We Live in a Strange Day

We live relatively close to our school district's football stadium, so every Friday night we can hear the band, crowds, and announcers from our house. This week there was a big football game between the two high schools that we draw most of our youth from. So rather than frustrate ourselves by trying to entertain our toddler during the lovely "witching hours" between 5 p.m. and bedtime, we decided to see if the football game would do the trick. It was a glorious fall night and we actually needed sweaters! We had a great time and Jackson loved watching everything. It's been said so many times before, but when you become a parent, things truly become new again as you see them through your child's eyes.

By far, the most interesting part of the night was halftime. Curt pointed out a football player who had stripped down to his pads and joined his school's marching band. His instrument happened to be the flute. Can y'all picture that with me? A big sweaty football player marching with a flute. It was so awesome.

Speaking of high school athletes, I recently read about a teenage athlete from California who has received unimaginable levels of attention after someone posted her image online without her knowledge or consent. Someone even created a fake Facebook account on her behalf. Unfortunately, I know a little bit about fake accounts since someone created a fake MySpace page for my mom last year. Isn't that ridiculous? She didn't even know what MySpace was.

All this caused me to make some different decisions about how I communicate online. At this time, I don't really feel the need to change the way I do my blog. That's not to say that the day won't come when I stop posting pictures. But I have decided not to accept Facebook friend requests from people I don't know personally. I have felt really bad about this because I do not want to hurt any feelings. But I mainly use that resource to communicate with my college students. It's just a little unsettling that people I don't know personally would be able to observe my communication with my girls (even though I'm sure they're wonderful people). So I want to offer this explanation and an apology to anyone I may have offended as a result of that decision. I share a ton about my life and family on my blogs, so I feel good about closing doors to other areas, especially when they involve our students. Through the years, my family has had our share of freaky situations and private investigators. We could scare ourselves into all sorts of limitations, but we don't want a few strange experiences to ruin many normal and wonderful ones. I hope I am communicating my heart here. I am not a big deal and am no more interesting than the next person, but I do think that everyone needs to look closely at the pros and cons of online communication and make decisions with their eyes wide open.

If you are a parent of child old enough to use the computer, be sure to check out Vicki Courtney's blog. You might need to get your hands on her new book, Logged On and Tuned Out.

I'm totally changing the subject now. I have become the Clark Griswold of fall. At last count I had fourteen pumpkins, both fake and real, inside and outside of my house. Someone please stop me!

And since no mommy blog is complete without throw up stories, I am obliged to tell you that Jackson had his first stomach virus last night. He is doing fine now, but Curtis and I both feel like we had it too - having smelled it, touched it, heard it, and been up all night with it. We are both bracing ourselves for the real thing. It could be a rough week.