We had such a nice weekend. The weather was great! I came home from work on Friday and mowed the lawn and finised up trimming the hedges. We had a great chicken fried steak dinner and played a game with the boys before going to bed.

We got up on Saturday and cleaned the house. M came over around 10:30 and played with E and K and then my mom came over about 11:30 and we went to the boys soccer game. They played great and won! Yay!

K went with his granparents for the weekend from the game and we all went downtown to the Arts Festival. It was soooo crowded, but the indian tacos and stawberries napoleon were fabulous! The kids made some fun light switch plates, sun catchers and wands in a kid's area. Jenn and I shared a dippin' dots and then we all went home.

Jenn and I took a nap while mom hung out and watched a movie with M and E and then E went home with her for the night. M went home and Jenn and I worked on her algebra quiz (not well, I sucked) and then got ready and went to see the Oklahoma City Philharmonic with Bebe Neuwirth as the special guest.

She was fabulous!

Yesterday was sort of a lazy morning. It was nice that no little one's woke us up! I got the dogs bathed, the fish tank cleaned, the back yard mowed and picked up E and got dog food. We spent some time playing Lego Star Wars on XBOX. Then I made spaghetti and meatballs and after dinner, E and I watched Star Wars V.We are going to finish watching it tonight. He wants a Star Wars Birthday Party (15 days until he is 5!!)

Heifer International

Remember the movie Pay It Forward from 2000? Staring Kevin Spacy, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. The idea was to make the world a better place by doing something nice for someone as a way of “paying back” the something nice done for you by someone else. In other words “pay it forward, not back.” Pay It Forward’s idea about making the word a better place isn’t a whole lot different from Heifer International’s Passing on the Gift cornerstone principle. Each family that receives a Heifer animal and training “passes on” offspring to another family. This passing on can continue for generations, and change the lives of entire villages. Click to see a video “Passing on the Gift”The best gift is one that can keep on giving and one that really makes an impact on those receiving it.

Make a donation today! Give the life-changing gift of a Heifer International animal.

"Nothing Can Defeat Me"

Help me in giving to Heifer International.

Philister Randiki and her family were in a situation so hopeless that Heifer made an exception by giving them two animals, but when she was asked if there was anything too painful to talk about, Philister said with a smile, "There is nothing that can defeat me."

At 72, Philister was the first of four wives to a husband who died of AIDS. The other wives also died of AIDS, leaving 10 sons, six of whom have died of AIDS along with their wives and three of their children.

Philister was left to care for the 18 surviving children.

"All the orphans, even the ones who left, are coming back to me," Philister said. "Love and the force of love is so strong."

But before Heifer appeared, Philister admitted that she was scared and confused about caring for so many children.

"We were starving and could barely manage to put one meal on the table," she said. "We gave the children porridge, but it was dry and had no nutrients."

With the gift of their dairy cows, Philister's family began receiving up to 20 liters of milk a day. They consume half and sell the other half to buy food."I would not be alive today without this gift," she said. "Before Heifer I was sick and worn out from trying to care for my family alone. Now there is food and money and my sons and daughters have returned."

Philister recently died of recurrent malaria, still the number one killer in sub-Saharan Africa. But her family is still together. Those who have survived are caring for each other. They are learning how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and are sharing their story with others.

Give to Heifer International and you are giving a gift that continues on throughout the years, affecting not only one person, but so many. Heifer International does so much more than put food in the mouths of hungry people. Heifer helps people feed themselves.

The goal of every Heifer project is sustainability – project partners achieving self-reliance.
And year after year, as partner families “pass on the gift” of knowledge and one or more of their animals’ offspring to others in need, they become links in a network of hope, dignity and self-reliance that helps hundreds of others care for themselves.

MLK Memorial in D.C.

I was reading that today was the groundbreaking ceremony for the new MLK Jr. Memorial that they are going to build in Washington D.C. It is a four acre site close to where he gave his "I have a dream" speach.

It is going to cost $100 million and they have already raised $65 million and projected that it will be finished by 2008.

Wow! I think this is awesome! It's about time!

Microloans

I just wanted to tell about something I saw on FRONTLINE WORLD the other night. It was amazing. It is called KIVA and they set up funding for microloans to business people in Uganda. The loans are for small amounts of money (to us in the US) and everyday people can go online and agree to fund the loans for the business people.

It is just AMAZING! Their server has been down since the program aired, but I encourage people to check it out. It is www.kiva.org.