A Word's Worth

Go Here to Catch Up on What I'm Doing Now

2010-04-07T22:27:00.001-05:00

To follow me now, click on this link to see me "Reading Anew": http://readinganew.blogspot.com/

Interesting Airline Announcement

2009-09-11T10:37:00.001-05:00

Southwest Airlines really is entertaining....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lZV_828OA

A New Task

2009-09-07T18:54:00.002-05:00

I have created a new blog for a task I am undertaking. Check it out and join with me in conversations.

http://www.readinganew.blogspot.com/

Peyton's mobile!

2009-02-18T09:53:00.003-06:00

So Peyton took over six steps on his own yesterday. Wow! It's gone too fast, at least from a mother's perspective!

He's been cruising around tables and the wall and the fridge for a few months now, but unlike before where he would take a step and just fall back on his bottom, now, he proceeds very cautiously with his hands out beside him for balance. Sooo cute. Such a precious site.

I've been a terrible blogger since Peyton has been born, so now that he's 10 months old, I figured I would write some things about him (I don't want him to think that just because I haven't written as much that I love him any less!).

Peyton is such a sweetheart. Last night for example, I woke him up at 10:00 pm to nurse him, and afterwards, he played in bed with me and Shane for about 40 minutes. He LOVES to play peek-a-boo and pull the blankets off his head to find us. He also loves to rough-house. I guess he has to be this way since his sister is tackling him all the time, but he sure loves it with us. He will climb all over me and Shane and grab our hair, our noses, our ears, whatever. He is also VERY ticklish and just has the sweetest little laugh about it. He definitely likes to play with people and to laugh A LOT. Such a joy.

Peyton is also very content to play with his toys. He likes to know we are around, but unlike Elizabeth who wants us there watching her while she plays, Peyton is content just to know we are around somewhere. He will go from toy to toy to toy and will be content to do this FOR HOURS!! It's wonderful to have a baby like this because I can get other things done when I'm with him. Don't get me wrong, he loves that F2F interaction, but he also loves to entertain himself and discover all the new things he sees, most of which happen to be pink wands, princess shoes, purses, and the like. :)

He also really likes trains and cars. Shane and Granbarry built Peyton a train table for Christmas (it's amazing!), and Peyton will play at that thing as long as he can. If I could find the thing to download my pictures, I'd post some. Hopefully soon. Finding the missing camera was the first step.

Peyton is also a really good eater, just like his sister. He is a bit underweight (only in the 10th percentile), but he still likes to eat. His head is still a normal size, so we aren't too worried. Anyway, he likes all "colors" of foods, including Mum-Mums (thanks, Robyn!), Cheerios, peas, sweet potatoes, white meat chicken, and anything else he can eat with his hands. He never really liked baby food and since he had teeth at 5 months, he was eating finger foods early on. And as Granna observed, he could pick up food with his pincher fingers from an early age. Very coordinated (unlike his sister).

Peyton is also very smart (like his sister). He is more engineer-smart, though, if you know what I mean. He can figure things out and put things together in ways that surprise and please me. We'll see what he decides to do when he grows up.

I'm still nursing Peyton, except during the day. I made it longer with him than I did Elizabeth, and I'm actually quite proud of myself. Am I allowed to boast on here?!! I just went down to two feedings a day the week Pawpaw (Shane's grandfather) died, which means that Peyton still clings to his Mommy and wants me (or my chest) whenever he sees me and is hungry. It's no hello or anything. It's just lean to the left and try to get the milk (even when I'm fully clothed). We get big laughs out of this.

Well, we love sweet Peyton and are so glad that he is apart of our family. I know that some of this may come across as boasting. Well, you know what? So be it. We are proud of our children and we like their traits and personalities. Of course there are (and will be) other posts where they don't come across as so angelic, but this is one that may. Have a good one.

What I love

2009-02-14T15:59:00.005-06:00

So, after reading my sister Kellee’s blog post today about LOVE, I’ve decided to end my hiatus from blogging and make a post similar to hers about some of the loves in my life at this moment in time.

Here are some things I LOVE:
1. I LOVE my husband. After six plus years of marriage, he is still the man I love. Even though we are different people now than we were then, we have grown together in this journey. Going into this marriage at 25 years old—an independent and strong-willed single woman, I would have never thought I would be the person I am today. So much of who I am today is because of him and who he is. Our conversations about God, life, people, and ministry have impacted and changed my own views on these areas. His way of seeing the world and the kingdom of God have made me want to be a part of that vision more than anything else. I love that my husband has committed himself to a life of ministry, even though it can be challenging, draining, and discouraging. I love my husband more and more every day. He teaches me things. He shows me love and compassion and forgiveness. He keeps no track of wrongs. He is loyal, and he is oh so very smart. I adore my husband. And he’s just so doggone good-looking.

2. I LOVE my daughter Elizabeth. Sweet, independent, stubborn Elizabeth. So like me and so like Shane. She tells me she loves me over and over throughout the day—verbally and by showing me the sign. She has a mind of her own, and even when I try to re-direct her, she usually wins (not because I’m not being stubborn with her either!). And I love that about her. She loves to play. She loves her babies—fake and real (Peyton). I love listening to her sing: “I love my Peyton Poe. I love my Peyton Poe. I love my P-E-Y-T-O-N-P-O-E.” Clap. Clap. Clap. I love how she loves church and people and having people over. I love her hugs and kisses and how excited she gets when we get excited. I love how she treats animals, especially our new puppy Shiloh. I adore her eyes and her smile.

3. I LOVE my son Peyton. What a joy Peyton has brought to our lives. He is so sweet and kind. He’s happy ALL THE TIME (except when he’s hungry or when his big sister is tackling him, but who can blame him?). I love how smart he is in figuring things out and making sense of his surroundings. I love how he loves me. I love how his eyes fixate on mine whenever I walk into the room and how he wants to come to me above all other people in this world (sorry, Honey, but you know it’s true!). I love how he flirts with anyone and everyone and how he’s always ready to flash a smile.

4. I LOVE living a life in ministry. It’s hard, but I love it. I don’t want to be doing anything else but loving God, loving people, and living a life formed by the Cross. I love that I get to do ministry with my husband and am so glad the Lord placed me alongside someone who has such a clear picture of what we are doing.

5. I LOVE my sisters. Kim and Kellee are very special to me. They are mature, godly women who teach me so much through their words and actions. They are women whom I look up to and admire and strive to be more like.

6. I LOVE my job. I love teaching students—not just about my subject but about the world as well and how they can use writing to impact and affect the world. I also love researching and creating new knowledge. I LOVE it!

7. I LOVE my parents. My mom and dad are examples to me of sacrifice, love, and forgiveness. They will never know how much they mean to me. I also love my in-laws and how they have welcome me into their fold from the beginning. Both sets of parents are examples of what it means to be godly people seeking to live more like Jesus. And I love how much they love my children. What a blessing.

8. I LOVE the evenings. After both kids are in bed and Shane and I can spend time by ourselves. I love this time of day most of all.

9. I LOVE that Jesus came to this earth and showed us how to have life more abundantly. I love that I'm journeying towards that life.

Although today is Valentine’s Day, I hope I show the love of Christ to those around me throughout each and every day. All the year around.

Waco Art Fest

2008-09-21T20:53:00.004-05:00

This weekend the family headed to Downtown Waco for Waco's annual Cultural Arts Festival. I've wanted to go since we moved to Gatesville, and it was nice to finally go since we live in Waco now. They had a lot of fun things to do for the kids, and what's best is that all of it was free. What an amazing community event! Elizabeth painted art on canvas and she and I both painted masks. What a great way to get out into the community and be artistic. Here are some pics from our enjoyable time.

Shane and Elizabeth at the "paint table."

Our little artist at work.

Of course pink was the first color she chose.

She also wanted to write an "E" for her name. It didn't last, though. She covered it up with another color paint.

Here we are watching E paint.

She did this all by herself. She requested a color and Shane went and got it for her. What fun!

The finished product and the proud artist. This piece is now hanging in our dining room.

And here's sweet little Peyton. What a wonderful smile!

If you live in Waco or the nearby area, you should definitely try to make it next year. Fun for the whole family.

My Day

2008-09-18T15:28:00.002-05:00

Well, I have about 30 minutes before my graduate class and decided to come here and post a blog. My family is all gone today to Strawn, Texas, where Shane is performing a funeral for his great aunt on his mom's side. She died during Hurricane Ike when a tree fell on her home and she had an apparent heart attack. Shane's parents went, too, and they took the kids because they wanted to show them off to some family they'd never met before on his mom's side. I have my graduate class tonight from 4-7 and am excited because we are talking about multimodality and literacy and they get to compose an essay in a medium other than the alphabetic print traditional research essay, which is (sadly) the only medium most of them have ever composed in (yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. Who cares?!).

I've also been invited to play Bunko tonight by a friend of mine at Robinson (Jennifer Paltjon--For those of you who went to ACU, it's Jason's wife, not his sister, though they do share a name). I'll be getting there a little late since my class lets out so late, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played Bunko since my 8th grade birthday party. Yes, I had a Bunko party back then. It was my mom's idea and we ended up having a lot of fun. I'm anxious to see if I remember how to play. Maybe I'll even win something!

Quotes I'm Currently Pondering

2008-09-14T14:19:00.003-05:00

"Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful." --Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President

"A nation that continues to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This is what Jesus had in mind: folks coming together, forming close-knit communities and meeting each other’s needs—no kings, no major welfare systems, no presidents necessary. His is a theology and practice for the people of God, no a set of suggestions for empire. But Jesus’ vision of cultivating alternative communities of sharing, debt cancellation, and mutual aid didn’t just end with the people of Israel. His jubilee was a liberation of all the poor and broken peoples of the empire” (Claiborne, p. 90).

“Jesus reminded Israel that God’s plan wasn’t for them to be God’s favorites or to be more blessed than others. Rather, they were blessed to be a blessing for the whole world. In this case of the jubilee, practicing economic justice was not just an ancient dream but was to be practiced among and for the poor and broken of the world. Was it also possible that the new king Jesus taught that Israel should practice jubilee, forgiveness of debts, and communal love toward outsiders? Whatever we find in Jesus’ opening statement in Nazareth, one thing is for sure: in the here and now, he was all about the economy of God, the forgiveness of debts, and the release of slaves, all in accordance with the jubilee economics of the ancient exodus desert tribes” (Claiborne, p. 91).

636 pictures

2008-09-10T22:10:00.006-05:00

I downloaded my camera yesterday and found out that I had 636 pictures on my camera! Wow. I had no idea my card even held that many. My favorite ones are those I didn't realize I had taken. See below...

The picture above is the letter "I", but what I didn't upload are the pictures she took of the entire alphabet! I laughed out loud when I saw the 113 pictures Elizabeth had taken with my camera. We love you, girl!

Peyton at 5 months

2008-09-10T21:57:00.002-05:00

So I know I just posted a blog about Peyton at 4 months less than 1 month ago, but he just turned 5 months yesterday and so I am going to post some recent pictures of him. He's such a cutie!! He's still our blonde and blue-eyed boy.

All smiles!

We LOVE the Bumbo (Thanks, Lynley and Alison!).

Hair today, Gone tomorrow

2008-09-10T21:27:00.007-05:00

I made a drastic change in my life this week when I cut off 15 inches of my hair. I haven't had it short in years, partly because Shane likes my hair long but also because I like to put it in a ponytail and I want EASY maintenance, which "short" isn't in my mind. I had been growing my hair out for quite some time now so that I could donate it to Locks of Love. And that's what I did. I feel good that my hair is going to a child who has lost their hair, whether it be from chemo or leukemia or cancer or disease. And even though my new haircut is a little shorter than I want it, I have to remind myself, "Hey, it'll grow." And THAT is a huge blessing that I take for granted--my hair will grow again. And other people's hair doesn't. Although it's not my favorite haircut, I'll live with it this way for a while knowing that my locks have been sent in love to help someone else. Who knows? Maybe I'll repeat the process again and again and again until I get to the point where I don't have any hair and then need to benefit from other people who have donated their hair to similar causes. So, here's to the locks. Maybe I'll see you around sometime.

BEFORE

AFTER
Front view

Back view

Happy Birthday, Dad

2008-09-10T20:55:00.004-05:00

Over the weekend, we all headed to Houston for my dad’s 60th birthday party (Today is his actual birthday, though—Happy birthday, Dad!). The four kids hosted a party for him at his favorite barbecue restaurant: The Tin Roof. We had a great time. Good food. Good fellowship. Good fun. Elizabeth, Barrett, and Shaelyn sang him a revised tune to his favorite song (“This is the day that the Lord has made”):

This is the Day; this is the day.
That Teddy was born. That Teddy was born.
We are so glad; we are so glad.
‘Cuz he’s our granddad; ‘cuz he’s our granddad!

He loved it! Here are some pics from the event.

Barrett, Shaelyn, Elizabeth

The Poe Family All Grown Up (and Kurt's son Jackson!)

The Poe Family: The Extended Version
4 spouses and 7 grandchildren

Sisters: Kellee, Kim, Suzy, Me

Our Family: Elizabeth (3) and Peyton (4 months)

One of Dad's favorite dessert: Peach cobbler with Blue Bell ice cream

We made Dad a bulletin board of all these pictures. There were some really funny ones of when my parents were dating. What outfits they wore. In one of them here, Dad is in a purle suit!

Elizabeth and her cousin Shaelyn

Shane and Peyton. Ahhh....

Peyton at 4 months

2008-08-29T21:06:00.002-05:00

An update on Peyton...

Peyton now has two teeth: he got his first tooth last weekend and his second one three days ago. It’s been a long couple of weeks, to say the least. Poor guy. It’s got to hurt to get teeth like that. He’s been in so much pain. It stinks that this has happened right when school is starting and I have to get up early for work (Am I being selfish or what?!!). He’s been getting up four to five times per night. I’m still very surprised how early he’s cutting teeth. He’s barely four months old! I’ve read that it’s better for kids to get their teeth when they are a few months older than Peyton because then their baby teeth last longer and their adult teeth don’t come in until they’re older, which means fewer cavities with adult teeth. But my kids don’t seem to care. Elizabeth got first tooth earlier than Peyton—a day before she turned four months. But it’s still exciting, even if the tooth fairy is going to visit him when he’s four!! LOL!

Peyton still isn’t sleeping through the night. On a good night he’ll wake up only once. Most nights it’s twice. Lately, it’s been way too many to count because of his teeth. Selfishly, I’m really ready for a full night’s sleep. What is that like?

Peyton has the sweetest little demeanor. He smiles at anyone who looks at him and is especially fond of his parents and his sister. He has started giggling and laughing. He rolls over back and forth and thinks it’s a cute little game. He also loves to stand up on you and has been doing this since he was like two months old (literally). He has the strongest legs—he just curls those toes and stiffens those legs. It’s really very cute.

Peyton is also very sensitive. If you put him down, he gets his feelings hurt. If he can’t see you, he starts screaming. He doesn’t necessarily need your attention, but he just has to see you to be happy. He also really likes to be held, which is majorly different than Elizabeth. He’s not a cuddler, but he LOVES to be held.

Peyton is in the 95th percentile in length and the 50th in weight, which means he’s a long, skinny fellow. His eyes have lightened up quite a bit since birth and now they are light blue with a dark blue ring around them. Really pretty. He doesn’t have much hair but what he does have is light blonde. He also has a very pale skin color, not really like any of us.

We started him on rice cereal last week and keep forgetting to feed it to him. He did like it, though. I’m going to be making his baby food, like I did with Elizabeth. It’s going to be organic this time, though, because I’m really into that stuff now. And it’s also cheaper and more environmentally-friendly to make my own, so we’ll see how that goes with that and my job. Maybe I’ll do it on the weekends and freeze it. Hopefully, Peyton will form good eating habits like his sister. I think that feeding Elizabeth a variety of foods early on really helped form her healthy eating habits today. We shall see.

I’m still nursing Peyton, even though I’ve started back to work. I have about 4 months of milk saved up since Peyton is barely taking a bottle. That ended up being a blessing because now he has all this breastmilk to drink and I don’t have to stress too much. We’ll see how long this pumping at work lasts.

Here’s just a little bit about my sweet four-month-old boy. What a blessing he has been to my life.

An update on Elizabeth

2008-08-26T20:49:00.001-05:00

So here’s an update on the kids. Today I’ll write about Elizabeth (because it's so long) and next I’ll write about Peyton.

It’s hard to write about your children. On the one hand, you don’t want to write all these things they can do because you don’t want to come off as conceited and arrogant and proud, and on the other, you don’t want to write negative things about them because we love our children in spite of their misbehavior and bad habits (but let’s admit, they do have them). So, what should I say? I’ll just write the truth, at least as I say it.

It’s hard to explain Elizabeth in words, but I’m going to try so that I can look back here later and see what she was like as a three-year-old.

Elizabeth started Pre-K last week at a local school here in town. She started one full week ahead of all the public schools here, which was good because I needed to get some things done with work. This is the first time that Elizabeth has gone anywhere for five days a week since she’s been born. We’ve been really blessed to have had her home at least two days a week for the past three years (even though we’ve both had full time jobs) and now we’re a little sad to not have her here some during the week.

Elizabeth is a very smart girl. Not just in the traditional knowledge sense but also in her understanding, observation, and analysis. For instance, our family was driving last week and discussing where we were going to eat. Elizabeth said, “Let’s go to McDonald’s.” And we said, “No, we’re going to a real restaurant.” And Elizabeth responded with her first “argument” when she said, “But McDonald’s is cheaper.” She’s also so observant. Anytime we are driving in the car, she says, “Oh, this is the way to Baylor’s pool.” Or “This is the way to the Robinson School.” Or this is the way that goes over the railroad tracks. Wow. She pays attention when we drive.

Every time we drive, we have to listen to her “Songs!” And one song, in particular: the Books of the Bible. She can sing the Old Testament song and the New Testament song. She even likes to play this game where she says a book and asks you if it’s in the Old or New Testament. She is really good at it, too. One time, she and her Granna were playing this game and she asked, “Granna, do you know what Testament ‘Letters’ is in?” Right on cue, Granna responds, “New.” (“Acts and Letters to the Romans”). J

Elizabeth is a very talkative girl. Even if you don’t respond, she’ll talk your ear off. Everything she thinks is verbalized, which is just like her father. She also has the cutest little sense of humor. She loves to laugh and makes silly jokes all the time. Then, she laughs at her jokes and tells you to do the same.

Elizabeth loves to play dress up and is really into princesses (I haven’t encouraged this, but oh well—it’s fun to pretend. She prances around in her tutus, tiaras, and princess shoes. She also likes her Little People. She plays with her baby dolls all the time and we often find them sleeping in Peyton’s bed. She is a very good mother to them. She makes us be quiet when they’re sleeping and she covers them up blankets, burp rags, and towels. She even dresses them in Peyton’s clothes.

Penguin is her favorite stuffed animal. Lamb has been missing for a few months and she is still mourning his disappearance (We don’t know what happened to him.). Elizabeth left Penguin in Austin when she was there a few weeks ago and today Penguin arrived in the mail. Elizabeth grabbed him and hugged him and rolled around with him. She was so excited to see him. It was really cute.

Although Elizabeth is fully daytime potty-trained, she has no interest in being nighttime potty-trained (not that she really knows this); she just has this unquenchable thirst that can’t be satisfied and so she is constantly drinking water. It’s going to be a long time until she doesn’t wear something at night. Oh well.

Elizabeth changes her own clothes constantly. She especially loves to wear long pajama pants, even though it’s 100 degrees outside.

She’s a really good eater. She’ll eat anything at least once and loves vegetables, meat, and fruit (as well as all the processed food, too, but we don’t give it to her very much). She even likes to eat salad, as long as it has plenty of ranch dressing on it. She also loves ketchup and can often be found dipping her fingers into it and licking them. Yuk! She loves desserts, but she comes by this honestly. We just try to do this in moderation.

Now for her behavior…we are constantly having to remind her what it means to obey. She really has trouble with this concept. She has been throwing tons of fits lately. These tantrums have been too often for our tastes and we are ready for her to realize that our boundaries are set, tantrum or not. Parenting is hard!!

