Random Mondays

I haven't posted in more than a week ... again ... so here's some randomness, just so I can pretend I still blog regularly. I know: I'm a generous girl.

The boys are having their first Mandarin lesson, right. this. minute. We found a tutor to come to the house once a week to torture them into the 21st century. China is the second largest economy in the world, after all, and two small boys will be large adults looking for jobs before we know it. Mandarin might be a little more useful to them than German or French has proven to be to Husband and me ... just maybe.

Instapundit has a link to a story about the risk of whooping cough, once wiped out by vaccinations but now back. You can thank everyone who doesn't vaccinate their children for that one, pretty much. One has to get a DTaP booster this fall, as our pedi had four cases of 11 year old boys with whooping cough last winter alone. When he goes in for his flu shot in October, he will be treated to an extra stick. And since I am in need of a tetanus shot, I think I'll be paying the extra for DTaP at Walgreens (around $70, as I recall) sometime very soon.

Missy linked to these fantastic color photos from the late 1930's and early 1940's. Wow, unbelievable!

We are officially beginning our entry into the Orthodox Church! We spoke to our arch-priest yesterday, and Husband is going to call him later on in the week to set up a meeting. I have been charged with hunting down baptismal certificates. Three are easy, but Husband's is a bear; thankfully we have a friend in the Presbytery office in the city where Husband grew up, who can track down which church merged into which church, and which closed and sent the Presbytery offices their records, etc. A bit of detective work, to be sure, but hopefully it will work out and we can all be chrismated together soon. Coming up next: the boys serving at the altar. Oh yes! Don't think for a second that, given such an opportunity, I would pass on that one! I need to see my wild urchins, robed and somber and carrying candles. It will make up for so much misbehavior in my mind, I can't even tell you.

Nina Camic's website, The Other Side of the Ocean, is always worth a visit, especially for her delicious photographs. But check on her even more frequently in the coming weeks; she's teaching in Kyoto and oh! the pictures are worth many, many thousands of words.

That's all for now, folks.