The neighbors had a Halloween party tonight. Now, we're not big on trick or treat. We haven't dug this holiday (no pun intended, really) since we were kids. When Eaglescout and I were first married, we would hide in the back of the house on Halloween just to avoid the cretins who rang our doorbell. Then we realized we could actually go out to Barnes and Noble and avoid them altogether. Life was good.
     Then we had kids. Now our own cretins spend all summer long planning their costumes. Of course they change their minds as often as I wash my hands, so we don't even consider making a permanent decision till Oct. 24. This year we set our minds to making our own costumes instead of paying outrageous prices at Target for Chinese-made frocks of icky fabric and questionable authenticity. Hmph. Take that.

     I sat with my Singer and stitched and cut and stitched some more until I had reasonable facsimiles of Yoda's underpants and cape and Anakin's cape when he turned Dark and bad and all that jazz. These weren't perfect, and I'm certain they weren't flame retardant, but they were good enough for the boys. They were reasonable facsimiles. The cretins wore them around the house for a bit before letting me hang them up on hangers to wait for Halloween. 

     And so Halloween came and Eaglescout, being the good dad that he is, took the kids around the circle for trick or treat. I tried to convince Benjy that he should say, "Hmmmm, treat or trick. Hmmmmmmm" in his sweet, gravely Yoda voice. I think he couldn't see past all the sugar.

     

     After visiting those families who bothered to stay home and greet the throngs of treat-or-trickers tonight, we moseyed across the street for the neighborhood party. It was a pirate themed shindig, and most everybody was dressed up as some form of a pirate or bar wench or eye-patched pretender. We, on the other hand, were not. Oh, don't get me wrong. We did dress up. Eaglescout actually pulled this one out of his hat, giving in to the right side of his brain, which isn't easy when one's brain is composed 99.999% of the left side. Eaglescout spent a good portion of this afternoon with a hot glue gun and plastic gems and coins constructing a treasure chest. Then I came home and asked for my glue gun back and stuck coins to a black scarf I had buried in my dresser. 

     Then we donned our costumes. It was a bit exciting. Sort of like when I dressed up as a gypsy when I was 10 and wore a red taffeta prom dress I bought from Natisha LaForce at a yard sale for 50 cents. Only Mom wouldn't let me wear her red heels so it was a bit of a downer tromping around in my Pic-N-Pay tennies and this glam dress and make-up to boot. 

      I didn't even want to wear heels tonight. My foot was hurting, after all. It was more like throbbing. I put on my black clogs and wrapped my scarf around my neck. Eaglescout put on his box complete with a blinking heart pendant. And we were ready. 

      Announcing Treasure Chest and Booty.

All in all, for a Halloween that we just really don't care about, it was a good night. All the cheap Dollar Tree candy we put out was gone when we got home at a startling hour of 8:50. And the candy that the boys raked in will be traded for a toy by the Halloween Fairy tomorrow. The treasure chest split when Eaglescout sat down. My coined-bedecked scarf is trying to decide what to do with itself. And Yoda and Anakin are sound asleep, visions of SUGAR dancing in their dreams. 

And now, for something new. I found this site somehow this week and thought it would be an easy way to blog on Fridays. Every Friday they provide a new fill-in-the-blank thing. Here's today's.


1. My favorite food seasoning is salt.
2. Silence is music to my ears.
3. Lucky is finding money in my coat pockets.
4. Jimmy is something I take very seriously.
5. Many people think too much.
6. Meatballs was the last thing I bought at the store.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleeping. Tomorrow my plans include taekwondo and Sunday, I want to prop my foot up and rest!

Top Ten reasons to vote for Jimmy in this election.

10 - He doesn't have a blog. Or a facebook account. So he won't be wasting taxpayer dollars on his computer when he should be solving our financial crisis and establishing world peace.

9 - He's almost a black belt so he won't need as many secret service agents for protection. Don't fear the black belt. Fear the one who (will earn) it.

8 - He has skills. Girls like boys who have skills. I mean Americans deserve a president who has skills.

7 - He's big into debt control. He'd put Dave Ramsey in his cabinet. I hope he lets him out every now and again.

6 - He can see Russia from his back yard. On some nights. With a full moon and the short bus constellation in Jupiter's house.

5 - He does laundry. Will Obama or McCain do their own laundry? Has anybody ever even asked this very serious question? Do they even know how much it costs to run a load of whites? Do they know how much detergent to put into a high-efficiency washing machine? Can they even spell high-efficiency???

