Can't Believe

I can't believe Caleb is 6 months old tomorrow. The time has flown by and I know it will just keep getting faster and faster. I found myself thinking the other day that having Caleb was the best decision we had ever made...besides deciding to get married of course. What a blessing he is to our lives!

Caleb's First Santa Picture

Here it is!

Our first sick day

Well, Caleb has the Roseola virus and had to stay home from school today. He will probably be out of school for the rest of the week. I stayed home with him today just to make sure that he was ok. I think I handled the day pretty well...until tonight. Chris went to church for a little while tonight, so I was at home with Caleb alone again. I fed him (which is a big ordeal since he doesn't want to eat right now) and tried to put him to bed. He obviously did not want to go to bed though and screamed and cried for around 30 minutes. By the time Chris got home, I was in tears and at my wits end. It was so nice to be able to pass him off and get a break finally.

Since this is Caleb's first big illness (he has had colds, ear infections, etc....no big deal!), I have been a little nervous. Especially since it involves a fairly high fever. I know everything is going to be ok, but it is awful watching him knowing that he is uncomfortable and not being able to do a darn thing about it. I can't wait till he can talk and at least let me know what hurts so I can do something about it. I would do anything to make him feel better, but I just dont know what is the matter at this point.

I am praying that he will feel better tomorrow and that the fever will break. Until then, I'll be one stressed out mom. :)

Where did the dot go?

Ok, so I check the map on the left side of my blog pretty often to see where people are who are looking at my blog. There used to be a big dot around the Colorado area. It is not there anymore. Where did the dot go? I'm very confused.

We've Mastered Rolling

Well, just in the course of the day yesterday, Caleb mastered rolling over from his back to his stomach. He's a rolling fool now! You can barely lay him down and he's already rolled over. The problem is he doesn't like to be on his stomach at all. So in the middle of the night last night he rolled over twice....once at 2 a.m. and once at 4 a.m. And since he refuses to roll back over he just sat there and cried until I came and turned him back over. All I can say is he better decide to roll back over or learn how to sleep on his stomach pretty quick because things could really get out of hand if he keeps this up.

It is truly amazing how fast babies learn things. Once Caleb has done something new, it is like he has totally mastered it and is ready for the next new thing. It won't be long before my baby is getting around all by himself and getting into things. I can't wait till he can crawl or walk because it will open so many new forms of entertainment to him and new ways for us to play with him. My mom says she always was excited about each new step we took as babies and kids, and I am so excited about all of the new things that Caleb is doing and all of the new things that he will learn and experience in the future. He really gets more and more fun all of the time.

Never Thought It Would Happen to Me...

I just went down to play with Caleb after lunch, and while down there I finally saw him roll over from his back to his stomach. He has been doing it since last Friday night, but I just hadn't seen it yet.

The funny (or maybe not so funny) part of the story is that I was playing with him by holding him up in the air above my head. While doing this, he spit up all over my face. I could see it coming at me in slow motion but didn't have time to do anything about it. Then I just froze until someone ran over to take him from me. I probably should have had my mouth closed, but it struck me as so darn funny that I was cracking up. No, it didn't go in my mouth...that would have been gross and not so funny.

I had seen this kind of thing on tv before (America's Funniest Home Videos in the olden days) and didn't think I would think it was funny at all if that happened to me. I guess I was wrong. Though if it had gotten in my mouth, I definitely would not have thought it was funny.

Just another way that I have now been indoctrinated into parenting.

Rearranging Furniture

We are going to get rid of our coffee table in our living room, so Chris decided that it was the perfect time to rearrange our furniture. I am not big on change, but every time I have ever rearranged furniture I decide that I like the new way better. This time was no exception. With no coffee table and with the furniture moved, it looks like there is a lot more room in the living room. I love open spaces, so this makes me happy!

Since we stayed at Chris' brother's house (Hi Marcus & Amanda!!!) over Thanksgiving and saw how clean and un-cluttered their house is, we have been wanting to clean out our house and get rid of a bunch of stuff. We haven't had much time to work on it since Thanksgiving, but maybe during the Christmas holidays we can make some headway on it. I am looking forward to having things clutter-free!

This Year's Christmas Extravaganza!

