What we've been up to and other stuff you may not care about

Keith has been out of town on business (got home last night). So I've been on single mom duty.

Which didn't really consist of any major changes, other than trying to explain to Garrett where Daddy was when he asked for the hundredth time. Keith's work hours can keep him out until after the boys go to bed and out the door before they get up on some days, so it isn't totally unusual for them to go a day or two without seeing him, even when he's "home".

Yesterday I took them both to see a free movie at a local theater. This week they were showing "Monsters Inc" which we own and have seen many, many times, but it's always a fun experience to see something in the theater. And when it's free, well, that definitely makes it a good choice. (Of course we bought a small popcorn and coke to share, so it wasn't totally "free"...)

Tomorrow Cooper has yet another eye appointment. I'm in hopes this will be his last one for awhile. It looks like the second tear duct probing worked, so she'll just be doing an eye exam tomorrow, which includes dilating his eyes, hopefully that won't be weird for him.

Today I called and booked a local place for Garrett's birthday party. We've always done birthday parties at our house, but we're going to do his party someplace else this year. Garrett's school does gymnastics on Thursdays (when school is in session). Their teacher has a school bus that she has retrofitted with various gym equipment and that's where the kids have gymnastics. However, she also has an actual gym where she gives lessons too. We've been there a couple of different times, once for a birthday party and once for a playdate with church friends. So we're going to have his party there this year. I'm really excited about it. The price is awesome. Almost half of what most bounce house places in our area charge and in my opinion this is more fun. And she has an open topped bounce house in the gym too for the kids to jump in some.

The positives to doing his party this way are: the owner of this gym is very hands-on during birthday parties. She basically runs it, helping kids on equipment, stopping any bad behavior before it starts, moving kids from one activity to another, etc. (And by the way, the equipment is not "professional" gymnastics stuff that's really big and no way a child could play on it. There's low balance beams, a low set of rings, a mini-pommel horse, and everything is totally padded. A 2 year old could have plenty of fun in there. I'm sure Cooper would have a lot of fun there too, if I didn't have to worry about the older kids trampling him.) Another positive is that I won't have to worry about my house. While I'm sure we'll have some family swing by our house before or after the party, it won't be a houseful of people. I also won't have to cook for anyone. You just take cupcakes to the party and about halfway through the party time, she stops the kids for cake and present time. Can I just say that as far as Garrett is concerned, his birthday can not get here soon enough.

Cooper has mastered standing alone. Finally. I can stand him up in front of me and he just stands there and laughs. Then he sits himself down and raises his arms so I'll stand him up again. Repeat. Sometimes he gets distracted and will stand for awhile before he realizes that he forgot to laugh and sit down. I think we're on our way to seeing him taking his first steps soon.

I have a zit on my face. Why is that even allowed at age 31?

Our landscaper finally took the paperwork to our water company. I called them this morning to check and when I told her what I was needing to know she called me by name and said he had brought it in. She doesn't know me, so apparently we're the only ones they were waiting on inspection paperwork for.

But he still hasn't shown up to replace our dead plants.

Cah-razy

Today has been a whirwind of a day.

Before the rest of us woke up, Keith left to go pick up a tractor to work in our yard. We had dirt hauled in to smooth out the yard and then reseed grass and the fastest way to get the dirt where it needed to be was by tractor.

When he was on his way home with the tractor, he called me to ask me to call Enterprise for him. He was needing to rent a truck for some work stuff this week and needed to pick it up today since they're closed on Sundays. So I called around and found a local Enterprise that had a truck that would work for him. (Keith does have a truck of his own, but it has 250k miles on it and just doesn't have it in her to do some things he needs to do. He said he was lucky to haul the tractor to our house this morning with his truck.)

As soon as he walked in the door, we loaded up and headed out to Enterprise to pick up the truck before they closed. We got there with 15 minutes to spare. Picked up the truck and then went to eat at Chili's.

Once we got home, Keith got to work immediately on the dirt in our yard. He had a lot to do and a limited time to do it in.

The dirt piles (plus 2 more that weren't in the picture.) You can kinda see some of our landscaping here.

While he worked outside, I attempted to entertain 2 boys who were very sad Daddy was outside and they couldn't join him. It was really hot here today. Plus, I won't allow Garrett to play outside when Keith is working on a tractor. I don't trust G not to run up to Keith without Keith seeing him and accidents happen really fast. I also attempted to tackle our Mt. Laundry. I'm not quite there, but I made a dent in it.

Early this evening, Keith said the boys could come out and he would give them rides on the tractor. Garrett got a solo run first (with Keith) and he did all the steering while Keith manned everything else. Garrett actually did a pretty good job of manuevering around the yard with little intervening by Keith.

After the boys were done riding around the yard, they had dinner and then we hung out in the living room. Anytime you're just sitting still not doing the tons of cleaning that needs to be done, you know that's going to come back and haunt you. After I had been relaxing on the couch for about an hour, watching the boys play, Keith walked in with a friend of his who had stopped by.

I'm always happy for people to stop by, it doesn't bother me. But what did bother me was that I hadn't taken the time to clean up after dinner. And when a 1 year old feeds himself dinner, he leaves a BIG mess behind. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement. Not to mention the living room floor that was full of toys. As soon as Keith took him out to show him the rental truck (guys), I immediately busted out the vacuum cleaner and did the living room and kitchen floors. When the guys didn't come in during that time, I grabbed the mop and mopped the kitchen while I was at it. Then I put the boys in the tub and cleaned the bathroom while they splashed and played. So hopefully when they came back in later, Keith's friend forgot how messy the house was when he first walked in and instead will remember the freshly cleaned floors and a living room rug you can actually see rather than a carpet of toys.

