My Life as a Two Year Old

White-Iheartfaces

2011-08-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

An I{heart}faces entry for white. My sister waiting for her soldier last week. He made it home!

Touch of Whimsy-Iheartfaces

2011-06-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

I Heart Faces-Week 15

2010-06-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

"Celebrating Teens"

This is Miss G. She is fabulous! I love her style, I love her personality, I love her inner beauty. It also helps that she is gorgeous. :). She was everything you could want in a model: respectful and polite but as I asked her to be she could be funny, dramatic, serious, adorable, thoughtful, natural and always herself. Everyone should have a Miss G to photograph!

Iheatfaces-hilarious outtakes

2010-03-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Z baby, give my one of your sweet smiles!
I still don't know what my sister was doing here. I was just taking shots of a family reunion, you know, people chatting with those they love, and didn't even know I got this until I got home.
My kids waiting for me to get my adjustements correct.
Look mama, red drawers!
Allllllllllll done with photos.

I heartfaces-handson

2010-02-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

My Granny's hands. This is the quintessential Granny pic, down to the holiday sweatshirt in the background. For as long as I can remember, she has always worn lots of jewelry, most of it made by my grandfather. I'd know these hands among 1000. Click the button above the pic for more!

Iheartfaces-I wanna dance

2010-02-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

Homeschoolers dancing in the street. This is our neighborhood! They didn't know I was watching. The front couple is brother and sister, the back, sisters. Precious.

It's not a great picture but I promised myself that I'd enter something for every week I actually had something.

iheartfaces-texture

2010-01-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge is texture. I took this picture back in July and I added a texture from Shadowhouse Creations.

I love people who are comfortable in front of a camera and my friend M is. I was so excited to take pictures of her and her precious baby girl. This baby is the perfect example of , "A surprise is something you didn't know how much you needed 'till you got it".

Iheartfaces-We Are Family

2010-01-18T06:26:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge is We Are Family. This is my brother in law and his boys. He was just about to baptize his oldest boy. I know I should have been praying with them, but I saw this and my heart melted. I've had my beefs with him in the past, but I've never questioned his devotion to his children and my sister. I'm glad he's their daddy and her husband.

It was June in Texas with not a tree in sight and I'm an amateur in every sense of the word, you get what you get :P. It's still my sister's favorite of her boys.

Ihearfaces-Faces!

2010-01-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

This week's Iheartfaces challenge is faces. Not just any faces, but one taken between December 1, 2009 and January 12 2009. This is one of my favorite faces in the world.

This is my Uncle Vern. Because of him and his wife, I had a sense that I was actually worthy of love. I had safety, I had fun, I had joy, I had rest, and I learned of faith when I was with them. He's pretty sick now, just had a defibrillator and a pace maker put in and has diabetes, but you can't tell it from this picture. He is doing what he does best, loving a little girl (in this case my absolutely precious niece!!). Grateful is too small a word for what he and my Aunt Sandy poured into me.

Iheartfaces-tooshies

2009-11-30T06:34:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge is We <3 Tooshies . I actually had a fabulous photo of her naked hiney with a cheerio on it, but rules are rules, so yall get Bluebonnet Tooshie. Click the button for more!

Iheartfaces-Autumn Beauty

2009-11-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

It's Iheartfaces Autumn Beauty week. This is from our annual pumpkin patch pictures. I just love her curious look. I had chased her around the patch for an hour before finally getting something with her face in it. Click on the Iheartfaces sign to check out the rest of the participants!

Fix it Fridays-iheartfaces

2009-11-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

opened in raw
bumped up blacks
clarity
warmed it a bit
contrast
healing brush under eyes and nose
adjusted curves slightly
cropped

ran honey retro
ran bakery glazes, green apple
ran creamy chocolate
ran perk 2, vivid
I accidentally left the pole in some of the shots, but don't have time to go back now. Kids think they need breakfast or something ;-)

Iheartfaces- My Story in Photos “Thankful”

2009-11-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

Not necessarily in this order,

1. How much my children love each other

2. Living in Texas, bluebonnets, Spring, the colors of blue and green

3. My husband, our marriage, that it looks so different than it should if not for grace

4. My sister and her family, my nieces and nephews, how much my brother in law loves them

5. The Bible, our verse, sunlight in my windows, and coffee

6. My dad being in my children's lives

7. Our home, our neighborhood pool, hot Texas summers, silly boys to take pictures of

8. My 8 beautiful blessings here and my 3 who've gone on Home

9. Music, laughter, noise, chubby hands

10. My extended family, crazy as they are (that's my Uncle Vern, one of my favorites)

If you've never participated at Iheartfaces, this is a great week to do it. No judging, just gratefulness.

