Some People's Yardapes...

My children embarrass me in public at times, but I can't imagine this:

In Paul Harvey's June 28th noon broadcast--"A Delta airlines flight was between NYC and North Carolina when a passenger child aboard began demanding apple juice, and when the child aged 4 was told the supply of apple juice had been exhausted, the child threw a tantrum and screamed loud enough and long enough, so that the captain diverted to Philadelphia and everybody aboard had to spend the night there."

Devastation

Last night, a very sobering news story hit me right between the eyes, and I had to stop folding clothes and just stand in front of the TV bawling. Most news is very negative, and I end up tuning much of it out. But sometimes I find myself identifying with the people involved, and I think about them for a long while. A young couple from Birmingham and their 7-month-old baby girl were vacationing on the coast when they were hit by a drunk driver and the baby was killed. I can hardly imagine what I would feel or do....but it has been my experience that during times of emotional devastation, God comes in, scoops you up and carries you through it. I have felt his presence directly as if he was actually holding me and breathing love and strength into me, and indirectly, through the caring actions of other people. During the interview, the mom was sitting in her hospital bed, clutching her daughter's favorite blanket and flipping through pictures of her. Read more here. OK, now off to find more Kleenex, and off to kiss my own 7-month-old baby girl.

There and Back Again

Driving through Atlanta with two small children.....I wonder why I'm in the back seat?

We had a great time at the reunion. Owen had his first starkiss at DQ--sadly, there are no Dairy Queen restaurants in our area. And we got a fun picture of most of the outlaws. We missed a few who weren't able to come to the reunion and one who had already vacated the premises.













Helen had a smashing time at her first Weber Reunion. She was practically ruined with all the holding she got. She has never taken a pacifier, but I usually keep one in the diaper bag anyway. It turned out to be Entertainment during the drive.

We stopped in Auburn on the way there. The University's ag department now has a farmer's market open on Thursday afternoons, and we wanted to check it out. A very fun campus. WAR EAGLE!!

We're now back at home and have a sort of post-trip bummed feeling. I must do something creative or someone will need to scrape me off the floor.

One for the road...

We are headed for Georgia, somewhere northeast of Atlanta, to the Weber Reunion that is held every two years. And this will be my fifth Weber. I went to my first one while Jason and I were dating--don't you know it's serious when you're invited to the family reunion?

We're coming back home for a few days, courtesy of the rain that fell upon us this week whilst Jason sat inside and merely thought about all the field work that needed to be done. Well, he didn't sit--he did some tune-upping on the new set of wheels and some fix upping on the old set that we will be selling after we come home for good.

Then we shall travel to Indiana--to Grandpa B's, to Sparky-dog, to adorable nieces and nephews, to new baby Lincoln, to Amish bulk food stores--and for good measure, a nice little jaunt to Chicago without the kids!!!

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And here is some proof that I can bake beautiful and let's not forget--tasty--bread.

If I would have had my camera...

You would be seeing three great pictures if I would have had my camera and been lightning quick this week. You'll just have to imagine them.

#1) Main Street, Atmore, Alabama. Rainy summer afternoon with sunshine gleaming. Freshly painted dotted yellow line between northbound lane and the suicide lane. Miserable-looking lump of old, unidentifiable roadkill with a firm yellow line down its rump.

#2) Jack Springs Road, Atmore, Alabama. Exit 54 near the BP. Just before lunch. Old car with a set of deer antlers for a hood ornament.

#3) Farm shop, Weberville. Late afternoon. 4 generations leaning or sitting on the tailgate of a pick up. Great Grandpa, Grandpa, Daddy and Owen making serious but relaxed conversation about the day's soybean planting and combining of oats.

Counting sheep

So what do you do when you can't fall asleep? Tonight, I blog. Yes. I actually got up out of bed because my mind just wouldn't stop. By all accounts, I should be out cold, because today was the dreaded Corn Day. Jason was out soon after 7, slogging it out in the wet-as-a-kitchen-sponge humidity, picking corn. Because of the 3 inches of rain and very strong wind yesterday, the ground was mud and the corn was all blown to the ground. Bless his heart. I now have slight tingles in my right hand and wrist, due to all the shucking, silking and cutting of corn off the cob that I performed. Bless my heart. The kiddos did very well today. Owen and his cousins got thoroughly soaked, splashing in the tubs of water for cooling corn. They would grab ears out of the tubs, then throw them back in, drenching each other, all the while laughing their heads off. Then we shucked their clothes and put them in swim diapers and let them play in a kiddie pool until lunch. Then naps. (Helen took a fake nap here and just kicked around happily in her Pack n Play for more than an hour.) Bless all their hearts.

