Starbucks

Steve had a staff party that he didn't know about, so on the way home from church tonight we stopped by Starbucks to pick up a gift card for the present exchange. Not being able to resist the yummy goodness of a Decafe Pumpkin Spice Latte, I ordered up a tall cup of heaven to go with the gift card. As I opened the door to the car, Kalea looked up and yelled out with great delight, "COFFEEEEEEE!" Horrified, I looked over at Steve who cracked up laughing. "She's soooo going to be addicted to coffee when she grows up," Steve said between boughts of laughter. Unfortunately, her tastebuds remember and her heart rejoices at the tasty treat that I give her every Friday morning. Decafe of course, and paid for by her Grandma's generous gift card, Kalea LOVES her weekly coffee. What is this world coming to? Stunted and cafeene driven, Kalea's generation is going to know and love high calore, over priced coffee, and it's nobody's fault, but us tired mommys who crave coffee and a break from the everyday world, so much that we invite their small children into the world of yummy coffee.

ARCHIVES JUNE

Friday June 30, 2006
On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Meeee......
Today started pretty early before the sun was even up. Nathan decided to crawl into bed with me and chat the darkness away. He talked until the sun was nearly all the way up and then he dozed off only to be awaken by Steve. We had a pretty busy day today. Steve took Nathan to my inlaws to spend the weekend. I miss him already. After that he picked up a kid sized plastic gazebo from our friend's house and brought it home for Kalea. Our friends are a family of four kiddos and they out grew the gazebo so they decided to give it to us. It is so cute. It is pink, yellow, and white and has a sink (where Kalea loves to pretend shes washing her hands), a door and two windows. Kalea and I did not waste any time cleaning it out. It was filled with about 1000 spider eggs (way gross) and they were all in the really hard to reach spaces. I spent at least two hours taking it apart and cleaning it. While I was srcubbing it down, Kalea would go into the gazebo just as I was spraying the soap off and scream as the water went tinkling off of the roof and into her hair. It wasn't one of those 'I am mad, you'd better stop scream' but more of a 'I am a girl and you're getting my hair wet, oh dear scream.' She'd cover her head and giggle as she ran out of the small pink door. After hours of scrubbing, I cleaned Kalea's room and set it up in the corner under her hanging dragon flies and butterflies. I am going to paint that tiny corner of her universe blue with clouds and grass so she can pretend like her gazebo is outside. I think I am even going to get those little astro-turf carpets from Ikea to put on under it when we have some extra money.
After lunch, Steve went to a meeting and I cleaned out our garage. When he got back, he was a little fussy, so we went to Lowes and got some paint for our kitchen. I've been waiting over a year to paint so I am soooo excited. I can't wait to see how it will turn out!
Posted by at 23:13 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Thursday June 29, 2006
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Today I don't have much to write about. Steve's mom broke her toes on one foot right after having surgery on the other so she is quite torn up. We drove to Houston to see them and we ended up going out to eat for supper. Kalea ate a ton of some mysterous green mexican pica sauce. After stuffing her belly, she began to choke on a chip. Her down fall was not the actual choking, but her sticking her whole hand down her throat to retreive the chip. What happened after that was much like the movie "The Exorcist." Her head began to spin and she threw up green goop all over the place.....ok so I might have exaggerated about the head spinning part, but it was definitely the grossest thing I've ever seen. THEN no one would help us clean it up so after we used all of the napkins to clean up the visible part, we had to eat our entire meal with the green goop all over the floor by my shoe. It was nasty. I will never eat green mystery mexican goop again. Never. Poor Kalea had to be stripped down, and of course, I have emptied the diaper bag of all but the essentials, so she extra pants but no shirt. In fact, she just waggled by me still topless from our resturant disaster. I guess I should dress her. (In kase yew havent notissed bi now, I stell kan't spell properlee.)
We went to Sams the other day and Nathan got a hot wing at the sample booth. He took it from the lady and inquisitively asked her if hot wings came from hot chickens. She laughed and told him that, yes, they came from chickens living in Texas in June.
Anywho, I need to make an ammendem to yesterday's writing. SaRaH, Amber, and Sonya are also three female friends which I spent a great, great amount of time with that our friendship didn't end poorly. In fact, Sarah, Amber, and Sonya got me through those crazy months of no sleep and spit up. They were awesome pals and I miss them dearly. They are the only things I miss about living in Belton, that and being close to my yutes, but they have all gone off to college in other cities.......and yes, I know that writing about how girls always tell everyone but me when they have a problem is just as bad as them writing about me, but nothing was behind this girl's back. She knew how I felt, and I wrote our problem out to cyberspace out of 'dramatic irony' (Emperor's New Groove). So long for tonight good friends.
Posted by at 22:57 Permanent Link Comments (1)
Wednesday June 28, 2006
Blue Like Sock Monkeys
So I came into my daugher Kalea's room today and strewn everywhere were kitty parts. Yes, Kalea massacred her pop up kitties so that she could play with them outside the book. Kitty tails and heads everywhere, but it was nothing compared to her Aunt Emily's endless desire to tie her stuffed animals and barbies to the legs of the piano, but it was pretty close.
Today was Nathan's last day of school. He came home with those funny plastic teeth that go over your own teeth to make them look rotten. All afternoon he would put them on his teeth and I would exclaim, "OH NATHAN! YOU NEED TO SEE THE DENTIST!!," and he would collaspe laughing, then pull himself together just long enough to dramatically rip them out to show me that they were just pretend, and then collaspe laughing again. Incidentally, he brought home his journal and in the back was a picture of him and Violet Incredible holding hands with a note that said, "when I am older, I will marry Violet."
Now to blue like sock monkeys. When I was little, my best friend was a sock monkey. His name was George and went with me everywhere. One of his adventures was to the zoo where the real baby monkey behind the glass saw George and tried frantically to grab at him. At that moment, I realized how much I loved George, for I would never let a baby monkey or anyone else take him away. Today my daughter Kalea carries him around the house. If I had known then what trouble friends were, I think I would have kept his spirit around a little longer. I think my pal, Bridget, is my only female friend who I hung around with for a long time, and didn't hurt me. No, this is not a poor SaRaH letter, but as I write this now, I realize how great a friend Bridget was and is. For me having female friends and actually hanging out with them is much like Nathan and the light bulbs. When Nathan was 2 and 3, we spent our weekends looking for a house. There were several houses we toured where a small light dangled from the ceiling over what should be a dining room table. The houses were new, and not yet equipped with furnature, so the lights just hung. Our first experience with Nathan and the lights was on a hot summer day in Houston. We were touring the house and talking with the agent and Nathan, seeing the warm glow from the low hanging light could not resist grabbing the small oval bulb. Immediately small blisters began to form on his baby hand and his cry, oh his cry was horrible. He cried for hours and his small baby hand looked just as bad as his shrieks of pain sounded. It was beyond horrible.
A couple of months later his hand healed and we were out looking at houses on a warm Sunday afternoon. Once again we were in an unfurnished house looking around the dining room when Nathan was drawn to the warm glow of the oval light bulb. Forgetting the pain it caused, Nathan reached for it. This time I was prepared and immediately pulled him away. This is how I feel about female friends. They have a problem, and instead of saying, "hey, SaRaH we need to talk," or "hey SaRaH, let's pray together about this," they vent it out for all of the world to see and hear, and the worst part is that I am always the last to know. I am a great friend. I won't lie. If I have a problem, I will confront you lovingly with it. I don't understand why girls can't do the same. It's the same everytime and when I fall apart to Steve, he always shakes his head and says, "you knew this was coming....." I stayed up through the night praying about it, and for the first time ever, my friendship did not end as all the others have. I was able to talk it over without word vomit or crazy girl feelings errupting. I was able to think clearly and explain why I was upset about it. God was with me. He gave me words. He held back my crazy girl emotions. He told me what to say and how to say it. AND for the first time, my friend was able to cooly explain her side. She did not yell. She did not slander me, she just told me in her own cool way like making a grocery list of reasons. I think we are both hurt, just like the sharp sting of touching a hot lightbulb, but I think we may just get through this. I just don't understand why girls are like this. Even in the day of e-mail you'd think that if someone had a problem with something they could just e-mail you. Perhaps I'll stick to sock monkeys, my e-mail friends and, of course, my friends on I-tunes.
Posted by at 22:23 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Tuesday June 27, 2006
....so tired that I coudn't even sleep....
It's going to be hard to open the door to our lives without actually letting you into our house. I know the dangers of the internet, and yet I feel like I would be cheating you by not allowing you to see just a bit of who we are and what we stand for. I am not an internet junkee. In fact, I think that by having internet I am cheating my family of all of the love and attention I could be offering them; however, I am drawn to it. Let's see... Something that really defines us as a family is that we are Southern Baptist. I know that turns a lot of people off to us, and believe me, about 6 years ago, we detested the Baptists, but an odd turn of luck, or God, brought us here. I guess I should start with that and then you will see into the upstairs window of our souls.
We started out in Belton. I was a Youth and Children's Minister there. I put my heart and soul into it, and yes, Jenny, it did define me. I worked at it perpetually. My office and my home smerged into one. Sleep was the only thing that made my home a home and my office an office. I had this boss who was the Pastor of the church. He was verbally abusive and hated me and my ministry. The youth and children's department were growing while church attendance and adult ministries were dying off. No pun intended but everyone was really dying off. My Youth were coming from different churches so their parents didn't attend our church and needless to say, it made the pastor look really bad. As our ministries went on, it became more and more evident that he was completely void of God and not called into the ministry. He created lies and built up an army against me to get me fired after three years, I was asked to leave. I was devistated. Youth and Children's Ministry was my world and it was suddenly ripped away from me leaving me with nothing. As I sat on the bottom of the pool I had drowned myself in, I worked to recreate and define myself. I was finally a stay at home mom and all I could do was hideaway from church members and those who might judge me more harshly than I had judged myself. I was nothing. In the mist of my heartache, I had a mother of one of my old youth call me up to check up on me. She was Baptist and she was the only adult who reached out to me and she slammed me with one question: "how has God bless you this week?" It got me thinking very quickly on the spot just how much God had blessed me. I can't for the life of me remember what I told her, but I will never forget that conversation. After that, Nathan and I started attending a Baptist church, and suddenly that void inside my heart was filled. It was a real and true relationship with God that I was missing all along. God has always been a member of our family, but after that point in my life, God because the leader of our family, and He is who defines our family and what we represent. God has done some awesome things for us. He healed my baby girl's eyes, He provided us with a house when we thought we could never afford one, and He has been with us and provided us with help when we've most needed it. God is our everything. He gives us hope and joy. Finding God was like being lost in the dark and suddenly having the lights turned on to reveal something beautiful. I could go on forever about God and what He means to us, but it's getting late. I'll blog on tomorrow! Please leave a note! Hope you'll come again.
Tags: Daily LIfe
Posted by at 22:40 Permanent Link Comments (1)

