Life...

Life in general has been kind of stressful lately. I think it's mainly work. Today, I left the house at 7:30 to take Ben to daycare. I didn't get home again until 7:00 tonight. I know that some people do that all the time, but I'm an 8 to 5 kind of girl. I think I start shutting down if I have to work more than 8 hours per day. :) It didn't help that I had to go to Walmart tonight for a major grocery run on my way home. But Brian was Super-Dad...my baby boy was bathed, in his jammies, with teeth brushed by the time I came home.

Ben and I are heading to DeRidder this weekend. I'm really looking forward to spending some time with my family. A fellow DeRidder-ite mentioned mayhaw jelly and that is basically my main focus of the trip now. People here in Texas tell me to just be content with red plum jelly. Have they lost their minds??? I think they have. Crazy Texans. :)

Ok, so there's another post about nothing. I'm heading to bed!

Weekend Fun

We went to the Shillingburg's in Temple on Saturday. It's always good to spend time with our parents and get a little spoiled. :) Today has been a laid back day...Brian is on his second football game and Ben has watched more Wow Wow Wubzy episodes than I will ever admit. He is obviously learning how to play hide and seek at daycare. He will hide his face, say 'twenty, ninety' and then 'here I come.' It's so cute! Work starts back up tomorrow...I've got some fun things coming up this week. I'll also be driving quite a bit but I guess that's the norm. Working for the state doing adoptions, I really can't share much about my job due to confidentiality issues. Sometimes I wish I could share more b/c these kids say the CRAZIEST things. They are also going through things most of us could not even begin to imagine. So I guess I'll just ask you to pray for them and for their future families. :) I hope each of you have a great Monday!

Here's a video of Ben on the way back from Temple. Be warned, Brian had the camera microphone really close to himself, so he's pretty loud. :) Ben gets sad at the end b/c he remembered having to leave Mimi and Papa's house.

Picture Frame Give Away!!

***I am in love with ETSY! It's a place where artists and crafty people can sell their stuff. It's amazing! I have spent the last hour looking at purses, cards, tags, and pottery. It's borderline overwhelming.***

Check out this blog to sign up for a give away!!!

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Sweet Abby the Baby Sitter :)

We have the best baby sitter in the entire world. I know that she might read this, so I'll keep the accolades to a minimum so I don't embarrass or freak her out. :) Ben has always been enamored with her. I think she was the first person he ever "showed off" for. We had her over for dinner the other night. That afternoon Ben and I were in the back yard and he started picking the little flowers (Brian calls them weeds). And by picking, I mean shredding the flower part off and throwing it on the ground. With a little redirection, we were able to accumulate quite the bouquet. He even gave them to Abby once she got there.

He doesn't understand why I'm asking him to hold the flowers that I already pried out of his little hands to make a cute bouquet AND asking him to say cheese...He was not falling for that one!

Ben's New Thing

Brian took a video of Ben's new favorite thing...brushing his teeth. We're still working on the rinse and spit part. I think Ben likes his toothpaste more than candy...seriously. I guess that's a good thing, right? And yes, there was a slight struggle of wills for a bit...Ben is a very strong willed little boy. We're also working on that. :)

**It took FOREVER to load this video...I wonder if it always takes that long or if it was just me.**

Life is good....

Ben went to bed without any problem, as he does most nights. I'm sitting in the living room with my wonderful husband, reading a book while he plays XBox. It might not be very exciting all the time, but it's our life and I absolutely love it. :) Hope your friday night was as good as mine!!

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Allison has a new give away! The stationary is BEAUTIFUL!! Definitely check this out!

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Our Day Off

I took Monday off b/c the daycare was closed. Ben and I had a great day, even though he only took an hour nap. :( We went to see Brian at school...his students were so sweet to Ben. Ben was pretty overwhelmed by all the kiddos...until he saw a 3-D elephant. He screamed "elfant" and then realized what he'd done and was embarassed. So cute!

The weather has been AMAZING the last couple of days. He has really enjoyed playing outside any chance he gets. He's growing so fast and changing so much. He's such an amazing little boy...I guess I'm a little biased. :)

This is pretty much Ben in a nutshell...running full speed ahead. Oh, and notice our poor dead grass...it had a VERY rough summer. No matter what my sweet husband did, the grass died in these large random patches.


JOY!!


This was right after I told him not to lick the dirt.

He's started this weird thing where he gets his toys or blankies and sits between the wall and the exercise bike. I found him there the other day with an opened bottle of TUMS and about two chewed up ones spit on the floor. I guess he got his calcium for the day.

Ben-isms

We had a good weekend. Some friends from Houston came up to make use of our A/C and electricity. Ben LOVES Rachel...to the point of being annoying. :) We heard "RATEL" more than 100 times in the last 24 hours! Tony (our BIG cat) attacked Josh. I'm not sure we were the best host home.

Ben was super cute the rest of the day. We had a special treat for breakfast..."no-nuts" (donuts). I got a dozen assorted and after everyone had their share, Ben spent about 20 minutes picking through the rest of the box and eating the toppings off. It was so cute, I could hardly tell him no. :) He's started talking to Dora when she's on Noggin, along with most of the other cartoons. His favorite is Wubzy, or as Ben says it "WUBBY." He was very upset when I could not make Wubby appear on the television on demand. :) We went on a walk and he found some "nicks" (sticks). He was very proud to show daddy his "nicks." I get to stay home with him tomorrow...I'm really looking forward to that. I'll take pictures to post of our mommy day.

The Natives are Restless!

We survived! Brian and Ben went out to "play" in the rain. Here are some pictures!

