Tales from the Carpool Lane

New Year's

2012-01-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking of spending some time learning more about photography, as sort of a New Year's resolution. I don't know what that will look like yet. I also don't know if more photos will show up here- it takes forever to upload them on this site! But we shall see.

11-11-11

2011-11-13T01:03:00.002-05:00

We celebrated Grace's 11th birthday yesterday, on 11/11/11. Since it was such a special birthday, and since my shy little 'new kid at school' has had some difficulty making new friends at middle school this year, we decided to throw a huge party. (Yes, she is in middle school now. Hand me my dentures.) Most of the kids that came were from church, but two of her new school friends came out, and that is a start.

Three hammy girls: Katie, our neighbor, and Grace

We had a murder mystery party, thanks to my friend Kyla's recommendation, and it was a huge hit. The kids all dressed up as different characters, and they got to ham it up throughout the evening, accusing one another of a crime while having to defend their own innocence. It was so much fun. We used the Mansion Mystery kit from dramaticfanatic.com, and it really worked out well. The only downside was that a few of the kids struggled to read the lines, and that combined with the silliness that took over toward the end caused them to miss a lot of the clues to who the killer was. It was fun, though, to see their surprise when the killer was revealed. Even the culprit himself had no idea what was coming. We had a great party.

4th of July fun

2011-07-05T15:20:00.001-04:00

We had such a wonderful 4th of July weekend! It was jam packed with cookouts and new friends. I had some neighbors over for a cookout on Thursday, and we had a great time getting to know them. I think our families are going to be great friends.

Then on Saturday, I took my oldest girl out for some shopping and lunch and a haircut, which was the first time in ages that she and I had done anything special together. My younger daughter is dying for a 'mommy-date' now, so we'll have to make that happen soon.

After a nice nap, we went over to our friends' house for dinner, which was lovely, and then the doorbell rang and it was a crowd of our church members showing up for our surprise party! They gave us tons of groceries and gift cards, which was a HUGE blessing to us, especially since we started over with an empty pantry when we got here. So now we're all stocked up.

On Sunday, we went to church, then we spent the afternoon swimming and cooking out at our friends' house, and then we got to see a massive amount of fireworks get set ablaze by some preteen boys. We made it through with only a few sparkler burns (EVERY year my kids try to do sparklers barefooted, and every year I forget until someone steps on one, and then we make them all get shoes on. You'd think we'd remember sooner.)

Anyway, on Monday we went over to yet another neighbor's house and had another cookout and then went to the golf course to see the city's fireworks display. We went to see fireworks every year when we lived in Dallas, and I couldn't stand it because it was so hot and so buggy and SO much traffic trying to get in and out of Fair Park or Addison or wherever we went, and then SUCH a long walk while lugging a cooler and chairs and all. We always had to wait in traffic for an hour to leave with a car full of cranky tired little ones. Not my idea of fun. Then several people here told us that the city fireworks were SO crowded, and we would never find a good parking spot, and what a hassle it was, etc., so I was kind of reluctant to go. But we did go, and we laughed - heartily- at what small town traffic looks like. It was a breeze! We parked 20 feet from the viewing area and got home in 10 minutes. It was also 78 degrees and there were no mosquitoes out. It was seriously the most enjoyable and least crowded 4th of July I have ever been to. I am constantly cracking up at living in a small town. I think it is for me.

Where to begin?

2011-05-30T16:12:00.009-04:00

Well, we were narrowly missed by an F5 tornado just three weeks after moving here. Meanwhile, the main campus of our church is perched on the edge of the devastation, and we have been crazy busy trying to help people recover and get basic necessities. I spent some time in the area of the tornado on Tuesday and Wednesday after the storm hit on Sunday. It was astounding. It was just mile after mile of complete destruction. Looking at house after house, it was difficult to imagine how anyone survived such violence. But people did, and we came across those people, standing on top of what used to be their homes, just looking for anything they could salvage. I met people this week who lost their home and their place of employment, who lost apartments, cars, people who did have insurance, and so many people who didn't. I met people who lost loved ones. I have heard story after story and have seen one heartbreaking scene after another.

Joplin has lost its high school, its middle school, its technical high school, two or three elementary schools, one of its hospitals, several apartment complexes, a nursing home, most of its Main Street, in addition to the main shopping/restaurant/hotel district of the town. It has lost 6,000 homes. I don't know how many churches are gone, but I've seen at least five in the rubble while driving around. It has lost 139 of its people, and counting.

We have 85 families in our church who had damage to their homes; 57 of those have lost their homes completely. We had a church member who gave his own life at the Pizza Hut, holding the door to the freezer closed in order to save all of his customers and employees who were inside. We have a number of others who are either dead or missing, I don't know exactly how many.

Anyway, I wanted to share two things: first of all, this video of my husband, who is working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week until this crisis eases:

And second of all, I wanted to write down a picture of all that is going on at our church. That place is like ants on an ant hill. In the parking lot when you first drive up, there are multiple trailers of equipment from Samaritan's Purse. I can't say enough how much I love that ministry right now. They have been training and sending out hundreds of volunteers each day to work at homes repairing roofs and cleaning up debris. They are amazing.

Also in the parking lot are tents and food stands set up by random people who have just driven here wanting to help. There are ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti, and cold drinks available at different tents, for volunteers as well as survivors, all for free. There are random trucks parked there handing out diapers and cases of water. When you walk inside, you will find members of our church manning information desks; one to direct volunteers where they are needed throughout the city, and one desk for survivors to give information on the help that is available, and sign them up to get it. I had the privilege of working there one day this week, and it was amazing how many people came in and just wanted someone to listen to their stories.

We have crisis counselors that have set up in Sunday School rooms, available for free to rescue workers as well as survivors of the tornado.

Yesterday when I was up there, someone was setting up a toy store in the lobby and had broadcast to all the radio stations to send kids here to get free toys.

In the doorway of the lobby, there is a pile of wet photographs that someone brought to dry out.

Downstairs in the kitchen, there are snacks and drinks set up for volunteers. There is also a group of ladies and teenagers tirelessly assembling sandwiches and sack lunches. Each time they run out of bread or chips, the church puts a notice on Facebook, and people show up with it. The same goes for all of the supplies that we have received this week. We put out a call for it, and people show up in droves with it.

We have been sending out between 1,000 and 2,000 sack lunches every day into the devastation zone. I had the privilege of doing that for two days this week, and I was amazed to find elderly people, sitting alone in a damaged house with no power and no water, and no car to get them to where they can find help. One lady answered her door and said she had just been wondering how she was going to be able to eat today. I was also amazed to see people, standing on the rubble that used to be their home, who told me no, they didn't need food, and that I should save it for people who were needy. Um, yeah, that's you, dude.

Back in the basement kitchen, we have a first aid station and a tornado shelter that was used twice this week; once when the injured and stunned survivors came wandering in the night of the storm, and again on Tuesday night when the sirens sounded and several hundred frightened people, including myself and my family, came down there to seek shelter. Every time that I go down there, the refrigerators have multiplied. We keep calling for more freezer space to store all of the donated food, and people keep driving up with extra freezers and refrigerators. We got an unexpected shipment of 1,000 pounds of frozen pizza (not the most practical donation), and there we have it, all in a donated freezer to store it in.

Back upstairs and outside in the back parking lot, there is a trailer set up with free showers. The ladies who run it are from a church in Arkansas; they just have the trailer ready and they drive to wherever they are needed. They have been sitting out there for days, just helping people get showers.

There are also semi-truck trailers full of heavy equipment, for use by Samaritan's Purse. On the other side of the property, there is a house filled with donated clothing, being organized by volunteers who are turning it into a free clothing store. Then, behind that house, there is a warehouse, formerly a garage for the church's buses, that houses every single item you could ever need. It has shelves and shelves and shelves- wall to wall- of donated items for people in need. It is basically a Wal-Mart with no cash register- it is all free. I worked in the warehouse for one day this week, shelving diapers and formula and Tylenol and flashlights and chapstick and shampoo and EVERY baby item you could ever desire. As soon as we would get it shelved, another church van would pull up and haul out more bags and boxes to be sorted. It was amazing. I helped a lady whose baby was allergic to every kind of formula; she basically told me there was no way we would have the specific kind her baby needs- and then I loaded her car up with about a two months' supply of it. It has been such a joy to see the generosity of the nation as they have sent their stuff to us, and then to see the looks on people's faces when we extend that generosity to them, and tell them that God loves them.

Outside the warehouse, across another parking lot, there are seven semi-trailers, parked and loaded with supplies, just waiting for the time when we have room to even sort them to give them out.

Off of the church property, we have THREE warehouses full of donated goods. We've had people that have shown up with forklifts and pallets to stack all of the supplies that we have been given. We've had people donating and assembling industrial shelving to stack all of those pallets of supplies up to the ceiling. We've had volunteers that have worked unloading semi-trucks into the warehouses until two in the morning.

We've had a church in Texas that has committed to serving lunch and dinner outside in our parking lot for the ENTIRE summer! That is huge. The workers that are out there now have been giving away about 2,000 burgers a day.

A guy that we went to college with is a pastor of a church in Lebanon, MO, which is about an hour away. They showed up Wednesday with a huge check, 1,500 hamburgers, a truck full of supplies, and 40 people or so to distribute them.

Someone showed up with about 4,000 donuts and eclairs. Others have just shown up with their camping gear, ready to help where they can. Somehow Chic-Fil-A delivered 1,000 sandwiches to us, even though their main store in town was destroyed.

It has been an amazing and exhausting 8 days since the storm. Many of you have asked me what you can do to help. The answer is, you can pray for us, and you can donate money at www.fpbc.net. We will definitely need money to get people through this.

I don't know how to summarize this post, except to say that I am so proud of my church, my husband, and of the people of God this week. They have all stepped up to serve and to give, and I am just continually amazed by it.

There is one more video that I want to share, which also depicts what has been happening at our church, and it is a tear-jerker, I am afraid:

Joplin, Missouri - May 2011 from Oak Hills Church on Vimeo.

A very short and lame update

2011-05-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

Hi folks- if there are any folks still out here. I just wanted to pop in to mention that I've moved- two weeks ago, to a city called Carthage in Missouri. Greg got a new job as a pastor at a church here. We are ten minutes from Joplin. We rode out the storm last night huddled in our bathroom, and even ten miles out it was petrifying. I'm headed down to Joplin tomorrow to volunteer at our church campus there, and we shall see what will happen.

So. What is new with you?

I went on a trip and didn't post photos.

2010-12-12T21:26:00.000-05:00

But my sister did. Here is the link to her series of blog posts on the matter. It includes the details of our delightful experiences (plural) with hitchhiking, which is something I didn't tell my husband or my mom about, and yet there it is on the internet.

Here are a couple of my photos from St. John in the Virgin Islands:

It has only been a few weeks, but I really think it's time to go back. The first photo is of Cinnamon Bay, and we stayed in a "rustic" cabin just a few steps from the beach. The second photo was taken from a taxi ride on the main road, and is of Caneel Bay resort, the not-so-rustic place where celebrities vacation. Every cab driver we met told us that they see Alan Alda all the time out here. We didn't see him.

Things are good here, but busy. I'm enjoying the new job, and getting more used to it. I think it's something I'll be good at once I figure out how to do all 87 steps for writing insurance policies on the computer without stopping to ask someone what to do next. Customers don't really like it when you do that, just in case you were wondering. Back soon with hopefully more photos.

Birthday Girl

2010-11-15T22:12:00.000-05:00

My baby turned 10 this week, which is strange because she was just born a few minutes ago. She had a pretty low-key birthday, by choice: too embarassed to have cupcakes at school, too shy to invite any new friends over. We ended up going out to eat at a Japanese restaurant, which was a perfect celebration - they had never been, not that they remembered, and they were so surprised when things burst into flames. It was great.

Also: Autumn is pretty here. In Texas we don't have autumn. I have actually been sitting at a computer screen for two weeks studying for my licensing exams (I passed!), so I was surprised when I drove down the highway yesterday and saw all of the beautiful colors.

Photos from the past few weeks

2010-11-06T21:33:00.001-04:00

Back in the Carpool Lane Again

2010-11-04T09:51:00.000-04:00

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind to say the least. I have a full time job! I'm going to work as an agent for State Farm, starting later this month after I've passed my licensing exams. My kids are in public school! They don't know what to think about it yet. I have adorable photos of them in their school uniforms, but I'm too frazzled to download them from my camera! I like to use exclamation marks when I'm in this mental state! I'm studying like crazy, like 9-10 hours a day, for these exams coming up, and life has been crazy and full of a lot of changes at once.

My kidney doctor appointment went fine, no big changes except for some new medication to prevent kidney stones, which is odd, but I'm taking it anyway. So. A lot of things to be thankful for, a lot of changes all at once, and none of us are sure exactly how we're going to manage any of them. But it is good, and I am grateful.

HI there, still alive, must be going now.

2010-10-24T23:21:00.001-04:00

Here is a birthday photo of my now-8-year-old little boy. Yes, his birthday was two months ago. What of it? Also, this is the only photo that I took that was decent. I don't know if something is wrong with my camera or with me, but I just can't seem to make the photos I used to make. I think it's me.

The birthday was pretty low-key; we had a school field trip to Chuck-E-Cheese that just *happened* to coincide with it, and then on his actual birthday we went out to eat with my parents and then came home and ate cake and opened presents.

Yes I know it's weird to have a school field trip when we homeschool. We actually use an online virtual school, which gives us the daily lesson plans/assignments for me to teach and to grade, and offers the benefit of 'virtual' classmates that sometimes wish to venture, squinting, out in the sunlight and meet IRL. It is very bizarre.

Want to know what else is bizarre? I have already been kicked out of a traditional homeschool group* because of my liberal government-run school affiliations. Me! A liberal!

Oh, blog reader, the stories I could tell you if only I made the time to write here. But alas, that day is not today; I am up late at night prepping for a c-razy week: I have a job interview, a meeting with one of my new Girl Scout troops that I am leading with TWENTY-TWO first graders in it, (yes I said 'one of'. As in I'm leading two), a big kidney doctor appointment, and of course, the usual 3-kids-in-homeschool and laundry and home-running that usually kicks my butt even without all of the extra stuff. And Halloween. My kids are dressing up as scary things this year for the first time. Their mommy is a really big-time liberal, in case you haven't heard. Or it could just be because she found costumes at the thrift store for $1.99. Either way, I am sure we will be prayed for after we go to the church carnival**, which is actually a good thing. We could use it.

Be back soon!

*full disclosure: I was offered a very restricted conditional membership in the group and I declined. It sounds better to say I was kicked out, though.

