I watched the RNC last night.  I was looking forward to hearing Sarah Palin.  I must admit that I was not disappointed.  She definitely has grit and will prove to be a capable candidate (did you hear her rip on Obama?).

After listening to her speak, you could understand why McCain chose her as his running mate.  She, unlike a male running mate, can attack Obama without being considered a racist.  She is, after all, a minority herself.  

With all of that said, however, I still have my reservations.  I don't care what anyone says, her family life will suffer if she is elected VP.  There are countless statistics that show how important the role of mom is to a young child.  A father, although he is also vitally important to the rearing of children (in a DIFFERENT capacity), is not an appropriate substitute to mom's role in the family.

Maybe Sarah needs to give me some organizational pointers on how she runs her family so effectively and also takes on the role as governor.  I'm lucky if I can get 2 loads of laundry and the kitchen cleaned in a day.  Theodore alone takes up much of my day.  I spend most of it feeling like a glorified milking cow. 

Can a woman work outside of the home and raise her family?  Of course it is possible.  But let's not sugar coat one important fact:  it is a very difficult thing to do and highly stressful!  And that is just your "average" mom in an "average" working environment...not VP of the USA!  Don't be fooled to think it won't affect her family life.  Conservative talk shows today are going nuts over her and buying into the watered down feminist ideals, making it palatable to their conservative tastes.  There is a time and a place for everything.  A woman can certainly have her successful career and a family, just maybe not at the same time. 

Am I pumped up about Sarah Palin as McCain's Veep pick?  I'm not so sure.

I've been trying to put my finger on why this choice hasn't just made me as happy as some others are about the VP nomination.  This is what I've come up with so far.

Ever since I've become interested in politics and current affairs, I've never had a high opinion of John "Maverick" McCain.  I don't trust him.  He doesn't just reach across the political isle, he goes all the way over and camps out there.  What is perceived as cutting edge politics to him is lukewarm conservativism to me. 

His pick of Palin is another such example.  The Democrats weren't bold enough to choose a female VP, but Maverick McCain is!  It bothers me that if McCain becomes president the next two in line for the presidency are females (Palin then Pelosi).

Why does this bother me so much?  I guess I see the pick as a watered down version of feminism.  Does it benefit women that stay at home with their children by having these women in such high offices?  I think not.  Call me old-fashioned, but it goes against the grain.  Those of us that choose to stay at home already get the "second class citizen" glares.  We are not "strong" like the other women that have their kids AND work outside of the home.

I believe firmly that there is a price to pay for women that work outside of the home when they don't have to.  I've been in a position where I've had to do it and I can see how it has affected my oldest daughter.  She had to grow up too quickly.

The bottom line is this.  There were plenty of capable and better choices for McCain's VP that were men.  (I personally lamented hearing Fred Thompson last night giving his speech at the RNC).  He would've been a great pick...although probably a better presidential choice, in my humble opinion.

I'm going to listen to Palin's speech tonight.  I want to like her.  I think she has a good political record.  I'm just not excited about her being the VP nominee.

We always have a story to tell after a trip out of town.  This time is no exception.

We traveled down to Paul's home town to say good-bye to Paul's friend, Henrik, who passed away last weekend after a long struggle with a brain tumor.  The funeral went well given the untimely death.

We had experienced some difficulty with our van right before our trip.  We took it in and had it repaired and ready to go.  On the way to our destination, however, we had increasing car troubles.  The van kept stalling at red lights and was driving rough.  My only prayer was that we could make it into Pittsburg safely.  My poor stomach was in knots the entire ride down (the kids were not behaving very well in addition to the van woes).  God answered my prayers and I was glad of that.  The bad news was that it looked like our transmission had gone out.  We couldn't drive it one mile more.  The cost to rebuild the transmission was not worth the cost of the vehicle.

After the funeral we immediately went looking for a new ride.  We ended up having the van towed during the night to the car dealer where we spotted a Suburban we liked.  We thought it would look bad having the van towed in broad daylight.

To make a very long story short, we ended up purchasing the Suburban after much dickering with the "pesky" car salesman, countless calls to other dealers in the area, and a trip to another dealer to check out a different vehicle.  The salesmen had us and they knew it.  Oh well, I guess they did us a favor by taking the van off of our hands.

The trip back was much more enjoyable.  The kids had more room so we were able to switch up seating arrangements.  We actually were able to laugh about our adventure.  Twenty years from now it will be a great family story.

Many thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law who watched the kids for us while we were trying to make quick decisions.  Without her help it would have been a much more difficult situation.

So now we are proud owners of a gas hungry Suburban with tons of space and no doubt will make mince meat out of any deer that tries to get in our path!  I can just feel my carbon footprint growing bigger by the minute!

