A visit to Santa.

Or not.

I was at the mall today after delivering two small individuals to a drop-in daycare. I went in the Dillard's entrance between Petites and Dillard's Woman, gloriously alone. When I entered the mall I heard the pitter patter of little reindeer feet and the squeals of delight...er...impatience from children young and old - mostly the parents balancing in line with their little loved ones. It did not look like fun to me.

I decided that visiting Santa this year was very low on my list of priorities. Maybe I can dress Randy up as Santa and have the kids sit in his lap like they do every evening. Or perhaps Punky would like to wear a little kitty Santa suit. Would you like to rent a suit and come over? I bet I could get a few neighbor kids to cry on you.

When I walked past the Santa display again I felt a little tug of sadness that I was not willing to stand in line in order to get a picture with that fat guy. (Yes I had dropped off the kids already, and no I don't mean that I wanted to get a picture of myself on Santa's lap.) Maybe if I were a "better" mom I would suck it up to get that picture. Am I missing something really special by skipping this rite of passage? Then I decided again that I would rather pull out my eyelashes one by one than stand in line with a 1- and a 2-year-old boy for who knows how long.

I was pretty psyched then to waltz right past the Santa display twice smiling blissfully at the nice, patient moms with their screamy little elves. I picked up my happy children at playcare and took them home to their wee little beds. It was a good day.

Merry Christmas!

Friends.

Get it?

How cute are these shadows?

More? Milkshake?

Here is another milkshake picture from the other night. I think I've been dreaming about them!

Milkshakes

What a cool Granny! The boys and I are visiting Granny for the week so Randy can get some things done at home. Tonight Granny made chocolate chocolate chip milkshakes! I have some other pictures but sometimes blogger is so stinking slow it, well, stinks! Alas.

The pickup.

I picked up a nice dude in the grocery store today. His name was Art. We met in soups, never to see each other again.

I was showing Art my fave new soup - Amy's Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable. I told him that I was qualified to recommend it because my name is Amy. He said, "I'm looking for Art soup." I thought, "That sounds interesting, he must be an artist." Then I realized oh, his name is Art. So we talked about soup.

"How much sodium is in that one?" he asked.
I read the label and made the appropriate response.
"But that's supposed to be 2 servings, so that makes 1200 mg of sodium," he said.
I replied, "Oh, man. I wish I'd never have met you."
That was about the extent of the convo.

I was telling Randy about this funny conversation and he felt a little strange that I was picking up guys in the grocery store, but one has to make the grocery store experience fun, right?

I'm quite the pickup artist.

Have you checked out your wenis lately?

Do you know what a wenis is? The first person to correctly answer this question without checking a dictionary gets applause. How's that for a reward!?

Purpose

What is your purpose?

I decided not to let Sarah shoulder my responsibility of explaining that question. At first I thought you might think I meant, "What's your point?" in a sarcastic tone. You know the way some old curmudgeons do..."And your point is..." (blink, blink, blink), "Your point being..." (one eyebrow raised).

Lately I have been struggling with God. Do I really want to live for Him and obey Him? When I say, "Your will be done, Lord," do I mean it? I don't like to say those things to God without really meaning them, so I find myself avoiding that decision. Do I want to drop everything I'm currently doing and let God examine those things and lead me in one direction or not in another?

Yesterday in my Bible study the author of the book we are doing (Priscilla Shirer) gave us three "red flags" we can look for to see if we are really living in God's will. The 3rd red flag was "Am I thankful?" When I looked at the ways I currently spend my time, I started to ask myself that question. I decided that yes, I was thankful for alone time and yes, I was thankful for chocolate. But am I thankful for America's Next Top Model? On Thursday afternoons I usually watch the ANTM episode I Tivo'd the night before (you know this verb, to tivo). Am I thankful to God for giving me this leisure time outlet? Ouch!

As a Christian my purpose, as Sarah said, is to glorify God with what He has blessed me. I can glorify Him by being patient with my kids or by offering to watch a friend's child. I can glorify Him by not nagging my husband when we disagree, and by praying for important people in my life. I'm not certain I glorify Him by watching America's Next Top Model on Thursday afternoons.

