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The boys are going in to the vet Monday morning. They are apparently
big enough for all their surgeries now, thank you Kitten Chow.

They are both getting the snip and Sargent Ralph is having his eye worked on. It’s not just the plucking – they’re going to try to cut away the two patches on his eyeball that have hair. If it’s not too much trouble, a little prayer on his behalf would be appreciated.

I’m not sure what to expect when we get to the end of this whole ordeal, so in case he loses the eye and we have to call him Winky, I tried to get some pictures of both of his eyes. It did not go well.

Wally is stretching in this photo to look like he’s taller. Nice fake-out.

Ummmmmmm….

C’mon, cat. Show me your eyes.

There they are.

Did you remember to turn your clocks back?

Happy Sunday! How did you/will you spend that extra hour? I fell asleep on the sofa at 9:30 but enjoyed that it was like it was 8:30!

I realize I am in dangerous waters here, so don’t get your panties in a twist – I’m not going to let you comment on politics anyway. This is my soapbox.

Let me begin by saying that I am a political dunce. I barely know what’s going on in the world, and I realize that it makes me a bad citizen and I have no one to blame but myself.  It is largely due to laziness, but partly due to the way that people with political interests handle themselves.

My platform statements:

1. Everybody (with strong opinions) in the world thinks they are right, and the other side is wrong. Everybody.
2. If somebody thinks differently than you do, they think that you are wrong.
3. Expressing your viewpoint in a kind way is acceptable, yet still annoying to people who aren’t interested.
4. Sticking to facts on just the issues is acceptable, yet still annoying to people who aren’t interested.
5. Expressing your viewpoint in a heated/passionate way is not going to change anyone’s mind that has the opposite viewpoint. In fact, it will galvanize them on their own position.
6. Expressing an opinion of a candidate (or any other person) in a mean, so-called ‘funny’ or derogatory way makes me like that person more, even if I had zero interest in them previously, because I want to passive-aggressively punish you for being so jerky.

That is all.

In preschool we are broaching the idea of voting, but not by voting for people. I explained the presidential process, but told them that in our room, I have $30 to spend on ONE toy. We will go through the catalog to find likely candidates, but then we’ll have to vote on just ONE. I hope for some good campaigning.

So, NO political comments or I’ll delete them. I don’t want anyone’s blood pressure to rise over this. Instead, you must vote for one of the following toy options:

A. Transforming Alphabet/Robot set

B. Human Body (non-zombie version)

C. Playstix

Well, the day has come and gone. The kids at school actually kept it together today much more than I would have thought. We even had a snack of Apple Lanterns to give us energy for the evening’s adventure (not an original idea, but still fun). It will be interesting to see how they fare tomorrow. My vote is for crabby and slightly weepy.

I did not have the guts to put this up on the Center’s Facebook page, mostly because it is a stolen image. It does, however, sum up the week:

I didn’t keep track of how many children came to trick-or-treat at my house this year, and I appreciate not feeling like it was a contest where I was the only contestant. It did seem like it was a slow year, though. I closed shop at 8:20, but at 8:30 a 9-year-old boy was knocking at my door. He was all alone, and I don’t think he knew ‘porch light out’ protocol. I gave him some candy anyway, and am now typing this in my completely darkened house, avoiding the teenagers who scare me.

How was your Halloween?

 

So, it feels foolish trying to come up with a semi-funny post when people out East are dealing with some fairly life-threatening weather that I can’t seem to stop obsessing over. I went over it very briefly with the preschoolers this morning so we could say a prayer, but I didn’t overload them with information because despite my best efforts to show on the map how this storm is far, far away and can never touch us, there will be always be children worried that a hurricane is coming to get them in two minutes. *sigh*

Anyway, I’m praying for you guys out there.

With love from Nebraska, Lauren.

Oh, and to show solidarity over scary things, here is the danger at my house: a shrub that scares the bejeebees out of me at night, since it looks like a monster – or a very oddly-shaped man – peeking in at me.

Dang Lloyd. He came home after the Lincoln Lutheran school concert last week, walked over to his computer, and loaded up a song. It sounded very familiar.

Then he said that it’s called Baba Yetu and the high school choir had performed it at the concert. He also said that it written by Christopher Tin and it was the first song ever written for a video game that had ever won a Grammy. At this point I looked at him like he was crazy and said, “No, that’s an old song. I’ve heard it a bunch of times before.” He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Yes. From the many, many, many, many times that I have played Civilization IV.” A little argument ensued where I insisted that this was a song from my childhood, but eventually logic won out and I agreed that yes, it was from that dumb game he played. I had never noticed before how very catchy it is.

Then he got me with this: “It’s the Lord’s Prayer.”

Whaaaaa?!?!?! It is! It’s in Swahili, but it is so dang catchy I’ve been humming it over and over the past few days. Now I just have to learn Swahili so I can sing along.

Here’s the video game version:

And here’s the adorable children’s choir version: