New adventures in growing up

When M had her three-year-old check-up a month ago, I learned that apparently three-year-olds have to get bloodwork and urine testing done for some reason or another. After experiencing a flu shot with my very aware child, I was not thrilled at the prospect of hauling her to a lab on a later date to let her be poked and prodded again. So I did what any responsible mother would do...

...I scheduled the labwork for her daddy's Thanksgiving vacation week so HE could take her!

I kid, but it was really his pleasure to be there for M today. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

We didn't tell her anything about it until this morning, and J was the one who set it up for her as she got ready to leave with him. I was in awe--he did a fabulous job with his choice of words. She really understood what was going to happen, and she left completely at ease! I am so thankful for a husband who has so much background and training in relating to children. It sure does come in handy!

About 15 minutes after their appointment time, I got a call on my cell phone. J reported that M was a CHAMP! She didn't shed a tear and even watched the nurse take the blood sample (She takes after her mama like that--I would have watched my own c-sections if they would have let me!). She got to sit on J's lap and he tried to block her view, but she was craning to see around him.

He took her to lunch at the place of her choice, and first she picked Red Lobster. Then she changed her mind, citing that Red Lobster was for big ladies. (?) She told J she wanted to eat where the cowboys eat (Or Cowboys, as in the NFL team? She didn't specify). McDonald's. So at McDonald's they dined and played.

While they were out and Rosie was napping, I whipped up these beauties to celebrate my brave girl:

Though J was on to me--he pointed out that they were probably just as much for me! And he's right, though. I earned those cupcakes worrying about this day for weeks!

Pausing from the cupcake gobbling for a photo.

I asked M to show me her boo-boo so I could get a picture. She had a Daffy Duck bandage! And of course, Daddy's always there to kiss it and make it all better. :0)

Anniversary fun

This was date night weekend for us. We were giddy--what a way to kick off J's weeklong holiday from school! We were celebrating our seven-year anniversary, which was Monday, November 17. (Which is also J's dad's birthday--happy birthday, Papaw Dees!)

We loaded up the girls late in the afternoon around naptime so they'd sleep in the car. It was chilly, so I let M wear her winter warmies, which she loves. How cute is she?!

It didn't take them long to conk out on the hourlong drive to Mama Landa's house!

(Excuse the poor girl's hair...we're trying to grow out her bangs, and in the meantime we're keeping them pinned back in a barrette. When she's not wearing the barrette, I feel like the worst mom ever--it looks like we never cut her hair!)

We dropped the girls off quickly (they have three cats at their house and I'm crazy-allergic, which means turbo trips in and out) and headed off on our weekend of fun.

First stop? Cheesecake Factory at NorthPark for dinner. Where else?!

What did I eat? Renee's Special. What else would I order?! HAHA!

I did live on the edge in my dessert choice, however. I chose the brownie sundae cheesecake, which is so unlike me!

After dinner, we walked to Barnes and Noble because we still had some time before doors at the concert. How lovely to leisurely browse! Of course, I found myself in the children's books section and found a million books I wanted to get for my girls. There are just so many neat children's books out there!

We headed off to House of Blues for our very first experience there. It was a nice venue! We loved it because it's non-smoking, and there's interesting folk art to look at everywhere.

In the Concert Hall, the theme was, well, different. The stage is framed like this:

Symbols of the major faiths, and in the center a big symbol with the phrase "Who do you love? Unity in diversity." (It's a bad picture...it was so dark!) We don't agree with that...we believe that Jesus Christ is the one true God, and the only way to eternal life is through Him. So it that sense the place felt weird and other-worldly.

And what I think was ironic is that last year the wonderful Christian band David Crowder Band played there. I wonder what they thought of all that? :0) It would have been a fun experience to be there at their concert--filling the house with unified praise to the ONLY King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! On the very stage that proclaims the opposite. I would have loved to see the Lord knock that decorative, deceptive crud down in His holy power. :0)

And since we're on the subject of live David Crowder jams, why not take a moment to check one out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4u1q0uJ6UM

OK, I digress. So here's who we actually went to see:

A wonderful gift from my man! He surprised me with tickets to Jackopierce, my favorite band since early in college. They don't play very often anymore, so it's a rare treat for me to get to see them live. They were promoting a brand new CD, which hasn't happened in forever (over a decade!), so maybe they're making a comeback! WOO-HOO!

