And the Award Goes to . . .

Now I know and you know that G is cute. Quite possibly ridiculously so, but we are not the only ones to have noticed. Since all he needs to be absurdly happy is 1-food, 2-sleep, and 3-people, we often get comments at church about how fun he is. (For the record, he will still be abnormally happy with only two of those three things, and is quite normally happy with only one, but only for short periods of time.) My parents have also dubbed him the happiest baby they've ever seen.But he has also gotten himself noticed on our little outings. Which is in addition to all the people who coo at him while we're shopping. While we were at the State Fair, we were stopped in the livestock pavilion by some nice people who told us that they had seen him earlier walking around and thought he was the cutest baby at the whole fair.
So he won a blue ribbon there.

And when we were at the TCU game, we were saved from a lot of abuse by the cute little guy. People would see him and not care that we were dressed in red. In fact, after the game we went to Albertson's to take advantage of a great deal on diapers (I used a $2 coupon and got a box of diapers for $11. Heck yes!) However, we had to carry 3 boxes of diapers, a diaper bag, and a really tired baby all the way back to the car parked a mile away. On the way, TCU fans were driving around yelling stuff out of their car windows, mostly "What's a Ute?", but you already know how I feel about that weak-sauce insult. However, when this one particular SUV drove by and went to yell stuff at us, they saw G and said, "Oh, they have a cute baby, we'll let you off the hook, then." And because of lights and traffic, they passed us 3 separate times, and pretty much said the same thing every time. It was pretty funny.But it just goes to show that as much as I'd like to not believe it, if you are cute in life, you can get away with a lot, and often times people will give you things.

Which is why, in addition to them being more comfortable, I always try to wear dresses and skirts. You'd be surprised how much more smoothly errands go during the day when you look nice and presentable.

Long Suffering

Don't worry, my wrists have been slapped for not posting in awhile. But hey, remember when it used to be months at a time without a post? I am improving. Thank you for being so long suffering with me.

But this post is not about you, sorry. This post is about Guido, of all things. Because of this, I would like to title this video "Long Suffering" and dedicate the following poem to Guido:

You could be a lady-in-waiting, but you're a Tom cat.
You wait with giant eyeballs for me to walk by before you jump on my feet.
You wait until I am comfortable and reading before sitting on my book.
You stalk me with unequaled patience and orange hair,
But sometimes you earn your keep.

Errata

I forgot to tell you what I am thankful for on my last two posts.

I am thankful for a warm bed and a nice house.

I am thankful for a wonderful friend for a husband who can explain sports to me without sounding a bit condescending.

Also, I do actually have a correction. My favorite quote from my Primary lesson was not the one I posted, but rather a different quote from the same child. I started Singing Time asking them what we celebrate in November, which they all knew was Thanksgiving. But when I asked them what we celebrate at Thanksgiving this little boy shouted, "Christmas!" It was pretty cute.

Walking in

The other day, I walked in to get G from his nap and found this.

Alarmed, I checked in the crib.

Yes, G had managed to pull off the bumper in his attempts to get out.

And he wasn't very happy about it. Okay, mostly he wasn't happy that I went and got the camera instead of getting him out. He was quite happy when I walked in the first time.

Then, another time, I walk in my room to take a shower and find this:

Guido has built a little nest for himself in my covers.

Cute, maybe. Weird, definitely.

And apparently he has acquired a taste for covers because multiple times I've found him underneath the comforter in the guest bedroom. Then this--I walked in on him in my sewing room.

Those blankets were not arranged like that when I left them. I guess napping in the sun isn't enough any more. And it hasn't even been that cold . . . Strange cat.

Football Saturday

Yes, I spent all last Saturday surrounded by footballs. And for those of you who know me, you will appreciate the sacrifice. (For those of you who don't know me, why are you reading my blog?) It started with a flag football game with guys (and some girls) from Johnny's work. It was a beautiful day, the bees were out.

G got the chance to make a new friend.

Why did I take pictures like this? Well, because 90% of the time, this is what was happening on the field:

Or I'd see this, Uncle Ed walking back in after a play.

But when there was excitement, G and his new friend would watch.

And see things like this:

After the boys were done getting all sweaty, we went home and changed for the real action, the TCU/Utah football game. For G, this meant looking like a gangster in really oversized clothing.

