Carl and Barbara live in Orlando and volunteer regularly. They gave us some great suggestions for excellent restaurants in our area, opening up a whole new area of exploration for us!

Harv is ready with his lab coat, gloves, and bleach water!












Oscar Gonzalez was happy to explain everything the organization does to work with hotels and resorts to collect their used soaps.

Janet shares her "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion

A Day in the Life…..

Every once in awhile, a day comes along that slaps you upside the head and reminds you how wonderful your life is. Today was one of those days. It all started as a way to get a free ticket for a Disney park with their “Give and Day, Get a Day” promotion. You can volunteer at any one of thousands of participating organizations and get a voucher for a free one day/one park ticket to use in 2010. With the kids and grandkids coming for a visit, we thought it would be a perfect way to score a free ticket to Disney so that we could accompany the kids…..we are, after all, senior citizens on a fixed income! J In checking the online list of participating organizations, I was overwhelmed with possibilities and it took me a long time to decide which one would be best. I finally settled on “Clean the World Foundation” which picks up, sorts, and ships shampoo, lotions, soaps, etc. that are donated by hotels and resorts and sends them to third world countries; in this instance, Haiti. There was only one time slot left for 2 volunteers on Feb. 25th from 9am to noon so I signed us up. (I just heard a collective GASP from all of you reading this when you noticed the 9am start time - yes, it’s true, I was on the road before 8:30!)

As you know, we’re staying in a Florida resort, so we’re very familiar with the cute little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and the pretty little bars of soap that are given to us EVERY WEEK. I assumed that we would be sorting and boxing up these nice little (donated and unused) amenities for the people of Haiti. Well, I was partially right. We arrived at a huge warehouse full of totes. These totes were filled with USED bars of soap, and partially used shampoos, conditioners, and lotions…..all things that the hotels and resorts would have THROWN AWAY every single day. We donned our vinyl gloves and white lab coats and got to work! One group was armed with brushes and vegetable peelers to “clean up” the used bars of soap, then another group (including me and Harv) rinsed off the bars in bleach water and placed them on racks. These racks, 5 or 6 at a time, were then placed into a big steamer where they were sanitized. Then they were dried, individually wrapped, and packed for shipment to Haiti. The partially used shampoos, conditioners, and lotions were sorted and put into bigger containers for shipment. We worked next to another couple our age who live in Orlando and we left with a couple of new friends….yes, the man golfed J It was only 3 hours, but our backs and legs thought it felt more like 10! When our shift was finished, we gathered in another part of the warehouse where a family of volunteers (mom, dad, and 6 kids) performed a lovely Christian song for us. We have business cards and brochures from the organization and we will be going back to volunteer again - they were a wonderful group of people who had started doing this in a garage. They cited the statistics that show how many lives (especially children’s) that can be saved, or made more healthy, by something as simple as hand-washing. We're buying beautiful, fragrant, "designer" soaps while a good part of the world is awaiting our used soap just so they can wash their hads to TRY to stay healthier! Needless to say, we were humbled by the experience.

As so often happens, we start our day with one “item” on our agenda - such as volunteering today - at 8:30 am, and we meet new people, learn new things, make new connections, and before we know it, it’s 8:30 pm and we’re just getting home! The couple next to us (cleaning the soap) told us about a wonderful breakfast, brunch, lunch place near where we stay so we decided to check it out - it’s called “First Watch” and it was awesome. We decided to walk around the area and found a dog bakery called “The Bark Avenue”, where we were greeted by a very large sheepdog named Winston. It smelled like a “human” bakery and they baked and sold gourmet dog treats - I was tempted to try one of the “cookies” J It was a dog lover’s paradise with doggie scarves, leashes, sweaters, frames, greeting cards, etc.! Of course it made me think of Millie L We then stopped into a little boutique called “The Pink Chalet” where the saleslady noticed our Michigan State and Western Michigan apparel and told us her daughter attends CMU and another daughter is planning to attend Hope College. She also told us about another wonderful charity in Kissimmee called “Give Kids the World”, a huge complex that provides a beautiful vacation for terminally ill children. We have already contacted them online for volunteer opportunities and look forward to spending some time there. We then noticed a Bravo restaurant (one of favorites in East Lansing) and called Sue & Ray to meet us there for dinner. They had a saxophone player and blues singer performing and our server, Fiorella, was absolutely fantastic! What an interesting and fun day!