But I love Elizabeth so much. She’s such a sweet girl. Always wants to be around us and always wants to play with us. She’s so sweet to Peyton and loves him unconditionally. He’s her little baby, too. Whenever she talks to him, she always refers to herself as “Sister.” “Sister loves you, brother.” “Play with Sister.” “Smile for Sister.” J It’s cute. She also gets right in his face and her hair dangles in front of him, right at the perfect level for him to pull it. When he does pull it, which is often, she gets upset and says, “No, Peyton” as if he really knows what he’s doing. What a special girl. That’s enough for now, but since I hadn’t written in so long, I had a lot to write. We love you, Elizabeth!

Day Two: The Urge to Spend

2008-08-26T14:53:00.004-05:00

I've realized that some of my urge to spend comes out of laziness. For instance, this morning I was running a little late getting out of the house (Peyton was up five different times during the night because he's cutting some teeth), and I thought, "I'll just stop and pick something up on the way into work." And then I remembered that I couldn't do that because we weren't spending money this week. So what did I do? I went into the pantry and looked at the variety of cereals and oatmeal located there and sat down at the table and ate what I had. Didn't I buy this stuff for the purpose of eating it?!! Then why was I so anxious to buy something else? Laziness. I'm sure it would have taken even longer to stop and wait at a drive-through, but the idea of "eating out" appealed to me.

I'm also learning that even though we are doing this "no spending" thing, I still have to catch myself from spending. I still forget--even though this is only day two. It's so ingrained in me to "buy" and purchase things that even when I consciously know we aren't spending, I STILL WANT TO SPEND. Weird. That strikes me as shocking, actually. I consider myself very budget-conscious, but even still, I think about purchasing things all the time. In fact, almost all the emails I get in one of my email accounts are about spending and buying things (Kohls, Old Navy, Land's End, Toys 'R Us, and on and on. Even the coupons I get through the computer still require me to spend the money (the argument is that you're SAVING, but in reality, you're still SPENDING). We all know this, but it helps when I know I can't spend any money because then my thinking doesn't get turned around that "Hey, at least I saved 5 bucks." when in reality I spent $50 on the other stuff. Yesterday I sat down to read the Sunday paper and because of this thing we're doing I didn't have to read the dozens of ads and inserts. Whew. I didn't realize how much time it took to look through those things and see what's on sale and write down the stores I needed to visit this week to buy the products at their cheapest. Not only did recycling the ads instead of reading them save me about 1/2 an hour at the time, but it also saved me money and time in the future because I didn't go to the store. Wow. There's 3 hours where I can do something else. I've been looking for how I can spend more time with the kids. Presto!

Another part of my urge to spend comes from the advertisements (and emails I mentioned above) that I am constantly bombarded with as I proceed throughout the day. Television commercials, billboards, magazines, posters, emails, notifications, mail, etc....the list goes on and on. In America, you can't think about NOT spending. The powers-at-be (whoever they are) don't want you to think about NOT spending; better yet, they want you to think about how you save money when you spend. That's the lie we're told. That's the myth we all buy into. Maybe this week will make me more conscious of the money I do spend and how when I spend money on X item, then something else does not get that money.

Are any of you familiar with Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way Community? It's radical, and it's impressive. Check out his site at: http://www.thesimpleway.org/. I strongly encourage you to read the books, though. Wow.

My "job" in Elizabeth's eyes

2008-08-25T10:51:00.002-05:00

The other night I was giving Elizabeth a bath and she wanted me to refill the water bottle Nana gave her. So, I refilled it…again and again and again. Back and forth to the bathroom sink. And what did she do? She kept dumping it right back out into the bath water. I quickly grew tired of the little game and finally said I wasn’t going to refill her bottle anymore. What did she say back? “Mama, it is your JOB to refill my water bottle.”

I turned around and looked at her, put my hand on my hip and lectured her about my "job." The conversation went something like this: “It is not my JOB to refill your water bottle. I actually have a real job. I am a PROFESSOR at Baylor University. I have my PhD, and I teach college.”

She interrupted my little speech, replying, “You are NOT a professor.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not!”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not! You don’t LOOK like a professor and you don’t TALK like a professor.” Her response made me giggle: “You’re right. And aren’t you glad that I don’t look and talk like a professor?!!”

Day One of No Spending

2008-08-25T10:51:00.001-05:00

Today on my way into work, I did not purchase my daily 44 ounce Diet Coke. I wanted it really badly. But I drove right on by the gas station. That's 86 cents that I saved. Not that big of a deal really, but since I committed to not spending any money, then even such an insignificant number (at least insignificant to me) counts, too. I guess I'll settle for water today.

Consumerism

2008-08-24T20:26:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Alexander family’s spend-free week. We are going to go Monday through Friday without spending any money. We won’t buy groceries. We won’t be eating out. We won’t go to Target or Wal-Mart or Sam’s or Lowe’s or the mall or anywhere that requires spending any money. We won’t buy one single thing. Not clothes or toys for the kids or things for our house.

You may ask why we are doing this? Well, there are a lot of reasons. To save money. To use what we already have. To think about what we are spending our money on. To think about others who don’t have money to spend. To reflect on whether we really need to buy something. To consider “consumerism” in America and how what we buy has implications around the world. On those who make the products. On those who trade the products. On those who sell the products. And even on us who buy the products. Our family is going to focus this week on NOT consuming. I don’t know if we can do it. We’ll see. But I do think God calls us to think about things like this. To consider those less fortunate than us. To consider how rich we are. To become less materialistic. We’ll see what happens and what change comes over us. Over me.

The urge to do something like this is the result of a long personal journey towards thinking more about creation, our world, the environment, capitalism, money, and God. I should have blogged about this journey throughout, but I didn’t really know I was embarking on a journey at the time. I only realize now, in looking back, how much my thinking and my actions have changed over the course of a year. I hope to write about these things in the coming days and weeks.

What faces!

2008-06-02T21:54:00.002-05:00

This picture says it all!!

Elizabeth's photography

2008-05-27T21:08:00.004-05:00

Since my camera is typically within Elizabeth's reach, she has begun grabbing it and taking pictures. Somehow she has learned how to turn it on and turn the mode to "play" so she can see the picture she just took on the screen. Here are some of her masterpieces. Check out the backgrounds of her pictures, especially the one of Shane and Elizabeth's great-grandmother where the camera is angled up. LOL!

It's not often a ceiling fan is in the background of a picture!!! :) Maybe I should create a blog for Elizabeth for all the pictures she has taken.

6 week pictures!

2008-05-27T20:04:00.007-05:00

Peyton is 6 weeks old, and I desperately need to post some pictures of him. Here are some of our sweet guy over the past few weeks.

Motherly acts

2008-05-23T10:14:00.004-05:00

Elizabeth is a mother hen with Peyton.

We are in the midst of packing to go to Shane's grandparents' ranch, and I set Peyton in his room and came downstairs to drop off a load. He immediately started crying. We typically shut the door behind us because we are worried that Elizabeth will go in there and climb into his crib. But not today. As I was coming downstairs, she went in his room, looks at him in his crib, and then runs out and shuts the door behind her. She wasn't comforting him; instead, she was shutting his screams out from us. I guess she didn't want to listen to his screams anymore and just wanted to play in peace.

Growing up

2008-05-22T11:54:00.002-05:00

I realized how fast time is going with Elizabeth when we went to a program for her Parent's Day Out last night. Elizabeth and her class sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider and they were all so cute. Of course, my eyes were focused on Elizabeth the majority of the time just as her eyes were focused on me and her daddy who videoed the whole thing. Peyton sat quietly in his car seat in the pew. Elizabeth didn't even ask where he was. I guess she was just excited to have all of our attention again (or at least mine--her daddy has been doting on her since Peyton has been born).

Peyton is six weeks old now, and weighs over 11 pounds. He isn't that big in size, but he is just really, really long. 22 inches at birth and still growing. He's been really, really colicky lately, and I feel so bad because his tummy hurts him so much. Poor thing. Elizabeth has just started shouting over him, and it doesn't seem to bother her a bit how much he cries. To her, it's just his way of talking. She really does love her brother! Last night after her program she came up to me and asked if she could hold Peyton and walk around with him. :)

7 random things about me

2008-04-22T21:55:00.003-05:00

Here are 7 random things about me:

1. I chipped one of my two front teeth when I was 7 years old and now have a crown on it. I have had to get it replaced 5 times, and I have learned that Crest-whitening paste works on my own teeth but does not change the color of that specific tooth.

2. I have been to Honduras 5 times and spent one entire summer doing mission work there.

3. I absolutely love the Astros. Shane and I joke that when we retire, we are going to move to Houston and go to every Astros game. That would be so fun!

4. I love to try out new recipes and have the tendency to never cook the same thing twice (which can be both good and bad).

5. I was in 3 car wrecks my senior year of high school, all of which occurred in the rain.

6. I have visited approximately 25 states, but I have never been to Oklahoma, even though it's right next door to Texas.

7. I earned my PhD in less time than it took me to earn my Bachelor's degree. 4 years as opposed to 5.

I tag Shane, Holly, Lynley, and Chesley.

It's all in the genes...

2008-04-22T20:33:00.008-05:00

As Elizabeth gets older, people tell me more and more how much she looks like me. I came across this picture of me when I was 3 years old and could definitely see the resemblance. Here I am...

And here are a couple of recent pictures of Elizabeth (2 yrs, 10 months). I'm sure there is one where she is making as serious a face as I am above, but I didn't want to spend that much time looking for it, so here she is with a grin on her face.

_________________________________________

When Peyton was born, we didn't think he looked at all like Elizabeth, mainly because he had blonde hair and different eyes than her (and he also had to go through a bit rougher of a delivery than Elizabeth who came out without blemish since she just got lifted out). Anyway, I came across a picture of Elizabeth (below) and thought she looked like Peyton. So we pulled out the old Longhorn outfit and took some pictures. Can you tell which one is which?!!

#1

#1: Peyton
#2: Elizabeth

They have the same eye shape when their eyes are closed and the same nose. They also have very similar mouths. It's neat to see how they resemble each other.

Peyton's birth: Play by Play

2008-04-22T15:38:00.003-05:00

I didn’t think it would take this long for me to write about the labor and delivery of Peyton, but I have been functioning on so little sleep lately that I haven’t had the energy to sit down and write about it. This is a long post, but if you keep reading there are some funny moments along the way. Here is my attempt at recording the event…a full two weeks later.

Tuesday, April 8
8:00 am: I go to Baylor to teach my first Professional and Technical Writing class. I could barely stand up because I’m feeling a lot of physical pressure from baby Peyton, which I just chalked up to typical pregnancy pains (although it was a lot worse than I had felt before with him).

9:30 am: I teach my second course for the day and make sure that my students are ready for when I leave. Still feeling major pains when walking.

11:30 am: I leave Baylor, pick Shane up, and together we go to my doctor’s appointment where I find out I am dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced, which is no change from the last time I went to the doctor 4 days before. Peyton is still very high up on my belly, and he has not “dropped.” The c-section is still scheduled for Thursday, but the doctor senses our desire to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean, in case you were wondering) and tells us that if we want to cancel the c-section, we should just give her a call.

1:00 pm: We get back home, and I am so exhausted and miserable that I go take a nap. I had a phone call scheduled with a colleague at another university to discuss some research we are doing, but I email her and cancel, citing exhaustion and pain, and ask if we can reschedule for tomorrow (ha!). I go to sleep without knowing whether or not she got the cancellation or not.

3:00 pm: I wake up from my nap to the sounds of Shane screaming, “Elizabeth, where are you?” I go back to sleep (oops), and next thing I know Shane is waking me up, giving me Elizabeth who is crying, and he is hobbling around with blood rushing out of his toe. This is a long story, but apparently Elizabeth locked Shane out of the house and then got scared and got lost in the garage. In the meanwhile Shane was running around the house and stubbed his pinky toe on our driveway. The skin came off the top and it started gushing blood. Did I ever mention that I’m a deep sleeper?

3:30 pm to bedtime: Elizabeth went swimming today in a pool I bought her. It’s a bit bigger than the one she used last year, and Shane rigged it so that she could slide down the slide on her swing set right into the pool. She had a blast playing for a couple of hours. I sat on the swing and watched her.

No walk today because I hurt so badly.

At 7:05 pm, I post on my blog that I’m “overdue” and bemoaning the fact that he didn’t come on his due date, just like his sister. I also figure I’m going to have a c-section, but I pray to God that he will send me into labor (since I cannot be induced).

10:30 pm: Shane and I get in bed, but I keep waking up about every 10 minutes. I feel some contractions, but I don’t think anything of them because of the false alarm last Friday. I also don’t want to get my hopes up, so I keep lying there trying to get some rest. Rest doesn’t come, however. 10:45, 11:00, 11:15,…same as before. Contractions are coming. They hurt really bad. I can’t get comfortable. I change positions, but the contractions hurt just as much no matter how I’m lying down. I stand up, and they don’t hurt as bad. I finally tell Shane I’m having some contractions, but like me, he doesn’t think that it’s labor (me? Going into labor? Unfathomable!). I try to get more sleep. (On a side note, the whole time all of this is going on, I’m thinking that I shouldn’t bother Shane with all that’s happening because he has to do a funeral for a relative of his tomorrow morning in Hamilton (an hour and a half away), and I want him to get some sleep, even if I’m not. And this is probably not the real thing anyway, so I need to let him sleep.).

Wednesday, April 9
12:30 am: Still awake. I decide to take a bath in hopes of finding some release from the pain. Shane turns the bath on for me, and I hop in. I only stay about 5 minutes because the pain hurts worse in this position. I get out of the bath and decide to go downstairs and feel the pain by myself.

1:00 am-2:00 am: I sit on the couch and watch some TV. I also play a game of hearts and spades online. Doing this at least takes my mind off the pain (well, somewhat). With each contraction, I’m able to pause and breathe through the pain. They hurt pretty bad, but at least I get a break from them. I’m learning how much contractions really, really hurt. I’m still not sure this is it, though, and so I stay downstairs. (BTW, I did time my contractions, but I didn’t find this a reliable method because some were 1 minute apart and others were 3 or 4 minutes. Also, I had timed my contractions last Friday and they were coming every 2 minutes (when I wasn’t in labor), and so I gave this method up.

2:00 am: I go back upstairs and tell Shane that I think I’m in labor. He is really, really out of it, and I want to let him sleep, so I don’t press him too much. He rolls over but stays asleep. I don’t really know what’s going on, so I tell myself to go back downstairs and wait a while longer until I’m sure.

2:00 am-3:00 am: I go back downstairs and pick up where I left off with the TV and the game-playing and the breathing through the painful contractions. They are becoming more and more painful with every minute.

3:00 am: I’ve had enough. I’m going to the hospital. Even if THIS isn’t IT, at least I can find out what’s going on and maybe take something for this pain. I feel anxiety about going to the hospital because I’m sure I’m not in labor, but it’s worth a try. The worst thing they could do is send me home. And I’m also thinking that if I’m not in labor, at least Shane can still make it to his funeral in time (I’m thinking: “If I wait too much longer, he won’t make it at all.”). I go back upstairs and tell Shane he needs to take me to the hospital. It takes him a while to figure out if I’m serious, and he even questions the wisdom in going to the hospital when I’m not sure I’m in labor (hey, I can’t really blame him), but I persuade him to get out of bed and get moving.

3:00 am-3:50 am: Even though our bags were packed and we were ready to go, it still took us (or, shall I truthfully say, Shane) a full 50 minutes to leave. I am in immense pain and desperately want to get to the hospital as fast as we can, but Shane is a mess. He’s trying so hard to hurry, but he’s not operating that quickly. He tries calling the family that is on stand-by for Elizabeth, but they are not answering their phone. Now we aren’t sure what we are going to do with her. I guess we’ll take her with us to the hospital. Shane is not too excited about THAT idea. Shane is still doing something (to this day, I’m not sure what he was doing that took so long). I’m in even more pain and trying not to get frustrated about us not having left yet. Shane is apologizing that it’s taking him so long.

3:50 am: Elizabeth is loaded up in the car, and we both get in. Shane has decided that he is going to go over to that family’s house and bang on their door until they wake up. I wanted him to drop me off at the hospital first because it would take at least 20 more minutes, but we didn’t. Elizabeth is wide awake and wondering why I’m breathing “so funny.” Shane tells her that I’m in some “pain” because of the baby, and she keeps chatting away. As we are backing out of the driveway, Shane runs over the curb, and the baby about pops out of me right then and there. He apologizes profusely.

4:00 am: Shane comes to a red light. Nobody is around, and I calmly tell him to “just run it.” He does.

4:10 am: We arrive at this family’s house, and I warn Shane not to stay and talk (he has the tendency to do this with them). No sign of Shane for about 5 minutes and then lights come on and he finally stirred them (Their phones were in the other room). Shane came back out to the car to get Elizabeth. As he’s getting her, he slams the car door into a post in front of their house. He is really frantic right now (and a bit klutzy). We tell Elizabeth goodbye and leave for the hospital.

4:20 am: We arrive at the hospital and have to enter through the emergency room because all the other doors are locked. They give me a wheelchair (thankfully), and I’m off my feet (yay!). Shane pushes me down the long hospital corridors (just like in the movies—hee hee), finds the elevator, and up we go to the fifth floor.

4:30 am: We check-in at the front desk and I tell the nurse that I think I’m in labor but that I’m not really sure. She was a bit confused because we had a c-section scheduled for the next day but then I told her that I was trying for a VBAC (if I was actually in labor). And that’s when the chaos began. It was like I had a mark on me saying, “VBAC alert.” The nurses went into a frenzy and began frantically scattering about. I heard one nurse say, “We have a VBAC. Get her into the room closest to the OR in case she has an emergency.” Another nurse said, “We need to notify the on-call doctor ASAP.” Apparently they have to have a doctor on the floor at all times when there is a VBAC.

5:00 am: Nice Nurse takes me into a side room to see if I’m in labor. She says my contractions are 2 minutes apart (wow! I knew I was in pain) and that I’m dilated to a 5 and effaced 80% (When I was induced with Elizabeth, I was a 2 and 0% effaced, so at least I’m making more progress with him. I only ever got to a 6 with Elizabeth and stayed 0% effaced, which is why I ended up with the c-section).

5:15 am: I go to another room (close to the OR, of course) and get hooked up to all these monitors. I immediately ask for an epidural and Nice Nurse says that I could get the epidural after they’ve drawn my blood and got me hooked up to all those machines. What?!! I need that epidural NOW!! Major contractions continue, but Nice Nurse teaches me how to breathe through them. These breathing techniques really work. I wish I had learned more about how to do them. I guess there’s no better time to learn them than when you will put them to use immediately! Shane holds my hand.

5:45 am: I call my mom and let her know what is going on. She was going to come up tomorrow for the c-section but now she will work half a day and drive up today.

6:00 am: Shane calls his parents to give them the update. They are on their way, even in the midst of tax season. What wonderful parents/in-laws! Sorry the little guy couldn’t hold off until the 16th, Granbarry!

6:45 am: Ahh, yes, the epidural has arrived. But I am still in A LOT of pain. How long does it take for this thing to work?

6:50 am: Nice Nurse tells me how wonderful she thinks it is that I’m delivering this baby via VBAC. She was so excited for me and very proud, too. Her words gave me a new strength and determination.

7:00 am: New nurse comes on duty. I will refer to her as Encouraging Nurse. She checks me and I’m between a 7 and an 8, 90% effaced. Encouraging Nurse reminds me how to breathe and is a good example for my sweet husband and what he should say to me. I say goodbye to Nice Nurse, and she promises to come by tonight when she comes back to work. I’m still feeling contractions.

7:05 am: The on-call doctor comes in (for the rule that a doctor has to be on the floor at all times, I find it odd that the first time I see one is 2 ½ hours after I’ve arrived at the hospital). I haven’t met him before. Male doctor gives me the “You could die if you choose to have a VBAC” speech, telling me that there is a big risk for me and the baby and that one out of 200 women…, and that the baby could..., and that it could end in a c-section anyway…blah blah blah. Shane and I tell him that we still want to do the VBAC. He wants to know if my doctor has given me “permission” to have a VBAC, and I tell him that we have discussed it and that we were having the “wait-and-see” approach before we decided whether or not to have a c-section. He seems to sigh but doesn’t have much choice in the matter (apparently he thinks my doctor is an idiot for letting me try). He checks me and says I’m dilated to an 8 and 100% effaced. He also checks my tummy to see how big the baby is. He predicts the baby is between 7 and 7 ½ pounds. I’m still feeling contractions. When is the epidural going to work?

7:15 am: The epidural is NOT working. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I ask Encouraging Nurse if there is anything we can do for the pain. She goes to get the anesthesiologist. He is with someone else right now. No! No! No!

7:20 am: Encouraging Nurse also tells me how proud she is of me that I went ahead and tried for the VBAC. Her words came at the right time.

7:30 am: The anesthesiologist comes in. New anesthesiologist. It’s the same one I had with Elizabeth. Yippee. I really like this guy. He gives me a dose of something else and this time my legs actually go numb. Yay. I can’t feel the pain. Finally. Some rest. Remember that I’m operating without any sleep from the night before.

8:30 am: My doctor arrives (finally!), and she is so excited that I’m in labor. (She’s really a great doctor.) When she checks me, I’m a 10 and 100% effaced. Wow. I’m “complete.” Cool. Lots of pressure from baby Peyton. This may be TMI for you, blog reader, but at this point they bring in the mirror, which I wanted to have. Whoa! Very different from a c-section.

9:00 am: I begin pushing. I didn’t have to do this the last time around, so it was a whole new experience for me. They tell me what to do and where to push. The epidural is working really well (maybe too well) because I can’t really feel what I’m doing. Shane is a real trooper (even with his agonizing toe, which he never mentions to me until afterwards how much pain he was experiencing. Did I mention that I have a wise husband?!!).

Some time between 9:00 and 10:10: I get discouraged that this pushing thing isn’t bringing this baby out. When will he cross the threshold? Will this still end up in a c-section? Encouraging Nurse tells me that I’m doing a great job pushing (I really needed the encouragement right then) and that the baby must have a really big head. The epidural is beginning to wear off, so I can feel a bit more of what I’m doing, which is really good at this stage in the game. I give one last push, and Encouraging Nurse yells, “Stop! Stop! Stop! We have to call the doctor. The baby is crowning.” Yay!!

10:10 am: Encouraging Nurse pages my doctor, but she doesn’t come. We keep waiting. Another page. Wait. Another page. Wait. I thought it was about 15 minutes we had to wait, but Shane told me later it was only 5 minutes. Really? Time obviously passed very slowly due to the pain I was experiencing. Baby’s head looks weird and small.

10:15 am: Doctor comes in and is excited about what she sees. Four additional nurses come in. Doctor gets dressed up in all her gear. Room is ready for delivery. They bring in that machine for babies in case the baby needs to be hooked up, and I inwardly pray that Peyton will not have to use it. I try to focus on pushing this baby through the canal.

10:28 am: Peyton Poe Alexander enters the world. The first thing the doctor says is, “This baby weighs at least 8 pounds.” 8 pounds?!! No wonder I’ve been so huge! Shane cuts the umbilical cord and then my doctor places Peyton on my chest. He’s beautiful. Baby’s head looks really weird. It looks like a golf ball is stuck inside the back of it. They tell me this is called “molding.” Baby has blue eyes. Baby responds to my voice and looks up at me. Shane and I stroke baby while the nurses suction out his nose and throat.

10:35 am: Nurse weighs Peyton. She shouts out his weight: 9’1”! WHAT?!!! Whoa, baby. And 22 inches long. Really? That’s a BIG baby. All I could think was, “No wonder. No wonder” Oh, and I did feel a little pride and satisfaction in the fact that I VBAC’ed a nine-pounder. Who wouldn’t, right?!! I actually did it. Thank you, God, for allowing me to deliver a healthy baby boy and to do so through VBAC. Thank you also, reader, for your prayers.

Afterwards: Many nice people came by to see us and brought us gifts and food. We were released from the hospital on Friday morning.

And the rest of the story is yet to be lived out.

Fridays are not TGIF right now

2008-04-18T11:56:00.006-05:00

Fridays in the Alexander house are interesting, mostly because they are the one day of the week that Elizabeth does not go to school.

Now, I love my husband very much (for many different reasons), but I do have to ask him one question, "Why, oh why, did you choose THIS day to meet with your co-church planter?!!" Why couldn't you have met with him on Monday? Or Tuesday? Or Wednesday? Or Thursday? (Any day that Elizabeth was in school?!!) Elizabeth demands 100% attention and so does Peyton (at least with me), so why did you leave me here with both of them?!! Hopefully, it was just poor planning (rather than a gleeful move to leave the house and get some time away when Elizabeth was home!!). Help! Come back soon and rescue me from this chaos!

And the other thing about this whole day is that while I was upstairs feeding Peyton his early morning snack, Elizabeth was apparently getting in trouble, so as punishment, her daddy told her she couldn't watch any TV today and she also couldn't play with her computer. Thanks a lot, Shane! I really appreciate it. :)

Peyton is here!

2008-04-13T17:05:00.005-05:00

It's taken me a few days to get back on the computer, but I wanted to share the good news with you: Peyton is here. Peyton Poe Alexander was born on April 9th at 10:28 a.m. in Providence Hospital in Waco. He weighed 9 pounds, 1 ounce and was 22 inches long. I was able to have Peyton via VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), which was a huge answer to prayer. We had a c-section scheduled for the very next day, but I went into labor on my own before we had to follow through with that appointment. I'll write more about the labor and delivery later, but I wanted to get these pictures of our sweet baby boy posted first. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of Peyton dressed up for his newborn hospital picture.

Here is a rare shot with his eyes open. He has been sleeping ALL THE TIME since we've been home, except at night when we put him down and he just wants to be held.

One tired momma looking at her sweet son. I love that he's looking at me, too.
The nurse came in to take his vitals , and he was not happy. I love his scrunched-up neck.

Elizabeth is such a good big sister and has been so sweet to Peyton. She loves having her own little baby doll.
I had to post this picture because I thought it was so funny how Peyton is holding his own pacifier.
Here is Peyton with Elizabeth and my sister Kim's son Barrett. When Barrett first got to the hospital, Shane asked Barrett what he thought of Peyton and Barrett responded, "He's AWESOME!!!!" It was so cute. Notice that Elizabeth is holding Peyton's foot. She's also holding the monkey that she gave to Peyton on his "birth day."
The best picture we have (way to go, Shane!). It doesn't get any cuter than this.

Overdue

2008-04-08T19:05:00.002-05:00

Well, April 8th is almost over and Peyton is showing no signs of showing up. In 4 hours I will be officially overdue. That's all right, though. At least we know we will see him in less than 2 days. I'm anxious to be finished with pregnancy. It's been difficult being motivated to do much this past week.

Tonight at dinner Elizabeth screamed at him, "Come out now!" She was so serious about it. She's also taken to calling him "Brudder" rather than "Peyton" lately. She gets a big kick out of it.

Elizabeth went swimming for the first time of the spring season today. We got her a small pool and once Shane had blown it up, Elizabeth couldn't get enough of telling us to "Watch! Watch me!" Shane set the pool up underneath the slide on her swingset so that she had her own "pool slide." Elizabeth had no fears going down the slide head-first into the pool. Over and over and over again. We enjoyed watching our little daredevil. I took some video of the occasion, so I don't have pictures to share, but it sure was cute.

Yesterday Elizabeth and I went to the library for the first time since we moved to Waco. We used to go to the library in Gatesville all the time but hadn't made it to the one in our area until yesterday. Elizabeth enjoyed playing with the puzzles and the stuffed animals and looking through some of the books. Since it was our first time, we could only check out one book. It took her a while to find one that she wanted (she didn't want any of the books since she didn't recognize any of the characters). But once she found a book about "Little Bill," she got so excited and so that's the book that came home with us. Well, today, as I was sitting on the couch, she brought me the book and told me that she had colored in it. I opened the book and sure enough, each page had orange crayon markings all over it. Elizabeth has officially left her mark on this book. It looks like we will be buying the library a new copy of the Little Bill book. I guess there's a good reason for their policy that first-timers can only check out one book.

Peyton and Prayer

2008-04-07T11:49:00.004-05:00

This week is turning out to be a busy week. I'm working today and tomorrow, grading and getting things ready for the rest of the semester. After my classes tomorrow, I go to the doctor again and then I don't plan on coming back into the office until after Peyton is born, which if I don't go into labor on my own, will be Thursday. On Wednesday, Shane is doing a funeral in Hamilton for one of his relatives and so he will be gone most of the day (It will be interesting if Peyton decides to make his entrance on that day when he's gone!!). Then, Thursday is the big day.

Last night we had a really nice life group/church service on prayer, which has got me thinking a lot about prayer and its function(s) and purpose(s) in our lives. It's really interesting, too, thinking about prayer as a parent and considering how I want to teach Elizabeth about prayer. So much of our understanding about prayer comes from hearing others pray (especially our parents) and praying as children, and so I'm especially conscious about prayer as I consider what I want Elizabeth to think about prayer. One special occurrence with her has been her memorization and recitation of the Lord's Prayer every night before bedtime. She knows the whole thing after just a few short weeks of saying it with her, and it's nice to see her extending her prayers about people to the same prayer that Jesus prayed.

Keep praying for Peyton to arrive safely!

Have a great week!

Elizabeth's perspective of why Peyton won't come out

2008-04-06T10:15:00.003-05:00

This morning, Shane, Elizabeth, and I went for a walk, and we started discussing whether or not we thought Peyton was going to come out today. Elizabeth piped up and asked, "Mommy, are there toys in your belly?" (Implying that he doesn't want to come out because he is playing with toys.) That's a good guess, Elizabeth. :)

Labor

2008-04-04T19:39:00.004-06:00

Despite an eventful (and long) night, I still am not in labor. We went to the doctor today and things are progressing, but since labor is so unpredictable, who knows when it might start!! My doctor said that it's probably pre-labor, maybe false labor, so we'll just wait and see what happens in the coming days. We also scheduled a C-section for next Thursday if the baby hasn't come by then. I pray that I can have this baby naturally, but if not, that's all right, too. I'm trying to prepare myself for either result, and it's nice to have an end date in sight. I'll keep you posted!

We are also looking forward to going back to Gatesville tomorrow night for a dinner honoring the teachers. We haven't been back to church there yet, and it will be really nice to see everyone there. We really miss them, and I know Elizabeth does, too.

Mother #2

2008-04-04T06:50:00.003-06:00

Ever since I have been pregnant with Peyton, Elizabeth asks me (or Shane) on a regular basis, "When is Peyton going to come out?!!" Well, today, we think he might. Mainly because I was up half the night with severe back and abdominal pain, although I do have to admit that I'm not sure I'm in labor. At least I go to the doctor today to see what's going on. I sure do hope it's labor because I don't want to have too many more nights like last one!

Anyway, as Elizabeth is eating breakfast this morning, I ask her if she thinks Peyton is going to come out today. She says, "No, he's not coming out for a very long time." I said, "Yeah, probably not." And then she said, "When he does come out, though, he's going to cry a lot when he needs something, and I'm going to ask him, 'Peyton, what do you need? Do you need a paci?' Maybe that will make him stop crying." Can you tell she spends a lot of time playing with baby dolls and stuffed animals?!! She's going to be a fantastic little helper for Mommy and Daddy.

And, Peyton, if today is the day you make your entrance into this world, we promise to love and protect you. We can't wait to see you!

Chopsticks!

2008-04-04T06:46:00.004-06:00

We went to eat at Pei Wei for the first time the other day and Elizabeth just HAD to eat her food with chopsticks. Over the course of the meal, she got really good at using them. I was impressed!

No Baby Yet

2008-04-03T06:52:00.002-06:00

We are still waiting on Baby Peyton to make his arrival. I've been going on walks and doing a lot of squats in hopes that this baby will come on his own. I even had a pedicure with hopes that the foot rub will spur on labor. Peyton is due next Tuesday (5 days from now). I don't think he'll be early, mainly because Elizabeth was a week late and never wanted to come out on her own. But I am hopeful that he WILL come. If I don't go into labor on my own, I'll have to have another C-section, which I'm fine with, but I would much rather not have to have the surgery, especially since I'll still be working (long story!). Anyway, just wanted to keep all of you posted about the progress. I go back to the doctor tomorrow and may (or may not) know more. We are anxious to meet this little guy, and as Shane likes to say about me and Peyton, "Kara is ready for them to spend some time apart." Clever, huh? :)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T20:23:00.005-06:00

The Grove had our first Sunday morning worship service today, and the whole event was quite a success. Thanks to everyone who prayed about this gathering! We met at a local park in Waco under the pavilion, which we rented for the occasion. We were all a bit concerned that the cold and rain would be problematic, but thankfully those weather forecasters were wrong and the weather was great. A bit cold and windy, but nothing we couldn't handle. It was encouraging to gather together with our small community. There were 14 people who had never been with us before, and we were really thankful that all of them joined us in a time of worship, praise, and fellowship. We strapped Elizabeth into her stroller so that she couldn't run around, and she stayed bundled up the whole time. That was nice. I was very pleased with the turnout--I think I counted 30. After the service, we ate lunch and had an Easter egg hunt. There were 12 kids who hunted eggs, and Elizabeth had such a great time. I loved seeing the joy on her face as she would find the eggs. So sweet.

Here are some pictures from our day...

Our family (two weeks from Peyton's due date)

Here are some of the girls who were there today: Our neighbor Alta, Lara Jane (co-church planter), Rachel (I met her at Texas Roadhouse), Courtney (neighbor), Sherry (friend we met through Courtney and Dan)
Sweet Elizabeth
She found one!
Here is Elizabeth proudly showing off her Easter basket. She would not let go of this thing after the hunt. And since we got home, we cannot keep her away from the candy and the eggs.

Here are the Coffeys, who are planting this church with us.

Here are some of the kiddos. We couldn't get them all to sit down!

Happy Easter to you and yours!

The end is near

2008-03-20T19:16:00.002-06:00

Well, I've set a new record for myself...this break has been the longest I've gone without blogging. I missed writing about the Christmas holidays, New Years, the beginning of the Spring semester, the launching of our church plant (The Grove), a trip to Dallas with my sisters and Mom, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, so many moments with Elizabeth, and almost four months of my pregnancy with Peyton. Wow! I almost missed Easter, too!!

So what's going on with me right now? I'm 38 weeks pregnant and very ready to have this baby. I'm still teaching right now, which has made for very swollen ankles at the end of the day. I feel like one of those waitresses you always see in the movies who ends up working right up until her water breaks on the job and then she must be immediately rushed to the hospital. Not that THAT will happen to me. I never went into labor on my own with Elizabeth. But Peyton has been measuring 2 to 3 weeks ahead, so who knows?!! But I will keep working until he decides to make his arrival.

We enjoy living in Waco and have been taking advantage of the parks, shopping, zoo, museums, and other features of living in a city. Most of our focus over the past several months has been getting to know families in our neighborhood and our community, which has been wonderful. We have tried to have at least one family in our home every week and are enjoying serving as hosts and sharing meals with people. We have met some truly inspiring people, and daily I am learning how to be more missional. How to get outside of my comfort zone and truly listen to people and hear their stories. The more I learn about being missional, the more impressed and amazed I am at Jesus. I mean...I've always admired him, but as I learn and see more about how he lived out a missional live, I'm amazed at him, his actions, and his attitude. And I am truly amazed in new and exciting ways. I sure am enjoying this journey and am glad that we are raising Elizabeth in such an environment.

Well, I hope you are doing well. I promise I'll post some pictures of Elizabeth soon. Take care!

A much-needed update

2007-12-18T14:27:00.000-06:00

I am finished with school for the semester (yay!) and am finally taking some time out to update my blog. For those of you who don't know, we are now living in Waco! It seems like that's been a long time coming, but we are enjoying our new house and trying to find some time to open up all these boxes and put things away where they go. It is quite an ordeal (to say the least)! I don't know how some of you do it/did it right after having a baby. Wow--that's impressive! We are in a real convenient location and it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work. What a difference!

We have lived here for about a week and a half now and are slowly getting settled. I realized late last week that Christmas was fast approaching and only then did I get to begin my Christmas shopping, which is really late for me! But living in a city has made Christmas shopping much easier.

Shane and I have been preparing for our transition from Gatesville Church of Christ to The Grove Church--the church we are planting here in Waco. Shane's last Sunday preaching in Gatesville is the Sunday after Christmas (only two weeks left--wow!), and then we will shift our focus to the ministry here. We are sad about leaving the church and our friends there, and I'm mostly sad that Elizabeth will be leaving her little buddies (and that they won't have her around either). She and her friend Aydan are really close, and she's going to miss him a lot. We are really excited about the new possibilities here, though, and are looking forward to getting started on something we've been dreaming about and praying about for almost two years now. Keep us in your prayers!

Baby #2 is doing well, although he is measuring three weeks ahead of where he should be and might turn out to be bigger than Elizabeth. I'm not someone who wanted to wait until the baby came to find out what it is (since we don't necessarily have to anymore), and I have enjoyed calling him by his name. I'm not sure I've posted what his name is going to, so here it is: Peyton Poe Alexander. Peyton is Shane's middle name (and Elizabeth is my middle name), so our kids will each have our middle names as their first.

Elizabeth is doing well. She is now sleeping in a big girl bed and doing very well with it. I honestly thought it would be the most difficult feat for her (and for us!) since she had been sleeping in a crib for so long, is a major squirmer while she sleeps, and loves having walls surrounding her. But she has done quite nicely with the new bed. Only a couple of times have we had to be firm with her to stay in the bed. Now every morning I wake up to a little girl tugging on my sheets saying, "Momma, can I get out of my bed now?" :) Um, well, since you're in OUR room asking me this question, you already are out of your bed, but yes, you can get out now.

Here are some other Elizabeth notables:
1. The first morning Elizabeth's crib was set up in the nursery (Peyton's room), Shane found her jumping in the bed. He got her out and reprimanded her and she came running up to me (who did not know what had happened), stopped just short of my belly, and yelled, "I was jumping in your bed, Peyton!!!"

2. Elizabeth is still saying to me, "I want Peyton to COME OUT!" I do, too, honey. Just not yet. We still have a little over 3 months to go.

3. Elizabeth is now "daytime" potty trained, and let me say, "It is wonderful!" It's so nice not to have to change diapers and smell poopies. It took her a while to go poopy on the potty, but now she has the hang of it, lets us know, and makes it to the potty just in time. There is one downside to having a potty-trained child, though, and one that I never really considered: when she and I went Christmas shopping last Saturday, every store we were in (sometimes two or three times), she always had to go potty. And since you can't bring your unpaid merchandise into these restrooms, it really became quite a hassle. But not too bad, since most of the time, I had to go, too!!

4. Whenever Elizabeth meets a new person, the first thing they always say about her is, "That girl really talks a lot ." To which we say, "Yes, she is a very verbal girl." (Sidenote: I really like how much she talks because you always know what she's thinking, but it's the volume of her talk that is a bit disturbing because she only knows one level!) People also always make the assumption that she's much older than she is and when we tell her that she's two, they say, "Wow, she knows a lot of words and speaks very clearly for her age." To this I usually say, "She gets a lot of practice!" (To those of you who know Shane, she is his daughter in this way (a talker), and since I love listening to him, I love listening to her, too. Her daddy has had a bit more of an adjustment to her constant talking than I have."

5. Like I said earlier, Elizabeth loves to talk. The other day we were in Marshall's and she was singing her ABCs at the top of her lungs. Several people gave me those "knowing grins" that people give when they want you to control your child, but one nice woman came along and talked with Elizabeth a long time and was very nice to her--despite her loud singing.

6. Elizabeth says words that I didn't even know she knew: "breakable," "batteries,"Cinderella." These are the ones I can think of right now.

7. Elizabeth has this much-loved bear that Aunt Kellee and Uncle Anthony gave her while they were living in Chicago. Elizabeth named this bear "Cago" (the word "Chicago" is engraved on his chest), and today she was feeding him from her pretend high chair. I asked, "Cago, what are you eating?" And she said, "Momma, Cago doesn't talk. His mouth won't open."

