A Great Weekend So Far

Man, have we had a good weekend so far. Chris blogged about today being a great day, and that got me thinking that I have had a great weekend so far.

Last night, we went to Mesquite and joined my parents for dinner at Pizza Getti in Dallas. Pizza Getti is the best pizza ever! My dad grew up going there, so it is special to our family. But if you like pizza, you will love this place!! It is a little whole-in-the-wall place (which are normally the best places to got eat). It is on Buckner Rd. in Dallas, so look it up and go!

Then after dinner, we went back and watched some of Casey's church videos that he makes and are really funny! He does such a good job on them. Then we watched three episodes of 24 that we record to watch with mom and dad. It took my awhile to wrestle the alligator (Caleb) to sleep on the couch, but I finally got him down.

Then this morning, we went to the Predisan walk. It was so much fun! It was great weather, and it was so nice talking to people that I don't normally get the chance to talk to that often. Oh, and I also won two serving dishes in the silent auction, so that was exciting too!

Then we (Chris, Caleb and me) went for lunch at San Francisco Oven. We sat outside and enjoyed the great weather, the atmosphere and just being with each other.

Next we went on a big grocery trip to stock up on things since we hadn't been on a big store run in a long time.

Then I took a nap with Caleb this afternoon after we got home, and after we got up we cleaned an old bookshelf that we got from Chris' grandfather's house and then loaded our books into it.

Tonight, Chris made dinner and we've spent time playing around the house.

Tomorrow is church and the chocolate festival at church. What's not to love about this weekend!!

A Temptation Too Great

There is now a big deal of candy corn in the church office...one of my favorite candies ever! The temptation is too great to bear!

So if you come to church and only see a container of peanuts and no candy corn in the office, you know where it went.

Want to Go for a Walk?

Come to the Walk for Predisan tomorrow morning at Naaman Forest High School. Registration starts at 8 AM or you can register online here, and the walk starts at 9 AM. It is $20 to register. It should be lots of fun, so come and walk!

The Office Season Premiere

Okay, so if you watched The Office last night, tell me what you thought were the funniest moments.

Here are some we've talked about in the church office this morning:

• When Dwight kills Angela's cat by sticking it in the freezer.
• When Michael carbo-loads before the race.
• When the race ends 5K away from the office.
• When Kevin is talking about the fact that Jim & Pam must be dating.
• When Michael hits Meredith with his car.

The list could go on and on, so keep it coming! Let's hear what you liked about the new episode!

A Must Try!

If you haven't tried Claussen's Kosher Dill Pickles, you need to go right now and get some! They are totally delicious, and just thinking about them is making my mouth water right now!

My mom always bought these when I was a kid, and I couldn't find them in our Kroger until a few weeks ago.

They are in the deli/refrigerated section of the store, so they are not on the pickle aisle. Because they are kept in the deli section and thus do not have all of the preservatives that other pickles have, they are very fresh and crisp and have a wonderful flavor.

So I recommend picking some up today! I only have one left at home, so I need to get more too!

Just a Quick Poll

How many of your fathers made you listen to Ray Stevens songs as a child? Mine sure did.

And then he gave me a cd of his greatest hits a few Christmases ago which we actually listen to sometimes! I have to admit, they are pretty funny. And it's fun remembering my dad getting a kick out of them when I was a kid (or recently!)

My Recent Purchases from Craigslist

This is the slide that I bought for Caleb on Friday night. I decided it was time to get some fun stuff for the backyard so that we could spend some time out there. I got this for really, really cheap, and it looks great! It was $100 off the normal price! So excited!!

Then I got this picnic table on Saturday morning. It'll be fun to have over the years. I would love to have people over when the weather is cooler and have cookouts, parties, etc. and Caleb will have his own cool table!

Caleb's First Trip to the ER

Saturday was an extremely busy day for us.

I had a flute lesson from 9-10:30. Then I drove to McKinney to pick up a child size picnic table. Then almost as soon as I got home, Chris was going to take Caleb upstairs to take a nap. Chris was holding his hand (and Caleb was laughing his head off). Then Caleb decided to sit down all of a sudden (which he started doing this last week a whole lot) and Chris felt something in Caleb's arm pop. Caleb starting crying immediately.

So we quickly packed everything up to take him to the doctor.

We went to Care Now first...they had a 3 1/2 hour wait.

Then we went to PrimaCare...they had a 2 hour wait and told me to just take him to the ER.

So, off to the Richardson Regional ER we went.

