of those cute red phone booths, in a cramped, germy sort of way it seemed kind of charming.

• Loved the caramel, rosted nuts from a vendor on the London Bridge. We have to make two visits.

We saw The Queen show, "We Will Rock You". Great show!


The Tube in London. Mind the Gap.

• London was just as I imagined, Darling! Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, Westminister Abby, Buckingham Palace, Fish and Chips, the National Gallery of Art.
  

• Above we have my Favorite Traveling Friend, for obvious reasons: Ridiculous, handsome and FUN, all in one!
  

• Most of all I just loved being there with Jess. We weren't in a hurry to do anything in particular just, play together, relax, and have a ball, and so we did.

Adventures in Paris

Paris Favorites:

• The Old Paris Mansion we stayed in with a wooden elevator for two.

• Smooches under the Effiel Tower while it sparkles glitter in the middle of the night.

• Laughing my head off while Jess maneuvered the best 23 point turn I've ever seen.

Romance and spying together in the French Countryside

• 

• Bathrooms were a peculiar thing in Paris. And, the Maid that put my make-up bag in the Ba day was even more peculiar, Yuck! I loved the bathrooms in the Le Caroussel Mall *(colorful picture above) beneath the Louvre. You had to pay a Euro but they were super clean and had a souvenir shop full of quirky paper rolls, and toilet seats.

• Loved the Treats! I felt fancy eating them, and a bit of an idiot ordering them. "Parlez-vous anglais?"

• Bakery Treats in the Morning. . afternoon. . . Evening wee hours of the Morn.

• 

• "Tex-Mex" in France

• The Arc, and the Bridges over the Siene were breathtaking.
• Versailles and London's Portrait Gallery are really fun with headsets.

• The Louvre. . . really fun for people who like ALOT of Art. ;)

• Jason Bourne on the Pont Neuf
  
  
  
  • People come to Paris to Fall in Love, and so I did.
• 
  
• Doors, and More Doors! I fell right in Love, I went camera nutty for doors.

Another Glorious door. These people really know how mix color with stone.

• Le Zimmer's Cocoa: A Pari favorite, for sure.
  
  
  
  • Eeek. . . a little more skin than needed, but still probably my favorite thing in Paris aside from late night trips to the Cafe's. There was a vintriliquist, and a real live "talking dog", acrobats, ballet, and the Cancan. Best Broadwayish show I've ever seen!
• 
  
• 
  The subway Broke Down in Paris. Just quit running mid-tunnel, lights flickered off and on, then there was lots of French coming from the loud speaker. Lucky for us, there was a young boy on the trail who could translate pretty well for us.
  
• Here we are making our way back through 7 or 8 cars, to get off due to something or someone on the tracks. We don't know which since the French Police were holding up a large sheet so we couldn't see. Kind of eery.