Blog Neglect

I've neglected my blog for more than a week and it's just unacceptable to me. So many things have happened where I've thought, "I really need to blog about that." Then, I totally forget, run out of time, etc. It's awful, because I get frustrated with other people for not paying their blog the attention it needs and here I am doing the same thing!!

It's probably that I've just been so daggone busy the past 10 days, but I'm not going to make excuses. I did get around to taking Zachary's fall pictures last weekend which was a huge accomplishment. It seems that every time I planned to do it over the past month, he always ended up with some kind of head wound that prevented me from doing it. There was the mosquito bite that swelled up his entire right eye for several days and then he got bounced out of the inflatable slide by the big kids at Trunk R' Treat. I guess with little boys the list goes on and on and it will for eternity :) But FINALLY, his bodily harm and injury schedule cooperated with Mother Nature and we had 15 minutes of perfect sun on Saturday afternoon. Here's a few of those shots.

Well, that's all for now, until I find something more philosophical to say!

Trying to stay positive about the next presidential administration

I used to be intensely political and I guess I still am at times, however; I get more and more frustrated by the process as time goes by and the world becomes more liberal. I'm not a right-wing extremist and I've actually agreed with a few liberal points of view here and there. But usually I end up on the moderate to conservative side of things. I am sure there are some who would say I am VERY conservative on a few issues and well, that's fine with me. It's who I am; it's what I believe and I'm not apologizing for it. It's my right thanks to the sacrifices of so many people's lives over the years the United States has been a country.

I don't see how people can be so naive as to think that one person can actually fix all our woes in this country. Some politicians seem to have a cult-like following and there's just so much misinformation out there, I don't' see how people can follow that blindly.

I never vote for someone I have not read about, no matter what party they are affiliated with. I do take recommendations from trusted friends, but ultimately I am the one responsible for my decisions and I try to be as informed as possible. I will admit that occasionally I've gone to vote and been unaware of a few questions or judgeships at stake and I've picked randomly and I am not proud of it. I think you can only be so prepared. I really have a hard time leaving something blank, but I've committed to do that if I don't know anything about that particular question, position, etc.

I also don't apologize for basing many of my voting decisions on whether or not the candidate is pro-life. I know sometimes that's an unpopular way of sorting candidates, but I don't care. It's important to me and that's my right to do it. What I can't stand is how some people think their opinion is someone more important than mine. Did our soldiers fight harder for one opinion or another? NO, unless you consider that opinion to be democracy and free speech which covers all other opinions on either side of ANY issue. We ALL have a right to that and should not be demonized, criticized or ostracized for voicing it!!

Even though I'm not overly excited about either candidate, I will go to the polls tomorrow and vote for Sen. John McCain. I do not agree with everything he says, but the other option makes me cringe at the thought of this country heading toward a more socialistic form of government...dare I say communistic in some ways based on my understanding of Obama's ideas.

I think we need to take a good hard look at our constitution and decide to actually live by it. I don't believe we need bigger government; we need bigger people who take responsibility for their place in this world and for their families and who rely less on what the government can "do for them."

Hmmm maybe I'll write in Ron Paul; nah, that'd just be like voting covertly for Obama.

What's in the music?

I should preface this blog with an apology to myself for being blogabsent for the past 10 days or so. I was involved with the Judgement House production at our church and a couple days, I spent 15 hours at the church! It was worth it though and it's been another amazing experience. God really showed himself to me and to so many others through all the volunteers. Everyone was so flexible and adaptive. I enjoyed it so much.

Now to catch up a bit. Sometime last week Zach began asking me a question I just couldn't figure out. Everytime we got in the car, he's start saying "What's that mommy? I would try to figure out what he was talking about, because he wasn't pointing at anything. I would say you mean that building, or that car or whatever I thought he might be wondering about. He kept saying no and then pointed up. I thought he might be talking about the music so I asked him "You mean the music?" He said no, what's that? UGH, I thought OH he wants to know what song it is, so I told him. He just got more frustrated and finally said "What's in it, mommy?"

I was stumped for a minute until he said "drum?" Holy cow, he's asking me what instruments are playing in the song. So we listened and I rattled off a few and he was completely satisfied. This continued with a few more songs and I mentioned I thought I heard the piano in one song. He said "no, I don't hear the pano in this song." I listened closely and he was right, it wasn't the piano. This has been going on now for almost two weeks almost every time we take a ride somewhere. I'm proud of him for being so curious and observant. He's really amazed me. It shouldn't really surprise me though. Since before he was born, he was going to choir and worship team practice with me, hearing all kinds of instruments and having several of his own. I don't think he's ready for anything he can destroy just yet; although I doubt he would.

He's never even tried to bang on a piano. Even when he was really little, he'd climb up on the piano bench at church and just play one note at a time, looking at us after each one to see if it was okay. He still does that. Sometimes he plays the lower notes a little louder, but he never bangs the keys. Maybe he'll actually play an instrument someday. I know he loves music just like his mommy :)

Escaped certain death in the bathroom!

