Walking For Dreams Family and Pet Walk

It was a beautiful day for a walk on the Downtown Indy Canal. Brad, Evie, Lily, and I came to support the Sales Diesel team who sponsored the non-for-profit, The Jackson Center. Everyone had a great time getting out to support a good cause.

“Walking For Dreams” is a 5k Family and Pet walk that helps local Indianapolis Non-Profit companies raise the funds needed to help our families and youth. There were about 20 different NFP’s and several local companies there to support them. It was a great time seeing all the different dogs and cats that were walking along with us. The girls had to stop and pet just about every one of them! The people in the orange shirts were walking to support the Jackson Center, many of them were part of the Sales Diesel crew. The four of us, unfortunately, were still in our church clothes, so we didn’t actually do the full walk. We cheated a little. 🙂

Now, since we are on the subject of events….I am looking for other Green-minded friends or someone who likes to plan events, who might be interested in becoming part of, or helping out with, a Non-profit of my own. If you know anyone or you yourself have some free time and want to learn more, please let me know!

Have a blessed week!!!!!!!!

Aubree

Owen’s Nursery….so far

For my family and friends who have been wanting to see the nursery, here is what we’ve got so far. I am getting my glider this week so it will fill some of the space; but I am in desperate need of wall decor!!! I am totally open for ideas if you’ve seen anything that would go nicely. I’ve been looking at frames and prints for the walls, as well as shelves. I added the two pics at the bottom to show all of the empty wall space that I still have to find something for. Please, if you’ve got any tips, then send them my way! The colors are baby blue, beige, light mocha, and chocolate.

Kindergarten Graduation Slumber Party!

Well, our big girl graduated Kindergarten on Thursday so we decided to celebrate a great year at her favorite restaurant “The Peanut Place” a.k.a Texas Roadhouse, and with a slumber party! I can’t believe she is going to be a first grader in a couple of months! 😦 Where does the time go?

Anyway, she had her cousins over for a sleepover and they had a wonderful time watching movies, playing with toys, and swimming in Evie’s Grandparents’ pool. This was Evie and Lily’s first slumber party and it went pretty well. The girls got a little loud at times, especially around the time they were supposed to be going to bed, but that’s to be expected with 4-6 year olds. They are so funny when they get together, with the stories they tell and the way they mimick adult conversations in their play. They CRACK ME UP! Brad and I had fun pin-pointing what each of them will be like as teenagers. Below are some shots of them watching movies, playing, and enjoying the pool on this beautiful Friday.

Help Indiana Repower America!!

Something that I have become very passionate about, is helping the state of Indiana catch up on the Green Scene! The whole World, except for U.S. and Australia, agreed to the Kyoto Treaty in 2000, an International Treaty to reduce carbon and other emissions by 5% or below their 1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. and Australia refused to do so, on the basis that it would hurt the American economy. Ha! Well now, we are finally starting to realize that by finding ways to reduce our “greenhouse gases,” we can bring millions of new jobs into America!!! (It’s too bad, we couldn’t have been smarter, sooner.)

FYI: Greenhouse gases are harmful pollutants such as Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Methane, and Industrial gases, that get trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and cause our planet to heat up!

Anyway, many cities around the U.S. are doing their part and starting a “Green Revolution,” and Indiana is being left behind in the dust! For example, Chicago is known for its Green roofs which top more than 200 buildings, boasting over 2.5 million square feet of green roofs across town. Even Chicago’s City Hall has a green roof, see the picture below, which helps insulate so they don’t have to use as much energy to heat or cool the building, and the plants help process the CO2 from the air and turn it back into Oxygen for cleaner air! Green roofs also provide a pleasant, park-like setting to spend time when you’re on your lunch break! I love this idea!!!

Seattle’s power companies, are trying to change all power to zero-emission status using different conservation methods. The city has taken on a multimillion-dollar public transportation improvement program so that more people can use mass transportation instead of driving, and they are offering bike paths all over the city and have included bike racks in workplaces to encourage biking to work. Also, the Seattle Police Department is transitioning to hybrid vehicles for its “non-pursuit” needs! Way to go Seattle!!!!

