Passwords

I am going to be posting in some detail about some of the happenings at church, and to protect the innocent (or guilty) I am going to password protect those posts. If you want the password, e-mail me at laurie at fields-halva . org and I will send it on. Thanks!

Edited: It looks like I can't protect individual posts on blogger, so I am either going to start a new blog or password protect everything on this one. I'm not sure yet - but dinner is almost done grilling now, so I'm going to eat and then decide later tonight. I will post an update here when I decide - and if I password protect this one I'll wait a few days before doing so to give folks a chance to ask for the password if they so desire.

State Fair

We went to the State Fair today - lots of fun. C and M both had lots of fun seeing all the animals - horses, cows, chickens, roosters, pigs, goats, sheep. They got to ride ponies and go through a really neat kids exhibit learning about what happens on a farm - feeding and milking a (fake) cow, planting seeds and harvesting veggies, feeding a sheep and getting wool, and getting eggs from chickens. M. had a great time with that one - C. is a bit young yet but had fun following M and doing everything she did. They had a display with pictures of different crops and you were supposed to guess what plant each was and then lift up to see if you were right - M got about 7 out of 10 right - I was pretty impressed by that.
The last highlight was going down the giant slide with Dad - M. was big enough to ride by herself, so W. took C. on his lap. I took the following pictures on my iPhone with no zoom, so you can't see much, but they had a blast. C. kept saying after, "Dada, SLIDE!" over and over with a big grin.Walking up all the steps - W. is wearing a grey shirt and carrying C. and the blankets for them to sit on.
Coming down - M. is near the bottom, W and C a bit higher up.
At the bottom - you can't really see the smiles, but they were grinning from ear to ear....

grrrr

More crap going on at W's church. When will adults learn to act like adults? Probably never.....
I'll post more later - it's time to sleep now.

"Pretty"

So, I had an interesting time at church this morning. I should start by saying I am only at W's church about 1/2 of the time now - through December probably I am preaching at other churches 2 Sundays a month. And lots of people that I saw this morning hadn't seen me in awhile - they were at church the Sundays I was preaching elsewhere this summer, and on vacation when I was there. But about 10 or 12 people came up to me and commented on how pretty I looked today. It kind of took me by surprise. I mean, I don't honestly remember anyone commenting specifically on my looks at this church before - except for when it became obvious I was pregnant with C. and I got some comments about my cute baby belly. That was different. This was, hmmm..... hard to describe.
I should say that these comments all came from presumably straight women - it wasn't a sexual thing. It was just interesting. And brought up how many issues I still have about my looks. I have learned to just smile and say thank you when someone compliments me (this took a lot of learning on my part - ) but I still wonder to myself - do I really look that nice?
I remember back to junior high and high school when I would literally (unconsciously) hide under big sweaters and such. I remember in college, literally bawling when W. told me that he thought I was beautiful - I had never seen that in myself before he said it. (I also never dated anyone other than W. - so it's not like I had lots of negative input from previous significant others - I was just always the brain with no romantic social life). As an adult, I have worked hard to become comfortable in my own body - to love my self and to present my self in a way that is both comfortable and attractive. So why does it throw me when others notice?
I have been thinking about all this from another angle as I have been working on getting fall and winter clothes ready for M. and C. If I haven't mentioned it before, M and C are both tall - really tall. M. is in size 7/8 tops this winter - which means I now have to shop for her in the girls 7-14 department - which has been a real challenge so far. I don't consider myself a prude or anything - but most of the clothes in the girls 7-14 department look like they belong on middle schoolers - not a preschooler. I mean, she's not even in kindergarten yet. I am not going to allow her to dress like a pre-teenager. So, finding clothes for M. is proving a challenge. I keep saying this is why I sew - I am making her several tops that are (hopefully) cute and age-appropriate and not going to be midriff showing in January. And I want her to feel comfortable in her clothes - in her skin. I want her to grow up knowing how beautiful she is.
In other general life news, fall is here even though I am not ready. M's dance class starts tomorrow. Her preschool started last week. I think we have made a good choice for her this year - she came home from preschool on Thursday talking a million miles a minute about everything they did, with great enthusiam. Always a good sign. C. is now out of diapers during the day and doing quite well - never let it be said that she is not determined. C. is also really talking now. W. made the comment the other day that if there were a conversation balloon over C's head, everything in it would be in all caps with multiple exclamation points. And he's right - no shortage of enthusiam in C. either.
And now, it's time for bed for the munchkins. 'Til later.....