The bird is back

The bird is still living in its nest, so at this point, the baby birds will be alright! YAY!!!

Pictures of the nest

I know that after yesterday's post, some people are on the edge of their seats waiting for pictures of the birds' nest. OK, so maybe not, but as promised, here they are.

This is a picture of the box of garbage bags with the nest in it.

Closer up image of the nest. You can see the papers the birds used as well as the pine needles

There are two eggs in the nest. They are white with red speckles.

In taking these pictures, I did not touch the nest. However, I haven't seen the birds for a few days. I'm hoping that they come back, but if not, I might still try to see if I can find some way to incubate the eggs. They're beautiful, and those baby birds deserve a chance. It's not their fault their parents chose a scary place to put their nest.

Found my camera. . .

Have you ever heard the Found a Peanut song? Well, here is a new verse to that song that my heart is singing today.

Found my camera

Found my camera

Found my cam-er-a today

Today I found my camera

Found my cam-er-a today.

In the van seat

In the van seat

It was in the folded back

In between the

folds of van seat

Found my cam-er-a today

I was so sad when I thought that I'd left my camera at the Relay for Life, but I must have put it on the back seat and then folded the back seat into the floor to put the stroller in. I took some pictures of the nest today, but it's too late to try to post them tonight. I'm falling asleep. I'm hoping that I can post the pictures of the nest tomorrow.

Hump Day Hmmm March 26, 2008

I have probably said this before, but it's ever so true, so I'm restating it: I LOVE HUMP DAY HMMS!!! Julie's blog hosts a hump day hmmm once a week, and this week's topic is "For Wednesday's Hump Day Hmm, take this issue---this idea of rating people according to how they fit or don't fit some arbitrary ideal---and debate/discuss some angle of it. Make it general or make it personal---how it affects you, our culture, your kids, your morals...however you want to approach it. Next week we'll discuss atonement. (That will make more sense when I share the story behind it.)"

I have spent many hours musing over this issue, and this is the conclusion to which I have come. Basing people's worth off of the way they look or the way we think people should be is probably the Devil's strongest tool. I say this for two reasons. The first reason is because of scripture (1 Sam 16:7) "Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The second reason is because of my own personal experiences.

Maybe the four people who grow up looking like the mold agree with the world's assessment of beautiful. However, I was certainly not one of those people, and although I'm no longer at the complete bottom end of the world's scale, I'm still not gorgeous. I am now completely OK with not looking like a super model. However, I had an uncommonly long gawky stage.

Everyone has a stage in their lives where their arms and legs are too long, and they trip over stuff. Most people call this gawky stage puberty. My gawky stage started way before puberty. I was a beautiful baby and little girl. Everyone who saw my picture go across the screen in high school ooohed at my baby picture. I was beautiful. Then I turned 7. I was one of the first children in my class to get glasses, but because I was a clumsy and rambunctious child who liked to climb and jump out of trees as well, I got some extra large, sturdy pink plastic frames. They covered about half of my face, and my teeth were falling out. This also became the time when I stopped wanting my hair brushed and I would scream until my mom finally gave in, just long enough until I could go to the hairdresser and get it all chopped off.

In seventh grade, I had to get braces. I was already teased mercilessly about just about anything one could find to harass me about, and then I had to have braces as well. Seventh grade started a time in my life where I was about as depressed as I could get. Even worse, as other girls' bodies were developing into lovely young ladies' bodies, I was still flat as a pancake and as gawky as ever. I thought that I was just slow, and I was, but I was REALLY slow. Therefore, when I got to high school, every other girl in the class was starting to look beautiful, and here I was, running into lockers, boys calling me a heifer, and really feeling like God must not love me like he loved the other girls and wondering if it was worth trying to stay alive for another day.

In 10th grade, I finally started to fill out. The first picture that I didn't feel like cutting up with scissors or ripping to shreds and flushing down the toilet was taken, and I started to feel like maybe I was worth something after all.

I think that trying to make us compare ourselves to other people is one of Satan's very biggest tools. I'm not like anyone else. There are places where I have similarities, but the beauty is that I'm me. I'm only myself. I love to be myself. It's OK if I'm not a concert pianist. I don't have to be. It's OK if we go bowling and I get a 40 while everyone else gets 80 or 100. I'm alright with that. The true beauty of life is when I try to do my very best. Regardless of how everyone else does, my best is what really matters to me. If I play a concert, and I make mistakes, that's OK as long as it was the best I could do that day. I'm just working on becoming a little better day by day. At the end of life, that's what really matters.

