I am a liar

I said this would be a good long post--after all it is the end of NABLOPOMO but it is almost 10:30 and I have not even started my Phoenix yet. Here is my update from Chris:

He had his first physical test today and he passed with flying colors. He got his all time best score. So, he was not kicked out, but eight other guys were. Four for not getting their security clearances in time and four for having the wrong waist to height ratio or getting lowish scores on the PT. Lucky for us Chris got his security clearance...though neither of us knows when that was done or even that it was required. But, that is good. Chris said that he got a memo saying that it is not unheard of for 39 candidates to get kicked out each cycle. That has got to be an extreme (right?), but still.

blahblah

Hard to keep eyes open--no joke. Chris called. He says OCS is going well so far. He gets calls every evening. He passed the shake-down. Physical training tests are in two days. I'll write more tomorrow.

A deal

Ok. I am only posting because we are packing up now and I am handing this laptop over to Chris soon. Hmm, I won't have a laptop tomorrow so I don't know how I will post. Anyway, here is what I have to offer: this link. It's a super deal on Melissa and Doug kid toys, which are pretty cool toys. Sophie really loves the train and the pegs you hammer.

Black Friday report

Well, I definitely did not get up at 3 a.m. and go to Walmart. What a ridiculous idea. But I did go at about 9:00 and got everything I had planned on getting. There were stacks of the products I wanted. I would tell you what they were but they are Christmas presents.

Now I am going to hang out with my family.

Black Friday here I come

I didn't expect to do anything with Black Friday this year, but our hotel is about a five minute walk from about a gazillion stores. So...I decided to check it out and now I am super excited. Trish, David, and perhaps Papa-G (he is still mulling it over) are coming with me...at 3 a.m. to Walmart. It will probably be a little miserable and a little triumphant. Hopefully we will not be trampled.

Also, at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow in Amazon's lightning deals you can get a Kindle 2.0 for $89. So... that's cool.

Happy Thanksgiving. We had an awesome hotel-Thanksgiving meal. It was really, really fun. The highlight was the cranberry sauce. AND we have so many leftovers including THREE PIES. Also, I just realized that my total involvement in Thanksgiving preparation and clean up was to ask Chris to bring the table from our room to the Lewises room. Awesome.

Favorite thing I learned today:

My father-in-law combs his hair every night before he goes to sleep because it's uncomfortable to sleep on your hair weird. I think that is really cute.

p.s. My life is so awesome right now.

Must...post...

Man, I am so tired that I am seeing double on the screen. The girls are doing great with the traveling and being in strange places: I think that this is totally due to my in laws helping out with them so much. The only thing they are having a hard time with is sleeping. They are waking up a lot so I am too. I I should take a nap but I onl have until Sunda!

Chris has officially graduated from Basic Training. Whoop Whoop! So far he has only had day passes. We have had to drop him off back at his barracks at 8:45 p.m. each night. But tomorrow he starts his four day pass so he can just hang out here until Sunday and he doesn't have to wear his uniform. Oh man, I can't type anymore. I will try to be more interesting tomorrow.

Hooray for today!

This is right before we took him back to base for the night.

Mark is ruining my life

He really is.

For that past two Thanksgivings we have had a beautiful tradition. Lisa, one of my awesome sisters-in-law has come to visit. But not this year. In fact, she didn't even TALK about coming this year. This is because of a certain monkey-head named Mark. I can't believe she is putting her fiance ahead of me and my happiness. I find this very insensitive.

I have full confidence that if she were not getting married next month she would be here in Georgia waiting to have Thanksgiving in a hotel room with us. This sweet-talker Mark just ruined Thanksgiving.

ALSO, here is another gripe against him: he has tons of nieces and nephews. Today, Lisa has three nieces. By January she will have, uh, a lot more. I don't know how many exactly. But, more than three. And what if, WHAT IF they have kids of their own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Those exclamation points were for you, Katie.) That will ruin everything. How can I have her undivided attention then! How can my kids be the favorites (and Olivia of course).