8. Elizabeth's favorite TV shows are Dora the Explorer, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, and Go Diego Go. She rarely watches The Wiggles or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse anymore. It's nice to learn about new shows!

9. Ever since Elizabeth was born, my dad has been on TV quite a bit and since we don't get to see him very often, we always like it when she can see him through the tube. We try to catch him on TV whenever we're home, and whenever he appears, Elizabeth runs up to the TV and waves at it, screaming, "Hi Teddy! Hi Teddy! That's Teddy!" I wonder what she thinks about seeing him this way. Is she impressed that Teddy is on the same TV that Dora comes on?!!

10. Elizabeth is really big on saying, "Remember when...." and then filling in the blank with one of her recent happenings. Her most common "Remember whens" involve going to the zoo, playing on the playground at the school, throwing up in the car on the way to Austin for Thanksgiving, living in the apartment, filling up her sticker charts, and hurting her knee. I find it really interesting that she has memories at this age, mainly because she won't remember these memories in a few years.

11. One day we all went to Fuddrucker's for lunch. We ordered the sliders (the new mini-hamburgers they have). Elizabeth ate one all by herself, and then there was one left over. That evening, I had an event with my department and Shane fed her that leftover hamburger for dinner. The next morning, I fixed her some oatmeal and when Shane came in the kitchen to see what we were doing, she yelled, "Daddy, I didn't have a hamburger to eat!" Was she excited about this fact, or did she want another hamburger?!!" Who knows?

Since the move I have not been able to find the device that downloads my pictures from my camera. When I do find it, I'll post some recent pictures. Hope all of you are doing well and that you're enjoying the holiday season. Take care!

Motivating factors

2007-11-10T13:01:00.000-06:00

I have learned what works best to motivate my daughter to do well with potty training--a potty chart! We were doing so well this summer but with travel and different schedules, it has NOT gone well this fall, to say the least. We virtually stopped for several weeks. Nothing was working. We tried M&Ms and candy treats and letting her watch a special TV show. And nothing motivated her to try. So, I decided to try again with a potty chart.

You have to understand one thing. Elizabeth loves to be involved in whatever it is we are doing. She always says, "Me help!" Anytime I am cooking, she always wants to pull up a stool and help. When I'm doing laundry, same thing. When Shane makes cookies, same thing. She is a GREAT helper! Anyway, I printed out a Dora the Explorer potty chart and we went to work. She filled up that thing so quickly that within a week we got to take a trip to Wal-Mart and get a treat. She ended up choosing a Veggie Tales CD that only cost 5 bucks. What a deal! We started a new one this week and she even went #2 on the potty. She gets two stickers for that! We're still working on the poopies and hopefully she'll be fairly trained when we move to Waco next month!

Since it looks like my child is motivated by extrinsic prizes, we've now started another reward chart that includes brushing her teeth (which she HATES!), cleaning up her toys (which she isn't too good at yet), and helping out with chores (which she does well at). I can't believe she's become this way so early! At least it seems young to me. Kids are smart--do what your parents say or want and get rewarded with a prize.

The Bee Movie

2007-11-09T20:41:00.000-06:00

One thing that Gatesville is unique for is that it has a drive-in movie theater. When I was pregnant with Elizabeth and when Elizabeth was a baby, Shane and I used to go to the drive-in pretty regularly. It only cost $5 for a carload, and you get to see a double-feature of current movies. We haven't ventured out to the drive-in since Elizabeth couldn't/wouldn't sleep through the whole thing, but when we saw that the Bee Movie was showing tonight, we couldn't resist.

We got hamburgers from Sonic and headed over to see the show. Elizabeth sat in her car seat the whole time, and we had a nice time. Since Elizabeth wasn't familiar with the characters, it took her a while to get into it and learn what was going on, but once she learned about Barry the Bee, she watched the whole thing and even chanted and cheered for the bees. She pretty much talked through the entire movie, and I can see why we haven't ventured into a real movie theater with her. In our car, she can scream and cheer and ask questions without raising too many eyebrows. So, the first movie she ever saw at a theater was the Bee Movie.

I do have to say that this movie was quite impressive. Jerry Seinfeld was one of the writers and the script was funny, clever, and nuanced. Shane and I both liked it a lot, and I'm sure it will be appealing to children everywhere. I hope it does well. If you or your kids are looking for a good flick, I recommend this one.

We didn't make it for the show after this one--The Seeker (I had never heard of it anyway). Elizabeth was getting restless, and so we decided to come home and put her to bed. All in all, it was a great night. We will definitely miss that place when we move to Waco. Hopefully, we can take the whole family to the theater when everyone's a bit older. That would be a lot of fun. If you live close to Gatesville or just want to go to the drive-in, keep Gatesville's in your mind. Have a nice weekend.

"It's a .............."

2007-11-08T10:45:00.000-06:00

Shane and I went to the doctor this morning and got to see our little baby movin' and shakin' around on the screen. Just like with Elizabeth, these people are always talking about how much this baby is moving around. I do wonder if there is ever a baby who DOESN'T move around?!!

Anyway...we saw two eyes, a heart, two feet, a kidney, a stomach, lungs, arms, legs, and, (dare I say it?), a penis!

Yes, this next one is a boy! No doubt about it. 100% sure.

I haven't been home yet so I couldn't scan in an image of the you-know-what (maybe I won't anyway to protect the little guy's privacy), but I did want to provide a visual to commemorate our baby being a boy. Since Elizabeth is a "Daddy's Girl," maybe this one will be a. . . Now is that such a bad thing?!!!

Pictures III--Halloween

2007-11-07T09:55:00.001-06:00

In honor of how Elizabeth calls every insect she sees a "wadybug" (especially ants!), Elizabeth was a ladybug this year for Halloween. She looked so cute in her red and black. Once again this year we went to Baylor for their annual trick-or-treating in the residence halls. All the freshmen girls were dressed up in fun costumes and had a good time handing out candy. Elizabeth was a bit shy this year, which doesn't quite fit her, but has really enjoyed eating all these treats!

Here's our little munchkin with her bucket that she now likes to take with her anytime we leave the house.

We especially liked the back of her costume.

Here is Elizabeth walking down the decorated hall in the dorm.

Mommy and Elizabeth

Daddy and Elizabeth

Wake up calls

2007-11-06T14:30:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth is our wake-up call. I don't think I've had to set an alarm but a handful of times in the past few years--even when I have to get up at 6 a.m. to get ready for work! Now that we are living in a two-story apartment we have a monitor so that we can hear Elizabeth when she calls.

Anyway, on Sunday we wake up to these sounds through the monitor:

"Daddy! Come get me." (in a sing-song voice)
"Daddy!"
"Daddy!"
"Daddy!"
"Come get me!!!!!!!"

[LONG PAUSE]

"Shane! Shane! I neeeeeeed you!"

Shane and I looked at each other and started cracking up, even though it was 5:15 on Sunday morning (Daylight Savings Time meant nothing to our girl.). What's funny is that Elizabeth often hears me say, "Shane, I need you," and when I yell this across the apartment, he comes quickly to help. Since Elizabeth knew that Daddy comes for Mama when she calls him Shane, she figured she might as well try to call him in that same way.

Needless to say, it worked.

Pictures II

2007-11-05T19:13:00.001-06:00

Here's another round of pics. These are all from August! Wow--that long ago!

Elizabeth loves her sweets! Here she is eating a cupcake at cousin Brooklyn's birthday. Yum-yum!

All the kids took Shane's parents out to dinner for their 35th anniversary in August. We at at Jasper's, a restaurant in The Domain in Austin, and it was really, really good, and we had a great time. We went to eat at Amy's Ice Cream afterwards and that's when we told Shane's siblings that we were pregnant.

Here we are laughing it up. Elizabeth loves tickle-tickle time!

The Alexander Clan:
Barry and Karen (Mom and Dad)
Zach, Shane's brother, is on the far right end.
Brent and Josephine and their daughter Eleanor are the other ones in the picture. They, too, are expecting another baby. These two will be really close in age (less than a month apart, we think!).

And here is our little family. We don't get to take family pictures very often, so I wanted to post one of the few that we had.

Pictures I

2007-11-05T18:44:00.000-06:00

So I finally downloaded pictures off my camera. 287 to be exact, going back to August!. I figured I would post some of them here. Enjoy!

Here is Elizabeth playing around on one of the numerous cars located in the Waco Mall. Sporty! She was content to just go from car to car that I never even got the chance to put a coin in the slot!

Elizabeth loves Uncle Zach. This picture was taken right after we had eaten Sunday lunch after church. Elizabeth had a frilly white dress on, which we took off so she wouldn't get pot roast, gravy, or carrots on it. For some reason, we didn't put another shirt on her before her nap so here Zach is reading to her like this. I tried to get them to raise the book high enough so there wouldn't be anything too revealing! E loves that Mickey Mouse!

Elizabeth loves her tricycle, her "gasses" and her penguin, so here they all are together in one picture.
We went to Austin a few weeks ago while Gatesville interviewed a preacher for Shane's position. Here we are at Zilker Park. For some reason, the pictures of the kids wouldn't load!!

I hope to post more pics soon, especially the ones from Halloween. Fun! Fun!

The moon over Gatesville

2007-10-26T12:15:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth has become fascinated with the moon and so I wanted to write down a few of the things she has said about this mysterious object:

1. We went to Dallas a few weeks ago and when we got out of the car one night, she said, "Where is the moon? I can't see it." I responded by telling her that sometimes during the month we can't see the moon (I didn't use the term "new moon"--that would have really confused her). Then she said, "Yeah. We'll see the moon again when we go back home. It's not here, but it's at home." Apparently, the moon can only be over Gatesville--one place at a time.

2. We were looking at the moon while we were driving home last night and Elizabeth said, "Mama, I want to drive our car up to the moon and touch it."

3. We were in Waco recently and Elizabeth saw the moon before she got into the car (Always excitement in her book!). When we got into the car, she got so upset (i.e., threw a fit) because she did not want to leave the moon. She still does not understand that the moon can be seen from both Waco AND Gatesville.

4. She always tells the moon "Good night" every time we get out of our car and come inside. Since we don't have a garage at the apartment, she gets to see the moon more often than when we would drive straight into the garage.

I like how much she talks about this object that I typically don't think twice about. It's nice to see things afresh through the eyes of children.

Life Happenings

2007-10-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

Ok. So I'm finally posting for all of you who have been complaining that I haven't updated my blog in a while. I'm sure I've lost many of my readers by now, but maybe I can get you back by actually being a bit more consistent in my posting!!

So, the past several weeks have been crazy. Here are just a few of the happenings:
1. A visit to the emergency room at 10:30 at night. Elizabeth ended up being diagnosed with bronchitis but was later re-diagnosed with the croup. She is on medicine,

2. Travel, travel, and more travel. We have been on the road almost every weekend since early August (and that's not counting the summer trips)! We're out of town again this weekend in Austin visiting my sister Kim and her family. We'll see Shane's dad tomorrow at church--his mom is still in Russia and we are ready for her to come back. I know Elizabeth misses her!

3. We have been extremely busy with church planting business. We went to our last "training lab" for Mission Alive; we have held two fundraising dinners for The Grove and have two more planned in Austin and Houston; we printed brochures and waited for 4 weeks; we have finally sent out our fundraising letters (today!); and we have spent much time in prayer and are seeing these prayers answered in ways that are new and exciting for me.

4. We were given tickets to go see the Longhorns play football and had a great time. I hadn't been since Shane and I were dating and we had a nice "date." Thanks, Granbarry for watching our girl!

5. I went to the doctor because my upper back/side has been hurting. I had to have an ultrasound and they couldn't find anything. They said it could be inflammation of the ribs, but I can't take any ibuprofen, so there is nothing I can do but deal with the pain.

6. Potty training has ceased temporarily. With Elizabeth getting sick, us traveling for 8 weekends in a row, church planting getting into high gear, and work, we have not had the time or energy to clean up all the mess-ups and wet spots in the carpet.

7. Elizabeth is going through a magnified stage of not listening to anything we say. No form of punishment works on her. She just ignores us all the time. We are definitely ready for her to move past the "terrible twos" and hope they don't last on into the threes like we've heard is very possible!

Other than that, life is going well. I have been so encouraged with the church plant. We will move to Waco in about a month and are so excited to begin our ministry there. We also find out in three weeks what this baby is and are excited to be able to start calling him or her a name (and stop confusing Elizabeth every time we call the baby a "her" and then the next time we call it a "him"!). Hopefully, it won't be this long until my next post, so keep reading!

A different version of "Jesus Loves Me"

2007-09-22T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today Elizabeth decided to change the words to her favorite song (the one she sings so loudly during church services that people from all around the church turn and look and then smile as if to say, "How cute."). Shane got back from Sonic with our cokes (We usually don't go to Sonic every day, but since Granbarry was treating...), and Elizabeth started singing the tune to "Jesus loves me." However, we only THOUGHT she was singing "Jesus loves me" because instead of saying, "Jesus loves ME," she ended with "Jesus loves MOMMY'S COKES."

I guess it's time for me to cut back on the caffeine?!!

Living this crazy life

2007-09-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

This week has been CRAZY.

Elizabeth and I went to Houston this weekend for two birthday celebrations--my sister's and dad's on one night and my niece Shaelyn's on another. Friday, E and I made it to Houston in time to visit my mom at her school. She's beginning her second year at public school and last year since I taught on Friday, I was never able to get away. This semester, though, Friday is my day home with Elizabeth so we got to leave early and make it to her school in time to get the tour, meet the other teachers, and see her classroom. It's so cute how all those first-graders just doted on Elizabeth. They seem to like feeling "big" around somebody. Maybe that's why so many kids that age love younger kids. It's cute.

After that, I took Elizabeth to the park in my parent's neighborhood (the same one I used to go to as a little girl). It's a great playground with really safe equipment and completely shaded by pine trees. Elizabeth loved it. Then we went to my parent's house and waited for the others to arrive.

We ended up having a really good weekend with all the family (sans Anthony and Shane--missed you guys!). Shane couldn't come because Shaelyn's birthday was on Sunday and well, Shane, is a little busy on that day. Elizabeth loves playing with her cousins: "Bettitt (Barrett), "Bookin' (Brooklyn), Jackson, and Shaelyn.

E and I headed back to Gatesville on Sunday after the party. She slept most of the way (whew!) and was quite disappointed (and a little distraught) when we got home and Daddy was not here. He had left for Abilene earlier in the day for ACU's Lectureship. So, it was me and Elizabeth until Wednesday when he got back home. Only, it wasn't that simple. Elizabeth ended up getting a "fever virus" on Monday evening and was running a fever of 103. She and I were up most of the night on Monday, and since she couldn't go to the babysitter's on Tuesday, I cancelled my classes and stayed home with her. This was the first time I had to cancel my classes, but it's nice to have a flexible job so that I can do so. Then on Wednesday, I got sick with a headache and pain in my left side, which has lasted through today. I'm going to the doctor next week for this, so we'll see what's going on there. I hope I get to feeling better soon because Shane was just given tickets to the Longhorns game this weekend and we're planning on going. We haven't been since we were dating (when he had season tickets) and are excited to see Colt McCoy live in action. Granbarry is going to hang with our girl. Granna left this week for Russia and will be gone for two months. Elizabeth isn't going to understand why her Granna isn't there when we get to their house. Earlier this week, she said, "I go to 'Gana's' house," and I told her, "Granna is leaving for Russia and will be gone for two months. We're going to miss her, aren't we?" She responded, "She needs to take me with her!" And I said, "But Mommy and Daddy will miss you if you are gone for two months. That's a long time to be away." She wasn't sure what to say. At least it was a dilemma for her and she didn't just say, "I go with her" (Because we know how much she LOVES her Granna!).

Tagged

2007-09-19T15:15:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by Chesley for a different kind of Q&A: "The Game of Tag about your MAN"

1. Who is your man? Shane Peyton Alexander
2. How long have you been together? 6 years, 5 of them married (We were engaged in less than 6 months! That’s another story)
3. How long dated? 10 ½ months
4. How old is your man? 30
5. Who eats more? Shane eats a lot, but he doesn’t snack at all; whereas I’ll eat my meal and then have snacks all day (but I’m also pregnant, so that’s my excuse now).
6. Who said "I love you" first?He did. We were sitting on the couch about to go visit some of his family for the first time and he said it. I didn’t say it back on the time (He still reminds me of that!), but I said it in the next few days.
7. Who is taller? Shane (not Cody!--He's my cousin!) is 6'3, I'm 5'4
8. Who sings better? Shane, hands down. I like to sing, and I try really hard, but I can’t carry a tune. I sing off-key. And I have bad hearing. All of which work against me!
9. Who is smarter? Hmm. I would say that Shane is. His is natural whereas mine comes from discipline and hard work. I made better grades in school, but that doesn’t make people smarter.
10. Who's temper is worse? I think mine is. It’s that Irish blood in me.
11. Who does the laundry? ME!!! He doesn’t mind doing it, per se, but he waits and waits and waits until he runs out of boxers, which never happens when you have a two-year-old and have to do it every week! Ha!
12. Who takes out the garbage? Shane
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I sleep on whatever side is closest to the bathroom. Even when I’m not pregnant, I have to go to the bathroom all night because I drink so much water late in the evening. Shouldn’t I have learned by now?
14. Who pays the bills? Our bank—automatic withdrawals! I right the checks and keep track of the money. We’ve gone to a cash envelope system, and since I usually spend the money, I keep track of it. I think he may take over this job at the end of the year, though.
15. Who is better with the computer? We’re both pretty good. Since I teach web design, graphic design, visual design, and writing on the computer, I’ve stayed up with it. Shane loves to learn it, too, though. He created the logo for our new church, helped design the brochure (with the rest of us), and wants me to teach him Dreamweaver web program. He is also much more of a computer gamer than me.
16. Who mows the lawn? Always Shane…at least when we had a lawn (right now we’re living in a townhome), and when it wasn’t raining all summer (like it did this summer)! I had my fill of mowing growing up when I always mowed our lawn, which was really, really large.
17. Who cooks dinner? Me, especially in this temporary place where the oven is way off and the burners are tilted so nothing cooks evenly. Shane does all the grilling, however…only after I’ve already prepared it. We both like it, though.
18. Who drives when you are together? Usually him, unless we’re driving into town on a Sunday morning and he has to get ready for his sermon, or if I’m just wanting to drive. I’m a much faster driver, and sometimes I just want to get there in a reasonable amount of time!
19. Who pays when you go out? Me, now that I have all the cash!
20. Who is most stubborn? We are both really stubborn (so is our daughter!), but he’s more likely to give in.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither of us like to admit it when we’re wrong, and most likely we still hold to our opinion in the end, but we do tend to move on and forget and forgive.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Shane’s parents since they live the closest and both of my parents work (and one of them works in DC!).
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first. I was NOT going to kiss him first!
24. Who asked who out? Long, fun story, but he asked me out first. We went to dinner at Cotton Patch Café in Abilene and then to see Planet of the Apes at the movie theater.
25. Who proposed? Are you kidding me? I’m not Monica on Friends (even though I thought her proposal was very romantic). Shane proposed to me in Albany, Texas (where the great steakhouse is) in a white gazebo on He is sthe courthouse lawn.
26. Who is more sensitive? We both are.
27. Who has more friends? We have about the same number.
28. Who has more siblings? Me. I have 3 siblings and 3 sibling-in-laws; he has two siblings and 1 sibling-in-law.
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Odd question. I really think we make decisions equally, although he may have a different answer!
30. What do you love most about your husband? He loves God, loves me, and loves Elizabeth, all unconditionally. What more could I ask for?

I want to tag Shane, but his answers to almost every question would be the exact same thing. But I’m tagging him anyway to see what he answers to certain questions! I guess you'll have to change everything to "WOMAN" rather than "MAN"!

I also tag:
Kim
Kellee
Anita

Shopping for Dolls

2007-09-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to KB Toys to get birthday presents for two of my nieces. My niece Eleanor (Shane's brother Brent's daughter) is turning one this month, and I wanted to get her a doll for her birthday. I began looking at all the dolls in hopes of finding one that resembled her a little bit. What I found was VERY disappointing, and I am going to write the toy companies to make them aware of this situation.

