You Know You're Pregnant When...

You are round enough that you wear your shorts backwards all day long and don't even notice until the end of the day.

He ventured forth to bring light to the world | Gerard Baker - Times Online

I don't know how many of you saw Gerard Baker's He ventured forth to bring light to the world. This is funny stuff.

Creating Competition in the Transportation Energy Sector

I think I mentioned a few days ago that we heard Gal Luft speak at our local Lincoln Day Dinner. The basic gist of his speech (which he previously gave to a Senate Committee) can be found here: http://www.iags.org/LUFT_Senate_HSGA_072208.pdf

The Melting Pot

Seeing the pan on the stove and supposing that my wife had already filled it with water, I turned it on so that the water would be boiling by the time I had the corn ready to put into it. Coming inside a few minutes later, I found Debra and her Aunt Lisa staring at a pan that had melted onto the stove. There was a bunch of molten stainless steel (or whatever it is made of). Never seen that one before. Memo to self: always check to make sure there is something in the pot before turning on the burner.

Here is one of the pieces of molten stainless steel after it cooled.

Flex Fuel Vehicles

We went to the Lincoln Dinner last night and they brought in a fascinating speaker--Gal Luft. His topic was energy independence and he is an advisor to John McCain on that subject. In researching the topic a little more, I came across the article linked to the title. The article was written in 2004 and predicted a run-up in petroleum prices (that we are seeing now), and analyzed alternatives to petroleum. Fascinating stuff.

Baptism Analogy, by Hannah

This weekend we had the pleasure of witnessing the baptism of our dear friends' daughter, Gabriella. Gabriella is 2 years old, and as we are new Presbyterians, we thought it would be best to talk about baptism at home first, since our children were more familiar with the Baptistic tradition of believer's baptism by immersion.

After careful thought and many questions, Hannah summarized her thoughts with a breakfast analogy:

"Baby baptism has sprinkling, like putting cinnamon on your toast. Believer's baptism means going all the way under the water, like a tea bag getting dunked."

At least she got the tip of the iceberg.

Vacation!

Here are some of my favorite shots from our recent vacation to Donner Lake. We were celebrating my parents' 40th wedding anniversary (a little early). Congratulations, Mom and Dad, and thanks for sharing your vacation with all of us! We had such an awesome time, and hope you did too.

One More Thing

Unless you have a little boy in your life, you probably will not appreciate the following comment by our 3 year old son. He was trying to be stern and let her know that he was not pleased with her (she was bugging him). Then he leveled what he considered to be the ultimate:

"Hannah, you have caused confusion and delay!" - the words Sir Topham Hatt uses to admonish the naughty engines in the adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Daniel's New Hymnody

Daniel has been learning some hymns recently, but he hasn't quite got all the words.

When asked the other day what we should sing first, he excitedly asked for "My Faith Is Up To Me." Apparently he has some Arminian leanings...The real name is "My Faith Looks Up to Thee."

And then yesterday, he asked to sing "Be Thou My Television," instead of "Be Thou My Vision."

I love this guy...

Also, we just got home today from vacation. Imagine 5 hours in the car with our newest talker, announcing every single car on the freeway.

"Car. Car. Car. Car, Car, Car! Tuck!" Do you know how many cars there are on the road these days?

Merited and Unmerited Favor

Daniel met a certain potty training goal recently and was rewarded with his reward of choice...a train ride at the park nearby. So early the next morning Mom and I piled the kids in the car, and headed out to the park. When we got there, the ride section was closed, but we could see the train was pulling people anyway, so I went to go buy tickets. After all, the website said they were open. The ticket lady informed that the rides were closed unless you were part of a school. At this point I became the mother I never thought I would be.


Seeing Daniel bouncing at my feet, I had to spill the beans - the reason for our trip that day. "Can I make an appeal?" I asked, trying not to sound desperate. "We're here today JUST to ride the train. My little guy here just finished a certain potty training milestone, and this was what he worked for - a ride on your train." Seeing the gazillions of kids everywhere around us I continued "Can we just slip in with a group? I'm happy to pay!"


