Who Acted Stupidly?

I admit, I haven't been watching much news lately...so I was a bit confused about all the hoopla surrounding yesterday's Presidential involvement in a tiff between a cop and a guy who was arrested.  Is it me, or are people being arrested each and every day...why is the leader of the free world getting involved this time?  Surely something really big must have happened.

I flipped through the channels during late night news trying to get a more complete story - I saw a tidbit of the "beer summit" (gimme a break), a clip of Obama saying that the "police acted stupidly", and the mug shot of the guy who'd been arrested.

What the heck happened?! (if you'd like the officer's report, here you go)

I'd been out of the loop too long, so I decided to dig around the web to try and piece this thing together.  You know, since the web is full of truth and unbiased news reporting ;-)

From what I can tell, a woman saw a man trying to get into a house.  He didn't have keys, and it looked like he was trying to break in. She called the police.  The police responded.  By the time the police arrived, the man was in the house.  He was actually the owner of the house, and produced ID to prove it.  Sounds fine, right?

Well, except for the part where the owner of the home starts screaming and yelling and being uncooperative.  

Why couldn't the guy just calmly explain the situation, produce his ID, and answer the officer's questions?

Instead, he started hollering about racism (he's black, the officer is white), refusing to do what the officer asked of him, and even threatened action against the officer.  He was getting so belligerent that the officer actually arrested him for being disorderly.

I have a few questions for anyone who wants to consider them:

1.  Do you think the owner of the home would have reacted the way he did if a black officer had arrived at the scene?

2.  If a man or a woman (or a child or a 3 headed monster) is screaming at a police officer and refusing to cooperate, do you think it's fair that the individual (or 3 individuals in the case of a 3 headed monster) be arrested?

3.  If it appears that someone is breaking into your home, would you like someone to call the police?  Would you like for the police to arrive, secure the situation, verify that everyone is safe and accounted for?

4.  Do you think that if you're a professor, a friend of the president, a black man, a white man, or a super star football player....that you should be treated differently than anyone else? 

5.  Do you think that the President of the United States has any business commenting publicly, especially when he admits that he wasn't there and doesn't know all the facts?

6.  How do you feel about our President after he stated that the police acted stupidly?  

7.  I wonder...has the President told his friend that HE acted stupidly in screaming at the police and refusing to cooperate?

8.  I wonder...has the first lady told the President that HE acted stupidly in getting involved in this in the first place?

9.  Do you think it was racist for the officer to assume that there might be trouble at that home, considering the fact that someone had reported a possible break in?

10.  Do you think it was racist for the officer to arrest a man who was being uncooperative and acting disruptively?

11.  Do you think it was racist for the owner of the home to start hollering "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN AMERICA!" when the officer arrived at his home and asked him to step out?

12.  Do you think that it was racist of President Obama to assume that the police were the ones acting stupidly?

Racism...what is it really?  It seems that at least one definition of racism could be "automatically assuming a derogatory or negative intent or action based on a person's race".  In other words, when a person doesn't have the whole story, he/she assumes the worst of someone because of their race.

The President assumed that the police acted stupidly (why?).

The man arrested assumed that the police officer was questioning him because the police officer was racist (why?).

The officer assumed that someone was breaking into the house (why?).

The only "why?" I can answer from the facts I've found is the third one.  The officer assumed that someone was breaking into the home....because someone called 911 and said "Hey, someone's breaking into the house."

As for the President and the Mr. Gates (the guy who was arrested) - hasn't anyone told you what happens when you A$$ U ME??  

Okay - I've said my piece.  This seems so cut and dry to me - am I missing something, or am I (ahem) assuming too much?

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Teachable Moments

We went camping last weekend, and as anyone who's camped with kids knows...camping is a dirty job.  Each night before bed, we'd line the kids up and arm ourselves with a package of baby wipes.  Baby wipes are hardly effective on the dirt way in the ears or on the scalp, but we did our best.  

