A Great Day!

Well, the Merrill family had a beautiful beginning to our day. We were invited by our dear friends, the Wierenga's, to watch their daughter be baptized...Funny Story Tangent: So we get to the little beach where Grace was to be baptized and I'm telling you the "beachfront" was maybe 30 feet long and 10 feet deep. Basically, if you sneezed while driving past you would completely miss it. It was really the most lovely spot for such a sweet girl's baptism. So, we all get there, 2 sets of grandparents next door neighbors, us...all in all about 17 people. We barely fit on the beach. But, and here's the funny part...there was a lady with her dog and they were both sitting in the water in the only logical spot for this baptism (there weren't a lot of options). And they were just enjoying themselves. Just a-sittin. and a-splashin. and a-sittin. So, we're all standing there politely waiting and wondering about the proper protocol for such an event. Hee hee, it was sure funny. In the end we just waited and she and Rusty eventually got out.

Anyway, after the LOVELY ceremony, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Wierenga home. And then! Dear Anne, offered to keep OUR girls over night! And do you know, Mark and I let them stay! That poor woman has 7 children in her house right now! From 14 months to 13 years old! And 5 are GIRLS!!! Oh, my dear sweet INSANE friend.

So, Mark and I went to order our new mattress during our free time today. I think I had previously told Merkle that the new king sized mattress we were indulging in shouldn't cost more than about $1000. Now remember, we have had the same bed for more than 14 years! And it was bought off the back of a semi, for $300!So, we were "in the market."

(SIDEBAR!!! AND PLEASE NO "SHE GONNA BE MY BABY DADDY BABY'S TEACHA???" COMMENTS AFTER I POSE THIS QUESTION TO YOU.....Does punctuation go inside or outside quotation marks? Email me...)

Anyway so we went to get our new mattress. Anyone want to guess how much?? Too much to put in print.

Then, as if we hadn't just blown all our cash, we decide to go out for dinner and a movie because that's what you do when you don't have kids, right? Yeah, so we saw...dun duh da dun! Captain America!!! Yeah!! It was great! Awesome flicka! Two thumbs up. I cried. And sang the national anthem. In my head, people! I was with Merkle, not my mom.

Ahhh, what a lovely day! BUT WAIT till I tell you what I'm gonna do tomorrow!!!!!

MACLove

Well, I just finished my Summer II class. Using Computers In Education. Before going into this class I was sure it was going to be another fluff education course. This class was anything but fluff.
My Professor, Dr. Mooney, made Excel more relevant to being a teacher in 30 minutes than the 16 week class I took last semester.


Dr. Matthew E. Mooney was probably one of the best teachers I have ever had. We did projects on the BIG MAC that I had no idea was even possible. Taking this class had me ITCHIN!!! to get into a classroom of my own! I should say though that at least 3 times during the 3 week class I stated that if I were 15 years younger I would change my major. First it was Copyright Law-totally exciting! Then it was Professional Power Point Presenter-did I make that one up? Then it was movie editing. Man, what a blast! And...got an A+!! Hee hee...

McSlowLane

So the other day I took the girls to McDonalds for lunch. Not our usual one, nooo, we ventured out this time. So, we pull into the parking lot and the drive through line is all the way to the end of the building! Yikes! So, we decide to go in. There is no one, I repeat, no one in line at the counter. Turns out all the people in the drive through must have been regulars who go there often enough to know NOT to go inside.
So, I walk up to the counter very excited to know that since I am the only one there, we'll be in and out in no time. Wrong! It took 12 minutes to get our food. As I stood at the counter, mystified at the lack of, well, anything, I glanced at my receipt which showed what time we placed our order. There happened to be another sucker who had placed an order standing next to me and the time on our receipts was 12 minutes apart!!! When we finally did get our food, two of our drinks were wrong and we were missing an item. When will I learn to cook?

Go ShARkS!!

So my Grace joined the swim team! How awesome is that?? Check her out at her first meet! Isn't that team suit the best!? And can I say...she's pretty awesome! She did the freestyle and the backstroke and placed 3rd and 4th out of 5! I was so proud of her!

Well, That was Quick

Cookie is now a momma.
Daddy was setting up his brand new t.v. and the girls and I were playing with Lucky saying "are you gonna be an uncle?" over and over and it finally occurred to me that we hadn't checked for babies in a few hours so Grace ran upstairs and came back down and said, yep, he's an uncle.
WHAT?? Are you serious? She looked so calm, no big deal...yep, the sky is still blue.
So we all four ran upstairs and ...look what we found...



She had three beautiful little babies. One is light brown and white, just like his daddy. One is light brown, dark brown and white, just like mommy. And one was black and white, but that little sweetheart died. So we have 2 perfect little furry sweet babies in our home now. We couldn't be happier...



Funny, while we were ooing and cooing over our sweet little bundles we heard this noise, turned around and guess what daddy is doing?

Oh boy...or girl...or two boys and a girl...two girls three boys...

So, around the beginning of April my mom got a couple of guinea pigs.
This is Cookie, cute as can be, photo submitted for evidence:



Cookie is son *wink*wink*to Teddy:



So, of course the girls fell.in.love.
Every time they went to Grandma and Grandpa's house all I heard about was Cookie this and Teddy that. Well, the girls asked if they could save their allowance and buy themselves a couple of guinea pigs. After much discussion and warnings about having predator (Lucky, our dog) and prey (guinea pigs) living in the same home and the care that would take, they decided they were up to the task.
So they saved and saved and when they earned enough money, Grandma said they could have Cookie and Teddy and then we could just donate the money saved to Pet Refuge. So today we went and bought $60 worth of doggie/kitty supplies and took them over. Anyway, back to the pigs...

So about 2 weeks ago I noticed that Cookie was growing exceptionally large, and in a weird way too...like a light bulb. The (almost) illegal kind. Check this out...




Well, guess what...yep, we're going to have baby guinea pigs! Wanna see how cute they're gonna be? ***Not Our Babies***Found this picture online...



I KNOW!!! You want to call me right now and beg for one of the yet to be born babies don't you? I will be taking applications for the right family very soon...I will keep you posted.

A thought to put before you...

So, in my Irish History class I sit next to a young woman who is set to graduate this fall. A couple of weeks ago we had an interesting conversation that I thought I'd share with you, now that I'm blogging again.

We sit behind Sam, who I got to know in a previous class. It was time to turn in our papers and Sam turned and offered to take our papers up for us. Ever the match maker, I said "Sam is a gentleman, and ya know they're few and far between these days." Well, silly me, I forgot that women these days aren't interested in gentlemen.

So, continuing the conversation, I casually offered my opinion that the reason gentlemen are few and far between anymore is because women have so shamelessly lowered the bar for men. Well, she completely disagreed and offered her opinion on the situation. She believes that men have reverted back to their natural state of un-civilized-ness because women no longer need men. That's right my wise readers, she said women no longer NEED men! because...wait for it...women can have babies on our their now. Women have good jobs and can support themselves now.

I argue that she has a FALSE (and dangerous) idea of independence. She thinks because she CAN do something that that then is how it SHOULD be done? So, her plan is to intentionally deprive her child of a father, intentionally deprive herself of a lifelong partner, intentionally deprive her child of a peaceful two parent nest...to choose this life for a child...I sadly believe that my classmate is in the majority in her thinking. We've come a long way, baby.

Here I Go Again...

Yes, I'm gonna try this again.
This time I will not pressure myself to write huge and meaningful posts.
This time it's okay if what I write is not of intrest to anyone but myself.
This time I will not make myself feel like I need a photo for every post.
This time I'm just gonna write what's on my heart.
Hope you can handle it.