Turns Out, You NEED Those Numbers at the End

My kids all have their own Gmail accounts.  Actually, two accounts apiece.  One user name is respectable and the other is more playful.  I sign them up for them shortly after they are born because I'm crazy like that.  As Claire has gotten old enough, she has occasionally used hers to email grandparents and such.  I'm pretty sure my kids are going to thank me someday for getting them addresses ASAP so they aren't stuck with some user name that is followed by twelve impossible to remember numbers to make it unique.

But speaking of numbers at the end of an email address making it hard to remember, lately I'm having a problem.  The kids' accounts all forward to my email and I'm getting email for some other Claire with the same last name.  She is apparently some sucker whose mother DIDN'T sign her up for an address soon enough, so hers must have some numbers after it.  But apparently she doesn't remember this.  She thinks she owns the address with no numbers after it.  How do you not know your own email address? I can understand one or two mistakes, but how exactly do you not notice that you haven't received things you're expecting?  Important things!

She appears to now be a senior in high school considering various colleges. She lives in Georgia and attends Baylife Church.  She is not getting her church newsletter.  Nor is she getting messages from her chemistry study group.  She is not getting her J.Crew ads.  Or several other store ads.  But worst of all, she is not getting info about deadlines for online registration to Duke University, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech.

I am also now in possession of her login names for these online registrations and, since OBVIOUSLY I know her first and last name, I'm pretty sure I could reset the password on most of her accounts.  But I'm not going to.  She's lucky I'm a nice person.  I really do hope she's not missing all these deadlines that I keep getting emailed about.

Also, I hope none of these universities find out about all of this. Do you really think someone will believe you are Duke material if you can't figure out your own email address???

-2 lbs

Still sewing...

Diet Aid

  
I've been trying to lose weight and therefore, I've been sewing a lot. 

How does that work, you ask?  Well, I like to sew a lot.  When I'm going about business as usual, I am often tempted to stop for a little snack.  But when I'm sewing I get so caught up in it, I forget. I lose all desire to eat. (I also lose all desire to sleep, bathe, and leave the house, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

Along with some other tactics, it seems to be working.  I'm down at least 6 lbs in the last month.

And I've gotten some good sewing done.  I just finished this dress and wore it to church Sunday:

Now the trick is to finish my sewing projects fast enough that they're not too big by the time I finish them.  And if that's my biggest problem, I'll take it!

 

C'mon Scott, Your Baby Sister Can Do It!

Scott and Kate are quite the contrasting pair.  Scott being very reluctant to do new things by himself, and Kate being QUITE the opposite.  Kate seems to be quickly overtaking Scott in many areas. Yesterday was an interesting day of firsts in our house.

First of all Kate, my little pantry bandit, came wandering up to me drinking a contraband juice box.  Apparently she can unwrap the straw and poke it into the hole now herself.  Scott couldn't do that until, like, last month.  (Anyone have any tips on how to keep a toddler out of a pantry with double doors but the kind that latch up at the top?  All the lock type things I find for child-proofing won't fit around full size door knobs, but the regular knob ones are worthless since these knobs are just for pulling, not turning.  The rope set up we've tried fails on so many levels.  It's hideous AND cumbersome.  So cumbersome that I never remembered to re-weave the intricate knot around the knobs and therefore just stopped using it.)

Second of all, Scott learned to pedal a tricycle.  Yes, he is in Kindergarten.  He's been a bit of a late bloomer in this department.  Up until yesterday, he just didn't care to do it enough to bother.  Every time I would coax him onto a tricycle, he would try for a second and then give up because it wasn't instantly easy.  But Claire and the neighbors were having bicycle races up and down the street and he figured out he would never keep up on his scooter.  Yay for peer pressure!!!  So he was determined to head down the path towards mastering the bicycle.  He did great on the tricycle, so we tried putting him on his bicycle with training wheels, but that resulted in a freak out of epic proportions because it was "TOO HARD!!!"  Oh well, at least my 5 year old can finally pedal a tricycle a mere month or so after my 2 year old figured it out!

I Want the Drought to End Too, BUT...

  
Dear People Who Are Members of My Church (Maybe not ALL, but certainly MOST of them),

I have a small issue I would like to address.  It has bothered me for many years, but ever since Mother Nature decided to stop making rain clouds in Texas and it became the land of searing heat this year, it's started coming up a lot more.

It's about your prayers.  Don't get me wrong, I want the drought to end.  I'm glad you're praying for it to end and I am too.  It's the wording I have issue with.  Do you really have to ask for "moisture"?  And when we DO get a little sprinkle, do you have to say thank you for "moisture" too? 

I believe the word "rain" is the appropriate choice here.  We want RAIN.  Or we're thankful we got RAIN.  Why not just say that?  For some reason though, you seem to think that when you're praying you ought to say "moisture."  I have some guesses about why you might feel compelled to say this:

1)  "Moisture" sounds more formal -- No, it doesn't.  Moisture sounds disgusting.  It brings to mind sweat, used sponges, or worse, some sort of feminine issue.  More formal would be something like "waters sent forth from heaven above."  Maybe a bit overkill, but better than saying "moisture."

2)  "Moisture" is more generic and all encompassing and we'll take anything we can get -- While I appreciate the sentiment, there are two problems with this.  First of all, this is Texas.  If you're hoping that we'll get snow instead of rain, you're kidding yourself.  Maybe you grew up in Utah where it actually snows and picked up the habit there?  Well, that brings me to my second point.  You might have learned this in like, elementary school.  We have a word for generic wet stuff falling from the sky: precipitation.  I know it's kinda long, but say it with me now:  Pre-cip-i-ta-tion.  And if you forget the correct generic word, do you honestly think it will hurt to just say "rain"?  I mean, I'm pretty sure if you say "rain" the Lord isn't going to think, "Oh, I was going to send some snow, sleet, and hail, but since they only asked for rain, I guess they're out of luck."

3)  "Moisture" includes humidity and dew -- This is probably the least objectionable reason for saying "moisture." HOWEVER, I hate to break it to you but I don't really think raising the humidity around here is going to stop the drought.  It WILL make us all even more miserably uncomfortably hot and sweaty (moist?), and it may be a little better for the plants, but it's just not going to cut it.

4)  You say "moisture" just to annoy uptight people like me -- By all means, carry on then.  You're doing a great job.

All that being said, keep on praying for rain, or precipitation, or dews from heaven distilling, or... *gulp*... moisture, or whatever.  Just keep praying for something to end this drought.

Sincerely,
G