The frosting on the cake of doom is that she is clearly upset about this. Take a look at this picture. This is the face of a sad girl.


Some call it love, I call it devastation.

So, Mark. Thanks for ruining Thanksgiving and therefore my life. We are family-enemies. Be on your guard.




Uh, also, welcome to the family. I'm sure you are very nice. Please don't hold it against me that I called you monkey-head.

On the road

So, here we are in Charlotte, North Carolina after driving 6 hours with Soapstar, Jojo, Trish and David. Here is a brief report, in list form:

1. David drove the entire time and is an awesome driver. Also, the coolest 16 year old I have ever met.

2. The girls were better behaved than they have ever been in the car in their entire lives.

3. I like Trish's trail mix, even though I am actually a snob to trail mix.

4. Jojo can drink out of a sippy cup like a pro; she even holds the cup.

5. More and more I enjoy listening to Trish talk--I try to think of subjects that she has a lot to say about so that she will talk more, and longer. I think it is because she and Chris talk in very similar ways sometimes and I miss listening to him talk.

6. Now I am going to sign off and hook this laptop up to the hotel TV so we can watch a movie on Netflix. Hooray for roadtrips!

Not Sissy

Yesterday's post = sissy. My sister in law's two blog posts here = not sissy.

Ten minute phone calls

So I had my third 10 minute phone call with Chris today. I knew it was coming because his commander's wife posts on Facebook when she finds out about each call. Each time, I get so excited. My measurement of time which is usually hours to naps of bedtime becomes hours till he calls.

But, just so you know, ten minute phone calls are the worst. Or I guess they aren't the worst. They are pretty fun until suddenly he says, "Oh, I have one minute left." What do you say after that? All you are both thinking about is the end. You can try to start another topic, but you'll just get cut off and that is tragic and unsatisfying. You can say goodbye right then but then you are wasting that minute, and you only have 10! Then after the phone call you just feel lousy because, first of all, you spent some of that precious time talking about hangers. Hangers! Like the kind you put clothes on. What?! And second of all, ten minutes is not long enough to feel connected to someone you love, it's just long enough to remind you that you are lonely.

Man, the Army and I are not really friends right now. We're kind of enemies. And having the US ARMY as your enemy is not a good feeling. Whatever. I have my strategery. Army, I am not afraid of you.

You'll be happy to know that though my phone is not able to make calls, it is able to receive calls.

An expensive load of laundry

I washed my phone today. It was in the pocket of my jeans and I ran it through the wash. I thought I was being so efficient as I did laundry. I was going to have the girls all packed up tonight for our trip this Saturday so I was multitasking like a villain. Well the girls aren't packed up and my phone has gone the way of all the world.

I feel a new bond with David (Ipod touch and the waterfall) and my good friend Jessi (accidentally dropped her phone into a cement mixer...what?).

My phone actually works a little still. Water has seeped into the screen and sometimes the buttons work and sometimes they don't. If I want to do anything I have to first turn off the phone and then turn it on again and it has to be plugged into the wall to work at all.

It's a pretty bad time for it to happen too. I am leaving the state on Saturday for ten days and I kind of need a phone. The good news is that 30 bucks later I will have a new phone by Friday with the same number.

A steal of a deal at twice the price!

Man, I love getting sweet deals. It makes me so happy. It's a little silly. I feel like I am shaking my fist in the face of the free market yelling, "I will decide how much my goods are worth, not you! I am captain of my own consumer soul!" Whenever I get a good deal I feel like I am sticking it to the man.

