Nursery Stuff

I know that I haven't written in a while. There is really absolutely nothing going on to write about. I have no deep spiritual truths to share (not that I have many of those anyway). Jackson hasn't been doing anything terribly noteworthy except getting into trouble on a daily basis. Nothing catastrophic or amazing has happened in our lives at all that I know of.

I did order nursery bedding a couple of weeks ago though. We have gotten the room cleaned out that will be the nursery. So either today or tomorrow I'm going to begin to paint over the crazy paint job that is currently in that room. Here's a picture of the nursery stuff I ordered.



We're thinking of requesting a girl. Initially we weren't going to request a gender because you can't request a gender if you have a biological child. But almost nothing about this is left to chance anyway. We have to request an age and race, so we might as well request a gender too. We haven't decided yet exactly what we're going to do.....still time to think it over. But if we do get a girl, I'll be putting some pink stuff here and there like a pink crib skirt, pink valance, etc. Anyway, that's kind of where my brain is at lately. We've gone through a couple more classes since the orientation. We'll be going through about 7 classes during the first couple weeks of July. Fun stuff, let me tell you. Anyway, sorry that this blog has been almost as uniteresting as some of the other blogs I visit. Don't give up on it. Someday something amazing might happen and you don't want to miss it.

New Car...sort of

After driving back and forth to Pasadena twice, we have a new used truck. It's pretty cool. It has a V8 engine, not that I'll need that driving around Brazoria County, but hey, the more power the better. It's a '98 Ford Explorer with 58,600 miles on it. It's in really good shape considering it's 8 years old. Hopefully in a few months we'll be getting something else so we can ditch my falling apart, no air conditioning, no windshield wipers, hail damaged '96 Chevrolet Cavelier. We're thinking about a Honda Accord. The coupes look pretty dang cool. See.....

A two door is not real practical I guess. But we'll have the Explorer to drive kids around in. And half the time Jack gets in the front door and climbs into the backseat anyway.

We got a good deal on the Explorer. And the next car we buy will atleast 5 years old too. Well, anyway, that's what we did today. It was a really long day.

Stuff and Junk

I've had some things on my mind the last few days to write about but I just haven't taken the time to do it. We've had a lot going on.

The insurance co. declared our car totalled. So for the last couple of days Phillip and I have been looking at used cars on-line. We've narrowed it down to a couple that we're going to go look at tomorrow morning. We found what looks like a great deal on a '98 Ford Explorer. I know they don't get very good gas mileage, but we plan on just driving it around town. After Phillip's job situation is more secure, we plan on get something a little newer that gets better gas mileage.

We replaced the vanity, sink, faucet, mirror, and light fixture in our (only) bathroom. I say we because I picked the stuff out and watched as they actually put it in. We're hoping the sink doesn't leak tomorrow when we try it. It looks so much better than the junk we had in there. The wallpaper is still awful but we plan on doing something about that in the next couple of months.

Our dryer stopped working all of a sudden. It's fairly new so I have no idea what's going on there. We were already behind on laundry as it is.

Jackson has not been getting as much one on one attention lately with all this other stuff going on and it's starting to show in his behavior. Phillip's parents are out of town and they give him lots of undivided attention. And my mom used to see him about 10 hours a week and she hasn't seen him as much lately either. So, he's kind of stuck with us and we haven't been as attentive as we should be lately. I need to really make an effort to hang out with him more. Someone asked us recently if we would consider moving to Houston if Phillip got a job there. The answer: NO WAY! Jackson needs his grandparents. I'm not just writing this to kiss up to anyone. It is the truth. Phillip's parents and my mom are such a vital part of his life. It would take something completely outlandish for us to move.

Bounce U

Today was my brother's boys' birthday party. Garrett will be six in a couple of weeks and Kyle was four a couple of days ago. Anyway, they had their birthday party at this place called Bounce U. It's like this indoor bounce house place for kids and adults. It's pretty cool. Here are some pictures of my brother kicking my butt in the boxing ring.