You would think I would have learned my lesson because the almost exact same thing happened just yesterday! Keith calls me around 5 yesterday afternoon and says "John is going to be coming by to drop off some stuff for me to use with the tractor this weekend." He didn't even get the whole sentence out of his mouth when the doorbell rang. I hung up on Keith and answered the door to not only find John, but his wife and their son with him. I had bags of chips on the table from Garrett dragging them out at lunchtime. Our living room floor was covered in toys (again). The boys' PJs were on the couch (sometimes I dress C/G dresses himself in the living room in the mornings). There were multiple sippy cups on the floor. Cheerios were scattered everywhere. If I thought it looked bad this afternoon, I just had to recall what the house looked like yesterday. Yikes.

We ended up having a great visit and they are really good friends of ours, so I've definitely seen their house in similar shape. I just get flustered when people come over and my house isn't up to my standards.

Though it doesn't sound like it, I do attempt to clean every day. But for one reason or another, I hadn't done what needed doing yesterday or today. Now, I'm contemplating cleaning my house from top to bottom every morning just in case someones decides to stop by.

33 Years

June 25, 1977

Today is my parents' anniversary. They first met when they were 17 years old. Actually, scratch that, they first met when they were babies. I'm not sure of the exact details of that very first meeting over 50 years ago, but I know that my mom's parents started a church in the Indianapolis area and my dad's parents lived close to Indianapolis and I think the church my dad's parents went to, sent money to my mom's parents to help with their church. Anyway, at some point when they were both around 6 months old, my mom and her family had a meal with my dad and his family. I don't think there are any pictures around to verify this, just stories from both sets of grandparents.

But back to those 2 17 year olds. (They're only a month apart in age.) My mom's parents ended up going to Sao Paulo, Brazil as missionaries and lived there for about 30 years, coming home every few years for a break and to visit churches that helped them out financially. They were coming back to the States and making their way around the country to various churches, one of which was the church where my dad and his family went. I think the story goes that the boys in the youth group would check out the "Missionary Wall" at the church and look at the missionary's family picture to find cute girls. (Typical teenage boys.) My dad saw my mom's family picture and immediately staked his claim on her, telling the rest of the youth group she was his and they weren't allowed to talk to her.

The first night that my mom's family was in town, my dad's mom sent my dad over to the pastor's home with dinner for everyone. My dad was introduced to my mom in the living room of the pastor's home. During that same meeting my dad invited my mom to attend a youth social (that he had set-up, solely for the purpose of having a place to invite my mom). My mom's parents said she could go, but her brother (who was a couple of years younger) would have to come with them. haha So the next evening, my dad picked up my mom and her brother and they went to play volleyball with the youth group.

I think there were a variety of activities "planned" that week in order for my dad to spend as much time with my mom as he could. Towards the end of the week, they were finally allowed to go places without a chaperone, though I think my dad and my uncle became pretty good friends that week too. My parents exchanged addresses and promised to write to each other.

As it turns out, my mom was also writing to another guy at the time. It seems like I remember at one point during her correspondance with both guys, the other guy sent a dumb letter and my dad sent a really sweet letter at the same time, so she dumped the other guy and focused exclusively on my dad. Good thing he's a good writer!

That fall, my mom was enrolled in a California high school for her senior year (all of her grandparents lived out there so she lived with them during this time). As it turns out, she ended up qualifying for early graduation in December (which no one at all understands, if you knew her school record from her years of schooling in Brazil, she maybe had 9 full years of school under her belt before reaching her senior year. But my mom is smart, so her lack of school years didn't really matter.) During all of this time, my parents were corresponding and had talked many times about getting married. My dad sent my mom a silver, heart-shaped locket as a graduation present (which, incidentally, I wore when I got married).

After my dad graduated from high school, both of my parents decided to go to college in Dallas. There was a small seminary there that my mom's dad was familiar with and he was living in Brazil at the time so he wanted her somewhere he could trust. My dad decided he would go there with her, though he had no intention of being a pastor or anything in the ministry. His plan was to be an accountant. He just pushed it to the back burner for the moment in order to spend time with my mom. At Christmas that year, my parents both went to California where my mom's parents were back in the States for a visit. My dad had bought an engagement ring and ended up proposing to my mom in a parking lot of a grocery store. My grandparents had given their permission for them to get married, but told them they wanted them to wait until they were done with school.

After a couple of months, my mom started writing to her parents begging them to let her go ahead and get married. (They were back in Brazil again by this time.) Finally, one day she got the letter saying she could go ahead and get married. My mom was so excited that she accidentally hit her head on a chair and busted her head open. lol She still has a scar on the bridge of her nose where it happened. (I don't think she needed any stitches...) The sad part about that was that her parents weren't going to be at her wedding. They had just been in the States and weren't going to be able to come back again for the wedding because it was too expensive.

My parents got married at a church in Kentucky where my mom's sister and brother-in-law lived. That brother-in-law gave her away and a pastor my parents knew, performed the ceremony.

As an aside, my mom had always wanted to marry a pastor. She said she used to pray that she would someday (she was crazy. I'm just sayin'.) When my parents got engaged, my dad had not surrendered to preach, so she just figured that was not in God's will for her to be a pastor's wife. 2 months after their engagement and 4 months before their wedding, my dad surrendered to preach. He had been feeling called for awhile, but he wasn't sure if he was pressuring himself because of what my mom had said before or because of some *family pressure but after praying about it for a long time, he realized it was God and not anyone else calling him to the pastorate.

