Life at the Herring household

Despite my best efforts and good intentions, it seems that I cannot force myself to update our blog regularly. I really will try to do better - although until after the election, I don't think I can promise too much.

Work for me with the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide is going great! I had my first experience with public speaking on the issue last week - we couldn't find a speaker to go to Tacoma, so at the last minute I had to do it. I was so nervous, especially because the I-1000 person who I was up against was a retired oncology nurse - WAY better credentials than I could offer. But Tom reminded me that really, the facts stand on their own that Assisted Suicide is horrible public policy and bad medicine. And once people start to hear about just a few of the dangers in this proposed law, they change their minds quickly. It went really well! I'm giving all the credit to the Holy Spirit and my Guardian Angel. I think even a few minds and hearts might have been changed that night.

The election season is definitely bringing with it more hustle and bustle now that I'm working on a campaign, but I like staying busy and it's definitely a cause that I can throw myself in to wholeheartedly. If anyone has any questions about the proposed Initiative 1000, please feel free to give me a call. I'd love to talk with you about it. We've found that people, who although in principle may support Assisted Suicide, change their minds once they've heard some analysis on the illusory "safeguards" that are written in to the Initiative.

Anyway, now I guess you all know what my life has been revolving around lately...

But in reality, it revolves around my wonderful husband and this little redhead running around. When I say running, it's not quite to that point yet, although Clare is getting very confident with her walking and charges ahead fearlessly - and now she has the scars to show for it. On Sunday she sustained her first injury. Nothing major, but she sure was scared when she skidded face-first down the stairs at Mass outside the parish school. Her little nose is all red and skinned up. I'll take a picture and post it.

We celebrated her FIRST birthday on Sept. 6 - hard to believe that it's been a year already! We managed to cram a lot of family in to our little house to celebrate. Clare couldn't understand why all these people were in her house, and she wasn't so sure about the cake...kind of poked at it and played in the frosting a little at first.

The following weekend was her first zoo experience. She's been getting really interested in the neighborhood dogs lately, so we thought that she might like the zoo. We met my mom and Kristy at Point Defiance and took a walk around to look at all the animals. Clare had fun - she especially liked the animals that moved a lot, like the otters. She was pressing her face up to the glass saying, "OOO-OOO!" when she saw them swimming around playing. She also like the beluga whales as they swam by. The walruses, not so much. They were kind of boring.

We're trying to get her to learn that she doesn't need me to get to sleep. Still a work in progress. Although last night she did remarkably well and fell asleep all on her own.

At her one-year checkup she weighed in at 24.5 lbs (82%) and 31 inches long (96%). So, she's still a tall girl. She got 2 shots and didn't cry at all. I was impressed.

Here are a few recent pictures.

Clare's FIRST birthday!



She'd rather walk than be in the stroller.



Liking the view from atop Daddy's shoulders.



Learning to feed herself with a spoon. Note the bedhead and use of the left hand.