Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

Just a few things: Since I'm a shameless braggart when it comes to my children, I want to let all 26 of you know that Josiah took his Accelerated Reader test today. He is reading at a 5th grade level. He is in the top 2% of second graders nationwide in terms of reading and comprehension. He thought it was top 2% in Virginia, but when I explained that it was the whole United States ...well, now he thinks he's pretty cool. And I would have to agree. Finished up all three of the "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" books. I had tried to read them once before and failed. I actually sent all three of them back to Amazon, something I've never done. I hated them, utterly and completely, but because Daniel Craig is in my Top Five, I had to go and see the movie. With Marg. What torture. I'm kidding--it was excellent. I have a very hard time sitting still through anything lasting more than about an hour, but I sat through that movie without a problem. Awesome. Rooney Mara was ...

Dear Dad, I just wanted to say "thank you" for something. It's going to sound a little weird, but on Saturday night as I was shooting up that on ramp pushing the S4 up the RPMs, I had a simple thought: I would not be able to even drive this car if not for Dad. And I was instantly flooded with gratitude for all those times you patiently let me get behind the wheel and slowly taught me to drive a manual. For some reason, I had a terrible time figuring it all out, but obviously something clicked at one point and now here I am, 21 years later, driving that car for all it's worth within the State of Virginia's laws! Thanks Dad. I have a smile on my face every time I drive that car...and I couldn't have done it without you. R

So, welcome Elsa the second. I kind of explained what happened with Elsa the first on Facebook, but it was a quick post and a stressful evening, so I'll go a little more in-depth now. Basically, I had a weird feeling about the company we were buying her from...they are called Purebred Breeders and supposedly they are an intermediary between breeders and folks looking to buy dogs. Like us. We saw a GSD on their website that we really liked. We have been talking about getting another dog for a very long time, so it wasn't a quick decision, but I got a little trigger happy when we found Elsa the first. Buy now, think later. All week, I had this strange feeling, intuition, a hunch, whatever. We hadn't done much checking into Purebred Breeders...when I did Google them, I found a bunch of unhappy customers (and some happy, to be fair). And we started thinking: just what exactly had we done? They didn't ask us any questions about us, our family, our lifestyle or our living sit...

The theme of 2012 for me is "challenge". I should probably get a sign made or embroider something or get a special engraved bracelet. I know, you're all thinking "Rachel needs a challenge?". Well, it's sort of like that and sort of not. I'm a little bored, frankly. That's part of it. I've been a stay-at-home mom now for 7-1/2 years and while I'm extremely grateful to have had this opportunity, it does have its moments of sheer, tearing-out-your-hair boredom. Let's face it, there's not a whole lot of adult stimulation in changing diapers, making sure everyone gets their teeth brushed and sorting whites from darks. Among 1,230,613 other things equally as soul crushing when repeated ad nauseum. I need to challenge myself to alleviate a little of the dull monotony of everyday life. Also, I need to challenge myself to do things that I've not always been comfortable with. For example, I thought to myself this morning that I will host bi...