Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A child's sense of time

One thing I love about kids is their sense of time and the phrases they use to describe time. 


Joshua, "Wow that took me ten whole years" (actual time was 2 months)


Samuel, "When I was bigger..."


Maria, very dramatically, "I'm dying, I haven't had water in 3 days!"


Joshua, "When I was a hundred I was bigger than daddy"


Maria, "a thousand years ago..."


Joshua, "a hundred weeks ago..."


Samuel, "When we went to that park tomorrow..." (meaning yesterday)


Maria, "remember when we went to that park a few miles ago..." (meaning a few days)


Mom, "your turn is in two minutes"

Samuel whining, "I can't wait, that's so long...."


Mom, "it's in 3 days"

Maria, "How much is 3 days? Is it 1,2,3?"


Maria," I'm starving, I haven't had any food in weeks!"

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Samuel was complaining the other day that he didn't feel so good. He Then said, "My tummy is so fat I am going to have a baby soon."

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy New Year from the Rays

Enjoy a look back at 2008 with us...



...and something a bit more fast paced and loud:

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Nations's Wealthy Cruelly Deprived of the True Meaning of Christmas

I know this is meant to be humorous (it is from a satirical news website), but there is a little bit of truth buried in all this sarcasm. Let's see if you can find it.


Report: Nation's Wealthy Cruelly Deprived Of True Meaning Of Christmas

Sunday, December 21, 2008

How Many Days Until Christmas?

Maria does not like wearing a coat, well none of our kids like clothes very much, but being forced to wear a coat is the ultimate tragedy. So I'll give you the inside scoop one of our kids Christmas presents: Mrs. Campbell made them hooded fleece capes (shhhh, don't spoil the surprise). Up until today we have allowed the kids to carry their coats with them in case "the car breaks down" and they are stranded for a long period in the cold of winter. But today was bitter cold and the wind-chill brought the temp down towards -20F. Maria was sobbing on our way to church that she didn't want to wear a coat. After she calmed down I told her that one of her presents would allow her to stay warm without wearing a coat. She seemed intrigued, and this 4 year-old's Christmas anticipation was raised to a higher grade level. It was 12-noon when she started asking questions to Anna about how many times she had to sleep before Christmas would be here. After going through the pattern of "go to sleep, wake up, go to sleep again, wake up...." she said in her sleepiest voice, "Mom, I am tired, I want to go to sleep."

Friday, December 19, 2008

Nutcracker

We were introducing the nutcracker story to the kids and I asked them if they knew what a nutcracker is.
Maria quickly and confidently replied: a chipmunk.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Nonsense

Samuel has been reprimanded frequently of late for being silly at inappropriate times and during these events has picked up a new phrase...
As I was tickling him, in desperation he cried out, "Mom, you need to stop all this nonsense!!"

Friday, December 12, 2008

Funny Exchange

Papa " I'm going to give a talk to cloistered nuns today. That means they stay in a building and I have to talk them through a screen."
Joshua "Why?"
Papa "Well, they pray all day."
Joshua "that they can get out?"

(I guess the cloistered life isn't very appealing to Joshua who's top two fears are being locked in a room and getting trapped in an elevator.)

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Monday, December 01, 2008

It's a Girl!

The day before Thanksgiving we were very blessed to find out we have a beautiful baby girl! Jesse had claimed a girl from the beginning. Joshua was glad our family would be even. Maria talked all day about her baby sister who she can play "girl" stuff with.  She is also begging us to name her Rose, and although we don't have a name picked I'm not sure Rose Ray will make the cut. Samuel wanted a boy but seems okay with the fact that she is a girl. I'm just so thankful to have a healthy baby. 
The kids were with us for the ultrasound and after a few moments of looking at the screen Joshua exclaimed with delight "I see the baby and she's moving!"

