For the past several years I've been following this blog that I somehow stumbled upon. The author is a really funny writer and about the same age as me so I enjoy reading her blogs. They aren't always clean which is why I'm not putting her link here because I just know that my mom will check it out and then be horrified by what she's read, so I'm going to avoid that scenerio. :) A few months ago this girl made a shift to her blog and instead of it being focused on her life raising two kids and working from home as a free-lance writer, she's switched the focus over to simple living. At first I had no clue what that was exactly but after she's taken the time to explain it I found it interesting. Part of it is living "green", which is basically being eco-friendly with recycling, driving less, basically doing everything possible for the environment. I am not a tree-hugger, so most of that aspect isn't something I'm going to apply.
Side note: if my area provided recycling bins similar to our trash bins, I would totally recycle without any hesitation, but honestly, I'm not going to go out of my way to sort through anything that might be recycleable and then try to find some place that will take them. And don't even think about asking me to give up my SUV, it ain't happenin'.
OK, I'm getting way off course. The other part of living simply is basically living within your means, avoiding debt wherever possible, cutting down on "things" and when you do get rid of your excess don't just toss them in a landfill, but donate them or resale them so that you are, in a way, also recycling. I am on board with this. First of all, I'm married to an accountant who is pretty budget conscious which means that we definitely live within our means and the only "extras" that we have as far as monthly bills that really aren't necessary are cell phones, internet, and a monthly subscription to Blockbuster online. We also don't buy things that we can't afford (not including our house or our SUV-however we do limit ourselves to only having one car payment at a time, meaning atleast one car is always paid for). Our credit cards are paid in full every month (if you don't buy what you can't afford, then you should have the money to pay that bill each month) and we've limited ourselves to one credit card each (that was a lot of phone calls that I had to make intially because I signed up for every card that gave me a discount when I was in college, not a smart thing to do). So I am now implementing the part of cutting down on the "things". I've spent the past several weeks going through my kitchen cabinets when I get a chance, and thinning things out. For those of you who attended our wedding showers you know that we were given a TON of stuff when we got married. I kept it all because I had no idea what we would and would not need. Well, we've been married for almost 6 years now and I have yet to use probably half of the stuff in my kitchen cabinets, so it's time for it to all go to someone who needs it and will use it. I'm not completely done yet, but I just have to share some of the things that I have discovered while doing this project.
First off, we are a family of 3 and don't have any plans of being more than a family of 4 at some point in the future (let's all pray that God doesn't decide to have a good laugh at me and give me multiples when I get pregnant the next time). So what does a family of 4 need with 42 coffee cups? 42! Can you believe it? They took up a shelf and a half in my cabinets, and that's with several stacked on top of each other. The sad part is I can only bring myself to cull 7 out of those 42. Of the remaining 35 mugs, they either go with my china pattern, so I can't get rid of them, or they say "Dad" or "Sweet Sixteen" (someone gave me a Precious Moments coffee cup on my 16th birthday and I still have it). I just can't get rid of anything that might have sentimental value. In fact I'm having a hard time with 4 out of the 7 that I am getting rid of because they're part of my very first set of dishes that my mom gave me when I was still in highschool (I was a weird teenager and insisted on getting "hopechest" items very early on for my birthdays and Christmases, I had a full kitchen of stuff when I went off to college). Oh, I probably should mention the fact that KEITH AND I DON'T EVEN DRINK COFFEE!!! Why in the world do we even need 5 coffee cups let alone 35? Of course both of our dads, plus my mom, drink coffee, though they're only at our house a few times a year. I do occasionally drink a cup of hot chocolate during the winter, but I think I might have had maybe one cup last year. Of course I do grab a mug and drink water out of it every once in a while just so they'll feel useful, but I have to rinse it out first because they get dusty. If anybody has any other uses for coffee cups beyond the standard "drinking", please feel free to pass those on.
A few other random things that I've discovered in the kitchen cabinets, I have 10 cutting boards (5 of them are those flexible plastic kind so they don't take up much space, but still...), 7 sets of measuring cups and spoons (Garrett plays with many of these so some are scattered around the house), a countless number of mixing bowls which I'm having a hard time reducing because some are glass and some are stainless steel, who knows if I might need both at some point in the future! (This is truly a sickness.) I have 3 dip trays and I don't think I've even used one yet. I haven't begun to count the number of serving spoons and spatulas but I definitely need to get rid of some of those. I'm sure there are more ridiculous numbers I could share, but at this point what are you thinking of me. I don't want for you to think I'm a hoarder like those people you see on Oprah who live with rooms in their houses stuff full of things they can't get rid of. I promise you it isn't like that! I am really looking forward to actually having room in my cabinets though. I have a few small appliances (ie a blender that's never been used but I might need someday, so there's no way I'm parting with it!) that I would like to put away rather than having them out on the counter getting dusty. So the plan for all the stuff I'm getting rid of is as follows: I will take pictures of all the items and email them to my mom and my youngest sister Christie (if any of my other siblings are reading this and are interested, let me know). My parents are building a new house and my mom is wanting to replace some of her stuff that she's had for 30+ years (I can guarantee that the majority of the stuff I'm getting rid of has been used less than 10 times, and some have never been used) so she is interested in possibly replacing some of her stuff with some of mine for free. Christie has shown no interest in taking any of my stuff but she doesn't have anything saved for when the day comes that she moves out or gets married (she isn't weird like I was and would much prefer a gift card or a good book as a gift rather than silverware.) But she might have some interest in taking some of my stuff and storing it for when that day comes. Whatever I don't give to my family will be donated to Goodwill. I abhor garage sales (I like going to them, but have not one ounce of desire to have one myself) so I'm not going to attempt to make a quarter and sell whatever my family doesn't want.
Next up, Garrett's room. Do you think he'll be mad if I simplify his number of toys? Yeah, I think so too.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Purely Random
~For some reason I've been really into watching "American Idol" this season. I can't remember a previous season where I have watched as closely as I have this one. I really love David Cook's singing and his ability to make every song his own. He's super talented. If you're a child of the 80's/90's like I am and Mariah Carey's song "Always Be My Baby" was one you listened to frequently, you should definitely find the video of David Cook singing his version of this song on YouTube. It was awesome and better than the original! I actually downloaded it on iTunes because I loved it so much.
~Garrett has pooped in the potty atleast 3 times in the past 4 days! All on his own. He just strips off his clothes, climbs onto the toilet, does the deal, flushes and then comes to me and says "I potty on the potty!" I won't tell you how I know what he's actually done since he does flush, but trust me, there's definite proof. He's so proud of himself and frankly, so am I. That's 3 less poopy diapers for me to change. Apparently he's on course to potty train himself!
