This is a completely unaltered picture (I promise!) of the color of our sky this morning.  It absolutely amazing outside!!  It was 40 when I woke up this morning!!!!!!!!  I am so excited!  I love it.  The leaves are raining down whenever the wind blows.  It is just beautiful.

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seeing pink

Oct 01

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, current events

You should be seeing a pink background (if not hold down the Ctrl button and hit F5 for a hard refresh) for October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Click the graphic above if you’d like to sign your website up.  You’ll also notice a pink in the sidebar.

With a simple, daily click of the pink “Click Here to Give - it’s FREE” button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help to provide free mammograms for women in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are provided by our charitable partners.

Please remember to click every day to fund free mammograms and give hope to women in need. Every click counts toward the goal of early detection, which allows for the best possible treatment options.

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Rewind.

Saturday, April 2, 2005 - We are all packed up to leave the hospital.  Three bouquets of flowers, one stuffed dog, one balloon and a partridge and a pear tree.  Oh yeah, and a new baby.  We came as two, we left as three.  It is one of the most surreal moments of your life.  We introduced Caleb to his new carseat, and he expressed, very loudly I might add, that he was not pleased.  My best friend was standing there holding two flower vases and the nurse asked the question.  “Do you want a pacifier?”

Since I knew everything already, because I had read What to Expect When Expecting and the first several chapters of What to Expect the First Year, I declined the paci, citing my reasons straight out of my readings like a preprogrammed response.  “No thanks, I don’t want to cause any confusion with breastfeeding, I’m sure he’ll use his fingers to suck on if he needs something.”

My friend piped up, I can still hear her say it.  “MIGHT I suggest the paci?!  Because you can take it away.”  Whereas a thumb you cannot take away.

“Good point,” I said, and with that, it began.  The nurse handed me this big goofy looking clear, one piece rubbery pacifier.  We plugged it in and our ears thanked us.  Off we went to start our life as parents.

Exhibit A - 4.18.2005 1:09pm
(Note: Gotta say it, chest clip should be at his armpits, as it is a precrash positioning device for the harness straps and is designed to break open in a crash.  In other words, MRS. SPEARS, it will not hold your child in his seat!!!)

Exhibit B - 4.18.05 1:10pm

Fastforward.

Sunday, September 28, 2008 - Caleb’s lips have been extremely chapped the last couple weeks.  I don’t know if it is the weather flip-flopping around.  I thought it was the new toothpaste I had bought, so I bought something else, but it didn’t seem to solve the problem.  I’ve been careful to limit things that might have salt on them (like some crackers or chips that have salty dust on them) because it seems to irritate his lips even more.  The Burt’s Bees chapstick works, but he doesn’t like it anymore because it feels tingly and stings a little bit if you lips are very chapped.  So I’ve been using regular old Chapstick, which I’m not a fan of.  Bad grammar, anyway.  I noticed his paci seemed to escalate the problem also, as some nights I think he hangs on to it all night long.  He has depended on it to go to sleep every night of his life between April 2, 2005 and now.  I asked him if he was ready to be a big boy and throw away his pacis.  He was very adverse to throwing them away.  Want to know why?  Because someone else could use them!  There might be a baby somewhere that didn’t have one, and he wanted to give his old ones to the baby.  (He cited baby Levi several times, the newest July addition to our family that we met last month.)  That is going to be a blessed baby.

So for the first time in three and a half years, we are officially no longer using a paci.  To me, it seems almost more significant that potty training.  It was basically the one last tie to babyhood.  And I didn’t mind it.  He has only used it at naptime and night time for over a year and a half now.  I keep feeling like I’m forgetting something when I go to put him down.  I am proud to say, he has done excellent with the transition, given the history.  Just last week, he had a breakdown one morning because he couldn’t find it in his bed and we weren’t getting there to help fast enough.  I had to fight him down for a nap on Sunday, but he eventually went to sleep after an hour.  Sunday night, I layed in bed with him.  At naptime yesterday, there was no mention of it.  And last night, he only asked one time.  Now he has no excuse left not to talk my ear off though.  At night, even more so than during the day, believe it or not, he turns into what I like to call “Chatty Caleb.”

