Jen's page

Update!

2011-09-27T11:54:00.001-05:00

So here. I'm posting. Nothing new or exciting.

Routine

2010-01-12T05:57:00.002-06:00

We have gotten back into our daily routine which is nice. Justin was not feeling well at the end of last week, so he stayed home with Claire and I went to work. Then over the weekend we just took it easy so we all could rest up for the work week. Sunday was great and church is such a joy for all of us. Yesterday, we all got back to our norm. Claire's teacher said that she has been having lots of good days in a row so we told her if she kept it up, we'd do something extra special, like going camping! This week is exams for my students which puts me on autopilot and lots to think about while I walk around the classroom for 2 hours while the students let their brains ooze out onto their scantrons. On the way home from school yesterday Claire asked if she got to do ballet today. I told her that today was Monday and she gets to do ballet on Wednesdays. She emphatically said, "I will never forget that again." And somehow, I believe her!

Arabesque!

2010-01-06T20:03:00.002-06:00

Claire had her first ever ballet/tap dance class today! She has been asking since August when a few girls in her new pre-K class were involved. We thought it was just because it was new and she was trying to fit into her new class. However, after 4 months of persistent requests, pleas, and begging, we surprised her at Christmas by allowing her to start ballet. We went last night to pick up her leotard and to get her shoes/slippers. She was on cloud 9. She begged and begged to start her class right then, but it was not her age group. So today she got to go. We got there early and there was only 1 other little girl there for her class. They became fast friends and are like 2 peas in a pod. Needless to say, she fit right in. She had so much fun that she threw a fit when I told her that she couldn't wear her ballet outfit to church tonight. It took 20 minutes to calm her down. Like I said, she's just a little excited! The dance studio doesn't allow any photographs, so I couldn't take any, but I have a mind full of memories imprinted of her smiles, and her wobbly Arabesques, Position 1's, shuffles, etc. I am so glad that she is able to enjoy it and I hope she keeps it up! She's a beautiful ballerina!

Praises!

2010-01-05T16:04:00.002-06:00

During Claire's 4 year wellness check up in October, her doctor discovered a heart murmur. She had Claire change positions, but it was still there. She wasn't alarmed, but just wanted to be safe and have Claire checked out a little more thoroughly by a pediatric cardiologist. Texas Children's Hospital had a very long waiting list for patients like Claire who didn't have an urgent issue. So today, we had the follow-up with the specialist. They took a chest x-ray and an EKG, which Claire was not too fond of, and then 2 doctors came in with their high-tech stethoscopes to listen to her heart. They listened for a long time and finally looked at each other and agreed that she has a "venous hum" which they explained is completely harmless and she'll outgrow at some point in her life. Praise the Lord that this was nothing serious or anything that required more tests. Before we went to the doctor, I wanted Claire to have a good attitude, so I took her to the mall and let her play in the play area and we ate at the food court for lunch. She was so good! She made quick friends as always and showed them how to do the most dangerous stunts on seemingly safe play equipment. She had lots of fun and so did I!

Easy Bake

2010-01-04T20:24:00.004-06:00

Today I went back to work. I didn't want to, but I did and I'm glad. Claire had a great day at school and we went grocery shopping afterwards. Then we came home and make cookies in her new Easy Bake Oven. She was so excited, yet scared. She wanted me to do everything. I'm sure that will change with time. She did have a fun time eating them and of course sharing them with Daddy! The pictures of Daddy were taken by Claire as well...a little photographer!

Glitter Lava

2010-01-03T18:36:00.002-06:00

Aunt Tricia got Claire "Glitter Lava" crafts for her birthday back in October. The first package were suncatchers. Claire and I did them soon after her birthday. We followed the directions and when we put them in the window to catch the sun, the lava dripped down the window, blinds, and wall and created a huge mess. We ended up throwing them away which was too bad because they really were cute. Reluctantly, Claire and I worked on the next package today. This is a butterfly garden. We are leaving them out much longer than the directions say in order to avoid the same mess as last time. I hope it works out, but even if it doesn't, we still had fun today making them.

Bounce House

2010-01-02T19:29:00.002-06:00

For Christmas, Claire received a Bounce House or Moonwalk to play with at Memaw and Papa's house. Since we celebrated Christmas at our house, the Bounce House stayed here until we see them again for them to take it back. We pulled it out today and Claire had a great time bouncing in it. It has an inflatable basketball and a hoop to play with inside. It was a crisp day with lots of wind so most of the time Justin was chasing the basketball around the backyard.

Also, I finished a 2000 piece puzzle that Jimmy had gotten me as a birthday present. However, 2 pieces are missing, so I'll be spending some time looking for them.

New Years 2010

2010-01-01T20:03:00.002-06:00

Last evening we went to church and spent some time with our friends learning a new domino game called 42. Justin won! Then we came home and shot off some fireworks and rang in the New Year before going to bed for the night. Today we spend the day enjoying a day of rest and our new toys. Claire and Justin played Prince and Princess with her new Princess Castle that Uncle Matt got her for Christmas. Then tonight after dinner we went outside and shot off the rest of the fireworks. Justin does a great job of picking the right ones out at the stand and then the right order for us to watch. Claire was really excited about the fireworks until the first one went off....she started screaming, FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! We had to explain to her that FIREworks contained FIRE. Then she decided she didn't like fireworks so much. After the next one went off though, she quickly forgot her apprehension and went along with it. She enjoyed them so much! Seeing her face light up was priceless! Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Above all we can imagine

2009-07-25T22:14:00.003-05:00

Back in November Justin accepted a job offer from BP for the Houston campus. We have been working on getting ready for the big move to Houston in August. Since the beginning of the year we have been preparing our house to be ready to be sold as well as looking for a new house/job for me/school for Claire/church for all of us and numerous little things that go along with a family relocation. The first of the big things that God provided was a job for me. I am still excited about the prospect of the job and all that it will involve come August 11. Then He provided a school for Claire there at BP, Justin's work, so that he can go and visit her on his lunch break, be close to her and spend some daddy/daughter time that is so precious. Now, once again, God has provided again for us in a new home. We went house hunting this week in Houston. FINALLY. I say finally because since the day we got the offer (not accepted but got it) I have been scouring the internet and tv for houses. We were specifically told not to talk to a realtor, and I followed the rules but searched seemingly endlessly for that one house that could be ours. We looked at budget calculators, followed the stock market, and of course the new tax laws in order to make sure that we were doing the right thing for our family. We had settled on older homes because we liked the charm and character they had to offer as well as the fact that typically they were more "economic" and we could do some work ourselves. I enjoy remodeling and renovations and although Justin doesn't like that, he's able to see the potential and profitability of them in the long run. We have taken several trips to Houston to look at neighborhoods, houses on the market, etc to get ideas as well as internet forums, etc. You name it, I've done it. At the beginning of July we were given the go ahead to get a real estate agent to help us find a home. YIPPEE! We were so excited. I again was searching daily to see updated listings, which homes we liked, ones that went under contract. The real estate agent contacted us but still seemed in no hurry. That really frustrated me because I had been waiting since November and it just wasn't happening fast enough for me. She explained how older homes while a good deal and potentially profitable may not be our best option due to the relocation possibilities in our future with BP. We decided that we wouldn't rule out older homes but would include newer ones as well. I wasn't too sure at first especially since most of my research had been on older homes but I trusted her judgment. We emailed back and forth a few times about what we were looking for and we gave her very little information in order to keep our options open and really find something that would fit. All we told her was 4 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, and around 2000 square feet. We preferred a gas stove, and we had a baby grand so we would need a place for that in addition to a living room or den/game room. We went looking on Tuesday for the first time. We viewed 7 homes and all of them were spot on. But we also knew they weren't the right one for us. Especially since at the end of the day, Justin was leaning on one house and I on another. I was worried one of us would have to compromise. I prayed that evening on the way home that whatever happened we would have the peace of Christ in our hearts and that He would lead us to agree without compromising. Wednesday we went back to look some more. We started off looking at 2 houses in an older subdivision that we both absolutely loved. Mature trees, beautiful homes, each unique, and yet unified as a subdivision. Our dream subdivision. It also happened to be a subdivision that had a lot of sentimental value to me due to memories as a kid. I was just sure we'd find our dream home here. Both homes while beautiful, were not what we were looking for. We knew immediately. It was disappointing. We so wanted that subdivision and even as we left I mentioned we should keep praying that a home would list soon there that would work for us. We saw 2 more beautiful homes, but again ones that just weren't THE one for us. The 5th home of the day was a surprise. It was next door to a house that we'd looked at on Tuesday. I asked why we hadn't seen it Tuesday and the real estate agent said it must have been a mistake--she wasn't sure. When I stepped out of the car I noticed the price had dropped and immediately started thinking of why it might have dropped. We had seen some houses that needed some work and I was assuming that was the case with this one. We walked inside. Justin immediately pointed out that this layout was different than any of the other houses we'd seen and would be perfect for the baby grand piano. We walked in the kitchen (my first stop in every house) and i was trying to pay attention to details. I liked it, but still wasn't set on it. We were about to leave and i mentioned how that the only thing that was missing was a fireplace. Justin had specifically requested a fireplace to me months ago as the only MUST in a house. (Why a fireplace in Texas is a must? i don't know, but to him it was so I put it at the top of the list) His response was that it was okay with him because it had everything else we were looking for. We left and debated about it. He was sure immediately. There's this thing about his gut feeling. When he gets them, they're 99.9% of the time right. He doesn't get them very often, so I've learned to pay attention to them. I started rethinking the house in my mind. I wasn't crazy about the house, but I didn't dislike it either. As I rethought it, I realized that it was the best one we'd seen for the price and had all the things we really needed and lots of things we wanted and even better yet a lot of things we hadn't known we wanted! We decided to talk it over at lunch and then go back for a second showing that afternoon. At the end of lunch we were pretty peaceful about it and ready to go back and see it. We looked it over the second time in a few hours and immediately as we walked in, I had a peace about it, knowing it was the one for us. God had given me the peace of mind to know this was His doing. We looked for every problem and couldn't find any. I mean not one problem. Another neat fact is that about a month ago I told Justin that in the new house I wanted to paint the kitchen green to match our dishes and the "apple" theme. We have red apples in this kitchen and I am tired of the red, but still love apples, so I figured I'd switch to green. This kitchen is green. I couldn't believe it! We signed all the paperwork for the offer, but wanted to go home and pray about it some more and get some counsel and sleep on it to make sure it wasn't an emotional decision, but a godly one. We asked the real estate agent not to submit the offer until we gave her the permission to do so. She understood. The next day we submitted the offer. We heard back from the seller and they countered. We still were really not satisfied with their counter so we countered back to them at the end of the business day on Thursday. We were prepared for their counter since we really didn't think they'd accept ours. Friday morning we got an email saying they had accepted our counter! We were ecstatic! We never talked about the scenario that they would just accept our counter! We were sure they would counter back again. Praise the Lord for all He's done in this blessing. He truly went above all that we could ever ask or think or even imagine. I know He says He will, but I am always surprised at just how good God can be. To sum things up, we are moving into a furnished apartment for a month before we move into the house. So we leave Beaumont August 16th and will be in Houston until mid September. Then we'll move into our new house and wait for His next step for us.

Claireisms

2009-06-18T21:23:00.001-05:00

Claire told me the other day, "When I get a dress, necklace, and earrings on, I'll be married!"

Then tonight, as she was going to sleep, she said, "I wish I was a superhero to save people from their monsters. In Jesus' name, Amen!"

the month of May

2009-06-09T21:57:00.003-05:00

Has it been a month already?? WOW! So much was happening this past month, it just flew by! Justin graduated May 18th and we all celebrated his wonderful accomplishment. My parents flew down to attend the longest graduation in Lamar's history and Claire was very good during the whole thing. Claire finished up at her day care here in Beaumont at the end of May and her friends and teachers threw her a going away party. It was so sweet, but Claire really had no idea what all the hubbub was about. It hit her on the way home how much she was going to miss her friends and she started crying. She is such an emotional gal. Gee, I wonder where she gets that from? =) As soon as we got home though, the girl from across the street came over (1st time ever) and asked if Claire could come outside and play. It was a reminder that God cares even over the little sparrow and how Claire's need for a friend could be fulfilled so quickly. A week later, I finished up the school year uneventfully (Thank you Lord!) and so now we're into summer! A few stories I want to document though so that I don't forget them later on.

Sunday, Claire and I were in a department store getting ready to check out. I was getting her a yellow shirt that said "Gymnastics" on the front since that is so Claire. She was walking through the store holding it up to her like she was wearing it already and dancing around (as usual). We were standing in line and a lady comes up behind us. The following is my best recollection of their dialogue.

Claire: Hi! How are you doing?
Lady: Good, How are you?
C: Good. Do you like my shirt?
L: Yes, it's very pretty.
C: All of Mommy's friends are going to like my shirt.
L: I'm sure they will.
C: Where do you live?
L: Thomas Road in Beaumont
C: I live in Beaumont too! That's in TEXAS!
L: Yes, it is in Texas.
C: What are you buying today?
L: (starts pulling out her things) Some straps for my luggage, and these suitcases.
C: Are you going on the ark?
L: The ark?
C: Yes, the ark is a BIG BOAT!
L: Oh.
C: That's where we used to live--the ark! It was a real zoo in there!
L: What was on the ark?
C: 2 Elephants, 2 giraffes
L: Oh. Who else was on the ark?
C: Oh this guy named Noah.
Me: It's time to go Claire. Say goodbye.
C: Goodbye. It was nice talking to you!
L: Goodbye.

I couldn't believe it! I mean, it was the first true conversation she had with an adult. She reminded me so much of Grandpa being able to just see someone in the store and strike up a conversation with them so easily. I'll admit at the time I was a little nervous. The cashiers were snickering and amused the whole time. The lady loved it (she must have been a grandma). Claire thought nothing of it. I mean she enjoyed it, but she had no idea what she'd done. On the way out to the car, I started chuckling to myself and claire asked why. I told her because she is so precious. And ya know what? She absolutely is!

Today we also took our first family trip to the movies. We saw UP. It was good. I was surprised by how moving and sentimental it was. I cried at several parts (what else is new?) But the funny thing was at one point Claire got down off my lap and buried her head in the seat next to us bawling. We asked her what was wrong and she said she missed her cousins. But it was at a really sad part in the movie, so i'm not sure if it was really the cousins that had her upset. She sure is a person who picks up on emotions so quickly and they really matter to her. I hope that doesn't change as she gets older, but I do hope that she will be able to control them a little sooner than I was.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T12:44:00.001-05:00

What a day! I was allowed to sleep in this morning when Justin got up with Claire! What a treat! Then as soon as I came out of the bedroom, Claire shouted, "Happy Mother's Day!" Then she gave me a vase with beautiful flowers in it. Next came touching, thoughtful cards from her and Daddy. Justin made a wonderful chicken penne alfredo lunch that was so yummy! I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's day! Thank you!

60 years!

