Help End World Hunger!

Please check this website out! The nerd in me is addicted to this game and it's for a good cause! For every word you get right they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food program to help end hunger. It's free to play and an easy way to boost your vocabulary.

From the website:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

I want to be a Tigger!

So last night was a night of inspirational TV for me... We watched Idol Gives Back and were very moved by the program. Then I watched Diane Sawyer's interview of Randy Pausch about his last lecture. Later that night "Nightline" did a story about this documentary called "Young At Heart" Talk about a night of messages about giving back, living your dreams and staying young at heart!

I'll start with Randy Pausch, he gave his last lecture "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," on 9/18/07 at Carnegie Mellon University. Diane Sawyer spoke with him about his lecture and a book he wrote about it. He has Pancreatic cancer and was only given 6 months to live. So he gave a lecture at Carnegie Mellon that was very moving. You can watch it on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo. I highly recommend it!

"So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. ... Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us." Randy Pausch

That is such a powerful statement! A lot of times we get so caught up in our problems and we focus so much on the bad that we forget to live our lives. That this man can be so positive when he is facing death and leaving his family behind is so inspirational. If he can live his life to the fullest, then why can't all of us? No matter what our circumstances are we should be living our lives and fulfilling our dreams. The whole interview I kept thinking about Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Anything is possible if we put our lives in God's hands! This man was given 6 months to live and he has already lived past that time, even though he is not healed and doesn't have much longer he is still vibrant and very much in the moment. He is leaving his kids such a great legacy and I think this speaks volumes about how we should live our lives! I want to be a Tigger! I want to regain my childlike wonder :) I hope this inspires me to keep pursuing my childhood dream of writing :)

Idol Gives Back was very entertaining yet very emotional. Seeing the conditions that people live in, such poverty and sickness and yet these people had hope. Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus visited the Appalachian mountains in Kentucky and the poverty there was shocking. But the family they visited had so much hope for the future. It made me think no matter what our financial situation is we should have that same hope. God always provides! The highlight of the night for me was the end when[ the contestants sang "Shout to the Lord!" How awesome to see God glorified on one of the most popular shows on TV right now. It gave me goosebumps!

Now I come to the last thing I watched before going to bed. It was a story on Nightline about a documentary called "Young at Heart". It's about a choir of senior citizens from New England, ranging in age from 72 to 88 years old, covering rock songs! This is a quote from their website:

It is possible to age gracefully.
It is possible to grow old without growing boring.

I haven't seen the movie yet but would love to. To see them singing their hearts out with no fear and to be so young at heart is great. I hope to age like they have :) This is a link to their website http://www.youngatheartchorus.com/about.php

Check out a video of them singing "Staying Alive" on You Tube-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omIrLgQO9O0

Check out a video of them singing "I Will Survive" on You Tube-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwJJNDN-fD0

Check out a video of them singing Fix You by Coldplay on You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6k-99qcCE

And finally here is a clip of from American Idol... Shout to the Lord!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXEraRnE4o

Shout to The Lord

My Jesus, My Savior,

Lord, there is none like You;

All of my days

I want to praise

the wonders of Your mighty love.


My comfort, my shelter,

Tower of refuge and strength;

let every breath, all that I am

never cease to worship You.


Shout to the Lord, all the earth,

let us sing

power and majesty, praise to the King;

mountains bow down and the seas will roar

at the sound of Your name.

I sing for joy at the work of Your hands,

forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand,

nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

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My Love Letter to the NY Mets- Opening Day at Shea Stadium 2008

The memories of last season's historic collapse are now behind us as the NY Mets start their new season on their home Opening Day. Today's opening day is the last for the NY Mets at Shea Stadium. Next year the new home of the Mets will be Citifield. As a lifelong Mets fan, I am sad to see this last opening day. I have so many memories at Shea Stadium rooting for my team!

The Mets may not have as many World Series championships as the other New York team (the one my hubby roots for...) but they are the team that took root in my heart as a young girl. The first game I can clearly remember watching was probably in 1984 or 1985. I remember it being an extra inning game that seemed like it was not going to end! My parents let us stay up to watch this exciting game and I became hooked. They weren't the best team in baseball but they sure did have promising players on the team! We had Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight "Dr. K" Gooden and many more great players, who made the game so exciting for me!