“Mommy?”

“Huh?”

“Can I tell you just one more thing?”

“You already told me one more thing.”

“Oh.  <pause> Well can I tell you just one more thing?  Again.”

“What is it Caleb?”

<insert completely random out of the blue fact here, usually something related to cars or monster trucks>

“Oookay bud, it is time to lay down and be very still and very quiet and close your eyes okay?”

*thump on pillow* Siiiiiigh.

37 seconds pass…

“Moooom?”

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Do you remember the surprise we told you about?  “Oh no.  No”

Remember we told you the other day that we were working on a surprise?  We have it now! “Oh?  Oh!  Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

*gasp of breath*

It’s a Herbie RC!  Scott painted it!

I think he likes it.

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Yesterday I got up at 7:00am (early for me) so I could get showered, lunch packed, Caleb up and dressed and out the door to the pediatrician.  I forgot to move my alarm up an hour last night, so it went off at 7:00 again this morning.  I snoozed it and then thought “Ooo goodie, a bonus hour!”  But I needed to reset my alarm so that we didn’t all oversleep and Caleb didn’t wake up wet.  I looked at my clock, pressed down the button, saw that it now said 8:00, and was satisfied that I had done it correctly and turned the alarm back on.  I woke up at 7:45 (luckily) and realized that not only had I turned the alarm off, but it still read 7:00 and the clock read 8:45.  I need this alarm clock:

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Can someone please explain to me what the government -whoever the hell asked, The Pantry (gas station chain)?- hopes to accomplish by asking people not to get more than 10 gallons of gas???  Was that a conspiracy to get the exact response they desired?  People lined up at the damn pumps driving the price through the roof again?  Instead of the normal amount of people who would have gotten gas this weekend, instead everyone, his brother, cousin and great aunt Sally is lined up with the cars, gas cans and any other container that might hold gas.  People are probably driving their lawn mowers to the station.  I’m gonna start riding a horse just so some of these idiots can step in his crap behind me.

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This day has passed by in a blur, much like it did seven years ago.  I’ve been thinking all day, but nothing I could write seems quite adequate.  This marked a sad anniversary for thousands of families who lost loved ones that day.  I remember going to religion class that day (in college).  We all sat there in silence for about five minutes before our teacher simply said “I do not think anyone has the heart to be here right now.”  And we all left as quietly as we had sat.  One or two kids at the school lost a parent that day.  We went to a candlelight vigil that night.  I just remember a lot of silence.  I remember watching the news each day with the glimmer of hope diminishing that anyone else might be rescued.  My heart breaking when they reported having to stage live rescues for the dogs so they wouldn’t become so discouraged.

I just wanted to take a moment to remember all of the people from the Trade Centers, the Pentagon, the flights that went down, and all of their families.  I can’t begin to imagine, but I hope these people have learned how to live again.

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Helloooooo?

I am still here.  In fact, I had this, not all that long, but somewhat emotional post written last night, and it got eaten.  You may have tried to visit last night and found my website inaccessible.  My internet host, godaddy.com hint hint, seems to have server downtime about once per month now.  This is the third time in the last six weeks or so that my website has been down for a few hours (that I know of).  Maybe those fine people over there could get that fixed?  Of course by the time you email tech support and they get back to you, they say, I have no idea what you’re talking about, I am unable to reproduce the problem you are having, maybe it is your internet.  ANYway, I didn’t notice my auto-save feature was not saving my posts as I typed away, and when I hit publish, everything was down.  I shall return shortly.  Things have been a bit crazy here.

PS, I guess you can tell from the page margins that I have been roaming around behind the scenes in wordpress today :)

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You’re probably wondering where I’ve been or what hole I fell into. I’ve had so much I’ve been meaning to sit down and write about, just no time to do it. I’m sure everyone can relate to that at some time or another.

Tuesday, I had an orthodontist appointment bright and early at 8am. Now that we live 40 minutes away, it complicates things a bit though. I always ask for the first appointment of the day and try to get there early so I can get in and out as quickly as possible. Scott stays home with Caleb, so I’m always in a rush to get right back home so he can leave for work. They were running behind as usual, and when he finally got over to my chair, he looked at my teeth and asked if I wanted to get my braces off that day! Totally unexpected, I thought it would be next visit. So I was really excited to get that done. My teeth are all nice and straight (Again. My second time in braces. This time I did a combination of Invisalign and braces though.)

I can’t even remember what I passed the day doing, but I do remember as soon as Scott got home, we rushed out the door to go meet the newest member of the family. Scott’s nephew and his wife recently welcomed little Levi last month and are in town this week visiting. We didn’t get home until 9ish, and I hurried to get Caleb in the bed so I could prepare for Wednesday. My orthodontist is located where we used to live and where my dad currently lives during the week for work. Since I had to go right back on Wednesday to pick up my retainers, I figured Caleb and I could spend the day at my Dad’s apartment and do some shopping. But this meant I had to pack toys, books to read at naptime, lunch, clothes in case of accidents, etc, etc.

The tropical storm/hurricane, whatever it was, moved through Tuesday night and all day yesterday. It poured. And poured and poured. So much that Scott had to run out and drain some water out of the pool because it was about to overflow (which is probably not good for an easy set pool)! Of course, it was pouring when Caleb and I piled in the car to head out for my orthodontist appointment. I carefully backed out through the river at the end of our driveway (think I’m kidding? pictures below), and headed on my way in amazement at all of the flooding. The drive is through back country roads and it always makes or breaks your trip time depending on who you get behind. For once, I found myself hoping to get behind someone, so there would be a guinea pig in front of me. I could watch where they hit water and know to slow down or scoot over. I slipped several times and the passenger side hydroplaned pretty good one time. It wavered for about three seconds and then I felt the tire grab pavement again. Scary. Driving is an entirely different experience when your whole life is in the backseat. He kept pretty quiet for the entire ride, I think he sensed that I needed to concentrate. I white knuckle gripped the steering wheel so hard the entire way, I felt like I had arthritis by the time we arrived!

Something became evident to me when I came home last night. There are many days where I feel like I’ve done nothing all day, but yet, the day is over anyhow. Well now I see, I must do a lot of things without thinking, because the house looked like a tornado hit. Clothes everywhere, not really even that many toys, but just stuff. Stuff everywhere. Things that needed my attention. Needed to be washed or put away or both. I left all of it last night, and just started immediately this morning. After all, I needed somewhere to feed the kid breakfast!

So I have already cleaned up a bunch of stuff, done some laundry, filled the dishwasher and started it, vacuumed, and put my new steamer to work (more to follow on this newest family member later!). All before lunch. For getting up at 8am, I think that’s pretty good!

So that’s mostly where I’ve been. Just busy. And you know, hanging on to my phone pole for dear life, hoping I didn’t get washed away!

See that river?  It isn’t supposed to be there!

And there’s a curb buried somewhere under there.

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Just another example of one of the many reasons I am choosing to homeschool.

Texas school district to let teachers carry guns
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas school district will let teachers bring guns to class this fall, the district’s superintendent said on Friday, in what experts said appeared to be a first in the United States.

The board of the small rural Harrold Independent School District unanimously approved the plan and parents have not objected, said the district’s superintendent, David Thweatt.

School experts backed Thweatt’s claim that Harrold, a system of about 110 students 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth, may be the first to let teachers bring guns to the classroom.

Thweatt said it is a matter of safety.

“We have a lock-down situation, we have cameras, but the question we had to answer is, ‘What if somebody gets in? What are we going to do?” he said. “It’s just common sense.”

Teachers who wish to bring guns will have to be certified to carry a concealed handgun in Texas and get crisis training and permission from school officials, he said.

Recent school shootings in the United States have prompted some calls for school officials to allow students and teachers to carry legally concealed weapons into classrooms.

The U.S. Congress once barred guns at schools nationwide, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck the law down, although state and local communities could adopt their own laws. Texas bars guns at schools without the school’s permission.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; writing by Bruce Nichols in Houston, editing by Vicki Allen)

I think the key words in this report are “small, rural” - it can happen anywhere and “unanimously” - not one person on the board said do we really need to do this? Nor have the parents. This is sad. Very sad.

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