I heart faces-fix it friday

2009-11-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

The original:

The first fix, I was watching a movie while I did it, so don't remember what I did. *blush* I do remember running the Faded Daydreams action was one of last things I did. It's one of my new favorites from Rita at Coffeeshop.

The 2nd. I ran about 4 or 5 actions, just to see what would happen. She came out almost animated and so different, I kinda like it. I remember Moody Pop and Retro Honey from Coffeeshop were 2 of them.

I'm loving learning about my program. I want to eventually volunteer with Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (infant loss bereavement photography) as a Photoshop artist and I really need the practice and experience.

I will write stuff down next time cause I'm getting lots of good info from what the other participants share and maybe (although not likely) there is someone with less experience than me who I could help. Maybe not, but lie to me. :-)

Iheartfaces-balloons

2009-11-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

It's Balloon Week at Iheartfaces. This week's entry is pretty old, the little man here was 4 and we are coming up on his 6th birthday! Balloons always remind me of him, mainly because for his 1st birthday we filled the living room with them as a surprise for him, only to find out when we brought him in that he was terrified of balloons. Oops. Picture 4 adults trying to chase 50 helium balloons into a bedroom as fast as possible while a one year old is screaming and crying like he's being attacked by aliens and you have a pretty good idea what the party looked like. As you can see, it didn't leave any lasting damage.

Fix it Fridays-iheartfaces

2009-10-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

First time at doing this with Iheartfaces. I love editing, almost as much as getting the image itself. They publish the original and we get to play with it! That's the original above, here's what I did:

opened in Elements 7 ACR
made it a little warmer
bumped up the black
increased the contrast
opened in Elements 7
ran Coffeeshop's powder room 2
bright eyes
define eyes
did some cloning with low opacity under the eyes
ran Coffeeshops selective color
painted over the hat with low opacity brush
painted over eyes with higher opacity brush
ran the fog remover

I left the bruises on her legs. I have a soft spot for girlie girls with a few bumps and bruises.

Does anyone know of sharpen for web action for Elements? I'm saving up for PS4 but I'm not there yet!

I heart faces-halloween dress up

2009-10-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

I heart faces-pink

2009-10-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

This week in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, it's pink week!!She definitely was. She was my 9th pregnancy, my 2nd daughter, my 11th child, the only girl to come home.

Child Death Awareness and Remembrance

2009-10-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about and praying for the mothers worldwide who have been touched by child death, through miscarriage, stillbirth and beyond. Although it seemed, at times, a grace too hard to bear, it was grace that allowed me to know my precious little ones, Lael, Rose and Joseph. Please pray for the moms you know who have been touched by a tiny person who left footprints on their hearts, but didn't stay in their arms.

Iheartfaces-excited

2009-10-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge is excited. This is my sister and her kids welcoming home their daddy, her husband, our soldier and hero. This is excitement.

As an aside, anyone who gets the chance should go welcome the soldiers at the airport. Very cool, no matter what your political affiliations.

Iheartfaces-Blue

2009-09-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge was blue. As you can imagine, I have a lot of blue in my life. Blue is my favorite color. Always has been. Good thing, huh? Now I have some pink. Turns out I really like pink too.

These are my kiddos, doing their thang, being who they really are, even picking their nose. Love it.

Check out all the rest of the blue challenge contestants, there is some really phenomenal stuff!!

2009-09-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

This article from Elle (h/t Instapundit) has me amazed. It's definitely adult, and definitely secular, but so over the top in both areas, it's like a case study in what's wrong with the world.

