House for Sale

Jack and I had a picnic lunch today in our front yard. Our very nice retired neighbour from across the street came over to say hi and to let me know that there is a house for sale down the road. He was just letting me know in case I knew of anybody that might be looking for a small house to start out in.

But he said some other things too.

He said something like, "We hope a family like yours moves in over there." He said something else like, "We want it to stay a nice, clean neighbourhood." Then he looked at me and said, "You know what I mean, right?" He gave me a look like he was trying to say something without actually saying something. I just thanked him and said if I heard of anyone looking for a house, I would let them know. I am ashamed to say that I know what he was trying to say without saying it. And I am embarrassed to have been a part of that conversation. I wanted so badly to say, "No, I don't know what you mean." or somehow asked him to be more specific so I could talk about his opinions with him. But Jackson was there and so I let it go. Maybe I read too much into what he was saying, but I don't think so.

I know with every generation, the racial lines become more blurred. I wish I could say that I am completely without any racist views. But I know that isn't true. But I do feel disgusted with myself when I think or say something judgemental about another race. I absolutely know that that type of mindset is wrong. I hope my children grow to be even further down this road than I am. I hope my children and my children's children are without racist views.

So, that having been said, there's a house for sale on Redwood St. in Lake Jackson. It has only had one owner. They bought the house new in about '54. It's in good shape but I think the asking price is a little high.

Mr. Matter of Fact

I know I write about Jackson a lot. I really wish I had some other interesting things going on, but I don't. Anyway, if you're sick of reading about Jack, then just skip this one.

I picked Jackson up from preschool on Thursday and I began to ask him the typical questions about his day. Like "What did you make?" "What did you do in music?" "Who did you play with?" Just stuff like that. When I got to the last question, Jackson said, "Mom, I play with Sloane everyday. Only Sloane. Please try to remember that from now on."

After I got home from work today, I started making my lunch and then sat down to eat. I sat at the table and said, "I sure am lonely. I sure wish somebody would come keep me company while I eat my lunch." And Jackson said, "Well, I'm sorry Mom. I would like to sit with you, but I just can't right now. I've got work to do."

Keep in mind, this child is three. He will be four in May. He is so funny and half the time, he's not even trying to be. And that makes it even funnier.

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

I'm reading the novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. Anne Rice is the one who has written other inspiring books such as Interview with the Vampire, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, and Servant of the Bones, among others.

I don't really know much about her or why she decided to write a novel about Jesus after she has written so many other books about blood-sucking vampires. It seems kind of weird, but whatever.

This book is a work of fiction about Jesus as a child. Although we can't know much about the child Jesus, this book portays Him in a way that is very believable. It's cool to think about what He knew or didn't know about Himself and His own diety.

But there are so many characters in the book, it's really hard to keep up with what's going on. There are the obvious ones such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. But then there are many others like Cleopas, Alphaeus, Philo, Symeon, Salome, Zebedee, Zoker, and Esther. Zoker? I think I'll tuck that name away in the back of my mind to use some day for a future Hintze kiddo.

I'm kind of ashamed to say that this book has not been a real page turner for me like Interview with the Vampire was. But I do like it. I think this is one of those books that I should probably read again in a year or so to catch some of the things that I'm missing now. Reading this has really peaked my interest in reading more about Jesus' life from the Bible and that's cool. It sounds bad to say, but I haven't been real eager to read much about Jesus lately. It has seemed like I've heard and read so much about Him that the stories didn't seem fresh anymore. And that's sad. I'm hoping that even though this book is a work of fiction, it can help me to take new look at the life of Jesus and maybe learn some new things about Him and His life on earth.

RETREAT!!

I'll be going to our church's ladies' retreat this evening and will be back tomorrow. The term "ladies' retreat" sounds so goofy to me. It's almost embarrassing to say. I don't know what I expect them to call it but I don't feel like a lady most of the time. That's for sure.

Maybe I'll get to relax a little, but probably not. But atleast I'll get away from Jackson trying to boss me around for a little while. And I'll get away from Phillip giving me weird looks. I wonder what Phillip will feed Jackson while I'm gone.

I DON'T WANT TO

This is a phrase that Phillip and some of my other family members hear a little too often from me. It usually comes out sort of whiny and pathetic. I pretty much always say it when there is something I either have to do or am making myself do that I really don't want to do.

The thing now that I have to do is to start getting some exercise. And, you guessed it, I don't want to. But my thighs and butt are showing the early signs of horrible things yet to come and it scares the crap out of me.

So tomorrow morning, at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m., I'm going to (try) to get my lazy (enlarging) butt out of bed and go walk/jog half a mile. I realize that half a mile is nothing to most people. But I have had very little execise in the last couple of years and so I'm starting off small. I'm going to (try) to do this three times a week for now. No more excuses.

Just so all of you know, I don't respond well to traditional encouragement. I respond better to people saying "yeah, right!" and "you won't stick with it you sorry sack of...." ok, so that's a bit extreme, but you get what I'm saying. The ol' "I know you can do it" garbage doesn't do much for me. So for any of you that care about my health or big butt issues, please push me to actually stick with getting my (growing) butt in gear.

They Might Be Giants

Jackson has a They Might Be Giants DVD and it is pretty dang cool. As a former preschool music teacher, I can tell you it is really difficult to find clever children's songs. Most of them are super cheesy. There are some really funny songs on it. Most of the songs are sort of alphabet songs. There's one that I really like.

