December Pre-Christmas Miscellany

(Blogger HATES me. I have been trying to post this for the past three days, and I have had trouble loading the pictures, then blogger converted this entire post into HTML code. Because that's easy to read. Mad props to my brother John for fixing my sad, broken blog.)

I loaded a bunch of pictures from my camera onto the computer from this month, and I wanted to get 'em on the blog before Christmas comes and I have another 2000 pictures to cull through.

We've had a fun month. The boys both finished up their flag football season. They LOVE football right now. Every day when they get off the bus, they head straight to the backdoor for "training" in the backyard with their football and cleats. (I looked out the window yesterday to see that Aidan was training in only his new pair of boxer-briefs. He's pretty sure they're shorts.)

These pictures are from his football game a few weeks ago when Aidan was perfecting the art of falling face-first into the dirt on every play, even on the plays where he never came into contact with another human being.

He's a bit moody. These pictures were taken in about a 30 second time span.

I love this kid. So much.

After the last game, we headed over to our subdivision's brand-spankin' new clubhouse for a Grand Opening/Open House thing. Our previous clubhouse was destroyed in Hurricane Ike, and now, 3+ years later, it has been rebuilt. They must have used our contractor. We enjoyed eating dinner, meeting a bunch of our neighbors for the first time, and feeding inappropriate amounts of sugar cookies to the kids. We saw the new pool, work out facility, and the kiddos bounced around in a Moonwalk that had been rented for the event.

In hindsight, it should have occurred to us to maybe not stick our kids in a Moonwalk right after stuffing themselves with bright red sugar cookies, at a party where we really didn't know anyone. Sure enough, after a few minutes of bouncing, Harper climbed out of the Moonwalk and into my arms. I think she was actually hugging my neck when she vomited red sugar cookies all over my arm. I realized at that moment that vomit from the fourth child is less "Oh no, my poor baby is sick! We must call the pediatrician for an emergency visit!" and more "Did any of it get on my shoes?" I cleaned myself off, wiped her down with a couple of baby wipes, and commenced with the party. We pulled our kids out of the Moonwalk, and met a few more neighbors.

We talked schools and churches and jobs, and things neighbors discuss when no one knows each other very well. About an hour later, after helping clean up the party and break down tables, we loaded up in the van to head home. That's when I realized I still had a few chunks of red sugar cookie vomit on my jeans. Of course. Just the first impression I had hoped to make with neighbors. "Hi, I'm Mandy. Yes, I have four children. Yes, in fact, I do have my hands full and it is never a dull moment. Oh, and that? Just some vomit chunks from my youngest daughter that I decided to leave on my pants for a while. No, she's not sick. Just jumped around a little too much after eating half of that box of red santa sugar cookies. Hey, weren't we supposed to bring homemade cookies to this thing? Oh, you brought the store-bought santa sugar cookies? My daughter thought they were delicious.

My facebook friends already know about this, but Aidan made a cute little handprint ornament at school last week. It was made of some sort of soft squishy clay/playdoh substance, and Brandon came in the room to find Harper EATING the ornament. Like, she took more than just one bite out of it. My daughter ate a Christmas ornament. What. On. Earth.

She was disciplined, and the ornament was returned to the tree, out of Harper's reach this time. The next morning, we awoke to find her eating the ornament again. I promise we feed her real food, that we are not starving our precious children. This one just eats weird stuff.

Speaking of Harper, Brandon sent me this picture the other day while I was at work.

He had gotten the girls ready for school, and Harper had requested "special hair". I think Hot Brandon is getting pretty good at fixing little girl hair. :)

The girls had a Christmas program at their preschool earlier this month. In hindsight, I have no idea what they did. I'm sure it involved some sort of singing/hand motions set to Christmas music. I do remember afterwards, seeing Emerson goof around with a couple of her sweet school buddies who go to church with us:

Brandon and Emerson had a date on Monday, and they went out for Chinese food for lunch.

Brandon told me later that when they put the food on the table, Emerson immediately grabbed the chopsticks and popped a pork dumpling in her mouth! Somewhere in her brain, she remembers how to use chopsticks. (Brandon had painted her face like a bunny at the Children's Museum before lunch.) Emerson made him take this picture of her outside of the Children's Museum:

I have a few "Dane stories" too, but I will try to post about his birthday weekend at some point, if Blogger lets me!

Rambling Woman Needs Coffee. And Maybe A Topic.

I feel like I should post something.

Something.

Anything.

Even if I got nothin.

NOTHING.

If for no other reason, than to just get back into the bloggy-swing of things. I miss blogging, and I think the month of August will bring with it lots of memories, photo ops, and hopefully very few opportunities for complete destructiveness of person and property by a certain two year old little girl.

I reminded Brandon again yesterday that I needed him to blog a bit about his Kenya trip, since, you know, I WASN'T ON IT. It's been a bit delayed because I have been parusing about 4000 pictures taken by other people on the trip, that have since been posted to Facebook.

I've been working quite a bit, and work has been going fabulous. As in, I haven't been this happy at work EVER, kind of fabulous. As in, I have to stop and think for several minutes to come up with a single negative thing about work right now. Smart doctors. Friendly nurses. Nicer than usual patients. Sonic ice in the ice machine. Free coffee. A good boss. Air conditioner set to 72. An ambulance company brought us carrot cake cupcakes the other day. It's like I'm working in a mythical emergency room, that you hear about but doesn't really exist.

We decided where we're going on our Family Roadtrip Vacation next month, and I'm pretty excited about getting out of town for a bit. Hopefully the kids will have a great time. It's a lot of time on the road, and I'm hoping that the lasting memory my kids have of this trip is not all the time they spent playing Nintendo DS in the back of the van.

I feel this is the opportune time to share with you a few random, blurry, overexposed pictures of my children on a swing set:

I'm sure this is enriching your day as much as it is enriching mine.

You thought I was kidding when I said "I got nothing." I wasn't.

I'm pretty sure, between the six of us, that we have spent more time in doctor's offices than outside this summer. And I shudder to think of the money we have spent on doctors, copays, and prescriptions. There's a certain opthamologist taking his kids to Disney World because of us. We've had corneal transplants, rabies vaccinations, a very sick Harper girl, 4 well child visits, and dentist appointments. Next week Aidan has to go in to get a "sugar bug cavity" filled at the dentist with Brandon while I am at work. He's getting laughing gas for the procedure, and I am very nervous about how it will go. Will he freak out at the laughing gas and refuse to wear the mask? Will he scream when he gets the numbing medicine? Will Brandon have to hold him down? Will he freak out when he hears the drill? Say a little prayer for the A-Man on Tuesday!

We've redone the kids' rooms a bit, and I keep wanting to post "before and after" pictures, but they're just not finished yet. We still need to get a few things up on the boys' walls, and just when I thought I had finished the girls' room, Harper ripped the curtain rod out of the wall and pulled some of the cute decorations off the wall, some of which we still can't find. How does one lose a big, pink glittery "E"? One day it was on the wall over Emerson's bed, the next day it was gone. Gone. Not on the floor, not behind the bed, not in the closet. It appears to have vanished completely. Hopefully sometime before summer is over I will FINALLY finish these rooms that I started working on sometime in June.