Johnny was kind enough to explain the basic rules to me on the car ride over, so I did get to appreciate some of the game. And I won't lie, being one of the few red-shirted people in a sea of purple was kind of fun. Especially since TCU are the "horned frogs" and their color is purple. Hmm, no fuel for teasing there . . . Also, their idea of an insult was to ask Utah fans what a Ute is. I'm not exactly sure how their ignorance was supposed to offend me, but it certainly didn't. They had it printed on shirts, too. I wanted to say, "I thought they taught American History at this school," but I held my tongue. It made me laugh on the inside, though. And I'm pretty sure every fan they asked it to told them it was a Native American tribe, one of the few still willing to sponsor a college, which could only make TCU fans feel stupid. So, way to go Horny Toads, excuse me, Horned Frogs.

Anyway, we had ridiculously good seats, once the security people cleared out the leftover students standing right in front of us.

And although G doesn't look too happy, we still had a good time for the most part. He only cried twice when our small group of Ute fans cheered for touchdowns.

And in the end, Utah lost, but at least TCU was using this game to support breast cancer. And I got a football education. Was is worth 3 days of soreness for Johnny? Or 3 am nightmares for G? Probably not in my book, but I'm sure the guys would disagree with me.

Exploring our Asianity

Sorry it's been a few days. It's not for lack of material I haven't been posting, rather there is too much. I hardly know where to begin, so I will have several new posts in the near future.

Last weekend, we explored some of downtown Dallas. We went to the Asian museum and saw ridiculously awesome carvings. People's talent amazes me sometimes. Then we did a little origami, mine is a lotus flower.
Then we walked around the arts district and enjoyed the sunshine and nice weather, and fun architecture. We also went to the Farmer's market, but more on that in another post.


I'm a very grateful that we live by such a fun city and that we can use our legs to walk around.

Primary Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I don't think it's ever too early to celebrate. So I frequently spend November making happy lists, playing gratitude games, and enjoying pre-thanksgiving day feasts, as those who were living in my hall when I was an RA will account. I think November is a wonderful month, especially here in Texas where the weather is like spring.


It should therefore come as no surprise that for Singing Time today in Primary I gathered together some things that we could be thankful for, for example I pulled out a lightbulb and the kids said they were thankful for electricity, ideas, light, sunshine, Jesus--they were really quite creative. Then we would pick a song to sing that had to do with the object, in this case "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam".


As expected, the Senior Primary was a little more creative and had a lot more songs to suggest. Overall, we had a good time, and much to be thankful for. My favorite quote of the day was one of the Junior Primary kids who shouted, "Harry Potter" when I pulled out a tie. Not exactly what I was going for, but something to be grateful for none the less.

I'm very grateful for the Nursary. The kids are so fun to sing with and are always happy to see me. I can just relax and sing the same fun song 15 times in a row with them and they are perfectly happy.

Date Night

My brother-in-law has been staying with us the past week, which made it really easy for Johnny to keep his promise of finding a babysitter for a date. (I think he kind of cheated on this one, but I did get a date out of the deal . . . )I got to wear my new dress (pics to come, it needs some finishing touches), and we got to try a new restaurant--Queen of Sheba, which has Ethiopian cooking. Neither of us had tried Ethiopian before and we were excited. We walked in, which made quite a statement (you'll understand when you see the pictures. My dress is very loud.). The lady who waited on us told me during the meal that she loved my dress and that it looked very pretty on me, which I thought was very nice because a) I love getting compliments on things I make (like this one time that someone asked me if I shopped at Anthropologie because I either shopped there or sewed myself) and b) she totally could have kept that compliment to herself, but she chose to tell me, which is very generous.

For those of you who have never eaten Ethiopian food, they don't give you any silverware. Instead you get bread that is like a spongy tortilla and you rip off pieces, wrap it around your food, then stick it all in your mouth. It was really fun, and taught me that my life goal of eating an entire meal with my hands is not as hard as I used to think it was. (Don't worry, I'd already fulfilled that one before we ate this dinner.)

I am very grateful that Johnny and I are willing to try new things.

Shopping Trip

So I was at the grocery store yesterday, partly to buy groceries (obviously), and partly to check prices on ingredients for my 4th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast, when I went to get some milk.

As you may know, whole milk is the same price as every other kind here, but apparently now, in addition to 2%, 1%, and skim, there is also 1/2%. Yes, that's right .5%. For those people who just can't take the leap from 1% to skim? Really?

So I bought some to show Johnny. Hilarious.

I'm grateful for the little things that make me laugh every day.

It's Suppertime!