ARCHIVES JULY

Monday July 31, 2006
If You Walk a Mile in Someone Elses Shoes Then They'll Have a Whole Mile to Run to Beat You Up
(Offical Edit. I pulled a girl, and it was wrong, so I am taking it out. :o) )
Ok, so I have to stop here because Kalea just brought me a retractable telescope. She showed me how fun it was to tract and retract it open and close and proceeded to hand it to me for a try. I opened it, placed it on my eye and say "I see you!!." Kalea smiled, took it from my extended hand, opened it up and put it on the tip of her nose and said "Iseeyou!!"
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Saturday July 29, 2006
A Moment to Brag......
Today Kalea and Nathan got certificates, free books and metals from the Mayor for their participation in the (Name of City With held) Public Library Reading Program. Before we left, I added up the total number of hours we've spent reading and listening to library books. This does not include the books we own and read to Nathan and Kalea, nor does it include the books that Steve read and returned to the library before I could write them down (I am guessing about 4 hours of Steve and Nathan books). OK so here are to totals.......*drum roll please.......*
Nathan's total number of library book hours- 69 hours and 18 minutes
Kalea's total number of library book hours- 69 hours and 9 minutes (I know it's more but I didn't count the million of times during the day that she brings me a book, crawls into my lap, and lets me read her her favorite stories.)
Kalea wore her metal for the rest of the day. :o) It was bigger than her and went all the way down to her knees.
Posted by at 23:19 Permanent Link Comments (1)
This Week in a Nutshell...the LONGEST BLOG EVER!!
Fear is defined in Webster's Dictionary by "to be afraid or apprehensive" or to " expect with alarm ." This week I've conquered all sorts of fears that have defined me as both a parent and as an individual. The first was on Tuesday when I found out that a co-worker had what sounded like the equivalent of the Rota Virus. Now I am immensely stomach virus phobic, but Rota is a whole different level of phobia. When I found out, I washed my hands at least a million times per minute, prayed over my children, and went into a panic attack everytime my stomach so much as gurgled, and when my kids so much as cried, I would run to their rooms expecting to find a pool of vomit by their little heads. Gross, I know.....moving on.
The only thing worse than getting the Rota Virus, is traveling alone with a baby and getting the Rota Virus which leads to fear number two....getting deathly ill while on the road. Every long trip we take, I feel queezy and begin to panic. My skin gets all pale and clammy and Steve gives me glances out of the corner of his eye debating whether or not I am really ill or just in a state of panic. On Wednesday, my handsome husband and beautiful son drove down to Galveston leaving Kalea and I to fend for ourselves. Which leads us to phobia number three. I'll come back to two in a minute.
Phobia number three....being home alone and being violenting murdered in my bed, going to heaven while my sweet baby starves to death in her crib. In case you ever wondered whether or not I am crazy, now you know! :o) So on Wednesday morning when the sun was up and the world was beautiful, I began to pray. I prayed until the sun went down and the shadows began to grow. I was alone to care for my sweet baby. During my devotional Wednesday night, I opened my Bible to see what God says about fear. I wrote down several verses, but here are the two that changed my heart the most.
"That night the Lord appeared to Isaac and said, 'Do not be afraid, for I am with you..." Genesis 26:24
"When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose Word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" Psalm 56:3-4
Upon writing down these verses, my heart realized the validity of what God was really trying to say to me. He is with me, and my job is to trust in His Word and not to be afraid. I closed my Bible and went to sleep. I slept with a calm and peaceful sleep and I NEVER have when I am home alone with my baby.
Now back to phobia number two. After a crazy, but blessed day of work, Kalea and I got in the car to drive three hours to Galveston. Now remember, I don't travel well at all. I popped in a book on CD and drove from the Heart of Texas to Galveston without a single panic attack or pang of fear coursing through my heart. It was an awesome trip! Kalea slept most of the way and only cried for about 30 minutes (and I don't blame her, she was probably scared of all of the crazy drivers. We almost died twice!!!...Ok so I may have exarggated a bit, but there were some close calls in Houston.). After we got to Galveston, Steve's parents took us to the Pyramid Aquarium. I can't think of the real name, but the aquarium was amazing! We saw all sorts of animals and Kalea and Nathan loved running down the ramps and peeking in the huge, glass windows to see all of the different sea creatures. After we got all fishy-ed out, we went out to eat at Fish Tales. The resturant is amazing!!! We always split the Hot Combo. There is stuff on there for everyone. Kalea and Nathan ate their weight in popcorn shrimp and I ate shrimp wrapped in bacon with a side of ranch dressing and guilt. It's hard going from a weekend where my mom is angry at me because I am too tough on Nathan to going to my inlaws where they lecture me by telling me that I am not hard enough on Nathan. It really brings a Mommy down to know that she's not good enough on either side of the rainbow. Anywho, so after that we went swimming at the beach which brings us to phobia number four.
Phobia number four....viral, bacterial, and any other way to die of an infectious disease. Nathan did not get to actually swim and have fun at the beach until he was about 4 years old. It took me four years to be comfortable with the idea of my baby boy swimming in a pool of germs and whale poop, sea urchants and jellyfish. Determined to conquer my fear and put my trust in God, I put Kalea in a swim suit and walked the long, hot walk to the beach with my boys. Steve and Nathan went straight out into the ocean to swim and body surf, while Kalea and I tentitive walked to the water's edge. Kalea loved the feel of the water on her toes, and the first good wave wiped her out. I held her hands as she was sloshed this way and that and finally settled on sitting far enough on the beach for the water to sweep up and tickle our toes. The boys came to check on us, and laughed as Kalea squished her hands in and out of the sand. As the sun began to come down, the tide got higher and higher and, once again, the first good wave that hit us sent Kalea up and packing. She told that wave "bye, bye" and crawled to higher ground where she grabbed my shoes and was ready to go. Steve came back and convinced her to stay while I went out with Nathan. Nathan and an older boy were laughing and giggling, and Nathan, wanting to be cool followed the boy deeper and deeper into the ocean. We went so far out that the water came up to Nathan's chest and the waves so high they would lift him off his feet and send him giggling towards the shore until the wave broke. Nathan was having a blast, but my motherly fear kicked in quietly and unexpectedly. What if Nathan got sucked down into the water of germs never to be seen again? What if I lose my baby? My hand that was perpetually out to spot him, went instantly down onto his hand. Protesting with every wave, I held tightly to his hand as the water gently carried us towards the shore with each rise and fall of the water. Finally, panic took over and we walked back to shore to "check on Daddy and Kalea."
Our day trip ended with a trip to the Rain Forest Cafe to both watch the volcano explode and to eat one with my InLaws. It was a very yummy meal and I actually got to sit and eat the entire meal because Kalea was engulfed in such terror of the moving and roaring animals that her soft cheek stayed glued to my head. Towards the end of the meal, Kalea released her grasp on me and stood up in the boothe to color her picture. Not two minutes into her coloring did the ligts dim, the animals roar, and the 'rain storm' began. Poor Kalea.
After our meal, we rode the Rainforest Ride that takes you through a jungle of animals. The ride is awesome for those of you who have never been on it. Kalea tolerated it very well and even took the time to admire the 'kitties' before they roared their verocious roars. When the ride ended, so did our trip. We made the fatal mistake of going to Sonic before going to home. It's too late to make a long story short, but let's just say that we wasted more than 30 minutes getting.... or should I say, attempting to get our drinks and left angry. The ride home was a very long trip, but as God assured me earlier, He was with me, and my only job was to trust in His Word. So now we're home. The kids are well. Rota never invaded our systems neither now nor on the road to the beach. Life is good. God is good. Praise be our God!
Posted by at 23:08 Permanent Link Comments (2)
Wednesday July 26, 2006
Cats in the Cradle
I went to get my baby girl out of her bed this morning. and instead of a baby, I saw my big toddler standing there. Where did my baby go?!!
Nathan rode the bus this morning to another school for free breakfast and then off to class with his daddy. All my babies are growing up too fast. :o(
Posted by at 10:01 Permanent Link Comments (3)
Sunday July 23, 2006
Deep in the Heart of Texas is Family
This weekend we were able to drive up to North West Central Texas to visit my folks. When we pulled up to their house after a drive that took many years off of my life, we found that my mother's playful exaggeration was actually true and growing right before my eyes. My parent's entire garden and a portion of their yard was filled with fairytale-like giant, green leaves in the shape of frog feet were sprouting from a giant vine with spindles and, yes... a giant pumpkin. It was amazing. My mom always jokes about only being able to grow things on accident. I think I inherited her brown thumb. We always joke about how my house is the plant hospice, the plants go in to die. This pumpkin vine, however, was doing more than fine, it was fantastic and glorious beyond what any plant should be.
I dunno it it was the pumpkin vine, or being out of our house, but Nathan picked this weekend to enjoy nature in the buff. Yes, my maked (Nathan for naked)-phobic boy has decided to let loose and be maked. His first attempt was while he was playing in the sprinkler in my parents yard. He joyfully let the water squirt up his shorts, and upon deciding that it just might feel better maked, he let his hair down....or should we say he let his shorts down. My mom caught him right as his shorts were down to his knees before she called out his name and he hastily pulled them back up again.
Nathan's second attempt at his natural freedom was a canoe trip out with the boys. Nathan, Steve and my dad were all out in the canoe and as soon as they skimmed across the water to the other side, Nathan announced that he had to go potty. Being a gang of manly men, Steve and my dad convinced Nathan to pee on a rock. Nathan has gone almost 5 years without enjoying the manly feeling of communining with nature in a way that only men can truely appreciate. I'll never forget how my little brother enjoyed this freedom. He liked it so much that one day after chuch, we were playing in my parents van, waiting for them to come outside, and my brother decided that nature was calling his name. Doing something that only little brothers can do, my little brother rolled down the window, stood up on the drivers seat and peed out the window in front of all of the leaving church goers. I was horrified.
Posted by at 23:21 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Wednesday July 19, 2006
Goldfish, Goldfish Everywhere
...So Nathan stayed with Steve's parents for the week, and Steve's dad decided that it would be ok if Nathan just didn't take his asthma medication for the ENTIRE WEEK, so now Nathan is really sick. Yeah, thanks Sam. Nathan was up ALL....NIGHT...LONGGGGG *Said very dramitically!!!* !!!!!! I woke up this morning sore and exhausted from climbing up and down his bunk bed ALL....NIGHT...LONGGGGG *also said very dramitically.* Instead of getting up extremely early, I went ahead and slept in until about 6:50AM and then took my shower. Kalea started freaking out towards the end of my shower so I jumped out, threw on a towel and ran to her room. Both her feet were stuck in the slits of her crib. I gently pulled her out and took her to the kitchen for her morning 'juice juice.' When I got to the kitchen, I found Nathan on the floor. My abandoned child couldn't wait until 7:00AM to eat breakfast, so he had climbed to the top of the pantry, pulled out the rationed box of goldfish, poured the entire box onto the floor and sat contently eating it until I decided to get up and be a mommy.....I can tell it's going to be a grrrr-eat day!
Posted by at 08:55 Permanent Link Comments (1)
Tuesday July 18, 2006
SaRaH the Inappropriate
SUNDAY:
Going to the Watermelon Festival brought back my high school days when I had to go through initiation for Thespians. (Yes, I was a drama freak for a week to get the eye of a certain hot guy....and FYI I got him!) I was in the auditorium with a whole bunch of Seniors (I was only a Sophmore) and one of them picked me out of the crowd and threw me on stage where I had to belt out an embarassing rendition of the Watermelon Song not just once but several times (the first five times weren't loud enough). I will NEVER forget that song....EVER!!!!
Just plant a little watermelon on my grave and let the juice (slurp) slurp (slurp) through,
Just plant a little watermelon on my grave, that's all I ask of you.
Well a preacher has chicken and I think that's fine,
but I would rather have a watermelon vine
Just plant a little watermelon on my grave and let the juice (slurp, slurp)
let the juice (slurp, slurp) let the juice slurp through.

