Some Thoughts and Highlights

*I started the week off with a fun-filled visit to the dentist in hopes of curing my excruciating toothache. First thing Monday morning, Dr. Beck drilled a hole in my tooth and dug the nerve out! Root canals are awesome!! Just kidding. In all seriousness, they really aren't bad. I've had two now (because I grind my teeth and kill them) and I've gone immediately back to work afterwards, pain-free! If you ever have to get a root canal, don't sweat it. It's not really that big of a deal. I did start to get a little paranoid about cleanliness at the dentist office. I noticed that Dr. Beck didn't wear gloves, and he seemed to go from room to room without washing his hands. I hope I'm wrong... :)
*A few weeks ago, Cara, all by herself, said I could throw her pacifier in the trash and she hasn't asked for it since!! Amazing!
*I finally fixed my AC in my pickup, so I'm going to sell it and buy a Jeep Wrangler or CJ-7. Wahoo!
*We've decided to decorate the baby's room in farm stuff. My brother is a very talented artist, so I want him to come over and paint a barn and some tractors and some farm animals on a wall in the nursery. Whaddya think?
*We still haven't come up with a name for our son. I'm predicting we will decide in the first few moments of his life outside of the womb. AGH!!
*Is it just me, or do those membership cards at grocery stores make you uncomfortable. I don't like the idea of them tracking my purchases. I'm anti-Big Brother. I would rather pay more for my groceries than give in to that invasion of privacy. For the record, I have NEVER signed up for one of those, and I never will.
*My free 3 months of movie channels on DirecTV is about to expire...I'm somewhat depressed over that.
*What is the deal with modern day cartoons? Every single one of them is about people and their lives with all of this drama and stuff...or they're about fighting the bad guys in outer space...or the characters speak rudely enough that you don't want your young children watching them. Whatever happened to the good ol' cartoons? As I was watching Tom & Jerry the other night with my kids, I realized how incredibly genius that cartoon is! The central theme is very simply...comedy! You don't hear words and you don't have to try to figure out who is who. It's a simple game of cat and mouse with perpetual mishaps, one right after the other. Colorful and very funny. But why do kids watch cartoons more than adults? And why do most of today's cartoons seem to be adult cartoons? I think adults see things from a conceptual basis and kids see all the details. Think about it. When you read a child a book, you see a nice picture and when you finish the words, you just turn the page and look for more words, not paying much attention to the pictures. However, when you try to turn the page, the child is still fascinated by the details in the picture. We just see an overall picture, but the child is fascinated by the tiny raindrops on the grass and the prickly caterpillar on the leaf. Maybe we think the old concept of cat-and-mouse chasing is boring, so we think we have to create a new cartoon that is more advanced, but what we end up with is a cartoon that doesn't hold the attention of our children. There are some good modern-day cartoons and Disney movies (cartoons), but MOST of teh time when my children watch one of these, they must also have toys to play with to help keep them stimulated. However, when I watch Tom & Jerry with my kids, their eyes are glued to the TV, they don't blink, and they laugh every few seconds. It is awesome! I think I will introduce them to the Looney Tunes! Does any of this make sense or am I just rambling? The next time you watch a cartoon, try to imagine how a child sees it, and see if you don't find more humor in it!