So tonight, I high-tailed it to Target and completed this deal. I got three pajama shirts for a whopping $1 total. In case you are not in possesion of street fighting mathematics, that is 33 cents a shirt. I am the king of the world. I am wearing one right now and I look fiiiiiine. Too bad no one is here to see me because everyone else in this house goes to bed at 8:00. *sigh*

Speaking of awesome deals: ALDI. My in-laws have been praising it for some time now, and I have to say, it rocks my socks off. It is my all time favorite grocery store now. My only beef is that they have no customer service. They don't even list their numbers in the phone book. They don't want you to call. I'm not making this up, they told me that in the store. That's how they offer such good prices. So if you want to know if the 80 piece Avta train set for $20 has come in yet because you know your daughter would love it for Christmas, you have to drive back to check. By the way, it wasn't. And I think the sale was over today. Maybe Soapy will just get 33 cent pajama t-shirt to grow into for Christmas.

Follow up on backwards scooting baby

She often gets stuck here.



Also, here's a video that I forgot to load on my family blog.

Angry Feminists

So, I kind of want to talk about feminism, but sometimes it makes me so tired. I'm a feminist, I really am. I am so proud of all the women in the distant and not so distant past that worked so hard for the rights I enjoy today. I know that there is still stuff to fight for and ways that women are dismissed and untruths that are still being spread in society about women. But I hate hate hate how it ends up making me feel. Because it makes me angry. And the people who are fighting are angry too, and so I kind of avoid hanging out with them for too long. I think I hate feeling angry more than almost anything. I would always rather feel sad than angry. Anger makes me feel out of control and completely unlike myself. When I stop being angry I feel like I was a little possessed.

It seems that every group that has ever fought for equal rights has a great deal of anger motivating them. I mean, just think about the revolutionary war, the civil war, civil rights, women's rights... Although they all said they were fighting for something, they were also furiously fighting against something and you gotta believe that there was tons of anger as motivation. How can so much good come from so much anger? I don't really know how that works.

I remember in some psychology class learning that anger is a secondary emotion. You never feel anger at first; it's always a reaction to something else you feel. Like when you stub your toe and you get angry. You don't feel angry because you stubbed your toe, you feel angry because you first felt surprised and hurt. Or like when you get angry after someone teases you about having to go to gym class in Germany in your underwear because you forgot your gym clothes at home. You first feel embarrassed and then you feel angry because of the embarrassment. I don't know exactly how that factors in to the whole angry feminists/any type of protesters, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

In conclusion: I am a feminist who does not like being angry. I think without angry feminists I would be wearing a burka. Well not a burka, but I might not know how to read and write and I wouldn't be able to vote or wear pants. Hooray for angry feminists, boo for anger.

A week from today...

..we will leave to see Chris! I am so excited. I think about ten million times during the day.

Okay, here is a concern I have. I am noticing that I am getting a lot of emails from friends/acquaintences who have had their emails hacked into. They are always the same, I open the email and it's just a random URL instead of a message. Is it just me or this this happening way more often than it used to happen? I mean, it is seriously almost everyday I get a new one. I generally get an apology soon after from the real email owner. How are their emails getting stolen? What should I do to prevent this? Mostly, I am hoping someone will find out and tell me as a comment because I am too lazy to look it up on my own.

Also, Jojo can pick up and eat Cheerios now and scoot backwards. What a hero.

A good day

I am 100% satisfied with my activity today. I made a plan. It was a good and balanced plan. I stuck to it. It is 8:45 p.m. and everything on my list is done and I am...happy. This is a good feeling. Such a good feeling.

I hope you all had good days too, or at least that tomorrow will be better.

The Wild

My parents live in the middle of nowhere. The local library is called, not after the town, not after a famous person from the area but instead, Wilderness Library. That should give you some idea of how far out in the boonies we are. They have a house and a lawn, but it is not the lawn that you might typically think of. Their lawn, and the lawn of everyone else out here, is just forest that has some grass growing on it. It really feels like we are living in the woods.

After my first few weeks here I realized that not only are we living sort of in the wild (uh, except with indoor plumbing and a widescreen tv of course), but the wild sees us as temporary, not permanent. Outside things keep trying to preemptively dominate my space. And by wild things, I mean bugs and spiders.