Once my heart pounding subsided, I realized the humor of the situation I got into last night. I also realized the blessing. After MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) at church last night, I made a little side trip to the bathroom by the gym. When I was leaving the stall, I unlatched the door and began to open it. It immediately fell off its hinges and barely missed my toe, but then the walls came crumbling down...literally. There are marble walls that divide the stalls in that bathroom and marble panels that hold the doors as well. When the door fell, the marble panel attaching the door to the stall divider went crashing forward. It fell perfectly between the sinks and broke into several pieces. I ran out the bathroom door and The other steering team members who were still there came to see what had happened. They heard the crash from the gym.

I realized I hadn't washed my hands in all that excitement, so I went back in the bathroom to do that and survey the full extent of the damage. Somehow the stall door had wedged itself under the marble stall divider, fortunately for me that stopped the wall from falling on me! I washed my hands and got out of there before the whole room collapsed!

We found one of the custodians still at the church and told him he needed to go in the women's bathroom but didn't really tell him why. All the sudden we heard him laughing hysterically. It was pretty funny, but I couldn't see the humor until my heart rhythm normalized! It may sound silly, but even in that I can see God's protection and I'm so thankful for it.

I quickly told the other girls that this only happened because Judgement House is next week and that's the bathroom they use since the other bathroom is across the hall from one of the main scenes. It makes me excited in a way because Judgement House is obviously going to be very good if Satan is using the lamest of all tricks to mess it up!

Calling all bats to Lamont Drive

Yes,it's true. I'm sending out a warm invitation to all bats in the Lexington area to swarm Lamont Drive tonight. There's a serious problem over there and we need your assistance. Don't worry, your payout will be large as there are millions of mosquitoes for your dining pleasure! Sometimes you just have to declare all-out war on the venomous little punks and call in the big guns...BATS! Bats are likely the most effective natural mosquito control out there.

You see, the mosquitoes on Lamont Drive have been dive bombing my son long enough. They will no longer prevail. The last straw was the evil, blood sucker who decided to bite Zachary at the outside corner of his right eye. This caused the eye to swell shut for about 24 hours. Today he can open it about halfway, but it's still pitiful.

The skeeters may think they are going to win this one, what with humidity and rain forecast for today. But just wait, your time is coming and you will not win this one. The first round of shock and awe will be coming in about an hour thanks to Cutter Bug Free Backyard spray and don't worry, if any of you survive the first round of attacks, my son will be wearing some natural bug spray we found last night at Whole Foods; enjoy the smell, we got it just for you! Then tonight, the bats will swoop in and finish off any of you stubborn lingerers. This is your warning - you serve no good purpose in the environment and you must prepare to die!!!!!!!!!!

I wanna go to Christmas!

Me too! We've been talking a lot about our Christmas travels to come this year and Zach just can't understand that we have to wait two months to leave. I know how he feels; I'm excited too and I want to go right now and spend time with the fam. He keeps saying "I wanna go to Christmas!" It's like he thinks Christmas is a place and in a way, he's right.

Christmas is a magical place, almost a fantasyland, when I get to be with my family. Since we live so far away, it's something that I look forward to with all my being. It only happens in even-numbered years. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins...all come from across the country to eat, laugh and pray together. It's pure bliss. Yes, sometimes the traveling is rough and it takes a long time to get where we are going and then when we get there, we still have to travel from place to place. We have to pack up stuff, mail presents, eat crappy road food, pray for no snow/ice on the roads and ultimately sleep on all kinds of uncomfortable beds, couches and floors. But somehow none of that really matters and it doesn't bother me to hear the old version of Rockin Around the Christmas tree a thousand times.

So yes, Zachary, mommy wants to go to Christmas too, but we still have to get through Judgement House, Kentucky Baptist Convention and Thanksgiving first....whew!

Grandma's WHAT?

It's becoming ever-clearer that I have to mind my words with much more caution than ever before. With a fledgling English-speaker in the house, word pronunciation and diction are becoming more and more important. Take for instance our little "misunderstanding" on the way home from the babysitter's on Wednesday. I mentioned my mom in conversation to David and from the back seat, Zach begins to yell that he wants to talk to Maw Maw NOW!! He loves, loves, loves to talk on the phone and who am I to deprive him, so I told him I'd call her...the rest of the conversation went like this:

Me (under my breath to David): I wonder if he'd protest if we just called Granma (his mother) instead?
David: not sure what David said because I got an earful from backseater;
Zachary: Granma's DEAD?
Me: WHAT? How did you get that?
Zachary: She not dead?
Me: NOOO, granma's very much alive.
David: no words just laughing profusely inside his mouth, lips tightly closed so it sounded quite evil.
Me: Umm, I said inSTEAD honey, not DEAD!!
Zachary: Her dead, granma not dead?
Me: NO, we'll call her in a second so you can ask her.

David's mom got a big kick out of it and assured him that she was very alive. Whew!