Pictures Of Pandas Painting

Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting Penguins

Penguins Proudly Parading Past
Penguins Proudly Parading Past
Penguins Proudly Parading Past

Skateboards, Skateboards
Skateboards, Skateboards

Hippos Hop from Helicopters
Hippos Hop from Helicopters
Hippos Hop from Helicopters
High

Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting
Pictures Of Pandas Painting Penguins

They also do the "Why Does the Sun Shine?" song. You may have heard it. I begins like....
The sun is mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace,
where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.

Their stuff is so much cooler than "The Wheels on the Bus." My kid is too smart to be told that wheels go 'round and 'round.

Lesson #1: Home Row Keys

Jackson "types" like a maniac. As you can see, his hands are a blur in this picture.

Our first typing lesson lasted about 5 seconds....long enough for me to take the picture.

Then he went back to what he was doing before I rudely interrupted him.

Pause it

Now that we have DVR we can pause live t.v., which is pretty cool. So Jackson knows now that if we're watching t.v. and he has to go the the bathroom or something he can get us to pause what he's watching. Well, I was feeding Spiderman (the fish) and Jack was excited about watching Spiderman eat. But then he realized he needed to pee and he frantically told me to pause it.

Just a little side note....
Before we got DVR and Jack was just starting to put words together He told us one day, "Can't pause it. Need Tivo." We had mentioned Tivo to him like one time weeks before that and he remembered it. It blew our minds. That's a phrase that we still say from time to time. It's funny how things that kids say will stay with you for years.

More Jackson poop quotes

"Stop messing with me, Mom. I'm trying to poop and it's hard work."

"I'm making a whole family, a whole family of poop turds."

-Jackson G. Hintze

Priceline rules!

I just got a really good deal on a room at the Hyatt Regency near Dallas DFW Airport through priceline.com. We're going to Dallas for a couple of days at the end of March for an adoption conference through the agency we're using. I saved about 60% of the original room cost. I love getting good deals on stuff!

Little Feet

I took a picture of the corner of Evan's memory book. The hospital put his footprints on it for us. Just for a size perspective, notice the thread in the left hand corner that's unraveling from our comforter.

At the Park

Jackson and I sent to Shy Pond this afternoon. We were only there for about 40 minutes and I somehow managed to take 164 pictures in that amount of time. Some of them turned out really cool if I do say so myself. I started a flikr page and put some on there so I don't have to put a buttload of pictures on here. Here are a few that I didn't have room for on the flikr thing. Ok, so maybe I did end up with a buttload on here anyway. This new camera is really cool. It's a good thing I was able to talk Phillip into buying it.

Cousins

My mom has my brother's boys for the weekend while they scope out Corpus Christi. Jack and I went over there for a little visit and I took some pictures. Most of the ones I took turned out blurry because they wouldn't stay still for a second. Jackson really likes to play with those guys.

Remembering Superman

The Stunz family gave us a sympathy card for the death of our fish, Superman. They included 12 cents to buy a replacement. Some of the loving comments included:

"Sorry to hear about Superman" - Jakeb

"My deepest sympathy, my thoughts and prayers are with you in this time" - Tori

"I know that your love for Superman can never be duplicated but perhaps you can grow to love another. We're here for you to help you through." - Andrea

"RIP Superman! Long live Spiderman!" - Tommy

Anna drew a picture of Spiderman the fish. It's a picture of a fish with a spider on it's head. She also drew a picture of a smiling Superman.

Also, Tommy and Andrea wore black to work today to mourn Superman.

It is so nice to know that people are hurting with us. Thanks, guys. (tear)

Jackson quote

Jackson just got finished using the potty. After he was done, he told me, "I pooped a mile!" Who taught him that? Donald, did you teach him that?

Superman RIP

Superman only lived with us for a few days. And yet he made such a difference in our lives for the short time he was here. We will celebrate his life and mourn his death for years to come.

Yeah, right! Stupid fish!

Jack

Just took some pictures of Jack today to try to get used to the new camera. He wasn't very cooperative, but I got a few cute ones.

ME

Phillip was trying out the new camera last night and snapped a few of me. Most of them were either horrible or ridiculous. I screwed around with some of them in iphoto. I have no idea what I'm doing really. This is the only one that isn't totally embarrassing. But I don't look like a very nice person.

Rhymes with...

This morning Jackson has been asking me questions like, "What does pillow rhyme with?" Or "What does bed rhyme with?" (that one was easy.) My favorite though is "What does t-shirt rhyme with?" How do you even answer that? I told him that "t-shirt" doesn't rhyme with anything. "Eat dirt" is about the only thing I can think of that kind of rhymes with t-shirt.

Meet our fish

Jackson and I went to Petco tonight while Phillip was doing Solo and Ensemble stuff. And I decided that we needed some fish. This is a decision (like many others) that I'm sure I will live to regret. But anyway, we got two goldfish that were 12 cents a piece. But once I got the little tank, rocks, a net, food, a fake plant, and some tablets for the water, it ended up costing more than I probably should have spent. But, oh well, what's done is done. So without further adieu, meet our new fish, Spiderman and Superman. The big one is Spiderman.

Created for

What was I created for? Why was I put here? Am I doing what I'm really supposed to be doing with my life? I guess these are questions that everyone asks. I've been asking them a lot lately. I like my job. I'm blessed to have it. But I feel very unfulfilled lately. Am I just searching for something that can't exist here on earth? Am I longing for heaven? I feel like I'm missing something. I guess everyone feels like this. But what if I go through my whole life and don't do the most important thing or things that I was put here to do? Sometimes I just feel like I was created for more.