**no one at my church actually cares about scary costumes. I exaggerate. It's what I do.

After School Activities

2010-08-21T09:10:00.000-04:00

First Day of School

2010-08-20T07:00:00.002-04:00

First Grade, Second Grade, and Fourth Grade. How can this be?

Hmmm. Maybe so.

2010-08-19T01:00:00.001-04:00

The End of Summer

2010-08-17T17:11:00.005-04:00

I told Gracie a few weeks ago that summer was almost over, and she replied, "But we haven't done anything yet!" It really made me think. We have done a lot of things this summer; we had tons of visitors to the house, we've been swimming to the point that no one wants to go swimming any more, but we haven't actually left the house to GO anywhere.

Our normal summers in Dallas consisted of pool outings with friends, sleepovers, trips downtown to see museums and plays and other kid-friendly/free ticket activities offered in a big city like that. Out here it is quite different. The kids play with cousins or friends when they are in town, they play with the kids at church, but other than that it is pretty much just us. We've been missing our Dallas peeps quite a bit this summer.

We also normally go on a big road trip, but no such luck this summer, as we are...shall we say low on cash. We've been missing our 'vacation' time, even though we now live in the place in which we always used to vacation.

Anyway, this week at the last minute Greg was offered a consulting gig in middle Tennessee, and 24 hours later, we were on the road. Our first stop was Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, one of the places I have been wishing to visit for quite a while. We toured the cave. It was Mammoth. We drove across the ferry, explored the park, did very little hiking due to the 95 degree heat, and we spent the night in a Wigwam. We did cheesy touristy things and much fun was had. Then we went to Nashville to visit our friends Thomas and Dita and their two babies. Then we spent the night at a nice hotel and the kids and I goofed off while Greg worked. Great fun was had by all, and even though it was only a 3 day trip, I think we crammed in as much fun as possible.

We did the New Entrance Tour. It was great.

Our Wigwam was teeny tiny, but it was immaculate.

The place was built in the 30's. Very retro touristy.


We had a cookout and the kids played on the playground all evening. Then we went to the Dairy Queen next door.

Love those curls!

A couple of tourists on a ski lift.

The Lake House

2010-07-06T22:53:00.003-04:00

I've been at a loss for words on the ol' blog for the past few months. This past year has been a difficult one for our family; my husband was laid off from his job, we had to sell our house, and then we left our beloved friends in Texas to live in my parents' lake house in Georgia. Not to mention my kidney peril, which has been its own saga of uncertainty and contradicting medical opinions. That's another story for another day.

We've been here six months, and in that time we have anticipated the new job, the new city, the new life that we will have once this period of waiting is over. But it has been six months, and we are still waiting. We cannot plan anything in the distant future. We can't plan on anything. We just wait. The job that I thought was going to work out didn't. Then another one came along that seems like a good fit, but they want to take more time. So we wait. It has been a difficult thing for me to discuss on the blog.

But there are some good things coming to me while I wait. This lake house is number one on the list. It is an enormous blessing. I know that not everyone gets to spend their time waiting on God in such a beautiful place.

As a byproduct of living in a vacation home, we have found that when we invite people to come visit us, they are happy to do so. By my count, we have had over 61 visitors to stay with us since we've been here. Some of them have come from Tennessee with a newborn baby, some have come from Texas with a van full of children, some are college friends that we hadn't seen since before we had children. Some have been childhood friends that I have known for 25 years. Many of them have been family members; sisters and brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews that I used to only see twice a year, but are now able to come down for the weekend or stop by for dinner on the way somewhere else. The kids have had ample time with grandparents that used to be crammed into a short Christmas or summer visit.

This has been at once a time of mourning and a time of healing for me; a time of laughing with old friends, of holding babies, of chasing toddlers, of making s'mores, of teaching children to fish and to canoe, of catching up, of sharing burdens and of staying up too late playing cards. This has been a time of anxiously waiting to see what will happen next. This has been a time of renewal, of learning to rely on God and of bonding with my husband and my children. It has been a very very good time.

Happy 4th

2010-07-05T16:45:00.000-04:00

The View From The Hammock

2010-05-17T12:34:00.003-04:00

My little girl fishing in her church dress. Her big brother helping her get a fish off of her hook. A truly beautiful Sunday afternoon.

An E-mail From my Six Year Old to Her Friend

2010-04-28T20:41:00.000-04:00

Dear Rachel did you ever know that my bike doesn't have training wheels! I found a mood ring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it was Grace's. And I cried for a real long time. And I did not stop. It was very loud. Grace told me the mood colors. I was so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sad.Mom's head hurt.My head hurt too. PS fjfi fhucmjfskdjskxdjskl,alkals.kslkmrueeeeeee ruuwospl. are you sick?
love Katie

Too much to catch up on

2010-04-17T21:20:00.002-04:00

I've gotten incredibly lazy about posting here, and now I am at the point where SO much has happened it's almost impossible to know where to start. Here are the things I would write posts about if I wasn't a complete slacker:

(Also: my photos are on a different computer from my internet, so for some reason this has caused me not to even want to post them. Because it's just SO SO hard to walk up the stairs with my hard drive and plug it innnnnnnnn, wahhhhhh. But all of my photos are on facebook, so whatev.)

1. Katie turned six! She had a Mario Brudders party at home with our friends who were visiting from Texas. My friend Janet made her a lovely cake. Oh my, this was like a MONTH ago.

2. Tommy broke his arm, healed completely, and got his cast off.

3. I am in love with avacados. I love them. I eat them every day for lunch, all chopped up with salt and pepper, and sometimes tortilla chips. And yet I abhor guacamole. It's a texture issue. See also: I am a freak.

4. Sixteen families came to visit us for spring break. Not really, but almost. And then we went camping with my sister and her kids. Fun and exhaustion was had by all.

5. I love love love living here in the spring. I'm usually only here in the summer or over Christmas break, but the springtime here is intoxicating.

6. Kate learned to ride her bike. Where are the photos, you ask? They don't exist! She did it while all the adults were inside watching TV.

7. I feel really really well. I feel completely back to normal. I sincerely hope this is the case.

8. I don't know how to put this. There is a possibility of a new job. Just a possibility. I think it is a good possibility, and I have been trying not to get excited about it in case it doesn't work out. But it's too late, because my hopes are UP, and I have already started looking at houses and schools and imagining many many things about this particular possibility. We shall see.

Some Time At The Beach

2010-03-25T23:58:00.000-04:00

A Happy Return to Busy

2010-03-20T17:59:00.003-04:00

We've had a pretty mellow couple of months around here since we moved on the first of the year. Well, all that is over now. We've kicked off our "Spring Visiting Season" with a visit from some Texas friends, to be followed soon by a trip to the beach with my mom, followed soon after that by (hopefully) a couple of more visits from cousins and friends, followed soon after that by a camping trip with even more cousins. I love it. I love living close enough to see our families more than twice a year, and while I STILL miss Texas and my wonderful friends there, I am enjoying this season of life as much as I can.

And while I am not completely sold on homeschooling as a lifestyle (for us), I do love the fact that it allows our schedule to be flexible enough to visit with everyone else on their various weeks of spring break. We may extend our school year well into summer, but it is worth it to get to visit with our friends and family when we want.

To sum up, please enjoy these random hula hoop photos, and Happy Spring to each and every one of you.

(before the broken arm incident)

In Like a Lion

2010-03-11T15:24:00.001-05:00

It's been on my mind this week that I haven't updated this sucker in a while, since February, as a matter of fact. March has proven to be quite an eventful month for us, to say the least.

One good thing is that we got to visit my in-laws last weekend, which means I got to visit my 12 week old niece for the first time. Here she is:

We had a great visit with family for the entire weekend; however, on the ride home, I started to feel a little 'iffy'. Within 6 hours I was covered in spots, burning up with fever, and my lymph nodes were ridiculously swollen. Two days later, we figured out it was an allergic reaction to some antibiotics I had been taking (even though I had been taking them for 12 days by the time I got sick), so that was a huge relief, and very easily remedied. I was so very thankful that I didn't have to call my sister-in-law and explain to her that I'd exposed her new baby to some sort of rougue mumps-related virus.

The moment I recovered from my itchiness, Tommy decided he would crash his scooter into a parked car, resulting in a badly broken arm. We got to have our first experience with a small-town emergency room, which, well, was less than impressive. The doctor told us his arm was fine and to just give him ice, then at midnight, another doctor called to say never mind, it's actually broken in one spot, so he'll need to see an orthopedist. However, when I went to pick up his x-rays the next morning and inquired about a referral to an orthopedist, I was told that I was on my own, that they don't refer patients to specialists because it is a conflict of interest. I thought that was very odd, especially since the doctor had told me the location of the specialist in the city on the phone the night before.

A quick internet search revealed the name of the closest orthopedist, an hour's drive away, so off we went. The orthopedist did more x-rays, explaining that the ER doc hadn't even x-rayed the correct part of the arm (!) and it turns out the boy has 2 broken bones in his forearm.

So now he has a splint and a sling, which he will wear for a few weeks, and he is being a real trooper, even though he is quite uncomfortable. He is a little bit proud, in a tough boy way, to have caught up with his older sister in the Total Number of Broken Bones tally. They are now tied at two, and they have repeatedly been pointing out to Katie that she is wayyyy behind.

Another doctor visit, another vastly different opinion...

2010-02-23T23:59:00.002-05:00

Today I drove out to Atlanta to see the urology oncologist out at Emory University. This makes doctor #5 for the ole McKidneys, and as always, he had a different take on them than the previous four. Today's news was really good, though; he felt that my kidneys were perplexing and strange and complicated, but that they really didn't look too cancerous. He took a long time looking at my films and saying things like, "Hmm, that's odd" and "This is really weird", so I'm not sure what to make of that. He wants to do an MRI in June just to make sure they are really only just weird, so I'm still in wait-and-see mode until then, which is fine with me because it's better than the kidney removal mode any day.

I mentioned that my first doctor in Dallas had wanted to do surgery immediately, and that I had waited and gone to UT and then to Emory because I wanted to see about getting it done laparoscopically (if it is necessary) and he at first said, "Oh, no no, I don't think that could be done robotically, but I guess I would try....oh, well, yeah, I bet I could do it. But you don't need it. But if you did, yeah, I could do that." Then he smiled at me and said, "Well thank God you didn't let that doctor take your kidney, right?"

Yep. Thank God.

My kidney function tests from earlier this month came back normal, which is EXCELLENT news, and I go back to the nephrologist next week to see what he has to say about that. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what in the world caused all of this mess, and whether or not I'll have a long-term illness....the main thing that keeps coming back around is the possibility of polycystic kidney disease. So far I've had two doctors that are certain that I have it and one (my current nephrologist) who says it is "statistically unlikely". Right now, though, I'm not going to worry about that, or any of the kidney mysteries still to be unraveled. I'm going to be thankful to God for the bit of good news that I got today. It is very good.

Snow Day!

2010-02-13T15:39:00.006-05:00

Still alive, thank you.

2010-02-04T19:49:00.000-05:00

So I've taken a few weeks off from the blog, and I've found I still really don't have much to say. We're gearing up for a new round of doctor visits with a new round of doctors, so I'll hopefully have some information to share soon concerning the ol' imperiled kidneys. Other than that, we've just been taking it slow, doing lots of homeschooling, lots of playing, a little napping, and we try to fish when the weather is warm.

Adjusting to life out in the country has been a culture shock. I miss my Texas friends like c-r-a-z-y, and I also miss the conveniences of living in a big city, but it is very nice here, and I'm slowly starting to make friends. I've been doing an Esther Bible study at my new church, and I pretty much walked in and introduced myself and told everyone I have a tumor. I make such a good first impression. They couldn't be a nicer group of ladies, though, and even though none of them are anywhere close to my age, I am enjoying them very much.

Here are a few pics I've taken on the warmer days in the last few weeks:

Things are not quite the same

2010-01-17T13:25:00.003-05:00

The kids have learned to ride bikes on hills for the first time in their lives. It took a few times, and I had to convince them that they should stand on the pedals to push uphill. They've never learned that skill before I guess, never ridden anywhere that wasn't flat as a pancake.

Trips I'd like to take in 2010

2010-01-11T20:38:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is to plan trips. I think it's a stress reliever for me, a mental escape of sorts. Last year I posted this entry on the trips I'd like to take, and I actually took three out of nine, not too bad for a pretty sucky year.

So here are the imaginary parameters for my imaginary trips; they have to be in a realistic price range and within driveable distance if I'm going with the family. This makes the trips actually possible in real life, so if a situation arises where I need a place to go, and quickly, I already have a plan all mapped out, and I've probably already researched the things that I want to do there. (This actually happened last year on spring break, we had to cancel our San Antonio/Beach trip and substitute Big Bend National Park. Big Bend turned out to be one of the best family vacations we've ever had.)

1. Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my parents in their new house. This is a carryover from my list last year since we never got to it. On the plus side, I'm much closer now than I was in Texas.

2. Mammoth Cave National Park, KY. This can be accomplished on our "way" to Cinci. Also, conveniently, our friends in Nashville are only an hour and a half from here, so maybe we'll make this a regional tour.

3. Gulf Islands National Seashore, FL. The cold weather does this to me. I've also been looking at Jekyll Island, GA, but I think I need the gulf. Yes, the gulf is necessary in my life right now.

4. NOLA. Another carryover from my list last year...and probably the year before. I definitely won't be making it for Mardi Gras this year, but I'll get back there one day, I'm sure.

5. Virgin Islands National Park. This is the only one that is actually on the calendar. As in, I'm actually going, in the fall, with no kids. It's a camping trip. With no kids.

6. Washington, DC. We lived in the DC area when the kids were babies, but now that they are a little older, I think it would be a fun trip to take with them. I'd really like to have a chance to walk through the Smithsonian without pushing a double stroller.

7. Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This one is really Tommy's request. He has been asking to go for about a year now. I can see this one actually happening as soon as the weather gets warm enough, especially since it's only about 150 miles away.

Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone are both still on my long-term list; not likely to happen this year, but still something I want to do in the next few years. I had grand plans to drive to RMNP this summer, but that was when we thought we would be living in Texas. So that one is on the shelf for now.

So there's my imaginary plan for the year. Am I missing anything good? Want to come along on any of them?

slowing

2010-01-09T18:54:00.004-05:00

We really got our New Year off to a bang; as soon as we arrived in Georgia, all the family members piled into the house for a visit. My nephew left us with a little present- a 24 hour stomach bug that plowed through the entire family after they went back to their respective states. We spent the first few days recovering from that, then a few more days doing the laundry and cleaning that accompanied it.

Sometime around Thursday of this week, I began to experience an unknown feeling: I felt relaxed. For the first time in 8 months, I didn't have to frantically clean or pack up or move a house, I just had time to enjoy my family. I still have plenty of unpacking and settling in to do, but there's no longer any deadlines.