~Keith and I had another date night on Friday. We didn't really have anything planned, but I knew that I needed some alone time after the week of sickness that we endured. So we dropped Garrett off at the church nursery and went to eat. Our favorite restaurant is Texas Roadhouse. It's been awhile since we've eaten there so that's where we headed. It was packed! They have a pretty big parking lot and every single space was full, not to mention the people who just parked in random places all over. We didn't even attempt to go inside and see how long of a wait they had. We went to Saltgrass Steakhouse after that and found that they had a 30 minute wait so we left there and went to Red Lobster where we got a table right away. We were really wanting a steak, but crab cakes are a good second choice. By the time we finished eating it was already after 8:00 so we went back and picked up Garrett. It wasn't much of a date, but it's always nice to eat out without your kid(s)!
~Garrett has been calling his tricycle a "mycycle" and I couldn't figure out why. Until the other day. Keith mentioned that he has been teaching him to call it a motorcycle while I've been referring to it as a tricycle, so Garrett's name for it is a mycycle.
~One month from today we leave to drive up to Indiana for a visit with my family and to attend my brother Jesse's high school graduation. I haven't seen my parents since December so I am really looking forward to it. The 14 hour drive may not be wonderful, but we plan to break it up into 2 easy days and find a hotel with a pool where we can enjoy ourselves. We're also going to eat at Lambert's in Sikeston, Missouri. Lambert's is the home of throwed rolls for those of you who aren't familiar with it. (Yes, I said "throwed" because that's their slogan, it's even their website because I double checked myself. throwedrolls.com) The food is awesome and catching your rolls is an experience that everyone should enjoy at some point in their lives. Keith and Garrett have never eaten there, so I look forward to sharing this part of my childhood with them. If any of you are ever in that area you must stop there and eat!
~Does anyone have any tips for 2 year olds who talk back to their parents? Every single time that I get onto Garrett for something, he talks back to me. For example, I tell him to calm down, he tells me to calm down, I tell him no, he tells me no, I tell him to hush, he tells me to hush. It's not like he's just playing a parrot game where he repeats everything I say because he gets a little attitude with it, plus he's thrown in attempting to spank me or swat my hand when I do either of those things to him. It's so frustrating! Some say to ignore it and eventually he'll stop, others say to stay on top of it so it doesn't escalate to worse when he's older. My fear is to raise a hooligan for a child, so I would rather err on the side of extra discipline than no discipline at all, but I also don't want to go overboard. Parenting is tough and it's not getting any easier. (Yeah, that's a big understatement!)
~I rented the movie "And Then There Were None" last week through our Blockbuster queue. It's an old movie that's based on a book with the same name by Agatha Christie. I think the book's original title was "Ten Little Indians", but it was changed at some point. I read that book years ago and loved it but I had never seen the movie. With this Blockbuster online membership it's given us a lot of access to movies that you can't always find in stores. It's a black and white movie and it was very good, but it's so funny to see the difference between movies from the 1940's to present day. There's no gore, but instead the music is used to make you imagine what's going on. It was a good movie, but the book was definitely better. It's funny how you picture something in your mind and then you see it portrayed in a movie, it's completely different than your mental image. I do that all the time when I've read a book and then seen the movie. They never quite do it justice.
~I'm interested to see the outcome of this presidential race come November. While I am typically a Republican, I feel pretty strongly that this election will favor the Democrats. Keith and I debate over who is the lesser of the two evils, Hillary or Barack. (That's not to say that John McCain is wonderful, but I don't think he stands much of a chance at becoming our next president, so I'm not talking about him right now.) I used to feel that Barack would probably be the better of the two, but I'm now swinging the other way the more I see and hear about him. Atleast with Hillary we would know what we're getting, as much as I despise her and her husband, I doubt she will be much different than good ole' Willy was as a president. Whereas Barack is very much an unknown. He doesn't have a record in politics to look back on and get an idea of what to expect from him as Commander in Chief. I guess we'll see what happens once somebody finally is chosen for the Democrats. It should be an interesting race to the White House.
~Garrett has pooped in the potty atleast 3 times in the past 4 days! All on his own. He just strips off his clothes, climbs onto the toilet, does the deal, flushes and then comes to me and says "I potty on the potty!" I won't tell you how I know what he's actually done since he does flush, but trust me, there's definite proof. He's so proud of himself and frankly, so am I. That's 3 less poopy diapers for me to change. Apparently he's on course to potty train himself!
~Keith and I had another date night on Friday. We didn't really have anything planned, but I knew that I needed some alone time after the week of sickness that we endured. So we dropped Garrett off at the church nursery and went to eat. Our favorite restaurant is Texas Roadhouse. It's been awhile since we've eaten there so that's where we headed. It was packed! They have a pretty big parking lot and every single space was full, not to mention the people who just parked in random places all over. We didn't even attempt to go inside and see how long of a wait they had. We went to Saltgrass Steakhouse after that and found that they had a 30 minute wait so we left there and went to Red Lobster where we got a table right away. We were really wanting a steak, but crab cakes are a good second choice. By the time we finished eating it was already after 8:00 so we went back and picked up Garrett. It wasn't much of a date, but it's always nice to eat out without your kid(s)!
~Garrett has been calling his tricycle a "mycycle" and I couldn't figure out why. Until the other day. Keith mentioned that he has been teaching him to call it a motorcycle while I've been referring to it as a tricycle, so Garrett's name for it is a mycycle.
~One month from today we leave to drive up to Indiana for a visit with my family and to attend my brother Jesse's high school graduation. I haven't seen my parents since December so I am really looking forward to it. The 14 hour drive may not be wonderful, but we plan to break it up into 2 easy days and find a hotel with a pool where we can enjoy ourselves. We're also going to eat at Lambert's in Sikeston, Missouri. Lambert's is the home of throwed rolls for those of you who aren't familiar with it. (Yes, I said "throwed" because that's their slogan, it's even their website because I double checked myself. throwedrolls.com) The food is awesome and catching your rolls is an experience that everyone should enjoy at some point in their lives. Keith and Garrett have never eaten there, so I look forward to sharing this part of my childhood with them. If any of you are ever in that area you must stop there and eat!
~Does anyone have any tips for 2 year olds who talk back to their parents? Every single time that I get onto Garrett for something, he talks back to me. For example, I tell him to calm down, he tells me to calm down, I tell him no, he tells me no, I tell him to hush, he tells me to hush. It's not like he's just playing a parrot game where he repeats everything I say because he gets a little attitude with it, plus he's thrown in attempting to spank me or swat my hand when I do either of those things to him. It's so frustrating! Some say to ignore it and eventually he'll stop, others say to stay on top of it so it doesn't escalate to worse when he's older. My fear is to raise a hooligan for a child, so I would rather err on the side of extra discipline than no discipline at all, but I also don't want to go overboard. Parenting is tough and it's not getting any easier. (Yeah, that's a big understatement!)
