And just for fun...

Here's a pic of my girly in the first snowfall LAST year. Luckily *some* of the chub in her cheeks has redistributed itself into the rest of her body since then...! :)

Ralphie, I can't put my arms down!!

This morning we were very excited to wake up to our first snow "storm". In reality, there is probably only about an inch or two on the ground, but for a Carolina girl, that's a pretty big deal. My mom bought Evie a snowsuit during the after-Christmas sales last year (OK, I MADE her by it by implying that she wasn't a good nana if she didn't). So I suited Evie up, made a quick stop at K-mart for some snow boots (is it just me, or is K-mart not cheap anymore? What's the point of spending $68 for a cashmere sweater from K-MART?! But I digress...) and then we had at it. Here are a few action shots. (Is it bad that when she fell down [which was often] I made her writhe about in the snow without any help until I could snap a photo? I just couldn't stand it-- it was too cute!)







When I was little, we were always allowed to have hot cocoa when we came in from playing in the snow. At the ripe old age of 16 months, I wasn't quite ready to introduce that to Evie. But she warmed up by nursing and cuddling with mama when we came inside. Fun adventures with my girl!!

Pampered Chef for Haiti

I'm reposting this from my sister Gwenn's blog. She, her husband Nick, and their three small children are planning on moving to Haiti next year to be house-parents/siblings :) at the Haitian Children's Home. One of their friends is doing this super-cool and generous thing as a means of raising support for Gwenn and Nick's move. I thought I'd pass it on-- Pampered Chef sells GREAT stuff, and it makes really wonderful Christmas gifts, too! Hint hint...
Reposting this!!!

Come on friends-- let's get some shopping done!
********************
Starting Saturday, November 1, you have an opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done and support our move to Haiti. Think of it this way, you will be shopping with purpose! (What could be better?!)

A friend of ours in Kentucky is a Pampered Chef consultant. She is doing a Pampered Chef online party to support the HCH-- specifically, Nick and I's move. You shop normally FOR YOU (or for Christmas gifts) online. Pampered Chef will donate 15% of the price of your purchase to HCH for our benefit. Additionally, Ashlee (the consultant) is donating 10% of your purchase price as well. So for everything you order, 25% of the cost will be going to us to help get us to Haiti!

The party is open November 1- November 15. So hurry!

Pampered Chef is ALSO offering this great deal-- 20% off of all classsic unglazed stoneware! It's a pretty good deal. That stuff is great.

You can either choose to have your order shipped directly to your home, or have it sent to me if you are local. (But be forewarned, if it is sent to me, I will not be able to get it to you until after Dec 2 since we will be in Haiti when it arrives.)

So click here:
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/pendley

From there, click "Order Products" and be SURE to mention me, Gwenn Mangine, as the host.


PLEASE help us out and forward this to your friends!

OBEY!

Evie understands the letter of the law, if not the spirit.

**I promise at some point, this blog will actually be about something other than cute Evie pictures or anecdotes. I mean, because who (other than her dad, nana, and aunties) really cares? But sorry folks, she just makes me smile! :) **

Evie la Pew

Pretty stinkin' adorable, huh? (Get it, "stinkin'"... I know, punny...)

Thanks a lot, Gretchen...

So I've tried to be purposeful about teaching Evie to be polite. I am always telling her that it will get her far in life :). And thus far, she's done me proud. She almost always remembers to say "please" and "thank you", and often remembers to say "yes, ma'am" or "yes sir" (although, like her pronunciation of Asher [see a previous post]), "yes, sir" sounds remarkably similar to "a**hole". Just sayin'.)

This weekend we were on the OBX visiting my family. We went out to lunch yesterday and Abbie, my three year old niece, began getting squirmy and antsy. So Gretchen (her mom) corrected her with a firm, "Sit DOWN!"... And then proceeded to encourage Evie to similarly instruct Abbie. You know where this is going... All afternoon, and several times during the (long) trip home, Evie beetled her little brow, screwed up her little mouth, and screeched, "Sit DOWN!!" I'm trying to rectify the situation by re-instructing her to say, "Won't you have a seat, please?" but so far, it's a no-go. It might be payback for me trying to teach Gretchen's kids to curse when they were small.

