Save the Sea Turtles

Our oceans are in peril from climate change, disease, pollution, and overfishing. There is a huge push for Coral Reef preservation and I want to join it. I have noticed lots of people, especially in our family blogs, are writing about their causes in their blogs. My cause is to save the sea turtles.
They are gorgeous creatures that are worth more to us alive than dead. The sea turtles fill an important ecological role by controlling prey species and themselves providing food to larger predators. Sea turtles are biological nutrient transporters. The energy contained inside turtle eggs comes from the food items that the turtles have found in the marine environment. They are a balanced and key part to the interaction of the ecosystems found in the ocean and dry land. Marine turtles are economically important to humans. Coastal communities in developing countries use sea turtles as a source for food. Sea turtles have become increasingly important as an ecotourism attraction. This has led to a rise in tourism operations that in turn provide jobs and income to seaside communities throughout the tropical and subtropical part of the world. Marine turtle watching increases people's interest in marine and coastal issues and inspires commitment to support conservation efforts. Marine turtles are flagship species that attract help to themselves as well as to the many species with which they co-exist.
Three objectives to help save the sea turtles are:
a. reduce the breaking down of sea turtle habitats through building and maintaining marine and beach preservations and through educating and ecotourism to create an interest and an awareness in sea turtles.
b. reduce the bycatch of sea turtles in large fishing nets through national and international agreements to use turtle friendly fishing practices such as turtle excluder devices in nets.
c. reducing illegal trade of turtle products by personally not buying anything using turtles products. Such as turtles shells and turtle meat and eggs.

One small thing I'm starting to do is to cut all the rings of my pop can rings so that they can't find their way into the ocean and end up around any animals neck (like in the movie "Happy Feet") and by slicing the bottom of my plastic grocery shopping bags so they aren't mistaken for jelly fish and swallowed or better yet just using paper bags then recycling them. (Although I do hope that non of my garbage will ever find it's way into the ocean.)

Got Milk?

Ska Music

I've been tagged

1 - My husband has never seen my natural hair color, except in my roots.
2 - I have a fear of stickiness
3 - I have been in 19 States this year (idaho, nevada, utah, arizona, montana, wyoming, south dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetes, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island )
4 - I have never had a cavitiy filled.
5 - I love to dance to ska music
6 - Indiana Jones was my first true love (n0t Harrison Ford)
7 - My favorite book is Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging

I tag -
Casidy
Amanda
Paula
Anji
Traci
Ben and Catherine
Drew Ann

Organic Laundry Soap and the Sock

Every week I do my laundry at the local laundromat. Let me tell you how it goes. . . I load my 2 garbage bags and basket of laundry, Oliver, and my diaper bag (which is pretty big.) Then I get to the local Laundromat and unload my 2 garbage bags and basket of laundry, Oliver, my diaper bag and to make things easy I leave my laundry soap and dryer sheets in the trunk of my car.
Today started out just like normal, I loaded the car, I unloaded the car. Then I went to the trunk to retrieve my laundry soap. Let me tell you about my laundry soap. This is special laundry soap bought 2 weeks ago at Costco in bulk size. It is made for sensitive skin, eco-friendly, bio-safe, smells like spring, and comes in an easy to use container with a squirt nozel. When your a mother of a 5 month old this is a very beautiful thing and you start to appreciate the little things in life. But my laundry soap was not in the trunk of my car! So, I thought, maybe I took it upstairs to my apartment. I then loaded everything back into my car and raced home. It was not in my closet, in the coat closet, in oliver's bedroom, under the bed, in the cupboard or up on the shelf and the only thing left was that it was forgotten at the laundromat.
I tell you that sad story only to turn and tell you a very sweet one about a lost sock. . . Oliver's lost sock to be more specific. I went about doing my laundry with my non organic soap and loaded up my car. I pulled out and noticed a lady was waving furiously, yelling and pointing at me. I immediatley stopped, rolled down my window and pointed at myself with a bewildered look on my face. "Yes, you forgot this and I just had to give it back." She then handed me a tiny 1 inch long song with a blue toe and heel. "Thank you," I politely returned and stared at the sock as she walked away.
What made this little sock so important? This was the second time the sock had tried to escape at the laundromat and still it has found it's way back to Oliver's foot. What is the moral of this story? I'd say that it is tiny things are cared about a lot and big things that come in bulk are not. Not only in socks and laundry soap but in people as well. So let's all try to care for the little things as well as the big things because they are just as important.

The End

Blacker Family Visit - Day 7

The last day my family was here was sadly a bust. We went in to Hartford just to see the city and a few things that are in there. Hartford is about the size of Boise. We went to see the Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer (: ) House but the tour for 11:00 was full and the next one started at 12:30 but that was too late so my family just walked around the museum for a little bit. We decided to also hit the carousel. (My family likes carousels.) The website said that their fall hours were Tuesday through Sunday 11:00 - 6:00. We arrived at 12:30 and it was closed! They had a sign on the outside saying their fall hours were thursday through Sunday. So we didn't get to ride the carousel either. We dropped my family off at the airport and said goodbye. I really miss them already. They were so much fun to have around. It was nice to have people around who really knew us and loved us no matter what. We were really missing Idaho until we read the weather report. . .now we just miss the people in Idaho. Just to let you all know WE MISS YOU!!Katie and Ollie on the slide.Casidy getting ready to race me down the slide.Kent is playing Twinkle twinkle little star.Family picture in front of the close Carousel.Grandma and Oliver

