One Day

Go to Jody's blog PLEASE to read about the viral campaign we're doing this year. I don't have enough time to write something great myself but please do this. You'll hear more about it on November 13 but until then, go here and prepare yourself, your blog, your facebook, your twitter and anything else I don't know about.

A preview:

Here is the picture on your blog on November 13. :)



Here is the explanation of the picture on your blog November 13.



Aren't you so excited I just wrote your blog for you?

...

Since apparently I have nothing real to say myself...here's another great link. :) You know these little bad boys are on my Christmas list as well!

Just In Case

You think it's all work no play over here...

The group at the Run/Walk4Water.



After the walk we came back to our house for a bit of lunch. Lindsey wanted to show how Bentley was still a lap dog.



So Zach showed that Aristotle still considered himself one 110 lbs and 5 years later as well.




We tried to do the same with Abe, not so much.



My personal favorite thing I taught Abe how to do, we call it "dancing". He loves it, so do we.

Ok...

So I wasn't going to post this. It's the Water For Christmas etsy shop. I didn't want to post it because I want EVERYTHING in there and I don't get paid until Friday and I've spent too much money on the party. :) But I'm trying not to be selfish here so there you go. You can thank me once you get these little beauties in your house. Go...buy with purpose. Because seriously, there are some amazing things on there. Cassie has done an incredible job organizing, listing, shipping and sweating over that. So reward her. Shoot, reward yourself. Love it.

Oh, and just because this is kind of cool...Water For Christmas made some national news yesterday. Check out this from the Huffington Post.

Because

Because it's easy to get caught up in the specifics of the water weekend; the tables and chairs and candles...this is what it's about. This is who it's about. This is why we are obsessed and why we don't want you to become complacent and ignore our MANY blogs the next few months about water. Because we want you to be a part of changing people's lives like hers. Read her story and see why.

It's Time to Par-tay

Have I mentioned there's lots of things going on with water lately? We have our big weekend coming up soon. Our BIG weekend, you know, the one where the founder of charity:water comes to Muscatine and Davenport to acknowledge what this small part of Iowa is doing and to encourage us to keep at it. That's fairly big I would say. For a complete list of what's going on that weekend, go here.

Since this is my blog, I want to invite you all to what I've been up to the last few months. It's the Saturday night event. Below are the details.

Wine to Water
Saturday, November 21st
Downtown Davenport
7-10 p.m.
$20 suggested donation

-We're featuring my favorite local winery for a wine tasting. My favorite wine of theirs is called "Felony Red", puh-lease.

-Dozens of artists of bakery have volunteered to bake their little pieces of heaven for a dessert tasting.

-We have local musician Lojo Russo hitting the stage at 7. Our one and only Andrew Landers Project (husband of you know who) hitting the stage at 8:30.

-And we have Scott Harrison, talking about water, at 8.

We're also auctioning off some Africas that have been hand painted by some of the best artists I know, including this fellow Ethiopian adoptive mommy.

Big stuff. Really, really cool stuff.

So you may be asking, since quite a few of you don't live here, how you can come anyway. Well let me just tell you, my fantastic husband has offered to open up camp for free lodging. So figure out how to get here, and we'll figure out how to keep you here. If you need babysitting, we can figure that out too.

But go to the website, see all of the events, they're all worth it. People are working hard to ensure that every event will be worth your time. Figure out what works best for your schedule and go.

Now it's time for me to get sappy because, well, that's just how I do. So here it is. In order to fund this little party (called "Wine to Water" because that's exactly what we're doing, cool right?) myself and the Wine to Water committee sent out an email asking people to donate $100 or more towards the party. And you know what? They have. I have amazing friends and family. I've gotten choked up every.single.time someone said yes because I know what it means. I know to some of these people $100 is a big deal and I know to other people, the large amounts of money they donated is a big deal.

I had seriously forgotten how water gives life to both the people who are getting clean water and the people who are working to give the clean water. What a soul enriching thing this whole deal is.

And seriously...one of our great friends said they wanted their honorary host title to be, "Cates Asleson in honor of Tariku Klipsch". You just felt that, right? That's how supportive they've always been.

