Simpson Sightings

thoughts?

2009-04-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about turning this blog into a Scrap blog....what do you think?

The family website is a bit crowded...

In the meantime, enjoy some Blog Candy:

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogoversary-candy.html

http://tammysplace-tammy.blogspot.com/

http://craftsbykim.blogspot.com/

I have been away...

2009-04-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Creating a new website.....

Come check it out: Simpson Sightings

Oh, the places you won't go

2009-03-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Have you wondered where I have been?
Have you missed me?
Did you even notice I was gone?

Well, I am on a little (add sarcasm here )adventure and I can't seem to get off it. My adventure started last Saturday night when my family packed our bags for El Paso. I was excited to see our families in El Paso, considering it had been since Christmas. I had a great plan of staying until Thursday and then returning back to Houston for some fun. Well after 7.5 hours of trying to catch flights at the airport on 2 different airlines, I called it a day...well actually I called it a weekend.

Here is the story:
My husband is a pilot. One of the benefits of this lifestyle is the ability to fly on his airline for a mere $12.50 or on other airlines for a small fee or 10% of the ticketed price. Sounds fab, doesn't it? It is most of the time. But, we fly standby---which means if they have an open seat and no revenue passenger standing by for it, then they will give it to us. Holidays are a nightmare for standby travel and apparently Spring Break falls in that category as well. Usually bad weather, such as the fog Houston has been having, help out a standby passenger because the revenue passengers miss connections and get put on other airlines. But, if a flight cancels, then people like me become pond scum (the lowest of the low on the who's getting on the flight list). You see, when a flight cancels, they have all these revenue passengers to take care of. They are not going to be able to fit a non-revenue being on. So:

Spring Break + Flight Cancellation = Forget it you're not going!

So, I turned to Southwest Airlines. I had no better luck there. I thought I was going to cry if I heard Kiera say one more time, "Mommy I want to get on THAT airplane!" I kept telling her, "Me too!"

It then became clear that not only were we not going home that particular day, ALL the flights were full ALL weekend. When we finally called it a day, I told her we were going back to Grandma and Papa's house and we would get back on a plane another day. She said OK and we began the long walk down the terminal to the exit. When we reached the door out of the terminal, she said in her sweet little voice, "Mommy, are we going to El Paso again?" All I could say is, "Yes, baby we are!" :(

I have learned some valuable lessons from my misadventure:

*Never fly standby on a holiday or Spring Break again. Plane tickets are NOT that expensive.

*I have the best 2 year old in the world. Seriously, what toddler endures 7.5 hours in a small airport and doesn't whine or cry? Only mine and a few M&Ms.

*When you miss your first standby flight, ask the attendent to make sure your luggage doesn't go without you (in case you have to stay five more days.) Yep, mine went on the first flight, so Kiera and I got some new clothes!

*Sometimes being a pilot's wife isn't all it's cracked up to be.

*Never ever be afraid to ask someone if you can plug into his computer for a phone charge, but first make sure you have nothing on your phone to be embarrassed by. Yep, had to do this and the nice man saw ALL my pictures and info. Good thing I am not into porn.

*Always buy a bag of M&Ms when traveling with a toddler and be prepared to dole them out 5 at a time throughout the day.

*Never ever cry when a plane leaves the gate without you....there will always be another chance another day!

Through their eyes.....

2009-03-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

It is so easy to forget that we have to teach them everything and I do mean EVERYTHING. As you know, Kiera is a little over 2. She has a full vocabulary and conveys her thoughts quite well and quite often! She seems so well versed in life, that I sometimes forget there are things she doesn't understand. Like an umbrella, for example.

Today, we needed to take something to my neighbor, Chris, across the street. Well, I waited and waited for rain to subside, but finally gave up and pulled out the umbrellas. Little did I know this would be quite an adventure and forever a memory etched in my heart!

I grab Kiera's shoes and two small black umbrellas. I ask Kiera to sit on the stairs and thus begins our conversation:

Kiera: Mommy, what are those?
Me: Umbrellas, baby. It's raining and we are going to Chris'.
Kiera: I need one for yourself (translated to I need one for myself)
Me: Ok.
So I then open the umbrella...

Kiera: Whoa (said in three syllables like whhho ooo ooohh) , that is big. Is it heaby? (heavy)
Me: No, try it
A little unsure, she grabs it and says: Look at my hat.

I chuckle to myself and realize this child has never really experienced an umbrella. So the story continues:

As I get my shoes on, Kiera walks around my house looking like this:
She can't see anything. She is bumping into every wall and door. So much so that she is actually lowering the umbrella unvoluntarily because each spoke is being bumped, but she is having the time of her life. What kind of mother would I be to take it away or actually teach her to hold it up. She is learning, right?

Really, you should know I am dying laughing and running for the camera all the while trying not to cause such a stir as for her to actually *look* and see what is going on!

So, then we step outside and the conversation continues:

Me: Come on Kiera, let's go.
Kiera: Mommy, no. I don't wanna get wet!

and so she puts on her brakes and will not take another step!

Turns out she had no idea what the heck an umbrella was for!!!

Week In Review

2009-03-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Mar 5

Giddy Up Cowgirl!

Mar 6
Put Together Party
Before each shower for CCM, we have a put together party where we put together the baskets. Unfortunately, no one could come...so it was Kevin and me. Here is Kevin being such a good trooper:

Mar 7

CCM shower

I just love this picture because it shows 3 of the 5 girls we showered, plus the translator kneeling to help the girls understand the game and then the sweetest little girl who is about to be the big sister of TRIPLETS!!!

Mar 8

Kiera and Big Baby dress up the same for church!

Thanks Aunt Wanda for the dresses!

*Big baby is the doll's name, not Kevins! tee hee hee

Mar 9

Nothing of any interest happened this day, so please meet

Boo Boo Bunny

He is the cutest little bunny that surrounds a plastic ice cube. Kiera has to have him quite often these days.

Thanks Granny for Boo Boo Bunny!

Mar 10

A truly rare sight indeed.

Kiera actually fell asleep at school. I can count on one hand how many times that has happened. She chooses to rest, not nap.

I look at this picture and wonder why I spend the big bucks on the nap mat when she prefers the floor and why doll makers even bother with clothes....

Mar 11

Crafty card day

This one was my favorite:

And that's a wrap...

Crafty

2009-03-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent my evening making cards. I would like to share my creations with you!

Card #1

Blogger would not turn this pick around.

Imagine Spring running vertically up the left side.

Both flower and Spring are three dimensional: This picture is to show you that the top layer is acryllic

(which is all the rage in the paper crafting world:)

Card #2
Agian, using the acryllic:

You would just write your note on the back to be viewed through the acryllic:

Card #3

No acryllic, just a cute little Cricut bunny peeking his head out:

inside:

Card #4:

Acryllic with no dimension:

Oh Genie, where are you?

2009-03-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

How can a stay at home mom need a secretary, a maid, and a chauffeur? I have been asking myself that question lately. I feel so busy all the time and I am desperately trying to find the balance in life. I could use a secretary to help me keep up my calendar and send me daily reminders of what needs to be done. Also my secretary could help out with the CCM stuff and write a few blog entries.

Unfortunately, I just have this:

Fancy, huh?

This is my new invention after talking to my good friend, Staci! I asked her how she gets everything done and she said she makes a to-do list every morning. Brilliant, I tell ya! I thought this was a great idea! I decided to call mine the Top 5! Each day, I will list five things I want to get done in no particular order. I know I will get more than that done because remember, I have no secretary, maid or chauffeur ;)

So I started today and am happy to report that I am on the 3rd thing on my list and it is just after noon! I have been home over two years now and can sadly say that I am busier now that I ever was working. Of course, this mainly has to do with Kiera, but when you don't have a SET schedule, you tend to take too much on and become overwhelmed. Also, when you spend the majority of your time at home you have to cook and clean more.

