Total Eclipse (of the heart)

Did you catch the Lunar Eclipse last night!?  So cool!  It was supposed a full eclipse at 1:45am Central time, and (we) didn't start moving out of the way until almost 2:15.  I took many pictures, but without a tripod that allows your camera to look up at the moon (most silly manufacturers think we want to take pictures on Earth), you can't keep it steady enough while the aperture is open, causing MoVeMeNt!  Here is a professional picture (taken by Seth Wenig of the Associated Press).   This is what I could see, but couldn't capture:

And here are my really bad pictures:

Just trying to keep the lens focused near the corner of our house, so I could have a reference point.

This is Ches standing behind me holding my arms still.  Not.

This last one is me at my wits' end-I finally laid down on the concrete, and tried to steady the camera with my elbows on the sidewalk.  Still no good.

Yes, it was super cold on the concrete, but I was trying to preserve the moment for my kids.  I woke Clay up (the most interested), but he looked, and ran right back to bed.  Here is the NASA schedule, if you want to watch for the next eclipse (Partial Solar) on January fourth!

In other more homely news, have I mentioned all the balls flying around our house?  My sweet creche is no longer so sweet.  There has been foul play.  First, it was the angel of the Lord, just doing her job, watching over sweet baby Jesus (she lost a wing to a football).

Then yesterday, we lost a beautiful wise man and a shepherd to a Handy Manny ball, and didn't realize there were other casualties.

We found an extra hand on the floor, and when asking around who lost a hand, discovered another wise man had fallen victim to a ball.  No, I wasn't happy.  The first made me really angry, but after that, my set was ruined, so I couldn't do anything (I was thinking, "new set, here I come-hope there's one on sale after Christmas, and do you have a glass case to go with it?).  I went in there, and the boys both started crying out that it was the other's fault (so, that's where your loyalty is), and I had them separately tell their stories.  Still not much good, but getting closer.  Finally I put Ethan in time-out, and told Clay to go upstairs and write a note about how he could make it up to me (seriously, it's almost comedic that these people keep getting shattered).  Here is what I got back (!):

I mean seriously: dust, gather dirty clothes and sort them, stay in his room for an hour, and no tv for 3 days?  We have to work on communicating seriousness of offenses.

(Ok, had to stop for a commercial break: reminding a three-year-old that it's not nice to lick someone's cheese and put it on the floor.  If only my job could be seen for the comedic value it really is.  Sometimes I have to turn my head to not laugh out loud.)


So, back to my story.  Did I get all wound up about the people?  I don't know, but I wanted to laugh when he brought the letter.  I was expecting, "clean my room, fix the person", but wow-I got a worker!  Sweet, sweet boy.  He even picked up Ethan's wet pants.  That's remorse, which is more than enough for me. : )