*When my dad's parents had been married for 4 years and still didn't have any kids (they wanted them, God just hadn't given them any yet), a lady in their church told them they needed to have kids. His parents told her they wanted kids, it just hadn't happened yet. So she said she would pray for them to have kids. She told them later that God told her they would have a baby, it would be a boy, and he would be a preacher. My dad grew up hearing that story (though not necessarally feeling pressured by his parents, just the story) and that just compounded his mixed feelings over whether God was calling him, or an old family story was calling him.

After my dad finished his degree (and I was 1 year old, born to them 18 months after their wedding), my parents moved to Indiana where my dad pastored the church he grew up in. Incidentally, the living room where they first met as 17 year olds, was the living room where they raised 5 kids. And one of the women in the church was the woman who had told my grandparents their baby would be a boy and he would be a pastor. I don't think she expected he would one day be her pastor.

June 17, 2010

Frustrations

For all of you business owners who read this blog (I'm sure there are tons), the following is what NOT to do with your customer service. For the rest of you, let me know if you've had any similar dealings with a business that left you ready to snatch yourself bald.

In May, Keith and I decided we were going to have our landscaping redone and a sprinkler system installed. Our housing edition is in the middle of what used to be a cotton field. Therefore the ground is rough and there are no trees. At one time we had a nice looking yard of thick, green grass, but we all know that when you don't water it enough or don't get enough rain, it shrivels up and dies in no time. And in Texas, rain can be scarce sometimes. So our yard isn't looking too pretty as of late. (Basically since we had kids and no time to work in the yard beyond mowing.) (And as an aside, we have planted 5 trees in our yard. 3 are still alive and have survived many years of limited rain, so I think they're here to stay.)

We already knew what landscaper we would use because we've admired their work for years now. Anytime we drive through local housing editions, we can almost always point out their work. It always looks nice without being overdone and is mostly a variety of shrubs and flowering plants that look good year-round. So I called up the landscaper and asked him to come out and give us an estimate. Within an hour, he was at our house, walking me through the yard, showing where sprinkler heads would be and the changes he would make to the flowerbeds. He gave me an estimate and then came back that evening to walk Keith through the same information that he had given me. Keith and I made a few small changes to his proposal and decided to go ahead with it. It was a bit more than we had wanted to spend, but we knew we would like the end product and we had the money saved up, so we decided to go for it.

Keith called him with our changes and told him to go ahead and get started. He said he would be at our house in a couple of days to get the process going. His crew showed up mid-morning one day and trenched out most of our yard where the sprinkler lines would be. It started raining after 4 hours, so they left with about 2/3 of the trenching done. Days went by and we never heard from the landscaper and no one showed up to do any work. (Important note: When doing business with people who have committed to you working for them, keep them informed of the timeline of your job so they will know when you'll be doing the work. It's frustrating for us to have our yard all trenched up for days on end and not know when anyone is coming out to finish the job.)

Keith called him to check in and see what's going on and he said they would be out the next day to work. (We shouldn't have to hound people to do the job they're supposed to do, by the way.) They showed up the next morning and got to work. The landscaper knocked on the door and told me that he was having a hard time getting our phone company to come out and mark where our phone lines are so they didn't accidentally cut them. (All of the electric and phone lines in our neighborhood are buried underground and we have a basic idea of where they are, but don't know exactly.) He had called them several times and no one had come out to get it done. Needless to say, I got on the phone and gave them an earful. We had a laundry list of complaints with our phone company and this was just one of many. So I had no problem letting them have it. (Don't mess with me when I'm already annoyed.) The landscaper told me later that morning that the phone company called and said someone would be out the next morning to get it done.

I will add that when the phone company employee showed up (at 7am the next day), Keith talked to him because he was leaving for work when they pulled in the driveway and it turns out our local branch is severely understaffed at the moment and they actually called him from north Dallas to come out and get this done for us. He also told Keith he was surprised they even needed him to do this because most landscapers have a relatively inexpensive tool that finds buried lines for them and they don't need to wait on the phone or electric company to come out and mark them. Another frustration about the landscaper. They've been in business for over 20 years (it's a small town, so we know that is true) you would think they would have this tool to cut down on wait time for their customers.

Keith called the landscaper and told him the phone line was marked and he told Keith they would be out soon to finish the job. "Soon" turned out to be 3 days later. So this has now been a week and a half of our yard being trenched out with nothing done. They showed up early on a Saturday morning and got to work. They worked solid with just a brief break for lunch and were finished by 4 that afternoon. And I will say the landscaping looked great, which we knew it would. (I will also say that the lanscaper told me that he normally gets an entire job done in 3 days or less and apologized for dragging this one out. I wish that apology had been said sooner, because it felt a bit too little too late by this point.)

He had a couple more small things to do, like install a sensor for the sprinkler system that tells it when it's rained to let it know not to turn on, and put mulch around our trees. He showed up when he said he would, got it done and left. Leaving his ladder in our backyard. That evening, Keith got home from work and started inspecting all the work that had been done. One thing you should know about Keith is that he's a perfectionist. The landscaper was told this at the beginning and even showed this when Keith told him under no uncertain terms would the wiring for the sprinkler system's box in our garage run on the outside of the wall because it looks tacky. He cut a hole in the wall and ran the wires inside it instead (Keith did. Not the landscaper. But I would say that was a pretty good display of Keith's perfectionism.)