4 - He knows real plumbers. And he likes them. Power to the plumbers.

3 - He doesn't need $150,000 in new clothes. He's happy in his taekwondo pants and a Life is Good tee shirt. He does have a couple of suits for Very Important Meetings such as meetings with the White House Washer Women and Heads of States of Matter.

2 - He used to watch The West Wing. So he knows a thing or two about gov'ment. And politics. And stuff.

1 - He watches The Office. So he knows a thing or two about running a, well, an office.

Except Jimmy

I'm Jimmy's translator, and I approve this message.

Dear Princess,

Don't worry, I will be your friend. Even if you have never watched Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin show. And for your viewing pleasure, and since you're stuck with nothing to do but watch movies on the computer since you can't eat and all. Here ya go. :)

Good luck tomorrow!

(At least you've seen Napoleon Dynomite.)

Edited to add: Princess, you have seen Rudolph, no??? 

I am so sick of campaign commercials. I think I really will write Jimmy in. At least he comes by his, well, uh, condition, honestly.

Meet Blue Doggie.

This is Benjy's favorite stuffed animal. He's been with him since the day the child was born. He's been called Blue Doggie since about then when Eaglescout and I were just too sleep-deprived to come up with a moniker of any originality. Blue Doggie is soft and cuddly and Just Right.

    

    Blue Doggie is Benjy's go-to dog. He's the one waiting for Benjy at bedtime, the one who makes the cut on long car trips, the one who watches movies with us at night and cartoons with us on weekends. Blue Doggie rocks in every way imaginable. One could say he's magical.

    And then Blue Doggie disappeared. It was early in the summer when we realized he was gone. We panicked. Maybe we'd left him in Maine! Maybe we accidentally sent him packing to the Goodwill. Maybe he was gone, gone, gone forever. No, Blue Doggie, we need you!!! All summer long we wondered where Blue Doggie could be. Nanna tore her house apart. Mammaw looked all over hers. We searched high and low here. No Blue Doggie. Benjy saw a picture of him and his precious Blue Doggie just last week and told me, "Well, at weast I have a picture of Blue Doggie to wemember him." My heart broke when he said that. This child is surely wiser than his years.

     Over the weekend Benjy and I were in his room sorting through his clothes. We had piles everywhere: clothes he had outgrown, clothes he would soon grow into, and clothes that were just right. Ah, Blue Doggie was Just Right once. Finally we got each pile put in its proper place and the room began to look tidy again. Except, the bed wasn't made. Flannel sheets, I thought. Benjy will be needing those soon. I reached up to the top shelf in his closet and pulled down the flannel set with the little doggies prancing across it. These would be perfect for the cooler days to come. As I let the sheets drop to the floor, I noticed something that didn't match. That was a problem. Sheets have to match. Pajamas have to match. Socks have to match. But this blue patch didn't match the cream tones of the sheets. Hmmmmm. What??? Could it be??? BLUE DOGGIE?!?!?!

    I don't know who was happier - Benjy, me, or Eaglescout. Camden was oh so polite, but not tickled pink by the return of Blue Doggie. "Oh, look, you found your Blue Dogie," he told his baby brother. "That's so nice." 

    Welcome home, Blue Doggie. We've missed you.

And now, a new Monday night feature:

Jimmy's World

Jimmy is busy doing homework tonight. 

He's working studiously on managerial economics. 

I caught him mumbling something about why businesses need to dwell on numbers so much. 

I told him to work for a nonprofit.

Ah, it's going to be a long, hard journey for Jimmy. 

But the Blue Doggie will get him through it.

Ah, back from Deep Creek, refreshed and caught up on sleep. Only to wake up today at 5:30 and start all over again. Sigh.

Dad's biopsy was yesterday, and it's sucky. His cancer is back, and the dr. is recommending surgery to remove his larynx. There. I said it. Seems like it's just easier to face it straight on, though in fact it's not easy no matter how you turn it. I cannot even imagine the mix of emotions he's feeling right now. I just pray that he will rely on God to give him strength, courage, and peace to endure what he has ahead. We NEED you, Dad. Please don't give up the fight.

Mom's the strongest woman I know. So brave, I think, for putting one foot in front of the other each and every morning after the horrible year they have been through. She was preparing for this moment a year ago, preparing for a stretch of taking care of Dad as he faced chemo and radiation for this cancer. And then they rejoiced when it was CURED. Thanks be to God. And then Michelle died. And they buried their baby daughter. And we moved in slow motion through that. We're still stumbling along. And now. This. I don't question God. His plan is perfect. His plan is best. I don't have a clue what it is. I'm in the dark here. But I just trust that it will all work out for his glory and our best. Not an easy task, but easy was no guarantee....