Maybe I can post "before and almost-finished" pictures.

What's Going On?

I haven't blogged in a while.

I don't know what's happened, but I think it has something to do with:

1. It's summer.

2. Four children are now at home every day, and they think I am their cruise ship director.

3. Harper climbs out of her crib and comes downstairs every morning at approximately 5:56am, on a good day, greatly cutting into my "sit at the computer with my coffee" time.

We've been busy little bees around here, and summer is already kicking my hind-quarters. I was unprepared for the schedule upheaval the month of June has brought. Brandon and I went out of town for a few days, and returned to a heavy work week for both of us. Throw in swim practices, babysitters, rabies vaccinations (still), a wicked toothache, and a couple of kids with fever, and you can kind of understand why blogging has taken the backseat lately.

And did I mention that we're only about 3 weeks in to summer, and I'm ready for school to be back in session? Dane and Aidan have developed a love/"I'm going to try to kill you or just maim you really bad" attitude toward each other as of late, and it's giving me glimpses into our future 10 years from now. The other day Dane came running in the room crying and sobbing, pointing to an already-nasty-looking bruise on his hip, reporting "All I did was punch him three times in the stomach and he threw me into the wall!" Meanwhile, Aidan, in the other room, is screaming "HE WAS TRYING TO KILL ME!" Apparently, this is what happens when I task my boys with hanging their clean clothes up in the closet. MAYHEM, PEOPLE.

Aidan and Emerson had their last soccer games of the season last Saturday. I, as I have been the past few weeks, was with Dane at his swim meet, while Brandon took the other three kids to the soccer fields. Emerson came home boasting about her "medal and trophy and Emerson pizza, no Harper pizza." And Aidan declared the season a success, finally winning "the big trophy".

I had every intention of posting a picture of Emerson and Aidan at the soccer field with their trophies, but it is now creeping precariously close to my bedtime, and I am just too lazy at the moment to transfer the picture from Brandon's phone to Mac, edit it, then post it to the blog. Picture an unkempt-looking Emmy with hair in her eyes, and a red-faced Aidan, both smiling proudly with their new trophies.

When we weren't breaking up wrestling matches in the closet, shuttling kids to athletic activities, or subjecting ourselves to multiple series of rabies vaccinations, we were finalizing preparations to send Brandon off to Kenya. Brandon left Monday evening for Kenya, where he is leading a group of students on a trip to visit and work with a missionary team we support. He'll be back in 16 short days. You can follow along for updates on our church's mission blog, though updates may be short and sporadic due to iffy internet connections. Please pray for Hot Brandon and the rest of the group that are in Kenya this month. And while you're at it, a prayer would not be wasted on the wrestle brothers or their non-sleeping sisters. Or their mother.

And while the husband is gone, the wife will play. Words with Friends, that is. Brandon left his droid with me, and I have found out just how addicting WWF is to play. I may have to get a smart phone just so I can play Words with Friends.

And completely unrelated to any of the above unrelated tidbits of information, I love checking out my blog stats. Someone googled "heartwarming father's day stories" and instead were probably directed to this unfortunate story involving little boys and public bathrooms. I hope it warmed your heart.

Rattling Around

I feel like I need to blog something so I can quit staring at that red dresser every time I open my page.

But the problem is, I got nothing. No funny kid stories, no cute pictures of Emerson, nothing. But there's a couple of things rattling around my brain this week...

I pray that I will never rejoice, throw parties because of, or dance in the streets at the news of the death of a human being.

I'm only slightly embarrassed at how much I enjoyed all of the news coverage on the royal wedding. I loved seeing the pretty dresses, the horse-drawn carriages, and the prince wearing the fancy Nutcracker uniform. And I SO want just one occasion to wear a ridiculous looking hat in public.

Emerson will be four years old in less than a month, and I have been busily planning her birthday party. I realize that for some people, party planning for their child's birthday celebration involves themes, crafts, elaborate menus, and someone dressed as a clown. In our house, it involves renting a moonwalk and sending out a few invitations. We're very fancy 'round these parts, and have realized over the last several years that my children care not one iota about if the snacks are color-coordinated with a party theme. The kids just want to have fun with their friends.

Swim team practice has started, and at 5:00-6:15 Monday through Friday, it is consuming our evenings. I could use some good crock pot dinner recipes, since no cooking is happening these days. Anyone have any crock pot recipes to share? I know there's a bunch of these recipes on the internet, but googling "crock pot recipes" is just as overwhelming as the whole "drawer pull scenario". Too many to look at and weed through.

Speaking of swim team, Aidan shared with me on the way home the other day, "You know, Mom? Most of the swim team guys, they just pee in their swim shorts. Like today, I just walked around the pool, just peeing." I'm pretty sure most of the swim team guys don't pee in their shorts outside of the pool, A-man.

What's rattling around in your brain these days?

Weekly Recap?

Has it really been a week since I have last posted? I don't know where I've been, the days just seem to run together lately, and at the end of a day I can barely tell you what I've done all day. Hopefully I will get things back on track over the holiday season.

Which, hello? I'm so glad is here. I love, love, love this time of year, and I have a new goal of keeping my kids focused off of "all the gifts they want", and focused more on giving to others who have far less than they, and being thankful for their blessings. And Brandon seems to have more time to spend at home with us this time of year. So YAY for November and December.

Anyway, for the week that seemingly disappeared from the calender...

Sunday morning my mom came down for a few days to gift me with a few hours of sanity on Sunday evening and Monday. I don't think I've had more "grown up" time in a while than I did last weekend. It was marvelous. We also took the opportunity to make the first, but not last, batch of Pumpkin Spice Muffins/Cupcakes of the year. Call them muffins, and they're breakfast, throw some cream cheese icing on top, and they become cupcakes for dessert. Or cupcakes for breakfast. I won't judge you.

Sunday evening Brandon and I enjoyed a lovely evening with some of our youth leaders, sitting and snacking, and solving the world's problems. Then we came home and opened the window in our bedroom just a smidge and slept under the down comforter while the glorious fall air provided nature's air conditioning. LOVE this weather.

Monday I escaped for a few hours to get some errands done all by myself, while my mom was home with the kids. I tried to purposefully find things to do that are especially hard with children in tow. Go to the DMV and get a new registration sticker for the van since mine expired in September 2009. A little Christmas shopping. A haircut. Speaking of haircut, I usually get a haircut at a certain salon, and the girls that cut my hair keep leaving the salon. The past three visits, I have ended up with a new hair-cutter because the previous one has left the company. I am the kiss of death there. Even the guy that used to do my highlights back when I was a blonde is currently pursuing other career options. Argh! (I apologize if I offended anyone that works at a salon. I am sure there is a "technical term" for the girl that cuts hair, I just can't for the life of me remember what it is right now.)