When he was inspecting everything, he discovered a small leak in the sprinkler system's cut off valve. If the sprinkler system ever gets a break or leak in the line, the cut off valve enables you to turn off the water to the system rather than having to turn off the water to your house, while you fix the problem. What good is a cut off valve that leaks when the whole point of it is to keep from having major leaks? Keith called the landscaper (can you even imagine how many phone calls he made to this guy by now?) and told him he had left his ladder in our yard and also told him about the leak.

The following week, they picked up the ladder and did not fix the leak. By this point, Keith was livid! It takes a lot to push Keith over the edge, but once you've pushed him there, he ain't coming back. Another week went by and the guy finally showed up to fix it. While he was here, I pointed out 2 plants that are dying because the sprinkler system isn't hitting them. He said it was just the plants and he would replace them, but he didn't think anything needs to be fixed with the sprinklers. Umm, ok, but you're going to keep having to come out and replace dead plants because you can hold your hand over top of them when the sprinklers are on and not feel a drop of water. FRUSTRATION!

To top that off, when Keith got home that night, he checked the leak and said they did a terrible job fixing it. We'll be lucky if it lasts a few years before it will need to be completely dug up and redone. He cannot abide by "rigging" things up in order to patch them together. If he does a job, he does it thoroughly and he does it right. Duct tape and baling wire are not an option when repairing something.

To top all of this off, we got a phone call from our water company yesterday. Our landscaper hasn't turned in an inspection form for the sprinkler system and if they don't get it soon, they're going to shut off our water. Awesome! It doesn't get better than this. Does this guy really think we'll ever recommend him to anyone else?! When Keith called him to tell him what was going on, he actually said "They won't shut off your water. It's just something they say." But then he said he would take the form to their office first thing this morning. I told Keith if he hears back from the water company today saying they don't have the form, I will be the one to call the landscaper this time. Remember my call to the phone company? He won't appreciate hearing from me.

And if our water gets shut off because of his moronic tendencies, there will be hell to pay.

Yes, I said hell.

And if you've read all this in its entirety then you've probably been there done that before.

Once the water company is taken care of on the inspection paperwork, we'll be hounding him more about replacing the 2 dead plants and putting in atleast one more sprinkler head in the flower beds.

I'll keep you posted on the landscaping saga.

Visit with my parents

Doesn't Garrett look thrilled?

I've mentioned visiting with my parents last week a couple of times now, so I figured I would post about it and share some pictures.

As you already know, they came to Oklahoma for my mom's family reunion and then followed us down to our house on Sunday, the 13th (which is my half birthday.) (Yes, I'm weird for pointing that out.)

On Monday morning, Keith headed off for work, my brother Jesse and his girlfriend Sarah headed off for our other brother's house in Lake Jackson (about 5 hours away). Keith called about 20 minutes after he left and said that his truck had broken down on him. His truck has never done this before and it has 250,000 miles on it. Seriously. He does a lot of preventative maintenance on it in order to avoid having problems with it on the road, but of course we knew eventually something would happen. I looked up a wrecker service close to where he was and the wrecker driver drove Keith and his truck back to our house. As soon as Keith got home, he tested the fuel pump (my husband is a mechanic when he feels like it, but an accountant the rest of the time) and figured out that was the problem. He's been super blessed because most fuel pumps only last 100,000 miles and his has gone more than double that!

Anyway, he didn't have time to work on it at that moment because he had to be at work for a meeting. Since Jesse had taken the only other vehicle at our house (besides my SUV of course), I drove Keith to work so my parents and I could go places if we needed to.

After Cooper took his morning nap, my parents, the boys, and I all went to eat Mexican food. You can't find good Mexican food just anywhere and we happen to have some great restaurants around here. (Funny story moment: while sitting in the restaurant, eating chips and salsa and waiting on our food, my mom pulls out her camera and tells Cooper to say "Cheese!" He turns to her, puts his hands behind his head and smiles as if he was intentionally posing. A waiter nearby saw what happened and told us that he's a photographer when he's not waiting tables and that he had never seen that before from a kid so young. haha I'm sure it was just a fluke.)

Once we were thoroughly stuffed, we headed to Walmart. I needed groceries and birthday party food. It was nice to grocery shop with not one, but two other adults along with me to help corral my children. I normally do it solo and Cooper is terrible lately about throwing anything he can get his hands on. So my dad took Garrett with him to hunt down some things he was needing, my mom put Cooper in his stroller and looked for things she needed and I actually grocery shopped by myself. I don't remember when the last time was that I got to do that! Ah, the little things in life that make moms happy.

Keith's boss brought him home from work that night since he doesn't live too far from us. After we put the boys to bed, my mom, dad, and I all helped Keith take the bed of his truck off and put it in the yard so Keith could reach the fuel pump better. That was hilarious and I wish someone had taken pictures of us lifting that thing. It was heavy!! He got most of the work done, but wasn't able to completely finish it that night, so on Tuesday morning, everyone got up bright and early, left our house by 7:30am. We dropped Keith off at work, then went out to breakfast at IHOP and went over to my grandparents' house for a visit.