After learning about all the volunteer opportunities and the hardships experienced by so many people all around us and, indeed, around the world, I told Harv that if he hears me complain again about the weather, or my weight, or my clothes, or my hair, or any one of a million ridiculous and unimportant things, he is to smack me! Of course he wouldn’t do that, but hopefully both of us (especially me) realize how very lucky we are. It goes without saying that it’s not just me and Harv, but also all of you reading this, who can say the same thing - we are lucky, and blessed beyond what any of us deserves, to be living the lives we live. We are healthy, we are free, we are safe, we are part of a beautiful family that loves one another (most of the time J ). I’d like to think that this feeling of gratitude will stay with me….it is so often fleeting and has needed to be reinforced more than once! But my new goal, actually my ONLY goal, is to wake up every day grateful for the opportunity to live THIS life, MY life….it’s pretty darned good!

Here is the link to the organization: CleanTheWorld.org If you enter your zip code on their site you can find the organization's partners in your area (yes, even in Ionia).

A new addition

No, not THAT kind of addition. Quick, someone pick Tone's jaw off the floor!

I have a new Web site -- I've had a food blog for about 2 years, but I started using a new, better looking blog service and bought the domain name: IEatVeg.net

You can check it out here.

I'm still tweaking a few things, but already it's a vast improvement over the old one. And, fortunately, I was able to transfer the old blog so I still have my backlog of recipes from the last two years.

You'll probably recognize my Sous Chef and Chief Taster. Of course, if you have a recipe you ever would like to share, send it my way. I'd love to share it!

Hau`oli la hanau, Maggie!

Hope you have a great birthday, Maggie! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Lucas!

Hope everyone had a great time in Ionia today -- I know we had a blast yesterday! Here are a couple of pics. I'm going to try to upload them to Sarah's Shutterfly account overnight tonight though, so go to the link to the right to see them hopefully sometime tomorrow!

Box Tops 4 Education

I recently unearthed a note sent home from Claire's school about Box Tops 4 Education and thought I would share my new quest to collect the little 10 cent pink squares from random everyday items I already buy...

Basically, the sheet Claire brought home was a tally sheet -- I'm not sure how often, but whatever class collects the most "box tops" gets a pizza party or some kind of reward -- but that's not why I'm doing it.

Further investigation into the program via the Box Tops Web site revealed that Claire's school (Oakland Elementary in Royal Oak) seems to have just started collecting the box tops this year for the first time. Although their first-year goal only was $500, they've only collected $654 this year. For a school with so many students, that doesn't seem like very much money!

The school actually gets 10 cents from every top collected. It doesn't seem like much, but it could really add up! So, I thought I would spread the word and perhaps get a few more handed in to her school all for the cost of a postage stamp to you. :)

I've found the small pink squares -- just like the logo above -- on all kinds of things. Today, I took them from a Gogurt box and the bottom of my package of toilet paper. In the past, I've found them on frozen foods, frosting, boxes of Ziploc, cereals, Pillsbury cans of rolls, etc., and oh, so much more.


You can print off coupons on their Web site for all kinds of stuff too -- which, in turn have the Box Tops on them. This gives you an idea of what things should have them on their too.

Though I've not had the opportunity yet, you can earn box tops (so to speak) for purchases through their Web site in various stores online too. I don't expect you to go that far, but if you happen to notice the Box Tops 4 Education logo, please cut it out and maybe pop some in the mail to me after you get a decent stack. In about a month I have about $4 the worth, but it's $4 more than the school had before and it didn't cost me a thing!

I imagine now that I'm aware of it, I'll notice it more often still and will end up with more and more. So, keep yours eyes open! And let me know if you need our address! Thanks!