Our Lives for Christ

Herring Happenings

2012-01-04T22:23:00.001-08:00

I have to apologize for the total lack of timely updating on this blog. We have a very frustrating computer situation that makes it entirely too much effort for me to upload photos and get them posted on here. I'll try to do better, especially as I realized that I hadn't posted any new pictures or anything since Andrew was born. Can I blame it on the holidays and having a new baby? ;) In any case, here are a few pictures from the past couple of months.

We started out December with a visit from Aunt Monique! What a blessing she is to our family.

Clare and James helping me make Christmas treats. I think more ended up on their faces, hands, and clothes than in the mixing bowl.

Clare and Avila. They are so cute together, and I love that she's at the age where I can choose her friends for her (and spend some time with MY friends at the same time!)

Clare practicing her spelling while I make dinner. This is a little reading activity that I read about in Mommy, Teach Me to Read! by Barbara Curtis. She loves it!

Packin' on the pounds -- check out those rolls! I think they're getting bigger every day.

She loves her baby brother!

Andrew's favorite place in the whole world.

Future babywearing Mama? She spent literally all afternoon with her baby attached to her, just doing her thing while holding her baby. :)

Andrew Paul Herring - The Birth Story

2011-11-09T23:14:00.001-08:00

Here's the story of our super fast labor and delivery experience with our newest addition - Andrew Paul Herring.

Tom was working through the night on the night of Thursday, November 3, so after putting Clare and James to bed and doing a few things around the house, I got myself ready for bed as well. About 10 PM, I started to feel a little sick to my stomach. Perfect timing - just as I'm trying to go to sleep. After about half an hour of feeling sick and having some bloody show (if you know what it is, great. If not, go ahead and look it up if you're that curious),I figured that these were signs that labor would probably happen within 24-48 hours (usually these are good indicators). I put on a movie for about another 30 minutes and tried to let the sick feeling pass so I could get some sleep.

Around 11, I was still feeling pretty sick, so I called my mom to ask her to drive back up to our house from Olympia to be with the kids and me overnight. At this point, I just figured that labor would happen in a day or so, but was feeling gross enough that I didn't want to be at home by myself with Tom at work. I also called Tom at work to let him know how I was feeling and that he should be ready to have a baby in a day or so.

Then only 30 minutes later (11:30 PM), I was feeling really sick so I called Tom again at work and asked him to come home. It was about this time that I was able to say that the pain I was having was no longer from being sick to my stomach, but that I was indeed having contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. I asked Tom's sisters Berna and Maddy to come here to stay with our kids so we wouldn't have to load them up and drop them off in the middle of the night, and they headed to our house from Silverdale.

Within 30 minutes (around midnight) the contractions were only 3 or so minutes apart, and no one was here yet. I called Tom's work again to make sure that he'd left, and was about to go next door to ask our neighbor to come stay with Clare and James. Everyone arrived here about 20 minutes later, and in that time I'd gotten the car loaded up and moved out to the street with the keys in it ready to go.

We left for the hospital about 12:30 and Tom shaved off 5 minutes from a normal 20-minute drive, wanting to go quickly, but not wanting to go so much over the speed limit that we get pulled over. We called Jackie and told her that we were headed to the hospital and that if she still wanted to join us, now was the time. We prayed for a healthy delivery and that we'd get there in time, and arrived at the hospital about 12:45 AM, with my contractions only 1 minute apart.

I'm usually pretty calm in labor, so when we arrived and told the security guy at the check-in desk that I was in labor, he took his dear sweet time getting my name spelled right. The second time he asked me how to spell my name, I just responded, "These contractions are 1 minute apart. I need to get back there now." They got us back to a room and I started to disrobe and put the hospital gown on so I could be ready to have a baby in a few minutes. The nurse came in and said, "Oh, well, you look like you're ready to go!" I said something to the effect that I'd like her to check how far I'm dilated because this baby is coming soon. I'm sure they hear it all the time from women who think they're further along than they are, so she was shocked to find out that I was already dilated to 8 cm. Then I found out that this room was not an actual delivery room at all, this was just the triage room where they get people check and decide if they're going to admit them or not.

Once the nursing staff heard how far I was dilated, it was all hands on deck. They were amazing -- we walked down the hall to our actual delivery room and there must have been 6 nurses in there, all doing different things to be ready to receive a baby. Our OB unfortunately lives too far away (bummer, because we love her) to make it in time, so the on-call OB got herself dressed and ready to catch our little one.

After a flurry of activity, there were about 5 minutes of complete calm, where I was able to just let Tom, my mom, and the OB know that I was starting to feel a need to push, and she responded, "We're ready. You just do whatever your body tells you to." It was so nice to hear that after being so concerned with the fast & furious labor that had started only a couple of hours prior. Then, after 2 pushes, our new little son was born at 1:09 AM, weighing 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches long, and placed directly in my arms. God is so good.

Here are a few pictures from the delivery and with family and friends. I'm sure we'll be posting more soon!

Oh, James

2011-09-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

Things I've said to James that I never had to say to Clare:

"No climbing in the pantry!"

"Dryers are for clothes, not kids."

"Get down from the window sill!"

"We go pee pee in the toilet or in your diaper. Not your pillow."

"Rocks are icky; no eating please."

"Don't play in the dog poop!"

"It's Mommy's job to take out light bulbs, not yours."

"Baseball bats are for balls, not people."

A Little Mama

2011-09-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Clare won't go to sleep until all -- I mean ALL -- her babies and bears are cozily tucked in to their own little beds. It's amazing to me how naturally nurturing she is and how much she loves taking care of anyone or anything deemed "little." She's getting so excited for her little brother or sister in just 7 short weeks!

*Note: This is not all of them. She literally had little beds all over her room.

Camping, peaches, friends...and one pregnant picture

2011-09-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

We've had a fun few weeks spending time with friends and family.

Last month we went camping with Marc & Nichole and Andrew, Lindsey, & John. It was awesome! Just an overnight trip this time around, which turned out to be a great idea for James's first tent experience (he.would.not.sleep). We brought home tired and VERY dirty but happy kids, and everyone slept well the night we got home!

Our tent. AKA: the biggest tent known to man. After camping in a "3-person" backpacking tent one time, Tom came home and immediately ordered from Costco an enormous 8-person tent, swearing he'd never again camp in those squished conditions. This sucker will last us at least through 5 more kids.

I wasn't kidding about the dirt.

We celebrated Ceci & Steph's birthdays together a couple weeks ago, and one of Ceci's requests was a "Ty Lee" cake. She's her favorite character from the cartoon "Avatar," and she really had her heart set on it. So...we figured out how the pros do it, and Anna and I put it together. It turned out really well, and, more importantly, Ceci was really pleased with it.

We got to see Amelia!!!! Kids had a great time running around together at the Point Defiance Zoo and then again at Mike & Kristine's for a BBQ. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

James, Jack, Clare, and Avila looking at the otters playing.

Clare was in 7th Heaven getting to hold a sleeping Baby Peter. Thanks, Amelia, for letting her sit there with him for so long!

I decided to tackle 48 pounds of peaches by myself one day. Here are pictures from start to delicious finish.

Yes, I let my kids destroy the kitchen while I worked on the fruit.

Here are the lovely results -- a dozen quarts of canned peaches, 5 gallon ziplocs of frozen peaches to use in pies and smoothies, and 9 jars of homemade peach honey.

Um, ignore the goofy facial expression. This is me at 31 weeks.

Out of the mouths of babes

2011-08-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

I had a really good discussion with Clare a couple of nights ago...about abortion.

One of our daily Rosary intentions is always, "for an end to abortion." So as I was tucking her in the other night, she asked, "Mommy, what's abortion?" I took a deep breath and figured that since she's been exposed to what it looks like with Tom's signs, it was time to explain it to her as best I could.

I told her that abortion is when a mommy has a baby in her tummy but she decides she doesn't want the baby, so she has a doctor take the baby out before it's ready to be born, and most of the time the baby dies. I explained that the pictures of bloody babies on Daddy's signs is what it looks like when the baby dies during an abortion, and how sad it makes Jesus and Mommy and Daddy that some people make this bad choice.

She said, "Oh, that makes me sad too. But are they bad people?" I said, "No. They're not bad people, but sometimes people make bad choices, so we have to pray for them."

I continued on to tell her that it makes us so sad when bad things happen to babies, that's why Daddy and Mr. Andrew (St. Hilaire) work so hard doing protests with their signs so that people won't be able to make this bad choice any more.

I told her that Mommy and Daddy and Jesus love our babies so much that we would never, ever make this choice, and we hope that other people don't either.

That was it. She understood completely. She now prays for an end to abortion, knowing in her little 3-year old heart that by praying and acting to end it, we can have an effect on the bad choices of other people and make Jesus happy.

So, for any of you out there wondering about the effects of graphic abortion imagery on small children, I would say that we don't need to complicate the issue. We just need to simply explain it to them in ways they can understand (and really, a picture of a bloody baby is not complicated to a kid) and reassure them that we love them, and Jesus loves them, and that we need to work hard to end such a bad thing.

Summer Fun

2011-07-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

We've had lots of fun turning these

and these

into this (finished raspberry jam not pictured).

The kids thought it would be a good idea to wear my and Clare's chapel veils while watching Mass on EWTN the other day.

Our 2nd Annual Forest Park outing with Grandma, Steph, Ceci, Miss Lindsey, and John this week:

My lavender is going nuts in the front yard! I just had to bring some of it inside to enjoy.

A couple pictures

2011-07-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

Guess what color marker James ate. He's pretty proud of his accomplishments.

Our conversation tonight:

Tom: "Kids went down pretty easily. I think they're getting the hang of quieting down quicker with both of them in their room together."

Carrie: "You're right. I guess I hadn't noticed how much faster it was tonight."

(Both thinking this was a major victory for us as parents)

When I went in to our room to get myself ready for bed, this is what I saw:

Sneaky little monkeys crept in to our bed! No wonder they were so quiet. Oh well. At least they're sleeping, right? Still claiming victory for the parents.

The Ahmus visit WA!

2011-07-17T21:43:00.001-07:00

Since we got married, we've managed to spend a week in the summer with Matt & Jenny and their family. This year, instead of us going to Sacramento (much to Tom's chagrin, as the weather here in WA was very un-summery), Matt, Jenny, and their kids came to us! Kids and parents all had a blast! Thanks, Ahmu family, for making it such a wonderful week for our family. We love you and miss you already.

Here are a few highlights from their time here...

Great Wolf Lodge

After the first afternoon playing at Great Wolf Lodge:

Painting on a rainy day

Playing at Point No Point beach on a beautiful afternoon

Lucy and James piling sand on each other's heads

How to make your kids sit in one spot not moving arms or legs for 30 minutes and have them think it's the coolest thing in the world

Story time with Aunt Jenny before bedtime

Random Quick Takes

2011-04-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

1. I wore a chapel veil to Mass for the first time today. Aside from feeling a little self-conscious and attempting to keep James from ripping it off my head, I really liked it. I'd like to thank some of my local parish ladies for inspiring me to *finally* go ahead and do it. Joanna and Jen, thanks for the inspiration and the links to some great articles. To all my other Catholic friends and family, here and here are a couple of articles you may find interesting if you're at all contemplating donning a beautiful chapel veil of your own.

2. Speaking of Mass, today was HORRIBLE with our dear little James. Advice from others is totally welcome here. He was getting squirmy and loud so I took him out to the vestibule. He was squirmy and loud there too, and then started to scream bloody murder. So I took him outside (all the while holding him, mind you. We don't put him down at all if we have to take him out). He calmed down and then I went back inside. We did this a few times until I figured out that he WANTED to go outside, even if he was being held the whole time. It got so he would scream if I took him back inside the building at all. Finally I just decided that I was not going to reinforce the bad behavior by taking him outside when he screamed and I just let him pitch a fit in the back of the vestibule. He finally settled down and fell asleep - right before Communion - when he realized that I wasn't going outside and he wasn't getting down. I don't know what I ought to have done better. On the one hand, I know he was being disruptive for all the other people trying to hear Mass in the vestibule, but on the other, I don't want him to think that he gets to go outside whenever he pitches a fit. Argh. :/

3. We planted 5 blueberry bushes in our front yard last weekend. So excited to have our own crop here (probably won't get many until next year though) and because they have such beautiful Fall color. Thanks to my dad for his help and for bringing up the blueberry bush from my grandma's house!

4. We get to see the Beuschels in just a couple of weeks! A bunch of family will be coming in to town for Chris & Jackie's wedding weekend after next (and Ceci's First Holy Communion!) and we're so looking forward to spending time with family we haven't seen in so long.

5. Please pray for my sister-in-law Rebecca, who is in Mexico on a mission trip with Monique and some other consecrated ladies. She had a bit of trouble getting there, and I just pray that the craziness getting there doesn't overshadow what Our Lord has in store for her while she's there serving Him.

6. Hoping some Spring weather sticks around for a while -- I'm itching to get some herbs planted again, even though I know it's too early.

7. Counting down the weeks until my first girls' trip (NO KIDS) at the end of May! Yes, I know it's a month away, but it's just going to be so awesome to spend 5 whole days with dear friends and no dear little ones to chase after. :) Tom, you're a trooper. Thanks for being so great about letting me get away.

7 Quick Takes

2011-03-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

1. I figured out this morning that my phone has a limit on how many times you can push the snooze button on the alarm: 7 times. Yes, that's right, folks! I attempted to snooze 8 times this morning. Alas, it didn't work, and I had to drag my bum out of bed. Lest you think I slept the day away, I still did manage to make it out of bed by 6:30, and my alarm only has a 5-minute snooze (pretty lousy, if you ask me). We've been having some sleep issues here with our sweet darling princess girl so Mommy's had a hard time getting out of bed in the mornings.

2. Me to Tacoma News Tribune customer service: "Um, hi, yeah, I have a problem with the delivery of my newspaper." Customer Service: "Oh, did we miss a delivery?" Me: "No, I've been getting my papers." Customer Service: "Were there pieces missing?" Me: "No, everything's fine with the paper, it's just that I wanted to ask if you could ask the paper carrier to try to hit my driveway if possible. For the past 3 days I've gone outside to see my newspaper in my flower bed where my crocuses and daffodils are trying to bloom, and he keeps crushing my flowers!" I'm sure they thought I was the dumbest person alive, and I'm sure the carrier really thinks he's hitting my driveway -- but maybe a little more focus on the 15 feet of pavement and a little less on the 2-foot width of flower bed would be nice.

3. I'm sporting a nice welt and bruise on my eye thanks to James's attempt to simultaneously climb in to my bed and hand me a hard-cover book to read to him. A little eyeshadow and it *almost* looks like part of my makeup routine.

4. With all the nuclear craziness in Japan the past week, we've been on standby, just waiting for Tom to go to Japan for 2 weeks - 1 month to help with efforts to monitor the environment and the people for detectable radiation. Thank goodness it looks like he won't have to go. At least not now, anyway. But, even though we're civilians, we've learned that with the Navy, things could be very different 5 minutes from now.

5. We finally have Tom home on a somewhat normal schedule now. For the past few weeks he was working 12 hours a day, first on swing shift, then on the back shift (6-6 through the night). Ugh. I *hate* it when he's on weird schedules, because it throws our whole family off. It's nice to have him back for a while. The back shift is the hardest, because I have to try to keep kids quiet while he sleeps during the day, and then he's gone for the most trying part of my day -- late afternoon/evening. I try (somewhat successfully) to have a good attitude and just be thankful that I have such a hard-working husband who takes good care of his family.

6. Clare and James's most recent favorite things: grapes. I literally can't bring them out until the end of a meal because once they spot those things there's no getting them to eat anything else. I guess it's a good problem to have.

7. On the menu for tonight: black bean and rice enchiladas. It's a great Friday meal, and one that every time we have, Tom says, "These are good, but they'd be so much better with some meat in them." I guess that's the point of making a little sacrifice, huh? :)

Happy Friday to everyone!

A day in pictures

2011-03-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

Smoke raises from Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1 in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, Saturday, March 12, 2011

A large ship sits among rubble after it was hit by a tsunami in Kesennuma, northeastern Japan, on Saturday March 12, 2011

Japanese civilians climbing amidst the remains of their homes, following the 9.1 magnitute earthquake

President Obama enjoys 18 holes of golf, March 12, 2011

Little Lenten Practices

2011-03-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

Happy first Friday of Lent!

I'm not kidding at all when I say that this is my favorite of all liturgical seasons. There's something wonderful about purging bad habits, starting good ones, and cutting down on the distractions in our lives so we can focus more on what's important.

Clare is understanding WAY more than I thought she would. I've been turning on EWTN after lunch to watch their Stations of the Cross as I tidy the kitchen and we get ready for naps, and today Clare got so excited when at the end they showed an image of the Risen Christ -- she ran to me yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! Jesus came back from the dead!!!"