Each year, I love to go to at least one cool Christmas show. In years past, we have gone to the Amy Grant Christmas concert, the Dallas Symphony's Christmas program, etc. Tonight I am going with my parents to the Radio City Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. I am very excited!

When I went to New York while I was in high school, we got to go to Radio City Hall and take a tour. It was very neat to see it all in person. At the end of the tour we got to meet a Rockette and take pictures with her. Pretty cool. So, when I saw the ads for this show months ago, I knew this was the show that I wanted to go to this year. I can't wait!

Am I just dizzy or did I find a cap in my pants???

So, starting yesterday, I started feeling dizzy and today it was worse. So I went to the doctor this morning. They cleaned out my ears (very impressive how much wax you can store up in your ears) and I am supposed to take Sudafed for fluid behind my ears.
So, anyway, I got back to work here and was sitting at my computer when I felt something in the back of my pants. I reached back to find out what it was, and it was one of the end caps to the light that they look in your ear with. It struck me as really funny that I found one of those in my pants. Pretty funny!

I can't believe it is almost Christmas!

It does not feel like Christmas is around the corner to me this year. I dont know why. Some years I am dying for the Christmas season to get here, and sometimes it sneaks up on me so fast it is unreal. Some years I can't wait to decorate the house, and some years I dont want to even bother. This is a year that I dont want to bother. But I will.

I can't wait till Caleb gets old enough to understand Christmas so we can make crafts and decorate together. That will be so fun! We can take a night or weekend to all decorate together and have hot chocolate or apple cider and snacks while we decorate. It will be fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have just decided this afternoon to leave a day early for El Paso, so we are leaving tonight. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! See you when we get back!

Movie Quotes

You can go to this website to create your own movie quote.

Here are some of mine:

I always say a kiss on the hand might feel very good, but a Stephanie lasts forever.

With great power comes great Stephanie.

Stephanie, for lack of a better word, is good.

This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old Stephanie.

Houston, we have a Stephanie.

Pretty funny!

I Love Turkey

and all of the other Thanksgiving food! What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? Mine is a toss up between turkey and green bean casserole!

Need Some Cookies

Ok, if any RE people are reading this, we are in desperate need of more cookies for Sunday night's Thanksgiving service. I have been calling people this afternoon and no one seems to be able to bring cookies. If you are going to the service and can bring cookies, this is me begging you to bring cookies! Thanks!

I Love a Road Trip

We are leaving in just a little bit to go to College Station for the weekend to visit my brother's girlfriend since she will not be able to see Caleb over Thanksgiving (we are going to El Paso). I absolutely LOVE road trips! I have been so excited all week about going out of town! Next week we are driving to El Paso to spend Thanksgiving with Chris' family, and I am excited about that too (but half way scared of driving that long with Caleb...could get ugly). In just a few minutes I'm outta here and on the road! Woo hoo!

I'm Back

For more reasons than I can think of, I have been so busy lately to where I have had no time to even look at blogs much yet post something on here. Things seem to be getting back to normal though, so hopefully I will have more time to write down my thoughts.

Ok, so things that I have been up to in the past week and a half...

I went to a workshop for work last week which was GREAT! I am so excited to get to use the things that I learned. It will take lots of practice, but it is going to be awesome in the long run!

I have thought for awhile now that I wouldn't be a very good student if I went back to school, but after going to this workshop, I was reminded of how much I really love school. I would much rather be the student and get to learn new things than be the teacher. I simply love to learn new things. There is something extremely exciting to me in learning a new idea, skill, etc.

I dont know if I ever will, but I would like to go back to school and get my masters someday. Not so much to have another degree, but just to learn new things. We'll see.

Unexpected Kindness and a New Friend

Well, a few days ago I posted about someone's rudeness. Today I have a story about someone's unbelievable kindness.

There is a boy that stands across the street from our house every morning waiting for his bus. I've never talked to him before, but he is always there.

This morning as I was walking out to my car with Caleb and all of his "baggage" I noticed that there was a trash can put out (today is trash day), but it was in a different place, so I didn't know if it was ours or the neighbors. Chris normally puts the trash out before he leaves for work on Fridays, so I didn't really think anything about it.

Well, this boy comes across the street and says that he noticed that Chris had already left for work and he didn't want me to have to put out the trash (like I do when I see that Chris has forgotten to put it out -- obviously he has seen me do this before), so he did it for me.