But that's ok because I was laying the smack down on some little kids.

Nasal Pot

A friend of mine responded to my previous post saying that I needed to get a nasal pot to clean out my sinuses. Well, I decided to see what in the world a nasal pot looked like and this is what I got. Visit this website to get your own. Thanks for the suggestion, Lizanne, but I think I'll pass.



Just a thought: How in the world did they get this poor girl to pose for this picture. You couldn't pay me enough.

Sick again

I started feeling a little crummy Monday night. So Tuesday morning I started taking Zicam. Who knows if it really works or not but I figured it was worth a try. Maybe it has helped a little, but now it's Friday and my voice is pretty much gone and I'm fairly sure I have a sinus infection. I'm pretty sure about the sinus infection thing because of color and consistency.....would you like for me to go on? I could go on.....

Anyway, we were supposed to help with worship at a church in Pearland on Sunday morning and a church in Tomball on Sunday night. I don't think either of those things are going to happen. I hate to leave those churches in a lurch like this, but there's not much I can do about it. This will be the second and third time in the last couple of months I have had to bail because of being sick. Is it a sign? Maybe so.

First Class: complete

We went to our first class tonight with The Arrow Project. We watched a video that probably lasted like 45 minutes of the founder giving his life story. Phillip said it was all done in one take. I don't notice such things.

I have been reading up on this stuff for a while, so there weren't any real surprises. We will probably be done with our classes by the middle of July. We could be licenced as early as late July/early August. One thing I didn't realize though is that even if a baby is abandoned, CPS has to take every attempt to contact the biological family and terminate the rights. She made it sound like the quickest that can happen is about 90 days after birth. So, that's a little scary. And, then we can't start the adoption process until the child has been with us for six months.

We are just going to have to go into this knowing that we might not get to adopt. We will just love the baby to pieces whether we have him/her for 3 weeks or forever. Really, none of us are guaranteed that we'll have our kids tomorrow. The concept of being stewards of our children really hits home when it comes to foster to adopt.

Foster/Adopt Update

We have the first of about 10 classes tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is just orientation. We'll have 2 or 3 more classes in June and then 7 classes in July. We should be done with all of our classes by the end of July. In the meantime, we need to get our application finished and turned in, have our house inspected for fire safety, and take CPR/First Aid training. Once we have finished our classes, they will be do a home study and then we'll be licensed. July is going to be crazy and exciting getting the nursery ready and taking classes. So that's it for now.

Oh, yeah...

I forgot to mention that while we were standing out there in the rain waiting for the tow truck, we got attacked by killer ants. People who have been in a wreck standing out on the side of the road look stupid enough without frantically getting ants off their legs. I wish I'd had a bag to put over my head at that moment.

Wreck

Well, we were in a car CRASH!!! tonight. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it spun our car around and the impact hurt pretty good. Phillip pretty much summed up how I feel about it on his blog so I won't bother re-writing it.

Well.....I guess I'll write a little....

I really don't know how many glares, eye rollings, unpleasant groans, and WATCH OUT!!(s) I have to give him before he starts bothering to pay attention to what he's doing behind the wheel. Ok, enough said. I'm done. I'm glad we're o.k. It could have been much worse.

Isn't he cute?

I took this at the Sea Center a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what kind of fish it is. Nor do I care. I think he was smiling at me.

My First Car

Since Phillip posted the car he wants to get on his blog, I thought I would post the kind of car I want to get......again.



When I was 16, I got my first car. It was a 1974 Chevrolet Caprice Classic 2 door. It was awesome. It had power windows and locks, cruise control, and nice vinyl interior. It had been owned by some old lady who kept it in the garage and rarely drove it. It had the original 8 cylinder engine. Mine was not the color of the one in the picture. Mine was a kind of grey/green color. And the one above is a convertible, which mine was not. I think it had under 100,000 miles on it when we got in '94. We paid $1,000 for it. Quite a steal.....