Today at work the Preschool Minister snaped at me and I was so shocked, that I just busted out laughing and I couldn't even stop laughing to tell her what I needed. She just stood and glared at me. I think there's something wrong with me. :o)

Posted by at 16:12 Permanent Link Comments (0)
A Little Cha With the Choo/ Just Plant a Little Watermelon On My Grave
SATURDAY: Ok so I am a little behind with my posts. I have no clue what I've been doing, but I sure know I've been busy. On Saturday, we went to the Watermelon Festival in Hempstead and the on to ride the trains in somewhere, Texas. Kalea LOVED the Watermelon Parade. Everyone agreed that she was much cuter than Little Miss Watermelon. We'd enter her into the competition except for the fact that when she hears the word, 'cute' she immediately shoves a nubby finger up her nose and....well....you can imagine the next not-so-cute thing that she does.
After the sun sucked all of the fun out of the Watermelon Festival, we drove on Southward to the Steam Train Association. It was about a million degrees outside and we waited in line with about 100 other smelly, hot, sweaty people. Just when I thought I would pass out, it was our turn to ride the trains. Nathan sat with his friends, and Kalea sat with her daddy, so I was alone and kidless. I randomly adopted a girl about 8 or 9. We talked the whole way about wild animals and such. The ride was about 30 minutes and Kalea oooo-ed and awwww-ed at all the right points and would randomly shout out "CHOO CHOO!" Steve said that she was really cute and had a lot of fun. The ride was actually a lot more fun than I imagined. We sat on elongated box car things front to back hugging the middle of the train with our legs. I was worried about Kalea bailing ship, but she sat still and enjoyed the ride.
Saturday night we went to a wedding reception for Steve's friends. I knew NO ONE. It was really weird but the food, oh the food, was awesome. I imagined that I was a wedding crasher and randomly met new people and acted like I'd always known them. I met a lady about my age who'd recently divorced her husband after a short attempt at marriage; a newly married couple who fought the entire time; a lady who left her husband at home but claimed to be happily married; and an entire table of married men talking about when they graduated from A&M and where they worked now. Needless to say, Steve and I left early to walk around Target in our nice dress up clothes eating popcorn and drinking Dr Pepper.
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Saturday July 15, 2006
At the Show....
So our band was practicing today, and our sweet baby Kalea decides that being maked (naked in Nathan language) is much cooler than being clothed, so she slowly sneaks into the kitchen to shed her unwanted layers. The problem?! Kalea is a woman of 18....months that is, and she is not quite as coordinated as she thinks she is. Not long after she sneaks into the kitchen does she come running out with her white spanish shirt stuck over her beautiful baby face and her blue jean skirt stuck half way down. Steve and I were cracking up so bad that we dropped our instruments to help Kalea out of her delimma. Much to her disappointment, we redressed her and she immediately went boneless.
Our band played a show in the grand city of Houston, Texas, and as soon as we got off the stage, a crazed fan ran up to Steve with a sharpie. Anyone who has seen Steve on stage knows that he goes from little brother silly to hot rawksta that no one can resist....so needless to say, I am used to crazed fans running up to him with Sharpies. The girl ran up to Steve and said breathlessly "will you sign my..." This is the point where Steve's eyes grow huge and the other guys nod their knowing macho-you're the man nods...after a dramatic pause the girl says, "....jeans!" There was a wave of disappointment over the guys, and a look of extreme relief on Steve's face. It was funny, because I always wondered what he say if the girl asked for him to sign something inappropriate.
Posted by at 22:49 Permanent Link Comments (1)
Wednesday July 12, 2006
Singed Eyebrows and Purple Cows
"Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful, where Your streams of abundance flow, Blessed be Your name. And blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness, Blessed be Your name. Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise. And when the darkness closes in, Lord, Still I will say....Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be Your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be Your glorious name. Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me, When the world's "all as it should be" Blessed be Your name. And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, Blessed be Your name. You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name." Blessed Be Your Name by Beth Redman & Matt Redman
We went out to eat today with Steve's dad (who is staying at our house for the week). Kalea was crazy and squirmy and protested very loudly. Dispite all of the games and toys I brought, both kids had a lot of wiggles. When the food finally came, Nathan ate the garnish, then threw it back up all over the table, shouting, "expensive lettuce is gross!" I was thinking how great it would be to, just once, be able to go out to eat and not have someone throw up on the table. Just once. Then I thought about our day at Sea World after we just found out my brother-in-law, Andrew died. How, no matter how I tried, I just couldn't seem to catch my breath. How I felt that I would be broken forever and that I would give anything to get him back. He was the one person every holiday who knew how it felt to be an intruder on the Saenz family celebrations and always made me laugh with whispered jokes making fun of them. He was so nice and so funny and most of all he was Kaela's husband. They were supposed to grow old together and have a million stylish, lankey kids. Then I thought about how going out to eat would feel, except without Andrew, it was without Steve or Nathan or Kalea, or even Steve's dad. After all the resturant Nathan threw up in, was the very place we announced our pregnancy with Nathan to Steve's parents. At the time, I thought I was going to throw up on the table while telling them the news. I am so blessed to have my children and my husband alive and well. I am so blessed that I can wake up tomorrow morning and see Nathan's beautiful brown eyes, and Kalea's silly grumpy faces, and Steve asking me "watcha doin'?" even though it is something obvious like putting Kalea's socks on her grumpy morning feet as she goes boneless with anger. I am so blessed with their lives, that looking back it almost makes me giggle that Nathan thought that garnish was really expensive lettuce, and that he's probably perminately ruined on lettuce. I can't wait to tell his kids and all of girl friends what a silly boy he was.
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Monday July 10, 2006
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, we went to a carnival at the library. Nathan went around and played all the games while Kalea went around and ate all of the food. When Nathan won more than one of the same item, he would give the other to Kalea without even being asked to! When we finally made our way to the back of the library, a girl with a curly mullet (Steve guessed that she must have been homeschooled to have hair that bad) announced that they were going to play musical chairs. Trying to look excited, I asked Nathan if he wanted to play musical chairs. He looked at me with an expression of seriousness painted all over his face, cocked his head to one side and said, "isn't that the game where they play music and then they take away your chair?" I laughed and tried to think of a better way to explain it, but before I could answer, Nathan said, "I don't like that game, it's mean to steal chairs." He ended up playing anyway and as the fist kid got out, Nathan threw his head back and let out the loudest evil laugh to ever be heard in a library. I waved my arms and tried to give Nathan a no no look, but in my head I was cracking up. He wasn't trying to be mean, he's not a mean kid, but he lacks knowledge of what is appropriate and what's not. He stayed in for quite a while and when he finally got out, he walked out giggling with pride that he had gotten as far as he did.
Losing gracefully is a learned art in our family. Steve is not very good at it, and Nathan tends to pick that up from Steve. Nathan got second place in a game earlier that day and his prize was given to the wrong kid by accident. Because the prize was a free burito I thought Steve was going to pop which caused Nathan to be upset, which caused Nathan to squint his eyes and shake his fist (a gesture we do in pretend anger when we are playing around, but are apparently going to have to stop because our child is now doing it in public in real pretend anger). I ended up having to pull both kids (Steve and Nathan) from the game and talking to them about good sportsmanship, all this while Kalea was stuffing two oreos in her mouth at the same time.....it's hard being a mom of three..... :o)
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Wednesday July 05, 2006
A Day Late and a Buck Short
Welp, the 4th of July was a hit yet again! As parents, Steve and I try really hard to set up traditions that the kids will begin to look forward to each year for both comfort and heritage. We got our Old Navy flag shirts, made red, white and blue beaded necklaces, colored paper flags, and looked up all of the area parades. When the sky opened up and began pouring down rain, however, we resigned ourselves to the idea that, perhaps, the 4th of July would be nothing but the 4th. Like the 4th of May is not any more special than the 4th of October. We went to the mall and walked around in our matching outfits, got a bit grumpy and then decided to call Steep Hollow Baptist Church to see if, perhaps, there was no rain over there. Our pal, Kathy said that she talked to God and He said that it would be clear over there by the time the party would start, and yes, ladies and gentlemen, she was right! We went outside and blue skies filled the area around SHBC and gray ones shaddowed everywhere else. We packed up the kids and drove down the long, country path to the church. Nathan and Kalea made themselves at home the second they got out of the car. SHBC is one of those churches where they take to heart the saying "it takes a village to raise a child." Everyone is friendly and all of the kids run wild being watched from each corner of the open field by Mrs. So-and-so while Mr. So-and-so patrols the middle of the chaos warning the kids to watch out for fire ants and untangling the kids from the soccer goals (yes Nathan was one of those kids). There were old fashioned games like sack races, over and under and the hula hoop relay. Kalea and I won the Cake Walk after several...ok a lot... of failed attempts. When the sky finally darkened, we sat in our row of four and lifted our eyes to the Heavens. When the fireworks first started, there were a few pops and fizzes to the music. Kalea stared up in a mixture of excitement and horror. Nathan snuggled into Steve for the show and Kalea sat frozen in her chair. As the tempo of the music increased rapidly, so did the pops and explosions of the fireworks overhead. Kalea, finally deciding that the firewords were more scary than fun now let out a paniced cry. I threw down the remains of our snowcone, popcorn, and whatever else I had collected in my arms and grabbed up Kalea into my arms. She gripped MiMi (her bunny) and snuggled into my arms where she continued to watch, in horror, the beautiful colors that danced into the sky perpetually changing and moving. She finally gave into the urge to sleep, or hide (I am still not sure which) and she snuggled even farther into me and fell asleep. Afterwards, Nathan was so excited that even words failed him. He stuttered and made sounds but nothing real seemed to want to come out. The night ended a 'bang.' :o)
Nathan-ism for the night- Before the fireworks were set to go off, Steve asked Nathan if he wanted to go potty with him before the show started. Nathan said, "no daddy, you're 27, I think you're old enough to go alone."
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ARCHIVES AUGUST

Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Moral of the Moral
When Nathan was smaller, I tried to teach him not to touch something dangerous. I would pretend to touch it and then yell "ouch!" I did this a few times to demonstrate how it could hurt him. Finally, Nathan looked at me with tear filled eyes and yelled, "Mommy don't touch it again, it will hurt you!" Needless to say that he never touched it again.
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Nothing, Zilch, Banana
I feel bad that I have nothing to say this week, so here is a letter we received from Nathan's teacher. :o)
I wanted to let you guys know that Nathan has survived 9 days of school with his teacher really having high expectations of him!! As I told you before, we have been working on his "sorry, sorry" and he is now aware that sometimes "sorry is not enough". He told me that himself today...I don't exactly know what happened but I heard him say "SORRY, SORRY" to someone during Math stations and by the time I looked over at him he had his little head down saying "ooh, but I know that sorry is not enough if I want to be helpful". Then he just smiled and kept working with the pattern blocks--which he LOVES by the way. I have made progress;-)My next goal is to work on him putting things in his mouth: his backpack, nametag (which is why his shirt sometimes goes home with orange streaks on the front), fingers, other people's backpack, you name it and he is putting it in his mouth. Most of the time it is not a safety hazard like he is going to choke or anything you just never know where stuff has been (among 43 other sets of hands, feet, and mouths). I know that this too shall pass.He had an awesome afternoon at dismissal. He tends to like to be the "funny guy" acting out and rolling around when he has an audience. They called his name and I could not find him...he was sitting right in front of me just looking around at the other kids and "studying them" with nothing or anything in his mouth, not rolling around, not bothering anyone just sitting and chilling--ok maybe he was sleepy but NOW I know he can do it. When he left I told him I was very proud of him and to let you guys know but I know that most 5 year olds don't care;-) So I wanted to wish you a wonderful weekend and let you know that he had an awesome day! Steve, don't mess him up this weekend. Sarah, he got a little upset when he did not get the Cherrios and pouted a little and ate his animal crackers. When he got to the carpet a friend asked, "Why didn't Nathan get cereal?" His reply was, "are you crazy, it had strawberries in it, I can't have strawberries". Somehow, he did remember our converstation this morning.
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Friday August 25, 2006
30 minutes
I don't know about you but we were one of those families who sat glued to the TV during the winter olympics. Whether you like the sport or not, there is just something about these men and women working their tails off for a passion and a goal. Who wouldn't want to spend all of their time doing something they love?! One thing that impressed us most was after Shawnee Davis won the gold, he said that he wanted to thank his mom for taking him out to run a mile every day before school. I am not sure what was more impressive, his mother's dedication to her son's sports, or the fact that his momma could run a mile every morning. I know I couldn't. So after taking a long look at Steve and my sport's life, I knew something had to change. On Monday, we enrolled Nathan in soccer. It's not the Carebear version either. It's hardcore, three on three, everyone is accountable soccer. We did this because Steve lacks focus and Nathan is following in his Father's footsteps. We want Nathan to find something he loves and is good at and focus on that. I wanted Nathan to try gymnastics first, mainly because he started doing cartwheels and front handsprings in the living room, but he said he'd rather play soccer, so soccer it is.
Nathan is scawny, and lanky but I noticed that my poor child has turned into quite a couch potato. He's still wild, but I think it's because he sits on the couch until he's about to pop and then pops all over the house driving us crazy and hurting his sister. All this to say that Steve and I decided this week that we would spend 30 minutes a day focused on sports. Today was our trial run. We went out as a whole family to the soccer fields near our house. Nathan and Steve did drills for an hour running back and forth between the goals, doing passing drills and taking turns being goalie and the kicker. Nathan had so much fun. Please don't think wrongly of us, we aren't psycho pressure parents, it HAS to be fun, but I also think that within that fun there has to be a small challenge. Nathan took that challenge and not only had fun, but pushed himself a little too. We got back to the house with a worn out, calm boy. It was SO nice. He listens better when he's not wizzing past.
Kalea, on the other hand, did not fair so well outside, so Steve and I made a pact that we would switch out every other day and take Nathan out 6 days a week to play frisbee, do soccer drills, play with the big ball or something that will get him out and running. We'll see how long we can keep this going!!!! I hope that we can keep it up until Nathan becomes the best he can be at whatever he chooses to be. :o)
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Thursday August 24, 2006
Yes...
Everyday Kalea and I walk Nathan down the sidewalk from the parking lot to his school. One side of the sidewalk is lined with bushes that fill the air with the sweet smell of nectur. It is sort of a clean, fresh smell that I've grown to enjoy each passing day. Nathan, however, has a different idea about those bushes. Everyday he yells, "YUCK! MOMMY WHAT IS THAT SMELL??!" then he dramatically plugs up his nose with his fingers as we pass eht long row of bushes. Everyday after Nathan's dramatic routine, it occurs to me that perhaps I just don't bathe Nathan enough, so he just doesn't know how to enjoy the smell of clean. Today was I caught completely by surprise when I walked by a small hispanic girl, dramatically gripping her nose yelling "oy mama! WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!" Aparently I am not the only mom who doesn't bathe their child enough!
Kalea is pretty grumpy about this whole waking up early business. Whenever a toy touches her the wrong way, or a baby doll looks at her weirdly, she shreaks "uuuhhhhh!!!" and pushes it down. During her baths Kalea likes a lot of toys in the tub with her, but now instead of playing with them joyfully, she sits in the tub scornfully and whenever a toy drifts by her and touches any part of her small body, she yells "Mo!" and pushes it away. I tried to just put less toys in the tub, but she just stood by the edge of the tub pointing at the toys yelling "more! batheee more!"
Kalea is also started picking up on the manners we are still trying to instill in Nathan. When you hand her something she now says "dee doo" as a baby sort of way of saying 'thank you!' and if she wants something she will say what she wants and then say "eeeeeeeeese!"
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Tuesday August 22, 2006
Top Ten
Top ten reasons why it's good to live in the ghetto.
By SaRaH Saenz