We made the Crown of Thorns shown here, although mine didn't turn out as pretty. Turns out that braiding the salt dough ought to have been done on the cookie sheet on which I baked it instead of braiding it all together and then having to transfer it to the sheet, which stretched it and totally disfigured it. Oh well. Good enough for a crown of thorns for a 3-year old. :) She loves this activity. I told her that she gets to remove a thorn for every extra good thing that she does to show Jesus that she loves Him, and I can really see her making an effort and being creative in her charity. How beautiful to see our little girl learning to grow in virtue!

I also figured out that the Crown of Thorns she loves so much can be used as a disciplinary tool. Last night she'd been so helpful that I let her take out TWO thorns from Jesus' crown. But then later in the evening, she pushed James hard enough off her bed that he hit his face and his lip was bleeding. I was shocked that I didn't lose my patience (see, Lent is good for me too!), but then I came up with a really good idea: instead of the normal swat or time out and apologize to James, I first made her go out and put one of the thorns back in to Jesus' crown. I think that worked more than any time out could have! She was really sad. Maybe a little overkill, but it illustrated the point I was trying to get across to her.

We also have a Lenten paper chain (we like paper chains in this house) and a little Lenten calendar that she got to color to keep track of the days.

We will be (attempting to) attend our parish's Stations of the Cross every Friday - but until Tom is done working 12 hours through the night I'm not sure I want to try this alone. :/

Also, I'm planning on doing this Last Supper craft with Clare duing Holy Week to get ready for the Triduum.

That's about it. Tom and I each have our own resolutions, and we're praying that this Lent is fruitful for our family and yours!

How I learned to coupon

2011-03-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

By popular demand, I'm going to write down a few things that I've learned about couponing, and show you the system that I'm working on developing that seems to work for me.

It all started months ago, when my friend Cheri recommended a book she was reading - The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half. I was intrigued and I checked it out from the library and devoured it. But it seemed like a LOT to get a handle on, so I didn't really get in to it.

Then, my friend Kristine recommended a few coupon blogs that she subsribes to, so I tried that, but was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of daily updates and posts that I soon found myself behind and almost gave up.

Then I decided to really, really give it a go. Here's what I do:

1. Subscribe to these blogs in my Google Reader so that their multiple posts don't clog up my inbox. If you want to do this, simply click on "follow via RSS" on the blog site.

The Krazy Coupon Lady
Fabulessly Frugal
Hip2Save

2. Read the posts on Krazy Coupon Lady and Fabulessly Frugal about couponing for beginners. This step is indispensable and makes the whole "world" of couponing (and it IS its own world) more accessible to the newbie.

3. I get 4 copies of the Sunday paper -- yep, that means I have 4 copies of every single coupon. Pretty sweet when you want to stock up on something. I resisted this for a long time and finally gave in when I saw so many stock-up deals pass me by when I was only able to buy 2 or 3 of an item because of a coupon limit. Fabulessly Frugal has a newspaper deal with a few newspapers in the northwest so you can get a discounted rate if you mention Fab Frugal.

4. Organize. Whatever system works best for you. I use a zippered binder with baseball card holders divided in to grocery category and a table of contents in the front (freakish, I know). Thanks, Kris, for pointing me to KCL for her table of contents. :) If you don't have a system, especially if you're getting multiple copies of each coupon, you'll soon be overrun by coupons and probably give up. Krazy Coupon Lady and Fabulessly Frugal both have great posts on some different systems of organization.

5. Now, the practical, every day things I do:

- Check my Google Reader a couple times a day. This really doesn't take long. I just scroll through all the posts and simply add a star to the ones that I'm interested in. Nothing more than that.

- I keep a weekly grocery plan (aka: blank sheet of paper) in my binder, ready for me to jot notes on. And usually a couple of days before I go shopping I'll simply look through all my starred items in my Reader and make notes of what items (including which coupons to use, quantity, and how many transactions I need to do) I want to get at what store this week. I've found that by shopping at multiple stores, you can really get the most bang for your buck. This note-taking really saves me having to comb meticulously through all the store circulars.

- The day before shopping day, I'll pull out my store ads and cut any coupons I need from there and toss the rest of the circular. No need to clutter either my counter or my binder.

- Since sometimes I make multiple transactions in order to use multiple coupons, I go through my coupons, pairing the manufacturers' coupons with the store coupons and staple them together. Then I paper clip each transaction's coupons together. This avoids having to hold up a line and flip through disorganized coupons and makes your cashier a little friendlier. :)

Goodness, that sounds like a LOT. And to be honest, it was in the beginning. But now that I'm getting the hang of it, it's really not too hard or time consuming at all.

I have to say, though, that the BEST thing I ever did was subscribe to the blogs. They do a lot of the "thinking" for you, pairing sales with weekly ads and manufacturers' coupons. If I had to do all that work myself, I wouldn't do it. Honestly. It's so nice to just check these blogs and make my grocery list according to the sales that they alert me to in my Reader.

I hope this helps anyone who might be on the verge of really going gung-ho about couponing. It's not just a freakish obsession with me (really it's not); I really feel God calling me as a wife to be the best darn home economist that I can be. If it's my husband's job to provide the income for our family, then it's my job to manage that money to the best of my ability and make the most of every dollar.

On a side note, I was talking to Tom recently about this...I've noticed a very positive change in our marriage since I've started to coupon seriously. Not that we've ever had problems in our marriage regarding money (thank Goodness!), but Tom and I both feel that now we're really working hard as a team to provide for our family, and it's been wonderful for our relationship.

So, what are you waiting for, Ladies? Jump in! And please let me know if this helped or if you have any questions.

Adventures in Couponing

2011-02-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the inspiration of a few good friends -- thank you, Kristine and Cheri -- I have entered the wonderful world of couponing.

I'm still a newbie and make a few mistakes, but we're already noticing a HUGE difference in our grocery bills each month. For example, here's the run down on my short trip to Albertson's yesterday:

Shelf cost (what it would have cost w/o preferred card or coupons): $22.18
Coupons redeemed: $18.06
Discounts: $6.06
Total Savings: $24.12 = 108.75%

Pretty sweet if you ask me, and totally worth the time and effort!

James and the onion

2011-02-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

This little episode in the Adventures of James-ey Boy has a total elapsed time of about 45 seconds.

Me: "James, those onions are icky. No touching, you won't like it."

He succeeds in grabbing one off the counter and popping it in his mouth anyway.

Me: "I told you they were icky." I'm a fan of natural consequences when I can get them. :) After he got done showering the kitchen in a spray of chewed-up onion, he looked at me like, "How in the world could you let me do that???" Maybe next time he'll listen when I say something is icky...

7 Quick Takes

2011-02-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

I'm really, really going to try to at least get Quick Takes done every week. For real this time.

1. My little kitchen helpers making a batch of cookies for Daddy.

2. Grammy got this little craft kit for Clare, and she LOVED doing it! Makes a super-cute flower headband, necklace, or bracelet. Thank you, Mom!

3. For a long time it was hard for me to give up my perfectionism and allow Clare to "help" me with the household duties. It was easier for me to just make her bed for her, fold all the clothes, and put away all the dishes so that it was all done correctly. But I finally realized that I'm doing her no favors by doing everything for her, and that it's part of my duty as a wife and mother not only to keep my house clean and neat, but to train my children to do the same. How can I expect them to be able to do it later in life if I don't start giving them the tools now, even if it's not "perfect" according to my standards? So, I have relaxed and allow both Clare and James to help me with the chores they are able.

I can say that it is paying off! Not only does Clare love earning her own money (thanks to Dave Ramsey, and Financial Peace Jr.), but she really is improving. Check out these (sorted!) and folded towels that Clare did the other day.

4. Happened upon this in our hallway yesterday. Yes, it's Clare's baby in a time out. I asked her what Baby had done to get a time out. Clare's answer: "She was throwing a fit and screaming and wouldn't stop." Now you know how the past few days of life at the Herring house have been. :)

5. After reading The Read-Aloud Handbook (thanks Kris & Theresa!) I've been completely convinced of the necessity of training my children to become lifetime readers, instilling in them a love of reading from early on in their lives. So seeing scenes like these make me so happy!

6. We went to the Tacoma Children's Museum today with Lindsey and John. What a great idea, Lindsey! Thanks so much -- we all had a blast and look forward to our next outing with you guys.

7. I'm going through Fascinating Womanhood again. It's truly a life-changing book. Before I read this book this summer while Tom was in Japan, I thought I was doing a pretty good job at being a good wife. This book is eye-opening and forces me to love more and give more than I ever thought I could. I think it is truly a book for a lifetime - I constantly need reminders on how I should be and could be loving my wonderful husband more every day. I highly recommend it to any and every Christian wife.

The Business of Being Born

2011-01-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

I finally watched a movie that had been recommended to me a long time ago by a friend -- "The Business of Being Born" -- and I thought I'd share my 2 cents about the whole thing.

If you want a quick snapshot of what the movie is about, click here for the trailer.

I liked it. I also liked "Pregnant in America," another documentary that follows along the same lines. I think they offer a really good, critical look at maternity care in the United States, especially compared to other western, industrialized societies. I think there are a lot of ways that we can (and SHOULD) improve maternity care and make it less of a "medical" procedure that needs to be treated in the hospital like an illness and more of a natural LIFE-giving process that ought to be monitored carefully and allowed to unfold the way God intended womens' bodies to do it.

I agree wholeheartedly with the makers of this film that a large percentage of "complications" associated with childbirth could potentially be avoided if doctors didn't start the cascading effects of medical induction/intervention that many times end up in cesarean rather than natural, vaginal delivery.

That said, I did not agree with the makers' sweeping assertions that all hospitals and OB/GYNs are in it for the money or are going to force you in to a labor and delivery that you did not want or intend. I, for one, have been VERY pleased with my completely natural, med-free deliveries with my OB at the hospital. I want a natural delivery with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that if, God forbid, the worst were to happen, I am within minutes of life-saving medical attention. Maybe I lucked out with my OB, who, as she says, "is very patient with natural labor and won't try to force things along that are not ready to happen." (she and I had this conversation shortly before James was born)

I will end this little commentary here, because it could drag on and on...and on. But I do find it interesting to note that both the makers of these 2 films, who began their films with the premise that doctors and the hospitals are NOT on their sides, ended up being rushed to the hospital after serious complications arose with their home-birth experiences.

That is not to say that I am always for hospital births or always for home births. To each his own. But I do think that it would be good for all parents to at least check these films out so that when the time comes for them to make decisions with regard to their own labor and delivery experiences they can make informed ones.

Let me know what you think!

Trying something (old) new for Advent/Christmas

2010-11-29T13:14:00.000-08:00

Remember all those great old movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story" where they decorate their tree on Christmas Eve?

After reading the book "The Catholic Home" I've decided to give it a try in the Herring household. I really want to infuse a Catholic Christian atmosphere in to our home, and now is the perfect time to do some "tweaking." I get so annoyed by the mega stores who have Christmas decorations up by Halloween and who try to make Christmas all about the presents (Hello? Anyone seen "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"???). Heck, I've even fallen prey to this attitude -- preparing for Christmas becomes all about lists, greeting cards, and asking, "So what did ____ get you for Christmas?" So this year I'm going to fight against it.

Sure, we'll still prepare by getting our cards out to family and friends, buying a couple of presents for our kids and some family members, listening to Christmas music, and putting up decorations. But I'm holding off on the tree until Christmas Eve. Why? Not just because I want to replicate all those good ol' movies, but because I think it is going to be good for me to wait on that oh-so-visible sign of Christmas through the season of Advent.

We're going to celebrate Advent as a season of waiting, preparation, and anticipation. We probably won't do it perfectly, but we'll try our best to focus on preparing our HEARTS for Christ's birth by doing a Jesse tree (or some variation), an Advent calendar, and celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas (the real Santa Claus). So what about Santa? Don't know, don't care. I'm honestly ambivalent about him. Now that Clare is old enough to understand it all, I think what we'll end up doing is some variation on Santa. We'll put up our stockings on St. Nicholas Eve (Dec. 5) and she'll get a little treat the next morning and we'll talk about honoring the things that St. Nicholas did while he was alive on earth. Then Christmas presents will be given not because "Santa" brings them, but because we are participating in the celebration of Jesus' birthday.

And then we'll leave our tree up for the duration of the Christmas season which lasts until Jan.6.

Life after marriage and kids

2010-10-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

I've been noticing the past few days certain funny things that marriage and kids have changed about my life. Here are a few of them:

I like to turn music on while I'm cleaning. Before I had kids I would usually put on something like Juanes and turn it up super loud. These days I rock out to The Wiggles.

Movie night before kids: something like Taken. Movie night after kids: The Black Stallion.

Before kids, I looked forward to the day when I could sit and watch Disney movies with my little ones. Now that I have little ones, I realize that some of those villains are downright SCARY for kids!

Before kids, this song was cute. Last night I heard it and it made me cry.

It's just amazing how even the simplest things catch your attention when you're paying attention. I love my life.

What I want for my children

2010-10-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine shared this post on her Facebook profile and it struck a chord with me. We as parents always want what's best for our kids, and this post re-focuses that desire on the higher good for which they were created.

Enjoy!

Walking boy!

2010-10-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here's our walking-walking boy! :) Big sister Clare likes to help - a lot. I love this beginning walking stage - when they can't go anywhere very quickly, are super proud of themselves, and have to hold their hands in the air for balance.

Happy Birthday, James!

2010-09-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been a year already.

James, you are all boy. I can't believe how different you are from your big sister at this age.

You are fearless. You climb on EVERYTHING, including furniture, Clare's desk, and beds. You hang from the window sill and try to scale the wall.

Everything you have in your hands either becomes a projectile or a hammer.

You growl. A lot. Clare likes to call it your "monster voice."

When you wake up, you're ready to GO. There's no in-between quiet snuggle time. You just crawl out of your bed, fling the door open, and come barreling down the hallway half asleep. These days you've skipped coming out to see me and Daddy and have just been going straight to Clare's room to crawl in bed with her. I love seeing how much you love each other!

You are learning to give kisses and love smashing your face in to ours. It's especially cute when you have Clare pinned to the ground and you give her a not-so-gentle kiss.

We love everything about you, James! We pray for you daily and hope that you grow up to be a man of God, putting His will for your life above all, and learning to love Him and imitate Him more and more every day. Happy Birthday, James Michael.

And Happy Feast Day of the Archangels, after whom James takes his middle name!

Here's a link to the post that I wrote just a few days after he was born.

Sick of electronics

2010-07-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

I suddenly became completely disgusted with myself. I had a moment this week when I realized that I had fallen in to the trap of "keeping up" on my dear friends' lives via Facebook, email, and blogs. Don't get me wrong, these are fun ways to post and read about the little happenings of daily life, but they are in no way a substitute for a good conversation or (gasp!) a hand-written note.

So, to all my wonderful friends, I'm sorry. And coming soon: a real phone call, note, or time spent together.

With Tom out of town for so long, I'm realizing the importance of my friends and family even more, and I promise to dedicate more time to you.

I love you all.

Simple Pleasures

2010-07-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Since Tom's gone, I've found that a key to my sanity is to find joy in the simple pleasures. Here are a few that I've thought of this week:

1. The way a freshly-vacuumed carpet looks.

2. One-on-one snuggle time with Clare and James.

3. Enjoying a cup of wine and an episode (or 3) of BBC Robin Hood with my sister after the babies are in bed.

4. Crawling in to a bed with fresh, clean sheets.

5. Seeing Clare play outside in the sprinklers in her swimsuit all by herself.

6. The smell of clean floors (thanks, Shan!).

7. The quiet of the early mornings before babies are awake, when I have time to read, drink a cup of coffee, and do my morning meditation.

8. The feeling of sore muscles. I figure that if it hurts, it means it's getting smaller. :)

9. Hearing Clare and James giggling like crazy as they play together on the floor.

10. James's 2-tooth grins and Clare's hugs and kisses.

11. Video-chatting with Tom. I'm so thankful that technology allows us to hear and see him even from so far away.

12. Eating/drinking/cooking with fresh herbs from my back deck. This week we've used our basil, rosemary, mint, and lemon thyme. It's so awesome.

13. The generosity and friendliness of our neighbors. The other day one came over and gave us an enormous bag of freshly-picked rainier cherries from a tree in their back yard, and today our next-door neighbor gave us a couple of fresh crabs that they caught yesterday. Sooooo looking forward to eating those tonight! What a treat.

What are some of your simple pleasures?

New Deck

2010-06-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the new deck. Like Carrie said, we re-used the balisters since they -- unlike the rest of the deck -- were not suffering from rot. The wood does still need to be painted.

Differences from the old deck:

- The new deck is slightly (but noticeably) larger (8 X 12). The original deck was 8 X 10. Since it is larger we added a third support post.

- You can't fall through the new deck.

- Stairs.

- Azek (i.e., $$$ PVC) vs. 3/8ths-inch rotted wood decking.