I've decided to homeschool the kids for this temporary season, and since my husband is mostly working from home, that means that the five of us are in the house, together, twenty-four hours a day. It's quite a change of pace for us. A much slower pace, for sure, and definitely not a permanent one, so I'm trying to savor as much of it as possible while maintaining my sanity.

So while I have plenty of time (for now) to spend writing a blog, I'm afraid I don't have anything really interesting to put in it. I hope to maybe start working on my photography skillz again, but other than that, there's not much happening. Just lots of family time. I'm okay with that.

A New Start

2010-01-06T19:18:00.001-05:00

Well, we made it to Georgia in one piece, and while I've privately named I-20 my "trail of tears", the rest of the family seems to be holding up just fine. We're settling in here in Georgia, trying to locate the essential things we put in places we could 'easily find', and getting used to a new phase of life.

My dad switched me over to a new(er) computer after my ancient one coughed on him one too many times, but I can't properly upload photos from Christmas or New Year's until I find and reinstall my camera software, and I also can't remember the password to my flickr account, but hopefully I'll have that up and running soon. Be prepared for some lovely Christmas photos sometime around February.

Meanwhile, we'll be unpacking, making decisions about school, finding new doctors, and trying to get used to a much slower pace of life out in the country.

Hope your new year is off to a good start.

We had a White Christmas!

2009-12-26T14:22:00.003-05:00

Can you believe it?

The first one Dallas has had since 1926. My first one EVER.

We are going to be moving in two days. Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2010.

A Visit with Santa

2009-12-20T22:56:00.004-05:00

Katie was not amused, although she did keep whispering things in my ear that she wanted me to tell him.

This is Santa's face when Grace told him she wants a Wii.

This is Santa telling them that Wii's are verrrry expensive, and we'll just have to wait and see about that. He's looking to me for some sort of confirmation, but I have adamantly told the children they are not getting one this year.

(Except, they are getting one this year. They have been verrrrry good, and mom feels very sorry for them right now. I hope they are surprised.)

2009, I will not miss you.

2009-12-17T23:11:00.004-05:00

Y'all, this year has sucked. It really has. However, in an effort to rise above my self-pity of late, I will now share with you some photos of the not-so-sucky times of 2009. Both of them.

Let's see, there was bluebonnet frolicking... this just makes me teary-eyed about leaving Texas...

then we went to swimming a lot I guess...

And oh, yes, Big Bend National Park. Okay, fine, there were three fun times. But THAT'S IT.

Okay, I had fun driving through the tunnel at Big Bend. Whatever.

Oh, and I have a new niece, so FINE, 2009, YOU HAD SOME GOOD STUFF. YOU WIN.

I don't know why this photo is so small, and I won't be able to take my own photographs of this sweet sweet baby until 2010. Gahhh, I'm ready for this year to be over.

Bad news and good news and bad news and good

2009-12-08T21:25:00.006-05:00

I have had SUCH an emotional week. I didn't post about it, but on Thursday we went to the nephrologist and just got some really bad news. I mentioned that on the MRI the tumor did not look malignant, but what I didn't know was that the MRI also found a large number of small cysts that hadn't been seen on the other scans. She feels that I have polycystic kidney disease, but she said she wasn't going to diagnose me 'officially' because once that term is written in my chart, I will be uninsurable. Given my already precarious insurance situation, I am grateful for this. She wants to do another scan in February and re-evaluate at that time.

I actually did write a lengthy post about how I was feeling about this devastating (possible) diagnosis, but I deleted it and gave myself a few days to get a handle on my emotions. It's a really bad disease. Very VERY bad. Incurable except for a transplant bad. And the statistics say that IF I have it, I've likely passed it on to 50% of my children. So 1.5 kids. It's bad. But it's not 100% definite at this point, so I'm not going to waste any (more) time grieving over it until it is.

So, to the good news. Today I went to the urology oncologist at UT Southwestern, the guy I had been waiting 3 weeks to see. He is an expert on kidney cancers, and performs nephrectomies all the time, so I hear. He was not impressed at all with my tumor. He said that it did not look cancerous, and that he would not recommend having surgery at this time. He wants to re-evaluate it in March and see if things have changed.

So, YAY! Thank God. It amazes me that two different doctors looked at the same scan and came up with such drastically different recommendations. My first urologist actually told me that she wouldn't wait more than a month before removing it, and this guy today said it would be a mistake to take it out at all right now. He said if it is cancer, that there's really no risk in waiting a few months because it is so small and very slow-growing. The bigger risk would be to remove my kidney and reduce my kidney function significantly when I have so many other problems to contend with. So the lesson is, kids, always get a second opinion.

Also, a lot of people have been asking how I'm feeling. I feel like a wrung out dish towel emotionally, but physically I have been doing okay. I have mild to moderate pain in my kidneys almost every day, but it is easily controlled with Tylenol. This may be due to a kidney stone in my left kidney, which could pass soon or not at all, or it may be related to the cysts, which means I'd better get used to it. My last blood tests showed an improvement in kidney function, and I took some more tests on Friday but haven't gotten the results yet.

There's just a little bit more bad news that came today just a few hours after the doctor appointment. I haven't written much about it on the blog because it is quite personal (like this isn't), but my husband was laid off from his job last April. He has been doing contract work and he is great at it, and God has provided marvelously for all of our needs, but really we need a (steady) full time job with decent health insurance, especially in light of the last few months. There was a job in this area that we thought would work out perfectly, and today we found out that it is just not going to happen any time soon. We close on our house in 3 weeks, and it looks like we are going to spend some time at my parents' lake house in Georgia to regroup and wait to see what happens next. It's an adventure...she said half-heartedly.

Now to the final good news of the day to bring our roller coaster to an end: My parents are coming here for Christmas!! They just told me tonight, and I actually cried when I got off the phone because I am just so happy about it and so completely emotionally exhausted from this crazy crazy day. There are just some times in your life when you need to see your Mama and Daddy, and this is definitely one of them.

Plus the door handles on BOTH sides of my van broke off this week and I'm hoping my dad can fix them for me. BOTH door handles. The second one broke off in my hand yesterday and all I could do was laugh. So typical of the way this year has been going.

A Suprise Snow

2009-12-02T21:18:00.001-05:00

It never snows here. The weather forecasters said it wouldn't snow here. They said we wouldn't even have a frost.

They were wrong.

It only lasted about 2 hours, but it was fun.

In the back yard, we even had snowflakes shaped like basketballs. And one pogo stick.

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T17:26:00.005-05:00

I have a little MRI update of sorts. I went early Wednesday morning and had my innards scanned once again. It was a little creepy, but thankfully I didn't freak out or anything. I mainly kept my eyes closed and pretended I was on the beach. Anyway, the nephrologist called later that day and said that the report from the MRI indicated that the tumor in my kidney did not look malignant. THAT is big news. I know that is big news. She felt that we should wait on the surgery and look at it again in a few months to see if it has changed.

However.

We are trying not to get too excited about it until we see the surgeon on Thursday. His opinion is the one that counts. I know that sounds strange, but if I get it in my head that I'm not having the surgery, and then I walk in there and he recommends the surgery, I will seriously have some sort of emotional breakdown of ugly crying right there in his office. So right now I just think that it is really good that the tumor looked better on the MRI than it did on the CT scan, and I'm feeling hopeful that maybe just maybe things will turn out fine.

But still, maybe not. And even so, there are still plenty of other unknown long-term issues with both kidneys that we will continue to deal with.

So, to sum up: encouraging report, kidneys still in peril. Will know more on Thursday.

Today was bananas. Too bananas to even spell it out.

2009-11-24T21:50:00.006-05:00

First of all let me start off by saying that I have been instructed to significantly cut back on my potassium intake, and the lack of chocolate and tomato in my life is causing me great duress. I will try to carry on with this post anyway.

Secondly, we have a contract on our house. They want to close December 28. So far they seem very sane.

Thirdly, I went to the doctor today to discuss the surgery. The good news is that all of my lab results came back almost normal, which for me is good, and the nephrologist has given me the okay to go ahead with surgery. The bad news is that sucker is going to be a BEAST. The incision will be from front to back, all the way around my right side. Allllll the way around. All. The Way. Around. I think they use a giant can-opener. And also one little minor detail, they're going to take out my rib. I'm having a RIB REMOVAL. IT'S BANANAS! And I can't even eat bananas!

Fourthly, my eye exam was fantastic. No cysts on the retinas, no vision problems. I was just so happy to finally get good news from a doctor. Now I am praying for a clear brain MRI, well, not clear, I mean, I want a brain to be in there, but a brain with no cysts. As long as the MRI looks good, one of the major deadly kidney diseases will be likely ruled out. And then we will just have the tumor and possibly another major kidney disease to contend with.

I can hear your questions now: Chrissy, when are you going to have the surgery? Which doctor are you going with? Where are you going to live when you sell your house? What will they do with your rib when they are done?

The answer to all of them is the same: I do not know.

I go for the MRI early Wednesday, and then next week I meet with two different surgeons, one of whom does this type of surgery laparoscopically on occasion for qualifying candidates, so I'm really looking forward to what he has to say. Hopefully he will say I can keep all my ribs.

Meanwhile, happy Thanksgiving to y'all! We're leaving tomorrow for Houston to see my sister and her family as well as some aunts and cousins that I haven't seen in quite a while. And I'm going to smell the potatoes but not eat them.

Warning: Medical Jargon

2009-11-19T22:34:00.008-05:00

I had a nephrologist appointment today, and I've really don't even know how to explain what happened, mainly because there's so much that I don't understand at this point. The main thing is that (I think) my kidneys are functioning well enough to go ahead and meet with a surgeon. This is a HUGE answer to prayer.

I had already made myself an appointment with a guy at UT Southwestern in Dallas who fit my list of correct credentials, but the funny thing is that my nephrologist called me right after I left her office and said that she was calling over to UT Southwestern to get me an appointment with a urology oncologist there, and I was like, "Oh, I'm one step ahead of you, baby." Okay, I didn't say that. I should have.

She also ordered an MRI and a long list of blood tests, and an opthamology referral to check for cysts on my retinas. ACK! Apparently this is a possibility? She also wants to check the MRI for brain cysts as well, because apparently this is a possibility too? Yikes.

There have been so many moments in the last two weeks where I thought that maybe this wasn't as big of a deal; it might not be cancer, it might be just this or just that. Today was not one of those moments. Specifically when the doctor told me that, yes, I do look like a candidate for one of these major kidney diseases, but that those diagnoses can wait until after I get this tumor issue solved. That's the important issue right now. So let's just put those ~~potentially fatal~~ life-altering diseases on the back burner, shall we?

The thing about this tumor is that it is possibly kidney cancer. I've read many different statistics, but the doctor today told me that it was a 50% chance. The thing about having possible kidney cancer is that it is still just a possibility, which means of course that there is the possibility that it is nothing, a 50/50 shot. However, it is not advisable to biopsy a kidney tumor because the needle will spread the possible cancer, and it really isn't a good idea to leave it in there in case it is cancerous, so tumors that look and act like cancer just have to be removed, period.

This leads us to the impending surgery. I don't know what to expect, but I suppose I will find out at my next apppointment. The internet tells me that a partial nephrectomy (removal of part of the kidney) is possible if the tumor is in just the right place, and I hope it is. A radical nephrectomy (full removal of the kidney) is actually an easier surgery technically and can be done laparoscopically with much less recovery time. The downside is, well, being down to only one kidney for the next 50 years, and I really don't want that.

I'm not totally certain about the hospital and recovery time for the partial nephrectomy; I've read in a few places that it is a pretty large incision and a 4-5 day hospital stay. (I also read a horrifying account of a radical nephrectomy that described the removal of ribs and a huge gigantic monstrous scar, but apparently that was written quite a few years ago and hopefully that was an unnecessary freak out on my part. Let's hope so.)

Meanwhile, I've been having lots of pain in both kidneys, but more so on the "non-tumor" side, which contains a 3 mm kidney stone that may or may not be 'exiting the premises', so that should make for a fun Thanksgiving.

So. To summarize, I don't know anything really, nothing has been ruled out, nothing is certain. I will go for an MRI and then I have an appointment the week after Thanksgiving with the surgeon. In the meantime, I made sure to get a prescription for some pain meds.

We plan to go to Houston next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with some extended family that we NEVER get to see, AND my sister is going to be there, and I am very excited about that. We contemplated canceling it; I'm hurting and cranky and money is tight, but we both agreed that we really need to see family and that it will be nice to get away for a few days.

Thanks again to all of you who have sent me encouragement; I love getting your comments and your e-mails and cards and I've even gotten a few packages. I appreciate all of the prayer and support. I am very blessed.

Birthday Girl

2009-11-16T09:59:00.002-05:00

My baby turned nine last week, and her party was this weekend. We invited her Brownie troop over for a back yard campout, and a good time was had by all. I spent exactly zero time planning this party, which is a big difference from what I normally do, but they are such a sweet group of girls, they really just entertained themselves and had tons of fun.

I did take the time to make her cake, though, can you tell? What a work of art.

In health news, I would like you to disregard everything I wrote in the previous post. Things change quickly around here. I've had phone calls and e-mails from so many friends and relatives who know about doctors and health struggles, and I've gotten excellent advice. My husband's cousin is a surgical oncologist, and he spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me the other night, reviewing and explaining my CT scan results and answering each of the many questions that I had written out for him. He reassured me that since I live in a *large* metropolitan area, there is really no need to travel to Houston to get good care. He knew exactly what type of surgeon and specifically what training was needed, and even did an internet search and sent me the names of a few doctors in town who had the specific training he recommended. And guess what? One of the doctors is actually a partner in the practice where I am already a patient. Huge relief.

So that's how it's been around here this weekend, moments of panic and dread followed by reassurance that this too will be fine.

This week I will take Tommy for his tonsil recheck, Grace for her annual checkup, and then I will go for testing at the nephrologist on Thursday. It's all medical, all the time around here.

Feeling Better Thank You

2009-11-12T22:55:00.007-05:00

I had the rug jerked out from under me on Tuesday, but today I think I'm finally getting back up and trying to come up with a plan. I called the urologist's office and got a long list of questions answered, and then I called random nephrologists and found one that could see me next week. That made me feel SO much better.

Everybody and my mama has been advising me to look around at surgeons and find "the best". I have no idea how everybody finds doctors that are the best, and googling things constantly is making me a little crazy right now. One thing that people have told me over and over again is to go to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I really like my current doctor, but I realize that I like her because she is personable and that I honestly have no idea what kind of surgical skillz she has.