The nest

On Monday, I saw a few leaves in a partial box of garbage bags in our garage. We buy stuff from Sam's Club and put it in the garage and then use it little by little as time goes on. Tuesday morning, I walked out of my house and into the garage to put my kids in the van and a bird flew into the house. I chased it around for awhile and 20 minutes later, I got the bird to fly out the window. I walked back out of the house and put my kids in the van. Then, I saw an entire nest in the box of garbage bags in my garage. I have been waiting to post this post because I was planning on taking a picture of the nest, but I cannot find my cameras. Yes. Two of them. I took some pictures with my cell phone, but the just did not do them justice. I've been trying to hold out and find my cameras, but I have given up for awhile, so I'm just posting this now anyway.

Relay For Life

Tonight I am going to be on the Relay for Life team to support the American Cancer Society. I was up most of the night making a quilt for Ellie Bellie Baby to raffle off to donate, and tonight, I'll be up most of the night supporting the rest of my team in our respective games. My game is the Jump Rope Lap Race. We have to jump rope a lap around the track. I'm excited. It will be fun, and it's a great way to give some service to my community. Tomorrow bright and early is the county Republican Convention. It will be worthy of my time, but since I'll have two nights in row with very little sleep, I'm going to need a nap tomorrow, and Sunday, I'm supposed to give a talk in church about a subject from Time Out for Women. I may see you all some time next week.

Time Out for Women Book Club

This weekend, I had one of the best girls out times of my life. My friends Kim and Wanda went with me to Time Out for Women sponsored by Deseret Book in Tallahassee. For more info on this wonderful, fulfilling event see http://www.deseretbook.com/time-out. The Speakers were Sherri Dew, Wendy Watson Neilson (Russel M. Neilson's wife) and many other people. It was very great, but one idea that was suggested was a Time Out for Women book club. Here's how it works, I would like to host it, but I need me and at least 7 other people to sign up. Deseret book gives us three choices a month for books, and they give a significant discount on the book. (There is no obligation to buy it from them.) The books will all be clean and they will probably be LDS oriented. However, I think that I would appreciate some other perspectives, so to my friends from other faiths, feel free to join if you'd like. If you want to join, please email me. le35@yahoo.com Anyway, if this does NOT sound fun to anyone, please tell me, too, so I don't get my hopes up.

Three AM Poops

Lately, Ben has had a really hard time sleeping at night. Last night he woke up between midnight and one and had a hard time going back to sleep. I put him on the potty because I noticed that he needed to potty, and he peed and peed and peed. Then, I went and cuddled him again and gave him another bottle, so he could settle down, but he didn't settle down. About 2:30, I noticed that he was really working on pooping. He sat on the potty and he pooped. Then he kept pooping, and he kept pooping some more. He held his arms out to me, and I asked if he was done, he said, "No!" But he kept holding his arms out. So, I knelt on the floor by the toilet and gave him a hug while he was pooping. That's what he wanted. We must have sat like that for 10 minutes. After he finished pooping, I said, "Go get a diaper." He said, "No!" He fussed and struggled when I put his diaper on. Then, at about 3:15, I loaded him into the van for a trip around town. 45 minutes later, he was finally asleep enough that I could drive into my driveway. I crawled into bed with him next to me, and we slept pretty well until I had to get up this morning.

There are days when Ben will take my hand, lead me into the bathroom, and pat the potty seat. I'll put him on it, and he will pee. Mostly, I believe in ECing in that I believe in communicating with my children about their elimination needs, and I believe in catching as many poops and pees in the potty as is easy that day. Mostly, I'm a part time ECing mom. I don't like that my kid has to sit in his own waste for any length of time, but in this day and age, some amount of diapering really just makes sense.

I think that Ben may be ready for some diaper free time, full time cloth diapers, and full time ECing for the next little while. Maybe we'll be done in a month if I do it now. He seems interested.

Daddy Sang to Me

In college, I awakened to a knock on my bedroom door at 7:15 one morning. My roommate was holding the phone, wearing a scowl and saying, "Your dad is on the phone."

"Oh YEA! He's probably calling to wish me Happy Birthday!" Suddenly, the early morning call was OK with her. I picked up the phone, and my daddy sang me Happy Birthday. It has been a tradition for my daddy to try to be the first person to wish me Happy Birthday every year on my birthday. I love it.

Well, somewhere in the ball park of two weeks after that birthday call, my roommate again knocked on the door just after 7 am with another scowl on her face. "It's your dad again, and it's not your birthday." I said OK, and I was truly puzzled. I picked up the phone, and my dad lovingly told me that Granny, my mom's mother, had died. I cried a little bit, thanked my dad, told him I loved him, and walked back out into the living room to hang up the phone. My roommate was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal, and I told her that my Granny had died during the night. Again, she wasn't sorry for the early morning phone call.