Anyway, back to the haircut with the new girl. I never know exactly how to tell someone to cut my hair, I just tell them to put lots of layers in and just keep choppin' away, but no layers above my chin because I still have to be able to sport a ponytail in a pinch. WHICH I TOLD THIS NEW GIRL. Long story short, I ended up with "mock bangs", which, when she had finished styling my hair, were about cheekbone-length and completely obscured my right eye. Apparently "it's very trendy now".

Excuse me, miss? I am a 32 year old mother of four children age 6 and under. I actually drive a mini-van and watch 5 year olds play soccer on Saturdays. When I'm not doing that, I work at a hospital and clean up poop sometimes. Off of adults. All of which I shared with you over the last 20 minutes because you INSISTED on chatting instead of letting me read my Good Housekeeping magazine from July 2009. What part of this picture suggests that I am interested in a "trendy" haircut? A haircut that completely obscures my field of vision in my right eye? A haircut that is DEFINITELY shorter than my chin? Am I really getting mistaken for being trendy? Do I need to pull out my tapered-leg jeans from 1997 and prove you otherwise?

On to Tuesday. Tuesday I went to work and cleaned poop off of adults while my mom stayed home with the kids. I probably had the easier day.

I have no idea what happened to Wednesday. It appears to have vanished into the abyss. Oh! Wait! I remember now...Wednesday will forever be known as The Day I Discovered The Gingerbread Latte. And today I am thankful for the gift cards that will pay for my new weekly coffee-type drink indulgence. I mentioned the Gingerbread Latte to my dad, and he promptly declared it to be "the grossest thing he has ever heard of."

Um, dad? When cleaning poop is part of your job description, a Gingerbread Latte is definitely not the grossest thing you have ever heard of.

I will have to save Thursday and Friday for another day, because, frankly, it involves kids and pictures and cuteness, and those things would clearly be out of place in this little post.

And it would mean editing pictures, which I am entirely too tired to do right now.

Weekend Recap in Bullets

--I worked a night shift Thursday night in the ER, and slept half the day on Friday recovering.

--I woke up on Friday, and dragged my cranky, sleep-deprived body to the grocery store so that my family would have something to eat for dinner other than mustard and popsicles.

--Cooked dinner for a friend of mine who just had a baby, including a yummy chocolate cake. Brandon begged me to take the cake to her "precut and arranged on a plate" so that we could sample a couple of pieces without being obvious. DENIED.

--Came home and made another chocolate cake just for us because the first one smelled so good.

--Woke up Saturday morning and headed to the ER for a day of fun trauma and also a few sick people. Saw not one, but two shiny skulls belonging to people who flat out refuse to wear helmets when riding 4-wheelers and motorcycles. My post-lunch activities included irrigating grass and dirt off of (a large portion of) someone else's skull while he took self-portraits of the process with his i-phone. Meanwhile, Brandon was wrestling with all four kids solo to soccer and flag football activities. I'm still not sure who had the easier day.

--Saturday night I ate Blue Bell Southern Blackberry Cobbler ice cream for dinner. Yes ma'am.

--Sunday morning Brandon went to church early, and I had to get all 4 kids and myself ready for church on time. While I was upstairs fixing my hair, apparently Aidan had some "bathroom time", and took wiping duties upon himself. Yes, my 5 year old still needs help in the wiping department. He is a boy.

So.

Fast-forward to 20 minutes later, we are in the church parking lot, and I look in the rear-view mirror to find Aidan naked from the waist down, trying to convince me IN THE CHURCH PARKING LOT that he needed new undies. Not an option, kiddo, PANTS UP NOW. Once we were inside, Brandon got recruited to take Aidan to the bathroom before class and check out the underwear situation. Brandon sits down next to me at church, leans over during the first song, and whispers to me that the underwear situation was worse than feared, and the beloved Spiderman undies had to be thrown away. Another first for our family, Aidan went commando through an entire morning of church.

I so wish parts of my life were made up.

--Sunday morning was Baby Dedication at our church, and Emerson was dedicated and thus got to sit with us in big church for a few minutes before going to her 3's class. The highlight of my morning was when Emerson saw a baptism video on the screens during church and pointed and shouted loudly "Daddy! Daddy!" when she saw Brandon baptizing one of his students. I'm pretty sure every single person in the room heard her.

--For Baby Dedication, the families are treated to a baby Bible, family picture, CD of lullaby music, and a handmade quilt made by our wonderful quilting ministry. Because heaven forbid I actually go upstairs, take a picture of the quilt, and post it tonight, I will just describe it instead. It is bright purple, blue, and green, and has a little patch that says "For this child I have prayed", along with the name of the lady that made the quilt for her. As someone who takes the pants to the dry cleaners to have a button sewn back on when it falls off, I appreciate this quilt and the effort and love that went into it so much. These ladies spend so much time making these quilts for all of the babies, and each one of them are prayed over. Emerson loves it, and is sleeping under it as we speak. And by "sleeping", I mean "babbling in Mandarin and whining a little bit".

--Sunday afternoons, Brandon plays soccer with some friends from church, and takes the boys with him to run around and mooch snacks off of other moms while he plays. About 5 minutes after he was supposed to have left, we discovered that I hadn't washed his soccer jersey from last week, so he dug it out of the laundry basket and went to his game smelling like grass, last week's sweat, and Windex. Laundry: 1. Mandy: 0.

--Sunday dinner: last piece of chocolate cake that Brandon ate half of and cut the other half into a heart before giving it to me, presumably so that I wouldn't be ticked about having to share it.

So, what was your weekend like? Did anyone else skip entire meals in favor of dessert only? Go commando in preschool Bible class? Pick debris from an exposed skull? Do tell.

Oy, Vey.

These past couple of weeks have been doozies. I have been working lots of shifts, consecutive days in a row, which never bodes well for my laundry or my sanity. And most of these shifts have ended at 11pm. Oy vey.


Lack of sleep=very random blog post.

I miss the days when I only worked 2 days a week and got to stay home with the kiddos the rest of the time. Summer has started off with a bang, that's for sure. Some fun things our family has been doing otherwise:

Aidan, Harper and I met up with Aunt Val, Joel, and baby Uriah for a little blackberry picking a couple of weeks ago. We instantly went home and baked up Pioneer Woman's blackberry cobbler while Val got caught up on her Glee watching and became a bonafied Gleek in the process. If you've never made this blackberry cobbler, please make it. Now. And if you've never seen Glee, please start watching it from the beginning of the season. Now. I'm mourning the ending of the TV season, and I need something else to watch over the summer other than The Little Couple on TLC. Any suggestions? And for those of you who are worried about me, I am fine, thank you. I'll admit it took me a couple of weeks to come to terms with Law and Order (the original) ending its' run, but I have mourned and accepted the reality of a lifetime of watching sub-par crime dramas.