1986 was the year the Mets took the big prize, World Series champs!!! At the time I was going to Junior High all the way in Flushing, Queens! I was attending the only Christian school my Mom could find, Flushing Christian School. We passed Shea Stadium every day on our way to school and back home. During those World Series games, we would listen on the radio and pass a rocking Shea Stadium on the way home. Even though we couldn't attend the games, it sure felt like we were there. We would all scream in the "green" van as we passed Shea.

The day they won the Series, I remember my Dad running out to the store in the midst of all the celebration. He came back and said some lady was so happy about the Mets win, she planted a kiss on him! We were a bunch of happy Mets fans that day.

There are so many other Shea memories. I have been to so many games and each has a special highlight for me. The last game I went to was for my birthday in 2005. My brother got us some great tickets with access to the Diamond Club. I went with my parents and my little brother. I wore my sparkly pink Mets shirt proudly. We had so much fun and I got to spend some one on one time with my Dad in the Diamond Club. This was also right before I found out I was pregnant with Jr.! This is probably my best memory of going to Shea Stadium.

This is also the team my grandpa rooted for and most of the rest of my family. I am hoping my kids will follow the tradition too. Julia is already a Mets fan and hopefully my boys will be too! They have enough Mets outfits from their Uncles!

Through all the ups and downs my team has had, I have remained faithful. I may get frustrated but I will never give up on my Amazin' Mets. Like the motto says "You Gotta Believe". Our team still has promise with David Wright, Jose Reyes, Los Dos Carloses (Beltran and Delgado) and our newest Met, Johan Santana! These guys are so dynamic and fun to watch like my 1986 Mets! So if you hear a crazy lady in Brooklyn madly chanting "!!!!" it is probably me! I love my team and am proud to say that I am a !!!

all Mets Graphics from

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When did your "obsession" with the internet begin?

I've never been the type of person to stay in touch by calling. I don't really like being on the phone for too long but e-mailing and chatting online has always been something I like to do.

I remember when we first got hooked up on the internet. I bought a computer for my family when I was in college with some scholarship money. Me and my sibs needed one badly for our school assignments! We were still using a typewriter and going to the computer lab at school was too time consuming since I was a commuter not a dormer.

The added bonus was installing a little disc known as America Online . We all got our own e-mail addresses and discovered the chat rooms and instant messenger. Me and my Mom would goof around in the chatroom for plenty of laughs. It was all so new to us... it was the early 90's. Little did I know how much being online would change my life.

I was a shy and sheltered girl and once I graduated college and got into the workforce I discovered some social groups on yahoo. It was a way of connecting to other latinos in my age group. I thought I might actually meet some people in persom from the connections I made on groups like "Rinconcito Latino". But I never had the guts to do it! However I made some great online friends who I still chat with frequently. Still hope to meet some of those ladies one day!

Once I became a Mom, I gravitated more towards Mom groups online. I found forums to meet other Moms, share experiences and get advice. This was my intro to MSN groups and Yahoo 360. Some of the girls I had met online before when were single and trying to socialize where also now Moms and joined the same mommy groups I was in. It was cool sharing this new experience with them as we had shared advice about dating and even wedding planning before in different online settings.

I also met some new friends! This time I was brave enough to meet some of my online Mommy friends through a playdate group of working mamas. They gave me such great support and Julia got to meet some cool kids and do some awesome stuff during the weekend. We went to museums, parks, street fairs, and even a farm in Queens. We even had a few parties for the kids for Christmas and Halloween. Of course we also had our monthly Mom's Night Out! I cherish those times because besides finding a great network of Moms to hang out with, I also had some great one on one time with Julia. I hope she has great memories from those days!

It seems like I always find what I need in the universe of the world wide web. Now I am on Myspace and am able to stay in touch with family and to reconnect with old friends like never before.

The net was also helped me now that I have recommitted my life to Christ! I have forged some amazing friendships with great women of faith on Cafemom. I feel so blessed to have "met" these women through various Cafemom groups. These women rock! They have taught me so much and given me great encouragement. The net has been a new way for me to fellowship and immerse myself in the Lord. I love finding podcasts of sermons and reading daily devotions in my inbox.

Now that I have found the world of blogging, it's a whole new experience for me. It's a new world of mommies and I have also found new resources for growing in my walk with Christ. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me as I continue on this journey!

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