If we become regular campers, it might be worth it to invest in a little portable shower like the one our friends were kind enough to let us borrow (think small privacy tent with a bag of heated water hanging from the top - amazing how extravagant such simplicity seems when you've been camping for a couple of days!).  Digressing here...

So we were giving the kiddos their pre-bed spit bath, combing hair, and snuggling them up into jammies before tucking them into their sleeping bags under the stars.

I had Clara sitting on the edge of the picnic table, while Ben and Sammy watched and waited patiently for their turn.  I was scrubbing her black feet clean with those silly wipes, when I suddenly had an image flood my brain.

"Do you know what this reminds me of?" I asked them.

"What?", in unison.

"It reminds me of the time that Jesus washed his disciples' feet.  Do you remember that story?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Why do you think Jesus washed their feet?  Imagine that, the King of Kings getting down on his hands and knees to wash a bunch of smelly feet!  Why would he do such a thing?"

Thoughtful looks all around, but no response.

"He washed their feet to show them that he'd do anything for them because he loved them THAT much.  He loves YOU that much.  Isn't that amazing?  He also did it to remind us to care for each other and to love each other like he loves us."

...a delighted "Oh!" and smiles from my sweet babies.

"Why do you think I'm washing your feet?"

"Because you don't want us to go to bed all dirty and yucky?"

"Yes, and why?"

...more thoughtful silence.

"Because I care about you.  I love you.  Part of the way I show you how much I love you is by taking good care of you.  I love you more than anything in the whole world.  And you know what?  So does Jesus!"

A shiver ran up my spine and tears welled in my eyes - the tell-tale sign that I was living in a moment set aside by God.  Whether that moment was for their benefit or just for me, I'm thankful for it.  I gathered my composure and sent up a prayer, Please Lord, save these children.  Help them to know you and your love.  Watch over them and give them your peace and joy.

Isn't it incredible that such simple moments...such simple activities...can point the way toward our incredible Almighty God?   

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Irony

Why couldn't the family name be "Peace" or "Joy"?

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Camp

We had some adventure this weekend!  After "camping" at my folks' cottage in Wisconsin, pretty much any sort of outdoor activity that doesn't include running water and a hot shower at the end of the day is seriously roughing it.  And this weekend was all about the NON running water and NOT hot shower...or any shower for that matter.  

And it was great.

I started taking pictures when we were in the beautiful Idaho mountains.  We stopped along the way to stretch our legs and to get some solid ground under our Clara's (aka "the puker") feet.  When that girl utters the words "My tummy hurts", we go on high alert.  LEVEL RED PEOPLE!  RED, I SAY, REEEEDDD!!  PULL OVER!!

Here's the 'burb all loaded up with enough gear for 6 people to survive in the wilderness for two days:

Here's me and my man.  Good Lord, I love him with all that's in me:

Here we are all stuffed in the car.  The Puker is mercifully asleep.

We got to the campground and set up camp.  I was amazed by how blue the sky was....how crisp the air was in those mountains.  The world is sure prettier when there's no pollution between your senses and the elements.

We left the top part of the tent off so that we could fall asleep watching the twinkling stars, and we woke to sight of the sky turning from grey to blue to brilliant blue.  The trees swayed in the breeze.  The creek running by our site lulled us to sleep at night.  The birds serenaded us.  It was quite a welcome to the day.  

I, of course, had my camera handy.  I grabbed my little point and shoot - here's what I woke to:

It was a chilly 50 degrees or so, so my big kids came and snuggled with me in my sleeping bag.  "Take our picture, Mommy!" Clara said.  The little sass...she just wanted to monkey.  But me (and my 6 chins?)  we wanted to sleep.

When Ben saw what she was up to, he decided to join in...

Why not?...

Sammy was trying to get snuggled into her sleeping bag, when her air mattress decided to buck her right off onto the ground. 

At least she was a good sport about it...

