A Legacy of Literacy Begins Now

In honor of her 30th birthday, my nearest and dearest friend Nicole is making it her mission to raise $13,000 dollars to build a school in Cambodia.  Literacy has always been a cause close to her heart and, when combined with education, is a great way to help prevent young girls and women from being victimized by human traffickers.  This is a cause I believe is completely worthy of being plugged on the blog.  Below you'll find her fund raising letter, which provides some additional detail on exactly what she's undertaken.  If you know anyone who might be interested in making a donation to this great cause, please forward the information along.  And of course, feel free to leave any fund raising ideas in comments and I'll be sure to pass them along!!

Happy 30th Cole!

Fund raising letter from Nicole - 

Hello friends and family,

As most of you know, I turn 30 this May, and I’ve been thinking about doing something meaningful to mark the occasion. Everyone who knows me knows that the cause dearest to me is literacy because of my lifelong love affair with books (and newspapers and journals and magazines). So… I have decided that I would like to build a school!

I just finished Nick Kristof’s book Half the Sky, which is full of fantastic ideas to help women around the world, and one project in particular really caught my attention: a non-profit that builds schools in Cambodia, where the low literacy and high poverty rates make it a hub for the trafficking of girls and women. Think of an 8 or 9 year old girl close to you, whether it is your daughter, niece, or a friend’s daughter. Now imagine that girl being sold, at that age, to a brothel. Education is the best weapon we have against such a disgusting trade because it gives wome n options, knowledge, confidence and community.

I’ve checked out this program pretty thoroughly and am satisfied that it is a good one… and the 13k that donors raise to build a school is matched with 13k from the World Bank and then by another 13k from the Asian Development fund – a great value! Here’s the website: http://www.cambodiaschools.com/

I hope that you will participate in helping me reach this goal. I realize that 13k sounds like a lot, esp. in this economy, but I’m not looking for big amounts from anyone, I’m looking for small amounts from lots of people! So the more this is shared, the easier it will be to reach the goal. If you have any connections to businesses or firms with philanthropy programs, or faith communities that you feel comfortable reaching out to, that would be most welcome!

I’ve set up a new email address called letsbuildaschool@gmail.com with a linked PayPal account to help me keep track of fund raising. I’d like to be able to thank the people who contribute, so please email me and let me know who you are (if you aren’t comfortable announcing your identity or donation amount I totally understand, but I won’t be able to tell people’s identities from their PayPal info. to be able to thank them).

I will also send out an update on our total once a month to interested parties.

Thank you so much for helping. I want more women to have as much love & luck as I have.

My cup (cake) runneth over

Last night Ben and I had a date night in Tyson's Corner.  We went to see the new Iron Man movie and then grab a bite to eat. Except instead of dining in on a healthy meal we opted to take home a cupcake (or three).  That's the beauty of being adults.  We can eat dessert for dinner and there's no one around to yell at us.  Since Nicole was without power for the third day in a row, she came over after our date to indulge in some of our hot water, so we decided to share our date night cupcakes with her too!

The cupcakes themselves are from a place called Cake Love, which has had its 15 minutes of fame more than once on the Food Network and who's proprietor, Warren Brown, is also a frequent host/guest on the network.  So we had high hopes for these cupcakes.

(The top of our cupcake carrier)

Since this was our first try, we each selected one and decided to share them both and then selected a third to bring back for Nicole.  Knowing that it's easiest to judge a place when you have a good basis of comparison, Ben selected an old stand by, Vanilla cake with Vanilla frosting or "Vanilla on Vanilla." I chose something a bit less tested, a chocolate coffee cake with whipped frosting (mild vanilla flavor).  And for Nicole, we chose a toffee cupcake, knowing her love of the candy.

(Here's the toffee cupcake, sorry no shots of the other two, Ben and I got a little ahead of ourselves with the eating and forgot to take pics)

All in all, we really enjoyed our sweet treats.  But there is a note of relativity about that statement.  I say this because while they were good, moist and light with tasty frosting, they were not the best I've ever had.  Up to this point in life the best cupcake I've ever had comes from Georgetown Cupcake, where the bakers put all other cupcakes to shame.  However, the average cupcake from this upscale locale rings up at around $5.00.  Cake Love, however, delivers a tasty alternative (even if not as perfect) for just $3.25 and is less than 10 minutes from our new house, where as Georgetown requires me to negotiate the Key Bridge, parking and more Trixies (substitute Georgetown for Lincoln Park) than I care to encounter.  That said, they'll be seeing us back at Cake Love sometime soon.