I was completely blown away by the kindness of this boy. It's not everyday that you see this type of random act of kindness...especially from a middle schooler.

I was immediately interested in this boy and wanted to find out more about him. His name is Franklin and I now know where he goes to school and what street he lives on. He said he has a newborn cousin named Caleb and that he has fun with him. I have a feeling this is the start of a new friendship. I never talked to him before, but I will now make a point to say hi to him in the mornings.

I have been wanting more interaction with neighbors, so it is really interesting to me that this young boy made the first step in getting to know us. It made me think on the way to work that I would like to have a street party or something to get to know our neighbors. I miss the old days when you knew everyone on your street.

This little act of kindness has made my morning. It makes me want to go out and do something nice for someone else.

Trunk or Treat

Here is my family at Trunk or Treat. It was so much fun! Even more fun now that we have a kid!

Rudeness...

The other day I was shopping at Hobby Lobby with Caleb (in his stroller). When I was getting in line to pay, Caleb's stroller started acting up, so I started messing with it. I thought it was clear that I was in line already, but this lady (with a ton of stuff in her buggy that needed to be rung up funny) jumped in line ahead of me. Now, I only had like three things, and like I said before I was already clearly in line. This really ticked me off. I wanted to say something to her, but I didn't. I know my body language was probably not really pleasant to her, but oh well.

Now here's the deal...when I am shopping and see someone who has a baby, is elderly, etc. I always do what I need to do to accommodate that other person. I let people in line ahead of me, I hold doors for them....anything I can do to help. So it completely shocked me when this lady was so blatently rude in cutting in front of me in line.

Sometimes things like this tick me off. I used to get really upset about it when it happened and let it really get to me...even for awhile after it happened. I am now to the point where it will tick me off for a second, but then I can get over it really fast.

I hope to be able to teach Caleb how to treat other people. It seems so rare these days for people to just be even courteous of others. I want my children to know how to treat others...not just as they would like to be treated themselves, but even better.

Caleb's Halloween Pictures

At last, here they are!

Halloween Pictures

I get to pick up Caleb's Halloween pictures today. I am so excited!! It's crummy you have to wait 2 weeks to pick them up, but it's worth it.

I was walking through Walmart the other day and saw the cutest Santa outfit for babies. Of course I had to get one! I can't wait to put Caleb in it and take pictures! So much fun!

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Caleb's school had Pumpkin Patch pictures yesterday, so here they are! I had been wanting to take him to a real pumpkin patch for pictures, but with it being cold, spitting up on our warm outfits, and being sick we haven't made it. This will have to do for this year.

For Post's Sake

Wow! I haven't posted on here since Wednesday! I have been so busy lately.

It has really been eating at me lately how busy we are all of the stinkin time! We have something almost every night of the week, every week. I keep trying to find ways to cut back, but it is so hard. When I look back, I can't even remember what we have been doing...where has all of our time gone?

My number one priority now is Caleb and spending time with him. It is frustrating at the end of the day to look back and realize that we didn't even have much time to play with him.

I am so tired of the busy life that we all lead!

Next Blog

If you have clicked on the "Next Blog" button on a Blogger screen, you may have noticed that most of the blogs you see are in other languages. It makes me really wish I could read other languages. Or that I would have at least paid a little more attention in the 4 years of Spanish that I had in high school.

Becky's Great Taco Soup

My friend Becky made some awesome Taco soup last night for LIFE Group! She posted the recipe on her blog, so I thought I would post it on mine also for all my blog readers to take advantage of also. You will love it!!

2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
Then add:
(28 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice
can rotel tomatoes
2 cans ranch style beans,
undrainedcan kernal corn (drained)
packet hidden valley ranch dresing mix
packet taco seasoning mix
1 cup water
16 oz. velveeta

Simmer about 30 minutes. Serve with fritos and sour cream.

You Know that Cute Froggy Footy Outfit...

that Caleb was wearing a few posts ago? Well, he had a blowout in it this weekend, and I have been trying all weekend to get the stains out. It is such a darn cute outfit, and now it may be ruined. Makes me sick. I'm going to keep trying to do everything I can to get the stains out though. Wish me luck!