There was this little creature toddling around our campsite all weekend.  He was covered in ketchup, water, yogurt, and dirt....and he had my son's blue eyes.  We called him Pigpen, but it might have been Thomas.

After a long day of playing in the heat, this little one kept wanting to know when we were going home....and then she'd tear off after the other kids around the campground.  We all feel like we could sleep for about a week straight right about now.

Ummm...what are these doing in here?  These should probably be a different post.  This pretty little creature was on my lavender before we went camping.  

Okay, here we are back to camping.  The power of the lowly apple....give one to a 1 year old or a 3 year old, and they'll be quiet and content and busy for at least 30 minutes.

An apple a day keeps mommy's insanity away...

There's our little tent nestled in the forest:

I just love the color of the bark on the Ponderosa Pines.

And check out the texture of this tree - so pretty!

These trees are so tall!

And then...the drive home.  Nothin' quite like piling 6 tired, sweaty, dirty people in the car to drive a winding mountain road back home.  The Puker lived up to her name.  Thomas almost earned the title of Puker Junior.  He was screaming and pale....but then I cranked the obnoxious kids' music, and it distracted him and calmed him just enough to get some color back in his cheeks.  It's Dramamine for him next trip too.  

And for your viewing pleasure...our road trip home (I love you shower and dishwasher):

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If I Can Do It, You Can Too!

I admit it, I've totally fallen away from my days of being a runner - I'm pretty much back to starting at square one.  In fact, after a recent (very painful) 2 1/2 mile run, I found myself thinking "I don't even remember what it felt like to be able to run a half marathon!  I can't believe I did that!  DID I do that??"  I promptly came home and paid $15 for the photo of me trudging along the race course.  It's on my bulletin board as a reminder to myself of what I'm capable of (that's it up there - notice how white my lips are - all my blood was screaming at my from my throbbing lower extremities).

So I'm back to the beginning.  I want to get in shape.  I want to lose 10-20 pounds.  I really can't think of a better way to do that than to start running again.  It's cheap.  It's effective.  It feels good (once I'm back in shape).  Heck, I think I even have part of a John Grisham novel waiting for me on my iPod!

PS.  After the race, several of you wrote and asked me how I trained for it.  I just finished up an eHow article which details what I did to get ready for the big day.  Go check it out if you're interested.  And hey - if you're starting a running program, drop me a line!  I love to hear people's inspirational stories :)

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Bailey

I'm a dog person.  You can't pet fish, gerbils smell strange, snakes are just gross, and cats make me sneeze.  Dogs.  They bark at scary noises, they endure "gentle" pets from my babies, and they even play ball sometimes (or ALL the time if you're Extra).  

The picture up there is a picture of Bailey - our first dog.  We got him as a 6 month puppy about 6 months after we were married - makes the math simple; he's as old as our marriage.  He'll be twelve in August.  For a dog...that's OLD.  And quite frankly, he smells like it lately.

We were newlyweds, and we had just purchased our first home.  The natural next step?  A dog, of course!  I scoured the local animal shelters, and one day I found that sweet little puppy.  He was white with brown/orange spots, and he had blue eyes!  He had just arrived in the shelter and wouldn't be available for adoption for a few more days.  Oh, I wanted that dog so badly!  

I showed up before the shelter even opened on the day he was up for adoption.  The problem was that if there were other people who showed up wanting the same dog, they'd choose the "winner" with a raffle.  The horror!  My sister was good enough to come with me that day so that we could increase our odds of winning the raffle if it came to that.

It didn't come to that.  We were the only ones there for him that morning.  He was wet and cold from his recent bath, and he sat shivering on the concrete slab surrounded by chain link fence.  He looked sad and scared and pitiful.  He sat there silently and looked at me while the rest of the room erupted into ear-splitting barks from the other dogs.  Sorry guys, I'm here for him.