Eleanor is an adorable little girl whose mom is Asian-American (born in Taiwan and migrated when she was five) and whose dad is well, Shane's brother, white. So, Eleanor's skin is a little darker than Elizabeth's and her eyes are a beautiful dark shade of brown. She has a beautiful complexion, which we're all jealous of. So I began looking at all the doll choices and only found two: an extensive collection of white dolls, all of which had blue eyes, or a few African-American dolls, neither of which fit my purposes.

First of all, I could NOT believe that there were not any white dolls that did not contain blue eyes (how's that for all those double negatives?). I, for one, have brown eyes and most all my immediate family has brown eyes. Now that I am married into the "Family of Blue Eyes (literally EVERYBODY has blue eyes, including my own daughter), I'd never noticed that all of the white dolls in stores have blue eyes. Has anyone else noticed this? Where are the green eyes, hazel eyes, black eyes, grey eyes, and all the other beautiful colors we have? They make it seem as if every little girl who doesn't have blue eyes should wish she did have blue eyes. Because aren't the dolls supposed to be the most beautiful representation of humankind and they all have blue eyes?!! Duh!!

Second, I find it troubling that the only two choices for dolls are white or African-American. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad there are at least TWO choices when there used to be only one. But what about all those other people who do NOT have blue eyes and are NOT dark-skinned? What kinds of dolls can little girls like Eleanor find to love and cuddle? What about my next child who may have brown eyes? There aren't many choices for children (even though we claim to be such a diverse society).

Distraught, I left the aisle full of hundreds of different types of dolls (all white with blue eyes and a few African-American ones, of course) and wondered what I was going to do. Every little girl needs a doll! So I kept walking around and finally saw one more doll. I decided to get this one for Eleanor, even though it's not an Asian baby and even though it doesn't have dark eyes like Eleanor, and even though the skin is darker than her skin. The baby I found is actually a Hispanic baby doll. The only way I could tell was because the entire box is written in Spanish. So, I hope that this baby doll will suffice until I find another one worthy of Eleanor's beauty.

Sporadic posts

2007-09-08T17:13:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't been posting very much lately. Unlike last year, it isn't because the school year has started at Baylor. This time, it's because I'm having a baby! Yep! I am actually quite far along (10 weeks already) and have been feeling pretty awful almost the whole time. So that's my excuse for so few posts lately. As soon as I'm out of this first trimester, I hope that I'll feel better and post more often.

We are really excited about this one (and it also doesn't hurt any that this one is going much quicker than the first one--yea!!). The due date is April 8, right in the midst of tax season for many of my in-laws (sorry, guys!), but good timing for me so I can be home all summer with the little one. Elizabeth is especially excited. Yesterday she came up to me and said, "Mommy, I want the baby to come out and play with me." She hugs the baby (my tummy) every night before she goes to bed, and she prays for him/her, too. She talks to my tummy and says, "Hi, baby. I'm your big sister, and I love you." She's going to be a wonderful big sister. She sure is sweet.

We've already seen the baby on the ultrasound and everything looks good. We are appreciative of that. Keep me and the baby in your prayers! We'll keep you posted with the developments!

Labor Day Weekend

2007-09-03T19:50:00.000-05:00

We had a fun Labor Day weekend. Thursday night, Shane's parents came up and stayed with Elizabeth on Friday and Friday night. I had to go in for a faculty meeting (Friday is my day with Elizabeth), and then that night we had a dinner for the faculty in my department and so Shane and I went to that. We had a good time and almost went to the movies afterwards to take advantage of our time, but we wouldn't have gotten home until well after 1 p.m., and I can't make those late nights anymore now that I get up by 6 a.m. every day.

Saturday, we drove to Temple for a family reunion with my dad's side of the family. We had a great time seeing everyone and visiting with people. I did find out that it's a small world because my cousing Lyndsay is dating a guy (Jeremy Sprott--any of you remember him?!) who attended ACU with me my freshman year. But I got to see them, so that was neat.

The kids had a good time playing around. The dessert table was right at their level, so Elizabeth kept sneaking chocolate and cookies and other goodies. Ha! They also had a good time playing in the cemetery out behind the church. Elizabeth even saw some pretty flowers and picked them up and took off running. My sister Kim got a really funny picture of it, and the memory makes me giggle.

After that, we came back home with my parents and my brother Kurt's kids. They spent the night with us and Elizabeth enjoyed hanging out with Nana and Teddy and Jackson and Shaelyn. She couldn't stop telling Teddy, "Teddy, look at my BIG GIRL PANTIES!" over and over and over. I also discovered that she's a little sensitive. Shaelyn was going to sleep in her room with her and then at the last minute she wanted to sleep in Nana's room. So, we moved the pallet to the other room and Elizabeth couldn't stop crying. I went up to check on her because I could tell she was so distraught and I asked her what the matter was and she said, "I want Shaelyn to sleep in my room." It really hurt her feelings that Shaelyn didn't want to sleep with her. I told her that she was probably scared and wanted Nana, but it didn't seem to help. Poor girl!

It sure is interesting getting 3 kids who are 2 and under ready for church on Sunday. I always get Elizabeth ready by myself because Shane goes up to the building really early, but it's very different with 3. Mom and I barely made it in time (but Teddy was able to make 2 coffee runs in the meanwhile!!). Ha!

Elizabeth's new thing is to break out into song right now. I mentioned that she loves to sing, but this has gone to even new levels lately. Her favorite song right now is "Jesus loves me." What's interesting is that when she sings it, she SCREAMS the words. She was even so loud in church on Sunday that our song leader ended up changing the closing song to "Jesus loves me" because "out of the mouths of babes" and "we should all think such pure, sweet thoughts as children." Too funny. I think Elizabeth is going to be a HUGE asset to us with church planting. She has no qualms about talking about Jesus...or shouting out songs as we walk around the neighborhood. :)

Happy Birthday, Kara

2007-08-27T09:06:00.000-05:00

A link to The Top 10 "I Was Wrong Admissions" in Five Plus Years of Marriage...

Shane

School has started

2007-08-23T08:32:00.000-05:00

This is the first time since I can remember that college has started before public schools. I know it's not the case everywhere, but here at Baylor we started on Monday. I didn't even realize we were starting this early until a few weeks ago and so I have been frantically scrambling to put together syllabi, assignments, and readings. It's been a crazy few weeks in terms of school, that's for sure!

I'm teaching on Tues/Thur this semester, which I absolutely LOVE--not because of the two day a week schedule (although that's nice, too), but because the hour and a half classes fit writing courses much better than the 50 minute ones. I'm teaching two courses, which I taught last year, and so this go-around hasn't been as difficult since I've already taught them at least once. So, we're off to a good start.

Elizabeth is as sweet as ever. She has started talking to herself in third person, and it is really cute. The other day she was sitting in the chair at my desk coloring and was bending over to get a crayon and almost fell out of the chair. At the same time, she says, "Whoa, Whee-Biz." (Note that "Elizabeth" is a very hard word for young toddlers to say and so she has commenced to calling herself "Whee-Biz." When we call her "Whee-Biz," she replies, "No, I'm Whee-Biz." :)

Lately, Elizabeth has wanted to "cook dinner" (no matter what time of day or what meal we're about to eat!). She loves to help out and be useful. She will pull one of the kitchen chairs over to the counter and do whatever needs to be done. She also loves to help bring in the groceries and put them where they go. She even wants to help with the laundry. She hasn't quite gotten the picking up thing down, but I don't think that's too far off (we have to do better at it first!!).

Things with the church plant are coming along nicely. We are still in Gatesville until December and then we move to Waco. So, that means that this is my last semester of commuting to Baylor. Yippee!! It really hasn't been too bad. I have a lot of time to get ready for the transition from home to work or work to home, whichever the case may be. I listen to books on tape or to the radio, which is nice. And I really like driving. Growing up, many of you know that we lived about 30 minutes from our school and our church--30 minutes without traffic, that is! Most of the time it took between 45 minutes to one hour, except on Sundays when the traffic was pretty light. So, the driving part hasn't been as bad as I thought (and for the fact that I only come in 3 days a week!).

Well, we had a nice, enjoyable summer. I enjoyed being home (even though I had a sabbatical and had to research/write a lot). We got to spend a lot of time together and do some fun things. I'm actually very tan right now, mainly from our trip to Italy, but I haven't seen my arms this brown in years (I look like so many of the college students around here who are so very dark!). Except I was actually in the sun. Ha! So, now I'm ready for a new school year and all that this year will bring. Hope you're having a fantastic day!

Rome: A few other interesting pictures

2007-08-15T12:14:00.000-05:00

I haven't really posted yet about the Italian culture and other things, so this post is going to be dedicated to that, along with a few pictures of our visit to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.

Here are some observations I had:
1. When you order a pizza at a restaurant, bring your own pizza cutter. Italians don't cut their pizzas into slices. Most people eat it with a fork and knife.

2. There are more tourists in Italy than anywhere else I have seen in my entire life.

3. Toilets in Italy are different from ours in two ways: most of them do not have a toilet lid, like the one pictured below, and there are two "flushes," one big and one small. I think you can figure out when you are supposed to use each flush!

4. There are a lot of modes of transportation in Italy: train, foot, car, subway, bicycle. But the most popular one, by far, is the scooter. You have to watch out for the scooters, too, because they weave in and out and don't really pay too much attention to pedestrians. Florence was the scariest place with the scooter-drivers.

5. Air conditioning in Italy is not at all what we think of here. In most places, it's actually cooler outside than inside!!

6. Most people drink water "with gas" in Italy, rather than regular old bottled water like I drink.

7. Whenever I had difficulty speaking to an Italian in English, I would speak to them in Spanish instead, and we would have a rather pleasant conversation. I guess Spanish and Italian are so closely related that they could understand it and speak it easier than English, which we all know is a very crazy language full of all sorts of grammatical exceptions!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there are others, and I'll post them when I remember them!

Here we are in front of the Trevi Fountain. It's a terrible picture (we are virtually white, and you can barely see the fountain), but when you ask others to take a picture for you, you have to know that you may not get much!!

Here's a better picture of the fountain. Once again, there were soooo many people at the fountain. Most people were sitting around eating gelato and listening to the water.

Here's a pretty courtyard we found just outside a church.
This is Bernini's elephant sculpture. I find this picture quite humorous because there I am at the very bottom of the stature. Did you even notice I was there?!!
Shane with St. Peter's in the background.

I had to get a picture in front of the famous Spanish Steps.

Rome: Vatican City

2007-08-15T11:13:00.000-05:00

We carved out one full day to visit Vatican City, on the west side of town. We visited the Vatican Museums (after we waited in line for two long, hot hours), St. Peter's Basilica, and St. Mark's Square. This place was massive! We didn't get to visit the gardens behind the Basilica because you have to reserve like 6 months in advance.

Here is a picture of St. Peter's Basilica taken from the castle. You can see it from all over the city.

Here is the long line we waited in. We got there really early but still had to wait awhile. At least there were a few trees to keep us shaded.
Here is my cute husband. This was taken from a courtyard inside the museum.
The museum was full of statues and sculptures of popes and other religious icons. It's a tradition for Shane to take a picture like this whenever we see a sculpture. You should see the one he has with Abe Lincoln!

More sculptures. This hallway was beautiful.
We went through the "Map Room," which was filled with wall-to-wall map tapestries. I think it was my favorite room in all the Vatican (besides the Sistine Chapel of course!).

We saw the Sistine Chapel, which is in the Vatican Museum, NOT in St. Peter's Basilica. It was a huge room. What surprised us most was that it was full of people. Literally, we were all standing there shoulder to shoulder looking up at the ceiling that Michelangelo painted. No photography was allowed, and neither was talking, except for the man who kept "shooing" everyone!

After the museums, we took a shortcut over to St. Peter's Basilica. It was the one thing that was free, and it was amazing. The place it HUGE! And not just the round portico that everyone thinks of when you see it on TV. Massive! And beautiful, of course. Here is Shane right when we walked in.

And here's me.

Here is the round portico. Look how high up it is!
Here we are in front of the Basilica with our backs to St. Mark's Square.
This is the front side of St. Peter's Basilica. You can't see the basilica from this angle. If I were further back you would be able to see it.
I couldn't get all of St. Mark's Square in one picture, unfortunately, because the symmetry of it is absolutely amazing. An obelisk is in the center of the square.
We enjoyed our day at the Vatican, but we were looking forward to leaving Rome and relaxing on the train ride to Venice. See you in Venezio!

Rome: Piazza Navona and Castel Sant'Angelo

2007-08-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

Piazza Navona was one of our favorite places in Rome. There are three neat fountains here, although Bernini's Four Rivers fountain was under construction so we didn't get to see most of it. We also walked around and looked at all the beautiful art. I bought some pieces here. There are no cars allowed in here, only people on foot. We also found a place to refill our water since it was so hot everywhere we went. Here's a picture of Shane at one end of the Piazza.

Someone trying to sell the artwork.

Right outside the Piazza was some of the best pizza we had in Italy. It was realy thick and had a great variety of ingredients on it. The two we bought were unique: one had red and yellow bell peppers and the other had spinach and potatoes. Yum-yum!

From the Piazza Navona, we walked about a mile to the Castel Sant'Angelo, a castle and fortress built by Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for his family. Later, it became a fortress for the popes. An underground tunnel leads from the Vatican to the castle, and they would bring a pope here when his life was in danger. Today, it is a museum.

The castle is massive, but it is set down in a valley, so you can't see it from too many spots in the city, not like you can the Vatican and other big monuments.

This is the walking bridge to the castle. The bridge goes over the Tiber River.

To get to the top of the castle, first you walk up a 360 degrees circle, and then you come across a ramp that splices the castle in half. It's all very planned out and cool. The ramp Shane is standing on is the one that splices the castle in half.

Our first picture together: This was taken in the castle. The Tiber River is in the backgound. Sorry it's so dark. I guess the flash didn't go off!

We walked to the very top of the castle, and found this scuplture. You could see a lot of the city from up here at the top.

Rome: Churches, churches, and more churches

2007-08-14T20:29:00.000-05:00

While in Italy, I think we visited at least 50 churches. We loved going into them and taking in the environment, the art, and the sculptures. When I went to France a few years ago, I loved the churches there, too, and they were pretty, just really different. Most of the churches in France had beautiful stained-glass windows, which made them unique, ornate, and beautiful. In Italy, however, there weren't many with stained-glass windows. Instead, most of them were painted with beautiful art and contained ornate sculptures. Italians sure do know how to create art.

This was the first church we went into, and we sort-of just stumbled into it after we went to the Coliseum. The outside doesn't do justice to the inside of this church, as you can see from some of the pictures below.

We also went to the Pantheon and several churches in the area. The Pantheon was originally built as a temple to the Roman gods in 125 A.D. Later, it became a Christian church, which it still is today. The architecture of this place is absolutely amazing. The tomb of Raphael is also located here. The picture below is the outside of the Pantheon. The columns are huge!

The top of the round portico was replicated by Italian architects in later designs.

This is a view looking from the Pantheon outside into the piazza.

Rome: Imperial Forum, Coliseum, and Palatine Hill

2007-08-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

I am sorry this has taken me sooo long! I've been busy with work (it starts a week earlier than I had originally thought!! Yikes!) and it took me a little longer to overcome the jet lag. Anyway, I'm going to upload these in batches so that I can organize them easier, and so that you can learn about the places we visited.

Shane in front of the Imperial Forum, the ruins from Ancient Rome

More Imperial Forum. I can't believe how many ruins still exist after all this time.

A view of the Coliseum from the road.
Here is a picture of the inside of the Coliseum. It wasn't exactly what I expected. I had thought it would be a lot bigger than it was, and I thought that there were still a few seats still in existence. There are no seats at all, and the stadium is much smaller than the Astrodome and other stadiums we have here in the U.S. In the middle, you can see remnants of the two underground levels where they kept the prisoners. It sure was amazing.

Behind the Imperial Forum is Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is the place where, according to Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus were founded by the she-wolf that kept them alive. This is where Romulus decided to build Rome. It was really, really high and long and beautiful.

Behind the Palatine is the "Circus Maximus," which was used for entertainment and public games. You can't really tell from this picture, but there is a big "lap," sort of like at a track where people ran races. Christians were also killed here for sport. Other Christians were brought here before they went to the Coliseum to be killed.

Back to the USA and to our Elizabeth

2007-07-27T18:33:00.000-05:00

Shane and I made it back safely to Houston, spent the night at my parent's house (although neither of them were there!), and then came immediately to Austin to get Elizabeth. We walked in the house and saw her, and her reaction was so cute. She was playing with a blanket and pulled it up in front of her face and hid from us, all the while giggling and grinning. Then, she put her blanket down and ran to me and gave me a great big hug. She couldn't stop smiling for like two hours and clung to me for a long time, which she never does (she is not a cuddler, except for a few minutes when she's sick). She almost seemed surprised to see us finally! We are still in Austin enjoying time with Shane's parents and will go back home tomorrow. We're both suffering from some jet lag (Italy is 7 hours ahead), but we are glad to be here, safe and sound. When I get back home, I'll upload some pictures and write more about our trip (and read all of your blogs, too!). Take care!

Observations from Roma

2007-07-19T15:09:00.000-05:00

Here I am in an _Internet Point_ using a computer that doesn't quite match the one I know very well. We are having a grand ole time here in the Eternal City. We've seen and toured the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forums, Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica, Castl Sant'Angelo, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, beautiful parks, and several beautiful churches.

We're also eating wonderful food--lots and lots of pizzas of all different varieties and same with the ice cream! Yum-O! We already have several hilarious moments and wonderful memories between the two of us, several of which Shane has probably posted on his blog as he sits next to me and types a post (I can't see it right now or I would read it.).

Tonight is our last night in Rome and tomorrow we go by train to Venice, which we are really looking forward to (Venice and the train ride!). We've enjoyed Rome, in spite of the intense humidity and lack of the level of air conditioning we're used to, long lines everywhere, and the millions of other people who had the same idea we did. Seriously, millions. And most of them were in the Sistine Chapel!

I am writing in a journal while I'm here, and when I get back I'll share some excerpts from it with you. For now, ciao!

Family Recognition

2007-07-15T08:10:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth and I went to the movie store to rent a movie the other day (Shane was making a hospital visit), and as we were walking around, Elizabeth pointed and said, "Ook! There's Pooh." (I didn't know that she even knew about Winnie the Pooh!) Anyway, then she pointed and said, "Ook. There's Daddy!" I looked down at the DVD cases and didn't see anyone that looked like Daddy, so I kept looking for something to rent. She kept saying, "Ook! There's Daddy!" I finally turned around to see what she was pointing at and noticed a man all the way across the video store. He didn't look like Shane from the back. And then when I looked up, I giggled a little because I saw what she was talking about...the man had a Texas Longhorn hat on his head and so it must be Daddy!

Birthday celebrations

2007-07-14T17:43:00.000-05:00

With the move (and so small a space right now), our trip, and so many of her friends being out-of-town, we decided to bypass a bigger party this year and celebrated with my mom, Shane's parents, and Uncle Zach. Elizabeth had a great time.

The birthday girl. Whenever we say, "Say 'cheese'," she pokes out her bottom lip and squints! Elizabeth got a lot of Mickey and Minnie Mouse books. She already has them memorized!
Granbarry, Daddy, and Granna. Granbarry and Shane were really excited to wear these Minnie Mouse hats!
Nana came from Houston for the party (well, mainly to help us move!). Thank you, Nana!
Elizabeth knew how to blow but it didn't quite work, so I helped out.
Yummy cookie cake!!
We got Elizabeth a tricycle to ride, but her feet aren't quite long enough.
So most of the time, she "rode" it like this...

On her actual birthday, Shane and I took her to Chuck E Cheese Pizza. She LOVES this place. I think she would be content without ever having a single coin. When we do put coins in, like in the car below, she starts crying and wants down immediately!

Daddy and Elizabeth are having a great time on the motorcycle, which Shane likes to refer to as "organ donation."

