Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

That's what she said.

No really. That's what the winner of my 100th Blog Extravaganza said in her winning e-mail's subject line.

It took her all of 20 minutes to find all the clues and answer all the questions. And that doesn't surprise me at all, because everything "Mombrose" does is pretty amazing. I met her a few months into grad school and we quickly realized that not only were we the same major, but we had also both graduated high school at 16 and gone to Christian undergrads and wanted to be rock stars when we grew up.

She introduced me to cute socks, TaeBo, Dawson's Creek and The Real World. (Glad our friendship lasted past those!) I didn't really like coffee until she made it "decoffinated" for me. Her family hosted a bunch of us for the Y2K New Years and if your friend's parents could be another type of "in-law" (maybe an "in-friend" such as my "mother-in-friend"?) that's what I'd call them.

We've enjoyed a friendship through the last 12 years that has grown and changed as we have. We've walked (and ran) through life together as grad students, then poor graduates trying to chase our dreams and now as wives and fellow bloggers.

The last time I saw her was in 2007 (WAY too long ago!) when John and I were in San Diego on our cross-country Harley trip.

(Her 3rd beauty was just starting to bake in this pic!)

She is a great writer and photographer, and if you can stand looking at beautiful pictures of beautiful children, you should check out her blog http://ambrosegirls.blogspot.com/. She has a heart after God it shows in everything she does.

So, I'm proud to give her a $100 gift card to spend on www.tisbest.org.

I love you HJ!!

Three birthday wishes

I'll be honest (aren't I always?), birthdays are not my love language.

A few years ago I tried to stop celebrating my birthday. It did not go over well. I ended up offending more people than I thought possible. My desire to ignore my birthday didn't stem from not wanting to age. That's inevitable and -for me- very desirable as I seek the wisdom associated with age. I just didn't think that I did anything the day I was born to warrant a celebration. My mom did all the work.

My loved ones protested saying my birthday was a chance to celebrate me and all the great things I mean to this world. My argument was, if my birthday is about me, why can't we honor me by not celebrating it? I've done things worth celebrating other days, like graduating from college or joining the military. I don't mind a cake and cards to congratulate me on the anniversaries of those events. Sigh. Like I said, this was an ineffective pursuit and I gave up.

Anyway, now I have an idea to harness birthday-loving-people-everywhere's desire to celebrate and my desire to do something worth celebrating.

I give you three great causes to send some money to. This way, you and I both make a difference!

1) Solomon Jordan Siegel - He's my nephew and turns 2 on Sunday (now there's something to celebrate!). He was born with Down Syndrome, and has been through a lot in his life. He is amazing. This year, he's attending a special school called The Little Light House. The school will invest $26,000 into his education this year and not charge his parents a dime. They can do this only through fundraising ferociously and partnering with people and organizations who care. You can find out more about him and donate as much as you want on his page here.

2) Philippines trip/Camp Sonshine - I'm going to the Philippines with my church from Oct 25-Nov 7. We're going to be working with the Anascos (ORU grads) and the camp for street kids they run called Camp Sonshine (yes, related to the one in Maryland). My team of 12 (plus a baby) needs to raise $27,600 total by Oct 1. This amount goes towards our plane tickets and expenses, then the rest goes to putting on the camp for 150 to 200 kids. If you want to 'go' with us, you can contribute here and choose any of our names to put in the 'For' line.

3) charity:water - a simply amazing community of people who want to provide clean drinking water to everyone on the planet. I started a campaign to help and the webpage is http://mycharitywater.org/annasbirthday. You'd be amazed how much a little can do.