Saturday Sweethearts

"He ain't heavy...he's my brother."

Two Friends, Two Babies, and a Shopping Mall...

...on Black Friday.

Yikes!

I have a friend who lives in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. I worked with and for her when I was working for Highlights for Children/Boyds Mills Press back in 1994.

When I left Highlights in 1995 to work for the newspaper, we decided that since we were such good friends and didn't want to lose touch with each other, we would meet at a mall that is located about halfway between us.

So for the past 14 years we've done that, usually on the Saturday before Thanksgiving (though sometimes we have to adjust due to conflicts in our schedules). We meet to chat and catch up on each other's lives during the past year and do a little bit of Christmas shopping. But the trip is mostly just about visiting.

This year, my dear friend called to say she was too sick to come on our usual day. She sounded awful, and my heart ached for her. As excited as I'd been to meet up, I couldn't imagine her driving two hours to walk around a mall, all while feeling so crummy.

So we decided to postpone our annual trek. The problem was the only day we both had available was "Black Friday."

Black Friday.

Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is synonymous with chaos. Read or listen to any news reports, and you'll know that it's not a day for the "faint of heart" shopping-wise. That made us both a little worried about choosing that as our alternate day, but otherwise our annual visit would have had to wait until January. [insert sad face here]

Anyways...

A quick call on Thanksgiving night confirmed that all was a "go," and we'd meet the next day at the McDonald's near the mall.

Part of our tradition has included my kids as babies. That way my friend gets to see our new infants and, even better, we get a wonderful "cart" for all of our shopping. *grin*

Since this year's infant is Ethan, today -- as per tradition -- I packed up my baby, said a quick prayer, and got into the car, hoping for quiet roads and an empty mall. Our evening-before confirmation call included the pleasant news that my friend's new granddaughter, who is a few weeks older than our boy, would be joining us -- an added bonus to our crazy joyous adventure reunion.

And it was joyous!

A fun day was had by all. Happily, I can report that the babies behaved, the mall was not chaotic, and the crowds had gone home to bed...

Phew!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"To God who gives our daily bread
A thankful song we raise,
And pray that He who sends us food
May fill our hearts with praise."
~Thomas Tallie (1505 - 1585)

Thanking God for each and everyone of you -- and even more for the joy we get from knowing you.

No matter where you are -- or even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday -- have a happy, healthy day!

Wordless (mostly) Wednesday

Thankfulness in pictures...

(...I couldn't resist. *wink-grin*)

Sweet Sunday

Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Luke 18:16-17

I was sitting in the mother's room at our church, feeding Ethan and listening to the guest speaker talk about a wicked king in Judah named Manasseh. One of the awful things he did during his reign was make sacrifices to the pagan gods. These sacrifices included burning babies alive. The speaker explained that the elders would stand around the altar and beat their drums loudly to drown out the screams of the babies as they burned.

With tears in my eyes, I gazed down at my sweet 10-week-old son and thought of the agony those babies felt...and the pain their mothers may have endured as well.

When I was relating that to my hubby later on our drive home, he reminded me that we're no better today in aborting babies. It's just that their cries are silent -- but their pain is still just as real.

Something I began to ponder as I gazed at Ethan dozing in my arms: I cannot believe that a person who believes in abortion -- especially late-term -- has ever held a sleeping baby...

If people did that more often, it would completely change their minds...and hearts.

Saturday Sweetheart

Whoopsie!

Here's what happens when you take a photo just as the baby sneezes....

Friday Funnies

Today's "funny" is brought to you by my dearest Dutch friend Jadie over at The World of Emilia. It's an ad for a Dutch telephone company. Enjoy, and have a really funny Friday!

Peeping Tom-ette?

A former Sunday School student of ours -- now in first grade -- told Stuart on Sunday that the boy's bathroom is "very dull" compared to the "pretty ladies' room."

"All they have [in the men's room] are two teeny toilets with a piece of cardboard between them," she told him, rolling her eyes in disgust.

Startled, Stuart asked her how she knew that, and she informed him that she peeked.

I'm not sure what she expected to see, but, um, how do respond to that...without laughing too hard?

Wordless Wednesday

School Days

The homeschool group we belong to has a professional photographer come each year to do school photos. He does an excellent job, and it's always fun to see how much the kids have grown in a year. Click here for last year's photos.

Here are this year's photos. (You can click on the photos to make them bigger.) And, as always, we're pleased with the photos...and the kids. *wink*

I Swear, Kids Today!

The kids and I were sitting, eating lunch, when the topic of "naughty words" came up.

Emily mentioned that the father in the book she was reading used the "H" word. Edward wondered what the "H" word was...so I thought it best to tell him -- with a strong caution to never use it. Think: A Christmas Story.

"So what's the 'L' word?" Emily wondered.

I explained that there wasn't an alphabet of bad words...only some letters had bad words that started with them.

Both kids laughed and began to ask about each letter. Already knowing the "A" word (sigh-grunt-growl!), Edward asked what the "B" word was.

I told him it was another name for a female dog, decidiing to leave it at that.

"Oh," he said after a bit of thinking. "I know that one."

His sister and I looked at him. "You do?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," he said, confidently. "It's weiner."

"Of course, yes, exactly," we both agreed, with a wink and a smile.

But then he looked thoughtful again. "But that doesn't start with a 'B,'" he noted.

Hmm...would you look at the time...

Moseying by with Monday Musings

Happy Monday to you!

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving?

This coming weekend holds lots of fun activities, including my annual shopping trip to Frackville and...and...and 24 - Redemption with wings and fries!!! Oh, and there's also a national dog show and a bulldog-only show happening in our fair city, too. All exciting stuff, huh?

Well, the "li'l general" turned a whole two months old on Friday. Two months. I cannot believe how quickly time is going and how much he has changed in the past 60 or so days! He's so alert and loves to play in his bouncy seat and "read" books with us. We're trying to decide what to get him for Christmas. We've narrowed it down some, but it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to everything.

Speaking of Christmas, the "cat's out of the bag," so to speak. Edward admitted to Emily that he knows all about Santa Claus. *sniff* Another kid phase gone? He hasn't told us that he knows, but he has a knowing twinkle in his eye. Oh, well. Good thing he doesn't have to "believe" in Santa in order to attend the Santa Breakfast next month. (Kind of shallow of me, huh? *grin*)

And speaking of Edward... The "Orange Crush" delivered a crushing blow to win their final game of the season 5 to 3. It was an excellent game, and both teams played their hearts out. One mother was laughing, saying she wondered why they didn't play as well the rest of the season. But we all reminded each other that the team is made up of 6- and 7-year-olds. Edward didn't score any goals (though he tried and nearly did about three times), but we'd already decided to go out for ice cream to celebrate another great season.

And still speaking of Edward... He decided a week ago that he wanted to do another report for fun. This time he chose to do one on snakes. (I'll post it when I get it scanned.) I let him go on the computer to do his research, and soon enough a page of notes resulted on snakes in Indiana, complete with illustrations of: snakes in Indiana. One snake looked exactly like a birthday candle. I wanted to say it looked cute, but that word is passe at the moment...hmm...

Emily continues to practice for the Nutcracker. The soldiers had to "fight" the mice in practice last week. And fight they probably did. There are 55 mice in the show this year. I think the director is feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Maybe she should include the part of "mouse wrangler" in the program? There's sure to be a need.

Speaking of Emily, she and I went out on a shopping date of our own this past Saturday. She had her birthday money from us to spend and decided to use it at Limited Too. Being my first time ever in that store, I was educated quite quickly on how expensive it is. Wow! Fortunately, we found several really cute pieces on the clearance rack, and she came out with a complete outfit...and some leg warmers for ballet. (More on those in a bit.) We shopped for a little longer in the mall and then headed to T.G.I.Friday's for dinner. It was a fun "girls' night" out -- the boys had their own good time at home -- and something we'll have to do again one day soon. *wink*

And still speaking of Emily, she decided that she'd like some leg warmers for dance class. Some of the other girls have them, and she thought they looked cute. I told her today how we used to wear them -- way back in the '80s -- as a fashion statement, scrunched down over our jeans. She looked at me with wide eyes and an opened mouth. I'm not sure if she thought I was cool for wearing something so fashionable, or if the way we wore them sounded completely silly to her. Either way, I thought it was funny that the fashions of "my day" have returned -- with a twist -- in time for my daughter to wear them. Wonder what they'll be like when and if she has a daughter one day.

Speaking of the '80s... I used my birthday giftcards from Target to buy the Back to the Future trilogy. We watched the first one last night. If you omit the language (of which there was much more than we remembered), it was a really fun movie...a little dated but with a great storyline and some fun humor. Our kids get very worried with conflicts in movies, even Disney ones where you know that everything will "live happily ever after," so they kept worrying that Marty wouldn't get back to 1985 in time to help Doc...and we kept reminding them that there are two more movies, and they're both in them...