~I rented the movie "And Then There Were None" last week through our Blockbuster queue. It's an old movie that's based on a book with the same name by Agatha Christie. I think the book's original title was "Ten Little Indians", but it was changed at some point. I read that book years ago and loved it but I had never seen the movie. With this Blockbuster online membership it's given us a lot of access to movies that you can't always find in stores. It's a black and white movie and it was very good, but it's so funny to see the difference between movies from the 1940's to present day. There's no gore, but instead the music is used to make you imagine what's going on. It was a good movie, but the book was definitely better. It's funny how you picture something in your mind and then you see it portrayed in a movie, it's completely different than your mental image. I do that all the time when I've read a book and then seen the movie. They never quite do it justice.
~I'm interested to see the outcome of this presidential race come November. While I am typically a Republican, I feel pretty strongly that this election will favor the Democrats. Keith and I debate over who is the lesser of the two evils, Hillary or Barack. (That's not to say that John McCain is wonderful, but I don't think he stands much of a chance at becoming our next president, so I'm not talking about him right now.) I used to feel that Barack would probably be the better of the two, but I'm now swinging the other way the more I see and hear about him. Atleast with Hillary we would know what we're getting, as much as I despise her and her husband, I doubt she will be much different than good ole' Willy was as a president. Whereas Barack is very much an unknown. He doesn't have a record in politics to look back on and get an idea of what to expect from him as Commander in Chief. I guess we'll see what happens once somebody finally is chosen for the Democrats. It should be an interesting race to the White House.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
You Can Call Me R, and You Can Call Me N, Just Don't Call Me RN
I've been playing nursemaid all week to my two boys.
It's been loads of fun. (If you are eating, feeling nauseous, or have absolutely no desire to read about illness of any kind, do not go any further! You have been warned.)
Last Friday, Garrett started running a fever of 102, but he was still acting like his crazy normal self, so I didn't worry. The fever went away after 12 hours or so and then the coughing started, when he starts coughing he doesn't stop. I don't see how he doesn't just cough that little head right off the top of his body. So doping then ensued. I started with his inhaler, didn't help, gave him a dose of Prednisone that we've kept back for times such as this. Didn't work. Vicks on the chest and the kind that plugs into the wall, just stunk everything up but the cough was ongoing. Triaminic was hauled out and it helped a little to the point where he atleast got several hours of sleep in a row uninterrupted at night. Along with the cough he also broke out into a rash and then on Sunday the Big D decided to hop along for the ride. (D as in diarrhea.) So Monday morning Garrett and I headed off to the doctor's office. When you have this many different things going on, it's generally a good idea to call in the pros, especially when everyone is so sleep deprived. Now, as Garrett and I were on the road to the doctor, Keith was beating a path from the bed to the bathroom. The only thing I will add to that statement is I am glad that Keith got the vomiting portion of this virus and Garrett did not. He atleast knows how to aim for the toilet.
We left the doctor's office having been informed that Garrett had a highly contagious virus and the doctor pretty much guaranteed that we would catch it, he also covered his own mouth anytime Garrett coughed or sneezed, he's never done that in the almost 3 years of seeing him as a pediatrician, so that should tell you a little something about this virus. The only thing he could give us to help out was a prescription for Prednisone. I couldn't tell him that we had already tried some and it didn't help because obviously no doctor wants to hear that your stashing prescription meds and using them while not under the orders of a doctor.
(Garrett gets croup very easily and regularly, we spent several hours in the ER a few months ago because he couldn't breathe, Prednisone is something they give him when this happens, hence the reason for us saving every bit of it that we can. We're hedging our bets that the croup will make it to our household again and we would like to spare ourselves from another trip to the ER. Just wanted to clarify for those who might feel they needed to preach at me about this.)
I went ahead and filled the prescription and gave it a shot for a couple of days but I think the cough actually got worse. During that time, Keith was still at home being sicker than he "ever has been in my entire life. And thanks a lot Garrett for bringing this stuff home to me." I told Keith that maybe he should have grown up with a bigger family, he might have some immunities built up to bugs like this. Whereas growing up in a family of 5 kids like I did, you pretty much have caught everything that is out there, unless you're my sister Grace who never gets sick, ever, but then she pays for it by having morning sickness all 9 months of her pregnancies, so I guess it's a balance. :) So far I haven't caught this bug yet, I'm in hopes that my bragging about being immune doesn't come back to bite me next week. So for the past several days I have scrounged up food for 2 sickies, changed disgusting diapers many more times a day than you would even think possible, tried to keep myself a little sterilized though that's hard to do when Garrett is constantly saying "gimme a miss (kiss)" and planting a nice, wet kiss right on my mouth before I have a chance to turn away or stop him. I think he wants me to get sick. I've also had the fun job of keeping Garrett away from Keith. He just didn't understand why Keith stayed in our bedroom. I finally told him that "Daddy is broken" and I think he kinda got the picture. You couldn't have told by looking at the two of them that they had the same virus. Garrett was running around and playing, other than diaper changing times which meant screams that could be heard the next county over. While Keith was in bed dying.
I was told the other night that I am not a good nurse. Apparently I don't provide water as frequently as the patients would prefer. Because you know, I want my family to experience dehydration and a necessary trip to the hospital for an IV. But the fact that soup and crackers were provided along with any medicines that I could find to help ease the suffering, those were not enough without more water. (Even though I provided water when it was requested, I just didn't follow up with refills often enough.) So I clearly need to keep my day job. But unfortunately my day job is being a stay at home mom, which is really a part-time nurse so I guess I'm not good at my day job either. Does anybody have any good recommendations for where I could go work for free?
PS. We're still not 100% healthy (well, I am, but I don't want to brag), Keith went back to work after spending a couple of days at home though he probably should have stayed home for a few more. I hope all his coworkers have better wives than he does because they'd better start brushing up on their nursing skills.
It's been loads of fun. (If you are eating, feeling nauseous, or have absolutely no desire to read about illness of any kind, do not go any further! You have been warned.)
Last Friday, Garrett started running a fever of 102, but he was still acting like his crazy normal self, so I didn't worry. The fever went away after 12 hours or so and then the coughing started, when he starts coughing he doesn't stop. I don't see how he doesn't just cough that little head right off the top of his body. So doping then ensued. I started with his inhaler, didn't help, gave him a dose of Prednisone that we've kept back for times such as this. Didn't work. Vicks on the chest and the kind that plugs into the wall, just stunk everything up but the cough was ongoing. Triaminic was hauled out and it helped a little to the point where he atleast got several hours of sleep in a row uninterrupted at night. Along with the cough he also broke out into a rash and then on Sunday the Big D decided to hop along for the ride. (D as in diarrhea.) So Monday morning Garrett and I headed off to the doctor's office. When you have this many different things going on, it's generally a good idea to call in the pros, especially when everyone is so sleep deprived. Now, as Garrett and I were on the road to the doctor, Keith was beating a path from the bed to the bathroom. The only thing I will add to that statement is I am glad that Keith got the vomiting portion of this virus and Garrett did not. He atleast knows how to aim for the toilet.