So we took him home, and named him Bailey.  We spoiled him rotten.  My office cubicle was covered in pictures of the dog.  My conversations were all about the dog.  My lunch hour became a mad dash to get home and let the dog outside.  I didn't have many friends...wanna guess why? ;-)

I know, I know...I needed a real baby!  And I wanted to start a family with every fiber of my being, but I wanted to wait until we could afford for me to be a stay-at-home mom.  It took four years of planning and scrimping and paying down debt, but we finally figured a way to start our family on our terms.  

So real babies came into our lives, and Bailey got a serious demotion.  I joke sometimes..."It's a good day if the kids are alive, the kids are alive, the dogs are alive, and the plants are alive.  It's a great day if any of the above are actually happy."  It's a pretty accurate list of my priorities (I know, I should be in there somewhere too, but most days I don't really know where I should be listed....slightly above or below the plants??").

Lately, Bailey has been showing his age.  He sleeps all the time.  He's not his perky self.  He's deaf as can be.  He's having more and more accidents.  He's super skinny.  He doesn't eat.  And he smells like...well, he smells bad.  I'll leave it at that.  After eating dog food for 12 years and never once brushing your teeth, I'd like to see what you'd smell like! (I know, I know, it's possible to brush the dogs' teeth.  I'm a dog person, but evidently not THAT kind of dog person.  Sorry Bailey.)

There was one time recently when he was sleeping on the living room floor, and I was vacuuming.  I'm accustomed to the dogs running the other direction when I vacuum.  But Bailey just laid there.  He didn't twitch a muscle.  One of his eyes was even open.  And try as I might, I couldn't see his chest moving with breath.  I immediately panicked and got tears in my eyes and thought "Oh!  He's gone!  I wish I had been holding him..."  I turned off the vacuum, sat down next to him, put my face next to his, and reached out to pet him one last time...to say goodbye.  

Just then, his eyes flew open, and my big mug was RIGHT in front of his.  I'm not sure who was more shocked or terrified, me or him!  He scowled at me and walked away to find a safer place to sleep.  I cried.  

Granted, sometimes I wish we didn't have pets at all.  Like when we have plans for a vacation and we have to find someone to take care of them while we're away.  Or like when Bailey decides that he doesn't LIKE dog food, and he'll just beg for a living thank-you-very-much.  Or when we come in the house and we smell that terrible smell that tells us that some very unfortunate accident happened while we were out (especially then).  Or when I think of how hard it will be when Bailey's time with us is over...

But all things considered, I'm still a dog person.  I'm especially a Bailey dog person - hang in there little guy.

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Baby Daniel

Is it just me, or do these photos almost enable you to smell this little angel's sweet head...to feel his soft cheek against yours...to hear his soft "cooo" when he smiles? (or do I have a serious case of baby fever?)

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Where Is Seek The Lord Sunday?

For those of you who might be new to this blog - some background...about a year ago I started a meme called "Seek The Lord Sunday".  Each Sunday, I'd write on a topic of faith that had been on my heart that week, and I asked that other bloggers do the same and we could all link together to encourage and love one another.  Great idea?  I thought so.

And yet, here I sit NOT participating in my own idea!  I haven't written a Seek The Lord post in...what...months?  

It's not that I'm not still seeking Him.  It's more like I'm seeking on His terms...not my blog schedule terms :-)

I found myself feeling pressure to put something "good" up each Sunday.  So much so that if the Lord spoke to me on any other day of the week, I'd sort of put it in the back of my mind as something "I should write about on Sunday 'cause that would make a great STLS post".  A relationship with the Lord just isn't focused where it should be when it's repeatedly stuffed into a little box called "to do Sunday".

So I stopped STLS.  For the sake of being real...with Him, myself, and with you.

There it is - that's where STLS has been (if you've been wondering).  I plan to continue to write about my relationship with the Lord, and I hope it's a blessing to you.  It just won't be Sundays only any longer.

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Fix It Friday #2

Well, it's Friday again (hallelujah)...so I thought I'd give the "Fix it Friday" challenge a try again (you can find it at i ♥ faces).

