Yesterday as we were driving to swim practice, Ella asked me, "Mom, what do you like least about marrying?"  I thought to myself, "What a strange thing for her to ask."  You see, I had heard: "What do you like least about Mary?"  I have in my car, on the dashboard, a picture of a young Mary holding the baby Jesus, so I assumed she was looking at the picture and talking about Mary.  I replied, "Girl, if you think I'm gonna start talking smack about her, you crazy.  I'm not saying anything bad about Jesus' mom."  Ella's silence and subsequent "What!" quickly led me to realize that I had misunderstood her.  She repeated her question--I didn't find it appreciably less odd than what I had heard the first time. Nonetheless, I contemplated her question for a minute and answered, "Well, the thing I like least about marriage is that sometimes I have to do things someone else wants to do, even if I don't want to do them.  I have to compromise sometimes, and mommy doesn't like to compromise."  I didn't think our dialogue could get a whole lot stranger until Ella replied: "Hmm, that's odd.  I would think you'd have said something like 'all those guys I'm missing out on.'  Yep, that's what I think is gonna be hard for me.  I mean, all these guys are out there, but you promised to be with only one of them.  That's gotta be so hard."

As Daniel was tucking Jude in last night, a thunderstorm was in full force.  Daniel kissed Jude and hugged him.  Jude said, "Goodnight, Daddy.  I don't want to get dead from the thunder tonight.  But some things I want to be dead, like fish, because I like to eat fish.  And bad guys, I want them to be dead, and the devil. But not the government because the government tells us everything to do.  What is government anyway?"