We left the doctor's office having been informed that Garrett had a highly contagious virus and the doctor pretty much guaranteed that we would catch it, he also covered his own mouth anytime Garrett coughed or sneezed, he's never done that in the almost 3 years of seeing him as a pediatrician, so that should tell you a little something about this virus. The only thing he could give us to help out was a prescription for Prednisone. I couldn't tell him that we had already tried some and it didn't help because obviously no doctor wants to hear that your stashing prescription meds and using them while not under the orders of a doctor.
(Garrett gets croup very easily and regularly, we spent several hours in the ER a few months ago because he couldn't breathe, Prednisone is something they give him when this happens, hence the reason for us saving every bit of it that we can. We're hedging our bets that the croup will make it to our household again and we would like to spare ourselves from another trip to the ER. Just wanted to clarify for those who might feel they needed to preach at me about this.)
I went ahead and filled the prescription and gave it a shot for a couple of days but I think the cough actually got worse. During that time, Keith was still at home being sicker than he "ever has been in my entire life. And thanks a lot Garrett for bringing this stuff home to me." I told Keith that maybe he should have grown up with a bigger family, he might have some immunities built up to bugs like this. Whereas growing up in a family of 5 kids like I did, you pretty much have caught everything that is out there, unless you're my sister Grace who never gets sick, ever, but then she pays for it by having morning sickness all 9 months of her pregnancies, so I guess it's a balance. :) So far I haven't caught this bug yet, I'm in hopes that my bragging about being immune doesn't come back to bite me next week. So for the past several days I have scrounged up food for 2 sickies, changed disgusting diapers many more times a day than you would even think possible, tried to keep myself a little sterilized though that's hard to do when Garrett is constantly saying "gimme a miss (kiss)" and planting a nice, wet kiss right on my mouth before I have a chance to turn away or stop him. I think he wants me to get sick. I've also had the fun job of keeping Garrett away from Keith. He just didn't understand why Keith stayed in our bedroom. I finally told him that "Daddy is broken" and I think he kinda got the picture. You couldn't have told by looking at the two of them that they had the same virus. Garrett was running around and playing, other than diaper changing times which meant screams that could be heard the next county over. While Keith was in bed dying.
I was told the other night that I am not a good nurse. Apparently I don't provide water as frequently as the patients would prefer. Because you know, I want my family to experience dehydration and a necessary trip to the hospital for an IV. But the fact that soup and crackers were provided along with any medicines that I could find to help ease the suffering, those were not enough without more water. (Even though I provided water when it was requested, I just didn't follow up with refills often enough.) So I clearly need to keep my day job. But unfortunately my day job is being a stay at home mom, which is really a part-time nurse so I guess I'm not good at my day job either. Does anybody have any good recommendations for where I could go work for free?
PS. We're still not 100% healthy (well, I am, but I don't want to brag), Keith went back to work after spending a couple of days at home though he probably should have stayed home for a few more. I hope all his coworkers have better wives than he does because they'd better start brushing up on their nursing skills.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Police, Walmart, and Garrett (but not at the same time)
OK, so I'm retracting my previous statement that we don't live in the 'hood. Because apparently, we do.
This morning when Keith left for work, he called to let me know that at the end of our road (less than a mile from our house), two cops appeared to be looking for something along the sides of the road. What they were looking for, we have no idea. I let that information go in one ear and out the other and proceeded with my morning activities before heading out the door to go on our weekly trip to Walmart. As I was very obviously speeding down our road, I came upon 3 cops walking along the side of the road still looking for something. I immediately slowed way down without being too obvious about it, they never even gave me a second look. We all know it's serious when that happens because cops are always on the lookout to hand out tickets when they can (I kid, Brad!-for those who don't know, my brother Brad is currently in the police academy in Austin. He won't be one of those annoying cops who pull us over for doing "nothing".) :) When I reached the end of the road I saw 4 more cops, one with a dog from their K-9 unit on a leash. I stopped to let them cross the road and waved at them, I want to be on their good side whenever possible. Parked at the end of our road were 2 cop cars, a police van, an unmarked Tahoe, and a black car (I don't know if it was an official cop car, but it was definitely with the rest of them.)
So Garrett and I went on to Walmart, had a meltdown in the checkout, listened to the cashier tell me that I shouldn't be buying the 4-pack of tuna cans because they're cheaper to buy individually (umm, would your manager want to hear you trying to sell me cheaper stuff?), picked up McDonald's (Steve, that sign has been corrected, with a black marker. Just thought I would let you know that someone at that McDonald's reads your blog.) :), and headed home.
This time I was ready for the cops and they did not disappoint. 3 of the group had metal detectors and they had made their way to within visual distance of my house. You have no idea how hard it was to keep myself from stopping, rolling down the window and saying "Could you maybe fill me in on what's going on? I'm a stay at home mom to a 2 year old and I would really like to know if I need to keep my phone speed-dialed to 911 and attach a holster to my belt." But I didn't. I just knew that if I stopped, the entire group would probably jump onto my vehicle with guns drawn, so I kept my speedometer at 15 mph and crept my way home. With Garrett shouting, "Come on, Momma!" Yes, his Momma has a lead foot and he knows it.
Throughout the day I've had periodic phone calls from Keith wanting to know if he should come home, was there any activity, had there been a shoot out in our front yard, go peek out the window and tell me what you see, etc. We've run the gamut of possible things that these cops are looking for, but since seeing the metal detectors we decided that it would probably have to be a gun. Or one of the cops lost his car keys.
So how many times should you see the cops in your neighborhood before deciding to put your house up for sale?
I can't end with this story, I feel like I've talked entirely too much about the illegal activities of people in my neighborhood, so I thought I would share a little about what Garrett has been up to lately.
Yesterday morning on the way to church Garrett said "Hey you guys!" to us. Not a sentence he had used before. I immediately looked at Keith and said "I'm sorry." He said, "What for?". "For not being a "true" Texan and saying "y'all" thus resulting in Garrett saying "you guys" like a "yankee" (I hate that word by the way. Also how many more times could I use quotes?)." He said he didn't care. Though he shouldn't because Garrett regularly walks around wearing his cowboy boots (on the wrong feet) and his cowboy hat saying "howdy". Of course he's pretending to be Woody from Toy Story, who isn't a true cowboy since he doesn't carry a gun, but an empty holster.
Garrett has decided that he must drink out of a regular cup, no more sippy cups for him. Well, Momma says otherwise because my son is a camel and must drink gallons of water and milk every day, which means that a cup is readily available at all times. Can you just imagine how often spills would occur if he was drinking from a regular cup all the time? So I've limited his lidless cup usage to mealtimes at the table. And the cup is only about one-third of the way full. So far he hasn't spilled a drop, not even dribbling any down his chin, and I do that regularly, so I think he's on his way to being a big boy with no more sippy cups.
