Raising Belle

Mommy Lesson Learned #1

2012-01-18T13:36:00.002-06:00

Okay, so this is definitely not the first "mommy" lesson that I've learned...it's probably closer to number 39485...but I've decided to start a new blog series with this title, and this is the first post, so I'm labeling it number 1.

Lately, Ella has really gotten into crayon art. Back in November, I taught her how to make "hand turkeys." You know...those things you used to make in kindergarten when you'd have somone trace your hand, and then you'd decorate it like a turkey? Well, she didn't care about the turkey part, but she really got into the "trace your hand" part, with the result that I now have to trace her hand at least 25 times every day. And that's where it all started.

But that's not where it ended. Oh, no, my friends.

We now have crayons all over the house. ALL OVER THE HOUSE. I find them between the seats of the couch, in the refrigerator, in my bed (how in the world??), in the plants, and in the bathtub. Sometimes I dream about them. They're taking over. It's no longer my house...it belongs to the crayons...

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Ella's art. Well, she's a true artist, in that she doesn't like to be bound by traditional art forms. For example, most people use crayons to draw on paper. And she does that, too...but why stop there? The refrigerator door is so blank - why not make it "pretty?" The windows are so clean and bare...why not add a little crayon action? In fact, why not draw on the freshly painted white window frame, too? The possibilities are endless.

That's why we have a washable crayon only policy in our house. You can wash those things off walls, refrigerators, windows, and floors with just a little soap and water. Easy peasy. Smart mommy, huh? That's what I thought, too.

Until today.

Today I found crayons in a new place. The clothes dryer. NOT COOL. Ella often "helps" me do the laundry, and occasionally when I'm loading the washer, I find a toy or a stuffed animal stuck in the clothes...I guess she likes her toys clean. But somehow I missed the pink crayon that she hid inside the load of white stuff I was washing last night. I didn't discover this until they came out of the dryer...pink tie-dyed bath towels, kitchen towels, and shirts. AHHHH!

I couldn't figure out what to do. It was melted onto the clothes, so I didn't know how to get it off. So I did the only thing I could think to do. I put the whole load back into the washing machine with hot water, soap, and bleach. I figured it couldn't hurt, and it might help.

Friends, it worked. It WORKED!! When I took them out of the washer to put them into the dryer again, the pink was gone!

So what is the mommy lesson here?
Is it to examine all of your clothes before you put them into the washer? No.
Is it to keep your kid out of the laundry? No.
Is it to limit your child's crayon usage? No.

The lesson is...drumroll...

ONLY buy washable crayons. They're awesome. And don't teach your kid about hand turkeys.

Flyin High

2011-12-19T20:25:00.000-06:00

First of all, THANK YOU to all of the friends and famly that prayed for me today while Ella and I flew to Atlanta. I was very nervous about this flight, since James wouldn't be there to take care of Ella in case I got sick. I woke up this morning feeling pretty bad, and I finally decided to take a double dose of my Zofran. You can either take 4mg every 4 hours or you can take 8 mg every 6 hours. James made the executive decision to have me take the high dose, and I had a much better day today.

We took a wheelchair to the plane, since I wanted to rest as much as possible. Ella and I flew AirTran, and I love this airline. The people are helpful and friendly, and the flight attendants are so accommodating. I really appreciate all of their help today. Ella was also a perfect little angel on the flight. Usually she gets antsy and wants to get down on the floor and run all over the place, but today, she just sat quietly on my lap, read books, and ate animal crackers. She smiled and cuddled, and even let me get up to go to the bathroom, while the flight attendants watched her. That's a HUGE deal, since she usually gets hysterical if her parents go somewhere she can't see them. But not today. She just read her book and hung out until I got back. Praise the Lord!!!

Now I'm at my parents' house, and I'm going to get a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow we've got cousins coming over to play with her, and then on Wednesday, James will be here. Thanks again for all of your prayers. Please keep praying for me...I'm not out of the woods yet.

Checkin' In

2011-12-18T20:16:00.002-06:00

Hi again. I feel like I should warn you that I have no idea where this post is going. I just realized that it's been awhile since I wrote anything, so I figured I should put something up on the blog. I guess I'll update you on how everyone is doing at our house...

James is very tired. He's been having to play super-daddy every day, since I'm out of commission. He adores his little girl, and he loves to play with her, but it wears him out quickly. He took her out of the house all morning and all afternoon today, since I had a very rough day and needed rest. She loved the attention, but he's just DONE. So I advised him to sit on the couch and play Call of Duty for a few hours tonight. He put on his headphones, picked up his PS3 controller, and checked out. Poor guy.

Ella is doing pretty well, but she's definitely feeling a lack of hands-on playtime from her mommy. She's so used to having me down on the floor with her or reading books in the rocking chair during the day, and I know that she's confused to see me lying on the couch. She keeps coming over and trying to pull me off the couch, like it's a game of hide-and-go-seek or something. Poor baby. Thankfully, she and I are headed to my parents' house for a week tomorrow, with James to follow us on Wednesday, so she will get lots of attention while we're there. Hopefully she will let people play with her and not go into "I don't know who you are and I want my mommy" mode. I guess we'll see.

And how am I? Well, I'm sick. Really sick. I had a BAD afternoon, and if that keeps happening, I'm going to talk to my doctor about putting me on the Zofran pump rather than the pills. Right now, I'm dealing with extreme nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, stomach cramps, dizziness, and other things. There are some good moments when I feel almost normal...but they are fleeting and rare. Hopefully this won't last 70% of my pregnancy like it did last time, but I'm not going to get too hopeful and set myself up for frustration and disappointment. Mentally, it's just better for me to be prepared, and then I can be pleasantly surprised if it is better than I expect.

Okay, well I would write more, but I need to go throw up. See ya.

Blessedly Sick

2011-12-11T12:15:00.001-06:00

Weird title, I know. But that's just how it is these days.

I'm sure you've all heard by now our wonderful news that I'm pregnant with baby number two, and we're very excited!!! However, this comes with a catch...I'm pregnant. And when I get pregnant, I get a little monster called "hyperemesis gravidarum." Those of you who were here when I was pregnant with Ella will remember that I got this beast of a medical condition, which is defined as, “debilitating and potentially life-threatening pregnancy disease marked by rapid weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration due to unrelenting nausea and/or vomiting.” (You can read about it at http://helpher.org/ if you are interested.) Last time, I had to be hospitalized to get it under control, and I had been hoping that wouldn't happen this time.

Well, I wasn't so lucky...and last Saturday, I ended up in the emergency room at Barnes Hospital with pretty bad dehydration. They pumped me with not one but TWO liters of IV fluid, and I felt well enough to go back home. Thankfully, my body responds to a medication called Zofran, which was developed to help chemotherapy patients deal with nausea, and is safe during pregnancy, so I am taking that every 4 hours, all day. This medicine has side effects of its own which aren't fun, but they're better than constant debilitating nausea, so I'm really thankful to have it.

So that's why you haven't heard from me in awhile. I'm currently seven and a half weeks along with little peanut, so I've got a long way to go! I'm due a few weeks after we move to Savannah this summer, so this will be a Georgia-born kid. Love it.

Here's a picture of little peanut from the ER sonogram machine, at a little over 6 weeks along...

Here's a closeup...

I'm scheduled to go to the OB's office for the first time on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll have more pictures to share!

Cinderella

2011-11-09T17:17:00.000-06:00

What was Ella for Halloween?

I'm so glad you asked!

She was...drumroll please....Cinderella!

It seemed appropriate, given her nickname, as well as her overwhelming obsession with the movie. It's one of two Disney movies that she asks to watch every single day...all day. No, we don't actually let her watch tv every day, but she would have this one on repeat if we allowed it. She was delighted with her costume...

I've never taken her trick-or-treating before, but the block behind our house is really safe, and we have lots of friends back there, so this year, we did it. Here we are, all ready to go!

James had a really bad cold, so he didn't feel up to going. Instead, my friend Katie came with us. She was pretty excited, and Ella was thrilled to have her along!

Once we got home, I bathed Ella and put her to bed. Then Katie and I ate her candy.

The End.

How Deep the Father's Love For Us

2011-10-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard this song? I've been thinking a lot about it lately...

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

...more on why later...

Prepare for Landing...

2011-10-13T14:08:00.002-05:00

Normally, I try not to share diaper incidents on this blog.

Okay, maybe just one.

Yesterday, I flew with Belle from St. Louis to Atlanta on AirTran. We're going to attend my sister's baby shower and my mom's birthday party this weekend. Since James is coming on Friday after work, I decided to go ahead and bring both of our bags, so that he wouldn't have to take luggage to work. This made it cost-effective for me to upgrade to business class, so I sat in row 3, right beside a kind middle-aged gentleman, with Belle in my lap.

This kid has been on some airplanes in her 19 months of life, by the way. 29 of them, in fact. She's a pretty frequent flyer.

Okay, back to the story.

So there I am, sitting with Belle, happily reading Goodnight Gorilla, when the pilot comes on the intercom to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are beginning our final descent into the Atlanta airport. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts fascined, and we will be on the ground momentarily..."

That's when I smelled it.

And it was BAD.

About a thousand thoughts rushed through my head all at once...
"What did she eat for lunch??"
"So THAT's why she wanted to squat down on the floor!"
"I hope it didn't get on her clothes."
"I wonder if these people think that's ME."

But the thought that crowded out all the others was this...I'm in BUSINESS class. These people did not sign up for the full Ella experience. They paid good money for these seats, and they shouldn't have to smell this for the next 15 minutes. I've got to fix it.

So I risked my life, stood up, laid her on the seat, and changed her then and there.

Yes, I took one for the upper middle-class team, of which I am not even close to being a member.

I broke a federal law for a dirty diaper.

Recurrence of the Plague

2011-09-27T15:18:00.005-05:00

So, we're all sick.

Again.

Thanks, mom of that little kid in the cry room at church who let your sick kid grab all my healthy kid's toys and wipe snot all over them before telling me TWENTY MINTUES LATER that your kid was "really sick."

That was really considerate of you.

If You Give a Toddler a Cookie...

2011-09-19T21:28:00.000-05:00

Have you ever read that children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?"

Well, here's the Ella version...

If you give a toddler a cookie, she's going to want a glass of milk.

If you get her a glass of milk, she's going to remember that it comes from a cow.

If she thinks about cows, she's going to run upstairs to the playroom to get her book about farm animals.

If she runs upstairs to the playroom, she will stop on the stair landing to play with your glass candle holders.

If you ask her to stop playing with the glass candle holders, she will turn around and run up the rest of the stairs to the playroom.

If she gets to the playroom, she will start sorting through her toys to look for her book.

If she sorts through her toys to find her book, she will find her bucket and shovel that she used to play in the sand at the beach.