The fact that women are selling their virginity is as old as sin itself. I won't comment on that. We've told, explicitly shown and encouraged young women to think of sex as tool, as a biological function, a scientific experimentation, a toy and a business for far to long to pretend I'm shocked when they treat it as such. News flash, nothing is sacred, everything is for sale.

No, the sentence that sent me reeling was this one: "the highest bidder, at $3.7 million, was an Australian businessman, and he reconciled with his wife."

He reconciled with his wife. He was married, although apparently separated, and while on this hiatus he makes bids for a young woman's virginity and his WIFE TAKES HIM BACK????

I'm sorry. Soliciting prostitution, desiring sex with a younger woman badly enough to pay 3.7 million for it, and being anxious to the point of idiocy to be a girl's first sexual partner would all give me serious pause in the reconciliation department.

I'm not in favor of divorce in most situations, I would prefer carefully considered separations that end in reconciliation. I actually believe that separation should only be a step during which both parties are working diligently on themselves in order to come back together and work toward an intimate relationship. It shouldn't be a "hey let's see if living apart works, no, well, ok let's just put some duct tape on it and keep rolling" kind of thing. It certainly should not be a time of experimentation in other relationships! Especially one night stands you just paid 3.7 million dollars for.

I think both he and his wife are fools.

These are the things that make me wonder if I'm the 2 yo or they are.

This rant is now over :-)

Iheartfaces-contemplative

2009-09-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge was a very easy pick for me. Even though it is pre-digital point and shoot (and therefore scanned), it's my favorite shot of him and the one that immediately came to mind with the catagory name. This is my oldest on his 4th birthday. He was train obsessed, so we took him to Rusk, Texas to ride a steam locomotive (or as he said, a stinkamotive). He was so excited he barely spoke the entire ride. That's my little man, when he gets really emotional, he gets really quiet and thoughtful. He is now 13, taller than me and not quite so train obsessed, but I still see him in my mind as this little man.

iheartfaces-nostalgia

2009-08-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

Another challenge, but I'm too late to enter the contest this week. Ah well, the challenge encouraged me to take a picture I've been meaning to take for a while.

I found a picture years ago of my great-grandmother bathing my mother in a gigantic bowl on her front porch. I don't own the picture, but I just loved it. A few year after that, my daughter Rose died and it brought me great comfort to picture Rose being bathed by my Granny. Granny loved babies, so I just knew she was there to welcome Rose, bathe her, care for her as I could not.

And now I have a baby girl here, in my arms, to love and care for, so today we got out a big bread bowl :

iheartfaces-crazy silly faces

2009-08-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

Another iheartfaces challenge. I'm having a blast with these! All of my entries have been on my kids blog, as they are mostly pics of the kids, but I think I'm going to be moving them over to here as they are really about my hobby (or at least one of them).You'd think with 8 kids I wouldn't need to use someone else's kid in a challenge, but I just love this pic of one of my favorite little girls. I was getting ready to take some pics for her momma and new baby sister and R was helping me get my settings right. Isn't she gorgeous? She's got a dynamite personality too, as you can see.

I've got another of her baby sister that's pretty darn cute too. I might share that one later this week, if you're lucky. :-)

Falling in a deep hole

2009-05-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

My little girl is having seizures. Out of the blue, no fever, no warning. I would love to say that I am perfectly calm about this, that I understand that these things happen, with no adverse effects, all the time. Especially in my family. But it's never happened like this, not so many, so frequently. Add to that the fact that I volunteer with a population where I can name at least 3 children who started with seizures and ended up with brain cancer.....you get a big heaping dose of crazy.

I would also love to say that I trust God so much that I'm not worried. It's not really that I don't trust Him, but I realize that my comfort is not His priority. After all, He was in control when my babies died. He was in control when Rose was treated as trash. He was in control when I was abused as a child. None of that changes His sovereignty, or His absolute goodness. These are the things I know:

I know He loves me, and my daughter, enough to allow His son to be treated as trash, be abused, and go through intense physical discomfort, even unto death. I know that if the choice is between someone trusting in Him for salvation and my comfort, He will choose salvation for them. I know there is never pain without purpose. I know I will never understand that or desire it.

So I am fearful, and sad, and angry. But honestly, I have no where else to go. I can either go through this, trust that it is good, and keep running to Him or go through this believing He doesn't care, doesn't listen and do it by myself. If I've got to fall through a deep hole, I want Him at the bottom of it.

