So this weeks is a little, shall we say, heavy.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t plan for it to be that way, but it must have been my general point of view this week as those are the posts that I highlighted for this list.  I’m sorry it’s not more upbeat.  And it’s not terribly long either.  Gee, I’m just full of excuses this week, aren’t I?  Well, I’m still living out of a suitcase at my in-law’s house and on this particular morning I was woken up slightly after 5:30 am, not by my demon child but by DOGS and I think that’s just awful.  I’m pretty sure I should go fix myself some coffee or something but I can’t really wrap my brain around it at the moment.  I figure I’m pretty lucky to just be AWAKE.  I’ll work on alert later.

• Tim Russert Dead at 58 from MamaPop.  I literally gasped.  How can this be? He’s so YOUNG.  He’s so… smart.  Tim Russert is, was, an institution in this country.   This is an amazing loss.   For everyone.  I can’t imagine the rest of the campaign without him.  Watching the tributes on TV never fails to bring a tear to my eye.   All that aside, I can’t believe the first place I heard about this was MamaPop.  What does that say about my blog addiction?
  
• wednesday from matt, liz and madeline.  Here’s another blog that was just brought to my attention this week.  And, oh my stars, how SAD.  Yet, how amazing.  The background is unfathomable (read through the archives to get the story).  I find myself glued to updates.  Shoot, anyone who attempts a cross country trip with a two month old gets points in my book.  But the extenuating circumstances are what make this guy father of the year as far as I’m concerned.
  
• Biscuit’s birth story from Compartment 14B.  Yay for Shawna!  And a picture!  Any birth story that includes a picture is aces and what a birght patch in my little links list this week!  Thanks for sharing your story, Shawna.  Welcome, little Biscuit!
  
• Broken from Rancid Raves.  Oh, how I hate to see a friend hurting.  I imagine that’s a lot of how Cagey is feeling, actually.  My heart goes out to her and to her friend.  
  
• (title unknown) from amalah . com.  Speaking of my heart going out to someone… Amy got news this week that her father suffered a bad fall and was in the ICU.  Like any of us would do, she hopped in the car with her child and beat a hasty to get to his side.  One of those heart-stopping moments in life where life slows down and speeds up all at the same time.  My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family as her dad recovers. 
  
• Five from loraleeslooneytunes.com.  It’s the pictures that got to me.  Seeing Loralee pregnant and excited, seeing that wrinkly newborn face, all full of promise… It should have been his fifth birthday this week.  And instead, his life was cut short.  So unfair.  Such a thing shouldn’t happen to babies, to children.  To US, as parents.  My heart goes out to her.

Well.  Like I said, it’s a little on the depressing side.  I’m sorry for that, but it doesn’t make these blogs and these posts any less noteworthy.  These are IMPORTANT posts that deserve attention.  I do wish I had more cheerful stories to balance the melancholy, but I had a heck of a time keeping up with blog reading this week (STILL behind) and the mere fact that I had links at all is rather impressive.

So I tell you what.  Let’s have a great weekend, all of us.  Let’s all go do something that makes us laugh, that let’s us let the sun shine into our lives and we’ll hope for happier stories in the week ahead.  Sound like a plan?