Black Cat

No actually, she's one of the sweetest cats I've met; she's our newest feline visitor, and of course Mary-Chander (a/k/a Queen of the Literal) named her Black Cat.

The Queen turns Six

Lots of squealy, giggly, girls having fun and surrounding the Pooh Bear birthday queen.

I once read a well-written column about a little girl's birthday party, and finally we have reached the age where it came together for me. The scene was laid that as each new guest arrived, the party girls would squeal with delight and run out to the car and meet them, not even waiting for the car to park or the guest to get out, and the little guest would have such joy on their faces to be so well-received. Then the comparison was made to Heaven, and how it must be to arrive there and everyone completely overjoyed to see you. I read that idea long before I had children and it never left me. Now I have perfect imagery as a companion to that theory.

Road Trip/Boy Time

So, the one good thing about Kent traveling like a madman all year is that he accrues enough frequent flier miles & hotel points for some fun trips. Two years ago he took Mary-Chandler to Denver when she was four, last year Kent & I went to Maine & Canada, and this year Kent took Christopher to Phoenix for a 3 day weekend:


He's a natural traveler!

Visiting the "Hall of Flame" museum!

Diamondbacks/Phillies baseball game (televised on ESPN & we can see them on the video!)

Lemonade, that cool refreshing drink..

We had our 'Lemon-AID" stand on Labor Day, and did well and had lots of fun for a good cause (Katrina relief). The kids understood that we were selling lemonade to help the people who had the big wind. They were so cute holding out their signs to the passing cars.

Christopher, who knows all makes & models of automobiles, would yell, "Stop, Honda! Stop, Lexus! Stop, Toyota!" and Mary-Chandler would call, "Maybe they need some relief!" They were a hoot.

And what's up with people? Cute little tots are having a lemonade stand and you don't stop? Hello?! I stop at every lemonade stand I see, and ours was even for disaster relief. I couldn't believe how many people didn't stop. Two days later some kids had a stand with high-priced, bad-tasting pink lemonade, and by gum we stopped and bought 3 cups!

And here's a little lesson on the diversity of people in our great nation:
The lemonade is 25-cents,
1st Customer: hands me a dollar and waits for her 3 quarters back;
2nd Customer: hands me a hundred dollar bill and says "keep it"

So much to tell ya, so little time.

The Queen reigns supreme in Kindergarten: She's doing great, and I miss her like crazy but happy for her. Cliche, cliche I am.

So.
We have a little horror show in America this week called Katrina. I wonder if Stephen King is reminded of his novel "The Stand" as much as I have been as I read about and view this nightmare. The kids & I are having a lemon-AID stand tomorrow to donate $$ to hurricane relief. They understand that some people don't have houses or food because of a big wind, and God would want us to help them. That's the plan, and I'll let you know how it goes. (We're piggybacking on a youth group car wash, so I hope we run completely out of lemonade!)

Boys' Road Trip to Phoenix, The Queen Turns Six, Christopher's Trip to the ER (once again: boys!) are our team's coming attractions. Too pooped to post all that now. How Americans continually run on all this fatigue is unsettling. I fantasize about more sleep!