Here's the "Before" picture - in my opinion, the biggest problem with this photo is all the distraction in the background.

Of the edits I did, here's my favorite "after" shot.  Cropped, added a vintage process, and a vignette in Light Room.  Then went to PS Elements for the cloning out of the clutter and a funky frame.

PS.  Before settling on the cloning tool to remove clutter in the background, I tried to select the little girl to just eliminate the background all together so I could replace it with something else.

I'm not happy with the "cut" though (looks way unnatural) - Please....anyone have a good trick for isolating a subject to crop them from the background? This isn't the first time I've struggled with this, especially when dealing with hair. Help me out!

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Fishers Of....Well, FISH

Our recent trip to Wisconsin was great in so many ways...it was a grand adventure on so many fronts for my kiddos.  A notable change from last year's trip was that Ben was able to land the fish all by his big boy self.  Typically, they cast and hook the fish....and then with a frantic and freaked out wide-eyed look on their face, they'd screech "I GOOOOOT ONE!! as they hand the pole to the nearest adult to reel in the fish.

But not this year.  No siree.

Ben was quite the little fisherman.  He casted, hooked those fish, and then fought them the whole way to the shore (screeching still involved).  Maybe next year he'll be hooking his own worm?

The kids were catching some good sized fish, so we offered them the option, "Do you want to throw it back in the lake or should we keep 'em and clean 'em up?"

"Let's KEEP them!!"

It's all about expectations, you know.  That, and careful (or not so careful as the case may be) word choices. 

I got back from a store run, and the kids ran to the end of the dock screaming for me to join them.  They had something important to show me...

I love Sammy's enthusiastic "Ta Da Mommy!  FISH!"

Later that day, we decided to follow through on our promise to clean the fish.  Like I said...expectations.  

Ben was horrified to learn that "cleaning" a fish is a tidy word for "cutting up a fish until it's no longer recognizable and then EATING it." 

Ben wanted nothing to do with it.  He wouldn't watch the "cleaning" process, and he certainly wouldn't eat his beloved fish.

Well, I guess he watched for a minute, because the poor little guy watched as Papa made the first cut.  The filet was removed...and an (obviously) involuntary nerve reaction in the fish caused the little side fin of the fish to start flapping.

"OH!  That fish is waving at me!  He's saying BEEEENNN HEEEELP MEEEE!" 

I'm telling you - we're keeping some future therapist in very good business.

Clara felt differently.  She was fascinated by the whole process....especially when we could see stuff like hearts and eyeballs and the food that was in the fish's tummy.  

My poor little tender-hearted Ben was in the sun room tearfully mourning his fish

"I didn't know cleaning a fish meant killing it!  I thought it meant washing his scales!"

And in comes my sensitive Clara, skipping into the room when the "cleaning" was finished.

"Hey Ben, it's over so you can come into the kitchen now.  And guess what?  I poked that fish!  In the EYE.  WITH A FORK!"

More wailing from Ben...

PS.  It really was delicious (but don't tell Ben I said so).

PPS.  We tried to comfort Ben by telling him that God gave us fish to eat - that it's okay and that the fish can help us grow healthy and strong, and that those fish were sort of like a gift from God to us.  FYI - Did you know that God initially gave humans a strictly vegetarian diet at first?  It wasn't until after the Great Flood that God also gave animals to Noah and his family to eat.  I thought that was interesting...

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Baby Blues ~ A Peek

Can you believe these eyes?! 

To see more from this shoot, click HERE.

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Bubbles

My little Thomas loves the tub - this kid could sit in that water until he shriveled into a little prune!  Is he gonna hate me some day for doing a post of him in the bath?  Probably.  Talk to your therapist, kiddo ;-)

We have a big window right over the tub in the master bathroom.  The light was just making the entire tub just...glow.  And my sweet, squishy, soft, little bubble lover was having so much fun.  I had to take pictures.  I didn't choose for myself...it's a compulsion that is beyond my control.

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