What's wrong with public education?

2009-04-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

So I’m listening to Diane Rehm on NPR (I know, I know, but I gotta know how they think)and she’s interviewing Bill Gates Sr. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/04/29.php is where you can listen to the interview, I don't know if it includes the caller I reference. I do NOT like this man. He was talking about the Gates foundation and how one of their objectives is to help public education. So of course she asked what was wrong with public education and he basically threw teachers under the bus. According to him, it’s only the lowest scoring college students that want to be teachers, and they are trained poorly, so of course our children go uneducated. So someone calls in and confronts that. Her daughter is a teacher and loves teaching but the constant discipline problems she is dealing with with NO support from parents or admin is driving her out of the field. His response? Well, if the teacher were properly trained to be super engaging and really keep the kids attention and MAKE them WANT to learn then there wouldn’t be any problems. The teacher just needs to try harder.

At that point I stopped listening because my head was exploding with all manner of curse words and the 3 youngest were in the car with me. I cannot believe he actually believes that if a teacher was just engaging enough, all our problems with no parental interest or support and difficult discipline issues would be solved. If I’m remembering right, for about 100 years most kids were taught in a small school where there was one book for each subject that the teacher read from while the children were expected to listen quietly. There was no AV equipment, no unit studies, no internet interactive sites, not really even any effort to be engaging and make the kids want to learn. We expected them to learn anyway. And they DID. That’s the really amazing part, some of our best thinkers were guys who just read and thought a lot. Nobody *made* them want it, they did it because they wanted it for themselves.

It’s not that I think teaching on level and trying to be relevant and engaging are bad. I do projects, we use interactive sites at times, we watch films. But that is not where the bulk of learning is done. The bulk of their learning comes from reading, writing, thinking, and application. Nothing fancy.

Of course this is coming from a man who when asked about Bill Jr as a kid, his response was along the lines of: He was really curious and interested in everything. He loved to read. That’s really unusual.

If he really believes that it’s unusual for kids to be curious, interested and either read or be read to, well, I must have the most unusual family on earth. All 8 fit that description. ALL 8. To varying degrees, but all 8.

I do believe teachers need more pay, more respect, more of whatever they ask for really, but I would really love to hear at least someone place the blame where it belongs, on the families who don't put value on education.

Not Me Monday

2009-03-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So this week I didn't give my baby girl a cookie just because she cried that everyone else got one. That one little tear (can you see it?) didn't effect me at all, I'm immune to it after all these years.

I also didn't laugh when her big brother put her on his shoulders and she spit up down his neck into his shirt and then she wiped her mouth on his hair.

I didn't let my laundry pile up until we had no underwear and it took me 20 minutes to find a pair of pants for each boy in order to go to church. I, of course, lay out all our clothing the night before, and do one load a day, every day.

I didn't leave the planning of school off until this morning and then spend most of the day wondering where all our books were. I have a plan I made in August and we have stuck to it. I lay my stuff out for the week on Sunday night, that's what I do.

I did NOT tell my children that if they are going to lock each in the closets, they must at LEAST let the person in there out when they say I want out.

I also did not walk around the house talking to myself about how no one ever puts anything back where it belongs, never, and if they did that I would fall down in a dead faint and blog it immediately WITH pictures, because it would be a miracle and someone should document miracles. I would never be that passive aggressive, I tell my children clearly what I need and how I feel.

That's about all I didn't do, how about you?

Not me monday

2009-02-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

So here I am Not Me-ing again. Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not spend countless hours retouching photos for my Facebook account. I would never spend that much time refining my memories instead of making them and then waiting for people who see them all the time to comment.

I did not try and stay asleep while one of my 7yos was at the side of my bed hacking his lungs out. I sprang out of bed with the quickness and compassion of Florence Nightingale, with my make up on too, and then since it was 6am,

I didn't go back to bed and make my husband get up with the kids, who proceeded to let them scrounge for whatever breakfast items they could find. Nope, I got up and made a wonderful breakfast for the kids while whistling.