And for the low, low price of $80 you can get a box of invisible screws.

Actually, I was really impressed with how difficult it is to see where the screw holes are. The box comes with Azek plugs to match your deck. You would have to be on your hands and knees to find where they are at.

Like Carrie said, we are very pleased with our new deck. And we are especially grateful to Tom Grover for his expertise. It never would have happened without his help.

-Tom

7 (not so) Quick Takes

2010-06-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Goodness, has it really been three weeks since I last posted something? Oh well, here are a few Quick Takes and snapshots of the happenings of the Herring household.

1. Bye-bye old roll-up shades that Clare loved to fray, hello brand new faux wood blinds throughout the whole house. We love them!

Kitchen window BEFORE:

Kitchen window AFTER:

2. Check one project off the list. On to another (much bigger) one: rebuilding our deck which was threatening to fall apart and add some stairs so that we can actually get down to our yard from the patio door (a pet peeve of mine for the past year).

Tom went to Lowe's and used their "design a deck" computer program to come up with an estimate of our building costs. Their estimate: $3000. For a 10 x 10 deck with stairs! We thought that sounded a little high, especially considering that we were going to do it ourselves. Fortunately for us, my mom's husband Tom knows what he's doing, has all the fancy equipment, and was willing to spend a couple of days at our house working on it. With his help, re-using some of the salvageable cedar railings, and not having any waste or equipment rentals/purchase, we were able to cut the estimate we got at Lowe's in half AND use the Azek decking (like Trex but a little better according to the guy at Kitsap Lumber) that we wanted to.

Here are some pictures of the whole process. It only took 2 days for them to get this done! I was impressed at how quickly it can go when you have a project manager who knows what he's doing. Thank you soooooooo much, Tom (Grover)!

BEFORE looking out the patio door:

BEFORE from the back yard:

Tom doing the "head scratching" part:

Digging up the footings of the old deck

Clare had to help dig, too.

Shannon got a tutorial on how to use the saw and was then in charge of cutting (perfectly, I might add) all the deck material.

Putting up the railing on the stairs.

Well, I guess I have pretty good before and during shots, but I need to take a few of the completed project. We LOVE our new deck and the ability to get down to the back yard from the house!

3. We also painted the guest bathroom, but I don't have any before/after shots of that. It looks great, though.

4. Tom's Spring Quarter ends today! Thank goodness. No more 12-hour days of work + homework...at least for the next 10 days. Summer Quarter begins on the 21st. Tom was working hard one night after dinner on some homework, and Clare thought he needed a little cup of "tea" aka: water in her plastic tea cup to perk him up.

5. James has teeth!

6. My little kitchen helpers unloading the dishwasher for me:

7. Please keep our friend Matt Oakland in your prayers. He's being ordained to the Priesthood tomorrow!!! We are so thankful for his generous "yes" to God's call and are looking forward to celebrating with him tomorrow.

The Do-Over

2010-05-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for the "do-over."

Nothing to do with sports; this has everything to do with life.

Yesterday was, as Clare would put it, "a rough day." Sometimes I marvel at how quickly my sweet little 2-year old can go from super helpful angel girl (she folded/put away a bunch of laundry AND helped unload the diswasher - unprompted) to a stubborn, no-nap, tantrum-throwing tornado of emotions. By the time Tom came home from work and doing schoolwork I was ready to stand on the street corner and sell her to the lowest bidder.

I was just looking forward to a new day, a new start, with my little girl. A chance to begin again - for both of us. I just wanted to scream, "Do over!" like we used to do when missing a serve at family volleyball games as kids.

Reflecting on my desire for a do-over with Clare last night, I realized that this has implications far beyond parenting. I not only wanted a do-over for myself, I had to be willing to let Clare have another shot at having a good day without letting the cloud of yesterday's craziness settle on my heart.

This is only a *tiny* portion of what God our loving Father must experience when we, His beloved children, rebel, refuse to listen, and throw temper tantrums. Yet, day in and day out, He gives us another shot. Another opportunity to love Him better, to obey Him better, to shout to Heaven, "Do over!"

A Snapshot of my Day

2010-04-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

6:15 AM Get up to do morning prayers and have coffee.

6:20 AM James wakes up. Nurse him back to sleep.

6:30 AM Clare wakes up. Crawls in to my bed and starts crying that she wants chocolate milk. I tell her that if she's quiet for a few minutes while I nurse James I will make it for her. Anything to keep her quiet while I tried to get James back to sleep...

6:40 AM Make said chocolate milk for Clare and send her back to her bed with it.

6:45 AM Finally get up to get my coffee started. Enjoy a little peace and quiet while I do my meditation. :)

7:10 AM Clare apparently did NOT go back to sleep at 6:40. She wanders out to the living room and asks (ever so sweetly), "Mommy, can I come out and snuggle with you?" How could I resist? We sit on the couch and read together while I finish my coffee.

7:30 AM Decide to get ready for the day. Clare and Mommy dressed. Throw a load of laundry in.

8:00 AM James up for the day. He doesn't usually sleep this late...he slept for 13 hours last night!

Watch "Wee Sing - Adventures in Sillyville" while I unload the dishwasher and get breakfast in Mommy & Clare and nurse James. Make beds and tidy rooms.

9:00 AM Turn on Mass on EWTN. Try to convince Clare that she doesn't need to yell at the top of her lungs while she rides her bike around the house. Mommy's trying to listen to the homily...somewhat unsuccessfully.

Transfer laundry. Put breakfast dishes in. Put another load in the washer.

9:30 AM James getting fussy. This is his normal AM nap time, but I'm thinking he might be off a bit because he woke up so late. Nurse him in the Ergo anyway. Heck, he might go down.

10:00 AM He's REALLY cranky and definitely falling asleep on me as we walk around the house. Awesome! A morning nap might happen, after all. Take him to my room to put him down. It's going great until Clare comes in to "help" me put him down. Snuggling was OK for a little bit, but then she started to squirm around. Since he's falling asleep I'm trying desperately to whisper, "Clare, it's time to be quiet and still. When James falls asleep we can go out and make some cookies for Daddy." Apparently this just makes her angry, so she yells for no particular reason. James is awake now. Nurse him another minute, and his eyes start to droop again. Yay! Then Clare puts her feet in James's back and pushes. Ok. Enough. Detach from baby and drag toddler to her room for a time out while I try to get James calmed down and back to sleep.

Clare screaming and throwing herself at the door. James is now fully awake and more than likely not going to go back to sleep. Agh.

10:40 AM All's quiet in Clare's room. She apologizes. All three of us go out to make cookies.

Transfer laundry. Start making cookies. Everyone's having fun.

Put a sheet of cookies in and decide that 10 minutes is plenty of time for me to hang up my wet laundry and vacuum the bedrooms. Clare's playing games with James. Both kids laughing like crazy. I love it.

Finish vacuuming, put another sheet of cookies in. Clare and James still playing on the floor. James starts screaming an "in pain" scream. I ask Clare what happened. She accidentally kicked James while they were playing (I believe her that it was an accident). We're practicing apologizing promptly when someone gets hurt, even if it was an accident. She's not taking to it very well. She apologizes to me. She apologizes to Daddy. She apologizes to Grandma. She will NOT use James's name in the apology. Back to her room for a time out. (More experienced mommys out there: am I right in assuming that this is defiance and I ought to make her apologize to James?)

5 minutes later: it's quiet in her room, so I go in to check to see if she's ready to apologize to James. She's in there playing games. I tell her that time out is not a time to play and that now she has to do her time out where I can watch her. (Flashback to my childhood) She gets to stand in the corner of the living room until she's ready to apologize to James. This works! It only took 2 minutes.

Cookies are done and now it's time for lunch.

By now James is getting cranky again because now it's time to nurse and he's missed his AM nap.

Another thing we're working on with Clare is sitting nicely in her chair while we eat. She has good days and bad days. Today was not a great day. She had to forfeit the cookie she was looking forward to.

Time to try to go #2 before nap time. (I have to do this because she will go ON PURPOSE as an excuse to get out of bed). She will not stay on the toilet, so now I have to just shut the bathroom door and leave her there until she's done.

It's 12:30 PM. Is it nap time yet?

7 Quick Takes Friday

2010-04-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

1. We're having our first night out since our anniversary in July - without the babies - and going to see Brian Regan at the Paramount in Seattle with Tom's brother Chris and his girlfriend Jackie. Sooooooo excited!

2.

Bribery? Maybe. I prefer to think of it as incentive for good behavior at the grocery store.

3. Clare's elbow popped out of joint this week. Apparently "nursemaid's elbow" is very common...so one quick trip to the pediatrician and she was right as rain. And now I know how to fix it in the future.

4.

Our neighbors' son outgrew this little swing, so they gave it it us! Both Clare and James love it.

5. Tom has been staying late at work every day this week to watch lectures for school. While we really appreciate him working SO hard, we miss him like crazy. I need to do a better job at keeping a positive attitude about him getting his Master's - focusing on the end goal instead of the evenings that we're missing him.

6. Tom's dad (Tim) had his hip replaced this morning. Everything went well and he's recovering, but will be in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday. Prayers for his speedy recovery are much appreciated!

7.

I never get tired of all the goofy positions in which Clare decides that she needs to sleep. No idea why the raincoat made an appearance for nap time, but apparently it was very important.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2010-04-09T08:43:00.001-07:00

1. On my to-do list for the day: Batch cooking turkey soup, ham & split pea soup, and roasting a chicken for future meals. Today is also floor cleaning day. We'll see how I do. Then throwing in feeding the kids, playing with them a bit, going to the store, and having Tom's sisters overnight! :)

2. Number of sippy cups I found in random places around the house this morning: 5.

3. Number of nose-suctioning sessions we've had so far today: 3.

4. I woke up at 6:30 this morning to find Clare not in her bed, not in her closet, but sitting quietly in the rocking chair in the living room. I have no idea how long she's been up today. I guess we'll find out by about 11 AM if she's in total meltdown mode.

5. A shortcut I've learned: wiping down the mirror and faucets with a towel after I shower while it's nice and steamy in the bathroom cuts down on a few steps when I have to clean the bathroom and keeps it looking nice in between deep cleanings.

6. James has started only going #2 once or twice a week for the past few weeks. While on the one hand it's nice not having quite as many poopy diapers, when he does go, he GOES and it usually involves a bath in the sink afterward.

7. Speaking of James - He had his 6-month checkup this week. He's still big, but not quite as huge as he has been compared to other babies his age. 90% for weight (21 lbs.) and 88% for height (28").

Reasons to Wake Up Early

2010-03-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share this post from Simple Mom with you.

I honestly don't know what I'd do without my mornings to myself. Well, I do, actually. When I don't get this important time, I find myself short-fused, scattered, tired, and unmotivated. I've even been known to put Clare back to bed if she wakes up before I'm ready for her. :)

7 Quick Takes

2010-03-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

1. My silent retreat last weekend was AWESOME. James was a trooper and was pretty quiet the whole time so I was actually able to listen to most of the meditations (albeit from the back of the Chapel standing up with James in the Ergo).

2. A resolution from my retreat: rely more on God's grace than my own abilities, especially in the arena of patience. Left to my own devices, I inevitably react to situations rather than respond with patience and charity. This means that I need to pray expectantly,trusting that God desires me to respond with charity even more than I do and that He will grant me the grace to do so when I need it. When I pray for a virtue (patience) I have to act as though He's already given me the grace that I desire.

3. Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone begins a sentence with, "No offense..." or "With all due respect..." they usually proceed to say something that they know will give offense and often times lacks respect? Note: this is not a trend I've noticed personally, but it happens a lot in movies! :)

4. I was thankful that while Tom was in Japan and working 12 hours through the night our little James learned to fall asleep on me in the Ergo as I took care of the house and Clare. It made it sooooo much easier while I was on retreat because he was used to falling asleep with me moving around, not just at home in his bed with the lights off, etc. I'm trying to find the balance right now between a good routine and being flexible with the babies' (especially Clare) bed and nap times.

5. I've got strawberries - lots of them - thanks to our friends Steve & Rose. I'm so excited to find a good spot to plant them so they won't take over, and Clare enjoys taking care of them and watering them. I'm also on the lookout for a few low-bush blueberries that do well in our zone. I noticed that Fred Meyer has them on sale right now, but I'm not sure if they're low-bush or high-bush. I don't want a hedge of blueberries in our front yard! Home Depot has them on sale too, but they're not the best variety for our zone here. Hmmmm...

6. (Hopeful) Spring/Summer project for the Herring family: rebuild our deck. Our goals are: 1)replace the one that is falling apart, and 2)have access to the back yard. Seriously, who builds a house with a deck out the patio door and doesn't put STAIRS on the stupid thing so you can get to the yard???

7. Tom and I are changing insurance policies right now. This entails someone coming to our house tonight to do a short "physical exam" here in our living room. I'm not quite sure what to expect.

Check out these little numbers

2010-03-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have been working on organizing all our photos and noticed that I have a TON of pictures of Clare's crazy outfits. Here is a sneak peek in to the life of our little fashionista:

7 Quick Takes

2010-03-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

Shannon and I are going to a 3-day silent retreat following St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises this weekend, and I'm going to be busy packing and getting myself and James all ready to go, so this week's Quick Takes are going to be quick indeed.

1. Happy Birthday, Shanny! Today is my dear sister's birthday. Love you, Shan.

2. Please pray for all the ladies who will be on retreat this weekend - there are about 60 of us going!

3.

Couldn't resist snapping a picture of Clare snuggling with her Jesus in her sleep.

4.

The obligatory "kids on the couch" picture. We had so much fun having Kristine and Avila here to play while Mary and the boys were visiting. You'll notice that Clare and Avila are wearing "princess outfits." :) Clare still wakes up and asks for "Miss Kristine and Avila coming to play." We need to make that happen again, Kris!

5.

We love having Nichole and Marc here! Clare LOVES them both, as you can see by her snuggling right up on the couch with them after her bath. They are awesome, and so patient with us - even with Tom ending up having to work overnight and me falling asleep nursing James before I could get their beds set up (sorry guys!). Imagine my horror when I woke at midnight and realized that I'd left them out in the living room to fend for themselves. They were so gracious and happily left the couches and went to beds once I moved Clare out of her room for them.

6.

Is Clare ready for summer? She doesn't seem to understand how it can be so sunny but not be the time for setting up the swimming pool out in the back yard. She is wearing not one, not two, but three swimsuits here, complete with a sun hat. That's my girl.

7.

A couple of weeks ago, around the 5-month mark, we decided to start experimenting with James and some rice cereal just to see if he was in to it or not. He wasn't. So I would try to give him a little tiny bit every now and again just to see when he was ready. This past week he started really showing interest - gobbling it down like I'd been starving him for the better part of 6 months!

I needed this yesterday

2010-03-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

One thing I've learned is that God has a real sense of humor when it comes to answering prayers like, "Lord, please increase in me the virtue of patience." (humility is another killer, too) He's all to happy to provide AMPLE opporutnity for you to put that virtue in to practice.

Yesterday was one of those days for me. I'd decided to wait up for Tom to get home from work watching episodes of BBC's Robin Hood (and yes, I realize how stupid that sounds now that I type it out). Tom had been working overtime (night shift) for the past few weeks and our shedules have just been completely opposite, and I was beginning to feel like I never saw my husband, so I thought it would be great to be awake instead of dead to the world when he got home at 2 AM. Thanks, daylight savings - I thought that maybe he'd get to come home an hour earlier since the time was changing. Not so. :/

Anyway, because of my Robin Hood watching/waiting up for Tom I only got about 4 hours of sleep.

Then, for some unknown reason, Clare chose yesterday to assert her independence in a number of ways that sleepy Mommy found extremely challenging. The worst one for me? Screaming for 2 hours while I was hoping that she'd take a nap so that I could lie down as well.

Then today, along came this post from Simple Mom. Very timely.

7 Quick Takes

2010-03-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

1. Some of our favorite rainy day activities:
- Creating landing pads for "cannonballs" off the bed or the couch
- Jumping on the beds while singing "5 Little Monkeys"
- Donning our "rainbow coats" (what Clare calls her raincoat) and going for a walk in the rain
- Finger painting
- Making "tents" around the house
- Chasing each other around the house
- Going to the library
- Dancing around the living room to The Wiggles

2. I've been reading a book called "It's So You" that starts with the fact 90% of American women only wear 25% of their wardrobe and sets out ot help you discover your three elements of style (body type, style personality, and color palette) in order to purge the things from your closet that simply don't work BEST for you and to be purposeful about buying clothing, shoes, accessories that you'll be crazy about and that will be truly flattering. I've loved simplifying, and to be honest, I've been a little surprised to find that the color palette that works best for my skin tone is completely different than what I thought. It's been fun!

