Who Needs the Great Outdoors?

This is a terribly embarrassing indictment against my housekeeping skills but I will put aside my shame to share with you the epic battle I witnessed tonight. Yes, we have called an exterminator and no, they have not come out yet.

Let us set the scene.

It is late at night. Nearing midnight. A young woman is in her powder room, doing those things that young women do in their powder rooms. She spies a tiny spider hanging out in the corner and takes a piece of tissue to swipe it and its web away and into the waste paper bin.

But wait! Something interesting is unfolding on the cold, hard floor of young woman's powder room. She crouches nearby for a better view.

A small ant has dared to wander beneath spider's web and in the blink of an eye is tied and dragged helplessly into the sticky lair. The threads of the web are so fine as to be invisible to young woman but they are strong enough to render ant, who can carry 20 times his body weight, unable to escape.

Spider moves swiftly to ant's side and her thin legs move in a graceful dance as she wraps ant in yet more invisible webbing to seal his fate. Ant struggles, frantically waves his tiny legs and antennae, and lunges his lower body towards his nemesis. Spider continues to work calmly until one lunge ends perilously close and she jumps out of the way.

Young woman cannot determine if spider has been stung or simply startled. Spider, now a bit gun shy, waits a few moments as ant perseveres in his labors, then cautiously makes her way back to her prey. Spider deftly resumes the task of securing her next meal.

Just as it looks as though all is lost for little ant he surges again with stinger aimed directly for spider. This time ant hits his target. Spider falls to the floor in a ball.

Young woman feels a bit sad. She silently urges spider to be all right.

Ant writhes pitifully in the web. Young woman feels that it is not fair for both spider and ant to die. She considers knocking down the web so ant may survive, but he is so hopelessly entangled she lacks hope that act of mercy would allow him to walk free. Young woman sighs, regretting the loss of spider and ant.

But the battle is not over. Ant has not yet resigned his will to live. He flails about, curls in a ball then stretches long. Young woman is fascinated by ant's tenacity. She begins to silently cheer for ant. You can do it!

Slowly, painfully, ant makes progress. He can now move all of his legs, though his abdomen is still tightly lashed to the indiscernible, yet powerful web. More writhing and twisting ensues.

By and by, young woman notices that spider is silently uncurling herself underneath the web, which is shaking with ant's exertion. Spider delicately alights upon her carefully crafted, invisible netting and pauses a bit away from ant, as though considering her approach.

Suddenly there is a breakthrough. Ant has miraculously almost worked his way to freedom. He dangles upside down by a thread, not quite able to reach the floor. Spider begins her delicate and agile approach.

"Look out ant! Spider is coming!" warns the young woman.

Spider works her way down the web towards ant. Ant swings below, extending fully in a futile attempt to grasp something, anything.

As spider slips nearer, closing in, young woman's heart swells with compassion for ant who has struggled so heroically.

Young woman cannot stand for ant to be captured again. She takes a breath and blows gently.

Spider is knocked back into her web. Ant drops to the floor and scurries away.

The battle is over.

Young woman congratulates the ant, warns him to not return this way and wishes spider a better outcome next time.

Young woman stretches her back and ponders what she has witnessed. Surely there is a meaningful lesson to be gleaned from the lowly scene that unfolded in the corner of the powder room. Maybe something about sin that so easily entangles?

Alas, it is too late for such contemplations tonight. Maybe tomorrow.


True story. Seriously, there I was, nearly five months pregnant, hunkered down on the bathroom floor at midnight, whooping it up for an ant.

Next time I'd rather experience such wonder at God's creation outside of my house. Like, in the woods or at the zoo maybe. Not in my bathroom. It's just not proper.

The Saga Continues

Well, the fridge is out again. This time we made is a whole six days from "repair" to breakdown. To keep the milk chilled we've upgraded from the Igloo to this lovely mini-fridge. Thank you Marc and Trisha!

Mr. Sears Manager Guy has kindly offered to allow us to return the lemon of an appliance for a 15% restocking fee plus the cost of pick-up (unless we deliver it to the store ourselves).

I think we're gonna' have to work on those terms a little.

Summer Fun

Friday my sweet friend Tricia and her almost-one-year-old, Elliott, came to visit from Fort Worth and we all had a great time together.

Tricia and I have been friends since middle school. I clearly remember dreaming together about growing up, getting married and having babies. We had big plans to live on the same street and for our kids to play together and for our sons and daughters to get married so we could be related. I can't believe we are already those "grown ups" (I use the term loosely because I don't feel that it describes me well) we talked about!

**so I have some pictures of Trish and I in middle school but my new scanner isn't working. Grr!**

One specific part of our junior high day-dreaming did come true. She married her sweetheart David, the guy she dated since eighth grade. All together now: "Awww!"

Back to Friday. We prepared a picnic lunch and then we headed to Celebration Park for some fun in the sun. The little ones were both thrilled as soon as we arrived at the park, in awe of the bright colors, splashing water and all the big kids running and playing. We found a shady spot to eat and then headed into the spray park. Little Elliott was a bit more brave than Bennett. He was quick to try out his brand new walking abilities and toddle right into the water.



Bennett was content to keep a slight distance and watch everyone else. He got a little wet but did not get a kick out of water spraying into his face. He was quite delighted with the playground though and wore me out running all over, up and down.





The boys ran us ragged and we went back home. They still had energy left so we let them play for a while before baths and naps. It was so fun to watch them together. Tricia and I kept telling them that they are going to have to like each other because we've been friends for sixteen years now and plan to keep it up for a long time.




Tricia's husband David took the train in from FW after work to join us for dinner. The dads played with the little ones until bedtime while Tricia and I worked up a delish meal. Glazed pork chops, roasted asparagus, grilled corn on the cob and fresh bred. Yummy!


It was such a blast to hang out with this awesome couple. We enjoyed our food, wine (well, Dr. Pepper for me), and a pleasant evening breeze on the front porch. Jeff and I say that our favorite times are spent having good conversations over nice, long dinners. And last night was no disappointment! I wish we could spend time with these dear friends more often. They are so precious to us.

Thank you so much for making the trip out to visit with us Welches. We love you!

For Our First Course This Evening...

Green Crayon. Yummy!

I know that with the fridge being out we're hurting a little on snack options...but it didn't have to come to this. Silly boy.

"This doesn't taste so good."

I tried to get a picture of him smiling to show the bits of green wax all in his teeth.

I know this one is blurry...but I just adore that mischievous little grin.

Refrigerator Woes

I spent my morning hanging out at home waiting for the refrigerator repair man.

Again.

This is the fourth "service visit" in two months. And we have another one coming soon because he had to order a new part before this repair could be completed.

So it's looking like we'll be living it up camp-site style by keeping our meager rations chilled in a large Igloo cooler for a few more days. If anyone is counting that will be a full week of no fridge by the time it gets fixed. Sweet.


Jeff and I feel quite confident that we deserve a replacement refrigerator. This one was bought new at the Sears Outlet just seven short months ago. For the past two months it has performed adequately a little more than half the time.

After multiple calls to customer service, the replacement department, and the outlet store itself we were finally able to talk to the person who allegedly could make the decision to give us a new fridge.

Jeff had an enlightening conversation with the store manager who said that as long as the appliance is repairable they will not replace it. The person who makes this decision is the technician (aka the repair man). Mr. Manager soon followed with the statement that "if the technician says he isn't able to repair it then he is lying".

Awesome!

So we have a little pattern that goes something like this: repair, cold fridge for a week or two, warm fridge, spoiled food, call for a repair, wait a week, repair again. And we can repeat this indefinitely!

That's pretty much Mr. Manager's plan. Too bad that doesn't work for us.

Now Jeff and I are very easy going, go-with-the-flow people. We don't like to cause trouble. But it looks like we're gonna' have to throw a fit to get what we deserve. I just hate that.

Why can't they see that they sold us a lemon and the right thing to do is exchange it for an appliance that will work for longer than a few months?

Any advice for getting our way while being nice? Or is it time to take off the gloves?

The Time Has Come

I believe it is time to give in to the elastic waist pants.

Better Than Coffee

We were outside this morning waiting for Jeff's ride to work. I just found there was something irresistibly precious about a little boy in pjs and his daddy's baseball cap.

So I thought I would share these sweet moments of simple happiness.

This little boy has brought a joy to the morning hours that my "I'll just hit snooze one more time" self never imagined could have existed. Who knew there was any fun to be had in the world before noon?

Oh Thank Heaven...

My sweet husband alerted me to the fact that 7-11 is giving away free Slurpees in recognition of today's date.

Whoo-hoo! If you know me at all then you know that I love Slurpees and I love FREE!

I decided to run the risk of my frozen waffles defrosting in the back seat in order to stop by and let Bennett enjoy his very first Slurpee.




This is how he reacted to his treat being "all gone". I had to tell him that it's okay...Mommy feels that way sometimes too.

Goodbye Old Friend

She doesn't look too bad from these pictures, but don't let that fool you. My old Grand Prix had all but given up on her life in the fast lane. Sure, we could have shelled out a couple thousand dollars to get her back in shape (only about $1300 more than the Kelly Blue Book estimated value) but she had recently signed a DNR and we must respect her wishes.