I don't spend my Friday nights messing around on my laptop, next to my husband on his laptop, while the children watch "Clone Wars". We sit in front of a fire sipping tea and do read alouds from classic literature.

I didn't say "get off your brother's head" so many times this week, I feel like I'm saying it in my sleep.

I did not sing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from Rocky Horror when my very manly husband came back from the dr with a report of low testosterone (Test-toss-ter-oni, the real San Fransisco Treat, quick what sitcom?). I lovingly built him up.

What didn't you do this week?

Not me monday

2009-02-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yeah yeah, it's Tuesday...so sue me.

This is s a fun little therapy session. You go through your last week or so and tell all the things you absolutely did NOT do.

I did NOT let my kids watch endless hours of television because I'm tired with being up a sick child. Homeschool mommies don't do that.

I did NOT spend Valentines day eating take out from a drive through in front of Mama Mia with my husband over at our babysitters empty apartment(cause they were babysitting for us!). Normal people make reservations and get dressed up and fight crowds instead of eating totally yummy Mi Casita and watching a fun movie in jeans and t-shirts.

I do NOT sit around and quote Word Girl and Spongebob with my kids. Especially not the last one. No self respecting Christian mommy would let their kids watch that.

I did NOT spend Friday night running to Walmart to get these stuffed animals and some candy for my kids Valentines day. I was ready early this year, having planned weeks in advance just like Kate from Jon and Kate plus 8(stop laughing!!)
I most assuredly did NOT laugh so hard I had to start it over and then until I cried at(do not listen to this in front of children, seriously) this. No self respecting Christian would find anything that uses the f word that many times that funny.

There ya go, what I haven't been doing.

Hubba Hubba

2009-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

This is the kinda guy I could swoon for:

Watch more SpikedHumor videos on AOL Video

March for Life

2009-01-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually very outspoken on politics or controversial legal issues, at least on the net, but this is an issue that is personal for me. *thanks to Floyd at Threedonia.com for the link from his site*

Because of this country's view on life, when my daughter died at 16 weeks gestation in 2000, my husband and I were not only denied the option to see her after birth, but had to fight the hospital to get access to her body later. She was called products of conception, medical waste and we were told she had been disposed of. Thank God she was not and we did eventually get to see her and were given permission to have her cremated with dignity. " You want a funeral home to pick up the medical waste removed from your body?" was the question. Yes, we want a funeral home to pick up our daughter. Even though we did get to see her, she was in a small jar with formaldehyde, so I never did get to kiss her good-bye. But she was fully formed, perfect in every way. She was even smiling.

I understand that there are extenuating circumstances that make abortion palatable, or even necessary (in ectopic pregnancies for instance). I counsel parents who have chosen to interrupt a pregnancy when faced with the choice of one hour of life with their child or wait for stillbirth. I have grieved with parents who believe with all their hearts that the choice they made was for the comfort of their child and would give anything to have them here. But the vast majority of abortions are not performed in these cases, they are performed because a woman believes that death for the child would be better than parenting for her. And because of these women, my child was disrespected. After all, we cannot believe it is a child when it dies naturally and not believe it when someone doesn't want it. We want to. We want to believe we are big enough to have both in our minds, but we aren't. Not most of us. Not me, and apparently not the hospital I had Rose at. I believe my much wanted baby was just as much a baby as a child who was not wanted. They believed she was medical waste, just like the abortion they performed earlier that day.

I don't have any pictures of my sweet girl, but I do have pictures of her brother, who also died at almost the same gestation 2 years later. These are fairly graphic, but I believe they say more about the humanity of these children than words ever could.

Please pray for those marching today. Please pray for President Obama as he considers what to do with the FOCA . Please pray his heart will be changed toward the unborn and that life can be respected in this country.

wisdom from my ranting

2008-11-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

so yesterday I'm trying to teach math to my 12 year old. I know, that's really funny, but my math has improved greatly through teaching! I swear! ANYWAYS....

I give him a problem, he comes up with an answer that is no where NEAR the answer, so I ask him how he got there. He shows me a really convoluted process that is nothing like what I taught him, but it's at least consistent, as he uses the same process every time (and consequently gets the wrong answer almost every time). So I sweetly rant at him: Son, I don't know why you insist on doing it differently than I taught you and I don't know how to teach you to get the right answer that way. There's only a couple of ways to do this, and your way is neither of them. So when you are ready to get the right answer, I'll teach you how to get there the right way. Hrmph......

