Eight teeth each

We've got dental issues in our household.

The 9-month-old has four on top and four on the bottom, with more distress...runny nose, severe crankiness, sleepless nights, minimal eating and drinking, and lots of whining. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong...so it must be more teeth on the way. He's just not a difficult kid...he's usually so happy...so it must be more teeth.

The 79-month-old is losing teeth all over her mouth...because that's pretty normal for a first-grader. Anyhow...this week she came home with a wiggle and a jiggle, but I told her to leave that tooth alone. Sure enough, after dinner, instead of being in front of the TV or a book, she's in front of the bathroom mirror and wouldn't go to bed until she pulled it out. So...she comes running out of the bathroom with a bloody white spec in her fingers and a grin on her face that could light up the whole room. I can't believe how excited she is to be losing her teeth. I remember how terrified I was as a child...and waited until they were hanging by a very thin thread before allowing it to fall out naturally - usually by means of a toothbrush, or while eating something like an apple.

The tooth fairy has left a dollar for each tooth and the actual tooth for her to treasure (Yeah, I know that's weird...but we forgot to take the first one, so we've got to stay consistent...and I'm half convinced that she thinks I'm the tooth fairy.) So...as each one is treasured, it gets put into a bag and marked with the date in which it fell out (or was pulled out) of her mouth. She got to number eight this week. So strange, and yet so sweet and innocent, that she gets so excited to count them and watch the stash grow.

What in the world are we going to do with all these teeth?
I think my mom or dad saved a lock of hair from my first haircut when I was one. What kind of parents are we to keep morbid, strange, and sometimes unexplained items that belong to our children? How long should I keep them, and should I start the same thing all over when my little son starts losing these teeth that he is so painfully acquiring? Yikes! Do teeth start to disintegrate after a while...how long of a while? Basically, they are hers, not mine...but should I be encouraging her to save these things? Help!!

Blogging for God

I suppose most of you have already seen this article on Foxnews.com about the GodBlog convention at Biola University in California. Frankly, I had never even heard of GodBlog, or Biola for that matter. Interesting stuff. I'm not sure what I think, yet. Still reading and discerning if this is the way to evangelize, or to just express my own ideas amongst my friends whom I've invited to read my blog. I try to stay fairly private, and don't allow anonymous comments, so I only invite in a few connected friends to start their own blogs and chime in.

 

I do have to admit, I'm interested in doing more blog surfing...but really how do you people find the time? I'm a full time working mom, full time wife (okay that's probably suffering a little...honey, I think it's time for a date night.) and then I think I can blog...YIKES! It's the late nights on the computer that are really getting to me physically...but alas, it's just a season. I'll keep blogging, and keep being the best mom and daughter, and wife that I can be. Please bare with me as I adjust to this new season...and let's talk about the GodBlog thing. Is it just about getting on the bandwagon, or really about checking the temperature of where we are at.

        "There is so much information out there that all of us feel like we're drinking out of a fire hose [when it comes to news],"  "[Bloggers] tend to be filters for like-minded people since you can't read everything."

    With that in mind, the social structure of blogging appears to fit perfectly into religious structure since just like pastors try to distill meaning from the Bible, blogs try to direct their audiences toward certain ways of thinking about issues."
        Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.

I look forward to reading your blog. I don't always comment, but I am reading. It's surprising to see how many come up to me and say, "Hey, I like your new blog's look." Very fun to know others are interested. Just know, I'm reading yours, too.

New water baby

Although Harley's growing fast, he's still the new kid in the pool. Check out MN Zoo if you're interested. Keepers update the site periodically.

Just Barney - no Betty here...yet.

Jan and I were talking at work the other day, that blogging is such a new thing, you don't hear about it much in mainstream media. Really, I've only heard it from her, the local newscasters who blog on the station's site, and on this Monday night show called "How I met your mother."

