I MAN! I MAKE FIRE!

We recently converted our fireplace from gas to regular ole' stack the logs and burn em' up type.  

Dave was really pushing for this.  We had our gas fireplace for a few years and used it a few times, but I always heard, "It uses gas! We're paying too much for it! We could use less energy!"  You know... rants from a man who is obsessed with energy usage.  He could even give you a good estimate at what gas prices will be and when and while he's at it, give his 2 cents on any given futures market.  He probably knows the price of wheat per bushel in Nebraska's market. I'm not kidding.  

Anyways... The fire

So we changed the deal over after I finally gave in:  

"Sure!  FINE! Change the fireplace over."  

Little did I know, this was the start of a magnificent obsession.   

Now, he comes home, kisses me, kisses Anna, kisses Asa and gets a smile out of him and runs down to be with his fire.  

"I'm gonna go make a fire!"    And with that, he is out the door to get the wood we had to buy for the new fireplace.  But, really, it saves us money.  Um, I think.  

"Whew! That sucker's hot!"  and "look at the fire honey! We got a good one going!"  all the while looking at me with those approval loving eyes.   

"Yes, hon, you made a good fire.  It looks nice"  are the things I say.  And walk away and shake my head at this man who is in love with making fires.  

Then I came to realize that this must be an instinct.  Men make fire to keep family warm.  Make fire to cook animals.   Make fire to hone fire making skill.   

The whole thing cracks me up.  But he's got a thing for making a fire.   But here's the best part.  He used the energy thing multiple times to try to get his way - to get a wood burning fire place.  The thing is,  fires suck the hot air out your house.  It makes your furnace work harder :-)  I just laugh and chalk it up to  "I MAN!  MAKE FIRE"

Bottoms Up

A few weeks ago, I was washing up Anna's bottom before going to bed. This is an important step if she doesn't take a bath/shower. All you people with toddlers know about this. Toilet paper is very optional in toddler world. So, I get done and Anna puts her head between her legs to look. I said, "whatcha doin'? Looking at your bottom?"
She said yes and then said,
"mom, who makes bottoms?" (everything right now is, 'mom who makes... fill in the blank)
I said, "God makes bottoms!"
She looks at me like I just said the silliest thing ever. She says,

"No he didn't! God did not say, 'let the earth be filled with bottoms!'"

I laughed my butt off. And I ate.

Girls night out. Its just a marvelous thing.

I had had one of those weeks. There was at least one major fit every day this past week. There was a lot of spanking and I had had enough. I called Jodi Friday morning and said, with a shaky voice, "Jodi, I have thoughts of killing my child. We HAVE to go out. TONIGHT." She IM'd me and said, "Leanne, I am crying! I Feel the same way! HAVE TO GET OUT!" So we decided to meet at Via Maria. We ordered our food and talked and talked and laughed and ATE and ATE and laughed and ATE some more. The poor waiter... he probably never had any experience with how much lactating women really do eat.

At one point, he brought our appetizer out and said, "Just to let you know, the dip can be really deceiving, but its is really filling, so save room for your dinner." Jodi and I just looked at him like, really? Did you really just challenge lactating women? Are you aware we feed children from our bodies every 3 hours?

So, we had an absolute riot and were some of the last people to leave. We even had another friend, Jen, come later after her grocery shopping with her 4 month old and she ate whatever we left! It was in true frazzled mother fashion. It was great times. We complained about Wal- Mart and the wierdos associated with it. We talked about our first mortgages and how small and cute they were, and we recharged our batteries.

Its been a great morning- lots of patience, understanding, even my child is better behaved today. Thanks Dave for being the stay at home dad last night. The poor guy, after the way I've been acting the past few days, he practically pushed me out of the house. JUST GO!! YOU GO NOW!

Riding tricycles on the highway

Sure honey- you're right you can ride your trike on the highway.
Let me back up
Ok, so the whole marijuana thing- being legalized in Mi for medicinal purposes- here's my take: The whole thing is a little wompus b/c it was an illegal drug. Finding out it helped people like cancer patients took an illegal action in the first place: possession of an illegal substance. The whole thing is messy. Implications, the whole cotton pickin' premise...judas priest people! Its like my little girl coming to me telling me she has been going out into the street for the past month, so I should now tell her its ok. Sorry Anna. I don't want you to get hooked on the street, or graduate to a liking of tricycling across the highway.

Now all this said, I do understand why people voted yes. Why would I not want to make it legal for people to get pain relief? BUT I just see there being too many potential problems linked with making it legal. And Dave runs a driver ed company. We just can't be involved in making any sort of a drug such as MJ legal. There's too many implications.

Family Photos

Hi All- My awesome friend Jodi, whom I sing praises to and want to stroke her face (inside joke), came over and took pics of us- some of them are posted here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodimichelle/sets/72157608609415343/

She did them in our backyard- it was fun. Thanks Jod.

What Really Matters?

So recently, I read a transcript of Obama in his senate committee hearing a bill to protect a child born alive after an induced labor abortion. He heard nurse Jill Stanek talk about how she held one such child who survived an induced labor. The induced labor method is used for late-term abortions, but many of the babies were strong enough to survive- for a while. The assertion is that the babies will simply not be strong enough to handle it.

This particular baby had down syndrome and the parents didn't want to see him after he was born. The nurse who was present at the delivery was too busy so she put him in a soiled utility room and he was left there to die. Jill, the nurse testifying before a senate committee, had pity on the child and held him until he died. He was 22 weeks I believe.

This apparently was not a new thing. Jill blew the whistle and legislation was drawn up. Even such abortion proponents like Barbara Boxer went along with it. But Obama voted against it, in the end, to save doctors from being legally liable. His last statement in the transcript was quite telling.

"I think it’s important to understand that this issue ultimately is about abortion and not live births. Because if these are children who are being born alive, I, at least, have confidence that a doctor who is in that room is going to make sure that they’re looked after."

The nurse said that as many as 1 in 5 babies was left to die. I find this interesting that Obama puts so much moral confidence in the doctor or doctors that tried to abort the baby in the first place. Why would they try to kill and then try to save? Maybe sometimes they did. I don't know the story behind that. But its an interesting that Obama thinks they have such moral high ground as to have confidence in the doctors to make a moral judgement to save the baby they just tried to kill. Have I said it enough times now? The Dr who performed the abortion wants to now save the baby?

Here's what I want to get at: There are lots of issues in the election.
-economy
-housing crises
-health care
-social security
-national security
And somehow, we are all overlooking basic issues like abortion, in this case, INFANTICIDE, homosexual rights or marriage, etc. Things most christians look at that make a difference who they vote for. But, I think for many christians now, they have lost hope in the issue of abortion, of homosexual rights. "We're not going to change it" they think, and move on to the long list of pressing questions about economic woes.

But here's the thing. "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and being right with God. And all these things will be added unto you" The economy, while important, I don't think applies to the Kingdom of God. In fact, in this chapter (matt 6) it talks about not worrying. Who hasn't worried about their retirement?!? Their jobs?! I think we just got our answer. Seek first His Kingdom and being right with Him and He'll take care of our needs.

I believe that writing this legislation to protect live babies is seeking his kingdom first. Its caring for the least of us, isn't it? But, its not just about the legislation, its about a worldview.

I'm really not a huge McCain fan, but at least they believe in protecting human life. Our country is one of the VERY FEW who actually believes human life really matters. This is a whole other blog entry, in which I may, very soon write. But, man was the best of all God's creation. I think it matters the most to Him.

Asa poses for a quick pic