And while we're talking cupcakes, I should note that although I've enjoyed what the metro DC area cupcakeries have had to offer, I am DYING to try a cupcake from my great friend Julie's mom's new cupcake store, Cup.Cake.  From everything I've heard and read, I am confident that they'll give even Georgetown Cupcake a run for it's money!

House + Birthday = May Madness

And so it begins.  In addition to the many, many tasks we will have to complete between now and the May 28th closing date on the house, May also marks a month of birthday madness.  Celebrating their entries into the world this month are Ben, Nicole, Melissa and Marika.  This is a month that normally finds us out a lot, celebrating the people we love and we usually start with Ben.  However, with all the goings on around the house and the fact that saving money is a big priority for us right now, Ben decided this year we'd celebrate his birthday in a low key sort of way - with the home inspection.

We met up with the Inspector at the house at 3PM.  I was warned ahead of time that a good home inspection takes about three hours.  This was NOT a lie.  We wrapped up at just about 6 PM.  In the hours in between, I was amazed to realize all the things a home inspector considers when giving a place a clean bill of housing health that would never even have crossed my mind.   The roof, the HVAC and the electrical were no-brainers (and the things that we were most concerned about considering the costs often associated with them), but he noticed things that I had never imagined.  He taught how to stabilize our railing with silicone capping, how to raise an air conditioning unit at no cost, and he shook our deck to make sure it was stable in a way that scared me so badly I ran back into the house while the deck was still moving (not to worry potential visitors, the deck is stable, he just freaked me out!).  But the best part of the whole experience was when he came out of our attic and proclaimed to Ben, "Buy it!" with a thumbs up.  All in all, the inspection went very well and while there are a few things on the list to focus on right away, there were no deal breakers.

But with all the house hubbub, I couldn't let Ben's birthday go by unmarked.  So on our way home, we stopped off at The Pie Gourmet, a happy local bakery that doesn't look like much at all with their 70s-style bakery cases and no frills locale, but man do they know their way around a pie.  Apple, Cherry, French Silk, Boston Cream, you name it, they do it and do it well.  Since it was Ben's 29th we were celebrating, I had ordered his favorite - Key Lime.

It took him less than three minutes from the time we walked in the door to be sitting at the kitchen table with a piece of pie.  A sweet ending to what turned out to be sweet day!

Welcome Home!

After some crazy weekends spent looking at houses (the craziest point of which was 15 houses in a single day!), we finally found one that met both our needs and nearly all our wants.  Just over a mile from the Dunn Loring metro stop with a metro bus stop right at the mouth of our development, it's in a great location for both Ben and me, closer to work for us both.  Closing is May 28th and we couldn't be more excited, except for all the stuff that has to be done between now and then!  Below are lots of pics of the new place.  Consider these the "before" that include some of the prior owner's clutter.

 (The front facade.  This pic was taken in the winter, 

but right now we have lovely green trees lining the whole street)

(The main floor entry way (down a step from the rest of the floor), living room and dining room)

(A closer shot of the living room.  It's bigger than it looks, 

the former residents had some seriously over-sized furniture)

(A closer look at the dining room.  I love that the space is open 

but the column makes it seem like it's own room)

(Kitchen!  It will need a little work down the road, but it's great for the time being)

(An alternate view of the whole first floor including the half bath door on the left, the stairs 

to the lower level and the view into the eat in part of the kitchen)

(Deck off the kitchen, again all the giant stuff on it makes it look smaller than it is.)

 (Master Bedroom with vaulted ceiling!)

(Master bath with dual vanities, needs some work but it's a good start)

(First guest bedroom, yes, the wallpaper border is coming down ASAP!)

(The second guest bedroom, again, down comes the border)

(Upstairs guest bathroom)

(Lower level with walkout)

(Backyard)

Now you've seen all the move-in, "before" pictures.  As we start working inside I'll post more pictures.  Wish us luck on the move, Saturday, May 29th!