Christmas Program Part 5 "Jingle Bells"

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Today it is RAINING. Let me paint a picture for you: Matt worked this morning so I had to get the girls to school by myself. Eden is all bundled and strapped into her stroller which is covered in a nice plastic bubble. Attached to the stroller is a step with wheels on it that Isa rides on. Abigail is walking with her little rainbow umbrella and rain boots. I am pushing the stroller with one hand and clutching an umbrella with the other trying to keep Isa and myself dry.

While my backside is getting wet because of the way I have to hunch over to get enough leverage to get some momentum, my boot-cut jeans are getting soaked through up to the knees. It is at this point that I begin pondering the practicality of the fashion trend I have yet to adopt: tucking your jeans into your boots. I am of the opinion that this only makes my post-baby hips look even hippier (not hip-er) so I continue to wear my jeans outside my boots in that oh-so-two-years-ago way.

Anyway, about halfway to school is stops raining and starts POURING. Here we either all start whining and crying (yes, myself included) or we choose to make the best of it. Today I had the strength to choose to laugh (believe me there are days, when I don't) and we all ended up shouting at the top of our lungs the song, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day! Rain, rain, go away! Abigail and Isa and Eden and Mommy want to play!" In that moment our singing didn't make the rain go away, but it did make me feel better.

Later this morning I switched out with Matt at the café and after three teas I'm warming up and serving hot beverages to all the brave souls who've been out in this weather. Most days the rain doesn't really bother me, but today when one of Isa's teachers greeted me and said that the weather today was a horror, I looked down at my baby-under-the-bubble, felt the cold wet denim around my calves and agreed.

SAVE DARFUR

since 2003:

400,000 dead

2,000,000 forced from their homes

3,500,000 dependant on international aid just to survive

I know I don't often get political on my blog, but knowing that genocide is going unchecked as I'm still digesting Thanksgiving lefotvers made me a little ill. Read on:

SaveDarfur.org has a post called "Background" that's worth checking out...

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter...

Check out the site and sign the petition to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the U.N. and Prestident George Bush to deploy already approved peacekeeping forces and strengthen international aid to save lives.

Photo Story

I just figured how to upload video to myspace, so I added our latest Photo Story to my myspace page for anyone who wants to check it out. Have fun!

inspiring

This past Sunday Matt ran in his first race. He's been jogging pretty regularly ever since college and lately he's really stepped it up. So when a few weeks ago a friend mentioned that she'd be running in the local 13K Matt decided to join the 6000 other runners as well. Here are some cool shots of him the local paper took during the final km that winds through the old city - he's in images 12-15.

It was a long and hilly route and I am really proud of Matt for running and finishing well. We had such a fun morning cheering him on along with all the other runners. Abigail and Isa loved yelling and screaming to help their Daddy run faster. I was inspired myself to go for a jog later that afternoon. (Since I've only worked out twice since Eden was born, running in the race myself didn't seem like such a good idea - maybe next year!)

This is a picture I took of Eden at two months. She's a chunky, happy, smiley, pleasant baby. It must be from the constant attention and lovin' she gets from her two older sisters.