the last day of october...

Happy Halloween!!! Yes, we made it all the way 'til dusk without exploding with excitement in our house. Oh boy, we love our trick r' treatin' here! And what a beautiful night! After years of ice cold rain, good weather finally followed us down the candy-lined streets!

So, what were my little girls? Well, Lauren put her dad's Michigan football helmet to use and together with Julia represented the best in Michigan Football in 2008. The helmet weighed about as much as she does, so it was dropped before we set out (you gotta be light on your feet out there).
Jules was about as sweet as can be (and yes, we found socks for her)...she refused to keep the bow in her hair, which caused people to assume she, too, was a football player (how dare they!). It took her about two houses to figure out how this gig works and she was game after the first fistful of Skittles.

Because the only thing we have in the house that was green was a fairy costume, that's what Sarah was. She was lightning fast out there and left kids three times her age in the dust. Her legs were a constant blur as she scanned for houses with lights on and took off with Lauren. Awesome.

Of very special mention are my nieces who are incredibly brilliant and clearly saw the sense in dropping their own neighborhood to come trick or treat in a neighborhood where the houses are an arms' length of each other. Kate was a bag of jelly beans and after a few costume malfunctions, found her stride and raked in the loot.
Rachel was the talk of the town in her little ballot box costume. There were holes cut out in the top, where people were to cast their vote for McCain, Joe the Plumber or Obama. We thought this would get a chuckle from the people handing out the candy...and it did. What we did not expect and were taken aback by was little kids stopping her in the street, digging into their bag of candy and asking her if they could vote. Hilarious! Needless to say, this advantage put her over the top in the final candy count.

Oh...here's the final results: Winner: McCain, Runner Up: Joe the Plumber, and 2nd Runner Up: Obama. Now, that's the kind of exit polling I'll pay attention to!

Hope your night was safe, friendly and maybe a little too sweet (I should go brush my teeth now).

the other elephant...

It was Sarah's "Special Day" today in preschool. Which means that for the last two days, we have been caring for the class elephant, Tembo. He's a quiet guy and doesn't eat much...so he's welcome anytime. Sarah did not part with him too much, which made cleaning up Lego's and eating challenging tasks.

So, today he got returned to the classroom...where Sarah was in charge of dressing the weather bear. She chose an open-belly sleeveless sweater, cropped jeans and a watch...it's 32 degrees outside...but we all know bears are fine without any clothes in cold weather. She also got to put the sticker on the calendar and sit on the heart rug. Ah yes...the little things.

Farewell Tembo...sorry you didn't get your bath.

don't just call me republican...

I wasn't going to get all political on this blog. That wasn't the purpose of the "family" blog in the first place. Well, I'm falling back on that and I'm going to get political...only because I feel that the politics that lie ahead will affect my family as it will everyone else's in this fine country of ours.

So...here's why I'm voting for John McCain. It's not because I'm a conservative Republican. It's not because he's my favorite idea of a Republican president. It's not because he found a woman to run along side him. No...that's not why. Here's why: I am a Christian.

It's starting to look like a landslide according to the media. The media, who in my opinion have put Obama in the car and have basically driven him to the front door of the White House. But, I won't get deeply into that. I just did not want the day of the election to come and go and never make an attempt at all to relay my thoughts...to make an effort to avoid a landslide and make it a victory. It just didn't seem right to be silent.

I'm going to quote someone here to express why I'm lining up with the side of McCain. This is from Huntley Brown in a letter he wrote explaining why he will not be voting for Obama: "In an election there are many issues to consider but when a society gets abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning - to name a few, then wrong economic concerns will soon not matter." (For the full letter which details more of Obama's voting record and to prove it's authenticity visit the Snopes website by clicking here.)

Also an important item to read is from James Dobson of Focus on the Family. I heard him deliver this speech on the radio. Please take a look by clicking here.

Another good article, entitled "Obama Redefines Christianity and Socialism As Election Nears" by Bill Wilson can be read by clicking here. In this article he states that Christians are evenly split in the vote...a fact I find rather sad to be honest.

Here's how I see it: If we all think about it and are educated enough on the facts of one candidate versus the other, we know (based on God's Word) who our God would have as President. Don't we? If it is His value system that we would place on this country, who best represents that set of ideals? If we truly put our heart into answering that question...what would we come up with? It's pretty clear, right? Given the answer and Who I ultimately answer to...I am voting for John McCain.

Billy Graham once said, "To get nations back on their feet. We must first get down on our knees." That said, all I ask is that you pray in the days ahead...and then open your eyes before you walk up to the voting booth.

(here's hoping I didn't lose some blog-followers on this one...I promise to return to pictures of the kids)

champions of the west (we hope)...

Jeff left for the Michigan v. Michigan State game in Ann Arbor this morning. So the rest of us got dressed for the big rivalry game too. We're hoping the losing streak is over by the end of the day today...but there's only so much finger crossing you can do. Go blue!

insert very bad word here...

I am really at a loss for words on this one. The only words that keep coming to mind are not very nice.

So, the only thing I can think to say is: raise your kids right. Because if you don't, they will become ungrateful, inconsiderate little punks who walk up to people's porches when they can't be seen...take a pumpkin that belongs to a small child and smash it in the street.

I understand playing pranks, but there's plenty of toilet paper and cows that can be tipped around here, right?

a bit of art therapy...

Lauren got this pink squishy cuddle pillow from her Aunt Laura about four years ago. To say she loved the pillow would be understating the feeling. She slept with the pillow every night and when we traveled, the pillow came along.

Lately, she hadn't been doing it as much and one day while cleaning her room, I found it under the bed. I started thinking about four years worth of snuggle goop being on it and got the creepy crawlies. So, I thought it needed a bath in the washing machine. Lauren wasn't sure that was a good idea, but I assured her it would be fine.

Well, it wasn't fine. I opened the washing machine to discover tiny little white pellets all over the clothes. I didn't immediately discover the culprit until the very clean pink pillow got pulled out with white droppings still coming out of it. Thinking Lauren would be fine with it (after all, it was under her bed and she obviously didn't need it anymore), I tossed it in the trash next to the washer. This was two weeks ago.

So...today, I was back in her room cleaning and found the two drawings below. I wasn't sure what the first drawing was of and thought it was just a flower or something. Until...I saw the second drawing.


After looking at the picture below...I looked over at Lauren, who knew very well what I was seeing and says, "I saw it in there. I know what happened." I said, "I'm sorry Lauren. I didn't know you saw it. Why didn't you talk to me?" She replied, "I didn't know what to say, so I just came to my room to draw these pictures." [hear the sound of my heart breaking here] I gave her a hug and promised somehow she'd get a new one.

So, Aunt Laura...if you're debating what to shop for this Christmas season...I've got a pretty good idea what's on her list.

no, not 55 and older...

So, I had my first senior portrait session yesterday. It was a lot of fun hanging out with a girl who wanted to be an artist, journalist, broadcast journalist, graphic desiner, and advertising executive all at the same time. Ummm....that train of thought sounds familiar. Who was that again? Yea...it was me. (And in some way, shape, or form...I've actually done all of those things). Anyhoo...click here to see the pics over on the photoblog!