A few of my blessings

1. Getting the travel to Eastern Europe for the 1st time ever on a Mission Trip. It was a great trip and I learned so much and met so many really great people. And it made it even better that I was there with Jamey, Luke, Sara and my mom. My mom was SUCH a trooper. I hope to travel abroad with her again soon. The trip was made possible by a person who wished to remain anonymous, but whose gift to me and Jamey impacted far more people than he could ever realize.

2. Having really good neighbors. Neighbors that will let my dog in and out when I am out of town so I don't have to board her. Neighbors who will babysit and will come down for a chat and never once judge me on the condition of my house.

3. A fabulous husband. I came home from grocery shopping today to an empty house. I look out into the back yard and he has them engaged in a full on game on Teeball. What a great father. Makes me love him so much more each day which doesn't seem possible. He will do potty duty, children's church and patiently let the kids "help" him with a Wii or Playstation game. All kids should be this lucky...

4. Great family - a brother and sister in law that we are actually FRIENDS with - imagine that. In laws that love my kids. A sister in law who spoils my kids rotten.

5. My mom

6. a Job that is as secure as it can be in today's economy. We are by no means financially well off, but we can pay our bills and have a bit left for fun. And that is fine with me. I also have some of the best coworkers I could hope for...

2 days til Christmas. We are very excited and not quite ready. But Christmas will come no matter what is done and not done. :) And I say, bring it on.

Merry Christmas!

Uncle L and Stephen at the park over Thanksgiving


Ms. French (Jamey's grandma) made Ansley an apron with a matching apron for her baby doll. Ansley LOVES it.


I love the expression on Stephen's face as he runs...


Here are the kids blowing out birthday candles on their desserts. No birthday cakes this year! Neither of my kids likes cake. So brownies and cookies it was. Nice on my pocketbook too!



Ansley and her friends with Leighann at the birthday party. The COLD birthday party.

Christmas Through the Rain

Getting two kids out the door each morning in a reasonable amount of time is no easy task. I realize that many a mom and dad have done this long before I became a parent, but the job is nonetheless daunting even after both children got a good night’s sleep the night before and have awakened in a semi-good mood in the predawn hours of the morning. But add pouring rain to the mix, and time is the enemy. “Hurry, Hurry!” I tell the kids. “Eat, eat. We need to leave early with all this rain.”

The shoe search seems to take precious seconds longer this morning. I struggle to suppress a harsh tone as the thunder and lightning thrill my kids at the window. Rushing my kids to the car in the darkness of a full on thunderstorm, I do an inventory: backpack, lunchbox, extra clothes for the little one, phone charger. My kids are 100% dry, but my feet were not as lucky.

I sigh loudly and we are finally ready to go. And we are late.

And then, I am given a reminder:

“Look, Mama!” I hear my 5 (almost 6 year old she is quick to remind us all) from the backseat. “Aren’t you glad it is raining? We can see all the Christmas lights in the morning time today since it’s so dark out from the rain!”

We spend the car ride looking at all the Christmas lights between my house and the babysitter, pointing out our favorite displays that are shining through the sheets of rain.

The rain beat down on the car. The thunder rolled and the lightening crashed, but the spirit of my precious children was not shaken. They found joy in the morning drive to school.

What a lesson for me.

I certainly don’t have to list the many burdens we all face on a daily basis: illness, paying bills or buying groceries, layoffs, pressure and opinions from the people around us, loneliness, regret, fear. But seeing the light through the darkness means we have hope. We have hope that we are more than the problems that cause us to lose sleep at night. We have hope that we are more than illness that might have taken over our bodies or the overdrawn checking account giving us a stomachache. Having hope does not mean we live in denial. We know the problems are there and most people will face them scared or not. But when we can see, as a child, the light through the darkness, we can relax for a moment. We can breathe in the joy and it can help us get through the day, the hour, the moment.

I pray that you see the Christmas lights through the rain this season.

And I pray I will do the same.

Dear Santa....

Ansley has been asking for a few CDs for Christmas - The Taylor Swift one (of course) and another one with the "Monday" song. I could not for the life of me figure out what "Monday" song she was talking about...

Then yesterday, on the ride to school, we were listening to the 90s station on satellite radio (she is forced to listen to this station quite a bit) and the Cure song, "Its Friday, I'm in love" comes on.
"That's it mama!" she says, "That's the CD I want!"

So Dear Santa, please bring my baby a Cure CD for Christmas...


We had a great time in North Carolina with L and S. It was remarkably relaxing minus the never ending car ride home. I will post some pictures when I can.

At one point while we were there, we were out running around town and L and Jamey were going to run into the Class Six on base to buy a few things. Stephen wanted to go in with them. Jamey says to him that it just a store for daddies - that he should wait in the car with Mom.