So I looked around online for a good surgeon in Dallas, which got me nowhere, and then I called the doctor that I worked for last month at the Fair. He is an OB/GYN and a cosmetic surgeon. I explained the whole mess to him and asked him what doctor he would see if he was in my situation. He stated that without a doubt he would go to MD Anderson, simply because there are doctors in Dallas who do these types of surgeries here and there, mixed in with all of the other urology stuff that they do, and then there are the doctors at MD Anderson who do these surgeries constantly. That makes sense to me. So I am getting that ball rolling, but I have no idea how long that will take or what sort of logistical nightmare that will be set into motion.

In the meantime, I have received tons of support and encouragement from people who are praying for me and who love me. I am a very very blessed chica. Sometimes, though, I think when people hear I have had a cancer diagnosis, they assume that I am dying, and I'm not really sure how to respond to that yet. I know they mean well, and I don't want to be flippant and say "Oh, I'll be fine", because it is really scary and there are going to be some difficult things ahead for me, but I don't want people to think I've been given a death sentence either. Maybe I just feel awkward because this is still very new.

It may encourage you to know that I've already found plenty of things to laugh about. For instance, do you know what is a really good way to get what you want? Say you have cancer.
Take a conversation with my husband about where we want to eat, for example:

Me: I want Chic-Fil-A.
Greg: Meh, I don't know, we just had that last week.
Me: But I have cancer.

Works like a charm! Chic-Fil-A for everybody!

Actually it only worked about 3 times, and then he caught on. It was a good run, though.

My friend Kim made me laugh so hard today. I was telling her about my diagnosis and the surgery and THE SCAR! (Dear Lord, I'm afraid of the scar) and her immediate reaction was to tell me that it was such a wonderful thing that I had decided to wear a bikini for the past two summers, because those days are officially over now. I probably laughed for three straight minutes. That's a good friend.

Things have taken a turn.

2009-11-10T23:37:00.006-05:00

I got some really bad news today from my doctor, and I've decided to write about it here, partly in a way to keep all of my info straight, and to work out my thoughts, but also because this is a good place to keep info for my family members and friends, since I tend to leave out pertinent information when I speak with them.

I met with my doctor today for my CT results. The CT scan that I had last week showed a suspicious mass on my right kidney that the doctor believes to be cancer. There's no way that we can know for sure that it is cancer until it is taken out and analyzed, but it looks and behaves that way, so we are treating it like it is.

My thoughts are a little scattered right now, and I am still a little stunned, so bear with me. This all started two months ago when I had a routine physical and my bloodwork came back funny. At the time, we thought it was a kidney infection, but a retest a month later showed the same thing. I began to have pain and other symptoms of a kidney infection, or so I thought, and was given antibiotics again. My regular doctor sent me for an ultrasound and referred me to a urologist, suggesting that perhaps I had kidney stones. Last week, the urologist looked at the ultrasound and told me that I had two cysts, one on each kidney, and that they were probably not cancer, but they weren't benign either. They were a rating of a 2 to 3 on the Bosniak scale, which Google told me was either an 18 or 33% chance of cancer. She told me the CT was to look for kidney stones, which could be a possible explanation of why someone so young would have that number of cysts in her kidneys.

Anyway, she sent me for the CT scan, and I came back for my appointment today to review the results. I saw the two cysts she had mentioned last week, which are apparently benign, as well as the tumor that appears to be cancer. She still classified it as a 3 on the Bosniak scale. (4 is the worst, sorry for the technical terms here.)

My understanding is that kidney cancer, when caught early, is not a terrible prognosis. Usually a section (or all) of the kidney is removed, and there is no chemo or radiation. However, there are a few potential complications in my case.

One is that the tumor is very small (1.5 cm), which seems like a good thing to me, but according to my doctor, it may be tricky for a surgeon to find it. I don't know how big of a deal that is.

Another potential complication is that the doctor is very perplexed about why I have the kidney cysts to begin with. She has been continually saying that it is very unusual for someone of my age with no prior family history and no other health problems or risk factors to have all of this going on. She wants me to get tested to rule out another major kidney disease and to test the function of my healthier kidney to make sure that it can support me since I will need to have some or all of the other one removed.

At this point I hope you'll forgive me for being technical, but my mom is going to be googling all of these things, so I need to go ahead and put it up here....The diseases I'm going to be tested for are Von Hippel-Lindau disease (this is a genetic disorder and seems very unlikely); polycystic kidney disease (also genetic and hopefully also unlikely); and medullary sponge kidney.

So. That is where the situation stands as of this evening. I've been referred to a nephrologist, whose first available appointment isn't until the end of November (gahhhh), and will likely get an MRI in between now and then.

Some of it doesn't make sense to me at this time, and hopefully I will get some clarification on things in the next few weeks, but I wanted to go ahead and write down what I know for now so I wouldn't forget.

I certainly hope that I will be able to look back on this blog post in a few months and remember it as "The Day We Got So Freaked Out About What Turned Out Fine". Until then, keep me in your prayers if you don't mind.

By the way, Tommy's tonsillectomy went well and the doctor told us he had an abscess behind his tonsils that had some scar tissue, which tells us it was a really good thing for us to go ahead with getting them out. That was a relief. He is tired and sore, but is recovering well and being such a good patient.

And just to show a little thankfulness, remember that contract that I was so upset about losing? If it had gone through, I would be in the middle of moving out this week. God had His hand in that situation, and I know this is no different.

Updates and Random Things

2009-11-07T19:19:00.006-05:00

We've had a busy and chaotic week around here. No news on the real estate front, no law suits pending or anything like that, but medical drama abounds. Tommy is getting his tonsils out Monday morning, which everyone says is a routine surgery, but that's mah baybeeeee and someone is going to cut on him and I'm trying not to freak out about it. I'm sure he'll be fine, and perhaps I will not weep and wail and throw myself in the floor when he is wheeled off. Perhaps.

Meanwhile, my kidneys have decided not to behave themselves, and while I'm busy trying not to freak out about Tommy, I'm beginning to freak out a little bit about that. I've had an ultrasound and a CT scan this past week, and it seems that both kidneys have cysts in them that are definitely not benign, but also probably not malignant, but so far that's all I know. (!)

I'm assuming that surgery is in my near future for that because really that junk needs to come out, and because I feel like crap and this is unacceptable. I won't know for sure until later this week.

One bright spot: we've met our deductible for the year! Our FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR DEDUCTIBLE! Woo hoo! "Free" medical care until....oh, wait, it's almost the end of the year. Dang.

Did you catch the part where we met our FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR FAMILY DEDUCTIBLE? (It is always written in all caps.) That is just how much fun this year has been. Really, 2009, you've outdone yourself.

Here's to 2010. May it be boring and dull and drama free.

Okay, I don't really have anything else, so here is a random photo.

The Many Costumes of This Week

2009-11-02T22:28:00.002-05:00

Halloween night

Church Festival

Storybook character day at school

And now I am ready to talk about what happened to our contract.

2009-10-29T14:43:00.011-04:00

Maybe. I might still be too mad. We'll see. Some of you have already heard this, or parts of it, on angry e-mails or phone calls. Here's the whole thing.

Five years ago, we put a contract on our lovely house in Dallas and had it inspected. The inspector reported that there were cracks in the sheet rock and the brick exterior, and that we needed to get the foundation inspected. Our sellers produced a report from a foundation expert stating that the foundation was within acceptable limits, and that the home needed to be watered regularly.

Being not from Texas, we were perplexed at these instructions. We came to learn that this region has a very shifty soil type, and the soil contracts by several inches in times of drought, and expands just as much in times of rain, taking all the houses along for the ride and leaving them with cracks and frequently needing foundation repair. Therefore the house must be watered like a plant. Our realtor assured us that this was normal for this area, and we would be hard pressed to find any home in Dallas that did NOT have cracks in it. Over time, we have found this to be true of our friends' homes as well and have accepted this as a fact of life, as do all of the homeowners in this area. And we have watered the house faithfully.

When we put our house on the market, we noted in the seller disclosure that there were indeed cracks on the sheet rock and the brick exterior, but that the foundation was within acceptable limits and the cracks were normal for the age of the house and the soil type. When our lovely buyers came on the scene, they asked some questions about the foundation, and our realtor again relayed to them our disclosure about the cracks.

So we all signed the contract and awaited the inspection. The inspector (shockingly) found that the sheet rock and the bricks had cracks in them. He told our buyers that this house had MAJOR foundation problems (in all caps) and then proceeded to note every other little flaw of the house, as is his job. We received several angry e-mails from the buyers' realtor demanding to know why we hadn't disclosed this MAJOR issue (all caps) and what we were planning to do about it.

Well Greg and I were very upset to learn that we had a MAJOR issue, because that means major dollars to us. We reassured the buyers that we were looking into it, and had several companies come out to give estimates. Two of the companies told us that we had MINOR foundation shifting, that could be fixed for about $3,000, with a lifetime transferrable warranty. (While that is a lot of money, please bear in mind that we know people whose homes have required $10-20,000 in repairs. $3,000 is minor.) Meanwhile, the third company informed us that all of the cracks were cosmetic, and that there was no actual problem with the foundation itself, so no repairs were needed. Their estimate was zero dollars. Seriously.

However. While we were still getting estimates from the different companies, we received a termination of contract notice from our buyers, stating that we were liars and had intentionally deceived them about the foundation, and that we had broken the law by not disclosing this MAJOR issue.

Several days went by. Our realtor, in a peace-making effort, forwarded all of the reports to the buyers, plus a copy of the bill for some electrical work we had done after the inspection.

Finally, we heard back from our angry buyers. They would like to renew the contract, they said, for the previously agreed on (and very low) price, plus a few extra things, such as:

Fix the foundation (which we had already offered to do).
Plaster all cracks in the interior and exterior of the home.
Rehang all of the doors in the home so they would be perfectly perpendicular.
Dig out all of the flower beds and grass so that 4 inches of the foundation is visible all around the house.
Recaulk all of the exterior windows where the caulking has become separated.
Replace the driveway because it has cracks in it. (?)
Regrade the yard. (!)
Fix a loose faucet handle in the guest bathroom.
Replace cracked tiles in the walkway off the patio.
Install two extra fire alarms because there just aren't enough in the house.
Have the dishwasher repaired (It is not broken. I use it every day.)
Install a pan under the hot water heater.
Have the chimney cleaned.
And by the way throw in an extra $3,000 in closing costs.

There were actually more requests, but I can't remember them right now and it makes me too mad to look at the e-mail. I need to assert here that in our original contract our buyers were getting our house for at least $11,000 under its appraised value PLUS a $7,000 stimulus rebate from Uncle Sam. That is what is known in financial circles as A Good Deal.

We responded that they could have the original price and the foundation repair and a few extraneous things that we'd already done since the inspection. We didn't hear back from them, and we were not sorry to see them go.

Then this week, we got an e-mail from their realtor, stating that his clients continued to be "very angry" over our deception and lies, and that they were taking legal action against us because they had to spend $300 on an inspection to find out about a MAJOR foundation issue that we knew about all along and should have disclosed.

The issue we had offered to fix. And give them a lifetime warranty.

Which we now know isn't really even an issue.

Oh, and PS? WE DISCLOSED IT.

The end of the story (up to this point) is that I wrote out a description of our knowledge of the foundation from the very beginning, quoting directly from the report from our seller and describing our meticulous watering and monitoring of the cracks should they move (they have not) and quoting from all of our current reports, etc, etc. I hope this will make them see that they have no case, however these people don't strike me as being exceptionally rational.

Anyway, that is all I have. Please cheer me with your incredulous and incensed comments.

Arrrr Matey.

2009-10-28T11:51:00.003-04:00

Another Example of God's Grace in the Midst of Things

2009-10-25T19:14:00.012-04:00

Y'all. Last week was crappy. The events of last week will take me way too long to explain but the result is this: we no longer have a contract on the house. There was much animosity involved from both parties. Losing the contract makes me both happy and sad, which are the same emotions I felt about actually having the contract in the first place, but let's move on. In addition to Real Estate Crap/Emotional Roller Coaster, I got some less than stellar test results back from the doctor, the weather was gloomy, and working 21 out of 25 days at the fair had left me wiped out and fighting both a cold and two weeks' worth of laundry.

Now to a new story. I have this neighbor; her name is Ms. Elaine and she is 85 years old. She reminds me an awful lot of my own grandmother, which is odd considering my grandmother was a Southern Baptist from rural Louisiana and Ms. Elaine is a Jew from New York City. She is very giving but at the same time brutally honest and blunt (therein lies the similarity). If she cooks a big pot of soup, she makes sure that we come over to get some. If I don't run into her or call her for a few weeks she gets extremely worried that something is wrong. She likes to lecture me about how leaving the outside lights on is a huge waste of money. She scolds me when she catches me at the mailbox in bare feet and she gasps in horror when the kids come running out behind me with no shoes on either. My kids have never left her house without a pocket full of lollipops.

On Friday, at the end of my Super Crappy Week, I got a call from Ms. Elaine wanting to know if I was headed to the grocery store, and if so, could I get her a rotisserie chicken for her dog? (She feeds her dog deli meat, I have no explanation for this.) I told her no, I was just leaving to get the kids from school, but that I could go for her tomorrow. Then she told me that she had been going through her things (she is getting ready to move out of her 5 bedroom house and back to New York to be close to her family) and that she had a gift for me. She had seen me walking down the road while the kids were out riding bikes, and wondered if I would like to have her bicycle. This bicycle:She bought it 50 years ago in New York, and she used to ride it with her kids to Coney Island. She kept it all these years because it was so dear to her, but she knew she would never ride it again and she also knew that I needed it. She made me promise not to sell it or give it away, to which I readily agreed. I LOVE it. LOVE. I am so grateful for this gift. It is SO beautiful and has been very well cared for, and it just gave me immense joy that was sorely needed at that moment. She could tell I was thrilled, and I could tell she felt good about thrilling me.

As I promised to come over right after school and started to hang up, she slipped in a quick question, "Now, what about that rotisserie chicken?"

Yes ma'am, I was just on my way to the store.

Final Scenes from the Fair

2009-10-23T12:26:00.006-04:00

The Great State Fair of Texas: Where No One Has Died on a Ride Since 1986
(fried moon pie)

Don't You Ever EVER mess with the gang who drew this graffiti.

2009-10-19T17:12:00.002-04:00

Consider yourself warned.

One more week

2009-10-12T12:39:00.004-04:00

Seven days left of the State Fair and I am working every single one of them. Oprah was there last night, reportedly eating a turkey leg wearing a cowboy hat; that is, she was wearing the hat, not the turkey leg, but anyway, watch for those hijinx on her show sometime soon, I really have no idea when and I am too lazy to check her website.

The feller in my picture is Big Tex, the mascot of the fair, whose jaw moves freakishly as he talks. He says things randomly like "Howwwdy Folks!" and "Don't forget to wash yer hands before ya eat" and he is a giant freak and I love him. I met the real life man who does his voice, and his belt buckle was more bejeweled and bigger than the one on the statue. He was awesome.