2009-05-03T20:35:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we attended Justin's grandparents Diamond Anniversary Celebration. They've been married for 60 years! They were married May 3, 1949. Crazy! It was such an event to celebrate. So many marriages these days tend to end or not even begin prematurely. So it is quite an accomplishment to stay married for so long! They were so cute and so honored! I have to say even though I don't spend a lot of time with them, that the more I got involved with the party, the more excited about it I became. We looked up anniversary jokes, found interesting facts about 1949 and the whole family pitched in and we came up with Sixty Plus Reasons We Love You for them. We ended up with about 100! It seemed everyone in the family enjoyed it. It was really nice and also a nice goal for Justin and I to one day, Lord willing celebrate 60 years! That would be August 3, 2062! WOW!

April recap

2009-04-25T20:57:00.002-05:00

Wow. April has flown by. So much has happened this month! Justin is only 3 weeks away from finishing school! He competed in the IEEE Region 5 conference with his team in robotics and individually for his paper/presentation on supercapacitors. His team tied for 11th place (with 11-25th places) but his team still did fairly well based on what they had to work with. He won 2nd place individually! This is such a huge success for him. All seniors had to write a paper/presentation as part of a class grade last semester. All the engineering faculty read the papers and chose the best 2 to compete at the Area level. Justin's was one of the two chosen. At the Area level, Justin also placed well enough to go to Region 5. And there he won 2nd place! This was up against schools such as University of Colorado, University of Texas, Texas A & M, Louisiana State University, and many more. Very well known and large schools. What an honor for Justin to do so well! We also celebrated Easter this month, and Claire went to church with Memaw and Papa. She sat in big church and did very well from what I understand! We have been diligently pressing on in home improvements and have finished the master bathroom as well as much of the landscaping/yard work to be done. Even today we were able to take Claire to Rogers Park here in Beaumont and the sprinklers were on. When we got there, Matty and Uncle Matt were already there, so Claire joined Matty in getting wet! They have such a ball together. I love how they play together so well...honestly better than brother and sister. They hardly ever argue. Matty has been in baseball games and we have made every effort to make as many as we can. Claire likes to go and has learned how to maneuver on the bleachers very well. She also likes to pick us flowers (weeds) and cheer on the Indians! School stinks for me, but I am almost done. The Lord has truly blessed us this month and we praise Him for all the seen and unseen blessings!

Da Bears!

2009-04-05T20:57:00.002-05:00

Since we are moving to Houston this summer, I have to switch jobs. I sent out my resume and a cover letter to 5 school districts in the area and 13 schools. After several responses, interviews, and communication, I selected a school to work for. I won't give the name of the school for personal and professional reasons, but I will say my new mascot is the Bears. I am so excited! I really felt the Lord's peace about the school I am going to and am already praying for my future students. One more piece to the puzzle that will be our new life and the Lord truly is showing Himself mightily. There are only a few "big" pieces left to fit and I know that He already is carving them out for us.

Claire went all week at school with no accidents, praise God! We are so proud of her accomplishments! She also is learning the states of America and knows where our family lives. Good thing we mostly live in states that are pretty easy to pick out...Texas, Michigan, and Florida.

Justin is feverishly working on the robot as competition is next week and lots of work is still needed to complete it. He will be going to competition without a cheering section, but we will be cheering him on here at home.

Boo Hoo Matty

2009-03-28T21:43:00.002-05:00

We went to Matty's baseball game today. In the 2nd inning, he got hit in the face with a pitch. It hit his upper lip and swelled immediately. Poor Matty. We left the game, but he was ok. Claire and I saw him later on and he was feeling much better. Before the game, Justin and Papa went to get wood for the cabinet they're building for the master bathroom. They were working very hard on it. I'm sure they'll have it finished in no time.

Blogged Down

2009-03-27T21:06:00.002-05:00

I have been wanting to post for a while now, but it seems so much has happened, I felt that I wouldn't do justice. So, I've decided to just start back up and leave the past in the past. If it gets brought up in future posts, so be it.

Today we worked outside in the yard on the front flower beds. They have not gotten worked on since we've been in the house--4 years. So it was certainly time. Claire had fun out there digging with her little pink shovel in the dirt. What 3 year old wouldn't? Justin and I did not have fun, but we were productive. He trimmed back the shrubs from excessive overgrowth and I raked out the flower beds from the leaves, etc that had been collecting underneath. While we were out there, a neighbor's dog came to see what was going on. He had been let out to go potty. Claire asked why he was out there so we explained. She then asked, "Why does everything go potty?" So I turned into teacher mode and said that it was all our waste coming out. Sort of like taking out the garbage to which she responded, "Why do we have waste?" At this point Justin turned to me and exclaimed, "She's at this stage now, isn't she?" I said to Claire, "Well, because we're not perfect!" Claire asked why we weren't perfect. Sin was basically my answer and then I told Justin that I had never related going potty as sin before. Claire was content with that answer or else was distracted by something else because no other questions came. I'm sure this was just one of many "Why?" conversations we'll have. It was humid after yesterday's rain so we didn't work out there too much longer than necessary. Then we came inside and Claire and I made ChiliMac. Yum. She helped me the entire time which was nice. I think she'll be an excellent cook someday. We then ate and relaxed until Justin went to work. Claire and I took a nap and then hung out the rest of the evening here at home. While we were relaxing with Justin, she was playing a Dora Candy Land computer game. It froze up on her and she called for help. I tried to help, but was unsuccessful. Justin came in and asked if I could minimize the window. Claire said, "Mommy, minimize it!" We were shocked that she repeated such a big word. It seems like she's growing up right before my very eyes.

Photo Tag!

2009-02-09T21:06:00.003-06:00

Here's how you play!
1. Go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.
2. Select your 4th picture (no exceptions)!
3. Post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger
4. Tag 4 people (or as many as you want) to do the same!!

So the picture above is of course Claire. It was taken in February 2006 so she was 4 months old. She is a stomach sleeper. Always has been. I remember this outfit though specifically. My parents bought it for her before she was born. Hence the white (we didn't know what gender we were having prior to her birth). They bought it in Hawaii for baby. It was one of the special outfits that she wore to church early in life. I love how babies sleep. How precious and vulnerable they look. How happy and comfortable.

4 people I'm tagging.
1. Walker
2. Stacy
3. Christina
4. Susan

Charleston Chew

2009-01-23T20:51:00.002-06:00

Claire decided today that Charleston Chew is her favorite candy bar ever. Good thing is, Memaw's favorite too so they have that in common. We surprised Memaw today with one and a visit from us. I am feeling SOOO much better from yesterday. What a turnaround! Thank you Lord! Today also I heard 2 spontaneous prayers from the backseat. "Thank You Jesus, for making such a sunny day for us to go to the park!" and "Thank You Jesus for making us happy!" I can't express what joy bubbles inside me when I hear things like that especially from Claire. Lord, please keep her heart tender towards You all the days of her life. I know that You can control our hearts just like You made Pharoah's heart hardened against the Israelites. I praise You for Your power in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen!

2009-01-23T20:48:00.002-06:00

I was sick Thursday. I just felt horrible all day long. I didn't even go to celebrate Justin and Meme's birthdays. Justin took Claire to Ryan's to enjoy the birthday celebration. (His most favorite place ever, said incredibly sarcastically)

Falling Down

2009-01-23T20:40:00.003-06:00

I have the craziest dreams. I won't bore you with them, because as someone once said, "Dreams are only funny to the one that had it." I will simply say that I had a dream last night that Claire and I were in an accident. It was scary, but we were both fine. I was mindful of the dream as I went to pick Claire up from school. On the way home, I missed a left hand turn that I usually make. "No big deal, I'll take a different way home," I thought. I took the next turn and there was a train just starting. I remember as a little girl waiting for trains with my mom. We used to count the cars go by. I started up with Claire...1...2...3...50. I stopped. The train seemed endless and Claire had stopped counting long before 50. The truck ahead of me turned around. Several cars turned around behind me. I stuck around. I didn't have a time restriction, and I was enjoying Claire's tales of the day. Finally, the train ended. I waited until the railroad crossing arm went up. I watched the SUV on the opposite side of the tracks start to come my direction. I looked both ways one more time just to be safe. Nothing coming. I started going. BANG! Something hit the top of the car and I was instantly flashing back to my dream. The rear-view mirror hits my left wrist and I say, "Oh my gosh!" as I hit the accelerator. I hear Claire in the back seat say, "Oh my gosh!" and I'm thankful that she's ok. Apparently the railroad crossing arm came back down and hit my car. It broke in several pieces and me? I just kept driving. I call Justin and was silent. I didn't know how to tell him. My windshield is cracked the entire way across. The rear-view mirror is on the passenger seat, but we're fine. Thank you Lord for Your protection!

Interesting Inauguration

2009-01-23T20:19:00.003-06:00

I had the privilege today of watching President Obama take his oath of office and become the 44th President of the United States. I do count it a privilege to have witnessed this not because of his personal beliefs or promises, but because I see it as ordained by God and an authority over me. I also am proud to be part of a country that allows a person of any race, ethnicity, belief, etc. to become whatever they want to become. It gives me hope and a deeper appreciation for living up to your dreams whatever they may be. Claire has said that she wants to be an astronaut. I don't have any reason to keep her from aspiring to be such. How awesome it would be for her to witness God's creation in our galaxy! Although the inauguration was big news in the whole wide big world today as Claire would say, Justin's birthday was big news in our household! Claire got him an armband for the iPod Touch, so of course, I had to get him the actual iPod Touch. He was pleased with it and has lots of neat little widgets for it now. On top of that, we got to have a date night. I took him out to Poblano Grill (thanks for the idea, Lori!) and then we went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop. What a great movie! It's been a while since we've been to the movies, much less to see a good one, and this one was well worth the wait! It was funny, romantic, cute, family friendly, but mostly funny! We had a great time laughing! So Happy Birthday Sweetheart! Hope you had a great one!

2009-01-19T20:58:00.002-06:00

No school today since it is MLK day. Justin was sick so he called off work. I had a lot to accomplish so I still took Claire to school for just a little while. I dropped her off, got some supplies at Lowe's and got groceries. Then we ate lunch, and I got to work. I put up a ceiling fan in our music room. It took me 2 hours and I was really ready to quit, but I stuck with it and it's finished. It looks good too! Then I started to fix the drywall in the master bath. Never done it before and not too sure how to do it, so I just did one little section and am waiting to see how it turns out. If it's okay, then I'll do more. Otherwise, it's up to Justin or someone else. We'll see. Then I went to get Claire. She came home and we had an enjoyable evening as a family. Justin really didn't feel well so the two of them got some bonding time while I got loads of laundry done, sheets changed, dishes done, Claire bathed, and closets reorganized. I really got a lot done today! Sometimes I think that if I could just have days like today everyday, I'd have a spic and span house. Then I realize that if I had days like today everyday, I would do so much in one day. Ah well, such is life right?

Everything we Need

2009-01-18T22:00:00.002-06:00

Today at lunch, Claire and I were the first ones at the table. Memaw was finishing up getting last minute things ready in the kitchen. Claire and I started talking about how everything was on the table. She said that we had everything we needed. I said, "You're right! But who gives us everything we need?" She answered Jesus. I followed up with, "Jesus is everything we need, isn't He?" She responded, "Thank you Jesus, for giving us everything we need." I looked up at Memaw to see her response and she was just standing there. I saw a look of pride and gratefulness on her face. Claire continued, "Thank you Memaw, for making lunch for us!" A smile broke across both of our faces. What a joy she brings into our lives. This morning in the sermon, Pastor was speaking about the saddest thing about atheism. He was quoting from another source and made the statement that the worst thing about atheists is that when they feel grateful, they have no one to thank. Truly Claire displayed this at lunch. Thank you Lord, for being everything we need and for being there to accept our gratefulness. On another note, Justin has been sick today with the beginnings of a cold. Hopefully he will feel better soon. Claire tonight since we've been home from church as well has had a runny nose. I keep telling her to catch it but unfortunately it still keeps running away.

Are you two playing nicely?

2009-01-17T21:56:00.002-06:00

Play-doh is messy! But, Claire got a set of play-doh and molds for Christmas, so we pulled them out today. Justin and her played for a while at the kitchen table and had so much fun! They made all sorts of monsters. She did very well going potty today even through a tough day. We didn't really do anything else too exciting, but sometimes it's nice to just have a good day. We played, got some housework done, spent time with Memaw and Papa, and time with each other. One thing that Claire has started lately is saying to us, "Are you two playing nicely?" It sure is cute, but I'm not really sure where she got it from. And the answer is always yes. She also counts to 20 but always skips 14, 16, and 18. We are convinced that she knows the correct way to say it, but just doesn't want us to know, or just thinks it's cute. Either way, it sure does become bothersome.

2009-01-17T07:10:00.003-06:00

On our way home yesterday, here is the conversation Claire and I had.

C: I can't hear you!
M: What?
C: I can't hear you!
M: Why can't you hear me?
C: I can't hear you!
M: Oh, well. (I realize she's just playing a game) I can't hear you either!
C: Can we see Daddy?
M: Can we see Daddy?
C: Look at the light!
M: Look at the light!
C: Car?
M: Car? (I start copying everything she says just to see what she'll do)
C: Can we turn right here? (towards Memaw and Papa's)
M: Can we turn right here?
C: please?
M: please?
C: Sure!
M: Sure!

It stuns me how quickly she figures puzzles/logic out. It didn't take her long at all to use the situation of me copying her to go the way she wanted. We did not go the way she wanted, but the fact that she figured out how to get me to say yes so quickly is pretty smart I think. Last night I went to dinner with a couple girlfriends and had a great fellowship time. It really made me think about the last weeks with Claire and how frustrated I've been and to just get over it. She's normal. She's who she is and she'll mature and not frustrate me so much in the future. I wish Justin could have evenings like I did and someday he will. Lord, help me to be patient and know that Your timing is the only timing that matters--not mine.

"Not Again!"

2009-01-15T21:46:00.002-06:00

Claire stayed home with Justin today all day. How fun it is for the 2 of them to get daddy-daughter time together. He is much more patient with her than I. When I got home from work, we were deciding how we were going to spend our evening as a family. Claire started to throw a fit and so we warned her of time-out. She slapped the floor to show her discontent with the discipline. So I started counting as she hit "1....2....next time you hit, it will be time-out...do you understand?" "yes ma'am" was her reply. About 10 seconds later, another hit came. Mind you her fit had stopped long before this, but the attitude remained obviously. "Okay, Claire...let's go to time out for hitting." So she gets time out. About 10 minutes after time out, the same exact scenario plays out. I mean, EXACT. So I put her in time out again....as I'm walking out of the room, she's upset and crying and then we hear, "NOT AGAIN!" Apparently, she came to the realization that she was back in time out for the exact same attitude issue as before. She returned to crying and then got out of time out with her usual apology and request for forgiveness, hug, kiss, and reminder that love is always here. I was thinking about it though, how silly of her to be put in time out for the exact same thing that she'd been put in time out earlier. WHAM! It hit me. How often do I do the same thing? Perhaps not with hitting the floor or needing an attitude adjustment that time-outs help with, but don't I behave the same way over again after it didn't work before? Lord, please help me to be conscious of my actions and show me how to adjust my attitude before a "Not Again" moment.