And I had no idea how truly cool that car was. I just kind of thought it was some cheap piece of junk and I took horrible care of it. We ended up having to replace the original engine with an 80's Malibu engine and after that it ran like crap. One time in high school I ran it through some really high water over in front of Girouard's in Freeport. The water was a couple of inches below the bottom of the window. It had rained like crazy that day and I decided to ignore the detour because I thought I could get through it. Water got all inside the car. My friends were freaking out like they thought we were going to drown or something. Anyway, after it sat for a couple of days, it started right up. This was before we had to replace the engine. I think the standing water, the donuts on the beach, and the fact that I never changed the oil caused the engine to eventually blow. After the whole flooding incident, it smelled horrible. I ended up selling it to my cousin a few years later for a few hundred dollars.

Man, that car was cool. I had people asking me all the time if it was for sale. And I thought they were crazy. I just didn't realize it was kind of a classic. An ugly classic, but a classic just the same. I would really like to get another one someday. I can't even describe how fun that thing was to drive before I blew the engine.

Ministry Opportunity

Lately Phillip and I have been hoping that some opportunities would arise for us to lead worship at some other churches. We have done some of that here and there since we got married almost six years ago but it's been pretty sporadic.

We've been talking to a pastor of a church in Pearland lately and it looks like we might be going there to lead worship on a regular basis. It is a new church that is just getting started. Their plan is to be a multi-racial church. This could be really great experience for us to start easing our way into music ministry. We are going to be visiting and leading there the first two Sundays in June. If we feel like that is where we are meant to be, we will be leaving our current church and hanging out there on Sundays. We have not committed to this church yet. We are going to check things out before we commit. We will still remain connected to our current church. I will still be working in the church office for a while and we'll probably both be helping out with Saturday night services sometimes. In a way it will be hard to leave, but we've been feeling like our time there has been drawing to a close.

I'm excited about the possibilities. I'm excited to be singing every week.....and I'm scared to death to be singing every week. I'm looking forward to working on worship stuff with Phillip every week. And I'm also a little apprehensive to be working on worship stuff with Phillilp every week. We don't always see eye to eye on things, but I think this could be very enriching for our marriage. Knowing that we are probably going to have a multi-racial family, it is very appealing to be part of a multi-racial church.

So if you're part of the BPF family, you'll be seeing Phillip and me on stage this Sunday. And you possibly won't be seeing us up there again, atleast not regularly. I'll keep you posted of our final decision. Please pray for discernment.

Foot Cleaner

We went up to the church office earlier this week so I could do some work. Maybe it was last week...I don't know. Doesn't matter. Anyway, I told Jackson that his feet were really dirty. So a little while later I caught him "washing" his feet. He was licking his hands and rubbing the dirt off of his feet and then re-licking his hands and rubbing more dirt off. It's funny to be around a kid that is particular about his hands and feet being clean but has no real concept of germs. Like if he's eating at the coffee table (which he does sometimes at lunch) he'll wipe his hands on the floor because he doesn't want food remnants on his hands. I always provide a napkin or two for him to use but I guess the floor or his clothes are more convenient.

Makes absolutely no sense.

Nepal Blog

A couple of friends of ours, Tommy Stunz and Danny Crocker along with some other guys, are currently in Nepal on a mission trip. Those guys along with their wives here in Texas have started a Blog to document their experiences. It would be a great idea to check it out.

The Way to Nepal

We're home

The Conference was good. They really cram a lot of information into a weekend. The wife of one of the speakers spoke in the women's session. She has given birth to EIGHT children....all by c-section. In addition to that, she has had SIX miscarriages. She has been pregnant a total of FOURTEEN times in the last 17 years. And she still wants to have more children. Wow. She homeschools all of their children and she still seems fairly sane.