Here she is pretending to ride the car. I think she might even be singing "The horn on the bus goes honk, honk, honk."Afterwards, we went to Stone Cold Creamery for ice cream. Granna gave Elizabeth this cute red dress for her birthday and everyone we saw would comment that she looked like Minnie Mouse. She really liked that since Minnie Mouse is her favorite right now!Elizabeth loves her ice cream! Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Oh my!

2007-07-14T17:20:00.000-05:00

My husband came home a few days ago with his head shaved. I really don't know what he was thinking, except for the fact that he wanted his hair "shorter" for our trip. I didn't know he was going to go that short. I asked Shane if he had joined the Army! I sure feel like I'm married to a military guy right now. Here's a pic. Every time I see him I'm taken aback because I've forgotten that this is what he looks like! I'll let you decide for yourself what to think!

Now, when we get back from Italy and I post the pics, he will most likely be wearing an Astros cap in all of them! No offense, babe! Go Army!

Welcome, John Preston Davidson

2007-07-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

Our dear friends John and Amy had their baby last week, and we are soooo excited that he has finally arrived. We have been waiting for him to get here for what seems like a very long time (hee hee) and think he is such an adorable baby. He was born on July 5, weighing in a 8 lbs, 6 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. We got to see him less than an hour after he was born and Elizabeth didn't know quite how to respond. She clung to us at the hospital and would barely look at John, Amy, or the baby! John and Amy have been her friends for the longest time, and Elizabeth even stayed with Amy on the days I worked for most of this past year, and so they are very special to her. I can just see her thinking, "Who is this kid, and why are "my John" and "my Mamy" always holding him?!!

She did better when we went to their house and took them food. She kissed his head and had a good time. She's still walking around saying, "Me have baby in my tummy, too," as she lifts up her shirt and points at her belly. The other day I asked her, "When is your baby going to be born, and she said what sounded to me as, "July 10th." Hmm. I don't know if that's what she said or not, but it sure did sound like it to me, so I got a little chuckle from that! Here are some of the pics of sweet baby Preston. He sure is a cutie!!

Mama Amy, Baby Preston, and me

I love Elizabeth's face in this picture. What is she thinking?!!

Elizabeth gets to kiss Baby Preston on his head. And check out her cute Minnie Mouse outfit that Aunt Kellee sent her for her birthday. She LOVES it!

Congratulations, John and Amy on the birth of your first child. You have always been so sweet and loving to Elizabeth, and she loves you guys so much. You're already wonderful parents! I'm excited for Elizabeth and Preston to get to know each other better. Blessing to your extended family, and remember to sign his name when you sign cards from now on!! Ha! :) We love you!

I love you, my child

2007-07-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth at two days old

Elizabeth at two weeks old

Elizabeth at one

Elizabeth at two

Today is Elizabeth’s second birthday (although she’s been telling everyone she’s two for the last few weeks). These two years have gone by fast and Elizabeth changes daily. It’s so nice to have this online forum to document her developments, her personality, and her appearance (she can never say, “What happened to all the pictures of me when I was young?”, or “What was I like when I was young?”!). I really think that the person you were in the past—the child, the daughter, the sibling, the friend—whether you remember that person or not, plays into your identity today. Remembrances and memories are something that give people hope about all they can be, all they hope to be, all they are at their core. Understanding who we were in the past allows us to see how the people who loved us first—our parents—saw us in the past (and still see us today), even when we may doubt ourselves, our abilities, and our identity. It gives us comfort and assurance. The same is true of God and how he feels about us (although to an even greater extent, I’m sure). I pray that Elizabeth never experiences these same fears and angsts in her own life, but if she does, she will know that she can always look back here to be reminded of who she really is, even when she may get off track for a while.

So, Elizabeth, on your second birthday, I want you to know how loved you are on this day and always. Your daddy and I are proud of you, and we will always love you. And no matter where you go or what you do, know that you are precious in our (and God’s) sight.

"Silly Elizabeth!"

2007-07-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

Nothing much new going on here, except packing for our trip, finishing the move, and writing a chapter for an edited collection in which submitting the essay (which I finally got sent off!! Yea!). Most of the news around here involves Elizabeth, especially with some of the things she’s been saying and doing. Here are just a few:

1. I accidentally stepped on one of Elizabeth’s stuffed animals and said, “Oops, I’m sorry, Elizabeth.” She responded, “It’s okay, Mommy. It’s OKAYYYYY!” She was trying to comfort me.

2. We were eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant and she started singing, “Rain, rain, go away” very, very loudly. And this just happened to be the one moment in the last few months in which it was NOT raining!

3. Every time we ask her where she wants to go eat, she says, “Chuck E Cheese.” The closest one is in Waco, and we have promised we will take her there on her birthday. We’ve gone there once and she was scared of everything, so I’m not sure that she really wants to eat there, but she keeps insisting. I think it’s because they advertise on Disney, and she likes the commercial.

4. The town-home we are living in temporarily has stairs and Elizabeth doesn’t like to be upstairs when we are all downstairs. Occasionally, however, we will find her upstairs alone—not in her room playing but at the sink in her bathroom, washing her hands and brushing her teeth. If she’s not doing that, then she’s allowing Cago, Lilly, Baby, and some of her other stuffed animals to go potty and wash their hands, too. She loves to take them through the routine she goes through every time she uses the potty!

5. After the Wiggles phase ended, Elizabeth became obsessed with Mickey Mouse and gang. She still is, but a new favorite of hers is Dora. She LOVES Dora, and even answers the questions Dora asks on her show. She loves saying, “Swiper, no swiping!” and “Everybody, let’s go,” as well as all the Spanish words she’s learning.

6. Every time someone does something funny or that makes her laugh, Elizabeth always says, "Silly _______ (Mommy, Daddy, Nana, John, etc.)!"

That’s enough memories for now. I want to make a record of these incidents so that years from now she can look through them and know what she was like. Elizabeth, in case you’re reading this in 2030, I want you to know how sweet, loving, and caring you are. You are so special!

Chaotic but cute

2007-07-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

Taking pictures with children can be soooo chaotic. These are the best ones I got, so here they are. Nana bought Elizabeth and Brooklyn (and Shaelyn--will get one with all three very soon hopefully) these matching outfits and they sure do look cute in them. I'm sure Barrett will thank Nana later that she didn't try to find a matching outfit for him!

Pictures

2007-07-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

Here are those pictures from Sea World and the Austin Children's Museum I've been promising you. Here we are before we got all wet. Elizabeth loves the water. Elizabeth anxiously waiting for the dolphin show to begin. In the aqarium running around barefoot. She cannot and will not keep her shoes on her feet...at least she's wearing her clothes in this one!

Elizabeth LOVES her Uncle Zach!

"Wow! That's amazing!"

She was asleep before we even reached the car. I guess a day without a nap will do that to you!Cousin Barrett and ElizabethCould this be the beginning of a band?!!Playing chess like her daddy loves to do.Slides are one of her favorite things.And so are bubbles!

Don't they look so big?!!

Gleefully settled, almost

2007-07-02T18:52:00.000-05:00

This past weekend (and all last week) was spent boxing up all our belongings, deciding what goes to storage and what goes to the new townhome, and figuring out how to do all this in the rain. Fun, fun! At least we had wonderful friends and my mom come and help us do all this. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We are pretty much moved in but still have to clean the house before we close. We have put about half our stuff in storage and it's nice to be living a little more simply right now. Elizabeth's toys aren't infesting every corner of our house (not yet anyway), and we have a little more room here since we've put so much in storage. We will be so ready to move into a house in six months!!

Here's some WONDERFUL news...we FINALLY got our passports. If any of you are still waiting or you know people who are, I recommend that you call your congressional representative. I had heard so many different stories about how long you had to wait to call, so I wasn't going to call until two weeks before our trip. Then I started worrying about the move and how long it would take to get to us since it would have to be forwarded and so I decided to call our congressman's office (John Carter out of Round Rock--Isn't it odd that he has such a big district?!!). I spoke with a nice woman there who told me that anyone who called is put through faster and given a "Congressional Upgrade." And we had our passports within two weeks (We also got lucky because the lady I talked to called the national passport office and told them that since we were moving we just HAD to have them before then, so the move actually helped us! Who would have thought that would be the case?). So the trip finally feels real. Now we can really start the planning!

On the Elizabeth front, she knows and understands so many words, and many I had no idea she even knew or had heard (no bad ones yet, thank goodness.). She surprises me quite often with her vocabulary, and watching her language development is one of my favorite things so far. Potty training is also going all right. She's in panties most of the day but still won't go #2 on the potty. I'm sure that will come. She even takes her baby dolls and her stuffed animals to the potty. She told me today, "Mama, Baby needs to go tee-tee." Funny. She also hates to be dressed right now and de-clothes herself multiple times throughout the day. She did take an entire nap yesterday without wetting, though, so there's some progress, especially since she was buck naked, and we didn't want to have to change the sheets again!

By the way, I WILL post those pictures soon. I promise! Have a great evening.

Congratulations, Craig Biggio!

2007-06-29T07:38:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Astros fan. (In fact, talking about the Astros is, in a small way, what led to me and Shane starting to talk/date, but that's another story!). Anyway, last night cutie-pie Craig Biggio had a great game and an historic night. He had 5 hits on a night when he also hit his 3000th. Wow! 3000 hits. Only 27 other people in baseball history have done that. The game went into extra innings and then the Rockies went ahead. Biggio came up to bat with 2 outs and got on. Soon the bases were loaded and up comes Carlos Lee and Bam! A Grand Slam!!! Astros win.

Isn't baseball great?

Been Tagged

2007-06-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

My sisters and I have all been tagged by Anita. I think I’m the last one to respond with all my teeth trouble and everything. Enjoy!

First memory: I remember falling out of a tube in the river in Wimberley, Texas and going down, down to the bottom because I didn’t know how to swim. I couldn’t have been more than 3 years old and can still remember seeing Sherry Bell swimming to me and pulling me up from my place on the rocks at the bottom of the river. I didn’t know that I was drowning, but that’s what was going on. When we both came to the top of the water, all I remember is my parents screaming to see if I was all right. I think I remember it so vividly because it was such a different kind of experience. I don’t think I was scared because I didn’t know what was going on.

First real kiss: Encounter, Lubbock Texas, Summer before my 10th grade year. I met Chris S. (can’t remember how to spell his name because it was so weird) and we developed a liking and kissed the last night of camp. What’s funny is that I saw him the next summer when I was dating Daniel Boone, and it was sooo awkward!

First love: I guess I’ve had two—one when I was a child and one as a teenager. The first one is Travis Harris. We grew up together at Kingwood CofC and always went on vacations with his family. We “went together” even though we were only in the 4th and 5th grade and couldn’t go anywhere. The only time we ever saw each other was at church. Ha! My other first love was Daniel Boone (Really, that’s his name!). We were going to get married and he was going to play pro baseball to support us. I love the dreams we used to have (even though they didn’t come true!).

First thing you think in the morning: No, is she ALREADY awake?!!!

First pet: We had some dogs, but the first pet I ever had was Jefferson, a cat. I loved this cat so much. What’s funny is that now I am SOOOO allergic to cats that I can never have one again.

First question you'll ask in heaven: When I was a kid, I wanted to ask, “When babies die, do they stay babies in heaven or do they grow older?” Now, I’ll ask, “Did everyone get to come to heaven?”

First thing you think of when you hear the word vacation: Spending money!! And relaxing.

First best friend: Amy Pettibone—she lived in my neighborhood and we were on the same soccer team for many years. I was also close to Sara Sallee and Becky Bell, girls I went to church with.

Last time you dressed up: Shane and I went out for our fifth anniversary and I semi-dressed up.

Last thing you ate: Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream (Shane bought it and it feels good on my aching tooth!).

Last CD you bought: Shane bought me a Keith Urban CD recently.

Last good book you read: I just read all of Karen Kingsbury’s Redemption series and it was WONDERFUL! Now I’m reading the first book in the Firstborn series. I’m also reading Rick Steves’ Italy.

Last time you cried: Yesterday, when my mouth was hurting so bad and the pain wouldn’t go away.

Last time you told someone you loved them: Tonight—Elizabeth when I was telling her goodnight, Shane, and my mom when she called.

Last really funny thing you did: I have become quite forgetful this past week. I left my hang-up clothes at my sister Kim’s house, ice packs at Granna’s, and my keys at Granbe’s. I think I must be losing my mind!!

Last thing you watched on TV: Traveler. It’s a really, really good show that started up this summer.

I tag Shelly W. and Holly C. Can’t wait to hear what you all have to say.

Yikes! A Toothache.

2007-06-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

If you're wondering why I haven't blogged lately or why I still haven't uploaded those pictures of Elizabeth at Sea World, it's because ever since I got back home, I have had to go to the dentist three different days and would have gone in over the weekend if they were open. I have been feeling miserable, unable to do anything because I can't focus on anything else except this awful pain. The teeth that my dentist worked on before I left for Austin have been hurting for about two weeks. The pain is almost as bad as labor and recovering from a C-section. And I have quickly learned that when your mouth hurts, your whole body hurts. I've also learned that I do NOT like pain and that I'm not good at dealing with it! I'm so thankful for pain medication!!

Anyway, on Monday I went back in and it was determined by a different dentist (mine is conveniently out-of-town all week on vacation) that I would need a root canal. He did give me some Vicadin, which has helped somewhat with the pain. Yesterday, I had my first root canal. I sat there for 2 and a half hours with my mouth wide open while the nice dentist took out the dead nerve, stopped up the three canals in my #15 tooth (the top left one at the very back), and then crowned in right there as well. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It's really sore right now, but it seems to be getting better.

The timing of this couldn't have been worse, except if I had been in Italy at the time. We are moving this weekend, and I should have been packing up the house last weekend and this week. I also have an article due on July 1st and am WAY behind with that. I just thought summer would be relaxing!! Ha! Well, I'm going to take a nap now because at least this helps the time to pass where I don't have to think about my mouth.

Home sweet home

2007-06-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth and I are finally back home after several days away, and it feels nice to be here, especially since we only have a few more days until we have to move out. Father's Day Sunday we went to church here and then while Shane headed off to Abilene for class, E and I hit the road for Austin. First, we visited Shane's parents for a couple of days. When we got there Sunday night, we all attended worship at a fairly new church plant in Downtown Austin started by Chris/Kester and Rachel Smith. That was a neat experience. Afterwards we went and ate at Waterloo Ice House. The next day, Granna surprised E and I with a trip to Sea World. Uncle Zach came with us, and we had a wonderful, fun-filled day at the park (I'll post pictures later.). Elizabeth had a fabulous time and loved watching the whales and dolphins do their things. She kept laughing and laughing and expressed such awe at all that was going on. That was priceless (I did feel bad that Shane wasn't there to see it--we'll go another time!).

After visiting them, E and I headed to South Austin to see my sister Kim and her kiddoes (Derek was out-of-town) and my mom who was there visiting. We went swimming one day and went to the Austin Children's Museum another, which Elizabeth also found extremely exciting. She spent most of her time running around from exhibit to exhibit doing her own thing, and so I followed her. It's a real neat place if you are interested, although it was pretty crowded since school is out. All-in-all we had a great time. Now it's off to packing and packing and packing. The real fun stuff!

On a different note, Shane and I are still waiting for our passports. We are going to Italy soon and have been nervous about it, even though we applied in March with plenty of time to get them!

Elizabeth has also started wearing pull-ups and underwear rather than diapers and slowly seems to be getting the hang of the whole thing (at least the easy half of it, not the gross part). She still has many, many accidents, but today she went the whole day without wetting herself. Yay!! I'm hoping we can be done with this by the time we leave for our trip. I think this is the worst part of parenting so far and am ready for it to be over!

Happy 5th Anniversary, Shane

2007-06-14T22:01:00.001-05:00

Five years ago today is the day I married my best friend, my partner for life, and the love of my heart. That was such a wonderful, beautiful day, one I'll never forget. I remember feeling so peaceful about that decision, knowing in my heart that "come what may," a cord of three strands is not easily broken, and that our commitment to God and to each other would help us through the hard times that might come. These past several years have been some of the happiest times of my life because day in and day out I am with a man who is committed to his marriage, his family, the church, and God. I love Shane now more than I did five years ago. He's still my best friend, the person I trust completely, and the love of my heart and my life.

When Shane proposed to me, he sang me this song, "Come What May." And then at our wedding, we also played it during the lighting of our unity candle (Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor actually were heard at our wedding!!). I loved it! So, here today, I'm putting it here to once again remind us of our love for each other.

"Come What May"
Never knew I could feel like this
Like I’ve never seen the sky before
I want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart
Can you hear it say
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time

Come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you
Until my dying day

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn’t seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there is no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing aloud this song
And I’ll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather
And stars may collide
But I love you
Till the end of time

Come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you
Until my dying day

Oh, come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you
Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you
Until my dying day.

Thank you so much, Lord, for bringing me Shane and fulfilling the desires of my heart. I love you, Shane, and I'll always be yours. Come what may.

What goes around comes around

2007-06-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

Tonight Elizabeth was wiggling on the diaper changing mat and kicking the mini blinds and just making all kinds of racket, which she knows she's not supposed to do but still does anyway, when I couldn't stand it anymore because I couldn't get her diaper on her. So, I stopped changing her diaper, looked at her firmly, and said, "Elizabeth, stop squirming right now."

She looked up at me, pointed towards the other room, and said firmly, "Mommy! You go sit in time out!"

Oh no. What am I to do?

Inner thoughts of a child

2007-06-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth and I went to the store today to pick up some father's day cards, and I asked her, "So, Elizabeth, which one do you want to get for daddy?" She looked at the cards and said, "Hmm. Let's see." And then pointed at one. She verbalized her thoughts! I thought it was so cute and Amy and I couldn't stop laughing at her cuteness. It's so funny how they pick up on little aspects of conversation. She said something similar the other day when we were driving home in the car. I said to her, "Uh-oh. I forgot to pick up ____ (can't remember what it was)," and from her place in the backseat, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh well." One more--every time I turn the corner too fast she says, "Whoa, Mama!" It's these little tidbits of communication that I find completely adorable.

Celebrity sightings

2007-06-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

My sister Kellee has inspired me to reflect over the celebrities that I have met in my life. (In case you haven't read her blog--she ran into Barak Obama twice in the elevator in her highrise apartment.). I haven't met many, but here's the comprehensive list, in complete random order as they come to me:

1. Rick Trevino, country singer. Wendy Gilman Zeledon and I ran into him in the DFW airport on our way to St. Louis for a conference. For those of you who know Wendy, she went right up to him, told him who we were, and then asked for his autograph.

Living in Houston, I had friends with season tickets to all the pro sports games, so we always got to meet the players. Since I was a HUGE fan of these people and their teams, these people were celebrities to me, and I was so excited to meet them!
2. Houston Rockets players: Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Robert Horry (met him in the Hard Rock Cafe--I have a crush on this guy). Can't think of the rest, but I know there were plenty.

3. Houston Oilers players: Warren Moon, Ray Childress, Cody Lambert

4. Houston Astros players: Alan Ashby, Glenn Davis...I'm sure there are others.

5. When my family went to California when I was in the 9th grade, we went to Hollywood Church of Christ and spotted Weird Al Yankovich in the pews. Hilarious!

6. George Bush--I met him while he was governor and I was a senior at ACU. He came and spoke during chapel, and I went up afterwards and met him.

7. Governor Rick Perry--I went to this event with my dad right after I graduated from college and met him there. He sure is handsome in person!

8. When Shane and I went to visit my dad in D.C., we got to see all the senators and representatives when we sat in on a joint session of congress, including Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Delay, and others.

9. Shane and I walked right past Howard Dean outside the Capitol. He sure is short.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm curious: What famous person(s) have you met or spotted?

Dentistry and snow cones

2007-06-12T17:16:00.001-05:00

I went to the dentist today to get some fillings and as I lay there, I thought to myself that this is one of the few times when I want to scream like a baby for my mama! It reminds me of being a kid. I never liked going to the dentist (who does?!), and I wondered what it is that this dentist likes about the job. Is it looking into (dirty, ugly, smelly, decaying) teeth all day? Is it getting to know people, or having his patients say "uh-huh" as we sit there with our mouths wide open? Does he get to be creative? What keeps him going day after day? I couldn't do that every day. It's too much of the same thing for me. I think that when you've seen one mouth, you've seen them all, but that's just me.