So...I put in the words Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser) into the blog search, and others have wondered, too. Follow the links, and follow him to a different network. (Doogie was originally aired on ABC in 1989.)

Yes, CBS.com does have a Barney blog, named for Neil's character who is also a blogger. Are we all doomed to be saying "Oh... now that's definitely going in the blog" and "That story sounds like a post." Well, continue with the scanning of his blog, because I laughed so hard at the post dated 10.3...well, you can guess what happened. My blog and those that are linked here aren't nearly that out there.

Way back when...

I finally got together with a friend from high school this morning for breakfast. We haven't seen each other in at least 10 years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. I guess I was a bit unsure about the visit, since the last time we spoke on the phone she was interested in going to the Prince concert. She tends to live a lot in the past, but our time together wasn't anything like that, thankfully. We caught up with where our families are, and how everything is going in our relational worlds. Actually, it was very nice...and I actually wouldn't mind seeing her again in the next year or so.

It's been 20 years since graduation...and I chose not to attend the official reunion last month. Interesting reasons behind it...but not here. I still keep in touch with a few people...okay, maybe 3-4...on a regular basis.

In response to Jeff's post, and Ashley's, I have to admit I was a bit curious...especially since this is a significant reunion year for me. This was also the year of USA for Africa, Miami Vice, the Breakfast club, and Back to the Future. Okay...here goes...just a few of my favorites way back when. Scary to think how many of these come right back to ya.

3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham!
4. I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner
5. I Feel For You, Chaka Khan
7. Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Tears For Fears
8. Money For Nothing, Dire Straits
9. Crazy For You, Madonna
10. Take On Me, A-Ha
11. Everytime You Go Away, Paul Young
13. Can't Fight This Feeling, REO Speedwagon
14. We Built This City, Starship
15. The Power Of Love, Huey Lewis and The News
16. Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds
18. St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion), John Parr
19. The Heat Is On, Glenn Frey
20. We Are The World, U.S.A. For Africa
21. Shout, Tears For Fears
34. Sea Of Love, Honeydrippers
35. A View To A Kill, Duran Duran
41. Things Can Only Get Better, Howard Jones
45. Sussudio, Phil Collins
51. Raspberry Beret, Prince and The Revolution
53. The Boys Of Summer, Don Henley
54. One Night In Bangkok, Murray Head
55. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Sting
57. We Don't Need Another Hero, Tina Turner
58. Material Girl, Madonna
59. Better Be Good To Me, Tina Turner
62. Smooth Operator, Sade
67. Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen
68. Voices Carry, 'Til Tuesday
70. Would I Lie To You?, Eurythmics
71. Be Near Me, ABC
72. No More Lonely Nights, Paul McCartney
75. Walking On Sunshine, Katrina and The Waves
77. Too Late For Goodbyes, Julian Lennon
79. Some Like It Hot, Power Station
88. California Girls, David Lee Roth
92. Born In The USA, Bruce Springsteen
93. Private Dancer, Tina Turner
96. Penny Lover, Lionel Richie

Updated look

No, not me...my blog. Okay, I don't know who even reads my blog anyhow, since I'm linked to friends' blogs...but I wanted a bit of a change for the change in season. Toying with the look...and trying out new templates as I go.
Bare with me...and humor me just a bit. Laugh with me, and let me have just this.

Thanks, Julie, for helping me with the photo. I guess you earned that Pudding Pop.
Now that my home computer has internet access, I'll be learning more about HTML, and maybe, just maybe...I can post more.
Okay, getting back to work, now.

Slow down and breathe

I'm 38 years old, married, with two kids, living in suburban outskirts of Minneapolis, MN. Typically, moms with kids in grade school listen to nursery rhymes, Boo Bah, and cartoon theme songs. I'm into lots of different kinds of music...jazz, classical, contemporary Christian music, the Beatles, current rock, 80's dance music, and so on....but I'm hooked on one song in particular. It's been out for about a year, but I've just been hearing the lyrics in the past couple of months. I guess I can relate to the lyrics that twenty-one year old Anna Nalick uses in her song "Breathe (2am)." It's like life is so busy and crazy sometimes, that all you can do is remind yourself to slow down. Slow down just long enough to look up and outside yourself. I'm making some time this week to just breathe.