Swim meets are winding down for the season, and unfortunately, Aidan won't be getting a trophy this year. To get a trophy at the end-of-season banquet, the kids have to swim in at least one race in one meet. Which means that Aidan would have to make it across the pool without a coach, and he's just no where close yet. One more year for A-man's swim trophy. Dane has mastered the backstroke this year, and has come in first place several times. His version of the backstroke involves floating on his back and kicking his legs with his arms by his side until his head hits the other end of the pool. He's surprisingly fast, and is convinced that using his arms to swim will only slow him down.

Brandon preached over Memorial Day weekend, and knocked it out of the park. Check out our church's website to listen. And yes, I am still blogging about things that happened 2 weeks ago. Oy vey.

Brandon and I figured a 10 year anniversary was enough of a reason to warrant a Date Night, and went to Cheesecake Factory and was reminded when the check came why we never go to Cheesecake Factory. We each got a drink, an appetizer, and a dessert, and the bill was $66. Having a $50 gift card made it a little easier to swallow, but that much money for an un-spectacular meal is more than a little ridiculous. In honor of our pre-marriage dating years, we then loitered in Barnes and Noble for an hour or so, leaving with several books in hand. Back in the day this was one of our favorite "cheap date" activities to enjoy together. Some people take romantic vacations to exotic places to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Brandon and I go out for a gift card dinner and wander around the bookstore. And go to China.


I must admit, I am halfway looking forward to Brandon going out of town later this month simply because it will mean that I can't work as much as I have been. This mommy needs a little more sleep!

So Far Behind I May Never Catch Up

Hello there, blog. It's been 9 days, and I have missed you so. I would love to say I have missed you because I have been lying on a beach with my pedicured toes buried in the sand and my manicured hand holding something frozen with an umbrella in it, but, alas that is not the case. I have, however, spent many a long day holding hands, vomit bags, Foley catheters, IV catheters, medication, urine cups, EKG leads, CT contrast, AMBU bags, bedpans, warm blankets, wrist restraints and pretty much just working my tail off in the ER 7 of the last 9 days. I realize that this is some people's normal work schedule, but it is not mine. So between work and kids and church stuff, I. Am. Beat.

Here's what has been going on in my neck of the woods:

I co-hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine on Sunday and the entire church showed up. It was fun, because every room felt like it's own party. You could talk to people in the kitchen for a while, then move to the dining room and talk to 10 more people you hadn't seen yet. Then wander into the living room and look at cute baby stuff being passed around and talk to another 20 people. It may have only been 40 people or so, but we brought enough gifts that it just felt like the entire church was there. Harper's friend Ellie will be the best dressed little baby and have a Bumbo in every room of the house to sit in.

Dane won an award in PE yesterday. While I was helping an elderly gentleman with his catheter and hearing about how I look "just like his grand-daughter" (ew), Brandon made it through the cavity search at Dane's school security check in just in time to see him receive an end-of-year award for PE, of which only two were awarded in his class. Go Dane! And then he skipped the next 2 and a half days of school to road trip with his grandparents. We are nothing if not inconsistent.

Dane and Aidan left this morning on the first leg of their trip to Kentucky this weekend. In fact, Aidan was up at 5:30 this morning, fully dressed and ready to "ride a tractor in Kentucky". Know what's worse than Aidan being up at 5:30 in the morning? Me knowing that he is up at 5:30 in the morning. On my day off.

So Harper is alone for the next few days with her Mommy and Daddy, and I have been gently reminded that Harper is a bit high-maintenance when she doesn't have her doting brothers around. As in, she wants me to do the doting. All the time. Even when I'm folding laundry or eating dinner or in the bathroom, she has a very hard time understanding why I'm not holding her and letting her lick my chin and talk on my cell phone. I'll forgive her, only because she napped from 10:30 till 2:45 today and let me fall asleep on the couch during Law and Order, which I haven't done since Dane was a baby.

I have some more catching up to do, and several cute pictures to post, but they will have to come later on this week. But not tomorrow, because I have 12 more hours of convincing patients that no, their sunburn does not constitute a medical emergency.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring Break is here at last! My Dane has been counting down the days till Spring Break for the last several weeks. Kindergarten is just so stressful for him, he's been gazing longingly at the calender for several weeks, hoping for a brief respite from all the coloring and recess that he endures every day.

On Saturday the kids and I picked my mom up from the airport (yay! Mom is here!) and hightailed it over to a birthday party at our church playground, arriving just in time for Dane to pee on a tree in front of 30 people. Not sure that was the birthday surprise sweet Emma was hoping for. The rest of Saturday was spent frantically trying to get Brandon ready for his Mexico trip, and the second Wal-Mart trip in 2 days because we forgot to get Brandon's old-man straw hat. Oh, and cleaning up vomit. Aidan decided that to welcome my mother to town, he would projectile vomit all over the kitchen floor when I had left to run an errand. I'm just praying Brandon doesn't end up sick this week while he's gone. I'm also praying that the 30 people we played with at the playground mere hours before all the vomiting don't end up with a stomach bug either.

Brandon left on Sunday morning to take a group to Acuna, Mexico to build houses for three families that don't have any. I packed up four first aid kits, hoping and praying that most of the supplies go unused. It's a rough week if they come home with four empty bottles of Immodium.

Sunday I got in 12 hours of nice, relaxing ER work while my sweet mom stayed home with the kids and started in on a very ambitious yard work project for the week. Yeah, that's right. My mom comes to town while Brandon's gone, and in the first 2 days cleans up vomit, pulls weeds, and watches the 3 kids all day while I'm gone.

I am off work Monday and Tuesday of this week, and have been enjoying every minute of it! I did a little shopping, played Battleship with Dane till my eyes bled, helped transplant one of the bushes in my flower bed, and have scrubbed caked on dirt and mud off my little boys, only to send their clean little bodies downstairs to eat spaghetti for dinner. And for the record, the site of Harper eating spaghetti and meatballs for the first time is an image burned into my memory forever. It made the Thin Mint of 2010 eating experience look dainty and polished.

Speaking of my almost 1-year old, I have been feeling weird mom guilt lately. I take pictures of Harper all the time, and almost never take pictures of Dane and Aidan anymore. I almost feel bad for posting cute pictures of her, because I have none of the boys to share. Yet another thing for them to bring up with their future therapist. I should probably make a list so they don't forget anything.

Have a great Spring Break!

Hello, March, I'll See You Next Week

Gearing up for a busy week this week.  I'll be working either 4 or 5 ER shifts this week, so the blog may take a backseat for the next few days.  But I'm very thankful for the opportunity to work a bit extra and save a little more for the adoption.  Here's a little glimpse of a couple of things I have been doing:

--I've been plugging right along in my reading the Bible in 90 Days.  I'm about a day and a half behind right now, which is not too shabby if you ask me.  I would like to be reading a bit more "attentively", but I'm doing my best.