Windy!

It's 6:30...Sweet Ben knocked on our door at about 5:00 a.m. After getting his "blankies" and him situated in the bed, there was no longer room for me. So I'm left in the dark living room listening to the wind...and it's VERY WINDY. I woke Brian up and he said that everything was fine. He is happily snoring again. I must've been clueless as to what was going on around me during hurricane season as I grew up. I remember one storm in particular. I think Dad was prepping the house and so I decided to pack up my "valuables" just in case we needed to make a quick exit. I grabbed my favorite pillow and all the knick knacks from my shelf...the birthday figurines and the Precious Moments. You know those little angels with the year on them? I think that only one of those made it back on the shelf with both wings. I was not the most graceful child. :) And that is the only thing I remember about hurricanes growing up...in Southwest Louisiana. I wonder what my sister remembers...Emily?? And here is some fun news about Emily...they just closed on their BEAUTIFUL new home in Las Vegas. And they celebrated as only Emily and Eric can...with a $5.99 Hot-n-Ready from Little Caesar's. :) Love you sister!!!

Ike

****Update - 9/12/2008 - Everyone is still freaking out. You couldn't even find BREAD at the grocery stores last night. That is nuts! That said, I'm getting a little nervous. I've already called Brian once to calm me down. :) I don't do well without electricty...or A/C...or cable...or internet. I think the local news people are beyond excited that something newsworthy might be happening here in B/CS. They have even started using the phrase "hunker down." I guess it beats headlines like these:

Bicyclist chased; 2 CS men arrested

Jury indicts on pot charge

Don't Over Look Johnsongrass in Your Pasture

I'm not even kidding about those. :)

People here at the office are talking about 80 mph winds and flooding. I had to pick up everything off the floor of my office (quite the undertaking if you remember the pic of my office) and put a garbage bag over my computer. CRAZY! Ok, I'm getting myself all worked up again. I'd better stop!****

I think everyone is over-reacting here in Bryan/College Station about the storm. We are about three hours inland. School has been cancelled, businesses are closing. I can understand the Houston/Galveston people leaving, but why are we freaking out? I've gotten three emails so far today saying how we need to prepare for electricity and water being out, etc. CRAZY. So I have chosen not to buy into the hype. We'll see if I was completely off base in about 24 hours. :) I am going to make sure that our cars our full of gas, but that's really it. Am I crazy?

Disaster Averted!

I've been asking Brian for a month now to take Ben for a haircut. Brian always had his reasons not to. Well, tonight Brian got out his beard trimmer and was just going to "clean up the edges" on Ben's hair. I'm in the living room and I hear Brian yell. Ben moved his head and Brian shaved off a big chunk behind his ear. It was pretty much the funniest, most awful thing ever. We immediately left for the hair cut place. Thankfully they were still open. After a handful of Skittles, Ben allowed the lady (who couldn't stop laughing) to cut his hair. She fixed it though and you can hardly tell!

Can you see it, right behind his ear??

Salt in Tennis Shoes

I have a tendency to start my posts with "So,..." but then I think about my 11th and 12th grade English teacher and I almost always erase it. Mrs. Roberts is still in my head. :)

I have to be careful what I leave on our table now that Ben can climb up on the chairs. I left the shoe box open and he started shaking salt in one of the shoes from the shaker on the table. Nice, right? He loves going through my purse as well...finds my keys and tries to put them in the electric sockets, even though they are covered. How do kids learn this stuff???

I went to the mall with my friend last night. We brought the two kiddos. There's this play area there that we thought they'd enjoy. After about 20 minutes, they wanted back in their strollers, so we got to shop some more. Ben did pretty well, until the last 30 minutes. He was frustrated, I was frustrated, so we headed home. He went straight to bed, thank goodness! Brian got to hang out with Beth's hubby...they went to the batting cages. Isn't that kinda funny? They are joining a baseball league so I guess they wanted to practice.

We're going to enjoy our Saturday and hopefully get some house work and resting done. :) Hope everyone has a great weekend! Here are some pictures from this last week.

He loves the Ice Cream Truck at the mall. When it finished, he actually reached in Mom's purse and said "money?"

Grammy the Evacuee. Ben still asks for Grammy and Papa.

One of our rough mornings this week. The transition to no pacifier has been pretty painful for everyone!! Thank goodness we still have the "blankies."

The Big 2-7

******Update...the roses my mom and sister sent were half dead the day after I got them, so they called and complained. On Friday, I got a new bouquet, and I must say they are gorgeous! Still alive!

So, I'm 27. My birthday is not that big of a deal for me. In fact, when I was little, I'd sob uncontrollably when the song "Happy Birthday To You" was directed at me. We went out to eat tonight, just Brian, Ben, and I. I had the BEST peach tea ever. Ben was a little angel all night!!! Now, I'm off kid duty all evening...THANKS BRIAN! The only thing I asked for was a cake...I love birthday cake. Pretty easy, right?

My wonderful family sent me flowers at work. They are from Pro-Flowers, so they arrived via UPS in a box. I thought it was funny...a box of flowers. They are beautiful and smell great. Thanks family!!

My office....pretty bad, right?

Pretty roses...

And just for fun...these are about half of my closed cases that are waiting to be closed out...those binders symbolize kiddos in their forever families! So, it's not just clutter. :)

On another note, I found out today that a friend from high school was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (sp). She has a mass in her chest the size of a large hand. Even more devastating, she's 17 weeks pregnant. Pray for Ashley and her family right now. Even though my heart breaks for them, I know that God is a powerful and loving God capable of amazing comfort and miracles.