Preparing for Christmas

Todays picture is one of J's Christmas poses. In honor of the season! Merry Christmas everyone. This is my favorite time of year!

Last night was very nice. I got my living room somewhat straightened, got the last string of lights on my tree, and a couple of the ornaments. I vacuumed the little bits of tree off the floor so J won’t end up eating them. My kitchen is still a wreck, but if you just hang out in the living room the house looks nice. LOL

Tonight my intention was to go into town as soon as I pick up J and do a little shopping so that I don’t have to go back out tomorrow. But then my dad asked me if we could go shopping after work to get a present for my step-mom. (Today is their 11th anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!) So I guess it depends on how long that takes. I have to get some prescriptions filled, so if I can’t get to town before the pharmacy closes, then there’s no point in going. I’ll have to go the next day anyway. We’ll see what happens.

Today I realized that there is something going on every weekend through New Years’. I feel tired already just thinking about it. I have already told my family that they are welcome to come if they like, but I am going nowhere for Christmas. I am staying at home with my little family. I hope they all come to my house because I’d love to get together with them. Today I started planning for my Christmas dinner. Am I crazy to be thinking about that already? Maybe. But if I buy part of what I need each week, then it’s not such a huge bill all at once. So I am planning a whole new menu different from what I’ve traditionally had before. I hope everyone likes it.

The Sweetest Gift

The Sweetest Gift

The sweetest gift I never deserved came straight from Heaven above.
The purest expression of God’s creation and Mommy and Daddy’s love.

Your face so very beautiful, God’s own true work of art.
Each smile a drop of sunshine, to melt your Mommy’s heart.

I love you from your punkin head and little button nose,
Clear down to you chubby feet with such long skinny toes.

A crown of long dark baby hair upon your lovely head
Frames such an angelic face, as all who’ve seen you said.

The rest of the world seems to disappear when I hold you in my arms,
Cause I am so enraptured, a willing captive of your charms.

It’s an honor just to care for you and guide you as you grow.
And where this journey leads for us, only heaven knows.

The sweetest gift there ever was ‘tween earth and sky above
The Lord saw fit to give to me: my little baby’s love.

-heather nall 7-26-07

Just another day...

I've decided that I will add a photo to each post for a while. This one was taken with my cell phone when J was just twelve days old. We were in the hospital ER waiting room because we thought he had a very low body temp again (turns out it was a faulty thermometer....expensive way to figure that out!) and he was lethargic. That is, till we got all the way to town. Then, as you can see, he was quite chipper. LOL

Ok, so I didn't get nearly as much done last night as I wanted to. It was late before R got home. J was very well behaved, though. I did get some of the dishes and laundry done, but that is about all. I could have done more, but I wanted to go to bed early. I figured tonight would be a better night to stay up, since R will not be home tonight.

My Grandpa M went to the hospital again last night. They thought he was having a heart attack, but the hospital said he wasn't. They are not sure what the origin of his chest pain is, as they do not think it is heart or lung related. So they were going to give him pain meds for the night and resume testing today. I hope he feels better soon.

Not much else going on that I can think of. Little J man has been happy yesterday and today, so I guess he is feeling better. Tonight I plan to finish the Christmas tree, fold and put away laundry, and do the dishes. Hopefully I can get it all done. If I have time, I'd also like to get some more of my photos on a disc so that I can bring them to work and get them on here. We'll see how it goes.

Busy Days...

So, how has everyone been? Me? Oh, I guess you could just say...busy. R has been gone a lot recently with his job. He either comes home very late, or very tired, or not at all. So I am at home alone with J in the evenings. He has been a little fussy and demanding this week. I think his second tooth is working on coming through and this is what the trouble is. I had my house cleaned up last weekend. Honest I did. Not that you can tell it today. I go home everyday with such lofty goals and intentions. By 10:30 I have usually collapsed of exhaustion in the midst of the mess. Things will improve greatly if I can just get that stupid tree finished and get the boxes out of my living room! Boy, I am usually so enthusiastic about Christmas. And I still am, really. It's just the decorating that is getting to me. Many nights I end up feeling lonely. I miss my mom and R. Sure, I see my mom every day when I drop off and pick up J, but on the weekends she is taking her time to get stuff done, and spend time with my step-dad.

Here is the good news in my family: My brother J is coming home from Connecticut this weekend. He is moving back home to stay. Yeah!!! I love you and miss you J! We are having a late Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with my Daddy, Momma J, Brother J, and Sister J (My, I never noticed before what a J family we are....curious...) and her family. Brother J has never seen baby J before, so it should be lots of fun. He really is a baby nut.

Last night J got to try green beans for the first time. He seemed eager to eat them, even if they did make him gag a little bit. I think it had more to do with the consistency than the taste. They just are not as smooth as the stuff he's accustomed to. I ended up having to mix them with his rice, but he ate them all. He has been blowing raspberries lately, and he got on a royal raspberry roll in the middle of his supper last night. He blew green beans everywhere! It was too funny.