I love you, Mom. And you, too, Dad. I haven't stopped praying, and I won't.

On that note, I saw scripture on Kimba's blog in her Sunday Morning post. The timing was perfect. As usual.

Humble yourselves, therefore,

under God’s mighty hand,

that he may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on him

because he cares for you.

(1 Peter 5:6-7)

Are you, my dear bloggy friends, looking for an easy post? Here's one that requires only ONE WORD for your answers. 

Where is your cell phone? van
Where is your significant other? home
Your hair color? brown
Your mother? Barbara
Your father? Terry
Your favorite thing? family
Your dream last night? dancing
Your dream/goal? heaven
The room you’re in? den
Your hobby? crafting
Your fear? terrorism
Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
Where were you last night? bed
What you’re not? taekwondo
One of your wish-list items? peace
Where you grew up? Virginia
The last thing you did? email
What are you wearing? pajamas
Your TV? CNN
Your pet? Emmalemmalimabean
Your computer? Apple
Your mood? somber
Missing someone? parents
Your car? Windstar
Something you’re not wearing but that you love to wear? slippers
Favorite store? Goodwill
Your summer? free
Love someone? yes
Your favorite color? yellow
When is the last time you laughed? today
Last time you cried? today

I leave this blog for a single fortnight and my peeps make an all-out debauchery of my brand spanking new vacuum cleaner. Oh, the double ententres! Oh yes, my good man, I know a double entendre when I see one. I read Shakespeare in college. And the Cliff Notes, too. 

Well, if you think you are so clever as to completely usurp my blog, then figure this out. I leave the rest of my writing to you in quotes from the bard himself. (Never have I felt so absolutely smart as when I speak in my Bard Voice.) See if you can name this play.

Me: "Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?"

You: "In my mind's eye"

Me: "That it should come to this!"

You: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" 

Me: (Oh, you thinks, huh?) Well... "This above all: to thine own self be true."

You: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry"

Me: Oh, stop with the economy already. You sound like you watched the debates last night. "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king"

You: "I will speak daggers to her, but use none"

Me: HELLO, I'm right HERE. You can speak to me in the first person!

You: "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! "

Me: Methinks one thinks too highly of one's self. Whatever. "Brevity is the soul of wit"

My Dear Blog Peeps,

You're gonna love this one. Talk about an easy post!

My Nine Names -

1. Your real name:
Wendi Leighann Gibson Richert

2.Your gangsta name (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle):
Wenizzle

3. Your detective name (favorite color & favorite animal):
Yellow Elephant

4. Your soap opera name (your middle name & the street you live on OR
your neighborhood name if your street name is a number):
Leighann Castlegate

5. Your star wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name & first two
letters of your first name):
Ricwe

6.Your superhero or criminal name (your 2nd favorite color & favorite
drink):
Periwinkle Coffee

7. Your Iraqi name (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your
last name, 1st letter of your last name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden
name, 3rd letter of your dads name, 1st letter of a siblings first name &
last letter of your mom's first name):
Ecrtrma

8.Your witness protection name (parents' middle names):
Ann Lynn

9. Your goth name (black & the name of one of your pets):

Black Emma

And now, because you were just dying to know. My school lost the soccer game to Champion Christian today, 1-4. It was a bummer, but it wasn't a blow-out. Camden is Number 7. Actually, there are two number 7s. And there are two of a lot of numbers. But that's just a printing mistake. The names are there, too. So you can easily find your little person by looking for their special number AND then checking their name on the back. Clever, no? We certainly know how to tackle a problem. Vote for us in November.

And, finally, Consuela?

Meet Carmen Electra. 

She's fresh out of the box. 

Eaglescout had a minor tantrum this morning when he tried to vacuum with Dirt Devil. NowDirt Devil is a sad step brother to Carmen Electra's winning style. Eaglescout says that Carmen is lighter on her feet and doesn't talk as much. Two qualities he likes in a vacuum, I might add. 

What in the world will I blog about tonight.

Hmmmmmm................

He's home!!!!!

The Eagle has landed, again!

Eaglescout surprised us all at school today, appearing in my classroom, making some cute (or was it snide???) comment as I was tidying up before the kids left. He had quite a profound effect on them. They were silent. SILENT. No humming. No singing. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Silent! I think I'll hire him to come back! 

