03/03/12

1.  After Joseph's archery class (he is so good!), we went down to UT for their "Explore Day" which was like a great big open house.  The boys made little paper rockets which they raced down the hall on a string, powered by a deflating balloon.  We saw a self-driving car created by one of the UT engineering/robotics departments.  The boys watched concrete chunks get shattered under 500,000 of pressure.  They made toothpick/marshmallow structures and tested their architectural soundness on an earthquake simulating machine.  They saw a great big "earthquake generator" truck which made big tubs of water jump around (the water, not the tubs).  They went up to the 17th floor roof of one of the science buildings to look through the telescope at sunspots and planets (which I didn't know you could see during daylight hours).  Brigham got a lollipop at a booth where he won a game by knowing how many digits the human body has (it was a human anatomy game).  He told me it was thanks to our studying Greek and Latin roots the past couple of years.  :-)  Afterward, we went to eat dinner with the Lee-wens (who we hung out with at UT) at a Colombian restaurant downtown.  Good food.

2.  I made a total jerk of myself while making conversation over dinner.  We were talking about living in Miami, and I was trying to make the point that I felt like a fish out of water there, and that it was in many ways a family-unfriendly place.  I told the story I always do about how I received comments, on almost a daily basis, on how many children I had.  Nearly every time I'd go out with the boys, someone would say, "Are they all yours??" with this incredulous tone of voice.  Yes, ALL THREE of my children are mine.  I know, I can't believe how many children I have.  Anyway, that would have been fine, but I had to go on and observe how, with the exception of the orthodox Jewish family down the street, ours was the only family in our 40+ home neighborhood with more than two kids, and I was the only stay-at-home-mom (except, again, for the orthodox Jewish family).  This was also true.  Except that I was making this observation to my friend who happens to have 2 children and who works full time.  I'm such an idiot.  I need to apologize for my idiocy and insensitivity.  I think she's a great mom, and I know many absolutely wonderful working moms, and many fabulous families with 2 children.  Or one child!  Or 8 children!  Family size does not dictate quality, and I know that working moms are fully capable of being wonderful mothers and creating wonderful homes, just as stay-at-home-moms are fully capable of making a real botch of motherhood.  Oh well.

3.  After dropping Ben and the boys off at home, I went to my friend Susie's birthday party where I stayed until 11:30 talking girl talk.  Susie's husband is a very, very good sport.  :-)