Joseph L. McGregor, The Most Brilliant Man in America?

No one ever asks why I married Jenny. The answer seems obvious. (In fact, the reverse question seems to be the only one that crosses people's minds.) But today I'd like to pretend that this unasked question was posed.

Underneath the apparent inequality in our marriage lies a larger truth: I really don't deserve Jenny. It never escaped me while in my dating years that my future bride should be a good mother, and a complement to my weaknesses.

All who know Jennifer know how wonderful of a mother she is. She wakes up early each day to prepare a wholesome breakfast. She could never be accused of "babysitting" the kids; rather, she interacts with them to engage their minds. When I get home each day they show me pictures they colored, projects they made, and retell the stories in the books she read to them.

Jennifer is also a pragmatist. She carefully guards against gloomy days. She hates spending money (sometimes her weakness). Where I have proved hopelessly lost in managing the details of life, she has proven that she is the most organized person alive.

And perhaps best of all, she's humbly smart. She's so well-read. Whenever I read something new, we can always discuss it because she's already read something on the issue. But she never flaunts her intelligence.

Of course, she's beautiful. As a young boy when I dreamed up what my perfect wife would look like, she modeled Jenny.

So where does this leave me? It leaves me as perhaps the most shrewd negotiator on earth. Never in the history of mankind has a man so undeserving of his wife married so far out of his league. If there's one accomplishment in my life I'm most proud of, it's that I married Jennifer.

Where we've been

Logan: Moved up to the five-yr old class in Primary in January. He's into Superman, Batman, and superheroes in general. He loves to fight with Madison. He loves to build things with Legos--he stopped asking for my help because he's figured out that he builds better than I do. He loves preschool and is excited for Kindergarten and can't wait to eat lunch at school. He can spell and rhyme... he just needs to work on penmanship. We spend about 30 minutes every morning writing letters. He and Madison are both good helpers--they cook, dust, vacuum, and even pick up a few toys once in a while.

Madison: Moved up to the Sunbeams class in January. I think she likes it, although when she sees me for Singing Time, she almost always starts her "silent cry." It might be fake, but she's very convincing, so I don't know. She loves her teachers and makes up stories that they tell her. (ex. One day she told us Sis. Rowe said she didn't have to eat whatever on the menu that night. I said, " Oh really. I think I'll have to ask Sis. Rowe about that." Madi paused then stated, "If you ask her, she might say 'no.'") She still doesn't care to play dress up, although she has lots of dress-up clothes if any little girls want to come play. She also doesn't really like to play with Barbies or babies or anything girly. She does, however, wear her cape if Logan is wearing his because then she's cool. She can be a picky eater, but the last few days she's been eating marvelously. She carries a purple washcloth around the house to wipe away her tears (which she has a lot of since she is always fighting with Logan). It's no longer worrisome or humorous. Just normal. 

Grant: Is 10 months old. He crawls and stands and cruises on furniture. He's a clown; if we laugh at something he does, he'll do it over and over and over. He just started clapping. He loves to play peek-a-boo. He points to tell us what he wants. He's a very happy, lovable,and sometimes loud baby. He loves to play with his big brother and sister, but gets very upset when they take something away from him. He loves to eat. He still nurses 5 times a day and eats at least 3 meals with the family. Logan, Madison, and I (Jenn) all have low iron levels, so at Grant's last dr. appt. I asked the dr. to test his blood. She was a little reluctant, but I was not surprised to find that Grant, too, had very low iron levels. So we are all taking iron supplements. The dr. is also worried about his weight which surprised me because he eats all day long... I guess he's always hungry! So lucky Grant gets to have cream cheese and butter on his bread!

Joe: Is home a little more because the economy isn't keeping him so busy. So we get to see him a little more, which is nice, but worrisome at the same time. I can't say much on here, so for more info you might just have to ask him. He (and I) decided that it was time to shut off the satellite to save money and promote better usage of time. We also got rid of our home line and are just using our cell numbers now. (We still have our answering machine hooked up to the old line if you need to get a hold of us before you get our cell number.) 