The Monday after Thanksgiving

Whew! What a long weekend it's been! I had both Thursday and Friday off work, which was wonderful. A full four days with my two men! Yes, R had Friday off as well. We were so blessed! It was a wonderful holiday, even if it did fly by all too quickly. Here is the rundown:

Thursday
We woke up and I baked a pan of pumkin bars to take to grandma's house. We tried to get around early enough to go to my other family's for a morning visit, but with J it just wasn't in the cards. We got to my grandma's at about 10:45. We had lots of fun visiting with family and having a yummy dinner in grandma's new house. This was the first big family get-together she's had there, and it went quite well. J had pumpkin for the first time. He liked it when I mixed it up with oatmeal and cinnamon. Yummy!

Friday
I had intended not to go anywhere at all on Friday. It was going to be the day for Christmas decorating. I spent the whole morning and early afternoon just getting my house clean. BIG chore! But it looked nice when I was done. Just about the time I was ready to get out the decorations, our friend G called and asked us to go over to his house. His son, daughter in law, and new grandson were visiting from Tennessee. So we loaded up J (a feat in itself) and headed to town. We had a great time there, chatting, playing cards, and playing with the other baby J. It began to snow. We headed home around 8:00 so we could get J all ready for bed. It was a pleasant day all together.

Saturday
We woke up to a beautiful 4" blanket of snow! It was very pretty. I got J and myself ready as quickly as I could and we headed for Wichita to do some shopping. I was looking for a snowsuit for J, and some type of barrier to put around the tree, since he has become quite an avid little traveler now. We started out at Babies R Us. It is a good thing that store isn't closer to home, because I could shop myself into the poor house easily in there! I found the "tree fence," as I call it, and a few other things. Then we headed to Burlington for a snowsuit for J. I found a really nice one. It is a bit too big, but the next smaller size was really kind of small, and would not have lasted through the winter. My Aunt C met us there with her daughter A. We had a nice visit and went to Wendy's for lunch together. After that I had to go to Wal Mart. J is getting to be such a big guy now! He likes to sit up in the front of the shopping cart. Actually, he has to be propped up a bit by blankets, but he enjoys it.....for a while. LOL Then he gets tired. He will sleep in the bottom part of the basket just fine, but if you have many items in there, it's not an option. Anyway, as he began to get restless, I began to get goofy, trying to entertain him. As he threw his head back, mouth wide open in the sweetest baby belly laugh......Something glinted! "Wait a minute," I said. "Come back here!" I looked again, and stuck my finger in his mouth and.....sure enough. J has his first tooth!!! It is the bottom right front tooth. I was so excited I practically danced in the aisle. (there were two other women there laughing at me) Then I said "Holy crap, J, we get EVERYTHING at Wal Mart!"

R put up our Christmas tree for me while J and I were shopping. He is such a darling man. He also put out some outdoor decorations and the nativity scene. That night our friend G and his family came to our house to visit. We had a really nice time. My baby J got a little confused when we put the other baby J into his jumperoo to check it out. I put frozen pizzas in the oven for supper. What a hostess, eh? Well, I was too pooped to cook.

Sunday
We got up and went to church. Advent season at last! I just love to sing Christmas hymns. It was nice. We went home and I intended to decorate the tree. Sadly, J had other ideas. He became a royal fuss-budget! He was very cranky all the rest of the day. I managed to get 5 strands of lights on the tree. Only two more strands to go and I can start putting on ornaments. I hope I can get at least the lights finished tonight. I think he is just in pain because a second tooth is coming quickly behind the first. I hope it comes through soon, because he does not want to do anything but sit in my lap right now, and even that isn't good enough some times. I must confess, though, that a part of me is glad that he wants to cuddle up with me so much. That part is really nice. Sunday evening my Dad and step-Mom came over for dinner. We had a very yummy tender steak that you could cut with a fork. They visited for a little bit and then went home. J was once again beeing a big ole' booger-head. I got into the bathtub with him. That always calms him down, though usually Daddy is the one to give him his bath, but I offered to to it that time since Daddy had a good show on TV he wanted to see. We had a fun time, then J was in his ba-dreamies, tummy filled with milk, and off to sleepy land he went. And Daddy and I joined him soon after.

Monday
So here it is on Monday. I have to be back to work today. I love my job, but it is really hard to leave J again after four solid days together. He woke up in a very good mood this morning, so I hope he acts better for his grandma that he did yesterday. I got to my office and noticed all the salesmen wearing their coats. Curious.....then noticed that it felt distinctly chilly inside. As it turns out, our gas had been shut off over the weekend, so our building had no heat for four days! BRRRRR!!!! The guys said it was 44 degrees inside when they opened up. Well, it's warmer now that we have the heat going again. I still feel a bit chilly, though. I'll be very glad to go home tonight and cuddle up on the couch with R and J and watch my TV show. "Heroes" is only the very best show on television, and the only one I can't stand to miss! There are only two more episodes left to save the world from the Shanti Virus! Oh no, whatever will they do?

Photos from J's first six months

Just another one of those days....