This past weekend we were invited to a wedding and reception.  Paul and I took Theodore with us and Susan babysat Lizzy and Martin.  Plenty of time to get ready...in my own little happy world.  We got out the door on time and arrived at the church 20 minutes before 4 pm.  Funny, though, everyone was LEAVING the church instead of ENTERING the church.  It turns out that I read the time of the church service wrong.  I thought the wedding was at 4.  The wedding was at 3.  WAY TO GO, AMY!

Hey, at least we made it to the reception!

Paul and I had to go run some errands this morning.  We are starting to look at a bigger van (still in the very preliminary stage) for our "huge family" so we decided to drive through the car lot where we bought our van to see what they had. 

When we bought our current van we learned a lot about the car buying experience.  We mostly learned that we hated it.  I think it ranks right up there with getting teeth pulled (although the laughing gas is not so bad!).  Anyway, as we were pulling onto the lot we saw two salesmen standing at the entrance.  I quickly advised Paul, "Don't make eye contact!"  As we made a quick roll through the dealer's lot we could see those pesky car salesmen heading straight for us in their revved up golf cart...they don't even hunt you down on foot anymore!  "DON"T MAKE EYE CONTACT!" I said. 

I think Seinfeld should have had an episode on used car salesmen.  This was our Seinfeld moment...anyone else want to share theirs?

It has been a busy week getting the girls back into the school routine.  Now it is just me and the boys at home.  Poor Martin keeps asking how many more days it will be before he gets to go to school.  Because his birthday is in October, he will have two more years at home with me.

Theodore is really walking now and getting into EVERYTHING!  He is also trying to master his climbing skills.  My world revolves around picking up blocks, pots, pans, and anything else he decides to put his little hands on.  It's hectic, but fun.

I'd really like to start working on a good and effective cleaning schedule now.  It's so hard when you have little ones.  Paul and I are beginning to tackle our basement and get it straightened up.  We worked on it this past Monday (his day off) and made some really good progress.

Ahhh, the life of a housewife and stay-at-home mom!  Gotta love it!

I can tell it is getting close to school.  Time for dental check-ups and eye exams!  Martin got his teeth cleaned for the first time yesterday.  He was so brave!  He came in while I was having my teeth cleaned and decided he would try it.  He got a cool pair of sunglasses to sport.  For some strange reason, though, he does not want to take them out of the package and use them...he is content to just carry them around.  He said he will open the package up tomorrow.

Elizabeth and Susan both had eye exams.  It seems that Susan needs reading glasses.  We got her some almost two years ago and she destroyed them.  I hope she shows a little more responsibility with this new pair. 

Elizabeth had her eyes checked for the first time.  She doesn't need glasses and said that she liked going to the eye doctor.  She had to get her pupils dilated.  When she was talking about it later that day she said that she had her "peep holes" dilated.  It was too cute!

Today we will register Susan for school at the new Jr. high she will be attending.  Another school district combined with ours due to low student numbers.  Our Jr. high students will go to their facility and their high school student will come to ours.  I hope it will work out well.  There are benefits to this agreement like better curriculum, better hours for extra-curricular activities, increased friend choices, etc.  The only downside is transportation.  Now Susan and Elizabeth will be at different schools and they need to be at school at different times.  Susan will be transported via bus, but we still have to get her to the pick up sight where all of the town kids need to meet.  I'm sure it will work out.

 

Everywhere I turn my eyes are met with sexual advertisements.  I can't watch television without a Cialis commercial popping up (no punn intended).  I open up my Real Simple magazine to get tips on organization and a girl advertising Olay body wash with a slim ribbon covering her essentials pops out at me.  Greenpeace has a new ad that shows tree branches caressing knobby parts of the trunk.

It is so frustrating!  Products that have nothing to do with sex weave it into their commercials and advertisements.  Why?  Because sex sells!  The subliminial message is if you buy this you will be sexier, thus, more appealing to those around you. 

I know I'm not coming up with anything new here but I just had to have a quick rant about it.  I don't like it one bit.

Theodore has officially entered toddler phase of development.  Today he walked about 7 feet without holding on to anything!  Now the fun begins.  Last week he mastered the art of clapping and waving hello and good-bye.  Last night he decided blowing kisses was so much fun!

What a great time in little Theo's life...I'm blessed to be a part of it. 

Now, I just need to stock up on Neo-to-Go for all of the bumps and scrapes he will encounter!

I took Corky into the vet last week after our vacation.  He was having some obvious itching problems and wasn't acting like himself.  It seems that he had some sort of allergy.  My gut feeling is that it was the new dog shampoo I was trying.  He had scratched himself raw in some places and he looked pathetic.  A staph infection had also developed, due to the itching.  This was probably why he wasn't acting his normal chipper self.

Fortunately, they gave his some anti-itch meds and some antibiotics.  I also got some special shampoo to help with the skin problem.  I bathed him today and he was so sad looking.  It's funny to see a pomeranian with wet hair, it makes them look really skinny.  He avoided me for a little while after the bathing experience, as is his custom.

Hopefully he is on the mend, and Ang, don't feel bad--you did nothing wrong, I just had to write about poor Corky!