Tuesday, November 28, 2006

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.

Monday, November 27, 2006

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!)


Thursday, November 23, 2006

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.

Monday, November 20, 2006

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?"

Sunday, November 19, 2006

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.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Thursday, November 16, 2006

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.



Wednesday, November 15, 2006

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.

Monday, November 13, 2006

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?

Saturday, November 11, 2006

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.





Wednesday, November 08, 2006

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.

Monday, November 06, 2006

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.

Friday, November 03, 2006

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.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

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.