The Great White Hunter

If you are not a hunter (which is the majority of those of you reading this), you may not be aware that Monday was the first day of buck season. I wouldn't have known that prior to marrying into a western Pennsylvania family, but this is a big deal for many people. Schools in western PA are actually closed every year on the Monday after Thanksgiving so that everyone can spend the day in the woods, camped out in a tree stand, waiting for a buck to cross their path.

Our little guy is starting early. He got his first buck at 3 months.

Most people gut the deer and have it processed before eating it.

Mr. Mister just went right for it.

Painful...

I went to the dentist last week to have some cavities filled. I take very good care of my teeth, so I'm blaming these on being pregnant (for a variety of reasons) and on not going to the dentist in 2 years, since our dental insurance ended when I stopped teaching.

When I dropped Mr. Mister off at my sister's before my appointment, I mentioned to her how I was nervous for the shot of Novocaine in my gums. She laughed and reminded me that I just went through CHILD BIRTH. Oh, yeah. Pain is all relative now. But, getting cavities filled is no walk in the park...it's not exactly comfortable and enjoyable. So I had to laugh when I went to check out and pay after my appointment and the nice woman at the desk prefaced the total cost by saing, "Now this is the painful part." You know it's bad when the cost is more painful than getting the cavities filled!!

Lesson learned. Some things, such as routine dental care without dental insurance, are worth paying for even when they seem too expensive at the time. It costs a lot more to fix things later.

What??!!

In the past few years I've come to appreciate being aware of what's going on in the world. Reading the newspaper is a morning routine...even if it is just the Hamilton Journal. I don't always know the details of every situation going on in the world, but I do like to have a general knowledge of current events.

So I was reading the paper last Thursday and came across an article titled "Bishops: Follow church in vote." The subtitle said: "Without making endorsements, they say Catholics must heed church teachings or risk salvation." RISK SALVATION?? This intrigued me and I kept reading.

Basically, at the recent US Conference of Catholic Bishops, they decided to urge Catholic voters to follow church teaching when deciding who to vote for in the 2008 presidential election. They did not endorse specific policies or candidates, but wanted to make sure their members are voting to promote common good. Fair enough.

However, here's what fired me up. Direct quote: "Political choices faced by citizens have an impact on general peace and prosperity and also may affect the individual's salvation." WHAT??!! Our salvation is at risk depending on who we vote for??!! Even if that were true, the Bishops didn't suggest who they wanted people to vote for to ensure their salvation, so I hope everyone makes a good guess.

Does anyone else find this appalling? I don't get fired up too often, but this did me in. If the leaders of the church are teaching that salvation can be earned and lost based on who we vote for, what are the millions of people following those leaders believing?? I want to make it clear that I am in no way speaking out against the Catholic church. I am only taking a stance against this specific teaching. The Bible is very clear that our salvation is not based on what we do, but purely on the grace of Jesus Christ through His death on the cross, His resurrection, and our choice to be in a relationship with Him. I can understand how people (wrongly) view salvation as works based. Our society is so centered around earning everything that it can be very difficult to grasp the concept that we cannot and do not have to earn our way to heaven. But the idea that our salvation is able to be swayed by who we vote for not only flies in the face of the truth of grace, but it flat out sounds ridiculous.

I feel like someone needs to speak out against this, even if it's only me on my blog. God's grace is too beautiful to allow it to be ignored and replaced by such an idea. His love for us does not depend on who we vote for and the opportunity to live eternally with Him cannot be influenced by our political stance. Don't get me wrong...grace is not cheap. Our salvation cost Jesus everything. But grace is free. No strings attached. Just the offer to follow Him and to experience a life beyond rules and beyond religion....a life of hope and promise...abundant life here on earth and for eternity to come.

Something About the Outfit

If you're tired of hearing about poopy baby stories, don't read this one. But that's life with a baby, so that's what I write about!

So remember the cute "Going to Grandma's" outfit that Mr. Mister pooped in on the way to Pittsburgh? Well, yesterday I decided he won't get the most use out of that outfit if he only wears it when we go to one of his Grandma's houses so I put it on him just because it's cute. There must be something about that outfit because he had the mother of all poopy blowouts yesterday. It was way worse than the last one he had in that outfit...he literally had poop smeared all up his back. I carefully undressed him, trying to prevent spreading it as much as possible. Of course, he wasn't even phased by all of this so he's just smiling away. When I finally got him undressed, he proceeded to pee straight up in the air. It was pretty funny...it just added to the whole ordeal. This mess definitely warranted a bath, which is not easy to do by myself, but it was worth it. I don't know what it is about the Going to Grandma's outfit, but that might be the last time he wears it!

My Boys

Mr. Mister and daddy at the race last weekend.
Aren't they cute?!

