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Thursday, September 27, 2007

On the mend, celebrations around the bend

i'm feeling a little better. i have a little feeling back in my chin, but my lip is still numb. thanks for the cheery comments and prayers. :)
emily's birthday is sunday. i can't believe it. my baby will be 5!! she's a little me. she's obsessive compulsive about some things & very particular, she's a people pleaser and carries her feelings on her sleeve. i hope she gets over the last one before school.
dan and i knew precious little about how to be parents. emily claire graciously trained us & she loves to tell the story about what happened when we brought her home.

here's how it went down: we brought her in & showed her around the house (really), took some pictures then changed her clothes, put her in the bouncy seat & put her on the island in the kitchen and just stared at her. i remember asking dan what do we do now?? those first days & weeks were such a blur - i'm glad we took pictures! she loves to talk about how she taught us how to take care of babies. thanks, silly girl. i love you.


how silly does she look?? why we felt the need to put a blanket over her bouncy seat, put a cap on her and put the blanket on is beyond me. our bouncy seat had a blanket that was attached. poor thing. she's looking at us trying hard to say how hot she is. :)

so anyway, we messed around, and (when i say "we" i mean "me") did not plan a party for her so sunday we'll have some cake and maybe go to chuck e. cheese. i booked a build-a-bear party for her for the weekend of october 13th. we thought about not even telling her her birthday was sunday, she would have never known it. she's very forgiving and is very happy to have a party at build-a-bear, so it worked out. :)
Personal Message to Jessica:
so jessica, i won't get to come to dallas that weekend. nice how i told you in a post? i'm good like that. :)

well, that's about it. as i type i'm drinking from a straw for the first time in a week. what can it hurt? i'm already paralyzed for life - what's a couple of dry sockets to add to it? :) oh, if you are waiting on orders, some things have shipped, and some will ship today- so be looking out for them! oh, and carrie & kristi - y'all's orders are in the works. :)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Two teeth less wise

well, i had two wisdom teeth removed friday. i'm not recovering very well...if you think about it, can you please lift me up? the kids have been in baton rouge since thursday and dan's on his way to pick them up and they'll be here tonight.

i'm not having any major pain, but my chin and part of my lip is still numb, and when i open my mouth it feels like i've stuck my finger in a light socket -- not really a jolt of pain, but you know enough to bother me. i'm also very, very nauseous; i can't stand well and i just feel terrible.

i just need enough energy to hand out popsicles, fruit snacks and juice boxes. :) thanks!!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Acceptance

a conversation i had with emily yesterday as she was getting ready to take her nap.

emily: ya' know what mom?
me: what, emily.
emily: there are no naps in heaven.
me: really?
emily: yeah, because we are not grumpy in heaven. we are always happy.
me: really?
emily (chin quivering and tearing up): yep. (long pause) mom, why did your brother have to die?

now, that took me off guard.

me (trying to hold it together): well, emily, i don't know. but what i do know is God decides when we go to heaven.
emily (crying now): was he doing something wrong?
me: not exactly (she does know he had an "accident with his car"). God decided that day that it was time for him to go up to heaven, so that's what happened. (i wanted to add, if He wanted to change it, He could have, but He didn't -- but i didn't want to get into a conversation like that) i don't like it that it happened that way, but it was not for me to decided. i have to trust God because i know he knows best.
emily: can i take night-night bear to heaven?
me: we'll see emily. i know that was a totally wrong answer, but i just did not want to get into the discussion (again) about why night-night bear can't go to heaven.....she's only 4 and i really needed her to take a nap.

me: emily, what's wrong? (she's suddenly crying more)
emily: i'm just missing heaven mom. i really want to go there - now. why can't i go there now?
me: like i said emily, it's not up to us to decide when we go to heaven. we have lots of things to do here on earth. we are supposed to live everyday for God and try hard to do the things God wants us to do, the things He's planned for us to do. when He decides it's time for us to go up to see Him, we'll be ready.
emily: okay. goodnight mom.
me: goodnight, emily.