I flung my arms around his neck and just hugged him. And he hugged me back like he was afraid to let go. I missed the Eaglescout. :)

When Camden saw his dad in my room, after his class blurted out, "Camden, YOUR DAD'S IN YOUR MOM'S ROOOOOOOOOOM!", he did a U turn into my classroom, zoomed and jumped into his dad's arms, and cried. Boohooed the happiest sobs I've ever heard. Man, but that boy missed his dad. Benjy's reaction was a similar. As similar as a gentle shower is to a horrendous hurricane. Benjy just snuggled into his daddy's embrace and sat on his lap, refusing to get off for even a second until it was time to leave. The boys truly love their pop. Yep, Papa Bear is home. And Mama Bear is happier than a june bug. :)

Can I just tell you how much I love my friends???

LL baked me a cake. A REAL cake with her super top secret real icing on top. See the cake here. It's a beautiful, magical thing. Top that off with lasagna - not the kind I make, or would make if I were to make it, but REAL lasagna with noodles, sauce, cheese and lots more cheese. I might just use a jar of sauce, a handful of noodles, and the wrong kinds of cheese. Bam. I'm a regular Julia Child. We went to the home of LL and NGM Sunday afternoon and had so much fun. I'm sure you probably heard my kids if you were listening every so carefully. 

And the Princess helped sing the wonderful happy birthday tune to me at TKD last night. I have to admit, I was reveling in the attention. I love birthdays like a 5 year old. Princess also gave me a ginormous mug for my coffee filled to the brim with......peppermint patties!!! Have you EVER in your lifelong days had a pattie kept cold straight from your freezer?! You have to experience this. 

There were other highlights to my birthday, but probably the best was the surprise that Camden and Benjy had planned for me last Thursday. All week they had been planning this top secret mission to surprise me while Mamaw was in town. So that afternoon they sneaked out, bought a bunch of party decorations with their very own money, and wrapped my surprises for me in birthday crepe paper. When I finally got home that day at 5 p.m., they shouted "SURPRISE!!!!!" Or, in Benjy's language, "Ca-pwise!!!!!" Oh, I was. :) Benjy had me unwrap his gift first - a package of orange and black tea lights. He had been planning to buy me candles all week long. :) Camden's perfect gift was a set of bags to put the fall leaves in. When set in the yard just right, they form a giant spider. We may need to borrow a few leaves to complete this fun little project. I love my boys. They're so special sweet. 

And a humongous thanks to Joel, aka Mamaw. She spent the week here ferrying the boys to school, harvesting from Eaglescout's garden, mowing, doing laundry (and can this lady fold undies!), and just being company for me and the boys. I know we loved her visit and she's welcome any time. Even if she doesn't do the laundry. :)  Thanks, Joel. We miss you.

What a red-letter day!

I turned 40. 

My entire school serenaded me with the happy birthday song this morning.

Wall Street plunged deeper than EVER in the HISTORY OF THE WHOLE ENTIRE WIDE WORLD.

All on my birthday. Don't I feel special.

So I'm reading my usual blogs, my ankle on ice and my back on the heating pad, and I see this. Especially powerful today. 

Grab a kleenex. 

It all started with a teacher.

A teacher who finally did what I could not: Convince Camden that books are good. Books are entertaining. Books are places in which you can get lost. That's what he calls reading now - "getting lost in a book".

And so this teacher has lit a fire in my son that has captured my heart. He reads. All the time. He sets up a class full of stuffed animals (most are elephants, but they're not prejudiced. Some are other species), props himself in my OLD kid-sized rocker, and pretends to be his teacher. 

His favorite genre is historical fiction in the form of the Magic Tree House series. He's a history buff (gets that totally 100 percent from his dad), so there's enough real stuff in these books to grab onto while his imagination takes off. I don't think Elk liked it. He's kissing the blanket here.

Benjy tried hard to be a part of this class of Wild Things. He came downstairs where I was resting my swollen ankle to tell me that Mr. Richert wouldn't let him talk. I told Benjy to set up his own animals and be their teacher in his room. Ding. You could see the light bulb brighten right on top of his head. 
He read Just Me and My Dad to them, almost verbatim from our many, many times reading this book. He wanted desks, so I showed him how Michelle and I used to use books to make desks. (Actually, we made Barbie apartments with our library books.) He set up his little guys behind their new desks, ran to Camden's room to borrow an American flag for the pledge, and sat down with his class to begin the day. 