It was a fabulous set. They are like fine wine--they get better and better with age! It was all acoustic, and I left with that sublime fuzzy, stuffy feeling in my ears that I always get after an evening of loud music. Bliss!! That's also one of the million reasons I love my husby--he and I share a mutual love of live music.

Today, we went to church sans children. And we were STILL late getting out the door! But we got to sleep in later than normal on Sunday mornings since we didn't have two munchkins to get ready.

We made it to Sunday School for a deeply impacting message on Psalm 22 and the power of crying out to God no matter our situation. He does care for us in everything! We left feeling so full of the Word that we skipped "big church" and decided to get our day together going.

We had an all-day Christmas shopping extravaganza and knocked a good bit of it out. We are only shopping for the children in our family, so that makes it a bit less of an ordeal. But oh my goodness is it fun to shop for our girls especially!

We lunched, at my request, at Great Outdoors sub shop. Yum!

After a couple more stops, we headed back to pick up our sweeties. And the reunion was sweet, as always! We love our babies so much, and as much as we enjoy our time alone together, we really love being all together as a family more than anything!

People ask us all the time why we don't use babysitters more often. It may sound dorky, but we adore our children and simply love to be with them! We love our little family, and we can't wait to meet our newest member in May.

J, thank you for a lovely weekend. I am refreshed and ready for the fun week ahead! I love you.

Update on Brittany

Brittany gave birth to her son Jackson this morning at about 5AM. She, her husband and her family were all able to hold him--he fit in the palm of their hands, at about 1 pound or so, but they said that he was "perfectly formed" even at this very early stage in his gestation. He was born with his tiny feet crossed, one hand on his chest, and the other behind his head, as if he were perfectly at peace. They were all so blessed to meet him on this earth, if only for a brief few moments.

I was curious about how the hospital staff would treat the situation. Would they be sensitive and give her all the time she needed to be with him, to grieve, to make whatever decisions she needed to make? Or would they be callous and hurried? What a blessing--I learned that the entire team of doctors and nurses were in tears when he was born. When her doctor left the room, he left her with a handwritten note expressing his deep sorrow and empathy--he and his wife had lost a child themselves.

The staff made sure she knew that she could stay as long as she needed to. And the Lord granted her sleep most of the day today, which I'm sure was helpful for her.

This morning at about 7, a hospital chaplain joined the family and conducted a naming cermemony for sweet Jackson. (This is her second son--Carsyn is a healthy, precious 2 1/2 year-old.)

Nikki and I have been on the phone on and off a lot today, and I told her one of the things God told me about the situation. He said that He has plans for Jackson, and they are simply too big for this world. Brittany giving birth to him was no accident--she was hand-picked by Him to be his mother, if only briefly on this earth. But when she gets to heaven, she will know him immediately. We all will!

The world will try to tell us that Jackson was only a fetus. After all he was only 16 weeks old. But we who have hope in Jesus Christ know differently. Jackson is a precious soul. His life is significant. He is valued by his Creator. And he is valued and loved by us too.

Jackson, we can't wait to meet you!

Update on Brittany

For those of you who tuned in yesterday to read the sad news about my friend Brittany, here's a quick update:



I learned at 3:30 this afternoon that if she had still not progressed in her induction by 4PM, she would be administered her THIRD round of medication.



Crazy. I cannot imagine how hard this must be on her! She's been in the hospital since 6:30 this morning.



Please continue to pray.



Thank you,

R

Prayer request for a fellow mom

I learned some sad news today, and I wanted to pass it along for my "prayer warrior" readers.

My friend Brittany (Nikki's oldest niece, as a reference for my family and sorority sisters), who's a little bit farther along in her pregnancy than I am (she's 17 weeks; I'm 13), went to her OB today for a routine exam and discovered that her child had passed about a week ago.

The kicker? She's far enough along that she'll have to actually deliver her baby. Tomorrow morning. I don't know what time her appointment is, but please pray for her, her husband, and her 2 1/2 year-old son if you think about it. She's scheduled for an induction sometime in the morning.

She's a precious woman, and she is a believer. But as you can imagine, she has a lot of questions and anger.

*Sigh.* I don't know what else to say. Just sad altogether!

