they keep coming...

Craig and Annie 1988 or 89

Matt background, Craig singing

Not sure when? anyone?

Blast...

...who knew that in a matter of days, through the wonder of "facebook", all sorts of hilarious pictures would surface of Matt and Craig. Cool then, still cool.

Spa Day for Mama...

Came home from the studio on Sunday to an invitation for a home spa day with Mac and Emmett. Such a sweet thing and perfectly timed during Silas' nap! I was fed delicious food, foot-soaked, sea salt massaged and toe nail painted. Awesome. Yes I am totally bragging. For Matt, a big moment he anticipated as a father was when he could say, "hey kid, could you get me a cup of coffee". For me, having another human I can hit up for a massage makes the fact that I need one now more than ever, worth it!

Thank you So Much Guys! XXXOOO

keeping SDCCS "cooperative" ....

what was built today?
an outdoor classroom, a mosaic round butterfly garden, two compost corals, 4 more raised beds, benches, a stage platform, wooden cut out art work to beautify the chain link etc etc...


check in to the SDCCS blog over the next couple of days for more garden work day pics!

It's amazing what the parents kids and teachers at this school can and DO accomplish!

lovin' up Emmett

At the wedding when we went to New York...

I just love this picture of Emmett coming in for

an unsolicited dance, just burying himself in the mama and papa sandwich.

A visit from Donna Frye!!

click here...so cool! (scroll down a bit to see our school pic!)

Donna Frye visited Emmett's classroom last week and spent quite a bit of time

with them, answering questions.

wahooooooooooooooo!

what a night! 

visualizing this family in the white house...

Oh, how this could change the world!

two feelings at once...about election day...

This is me. ------------------------------>

This is what I need.------------------------------------>

Halloween '08

Emmett="wolfman/ape/bandit/freakazoid" (love it...this was actually costume #2 after the Johnny Depp costume worn at school!)

Silas="babyranger/samurai/robinhood" (he actually likes this costume...a last minute throw together, thanks to Emmettand his love of Rangers Apprentice!)

Mac="reverse candy machine" (very cool...also costume #3 after a cowgirl at the dance and a "noisy bell lady" at school today)

(you must click on this picture to get the full effect of Emmett I think)

Fun night for all. Matt took Mac and Emmett around with the

gang and I went 4 times to see the "scary kitty" house with Silas.

Then came home to eat way too many peanut butter cups.

how change happens...

(from yet another Keillor article that asks how minds are changing about Obama)

"... how can they possibly go for a Harvard Law graduate from the South Side of Chicago whose last name is Obama, for crying out loud?
They can and they will. Colin Powell was right when he called the guy a transformational candidate. We walk through the door and we close it behind us and the simplicity of it is dazzling. That's how it happens."

for the whole article click here

;)

just love every thing he writes...

...click here for a great article from
Salon.com by Garrison Keillor 

(you may have to click on"Enter Salon"

in the top right corner to get to the article...)

Every week he writes something
short, sweet, and great (look under 

"opinion" to find previous articles). It's 

worth reading much of what he's written 

during this election season actually.

I just LOVE HIM and Prairie Home Companion

and completely agree with his brand of democrat.

leaf, laugh, love...the dreyer family band...october sessions

ok, this was definitely one of my top 5 experiences in LIFE
creating something like this with the family...being together and making songs in one of the most beautiful places during the prettiest 12 days of the year...just awesome
It was impossible to choose from the hundreds of pictures Cami took...I tried show a bit of everything...what the days felt like...

Happy Happy Birthday Baby!

Today he is 2!!

Tomorrow We Fly!

last minute packing...

2 books each, check

coats and scarves, check

enormous flashlight, no emmett

all the cars and plastic animals? no silas

mabel, nope 

nana? no silas...(big frown)

hat collection? not this time emmett

music and lyrics, check

num-chucks? are you kidding?

pedometer, swim trunks and jog watch, if you must matt ;}

homework? yeah, sorry Mac

various weaponry, NO to both of yous guys

allergy meds, yes please!

fancy schmancy outfits for wedding, check (ugh)

nutritious hydrating plane snacks, check

chocolate bars and rice crispy treats, maybe

happy faces??? NO (says Silas, the birthday boy with a smile:)

just a few more books mama? ok mac

...we're on our way.