So anyway. I'll be back in a bit and P.S., I'm going to the U2 concert tonight, I just thought I'd brag on that real quick.

It's definitely haunted.

2009-10-08T23:59:00.003-04:00

Under Contract.

2009-10-05T23:25:00.002-04:00

Well we have a contract on our house. It's an answer to four long months of prayer and a huge relief, but my heart is completely broken. It still hasn't completely sunk in that I have to leave my beloved home. We'll be moving to Georgia in about five weeks. I can't even really talk about it yet.

Instead here are some Texas-themed photos. Here are my girls' toes after they stayed with the babysitter last week:

What, you don't paint your state flag on your big toe? What is wrong with you?

And here is my boy, who lately seems to have a All-Texas wardrobe, thanks to his Daddy.

Update. How's that for a title.

2009-09-28T01:36:00.008-04:00

Y'all. I am on day 3 of the carnie job and I am Ti-urd. It has been wild. First of all, let me say this: the State Fair of Texas? It is big. It's big. It's just big. And people LOVE it. They get so excited about it. All of the people I have met, from the fellow employees of the fair to the visitors to the random people on the train going to and from the fairgrounds, have been so unusually friendly. I mean friendly even for Dallas people, who are normally pretty cordial to begin with.

And y'all, they are CHATTY. People just want to talk to me all day long and tell me stories. These chatty people are everywhere. What is with these people? They just talk and talk and talk. I guess I've been an isolated stay-at-home mom for too long, but I'm just overwhelmed by all the talking and all the friendliness. People stand at my booth and tell me about their fight with cancer and their successful weight loss and their former steroid use and their thoughts on Texas A&M's quarterback and their walk with Jesus and their traditional State Fair Opening Day Matching T-shirts and where to get the best corn dog...it just goes on and on all day long.

Now so far, very few of these chatty people have actually bought things from me, but I'm working on my sales technique. It's weak, to say the least. Let's say it's very weak. I'm still learning.

Another job perk: I sit next to a very large 'before and after' poster of some women who have used the stretch mark cream and it basically just shows women's bellies covered in stretch marks (not pretty) and then their very much improved bellies eight weeks later. (P.S. This stuff really does work, but it costs $59, like for a month's supply, and it's been a little tough to sell, have I mentioned that?)

Anyway, one unintended consequence of sitting next to this lovely poster is that people walk by, see the poster, look at me, look back at the poster, and do one of the following:

1. Recoil in horror (usually teenagers and single guys)
2. Ask me if that is me in the photo. (usually older men)
3. Lift their shirts and reveal giant beer bellies and ask me if I can improve that. (usually guys who have had a few beers)
4. Start tugging on their wife's sleeve and saying, "Honey, let's check this out!"
5. Glare at husbands who have just called them out in public for having stretch marks.
6. Nod knowingly at the photos with a look of recognition on their faces, and then come over and start asking me questions.

The #6 people are the only ones to whom I can really sell anything. I'm still trying to figure out how to sell to the men pushing strollers whose expression says they really want to stop but they don't dare. Maybe I'll just start slipping brochures into their diaper bags when their wives aren't looking.

So anyway, I'm too tired to finish this properly. I'll have more stories later and I hope to sneak my camera out there sometime this week. I know you're dying to see that poster.

Here is a list of things.

2009-09-22T22:21:00.006-04:00

1. I have a new job as a carnie at the Texas State Fair. Well, I'm not so much a carnie as I am a salesperson working in a booth selling 'Health and Wellness' Products. Among our products, we have an $80 stretch mark cream. Isn't that what everyone wants at the fair? A corn dog, a funnel cake, and some stretch mark cream.

2. I got to take all of the products home to try them out. What makes these people think I need stretch mark cream? I mean, of course I do, but why assume that?

3. The job lasts 3 weeks and I am scheduled for 125 hours, mostly in the evenings. (Please pray for my family) What I will need at the end of that will be some under eye cream. Too bad we don't sell it.

4. House still for sale. Still cleaning. May lose mind.

5. I am really tired of people misspelling the word 'lose' by spelling 'loose'. 'Lose' is the present tense for 'Lost'. 'Loose' means something is wiggly. I've overlooked it on Facebook for a long time, but last night when I was handed an official work document that stated "this product will not help you loose weight", I'd had enough. (Of course it won't help me loose weight. Why would I want my weight to be loose?) This spelling atrocity must be stopped.

6. There are no more renovations in the works. I am sick of renovations.

7. We had a slight brush with swine flu last week. And by slight I mean that Katie was sick for a day or two, then my neighbors got sick with the same thing and actually went to the doctor and tested positive for swine flu. Thankfully no one else seems to have gotten it [yet] despite half of the students in our school being sick.

8. I got a nice surprise from my husband the other day: Tickets to the U2 concert at the new Cowboys stadium! Wooooooo hooooo! I just have to figure out what to wear; I don't think I own anything cool enough for that. But at least my stretch marks have never looked better.

Before and After

2009-09-10T20:14:00.012-04:00

And now I will subject you to my renovation updates. First up: the Beige Bathroom.
Here is the Hideous Wallpaper Adhered to the Wall by Satan Himself:
And after spending 8 days of my life that I'll never get back it looks like this:I didn't get a good photo, but there is a new silver light fixture and a square mirror with a black frame over the sink.

So Beige!

The previous owners of our home were not only into ugly wallpaper, they were into ugly faux-finishing. A while back I posted these before and after photos of Gracie's room:
(so so wrong.)
(so much better.)

The office that I painted last week had been faux-finished as well, kind of a denim-like texture that was all kinds of wrong.

I don't have a wide angle lens like my realtor does (Dear Santa, I've been very good this year) so I couldn't quite get the whole room in the photo. After painting it, we are in disbelief at how much better it looks in there. I can't believe we lived with that blue funk for five years and didn't do anything about it until now.

My final faux-finishing photo involves my dining room. The realtor says this room needs to be beige. I say there is one wall that is wallpapered and I ~~will set fire to the place before I try that again~~ would prefer to not take down any more wallpaper. It does look a little busy now that I'm looking at it, but we get a lot of complements on it. So what say you, Internet? Should we beige this room or keep the faux?

Toothless

2009-09-08T20:59:00.003-04:00

This child can get anything he wants from me right now just by grinning. Lord help me.

It's Diptacular.

2009-09-03T22:37:00.009-04:00

I don't know if y'all read Boomama's blog, but that woman made me laugh HARD yesterday with this post about the way Christians sign off their e-mails. What makes it funnier is that I get e-mails from church people all the time that use those types of closings. Anyway, today she is asking everyone to post their favorite dip recipes for college football season and it just so happens that the following dip has been on my mind for about a month:

The Trawler's Famous Crab Dip

(stolen from a church cookbook who stole it from a really good restaurant in Charleston.)

1 1/4 cup Duke's Mayonnaise (or Hellman's, for those of us who don't live in South Carolina)
1 cup crab meat
1/2 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp. horseradish
1 tbsp. French dressing

Mix all ingredients and serve with crackers. If you prefer a little extra tang, don't be afraid to add more horseradish or french dressing to suit your taste. Let sit several hours or overnight to blend flavors. (I think the best crackers for this are Club crackers...that way you really feel like you're at the restaurant eating Captain's Wafers or something.)

This dip is so stinkin good. I used to make it years ago when we lived in Charleston. My husband is a South Carolina boy, and when we were newlyweds we had many discussions about the merits of Duke's mayonnaise versus Miracle Whip. I was and continue to be adamantly pro-Miracle Whip, but Greg has always taken a firm anti-Miracle Whip stance. We compromised by buying both, and continue to do so today; however, we no longer live in a state that carries Duke's mayonnaise, so my husband has learned to survive on the teeny tiny squeeze bottle of Hellman's that sits in our fridge next to the jumbo-sized Miracle Whip.

Well happy dipping to everyone, and I hope you have a good weekend.

Buying a full-size jar of mayonnaise just so I can make this in Jesus' name,
Chrissy

Taupe This.

2009-08-30T19:43:00.001-04:00

So we've had our house for sale all summer and no one has bought it. Our realtor came over the other day and gave us some suggestions for home improvements. She walked through the entire house and basically said "Paint this Taupe!" in every room. Since I am not working while the kids are in school, my new job title is the Queen of Improvements, Specifically Taupe Ones.

Please gaze upon my only son. He lost a tooth. I now call him Leroy.The room in which he is standing is our home office. Please notice the lovely blue walls. I like to call this color "Portrait Studio Blue." Definitely not Taupe.

Here are the girls, who wanted their portraits made too.
My job #1 was to rid the office of its portrait studio. Three coats of taupe and white later, it looks like this:I have a giant entertainment center in my office that weighs about 1000 pounds, and we have been trying to get rid of it for a while. Since it is too heavy to move, I just painted taupe all around it so there is still a big blue spot behind it. Surprise, future buyers!

Now my next job will be to rid the office bathroom of its 80's wallpaper. I put Leroy to work on that.I just need to tell you that I'd rather pull out my toenails with pliers than remove wallpaper, but it needs to be done. We're also going to put in a new mirror and light fixture.

The next room on the list to be Tauped: Katie's room! (sob) This sucker took FOREVER to paint. Not happy about that.(Photos stolen from my real estate listing online. But yes, it is always that clean. Because I force the kids to clean their rooms EVERY FIVE MINUTES.)

Meanwhile we are possibly going to get a new kitchen floor. (And no, we won't be doing that ourselves.) My kitchen is totally retro-70's, but not in a good way. It's a little....brown. Although we did get rid of the mauve-and-cream heart wallpaper that used to be in here, so there's that. (Did I mention that I clean this kitchen until it looks just like this before I leave the house in the morning? EVERY DAY? I don't really shower any more, but my house is looks fantastic.)

The cabinets are going to have to stay, even though they are old and worn, because I do not have the mental or financial faculties to deal with them. I plan to douse them with Old English Scratch Cover (again) and I've considered spray-painting the hardware, but dang that seems like such a pain.

So there's your Home Improvement Update. I'll post some more 'After' photos hopefully soon.

First Day of School

2009-08-24T14:53:00.002-04:00

Tommy's Birthday

2009-08-22T01:30:00.008-04:00

My little guy is turning seven next week, and we went ahead and had his party the other night. I always give the kids a choice when it comes to parties; if they want to invite lots of people, we have a party at the house, but if they want to go "out" to another location (Chuck E. Cheese or bowling or whatever), then just the family goes out plus one friend. It's easier on the budget and on the sanity that way, and even our home parties so far have been pretty small; we just invite the neighborhood kids who are over at our house day and night anyway, so it's not that big of a difference.

Anyway, it happened this time that I had a stack of free tickets to the baseball game plus one birthday boy who is nuts about baseball, so this birthday was a breeze for me. Greg took him to the store and bought him his first "real" baseball bat and some batting gloves. He has been swinging it all around the house ever since.I made him a baseball cake. The glove part of the cake needed help, but it was very tasty.

Then it was off to the Frisco Rough Riders game. One of these kids kept her glove in the air the entire time hoping for a foul ball.

Except when she was chewing on her jewelry.
The best part of the evening was when they announced all the birthdays and Tommy got to see his name up in lights. He was thrilled. We were squinting at the sign across the field, but after a few minutes we figured out there was one right behind our heads:

Although I thought the scribbly smiley face was a bit unprofessional.

How Old Am I.

2009-08-16T21:40:00.005-04:00

I found out the other day that one of the cute little 3rd grade boys that I used to teach in Sunday School years ago has just graduated from the Naval Academy. And then I put in my false teeth and picked up my walker and stormed off.

For the last school year, my friend Julie and I got together every morning at six to work out. We went from walking to running and when it got too cold we bought a Jillian Michaels DVD. We started on Level 1 and worked our way up to Level 3, and not the 'easy' version of level 3, we did the advanced level. Then we got her second DVD that was an hour-long workout and proceeded to kick its butt as well. We laughed in the face of Jillian Michaels. We taunted her. And we were magnificent.

At the end of May, Julie and I looked at one another and said, "We are all kinds of awesome. We do not need any more exercise. We want to sleep in for the summer, and we will not find it pleasurable to try to exercise later in the day because we do not wish to put our combined total of seven children into one house while we do so. Therefore we will take the summer off."

And we did.

Then the other day we decided to resume our workouts. "If only there were a more advanced level to this video," we laughed, "that would be the appropriate workout for us because we are so wonderful. But just for old times' sake let us start with Level 1, just so we can laugh merrily at how easy it is."

I'm sure you can guess how this story ended. When I was finally able to lift my arms and legs again, I put in my false teeth and picked up my walker and stormed off.

Updates and then some

2009-08-12T21:12:00.004-04:00

A few things I wanted to update you on:

1. The offer on the house fell through. It seems that the people really wanted the house but with one snag; they didn't actually have any money. Just a minor detail. They came back to see it on Monday, though, so I don't know what that means.

2. Mystery cantaloupe is quite delicious. We're saving the seeds until next year, and perhaps we will spread them in other people's front flower beds like Johnny Cantaloupeseed.

3. Greg's job situation is still officially in the Unknown category for the long term. For now, he is working on several contract jobs that have come together quite nicely and just in time. We are still trying to sell the house and still anticipating a move as soon as the house sells. This is where it gets complicated.

4. School starts in a week and a half and my baby will be in kindergarten.

5. School starts in a week and a half and my baby will be in kindergarten and that means I will have no children to parent between the hours of 8 and 3.

6. I'll be treating this (probably short) season as "comp time". What activities do you recommend after I catch up on nine years' worth of missed sleep?

Summer Is

2009-08-08T21:35:00.006-04:00

the smell of freshly cut grass and bug spray,
wearing your bathing suit until bedtime,
sun-bleached tresses and browned shoulders.

Dinner at My House: Shirts Optional, Ketchup Mandatory

2009-08-05T21:43:00.008-04:00

So my husband left town today for a 10 day business trip. Ten days. I know some people wouldn't publish such information on the internet for fear of stalkers/thieves but truthfully if one of you does decide to stalk me (unlikely considering most of you are my relatives) and show up at my house, I will grab my purse and ask you to watch my kids for a while so I could run a few errands alone, kthxbye.
On an unrelated note, this is what has happened in my front flower bed. Planted by a rogue squirrel or perhaps a stray seed mixed in the compost mulch. It is bizarre. It is a mystery. It is a cantaloupe.
Speaking of mystery plants, I discovered a patch of these in the back yard after a rainy week. I've lived in this house for five years and they've never bloomed before, and now they have appeared to tell me goodbye. [sob]

We've gotten yet another ridiculously low offer on our house, but I have a feeling this one is going to stick (possibly) after we negotiate a bit, which means I have to 1) start packing and 2) have conversations with my friends that include the response, "Wait, so you're really moving?" and 3) have a few 'Girls Night In' parties (see also: husband out of town) that include dessert and/or packing up boxes and/or hopefully more laughing than crying.

