TOMS Shoes

I would like to share with you a very good cause. TOMS Shoes is an amazing program that allows you to buy yourself a pair of shoes, and a second pair for children in need with one fairly low price! I personally have two pair and I wear both of them all the time! I have also bought a couple of pair for people as gifts. I am planning on buying a pair for my daughter soon too. I think this is such a worthy cause!
http://www.tomsshoes.com/

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This is taken from the site:

One for One

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about.

Our Story

In 2006 an American traveler, Blake Mycoskie, befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by caring TOMS customers.

Since our beginning, TOMS has given over 150,000* pairs of shoes to children in need through the One for One model. Because of your support, TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009.

Our ongoing community events and Shoe Drop Tours allow TOMS supporters and enthusiasts to be part of our One for One movement. Join us.

Why shoes?

Most children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or just getting around, these children are at risk.

Walking is often the primary mode of transportation in developing countries. Children can walk for miles to get food, water, shelter and medical help. Wearing shoes literally enables them to walk distances that aren't possible barefoot.

Wearing shoes prevents feet from getting cuts and sores on unsafe roads and from contaminated soil. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected. The leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted parasites which penetrate the skin through open sores. Wearing shoes can prevent this and the risk of amputation.

Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

There is one simple solution...SHOES.

Of the planet's six billion people, four billion live in conditions inconceivable to many. Lets take a step towards a better tomorrow.

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Again: Check out what they have to offer!

This is my first pair of TOMS. They're dirty here, but I threw them in the wash and they were as good as new!

My other pair are white. They're awesome too!

Anyways- help someone and go buy a pair of shoes! They're a great Christmas present too! No I am not affiliated with them, I just love what they do (and their products)!

Unhealthy Television

So I LOVE television. I can't help it. I do. My favorite time of year is fall because of all the new TV shows! Ok that was a joke, but it's borderline truth. haha
I have Comcast DVR now and it is so amazing! Now Eric and I can actually watch shows together after Faylen goes to bed! And I can record some of Faylen's favorite shows to watch whenever she wants! I can also run errands and never have to worry about missing anything! It's such a great invention!
My summer favorite was Big Brother 11. This was the first year I actually watched every episode. But this year, I went beyond not missing an episode, I read the blogs that the Live Feed Subscribers wrote. WoW. It was a crazy thing. I would read what was going on after Faylen went to bed so it was something to do. I didn't get so bad as to order ShowTime to watch BB After Dark even though I really wanted to! haha But that was my summer tv show obsession.
The Fall Thursday Line Up had my DVR booked. There were 4 shows that all came on in the same hour! That's how ridiculous it is/was!

I'm going to go by the days of the week and point out my favorites in the Primetime hours!

Sunday:
*The Amazing Race @ 8 PM on CBS: I tried to watch this show, but I pretty much just fast forward to the very end to see who went home. Even that was a little boring so I stopped DVR'ing it. haha
*Three Rivers @ 9 PM on CBS: I was going to start watching this, but I never got around to it. I deleted it off my DVR because I am planning on catching it On Demand eventually. We'll see.
*Defying Gravity @ 10 PM on ABC. This was one of our favorites and they cancelled it. Well, they didn't cancel it, they just let stupid Brothers and Sisters take it's time slot. Our only hope to see how the show ends is if SyFy picks it up. Grrr
*Army Wives @ 10 PM on Lifetime. This show is so great! It actually had it's season finale two nights ago so it won't be back on until June 2010 (more than likely).
So Sunday nights are a slow TV day for us now.

Monday:
*Dancing With the Stars @ 8 PM on ABC: I was watching this, but eventually started fastforwarding. I find most of the dancing boring. Sorry. I do look later on to see who was voted off. I think I want Melissa Joan Hart and Aaron Carter to win. I liked most everyone on there this season *wasn't a big fan of Macy Gray though*
*House @ 8PM on FOX: We LOVE this show! We've been watching it since the first episode. Minus Season 5 because Eric was deployed and I waited on him to get back to watch it with him. We are all caught up now and are as happy with the show as we've ever been!
*Heroes @ 8 PM on NBC: We are slowly catching up to where the show is now through Netflix. We still have about 13 more episodes until we can watch the new season. It's a great show though (where I left off anyways).
*Lie To Me @ 9 PM on FOX: Great show! We watch every episode together and can't wait for tonight's episode!
*Trauma @ 9 PM on NBC: This show is similar to Three Rivers as I meant to watch it, but haven't. It has been deleted off my DVR too. Maybe I'll catch it online some time.