If she finds her beach toys, she will run to her room to find her bathing suit.

If she pulls out her pink bathing suit, she will want to wear it.

If she wants to wear it, she will put it on...over her clothes.

If she puts on her bathing suit over her clothes, you have to take a picture.

If you have to take a picture, she will have to smile and look adorable.

If she looks that adorable, you will inevitably give her another cookie.

Don't believe me?

Well, here's the proof...

Porch!!!!

2011-09-04T09:04:00.001-05:00

Our front porch is a disaster. Or, rather, it was a disaster.

See?

The sad tale of the porch cracking history is unknown to me, but I do know that these cracks have made it impossible to sell our house. We haven't had the money to get the porch fixed, but recently we faced the fact that it had to be done, found a good contractor, and took the plunge.

This week, the guys showed up to do the work, and it was really interesting to watch it happen! Let me introduce you to Rusty, the guy in charge of the work crew. He likes to use drills, hammers, and chisels...

They took off the top layer of tile and cement...

This is what it looked like at the end of the first day, after they carted off most of the rubble.

On day two, they dropped by for half an hour to power wash the surface.

Then, on day three, they laid wire mesh before pouring the concrete.

We had to wait a bit for the truck, but at last, it arrived!

Ella was so excited. She had been supervising the process carefully in her pajamas.

The guys started bring up wheelbarrows of concrete and dumping them over the wire mesh.

Then they spread it out with these little hand tools.

They did the initial smoothing with a 2 x 4 plank.

Then they used this thing to push the concrete down and make sure there were no holes underneath.

Despite the fact that it was nap time, Ella pulled her chair over to the door and watched the whole process. Notice the change of attire...she let me change her clothes, but she wouldn't leave her observation point.

This was another smoothing tool.

Here was how it looked after they smoothed it with the tool above.

At this point, I had to leave to go to work, so I didn't get any more pictures. They waited for the surface to harden a little, and then they smoothed it one more time and scraped a special tool over it to give it a little bit of texture.

Then we waited 2 days for it to harden....and voila! A new front porch!

Hopefully potential buyers will think that this is a big improvement, and someone will make us an offer.

Raising Belle

2011-08-15T21:58:00.004-05:00

You might have noticed the new blog title. Or maybe not! In any case, I've been trying to figure out what to name this blog since we don't have our dog anymore, and I've settled on "Raising Belle."

Wanna know why?

Well, it's pretty simple. Our little girl has several nicknames, one of the most popular of which is "Belle." This is really a shortened version of Ellabelle, which was another nickname of hers. (James is big on the nicknames....he's got a million of 'em.) It's appropriate for several reasons. First, she's beautiful, and "belle" is the French word for beautiful. Second, her mama is Southern, and soon she will also live in the deep South, so she will be a little Southern Belle. Finally, she's a little wild woman, so it makes sense to give a nod to the expression, "raising hell"....thus, we are Raising Belle!!

Enjoy!

Adventures in Spaghetti

2011-08-13T20:52:00.006-05:00

I might have gone a little bit nuts at the farmers' market in Tower Grove Park this morning. Okay, maybe I went a LOT nuts...whatever. Since James is on call all weekend, I figured I'd spend a little time in the kitchen working on my spaghetti sauce recipe. Over the past 10 years or so, I've used a spaghetti sauce recipe that starts with a commercially jarred sauce, simply adding fresh ingredients to that base. But I thought it would taste even better if everything in the sauce was fresh, so today I decided to experiment.

Here's the lineup...onions, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, carrots, olive oil, wine, garlic powder, onion powder, san marzano tomatoes, and fresh herbs.

A really huge cast iron pot...

...an even bigger cutting board...

...lots of fresh herbs on the back deck...

Unfortunately, I had to buy the tomatoes, since the local wildlife have already enjoyed ALL of mine on my behalf. Stupid squirrels.

So here's what I did. I chopped up the onions.

...and the carrots...

I made the carrots really small, so they'd soften quickly, and I tossed them (along with the onions) into the pot with olive oil to soften up for about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, I peeled and grated the garlic. Yes, I grate my garlic rather than chopping it. Just call me Rachael Ray.

The next step is where things went awry. I thought that I would make the tomato puree by pulsing some canned San Marzano tomatoes in the food processor. They are supposed to taste great, because they grow in the fertile soil at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, and they're really famous. Well, let me tell you that I didn't really like the taste. SO....I made two batches - one with the SM tomatoes pureed, and one with some tomatoes from the farmers' market pureed. I liked the fresh stuff much better. Lesson learned.

Then, I chopped up some (like a LOT of) tomatoes and threw them in the pot.

For some extra tomato goodness, I put in some tomato paste.

Then I picked some basil and oregano from the garden, chopped it, and tossed it in.

Then I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a little sugar, and about a fourth of a bottle of chianti. I let that simmer for about an hour, and it was fabulous!!

The stuff with the fresh tomatoes was much tastier than the stuff with the canned ones, although they were both much better than what you buy in the spaghetti sauce section of the grocery store. Why not try to make your own? It's actually not hard, and it's delicious!!

House Cleaning

2011-08-12T13:57:00.003-05:00

Ella's hanging out in her high chair eating lunch, chowing down on hotdogs, black beans, spanish rice, and wheat bread. Someday, she'll realize that those things aren't meant to be eaten together, but for now, she thinks I'm the next Paula Dean, so I'm going to go with it. Besides, I'm having brain freeze.

Why, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you. I just cleared over 3000 emails out of my inbox. I had to sort them through, rather than just deleting the whole inbox, because there were some things in there that had to be saved. It's mind-numbing, which is why I haven't done it in probably 2 years. I'm so glad that's done. I really need to do my other email address's inbox, too, but I'll save that for another day.

In other news, we're back home from Saratoga, and we had a BLAST. I'll do some blog posts about it soon, so that you can see what we did. I've unpacked the suitcases, straightened up the house, and now I need to go to the grocery store.

Okay, Ella's done with lunch and wants to get down, so I'd better go. Bye!

Backyard Fun!

2011-08-03T22:10:00.004-05:00

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the mythical "heat dome" that is trapping a horrible weather system over the midwestern United States, causing record high temperatures for weeks this summer. And if you haven't heard about it, I want to know where you live, so that I can live there, too.

But anyway.

After six straight weeks of telling Ella that she couldn't play outside because it was too hot, James and I realized that we needed a new strategy. Our little girl has breathing problems, and they get worse (like scary worse) when she gets overheated, so I couldn't just let her run around in the yard. Then, we went to the seminary's summer picnic, where they had kiddie pools set up outside, along with a slip and slide (blast from the past!) for the kids to cool off from the heat. (The Dean of Students also climbed into the pool and took several runs down the slip and slide, too. That's why we love him.) That gave us an idea...we needed to buy our own pool!

So the next day, we went to Target and got a fun little blow-up pool, and Ella thought it was the greatest thing ever. Here's how it works. Ella wakes up, and we do our usual morning and afternoon routine. Then, around the time that James usually comes home from work, she starts making periodic trips to the front door to look out at the street and see if daddy is home yet. I eventually get her a little popsicle to combat the heat, and we go out to sit on the front porch and wait. Before too long, she sees his car pull up, and he gets out. She squeals, "DADDY!!!!" as he walks up, and she starts to jump around and run into the house. Before he even gets his shoes off or puts his keys down, she starts trying to pull him towards the back door. After a few minutes, he humors her, and she leads him to the garage, where they pull out the swimming pool, as I head upstairs to get swimsuits for both of them.

It's adorable. Seriously.

You might notice all of the letters and numbers floating around in the water...those are her bath toys. She loves to bring them downstairs and put them in the pool.

Ella doesn't seem to think the pool is nearly as much fun if James doesn't get into it and splash with her. She's such a sweetheart.

CinderElla

2011-07-30T22:20:00.002-05:00

Ella has discovered Disney animated movies this month, and she seems particularly taken with one in particular...Cinderella. (This is probably because they keep saying "Ella" in the movie.) She always loves the scenes where the mice are singing and dancing as they do their work. Apparently, this has inspired her to start doing some work of her own....

However, that broom is a bit big for such a little person...

But don't worry. She's pretty sure she can handle it.

See?

Pink Slippers

2011-07-28T21:40:00.004-05:00

It's amazing to watch a kid learn to love something. To see them go from a sleepy, tiny infant to an actual kid who has ideas and opinions. Lately, Ella has developed quite a fancy for shoes. Any kid of shoes. Large ones, small ones, in between ones, red ones, black ones, shiny ones, ones with heels, ones that you run in, ones that you dance in, and other ones. She'll raid my closet at any time of day she can reach it. Pretty much every morning when I am busy making the bed, she comes in to join me for a shoe session. She'll throw James's red tie around her neck out of his closet, slip on my high heels, and prance around until people start to admire her. She LOVES the ones with heels.

But her pink slippers are her special shoes.

I think that she feels like a princess in these slippers. She hunts them up every day, puts her tiny toes into them, and then gives you the "...okay, now I feel SO pretty" look.

Of course, her favorite thing to do is dance in them...after all, isn't that what slippers are meant for?

Booster Seat

2011-07-27T18:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn't post much this month. You might have noticed, ha, ha! July has just been a month where things went crazy at work, and now I'm just starting to get a handle on things again. In any case, I will probably start doing some short little posts for awhile, so that I can post more often. I've been struggling with wanting to write, and then realizing that I don't have time to write all that I want to say, so I don't end up writing anything. I'm just going to do some short posts for awhile, and see how that goes.

Lately, Ella has started sitting in a "big girl" chair at lunch and dinner, with a booster seat to help her little 27" frame reach the food on the table. She's so proud of herself, and she often goes around the dining room table, climbing up on each chair to try it out and see what the view looks like from each spot. I finally got her to stop climbing up onto the table...at least for now.

Fortunately, this seems to be helping us to solve the problems we were having at restaurants, too. She used to always insist on standing up in her high chair, so we would have a wrestling match every time we went out to dinner. Now, she doesn't do that because she likes sitting at the table with us and joining in the conversation.

Now if she could just get her daddy to let her drink out of his cup and eat off his plate, life would be awesome!

Changes

2011-07-06T21:45:00.000-05:00

Well, friends, I've got a sad announcement to make. After much careful consideration for several months, we have decided that we can't keep our dog Max, and we took him back to the Humane Society today. (You might note that the title of the blog has changed, and it will change again when I figure out what I want to call it now.)

This was a really hard decision for us (it involved some tears), but we truly feel that he needs a lot more space than we can give him, and we owed it to him to allow him to find a new family. He's been a good friend, and we will miss him, but this was really the right thing for us to do. Thanks for everyone who called or emailed to let us know how sorry they were about this - we appreciate it!

Slide!

