No more babies

Rebecca turned 8 this weekend. When she came downstairs on her birthday she gave me a huge hug and I realized my littlest baby had seemingly overnight turned into a big kid. She asked to go to Cracker Barrel for her birthday dinner; my parents had given her a gift card for dinner there because they know how much she loves their mac-n-cheese. That’s exactly what she ordered, along with chocolate milk. Mac-n-cheese and chocolate milk… Well, it was her birthday dinner.

When we’d finished she asked if we could walk around the restaurant’s country store. The refrain of the day had been, “It’s your day!” so she got to look around for a long time. Poor kid; she is always being rushed everywhere we go because she is so slow. So. Slow. But Sean and I vowed to not rush her or ask her to hurry up all weekend. She appreciated it and I think we learned a valuable lesson; she is not the kind of kid who will ever be fast. We need to adjust our expectations and departure times. If we need to leave at noon, we need to give her at least an hour’s head’s up. We’ve been trying to give her a bit more time to get ready but I think a good hour is actually her comfort zone.

You’d think after 8 years we would have figured that out.

We had three of her neighborhood friends over on Sunday for cupcakes and ice cream. They are sweet girls and all four got along fine. Rascle (that’s how Rebecca spells his name) got a serious work-out as each of the girls wanted to hold him. And Rebecca received several gifts she can use with her little pet. There has never been a more loved hamster.

So it was a good, full weekend. Rebecca loved turning 8, “Finally!” as she said. We tried to explain this year had the same number of days as last, but she was convinced it took longer to turn 8 than any of her other years. Of course, this year has an extra day the end of this week; I hope she forgets that by next February.

This is a car for Rascle to drive around...

this track. It needs to stay on the hardwood floor because he is an animal and animals do not wear diapers. And, of course, he peed when the car was on the carpet part. Lovely. This is why I like fish.

Friday Funnies

I think these are pretty funny. I suppose if you're a supporter of big government you won't find these as humorous as I...

In light of the Democratic debate last night, this is the message I'd like to send both Barack and Hillary.

And these are just funny, IMHO.

Man, I don't know if I can stand all this political stuff until next November. I can't believe the Republican candidate is going to be John McCain. And I cannot stomach either of the Democratic nominees; if the Dems win they are going to tax us into poverty.

The older I get the more I lean towards the Libertarian party. Not the isolationist part, of course, but their stance on personal freedom and personal responsibility resonate deeply in me. Take this quiz and find out where you stand.

Where'd the week go?

I hate that I haven’t written anything in over a week. It’s not that I haven’t written a thousand words in my head – like the novella I thought while I was getting my teeth cleaned and the “Electric Slide” song came on the radio and I thought about our wedding reception and how fun it was to dance to that song with my cousins and Aunt Corby... or the bit I wanted to write about the guy who totaled his GMC Acadia in a freak roll-over accident but walked away with a mere scratch on his cheek... or the entry I wanted to log about Rebecca losing Rascal the Hamster twice but we found him, and both times we only found him after praying (one of these days I’ll think to start with prayer)… Even though my actual keystrokes have been absent my mind’s been churning with blog entries.

But alas and alack, I haven’t written anything. Ugh. I feel like my whole life this past week has been “that which I want to do I don’t and that which I don’t I do.” Look up Romans 7:15 and you’ll see my picture.

And even now, with a week’s worth of material, I hear my bed calling more loudly than my blog. I sense the bed will win tonight. But it’s not winning right now, at least.

We have a full day at church tomorrow, morning and evening. Sean and I are keeping the infant nursery for the morning service and the kids are in a membership class during the evening service. We’ll have just enough time in-between for Sean to catch his weekly nap and for me to throw a load or two of laundry in the washer. I’m not a big fan of the two-service Sunday; seems like we don’t get any good family time on those days.