****UPDATED: I've just learned that Brittany has to be at the hospital tomorrow at 7:30 AM EDT, which is 6:30 AM our time. At that point she'll begin the meds for her induction. Thank you for your prayers! ~R

Snuggle time

I rarely post pictures of myself on the blog because frankly I'm usually the one taking the photos and as a result am not in them, but J took this one over the weekend that I just love.
I was laying on the couch and ended up with both of my girls snuggled up with me.

Moments like this one are perfection to me. :0)

Speaking of snuggling, I saw a commercial on TV for these blankets with sleeves, and I totally almost called to order myself a little Christmas gift! This is a crazy-awesome idea. Who cares if it'll make me look like a monk?!

https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Menu Plan Monday

I'm so late with this menu, but I was so determined to post it! One of my holiday goals was to make a menu plan for the rest of the year (to eliminate at least ONE hassle during the holidays), so I want to take advantage of this rare "on-top-of-it" moment and be consistent with my menu plan posts.

Monday
leftovers--spaghetti or pot roast we had over the weekend

Tuesday
-cranberry chicken
(This chicken is SO EASY, and it's delicious! Mix one envelope of Lipton onion soup mix, 1 cup any variety French dressing, and one can of cranberries--I prefer the whole ones to the jellied. Pour the mixture over 4 chicken breasts. Bake for 50-60 min. at 350. Or you can crock pot it.)
-fresh steamed broccoli
-stuffing
(Yeah, can you tell I'm a little bit ready for Thanksgiving?)

Wednesday
-sloppy joes
-pasta salad

Thursday
-tomato soup
-grilled cheese sandwiches

Friday
take-out night!

For hundreds of other menu ideas, please visit Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Rattle rattle

The title? Does it seem vague? Pointless, perhaps? That's the sound of the thoughts moving around in my head. They are aplenty!

This week has been weird. I've been down since Tuesday with sinus crud, and yesterday afternoon Rosie developed a fever and still has it. So we're keeping it low-key! We were supposed to go to MOPS this morning, but we're all hanging around the house in our jammies. We've not even brushed our teeth yet! (Want a kiss? HAHA!)

Rosie's fever? Think it maybe has something to do with the little girl at the mall play area yesterday morning with the hacking, gutteral cough? When her family arrived at the play area, her mom yelled out to her, "Come back here! You can't go play! You have a cold!" Of course the girl had already run out to play, and I was aghast that her mom LET HER STAY. I'd made a beeline for my girls to collect them and leave (sad because we'd only been there for 15 min.), but I was too late. That little toot was on top of the slide with M coughing away on her. Don't think I didn't make a production of getting my children out of there. I surely did. And I made sure to glare at her mom too. The nerve!

Luckily, the promise of cookies made our premature departure OK to my girls. :0) Whew!

Equally good is that Rosie doesn't have any other symptoms. A bit of a runny nose, but it's clear.

What else is rattling around my head?

-My to-do list. Baby coming, plus the holidays, plus Rosie's birthday late this month, plus major nesting equals a HUGE, probably too ambitious to-do list. And it's NOT getting done very quickly! ACK!

-I want to decorate for Christmas now. Badly. But I will refrain.

-A difficult week with newly-three M. Her behavior's been crazy-bad, crazy-whiny, crazy-fussy, and I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to parent her! I feel like all I do is yell.

-I'm so excited about J's Thanksgiving Break coming up!

-I'm trying to be on-the-ball about Christmas shopping. I've found some great sales and free shipping offers online, so I think I'm going to do all of our shopping on the computer and let the stuff come to us! My goal? To have it all done by Thanksgiving so I can truly just enjoy the season. I've essentially lost a week this week, so I hope I can make it happen! I did get an evening of shopping to myself on Wednesday, and I knocked out all of M's stocking stuffers. So I feel like I've accomplished at least something!

-Meal planning. One of the things I wanted to do was plan all of our regular weekday meals from now until Christmas so I won't have to think about it other than our corresponding grocery shopping. So far I've been able to make a list of meals, but I just need to sit down with our calendar and plug meals in according to what's going on on certain days. (And I know I'll need to reorganize as new plans come along. So I've included some easy/freezer stuff too.)