2009-01-14T21:31:00.002-06:00

What a long day! School started as usual and then I took advantage of my new lunch time and went to lunch with Justin. We went to a Japanese place we hadn't been before and was pleasantly surprised. It was really good! Then I got back to school to work on some stuff before going to the hospital. When I walked in our building I noticed water on the floor and a wet-dry vac being used. Hmmm..... Well, apparently 3 of the students thought they would play a practical joke on their teacher (not me!) and pulled the safety shower in the room....that wasn't enough apparently and rigged it so that it kept running......while everyone in the building was at lunch! The teacher had 2" of water in the entire classroom, chemical storage room, and adjoining classroom. It was a mess to say the least. Thankfully, the school has cameras in the hallways and found out who the culprits were. It at least provided an unexpected ending to the school day. After school we had a faculty meeting that lasted until 5:30. I rushed to get Claire, through a drive-thru and onto Puggles by 6 pm. Whew! We enjoyed Puggles together and when it was time for me to go to choir, Claire chimed in, "Have a good singing!" It warmed my heart to hear her encouragement and certainly not her tears! Choir is always an uplifting time for me and tonight was no exception. Even though it was a long day, I know that God was with me through every moment helping me along. Thank you Lord!

Check-up!

2009-01-13T21:08:00.002-06:00

Claire had her 3 year old check up today. She is 42" tall. Not bad for 3 years old. She did very well at the check up physically. The doctor asked me how her speech was and I answered, "good". He then asked, "Does she speak in sentences yet?" I was shocked! I said, "Sentences? She tells me stories!" He seemed surprised. He then said, "I guess speech is not a problem!" What a blessing! I really hadn't paid attention to her speech lately as far as development, but apparently it's because I didn't need to. Thank you Lord for that blessing. Emotionally, however, Claire did not do that well at the doctor's. She basically threw one HUGE fit the entire time we were there. Not very pleasant at all. I really was beside myself trying to understand her problem. She just wanted out of there so badly. I tried to reassure her, but she just wouldn't calm down. It wasn't until we met with Daddy for dinner that a normal Claire emerged. It also was Justin that helped shed some light on Claire. She had a colonoscopy done back in July and woke up to tubes, etc. He thinks that experience could have affected her response today at the doctor's. I think he's right. Now that doesn't excuse her fit throwing, but it does help to explain it a little bit. Now how to get over it? Well, hopefully we don't have to go back to the doctor's anytime soon. This morning I also woke up with a full blown head cold. Man, I was miserable all day. Yesterday my nose was stuffed, but today it is so much worse. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I think it is caused because there is no heat in my classroom at school. Yes, no heat. Now in Michigan this would mean subzero temperatures. Well, it's not quite that bad here, but it's still been in the 40's which is pretty cold when you're in it all day long with no escape. Thank you Lord for allowing me to have the hospital to escape to in the afternoon.

Great Strides Forward

2009-01-12T20:37:00.003-06:00

Claire had no accidents today! Yea! I treated her to ice cream tonight just because and it ended up being a great motivator to keep her from having any other accidents afterward! I had a good day all around. I love my new schedule at school. We had a meeting after school that lasted until 4 and I still got a lot accomplished. Usually I would have been wiped. Tomorrow begins Justin's last first day of school. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord for all Your blessings and help me to remember these blessings next time I need them.

Sweet Sunday

2009-01-11T21:33:00.002-06:00

Today is Sunday--the Lord's Day. We went to church and had a challenging message. The invitation lasted over 30 minutes. Hallelujah! What a pleasure it is to go to a service and know that God is working so mightily. It's also a joy to know that it is a safe place where people are willing to let Him work and not worry about what others may think. This afternoon we had a fabulous roast dinner over at Papa and Memaw's with Mimi and Pawpaw and the rest of the family. Claire enlightened everyone with her jokes from this week. Then we went home and had a nap while Justin went to work. *sigh* Oh, the day is coming when he can enjoy a Sunday afternoon nap too and we all look forward to those days. Then off to enjoy evening church after a while of Youth Choir. We started working on the song, We Will Dance and Revelation. Great songs! Evening service was great too and I'll be honest. Although I thoroughly enjoy morning worship, it seems that evening service is just so much more special. It seems so much more casual and more like a family learning together from God's Word. Thank you Lord for each service You allow us to be a part of.

Funnies

2009-01-10T21:18:00.003-06:00

Claire told me a joke today...it went like this

C: What do you call a bear with no socks on?
M: I don't know...what?
C: Barefoot!

She really does like to tell jokes, but most of the time, she gets them messed up....today was impeccable!

What's your favorite joke to tell?

Frantic Friday!

2009-01-09T21:18:00.002-06:00

Wow. What a day! School was exciting today as we did the "golden penny" lab. We turned pennies into a golden color (actually making brass) and the students really liked it. It also was very relevant to the curriculum which is always good. Since my schedule is changing on Monday, I told my students that today was the last day that I would be their teacher. They were really upset. I could see it on their faces. I have to say, it surprised me a little. I didn't expect them to be jumping for joy or anything, but I just didn't expect their heartfelt disappointment that I wouldn't be there to help them along anymore. Hopefully I'll still get to see them. I picked up Claire from school and we took a run to Wal-Mart to get a few things. We got there and I realized she hadn't gone potty yet, so we went directly to the restrooms. She did great! We then got a cart and picked up the stuff we had gone there for and of course, a few extras that we didn't! It hadn't been but 30 minutes, so we left. I was looking for a new purse, but didn't really like any of the ones that Wal-Mart had. I remembered I have a JCPenney gift card so I rushed over there to see what they had. We got to Penney's and I go to get Claire out of the car and I realize she's had an accident in her seat. "It's okay" I said, "Just tell me if you need to go!" "Okay, Mommy" So I change her right there and we walk in. As we were walking in, I said, "Claire, Do you need to go potty?" "No, Ma'am," she replied. I thought to myself, "What a dumb question? She just went! Of course she doesn't need to go again!" Plus, every other time that she has had an accident, I take her to the potty, and nothing happens. We went straight to the purses, spent probably 5 minutes picking one out that was on sale, and we start to head for the cashier when her pants start getting darker in the middle of both legs and the darkness is spreading. She had accident #2! I felt bad for not taking her and I know she felt bad for having another "askdent" as she says. I had no clothes with me at this point, so I just went to the cashier to pay and then leave especially since there was no line. So I'm stand at the counter and the cashier is with her friend looking at clothes very close to the register. She says she'll be right with me and I say fine. She comes to the register 3 different times to check prices on clothes for her friend. Meanwhile, Claire notices the gift card display and knocks one of them down that had 3 gift cards in it. I tell her to pick it up. She begins to (very obediently! =) ) and the cashier leaves the register for the 3rd time to go over to the display to pick them up for Claire. I ask the cashier politely not to, and say, "Please don't pick them up. We're trying to teach her!" She responds to me, "I'm not telling her it's okay to drop them but I can pick them up for her!" with a snotty tone in her voice. I was really shocked! I said, "Can I just pay please?" and then pay, and leave. I'm really not in a good mood at this point. I am upset at the cashier, I am frustrated with Claire for her accidents, and I am frustrated with myself for not packing more clothes/taking her more often, etc. We get out to the car and have no more pants/pull-ups/panties for Claire. Remember too, her car seat is wet from her first accident. I take the plastic Penney's bag and cover the seat for a lining from the wetness. Then I put a shirt down so she doesn't have to sit bare-bottomed on plastic. Then she sits down and I proceed to put a sweatshirt over her to protect her from any onlookers, or the seatbelt going over her legs. She is still upset about having her accident and "making Mommy upset." I try to calm her down and tell her that it's ok, but that if she can't start telling me when she needs to go potty or when she has gone potty in her pants, that we'll have to go back to pull-ups. I reassure her that she's learning and that she'll get there and that it's ok. Her having an accident didn't make me upset was all I could get across. As soon as I get in the car to leave, she pulls the sweatshirt out from under the seatbelt leaving her exposed from the waist down. Now I'm really, REALLY frustrated! I redo my little setup. I just want to go home at this point. I call Justin to see if he wants some dinner. Claire is still upset in the backseat. I am still extremely frustrated, but don't want to make Claire feel even worse. Justin, poor Justin, must have been busy at work, because he sounded frustrated too. I just couldn't take any more so I just sat in silence....that made him upset that I called him and wasn't talking. And it honestly wasn't that I didn't want to talk, but that I knew nothing would come out the way I wanted it to. It would either have been sarcastic, mean, yelling, or crying. All of which would just make things worse. So, I'm sorry, that I called and didn't talk. I hope you understand now. After a while in silence, he said, "Well, if you're not going to talk, I'll let you go. Bye." So I started to go home. We ended up getting dinner and taking some to him at work on our way home. I apologized when I saw him, but I still just couldn't verbalize all of this at that point. Claire had calmed down by that point and hopefully, he was able to go back in and enjoy his dinner. Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to a peaceful weekend if ever there was a need for one, it's now. However, I'm still very mindful that even though this has been a complaining post, it's not even a drop in the bucket for others. Thank you Lord, for all the blessings that sometimes we cause to be a burden for ourselves. Thank you Lord, for not withholding those blessings because we may cause it to be a burden in the future.

TAKS Thursday

2009-01-08T21:43:00.002-06:00

Today was an okay day at school. We had a mock TAKS(Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test for English/Language Arts. They shut the school down for everyone to take this test which is a practice for March when the real test happens. I had 25 9th graders in one room from 7:30 to 2:55. Let's just say it was a long day. The students even had lunch delivered to them. However, they were fairly well behaved for such a situation. After school, I met Justin and Claire at the park and then we went to Memaw and Papa's house to visit. Uncle Matt came over and we watched the first half of the BCS National Championship game before heading home for bed. Claire had a great day and we were really happy to have family time together. We are starting to plan our vacation for this summer but really don't have any good ideas on where to go. Any suggestions?

Mispronunciations

2009-01-07T20:40:00.002-06:00

Today was an ordinary day for us again. Seems this week has been pretty uneventful...so this blog is boring. But at least it's another entry. I'm really trying to be more regular about posting. I made lasagna for dinner last night and it makes so much for just the 3 of us that we have leftovers for a couple of days. Tonight on the way home from school, I told Claire that we would be having lasagna for dinner. She responded, "Miss Sonya???" Miss Sonya is one of her teachers at school. It took me a while to figure out what she had said, but then I just chuckled. Another one of her sayings lately is that she was born at the post office. Why she thinks this, I have no idea. But if you ask her where she was born, she emphatically responds with, "The Post Office!" Then, when you try to tell her she was actually born at the hospital, she repeats..."hostible." It's a neverending battle. I do remember however as a little girl saying, "hangabur" instead of hamburger. It just sounded the same to me...so I guess I understand where she gets it from. It will correct itself eventually, but it sure is cute for now. What words did you mispronounce as a child or adult?

Answers to Prayer

2009-01-06T20:54:00.002-06:00

This year has been my toughest year teaching so far. There have still been many, many blessings, but I will admit it has been tough. I have learned a lot about myself and others since August. I have never wanted to quit a job so badly, but I know that I am not a quitter and am sticking it out. On Monday when I went back, I learned of an opportunity to change my class schedule around. It was not a very obvious opportunity at first, but I did my best to use it. I received word today that it actually is going to work out even better than I originally thought! I am losing 2 of my classes but gaining 1 class that takes up 2 class periods. I will be working with medical magnet students that have rotations at a local hospital. I will be observing them in their rotations making sure that they are doing what they should be doing. I am so excited for this opportunity. It doesn't begin until Monday, but I am so looking forward to my new schedule. Thank you Lord for taking care of us and knowing what we can individually handle. Justin went to school today to work on the robot. He showed me pictures of it and it looks like they're right on schedule. I know he enjoys working on it, but I know I will be happy to be able to spend more time with him when it's finished! Claire had a good day today and enjoyed getting her letters. She has been interested in the mail lately and has been waiting for a letter to come for her. Today we got a ton of junk mail and so we made it just for her from Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Tricia. Uncle Jimmy got her a card and Aunt Tricia got her a catalog, I mean, a book! She was jumping around saying, "Hip Hip Hooray!" and was so excited! We have told her that she would get letters if she would write them, but she is not interested in writing any letters. She was still so excited just to think that she got letters even if they really weren't what she thought they were!

Christmas....in January?

2009-01-05T21:41:00.004-06:00

Today I was not ready to go back to work, but I managed anyway. Claire did ok at school once she got settled in. Justin had a good day so I guess overall a pleasant day was had by all. I don't really have anything exciting to write about, but I'm trying to make this a more regular habit. We did get our Christmas present from my brother and his family...Figis fudge and nuts. Mmmm! I, of course, had to dig in right away to test it out for the rest of my family. They are delish! So, thanks! It will certainly be eaten! On another note, I have been challenged lately about the relationship between husband and wife in a marriage. Marriages all around have been attacked or so it seems by Satan. Marriages that I never would have thought would succumb to such attacks. I know that marriage is ordained by God and is held very special in His eyes. I was reminded of that this evening in Genesis 12:10-20 where Abram told Pharoah that Sarai (Abram's wife) was really just his sister in order to avoid danger. Now that doesn't really sound like that bad of a deal, but Pharoah took Sarai as his wife and his entire household because Pharoah was taking Abram's wife even when Pharoah didn't realize he was committing adultery. That is just a reminder to me the importance God places on the commitment between man and wife. Even when we mess up our marriage, God still has a hold on it. Thank you Lord!

Another Day

2009-01-04T21:51:00.002-06:00

Today seemed like an ordinary day. Nothing exciting happened. Claire and I didn't even leave the house. It rained and I cleaned out her room. She did get mad at me for cleaning her room. Perhaps a preview of what is to come? She tried to kick me out of her room, but of course, that didn't happen. We had just thrown all of her Christmas presents in her room and hadn't put them away, so today I did a toy purge and put all of her current toys in their proper place. I also went through her clothes again and put away all the ones that don't fit her anymore. Her legs are so long it has become a real pain to buy pants/skirts/dresses/shorts for her. Her arms are also long so finding long-sleeved shirts are also difficult, but thankfully in this Texas weather, not many of those are needed. The problem is not just her legs are long, but that her waist is tiny compared to her length. I have found adjustable waist pants thanks to Grandma and those have become a staple already. I also addressed Christmas cards tonight to those that I have addresses for. Another reminder of another resolution for this New Year--to reconnect to those good friends that I have lost touch with. So I will be hunting addresses this week. Speaking of this week, tomorrow starts back my work routine. Thankfully there are exactly 100 days left of school this year with students. I can do that...counting down from 100. It's not that teaching is that bad...I actually love it. It's just that I have really enjoyed being at home with Claire and Justin these past 2 weeks. I feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished and I feel our relationships with each other have grown stronger individually and as a family. That is what I feel like I miss out by working outside the home. That is why I'm counting down 100 days. I love my students much more than they know and I have thought about each of them several times over the holidays. Not just my current students either, former students included. I hope they all had wonderful holidays with their families and that their family relationships grew stronger also. So here's to another day and another 100 days.

