Christmas Time

Sunday, March 30, 2008

what does "sick as a dog" mean anyway...

i have no clue what that saying means but that is right where i am. i am sick as a dog! i have been having some allergies over the last week- just really a stuffy nose but last night all "you know what " broke loose. i spent much of the night having horrid coughing fits and so this morning i did not do anything (because i have a phenomenal husband) and i tried just laying around resting. to no avail, i might add. every time i got close to falling asleep another coughing fit would start.
i pulled out my list of meds that are okay for pregnant women and ross went to pick something up. well i am not convinced that it is doing any good what so ever. in fact tonight i feel like my cough is an attempt to hack up concrete that has made its home in my lungs and my throat is sore as all get out. my ears hurt and my body is just a mess. i am suppose to go see my ob on wednesday but i am thinking i should maybe call in tomorrow about this yuck.

Monday, March 24, 2008

butterflies, spring break and easter...

this past week was spring break for the kids. i always look forward to this break not just because we don't have to race out the door each morning but also because i love my kids and spending time with them.

this spring break started out pretty rocky... i wasn't so sure we would make it through the week when i was having to do some major disciplining on monday morning. thankfully as the week progressed the kids settled down a bit and we all enjoyed some fun times together.

when the boys went on their men's weekend daphne enjoyed receiving a new book. let me just say that my niece, chloe introduced us to fancy nancy and we have loved her ever since. if you haven't read fancy nancy then go to your library and pick it up because it is adorable. the second book was cute but not my favorite so when fancy nancy, bonjour butterfly hit the shelves i wasn't sure what to expect. let me just say that jane o'connor has definitely done a great job with this one!! i think it is adorable and daphne agrees. back to my story... we have been enjoying bonjour butterfly for several weeks and so i thought that a visit to the botanical gardens butterfly exhibit would be fun. along with some friends we headed south and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful butterflies. henry even got a "kiss" from one. (a butterfly landed on his shoulder.) before going into the extremely warm greenhouse i did read bonjour butterfly to the kids. my camera totally fogged up in the exhibit so i didn't get as many of the great pics i had so hoped for. but here's some anyway (the one of henry's butterfly kiss is thanks to abby)... outside the exhibit we were able to take the kids over to a children's area were they were able to dig for worms. as you can see, the boys were in to this!!

other events of the week included a quick trip up to the mountains north of us. we thought it would be a great get-away but instead it was boring with a capital B! the town had nothing to do for little ones. we spent much of our time at a park on the playground. it was nice to get the fresh air but in all reality we could have gone to a park here in town and saved the $. we walked around the lake a bit the first day and then on saturday we took the kids to a city sponsored egg hunt. the kids had a good time especially staying in a "two beds". for ross and i, however, the hotel experience ranks up there with miserable!! anna decided at midnight that it was time for a family party and so for the next four hours we battled with her and the need for sleep. henry & daph never even rolled over during all the fussing. finally we celebrated easter. i love that i can say to my babies "He is risen!" and i hear "He is risen indeed!" i enjoy the time we spend in the days before easter as well as any day when we talk together about Christ's gift to us in His death and in His resurrection.

speaking of Christ's gift to us, the other evening we were driving somewhere and we can hear henry and daphne talking about Jesus. henry asks daphne if she wants Jesus to live in her heart and her response was "He already does." henry shared with her that she needed to ask Him to live in her heart and then she says "okay". he then leads his little sister in a sweet prayer asking Jesus to live in her. it was such a sweet moment to be able to hear. anna wasn't into the whole picture thing this easter. i kept reminding ross (and myself) that this picture will capture where we are in life right now. there will be many years when the kids will have the self control to sit still and look at the camera so for now...this is where we are!

i just wanted to also take a moment to share something awesome God is doing in the life of one of my sisters. my oldest sister and her husband put there beautiful home on the market just a few weeks ago. their home has become my home away from home over the years. when we go back to houston it is in their home that my crew can take off their shoes, throw real fits, get dirty while playing in the backyard, cry at all hours of the night and just curl up on the couch to watch some fraiser. God has been so gracious to provide a buyer in this wacky market in less than 3 weeks. i think it is evident that when God wants us to move He makes it happen. it makes me think of a line in a song that says, "God move or move me." may it always be so that that we see Him in the moving business!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

not a morning person...