Tuesday:
*The Biggest Loser @ 8 PM on NBC: Eric doesn't like this show, but I usually DVR and watch later. It's pretty good. I like most all the contestants on this show too.
*NCIS LA @ 9 PM on CBS: Pretty good show! I love Chris O'Donnell. My Mom and step dad got me to start watching NCIS, but I started to watch the spin off only.
*The Good Wife @ 10 PM on CBS: Really good show! I really like Julianna Margulies and I've missed her since the ER days. I hope this show lasts because I think it's a great idea!
*Hells Kitchen @ 8 PM on FOX: I completely forgot about this show because it wasn't on the Wikipedia list because the season finale was tonight. I hope Dave wins, but we're going to watch it tomorrow night because Eric didn't have time tonight. Great show! I can't wait until next season!

Wednesday:
*The Middle @ 830 PM on ABC: Pretty funny. We don't usually watch sitcoms, but this one drew us in because of Neil Flynn.
*Modern Family @ 9 PM on ABC: I thought this show was pretty hilarious. We'll see where they take it, but I love the fact that it's a mockumentary!
*Toddlers and Tiaras @ 10 PM on TLC: I love this show for some reason! Seriously.

Thursday:
*Community @ 8 PM on NBC: It was on a 10 PM, but it has moved up so now it conflicts with 3 other shows. It takes priority because Eric likes it over the other ones. haha It is hilarious though! I love Joel McHale. He's honestly one of my fave TV people! This is one of our rare sitcoms.
*FlashForward: @ 8 on ABC: Pretty good show. I was actually a little bored (until the end) with the last episode. It's a really great idea for a show though so we'll see where it goes!
*Survivor Samoa @ 8 PM on CBS: Good show. I have to catch up On Demand, but it's interesting. Yet again- this is the firs time I've watched this far into the season!
*Vampire Diaries @ 8 PM on CW: I was watching this show, but I've missed the last 3 episodes. This is because I don't want Faylen to see this one so I can't watch it during the day (she won't nap) and I'm a scaredy cat so I won't watch it by myself at night! haha Oh and Eric won't watch it with me. Oh well. Someday I'll catch up!
*Grey's Anatomy @ 9 PM on ABC: Of course I watch this show! I have since the beginning. Still pretty bummed they killed of George, but at least Izzie is still here (for now).
I miss ER in the 10 PM spot on NBC. Sad.

Friday:
We don't really watch TV on Friday nights. Usually a movie or we're out of the house.
*SouthLAnd on NBC should be starting again on this night in a couple of weeks. Can't wait! [Before I even post this the first time I would like to say that I just found out they cancelled this on Oct 8- UGH]
If 20/20 looks like it will be interesting I will DVR it.

Saturday:
I sometimes DVR the new episodes of COPS. haha
If we like the host on SNL we'll watch that. That's pretty rare though...

So that's it for our primetime lineup! I do have the random shows that I watch during the week. Like Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, and the occasional Bonnie Hunt Show.
I do like to see parts of the VH1 shows Tool Academy II and Real Chance of Love. Those people are crazy, but I have to know how wins/gets picked all the same! haha
True Life on MTV is also one of my favorites!

This post is dedicated to Dirty Sexy Money, Defying Gravity, and now SouthLAnd. We get really sick of the good shows being cancelled.

Kittens

So my husband [Eric] has been getting me interested in exotic looking cats. The specific types of cats are Pixie Bobs, Bengals, Savannah Cats, Desert Lynx, etc. We're currently waiting on replies from a couple of Pixie Bob breeders. I wanted to surprise him for his birthday with the cat of his dreams, but if I do get him one now it won't be a surprise! haha
All of these cats are pretty awesome. They're more like dogs than cats. If we get one we're planning on training it to walk on a leash. We believe a cat would be a pretty good addition to our family.
It's a little crazy though because we will go from having no pets to 2 within a couple of months!

Anyways... Here are a couple of pictures of the cats:
--Pixe Bob--









--Bengal--






--Savannah--

The BabyLove of My Life!

