We were digging through some boxes of memorabilia recently, looking for my high-school diploma (so I could mail a copy to our county school superintendent and prove that I’m qualified to homeschool my daughter). I had not looked through most of that stuff since I put it away in the boxes, probably seven or eight years ago. Do you ever do that, bring the boxes up from the basement or down from the closet shelf and go through them, just to see what you deemed worthy of storing carefully away? It’s a trip, man.

Among other things, I had stored a piano jewelry/music box that my grandparents gave me when I was about Annalie’s age and an old toy that belonged to me and my brother when we were little, a wind-up “radio” that plays Hickory-Dickory Dock. I pulled them out and gave them to Annalie to play with, and she carried them both around all day. At one point she took a snack and lemonade with her out to the deck and sat out there chilling to her tunes for about 20 minutes. I couldn’t help but laugh, because it was for that very reason that I kept all these things: so someday I could share them to my kids.

Some of the other stuff I had packed neatly away were the photo of my graduating class from Omaha North High; Minnie Mouse ears from Disneyland with my name embroidered on the back; old trophies from bowling leagues, summer music olympics, and spelling bees; an old blankie, soft with age; 45s that I used to play on my Fisher-Price record player—Neil Diamond, the theme from Greatest American Hero, and of course Billy Bob and the Rockafire Explosion (Showbiz Pizza’s animatronic band); the tooth fairy pillow my mom made for me when I started losing teeth; and an unopened bottle of Crystal Pepsi.

Yeah, I said Crystal Pepsi. Anyone remember that? Some of you reading were probably barely in kindergarten when it was around in the early 90s. I rather liked the stuff; as I recall it tasted vaguely cinnamon-y. I don’t know exactly why I saved a bottle of it. Maybe when they stopped making it I just thought it would be cool to keep one for posterity.

Probably the best thing I came across, though, was a stash of old notes from my friend Erin. This note starts out, “Dearest Bethany, I love this pen. This pen belongs to Eboni X. Carter. This pen is awesome as is Eboni…” That’s pretty typical of the notes Erin used to (and still does!) write me. I had fun reading all these old notes and cracking up at how goofy we were in high school, and how little we’ve changed since then.

All the pins in that photo used to live on my bedroom curtains, along with a dozen more that I didn’t deem worthy of keeping. The Russian pins at the top left and the bottom middle are from Russian students who did an exchange with our high school every year. My high school’s sister school was in Pskov, Russia, and students from our school would go to Pskov for a month and attend school with host students, and then later the Russian students would come to Omaha and attend our school. Too bad I didn’t start taking Russian till I was a junior, because only 3rd- and 4th-year students (like Katrina) got to do the exchange program. The Little Mermaid pin was a gift from Erin on my 16th birthday, because I was very into The Little Mermaid back then. The other pins are from old jobs (Children’s Museum and Library Page), my high school (V-Up, North Vikings!) and the Omaha zoo. The stripey rock is just a pretty rock I found by the Missouri River in Dodge Park one day. I gave that to Annalie, too, for her rock collection.

We never did find my high-school diploma. I guess I’ll have to call my high school and see if they can send me a copy. But I don’t really care, because we had fun looking for it!

My friend Kassie wrote a blog post the other day about how much fun it’s been for her and Joe to hang out with some of their preteen and teenage relatives recently, which has reaffirmed their decision to have kids. She asked any parents reading her post to share the good stuff about having kids. I left a mile-long comment sharing my thoughts, and Kassie told me I should make it into its own blog post. Voila.

Before I share my parental dirt, let me say this: Of course whether or not to have kids is an intensely personal decision, and I firmly believe that anyone who doesn’t want kids should NOT have them. That said, and knowing and loving you and Joe as I do, I think you will be some of the best parents any kid could ask for, and that your kids will probably be some of the coolest, smartest, kindest, most fun people to ever walk the planet.

(Note that this is probably the corniest you will ever hear me get. I’m done now.)

(Italicized portion was originally a comment on the post Breeders at Bravely Obey.)

Outside my window the sky is a weird orange color, thanks to the thunderstorms that have been moving through our area all afternoon and evening. It’s rather beautiful.

I am thinking about baby names, but not so obsessively any more. Troy and I have narrowed the list down to a handful of possibilities and we’ll roll those around in our minds for a while.

(Thank you, by the way, for all of you who commented with your favorite girls’ names. My goodness, we all certainly do like talking about names, don’t we? And I learned, from reading all your suggestions, that I have a complicated system of rules for naming my children that I wasn’t even aware of having. Which maybe explains why I was going so crazy for a while there.)

I am thankful for perspective, which makes my life so much less difficult than it otherwise might seem.

I am wearing a Gallifrey t-shirt and Wal-Mart maternity shorts that I purchased in 2004. (First person to know what Gallifrey is wins a crocheted coffee-cup cozy.)

I am remembering how uncomfortable all these baby kicks can be. I’m thankful that the baby is active and healthy, blah blah. But I can honestly say that once this kid is born I won’t miss all the internal pummeling one little bit.

I am going to California in 18 days! Yay!

I am currently reading an issue of Touchstone Magazine.

I am hoping that I can figure out this whole homeschooling-a-first-grader thing without going crazy or scarring me or Annalie for life. (Pretty confident I can. Just, y’know…fingers crossed.)

On my mind: the movie Inception, which I’ve heard praised to the skies from so many different quarters that I think it’s impossible I won’t be underwhelmed by it. I’m still avoiding spoilers, though.

Noticing that Annalie has probably been watching too much TV lately. But I like my midday naps, so for now I’ll let it slide.

In the kitchen there are a few cookies left. I’m trying to ignore their siren call.

Around the house is plenty of evidence in every single room that a 6-year-old girl lives here. My attempts to have her clean up after herself are failing to keep pace with her ability to spread her belongings about.

One of my favorite things is the color of the yarn I’m using to crochet this baby her own cuddle blanket—sort of a pale yellow-green.

From my photo archive: this photo of Annalie was taken in March 2007, when she was two months shy of her third birthday. I’m very interested to see if the baby will look as much like Annalie as I look like my brother.

Post inspired by Beck.