Meme and Papa's Visit

Meme and Papa, Eden's paternal great-grandparents came to visit us last weekend. They came bearing gifts, including the pink dress with a tiny pink poodle on the front that Eden is wearing on the right.
They are so generous with their money, their time and their love. We both hope and pray that Eden will be able to grow up with them in her life.

They have been a huge part of Chuck's life and have become a large part of my own and we feel extremely blessed to share Eden with them and to see their Godly influence continue in our family.

My Favortite TV Show of Late

... is Jon and Kate Plus Eight! Watch the clip and enjoy a short compilation of the trials and joys of having 8 kids. This show keeps my life in perspective and helps me relieve my own stress by watching someone else handle theirs with grace. Thanks Gosselins.

Time Travel

OK here's my yearbook fun from Yearbook Yourself.

Me in 1960. I've always said I looked like my dad, but Yearbook Yourself proved me wrong.

The guy I would have married if we'd lived in 1954. Still good lookin'.

The Gold Medal of Laughter

Here's a video to make up for my oversight of Favorite Friday last week. We had guests coming into town. Yes, again. That's my excuse. Hope it's good enough.
It seems most people by now have seen this video, but even if you have, watch it again. I guarantee you'll laugh. I wish I could bottle this, but at least we have video technology. What a blessing technology can be sometimes, huh?

The Olympic Thinker

The Olympics have come and gone, but I wanted to give my random thoughts... the commentary of my brain... about the most watched games of all time.
Opening Ceremonies: Awesome, amazing, brilliant. It's hard to think of words to describe the emotion that they captured and the wonder they inspired. As an artistic type, I was mesmerized, but I think anyone would have been. The Opening Ceremonies are almost like the Olympics of design, drama, and dance, except the winner is chosen well beforehand and then they must live up to expectations. The Chinese surpassed expectations. I would have loved to have been there with an excellent camera, you know, the kind the real photographers use. Every shot would have been good. I wonder how many millions... billions of pictures are taken over the course of the whole games, by professionals and spectators alike. (does a period go at the end of that sentence or a question mark?) (It looks funny to put a question mark at the end of the words "question mark.") I know there's no way for anyone to ever know the number of pictures taken, but these are the kinds of questions I pose to myself.
Every Olympic games, my goal is to see three competitions, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. I did get to watch gymnastics this year and, since my hubby and I like to watch a little TV before bed most nights, and since that was pretty much all that was on for the first week, we watched it together. Men aren't supposed to like gymnastics, not even men's gymnastics. But, my man began to appreciate the difficulty and athleticism of the men AND women who compete in these events. He began asking about the scoring and even making sympathetic grunts or groans to help the gymnasts balance or to participate in their mishaps. I thought that was pretty cool.
I saw a little bit of the rhythmic gymnastics. I thought I would miss them completely, because I had no idea when they were on. I just happened to turn the TV on midday last week and there they were, women who could be mistaken for toothpicks bringing their leg up behind them and touching the bottom of their foot to their sternum while tossing a hoop several stories up in the air. I was so excited! About 5 minutes after I sat down to watch, they cut to commercial and came back to.... softball. SOFTBALL! I can go see the church softball game this fall if I want to watch softball. I don't know of any rhythmic gymnastics competitions around here, though. No fair! It was something about a gold-medal game or something. That's why they switched. Hmph! I suppose there was someone else somewhere in the world who turned on their TV and muttered some undecipherable words of disappointment under their breath when they saw rhythmic gymnastics was on, and then became elated to see them cut to softball. Well... good for them.
I saw no synchronized swimming. For some reason or other, I saw plenty of swimming, though. This guy... what's his name?... oh yeah, Michael somebody-or-other. He was swimming and winning all these gold medals. Seriously though, I heard an interview with him where he said that his goal at the games wasn't to win medals just to win medals, but to get people's attention and focus them on the often overlooked sport of swimming. Wow. That's somethin' else. He took responsibility for bringing the entirety of the sport to the forefront of the minds of the people of the world. That's a big job, but he made it look easy with every medal he won. This is kinda mean in an underhanded way, but I'm glad that someone is finally popular for their accomplishments and character regardless of their looks or speech. See, kinda mean... oh well. Michael Phelps doesn't read my blog.
Speaking of sports that don't usually get a lot of attention... Am I the only one who had no idea that Trampoline is an Olympic sport? Trampoline? So, in all actuality, my parents may have cut my Olympic dreams short by banning me from trampolines after a friend of mine "double-bounced" me and my back was hurt so that I had to see a chiropractor for years after. I could have come back from my injuries, developed my talent and won a medal eventually. Here's a link, in case you want to check it out for yourself: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0819_sd_gtm_hl_l0987&channelcode=sportgt
I have to wonder if the gymnasts just laugh at how serious these athletes look as they flip and tumble on the trampoline. As far as I know, gymnasts use a trampoline to warm up and learn new flips and stuff. I betcha any of them could do what the trampoliners do.
Oh, and speaking of snickering at someone seriously competing... Did you see the speed walking? I would have been rolling on the floor if it hadn't felt like the Olympics were just too sacred of a situation to laugh that hard. There's a really great montage that captures the comedic aspect of this sport here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0823_sd_mul_au_ce525&channelcode=sportat
Here are the official rules in a nutshell. "Race walking is a progression of steps so taken that the walker makes contact with the ground so that no visible (to the human eye) loss of contact occurs. The advancing leg must be straightened (i.e., not bent at the knee) from the moment of the first contact with the ground until in the vertical position." Interesting, huh?
Closing Ceremonies: What happened to all the highly coordinated people? Apparently, no one from the opening ceremonies participated in the closing ceremonies. Yes, it was still pretty cool, but, frankly, I was disappointed. The performers could hardly have been less synchronized. The concentric circles were more like lopsided ovals, the smiles of the participants in the opening ceremonies (when appropriate) were replaced by bored looks, the choreography, while fascinating at some moments, looked poorly thought out and even less rehearsed. And what was with the lit-up football players strung up by wires going up and down randomly on the perimeter of the stadium? I really was disappointed.
All in all, these games were the most memorable of my life thus far. Yes, even more so than the games in Atlanta, my home town. These games gave me an appreciation for different sports, made it possible to have "quality time" in front of the TV and gave me a convenient conversation starter in uncomfortable moments. These were the first Olympics of my daughters life and the first we have watched in our first home. They made me want to travel to China, a place that wasn't on my world-travel list previously. They made me think about politics and rights, fairness and world peace. Bob Costas interviewed a man after the closing ceremonies (I'm sorry to say I don't know who the man was, but someone important to the games, I think) and this man said that it was so inspiring to see the world come together and take a break from all their quarrels and differences for two weeks. He then wondered, if the world could do that for two weeks, why not three or why not a month, six months, etc. Unfortunately, that lovely thought will never be reality until Jesus unites us all with a new heaven and earth. Until then, the earth and all that is in it can only groan and long for His return. I bet streets of gold will be better than any gold medal and seeing Him face to face is sure not to disappoint even the highest of expectations.