He wound up having Nursemaid Elbow - where the elbow becomes dislocated. It took them a long time to be able to get it back in, and we wound up having to have x-rays done to make sure what the deal was since it wasn't going back in.

They were about to put a sling on his arm, but then he started moving it a little so we didn't have to.

Poor Caleb was still in pain yesterday morning and didn't want to move it. By last night he was using it like normal and wrestling in the floor with me like normal. This morning, he didn't use it at first, but within about 15 minutes of him waking up, he was using it fine.

It is such a miserable feeling when your kid is hurt and you can't do anything about it. I hope we don't have anymore visits to the ER with him, but I have a feeling that we probably will.

More Random Thoughts

• Isn't it interesting that there are some buildings where restaurants, businesses, etc. just can't make it? I know there are plenty of buildings in Mesquite (where I grew up) that seemed like they would be decent locations for restaurants, but nothing could ever stay open there. This aways has baffled me. Is it just because people know that nothing can ever make it there...so they don't ever go? Weird.
• Well, the other day, I was telling Lindsay that Caleb doesn't throw any fits. I should never say things like that because this week, guess what! He started throwing fits! He throws a fit when I put him in the car (crying, screaming, trying to scooch out of the seat, flailing legs...the whole bit). Then there have been numerous times over the last few days that he refuses to stand up. He does the limp leg bit. He just wants to lay on the ground and fuss. Maybe this is the terrible two's stage a little early. Hopefully it is just a stage. :)
• I have grown to love Craigslist over the past few days. I went to Kid to Kid on Monday looking for some backyard climbers, slides, etc. but they didn't have any. I ran into a friend that I grew up going to church with (how strange is it to see people that you haven't seen in forever...to recognize them...and the fact that you saw them no where near where you used to live) and she told me that probably my best bet for something that specific would be to look on craigslist. So I did. I have emailed a few different people, and they had already sold the items, but I finally found one that still had it. I am going over there this afternoon when I leave work to look at it and probably buy it. I can't wait for Caleb to have something to climb around on in the backyard! We never spend time out there, but I am ready to now that it is getting cooler out in the evenings. I also have sent an email to someone about a kids' picnic table for the backyard too. Keep your fingers crossed that they haven't sold it yet! The way I figure it, Caleb isn't going to use this stuff for an extremely long time (like a big swingset later), so I don't want to spend an arm and a leg for this stuff. The stuff I'm looking at is REALLY, REALLY cheap, so that makes it even more exciting! So, yay for www.craigslist.com!!!

Random Thoughts

• I can't tell you how relieved I am to know that I'm not the only one who is crummy at doing laundry and who leaves laundry laying on a couch or chair for extended amounts of time. Now, I'm not proud of this one bit. I am really ashamed of myself that I do this, but I've been going around thinking that I am the only one in the world that does this for the past 4 1/2 years of marriage. Now that I know that I'm not the only one, I feel so much better about myself!
• I'm trying to drum up business for RETOOL at church tomorrow night but specifically the Fit Kids class. I encourage everyone to come, and if you want to be cool like me, come to Fit Kids!
• Is anyone else totally jazzed up about The Office starting back up? I can't wait!
• Ok, when I think of more, I'll post them on here. For now, that's all.

Comic Relief

Yesterday afternoon, I was a little stressed. I had had a really busy day and I had a bunch to do before book club and things on my mind.

As Caleb and I were driving home, I was handing him cookies since he is normally starving and extremely thirsty when I pick him up. I had already handed him a few cookies which he had quickly eaten. So as I was handing him another cookie, he kicked my hand and the cookie went flying across the backseat of the car. It looked really impressive how far it went for a little kick.

All of a sudden, Caleb started cracking up laughing...which made me start cracking up laughing. So there we were...cracking up laughing together! Then every time I looked back at him, he start cracking up again.

It was such a great moment and made me immediately feel better. Kids are so great!

Reading Update

Well, I finished the book last night! Halleluiah!

I started it on Saturday night and read about half of it, continued reading some during Caleb's nap time, and then finished it last night.

Now I'm ready to start another book that I borrowed from Becky.

I always have a large stack of books that I am wanting to read. It's interesting how the order of this stack changes all of the time. I can plan on reading the next book in line, but then I can find another one that I want to read first.

Man, don't you just LOVE books!

Gone Are The Days...

That I can spend all weekend reading a book that I have to read at the last minute. Yep, book club girls, I haven't touched the book yet, and I still have to finish We Were the Mulvaney's before I can start the new book.