3. Things to do while a movie is playing other than watch:
- laundry
- play with the babies
- clean the kitchen
- make dinner/lunch
- tidy up the toddler mess
- change diapers
- nurse James

4. Having two little ones around now, I feel like I have truly embraced multi-tasking. The other night I nursed James, made dinner, got Clare busy fingerpainting, and returned a phone call at the same time.

5. The other night Clare hauled off and bit James. She's never been a biter; I don't know what possesed her to do this. I had to really fight the urge to bite her finger back, but instead I just locked her in her room for a time out and settled James down. She apologized and I think she felt really badly for hurting her baby brother - he was sure crying. Not 5 minutes later, I was getting the bath ready and had put James on my bed for literally 30 seconds while I started the water, and the poor little guy got his head stepped on! Clare had lost her balance trying to turn on our ceiling fan while standing on the bed. Rough night for James.

6. Tom's working crazy hours these days. It's hard on me and the babies - we miss him! But I'm trying to keep a good attitude about it all and be thankful that Tom is a hard worker and always, always, always says yes to overtime when it's available.

7. Mary and the boys are heading back to Louisiana tomorrow. :( We're going to go play this afternoon when Clare wakes up from her nap. It's been great having them here!

Tom's picks

2010-03-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

Random, I know. Just wanted to share with you a few websites I get a lot of use out of these days. Maybe one or two will be helpful/enjoyable to you too.

Catholic

Catholic Answers. Perhaps the single greatest Catholic resource on the web. Click on the Radio link at the top and browse 10-years' worth of shows on just about every topic you can think of. Or read past issues of This Rock magazine. The Faith Tracks list under the Library tab is another excellent one-stop-shop for solid answers (and dozens of Early Church Fathers' quotes) to offer skeptics and critics of Catholicism. The Catholic Answers Forums is yet another excellent source of information, especially when it comes to more day-to-day, practical questions.

Scripture Catholic. If you need a good Bible verse (or 30) in support of a Church teaching, this is the place to go.

Dave Armstrong. An impressive one man show, Dave has an incredible amount of apologetics articles and debates uploaded to his site.

Off the Record. As I understand it, Diogenes is a pen-name for multiple contributors. The commentary on current Church affairs, however, is unparalleled. (The Catholic news section of the website is not too bad either.)

WDTPRS. Fr. Z will keep you abreast of Church matters, especially liturgical.

Whispers in the Loggia. For those of us dying to know replacements for phony-Mahony and +Brunett.

Our Lady Star of the Sea. Hey, it looks a lot better with the new facelift than before. And I've even spent some time contributing to it. The Life Teachings and Common Questions pages under the Catholic Resources tab at the top were compiled by yours truly. ;)

News/Politics

Drudge Report. Sure beats the alphabet channels.

Ann Coulter. Hilarious. (Her books are even better; just be sure to order them through Amazon so you can save a few bucks and, even better, don't have to put up with the dirty looks at Barnes & Noble.)

Pat Buchanan. When you want to know how bad things really are. Just make sure you have your Prozac handy.

Finance

Dave Ramsey. Real debt help.

My Money Blog. Good tid-bits, and Jonathan keeps you in-the-know about a lot of financial questions.

Mint.com. Almost forgot this one, even though I check it at least weekly. If you have multiple accounts (checking/savings, money market, 401k, home loan, school loan, credit cards, etc.), this is a wonderful, free way to keep track of them all in one place, with one password. All of your accounts update automatically when you log in to mint. It has other nice sorting and tracking features so you can see where every dollar is going. If you're already using Quicken or something similar, it probably is not worth switching. But if you find yourself having to dig up paper-statements, or memorize 12 different passwords to check on balances, you might want to set up an account with Mint.

Google Finance. I've tried a few different stock market trackers, and Google just seems simplest to me.

The IRS. Just kidding!

Handy

Google Docs. Kind of like my cell phone; not sure how I got by without it. If you've never used it, get a google account and try it out. It's quite handy to have Excel spreadsheets and Word documents stored online, share-able with others, and accessible where ever there is an internet connection.

Google Calendar. Handy for the same reasons as Google Docs. Carrie can add stuff to the calendar from home and I can check it at work. Or vice-versa. You can also have it send you text message reminders, if that's your thing. (I tried it, but eventually turned that feature off.)

Anyway. Just thought I'd share.

-Tom

7 Quick Takes

2010-02-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

1. You know you're chunky when the bumbo seat stays stuck to your bum when Mommy tries to pick you up.

2. I've been finding that this quote from St. John Vianney is so true. It was in our bulletin this week:

Never forget that it is at the beginning of each day that God has the necessary grace for the day ready for us. He knows exactly what opportunities we shall have to sin...and will give us everything we need if we ask him then. That is why the devil does all he can to prevent us from saying our morning prayers or to make us say them badly.

I find that if I don't get up early enough to have my morning prayers well done before the babies *might* start waking up, I have a much harder time dealing with an infant and sometimes high-maintenance toddler. However, if I do have my morning offering and meditation done, I feel like I have a store of grace upon which I can draw when I need it most during the course of the day.

3. Here are a couple of Clare quotes Tom or I have posted on Facebook, but they are so funny that I have to repeat them here:

To Tom who was putting her to bed one night: "Daddy, I have a rough day."

To me one night when James was getting fussy: "That monkey's hungry, Mommy."

Saying grace before lunch all by herself yesterday: "God bless you. Hail Mary, full of grace. Jesus. Father, Son, Spirit. Amen."

4. Lent is going really well. I have decided that if one of my chosen sacrifices becomes comfortable, I need to figure something else out. So far, so good.

5. Mary and the boys arrive this weekend!!! I'm so excited to see them, and Clare has a pair of PJ's all picked out and set aside for Dom Dom when he comes here. Don't ask me why she thinks that Dom needs to wear a pair of her PJ's...

6. Tom gave a talk on the Theology of the Body last night to our parish RCIA participants. While he was preparing, I went through a ton of my old TOB study materials and remembered how much I love them. I think I should spend some time going through them again.

7. I gave up talk radio during the day as part of my lenten sacrifices. Being kind of a talk radio nerd, this is really hard for me. I've contented myself with watching the news only when the babies are napping (I am really beginning to love Glenn Beck) or during the night-time news run. Strangely enough, I don't feel that out of touch with the world.

Clare's flowers

2010-02-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Spring? It was so nice here the past few days that I thought our front door needed a little color to greet us. We got a bunch of yard work done on Saturday - cleaning up the winter's dead leaves, trimming back our lithadora (how does that stuff just take over everything???), weed-eating,mowing the lawn, and cleaning out the garage. Just in time for it to start raining again.

Clare helped pick these out and plant them. She's pretty proud of them.

Where DOES she come up with these outfits? She looks like no one cares about her...

7 Quick Takes Friday

2010-02-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

1. James discovered his toes. Whether he's sitting in his bumbo or lying down, he's always grabbing at them and gets an excited look of triumph on his little face when he succeeds.

2. Speaking of James...holy drool! He's sure biting on things, drooling, and fussy. Seems like he might be starting to work on some teeth.

3. Tom ordered a bed frame for us while he was in Japan and it arrived last night! Now we just have to put it together...

4. My new favorite tea: Tazo Vanilla Rooibos from Starbucks. I have a cup of it almost every night after the babies are in bed and it's time for me to relax. It sure is nice having a sister who works there - we never run out of great coffee and tea.

5. Earlier today Clare told me that she was making a picture. I said, "Great, sweetie! Do you want to show me when you're done?" I should have looked right then, because her "picture" was a painting. Chosen medium: vaseline. What a mess!

6. Check 1 thing off of my Spring-Cleaning to do list: steam clean the carpets. Man, I thought that we were pretty clean people until I emptied that used water basin from the cleaner. Gross! And I feel so much better knowing that all THAT is no longer trapped in our bedrooms.

7. I put James in his exersaucer for a little bit while I mopped the floors today. He started fussing a little, and Clare (without my prompting) jumped off of the couch and went over to play with him. I love seeing how much they love each other!

7 Quick Takes...Saturday

2010-02-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well at least I'm only a day late.

1. My new favorite place to buy baby clothes: Craigslist. Seriously awesome. We just got James all set for the next 6 months of his life for $30. The best is when you can find a "lot" of baby clothes being sold by one person.

2. With the mild February weather I'm getting the itch to start working in our yard again. Primroses are on sale at Fred Meyer!

3. We love Dave Ramsey. Because of him we've been able to set and meet some great financial goals for our family.

4. Had a great day with a friend of mine from college this week - hard to believe that we've known each other for almost 10 years. Becky came over on Friday and we watched all 4 episodes of BBC's North and South. Aaaahh..perfect rainy WA day for a fantastic chick flick. Never mind that we were interrupted the whole time by babies, lunch, naps, and diaper changes - it was fun!

5. Along with the itch to work in the yard, I want to spring clean. My first project? Steam cleaning our carpets.

6. I've been burning lavender oil, and I LOVE the smell.

7. I need a new vacuum. Mine is driving me nuts.

Being a bibliophile

2010-02-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

I just updated our "What We're Reading" section to reflect what we're actually reading. I wish there were more hours in the day so that I could sit down and read more often than I can. I'm naturally a morning person, but lately I've found myself reading until late in the night because I can't seem to find the time otherwise. I realized today that I'm in the middle of reading no less than 4 books. Each of them has a unique purpose, and I've categorized them to try to "round out" my reading list.

1. Spiritual books - for meditation and reflection. I am using The Better Part for my meditations, but also reading I Believe in Love for the 3rd time (one of my favorites) for part of my Holy Hour.

2. Entertainment - those wonderful books that are purely for entertainment. Tom got me hooked on the Wheel of Time series, and now I'm on the 11th book. Wonderful, quick reads for those who are interested in the genre of "high fantasy" (a la Lord of the Rings).

3. Family/Marriage/Parenting - Believing that my state in life as a wife and a mother is truly a vocation from God, I have the duty to be the best wife and mother that I can. I'm trying to make sure that I incorporate books/blogs in to my day that help me along that path.

4. Informative/Politics - I'm kind of a talk radio and news nerd. I love the intellectual stimulation that looking in to the arenas of history and politics gives me. Especially as a stay-at-home mom, I thrive on trying to stay up-to-date on the news and politics of the day.

Like I said above, I wish that there were more hours in the day. I could probably fill them all with plunging through books that cover all of these different categories. *Sigh* But with a seemingly endless laundry pile, dishes to be done, babies to be played with and cared for, and a house to be taken care of, I find that I'm lucky if I can manage a little bit of non-essential (non-meditation) reading during my day. One thing I'm thankful for is that Clare is turing in to quite the little reader herself. I look forward to the days when we can snuggle up on the couch and do some independent reading. For now, I'm content with reading Go, Dog. Go! ten times a day.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2010-02-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

1. Does 1 AM on Saturday still count as Friday night? I fell asleep nursing James in bed. Now I'm awake at 1 AM.

2. The other night after praying our Rosary, I turned the light off and started to leave the room so Clare could go to sleep. She started crying and wanted the light on because she couldn't "see Jesus Heart." We have an image of the Sacred Heart on the wall that she apparently wanted to be able to look at. That about made me cry it was so sweet.

3. James had his 4-month checkup today. He's 27 inches (96%) and 17 lbs. 14 oz. (92%). Pretty much just a chunker.

4. Don't you hate those days where you're so tired that you just feel literally like you're walking around in a fog? Even your eyes won't seem to focus.

5. I've decided to cut myself a little slack (not become a slacker...) in my prayer life. Yesterday I was so proud of myself - I got out of bed nice and early despite a shorter night of sleep than I'd have liked, got coffee going, and was relishing the fact that I could get some quiet time of meditation in. Not so. Both babies took turns waking up needing me, and by the time I got done taking care of both of them it was time for Clare to be up for the day. Argh. Moral of the story? I think that me responding lovingly and with patience to my children is more pleasing to Our Lord than if I'd allowed myself to become annoyed and dealt with them brusquely just because I wanted to get back to my time with Him.

6. I have an ingrown toenail. It hurts. And Clare keeps finding ways to step on me or run over me with her bike.

7. Six years ago this week, Tom and I went on our first date. Well, as Tim Herring always says, "Time flies when you're having kids!" So true...and I love Tom more now than I ever have.

Oh, toddler life

2010-01-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

Places that Clare has fallen asleep lately:

In a "bed" she made on the floor between her real bed and her tent. Those must have been good books!

Half way in a basket full of blankets in her closet

Her latest phase? Thinking that she's invisible if she puts a blanket over her head.

This is her sneaking out of her room and down the hallway when she's supposed to be taking a nap - part of her craziness while Tom was in Japan. As soon as she heard me coming down the hallway she just laid there very still thinking that I couldn't see her.

Who is that phantom bicyclist?

Tom is home!

2010-01-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

After the longest TWO WEEKS of my life, and probably the most difficult behavior and bedtime-wise for Clare, Tom is finally home from Japan safe and sound!

Sorry for my blogging absence, but with my foray in to the wonderful world of having two little ones and only one me for the past couple of weeks, I've rarely had two minutes to myself. Something's gotta give...

Thanks everyone for your prayers for Tom's safe trip and for all those who helped me through Clare's craziness. Thank God for husbands.

Toddler Antics

2009-12-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

What happened to my sweet little angel helper girl?

Clare just poked James in the eye because I was nursing him while she wanted to play with me. Not sure how I should respond to this lovingly. As it is, she just got a swat and sent to her room until she could come out to say she's sorry. Any mommy tips out there?

Quick Takes...Monday...

2009-12-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

I think I need to leave a note for myself to post 7 Quick Takes on Fridays until I get in the habit of doing it. Here are a few things on my mind/going on in our world.

1. Clare is such a little mommy! She's "nursing" her bear right now...complete with putting a nursing pad in her shirt.

2. My dream of having a mantle for Christmas has come true! My mom and her husband Tom came up yesterday to hang out for the afternoon and Tom said, "Hey, I think I can put a mantle together for you today." So he brought up his saw and compressor and this is what he was able to craft in the short span of only 4 hours! We're still going to try to figure out a way to hang the stockings without blocking the beautiful work that Tom did, but this is what it looks like for now.

3. The bottom strand of Christmas lights went out on our tree. I was so annoyed that I had to dismantle the tree almost entirely to pull the stupid thing off. By the time I got done doing that I had wasted so much time that I decided to forgo putting on another strand to replace it, so I just rearranged the 2nd string of lights so that there are at least some on the bottom 1/3 of the tree...although it's definitely not lit up as much as the top 2/3. Oh well. Perfectionism has gone out the window in so many ways.

4. Clare is trying to insist that she wants to wear panties again. Yes, she went back in to diapers after James was born. She is, however, also refusing to go to the bathroom on the toilet, so this means that I have lots to clean up these days...couches, floors, beds. Argh. I'm tired of it. Back to diapers.

5. Breastfed baby poo supposedly "doesn't stink." I beg to differ.

6. I learned something that I think is going to revolutionize my cooking and grocery habits: roasting a whole chicken. Wow. Talk about a MUCH less expensive way to get chicken meat than buying a bag of frozen chicken breasts.

7. James puked all over me and the floor and the pew at our Holy Hour on Thursday. Not a little baby spit up. Vomit. Yuck.

I just realized that much of this post revolves around bodily functions. Ahhh, such is my life with a toddler and an infant.

Anyone order an extra Butterball turkey?

2009-12-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

James just had his 2-month checkup today. We'd been thinking that he's awfully big for a 2-month old and today was our confirmation. He's 26 inches long and weighs 14 lbs. 13 oz. That puts him off the charts in height and in the 92nd percentile for weight. At least he's proportional. :)

He just looks more like a little butterball when I carry him like this.

Waking up to his big sister.

7 Quick Takes

2009-12-11T08:45:00.001-08:00

Ok, so in lieu of a real post I'm going to jump on the 7 Quick Takes bandwagon so that maybe I'll be inspired to keep up on this blog - something I've not been good at...ever. We'll see how it goes.

1. We have a super cute Advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree that Clare loves. We put Hershey Kisses inside each of the little boxes and Clare gets to eat one every morning after her breakfast. Oh, the joy that a little chocolate can bring! She's her mama's daughter for sure.

2. Clare is getting ready for Christmas. Yesterday she was walking around singing, "Happy Birthday to you, Jesus!"

3. We love our nightly Rosary. Clare gets all her bears/babies lined up on the couch, little rocking chair, and baby swing, giving each and every one a little plastic Rosary (how did we end up with so many of these?). She is also in charge of making sure that everyone else has a Rosary as well. I have to say, though, that my favorite part of the Rosary is when Clare kneels down next to us and looks up at the crucifix on our wall as we pray.

4. James loves his sister. If he's at all fussy, all I have to do is ask Clare to go hold his hand and sing him a song. Almost inevitably he gets a big fat grin on his face. Sometimes, though, the crying continues and Clare runs over to me and says, "Not working, Mommy. James crying!"