Elizabeth had her first snow cone today. She wanted strawberry so we shared a small cone. She absolutely LOVED it. With every bite, she could not stop laughing and spewing the stuff all over me and all over her shirt as well. We had a great time. In between bites she would lean over and kiss me and giggle in my ear. I'm so glad to be a part of these joyful occasions.

Swimming and Praising God

2007-06-09T12:52:00.000-05:00

Thank you all so much for your prayers and kind words about my last blog post. It does help to know that there are so many others who know what I'm feeling and understand what it's like to struggle with your weight, body image, and self-confidence. This has been such a huge issue for me for so long and it's been refreshing to read all your comments and learn from you. It also feels nice get this out and to let others know this personal struggle I have had. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement. It truly has shown me that friendships go beyond this, so thank you.

On a different note...we SOLD our house!! It sure has been interesting and busy around here. We don't move to Waco until December but wanted to put it up early because we had heard that the market here is terrible. Well, in my opinion selling it too early is better than not selling it at all or stressing about having it so clean when you have a tollder constantly tearing it up. The house had only been on the market for one week when we got an offer and we will close sometime next month. We are going to be sad to leave this house, especially since it's the home in which Elizabeth was born. I think she'll be really sad not to go "back home" (every time we get in the car, no matter where we are, she says, "Back home!") to this home and that we won't have cows and horses behind our house anymore. But Praise God we sold it!

Elizabeth has been doing some really funny (and crazy!) things lately. Here are a few:

1. The other night, we went into her bedroom two hours after we had put her down to sleep and found her buck naked in a puddle of urine--asleep. Apparently, as she was going to sleep--crying (She HATES being put to bed)--she de-clothed herself, clothes and diaper, and fell asleep like that. It sure was an interesting sight. Hours earlier, I bet she was thinking, "Well, since I can't get out of this bed, I'll show you! I'll just take off my diaper instead." We have a picture of this, but we didn't want to post it here for her privacy, but it sure is funny...

2. Elizabeth loves her cousins. She's got to see them a lot recently, which has been nice. I was showing her some recent pictures Kim and Suzy had both sent me, and she named all of them. There wasn't a picture of Shaelyn in the stack I was showing her and when I showed her Jackson's picture, she said, "Where's Shaelyn?" She knows that they go together, I guess. They are my brother Kurt's kids.

Here is a picture of Barrett and Elizabeth at a wedding we went to. When they get together, they sure are rambunctious and rebellious. I'm not sure what to expect in the coming years from these two!

3. Elizabeth loves the water--swimming pools, bathtubs, mud, sprinklers, etc. Here are a couple of pictures of her in her favorite places.

Swimming with her floaties.

Elizabeth loves her floaties and is so independent in the pool that she doesn't really want you to touch her. She'll even jump in and go under water for a bit. I'm glad she likes to swim because so do I. We'll have some good times doing this together.

4. Elizabeth is still smiling with her eyes closed when you tell her to smile for the camera. 5. Her favorite person to pray for is Pawpaw (her great-grandfather). She prays for him every single time she prays and calls him (pretend) several times a day to tell him what's going on. She loves going and visiting him on his ranch and seeing all of his cows. 6. We're brainwashing Elizabeth to love the Astros. I think she's had an Astros outfit at every size she's been in. That and the Longhorns are so much of what she wears!! 7. I LOVE this dress. My mom got it for her for Easter (from Marshall's!!) and it is just so cute. She spins around and the petticoat goes with her.

8. She loves to go to the park. This one is at our church. It's amazing how quickly they become so confident at playing on these big things. Here, she's hanging from the bar. 9. When we get to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, it is common for Elizabeth to start clapping and screaming, "Chuch, Chuch!" What a wonderful expression of her love for church.

10. We were sitting in church a few weeks ago when Shane did the Call to Worship. He read a passage from Psalms in which he used the words, "Praise the Lord." Immediately after Elizabeth heard them, she raised her hands and yelled, "Praise da Dord." I love that she is so expressive during worship. I think it's just beautiful.

11. On a sad note, The Wiggles have permanently been replaced by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Elizabeth no longer asks for them and the ONLY thing she wants to watch on TV are Minnie, Daisy, Mickey, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy. She loves to say, "Oh, Toodles." Bye-bye Greg, Anthony, Maury, and Jeff and hello to Mickey and friends. Disney sure has a way with getting children to like their shows!!

Body Reflections, or Confessions

2007-06-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

I have struggled with my weight my entire life. What I mean by this is ever since I was a little girl I have had to be careful about what I eat and always be sure to get a lot of exercise. They told me early on that I had a very slow metabolism, which has been the curse of my existence. I sometimes wonder why I was born with this body and metabolism and why my siblings, so many of my friends, and numerous others in this world were not. I want to be happy for these people, and I am most of the time. I just wonder why I had to be someone with this curse. It really is awful. Why couldn't I have been cursed with skinny ankles or knobby knees?!

When Elizabeth was born, a lot of people told me that I would get back to my pre-pregnancy weight in no time--that they had done it and so would I. I somewhat believed them but not completely because I know my body and knew how hard it is for me to lose weight. After Elizabeth was born and as I nursed her for several months, this was true. The weight slowly came off. And I was growing more contented. But ever since I stopped nursing, the weight has come back on (I'm 20 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant--yuk!). I was shocked when I started working here at Baylor and couldn't fit into many of the clothes I bought for this job. Throughout this year, I have gained five more pounds.

I try everything. I eat VERY healthy all of the time--I love fruits and veggies. I eat oatmeal for breakfast. I eat a sandwich with carrots and celery (instead of chips, well, most of the time) for lunch, and I eat healthy dinners. I don't eat much junk. And still, no loss of weight. Of course I have bad habits like eating pretzels or crackers late at night and drinking Diet Cokes every day. I've tried the GI Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Slim in Six Diet, the Beachbody Diet, the Oprah Diet...all of it. And nothing has worked.

And now my mind has become so obsessed with my weight that I have finally recognized how much this constant thinking about my weight is hurting me. I see this as something Satan has placed in my path to take over my mind and my heart. He wants me to look down on myself and to take away my confidence. I think it has made me more shy and less bold and confident (like I felt I was in the past). I think it's cost me some friendships because I always think people see me the way I see myself. Even when Elizabeth looks at me, I wonder if she's thinking, "My mom is so fat!" It is a constant struggle--not just daily, but by the minute and by the hour. And I don't want to be so encompassed by my weight, but I'm not sure what to do. It's been there my whole life and only when I feel "skinny" (at least skinny for me) do I feel confident and love life. And I DON'T want to feel that way. I want to love life and enjoy living no matter how much I weigh.

This is one reason that I decided to go on the sugar fast. I wanted to spend a lot of time praying about this issue and asking him to take this struggle away--the internal one. I didn't do it to lose weight [In fact, after 3 weeks (minus 2 days for the Memorial Day holiday), I hadn't lost a pound.--I know! Can you believe that?!!]. I've read that when you go without a certain type of food for so long that you stop craving it, but that hasn't been true for me. Anyway, I feel somewhat better about myself now that I'm doing this sugar fast, but it's still a constant struggle. I just get so worried that everyone who sees me won't like me because of my weight. I know that is so illogical--I mean I see overweight people and don't think that about them. But my heart feels differently. My brain knows that it's what's inside that matters, but I think Satan keeps telling me that if your body doesn't look good then the inside of you is ugly as well (because I'm shy, have a low self-confidence, am so obsessed with myself and don't think of others, etc.). God, please show me your love and forgiveness. I'm so sorry for my self-absorption and my lack of trust in you. Help me do better. Amen. I covet your prayers as well, dear friends.

Our ministry future

2007-06-03T19:50:00.000-05:00

For over a year now, Shane and I have been praying about our future in ministry. Specifically, we have been praying about the calling that God has laid on both of our hearts to plant a church. And today, God has continued this wonderful journey for us when we were finally able to tell our church family here in Gatesville that we would be planting a church in the Waco/Hewitt area.

Let me go back just a bit to explain a little bit about how this came to be...One day last spring (2006), Shane and I were talking about our future and he said to me, "What would you think about planting a church?" I turned to him with a smile and remember being so giddy about the idea immediately. I shouted, "Yes! Yes! I want to do it!" What's interesting is that I had been praying that God would show us what he wanted us to do about ministry and that he would open our eyes to what he had in store for us. After Shane mentioned this idea, I felt it was an answer to prayer. I had this feeling...it's hard to describe...but this sense of peace and a sense of urgency came over me--as if the Holy Spirit were right there pushing me and prodding me, prodding us, to go and do this thing immediately. For months, I could think of nothing else but the wonderful opportunity to touch the lives of the lost--people who were aching to know Jesus but had this void because they didn't know what they were missing. I wanted to be around people whom I could touch and who could touch me in ways that don't always happen in established churches. Why? Because we are so set in our ways and don't know that we can have so much more through relational community with God and with each other. The idea really appealed to me because my favorite memories of the church are meeting in each other's homes, small group Bible studies, and relationships with other Christians.

Anyway, we began to learn more and more about church planting and soon got in touch with Gailyn Van Rheenan of Mission Alive, a church planting organization still in its infancy. We went to a seminar in October and learned about how the United States should be our mission field and how only 15% of all Americans even go to church although 90% say they belive in God. I also learned about this wonderful notion of "missional"--the idea that instead of a church being based on an "attractional" model--one in which people come to us because of the wonderful programs we have or the children's classes--we instead focus on going to the people and being a part of spiritual formation in everyone you meet. I also heard stories from several church planters and their experiences with reaching the lost, with focusing outward rather than inward. All this was so exciting to me.

Since then, we have been to two of the labs set up by Mission Alive and have learned so much about ourselves, our marriage, our teammates, and the wonderful redeeming love of Jesus Christ. I am so blessed and excited to be a part of this church plant. Though we don't have everything figured out, we have faith that God is leading us in this specific time and place. He is going to do great things, and I can't wait to witness all that He will do. There's a lot more that I could say about this, but for now, I just wanted to share the news with you. I've been wanting to blog about it for a really long time, but only now am I able since we have told our church. Real quick--one of the best parts of this is that our church is actually sending us out to do this. They will be our sponsoring church and will support us, pray for us, and help us somewhat with the finances. We are so blessed and thankful that our church family here will be a part of this. I think it says something about Shane and his influence here (but I'm not biased!!).

In the meanwhile, we covet your prayers over this venture. We are scared, but excited, nervous, but hopeful. Pray that God will continue to bless this church plant and our church planting team and that he will remind us that He is the giver of life, the Redeemer of all mankind, and the ONE in whom we should place our trust. In all things God works for the good of those who love him.

A Happy Heart

2007-06-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

It does the heart good to run into old friends and visit with family. Over the weekend, I was able to attend a dear friend's wedding in Dallas. I've known her since she was 3 or 4 years old, and our families go way back. She and my sister Kellee were actually best friends and so it was very special to see her get married. I was so glad we could come. Shane was going to come but ended up staying for a funeral here, so it was just me and Elizabeth. It's always a blessing to see people where your heart's just connect immediately--no longer how long it's been, or how long you have to visit. I'm so thankful for all of you whom I saw last week and with whom I was able to visit, if ever so briefly--friends and family alike (sweet Mallory and entire Mitchen clan, Katy, Julia, Anita, Chesley, Jennifer, Kelly, Brandi, Aunt Cindy, Elizabeth, Mom, Kim, Kellee, my cute niece Brooklyn and nephew Barrett and all our extended cousins, and all the spouses of the people listed previously!). You each were a blessing on my life and I'm so thankful for friends and family. (Sorry I didn't get by to see you Shelly or Lynley--I had good intentions!). We even braved the cold water and got in the pool, much to Elizabeth's delight.

Mom and I ended up staying several days at my aunt and uncle's house in Ft. Worth. We had a great time hanging out. It'd been years since I spent that much time with Cindy and her family, but we had a good time. And Elizabeth is now stocked with bows that my cousin Brandi makes and sells. (Note: For all of you in the Metroplex, her company is called "Haute Socks," so look for them in stores. She also has a booth at the Brownstone, but I didn't get to go there because it was closed on Memorial day!). We left DFW on Tuesday and came back to Gatesville where Mom spent a few days with us.

When I ask Elizabeth, "How are you?," she boldly and loudly proclaims, "Me HAPPY!" And after connecting with so many wonderful people in the last week, so am I.

Odds and ends

2007-05-24T19:02:00.000-05:00

It's raining hard here, and Elizabeth is singing the rain song. She really wants the rain to "go away" so she can go outside and play. It seems like it's rained all spring.

I finally had a productive day today with writing/research. Elizabeth went to Ms. Nette's house and had a fantastic time. She's really adapted nicely there, probably because the babysitter is so calm and nice, which our little strong-willed, bossy Elizabeth really needs. Now we're hanging out at home mourning that the television season is virtually over (or at least I'm mourning it). I guess it's all right. I've been reading a lot more lately, which has been REALLY, REALLY nice. I've missed reading the kinds of things I want to read, and so I'm doing a lot of it now. I'm actually looking for some suggestions, if you have any. Specifically, I'm looking for fiction titles--any genre will do (mystery, Christian, romance, etc.). I'd love to hear what you're reading and any suggestions you have.

Cousin Time

2007-05-22T10:26:00.000-05:00

Shane, Elizabeth, and I went to Austin for the weekend for Barrett's birthday. Elizabeth and I ended up going down early and staying with Shane's parents. We got to go to the newly-opened Sur La Table near their house, and I ended up breaking something in the store! I was really embarrassed! We also had car trouble and were stranded on the side of the road. Luckily, we had E's stroller in the car and walked about half a mile (on a VERY busy street) and found a pizza place to eat lunch at until Granbarry could come rescue us.

Then we went to Kim and Derek's Friday night to hang out and spend some time with them. I hadn't seen their new house with the stuff in it and really loved looking around it. The kids got to play together, too. Elizabeth and Barrett had a good time playing in the backyard.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that has a huge playground attached to it. Now THAT was a great idea--I'm sure they make a lot of money because of it! And we actually got to eat in peace. Other restaurants should take the cue and do the same thing. More parents would go eat out.

On Saturday, Elizabeth ended up getting sick in the car (my car still stinks!), and we had to pull over on the side of the road and clean her up. We were about 2 minutes from Kim's house and were going to be early for the party. So much for that. And so much for the cute outfit Elizabeth was wearing at the time. Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the car that she was able to wear. Otherwise, she would have been wearing her diaper, or we would have been even later since we would have had to find Target. We ended up being a little late, and poor Shane had to wash clothes for much of the time during the party. He didn't complain, though. And thanks to Kim for being a good sport about letting us use the machine during the party!

Elizabeth got to feeling better (she never slowed down!), and we had a good time at the party. Elizabeth got to see her Nana and Teddy and all her little cousins. Here are some pics:

Elizabeth with Nana and Teddy

Shane and Shaelyn (brother Kurt's daughter), Brooklyn (sis Kim's daughter), and Elizabeth

Shane and Brooklyn

I don't know what Elizabeth's thinking in this picture, but it sure is cute!

Nana with Jackson and Shaelyn (Kurt and Suzy's kids)

Procrastinating

2007-05-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

Now that schools been out, it's been really difficult to motivate myself to do any work. Many of you have asked me if I'm teaching this summer, and the answer to that is an emphatic, "No!!" As many of you know, I have taught an online course for ACU the past two summers (which was WONDERFUL!--flexible hours, work from home, etc.), and they asked me to teach it again this summer, but I had to tell them now. Instead of teaching, I received a "Research Sabbatical," meaning that I will be researching and writing all summer. This, too, gives me a lot of flexibility, but it's been more difficult for me to get started with the work since it's all on my own time and all my own research. I did make myself start writing an article this morning but haven't gotten far at all and now I decide to post here, so more procrastinating for me!! Anyway, that's what I'll be up to this summer.

Onto other things...I've made it 9 full days without sugar. I think it's the longest I've ever gone without it. What I've found to be the strangest aspect of it is how some days are so much harder than others. Yesterday was a really difficult day--I really wanted some chocolate. I did really good at Barrett's (my nephew) party. They had sugar everywhere, yet I didn't give in.

Here are some new Elizabeth developments:
--Yesterday, I was awakened by Elizabeth's voice singing, "Tinkle, tinkle ittle staw." I laid in bed for a while and let her sing because it was the sweetest thing ever. She'd never done that before.
--I sneezed the other day and Elizabeth said, "Bless you, Mommy." I didn't even know she knew that phrase.
--I was lying on the floor in my work-out gear and Elizabeth comes over, leans over to my belly button (I thought she was going to kiss me.), and then plants a big "zerbert" on my stomach! We've been giving her those on her tummy since she was born; now she's returning the favor.

Sugarless Days

2007-05-16T17:38:00.000-05:00

I've gone four days without sugar. Last night was the first time I was really tempted by sugar, or should I say, chocolate?!! I was watching TV and saw a commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (my favorite!!), and they looked delicious. But I'm doing all right, I guess. I'm actually fasting from sugar right now, not really dieting (although I get really down about my weight...I can't seem to lose that baby weight, no matter what I do--sigh!--but that's for a-whole-nother post!). And the fasting aspect of it is really cool. I've been praying more and reflecting more, and I am amazed at how God takes the urge away. Really, it's like nothing I've ever experienced before. I've given up things before (like food), mainly during Lent for the past several years, but I turned to other things rather than to prayer. This time has been really different. I'm trying to go 30 days without sugar. It's going to be really hard this weekend when I go to my nephew Barrett's birthday. My sister Kim makes the BEST cakes!! And then next wedding I'll have to pass up the chocolate covered strawberries at my friend Katie's wedding (yikes!). I'll just have to pray, pray, pray!

I'm not really sure why I decided to do this fast. Well, I take that back. I think I know what got me thinking about it: Last week we stayed with our friends Shelly and Tra and they had participated in a "Daniel Fast" with their entire church. (There's a lot of stuff online about it if you're interested--basically all you eat are fruits and veggies for 30 days--the same as Daniel in the Bible did. No meats. No sugars. No processed foods. Wow! Maybe I'll try that one in June when Shane goes to Abilene for two weeks for school. He refuses to eat any meal without meat!). Anyway, the premise seemed really cool and so I wanted to try it. I don't have a physical community of believers to share this with me like they did (and like I've heard you really need if you are going to succeed), but I'm hoping that you will pray for me and be a part of my "Community of Supporters," "COS," if you will so that I, too, can fulfill my goal to fast from sugar for 30 days. I'll keep you posted on my progress (and the temptations!).

One thing I'm not sure about is if I can have yogurt or sweeteners like Splenda. Is that sort of sugar off-limits?

Elizabethisms

2007-05-16T16:46:00.000-05:00

I haven't written about Elizabeth in a while, and I thought I'd tell you some new developments with her:

1. Whenever we drive by a Cefco gas station, Elizabeth says, "Coke?" This is because she goes to Cefco two or three times daily, depending on which parent she is with and how many Diet Cokes we want that day.
2. Today we were driving through town and Elizabeth looked out the car window, pointed and said, "I eat!" She was pointing at McDonald's. I guess we also frequent that locale too much.
3. Whenever all three of us are driving in the car and I turn around from the passenger side to look at her, she screams "No!" and makes a "slapping hand" gesture until we turn back around. I guess she wants to be left alone when we're in the car.
4. Whenever anyone asks Elizabeth what her name is, she will respond by saying, "Me."
5. Elizabeth has FINALLY started to enjoy reading. I can actually read about five books in a row to her without her getting bored.
6. The sweetest thing...lately, Elizabeth has started singing! It is so precious. She'll sing all sorts of songs, including ones she's learned in church, but her favorite right now is "Old MacDonald had a farm." She knows a lot of words, but she loves the "E-I-E-I-O" part. She says, "E-O-E-O" and draws it out to make it fit the words we are saying. We'll hear her singing in the car, in her bed, and all over the house. It's really very sweet.
7. Elizabeth has FINALLY started saying Shane's parents names (Granna and Granbarry), although it sounds more like "Ganna" and "Betty." It's probably because she just spent an entire week with them. If that's what it took, I'm glad! Sidenote: Elizabeth still can't say her whole name either (although, granted, it is A LOT longer and more difficult than other names). We do hear all sorts of words come out, though, when you ask her her name (E-beth, Bette, Bett-e, Ezbeth). When you repeat back to her what she said, she gets irritated and says, "No," and then proceeds to repeat what she just said. Like, "Duh!"
8. Anytime we are in a store, Elizabeth will yell out, "Hi!!!" to anyone she sees, especially when they aren't looking at her. It takes them several times before they figure out that she is talking to THEM, and then they give her what she wants. "Hi, there, sweet girl. What beautiful eyes you have!" It reminds me of summer camps in high school when boys used to whistle from afar and you didn't want to look because if you did, then they would probably say, "Not you!" Did that ever happen to you?!! Mean boys!
9. Elizabeth speaks in sentences, complete with subject, verb, and direct objects. She LOVES to use verbs!

