Most of you know my politics. I don't mention too much about it on here, because I talk about it so much in my every day life. In fact, my first conversation with Alex this morning was an effort to explain the purpose of a primary election.

Politics aside, I whole-heartidly support what our armed forces are doing around the world to protect us. My Grandpa Rogers was a WWII vet and I was raised with a huge amount of respect for what soldiers and their families do. My father in law was a Marine. I get choked up when I hear the Star Spangled banner or I see soldiers waiting in line at McDonald's. I can't help it. I'm a sap.

I'm not sure whether or not going to Iraq was the right decision, but I can't imagine having to make that decision, so who am I to second guess? I do wish our soldiers didn't have to be in harm's way and I think about their sacrifice every day. I am so proud of all the men and women fighting to keep us safe, comfortable, and free. One man in particular gets most of our prayers.

Jennifer's cousin Tim is back in Iraq for another tour of duty. I've known Tim longer than I've known Geeg. He moved away when we were small, but he was such a part of my early years that I've always considered him a good friend. The war got a lot scarier for me when I knew Tim was over there and could be hurt. I think about him a great deal and our kids and I pray for his safe return every day.

Alex wanted to do something to help Tim during his deployment. I thought a care package might be a great way to help Alex help Tim. Jennifer helped us get a list of things Tim might like to have and she gave us his incredibly long mailing address. I would be the worst mailman ever if I had to deliver to those kinds of addresses! I thought it would be a great lesson in patriotism and appreciation for the kids, but it quickly became so much more.

Alex asks about "our friend the solider" and whether or not he's okay. I try to be careful about having the news turned too loud in the van or on while I'm fixing dinner because I don't want to burden his little heart with worry. At the same time, it's important he know the sacrifice so many willingly make to keep our country free and safe. While I'm scared for Tim and his family, I'm also so incredibly proud of his service!

It's official, I've lost my mind.

Last night as I was flipping through channels trying to find something to watch, I briefly landed on HSN. Cringe. The Home Shopping Network. If you know me, you know I don't have any fashion sense to speak of, but I do know hip clothes are most likely not offered on a home shopping channel. I couldn't help stopping because they were showing a really cute skirt. I had to look for a number of reasons.

• It was black.
• It was A-line.
• They said it was "swirly."

If I could, I would base my entire wardrobe around those three requirements. In fact, I have. When we did the great closet make-over, I realized I was prepared for a funeral at a moment's notice. All but three of my dresses are black. One is brown, one is seersucker, and one is only appropriate for a lual or a Jimmy Buffet concert.

Now, I wasn't about to pick up the phone and order a skirt. I'm not there yet, but I was willing to trapse downstairs and order it on-line. I found the skirt right away and had second thoughts. Upon closer inspection, it had some weird gauzy layer over it. Then, I started to add in shipping cost and tax and realized I was about to pay a hefty sum for a skirt I saw on TV. Had it really come to this?

I didn't order the skirt. However, I did order another black dress. It was on sale, it has sleeves, and Lord knows my arms need to be hidden. I'll let you know whether or not my first HSN purchase results in my first HSN return.

In complete fairness, I can't help myself. This is a genetic issue. My Grandma Berger is an avid reader and watches very little, if any TV. The one thing she apparently does watch occassionally is QVC. Grandma has given the kids some great gifts that came from QVC, so maybe she's on to something. My own mother has been known to order things from infomercials. Remember Caruso Culers?! We had them. So, I take no responsibility for my latest purchase.

Good News for Babies!

I was so touched that several of you were moved by the story of my friends Robyn and Keith and their sweet girls, and chose to contribute to their walk team for the March of Dimes. For those of you whom don't know the family, or might not yet have heard the great news from Robyn, I wanted to give you an update. The A-Team raised the most money of any team at their March for Babies. The team raised over $7,000! Once upon a time I worked for a non-profit organizing similar walks, and let me tell you that's an incredible amount!

Robyn and Keith also served as the Ambassador Family for the walk and bravely took the microphone to share their story. I know it wasn't easy and I prayed for their strength all week. From what I hear, they did an amazing job and I am so proud of them! I know their girls are too.

So, thank you to those of you who prayed for their family and contributed to their walk team. You didn't just help save babies, you helped Robyn and Keith feel supported and loved and that means so much to so many.

Weekend Update, Like SNL only not as funny!

Soccer season is here. Our entire weekend was devoted to the game. Truly, I don’t mind and I even enjoy it.
Wait. Actually, that’s not true. The enjoyment part is; the part about our entire weekend isn’t. Friday night we had pizza at Monical’s. Yep. As in thin, crispy crust, Sweet & Tangy dressing, Monical’s. Evidently, they plan to take over the Midwestern pizza market. Jill C., are you paying attention?! They just added half a dozen locations around here, and I was thrilled. It isn’t Joe’s, but it was yummy! We ordered “The Family Pleaser,” which I remember being fed a number of times in my formative years. The salad was HUGE, and Brandon was surprised by it’s size. I explained to him the Family Pleaser had to feed families like the Kochers, Ochs, or Zubers and they weren’t small families.

