Our pumpkin

If you thought Corrie was hard to understand before, listen to her with a cold! Carrie carved this for her the other night and lit it for our porch. Have a safe and fun Halloween everybody :)

The electoral map, and the economy

If you've seen the guys on CNN, you might enjoy this one:

Adventures in Potty Training

We were talking last night about all the places Corrie has had to use the potty since becoming such a big girl and wearing underwear.

Last night, at an intramural football game at Purdue, (IN THE SNOW!) Corrie announced that she had to go. She had a pull-up on and for a moment Brian and I just looked at each other. We faced our greatest decision as parents (or so it seemed, smile.). What would we do? Just let her go or run to the rows of port-a-potties lining the field...? I wonder what she would have done if we had just said to go in her diaper but alas, we chose the lovely blue plastic huts. I will never forget her exclamation when we got in "OH, IT'S BEAUTIFUL!". Where does she come up with these things? I, the whole time was saying, "Don't TOUCH ANYTHING!"

But she went.

Let's see, where else have we gone? She likes public restrooms and I have come to appreciate how there seems to be a restroom wherever you go. I guess I never valued them like I do now. At home she can't decide sometimes between the upstairs or downstairs... Another of my favorites was our car trip to see the wind turbines out in farm country. Brian was taking pictures. She had a pull-up on but said those 6 little words, "Mommy, I have to go potty." I was a mom un-prepared, no spare potty in the trunk... all I could find was a funnel and a can of tennis balls. So she went on a funnel into a can. We had a good laugh... but we all had dry pants.

Elevator music

I just gotta say...

...what in the world is up with these boots? Haven't they gone out of style yet?? It's only October, for cryin out loud! I saw these on at least 1 out of every 3 girls on campus today. And it was sunny and 60 degrees. Seriously, one day someone in Hollywood was in too much of a hurry to find the right shoes and just put these on to run to the store. The paparazzi found her and viola. Fashion police? We needed Fashion SWAT on campus today. The worst violators had these with spandex leggings, sweatpants, pajamas - and I'm not talking about 8am classes either.

On a related note, I still saw a few guys this summer/early-fall with popped collars. Sheesh.

OK, rant over :) Just had to get that out. Next up: people who drive slow in the left lane.

"Shorty - long walk" painting

This painting by Kaj Stenvall (1993) is now on my office wall, right behind where students sit. Purdue has an art print exchange program, so I walked over to check it out (picked-over by the time I went after lunch).
You've probably heard the term 'helicopter parents' by now. This painting was not only my favorite of the pieces left, but it lets you make the story. Mine (in my head) is "so there was this freshman duck student, just got dropped off in the land of higher education by his family, friends, his past. He's lost, not sure where to go, and needs to go buy a shirt." or something like that.

playing in the leaves