Home Improvements

2009-01-03T22:05:00.002-06:00

Since we are planning to move this summer, we will be putting our house up for sale. Because of this, we are starting to improve it here and there in our spare time in order to increase our profit on this house. One thing Justin and I worked on this weekend was replacing 2 light fixtures in the dining room and living room. We got ones that match each other and the hallway fixture we replaced earlier in the year. We realized that our house has some crazy wiring and after 2 days, we got both light fixtures working. Tonight I also took down the paneling that was in our laundry room. I took the moulding off and then the paneling and discovered drywall behind it! Our house is complete paneling and all of the other paneling had no drywall behind it except for the laundry room. What a praise this is as we were expecting to put up some white beadboard to cover up the studs but now we don't have to! We can just paint! I also discovered this also happened in the bathrooms so again just painting is in store! I have to say, I enjoyed ripping the paneling down tonight. Claire also wanted to help, so she did help a little bit. She is a great helper! She also painted today and wanted to spell everyone's name in our family....including Jesus. She is such a sweetheart! Our goal is to get the home improvements done by June so that we can concentrate on finding a new house over the summer and selling this one! What has been your biggest home improvement project you've done?

Little Lessons

2009-01-02T21:28:00.002-06:00

I was struck a few months back about how to show Claire what Jesus means to Justin and I. How can a 3 year old understand what so many adults never get? I prayed about it and I started to incorporate Jesus in our everyday life. Profound idea right? What I mean is, I started to verbalize what so many of us often take for granted. For instance, when I got a great parking spot at the mall or grocery store I would say, "Thank you Jesus, for the perfect parking spot!" Little statements at the simplest things. "Thank you Lord, for the beautiful day!" Claire started to pick up on it. I couldn't believe it! Now, she will randomly say things like this too and it just warms my heart to hear her praise God for the little things. Today, we picked up our Christmas card pictures (yes, I know it's January!) and before we got to the store, Claire asked if she could sit on the little couch that she sat on to get the pictures taken. Not really wanting to deal with another tantrum, I said maybe but in my heart I said there's no way! There are other people taking pictures! It will be something else for you to get into! When we got there, there was another lady picking up her pictures. Claire immediately ran over to the little waiting area and starting moving furniture around. As I stood there, I noticed that the little couch was outside the portrait studio and it was empty. Perfect for her to sit on. I motioned to Claire and pointed to the little couch. She just beamed! While I got the pictures of the beautiful family I've been blessed with, she sat content on the little couch. When we walked out to the car, I asked her if she'd thanked Jesus for the answered prayer. We prayed on our way out thanking Him for the little things. I just hope and pray that one day all these little lessons will point her to Him. In that same direction, I just want to thank Him for the family He has blessed me with. I couldn't ask for a better husband, a loving daughter, and amazing extended family members. Thank you Lord, for my family, and please bless each and every one of them tonight and in 2009. May we bring You all the glory that we can because You deserve it and so much more! Amen.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-31T21:19:00.002-06:00

It's been a while, but God is so good! We are still planning to move in the summer of 2009 to West Houston for Justin to work at BP. I have been looking for houses, schools for me to work, preschools for Claire, and of course a church home for all of us. The end of the semester was crazy for all of us--it was looking spotty there for a while. Justin's parents are still redoing their house from Hurricane Ike damage and they were both in the hospital during December. Justin had finals, a senior paper, a senior project, and the robot to work on. Claire is potty training, and I was honestly having the hardest time as a teacher I've faced yet. All that is finished though (except Claire) and once again I was reminded that God is paying attention to all the little details of life so carefully. We celebrated Christmas last week and had one of the best Christmases I remember. Claire led her class in singing Happy Birthday to Jesus while they ate Santa Claus cookies because she told her class that Christmas isn't about Santa but Jesus' birthday. At least she's got that right! She also was so surprised however when Santa brought her a Dora dollhouse on Christmas morning. Since then, she has been asking when Santa is coming again and if she'll get more presents....like 30 times a day. We are still potty training but she's doing much better this time, so I'm trying to be more patient. She has been in big girl underwear for 2 weeks now and has been dry after nap 3 days in a row...we're getting there folks. Slowly but surely. If only she'll actually tell me she needs to go potty I think I'd have a heart attack right there. We are staying up to watch the New Year come in and as she told Papa on the phone tonight, she's going to say, "BOO!" As far as New Year Resolutions, I'm going kind of low-key. I plan to read through the Bible this year and signed up for an email daily reminder at http://www.Bibleplan.org to help me keep on track. We also plan to be settled in a new house, church, and city by the end of 2009. That really doesn't happen though until the 2nd half. The 1st half will be focused on getting through the school year and getting our house ready to sell. Of course losing weight is always on the list, but hopefully it won't be just one of those resolutions that loses steam by February. We'll see. I do know that whatever 2009 brings, it all will be from God and He knows best and wants the best for us. Happy New Year! What are your resolutions???

Blessings!

2008-11-19T06:50:00.004-06:00

Big changes are coming. Justin received an offer from BP last week. We have discussed it thoroughly and have prayed incessantly about it and all the ramifications of such a change in our family's lives. We both believe strongly that this is the place that the Lord is leading us to. It will mean us selling our home, uprooting all that Claire has ever known, changing jobs, churches, etc. Where are we going? West Houston. Where are we going? West Houston. Where are we going? West Houston. (Sorry, Dora the Explorer song slipped in there) The job is exciting for Justin as he will get to work for a huge international company and have lots of opportunities. It is exciting for me as I begin to look for a new home and job. Claire doesn't really understand our excitement but she does know we're excited because she keeps walking around the house saying, "You're happy Mama!" It sorta makes me wonder if I've been a grump for a while now. Not really, but it's neat to see that she picks up on that sorta thing. Sensitive sweetheart. It also means us finding a new church home (thanks, internet) and a new school/day-care for Claire. Since she'll be 3 we're looking at mostly preschools rather than daycare centers but we're excited for the change this will all bring. There are some drawbacks however as with any move. We've really made lasting friendships at our church here and right now we're 10 minutes away from Justin's parents which we truly enjoy having them so close...Claire does too! So there will be some sad moments through all this. But West Houston is only about 2 hours away so we will have frequent trips back to visit, I'm sure!
One of the strangest things about this move is where we're moving to. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. When I was 8, my parents uprooted everything my siblings and I had ever known to take a church pastorate in West Houston. We moved there and lived there for 3 years. After that, we moved back to Michigan. During those 3 years is when we found my mom's cancer that prolonged her life 7 years. I also was able to witness the beliefs of my parents and their trust in the Lord first hand as they moved us cross country, financial struggles, health struggles, church struggles, and probably more struggles than they let on to their youngest daughter. I truly believe those 3 years have impacted my life greater than several other years of my childhood. It also was another reason why Justin and I are together. When we first met, one of the things that truly attracted me to him was the fact that he was from Texas since I had lived there and had such a positive experience there. Even though he wasn't from the same place I had lived, it was somewhere I could relate to a little better and was interested in. And now? for Justin to receive this offer close to 20 years later after the first move to West Houston and it be 10 minutes from where all those memories, influential people, and life changing moments happened is simply unbelievable to me. I never would have dreamed in a million years that I'd end up back there through the Lord's guidance. I guess that is one of the biggest reasons why I believe so strongly that this is the Lord's will for us at this point in our lives. I cannot thank the Lord enough for all of His blessings. "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord" Psalm 149:21a

Puggles!

2008-11-06T06:14:00.003-06:00

Our church does a program called Puggles, which is for older 2 and younger 3 year olds to do before they go to Cubbies. It is part of the AWANA program which is excellent! Claire fits perfectly into this age group. Since her birthday is in October, she is 1 month shy of being able to be in Cubbies, but she is still old enough to sit still for a short, SHORT, lesson, and to color, do a craft, and play. It's designed to teach the little ones about God. A puggle is a baby platypus which to me is just the cutest name ever. Anyway, during the summer, when they were recruiting AWANA workers, I found out about this program at our church for Claire's age group. I was so excited. However, they told me it was only for children whose parents worked in AWANA. I haven't worked in AWANA before due to choir practice on Wednesday evenings and our crazy schedule throughout the week, I was hesitant to add one more thing on my plate. But I really wanted her to do Puggles! Justin and I were talking and he asked who taught the Puggles class? I answered that I didn't know. So I asked, and they said they didn't have a teacher. I volunteered. Not only does Claire get to do Puggles, but she gets to do it with me! I am so excited about it! She is even more excited about it too! She asks every time we go anywhere now if I'm going to be her teacher. It is only an hour long, and in that hour we do a 5 minute lesson, a craft, a snack, songs, and a coloring page. The rest of the time is just play time. She is really enjoying it.
The other reason why I am excited is that I remember my mom teaching in my Sunday school class when I was 2 or 3. I don't really have a lot of memories, but I do have a few that are vivid and now that she is gone to be with Jesus, they are precious to me. Especially since she was taking the time to teach me about Jesus when I was that little. So I guess that I hope that when Claire is older, that she might remember a few of these times we spend together at Puggles and that I think teaching her about Jesus is the most important, since that truly is the most important thing I can teach her--ever.

Prayer

2008-10-15T20:00:00.002-05:00

Today we learned that Claire has been praying at school for her lunch. This certainly pleased us so at dinner Daddy asked her to please say a prayer for our dinner. This is what she prayed:

"God is great, God is good,
Now we fank him for our food,
Amen. No talking. No mess."

Apparently they're not allowed to talk or make a mess at school during lunch. We adapted the "prayer" for dinner to say some talking, no mess.

Claire's Birthday!

2008-10-07T21:30:00.008-05:00

Claire turned 3 last Friday. She wanted "bubbles" for her party. So we did bubble invitations by using washable paints to make our own homemade bubble solution. Then we painted the bubbles (by blowing through a regular wand) onto the invitations. She had so much fun, it was easy, and they turned out great! Then we did a whole bubble theme with tons of wands, bubble solution, and bubbles! We even took our inflatable pool and filled it with bubble solution and then took a hula hoop to make a huge bubble wand. She had so much fun!

Grandma and Grandpa also came down from Michigan to spend a week with us to celebrate Claire's birthday. We didn't let them have a vacation however, I mean they're retired. They have a vacation all the time right? Ha! Anyway, we had our carpet installed while they were here. This meant that all the furniture had to be moved out of the rooms, including the baby grand piano. That booger is heavy! Good thing my dad was here though, he's the pro at moving that thing. He's moved it at least 20 times I bet. They enjoyed the work we put them to however, at least I think so. They never complained and boy were we grateful. We could have never gotten through the week without them! A huge thanks again! We also enjoyed having them here for Claire to get to know them better. It's hard with us being so far away from everyone, so hopefully their visit cemented their relationship to Claire a little bit more. She missed them today while we were on the way home from the airport.

We also went over to Houston where my cousins live. We got to visit and catch up with them on Sunday. It was so good to see them since we haven't seen them in a while. My first cousin Wendy has twins that are 10 days younger than Claire, so it was neat to see all three of them play together since they're so close in age. I thought I had forgotten my camera so I didn't get very many pictures until later once I'd found my camera in my purse.

Oh the things kids say!

2008-09-27T07:44:00.003-05:00

On our way home, Claire had fallen asleep. When she woke up, she complained that her neck was hurting. Justin tried to explain to her that she just had a "crick" in her neck and that it would go away once we got out and walked around a little bit. Sure enough we made a quick stop for gas and potty breaks and when we got back in the truck, he asked her if her neck was feeling better. She replied,"Oh yeah, i'm feeling much better. The cricket is gone!" How precious!

There is Power!

2008-09-24T22:11:00.002-05:00

So apparently we only thought it would be a smooth transition to fall and the new school year. Boy, were we wrong! We had a little thing called Hurricane Gustav come a few weeks ago and it looked pretty scary and a lot of people evacuated. We talked and talked and talked about it some more about where we would go, how long we would stay, etc. and the more we talked the less sure we both (Justin and I) felt about it so we would talk some more and eventually the storm had come and gone and all we had done was talked. Oh yeah, and put up the boards around the house. It didn't even rain at our house during the worst of Gustav. Well, we did get some days off of school and some more time together which was lots of fun. We do have fun as a family. Mainly it's Justin and Claire making me laugh, but I certainly don't mine. Then 2 weeks later (yes I know I should have posted before now) Ike came along. Again, we were watching the projected path of Ike in relationship to where we live and decided to NOT make a decision until Thursday morning (Sept. 11). By Wednesday night around 9 pm we both felt assuredly that the right decision for us was to get out of dodge. But again, where would we go? How long would we stay? We decided the best decision again for us was to go to Michigan. Now this may seem like a little out of the way, but for us it was the best decision. Our friend Elizabeth rode with us for half the trip until we dropped her off in her hometown. It was so nice to have her with us for this leg of the trip. She kept me up talking while I was driving, she played with Claire in the backseat and of course navigated us halfway home. We continued to drive and 26 long hours after we had begun our trip, we made it to my parents home in Michigan. I almost forgot, the longest trip Claire had been in her car seat prior to this was for 2 hours. But she did FANTASTIC! The first 30 minutes she just thought it was a normal day to day car ride and she exclaimed, "We're almost there!" All we could do was chuckle. Thankfully, she never repeated this expression. She slept all night and then watched some of her shows on a portable DVD player we got for Christmas a few years ago. She really did fabulous! We made it to Michigan Friday evening and watched the weather channel for a little bit before dropping dead asleep. Saturday we again watched news coverage of our area and caught up with my parents on all the latest happenings at "home". Saturday evening, Kevin, Kari, kids, and Jimmy came over and we all played games and ate dinner. Sunday we went to church and the Lord always speaks if we would just listen. Ike was not affecting too many people in Michigan at this point in fact it was never even mentioned in the service, but the opening song was "How Firm A Foundation." The storm had hit Saturday morning and here it was 24 hours later we're singing how when God is our foundation, nothing else matters. We had no idea what had happened to our home and most of our earthly belongings. Whether they had been swept away in His storm, or protected by His hand. However, we knew that whatever had already happened and what will happen in the future, our foundation is sure and He is in control. It was so comforting and tears just came streaming in His presence. Sunday afternoon, Matthew was able to make it to our street and relay word back to us that our house had been protected through the storm but our gate had not. We are so grateful for His protection in the big and small ways. Sunday afternoon, Steve, Marni, and the kids came over to see us and catch up. We had lots of fun playing games and talking. It's amazing how fast the kids seem to grow. I guess that means I'm getting old. (No comments please!) We then waited for word that our electricity was back on and we were going to use that to judge when to come back home. The next week was both refreshing and full of anxiousness. It was nice to not have our crazy routine for a while and spend family time together as well as with my parents and family, but at the same time we were wanting to come back home and see it for ourselves, get back to our routine, and our own home. Finally on Thursday, we decided that it was time to start to head back. Our good friends Walker and Stacy just moved to Chicago in July and that's one of our favorite cities and friends too! We wanted to spend some time with them before we headed back to Beaumont, but wasn't too sure how it would all work out. Justin spent Thursday afternoon calling close to 30 hotels before finding one that had just what we needed. So, Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Chicago. We spent Saturday evening in Chicago going to the Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier. Justin and Claire got to ride the famous Navy Pier Ferris Wheel for nostalgia and then we went to Chicago's to eat genuine Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Yum! We spent a long time talking and laughing with Stacy and Walker once Claire went to bed and I stayed up much later than I usually do. Thanks again Walker and Stacy for lodging us for a night! Sunday morning we headed back onto the road again. We ended up in Memphis where we checked into our hotel. Monday we took Claire to the FedEx World Headquarters, Nike Headquarters, and the Children's Museum of Memphis. She liked the last stop the best, I think. On Monday evening, I got word that I was supposed to be back to work on Thursday, Justin was supposed to start classes on Thursday, but we didn't have power yet. We just decided it was time to come home. I have to admit that I dreaded it just a little, okay more than a little. We had spent almost 2 weeks completely together, no work schedules, school schedules, or anything else to work around. It was all coming to an end--too soon for me. But I knew it was time. So we headed back on Tuesday morning. We got here to find out that the other side of the street had power, but our side? nothing! So we spent a night in Meemaw and Papa's motor home at their house. They had power, but no air conditioning, so it worked out for us in there with a/c! Wednesday, we worked on the house getting it ready for power to come back on. We cleaned, picked up the yard, worked hard all around. 4:15 pm was a bright spot. It was when power came back on! Now we can enjoy the air conditioning, electricity, internet, and refrigeration just in time to go back to our crazy routine. However, not for long! We see the end of the tunnel and Justin's school not too far off. If you made it this far in this boring blog, you should check out an exciting, more detailed view at Justin's blog. Here.

