The cat

Some pics of the cat. He still doesn't have a name. We'll try and decide on that pretty soon. The first picture was when Jackson saw him for the first time. He reached into the bag before he saw what was in there and it startled him. When Jack saw him in the bag he said, "A real cat!!" I think it was a big hit.

A few Christmas morning pictures

Here are just a few pictures from this morning. There will be more posted later.
I'm sure you can't wait.

This is Jackson's first time to try his new guitar. For a video of him playing his new guitar, check out Phillip's blog.

Here we have Jackson pushing the "try me" button on his Star Wars transformers. He stopped wrapping it to push the button for a while. We had to remind him to finish unwrapping it.

Some other Star Wars toy. Looks pretty cool, I guess.

This is a picture of the mess that Santa left on our table. Man, he's a slob. We were going to try to make cookies last night for Santa, but it didn't really work out too well. So Josh and Ashley saved the day and brought over some cookies so Santa wouldn't go hungry.
Thanks, guys.

New Addition

Ok, it's not what you're thinking. Sorry to disappoint you. But we will be getting a new addition for Christmas. Phillip's brother, Josh and his finance, Ashley are getting Jackson (and me) a kitten for Christmas. We saw him yesterday. He's pretty cute. They're keeping him until we go to Phillip's parent's house on Christmas morning. I think Jackson is going to be pretty surprised by the whole thing. He's a little 12 week(?) gray/white/black tabby. He's got a few unique markings on his face and legs.

I think Jackson would like to get a cat that looks like Travis, but at Christmas time the pickins are slim. Jackson still talks about Travis pretty often. He prays for Travis almost every night. He says, "Thank you for Travis and help him to come back home." Isn't that pitiful? Poor "Devil Cat." Jackson says that we lost Travis instead of saying that Travis ran away.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Jackson will just play with him, I'll take care of him and clean up his messes, and Phillip will tolerate him. We're not sure if we're going to let Jackson do the naming or not. If Jack names him, he'll be named like Qui-Gon or Ki'adi or Mace Windu or something along those lines. Phillip and I are thinking about either Kiefer or Dander, both names we considered when naming Travis. We both think Kiefer is a pretty funny name for an animal.... or anyone for that matter. But with the popularity of 24, we may avoid that one. You know we'll be posting lots of pics Christmas day.

Jack's Christmas program

Here is a clip from Jackson's Christmas program. Jackson was a shepherd. He told me that morning that his shepherd costume was a big orange t-shirt.

It was taken with our digital camera at 10 frames/second and then scaled down to fit on you tube, so as you can imagine, the quality is not great. It's also like four minutes long. Anyway, we thought Jackson did pretty well considering he cried the first couple times they got on stage to practice. I don't know if you can tell from this or not, but the little girl next to Jack seems pretty annoyed with the whole thing. Pardon the horrible camera work.

Some pictures at the College

We went out to the college this afternoon to see if there are any decent places to take pictures. I'm going to be taking some pictures of some friends out there on Thursday and wanted to check it out beforehand. There's a pond out there that's pretty cool. Maury, is that your dad's name on that plaque? Anyway, here are some pictures of Jackson that I took today. He was being particularly uncooperative. I got a couple of good ones of Phillip looking very GQ (unintentionally), but he would get mad if I put them on here. So, I won't....today.

Kit Fisto Suit

As most of you know, Jackson loves Star Wars. He likes to pretend to be characters from the different movies. He has six different light sabers. If he has his green light saber, he's usually being Yoda. But if he's wearing his swim trunks with his green light saber, then he's being Kit Fisto. Kit Fisto is some character that lives in the water or something so that's where the swim trunks come in. I think it's just pretty funny. If he comes into the living room or whatever in his swim trunks, we're like, "Hey, Kit Fisto." And he usually just says "hi."

Thursday's adventure

Today Jackson and I went to the Mall and visited a few places.
First of all, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Here Jackson beat me in air hockey,

got his butt kicked in a Ninja Turtle video game,

And exchanged his tickets for some Bubba teeth.

After that, we went to the Dow plaything in the Mall where Jack tried his darnedest
to hide from the camera. This is the only picture he let me take. Great, huh?