Look, I have lived in many a basement apartment. I am no stranger to bugs. I am cool with spiders. But seriously, there is a limit to the access they can have to my stuff. A first it was kind of funny. I left my stroller out overnight, the next morning the bonus was all the cookie crumbs were gone. The not-so-bonus was that there were a bunch of squash bugs or something I had to scoop out. Not a big deal. But there were three spider webs in the stroller. Spiders? You are setting up house after just one night? I have not abandoned this stroller. It has not been 12 hours. The presumption. Kind of funny, but not a problem.

Then I start noticing that even if I have been to the park the day before, there are spider webs on the entries to the slides, and on the bridges. I start thinking. Whoa. These spiders are crazy. The stroller? And now the playgrounds? What are they trying to catch anyway?

The final straw was when I was at the playground helping Soapy up a ladder or something and Jojo starts to stir. I go to get her and find a spider web of course. It was connected from the sippy cup in the cup holder, to her head. TO HER HEAD!

Uh, Jojo is waking up right now so. That's all for tonight. In conclusion it is now winter and this isn't an issue anymore.

Snobbery--a bragalog

I think it's important every so often to acknowledge when you are a snob about something. By snob, I mean when you don't like something because you feel it is beneath you. Sometimes we hide our snobbery by pretending there are other reasons for not liking it, but deep down, there aren't. Everyone is a snob about something. Probably, many things.

Let me give you some examples. I used to be a snob about turtlenecks. No reason for it, really. They were beneath me.But now I have one (well sort of. It's not a real turtleneck. It's not even a mock turtleneck. It's something else, like a mock-mock turtleneck {that sounds like a bird name, or a failed dance move})

Chris used to be a snob about brown sugar. He only liked brand name brown sugar. I am proud to say that he had some moments of self reflection and now he no longer worries about what brand he sprinkles on his oatmeal.

I think it's important to know what you are a snob about, even if you don't change your ways. It's important to know why you dislike or like something, even if it's not a good reason. I am a snob to Burberry scarves. They're just beneath me, that's all. (FYI, I respect all people who like Burberry scarves. Feel free to be a snob to me for that comment. Especially when you look at my everyday wardrobe and wonder how I can possibly feel that I can be a snob to any clothing.)

Anyway, I would like to congratulate myself now on things I an NOT a snob about.

I am not a grammar snob. I think that is clear from reading my posts. I don't consider grammar and usage to be super important. Here is why that is cool and not ignorant: I teach grammar and usage. I've taken editing classes. I have plenty of history/education to make me a snob. I have a Chicago Manual Style that I regularly consult (well, it's in Nebraska right now, but I did consult it). I like to talk about obscure punctuation problems. However, when I read any written work by another person (unless I'm grading)I ignore problems. Unless it is for a professional purpose I rarely edit my work carefully. I think this is awesome. I think this trait is a microcosm for the type of person I would like to be. I would like to be someone who concentrates on the message rather than the delivery.

I am not a book snob. I was a book snob. I am no longer. I disagree with books. Sometimes they make me angry (Atlas Shrugged) or sad(The History of Love) or frightened (some story I read about giant blood-thirsty seagulls). But I am not a snob to books. I don't judge a book because everyone has read it (Harry Potter), it is full of passion in prison (Twilight), written for children (Fablehaven) or even if it is reportedly full of bad writing. It turns out that even people who are poor at writing may have important or interesting things to say. It turns out that I read not only to better myself, but also as an escape or to be entertained. I realized I was snobby to books that I would never be snobby to as movies. Reading is better than watching TV. So I gave up my snobbery. Interestingly enough though, I am now a snob to book snobs. Feel free to admit in the comments that you are a book snob to me so I can turn up my virtual nose at you.

Bedtime.

Adjectives

So my 2 year old has started using adjectives a lot. It's amazing how useful they are. In my creative writing clases and in my technical writing classes adjectives were always kind of looked down on. It turns out that adjectives should be used very sparingly, especially in poetry. I constantly revised my work and threw out adjectives. Adjectives equaled laziness and redundancy.