Then I get caught up asking myself, "Come on, I can't be expected to glorify God every minute of every day, can I? I can watch a silly TV show once a week," (like that's all the TV I watch - ha!). No, I can't be expected to. I'm not perfect. I'm a sinful human being (there's that word nobody likes, but let's be honest about our behavior. Does it live up to Jesus's behavior?) If my measuring stick is Jesus, I'm going to fall short. However, I may as well not set myself up for failure by not even striving to let the Holy Spirit rule my behavior rather than my yucky fleshly flesh.

So what is your purpose? No sarcasm, just an honest question. Do you live your purpose? I don't. Do you try? I do. Sometimes. God is working on this one with me right now as we "speak." Will I keep listening? I hope so. The holiday season is rough. It's busy and there are many schedule interruptions. I believe that Jesus is the reason for the season, to quote a singsong little phrase, but this is the time of year I'm most likely to get off track in terms of the time I spend in fellowship with God.

I'm looking for a clever little way to wrap up this post, but my immediate public awaits and I can glorify God by serving them right now.

Christmas on my mind.

I know many people scoff at early Christmas decorations. Decorating is not one of my best qualities, but I like to have some decorations up sometimes. The past 2 years have been newborn baby intensive so our Christmas decorating has been practically nil. In 2006 BB was 2 months old at Christmas time. We were so in up to our eyebrows with adjusting to parenting we hadn't even thought about getting a tree. Then my mom came to visit and bought us our first artificial tree. (By the way, my mom is not an artificial tree kind of woman, but she understood we were in survival mode.) So we had a tree that year and that's pretty much all.

In 2007 LB was 2 months old at Christmas time. We got out our trusty artificial tree, that I lamented smelled curiously of B.O. We got a really cute video of our two babies in front of the Christmas tree and looked at that a lot over the season. That was pretty much it for festivities at home that year.

So this is our first Christmas without a newborn, and I'm excited! The past two Christmases have been very special with our sweet angels. But I'm also looking forward to sleeping Christmas eve and looking forward to feeling relatively sane when the sun begins to go down. The past two years have been like, "Oh, right, it's Christmas, can you get me a diaper?" or "Tomorrow is Christmas. I wonder if LB will be able to nurse today or do we have to start supplementing with formula?"

I have not forgotten how it felt, the Christmases celebrated by just the two of us, longing for a child to raise. I remember how it felt like we were the only ones celebrating childless Christmases, and how heartbroken I felt to think we may never have a baby in our home during Christmas. That was our reality for 3 Christmases. Our reality is different now. I am grateful for our children. I am also grateful for sleep.

The heart of the holidays is not decorating or Christmas trees. It is the root of the word Christmas - Christ. Praise Him from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him for creating days and nights so some years we can even sleep.

Okay, God.

I know I'm in trouble when I start a prayer with "OK, God." It's like I'm saying. "OK, God, here's what we're going to do. You with me?" How vain that I think I'm going to tell God what to do. He's GOD. I cringe each time I say it, like this morning. I should start my prayer with "Yes, Lord" instead of "OK, God." There's a whole lot of difference between the two.

Just

Tuesday was a crr-azy day.

Have you ever heard the expression, "Just adopt and you'll get pregnant?" Ha! My friends Karen and Bob have been trying to adopt a boy from Russia for well over a year. First there were accreditation problems with Russia for many U.S. adoption agencies. Now their agency has been re-accredited and they are back in the process. They live in Houston and have had to drive to Austin several times just to get apostille seals from the Secretary of State office. They drive in on a Wednesday afternoon, get the documents to the Sec. of State on Thursday morning and make the 4 hours drive back to Houston. There are certain documents that they have had to send multiple times, sometimes just to change one or two words in the document. On Tuesday LB and I took the docs to the Sec. of State for them.

That part of our journey was not hard. The agency sent the papers to us overnight and God answered our prayer that they would arrive before we took BB to preschool. I was quite proud of myself for having everything together for BB's school day, having the papers in the car, and having two little boys loaded up in time to get to school almost at the time we are supposed to arrive. Notice though, I didn't say I had everything together and in the car for BB's school day. We were almost there when I realized I had forgotten his diapers, change of clothes, and lunch. So I added "trip to the grocery store" to my to-do list for the day.