Summertime's over

2008-08-24T18:30:00.004-05:00

That time of year is here. School buses start traveling, school supplies are on sale, and the parks and beaches begin to empty. Tomorrow is the first day of school for all of us. Claire starts preschool at her daycare, Justin begins his senior (HALLELUJAH!) year of college, and I have my students for the first day. I have been extremely busy with buying school supplies for all of us, getting my room at school ready, as well as getting last minute cleaning done here at the house. I know that I don't get the time to clean it as well during school, so I really try to make it look presentable during the summers. I am teaching at a new high school this year, so I am a little more nervous than usual, but I know that it will all work out. I am excited for Claire to learn all the things that she likes to already. She already knows most of her letters and can count to 15 most of the time. She knows numbers 15 through 20, but not in order. I suppose that's kind of important. Here are some pictures of the last days of summer for us. There is a park closeby that has sprinklers and she had a blast once she figured out that it was fun. For a while, she just stood on the side and watched. But once she got into it, she didn't want to leave! Her favorite thing in the whole wide world to play with is bubbles. I must get asked about 10 times per day to go play bubbles outside. We found a new bubble contraption where the wand stays in the bottle and you simply squeeze the bottle (gently) and the wand pops up with the bubble solution inside. Then you simply blow and release the squeeze to fill the wand with more solution. This is much better for her age where she can do this herself and not make a big mess. We took them to the park with us yesterday and she got to play for a while with them. How much fun we have as a family! Thank you Lord for my precious family and all the memories we share!

Something Fun

2008-08-09T21:17:00.000-05:00

Type your name in my blog comments.
Once you do that, this is what I'll do for you...

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you which song or movie you remind me of.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
(If possible. If not, I'll say something that only makes sense to me.)
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wondered about you.
8. I'll tell you my favorite thing about you.
9. I'll tell you my least favorite thing about you.

If you play, you MUST post this on yours. You MUST.

Healthiness: Is It Really Worth It?

2008-08-07T16:17:00.002-05:00

For my most loyal readers, you may remember a couple posts ago where I talked about starting to run. Well, perhaps that was not the smartest idea I've ever had. I ran for about 2 weeks when my knees began to hurt. I kept running for 2 days until I decided that going through the pain was probably not the best. I stopped running but continued on normal everyday activities. At night, my knees were killer. I don't usually respond well to pain since I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance (no epidural with Claire's delivery). After a week now, I decided it was probably time to go see someone who knows more about this stuff than I do. So I've been icing it, elevating it, resting it, etc. All the right things. I just got back from an orthopedist and he says that I have stress "reactions" in both tibias. The tibia is your shinbone. It's a pretty big bone and not that easy to break, at least I don't think. Anyway, he took X-rays and they didn't show a "macrofracture" but that doesn't mean they're not broken. He told me to stay off of my legs as much as possible for 6 weeks! He actually gave me a script for a wheelchair! WHAT!?!?!?! I have a 2 year old and I teach high school science where we do labs and I can't trust a group of high school chemistry students in lab with me in a wheelchair! Oh Lord, what am I supposed to do?? Trust in Him. I am thankful that they are not completely broken and he says that if I do really well the next couple weeks, that they may heal on their own and I may not have to stay in a wheelchair for the full 6 weeks. I am praying that they will heal quickly and trust me, I'm staying off of these babies as much as possible. After they heal, he did say I can go back to exercising, but he suggested something other than running. So I'll be looking into those options in a few weeks. So please remember me in your prayers so that I can get to work quickly and efficiently. I do think that healthiness is worth it, but I probably should have been a little smarter about becoming healthier. One day, just not today or for the next 6 weeks. =(

Going on a treasure hunt!

2008-07-30T13:45:00.002-05:00

Our anniversary is on Sunday, but Justin will be working, so I decided to get an early jump and surprise him with a treasure hunt. We decided not to buy any gifts for each other, but that didn't mean that homemade gifts were out. I devised a 6 clue treasure hunt with 6 homemade gifts--one for each year we've been married. It started with him going to get Claire from daycare yesterday. While he was gone, I put the gifts and clues in place. When he got home, I met him outside with the first clue which was to take Claire to his parents for the evening. I had given his parents the 2nd clue along with his first gift. The first gift was that he got to pick the movie for us to watch for the evening here at home. He picked 21. The 2nd clue led him back to our house for a Hot Fudge Sundae Cake for us to enjoy during the movie. MMMmmm. It was the first time I'd made the cake but it was so good. It was gooey underneath and more "cakey" on top. Perfect for ice cream, whip cream, nuts, and cherries on top! That clue led him to Claire's room where I had a very early picture of us framed using an old picture frame I found. The next clue led him to his computer where he found a music cd that I'd put together of how I feel about him and our relationship. (He had made one for me before we got married and it is still in my cd player in the car I listen to it so much.) I used some of the same songs, but some newer ones too. The 5th clue led him to the dryer where he found an "encouragement book". Our pastor had suggested a few weeks ago that everyone needs one of these books where you put encouraging notes, cards, etc. so that when you get down or frustrated you have something to remind you of good things. I took this to heart and created one for him. I have saved every card that we have given each other over the years and put them all in chronological order in this book. I also left some room at the back for more to be added. The last clue led him to the living room where I had created a card from my scrapbook stuff and for our movie and ice cream sundaes! We then watched 21 and enjoyed it. We had both heard the story before and we both like blackjack so it was a perfect movie! He is usually the one that is "romantic" and I am usually the procrastinator, but hopefully I was able to catch him off guard. Happy Anniversary!

Boring Week So Far

2008-07-23T18:18:00.002-05:00

This week so far has been pretty uneventful around our house. It's been kinda nice. Yesterday we went to the park and Claire got to go in the sprinklers. She had fun and wasn't ready to go even when it was raining! Hurricane Dolly hit the south Texas coast today and although it's pretty far away from us, we have gotten rain all day long.

I finally decided to do something about an exercise plan. So I took up running. I even am planning to run a 5K on October 18th. I have been faithful so far and it has been enjoyable as long as I have my ipod. Even the rain today was nice since it cooled me off. I'm just praying that I'll stick with it. I am not really changing my eating habits, just cutting back a little here and there. I want this to stick and I know if I change things drastically it won't stick. So if you're reading this, I'd appreciate any prayers for me and that I'll stay motivated. I even put a little ticker on the right side to keep me aware of the coming 5K run. I just wish that I would have learned to do this a long time ago.

Worth it All

2008-07-18T17:05:00.002-05:00

This week was crazy busy with VBS. We had over 90 1st graders every day this week. This is split between 3 teachers and helpers. 3 of the helpers were teenagers and boy were they helpful. We could not have accomplished all that we did without them! What a blessing! Most of the kids were very well behaved, but of course, there's always that small percentage that is not used to a routine. It was pretty rough the first 3 days and I was really unsure whether I was going to make it to Friday. But on Wednesday, the Lord gave me just what I needed. The story that day was about Jesus dying on the cross for us and rising from the dead 3 days later. At the end of the story, I asked if anyone had heard the story for the first time just then. One little girl sheepishly raised her hand looking around and noticing she was the only one who raised her hand. I reassured her that was ok and that all of us hear it for the first time at some point. She seemed satisfied with the answer and went on for the rest of the day just fine. On Thursday, we were playing a game where everyone got a chance to tell one thing they knew or had learned about the Bible. When it was her turn, she answered that in the Bible we learn of Jesus dying on the cross. Of all the things she could have said, she mentioned the story from the previous day! It was such a blessing to me and it immediately made me so glad that I had stuck with it and it gave me the strength to make it through the rest of the week. I have already requested not to be in a classroom next year though. It was just a little too much for me. Instead, they have an idea for a science room where we'll do small-scale experiments and we'll tie them into the lesson for that day. Sounds exciting to me! I just hope I get enough notice ahead of time to plan properly and be organized! The Lord just always places those little reminders in our lives that His grace is sufficient for us!

Picture Catch Up

2008-07-16T21:07:00.011-05:00

Even though the blog was empty for a little while, the camera was still rolling. So now I'm catching the pics up! Hope you enjoy!

Claire and Matty have been enjoying the sunshine and the trampoline this week in the afternoons after VBS. It's also a nice way to tire them out a little bit more!

They not only jump on it, but run around in circles on it chasing each other and laughing hysterically!

This is Justin while we were working on the wallpaper border in the kitchen. We have been doing some home improvements this summer!

Another home improvement is that we are getting new carpet for the entire house! To go along with the new carpet, we decided to paint the wood paneling in the living room and the hallway before the new carpet comes! Here is how our living room walls look now!

Claire has become quite the model lately. She says, "I want a picture mommy! Cheese!!!" until you oblige.

Here's one of the two of us!

Daddy and Claire!

So Silly!

These were from our trip to Michigan. Claire had so much fun with all her cousins! Here's a picture of Noah and Megan along with Claire. They had emptied Megan's room of all the blankets and pillows and created a big mountain in the living room. Then they all 3 decided to jump, climb, and play on this mountain. It tired them out, so they covered up and rested for a while!

One night while we were there, I was able to go out for an evening with some long-time friends. Here we are while eating Cold Stone Creamery ice cream!

Maggie and Claire at the playpark having a ball! Maggie had just finished taking a class for babysitting responsibly, so it was nice to have a certified babysitter on the job for an afternoon during a picnic!

Here are all the women that were there at the picnic! Girl power!

We had a family picnic at a local park and my Great Aunt from Mississippi came up. Also, my aunt Diane from Traverse City was able to make it too! This first one is of 4 generations of women in my family. My great aunt Edna, my aunt Diane, me, and Claire.

I took my scrapbook and we noticed there was not a picture of Claire and Aunt Marni, so we made sure to get one this time!

Cousin Reece and Claire had a grand time at the playpark and decided to walk back hand in hand.

Aunt Trish and Claire also enjoyed holding hands walking to the playpark.

What good is a picnic if there isn't any watermelon???

No matter what happens when she's awake, she's always an angel while asleep!

Daddy got tickets to a Sesame Street Live performance at Ford Park and so Meemaw, Matty, Claire, and I went to watch Elmo Grow Up! It was cute, but we left at intermission. Just not something that we were all that into! Fun was still had by all and we learned that Matty wants to be a doctor when he grows up. At least that day he did.

Uncle Matt, Matty, Claire, and I went to a Texas Wildcatters game at Ford Park which was their last season here in Beaumont. I love going to the hockey games and there just aren't that many here in the South. Especially now that the Wildcatters have moved on. We still got to give them one last hurrah and hopefully sow some seeds of hockey love in Claire!

These were from early in the spring when Matty was in his tee/base ball season. We got the opportunity to go to some of his games and Claire would cheer him on. She loved to watch them play ball so much we decided to get a tee for her in the backyard. This was her first swing. She was a natural and hit it all the way across the yard on the first shot! What a girl!

She also likes to fingerpaint although this is not done very often I must admit. It's messy and she really is not into details other than mixing all the colors in her hand immediately and smearing it all on the paper in a random fashion.

This set is from Easter 2008. Claire had the cutest hat, but she didn't want to keep it on for very long. We went to church and then went to Papa and Meemaw's house for Easter Dinner. Pawpaw and Meme were there (Justin's grandparents) and Uncle Matt and Matty. After dinner, we had the official Easter Egg Hunt complete with Easter Baskets. The most memorable Easter present Claire received besides all the candy was an official Star Wars Light Sabre complete with sound! The Force would not allow any official pictures of a jedi in training!

VBS and Band-aids

2008-07-15T00:18:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading Heaven's Wager by Ted Dekker. It was an excellent book and I am excited to find the other books in the series at the library.

Today was the first day of Vacation Bible School at Calvary. I am teaching 1st graders and within 2 hours realized that I teach high school for a reason. Kudos to all elementary teachers! The kids really were great, and I enjoyed them immensely. I just know I wouldn't make it through a full week at school with them all day and so I am glad that VBS is only 3 hours for a week! This is also the first time that Claire is going to VBS and is able to understand what is going on a little more. Her teacher was surprised when I picked her up and asked her what she learned and her response was Joshua! That's all I got out of her, but just that much is a starting point for 2 years old! We pray that the Lord continues to allow her to be open to His word and His truths and that we'll be faithful to show her them through us. Matty has also gone to VBS with us and he came home with us this afternoon to spend some time. Claire and Matty have so much fun together and it's so fun to see them play together. They jumped on the trampoline and enjoyed popsicles. Matty also got to play Super Mario Kart on the Wii and Claire just cheered him on. She kept saying, "Keep going, Matty!" and "You can do it!" She's our little "Barnabus".

One short conversation we had tonight was priceless:

Claire: "You're a monster!"

Mommy: "No, I'm not a monster, I'm your mommy!"

Claire: (grinning from ear to ear) "No, you're a monster!"

Mommy: "Please don't say that, it hurts my feelings!"

Claire: "Told on, Told on" (hold on) "I'll be right back!"

Mommy: "Where are you going?"

Claire: "To get a band-en for you" (band-aid)

Mommy: "Where are you going to put the band-aid?"

Claire: "On your feetings!"

I hope this brought a smile to your face, for it certainly brought laughter to us.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

2008-07-12T16:25:00.003-05:00

I was tired of looking at the green, so blue is here! I am not a girly, girl and neither is Claire well, at least not totally, so flowers are just not appropriate. This is nice though I think. At least for a little while.

Things around here have calmed down since Claire's procedure on Thursday. She is on 3 medicines and she is the best medicine taker EVER! The only bad thing is that one of the side effects is sensitivity to the sun. She is already super sensitive to the sun even without this medicine and so now we have to be extra extra extra careful about going outside. Did I mention it's July? In Texas? where the sun is always shining? and it's hot? and humid? We've been doing our best to stay inside, but the sunshine and swimming pool is just so inviting.