2011-07-05T23:07:00.004-05:00

I love playing with my little girl. She is so much fun, and it is such a joy to watch her learn and explore. Lately, she's been learning how to play on the playground, and she particularly loves to come down the slide. She's often a little too brave, and she will try to come down a slide that is too high for her.

Here's a cute picture that our friend Mary Martha took a couple of weeks ago on the seminary playground...

Sweet girl!

Blooming in June

2011-06-29T14:44:00.001-05:00

Well, things have been wild lately, so I thought I'd post some pictures of a place of respite...my back yard. I used to really dislike this time of year, because spring is finished, and the flowers all start to die. The grass can get a little brown from the heat, and the stuff that was so pretty just a few weeks ago isn't so pretty anymore. Then, I learned to plant stuff that can survive the heat...and I started to like mid-summer! (I'm still trying to find stuff that can bloom in mid-January, under a foot of snow, so if you are aware of anything for THAT time of year, let me know...)

Well, thus far, the heat has knocked back the roses, and the lilies are pretty much done for the year, but the hot weather flowers are starting to come into their own. Take a look...

Here are the green beans. They're SUPPOSED to be bush beans, because I'm tired of dealing with climbers, but they're not acting like bush beans. Very aggravating.

Here are some squash and cucumber plants...with a huge weed in the background by the bag of garden soil =)

I love these flowers - they look like firecrackers!

Pretty daisies.

This is our purple phlox, which James likes to call the "P-flox allstars." He's so strange.

Purple puffballs.

Red Don Juan climbing roses.

Last of the yellow lillies.

Pink double knock-out roses.

Last of the pink lillies.

Can't remember what these are called.

Red snap dragons!

Pink climbing roses.

Last of the maroon lilies.

White marigold.

Here are some tomatoes!!!

Here's a shrub rose!

Clematis, climbing on the back gate.

Purple asters.

And my favorite of all the blossoms in the garden...

She's my sweet little under-gardener!

Playing with her daddy's pager and cell phone...

...oh, wait...I'm not supposed to have these?

Sweet little Belle.

Hilton Head Adventures

2011-06-14T23:04:00.039-05:00

Well, I've been gone for awhile, as you might have noticed. (Or maybe not.) We had a very sick kid a couple of weeks ago, and then as soon as she recovered, we headed off to Hilton Head Island with the Patton crew for a week at the beach. Last year, Ella was way too young to really enjoy the beach, but this year, she was right in the thick of it.

My sister took some portraits of us, which turned out really well. Here's Ella goofing off...

Looking at a shell we found on the beach...

Little ham, playing in her tutu bathing suit bottom...

Loving on her Daddy...

The first morning we were there, we put her in her bathing suit and walked to the water. James wanted to introduce her to the ocean, but she wasn't too sure about the feeling of the sand moving under her feet...

She totally freaked out...

...so we had the brilliant idea of putting her flip-flops on her, and she calmed down. Score!!

Later that day, her cousins showed her how to play in the sand, and she gained some confidence. These are those same cousins who taught her how to walk, and they are now teaching her how to talk. I should really keep them around more often...

She eventually gained enough confidence to walk to the water on her own.

And she even played in the tide pool!

On Wednesday, we drove to Savannah for a visit to my grandmother. Of course, we also stopped by River Street Sweets, my favorite candy store in the world. I handed Ella to James, who took her straight to the candy aisle. By the time I showed up again, she had her mouth FULL of gummy candy (notice the huge cheeks here), and her hands were going back for more...straight from the bin. Rather than stopping her from eating this candy (which we had not purchased, obviously), James just grabbed the camera.

Look at that innocent face, as if she doesn't know she's not supposed to eat this stuff...

Of course, her favorite part of the week was playing with her four favorite kids in the world - her cousins Madeline, Anna Kate, Violet, and Tyler!

Happy Meal

2011-05-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

Recently, Ella experienced a rite of passage...her first Happy Meal from McDonalds. Just to reassure those of you who are cringing, please be assured that we almost never eat fast food. In fact, this is probably the first time I've been to a fast food joint this year.

But I digress.

We went through the drive through and got her a chicken nugget meal with apple slices.

I cut her nuggets up so that they would cool off enough to eat.

and I spread out her apple slices...notice the little bites in them...

...but of course, all she was interested in was the toy!

See?

At this point, I was thinking about how much healthier these happy meals were than the ones that I ate as a kid. Apple slices instead of french fries? Awesome!

And then, right when I was about to throw away the bag, I noticed something.

What is that?

Caramel Dip? Seriously? NOT COOL. What's the point of feeding your kid apples if they're covered in sugar?

Oh well. I guess that's why they're called Happy Meals instead of Healthy Meals.

Working Questions...

2011-05-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

I read this recently on my friend Dara Lynn's blog "The Space Between" and I felt that it was too good not to re-post. Guaranteed to get a laugh!

Stay-At-Home vs. Working Parents
Questions to help spouses bridge the communication gap
By Heather Rigby | May 19, 2011
-www.babble.com-

When you decide to become a stay-at-home parent, you enter into a different realm — one ruled by illogical two-year-old dictators, school schedules, and choosing the correct color yogurt. As much as I can explain this to my husband, I don’t know that I’m getting through. Now I’ve done the next best thing: creating a list of questions that will help him and other office-bound parents gauge how (cough, cough) similar their days are to ours.

1.When you walked into work this morning and pleasantly greeted your co-worker Jim, was his first reaction to scream “NO! WANT JASON!" followed by an office supply being thrown at you?

2.Has a colleague ever climbed up on your lap while you were using your computer and slammed the keyboard with both fists until the up arrow no longer worked?

3.Do you have to lock yourself in the supply closet or bathroom on a regular basis in order to make phone calls?

4.Did you finish a complete thought at any time during the day?

5.When you went out to lunch with your fellow workers, did you have to pack a diaper/juice/extra outfit for them? Did you have to wipe their faces? Smile an apology and leave an extra tip for the waiter on their behalf?

6.When a co-worker needed you for something, did she sit at her desk with her head tilted back toward the ceiling and repeatedly scream “SEAN! SEEEEANNNN! SEAAAAAAN!” until you came to find him?

7.When you needed a specific colleague, did you search all over for him, only to finally find him giggling in the cabinet under the sink? Did you also find six pairs of your church shoes under there with him?

8.Have you had to come to an associate’s aid because she fell off her desk after trying to climb on top of it using a rolling chair?

9.When you reached for the report a co-worker was handing you, did he snatch them away at the last second and scream “MINE!” while shoving you backwards?

10.Does your colleague lift up her shirt and pick things out of her belly button every time she comes over to ask a question?

11.While you are using the restroom, do various co-workers come in the stall and ask you to settle a disagreement or open a packet of fruit snacks?

12.During a board meeting when everyone is present, do you notice a smell and then have to check all your colleagues’ pants to locate it? In fact, at ANY point in your day do you have to deal with another person's feces?

If the answer to most of these questions is no, it’s a safe bet to assume you’re in an office. That said, if your answer to most of these questions is yes, and you know you’re in an office, it’s safe to assume you might need a new job.

Unfurling...

2011-05-15T17:10:00.001-05:00

Our yard is starting to look nice for the summer. Hostas, impatiens, and hydrangeas in the front...

peonies...

climbing Don Juan roses...

clematis climbing by the back gate...

not sure what these are, because we didn't plant them, but they're pretty...

pink climbing roses...

Rainy Day Thoughts

2011-05-14T17:17:00.000-05:00

So I'm the only person awake in our house right now. Ella is upstairs asleep in the crib, James is asleep on one end of the couch, and Max is snoring on the other end of the couch. I'd love to nod off myself, but I know that the moment I do, the baby will wake up, so I'm going to fight the urge.

Why is everyone in dreamland?

I'm not completely sure, but there are several possible reasons:
1) We've had a virus going around our house, so we are all worn out and not feeling our best.
2) It's one of those weird, cold, rainy, misty, dark, stay-in-the-house-and-sleep days that you only seem to get in St. Louis during the month of May. Did I mention that it's the month of MAY right now? Because I think the weather might think it's actually early March...
3) We've been staying up too late instead of going to bed early because we've had a lot going on, so we're sleepy anyway.
4) We got up and did errands today, and it's tiring to haul around a baby, a carseat, a diaper bag, food, and whatever stuff you bought at the store.

So, I'm sure one of those is the reason that everyone else is asleep. Or maybe all of them. Or maybe 3/4 of them. Who knows?

On the Market

2011-05-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally listed our house on the market! Here's the listing, if you want to check it out...

http://bit.ly/3952Arsenal-MLS

Response to Bin Laden's Death

2011-05-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of days, I've heard a lot of responses to Bin Laden's death. Here's a sampling....

1) Good Riddance - wish we'd gotten him a long time ago!

2) They shouldn't have shot him, because that was murder...they should have brought him in for a fair trial. (This one is mostly from lawyers that I know. Not sure they care about justice so much...but I know they like to showcase the legal system...)

3) It's wrong to rejoice over anyone's death, even an enemy who wronged you. (This one is usually followed by a quote from Martin Luther King.)

So how do I feel?

Well, I am not dancing on his grave, but I am glad he's dead. There are two reasons for that...

First, because I feel like it makes the world a little bit safer for my family. Osama Bin Laden made it very clear that as long as he lived, he would dedicate his life to slaughtering the innocent who disagreed with his religious views. He also ordered his men to shoot him if it looked like he would be captured alive, so that was not going to happen. Therefore, the only way to stop him was to take him out. So we did.

Second, I believe in justice, and that's what OBL got. The Bible allows those in authority to take an eye for an eye in order to prevent reprisals that were out of proportion to necessary punishment for wrongdoing. Do we all get justice? No, thank God. We are shown mercy, and he withholds the punishment that we deserve. I am so thankful that I don't always get what I deserve for my sins. However, sometimes God chooses to extend his hand of justice in defense of the innocent, and I truly believe that is what happened here. You may disagree, and I respect that. But this is what I believe.

So how do I feel? I feel happy because I feel a little safer. I feel sad because a man went to hell. But most of all, I feel like the decision was in the hands of an Almighty God. And I won't question it.

Planting Tomatoes

2011-05-02T20:29:00.002-05:00

Every spring, we plant tomatoes that we can use in the fall for spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce, and things like that....YUM! I usually try to get the plants into the ground by the first of May, so yesterday, we set to work. First, my trusty assistant and I picked a good spot and decided how to organize them....

Then, we got down to business digging holes.

I like to mix lots of good soil into the hole before putting in the plant. My preference is MiracleGro, but there are lots of other good brands out there. The organic stuff is okay, too, but the plants won't grow as well.

My lovely helper decided to rearrange the pots while I dug the holes...

