One Day on Earth - Will You Be There?

We are so engrossed in our own world that we forget other things are happening to other people at the same time other places in the world.

Right now, you're sitting there reading this blog, but where one baby is being born, another is dying; where a child learns in school, another is looking for food; where one person is losing a job, another is being hired; where one couple is buying a house, another is signing divorce papers.

Photojojo sent this email out...

What if everyone on Earth took a photo at the same exact moment?


It would be the most thorough snapshot of mankind itself! On 10-10-10, One Day on Earth got pretty darn close to accomplishing just that.

The One Day on Earth project asked people all over the world to take a photo or film footage of the most important thing to them on October 10, 2010.

They were able to reach out to a wide array of people all over the world through 60 non-profits and the United Nations.

The resulting footage is an exciting peek into what matters to who around the world: everything from each other to science to politics to the environment.

They’re now turning the 3000 hours of footage into a feature film, for which you can see a trailer of. They’ve also created a searchable online archive!

There’ll be another day of shooting on 11-11-11 this year, so click on to see how you can take part in a collective snapshot of Earth!

 I definitely will be.

One Day on Earth - be there!

Annual Pumpkin Carving

It's that time of year - time to make the jack o'lanterns! I have learned through experience it's best to do this as close to Halloween as possible. Otherwise, the squirrels have a feast and the jack o'lanterns become mutated beyond recognition.

Little K likes to pick the largest possible pumpkin, this one weighing in at 23 lbs.

 

Fortunately, and surprisingly, it was not 23 pounds of guts and seeds.

E's pumpkins tend to be on the more round side. This one was a dainty 13 pounds, and sadly, lost it's stem rolling around in the car.

I mean, really, the best part is pulling off the lid.

Little K's was designed by her, with teeth to match her own. I have to say, I kinda like the X eye.

E's original design included curved eyebrows, but I was armed with a regular knife so no chance of getting cutesy. We decided to stick with basic shapes.

Of course, the jack o'lantern isn't complete until the candle is lit.

 

I hope you have a wonderful Halloween full of tricks and treats!

Underestimating time

I've been enlightened from events this past weekend to a pattern in my behavior that I'm sure isn't news to anyone that knows me...I am a master at underestimating the amount of time it takes to do anything.

This is a problem when I plan to do many things in one day. For instance, this past weekend with the hubs out of town I planned to make pumpkin spice muffins with cream cheese icing (YUM!), take more photos of my neighbor's twins, and go to Linvilla...but instead:

I took the girls to TJ Maxx Saturday - all three of us in a dressing room trying on clothes, hilarious. I wanted to go to Home Goods, which is right next door, but NO TIME since I had to get back and give them lunch before E's field hockey practice. I was going to head BACK to Home Goods, but they were invited over a friend's house for play dates so I grocery shopped - thinking I might get to Home Goods before I had to pick them up. But again, I ran out of time since I also had to WALK THE DAMN DOG. Girls home, dinner, movie, popcorn. They went to bed and I watched two movies, staying up until 1AM!!! Not a great idea since I knew the girls would be up bright and early Sunday, made pancakes and off to Linvilla Orchards. Shopped the market, got stuck in a maze for 20 minutes, played on the wooden playground, stood in the hayride line for another 20 minutes, scoured the pumpkin bins and coralled a wheelbarrow to lug 50+ pounds of pumpkins, made a pit stop at Target on the way home for Halloween decorations - got nothing but one giant spider now hanging from my foyer chandelier, and, of course, shoes for the girls. Home for lunch, WALK THE DAMN DOG, E worked on a book report, Little K watched TV and I fell asleep for 45 minutes! Woke up with a start and more exhausted then before, and had to carve FREAKING pumpkins, help E with her book report, make dinner, clean the house as it was a complete and utter wreck with dishes overflowing the sink. Oh, and needed to throw in some laundry. Went to bed at 9:30 then read my book for 1 1/2 hours because I could NOT put it down.

Now I'm craving a trip to Home Goods because it is calling to me, and pumpkin spice muffins.


So that, my friends, is how you run yourself ragged for a Monday morning.

Happy Monday!

Wordless Wednesday--You think you got your hands full?

My sweet neighbor let me come over and photograph her and her new twin girls...

The 40th Birthday

Yesterday was the day. The 40th birthday had finally arrived. The dreaded and much anticipated milestone. 40? *cringe* I may have survived the day, but the number still hurts.

I surprised myself when I woke up without the anticipated heavy fog of dread. I felt okay! Excited in fact, to take on the day. Of course, that could have had something to do with the fact that my loving husband bought me a rock star new Nikon that I had been waiting months and months for. Or that my kids gave me amazing handmade cards and gave me beautiful charms for my bracelet. It could have also been the fact that I was NOT going in to work. Regardless, I didn't want to curl up in a ball and cry all day.

I had a busy day planned, and it started in the Italian Market with my dad, merely a stroll through to our main destination. The hubs and I lived a couple blocks from here for about 7 years and shopped the market every weekend.

Since my dad is big into hunting, I thought he would enjoy the local game store. And by game, I don't mean Wii. Sadly, they were closed. And the wild pig head stared at us blankly.

A visit to the Italian Market is never complete without a stop in DiBruno Bros. Seriously, this place is amazing and the people know everything there is to know about cheese.

My dad was on a quest for the perfect swiss cheese. Unfortunately, it's at the Ardmore location. But he had fun tasting for it.

Being that it was a big birthday and I was desperate to liberate myself from this "old" feeling, I've decided to confront Forty in a way that would be taken seriously.

That's right. I'm gettin' it done!

To be fair, I wasn't all cool about it. Initially.

As we signed in for our ammunition and gear, more people began to arrive. And I started to wonder about their intentions. Mine, of course, were purely for amusement. And, most likely, a one-time experience. But these men were arriving with their own firearms. One guy, came with his own ammunition, but rented the gun. Then proceeded to DROP IT on his way into the range. HellOOOO!

There were also off-duty cops practicing, but STILL. Do they check these people out? I mean, everyone seems a little suspicious to me.

Anyway, here we are in our booth. Gun shots are blasting around me. Some quick fire, some booming. My dad loads up the gun, and suddenly I freak out a little in my head - HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS A LOADED FUCKING GUN!

What if it backfires and blows off my face?

What if the guy next to me goes mad and shoots through the wall at me?

What if I drop the gun and it goes off and shoots me dead?

So that lasted all of 2 minutes. Then, I said fuck you 40 ...

... and I did this.

For laughs, if there is such a thing when it comes to guns, I selected the target that shows the organs you hit. Maybe that makes me a little sick. I don't know. I thought it was kind of funny.

The cops in the range were shooting with 9 mm - there are bullet cases flying all over the place. I got hit in the leg a couple times by something. I looked down and... bullet case. Like I said, it was a little crazy.

After shooting, I did what anyone else would do and went shoe shopping and had my nails done. I won't bore you with the errands I also ran, but let's just say that being productive also made me very happy.

The day ended fabulously - some neighbor friends surprised me with a fabulous cake and a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday. Then, dinner with the family and my favorite cake of all time - chocolate chip cheesecake!

It was a great day - and my family, friends in real life and on Facebook and Twitter all made it possible.

Thank you everyone!



Only celebrate the milestones...

Someone sent this to me today. Funny perspective on what birthdays are worthy of celebrating.