 

when I feel sad I just watch this...

...everyone now must realize Fox News is a big fat hoax, right? Even the stupidest people must see through this, yes??

Check this out...from Lauren's blog, I just had to have it on mine!!

Cami and Nana...if you didn't see this yet...you MUST

Tina Fey does it again...perfect!

Silas's Impromptu Birthday Party

We will be in the air flying to NY on his actual birthday, Oct. 9th, so we decided to take advantage of an evening with everyone home. What a sweet and funny boy.
Nana and I also took him for a quick hour or so at the zoo and the carousel
today and I'll never forget it.
I will also never forget the day he was born!! Seems like forever ago and yesterday!!

predictions (with typos) ...what we talked about Lauren...

1)the mc cain camp will resurrect jeremiah wright and say obama is friends with terrorists and then they'll talk about how 'two feet on the spending accelerator with a democrat congress and democrat president will bankrupt us'...crazy considering its the republicans who dress up  their gambling addictions in their sunday best, spending like crazy and without even a well-functioning program to show for it...just an awful war and a bailout...

2)as states borrow money from the federal government and the government goes bankrupt guess what? we'll just have to privatize social security and healthcare and why not schools while were at it...aka Friedman and the Shock Doctrine because its worked so well for Chile and South Africa...

3)the rich will feel the financial loss only a little even if they lose a lot because...well, you can only be in one mansion at a time anyway... the rest of us will really struggle...

4)the republicans will tell eachother over and over that they had nothing to do with the financial crisis focusing only on the part that Fannie and Freddie played in it all (and of course their financial contributions to democrats...)until their talking points mutate into glorifying the very same economic philosophies that brought us all down in the first place, until they have convinced themselves we just need to privatize everything to see their glorious vision really shine in its purest form (up until now they say it has never had the chance to really succeed even in the countries where they made their guinea pigs...again, Chile etc)

show me one place in the world anywhere where this kind of Freidman economy works??

..bit of a disorganized rant...but I just don't think this will unfold well unless...unless... Obama is elected...then I feel really sorry for the mess he will barely be able to contain!

silas' very bestest friend...

...at their first meeting, a little under two years ago!

love this e-mail to papa...

dear pop,


today i had a soccer game we lost four to one,and guess what I scored the only goal! but a kid that was named mateo kept on tripping me and a kid named owin kept on teasing us.

but it was still grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!


Emmett.

no need to actually answer any questions....

...when you've got a big wide smile, bright eyes looking right into the camera, down home language (includin' endin' every "ing" word with in')...complimentin' us by tellin' us all that in the end Americans are winners (especially those that were feeling unsure about being losers for voting for Bush twice!)  and of course that we shouldn't trust government (gov-nah!) and, of course, pay less taxes...that we shouldn't look backward but forward into a bright energy rich future of 'maveric-dom' or 'reform-hood'...

...and that's about it.

Anyone who has read ANYTHING knows this was an amazing act of nothingness.

The big question now is ...how many Americans were fooled by Palin tonight? (After hearing Pat Buchannan say it was a Palin slam dunk...and the Fox talking heads say she was spectacular I really wonder...) I really hope that's not all it takes? Cutesie and rehearsed stabs and jabs with that shiny smile, wow what a smile...Definitely a case for style over content, if not a bit cloying!!
Full of little lies and big ones (Biden didn't agree with Mc Cain on anything since 2004) but none of the  major embarassing pauses or stumbles we've seen in interviews...but, really, what a lot of fluff.

I thought Biden was clear(!) and presidential(!!) but the Mc Cain camp keeps trying to make the case that the government should be made up of people just like you and me...
...maybe the next time I need surgery I should look for someone with a nice haircut...or if I need a lawyer I should pick the one who can barbecue... and in vice president I certainly don't need anyone engaging in any of that East Coast elite book learnin'...what I really need is a couple of regular ole folksy mavericks .  (I can't believe how much I hate that word now...my apologies to the late James Garner...he doesn't deserve this!)

If I lived in a small town I would be offended and embarassed to be lumped in with the likes of her...her main street is a myth.  And if I lived in NYC I would also feel slammed.  Or San Francisco or LA or Europe or India or Iraq. Or anywhere really.  She is the essence of a "divider" and the idea that she understands diplomacy is...laughable.

the best of Sarah...unbelievable, really...