Blacker Family Visit - Day 6

Today we searched for light houses. We drove to Rhode Island so that my family could see the Atlantic Ocean. We went to a beach with 2 light houses but my mom's back was hurting her so we couldn't walk to 15 min in sand to where the lighthouses were. We went back to Connecticut and went to the Lighthouse Museum. It was really cool to see pictures of all the lighthouses in the Long Island Sound (that's where all the sharks are.) I thought it was awesome to walk up into the top of the lighthouse. It was mine and my whole families first time inside a light house. It was blazing hot up in the actual light part. All glass and a sunny day makes it really warm. After we saw the lighthouse we went to Mystic to eat some sea food. Me and my sisters don't like sea food so we had chicken strips. But my Dad, Mom, and Kent really liked their sea food.The stairs to the top of the lighthouse were really steep.Oliver couldn't go all the way to the top because there was a ladder and he is too small to climb ladders.View from the top of the Lighthouse.Family Picture in front of the Lighthouse.Family picture at the Long Island Sound.All the Blacker children in the Atlantic Ocean.Oliver with his toesies in the Atlantic Ocean.Family Picture in the Atlantic Ocean.Katie eating chicken strips.Mom and Dad eating their seafood.

Blacker Family Visit - Day 5

Today we went to Yale. It was actually really cool. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't too excited for this day. But it ended up being really cool. We also drove around to some of my Dad's old mission sites. We saw where he lived in Naugatuck (not sure on the spelling and too lazy to look it up.) and the Cadbury Factory and all the other things he remembered about it. Then we looked for where he lived in Chesire but we couldn't find it so he just told us some stories about that town. He was really excited to share with us all his mission stories and I really enjoyed hearing them. They were very special and I'm glad that I was able to help my dad share them.This is our family picture at Yale. Just so you know, Oliver takes all our family pictures from his stroller, so that's why he's missing from quite a few. This is the library that Indiana Jones rode a motorcycle through in The Crystal Skull. (I love Indiana Jones.)The inside of one of the Colleges at Yale.This is New Haven's green. The green used to be a lot smaller and was surrounded by a few cemeteries. But when Yale started to grow they decided that it needed to be bigger so they knocked down the headstones and planted grass. So this whole area is bunch of unmarked graves. Creepy, huh?Mindy, I saw this and thought of you. This is their Breast Cancer Awareness ad for the month of October. I like it and thought it was very clever. Yale had little political statements all over the place. Mostly written on the sidewalk with chalk. That's something I really wish I had been able to experience but at BYU-I there isn't a lot of debate about morals or ethics or anything. . .
This is a monument that symbolizes the growth of women. On top it has a circle that has all the years since Yale opened. In bold are the dates that women were first accepted to Yale and the date when Women equaled the number of men at Yale.

Blacker Family Visit - Day 4

From Palmyra we drove to Sharon, VT to see the birthplace of Joseph Smith. There is an amazing story behind the monument and everyone should go look it up. The monument is beautiful especially placed against the autumn colors in Vermont. It was a good weekend to spend just learning about the life of Joseph Smith. It was amazing to put everything into perspective and I strongly recommend everyone should visit the church sites. You learn so much from just being there and seeing everything.Vermont hillside in the peak of autumn awesomeness.Blacker and Williams Family at the Joseph Smith birthplace.Joseph Smith Monument.Williams Family in front of Joseph Smith Monument. Dad, your picture won a spot on Blogger.Oliver likes to touch different textures. This is a very sweet photo of Oliver touching the statue of Joseph Smith's hand. Very precious and made me cry a little.Oliver and Opa Blacker. I think they look at lot alike. But I should have taken a picture of their toesies. They are exactly alike.

Blacker Family Visit - Day 3

We went to Palmyra, New York. My favorite part is the Christus in the Visitor Center at Hill Cumorah. It's beautiful to just see the Christus but I love that this one is set in the Sacred Grove as the background instead of the heavens. It's very touching. We visited with my great uncle jimmy and great aunt marie. They are serving a mission at the temple in Palmyra and they were happy to have family visiting. We walked to the top of the hill and saw the statue then headed over the Smith Family Farm. There are some very sad and very happy stories that happen there. After that we headed to the place where the Book of Mormon was first printed. It's amazing all the work that had to be put into printing a book in those days. It was beautiful in upstate New York and I know that my family really enjoyed being there. BTW, this was Oliver's 3rd trip to Palmyra and he's not even 6 months old yet. . .Apparently, it is Gardner/Blacker family tradition to roll down the windows and scream when you go through a covered bridge. . .Aunt Marie took this picture, we love her."I hope they call me on a mission, when I have a grown a foot or two. . ."The Palmyra Temple. It's very beautiful and just kind of sneaks up on you.The Sacred Grove.

"Families can be together forever. . ."

Blacker Family Visit - Day 2

We woke up early, hopped on a train, and headed into New York City. We saw awesome things such as Grand Central Station, Time Square, Toys R Us Store, Hershey Store (a little disappointing), M&M Store, Rockefeller Center ( they were putting up the ice rink), Statue of Liberty (not as big as it looks in pictures), Ellis Island, NYC Temple (missed the distribution center again), Central Park, Mac Store, FAO Schwarz (Played on the big piano from that famous movie I have never seen), and the Disney Store. It was a very full day and too much stuff to go into a lot of detail. But it was awesome and we came home really tired.

Blacker Family Visit - Day 1

Today we showed my family around the local area and the places that me and Bryan visit often. First we went to the 4H Auer Farm and picked raspberries. I love the farm it always makes me feel better when I'm missing home. Then we went to the local scrapbook store and bought some local Connecticut things for my sister's scrapbooks. We visited the museum that me and Oliver volunteer at and they got the history of the town. It was a fun day and raspberry picking was a favorite of the day.