Then we got some cookies and Jackson thought we should save the last two for Santa. For the first time in about three years, Jackson sat on Santa's lap. This is the first time in his life he has spoken to Santa. He told Santa that he wants a gold guitar and an amp for Christmas. Then he gave Santa the cookies. You can tell that Jackson was pretty nervous about the whole thing.

Then he "rode" a roller coaster.

I think he had a good time.

Greedo Hat

I bought this hat for Jackson recently for the colder weather. He likes to wear it and pretend to be Greedo from Star Wars, Episode IV. I don't even know what Greedo looks like or why he thinks this hat makes him look like Greedo. Whatever, I'm just glad he'll wear it if he needs to. Even if he does growl very strangely while he's wearing it.

From Santa

We ordered a Christmas present for Jack on Tuesday afternoon and it came the next day....from Oklahoma. Anyway, go to Phillip's blog to see what Santa will be bringing Jackson. I think he's going to be pretty excited....until the lessons start. We'll see how that goes.

For Sale

I noticed this nativity scene for sale on Monday and I finally got a picture of it. When I first saw it, I just thought it was an outdated, tacky nativity scene that these people were using to decorate their yard. But, oh no....it's for SALE! These people that live in this house are always selling stuff. Most of it looks like junk to me. It seems like they always have something in the front yard with a "for sale" sign on it. I guess they thought they would decorate for the season and make a few bucks at the same time. Is that synergy? So, anyway, if you're in the market for a nativity that's missing the baby Jesus, just drive down Sycamore towards Oyster Creek Drive. You can't miss it. I gotta wonder why they even put the broken (empty) little cradle thing there. I guess just the right person could fix it or something.






There was one day that they were selling some black box things. I don't know what they were. They looked like some boxes made of plywood and painted black or something. Anyway, I was driving home and passed by their house and this very nicely dressed man in a Lexus was out buying those boxes. It's like he was driving by and thought, "Hey, that's just what I need." Weird. Anyway, from old stationary bicycles to nativity scenes, if you need it, they'll probably be selling it in their yard eventually.

Still Waiting

Well, I got a call a few minutes ago from our agency worker. We are not in the group that was narrowed down for the 10 month old girl I posted about a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm pretty disappointed. But, that's just the way it goes. This could happen several more times before we're actually selected. The main thing that upsets me about this whole thing is that I feel like we were misled from the beginning. We were told that there were lots of babies available and that just doesn't seem to be the case. Oh well, we've waited this long and we can wait some more.

Just like Daddy's shoes

Mismatched

I think I wore mismatched flip flops the other day out in public. Of course, I didn't mean to. I have two pairs of flip flops that are both kind of teal on the bottom but the top parts are not really the same at all. Jack and I just went to the teacher supply store so it's like it was a big deal or anything. But I still think it's kind of funny. I didn't realize it until I got home and took my flip flops off before putting my feet on the couch. When I got up later I discovered that the flip flops in front of the couch did not match and that their partners were somewhere else. I wonder if anyone noticed. I think if I noticed a woman wearing mismatched shoes in public, I would tell her.

"Live or die, succeed or fail..."

I'm reading The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. I'm almost done with it. It's a pretty quick little book to read. Anyway, lately I've been toying with a couple of things (in my mind) that I want to try to accomplish....someday. And there's a part in this book that jumped out at me and made me want to commit.

"To be filled with the Spirit of God is to be filled with dreams and visions that are too compelling to ignore. Live or die, succeed or fail, barbarians must pursue and attempt such dreams and visions. The barbarian spirit dreams great dreams and finds the courage to live them." (100)

"For the Spirit of God to unleash dreams and visions within our souls, we must become free to risk and to fail. Every dream born of God is fueled by love. Every conversation to be had with God challenges the boundaries of our imagination." (101)

So, anyway, I've decided on a couple of things I want to have accomplished by my 30th birthday. And no, I'm not going to post what they are here. That's really beside the point...plus, I think you have to be careful who you share your dreams with...no offense. I told Phillip and I'm documenting it here for my own benefit. On January 15th, 2008 I'll be 30. And when that day comes, I'll let you know if I have accomplished what I want to accomplish.

What do you dream of doing? What is the thing you won't attempt because you are afraid you will fail? What keeps you up at night?

New Shoes

Jack got some new shoes the other day. He really likes these shoes because they look like Daddy's shoes.

