mr. and mrs. carr

this past weekend i had the privilege of coordinating owen and susan's wedding in champaign, illinois. since i love weddings, organizing and sometimes telling people what to do...i had a great time! i also took a few photos for them when i wasn't busy doing something else. 

owen and susan...thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your special day!

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shelly and the terrible horrible no good very bad day

i was robbed. i don't think i've ever been robbed before. it is no fun.

wednesday morning i went to church as usual for our weekly meeting. i also hooked up the bike rack on my trunk and brought along my bike so i could stop for a ride on my way home. i was trying to be wise and combine trips. before i left church i safely stowed my wallet in the console and the church laptop in my trunk. out of sight, out of mind.

so i went to my biking destination and had a nice ride. as i came back up to my car i noticed the bottom straps of my bike rack were hanging loose. weird. it's not like they can just fall off on their own. so i hooked them back up and put my bike on. then i walked to the front of the car and saw that my drivers window had been smashed. my mind started racing as i calculated what had happened. i hurried to unlock the back seat so i could look in the trunk...no laptop. opened the console...no wallet. by this time i am crying. and by crying, i mean sobbing and wailing. this nice man stopped to see what was wrong and offered to stay with me until the police came. he even gave me a hug, which i was really needing at that point.

thus began my terrible horrible no good very bad day. i cried a lot. i lost my own stuff...but even worse, i lost a lot of the church's stuff.

thursday was a much better day. i got a call from a policeman in the morning saying he had recovered my wallet. there was no license, money or credit cards but there were other things left in it. i was elated as i drove to meet him. a woman had come across it laying in a driveway that morning and had called the police. almost everything was there [including my check register] and he told me where it was found in case i wanted to go look around to see if anything else was there. so i drove up and down the street scanning the grass for anything interesting. i spotted a card sized object, jumped out to inspect it further and do i find...my drivers license! i was dancing in the street. i walked around some more and found a few other things that were mine. it was better than an easter egg hunt.

there's still a lot missing...many files and photos. but i'm okay, and as someone said, "stuff can be replaced, shelly cannot".

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health awareness month

due to the inspiration of my friend tara, i have declared the month of september to be 'heath awareness month'. initially i was curious to see if drinking the recommended amount of water per day would really make a difference in how i look and/or feel. considering my current liquid consumption was approximately 2oz. per day, i figured if there were results to be seen, i'd see them. but i went ahead and added a few other stipulations to make it interesting. here are the requirements:

• drink 64oz. of water per day
• eat at least one fruit or vegetable every day
• ride my bike three time a week
• only eat dessert on the weekends

i'm halfway through and so far have not drown, but i have yet to discover any visible benefits to drinking so much water. i'm starting to doubt those 'experts'.

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fun flight facts

total air miles traveled from june 2009 to present: 30,080

most surprising inflight movie selection: summer catch [starring jessica biel and freddie prinze jr.]

best airport food find: nathan's corn dog nuggest for $2.50

annoying airline that doesn't give you a snack even when you're flying across the country: united/u.s. air

most exciting airport for landing: tegucigalpa, honduras

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happy times in honduras

*disclaimer* - sorry if i worried some of you with the last post...the policemen always come along when they take groups to the street [political crisis or not] just as a precaution. we were safe the whole time!

that said, i have to admit i was surprised at how fond i became of this country in one short week. other than knowing it was somewhere in central america, honduras wasn't really on my radar as a place i was too interested in. there are, of course, many similarities to mexico, which isn't a surprise. but i was amazed at how beautiful it was, especially the bright blue of the sky. and i'm not really sure why, but their flag is one of my favorites. [maybe it had to do with all the soccer fans waving and wearing it everywhere]

we spent the week in the town of talanga, about an hour from tegucigalpa, with a bunch of lovable kids. they all come with different stories, but the bottom line is that at some point they each found themselves without anyone to care for or about them. most had been living on the streets for a period of time, forced to take on the responsibility of a grown up at much too young an age. but thankfully, God decided to give a man a desire to help these kids, and project manuelito was born. there are now thirty six kids who are off the streets and are instead being fed, loved and cared for by some very dedicated people.

our main job was just to love the kids and have fun with them. it's really cool how they consider those that come to visit as their family. we also had some work to do, as in manual labor. the biggest project was to finish pouring a sidewalk from the dorm to the dining hall. i managed to get in a little weight training as i pushed the wheelbarrows of cement back and forth from the mixer to the sidewalk. there was also some painting, sewing, washing and other little projects to take care of.

what made this trip different from any other i've been on is getting to see the same kids all day, every day. even though they mostly spoke spanish and we mostly spoke english, we were able to laugh and play together. [and just in case you were wondering, high school musical crosses all cultural and language barriers] these kids are all special and very unique. i don't really know how to get it across in words, so i'll just let you see them for yourself...

sara

cristian

jenni

sara kisses

while i'm so thankful that these kids are being loved, there are so many more on the street right this minute who don't have anyone to care for them. to help them all is an overwhelming task, but you gotta start somewhere. there are currently over 20,000 street children in honduras, or as they like to say at manuelito...20,000 minus 36.

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