Car Trouble and a Ride with Daddy

My car wouldn't start this morning. It has only happened a few times, but it is the worst feeling when you get in the car to go to work, and your car does not start. I normally do not build in much extra time into my commute to work (especially now with Caleb...wait, makes me think I should add in extra time since you never know what will happen with him), so when something like this happens, I get worried that I am going to be late to work.

Since my car wasn't working, Chris had to come back home to pick me and Caleb up to take us to church. Even in the midst of being frustrated about my car, it was so nice to have Chris taking us to church.

I love family. I love the feeling that there is someone who is there that cares about you and wants to help you. I love being that person for my other family members. It makes me feel so comforted knowing that I can call my husband or my other family members about anything and that they will jump at the chance to help. This afternoon my dad is picking Caleb and me up from church and is coming over to look at my car.

What would I do without family?

I would go crazy!

My Little Froggy

Caleb has this really cute footy outfit that looks like a frog that he slept in Thursday night. He had been really fussy all evening, and then when it was time to go to bed, he decided he would act adorable, so Chris and I had a few minutes of fun playing with our froggy before he went to bed. Enjoy!

Too Early for This

It is 10 a.m. and my brain is already fried and I have a headache. I have a caffeine free Dr. Pepper with me, but I may have to go get something with caffeine.

Caleb at the Fair

Ok, finally!! Here are the pictures of Caleb at the fair. Not great pictures. Oh well. I can't wait to take even cooler pictures next year with my new camera and when he is old enough to sit up and we can take silly fair pictures.

Interesting fact...over the past few days when I have typed the word fair, I have spelled it fiar every time. How weird is that? I guess my fingers have a mind of their own.

Pictures of Fair

I have been trying to get the pictures uploaded to Blogger, but it isn't working. I'll get the pictures up here as soon as it starts working right.

Clustr Maps

I downloaded the map over on the left side of this page the other day, and it has been interesting to see where all of the people in the world are that are checking out my blog. I saw this on Larry James' blog and thought it was neat, so I thought I would give it a try. When I checked it yesterday, there were just the dots in the US. But today when I looked at it, there were dots in other countries. How cool!

New Camera

This is a picture of our new camera that we got last night. (Lindsay, is it like yours? It has the dial on the top that looks like yours, so I thought it might be the same one.) I am so glad to have a digital camera again! With Caleb growing up so fast, it's been crummy having to deal with a film camera and missing some shots. But now I have a new camera and I can go picture crazy again of my little boy! Hopefully this one will last us longer that a year and a half like my last one did. I'm going to take much better care of it this time though. I've learned my lesson about just throwing it in my purse all of the time.

I still haven't gotten my film camera pictures developed, so as soon as I do, I will post the fair pictures of Caleb on here.

Fair Update

We had a ton of fun at the fair last night, and Caleb was great! It was sensory overload for him, so he stayed awake most of the time and thus was pooped out and slept really well last night. Caleb normally gets pretty fussy around 7:30-8:00 each night, but since there was so much to distract him, he didn't have time to get fussy. Does the state fair have season passes for babies? It's tempting to want to take him every night if he'll be that happy every night!

When I get my pictures developed (I feel so retro saying that I am going to get film developed...my digital camera is broken right now) , I will scan one and post it on here. We got a picture of Caleb with Big Tex, so hopefully it turned out good. I was going to take fun baby pictures all over the fair, but my retro film camera's battery went out. Bummer.

Peace out! (Dedicated to Chris!)

Goin' to the Fair

My parents and I are going to the fair tonight...and we're taking Caleb along for the ride! We'll have to take lots of pictures of his first fair experience...sitting in a car, petting animals in the petting zoo, riding the ferris wheel, eating a corny dog...all of the fun fair things! Actually three months old is a little young for all that, but he will get to ride around to see all of the sights. It should be a lovely cool evening for the fair. I am looking forward to it!

What is the deal?

I have had a cold or have felt bad for over a month now. I am really looking forward to the day that I do not have to get up with Caleb for a feeding in the middle of the night anymore. It is completely wearing me out. I used to never be sick at all, but now that I am so stinkin' tired all of the time, I just can't stay well.

Caleb has slept great...sometimes sleeping from 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., but this week things have changed. All of a sudden he is waking up multiple times during the night which he never used to do. A book I have says to wean babies from the pacifier by 4 months, but right now that is the only thing that will get him back to sleep at night. I worry that this is going to be a problem and that he is going to keep this up for awhile.

