Sunshineandstarlight wrote about her trip to Africa - to the Sudan.  Besides her words describing the beautiful people who live there, her photos are equally stunning,

The first child I made contact with at the orphanage.  Their red and yellow uniforms were ahhh-mazing.  Until I learned they were the only clothes they had, the uniform on their backs.  *sigh*

Another friend of mine often goes to Africa for missionary work and I’ve fallen in love with the continent from hearing all these good things about it. Some day I’ll go, too.

I just got to view the video making all the news channels with the eight-year-old Brazilian girl singing “Bad Romance”.  Believe me…she’s not the only one going Gaga.  My nine-year-old and I actually “enjoyed” this one much more!

I am pleased to introduce Mandi as the newest writer for the Shak family.  Mandi is a mom, wife, and pet lover.  Her stories are real, her experiences funny.  Please make her feel at home!

As my first post, it seems logical to tell you a little about myself. So, here goes…

My husband and I live with our two children, one boy and one girl, in a brick home on a hill. We have a white picket fence surrounding our house, which sits on 25 acres of rolling hills and valleys. It’s a lot to keep up with, so I am assisted by two nannies and a WONDERFUL housekeeper.

Wait…wait…wait…um…my mind was traveling back to my dream last night. I apologize. Here’s the real story…My husband and I have two wonderful children, an 8-year old girl and 2-year old boy. We live in a typical “cookie cutter” home with our two dogs and cat. Our home is so close to our neighbor’s house that we do sometimes hear the tantrums of the three children who live next door. So, in short, no “yard man” is needed! Unfortunately, needed or not, the two nannies and housekeeper are also not part of our world.

My husband started his business right as the economy tanked about two years ago. That’s been interesting. I have been a stay at home mom since the birth of my daughter almost nine years ago. My three year job search has become both irritating and boring. I believe it is safe to say that our family sees or has seen many of the everyday struggles that many families are experiencing these days.

I hold a Bachelors Degree in Family and Consumer Services with an emphasis on Child Development and Family Studies. In theory, this makes me an expert in almost all aspects of family life…from morning sickness to adult diapers. Since graduating from college in 1997, I have been humbled to learn that, although book knowledge is a wonderful and useful tool, experience is the best education!

I welcome the opportunity to write on a regular basis. I have to admit, though, that I do believe it will be a challenge. For years, I’ve said that anything in writing can be used as “evidence”!!! I now have the chance to test my theory! Hopefully, we will all learn a little, and the only evidence will be that of my budding self-confidence!

A sweet little message to help from a 7-year old British boy sparked a lot of news coverage and nearly $200,000 in donations from around the world.  Charlie Simpson wanted to ride his bike five miles to raise donations.  His UNICEF page says,

My name is Charlie Simpson, I want to do a Sponsored Bike Ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives.  I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.

Donations are pouring in from throughout the world… $5 to $30 (and more) at a time.  If you want to give through Charlie’s page, click here.   What a generous heart and huge spirit little Charlie has!

Photo from London’s Daily Mirror.

Marriage proposals can be sweet, romantic, fast, slow, boring, amazing, flattering, and … go ahead and fill in your own words!  They can be as creative as the person asking and Derick Childress has proven creativity has no bounds!

Using a technique called Light Writing, he used stop motion animation to  inquire,

EMILY, WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Derick explains how he did it,

I knew I wanted to find a very special way to propose to a very special woman.  I liked the look of light writing, but I wanted to do something on a much larger scale.  To my knowledge, a light writing of this size had never been done before.  I had the idea of placing a camera at the top of a tall building and mapping out the words “Emily, will you marry me?” over part of the city.

Here’s the video,

I’m still not sure whether or not Emily said yes, but I hope she did.

“Don’t burn bridges,” my TV production professor wrote on one of my papers where at the end he asked what we thought of the class.  At the time, I thought he was a pretty bad instructor but in hindsight I really learned a lot.  He was able to quickly see whose skills worked best for the different studio equipment - I was often assigned to run the character generator (to produce words under telecasts like the news scroll) because my spelling was gud good.

“Don’t burn bridges.”  Three words I never forgot.

I have tried to apply those three words to life every single day.  If I get irritated at someone, I try to remain calm and see their side of any given situation.  If I still don’t agree, I know it’s not me and walk away.  There’s no sense in letting the little stuff drag you down.

However when it’s your JOB that’s affected, my view changes somewhat.  I was once unjustly attacked about my job.  I didn’t burn bridges, but given the chance (and if the right words came to me) I would still love me a good ol’ put-them-in-their-place moment.  Like Conan did in his resignation letter made public.

“… It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule,” he wrote.

“But sadly,” he added, “we were never given that chance.”

Then again, maybe Conan’s move wasn’t so smart when he burned some bridges.  One professional management recruiter suggested people NOT do what Conan did,

“That’s a dangerous game,” he said. “If I were NBC, I would call Conan’s bluff.”

Even if O’Brien gets what he wants, it may not bode well for his future relationship with his employer.

Sometimes it’s good to be one of the little people and not have that kind of problem! At least when I have to take it on the chin, it’s not blasted out for the whole world to see.

I can’t tell you how absolutely horrible I think this must be for the poor Cat Girl of China.  What started out as a mole has spread to a cat-like fur covering half of Li Xiaoyuan’s body.  I can think of plenty of people who might like the idea of growing fur, but no…. I’d cry.

The copyrighted image and story here.  Or you can visit Ron at Pop Fi to see his write up. If you don’t want to click through, here’s a photo of my sweet kitty who is also covered with gray fur.

These tweets either made me laugh or make me think…

@pfmonaco: from a Trek episode, when anybody asks you anything.. just yell “Now THAT’s a stupid question!” then walk away!

@JSBagain back off Blondie - Jon Stewart is mine CAREFUL NOW… IF WE GO TO THE MAT YOUR BLOWOUT IS TOAST, SISTER

@melissity: Taking off my sports bra is full of fun surprises these days. So THAT’S where that piece of Play-Doh went!

@SarcasticMomLC How the peanut butter gets in his eyebrows eludes me. I mean, I like to roll in it, don’t get me wrong. But he’s not, so HOW?

@newscoma I have never had chicken and waffles. I would like to rectify this.

@blondemomblog Signed H1N1 vaccination school consent for 7-yr-old after asking pediatrician about it yesterday. Still feel weird abt it tho. How ’bout u?

@grandefille In happier news, the bluejay on the windowsill is peering in at me, but in a pleasant, nonthreatening way. I shall feed it a peanut.

and my favorite…

@justmalia Fueled by coffee, held together by spandex.

From Finnspace of her little Sam.  (Awesome!)

I have never met anyone famous but have spoken with (either in person or online) with many people that have. In fact, a woman I used to work with was on the same airplane with my favorite actor, James Stewart.  She didn’t want to bother him so she did not say anything to him, but I am still jealous!

Have you ever had a close encounter or sighting of a famous person? If you have, share your story with us. It is a small world after all!