San Fransisco, has amazingly tried to trump everyone else by reducing their greenhouse emissions by 20% by 2012! They have outlawed fluorescent bulbs in buildings and are replacing them with energy efficient T-8 lights. This change will save enough energy to power 1,200 homes and reduce CO2 emissions by 16,500 tons, equivalent of taking 3,000 cars off the road! And that’s just the beginning! They have a commitment to reduce landfill use by 75 percent by 2010 and to reach zero waste by 2020. The city has a public composting program for food wastes, which converts scraps from restaurants into fertilizer, and a community pet waste program that provides biodegradable bags and community collection sites in public places for dog walkers. The collected waste is converted to methane gas and used as fuel for vehicles, reducing waste sent to landfills! You can see more on other cities around the U.S. at http://www.coolcities.us/.

Now, the reason I am writing this, is that Repower America is trying to get Indiana on the same wave link as other cities, by having our residents take action and vote for cleaner energy, such as solar and wind power. According to http://www.repoweramerica.org/state/indiana/, repowering Indiana with clean energy will mean lower energy costs, new industries with high-paying jobs, and real solutions to the climate crisis. I want to encourage all of you here in Indy, to log on to the above website, and type in your zip code and name, and hit submit!

Don’t be lazy, join the Green Revolution! Help Indiana repower and create new jobs! Please, it all depends on us.

Your local green activist,

Aubree

Happy Birthday Awesome Wife

Today is my wife’s 27th Birthday. Happy Birthday Super Awesome Wife. Aubree you are an amazing woman, a great friend, and a wonderful mother. You do so much behind the the scenes that you don’t get credit for and I just want you to know that all of your love, hardwork, and dedication to our family doesn’t go un-noticed. Evie, Lily, and myself are so blessed to have you as our rock. I love you and I hope you had a great day even though I know that you are up stairs right now putting the babies dresser together and I am down here writing this blog. We love you Brad and the girls.

Lily’s First Cavity :(

Well, I took Lily to the dentist today to get a “Princess Crown” on her tooth, for her first cavity. She was really excited to have it done, believe it or not! I think it was all the talk of the “mermaid mask” that would make her giggle, and the “princess crown” that she would get on her tooth. She couldn’t wait to leave the house this morning to see what all of that would be about!

She did really well for a 4.5 year old! The procedure only lasted for about 20 minutes total, so it was no big deal for her. She giggled the whole time from the laughing gas; it was pretty cute! We went to the grocery store afterwards, and she said she was afraid people would think she looked funny because her lip was so poofy. I kept having to reassure her that it wasn’t really swollen, it only felt swollen.

All done! Just a little swollen afterwards, but no more cavity!

#10 Ways to Change The World Through Social Media

The following is a post from Max Gladwell, challenging us to use his post on our blogs as a way to spread the word through Social Media. Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. They’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment.

What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the People they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it. For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments, hence the following list.

Please note this is not a top-10 list, nor are these listed in any particular order. It’s also incomplete. So we ask that you add to this conversation in the comments. If you’d like to Retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Take Social Actions: The nonprofit organization Social Actions aggregates “opportunities to make a difference from over 50 online platforms” through its unique API. It recently held the Change the Web Challenge contest in order to inspire the most innovative applications for that API. The Social Actions Interactive Map won the $5,000 first prize. The result is a virtual tour of the world through the lens of social action. “People are volunteering, donating, signing petitions, making loans and doing other social actions as we speak — all over the world. To capture the context of the where, this project uses sophisticated techniques to extract location information from full text paragraphs.” You can also join the Social Actions Community, which is powered by Ning…which now boasts more than one million individual social networks.

2. Twitter with a Purpose: This list could be exclusive to Twitter. The micro-blogging sensation was featured on our first two lists (a three-tweet), and it’s certain to be a fixture. From Tweetsgiving, the virtual Thanksgiving feast, to the Twestival, which organized 202 off-line events around the world to benefit charity: water, it’s become the de facto tool for organizing and taking action. Tweet Congress won the SXSW activism award, and celebrity Tweeps Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Rose Tweeted their two million followers about ending malaria. Max Gladwell recently initiated the #EcoMonday follow meme as a way to connect and organize the Green Twittersphere.