--Harper's walking.  Ugh.  How is she big enough to be walking?  Didn't I just bring her home from the hospital?  We finally bought a gate for the bottom of the stairs, Brandon spent the better part of 3 hours installing it, and it lasted for almost 7 days.  That's right:  my children have destroyed the stair gate already.  Harper put the nail in the coffin tonight when she ripped the gate from its' last remaining hinge and threw it on the floor.  Good greif.

--I'm embarrassingly excited that the Olympics is over so I can get back to watching The Office and Law and Order, which have been usurped by curling these last three weeks.  Really, people?  Curling?  How is that even a sport?

--Hot Brandon preached last week and knocked it out of the park, if I do say so myself.  And I say so.  I'm too tired (yes, it's only 8:52 pm) to link to his actual sermon right now, but you can follow the Northside Christian Church link on my sidebar to find it.

Have a great week!

Lazy Blogger...

I just cannot get motivated to blog lately. I have decided that my little blog needs a big makeover, so hopefully I will figure out how to do that at some point this week.

I hope everyone had a very pleasant MLK Jr. Day!

I spent the day at work in the ER trauma center in Houston on a holiday weekend, while my sweet friend Heather watched Dane, Aidan, and Harper, along with her three boys. I think I definitely had the easier day!

Dane went back to school yesterday and learned all about MLK Jr. He came home with a picture that he had colored:

Please note the bright pink hue to Dr. King's lips. Perhaps Dane thought that he, like Aidan, sometimes got into his mommy's make-up.

Please also note the black circle drawn on his chest. According to Dane, "that's the bullet hole where the light skinned person shot him. He DID NOT make a very good decision."

Lovely.

Speaking of lovely, this sweet girl has been up to all kinds of trouble lately.

Her favorite place to play is the trash can and under the kitchen sink. She will crawl over all of her toys in the room to dig a diet coke can out of the trash can and put it in her mouth. Last night I dug an empty Milk Duds box out of her mouth that she had gotten from under a couch cushion. My best guess is that it has been there since Halloween, since I don't frequent the Milk Dud aisle very often. You would think we don't feed her, that she's not a 22-pound 10 month old squeezing into size 18 month clothing, that she doesn't double-fist the baby Cheetos at every opportunity.

I can't believe she'll be a year old in just 2 months. I'm thinking of having matching birthday t-shirts made for her, me, and my mom. Harper's could be "1", mine "32" and my mom's "?".

My apologies for the stream-of-consciousness blog post. Perhaps better than no post at all?

So This is January...

I don't know about you, but so far 2010 has proven to be c.o.l.d. And apparently, I have difficulty blogging and typing and generally forming thoughts coherent enough to blog about when it's 16 degrees in HOUSTON. Houston, we have a problem. And it's called January.

So what have we been up to besides running the heater and wearing all sorts of layered shirts and warmy shoes?

--Aidan informed me the other day that "When Harper grows up she is going to be a boy." This led to another unfortunate conversation about how girls are always girls, and boys are always boys (minus the occasional confused celebrity).

--Aidan also said a prayer in his preschool class at church. Included in his prayer, was "And God please help Harper to grow up to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10 and 11 and 13 and 17 and 20."

--Brandon came home with a bowling ball (in it's own bowl) at a white elephant gift exchange that we went to last weekend. Um ,the last thing that we need in our house with our children (and their father) is a 16 pound bowling ball. I can just see it crashing through the stairs at some point. I tried to hide it from Brandon and leave it at the hostess's house last weekend, but he found it and got it in the car. Then I took it from our car, and snuck it in our worship minister's office while no one was in there.

The next day, he found it and just assumed it belonged to Brandon (where else could a random bowling ball have come from?), and returned it to him. I was putting groceries in the car a day later and found that the bowling ball had found it's way back into the trunk. So I promptly drove to another friend's house (another co-worker of Brandon's), and left it on their front porch. Again, the bowling ball appears in our car a couple of days later. Hopefully last night I got rid of the ball for good. I hosted 14 of my nearest and dearest girlfriends at my house for a night of Pokeno, and the 6th place winner went home with her very own 16 pound bowling ball (complete with bowl). Congrats, Kim! Enjoy it with gusto!

--I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions this year, but I did start something a little different. I have been needing to be more disciplined with my Bible study time, and I heard about a Read the Bible in 90 Days reading program. There's a book, and it just basically is an NIV Bible that is broken into 90 sections, and you read 12 pages a day. Starting in Genesis, finishing in Revelation. 12 pages a day, straight through, for 3 months. I'm a couple of days behind (I started on the 5th, and I meant to start on the 1st), so I'm still playing catch-up, but so far, I really like it. I figure if I can plow through Leviticus and Numbers this week on schedule (yikes--gotta be honest, not looking forward to that), then it should get better from there.

The program is not for everyone, there's no study questions, journaling, and obviously it's not an in-depth study of each verse and the context, etc. It's just plowing through the entire Bible from start to finish, but I think I'll like finishing the whole thing in 3 months. Hopefully since I've posted this on my blog, that it will provide a smidgin of accountability. I figured there's no point in making New Year's Resolutions regarding other aspects of my life if I wasn't spending the time with God that I needed to be spending.

--I haven't been working as much as I was hoping to be working right now to save up for our adoption. Shifts have been very hard to come by, since the hospitals I work with are cutting back on extra staff to save on budgets. I'm trying to not freak out about it, but it would be really nice if I could work more hours. A lot more hours.

--The boys are trucking along with school (um, Dane is learning fractions in his kindergarten math class. Yikes.) and Harper girl is as sweet as ever. Brandon went back to work this past week, and I have been working on our adoption paperwork as usual. We received our documents "certified" by the Secretary of State of Texas on Friday, and tomorrow I will mail out the rest of the certified documents to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for "authentication". Then our dossier will be (drumroll, please)...COMPLETE and I can mail it in to our agency to be sent to China. Then the ball's in their court, so to speak, and the uncertain waiting game really begins.

So, what have you been up to?

Please Excuse the Stream of Consiousness

Here's just a few more pictures from our weekend (yes, a week and a half ago) at my parents' house, and some other things we have been doing.

We made feeble attempts in the waterlogged backyard at some cousin pictures, with minimal success at best.

Dane liked posing with his MoMo

Aidan liked posing in a blue hard hat

And Zane wasn't quite sure what exactly was going on

I have been working extra hours (hello, expensive adoption whose endless paperwork I have been procrastinating) at a hospital far far away from my house, and the blog may start feeling a bit neglected over the next few weeks. I have tons of pictures of my family to weed through, and lots to write, but my "unscheduled" moments are feeling few and far between of late, and I have had minimal motivation to write on ye old blog.

Our home study has been accepted by our adoption agency (despite Aidan's best efforts during the interview. Another story for another time, because his antics are not "funny to me" yet), so the proverbial ball is officially in our court. The agency is waiting on us to complete the Endless Paperwork and Forms to submit to China, before our "wait time" actually begins. Hello, Endless Paperwork and Forms, this is the Queen of Procrastination speaking. Have we met? No? Oh, I must be putting that off in favor of watching reruns of the Duggar family visiting various themed amusement parks. I'm bound and determined to work diligently on the EPaF this weekend, in the 4 hour block of previously unscheduled time that will occur Saturday afternoon. So if you happen to see me on Facebook Saturday afternoon, please kindly chat to me to GET OFF FACEBOOK, ALREADY.

