Christmas '05

We had a really good Christmas. Jack got more stuff than any kid could need and he had a blast. Here are a few pictures for you to check out. Phillip has more pictures on his blog.


This is a picture of Jackson kind of wearing his Spiderman mask. He says that it's hard to breathe in so he pulls it up like this. It looks kind of like a bonnet. By the way, I tried the mask on and wore it for a little while and it's not really hard to breathe in at all. Just in case you were curious.


This is Jackson looking very excited about his wiki stix. Debbie bought him like 50 of them or something. They are staying at Nana and Granddad's house. I'm not a big wiki stix fan.


I stole Jack's remote control Jeep. It's pretty cool.

It's been a while

We spent part of this evening with my oldest sister and her two grown sons. The live in Alabama and I haven't seen my sister in over five years and I haven't seen one of my nephews in about 10 years. My sister and I haven't even spoken on the phone since right before Jackson was born 3 1/2 years ago. We haven't really been angry with each other or anything. We just don't really know one another and there's no real relationship. I was really pretty annoyed when I found out she was coming for a visit. I just thought it was weird after all these years that I was going to be seeing her again. I don't like being fake nice. And I knew I wouldn't have anything significant to say to her.

But anyway, the visit was fine. It wasn't that weird at all. I didn't even have to be fake nice. It was good to see them. It's just so strange to see my nephews as grown men. It's really a shame that we weren't all more a part of each other's lives. I think it's kind of too late now to try and build any meaningful relationships with them. But I guess many of the relationships I have with extended family are kind of superficial.

I'm not talking about the ones of you that bother reading my blog. You see the real me, I'm afraid.

Narnia book

We have this little easy reader book for Jack with pictures from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe movie. Anyway, Phillip asked Jack tonight if he wanted to read "The Narnia book." And Jack said, "It's actually called the Chronicles of Narnia." Phillip asked him where he heard that and he said he just made it up (not true of course). Then he said something like, "Well, actually I like to say it like that now." The word "actually" actually comes out something like "akshawy." He also likes to say, "in fact" from time to time. Little nerd.

Raw Cookie Dough

Family and coworkers, prepare to be stunned.

After all my warnings, rantings, and disapproving looks... After years of insistence that no one should eat raw cookie dough, I just gave some to my son. Yes, I let him eat raw cookie dough. Not much, just a couple of bites. It specifically says on the package, "Bake before consuming." And I gave him some anyway. And he loved it. He wanted more and I told him it wasn't good for his tummy.

My (irrational) fear of eating raw cookie dough comes from my(irrational) fear of possible salmonella in raw eggs, which is destryed during the cooking process. This is also why I'm really grossed out by handling raw chicken. But as you are probably thinking and as many people have told me repeatedly, "I've been eating raw cookie dough for years and I've never gotten sick." And so, here in typed print, I will admit there's probably nothing wrong with eating a little bit of it occasionally.

If some of my family (you know who you are) now think it's perfectly ok to fill Jack's belly with gobs of it, this is not the case. I still don't really think it's a great idea to eat it. And I will still choose not to eat it myself. But if he eats a little bit once in a while, I guess it's ok.

Now really all this means is that I'm giving you my permission to do something that you would do or have already done anyway.

Cookie Party

Jackson got invited to a cookie making party by a little girl in his class at school. According to Jackson, she is his "best friend." There are seven boys in his class and only one girl and she's the one he wants to play with all the time. Anyway, this party is Wednesday morning and I have to work. So I think Phillip should take him to the party. If he did, he would likely be the only daddy there. It would mostly be chatty, loud women and they would probably really get on his nerves. And he would have to make himself be nice. But I think he should take him anyway. What do you think? Keep in mind, no one can talk Phillip into acutally doing this. Personally, I wouldn't want to go either. For the most part, women annoy me.

My Son, the Donkey

Jackson's Preschool Christmas Program was this morning. He was a donkey. He stood up there with his chin to his chest, shrugging his shoulders (for some reason) the whole time. He didn't cry, which is good. But he also didn't sing or even make eye contact with anyone. But he was cute. He has been crying in all the practices they have had in the last couple of weeks so I didn't really know what to expect. I'm debating putting this picture on Christmas cards but I'm not sure anybody would know what he is supposed to be. It looks like he only has one ear.

bugging daddy

Here's another kind of funny picture. Our camera really stinks, but the pictures look much better in black and white. Jackson likes to get on Phillip's back like this sometimes. Phillip doesn't really like it. I don't imagine it feels great on his back. Jack weighs about 40 lbs. now.

Three year olds and pacifiers

I took this picture of Jackson a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to post it and I just kept forgetting. He came across one of his old pacifiers in a bag of baby stuff. He didn't know what to do with it. He didn't even know what it was. I washed it for him and anyway, he popped it in his mouth and I took a picture. He wanted to take a nap with it. I drew the line there. I won't have my three year old getting attached to a binky. He hasn't used one since he was about 9 months old. It's a pretty cool picture, though. Notice the piles of laundry in the background. Somewhat typical, I'm afraid.