A few things about Jackson

I just wanted to take a few minutes to write down some of the cool things about Jackson.

He knows what he likes....and what he doesn't like. He is an eternal optimist. He is very confident. He is brutally honest. He is understanding when others make mistakes. He is creative and clever beyond his years. He is not ashamed to share his musical abilities with anyone who will listen. He says, "I love you" a lot. He is sensitive to the moods and emotions of other people. He is a loyal friend.

I feel like a lucky Mom today.

Jackson is thankful for...

Jackson brought this turkey home from preschool today. It's kind of hard to read what is written at the top of the feathers. So, I'll help you out. Jackson is thankful for...

1. Clone Wars
2. Star Wars
3. Lego Star Wars
4. Lego Star Wars 1 (??)
5. My Family (phew, we made it!)

Jack singing revisited

Phillip and I were talking this morning about how much Jackson used to love the movie Shrek. He wanted to watch it all the time. He got lots of Shrek stuff for his second birthday. Anyway, we remembered that Phillip recorded Jackson singing the intro song from Shrek a while back. So, if you've been reading our blogs for a while, then you've heard this before. But I thought it was worth posting again.

So, here's Jackson about a month before his third birthday singing All Star by Smashmouth. It's hard to believe how much he's changed in two years. Enjoy.

Good question

This morning Jackson was eating his breakfast at the coffee table while watching cartoons. He gets so interested in the show that he forgets to keep eating. Anyway, I told him, "Eat or I'm going to turn the t.v. off." And he said, "What does the t.v. have to do with me eating?"

Looking down a hole

I took some pictures for some friends on Saturday. I'm really happy with the way most of the pictures turned out. This is one that is pretty much unusable as a "normal" picture. It's just way to dark and noisy. I messed with it quite a bit in Photoshop and I think the end result is kind of cool. Strange, but cool. Hopefully my friends don't mind me putting this on my blog. Didn't ask fist. Please don't get mad.

Jackson pictures

Dr. Granny

My mom bought Jackson a doctor's kit a week or so ago. He's been playing with it like crazy. She taught him how to talk to his "patient" to figure out what is wrong. He'll say things like, "What seems to be the trouble?" or "Oh, that ear looks a little red." He really takes the whole thing pretty seriously.

I found a first aid kit they gave us at our CPR training. It has some gauze and some gloves in there. Jackson was thrilled. He has been fascinated with gloves for probably a couple of years now. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Dr. Granny caring for her favorite patient. Notice how Jackson's leg is all bandaged up.

Submitted for a baby

Our home study is being submitted for an African American baby girl. She is 10 months old and in perfect health. Her biological parent's rights have been terminated and she is legally free for adoption. So, we should know something about her in a few weeks. Please just pray that this little girl would get the family she deserves, whether it's us or not.

Update

It turns out that we were not submitted for the 9 month old boy that I mentioned in a previous post. He lives in Waco and is still having weekly visits with his biological family. Obviously, we cannot make weekly visits to Waco. I really don't even know why they did an out of area broadcast for this baby. This process really doesn't seem to be making a lot of sense. Oh well, whatever. We'll just keep waiting. What else can we do?

Jack Fixed with photoshop

This is the before and after of a picture that I fixed somewhat in Photoshop. Not perfect, but much better. It's pretty amazing what you can do with the clone stamp thing. Notice how I got rid of the people in the background. Pretty cool.

Star Wars Gum Video

Jackson was playing in the kitchen with this gum for probably 10 minutes before I went and got the camera. And even after the video he continued to make up games with this gum. I just asked Phillip how long Jack played with the gum and he said, "We played gum for a long time." That's just a funny statement. Anyway, check out this video of Jackson playing with sticks of gum. It's "monster" gum for Halloween. That's why it's so big.

Foster Care Stuff

(I think) we were submitted for another baby yesterday. Our case worker person was going to check on something before she submitted us. But anyway, he's a nine month old Caucasian boy. That's about all I know. Other than that, not much has been happening in that area of our lives.