My taxes are lower than yours!!
You don't need a metronome, you can just keep time to the 'boom, boom, boom' of the bass of the people driving by.
There are so many pit bulls running around that your kids won't pressure you to buy a dog.
The only sales people who come by are the people wanting to mow your lawn.
When the people start coming by asking to mow your lawn, your husband will get the hint and landscape the entire yard.
It's ok to walk outside in your P.J's because your neighboors will always look worse than you.
The police don't patrol the school zones because there are too many pot holes to drive quickly any way.
When you tell people that you don't have any money, they actually believe you.
Nobody will ask you to host any parties for church, school, or other.
You won't get robbed because....
A. You don't HAVE anything to rob.
B. What thug is dumb enough to rob their own neighboor?
C. There are too many pot holes to make a clean get away.
D. There are too many rabid pitbulls running around.
E. All of the good stuff is across town.
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Monday August 21, 2006
The Reason
Today I've discovered that the reason why police don't patrol the school zone around my son's school is that the pot holes are so bad that you can't drive over 20 mph any way.
Yesterday, I discovered that the reason why cats don't count as family members is because they don't share. Kalea had a cookie and she let Steve and I take a bite, then she took it over to Nathan who also took a bite, and then she took it over to our cat, Lola, to give her a bite. I told Kalea "no" and tried to make it over to her in time, but Lola had already delicately taken the cookie from Kalea's hand and ate it. Kalea was so upset. She crumpled to the ground and cried, "mo, mo, mo ookie." (Roughly translated into "no, no, no cookie.")
Last week, I realized that the reason why kids verbal abilities can't be understood to the outside world until they are around 4 years old is God's way of giving parent's time to develop their own lingo. For example when I say "Stop the water! You can't bring this manga into the house, her skirt's so short- you can almost see her knuffle bunny." It means...well... you can figure that one out, but don't think too hard.
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Sunday August 20, 2006
One Sleepy Girl
I haven't blogged in a while. School has started and so has the busy life of a soccer mom. Today's sermon was about how we often miss our calling because we aren't satisfied with the road God creates us for. I don't know how many times last week that I thought about how life would be easier if I actually worked in an office instead of at home and how it would be a million times nicer if we lived close to the church instead of 20 miles away. I thought about all of the other jobs I could do, but I know in my heart that God knit me for the one I have.
Friday was Nathan's birthday. He got to be the king and sit on the 'throat.' His queen was a little girl with glasses named Jessica. She was a cutie pa-tootie. Some day when I am not so tired I'd write about it. Nathan's favorate part about Friday was (not the 44 cupcakes I baked for his class) his party at Gatti Town where he got to drive the bumper cars with Steve.
Saturday we had a Pirate Party at the park. I made a pirate ship cake, eye patches for the kids, and pirate head scarves. I painted mustaches on the boys. The kids when on a scavenger hunt, played on the playground, did cake and then they played on the splash pad. It was a lot of fun and God blessed us with great weather. After that we had a 'big kid' party with family and older friends. Nathan said his favorate part was the scavenger hunt.
Today was church and Nathan said that his favorate part was being able to color during big church.
Posted by at 23:09 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Friday August 18, 2006
New School, new school, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah
I am sitting here in our million degree house at 11 o'clock at night cooking 44 cupcakes for Nathan's school birthday party. I always knew I'd be the type of mom who cooked them instead of buying them, but I never imagined myself up so late barefoot in front of the stove pouring cupcake batter into 48 little cups. The stove is heating up the entire house so that the 106 degree heat outside feets good compared to the 350 degree heat inside the house. So you're probably all wondering about Nathan's first day of school.
Nathan's first day of school started out much better than I expected. I woke up Nathan by turning on his light and cleaning his bedroom. I strongly resisted the urge to sing "Rise and shine and give God glory, glory...." as my mom did for many years until I discovered the alarm clock, but I could not resist the urge to clean up that boy's room. Nathan's cute freshly head poped up from a heap of blankets and pillows and a big grin formed across his face. All smiles, he tottered, not quite awake, to the living room where he started at alarm at the window. "Mommmm," he gasped in a truely shocked voice, "the sun's not even up yet!!" "Yep," I tell him, "that's what it's going to be like every morning." My voice sounds really calm, but in my head, I am really freaking out. Can I really get up this early EVERY morning?! I didn't even bother with the you-need-to-get-dressed-NOW fight. I just stripped my baby down and put on his uniform. He complained about his tummy hurting, but I had to explain that it's just not awake yet and that's what happens to us skinny folk in the mornings. I packed his lunch, got Kalea dressed and ready to go and realized that I hadn't fed anyone breakfast. I was already running on a-drine-a-line, but panic began to set in when I thought about breakfast. Thank God for Carnation Instant Breakfast, because in an instant, my babies were out the door with breakfast in their sippy cups.
When we got to school, the panic grew to cat-a-strop-ic porportions. I had no clue where to drive, which way to drive, or where to park. We circled the night-mare-ish school a million times weaving in and out of cars and kids and buses....ok so maybe just two or three times, but it was horrible. I finally parked in a neighborhood just one street away from the street where all of the drive bys occur, and my babies out of the car and treking to school. Half way to school property, we found a lose dog. It was one of those evil violent ones that attack all of the kids around here but EVERYONE has one. I told it that we didn't have time to be attacked and it left us alone. I guess it figured that we were pretty stringy folk and that it wasn't worth the effort. To get Nathan walking faster, we sung "Flight of the Bumble Bee" and we pretended to be bees, flying to the hive. Even Kalea got into it.
We arrived at the classroom in record time. Nathan's best pal J was sitting outside with his sister looking like a lost puppy. I asked them if J was ok, and his poor sister explained that she couldn't coax J into his new class so I took J under my wing and we went to Nathan's class to check him in. His teacher was there to greet us and all of his new friends were already on the floor watching "Franklin's First Day of School." We found Nathan's cubby, said "hi" to his teacher, and then Nathan went to join his new friends. I am a bolter, I am not one to stick around and coddle my children, so after a hug and a kiss, Kalea, J and I were off. I dropped J off in his class with a quick hug and made sure he was settled with his teacher and then Kalea and I were off on our own.
Two thirty came much quicker than I expected so I woke Kalea up from her nap and plopped her in the car to pick up Nathan. I was very panic-y at first because, once again, I had no clue where to go and how to get there. I got in line and waited FOR-EV-ER!!!! It was 106 degrees outside and Kalea was sweating up a storm. A man came by and put a green piece of paper on our windshield and I thought, "that's it, I am in trouble for being in the wrong line!!!" After about 45 minutes of paniced waiting, I got to the school where I saw a big boy wearing Nathan's backpack look somewhat like Nathan. Then I realized that it WAS Nathan, but a more grown up version. Nathan had so much fun at school. He talked about seeing his friends, and learning Spanish, and getting to see pictures of all the teachers on some sort of mural, and getting to eat his lunch in the cafeteria. He had so much fun on his first day of school. Nathan said that his favorite part of school that day was looking at all of the teacher's pictures.
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Tuesday August 15, 2006
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!!!
Mo Willems is the greatest children's book writer ever!!!
Today was Nathan's first day of school, but I am not quite yet ready to write about it. He is my baby after all.
Here is our my space account for our band. I know that I can get fired for having an in-crim-ma-nate-ing one, but it should be pretty good to the eyes of the Lord. Steve has been working a super long time on it, so please leave a note telling him how great it is!!
www.myspace.com/pcfx
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Sunday August 13, 2006
Church Vs. Nathan
At Nathan's oral proficiency test at school, the teacher read Nathan a story about it raining on a snail and then had Nathan repeat it back. Nathan said, "It rained on the snail because God made it rain, and then a rainbow came because God made the rainbow. It means that He loves us. And then....oh and I am going to church tonight!"
Today was Nathan's first day in the Children's Wing at church. Nathan went to Children's Church and then he was supposed to go line up to be in the Kindergarten parade. I was due to meet him in the hallway, but he had turned up missing. It turned out that Nathan and his pals convinced a teacher that Nathan was supposed to be in First Grade. When I went to get him out of the first grade class, Nathan stood up and yelled, "MOMMMM I AM IN THE FIRST GRADE!!" Fun stuff.
SOOOO tonight, was Nathan's first night in big church. I explained big church to Nathan, got him a special 'church' workbook that he could only play with during the sermon, and then we sat in the Youth section. Sitting in the Youth Section was like sitting in a bird cage. There was much pitter pattering of whispering girls all around us and it dawned on me that the reason why the music minister and his wife moved across church to that section was because she couldn't stop talking either. Nathan's wiggles blended in with the whispers and the little flirty junior high girls played peek-a-boo with Nathan during the music time. Overal, Nathan was pretty good. The only thing I didn't anticipate was communion. Nathan was VERY upset about not being able to take communion. I explained that when Jesus came down into his heart and he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior then he could have communion. Nathan said that Jesus was already in his heart (we've been telling him this all his life.) OK new approach. I told Nathan that this was the body and blood of Jesus and his body wasn't ready to eat the body and blood of Jesus. Nathan said that it was because we already drank all of Jesus blood! OK next approach. I offered to go out to get ice cream to celebrate Nathan's first night in big church. Nathan collasped in tears, "noooo I wanted bread!!!" OK, so we went and got him some french fries. They, after all, are close to the bread catergory.
Posted by at 21:25 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Thursday August 10, 2006
Texas
I hate forwards, but this one was too funny. It sums up living in Texas perfectally!!!
Just moved to Texas! Now this a state that knows how to live!!!

Beautiul sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! it is beautiful. I've found my home.

June 14th. Really heating up. Got 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home and drive an air -conditioned car.
What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this.

June 30th. Had the backyatd landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me.
Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat.
At least , it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than expected.

July 15th. Fell asleep by the community pool .(Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do.
I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th. I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning.By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag then popped like a water baloon.

The car now smells like Kibbles and Bits.
I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th. The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!!
The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repaiman charged $200. just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th, Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now,$225.000 house and I can't even go inside.. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come. here?
August 4th.Its 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500.00 and gets the temjperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug 8th, If another person asks,"Hot enough for you today?" I'm going to strangle them. By the time I get to work,the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell liked baked cat.