In other cute Evie news, she is loving the Donut Man lately. He kinda makes me want to shove an ice pick through my brain, but Evie likes him, so we listen. Her favorite song is "Obey". The chorus goes, "O-B-E-Y! Obey your mom and dad! O-B-E-Y! Makes them very glad!" So Evie has been walking around the house lately singing with all her might-- "OOOOO BBBBBB DAD!!!" I guess mom doesn't make the cut.

Man, I love that kid.

A Savior on Capitol Hill?

If you needed further proof that I am *not* crunchy, here it is: I am a conservative. :) Well, technically I am unaffiliated with any party, but I lean more toward conservative ideologies. And while I'm certainly not skipping church to watch "Meet the Press" every Sunday, I am interested in political issues and figures and ideas. But here's the thing-- I don't really enjoy discussing politics; partly because it's a massively divisive topic... but mostly because most people know WAY more about it than me... which means that I leave the conversation without that nice little air of superior knowledge and awareness that is so very appealing to me.

But this is my blog. So division and ignorance aside, I feel I should be able to share my (perhaps uninformed) thoughts on the upcoming presidential election. In watching recent debates, I can absolutely understand why Barack Obama has such a magnetic pull for so many people. He is charismatic, well-spoken, intelligent, and not entirely horrible-looking. I *want* to like him. I want to believe that he can really produce the "change we need" in America. But what kind of change, exactly?


The other night, I was flipping through the pages of my Parents magazine. There was an article interviewing Barack and Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain (John must have been off consorting with Joe the Plumber or some other Average Joe Six-Pack :) ), and the question of faith and church attendance came up. Although the Obamas admitted that they are not attending church/Sunday school services regularly (I'm sure Jeremiah Wright is missing their tithes), Barack said they teach their children "about values and faith and religion in the context of family life." Michelle even added that they end their meal-time prayers with a toast and a family exclamation of "Cheerios!" (Evangelicals everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief-- the Obama children are being taught the Gospel...)

But you know, whatever... to each his own, right? But then I stumbled across this article: "Obama's Abortion Extremism", by Robert George. I always knew that Obama was pro-choice, didn't know the extent of what that meant. His voting record is staggering and sobering. Here are just a few of the things the article mentions:

--Obama supports legislation that would repeal the Hyde Amendment, which protects pro-life citizens from having to pay for medically unnecessary abortions.
--One of his top priorities as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. This would create a a federally guaranteed right to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, and would virtually eliminate all the "red-tape" of legal abortions (parental consent, notification laws for minors, etc.)
--He opposes the ban on partial birth abortions; he even wants to strip federal funding from pro-life crisis pregnancy centers which offer alternatives to abortion.
--Obama opposes legislation that would protect children who are born alive, either as the result of a botched abortion or by the deliberate delivery of the baby prior to viability.
--He co-sponsored a bill that would authorize the large-scale industrial production of human embryos for use in biomedical research in which they would be killed.

There's much more; I encourage you to read the article for yourself. Disagree all that you want (remember, I said politics is divisive! :) but I just have a hard time understanding how a believer can stand behind a man who shows so little concern for "the least of these". I have been warned before not to err by "one issue voting". But come on-- I'm not talking about the economy here, folks. I'm not talking about global warming, or even how to defend our country against terrorism. I'm talking about children who are formed in the image of their Creator. This is a big deal. This is a really big deal.

I close with this quote, given in Obama's World AIDS Day speech... perhaps out of context, but interesting nonetheless...

"We should never forget that God granted us the power to reason so that we would do His work here on earth-- so that we would use science to cure disease, and heal the sick, and save lives." (emphasis mine)

Yes, we should never forget that.