And then there it is. This is how God feels with me, almost daily. He's taught me how to do this life: put Him first, love others, be kind, be honest, be a servant, check my motives, take care of myself, do what you are made to do, etc. Then I sit and play Baby Blimp for 2 hours instead of doing something that would feed my soul or take care of my family and wonder why it's not working for me. Or I am dishonest with my husband about my feelings and wonder why I suddenly resent him. Or I lose my vision for motherhood by comparing myself to others and I wonder why I'm resistant to serving my family. Or I do a good thing, but only so others will think I'm good, and wonder why they see me as proud.

I do it my way, over and over again, wonder why I keep getting the wrong answer and then get mad at God cause it's SO HARD. I want to do it my way and get the right answer. I'm 12. Hey, I aged 10 years! At this rate I'll die at 18.

Dogs have it good

2008-11-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

Because we've all wanted to at times, especially lately:

Barney Bite Back

Go Barney! Serves em right for getting in his face....

This is.....

2008-10-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Something I was surprised I liked

My husband. I was going to marry a tall cowboy who loved to dance, could ride, lived on a ranch, and wanted to have a million kids. It'd be nice if he loved God, but that was just icing on the cake. To my surprise, I married a tall computer programming jazz musician who hates to dance, has never been on a horse and only wanted 4 kids. So how'd we end up with 8? Well, he decided that 3 and 4 were so much fun, lets go for 5! Then number 5 got here and it still just didn't seem like all that many, so we ended up with 6 and 7, which suddenly made it seem like a million. I talked him into #8 though. Turns out it was the best thing we ever did.

He not only loves God, but is passionate about Jesus. And that's really what is core in our marriage. Weird, the one thing I could care less about about and it's what is now the sexiest thing about him.

He learned to dance and I learned to love jazz, except for modern, :0P. We're looking for an acre or so, but no bigger, and NO horses, which is fine with me, turns out they are a lot of work. I've learned to decorate around all the computers and not make too much fun of him for being a nerd(I actually greatly appreciate his nerdness, it keeps our family very well), he's learned that not all country music is awful.

I really like him. I look at him some days and am still surprised and a little overwhelmed how much I like him.

This post is part of a game called This Is which I found at Three Buttons, through my friend at Sum of Mum. This weeks This Is topic brought to you by Earl and Cookie .

I've been tagged!

2008-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Kerrie, over at Life At Number 14, tagged me on my kids blog! How fun! Since I try to keep that one strictly for them (and my in laws read it LOL), I decided to do it over here.

I live in Texas and hate cold weather, but I LOVE jackets and boots.
I really admire people who are really good at what they do, even if I don't like them. For instance, I had a grudging admiration for Bill Clinton for being an amazing politician, even though he was pretty much a dog as a person.
I love to roller blade. I don't get to do it but I love it and I can even do a couple of tricks.
I've never been stung by a bee. I used to sit in flower patches and let them crawl all over me, but never was stung.
I want to adopt. Preferably from Africa.
I worked at 6 Flags Over Texas and can probably still say the train speech.
My kids are 4th generation Texans. I married a non-Texan but it's ok, his mom was born in Dallas.

Hmmmmm, now must tag 7 people. The only problem with that is I don't really have 7 people to tag LOL. I don't know that many people with blogs that haven't already done this.

Oh well. If you have a blog and read mine and wouldn't mind being tagged, please let me know and I'll link to you. If you don't have a blog, you can leave your seven random facts in the comments.

Thanks Kerrie! That was fun!

I made this!

2008-10-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

I got the shirts done. A while ago. But then I started school with the kids again and it got crazy around here and there ya go. The tea dying was definitely the way to go. I really really like the way they turned out.

I have also crocheted a couple of blankets for my comfort boxes, a burial wrap for a full term baby who won't get to go home, a couple of bonnets for my friend Vi's baby who did get to come home (I'm also working on a car seat blanket for her) and am still working on my footprint blanket.

