Exciting News!

We have decided to adopt!

We are adopting from the beautiful country of Ethiopia and are very excited. We are in the beginning stages and it will be about nine months to a year before we have our children. Yes, you read that right I typed children. We have chosen to adopt siblings and are hoping for an infant and a toddler. We chose not to decide if we should get boys or girls we will see what we get blessed with.We will try and keep everyone up to date here on the blog. So check back often, or subscribe and get email updates.Matt & Stephanie

Keeping Your Neighborhood Beautiful

If you are anything like me, seeing the trash around your neighborhood gets under your skin and occasionally you pick up a piece of trash and put it in your trash can. I have in the past carried plastic bags when I walked my dogs to pick up trash littering my neighborhood streets, but I haven’t done it lately. I don’t really know why, it is probably out of frustration and to be honest some laziness. I mean it is so difficult to bend down and pick up that small piece of trash.

Today I walked to the post office instead of riding my bike because they are working on the road that I usually ride my bike on and I didn’t feel like putting the wheel on my mountain bike and dealing with the fact that it doesn’t have pedals I can use with regular shoes. I was on my way back when I noticed several beer bottles and other glass bottles and yes there was even a plastic bag. I was apparently in one of my lazy moods because I walked right past them, but thankfully I stopped and thought about it, I turned around and decided to pick them up. All that glass was perfectly recyclable and I could easily take it to R.A.M. to recycle when I took the rest of my glass down. Guess what? It only took me about 30 seconds to pick it up and thanks to the plastic bag I easily carried it home, except for one large malt liquor bottle which I had to carry in my other hand, I am sure it just showed how much fun I have on my walks.

The purpose of this post is to encourage everyone, including me, to simply pick up the litter around us and recycle what you can. You have plenty of opportunities to do it, trust me there is litter everywhere. Whenever you are out walking, whether it is with your dogs, on your way somewhere, or in a parking lot just stop for a second and pick up that piece of trash. If we all did this, our neighborhoods would look so much nicer. Of course, I also encourage you to not actually litter if you do that now, seriously there are trash cans everywhere, it’s not that hard.

Edited to add: Apparently there are not trash cans everywhere, I stand corrected. If you are visiting somewhere that does not have trash cans please dispose of trash responsibly.

Vinegar and its many uses

I had heard of a few uses for vinegar like cleaning windows, unclogging drains, and putting out in a bowl as a deodorizer, but apparently this environmentally friendly product has a lot more uses. Did you know it can be used as a weed killer, fabric softener, and a stain remover? See more vinegar uses here.

Cute Puppies

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

These precious boys were found abandoned and dropped off at the fire station on Monday afternoon and we have had them ever since. They are keeping me super busy! They are a ton of fun. We gave them their first set of shots yesterday. If anyone in Arizona is interested please contact us, because we cannot keep them.

The St. Bernard Project

Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and unfortunately the devastating effects are still very evident in New Orleans.

I encourage you to help a family rebuild their home: St. Bernard Project

I could not imagine being without a place to call home for two years.

Talking Trash

This is an entry from the fastcompany blog that I found interesting:

It’s not easy being green. Anybody who’s ever really tried to minimize his or her carbon footprint, knows that even when you’re committed to recycling and responsible purchasing, you can be foiled by forces outside your control. You buy a new set of tiny earbuds, and they come encased in a mound of nasty plastic and Styrofoam. You order lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and get a portion big enough for three (the upside: I now feel virtuous instead of cheap for my unrepentant doggie bag habit, and my predilection for tap over bottled water). You buy something online, only to trigger a torrent of unwanted catalogs. Continue reading “Talking Trash”

Recycling Pays

This was sent to me by my dad, so I thought I would pass on the words of wisdom.

Sound advice on retirement planning.

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom you would have had less than $5.00 left.

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Line stock, you would have $49.00 left.

But if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, You would have had $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

It’s called the 401-Keg Plan.