I think these are enough memorable moments about my girl for now. Hope you're having a great day. Cheers!

School's out!

2007-05-04T11:11:00.000-05:00

One year at Baylor has come and gone, and now I'm going to take some time to enjoy some of the things I have put off all year, like reading and posting onto my blog and writing. I've had a great year and look forward to many more to come.

The new babysitter is GREAT! Elizabeth LOVES going over to Miss Nette's house and has adjusted much more quickly than she ever did with the previous one. We are so thankful that she loves it so much, and she's made some friends there as well.

Tomorrow night we are having a baby shower for our friends John and Amy (Elizabeth likes to refer to them as "My Mamy. My John." I'm not sure how she's going to take it when their baby comes. It could be her first experience with jealousy.

May will be a busy month--lots of traveling. We're going to Dallas twice, once for a week-long conference and once for a wedding. We're going to Austin for Barrett's birthday. And Shane will be gone for two weeks in June for DMin classes. Then we're going to Italy in July (sans Elizabeth), and the summer will have gone so quickly. But we're looking forward to it.

Hope this post finds you well.

Here's a picture from Easter that I am just now getting around to posting.

Kicked out--again!

2007-04-21T13:18:00.000-05:00

We have officially been kicked out of another babysitter...not because of Elizabeth's behavior (although sometimes I wonder how that hasn't been the case yet!), but because our current babysitter is pregnant. Our last babysitter got pregnant and had to drop us and now this one is pregnant and is dropping us. And all this has happened THIS semester!! Crazy. Luckily, we have found another one here in Gatesville. This woman has FIVE kids of her own. We're going to meet them this afternoon when Elizabeth wakes up from her nap.

This whole process has been a bit stressful. Mostly, I worry about Elizabeth moving from place to place and having to adjust to all these people she doesn't know and us having to adjust to them when we don't know them very well either. It's like we have to put all this trust into people only on the basis of recommendations and knowing that they're Christians. This is one worry I wouldn't have if I were staying home with her, which makes me feel all the more guilty for working. I know that kids are adaptable and that it's good for her to play with other kids (I mean it's only 2 days a week!) when both of us have full time jobs. Amazing, when you think about it. But I'm ready for things to be more stable for her. Hopefully, we can use this new person for a litle longer than the last one! And hopefully she won't get pregnant!

Let's give it to him!

2007-04-18T12:32:00.000-05:00

This horrific event at Virginia Tech has deeply affected me. Perhaps it's because I, too, work at a university and know what a university atmosphere is like. The vibrancy and energy is contagious and makes college campuses such great places to be. And the relationships that I have with my students is so special and unique. How could someone have threatened that? Frankly, I'm quite angry at the killer (who you will note happened to be an English major). Of course, I am asking all the "why?" questions, but more than that I saddened that someone would do that to other people. I've heard and read a lot about this incident and noticed that all these people are calling in to radio shows and asking who's to blame. I've heard the incident blamed on the lack of prayer in school or taking God out of the classroom. I've also heard it blamed on the influences of video games and violent TV and movies. And, of course, I've heard the arguments against guns and having more gun control. In my mind, it didn't happen because of any of these reasons. This guy did not choose to do this because of the decaying American society and our values or because he was able to buy a gun or because he wasn't forced to listen to a prayer in school. All I keep thinking (and crying about and screaming out loud about and hurtin about) is that this guy needed the Lord. He needed the Lord! And we as Christians (me as a Christian) would do well to remember as we go about our days that people need the LORD!

People need the LORD! So, let's give Him to them.

National Sibling Day: Ode to Kim, Kurt, and Kellee

2007-04-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

In honor of "National Sibling Day" (at least in 27 states, but why not celebrate anyway?!!), I wanted to tell my siblings (and you, dear reader) how much I love, appreciate, and admire them (and their spouses, too, of course!) for all that they are and all that they mean to me, together and individually. There are four of us:
Kim
Kara
Kurt
Kellee
Four kids that all begin with the letter "K."
Within 6 years of each other.
Siblings and Friends.
We had a lot of fun together since we always had people to play with. They made my growing up years so wonderful. I remember a lot of happiness because of them.
Here are the three of us. In this picture, Kim is 3; I am 2; and Kurt is about 6 months. I guess Mom liked red (and having kids!!)!

Aren't we adorable?!! Kim and I used to gang up on Kurt when he was little. There's even some footage of us dropping him on his head. We stopped that when he got a little older (and a lot bigger!). I'm in the middle in this one; Kim's on the right.

Here we are again. I'm on the left. Kurt is in the middle. Kim is on the right. I think Kellee must have been in Mom's belly! The three of us were really blonde when we were little; sometimes I wish I still were!! The (in)famous "Vote for My Daddy" picture.

Kellee's born! I love the bonnet! I was looking through some of my parent's pictures when I was home recently and found several shots from this same day. We took this at a local park near our swimming pool. Though this one became famous, it's funny to see all the other shots in which either Kurt or Kim were holding Kellee. I remember that I felt so "lucky" to be able to hold Kellee in that picture. I guess it was because she was such a cute little kid (and we shared a room!). I love this picture of us fishing. It characterizes our personalities so much:

Kurt is intent on catching a fish. He is patient and will wait, and wait, and wait. And he expects others to do the same.

I'm serious about fishing. I want to catch a fish to show everyone that I have caught a fish. But I don't just wait like Kurt does. I roll in the bait and toss it out again and again because I get bored just waiting. I want there to be ACTION!

Kim is participating (her reel is in the water) and being a good sport, but she's looking around wondering how long we will have to stay out here and fish.

Kellee is a good sport, too. She wants to do what all her big siblings are doing, but she's also playful and fun. Kim and I loved to play together growing up. Anytime we were out, people always asked us if we were twins. I always liked that!One of the several pictures we took at ACU. This one is in front of the administration building. Check out my knickers!!This picture was taken at Disney World (as you can see!). What's missing from the picture?!! Kellee. She was too young to take on the trip so my parents left her at home with some church friends. Now, having a toddler, I can somewhat understand why they didn't bring her, but I never understood back then. Poor Kellee! This picture is taken in our backyard. Because there were so many of us, we could play sports. We'd divide into teams of 3 and play baseball or kickball or board games. Many of my memories involve us doing things like this together. Swim Team.
What can I say? We were on swim team for a LONG time. We liked it a lot at first, and all of us were pretty good, but it got old as we got older. I think Kellee was 3 years old when she first started swimming. Wow!The lovely church directory picture. I was a sophomore in high school at the time. Can you tell this is the early 90s?!!Here's a picture when we were home from Christmas. This picture cracks me up. We are all so RED!! This picture was taken in Cancun. We had a great time there, too!

Kellee, Me, and Kim in Breckenridge, Colorado (2000).
"Sisters by birth; friends by choice."

I LOVE my siblings! May we have many more happy years together.

Kim: thanks for your leadership and example, your forgiveness and love, and your happy and fun approach to life.
Kurt: thanks for being such a sweet, humble person, someone who is liked and admired by all. Thanks also for your wit and your strength.
Kellee: thanks for your sweet, caring heart, your sensitive spirit, and the example you are to all of us "older" siblings.

I love each of you!

Crazy Texas Weather

2007-04-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

Two days ago Elizabeth went swimming in her swimming pool. She had a great time. I wouldn't have gotten near the water because it was still a little frigid, yet her interest in the "wawe" (water), the "poo" (pool), and "swamming" (swimming) overrode any discomfort she might have felt. Here are a few pics from that day. Notice our green grass! (Too bad we all know THIS won't last long!)

And today the weather has dramatically altered......it is now......SNOWING! Amazing.

Shane is performing a wedding ceremony tonight, and the bride and groom will have quite a story to tell about how it snowed on their wedding day...IN APRIL!!

Good Friday Reflections

2007-04-06T11:32:00.000-05:00

I always love Easter weekend. It's a time to reflect about Jesus' life, death, and life again, knowing that many others around the world are doing the same. Growing up, I didn't spend much time thinking about Easter (the death and resurrection of Jesus), although I did attend a sunrise service once in high school. I was more interested in the Easter egg hunt, hoping I would be the one to find the Golden Egg this year, the colorful Sunday dresses, and the lovely, and BIG, church hats. I enjoy Easter; it means a lot of things to me--bluebonnets, candy, parks, egg hunts, green, memories, family, love, sacrifice, death and resurrection.

I was going to take Elizabeth to Waco for an egg hunt today, but I've changed my mind. Not only is it a little chilly, but it's also Good Friday, and I don't know if I want to engage in that type of celebrating today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today. Have you ever wondered why they call it "Good Friday"? I'm not really sure. Did the people who put Jesus to death come up with that name? (If any of you know the origin to this name, I would love to hear about it.) I wish our church had a Good Friday service (although I'm not sure what many of our members would think about that--who knows? Maybe they would like it. They often surprise us.). I would like to attend one tonight. Maybe I will. When we were living in Kentucky, Shane and I attended a Good Friday service at a Catholic church. While there were some aspects of the service that were a little strange to me (kissing the cross, for instance), I really enjoyed the quiet, reflective service. There wasn't much rejoicing and celebrating going on, only serene contemplation over the death of Jesus, one that occurred on a Friday so long ago. The story of the death of Jesus was read, and we all left with our heads bowed. There was no talk of resurrection or life; I wondered what it must have been like to be a follower of Jesus during that time. How SAD these people must have been. Perhaps they were angry at the injustice. Or maybe they even questioned God and asked "Why?".

I hope that today we will all spend some time reflecting on Jesus' death: what it meant then, what it means now, what that day felt like for the followers of Jesus, and what it feels like for today's followers of Jesus. Perhaps reflecting on Jesus' death allows us to learn more about him...about God...and about ourselves.

Disciplining Elizabeth: Oh, what to do?

2007-04-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

If I could characterize Elizabeth right now, I would say that she's sweet, chatty, talkative, endearing, adorable, funny, and independent, but if I had to think of one dominant trait right now (and I'm sure for a long time to come), it would be STRONG-WILLED. This child does NOT like to be told, "no"; she doesn't want you to show her how to do something; and she refuses to obey. I don't want to be on her case all the time, and neither does Shane, but I've heard that "consistency is key," which I take to mean, "Don't let up. If she does something wrong, discipline her." Well, this may seem good in theory, but in practice it means that we're disciplining her every second of her waking day.

Here are just a few things she does:
* Hits me across the face, after which I tell her in a firm voice that we don't hit mommy.
* Hoists herself onto a kitchen table chair and then from there up ONTO the kitchen table. Crawls around. Stands up. Walks around. Almost falls off. Does the same thing with beds, counters, toilets, bathtubs, and anything else that she can climb. I hope this child doesn't hurt herself with all her monkey business!!
* Gets into the drawer where I keep all the kitchen knives. Now we have safety latches on the doors, but it was really scary for a bit.
* Gets up on my treadmill that she KNOWS not to get on--because she could really hurt herself--in lots of ways.
* Runs away from us when we go outside (we don't have a fence--hey, we live in the country!!). If we're in the front yard, she wants to be in the back; if we're in the back yard, she wants to be in the front.
* Doesn't listen AT ALL. NEVER. As she sits in timeout, she says, "Me obey, Momma," but then she doesn't. She also says, "I awy (sorry), Momma," and she does it again.

I just don't know what to do. She is so strong-willed, fiercely independent, has to get her way or else she throws a fit, absolutely HATES to be told "no," and sometimes doesn't seem to like me very much. I feel sad about having to be so hard on her, and I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do. I'd love to hear some advice from anybody about what forms of discipline works for you (especially with a stubborn child like Elizabeth). I never wanted to spank, but I'm told over and over that it's the ONLY thing that works. I've done it; I admit. Does that make me a bad parent? Sometimes I think so. And I feel guilty for doing it, too. And I also understand why she hits me...in her eyes, I've "hit" her (even though it was a "spanking")--she doesn't know the difference. I feel a little defeated right now. I sure do pray for her and KNOW that God has made this beautiful child and that she is very special. I just want to do right by her.

Salute to teachers and a mention of me

2007-04-03T09:53:00.000-05:00

My dad publishes a weekly column in the local paper where he lives. Recently, he paid homage to teachers by telling some of my story. If you aren't aware of some of the difficulties I had with speaking or if you are just interested in hearing what he had to say about me, click here for the full story.

I've been told that the above link has expired; maybe this one will be more permanent:
http://www.region10.org/StrategicCommunication/EducatorRole.html

Happy 30th Birthday, honey!

2007-03-30T11:41:00.000-06:00

Since Shane posted 30 reasons he's glad he's turning 30, I'm going to post a mostly humorous list of 30 things I love/like/appreciate/admire/adore about Shane.

Here goes:

1. His wonderful dancing moves. They are so good that I think he can wind up on Dancing with the Stars. Why that show? Because Shane is as much of a star as the rest of them, so why not?!!
2. His beautiful blue-green eyes (wink wink) that sparkle with laughter almost all of the time.
3. His friendship. Shane is so open with me, and I value his friendship more than ever. He is my best friend, heart and soul.
4. His sense of humor. He is so funny, especially when he’s not trying to be. He makes me laugh all the time, and I am so grateful for that.
5. His loyalty. Shane is the most loyal person I have ever met. He is loyal to me, my family, his family, his church, the church, his friends, etc., etc. If you know Shane, you will realize this. He loves his people. I mean just look how loyal he is to the Texas Longhorns and the Houston Oilers, one place that he never even attended and the other that has been in Tennessee for over 10 years.
6. That he allows me to watch reality TV shows and game shows. I know I’m a college professor and according to most of my colleagues, I’m supposed to be “above” that, but there’s just something about those shows that draws me in. American Idol. Survivor. The Amazing Race. Deal or No Deal. 1 Vs. 100. Etc. Etc. Not only does he let me watch them without giving me too hard of a time, but he watches them with me! Sorry if I’m ruining your image, honey, but you know it’s true!
7. That he provides for me and our family and that he does so happily and lovingly.
8. The way he is with Elizabeth. He is the most wonderful daddy ever, and Elizabeth lets him know this all the time. From the very beginning, he has changed diapers, fed her, held her, rocked her (well, not really—Elizabeth does not like to cuddle!), tended to Elizabeth’s needs, cleaned up the peas and carrots all over the floor at the end of every meal, bathed Elizabeth (I think I’ve bathed her less than 30 times!); prepared dinner for Elizabeth, but most of all, the way he just loves that little girl. Elizabeth loves her daddy so much now, but she loves him more every day. I love to see them together.
9. The food you cook! Like I said in an earlier post, Shane is an AMAZING cook. It may not be the healthiest stuff to put in my body, but at least I get to enjoy it. We like to tease that there are no skinny cooks.
10. His passion for ministry and for wanting to change the world. This aspect of our life isn’t really an aspect; it’s our whole life. It encompasses everything we do, think, and believe. And I’m so glad to be married to a minister where this “aspect” is the reality. Where every day we love, learn, grow, cry, and dream about the way God is working in our lives and the lives of others.
11. He’s so handsome. I never thought I would marry such a good-looking man. Boy did I get lucky!
12. His brain. Though am very attracted to his good looks, his brain is also appealing and sexy. I love it when we get into deep, analytical discussions. I bet someone observing us would think we were nerds, but we’re both OK with that. We ARE nerds!
13. That he will play games with me, even when he doesn’t want to!
14. That I can make him smile when he is grumpy, irritated, or frustrated.
15. That he moved all the way to Godforsaken Kentucky (not really, but at the time he thought so) so that I could go to school and earn my Ph.D. What sacrifices he made then (and still makes now).
16. That he submits to me, as Christ does to the church, and that he gently reminds me to do the same.
17. That he bucks and challenges societal systems that don't make much sense to him. tc.).
18. That he is the BEST preacher ever. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life listening to him and learning from his wisdom.
19. That he has become just as obsessed (if not more) with Diet Coke than me.
20. That he does the right thing—no matter what.
21. His silliness. Shane can cut up with the best of them.
22. He’s as stubborn as I am, and we still manage just fine.
23. He’s the best giver of massages and back scratches (both of which I have “needed” desperately, even since I was little). Should I also say that I like it that he doesn’t like to receive massages? That means that I can get, get, get, and not have to give, give, give. But that’s selfish of me so I’ll stop.
24. That one day he’s going to be a doctor, too. No, not the “real” kind…that would mean that we actually had some money to spare. But he will be a doctor and we will be a “paradox” (pair of docs). Get it?!!
25. That he will travel with me to all parts of the country (and world) since traveling is one of my “hobbies.”
26. That even when I’m gone, he still sleeps with the allergy filter on.
27. The way he loves animals but insists that we will NEVER have a pet. (We’ll see about that!)
28. That he does really good imitations of Sean Connery and Bill Clinton but cannot for the life of him figure out how to do an imitation of a woman (He tries, but fails miserably).
29. That he makes the best homemade ice cream, with mix-ins and the like. Yum-yum.
30. That he loves me, cherishes me, and daily lives out the vows we took almost five years ago.

Happy birthday, Shane. May we enjoy many more years together.

Elizabeth on the trampoline!!

2007-03-29T17:49:00.000-06:00

When we tell Elizabeth to smile for the camera, for some reason she likes to close her eyes and flash a big grin, as you can see from most of these pictures. And don't you just love the outfit?! Way to go, Nana. You're soooo hip!

Kissin' the camera.
We went to visit our dear friends, Marshall and Lara Jane, in Anson a few weeks ago, and Elizabeth got to jump on a trampoline for the first time. She absolutely LOVED jumping around and could not stop laughing the entire time. She couldn't stand up for long when the others were jumping with her, but that made it all the more fun for her. We enjoyed it, too, because one of her pigtails came out and so it was sticking straight up in the air, as if she was "electric!" :)

This picture is of Emma Ruth and Cady Beth with our girl. Elizabeth had a wonderful time with them. Is a trampoline in our future?!!

NYC Pics

2007-03-29T17:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, yes, we DID attend the conference, but we also took some time out for some explortion and adventure. Since I had never been and was staying in the heart of Midtown Manhattan (and on Baylor's bill), I decided that I just couldn't go to NYC and stay in the hotel all day. Could I?!!

This picture is of Beth and me in front of Times Square.

Rockefeller Center was a hopping place, even when we walked by around 9:30 p.m. There were still a lot of people ice skating. I wanted to go, but we never really got the chance.

I love this picture of a walkway in Central Park. It had snowed in New York the weekend before we went (luckily we didn't get caught in it because planes were delayed for days!!), and so there was still melting ice on the ground. Even though there are no leaves on the trees, I like the city buildings in the background. I think it's one of my favorite pictures I took. We couldn't leave Central Park without grabbing a Diet Coke and a pretzel. Yum-yum!

We looked all over the city for this arch. I asked several people where it was and most people didn't know. Finally, we figured out that it was called the "Washington Arch" and was located in Washington Square Park, right near NYU. We strolled through here, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and Little Italy on our way up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of walking.

This picture is on the Brooklyn Bridge on our way BACK across into Manhattan. We thought it would be shorter than it was and ended up walking almost 2 miles (we think!). One of my colleagues at Baylor told me when I got back that the Brooklyn Bridge was patterned after the Suspension Bridge in our lovely Waco, although I'm not quite sure. Something about the way it was built being "tested" on this bridge first. I think the Brooklyn Bridge got the better end of the bargain, for here is a picture of the one in Waco.