Giving and Taking

A SWEET CAUSE: Recently, CJ and Annabelle have been studying social issues related to inequalities women and minorities experience in education. 

In that vein, this week, we've worked to help raise funds for The Malala Fund. The organization advocates at local, national and international levels for resources and policy changes needed to ensure all girls complete 12 years of school. Its namesake is Nobel Peace prize winning Malala Yousafzai, Per the foundation's Web site, in 2009, as the Taliban’s military hold on Swat intensified, Malala began writing a blog for the BBC Urdu service under a pseudonym. Eventually, her identity was revealed. 

"In 2011, she received Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize and was nominated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the International Children's Peace Prize. In response to her rising popularity and national recognition, Taliban leaders voted to kill her," reports the foundation. On  October 9, 2012, while taking a bus to school, Malala was shot in the head by masked gunman.She was hospitalized for months and very nearly died. However, the heroine persisted and, in 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She contributed her entire prize money of more than $500,000 to financing the creation of a secondary school for girls in Pakistan.

Remarkable, to say the least. 

So, obviously, the least we could do was bake some cookies and make some Rice Krispies treats for the cause! 

It's funny, many people failed to recognize the crispy treats for what they were. Instead of standard squares with no toppings, we made shaped ones with mini chocolate chips, cream cheese frosting and little embellishments atop.

A nice, gluten free alternative to a cupcake. 

Wanting to offer a not-sugary treat, we also took in some little chicks deviled eggs today. I neglected to take a picture, so here's a borrowed one from the magic of the Internet. 


HAPPY HUNTING: Wednesday is our Doberman day down south. We visit our Dobie friend in Burien and take him for a midday walk. 

After that outing, we decided to swing down to my favorite Value Village, the Burien store. 

In the very first aisle, we found these. ... 

That's right, all five Spice Girls in their original boxes, unopened. Relics from the 90s were these treasures. 

Not gonna lie, I am not a Spice Girls fan. But I understand that a bajillion other people are, so I had CJ Google what these dolls might be worth. Meanwhile, we loaded them into our cart, so they could take a stroll with us, keeping our options open. I also posted the photo to Facebook, asking my friends to talk me out of buying them. Not a single naysayer popped up. Rather, everyone was an enthusiastic "YES!!!" regarding buying them.

So, now I have five Spice Girls dolls. We'll see what becomes of them. We did a quick Amazon and eBay check while still in the store, and the girls seem to be going for a lot more than that these days, so we figured it was a good 'investment.'

We spent about 90 minutes in that store somehow. There was so much to look at! One thing that caught our eyes was this NERF (yes, like the foam darted guns) body wash and soap. 

I don't get it. Who wants to smell like NERF?

Toward the end of our browsing, I spied a true dinosaur - the Sony MEGA Watchman. 
A portable cassette player and a black and white TV. What's not to love. 

CJ immediately fell in love with it.

So, yes, we rehomed it as well, for $12.99.