Oh Genie, is it too late to add personal chef to my list???

Second wish = a maid.

All of you dear readers know why a maid would be helpful.

For now, this will do:

Since I have taught her to clean toilets (without playing in the bubbles she makes....YUCK!)

I have also taught her to:

put away the silverware

throw away her trash after a meal (but not the plate ;)

put (or throw!)her cup in the dishwasher

clean up anything on the floor (including kitty barf---yep, go me!!!)

throw away dirty diapers

clean windows

clean up her toys and books

Now if she could FOLD the laundry instead of UNFOLD the laundry, I might start paying her!

Onto my next wish. Might as well have three since that is what a genie would give me if I could just find that magic lamp! Anyway, I would love a chauffeur. You see, I hate driving in Houston. The traffic is relentless and the drivers are impatient. The two together equals disaster! I could get so much done while we driving to and fro.

But for now, he will do:

I know what you are probably thinking.... what does Kevin and Kiera have to do with chauffeuring? Well, you are looking at my chauffeur in the above picture. He does drive me around when he is home. But, he is better than a chauffeur....he is also a great daddy! I mean what kind of man would spend his Saturday night teaching his 2 year old to ice skate? All the while, dodging hormone raged teenager on the ice and ignoring his screaming back muscles as he takes her around the rink one more time slumped over holding her hands!

He is simply amazing!

So, as I sit and peek a glimpse at life with tons of help, I remember why I am so busy and why I have no professional help:

All because of this little ball of sweetness! I would give up so much more in order to stay home and raise her. Even if I feel like I am juggling all the balls of life and occasionally dropping one here and there, the reason is always clear...I don't need my own chauffeur, maid, or secretary...

I am a MOM!

Genie, can I change my wishes to:

perfect body

perfect health

and

a log cabin in the mountains?

Week In Review

2009-03-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

Feb 26

Bunco For Babies

This is one of the baskets we give to the women in need at the baby showers. This particular basket went to a teenage mother who was raped, but chose to keep her baby. In a few days, her story and how she came into our lives will be posted on the Cypress Calling Blog.

At this particular night of Bunco, we had the theme loveys and sleepers. It was a great night and quite successful for CCM.

Feb 27

Kiera is an excellent helper and decided to help Mommy clean toilets. I let her clean her own.

That night, Kevin and I joined Tasha and Dustin for the Chili Cook-off. I think if I went again, I would go earlier to ensure I got good cook-off food and wasn't surrounded by drunk people. I did have a good time with friends and Kevin without the distraction of children.Feb 28

Kevin and Kiera build another vegetable garden!!!

I am so excited. I absolutely love to garden. I don't like the sweaty, dirty part of it, but I do like the feeling of being outside and growing something beautiful or delicious (or both!) from a little seed or plant. My other vegetable garden built last year doesn't have enough sun. It is quite difficult to move, so I had Kevin build another one. There will be a post soon about the garden. Oh and by the way, the fig tree lived!!! My prayers worked!

Mar 1

Onyx plays dress-up

Forcibly not willingly

Don't you like her tutu?

Mar 2

One of the perks of being a SAHM is having fun on a Monday!

As you read in my other post, our trip to the zoo was fabulous!

The fish and the giraffes were about the only thing Kiera paid any attention to. And maybe she didn't even care about them, she just like climbing on the structures near their exhibit.

Mar 3

First ripe strawberry of the season

It's a beauty!

The strawberries were one reason we didn't want to move the vegetable garden. I was afraid the strawberries wouldn't survive and they look beautiful!

Mar 4

Mama bedazzled!

Yep, I broke out with my bedazzler and went to town on a pair of overalls for Kiera for Rodeo Day! Wait until you see the post of her in them with her pink cowboy boots!

I shouldn't lie and tell you that I don't actually own the Bedazzler, I own the knock off--Gem Magic. Apparently I don't get the magic, because it is horrible and doesn't even bend all of the prongs on the sequins down. So I had to use scrapbooking embellishments on the legs or poor Kiera would have been all bloody. So, I guess these are one time overalls because they will not make it through the wash! I used adhesive to put on the cow print trim! Tee hee hee!

It was a good week!

Thanks for checking in!

Q and A Wednesday

2009-03-04T12:14:00.001-08:00

Ask away!

A Magnificent Monday

2009-03-04T07:22:00.001-08:00

Tasha and I picked an absolutely beautiful day to go to the Zoo. The weather was in the 60s and there were hardly any people. It was wonderful. Between the 2 of us, we took over 500 pictures. I picked my favorites and then left you with a slideshow!

How often do you get to see a giraffe this close?

Don't feed the animals, but feel free to feed your friends!

The sorta sad petting zoo.
There are only smelly goats.

At first Kiera was pumped about riding a zebra around the Carousel, but that quickly ended and she said midway through over and over, "I all done, I all done." So I held her for the remainder of the ride.

This is how Kiera spent the last hour of our fabulous trip.
Monkeying around

My favorite animal---the giraffe

Trying to pose a picture with the gang...

Silly Boo

This is more what our day was like:

Ok, this is just disturbing.

Hairless rats!!!

The top one had to be pregnant. Her whole body vibrated with her heart beat and her breathing seemed labored. Maybe she has a tumor or two!

The kiddos looking at the fish.

More monkeys hand in hand

The following two pictures were worth the price of admission. This monkey had an 8 week old attached to her. The zookeeper came to feed the monkeys so we got a close up. Tasha and I were amazed, the kids not so much!

See the baby face near her right leg. So cute!

To see all the pictures, take a peek here:

Princess Day

2009-03-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday was Princess Day at Chic-fil-a. Kiera and I met Tasha and her family there. The girls had a great time except when it was Kier's turn to sit on Cinderella's lap. She would not have any part of that. Katharine on the other hand made a picture worth framing!

Our Dallas Trip...in pictures

2009-03-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

I tried and tried to get the slideshow to actually appear in the post without you having to go to a link, but I was unsuccessful. I did want to share my Dallas pictures with you, so please check them out here

***Click on the slideshow bottom on the top left so you can read all my captions. If you don't choose this option, it only shows the first line of my caption.

Answers to your questions...

2009-02-27T04:02:00.000-08:00

I was asked some really great questions this week. Some of them really had me thinking.

Kevin asked...
Are you a morning or night person?
Morning and always have been. I usually wake up in a good mood. People that are grumpy just because they had to get up drive me crazy. Seriously, if you didn't get wake up, you'd be DEAD!!!

Have you ever cried to get out of a spending ticket?
No, but thought of doing it. I always have the opposite problem...I get really mad. By the way, getting mad does NOT work!

Where do you find the energy to clean the entire house?
Within my soul. I love a clean house. I actually get more done when the house is clean. I know that sounds contridicting, but when my house is a mess, my mind is a mess. Give me two days and a two year old and I can do it!!

Where did you learn to cook such yummy meals?
Awww...what a sweet question! I like to experiment with recipes. I am pretty good at following directions, so the dishes usually come out pretty well. Lately though, I have been more comfortable branching out on my own. It's fun and quite rewarding.

Kim H. asked:
Do you have a life verse?
No, but I have a favorite one. It is Philippians 4:6 (New International Version)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. It got me through some truly difficult times with infertility and fear of miscarriage.

What is one area of sin that you struggle with?
Just one? I am not sure I can pick one. I need two...
Overeating and not caring for my temple.
Not submitting to my husband. I am a leader by heart and like to be in control. The whole "helper" idea that God created me to be causes internal struggle all the time.

Have you been making time for yourself in your new craft room? Or well, do you ever leave it?
Not as much as I would like. Isn't that always how it is, though? I do LOVE knowing that my stuff is there waiting to be scrapped in a nice orderly way in a beautiful room:)

Staci asked...
What is the most valuable thing you wish to teach your children?
This is a great question and I thought I would struggle choosing one thing, but it came to me very quickly:
To rely on God to help them make good decisions. I wish I would have had that growing up. I would have made some very different decisions. I did not respect myself or my body and that is just plain sad.

