I hope everyone is having a wonderful Earth Day! This is one of my favorite holidays - it is a simple day where I find myself looking around more than usual. New Mexico is an interesting environment. The Sandia Mountains are in my backyard, the sun is shining almost everyday, there is dirt and rocks everywhere and the wind is very gusty. There are rivers nearby also, in fact next month Dan and I are going white water rafting in Taos with my co-workers. It is interesting living out here in the desert and it takes my mind back to Turkmenistan sometimes and the life I had there.
In honor of Earth Day this weekend we are going to plant some rose bushes. I really look forward to having roses again, which I haven't had since we lived in Gainesville. I think it will help to see roses bloom while Dan is deployed reminding me of how much he loves me.
Earth Day is also a great day to see what simple things in your life you can do to reduce, reuse or recycle. Before we moved to New Mexico we gave away a lot of items to people in Dayton via freecycle. This is a great program which I encourage people to check out. Why throw something away that others may need? We gave away a dresser, mattress box springs, a file cabinet and several other items. Another thing we have started this past year is composting (the roses should love this). People throw away so much food waste - why not compost it! Composting reduces the need for water & fertilizers in your garden and also reduces the amount of methane and leachate formulation in the landfills. Also simple things like changing mail to electronic, using cloth shopping bags & having a programmable thermostat can help the earth and reduce costs.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Earth Day. ~ Ali
I very carefully collected about 8 eggs during my hunt. 
Below is a picture of me and mommy after her Triathlon this morning. Doesn't she look refreshed after her race? This is because yet again she had bike troubles. 2 weeks ago her mountain bike fell of the rack and broke the brake. Today her brand new street bike that was just tuned, fitted and given new tire tubes broke. The back tire went flat right before the race, but she changed out the tube and was going to have a good race. After running in (run was first, then bike then swim) the bike area under 28 minutes (a new record for mommy - yea!) she jumped on her bike and the back tire went bam! Goo seeped out and the tire was flat again. There must be something broken inside the wheel that is popping the tubes. So she didnt get to start the bike or do the swim :( Me and daddy and nana were so excited to cheer her on too! So instead we went for a walk as a family and mommy carried me in the backpack. I love my backpack - I can't wait until I am 6 feet tall - the world is so much better from up here!
The 0-2 year old section of the Easter Egg "Hunt"
And Daddy wears his green camo and shoots paper people - the Irish do have a wee bit of violence in them as well.