Eating at IHOP

After visiting with them for the morning, we all went to my aunt and uncle's house for a yummy BBQ lunch and more visiting. Later that afternoon, we left to go back to Dallas and pick Keith up from work. Driving in downtown during rush hour is truly one of my favorite things. It was made even more memorable with my dad saying from the passenger seat "You just keep your eyes on the road and I'll watch the GPS." haha I will always be a 16 year old who barely knows how to drive in his eyes. :)

That night we attempted to help Keith put the bed back on his truck, but it was a no go for the original 4-some that took it off to start with. It's one thing to lift something ridiculously heavy from waist-high and take it down to ground level. It's a whole other animal to attempt to lift the same heavy object from ground level and bring it up to your waist. Thankfully our neighbor was home and he is more than capable of helping with this project, so my mom and I were relegated to making sure the bed wasn't banged into the cab of the truck while the guys all heaved and ho-ed and got it back in place.

On Wednesday we went to lunch at Schlotzsky's. My parents don't have one in their area, and they love their sandwiches. After lunch, we went to Target and then Mardels (a local Christian bookstore). I got my dad to point out some things he was wanting so I could get him his Father's Day present. Then we went to pick up Cooper's birthday cake. My friend has been making all of our cakes for years and we've never had any communication problems on the date and time for when the cake was to be picked up.

But there's a first time for everything.

I could tell when we pulled into her driveway and she wasn't walking out with the cake, that something was up. I've only had to actually knock on her door one other time because she's always been waiting on me with the cake when I showed up. As soon as she answered the door, she had a panicked look on her face. She had thought I was picking the cake up the next day and didn't have it ready. Thankfully the party wasn't until the next day, so it didn't matter. I just wanted to save myself having to drive 20 minutes one way to pick up the cake on the day of the party. But everything obviously worked out. She's entitled to mess up every now and then. :)

For supper on Wednesday night, my mom made fried chicken and gravy and I made rice, biscuits, and a veggie to go with it. (Normally we would have had mashed potatoes, but all of the potatoes were spoken for in the potato salad for the party.) It was so yummy! I've only made fried chicken a handful of times in my life and I've never made homemade gravy. So Keith was quick to point out that he doesn't get to eat like that very often. (Though I make supper at least 5 nights a week, those suppers tend to be steak on the grill, chicken in the crockpot, tacos, etc. Nothing fried in a pan because it's too messy and hard to do very often.)

On Thursday morning we cleaned and decorated for the party, then we headed out to buy a couple of last minute things. Then I took my parents to a local restaurant that serves the BEST catfish. They make it with a cajun seasoning, so it's on the spicey side, but it's so good. My parents loved it. Garrett usually eats 2 pieces of catfish there and these are big pieces! So it's not too spicey for him.

Then we went to pick up the cake and she was ready for me this time. :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent party prepping and visiting with early partiers.

My parents left really early on Friday morning to make the long drive back home. (Oh, and Jesse and Sarah came back to my house on Thursday afternoon before the party.) We actually said goodbye to all of them Thursday night before we went to bed. Normally I would try to get up and see them off, but from everything that went on that week, I knew I would be too tired to get up at 5:30 and I didn't want to risk waking the boys up early either.

It was such a fun visit! We always love spending time with them.

First Birthday Party

On Cooper's actual birthday, we had his first birthday party.

My parents were visiting and planned to leave the morning of the 18th, which was a Friday, so if we wanted them to be at the party (and of course we did!) then we had to do it on Thursday. I scheduled the party to start at 4:30pm for those who work and were invited. We had a big turnout (my parents were part of the draw, I will admit).

The attendees were: my parents, my brother Jesse and his girlfriend Sarah, Keith's parents, his sister and her 3 kids (her husband couldn't get off work early enough to come since they live an hour away as it is), my grandparents, Keith's grandma, my aunt and uncle, 2 of my cousins and my cousin's baby, 2 friends of ours and their 5 year old son. Plus the 4 of us makes 25 people at our house! Thankfully our dining room table will hold 14 people with the leaves in it and our kitchen table holds 4, so between the tables and our TV trays, we had enough room for everyone to have some place to sit and eat.

The menu was grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, homemade potato salad (made by my mom), cheese dip, chips, and of course all the usual burger toppings. After we ate, it was present time. Cooper just sat in my lap and watched while Garrett and I opened his presents. He didn't really try to help though I attempted to encourage him a few times. He got a lot of cute things, tons of toys too. Our gift to him was a rocking horse (zebra) which he seems to love. He knows exactly what to do when we put him on it and thanks to our hardwood floors, his rocking makes the horse move all over the place. He has figured out how to get himself off the horse, but he hasn't mastered getting himself on it yet.

After presents it was time for cake. A friend of mine has made all of our cakes for birthdays and other special occasions and this party was no different. She did a great job! I was curious how Cooper would do with his piece of cake. He always eats with gusto, 2-handing most of his meals, and he did not disappoint with the cake either. He immediately pulled off a chunk of icing and ate it and then went from there until he was covered in crumbs and 3/4 of the cake was in his belly.

I cleaned him up and he spent the rest of the party being passed around for everyone to play with him and hug him. He was a great sport throughout the whole thing. He's normally a bit shy and prefers his parents to hold him (mostly Daddy when he's around), but he apparently knew he was the star that day and he never fussed or threw a fit or anything. Just enjoyed the attention and the fun.

It was a lot of fun and we were so glad everyone was able to come! The hardest part about birthday parties is getting scatterbrained from everything going on. A group had left before I realized I hadn't shown the video that I made for his first year, so the remaining party goers got to watch his video. I've made a video for Garrett's first 3 birthdays (first 3 years of his life) and I plan to do the same for Cooper.