What is your best child hood memory?
Again, I have to choose one thing? Hmmm.....I would have to say boating with my dad. My dad owned the ugliest orange boat, but we had soooo much fun in it. I learned to ski when I was five and was driving the boat when I was 8. My parents were divorced, so this is the one thing that I did just with my dad. And now that my dad is gone, it means even more to me.

Katja Stahr-Long asked:
What is your greatest sorrow?
Well, I suppose the death of a family member is a huge sorrow... especially when they die too young like my dad at 47 and my brother in law at 27, but personally my greatest sorrow is my body and how it seems to fail me all the time. I know I should be thankful that God gave me the body He gave me (and some of the time I am extremely thankful) other times it just gets me down. All the surgeries and infertility tends to get me down, really down.

Who is your best friend & why?
I don't really have a "best" friend. I think each friend in your life is uniquely different and brings something to you that others don't. I have had sort of a rough year with friends, so I have really tried to focus on the friends that mean so much to me and why they are important. Instead of wasting my energy on joy stealers, I have tried to focus on my true friends. Some of my favorite unique traits of my friends include:

*their love of the same hobbies I do
This is very important to me as I beleive you can truly get to know and love someone when you craft together
*their dedication and dependability
For instance, I have a great friend who always makes time for me each week to catch up even though she is thousands of miles away. I have tried and tried this with other friends, but the friendship always falls apart when distance comes into the picture.
*their laidback personality
I don't consider myself laid back, so I am attracted to people who are...heck I married a very laid back person
*the ability to listen and give sound advice
All of my friends have this. I don't really like people who pretend to listen, but are really just waiting to do some more talking about themselves!

I am sure there are more traits, but these stand out!

What was the first thing you thought when you saw Keira for the first time?
Awww, a moment I will never, ever forget!
I had a c-section, so I knew from all the Baby Story shows I watched that they would tell me that I was going to feel a lot of pressure and this would be my cue that she was almost here. My OB said it and then within seconds held Kiera up. My first thought was, "Wow she is sooooo little!" They had me all convinced that she was some huge 9 or 10 pounder. She was a little over 7.5 lbs. My next thoughts were full of love and fulfillment!

Thank you for all the great questions! I truly enjoy this part of the blog.

Two Weeks In Review

2009-02-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Simpsons have been busy!!!

Feb 12

Kiera's Valentine's Day Party at school

Here she is enjoying a cookie:

Feb 13

Look how long her hair is getting.

It is so curly we hardly notice the length.

Feb 14

Sushi & Pizza Party

for Valentine's Day

Feb 15

Kiera playing beautician.

She loves to brush my hair and pretend to put "ponies" in.

Feb 16

Daddy's little helper

Feb 17
French Doors get a spa treatment:
Feb 18
Craft room got painted blue and all things are organized

Feb 19

First pages are scapped in new room:

Feb. 20

We went Ice Skating while in Dallas and even though Kiera is very cautious and not at all a daredevil, she had a ball!!!

Feb 21

Kiera and I go visit old friends of mine in Dallas.

This is one of my best friend's from High School. I had seen him in almost 6 years. He is now married with an adorable boy and another boy on the way!

Feb 22

On our beautiful drive back from Dallas, this was flying over Barker Cypress:

Feb 23

Kiera wears panties for the first time!

The day before she decided to take herself potty and actually went poop!

We will begin potty training very soon!

Feb 24

Princess Day at Chic-fil-a

My favorite princess is ready to go:

Feb 25
Easter Decor is up
I just love this plate.

It is not the most beautiful thing, but it brings back great memories. It is the first thing I painted at a pottery shop when I first moved to Houston. My sister lived here and we spent a lot of time painting and chatting. I remember when I went to go pick it up it was displayed in the window. It made me very proud! I will also always cherish that special time with my sister!

Q and A Wednesday

2009-02-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

I am a blog neglecter! I will be better I promise! I am swamped with CCM, my FET, and life! I will be here tomorrow with TWO weeks in review and some other posts (hopefully!) In the meantime, will you ask me some questions.....pretty please?

Q and A answers

2009-02-20T15:54:00.001-08:00

Staci asked...
What does Kevin think about all the airplane mishaps these days?
He doesn't say much. Whenever we view a pilot as a hero (like the pilot who put the plane down in the Hudson), he just views this as part of the job. He is always very interested to see if a plane crash is the result of a pilot error or a mechanical difficulty. I believe he feels he is very safe and well trained to keep himself and his passengers out of trouble.

How many flight hours does he have?
More than 5,000! When I met him he had 800 and we thought that was a lot.

Where do you see yourself in 5 & 10years?
Wow, this is a hard question (and I remember asking it to you)
In 5~
Kiera will be in first grade and hopefully will have 1 or 2 little siblings. I hope to still be at home because I want to be! I hope to be working part time for CCM and actually getting paid!!! But, I am not against co-owning my own business with a friend ;) I hope to still be in Houston, but working on getting a vacation home in a different part of the country. Hopefully Kevin will have a job at a major airline or at least doing something that is involves flying.
In 10~
Kiera will be in twelth grade (OMG!). Pretty much the same dreams as in 5 except I will have a rockin' body because I will be done with kids and fit at 40!! ok, you can stop laughing now! I hope to have a main home in a big city and a cozy little cabin that we can escape to!

Kim H. asked...
What does Kevin think about you being the brain child of Cypress Calling? (I'm sure he's extremely proud!!)
Well, I would love to say that he is simply amazed and dotes on me constantly, but tis not true. Kevin hasn't really expressed many feelings other than we always say we never imagined me running a ministry. But they do say that actions speak louder than words and Kevin's actions speak very loudly. He is very supportive of the ministry. He gives a good percentage of his hard earned money to CCM. He also has gone and helped with a few of our endeavors such as Life house. And he always watches Kiera when I do ministry work, even if this involves a whole weekend (like the retreat!) He never complains about the ministry, but is cautiously optimistic.

Does Kiera show any signs yet that she will be as into craft projects as you are? Or love entertaining? Or have great leadership skills?
Yes to crafts! Her teachers always comment on her advanced ability when they do crafts. They always ask if I spend time working with her with crafts. I don't very often:( They also say they can always tell Kiera's projects because she always spends the most time on hers.
Besides the crafty side of Kiera, she is all Kevin. She has not shown leadership skills yet, but I know it is awfully early. Not sure about entertaining either. Maybe we need to have few tea parties to see!

Kevin Simpson asked...
Will Kiera ever figure out the new shoe closet?
Yes, she already has!

Kiera wants to know if she can have an extension cord in her crib so that her night-light will work?
Absolutely not, she will electrocute herself.

Which one of our cars would win a drag race?
Probably the Truck since it could run over its competition

Would Kiera have more fun with a baby brother or sister?
I know she would enjoy either, but in the long run probably a sister.

What's for dinner?
I don't remember was for dinner the night you are asking about, but I do know what is for dinner tonight....spaghetti.

Q and A Wednesday

2009-02-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

Ask away...

I will be back this weekend to answer!

Introducing....

2009-02-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

Kevin has always been supportive of my scrapbooking hobby. So much so, that he has built me two different areas to sit and scrap. This time he really outdid himself. I gave him the idea of enclosing either the downstairs office or the upstairs gameroom.
He chose the office and did an absolutely amazing job.
Take a look for yourself:

No, he is not for hire.

It looks truly professional. I cannot believe my husband built me my own scrap room...before he built his own plane.

I am one lucky girl.