Jamey and L go into the store and I look back and Stephen is on the verge of tears. "They will be right back," I tell Stephen. He looks at me with big sad eyes and says, "But I don't WANT a new daddy from the daddy store - I want MY daddy."

Bless his heart :)

Happy December everyone! The tree goes up tomorrow night. Hooray!

little hats....

Almost 3 years ago, Jamey and I were packing up a 3 year old little girl and a 4 week old baby boy for a trip to see my brother in Georgia. He was stationed at Fort Benning at the time and was still a newlywed. We has a great time with them, and as much as I didn't want to think about it, I knew that within a few months, he would leave for at least 18 months in Iraq.
We planned a trip to Calloway Gardens to see the Christmas lights they have each year - Think Bellingrath Gardens more on a Disney World scale. It. was. freezing. My parents traveled with us and Jamey and my mom took turns snuggling a tiny 3 year old body to share some warmth. She loved it. She loved roasting her marshmallows. She loved going on the tractor ride and seeing all the lights. We sang Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer which was her absolute favorite song at the time. And all the while, I carried a tiny 8 pound bundle of precious babyness in a sling under wraps of jackets and scarves. He was very happy to be right there, to nurse as he wanted (nursing is a big passion for me for those who do not know) and he stayed snuggly warm the whole night. I nursed him throughout most of the hayride and I am pretty sure 99% of the other people on the ride had no idea of his existence. His little head in a little hat. I love baby hats.

Tonight I am packing for North Carolina. Again, we are headed to see my brother and his wife and spend Thanksgiving together. This time, thank God, he is not leaving for Iraq soon (that I know of) but they are leaving soon for a 3 year Germany placement. I try not to think about it too much. Of course, we are excited to go and visit them, but I am going to miss them being in the same country with me of course.

I was pulling out winter clothes - scarves, gloves, hats - and discovered I had not one single hat that would fit the head of my big three year old boy. And let me tell you, that was one of those moments....

He has a cold right now. He is as stuffed up as he can be. But he wants kisses before bed and I am happy to oblige. He says to me sort of but mostly to himself, "Who is my friend? Sisi, Mommy, Daddy. Dis is my friends. And Hoho - Hoho (he means Santa) is my friend when he brings me a good boy toy. And Eli. Eli is a baby. But he wants to sleep in my bed, but him can't."

Little hats that don't fit...big boys telling me wonderful stories...

Slow down, Time...slow down.

Pictures by Melia - great as usual

30th birthday and other happenings

Well, it finally happened. As Melia said, it was inevitable. I turned 30 yesterday. And it wasn't so bad really. I had a fantastic weekend at the the Grand Hotel in Point Clear. This was my birthday surprise from Jamey and it was really exactly what I wanted. We didn't have to drive 10 hours to get there, or take an airplane. The trip was short but I might as well been in another part of the country. I enjoyed my time at the spa in the quiet room. (Which by the way, while I was in the quiet room, I was asked by another girl, "What are you supposed to do in here?" "Um, I think be quiet. See the name on the door?" She was still very confused and I quickly went back to reading).

I came home Sunday around noon to a wonderful surprise Tinkerbell party put together by my family. Elizabeth made a fantastic cake and really scrumptios chocolate covered strawberries. Yummmm

But yesterday, myy actual birthday started out much differently than I expected. We had a family from our school (2 kids and their mom) in a car accident right near the school. It was bad. Three of us from Haskew rode up to the accident site just to make sure the girls were not there alone and scared. Thankfully their family lived very near and were already there. The girls were ok, but their mom was injured very badly and was taken by helicopter to USA where she will remain for a while. It was very hard and I wasn't aware of how affected I was by it until about an hour later. All I could picture was those 2 babies (ages 6 and 8) watching their mama be cut out of a mangled steel mess that used to be a car. The fireman mentioned to me as we were leaving and the helicopter was landing, that those girls may not have survived if they had both been in the front seat.

Life is so precious...

And to see those men and women, the paramedics, the officers, the firefighters all come together and work to free her from that car. They were all someone's mom or dad or sister or friend, and they came at the sound of an alarm to help this family.

Back at work, my sweet friends had a little party for me, and I really enjoyed being with them. And last night we ate spagetti and Rice Krispy treats (or as Stephen calls them - Rice Christmas treats) and I enjoyed my night with my kids.

Im glad to be 30. Now lets see what happens next....




On a side kiddo note - Ansley asked for a TV for her room for Christmas. I was telling her that she should probably ask for another present b/c she is not old enough to have a tv in her room yet.
She said, "If we had a playroom, I could put one in there." and I said, "Yes, maybe we could."
"Why don't we have a playroom?" she asked me.
"Well, we just don't have an extra room." I replied.
"But when you have a baby, where will we put it?" She asked.

Before I could answer that there is NO baby #3, Stephen said very confidently, "We give that baby to Meela" (his version of Melia). Guess Stephen's vote on the topic of baby #3 is pretty clear. :)