In the next instant, it was nap time. The guys were put to bed because they're preschoolers of course, and the other Mr. Richert went to sleep. My two little Mr. Richerts taking naps with their students until they return to school tomorrow, students themselves.

I just know I'll regret this in the morning.

It's 11:30 and here I sit blogging. And purely for selfish reasons. I opened up my etsy.com store tonight!!!
If you scroll down a wee bit, you'll see the link to the three little items I have up for sale. I'm so happy to be selling my crafty stuff again. I used to put little scrapbooks and stuff up on ebay, but that place isn't really great for selling hand-crafted goodies. I've been a buyer on Etsy for some time now, and I find boat loads of inspiration just surfing its pages. 

Eaglescout is the one who really encouraged me to try this. He's so awesome like that. (Do you think he wants a cut???)

This week I'm gonna list a rag rug that I am nearly finished making. Then I'll have to prop up my ankle and get to making something else.

OK, there's my spiel. Please buy buy buy my stuff! :) :) :) hehehehe

It's not really so much broken.

It's more like a slight chip. A miniature fracture. 

Come on now, that's not a break.

If you had a broken piece of china, you'd toss it, right?

But if it's just a tiny bit chipped, well, you'd use it. 

You may not serve it to your Aunt Mabel, but you'd use it just the same.

So, it's chipped.

And dang-it, it hurts like mad.

I'm told to baby it for at least a week, ice it, elevate it, put my super cool air cast on it that makes me feel like a storm trooper, and behave. That means no taekwondo. No demo practice. But, daggonit, I will be better by Sept. 27. Yes, indeedly-doo, I will. 

Or I'm not a camo belt.

Right?????

Now that I have this new-fangled camera that can practically take pictures of itself, Benjy has discovered my old and inferior camera. Go ahead, I told him; shoot. Nooooo, not shoot like shoot. I mean shoot like take some pictures. 

The kid's got something going on with his eye. Of his 121 pictures, these were too good to delete. I think my baby has a little gift going on behind the lens.

Last night we delivered a little surprise to Big Sexy for his birthday and enjoyed some cake frosting and ice cream with the Princess and her fun family. Camden and Benjy thought they'd hit the lottery with the Star Wars toys and Legos in Cam and Ryan's rooms. And I had a bit of a break from talking in kid-speak all night. Thanks for having us, Princess. 

And for those of you worrying your little heads off about Eaglescout, here's an update. I asked him to send me pictures of all the devastation that surrounded him. This is what he sent.













That's his vanity at his swanky dank ding dang hotel in San Antonio. On the River Walk. Across from the Alamo. Still feeling sorry for Order of the Arrow Boy?

Well, I do feel a bit of pity for him today now that he's in Houston and must be in his happy hotel by 9 p.m. or risk being arrested for breaking curfew. That'd look pretty bad for an Eagle Scout. And he's been put in charge of the storm center there, so I suppose there's a chance that he's really working hard now. I'd be really concerned if he had nothing to do but stand around and look at his vanity and all those pretty bottles of free shampoo. I hope he brings me some shampoo when he comes home.

And finally, in keeping with the theme of this post, which is themeless, in case you were wondering, I leave you with these shots of my almost-broken ankle.

This injury is from taekwondo but bears no name. Unless I should call it The Box. Yes, I was pretending that I was 12 like Tony in class tonight, and I was trying to keep up with the guys jumping around and being tough, and I pounded my ankle into the mat. I think I left a dent. I know I heard a crack. But I think it was more like a pop. At any rate, it hurts like mad, but I can walk on it. Sort of.  I'm tough like that. Real tough. As you all know.

Poplar Street

OK, so this isn't a street. But it's a house on a street. The street where I spent my formative years whiling away the days with Michelle and our bffs Kim and Karen who lived across the road. It's a tiny street, barely wide enough for two cars to pass and not on the way to anywhere so thru traffic is practically nonexistent. Poplar Street itself is sort of like a mini neighborhood. As kids, this was our playground. We'd wake up in the morning full of plans - jump rope, bike rides back and forth and back and forth (but not down the hill, or else we'd have to push 'em back up), trips across the road to one another's house all the livelong day. It really is the kind of street where you can let your kids play in the road. 

