Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving

Man, am I thankful. I honestly have an amazing life. I don't even understand why I am so lucky. It's humbling. I want to shout, "God is good!", but I don't talk like that. So, I'll settle for, "my life is amazing!"

Thanksgiving feast this afternoon with my mother. My amazing husband should be home from work momentarily, baby will be waking from nap, and eating will soon commence! My only turkey day food foray this year is a green bean casserole. That's all I'm responsible for. Another blessing! :)

Not a fan of posting pictures of myself, but this one that my darling daughter took of me earlier captures my mood.

Treasures From My Youth

Recently, with more than a little help from my step-mom, I cleaned out my basement. I found an innumerable number of treasures - including a hand knitted, yellow sweater with the monogram, "Tracy."

Tracy was my given middle name. I changed my middle name to my maiden name and ditched the Tracy when I married, but I used to love it.

When I was about 3 years old I went through a stage where I wanted everyone to call me Tracy. I've heard stories from my mother and seen the evidence. One time, she told me, she came to pick me up from Sunday School after her church service, and the director said there was no one there by my name. When she pointed to me, the woman said, "She told me her name was Tracy!"

Another instance of my Tracy fixation is evidenced by an old newspaper photo of me and several other children. I'm standing there smiling, holding up a holiday coloring sheet from the local grocery store.  I assume I must have colored it better than any other 3 year old.  Although, I'm surrounded by other kids holding up their own, so maybe not? Regardless, my drawing and I were asked to be in the photo.

Below the picture is a list of the participant's names, and I am listed as "Tracy MyLastname." Ha ha!

I guess I was going through an early identity crisis or something. I still love that yellow sweater. So glad I found it.

Michigan for Obama!

I am fervently praying (I doubt God gets involved in the presidential election of the good 'ole USA, but still) that Obama wins by a landslide.

Most polling indicates a very close race (which is unbelievable, in my opinion), but I have a hard time trusting the polls.  I'm no statistician, but the sample sizes seem way too small to truly reflect anything.  I think the methodology that many pollsters are still using is arcane.  Gallup is especially fishy right now.  They have a history of being wrong when they are such an outlier, and thus are very hard to trust at this time.  I also don't see how even the best methodology and formula tweaking can account for the fact that there is no proof of the veracity of the respondents.  If Obama wins by a lot, then it will be interesting to see how polls are weighted in the next election.    

I also feel the media is hyping polls (these arcane things with no certainty of truthfulness in respondents), in order to keep public interest up.  A random poll coming from a random polling company will get a headline if they are enough of an outlier.  Why? It sells. 

After my desire for Obama to win big on a national level, comes my desire for him to win Michigan.  Even the polls, those ridiculous things, indicate he has Michigan in hand.  But again...I don't trust the polls.  

I've got to stay away from the news, because it's not even really news.  It's spin - from both sides.  The truth will only be known after all the votes are counted.  

So, please God, let Obama win, and please, please, please don't let anyone tamper with this election.  I'm not sure if I'm paranoid or if it is a real possibility, but I am fearful of interference. 

Rainy Day Fun

As Sandy pummels the East Coast, we just have a typical rainy and windy day to contend with. Cassie got these awesome foam letters and numbers for her birthday and we finally pulled them out.

Rainy day success!!

ETA: In retrospect, it seems wrong to have been enjoying our rainy day while Sandy wreaked havoc. What a horrible storm.  

Visiting Daddy at the Hospital

She has so much fun visiting her dad at work, that I wouldn't be surprised if she went into microbiology or another hospital based profession.

Library Story Time at Henry Ford Centennial Library

Every week we attend story time at the library. Cassie's age group is 2-3 year olds and it's usually quite packed.

First, they do a craft (today was a toilet paper roll mummy), then we go into the special story time room for songs, exercise/dancing, story telling, and other educational games.

Honestly, it is really fun and really well taught. My little girl gets a bit shy and usually just participates while sitting on my lap, or at least very, very close to me. Afterwards, she talks about it for hours. She'll say, "we did the hokey pokey!", even though she just nervously stood by me as I tried to get her to do the moves like she does at home.

I think her nerves come from limited interaction with large groups of children. She is friendly and has cousins and friends to play with, but she does not go to daycare, so she doesn't get that type of socialization.

I feel the weekly story time is very important for her social development. As long as she is potty trained, we plan on putting her in pre-school within the next 10 months, so story time is a great precursor to that.

I had to laugh today when she pulled out a book and sat down to "read" by herself after today's session.