Thursday, April 27, 2006

Is it Friday yet?

This week has been crazy! Somehow, despite open registration (work, work & more work), I'm actually getting things cleared off of my desk. Amazing.

Kellen is being Kellen. He's still learning the consequences of his actions, which he doesn't always like, but hey, that's what growing up is all about.

Come on weekend!

Monday, April 24, 2006

Prayers Needed

Matt's friend is in need of prayers again...It's so hard to understand God's will - and I'm sure that I never will on this one, not until I'm looking God and Jesus in the face and ask them "Why?" Will it matter at that point? I'm referring to his friend that he went to high school with, the one that's been battling cancer now for a couple of years. I guess Matt had a conversation with him today and it seems now that despite undergoing treatment for the last couple of weeks, the tumors are growing and he's going to have to make a decision between quantity and quality of life. As you can well imagine, this is hitting Matt really hard, so please pray not only for Tom and his family, but for Matt as he deals with this and the helplessness that he all feel as we try and understand why good people have to go through rotten things here on this earth.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

All boy

Illustrations to solidify my "all boy" little man...

This is the climbing wall at the birthday party from last weekend that he successfully climbed on his first attempt. At the time that this picture was taken, I have NO idea how many times he had climbed this thing. When he started, he did have socks and shoes on, but after being in the moon jump, it was easier just to keep them off, and he seemed to do just fine without them on this. Go figure. Oddly enough, I wasn't even really worried about him getting hurt on this...am I simply getting numb to the minor injuries at this point in time? Hmmm...

Easter pics...


Then Easter Sunday afternoon when we went and got our wonderful spring pictures (then again...I could be a little biased)

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect setting for which to take these pictures, and for it being as late as it was - Kellen behaved remarkably well! With everything that happened over that weekend, I really appreciate the fact that we were actually able to get these done at all, but Matt knew that I really wanted to do this and we just wanted to spend some time together. Kellen was so entertaining in the car - pointing out all of the sights and "pretty flowers" along the way to our perfect spot.

Easter weekend

Originally attempted to post this on 4.17.06...Will try again today.

Well, it was Easter weekend this last weekend and it was a weird one for us. Matt was off this weekend, but we didn't end up getting to do all of the things that we had originally planned. His MeeMaw passed away on Saturday. It was something that we knew was coming, and is ultimately a good thing, as she is now with Jesus and Pee Paw in heaven. For those of you that don't know, this is the MeeMaw of the MeeMaw & PeePaw that Matt was so close to...the PeePaw that he lost in February of 2000, so this - as you can imagine - is bringing back those memories of his grandparents for him. Please pray for our family and his as we all go through this loss, but rejoice that she is now no longer in pain and is eternally at peace. The viewing is tomorrow afternoon and the funeral is on Wednesday morning, so we may be out of pocket for a few days...for those of you that want to get in touch with us, you probably have our cell phones and can reach us.

Kellen had another birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon (in case I forgot to blog it, which I probably did - he had a birthday party at McDonald's on Thursday evening - and the indoor playground and party room there is GREAT!! - he loved it and loved playing on the slide!). Anyway, this party was an Elmo party...and man-oh-man was this an elaborate party! For a three year old! They had a moon jump, had hired a clown who was doing face painting and then did a magic show and made balloon things for each of the kids, rented a sno cone machine, and had different game stations set up throughout the entire yard...probably a dozen or so. In addition to this, they also had one of those MONDO play-things in their backyard...with the slide, swings, and a rock-climbing wall - one that Kellen successfully climbed on his FIRST attempt. (Oh my...what are we in for??) The owner of the house (after Kellen's second or third climb) came up behind him and watched him...asked how old he was, and almost had to catch his eyes when I told him that he would be 3 in July. I"m guessing it's not made for someone his age???

Anyway, then I realized again just how much of a flirt my little man actually is...there is this cutie pie of a girl in his class named Paiten...(her birthday party was a few weeks ago) went over to the play area where he was about to climb the rock wall again. He turned to her and so politely said, “Paiten help me, please.”

Umm…he had already done this very successfully close to a dozen times…virtually without ANY help, yet he wanted this cutie pie of a girl to “help him, please” with the rock wall. Her reply?

“Ok Kellen. I help you.” Then she proceeded to go into teacher mode and tell him how to go about the wall.

OH MY GOSH! Are you kidding me?