This is my baby girl, Faylen, born 11.06.2007. This picture was taken when she was two days old.
Faylen was born weighing 8 lbs, 11 oz. She was 21.5 inches long. Mommy was in induced on Monday at 1 PM and had Baby on Tuesday at 6:59 PM.

This baby girl is the love of my life! She couldn't have a bigger personality! She makes the funniest faces (and has since as long as I can remember)! That's going to be a blog in and of itself!

She loves to "read" and play with her babies. Her first word was "Daddy" because he was out to sea on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and I would show her his picture almost daily. She stopped saying "Daddy" as soon as he came home for some reason though! Her first word that she never stopped saying was "Cat". It is the one animal that she wouldn't make a noise for [like MEOW"]. In the last couple of weeks she has started to say meow finally.
With "Dog" it's the opposite as with "Cat". She would say dog at first then after a while she would only bark and never say "Dog". Silly girl!

Faylen is one of my favorite people in the whole world and I am so lucky I get to have her and watch her grow! I will probably blog about her way too much so I will go ahead and apologize right now to those of you who don't have kids! haha

New Addition to Hines Family!

So we are currently waiting to pick out a puppy from a Miniature/Toy Australian Shepherd litter that was born on 09/12. I have wanted an Australian Shepherd for as long as I can remember! Seeing how we live in military housing, they make us have a weight limit of 25 lbs for a dog. So I did some research and found that there is a smaller version of the standard Aussie! Perfect right?! So I found a breeder that I liked within a 5 hour drive and the puppies will be ready on 11/07! That's a day after my daughter's [Faylen] 2nd birthday! So she is pretty much getting a puppy for her birthday. Along with other things of course, but still. All of the puppies are male so we will definitely have a boy dog. The litter has blue merles (what we want) and black tris. We want to pick mainly by personality, but color will definitely be put into consideration.
We are slowly getting ready for the puppy. We have his crate, padding, and food/water bowls. We have picked out quite a few toys for the puppy! Faylen likes to help with that! We bought a plain black leash and collar. We're thinking about buying a harness, but we'll wait until the puppy is here for that.

Here are a few pictures of the litter:

^^ Puppies @ 1 Day Old ^^

^^ Puppies @ 1 Week Old ^^

^^ Puppies @ 2.5 Weeks Old ^^

^^ Puppies @ 4.5 weeks old ^^

>>All Pictures were taken by the lovely people at Crooked River Acres<< >>http://www.crookedriveracres.com/CRA/LOTR_Litter.html<<

My Genetic Defects...

So I recently decided to figure out if some of my random conditions have medical terms. Well I found out they do! haha
I have Brachydactyly Type D
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=113200
This is also known as clubbed thumbs! I just want to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my thumbs! I always have even when people joked about them being fat or "Toe thumbs"! Since the whole "Megan Fox has toe thumbs" has come to light I have decided to embrace my crazy thumbs even more! haha

So here is my lovely thumb on my wedding day!


By the way- that nail isn't real (duh). But that's the only problem with my thumbs- that I have to custom cut fake nails to fit my short, wide nail! haha


Another medical thing I recently looked up is Heterochromia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterochromia
It is when someone has two different colored eyes. I have had two eye colors since as far back as I can tell in pictures (about 1.5 years old).
I have one brown eye and one green/hazel eye. They tend to change with my mood or with what I'm wearing. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's not. My favorite line is, "Wow! Do you know you have two different colored eyes?!" That always cracks me up! Sometimes I mock-freak out just to play around. hehe

This is a picture of my eyes on a day when it's not too obvious. I'll look for a good one later.


On my drivers license it says I have brown eyes and on my Military ID it says I have green eyes. haha Whoops.

So those are a couple of random things that I have been handed down through genes (more than likely). It could always be worse!
In conclusion- I LOVE my thumbs and eyes no matter how much someone might make fun of them! haha

Thanks for reading and have a beachy day!!



So I found a picture I took of my eyes quite a long time ago. It's black and white so you can't really see the color differences, but you can kind of see the shade differences.

First Blog in Years

WoW . So this is what it feels like to blog again. I have missed you keyboard. haha
So life is good currently. Living in WA State. Kind of can't wait to get back to the South East though. It is beautiful here on the island- no one can deny that!

So I'm going to play around on this site a little bit then maybe I'll come back and blog a bit more later!