October already

Here we are, already 5 days into October. There is some serious time-warp stuff going on in my head. I can not believe it!! Christmas stuff is already in the stores, the weather changed, the kids are already more than half-way through their first term, Halloween costumes in the planning, but I just am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that we are only 2 1/2 months from Christmas and 3 1/2 months from the start of the legislative session.

And btw, on the change in weather? That's an understatement. On Monday, it was 89 degrees for the high. On Wednesday, we had our first frost and the high was 40-ish - a 45 degree drop in 2 days, most of it in just one night...

Oh - I just realized I didn't update about Mira. She had her baby two weeks ago, little Emma Rose. She is a dolly! They are both staying with us another week or so to really help her recover from her C-Section, since it will be just the two of them once they go back to M's apartment. But, that's grandbaby #2 and I'm still close enough to adding babies that it's tempting to think about doing it "just once more". Not so much for Starfish Daddy....

I did a gazillion parent-teacher conferences this week. Taiza is funny - she has been in school 6 weeks now, skips off totally comfortably, chatters on about it once she home, but does not say one word while she is there. She is SOO shy. It's not really bothering her to go, but she just won't talk.....some of the kids are doing great (like Nonee - straight A's, 7th grade student body prez, wildly popular), most are doing ok and a couple are bombing, mostly because they refuse to do the work, not because they can't.

We are getting ready to go to DC in about a month. It will be me and the 3 kids that are in journalism. We're gonna have a lot of fun. :-) I'll sure miss the baby, though and am kinda worried about leaving her for a week, since she has really turned into a mama's girl. (Or still is, I guess). She still has lots of fussy times, though, and while I always think I'll be able to blog or otherwise work online while all the other kids are at school, her crying frequently precludes that. Poor baby....when she's happy, she's very happy, but when she's sad, she's almost inconsolable. Unless I go for a drive in the car - then she's happy.

Aaron is super-serious about his girlfriend. They are openly talking about marriage and her dad is flying up from Texas just to meet him. Her parents aren't thrilled - they want her to go on a mission and date more people (she's 20, Aaron is 22). I'm offended that someone would be less than thrilled with my awesome son. :-) (And I'm actually not joking.)

In the blogosphere, the more I take a stand politically as the conservative I am, the more I get "hit" by the liberal left. I have one commenter who likes to hit EVERY SINGLE POST and point out not only how crazy I am (if he only knew - ha!), but likes to say that my picture is unflattering, I'm smug, sanctimonious and fat. I finally had to put the comments on moderation and stop letting the personal attacks through. He calls it "freedom of speech" - I call it the right to not be abused. I might be a wing-nut, right-wing domestic terrorist extremist, but stop saying I'm ugly too. Just sayin'....

And speaking of politics - it's insanely busy and will only get more so! Oh my. Some days I regret my weakness for sleep - after all, I need 5 whole hours a night and it feels like such a waste of time. :-) Seriously, there is SO much happening, I literally can not keep up. One reason I am up doing the family update at 2:30 in the morning......I did tell one of my political friends that I thought summer was supposed to be the "down" time and I had not found that! He said that in the 8 years or so that he had been involved, it always had been - but not this year....the speed with which things are happening, the speed with which our country is being driven into the ground is truly breath-taking (but not in a good way).

We just had General Conference, which I'll post on separately, but it was awesome. Loved it - one of the most powerful ever, esp the Priesthood session and the Sunday afternoon session. I literally shouted "I was RIGHT!" when Elder Christofferson said that the "rules have changed" in economic, political and social arenas and that we can't look to the past to predict the future. I have been telling the hubster that for months - not only have the rules changed, but I think the entire game has changed.....nice to have some "validation" on an opinion/feeling that flies in the face of what the experts are saying (like "ride it out, we always recover", etc....)

So - have a great week!! Hope all our friends and family are well.