do something, please

If you haven't heard about it, I would check out World Vision's Step Into Africa Experience. As you may or may not know, God has put a passion on my heart to do something about extreme poverty and the devastation lying in the wake of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This month, Justin and I were supposed to go to volunteer with a school for orphans called ROHI in Narukru, Kenya. We did not get our applications completed in time and the trip has been postponed. We feel that God didn't want us there during all of the political unrest going on right now, but are still aiming to go (this year or early next year).

The Step into Africa exhibit is a life-changing experience. You see life in Africa through the eyes of one of four children. There are 15 MILLION orphans (from HIV/AIDS) in Sub-Saraharan Africa today. That number is expected to be 20 MILLION in 2010 and 50 MILLION by 2020. Currently, 1 person is dying every 3 SECONDS from AIDS. An entire generation of parents, chilren, head of households, providers and the main work force is being wiped-out - causing catastrophic emotional and economic repercussions. The number of households led by children is rising every day. I refuse to do nothing. I don't know what kind of story or what kind of number would affect people to DO SOMETHING. But I do know that LESS THAN 3 PERCENT of American Christians have been moved into action. Less than 3%...

I am not putting out this post to give you a sense of the staggering numbers, because if you just look at that, you're going to be overwhelmed. If you feel moved by ANY of this information, I encourage you to check our programs that sponsor children living in these areas. You can make a difference in one life. Check out World Vision or Compassion International.

"You make a living by what you get...But you make a life by what you give."
- Winston Churchill

cutest baby.

ON EARTH. That's my niece, ladies and gents. The outfit is courtesy of her adoring auntie. I can't get enough of her!

a lot of walking, but for a good cause.

Some of you may not know that I lost my Aunt Mitzi to breast cancer in 2005. Breast cancer kills approximately one woman every 14 minutes, robbing us of our mothers and grandmothers, our sisters and aunts, cousins and best friends. No one knows what causes breast cancer or how it can be prevented. There is no cure... Yet.

I just won’t accept that there’s nothing I can do. And, since cancer has unfortunately touched my family in several ways, I feel even more compelled to do something, anything, to bring us one step closer to finding a cure and ending the suffering. I have joined Mitzi’s Mammories, the team that honors the memory of my Aunt Mitzi. We will be walking along with many others in the San Francisco area on July 12-13 to walk 26.2 miles in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

As part of this commitment, I have agreed to raise at least $1,800 for the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade. I am asking for your support. Any and all donations will help us get closer! Since 1992, the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade has returned more than $250 million for the cause. That money is distributed to five critical areas: medical research, clinical care, support services, education and early detection programs.

If you would like to make a donation, you can email me or you can click Avon logo under my photo on the right.

a weird movie. no, a great movie. STET

I was perched in the corner of my couch; a blanket snuggled around me; sweatshirt hood in place; chick flick in the DVD player; warm scone and coffee nearby; a husband willing to brave said movie in exchange for some Bazooka Joe nonsensical man-movie - all in all, the makings of a perfect Sunday morning. The one hitch? The movie was Suburban Girl.

This movie was meant to be an amusing tryst between a neophyte (Netflix's word, I would have used novice) editor (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the much older and more accomplished editor-in-chief of some publishing company (Alec Baldwin). Admittedly, the dialog was entertaining. However, the plot (or lack thereof) throughout the protagonist's plight was dull. Completely void of a sense of anticipation, accomplishment... A point. The worst part? I couldn't understand most of the references.

During the movie I said to J, "This is something Jen would totally get." He agreed and added that if she ever had some affair with an older man, in an alternate universe where she pursued her career as a book editor in New York, that this could be a movie about her. "Right," I said "except in her version the main character would be far more punchy and snarky." He agreed.

However, this has prompted Justin and I to start our own little book club. We are certainly an UN-read couple. The classics are lost on us - save for some standard English 101 reads: The Sun Also Rises, Catcher in the Rye, The Rainbow and various works of Shakespeare. And while I've read some, I can't remember anything about them - not enough to catch vague or even obvious references to something in the text. I want to be able to pick up Suburban Girl in a few years and actually understand the references. Maybe then I wouldn't walk away from the movie, dictionary in hand, still feeling under-educated and stupid.

Any suggestions for which classic we should start with? C'mon, Jen. You have a few suggestions, you know you’re dying to tell us where to start.