The new president is who I voted for: Barack Obama! Last night, before any results were in, I jokingly told my kids that if McCain were elected, we’d be moving to Canada. They weren’t thrilled with the idea, and honestly, neither was I. But today, we’re all relieved. I truly believe this country can turn around. It may take a few years to recover from Bush’s shenanigans, but it will get done. I have faith in our new President-elect.

I will say, though, it disappoints me to see some of the reactions from McCain supporters. I expected the general public to be a bit more mature than to throw “temper tantrums” over the results. Pouting and complaining won’t change anything—they need to grow up, accept the outcome, and support our new chief.

Since rehoming Maizy due to health issues that were beyond my financial means, we’ve welcomed a new St. Bernard puppy: Ludo. He’s doing well with his kennel training—he stayed in there all night last night and only woke me up once! He still needs work on housebreaking, but that’s normal for a pup his age and with his lack of self-control. I know we’ll get there. The boys absolutely adore him, and I’ve told them that as long as they aren’t hurting him, they can interact with him within reason. I want him used to their rough-and-tumble ways so he’ll tolerate it when he grows into the giant he’s destined to be.

Andy has been in a special reading program and speech therapy this school year. As of his conference last week, he’s officially graduated from both! He’s pronouncing all of his sounds properly and only needs a little work on grammar now. He’s reading very well—in fact, he even reads my chats and blogs as I type them when I let him.

His teacher mentioned he should be evaluated for attention deficit because he sometimes struggles to stay on task. But looking at his doodles and the type of homework he’s given, I honestly think boredom is the real culprit. He’s advanced in math—the 1st-grade curriculum only adds and subtracts up to sums of 12, but Andy can add up to 30, 50, or even higher. If staying on task continues to be an issue, I plan to talk with his teacher about giving him more challenging work to keep him engaged.

This is a true account written in my own words during the time it happened. I’ve lightly edited it for clarity in the present day (2026), with minimal exclusions, while keeping the original voice and meaning intact.