To Kevin:

Thank you so much for your constant support with my hobby. We have dreamed and planned for an area for me to scrap for years. I was amazed you agreed to transform our master closet into a scrap room! Then, I give you the idea of building a wall to enclose the office and you completely blew me away. Holy Cow Kevin...you built me a wall! You are so talented and so giving of your own time. I know my friends and I will truly enjoy many, many nights in my new blue room!

I love you very much!

Coincidence?

2009-02-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, Tasha and Dustin came over to have dinner and play some games. We were having a fabulous time watching the kids fight, but yet continue to play. We were talking about Valentine's Day, when Dustin said that the day before (Feb. 12th ) was the ninth anniversary of when he asked Tasha to marry him (lucky for him she said yes!). Well I started doing some math and guess what...

on that EXACT same day and EXACT same year was Kevin and my first date! WOW!

So I started thinking about other odd coincidences in my family.....

My sister, my step-dad, and me were all born on the 15th of the month. My step-dad in August, me in November, and my sister in December.

Kevin and I have owned two houses in two different states. Both of the house numbers are eerily similar:
Charlotte house: 9631
Houston house: 9623
Both houses numbers have 9, 6, and 3. The first house had a 1 and the second house has a 2.

Both our parents are the same age and both Kevin's father and my stepfather were born in August.

Now, ever since Kiera was born everyone has told us that Kiera resembles Kevin so much. Now that she has gotten older it is obvious that she not only looks like Kevin, but that she has a lot of his personality too. That is not where the coincidences end though. Now one of these things was planned, but it is simply amazing how much she is like Kevin.

*They have the same initials (planned)
*They were both born in the same hospital 30 yrs apart. (our OB serves this hospital, so that is why we chose it, not because Kevin was born there)
*My infertility surgeon's office was Kevin's mom's OB's office.
*Kevin's birthday is on 8/10 and Kiera was born at 8:10 pm.

I realize some things are coincidence, but all that with Kevin and Kiera, I think not!

2009-02-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

We had an absolutely wonderful Valentine's Day this year. All the fun started at Kiera's school on Thursday. Her class had a simple cookie party with a Valentine exchange:

The fun continued on Saturday as Kevin and Kiera awoke to a little gift from Cupid:

Valentine's evening we headed over to our friends, Javier and Selina, for some dinner making fun. The kids made pizza which Kiera loved and had a fabulous time doing:

The adults made sushi. It was delicious and lots of fun! I almost dropped my Shaggy Dog roll, but luckily caught it!

After sushi, we played Canasta. Javi and I got our butts whipped by Subzero (Kevin) and his partner! We had such a good time.

Week In Review

2009-02-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

What a week! This past weekend was the Cypress Calling Ministries Leadership Retreat. It took a lot of planning and organizing, but it all paid off. We had a wonderful time and got so much done. The last few days I have played catch up on sleep :)

***My pictures and descriptions are messed up. I cannot fix them without reloading everything! Some of the descriptions are below the pictures. I am sorry for the confusion.

Feb. 5

Here are the binders that Tasha and I created. We spent nearly all week on these, but they turned out great!!!

Feb. 6

Here is some of the decor in the country home we rented for the Retreat. The home was beautiful and so serene. It was exactly what we needed.

Feb. 7

This is the actual name of the cabin. The porch was beautiful and a nice and quiet place to sit and think!

Feb 10

As we left this was the picture from the rear view mirror.

Simply beautiful!

Feb. 11

Staci sent Kiera a present for Valentine's Day. It was a very sweet book thanking God for our family written by Victoria Osteen.

Thanks Staci!

Feb 12

Kiera and Tyson (or more affectionately called Ty Ty)

He is our third black cat (NO! We do not have a thing for black cats, they have a thing for us!) but lives outside.

Kiera is quite fond of him. Here she is patting her legs to get him to come onto her lap. One of our other cats does this, but Tyson has not. If you are wondering how Tyson got his name, it is not after the chicken company, but after the boxer. Tyson has beat up both of our cats and sent them to the vet. He has mellowed in his old age and hasn't started any cat fights lately. He did bite Oreo's ear the other day just confirming that he has the most appropriate name! Don't worry Oreo showed him who is boss (Kevin, quit laughing) and barked him down.

Feb. 13

We have been doing some MAJOR construction and reorganizing in our house. With the new hobby room, comes a lot of moving and organizing. I bought these adorable boxes from Hobby Lobby and put our saved cards, mementoes, etc. in them. We all have a box (even Kiera, but hers is a little different). I am touched to report that I already need a bigger box. I have the best friends and family!

2009-02-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Kevin Simpson asked:
What is Kiera's favorite color?
Red. This is what she will say when asked this particular question even though I have never seen her consistently choose red things over any other color.

Why do you suppose she has an aversion to ice cream?
Probably because it is so cold, but maybe it is because she would just rather have chocolate!

When are you going to cut that kids hair?
When it gets too long in the back. I will the let the front grow out for now.

Is it wrong for me to wish she would cry when I leave for work?
Not at all. It reaffirm the fact that she loves you and misses you.

What will be your reaction when she asks to pierce her ears?Her bellybutton?
Depends on the age she asks for the first question. When she is in elementary school, I will consider her ears. When I am done financially supporting her and she is out on her own she can pierce anything else (although it would be against my wishes)

Kim H. asked
What was the hardest adjustment from being without children to having a child?
The adjustment of time. Everything is so scheduled and you lose almost all of your "own" time. Also, when you don't fell like doing something, most of the time you don't have a choice (ex. putting them to bed when you are exhausted yourself)

Where was the best vacation that you & Kevin ever took? Why?
Kevin and I have been a lot of really neat places. A few that come to mind are our trip to Scotland with a good friend who was from there, our honeymoon to Aruba, our Christmas trip to Germany, our skiing trip to Salt Lake City, and our 5th anniversary in Florida. So, it is hard to choose one, but if I had to, I would have to say Germany. It was taking on a whim with little planning. We had a fabulous time even though we wished we would have planned a little more :). The scenery and all the little towns we went through were just simply amazing! I will never forget the Black Forest with the snow-flocked evergreens everywhere as we drove around trying to find a Cuckoo Clock.

Staci asked:
What qualities do you love about yourself and Kevin, what do you dislike?
I like my leadership abilites, my creativity, and my dependabilty. I wish I were more nurturing, encouraging, and compassionate. I like Kevin's laid back personality, his ablility to learn and tackle anything, his giving attitude and his supportiveness. I wish he were more extroverted, encouraging, and clean (tee hee)

I really enjoyed the questions this week. Thank you to all of you who submitted some!

Week In Review

2009-02-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, January is gone and February is full swing. Here is a little taste of our week:

Jan. 29th

Scrapbook Frame

I was organizing my albums and decided to decorate my scrapbook frame (which I LOVE) with a page from our wedding album in honor of Valentine's Day.

I think it looks fantastic.

Jan. 30

Bunco for Babies

Tons of fun and for a good cause. I did not win. I only got one bunco :(

But, CCM got a basket full of goodies!

Jan 31

We went to a delicious (and quite expensive) sushi dinner with Selina and Javier. We got babysitters and everything. WOW! A real date night! Then we came back and played Sequence and Canasta. I forgot to take a picture of them, so I asked Kevin if I could take a picture of him.

This is what I got:

I do have to say, that when you take Kevin's picture chances are he will have a cat hidden in his shirt. I love the shirt he is wearing in this picture because it is the shirt he wore on our first (which was blind) date and I love him!

Feb 1

Hobby room (as Kevin has asked it be referred to, so he can store some stuff in it ;) ) is nearing completion. I can hardly believe it...my husband built me a wall!!!

Scrappers, get your paper and your stickers ready..there will be a crop in my new room very soon!

Feb 2

Daddy's little helper

I think Orion, the cat, got fired and Kevin found a more realiable worker.

It is hard to find good help these days.

