Who is coming to the Film Festival this year? It’s only 10 days away!
The festival will include the Duggar family, whom I would love to meet. I may have to fight my way through the crowds, though, because I suspect I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Charlie Zahm will be back this year as well. Our entire family really enjoyed their performances last year, although 4yo Becca was a little bothered by Mr. Zahm’s kilt.
I would love to orchestrate a little Meet for a Mocha session among my internet friends and acquaintances. Is anyone up for that? Maybe Friday afternoon, October 20th?

We’re back, we’re back, we’re back!
We had a lovely trip and saw lots of people we love and missed, but it is sooo good to be home.
The house is messy and stuffy and smelly, and puppies pooped a lot under the deck (anybody want an accidental Golden Retriever/Pit bull pup?). But we had a good night’s sleep in our own beds, and – did you pick up on this already? – it’s good to be home.
We stopped to visit aunts and uncles and cousins in the DFW area, and Hubby took us all on a trip down memory lane before we left the area.
We saw several of the houses he lived in as a child, and heard stories of crawling around inside storm drains, popping up from manhole covers and accidentally scaring elderly ladies.
We stopped at the church where Hubby and I first met, at the age of 12, and had our 13yo take pictures of us on the front steps.
We visited his grandparents’ old home. He introduced us to each of the trees in the backyard and told us about the trees that were missing. He told us about the TV antenna he and his brothers used to shimmy up so they could run around on the roof, and how his grandfather would hear them and yell at them to get down. He told us how his grandmother used to roll his grandfather outside into the yard on a dining room chair so he could roll up and down the rows of his garden, weeding and raking from that chair. His long arms and huge hands had no trouble reaching the ground.
We arrived home to find that my own grandparents were already here in town. They were just over the hill, at my parents’ house. Over there, we learned that my grandparents had been to visit Grandpa’s childhood home too, in North Carolina.
He told us that when he was a child, a family showed up claiming to be relatives. To this day, Grandpa has his doubts as to whether they were really family.
They stayed with his family for 6 months, eating their food and living there for free. While they were there, they built an addition to the family home so that they had more room to live in. This was their sole contribution to the household.
Finally, the time came for them to leave. In parting, the man presented Grandpa’s father with a bill for the contruction of the addition in which he and his family had lived!
The addition still stands just as he remembers it.
The old house is surrounded by a large horse farm now and a huge new house sits up on the hill looking down upon it, but it still looks just as he remembers it except for a quaint little sign: The Old Gray Cottage.

Everyone is at the big football game except me and the two little ones. They had runny noses, so I decided to stay at the house with them.
We’ve been puttering about, packing and cleaning in a leisurely sort of way. We had ice cream together on the front steps and watched the sunset. As I finished my own ice cream, she headed into the house. She stood at the door, poised to swing it shut, and asked me with a merry twinkle in her eye, “I lock you out, Mommy?”
A little later, my 2yo Little Red helped me sort and fold laundry – unlike me, she knows who owns each and every piece of clothing.
While I puttered around some more, she entertained the baby. She talked to him, played with him, kept him happy. Then she brushed past me, announcing that she needed wipes. I gently informed her that no, she didn’t need wipes.
“Momma,” she said a little impatiently, “baby pooped.“
I told her that I would changed the baby in a minute.
A minute later, I found her in the middle of changing the baby. Actually, she was past the middle. She was at the part where you put a new diaper on.
Fortunately, there was no poop involved.
She’s my little buddy. Just a few months ago, she was a baby. There was a nose to wipe, a diaper to change, hair to brush. Now there are conversations and jokes and Q&A sessions. She’s 2 now, and I love it. She’s a real person.

Hal over at the Inundated Calvinist is live blogging the NCFIC national conference taking place in St. Louis. I can’t wait to read the articles since I wasn’t able to attend.

Like I really needed the temptation to spend more time on the computer, Shannon had to go and post a link to this.
My best time so far: 23 seconds.
Can you beat that?

Welcome to the Carnival of Kid Comedy #26, Vacation Edition. Vacation Edition means that I slap together a list of links and my Handy Helpful Readers proofread it for me because I’m on vacation. I hope that sounds like a good plan, cuz it sure works for me.

Rebecca presents Can’t argue with this logic… posted at About Abosolutely Nothing.

Dana presents A new pet…and its demise posted at Principled Discovery – kind of sad, but sweet, too.

Kailani presents Guess Who?s Coming To Dinner? posted at The Pink Diary.

supermom_in_ny presents Snow White, 7 Dwarves and PDD posted at Snow White, 7 Dwarves and PDD.

Ben presents Facing a tantrum posted at Become’s Pocket Change – My son isn?t old enough to go to preschool yet. However, I am already dreading the tantrum that he will throw when we leave him in the care of strangers. That is where these Face shoes will come in.