Jenn: loves staying at home with the children... and is thinking about giving up on having a clean house. I think I washed, dried, folded, and put away 10 loads of laundry this week (and no, I didn't miss a week). Whew! I feel like I can't keep up with life. One of my new year's goal was to get up at 6:00 a.m. so I could shower and dress, make a hot breakfast, and do some me things so that we can all eat breakfast together at 7:00. It's been tough, but also very rewarding. I am also taking an online class from BYU because I have to take 6 credits to keep my teaching certificate current. I'm actually really stressed about it because I've got to finish by Sept. 1 and I've procrastinated this for 5 years. I really don't know where the time went, but I have no excuse.  So while Logan is in school, Madison and Grant take naps, and I've got about 2 1/2 hours that I use to exercise and work on this class and get anything else done (meal prep, cleaning, etc). So we're 19 days into the new year and I feel like I've done pretty well, but I'm also exhausted at the end of the day. Sometimes I feel like life is so crazy and I know it's only going to get crazier as the kids have more activities and I just don't know how to keep up. And I know I should  be doing more playing and teaching and loving and somehow it all gets lost in the happenings of the day. So if any of you are up to sharing, I'd love to know how you do it. 

Warren County, PA

Lest anyone think I was poking fun of Jenny's hometown, I've dug up some pictures of the area so that all can get a glimpse of Warren County, Pennsylvania's charm and beauty (seriously).




Warren, PA.

Overhead view of Kinzua Dam, southerly end of Alleghany National Forest.


I hate to open old wounds, but I was unfortunate enough to stumble across one of Jenny's high school sweathearts.

Salado, TX

Now, it's time for me to showcase my hometown, Salado, Texas.

Annual "Gathering of the Clans."

Some colorful folk at a Rodeo. I'm trying to talk Jenny into getting me a shirt just like this lady's.

Bluebonnets. They're beautiful, but they only last a few weeks in Spring.

The Salado Creek runs right through the middle of town.

And apparently Salado Creek ran right through this person's car. An attestation to the resolve of Saladoans, each year, it seems, the creek floods the downtown area. Do people move? No way. Downtown just keeps getting bigger.

President Bush en route from his Crawford ranch to Salado so he can attend his daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner.

Glaringly absent is a panoramic of Salado. I coulnt' find one; Jenny insists that's because no one thinks it worth the effort.

Bowling in the Backwoods

A day after hailing in the New Year, Jenny and I went to visit her family in Northwestern Pennsylvania. For those unfamiliar with the area, it is breathtakingly beautiful. Dense trees hug the hills to form the Allegheny National Forest. In the summer, the area is unrealistically green, and in the winter, it feels like the setting of a Robert Frost poem.

But the sophistication of the area fails to match the scenery. Jenny and I went bowling in a venue likely unchanged from its opening in the early 1920's. The alley made bowlers count the score by hand. The shoes were the newest additions, likely purchased during the Carter Administration.

Best of all, a bowler two lanes over from us apparently rammed the ball down the alley so fast that a pin spat back into the lane, rolled into the gutter, and lay resting in that no man's land where shoes are forbidden. No problem for the owners of this alley. A piercing whistle shot out, and a black dog mobilized from behind the service counter. The dog immediately eyed the lanes, found his target, and strutted down the gutter to fetch the pin and dutifully return it to his master behind the counter.



Good times.

Family Entertainment (For Lola)

There's much to write about. Like how it's a New Year and we canceled our Dish Network and are now T.V.less. (So if you watch American Idol, can we be friends?) Instead of T.V, we've been finding entertainment in other places.....  Enjoy!

They're done!

Here are the wood boards Joe made for Logan's room (with a little help from my dad and yours truly). I think they look so great!  I can't wait for Logan to open them and then to hang them in his room! I haven't decided if I will lay them out like this, or split it into two arrangements.  What do you think?

A Christmas Tale

We've been getting ready for Christmas: attending Christmas parties, sitting on Santa's lap, ice skating, building gingerbread houses (from a kit).  But most importantly, we've been trying to teach our children about Christ's entrance into the world.  We do that by telling it as a story, learning songs, looking at pictures, watching the LDS Nativity, tomorrow we'll do THE skit.  The kids are catching on. They both know, for instance, that an inn is a hotel, that shepherds take care of sheep, and that the sign was a big star in the sky.  Today we read a picture book about the birth of Christ. When Logan saw the star shining brightly in the sky, he commented, "Look mom, there's the sign that Jesus was born." I kinda' started to feel emotional at my 5-year-old's simple testimony.  Then he said, "But mom, who's holding the sign." Stop, What?(me) "It's a star." (Logan) "Yeah, I see the star, but who's holding it?" Um, (me) "Heavenly Father put the star in sky so everyone would know Jesus was born." (Logan) "Yeah, but you said it's a sign.  Who's holding it?"  

Merry Christmas ya'll!  In trying to keep up with laundry, I failed to send out Christmas cards to everyone this year.  May we all feel Christ's love this holiday and throughout the new year.