Anyway…so yesterday we went to church, then everyone took Sunday afternoon naps…Oh wow…That was SO nice. They were late and long! We got up and moving, then went for a late afternoon drive to take spring pictures. However, something had happened to Mommy slightly before and during the nap…something called the starting of a spring cold. Anyway, we drove to Navasota, then a little farther in search of the ‘perfect patch’ of wildflowers, heavy on the bluebonnets. We finally found them a little past 7:30 PM, parked and got ready for the pictures. We took some with all combinations of the family…and they really turned out great! I’m so happy about them!

I woke up this morning feeling even worse…and it’s progressing in a downward spiral – YUCK! Kellen and I were eating dinner and I was rubbing my head and mentioned something about not feeling well – he asked me about it and then said that he wanted to kiss it and make it all better; leaned over and kissed my forehead, leaned back, smiled really big and said with a smile, “Now you’re all better!” What a sweetie!

Vick’s vapor rub was my friend last night and he’s been my friend so far this evening. It’s the only way that I can breathe at this point in time…Surely these head colds can’t last that long…I’m just hoping that I’m not growing into allergies.

***

As you might imagine, a lot has happened since last weekend. At the time of this attempted posting, there was a problem with our internet or the blog or something, so I just copied and pasted the message I had written into a word document so I could blog it later...

Will update later...enjoy your weekend all!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Forgot his kiss

So we're trying to get into a routine with the new job, so forgive my lack of posting...Tonight, however, I just couldn't miss this one. Daddy picked Kellen up at daycare and I finished up with my chiropractic appointment, ran to Walgreens for Kellen's contribution snack for the spring party at school tomorrow, beat them home and started a quick supper (I've determined that grilled cheese is a great quick dinner for a "fend for yourself" night, which is what tonight had been deemed). Kellen was just being too cute all night long...just little comments that solidified that he was/is growing up.

However, the clincher came at bedtime...literally 5 minutes ago. It was a tug at the heartstrings & growing up moment - all in one.

After Daddy left for work, Kellen came into the room I was in with some toys and sweetly asked, "Mommy, you want to play with me?"

Oh my goodness...how could a Mommy refuse that sweet and innocent request?

So of course, we went to his room and played blocks, got his special book out (his LeapFrog book that he had a tendency to be a little rough with, so it stays in the closet unless he's supervised with it), and just played, played, played. What a nice time! Such a change from the grump-a-munch of last night and this morning. Whew!

At about 7:30 or 7:35, we go into the bathroom for bath time...he does some business on the potty (still making progress - YEAH!!) and then takes a 10 minute or so bath. Since the bathroom is 95% completed - but at least functional, bathtime is SO MUCH MORE enjoyable now! At about 7:45, it's time to get out of the bath, but he doesn't really want to...he enjoys playing in the bath so much (at least tonight I didn't have to take him out twice to pee pee like last night...but hey, at least he told me that he had to go and pee peed in the potty, right?). I let him sit in the bathtub while the water is draining, and he's watching the water drain, looks at it and says, "The bathtub is really thirsty!"

Kids and their perception...it's just hilarious!

Potty again, then he wants me to hold him like a baby...it's the only time he wants me to do it and I'll still take advantage of it...fingernail grooming (how DO the fingernails & toenails of a child grow that quickly?), then it's on to PJ's, brush teeth, read a book, say blessings (translation: prayers), music on and night, night. As I walk out of the room, he tells me good night and that he loves me...it just makes my heart melt.

I make it down the hallway and then hear a small voice yelling, "Mommy!"

I walk back into his room. "Yes baby. What's wrong?"

"You forgot my kiss."

"Oh ok sweetie. I"m sorry." He's sitting up in his bed at this point in time, he hasn't gotten up, which he knows he is not supposed to do after he's been tucked in. I walk over and give him a kiss and tuck him back in. "Do you want another one?"

"No, that's enough."

See what I mean? Tug at the heartstrings...he didn't want to go to sleep without his kiss from his Mommy...but growing up...he only wanted the one.

"Well," I replied, "I'm going to give you another one anyway." And I leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. Another exchange of 'I love you's' and he was officially down for the night.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Late night

Late night...and all my fault. Kellen went to bed tonight at...wait for it...9:30. YIKES! My appointment ran late this afternoon, so I didn't get to pick him up until about 5:40, then we had to swing back by my office because I forgot some plants that a co-worker had brought for me today for the flower beds that really needed to be planted tonight...made it home by ~ 6:10 or 6:15 to see Daddy only for a little while before he had to go to work. We're living in the house equivalent to Mother Hubbard's cupboard, so we went to Wal-Mart for some of the finishing things for the bathroom...and that took just a little longer than Mommy thought it would. Then on to Kroger (now it's 8:00), and we were back to the house by 8:40, but a quick bath and getting ready for bed...and by this time he was so tired that he was fighting it, not fussing, but..."read me a book, just one more book...I want to play with..." You get the idea...After he was in bed I went outside and planted in the dark...who knows how that will look in the morning! It's a good thing that it's wandering jews and they're supposed to be scattered throughout the flower beds!

