Sophie's New Discovery

Yup, Sophie has discovered that she can stick her finger up her nose!

I guess there are worse things, but still I was hoping that it'd be awhile before she learned this. However she's been sticking her finger, her food, anything that she can before Mommy pulls it away, in her ear - so I'm not sure which one is worse.

We Miss You!

Honey, We Miss You!! We hope you're having fun but we thought we'd let you know that we miss you!! Be safe, get some sleep, see the sights if you can.
We love you and can't wait to see you on Sunday!

The Jena 6

Jena, Louisiana

I'm sure that by now everyone has heard of what has been happening in Jena. It makes my heart sick but I need to say something about it. Not many of you probably realize that Jena is very close to where I lived in Alexandria, Louisiana. In fact, they are only about 30 miles from each other, which is about the same distance from Palisade to Fruita (for those of you hailing from CO). I have visited Jena (a very small town, somewhat set back into the woods), I have friends that live in Jena, I have friends who have taught at the same high school where all of this happened. It makes me so sad, my heart heavy.

Let me tell you, there still is racism in the deep south. Heck, there is still racism in the not-so-deep south. However, most of the people are just like us - loving, caring people that accept anyone, regardless of their skin color. I hate how it seems that all of the residents of Jena, and the deep south in general, are being characterized as racist, noose-hanging people. My heart goes out to them as well. BUT the fact remains that there are those out there who have been taught (mostly by their parents and other family members) that it's ok to look down on others simply for their skin color. They are taught that they are higher members of society and that somehow others who are different are not 'worth' as much as they are. I ran into this with some of my students when I taught in Pineville. (But, I still believe that they are very much in the minority.)

Recently there was a rally in Jena. People were bused in from around the nation and took part in a modern day civil rights rally - minus the attack dogs and police batons of the civil rights era (thank goodness!). I would have loved to be there. The difference in how they treated these six students versus white students is ridiculous. However, even if you took that out of the equation - what person has ever even heard of kids being charged with attempted murder over a school yard fight? For heaven's sake, the 'victim' went to a party the same night!

I personally believe that there is a lot more to this story that we'll never hear. Why would 'the 6' randomly beat up one white guy if they were unprovoked? - Not saying that it's ok to beat someone up if you are provoked, but maybe it makes it a little more understandable. Perhaps he claimed to have been the one that hung the nooses. I might even have had a little of a hard time keeping my cool if that was the case, and I'm not even black. I'm not trying to place blame on the poor guy that got beat up, but just trying to show that there are some serious issues that the school and the courts did not take into account, let alone the parents of the victim. I wonder how the victim feels, having this spotlight put on him and the rest of the town like this. Having been a teacher and being around high school kids so much, I'm betting he regrets the day when his parents decided to press so extreme charges. But, I digress...

The Jena 6 deserve to be punished for beating up a guy (if they actually did it, there are some that say there weren't even in the middle of it). However, they deserve to be punished like the high school kids that they are. Not like "black" kids or "white" kids - just kids. They are not career criminals. They are not malicious 'black power' seekers. They are not murderers, rapists, thieves. They are kids. They are kids who made a mistake when the administration of their high school didn't do anything to dispel the underlying and boiling over inherent racism in their school. And unlike whoever hung the nooses, they are taking the full punch of the long arm of the law.

Thank goodness that this has finally gotten the publicity that it deserves and that high powered lawyers are coming in to help these families who were getting bulldozed because they couldn't afford good legal representation. I pray for these families, these 6 kids, the victim and his family, and the residents of Jena. I hope that they can work together to overcome this and help rid their town, my old town, and all of the deep south of the inequality that still exists. I worry that instead it will divide them more.

Playing with Cousin Isaiah

Last week my sister's little boy, Isaiah was down for a visit and he and Sophie got a lot of time to play together. Sophie througholy enjoys visits from her cousin - as do Grandma's dogs! I wish that I would have gotten better pictures of them actually together, but ah well.

Isaiah will be 5 in just about 3 more weeks - Happy Birthday Isaiah!!

Philippino Breakfast

Well, as some of you might know, Aaron is currently in Manila - the Philippines. Sophie and I didn't go with him this trip in part because we'd rather go to Cebu, Philippines which is more of a beach resort than a metropolitan city. We both love to travel and experience new cultures and Aaron is loving learning things about the Philippines and the Filipino people. For those of you who can't remember where the Philippines are, here's a map.

One of the things that is always interesting about new cultures is the food! :) Here is a picture of Aaron's breakfast this morning - a whole fried fish, garlic rice with egg on top, and I don't know what the noodles are.

Something else that is nice, is that Aaron's company has him in a pretty posh luxury hotel that is named one of the best 500 hotels in the world, the Makati Shangri-La: http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/manila/makatishangrila. Luckily, the company also provides a car and driver because Aaron says the driving is just plain crazy! In his words, "Lanes don't mean anything." He's awful glad that he doesn't have to try to maneuver through Manila himself!

Baby Sign

I've been working with Sophie a lot on using sign language and she's lately she's really been picking it up quickly! Some of the signs aren't ASL, some are, but I'm happy that I know what she means and she gets so excited when she's able to communicate what she wants/sees. It's adorable! On a regular basis she uses: more, milk, dog, cat, hat, flowers, lion/tiger, elephant, and seal. She also does monkey, baby, and finished. She's so smart! (Of course I'm not biased!) One of the things that I love that has helped us is this baby sign board book. I wish it had more pages! (It only has 8 or 9)