On a related note, Cooper had his 1 year check up today. He weighs 21 pounds 10 ounces and is 30 1/4 inches long. After the doctor messed with him for a bit, he said he could definitely walk if he wanted to, but he's apparently a cautious baby and isn't going to do it until he's 100% sure of himself. He said that's typically a sign of a perfectionist, but we'll see. He said kids like this also tend to be late with potty training. I would call Garrett a bit of a perfectionist in some areas, he was relatively late with potty training, but he caught on fast and was totally trained (minus nighttime) by his 3rd birthday. So we'll see if any of this pans out with Cooper as he gets older. But I can definitely tell that he could physically walk if he wanted, but he just won't do it. The doctor predicts he'll be walking a month from now, so we'll see. He also checked his hernia in his bellybutton and he thinks that it will heal itself by the time he turns 2.

I could do a separate blog about this (and maybe one day I will) but I just hate it when my kids have to get shots. I know they need them and I don't question that, but it still stresses me out when they get them. Today's shots were 2 new ones: Chicken pox vaccine (which I find silly, but whatever, we still do it) and the MMR. Though I know the MMR has been acquitted of all links to autism after it came out that the studies that initially linked it were tampered with, I still get a bit nervous when they get this one. Cooper hasn't had any side effects from any vaccine so far (other than fussiness), so I'm hoping these shots will be the same.

Family Reunion 2010

80 years ago, this year, my Grandma and Grandpa Ross were born.60 years ago, this year, my Grandma and Grandpa Ross got married.

So this year, we had a Ross Family Reunion. The Ross Family (which is my mom's family) lives all over the globe: Rwanda (my cousin works over there for Compassion), Massachusetts, Indiana, Illinois, Virginia, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and California. It's hard to figure out the best location for a reunion. The last one was in the DFW, Texas area because a good percentage of the family happens to live in this metroplex. At my Grandma's suggestion, this year's reunion was held in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. No one in our family actually lives in Oklahoma (except my Grandpa's sister and her family and they all came to the reunion too, which was fun). But I think it ended up being a pretty good central location.

My family left on Friday, June 11 around 3pm. Keith had a dentist appointment that afternoon, so we headed out as soon as he got home. Thankfully we qualified to use the HOV lanes to get us through Dallas' Friday rush hour and only got held up north of Dallas for 20 minutes or so. The trip is exactly 3 hours, which is not bad. We didn't stop once. The last 30 minutes or so, Cooper was getting grouchy because he hadn't taken an afternoon nap and refused to sleep in the car for some reason. Thank goodness for his crazy "Singing Babies" movie. I had prepared Garrett for the possibility that he would have to give up his DVD player if Cooper did not cooperate in the car, so Garrett graciously did so (he's not always gracious, but he was in this moment. Partially because he knew we were getting close and he was going to see Nana and Pawpaw who he hadn't seen in 7 months.) The movie kept Cooper quiet until we arrived at the hotel where our reunion was held.

It was a fun weekend of seeing family members we hadn't seen in a long time. Or in some cases, hadn't met yet. Like my cousin's husband who is originally from England and has a cool accent. Along with some new babies that have been added to the family in the past several years. My personal favorite part of the weekend was our family's Sunday morning service. In case you aren't aware, my family has a number of preachers in the mix. At the reunion alone we had 6 of them. Of course the honors of the Sunday morning sermon went to my Grandpa. He did an excellent job and then we went on to have prayer time for my uncle Mike who has cancer. It was wonderful and humbling to see him at the reunion, knowing that he had to travel all the way from California to be there and knowing that his health is fragile at the moment. (Please pray for him and my aunt Debbie if you think of them.)

Mike is the one in the white shirt. I took some snapshots of the weekend, but not near enough.

It's one thing to participate in church services with your church family who you grow to love over the years. It's a completely different and unique experience to have church and prayer with your blood-family.

My family along with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, left Sunday afternoon to head back home. They spent the following week with us and were here for Cooper's birthday party. I promise to post about the party and share pictures soon. We've had a busy couple of weeks!

1 Year

(I wrote this yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post it.)

Dear Cooper,

Today is your 1st birthday!! I can't believe a year has already passed since you were born.

We are having your birthday party tonight. Nana and Pawpaw are visiting this week from Indiana, so we're excited to have your party on your actual birthday with all of your grandparents here. Along with other family and some friends. I'm already looking forward to watching you eat your cake!

Here's what you are up to at 1 year:

You finally, FINALLY cut your first tooth. It came through on June 2, one of the front teeth on the bottom. I honestly didn't think you'd have a tooth in time for your birthday, but of course you've proven me wrong. You actually have 2 teeth now. You cut your second one on the 15th. So you have one on the bottom and one on the top.

I also figured you would have taken your first steps by this point, but again, you've proven me wrong. You've only stood alone very few times. Anytime we attempt to stand you up by yourself, you immediately sit down. But you practically run behind your push-toy walker, so I assume it won't be much longer before you start walking.

You have had your right eye's tear duct probed twice in the past month. The first probing didn't completely work, so we've had one more done. In a couple of weeks, we'll go back for a check up and if this probing didn't work, we'll probably end up doing surgery. So far your eye is looking good though.

You're developing a love for cars, you love pushing Garrett's bigger cars around everywhere.

