Jedi Mind Tricks and Points to Ponder

No pictures today- I saw a million things I'd have LOVED to have a shot of, but didn't have the get-up-and-go to get-up-and-get-OFF the couch.  

I sent the girls outside to play, all bundled up in boots and sweaters.  I looked outside, and all the sweaters are on the porch, and one of Mimi's boots is halfway down the driveway.   I asked Ernie to help her step back into it, and then I looked out to find Ernie pushing the stroller around in a tight spiral, both boots in the basket.  Mimi was on the steps, peeling off her socks.  They both put up a huge fuss when I moved the lunch I'd just set out for them to INSIDE, but you know what?  No sweaters, no shoes, no socks...no picnic.  I'm just a mean mom like that.  Guys, it's not September any more!  But even still, I wish I'd had a picture of Ernie holding Mimi's hand, carefully helping that (sweaterless, sockless, bootless) child up the front steps.  THAT was sweet.

I'd also have loved to take a picture of Mimi talking to me.  No one has lips like that child.  She can make a perfect upside-down-u with her lips that will convey to anyone, anywhere on this green earth, her deep dissatisfaction with the plan you just proposed.  Plus, those lips come in awful handy for aspirating the final p's and t's of her words. She loves her lip-PAHs.  

Since I am now weeks from my third trimester, and have been having what seem like constant and ANNOYING Braxton-Hicks contractions for days now, I've had plenty of time to sit, and here are some things I'm thinking about.

• An arsonist burned one of our local church buildings to the ground Saturday morning, it's a total loss.  By the time the firemen responded, the roof was already collapsing.  Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the two congregations that met there (about 800 people total) have found a nearby building to meet in for the time being, but it begs the question: awful prank by a student from the high school next door, or a hate crime?  Is the arsonist planning on burning more church buildings?  Is the arsonist targeting all religions, or just LDS?  Or does the arsonist simply like to burn multi-million-dollar buildings in the middle of the night?
• We do mail-in ballots around here, which arrived over the weekend, so I started filling mine out today.  TWO big voters pamphlets came too, to try and explain everything we're voting on.  Among the many issues,
• State-owned liquor stores: shut 'em down and let private businesses sell hard liquor?  
• B&O insurance: let private companies provide insurance, and at the same time strike the verbiage of the law that states that employees pay half the premiums this insurance?  (It's the insurance that covers a worker who is injured on the job.)  
• Change the state constitution to allow a state income tax on people with income over $200,000?  (We already have a sales tax of nearly 10% in some counties when you factor in "sin" taxes and city/county sales taxes, plus hefty business taxes, among other taxes)
• Re-instate the law that says any measure that increases taxes must have a 2/3rds majority rather than the simple majority the constitution calls for?
• Then there's the candidates, none of whom seem to vote (or will admit to voting) along normal party lines, so that democrats are anti-government, and republicans are all for increasing government services.
• Next Monday is October 25th. October 25th is when CSN promises the remainder of my order will ship.  The first part of my order arrived in August, but I've been getting periodic notices stating when the remainder will leave the warehouse.  Each notice clearly states when it is expected to ship, and firmly reminds me "This is within in the standard time frame."  My husband says they're playing jedi mind tricks with me.
• I started piano lessons for Ernie this morning, with almost no prior thought.  I started by labeling the notes on her xylophone and showing her how to clap the rhythm of her song, and how to read intervals.  We went to the keyboard and pulled out an extra book to see what that said.  Needless to say, we crashed and burned, and she loved every minute of it.  10 minutes later she was demanding another lesson, INSISTING that what she was playing what exactly what was on the page.  Oh dear.  I promised another lesson next Monday morning, and pointed out that ALL of my students need to wait a week between THEIR lessons.  That didn't mollify her one little bit.  We'll plug away, but I fear I started out wrong, which is ironic because I've been teaching for a very, very long time.  But her feet are wet now, and we'll do lots of rhythm activities.  I was going to wait until Christmas...but by then I'll be four weeks from my due date, and thought I owed her a little more one-on-one time if we were going to start this process at all.  And she has Jingle Bells to learn on the xylophone.