Family pics

When my dad asked me in December if we wanted to do a family shoot when everyone was here in January, I have to admit I was less than thrilled. I agreed, but I was very hesitant - but not without good reason. You see, I have a good memory. In fact, I remembered the LAST time Erin and I got the great idea of dressing the girls up and trying to get professional pictures taken. SCARY. Nothing worse than trying to get 2 little bundles of energy to sit still and make some semblance of a smile for the camera. Oh yeah - there is something worse - adding a THIRD baby into the mix - little Bridger. But, we acquiesced.

There was only one morning in the week that Amy and Neal and Erin's family were here that worked for the photo shoot. We were not planning on Jonathan being able to make it, because it was during a school day, but the weather actually cooperated and we had a snow day on that day. (Yes, the one time in this entire long winter of rain/snow/ice that it worked in our favor.)

I won't say it was fun. The girls (especially Elizabeth) still weren't interested in sitting still. And they definitely weren't interested in sitting still AND smiling at the same time. But, they managed to get some good shots, and I am very pleased to have the pictures (now that it's over with, of course)!

Here are some of the group shots:





And the best pics of the 3 little ones:





And my 2 favorite pictures of all (yes, I'm a tad bit biased):





If anyone's interested, I've uploaded a bunch of the photos to my Snapfish account, where you can order reprints for very cheap. Just click here.

Thanks, Dad and Pat, for getting us to go through with it, and for the photo CD!

Flashback to the '80s

An online friend of mine is preparing to attend the 20th high school reunion of her husband. In preparation, they sent out a link to the "senior polls" from their class - the class of 1988. As someone who graduated in 1991, it brought back some horrible flashbacks of my own high school years. I think the best way to sum it up is, "What were we thinking?" Check it out, it is hilarious!

1988 Senior Polls

The amazing part is that these pictures could have been taken straight from my high school experience as well. In fact, while looking through them, I was able to recall the names of people at my school that looked exactly like these kids. And, the funniest part of all is that these were the "cool" kids! Now I'm thinking they really weren't all that cool... :) I mean, seriously, check out the "Best Dressed" and "Best Hair" categories to see what I'm talking about.

My friend's husband actually married one of the "winners," which is truly comical to her. (I'm not going to post his category, since I haven't asked their permission - after all this is the internet and there are last names posted on there...)

Saturday mornings

Elizabeth has learned the age-old fact that not all days are equal, and Saturday is a treasured day of the week. Of course, Saturday morning cartoons are almost a thing of the past, so that's not the draw for her. And, all too soon she will learn that Saturdays are actually wonderful because school is out. But, until then, I selfishly revel in the fact that she currently loves Saturdays because it means, "Mommy doesn't go to work and stays home all day to play with me!"

Every morning this week, as I went in to wake her up, she asked, "Is today Saturday?" And, I had to sadly tell her, no, it was not Saturday, and yes, I did have to go to work that day. She practically leapt for joy when I told her this morning that it actually WAS Saturday. Then, she proceeded to tell me all the things she wanted me to do with her, as we quickly sat down for the first activity - a private pretend tea party.

And, it was private this morning, because David and Jonathan both spent last night at church as part of the youth group's 30-Hour Famine - a great way to raise money and teen awareness for world hunger. Jonathan participated last year, and David was really excited about volunteering for it this year.

So, while we ate our pretend bread and drank our pretend tea, I was thinking about our boys waking up with their stomachs empty, since they both hadn't eaten since lunchtime yesterday. Then, I started feeling a little bit guilty about not participating in the fast with them. But, you know, I had to keep up my energy to run around with Elizabeth all day....so, I banished those thoughts and went and cooked us the other thing she associates with Saturday mornings - PANCAKES!

Craftiness

I am an engineer. I am a good engineer, because my mind acts like an engineer's mind. It thrives on rules and order. Things that are spelled out in black and white: 2 + 2 = 4, and it always will, no exceptions. There is no need for creativity in my world. Thank goodness.

Because, I am not creative. My younger sister is a fabulous artist. I freely admit that any creative genes that might have been destined for me got stored up and lavished upon her instead. I'm serious - there is not a hint of creativity in me. I can't make up a tune or even harmonize without music, I shudder at the thought of having to cook without a detailed recipe, and I can't draw anything that is even remotely recognizable - not even a straight line.