The third one is definitely in order for this weekend. I can't let all these fruits and flowers go to waste.

Listing

2009-07-28T22:35:00.002-04:00

Things that get on my nerves:
-People who pause in the middle of a conversation to send a text or check e-mail on their phone.
-Children after 8 p.m.
-Platitudes

Things that I tried this week for the first time:
-Blue Bell Blackberry Cobbler Ice cream
-Chipotle
-Orange nail polish

Things that are my favorite:
-Cilantro
-Conan O'Brien
-Ghirardelli brownies with Mrs. Richardson's Hot Fudge Sauce and Breyer's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Things that are not my favorite:
Corn tortillas
Laundry
When people die at the end of a book

Things that are on the calendar for the remainder of the summer:
Not one single thing.

And you?

Things Will Be Great When You're Downtown

2009-07-26T14:30:00.011-04:00

I was informed by a friend that earlier this week that I need to be posting more often here. I post pretty often on Facebook, but it's more along the lines of "Hey, we're going here today", partly in a "come join us if you're around" way, but partly in a "We're doing great and having fun, Facebook!!!" kind of way. I didn't realize I was even doing that until someone commented the other day that she was jealous that I get to do so many fun things and since she was a single mom she never got to do anything when her kid was little. I felt bad for her for a second, I really did, but then I remembered she bullied me all through middle school and I haven't talked to her since, so....unfriend.

So here is what is really going on with me: Trying to sell my house. Constantly cleaning my house. Constantly nagging children to clean up and not make messes. Constantly. And while I love having a nice beautiful home, I have come to the conclusion that this is no way to live life. I'm not a nice person to be around when I've been doing too much cleaning. Or any cleaning, really.

We've been having a lot of showings on the house, sometimes several a day, which is a good thing and I am absolutely not complaining, but since many of the showings have been on five or ten minutes' notice, that means I really have to be on my toes. Greg and I actually have a pit-crew-like routine for scrambling everyone out the door while simultaneously straightening the house. It is a wonder to behold.

Anyway, my main strategy this summer has been to get up, get the kids fed and dressed, clean up the kitchen and pack a picnic lunch while the kids clean their rooms and make beds, then I throw children, food, bathing suits, towels, library books, and all of our free and season passes to various things into the car and GET OUT OF THERE. Then we have the option of hitting up a museum, a pool, a library, or a friend's house, whatever strikes our fancy. The inside of my car looks like it has been hit by a tornado, but that's beside the point.

Now I present to you photos from our latest trip downtown, because I am too exhausted to continue this post... due to our latest trip downtown.

Summer Love

2009-07-21T23:28:00.007-04:00

Today I introduced my children to the word "swimmin' hole".Today I walked where dinosaurs walked.
Today I watched my children chase minnows and skip rocks.Today I enjoyed some cheese.Today was seized and thoroughly savored.

Things I Want To Remember Later

2009-07-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

Katie is a kisser. She is by far the most affectionate child I have ever known, and I have to confess that I absolutely love it. This afternoon, Grace and I were hanging out in my bed, reading our books, when Katie came in for a snuggle and a million kisses. I was thinking that I always want to remember this phase of life; the adoration, the affection, the tickles, the sweet giggles.

"Did you know," I asked Grace, "that when girls get to be teenagers they sometimes start to dislike their mothers?" She had never heard of such a thing, and wanted to know why. I went into an explanation of how mothers and daughters sometimes had different ideas on what the daughters should be allowed to do, and that sometimes daughters get irritated with mothers, and vice versa, and that it can sometimes be hard for them to get along. They still love each other, though, I made sure to add.

She looked at me as if I had made the whole thing up. "I cannot imagine that," she said, and went back to her book.

We were sitting the other night in our neighborhood ice cream parlor, Greg facing me in the booth, the kids peppered in on both sides, licking their dripping cones. There was an elderly couple behind us, unbeknownst to me, watching and listening to all of the (loud) chatter going on in our booth. Grace was exclaiming over her loose tooth for quite a while, each proclamation louder than the rest: It's really loose now, Mama, I mean REALLY loose. No, this one! Daddy, look at it! LOOKHOWLOOSEITIS. IT IS GOING TO FALL OUT MAMA., etc.

Greg and I, immune to excited exclamations of almost any kind at this point, made sure to nod and give occasional affirmation as we continued on with our adult conversation, sometimes pausing to correct the child crawling down under the table, comment appropriately about the loose tooth, or ask them to turn the volume down a bit.

After we finished our ice cream, I got up and walked to the soda fountain to refill a drink, when the elderly man approached me and placed something in my palm. It was a $1 coin, the kind they give you at the post office when you buy stamps from the machine.

"This is for when that tooth falls out tonight," he said with a smile, and walked off. I thanked him as he walked away, then pocketed the coin and went back to the table with a secret smile.

The tooth fell out that night, and the next morning, the coin made her day.

This weekend, we.....

2009-07-12T21:29:00.003-04:00

Summer fun on the Cheap

2009-07-10T15:22:00.007-04:00

One of the things I love about my city is the library's summer reading program. The kids keep track of their reading hours and when they turn them in, they get stuff for free. Just this past week, my kids scored tickets to the Dallas Children's Theater (valued at a whopping $18 apiece, like I would EVER pay for that myself), tickets to the Texas Rangers' baseball game next weekend, tickets to the Nasher Sculpture Center, and only one ticket to the circus. The younger two need to catch up to the oldest in order to get circus tickets in the next few weeks, so hopefully the kids will all get to go for free. We also have six free kid's tickets to the minor league baseball team from some random place, and I have three tickets for the Texas Rangers from a rain delay game we attended a few months ago.

Meanwhile, we already had two free Six Flags tickets from the school reading program this past spring, but I hadn't planned to use them because even with two free tickets, a family trip to Six Flags is a huge expense. Then, while using my free Dallas Children's Theater tickets last night, I engineered a trade with a friend for one kid's Six Flags ticket in exchange for our Nasher Sculpture Center tickets. She wasn't going to use her Six Flags tickets either, for the same reason as me, and we didn't really need the Nasher tix because the museum is free on Thursday nights and we can just go then. She wanted the Nasher tix because they can also be used at the Museum of Nature and Science, to which we have a season pass and do not need tickets.

Confused yet?

Anyway, I can get a $24 adult Six Flags ticket through the Girl Scouts, and I plan to take the kids next week when Greg is out of town. He kind of wants us to wait for him to go with us, but frankly that would double my cost and all we're going to be doing is hanging out in the kiddie section anyway, and there is no need for both of us to do that. We'll see.

So yeah, I am the Queen of Cheap and Free this summer. Earlier this week, a friend offered to babysit for me for free, and Greg and I went out to dinner and used a gift certificate. cha-ching! I also have a gift certificate to a spa that I need to use, if I can find it. Plus I got a free oil change because I complained about something last time I took my car in, but I'm giving that to Greg because I am generous like that.

The kids also got three free drinks from Sonic, three free burgers from Whataburger, and a ton of free fries from McDonald's. In order to stop the constant begging to use all of the coupons, we went yesterday and had ourselves a little progressive dinner. They thought that was pretty funny. Thankfully, all of those restaurants are on the same street.

This is completely unrelated and certainly not free, but I read this article in our local paper and now I am seriously hankering for a road trip. Only one of those places is in my area, and it is 1 1/2 hours away, but I might give it a shot next week, we'll see.

So. That's your Cheapskate Report for this week. Anything fun going on where you live?

Caution: Subject to Mood Swings

2009-07-07T10:52:00.004-04:00

Okay so I haven't been posting much in the last few weeks, but the truth is I've been having such changing moods and circumstances from day to day, if I had posted anything it would have gone something like this:

1. I'm Home From Vacation and It sucks!
2. I'm Probably Going to Have to Move and I'm Heartbroken!
3. I Have a Plan To Stay Here and I'm Hopeful!
4. That Plan Won't Work and Now I'm Moody!
5. Kids Having Meltdowns at the Dentist!
6. I'm Having Meltdowns On The Way Home from the Dentist!
7. I Love My Kids So Much They Are So Precious/Growing Up Too Fast/Such a Blessing/ It Makes Me Teary-Eyed!
8. Feeling Sorry For Myself!
9. Feeling So Richly Blessed!
10. The House is For Sale So I Must Constantly Clean! Don't Get Anything Out! (alternate title: Who Is Going to Pack up All This Stuff?)

So as you can see, I'm all over the map and exclaiming everything. No normal sentences for me. The situation around here is complicated, to say the least. I've not been sure how much I really want to put on the blog, but as of now the situation is this: Greg (probably) has a (really good) job starting in (hopefully) September that will involve moving out of state. We're selling the house. Where and how we will live between now and (hopefully) September depends on when the house sells. So I can't make any definite plans, I don't know where the kids will start school, I can't line up a job for the fall because I can't commit to staying for the school year, but if I'm still here then I'll most definitely need to be working, and I may be in one of fifty different moods each time you talk to me.

Also: we've had an offer on the house and we're negotiating, and the closing date they wanted is frighteningly soon. Stay tuned for more drama.

Going home

2009-06-27T22:08:00.005-04:00

We've had three wonderful weeks of visiting with family and friends throughout the Southeast, and early tomorrow morning we will head back to Texas. It's a fifteen hour drive with just me and the kids, and there will be lots of junk food, DVD's, and probably a stop at a Cracker Barrel somewhere along the way.

It really has been a wonderful vacation. I am so richly blessed with such lovely people in my life. I feel loved, valued, sunburned, and homesick; all the hallmarks of a good vacation.

I also have about 450 photographs, but I won't subject you to all of those. I will, however, describe a few moments not captured by the camera.

Driving home late from a girls' night out in my mother's convertible with my friend Becky, and we came upon a deer standing in the road who appeared to have no intention of moving. As we slowly approached the animal, Becky said, with perfect comedic timing, "Ohhhh, dear." Y'all, there is something to be said for friends that can make me laugh as hard as I laughed that night. That is a gift straight from God, and I treasure it.

Watching my husband swim way WAY too far out in the ocean with three kids clinging to him and squealing with delight, all the while I was standing on the shore saying, "Okay, that's far enough, honey." Then he brought them all back to shore, smiling and laughing, and they crowed all week about his bravery and strength in the waves.

Sitting at Waffle House late at night with my sisters (after also having ridden in the convertible) and having the waitress come by and say in a deep Southern twang, "Oh, y'all must be sisters!"

Watching my dad teach Tommy how to bait his own hook.

Watching my mother and my aunt giggling like schoolgirls while they tried to row a canoe for the first time.

Celebrating my birthday by eating homemade ice cream and playing cards with my in-laws while the kids played with their cousins.

Sitting at Waffle House late at night (again) with my childhood girlfriends, looking across the table at faces I have loved for 20 years, and sharing our struggles, our dreams, our mistakes, and huge pieces of pie.

Eating gumbo and jambalaya with a house full of kinfolk, literally.

Hearing the kids squeal with glee as they caught fish after fish after fish. I am proud to say that although I strongly object to pulling the hooks out of the fishes' mouths, I have successfully impaled about 89 worms for my girls' hooks this week. Go me.

And last but not least, here are all of my precious nieces and nephews, in photo form.

Photos of the Day

2009-06-21T22:05:00.004-04:00

Hey Y'all

2009-06-19T13:52:00.004-04:00

We're in Georgia for the next week or so, lazing around by the lake and eating spicy food. We had a good visit with Greg's family last weekend and then we spent a few lovely days in Charleston.

We watched dolphins. We ate seafoood. We loved it.

This is Cousin Emily. She reads my blog. Hi Emily.

On the Road Again

2009-06-10T08:13:00.005-04:00

We decided about 36 hours ago to put our house on the market, and after about 34 hours of cleaning, fixing, and painting, so it is. Meanwhile we leave in the morning for the Big Road Trip and I have not packed one thing. I don't even have a list yet, y'all.

So for now, I'll leave you with the Boy and His Mud, a scene which was laughed at and photographed by his mother, who was trying to be a good sport even though she JUST CLEANED THE HOUSE.

Craziness Cont'd

2009-06-06T23:52:00.006-04:00

Well not much has changed since summer vacation started, things are still crazy busy and hectic. We head to the doctor early Monday morning for Cast Removal and then straight to the pool (the kids want to bring their bathing suits to the doctor's office and change there) to make up for lost time.

We are still in limbo over possible new job/possible move/possibly no job/possibly precarious future, but either that will resolve soon or that will continue, either way it will get boring to blog about until something is known. So enough of that.

In other news, we decided to leave for our annual Tour of the South/family vacation two weeks early, which means that I now have three days to get ready, and full plans for activities all three of those days.

I'm a little bit nuts.

This year's trip will include a family reunion in South Carolina, a few days in my favorite Charleston, a day at the beach, and lots of lazy days at my parents' lake house in Georgia where I will wait on a floatie for my relatives and friends to come out and visit me. I can't wait. Perhaps I will wait on a hammock for some of the time. I'm open.

Meanwhile, here is a story. I took my car in to get some work done the other day. Actually, Greg had promised to take it in for me, but I had an epiphany: if I take the car in, I get several hours of uninterrupted reading time while he plays with the kids. So of course I took the car in. As I was sitting on the L-shaped couch reading a magazine and listening to Spanish lessons on MP3, a lady came in with her 4 year old daughter.

P.S. I seem to be unable to learn Spanish on an MP3 player. Apparently without visually seeing a word's spelling, I am unable to comprehend and retain it. I was really good at French in high school and college, so I thought I could pick up Spanish easily, but every time I try to think of a word in Spanish, the French word pops into my brain and will not leave. Knowing Spanish is a valuable job skill for anyone working in the social services field in Texas. I rue the day I chose to take French in high school. Rue it.

Anyway, this lady comes in and sits next to me with her little girl, and then takes out a pair of nail clippers and starts clipping the child's nails. Then she removes the child's shoes and socks and trims her toenails. Then she pulls out nail polish and starts polishing the girl's toenails.

I found it very strange.

I also had to move my purse to ensure no stray nail clippings were flying into it.

To make matters worse, she was one of these people who constantly narrates everything she is doing, ostensibly to her child, but is actually using this narration to indirectly explain her actions to the people around her. For instance: "I'm going to cut your toenails now, sweetie, since we're having such a rushed day and I needed something to do while we were waiting and we won't have time to do it after we get home from here."

I find the Mommy Narrations of Explanation even more annoying than the toenail clipping. Here is what I think: if you're going to do something and you're not certain how the strangers who are sharing a space with you are going to react, either don't do it (probably for the best), or just own it. Walk into a room full of strangers and shower them with fingernail clippings and make no apologies. Then walk out ten minutes later with your head held high.

