The Awkward Armadillo

The Kids chase and catch an Armadillo....

We had some excitement today at the old homestead! As we pulled in from bringing the kids home from school we saw an armadillo walking across our property. We see them dead on the road occasionally but we’ve never actually seen a live one up close. So, we unleashed the wild cavemen inside of us and grabbing some implements of destruction (a rake and a shovel that happened to be laying around) and a plastic bucket we headed out after the Armadillo!

These strangely scaled animals don’t look like they would move fast but let me tell you that when they’re chased by 8 kids and two out of breath adults they can move! Evidently they don’t see very well and so as we chased it it continued to bump into things like fences, parked cars and trees and just bounce off and roll and then jump back to it’s feet. It was hilarious! After chasing it throughout the neighborhood we finally caught it! We moved it to our dogs cage and then we investigated it and examined it for awhile. Much to the dismay of the children, who wanted to keep it as a pet, Mama and I decided we decided that we should let it go in the field across the street form our house. It was a super exciting time and we finally got to see an Armadillo up close!

Pro-Life Dinner

We hit the town for the Bishop's Pro-Life dinner...

Our good friend Fr. John Dick invited us to go to the Bishop’s Pro-Life dinner last night! We drove down with our friends Chip and Ronda and met FJ there with about 60 other people from his parish. It was a huge event with thousands of folks in attendance including speakers Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of The Knights of Columbus and hilarious host Dr. Ray Guarendi. The Catholic Pro-Life Committee’s annual Bishop’s Pro-Life Dinner supports the work of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee throughout the rest of the year and they really do a great job in our diocese.

My one real observation for the night honestly though? What kind of priest gets 60 people in his parish to show up at a Pro-Life Dinner on a Saturday night? A good one, that’s for sure. We need more Fr. John’s in this world…..

Transportation Tribulations

Dating in a 15 passenger van...

We’re super lucky to have our van. There are not many vehicles out there they can easily fit all of our kids, their friends, their stuff etc. So, we’re thankful. Let’s just get that out of the way.

With that said and done, sometimes there are issues. For example, have you ever tried parallel parking a gargantuan monster like this? We joke about our van all the time and the kids come up with ideas to make it cooler. Jonah wants to paint flames on the side of it. Jacob wants a Chinese style dragon painted on the side with its gaping maw ending at the drivers side window so it looks like the driver is about to be eaten. Needless to say they come up with some great ideas and equally needless to say an airbrush expert is just not in our budget!

The most common time we wish we had a second car though? Date Night. This is the time when Mama and I can just get away and pretend for a couple of hours that we have no cares in the world except which movie to see or what to order for dinner. No bumps, bruises, fighting, homework help, teaching, preaching or reaching for things small arms just can’t get to. We love our kids and love our life but sometimes…sometimes it’s just nice to get away.

So we dress up in the coolest, hippest clothes our understated closets contain (which means we find some jeans that still fit), Mama does her hair up and puts make-up on, we say goodbye to the kids (“Be good, don’t fight, go to bed on time, only call us if you need us…”) and hop in the voluminous vehicle and we’re off!

As we’re driving away, calming down from the chaos of the day and starting to relax we look around our empty colossal carriage and have a good laugh at how funny we must look driving this empty van. It’s the time when we wish most that we could just hop into a little sports car or really any car with a seating capacity of 5 or less. Once we hit the restaurant we forget all about it and just unwind and have a good time with each other. For the first time since last date night we can just hang out and give each other undivided attention. Of course, we’re social and so we always talk to people when we’re out and inevitably the question comes up about children. Mostly we tell the truth and say we have eight and of course nobody believes us. I must confess, every now and then, just for fun, we pretend we’re new parents and listen to the waitress give us parenting advice…

At the nights culmination we walk out and head to the van and instantly we’re back into the persona of the the large family parent. It’s not a bad thing really and again we’re thankful to have it but as Mama always says, “If I win the lottery my first purchase will be a ’69 Camaro.” Well said Mama.

Coming Home

Putting up prayers for Ditty Dirty Money...

We’re big American Idol fans and watch it every week. Last Night’s results show featured Sean Combs and Dirty Money as well as the uber talented Skylar Grey performing the new song “Coming Home.” Now I’m not into Hip Hop at all, and even less of fan of Sean Combs, but I have to say I was impressed. He sounded great, spoke very well (his advice to the contestants was “Keep God first”) and the song was awesome. It’s stuck with me and I’ve been singing it constantly since then.

I looked up the lyrics and it’s pretty obvious that Combs has had some sort of conversion experience. I reprint the chorus below as I think it’s awesome. Instead of being sickened as I usually am by gansta moguls I’ve decided to pray for Dirty Money. I hope the conversion is real Sean and you’ll really make a difference!