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Another potty story

Sammy had been calling to be wiped and when I arrived he said pleadingly "mom, you have to wipe me". I replied "Oh, I have too?" "Yes." "But what if I don't?" "Then you're a bad guy, bad guys don't wipe kids."

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Motherhood

Maria is just so cute. I was squeezing her and told her that I was going to keep her from growing because we want her to stay small. She told me she wanted keep growing. After a few seconds she asked if she would have any more birthdays.
Me: "No more birthdays."
Maria: "But I have to have more birthdays, because I want to be pregnant. I want to have a baby in my tummy like mommy."

We are going to need to be careful, because at this point in my little girl's life her goal is to be pregnant ;)

Just like Papa

I was reading a book about Jesus and the saints to the kids and Joshua got this bright look in his eye and told me "I know what I will do, (now nearly shaking with excitment), I'll read a book all about Jesus.
With just a short pause for a thought he then said, (in his most excited voice), "then I'll write a book all about Jesus."

I guess having a passionate and prolific writer for a a grandpa has rubbed off on this little boy.

Nobody's home

Samuel locked the door to the bathroom yesterday before he sat down on the potty. When he was finished doing his dooty he called to us in normal fashion: "I'M DONE!" When I found the door locked I jokingly knocked and called to him, he called back: "NOBODY"S HOME."
Well at this point I started looking for one of those pin-like keys that you stick in the indoor locks to open them up because I knew Sam was not going to hop off the toilet and unlock the door for me. It had become a game of I'm smarter than daddy; which is funny because he probably would have sat there waiting to be wiped for hours and that's not too smart. I couldn't find a key so I pulled out a credit card and used that to pop the latch. As I opened the door he had a surprised look as if I was spoiling all the fun. I guess even waiting on the potty is fun for a 3 year old if your dad if it is predicated in tricking your dad.

Monday, November 10, 2008

You should see the other guy

Yesterday at a baptism party Maria was playing with an adult, who will remain nameless, and got swung into a coffee table. Ouch! She is feeling just fine and has a great attitude about her big ol' shiner.

Obama's Pick for Chief of Staff Tops Recipients of Wall Street Money

If you weren't scared enough already...let's take a look at what Jeff Schibler on AmericasRight revealed about the soon to be White House chief of staff.
We learned on Friday from ABC News that Rahm Emanuel sat on the board of directors of the now infamous Freddie Mac during the beginnings of the scandal, and was complicit in the board's failure to recognize "red flags" in accounting and lending practices, and that he accepted more than $50,000 in contributions from the organization. Now, we're learning that Emanuel was, just this year, the top House recipient of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry, and that he has received more money from individuals and political action committees in the securities and investment business than from any other industry since being elected to Congress in 2002 after a previous job as an investment banker. Barack Hussein Obama tapping this gentleman to assist him in fixing the American economy is kind of like asking Rosie O'Donnell to manage a Weight Watchers franchise.

(FROM: OpenSecrets and AmericasRight)

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Gun sales up

Allegedly gun sales are up in this country. According to this video on msnbc.com it is because the economy is souring and people are planning on needing to defend themselves.

hmmmm. Do you think this is the main reason, or is it more likely that intelligent people worry that B. Hussein Obama may try to take away our right to buy/bear arms?? If I were to buy another gun to cling to it would have much more to do the president elect's liberal policies than anything else.

Obama was being misleading when he denied that his handwriting had been on a document endorsing a state ban on the sale and possession of handguns in Illinois. Obama responded, "No, my writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns."

Actually, Obama's writing was on the 1996 document, which was filed when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate. A Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois, had this question, and Obama took hard line:

35. Do you support state legislation to:
a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.
b. ban assault weapons? Yes.
c. mandatory waiting periods and background checks? Yes.

Obama's campaign said, "Sen. Obama didn't fill out these state Senate questionnaires--a staffer did--and there are several answers that didn't reflect his views then or now. He may have jotted some notes on the front page of the questionnaire, but some answers didn't reflect his views."

http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm