Hotties?

Being a gadget guy, I was really excited a while back when I bought two VTech cordless phones that could intercom to each other. One base went upstairs in our bedroom and the other I put in the basement in the girls' room. Of course, the phones had all the latest display features that we Americans have come to expect from our phones, like caller ID, names, phonebook, ringtones, etc. Using the features, I appropriately named the upstairs phone, "Upstairs", and the girls' phone, "Downstairs". What could be more functional than that?

Last night my tween daughter handed me one of the phones while I was in the bathroom, doing well, you know, catching up on my reading (there is no privacy in a large family, not even in sacred places). After taking the call, I checked the display to see which phone she had given me. Imagine my surprise, when the display read, "Hotties". Hotties? I imagined myself meeting new neighbors and saying, "Have you met my Hotties?" There's a DFACS call.

What happened to such simpler (and innocent!) monikers, like "Princesses" or "Sweet Young Ladies" - SYLs for the cool crowd? I think I'll change the name on the phone to "Grounded" and see if they notice.

Raising 5?

Raising 5. Kids. Aged 13 to 4 months. That's a Full House (girls over boys).

"You have 5 children!" many ask in astonishment after watching person after person climb out of our minivan or gather at the cash register after we single-handedly enable the store clerk to meet his/her sales quota.

"Yes" is the simple answer, because to me, it doesn't seem that astonishing. We are just a family. Or an entire basketball team. God has blessed us with both the joy and the responsibility of a large family and set us on an incredible journey. Read along and join us...