Admission...

In my first post in, well, over a month, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I have become a fan of The Office. In fact, I'm watching it right now online (it's a commercial). I'm not quite sure why I like this show now, but I do. In fact, I'm hooked.

In other exciting news, Costco has watermelon again and I love it. I've just decided I can buy watermelon anywhere else.

Pretty exciting right?

Girls!

Here are the girls, pretending to have babies in their tummies! My friend, Emily, sent an email the other day out about her life with 3 boys...superheros, swords, super powers, etc. It sure is different with girls! Babies, princesses, house...it's very girly around here!

Pictures

My friend, Laurel, took some picures of us a couple weeks ago. She did an amazing job. I'll post a few of them...her website is laurelphotography.com.

In other exciting news, I'm a soon-to-be aunt! Yeah! Maggie and Jordan are having a little boy. Quinn is really excited to have a cousin. We have a family tradition where we throw a party to announce the baby's gender. I don't think we have a consensus on what to call this event. I like my father-in-law's name - the Great Hat Party (because we wear boy party hats if we think it's going to be a boy, and girl party hats if we think it will be a girl). I think we've also referred to it as the Coming Out Party (not my fave!) and the Sex Party (referring of course to the gender and not the creation of the baby...ha ha...is that inappropriate?!).

Ok, it won't let me post any more pictures. I'll have to upload them later.

I Heart Obama

Barack Obama makes me tear up sometimes.

Yes, Hillary kind of debates better. Yes, McCain has a million more years of experience. But I seriously welled up at one of Obama's speeches, and I think that counts for something.

I frankly am tired of having to choose between what I personally consider mediocre options (i.e., Gore/Bush, Kerry/Bush). Shouldn't a leader be inspiring?

I love that this somewhat obscure man could stand a chance against the McCain/Clinton political machines. I find him quite respectful and humble, and in spite of his excessive use of "that" in his book, I have enjoyed reading a more honest and complex view of the political landscape, rather than the rhetoric we usually hear.

I certainly don't agree with either side of the aisle completely, but I really like him.

Now...if it's Clinton and McCain, I'm in trouble.

As a side note, I really think they should have squiggly lines in these blogging boxes to tell you when you misspell a word. Don't you?

That...

So my reporter brother, aka the next Matt Lauer, mentioned to me a few months back that his professors in college discouraged using the word "THAT." My mom agreed and said her grad school professors said the same thing.

Well, I'm a little bit of a grammar junkie. As I contemplated this most important topic, I decided (that?) I agreed with this advice and began eliminating my usage of "THAT" whenever possible.

But...I just read a book (I happened to be editing it actually) and deleted the vast majority of "THATs." Out they go!! Now I'm reading Barack Obama's book (The Audacity of Hope). There are THATs all over the place. It's rather distracting, really. Frankly, it is detracting from my reading experience.

I'm still not sure it is correct to banish THATs so liberally. So, I have set out to find the answer. Are you ready?

It looks like "THAT" is a relative pronoun. These link clauses together, for instance: I'm wearing the coat that I bought at the store. In English, if the relative pronoun is not the subject you are allowed to not use it. This is called a "zero relative pronoun." (See http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/grammarlogs2/grammarlogs361.htm)

Therefore, I say we do away with a lot of our THATs. They make things far too wordy for me.

Life with a Blog

So I finally put some links up to other blogs, but I really want a cool blog. I am so behind! I guess I have to make some little graphics and pictures to stick on here. I'm not sure I'm buying into this whole blog thing yet though...what is the point exactly??

I do love reading some of my friends' blogs, but I'm not sure the Mallory household has too much exciting to talk about.

Well, I'll try to make this cute and try to make it semi-interesting to read...later.

My Girlies

Aren't these the cutest girls you've ever seen?

Quinn & I went to the pumkin patch for preschool. We took a tractor ride and had to yell, "C'mon Betsy" for it to start. (Betsy is the tractor's name, of course.) We had a nice day together. It was a huge bonus that pumkins are orange. I love orange.

Here's Anna posing for the camera, as she likes to do often. She thinks she's big enough to do whatever Quinn does...sit (or stand) on the chairs at the table, sleep in Quinn's bed, etc. Basically if Quinn is doing it, by default Anna wants to do it.