Aug. 9th, Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts,and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my butt was on fire.

My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and butt...Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried butt and baked cat..

Aug.10th, The weather report might as well be a recording..Hot and sunny, Hot and sunny, Hot and sunny.Its been too hot to do anything for 2 months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week..

Doesn't it ever rain in this state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700.00 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over.

Even the cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug.14th, Temperature got to115 today. Cactus are dead.

Forgot to crack the window and blew the windshield out of the car..The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?"

My sister had to spend $1500.00 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Texas.

What kind of sick demented idiot would want to live here.??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes,

Sue
Posted by at 21:29 Permanent Link Comments (0)
X-Rays and D.J.'s
The kiddos had their well baby/kid doctor's appointment today. Kalea gained 2 pounds in 6 months (4 if you count the two that she lost and gained back after being sick) and Nathan gained 0 pounds in a whole year. The doctor told us to up his fat content. I would up his fat content if he'd actually eat the fat. We are already sneaking in the whole milk (Nathan swears he can taste the difference) and giving him boat loads of Nestles Quick and Ovaltine. Ok so maybe I am drinking it all, but I am not fat either so there! Other than being freakishly small, Nathan's head comes to a point on top. It's always bugged me, but I can never remember to say anything until today. The doctor felt around, said that Nathan looked normal but sent us across the street to get X-rays. Nathan was a very good boy. The first X-ray he was a little if-y about but by the second one, he threw his hands behind his head and looked like he was at the beach. It reminded me of my ultrasound with him in my belly and we couldn't measure his head or his arms because he was reclined in my belly just as he was on the x-ray table. The lady took two more x-rays of Nathan's moppy head, and then we had to wait alone in the starch white x-ray room while they checked out the results. While we were waiting, Nathan asked questions about everything, how each piece of equipment works and why. He even asked me why they put the metal blanket over his part. I told him that it was to protect his belly and he didn't even question the fact that it barely touched his belly. Before Nathan could run out of questions, the lady came back, gave Nathan about 10 "I Was X-Rayed Today!" stickers and sent us on our way. The nurse should call with the results soon.
As far as Kalea goes, the looks she gave the doctor as he checked her out were hilarious! She gave him the most dirty-you're-invading-my-space kind of looks any girl can muster. We got a script to get rid of her diaper rash, and the doctor gave us a fair warning about the terrible twos (I think they're here already!!!). Right now she is changing Elmo's diaper. She has him laid out on the changing pad and has the wipes and medicine out around him. Opps! She's mad now. We have to go meet the teacher night at Nathan's school and then we are playing a show. Fun stuff!
Posted by at 18:18 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Tuesday August 08, 2006
OOPPS!
I spelled a Biblical word wrong (the Veggie Tales guy so nicely pointed it out) and having a degree in Religion, it really bothered me so I went back to correct my 'Spilling the Beans' blog and accdentally deleted it. Edit, delete, they're all the same. I tried to rectify the situation, but alas, you can't get back what you let go. Speaking of Veggie Tales, because I wrote Veggie Tales in my Spilling the Beans blog, I got 24 viewers. So if you ever want free publicity, just type, Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales.
Today we took the kiddos to the (Local College) Aquatics Center where the kids got to look at bugs under mircoscopes, make fossels, touch and feel strange things and the coolest thing.....feed the fish, snakes, sirenes, and turtles. Nathan got to feed small fish to a bigger fish (I think it really freaked him out to hold a fish in his hand), some sort of turtle food to a pool of turtles, and a worm to a snapping turtle. Steve took a picture of Nathan holding the worm. It was so much fun. I love this city. I love how it gives me opportunities to look and learn with my kiddos. I love how it provides me with a 4,000 member church family who prayed for my blind baby, and who daily thanks me for my work for the Lord and who always makes me feel loved and valued
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Things We've Done This Sumer
Things we've done this summer:
Gone to the zoo 1,000 times
Read 69 hours worth of books...and counting
Met the Mayor
Gone to Shlitterbaun (Steve and Nathan)
Watched lightning bugs
Watch fireworks
Had a few picnics
Gone to a few State Parks
Went to the beach
Had an adventure at the Rainforest
Sat through one wedding
Played a lot of shows
Climbed in Big Rigs
Fed worms to snapping turtles and live fish to bigger live fish
Went to Sports Camp
Watched the Watermelon Parade
Rode trains
Went to a bike rodeo and Nathan won a free bike
Pet Snakes
Visited Moody Gardens
Went canoeing across a lake
Watched a Jungle Jim show with giant bugs and reptiles
Learned Aggie Cheers
Nathan got a new loft bed with a tent canopy
Sarah read the entire Chronicles of Narnia Series

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Monday August 07, 2006
Sunday Sadness
So this Sunday, I was leaning more towards being sad that Nathan is going to Kindergarten than happy. Because I am a woman, I have the divine right to bounce back and forth and on Sunday I chose sad. I was sitting in my seat in front of the giant TV in the foyer thinking about Nathan's life. First of all, sitting in the foyer is, in my mind worse than sitting in the back row. It is like eating a meal in front of a homeless guy. It just feels wrong. At this point you're probably thinking that your notions about me being crazy are comfirmed. Why do I sit there if I feel wrong? I sit in the foyer because I am involved in a Ministry at my church and my ministry overlaps part of the music time, so instead of sneaking in under the TV cameras, I just sit in the foyer and watch the sermon on the TVs. Ok so back to my story.... I was sad. I was sad, and moody and tired and thinking of my Nathan. A familiar tune brought me out of my meloncholy and I focused all of my attention on the words of the song the church was singing over the speakers. The song is titled "Still" and the chorus says:
WHEN THE OCEAN RISE AND THUNDER ROARSI WILL SOAR WITH YOU ABOVE THE STORMFATHER, YOU ARE KING OVER THE FLOODI WILL BE STILL and KNOW YOU ARE GOD

The song has held great meaning to me since seeing God's great and awesome hand in Hurricane Katrina, but on Sunday, it brought on even greater meaning. The message is simple. God is bigger than everything that we face. He is bigger than our financial situation, He is bigger than our biggest problems and He will follow my baby Nathan to school. It struck me how sad I was and then I got an even greater wave of sadness that I wasn't IN the worship center worshipping with everyone else. I wanted to sing out those words so badly, but singing in the foyer is like singing with head phones on. I wouldn't be singing with the music, I would be singing above the music. I was overcome with such great sadness that I almost missed it..... The lady sitting close to me was singing very softly in my right ear, and then the lady on the other side joined in. Before I knew it, we were all singing, out loud and to our Lord and Savior. This is my true girl moment, because before I knew what was happening, I began to cry. It was tears of sadness for Nathan, but it was also tears of joy that God is bigger than life. Embarrassed at my girliness, I turned to my right to find that the lady to my right was also crying. At the end of the service, I turned to talk to her and she was gone. She was my guardian angel. I think God put her there at just the right time so that I can and will know that it's ok to be human. To be real. To sing out loud and to cry in public.
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Nathan Spankin'
In two weeks and one day, Nathan will officially start school. My baby boy is growing up so fast. This week he's surprised me in so many ways. On Saturday, he told our babysitter the difference between boys and girls and this time he didn't say that girls have sweet button noses and soft baby feet. On Sunday, he spent the greater part of the rainy and gray afternoon locked in his room listening to Hank the Cowdog. Midway through the tape, he came out with tears in his eyes pulling himself together long enough to tell me that he is the saddest boy in the world. I took him in my arms and asked him why and he told me all about how Mary D. Cat was crying because she was lonely and all she wanted was some cheese and Hank the Cow Dog was mean to her. I tried my hardest to explain the story to him and urged him to listen to the rest of the tape to unwrap Mary D. Cat's ploy, but Nathan was so heart broken, he could not go on. It was so sad. Nathan, my child who wears his heart on his sleeve and sometimes masks sadness or disappointment with anger, absolutely fell apart at Mary D. Cat's sorrowful meowing.
Yesterday, I bought the very last piece of uniform that we can afford for Nathan. He now officially has three temporarily bight white polos, one shirt with the school's name proudly printed across the front, and one blue shirt supporting the district's high school football team (a must have for Friday's Spirit days), three hand-me down pairs of blue shorts, three new pairs of jeans with reinforced knees, and a blue ball of lent......I mean hooded sweatshirt. The hooded sweatshirt is brand new, but when I went to wash it, it transformed into a giant ball of lent. Sad but true. So now we are offically ready for school. Steve is at this moment whinning about how he doesn't want to go back. I've been preparing for this for the last (almost five years) and yet I am having a hard time letting go. This marks the beginning of Nathan's educational career. The real beginning of his story.
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ARCHIVES OCT 6-SEPTEMBER

Thursday October 05, 2006
Soccer Star Nathan's Updates
I was reading the last Blog I did in September and thought I'd update it. Nathan didn't end up playing soccer at his first game. He just stood on the starting line. He never moved a muscle. He just stood. I have great pictures.
Nathan missed his second game because we were at the State Fair.
For Nathan's third game, I psyched him out. I made him a special meal with lots of Soccer Star Food. I gave him a special 'firework' (Christmas stencil) that would help him run fast and make goals, and then we were off to the fields. Nathan and his best friend were the only two there so they ran drills and wrestled on the field until the rest of Nathan's friends trickled in. At the whistle, they were off. Nathan got in there and kicked some good kicks and I was so happy that I almost cired......then Daddy showed up. After Steve's appearence, Nathan the Soccer Star turned back into Nathan the Lump. After the first quarter whistle, Nathan was taken out of the game (they rotate) and then put back in during the third quarter. Nathan started off ok, but not with the zeal he had at his pre-daddy game. After a teammate pushed him, Nathan had had enough and sat on the sideline until his coach pulled him out. Nathan was put back in for the fourth quarter after he randomly ran out durning the game. He assisted in our only goal with made his daddy very proud. Perhaps, Nathan will like soccer afterall.... :o)
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Nothing, Zilch, Banana
This week Nathan's teacher started handing out a calendar that we receive every day in Nathan's backpack. It monitors his behavior each day with a green smiley face, blue grumpy face, yellow frowny face and a red angry face. Now that we know how Nathan did at school each day, he has decided that he wants to be a Kindergarten dropout. Every morning we have the same conversation:
Nathan: Mom, I don't wanna go to school today. I want to quit.
Me: Why, Nathan? I thought you liked school.
Nathan: No, I hate it. I want to stay home all day and play video games.
Me: NO, if you don't get an education you won't be able to be a _______(whatever career he decided to be the day before).
Nathan: I don't want to be that anymore, I want to be a ball thrower.
Me: A ball thrower? What do they do?
Nathan: They throw balls.
Me: (Duh?!) Who do they throw balls to?
Nathan: Dogs.
Me: Ohhhh how will you feed the dogs?
Nathan: With my birthday money, of course!