She was pushing 180,000 miles, battle scarred and weary so I kissed her goodbye on a fair, summer morning.

You served me well over the last eight years old, red girl. You will be remembered fondly.

Independence Day

We spent most of the 4th of July at home being supremely lazy.

How lazy?

Let's just say that no one was dressed before noon and we each managed to squeeze more than one nap into our schedule. It was glorious.

Around four I decided we absolutely must do something festive. We missed our community's Fourth celebration since it took place last weekend (and really, who was prepared for that kind of crazy scheduling?) so we made the short drive to McKinney for Red, White and BOOM.

There was a lot going on at Craig Ranch. Musical performances, concessions of all variety of artery-clogging delightfulness, pony rides, face painting, potato-sack races and inflatable games were a few of the attractions.

We were not to be deterred by the menacing skies.



So we strolled around, listening to the music and letting Bennett jump, pet and run free to his little heart's conent. At about the third announcement of impending doom imminent bad weather we decided to head back to take cover in the car and hope the storm passed quickly.




We took our over-priced corn dog and Dippin' Dots to the car to wait. And wait. And wait some more for the storm that never came. I'm happy we didn't leave because there was more fun to be had. Big slides! Rearranging cones in the race area! Cheering for every child in the sack races! Checking out police motorcycles!





It was a busy evening. It would have been fun to stay for the fireworks but I just don't think B Boy would have made it to 9:30 without protest. We stopped for a Slurpee on the way home, a decent substitute for the snow cones we were craving since "our" snow cone stand was closed.

With the little one snoozing away in bed we were able to see three or four fireworks displays from right out in front of our house. It was lovely!

I hope you all enjoyed a fantastic Fourth and remember to thank God for all the freedoms we have!

15 Months and 15 Weeks

Bennett had his fifteen month pediatrician visit Wednesday. We are seeing a new pediatrician in Allen for the first time. I had planned ahead to arrive early to fill out the necessary paperwork but still ended up being a bit late as it took me thirty minutes to find the stinking office that is about three miles from our house. Once I finally arrived in the correct building of the right medical facility I found the staff and the pediatrician to be very patient, friendly and willing to answer all my questions. I think we've found a keeper! Dr. C said my B Boy is "perfect". I happen to agree!

He also stated multiple times that Bennett seems to be a very "busy" boy. My child was intent on exploring every corner of the office - swinging the hinged trash can cover, pushing the doctor's stool around, climbing on chairs, opening the door and whining to be lifted up so he could play with the light switch.

Stats for those who might be interested are as follows:
hight - 33.5 in (95%)
weight - 27.2 lbs (80%)
head - 19 in (77%)

Two shots were administered about an hour after nap time should have started (great planning on Mom's part) and the little one was less than thrilled. When he's tired even the smallest injustice is enough to cause a meltdown so the shots were enough to bring about quite a sad display. He settled down by the time we paid and even enjoyed checking out the waterfall, flowers and rocks outside the office. With a little Motrin and long nap he should be good as new.



We also had an appointment to check in on Baby Dos this week. It was one of the "quick" prenatal visits where you spend more time in the waiting room than in the exam room. Everything seems to be going well! Baby's heartbeat was going strong at 157 beats per minute and my blood pressure was great.


I've lost a couple more pounds (down a total of five or so) which was a surprise to me since my belly is definitely growing and I'm not puking nearly as much as I did with Bennett. I guess this time the nausea is still enough to keep me from eating quite like I should. Dr. H didn't seem concerned at all and I'm sure I'll be on my way back up by next month. My energy level has increased a lot over the past couple of weeks so if my tummy would settle down I should be back to normal. I look forward to that!

Our next visit is July 31 and we get to see our little one! I'm so excited! At that appointment we will be able to find out the sex if we want. We're still saying we're going to wait, but I have to admit I'm more tempted to find out than I was with the first pregnancy. I have much fewer preparations to make for this one as we already have everything we need and the nursery is ready to go so knowing the sex won't make a big difference in my shopping list. But for some reason I'm just so curious!

Don't get your hopes up though. We'll more than likely stay strong and wait for the delivery room announcement.

Pray

My sweet friend Haley, mom of three little ones, has been feeling very unwell lately. She has visited lots of doctors the past couple of weeks and they have discovered a mass on her heart. She will be having more tests done tomorrow to determine more about the mass. It is looking as though heart surgery is likely with a long recovery time required (at least five weeks of not being allowed to be primary caregiver to her children).

Please pray for peace for the Thomas family, healing for her heart and wisdom for the doctors. They have a wonderful group of friends and family around that love them and will do all they can to provide any support needed.

They have begun a blog if you are interested in reading more about Haley's situation.

Your prayers are much appreciated!