Here’s Lily doing her latest hand gesture (it’s a whole lot better than the other one she learned from me while riding around in the car - and we’ll just leave it at that, shall we?). This is for Risa and Tori - she yells “HOOKER HORNTHS (Hook em Horns)!” She still has a touch of her sweet lisp left. We prefer to think of her doing her best Mr. Vernon impression from The Breakfast Club - “Don’t mess with the bull, young man - you’ll get the horns!” Yeah!!! But for the Bliss family’s sake, we’ll say that she is wishing the Texas Longhorns well. Whatever makes you happy. Actually, Lily is probably saying, “Get off my property, ya friggin’ redneck - or I’ll shoot ya!”

Speaking of movies, I had a moment of feeling incredibly OLD today. For some reason Phil and Jennifer and I were joking around about something, and Phil said, “I want my TWO DOLLAHS” and we both started imitating the newspaper boy on a bike from Better Off Dead. Aaron, Phil’s employee who is probably like 22 or something, had NO IDEA what we were talking about and was obviously not amused by three people simultaneously shouting “TWO DOLLAHS! TWO DOLLAHS” while giggling. Oh well. I know that this particular movie was not a John Hughes film, but all of that genre defined my high school years (even though my stodgy parents didn’t let me see Breakfast Club: “Oh, Cristina - it’s rated R!!! That’s a no, I’m afraid!” - I had to sneak out and see it on the sly). Now I can see all the R rated movies I want!!! Being over 18 rules, even if I am going to need glasses soon!

Rather than rehashing all the info on the Harvey story, you can read Meredith’s posting about the family’s murder here. Reading her post made me very sad and brought back my own set of memories about Carytown, World of Mirth and the life we used to lead in Westover Hills (which is right down the street from Woodland Heights, where the family was murdered in their home). Usually I have a pretty strong stomach about the things that happen in the world - it’s hard not to become somewhat jaded or immune to it considering every night there’s something about someone getting murdered, shot or something else.

This particular story really hit me hard. It hit me so hard that I avoided for the first few days thinking too much about it. The following days I couldn’t get enough of the story and scoured the online news sources for details. Now I’m back on the denial part. Every time the children’s pictures flash on the news I feel like someone is stepping on my gut. It’s hard not to think about Lily or Arden being in a similar situation and how afraid those children must have been. I’ve never understood killing children. What’s the point? Once my brain starts thinking along this path I have to shut it down because it really starts to bother me. I keep thinking that it could have been us. Why not?

Of course the murder of their family has got lots of people I know talking about “the city” and how unsafe it is. I just don’t think it’s “the city” or anything that general. Murders happen - they happen here in the counties, too. I rarely felt unsafe in our old neighborhood. We took basic precautions, like having a security system and a dog. I didn’t walk alone at night and I knew my neighbors and kept an eye out on their houses when they weren’t home. As far as I’m concerned, the city neighborhood we lived in was much tighter knit (and a lot more respectful of your privacy, I might add) and willing to lend a hand than our current subdivision. I hate to see the city getting a bad rap for this. Julie just bought at house at the edge of Westover Hills and I know some of her friends are freaking out. I just told her to be cautious like she’s always been and get to know some neighbors.

We’ve spent a lot of time with both girls this weekend, and that’s been nice. As cliched as it sounds, whenever something like this happens I always snap back to the reality that I have a great life and I’m so fortunate that my children are here with us. I feel slightly guilty for the times I lose my temper with them for being themselves - their wild, insane, goofy hyper selves - because they are alive, they are smart, and they are my heart. I realize that no mother can ever go through life without being irritated by her children, but I hope that I can direct the sadness I feel about the Harvey family into being a little more patience when Lily not only pushes my buttons, but stomps repeatedly on them.

I just heard on the news that there may be an arrest in the murder case. I hope it’s the right person because I know a lot of people are having trouble sleeping right now, not knowing who did this or why.

It finally happened, just shy of Arden’s first birthday - our little hatchling has ONE tooth! Amazing! Most babies her age have an average of 8 teeth. Well, now Arden can chip her way out of her nest or something - she’s got one about 1/4 of the way out and another one about to burst through the gumline. Both are on the lower gum. No sign of the upper teeth yet, but considering the time it took for her to get one, we’re just so proud of her. Way to go, Denny! You finally have a tooth!

Lily had a great day at school and “allowed” Mike to pick her up since I was dropping off the Subaru for its cleaning session with a detailer. Jennifer is now officially on maternity leave, and I will be missing her mightily every day until she returns, probably in January. E-gads, that sounds like a long way away.

