Our Library in Laos

Hi everyone!

We did it! We did it! We did it!

After months of fundraising and many generous donations, we are beyond excited to announce that we finally have our library in Laos!!!!!!!!!!! We have reached our $5000 goal and are ecstatic to share the news that there is now a library in our name in the process of being built! For this, we owe all of you a massive THANK YOU!! The outpouring of support, encouragement and generosity that we've seen throughout our 'Drive to 25' is something we never imagined. We couldn't have done this without you! It's as simple as that! This is truly YOUR library as much as it is OURS!

We will keep you posted along the way, as we learn more about the actual library and it's status. The next item on our bucket list is to go and visit the library (as well as our 'little sister' Mai). Although this is definitely 'in the future', thinking about it has us pretty excited!

And now, we can check #25 off of our 'List'! This has been the most incredible journey and we couldn't think of a better way to cap off our 25th year! What a dream come true!

Together, we've always shared a birthday, but now we will always share it with the children in Laos who have been given the gift of reading! It doesn't get much better than that!

 

 

 

The Final Countdown!

Hi guys!

As we officially come to the end of our 'Drive to 25' (tear!), we thought we'd update you on our final few challenges/adventures.

If you've been following along closely, you may wonder what ever happened to the 10km run that we were so gung-ho about trying. Well, we definitely trained and tried our best, but experienced a few set backs. After running 5 kilometres rather comfortably, Melissa started suffering serious pain in her left knee. This really started impacting our training as she'd start running only 1 or 2 kilometres and then could barely continue. After seeing the doctor, she was told that physiotherapy might help, but that based on the structure of her knees, she probably would never be able to run long distances. Even though hearing those words acted as a motivator to prove the doctor wrong, she continued to suffer pain and it just wasn't worth trying to continue.

After some disappointment, we decided to be proud of our 5km running and committed to staying fit in other ways. We went snowshoeing last winter which was a blast; we did a lot of biking on scenic routes around the Ottawa River this summer; and we hope to do some cross country skiing this winter. Next spring, we plan on walking to Parliament from our apartment - a trek of just over 20 kilometres. There are clearly marked paths guiding the way, so even though it might be long, we know we can do it!!

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Another addition to our list goes back a few months when we decided to write a spontaneous 'fan' letter. Although we would never consider ourselves crazy die-hard fans of anything, as you may have seen on our 'Dream List', we have always, since we were little, loved the Vancouver Canucks. We have many a picture to prove it! And now, it seems pretty ironic that our favourite hockey team has twins as their star players.

A few months back, we decided 'what the heck!' and wrote to both Daniel and Henrik Sedin. It seemed kind of crazy and definitely not something we would typically do, but we figured 'why not?'. And, we're sure happy we did! A couple months later, unexpectingly, we received mail from the Vancouver Canucks. Having almost forgotten about our silly letter, we were shocked when we opened the envelope to find a response letter and a signed players card. How nice of them to take the time and effort to not only read but to acknowledge us! We didn't even think our letter would reach them, let alone be read, so you can imagine our surprise and excitement!

This week we look forward to cheering on our team and the Sedins as they play the Ottawa Senators here in Ottawa. GO CANUCKS GO!

Overall, we are happy we went through with sending our letter and encourage others to do the same. You never know what can happen from a simple letter. Whether it's to a celebrity, athlete, favourite teacher or friend, mail has a special way of making people's day. 

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As some of you may know, this is a big week for us! As our 26th birthday approaches and we close out our 'Drive to 25', we have only ONE more thing to complete - our Library in Laos. Stay tuned for an exciting update in the next couple of days :)

Final Call!

Hello everyone!

Can you believe it's already past the middle of October? Where has the time gone? Our 26th Birthday is just over a month away which also means that the end of our 'Drive to 25' is right around the corner. We only have a couple more things left to complete, one of which will be to finish our fundraising! That's where this post comes in....

We're super proud of how much we've raised so far and thank everyone who has supported us along the way! We've decided to write this post as a final call and last chance for anyone who would like to donate to our Reading Room that will be built in Laos with the fantastic organization, Room to Read. Anything you can contribute, even if it's just $10, will make a world of difference.

We've decided that by our birthday we will make sure that we have raised the $5000 we need to have the Reading Room built. We can't think of a better way to celebrate our birthday - knowing that our love of reading will be shared with so many little kids in Laos!

Our 'Drive to 25' began with this dream and we're excited to finally make it a reality!

To donate, you can follow the steps on our "Donate" page, or click on this link: http://thedriveto25.blogspot.ca/p/donate_04.html.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at thedriveto25@hotmail.com. 

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to sharing the next part of the Reading Room journey as it progresses in the months to come :)

Laura and Melissa

A Sunday Night Tradition - Pasta Making!

Happy Sunday everyone!