Jet Lagged

2009-06-01T23:32:00.009-04:00

Well this week has been a crazy one. I could write a handful of blog posts about it if I had more than a few moments to sit still, so I'm just going to make a list.

1. My cousin Tracee came into town last week to visit with her husband and daughter. We crammed about five days' worth of sightseeing into 24 hours. We got rained on at the Rangers' ballpark. We saw the Southfork Ranch where they filmed Dallas. We walked on the grassy knoll. We ate some good food. We laughed quite a bit. It was a lovely visit.

2. Right after that, Greg and I left town for three days and flew to an undisclosed location to interview for a job. It was good and it went well, but it was very bizarre. There were five people flown in to compete for the same job...for the entire weekend. It was strange. Let's just say most churches don't do that. I kept asking Greg if he thought we should be making alliances in case we were asked to vote someone off.

3. I've been reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. I am loving it! I need to find someone else who has read it so I can discuss it with them. VERY thought-provoking.

4. To top all of that off, this week is the last week of school (FINALLY), so of course there is all the mayhem and crazy that goes along with that, but freedom, sweet luscious yummy freedom is on the horizon, and in just days it will be mine.

5. I found a dead baby snake in a drawer in the kids' bathroom right before we left this weekend, and I forgot to tell Greg about it, and he is leaving town tomorrow morning at the buttcrack of dawn for yet another interview. My dilemma: do I just leave it there for a few more days or do I dispose of it myself? Discuss.

What's Playing at the Drive-In

2009-05-26T00:31:00.006-04:00

We had been meaning to visit this theater about 40 miles from our house for quite some time now, and we finally got around to it Friday night. We went to see Night at the Museum 2. The weather was really pleasant, and there were lots of families there with frisbees and lawn chairs. There was 50's music playing on the old speakers, and we all played around and danced the twist until it got dark enough for the movie to start.

And we also ate our weight in junk food. The show began with some vintage theater propaganda.

Consequently I want to make this theater a regular habit. I really do. Then there were some vintage concession stand commercials, specifically one for dancing pickles.
Now I want to eat a dancing pickle. And I don't even like pickles.
Greg and I do this all the time- we dress in matching clothes and eat pickles in the car. Except I always wear my pearls. This lady is an amateur.
We really did, and we really will, thank you theater propaganda.

We only stayed for the first feature (Wolverine was the double) mainly because the kids didn't go to sleep like we had hoped. It was still great fun. We got home around midnight and I was awakened at 2 by my youngest, who had consumed half of the popcorn bucket (pictured above) and felt the need to puke it all back up all over everything in her room.

In conclusion I will never ever eat another bite of popcorn as long as I live. I am done. For life.

Thank God she didn't eat a bucket of pickles.

An evening in the back yard

2009-05-23T12:00:00.001-04:00

Okay so I've been putting up a lot of photos of my oldest lately, but I do have other children, random photos, and nothing interesting to say, so here goes.

My first harvest from the garden the other day. Pitiful but yummy anyway. Kate loves to take pictures of me with my camera, and I love to delete them. Then I was reading something the other day about how moms should get behind the camera, too, so the kids will have photos of us when we were (relatively) young, and the fact of the matter is in ten years I will look back on this photo with a face that is ten years older, and wistfully remember being only 33. Of course, in ten years I will have three teenagers and will probably look and feel much more than ten years older.

Freckle Face

2009-05-21T23:40:00.002-04:00

When I was a kid, I had freckles just like these, and I hated them. Now I think they're beautiful.

Stayyyyy out of the Marsh!

2009-05-18T22:13:00.005-04:00

I've been cracking myself up at that joke all weekend, although very few people in my everyday life actually get it. It's not even a joke, really, it's an impression of a character on a ride at Six Flags over Georgia, sort of an inside joke between my sisters and me from way back in the days we used to spend our summers wearing out our Six Flags season passes.

I took my Brownie troop camping in East Texas this weekend, which is the source of my marsh musings, and also the source of my so-tired-I'm-loopy sense of humor, making jokes that are only funny to me and then laughing endlessly at them. We had a really good time, and got really wet in the rain, and ate lots of marshmallows. The end.

Except for this: I have a nice tent that I have been using for about two years now. When I got the tent, I waterproofed it. The top of the tent is made out of screen material, and waterproofing that is ineffective. The tent comes with a rain fly, a cover to put over the top of the tent in case of rain. It never occurred to me to waterproof the rain fly. I reasoned that a product whose sole purpose is to protect the tent from rain would be, I don't know, water repellent.

I was very very wrong.

Dear Tent Manufacturers:

Please do not waste my time and sanity by manufacturing a product whose function is to repel water and whose title implies that its purpose will be fulfilled during the rain, unless you are going to actually go to the trouble of ensuring that the product is water repellent enough to literally repel actual rain. Otherwise you are just selling me a cape for my tent, and my tent does not need a cape.

Love, Chrissy

P.S. Your instructions suck.

Moving on.

Thankfully I had made the girls put all of their belongings in trash bags that morning before we left (a lesson learned from experience, unfortunately), so we bought tarps at the store and ghettoed up the tent, and all was well. I don't really have lots of pictures to share on the blog, since they're all of other people's children, but I will leave you with this:
I have never shared with you the extent of my marshmallow roasting talents because I value modesty. However, it is not an understatement to say that I am the champion of marshmallow roasting, and have been for over 15 years. No one can challenge me. My skill cannot be matched. That is all.

Photos from the Doctor's Office

2009-05-14T16:38:00.004-04:00

(her first tattoo)

She flies through the air with the greatest of ease...it's the landing that's the problem.

2009-05-10T13:22:00.006-04:00

A little over a year ago, I posted some photos on the blog of my kids playing on their favorite playground. It had been around since the sixties, and was a landmark in our community. A friend commented at the time that it was actually pretty neat that we still had a playground you could still break bones on, meaning that all of the newer ones are so plastic and sterile. I thought so, too.
A few months later, the old playground failed an inspection and was torn down. We were sad to see it go.

This week, the new "safe" playground was unveiled, and I took the kids to check it out on Saturday. It has a pretty cool treehouse theme, twisty slides, shiny new swings, and a huge sandbox. It is also very plastic and sterile. (See? Completely safe. Katie is about to knock that girl off of the top rung, just wait.)

It was all loads of fun, until Grace climbed up to a high "treehouse" platform with a hole in the middle for a ladder, forgot the hole was there, and as she was playing, took a step backwards straight down into the hole.

When I got to her, she was dangling upside down with her legs tangled up in the rungs of the ladder at sickening angles, and she was screaming hysterically. Somehow, by the grace of God, she fell head first without hitting her head and twisted her legs all akimbo without even bruising them. Her wrist, however, is broken.

So this week we'll be taking a trip to the pediatric orthopaedist, getting a (hopefully pink) cast, and rearranging plans for the first part of summer to exclude swimming. All the while I will continue to ponder why my most cautious child is the one with the most trips to the ER, and shudder while thinking of how it could have been much, much worse.

Meet my new best friend

2009-05-06T19:35:00.007-04:00

Her name is Grilled Tequila Lime Chicken with Cilantro From the Garden, Avocado, Tomato, and Toasted French Bread with Garlic Butter and Melted Monterrey Jack Cheese, Served With Grilled Corn On the Cob and Grilled Yellow Squash. My favorite. The only things missing are bacon and lettuce, which I accidentally omitted.

Tomorrow night the leftovers will be turned into chicken fajitas with more avocado, more cilantro, well more of everything except we'll have tortillas instead of bread. And I'll add the grilled squash in the tortilla and it will be heaven. I'll serve it with rice and black beans that no one will eat.

***Edited to add: I've gotten e-mails asking for the recipe for the chicken. There is no recipe, it's a Lawry's marinade from the grocery store. The squash is just butter, salt, pepper, garlic, and lemon, sprinkled on sliced squash and wrapped in a foil packet. For the fajitas I will brown the squash in a skillet and chop up the chicken and reheat in the skillet.

The Upside of Being Unemployed

2009-05-04T19:49:00.000-04:00

1. We no longer have to pay $50 a month for Greg to take the toll road to work. Cha-ching!

2. Husband is ~~underfoot~~ at home a lot more.

3. Kids are old enough to earn their own living.That's right babies! Get to work! Those swimming lessons don't pay for themselves!

In all seriousness, we're doing just fine. Things are looking up for the moment, some contract work has been offered, some good interviews have been...interviewed, and I'm feeling good. I even repainted my bedroom in nice soft peaceful bluegreen tones ~~in case we have to sell the house and move~~ for me to enjoy for years to come.

The Untold Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder

2009-04-29T10:10:00.000-04:00

Here is young Laura Ingalls Wilder on her way to school to do my her presentation. So precious.
Laura appears tolerant as her little brother attempts to get in on her portrait session.Laura's patience runs out, however, when her baby sister joins in on the fun.It's hard being Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Let's Take Some Deep Breaths

2009-04-25T17:32:00.002-04:00

or, Why I Think Everyone Should Visit Texas in April
Extra points if you can guess what Big Daddy Weave song gets into my head every time I see these photos.

Random Conversation With a Stranger

2009-04-23T22:17:00.002-04:00

Scene: picnic table outside our favorite hamburger stand, chatting with the lady who just took our order as she smokes a cigarette.

Her: So you have three children? Why don't you have another so you can have an even number?

Tommy: Yeah! I want a baby brother!

Me: (strained smile)

Her: What grade are y'all in?

Kids: 2nd! Kindergarten! I'll be in kindergarten next year!

Her: (to me) Oh, and what will you do then, with all of them in school?

Grace: Laundry.

Me: Well, I'll go to work...and then do laundry.

Grace: That's lame.

Me: Yes, yes it is.

Bad News

2009-04-19T22:11:00.000-04:00

I was sitting at home in the middle of the day on Thursday when my husband walked through the door. I said something welcoming like, "Why are you home and not at work?" and he announced that he'd been laid off from his job.

There is no scandal, no dissatisfaction or wrong-doing to report in this situation; the church has been hurting financially, and they had to cut five staff members to make ends meet. The pastor and elders were heartbroken about it. Our church is one of the last in our area to make staff cuts; many of our friends and acquaintances in the ministry have gone through this situation in the last few months. I guess I just never thought it would happen to us.

I am feeling at peace about it, though; strangely I am not worried or even that emotional about it yet. We've been given 12 weeks of severance and health insurance, an enormous blessing that I know a lot of people don't receive, and I am grateful.

I am also very blessed to have a husband who is exceptionally gifted and well-respected. He has more initiative than anyone I have ever known. For the past few years, he has basically been working two jobs; one full time job at the church, and another full time job doing his writing/conference speaking/blogging. He is brilliant and driven and I am confident that the Lord will provide something for him.

It doesn't hurt that I've been reading all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to help Gracie with my her report for school, and boy, Ma and Pa Ingalls sure went through some much rougher times. The grasshoppers ate their wheat for two summers in a row! Then they had to leave to find work! Then their baby died! Then Mary lost her eyesight! So, you know, that's really bad. This will pass. Right? Right?

To be truthful, we've been through this nightmare before. After September 11, there was a huge economic downturn in the Durham, NC area, where we were living at the time. Our church had some... let's just say shady financial troubles that were hidden very well for a very long time, but with the drop in finances that winter, it got continually worse, and the pastor had to let Greg go.

At the time, it was devastating. I had a 16 month old daughter, and was five months pregnant with my son. A few weeks after we received that news, we went to the doctor for an ultrasound and discovered that a cyst was growing in the baby's brain. A few weeks after that, I was playing with Gracie in the front yard when I was attacked and mauled by my neighbor's 100 pound dog, with Gracie standing just a few feet away. A few weeks later, we signed off on the sale of our house, loaded up a U-haul truck, and sadly began the journey back to South Carolina, where we would stay with Greg's mom until we got back on our feet. As Greg was backing the truck out of the driveway, he steered it right into the front fender of his own SUV, with me behind the wheel paying attention to the toddler seated in the back. As he stood with his hands on his hips, surveying the damage, for just an instant I saw a look in his eyes not unlike Clark Griswold upon his arrival at Wally World, but it passed, and he got back in the truck and we drove off in a cloud of exhaust.

That story ends well; the baby was perfectly healthy at the next ultrasound, I got over my dog bites and away from the toxic neighbor, the time spent at my mother-in-law's house was an enormous blessing. We were able to live off of our savings and a few music gigs here and there until a new job was offered, and then we coasted into the DC area on fumes with $100 left to our names, one day left before our old health insurance expired, and a new understanding of the phrase 'Trust in God'... an understanding that is now going to be tested again.

A Dwight Schrute Moment

2009-04-14T22:39:00.001-04:00

The other day I was standing in the Museum of Nature and Science in front of a fake black bear habitat. A little girl behind me squealed to her Daddy, "Ooooh, look at those scary bears!" The father replied, "If you ever see a bear like that in real life, honey, you better run FAST!"

Every fiber of my being wanted to turn around and say, "You should never run from a bear. They are faster than you and they will catch you."

But I didn't. I quelled the urge and maintained my dignity. For once.

Suppressing my inner Dwight since 2009.

Such is Life

2009-04-12T20:46:00.008-04:00

On Thursday night, I watched my son score a game-winning goal at his soccer game. It was his first goal ever, and boy was he ecstatic. And then on Saturday morning, we watched him score another goal.

For the other team.

Although he denies that it was him. He claims he was trying to get the ball away from the goal. And I choose to believe him.

Our Easter was a good one, filled with wonderful worship and lots of sweets. Then we came home and ate fajitas and deviled eggs for Easter dinner. Hi, I live in Texas.

And now some photos for the grandparents and assorted others who may be interested:

Here is Tommy defending the ball from this apparently 11 year old girl:

Going for the goal...
SCORE!!
Such joy. Such blurry, blurry joy.

Afterwards, I let took him out for ice cream and let him choose anything off the menu. Then we all made ourselves sick from eating so much. Fun times.

Life Lessons by Barbie

2009-04-06T22:05:00.010-04:00

We've been watching Barbie Thumbelina all week at the house, a birthday gift specifically requested by my 5 year old. I'll sum up the message of the movie for you so you can save some time: Adults are greedy, materialistic, selfish people who are destroying our environment for monetary gain without any thought for the creatures that live in it. Also, they absolutely will not listen to the pleadings of their children to change their ways, so naturally the only recourse that children have is to stand up publicly in an act of outright defiance; only then will the adults realize how very wrong they are, meekly change their ways, and start saving our planet along with the children.

So, you know, just like real life.