So, back to soccer. Saturday, we had team pictures before our game. They take them at our enormous high school and kids and parents are wall to wall. It’s pretty well organized, but still it’s a crowd. After pictures, we had an afternoon game. Alex paid attention, somewhat. Still an improvement over last year. We had another game Sunday afternoon, which is a rarity. The day was so pretty. I was just thankful to have a credible excuse to be outside, rather than in my house trying to put it back into order. I’m losing the battle.

Right before the game on Sunday, I did a maternity shoot for Amy H.. I met Amy years ago when we both worked at Delta Faucet. We were pregnant with our first borns at the same time. This is baby number three for the Hommell’s and since she assures me it’s her last, we decided to snap a few belly shots. Amy’s an artist and is incredibly visual, so I was a little nervous.

Hmmmm...Have you seen this pose before? Hey, if it ain't broke...

Part of our weekend was devoted to our van. Here’s a little history on my vehicle. I didn’t want it. Before we had “Vanado,” as I call it--largely to annoy Brandon; we had an Expedition. I loved the Expedition, when it worked. It was brand new when we got it, but it ran like it had 200,000 miles on it. Among it’s tricks: starting itself…without keys…in our garage…on Halloween. It had to go. It made the most financial sense to buy a minivan. My brain knew it was the right thing to do, but I had to convince the rest of me. I could have bigger problems. So, I’ve driven it for six years and only grumbled about it once or twice a week. I will admit the automatic doors are wonderful. The only other feature I like is that it’s paid for.

My plan was to keep Vanado around for two more years. We have around 80,000 miles on it, which with in my mother’s book, is nothing. However, lately I’ve started to spend more time than I care to with our service advisor. On top of that, our friends who have virtually the same van lost their transmission at 100,000. From everything I’ve read, if your vehicle is paid for, you’re still better off spending money on occasional (in our case, every-other-month) repairs. Again, my head agrees, but my rear really wants to sit in the driver’s seat of a slightly used Yukon Denali, or something similar…I’m not that picky.

All the discussion sparked a cleaning frenzy in Brandon. He spent hours cleaning our van. I’m not sure if it was by order of the health department, an effort to help me tolerate the van, or in preparation to sell it. Truthfully, it doesn’t matter. It’s clean. I would be hard pressed to find a goldfish or a straw wrapper. God bless him!

The Phone is Ringing

Alex has started getting phone calls. It’s always interesting to hear Alex on the phone because he’d rather get a flu shot than have a phone conversation. He has never like to talk on the phone, and I usually have to bribe him. When he does finally get on the horn, it’s a lot of one word answers; which he gets honestly. A phone conversation with Brandon goes like this: Me: “How was your day?” Brandon: “Busy.” Me: “Tell me about what you did.” Brandon: “Meetings.” A phone conversation with Alex is very similar.

So, when his friends call it’s much of the same, but it usually involves the two of them making arrangements for a playdate. Alex’s little friend Brenton called Monday to remind me he would really like to come over. The poor kid asks me every week at school and I always give some vague answer because I’m busy with the other 20 kids. Naturally, I couldn’t turn him down, so we decided Wednesday would be the day.

Meredith and I picked up Alex and our bonus boy for the day. I told them I thought it would be fun to pick up McDonald’s and have a picnic at the park. Oh no. They were “way too hot for that!” We compromised. We ate inside McDonald’s and went to the park afterwards. We lasted 20 minutes because of an early litter of wasps and the heat. It’s only April.

I took all three kids into Best Buy in search of a Wii for the Alexanders. No such luck, but Brenton said, “Wow! You’re buying a Wii for your friend?! I don’t have a Wii.” Nice try. I explained I was only the mule, they would pay me back, and his hopes were dashed. We also went to PetsMart to look at fish. Alex is desperate for a fish tank, and I’m desperate to avoid cleaning one, so I try to ignore the subject all together.

When we got home, I showed the boys how to make green slime. (Recipe courtesy of my friend JoEllen; the world’s most patient mother!) Alex and I make it occasionally, but Brenton was shocked, horrified, and then thrilled with his creation. He took a huge chunk home along with a note explaining what on earth it was.

We had soccer practice and then a scrimmage and didn’t get home until almost 7:30 p.m. It would have been earlier, but Alex was rewarded for his best game ever—even if it was a scrimmage—with a milk shake. For the first time ever, Alex looked like he was in the game for more than the jersey, the snack, and the trophy! We have pictures and two games this weekend, so we’ll see how long our enthusiasm lasts.

Happy Birthday Beaks!

At one point in time, Sara lobbied for today’s date to be a national holiday, but that was before she turned 21. (That was a birthday to remember!) Today is Sara Beckman Alexander’s birthday, so she gets a post of her own.

The first time I met Sara I knew I was going to like her immediately. I met her during the chaos of move-in during our freshman year at Bradley University. She lived two doors down from me on the top floor of the crappiest dorm on campus. Our RA lived between us and let me tell you we were in trouble for being too loud five days out of seven. Anyway, as we were all cramming our stuff into our incredibly small, non-air conditioned, cinder block rooms, I noticed Sara had a set of golf clubs.