One of our favourite days growing up was Sunday. Not because it was the weekend, but because it meant a big family dinner with our grandparents. More often than not, this was a pasta feast with homemade sauce and meatballs. We loved being the mini-helpers and were always the designated taste testers! There's nothing quite like 'Grandma's spaghetti sauce'! Even though our extended family is dispersed across the country, the Italian in us is united when we make and enjoy Grandma's sauce.

Over the years, we've seen and heard about making your own pasta and have always been intrigued. We make our own sauce, why not try making our own pasta? So, that is exactly what we did! We thought this would be a perfect challenge to add to our 'Drive' - something we've always wanted to try.

Last week, we bought a pasta extruder/press from Home Outfitters. We contemplated buying a cheaper machine, but this one easily attaches to our Kitchenaid mixer and can make six different types of pasta. Today, Sunday afternoon, we tackled the pasta making process! Initially, it didn't go as smoothly as we had anticipated and we started doubted ourselves...but things did pick up!

 

 

We started with a recipe for basic pasta noodles that came with our pasta press. We quickly realized that it was NOT working. Even though we are generally good with dough (pizza, pie crust...), for some reason this dough was not coming together. After throwing an entire batch of dough out (we are very picky), we regrouped, found a new recipe online, and gave it a shot. It still wasn't easy, but we managed to get it to stick, and with a lot of kneading, it worked!!

The machine was very easy to use, all we had to do was put bunches of dough in the slot and it would automatically filter through in the desired shape. We chose to start with regular spaghetti noodles because they are classic. These noodles were very delicate, but it was fun to cut them at varying lengths (some were long, some were short)! We also tried the rigatoni cutter and made many rigatoni noodles which were really fun to watch fall. They were slightly easier and quicker to filter through the machine because they are thicker than spaghetti noodles.

 

 

 

After heating up some of our Mom's homemade pasta sauce (using Grandma's famous recipe), we cooked a combination of our spaghetti and rigatoni so that we could try both! Topped to perfection with parmesan cheese, we indulged in some pasta delight! We were really happy with the outcome. Although the texture and taste were rather different than store bought pasta, for our first try, we were impressed. We look forward to trying new recipes and the other pasta shapes. It's fun to be able to say that our entire meal was made from scratch - very satisfying!! Go ahead and try it - you'll be amazed at what you can do!

That's a wrap on our pasta making Sunday. It has been a day of reminiscing - bringing us back to our childhood and reminding us of our amazing travels in Italy!

Whatever your tradition may be, we hope you have your own version of our Sunday night dinner!

Buon appetito!!!!

Craft Time - Learn to Crochet!

Hi there!

Since it's already mid-September and the weather is starting to get colder, we've come up with the perfect thing to add to our "Drive to 25"! We are going to teach ourselves to crochet! Something we can do while it gets dark earlier and while we watch all our new Fall shows that are starting back up soon!

We're excited to get our craft on! We know so many people who are crafty and can sew, knit or do amazing cross-stitch work and we are so envious of their creations. Although we have previously tried knitting, and each have a holey scarf in our closets to prove it, we thought that we should try something new and add a crafty element to our list! We can't wait to get started!

We have decided to learn to crochet with the help of the internet (crochet for dummies is a great site!), and books from our local library. We plan to make each a stocking to have for Christmas! What a satisfying job it will be to 'hang our stockings with care' in just a few short months!

We've searched for different pattern ideas, in need of something 'easy' or for 'beginners' - and found this one, which we think is really cute!

 

We've made our trip to Michaels and bought all of the yarn, our crochet hooks and are set to begin! We know this is a challenge, as we are not the most creative or crafty (unless its scrapbooking!) but this will be fun and exciting to work together to teach ourselves something new! And, we'll have stockings to show our accomplishments - souvenirs that will last a lifetime!

 

 

We will update you on our progress and on the complete stockings, although it may take a little while! If anyone has any crocheting tips or advice that you think might be helpful - we'd love to hear from you! Since we love Christmas and the entire holiday season, we're so happy to be starting early!

 

Cheers to Crocheting!

 

Laura and Melissa

 



Pay It Forward: A Week in Review

Hello again!

What a week we've had! As promised, here's a recap of what we did to celebrate our 'Pay It Forward Week'. This week has shown us how simple Paying It Forward can be and that random acts of kindness can and should be done more often. What a world this would be if everyone joined the Pay It Forward bandwagon! We will now challenge ourselves to continue this trend - we hope you will do the same too!

For our first 'Pay it Forward', we decided to recognize a couple of the incredible Bed and Breakfasts we've stayed at during our travels over the past few years. In particular, we wanted to acknowledge the 'Hollywood Bed and Breakfast' in Hollywood, California, and 'Bed, Books and Breakfast' in Stavanger, Norway. These friendly B&B's helped make our vacations more enjoyable and our experiences more unique, so we wanted others to know about them! For that reason, we wrote complementary reviews on Trip Advisor with the hopes that other travelers would stumble across them during their trip planning and visit them in the future. This was an easy gesture on our part, but we know that in a competitive hospitality market, a good word or recommendation makes the world of difference. Hopefully our reviews prove helpful to others and bring business to two B&Bs that are truly one of a kind!