I love bringing people I love into this deal. When they become a big part of it, they get excited about life as I have been. I've seen that when they get involved, it changes them, and that is so very exciting.

So come to our weekend of water. Find out what we're talking about and meet the faces behind it all. If you have any questions, leave a comment or email me at tesileagh@hotmail.com.

Whew, that's why I don't blog at 7 a.m. I need to find a picture or something.

The Race

Yesterday was the run/walk 4 water. Jodi and Brenda did an amazing job setting up and organizing this event. There are so many stories of crazy things that water has done to people. Like a random guy from Kentucky sending $220. Those stories are a dime a dozen in this whole thing and it's honestly one of the most amazing parts of this story.

But back to the race, it was just fabulous. Lots of fun, kind of cold but lots of clean water was found because of it.

And because my family and friends are amazing, they showed up. My parents drove the 2 hours there and back in one day just to support the cause. My brother and Lindsey also brought little Bentley. Jake, Leslie and the boys were of course there. But then there were friends like my dear Beth and Jared Johnson. Janet Hill and Chrissy and Jason Smith; all getting up REALLY early, putting kids with babysitters to drive 45 minutes to walk4water. I am verklempt just thinking about them and the whole thing.

You can find all race pictures here and they are worth the gander. I, of course, forgot to load the camera with new batteries (I blame the early morning wake up call) so these will have to do. Thanks, Cassie!

Zach brought the dogs and finished waaaay ahead of us.



The first mile, no problem.



On the way back we picked up one nephew and lost my friends, also had an incident with Doozie's gloves but finished anyway.



Jake and Leslie ran and strolled the big boys. That's a lot of weight to be pushing!



Watch this and try not to cry or goosebumps as you watch these people race for their brothers and sisters in Africa.

At Least 2 Hours

of my day has been spent vacuuming ladybugs. All I have to show for it is a half-full Dyson tank and 2 more hours ahead of me.

Seriously, you cannot fathom how many ladybugs we have inside our house. I just counted 22 ladybugs circling our light. Right above my head. That sound you just heard? A dry heave.

I hate this.

And this blog is brought to you by the same lady who wrote the one before. It's apparently multiple personality week here on hotflawedmama. Welcome to my life.

Why Water?

I was asked last Thursday why I chose water when there were so many good causes to support in this world. It's simple, really.

I remember that day in Ethiopia, meeting Tariku's someone special, so very vividly. I remember holding a hand and silently promising God and that person that I would do everything I possibly could to never make this situation have to happen again. I was so excited to start our lives with Tariku and am still so humbled to be blessed by him but I knew I wasn't "best case scenario" in his life. And so I made a promise. A promise that I would try to keep the "best case scenarios" of other little kids.

The roots of my passion for water certainly stem from my belief in God. The belief that my heart should be broken by the things that break the heart of God. But I also believe humans in general and adoptive parents specifically should be doing more to help the humanity around us. That we should be motivated to act by tears being shed regardless if we ever actually see them drop.

So I chose water because I know Tariku's story. I know his story and I have no problem reading between the lines and seeing how a lack of clean water led to me, to us being a family. And though I'm grateful for him, I've heard his stories. I know his heart breaks again and again at night. I know he remembers things. He's felt things I've never felt and at least some of that is because of water.

So that's why water. Because it either takes a life or gives a life. I'm going to try as hard as I can to be on the latter side of that equation. To give another child the family it deserves. To give a mom a lifetime of "I love yous" and to spare more heartache than I can possibly imagine.

It's simple, it's fairly easy and it's certainly the least I can do as a way of saying "thanks" for this gift that was given to me. As a way of making up for all of my faults as a mom and for acknowledging that there was certainly someone who could've done it better than me.

Another One

We had another wedding this weekend. This time both Zach and myself were in the wedding so we shipped (I mean, sent) the kids to my parents house. Since all the pictures I received of them they were: 1) making cookies, 2) carving pumpkins, 3) in their jammies in the afternoon, I'm guessing they had lots of fun. Well, I was guessing until they came home and TOLD me they had fun. So much fun, in fact, that Trysten said he, "even forgot about you". So that's good, I guess.