I was thinking of what to make for dinner tonight, and decided to fall back on a P family favorite--sloppy joes. These aren't your Manwich, dinner-in-a-can sloppy joes, these are the homemade, ridiculously tasty, uber easy variety.

Recipe:
1 lb. beef
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 can tomato soup.

Easy as 1-2-3
1) brown beef and drain
2) add chopped veggies
3) add soup and heat through

Then enjoy. What could be simpler? I usually serve them on biscuits cause I tend to have a can of them in my fridge at all times.

I'm very grateful for my Young Women's leader who not only gave me a beautiful recipe card holder upon my graduation from high school, but who filled it with awesome recipes like the gem above. I've obviously held on and used and enjoyed it these long years.

Repetition is Also the Mother of Laughter

So G decided not to sleep last night, making everyone in the house REAAALLY tired today. And I get cranky when I'm tired. So after our walk around 5 this evening, I try to put G down for one last short nap so I can nap too. Because I'm so very tired.

And of course he doesn't want to sleep. So I bring him in bed with me to try to have my tiredness rub off on him. Instead, we end up laying on our sides facing each other, his sweet little face next to mine, and he reaches for my bangs, so I grab his hand and kiss it and put it in my mouth and squeeze his little triceps. He has very ticklish triceps, especially when they are squeezed. We've known this for awhile. So of course, he starts laughing. So I let go of his hand. And he reaches for my hair, so I grab his hand and tickle his arm and he laughs. And I let go . . .

And because I know G so well, we play this little game for about 5 minutes. As long as I don't move, he's going to reach for my hair because he always reaches for my hair, and he's always ticklish on his arms. So instead of taking a nap, I got to enjoy baby giggles. Did it help my headache? No, but it did wonders for my morale.

I'm so grateful for sweet bonding moments and a happy, happy boy.

A Look at How Far Technology has Come

Remember when you wanted a song on the radio you had to buy either the lame single or the whole album?
Remember when the only thing you exercised when you played video games were your thumbs?
Remember when a 215 mb hard drive was more space than you would ever need?
Remember when there was a reality tv show to find the next boy band?
Remember when TGIF on ABC had awesome shows like "Boy Meets World"?
Remember when you had to go to the library and look up words in a physical encyclopedia if you were doing a research paper?
Remember when you were waiting for someone to pick you up and you either had to be patient or call them on a pay phone?
Remember when you had to plan out family vacations using a fold-out map?
Remember when you wanted to say hi to your cousin so you wrote a letter?
Remember when the whole world's thoughts and feelings were just in personal journals?
Remember when you had to jog with a walkman and it would skip all the time?
Remember when you had to listen to the radio all day to make a mix tape?

Those were good times . . . but now is better!
I'm grateful for technology.

Roaming Gnome

We have this little gnome in our garden.It's super cute.But he got tired of living alone. So he went looking for a family.First, he went to Greece to find a dad.

Then he went to China to get a mom.

Now they are a happy family.

And the gnome has returned to our garden.

Happy Halloween! As you can see, things went well. My costume gave me a little grief, but it has a fun story behind it. When my sister went to China a few years ago to teach English, she brought me back a beautiful long, wrap-around skirt. The only problem was the fabric is really silky, which means it was a constant battle to keep the wrap-around skirt wrapped and not expose my slip and nylons. And of course, having to wear a slip didn't help anything either, but modesty demanded it. But it was so beautiful that I kept it. So when I decided to make an Asian inspired dress for Halloween, I went to JoAnn's for some fabric. I was choosing between blue and red, and I went with blue because I already had this beautiful skirt. But Johnny was sad cause he really wanted me to get the red fabric. So when he left on business a week or two later, I decided to surprise him by remaking my beautiful skirt into a smokin' hot dress. And it was a success, obviously. And I'm proud of myself because I wasted very little fabric and still managed to make it work. And I only cursed inside my head.

But because it was so challenging to make my costume, I didn't have time to make our original design for Johnny's costume--lederhosen. Oh, and we totally got tricked out of all our treats yesterday. We bough candy for trick-or-treaters, but because we haven't had many the last few years, we didn't buy a lot. And we would have been okay, but these four really greedy kids took handfuls of our candy, so we didn't have much after that and the night was still young. So we pretty much gave away everything pre-packaged in our house--granola bars, microwave popcorn, even Capri Suns. It was crazy, but next year we'll be better prepared, hopefully. And we probably won't be in Texas, so maybe the greediness will be not as big of a problem.