We forked Erin's house

Ok, since she already knows it was me, (along with some other people) I figured I would post the picture on my blog. Friday night myself and some other crazy women went and forked Erin Martin's house. She was having a grown up slumber party at her house so we thought we should do something juvenile to make it more authentic. The picture is not very good, but it's all I got. (And, yes, I realize that is incorrect grammar to all those grammar police out there.)

We used about 400 plastic forks or so. That's just a guess. Oh, yeah, and a few knives. She only knows three of the six culprits and I am not going to rat them out. But I know she saved the forks for some other occasion. I'm pretty sure she isn't saving them for Christmas dinner.

Someone got pulled over!

I hear that someone I know got pulled over today on the way to work. You know who you are. So, did you get a ticket? You can't hide in this town. Someone is always watching.

Concert Pet Peeves

Phillip had his Christmas concert tonight with the High School Orchestra. The L.J.I. orchestra also performed. So my mom and I went in and found good seats right in the middle not too close to anybody. And a few minutes after we sat down two different families with small children came and sat right behind us. Kids are cool and all but there are just some places that kids really shouldn't be brought to in my opinion. And some of it depends on the kid. But man, there was this kid right behind me about 6 years old or so and he was driving me nuts. He was talking way above a whisper, kicking the back of my chair (which makes my blood boil), standing up right behind me, etc. The adults that were with him kept telling him to be quiet but of course it did not work. So I'm trying to think of the things I could do to get this kid to shut up. I wasn't really considering doing any of these things but you know, ideas just run through your head. I could:

A. turn around and smack the kid
B. turn around and smack the kid's mom
C. politely ask them to keep it down
D. turn around and glare at them (which I did once)
E. move to a different seat while the groups were switching out

I decided that once the Intermediate School was done we would just move to keep myself from doing anything I would later regret. But thankfully after the Intermediate School was done that family left, which leads into another pet peeve. People were just getting up all through out the concert, coming in and going out. Right in the middle of the pieces. That is so rude! And if you go to a concert shouldn't you respect all the groups performing enough to stay through them? I was there at the beginning to listen to the not-so-great Intermediate School groups. Shouldn't they have the courtesy to stay and listen to the other groups? Oh well, whatever. I'm just glad that family with that bratty kid left.

Phillip did a good job by the way.

Different Voice, Different Color

As Phillip wrote on his blog, we rented March of the Penguins for Jack to watch. It was very cool. I liked it alot. But anyway, while I was watching it with Jackson on Sunday afternoon, Jack said, "Who is that guy?" I asked him what guy he was talking about. And he said, "The guy that's talkig." The movie is narrated by Morgan Freeman, who is a pretty cool African American actor with a very distinct voice. There's a picture of him just in case you're really bad about putting names with faces like I am.



Anyway, I told Jack that the man's name is Morgan Freeman. Then Jackson asked, "Is his skin the same color like ours?" Now keep in mind, Morgan Freeman narrates the movie. You never see him. I thought it was really weird. This is the first comment I've ever heard him make regarding different skin color. I told him that his skin is not the same color as ours and that his skin is brown. I asked Jack why he asked if his skin was the same color as ours and he said he didn't know. I'm wondering if he saw him on a commercial or something and remembered his voice. Or could Jack detect something in his voice or the way he speaks that sounded different from ours? Anyway, it was just kind of an interesting question for him to ask. I wish I knew what goes on in his head.

Need Christmas Cards?

Hey if you're looking for someone to make some photo (or non-photo) Christmas cards or other kind of cards/invitations I have a friend who's starting up a small business doing just that. Here is a link to her website. She also does web page design. I better get moving and figure out what we're going to do for Christmas cards this year. And, hey, Mindy, I am not doing this for a discount!! Don't hold your breath about getting any business from my blog, but hey, it can't hurt.

Ok, this is really making me mad. My thing that lets me say what time it is is gone. It will probably put some ridiculous time on here like 3:00 a.m. Phillip, fix it!

Snakes and Strangers

The other night at dinner we had a very important discussion with Jackson about the dangers of snakes. Then I figured since we were on the subject of being careful, I'd go into the stranger talk as well. Jackson stated mind blowing comments such as, "Do nice snakes talk?", "Can we get a snake?", "There are strangers on Toy Story." (he was confusing the word stranger with the word soldier). "I would beat a stranger up." There were other things he said that were pretty funny. I can't remember them now. I think he understands not to touch a snake and to go get a grown up if you see one. But I'm not sure he gets the whole stranger thing. We'll address it again in a few months.

(Where in the world is my time and date thing?)

