Where Is Everybody...Really?
Good summary of some answers to the question of "are there intelligent species outside our own planet?"

Claire is Almost 4 Months Old

Hai!

Today is the birthday party of Jack, one of Alex's friends. Jack takes Karate, so his birthday party is at the dojo. Alex is having a great time! He got to play with some Karate equipment at Jack's house and loved it. He's already asked to start taking lessons, which he probably will in the Fall.

Emily's "Other" Birthday

"Granddad and Nana" came to bring Emily (not pictured) her birthday presents, to play with the kids, and to take us all out to lunch. And a good time was had by all...

Alex's Field Trip

Alex's class went to Fernbank today to visit the planetarium. The show was "The Friendly Stars" and was _definitely_ aimed at small children. It was a great experience for us all (I was the only person in the group who had visited a planetarium before!)

Love is amazing. It causes us to act in the strangest ways, to feel the most wonderful sensations, to experience life's greatest moments. And yet we have such a hard time capturing it.

Wikipedia defines it as "acting intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote overall well-being". The Greeks couldn't put their finger on it; they have five words for love. And of course English has but one word, but we love to put adjectives in front of it to describe how it feels - "endless love", "brotherly love", "tainted love", "forbidden love", "unrequited love".

One thing is certain - I may not know how to describe the feeling, but I know it when I see it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Emily Knows Walt!

Today was Emily's day to present her "Famous American" project (she's the one standing up front). She chose Walt Disney, who as we know created Cantelope- er, I mean, the Disney company. We found lots of great stuff about him on the Net. My favorite website was www.disneydreamer.com because it had lots of info the Disney Co. omitted.

Green Cars Today Weblog
NewDream.org is a great resource for finding out how we can reduce our ill effects on the environment. They can get a bit extreme at times; use your intelligence to filter out what you don't want. In the end, they have a lot of good information buried in there.

Oh, and they now have a "Green Cars Today" weblog promoting the use of hybrids and alternative fuels.

In case there was any question as to how cute my kids are... 

Gymnastics Class

Emily and Alex have so much fun at Gymnastics. And because they are so cute, the owner couldn't resist putting pictures of their classes on the website. Alex is right up front; Emily is in a black leotard in back.

The Fairtax Calculator
Calculate how much tax you'd pay under the Fair Tax rather than the current income tax system. And this doesn't calculate the time you'd save from not having to fill out forms!

Fair Tax Benefits All Americans

... and it does.

Support Our Troops

We were very fortunate to have Specialist Brett Barton with us at church Wednesday night. He told the kids of FW Friends about some of the things heLs seen over in Iraq. He's only here for two weeks before going back, so we will keep him in our prayers (along with all the others in harm's way).

FAQ about the Fair Tax Plan

Many people still don't know the details of the fair tax plan. This is widely supported by all types of people, from economists to business owners to physicians to... well, lots of people. Most of the fear about it comes from not understanding it, as well as from misinformation spread by politicians that don't like the idea of losing their grip on the current "evil" tax code.

Read the FAQ, talk to your friends about it, then write your congressman.

Visiting

We're in TN today visiting my mom. She took Emily and Alex to the Children's Museum for the afternoon. Then, Bev stopped by, and now Becky, Sam, and Dakota are here. Gotta love family!

Happy Birthday MM

We're at Callaway Gardens celebrating both Christmas and MM's birthday. Amanda's mom (mommy's mommy, or MM) gave us a trip to Callaway for Christmas while the Bunkers were "down South". We were fortunate that it coincided with MM's birthday, so we were able to celebrate it with all her children and grandchildren in attendance. After this we went to the Fanntasy in Lights, which was a fantasy indeed.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is such a paradoxical time of year. On one hand, our hearts open towards complete strangers as we donate large amounts of food, clothing, and toys to make Christmas brighter for those who can't afford even the basic necessities.. On the other hand, our fists clench towards complete strangers as we fight the traffic and crowds to buy yet another present; perhaps even one where we didn't even spend the time to think of ourselves. You know, Christ (the guy we named the holiday after) talked about both sides of that paradox- he encouraged the first and warned against the second.

Tell me- which makes you happier?

The Mt. Paran First Grade classes put on a musical tonight. Emily was fortunate enough to be one of the "Three Little Maids" (of Mikado fame). There were also the Three Billy Goats Gruff (Piper was one), Three Blind Mice (Brooke was one), Three Caballeros, Three Musketeers, Three Men in a Tub, Three Little Pigs, and Three (wait - just two!) Bears. The plotline is that Baby Bear has gone missing and all the characters are trying to find her. It was a very cute musical and all the kids had fun.

Today is my first day back at work, so I finally have a chance to breathe. Being Mr. Mom was no easy feat for a person who sits at a desk all day! Shuttling the kids around, getting people fed (except Claire, of course), and trying to keep the house just across the line from "a shambles" keeps you moving. In fact, I lost four pounds!

Everyone at home is doing great! Claire is coming along nicely. She is so considerate of her parents, even sleeping at night in four hour stretches and rarely fussing between feedings. Emily & Alex love having a baby sister, and Emily is learning how to be a big help - she's even learning how to carry the baby! How's that for being grown up? And Amanda is healing nicely. I am helping out as much as I can to make the transition back to "full-time mom" as painless as possible.

Claire's M.M. (mommy's mommy) stopped by to see Claire today. M.M. just had back surgery, so this was quite a trek for her. But she's doing much better and *loved* seeing her newest grandchild. (And Claire did pretty good, too, despite what the picture shows.)