Denise presents Why am I always the straight man? posted at Let’s play math!.

MGM presents Momma’s Gone Mad!: Doing Some Things Right posted at Momma’s Gone Mad!.
Jack Yoest presents Rite of Passage posted at Jack Yoest- Every civilization has rites of passage. A driver’s license into adulthood. Births, Marriages, Deaths. And a series of firsts. A baby’s first breath, steps, words, teeth…haircut. Forgive the-day-in-the-life of Your Business Blogger. But Baby-Boo just got his first haircut. And he took it like a man.

No Thanks, we have our own from the Bruggie Tales – There is no need to buy dolls of little children sulking with their face towards the wall when you have your own live example.

Daring Young Mom shares some of what Laylee Says

Little Emma in The Greenhouse has something in her throat: Frog, chicken…whatever.

Melissa Always Suspected that Cheery Demeanor Was a Ruse: her daughter has proof that the Pillsbury Doughboy is the devil!

Shannon is Raising Them the Microsoft Way

And our little Rachael made me laugh the other day:

She was sucking her thumb and had the other thumb in her belly button, as
always. She tried to say something to me, but I couldn’t quite make it out. She
repeated it, and I still didn’t catch it. I finally told her, “Honey, take out
your thumb and then say it, so I can understand you.”
She
obligingly took her thumb out of her belly button and repeated it once more,
with her other thumb still firmly wedged in her mouth.

My real-life friend Amy posted this meme. I learned a lot of new things about Amy – she has a few stories to tell the next time I see her!
I like this meme because it reminded me of what an interesting life I’ve led as a SAHM (see, we’re not bored and boring housewives!), but I’m going to cheat and pick-n-choose from it, ignoring the questions I don’t want to answer and adding a few of my own adventures.
I have…

1. Had and held a tarantula
2. Attended a pro football game
3. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
4. Slept under the stars
5. Changed a baby?s diaper
6. Touched a hot air balloon
7. Watched a meteor shower
8. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
9. Thrown spaghetti noodles on the ceiling – and left them there
10. Had a snowball fight
11. Ridden a roller coaster (I live on one now)
12. Gone on a whale-watching cruise (but didn’t see any whales)
13. Taken a road-trip
14. Milked a goat
15. Alphabetized your CDs
16. Gone to a drive-in theater
17. Taken a martial arts class (for a year between our 3rd and 4th children)
18. Gotten married
19. Gone without food for 5 days
20. Made cookies from scratch
21. Visited Mexico and Canada
22. Churned butter
23. Got flowers for no reason
24. Performed on stage
25. Eaten shark, squid, octopus and alligator
26. Sang loudly in the car, and didn?t stop when I knew someone was looking
27. Had a near-death experience
28. Piloted an airplane (well, I briefly steered an ultralight for the pilot)
29. Helped an animal give birth
30. Buried a child
31. Broken a bone
32. Had a body part of mine below the neck pierced
33. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
34. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
35. Ridden a horse
36. Eaten sushi
37. Passed out cold
38. Had my picture in the newspaper
39. Eaten fried green tomatoes
40. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
41. Caused a car accident
42. Driven a Bobcat
43. Climbed a mountain
44. Ridden a train
45. Eaten at the top of the Seattle Space Needle
46. Ridden a motorcycle
47. Given birth – outside
48. Held my breath for 2 minutes
49. Done a brake job on a vehicle
50. Started a business

What about you? What is the most interesting thing you’ve ever done? Or your top 10? Comment, or leave a link and post about it. Let’s learn a few fun things about each other!

I’m missing my internet friends, but maybe I’ll feel better when I get to mirl 2 friends this week! In the meantime, be sure to send in your contributions to this week’s Carnival of Kid Comedy.
And if you haven’t entered your guess in the contest yet, don’t put it off too long – the fun ends October 6. Remember, if you post about the contest on your blog you can also enter the drawing. There are relatively few entries for a contest with prizes of this size so anyone has a good chance of winning!

My sister did it – she said, “I do” to Mike Walker of Royal Ruckus semi-fame. We are now a celebrity family.
Pictures to follow, especially if I can find someone who caught the Anglican bishop and his wife showing their moves on the dance floor. Those Anglicans sure can dance!

MEMORABLE QUOTES:

As I watched my soon-to-be brother-in-law gaze deep into my sister’s eyes as he said his vows to her, our 6yo elbowed me and whispered with that ever-present glint in her eye, “You can tell that he wants to kiss her RIGHT NOW.”

During a string of touching and mushy toasts, our dad announced, with a tear in his eye and lump in his throat, “This is 5 down, 5 to go. I’m halfway through unloading all my daughters.”