God's will

How do we even know what the will of God is anyway? Sure, we can feel a sense of peace. We can feel discontent. We can know for certain that some things are against God's will just because it contradicts commands that have been given in the Bible. But when people get involved, which we are most of the time, we screw up the will of God like crazy. We can feel a false sense of peace or a false discontent. As Phillip said, "People are wildcards." We pray for God's will to be done and then assume that it will be just because we prayed it. And then we assume that if something weird or flat out bad happens, it must have been God's will because that's what we prayed for. When all the while, the very people who are praying that God's will be done are the ones keeping it from being so. Can God ultimately do anything he wants to? Of course. But we have free will to make terrible and wacky decisions all day long and then turn around and claim the outcome was desired by God. I've done it. You've done it. Just the phrase, "It wasn't in God's will" really gets to me. Who are we to claim that we know the will of the Almighty God of this universe? The more I learn about God, the more I realize I can't figure Him out. How does He put up with us anyway?

Pete, are you a Mormon?

I am shopping for clothing for Pete (Jack's bear) for Christmas on the Build A Bear Website. And lo and behold I came across a Mormon outfit complete with the Book of Mormon. No, I am NOT joking. Here's a picture and the caption. Check it out. For a mere $12.00, we can turn Pete into a Mormon. Notice in the caption below, there is a play Book of Mormon. Doesn't that sound like such fun?


Outfit includes white oxford shirt with
attached black tie and name badge, black
pants and play The Book of Mormon.

The Zoo and Long-haired Rebels

I haven't written in quite a while. I just haven't had anything I felt was relevant enough to write about. Not that much of what I write is terribly relevant anyway. But if I'm going to bother having this blog I need to write more than once a week.

So anyway, we went to the Houston Zoo on Tuesday. The weather was pretty nice and we had a good time and spent too much money. We brought our stroller for Jackson and he looked ridiculous in it. He's huge. But it's a good thing we brought it because we had to strap his little rear in it a few times just to keep him from running off. I was standing next to some cow in the children's zoo area and the thing must have peed for a minute straight. It was crazy.

While we were there I think I might have accidentally offended a group of Pentecostal women. Or maybe I just offended one of them. I don't know. She said (rather loud and in my direction), "That woman better stop giving me dirty looks and shaking her head at me. We're about to have words." I don't recall shaking my head at her or giving her dirty looks. But who knows. I probably did look at them a little funny. Two of the women that were with them had the long pulled back hair but they were wearing jeans. And I was just a little confused. I was probably thinking, "Have they fallen astray? Are they rebels? Maybe they're part of a more contemporary sect." Maybe my confusion looked like contempt. Either way, I was probably being rude. Oh well, I could have taken her if I had to.

Well, here's some pictures from our day at the zoo. I didn't get any pictures of my Pentecostal friends.

Adoption Workshop Part 2

Ok, so some of you have asked if the workshop was good and what we thought about it and stuff. It was really good. We are both very glad that we went. We learned a lot of good information about the adoption process. We both left feeling like we just wanted to get several kids from various Countries. But we are trying to act on what God wants us to do rather than raw emotion.

We learned about funding an adoption. Adopting from Korea and China is a cost of about $15,000. But there are financial assistance options available. They told us to think of the money as a ransom rather than a cost or a price. I thought that was a great way to think about it. They also talked about how adoption is evalgalism at its core, which I had never thought about before. If these children are not brought into loving, Christian homes they may never hear the truth about Jesus Christ. Phillip wrote in his blog what he thought about the whole thing too if you want to read that.

We went hoping to gain information that we or someone else could use. We left with an overwhelming burden that there is a child or will be a child that needs us. It will be neat to see what happens over the next year or two in our lives. By the way, thanks for praying.

Adoption Workshop

Phillip and I are going to this workshop on Saturday. We are still kind of unsure of the direction that we need to go. We want to have high hopes for our future family but it is difficult for us to think positively. We hope to gain useful information at this workshop. We both think that adoption may be a very real part of our future some day. If you think about it, please pray for us and the other couples that will be there that day. Many people who consider adoption have had many years of pain that lead them to that decision. We will be in a room filled with pain and hope. Thanks.

Impeccable Taste

I pretty much trust Phillip's opinion when it comes to music. He has not steered me wrong yet. He has turned me on to such artists as Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Coldplay, Beck, Miles Davis, and many, many others. (You may sense that there is a BIG BUT coming.) But....he's gotten a few CDs lately that I'm seriously not too sure about. One of the CDs he gotten recently is some weirdo Icelandic, no-word, Enya sounding music. Really, I can't believe he likes it. I'm trying to give it a chance because, like I said, I trust his musical taste. But I'm wondering if he's slipping. I mean you can't have 100% impeccable taste in something, can you? I think he's trying to broaden his horizons or something. Maybe I'll end up liking it. Who knows. I have ended up liking The White Stripes and The Flaming Lips and they're pretty weird.