When you're ready to put the tomatoes in the holes, you need to pick off the bottom leaves and branches. I know this seems strange, but here's why: You know how tomato plants have really "hairy" stems? Well, if you bury those stems, they will shoot roots out into the soil. Since tomatoes don't usually have very deep root systems, you need to give them all the help they can get.

So, you pick off the branches from the bottom two-thirds of the plant, and then you bury the plant up to the point where you stopped taking off the branches.

You might find a new friend in the process, by the way. This is an earthworm named Larry.

I put him into the hole, because earthworms are great for the soil. Their casings help to make the soil healthier for plants, and the holes that they dig aerate it.

I love to use these tomato cages that I bought from the Burpee company. They've lasted me 6 years now, and they're still in great condition. Also, you can attach extenders to them when the plants get too tall for them.

If you can't get those cages, here are the old school round cages from the hardware store. They work, too, but the plant will eventually outgrow them.

So that's how we do it around here! Of course, we still need to mulch, but we ran out of that, so it looks like I'm headed back to the store...

House for Sale!

2011-04-20T16:40:00.006-05:00

After a month of preparation, I think that we're finally ready to put our house on the market! We haven't officially listed yet, so I thought I'd post some pictures and information to see if anyone would like to buy the house before any realtors (and their fees!) are factored into the price. Please let me know if you're interested - you can feel free to leave a comment on this post, or you can email me at klp5r@hotmail.com and we'll chat!

This is a pretty 2 story, red brick 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home in the historic Tower Grove Park neighborhood. We also have a gorgeous back yard and a large unfinished basement, which is great for storage. Every room has either tile floors (kitchen, front hall, and bathrooms) or dark wood floors (all other rooms). The electricity has been updated, with new light fixtures installed. We have new appliances in the kitchen, which includes a gas range, dishwasher, refrigerator, and garbage disposal. We also put in a completely new sewage line shortly after buying the house and a new wooden privacy fence around the back yard.

UPDATE: I just discovered that Alive Magazine has listed our neighborhood as the BEST St. Louis neighborhood in which to live! Look here to read the article!

Okay, now for some pictures!

The front of the house...

We have three bedrooms upstairs, and this is the first one. Initially, we had a full-sized adult bed in here, but right now, we have a crib in it because we use it for the baby's room...

Next to it is the master bedroom. We have a four-poster, king-sized bed in here, along with two large dressers.

And now for the guest room. This is actually the largest bedroom, and it has a lovely fireplace in it. The window looks across the street into the park. Right now, we've got a queen bed, two large bookshelves, a tall chest of drawers, and a treadmill in this room.

This is the upstairs full bathroom. It has a gorgeous cast iron claw-footed tub, which I was original to the house.

The final room upstairs is the office/playroom/optional fourth bedroom. Originally, the people who built the house used this as a fourth bedroom, and we used it as an office until we had our daughter. Now she plays in here every day, and she loves to look out the double windows at the park when she sits at the table and has her tea parties.

Okay, now for the downstairs. The living room has a gorgeous ceiling, and a fireplace with beautiful stained glass doors at the top. We never got around to mounting our flat-screen television on the wall, but there's a perfect spot for that, if you want to do it.

The living room opens into the dining room, which also has a very pretty gas-log working fireplace. The window faces north into Tower Grove Park.

The living room opens into the house's large entryway, which includes floor-to-ceiling glass doors for a great view across into the park.

The entryway has a gorgeous carved wood staircase, with a bench seat and a tall stained glass window.

Here is the sliding pocket door between the living room and the dining room...

The original intricately-designed door handles and locks have been preserved on all of the interior doors.

And now, we move to the kitchen. As I mentioned before, we have new applicances in the kitchen, which includes a gas range, dishwasher, refrigerator, and garbage disposal. The kitchen has three windows, which gives it lots of light!

We added additional shelving and a rolling butcher-block countertop to increase the space.

The backyard has been planted with gorgeous brick-lined beds, full of lovely perennials and annuals. Of course, early in the spring, the perennials are just starting to show their faces! We've got 29 roses, including climbers, tree roses, shrub roses, knock-out roses, and traditional roses, as well as lilac, daisies, lobelia, 7 mature peonies, phlox, chrysanthemums, and much more. There is a perfect spot in the back beside the garage for a vegetable garden. We plant 8 tomato plants each summer, plus herbs, lettuce, potatoes, squash, beans, and zucchini. Of course, our daughter just loves to play on the grass!

Here is the view of Tower Grove Park from our front porch.

We've really enjoyed living here, and we're sad to sell, but my husband's job has us moving out of state, so we must. If you're interested, or you know anyone who might be interested in buying, please let me know!

Following Blogs?

2011-04-17T12:38:00.000-05:00

So I recently discovered that I've got two people "following" my blog. I think this means that when I post something, they get an email about it. (Or a text message, or something.) Do you follow my blog? Would you like to? I'd be happy to have as many people follow as would like to.

I'm curious about people who "follow" blogs. I follow a bunch of them, but I track them on the sidebar of my blog over here --------->

It might be much more efficient to get an email when a blog I read has been updated. That would be cool.

Flash, Mayhem, and Other Updates

2011-04-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

So I ordered a new camera...finally. It should come next week, and then hopefully we'll have pictures again! Meanwhile, the old broken point and shoot has been relegated to the toy bin, where Ella uses it to futher her budding photography career.

Not.

Actually, she has been chewing on it, with the result that she's getting a new tooth in this week. =)

The new camera is supposed to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday...very exciting! I decided to order a Nikon D3100 from Amazon. It looks like I ordered it just in time, too, because the price is now a lot higher than it was last week! Anyway...we're pretty excited!

In other news, Ella has acquired a new nickname. James has started calling her "Mayhem" and it is oddly fitting. She's like a tornado...everything she touches ends up on the floor. From where I am currently sitting, I can see every hairbow she owns scattered across her bedroom, mixed with the full contents of her pyjama drawer, which is now empty. She has pulled all of her books off the bookshelf, and she emptied her shoes onto the floor. Her buddy is lying underneath the crib, and she turned the trash can upside down.

Seriously, where's a camera when you need one, huh?

Of course, the mess would be much worse if she hadn't accidentaly shut us both into her bedroom when she pulled the hairbows down. She would probably be on top of the table in the playroom if she wasn't shut in here with me! Yes, folks, that means that she's learned how to climb...she must be related to Jordan Patton, the notorious toddler/climber extraordinaire. (You should hear the stories that Mom tells of Jordan's amazing climbing feats.) We must be related to circus folk.

But I digress.

Oh, I'd better go...I need to go save the lamp that she's trying to smash on the floor.

I'll be back.

Death of the Point and Shoot

2011-04-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

Well, you'll probably notice the lack of photos in this blog post, and there's a good reason for it...Our camera is DEAD. Like gone. Forever. I now have no way of capturing Ella's hilarious moments for posterity except to use the camera on my cell phone.

And frankly, that won't cut it.

Sigh.

We're still trying to figure out what to do about this. We don't have a lot of money, but pictures of the baby are a really big priority for us, so we may have to sacrifice and buy a nice new camera. My sister Meghan has a nice camera...a really nice one. I talked to her about getting one like hers, and we decided that it would probably be better for me to get one that wasn't quite so expensive or fancy. However, I'd still like to get a nice one so that I can learn to shoot in manual...something beyond the point and shoot variety.

So...to all of you out there with opinions, now's the time to chime in. What kind of camera do you use? Do you like it? Why or why not?

Don't be shy...

Penguin Splash

2011-03-28T13:12:00.000-05:00

The Saint Louis Zoo has a great exhibit called the Penguin and Puffin Coast. They opened it several years ago while we were in graduate school, and it's pretty cool. You walk inside, where it is really cold, and the penguins and puffins swim in huge tanks just a couple of inches away from you.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, we took Ella for her first visit to see the penguins. She was really interested...

The tuxedo crew lined up and posed for her...

She was particularly interested in watching them dive into the water...

...and she loved being right up close to them...

...until right after I took this picture...

...because then a HUGE splash of dirty penguin water got ALL over her and James.

Not cool.

We tried to make the best of it and clean her off, but you can see how wet her hair is...

...so we decided to go outside and see the bears instead.

...and then we went home for a nap.

Officer Down

2011-03-22T22:24:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Tonight I have some horrifyingly sad news, and I wanted to share it with those of you who grew up with me. Late this afternoon, Senior Police Officer Buddy Christian was gunned down in the line of duty. For those of us who grew up and went to school with the Christian kids, here is the report:

Senior Police Officer Elmer Christian was shot and killed while responding to a carjacking incident where another officer had been shot and wounded. The other officer was shot after performing a traffic stop where the suspect exited the vehicle and opened fire before fleeing on foot. Officer Christian had just responded to the area when he encountered the suspect, who shot Officer Christian while he was still in his patrol vehicle. Senior Police Officer Christian is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, his parents, and two brothers.

I am so grateful for the sacrifice of this man, who dedicated his career to service of those around him, and my heart breaks for his family. He will be much missed.

New Growth

2011-03-20T13:23:00.001-05:00

Most of you know that I love spring. In fact, most people who don't have severe allergic reactions love spring. My favorite part about it as seeing all the new growth that sprouts as soon as the weather is safe enough for new plants to break through the soil.

We've had some new spring moments lately, so I thought I'd share them...

This was Ella's first time ever playing on the deck. She LOVES it.

Apparently, she also aspires to be a gardener, because she really enjoys playing in the dirt...

While she was re-potting the bay laurel for me, I was inside getting our parsley and oregano plants into their tray for the summer harvest...

After finishing our home gardening chores, we took a trip to the botanic garden to see what was sprouting over there. They had some lovely crocuses!

Ella got down for a closer look...

...and a snuggle...

Then she decided to show off and walk over to daddy, all by herself!

He was so proud!

Then she went exploring in the herb garden...

I love my little girl.

Ella Uncut

2011-03-14T09:56:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I finally took Ella to have her one year old portraits made. I don't have time (or money!) for a fancy portrait studio, so I took her to our local Portrait Innovations studio. I called, got an appointment for about 45 minutes after I called, grabbed some of Ella's dresses and hairbows, and jumped in the car. When I got there, they took us right back to the picture area and started snapping shots!

It was great!

Ella loves the girl who took her pictures, so she was very smiley. I thought that they really showed her sunny personality well. However, it is always funny to me that people only look at the pictures that turned out "well." You know, the ones like this...

Perfectly posed, sweet smile....

...happy little baby...

...looks like she's never cried a tear in her life...

...sitting on the block with the big 1 on it like she does it every day, looking at the camera like it's the most fascinating thing on earth.

What people never seem to see are the pictures that turn out like this...looking at everything BUT the camera...

...trying to rip the ear off the poor stuffed bunny...

...then getting into the Easter eggs...