5. We got our Christmas tree last weekend with my dad, Shannon, and her boyfriend Brian who was visiting from Virginia. It was awesome -- both babies had a total meltdown right as we were packing up to get in the car -- but it ended up being fun! We also got our lights hung outside, watched Christmas Vacation, drank Tom & Jerry's, and had dinner. A great day!

6. My house has had one of those weeks where I feel like I truly cannot keep up. Tom, thanks for your patience as I learn to juggle a toddler and an infant as well as keeping the house at least in working order, if not as neat & clean as I like it.

7. I'm thankful for babywearing. Nothing, truly nothing, would ever be done in this house without my sleepy wrap or sling. James is contentedly asleep on me right now, actually. Don't know what I'd do without it.

It's been a day

2009-11-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

Ever had one of those days? Today has been one. The morning went well; my friend Christina came over and we chatted for a little bit while her son Eddie and Clare played together. Then Shannon and I decided to run a couple of errands to get a few things we need for Mom's 50th birthday bash. James slept the whole time and Clare was an angel in Hallmark (I know! I'm surprised too...lots of little things to play with and break).

We got home without a hitch, and then all hell seemed to break loose.

James woke up and decided he was hungry. Clare didn't eat much breakfast, so she was hungry. Both babies were cranky. I managed to make some lunch quickly for myself and Clare while nursing James. Then Clare decided that she was more interested in eating her sour cream with her fingers and wiping them everywhere than actually eating lunch. When I scooted her plate over toward me so I could control the eating, she got mad and dumped her cup of water all over the table. She got sent to her room for a few minutes until she could come back and eat nicely - and I scarfed the rest of my lunch.

She came back to the table and I managed to get a bit more food in her, then she claimed that she was all done with lunch and needed to go #2. Off to the bathroom we went...where she proceeded to cry that she wanted her shoes off. When I tried to take them off she screamed that she wanted them on and that she was "all done" on the toilet (she had NOT gone to the bathroom). I told her that we could sit in the bathroom just for a few minutes together while she tried to go. Anyway, after 15 minutes, lots of tears, and on-and-off the toilet, I decided that she wasn't going to go and if she had to just go in her diaper, so be it. This kid needed a nap and I needed a breather. (All this while nursing/burping fussy James) She cried the whole time I put a diaper on her saying that she needed to go back to the toilet, but I wasn't about to start that again. We got her a cup of chocolate milk and went to snuggle in her bed with a couple of books and her bear.

We read books, said her prayers and gave hugs & kisses. As I was about to leave, she said, "Mommy, I love you, sweet heart."

Maybe today isn't as bad as I thought after all. :)

Tom & Mary have a blog!

2009-11-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Since they discontinued use of their YouTube channel, Thomas & Mary have created a blog for their family. Check out the side bar on our blog to get to theirs! Man, we miss them already. Clare keeps talking about "Dom Dom;" I don't think she realizes that she hasn't seen him in a while. :( Oh, to be little and have no concept of how long it's been since you have seen or will see your friends...

Welcome to our family, James Michael!

2009-10-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

Many of you have already seen these photos because Tom was great at getting it all uploaded to Facebook while James and I rested after the labor and delivery experience. I thought I'd post them here, though, for those of you who (like me) do not have a Facebook account.

Without further ado, I'm proud to announce the newest member of the growing Herring family - James Michael. He was born on Tuesday, 9/29/09 at 6:33 PM after only 5 hours of labor, weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 inches long.

Mommy, Daddy, and baby James right after he was born

After his first sponge bath

With Aunt Shannon and Grammy (Carrie's Mom)

Grandpa got to hold him right away too! (Carrie's Dad)

Aunt Mary and cousin Gabriel were there too! Hard to believe that Gabriel is only 2 weeks old -- he looks HUGE compared to James! :)

If you want to see more pictures, you can visit Tom's Facebook account. Most of you probably already have. There will be more pictures to come soon.

Well, I was going to write a little about the labor experience with Round #2, but he's waking up and is looking for me. I'll write about it later. Thanks for all your prayers, everyone! We're doing well and loving just being at home. And Clare DOES love being a big sister as much as I had hoped.

One pregnant picture & an update

2009-09-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok. I know that I haven't posted a single picture of myself pregnant. Maybe it's because the novelty of every inch gained around the belly isn't there the second time around, or maybe it's just because now I have a little one that I'd much rather take pictures of than myself...In any case, by popular demand, here is one pregnant picture of me taken this week at the I'm-ready-to-have-this-baby-stage. Awesome.

*Note: Ignore the annoyingly incorrect date on the pictures. Something tells me that little fingers got a hold of the camera and changed some settings that I haven't yet figured out...

On to other happenings the last 2 months - a photo update...

Tom and Clare at Lake Crescent when we went camping with the St. Hilaires last month.

Celebrating Papa Tom's birthday down in Olympia.

Just one of the many animals Clare got to pet at the Kitsap County Fair. She wasn't quite sure how to react to the enormous hairy pig they had there...

Celebrating Clare's second (hard to believe!) birthday on Labor Day Weekend. She looks happy, doesn't she? I think she didn't know if she was in trouble being confined to her high chair while everyone stared at her and sang a song at her.

She was, however, much more excited about this pretty blue princess dress that Uncle Chris and Jackie got for her. I'm pretty sure that Jackie did the picking out of the dress...Clare loves it!

And here are just a few pictures of Clare with her new baby cousin, Gabriel Thomas Beuschel. She loves him so much and is not content with merely sitting down holding him with someone's help. She has to lie down with him and "nunnle Gabriel" (her word for snuggle). She loves to help Aunt Mary straighten her nursing cover and get her burp cloths and blankets when Gabriel is fussy. I hope she loves her baby brother this much!

At the hospital sitting on Aunt Mary's bed. She loves to give him kisses.

See what I mean about the lying down with him thing?

She had just rolled out of bed and was so excited that Aunt Mary, Dom Dom, and Gabriel were here that she jumped in to my lap and demanded to hold Gabriel right then and there.

And, last but not least, a glimpse in to the brilliance of my husband. Clare's been going through this "I have an owie and now I need a bandaid or the world will end" phase. Even if she stubs her toe or runs in to a wall (as happened before this picture was taken) she needs a bandaid. Well, after many wasted bandaids and many tears over the fact that she was told that she didn't need a bandaid, Tom decided that he would tell her that masking tape was bandaids. Brilliant! So now for any non-serious owies, Clare gets one of Daddy's special bandaids -- and we are not buying a new box every other week.

We're due any minute with Baby #2. At my last appointment I was dilated to 3 cm and 70% effaced...but this has been going on slowly for the past 3 weeks. Not sure if we'll make it to the Oct. 2 due date or not, but I'm sure ready to get this show on the road! Your prayers are appreciated, and we'll update as soon as we have some baby news.

Seven Things I Love

2009-09-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Cheri tagged me, and because I generally am terrible at doing things like this I thought I'd participate. Problem is coming up with seven more people to tag...Oh, well. On to the list.

1) Snuggling with my husband and daughter on lazy weekend mornings.

2) The quiet in the early mornings after Tom goes to work and Clare isn't awake for another couple of hours. It affords me the opportunity to spend some time with Our Lord in prayer and get some reading for enjoyment done - or just going back to bed for an hour until Clare wakes up, which I've been doing lately. I'm trying to relish this time now, because it may disappear when Little Guy arrives soon.

3) Crawling in to fresh, crisp sheets that just came out of the laundry.

4) Seeing Clare entertain herself quietly - recent activities include reading to her baby doll in her little rocking chair, coloring, and playing dress up in any clothes/shoes she can find in various closets and drawers around the house.

5) A job well done. Some days I feel like I simply maintain. I love the days when I get everything checked off of my to-do list and STILL don't feel harried as soon as Tom walks in the door from work.

6) My vocation. God sure knew what He was doing when He placed this vocation as a wife and mother in my heart. He has shown me what it really means to love, and I pray that I can continue to grow in imitation of His self-giving.

7) Anticipating the arrival of Baby Herring. The day is getting closer and closer, and Clare is really starting to get excited. She gives my belly hugs and kisses and says, "Out, baby!" I think she's going to be a great big sister.

Now I guess I'll tag: Athena, Lindsey, Erin, Jenny, Val, Bryan, Nichole.

After dinner entertainment

2009-09-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

For everyone who thinks that Clare is Captain Stoic. She does have a goofy side, too! Note the panties...yes, she's potty trained. Just in time for me not to have two in diapers.

Clare dancing

2009-08-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

At least she has good taste in music. Gotta love Billy Joel. Note the dancing partners: first, her plastic crucifix and then her baby doll. I guess Jesus just wasn't a good enough dancer for her... :)

Yard Work

2009-07-21T13:27:00.001-07:00

I've been terrible about posting more pictures of our progress on our yard, but when you see the progess we've made you might understand. We've done a LOT of work, and thanks to a Herring family work party, Tom's labor, and my dad's time and expertise, the yard is done. Well, at least the hard part. No more digging trenches, no more crawling under the house, no more laying pipe.

I wish that I had taken pictures when we moved in of the waist-high dandelions and blackberry bushes that inhabited every square inch of the yard, but pictures of our progress will have to do.

Here's what we've done since I last posted.

Dug a shallow trench and laid a rock barrier for our soon-to-be walkway. Note: My dad said that this would take all day, but Shannon and I got it done in 2 hours.

Pounded in cedar benderboard to serve as the barrier between the grass and walkway and started hauling in gravel to fill.

Clare likes dirt. And watermelon. Check out how dirty this kid's face is!

Played with Papa.

Herring family work party! The WHOLE family came over to help us spread gravel and beauty bark and clear out and level the yard enough that we could spread grass seed. Everyone was an enormous help -- raking, shoveling rocks and old yard waste, hauling beauty bark (we saved the hauling of gravel for Tom), entertaining Clare...You name it, the Herrings did it. They were awesome - and look how much we got done.

Theresa, Ceci, Clare, and Madeline clearing rocks and other yard waste out of the corner of the yard.

Bex, Anna, and Berna shoveling and leveling.

Gravel walkway is laid and rolled. Beauty bark is spread. All in a day's work - literally.

Over the last couple of weeks we've just been laying more benderboard around the outside of the yard, pouring and packing beauty bark, clearing weeds from under the tree and the side of the house and pouring more beauty bark. My dad's been raking and leveling for what seems like forever, but the dirt was finally ready for grass seed! Here's what the yard looks like as of yesterday. The grass is growing in (still a little sparse in spots, but it's filling in little by little).

To get an idea of what this used to look like, imagine a moss/weed walkway bordered on the left by blackberry bushes and trash left over from the previous owners.

Blackberries no more! This is now home to what will become our little grotto for Our Lady.

Grass! A real lawn in the back yard!!!

Ummm...Ignore the laundry drying on the deck. Someday I'll have a real clothesline. But at least you can see the yard!

My dad and I were spreading and packing another layer of beauty bark yesterday while Clare was running around barefoot in the grass. I just loved seeing her able to play in the yard!

That's it for now. There's a lot to catch up on, but now that the major yard work is done I'm hoping to have a little more time for staying up-to-date on the blog.

Looking for an AMAZING summer salad?

2009-07-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Try this: Asparagus Summer Salad

Shannon and I saw this in the latest edition of Sunset Magazine and decided to try it. Um, yeah, it's definitely making it to each of our recipe books. I wish that I could find a picture of it, because in addition to tasting fantastic and being super easy to prep, it's a really pretty salad. :) It was my favorite part of dinner last night and I can't wait to make it again.

SERVES: 6 TIME: 20 minutes (plus some time to chill in the fridge before eating)

2 lbs. thick asparagus, cut into 2-in. pieces
2 tbsp. each fresh lemon juice and Dijon mustard
3 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup each chopped fresh basil, chives, and cilantro
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
3/4 cup toasted pine nuts
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Drop asparagus into water
and cook until bright green and slightly softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain
asparagus and rinse with very cold water until cool to the touch.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together lemon juice, mustard, oil, and herbs.
Add asparagus, onion, pine nuts, feta, salt, and pepper, and stir to
combine.

PER SERVING 227 CAL., 71% (162 CAL.) FROM FAT; 9.7 G PROTEIN; 18 G FAT
(3.7 G SAT.); 10 G CARBO (2.7 G FIBER); 425 MG SODIUM; 8.4 MG CHOL.

A VERY share-worthy post for all you wives and moms!

2009-07-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you a terrific post from one of my favorite blogs, Building Cathedrals. It's a great blog run by a group of Catholic moms, and this particular post struck me in particular as a stay-at-home-mom who is striving to live in the world but not be of it.

I completely agree with everything she says in this post, and I'd love to hear your take on it!

Corpus Christi

2009-06-25T21:16:00.001-07:00

Here's one reason why we love being parishioners at Star of the Sea. Father Lappe is awesome! Too bad we were on vacation in California and had to miss this. Enjoy!

What a wonderful way to begin the Year for Priests. God is so faithful in giving us holy, dedicated men to bring us the Sacraments and lead souls to Christ. St. John Vianney, pray for us!

Making the switch?

2009-06-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'm considering making the switch to cloth diapers with Baby #2 in October. Never thought I'd even consider it, but our good friends Darius & Janet do it with multiple little ones (and she's not up to her elbows in stinky diapers), Ryan & Erin are planning on doing it, and Andrew & Lindsey are considering it as well.

At first, the idea popped in to my head when my friend Erin wanted to make the switch with Emma. I had no idea that the cost savings were so significant until she mentioned it. Then I did the math for myself. Clare is 21 months old. If we spend roughly (sometimes more) $30/month on disposable diapers for her, that means that in her short lifetime we've spent $630 on her diapers alone! And when it costs 1/3 of that to outfit multiple babies (heck, they're washable and re-usable) in cloth, it just seems to make sense.

But what about the convenience of disposable? According to Janet, after making the switch herself, once you get the hang of cloth there's really not that much of a difference. The key is to persevere during the transition time.

Then a blog that I love, SimpleMom, has done the past week on Cloth Diapering 101 to dispel the fears that some of us may have when considering switching to cloth and to offer practical advice and tips. You should check out her series on cloth diapering if you have any questions, because it's pretty comprehensive (at least for me who doesn't know anything) but at the same time not overwhelming. You should also visit because she's doing a giveaway with some fantastic cloth diaper supplies from FuzziBunz, BottomBumpers, and Swaddlebees. Check it out!

Like I said, I'm still in the considering phase...we'll see where we end up going with this.

Happy Birthday Mary & yard project progress

2009-06-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Mary! We love you. Sorry for the belated post...Mare's birthday was yesterday June 2. But we celebrated a day early, so I guess we're OK. :)

Our current yard project: Make it habitable.

When we moved in here 2 years ago, the back yard was covered -- and I mean you-can't-see-the-ground-it's-so-thick -- with waist-high dandelions. We've slowly (with my dad's help and industrial-sized backpack sprayer) been killing off the weeds to just thin them out enough so that we could see the ground.

Well, this spring we finally got to the point where we could see enough bare dirt to bring a rototiller in and get the ground ready for planting grass seed. Imagine! A back yard with grass!

We rototilled it all up and smoothed it out with rakes - I had no idea until my dad showed me how to do it properly that raking was such a fine art. The back yard was almost ready to roll out and plant.

Then we decided that we wanted to put in an automatic sprinkler system.

Back to the drawing board. Fortunately for us, my dad has maintained golf courses his whole life and knows just a little bit (OK, a LOT) about irrigation and has been able to walk Tom & I through every step of putting in our own sprinkler system. It's been a lot of work and planning - my dad even went through the trouble of making a blueprint of our back yard and drawing in the arcs of each and every sprinkler head to make sure that we were getting even coverage! Dad has worked so hard on this, while Tom and I just follow his directions.

With his help, so far we've managed to cut in to our water lines successfully and install a pipe to bring the water for the entire irrigation system outside the house to connect to our valves for each of the zones we'll have, map out with little flags where each sprinkler head needs to be placed for maximum even coverage, bring in a trencher (in other words, not a small piece of machinery) and dig the trenches for the pipe we'll need. We're in the process of hand-digging (read: hard work) to clean out the trenches and make them ready for pipes to be laid.

Here are some pictures of what our front & back yards look like right now:

This is the front yard. Notice that we had to take apart the fence to the right of the house to get easier access to the back yard.

View of the side of the back yard from our deck.

The back side of the house.

My dad smiling despite the fact that he and I were both sweating in the 88 degree weather and covered in dirt.

Dad laying our first pipe and getting the valves fixed to the pipe that we have coming out of the house's water lines. Note: I dug this trench and have become pretty good at digging nice square holes. :)

I'll post more pictures as we lay pipe and get it all back-filled (hopefully by the time we leave for California next Friday). I killed the weeds yesterday so that they'll be dead by the time we are done back-filling. That way the ground will be one step closer to read to plant grass seed. Whew! Hard work, but worth it. My dad and Tom have been working so hard on this project and we love being able to see our progress.

