Busy Morning

I know it is dangerous to keep asking myself WHY? But this morning it seems like that is all I have done. I decided to tackle Blake and Trevor's room today. It has been the elephant that I have been trying to ignore for the past several weeks. Chad got into two accidents in one week a few weeks ago (one his fault, one not) and we had to pay our deductible twice because he hit something that fell out of somebody's truck on the highway plus the ticket he got for running a red light, we can't afford to buy any furniture to replace that which got left in TN. Unfortunately that means no bunk beds for the boys and no shelves to put their stuff on (as well as no dressers for me to put my things in).

Because of the lack of storage the majority of their toys were still in boxes and I didn't like the way Chad insisted we put their beds, so every time I walked by I would just close the door hoping it would sort itself out. But today I decided that enough was enough and took apart a shelf that we had in the garage and dragged half of it upstairs to set their tv and toys on. I told Trevor I had a surprise for him and to wait downstairs while I unpacked his pirate ship, rocket and castle. I put everything on shelves and in bins and set up the tv and Xbox. When I called Trevor back upstairs after I was done his eyes just lit up and I haven't seen him since. I kept hearing exclamations of delight like, "Oh my pirates!" and couldn't help but feel like a total jerk for making him wait so long to see his things. It has been almost three months after all. One good thing is that all of his stuff feels like new now so he'll be happy for quite a while with it. But I did an internal headslap when I realized how much frustration I could have avoided by getting the toys out first and then doing the rest of the unpacking!

Hindsight is always 20/20, like me kicking myself for selling a set of bunkbeds a few years ago because Trevor kept climbing them as a baby. Instead of just taking them apart till the boys were ready for them I sold them for $100. Now I can't find that kind of deal to save my life! Grrr.

In other news, I had to get up early this morning to go get my car at the shop. I could have gotten it yesterday afternoon between 3 and 6, but Chad didn't bother telling me until 6:10...cause it would have been so hard to tell me from his office...UPSTAIRS! Grrr again. Anyway, she is back and she are purty once again. No more dents and ugly spots from her accident. They even washed and vacuumed her. I am happy to have her home again, I really hated the Chevy HHR from Enterprise (no offense if you have one or like them). Here's a picture of my clean car, and one of our house because I haven't posted one yet and it is a beautiful day today.

New Hair Day

For the past three years I have been growing out my hair. Chad said once that he would like it to be long, so I decided to humor him. I had forgotten what a pain it is to have longer hair, and with the hot, humid Texas weather looming on the horizen I have been feeling lately like it was time for a change. I got a letter in the mail from a local salon offering a %50 discount because I am new to the area and figured "Why not?" so I made an appointment for this morning and went in and told the gal that I wanted a new me, didn't want to go too short, and that I really like the look of the a-line bob. So bob she did, and I must say, I think I like it! I couldn't get a very good picture and Chad was too busy to take one, so here is a not so great shot of my new do...

When I walked in the house Chad had me turn on the light so he could see it better and then said his usual, "It looks good." Not "I like it!" not "You look great!" No excitement or encouragement at all, just the norm. Oh well, at least I know what to expect from him.

Whats a hoppenin?

My favorite radio station in TN has this funny guy on in the morning named Jerry House and he's always asking the people who call in "Whats a hoppenin?" with a Chinese accent. I just get a kick out of it for some reason!

I am sitting here waiting for the carpet cleaners to come, my house is clean, the laundry is put away, the kids are dressed, I am dressed and I have makeup on..."I think it's gonna be a great day" (Shout out to Sean Morey for his inspiring music, check it out)! It is a beautiful day, no clouds, almost 75 degrees. When the carpet guys get here Trevor and Kade and I are going to go to the mall to walk around and play at the playground there...heck, we may even treat ourselves to lunch! There is something so motivating about having a clean house and makeup on!

I meant to blog the other day about our trip to the zoo on Monday, but I never got around to it until now. Blake had the day off from school, actually he had a four day weekend because the geniuses that run the school district made last Friday a teacher work day. And I ask you...how in the world is it a work day for the teachers when all the kids are at home?? But I digress.

