Treats. just lots of treats.

Everyone has posted cute pictures of their kids in adorable costumes trick-or-treating.

I do not.

I only have a picture of what Halloween does to my kids:


Ahhh, candy.

He did it!

Last Friday Richard successfully defended his dissertation. He has a few revisions to the text, but the professors on his committee all approved his research. So for all intents and purposes....

He is now DR RICHARD MOORE!

He had a great group of professors at the University of Memphis, especially Dr. Halford, who have helped him along the way. Thank-you!

Where the wild Things Are

I am almost hysterically excited about this movie. Hannah and Sam are ready to go with me, too!



Richard's more excited about this book adaptation, however. Hannah, not so much. Warning: Richard thinks this is funny.

When I was your age, Pluto was a planet

Hannah and I have a running line:

Me: Hannah, I love you.
Hannah: Well Mom, I love you all the way to Pluto.
Me: I love you all the way to Pluto and back
Hannah: I love you all the way to Pluto and back and back to Pluto again.
Me:I love you all the way to Pluto and back and back to Pluto and back again...

And this continues until we reach our destination, or the chicken nuggets are done cooking, or Josh does something distractingly cute.

So today from the backseat of the car Sam announces:

"Mom, I love all the way to Pluto. And I love you all the way to Micky Mouse. And I love you all the way to Minnie Mouse. And I love you all the way to Goofy. And I love you all the way to Daisy Duck"

Seriously, he was at Goofy before I realized- he thinks Pluto is a dog.


~~~

There haven't been many pictures lately. That's because we keep our pictures on our desktop, named HAL. We recently tried to install Ubuntu on it, and the conflicting Windows/Linux commands have made him a bit crazy. Don't worry. He'll make it.

But we do want to get a new computer in 2010, just so we can name her SAL.

And to anyone who understands why that is funny, well, it's okay to be a geek.

Does it make you a bad parent when...

You turn to your husband at 10:45 Sunday night and ask-
"Richard, did we have dinner tonight?"

and he replies:
"huh.

no.

...and neither did our kids."

And you realize that you sent your son to bed earlier complaining about being hungry (which he does every night), and you told him sorry, it's was too late, and now it's bed time. And you are suddenly even more grateful to the Horrocks for showing up with cookies after bedtime, because that's all your kids got to eat tonight.

What inspired friends!

Perspective

I am humbled. True, I did brag/complain about Josh and his 9lbs 13oz birth weight, but that's nothing compared to this kid:

"An Indonesian woman has given birth to an 8.7-kilogramme (19.2-pound) baby boy, the heaviest newborn ever recorded in the country, a doctor said. The baby boy is pictured here next to a baby of average size at a hospital in Medan, North Sumatra."

This momma deserves a trophy. And Josh is suddenly such a cute little thing.

from the mouths of babes

With the addition of a third child seat to our minivan, Hannah and Sam have been banished to the back bench seat. The reason being two-fold: Josh's seat has to be easily accessible from the side door, but if one of the child seats was next to Josh, battle lines would be drawn for a daily fight. Second, with both of the talking children in the far back, Sarah and I might enjoy conversation with fewer interruptions (in theory, at least).

This has led to Hannah and Sam conversing more directly with each other in the car. This morning as we drove to church, I heard them begin to discuss the merits and flaws of a certain coloring book that had been placed in the church bag. Hannah succinctly expressed her opinion of said coloring book.

"I hate that book."

Sam, remembering a recent scolding, shot back with:

"Hannah, don't say 'hate'!"

Realizing his lack of power over his sister, he found the need to cite a higher authority. I expected a 'Daddy said' or even better 'Mommy said,' but no, he went straight for the ace of spades:

"Or Jesus will kill you."

Sam had recently become obsessed with Jesus. This is a good thing, I think. At a recent family gathering, aunts and grandparents asked him repeatedly to rattle off his list of Jesus facts, some learned, some invented. Giggles would always follow Sam's new bits of doctrine. That was cute, but I felt the need to intervene now:

"Sam, that's not true, Jesus will not kill you."

And realizing the need for clarity:

"or Hannah"

But still wanting the previous lesson to stick:

"But saying 'hate' is still bad, just not quite that bad."

Hopefully the threat of a punishment other than death will be sufficient to shape behavior.

Edit: For more Gospel According to Sam, visit Julia's blog (Richard's sister)