Praise The Lord!

First, for getting us to and from Florida safely. That's no small feat for sure. Second, for bringing our neck of the woods some much needed rain. Of course it was short-lived but thanks are in order nonetheless. I don't have much time at all but I wanted to at least let you all know that we are alive and well. We don't have many pictures on our camera from the trip because the battery died about two days into our stay. We didn't have a cord to recharge (we normally recharge on the printer dock but we'll have to look into purchasing a more travel-friendly cord) but never fear, Peepaparrazi was with us and has taken like 200+ pics, many of them of me at unflattering angles. He seriously gets a kick out of that!

Ugh, vacation was nice but being away from home and all its responsibilities for 9 days makes it almost not worth it. There was literally a mailbox full of mail that had been held by the postman, dead flowers in the flower boxes and beds, and emails galore with info that needs immediate attention. Plus, the kids are rundown completely... at times they are not even rational (surprise, I know.) Our vacation included 7 days packed full of water-related activities in one form or another with late bedtimes and early Eastern-time-zone mornings galore but our kids still refused to compensate for this lack of rest/sleep. Crabman slept a grand total of 15 minutes on our 11-hour ride home (that's less than me) while Ricky Bobby slept none (as expected.) Crabman is napping as I type while Ricky Bobby continues his summer tour of playdates. And yes, Stacie, I am tan (and also currently blonde) but I'm exhausted so I'd say the dark undercircles counter the glowing bronze of a fresh Florida tan. Don't be jealous. :)

Okay, I do have so many blogging-related thoughts on my mind though but really must be brief. First, the college minister at our church lost a daughter while we were in Florida. Apparently she had some heart issues at birth and died during surgery. I believe these issues were expected but as we all know, that doesn't make them any easier. We're praying for their family and grieve with them as best we can.

Now there's no way to eloquently segueway into random news articles so forgive me for abruptly shifting gears. I do want to mention that you should vote for John McCain just because of this. (Well, and this.) The answer to all of our energy problems is not offshore or ANWAR drilling (though I don't particularly see the harm)...it's finding a new way to power a car, period. Solar and wind energy seems to me to be the logical course of action but grossly more efficient car components are a start. Running a car on water, especially salt water, seems incredibly short-sighted in my humble opinion. I mean, man does not live on gasoline alone but water is a whole different situation. I don't want to power my relatively unnecessary car on a vital element of life. Besides, Plumberboy is sick of me yelling "it's the cars, stupid!" at the TV every time they report on gas prices. Regardless, hunker down for long-term pump woes because the issues here are a lot more complex than Neal Cavuto wants to admit.

Okay, here's my vote for parents of the year.

File this under "I told you so." (See exhibit A). Stacie missed Ian's blog that linked to this article because she refused to participate in Day 8's suggested reading but I'll forgive her because she's the only one who commented while I was gone.

Lastly, I am so glad to hear that the so-called pregnancy pact didn't really exist and in reality the Gloucester girls acted independently in getting knocked up by homeless men. Whew! (PS: I thought those sort of things only happened in Nantucket!)