...grabbing her purple blanket and crawling out of the picture...

...having her clothes fall off...

...falling down when she tries to stand up for the picture...

...and having to be held onto the stool so that she doesn't fall down and split her head open...

So that's the real story, folks. Out of 113 pictures, we got some good ones, but we also got some that show my baby in her element. And I actually love those, too! Have you ever had some candid shots that you loved?

Miles and Miles...

2011-03-11T14:08:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm sure people are waiting for me to do a post on Ella's birthday party last week. BUT, my sister already did one on her blog, so I'm just going to send you over there! Here it is!

Instead, I'm going to show you pictures of another baby. My friend Roxi came to Ella's party, and she brought her new baby, her second son Miles. He was an absolute hit, and all of the ladies lined up to get a chance to hold him. What a sweetie he was!

Meghan did a photo shoot for a few minutes, and we got some great ones...

Here's a good one with his proud mama...isn't she gorgeous?

...and then we pulled the proud daddy in, too!

sweet little tiny hands...

Isn't he adorable? I just wanted to take him home with me!

One Year Old!

2011-03-02T20:52:00.001-06:00

One year ago tomorrow, our lives changed forever. We started as two...and then there were three...

...a first kiss...

...big blue eyes...

...a new daddy...

...a first bath...

...a sweet little nap...

...a new mommy...

...a sweet wave to all her fans...

...and a new family was born...

We love you little one. Thank you for making us parents.

Clean Plate? Not So Much...

2011-02-23T13:18:00.001-06:00

A couple of months ago, I started letting Ella feed herself, rather than being spoon or bottle fed all of her meals. At first, she didn't seem to get it. Then, one day, I loaded up her tray with food, turned away, and started cooking dinner. When I turned back, I found that all the food was gone off her tray! Imagine my delight over my big girl's skills, until I saw this....

Ella's Adventures

2011-02-18T22:56:00.000-06:00

When you're 11 months old, there's never enough time in the day to accomplish everything. Of course, that doesn't slow you down! Here are a few things that Ella has been into lately...

Petting the dog...GENTLY...

Reading books and playing with friends...

Climbing the stairs...note the fuzzy action shot...

Getting called away from the stairs by Mommy and Daddy, and learning to obey...

Pulling all the pens out of the coffee table drawer...

Exploring the bookshelves - of course, being my daughter, she always goes straight for the Jane Austen shelf...that's Sense and Sensibility she's holding...

Having a chat with the baby in the mirror...

Pulling her favorite cookbook off the shelf in the kitchen...

Doing a few squats...

Going back to the stairs...

...and of course, putting EVERYTHING into the mouth to see how it tastes!!

Solo Week

2011-02-09T14:09:00.000-06:00

This week, I'm a solo mom. Ella and I are having fun at home, while James is here...

(source)

He's attending the International Stroke Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center...

(source)

I'm not thrilled about him being absent for so long, but we're doing fine, working and hanging out with friends. So what are you up to this week?

Ice Storm

2011-02-07T21:14:00.001-06:00

Last week, St. Louis experienced a strange weather event called an ice storm. The first time I saw one of these was back when I was in law school, and I almost got trapped out in it....so I learned my lesson this time and stayed home.

Not that I had much choice, of course.

So how is an ice storm worse than a snowstorm? Well, I'll tell you. You know how when it snows, you can still walk through it because it's either soft and fluffy or cold and mushy? Well an ice storm is neither soft, fluffy, cold, nor mushy. It's just cold and hard and slippery.

And dangerous.

Imagine a big hard ice cube, like the kind you get when you freeze ice in those manual-filled ice trays in your freezer. Now imagine a thick layer of that kind of ice all over the city. Now imagine trying to chip that type of ice off your car. Not fun. Here are a few pictures...

The poor UPS guy had to go out in it to deliver packages, but at least he waited until the road had been scraped off a bit.

Ice on the power lines...not good.

Maybe some day I will live where we don't have these things.

Family Adventures: Car Show Part Two

2011-02-02T11:14:00.000-06:00

While Snowmageddon finishes its work outside, I think I'll tell you a little bit more about the car show. Today's topic is antique cars.

So...way back in the far end of the arena, once you've moved past about 3 million dollars worth of cars, (no exaggeration there - they had Lamborghini and Bugatti there), there was a teeny little section of antique cars. Some of them were restored, and those were nice, but some of them were actually in the original condition...they'd just been extremely well cared for! I have no idea what the names of these cars are, but I took pictures, so that you could see them. Maybe if we're lucky, Tommy McFarlin will leave us a comment telling us a little more about them...

I liked this one. It was cool.

This one was in the original condition - not restored!!

So was this one, I think...

I wasn't so fond of this one's paint color...

What type of car do you like?

Snowmageddon

2011-02-01T19:30:00.000-06:00

That's what they're calling our current weather pattern, and I find it oddly appropriate. I spent 2 hours chipping ice off our cars this afternoon so that I could defrost them a bit and move them to a side street. Unfortunately, since we live on a main road, the cars can't stay parked in front of the house or the snow plows might hit them. It's called a "snow route," and if we leave our cars out, they will get ticketed and possibly destroyed! Not cool.

So I headed out with the snow scraper, and this ice was no joke.

For those of you who have never had to deal with an ice storm, it's sorta like this. You know when you make those really big ice cubes in the ice cube trays, and they're hard and thick? (Not like snowy, puffy ice?) Well, imagine that kind of ice about half an inch thick ALL OVER YOUR CAR. Not cool. I couldn't even get any of the doors open on the Honda Pilot, so I finally had to break into the trunk and climb over the seats. Then, after running the defroster for about 20 minutes, I was able to ram the doors open from the inside using my shoulder. Then, after about 15 minutes more, I was able to get our huge (3 foot long) snow scraper and start chipping away at the ice on the windshield...all the while standing in ice above my ankles.

Thank goodness for my snow boots!

In any case, that's done now, so we should be fine. I went to the grocery store on Sunday night to stock up on our groceries, so we've got enough food for the week. We should be fine as long as our electricity doesn't go out. That makes me a little nervous, especially because I REALLY don't want our pipes in the basement to freeze and burst, but we'll see what happens.

Ella is thrilled because her daddy is staying home all day, and she loves to play when we're both here. She brings all of her toys up to show them to her daddy, and he gets so excited! (I guess she figures that I see her toys all the time, so there's no point in showing them to me...) He'll probably be at home tomorrow, too, since on top of this ice storm, we're supposed to get about a foot of snow.

Yippee.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll post some pictures.

Family Adventures: Car Show Part One

2011-01-29T15:20:00.000-06:00

Remember how I told you that we go on family adventures most Saturdays? Well, today we went on a BIG one. Where did we go?

The Saint Louis Auto Show at the Edward Jones Dome.

Nice.

Okay, I admit that I didn't used to care that much about cars. And I still don't care THAT much about cars. But this is my eighth year in a row to go to the annual auto show downtown, and I actually now think it's kind of fun. Most of the fun involves watching James climb into car after truck after van after convertible, getting more and more excited with each one.

James loved this Dodge Ram 1500.

This was Ella's first trip, and she enjoyed taking in all the sights, too!

I think this was a Camaro?

...and back to the trucks...

We took a break to get a snack, and Ella was fascinated by James's pretzel.
First, she studied it....

Then she licked it...

Then she decided to commit to a real bite...out of the piece that James already had in his mouth!

I think she liked it, because she didn't spit it out!

She also wanted to try out some of the trucks herself. Here's a Ford F150! (Shout out to Matt Murphy!!)

Randomly, I took some pictures of the big Econoline vans, since I spent thousands of hours in these babies when I was a kid...

If Ella had been a bit older, we might have tried the rock climbing wall...

...and maybe the moonbounce...

It was a fun morning! I can't wait until the day when we can afford to buy James a truck.

Family Adventures: Barnes and Noble

2011-01-28T22:03:00.001-06:00

Our family survives the long midwestern winter by going on adventures. On a typical Saturday morning, we wake up, have breakfast, and then sit on the couch trying to figure out what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. Inevitably, we decide to get out of the house and have an "adventure."

What does this mean?

Well, it depends. Sometimes we shoot guns. Real guns. Sometimes we go fishing (in the summer.) Sometimes we go shopping (not often b/c we don't have much moolah...) Very often, we go to Barnes and Noble and read magazines. Lately, this one has been a favorite because Ella loves to crawl around on the floor in their kids' section and play.

Then I realized something...she was learning more than how to read. She was learning how to CLIMB.

(Insert alarmed facial expression here.)

Wanna see? Watch this...

At least she's having fun! She did also discover that they have books, but that was more of an afterthought...

The Cold Wet Stuff

2011-01-27T21:00:00.000-06:00

This year, I've seen a lot of cold wet stuff fall out of the sky.

A LOT of it.

Sometimes it's pretty, like when it makes cool patterns on our front door mat...

...but it can make getting into the car a bit difficult...

It can also make the house pretty...

...and pretty hard to leave...

At least we don't have drunk kickball players across the street in the park this month!

All in all, I'll be glad for the spring thaw and the crocuses this year.

Dr. Meyer's Office

2011-01-23T21:14:00.000-06:00

We love our pediatrician! She came highly recommended before Ella was born, and she has lived up to her reputation. When Ella had jaundice for two weeks after her birth, Dr. Meyer spent lots of time each day on the phone with the home health nurse, checking on the baby's progress...even on her days off! She's also very sweet and patient with me as a new mom...and with all my questions =)

I thought that I would document a trip to the doctor's office, so on Ella's 9 month appointment, I took the camera along...

First, we always check out the baby in the mirror...

Here's a picture to prove that I was there!

Hey, what's this funny thing on the wall?

getting Ella's height measured...

big head?

Ella loves the scale because she thinks it's some kind of ride!

Dr. Meyer checks out that tiny heartbeat =)

So much fun, even when we end up having to get shots!!

Covington Christmas

2011-01-22T12:26:00.000-06:00

For the past three years, James had to work on Christmas, so we had to stay in St. Louis. I guess I could have gone home, but I didn't want to leave him here all alone, so I decided to stay.

Not this year!

We headed to Georgia for a good old fashioned family Christmas, and it was GREAT! Everyone came, and we had so much fun hanging out with the gang.

Miss Belle wore her Christmas pyjamas and spent lots of time playing with her Papa!

She also loved her Uncle Jonathan, who knows a lot about making little girls giggle!

The cousins waiting to go down the stairs on Christmas morning to see all the presents!

Lisa almost got lost sitting in the middle of the pile!

James got a shotgun!! Mossberg 500 home and field combo!!

Of course, we made a trip to Mamie's with Tommy and Patty McFarlin...yum!!

Ella loves her cousin, Madeline, who helped a lot with diapers and bottles!

Sweet picture with GG.