here is my first attempt at adding a video. anna was being silly in their bathroom so i just had to catch it on video. notice how she bats her eyes at herself in the mirror. too funny!

the men's's weekend...

i realize i told you i would provide an abundance of pictures from ross and henry's "men's weekend" about 10 days ago and well i am just now remembering to do it. the main reason for my slowness is that the "abundance" boils down to about 5 to 7 pictures- mostly self portraits done by my guys. that being said though, they had a great time. when ross asked henry what his favorite thing about the weekend was he answered, "the homerun and then spilling my snowcone down the front of me". they made it through 6 innings before the cold spilt snowcone became too much to handle. in the seventh inning there was a grand slam... maybe next year! henry got a few signatures but there was no sighting of nolan ryan though they did hear he had been around. the boys had a great time and i think they are both looking forward to doing it again next year!

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for those of you who might be wondering- the flowers turned out fine on sunday. no ugly blue carnations!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

"thank you" just doesn't express my gratitude...

my sister-in-law asked me yesterday if we were going to do anything special for ollie's bday. i told her there wasn't really anything we could do. we used to take flowers to the cemetery but we can't now that we are 1700 miles away.

the first year we were out here i had asked my sweet friend krissy if she would go put some flowers out for us and she so kindly did. i hadn't asked her to do that since but yesterday after i wrote my post i had an email waiting for me from her. she just wanted to let me know she was thinking of us and that she had gone and put flowers out on ollie's grave. when i read this i just burst into tears. she lives 30 minutes or more away from the cemetery now and yet she took time out of her busy day to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. what a servant's heart! thank you dear sweet friend.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

spring flowers...

today is our ollie's birthday. he would have been 5 years old today! can you believe that?

i went to the florist today to order flowers for church on sunday (each year we do flowers at church for ollie's birthday). with my limited floral knowledge i tried to explain what i was wanting the arrangement to look like. the lady was doing her very best to help and so she asked if the baby had been a little girl or a little boy. i told her, little boy and she said that they normally do blue and yellow and white flowers- a "spring arrangement".

**if you were at ollie's funeral you might remember that the flowers on his casket were...how do i say it, wrong! the spring bouquet on his casket was much like a bad mum that a girl wears in high school. while i was still in the hospital ross and my sister, keesha, went to the funeral home to make all the arrangements. we had all talked about what i would want in terms of the casket and flowers so they went and did just what i asked. they chose a white casket (instead of pink or blue- yes they offer pink or blue caskets- no plain wood for infants) and they ordered a spring bouquet. like me, they thought tulips, snapdragons, and other such flowers. that is not at all what we got. they put carnations that had been dyed blue on the casket with some yellow flowers and white flowers. needless to say the three of us laughed when we saw them. we still laugh even now about the "spring bouquet".

back to my story at the floral shop. the minute i heard "spring arrangement" visions of dyed blue carnations appeared and i had to say no. i have no idea what the arrangement will look like but i pray that if any blue flowers are in it they will be blue hydrangeas!

today i have been trying to pray for moms who leave hospitals without their babies. moms who have special cards put on their hospital room doors so that no one comes in saying the wrong thing. i am praying for moms who have to bury their babies today or tomorrow or the next day.

i remembering being afraid that i would forget ollie over the years. i haven't, though many memories of that day have faded. my heart still selfishly aches to know and hold my little guy. my grandmother who passed away the january before ollie knew the pain of losing a child. their daughter, laura, was still born. i often wanted to talk to grandmother about how God healed her heart throughout the years. i wanted to ask her if she still remembered anything from so long ago. now five years down the road i know that my grandmother never forgot her little girl just as i will never forget our little boy.

Lord, again i thank you for ollie's birth, his life and for the ways You have changed us all.