Tattoo

There is a local business owner who wants to open up a tattoo shop near our church building. My first thought when I heard about this was "who cares?"

Well, apparently another local business owner near our church cares a great deal. She is trying her darnedest to keep it from opening up. She is going to other businesses near by and she's contacted and visited our church office to rally the troops to get on board with her. There is a City Council meeting about it on the 7th I think. She's bugged one of our pastors about making an appearance and/or writing a letter against it. I'm pretty sure she's going to be disappointed. I just don't think our staff really cares one way or another about it. And I am really glad about that. If we're trying to reach a younger generation like we say we are then we really shouldn't be afraid of tattooed people or the shops that they visit. Anyway, I just think it's amusing that this woman is getting all bent out of shape about this. She even went to Brazoria and took polaroids of this tattoo artist's current shop so she could show that he has skulls in his window. Oh no!! Skulls! How evil and sick! Again, who cares? If it were naked ladies (or men...gross) that would be one thing. Our five year old plays with pirate stuff that has skulls on it.

Our five year old also has fake tattoos. Right now he has four. See below. If tattoos are so immoral and horrible, then why do so many little boys and girls have fake ones all over their bodies? I wonder if that soap box business woman sells kids' fake tattoos in her store. Maybe I'll call and ask.


I could understand her getting upset if it were a strip club or a "toy" shop. Would she be this upset if a Borders or some other book store were opening up nearby? Books in and of themselves are not bad. But there are plenty of "bad" books that I wouldn't want my child exposed to. Anyway, I'm pretty annoyed that she's so adamant about this whole thing. Maybe she'll decide to move her business elsewhere and our church can utilize her business space. That could work out nicely.

Family stuff

I'm so glad that school is out for Jackson and I can't wait for Phillip to be done. Friday is his last day. We really love having him home. Sure, there are times that I wish he would go away somewhere for a little while, but for the most part, it's great. I'm pretty sure I get on his nerves more than he gets on mine. It will be really good for Jackson to have his daddy home with him for 2 1/2 months. I've kind of felt like Jack has not had a lot of individual time with us since we got the baby. I think we've done the best we could have done, but a second child just takes some time away from the first. It amazes me how patient, understanding, and forgiving Jackson is. He's just been a huge help since we got baby M. Jackson is a very special little boy. Anyway, enough gooshing on and on about Jackson.

(Side note: Phillip and Jackson are playing a Wii game and I just heard Jackson say, "Dad, I'm so proud of you. I'm just so happy at you.")

About the baby, it's been over seven weeks now since he's had a visit with his biological mom. And as of now, no more visits have been scheduled. We were told when we got him that his mom would be allowed weekly visits and so far she's only seen him two times in four months. I feel pretty optimistic that he's here to stay. But until the ink is dry on the paper, anything could change. He has a court date towards the end of June. They could start talking termination at that point. They won't actually terminate at that time, but they may set a termination date. They could also change his legal status to adoption rather than family reunification. It's just terminology, but it's something. Anyway, we've decided that if we're able to adopt him, we're going to name him Micah Benjamin Hintze. His given name is not Micah. But he's young enough that he probably won't know the difference. We call him Micah B. (Micabee) most of the time anyway. So, from now on when I refer to him, I'll refer to him as Micah. I'm tired of calling him "Baby M." on my blog.

Phillip's brother is getting married in August to my "dream girl." I wanted him to marry her way back when she was in our youth group at our previous church. I mean, I didn't want him to marry her then, I was just hoping then that he would marry her someday. Anyway, it's pretty cool. Jackson is going to be the ring bearer, so I hope doesn't screw that up. I'm going to be taking some engagement pictures for them this weekend, and I hope I don't screw that up.

More about Jackson...
Jackson has somehow gotten it in his big head that it's the mommy's responsibility to clean up the house, take care of the baby, cook, and all that other stuff that's stereotypically "women's work." He likes to remind me sometimes of things I have left undone around the house. Not cool, kid, not cool. I can't wait until he's big enough to do some work around here without just making more work for me. I am determined that he's going to be a good husband someday. And that means he needs to know how to do laundry, cook, and clean toilets.

Did you read that, Phillip??? Clean toilets! They don't magically clean themselves. Oh, man, I bet he wishes he was teaching summer school! He thinks he's getting a summer break. Ha!

The Cute Years

Well, I'm afraid that Jackson's little lip busting thing from a few weeks ago is going to cost him atleast one of his top front teeth. I noticed a little while ago that his right top tooth is beginning to turn gray. And the one next to it looks like it might be slightly discolored also. He has a dentist appt. for Thursday of next week and we'll find out for sure what's going on. If that tooth is dying, then he'll either be without that tooth or he'll have a discolored tooth until his permanent teeth come in. Which means that Jackson's cute years are almost gone. Once kids get their big permanent teeth, they're just a little goofy looking until they get to be about 17. Of course, there are exceptions. Oh, well, I guess he'll still be cute to us. I'm glad I got some good pictures of him before the incident.

Jackson's Birthday

Today is Jackson's 5th birthday. We celebrated it on Saturday. Just in the couple of minutes that he has been awake he has said a couple of funny things about turning 5.

I heard him stirring in his bed this morning so I went in his room and started singing the birthday song. And he said, "I was just saying that to myself." I asked him what he was saying to himself. And he said that he was saying "Happy Birthday" to himself.

Then we went into the bathroom and he immediately got on the scale. And he said, "Huh, I thought I would weigh more."

Siberian Adoption Story

Today I watched a show on TLC or some TLC(like) channel about adopting from Siberia. They showed the journey of two families adopting babies from Siberia. Anyway, one of the women said several things during this 30 minute show that were so tacky. Here are a few quotes...to the best of my memory.

"She (the baby) looks so American. You can't get American babies in America."
"You don't want to spend $35,000 for a baby and then have her turn on you someday."
"Do you feel like someone just handed you someone else's baby and said, 'Here, you deal with it.'"
"Get that f*****ng camera out of my face."

Yeah, this woman was a real piece of work. Usually when I've seen adoption stories, the parents seem like wonderful, giving people. She seemed like....well, you know. I especially loved the comment about not being able to get an American baby in America. I think what she meant is that you can't get a white baby in America. Like a person has to be white to "look American." Anyway, just goes to show you that not only can idiots give birth, but idiots can also adopt.

Baby update

I guess the real update is that there is no update. It's been almost two weeks since he was supposed to have a visit with bio. mom. And I haven't heard a word from C.P.S. since then. I really expected to hear from them before now to reschedule the visit. So, as far as I'm concerned, no news is good news. He will have a court date in less than two months. At that time, we'll have a much better idea (I hope) about where we stand. I'm really hoping that bio. mom has not been attending the classes/therapy that she was assigned. If that's the case, they could start talking about termination of parental rights soon. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself or start assuming things that I know nothing about. But I do know that if she were doing well, she would be seeing a heck of a lot more of the baby. So, anyway, that's about it. I feel much better about things than I did a month or so ago.