Brooke's 'Dissertation'

Every day I laugh out loud at the funny things that happen in our house. I think most households with young children are filled with stories like ours...just about 10 minutes ago I was standing at the sink in the kids' bathroom and got peed on by a wandering little 2 1/2 year old's pee stream. Huge wet spot on my pantleg...I mean, Luke is good-he hit me from the other side of the bathroom...they just don't pay attention much when using the potty...I have to clean it at LEAST twice a week. So gross-I feel sorry for Grace having to share a bathroom with 2 little boys. So in case any of our friends who spend time at our house are reading this, please make a mental note that even though it may not seem like I clean, when you use the bathroom at our house, know that my boys have an amazing ability to hit the entire bathroom and avoid the actual toilet bowl-it is not a reflection on my cleaning commitment!

I'm happy to report that Anteneh still has not had to visit the emergency room! Haha!Yahoo! He is learning! In fact, I think he is trying very hard to be a good boy and not get into things he is not allowed to get into...he is a hard worker and loves to please so now that he has learned some boundaries, things are getting much easier around here. Hopefully the kids are going to be good for Daryn...I am leaving in a few hours to visit Tracey in Clearwater, Fl for 2 1/2 days!!! Yeh! I am so excited. A few days to hang out, go out to eat, read, walk dogs...maybe walk on the beach...just what I need right now...Daryn is a good husband...it was a surprise from him to give me a break and buy a plane ticket...not only is he a good husband, he is quite wise...As a good friend of ours said once, "either pay for me to take a break now or pay for it later when i need therapy b/c I never had a break!" Heehee...And she seems to be a super mom-so, I don't feel so bad getting away for a few days.


Well, that's about all there is to report at the moment...things are going well...the boys play Spiderman and Superman ALL DAY...just about every waking moment. They are best friends. (when they aren't telling on each other for hitting)! Grace is doing well, too...loving her new haircut (it's so easy! i used to spend 20 minutes a day brushing and braiding it!)...and she and I have been scrap booking together a lot. We made her own little corner next to my scrapbooking desk. We have all her stickers and stamps and stuff in little drawers. Lots of fun. Sometimes I want to be a kid again!

Oh! Last thing...here is a movie recommendation: Amazing Grace...it's a great movie all about William Wilberforce and his efforts to end the slave trade from Africa. It is a movie EVERYONE should see..It's a true story about this man who selflessly changed the world. It's amazing...just watch the preview...here is the link to the website: Amazing Grace. Having Anteneh as a son now has sparked my desire to learn more about the history of slavery and the American Civil war. History is so interesting to me and to have a son from Africa has just made this part of history so much more intense to me. I think of how if he would have been born just a few hundred years earlier, he might have been one of the men who was captured and taken from Africa on a slave ship. I have always been outraged at what humans have been capable of when you examine history but to have an African son makes me think about it even more. I have been reading a historical book called Mrs. Robert E. Lee: The Lady of Arlington. It is a biography about the wife of the commander of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. What an interesting book. To see this perspective is different. They were devoted Christians, and actually abolitionists. Mrs. Lee and her father were very instrumental in a program to end slavery and return slaves to Africa. It was a flawed program and never really saw success. General Lee actually called slavery, "a moral and political evil in any country..." I bet not many people know that. At the same time, the family owned slaves. (They gave them all their freedom BEFORE the Emancipation Proclamation, though). What a family of contrasts. IT was illegal to teach a black person to read or write(I never knew this! How crazy!) But over her lifetime, Mrs. Lee never stopped teaching the slaves that her family owned to read and write and also held a church service for them. So many contrasts. I am not saying I respect this family much -they had some beliefs that were downright wrong-they actually believed that the black race was inferior to the white race. As educated and intelligent as they were, it seems obvious that they were ignorant in many ways...BUT it is so interesting to just become educated on WHY they held the beliefs they did and WHY they fought so strongly for the Confederacy. I've always heard 'the civil war was not just about slavery'...but I have never understood that much until lately as I read more about it. It has been a blessing to me to become more educated on the history of this country's involvement with Africa-including all of the horrors that occurred. I feel that really it is our responsibility to know this country's history-especially when it comes to the institution of slavery. It is something we can't escape. It really was not that many years ago that this country was divided to the point of war! Do you realize that it was only 150 years ago that it was illegal to educate a black person! That a white person could OWN a black person 150 years ago? These barbarities happened not that long ago...ok...I need to calm down and quit writing...I'm sure as I read more, I'll have more to go on and on about soon...

Well, I need to go put my jeans in the dryer. They aren't going to be dry in time if I don't go now... I leave in about an hour! Relaxation, here I come!