Well, Monday is nearly over so I'd best post this so it's in time to be Monday musings. My brain has been full of fog lately...but I'm hoping to work on the new posts I've had swirling around in there. *grin*

Until then, I bid you adieu.

Sweet Sunday

By request (of my sweet hubby), a hymn we sang in church this morning: "Wonderful Grace of Jesus." This is an awesome version -- done in a capella -- that really accentuates the words of this wonderful song.

Listen closely, and enjoy!

Saturday Sweethearts

Before Ethan was born, Emily started a scrapbook for him. She's been so excited to share it with him even though we told her that he might not "interested" yet...

Boy, were we ever wrong!

Here he is staring intently at the creative handiwork of his sister's labors.

Is that true love or what?

Presenting...

Ethan Samuel

TWO MONTHS OLD TODAY!

Question: Will this t-shirt still seem cute in 30 years? *wink*

Friday Funnies

An "oldie but goodie" for today's Friday Funnies. Enjoy, and have a funny Friday!! *grin*

Wordless Wednesday

Out of the Mouths....

A friend of ours was telling us about her 4-year-old son on Election Day.

He went with her to the polls, and as they waited in line, he kept looking around. "When are they gonna run?" he wondered.

"What do you mean?" my friend asked.

"When are Broccoli Obama and John McCain gonna run? It's a presidential race, right? So when are they running?" he said.

Who can argue with that logic? And, who knows, maybe that's the answer to all the mudslinging?

Many Musings for Many Mondays

Happy November Monday to you! Can you believe it's actually November already? November?? It's the second week, and I'm still reeling from the idea that we only have a little more than one month until Christmas...and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away.

It's also almost time for... More on that later.

Well, I started this last Monday, as per usual...but somehow the days got ahead of me, and here I am on the following Monday doing my "musings" from the past few weeks.

Ethan had his 6-week "well" visit to the doctor two Thursdays ago. And he was much calmer than his first visit when he would have awoken the dead again with his yowls. He weighed a whopping 13 lbs. 5 oz. and measured 26 inches long. And as the doctor said when he charted his "hugeness" on the growth chart..."He's a Foote." He had his first shot, too, and I'm proud to say he did fabulously...although the nurse didn't. Apparently, she remembered giving Edward his first shots nearly 8 years ago and it must have traumatized her. She'll ask to be rescheduled on "shot day" from now on.

Speaking of doctor's visits... Emily had an appointment with the back doctor. She has 10% and 12% curvatures in her spine caused by scoliosis. Nothing to be too concerned about, but definitely something to keep an eye on, especially since she hasn't done her biggest growth spurt yet.

Emily's X-ray...notice her grin?

Edward's soccer team, "Orange Crush," hasn't been doing much "crushing" lately. Somehow some of the kids seem to have lost interest and the team playing we saw early in the season disintegrated. They didn't get completely wiped out yesterday...but it was close. Still, they seem to be having fun, so their avid (near-rabid at times) fans are giving them the benefit of the doubt. Spring soccer sign-ups are tomorrow and Edward was more than a little keen to sign up again. What a difference from last Spring? *wink-grin*

Speaking of Edward, he was chosen for show-and-tell for his homeschool co-op class. And, as always, he wants to bring....rabbits. I think the teachers must been getting a little tired of seeing our lagomorphs. But he'll do research and share some knowledge about them with his fellow classmates so I guess it's okay. *grin*

At our last 4-H meeting, Emily was elected vice president of her 4-H rabbit club. She's so excited! I'm not sure what her duties will be, other than taking over should the club president be unavailable. Edward wondered if she would take over if the club president was assassinated...but we told him that isn't likely (thankfully!!) to happen given the nature of the club. The kids also brought their rabbits in costume. It was cute to see the furry "kids" dressed like bees, cheerleaders, and even a hotdog (that was Emily's Earl Grey).

Only one more club meeting for the year: the Christmas party. Emily's on the social committee for that so she'll be helping to decorate the tables and organize some games. Of course that happens on the same day as Stuart's company's annual Santa Breakfast...as well as Emily's Nutcracker practice... Crazy days ahead for us?

Only 12 more -- count 'em...12! -- days until the 24 prequel movie. I cannot wait to see Jack back on the job. It's been such a long time! We've busied ourselves with watching some of our other favorites, but I've been yearning for some new 24 episodes. The movie will carry us on until January when the new season starts. Yeehaw!! My sister and her hubby are already booked to come watch the movie with us...which means homemade french fries and other goodies. I guess we'd better start stocking up on wings before January.

Without further ado...I bid you adieu.