Ahem.

Remember the photo shoot I mentioned when the kids and I were up at my parents' house last July? Well, the lovely and talented Lorraine had some pictures ready for me on this past visit up. Some really cool, creative pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:

I think it's safe to say that this will be hanging in the boys' room for a long, long time. And if by some weird twist of events, my boys grow up to have arm tattoos and play in a rock band, this picture will be to blame.

Speaking of this picture, I have been wanting to go with a "Star Wars" theme for this kids' costumes this year, ever since I saw this Princess Leia costume and its side hair buns for Harper. I had high hopes for Luke Skywalker and perhaps Yoda or Darth Vader accompanying her on her first trick-or-treat. Classic, recognizable Star Wars characters of my childhood. Instead, Captain Rex and Commander Cody Star Wars Storm Troopers will push precious Princess Leia in her stroller on Halloween night. Argh. At least I get the side buns.

And speaking of pictures, Aidan had school pictures last week. Traditionally, we have completely forgotten about school pictures every year. Every year. Not wanting to break tradition, I remembered about pictures (BEFORE school this time) the morning of, and had to get Aidan changed out of his Texas Tech football jersey and into a "church shirt" (i.e., a shirt with buttons) right before leaving for school for his fall-themed school pictures.

Fall themed.

And the shirt with buttons he picked out for the fall-themed preschool picture?

Lovely. Happy fall, y'all from the glorious state of Hawaii. And don't even get me started on the shorts. That's my Aidan.

Last Saturday our little family was invited to be a part of a birthday celebration of sorts. One of our seniors, Justine, was turning 18, and is a bit of an Amazing Race fan. Her parents put together an Amazing-Race type of scavenger hunt type thing for her and her friends, and Brandon, myself and the kiddos were a "stop" along the way. We hung out at a local pumpkin patch and waited for the birthday girl with her "clue" for the next location. The boys played on the slides and posed for pictures, then enjoyed a hayride through the Christmas trees.

I cannot explain this picture. Giant hay-bale spider. Kung fu fighting boys in sweatshirts and shorts (yes, I know, Dane needs a new hoodie that fits). Weird dracula cut-out holding a tombstone. Pumpkins and Christmas trees in the background. I'm a bit baffled just looking at it.

The birthday girl and her friends showed up after an afternoon of clue-hunting at the local mall and around town (cool birthday idea, much?) and had to find a "familiar face" among the autumn harvest.

Harper didn't relinquish the clue easily, though. The birthday girl had to sing for her supper at the pumpkin patch that day.

One last thing--Brandon has preached a couple of Sundays over the past 3 weeks, and he's bringin' it. He did a great job last week, but Ephesians 2 was my favorite so far. So proud of my hard working husband.

Sorry this post is so sporadic and random. I'm practicing "efficient blogging" with my limited time these days. Have a great week!

Favorites Night Friday

It's shaping up to be a great weekend--Friday started with the boys and I cleaning up the house and a last minute trip to the grocery store to get ready for our Friday night dinner guests.  I use the term "dinner" very loosely here.  We had what has come to be known as a "Favorites Night".  

Have you ever been to dinner at someone's house and had one particular dish that you just wish you could make an entire meal of?  That's sort of what Favorites Night is.  Everyone makes or brings something that is their "favorite".  We had four families over, and feasted on yummies and chatted until the wee hours of the morning.  The kids (8 little boys and 2 shell-shocked girls, not counting the two babies) ran around the house like banshies the whole night, and only one minor head injury was reported.  (It was Aidan, and he's fine.)  

The menu included:

Pickle wraps

Pink dip

a tray of Chick-Fil-A nuggets

Meat Muffins

Cheesy Potato Casserole

a yummy green bean-rice-chicken concoction

Crock-pot brisket on little rolls

Banana pudding 

Chocolate chip cake

Key lime pie

I can feel my arteries clogging as we speak.  (Hey--I ate some green beans.  Very healthy!)

I'm not entirely sure what  any of the kids ate, but they managed to go through 26 Capri Sun pouches.

On an unrelated note, here's a handful of pictures from the past few days. 

Lately, I have been letting Dane pick out what Harper is wearing for the day.  He always comes downstairs with her clothes, complete with socks and matching hair bow.  

I don't quite know how to explain this ensemble, however.  

This picture makes me shudder to look at.  The color of the flowers on her outfit.  The peter-pan collar.  The pink and brown in the hair flower that doesn't go with the clothes.  The striped socks with the flowered outfit.  The leather dress shoes.  It's just all. to. much.  At least I don't have to worry about Dane becoming a stylist.  

Harper is becoming quite the fan of Mythbusters:

Did I mention key lime pie was on the Favorites Night menu?  Dane got very curious about the lemons and limes I was squeezing, and asked for a snack.

So I gave him a lime.
It wasn't sour enough for him, so I gave him a lemon.
The child won't eat grapes, but he'll do this to a lemon:

I LOVE this little dress that I think I got at my baby shower.  I've been waiting for Harper to get out of that frighteningly-skinny newborn phase and put a little meat on her bones for her to wear it to church.

Harper would like to leave you with this parting shot:

I'm Still Here...

I'm still here, and still pregnant.  I'm working on a "before and after" post with a few pictures of our Post-Ike house that I will try to finish for tomorrow.  I have some time for little projects like that since my last day of work was last Friday.  I also have several dates with a few Redbox movies lined up for today and tomorrow.  Because heaven forbid I work on other projects that actually need to be done over the next week or so, like packing and organizing the garage.

I'm still expecting to have my c-section Thursday of next week.  As in T minus 9 days.  My doctor yesterday actually offered to move the c-section up to this week, and I declined.  I think I'm her only "full term" patient who does NOT want to deliver yet.  I am spending a lot of time doing very little, and "trying not to go into labor".  I am a girl who likes a good plan, and despite the laziness and "nesting deficiency" I seem to be experiencing, I don't want to have this baby until a few more little things are done.  Baby's room still isn't done, but I plan to have a few pictures of the cuteness tomorrow.  And the giant shower project should be completed tonight :)  And I still haven't packed my or the baby's hospital bag, and I haven't packed for the several day stay at Cousin Camp and then Camp Pappy that the boys will be going on after the baby's born.  And I haven't hidden the video games to insure that Brandon doesn't bring them to the hospital to play all night while I'm trying to sleep.  (Another story for another time.)

Dane and Aidan went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning.  (No cavities!  It's kind of a miracle, actually.)  They love the dentist.  They watched a movie there, and left with goodie bags complete with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and a sticky rat.  Yes, a sticky rat.  One of those things that when you throw it onto the refrigerator, it sticks there.  I'm not sure how that ties into "dentist visit", but the boys are nonetheless thrilled with the sticky rat.  Dane has flossed his teeth no fewer than 4 times since we've been home (confession:  we're not flossers), and Aidan has not put his new toothbrush down.  Even to eat strawberries and go to the bathroom.  The new toothbrush has not left his hand.