I don't know what the deal is with all the Barbie propaganda. I don't necessarily have a problem with the message of environmentalism; I'm a moderately green person. I strongly believe that my children's generation needs to be taught differently than my generation on the issue of the environment, and I am trying my best to do so, with my children and with my Girl Scout troop. I just find it annoying that the same character who promotes "fashion" and "shopping" and "dressing like a street-walker" to young girls would take such an uppity moral tone. That's all.

Obviously I don't have enough of a problem with Barbie to ban her presence in my home. She is welcome as long as she behaves herself. I am grateful to her for knocking those nasty Bratz dolls out of business, so she can stay and play. I do insist that she own respectable clothing; capris and doctor coats and ball gowns and such, although every time I run into her she is laying in the floor completely naked, the little tramp.

But since Barbie has taken it upon herself to give moral instruction to my children, I've been giving a little thought to some lessons she could teach that would be a little more useful in real life.

1. Sometimes you try your best, and you still don't win, and it's completely fair.
(I was at a school assembly recently where awards were given out for the Science Fair: 57 First Place ribbons! Oh, everyone was so great, we just couldn't decide! How wonderful! My friend and I were just giving each other incredulous looks....this is a whole different post, however...)

2. Sometimes those in authority are wrong, and taking a stand about it doesn't change their mind, and you just have to suck it up and deal with the injustice.

3. Sometimes you just don't get what you want.

4. Being a 'diva' or a 'princess' is not going to work to your advantage in the real world. See also: 'Fashion' and 'shopping' cost money, and you have to work for that, Princess.

I would absolutely buy these movies. I need Barbie to help me teach these lessons to my kids. It really is hard to do.

(P.S. I have an Aaron Update from the last post: He was sent home from the hospital today! This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as it could have been much much worse. He continues to be in a lot of pain, and has a long recovery ahead of him.)

The answer: Drives Fast, Loves the Cowboys, Addicted to his iPhone.

2009-04-02T14:49:00.011-04:00

The question: What can you tell about my husband from this photo?In his defense, the speed limit in west Texas is 80, although let's just say he's no stranger to that speed.

It's a mystery to me why he takes his hat off when riding in the car, although if I had to guess, I would say that maybe it is because he is so tall it hits the ceiling when he turns his head. I really don't know. Thirteen years of marriage and still so many unknowns.

On a different note:

If you are my Facebook friend or my real-life friend, you've probably heard about my friend Aaron. He is on staff at our church along with Greg, and he has been in Intensive Care since Monday after a fall. He went to the doctor with the flu and received an injection, and when he was checking out, he fainted and the back of his head hit the floor, fracturing his skull, as well as bruising the frontal lobe of his brain. We are all just grieved and frightened for him and for his wife Jenny. Greg has been staying overnight at the hospital the last few nights to give the family some rest, and has been really devastated to see his friend in that condition. There has been some improvement, and the doctors say he should be out of ICU in the next day or two. Prayers for his family as well as for his full recovery would be much appreciated.

Katie's Birthday Party

2009-03-30T21:56:00.006-04:00

This weekend was a blast and a blur; we had a great time visiting with our friends and then we hosted about 12 neighborhood kids for a birthday party. One good thing about our neighbors is that our kids are all very close friends. One bad thing is that they are close enough friends to fight like brothers and sisters. Especially at birthday parties when not everyone gets the same number of Easter eggs and I promise them a prize egg that was never found and they question my egg hiding integrity as if I had made the prize egg up. Oh, it's still out there, people. I don't know where, but it's still out there. And it has money in it.

And another thing: when I hide Easter eggs, I don't mess around. You have to work to find those eggs. They don't come for free.

Anyway, we all bounced back. The cake pops were a huge hit. The birthday girl had a great time. All the tears were forgotten as soon as the candy started flowing.
We have several 12 year old girls in our neighborhood who work the birthday party circuit. For five bucks an hour, you can hire them to work your party, doing hair, painting nails, running games, or doing crafts. These are my future babysitters in training. For this party, we just offered hairdo services. I think the french braid pigtails are lovely. Of course, Katie only allowed plain pigtails, no ribbons. It didn't occur to me until after the party that I should have hired the girl to come clean up afterward. I will definitely have to do that next time.
Here are what my cupcake pops turned out like. They were really delicious, and the kids loved them. If I make them again, I will just stick with one color ball with sprinkles on a lollipop stick instead of trying to be so fancy. These took way too long to make.
Here are Katie and Molly, BFF's, opening presents together. The only two pictures that I have of Katie without Molly at this party are the ones where I cropped Molly out (the first two at the top). Those girls are joined at the hip.

Look at this sleeping baby...

2009-03-29T19:20:00.002-04:00

Oh dear, someone's noisy camera woke him up. Sorry.

Sugar-coated

2009-03-27T00:13:00.003-04:00

My baby girl is turning five on Monday. Five. I've been telling her all week that I love Four so much that I want her to stay Four. Four is so sweet and affectionate and adorable. Each time I say it, Katie giggles and says, "No, I want to have a birfday and be five. I want to grow up! I'll still love you when I'm five!" And I tell her no, we'll have a birthday party, but it will be her Fourth birthday.

She doesn't care much for that suggestion.

Meanwhile, my usual temporary birthday insanity has taken over, and I've attempted to make these for the party. I don't know what possessed me to think this was a good idea, but it's done. I have company coming in the morning, the house is a mess, and the entire kitchen is candy-coated, but the cupcake pops are done. I don't know why I lose my mind every time one of my kids has a birthday. I am not a crafter or a baker. I have no tolerance for things that require attention to detail. But three times a year, I see something cute on the internet and say to myself, "YES. That is exactly what I need to spend my entire day doing, even though it is far beyond my skill level and will frustrate me beyond belief. How fun!"

So for now, I am going to bed and leaving the kitchen candy-coated until morning. Some close friends from Nashville are coming to stay here for the weekend with their precious baby, so we'll be doing lots of visiting and spades playing and birthday partying and enjoying the last few days of Age Four in our home. It looks like it's going to be a good weekend.

Mo Photos

2009-03-22T21:06:00.007-04:00

These are the last Big Bend photos that I will post. I hope you are able to live with that. The first one was taken at a place called Burro Mesa, at the bottom of a dry waterfall that has been carved into the mountain, and if you look at Greg's face, you can tell that this is the exact moment that I was asking him if he knew how long it would take for an ambulance to reach us.
The answer: a very long time. Of course the girls got in on the action next. They love to climb the rock wall at REI (even Katie can ring the bell), and they were excited to climb a real-life rock wall. Tommy, like me, kept his feet planted firmly on the ground.
Next we went to a town called Terlingua, to visit their "Ghost Town". The kids were really excited about this until they found out that it was really just a bunch of crumbling adobe buildings, a cemetary, and some touristy shops. We didn't see any actual ghosts.

This is a book that Santa brought for Tommy this year: He LOVES it. Yes, it is a book about poop. He brought it on each hiking trail, and got disproportionately excited each time he came across some 'scat'. Especially coyote scat. He loves coyotes. All week, he kept saying he just wanted to see one. There was a group of them that roamed our campground at night, and we could hear them howling to each other. On the last night, one of them howled right outside our tent, and I really wanted to open the window and look at it, but it was really cold, and my sleeping bag was really warm.

And now a final sunset from Big Bend. I don't know when we'll go back. I don't know if I'll get my husband to agree to camping again any time soon. It was a lovely vacation, though.

El Trip Reporto Part Dos

2009-03-19T20:23:00.007-04:00

Hola. Bienvenido to el blog. Here are more vacation pictures for you.

Here are a bunch of goofballs getting ready to hike. Please look at the map and note that the yellow portion is most decidedly Mexico, and the green is Texas.
In this photo, Mexico is to the left of the water, and Texas is to the right. Our instructions were to stay firmly on the right, by the way, a direct order from the Feds...or at least that's what the bulletin board said.
Here we are sauntering along in the U.S., minding our law-abiding business...

(super-star!)

And here I am putting my toe in the water at my husband's insistence....still legal.....and such a natural pose....

But wait....who's that cowboy? He's crossing back and forth from Mexico...illegally!!! To sell souvenirs!!!and here's another one....singing Mexican ballads into the canyon for tips. Our family is very law-abiding, and would never support such illegal activity at our nation's border....

oh wait, apparently we do. Smile, honey! This one's for the Feds!

Spring Break, Whooooo!

2009-03-18T00:01:00.003-04:00

Greg and I have been planning a Spring Break trip to the beach for several months now. We made reservations for a campsite on a beach in South Texas, bought flip-flops and sand buckets, and packed all of our beach accoutrements in anticipation of our departure. Unfortunately, 24 hours before we were to leave, the Weather Channel predicted 70% chance of rain and 60 degree weather, so we decided to chuck the beach trip and go to Big Bend National Park instead.
It goes without saying that I am thoroughly in love and obsessed with Big Bend. I LOVE it. My sister Wendy and I went there a year ago, and I have been dying to get back. We simply didn't want to do it for Spring Break because the place is usually filled to capacity with college students during the month of March. Sure enough, there were no reservations to be had, but we drove out there anyway in hopes of finding a place.

Fortunately for us, the weather had been horrid all week, and had run most of the college students off, so we had our choice of campsites in the park. We chose one right by the Rio Grande, which of course is the border between the U.S. and Mexico. (The Rio Not So Grande, as Greg calls it)

Unfortunately for us, the weather continued to be horrid for the first night that we were there, and we nearly froze our booties off. I don't know how strong the winds were that first night, but it was exactly like sleeping under a kite that has been nailed to the ground. Just like it.

After that first night, the weather turned sunny and warm, and we were able to enjoy lots of hiking and sightseeing.
Here we are hiking the Lost Mine Trail. The kids were very excited about potentially finding the Lost Mine. Like it was an episode of Dora or something.
This is the view from an overlook one mile into the trail, which is where we turned around. Tommy was insistent that he could hike the full five miles, but we wouldn't take his word for it.

This is the Window, which is in an area called the Basin where Wendy and I camped on the last trip. Wendy and I actually hiked to the edge of the V, which ends at the top of a waterfall, which is the location of my header photo up there.
This is Casa Grande Peak, one of my favorites in the park.
After we were finished hiking, we got into the car for the 30 mile scenic drive through the park back to our campsite. We had a beautiful view of these mountains, called the Sierra Madres.
The kids were really excited that we got to go through this tunnel every time we came back to the campground.

This is our very sturdy tent and campsite, with dinner cooking. The car behind us belongs to some college students. I'm not trendy enough to drive an X-terra. Speaking of college student trends, I saw a lot of male college students wearing skinny jeans. What is up with that? I wanted to just take them aside and shake my head and say, "No, honey, just no. Girls do not like toothpick legs on you. Trust me. The fauxhawk is okay, but not the skinny jeans." But I didn't. They'll have to learn on their own, I guess.

Another side story about the campsite: the metal box on the right is a Bear Box, meant for storing food and cooking items that need to be kept away from wildlife. When we pulled up to the campsite, Katie asked what it was, and I replied, "It's a bear box." With perfect dry comedic timing, Grace responded, "That's where you keep your bears." The reason it made me laugh so hard is because it sounded exactly like something my dad would say, and it tickles me to death that she has inherited his sense of humor.

Well this has gotten quite long. I have harrowing tales of coyotes and encounters with illegal aliens crossing the border, but I will wait and share them with you tomorrow.

I've been gone this week...

2009-03-17T17:40:00.004-04:00

to a place where we were slightly lower on the food chain
and where the kids got into a little bit of legal trouble.....
but for now I have a wet tent to air out and several loads of grungy laundry to wash. More photos to come.

Dance Fever

2009-03-10T00:58:00.009-04:00

Tommy's kindergarten class performed for the parents at open house the other night. They did a few songs and dances in Spanish, then they did a few early 90's rap tunes. And I am here to tell you there is nothing funnier than 100 kindergarteners boogeying to some early 90's rap. Nothing.We sat on the wrong side of the gym, which meant that most of the time, all we could see was the kid's backside.
Although occasionally we got to see him sporting his "white boy dance face".
There was one moment that I was exceedingly grateful that we got a rear-end view of the kid, because I would have hated to miss this booty shake right here:
wait for it.....
There it is. That's worth the price of admission right there.

(Kris Kross will make you....JUMP! JUMP!)

This is during the "freestyle" section of the dance. I think he borrowed this move from Charlie Brown.

Word to your mutha.

An Interview With My Children

2009-03-06T00:37:00.002-05:00

A little something stolen today: I asked these questions to my three children, Grace, Tommy, and Katie.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
K: I don't know.
T: my name.
G: Go to bed.

2. What makes mom happy?
K: When I clean up my room wiffout being told.
T: When I behave.
G: When Barack Obama was elected president.

3. What makes mom sad?
K: When I don't clean up my room.
T: When I get in trouble.
G: I don't know.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
K: tickle me.
T: by tickling me.
G: When you accidentally poured orange juice in your Dr. Pepper. (that was a rough morning.)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
K: being ticklish.
T: being silly and behaving and misbehaving.
G: I wasn't alive, I don't know.

6. How old is your mom?
K:33
T: 33.
G: 33.

7. How tall is your mom?
K: tall, like 33 feet.
T: 5 1/2 feet.
G: Five foot and a half I think. (5'7'', they were very close.)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
K: doing chores.
T: Relax
G: To date Greg. (one of these answers is very very wrong.)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
K: being sad that you miss me.
T: I don't know.
G: Get on the computer and do all this blogging.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
K: I don't know.
T:I can't answer that one.
G: Reading.

11. What is your mom really good at?
K: typing like this (wiggles fingers quickly.)
T: Writing.
G: Typing. Because you're just looking at me and typing so fast. (I am very fast. I used to be a transcriptionist.)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
K: I don't know. You tell me.
T: Keeping us from getting in trouble.
G: I don't know.

13. What does your mom do for a job?
K: Take care of us.
T: take care of teenagers.
G: You babysit teenagers.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
K: Cilantro.
T: i don't know.
G: Ice cream and junk food and brownies and desserts.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
K: playing uno.
T: I don' t know.
G: I'm proud of you for being brave enough to ask strangers if they want Girl Scout Cookies with me.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
K: a chef
T: Popeye
G: Bugs Bunny

17. What do you and your mom do together?
K: play together, like pretend stuff.
T: play
G: we talk.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
K: Can I have junk food?
T: We both have lungs.
G: we're both girls.

19. How are you and your mom different?
K: because all of the people is different.
T: I'm a boy, you're a girl.
G: You are a grown-up.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
K: I don't KNOW. YOU TELL ME. (stomps foot.)
T:Because you're my mommy.
G: Because you always say that you love me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
K: I want candy.
T: I don't know. Can I go now?
G: He's your husband.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
K: The zoo.
T: I don't want to do this! I'm leaving!
G: Grandma and Grandpa's house.