I just have to tell you about a new company by a couple of great moms. The company is called Sparkletees http://www.sparkletees.biz/ and the shirts are not only hip and fun to wear, but they come with a greater mission.

Every single shirt they sell has a theme and portions of the proceeds go to a nonprofit organization: The Peace Sign shirt supports America’s Second Harvest (http://www.secondharvest.org/); the Dragonfly Tee supoorts the Reach out and Read Foundation (http://www.reachoutandread.org/); The Flower Tee supports the Make-a-Wish Foundation (http://www.wishcolorado.org/); and my favorite, the Earth Tee, supports Habitat for Humanity (http://www.habitat.org/).

I’m wearing my SparkleTee today, for Earth Day, and I feel so danged cute in it! And when the sun is shining, like it finally is in Denver today, I sparkle!

These make great gifts and you’re supporting a small business run by two busy moms… so I just HAD to tell you about it.

I do plan to share stuff about MY life again soon!

Tonight, over dinner, we had this exchange between Dave and Allie, who is now 5… (a little history… a while back, Allie said that she was going to marry Dave and that he was her Prince Charming):

DAVE: Allie, Are you still going to marry me?
ALLIE: (pause, pause)
ME: Or are you going to marry Chase? (a boy in her class)
ALLIE: I think I have to do eenie, meenie, minie, moe. (Dave about collapsed here.)
(just a few minutes later)
DAVE: Allie, I’m stronger than Chase.

I just received this email from Tiffany and it is worth saving for posterity…

————

OMG!!!!!
Today is a fabulous reminder of why I need to protect around Tues and thurs (and not do any computer work with kids!!)

Let me just share one gem: I’m working away and all of sudden my screen goes black! Eli had crawled under my desk and turned off my computer!!! Yes, he did.

I have dinner with the girls tonight, if I can survive that long!!!!!!

Last week was my kids’ spring break and I took them to my in-law’s cabin in Grand Lake. While it was not exactly as refreshing as a beach escape (it was negative-seven degrees one morning!) it was so nice to get away for an extended time! I went up on Friday with the kids and Dave, then Dave left on Sunday (no spring break for him) and TIFFANY BROUGHT HER KIDS UP ON MONDAY!

It was the first MA! Retreat! As I write this, actually, it is April 1 and it is EMERSON’S BIRTHDAY, which also means MA! IS ONE YEAR OLD! What an amazing journey this has been so far.

Tiffany and I planned to be up there and attempt to plot out the next six months or so, but we realized that it was simply nice just to BE. Our time together has always been tight and we have to STUFF everything from budgeting to brainstorming into our one-hour lunches! She lives in Colorado Springs and I live in Denver, so we meet in Castle Rock over lunch and sprint through an agenda. (Once, she ordered chocolate cake while I was in the bathroom and we both felt so decadent for taking extra time for this luxurious splurge.)

So, suddenly, we were in the peaceful mountains, a bottle of wine between us and kids in bed (and out of bed and in bed and out of bed…) and we just TALKED! We took tangents. We explored our past and discussed our current lives outside MA!

Nope, we don’t have the next six months outlined, but there is no doubt in my mind that MA! is stronger because our understanding of one another, and care for one another, is deeper.

Here are a coupla pics from our time up there — we never found a way to get a picture of all of us together. There was one moment at a restaurant when we were waiting for take-out that we thought might work… but the kids started melting down and we exchanged that panicky “this-is-all-going-to-fall-apart-any-second” look, and rushed out.