This morning, at 9:00, which would have been 7 for my dad, I got a phone call. And again. Daddy sang to me.

I love you Daddy!

Teaching, Is It Worth it?

I have had an epiphany recently.

The state of Georgia is desperate for teachers, so if you have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college, then you can go through some steps and get a teaching certificate. Last year, I thought about going to look into getting my teaching certificate, but it didn't seem like the right thing to do. This year, the district is desperate for teachers, so I looked into getting my certificate. The law states that you have to pace a GACE (Georgia Assesments for the Certification of Educators) basic skills test OR do one of the following: 1) have a score of over 1000 on the SAT (the old version, I'm not sure what the standards are for the new version) 2) have a composite score of 43 on the English and Math portions of the ACT. In addition, you have to have at least a 2.5 GPA with your bachelor's degree. Then, all you have to do is pass a test in the area of your degree and then pass the test in the area you want to teach. After that, you are elligble to qualify for a teaching job in the state of GA. If you can get hired in an accredited school in GA, then you receive a 5 year nonrenewable teaching certificate. Once you have that, then in two years of teaching, you can get your renewable teaching certificate.

In other words, because of my ACT score and college GPA, I am a prime candidate for the program. I don't really want to leave my babies, but I think that I need to become marketable in a job that would be conducive to mothering. Also, this is only a two year commitment. If something happens to Rob, and I have a renewable teaching certificate, I just have to keep the certificate current, and I could instantly be marketable. I'm going to take two tests on March 29, 2008. In case anyone else has a bachelor's degree (in anything except education) and wants to become a teacher here is a way to get full pay for the time you're teaching.

http://www.gace.nesinc.com/

Truth

Truth is truth. However, what some people believe is not truth. We are on a quest to find truth. The question is: Is truth simply a matter of perspective, or is there a truth that we have a quest to find? I believe in the latter. There is a universal truth. I need to find the truth and learn.

Generally, I'm not a big Youtube fan, but this video is amazing. If you get a little angry in the first half, please keep watching because by the end, it's incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsPBVNecOMo

So, is the truth the first half or the second half? I know people who would agree with each.

Hump Day Hmm March 5, 2008

The more I do the Hump Day Hmms, the more attached to them I get, so please mozy over to Julie's Using My Words blog. This week's topic is: What do you think about how courts, employers, and others use blogging against bloggers? Should courts be able to impose censorship on bloggers? Should employers be able to ban bloggers from blogging, or restrict it?

I think that the courts shouldn't be able to restrict blogging in any way that they cannot restrict news papers or any other form of media. However, media does have restrtictions, and I think those are for the best. Knowing that there are those restrictions, the government has the same right to restrict bloggers. For some people, blogging carries more weight than other forms of media. Peoples' blogs are the new news.

Should employers be able to restrict blogging? Most definitely. It's your personal choice whether or not you want to work for a certain company. If you're, for instance, a computer programmer, you should not be able to put out the ideas for the programs you're working on. It isn't fair to the company because another company may come out with the software. Not everyone has ethics, so some companies have to protect themselves. Yes. There are definitely places to restrict blogging. However, I don't think that these times are very often or very broad.

The Stove

I love my glass top cookstove. It's lovely; it's easy to clean; it gets HOT and cooks quickly. However, a tragedy happened. We somehow got a HUGE crack in our glass cooktop. We're now in the market for a new oven/stove, and our dishwasher is on its last legs, so we're thinking of replacing them both with some of our tax returns.

I have seen God's hand in our life right now in this because we, by some miracle, had no taxable income. Therefore we will get back all our taxes and be able to buy ourselves a new stove and dishwasher!!! We're also hoping to put a large amount of that in savings.

Reality: Not on the TV

There are times when I really love reality TV shows. I watched several seasons of The Apprentice and The Amazing Race was riveting. American Idol is sweeping the nation, and the episodes are vastly entertaining.

What is the draw of reality TV? Why do we like to watch other people live their lives? It's the good parts. We only have to see the good parts of those TV shows. It's like William Goodman's The Princess Bride: The Good Parts Version. The characters live an entire week, but we only see an hour of that week. How much of the rest of the week is like our own lives, mundane, doing the dishes, or putting the laundry in the washer. Even those people have to eat and sleep like the rest of us. I think that every single person should be able to look at a week, even one of the worst weeks, and pull out at least an hour's worth of "The good parts version" in each one's on life.

I have had the flu for the past week, and today, I finally feel almost human again. Even during that week, I can find an hour's worth of great things that happened. It was a great time for me to be able to cuddle the children and read stories. Jackie and Ben would grab books and climb up on the bed with me. We also colored and played with stickers. It was a very relaxing time just to enjoy each other.