We regularly find him bottomless now, no pants, no diaper, no socks. He's attempting to go potty constantly. So far absolutely nothing has gone into the toilet, but he loves stripping and for some reason feels it's necessary to sit on the toilet with no socks on, he's even tried to take off his shirt several times with Keith and I telling him over and over that it's ok for him to keep his shirt on while he sits on the toilet. I'm glad he's interested, but until something productive comes out of these strip teases, I would prefer he keep his clothes on.
For the last two Saturday nights, different Harry Potter movies have come on TV. Garrett loves them and gets so upset when it's time for him to go to bed because typically we're only about an hour into the movie. I'm not sure what the appeal of these movies is to him, but I find it funny that he loves them so much. Last Saturday I promised him that I would rent the movies and we would watch them to the end so he could see what happens. I'm not sure if a 2 year old really understands that, but he did stop griping and went to bed.
He still refuses to eat vegetables so I'm trying to broaden my usual vegetable purchases. Today I bought some cans of olives and I served Garrett a few of them with his chicken at supper. He thought they were grapes, so he tried one. When he first put one in his mouth he shivered and put it down, but he ended up eating about 3 of them. I don't know how nutritional olives are, but they are a vegetable, right? Also, is it bad for me to continue to call them grapes in order to encourage him to eat them? I promise that he was the one who intially called them grapes, but I took that ball and ran all the way to the end zone with it in order to get him to eat SOMETHING at supper. He is so picky! Unless someone tells me otherwise, we will be having "grapes" regularly.
This morning when Keith left for work, he called to let me know that at the end of our road (less than a mile from our house), two cops appeared to be looking for something along the sides of the road. What they were looking for, we have no idea. I let that information go in one ear and out the other and proceeded with my morning activities before heading out the door to go on our weekly trip to Walmart. As I was very obviously speeding down our road, I came upon 3 cops walking along the side of the road still looking for something. I immediately slowed way down without being too obvious about it, they never even gave me a second look. We all know it's serious when that happens because cops are always on the lookout to hand out tickets when they can (I kid, Brad!-for those who don't know, my brother Brad is currently in the police academy in Austin. He won't be one of those annoying cops who pull us over for doing "nothing".) :) When I reached the end of the road I saw 4 more cops, one with a dog from their K-9 unit on a leash. I stopped to let them cross the road and waved at them, I want to be on their good side whenever possible. Parked at the end of our road were 2 cop cars, a police van, an unmarked Tahoe, and a black car (I don't know if it was an official cop car, but it was definitely with the rest of them.)
So Garrett and I went on to Walmart, had a meltdown in the checkout, listened to the cashier tell me that I shouldn't be buying the 4-pack of tuna cans because they're cheaper to buy individually (umm, would your manager want to hear you trying to sell me cheaper stuff?), picked up McDonald's (Steve, that sign has been corrected, with a black marker. Just thought I would let you know that someone at that McDonald's reads your blog.) :), and headed home.
This time I was ready for the cops and they did not disappoint. 3 of the group had metal detectors and they had made their way to within visual distance of my house. You have no idea how hard it was to keep myself from stopping, rolling down the window and saying "Could you maybe fill me in on what's going on? I'm a stay at home mom to a 2 year old and I would really like to know if I need to keep my phone speed-dialed to 911 and attach a holster to my belt." But I didn't. I just knew that if I stopped, the entire group would probably jump onto my vehicle with guns drawn, so I kept my speedometer at 15 mph and crept my way home. With Garrett shouting, "Come on, Momma!" Yes, his Momma has a lead foot and he knows it.
Throughout the day I've had periodic phone calls from Keith wanting to know if he should come home, was there any activity, had there been a shoot out in our front yard, go peek out the window and tell me what you see, etc. We've run the gamut of possible things that these cops are looking for, but since seeing the metal detectors we decided that it would probably have to be a gun. Or one of the cops lost his car keys.
So how many times should you see the cops in your neighborhood before deciding to put your house up for sale?
I can't end with this story, I feel like I've talked entirely too much about the illegal activities of people in my neighborhood, so I thought I would share a little about what Garrett has been up to lately.
Yesterday morning on the way to church Garrett said "Hey you guys!" to us. Not a sentence he had used before. I immediately looked at Keith and said "I'm sorry." He said, "What for?". "For not being a "true" Texan and saying "y'all" thus resulting in Garrett saying "you guys" like a "yankee" (I hate that word by the way. Also how many more times could I use quotes?)." He said he didn't care. Though he shouldn't because Garrett regularly walks around wearing his cowboy boots (on the wrong feet) and his cowboy hat saying "howdy". Of course he's pretending to be Woody from Toy Story, who isn't a true cowboy since he doesn't carry a gun, but an empty holster.
Garrett has decided that he must drink out of a regular cup, no more sippy cups for him. Well, Momma says otherwise because my son is a camel and must drink gallons of water and milk every day, which means that a cup is readily available at all times. Can you just imagine how often spills would occur if he was drinking from a regular cup all the time? So I've limited his lidless cup usage to mealtimes at the table. And the cup is only about one-third of the way full. So far he hasn't spilled a drop, not even dribbling any down his chin, and I do that regularly, so I think he's on his way to being a big boy with no more sippy cups.
We regularly find him bottomless now, no pants, no diaper, no socks. He's attempting to go potty constantly. So far absolutely nothing has gone into the toilet, but he loves stripping and for some reason feels it's necessary to sit on the toilet with no socks on, he's even tried to take off his shirt several times with Keith and I telling him over and over that it's ok for him to keep his shirt on while he sits on the toilet. I'm glad he's interested, but until something productive comes out of these strip teases, I would prefer he keep his clothes on.
For the last two Saturday nights, different Harry Potter movies have come on TV. Garrett loves them and gets so upset when it's time for him to go to bed because typically we're only about an hour into the movie. I'm not sure what the appeal of these movies is to him, but I find it funny that he loves them so much. Last Saturday I promised him that I would rent the movies and we would watch them to the end so he could see what happens. I'm not sure if a 2 year old really understands that, but he did stop griping and went to bed.
He still refuses to eat vegetables so I'm trying to broaden my usual vegetable purchases. Today I bought some cans of olives and I served Garrett a few of them with his chicken at supper. He thought they were grapes, so he tried one. When he first put one in his mouth he shivered and put it down, but he ended up eating about 3 of them. I don't know how nutritional olives are, but they are a vegetable, right? Also, is it bad for me to continue to call them grapes in order to encourage him to eat them? I promise that he was the one who intially called them grapes, but I took that ball and ran all the way to the end zone with it in order to get him to eat SOMETHING at supper. He is so picky! Unless someone tells me otherwise, we will be having "grapes" regularly.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Not Speechless
Quick update on my previous blog. Our next door neighbor came over and filled us in on what he knew about the other neighbors that I mentioned. The husband has been depressed, on anti-depressants and also drinking hard liquor. Various things have happened to result in his wife calling the police to take him into rehab on Wednesday. Please pray for them.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
I'm Speechless
Tonight I witnessed something that I have honestly never seen outside of the movies.