So here's the part where I show off my work:
one of the box blankets the burial wrap
and the bonnets and blanket for baby Evelynn!

I love crafting. Wish I had more time for it.

Have I lost my mind?

2008-07-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ah, well, having it was over rated.

I have been learning to dirt dye t-shirts. Yes, I am dying t-shirts with the dirt from our yard. I figure if they're all gonna be that color anyways.....

Actually we are doing them for our Uncle Mike, who is stationed in Iraq, and for some good friends who are moving (no no no no, can't think about that). Kind of a "someone in Texas loves you" type thing, but with dirt. Dirt is a boys love language.

Turns out though, that despite the ease with which church clothes are stained between the house and the car, it's not so easy to do this on purpose. But you can find anything on the internet (that's my official motto). Turns out boiling them in a mud/tea combo is the way to go. We'll soon find out. My house smells of Almond Vanilla Tea, which I craved for about 3 seconds in my last pregnancy and was just sitting in my cupboard, and mud. The tannin in tea allows the mud to penetrate the fabric.

Uncle Mike's is gonna say "Uncle Mikes TEXAS dirt dyed shirt". I'm trying to think of something clever to put on our friends, they say they are only going for 2 years and will be back. I want to remind them of that. Strongly. That people in Texas are waiting for them. Impatiently waiting.

I'm also currently working on a crochet pattern of footprints, organizing the house, learning to make tortillas and other flat breads, getting all the high fructose corn syrup out of our diets, getting all the scrapbooks caught up, and all the other stuff I do. I need a wife.

So I'm thinking of getting arrested

2008-07-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Cause I get time off from cooking, a free place to sleep, and now, a free t-shirt when I make my bail.

I love this sign. It has been up for several months, but I never have my camera with me. I finally got the pic. Get Yours Today! Like getting a t-shirt would be a good reason for getting arrested. I got arrested, but I got a free t-shirt, so it's all good. My sense of the ridiculous is most amused by this.

I do realize jail is serious, maybe that's why this is so funny to me.

I used to joke that I what I really needed was a good inpatient program, it's like a vacation covered by insurance, but I'm not addicted to anything. I wonder if I could make a convincing argument for an addiction to floor cleaning devices. My husband has said I'm not allowed to bring another one into the house. I love them, whether they vacuum, mop, or sweep, I just love them. Maybe it's because with all these boys, dirt on the floors isn't so much something we clean as something we move around in hopes of having a place to sit.

Grace on Father's Day

2008-06-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

It's Fathers Day and since the best dad I know is my sweet husband and since he is the best evidence of grace in my life besides salvation, I have been thinking a lot about grace lately. I don't know how I came to be so blessed with this guy. He has filled my home with joy and music, given my boys a role model, loved us all unconditionally, stood by my side through things I can't imagine loving someone through, fought for the dignity of our children who died before birth, encouraged me in all of my crazy ideas (lets just say home schooling is one of the more normal ones), and a million other impossibly grand things and amazingly mundane things that have made my life so much better. But if I had to tell anyone how to meet and marry a guy like him, I don't know what I'd say. I don't have a list or even really a general idea. We were talking about it last night and this is what I came up with:

Well, first you see a guy walk into church, think he's cute and convince a mutual friend to invite him to a prayer group. Then, after you get to know him, attempt suicide and refuse to see a counselor so he has to call you everyday to see if you've made the appointment yet. Once you've done that, it's time to start dating! If possible find someone who has a completely opposite fighting style. He should still be in school as a Jazz Studies major, playing gigs several nights a week, with no real idea what he wants to be when he grows up. A few months later, engagement will seem like a great idea and you should get married as quickly as possible with a lot of drama.

See what I mean? We were a mess collectively and should have destroyed each other sometime around year 2. But it's been almost 16 years and I still think he's the coolest person I know.

I look at the bible though, and that's what God does best. He takes complete disasters of lives and makes them our forefathers of faith. How do you become the father of our faith? Well first you don't have babies until you're really really old, then you get your wife's maidservant pregnant, then you lie and say your wife is really your sister to avoid trouble. How do you start a people for the Lord? You trick your dad into giving you your brother's blessing, fight with an angel, and marry your sister in law first. How do you end up as the one God uses to save a people from starvation? Brag about a dream, get sold into slavery, end up in jail for a crime you didn't commit and be forgotten there. What about if you want to lead your people out of slavery? Oh well then you have to be put into a basket as an infant to avoid being killed at birth, brought up by a heathen, kill someone in anger, and end up talking to a burning bush in the middle of no where.