Have you ever had one? You know, one of those days? Those days where things just go wrong? Well, today is one of those for me! Big time!

To begin, my darling son woke up early. That's not a big deal, I love the extra time with him. But he has been exceptionally cranky lately. We think he's getting ready to cut his first tooth, and he is in pain and hard to comfort. So I was getting very little done besides hold him. I called Mom and asked if I could come drop him off early. Of course, she said no problem. So off I went to Mom's house in my PJ's, LOL. (Did I mention that my Mom's a saint?)

By the time I got home I was running very late, trying to pack a lunch, get dressed, wash my hair, eat some breakfast, etc. I thought I had it all pulled together by the time my Dad arrived. (he's my ride to work) At 9:15 this morning, I realized how wrong I was. I did not pack the crucial pieces of my breastpump! So now I am wondering just what kind of a day I'm going to have not being able to get relief all day, and what it's going to do to my supply!

Top that off by the fact that my darling husband called me this morning to make sure that I got out of bed ok. (earlier this week our electricity flashed after I had hit the snooze button!) Did I mention how much I love R, and how well he takes care of me? Anyway, the poor guy got unexpectedly sent to Co overnight last night and had no coat or hat with him. He went into a truckstop this morning to get some coffee and guess what? They declined his debit card. That means that I've done soemthing wrong and we are overdrawn! I don't know what went wrong. My checkbook shows we still have like $20. My darling husband was not mad at me at all, though, which he would have had a right to be. I hope he gets home soon today so that he can eat! Poor guy. It's tough being married to me sometimes!

A long but productive weekend!

Well, all in all I think we had a great weekend. Friday night we went out for supper in Hutch with R's boss and family. We had a great time.

Saturday morning J and I got up and around and headed for Hutch. J had to have his 6 month shots. (boo hoo) He did great! He cried when they poked him, but as soon as I picked him up, he was fine. We continued shopping at Dillons and then Wal Mart. I used his "big boy" car seat for the first time. He was getting way too big for the carrier style. That meant that I had to put him sitting up in the shopping cart. He did great at that too, just tended to lean quite a bit. By the time we got part way through Wal Mart he was soooo sleepy. I cleared out the basket, laid his blanket down, and he slept in the shopping basket. It was so sweet! But guess what? You cannot fit much into the seat section of a shopping cart! Good for you, J, you kept mommy from over spending! After that, we grabbed some burgers to bring home for me and R, and home we went. That afternoon, R and I did some work on raking up and bagging the leaves off the yard. (ok, it was mostly R, but I worked on it as long as J slept!) R worked on the VW and got it running again. YAY!!!

Sunday I started off my morning trying my hand at making homemade baby food. It was pretty easy. I got a batch of green acorn squash, one of butternut squash, and one of green beans done. Sunday afternoon, J and I headed back to Hutch AGAIN for my Great Aunt T's 90th birthday party! It was fabulously fun, and J charmed everyone, as usual. By the time we got home we were both exhausted. R had been working at home too, doing laundry and all sorts of things. So as J slept, we put in a movie, and soon it ended up being a family nap. It was nice.

R was off to bed early Sunday night, and gone before I woke up this morning. He is running like crazy this week Mon.-Wed. (by running, of course, I mean driving his Semi!) so that he can have Thanksgiving, Friday, and the weekend off. Can you imagine us both having four days off at the same time? It will either be wonderful, or we will be throwing heavy objects at each other by Saturday. We'll have to wait and see.

My little future preacher!

So last night was "lite night" at church. This consists of a nice meal, and bible study after. My little man did great through the meal. I fed him his rice cereal and sweet potatoes, and he sat in the high chair and played while the rest of us ate. Ok, it was more like leaning to the side than actual sitting, but he did very well being a big boy in the high chair. He was a quiet little angel. Till the Vicar began his bible study....then nothing would quiet James. Not a bottle, not a pacy, not his blanky....nothing! But he wasn't crying. Oh, no! He was talking and laughing and making eyes at all the people in bible study. He talked so loud we could hardly hear the Vicar at times. Luckily most people seemed to think it was cute. So, who knows, maybe my little man is practicing to be a preacher some day?????

Oh, and I can't forget to mention this: Last night at home, James rolled over from his tummy to his back. This was the first time I've ever seen him do this. And I hope he gets this crawling stuff figured out soon, because he cannot stop practicing at night! He does the "inch-worm" all night long, and when he gets to the end of the bed and is pushing his head on the bars, he cries till I come move him to the other end. He must have woke me a dozen times last night. I don't know how he rests doing all that moving in his sleep. I know I don't!

Here are some photos of my little guy at 6 months old. Isn't he a doll? He thought the baby in the mirror was the funniest thing he ever saw!

Ok, fine! I give!

Ok. My friend E has been pestering me for weeks to start a blog and I have resisted with force. I still insist I don't have the time to maintain it! But she mentioned me on hers last week, so in honor of her I've decided to cave in and give it a shot. We'll see if I can maintain it or not. Wish me luck.

P.S. Love ya E! Couldn't make it through a workday without you!