Not So Laughy...Taffy

Last year, when I told one of my good friends that I was going to home school PK1 this year, she took it better than I thought.  She said, "Just don't get fat."  I guess she knows a lot of dumpy home school moms.

Well, I don't really think it was the homeschooling, but I did gain five pounds this year.  I was doing such a good job taking it off this summer until my neighbor gave me this:

Now while I work at the computer I just eat this taffy.  After responding to some e-mails and ordering some books online, I looked down and this is what I saw:

I must have eaten ten or eleven pieces.  And I felt like I was going to barf. And apparently I don't like green or orange.

In the blink of an eye...

One minute you can be taking your kids to the movies:

And the next, have the front end knocked off your car by some guy who thought he would run a red light:

We are 100% safe.  It didn't even feel like that hard of a hit, but our car may be totaled:

Here is our bumper on the sidewalk (note the shadow of PD on the phone):

Here is me being not thrilled:

After about an hour of waiting around, a friend of ours came and got me and the PKs.  We hung out at his house while PD finished up with the police reports and the tow truck.  We are really thankful that we are home watching public television tonight, and not at the hospital.  And the PKs were SUCH good sports about missing their movie.  We will have to do something fun with them tomorrow. 

Photo Flashback

I was reading to PK2 after lunch today.  Even though the fans were blowing, it was getting hot but I was too lazy to get up and close all the windows and turn on the AC.  She was all snuggled in next to me and I had the weirdest memory of the first summer she was born.

I told her I was thinking about when she was a baby, and she wanted to see the pictures of what she looked like.

I realized that four years ago, she was just one month old.

This was the only picture I have of PK1 from the same month.  She looks like a baby too!

The Father Daughter Dance

Our church hosted a Father Daughter Dance last night.

PD had worked a really long day and he flew in the door to pick them up at the very last minute.  I felt bad that he was going to this after such a long day at work  But it was kind of funny, one of the guys he works with text messaged him from the Go Diego Go concert with his little one saying he just blew twenty bucks on a light up Diego wand, so I guess these are just the things you do for your kids!

They had such a good time that it was completely worth it.

I wish I could have been there to watch.  I sent PD with the pocket video camera and he took a little bit of very amateur video.  The best is when PK1 records him doing the Electric Slide!

Father Daughter Dance 2009 from Political family on Vimeo.

You win some, you lose some.

I have been so excited because PK1 has been stealing the chapter books that we read aloud together and reading them on her own.  My pride was tempered when I returned home from a haircut to find this message she left me on her father's letterhead.















I guess we will keep working on that spelling!

Chinese Brother

A couple weeks ago, our Chinese brother turned one!  He is taking steps and cracking us up.

 For a little history on our Chinese Brother, you can click here: Chinese Brother.

We have some really sad news about him though.  He and his mom and dad are moving to Washington DC in just a couple of weeks.  

When I found out, via e-mail a few days ago, I just started crying.  I thought they would be part of our lives for a long time to come. But then I thought I had dealt with it.  

But then as soon as I laid eyes on my friend the other night.  I just burst into tears.  So did she.  She and I just hugged and cried and the men just stared at us.  I was a little surprised that she was as emotional as I was.  Then all night we tried to talk about the logistics of their move and she and I would just dissolve in tears.  I think PD started to chuckle at one point.  Because I was like, "Are you going to rent a moving truck?"  and she would say "I think so" and then we would start bawling uncontrolably.

But we met them 6 days after they came to the United States (2 1/2 years ago).  We taught them to navigate the library and grocery store, and how to drive.  I was the first person to hold the baby after he was born, (besides his father and a nurse). 

We are just incredibly attached to them.  I would like to wrap this up with some little bit about how they are in God's hands, which they are, or that life goes on, which it does, or that there are other Chinese families to befriend,  but I am not really quite there yet. 

I am sad and a little worried about them and do not have the energy to bond with another Chinese family right now.  But I am supremely glad that they have been a part of our lives and I love them to pieces.

Dear Ted Strickland, Be afraid, be very afraid

Here is the lastest from the Kasich media team.  I am not really sure how we could possibly lose.

Tagged

Meet my friend Jodi :

I love Jodi and her husband.  They are good old fashioned Reformed theology people like me.  We are a little rogue at our church. We don't blab it around, we just quietly know it in our hearts.  Andy lived in the same house as PD in college, but like five years earlier. They have three great kids and Jodi is everything I am not as a homemaker.  She likes baking and gardening and generally works her tail off.  And she is tall, grrrr.

Jodi tagged me in a blog game.  You are just supposed to list six random things about yourself.  That sounds easy enough.  SO here are my six things:

1.  I love reading and I can read wicked fast.  I read the New Yorker cover to cover every week, I can read a novel in a day or two and when I get interested in a subject, (healthy eating, homeschooling)  I read everything there is to read about it.  (this may be why I don't get around to as much baking and gardening as I should)












2. I sometimes get mad at God because he makes it so hard to understand the Trinity and he allows so many people to not be saved and sometimes in the Old Testament he smites someone for almost no reason and sometimes has great grace on someone who sinned big time.















3. I  look exactly like my mom.

4. I hate background noise.  I hate noisy restaurants and trying to have a conversation over a car radio or a TV.  I hate loud music at a store when I am trying to shop.

5. I love eating, especially carbs but I can't eat them very much because then I go into a carb rage and yell at people for very minor things and hate myself.

6. I like early American and antique furniture because when I was a kid the only fancy home I ever went to was my grandmother's and that is how she decorated.  So that is what I think is beautiful.

Now I will tag two people:   Susan and MiMi

More Politics

I am not going to start talking politics everyday, but John had such a strong interview yesterday for a local news channel.  It really gets to the heart of his agenda:



Humor me..here is one more:

And so it begins...

Monday night was the official kick off event for Kasich for Governor 2010.

This will be what PD is living and breathing for the next 18 months and if all goes well, the next four years.  It was an exciting night.

There were thousands of people there and it was fun to see all the media and elected officials.  It was also kind of long and hot.  I was glad the PGs offered to drive us because they helped me out tremendously with the PKs.

It started out fun and exciting:

Then they started to fade:













And eventually dropped off completely:

I am interested in politics, although I have discovered I am really more into policy, the issues, and so is PD.  Which is great because that is what he will mostly be doing now.  There will be political work because he is a part of that team, but a lot of the political work he did last year (for a different candidate) will not be part of his job anymore.

And while I am interested in policy and love reading all about what PD does and discussing it with him and attending a few things, I am really more excited about what the Lord is doing in our home and family and church.  I am so thankful that I can teach them at home and have the freedom to do all the stuff we like to do. Maybe it is because I am drunk on all the sunshine I just absorbed at our first day at the pool today, but I am just glad to be doing what I am doing.

For a whole slide show of pictures follow this link:  Event Slide-Show

I know some of you ladies would really like to see the stunning Mrs. Kasich.  She looked like a model!