Single and carefree?

I never want to be a single mom. Who would? Well, I actually know someone in my family that would, but that's a whole different situation.
Bunny trail... I wanted to type "a whole 'nother" back there a second ago, because that's what I would have said if I had been talking. Since when can we get away with cutting the word "another" apart and putting "whole" in the middle of it for impact? Why don't I just say "a whole other?" My mom, who was my high school English teacher (home schooled) would be appalled. C'mon, I know you do it, too.
So I never want to be a single mom because I realize on days like today, what a rock my husband is for me. Today wasn't a bad day. In fact, it was a very good day, just full. I had a group of mommies over to my house from about noon-3pm for a play date (Remember that banana bread I was considering making? Well, I made it and they liked it! Successful baking attempt number two, horray!) and then I had a welcome fiesta to attend at 6:30pm thrown by the Spouses Alliance for wives of residents at UMC.
First of all, I have to preface this by saying that I am the type of person that can make myself be outgoing and I'm getting better and better at it, but no matter how easy it is to talk to someone I've never met, no matter how charming they are or how much we have to talk about, I am EXHAUSTED afterward. The level of exhaustion differs depending on the number of unfamiliar people and the time I have to be "on."
Today, I had to be "on" twice, once for 3 hours and once for 1 1/2 hours. Add to that the fact that I am not a hostess by nature. It is not enjoyable for me to have people come to my house. It feels like my space is being invaded even when they've been invited. Am I weird? Add to that the fact that these people that came to my house brought kids. (I know it was a play date...) And their kids were touching my stuff. (I know that's what kids do...) It was a tiny bit stressful. Ok, more addition. Are you keeping up? Add on the fact that at the dinner, I was the only one that had to carry around her baby in someone's beautifully ornate home that had no children. It seems all the other moms either had friends or husbands that could watch their kids. Awkward. Of course, the evening is Eden's fussy time. So there I was at a dinner gathering with about 15 women I had never met and about 3 that I had met once at last week's play date for the Alliance. Not only do I have to suck it up and try to be assertive in starting conversations and mingling (ugh! it's really soooo hard for me!), but I have to not feel like I stick out like a sore thumb with my baby on my hip... my fussy baby on my hip... and green bean puree spewed on my white dress. (I had to feed her at the party, I had no option. She didn't like what I chose to bring, thus it ended up on my dress.)
All this to say, that.... whaaaaaah, I want my mommy! And when I can't have my mommy, my husband does very well to fill the role of hug giver, comforter and general energy-giver-back-er.
I can't imagine not having him. If I need him this much on the good days, Lord only knows how much I'm glad to have him on the bad days.
Only 1 more hour until he walks through the door.

Please Don't

Why do mom's suddenly acquire a language where every directive must include themselves even though it is clearly only intended for the child? I've noticed this phenomenon for a long while now and I vowed that I would not be a mom that it overtook. I'm a "say what you mean" kinda gal and I think it sounds silly to say "We don't smear peanut butter on our faces, please" or "We don't dip Sally Sue's hair in the paint." Of course we don't. I know I don't. Do you?
Sometimes the sentences make even less sense. "We don't try to grab Mommy's coffee cup while she's drinking." So... you're reminding yourself not to grab your own cup out of your hand? Weird. Or something like, " We don't get up from a nap before Mommy comes to get us, ok?" Now this is starting to sound like some sort of multiple personality problem.
Are these moms trying to remind themselves of forgotten etiquette while training their child? Are moms afraid that they will revert back to unacceptable behavior because of their 24/7 involvement with children? Do all moms, in fact, aquire a multiple personality because of the overwhelming suffering experienced in labor and birth? Of course, the answers to these ridiculous questions is "no." But, why do we all do it then? Why am I tempted to say to Eden "We don't pull Dolce's hair. We pet gently."? What force is at work in moms (and dads) to adopt this speech of inclusiveness? Are we afraid that a simple "Please don't do such-and-such" sounds too harsh?
Any thoughts?