Sweet Sunday

This song, "Let There Be Peace on Earth," is one I remember from my youth. We sang it in school; we sang it at church; it even played on the radio. Born in the '70s, at the height of the "Peace Movement," peace was a well-used, well-worn word, especially when at school where the "peace symbol" meant to be quiet.

I find it funny that today people demand the government to bring "peace" to the world -- both presidential choices were promising it, right? -- and yet they don't expect the same harmony inside their own lives. Kids bully each other, couples forsake their marriage vows, and drivers rage on the road...but the government should change all that for us, right?

...bring PEACE to us.

Peace begins in an individual's heart. It begins with me...and it begins with you. If each of us did our part, the world would be a nicer place.

But true peace only comes through Jesus Christ. He makes for a very sweet Sunday everyday!

Enjoy!

Saturday Sweetheart

Edward at 4 months

Friday Funnies

My 6-foot-5-inch nephew, Erik, is 14 years old. He'll be 15 in February. He's at the age where girls are beginning to notice him...and he might be passing a glance or two their way as well.

So recently he's out at a high school football game with his dad and asks if he can go to be with his friends.

My brother-in-law agrees and later decides to leave the game early since the outcome seems pretty evident. He's walking along and notices Erik surrounded by a group of girls, his tall and skinny son encircled by a group of shorter girls looking up at him.

Since he didn't want to embarrass him, he walked a distance and just gave a small wave to Erik to alert him that he was leaving.

When he was a bit further away, he called Erik on his cellphone. "Way to go, Casanova!" he teased. to which his son says out loud, "What's a Casanova?"

Thoughtful Thursday

It's been hard to post this week...

I'm going out on a political limb here -- something you won't catching me doing often -- but I know that my billions few readers either agree with me already, or will "agree to disagree" with me because they love me... Confident in myself, huh?

In the wake of another bitter political election, I'm always left pondering many things.

My brain has been working overtime as it tries to fathom all the changes that will occur in the coming months and years. But it works even harder to understand this great need for "change" people feel our country needs. Is it the people who say this, or is it the news media?

As a former card-carrying (and, yes, I did have an actual PRESS card) member of the journalistic world, I am very sad. VERY sad. It grieves me to see and hear how one person can skew the news in a way to influence another. A very irresponsible use of the power of the pen, in my humble opinion...

Political reporting becomes a great big game of "Whisper Down the Lane."

I am even more saddened to see how the media far and wide taints our government and its officials so that it's like acid in the mouths of the people. Funny that no other government in the world gets such coverage.

Why?

Why is President Bush evil? Why do people want "change" from all that he's done? Do they really know that might mean? Did he start the war in Iraq? Or did he merely fight back after a terroristic attack on our nation? Didn't he have the blessing of Congress though? Hmmm...last I read, he had their approval...but according to the media the war is all his fault. Everything seems to be his fault. Yet, he's only one man.

Our government is made up of three (count 'em: executive, legislative, judicial) branches. President Bush did not cause the fiscal troubles we've faced...nor can he "fix" the economy. He can only execute the directives that Congress legislates...they're the ones with monetary power.

I wonder what it feels like to be him. How hard it must be at times to wake up in the morning, with the weight of the world on him, knowing how much he has to do in a day. Yet, he's done so willingly and humbly for eight years. How weary he must feel -- especially weary knowing that so many, many people hate him.

While I never say people don't have the right to an opinion, I think it's sad to base that opinion on what is read or heard instead of on actual experience. It's kind of like trying to describe the taste of chocolate based only on what you've read, not on actually taking a bite of it.

Walk a mile in someone's shoes...especially before you criticize them. If you think you can do the same job -- or do it better -- then by all means criticize, but if not, maybe show some compassion and give the person his due, realizing that NO ONE is perfect, especially not a political leader.

Am I happy about our new choice for president? No. But you won't see me criticizing him the person. I might not agree with his policies or his choice of appointments or even his attitudes, but for him the person I will pray daily. He'll need the strength to withstand the weight of the world on his shoulders...and he is, after all, only one man.

Okay...climbing down from my soapbox. *wink-grin*

Wordless Wednesday

From a Dear Friend...

Redeeming? You Betcha!

Sweet Sunday

Seven weeks old today

One of my favorite songs to sing at church when I was little was the song "Trust and Obey." We sang the chorus with our Sunday School kids today, and it still proved a favorite to me.

In light of the upcoming election -- and possible results -- it's fitting to play here today. Enjoy, and have a sweet Sunday!

Saturday Sweetheart

Emily at 8 months