But now that Soapy can use them life is awesome. I think part of the reason for this is that she uses them honestly. Instead of a garnish to an idea they are the whole idea. In fact, she tens to omit the words they modify which makes them more meaningful. It's not a big truck it's just "Biiiig!"

Here are her favorite ones:

silly, happy, sad, fun, cute, all the colors, big, and, baby (this is the opposite of big).

She likes the colors. Now that she has words for colors she talks about them all the time. She loves horses, but the color of a horse is as important to her as the horsiness of the horse. I think I kind of remember this as a kid, the importance of colors, when it really mattered what color your toothbrush was.

My favorite adjective of hers is "fun." She uses it after an event, kind of like a closer. She'll say, "Fun, Mama?" and I'll nod and she'll laugh and say, "Fun! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It cracks me up every time. The other day I decided to take them to the park. It was really cold so I bundled them up despite ear-splitting protests of "NO SWEATER" or when I got the baby ready "MY SWEATER!NO BABY!" We finally got to the park but Soapy was too cold to play and ended up crying as I half carried/half dragged her and the car seat back to the car. Soapy took turns whining and crying expect for a few seconds of concentrated silence when she blew her nose on my shoulder. Anyway, I got them buckled in, got in the front and started driving thinking what a miserable idea this had been when suddenly I hear this little, upbeat voice. "Fun,Mama?" I laughed a little incredulously, and I guess she decided that was confirmation because she said, "Yay! Park fun! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" It 's awesome because in her mind, that trip was a wild success, and since the trip was all for her anyway that means the trip was a wild success. This is extremely gratifying. Also, it gives me hope she will have a happy life.

Follow-up

The brown stuff is brownie batter.

Also, a bit later we were playing with play dough and I made this little man who was supposed to be charming but ended up being a little creepy. Here he is:



Here is what Soapy thought of him:

Dental hygiene and vomit---but not together.

So I have basically stopped using coupons since we left Nebraska. Everything is just too far away. But every once in a while I see some deal that is too good to pass up. That is how I ended up with two of these beauties yesterday.



I got 'em for free and frankly I am pretty delighted. I have never had or even used a battery operated toothbrush before so I figured it would be awesome. I thought my teeth would feel ultra-clean. And, actually, they really did feel cleaner than usual after I brushed with Cinderella.

(FYI the Little Mermaid was also available, but I felt her outfit was too scandalous to have her as a role model for Soapy in the bathroom.)

Here is what I would like to say about electric toothbrushes after my one experience: they are cool but they also give me nasty dentist flashbacks . It's the vibrating pressure that is a little nauseating to me. I actually couldn't bring myself to use it this morning; I had to go back to my primitive, cave-man, manual toothbrush. I still haven't decided whether or not to use it tonight. Sorry to leave you in suspense about that.

I have, however, decided to let Soapy use the other one because a) I do not think that Chris would like me to mail it to him in basic training (which ends in a little over two weeks whoop whoop!) and b) I think it will prepare her for her first dentist visit.

Oh, and I guess maybe the one kid in the house should use one of the kid toothbrushes. Whatever.

Okay, here are a few reasons I love living at home with my parents just from today:

1. My mom made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Ahhhhh

2. When I pulled into church and Soapy vomited all over our sweet Corolla of victory my parents took care of Jojo while I cleaned up Soapy and then my Mom cleaned up the pukey carseat while I tried to get the girls to stop crying. I would have had to drive a half hour home with out them there. Thank goodness for the parents.

(Note on this, I actually had extra clothes for Soapy to wear...minus socks and shoes. So that was almost great preparation. Also, I thought I had brought a clean shirt but it was actually a filthy shirt with ketchup stains on it. Chunky ketchup stains. With her perpetual runny nose, her gross shirt, and her lack of any footwear at all in November, she looked a little Appalachian-American. I suppose the gap in her teeth only added to the situation. Also, she and I and the Corolla smelled a bit like cinnamon rolls all day.)