Joe's firm party for the kids. He had a nice dress-uppy one that night that I got to go to (all dressed up!) but we failed to take pics. They all (happily) sat on Santa's lap, and they printed out pics, but we don't have a scanner.  Sorry.

Madison hated it.

Logan loved it.  We loved the walker.

Logan and the Hairy Nevus

The SURGERY story:

Logan had surgery in November to have an umbilical hernia repaired (new belly pics to come). While his surgeon (Dr. Stallion) was fixing Logan, he noticed the birthmark Logan has on his left hip and suggested (after the surgery, of course) that he have it removed ASAP, as it was likely to one day be cancerous.  Obviously, we knew about the birthmark since day 1 of Logan's life and had heard the opinion of the 5 doctors we have had in the past 5 years.  We had been told to measure it every year, which we've been doing, and it has grown about .5 cm per year. Never had anyone suggested we remove it. Plus, Dr. Stallion warned that if it got much bigger (which also means thicker), we would most likely need to do a skin graft. Too bad he didn't just do it at the same time as the bellybutton.

Since we've used up our health insurance deductible (baby+surgery 1=$$$), we decided to go ahead and get it done before the new year (=free).  Lucky Logan has been a good sport about wearing hospital gowns and blowing in the "space-man" mask.  Waking up from surgery is no fun, although recovery was much easier this time (no muscles were touched). He even went to school the next day--his request. We'll take off the bandage tomorrow and see his "new" hip.

It's been hard for me to explain to him why he needs to have these things done.  I have a funny fingernail, and I never understood why my parents and doctor asked me if I wanted to have it removed and replaced with a fake fingernail.  Of course now I know it was so that I wouldn't feel different--isn't that what we parents worry about for our kids? I want Logan to understand that we love him and his body just the way he is--funny belly-button or large birthmark. I'm pretty sure I care more about it than he does. (OK, funny story: a few days after removing the bandages from his "new" bellybutton, he came home from school with some exciting news: some other kids in his class had surgery too!--their bellybuttons didn't poke out either! I laughed and explained that most people's bellybuttons were like that.) Anyway, he's been a good sport.  I overheard him explaining to Madison what surgery was like... the gas mask, the doctor cutting the skin, waking up.  Madison has been begging me to not let the doctor give her surgery. I, too, hope our surgery days are done.

We tried to keep the pics modest.  We had to say goodbye to his birthmark.  I will miss it.

Post 100

Today Logan had his second surgery in just over a month.  We will post pictures and details soon, but right now I am home missing him and impatiently waiting for him and Joe to return home. We were scheduled to have the surgery at 1:30 p.m., but the world is against us and he didn't actually go into surgery until almost 6:00 p.m. Let's just say I have been a little grumpy today.  But we have much for which to be thankful: a wonderful friend with a small baby of her own came over and watched Madison and Grant (for much longer than planned). I called the hospital a bit ago and learned that Logan was out of surgery and in recovery and VERY hungry (he couldn't eat anything before the surgery). Grant went to bed a little early and I got to spend some alone time with Madison.  We ate leftovers, she took a bath, we played Candy Land, drank hot chocolate, and read a book.  We probably read 5-6 books a day, and often Madison asks silly questions like, "Where's the dog?" or "What is she doing?" Usually I find her questions silly and annoying (she knows where the dog is!).  Tonight I cuddled with her and actually looked at the pictures and talked about what the characters were doing, etc. We both had fun.  I often get caught up in getting things done--instead of savoring every minute, even if it takes 5 minutes more. The five minutes are much more rewarding than the saving of that time.  Now she's asleep, and the house is quiet, and I am waiting (impatiently) for my son and husband to come home. 

If You Lead Him.... He Will Come

In case you couldn't tell: that is a line of Cheerios that Logan made in the hopes that Grant would follow him to the playroom.

p.s. it worked

Thanksgiving 2008

We went to PA for Thanksgiving weekend.  We ate yummy, yummy food (seriously the moistest turkey EVER), spent quality time with family, went Black Friday shopping, had a date, and worked on some projects that require tools that we don't have--Joe (and Grandpa) cut some wood blocks to make CARS pictures for Logan and Jenny (and Grandma) made some awesome super-hero capes for the kids.  We will post pictures after Christmas.  As usual, we failed to take adequate pictures--I think these are the only 2 we got. But Grandma did spend a lot of time reading to the kids and Grandpa did spend a lot of time holding Grant.  Fun was had by all.