I used to could just sit around and read all day or all weekend if I wanted. But now with Caleb, those days are looong gone. The only time I can read is when he is asleep, so that means not much sleep for me (and you all know how much I LOVE sleep!)

So, ready, set, GO on the reading this weekend!

Things Caleb Will Eat Now

Part of me feels dumb for being excited about this because my kid should have been eating "people food" a whole lot earlier than he was. But then the other part of me is jumping for joy with every small success we have! Go Caleb!

Here is what he will eat now:
Whole Green Beans
Chicken Fingers/Nuggets
Corn
Chicken spaghetti (at school yesterday)
Muffins
Cookies
Crackers
Thick mashed potatoes
Waffles

The list is still small, but it is HUGE compared to what he used to eat (a week ago)!

How to Get a 1 Yr Old to Sit Still in Church Service

Feed him/her as many cookies and juice as he/she wants.

Most of you know this already, but I'm so serious...it works! Caleb kept a cookie in his mouth pretty much the whole time at church last night. There were a few breaks for juice. It made for a nice evening of not worrying about chasing him around the church or worrying about him screaming in the middle of the service.

So next Wednesday night, we'll pack more cookies!

Random Pictures

Caleb and "Pops" hanging out at Dairy Queen eating ice cream together...their favorite thing to do together.

Another ice cream shot. Caleb is savoring the sugary, creaminess.
Yes!!! We finally got this rotten kid to eat something this weekend! First a green bean and then a chicken finger on Sunday at lunch. You would have thought he won the nobel prize for all of the celebrating we have done!
This is my new dress. When I saw it in an ad, I knew it was meant for me. It is my #1 favorite dress right now!

How Caleb Gets New Clothes

This all happened last Friday night....

3:45 - drink a sippy cup of juice on the way home from school

4:30 - drink a 6 oz. bottle of milk

6:00 - at dinner, drink a kid's cup of fruit punch

6:45 - mom and dad get up to leave dinner and realize Caleb is soaked

6:50 - in the car, strip Caleb down and realize we don't have any more clothes in his bag (he had to use the extra clothes at school today)

6:52 - mom and dad discuss - "Well, we need to go to Walmart anyway, which is just across the street to get Pit Stop stuff. I know, why don't I go in and get him a new outfit and then we can go in and shop for Pit Stop stuff."

Then mom finds a super cute basketball outfit in Walmart with mesh shorts and also wind pants to go along with it.

That is how Caleb got new clothes on Friday night.

Emails From Dad

When I was in college, my dad would send me the silliest emails. I really, really wish I had printed them out so that I could look back on them and have a copy for blackmail purposes!

My dad started signing out of all of his emails like "Loves ya bunges." He always has to have a different way of doing things. :)

Then there was one email where the whole thing went like this:

I went to the store. Yeah, I did. I got some grapes. Yeah, I did. I think I'm going to mow the lawn. Yeah, I do. etc, etc, etc.

It had me cracking up for a good while. I know there were many, many other silly emails, but I just don't remember how they all went. So, I wish I would have printed them out so that I could look back and laugh.

And I look forward to the day when Caleb is off at college (well, really I don't) and I can send him silly emails to make him laugh too! And I'm sure "Pops" will be sending him silly emails too!

High School Musical

I watched both of the movies the weekend the second movie came out because I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

Chris and I just watched both of them the past few nights again since he hadn't seen them yet.

Here's my question: which movie did you like (or think was) better if you saw them?

Chris and I discussed them last night and pointed out the good qualities of both. I like the second movie better because it is more high-impact, more group dancing, and the dancing seems better than the first. I have heard from some people that they liked the first one better though.

What do you think?

Great Tunes

Last night as I was running, I was listening to my mp3 player. Awhile back I went through all of my old cds and put all the songs on there that had upbeat tempos that would be good to run to. I haven't reached the end of the songs on there yet. But last night, I got to the Jars of Clay songs.

Now, these are cds from when I was in middle school and high school, but the music on those cds are GREAT! While running, I was singing my head off (while huffing and puffing). I think the lyrics of their songs are so great, and the music and harmonies seem genius to me. It even got me thinking about writing music again (not that I've written any, but I've thought about it before).

I'm not sure if I like these songs so much just because I knew them way back when, or if I heard them now for the first time I would like them just as much. But all I know is that I had a blast last night running to some of my old favorites.

It made it a good run.