You're completely off formula and the bottle. A few weeks ago I started a slow transition from formula to whole milk, once our can was finished, you were on whole milk completely. You didn't seem to even notice the change. During that time, I immediately weaned you down to 3 bottles a day, then 2, then 1. You took your final bottle last Friday. Mostly because we used the last bottle liner that we had. (You take Playtex Nurser bottles with drop-in liners.) The hardest one to lose has been the one right before bed, but now you get some sort of a snack with a cup of milk and you seem to be doing well with that. I also keep a sippy cup of water in your crib in case you wake up thirsty during the night.

You love almost any food that I give you. I'm looking forward to introducing scrambled eggs soon. I think you'll love them too.

You still nap and sleep really well. 2 naps a day about 1 to 1 and a half hours each and 11 to 12 hours at night. Over the next few months, I hope to slowly transition you to 1 long nap a day. On days when you only take 1 nap, you seem to do just fine, so I hope this won't be tough to do.

The older you get, the more of a Daddy's boy you are. You refuse to let me hold you if Daddy is already holding you. And you have total meltdowns when he leaves the room.

You say "uh oh" all the time now. You've also said "Night Night" a couple of times. Anytime we say hi or bye, you wave. And sometimes when we say no, you shake your head.

It's hard to imagine all the new things you will learn in the next 6 months. It will be so much fun! And so very exhausting.

Busy Busy-ness

This past week has been busy and it won't be easing up anytime soon.

Last Friday was my fun filled day of doctor visits that must be made once a year. I guess the positive side to this is that I was solo.

Saturday was hair day. I love getting my hair done. It's relaxing for me. Saturday night was a going away party for our friends, the Bezners. I don't want to think about that right now. But the party itself was good. Garrett swam in the pool with the other kids, I attempted to watch him while being mauled by Cooper who wanted down on the ground with the dogs. We left hours before most of the others since our boys needed to be in bed at a decent hour since we had church the next morning.

Sunday was church, then decorating for VBS for the afternoon, followed by a VBS worker meeting. I'm teaching the kindergarten class this week. We have 50 kids enrolled in my class alone. Thankfully I have lots of help. 3 other adults and 3 from the youth group. The hardest part for me is teaching the Bible story in front of the adults. I have no problem teaching kids (obviously) but I feel self-conscious when adults are watching. I'm sure none of them are even listening to me but I still feel a little nervous.

Monday was major errands day. This week is a crazy one so I needed to get as much done that day as I could. Our VBS only runs Tuesday-Friday, so I wasn't skipping out. However, I did miss on Tuesday because Cooper had an eye appointment. It was a follow up to his tear duct probing. Unfortunately he had to have his duct probed again. It wasn't completely opened so she tried the probing again. If this one doesn't work, we'll ultimately end up having surgery.

So that brings us to today when VBS started for us. Cooper was not happy with me leaving him in the nursery. VBS nursery is in a different room than church nursery with different workers. So he let me know that he was not ok with this arrangment. Unfortunately, he had no choice. One of the workers is our neighbor, though Cooper doesn't know her. Her teenage son was in there helping and since Cooper prefers hanging with men to women, he ended up becoming attached to Cody. They told me that when Cody had to leave to go to the bathroom, Cooper sat in the floor and cried till he came back. One of the usual nursery workers from Sunday was actually one of the helpers in Garrett's class. When she saw Cooper, she called him "the clinger". lol She said once somebody picks him up, he holds on for dear life and won't let them put him down. That doesn't surprise me for one minute.

The boys were so exhausted by the time we got home. From the time we left to the time we got back, we were gone for 4 hours. We ate a quick lunch and Cooper was down for his nap within 15 minutes of walking through the door. He slept for 3 hours!! The positive to wearing him out and missing his morning nap. Garrett chilled on the couch and watched "101 Dalmatians". I did some laundry and tried to get some stuff done around the house. My parents are coming for a visit this weekend and will stay through Cooper's birthday, so I have a lot to get done in a short amount of time.

It seems like every summer, almost every single activity that I have planned, all takes place within a 2-3 week time span. Then the rest of the summer drags on with boredom and my attempts at keeping my child(ren) occupied and happy. Should be fun.

An Ode to Technology (or the GPS in this case)

This is Garrett's first week out of "school". While we are definitely not a family who thrives on going and doing, we do need the occasional jaunt to keep us from going stircrazy.

Yesterday was a pretty basic and typical day for us. We ran a few errands, but mostly we stayed at home, and unfortunately we spent most of that time inside. The drawback to Texas weather is that it's already getting scorching hot out there, not to mention the air quality has been terrible the past few days. Garrett's asthma can't take a lot of outdoors when the air quality isn't good, so that leaves us inside, fighting the boredom.

After putting the boys to bed last night, I mentally reviewed our calendar for the next several weeks and decided we needed to go do something fun before things get a little hectic (though a good hectic). I chose the Dallas Aquarium as our locale for today.

I'm not a professional downtown driver. I've driven around Dallas enough to have a basic idea of what roads go where (the main roads, not the city streets) and how to get to and from Keith's office building without getting lost. I've been to several places in Dallas over the years, but the majority of the time, I was just along for the ride, not the person responsible for getting everyone there without seeing the same buildings 5 times in a row because you can't figure out how to get out of the "one-way road maze".

I looked up the Aquarium's pertinent information along with their address, checked out the directions that Yahoo Maps would send me on (and wrote them down on a post-it note to stick in the middle of my steering wheel. Yes I did.) Then I programmed our GPS as my back-up.

