I’ve always been one of those mommies who loves being a part of my kids’ firsts. With Tariku it’s especially exciting because his firsts are when he’s old enough to really react and enjoy (thus making it more fun for mommy). Today it was snow.

My day to wake up and I hear on Dailah’s monitor (she’s taken a liking since we left to just walk right into the boys’ room when she wakes up) Tariku screaming “It’s snowing! It’s a snow day!”

So I go downstairs, excited to see his reaction to the flakes and it was worth it. He burst out of his room when he heard me making coffee (hey, I have priorities) and yelled, “Mom come see this, you need to, you need to see this RIGHT NOW!”. So we looked out the boys’ room and watched it for awhile. It was just awesome.

When we were getting into the car, Tariku said, “Mom, I decided, I love snow.”

So after naps we had him really check it out. And this is what we got with all three of them.

So rare that we capture this kid’s loving personality, I think Zach got it here.

Tariku and his best friend, Abe.

How much do you love this picture and this kid? He said, “Mom, there was no snow in Ethiopia!” As he came in and was derobing all his snow equipment, he said, “Mom I never knew snow was so cold!”

And how I like playing in the snow.

Doozie was out for approximately 2 minutes, but it was a really cute 2 minutes.

Trysten dedicated his time to snowman making, it ended up perfect. With a head, carrot and arms.

Is there anything more infections than kids’ laughter? Me thinks no.

Came across this article today. It describes Ethiopian food in one of my favorite ways I’ve read. I envy those of you who live in Louisville, Kentucky. Make sure you check out this restaurant! And for those who don’t, read it anyway and tell me your mouth doesn’t water.

I told you I had good news about Water for Christmas, right?

Well I do. We have a total as of Wednesday. You ready? Drumroll please.

$10,000.

Did you read that?

$10,000. Or, 2 wells. Or 2 villages in Liberia. Or hundreds of people, kids, brothers, sisters moms and dads.

You’ve saved them, and you should be very proud of yourselves.

I am so thankful, so, so thankful for you all.

Good work so far, we still have work to do. Just one more month and I think we’re only scratching the surface, you in?

Gracias, mucho, mucho, gracias.

I am a child of the ’80s. I came of age when U2’s Bono was waiving his white flag onstage at Live Aid, the 1985 worldwide effort for famine relief in Ethiopia. That effort and others throughout the ’80s were so big that people eventually tuned out. Instinctively, Bono knew that, and his efforts grew quieter and even more effective.

I was lucky enough to ask Bono himself about this change in the tone of his activism when I interviewed him in 2002 at Davenport Central High School in Davenport, Iowa. He told me that people get tired of listening when you scream at them. And that’s what is so wonderful about this grassroots effort to bring clean drinking water to people who have no access to this most basic of human needs. I think Bono would approve of the goofy hook of dancing. It gets people excited about a huge problem without screaming at them.

With my intense love of U2’s music, you’d think that I would have picked one of their songs to dance to. But, being a child of the ’80s, I chose one of my favorite one-hit wonders, Men Without Hats’ “The Safety Dance.” Anything by U2 would have required actual dance moves, but “The Safety Dance” was, well, safe. But I still did it because I believe this effort is important and needed.

“You are more powerful than you think, and we can be even more powerful together,” Bono said during his Davenport visit. He is right, so I will dance.

Editor’s note: Janet is awesome. I’ve known her for over a year now and she, like a fine wine, just gets better with age. 🙂 We originally posted this on the dancing blog but I didn’t get a chance to on my own but she’s definitely worth it. I think you can see her awesomeness through this dance. If not, just take my word for it.

So as I mentioned in the last post, we had an amazing time in Mexico. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we truly couldn’t have asked for a better time. So here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

The view from our back patio.

Our room

One of the 3 pools.

Zach and myself at the wedding.

Leslie and hotflawedmama.

The Klipsch sisters, now complete.

All of the Klipschs (side from my 3 beauties).

The bride (Emily) and groom (Frank).

Just my brothers and me in a tiny little space.

Zach and I got to take a little excursion where we swam with dolphins, sharks and sting rays. We also snorkeled, zip lined, and had way too much fun. The boat that brought us to “The Island of fertility” is behind me.

I love him.

The view from the Island.

We considered this our honeymoon since we didn’t get one over 6 years ago. So we have A LOT of pictures of just the two of us.

See…and here we are in the gift shop. 🙂

In Mexico, they pronounced my name “Desy” as you can see from my Starbucks at the airport. Zach was “Sack”, Frank was “Fronk” and Jake was “Jacques”. It was awesome. Zach will forever be Sack as far as I’m concerned.

We’re back. It was a fantastic trip, there will be more details to come.

I had good intentions of blogging a few times while gone and taping a few dancers in Mexico. But I didn’t. I reconnected with my hubby, relaxed to the point of boredom and swam with dolphins.

Thanksgiving didn’t feel like thanksgiving in Mexico (though they did make turkey, which is something). But with a life like mine, one doesn’t need a day to remind them to be thankful. I’d be lying if I said I had a horrible time in Mexico but I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t get choked up when I saw the kids asleep in their beds tonight.

So thankful for both blessings. Time with the man who makes my heart beat and our fantastic babies to kiss at night.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. Stay tuned for more pictures and GREAT WATER NEWS this weekend. Much, much love.

I read about this project in our local newspaper, and it just made me cry! Right away I knew I wanted to do a dance with my grandchildren to help raise money for children who have so little. We have SO MUCH to be grateful for. We hope everyone will enjoy our “dance” and laugh and have as much fun as we did. Be thankful! We are richly blessed!

hotflawedmama note: This video was super exciting because this incredible woman just wrote us an email with the video youtube site. She saw the article and was inspired. Inspired to donate, and to teach her young grandchildren about their blessings and the happiness that can come with living outside of yourself by giving to people you’ve never met. We are so very grateful and can’t wait to see more people like her.

So tomorrow Zach and I head to Mexico (with a quick stop in Chicago). Without kids. My bro-in-law is getting married in Mexico so all of Zach’s side of the family is going. So are we, without kids (did I already mention that?)

My parents and sister will be watching the kids. At the house. They are so wonderful and amazing. You cannot have them, they are mine and terrific.

We are getting excited over here. It kind of reminds me of when we were about to head to Ethiopia (except not THAT exciting). So much to do, not enough time. Don’t want to clean when I won’t be able to kiss and hug those precious faces every day next week.

So I’m not going to. I can clean when I get home. (sorry mom, dad and Kara) Laundry must be done as well as packing but other than that, it’s just going to be 24 hours of intense kid time. I will love every minute.

What, oh what, did I do to deserve kids like these?

Remember, it’s $10 Friday!!! Everyone donate $10 over where it says “donate” on my blog. We can change the world. Little people doing something big. If not you then who?

Love you, love this. Love life.