Not only was Sara a golfer, she was on the BU golf team. I was--and still--am impressed! After a couple of days living in Heitz Hall, I quickly figured out Sara and I had more in common. She had as many hair ribbons as me and her love of plaid equaled mine. It wasn’t long after that that I found we had the same sense of humor and could laugh with-and at-each other for hours.

I joined Sigma Kappa freshman year and Sara joined as a sophomore. After that, it was hard to separate us, and sometimes tell us apart. We often joked we shared a brain, and to this day often finish each other’s sentences. We’ve always believed we should have our own talk show, but few other people think we’re as funny as we do! Look for us on YouTube one of these days.

Sara or “Beckman” or “Beaker,” and I lived together the majority of our time at BU and loved every minute of it. We were the proud recipients of the “Cleanest Room Award,” while we lived in the sorority house! Ha! We were incredibly anal, and everyone knew it and made idle threats to destroy our room. Our senior year we moved to an off campus with Steph, and another girl. It was so much fun and I can still hear feet clomping up the steps and our creaky screen door swinging open. The place was a dump, but we couldn’t have been happier.

I got to know Sara’s fun parents pretty well too, and her mom became my go to gal for gourmet recipes. You cannot beat Janelle Beckman’s French onion soup! Sara’s dad is hilarious and is such a proud father of his only child. They are wonderful people who raised a great daughter.

The day we all left Bradley was one of the hardest days of my life. I knew we were off to lead separate lives and there would be no more eating Rice-A-Roni on the couch in our family room, no more light night chats, silly pranks, or lazy Sundays spent in plaid flannel pants and oversized SK sweatshirts. It was awful and Sara and I stood on the sidewalk sobbing until we forced ourselves to head out on life’s path.

When it came time to choose a maid of honor, I couldn’t choose between Sara and Jennifer, so I had two. Sara took two days off work and came to Indy and did things like vacuum my stairs and organize everyone on my wedding day. She was a peach, and never complained.

I can’t tell you how much I treasure Sara’s friendship. I would give this woman my kidney and only remind her of my sacrifice for a few days. God knew what he was doing when he put us in the dorm that horrified our parents. With that, a very Happy Birthday Beaker!

The above picture is to prove to all that Steph did in fact wear a dress to her wedding.

Sara with her husband, Matt. Matt and Brandon are so much alike it's scary! I guess it takes a special kind of man to put up with girls like us. :)

A breath of Fresh Air

Ask any mom what the best thing is for a kid and she’ll likely tell you fresh air. It makes all the difference in the world for our whole family when we’re able to get outside and run around for a bit. The kids don’t feel the need to run from one end of our house to the other while I yell, “STOP RUNNING!!!!,” once they’ve done a few laps around our yard. They also sleep better, which leads to better behavior (them), and fewer moments spent in the bathroom hiding (me).

Today was a great day because we were able to play outside. After lunch we attempted to go for a short bike ride. Alex and Meredith were both riding their bikes. I wasn’t naïve enough to think I’d be able to ride mine. I knew I’d wind up carrying at least one bike home. Our ride lasted 15 minutes and went the short length of our path. Naturally, Meredith got tired of pedaling and I dragged her tiny pink Schwinn home.

We played on the swing set until the meltdowns increased in number, length, and frequency. There’s a reason they teach you to time contractions during labor; you’ll need that skill set later. Meredith went down for her nap and slept two and a half hours. Was I cleaning my kitchen or working on the mound of weekend laundry? No. I edited photos. I can’t help myself. I think I understand what it must be like to be an addict. If I wind up in photo rehab, I hope you’ll visit me and bring a People.

After nap, when my eyes were crossed from looking at pictures of the bride, I ditched our dinner plans and we went to the park. The park closest to our house is nice, but a little on the weird side. Nearly every piece of equipment spins. It’s enough to make me nauseous just driving by. Alex was on this little spinning chair and I couldn’t spin him fast enough. He was laughing so hard and I was trying to commit his almost-six-year-old laugh to memory. When Alex finally got out of the chair, his eyes were moving back and forth involuntarily. You know those Felix the Cat clocks (What? You don’t long to decorate like it’s 1954?!)? Well, that’s what Alex’s eyes looked like. It creeped me out completely which only encouraged him to spin around more in an effort to repeat the look.

After that we walked to the skate park to watch all the boys do amazing things on tiny wheels. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a skate park, but it wasn’t what I expected. It looked like Cell Block 9 was out for recreation. We won’t be doing that again.

We came home later than I’d planned and since the chicken wasn’t thawed I fixed the kids green beans and sandwiches I billed as “Bistro hot ham and cheese.” The kids ate them and didn’t complain. As I was putting Alex to bed he asked me what we were having for dinner tomorrow. I told him we’d have the chicken I planned to make tonight. He said, “Oh good. I’m tired of ham and cheese.” I realized then, I’d basically served them the same thing for lunch!