I'm sure that last paragraph probably made little sense to you. Normal people would use their GPS and that would be the end of it. Don't get me wrong, I love GPS technology. I think it's great to not have to haul out a gigantic road atlas to figure out how to get from here to there. (How did drivers get themselves around without a navigator with those huge things? You couldn't look at an atlas and drive at the same time. I guess it was like texting and driving is today. You shouldn't do it, but you know there are people out there who do.) The thing that annoys me about GPS is that it says "turn 'right' now" when there are 3 different roads that it could technically be talking about. And ours doesn't audibly say the street's name when giving that direction, so you have to be sure you're looking at the GPS to be certain you're turning on the correct street and not the "now" street. Our GPS also can give some weird directions for how to get from here to there. I don't always trust that it's the most efficient route that it suggests.

So, the way I use GPS (because you all care very much) is for me to write down directions from Yahoo Maps (I don't know why I use that one specifically, but it's my personal preference. And I don't print out the directions because it's too much of a pain to drag out our printer and hook it up to the laptop. See? I love technology.) Then I program the GPS with the address of where we're headed, I ignore what the GPS says except to keep track of traffic conditions, but I have it as a backup in case the road is suddenly shut down or my directions don't work out for some reason. I know the GPS can take care of me if I suddenly end up on the wrong road. I just don't trust it to get me to where I'm going. I'm sure this is giving you more insight into "me" than you probably wanted to know.

The feature that I probably like the least on our GPS is the one where "she" says "Caution!" anytime you go more than 10 mph over the speedlimit. Garrett has caught on to what that means, so he always repeats her to me. Or he'll say "What did she say, Momma?" as if to remind me that I need to slowdown, without actually saying the words.

But back to our day. We had lots of fun at the Aquarium. The boys are pretty well behaved in situations like that. Cooper loved anything that was moving fast. He would get so excited. Garrett basically loved everything.

After the Aquarium, we headed over to see Keith at work and eat lunch with him. His building has a food court and ice rink on the ground level, so after walking through and saying hi to all of his coworkers, we went down to the food court, picked up McDonald's for the boys and Corner Bakery for us and went back up to eat our lunches in the conference room. Most of Keith's coworkers joined us and all but one of them are childless so they got an upclose look to what it's like to eat lunch with 2 small children. It was honestly hilarious.

We had a really fun outing and I now feel confident in my Dallas driving and post-it note GPS abilities.

8 Years

8 years ago today, Keith and I got married. Finally.

We dated for 4 and a half years before the big day. We're so spontaneous, I'm surprised it hasn't come back to haunt us.

We did things a little different for our wedding day than the usual. Mostly due to the fact that we didn't have a wedding reception. My dad's church at the time did not have a good facility for receptions. 2 years prior to our wedding, my sister got married at the same church and had her reception in their Fellowship Hall. It was a madhouse. The FH at the time was extremely small for such a large church. I was her maid of honor and I never even made it inside the FH much less got a piece of cake at her reception, so I really didn't relish the thought of such chaos for our wedding. And for those of you who know Keith, he's not a big fan of the crowds. (A few years later, that church built a nice, big building with a gym, classrooms, a fancy kitchen and an events room. My brother had his wedding reception there and it was very nice and plenty big.)

Instead we invited all of our family who was in town the night before, to attend our rehearsal dinner (along with the wedding party, of course). So we had a mini-reception the night before our wedding. We had a tiered cake and everything. It was much more low-key and no chaos.

On our wedding day, I picked Keith up from my sister's house and brought him to my parents' for breakfast. (Yes we broke tradition by seeing each other before the wedding.) Then I had to finish packing up all my stuff at my parents' and we loaded it up into Keith's truck. His parents were going to take my things to our apartment while we were on our honeymoon. At some point during that morning, the doorbell rings. I happened to be the closest to the front door so I answered it. It was 2 Jehovah's Witnesses. Once I explained to them that I was getting married that day (I hope they know I was telling the truth and not just throwing excuses at them so they would leave) they talked about how long they had been married, wished us a good marriage, and left.

The perk to being a PK is that when you get married at your dad's church, you get to use his office to get ready for your wedding. Rather than the random SS room or bathroom. For months after our wedding, my wedding dress hung in a closet in his office until I finally took it home. I'm sure he enjoyed looking at it for all that time.

I wish I could recall specific details from the day, but I really can't. I do remember that someone went and got McDonald's at some point for a few people to eat, but I don't think I ate anything. Our wedding was at 2, but I was at the church from 10:30am until after the ceremony.

My dad walked me down the aisle and gave me away. My grandpa (who is also a pastor and was a missionary) did the "Who gives this woman" part and then prayed. For some reason, he got all choked up during his prayer, so I had to let myself drift off to other thoughts in order to avoid getting snotty-nosed and teary-eyed.

My dad performed the actual ceremony and he is the king of the short weddings. Praise the Lord. During the Unity Candle portion, I deliberately chose to have an instrumental piece played in order to avoid standing there, awkwardly, while someone sang the longest song ever and the only thing to do was stand there and stare at Keith. I love Keith and I love staring at him, but not in front of a church full of people. I would have been doubled over laughing (because that's my go-to move when I feel nervous or stressed) if we had to stand that way for very long, so thankfully the pianist faded the song out once we stood there for 30 seconds or so.

And then it was all over. We had a receiving line. Took pictures. Changed clothes. Said good-bye. And left for Florida. I think we were on the road by 4:30pm.

We don't really have any big plans for our anniversary this year. We recently had a sprinkler system installed in our yard along with having our landscaping redone, so we've considered that our "trip to Hawaii". In a couple of years, I hope we'll be able to go someplace fun for our 10th.