Because we don't want Jesus to cry.

We were driving in I-35 traffic and My Redhead was reading the bumper sticker of the car in front of us. I've told her in the past that we shouldn't waste our eyesight on bumper stickers or bathroom stalls because they're usually inappropriate, but this one caught her attention. It caught mine too.



"Vote Democratic or Jesus will cry."


Then my Redhead responds, "we better do that because I don't want Jesus to cry!" And she was firm too. She took it quite literally.


I then follow this with, "I already do, sweetheart."


"Whew! That's good!" Then a long pause....


"By the way, what does, "democratic" mean?"

We are not a spontaneous household...

Okay, so maybe The Redhead is. As for her parents, not so much. And when The Mommy is spontaneous, or at least was, it wasn't always her brightest moment, in fact, it never was. But this past weekend, we took an impromptu journey up north to blessed Minnesota. And what makes it so blessed? Two lovely people were getting married! What could be more blessed than that?

So it's not like it was completely spontaneous. They knew about this ordeal for some time, and debated over it, Daddy finally talked Mommy into marking the little spot that says they'll be there. She was worried about the travel time and trying not to have Miss B miss a day of school. Then soccer came up, but it's just one game, right? Then ballet recital practice came up. But it's just one, right? Then a double header for soccer magically appeared on the schedule and a 3pm Sunday business flight for The Daddy. Whew. Okay, so they weren't going to make it.

It didn't feel right and Mommy was having the hardest time typing up that e-mail that says, "I'm sorry, but we can't make it..." and the keyboard was just being a delinquent when it came to THAT task.

And just when I couldn't delay it any longer, and had tired from juggling the "we should make it work, we can't make it work," lack of logic, it was raining, and soccer looked canceled, and we started rationalizing the drive all the more and how we could do it all before the 3 pm flight. But that was crazy, right? We said so too, about 9 different times, before suddenly, I had the bags packed, a dog hotel reservation booked, and a teacher told I'd be picking up a certain wee tot by 1:30. And as crazy as it was, we made the trek to the Minnesota countryside.

I won't bore you with further details (well, too many), but it didn't rain as much as we had feared, but enough to make it impossible to visit a Minnesota Zoo. We did make it to the Minnesota Children's Museum all before driving out to Red Wing for such a lovely wedding. And after enjoying a little Greek dancing, we headed out and stayed the night in Des Moines before making it to the airport in with time to spare for Daddy's flight. Everything worked as is should have and better, and we had a fantastic time. You can see for yourselves.

How she can tell we're in Kansas...

"I told you the sign with The White Man means we're in Kansas."

By the way, "The White Man" is the KFC billboard.

But she's made a valid point on many levels.

Unfortunately, not every question has an answer

I love my Redhead and like any parent, I think she's one of the brightest, most brilliant children ever. As I'm reminded of those feelings daily, today was no different. We just made it back from school and I was trying to figure out where she went since I was getting afternoon snack ready. I discovered her in her bedroom on the floor on top of her big, brown dog engrossed in a book. The book was a Martin Luther King, Jr. book I had lent to her teacher and the book had obviously not made it back to the shelves, but soon would be promptly buried with my others. She realizes I'm in the room and looks up at me with contemplation deep into her blue eyes and asks me, "Why would someone shoot someone as nice as Dr. King?"



That's a very good question. I'd like to know that answer too.