for a little over a year now emily has been asking a lot of questions about heaven. we've done the best we can explaining things to her. she'll be having a completely normal day, then come downstairs in tears because she's "missing" heaven. she can't wait to get there. what is odd though, she knows you have to die to get to heaven, and you don't come back. but she still wants to go. one day she was just going on and on about wanting to go and i told her she would not be going to heaven until she was very old. then she started asking about older people in her life and when were they about to go up to heaven? we can't win with it. i realize that it probably was not the greatest thing to tell her only old people go to heaven. but at the time we really did not want to tell her anybody can die at any moment, even little kids. but anyway. i guess we'll have that discussion with her sometime.

so anyway do you guys have any idea when we should go a little further explaining God, Jesus etc. to her?? should we be presenting the plan of salvation to her?? we've started talking to her about sin and what it is and all, and she knows the story of Jesus on the cross, but at what age do you go deeper?

and if you are wondering why i called this post "acceptance" it's because it's real to me now. i know i'll never truly understand why chris died, or lloyd for that matter. but what i can acknowledge and accept that God did have a purpose for it and He is in charge. that's a huge step for me. when i was having that conversation with her yesterday i cried afterwards thinking back on what i said. i really do believe what i said, and i guess i always have.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

"H" is for Homeschool and for Halloween

well, we decided back at the beginning of the summer we were not going to send them to MDO this year. there are so many reasons to send them, and so many to not. emily has a late september birthday so she really should be in a pre-k, so i'm homeschooling her. emily wanted to make it as close to her old MDO as we could, so i let her help me with setting the schedule. it's going okay. it's a little hard because we have to do it around elliot's nap schedules, but that's okay. they both are very excited about the school in the gameroom. :)


i have a friend who works in a photography studio. a couple of months ago she asked me if she could shoot them in their costumes for an upcoming halloweeen/fall mailer they were doing. i told her sure, because i thought my mom was going to help me make emily's dorothy costume. it did not work out that way, i had to sew it myself. so, for two solid (almost) days i sewed a dorothy costume...i've only sewed one other dress (and it was super simple) for her. this dress was HARD!!! it had so many pieces! but, i was determined to do it, and i did. :) i think i did a pretty good job seeing as i'd never sewn anything that complicated before. i'd never done a hem before, i had no idea what some of the sewing terms were..so many firsts!! one thing that made it so hard was the bodice. the dress is all one piece! but one thing i do know now, i can sew anything!!

so anyway, today we took them in and dawn took their pictures. emily was super excited to be dorothy (mostly, i think, for the shoes), ethan was the scarecrow and elliot was the lion. ethan did ask me before we left where his stick was. he wanted to hang on a stick instead of stand up. silly boy. elliot is not pictured because he was napping, but he was the cutest lion. we borrowed a children's place lion from a friend, i want to keep it!!

i did not get elaborate AT ALL with ethan's scarecrow..but he did have some straw hanging out of his arms at the studio, and he did have some face paint on.
proud dorothy (don't tell her, but a part of her hem fell out!)

we told emily she'd have to put her dress up until it was time to trick-or-treat. it's going to be a looong month. i did tell her she could play with her shoes until then. i'll be vacuuming up red sparkles for years. :0

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Emily and Ethan's beach trip - in pictures & videos



ethan got a little too excited to hear the ocean.


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mud-like sand makes for good sandcastles. in case you are wondering, those black things on the kiks are love bugs. they were swarming at the beach.

we have no idea why he was crossing his fingers!




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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Elliot at the beach

elliot loved our beach vacation. fyi: i've tried and tried to get a slideshow to work, but i guess i'm a dummy.

i tried to catch him looking at the water. when we got to the seawall he kept trying to look out the window. after i took this picture i realized he'd gotten out of his straps.

pushing buttons is his job; he's very good at it.

beach bum