Graduation and Bedtime Battles update

2009-06-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Clare with her Aunt Kristy ("Kiki") at the BBQ celebration of her graduation Summa Cum Laude from NNU. When Clare was born Kristy made me promise her one thing: that she would never be "Aunt Kiki". Well, unfortunately "Kristy" is a little difficult for a little mouth to say. So for now she's "Aunt Kiki." Sorry, Kris.

Clare got a little restless during the graduation ceremony, so she took a walk outside with Great Uncle Lee and Papa.

She was holding up the walk back to the hotel after graduation, so Papa put her on his shoulders -- she seemed to like the view from up here!

Clare and one of her new favorite people - my cousin Samantha. Sami was so sweet with Clare, and I think Clare liked having a "big girl" to chase around and hang out with while we were in Idaho.

Clare loves Fr. Lappe and babies, so Fr. Lappe + baby John Vianney = something that made Clare very happy. She's actually really gentle with babies, and loves taking "her turn" holding baby John. I think she's going to be a great big sister.

Enjoying the sunshine for a few minutes with Aunt Shannon. Don't worry, Clare was slathered with SPF 50 sunscreen. :) She now thinks that the only purpose for the deck is lying down, and can usually be seen dragging her baby, bear, pillow, and blanket outside to go "night-night" even after the sun's gone down.

And now for the grand finale photo of the month:

Yes, that would be Clare in her own bed with (along with her bunny and all 20 other stuffed animals and babies with whom she insists on sleeping) after going down for her nap today with NO FUSSING AT ALL. We've had a breakthrough in the last few days as far as bedtime battles go. Clare's been going to sleep and staying that way with little to no crying at all. It's been awesome, and she's a happier girl now that she's sleeping well. Finally, I no longer dread bedtime.

What has this country come to?

2009-05-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

A couple in San Diego is being told by the government that they can no longer hold a Bible study in their home because it counts as a "religious assembly" and violates land use laws.

I just can't believe that we've come to the point where our government is trying to seize control of how Americans live their faith. Pathetic. And sad.

Fox News covered the story; you can find it here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522637,00.html

Good Friends

2009-05-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Every one of us has certain people in our lives with whom we can be completely ourselves. No need to say certain things or not say certain things; you can let down your guard and just relax without worrying about keeping the conversation going or what's next on the agenda for the day. People who share your values and whose opinions you trust. People to whom you would even entrust your children should - God forbid - something happen to you.

We've been so blessed by a great circle of friends, many of whom are our former roommates from Western, who are examples to us of what it means to live a joyful, faith-filled life and whose goal it is to lead their families closer to Christ.

It was great to spend time with some of these friends this weekend. Now that most of us - except Bryan, who is going to have a whole world full of spiritual children when he's ordained to the priesthood in 2 years - have kids, it was nice to just sit in Jamie & Jessi's back yard watching the kids play in the sunshine and on the slip-n-slide and catch up a bit. I wish I could have stayed longer, and that Tom and Clare could have come down to join us...

To the Oaklands, the Mallahans, and the Mausses (and all our other friends who were not there) - we love you and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Sleeping -- or not

2009-05-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that Clare has never been what you would call a good napper or sleeper. I don't know why -- I've read the books on what you're "supposed" to do to help your baby develop good sleep habits. For some reason or another, Clare just doesn't go down easily and never has.

When she was younger, I wasn't a fan of the "just let her cry it out" method. I don't know, I just couldn't do it. Some of my friends who have been moms for longer or who have 2 or more kids already are probably thinking, "Ok, Carrie. That's great, but it won't last once you have a few kids to juggle and get to bed." Maybe so.

Anyway, she's been doing well going to sleep in her own bed and staying there for most of the night - she usually crawls in to our bed at some point - but getting her to sleep has always been a challenge. We finally weaned her off of having to have someone next to her in order to fall asleep and would just sit in her room and sing lullabies or pray the Rosary until she fell asleep or was sleepy enough that we could sneak out without her noticing. She's good enough - not usually throwing tantrums - but even though she may be lying there quietly sometimes it would take her 45 minutes to fall asleep!

I decided this week that with a new baby arriving in less than 4 months we cannot be doing this every nap time and bed time. I lamented to Tom that the time of day which should be the most relaxing for us all - getting ready for bed - is the time of day which I dread the most. Her little body clock has been completely turned around the past couple of weeks due to a wonderful trip to Idaho to see Kristy graduate (but no schedule, staying in a hotel, late late late bed times, little to no naps really takes a toll on a litte one) and being up late at home for various reasons. Anyway, it's been tough and the bedtime battles finally got to be too much for me, and poor Clare was constantly tired. We had to do something to reverse this.

So we made the decision that Clare has to get a decent bedtime and a good nap - even if that meant that she cried for a while before that happened. She is old enough to tell us if she has a legitimate need (although this has turned in to her making excuses for getting out of bed -- pretending like she's dying of hunger and begging for food even though we've just had dinner and she had a snack before bed, saying that she has an owie on her finger and needs a bandaid, she wants water, insisiting that she has to go #2, her teeth hurt, you-name-it) so I don't worry that I'm neglecting her in some way if I leave her in there by herself.

I knew that she had a particularly strong will but I had NO idea that on Wednesday night she would be screaming, "Mama!!!!" for 1 1/2 hours, interspersed with me putting her back in her room and telling her to go night-night, giving her a kiss, and tucking her back in. What a nightmare. But I was actually able to get through it by reminding myself that she's going to be a much happier and healthier girl by being able to go to sleep and stay that way for a good night's rest. Surprisingly enough, she's really pretty obedient about staying in her room when we've put her there, even though we leave the door cracked open. If I hear little footsteps all I have to say is, "Clare, please go back to your room."

Anyway, I thought that we were really in for a rough go of things while we all adjusted to this new way of getting her to bed. Until last night. I put her in bed, sang a couple of songs, and prayed a Rosary out loud while she arranged and re-arranged all 30 of her stuffed animals/babies that she insists on sleeping with. When I was done with the Rosary she was quiet and lying there talking to her baby, and I told her, "Clare, Mama's going to go do the dishes. You need to stay in your bed and go night-night." Then I left. I expected screaming as soon as I stood up, but nothing happened. It was silent in her room for a whole 15 minutes! Then she started crying for me - but this time it only lasted about 20 minutes and she fell asleep all on her own. And she slept for 11 hours!

I think I may be starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel! When I went to bed I said a prayer of thanksgiving to Christ for giving me the grace I needed to remain patient and loving, to Our Lady for being my recourse, and to Clare's guardian angel (to whom I have addressed MANY prayers lately) and fell asleep myself - for 8 hours without interruption.

Baby Update

2009-05-16T11:37:00.001-07:00

Many of you are already followers of the St. Hilaires' blog, but if not, check out their update on John Vianney St. Hilaire's arrival last night at 5:17 PM.

In other news, we went in yesterday for our 20-week ultrasound...By the way, we're 20 weeks pregnant with baby #2 (some of you may not have heard yet)...We got some great pictures of our SON who will, God willing, be born to us on (or near) October 2 -- just a couple weeks after Mary delivers their baby #2, Gabriel Thomas Beuschel! It's been awesome to share our pregnancies so close together, and I'm NOT looking forward to the Beuschels' move to Louisiana this fall.

Prayers Please -- Baby St. Hilaire on the way!

2009-05-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

Lindsey & Andrew went in last night to the hospital to be induced with a prostaglandin suppository to soften her cervix and then start pitocin this morning if contractions hadn't started on their own. But they did, and she's now dilated to 5 cm and in active labor without the use of pitocin.

Please pray for a healthy delivery for Lindsey and Baby St. Hilaire.

I'll keep you posted!

Why he's not afraid of the Swine Flu

2009-05-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

Excellent article written by Mike Huckabee regarding the Swine Flu. Thanks for sharing, Theresa!

Why I'm Not Afraid of the Swine Flu

Mike Huckabee

This week, we're supposed to be scared to death of coming down with the swine flu, but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said we shouldn't call it that because it hurts the feeling of the pigs -- just like we're not supposed to use the word "terror" anymore, because it hurts the feelings of the jihadists.

Joe Biden almost single handedly wrecked the airline and mass transit system by telling a national audience none of the public conveyances were safe. Of course, his staff had to issue their daily clarification or apology later. He's giving a new meaning to the phrase: "Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so!"

I fly on planes about five days a week. I shake lots of hands, lots of hands. I meet lots of people, lots of people. I do wash my hands and use sanitizer frequently, but I'm not in a panic and I'll tell you why:

Before Joe Biden told us to be afraid of the flu, an average of 100 Americans a day died from the regular old flu. That's right, without even the attention the media is giving to this strain, flu was serious, especially to babies, old people, or sick people who already had weak immune systems. Other people lived, but they just didn't feel like they would.

I've watched the Obama administration tell us how much they care about protecting lives from the flu. If they really want to help make children safer, let me make a suggestion: Start doing all you can to move this country to being pro-life.
Almost a million unborn children will die in their mother's womb because of elective abortion this year. These are not sick or unhealthy babies, they're just inconvenient.

And by ending their lives because they represent an economic disruption or a social interference to the mother, we've created a culture in which a human life is expendable because it represents an inconvenience.

It happens a million times a year in the United States. Where's the press conference by the president, or the warnings of the vice president, or the outline of steps to be taken issued by Homeland Security or the secretary of Health and Human Services?
There isn't one, because they all support the notion that it's OK to end the lives of perfectly healthy unborn babies because they are in someone's way.

If you have a child, it's OK to be worried about the swine flu, but most healthy kids can survive most flu viruses. They might not survive the policies of our own government that makes it legal to view them as disposable.

A New Disorder -- Really???

2009-05-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

Beware: super-opinionated post below.

I've been meaning to post about this for a while...I was listening to one of my favorite talk radio hosts, Michael Medved, a few weeks ago and he brought up as a topic this article in Newsweek. It's written by a man detailing his experiences with a new emotional disorder: Male Postpartum Depression. "What?!?" I thought when I heard Medved mention the topic. I HAD to listen to the rest of the show to hear what this was all about. For those who may not want to read the article, I'll just paste some pertinent quotes here.

When a child was added to my life, it was as if something enormous and coveted was subtracted in return, and the transaction left me reeling, like someone who'd just gambled away his soul.

Really? Gambled away your soul??? It's so sad that this is how so many people in our society view children.

It seems ridiculous on its face: men don't do the hard work of carrying a pregnancy for nine months. We don't have to bear the pains of labor. We never had an umbilical connection to our children. We just have to hang on tight. But giving my emotions a name, and an explanation, helped me feel less alone and better able to cut myself some slack. Before then, even calling it depression felt like an excuse for weak, pathetic behavior.

From WebMD: Postpartum depression seems to be brought on by the changes in hormone levels that occur after pregnancy. Any woman can get postpartum depression in the months after childbirth, miscarriage, or stillbirth. That's right. Postpartum depression is not just an emotional disorder. It's a hormonal imbalance caused by pregnancy - as in, not something experienced by men. The author of the article is right about one thing: his was an excuse for weak, pathetic behavior. Man up.

But not 48 hours after we returned home with our boy, a truth dawned on me with shocking force: my life was gone. Movies, sleeping, long showers—all gone. We became slaves to this tiny new thing living in our home, and there was no going back.

With attitudes like this regarding children, is it any wonder that the Culture of Death has taken its greatest toll on our children in the form of abortion?

I ceded nearly complete authority to my wife, then blamed both her and my son for my feelings of loss and insignificance. I took on every parental responsibility with sucked-up reluctance on the outside and contempt on the inside. My wife seemed to consider me selfish and irresponsible. She was tired, she'd say, of parenting both of us.

I feel sorry for both this man and his wife. He was being selfish and irresponsible. He concludes the article by saying that he and his wife subsequently divorced - and can you really be surprised? How sad that something that is supposed to strengthen marriages, solidify the bond between husband and wife, bring life and joy to their family, and enable the spouses to rely on each other (and sacrifice for each other and their children) eventually brought about the demise of this man's marriage.

To me, this article demonstrates one of the most damaging by-products of the feminist movement: the de-masculinization of our men. As our women demand more and more to be like men, men subconsciously realize that they no longer have to behave like men. I'm so thankful to have a husband who takes his role as husband and father seriously.

It seems that our society has become completely hedonistic - seeking pleasure as the ultimate good and forgetting that our life here on earth has a greater meaning and that suffering can and should be good and holy and redemptive.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox for now. I'd love to hear what you think.

A new Mayer family arrival!

2009-04-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome, Jackson William Mayer! Little Jackson was born to Amelia and Bill this morning at about 9:30 AM, weighing 5 lbs. 2 oz. and 19 inches long. Amelia, Jack, and Bill are doing well and are recovering after quite the adventure...

A couple of weeks ago Amelia had appendicitis and had to have an appendectomy -- and so far along in to her pregnancy the doctors weren't sure if it could send her in to labor. Adventure #1.

Fast forward to Friday and Adventure #2. Bill & Amelia decided to drive 8 hours to Denver to spend time with family for his nephew's First Holy Communion, even though Amelia was 35 weeks pregnant. Well, her water broke on Friday night - 8 hours from home and earlier than expected! They were admitted to the hospital where they awaited little Jack's arrival anxiously. She started contractions last night (Saturday - after a day at the hospital) and was able to have him naturally without having to go in for a C-section (thank God!).

Fortunately they are near family and Bill's parents rushed out to get them a car seat so they'd have something to bring the baby home in -- all their baby gear is at home in Dubois. Amelia says that they are doing well, exhausted, and so thankful for the support they are receiving from friends in prayer and family who are with them in Denver.

Keep Bill, Amelia, and Jack in your prayers as they wait to see when they can take him home to Wyoming.

A Living Pro-Life Legend

2009-04-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Tom and I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle this past weekend to attend the Knights of Columbus It's All About Life Conference with Father Frank Pavone.

Andrew posted about meeting Fr. Pavone over on the Anti-Choice Project website here.

Not only was Fr. Pavone an inspiration to continue the fight against abortion, but perhaps the most exciting moment for Tom & Andrew was when they got an "Atta boy!" from him regarding their work with the Anti-Choice Project. He was excited about the work that they have started and even offered to have them on his radio program. Quite a shot in the arm for this little pro-life organization.

A Father Frank moment

2009-04-22T19:15:00.001-07:00

All of you old Shalomer friends of mine will likely appreciate this...

This is today's Gospel reading:

Jn 3:16-21

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light,so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

While I was doing my meditation this morning I just couldn't get out of my head one of Fr. Frank's most famous homilies: "Jesus as Light, or Jesus with a Clipboard." As I was praying I came to the conclusion that there really is a lot of wisdom here, mixed in with Fr. Frank's classic humor, of course.

Jesus as Light: As we draw closer to Christ, the Light, our lives necessarily become permeated more and more by His light, which exposes those blemishes and sins which keep us from Him. But it's a purging which is driven by love; sometimes no less painful, but motivated by love for the One who gave Himself for us.

On the other hand we have "Jesus with a Clipboard." This image of Jesus has as its motivation for pefection the fear of Christ's judgment of our sins. (Insert mental image of Fr. Frank pretending to pose with glasses on the tip of his nose looking down at a laundry list of our sins)

While I think it's good to have a healthy fear of Christ's just judgment, it's not enough to simply be afraid of doing wrong; we need to work toward that "perfect contrition" for our sins which has at its root pure love for God as the motivation behind our desire for pefection and all our good works.

Anyway, just a few things I've been thinking about today.

Tom's project

2009-04-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

Anyone wondering what Tom's been up to?

http://www.antichoiceproject.com/

I know, I know, it's been a month!

2009-04-18T09:07:00.001-07:00

Well, I figured that after a month of not posting it was probably time for me to put some pictures on here. After doing one of these monthly update-type blogs I always kick myself for not keeping up better on our blog and resolve to do better...and I'm usually back here a month later. Maybe one of these days some of my friends will rub off on me and I'll do it at least weekly.

That said, here are some pictures from the past month.

Clare's in the phase where picking out her own interesting outfits is better than putting on anything that Mama could have picked out. If it gets quiet, I can usually safely assume that she's in her bedroom tearing apart her closet and dresser (yes, this is a daily occurence) and finding some really cute combinations. Here are a few:

Dressing up in Grammy's shoes and scarf

Wearing my sweatshirt -- and pretty darn proud of the fact that she got it over her head by herself

Her shirt is around her waist and she loves oven mitts

How in the world does bedhead like this happen?

Our trip to the park with Mary, Dominick, and some of her Herring aunties

Dom loved the baby swing. Clare...not so much. She wanted to swing by herself in the big kid swings. Independent little thing.