Of course.... couldn't we all live off of our birthday money?!

Friday September 22, 2006
Firsts
Things have been very busy in the Saenz household! We've had Open House, Soccer Practice, and Sparks just to name a few. Steve and I have a show tonight and EARLY the next morning is Nathan's soccer game.
This morning Kalea and I had our formal Friday breakfast with real food instead of whatever fits in ziplocks for the car ride to church. After we ate, Kalea found the bubbles. At first she was thrilled to watch them. After a while, she enjoyed popping them with her pudgy fingers. This was briefly exciting until this got old and she decided that it was her turn to blow the bubbles. Kalea wasn't content just to blow into the wand I held in front of her lips, she wanted to do all of the holding, dipping, and blowing all by herself. The first few times she held, dipped and blew no bubbles appeared. To her dismay, the actions weren't enough. She thought a little bit and then held, dipped and blew one more time, and to Kalea's and my surprise, a small bubble formed and few out into the air. She was estatic!
Nathan's first is kind of a funny first. It got chilly this week, so he's being wearing his uniform pants and jeans. Day three of jeans Nathan looks down and says, "Hey mom, I wore these yesterday!" It only took him four weeks of school to realize that all of his uniforms look exactly alike.
I've had a first bad mommy moment in a long time. The worst part is that it has carried through to today as well. Nathan had a soccer practice last night and after one ball bunder, he decided that he hated soccer and didn't want to play.....ever again. I reminded him that he loved soccer and begged us to sign him up. I reminded him how cool his uniform was and how much he liked his teammates. After all of my reminding, Nathan's desire to sit out and never play soccer again was unrelenting. I told him that it was ok if he didn't want to play soccer any more, but he had to come to every practice and game to support his teammates regardless if he played. Nathan got up and walked over to the goal cones and gradully, one by one kicked them over and away from the goal area. After the first two, I shouted over to Nathan to stop. He looked at me and then took down the whole goal area. I walked over to him and he took one look at my "you're going to get a spanking face" and started crying. He threw himself down on the ground and in one swift motion, I picked him up, flipped him over and spaked his little behind. I spanked him in front of his friends. I spanked him in front of their parents. I spanked him in front of the entire Pee Wee Cheerleading Squad and their parents and sibblings. I spanked him in front of the entire Pee Wee football team and their parents. I spanked him in front of God and His green earth. I gave Nathan two big swats in front of everyone! Then this morning, I didn't notice that Nathan's second sheet of completed homework didn't make it to school with him and we were out of fresh fruit for 'bring fruit to PE' day so I had to sent a package if oranges floating in sugar water. I am so discouraged as a mommy. Hopefully Nathan will play at his game tomorrow and all will be well.
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Friday September 15, 2006
Nathan's Biggest Complaints
Nathan LOVES school, but he does have a few complaints. Here are a few in no paticular order.
1. The girls won't stop kissing me!
2. My teacher is too bossy!
3. The cafeteria is lousey.
4. I don't like going to English, I just want to stay in Spanish ALL DAY.
5. All of the kids in class can't hear because the teacher has to yell at them.
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Monday September 11, 2006
Kalea go round
I took the kiddos out on the playground after church on Sunday to play while we waited for Steve to get out of his meeting. After playing for a while they both gravitated to the little push merry-go-round. Kalea sat in the middle while I slowly pushed it around to see what Kalea would do. She has never ridden a merry-go-round so I was a bit nervous about what she would do. She sat for a while watching the scenery slowly spin around her. After drinking in all of the colors, she tenitively grabbed the rail and stood up. Here it comes, I thought, Kalea is going to do a wild woman jump off of the merry-go-round while it is still spinning. I braced myself to jump up and grab her. Kalea stood up slowly and after regaining her balance, she let go of the rail, raised her arms above her head and joyfully twirled her body around like a ballerina while still on the spinning merry-go-round. This child is definitely ready for roller coasters!
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Wednesday September 06, 2006
Kalea's First Day of School
Today was Kalea's first day of MDO (Mother's Day Out) and my very first day of having her in institutional care and not having to work. It was pretty nice. Her new class is located in her old Sunday school room, so she knew the ropes by heart. Mom drops me off and then mom picks me up later. I put her on the floor, introduced myself to her teacher and then tried to leave. There was another family blocking the door so I stood awkardly while they chatted annoyingly not budging from the door. Kalea went over to pick out a toy and her teacher trying to be friendly, tried to strike up a conversation with Kalea. Kalea threw her a dirty look and walked way around her teacher not even trying to be polite. This very thing is why I love kids. They don't even try to be fake or nice. They just do their thing.
When I came to pick Kalea up, her teachers said that she did great. They said that she was the only one who didn't cry and told me, to my relief, that she didn't take a nap. (YESSSS!!!) After I nabbed Kalea, I went around to my hallway friends to find out how Kalea's day really went. Pretty much everyone said they heard her teacher saying things like, "boy, Kalea is fast" and "ooooo you gotta watch that one (while pointing to Kalea)." Yep.....when her teacher gets comfortable with me, I will hear all about the Kalea climbing what what stories. Apparently, she is also a crayon eater. :o)
Nathan got his soccer jersey, socks and shorts last night. We are all very excited about Nathan the soccer star! Pictures will be in two weeks!!!
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Friday September 01, 2006
Something Old, Something New
Now that Nathan is settled in school, Kalea and I are working to develop a routine of our own. On days I don't work, Kalea and I take the short drive home while Kalea picks old food out of her seat to eat. (I provide good food, but she likes the old food better.) We get home to our big, empty house and Kalea leads the kittys through our front door with a chubby hand on each of their necks. The trio of kiddie and kitties walk straight through the house to the back door where I let them all go back outside. In the backyard a slight breeze always travels through the russling tree branches, through the windchimes and then down to us gently lifting Kalea's hair. Kalea smiles at the feel of it and then proceeds to feed the kitties, making the grown up clicking noise that I usually make giving the kitties notice of the arrival of their food; the self made dinner bell. After that, it is our breakfast. Kalea eats, feeds Elmo and then watches Elmo on TV while changing his diaper in the living room. It's the same every day. School. Kitty breakfast. Our breakfast. Elmo's breakfast. It sounds borning, but there is comfort in the familiar.
Yesterday we introduced Kalea to her 'new big girl bed.' She is neither big, nor sleeping in a new bed. The bed belonged to another kid, then to Nathan and now to Kalea. It is a large plastic yellow car that will be girl-ized when I have time to paint flowers on the back corner. I was unsure about the move, but our first attempt at sleep went better than I could expect. I put Kalea in the big bed for her nap, and after fussing for a second or two, she fell silent. I went in to check on her and she was lying in her big bed grasping the rails of her crib for protection. Mommy doubt always kicks in after a move towards big kiddedness, but safety-wise Steve and I have decided that it was time for the move. I had to work late last night so Steve was in charge of bedtime. Steve said that at 8:00, Kalea grabbed her Mimi and her kitty kitty blanket and laid down in bed and just went to sleep. Unlike Nathan, she slept through the night without any problems!