Feb. 3

Don't laugh...but this is my very sad Fig tree. My mom bought it for me less than 2 weeks ago. Kevin put it in the ground and it just looks like it wants to die. I am so sad. I only took this picture with the hope that in a few weeks I could post another one with a glorious looking Fig tree. I even prayed for my tree...sad but true.

I have always wanted a fig tree. I have very fond memories of eating figs with my grandmother when I was a little girl.

Come on fig tree, you can do it!

Feb 4

Kiera gets her first pedi/mani

After her 2 year check-up I took her to get her nails done with me.

She picked the color for both of us which is a nice shade of pink bubblegum. (blech!)

She did so well and kept saying,

"Look Mommy, pretty nails!"

Although, I will never forget this day, I might come to regret it....LOL!

Dear God,

2009-02-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

I realize this is a ridiculous question, but can you please stop time? Just for a minute or a year??? My little girl is growing up too fast. Her hair is way past her shoulders, her feet nearly touch the ground in her rocker, and all her shirts are too short. I look at her and see You and feel so much love and gratitude. But everytime I turn around, I notice how her babiness is developing into little girlness and then I feel a little sad. Oh, everyone warned me this would happen, but I just couldn't understand until it actually happened. I know I am supposed to raise her to leave me, but can you just let this time go by a little slower?

Thanks for your consideration.

One of your biggest fans,
Jenn

Q and A Wednesday

2009-02-04T04:33:00.000-08:00

I just love this time of the week! Last week's questions were great. Keep 'em coming, but keep 'em clean I will be out of town this weekend, but will do my best to get the answers our promptly!

***Hey all you fans who never comment.... I know you are out there (I see you on Google analytics....please let me know you are there :) I need to feed my ego and believe I have more than 4 readers!

Oh yeah...

I blog for myself, not for others.
I blog for myself, not for others.
I blog for myslef, not for others.

Ok, I feel better. Sorry about that.

Backward not Forward

2009-02-04T04:21:00.000-08:00

We heard it can happen, sometimes kids regress. It usually happens around the toddler years and almost always coincides with the birth of a new baby or a major family change, such as a move. But, really we have no explanation as to why our little one decided to regress to babyhood. Maybe it's because we allowed her to:

This is Preston's paci (yes, as in Staci's Preston). He probably is in Canada missing his paci and red doggie. But don't worry Preston, Kiera is taking great care of it and will bring it back to you in April...saliva and all. Now folks, don't worry, Kiera is not a paci-baby. We hide it again everytime she spots it and then forgot she spotted it. I don't think it is good parenting to allow your toddler to start the paci habit.

So, this a baby carseat. This was given to us to donate to The Source. It has been sitting in our garage ever since the Hurricane waiting for me to take it to be donated. Turns out they won't take used carseats. They told me to cut the straps and throw it away. Now, how can I? Kiera loves it. In the above, picture she is watching Elmo from her carseat. I think you know you have a problem when your little girl says, "Mommy, car seat in Mommy's chair" which translates to, "Mommy, I want you to put my carseat in your armchair and then I will sit in it." I had to draw the line somewhere and tell her NO!!!

You must be thinking that this poor child has no toys so she has to find other's people trash or personal items to call her own treasures.....oh no, she has tons of toys. Heck, she has a dollhouse with a zoo inside, not mention more babies than Target, but yet, she chooses old baby toys and other peoples possessions to spend her attention on. Well, at least Christmas will be cheap this year.

Q and A Answers

2009-01-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

I got some great questions. Thank you to my loyal readers...all three of you :) Not really, I know I have more readers, just not many commenters. Here we go...

Staci asked:
How do you spend time as a family when Kevin is in town?
I was thinking about this and am sad to report that we are quite boring. Kevin likes to stay in the house when he is home (I guess he gets tired of being gone all the time) so we spend a lot of time in the house. With Kiera we read lots of books and play puzzles. We spend time outside since now is the time to enjoy the whether. She loves to swing in her red porch swing and I usually am gardening while Daddy swings her. We often go out to eat together (many times it is just McDonald's). We also go to the mall for the play area or out shopping. We do quite a bit of travelling and a little camping (I would like to do more). Most of our time at home is spent on home improvement projects and doing daily routine things such as eating and cleaning :(

Do you find Kiera is different when Kevin gets home from a trip or before he leaves?
A little bit. She just barely started to notice that when Kevin puts on his uniform it means he is going to work. She understands "work" means he is gone. She sometimes cries for him on and off the first couple hours he is gone. When he is gone sometimes she is better behaved with me because she has more of my attention maybe. When it is all three of us, she tends to be naughtier, but when it is just Kevin and her she is a perfect little angel. I usually tell her the day Kevin is coming home that he is coming home. I will give her a rundown of the day so she understands when he is coming home (for example, you will lay down for a nap and then when you wake up Daddy will be on his way) otherwise, she will think he is coming home within two minutes. I can tell she understands Daddy comes and goes and she is grasping the concept of time little by little.

As far as parenting goes are you doing things that you swore you would never do?
OH YES! I honestly don't think you can determine what kind of parent you will be until you actually are one. I can exactly recall the things I swore off, but I am sure I intended to feed my child better, not spank her unless absolutely necessary, never yell at her, and raise her as the perfect sleeper (which I have fallen short in every area). Then there is the whole my child will be the best behaved child on the face of the earth ideal I had...yeah right. Sometimes we pick our battles. If she wants to jump on the booth while I finish my dinner at a restaurant, go ahead...at least she is not screaming or running around the restaurant. Now that I think about it I swore I would take a screaming child out of public, never spank in public, and not ever allow my child to run around in a public place...so far so good on those things!

Is there anything that your mom did that you do or don't do with Kiera?
Yes. My mom used to always comment on things like, "Wow, you used your sharp ears (or eyes)!" I find myself doing that a lot. I will tell Kiera, "Put on your good listening ears and do what Mommy says!" It works. My mom praised a lot and so I try and do the same. But, my mom was a spanker (belts, sometimes) and I think at times it got out of hand. I don't want to be a spanker (I believe in spanking, just not as the main source of discipline). She also fed us our meals at the dinner table and not on TV trays and usually the TV was off. Now, since she is remarried that sort of has changed. We (Kevin, Kiera, and I )have all our meals at the table and I prefer the TV off, but sometimes Kevin is watching something and I let it go! My mother was always very loving and I think I am as well.

Tasha asked:
If you could live anywhere in the US, where would it be and why?
Well, I really do like Houston, but if I could go anywhere it would be one of the four corners states: probably northern AZ or southern UT. I just love the dry air with mountains. They have extreme temperatures, but they don't last forever. I love the sun, so it typically is pretty sunny out there. I would live in a cabin in the mountains not too far from a big city because I do like to shop and I do like people. I am not a recluse by any means.

What is your favorite thing about Kiera as a 2 year old?
Watching her personality come through. Now that she is very verbal and able to do many things on her own, I can really see what makes her unique.

Least favorite?
The outright disobedience. You know exactly what I am talking about, don't you? It is like sometimes they do not hear one word you say. Oh, and the collapse-a-baby crap they pull. You know, when you try and get them to walk and their legs turn to jelly and they fall to the ground...I hate that. Ok, so that was two ;)

Kim asked:
Now that you're going through the process to have another child..are there things you will do differently in terms of doctors and procedures?
Well, I am doing a totally different procedure (FET instead of IVF) so I would like the least amount of medicine as possible. I hate Lupron and want to avoid it at all costs. I tried to do a non-medicated cycle, but my body was not having that, so it looks like next cycle will be more medicated. It blew me away to find out that they use some medications to control your cycle for scheduling reasons. That is just plain crazy! I would ask more questions and be more knowledgable because they don't always have our best interest in mind. They see dollar signs and statistics.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out with a fertility specialist?
Be knowledgeable and ask lots of questions. Lean on friends who have been through this. Have a plan (as in a distraction) for the 2ww. It is grueling. Decide beforehand how far you are willing to go because it will be hard to stop once you start!

