sniff! my little boy is growing up

Unfortunately, growing up for all of our children will almost certainly include wearing glasses. Andy and I both started early, which probably makes me a little more vigilant about it. I was forced into glasses at eight when Ms. Viv realized that I probably was not intentionally giving her the evil eye from the back of the bus. Getting glasses was an enlightening experience for me as I'd almost forgotten that trees had branches! Since Michael doesn't have to squint to read a blackboard, he won't have to wear his glasses all the time, but for right now he is excited about experimenting with how things look. I think he looks pretty handsome, myself, but it's kind of heart wrenching all the same.

travel plans

I so rarely go anywhere at all by myself that when I do get to go, it's a big deal to me. I just bought plane tickets this morning to fly up to Memphis for Labor Day to see my friend Mylissa! It will be a fun trip, but also some work--I get to shoot Mylissa's family and also some of her Habitat families (if that doesn't ring a bell, please go visit her ministry's site and feel free to support a very worthy cause!). That will be a unique experience, without a doubt, and one I am really looking forward to.

Speaking of which, I'm reminded that I haven't harped on blood donations in a while. Next time you donate, ask about signing up to be a bone marrow donor. When I donated in January out in LA, the City of Hope group had a packet that made it super easy to sign up--no extra blood, just a cheek swab that I did myself! I am officially signed up to be a bone marrow donor; you are eligible up until you're 62, I think. Find out more information here. Apparently you can sign up online, but it costs $52; when I signed up as part of the blood donation, it was free. I guess a pint is worth at least that much?

In other news, I have my semifinal big box of homeschooling curriculum arriving today. I am excited to sort through it and really get down to brass tacks on setting up our year!

waiting for Harry

There are millions of people reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows right now, but I am not one of them. Trust me, it's not because I don't want to. I am just waiting for Ed to bring my copy in the mail. Having the patience to wait for that delivery today must mean that I'm older... I think. Andy has already promised the children that once it comes, they won't see Mommy for the rest of the day. What a wonderful husband!

So I'm filling in the time with minor things like blogging and mopping the floor.

In other news, water/sewer construction continues around us. Thankfully, no large machines have driven over our water line this week so we haven't had a breakage in, oh, say... a week. I watch the trucks and loaders drive back and forth past our house (our quiet little street is now a thoroughfare because of our proximity to their staging area, the once green triangle across from the park). Someone spent several days making large stacks of concrete pipes across the street and in our neighbor's yard. Thankfully they chose not to use our yard for a stack; I think our water line would have been crushed under the weight. We think these are for desperately needed storm drains. We were one of the chosen houses to receive new sewer lines all the way up to the house since the clay pipes in our back yard are apparently deteriorating (surprise!). There is a fresh scar of dirt through our back yard, marking the new line of pipe.

Michael had his official end of year homeschool evaluation, which was really more of an evaluation of my record keeping. We both passed; so on to the next year. I've placed orders for mounds of books to add to our collection and am looking forward to digging through it. One major change for this year will be using a full fledged science curriculum instead of winging it like we did last year. This is mainly because I discovered that I'm not all that great at science and if I want the kids to learn it well, I will have to follow someone else's instructions. We'll be officially adding Caroline into the mix (instead of letting her participate whenever she feels like it) and she is very excited about it.

pool pictures too

Since Cindy put up some pool pictures, I figured I would, too (esp. since I haven't put any on flickr in so long you probably never check it anymore, sorry about that!). Thanks, Dad, for taking your camera to the pool!




Can you tell that the kids love to be thrown around in there? This is a little city pool in our neighborhood which doesn't get a lot of traffic, probably because the other one nearby has a big kids' play area. My kids prefer this one for some reason, though, even though the diving board was taken out. We can even ride our bikes to this one, and it's actually easier to do so than to load up in the oven we call a van.

a public service announcement

This is just so I can once again prove to you that I am a geek, however well I may (or may not) hide it. Just read an article which mentioned one of my "favorite" pet peeves and so I thought I'd share the following quote:

Privacy 101: The Etiquette of Blind Carbon Copies

Sending e-mail to hundreds of contacts via Gmail is easy--just paste the list of addresses into the message's To: field and click Send, right? Sure, but put on your flame-retardant reading glasses. Though your e-mail recipients may have given you their addresses, that doesn't mean they want them shared with everyone. Good manners dictates putting one address in the To: field (your own will do fine) and the rest in the Bcc: field. (Some e-mail programs and services may require an additional step to activate this field.) E-mail servers strip the Bcc: addresses out before forwarding the message, protecting recipients' privacy.

And that's all I have to say about that.

couches, etc.

Jen, they are leather. Ooh la la! Very dreamy. A splurge, yes, but I think it will be worth it! I put together a panorama (OK, Photoshop put it together) to show you what the setup looks like now. I realize Michael looks goofy here, but he wanted to be in the picture and PS shrank him. not sure why; maybe it's because he's at the edge of the picture? I think one of my favorite parts about the whole setup is my grandmother's paintings over the couches. They look just about perfect there, or else the couches look just about perfect as an accent for them.


In other news, Andy is safely home and we are all glad. I wish he could have been sitting with me in church on Sunday... communion in the Fellowship Hall during the contemporary service. Either because it's where it is, or because it's contemporary, or because it's more casual, instead of passing the elements around, we walk forward to receive them. We sat up front, so we went first, and I spent the rest of the time openly watching everyone who walked forward (I know, I probably should have been praying or reflecting or something, for which I apologize).

People, they just shone. Or was it my eyes? I felt like I was home, watching these familiar, yet strange and new faces coming forward. So many had grown (like a foot each or something) and they were all beautiful, I kid you not. A year changes so much, but I think there was more than that. I really felt that I was watching the body of Christ, that we were all participating in this crazy, unifying, ancient ritual, however little we understand it. It was amazing. I cannot describe it other than to tell you that I was awed.