ARCHIVES December 16-October 9

Saturday December 16, 2006
Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Tonight as the sun when down and the twinkle stars of night began to wake up, Nathan, Kalea, Steve and I played outside in our drive way enjoying the mosquito free dusk. Nathan and Kalea concentrated very hard on a giant mural they were creating of Nathan and me. As the light faded, Nathan began to draw "tallys" on the ground beside his mural. "They come in groups of five" he began explaining to me. As he drew he placed numbers under each group. "The first group is five," he said in his serious teacher-like voice, "and the next is 10." As Nathan progressed, his numbers grew larger and soon I realized that he was counting by 5's. My baby five year old was on the ground counting by fives. I thought of my Kindergarten education about how the pentulate moment was at the end of the year when we counted to 100, and here Nathan is, halfway into the year and not only can he count to 100, but he can do it in English and Spanish. He is reading, and counting by fives, and displaying an education that would make my five year old private school Kindergarten self blush. Nathan's teachers are amazing and I can tell that they love him almost as much as I do. It's awesome that after five years of praying, God has not only blessed us with great teachers, but given us the gift of a good education for our baby.
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Monday December 04, 2006
A Little Too Country
I think we officially kicked off our Advent Season with our visit to the tractor store this past Saturday. We've been planning this weekend for months. December 1st kicks off with a snow hill (yes, I know it's hokey but us Texans have to create our own snow!) and sleigh rides in the park. After planning for weeks, we decided to play a show Friday afternoon and then take the kids for the Holiday kick off at the park and from there we planned to party hop all over the city from free celebration to free celebration in a 'snow' filled Christmas extravaganza.....but we hit a snag. In all of our holiday planning, we failed to realize that Advent is about preparing ourselves for the birth of Jesus and for spending time in quiet and in peace, for in peace is our strength and in peace lies our ability to hear the soft whispers of Christ in our lives. I knew this for a while, but it didn't click until I received and e-mail from Nathan's teacher on Friday. The letter pretty much broke my heart. Nathan the tired had a really bad experience on Thursday where he and a bunch of pals were all doing something really bad, but only Nathan got caught and sent to the office for his first office referral. So on Friday, it clicked in his head that his friends are the ones who helped him get into trouble, so he completely alienated everyone in his class and became the sad and alone. He needed some serious family time. So after our show, we cancelled pretty much all of our plans except for a few important ones.
We knew about the Christmas party at the Coufal-Prater Tractor company, but opted not to stop by so that we can spend some time in quiet as a family. The quiet was broken at about 11AM with sounds of hungary children and the realization that we had no food. The Coufal-Prater flyer was still lying on the table and the words "free food" popped out at us, so we reluctantly went just for the free food. What turned into a free food run turned into a day of fun. Nathan the non-participater participated in a Tractor race (he won 3rd place!), we ate hot dogs and sausages and then the kids stuffed themselves with free oreos. We rode a tractor train that went really slow while in sight of others and then blasted off up and down hills and around curves. It was so excited that we ended up having a flat tire. Steve told Nathan it was because Nathan was so fat and Nathan erupted in giggles. The kids ran, bounced, petted, and played the entire day away. It was our first tear-less day in a long time. As evening came, we drove to the Christmas tree farm to pick out the most perfect tree ever and then decorated it while listening to a "Very Veggie Christmas." We finished off the night with a hayride, and some hot chocolate and cookies. It was a perfect day.
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Monday November 27, 2006
Thankfulness
I am so thankful for the life I have and the beautiful babies that God has blessed me with. I am thankful that Kalea enjoys the soft caress of wind on her face as we spend the day at the park. I am thankful that her eyes saw and her legs rejoiced in the flutter of leaves that drifted past her feet as the wind blew that day. I am thankful that my husband was there to play the monster that ate the unsuspecting kids as they slid quickly down the funnel slide. I am thankful that Nathan isn't yet too old or too mature to enjoy monsters at the end of the slide. I am thankful for his arms and legs that wiggle in perpetual motion and of the delicate feelings he wears on the ends of the sleeves that cover those wiggly arms. I am so thankful for the life that God has given us to live and to learn and most importantly, to honor Him. Thanksgiving may be a time for thankfulness, but I am so thankful year round for what God has given us. He is a good God.
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Tuesday November 21, 2006
Man Should Not Be Alone
In the book of Genesis, the Bible states that man should not be alone, and this is why. I leave my poor misinformed hubby with Nathan and this is the conversation they had.
Steve and Nathan were walking across the church on Sunday and Nathan spotted the big Christmas tree with Angel Tree Ministry Gifts under it. Curious about the presents, Nathan asked STeve what they were for. Steve answered that they were presents for kids who didn't have families. Nathan looked up at Steve with wide eyes and asked him if those were the kids who got lost at the mall. Steve said, "yes." Nathan pondered on this for quite a while. After successfully walking across the church, they arrieved at the preschool ministry area where they start looking for me in the hustle and bustle of people getting out of church. Nathan asked Steve where I was and STeve answered, "I don't know, Nathan, Mommy's lost." With worried eyes, Nathan looked up at Steve and asked him if that meant that I was going to get a Angel Tree present too.
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Wednesday November 01, 2006
All Hallows Eve
I was thinking that those of you living in far off lands might want to hear about our Halloween, so I thought I'd spill the beans while it is still fresh on my mind. We started of Halloween festivities a few weeks ago. Living in a town that is so kid focused is such a blessing to our family! We attended lots of area festivals where the kids can play games and win prizes and just enjoy being outside and playing in our town. On Halloween, Kalea was allowed wear her costume to school. I put her in her costume thinking we could go up to the church and have people oo and ahhh over her and then have her teachers change her when she got hot and tired. Boy did I underestimate girl-hood. Kalea refused to leave her costume until 9:00 that night when I had to quickly pull it off like a bandaid and then I had to hide it so she wouldn't ask to wear it this morning. It needs a good washing before it spends 14 more hours on her little body.
So you're probably wondering what my babies were? Nathan was a pirate and Kalea was a damsel in distress. Their costumes even matched, dispite my lack of good planning. I made Nathan's costume after we researched on the internet exactly what a pirate looked like and what elements Nathan wanted to focus on. His shirt turned out really cool with ripped sleeves and thick brown thread peeping out of predetermined slashes and tears in the fabric from sword fights no less. He had a home made blue vest, also torn from pirate life, a stripped cloth belt tied to the side, and some torn blue jeans underneith. The only thing we did buy was a sword that he broke the first day we had it, then I fixed it, then Kalea broke it, then I fixed it again and then Nathan broke it again. (That's one thing I won't buy cheap next year!!!) The last time it broke was during Halloween pictures, so there is one with a broken hearted pirate in it. It was very sad. HOWEVER, Nathan did meet a lot of other swordless pirates at the Halloween party, so I think it didn't completely ruin his knife. Nathan's costume looked a little too good, because after I did his final fitting, I realized how store bought it actually looked. He loved it though, so that's all that matters.
Kalea's damsel costume, was actually a ren-a-saw-sense costume that we bought equipt with soft velvet and gold trim. She wore her Christmas dress under it to give it lots of floof and to make it really puffy. She LOVED it!!! Everytime she fell, there was a mess of dress that would engulf her. After a really good fit, I looked over at her and didn't even recognize her as a child, she just looked like a ball of clothing, draped on the floor in front of the couch.
On Halloween night, we took the kids over to an SOS Ministries Festival. Our band was playing for them that night, and my mommy guilt kicked in when I heard that there wasn't much for the kids to do. I was afraid that they wouldn't have fun or get very much candy to counter act the lack of fun. Boy was I wrong!!! The first thing Nathan did was go straight to the Joy Jump where he jumped the night away. After we finally made him get off, the man attending the booth gave Nathan three giant handfuls of candy that practically filled up Nathan's entire bag. Then we watched a man make kettle corn in a cauldren, went trunk or treating, played a few games, ate some candy and then went back to the Joy Jump where Nathan finished off his night. We played our show while Nathan jummped and Kalea danced and cheered and just had a blast watching us play. Over all it was a great night! I think I broke camera number 2, so the pictures might not turn out well, but I will send them out if they do!
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Thursday October 26, 2006
Sausage on a Stick, Makes Me Sick...
Today Nathan came home from school and proudly told me that he kissed, "Darby, Emma, and Selena." I asked him why and he said "because I am going to marry them!" I began to explain that he can only marry one and he told me that he was going to marry Selena and they were going to make babies and name them "Fenna, and Nathan." It took a lot of prompting for me to find out where he kissed them. After we played 20 questions, he slyly looked at me and told me that he kissed them on their arms and legs. This is where Daddy lost it and our conversation ended with a lecuture about kissing girls.
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Sunday October 22, 2006
Nathan's Soccer Adventure
On Friday night, Nathan and his soccer team had the privilege of attending a Texas college soccer game for an undefeated team that was ranked 7th in the Nation (hint: it was either UT or A&M). We watched them play an awesome game from the stands and then during half time, Nathan and his teammates made their way down to the field where they had a scrimmage with the "Screaming Geckos." It was hilarious! There were a million kids on the field kicking the ball into unidentified goals while the college kids cheered them on like they were stars. When kids fell, the crowd gasped and when one would, by chance, score a random goal the crowd would cheer them on. After half time, the kids lined up to give the real team high fives as they ran onto the field. It was a girl's team and Nathan, after touching all of their hands, put his hand over his nose and took a deep breath to smell their girly scent. Only my child would do that. I will never forget the thrill of seeing my baby on a real field.
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Friday October 20, 2006
Jonaahhhh Whereee Areee Yoouuuu Goinnnnggggg?
Nathan and Kalea are currently in Kalea's toddler bed playing 'Jonah.' Nathan jumps from being God to the men on the boat who throw Jonah (played by Kalea) out of the boat (Kalea's bed) and into the water to be eaten by the whale (Nathan). It is HILARIOUS! I don't ever remember acting out Bible stories when I was little, but I am SO EXCITED that my babies are. I hope these stories stick with them in their troubled years as well as the fun ones.
Posted by at 18:26 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Tuesday October 10, 2006
TorMado
Nathan and Steve had to sit in the tornado position for 10 minutes today to await their fate. When I picked up Nathan he said, "MOMMY! Did you die in the tormado? I had to sit like this (curls into ball on the seat of the car) for 56 thousand too many minutes."
Posted by at 23:09 Permanent Link Comments (0)
Monday October 09, 2006
Super Hero Nathan and His Sidekick Kalea
So Nathan found a lavender spa mask that my mom bought me on clearance in the big sales proceeding Christmas last year. It is one of those liquid filled masks that you put over your eyes to relieve stress and uh....yeah....you know I am not very good at being a girl. So anywho, he found it the other day and asked me what it was. How do you explain girly spa things when you yourself have no clue what they do?! In a boggly sort of mindset, I gave him one of those tired mommy answers. I told him that it was a super hero mask not really imaging that there was any way possible that he would believe me.....well he did. "OH REALLY MOMMY?!" he asked me in shocked disbelief mingled with amazement. "Yess......" I said in a 'please don't believe me sort of way.' In excitement, Nathan put them on his eyes and then at the last minute decided to rest them on his eyebrows so that his vision would not be compromised. He flew around the house in them and has worn them for the last four days. On Sunday he wore them all the way to church and was pretty upset when I sequestered them before he went inside. Nathan is way cute when he flies around the house in them, but I just couldn't stand the thought of other kids telling Nathan that his super hero mask was really a spa mask. I think I'll take advantage of Halloween and get Nathan a real super hero mask....soon.
Posted by at 22:21