As I grew up and my teeth grew out and my hair got bigger, I played less and less on Poplar Street. Jump rope gave way to band, bikes to cars, and Kim and Karen moved away leaving the echo of their baby brother's big wheel racing down the street. Then I moved away,  on to bigger and better things, I'd said,  some of the giant poplar trees were cut down. A new house appeared along the road. Cars parked on the side regularly. It was more like a parking lot than the playground I remembered. A few families moved to Poplar Street, but their children didn't play on the road. Times changed, I guess. Poplar Street was a simpler place back when Kim, Karen, Michelle and I were trying to figure out what to do with an evening after school. No video games. No DVDs. No computers. Just time to be out with friends playing in the road.

This little trip down memory lane was brought to you today by this post from Dina Wakley who is guest designing for Jenni Bowlin Studios and is hosting a little contest for a new scrapbook kit club called Kenner Road. Somebody somewhere lived on Kenner Road. I'm sure it's a lovely place. Anyway, to kick off the whole kit club, Dina and a whole crew of Kenner Road gals are giving away prizes to some lucky entrant who writes about their hometown street. And I want to win a prize from Kenner Road, and from these gals. And since Eaglescout left today to clean up after Ike, AND my birthday is fast approacing, I figure I deserve a prize. Don't you think I am most deserving? 

Now, I'm off to tear the house down looking for an actual picture of Poplar Street. 

Do you remember where you were when

America

was changed?

I was teaching in my second grade classroom. We had just switched students for reading groups. I had the low group; they're my favorite. We were sitting together on the rug reading the morning message and buzzing about words that ended with -at or something. Deep stuff for 7-year-olds learning to decode English.

Knock at the door. Mrs. Cabanis comes in. Mrs. Richert, will you please come here a moment?

I walk into the hallway, leaving the door open so I can hear my class in case anybody decides to make a break for it. I notice the other second grade teachers standing by their doors, too. My wheels start turning. Tornado drill today? Important staff meeting this afternoon? Did somebody write on the boy's bathroom wall again?

Mrs. Cabanis: There's been an accident. A plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. They thought it was just an accident. But then another plane crashed into the south tower. And just now the Pentagon. We don't know anything more. But we wanted you to know. Now, the district wants us to not tell the students. We just wanted the staff to know. We'll have a TV in the lounge so we can see what's going on.

It hit me then. Mrs. Cabanis is on the crisis team. What in the world is happening???

More than a little bewildered I eased back into my classroom and gathered my group back on the carpet. We searched for more -at words, put some periods in the right spots on my letter to the class, and then broke up for reading groups. I saw every group that day. It was a good reading day. 

By lunch time I had tucked Mrs. Cabanis' message into the back of my mind. I dropped my kids off at the cafeteria and made my way across the hall to the lounge. The room was silent, save Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric. Cool, I had always loved Katie. But as I settled into my spot at the table, I could tell this wasn't the Cute Katie Show. The mood was somber. The art teacher was in tears. In the time it takes to open a lunch box, we all realized the magnitude of the news we'd received 2 hours earlier. 

By the time we left the room two hours later, we were all crying. Most of us had children of our own, and we were thinking of them. We wanted to be with our families. Not here. But we had other people's children to take care of. And the district office didn't want us to tell the elementary school kids what had happened. That would be up to the parents. So we put on our happy face, picked our kids up from the cafeteria, and continued on with our day, hunky-dory like. 

That's what I remember most about that day. It was surreal, knowing that somebody hated us so badly that they would kill 2,974 people they'd never even met. And I had to go on about my afternoon in a suburban elementary school pretending that the world was safe, friendly, willing to bend over backwards for every Nintendo-loving, Pokemon card-trading 7-year-old on God's green earth. My job wasn't merely to teach these kids to read, write, and say "sorry" when they hurt a friend. I had to assure them that our world was filled with wonder, beauty, kindness, and love. 

That's still my job. Some days are easier than others. But no day has been more difficult than Sept. 11, 2001.

Thanks be to God for pulling us through the most evil day I've ever seen.

Well, bloggy friends, you asked for a prompt. 