We had our first church services in our new building this past Sunday, and it really could not have gone much more smoothly than it did.  We had a great crowd, and have already filled up our parking lot and some of the children's areas.  We are so fortunate to be a part of a growing, thriving church family.  A few kinks to work out, as expected with a first Sunday in a new facility, but overall it went very very well.  I'm very excited to see how God is going to work through us at this new place.  And if you live in my neck of the woods, come visit our church.  I'll be hard to miss:  I'll be the one who is 8000 months pregnant wearing teal green hospital scrubs because they're the only thing in my closet that fits.  Fortunately, we're not much of a "wear fancy clothes to church" kind of church.  Unless you just want to be fancy.

Hope you're having a great week!  And unless my nesting instinct kicks in tomorrow and I spend the day putting clean laundry away or organizing the garage or something, I should be posting "Before and After" Ike pictures of our house.  And you know it's going to be impressive, since repairs took an entire 5 months to complete.  

Not that I'm bitter about that.

Another Eventful Month

March is going to be a very busy month for our little family.  We have successfully moved back into our house a couple of weeks ago, and save for just a couple more boxes (and the garage, but let's not talk about the garage), we are unpacked and settled in!  The baby's room is painted (thanks to my mom, who took pity on me last week and flew down to help me out for a couple of days), and the last few things have been borrowed or purchased in preparation for her arrival later this month.

Brandon spent the better part of this last weekend working on the Giant Shower Project.  When we unexpectedly remodeled our bathroom, we had a shower put in that is requiring approximately one billion square feet of tile.  So in addition to being ridiculously busy at work this month, he is also trying to complete the GSP.

Why is he ridiculously busy at work this month?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  Here is the short version:  About 3 years ago, our church outgrew the church building and property we had.  Which is a great problem to have!  We moved into a local intermediate school on Sunday mornings and have been meeting there ever since.  We had purchased a big piece of property to build on, and as of March 15th, we will be moving to the new building!  Yay!  For the last 3 years, teams of people at church have been meeting at 7 am to set up "church" at the school, and staying until about 1:30 in the afternoon to tear down.  It will be so nice to finally get into the new building (note:  the "new building" is actually Phase 1 of a 4 phase project, and will eventually be the Youth Building, which helps explain it's very untraditional appearance and layout).  Check out our church website here for pictures of the building and property.  As David (our senior pastor) is fond of saying, "This ain't your grandma's church in east Texas."

So the next several weeks for Brandon at work will be filled with meetings, moving, and last minute tune-ups related to moving 900 people and church offices into a new facility.  In addition to the work he does every week.  And I can't tell you how excited we are to finally be getting into our own building.  It has been a challenging several of years as a homeless church.  Logistical issues such as "where do we have youth program" will not be an issue anymore.  We spent some time yesterday in the new building, and it is so cool.  We are very much anticipating this move, and the boys and I are preparing for several weeks of very long hours for Hot Brandon.

And did I mention I am having a baby this month?  I may need a ride home from the hospital.

*****

Yesterday morning before church, Brandon lost his keys.  He was planning to leave the house at about 6 am because he had a few things to do at the office before church, and then we had a lunch meeting at the new property afterwards.  So he kind of needed all of his keys.  We searched the house for about 45 minutes at a VERY EARLY HOUR looking for the keys.  We looked everywhere--outside, inside, we dug through trash bags, moved furniture, you name it.  It was looking bleak.  I was starting to think that they had been tossed by the landscapers who FINALLY CAME on Saturday to re-sod our front yard.  Off Brandon went to church with my spare key for his car.

Sunday afternoon, we check in with Aidan before his nap:  

"Aidan, did you hide Daddy's keys somewhere?  Where are Daddy's keys hiding?"

"I hid Daddy's keys in the bookshelf behind Daddy's books."

So the little key snatcher runs to our bedroom to one of the two full bookshelves, pulls out two random books, and reveals the missing keys behind them.  He had grabbed them off the adjacent dresser Saturday while "helping" Brandon tile the shower and hid them behind a couple of hardbacks.  We NEVER would have found them.

*****

Conversation at the dinner table last night:

Mom:  Aidan, what did you learn in church this morning?

Aidan:  We learned about Jesus, and he put the mud in his eyes and he could see.  And he spit in the dirt and went in the pool.

Dane:  Aidan, Jesus didn't put the mud in his eyes, he put the mud in the blind man's eyes, then the blind man could see!  But if you're not Jesus, it doesn't really work.

I for one, am very grateful that the Sunday school teacher emphasized that "If you're not Jesus, it doesn't really work", because I could totally see Aidan trying this with the first blind person he meets. 

And in the minds of my boys, a story about spitting in the dirt and putting mud on other people and then swimming, is second only to David and Goliath in terms of coolness.  Because to Dane and Aidan, nothing beats a story about getting to throw rocks at other people.

But First...

I am working on a post about our Valentine's Day (maybe I'll have it done by St. Patty's Day), but first...I could not resist posting this picture I recieved via e-mail forward.  I'm sure there's a story behind this picture that I desperately want to know.  Any guesses?  Thoughts?

Frequently Asked Questions, Part 2

Please refer to FAQ Part 1 if you are feeling exceedingly nosey about my family's current situation.

Q:  So, um, you're pregnant?

A:  Yes, we are pregnant.  Homeless and pregnant.  Just stick me barefoot on a street corner and I am a statistic.  We are about 16 weeks (4 months-ish) along, and should find out in a couple of weeks if it is a boy or a girl.  I feel fine, and have felt fine the whole time (I think God knew I could not handle morning sickness and everything else that is going on right now), except for very frequent headaches that I'm hoping has been a sinus infection that will clear up with the gigantic antibiotics I am taking now.  And, I have only gained about 2 pounds so far (that was SO NOT the case with my previous pregnancies, I had put on about 10 at this point with the boys).

If everything goes how Mandy plans (which would be the FIRST thing that has gone how I planned of late), the baby will be a scheduled c-section in the last half of March.  The actual due date (40 weeks) is March 31, but due to minor complications with my last c-section, I think my doctor is planning the delivery for a week or two before that date.  And because life is not complicated enough, Brandon will be leading a mission trip to Mexico over Spring Break the second week in March.  So if you're local and wondering how you can help us out, you can offer to take the boys for a day between March 7-March 14 so I can rest and try not to go into labor while Brandon is building houses in the barrio.

Q:  Aren't you just so so excited that this one might be a girl??  Aren't you??  Aren't you??  You'll get to dress her up in frills and pink and the hair bows!  Oh, the hair bows!!  You SO need a baby girl in your house.