We had a lot of fun but didn't forget about them for a minute, if you can believe that.

My camera ran out of batteries so I'm waiting on other people for pictures. Until then...

Lots of water things happening still. I've been so busy with the weddings and water planning that I haven't been able to blog about water stuff. But there is so much happening and it's all so exciting. Go to www.water4christmas.com for full details. Tony and Julie, I have not forgotten about you, please forgive me.

Until the blog about specifics, here's a video I saw on Jody's blog that I loved. Because man does it ring true for me sometimes. I honestly think I would be the one hugging the balance beam more often than I already do if I didn't have a husband who challenges me to override that tendency. And then there's all of you. My fellow bloggers who are such good people doing little bits or lotta bits to change either the whole world or their part of it who inspire me to put both feet on the beam and try again; regardless of how many times I fall.

Thank you so much for that.

Ode to Woody

Last Saturday we had another wedding. This one took us (sans Zach who had Family Camp to run) back in my hometown so I could stand up with one of my longest and bestest friends. This friend, Laura Wood or, as you know I'm a fan of nicknames, "Woody", and I have been friends for close to 20 years.

The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride, and did I mention lots of fun? But very nostalgic for me as well. Though I don't remember the first time I met Woody, virtually every other fond memory from grade school and beyond has her next to me. At first glance we couldn't be more different; she's shy, I'm not. She's short, I'm not (that's a joke, we're both short). I was not always the nicest friend, she was the first one to show me grace time and again. Truly, I've never deserved a friend like her but she forgave me and accepted me as I was anyway.

I suppose that's the gift of getting older (though I know I'm still quite young) being able to get to know yourself a little better and thus know the relationships that have affected and are affecting you as well. My friendship with this little lady has indeed been one of the most profound blessings of my short life. And if you can't tell how much I love her by my words, just look at that smile I'm sportin'.


Front row seat to the action. You should be proud of me, I only teared up a few times.



Look how precious they looked!



Helping Dailah out with the hair. She sure does love dresses and shoes, that one.



I suppose I should include a picture of the man that has made my buddy the happiest she's ever been since it was their day and all.



Myself, Allison (Woody's sister) and Ahnna in the limo.




We stopped at a park (though quite frigid indeed) to take a few pictures before the reception. We took the perfunctory jump picture. Hotflawedmama (far left) was in good company on the female side of the aise. Woody is an ex-cop. Ahnna is as well. Tina (short hair) is a firefighter and Allison is in high school, in her prime.




My reaction to seeing the kids at the reception. It never gets old looking at them and calling them mine.




Hotflawedmama and Woody (new nickname is "Buffy" to represent her new last name).



The five ladies pictured here were part of "the gang". We all played basketball together for 10 years straight. The 5 of us were the starting team our senior year of high school. The gentleman were 3 of our high school coaches. Pretty surreal to have us all together like that. Pretty rad too.



The gang sans coaches.



The new hubby and his bridesmaids.



When I have a babysitter I take full advantage (thanks mom and dad!) so we went out afterwards. Here I am at an ungodly hour with Ahnna and one of my other besties, Danielle "Tower" Bird.



Thanks for walking with me down memory lane. My mom and grandma will love this post! :)

The St. Louis Wedding

In finally got more pictures of the flower girl and "her" wedding. Most of them need no introduction.

My most favorite man in all the world and yours truly.



Daddy bringing his princess home from the wedding.



Mmmmhmmm



Amy, Nick, Doozie and others.



The Klipschs







She was very focused.







Prepare yourself, this is serious cuteness.



Look at this view on the way to the reception.



Most of the Klipsch family.



My sister-in-law and a few cousins.



I think I like it.



For some reason 11pm made her so very sleepy.



Getting ready...did I mention these are in no particular older?











I know, the only thing I can take credit for in that mug is her chin.



Still just the chin...



During the wedding, just the cousins.



This was the party favor, coffee. Can I just tell you how much I love them?



How handsome!



Their first cab ride, were most excited about not wearing seat belts.