Got grits?

(Image source here.)

Necessity of food storage, primitive society, utter chaos, impending doom. This is a sampling of what's been on my mind lately. And by lately I mean since about ten o'clock last night when the power blacked out and I was certain the end of the world had officially come. Sadly, I'm only exaggerating a little. Growing up in the sticks, it was not at all uncommon for the electricity to black out for a good amount of time (which sucked even more as our water came from an electric pump... mid-shower blackouts were especially awesome). But I have lived here for going on eight years, and I have NEVER experienced a blackout that lasted as long. Seconds, maybe, but not even minutes and certainly not over an hour! (Last night, electricity was down for an hour and a half!!)

I was scared. My gut reaction was to start filling buckets with water (see childhood reference above). After Derek assured me that the water still worked and we didn't need to worry, I decided to take a bath. As I was doing so (by the light of a lantern), the thought kept coming to me that this might be the last hot bath I would have in a long while. (I know, right?) Then I started thinking of what we would do if the electricity never came back up. How would grocery stores operate? How would we pay for anything? Our money, our entire society, is absolutely electronic! Only the people with piles of cash would be able to buy food! We have a total of twelve bucks in cash. Our babies are going to starve!!! Really, I even discussed with Derek the possible necessity of feeding the family on breast milk. (Don't guffaw; you'd drink it too if it came down to it!)

Anyway, I know that faith and fear cannot coexist. But I also know that "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." The thing is: we are not prepared. It's terrifying to think that if something happened, we'd be screwed. We have a lot of friends and family that love us, but if we tried to borrow oil from their lamps their children would be hungry. Even the nicest of people won't sacrifice their children for you. Sharing won't really be an option. We'll need our own resources. And, you know, maybe some guns.

Needless to say, it was a long night. And you can bet we will be getting oats and iodine for our birthdays this year. Gold coins in our stockings. And solar panels on our apartment if we can swing it (wink).

Announcements

First announcement: We had our little girl!!! Okay, okay... I know this is old news, but now that I FINALLY mailed out the birth announcements, I can post one on the blog. (If you didn't get one and should have, let me know. My brain is officially mush after two kids!)

Second announcement: We are blessing Jolie on May 2nd*. That's right. Soon. We are not sending out official invites to this; we'd just like you all to come. Family and friends... please join us. Enemies, well- you're not welcome. :) I'll probably make a few phone calls, but YOU (that's right, you) are invited!

We'll be doing a luncheon afterward at our (Julie's) house, but I haven't figured out all of that yet. I'm thinking we'll grill up something and eat in the backyard. Maybe hotdogs? Maybe Sanpete Turkey? Not sure. If any of you have suggestions for this (or would want to bring a side) please let me know. I suppose I should have an approximate RSVP count for this, if I'm buying/making food... so probably let me know if you're coming. We'll see you then!

PS. Isn't that Jolie just the most gorgeous little thing you've ever seen?? I know I'm partial, but MAN- she's pretty! :) Oh, and if you want amazing photos like the one above, contact our photographer. She's pretty great, too!

*For location and time info, please call/email/you know- contact. I'd rather not divulge all that on the blog.

I love to ride my bicycle...

Well, James does anyway. I don't actually have one (boo). Maybe that can be my birthday present this year. We'll see. If I get one, I totally want one with a big ol' fatty seat on it, so I don't get saddle sore riding. But Derek's a bit of a bike snob and may not go for it... that and he'd have a hard time getting me a cheap one, which is what I ultimately would want for how much I intend to ride.

WOW! That was a really long and wordy tangent! Sorry about that, folks! Anyway...

The happy afternoon pictured below actually occurred on March 12th. I had promised (here) to post pics and a video, so I am simply following through on that promise. That and I am still so proud of James and his recently acquired pedaling skills. :) It was a genuinely happy day. I'm so happy that these darling people are all mine. You see, I am quite fond of them.

Picture commentary for those who care to know:

The afternoon was "warm" (aka: not snowing

or freezing), so we decided to take a walk.

Things started out like this:

And quickly turned into this:

Which later turned into this:

Your daily history lesson: When we got James this bike (trike, technically) for his birthday last summer, he couldn't even reach the pedals- let alone use them. He did ride it some, mostly coasting down the (slanted) driveway. After our walk, Derek thought to get it out and let him try it out a bit. I'm so glad that he did because James LOVED it! It's amazing how much a boy can grow (physically as well as coordinated-ly) in only about six-month's time. And it's amazing how much pride a mommy can get when her little boy does a simple push-push-push with his feet. :)

Note: The video I had intended to post with this was taking WAY too long to upload. So I'll do that tomorrow. It's late and I's sleeeppyy! (yawn) Goodnight.