Next, we thought it would be fitting to donate school supplies seeing as it's back to school time. We found the Caring and Sharing Exchange program which "is a local charity that provides assistance to Ottawa families and individuals in need, during the Christmas season and the back-to-school season". Upon doing some research, we found that there was a drop box for supplies at our local library. Since we are no longer in school and no longer make the back to school supplies trip, we had fun going up and down the aisles picking out items that we know will be well used. Going to school was always something we enjoyed; knowing that we will be providing a child with the necessary tools to succeed and will potentially help them enjoy school like we did, warms our hearts :)

 

Mid-week, we thought we'd incorporate our love for baking into our Pay It Forward Week. We pulled out our favourite no-fail chocolate chip cookie recipe and went to work! It wasn't hard to decide who we wanted to reward with these delicious treats. Every morning when we walk into work, we receive a warm greeting from the Commissionaires (Security Guards). We always show them our ID pass, say hello and wish them a nice day. This morning though, we thought we'd give them a little bit more. We handed them a bag of cookies to enjoy and help make their day a little bit 'sweeter'. We don't know that many people stop to acknowledge them in the busy-ness of the day, so we hope that this small gesture brightened their day and made them feel appreciated.

 

To continue with our Drive to 25's reading and books dimension, we decided to buy two Chapter's gift cards and pass them along to two un-expecting people. Just like it's a surprise when you find money in your pocket, it would have been a big surprise for our Librarians when they opened the drop off box to our two gift cards. We could have given the cards in person, but this way the act was anonymous and would have come as a surprise. As we frequent the library often, we know that the ladies there work hard and have a love for books. We hope that they were excited to receive something special in the drop box and, who knows, maybe they will be inspired by this act and pay it forward too.

 

 

Finally, to close off Pay It Forward Week, we thought we'd donate to a cause close to us, our Reading Room fundraising campaign with Room to Read. This is a global Pay It Forward initiative that we are proud to be a part of. Although it is hard work to fundraise and to commit to making a difference globally, in the end, knowing that hundreds of children will benefit from a new Reading Room and will be able to share in our love of reading, makes everything worthwhile. By both donating to our campaign, we are making strides to our final goal of $5000.

 

Although these are the main Pay It Forward events we initiated this week, we did our best to go that extra mile to smile at strangers, hold the door open longer, and to inquire about someone's day. What we didn't realize was that at the same time, we would also be receivers of generosity this week. When we stopped to think about our days, we noticed that kindness was all around us - we just needed to take a moment to reflect and take it all in. From getting the brake light fixed on our car for free, having a co-worker ask to help with a busy workload, to having someone unexpectedly buy one of us a muffin - everyday was and is filled with its own special moments that can make you smile. And that's exactly what this week was all about!

 

We hope our Pay It Forward Week has inspired you to take the extra effort to make a difference. The feeling is contagious and we know that we will continue to act on and look for Pay It Forward moments every day.

 

“Together we can change the world, one good deed at a time.”

 

 Melissa and Laura

 

 

 

Pay-It-Forward Week!

Hello everyone!

"Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how." - Author Unknown

 

We've decided to deem this week 'Pay-It-Forward Week' and are very excited to get started! The whole idea began after reading a friend's Facebook post. Five years ago she lost her son, Mark, to HCM, a heart condition, at the age of 18. Tomorrow, August 19th, is the anniversary of his passing, and because 'Pay It Forward' was one of his favourite movies, she is asking that her friends and family take a moment to honour Mark by 'paying it forward'. Mark was a very close childhood friend of our brother's and we have some very fond memories with him as well, such as playing basketball boys vs. girls and always losing! Her Facebook post really hit home and we knew we wanted to do something.  

So, we started by thinking... what one thing could we do, but since we easily came up with quite a few ideas, we thought we needed to devote an entire week (or maybe more?!) to Paying it Forward. A big part of our 'Drive to 25' has been giving back and thinking of others - 'Pay-It-Forward Week' is another chance for us to keep this going! We have some things planned that we're looking forward to!

Check back at the end of the week to hear all about our experiences. We can't wait to get this week started - there's just something about knowing you might make someone smile that puts that extra bounce in your step!

Hopefully this may spark you to have your own 'Pay It Forward' moment this week, whether it be in honour of Mark or someone else that's close to you. Old or young, big or small, it doesn't take much to make a difference! You never know how far a simple compliment can go!

"You may be only one person in this world, but to one person at one time, you are the world." -Anonymous