I have absolutely NO idea what I'm still doing up at 11:30...I'm trying to be productive but am just exhausted...so I'm going to call it a night.

Monday, April 03, 2006

First night on the new job

So today is Matt's first "real" night at his new job. He went to work two weeks ago, but it was orientation and during the day...tonight is a twelve hour shift and he has to stay awake the WHOLE time...YIKES! He tried to stay up all night last night and sleep today to get his body adjusted and I think that he did a pretty good job of it, so we'll see how it goes. I'm sure that the first night will be the roughest on his body. Then we'll just be in for the rotation of this schedule, which I'm still not quite sure how it works.

Kellen got his finger stuck in the door at daycare today...he saw me arrive at school because they were outside when I got there, so he ran to the door and tried to open it up and was less successful than he had been in the past...it shut on his finger and I just heard this horrible scream! I knew that he was at the door waiting for me, but had no idea what happened...quite honestly, he was standing next to a kid that is somewhat of a tough-guy (I don't want to call him a bully, but he's really rough and we've had incident reports that don't name names, but Kellen can tell me who did what now), so I thought that the kid had done something to him. I ran over to the door and the kid pointed to the door and said that he had hurt his finger in the door and Kellen agreed with him. He told me that he had tried to open the door and that the door had shut on his finger and he couldn't get it out. Poor guy! He didn't seriously hurt anything (no broken bones or even broken skin), but it hurt him for a little while!

A good washing of the hands just in case and we were on our way home to see Daddy before he went to work...

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Happy Birthday!

My love is celebrating his birthday today! We didn't do much celebrating, but I gave him every opportunity. Instead, we drove back from Conroe this afternoon, stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up some landscape mulch for the flower beds that he wanted to work on and get finished, and made our way home. Kellen woke up just a little before we got home and was in a great mood - how nice for us! Matt worked on the flower beds and projects outside, and I did a test wall with the faux finish that was the #2 version for the bathroom - don't ask, but I'll elaborate anyway - I thought that I had the bathroom project finished last week only to realize that Matt (and ok - me neither) really liked the finished product. So I repainted the entire bathroom with two coats of the light color and we decided that I would do a ragging technique using a loofah or possibly a sponge. So anyway - after the test wall, we decided that we liked the loofah look the best and while Matt was working outside, I repainted the test wall, finished up the painting in the bathroom with the areas that I could actually get to...realizing that I unfortunately could NOT get to the small space behind the faucet OR the toilet...smudging ensued in both of those spaces in the most unfortunate of manners - fixable, but unfortunate. After Matt finished - er, took a break, from outside to admire *grin* the bathroom - I wrangled him into taking the faucet out so that I could get to that area...then a short time later after confirming the plumbing details, the back of the toilet was off as well. So...the painting is officially finished!! A big WHOOP on that one!

And...I'm not too proud to admit that Matt was - is - right...it looks great! The finish and technique works good in that bathroom - despite my reservations. I'm a perfections (surprise, surprise) and this is an imperfect technique...can anyone guess why it bothers me and will take me some time to get used to???

To fully complete the bathroom project, we will need to put the faucet & toilet back in working order, put the door back on, put up door trim & molding, pick out & put up a thingy-mi-bob for behind the toilet, get a new shower rod & hanging brackets, light switch cover (sometime in this project the original has been misplaced - hmmm), and just put all of the stuff back in the room....Doable, right? I think everything but the door trim and molding can probably get finished this week....

I'm so happy about the progress with this!!!

Anyway...on to Kellen...he was able to spend all day on Saturday with his MawMaw and I think that they had so much fun! We took Candyland and Memory this time, and he kept asking to play Candyland...he really likes that game! (Note: he actually plays by the rules at home, but I guess things are a little different at MawMaw and PawPaw's house...). He branched out movie-wise and actually watched Hercules and the Little Mermaid - two of my favorites! We got home tonight and he was singing the Hero song from Hercules - it was too adorable - and talking about an octopus, his memory just astounds me. Matt is talking about trying to count his vocabulary this week - his guess was that he was between 200-300 words...I told him good luck and that at one point in time I was writing all of his words down (of course, this was when he was first learning to speak), but stopped after a 6-9 months or so because I just couldn't keep up with how many words he was learning and using!