Republicanville.com

We went out on Tuesday night...and well for this very homey homemaker, that's really not very common! We went to "Politics on the Rocks, or Young Republicans..." And we saw John McCain speak, wow! He's good, really good. So, anyway, the Republicans are now in cyberspace. They have started their "own" facebookish site called Republicanville, check it out and join if you want to be a little more politically involved with your party. BUT I do feel a little helpless when I realize John McCain doesn't really change the world, can I? Maybe that's the point of a democracy, many many me's can actually change things I alone can't. Register to vote!..AMBER...;)

Planning Ahead...

Do you remember the "I Spy" Christmas letter? The one with underwear, baseballs, and other Frischy things in it? Well, last year a Christmas letter never materialized, I think it was the first time in about 10 years...but this year I'm planning ahead. So, if you've moved in the last 2 years and you'd like our Christmas letter...please write me a note with your address in it!!! I really hate getting my Christmas letters back (and at almost .50 in postage this year!). With Ry here to help me (Mr. craft himself) we'll come up with something really fun, I'm sure! Is August too early to start listening to Christmas music, too late, it's already begun! Maybe this is why I'm ready to take down the Christmas tree on December 26th?! Maybe we should celebrate 2 Christmases a year...

What Four Looks Like...Ryon II

He's wonderful... Ry's was really the best delivery, EVER!! I know I compared it to a great date with the big Ryon by the next day. Fun, fast, fairly painless... I was on cloud nine, and wanting to go home the next day to celebrate the big 30 for me.

This week marks the beginning of my school year of alone time with just he and I for about 3 hours a day! I love it! He's so fun that normally an older sibling snatches him away from me to shoot air soft guns, or play some exciting game (I'm pretty boring when it comes to 4 year old boy things). So, I'm happy for this "forced" time to just get to be with Ry. He seems to be a cameleon, able to adapt to whatever is around him, he likes most everything, and is always happy. He soaks up knowledge like a sponge and loves to "make cards" although, he always wants to mail them to whoever they are for, and well, I'm not so good at that. But here are some examples.

He said the other day, "when I grow up, I want to be single." ("I mean like not be married, I want to be single and be a doctor"...his exact words. I hope he changes his ideas before he grows up!) He feeds the cat every day, and chases the chickens. He dresses himself, loves to wear his blue jeans backwards (I know it's embarrassing, I'm getting over it-he knows they are backwards-he just likes them that way). He loves to get the mail. He rings the door bell to be let into the house. His favorite color is green and any colors that Andrew likes (that's what he said). His favorite food is ramen noodles. He wants to be just like Eli when he grows up! (Maybe that's why he wants to be single? I hope.) He's so fun to talk to, it's like everything he says is alive with excitement.

Is She Growing Up THIS Fast?

She doesn't "like" boys, or want to drive the car, or most things teenagie. She's just gotten so beautiful. No matter which way I look at her she is beautiful. And she says things all the time, especially to her brothers, that just crack me up like, "You didn't just say that." Which I'm sure she picked up from Naomi (her "older" very wonderful friend). But Monday I took her to the dermatologist, not for acne, because her skin is beautiful (almost amazingly perfect with her blue eyes and naturally scrumptiously blonde hair, and to kiss her cheek is to want to keep my lips there forever, I never knew why Randy, my father-in-law, always commented about my skin after he kissed my cheeks (I'm so there now, I could kiss Savanah's cheeks EVERY second of every day-they are like silk/satin softest temprapedic bed ever...KISS KISS KISS KISS). But I'm not a weird mom, so I just kiss her 2 times a day and try to hug her a lot, because I love her so much, more every day! So, the point of this post... I took her to the dermatologist THIS MONDAY because she was getting a really oddly shaped, irregular, black, fast growing patch on the inside of her wedding ring finger (please don't be a foreshadowing), and TODAY (4 days later) the office called to report it is a dysplastic nevus otherwise known as pre-cancer. The pathologist can't be sure the shaving removed the whole pre-cancer(even though a dermatological "shaving" really means using a razor to hack out a chunk of flesh and then cauterize the crater afterwards--I'm so sorry Savanah--I was so not clear on the terminology, shave?! (I was thinking a razor nick in the shower- maybe 1/100 millimeter of the skin cells-like onion skin really.) The doctor says it could be sun related but more likely it is hereditary. Really? Are you saying it's my fault? I definitely got the short end of the gene pool when it comes to carcinomas and melanomas. At least 1/2 of my family seems to be lucky when life stretches beyond 65 and I haven't heard of it happening with no cancer. I know I'm exaggerating... Savanah will go back in a few months to make sure no color is coming back into the area (instead of going back now and making a bigger hole just to "make sure")...and hopefully she won't have to have anything "shaved" besides her legs and underarms until she's a grandma:). I definitely feel like she is growing up too fast sometimes...

First Day of School

Savanah, Eli, and Nathaniel's first day of school was Wednesday, and Andrew and Zach started two days earlier than the older kids. All of them get to ride their bikes to school or their bus stop (a mile away). I love the small hometown feeling we have in our neighborhood. I used to know who each of the kids' teachers were, but now there are so many (2 schools more than 20 teachers), I have definitely given up knowing who everyone of my kids' teachers are...but then again, just repeating some of the teachers from some of the previous years gives me a distinct advantage of knowing them anyway, I hope that doesn't mean I'm a lazy parent. Next year Ry will start kindergarten and the joys of getting to know what I like to do when I'm alone will begin again, I think I'll be better at it this time than when I was a teenager...I sure hope so! I'm realizing life is just a whole bunch of cycles that like to repeat themselves over and over again. I hope I'm learning the lessons that I'll use the next time through...