VBS at our church starts on Monday morning and I'm going to be teaching 1st graders. There is a specific reason that I teach high school students for a living. Too bad they don't have VBS for high school. I'm stretching however and stepping out of my comfort zone. And it's only for a week. I'm excited for Claire to be in VBS too. I'm hoping she'll have fun and learn some new songs.

Dad made it safely to India and will be there until the end of August teaching local pastors at their Bible college. I'm so appreciative for his courage to step out of his comfort zone too. Especially the fact that he went by himself for that long!

I read the book Thr3e by Ted Dekker yesterday. Yes, the entire book. It was a good book and I really liked the twist"s" at the end of the book. I have read several of his books now and think that many of them would be good movies. After I read his books, I don't have a new author picked out yet, though. Any suggestions?????

Warning: Bodily Fluid Topics Discussed

2008-07-10T15:33:00.003-05:00

I was looking through my archives and looking for something about this and couldn't find anything, so I'm going to relate it all now. Last August, the day after we got back from Michigan, Claire started having diarrhea...no big deal right? That happens sometimes. Fast forward to October where it's still happening. Yes 3 months of diarrhea. After she's already expressed interest in potty training. HA! We finally get into a pediatric gastroenterology specialist and he takes one look at her and says no juice whatsoever. No dried fruits (like fruit snacks, trail mix, etc.) That's it? I've waited 3 months for this??? I was not too sure but we listened and it did clear up almost immediately! Praise the Lord! So we got back on the potty training wagon and was headed toward big girl underwear...until April. Still on a "no fruit juice" diet, the diarrhea comes back. Hmmpffff. So we schedule another appointment and she was still gaining weight, so let's just wait and see and perhaps it will just go away. Here we are in July. I have noticed it is a cycle of loose, none, and then slightly firmer stools. So last week they suggested the next step (after labs with all normal results for bacteria and viruses) would be a double scope. Today was the day of this scope. Yesterday, we had to restrict her to a clear liquid diet including a laxative to clear out her system. This is how the day went yesterday

Claire: gets up and says, "Mommy, can I have a pop-tart?"

Mommy: "No"

Claire: "Mommy, can I have cer-e-al?"

Mommy: "No"

Claire: "Mommy, can I have crackers?"

Mommy: "No, we are going to go to the doctor tomorrow and he wants us to just drink water and juice---"

Claire: "JUICE?!?!?!?"

Mommy: " --today, you want some juice?"

Claire: "JUICE! JUICE! JUICE!"

and that was it...seriously. no more asking of crackers, pudding, grapes, or any other types of food. (Once after her nap she did ask for a popsicle, but that was it, honest!)

She did sooo good yesterday which was such an answer to prayer.

Today they did the double scope and she was not very happy when she woke up (don't blame her). However, they didn't really find anything abnormal but took some biopsies and so now we are waiting for the results of those. The doctor did prescribe some medicine in the meantime and we'll go back in a month for a check up and hopefully we'll have some answers and/or results by then. He did say she can have juice again which will be a nice change for her.

Thank you to all of our friends/family who have prayed, thought of, and visited Claire. We are so appreciative of all that the Lord has blessed us with and are just looking at this as a small bump in the journey He's prepared for us. We have even been able to use this as a witnessing opportunity and we (Claire, Meemaw, Papa, Daddy, and Mommy) were singing "Everybody Ought to Know" this morning before she went back to surgery. Justin and I also met a person this morning and invited her to church and she seemed genuinely open which was an answer to prayer. Hopefully we'll see her on Sunday. We'll be looking for her!

Claire is waking up from her well-deserved nap and so I better go! Don't worry, I won't post the pictures the doctor gave us!

Surprise!!!

2008-06-30T17:26:00.002-05:00

Well, who knew that people actually read my blog?!?!? But I've had some complaints about it not being updated, so for those very few of you who have actually come back THANKS! and SURPRISE! It's updated! I don't have any new pictures, but keep checking back maybe in a couple months..hehe...hopefully before then!

Well, well, well, what's happened since March? I finished teaching the school year and are changing districts to be closer to home and save on gas money. I'll still be teaching Chemistry so it won't be that big of a switch at least I don't think so. We'll see come August! Justin's off school for the summer so that is nice to have him home more often and get some "honey do lists" a little shorter. Claire is also home more during the summer as I get to spend lots more time with her!

We all took a trip up to Michigan in June and had lots of fun! We got to see lots of family and friends! I also went on a scrapbook weekend the end of April and really enjoyed scrapbooking Claire's life. I have found a new hobby and one I hope to continue and keep up with. I'm going back with a lot of the same ladies for another weekend in September and looking forward to it already!

This week I'm attending jury duty and have not been picked for a jury yet, so hopefully tomorrow will prove more useful. In the meantime, Justin will be sanding and priming the hallway for a new coat of paint to go along with the new carpet coming soon.

I think what I learned the most from our trip to Michigan this past month was the Lord's overwhelming blessings to me and our family. It seems like such a simple thing, but I had lost that perspective and it's not a good perspective to lose. Thank you Lord, for all your blessings to us that we see and even those that we don't see.

Catch up time!

2008-03-08T21:33:00.009-06:00

Well it's about time I catch y'all up on what's been going on here. We
finally got our digital camera working so I can update on pictures and
there's even a video! The video is of Claire drawing her version of a
face (she does say "that's Daddy!" at the end). Meemaw has been working
with her on this much more than we are and she is convinced that Claire
is above average on her drawing skillz. We're not too sure, but who knows?...here's documentation for the future I guess.

We have been working in our yard the last 2 weekends so there are some pictures of our progress. The tree is my big project for this year. You can see what I started with. This is all last weekend although I did work on it today and got some blisters to prove it. I also found 5 snakes yes 5 in there. I couldn't kill them
(not due to ethics just pure clumsiness and scarediness) so I flung
them as far away from me as I could. Justin tells me that this means
they'll just come back to their home and so he may be doing the
gardening from now on. The biggest snake was probably 4" in length so
we're not talking Anaconda's here. I'm just a wimp.

I also have planted anemones in the backyard. They started out as tubers
and I was reading a suggestion to put the tubers in lukeward water for
a few hours before planting to give them a jumpstart. Boy did that
work! Within 2 hours, roots were already forming. I've since added an
African Sun yellow daisy to the anemone garden to brighten it up and to
make Claire happy with they yellow flowers! Daisies are my favorite too
so it makes us both happy!

Last Friday I took my students to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and
took some cool pictures while I was there. Call me nerdy but the
periodic table was really cool! I also liked the hydrogen fuel cell
since that is a big topic in alternative fuels. DNA is always fun!

This is the entire periodic table. (A rare sight to have the lanthanide and actinide series included)

Here's a close up of rubidium. They have a sample of each element in its box
in the periodic table. The first and only time I've seen some of the
rare elements.

They have a butterfly garden there too, but we didn't visit this part.

Good ole' DNA

Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Claire sure is growing up. She is so polite by saying please, thank
you, and you're welcome without us needing to prompt her. (Most of the
time) We've also been stressing that we can pray to Jesus about
anything so we've been praying about helping her go titi on the potty.
She's starting to get the hang of it, I think. These are her new Dora
shoes that she is in love with. They're flip-flops so they don't stay
on her feet very well, but she loves them anyway. Especially since
Boots is on them too!

Hope you enjoyed catching up!

Fishers of Butterflies

2008-02-25T18:26:00.002-06:00

Saturday Claire and I went to Galveston with Meemaw, Papa, Meme, Pawpaw, Uncle Matt and Matty. We all went to celebrate cousin Charlie coming back to Texas from Alaska. When we got to Aunt Peggy's house Claire got to "fish" with a Barbie fishing pole. She had a blast! I had to tear her away from it in order to eat and after she ate she went right back out to the water to fish some more. Good thing Papa was there to help her since I had no clue what to do. She is so brave as she liked to pet the fish once one was caught. Her fishing pole did not have a hook as it was just a kid's pole, but it did have a plastic butterfly on the end of the line and every time that she saw the butterfly coming toward her she announced, "It's coming!" over and over again. She was so excited! We also got to ride on the ferry there and back and she had fun feeding the birds there too. Justin didn't get to go since he was working and this week is the first round of tests. We missed him being there with us, but the end of his schooling is in sight and getting closer every day. Another sacrifice from a loving daddy.

The Devil is Bronchitis

2008-02-16T19:26:00.002-06:00

Good News! Claire is over the sickness. So am I. We are both feeling so much better. However, we passed it on to Justin. Since Wednesday, he has had a fever and the blah feeling. He stayed home from work Thursday and Friday. This is just unheard of for him. He has been at his job for over 2 years and this is only the 2nd time ever he has called in sick. He even stayed home from school too. Earlier in the week, Elizabeth had invited me to watch a movie at her house with a few friends. I declined because I thought Justin would be at work. However, since he stayed home, I was able to go. We watched The Devil Wears Prada and I thought it was a cute movie. Certainly not something I would have picked on my own, but I enjoyed it! I was glad I got the chance to go and hang out with the girls. I got home at 1:30 and Justin was still up. He was feeling much worse than when I'd left. He decided it was bad enough to go to the ER. So we did at 2:30 am. I got Claire up and we took off. She brightened up the ER and was very good for the unusual circumstances. Justin has bronchitis and is supposed to stay home for the weekend to recover. We stopped by the pharmacy for some antibiotics and my old boss was working so she filled the scripts very quickly. It pays to have connections and not to burn your bridges. We got home at 5:45 am and went to sleep. Justin woke up today and is feeling much better. He is off work for the weekend and I must admit it is so strange to have him home so much. Very enjoyable though I wish he were feeling better to enjoy his time off. Claire and I went shopping to leave Justin to rest and I bought her bathing suit for the summer! It is not that far away! I can't wait until summer!!!!

Sickness is no fun.

2008-02-12T10:23:00.000-06:00

Claire has been sick since Thursday night. It is now Tuesday morning. Ugh. She is sleeping a lot and drinking lots of juice. She still has her fever and Wubbzy on her brain most of the time. I stayed home from work today to comfort and take care of her. She is a real trooper when it comes to taking her medicine except her eye drops. She doesn't like those very much. Justin stayed home with her yesterday and they had some good daddy/daughter time. Hopefully she is feeling better soon!

"Excitable"

2008-02-10T18:07:00.000-06:00

Claire has been sick for 3 days now. She has had a fever and complains that her head hurts. Nose yuckies and today her eye swelled up and is leaking green stuff. Needless to say, we stayed home from church for these reasons and due to lack of sleep. She was running 103 this morning even with Tylenol and Motrin every 2 hours. Even through all this she still wants to play (some) and watch Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! which is her favorite show in all the world. Nothing else is really going on. It seems the whole house stops in time when Claire is sick. It doesn't happen very often praise God and I always try to remind myself it could be worse. Besides, it's only when she's sick that she likes to curl up in my lap anymore and just be held. That's always nice!
Last night we were watching Wheel of Fortune and the word excitable was in one of the puzzles. When I said the puzzle out loud, Claire repeated the word excitable. I thought that was a pretty big word for her! She has learned about 1/2 of the alphabet just from watching that show. I hope she feels better soon and is back to her normal "excitable" self.

Like mother, like daughter?

2008-01-31T05:21:00.001-06:00

I am not a girly girl. Never have been. When I was little, I was always playing baseball with the boys and loved running and just being outside climbing trees and really not caring about getting dirty or hurt. In 3rd grade, we moved to Texas in December(perhaps some foreshadowing of my adult years). On Tuesday, we had gym class and one of my favorites was dodgeball. I remember Miss Poole standing there with the red mesh bag filled with the yellow Nerf balls telling us to get ready to play and reminding us of the rules of the game. My best friend at the time was Allison Brown and she leaned over to tell me that my shoe was untied and that I should tie it. However, Miss Poole had just told us to get to our sides for dodgeball. As we were moving to our sides, she began to divide the Nerf balls to the teams and was throwing them to the different sides. This made us move a little quicker to get to our side. The competitive side of me said worry about your untied shoe later after you get one of the precious few Nerf balls. I saw a ball floating gently in the air just out of my reach. I just needed to move a little faster, Allison right beside me thinking the same thing. Next thing I know, I step on my untied shoelace, trip, and fall forward. This doesn't sound too bad...only thing is, there is a WALL right in front of me. I fell face first into the gym wall (kitchen side for those of you familiar with IC), bounced off, and onto the floor. Now I'm sitting on the floor and I look down at my white pants. There's one big drop of red on one leg, now two, one smaller drop on the other leg. Hmm...more and more. My mouth hurts. Allison screaming for Miss Poole to come over. I have the Nerf ball. Miss Poole arrives and tells me to just be still. She gets me a cold towel and tries to stop the bleeding. I'm crying now. I have to give up my Nerf ball. No more dodgeball. After they get me off the gym floor, they call my sister who is in high school. She is in the middle of her geometry exam. She is expecting to get in trouble for something, then she sees me and my face is distorted. She calls mom to come pick us up. She is glad for once in her life to have a little sister because I get hurt at the same time that she was about to fail her exam. We go to the emergency room and the doctor puts in 5 stitches to my upper lip. He explains that my tooth has completely made another opening in my head all the way through my lip. I have 2 stitches on the outside of my lip and 3 invisible ones inside to close the hole on either side. I cannot smile, talk, laugh, eat, anything that you normally do with your mouth. It hurts. We go home. I haven't played Dodgeball yet. The next day is Wednesday, my last day of school before we move. My class and teacher are so nice that they throw a party for me to say goodbye. They have cake. THEY have cake. I can't eat any of my own cake. How depressing. I hurt. Today I went to pick up Claire at daycare and the teacher says she has two accident reports from today and one from yesterday. Claire ran into the wall twice and cut her lip from her teeth. Then she ran into the table and has a purple bruise on her cheek. I look at Claire and her cut is in the exact same spot as mine was. Just not nearly as bad. It's swollen. Her little mouth is lopsided. All the memories came flooding back. I hope this means we're not moving soon!

Oh Boy!

2008-01-27T20:25:00.001-06:00

Today on the way home from church, Justin had to make a decision on the yellow/red light for a left hand turn. He said, "Oh Boy!" as he made the turn just as the light turned red. Claire shouts from the back seat, "OH BOY!" I know she listens to everything we say and is such a sponge, but my goodness.

Pictures!

2008-01-26T21:08:00.000-06:00

Ok so I'm trying to catch y'all up. Claire turned 2 in October and we had a birthday party for her at our house. My parents flew in from Michigan to attend and we all had a grand time. She finally brought her "boyfriend" over to the house. I should explain. She has a boy that is at daycare with her Monday through Friday. This same little boy is also at church on Sundays so she sees him 6 days a week. His parents are in our sunday school class and are good friends. Their teacher at daycare did not know that our families knew each other and that they saw each other on Sundays as well, but mentioned to us that the two of them play together like an "old married couple." One day at dinner I asked her if she had played with Nicholas at daycare. She replied yes. Then I asked her about several other friends of hers from daycare and she continued to say yes. Next I asked her if she liked the other boys in her class naming them off. She said yes to every single one. When I asked Claire if she like Nicholas her response was different. She said YEEESSSS! with a sing-song in her voice like YES MA'AM! I almost couldn't hold it together. Then I talked with Nicholas' mom and told her about it. So she asked Nicholas one day at church when all of us were present about liking Claire. He did a typical boy response and tucked his head down into his chest as far as he could, put his arm over his forehead and slightly nodded his head. So embarrassed! Anyway, we tease them that they are meant to be and if they are, so be it. If they're not...it's still cute. Here's the couple playing together.

