A Shiner and Pneumonia

Poor Dawson! He has managed to acquire a black eye and a case of pneumonia in the period of just two days.

Tuesday night Justis was "helping" (i.e. pushing, dragging, pulling) Dawson into bed, when Dawson fell and hit the upper edge of his cheek on the edge of his bed frame. Crying, he came to me and his cheek was already blue. He woke up Wednesday with a puffy nose and swollen eye. Today the black and blue is starting to show more.

Somehow incriminating-looking accidents always seem to happen before we see the Dr. I had an appointment scheduled with Dawson's doctor before the black-eye incident happened and I thought, "Great. Now the doctor is going to think I beat my kids." Hopefully people realize by just watching me interact with my kids that I would never beat them...but just to be sure, the doctor asked, "Man, Dawson, what happened to your eye?" Dawson matter-of-factly responded (pointing his finger at Dawson), "Justis pulled me and made me hit the bed!" Justis folded his arms and lowered his head, "Ugh! How many times do I have to say sorry, Dawson?!"

Mr. Dawson is just as cheery as ever, despite a terrible cough and painful-looking eye. He's taking an antibiotic for the pneumonia and the eye will eventually heal. He couldn't wait for me to take a picture of his battle scars to show you all! Nothing like a positive outlook on life, huh?

Beethoven Smith

Justis took a class called Themes to Remember this fall in co-op. The kids listened to classical music and learned about one famous composer each week. They were given a CD with a snippet from one of each composer's songs and memorized little tunes to each snippet that helped them remember the composer's name and a short summary of the composer's life.

The kids and I were heading home from co-op one afternoon, when I heard Justis singing,

"Beethoven Smith!

Beethoven Smith!"

You know the song, "Dun! Dun! Dun! Duuuuuuh!! Dun! Dun! Dun! Duuuuuuh!!?

Then the other three kids piped in (with gusto),

"Beethoven Smith!

Beethoven Smith!"

I asked, wondering if I had heard them right, "What are you singing back there?"

"We're singing Beethoven Smith, Mom!" Madalynn said.

"Yaaah, Mom," Justis chimed in, "It's from music class. Beethoven Smith was a man that wrote music and died. He couldn't hear very well to hear his own music." He giggled and added, "He also had BAAAAD manners. His friends said so!"

"Justis, that's cool that you learned about Beethoven!" I said. But I don't think his name was "Beethoven Smith, though, I think you meant to sing, 'Beethoven's Fifth,' the name of one of the symphonies he wrote."

"Yes, HUH, Mom!" Justis argued, singing again, "It's BEETHOVEN SMITH, BEETHOVEN SMITH

(he, he!)

A Hair Shorter

Surprise!

Madalynn sat in the stylist's chair and had about 12'' cut off her hair today! Here's the story. Madalynn took note of Aunt Holly's shorter hairdo last time we were here. She and Holly have hair that is very much the same color and smoothness. She also admires Aunt Laci's short hair. When she saw her best friend, Lilly, with her hair cut short yesterday at home school co-op, she was sold on a shorter hair style.

I was all for her getting her hair cut, if that's what she desired. I just prayed she would not cry if she didn't like it. Miss Lisa (the stylist) looked over her shoulder at me like, "Are you okay with this, Mom?" after Madalynn showed her how short she wanted to go. I smiled and winked, giving the go-ahead. I did call Travis to get the go-ahead for him, too. I didn't want him to come home and be so shocked his baby's hair was all gone he'd be mad at us both! Travis, like the reasonable Daddy he is, said, "I think that would be great if that's what she wants. It's hair. If she ends up not liking it, it'll grow back."

She LOVES it, which is the most important thing to us. I keep catching her admiring her new 'do in the reflecitons of the mirrors and windows when she walks by. Travis was all smiles when he saw her.

Oh, and did you notice the teeth? Her other front tooth fell out last week. I accidently made it fall out onto her tongue when we were tickling and wrestling before bed. I was tickling her and reached up to touch her nose, but instead somehow got her lip with my finger. She opened her mouth to laugh and I saw the tooth on her tongue! "DON'T swallow, Maddie!" I said. I think I shocked her and she looked a little worried. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry...but after pausing from the surprise of it all we ALL were laughing!

I have to say this. I know I'm a doting mother, but just indulge me in this. God has blessed Madalynn with physical beauty. I just wish you could experience first-hand her personality and character, which is even more beautiful. We love you, Miss Madalynn!

The Famous 'Fro: Getting Bigger!

Jillian's hair is getting longer. But it's growing up and out, instead of down! She has a 'fro any disco king or queen would envy! And the curls. Not big, soft curls, but tiny, tight little ringlets all over her head.

Here is a cute story about Jillian's hair that Madalynn's co-op teacher passed on to me:

"I can’t remember if I told you yet or not. We were finally getting to put “hair” on our paper doll families and Madalynn got a very inquisitive look on her brow and a finger up and said “I don’t see the hair I need.” So very serious. We asked “what hair do you need and for who? “ She replied “My sis-ter, she has an AF-RO!” We nearly peed our pants we laughed so hard and I have shared my delight to countless moms!” She makes me smile..."