3. Visit White House 2.0: Inside of its first 100 days, the Obama administration has managed to set the historic benchmark for government transparency and accountability. The President’s virtual town hall meeting used WhiteHouse.gov to crowdsource questions from his 300 million constituents, complete with voting to determine the ones he’d have to answer. All told, 97,937 people submitted 103,978 questions and cast 1,782,650 votes. The White House continues to raise the bar with its official Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter channels. In so doing President Obama is not just setting the standard for state and local government in the U.S. He’s establishing the world standard. The Obama administration is spreading democracy not by force but through example. Because you don’t have to be an American citizen to be a friend or follower of White House 2.0.
4. Claim your Zumbox: What happens when all mail can be sent and delivered online to any street address in a paperless form? That’s the big question for Zumbox, which has created an online mail system with a digital mailbox for every U.S. street address. And while the answer to that question remains to be seen, it promises to be as liberating as it is disruptive. A key quality for Zumbox is that it’s closed system much like that of Facebook, only instead of true identity it’s true address. This will enable people to better connect with their communities including their neighbors, local businesses, and the mayor’s office. The primary agent of change, though, might not be that this uses street addresses but that it enables direct and potentially viral feedback, which is a virtue that e-mail and the USPS do not offer. The first methods are to request exclusive paperless delivery and to block a sender, but others are certain to evolve such as real-time commenting and ways to share mail with friends, family, and colleagues. Welcome to Mail 2.0. (Disclosure: Zumbox is a client of Rob Reed, the founder of Max Gladwell.)

5. Host a Social Media Event: This is the year of the social media event. No meaningful gathering of people is complete without an interactive online audience, especially when it’s so easy and cost effective to pull off. Essential tools include a broadband connection, laptop, video camera, projector, and screen. Add people and a purpose, such as entrepreneurship. Promote it through social media channels, and you have a social media event. A recent example in the green world is the Evolution of Green, which was hosted by Creative Citizen, a green wiki community. It celebrated the launch of a new Web property, EcoMatters, while also establishing a new Twitter tag. By posing the question, “How can we go from green hype to green habit?” and including the #GreenQ hashtag, it sparked a conversation between attendees and the Twittersphere in real time. Thus was born a new mechanism for getting answers to green questions via Twitter.

6. Travel the World: More than anyone else, Tim O’Reilly knows the potential for social media to change the world. In his opening keynote at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, he called for a new ethic in which we do more with less and create more value than we capture. This provided the context for SalaamGarage founder Amanda Koster, whose presentation followed O’Reilly’s. The idea is that social media has enabled each of us to have an audience. Whether through Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or a personal blog, each of us can have influence and reach. What’s more, it can be used for good. SalaamGarage coordinates trips for citizen journalists (that means you) to places like India and Vietnam in conjunction with non-government organizations like Seattle-based Peace Trees. The destination is the story, as these humanitarian journalists report on the people they meet and discoveries they make. Their words, images, and video are posted to the social web to gain exposure and because these stories just need to be told.
7. Build It on Drupal: You may not have noticed, but the open-source Drupal content management system (CMS) has quickly become the dominant player on the social web. While we still prefer WordPress as a strict blogging application, Drupal has emerged as the go-to platform for building scalable, community-driven Web sites. It powers Recovery.gov, a key part of President Obama’s commitment to transparency and accountability. PopRule uses it as a social news platform for politics. And Drupal will soon become the platform for Causecast, a site where “media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.” This is especially significant because Causecast CEO Ryan Scott is transitioning the site off of Ruby on Rails because Drupal has proved more efficient, user friendly, and cost effective. (Disclosure: Max Gladwell founder Rob Reed is co-founder of PopRule.)

