i'm so cool

ok, so it's not flames, but still, I'm thinkin' that my new tats are seriously stylin' on my mini-van.

check it out... my decals from the trade I did way back before Christmas with Shandi from Distinctive Decals . I finally got a nice day to put them on!

excuse the dirty van... it wasn't bad until I cleaned the areas I was about to decal...that made the rest of it look bad!

Here is the whole effect:

Our little stick figure family. I love these... I've wanted one for a long time.

My bus sticker.

my cloth diaper sticker. I left this one big so you could see our license plate too.
Thanks honey... both for the van and for letting me make it look like a total soccer-mom-mobile.

a great day to ride a bike

We've had some super cold days here recently, so when we had a lovely warm weekend, we took advantage of it. We went to toe nearby elementary school and used their empty parking lot to ride bikes. Jessi just got this big girl bike from Grandpa, it is probably a little too big, but she'll grow. Joey got his first bad bike wreck owie. I tried to convince him that this was a badge of honor, but he was not buying it.

Jessi did really well for the first time on a big bike. I think she would be ready to take the training wheels off soon, but the bike is so tall that she needs them in order to climb on.

Joy had a great time playing with her shadow. It was so cute!

a Grandma post

Yep, that is fair warning that this will be endless pictures and gratuitious bragging about my kids. If you are my facebook friend you have probably seen these, but my mom told me that she NEEDS to see new pictures. Here you go Mom-mom!

Also... Blogger likes to put the pictures in the opposite order of how you uploaded them, and it takes a while to drag them all around, so in most cases, I have just left them in no order at all.

Jessi/Mopsie

Joey and Jonny, you have to look and try to see the faces Jonny is making...he's highly enjoying himself. It goes without saying that Joey loves it.


You'll see this picture a couple of times, I was just playing with lighting etc. I adore this... I couldn't have posed them like this if I had tried, just let them play and snapped away.

same picture without being fancied up

Jonny seems to be saying, "Hey, look at ME!"

Look at him sit up!

there are pillows behind him but he's not leaning on them, he's looking up and holding himself up sitting.

Joey with his appliance. It is clear plastic... looks like he's sucking a giant icecube. He has his front teeth over it properly in this shot and you can see that even with it in the right place he can't close his mouth yet. Hopefully when we go back in 3 weeks they can trim some off.

Joy's first french braid!

Jessi and Jonny- the results of Jessi's mopsie

Hamming it up!

after I calmed it down a bit.

fresh off the rags

ready to go

still unrolling it.

Joey thinking his dreams are coming true.... however, no, Jonny did not sleep with him all night, I just tucked him in in the morning and let Joey wake up to Jonny's gentle eye pokes...

HI Mom-Mom!

Joey with Kiwi, Lizard, and Wooly Mammoth

Joey with his precious beanie babies (obviously not all of them....)

Joy reading her Veggie Tale book

Mmmmm, toes! Toes is sooooo ymmmy!

Bye!!!

I chickened out

I gathered the kids and we watched the ceremony this morning. No matter your political leanings, you have to admit that today was pretty historic.
The kids know about us choosing a new leader, we brought them when we voted.

Jessi actually opened the discussion when she asked if a girl could be president. I told her yes, a lady could be president, but that we hadn't had one yet. She asked "why not?" but was quickly distracted by the sight of the little girls and I told her that their daddy was the new leader.

She opened another window for discussion when she asked who the "pink" girl walking with the brown girls was and asked if they adopted her. "Pink" girl would be the Caucasian lady who led the Obama girls out and down the steps. We aren't white, we are "pink". But again... I didn't explain that having a "brown guy" as our leader was very significant.

I intended to, I did.

I sat here with tears in my eyes as I watched the camera pan over the crowds and saw a few old black men with their Tuskegee Airman hats on.
I choked up when Aretha Franklin sang about freedom and justice.
I wanted to explain to the kids that this was a special, monumental, historical day.

But I couldn't.

Because to them, there is nothing out of the ordinary about a person of color, an African American, a black man, or in their own childish vernacular, a "brown guy", becoming the leader of our nation.

To them, he's just a man.

They don't have any clue that some people could hate someone else because he is brown instead of pink.
They don't know that relatively recently in our nation's history, brown people couldn't go to the same schools, ride the bus, or drink from our water fountains...let alone be elected as our president.

Someday they will be exposed to racial prejudice and I will have to explain it all, and then they will begin to understand the significance of today and I will remind them of what we watched.

But not today.
Today I'll let them think that it's so cool that little kids just like them have a daddy just like they do and they got to wear a pretty dress and go to the big party.

Today, their only interest was all the flags and music, the parade, the soldiers.

Today, I'm happy with the knowledge that if we were ever to be at the same park or playground or library as Malia or Sasha, my kids would, unsocialized homeschoolers that they are, approach them with the same confidence and openness as they do everyone else and pepper them with questions, "how old are you?", "when is your birthday?", "do you want to play?"

This is their normal, this is their reality, and for today, I'm just going to leave them there.

just checking in

-the kids are mostly better, just still a little tired.

-Jeff is making huge headway on the house. someday there will be pictures.

- Jonny is laughing out loud, talking, and making this motor noise with his mouth. he's awesome. he's approx 26" long and 15 lbs, 6 oz. at four months old.

- that's all

cpsia

So I have found out that resale of used items such as thrift and consignment shops maybe allowed to be exempt from the law, that is one small victory.
However, many other things are still at stake, including the availability of children's books.
Yes, books. did you know that? Small publishers such as often publish material for Sunday Schools and Homeschoolers will also be required to meet these new certification laws.

The law does not come at this from an "innocent (of containing lead) until proven guilty" standpoint.

Please people, scroll back two posts and use the info I posted there about how to contact your reps.

This law needs to be repealed and re-written.


PS, we are all gradually getting better. Still very tired though.

Happy Birthday Joyana/ Scarlet Fever

How old are you now? What is your favorite color?Why pink and red of course, that is why I'm celebrating my birthday with a raging case of Scarlet Fever! http://plus.aol.com/aol/reference/scarletf/scarlet_fever?flv=1

Now as wonderful as all this is, Joyana does hope that none of Mommy's friends ever need to know what to look for... but just in case, she is willing to share these pictures to aid in diagnosis...

These small blotches are on both wrists/hands, about dime size, but irregular. you can see the spotty rash right on the edge of her sleeves. that rash continues up the arms, and is all over chest and back, as well as groin. Her face (shown above) is brilliant "sunburn" red, and getting rough. apparently this will all peel off once she's done. yippee. can't wait for that.

This picture of her back shows the proper color--RED.

This one I took without the flash and then brightened it so as to show the way it is a tiny pinpoint type rash. It is the same shot as above, her back.

Around her eyes she has the tiny purple bruising called petechiae, this is also all inside her mouth and throat.

She is on the needed meds now and should be starting to get better. I guess it takes a few days even after killing the Strep to get all the toxins out, not sure. Anyway, she is one sick baby.

I had a hard time finding good pics online to aid in my home diagnosis, so while I HOPE no one else needs to know, here are some pics just in case.