We found out Sunday night that Monday would be a free admission day at the Houston Zoo and we were invited to tag along with some new friends of ours. I got up at 6:00 that morning to have everyone ready and a picnic lunch packed by 8:00 am. We got to the zoo around 9:30 (before the crowds hit) and spent the next four hours meandering around. I really enjoy seeing the elephants and the monkeys, but the reptile house was the hit of the century with the boys. They spent at least half an hour staring at all the creepy slithery things. Lucky for us (and I say that tongue-in-cheek) it was feeding time for the snakes...yay. Blake and Trevor were thrilled to watch a Diamondback Rattlesnake swallow a mouse whole. I could have gone without that experience, but who am I to deny my kids that gory lesson in life?

All in all we had a great time, no major meltdowns (Trevor saved that for bedtime) and they were only mildly disappointed when I refused to spend $.51 on a squished penny that they would lose before we got to the car. I felt like a superhero for taking them and keeping a positive attitude and braving traffic in downtown Houston where, had I gotten separated from the caravan I would have been hopelessly lost. Ahh, the things we do for our children!

Blake is 7!

It is official. I can't believe how quickly seven years has gone by! I think that I had Blake when I was so young I have kind of grown up alongside him. I thought it fitting to do a little tribute blog to help you understand a few of the things that make us love him.

He was born at 11:07 pm on New Year's Eve 2001. I had been in labor for 16 hours and they finally decided to do an emergency c-section because my cervix started to close up and my water had been broken 12 hours earlier. Just before they made the incision my doctor asked us what his name would be (we had been going back and forth between Blake and Matthew), and Chad looked at me and we both said Blake, it just felt right. The first thing I remember about him was that I thought he sounded a little like Donald Duck when he cried (the things we think of when we are heavily drugged!). He was beautiful though, with a perfectly round little head and hair that looked like he'd been to a salon just before entering the world. It stood straight up and it was light brown with blonde tips.

Blake has always been very physically coordinated. He started crawling at 5 mos and walked at 9 mos. His first distinguishable words were "Oh wow", with the wow drawn out and his mouth forming a perfect little "o". Chad taught him how to do a "360" when he was just about 18 months old, to the amazement of anyone who watched it. Blake's idea of a good time when he was three was to jump off the couch shouting "Flame on!". When Chad decided that he needed to take the training wheels off of his bike two years ago, he worked with Blake for barely half an hour before Blake was leaving him in the dust. He loves to go fast, or high, or just to the extreme of whatever situation he is in.

Over the past seven years he has developed a very lively (translation: on the ADD side) personality. He is quick to laugh and loves his two younger brothers fiercely. If he is playing too rough and one of them gets hurt, he is usually the one to cry longest. He has a very compassionate heart. When Trevor came along, he didn't quite know what to think, but they quickly became good buddies, but when Kade was born he was older and more sophisticated (he was about to enter kindergarten after all) and he became Kade's hero. Now that Kade is able to follow him around I will often find him sitting with Blake or playing tickling games with him. We have been teaching Kade the "where's your belly button?" game and he lifts up his shirt to show us. One day Blake was laying on the floor on his back reading and Kade ran over, pulled up his shirt and poked his belly button.

Blake loves to read, so it was natural for his Grandma Cyndi to get him a book for his birthday. It isn't just any book though. It is called Wizardology and teaches you all the "secrets" to becoming a good wizard. He is thrilled with it and wouldn't put it down for several days, he kept bringing it to me to show me things in it.

Unfortunately, this year with our living situation I wasn't able to get his birthday present before Christmas like I normally do, and after Christmas there just isn't a whole lot on the shelves! We decided to go out and try to find him a bike because he had outgrown/worn out his other one and so we left it in TN. We spent most of New Year's Eve looking at Walmart, then a sports shop and finally ended up at a bike store because we just couldn't find one that fit him. He is too small for a 20", but he is too big for a 16"...and there just aren't a lot of 18" bikes available right after Christmas. So we spent way too much money, but he absolutely LOVES it. He had better, and it had better last through BOTH of his brothers for the price we had to pay!