My friend Kristen sent this to my email. I'm too lazy to re-email it, so I shall blog it instead. Thanks Kristen in Delaware!!! I miss the Blaisdell Babes!!!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30
2. Diamonds or pearls? sapphires
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Space Chimps
4. What is your favorite TV show? Burn Notice
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? black coffee and a multi-vitamin
6. What is your middle name? Leighann 
7. What food do you dislike? eggplant 
8. What is your favorite CD at moment? the one I burned from current faves in itunes
9. What kind of car do you drive? the big blue van, a Windstar
10. Favorite sandwich? blt with Eaglescout's garden tomatoes 
11. What characteristics do you despise? Lying, boastfulness, and phoniness, is that a word???? 
12. Favorite item of clothing? pajamas
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? to bed 
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Eddie Bauer, but only from the warehouse outlet in Columbus, Ohio. Otherwise, I'll take Liz Claiborne and Anne Taylor from the kind lady who sends her used duds to the Goodwill.
15. Where would you retire? The Outer Banks, North Carolina
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Turning 38 when Carri brought me a fresh bowl of REAL oatmeal with REAL butter and brown sugar and then a ginormous cake that my whole first grade class presented to me. We had a partay that day!!!
17. Favorite sport to watch? What's a sport??? Do they have special watches for those things??? We're not allowed to wear watches in taedwondo.
18. Furthest place you are sending this? Neptune 
9. Person you expect to send it back first? I expect to see this on the Special Forces blogs first. We've been desperate for a prompt and too lazy to make them up for ourselves.
20. When is your birthday? Sept. 29
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night
22. What is your shoe size? 7
23. Pets? Emma Louise Dawn, aka Emmalemmalimabean
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? My anniversary/birthday present from Eaglescout today: it's a Nikon D60 camera! It's solid, black, and a little intimidating. But the auto mode works perfectly for me! It pays to turn 40!
25. What did you want to be when you were little? a vet or an architect. Alas, too much math.
26. How are you today? I was pooped, but then I went to TKD and now I feel happily buzzin with endorphins and grape juice and chocolate Snack Pack pudding.
27. What is your favorite candy? peppermint patties. get the sensation.
28. What is your favorite flower? daisies
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? my birthday. I just love birthdays! and LL promised me a cake!!!
0. What is your full name? Wendi Leighann Gabby Windbag Mouse Ears Gertrude Funny Face Suzy Q Chicken Eater Gravy and Biscuit Eater Gibson Richert. The part up until Richert was given to me by Daddy when I was a wee little thing - a new name added each night till it was just too unwieldy to remember. I told my kindergarten teacher, beautiful Miss Ringley, that was my name on the first day of school. Mom, who had been beaming with pride up for her ponytailed kindergartner until that moment, wilted when it slipped out of my mouth in 1.5 seconds flat. 
31. What are you listening to right now? Law and Order SVU, a major rerun 
32. What was the last thing you ate? a taco
33. Do you wish on stars? no, I'm not altogether sure which are stars and which are planets. Don't wanna jinx it with Neptune.
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? periwinkle
35. How is the weather right now? Cooling down a bit, fall's coming. :) 
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Eaglescout's mom just a moment ago
37. Favorite soft drink? Diet Rite 
38. Favorite restaurant? Red Star Tavern - ahi tuna - yummo!
39. Real hair color? dishwater brown
40. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbie, Skipper, PJ, Francie, Superstar Barbie, Suntan Tuesday Taylor, Ballerina Barbie, and 2 Kens. Oh yeah, their camper, Tuesday's penthouse, Barbie's flat, and an assortment of high heeled shoes that poor flat-footed Skipper couldn't wear. 
41. Summer or winter? Winter. Bring on the snow.
43. Chocolate or Vanilla? vanilla. real vanilla
44. Coffee or tea? coffee
45. Do you want your friends to email you back? They can blog it. Everybody should have a blog. Girls like friends with blogs.
46. When was the last time you cried? Monday on my way to school listening to Held by Natalie Grant.
47. What is under your bed? dog hair and suitcases
48. What did you do last night? I took a two-hour nap, then got up, took a bath, read to the boys, and then rested some more. And it was only Tuesday.
49. What are you afraid of? talking to strangers
50. Salty or sweet? mixed together!
51. How many keys on your key ring? 2 - house and car.
52. How many years at your current job? this is my third
53. Favorite day of the week? Thursday - Burn Notice and The Office
54. How many towns have you lived in? 4
55. Do you make friends easily? I think so, but I have to be in a situation where I know I'll see these people again a lot before I really break down and talk.
56. How many people will you send this to? the entire blogosphere
57. How many will respond? time will tell

Yesterday marked 16 years that Eaglescout and I have been married. 16 years of blessings, bliss, and wonderment, and not a little bemusement. 16 years. Wow.