Earlier this evening, Garrett and I were hanging out and watching cartoons. I glanced out my front door and noticed that several cars were in my neighbor’s driveway. Out of part-nosiness/part-neighbor concern, I peeked out my window for a closer look. There were two police cars in their driveway and an ambulance at the curb. First, let me preface this by saying that these are people that none of you would know (I’m mostly saying this for the locals.) Let me also say that these neighbors have become friends of our’s over the past 5 years that we’ve lived here. We’ve babysat their kids periodically, we’ve all gone out to dinner together and had each other over at different times, we have access to each other’s houses in order to let deliveries in at different times, the wife and I used to workout together every day, and Keith and the husband help each other out with moving heavy objects or borrowing tools, etc. While we’re not super close friends, we do look out for each other and help each other out when needed. They have always been on my heart as a family that I would love to have come to our church and we have invited them at different times, but never want to be pushy and just "live the life" as best we can.
On with the story. Not too long after I had been watching out the window, the EMT’s came out and left without bringing anyone outside of the house. So that left the two police officers. I went back into the living room and periodically peeked out the window. About 15 minutes later, I saw that the husband was outside with the cops and they were talking in the driveway. Nothing seemed to be happening, the husband had his hands in his pockets and occasionally would rub his head or his face, but other than that they were all talking. I assumed that maybe something happened to one of their kids, but it wasn’t serious enough to require going to the hospital. Both cops stepped toward the husband and all of the sudden he reached up and pushed them both off of him, the cops slammed the husband on the trunk, cuffed him and put him in the cop car. The whole time I was covering my mouth saying "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh". I just could NOT believe what I was seeing. If it was a random person, I wouldn’t think too much about it, other than being concerned that they were in my neighborhood, but this is a man that we thought we knew! I’m so upset for their family. I hope nothing serious happened, but obviously it was something bad enough for him to be arrested. We honestly have no clue what in the world would have happened. All I ask is that you all would please pray for them. I know that they’re a good family and I really hope that they will be able to work everything out and get their lives together. I really feel for the kids, they are in first grade and fifth grade and they were at home when all of this happened. I’m at a loss as to what to do now. I don’t want to call and appear to be nosy, but I also want to let the wife know that we’re praying for them and are here if they need us. Oh and for those of you who have never been to my house and don’t know anything about my neighborhood, I promise you it’s a nice place to live. I’ve never seen the police at anybody’s house ever before and we actually have 3 cops who live out here. Just thought I would throw that out there in case some of you are worried that I live in the ’hood. :)
Earlier this evening, Garrett and I were hanging out and watching cartoons. I glanced out my front door and noticed that several cars were in my neighbor’s driveway. Out of part-nosiness/part-neighbor concern, I peeked out my window for a closer look. There were two police cars in their driveway and an ambulance at the curb. First, let me preface this by saying that these are people that none of you would know (I’m mostly saying this for the locals.) Let me also say that these neighbors have become friends of our’s over the past 5 years that we’ve lived here. We’ve babysat their kids periodically, we’ve all gone out to dinner together and had each other over at different times, we have access to each other’s houses in order to let deliveries in at different times, the wife and I used to workout together every day, and Keith and the husband help each other out with moving heavy objects or borrowing tools, etc. While we’re not super close friends, we do look out for each other and help each other out when needed. They have always been on my heart as a family that I would love to have come to our church and we have invited them at different times, but never want to be pushy and just "live the life" as best we can.
On with the story. Not too long after I had been watching out the window, the EMT’s came out and left without bringing anyone outside of the house. So that left the two police officers. I went back into the living room and periodically peeked out the window. About 15 minutes later, I saw that the husband was outside with the cops and they were talking in the driveway. Nothing seemed to be happening, the husband had his hands in his pockets and occasionally would rub his head or his face, but other than that they were all talking. I assumed that maybe something happened to one of their kids, but it wasn’t serious enough to require going to the hospital. Both cops stepped toward the husband and all of the sudden he reached up and pushed them both off of him, the cops slammed the husband on the trunk, cuffed him and put him in the cop car. The whole time I was covering my mouth saying "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh". I just could NOT believe what I was seeing. If it was a random person, I wouldn’t think too much about it, other than being concerned that they were in my neighborhood, but this is a man that we thought we knew! I’m so upset for their family. I hope nothing serious happened, but obviously it was something bad enough for him to be arrested. We honestly have no clue what in the world would have happened. All I ask is that you all would please pray for them. I know that they’re a good family and I really hope that they will be able to work everything out and get their lives together. I really feel for the kids, they are in first grade and fifth grade and they were at home when all of this happened. I’m at a loss as to what to do now. I don’t want to call and appear to be nosy, but I also want to let the wife know that we’re praying for them and are here if they need us. Oh and for those of you who have never been to my house and don’t know anything about my neighborhood, I promise you it’s a nice place to live. I’ve never seen the police at anybody’s house ever before and we actually have 3 cops who live out here. Just thought I would throw that out there in case some of you are worried that I live in the ’hood. :)
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Date Night
Date night came to our town on Friday.
Our pastor has recently started preaching a series of messages on marriage. One of the requests that he has made of all the married couples in our church is that over the course of the 6 week series, we all go on 3-4 dates. Because that can sometimes be challenging for parents of small children (especially when you don’t have family close by), the church arranged for our nursery workers to be at the church every Friday night from 6-10pm and all we have to do is make our reservations a few days ahead of time and pay $10 per family. As soon as I heard our pastor mention this I was on board. We signed Garrett up and headed out for our date night on Friday.
When we dropped Garrett off, I took him in and Keith waited in the car. Garrett throws much more of a fit when Keith leaves him in the nursery compared to when I leave him. Where’s the love, Garrett? :) Actually I think he knows that Momma is pretty cold-hearted and isn’t going to be very sympathetic to his tears. When he’s been in the nursery for over 2 years now, he ought to be used to it. Thankfully the workers on Friday were the same wonderful women that he sees on Sunday. My favorite of the group saw that Garrett was trying to give me some problems during the drop-off so she immediately took him to see the fish, which meant that Garrett was thinking "Momma who?" because he loves looking at those fish. As I was signing him in I noticed something that I found quite humorous. On our nursery sign in sheet there is a column to fill in the location of the parent, this is mainly for church times to let the workers know if you’re in church or Sunday school-which Sunday school class-that kind of thing, just in case they need to find you. Well, obviously none of the date night couples were going to be at the church, so I planned to just write down my cell phone number, but I noticed for the children who had already been signed in that the parents had put the name of the local town where they would be. For some reason that just struck me as funny, like the nursery workers cared what town we all would be in and like that really gave them any idea of where exactly we were (they also wrote down their phone number though). I’m sure none of you are laughing, but I shared this with Keith when I got back in the car and we both got a good chuckle over it.