So, now what do I have? A daughter that loves to color, draw, and make "crafts." I'm not going to claim she's the next Michelangelo...she's probably just average as far as artistic talent goes. But, that would make her a whole lot more creative than I am. She's always begging us to make something with her. Elizabeth is not picky right now, but I know her naivete will not last forever. For now, she actually thinks I can draw. Sure, sometimes she has to ask me what I am drawing, but if I tell her, she actually will buy it. Boy, is she going to be disappointed soon.

Fortunately, a friend of mine told me about this website:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

It has an abundant amount of crafts to do with kids. And, they're so easy! Save an old toilet paper roll (which we seem to have plenty of at our house), print out a template, and ta-da! It's a craft!

This morning, I decided to take pictures of some of the numerous crafts we've made lately, mostly courtesy of that site, but I discovered that David cleaned house yesterday, and most of them have...um....magically disappeared. But, here are a few of the "crafts" we've made:



You can see our "collage," which is truly a stroke of genius for the "non-crafty" parent. You just let the kid flip through an old magazine, tell you what pictures they want to cut out, then glue them on the paper. Elizabeth absolutely loves to make these. Of course, most of hers seem to focus on pictures of babies and food.

There's also a "house" that David made with her a while back. Cutting and pasting...again encompassing Elizabeth's 2 main requirements for a "craft." And, you can see the toilet paper roll Kitty that I helped Elizabeth make this morning.

So, as you can see, so far, we're able to keep up with Elizabeth's creative demand. But, I'm afraid my days of her seeing me as the "craft guru" are numbered. Check out this picture she colored yesterday:



If you look closely, you'll notice that she actually colored everything the appropriate color and managed to stay roughly within the lines. I'm afraid this is proof that Elizabeth's artistic ability is about to surpass mine...

Ice and snow

Yesterday morning, we woke up to a world covered with shiny, slippery ice. Jonathan was happy to get a day off of school, and I was able to postpone my morning inspection until the afternoon, so it was not much of an inconvenience.

Laura, a friend of ours from church, is a great photographer. You can see a pretty picture she took of the ice on her blog:

http://dooalot.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/ice-ice-baby/

Today, we were surprised with about an inch of snow on top of the re-frozen ice, so Jonathan got to sleep in one more time. I was not so lucky - I was supposed to be in Louisville by 8am for a construction meeting that could not be postponed, so I struggled out the door at 6am and slid down the street in my car. Fortunately, once I got to Man O' War, the roads were much better, and once I got to the interstate, the roads were pretty much clear. After Louisville, I took a lovely detour to the little-known town of Powderly, KY, for another inspection, then finally made my way back home around dinnertime. Ugh!

Fortunately, David is a stay-at-home dad, so we don't have to make last-minute arrangements for Elizabeth when her school is cancelled, and she gets to play in the snow. When Jonathan woke up, he took both of them sledding on Stonewall Hill. Sure, we didn't have much snow, but it was still pretty icy, so the sledding was still very good. Elizabeth's all about being a big girl now, so of course, she wanted to sled down the hill by herself. They had a few test runs, then Jonathan gave her a big push. The plan was for David to catch her halfway down, but he missed! So, she got to go much faster and longer than he intended. Here's the heart-stopping video:



As you can hear, he actually got pretty nervous - mainly because there's a big creek and large trees at the bottom of the hill that she was barrelling toward very quickly! But, she stopped before she reached them and she was apparently oblivious to the danger, because, as you can hear on the video, she just cackled and giggled all the way down. And, as soon as David caught up to her, she was asking to go down again!

Playing games

Most of the people in my family are well aware of the "Dead Grandmother" escapade that took place between me and my older sister when we were children. A friend from up the street was visiting Amy, and I desperately wanted to play with them. They told me that they were going to play house, and that the only way I could play with them was if I was the "dead grandmother." That meant I had to lie on the bed while they covered me with a bunch of blankets. Then, I was told that I couldn't move or make a noise, or else I would be out of the game. I laid under those blankets for as long as I could, until the heat and the boredom became too much, then I came out to complain to them that I didn't like being dead after all. Lo and behold, I found out that they had snuck back to the friend's house and left me there! Now, in retrospect, I realize that I may have been perceived by them as just the pesky younger sibling, however I'm not sure that justifies the plan of action they undertook. Of course, perhaps if I hadn't been so gullible, I probably wouldn't have fallen for it in the first place!