People ALWAYS ask me, "Where did she get that curly hair?" I've also been asked, "Are you sure she's not the mailman's?" I simply say, "I have a mail WOMAN, and she got her curls from God, who gave her big hair to match her big personality!"

The above pictures are of Jillian's hair all picked out. BIG!

God Bless America!

Our congratulations and prayers go to Barack Obama, our president-elect!

My Republican vote went to John McCain last night. However, my hope and expectations that God will move in this country are just as high now, knowing Barack Obama will be our president. I am still a conservative Christian, and always will be, however, I do not believe having a Democrat as president means America will be going to "hell in a hand basket" anytime soon!

You see, the God I serve can do ANYTHING he wants through ANYBODY. I do not hate, fear, or despise those who believe differently than me. Christians have hope in eternal life in Christ and have nothing to fear if they know Jesus. Am I angry at the democrats? No. This country was founded on Judeao-Christian values. Wise men, who trusted in God, created a democratic nation, one in which we have choices, rights and freedoms, and God has blessed our nation. Those who founded the country were wise enough to know that trying to control people through fear is not how God operates. God wants us to choose to love Him, he does not FORCE us to love him. The people chose Barack Obama last night, and so be it. He is our new president!

I'm sure there will be many issues in which my opinions differ from Obama's in the next four years. However, I am confident, knowing God is in control. My support is now completely behind Obama, as he is our next American leader. I will be praying for him and, although I disagree with him on many things, I can still be thankful for my country's leader!

Some things I am thankful about in Obama being elected president. A young family will be occupying the White House. Are his daughter's not the cutest? People of different races can be encouraged in the fact America accepts everyone as equals, just as God does. So many young people are now involved and interested in political issues due to this presidential race. Republicans still have a voice in the House and Senate, even though they are a minority there.

Five People in a Voting Booth...

The kids helped me exercise my right to vote today by resisting the temptation to push the big, shining yellow button that said, "Submit Vote," and cramming into the voting booth with me. I should have asked someone to take a picture of the curtains with all of our feet showing through from underneath!

We live in a small precinct, so we had to stay in line fewer than five minutes! The other lines were taking forever. Thank goodness we live in the boonies, I guess!

One older lady (forgetting her voting line etiquette, apparently) directed the question to the kids, "So who are you voting for for President?" Madalynn and Justis had enough sense to remember that you don't give random information out to strangers...so there was silence...but only for a few seconds.

"Oh. I forgot, it's a secret, huh?" the lady said to the kids.

"John McCain." Dawson said matter-of-factly and in his "big boy" voice.

"I heard that!" The lady said with a smile and a wink.

All of the people around us just laughed at little Dawson, 'cause he was just too cute expressing his political opinion.

Another cute story from co-op. So, today we pasted in our "meet the candidates" information to our lap books. The kids had one cutout with Obama/Biden and another cutout with McCain/Palin. Each cutout had pictures, facts and short bios of the candidates. You would think this would be a no-brainer. Just paste them in, right? I had three students resist putting the pictures of Obama/Biden into their lap books, and one student flat out stood his ground and bartered with one of my helpers that he would take the cutout in his folder and then paste it in at home when he was ready. That cutout is probably in the garbage by now! I just sat back and smiled at the independence of these young people. What if they could vote? Wow!

I'm watching the glut of "numbers" coming in from the elections. I am interested to see how things play out.

Fall Festival

We had a fun Halloween last night at our church's Fall Festival!

The kids love to dress up, so it is not just a yearly thing at our house. I remember walking my four kids, dressed as Wizard of Oz characters, from Travis's car (stuck in the mud) to our destination about 1/2 mile away. That's another story.

Back to last night. Madalynn chose to dress as Princess Jasmine, Justis as a duck hunter and Dawson as a cowboy. Jillian had no choice in her costume, but didn't object to her frilly Raggedy Ann dress...just the wig! The wig, as Jillian said after seeing herself in the mirror with it on, was "scary."

I volunteered from 7:30-8:30 as Travis and my friend Jennifer's husband took the kids around the carnival like atmosphere with inflatable jumpers and slides, games, food, a pony ride and a petting zoo. The boys were content to be with Travis. They don't care what they're doing, as long as Travis is along! Jillian was set before we even got to the festival. Our neighbors gave Jillian a special bag of candy and she clutched that bag like her life depended on it all night. She was so sugared up by the end that I didn't know if she'd crash or be up all night. She crashed, thank goodness. Madalynn's favorite part was the petting zoo, which was no surprise to us all. She waited in line a LONG time for the petting zoo, but the wait paid off. She got to hold a little pig and all kinds of interesting looking fowl.


The best thing about the night, and something I prayed about, is that Justis didn't run into any scary costumes or mascots. I believe this is the first year that he had a completely stress-free Halloween. I hope y'all had great Halloweens, too!