Buy cheap diapers? Matthew'll take care of it. . .

I am Boy.

Hello from Mississippi

My sister was chastising me for not putting more pictures on the blog, so here are a few from the past couple months.















This was on the hotel bed in Tulsa. Reflective of their personalities--Benjamin with a big smile, William looking tentative, trying to figure things out.
















Another shot of Will's typical face, but this one really displays his chub. He now weighs 17 lbs!
















Benjamin with a special blankie wrapped oh-so-stylishly around his neck. He did this himself, which, to me, strongly suggests his artistic flair.

(video missing)
This video is for Keri. William is in that brief cooing stage of talking. So sweet!

An Every Day Day

My mother said she enjoys the "every day" posts about our lives, so as yesterday was a typical day when we're at home, I thought I'd take a few photos. Due to the Hurricane Ike, Austin had lots of crazy wind (but that's it), which brought everyone in the neighborhood outside, and they played hard. Jackson usually has a "quiet time" in his room from about 1-3, but he was having so much fun w/Jacob I let him play through it while Harry napped. I even took several videos of the neighborhood kids, only to discover that the cover on the lens never opened, which happens a lot. It's getting about time for a new camera. I did housework, cooked, talked to the neighbor moms, and read, while Matthew worked in his office here at home. Typical day.

Then to distract Jackson from his heat headache & all the bruises and scrapes he'd received (which made for bathtime trauma - the water touched him!), we let them watch a movie until bedtime. Okay, so this isn't a "typical" activity, but I thought it captured where they are right now - Jackson zoned in, Harry interacting. . .

(video missing)
How I wish our "every day" lives involved all of you!
With love from a still very hot Austin,
Ruthie

recent deliberations on trees horizontal

With the onset of the hurricane season here in AR, preparations must to made. Some provisions must be hauled in in advance of hordes of LA evacuees. They are much more sophisticated now compared to the 2005 rookies. They now leave N.O. with their cell phones ringing up assistance organizations to find out how leaving your below sea level home in NO for safer climes above sea level can be done for fun and profit. NOTE: these are hedging supplies, not speculative supplies.

In addition to food and gas futures, my attention was drawn to two trees in various states of going horizontal. Namely a large pine in the corner of the hayfield which has died and threatens to come under the influence of the first strong wind that shows it any attention. The possibilities are: 1) it falls in my sand trap, 2) it misses the sand but crushes the fence that backstops the grassy noll short game emporium, 3) in falls in pieces over weeks as a constant danger to all golfers in the area, 4) a strong gust topples it into the ravine. 1-3 are likely and disastrous. Option 4 is a fried snowball.

As Josh look at the problem and signed off as above his pay grade, Matt and I knew it must be easy. On my second hammer throw I but the rope over a high limb and secured it. This was affixed by a propiatory system to ane immovable object. falling notches were cut, tension applied proprietarily, and the back cut to direct the tree into the gully was applied. [truth in reporting requires that i mention that while Josh was tucking his head between his leg he did suggest we remove small tree A so the big tree could fall into the gulley. We did this and no tree A was in the path of the big pine falling into the gulley. Alas and alack!! there still wasn't room even with tree A gone. The big pine wedged into tree B were we set on it with an adaptation of the propritory system. This broke of the top of tree B and flipped the large pine into tree C. Tree C had not been thought to be in any danger.

We hooked up the tractor directly to the large pine and thus indirectly to tree C. This is the position called in textbooks the tire hole configuration. Matt never actually got the tractor stuck, but he was low on diesel fuel.

after Matt tucked tail and ran off, Sarah and I hooked up the truck in 4 wheel drive and pull the tree out of the others and onto the ground.

I haven't started cutting it up yet and Gustaf winds arrived. In addition to a limb over the little house knocking the chemney off and rubbing a hole in the roof that you could see into the atic, the persimmon tree formerly in the sheltered NW corner of the tractor shed was hit by winds circular from the NW and uprooted diagonally over the tractor shed wtih the tractor and the zero turn TANK right under it.

we now have a large pine gone horizontal in the back, a semihorizontal persimmon at the tractor shed, a hole in the roof and 2" of water in the basement. We should be bailing water, patching roofs, and bracing up the tractor shed. What we are doing is filling complaints with LA representatives for federal monies. I AM A VICTIM. BB

Harry Has Two Mommies

Harry is closing in on two years, and he still calls me "Mama." I've tried to work with him, but to no avail. Every now and then he'll throw a "Da-da" out there, and I always seize the opportunity for positive reinforcement: "That's great, Harry! Yes, I'm your Daddy! You know how to say 'Daddy'!" Without fail, he responds to this by smiling and going immediately back to calling me Mama. I've not been too bothered by this, but I can't say that I've not been looking forward to his growing out of it.

Then it occurred to me, this might be the silver bullet I've been looking for. An aspiring academic with the intrinsically conservative nature that I have has to be concerned about preemptively shutting doors to employment and/or tenure--particularly when your dissertation might be described (not altogether inaptly) as neo-Thomist. What I need is some kind of credential to diffuse the impact of a search committee encountering publications on my CV like "A Teleological Defense of Sarah Palin's Acceptance Speech" or "A Natural Lawyer's 5-Step Plan for Eradicating Liberalism and Incarcerating Its Leaders." (I, of course, would publish no such thing, but for many academics, what I do end up publishing might as well be thusly titled.) So what I need to lead off with, as the infantile genius of Master Harry has made clear to me, is "Harry Has Two Mommies: Ambiguous Ethical and Political Identities of the Postmodern Parent." As long as it doesn't appear in The Intercollegiate Studies Review or Focus on the Family Magazine, I think I'm golden.

While Josh & Emily were fighting for the safety of their home yesterday, we were fighting the crowds at Schlitterbahn with our friends and neighbors Chuck & Betsy.


But we were thinking of you guys, I promise. :)