Given that background information, I'm sure you can understand my amusement when I came in the other night to find David like this:



Elizabeth was in the hall yelling at him things like, "Daddy, don't move!", Daddy, no talking!" and "Daddy, go to sleep!" I was happy to hear that David wasn't "dead", just being forced to take a nap. :)

In retaliation, later that night, David took this picture of me:



Can anyone guess what game we were playing? Why, hide-and-go-seek, of course!

Dancing with Baloo

As I've previously confessed, since becoming a mother, I have developed a strangely sentimental side. While I used to quickly change the channel whenever a sappy song came on the radio, now some of them really speak to me. One of those is the latest song by Steven Curtis Chapman called "Cinderella". Here are the beginning lyrics to the song:

She spins and she sways
To whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I'm sitting here wearing
The weight of the world on my shoulders

It's been a long day
And there's still work to do
She's pulling at me
Saying "Dad, I need you

There's a ball at the castle
And I've been invited
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...

You can hear the song at this link:

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/thismoment.htm

Now, if this song had been written about Baloo the Bear (and Mommy instead of Daddy), it could have been about me and Elizabeth. Whenever I come home from work, I try to make it a point for that time to be Elizabeth's. No matter how tired I am, it's still a rush to see her get excited that Mommy's home, and grab my hand to pull me wherever she wants to go to start playing. Last night, as we were pretending to be Baloo and Mowgli and dancing around the living room, this song popped into my head. (Ironically, she was also wearing her Cinderella t-shirt.)

It's nice to have little reminders that the time I have with her is so fleeting. I know there will soon come a day when Mommy and Daddy won't be her favorite playmates. I often think that she's almost 3, which means 1/6 of our time with her here at home is almost gone. (Yes, I'm a math geek.) If the remaining 5/6 of the time goes by so quickly, it will be gone before I know it.

And when that day comes, at least I'll have embarrassing videos to harass her with, like this bathtub video of her singing "Bare Necessities":

Blowing in the wind

News

(MEMPHIS, TN 2/6/2008) The Hickory Ridge Mall took a beating from Mother Nature Tuesday night. Severe storms tore off portions of the roof and walls...

I was glued to The Weather Channel last night, waiting to see where disaster would strike as a strong cold front hit the warm air throughout our region. It was a prime set-up for tornados, and disasters like that give me job security and pay our bills. Like predicted, the tornados started spawning, and the weathermen started cackling and hooting and excitedly displaying the carnage. When I saw the footage from the Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis, I told David I should go ahead and pack my bags - especially when I received confirmation that one of the heaviest hit stores was one of my best clients. Sure enough, I got the first phone call at 8am this morning (ok, technically the first phone call was at midnight, but fortunately I slept through that one). Soon after, I had packed my bags and hit the road toward Memphis.

I never cease to be amazed by the true devastation that a tornado can cause. On my way to Memphis, I got stuck in traffic outside of Jackson, Tennessee, as they were trying to right tractor-trailers that had been turned over in the road by a tornado. That was in the midst of a path of 2ft-plus diameter trees that had been uprooted and tossed about and road signs that had been twisted into amazing metal sculptures. I also saw a car that was literally unrecognizable as any kind of a vehicle, as it had been thrown into so many trees after it was picked up from the highway. I'm sure the driver of that car was one of the fatalities reported.

Based on the information provided by The Weather Channel, I was expecting to find my store obliterated. But, it was actually in pretty good condition, all things considering. Sure, a portion of the front wall was missing, and there was a little bit of water damage due to tears in the roof membrane, but all in all, the damage to the interior was relatively minor. Proof yet again that you can never trust what you hear on the news.

Of course, due to confidentiality reasons, I can't give you specific details about my client or their store name, but here's a picture of the damage. I'm sure some of my more-intuitive readers may be able to deduce the name of the store. :)



I've heard rumors that Hillary Clinton and Barrck Obama are both supposed to be coming into town on Friday to survey the damage and will be at the mall. Another good reason for me to finish up my work tomorrow (Thursday) and get out of town!

Brotherly love

Elizabeth absolutely adores her big brother Jonathan. And he's always been really good with her, but is especially great now that she can play and interact with him. Elizabeth will do anything to try to be like him - including eating her vegetables. (Yes, we shamelessly use that to our advantage at mealtimes.) And, nothing makes her happier than when Jonathan plays with her.