8. Green Your iPhone: Looking for an organic diner within biking distance that has a three-star green rating? There’s a app for that. It’s called 3rd Whale, and you can download it for free. (Except that the star rating is actually a whale rating.) Complete with Facebook Connect, this iPhone app locates green products and businesses in 30 major North American cities. It uses the iPhone’s dial function to select a category (food), sub-category (restaurants), and distance (walking, biking, or driving). In Santa Monica, this might give you Swingers diner for its selection of veggie and vegan fare. You could then get directions from your current location using the iPhone’s built-in Google map, rate your experience on the three-whale scale, and write up a quick review. 3rd Whale recently released a new feature that integrates green-living tips, which can show how much energy or waste you’ll save by taking a given action.
9. Unite the World Through Video: Matt’s dancing around the world video inspired many to tears. Today, more than 20 million people have viewed his YouTube masterpiece, where he performs a kooky dance with the citizens of planet earth. The most recent example of this approach is Playing for Change, which connects the world through song. The project started in Santa Monica with a street performance of the classic Stand By Me and expanded to New Orleans, New Mexico, France, Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, South Africa, Spain, and The Netherlands. The project was superbly executed via social media, complete with a YouTube channel, MySpace, Facebook, and Blog. It’s received tremendous mainstream media exposure and also benefits a foundation of the same name.

10. Rate a Company: The conversation about corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes place across the social web on blogs, Twitter, and YouTube, but a central hub for this information and opinion is still to be determined. SocialYell seeks to address this by building an online community around the CSR conversation, where users can submit reviews of companies together with nonprofit organizations and even public figures like Michelle Obama. The major topics are the Environment, Health, Social Equity, Consumer Advocacy, and Charity. The reviews are voted and commented on by the community in a Reddit-like fashion with both up (Yell) and down (shhh) voting. The site is relatively new and still gaining traction, but there’s no question that a resource like this is needed to shine a bright light on CSR and and other related issues.

11. Publish a collective, simultaneous blog post on a universal topic: As Nigel Tufnel might say, this list goes to eleven. Let the #10Ways conversation begin…

Business Giants that are leading the way!

Many of the world’s Business Giants have decided to incorporate Green practices into their companies and have found that it can save them thousands, even millions! Here are just a few examples from case studies from the Natural Resource Defence Council.
Philadelphia Eagles
In 2004, the owners of the Philadelphia Eagles football team decided to improve the environmental profile of their team’s stadium, training facilities, and offices. NRDC worked with the Eagles’ consultants, staff and vendors to implement a number of improvements:
· Twenty-five percent of the team’s energy is now supplied by renewable sources such as wind power.
· The team uses less-polluting cleaning and maintenance products.
· The team has increased its use of recycled content, processes chlorine-free paper in its offices and publications.
· Cooking fat is being recycled for conversion to biodesiesel.
· The stadium score board is now powered by solar energy panels.

Through these initiatives, the Eagles avoided the emission of more than 65 tons of greenhouse gases and 2 billion BTUs of dirty energy generation. They saved some 90 tons of wood, equivalent to more than 100,000 trees, many of which would have been harvested from eagle habitat. The Eagles were able to accomplish all of this at almost no additional cost to their organization.

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI)
This joint venture of General Motors and Toyota, which produces $2 billion of North American automobile purchases, incorporated material efficiency, energy conservation, solid waste reduction, and recycling efforts in their environmental programs, saving the company approximately $4.5 million in 1999. NUMMI now requires their suppliers to use reusable shipping containers for the shipment of parts, which reduced their consumption of cardboard by 60 percent in 1999, accounting for $2.5 million of the company’s savings that year while also avoiding 11,000 tons of waste.

The Academy Awards
The 79th Annual Academy Awards, in 2007, was the first major awards show to incorporate environmentally intelligent considerations into all aspects of its planning and implementation. The Academy Awards is much more than one famous night on television. Rather, it is a multi-event affair in which satellite celebrations and ceremonies take place throughout the month leading up to the Oscar telecast. To implement this ambitious effort, the producers of the Oscars assigned a point person on their team to coordinate the greening of all the events surrounding the Academy Awards. This person worked closely with NRDC and the producers and technicians of each event to help determine potential environmentally preferable alternatives to current practices, locate suppliers of environmentally preferable products and services, and keep track of all efforts and initiatives. This approach yielded meaningful benefits, including the following:
· Carbon emissions were offset for the Oscar telecast, the pre-show red carpet event, and the Governor’s Ball, by investments into renewable wind and solar energy projects.
· During the Academy Awards, former Vice President Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio made an on-air announcement about global warming and the carbon-neutral telecast, alerting hundreds of millions of people around the world to the importance of environmental issues.
· The Green Room backstage at the Oscars incorporated a number of environment-friendly features, including reusable dishes and silverware, less-toxic paints and adhesives, carpets made from 100 percent post consumer recycled plastic, and furniture made from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
· A comprehensive recycling program collected plastics, glass, metals, and paper.
· Several efforts offered organic food options.