A:  Um, wow, you (and almost EVERYONE I have talked to) are sure excited about the possibility of me having a girl.  Can I send not-sure-it's-a-girl to your house when she is 13 and having a girl-drama meltdown because the boy she thinks has nice hair loaned her best friend a quarter at lunch time and that must mean he does not like her AT ALL and how dare her best friend for cheating on her non-boyfriend like that.  

I don't know if I can handle a girl, and frankly the possibility of having one sends me into a near panic attack at times.  I'm sure it would be fine, and we would eventually (hopefully before she is actually born) become thrilled with the thought of having a daughter.  I have been practicing "being okay with a girl" by going to stores with baby clothes, looking at pink clothes, and trying not to throw up.  It's been very therapeutic.   We would also be thrilled with being an all-boy family.  That thought gives my heart a bit of piece in this moderately stressful season in our lives.  And, um, all the baby girl clothes are pink.  Really pink.  That nauseatingly pale baby pink.  I can taste the bile in my throat as we speak.

Q:  How do the boys feel about a new baby coming?

A:  It doesn't occupy their thoughts much.  Dane wants a baby boy so their will be three boys, and Aidan is ambivalent about the whole idea.  I'm grateful that I do not have children that wake up every morning and say, "How much longer until the baby is here, Mommy?"  Because, folks, it would be a long 5 more months.  Dane is slightly concerned that if it's a girl, we don't have any girl toys.  He wants me to go and buy the girl a Barbie.  Like, now.

Q:  So since you are pregnant, are you still planning to adopt?  Where does the pregnancy leave all of that?

A:  Read this if you are confused about this question.  The easy answer is, yes, we are still planning to adopt.  We have always wanted to adopt a child into our family, and we continue to rely on God's perfect timing in this.  The agency we are dealing with has put our application on hold until the pregnancy is over.  They say it is not psychologically good for the family to be in the midst of a pregnancy and an adoption simultaneously (um, especially for this family at this time, because excuse me, my plate is FULL).  And that seems like a very logical decision to us.  At the earliest possible opportunity, we plan on activating out application again.  Brandon and I decided that if we have another boy, we will plan on adopting a boy, and if this baby is a girl, we will plan on adopting a girl.  We are hoping that these two children will be close in age, just as Dane and Aidan are close in age.  

Hope everyone is having a great week!  Congrats to my baby sister who closed on her first house today!  

Frequently Asked Questions

These days, I get asked quite a few questions.  Well, here are some answers for inquiring minds:

Q:  How's everything going with your house?

A: If you recall, our house became Hotel Ike on September 13 when a giant tree decided it would rather be an indoor plant.  We have hired who we believe to be very capable and honest contractors (ask me again in a couple of months).  Unfortunately, I am less impressed with my insurance company by the day.  My contractor cannot start the actual work and repairs until the insurance has approved the estimate (and it's a big estimate).  And who can blame him?  I don't work unless I know I'm getting paid, either.  So I sit.  Waiting sometimes-patiently to hear from my insurance adjuster to call and say that we are a go for launch.  And we remain homeless now, going on 6 weeks, for repairs to begin.  My contractors have been wonderful.  His staff (and by staff I mean every female related to him), has inventoried, boxed up, and moved to storage EVERY ITEM IN MY HOUSE that was not ruined.  And the ruined items?  They inventoried those, also, and disposed of them.  That brought me such peace that I cannot describe.  I was spared the overwhelming chore of going through all of my destroyed belongings and inventorying them.  Thank you, kind elves.

So if anyone out there is wondering what they can do for us, please pray that we hear from our insurance company soon that they have approved the estimate so work can begin.  We are expecting this to be done in a matter of days, but there have been delays at every turn, and people, my sanity is hangin on by a thread some days.

Q: Didn't the tree hit your van, also?

A: Yes, the tree hit my van also.  It crashed into the top of it, breaking out the 3 back windows, and flooding the interior with 14 hours worth of hurricane rain.  Needless to say, it was totaled.  

(Quick story, one day when I called State Farm to check on the status of the claim for my van, the lady pulled up my information and said, "And you had the van that was completely submerged in salt water, right?"  Um, no.  But then I got to thinking, is rain from a hurricane that's been over the ocean for several weeks salt-water rain?  And then the phone girl and I shared a moment of blond-silence while we thought about that one.  Fortunately my husband was sitting right there to bring us back to 7th grade science class and remind us that no, it wasn't salt water rain.

For the past couple of weeks (several weeks), we have been borrowing an "extra vehicle" from a family at church.  This family is not one of our close friends (no particular reason why, we just have not taken the time to get to know them as much as we would like), but they heard that we were without one of our two cars, and called Brandon's office offering up their truck.  And when I say truck, I mean TRUCK.  3/4 ton, extended cab, full bed, hiked up thing that doesn't fit in some parking garages.  I felt testosterone-deficient just climbing up into the drivers' seat.  We returned the borrowed truck to the generous family this past week, and continue to be amazed at the generosity and kindness of our church family.

This past Friday we went into Houston (by House of Pies) to look at a van Brandon found a great deal on from ebay.  I was skeptical, to say the least.  When we pulled up to a warehouse across the street from a couple of abandoned houses behind an apartment complex I was a bit more skeptical.  When we stepped out of our car and saw a BMW outside the warehouse with a sign in the windshield reading "No Title Available", I was about to run for the hills.  Or maybe the House of Pies.  And I probably would not have run.  (come on, now.)  But we found a great van in this chop shop.  One year newer than our old one, 12,000 fewer miles, and much more affordable.  There were no floor mats in the van, so we just decided since the van had probably been used to transport dead bodies (Stow 'n Go seats are very handy for just such a thing), the floor mats must have had too many blood stains on them for resale.

All kidding aside, I think these van people bought vehicles on auction and then resold them.  And if you're ever in the market for a fire truck, I know just where to find one.

Q:  So where are y'all living?

A:  Since September 14, we have been living with my aunt and uncle, who are perhaps the most gracious people on earth.  Brandon and I talked about it, because our insurance will pay for us to stay in a hotel.  We thought that me in a hotel room for days with Dane and Aidan might just drive me to insanity, so we thought this was a better solution for our family for the time being.  And from our perspective, it is working out as good as it could possibly work out, considering we are living with other people.  The house has enough room that for the most part, we are not stepping on each other's toes.  

If at some point between now and house completion, it starts to not work out for our aunt, uncle, and cousin, we would move into a hotel for the duration.  After all, we are all family so technically we all have to love each other, we would still prefer that we all still like each other after this is all said and done.  Because we will still have to pass the cranberry sauce to one another at some point.

They live about 20 minutes from Hotel Ike, and it's closer for us to my work and the boys soccer, and a little farther from church and Brandon's office.  Did I mention that it's the best it could possibly be, living with other people?  We will be eternally grateful for the hospitality of my aunt and uncle, and I pray that someday we have the opportunity to answer someone's prayer when they really need a lot of help the way this has really answered ours.

I just realized that I am rambling far more than I thought I would be, so I will wrap this up and continue with part 2 FAQ tomorrow.