She asked me yesterday if we would be willing to take a temporary foster placement just for a month or two. I hated to, but I told her no. That's just not what we're doing this for. Not at this point in our lives, anyway. It makes me feel a little guilty to know that we are licensed to be a temporary family for a kid or two, but we don't want to. The people who are willing to do that must be made of some stuff that we're not. I just can't see bringing a kid into this family that we know without a doubt will be leaving just as soon as we get used to him or her. Jackson couldn't understand that. We can't commit our parents to help us with some kid that has no chance of being their grandkid. But still, I feel guilty. I know there aren't enough good foster homes in Texas. I know that we could give a child a great temporary home. But selfishly, we just don't want to do it. And so, right now, we won't.

I told someone today that my goal is to have a baby by Christmas. Like I have any control whatsoever of accomplishing that "goal." I'm planning on waiting until the last possible day to start on our Christmas cards just in case we have another member to add to the photo. I'm sure all that means really is that our Christmas cards will be late.

Keeping Him Close By

Phillip and I have discovered an AWESOME radio station out of Houston. It is 105.7 KHCB (Keeping Him Close By). We wake up to it every morning on our alarm clock. It makes us jump out of bed to begin our glory filled day. You should check it out for such things as uplifting inspirational thoughts, beautiful choral arrangements, and prayers spoken in the authorized King James Version.

Experimentation

We got a new camera today. Some friends are buying our other camera from us. This camera does a lot of stuff and I don't know how most of it works. I took a few pictures today with it. I'll have to mess with it in the daylight. We also have Photoshop now and I've been trying to figure it out. So much of this stuff is trial and error and I don't have much patience for that. Anyway, this is a picture of Jackson that I took this evening outside and messed around with in Photoshop. Looks kinda weird.

Barbie and her pets

I saw a commercial this morning for a Barbie that comes with a dog that poops. Barbie can clean up the poop with her special magnetic pooper scooper and throw it in the trash can. And she looks great doing it, too, doesn't she?

Isn't that fun? I went to the Barbie web site and found that you can also buy another kind of Barbie that comes with a kitty cat that pees in a litter box. Great.

So, now you can pretend to do the worst things about having pets. (That sentence didn't really make sense, but you know what I'm getting at.)

Sharks

Jackson asked me a little while ago if cats and dogs and people are afraid of sharks. I said, "yes." Then he said, "I bet dolphins are too. And even crabs too. And I think babies are afraid of sharks."

So, there you go. Just in case you were sitting around wondering what animals might be afraid of sharks. Now you know.

Got the Saxophone

Well, I got my new (old) saxophone earlier today. I took it to our local music store and had the woodwind repair guy take a look at it. He was pleasantly surprised at the shape that it's in. It really is a nice looking horn. It seems much heavier than any other tenor that I've had before. It needs to be repadded and has a couple of other issues that need to be fixed. I went ahead and left it with him. He'll probably have it fixed in a month or so. After I get it repaired, it will be worth about twice as much as I put into it....I think. But, I'm not planning on selling it. It should be a really nice horn once it's fixed.

Trick or Treat

Phillip and Jackson are out getting free candy. I'm at home making lasagna and giving away free candy. I think maybe later we'll go out to the college. I think they're having some Halloween thing. Maybe I'll wear the Batman(girl?) thing. Not sure.

Time change

This time change is not working out for our family. I'm giong to protest. Sunday morning Jackson woke up at 6:00. Monday morning and this morning it was 6:30. He has no clue what time it is. But I do. And I don't want him to be awake that early.

Little cat

This morning before church this little cat showed up on our porch. Jackson and I went out and pet it for a little while. Jack wanted to keep it and name it, but I told him that it has a home and we can't keep it. He wanted to name it "Jackson the cat." When we got back home after church, it was gone. But now it's back. It's just made itself home in Travis' old spot. It has a flea collar so I'm sure it belongs to somebody, but you can't exactly make kittens stay in a yard. Anyway, if it hangs around for a little while, I'm going to have to feed it....and probably name it.....and well, you know, keep it. Is there a law against that?

Thinking about homeschooling

I have never thought that homeschooling was a good idea. I had no idea why parents did it. And I swore I never would.