The poor girl looked hopeless, and replied that she was new there, and could not make any exceptions, as she wanted to "get in good" with her employer, but pointed out a man in the crowd. "That's my boss over there. If you want to make an appeal, go ask him." That was a fair answer. I can't ask her to overstep her authority, I thought, so I went the next step.


I went up to the man, just as I heard him tell the engineer to put the train away for the day. "Excuse me, sir" I said, "we're here today because my son right here just reached a very important potty training milestone, and the reward he's been working toward is a train ride on the train here. I checked the website this morning, and it said you were open right now."


The guy pointed to Daniel with a questioning look. I nodded back. He got down right at Daniel's eye level.


"I hear you're here for something special today, young man" he said. Obviously, this guy has children, I thought.


"YES!" Daniel shouted back "I did all my poopoos in the potty!!!" with all the unashamededness and enthusiasm of a 3 year old boy.


The man stood up and smiled. He motioned to the engineer to wait. "Well you certainly DID earn a trip on the train! Hop on board, we'll take you on your own personal ride!"


And so it was, that Daniel earned us all a free ride on the train that morning - at a time when the park was closed to the public (the website had not been updated) - by the park director.


Here are few photos to show for it.

This is Daniel running through the park before the train ride. This is pretty typical of his enthusiasm and energy level right now. This is Daniel on the trainThis is Hannah celebrating with Daniel

And this is 3 tired but happy children :-)

Ode to a Chicken, by Hannah

Another of Hannah's chickens passed away recently, this one named "Carol." Peter and I can't tell the chickens apart, but Hannah has got them all figured out, apparently by the markings on their wings and necks. She spends quite a bit of time each day talking to them, urging them to get better, take a drink, eat some food, stop pecking each other, or whatever she thinks would help the most at the moment.

At Carol's death, Hannah recited her own Eulogy for a Chicken, which went something like this:

Carol the Chicken,
Was a good chicken.
We loved her,
And she gave us eggs.

Carol the Chicken,
Was a good chicken.
She was kind to the other chickens,
And was my friend.

Carol the Chicken -
Died today and I am sad.
Carol the Chicken,
The dead chicken.

If a 5 year old could write poetry, this would be it.

Peter vs. the Skunk

Early yesterday morning Peter went out to check the chickens. They have been sick recently, and two of them have died, so he checks them frequently.

Once out at the coop he saw something moving in the brush nearby and assumed that a chicken had broken out of the coop. So he started chasing the chicken...until it stuck it's black and white tail straight up in warning. Realizing the imminent fragrant threat he put his hands up and backed away slooooowly.

Later in the evening Hannah, Caleb and I watched the mother skunk from my parents media room while she taught her EIGHT babies how to dig for grubs. It was fascinating! Then we came home and I put them to bed.

Just then Peter called. He was stopped at the gate with Daniel in the car.

"Honey," he said "I'm stuck at the gate. I can't get in."

"What do you mean?" I said, looking out the window seeing his headlights just inside the gate.

"There are two huge skunks and eight baby skunks blocking the way - all with their tails up in the warning position!"

"Well don't get any closer to them. Your car will stink for a LONG time. Why don't you try honking?"

"I don't think it would help. They're practically deaf, you know."

"Yes, but what could it hurt?"

I hear a honk.

A second later, he proceeds down the driveway and walks in the door.

We're not quite sure what to do about this...Anybody know how to eradicate skunk?

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Hidden camera moment recently:

Today I went to an all-day scrapbooking event. All day... 9am to 9pm. I didn't go for the whole time, but I did get a lot done!

When I went out to the car, I couldn't get the back hatch of Peter's Explorer to unlock. Frustrated, but remembering that my key doesn't always work in his car's doors, I went around to the front. I stuck my key in the door and the lights came on inside. I started to climb in and reach to unlock all the doors when I realized that someone had left something else in the car since I left it in the parking lot. How strange, I thought, examining the new carseats and toys. Then it hit me. This wasn't our car!

I quickly closed the door and gathered up my gear, and headed over to OUR car - two cars down.