When I first heard that several protesters planned to Occupy Alec, I thought to myself, "It's about time! The guy's a multimillionaire 1-percenter being paid big bucks by an evil Wall Street bank to do credit-card commercials! This injustice must end!"
But it turns out the Occupiers are not protesting Alec Baldwin, but rather ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council, of which I'm a member. Here are some scenes from outside the resort today.
UPDATE: John Hinderaker has a great post called "Pepper Spray, the Scent of Liberalism!"
November 30, 2011
To Commemorate the Birth of an 'Unplanned' Baby Born in Poverty
... Democrats are throwing a Christmas party at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
November 29, 2011
Should Oklahoma Eliminate Its Income Tax?
I had a chance to chat with Art Laffer this afternoon about this idea of eliminating the state income tax.
November 24, 2011
November 23, 2011
The Big O
Dear Oliver,
Yesterday I took you to the pediatrician's office for your four-month check up. You weighed 18 pounds and 9 ounces. That means you are in the 97th percentile for your weight. You weigh 2 ounces more than Lillie weighed when she was a year old. But as your dad pointed out, "That just means there's more of you to love."
You also had to get your DTaP shot, and when the nurse poked the needle into your leg you didn't even flinch. The nurse said that was one of the advantages of having such chunky thighs.
Today we leave to go see grandparents for your first Thanksgiving. Everyone is going to want to gobble you up!
Well, It Had to Happen
So I go in to get a flu shot. Looking at her computer screen, the nurse notices that several of our family members have gotten one. Yes, I explain, we're all trying to protect the new baby.
"How old is the baby?" she asks.Bless her heart, she was embarrassed. But she needn't be! The joy of having Oliver is so great that little things like that don't even register. Like Jacob's little Benjamin ("the son of my right hand"), Oliver too is "very dear to me, set on my right hand for a blessing, the support of my age."
"He's four-and-a-half months now."
"Oh. Is he coming to see you, or are you going to see him?"
[Two-second pause of befuddlement, till it dawns on me]
"Oh, no -- he's ours."
 |
| "Are you my grandpa?" |
November 21, 2011
2 Years
Two years seems like an eternity ago and then sometimes it seems like just yesterday. It feels like so long since I held Anne Marie, and yet it doesn’t feel like it was 2 years ago that I was planning what our Christmas in Dallas would be like, not knowing that we wouldn’t be there for Christmas.
Lots of people have asked me if Oliver helps with the loss of Anne Marie. The answer to that is yes. And no. Having a baby just seems to make any situation better and Oliver makes us laugh and smile. We watch his funny faces and expressions. We cheer when he does something cute. We run to pick him up and snuggle him when he cries. I remember when he was just about 6 weeks old and I was standing over his bed. He was looking up at me and kicking his little legs and smiling and I laughed out loud because I was so happy. I have laughed a lot in my life – at things my kids have done, in various conversations with people, when someone says something funny, at the movies, etc., but I can’t ever remember a time when I was all alone and I spontaneously laughed out loud just because I was so happy. So yes, Oliver has made us happy and we are grateful for him.
But as grateful as I am for all my children and no matter how happy they all make me, the simple fact is I miss Anne Marie. I just miss her. And there isn’t anything this side of heaven that will make me not miss her. The ache I have for her is still there and the thought of saying goodbye to her makes me cry every time I think about it. In some ways Oliver has made me miss her more. I sit and rock Oliver and cry because I am so thankful for him and also because I was never able to rock Anne Marie.
I think today will always be a sad day for me. I will remember wanting so desperately to change things – to change the storyline that God was writing, to stop things from happening so fast so we could have just a little more time with her. I will remember having to leave Children’s without our baby girl and the emptiness I felt. And I will remember Anne Marie’s soft, sweet face and in my sadness I will smile at that memory and give thanks for what a gift she was. And I will also remember God’s sustaining mercy and grace that has never failed and continues to hold me up each day.
Anne Marie, can I ever say it enough? How much we love you and how much we miss you. I am thankful for you and not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.
Lots of people have asked me if Oliver helps with the loss of Anne Marie. The answer to that is yes. And no. Having a baby just seems to make any situation better and Oliver makes us laugh and smile. We watch his funny faces and expressions. We cheer when he does something cute. We run to pick him up and snuggle him when he cries. I remember when he was just about 6 weeks old and I was standing over his bed. He was looking up at me and kicking his little legs and smiling and I laughed out loud because I was so happy. I have laughed a lot in my life – at things my kids have done, in various conversations with people, when someone says something funny, at the movies, etc., but I can’t ever remember a time when I was all alone and I spontaneously laughed out loud just because I was so happy. So yes, Oliver has made us happy and we are grateful for him.
But as grateful as I am for all my children and no matter how happy they all make me, the simple fact is I miss Anne Marie. I just miss her. And there isn’t anything this side of heaven that will make me not miss her. The ache I have for her is still there and the thought of saying goodbye to her makes me cry every time I think about it. In some ways Oliver has made me miss her more. I sit and rock Oliver and cry because I am so thankful for him and also because I was never able to rock Anne Marie.
I think today will always be a sad day for me. I will remember wanting so desperately to change things – to change the storyline that God was writing, to stop things from happening so fast so we could have just a little more time with her. I will remember having to leave Children’s without our baby girl and the emptiness I felt. And I will remember Anne Marie’s soft, sweet face and in my sadness I will smile at that memory and give thanks for what a gift she was. And I will also remember God’s sustaining mercy and grace that has never failed and continues to hold me up each day.
