Election Reflections

1. The people have spoken! The results were so clear. No hanging chads.
2. Why did John McCain wait until he lost the election to deliver his best speech of the campaign?
3. It is a new day in America. I no longer feel the weight of having voted for Bush. At least for the next few years, the workings of our government are off my conscience. If Obama screws up it's not my fault.
4. What a thrill to watch the event in Grant Park. Obama is such a wonderful, powerful speaker. Much happiness and celebration.
5. The first daughters get a puppy.
6. Charlie Gibson from ABC news is vile.
7. Was it just me, or was Oprah three sheets to the wind?
8. How long will the honeymoon last??
9. Pray for our new president!

A Few Things

Happy Election Day! What an exciting day. I've already voted. I cast my ballot at 7:55 AM and was #268. That is so telling. People are voting in record numbers even here in C-U.
I am sure Kevin and I will submit to our inner news junkies and follow the news all day. I am listening to POTUS '08 on my XM Radio as I type (channel 130).
I am excited about the Obama rally in Grant Park tonight. Even though he's not my candidate, I think it is so cool for the city of Chicago to be a part of history in that way. It is really cool thinking of all the times I've been in Grant Park, with my aunt and uncle to see the 4th of July fireworks, for the Taste of Chicago, etc. and now this major historical event is taking place there tonight. I hope everyone will be safe and enjoy the celebration.
Megan are you going to it? Anyone else in Chicago going to Grant Park today?

Last night John's Cub Scout troop had an election event. I thought they did a nice job with it, and John definitely came away with some life lessons learned. They did a voting activity with the boys, where they chose a summer activity for the troop. The boys were divided into 3 groups. Each group had to come up with some ideas for a fun summer activity, then vote on one activity to represent their group (primary election). Group one chose laser tag, group two water balloon fights and group three, a camping trip. Then, two boys from each group had to explain in front of all the boys why their idea was the best, and then answer any questions the boys had (debate). Finally, the boys lined up and cast secret ballots. Laser tag won. John voted for the camping trip and he was genuinely disappointed that his choice didn't win. We had the chance to talk about that, and how laser tag is still fun even though it wasn't his number one choice. What a wonderful teachable moment.
They also did a mock presidential election. Obama got 15 boys' votes and McCain got 16, thus winning by one vote. Another great moment for John to see how if one person had changed their vote, it would have changed the entire election. Before the voting, some bigger boys were trying to pressure all the younger boys into voting for Obama. This was fascinating to watch. Kevin and I could see a real internal struggle happening with John, who wanted to go along with the older boys, but also knew that he wanted to vote for McCain (who he likes primarly because his name is John M.). He did stick to his convictions and, as we told him, his one vote won the mock election for McCain. By staying true to himself his candidate won. So powerful!
Although we had to eat dinner in about 8 minutes and rush everyone out the door to attend this event, I am so glad we did it.

In other news...Isaac had his first solid food yesterday! He did so great with it. I boiled a sweet potato and mashed it up. I added 1 tsp. of sweet potato to 2 tbsp. of Mama milk. He did great with the spoon and stared intently into my eyes the whole time, as if he knew something very important was happening to him. It was a nice experience. The rule of thumb is, stick to one food for 4 days and watch for allergic reactions. So Boo will have his sweeties (as I call them) for 4 days, and I bought some organic bananas to give him next.

I bought myself a Christmas organizer and planner, which should surprise pretty much nobody. I LOVE it!! Oh my gosh there's a little place for everything. Gift lists, Christmas card addresses, a holiday calendar, recipe storage, menu planning, etc. It is Becky type A heaven. I am going to work on it while Isaac is taking his nap this morning. Whee!

Have a great day and do your civic duty!

