My {deep} thoughts on..

Dogs: I loath barking dogs. In our neighborhood there are a lot of barking dogs. They drive me crazy. They ruin a peaceful evening out on our deck. They ruin lazy Sunday mornings when we are trying to sleep in. They ruin Blake's sleep cycle when he's trying to sleep during the day after working a night shift. See, Blake and I, we don't have a dog. We will probably never get a dog. We know that we would be bad dog owners. We wouldn't be able to give them the attention they need because we're already so busy. In my opinion, dog owners should be sensitive to the fact that we all share the air in a neighborhood. People don't like to listen to your dog bark incessently. And likewise, we (I'm speaking for Blake and I) sure as heck don't like it when you let your dogs out to run around without a leash or without being supervised at all and they come into our yard and pee and poop everywhere! There is an unresponsible-dog-owner-epidemic going on in our community and I feel like I'm the only one annoyed by it. Dog owners love their pets, but unless it is quiet, doesn't jump on me, and doesn't use my yard as a toilet, chances are I hate your dog.

Books: I have a pretty high (or low, I guess, depending on how you look at it) filter when it comes to books. Sometimes I feel bad about rating books on goodreads because I would hate for someone to try a book I recommend and be offended by it. Pretty much know that any book I read comes with a "read at your own risk" stamp across it. I always read a book with two hats. 1) as a book lover who just likes to be swept away by a good story 2)as a parent/teacher who would be horrified if my child/student picked up one of these supposed "YA" books to read. Some of them are really bad (i.e. language/sex/underage drug or drinking). I guess maybe that's why I can enjoy it (that sounds weird, I know). To me, these books are more like an adult book that just happen to have teenage characters--even though they say YA, they aren't for young readers.

 Has anyone read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? This is actually a book meant for adults, not YA. One word: CRAZY!!! I loved/hated that book. I need someone to talk to about it.

Having 3 kids: We are anxious/excited to have a new baby in our home. However, having a boy and a girl complicates things just a little. We have a bedroom in our basement, but don't feel ready to send one of the kids downstairs quite yet--so we're going to have 2 of them share for now. But who? Does Porter share with the baby? Does Brooke? Do Porter and Brooke share? So many pros and cons to each option. We are also considering not finding out the gender--we already have one of each so we're ready for either a boy or a girl. I'm not sure if we'll be able to contain our curiosity once we go for the ultra-sound in a few weeks, but we'll try ;)

Technology: This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. It's interesting to think that my children will grow up in a world never knowing what it is like not to have things like cell phones, ipods/pads, regular access to the internet, video games, etc... This is a great, yet scary thing. A few months ago Brooke was playing on the ipad and we asked her to get off to help with a chore. She was so upset she threw the ipad down on the couch and stomped off. That was a huge reality check for Blake and I. Since then, Brooke has been grounded from the ipad. Obvioulsy it was becoming a problem and Brooke was demonstrating that she was not responsible enough to know how to take care of such an exspensive item. At firs,t Brooke would ask about using the ipad, but then she stopped and has found other things to do. This outburst of Brooke's has also helped Blake and I reevaluate our own technology use. I really had to look long and hard at myself and admit that I needed to cut back. I found this quote from Stephanie Nielson (NieNie Dialogues) and really liked it: "Don't teach your children you can multitask them and your social media accounts. Someday they will do the same to you and you won't like it."

The Common Core: just kidding! I won't be crossing that minefield again. My wise cousin told me, "a man convinced against his will, will be of the same opinion still...."