Tom reveals his true identity...

Meghan got a KitchenAid Mixer!!!

AK47 got a new bike, as did all the big kids.

relaxing in a warm kitchen sink bath...

Jordan, Sarah and Raph hanging out amid their stash!

Catching Up - December and January

2011-01-22T12:10:00.001-06:00

Well, it doesn't take a genius to see that I haven't posted much in the past four weeks. But after the marathon that has been going on around our house, it's not much of a surprise. Here's what's been going on...

- pre-Christmas trip to Covington to wrap all the Christmas gifts for my parents
- Christmas trip to Covington to see everyone!
- back to St. Louis for a visit from my friend Robyn, who lives in Chicago
- residency match interview trip to Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- residency match second look trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- residency match interview trip to Savannah, Georgia, where we got SNOWED IN
- in-between trips to the doctor and the dentist
- 5 different colds that we passed around among the three of us

...and much more!!

Updates and pictures to follow soon, I promise!

Stockings!

2010-12-17T21:56:00.000-06:00

Tonight is Christmas Eve in the Sagar household. Yes, I know that it's December 17, but we are leaving town on the 22nd, so we needed to have our family celebration early. James has the weekend off (to play the Xbox games that he'll be getting as his gift), so we decided to do our "Christmas morning" celebration tomorrow...which makes tonight Christmas Eve!

We had a very nice dinner tonight, and before Ella headed to bed, we opened our stockings. Here are a few pictures...

Yes, that's a doggie stocking on the bottom right part of the pictures. We got it for Max three years ago, and he knows that it's his!

Max got his stocking first, since he was so excited to see James take it off the mantle...

Then James went next...and yes, he was as excited as the dog! He got some magazines, an Xbox game called Vanquish, and of course some candy.

Ella watched James open his stocking, and then she got interested in her own. I guess it occurred to her that there might be fun stuff inside! She got down to business...

Pulling out her first present...

She needed a little bit of help, since she still thinks you're supposed to eat the wrapping paper.

Then I got to open mine! I got a beautiful garden magazine, candy, and some kitchen tools that I really wanted. Fun!!

Ella and Max playing with his new squeaky toy...

Tomorrow will be fun, too. We'll read the Christmas story, open presents, and have a nice breakfast!

The Plague

2010-11-10T21:23:00.001-06:00

Well, I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't posted anything this week. We've had a bunch of sickness going around. Ella and her nanny have both had a yucky virus, which means two things:

1) I'm not getting any sleep at all, since Ella is up ALL NIGHT.

2) I'm not getting any breaks from taking care of her since my nanny is sick. So I'm having to work with a sick baby.

And now it means one more thing....James is sick, too.

And he has an interview on Monday.

Not cool.

Tinkerbell

2010-11-01T17:18:00.001-05:00

For the first time in more than twenty years, I bought a Halloween costume. It wasn't the one I wanted to buy, but I'm so glad that I got it. I wanted to dress our little one up as an elephant (Get it? Ella-phant?), but her daddy wouldn't hear of it. James insisted on a Disney princess costume. In retrospect, I'm so glad he did.

Early in October, I headed to Target to look over the selection, and there was only one Disney princess costume that was anything close to Ella's size....Tinkerbell. How fitting, right? She's so teeny tiny - still only fifteen and a half pounds at 8 months old - so we dressed her up as a little fairy for Halloween.

And it was perfect.

As soon as I put her costume on her, she lit up like a candle and turned into a really-truly fairy!

She even posed for the camera with her wings!

Since we don't live in the safest town in the world, we decided to forgo the normal trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Instead, we took Tinkerbell over to the St. Louis Zoo for Boo at the Zoo, which is an annual tradition with all the kiddos in town.

They had the place all decorated, including a HUGE blowup spider over the front entrance!

The way it works is that the kids visit each animal cage, and they get candy at a booth set up at each cage. Ella wasn't really interested in the candy, since she's never eaten any and wasn't going to eat any, but she loved the animals! When we went to see the grizzly bears, she held on tight to James.

Small blame to her - those guys are BIG.

We also checked out the giraffes and the peacocks, which share a cage.

The zebra kept hiding behind a tree.

Ella wanted to chase the peacock.

It was a fun day.

Candy!!!

2010-10-31T09:38:00.001-05:00

I posted this picture earlier tonight, to show how much Halloween candy we bought for the trick-or-treaters that were supposed to come to our door...

My initial plan was to later post an after photo, showing how little candy we had left. Unfortunately, we got a grand total of TWO kids who came to the door. Isn't that pitiful? We live on a major city street, across from a major city park, and nobody came to our house!! That means that I've got to figure out what to do with all the sugary goodness that is sitting on my dining room table. I think I'll take it to work with me this week and see if the professors want to eat it.

Sigh.

Next year, I'll probably just leave the porch lights off.

This is what happens...

2010-10-28T19:18:00.002-05:00

...when you leave your dog at home with a box of cake mix in the kitchen.

You'll notice that there's almost no mix left in the bag. Yuck.

Monkey Baby

2010-10-27T17:54:00.002-05:00

I really didn't teach her this.

It's just further proof that it's in the genes. (Right, Meghan?)

Cookie!

2010-10-23T23:00:00.000-05:00

We passed a new milestone today - Ella's first cookie! We were at Babies R Us looking for baby gates to put on the staircases, and I found some Gerber Biter Cookies that were supposed to be for crawlers.

She LOVED them! Both hands, straight into the mouth...

She always looks so surprised when she tastes something new.

It's so much fun to watch her experience new things. Even though they usually make a huge mess.

Tutu Much!

2010-10-21T16:31:00.002-05:00

I've seen a lot on the internet about tutus, so I thought I'd show the gorgeous one that my Aunt Crystal bought for Ella. She got it over the summer, but until now, it's been too big to stay up on the baby's almost nonexistent hips. However, I pulled it out this fall to see how it fits now.

It's perfect!!

Of course, the first thing Ella did was try to see how it tasted.

Then she pouffed it out and took it for a spin....er....crawl.

What a thrilling new toy!

She felt so pretty in it that for once, I didn't have any trouble getting her to pose!

Of course, like she does with all her new toys, eventually, she decided to show it to the other child in the family...Max!

I don't think he got the point, though, because he got up and walked off.

Undaunted, she went back to primping for the camera...

Autumn Colors

2010-10-14T21:50:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, I lived in Charlottesville, Virginia for four whole years. Every fall in Charlottesville, a miracle happens, and it becomes the most beautiful place in the world. Like Japan in cherry blossom time, God works an amazing feat of nature, and the trees paint the world with colors that are more vivid than anything you could imagine. In C'ville, this takes the form of yellow, orange, purple, and red leaves on the trees that make your eyes ache with their beauty.

I no longer live in Charlottesville.

Sigh.

Normally, I don't miss it, but during October, I dream about it. And so, in order to fill up the mysterious void in my soul that simply won't go away until I've seen the trees change colors, I pull out my camera and go hunting. Saint Louis is no C'ville, but it does have some treasures if you go looking for them. Here's what I found...

This one is in the park across the street.

These twins are three blocks west of our house...

This guy peeps over the gate at the south entrance of Tower Grove Park...

This fella is on the far end of our block, across the street from Megan and Chad's house...

And this guy, a couple blocks south of us, is still in the beginning stages of his transformation. I'll probably go check him out again next week.

How are things lookin' where you live?

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

Ever since the weather started to cool off a little bit at the end of September, I have been on a mission.

A pumpkin mission.

I wanted to dress Ella up in her pumpkin dress (courtesy of my Mom) and take her to get some pumpkin patch pictures. There was only one problem - where to find the patch? In St. Louis, we have pumpkins galore, but since it's a city, there aren't a lot of pumpkins growing in the non-existent middle-of-the-city fields. A week ago, we drove WAY out into the country to find a patch that I had located on the internet, but when we got there, it was disappointing. Despite their grand online promises of pumpkins galore, they were actually more of a corn maze with a small pile of pumpkins on the side.

Boo.

Well, this past week I was delighted to find out that the Prouhet Farm, where we buy our fresh vegetables each weekend, had a pumpkin patch! YAY! Sunday afternoon, we headed out there for pictures.

The Prouhet Farm is awesome. They'll even let you pick your own stuff if you want, which I love. It's been there since the 1800's.

When we got there, I was excited to see all the pumpkins...

Here's a picture of James in the farmstand, where they sell the pre-picked stuff.

They also had some pretty mums for sale.

This fella was pulling the hayride cart.

The spinach was piled high on the counter in baskets...

And this guy was giving pony rides. Too bad that Ella was too little, because she was fascinated by him! Maybe next year.

She was also fascinated by this big red tractor.

This was her reaction when we didn't let her climb on the tractor...

...which of course cracked her up...

A picture of her pretty smocked pumpkin dress, which her GG bought for her!

Then we played with the pumpkins!

Ella was trying to figure out what these big orange things were.

Then we went into the patch to find a good pumpkin for our house. Ella liked this one.

"Hey, Daddy! Can I have this one for my room?"

She decided to hitch a ride in the cart with the pumpkins on the way back to the farmstand!

So cute!

What a fun day!

Squirms

2010-10-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

What happens when you squirm in your high chair while your mama is trying to feed you?

Well, you get some of this...

...in your left eye.

And then you go from a happy baby...

...to a confused baby...

It's probably better to hold still, don't you think?

Of Puppies and Princesses

2010-10-08T18:57:00.003-05:00

Since we had the baby, lots of people have asked us how she and Max are getting along. Max is notoriously barky and jumpy, and he does not like other four-legged creatures around his house. How would he handle having a baby crawling on the floor? Well, he's doing pretty well.

Today, I came into the living room to find him finishing up some work on my laptop...

Which, of course, wore him out!

Ella crawled over to see what he was up to.

Hey man, what's up?

Wanna hang out?

Max isn't so sure about this.

Hey wait a minute, puppy. Where you going?

Oh well!

That's right, folks. Our 65+ lb attack dog is afraid of our 14 lb baby. Fully old world, isn't it?

Vaccines

2010-10-05T19:33:00.000-05:00

Three weeks ago, when Ella and I traveled to Georgia, I upheld an important annual fall tradition of mine - I got a flu shot. I am always very careful to get my flu shot because several years ago, when I was in college, I got the flu. The real flu. The I-feel-so-terrible-that-I want-to-die-because-this-is-worse-than-having-my-fingernails-pulled-off-by-tweezers flu. That was the first time since I was born that I've had to go to the hospital, and it was horrible, so ever since then, I have always made sure to get a flu shot.