But.....now that I am a parent, and our kid is approaching school age, I'm thinking about it. That does not mean that we've decided that's what we're doing. We're just thinking about the pros/cons, etc. I'm not sure if I'm organized and disciplined enough to do it right. I know that Jack needs social interaction other than church. I also know that he is kind of a home body and not terribly comfortable in crowds. I don't want to make that worse. But the school system is slowly going down from what I've heard from friends/family that are in the biz. We will not be able to afford Christian schooling until I am working full time, which is not going to happen for several more years. I don't like the idea of my kid being at school for 7 hours or more to learn about 3 hours worth of material and then have to come home and do an hour or two of homework. I don't want to miss out on that much of his life. But this can't be about me. I can't homeschool him because I will miss him. That's just not a good enough reason, I guess. So, anyway, it's just something we're considering right now. We've got some time.

Just little

It seems like our various situations are so big and overwhelming and just unmanageable.

Jackson sometimes likes to think of himself as big. He likes to think that he's bigger than we are. That's a normal thing for a four year old to think. But several times in the last few days he has told us, "Mom, Dad, we're all little. Even I'm little. Everything is little." I don't think he's trying to be "deep." But, man, the wisdom in that statement is just overwhelming to me. Right now, when our fears and worries seem so big, he is reminding us that they're really not. This is not to say that our lives or our problems are insignificant. But when we view those things in the greatness of God, we are certainly little.


"If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel,then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all."
- C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Looks like I was wrong

The horn I am getting is not a "New Wonder" as the seller said it was but a "Wonder." The serial number indicates that it was made prior to the "New Wonder." Which means that it is not as valuable as I originally thought it was. But it will still be a very good instrument once it has some repairs. I'm stil very happy with the price, just not as stunned. It is from 1916.

I won!! I won!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!

I just won that auction for the tenor sax. It is a Conn New Wonder Series 1 "Chu Berry" tenor from the early 1920's. Maybe talking about how much you spent on stuff is tacky, but oh well. I just got that horn for $305.00, plus shipping. I've seen that same horn go for between $900-2,000. It is valued at about $2800 if in mint condition, which this one is not. It will need to be repadded and recorked. But the body looks great. Here are some pictures from the auction. The case is horrible in a cool way. I'll probably have to replace it.










It will probably cost an additional $350 to get it in good playing condition. And that is a dang good deal for a horn like this. I sold my sax about four years ago and I have wanted it back ever since. I am really thrilled that I got this one at this price. Now I just hope that everything is as it should be when I get the actual horn. Hopefully the seller was straightforward about everything. It may take a few months to get it ready to play, but I'm one step closer to having a saxophone again.

Bidding on ebay at the last second is a total rush.

Strange brass horn

I was looking up musical instrument repair companies in Houston on google and I came across Fleming Instrument Repair. Check out these pictures that are under their "fun" section.


Pretty cool, huh?








B.T.W. the reason I was looking at that site is because I'm hoping to win an ebay auction in about six minutes for an old Tenor Sax Conn New Wonder. It dates from about 1920 and will need some work if I get it. It looks like I may be able to get it for a good price. The person that's selling it spelled "saxophone" wrong in the description which is probably why there has not been much interest in it. These horns in good playing condition are valued at over $2000. We'll see. If I win it, I'll be posting some pictures. If I don't, I'll be pouting. Gotta go. Can't be distracted.

Finally heard something

Well, I finally heard from our agency about those two babies we were submitted for. They have both been placed with other families. So.....again.....we wait.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6

Conversation with Jackson

Jackson and I just had an interesting conversation. It went something like this......

Jackson: (with lightsaber in hand) When I grow up, will I be a real Jedi?

Me: (crushing his dreams) No, Jackson. Jedi aren't really real. They're just characters in a movie. When you grow up you might be daddy or a husband or a teacher or doctor or fireman or something like that.

Jackson: After I do all those things, then will I be a real Jedi?

Me: No. Nobody grows up to be a real Jedi. Jedi are not real people.

Jackson: I wish Jedi were real. Don't you wish that, Mom?

Me: Sure.

Jackson: I think everybody wishes that.

Fun with Gimpshop

We have Gimpshop now on our computer. It's kind of like Photoshop but it's free. Anyway, I've been messing with it a little but I don't really know how to do anything very complicated yet. One of the guys that works at our church office asked me to put our pastor's head on some bodies. So, this is the end result. I think Greg is going to be surprised with these on the big screen in the Student Service on Sunday night. I don't think he looks at my blog very often so I hope he doesn't see these. And please don't tell him if you know him. Let him be surprised.