For Halloween, our church had a Family Fun Festival with lots of games, food, and prizes. Claire dressed as a Care Bear. Her nickname for a while has been ClaireBear, so it certainly seemed to fit.

We celebrated Christmas with Justin's extended family in Galveston and the best way (or so we thought) was to get there by ferry. This was not Claire's first boat ride as she's been on the ferry before, but this was the first time I got a picture of her on it. She really enjoyed the seagulls and at Aunt Peggy's house was where she got her first joyful experience of opening presents.

We also decorated our tree and Claire helped Daddy put on the ornaments. We had a real tree and it smelled so wonderful! Then one night while I was wrapping Christmas presents, the phone rang. As I returned to wrap some more presents, I found Claire trying to wrap her baby. I don't know if this was a good thing or not, but it was cute. She received lots of big girl underwear for Christmas. That night she decided to wear them but taking after her mommy she couldn't make a decision on which one pair. She decided to wear all 14 pairs of underwear all at once....and over her pull-up.

Hope that catches you up for the most part and satisfies your Claire fix!

New Year, New Blog???

2008-01-25T05:50:00.000-06:00

Ok so I know it's been six months...but who's counting??? I figured it was about time since my dad is the one who said something about me not updating the blog...my dad! But a big reason why I haven't updated is my laptop was not in working order. Now we finally got it back, so back to blogging I go. We'll see how long it lasts =) Claire is now 2 years old. WOW! The time has flown by. We were looking at video of her as a newborn and she just kept saying "Baby crying". yup. I don't have time now to fill the 6 months in since I have to go to work today but hopefully I can fill y'all in at some point!

2007-08-08T07:53:00.000-05:00

okay, okay, it's been a month and I haven't updated. This month has been pretty uneventful. Claire and I got back from visiting Michigan and we all got back on our routine pretty quickly. That's pretty much where we are. Claire has been learning lots of new things like her colors and her body parts. I just love it when I get to ask her where her elbow is and she knows where it is, but can't figure out how to point to it to show me. So cute! Justin and I have been busy in school but thankfully summer session is over next week! I'll be done! FINALLY! I just have to take my certification tests in October and it will all be official. The only "exciting" thing that has happened this month is one that I cannot share yet, but when I can, I will. School (as a teacher) is starting soon and I'm getting excited for the new school year. This is a boring post, but at least it's better than no post right?????

2007-07-09T19:46:00.000-05:00

Hey you guys! I have to say you guys since I'm back in Yankeeland. I'm on vacation back to where I grew up. I am having a great time and remembering lots of things I forget while I'm in Texas. Claire and I flew in on July 4th and got to see some fireworks! We've also been in a kiddie pool and had lots of fun with family! Here are some pictures to prove it. I'll post more later!

2007-06-30T20:13:00.000-05:00

This week was very busy! I bought a bed for Claire on Ebay and on Tuesday Justin and I went to pick it up. The bed was 4 hours away so we drove Tuesday afternoon, got the bed, turned around and drove back. We got back about midnight and unloaded the bed. The next day we started to put it together. WOW! It took us all day to get the bed together and Justin even got a new power tool called a Dremel in order to complete the project. Even though it was not as easy as we had expected, it still turned out well and Claire has loved sleeping/playing/jumping on her new bed. Once I get her room finished, I'll post some pictures.

Here's something kinda crazy. Last night, Claire was eating dinner and she had beans on her right and rice on her left. I noticed that she switches hands to eat. She ate the beans with the spoon with one hand and the rice with the other. She really does take after Grandpa. I'm gonna have to keep a close eye on that!! Here's my proof!

One hand......

Then the other......

Claire and I are flying up to Michigan on Wednesday to visit, but while we are there, her cousins Maggie and Reese happen to be visiting family down here. Kind of a switch off. Since we won't get to see them much up there, we got the chance to visit with them today. We met at the San Jacinto Monument and had a great time! Here are some pictures!

2007-06-24T21:38:00.000-05:00

And she's off.......

We started off the week big. On Monday, Claire kept taking her pants off at daycare. Justin noticed on the webcam, so when I went to pick her up, I asked them about it. She then proceeded to tell me that Claire had been taking her pants off and going to the little plastic potty and sitting on it diaper and all. She would go to the bathroom in her diaper and then ask to be changed. She suggested potty training. Now I had noticed all weekend long she would take her pants off, but I wouldn't let her and pulled them back up. I had never correlated her diaper changes with it. So off to potty training we go. The rest of the week was not really exciting as far as that.

Justin however got a 95% on his math test. I am so proud of him for doing so well in math. His problems take up a whole page and then some. He writes small too! Keep it up!

On Friday, I went a got a little plastic potty for Claire. We came home and set it up in the bathroom. What do you know? The child is ready. All weekend we have been going in the potty and today (Sunday) only twice did she go in her diaper. Those two times were under extenuating circumstances too. Way to go Claire. I just hope it keeps up and stays this easy! I know it won't, but I'm still praying that way!

Ok...now that you managed to get through all the crap (hehe) here are the pictures you've been waiting for.

These are all from Disney World that we took almost a month ago now. My how time flies!

Here are some more since then that I better post now before I forget.
This first one is special. There is a picture of my sister Trish when she's little where she's eating an apple seated this way. When I saw Claire eating animal crackers sitting like this on the couch, I just had to see the family resemblance!

These next two were when we were working on her puzzles. This is a stepstool that my parents got her and her name is the puzzle. We use this to get to the sink, etc. It comes in handy and it's teaching her to recognize her name and the letters in her name.

This face is priceless due to family resemblance again. Reece, our nephew used to make this face all the time when he would get frustrated. Although Claire has never seen Reece do this face (he's grown out of it now) she's still picked it up. What you can't see in the stillshot is that she is shaking with frustration. Oh my!

Today I was on the phone with Grandpa and this came walking into the living room. I bursted out laughing and so this is the explanation Grandpa.

I can get her hair into a ponytail! Finally!!!!

Hope this fixed your picture craze!

2007-06-11T21:26:00.000-05:00

June is blooming!

I know it's been a while since I've posted and there are a lot of reasons why most of which I won't get into here. I will say however that we had a fabulous time at Walt Disney World and Claire loved it. Pictures will be posted at a later date. We had a wonderful vacation and enjoyed the relaxing time together as a family. We also got to see my sister for a day and although we'd wished it was longer, we still enjoyed the visit!

When we got back, summer school began. Justin and I began playing raquetball together before our classes. It is a great workout and even though we're both competitive people it is working out really well. No pun intended. =)

Claire had a hard transition back into day care when we got back since she'd had Mommy and Daddy together for a whole week nonstop. It's been a week though and we're getting into our summer routines.

Speaking of summer classes, I'd forgotten how boring some of my biology classes are. It's been over 2 years since I've taken a college science class and boy I sure don't miss the hiatus. Thankfully, I'm only taking 2 this summer and I'll be done. Perhaps it's the type of biology courses I've chosen. Ecology of Polluted Water and Medical Entomology. I'm in the pollution one now and I can only hope the bug one will be better.

What I am looking forward to in the next few weeks is 2 weeks back "home" in Michigan with Claire and lots of family and hopefully lots of friends. Justin can't take off the time for work, so it will be just Claire and I, but we'll be in the Detroit area from July 4-16. Woohoo! So if you read this, send me a message/comment/email and we'll get together!

Claire surprised us this morning by climbing out of her crib totally unassisted and silent. Justin and I are going to have to figure something out about the sleeping situation since now the crib cannot contain Claire!

Hopefully no more surprises tomorrow!

2007-05-26T06:55:00.000-05:00

Summertime is here!!!!
It

I am so excited that the school year is over. Yesterday was the last day for the students and today is just a faculty meeting and then I'm finished! It has been a very stressful year, but it went well and the most important thing is it's completed!

Today, after the faculty meeting Justin and I are driving to Kissimmee for a Disney World vacation. I'm very excited about that as well. Claire left this morning with Meemaw and Papa and Matty who are flying there. We'll meet them there late tonight.

Just a few updates on Claire's new things. We have taught her how to jump. The first day it was pretty rough. She would only lift up one leg and think she had done it. We still praised her because she was trying. On the second day, though, she got it, and then we couldn't stop her. She jumps all over the house now. Perhaps we shouldn't have taught her how to jump.

We've also been teaching her to pray before we eat. We've been doing this for a while, and she knows to put her hands together and wait for us to pray before touching the food on her plate. This week however, she put her hands together and said, "Dear Jesus." I swear my heart melted like butter in the microwave. I had to hold back the tears. This is truly what parenting is all about. Showing Claire the way to Jesus and praying the whole way that she's receptive to it and that we don't become obstacles in the path to Him.

Hope y'all have a good Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything while I'm in Florida, but if I can and have time, I will!

2007-05-13T22:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day

My, where has the time gone? Claire truly is growing up before my very eyes. Well, a little catch up. She had her 18 month check up at 19 months. Oops! She weighed 25 lbs 3oz and was 32" tall. Right on schedule! She is still in the 50th percentile for her age in both categories. She is also talking so much more. By talking, I mean "jabbering" in her own language. She is very adamant about what she wants and what she is saying, it's just that no one else understands any of it. However, she is communicating through speaking. I'm sure it will come soon enough. She sure does have enough to say. She says "Dye, Dye" to absolutely everything and anything she thinks that she needs to say bye to. She says it to every room we leave, to every person, vehicle, and animal that we may see. She's so funny about it too. Yesterday, we were in Wal-Mart and I was pushing her in the cart. An employee was walking the opposite way toward us. Claire saw him coming and was quiet. As soon as he got right beside her, she screams "Dye, Dye" as loud as she can and waves at him. She was just trying to be nice, but I truly thought he was going to jump out of his skin. All I could do was encourage her to be nice to everyone. hehe =)

For Mother's Day, Justin surprised me and got me an iPod! I couldn't believe it! He had gotten me a nice mp3 player for Christmas, but I couldn't get it to work in the car and I refuse to wear headphones while driving. So, even though he'd spent lots of hours putting my favorite music on the mp3 player, it wasn't getting used. For Mother's Day I simply asked him to get an attachment so that I could play it in the car. He went way out of his way and got me an iPod, put ALL of my cd collection on it, AND got me a docking station to go into the cigarette lighter of the car so I can listen to it on my way to work and back. He's the BEST! Thanks sweetie!

We did have lunch with his mom today for Mother's day and it was her Birthday too! So she had an extra special day!

Only two more weeks of school left and then we leave for vacation. I haven't decided yet if i'm more excited about the vacation or the fact that I'll be done with the school year at that point. Either way, it's a motivating factor to make it these last two weeks.

One more thing, today in Sunday School the take home point was to either start a Bible study on your own (devotions) or to give it a wake up call. The lesson was taken out of II Peter 1:12-21. Anyway, I pass the same challenge onto you. Either get in the habit of spending time with God daily and studying His Word or STEP IT UP! Make it better!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the cutie pie!

This is taken Sunday morning right after I put her hair in cute little pigtails. I don't even know why I bother anymore.

She's a computer geek already!

I was spinning her around in the computer chair when this great photo got taken! See the joy?

2007-04-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

Another busy weekend is upon us again. It's amazing to me how quickly the week seems to go by. Anyway, this morning Justin and Claire got some good Daddy/Daughter time while I was out of the house. This is apparently what happens when Mom is outta da house is playing the piano. I hesitated to post these pictures since she looks like an orphan with her hair in her face, however, I would appreciate any helpful hints on what to do. Barrettes and Ponytail Holders come out of Claire's hair in about 0.2 seconds.

Then, this afternoon once Justin went to work and Claire had her nap, she and I packed up to go to Houston. We went to see Cole (Claire's first cousin) play t-ball. Cole is 5 years old and is almost done with kindergarten. He played so well today and is a very quick runner. I didn't manage to get too many pictures at the game since Claire was running around as usual screaming at the top of her lungs. I know it probably annoys some people, but it is a happy scream and not a temper tantrum scream. We still are working on it though. I did manage to grab a picture of Cole batting and his little sister Alyssa (7 months old) being as cute as can be.

On a much sadder note, Justin's boss lost his daughter-in-law yesterday to a drunk driver. She was a police officer just doing her duty and it ended up being "her time." I had also known her from CVS and was truly saddened by the loss.

2007-04-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Today was a special day. Not only because it was Sunday, but because of Ryan. Ryan Morris is a friend of ours. Well, originally he was a friend of Justin. They went to high school together and to the same church as well. He was one of the 3 groomsmen in our wedding. Well, tomorrow he is going to Basic Training. He has joined the military and we won't see him again until late August. We haven't really seen him that much with our busy, crazy, hectic schedules, but I guess the idea that we could if we wanted to was always there. Now it is gone. Did I mention that Claire absolutely loves Ryan? We attended a barbeque at his parent's house today after church as a sendoff for him. As soon as she saw him today, she reached for him to pick her up. He's just such a great guy and an awesome friend. We're gonna miss you Ryan. Good luck!

We got back home just in time for Justin to go to work. This meant that Claire and I had some good old fashioned mommy daughter time. We played outside in the yard with her Strawberry Shortcake ball and even sat down and threw grass at each other. She didn't get the point at first because she started to eat the grass. Then she figured it out and started laughing. That threw us into a tickle fight which she just loves. I have to admit I like them as long as I'm not the one being tickled. Her laugh is so infectious. Once inside again, she found her favorite plastic Easter eggs and began her funny face again. I tried to capture it with the camera, but once she sees the camera out, nothing else matters.

We finished off the day with Sunday evening church and a guest speaker on Financial Freedom. It was an excellent message and very encouraging to us as Justin and I have been doing some real work on our finances lately.

Off to another week of craziness but this is the last week of the semester at Lamar. After Friday, it's just finals left. Just finals. HA!

2007-04-21T21:23:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, we had pictures of Claire done for Easter/18 months old. I tried to put her Easter dress on her and it just didn't look right so I opted for a more casual look. I think they turned out pretty well. What do you think?

This week also brought new adventures for Claire. She now is capable of feeding Nina treats. Nina is our dog and although I was a little afraid at first that Claire would try to eat the dog treat herself, she did well and gave it to Nina. Of course, I'm sure it helped that Nina was basically going to knock Claire over to get to her treat. Once Claire has given Nina the treat, she follows Nina to the corner where Nina is eating her treat and gets down in Nina's face to make sure she eats the treat. Once Nina is done, Claire stands back up and claps for Nina finishing her treat. It really is just adorable.
Another something new for Claire this week is a very distinct frustrated look. We were playing with the plastic Easter eggs that we got a few weeks ago when we noticed it first. Claire opens them up and then hands them to Justin or I to close the egg back together. She is usually pretty good at getting them opened up, but every once in a while the egg sticks together. This is where she grits her teeth, puts her lips in a square, and literally shakes her head in frustration. Her cousin, Reece, used to do the same thing. He eventually grew out of it. Hopefully, Claire will too, although right now it is still cute.