I took a few pictures that turned out kind of interesting. They are actually of me in the bathtub. I know, I'm sure you would be perfectly content to live your entire life without having to see pictures of me in the bathtub, but here they are anyway. And if you're reading on bloglines, don't worry, they're clean. No pun intended.

Weekend to Remember Day:1

Phillip and I are at a Family Life Marriage Conference. We have been married for six years in June and we have never been to any kind of marriage conference. Since Phillip's dad did our pre-marital counseling, I'm not sure that really even counts. So, anyway, it's a wonder we're still living under one roof. Just kidding. No, really, just kidding.

Anyway, we got to the hotel and waited in line to check in. The couple in front of us spent 10 minutes or so (ok, maybe not that long) griping to the check-in lady because they had reserved a King sized bed and were getting two doubles. They did lots of complaining and threatening to talk to the manager and all that stuff and still ended up with two double beds. So when we finally got up there to check in, we smiled and graciously accepted our two doubled beds even though we reserved a King because we saw their fruitless efforts. So last night, at a marriage conference, Phillip and I slept in separate beds. We have a King at home so we're used to not touching each other during the night while we're sleeping. We felt like June and Ward Cleaver. But like a friend of ours at the conference said, "You only need one bed for a few minutes anyway." Ok, Debbie, I'll stop there. I know you're reading this.

We thought we were getting a good deal because they put us on the Concierge floor and they have complementary breakfast on these two floors.....Mon-Fri. So much for that.

We sat next to a pen clicker and her husband. I tried and failed to steal her husband's book on accident. I don't know why click pens even exist. That is one of my few pet peeves. Well, there are more than a few. Pretty much any kind of repetative noise drives me crazy very quickly. So pen clicking falls into that. Also, half of what Jackson does in his daily life falls into that category also. I think today before we sit next to anyone I'm going to ask to borrow their pen. If it's a clicker pen, I'm either going to pretend to use it, give it back, and sit as far away from them as possible or I'm going to throw it across the room and run away. Not sure which yet.

We ended up sitting right next to people from our church. We were going to try and avoid anyone we knew, but it was cool. During the prayer me and my friend from church were making sex jokes. We didn't know the guy was praying until he said "Amen." We both thought it was pretty dang funny.

Anyway, that's it for now. I think we're supposed to learn something about conflict resolution today so that should come in handy.

Uncertainty

It seems that right now there are many things in our life that could change over the next couple of months. We are excited and a little scared.

Phillip is looking for a new job for next school year.

We are going to start pursuing foster/adopt processes very soon. New baby possibly by the end of the summer!!

And we are not sure what we are supposed to do about church stuff. We have both been wanting to get into worship leading stuff and it looks like an opportunity may be surfacing. We need to try to figure out where/when God wants us to do what.

Our life as we know it right now could be very different in just a few months. If only I had a crystal ball....

He actually did it!

Today was Splash Day at Jackson's preschool. They had this really big blow up slide. Most of the kids couldn't wait to get on it. But just as I thought, Jackson was aprehensive. I encouraged him a few times to get on it and he just said he didn't want to. Then he finally told me why. It is because there was some mud at the end of the slide that that you climb up. He didn't want to step in the mud. He was out running around in the grass barefoot, getting in and out of little pools filled with grass and dirty little kids. But he wouldn't go down this awesome slide because he didn't want to get mud on his feet. Unbelievable! So, I helped him to get onto the slide without having to step in the mud and he loved it. Then he went down it two more times and tried his darndest (sp?) to avoid the mud. I can't believe our kid is a clean freak.

Spiderman goggles

Some family friends bought Jack some Spiderman swimming stuff for his birthday. It came with Spiderman goggles, flippers, and glove things that shoot water out like webs.....what will they think of next? Anyway, Jack really likes the stuff and just wants to wear all of it around the house and out in public. The house, o.k. ...public, not o.k. So, here are a couple of pictures of him in his Spiderman goggles. Enjoy.