My First Race

One of the last races I ran last year before I got pregnant was the Matthew 25 Ministries Fighting Hunger 5K. I thought it would be appropriate, then, to make that my first post baby race. And since my sister is now employed part time with Matthew 25, she was running it and we make great running partners. A few other friends from church were also running it, so I figured it would be fun just to be there with everyone.

So I've been "training" for the last couple weeks, which mostly consisted of running on the treadmill while Mr. Mister was napping and an occasional outdoor run on the weekends when Mark was home to watch him. According to the treadmill, I was running at the fastest a 10 minute mile, but sometimes slower than that. But my goal wasn't to win the race, it was just to have fun running with my sister and to get back into a little competition.

The race was this past Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the weather didn't feel as cold as the 30 something degrees that it was. Karen and I had a great time running and chatted the whole way. We hardly looked at our watches and really just enjoyed the run together. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked when we crossed the finish line at 27:45...an 8:57 mile! The Flying Pig marathon may not be next on the horizon, but it was definitely encouraging and makes me excited to keep running.

The best part was that my husband and my son were at the finish line, cheering me on.

Discoveries

This picture shows one of Mr. Mister's new discoveries...his thumb. He sucks his thumb now, but only as a way of putting himself to sleep. The cutest part is that he is just figuring out how to curl the rest of his fingers out of the way. What you see in the picture above is actually some improvement...the rest of his fingers are only on his nose, not covering his eyes!

Another new discovery is his voice. He started cooing a few weeks ago, but more recently he has discovered his LOUD voice! In the mornings when he wakes up, he's the most alert. While he lays on the changing table, he talks to me, but these are no soft coos anymore...he has realized he can change the volume of his voice and he loves to try it out!

His other discovery is the handsome baby in the mirror. When I hold him in front of the mirror, he looks at himself and then gets a big smile on his face. He stares at himself and smiles for as long as I'll hold him there. He knows he's cute :)

2 Month Check Up

Today was Mr. Mister's 2 month check up (even though he's 2 1/2 months). He is still in the 97th percentile for his weight...15 lbs 4 oz....and the 75th percentile for his length...23 5/8 inches. So he's obviously eating and growing well! Everything else is healthy also and developing right on schedule. He even showed off his smiles and cooing to the doctor.

The hard part was that he had to get 4 shots...two in each leg :( I had to remind myself that they are vaccinations so they're good for him. But it is so hard to see him in pain. His face got all red again like last time and he cried so hard...and that was just after the first shot. Thankfully, the nurse did them quickly so I could scoop him up and hold him. The cutest thing is that by the time I was at the desk checking out, Mr. Mister was smiling again. He's amazing. Such a good baby.

In other good news, my body is finally almost pain free after 11 weeks of dealing with the after effects of the delivery. I'm probably 99% percent pain free...it is such a relief. Now if I can just do something about this post-partum belly.........

Trick Or Treat

I've been waiting for months to dress Mr. Mister up for Halloween in this cute dog costume we got from my mom back when I first found out I was pregnant. It's not really a Halloween costume...it's supposed to be a warm winter outfit, but it sure beats the expensive costumes they sell at Babies R Us for a baby that doesn't even know what it's wearing.

Anyway, I was excited when Wednesday finally rolled around. I figured that taking Mr. Mister trick-or-treating may be taking advantage of his cuteness in order to get candy for ourselves. So, I thought we would just take him to a couple neighbors that we know and share the joy of seeing a baby in a dog costume. But, as I have discovered in the past 10 weeks of motherhood, some things (okay, most things) just don't go as planned.

Trick-or-treating went from 6:00 - 8:00. Mr. Mister fell asleep promptly at 6:00. And was still asleep at 7:30. Mark and I debated if it was worth it to wake him up to put the costume on. I felt bad doing it mostly because it was more for our entertainment than for Mr. Mister's enjoyment. But we couldn't resist. He surprisingly stayed asleep throughout the whole dressing ordeal. We took him next door to Dottie's house...we knew she would love seeing him dressed up. She did and Mr.Mister even opened his eyes for about 5 seconds before falling back to sleep. Mark and I talked to Dottie for a couple minutes, got a Reese Cup from her bowl of candy, and decided that was enough for the night and went back home.

So that was our exciting Halloween night. It didn't help that we had NO trick-or-treaters come to our door! On one hand, I was surprised because when I was younger, I would have loved to trick-or-treat in a place like this where the houses are so close together. On the other hand, it makes sense, considering the fact that half the front porch lights in our row of houses were turned off. And anyway, we knew no one would come to our door because last year we only had one trick-or-treater...a mom and dad with their infant daughter dressed up...taking advantage of her cuteness to get candy for themselves :)