LB and I went to the state building and signed in and got the apostille for the documents in no time. Forgetting to sign out, we trotted back to the minivan to go to the grocery store. I called Randy to let him know that if tragedy struck at the Secretary of State building and a list floated out that showed LB and I were still in the building, that we were not in the building. We then spent about 30 minutes in the grocery store, ending up with a gourmet meal for BB since Central Market was the closest place to the school and there are no lunchables there as far as I saw. Since LB was being such a trooper, I got him a balloon. It flew away.

The next stop was FedEx/Kinkos to copy the docs and send them overnight back to the agency. I forgot to take the staple out of the paperwork and the papers got jammed in the machine. I tried to stay cool. I was on a very important errand, and in my mind the machine ate a page of the document packet and it would be my fault that this young man would not be adopted by my friends. I called Bob and verified the pages, and it turns out I did not have a machine that ate paper. Hooray. Bye-bye documents, see you in Russia.

"Just adopt and get pregnant" doesn't work. Sorry. Sometimes the two events follow each other, but there is no causality there.

That afternoon after picking BB up from preschool and eating his lunch myself, I took the boys with me to vote. I did a straight ticket, which was super fast, and voted on some props that my friend Andee and I discussed while LB was sleeping in the car in a parking space near the Secretary of State building (which has moved, by the way). LB got a big taste of government that day. We then went to the park, I tried to keep BB and his cast off of the play equipment, I got bit by an ant three times, and we went home.

What a day!

Awww...

More brotherly stuff.

Sometimes things go terribly awry.

I'm 1!

Creepy kids' television.

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd share the things I find frightening about children's television.

The kids in Clifford only have 3 fingers and a thumb.
Cookie monster's fingers are floppy. They are just fur. It's gross.
When Elmo dances.
When Elmo wears clothes.
Mr. Noodle.
The way Ernie's arms are attached.
The sunshine baby in Teletubbies.
Telletubbies.

I'm 2!

These pictures are Baby's original birth day, 3 months old, his 1st birthday, and today's big blowout party! We had a live band and everything.













This is a birthday post in progress! BB is now walking around in his cast. I made him sit down to rest a bit and watch "Cars." We'll have a 1 and 2 year old birthday party at elevensies and I'll post some pics soon.

Happy Birthday today, BB!

Update

(Or maybe just an excuse to post more pictures of the casted baby on my blog.)





Well, BB is already trying to walk on that cast. The doctor said that's fine, but maybe not less then 24 hours after getting it on! He's having to learn to crawl again in a new way, but is such a trooper and really doing great with it. I can't believe what a strong spirit this guy has! LB is enjoying being able to keep up with his big bro.

Tomorrow is BB's 2nd birthday! We let him open a present from Grandma early so that he would have something new to watch since we thought he might be sitting a lot more for the next 3 weeks. Nope. He's off in the hall crawling around and chasing his brother. Talk about resilience!

Tough guy!

Our first broken bone! BB went down a slide today and landed wrong on his foot, fracturing his tibia up near the knee. It is not a serious fracture and should heal perfectly, but it is in a huge purple cast. He was a brave kid all day, as it happened at 9:45 or so but I didn't get him to the doctor until almost 3. The doctor sent us right to children's orthopedics who x-rayed the leg and put on the cast right there. He should be in the cast for 3-4 weeks. We have a follow-up appointment in exactly 3 weeks.

So it's been quite the busy afternoon for us. LB is getting over a cold and missed his afternoon nap because of the doctors' visits, but he did great. Randy was able to get to the doctor for the casting process. It was pretty nifty. Here are some pictures of BB pointing (his favorite activity) at the cast. He was really digging the sucker he got at the doctor, too.

Look how cute our tough guy is!

Day at the park

Contemplating why he may have fallen down.


Mr. Adventure


Sinatra


Pure joy!


Hey bro, wait for me!

Brothers don't shake hands...

Brothers hug! BB and his Little Bro hugged today for the first time. Usually when you say, "BB, give LB a hug," he just puts his head against LB's head. (Sometimes not quite that gently.) This afternoon before nap BB actually put his arm around LB and hugged him. LB put his arm around his brother, too. So sweet!

This morning I started to blog about a cute exchange I witnessed between the two of them. I usually put LB to bed for his morning nap with BB running around. BB is pretty good about it, and it doesn't usually seem to get his baby brother too riled up. This morning as I lay LB in bed BB stuck his hand in the crib slats and waved night-night. LB waved back with a big smile on his face and huge doe eyes. They then touched index fingers like the Wonder Twins or "The Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel. It was about the sweetest thing ever.