At the top of the big slide with Bex and Anna

Giving Daddy a daisy that she picked

She got on this rocking car thing all by herself and now it's her favorite thing to play on -- unless you count climbing on the monkey bars that are meant for big kids

Dom loves Tom and mauls him almost every time he sees him

We spent Easter with the Herrings and went to Mass at 8:15 (the girls' choir sang - they sounded like angels) then over to Tim & Theresa's to take a nap and get ready for the indoor egg hunt and afternoon dinner with the Sniders and our friends the Spinners whose whole family entered the Church just the night before at the Easter Vigil.

Clare and the beautiful Herring girls

Both grandbabies were ready for a nap and tired of this photo shoot in their Easter outfits. Thanks Uncle Matt & Aunt Jenny for the Easter dress -- Clare screams, "Pretty!" every time she sees it.

How do you get annoyed with the milk mess the kid makes with her cereal bowl when she's turned it in to a mini holy water font and is "blessing" herself with it?

Anna feeding the seagulls off the ferry on our way to Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo. We created quite a stir on the ferry and had people gathered at the windows watching and taking pictures of us feeding the birds. Apparently it wasn't something they'd seen before.

Clare and Dom got the best view of the elephants from atop Maddy & Angel's shoulders

It was a long day of walking around in the sun. I don't think Angel knew what she'd volunteered for when she offered to put Clare in the Ergo -- she ended up taking her nap here on poor Chich's back. You're a trooper!

Welcome, Ava Marie!

2009-03-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to John & Ann (Gagnier, for those of you who aren't familiar with her married name) Fischer -- they welcomed their daughter Ava Marie in to the world this morning! Ann texted me at 5:30 AM, but I'm not sure exactly what time Ava arrived. She was 21 inches long and 7 lbs. 4 oz.

Another wonderful Catholic family growing!

Not Judging Even Ourselves

2009-03-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share this reflection from St. Francis de Sales on today's Gospel - Luke 6:36-38. It's beautiful.

"I should have to listen while you tell me all the little things that have been happening, and even then, patience and resignation are the only possible source of healing. After this winter-time of coldness, a blissful summer will come and we shall be consoled.

Alas, daughter, we always hanker for sweetness, happiness, and delicious consolation; but bitterness and dryness are really more fruitful. And although St. Peter loved the mount of Tabor and fled from the mount of Calvary, the latter was nevertheless of greater profit than the former, and the blood that is shed on the one is more desirable than the radiance shed on the other. Our Lord is already treating you as being stronger and more grown-up; try to live up to this. It is better to eat bread without sugar than sugar without bread.

The anxiety and grief you feel from realizing your nothingness is not pleasant; for although the cause is good the effect is not. No, my dear daughter, this knowledge of our nothingness should not trouble us but should have a soothing, humbling, and chastening effect; it is self-esteem which makes us impatient at seeing ourselves vile and abject. Come now, I entreat you by the love of him whom we both love, of Jesus Christ, to live consoled and peaceful in your infirmities. I glory in my infirmities, says our great St. Paul, so that the power of my Savior may dwell in me. Yes, indeed, for our misery is as a throne to make manifest the sovereign goodness of Our Lord."

12-year old speaks out

2009-02-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

Wow. This kid's got guts. And how well-spoken she is!

YOPP! That’s the final word that made all the difference at the end of Dr. Seuss’ story Horton Hears a Who. May we suggest that it stands for Young Ones Praying and Prophesying. With that in mind meet Lia. She’s a 12-year-old seventh grader that recently decided to make a courageous stand in her school by giving a persuasive speech on the topic of abortion. Even when her teachers strongly encouraged her to choose a different topic, she decided to stick with what she felt passionate about.

In Earthen Vessels

2009-02-06T07:29:00.001-08:00

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.

This week we received painful, disturbing news regarding the life of the founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. Needless to say, we were shocked to discover that he'd been living a duplicitous life (at a minimum, investigations have determined Fr. Maciel fathered a child with a mistress some 22 years ago) and saddened to our core that we had placed so much confidence in the holiness and sincerity of Father Maciel.

It remains unclear exactly how the Regnum Christi Movement and the Legion will move forward under the direction of Father Alvaro Corcuera, LC. It may be that there will be some form of "reconstitution" of the groups -- at this point we just don't know.

Here is an article in Zenit News which quotes directly from Legionary spokesman Jim Fair regarding the news of Father Maciel.

If you'd like to read equitable and charitable coverage of this disturbing news, check out Patrick Madrid's blog post of February 3.

Our Sunday Visitor also did an interview via email with Fr. Thomas Williams, LC which you can find here.

Also, if you're interested, Raymond Arroyo will be hosting Father Thomas Williams, LC and Father Jonathan Morris, LC on The World Over Live tonight (Friday) on EWTN at 8 PM Eastern Time to interview them and get their responses to this recent news.

We ask for your prayers as we Regnum Christi members (70,000+) struggle with this difficult news, as well as for all the faithful and holy Legionaries and Consecrated around the world who are bearing this heavy cross.

We know that God chooses to act through frail human instruments, which is why I began this post quoting from St. Paul. Truly, God began this work to build up His Church, but chose a weak earthen vessel through which to do it. I take comfort in knowing that the charism of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi has been affirmed and reaffirmed in and through the Church and that as long as we are faithful to the direction we receive from Rome, we will forever be in the Heart of Christ. I am thankful that Cardinal Rode, Prefect of the Congregation of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, has affirmed the mission of Regnum Christi despite the personal failings of our founder.

Please pray especially for our current General Director, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, LC, as he has an enormous burden to bear. This must be so personally distressing to him, as he was close to Fr. Maciel and had the responsibility of revealing what his own internal investigation unearthed, however unpleasant the news. Here is a link to a beautiful letter that he wrote to all Regnum Christi members if you'd like to read it.

My kind of Sheriff

2009-01-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

This is an email that was sent to me about the Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff. I'm so glad that the man who killed my step-brother 12 years ago is serving his time under this man.

What a great sheriff. I wish more in our country were like him.

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well...

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.

Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of S heriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights,cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was a Federal Court Order that required cable TV for jails so he hooked up the cable TV again. Only let in the Disney Channel and the Weather Channel.

When asked why the Weather Channel he replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my Chain Gangs."

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 Degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press Reports:

About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their Government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.

'It feels like we are in a furnace,' said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 year. 'It's inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Clare's favorite things

2009-01-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

1. Her "Santa Baby" dress & hat from Grammy & Papa Tom

2. Putting her tights on her head (notice her eyebrows are completely scrunched down)

3. Snuggling with her aunties while she naps

4. Her cousin Dominick

5. Coloring

6. Seeing Aunt Monique

7. Rocking with her baby

8. Hiding in closets & cupboards

(Note the spaghetti face)

9. Helping Mama cook dinner

10. Dancing to her favorite song, "Lollipop, Lollipop" -- I tried to post a video but it's not working. Oh well, I'll keep working on it because it's super cute. She knows the words and stops dancing at the "Ba dum, bump, bump" part and sings it along with the song.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord

2008-12-26T22:58:00.001-08:00

For those of you who didn't already know, I'd like to ask you to pray for the repose of the soul of Tom's grandpa, Lee Snider (Theresa's dad), who passed away last Friday and whose funeral we will celebrate tomorrow at Star of the Sea.

His entrance in to eternity was one that I wish everyone could have. He died with the Sacraments and holding the hand of his beloved wife, Kathy.

December has been a little sad for the Herring family, having lost two of our dear grandparents. But we are thankful for the time that we had with them and look forward to spending eternity with them praising God forever in Heaven.

Thank you for your prayers.

A new spin on "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"

2008-12-24T07:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a poem that someone forwarded me about how the true meaning of CHRISTmas has been eroded. I pray that we all remember Whose birthday we are celebrating tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Twas The Month Before Christmas

When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.

See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a 'Holiday'.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-is-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!

On Snow and a Lesson in Charity

2008-12-18T13:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is about snow that I love so much. I certainly don't enjoy the prospect of driving in it. I don't like the puddles that it makes on the floor when you bring it inside on your shoes. I don't like having to go scrape it off of the car in the mornings.

What I do like, though, is how quiet everything is when there is a blanket of snow over it. I like that it's so quiet that you can almost hear individual flakes landing on the sidewalk. I like that it forces us to slow down, maybe decide to stay at home instead of making that one extra errands trip, and enjoy each other's company. I have to wonder if God planned it that way. Just in time to celebrate His Son's birth, we have the opportunity to slow down, breathe, take a walk, and enjoy the silence.

This is our house a couple of hours ago. It's continued to snow since I took this.

Here are some pictures of our little snow angel. Clare loved her first experience playing in the snow, and cried when I brought her back inside because her nose was bright red.

My friend Cheri posted a few pictures of their Christmas decorations, so I thought I'd do the same. I try to make all of our decorations by hand if possible -- our Nativity is store-bought, though. The cedar swag was made out of florist's wire and cedar boughs from the tree in our back yard. The wreath is also homemade. I hung it with gold wire-edged ribbon instead of a metal wreath hanger, and I really like how it looks so much better. You may notice a trend here -- I like ribbon. A lot.

For the record, I hate the screen door. It ruins a perfectly good picture. If I have it shut, you can't see the wreath. If I have it open, the other side of my cedar swag gets cut out. I just can't win with this door. Oh well, you get the idea.

This is only the corner of a homemade garland that I have hung across the front window. I took a picture of the whole thing, but you really lose some of the effect, so I thought I'd go with a closer-up picture.

I took a picture of our tree too, but it came out looking very strange with the window backlighting it, and in the daylight you lose the entire effect of the lights. I may take one tonight and post it.

On to a Lesson in Charity...

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you're completely overwhelmed by someone's charity, and edified by their example? We had one this past weekend.

We went to Bellingham for Lauren & John's wedding on Saturday -- it was beautiful. And it even started to snow as they were leaving the reception. How romantic.

Then it kept on snowing, and Bellingham's roads got very nasty in a very short few hours. As we were leaving the Xavier House (about 9:30 PM) - Clare was SUPER cranky (sorry to all who endured her screaming) because she missed her nap and it was getting late - Fr. Nguyen asked if we could give him a ride back to the rectory, as he didn't think his car would be able to make it. So we put it in 4WD and pulled out of 35th Street no problem. But the road report was not good, and there were tales of roll-overs and people in ditches so Tom and I thought that after we dropped Father off we should probably put on the chains at a gas station just to be safe.

Father suggested that we do it before getting up the hill to his house so that he could help Tom while Clare and I stayed warm in the car - looking back on it, I don't think we would have been able to even get near Sacred Heart without the chains on. Anyway, poor Tom and Fr. Nguyen jumped out of the car (Tom no coat, and neither had gloves) and proceeded to put the chains on. Now these are supposedly the "Quick Fit" variety. There was nothing quick about this. It took them nearly an hour outside in 20-degree snowy weather to get these things on. It was our fault for not having done a test run on them in our garage before leaving. Lesson learned.

Anyway, they got the darn things on and we were able to get to the rectory just fine. Father said he was going to run in and grab some Cheerios for Clare to keep her happy on the drive down. A few minutes later, out comes Father with a whole bag full of food for us all and 2 cups of steaming hot tea. Tom and I were so thankful not only for his help in putting the chains on our car, but for his generosity in bringing out a whole lunch bag for our trip home. And how did he know that Peppermint tea is my favorite? What charity!

Thank you, Father Nguyen.

Here's a picture of the "Quick Fit" chain incident:

We did make it home just fine. The roads were pretty bad between Bellingham and Mt. Vernon (cars all over the road, rolled over, and in ditches, tow trucks...) so we were thankful for the chains. It took us over an hour to make what is usually a 30-minute drive. In Mt. Vernon we took the chains off (incidentally, a very quick chore) and by the time we hit S. Everett we were comfortable taking it out of 4WD.

We barely made it to Seattle in time to catch a 1 AM ferry, and tumbled in to bed at almost 3 AM on Sunday. What an adventure!

Some of you may be asking, "Why the heck did you even try to drive? Couldn't you have stayed the night?" The answer is yes, we could have stayed over, but our friend Patrick pointed out that it might be best to take our chances with the snow rather than wait until the morning when it's all frozen over to a sheet of ice. We thought he was probably right.

Well, stay safe out there everyone. Enjoy the snow, and enjoy each other. God bless you!

Finally...some recent pics

2008-12-08T21:40:00.001-08:00

I've just simply not had the energy or time to sit down and post some new pictures and an update since the election. But I find myself with some time now - so here goes.

Life with Clare at 15 months has very few dull moments. Maybe when she's asleep. Speaking of sleep, it's been really interesting trying to get her to sleep. She's sleeping alone in her big girl bed through the night, but since we got back from Minnesota it seems like there's always been an extenuating circumstance that makes it so that we have to baby her a bit. The month of November she's been teething (molars -- ouch!) and getting over a cough/cold. Both have made it hard for her to go to sleep, so we've been pampering her by cuddling with her until she falls asleep. Long story short, it's been a challenge getting her to sleep on her own.

She's talking more and more, and her vocabulary has expanded to include "Papa" (my dad), "Mammy" (my mom), banananana (banana), "bye-da" (help me), Anna (Tom's sister is the first auntie whose name Clare can say), "dow" (down), "tee" (teeth - she loves getting her teeth brushed), and she says "Da-da" after every time you give her anything (means "Thank You" - she says it with the correct intonation and everything).

I'll just post a few pictures and put captions to give a short update on the life and times of the Herring family.

Clare took a tumble down the stairs at church. She was not a happy camper. On the upside, she's VERY cautious with steps now and never goes down without holding a hand.

Clare and Dominick on our road trip to visit our friends in Spokane

Reading with Grandpa ("Papa") after a bath. She loves reading and will hand a book to any person who looks like enough of a sucker to read her the same book 18 times.

Our little Halloween princess waiting for her aunties to come home from trick-or-treating and fill up her buckets with candy.

Clare likes cheese.

If for any reason we can't find Clare at the Herrings' house, it's likely that she's made her way in to this room and has climbed up on the piano bench. She'll sit there all by herself and play.

Clare's first experience feeding ducks at Tumwater Falls Park over Thanksgiving weekend at Grammy's. She was really interested in the ducks until they started coming closer, then she shinnied up the closest person's legs to get away. I would tear off pieces of the bread for the ducks and Clare would eat it. I ended up feeding the ducks while my mom held her.

Clare chasing down Grandpa & Daddy while we were looking for our Christmas tree this weekend.

"Hurry up, Aunt Shannon!"

Hanging out with Aunt Kristy. I'm trying to teach her to say, "Kiki," much to Kristy's chagrin. :) You're going to have a hard time being the cool aunt when you're being called "Kiki."

After the annual Christmas tree hunt, we got everyone outside to put up the Christmas lights. Tom could actually reach the peak of our house just by standing on the ladder.

So that's where I'll leave you so that I can follow our little one and go to bed. Thanks for all of your support and prayers the last week. Gibby's funeral is tomorrow, so we'll be counting on them for a bit longer.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord

2008-12-05T08:46:00.001-08:00

Thank you all for your prayers for my grandma and my dad's family the past couple of days.

Yesterday morning, after all of us had an opportunity to talk to Gibby and say our goodbyes, her doctor explained to her what was going to happen and why. He explained that her cancer had spread rapidly and was wrapped around the blood vessels in her lungs, crippling her right lung and making her heart (already weak and with a pacemaker) have to work twice as hard to get blood moving. He said that they would take the breathing tube out and that she would begin to die then. She was so weak that they didn't think that she'd last the 4 hours that she did the day before when they tried to take the tube out. She was alert and understood everything that was going on, and shook her head vigorously when we asked her if she was afraid.

She'd been holding the rosary that I brought back from Assisi for her, and when the doctor told her the news she started rubbing the beads. She was comforted by the Rosary and prayed it daily, so my dad and aunt asked that I stay in there while she was dying (as family came and went) and just pray the Rosary out loud for her to hear. I told her that I was going to stand behind her and pray after they pulled the tubes, and she squeezed my hand and nodded her head to let me know that she wanted it. I told her that I would do my best, but that it was going to be hard for me, so if I got quiet for a minute I just needed to compose myself and that I would be praying silently.

Fortunately my sisters were there by my side the whole time. Hearing her granddaughters praying the Rosary together for her gave Gibby tremendous peace, and comforted the whole family - Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

They removed the tubes and sat her up so she could see all of us (she was conscious the whole time) as she passed away. She was in no pain, but was still able to see everyone and squeeze our hands. Modern medicine is so amazing.

We were able to make it through 2 Rosaries, a Divine Mercy chaplet, a couple of litanies, and prayed the prayer for a happy death as she stopped breathing.

I couldn't imagine a happier death. She died at peace with God and with her family surrounding her (my dad is one of 9 kids).

Gibby was a strong woman - strong in faith and in character - and she passed it on to her family. I still cannot believe that just a few days ago we were all sitting around her dining room table making our annual family Christmas craft and she was reminding all of us not to cut the wire with her good scissors.