I could keep on going, but you get the idea. And that's just in the first couple of books of the bible. The thing is, God loves taking what is ugly and useless and making it holy. Sort of the ultimate recycling program. Joel 2:25 "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,". My life is proof of this. The father of my children is proof of this. I've worked hard to be a good steward of what I was given, but I have no idea how I got it in the first place. Oh wait, yeah I do,

Grace.

The Game

2008-06-10T19:51:00.001-07:00

I got this fun game from Karin at Sum of Mum

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

1. Golden Sunset in Tracy Arm, Alaska, 2. "I, Piórko, like Cheese!", 3. Arlington High School.jpg, 4. blue daisy, 5. Steve Burns, 6. La Margarita de Applebees, 7. Down Under, 8. Key lime pie, 9. Untitled, 10. Plus haut, 11. A big bloody Samoan storm that turned gay!, 12. i surrender!

Lots of fun. My answers were: Tracy, cheese, Arlington High, blue, Steve Burns, margarita, Australia, key lime pie, midwife, Jesus, strong, r_n_lsmom

Edited to add:
I think the best part of this game was that the pic of the high school is ACTUALLY my high school. The one I went to. I was a little surprised too, at what came up when I typed the words in. I loved the pictures that came up for Jesus, strong, and midwife. I didn't like the title for the strong pic, but loved the pic. It represented so much of what I was going for, strength through storms, hope, promises of God....wow. But the stupid title.....sheesh.

If you give The Game a try, let me know, I wanna see your mosaic!

First post

2008-06-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

My very own place to say all the stuff I want to say! The title comes from the fact that so often in my life I realize how very like a 2yo I am, or need to be. I have had many many great spiritual truths revealed to me in the behavior of my children. It's one of the coolest parts of being a parent. And the hardest.

One of the times I was confronted with a behavior I could do well to imitate in my 2yo came from my son Asher. He was happily beating my kitchen table with a spoon. I asked him to stop, but although he had paused to consider my request, he started again. I asked him, "I need you to stop, do you need some help obeying." I have asked all my kids this, most of the time they say no and either choose to obey or not. Asher looked at me, looked at his spoon, very sadly said, "yes, I need help." and handed me the spoon. I remember thinking, wow.....what would my life look like if I did that with my heavenly Father. What if instead of either hiding my sin or pretending it's not as bad as it is or that I can totally handle it, I just said, "I can't possibly stop on my own, I need you to help." and handed it to Him?

I also frequently am confronted with my own behavior towards God. One of my sweet boys had such a bad diaper rash and had come to me with a poopy diaper asking to be changed. I started to change him, but he then realized it was going to hurt and started backing away saying no, no I don't have poop, I'm ok, really(in 2yo talk). I had to change my boy anyway, I couldn't leave him in his own mess, and it hurt both him and me to get it done. Afterwards, he sat in my lap crying, but refused to let me put my arms around him and truly comfort him. He wanted to be with me because I am a source of comfort, but he was still mad I had caused him pain. Then he got up and thanked me for changing him. How many times have I done that? I go to God, literally smelling of my sin and really wanting change and yet when He gets to going on it, I back away, saying it's fine, I'm good, no thanks, it's gonna hurt. I mean, I know it's gonna hurt to leave it, it's actually going to make it worse to leave it, but I'm ok with that. I just don't want the pain it'll take to change it. But He's not just gonna leave me in my own mess, now that I've brought it to Him, it's gotta change. Then I get mad, really mad that it hurt and don't want Him to comfort me cause after all, HE'S the one that did it. And usually, some time down the road (sometimes YEARS down the road), I'm able to thank Him for that change. Please let me always be thankful for that change.

So that's why this is my life as a two year old. I am a two year old mad cause I don't get my own way, confused because I don't understand the basics, distracted easily by pretty stuff, lost in my own world, and hopefully, never far from my Father.