This year is a little bit different, however, because in addition to getting my own shot, I am taking Ella to get her flu shot. Several people that I know have questioned whether this is wise, since there seems to be a recent trend opposing vaccinations for young children. I do not follow this trend, and I honestly don't really understand it. I do believe that parents should have the right to make this decision in accordance with what they believe to be right for their children. But I do not appreciate people who try to scare me out of getting my child vaccinated. There are decades of research to support vaccinating your children, and if you're going to play the odds, I'd much rather have my child take the chance of getting some unproven side effect of a vaccination than the well established (and much scarier) risk of them getting a terrible, and often life-threatening, disease. I realize that people don't like to trust the government, and being a conservative, I often agree with that viewpoint. However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies give well-established, peer-reviewed information about the usefulness of such vaccines.

I'm not trying to convince people that they're wrong if they choose not to get shots for their children. But that's not a risk that I'm willing to take.

What are your thoughts?

Fun Weekend

2010-10-03T21:06:00.001-05:00

You've probably noticed that I haven't posted in awhile. It's been a busy week at work, so I just haven't had the time. I've also edited dissertations for DMin students in my spare time, and I've got a lot more of that to do.

Yesterday, James and I went to the August A. Busch Conservation Area Shooting Range to get in some practice with his gun. It was FUN. I did get in trouble once, though, because apparently I was shooting too fast. It's a big strange, but apparently, you're not supposed to shoot more often than once every 3 seconds. I don't see why that's the rule, as long as I'm shooting in the right direction at the right time! I slowed down, though, and they let me keep shooting. My target looked awesome - a whole bunch of bulls-eyes!!

Then, on the way back, we went to pick up Ella at her nanny's house, and Katie asked us to stay for dinner. She made some AWESOME Thai food, and we both cleaned our plates. Ella took a nap in her pack-n-play, and then we all went home.

Today, we went to a joint service for the church that we've been visiting. They've got two sites, and today both services met together in the chapel at the seminary. Bob Burns (my boss) preached a great sermon. Afterwards, we went with our friends Brendan and Kim, as well as Brendan's parents who are visiting from Seattle, out to Montelle Winery in the Missouri wine region. The wine out there is terrible, but the view from their deck is beautiful. Ella was feeling a little emotional, so I walked around with her until she fell asleep. They had some music playing from some band that they'd hired, and it put her out pretty fast.

Well, that's about all for this weekend, folks. Ella's asleep upstairs in the crib, James is watching a movie called Hitman that he recorded on the television, and I'm going to get my shower and go to sleep. I'll write again soon!

The UFC

2010-09-27T16:24:00.000-05:00

Most people who know James are already very aware that he LOVES fighting. He's been fighting for eleven years, and even now he often will spend an hour at the fight gym in south St. Louis several nights a week. Boxing, wrestling, grappling, kicking, choking, punching...he is good at it all.

What a lot of people don't know is that I also love fighting. I don't really love doing the fighting, but I do love watching it. We used to watch the Japanese fight contests called Pride, but eventually the Japanese mafia (who ran Pride) got shut down by the government, and their assets got seized, so the fight club ended. It's been replaced by a different one called Dream, but it's not very good. The one that we really like now is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, commonly known as the UFC. We watched this eleven years ago, long before it was very popular, but now it has gotten to be fairly mainstream.

Usually when there's going to be a good UFC card on television, our friends Brendan and Steve come over. I make dinner for everybody, and then we all watch the show. It works well for us because we can put the baby to bed, and also they contribute some money so that we don't have to pay for everything ourselves. Frankly, one of my favorite things about the arrangement is listening to Brendan's running commentary on the event. He spends a ridiculous amount of time reading up on the people ahead of time, so he has HILARIOUS things to add during the event.

Fighting, food, and friends. It doesn't get much better than that!

Yukondet

2010-09-26T15:35:00.000-05:00

Before we had our little Ella Belle, James and I adopted another different child. Our little boy goes by the name Yukondet. He will turn six years old this coming January, and he lives in Thailand. He's adorable, and we adopted him when he was three. I wish I could put up his picture, but it's protected so that it can't be reproduced.

We adopted him through Compassion International, which helps people to sponsor children all over the world. Yukondet is a sweet little fellow, and his parents are poor farmers in their area of Thailand. He was pets, including a pig that he really loves. We have put him through pre-school, and now he is in kindergarten. He loves the game hide-and-seek, playing with toy cars, and doing art projects. He also goes to Sunday school, where he hears about Jesus. (His weekday school is also a Christian school.)

I have to tell you that I love this little guy. I've never seen him, and it's possible that I never will, but his picture captured my heart the first time I saw it. We are so excited to be his adopted family. We get letters from him regularly, and although he gets help with writing them due to his age, it's fun to see how much of his little personality shines through. He always asks us about our dog Max, since he's very fond of animals. Just recently we sent him pictures of the new baby, so he'll probably ask about her soon, too.

I have a vision that when Ella is old enough to help with chores around the house, I might give her a bit of an allowance for the purpose of sponsoring a child in another country. I would love for her to choose a little girl of her own age to be her sister and pen pal, and I think that it's important for children to understand that the world is bigger than their own little portion of it. Also, I think it's important for them to know that most of the world's children aren't so privileged as to always know where their next meal will come from. When I was 12, I went to Haiti on a mission trip, and I had my eyes opened to the realities of what is often called the "third world." I'll write about that sometime soon. The point is that I don't want my children to grow up believing that their experience is universal. I want them to know the joy of sacrificing for someone in need, showing them the love of Christ and giving of themselves to enrich the life of another.

Meanwhile, Yukondet is learning how to read....I'm such a proud adopted "mama" of this little boy!

This is why...

2010-09-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

...I never get to sit on my own couch.

'nuff said.

Flying Baby

2010-09-19T20:13:00.001-05:00

Since we don't live near our families, we travel often to visit them in other areas of the country. This means that Ella has been on a lot of airplanes...ten of them in her six months of life. She's pretty much a pro, and she loves to fly. Sitting on an airplane with 100 new friends is her idea of a great time. She loves to watch people and talk to them, whether they're paying attention to her or not.

Recently, I took her to visit my family in Georgia, and she rode with me on AirTran. Since the plane wasn't full, the gate agent was really nice and blocked off a seat for her next to me. That meant that I was able to take her car seat on the plane and strap it into the seat. She fell asleep right before we boarded, and I hoped that she might stay that way...so peaceful...

By the way, she is wearing her tutu in these pictures. She loves that tutu, and she felt so pretty on the trip!

As I said, I had hoped she'd sleep...but let's get real. She woke up almost immediately, and I had to change her diaper three times before takeoff.

She started playing slowly, reading her taggie book and chewing on Olivia the ostrich.

But then after a couple of minutes, she decided to get out and sit in my lap so that she could pull everything out of the seat pocket in front of me.

She particularly enjoyed the AirTran advertisement. It tasted yummy.

Meanwhile, the toys that I'd brought remained in the car seat.

We had a good flight, although there was definitely a 10 minute interval where she blew raspberries and spit on to the poor Wash U Law student who sat next to me. I couldn't get her to stop, so I had to turn her to face the window. She didn't cry, though, since she was having a great time!

Sterling!

2010-09-17T19:37:00.000-05:00

I love silver. And I love candlesticks. And I love family heirlooms.

I REALLY love silver candlesticks that are family heirlooms.

This summer, my Nana died, and over the past few months, my mom has been going through 50+ years of things that are left in her house. It's a big job, to put it mildly. She saved a couple of things for each of her children, and she gave me the silver candlesticks. They were pretty tarnished, since my Nana was much too busy to shine them up, but I love to polish silver, so that's no problem.

Look at the gorgeous detail in these babies:

I got out my silver cream and polished up those candlesticks, so that I can put them in the dining room and enjoy them.

Here's what they looked like before....

And here's the difference between the shiny one and the tarnished one!

They aren't perfect of course. In fact, they've got some significant dents in them. But I love that, because it means that they've been loved and used, rather than packed away in a drawer somewhere and never enjoyed. That's something that I learned from my adventuresome Nana's full life...don't wait for a special day to live your life. Do it now.

Grocery Adventures

2010-09-16T18:42:00.000-05:00

Not long ago, a girl who works with me at the seminary discovered that she's having twins. She already has a little girl, so she's wanting to sell a bunch of her baby stuff and get some "twin" stuff. One thing she unloaded that I picked up was a grocery cart cover. This week, at the store, Ella decided to try it out.

The color is a little over-the-top, but she LOVES it! Right now, she's able to sit up really well, but she's not steady enough to stay sitting on her own. After awhile, she reaches for something far away, and down she goes. This cart cover is great because she gets strapped in, and it keeps her supported as she sits in the grocery cart. It's also machine washable, sanitary, padded, and super comfortable.

She also likes to hold my wallet and keys for me, and I let her keep them in the cart with her. Unfortunately, they're now getting teeth marks.

With our small house, we don't have much room for baby gear, but I think that this one is a keeper. It folds down into a small, self-contained bag, and I just throw it into the trunk for the next trip to the store. Of course, I only paid $4 for it, instead of $30!!

What baby gear do you love best?

Seminary Response to the Koran Burning

2010-09-09T17:01:00.002-05:00

You might have seen recently on the news that Terry Jones, a minister in Gainesville, Florida, announced that his church would sponsor a Koran burning on this coming Saturday, September 11. Then followed days of international protest from the Christian and non-Christian world. About half an hour ago, the BBC reported that he had announced his plan to cancel the event. I'm not 100% sure that he's really canceled it, but I hope so. What unnecessarily provocative and ugly thing to do.

A huge number of people asked the Covenant Seminary faculty what they thought about the matter, and they responded with an open letter, written by World Mission Professor Nelson Jennings, stating their position on the event. I thought you might like to see it:

Dear Dr. Terry Jones and Members of the Dove World Outreach Center (Gainesville, Florida),

As I previously indicated to you both by email and over the phone, I recently became aware of your “International Burn a Koran day,” scheduled for September 11. You have publically announced the event, and urged others to participate, through your church’s website (http://www.doveworld.org/) and through a specially created Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Burn-A-Koran-Day/134718123226530?v=wall ). As the Facebook page puts it, “On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!” The scheduled event is receiving widespread attention (cf. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/29/florida.burn.quran.day/index.html; http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/marion_alachua/081210church-members-expected-to-burn-koran), and various people are expressing their opinions and intended responses.

Relations today between people who are Muslims and people who are Christians are of extraordinary importance – including in an unprecedented way those of us in the United States of America. People’s beliefs about God and salvation are at stake, as are the well-being of local communities, societies, and international relations between countries. It is within this extraordinary situation that you, together as a Christian pastor and as an expressly Christian community, have taken the initiative to conduct, publicize, and invite participation in what can only be called – too mildly or too extremely, depending on one’s perspective – such a provocative event as this “International Burn a Koran day.”

