my favorites of the day

today...

today, while i painted,
brody cut.

a fabulous rainbow.
and i don't want to clean it up.

more water team...

tomorrow morning,
our fearless leader jody gets on a plane
headed for liberia.

she will spend a few days
with the folks from charity: water touring the sites
where the wells for water4christmas
have been drilled.

taking with her
the stories of how water has changed us,
and how much we love them,
how we will never be the same.

and bringing back with her
the stories of how water has changed them,
and how much they love us,
and how they will never been the same.

trick-or-treat

i got one picture of brody before he refused to wear the lizard hat...



emily.. gothic raggedy ann
we had so much fun finding pieces for this costume,
and it only took two bottles of black hairspray to cover all her hair. :)



micah.. the thug.
this just makes me laugh.
and that is all there is to it.



trick-or-treat

costumes and pumpkins

in honor of isaiah being unable to trick-or-treat with us,
the H1N1 pumpkin...



hannah the toucan...
this costume was originally emily's, i believe back when she was in preschool. we have taken it in, and let it out, and it has served us well.



brody the lizard...
and this was originally isaiah's when he was in preschool as well... but brody refused to wear the head piece, and opted for green and black hair.



the whole crew... plus one neighbor. :)

water team. (most of them)

these are just some of the amazing men and women
who make up our muscatine water team.

tonight, and every sunday night
we are meeting.
and planning.




and the thing is,
these faces don't even begin to cover everyone who is involved.
there are husbands,
and wives,
and kids,
who are sacrificing their time with these people pictured
so that they can be here.
every sunday.
meeting and planning.

because water is life.

and it has changed OUR lives.

cassie is a rock star.

she has been working her fingers to the bone
to get all the etsy shop packages shipped out.
she is a rock star.
the end.

Going Viral, and i don't mean the flu.

OK, if you are reading this, consider yourself in the "know."
We are going to need your help.
Remember last year, we did $10 Fridays.
For 6 weeks, we encouraged everyone to donate $10 on Friday.
We uncovered a lot of clean water through the $10 gifts.
THIS YEAR, we are doing it ONCE.
Just one day.
24 hours.
And we need everyone.
NOVEMBER 13.
Online blog, twitter, facebook, email, viral campaign.
Asking everyone to buy water.
$10.
To let their first gift of the season be life.
SO...here's the image.
The explanation is below.
And the link.
IF you want to invite people ahead of time via email or your blogs you can.
But on NOVEMBER 13, we need everyone.
Give $10.
Encourage everyone you know to give $10 on November 13.
Can you imagine if we all just came together, from all over the country/world, for one day?
And we all bought water together?
We all spent $10 to give life?
On November 13, when people begin to open up their Google Reader, their blog list, we want them to not be able to escape this image--




Updates, posts and statuses all over will be about buying water.

(Below is a ready-made explanation of the First Gift Campaign. if on Nov. 13, you just want to click and drag it to your blog or email, you can. Otherwise, you can write your own).



Gonna be fun.
Be thinking.
The image and explanation are yours to use.
Or you can write your own.
Link everyone here (yellow donate button) to donate.
Here for explanation.
Got it?
November 13.
First Gift online campaign.
We'll be reminding you.
For now, you know the plan.
Consider yourself personally invited to change the world...

east meets west

jody brought the wonder twins over to meet steffany's twins from ethiopia...
they were adorable together.



zeke was particularly smitten with xia.





and believe it or not, this is the only shot we have of the mommies and all four little ones... but i love it.
and some day,
i will be behind that couch holding on to our little ethiopian princess....

weekend with steffany...

my blog friend steffany decided that she wanted to be a part of the run/walk for water last weekend.
and obviously,
having never met her,
it made perfect sense to invite her and three of her six kids, to stay with me, and my family for the weekend. :)

the only bad part...
she was sick.
really sick.







but sick or not,
she pulled it together, and she ran.
she ran the ENTIRE four miles.
because she is passionate about water,
about people,
about africa.

i knew before i even met her, that she was someone special..
and now i can say,
it is an honor to call her a friend.

pumpkin carving

one more reason i love aldi....
99 cent pumpkins.

we loaded up the kids, and headed there this evening.
i was feeling a bit guilty after last year,
when we went to four places, and every single one was sold out of pumpkins,
leaving us jack-o-lanternless.



they all worked very hard.
emily, isaiah, and hannah, did theirs completely solo.



steve helped micah with his,
but he did do several cuts, and emptied it himself.

brody wanted h2africa, and he wanted ME to do it,
but he made sure everyone knew that "HE" was working very hard on it.



from left to right,
emily's, brody's, isaiah's, hannah's, and micah's.

Water Etsy Shop Is NOW OPEN

this is so exciting...
the water4christmas etsy shop is now open. :)







so many amazing people helped pull this together...
i cannot even begin to express how my heart leaps when i look at this shop.
just another way to bring clean water to the people of Liberia.

so, shop this christmas with a purpose.

if you have an etsy shop, and want to donate an item, tag it with water4christmas, and spread the word to all your etsy friends. :)

if you are a crafter, or sewer, and still want to get in on the action, cassie is still taking donations, you can message her thru etsy.

you can check it out here.

football is done...

youth sports foundation football ended on sunday.

it was the last game isaiah will play for youth sports.
next year he plays for the middle school.

watching him walk off the field, i felt a lump in my throat.
he is growing up.
day by day, minute by minute, and i can see it happening.

his coach wrote the nicest note to him,
and gave it to him at the football party on tuesday.
and for documenting sake, i need to post it here:

"Isaiah
Gingerbread Man-- you ran as fast as you could for two years and scored a lot of TDs for State Farm and helped us go undefeated this year. I can only hope to have the opportunity to coach someone again for two years that did such a good job listening and used their God given talents so well. You were also one of seven sixth graders who won their last 8 conference games. That's pretty incredible. Can't wait to see how you progress next year in 7th grade-- GO CENTRAL
Coach Solt"

How lucky we have been with amazing coaches, who love our kids, nurture them, and teach them how to be good people, not just good athletes.