Any suggestions from the moms out there?

Songs I Sing to Caleb

• ABC's
• Row Row Row Your Boat
• Jesus Loves Me
• Jesus Loves the Little Children
• I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart
• The B-I-B-L-E
• Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Halleluiah; Praise Ye The Lord!
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I know
• I Love you Lord
• Seek Ye First
• Majesty
• I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N
• Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords, Lord of all the Earth; Singing Halleluiah, Halleluiah
• Do You Know the Muffin Man
• London Bridge
• Yankee Doodle
  
  That is a pretty good list of what we sing. I know there are at least a few more that we sing as well as songs I have made up about Caleb. I also like to count for him and do math problems. He is going to be such a dork! :) Just look at his mom and dad...he doesn't stand a chance of being cool! hehe

Songs from Childhood

Each day as I am taking Caleb to school and then going home in the afternoon, I sing him songs from my childhood. I want Caleb to not only know the songs from his generation, but from my generation and generations of the past also. I am always trying to think of new songs to sing that I may have forgotten all about.

What songs do you remember singing as a child? Church songs? Traditional songs?

Thanks for your help!

That Darn Blogger!

I have been trying to change the look of my blog so that it isn't just a normal looking blog. What I dont get is why Blogger has to make things so hard. You would think when you set up the blog, it would just ask you questions about what color, font, size, background color, etc. you want and then just do it for you. But nooooo! It has to make you go into the html code in order to change it.

I have a book here on html code that I have pretty much read, so that has been helpful, but it is still like finding a needle in a haystack to try to find the certain line/word, etc. that you want to change.

But am I going to give up? No Way Jose! I am going to master this thing someday. Just one step at a time.

It Breaks My Heart...

about the Amish girls that were shot yesterday. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around this seemingly senseless act of horrific violence. There have been so many of these sorts of incidents lately...so many that president Bush and the government are starting to question what can be done about this sort of thing. I can't imagine how anyone could mistreat kids, so this kind of thing is completely unthinkable. I pray for our great country. May God be with us all.

That Drives Me Nuts!

Some of my fellow blog friends have been writing about things that drive them crazy this week. I couldn't think of anything that really drove me nuts (excpet the elevator thing, Rachel. That gets me every time!) , but I just remembered something:

When I am walking and someone is coming towards me, I always smile or say hi to acknowledge the person. What drives me nuts is when the person coming toward me acts like they don't see you and does not acknowledge you at all. Now, I understand if you are busy with something or talking or if there is a crowd around, but when there is just me and the other person in the hall it feels so uncomfortable to smile at the person or say hi and not even be acknowledged at all.

I guess people may be deep in thought and just may not realize what is happening, but it seems like common courtesy to acknowledge the other person coming toward you. It always makes me feel like I am invisible when things like this happen.

Does this bother anyone else, or is it just me? :)

Yesterday was a normal day until...

I picked up the phone at work, and the man on the phone asked me if I knew where Byron Nelson's funeral was. Now, I get strange calls and questions at work pretty often, but this one made me laugh. If I hadn't looked at the Dallas Morning News' website a little bit before this call, I would have thought it was a prank call, but since I had already heard about Mr. Nelson passing away it didn't phase me much. I still dont get why this person just called a random church asking where and when the funeral was. Luckily Richland Hills had the information on their website, and I was able to pull up the information quickly. How strange!

Aren't I Cute?

I couldn't think of anything to write, so I thought I would post some pictures of my boys!

I've Seen it All

One day as I was driving to work, I looked over at the car next to me, and the woman in the car was eating corn on the cob. Who eats corn on the cob in their car?!

What strange things have you seen people do in their car?

Here I am world!

Well, I finally decided to start a blog. I have always enjoyed writing, and after reading other peoples' blogs for a little over a year, I thought I would bite the bullet and start blogging myself. I feel that this will be a good way to reflect on the things that happen throughout my day and life.

We finally have a weekend where not much is going on. We are going to go to the Marriage Seminar at church on Sat., but besides that, we do not have much. I feel some much needed naps coming on!

Caleb slept 8 hours last night and probably would have slept longer, but I had to wake him up to eat. Woo hoo! I am so lucky to have a baby that sleeps great!

Well, this is a boring first post, but I'll add something later if anything more exciting comes up.