Allow me to introduce you...

Our little A is becoming such a young lady. Her vocabulary has always been noteworthy; but it never ceases to amaze me when she picks up on conversational contexts and fits right in with adult conversations. Yesterday evening we were at a church social, seated across the table from some visitors. We did the usual introductions and proceeded with our meal, only to be interrupted by her little voice, "This is J, he's my father; but I don't always call him that." No, I don't always claim him either. She paused for laughter, then proceeded, "This is Sarah, she's my mother and that is C, my baby sister." All with a regal flourish of her little hand in each of our general directions. So grown up!

A few days ago, she caught me getting dressed in my closet. I tried to get everything on before she got there, but to no avail. So, naturally, she wanted to know, "Mommy, what's that?" May as well be matter-of-fact about it. "It's a bra, part of Mommy's underwear." I'll spare you the long conversation about the differences between girl and boy underwear and their appropriate terminology. She concluded that "one day when I'm a lady, I'll wear a...uh...o...obruh." "A what?" Mommy wants to know. "An obruh." "An oprah?" "Yeah, yeah, an oprah!" Oh, honey, save Oprah and the bras for a few years yet, please?

Shelter in Place

It's that season again. Nope, no hurricanes here, although we could use the rain. No, it's time for the students to come back. We live in a college town and classes resume on Monday. So here they come...only about 40,000 of them, plus their parents, siblings and grandparents to help them get settled. Imagine the carpool line on the first day of school at your local elementary and you have a general understanding of the traffic problems this weekend. Only, every driver is about 18 years old, and has a fun, new car that daddy bought them for graduation. Oh, help.

Remember the crowds at WalMart to buy school supplies? Ditto this weekend in every hotel, retail store, restaurant, and fast food establishment. They are everywhere! So, we will be sheltering in place. We're stocked up on groceries, have plenty of gas, and movies to watch on TiVo. Not leaving the house again unless absolutely necessary, and only then to go somewhere that repels students (i.e., the inflatable playground near the mall). The good news is that we can come up for air about mid-week to re-stock, check the levels of civility and then hunker back down for the first home football game next Saturday. Yeeeaaahhh, go team!

Really? A blog?

I don't really have time for this. Still I find myself doing a running narration in my head all day most days, kind of like the guy on Scrubs who was always talking to himself. Or better yet, like the little boy on Wonder Years. What was his name? At any rate, I find myself wanting to capture some of these thoughts. No, I want to set them free. I want to put them down and get them out of my head. Some of the thoughts I want to savor and digest, some I want to record for posterity, others just need to leave my brain. So, here goes. Hopefully, writing a blog will not be too big of a time sink. More importantly, I hope it is enjoyed by my family, (especially my girls someday) friends and myself. After all, if I don't enjoy it, then really, why do it?