Bank of America
By reducing the basis weight of its ATM receipts from 20 pounds to 15 pounds, Bank of America saved more than just paper; this simple move also gained the bank additional savings in transportation, storage and handling costs, to the tune of $500,000 a year.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which is the 16th busiest airport in the United States, increased its recycling from 100 tons diverted from landfills in 2001 to 900 tons diverted in 2005, resulting in an annual savings of $178,000.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Ghirardelli redesigned their packaging to incorporate reusable plastic totes for chocolate shipments, eliminating the need to purchase and dispose of 580,000 cardboard boxes every year. This move saves the chocolate company $520,000 annually.

Just by switching to double-sided copying and printing can cut the expense and environmental costs of wastepaper disposal almost in half. Environmentally intelligent initiatives will bring in more consumers, increase your bottom line, and create a healthier workplace for you! Why not get your employer on-board and be ahead of the game by starting a recycling program or become Green Business Certified!

Ask me how!

Aubree

Happy Mothers Day!

First off, I got the sweetest Mother’s Day gift today from Evie, that she brought home from school. She wrote a little book about me, and drew a picture of she and I. It made me laugh and cry! Look closely at the drawing below:
She drew a picture of her sitting in a chair, watching the doctor deliver my baby. She must have been paying really close attention when I told her where the baby comes out!!! The “NO” on the bottom is supposed to be “ON” (Owen), she hasn’t exactly seen how we are going to spell his name yet. 🙂 It’s hard to see in this picture but she drew a little face on him too. I thought it was interesting that his little face is brown!?? Very cute, none the less!

Her report about me was quite humorous as well. I love that she likes that I go to bible study and that she knows I’m really happy when she helps me clean house. It is interesting that she sees me as being “as tall as a door, and 15 pounds!” I’ll take it; especially now!

The picture below is a wonderful coaster that she decorated for me. She was so excited for me to open my present. Thank you Evie Taylor! I love you and Lily very much and I am very pleased with my gift! The two of you are the greatest gifts that I could ask for!

I also wanted to give my Mom a “shout out” for Mother’s Day. Most of you who know my Mom, know what a great person and friend she is to me. We are very close and always have been. Not always by choice though. 🙂 In High school, all my friends loved my Mom, and they used to tell her everything! They just couldn’t keep secrets from her; they told her about the boys that I liked, the secrets that I didn’t want her knowing about, and even things that could get me and them into trouble!!! But that’s okay, I’m glad that I could always come to her about anything; and I still do.

She is a wonderful, Christian, woman; and very wise and encouraging too. I always feel like she has all the answers, she is the one I go to for advice. Thank you Mom for being so great and for encouraging me through the way you live and your love for Christ! I love you!

I also, am very blessed to have the greatest Mother-In-Law that I could ever ask for! Debbie is a strong Christian woman, who I also feel very close to. She has raised the most wonderful man in the world and he is following in her footsteps with our two-and-a-half children.

She is like a second Mom to me; she is caring, loving, generous, sweet, nurturing, and understanding. She has a spirit that is loved by everyone! I love you too Debbie; Happy Mother’s Day! Thanks for being so wonderful!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you other mothers out there.

Love,

Aubree

My Little Monkey

I just wanted to share some pictures of Lily sitting in my childhood tree. It has actually grown a lot since I was her age, so without the help of Papaw, she couldn’t have gotten up there by herself. I used to sit up there and read books for what seemed like hours, when I was a young girl. My brother created a pully, with a rope and bucket so that when I finished one book, he would put a new one in the bucket for me and send it up! Neil, Joni, and I had a lot of great times up on those branches.

Lily loved it; she said that she could see the whole world from up there! Who knows, maybe she will grow up to be a passionate tree hugger like her Mom! 🙂