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.