Emily is in her second semester of ninth grade and really enjoying the socializing that comes with High School! She does outstanding in Religion (usually over 100%), but struggles a bit with the other subjects. She is in charge of statistics for the JV and Varsity boys basketball teams, so spends many evenings with them - both at home and on the road. Her latest broken bone has healed nicely and we're eagerly anticipaing her Spring dance recital in May. She's planning to be a CIT (Counselor in Training) at the camp she attends every summer, for at least 5-6 weeks!
Sam continues to amaze us with his reading and math skills. He gets bored quite easily with his second grade school work because it comes so easy to him. His favorite pastimes include Playing XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, and the Nintendo DS. He also loves art and has quite the collection of Pokemon cards that he's designed and drawn himself, including names, types (fire, water, etc.), and evolutions. It truly is beyond my comprehension! His school's Ice Skating Classic was in January and he got a first place ribbon. (He got fifth last year, so he was pleased.) Now he's taking swimming lessons, and I just signed him up for a week-long Wilderness camp in Minnesota with a friend from church.
Benjamin will be 18 months old on Valentine's day and has finally started walking. At his 17-month checkup, he wasn't walking or talking, so his pediatrician referred us to a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist and a pediatric Physical Therapist. Two days later (before either appointment) Benjamin started walking. He's now running all over the place. His speech is following - he says "Mamamama", "Dadada", "eye" (for Hi), and "bu bu" (for Bye Bye). We know he means Hi and Bye Bye because he does the baby wave when he says them (fingers in and out, in and out!)
Rob and I stay busy with work, chauffering kids, cub scouts, dogs, and the house. Rob's additional entertainment includes Facebook and mine is scrapbooking. So there you have it - the family in a nutshell.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Kids update
Monday, February 02, 2009
The So-Called Freedom of Choice Act
1. Partial-birth abortion will now be legal.
2. Parental consent laws for minors will no longer be in effect. Although a seventeen-year-old girl has to have her parents present in order to get acne medicine, a thirteen-year-old can get an abortion without her parents knowing. Think of the injury done to these young women, as well as to their children!
3. Laws prohibiting public funding of abortion will be struck down. The American taxpayer will now have to fund something many of us know to be murder.
4. Laws requiring women to be shown information about (including being shown ultrasounds) and alternatives to abortion will be struck down. Think about any other surgery that's performed: you are bombarded with information. And yet, in one of the most invasive medical procedures, women would be kept ignorant of the facts.
5. Laws allowing medical staff and hospitals to refuse to perform abortion on grounds of conscience will be struck down. (Where's the freedom of choice here?)
6. Laws prohibiting medical personnel other than licensed physicians from performing abortions would be invalidated because they may "interfere with" access to abortion. (Talk about protection for women!)
7. Government agencies and officials are prohibited from taking any action that would "discriminate against the exercise of" the FOCA-created legal rights, with respect to any "benefits, facilities, services, or information," would leave government officials open to lawsuits for anything that anybody thought "discriminate(s)" against abortion.