How did you and Kevin deal with the struggle every month that you didn't end up pregnant? Good question..not well! We dealt with it with lots of tears and lots of questions. I was never angry at God, but instead became jealous and angry of those who so easily got what I wanted...pregnant! But, now I work with crisis pregnancies and feel completely at peace with that. Go figure! It was hard, very hard. The Christmas before I went through IVF (Dec. 2005) was horrible. I had just had major surgery becasue of endometriosis and ovarian cysts and I was on Lupron. I felt like crying all of the time and that I was never ever going to have a child. Everyone is like...Christmas is for kids...well that really hurts someone who doesn't have any! I told my sister I didn't know how to cope..she told me that she understood how hard it was (she also went through IVF) and I should rest in the idea that by the following Christmas I would know. Either I would have my own child or I would move on to adoption. She was right, guess what Kiera's due date was? 12/25/06!

These were all great questions. I look forward to next week's questions!

Kieraism

2009-01-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Kiera has such a sweet, but quite interesting little personality, I just want to share what happened last night:

Right after finishing dinner, Kiera came around to my chair and said, "Come on, Mommy, you can do it," and she grabbed my hand. So I picked up on the fact that she was trying to get me to go somewhere. She had never done this, so I let her. She lead me to the front door and said, "Go outside." Well, it is a little cold tonight and the sun already set, so I told her, "No, let's go play in the other room. It is dark and cold." So she led me to the living room and had me sit down in front of her dollhouse. She handed me a panda and an elephant (yes, we have quite a dollhouse) she then proceeded to turn her back to me and play on her own with this giraffe. Well, I kept hearing her say, "Goodness Gracious" over and over. So, I put my animals (that I was so nicely playing with) down and watched her.

She would set the giraffe up in the dollhouse, knock him down, pick him up while saying, "Goodness Gracious", kiss him and then put him back standing. Then she would knock him down again and follow the same routine over and over and over. Quite interesting.

Now, I just hope she doesn't try this trick on humans or pets...

Daddy does Ponies

2009-01-28T18:51:00.001-08:00

As you all know we have a little girl and well little girls need ponies (as in pony tails). We are trying to grow Kiera's hair out, so it is a necessity for her to have ponies or her hair will be in her face. Bless Kevin's little heart, he has NO idea how to do this. I taught him once, but he didn't quite get it. He decided the other day he was ready to try again. I got the whole thing on camera. Now, the quality and lighting of the pictures in horrible because I was literally rolling on the floor laughing and trying to remember to press the photo button. So, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will not chronicle it for you, but allow you to add your own dialogue...

So, as you can see, he could not figure it out and she had no ponies. He tried many times, but was unsuccessful. Poor Daddy. But, don't despair, I am happy to report that he has since learned how to put a ponie in!!!

Week In Review

2009-01-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

You already saw this one...

Jan 22

The Scrap Room

Now we actually have drywall on one side! Yippee!

Jan 23

Tea Room

Grandma came to visit, so we took her to the Tea Room.

Look at my little girl acting so big with her real (breakable) tea cup!

Jan 24

A Day of Shopping with Grandma

We looked at Dining Room furniture with Grandma. She found this at Star Furniture and fell in love with it. She went back to El Paso and ordered it. And guess who gets her old dining room set? Yep, good ole me!

I do love what she picked. I hope someday I get this as well. It is beautiful!

Jan 25

Quiet Cold Day at home....

but we were prepared because Aunt Aimee made us this beautiful hat. It is so soft and warm. Kiera loves it!

Jan 26

My new favorite appliance...a food processor

My mom bought it for me (instead of flowers for my surgery..ha ha) and I LOVE it!

Jan 27

Kiera completing the Crossword Puzzle in the Chronicle

Yes, she is that smart!

Jan 28

Getting a snuggle in with Oreo before bed.

My two favorite babies in the world...my real baby and my furbaby!

Me too, Me too

2009-01-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

So a couple of my friends have started a trend....

Q and A Wednesday

Feel free to ask me a question. Any question is fine as long as it is not obscene. I will post the answers during the weekend.

Anything you are dying to know about me???

3, 2, 1.....here we go

2009-01-25T07:10:00.000-08:00

There is so much going on, it would take several posts to clue you all in, so I tried to think of how to incorporate it into one post.

3. My mom came in.
I know, I can hardly believe it myself. But, she did. She is here spending the weekend with Kiera and me. We have a lot of fun spending her money. We have shopped for big things like dining room sets (for her) and small things like food processors (for both of us). We have eaten out a lot and just enjoyed each other's company. My mom is such a homebody, it is so nice to actually have her come to our house. Kiera has turned her charm on high and convenienently melted her Grandma's heart! I truly enjoy spending time with her as well. We have many, many things in common.

2. Cypress Calling Ministries
For those of you who have been reading awhile, you know I helped start a ministry with a group of girlfriends back in the Spring of 08. After a couple months, we defined our ministry to helping mothers-in-crisis. Well, we are still going very strong and I have truly seen God's work in so many ways. We will be having our first Ministry Retreat where we will plan at least the next three years if not five. I am not exactly sure where God will take this minsitry, but He has given me some glimpses of His possibilities and I am so excited! The other night I was laying in bed with Kiera trying to get her to sleep and my mind was going a million miles a minute with possibilities for CCM. I couldn't even keep up with my own thoughts. Now, I am not one to claim God speaks directly to me and I certainly don't believe I am a prophet, but sometimes you know your thoughts are not your own and there is only one person to attribute that to-the man upstairs. So, what God and I developed in the wee hours of the night with His precious gift singing away next to me was....

BUNCO FOR BABIES

Imagine this....instead of a $5 entrance fee, women bring a $10 baby item to donate. It could be diapers, an outfit, a pack of sleepers, a pack of diapers, etc. We would use these donations to fill our baskets or our warehouse (one of God's great future glimpses) to give to mothers-in-need. In one night, we could get over $120 in baby items and have FUN doing it. Then I was thinking we could contact other Bunco Groups (meetup.com, Tasha:) ) and see if they would do a Bunco for Babies once or twice a year. If they were local, we would come pick up the items (and really have done nothing in the process) and if they are far away, we could have them bring cash and then turn their cash into a gift card to Babies R Us and mail it to us. Then there is the opportunity to have a Women's Bunco Night at a church or MOPS (Mothers of Preschools) group. If we did Bunco with these larger groups, we could collect even more items and reach more possible volunteers. So, I have planned our first Bunco for Babies night next Friday. My wonderful neighbor, Chris, is hosting it. I have invited my neighbors, new friends, and old church friends. I am hoping it is a success and something we could continue once a month all year long.
Believe it or not, that is not all that is going on with CCM....
We have donations coming in of over $5000 for the year of 2009 and so we will have to get the official IRS 501c3 status. We will be opening a bank account next weekend and planning a budget very soon. I have learned so much over the last few months about our state and federal government and how corporations work, my brain hurts. But, after lots of prayer, meetings, and Christian counsel, we had clear direction and our ready to proceed. I am sure after the retreat I will have much more to report. Until then, prayers are very much needed and certainly appreciated. Oh and if you want to help, please let me know in the comment section. You can also check out the ministry here.

1. We are going to have another baby...
We hope! We have had quite a roller coaster with our previous RE and have been asked to find another RE, so we have. I will keep the story to myself for now since the previous RE clinic is quite wrong and will be investigated. Anyway, we have an appt with our new RE on Tuesday and we will see if we can save this cycle. If it is too late, we will try again next month. With all of this happening, it has created quite a bit of stress, confusion, and anger, but all in all it is a blessing. We have a good friend that went to our RE and was not happy at all with their service when she went back, so that made us a little cautious. Then, they were confused on several occassions why we were back (um, for an FET) and that sort of raised my eyebrows. So, we weren't sure what to do not to mention the whole fiasco we were asked to leave over. The whole issue revolved around money and insurance coverage and let's just say with the new RE we have came out way ahead...at least in terms of money. I know I am being vague, but unfortunately, I have to be for now. Prayers in this area are also needed and very much appreciated!