Her greatest hits...a montage of clips, if you haven't already seen this.
Isn't this an insult to anyone with a brain from a small town. To think that being folksy is really all it takes to be VP.
I know her numbers are falling in the polls but it's sad that it has to be this obviously awful for to people to get it.
I mean, this is really slimy politics...the way this campaign has been run.
At the top of Mc Cains list of lies is Palin...when he said his main criteria for VP was someone who could be president if necessary...when he had only met her once. What a fool.

Brand New Baby Boy!

My brother and his wife Dana had their little baby boy yesterday, Sept. 30th!

His full name is still up in the air but as far as we know we have a little Michael (the 3rd!)

Hopefully this blog post will guilt them into getting us a picture pronto...because they have so much time on their hands now...ha.

Can't wait to meet this little guy. Love to All!

mc cain biographer...who used to admire him...

...well, she doesn't so much anymore! She wrote the book Citizen Mc Cain...the book most responsible for his maverick nickname and his appeal to independents...
check her latest opinion of the man HERE in an article entitled "How John Mc Cain Lost Me".

Hi Nana...Welcome to New York!!

Here we are today thinking of you!
Hug Bebe and Grancops for us!

Worth Reading!!!

...here's a great article in The Sun magazine from many years back that I never forgot that talks about the 'code for corporate citizenship'...a way for corporations to make money within an ethical framework...

REAd this, " 28 Words That Could Change the World" by Robert Hinkley

"the duty of directors henceforth shall be to make money for shareholders, but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, public health and safety, dignity of the employees and the welfare of the communities in which the company operates. Those final 28 words are what I call the code for corporate citizenship."

Robert Hinkley


Good Stuff. (thats me talking)
We have the opportunity to do the right thing, which isn't code for "socialism"...more like capitalism with a conscience!

good morning papa...

even George Will...

McCain Loses His Head
By George F. Will September 23, 2008

“The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said without even looking around.”
– “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential.”..

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections.

But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience.

Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Who says NJ isn't beautiful

On my recent trip to New York, I went down to New Jersey near where I was raised to visit Liz, her kids and Joe. I ran down a canal bank to the Delaware River thinking deep thoughts about my 40th and grieving my lost childhood near Holmdel, NJ. Joe was kind enough to send me photos of the area. Who says NJ isn't beautiful?

shark week...

...it's back.

one thing...

...Someone said recently to me that they were afraid if we had a democrat for a president and a democrat congress we might be unbalanced..."we need balance between the republicans and democrats, you know, checks and balances"...as if they are yin and yang. I strongly disagree. This past 8 years are different!! Perhaps now the more liberal democrats are yin and the more conservative democrats are yang....but the republicans are completely off the charts at this point...not simply the opposite balance to the left...

 If the opposite of broccoli is a cookie...the republicans are heroin.

;)

how to fail a test with dignity

You MUST click to enlarge to fully appreciate this.

boo up-date

(yes, someone out there crocheted a boob.)

Slept 9 blissful hours last night. Silas only had one late night snack.
So the total for yesterdays twenty four hours...He nursed twice!!

(last weeks total was more like, hmm, 120 times a day!)

the philosophy that permeates...

from Talking Points Memo...


"INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS
John McCain: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

Late Update: Obviously, to rejigger that wonderful line, this is not excellent news for John McCain. If the Obama folks are smart -- and they are -- they'll ride this one all the way to the election. But among ourselves let's admit that you could only be surprised by this statement if you were willfully ignorant to what McCain and his key advisors believe. Remember, his top economics advisor is former Sen. Phil Gramm, the legislative architect of the banking and financial services deregulation that led to the current crisis. And his health care proposals are all off-the-rack Heritage Foundation-style initiatives based on the premise that people have too much, not too little insurance. The only thing jarring about the statement is the degree to which it has been overtaken by events as McCain now tries -- a la Palin the Earmark-Killer -- to rebrand himself as a Mr. Wall Street oversight and transparency when he's been pushing deregulation for 25 years."

--Josh Marshall

and if you want to read a good article "the corporate financiers are wrong" by Joe Conason

(he writes "Would they please shut up about the wonders of an unfettered free market. It's the tax payers who pay for their greed.")