Gerald Ford

I must admit to you, dear reader, that I am a heartless person. When I walked into the living room on Tuesday morning, and Brad broke the news to me that former president, Gerald Ford, had died, my mind immediately went to the Saturday Night Live skit done a decade ago about Gerald Ford's death. It may not be all that appropriate, but I wanted to share it with you, in case you, too, needed to see some humor in a sad situation. Enjoy!

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/12/gerald_ford_dea.html

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Those of you who know me well know that I am HUGE fan of Harry Potter. So, it much excites me to know that the final book has a name. It is, however, disappointing that no publishing date has been set. I will continue to wait with baited breath. The good news, though, is that the 5th movie is coming in July. But, as a book purist, the movies always disappoint me.



I look forward to the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with much anticipation, but it saddens me at the same time because I know that Harry is coming to an end. I wonder what will happen: Where will Harry and Voldemort finally meet? Will we see Sirius again? Dumbledore? And, of course, the girl in me wonders if Harry and Ginny will rekindle their romance, or if Ron & Hermione will ultimately be together. I suppose that I will just have to keep guessing.


You can check out the latest story about Harry and J.K. Rowling at http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/12/21/books.pottertitle.ap/index.html

Some Christmas Cheer

If you would like to have a good Christmas belly laugh, check this out:

http://www.goingjesus.com/cavalcade1.shtml

Thanks to Becca, it is hilarious.

Good and Bad

This week was a momentous one for the Daugherty Family. Brad and I were able to go away for the first time. My mom came down to stay with Ella, and Brad and I went to a Pastor & Spouse Retreat at the Opryland here in Nashville. The picture to the right is basically the view from the balcony of our room. We worked hard to be able to go away, or at least Ella and I worked hard. In order for me to go away, she had to be weaned. So, we worked from her birthday, and she was finally weaned a week ago, just in time for us to go. We had a great time, and the Opryland is an amazing place.

I thought that having us gone for the few days, and especially me, would be hard for Ella. But, my mom says that she hardly even noticed that we were gone. She and my mom had a wonderful time, and she did great without us.

It was good that we got to go away, after 13 months, we definitely needed it. It was good that Ella and my mom got along so well. But, don't you think that it's just a little bad that Ella is so independent? I would like to think that she would have missed us, a lot. I guess it's true what they say, they sure do grow up fast!

A Funny Little Story

Tonight, I thought that I would share a little story that shows the difference between when I was growing up (perhaps you, too) and today's generation.

Over Thanksgiving, we visited my dad and his family in Savannah, Georgia. Because we had Ella with us, we often had to take our car so that we didn't have to keep moving around the car seat. Well, my sister, Anna (who is turning 10 next week), climbed into the backseat with Ella. She was in the car for a few minutes and then asked, "Heather, what is this bar below the car handle?"

I wasn't sure what she was talking about, so I asked for more information, and she answered, "You know, this lever, maybe it moves something."

And that's when I realized that Anna was talking about the lever to roll the window up and down (we don't have electric windows). When I told her this, she said that she had not seen that in her whole life. The rest of the time that we were there, Anna would ride in our car and exclaim over the lever. She even told us that when she got a car, she was going to "pay extra" to be able to roll the window up and down herself. We didn't have the heart to tell her that people paid extra not to roll up their own windows.

Amazing how much life changes as time goes on, isn't it?

Tyranny of the Urgent

I am not much of a planner, although I do like to have some idea of what is going to happen on any given day. But I have found that in my life lately, no day ever goes how I plan it to go. I will have a list of things to do at work, but a phone call comes in and I find that I have another project for the day. Or, I will be at home trying to fix dinner or clean, and Ella wants to be held, or eat, or for me to read a book to her and I never get to the cleaning or the cooking. Does life ever come to the point that you can plan out your day and actually have it work that way? How do you stop living in the urgent and get to the everyday parts of life? Am I just not good at getting done what needs to go done? Do I need to be more rigid with my schedule?

But, tonight was an example of when it's a good time to set aside your plans. Tonight, I wanted to clean up from dinner, but Ella wouldn't stop tugging at my pants legs. So, I set aside the cleaning and sat with her. We read books, sang together, laughed and talked with MaMaw on the phone. These are the moments that you wish would last forever. And it is then that you realize that your plans are not always the best ones.

News?

Everyday, I plan my morning around watching the news. Now, when I say news, I mean NBC's, "The Today Show", although the quality is a little less now that Katie Couric has made the move to CBS. Nonetheless, I take time each day to watch the "Morning Headlines" with Ann Curry, and to catch the weather, and I also enjoy a few of their other stories. Now, when I tell Brad that I am going to watch the news, he says, "News? You mean the Today Show?" Then he walks out of the room laughing. What do you think, does the Today Show count as news?