Beautiful Day for a Picnic!

Last Thursday we had such lovely weather (and it was Michaels' day off from work) that we decided it might be fun to have a little picnic at the park for the kids and then let them play. Lily, who is always so excited to do new things, just couldn't wait! So, we made PB&J sandwiches, packed some snacks and water. Then we loaded up the kids in the double stroller and wagon and headed for the park. It was a tiring walk pushing that boat of a stroller up those hills, but I was happy to get the exercise! The kids enjoyed the picnic and had a blast playing. They were all so pooped by the time we were ready to leave. They napped very well that day!

Ben Stein's Last Column

This is from Ben Stein's last column. It is so very well written and true that I just had to pass it on!

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.

It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.

Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.

They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein

We've Got Spring People!!!

After so many weeks of cold, dreary, and even snowy weather, we have been so gracefully blessed with a few consecutive sunshiny warm days! And, the warm weather is still going strong! It has been so beautiful and the kids have really enjoyed the sunshine and playing outside. We have been able to go to the park a lot and they have absolutely LOVED that! (So, do I! They seem to nap a lot better and LONGER when they get to play outside, which means relaxation time for me! Woo Hoo!) Anyway, here are some fun pictures from our last few FABULOUS, WONDERFUL, MARVELOUS, PERFECT weather days!


Spring Weather Day 1: We went to a fun park where the girls got to where cute summer outfits and run around like crazy. Lily loved the twisty slide and Alex was a sucker for the swings! The girls played together so lovingly! Then we cam home and Lily ate a popsicle while Alex napped.

Spring Weather Day 2: Took all 4 kids to the park all by myself! Such a great accomplishment and they all had a blast! Even the constantly very unsatisfied 9 month old kicked back in the stroller and was very tranquil!

Keep the Spring Days Comin'!!! Tomorrow we are diving into our bathing suits (not me!) and hitting the water table! Yiipppeeee!

Alexandria's First Barely There Ponytail

The other day I thought to myself, hmmm. . .I wonder if I can get Alexandria's hair into a ponytail. It had gotten noticeably longer in the last couple of months. So, I tried. I gathered as much of the little tuft on the top of her head that I could (this was not easy!) and secured it as tightly as I could in a rubberband. YES! I had done it! It was a success! Can you see it?

You may have to squint your eyes and look really close.

How about from the side? Can you see it now?

From the back? You are sure to see it from this angle, right?Yes, it is the little Alfalfa hair sticking up
from the top of her head.

Don't let the cheesy, yet adorable grin, distract you!How about if I stick a bow in it? Yes! That's it! Taa daa!

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's

My mom filled a whole bunch of plastic Easter eggs with candy for Lily and Alex and then the "Easter Bunny" hid them downstairs in the basement. All Lily could talk about was all the candy she was going to find as she waited for the "Easter Bunny" to finish. When we finally let them loose, Lily and Alex both when nuts looking for and gathering the eggs to put in their baskets. Alex was so cute. She kept finding them and putting them in Lily's basket. She is such a sweet little sister! Lily's basket had so many eggs, it was overflowing!

Alex cuddling with her Great Grandpa! She is such a lucky girl!

Easter Sunday

Lily was so excited Easter Morning to go find her Easter basket that the Easter bunny hid. It didn't take her long to spot it sitting up on the wooden beam on the ceiling. Then she excitedly helped Alex find her basket. Alex and Lily both had a blast looking for the Easter eggs that the Bunny hid around the house as well! Then the girls got to put on their new Easter dresses. They looked so adorable. Lily LOVED hers. She said it was her Cinderella dress and she enjoyed twirling around in it.

Look what I found!

Another one!

That Easter Bunny hid them all over!

Lily's full basket!

"WOW!"

"A blue egg!"

Getting into their Easter stash!

Alex digging in.

Lily happily checking out her stuff.

Yummy!

Showing off her "Cinderella" Easter Dress

My Beautiful Girls before Church.

Alex wearing her new Easter Dress.

Love that smile!