We all went over to her house after we left the hospital, exhausted in body and spirit. I was sitting on the step next to the fireplace - my favorite spot in her house - and Clare came and sat down next to me. I wish that Gibby was here to see that Clare loves sitting there with me just as much as I loved sitting by the fire with her while I was growing up. Clare has some little curls at the ends of her hair, just like I used to. I'm going to have to find someone that will play with her hair and put it in ringlets like Gibby used to do with me. Maybe Aunt Margo...

Anyway, sorry for the rambling and random memories, but I wanted to give you an update and thank you for your prayers.

I'll post sometime soon about our family and include new pictures of Clare. She sure is getting big, and was such a bright spot in this time of sadness for all of us.

Prayers Please

2008-12-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't posted anything in a long time due to the election craziness, but I need to ask for prayers.

I am with my grandma, Margaret ("Gibby") Wigren at St. Peter's hospital in Olympia. She came in on Tuesday because of what they thought was an asthma or emphysema attack -- she basically couldn't breathe. Anyway, she's been in and out of consciousness for the past 2 days - such a blessing because I was able to talk to her and pray our favorite prayer (the Memorare) with her. Anyway, earlier today she was doing much better and they were able to remove her breathing tube and she was sitting up and talking for a couple hours.

Then she started having trouble breathing again so they had to put the tube back in and sedate her so that she's more comfortable. They did a CT scan to see if maybe she had a blood clot that was making it difficult to breathe. Good news: her doctor said that there wasn't any clotting. Bad news: her cancer has spread and taken over both of her lungs now - that's the reason she can't breathe. There's nothing they can do about it, and tomorrow we're going to have the ventilator removed. They say that she should last about 4 hours after that point.

There is an upside to this suffering. She and I had a really good conversation about a month ago after her most recent heart attack. She's at peace and is ready to die. Her soul is in a good place, and we were able to make sure that she is dying with the Sacraments. God is so faithful.

So, prayers are appreciated, as this is very difficult for my dad and all his brothers and sisters.

Thank you, and I'll update later.

Viagra: It's not just for old guys anymore

2008-09-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic article - I'm sorry for posting the whole thing, but it's really good. Let me know what you think!

Viagra: It's Not Just for Old Guys Anymore

Mary Beth Bonacci
IgnatiusInsight.com

Why the epidemic of sexual dysfunction? Because we've lost the sense of sexual meaning.

I am constantly amazed at the types of products I see advertised on TV.

When I was a kid, we never would have dreamed that we'd see ads for prescription medications. Who'd have wanted to? The drugs just weren't that interesting. ("Antibiotics. They'll make your bacterial infection go away in no time.") We did, however, see lots of commercials for cigarettes. (Does anybody else remember "You've come a long way, baby"?)

Gosh, how television has changed.

Advertising cigarettes on TV has been banned since 1970. (When, for the record, I was still a very young child.) Apparently the "powers that were" decided that smoking wasn't an activity they wanted to be promoting through the public airways. Which is fine with me.

But what has taken its place? Well, in the past few years, it's been drug advertisements. Specifically, we've seen a plethora of ads for Viagra, Enzite and other "male enhancement" products. (And yes, that's about as specific as I'm going to get.)

What's wrong with this picture?

First of all, smoking is apparently bad for our collective health. But we as a culture seem to believe unfettered sexual activity is just good clean fun. ("Cialis. Will you be ready?") I would think the carnage left in the wake of the post-sexual revolution would have disabused us of that notion.

And, speaking of the carnage of the post-sexual revolution, who'd have thought 30 years ago that we would all need so much pharmacological help in the bedroom?

Seriously. When these ads first came out, we all though they were targeting older Baby Boomer men who were just getting on in years and thus needed a little help, well, "getting it on." Of course, most of the ads featured handsome men with graying temples strolling the beach with well-preserved middle-aged women.

But apparently it's not just the old guys any more.

From everything I am reading and hearing, it seems we have an epidemic of partial and total impotence among men of all ages, as well as a corresponding "epidemic" of decreased sexual enjoyment among women.

Nothing is "dirty" any more. Porn shops, once found only in seedy neighborhoods, have been repackaged as "adult gift shops" and franchised into the suburbs. Provocative magazine covers, once hidden underneath drug store counters, are now proudly displayed at grocery store check stands.

But there remains one dirty little secret in our society. People may be having a lot more sex (or at least trying to). But they're enjoying it a lot less. And nobody wants to admit it.

What's the matter here?

I've known for years that studies on sexual satisfaction consistently reveal the same results. The most sexually satisfied people in America--the ones who apparently have the best and most frequent sex--are highly religious married people who saved sex for marriage. I've always seen those studies as evidence
that sex is best when it's done God's way. He intended it to speak a language--the language of self-donating love. And so it only stands to reason that it would be the most pleasurable when it takes place in that context.

There is an element of tremendous vulnerability in sexual expression. The heart is saying "I give myself to you forever." Bonding hormones like oxytocin are flooding the brain, working to create a strong emotional attachment between these two people. In the context of a loving marriage, these partners know that
bonding is taking place, and they are fully consenting and yielding to it. There is a real security and freedom in knowing that this person is planning to stick around--forever.

But sexual activity between the "uncommitted" is different. That bonding element is unwelcome. It has to be resisted. There is no freedom to yield oneself, no security, no assurance that this person will be around next year or next month or even tomorrow.

Apparently, that makes it more difficult to enjoy sexual activity.

This phenomenon, unfortunately, is not relationship-specific. It's not that a woman can have less-than-enjoyable sex throughout her dating years, and then transition easily into a happy, fulfilling marital sex life. Or that a man's promiscuity-induced performance issues will suddenly be cured by the love of the right woman. There is a reason that those most sexually satisfied Americans had saved sex for marriage. Sexual habits form easily. And sexual dysfunction brought on by premarital promiscuity will almost certainly follow young men and women into their marriages.

Americans don't seem to get this. We keep developing new drugs, new supplements. We churn out books and magazine articles aimed at "spicing up your sex life." We open more suburban porn stores. Everyone is trying to bring the pleasure back to sexual activity.

I don't see how any of it is going to help. The only way we're going to recover sexual pleasure is to recover sexual meaning. They're tied together. The real pleasure comes when we respect the language of sex, when we speak it honestly, in the context in which it belongs.

In other words, the sickness isn't in our nerve endings. It's in our souls.

Life at the Herring household

2008-09-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Clare's Walking!

2008-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

She actually started taking steps on her own a couple weeks ago, but she's just now getting more daring in walking around the house by herself. Her favorite words right now are "Uh-oh!" and "Da-da." I still can't believe that she's almost a year old.

"Death With Dignity?"

2008-08-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is a great video produced by Washington's chapter of the Christian Medical Association that highlights some of the main problems with public policy like Assisted Suicide.

Ever had one of those days?

2008-07-31T22:54:00.000-07:00

Today was one.

It started at about 2:30 AM with Clare deciding that it was time to be awake and playing. She would NOT go back to sleep. So I finally just brought her in bed and laid her down and tried to ignore her. It must have worked after a while because she finally fell back asleep.

Needless to say, I was a little tired this morning and my normal early-morning wake up did not sound very appealing. So I slept in a bit with Clare and Tom (he had to work swing shift today). The sleeping in part was great, but that also meant that I didn't have my normal morning prayer time. I thought, "Oh well, I can just do my meditation while Clare is taking a nap."

Nap time came and went, and she was not having it.

"Oh, well," I thought. "I have a Holy Hour today, I'll spend some quiet time with Christ then."

By this time I was annoyed at the whole lack-of-nap thing, and Clare was cranky.

So I got her in the car, thinking that she'd probably fall asleep in the car on the way and leave me in peace for a whole hour.

We got in to the Church, and everything was OK. I got her in her Ergo and let her nurse for a few minutes while we walked around in the back. Things were going well until she ripped the nursing cover off and decided that she was NOT going to fall asleep, and wasn't afraid to let everyone within a 10-mile radius know it.

So we went outside for a little bit to see if the fresh air and a walk would make her fall asleep (she so desperately wanted to, but was fighting it!). As soon as she had calmed down a little bit, I tried to sneak back inside for my quiet time with Christ. She started crying again. Back outside.

After 3 or 4 attempts, I realized that I was probably more of a nuisance to the others inside who were trying to have their quiet time with Christ. So we packed up and got in the car, where she fell asleep after about 5 minutes of driving.

When we got home, I didn't have the heart to move her and wake her up from her much-needed nap, so I closed the garage door, opened the car doors, and propped open the door leading from the house to the garage, and let her take a 2-hour nap in the car.

We were both much happier after her nap, and my mom's visit tonight came at just the right time.

I'm hoping that Christ knows that my heart was there with Him all day, despite the many things that seemed to prevent me from spending time with Him.

I had to laugh when I saw Clare doing this...

2008-07-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

I think this would probably be among the things that Clare should not be allowed to do - but I couldn't help laughing and grabbing the camera instead of telling her "No," and getting her down before she either fell backward off the dishwasher door or broke the darn thing.

Last night I got to spend time with dear friends who were Peer Ministers with me at the Catholic Campus Ministry (still at the Shalom Center - now that tells you that it was a few years ago!) at Shannon Hickey's house in Bellevue. It was great to see them, and it's hard to believe that our get togethers are starting to include fiancees, husbands, and babies...how time flies!

Great Read

2008-07-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Below is the text of a fantastic satire piece written by Gerard Baker of the British newspaper The Times. With all the Obama hype in this country, it's refreshing to see that our friends across the Atlantic can look at it all and laugh. Enjoy!

July 25, 2008

He ventured forth to bring light to the world

The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the

Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the

Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Mother's Amnesia

2008-07-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

I have been realizing this week that Mother's Amnesia really does exist. This proves that God wants us to have babies.

Through Mary's labor/delivery experience and now having Dominick at home for the first week, I find that I am completely unable to remember the pain of labor (I remember it happening, but it's just not that vivid), how Clare was the first week we brought her home, sleepless nights (and days), etc.

How else do you think we'd sign up to have more babies? God HAD to make it so that we wouldn't remember all the unpleasant things, or I think most of us would swear "I'm NEVER doing that again!" as soon as it's over.

But in the end, I think we'd all agree that it's totally worth it.

Insomnia strikes

2008-06-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well, after a 2-month hiatus from the blogging world, I find myself unable to sleep. So here I am, not sleeping, with a great glass of red wine and the computer - ready to update you all on the happenings in the Herring life.

Let's see - I should start from where I left off.

Tom FINALLY got home on April 26 from what seemed like the longest 5 weeks of my life. Clare remembered him right away; I wish you could have seen the smile she gave him when he ran up and said, "Monkey!" He couldn't believe how big she'd gotten, and that she'd cut her first 2 teeth while he was gone (2 lower).

Speaking of cutting teeth, I must tell you that my friend Jessi has this amazing 6th sense...when Clare and I arrived at their house in Olympia to drive - yes, drive - over to Wyoming for Amelia & Bill's wedding, she said, "By the way, Clare is going to get a tooth over this trip." And she did. Apparently the Oaklands haven't taken a road trip yet in their married life in which one of the kids wasn't teething. Makes for a pleasant 15-hour drive. But 40 repeats of Finding Nemo later, we found ourselves in Wyoming for a beautiful wedding. Unfortunately I ended up getting sick while we were there and poor Jessi got stuck with driving 90% of the way back while I sat in the back with Clare to keep her from screaming, eating Pepto Bismol tablets and holding a plastic bag. Now that's what I call fun. In all, it was a GREAT trip; I got to see one of my dearest friends married to an amazing, Godly man who complements her in every way; hang out with Zach, Cheri, & their boys - I truly look up to you, and thank you for your hospitality; and spend 30 hours of quality time in the car with another wonderful friend who always impresses me with her kindness and humor.

In May we went up to Bellingham for what is turning in to an annual tradition of ours - the Genocide Awareness Project at WWU. It was nice to see our friends again, especially Darius & Janet Hardwick and their kids. Their daughter Brielle just loves Clare (hey, the redheads have to stick together!).

June has been a hectic month - it has truly blown past us without me even noticing. The first week of June was relatively evenly paced, but the last 3 weeks have been CRAZY.

On June 13 we had the honor of attending my friend Ann's wedding in Seattle, then headed directly from there to Olympia to stay the night at my mom's house and try to get some sleep before we had to wake up early to get ready for my mom's 10 AM wedding to Tom Grover (yes, another Tom in our life!). The rest of the day was spent with old family and new family at Tom & Mom's house after a small, simply beautiful ceremony in downtown Olympia. No family gathering would be complete without 60 pounds of BBQ ribs and volleyball... We stayed the night in Olympia so that we could go over to my Grandma's house after Mass the next morning and see my Dad for Father's Day. We were there for a couple hours then had to drive back up to Bremerton for the Herring/Snider family graduation party. We had 4 graduates and lots of dads to celebrate with a family picnic at the Elks lodge. Tom had family in town from Kansas as well as Florida, so we tried to spend as much time as we could in Silverdale at the Herrings' while they were here.

Last weekend Clare and I attended a beautiful Pampered Chef bridal shower for Lindsey at Kit's house - always fun - as well as a graduation party for our friend Meghan Gray.

Then Monique came home for a short visit, and Madeline came home from the Pre-Candidacy high school for girls in Rhode Island. They were both happy to see Clare and spend time with their quickly-growing niece.

Chris has been enjoying his time home with the family, although his work commute has him going from Silverdale to either Everett or Tacoma - not fun. But it really is wonderful to have him home. You should see how much Clare adores her Uncle Chris! He stops by often when he's on his way home from work in Tacoma to play with Clare when he can have her undivided attention. He's also gotten really good at putting her to sleep by dancing with her...Chris, would you mind coming over every night just to get Clare to sleep? You can go home to your own bed once she's zonked out...

My sister Kristy is also home from school for the summer. She and our "adopted" sister Mary Beth are staying at Mom's now that she's living out at Black Lake with Tom. I love spending time with my sisters whenever I get the chance. I am so unbelievably blessed to have the relationship I do with my sisters; I couldn't imagine going through life without 2 of my best friends by my side. Kristy is determined to be the "cool aunt," and tries to come up and play with Clare whenever she can so that she can beat Shannon to the punch - although Shannon really does have this amazing gift of putting babies to sleep. Don't know what it is about her...

This weekend we are heading up with Tom & Mary to Bellingham to witness the marriage of 2 good friends of ours - Cory and Athena. We get to meet our godson John Ahmu also! Matt & Jenny drove up from Sacramento to attend the wedding as well, so we're looking forward to it.

An update on Clare before I get to a random smattering of pictures from the last 2 months: She's officially HUGE. She had her 9-month checkup on the 13th and weighs in at 28 lbs. (88%) and 30 in. (her Dr. told me to just put "100% +" in that box). She's wearing 18-month clothes! She's standing up with no support, and taking steps as long as you hold her hand. Her favorite pasttimes: "helping" me with housework, ie: taking out all the folded laundry from the basket and putting it on the floor, opening the drawers where the dish towels are kept and strewing them about the kitchen, unraveling the toilet paper, and taking spoons out of the dishwasher while I'm trying to load or unload it - just to name a few. Clare's also learned how to give kisses (watch out, they're sloppy) and loves to play hide-n-seek; she laughs every time she manages to find you if you've covered your face up with a blanket. She's cutting her top 2 teeth right now, so she's in a bit of a fussy-clingy stage, but I just have to remind myself that it will pass. She's also learned how to blow a whistle (that's fun for mama) and likes to listen to Johnny Cash and Cat Stevens - seriously, she calms down in the car when listening to them!

Here they are, random snapshots of the Herring life:

Kristy, me, Mom, and Shannon at Mom & Tom's wedding

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

At the family picnic on Father's Day

Cheering for Daddy playing volleyball

Why is it that Chris can get her to wear his hat when he comes over to play with her, but I can't keep one on her when we're out in the sunshine?

First swimming experience with Mama, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Mary

With Aunt Moe the night before she had to leave

Berna leaves on Sunday morning for her year of service to Christ and His Church as a coworker with the Regnum Christi movement. We had to say goodbye to her today since we'll be in Bellingham over the weekend. We love you Berna, we're proud of you, and we'll miss you! Count on our prayers.

That about does it for now, but I will try to be better about updating this blog every now and then.

Seriously? You won't say the Pledge?

2008-04-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Ruth Harkin stand during the National Anthem. Barack Obama refused both to put his hand over his heart and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

...And this man wants to be our next President?

Clare finally mastered real crawling

2008-04-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here's another video for you, Tommy!

My dad came over last night for dinner -- his birthday is tomorrow. It was a great visit, and we were both entertained by Clare trying to make her escape out the open door to where Grandpa was grilling steaks.

Your girls love and miss you.

Not a fluke

2008-04-08T16:32:00.001-07:00

I was getting some work done on the computer this afternoon, and when I looked behind me this is what I saw:

Yes, it's Clare standing next to her exersaucer playing with the toys. My dad said that he thought she might just skip the crawling thing...he may be right!