October 4, 2009 at 2:09 am (Media, Politics, faith)
Catholic Vote is such a great organization. I loved their first video about Obama, which came out last fall (but most of the major media outlets refused to air it). It was so positive and so beautifully done.
Now, they have a new video, all about health care reform. It is called “Big Government Health Care PSA.” It is hilarious. Check it out at:
http://www.catholicvoteaction.org/index.php
And, in case you missed the first video, here it is again:
October 1, 2009 at 2:06 am (Why homeschool)
Fri, Sep 25, 2009 (HealthDay News) — Unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and other types of toxins have been found in drinking water at thousands of schools across the United States over the last decade, according to an analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data by the Associated Press.
Toxic contamination of drinking water is most common in schools with wells, which account for up to 11 percent of the 132,500 schools in the country. About 20 percent of schools with their own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade.
The number of violations increased over that time because of stricter standards for such contaminants as arsenic and some disinfectants, the EPA told the AP. The EPA doesn’t have the power to require drinking water testing for all schools.
“It’s an outrage,” Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech who has been honored for his work on water quality, told the AP. “If a landlord doesn’t tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?”
– HealthDay News
September 27, 2009 at 3:10 am (Photos of us)
Smiles is 3! 
She’s adorable, and she knows it! In fact, recently I was reading her a book, and the book contained the word “adorable”. When she heard the word, Smiles got all excited and shouted, “Adorable! I’m adorable!”
Here are a few pictures of Smiles on her birthday.
Where do you take a horse lover on her birthday? To Heritage Days at Malabar Farm, of course! This is our second year in a row attending the event, and it is fabulous. Pony rides and horse-drawn wagon rides are the big favorites for Smiles.
Of course, Dad’s favorite are the Civil War demonstrations and historical reenactors.
Smiles, you are adorable! Happy birthday!
September 25, 2009 at 12:22 am (Uncategorized)
My sister had a baby! Here’s a picture of her. She was born on Friday, September 18th. I wish I could post the hospital photo. It is the best hospital photo I’ve ever seen!
September 22, 2009 at 1:48 am (Photos of us)
Here are a few cute pictures of our first days in the new house.
First, a picture of Smiles eating – or sleeping - through her second dinner at the new house. Moving can sure make a toddler tired!
Also, another picture from Day 2: I caught The Dancer alone reading on the back porch. One of the things we loved about the new house was the huge, screened-in back porch that runs the entire length of the house. What a great place to read a book!
Another plus: we have a huge, wooded backyard. Our lot is 1.1 acres, and it is filled with nature! This is our first glimpse of deer, discovered standing where our driveway meets the road. There are five of them, but unfortunately I don’t have a zoom on my cheap camera, so they look far away (but they actually aren’t).
Last but not least, my hero: My cousin Greg. He and my Aunt Sue drove all the way out here to do three days of hard labor. Aunt Sue helped me remove some ugly wallpaper in the living room, and Greg mostly removed overgrown bushes and hauled trash to the curb. Here is Greg with an overgrown shrub that died. He removed the roots manually (he had no choice, they were right by the water line), and the roots/stump was about 250 lbs! Greg, you are my hero!
September 22, 2009 at 1:30 am (Photos of us)
Forgive me for my long lapse in posting. We’ve moved to a new house! We got a great deal selling our old house, and an even better deal buying our new house. We live in a very expensive neighborhood now, something we could have never afforded without the housing market tanking (and also a little bit of divine intervention).
I can’t believe how smoothly everything went. Our old house got an incredible offer after only 26 days on the market. In fact, we only had five showings. Then we got an even more amazing deal on the house we bought! Then, everything else fell into place too – even moving day went well! And, it just seems to be meant for us to be here. It is all amazing. In fact, when I told my husband’s colleague the entire story of our move, he said he found it “hard to believe.” St. Joseph, thank you for your prayers on our behalf!
The above picture is The Naturalist amidst boxes at our old house. The kids actually enjoyed packing and unpacking, and even Smiles transitioned easily to the new house. Funniest of all was the kids playing “Moving Day” with the Barbies. For weeks on end, they would tell their Barbies it was Moving Day, then put all the Barbie furniture in the Barbie Corvette, drive around the house, then unpack. Luckily Barbie didn’t complain!
July 31, 2009 at 2:28 am (Photos of us)
Here are some random photos of the fun we had this month.
The Dancer cowered in the car during the fireworks, but the rest of us had a fabulous time!
The Dancer and our friend Maggie after a presentation by the Turtle Lady.
Here are two pictures from our trip to Egypt (Actually, it was only a trip to the science museum, COSI).
Dad took the kids to many places (including the zoo)the week I was in training to be a catechist for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program.
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra has the most incredible summer concert series for kids. Our kids love to dance to the music!
Smiles loves the CSO’s summer concert series too! She likes to dance, the free popcorn, and the face painting.
July 22, 2009 at 2:11 am (Photos of us)
No, buying and selling a house aren’t the only things we’re doing this summer. It just seems that way….
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Vacation Bible school.
Music is always a lot of fun!
This year was Smile’s first year to participate in VBS!
July 12, 2009 at 1:00 am (Photos of us)
The other day, my husband was outside with the children. He was in the front yard doing some yardwork, and the kids were helping him. I was inside the house. My husband set up the sprinkler in the backyard to water the grass, and the Naturalist asked if he could play under the sprinkler. My husband said yes, and the Naturalist ran inside, got his swim trunks, and ran under the sprinkler.
His sisters wanted to play in the water too. The Dancer was in a panic because the other two kids were having fun under the sprinkler, but she couldn’t find her swim suit. I helped her find her swimsuit, then went to the backyard to see what was going on. My husband was still working in the front yard, and he thought I was watching the children. The below picture shows how I found the Naturalist and Smiles.
Apparently, Smiles didn’t care about finding her swimsuit. She didn’t want to miss out on any of the fun.
When my husband and I found Smiles like this, we both said to each other, “I thought you were watching the children!”
June 23, 2009 at 1:36 am (Photos of us)
A warning to all unmarried women out there: At first, it may seem great that your potential spouse has a fabulous sense of humor. But, think ahead eleven years: You may have a son with that same sense of humor.
Case in point: The Naturalist is always trying to make us laugh. He knows that we check on him before we go to bed every night. He thinks it is really funny to fall asleep in strange ways to surprise us. We have found him sleeping in strange ways dozens of times. This has been going on for months.
First, as you’ll see in the above picture, he started sleeping on the floor. It is obvious that this picture is three months old because he’s wearing winter pj’s. Why exactly do we spend money buying him a nice bed when he’d rather sleep on the floor?
Then, as you’ll see from the above two pictures, he started sleeping among his train set. This seems very uncomfortable to me!
Now that it is summer, he’s not only sleeping on the floor, but his pj’s are gone! (Also, note that his teddy bear is with him in all these pictures. He’s had that bear since he was a baby, and he is so attached to it.)
This picture is the strangest one yet. This picture was taken a couple of days ago. Why did he put his backpack on before he fell asleep?