I worked at the hospital yesterday, Jay and I had a date last night--Ruby Tuesday's and Wal-Mart run, hubba, hubba--and then we did corn today, and so tonight I still had dishes in my sink from Friday morning. But more important than cleaning up the kitchen was baking a chocolate cake that I have been craving all week! So now I've had my coveted piece, and I'm done. Cake, anyone? Vitamin cake, I should say. It's yummy, yummy, with rum flavoring.

So I think the piece of cake is keeping me up, plus--how embarrassing to admit--while cleaning up my kitchen, I found a half mug of coffee from this morning that I couldn't bear to toss down the drain. I just absolutely adore my coffee from the Roaster's Gallery. I think this current stuff is Panama?? But coffee at 10 pm? Stupid, stupid.

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Sometimes when I am just drifting off to sleep, my coherent, conscious thoughts will blend with my silly dream thoughts, producing some wacky stuff which makes perfect sense to my floating mind. For instance: I'm the kind of person who likes to know or have certain things in advance. Corn day, we found out about just before we got to Ruby Tuesday's--not a big deal to me. I'm flexible. But other things, I want to have the security of knowing. It's kind of like my pantry. I feel that I must have it stocked. One flour bag emptied into the canister, one on the shelf, and when you take the one off the shelf, write it on the grocery list. I hate to run out of staple ingredients in the middle of something. So one of these things that I want to know is names for my children. Come on, I know I'm not alone here. I had Owen's name picked out for years! I was seriously stressing because we didn't choose Helen's name until halfway through my pregnancy. Just to clarify, I am NOT expecting another baby, but I do have another boy's name in mind. So the other day, as I was sprawled out in the recliner desperately trying to nap but my mind was rebelling, I set my thoughts on scanning through names. This is where the dream-state took over, and quickly I was quite happy with the names of the future Weber children--(hear the ring?) Owen, Helen, Magpie, Tweety and Bush.

My favorite time of day

Hmm...let's see. What time would that be? Morning? Nope. Mid morning? You've gotta be kidding. The kids' nap time? Getting warmer. Could it be 8:00 pm, when the children go to bed for the night? Ding, ding, ding!!!! Yep, uh-huh, yeah, yes, yay, yippee!!

Since Jason had worship practice tonight, I was by myself for the kids' bedtime. About 20 minutes til 8, I made the executive decision that it was close enough and their bottoms were going to be placed in their beds. Period. I had had enough. The crowning moment confirming my decision had to have been when I told Owen to put away his (new) Whac-a-Mole game that a friend lent to us today.

While talking with pajama-clad Owen about his day, I asked him who all had come to our house. Ms. Melanie and Ms. Joann and Aunt Joyce. "What did Aunt Joyce bring for us to eat?"

"Ek!" (Cake!)

"Yes, she brought cake. What kind of cake?" (A sneaky comprehension question that I doubted he could answer.)

"Mah-min!"

"Vitamin cake!?"

Emphatic head nod.

Wow. OK. He comprehends all right! "Vitamins" are what Great Grandpa calls the M&Ms he keeps on hand. I'm pretty sure vitamins are the reason that Owen always asks to go to their house. So--Texas sheet cake is the flavor of M&Ms. Except what does he think he gets every morning with his breakfast? (A real chewable vitamin.) He knows that's a mah-min too. He sure begs for those mah-mins all day long. Which is why I had to place them totally out of reach. If I could get inside the mind of my 2-year-old....

So I came downstairs to the trusty computer and fell into a sort of trance looking at old photos of Owen. I'm posting some from when he was about 10 months to a year old. They just make me happy.

P.S. Sorry about the pictures. Meet Joyce, Techno-Dummy.

Letters--we get letters--we get sacks and sacks of letttterrrrs!!

Owen is my little letter man. Even before he was two, he knew O, W, E and N, and was starting to recognize a few others. Then Grandma W. gave him the most obnoxious birthday present ever--a Leapfrog phonics sounds bus, and he proceeded to teach himself the rest of the alphabet. So now when I hear "A says ay, and A says ah, touch the letter, hear the sound, A says ay and ah!" I just want to find a brick wall whereupon I can throw that mightily annoying bus.

Recently, a very kind friend let us borrow an alphabet floor puzzle. Junior got into the set while I was feeding Helen, and lo and behold we lost a piece--one of those tiny round holes that goes in the number 8. I have looked everywhere for the past two weeks. Now I can start looking for a replacement set. I guess it is my own fault.

Owen is now showing an interest in numbers. (Don't tell Grandma W!)

Project: Baby Blanket

Today I made a sweet little cozy something for my newest nephew, who hasn't made his appearance yet. It's so soft and cuddly I want one my size. The strips of cotton fabric are actually the back of the blanket. I did stripes because I couldn't decide which single fabric was perfect for the back--they all looked so good together. (This was a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.) Just send it back if you don't like it, Sarah!