-Rosie's birthday party. Her bday is Nov. 29, which falls beautifully on a Saturday this year. The bad part? It's the Saturday after TG, so I'm thinking that it's going to be a busy weekend for everyone and our attendance may be affected. Add to that most of the places I looked into are booked for that weekend! So instead we're thinking of pushing it back to Saturday, Dec. 13. Problem with that is I know from a social standpoint (having come from a "society"-oriented career), the middle weekend of December tends to be one of the busiest holiday weekends! I don't think there's any really good time in these two months for a birthday party. But the theme possibilities are endless with Christmas! At any rate, I'm excited.

-I'm having so much fun with M and Christmas, and it's not even here yet! She's finally starting to understand things. This week she's talked endlessly about seeing Santa, and she has a million questions about him. We've been to three malls this week, and she's gotten to peek at where he'll be visiting at each of them. She's having a hard time understanding that he's at the North Pole getting ready for Christmas. But she's truly mesmerized by the decorations, and that makes me happy. :0) I'm glad she appreciates stuff like that like I do! It's nice to have someone to share it with who "gets" it too.

-Conversely, I'm cringing at M seeing toy commercials on TV and getting excited about asking Santa for all of them! Oh my...I hope she's not disappointed if she doesn't get everything she asks for! It just makes me sad that the marketers have gotten in her head at this early age! I'm praying we'll do what we can to combat it.

-I have to brag on myself. I got my very first adult flu shot on Wednesday! M had hers last week, so I thought it would only be fair for her to go with me for mine. I can't lie and say I wasn't apprehensive--I've never been a fan of shots. (My mother and daddy are laughing at this point and thinking that's an understatement!) So we marched up to Costco together and got it done. M was sitting next to me holding my hand, and she said "Mommy, I don't want you to get hurt with a flu shot!" She's really so caring. That makes me so happy. I got my shot and barely felt it! (Whew!) Today, however, I woke up with a very sore arm. But it was worth it! Now all of us are protected here in the Dees house.

Hmmm...what else? I think my head's relatively clear now! Off to find new things to fill it with...

For all the little Socialists-in-training on your Christmas list

I was just doing some online Christmas toy shopping, and I ran across this on Am*z*n:

in case your family happens to be excited about yesterday's fiasco--er, I mean outcome. (Uncle TJ, don't even THINK about getting this for our girls! HA!)

Expecting the unexpected

There's lots of buzz around here at the Dees house, and it's not all about the autumn festivities and upcoming holidays. Back in early October, J and I discovered...















...that sometime around May 15, 2009, we'll be officially outnumbered. :0)

Football insomnia

OK, so my plan was to get to bed early tonight and really take advantage of our extra hour. But college football has me AB-SO-LUTE-LY GIDDY tonight!!

First of all, our GUNS ARE UP here at the Dees home! We're not Tech alumni or regular fans or anything, but we're Aggie fans who love to cheer on tu's opponents! What a crazy game. We tuned in sometime during the second quarter since we had to get the girls to bed, but boy were we pleased with what we found! The rest of the game was a nailbiter at times, and you should have heard us trying to mute our cheering for the girls' sleeping sakes! Needless to say, our poor couch took a beating! :0)

Enough about that...on to MY ALMA MATER! The Mean Green took their first victory of the season! CAW!!! (My Eagle Claw is up, just so you know.) Does it have anything to do with the 12 players who were found with drugs in their systems this week? If they were removed because of it, perhaps that's why we won? Who knows!

And how about some of the other scores around the country? So many big scores. Then again there were several low-scoring games. So many shut-outs, too! Madness!

A few other reasons why I'm excited:

--The Aggies won their second of the season! For the second week in a row! They're working on their big build-up to the 11/27 game against tu, I'm sure of it. WHOOP!

--Mizzou won!

--Bama won!

--OU smoked Nebraska!


Tempering my excitement:

--Florida State lost

--Tulsa lost (I was pulling for them for a friend!)

--Michigan lost, which I think means they're out of the running for a bowl game, which I don't think has happened for a reeeeally long time


Ahhhh. There. I've gotten it all out of my system. I would have called Daddy to have our own little NCAA wrap-up, but I'm afraid he's asleep by now! So thanks, sweet readers, for humoring me. (No matter who you're cheering for!) :0)

Now go enjoy that extra hour of shut-eye!
~R