francis howell viking football

i have a new favorite football player [though i probably didn't have one to begin with]. matthew is a freshman at my high school this year and decided to play football. monday was the one and only game i'll get to see this year, so i had to pack a lot of spirit into that hour and a half!! i'm sure he was really pleased, and not at all embarrassed, by my artistic sign and the fact that i was frantically waving it around while screaming "go 43", and "good job 43" for the entire game. i didn't earn the most spirited pommer trophy two years in a row for nothing!

jacob, me, and gracie

[with a very tiny matthew in the background]

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i want to go back to the beach

this was the extent of my to-do list for the past week:

• float in pool
• play in ocean
• look for shells
• eat lots of snow crab

my mom and i spent the past week in pensacola beach, florida with friends from church that we've known forever. this was our second year to go on vacation together and it was quite fun.

matthew . john . joanie . chris . kim . marilyn

shelly . jacob . gracie

jacob and i on jet ski day in the bay

one night we drove into pensacola to eat at maguire's, they are famous for having great burgers. they also have a very cool tradition of letting everyone who visits sign a dollar bill and staple it to the ceiling. they have over $550,000 in dollar bills, and that's not a typo! there is money everywhere. i think i could live on their dollar bills for the rest of my life. of course we didn't want to miss the opportunity to leave our mark in history, so we all signed a bill and up it went.

jacob stapling our dollar to the ceiling for all eternity

the room we were in looked like it was a recent addition since it didn't have nearly as much money in it as the rest of the place. also, if you ever eat here, be sure to go to the bathroom. i won't spoil the surprise, just go.

one last picture of my favorite coast line on planet earth

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the story of stuff

over the past few months i have become a bit of a tree hugger. no, i haven't started a compost pile in the backyard [though i did get a "keep it clean, keep it green" t-shirt for my birthday], but i am more aware of how much, and what, i throw away. the fascinating thing that i quickly discovered is that my insane frugality happens to go hand in hand with being kind to the earth. the less stuff you buy, the less stuff you have, the less stuff that gets thrown away. the less you drive, the less gas you buy, the less pollution goes into the air. it's simple math [though i don't think the grammar exactly works]. 

i recently came across this video that makes some interesting points about how our personal decisions affect not only the earth, but also our fellow humans. it's worth a watch.

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