This week, Elizabeth has been so excited because her big brother has been playing with her a lot - even more than normal. He seems to have been extra willing to color with her, play on a pillow bridge, or join in a game of hide-and-go-seek. Now, David and I also know that Jonathan is currently under an involuntary relinquishment of his rights to play video games and computers (aka, grounded) in an effort to refocus his advanced intellectual abilities on the assignments he is given to perform away from school (aka, do his homework) ....but, we don't have to burst her little 2-year-old bubble by telling her that, now do we? And, in the process, Jonathan seems to be getting really good at staying in the lines:



He does draw the line at pretending to be an elephant from The Jungle Book, which she's been trying to get him to do for a while now. The Jungle Book is currently her favorite movie, and she's memorized every single scene. So, one of her favorite things to do right now is act out each scene....in excruciating detail. It's pretty funny to watch, because she definitely has a dramatic flair, and she's quite the director also. First, she'll hand us a pretend "costume" and have us put it on. Then, she'll tell us which scene we're in. For instance, "Here's your Bagheera costume, Mommy." Then, she'll put on her Mowgli "costume" and climb on my back and act out the scene where Mowgli rides on Bagheera through the jungle. Then, it's on to another costume change...so I'll put on my Kaa "costume" and wake her up while she's sleeping in the tree....then I'll have to change into my elephant "costume" and wake her up by marching through the room and singing. It gets pretty elaborate. I guess you could say, "It's a Jungle" over here!



So, if any of our Houston family wants to send us back her Cinderella DVD, so we can try to distract her from her "Jungle" phase, it would be greatly appreciated! :)

Deja vu at church

David and I have been getting a lot more involved in church this year. He's recently become a deacon, and so far that has meant he gets to attend a lot more meetings and serve communion on a very frequent basis. Plus, we both sing in the choir and have both signed up for monthly praise teams. The choir sings one Sunday a month, so on that week, we both sing in both services (8:30am and 11:00am). Then, on our praise team weeks (which are on different Sundays), we're each singing for both services again. Then, finally, one Sunday/month, we both volunteer in the nursery for our 2nd service. That means we've got something scheduled every Sunday of the month, except for the few months a year that actually have 5 Sundays in them. Plus, we've both joined small groups (separate mens and womens groups) that meet once/week. That has been a great way for us to develop deeper friendships, get advice/encouragement, and really grow and have accountability.

We're really enjoying being able to serve more and are happy that God is starting to use us more. It's definitely an answer to our prayers to have found a church that we enjoy and fit into so well.

But, we're both being challenged this month with additional opportunities to serve God in ways that are out of our comfort zones. David has volunteered to give his testimony at our Men's Breakfast next weekend. It will involve really opening himself up in a very public way, but will be an awesome opportunity to minister in a very powerful way. Please pray for him as he prepares to do this.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I was approached and asked to teach our High School girls' Sunday School class every other week. At first, I just laughed. To be honest, I didn't feel I had much to offer the group. It's been a long time since I was in High School, and I really didn't think I had much in common with the girls. My memories of my own high school Sunday School class are not very good. At the time, we had a very small, disinterested youth group at church, so I remember lots of Sundays when we only had 3 people in our Sunday School - one of which was my older sister, who I had a mutual hate-hate relationship with. Add to that the fact that I was a pretty rebellious teenager, and my experiences/choices were much different than the ones I would hope these young ladies are going through. But, I'd been praying that God would open up additional opportunities for me to serve Him, so I didn't want to slam the door outright. So, I agreed to pray about it, then agreed to sit in on one of the classes to get a feel for it.

My first class was last Sunday. It was utter deja vu for me. I didn't realize it, but I had started on the day following their long trip to a conference, so they had all gotten in very late the night before and were dead tired. At the beginning of the class, there were only 2 girls in there. I made the joke to them that it reminded me of my own Sunday School class from high school, except my sister wasn't glaring at me from across the room. Then, the most hilarious thing happened. The door opened and 2 sisters walked in. The older one had red hair, the younger one had brown hair. Then, the older one made a fairly snippy comment to the younger one, and stormed out to do something she obviously thought the younger one should have done. It literally could have been me and Amy from almost 20 years ago. I guess some things never change, huh? That's when I realized that I might understand these girls more than I thought I would, so I've agreed to sit on a few more classes and will most likely start teaching every other week very soon. Wish me luck! Also, fortunately they tell me that usually the group is much better attended and more involved and lively - especially if they've had a decent night's sleep!