3. Here is one last thing that is something that I am constantly grateful for: every night when I put Jojo to bed, my Mom always does stuff with Soapy so the little villain doesn't come in and scream in Jojo's ear while she is getting drowsy. that may not seem like a big deal, but it's a big deal.

In summary: toothbrushes and living at home are awesome.

Well, my break is over. It's 11:25 p.m. and I just finished setting up my two new online classes. Let's see, let's go back to my late night conversation with my mom. I asked her if she had to raise us five kids all over again, what she would do differently.

Her answers were pretty helpful. She was/is an awesome mom (after all, look at me, her greatest achievement:)She had some interesting things to say about structure and discipline that I am now thinking about.

I have to go to bed now because I am seeing double, but if you are feeling up to commenting I would like to know either a) things you would do differently as a parent now or b) things that you plan on doing as a parent that I might find useful. If you are wondering what to put on your blog for NABLOPOMO this would be a good prompt.

Also, Lisa, I want you to know that even though you have missed a day I still respect you, and you can still come back. :)

A story

So the reason I am posting so late is that I was talking with my Mom. Every time we have a real conversation it goes way too long so tonight we decided to not have them any more. They're fun but we both need more sleep.

Anyway, in her honor I am posting an awesome story she told me a while ago. She heard the story from a coworker and her coworker heard it from the mother of the story herself so...those are the degrees of separation between you and the source of the story.

Ahem.

A woman and man from Texas have an adult son with Down Syndrome. He's very high functioning and very independent. Knowing this, the couple decided to go on vacation to Virginia and leave him alone. They were a little nervous, but decided that their son was competent and it would be okay.

They called him when they arrived in Virginia and he was incredibly excited. "Guess what!" He told his parents, "I caught a troll!"

The parents immediately changed their tickets and came home. They asked where the troll was now. The son said he had locked him in the guest room. They opened the door and found a real dwarf, who also happened to be a census worker. The parents said that the worker, despite being in their for over a day, was incredibly understanding about the whole situation.

The end.

One reason to move in with your parents

1. In case it is late at night and you decide to watch a detective/homicide show, and after it's over you realize you are in a creaky house all by yourself with your two defenseless daughters.

Unfortunately parents are out tonight. At least my dad told me where he keeps the guns.

This is my week off

I teach an online grammar class for the University of Phoenix. I just finished two classes and I start two more on Monday. So this is my week off. Tonight I plan to celebrate it by eating a big piece of my Mom's birthday cake (oh yeah, happy birthday Mom) while I watch a romantic comedy my parents got in the mail today. I don't know what the title is and I don't even care. I will also probably write a letter to Chris, in boot camp, telling him all about how I'm eating cake with strawberries while he's most likely doing pushups. Heh heh.

I just got a letter from him today and he said that one of the other soldiers who he's buddies with asked him what his favorite part was so far. He thought about it and said that actually, he didn't have a favorite part because it is all so miserable. I hope all you who are considering joining the military take that to heart and consider being taxidermists instead. You still deal with a lot of the same issues.

He did say, however, that he gets to throw a live grenade tomorrow and that might be his favorite pard. Whatever. I could make that in my basement and we could throw it here.

(note: Big Brother, I do not actually know how to make grenades. I was just trying to be funny.)

I don't know why I am still typing. I could be watching my movie. In fact, I'll go right

Ballet/Tap

I took Soapy to her first ever dance class tonight. It was a ballet/tap class for 2-3 year olds. The idea of a ballet/tap class is kind of interesting in and of itself. How do you combine those two? Tapping tutus? I actually wanted to get her in a tumbling class. She is pretty awesome at throwing herself down on the floor and howling, and I figured that is how tumbling starts...minus the howling. But for 2 year olds they only had this class. The first session is free so we decided to check it out.