In response to this event that has been scheduled by other Christians in the United States, that has been publicized within today’s extraordinary situation of Muslim-Christian relations, and to which I and others have been invited to participate, I believe that it is incumbent on me as one Christian leader serving a portion of the wider Christian community to issue a public response. (Please note, however, that this response is my own; I am not serving as a spokesperson for any church or organization.) My response consists of the following points:

1. I agree with you that human beings’ salvation from sin and hell, as well as to eternal life with the living and triune God, is through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

2. I commend you for your concern for and solidarity with fellow Christians worldwide.

3. I respect the time-honored freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

4. I encourage only peaceable responses toward you – i.e., against Dr. Terry Jones, members of the Dove World Outreach Center, or others who are in agreement with your religious beliefs about Islam – insofar as you do not cause immediate threat to others of bodily harm or damage to personal property.
Response to Proposed “International Burn a Koran Day”

5. I realize that there are complexities beyond the scope of this short response in the enormous and worldwide matter of Muslim-Christian relations, particularly those associated with the interrelationship between religious and societal/governmental concerns.

6. I realize as well that there are deep emotions – associated with both religious and social/national identity – over the events of September 11, 2001 in particular and Muslim-Christian relations in general.

At the same time,

7. I espouse the following beliefs that contradict reasons for the scheduled Qur’an burning:

a. Christians, whether individually or organized, should eschew violent and inflammatory actions taken as Christians against anyone – particularly violent and inflammatory actions taken in the name of, and with the alleged support of, expressly religious teachings.

o Using proper force, including violent force, is a God-given prerogative of certain societal and governmental authorities (including Christians serving in those roles), not of Christians (or members of any other religious tradition) as individual or organized Christians (or as members of any other religious tradition).

o Violent and inflammatory actions taken for expressly religious purposes usually (often unwittingly) support other, non-religious interests, for example political, ethnic, and economic interests.

b. Christians, while devoted to the overall well-being of the local communities, countries, and world of which we are members, must be able to differentiate between (although not totally separate) our devotion to the wider, international Christian community and our devotion to our local communities, countries, and world. Similarly, Christians must be able to differentiate between (although not totally separate) the actual interests of the wider, international Christian community and those of our various local communities, our countries, and of the entire world. I believe that, in particular, you fail properly to differentiate between devotion to, as well as the actual interests of, the wider Christian community and the United States of America, for example in the statement on “The Church Must Take Action” [http://islamisofthedevil.com/church-must-take-action].

c. Christians must not simplistically categorize Islam, whether uniquely or together with other religious traditions, as “of the devil.” Instead, Christians should see non-biblical religious traditions as a combination of human aspiration for the Creator God, sinful rebellion against that same Creator God, and satanic deception. Not only is it therefore overly simplistic and reductionist to categorize Islam or any other religious tradition by reference to less than all three of these aspects. Doing so is also insulting, derogatory, and unnecessarily inflammatory toward fellow human beings, fellow bearers of God’s image, and fellow citizens of local communities, countries, and the world.

Response to Proposed “International Burn a Koran Day”

As I consider all of the statements above, I are firmly persuaded:

1. To urge you to cancel, as well as apologize (with an explanation so that, as much as possible, you are not unfairly misunderstood) for the scheduling and publication of, the planned public Qur’an burning;

2. Not to participate in the event (if it takes place), as well as to urge others not to participate in any such event.

3. To encourage you and other Christians to seek constructive relations with people who are Muslims on individual, local community, national, and global levels. Such constructive relations, I believe, are evangelistic, peaceful, and cooperative.

Much has been written elsewhere concerning these various points, and there is much more to discuss. I welcome constructive interaction with you and others who are interested.

Respectfully,

J. Nelson Jennings
St. Louis, MO

Hunting Man

2010-09-08T17:18:00.003-05:00

James enjoys a lot of hobbies. He likes to box, wrestle, fish, eat, garden, shoot guns, and many other things. Well recently, he started a new hobby - bow hunting. He has a Bear Montana longbow, and this weekend, he took it out for a spin. Bow hunting season starts at the beginning of September in Missouri, and he went out to Pacific Palisades in search of rabbits and squirrels.

Camo boots and snake gaiters...supposedly those are snakebite-proof.

Packing up the bags to head out into the wilderness...

The "leafy bug" camo jacket.

that's right, folks - he's for real

Max checking it all out...

His arrows with the broadhead tips attached.

Those arrowheads are mean lookin' aren't they? They're SHARP, too.

That's my man!

He didn't get anything on that first afternoon of hunting, since it was pretty windy outside. Apparently, that blows your scent to all of the animals, and they run away from you. Well, maybe next time!!

What I've Been Up To Lately...

2010-09-07T16:37:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been picking some of the roses in the yard....

and turning this....

into this....

...and weeding this...

...and loving on this...

...and laughing at this!

The Newest Little Junkyard Dawg

2010-09-04T16:47:00.000-05:00

Last fall, when I was 18 weeks along with my pregnancy, I was scheduled to have a sonogram to check on the growth of the baby. These 18-22 week sonograms are pretty routine, and most people get really excited about them because that's when you can usually find out whether you're having a boy or a girl. I was SO excited about mine that I couldn't sleep the night before. (Of course, that might have had something to do with the 7 trips to the bathroom during the night, too...)

Anyway.

Obviously, we got the fabulous news that we were having a girl, and we were thrilled. Finally, I could start buying little clothes and dreaming about how my little bundle of joy would look! When I got home from the doctor's office, I sat down at the computer, and I typed the following words into the google search engine:

"UGA football dress baby girl"

Here's what came up...

Well, maybe not that exact picture, but it was that exact dress...

Yes, my friends. The very first article of clothing that I bought for my very first child was a red UGA football dress with a big G emblazoned on the chest. You'd better believe it.

I'm raisin' this kid right, even if we are temporarily exiled from the promised land.

I'm also starting to teach her the kick-off cheer...

Goooooooo DAWGS!!! Sic 'Em!!! Woof, Woof, Woof!!!

She loves it. Here she is, giving it a try for the first time...

Not bad for her first time!!

Dream Come True

2010-09-03T11:16:00.001-05:00

We all want things. Whether it be something as big as a family, a job, or a healthy report from our doctor, or something as small as a few minutes of peace and quiet during the day, we all have things that we want. I know that I do. I want my baby to stay healthy. I want my husband to get a good residency, and then I want us to pay off our HUGE grad school loans. I want to be able to see my family more often. I want my dog to stop trying to chew up our rugs in the living room. (They must taste better than the ones in the dining room...strangely, he never seems to want to chew those...)

Well, we don't get all of the things that we want, but sometimes God decides to reach down and give one of them to us.

I have always wanted an SUV, ever since I took the driver's test for the first time at the age of 15. My dad, who was more concerned about safety than coolness, got me a green Ford Taurus to drive. Honestly, I was excited about that car. It was my very first one, and I knew that I was lucky to have it...lots of my friends didn't have cars. In the interest of full disclosure, it wasn't actually MY car - it was my parents' car - but they let me drive it!

When I went off to college, first-year students weren't allowed to have cars at my school, so the Taurus passed to my little brother. Then, during my second year of college, dad got me another car, this time, it was a 1997 Toyota Camry. She was a GREAT car, and I loved her. Her name was Grace, by the way. When we brought her home for the first time, my dad told me, "This car will last you long time. Some day, you'll drive your children around in this car." Well, let it be said here and now that he was right. Almost ten years later, back in March 2010, Grace was the car that we used to drive Ella home from the hospital.

As we pulled up to our house, I remembered my dad's words to me, all those years ago. I thought of all the places this car has taken me...I drove it to college in Virginia, to my first job back in Georgia, to law school in Missouri, and to vacations in Florida. We've been a lot of places together, and James loves her as much as I do. Somehow, it wouldn't have seemed right to take our first baby home in any other car. This was the car that we depended on to get us where we needed to go for most of our life together, and she came through for us when we needed her. Now she deserved the honor of taking home our new addition for the first time.

About six weeks after Ella came home from the hospital, James's mom Ruth came to visit her new grandbaby. We picked her up at the airport, and I remember seeing her eyes get big as she rode down the interstate in the backseat of Grace. All those huge trucks barreling by us, crazy drivers with little or no fear of cutting us off in traffic. Don't get me wrong, Grace is a GREAT car, and she handles really well. But she's a mid-sized sedan - no match for big trucks and vans that might hit us on the interstate. Well...a week later James got a phone call to the effect that Ruth had decided to give us her SUV and buy herself a new one.

WHAT?!?!?!

Yup, that's right. Just when we really needed a bigger car (those carseats are BIG), God and my in-laws provided one for us. And she's GORGEOUS. She's a light blue 2003 Honda Pilot, just the class of SUV that I always wanted to have. Good gas mileage, great handling....I love it. I couldn't even express how thankful we feel for this car. It's so much fun to drive!!

And don't worry about Grace...we've still got her. James drives her to work every day, so she's spending her later years parked in the hospital's covered parking deck during the daytime. Hopefully that will help her to make it through another winter. And who knows? If we get transferred farther south through the medical match this spring, maybe Grace will get to retire to Florida next year!

Chew on This

2010-09-02T11:48:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, August 24, something important happened in our family - Ella got her first tooth!!! At first, I thought that she was just not feeling well, since she'd had her vaccinations the day before. But then, she flashed me a little smile, and I saw this...

By Friday, she had another one...do you see them?

I've been trying really hard to take a good picture of them, but I can't get the camera to shoot it fast enough. She loves to stick out her tongue and feel them, too, so it's hard to see into her mouth. I tried to fool her by squeezing her cheeks, and she did this...

Of course, then she stuck my finger into her mouth TOO far, and she did this...

But then I took these...can you see those two little teeth coming in? My parents call them "rat teeth." That's kind of gross, but they are cute little teeth!

I can't believe how she's growing!!

Melon Head

2010-09-01T13:20:00.001-05:00

Our vegetable garden this summer was weird. Really weird. Some things did well, but most things did very poorly. For instance, our bush beans turned out to be climbing beans (Burpee labeled them wrong, I guess) and they didn't produce anything. I will rip them out shortly. Also, the tomatoes, which are usually the star of the show, pretty much did NOTHING. Out of 7 plants, I got a grand total of one tomato. The rest of them stayed green, and the squirrels ate them.

Jerks.

We found great consolation, however in our garden experiment, which was a success. James decided to grow a watermelon plant in his plot, and last week we picked our very first melon!!!

Take a look:

She was a beauty, and she was HUGE!

When we cut her open, she had lovely pink/red flesh inside that was so juicy.

James was so proud!

We both ate some, and it was GOOD. (I don't even like watermelon, but I liked this one.)

No, we didn't eat the whole thing...we shared with friends. But we ate our share, and it was yummy!

There are more of them out on the vine right now, and I think we'll probably plant this one again next summer.