Genetics?

Whoever says Abe doesn't resemble his Opa on the Rooney side has never seen this picture:
It's no secret that I love this blogging community, but Ted's Charity: Water page has confirmed it even more. Within two days, more than $300 had been given for Ted's birthday to build wells in Ethiopia, all from good people who read this blog (and even more since we've sent out emails). Tears and more tears. Thank you.

We're headed down to Los Angeles tomorrow for a fun week or more in the hot California sun. Have a great weekend, all you beautiful blog-readers.

Heavenly Perspective

One of Ted's five brothers has an old friend who regularly plays basketball with the richest man in the world...okay, just the richest man in Oregon. They wanted to get together and play with full teams, so Ted was invited to join a team for a game this past Sunday. They finish these games off with a cook-out, so the families were invited as well, including me and Abe.

We drove the hour out to this estate and discovered that Mr. Richest Man in Oregon (hereby referred to as RMiO) has built an indoor basketball court in an old barn. But not just any old barn. This place is spectacular, complete with a full bath/shower and loft from which one can slide down on a fire station pole. The guys started the game, and all us women and children drove up the hill, past gorgeous orchards, to pass the afternoon at the house.

We arrived at what looked like an old Tuscan estate. We parked our cars at the five car garage and walked in to this spectacular place. I've been in some nice places in my life, but this house blows them all out of the water. I've never seen anything like it. We ended up sitting outside for a couple of hours at the pool, which is sandwiched between a complete guesthouse (with two baths, flat-screen tv, etc.) and a garden so perfect that not a blade of grass was out of place.

To her credit, the lady of the house was very easy to talk to, in spite of my having no frame of reference for knowing how to respond to someone whose daily life involves the management of gardeners, nannies, two global companies, and trips around the world, including her most recent trip to the Beijing Olympics. As I sat in this idyllic space with three other women and three children, my mind kept drifting to Italy...and then to thoughts of heaven.

This image makes me think about heaven.

I never really felt envious of RMiO and his wife...I just fought back the urge to ask if I could come stay in their guest house for a night...or month. Ted and I spent our honeymoon in Italy, staying at night in a convent (it was the only place in town with a room, which we only managed to get thanks to our friend Staci who was there in the same small town doing a language course and thus had the ability to speak with these Italian nuns...this is a whole other story in itself though) and spending our days doing very little except eating, drinking, and looking at all the beauty. We talked about how this is what heaven might look like for Ted. My heaven needs to have a bit of Scotland in it, though Ted's Italian one is nothing to shake a stick at.

My Scottish heaven

I found it interesting that within the span of 24 hours, we'd been exposed to pretty much the two most distant poles in the spectrum of the human experience on this earth. First, we saw the poorest of the poor struggling to find clean drinking water in Kenya and Ethiopia. The next day, we're sitting by a pool at the estate of the RMiO.

The whole thing got me thinking about where my treasure is. In that spectrum, I'm so much closer to RMiO than I am to the thirsty and poor, even though while I was sitting by their pool in my thrift store clothes, I felt pretty distant. I think I got a "healthy dose of perspective" that day, and I want to hold on to that feeling. Jesus spent the bulk of His time among the poor; they are where His heart is. I want to be the same, and it got me thinking all kinds of thoughts about giving everything away and letting go of things I see as "necessities," like my morning cup of fancy, organic coffee or the upstairs remodel we've been hoping to do.

In light of eternity, these things don't matter. This stuff is my earthly treasure, things that aren't going to last. If I really truly honest-to-God believe in heaven and Jesus making all things right, then what the heck am I doing bemoaning the fact that my 4-year-old pair of tevas are wearing out? Why am I not giving away more of my time, money, energy, talents, and heart to the poor, the ones closest to God's heart? What am I doing for "the least of these?" I've really gotta get with it.

I'm not saying anything new here. I guess this is sort of like the Christian's mid-life-crisis. Instead of having an affair, going on a fancy vacation, or buying an expensive pair of Minolos (okay, way too many Sex and the City reruns in my life, my favorite love-to-hate show), I'm entertaining thoughts of selling it all and signing up to build wells in east Africa until I die. I can get my new tevas in heaven. I know there's gonna be mansions there, but won't there be tevas too?

#9 and #10, an Italian heaven, complete with tevas.

Mudpie.

Ted let the water in the pool out yesterday. Someone else discovered the joy to be had with the resulting mud. Not only is it fun to squish around in, but it's also tasty
(this is after I'd wiped off most of what was in and around his mouth).

And in case you haven't already seen what we're really excited about these days: go here.

Ted's Charity: Water page

Abe is waking up every day lately asking "Dad? Daaaaad?!" Mom has become the feeder/booger wiper. Dad is Mr. Everything Else.

Ted's birthday is September 22. He just created this page at Charity: Water. The videos are beautiful. I can't stop thinking about this project. Yesterday afternoon, I kept it running for hours with that music playing.

Check out the videos from the Live Drill, especially the celebratory one with the water first appearing. Tears streaming down my face.

Update: We just found where you can order merchandise with the Charity: Water logo. Click here to buy. We've ordered shirts that we plan to wear everyday for a month, hopefully so people will ask what it's about and get involved (Ted is "Charity," I am "Water"). The ones we ordered have the website on the back.

Since Wednesday

We've danced with Rhett at the Kennedy School:

Been pushed to our favorite coffee spot by Opa:
Gone swimming in the freezing cold Sandy River:

And also at this fancy place, Stoller Vinyards:

Oregon is pretty over-the-top beautiful, no?

I know...the nose was runny. We're hoping that faucet-action means more teeth are coming.

The Stoller family dogs: Pinot Noir with the tongue, Chardonnay with the tooth.

Last night, I was so touched by this lovely post. This blogging community is full of such soulful people. I got to meet Julie at the Blog Union and look forward to seeing her again when we're in her area (and fyi: she grows her own teff. What kind of Superwoman is this?).

Now I'm finishing up my first Bill Bryson book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, and waiting for Twilight to arrive in the mail hopefully later this week so I can join the teen vampire club.

Oh, and we cleaned the house today and I almost finished the Saturday crossword too. Exciting.

Born in September

I just watched this video over at Craig and Cindy's blog. This is an amazing story of what one person can do to improve the lives of many others. Please watch, please consider.

The September Campaign Trailer - www.borninseptember.org from charity: water on Vimeo.

A Request to Politicians Everywhere

I don't enjoy discussing politics, and I won't start now. But one thing I think we can agree on is that many politicians like doing this:





The pointing at of some phantom individual in a crowd who seems to share some inside-joke that is so hilarious that the politician erupts in laughter (in Hilary's case) or a knowing smile of a shared secret that the rest of us are out of the loop on.

Please stop this.

If you are one of the lucky ones at the receiving end of a politician's jovial point, please share with the rest of us what that feels like because I imagine it would make my insides feel like cotton candy and pudding.

In our world, look who's almost walking:
And for the catchiest, happiest songs you've heard in a long time, click here (Abe especially likes this one) and here. Turn the volume up. I'd been listening to a lot of Sufjan Stephens the past week or so, but with the onset of gray chilly fall in Portland, songs like this can bring me down, no matter how much I like it. It's for my own good to find something upbeat to listen to.

Still really enjoying the new camera.

Any other high schoolers in the '90s watched the new 90210? Show of hands?