I really tried to be ready on time. I did her hair, wiped her face,and changed her into what I felt were the most dance appropriate clothing she had. But we got there a couple minutes late. Soapy pulled her hair band off and was devoted to wearing her floppy sun hat. She had also found a cracker in the car to smear over her face. Her nose had run and dried into crustiness, but was running again, so it was collecting in a way that kind of reminds me of how stalagmites and stalactites form. Also, the dance appropriate clothing she was wearing were her yoga pants. A good choice for comfort but these pants kind of have an attitude.

There were two other girls in her class. They looked almost four, a good head taller than Sophie. They were twins, one in pink and one in purple leotards, tights, and tutus. They looked like the girls you imagine take ballet, kind of professional.

This picture doesn't reflect what they looked like, but it does reflect the feeling I got from them:



And here is the feeling that Soapy was kind of projecting...




Except she wasn't wearing a tutu, she was wearing these exact pants...



(a caveat: Soapy was easily the most beautiful kid there. She is in fact the most beautiful 2 year old kid in the world. The above comments should not make any reader think otherwise. She just looked like a fish out of water.)

She had an awesome time in the class. She cried when we had to leave. The teacher came out afterward and said she thought Soapy might be a little young, but you can't tell after the first class, and especially not compared to the 3 year old twin primadonnas. So she said Sophie could come to the next three classes for free, and that Saturday classes might be better because she had some two year olds in that class.

I really wish I could have watched her. Apparently they have the girls hold balls and hula hoops to learn the arm positions. They also have little, flat, rubber circles they put on the floor to teach the girls...something. Anyway, I have been working hard at teaching Soapy to kick balls, and there are spots on the floor in the local CVS that Soapy loves to pick up and rearrange so I can just imagine how Soapy would respond to those props.

I really liked the little studio. It was tiny and there were girls of all ages hanging around. They all knew each other and I shamelessly eavesdropped to them talking amongst each other. They were good girls and I liked to think of my daughter hanging around a place like this, learning physical discipline, and sweet moves. I think she is a little young; I don't think we'll sign her up for more classes. But I do think that when she is three or four we will get her in some kind of class like this.

NABLOPOMOMYGOODNESS!

That's right. It's November 1st. That means it's the first day of NABLOPOMO or National Blog Posting Month. This is my first blog post. Not too shabby. I invite all two people who read this blog to join me if you like.

I have a few things I know I am going to talk about, for instance, moving back in with my parents, hanging out with the inlaws without a spouse, and how good looking I have become. I figure these are good topics to hook my readers. But since Thanksgiving is coming up, I thought I should include things I am thankful for so today I would just like to tell you how grateful I am for our GPS.

Seriously, so grateful.

It's a Garmin Nuvi something-something and I love it. I love it for all the reasons you think someone would love a GPS. I love not getting lost. I love knowing what the speed limit is all the time. I love knowing to the minute when I will arrive somewhere. I love being able to see how much, or how little, difference speeding actually makes on my arrival time. Turns out, it doesn't make that much of a difference (or maybe I just don't speed fast enough).

I also love it for reasons that I would never have guessed. I love it for sometimes being the only other adult voice I hear for hours. Before he left, Chris programmed the GPS to be an Australian woman's voice so it's actually pretty annoying. But this is also good because when things get stressful in the car I find myself growing angry at this nasally, australian snob instead of my two little screaming-bloody-murder girls. She (the GPS) is a good deflector of my frustration, and it turns out she is a good example because she never loses her temper. She just takes a moment and then recalculates.

Well, that is all I have to say about my GPS. This may not be the most riveting post, but it is a post. I am beginning to think that brilliance is not nearly as important as perserverance. In fact, I think perserverance, endurance, never-giving-upness, whatever you call it, probably trumps brilliance every time. Just now I was goint to expound on this idea to how I think it relates to the different philosophies held by God and Satan, but...it's not that kind of post. This is just an I-love-my-GPS post.