As soon as we got home from the bike store Chad took Blake and Trevor to the park to try out Blake's new ride, and I got down to the nitty gritty of cake making. I outdid myself this year and came up with a two layer creation complete with a cupcake volcano and plastic dinosaur. Blake loved it and declared several times throughout eating it that it was indeed the "best birthday ever."

I am so honored to be the mother of such a wonderful little spirit. He drives me nuts at times, but he is growing into such an honorable little man, I can't wait to see what he can accomplish in the next seven years!

Christmas Blessings

I should have posted about Christmas back when Christmas happened...I just couldn't seem to sit down long enough to do it! We had a great Holiday, there are some really great people here in Texas who opened their hearts and homes to us and included us in their festivities. Santa brought Blake and Trevor new scooters, which they love. Kade got a Whisper Ride Buggy, which he loves. You can see in this picture that he hopped right in with his blanket. We had a hard time getting him out of it the first few days! Blake got a Storm Trooper helmet that amplifies his voice, and Trevor got an Optimus Prime helmet that changes his voice to sound like the robot...it is pretty funny when Kade puts it on and babbles into it!

We went to Christmas Eve at the Christensen's house, where we acted out the nativity for the first time (Chad and I were Joseph and Mary...I'd love to see that video...or maybe not). Christmas afternoon was spent at the Jenson's, the boys loved playing outside with their new scooters in the 70 degree weather.

I was dreading Christmas this year for many reasons. Anytime I heard the "C" word mentioned I cringed inside. It just didn't seem right to be in a big empty house without our decorations and furniture. I normally spend weeks preparing by baking and doing the tree and everything, but this year I couldn't do any of those things. The Lord has a way of knowing these things of course, and while I didn't pray for it out loud, He blessed us with so much this year.

A few days before Christmas Chad was driving home from his corporate office in Austin (three hours away) and decided he'd stop at Sam's Club on the way home and buy the leather couch and chairs set that we (for once) both liked. He got there and opened a credit line because he didn't want to drop our bank account by that much in one day, but they wouldn't give him a line big enough to cover the full cost of the furniture (which still annoys me). No problem he thought. He pulled out his ATM card to cover the difference and it wouldn't work. He spent the next hour on the phone with the morons at BofA trying to figure out what the problem was. Turns out they had put a hold on his card when I called them earlier that day about some transactions that looked strange. I specifically told them NOT to put any holds on either of our cards, but they did it anyway. So Chad is standing there with half the furniture bought and no way of paying for the rest. Right about then his coworker, Phil, showed up with his truck (as previously arranged) to help bring the stuff to our house.

When Chad told him what was going on, he whipped out his wallet and pulled out the exact amount that we needed...not a small amount of change. He said he'd had a feeling that day that he needed to get some cash out of the bank, and even though he had no idea why, he did it. He handed it over to Chad and they brought the furniture home that night. Not only did he do this, but his wife had sent a 6 ft tall pre lit tree and enough ornaments and decorations to make it look festive. I wish I had a picture of the looks on the boy's faces when they came down the stairs the next morning to see the tree and the furniture. It still gives me chills that Heavenly Father knew that we were in serious need of a morale boost that day, and he provided it.

We will always remember this Christmas, and I think that we will always appreciate things just that much more because we were able to get back to the basics of the Season and we learned from the people around us what Christ-like love is all about. On the grand scheme of things, our problems are not really problems at all, there are so many in this world who spent Christmas out in the cold and didn't have a tree or presents at all. My heart goes out to them and I know that in the future, I am going to try my hardest to make Christmas special to those in need.

By the way, we paid Phil back the next day...but I don't think we can ever repay him for the spirit he brought into our home that night. Merry Christmas everyone, even though it is a little late!