Keith and I headed to the next town over (about 25 minutes away). We had a little excitement on our drive. We had the joy of witnessing a wreck, it could have been bad, but thankfully it wasn’t. A pick-up truck pulling a horse trailer changed lanes directly into the side of a semi-truck! We think the pick-up truck driver was asleep because he was driving really slow and he ran into the end of the semi’s trailer so there was no way that he wouldn’t have seen that big 18-wheeler there beside him if he was awake and aware. I just sat there with my hands covering my mouth saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh" over and over. The pick-up bounced off the semi and immediately pulled onto the shoulder of the road. I don’t think the semi driver even knew what happened because he didn’t even slow down and just kept going. It was crazy and seems to be typical anytime Keith and I go out like that. We’ve witnessed many strange accidents (one involving a Ford Ranger and a little car where the Ranger ended up driving backwards down the interstate for a short period of time before he drove (backwards) up an embankment.)
During our ride we tried to figure out where we should go to eat. We both love "Texas Roadhouse", but we also thought it might be nice to go someplace where we don’t go very often. I also didn’t want to go somewhere that would be crowded because I didn’t want to waste any of our precious date time waiting for a table. So the decision was made to go eat at "Spaghetti Warehouse". We’ve eaten there a couple of times, both with Garrett and both were fast and somewhat unenjoyable because he wasn’t cooperating, we thought we would go there so we could actually enjoy our food and take our time. They got us right in and seated, in a nice, secluded table too. Of course one of my first comments was that the table would have been nice if we had Garrett with us because he wouldn’t have disturbed anyone around us. Thankfully Keith and I didn’t make the agreement to not talk about our child while on our date. I’m assuming that most of you have probably watched atleast one sitcom where the couple goes out for dinner alone and determine not to talk about their children and then they have nothing else to talk about. Raising a child is currently our focus (among other things) so I would think it’s pretty natural to talk about your child a lot (with your spouse, I promise I try not to make every conversation that I have with everyone else about my child, atleast, I hope I don’t-there’s also the exception of the grandparents too, just in case my parents get on here saying that all I ever talk to them about is Garrett). However he wasn’t the focus of, nor the sole topic of our conversation at dinner.
We both got the lasagna and a side salad, had a wonderful time talking and people watching. After we ate we did a little shopping. We had debated over whether or not to go see a movie, but there weren’t any starting when we needed them to and I didn’t want to be late picking Garrett up, so we ruled out a movie for this week and decided on shopping instead. Our first stop was Garden Ridge. Yes, I know all you men out there are groaning, but Keith put on a good face and seemed to enjoy it. We went in to look at their patio furniture selection and we found what we wanted, we’ll see if we actually go back in the next 2 days before the sale ends-remember it’s taken us a good 4 years to finally break down and buy our TV, so it may be a while before patio furniture is purchased. Then we headed to Cavenders to spend the rest of our time (and money). As you know, Keith is 6’5" and can’t find pants that fit him just anywhere so he’s always bought them at Cavenders. We bought him several pair since he never takes the time to buy new ones and his current ones are looking terrible. He also got some other new clothes and tried to get me to buy a pair of cowboy boots. Hey, if they were giving those things away, I’d be first in line, but I have a hard time paying 50 bucks or more on boots that I will never wear and if I do wear them I’d feel goofy the whole time. I have no problem with other people wearing them and both Keith and Garrett have a pair and look cute in them, but they’re just not "me".
As Keith was trying on clothes, I stopped to do a quick check of my hair in one of their full length mirrors. My hair is very tempermental and, though it may start out the night looking lovely and straight with some body to it, it typically falls flat on it’s face after any exposure to the out-of-doors, or sunlight, or humidity, or...air, so I feel like I’m on constant watch of this hair of mine. Unfortunately I was too distracted to see my hair when I noticed that I was wearing my nursery sticker and had been all night!! What I failed to mention earlier is that during the check in process at our church nursery, the kids are given a wrist band and the parents are given a sticker with a number that matches the number on the wristband. It’s part of our security system that the parents turn in the sticker, the workers can match the numbers on the wristband and everyone goes home with the correct child. Obviously these aren’t typically checked with church members but it’s good to have systems like this in place in the case of a custody issue or something similar. During church hours it is very common for parents to wear their stickers on their shirt or the back of their hand, mostly just to keep track of it, and no one thinks anything of it because everyone else is doing the same thing. In my haste to leave the church unnoticed by Garrett, I had instinctively put my sticker on my shirt as I always do on Sundays and then completely forgot about it until I saw myself in that mirror in Cavenders. I was embarrassed and quickly removed it and then told Keith when he came out of the dressing room that I had been wearing my nursery sticker all night. He said "Yeah, I know" and I said "What??? Why in the world didn’t you point that out to me?" and he said "I thought you knew that you had stuck on your shirt. I mean, you’re the one that put it there, not me.". Ugh, men. :) Just kidding. Thankfully the stickers are small and blue and my shirt was blue so I really don’t think it was very noticeable, but I was still embarrassed to be running around outside of church like that.
After our shopping spree, and my embarrassing moment, we headed back to pick up Garrett. He was excited to see us and it appeared that he had a good time. There was a new lady in the room with them who we’ve seen a few times and she told us that we have the sweetest child, which was nice to hear but hard to believe. :) We plan on doing this atleast 3 more times while our church makes it available. I’m in hopes that there will be a good response and the church will do this on a monthly basis, or something like that. I was a walking advertisement this morning at church for the date night, asking people if they had participated, if they hadn’t then I told them that they really should and we enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully more people participate this Friday because I really think that date nights are important for every marriage. And I need to practice what I preach.
So if you haven’t been on a date lately, go! If you need a sitter, come join our church and sign up for date night. You won’t regret it.
Our pastor has recently started preaching a series of messages on marriage. One of the requests that he has made of all the married couples in our church is that over the course of the 6 week series, we all go on 3-4 dates. Because that can sometimes be challenging for parents of small children (especially when you don’t have family close by), the church arranged for our nursery workers to be at the church every Friday night from 6-10pm and all we have to do is make our reservations a few days ahead of time and pay $10 per family. As soon as I heard our pastor mention this I was on board. We signed Garrett up and headed out for our date night on Friday.