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

In May he turn 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a Day", he said down to the flask in his fist,
"Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year."
Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe
whoa breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.

"Breathe (2 AM)" by Anna Nalick

Pink lids

For the past couple of years, I've fallen victim to the marketing ploy of Yoplait yogurt, and their Save Lids to Save Lives campaign. Each year they put pink lids on their yogurt cartons, and vow to donate 10cents for each lid to the Susan G. Komen foundation. I not only become a yogurt-a-day kind of person, but I also encourage my friends and co-workers to bring in their pink lids to send in together. Anyhow, after about 200 lids last year, and about 50 or so already this year, I guess I'm still promoting it. I should get a cut...and then donate that to breast cancer research. Any of you who can find my desk...this is your official reminder to save those lids and send them in. My dear friends, who don't work here anymore, still have been dropping off their lids for me, and I think it's kind of neat. It's nice to know they are thinking of me, and remembering to help others by doing such a small thing.

In the past year, I've been made aware of a co-worker who has an advanced stage of breast cancer, and one of my husbands co-workers who, too, has been battling the disease. I most recently weaned my son from breastfeeding, and so, I guess I've been a bit more aware of my own body and imagine how scary and strange this disease can be. Getting cancer changes your entire lifestyle, and I can't imaging what might happen if I ever become one of the millions of women (and men) who are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. So, for the little bit that I can do, I choose to support this organization. Michele & DuAnn, we're praying for you.

Each year in the Twin Cities they hold a Race for the Cure (usually on Mother's Day)...and a close friend likes to run it annually. My sister in Seattle also has chosen to run the race each year, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't give it a shot. I've never been much for running, or any form of exercise, but I feel I need to do something. Winter is quickly approaching, and it's time for me to move the body to a new beat.
The Susan G. Komen site also led me to Lee National Denim Day...which is this Friday, Oct 7th. Great, one more excuse to wear jeans, and donate to the cause...

Okay...now let me know...can you stand to lick the lids off your yogurt, or does that just creep you out? I have friends on both sides of this one. I don't mind licking the lids, and the Yoplait commercials show lots of people (okay, mostly women) doing just the same thing. But, a friend of mine was so grossed out by it last year when we started this, that she insisted on grabbing a napkin to wipe them down instead. I don't care how you do it, just send in your lids. Or go to Susan G. Komen foundation and click on Support the Cause. Friends, send me your lids...I'll be glad to pay the postage on a very large package to Yoplait.

Lalimama's baby boy

This boy will be dedicated to the Lord tomorrow. His sister, his mother, and his father have all been dedicated or baptized in the fall of the year...so it's only fitting that the fall time is his time, too. What a special day to celebrate this gift from God.

I'm a bit nervous, though, with family dynamics as they are...and none of them who are regular church-goers. Of course, it's a special weekend, and grandparents want to be there for our boy. It sounds like they all want to be there, so I guess that's something. But, it's always a little weird inviting people into my world, my workplace, my church, when their opinions and how they think of me has mattered so much over the course of my life. I'm totally happy with the way I live my life, but I always wonder what God could be doing in theirs, or what strange things could be said or done when I'm feeling vulnerable like this. How will a sharp or off-the-cuff criticism affect me? Why do I care? I'm proud of my boy, my girl, my husband, my life...what does it matter what my extended family thinks? Well, maybe it's not what they think, but how the in-laws and relational piece will work out.


I'm so excited, and curious to see what God will unveil tomorrow. We publicly declare our love for Jesus, and in obedience to Him, we dedicate our son, as we did our daughter 6 years ago, to raise him in a loving home that follows the ways of our Lord and Savior.