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.

Went to go get Trysten’s clothes out for the day and there was a mouse sitting on his hangers. I screamed, threw the pair of undies I had in my hand and ran to the corner, Trysten followed. Zach had to get up about an hour before his usual awake time and “take care of it”. I did help him with my fair share of screams and diving onto the boys’ beds but he seemed more annoyed than thankful for my presence. Needless to say my irrational fear of mouse paws crawling on my arms and legs were less than thrilling for my whole family this morning at 7am.

On a lighter note, I received farm-fresh eggs delivered by Leslie but raised by Kathy(ie) yesterday. I sat down to my 2-egg breakfast this morning and was overjoyed at the sight of those little eggs sitting in their basket. Upon further research (meaning, I ate them) I must say farm-fresh eggs from animals that had a good life before death taste ever so yummy. It’s kind of like a party in my mouth if there was Kanye West playing, my hubby dancing and lots of good food at that party. That kind of party, it was as good as that. I could actually taste the happiness in those eggs. Man I love farm-fresh goodness. Thank you to those wonderful local farmers who are changing the tides for we foodies who take pleasure in life’s simplest joy!

Hope your day started out as well as mine (but not as well as Zach’s!)

P.S. Speaking of local…don’t forget about the auction happening over at the dancing blog! It goes until 5pm today. Yay for local artists!

I learned about giving Water for Christmas from a girl in my English class. She showed me the video she made and this website and I was really impressed. This is such a good idea to spread awareness and I wanted to be apart of it.

I can’t imagine not having clean water. When I learned about all of the people dying in Africa because of their dirty water, I wanted to do something about it and this was my opportunity to help. And as a bonus, my friends and I had so much fun dancing around for such a good cause.

So please take time and think about what a great gift clean water would be and how this is an opportunity for you to help too.

–Erin

As I walk this path I discover more about myself in relationship to God and this world that I live in. Some of it is about my relationships with people that I love, live with, work with, or pass daily. And some of it is about people that I will never meet, yet how I live my live does have an impact on them either directly or indirectly. I could pass up this opportunity to dance and never acknowledge the water project. But how could I face myself in the mirror when I brush my teeth…or when I meet my Savior.

Sheila Mesick

hotflawedmama note: Remember to go over to www.dancingforwater.blogspot.com to bid on the painting in this picture. It’s 16×20 on canvas and absolutely sublime! Remember, big things take action…so GO!