Shopping Trip

Every Christmas, Jenny, Sylvie and I have been meeting up in Springfield at White Oaks mall to do some Christmas shopping and hang out together. This year, we couldn't coordinate all three of our schedules to go in the month of December, so we went yesterday. We figured out early in the day that taking our Christmas shopping trip too early meant that any shopping we did was only for ourselves! Sylvie encouraged me to try some Origins products because they are supposed to be better for your body and for the environment. I tried some shampoo and conditioner, and a ginger body wash. It was a leap for a cynical cheapass like me, because the products are quite pricey ($13 for a 12 oz. shampoo) and they still have preservatives and fd&c colors in them. After my shower this morning I am not regretting the purchase! The shampoo smelled fantastic, made my scalp all tingly, and my hair is so thick and full I almost couldn't put a brush through it. Although I don't know exactly what it is, there is definitely something different in that shampoo. The ginger body wash again smelled heavenly and I only used a dime-sized amount of it, unlike Bath and Body Works products where you use like 1/4 of a cup to wash with.
Sylvie and Jenny found some great bargains at Macy's, Sylvie sweaters and Jenny a suit for work. So we all came away with some good purchases. I also found a completely rocking outfit at The Limited for Kevin's Cobalt Digital Christmas party, and any other holiday gatherings or parties we might attend. Last year when I was 4 months pregnant at Christmas and had already gained 25 lbs., I promised myself that this year I would get some kind of fun sexy outfit to wear. Jenny had a Limited coupon that starts today, so I didn't buy it yet but will head over to The Limited here in C-U sometime this week to get it with $50 off. It felt SO good to try on clothes again, (especially beautiful fancy clothes at Limited) because as I was trying on different outfits, I realized it had been about a year since I tried on anything that wasn't either sweat pants or maternity clothes! Anyway I had a great time and can't wait to buy that outfit and wear it this Christmas.
It has gotten to be so difficult for me to spend any length of time on the telephone these days, I haven't had as many chances to talk and catch up with Jenny and Sylvie, two of my oldest and dearest friends. Sylvie was one of the very first people I met in Allen Hall as a freshman at the U of I. In fact, I might have met her on my first night at college. If not the first night, definitely within the first week. I met Jenny shortly after that at St. John's in the 4:30 choir. So the three of us have been friends for almost 15 years now. They both live in St. Louis and see each other all the time. I often wish I could be there with them and be a part of that. Sometimes I ask Kevin, what is the engineering situation like in St. Louis?! I really like that city for other reasons too, and wouldn't mind moving there. Although, we do love C-U and have such a happy life here.
Jenny, Sylvie and I all have exciting things happening in our lives: new jobs, new babies, home remodeling, etc. and I looked forward to this visit so much. We had a wonderful day laughing and enjoying our time together. I think I will be lucky enough to have another visit with them over Christmas break - Jenny and Sylvie are Lucy's godmothers and they are great ones. They always do special things with her for her birthday and around Christmas too. They had the idea to have a "baking day" with her at our house, and make cookies and treats together. She will think she's died and gone to heaven.
It is hard getting back into the swing of every day life this morning after having a day off. I've got a chicken and potato soup to make, laundry to do, toys to pick up, dishes to put away, errands to run...but I did miss the kids yesterday, even though I was only gone for 12 hours.

Hope. Change. Property Destruction.

Halloween was great fun. The kids and Becky and I all had a good time, even Boo. Unfortunately some in the neighborhood got swept up in a pro-Obama, anti McCain fervor. This was the scene outside our front door at 10 PM last night.

So I went out and fixed it. There were actually some trick-or-treaters that came to our door asking if we were voting for McCain, as if that was the craziest thing ever. So I figured one of them got a little punchy after we turned out the lights. (Yes, we gave the little pollster some candy :))


Well, apparently my tiny act of defiance didn't sit well, because this was the scene at 7 AM:
We have some neighbors who are grad students and they had a late party last night. My best guess is that their guests spent a long night getting drunk, discussing politics, hoping for change, and then deciding that since the election would be stolen anyway, what was needed was some direct action on the way back to their cars.

Well, I fixed that one too (tape was involved). I remain, unbowed, a conservative guy in a liberal's world.

We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Trick-Or-Treat Friends

Our friends the Ashbrooks joined us for Trick-Or-Treating yesterday. The kids had a great time together, you can see how much fun they are having in the photo - and that's before they even started collecting up candy. Afterwards, we all headed over to another friend's party with many friends from school. Ikey got pooped out and went to sleep instead of continuing to party, so Kevin stayed home and enjoyed some quiet time while the kids and I continued our Halloween fun.

Carving Pumpkins

We got our pumpkins carved just in the nick of time yesterday, before the trick-or-treating started. Kevin took the afternoon off to do it with the kids. Lucy chose the happy, smiley faced design and John wanted his to look like Spiderman. The pumpkins looked so nice with white candles inside, as it was getting dark and people started turning on their porch lights. Since the kids were home from school yesterday, we worked on and off all day on a Halloween garland with ghosts, bats, owls and pumpkins. We hung it above our front door. With the beautiful weather and the noise of children laughing and running with their friends to collect candy, it was a great Halloween night.

Our Halloween Costumes

Yesterday for Halloween, I dressed up as Word Girl. I guess Word Girl is a little too obscure (although it's John and Lucy's favorite cartoon), because people kept saying I was dressed up as Supermom. Close enough! At the last minute, John decided on a "kung fu karate master" and wore his tae kwon do uniform, Lucy was a ballet princess. Isaac was Captain Huggy Face, Word Girl's sidekick, although he only wore his costume for a short time to hand out candy.
The weather was so nice, we had lots of kids out in our neighborhood trick-or-treating and we ran out of candy!