Anyway, my bed is calling, more loudly than before, probably because Sean told me he turned on the electric blanket. I always called the electric blanket a “hot heater;” I don’t know why. When we got married Sean thought that was exceedingly funny, so I’ve tried to change my terminology. I try to remember to say “electric blanket” but by this time of the night it usually comes out “hot heater.”

So I’m off to bed to snuggle down under my hot heater and start reading the new FairTax book. Though I know the book will be a good read, I bet I’ll be asleep before page 2.

Pictures From This Week

Well, we are snowed in. My goodness there is a lot of snow out there. It started snowing yesterday around 9 and didn’t stop until midnight. All the schools in the area are closed. That is definitely one big ol’ bummer about home schooling: it’s pretty hard to get snowed out of our school room since it’s just down the hall. The public schools had two snow days yesterday (one day they were delayed for fog) and we did take one of those days off. But today we are working. Michael has already informed me of the injustice of his situation.

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday.

Rebecca and Chloe, who thought it was fun to play in the blizzard, tried building a snowman.

The snow blew so hard it coated the front door.

I took this shot from our front door at 5 pm. On a normal day you can see all the way down our street from this angle.

Snow on the deck.


This is a picture of Michael and two of his buddies, Calvin and Jacob, who were on their way to a Super Bowl party. They all play on the same basketball team. They are each taller than I am. I was unprepared for that to happen quite so soon.

And here is Rebecca with the love of her life, Rascal. This is the most patient, loving hamster ever. She carries it around all day long and completely wears it out. I think he is the first hamster to become non-nocturnal. By the time Rebecca goes to bed, Rascal is so tired from his entire day of (involuntary) playing that he sleeps, too.

It's only Thursday but it's been an eventful week. I am definitely looking forward to the weekend. Of course, the weekend will bring a basketball game that Michael is playing in, an MSU game that Michael and Sean are going to watch (thanks to Aunt Jill!), Sean has an organ lesson, Amy is flying to Atlanta to do research for a paper (because, you know, she couldn't possible do the research here where we have computers and internet access – thanks to Nanny!) and we have church Sunday morning and again in the evening where Sean will play piano. Hmm. All of a sudden the weekend isn't looking like the relaxing time I was hoping for. I guess that will happen in about ten years when we’re empty-nesters. Wow. Only ten years? How the heck old am I?

Oh, well.

Happy weekend a day early!

Go Eli!

I am so happy the New York Giants beat the Patriots yesterday. I was really cheering for Eli Manning and his teammates to beat those nasty Pats – and that’s just a commentary on Coach Belichick’s cutoff hoodie sweatshirt.

I don’t know much about football; actually, all I know is the goal is to get more points than your opponent. I don’t understand the positions or the strategy or the play-calling. But what I do understand is when a quarterback knocks up his gorgeous girlfriend, then dumps his gorgeous girlfriend for an even more gorgeous girlfriend – well, I understand that when a quarterback does that then I am never, ever going to root for him or his team, no matter what perfect record they may have.

Ever since I found out that Tom Brady got his girlfriend pregnant then left her I have cheered against the Patriots. I realize that cheering did precious little the entire season; after all, they went 16-0 during the regular season, and then won each of their playoff games. But when it counted, when it came to the game that would make or break their season, my cheering, I think, was heard all the way to Arizona and the Giants upset the Pats in grand fashion.

Before anyone chimes in with, “It takes two to tango,” let me say that, yes, I know Brady’s girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan, had something to do with the pregnancy. But he’s the one who didn’t step up, marry her and become a real man, a dad.

Speaking of dads, can you imagine how Daddy Manning must have felt? How about Mrs. Manning? Last year their son wins the Super Bowl and becomes the MVP, then a second son repeats the same feat the very next year? What a moment for Momma and Poppa Manning.

Bottom line for this sometime football fan: I don’t really care what you do on the field. In order for me to cheer you on, you better live honorably off the field. That, after all, is what really matters. To me, anyway.

Gotta love this

This sign (sent by my dear friend Linda) has taken on new meaning for me now that I have one full-fledged teen and a pre-teen hot on his heels...