My baby boy is growing up!

I can't believe my little boy is going to be three on Tuesday. He's getting so big. Today we had a birthday party for him. My friend Christmas painted the kids' faces - which they loved! They played pin the pirate on the pirate ship (Trey drew the pirate ship, and it turned out quite nicely!), and we sang songs. Plus, of course, they played chaotically! LOL.

Circumcision debate - again

Yes - I'm talking about circumcision again. This time I'd like to talk about the health aspects. I'm not even going to go into the flaws in the Africa studies, because, quite frankly, it's a moot point anyway. Are we really going to advocate that people chop off a part of a child's penis to lessen their chance of catching an STD? Really? One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lives - ONE IN EIGHT!!! I haven't heard anyone jumping up and shouting that the cure for breast cancer would be to give all pubescent girls radical mastectomies. No one says that because it's ABSURD. It's absurd, and breast cancer isn't nearly as easy to prevent as STDs. In many, many cases there may really be no prevention anyway, and yet - no one is screaming radical mastectomies for pubescent girls. Why on Earth are we advocating cutting off a healthy, functional part of a boy's body because it may possibly cause a slight reduction in diseases that are much more reliably prevented with a little thing called - wait for it - A CONDOM?!?! Give me a freaking break already. I have five children. They are all intact, and I think I would gladly chop off the hand of someone trying to circumcise any of them. Please tell me which two of these four children deserve to have their genitals messed with without their permission? Why do two of them have less rights than the other two?

Why things happen

I don't claim to know why things happen. I'm not sure if I believe that things "happen for a reason," or if what we do with what happens is what brings reason. I do know that I am very blessed. I have beautiful, healthy, wonderful children, a great husband, a fabulous family, and a whole group of awesome friends. Last year about this time I found out that I was very unexpectedly and honestly not very joyfully pregnant. Neither Trey nor I were very pleased. How could we possibly know what was to come? How would we know the year would start off with a crap storm? We couldn't know that the year would be full of uncertainties. We didn't know that we'd be without any kind of guaranteed income or that we'd take huge risks that probably wouldn't pay off. That's what happened though. Who could have known that our family's saving grace would be this amazing, little, unplanned baby? She came in and lit up everyone's life. I'm sure that the other kiddos feel some jealousy sometimes - I mean, they're human after all! But, they all love her immensely. She's the first thing they all gravitate toward in the morning. Sometimes I have to remind them to give me hugs and kisses! LOL. She brings joy into every single day. This year has at times been overwhelmingly stressful, but she shows us all joy and peace. I couldn't be more thankful for our precious, little surprise.

More videos from Arkansas

Cute video

Here is a cute video from vacation. I have others, but it's going to take me a little while to get them uploaded!

Big day for Theresa

My baby girl rolled over today. She's 11 1/2 weeks. We were at a book club at the park tonight. 3 out of 5 of my children have waited for an audience to roll over! Beth Ann rolled over when we were visiting my parents, Louis rolled over in the park with friends, and now Theresa. My kids aren't shy - LOL. :-)

I'm sad that summer is drawing to a close, but we're trying to go out with a bang. We had a book club/play group at the park tonight, and then we finished it off with ice cream! The kids invented a new game - spin the globe! We think they were picking marriage partners. It was pretty funny, but we were all thinking that we liked their choices!!!

I think I'm in love!

Jon Stewart officially rocks my world!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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