Anne Marie, can I ever say it enough? How much we love you and how much we miss you. I am thankful for you and not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.
November 19, 2011
That's How He Rolls
Last night I pulled out the kids' baby books to look up some of their "firsts." I noticed they had all rolled over by about four months and wondered when Oliver would. I remembered his doctor saying that he might do things later because he was so big and it's harder to roll over, sit up, walk, and so on. Well, I guess Oliver didn't want to be outdone by his brothers and sisters because today he rolled over for the first (and second) time!
I had put him down on his play mat while I cleaned up the kitchen and when I glanced over he was struggling with all his might to roll over.
I had put him down on his play mat while I cleaned up the kitchen and when I glanced over he was struggling with all his might to roll over.
November 18, 2011
November 15, 2011
November 14, 2011
Weekend Pictures
Fall -- my favorite time of year
Poor Charlie. Whenever we leave he stands at the front window and watches us go.
Oliver and I went on a walk today. His little fingers found lots of things to explore.
Charlie can always count on Jack Henry to give him lots of love.
Mary Margaret and Oliver
A visit from big brother
Lillie and Oliver
Jack Henry doesn't mind that Oliver drools on his shirt.
Oliver in his Huggies jean diaper. "Mom, do these jean diapers make me look fat?"
There's nothing better than a Sunday nap with Oliver.
November 13, 2011
November 12, 2011
Her Extraordinary Day
I wrote about this day last year, and perhaps I will every year because it is one day I will never, ever forget. In addition to being Veterans Day and being 11-11-11 (and also being my grandmother's birthday), when I woke up this morning one of my first thoughts
was, "Today's her extraordinary day." It's the day on which God granted us 10 more days with her when we thought we would be saying goodbye.
This day is imprinted in me -- it's the day God poured out His mercy and grace to us and answered the prayers we prayed. The day He showed all of us -- parents, grandparents, friends, doctors -- who is really in charge and that He can do anything, despite the medical odds.
And just like I posted last time, I still don't understand why things happened the way they did. I have mostly stopped asking. As Jack Henry and I continue to plow through the Old Testament, the one thing that is glaringly clear is that God is sovereign and His ways are not our ways. There are so many things I don't know and don't understand. What I do know is that I will forever be grateful for November 11, 2009 -- and for 10 more days with Anne Marie.
was, "Today's her extraordinary day." It's the day on which God granted us 10 more days with her when we thought we would be saying goodbye.
This day is imprinted in me -- it's the day God poured out His mercy and grace to us and answered the prayers we prayed. The day He showed all of us -- parents, grandparents, friends, doctors -- who is really in charge and that He can do anything, despite the medical odds.
And just like I posted last time, I still don't understand why things happened the way they did. I have mostly stopped asking. As Jack Henry and I continue to plow through the Old Testament, the one thing that is glaringly clear is that God is sovereign and His ways are not our ways. There are so many things I don't know and don't understand. What I do know is that I will forever be grateful for November 11, 2009 -- and for 10 more days with Anne Marie.
November 11, 2011
November 08, 2011
4 Months
Today you are four months old. Four months of bliss -- holding you, kissing you, watching you grow. You are still a constant distraction during our school day. The girls run and fight over who will pick you up when you wake up from your nap or when you cry. They wander in from the study during the day and grab you out of my arms while I'm doing schoolwork with Jack Henry. And then we all end up on the couch together laughing at your cute faces.
You give constant smiles to almost anyone who looks at you. You have recently started to squeal when you are happy (and also when you aren't too happy). You weigh about 18.5 pounds. You still eat almost every three hours, and also wake up in the night. We have tried and tried to get you to use a pacifier, but you won't have any part of it. Sometimes you suck on your fingers instead. You are very alert and aware of everything that's going on around you, and like to hold and play with little toys.
You are growing so big; we feel like we want to stop time. You are a joy to us and we have loved every minute of our four months with you.
Sometimes it takes us several tries before we get a good picture:
You give constant smiles to almost anyone who looks at you. You have recently started to squeal when you are happy (and also when you aren't too happy). You weigh about 18.5 pounds. You still eat almost every three hours, and also wake up in the night. We have tried and tried to get you to use a pacifier, but you won't have any part of it. Sometimes you suck on your fingers instead. You are very alert and aware of everything that's going on around you, and like to hold and play with little toys.
You are growing so big; we feel like we want to stop time. You are a joy to us and we have loved every minute of our four months with you.
Sometimes it takes us several tries before we get a good picture:
November 07, 2011
November 06, 2011
Remember All Those Rape Shelters at Tea Party Rallies?
Me neither.
"Let it sink in," Allahpundit writes of the Occupiers. "Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening.
"Let it sink in," Allahpundit writes of the Occupiers. "Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening.
This can’t be repeated enough: With a few exceptions, foremost among them the New York Post, the coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history. Nothing compares, because nothing else involves this much distortion on both ends of the coverage. It’s not just that most press outlets (like the protesters themselves) look the other way at depravity happening inside Obamaville, it’s that for years they treated the tea-party movement as some sort of feral mob that was forever on the brink of rampaging through the streets — like, say, Occupy Oakland just did. If you missed it when I posted it last week, go watch the ad the DNC ran in August 2009 when tea partiers first started showing up to town halls on ObamaCare. That set the tone. We began the year with tea-party pols being smeared as killers over a shooting they had nothing to do with and we end it with actual rapes being shrugged off by the press because they’re bad PR for a movement they support. Disgrace.More here and in the chart below.
November 03, 2011
Bad News, Bears
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