Today we went to the library and Claire was very good about keeping the books on the shelves AND being quiet. I was a little nervous too because when we first walked in there were quite a few senior citizens and well, usually, they're not as understanding with toddlers as others. All was good though and I got 3 new books to read this next week.

Last night I read an entire book called House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. It was an excellent book (obviously if I read the whole thing in 3 hours) even though it was scary. I'm usually not a suspense book reader, but I have to say this one was really good. So today at the library I got 3 more by Dekker and Peretti.

2007-04-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

My dearest Claire,
I know that it has been a long while since I posted on here, but here I am again to write to you about yourself. You turned 18 months this week and I honestly have no idea where the time has gone. You have changed from a baby to a little girl with your own personality and individual ideas. Your favorite thing to do is CLIMB on anything and everything you can. You have a determination that is unmatched. Yesterday at Meemaw's you spent 3 minutes trying to climb into your own chair. You never gave up and you finally made it. I pray you never lose that tenacity to get what you want. However, on that note, you are also very talented at throwing temper tantrums. Daddy and I get frustrated with you sometimes due to these, but always know that we love you more than anything and just want the best for you. We let you cry it out which isn't easy, but you are learning that when you cry like that, it doesn't get you what you want. You have lots of fun at day care and although it still hurts me to have someone else watch you all day, I do see benefits. You are a very sweet, sharing, patient, little girl. You like to read books, but only at your own pace. You are an excellent eater. Today is Easter, and we learned you like brisket. You ate brisket almost exclusively at lunch and dinner today.
Anyway, I hope that when you are old enough to read this, you understand most of all that we love you and more than us, God loves you. He sent His Son to die for you and if you were the only sinner in the world, Jesus would still have come down from heaven and died for you to be able to go to heaven to live with Him. Not only that, but Easter is so important because that is the day to celebrate Jesus rising from the grave to proved His true identity. Claire, He loves you so much!
We love you too. Happy 1/2 birthday!

Love,
Mama

2006-08-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

My dearest Claire,
This week you turned 10 months old. I just can't believe how fast you're growing up. This past month has been a month of changes for you. You have 2 teeth now. They are both on the bottom right in the front. They didn't bother you as much as we thought they would. You were just putting EVERYTHING in your mouth whenever you could. The biggest change for you this month however was day care. Daddy and I both hated to put you in day care and we still hate it every time we have to drop you off, but it is for the best in the future. You still cry every time we drop you off, but your teacher says it doesn't take long for you to get over it now. The best part of it is that when we come to pick you up, you have the best smile on your face and crawl to us just as fast as your little arms and legs will let you. Then you give your teacher, Ms. LaShea, a look that says, "HA! You only wish you were my mommy!"
Another change for you this month is drinking formula only. You have officially been weaned this month, and to be honest, I don't think you've noticed or care. You also can now eat small snacks and like sweets and breads. We no longer can eat a meal without giving you some. We don't mind however! Drinking a bottle is now a lot easier for us now that you can hold the bottle yourself. Although, you don't let us walk away from you while you drink your bottle. We must be right beside you. Claire, I cherish these moments that you want me near you for I know they won't last forever!
The doctor said at your 9 month checkup that you were too skinny! Daddy and I couldn't believe that one of our kids was called skinny! She told us to give you an extra bottle per day which is difficult to fit in to the schedule, but you don't mind the extra bottle at all! You are such a wonderful eater. You're not a great fan of the green vegetables but you will eat them with a little motivation---fruits! You eat a lot for your age, but yet you still don't look like it! I know it is because of your activity level. You are actively moving from the moment you awake in the morning until your last fight from sleeping. You are persistently crawling, jumping, walking along furniture, bouncing, talking, etc. ALL DAY LONG! Even today, as we went shopping and you were in the stroller, you were turning around, trying to crawl, doing whatever you could just to be in motion. I hope you never lose that activeness.
This past month, you went to a baby shower for your cousin Alyssa who is to be born in September. You were so good throughout the whole shower, a few ladies at the end of the shower noticed you and asked where you'd been the whole time. You are so good!
You do have your moments though! There are a few places in the living room where you play that you're not allowed to go. The number of times we remove you from those banished places is countless! Daddy jokes that if we put 3 of your favorite toys directly in front of you and a gun all the way across the room behind you with obstacles in the way, you'd make a beeline for the gun--obstacles and all! It is a vivid picture to us that your sin nature is already in control. Daddy and I pray for you every day that one day you will not be a slave to sin anymore!
These are just a few of the things that have happened this month, but we are still so grateful for you each and every day and wouldn't change a single thing about your wonderful self!

Love,
Mama

2006-07-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

My Dearest Claire,

You turned 9 months old today. My how the months have flown by. You are such an adorable girl. This month has been full of excitement. You have learned to go without your pacifier for the most part. You still use it at night to go to sleep and for about a minute after your bottles since you never can imagine that 6 oz. is all you get to eat at a time.
We haven't started table foods yet although you get really angry to see Daddy and me eat and not give you any. Everyone tells me to feed you more food, but you cry regardless of how much food we give you. Mommy gets to brag about the fact you sleep so well at night and take good naps throughout the day. One of my favorite things is to take a nap in the afternoon with you. We both sleep so much better that way.
You also love to laugh and smile. Lately all we have to do is say, "Ha, Ha, Ha" and you just light up and give us that giggle we love to hear. You also like to pull up on the arm of the couch or chair and peek over the edge and smile at me. You learned to say "Dada" right on cue the week after Father's Day. It makes Daddy so happy to hear you say it all day long. You only say "Mama" when you're upset about something.
We love you so much and are so excited about what this next month will bring.

Love,
Mom

2006-05-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know it's been a while again. But really nothing exciting has been going on here. I'm boring. My life is boring. Busy as all get out, but boring.

Well, spring semester is over. Justin and I both did really well and are glad it's over. He's going back in July, I get to go back in August. yea.

Claire is doing well. Still no teeth yet. Seven months old and no teeth. I don't get it. She is getting really close to crawling though. She does a little half-crawl, fall over, scoot forward and repeat thing. I've noticed that she's very sensitive though. I guess she's like me in that regard.

I've always been a very sensitive person can cry to this day at the drop of a hat. for any reason. When I was little, my parents would just look at me wrong and I would spill my guts and burst into tears. I am grateful for this in a way because it never allowed me to get into any really big trouble. I couldn't hide anything. So today, Claire started towards Nina (our dog) and her bed. I told her no and shook my head. She turned around. Later, she went towards it again and when I said no again, she looked at me with her big blue eyes pleading with me not to say that word again. Her lips curled under and the poochie lip disease occurred. Then tears started streaming down her big fat cheeks as she cried. It broke my heart into a thousand pieces. But it is sorta nice to know that one word has that kind of affect on her, at least at this point.

Mother's Day is tomorrow. This is my first one and Justin already has made me feel so special. He's already invited me out to dinner and has bought and wrapped my present. I'm excited and wondering why I never thought about having a kid sooner just for a Mother's Day present!

2006-04-20T00:11:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a good idea that later turned out to be really stupid? I'm sure everyone has experienced this and this past weekend was one for me.

Claire and I went to Galveston to visit some friends for the day. We were driving down a two lane highway when the police had blocked it off for an accident. They were routing traffic down towards the beach. While we were waiting in line, we realized that the route led underneath a private beachhouse. So all the traffic from the highway was going through one lucky person's beachhouse. One of my friends got out and started to take some pictures of the unbelievable sight. While he was out of the car, I saw a path to the beach without going through the beachhouse that nobody else was taking....RED FLAG! That should have gone off in my head, but nooooooooo. I said, "Let's buck the system!" Why follow what everyone else was doing? So we decided to go straight and take this little path. Halfway down the path, we got stuck. In the sand. Ding! Ding! Ding! That's why nobody else was taking this path. So my friend and I got out and started to push the car back up the path. When the car began to accelerate, I let go. However, I didn't realize that my ring had caught on the car hood. So the car is accelerating and my hand is caught. The only thing I could think of was that I was going to lost my finger. I said my goodbyes. My right ring finger has served me well for 25 years but here was its time to go. I apparently was yelling to stop because my friend who was driving stopped. My finger was still attached! It hurt really bad though and was cut. We made it back up the path, through the beachhouse, onto the beach through a well traveled path and then back to the beachhouse they were staying at. So, lesson learned and almost a very costly lesson at that. My finger is purple so I did break some blood vessels, but that's it. Not even a break! As for the rest of our trip, we had a great time and enjoyed a day out of our ordinary routine.

In other news, Justin got a 97% on his Calculus 2 test. I'm so proud of him and so jealous as well. I struggled through Calc 1 although I know not everyone can even do that. Mainly, I'm proud of him though. Let's just see how he does in Calc 3 though!

Also, today is my brother's birthday! So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

2006-04-10T23:11:00.000-05:00

Game Show Network. I love that channel. I have always been a huge fan of game shows and it is a dream of mine to be on one someday...not to win money, although that would be nice of course, but just to say I was once on a game show!

However, our cable company does not understand the love affair I have with that channel and have taken it off. Not of expanded or moved it to a higher price rate, just taken it off completely. I won't say my life is over, but it is forever changed...until we move or the cable company gets it back. Maybe it's time to switch to satellite television. Hmm......

In other news, Claire has been eating her veggies so well. I'm so proud of her. She ate a whole jar of carrots today for lunch. I couldn't get them in her mouth fast enough and when she finished the entire thing, she cried for more. Afterwards, I felt guilty for feeding her so much, but I'm just so glad that she likes her veggies unlike someone else in our household. Tomorrow, we try sweet potatoes for the first time and after that we're moving on to the fruits!

Hopefully, she'll continue to like her veggies but even if she doesn't I will finally get to use the old saying we all heard growing up...."Eat your veggies, they're good and good for ya!"

I love vegetables and I would have to say my favorite one is pumpkin but if you don't consider pumpkin to be a vegetable, then my favorite is squash. What's your favorite veggie?

2006-04-01T13:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, so see? I'm posting again! A lot sooner than you thought I know.

A tragedy happened this week in my community and it has really affected me a lot more than I expected. A bus carrying a high school girls soccer team crashed and killed two of the girls, and injured a lot of them. One girl has lost both arms due to this. It was just horrific.

The reason why it affected me so much is two fold. First of all being a new parent. Now that I have a little girl, I just couldn't imagine her not being around anymore. You always hear how horrible it would be and how your kids are supposed to live longer than you. When you actually have a person that you are responsible for bringing in this world, and then raising them through all the heartaches, to never see them again I just don't know if I could deal with that.

Second of all, I think about this whole thing from a teacher's point of view. I just never thought of it from that perspective. Here is someone that I see and am in charge of every day even if just for one class period. I saw them earlier today, maybe scolded her for talking in class or something like that, and now I won't have her homework turned in tomorrow, her seat will be empty in the class, her lab group is one person short. It's not just about being different, it's about a great loss. Even though I've never been a school teacher before, I can already imagine the responsibility I'll feel for each student.

On a much brighter note, Claire has been doing really well. I love her smile. She is so happy. She is also getting really good and fast at turning over. I had her in the very middle of the bed and I was at the end of the bed hanging up laundry. I was watching her and in the time it took me to put a hanger in a shirt while still facing her, she almost rolled off the bed. No lie! I scooped her up when she was about one inch away from the edge--mid turn. Needless to say, from then on I hung up laundry with her on the floor playing quietly!

2006-03-29T23:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know it's been a little while, but I'll explain why.

1. Traveling with an infant. Wow. I knew it was going to be more difficult, but had absolutely no idea how hard it truly is. First, I was able to get everything packed that we needed in the proper bags and with the proper weight. Whew! So we were doing really well. We'd gotten to the airport on time and the line wasn't very long for security. Then we get up to the place where you put everything on the xray machine conveyor belt in those plastic tubs. We did shoes, our two carryon bags each, the laptop out, the digital camera out, coats and all in the tubs. Then I go to push the sleeping Claire in the car seat on the stroller through the walkthrough machine and the lady who's been standing there watching us unload our lives onto the belt says, "Ma'am, you can't take her like that through here....you need to taker her out of the car seat, then take the car seat out of the stroller, break the stroller down and then carry her through." I wanted to say, "Ma'am, you could have told us that 5 minutes ago instead of watching us unload all this other stuff and keep silent!" Anyway, I complied although I felt like I held up the line forever which is a huge bother to me.

Then on the way back, I was prepared. No problems through security. We get to the gate and now I'm finally one of those people that gets to board earlier than everyone else. So we're about to board and I realize that I am missing one of my bags. So Justin has to run literally run all the way back to security which was 3 elevators back to get my bag. To make matters even more embarrassing, it wasn't just a bag that I left, it was my breast pump with breastmilk inside. I can only imagine what the security people were thinking. So now, my precious time to board earlier than everyone else is gone. Justin makes it back and we are the last ones on the plane. Literally the last ones on the plane. So much for preboarding.

One good thing about this trip is that she slept the entire time on the plane both ways. I was so thankful that she was not the baby screaming on the plane where you can't shut them up and you can't escape because you're trapped thousands of feet in the air with no possibility of escape.

2. We're sick. Claire got sick first. Her first illness. She was coughing, and had a stuffy nose. To make matters worse, she's also teething. It's annoying enough when we get a stuffy nose, but when you're sucking on a pacifier and breathe through your nose exclusively and that nose is now stuffed up with mucus not allowing any air to pass through, it sucks. Not only for her, but for those that are taking care of her. Then, Justin came home Saturday night not feeling good. Two sickies that I have to take care of. No problem, right? Sunday comes and then I don't feel good. My nose has been stuffed for the past 4 days. Some good news though, Claire is getting better. Now we just have to be careful not to get her sick again since we're still sick.

So those are just two of the reasons that I haven't written lately. But we did have a fabulous time on vacation and my family was just overjoyed to meet and see her again. Justin got to fix my dad's computer and we had lots of fun seeing everyone and catching up.

Hopefully I won't take as long to post this time and will be feeling better.

2006-03-10T21:25:00.000-06:00

Ok. I'm not really sure where this whole blog thing is going to go or how long it is going to last. I simply know I've never been that good at keeping a journal because inevitably the first entry is way too long and then I get bored and never write again. However, my motivation for this journal/blog is a little different so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Claire is my main reason for the blog. See, she is just 5 months old and already I realize how fast she has grown and changed since her birth in October. I want to remember these precious times and look back on memories I know I'll forget. I've also been reading other popular blogs and think they're pretty interesting. Some good friends also recommended it, so here I am. I hope someone reads this someday and if nothing else I hope Claire will! The three of us are leaving for vacation tomorrow. Justin, Claire, and I are flying to Michigan so that most of my family can meet Claire for the first time. Understand, we live in Texas and most of my family lives in Michigan so they haven't been able to visit yet. I'm so excited to see them although I already can tell this visit will be different because it's not for me to reunite with my family but for Claire. It's just amazing how a baby changes your life so completely and so immediately!