The 16th wedding anniversary is to be marked by silver holloware, apparently. Whatever that is. Silver is a nice color, though, and my personal choice compared to gold. I got ES a silver ipod Nano for the big day. I was pretty darn proud of me for thinking of it since I'm the world's worst gift giver for any holiday that's not preprinted on a calendar. He's been loading tunes all day, somewhere around 947. I think he can listen to his ipod for 3.2 days or something without hearing the same song twice.

I just know you're wondering what ES got me. I am, too. But it's not here yet. It's in a box on the way from someplace. I'm not to open it when it arrives until ES is here. He's so bossy, ya know?

So, what is it about ES that makes him worthy of 16 years?

I'll give you 16 items of interest. This is an abridged version, mind you.

1: ES is my best friend. He was when we first met, both on the rebound from previously failed relationships.  We met at the Roanoke Times where we both worked as editorial assistants. Actually, he owned the paper. Yeah, and the grocery store, and the post office, and the jail. Yeah. Something like that. ES and I hit it off immediately. And he was cute, too. 

2: ES suffers through my cooking with nary a complaint. On our first date he arrived at my tiny apartment in a pick-up truck and whisked me away to the symphony. Seriously. We came back to my tiny apartment - only 3 houses down from where he grew up, no kidding! - and I cooked him spaghetti. I really poured on the hot pepper flakes, totally absorbed in this pick-up-driving, symphony-going, cosmopolitan man. (I just thought cosmopolitan sounded cool. He really wasn't, mind you. He's just the guy next door. In a good way.) The spaghetti was horrible. Actually, the pasta was fine, it was the sauce that was too hot to eat. We were both near tears. And to think he didn't say a word....

3: ES is comfortable in his own skin. This man actually wore brown cowboy boots to our wedding. Yes, with a black rented tux! I wasn't too surprised when Daddy asked me, on the way down the aisle, if I was sure about this. He pointed out the cowboy boots and said ES told him it was a "double dog dare." Yeah, it was. I'd forgotten how he threatened to wear them and I did indeed double dog dare him to. But ES remembered. I loved him even more after that. 

4: ES loves God and is a good, good man.

5: ES can read.

6: Number five is true, you know. ES loves to read. He reads a lot of history books. Stuff I couldn't care less about. Give me the gist of the war and I'm content. But he wants the details. ES is a details man. 

7: ES makes me laugh. He's silly, goofy in fact. He loves the 3 Stooges, need I say more?

8: ES can watch House Hunters with me and never complain. He actually gets into it. And he watches several HGTV shows. I know this because I see him sneaking peeks at the TV. Hehehe. I'm sneaky like that.

9: My husband is so darn nice. He's nice to everyone. He's respectful, caring, gentle. He makes people feel comfortable and happy and important. ES can't stand to watch people suffer undeserved calamities. And this happens a lot in his line of work.   ES has a heart that connects with others. 

10: ES is a budget nazi. I say that with absolute and total love because one day we'll pay off the mortgage. If only I could just grasp the concept of a budget. But that's another post all together.

11: Camden and Benjy have a father who loves them unconditionally. They know that no matter what they've said or done, when the day is spent, Dad is there. He loves them tenderly, assures them that all is right in the world, and without fail, follows through. ES is what a father should be.

12: ES has skills. And you know girls like guys who have skills. He can build a house, fix a toilet, lay real hardwood floors, cook anything, grow a garden, spar in taekwondo, soothe a screaming baby, change a diaper, cook anything, break a board, iron a shirt, win Trivial Pursuit, bike for hours, cook. Oh, you get the picture. The only thing he can't do is run electric wires and nurse a baby. And that's OK by me.

13: ES encourages me. He lifts me up and makes me feel like I can do anything. He and Camden gave me the taekwondo membership for Christmas. I confess that I opened the present - a starched white uniform and gift card - and thought, "there's no way I'll do this. No way on God's green earth." But he was convinced I'd love it, and he believed I could do it. And he was right. I'm a scary black belt wanna-be, that's what I am. And ES knows it and loves that part of me. :)

14: ES doesn't mind that I like to twirl my jahng bong in the back yard. He's cool like that.

15: ES does laundry. And he folds the clothes. And he sometimes remembers to use the dryer sheets.

16: ES really is an Eagle Scout. And an Order of the Arrow person, Vigil Member something or other. He's every bit of what the Boy Scouts teach boys to be when they grow up. ES has grown up to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. And that's only a fraction of why I'm in love with him.

Lookie what Princess and BS brought over for us tonight:

The inside of the card goes like this:

Thanks Princess and BS!