They fight, too, but this is a lovey-dovey post. I love my guys!

Baby's first burrito!

Well it's a breakfast taco really, but he loved it! What a mess!

Stock Market

I am far from a economic expert, and the following may come off as naive, but I had some ideas earlier while watching the news.

I'm tired of this.

I was uncharacteristically watching the news earlier, when some dour newscaster spoke of how the Dow was down again today. Ya' think? What a shock. Isn't this like why you're not supposed to weigh yourself every day if you are trying to lose weight? As soon as you see the scale go up a few ounces you lose heart and have a nice eating binge.

OR, like if all of the people on a boat floating on the sea stand on the right side of the boat it leans that way (at least on Sesame Street). So in panic the nice people all go to the other side of the boat and it leans that way. If everyone stayed where they were in the first place, would the ship settle out?

I guess it's likely I am being a little cavalier about these economic issues, and we have tightened the budget so I can't say it hasn't effected us. I guess I shouldn't watch the news if I don't want to worry about it every evening when that sour-faced guy comes back on.

That's all from the peanut gallery.

10 things I love about my mother-in-law. (OK, 11 things!)

Having just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, I appreciate the family that I married into! You should meet my mother-in-law. She's really neat. Here is my top 11 list for her!

In no particular order:

1. She raised a wonderful, caring, considerate son to be my husband!
2. She always has something chocolate for me to eat when we come to visit.
3. She taught me how to crochet.
4. She likes to play card games and dominoes, and we usually eat dessert while doing so. She taught me how to play "Shanghai." Maybe when the kids can put themselves to bed we can actually play again.
5. She loves to play with her grandchildren, even when all they do is drool.
6. When she came to visit last she lay down on the floor with BB and helped him do a back flip over her head!
7. She has taken loss and turned it to wisdom and new beginnings rather than bitterness and fear.
8. She makes us big breakfasts when we come to visit when what she would normally eat is a bowl of cereal.
9. She has a beautiful garden but doesn't point and stare at me because I can't grow a cactus.
10. She loves Jesus and has a servant's heart.
11. She saw me at my postpartum craziness and didn't call the authorities!

Do you have someone like this in your life? You should. Go get one!

Happy Anniversary!

Tomorrow is our 6th anniversary! I thought I'd post pictures of the last few versaries, and then post our picture from tonight.

The first picture was taken right before we attended our orientation at Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services. The second picture was taken the day we found out we would be parents to our sweet BB! The third picture, last year, is obvious. It was a few weeks before LB was born almost two weeks early. A lot of interesting things happen near our anniversary, including the big UT/OU football rivalry. My anniversary present to my dear husband was to go buy Velveeta and make queso. Happy anniversary, dear!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is our Grandma's birthday! Our grandma is really nice and very smart. She thinks we're both brilliant - that's how we know. Our Grandma loves to send us books and clothes. Our mommy is always getting compliments on our outfits and she always says, "It's from Grandma!" We wish we could see our grandma more often, but when we do see her it's always tons of fun. She loves to be outside and so do we. She loves dogs and so do we. She likes ice cream and guess what? So do we! isn't that amazing?

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We'll see you in exactly three weeks. We love you.

More pumpkins.

I love this 100% genuine smile. BB is into the squinty smile for pictures these days. I think he looks so pleased here!

Fall Fun

Today we went with our Sunday school class of young married adults to a fall festival at Sweet Berry Farms. We had a picnic, pet some goats, went on a hay ride, walked through a tunnel, and brought home some pumpkins. Although being 90 degrees it did not feel like fall, it was a fun afternoon. BB is really into tunnels right now, and it is one of his few two-syllable words. The tunnel was a big treat. BB picked out a pumpkin for himself and a smaller one for his baby. It was so cute.

I've got a few more pictures but it's taking too long to upload them. I'll add them soon.

Happy fall!

Big boys go to school.

Look at this big kid going to school! OK, so he's not quite 2 years old, so he's not really a big kid. Our guy really enjoys school. When I drop him off he doesn't even look twice at me, he just starts learning. After I pick him up his little brother is so happy to see him. They giggle at each other in the car and then more at home. BB gets a nap at school so we just play the rest of the day. On Tuesday we met with some friends at a park so the kids could play. It was a good day. It's too hot, though!