When we dropped Garrett off, I took him in and Keith waited in the car. Garrett throws much more of a fit when Keith leaves him in the nursery compared to when I leave him. Where’s the love, Garrett? :) Actually I think he knows that Momma is pretty cold-hearted and isn’t going to be very sympathetic to his tears. When he’s been in the nursery for over 2 years now, he ought to be used to it. Thankfully the workers on Friday were the same wonderful women that he sees on Sunday. My favorite of the group saw that Garrett was trying to give me some problems during the drop-off so she immediately took him to see the fish, which meant that Garrett was thinking "Momma who?" because he loves looking at those fish. As I was signing him in I noticed something that I found quite humorous. On our nursery sign in sheet there is a column to fill in the location of the parent, this is mainly for church times to let the workers know if you’re in church or Sunday school-which Sunday school class-that kind of thing, just in case they need to find you. Well, obviously none of the date night couples were going to be at the church, so I planned to just write down my cell phone number, but I noticed for the children who had already been signed in that the parents had put the name of the local town where they would be. For some reason that just struck me as funny, like the nursery workers cared what town we all would be in and like that really gave them any idea of where exactly we were (they also wrote down their phone number though). I’m sure none of you are laughing, but I shared this with Keith when I got back in the car and we both got a good chuckle over it.
Keith and I headed to the next town over (about 25 minutes away). We had a little excitement on our drive. We had the joy of witnessing a wreck, it could have been bad, but thankfully it wasn’t. A pick-up truck pulling a horse trailer changed lanes directly into the side of a semi-truck! We think the pick-up truck driver was asleep because he was driving really slow and he ran into the end of the semi’s trailer so there was no way that he wouldn’t have seen that big 18-wheeler there beside him if he was awake and aware. I just sat there with my hands covering my mouth saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh" over and over. The pick-up bounced off the semi and immediately pulled onto the shoulder of the road. I don’t think the semi driver even knew what happened because he didn’t even slow down and just kept going. It was crazy and seems to be typical anytime Keith and I go out like that. We’ve witnessed many strange accidents (one involving a Ford Ranger and a little car where the Ranger ended up driving backwards down the interstate for a short period of time before he drove (backwards) up an embankment.)
During our ride we tried to figure out where we should go to eat. We both love "Texas Roadhouse", but we also thought it might be nice to go someplace where we don’t go very often. I also didn’t want to go somewhere that would be crowded because I didn’t want to waste any of our precious date time waiting for a table. So the decision was made to go eat at "Spaghetti Warehouse". We’ve eaten there a couple of times, both with Garrett and both were fast and somewhat unenjoyable because he wasn’t cooperating, we thought we would go there so we could actually enjoy our food and take our time. They got us right in and seated, in a nice, secluded table too. Of course one of my first comments was that the table would have been nice if we had Garrett with us because he wouldn’t have disturbed anyone around us. Thankfully Keith and I didn’t make the agreement to not talk about our child while on our date. I’m assuming that most of you have probably watched atleast one sitcom where the couple goes out for dinner alone and determine not to talk about their children and then they have nothing else to talk about. Raising a child is currently our focus (among other things) so I would think it’s pretty natural to talk about your child a lot (with your spouse, I promise I try not to make every conversation that I have with everyone else about my child, atleast, I hope I don’t-there’s also the exception of the grandparents too, just in case my parents get on here saying that all I ever talk to them about is Garrett). However he wasn’t the focus of, nor the sole topic of our conversation at dinner.
We both got the lasagna and a side salad, had a wonderful time talking and people watching. After we ate we did a little shopping. We had debated over whether or not to go see a movie, but there weren’t any starting when we needed them to and I didn’t want to be late picking Garrett up, so we ruled out a movie for this week and decided on shopping instead. Our first stop was Garden Ridge. Yes, I know all you men out there are groaning, but Keith put on a good face and seemed to enjoy it. We went in to look at their patio furniture selection and we found what we wanted, we’ll see if we actually go back in the next 2 days before the sale ends-remember it’s taken us a good 4 years to finally break down and buy our TV, so it may be a while before patio furniture is purchased. Then we headed to Cavenders to spend the rest of our time (and money). As you know, Keith is 6’5" and can’t find pants that fit him just anywhere so he’s always bought them at Cavenders. We bought him several pair since he never takes the time to buy new ones and his current ones are looking terrible. He also got some other new clothes and tried to get me to buy a pair of cowboy boots. Hey, if they were giving those things away, I’d be first in line, but I have a hard time paying 50 bucks or more on boots that I will never wear and if I do wear them I’d feel goofy the whole time. I have no problem with other people wearing them and both Keith and Garrett have a pair and look cute in them, but they’re just not "me".
As Keith was trying on clothes, I stopped to do a quick check of my hair in one of their full length mirrors. My hair is very tempermental and, though it may start out the night looking lovely and straight with some body to it, it typically falls flat on it’s face after any exposure to the out-of-doors, or sunlight, or humidity, or...air, so I feel like I’m on constant watch of this hair of mine. Unfortunately I was too distracted to see my hair when I noticed that I was wearing my nursery sticker and had been all night!! What I failed to mention earlier is that during the check in process at our church nursery, the kids are given a wrist band and the parents are given a sticker with a number that matches the number on the wristband. It’s part of our security system that the parents turn in the sticker, the workers can match the numbers on the wristband and everyone goes home with the correct child. Obviously these aren’t typically checked with church members but it’s good to have systems like this in place in the case of a custody issue or something similar. During church hours it is very common for parents to wear their stickers on their shirt or the back of their hand, mostly just to keep track of it, and no one thinks anything of it because everyone else is doing the same thing. In my haste to leave the church unnoticed by Garrett, I had instinctively put my sticker on my shirt as I always do on Sundays and then completely forgot about it until I saw myself in that mirror in Cavenders. I was embarrassed and quickly removed it and then told Keith when he came out of the dressing room that I had been wearing my nursery sticker all night. He said "Yeah, I know" and I said "What??? Why in the world didn’t you point that out to me?" and he said "I thought you knew that you had stuck on your shirt. I mean, you’re the one that put it there, not me.". Ugh, men. :) Just kidding. Thankfully the stickers are small and blue and my shirt was blue so I really don’t think it was very noticeable, but I was still embarrassed to be running around outside of church like that.
After our shopping spree, and my embarrassing moment, we headed back to pick up Garrett. He was excited to see us and it appeared that he had a good time. There was a new lady in the room with them who we’ve seen a few times and she told us that we have the sweetest child, which was nice to hear but hard to believe. :) We plan on doing this atleast 3 more times while our church makes it available. I’m in hopes that there will be a good response and the church will do this on a monthly basis, or something like that. I was a walking advertisement this morning at church for the date night, asking people if they had participated, if they hadn’t then I told them that they really should and we enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully more people participate this Friday because I really think that date nights are important for every marriage. And I need to practice what I preach.
So if you haven’t been on a date lately, go! If you need a sitter, come join our church and sign up for date night. You won’t regret it.
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