I ran into someone I used to work with at CCA today (insert barf sound here). Made me realize what a bunch of Nascar-lovin’, wife-beater-t-shirt wearin’, cigarette-smokin’, male chauvinist pigs I used to work with. Nothing’s changed around there except all the good people have left and the dregs of humanity are still hanging on by their dirty, yellow fingernails. The best thing my boss there ever did to me was tell me I was laid off a month before my wedding and a month after buying our first house. I hated his guts at that moment, but I would never had thought something like that could turn my life in such a great direction. Seeing this old co-worker couldn’t have come at a better time. It really made me realize how fortunate and happy I am now, even on days like this, when I think I’m not going to make it without Jennifer. I’m 42 kabillion times happier than working at that crap hole. Did I mention my ex-boss had a penchant for kiddie porn? Yes, Mr. Born-Again Christian, let’s have a Corporate Chaplain and all pray before everything, including a trip to the bathroom, loved his virtualvirgins.com site or whatever crap he was into. Thank god I no longer have to worry about walking into his office and being greeted by the site of naked girls on his computer . . . even working with lawyers is much less painful than that!

Sunday evening, laundry put away, a marketing plan as close to finished as possible, and the dog snoring happily next to me. Ahhhh, silence. Blissful.

Arden was in rare form tonight at dinner, screeching at the top of her lungs and grinning madly at anyone who would catch her eye. She ate a ton of food (I literally think it was close to a ton) and looked like one of those newly hatched birds when they brought out the ice cream - she just sat in her seat with her mouth wide open, flapping her arms up and down excitedly until one of us would put a spoonful of whipped cream or ice cream in her mouth. Seconds after she swallowed it, her mouth would open up again.

Lily was also fairly well behaved tonight and most of the day. She made it all day without accidents and was very pleased with herself. We went to Deep Run Park this afternoon and she must have gone down the “big kids” slide about 50 times. She is in a deep coma as I write this - no nap and lots of activity today, including what Mike called the “shortest bike ride in the history of bike rides”. Her bike has training wheels but it requires a lot of physical effort for her to move it even slightly, so she tires quickly.

She has taken to “preaching” to me - reiterating things I’ve said to her, with her finger in the air, almost as if she’s in the pulpit looking down at one of her sinners. Today when I was putting clothes away and cleaning out all the things she can’t wear anymore, she wanted me to let her throw the folded clothing around. I told her no, and she put her hand in the air and said firmly, “Mommy, you are not sharing nicely. SHARE with me!” I tried not to laugh. It was hilarious. The expression on her face must be what I look like to her.

Today at the park there was this hugely obese man sitting next to me. He had been trying to get his daughter to pay attention to him and come when he called her - she completely ignored him. At first I thought she might literally be deaf, but it turns out she just ignores her dad. He and I started chatting about potty training and other scintillating topics and he asked me if I liked McDonald’s. I told him I didn’t, but Lily loved it, so we went there frequently. We started comparing different play areas and one of the McDonald’s with a ball pit came up. He got pretty excited and told me that he got some email (probably a chain email) saying that a 4 year old boy had a welt on his rump after playing the ball pit. The next day, he was dead - supposedly there was a hypodermic needle in the ball pit with enough heroin or whatever left in it to cause him to overdose. OKAY. I guess I just get to the point where I could feel insane about everything - paranoia is easy these days, with all the kidnappings, disappearances, sexual predators, and internet myths floating around. And now I’m supposed to fear the ball pit?!?! What next! I need to check that story out on snopes.com.

I’m wireless now, so I can sit in bed and blog. No excuses not to write anymore!

For those of you who didn’t see it on the news, today’s headlines from Richmond, Virginia:

State of emergency, 3 dead, about 20 blocks condemned after Gaston
Three deaths were reported after Gaston battered Virginia, and the governor declared a state of emergency.

Major bummer. After Mike and I got married, everyone met us down at Havana 59 in Shockoe Bottom for dinner and drinks. As of last night, Havana, and the entire Farmer’s Market in front of it, was under 10 feet of water . . . very depressing. As I said to a friend, seeing new buildings destroyed is always sad, but to find out that historic churches, buildings, and restaurants like Bottoms Up are gone is just heartbreaking. The Bottom is one of the most historic places in Richmond, and watching cars float down Cary and Main Street was beyond bizarre. I was very glad that our current office space was at higher ground, but felt sorry for all the people stranded in buildings last night. No one I knew was prepared - even after Isabel. I don’t think anyone really understood what was going to happen or that we were going to get up to 14” of rain in 10 hours . . . or how fast water rises when you are truly in a flood emergency. I ended up stranded on the Southside last night.

I think it’s my parents - since they moved here last July, we’ve had one of the worst hurricanes in Richmond history (Isabel), the biggest flood ever (yesterday), and more rain and bizarre weather than I can remember. Maybe they should return to South Carolina and take their funky vibes with them . . . .