So, there you have it....the top 3 going ons!

Week In Review

2009-01-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

Jan 15

Recovering in Methodist from Lingual Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy

Iphone kept us connected to the world and quite happy!

Jan 16

Feeding our Twilight Addiction

This is book 2 of the series, New Moon.

This series is EXCELLENT and completely addictive. Kevin and I have been curling at night reading them at the same time from the same book...how sweet!

Jan. 17

Doing Puzzles

We did a family puzzle together and Kiera loved it (although she was not much help)

Since then we went out and bought another puzzle (with a few hundred more pieces). It is a great way to relax and recover from a surgery!

Jan. 18th

The worse day of recovery...by far! I spent ALL day on the couch!

So, the PoD (Picture of the Day) were the beautiful flowers Kevin got me.

Jan. 19th

Cheryl came over to give me the cash for the Retreat. Kevin was showing off his camera since she is in the market for things (like fancy flashes) to add to her new camera.

Jan. 20th

Kevin's assitant

Jan. 21st

Lazy days of recovery

Kevin added a spelling game to his Iphone for Kiera and she LOVES it! She could easily spend hours playing (of course we don't let her, but we are not against giving her the game while we are the phone). This is her playing the game while Kevin was on the phone with the insurance regarding the RE (another post for another day). She got herself quite comfortble.

That is our week in review, but we can't leave without giving you a sneak peak at the first picture for next week's post ( I do my Week in Reviews on Thursday covering the previous Thursday-Wednesday because Jan. 1st fell on a Thursday):

We have doors!!!

Early Morning Ramblings

2009-01-21T03:30:00.000-08:00

Here it is 5:30 in the morning and 2/3 of the Simpson family members are wide awake.

Are we going somewhere? NO
Is someone sick? NO, not really
Is there a newborn in the house keeping everyone awake? NO

So you may be asking yourself, why are you awake at this unGodly hour if there is no particular reason?

I DON'T KNOW but I am pretty sure it is Kiera's fault. Tuesdays and Thursdays can be a little rough because Kiera only rests at school, but does not take naps. I have tried to get her to take a nap after school, but 9 times out of 10, it doesn't work. Then around 4 or 5 pm, she loses control of body and a little alien takes over. We trudge through dinner and bathtime and launch her into bed as close to sundown as humanely possible. Sometimes though, she is so tired, she can't settle down to fall asleep. Last night was no exception. Kevin ended up laying on her floor until she fell asleep. I am sure that is something we swore we would never do before we actually had a child. Which I feel compelled to discuss this topic of a minute~
Don't even waste your time deciding what you will and will not do when you have kids because you know what? You will do ANYTHING on this side of the law to get them to sleep.
Anyway, I digress~ So she finally went to sleep around 8 or so, only to wake up screaming at 1:30 am. I went and got her and settled her into our bed. Usually this works fine. She says, "I lay with Mommy!" which means I want to meld my body into yours, have you put your arm tightly around my back while I drape my arm around your neck and then lay my nose against yours so I can suck all available oxygen from you. Sweet, you say? It is for about five minutes, then you can't breathe and her little hairs have tickled your face so much you feel a little insane. So, of course I deal (that's what parents do) and we try to fall asleep. Three hours later, she is still in my bed and still awake. It is not entirely her fault. I kept coughing, the cat paid a visit, Daddy moved, etc. I took her back to her bed and she screamed hysterically. So I politley told Kevin, "YOUR TURN!!!!" So what does he do? He goes and gets her and lays her in our bed. As if she doesn't know how to get to Mommy and try and body meld for a couple more hours. Kevin did try to get her and body meld with her, which responded, "No Daddy, you go lay on your pillow!" At 5:15 am I gave up. I have better things to do than try and pretend to sleep. The good news is that I only have one thing to do today and that is at 4 pm, so I will catch some ZZZZZs at some point.

On a different note, I am recovering quite well. I am day 7 of recovery and am completely off pain meds with the exception of 2 Tylenol here and there. I still have a very sore throat, tongue, neck, etc. I was trying to describe to Kevin that this is more than a sore throat, it is like a sore everything. Even my glands are super sore. But, I do feel better since I kicked the pain meds, ironically. My only real complaint is this little tickle I have in my throat and the dry cough that is accompanying it. I am guessing it just part of the healing process. I am better though, I am even enjoying my first cup of hot coffee as I type this blog. Oh, how I have missed my morning cup of joe!

Also, the constuction of the wall is going smoothly; I am thinking we may hanging the doors today. I am starting to feel compelled to get my scrapbooking stuff organized in preparation for the big move. Yesterday, I organized all my finished pages into correct piles, so they can be put into albums that I hope to purchase today. After much deliberation, I have decided to have the following albums:

Kiera Albums: Birth through one year, First Birthday through first year, and Second Birthday through second year, etc. These will go with her when she gets married.
Family Albums: General Family Albums chronicling our lives & vacations, Christmas Album, 4th of July Album (since that seems to be our Family Reunion holiday) These albums will stay with me until I die. I was excited to see that I actually have pages from every Christmas Kevin and I have spent together since married and every vacation we have been on. Also, I have pages from both 4th of July reunions.
Wedding Album: Kevin and my wedding. Of course, it will stay with us as well.

I really thought a lot about this since I didn't want to just do one album of our life and then give it to Kiera. Then I was thinking, what do you do if you have two kids and only one set of family albums? Who gets the albums? So, I think it is best to seperate the kids albums from the family albums and each child should have their own set of childhood albums. Each Christmas and Fourth of July I will do at least one page for their album and then a few for the family albums. If someone has a suggestion of how else I can organize my albums, please share!

Now comes the paper sorting. I got a good idea from Kevin's aunt. I am going to get a plastic crate and put all of my solid colored card stock in that. Then I am going to go through all of my patterened paper and sort it into different categories such as flowers, Christmas, Halloween, and then various colors. Each of those categories will go into a seperate container or envelope. When I have ribbon or embellishments that go with paper such as Halloween stickers, I will put them in the same container as the paper. Then if I want to work on Halloween pages, I just need that container. Brilliant. I am sure that is more than you ever wanted to know about scrapbooking storage.

So, I believe I have rambled enough for one day!

I survived

2009-01-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well, my second lingual tonsillectomy was a success....so far! Here is a rundown of my day yesterday:

We got up at 4:15 am and arrived at the hospital at 5:45. My dear neighbor, Chris, came over and watched Kiera all day and all night! After a little paperwork and a quick interview I got my gown on and was headed into surgery about 7:30. But, before I went in we had a little concern. I had to tell the anestheologist that the last time I had surgery they had a heck of a time getting the air tube down my throat. We think it was from scar tissue from the previous tonsillectomy. So this really concerned the anestheologist. He said we have two options. One, put a tube and a camera down your throat while you are awake and then put you to sleep and do the surgery or two, put me to sleep see if they can get the tube down and if not, they will wake me up and do the camera thing. Ummmm...I do not wish to be awake for any procedure, thank you! We asked him why I need to be awake and he said your airway is least likely to collapse when you are awake. Great! He opted to put me to sleep and try the tube---Thank God! They gave me some Versed (a wonderful forgetful drug) and had me move beds into a quite uncomfortable position. Towel rolled up under my back and hands down at my side and then the next thing I knew, I was somewhere else wondering if I had surgery. That is the funny thing about surgery. You feel like one minute passes and you are not sure if you even had anything done. I thought that maybe they had fought my airway so much that they woke me up to try with a camera. I looked at the clock and it was almost 9, so I very carefully swallowed.............OUCH!!!!!!!! Fire!!!!!!! I had the surgery. Well, I was glad about that! After knowing for more than a year I was going to have the surgery (and having it cancelled once due to the Dr. family emergency) I was sure glad to have this behind me. So the Dr. came in the recovery room and told me that he removed a great deal of tonsil tissue by using a snare and cauterized some of the rest. He said I would have a lot of pain and I should probably stay overnight due to the threat of swelling and/or bleeding. I think I have a large gaping wound on the back of my tongue, but I am not sure. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. So off to my semi-private room. You know, in this day and age don't you think we should all have our own rooms? They said they didn't have any private rooms. Hmmmm... The thought of sharing a toilet with someone I don't know (who is in the hospital nonetheless) is a little bothersome. At least she was a quiet old lady who wore a diaper. She didn't have any visitors and only a few callers. I am sure it could have been worse.
At about 8 pm, I was feeling really good and we decided to see if I could go home. We had the nurse call the doctor to see. After two hours of back and forth calls a decision was made....NO! They were afraid of how I might feel once the steroids wore off. So, Kevin went home at 11 and I laid down and prepared for my night of endless awakings. I asked for a sleeping pill, but they said my blood pressure was too low. Oh well. I woke at 5:45 to have my vitals checked (again!). My throat was on fire again, so they brought me more pain meds and some ice cream. I felt better. The doctor came in at 7 and I was released. So, now I am at home trying to rest and enjoy my time of recovery. It is not often that a mom of a toddler gets to lay around and let her husband take care of her.
For those of you wondering how I was able to stay in touch so much throughout the surgery...Iphones and laptops. They go anywhere! Gotta love technology!

Thank you for all of your prayers, calls, comments, and texts. I feel very honored to have such great friends and family members! I love you all!

What we do without medicine?

2009-01-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Probably die young. Well, I know I would. Tomorrow I will go in for my fifth surgery in six years and seventh total. For those of you wondering, here is a surgery recap:

1979--Tonsillectomy
1995--Abdominal Laporatomy for ovarian cyst removal
2002--Lasik eye surgery
2003--Lingual Tonsillectomy
2005--Abdominal Laporatomy for endometriosis removal
2006--C-section
2009--Lingual Tonsillectomy & adenoidectomy

Do you see a trend? Tonsils and abdomen surgeries. I am not sure if you knew this or not, but you have three sets of tonsills. You have adenoids, throat tonsills (not sure of the scientific name) and lingual tonsils. Most of us have the first two removed when we are constantly sick. Once removed, usually we feel better. Those of us that are so lucky, get to have lingual tonsils removed and guess what? They can grow back and mine have. The reason they grow back is because it is nearly impossible for the Drs to remove all of the tonsil tissue because it is attached to your tongue, so the tissue can regenerate. The first time I had the lingual tonsillectomy, I had strep six times in one year. My tonsills were storing Strep, so they had to go. I knew in 2005 that something was wrong when I had my abdominal surgery. They said they had a heck of a time getting the air tube down my throat. When I mentioned my tonsillectomy, they said most likely I have scar tissue. Well, I may have had enlarged tonsills that actually grew back at that time. Since I have been pregnant with Kiera I have fought throat infection after throat infection and my voice has lowered considerably. I have known for over a year that I would need the surgery...again. But, we needed to get our insurance in a better position before having the surgery. So, now it has been scheduled for tomorrow. I am not at all looking forward to this surgery, but am anxious for the results. I sure hope my voice returns to normal and I feel better. I don't feel bad, I just don't every feel very good! My surgery is at 7:15, so prayers are needed and appreciated.

On a brighter note with medicine:
We have had our FET (frozen embryo transfer) consult appt and are anxiouly awaiting my period to get started. I will be doing a natural cycle FET meaning they will not control my cycle with birth control pills or Lupron. I am super excited about this because I HATE Lupron. It makes me hate my life. As soon as I start my period (should be any day) then I will start monitoring an LH surge by using ovulation sticks. When I see a surge, I call the office and they will schedule me for an ultrasound to check my uterine lining. If it is thick enough, the transfer of 2 embryos will be done within 4 or 5 days. If it is not thick enough, the cycle will be a bust, but will not effect any embryos because they will not be thawed yet. If this happens, I will do a medicated cycle next month. The only other thing that could go wrong this cylce is the surgery could affect my body and it may not produce an LH surge. In this case there would be no ultrasound and we will have to wait until next month. In my perfect world, I have the surgery, feel great, start my period while recovering, ovulate, transfer two embryos and have a baby at the end of October. I wouldn't mind adding another surgery... if a baby was the result. I will keep you all updated! Thank you again for your prayers!

Week in Review

2009-01-14T12:31:00.001-08:00

Another week gone!

I have to do this review a little early since I will be having a tonsillectomy tomorrow.

I will post about that in a different post.

But, first, sneak a peak into the Simpson household!

Some of the pictures you have already seen, so I won't bore you with more unnecessary explanantion.

Jan. 8th

Snow Day at Preschool

Jan. 9th

We finally made it to Minneapolis to see Daddy!

Jan. 10th

Fun in the Snow

Jan. 11th

Tuckered out in our chair after a fun-filled weekend. It was only 5:30 pm.

Jan. 13th

Jakob and Katharine come to play. We went to the park and the BFFs went swinging together!
Jan. 13th

Scrap room begun!

Kevin tore into the offic ceiling to put braces in order ot hold the wall and french doors! I am so excited. You will probably see a lot of this project in the Week in Review!

Jan. 14th

Kiera blowing kisses at Daddy! She knew I was taking her picture to send it to Daddy!

She loves her Daddy very much!

Mini vacation in Minnesota

2009-01-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Kevin worked a 36 hour layover in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since Kiera and I have not joined him on an overnight for over a year, we decided it was time. So, we caught a 9:10 flight out on Friday night and returned at 1:15 on Sunday. We almost didn't get on the plane Friday because there was only one seat and now that Kiera is two, we each need our own seat. Luckily we had a very helpful gate agent that allowed her on as a lap child since she turned 2 less than a month ago. Let me just tell you that I now know why they have this two year old needs there own seat rule....She is too big to sit on your lap in a regional jet for three hours. Thank God she is a frequent flier and is very good on planes, otherwise I would not have done it. Anyway, she was very excited to know that her Daddy was flying the plane.
So we landed at midnight and by the time we picked up our rental car and headed to downtown St. Paul to the Crowne Plaza it was after 1 am. Whew! What a day.

Here is the little angel in her hotel crib:

The next day we headed to the Mall of America. Ok, imagine three HUGE malls stacked on top of each other with an amusement park in the middle....there you have it....the biggest mall in America. Here are some pictures of us at the amusement park:

We also had a nice lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Kiera really liked it except when I tried to get her picture with the giant frog. The elephants were stone and didn't move, but their eyes lit up and the whole restaurant got darker and the sound of large elephants loomed overhead. Many kids cried, but not Kiera!

I don't know why the pictures above did not cooperate, but anyway, the whole reason I went to Minnepolis was to escape the Houston heat and see some snow!

Here is the view from our hotel room. This is the Mississippi River frozen over:

We went to a local park and had some fun in the snow. It was so cold (14 degrees in these pictures) that the snow did not even stick. So no snowmen or snowballs, but there was still tons of fun!

Kiera's most favorite thing about the snow was when her Daddy threw her up in the air:

Yes, we own a snowsuit! We were supposed to go skiing this Christmas, so Aunt Wanda bought Kiera one. I was thinking we weren't going to get to use it, but we did!

We had a terrific time!

Snow in Houston???

2009-01-09T11:13:00.000-08:00

Yep!!! Kiera's school brought in 9000 lbs of snow for the kids to play in yesterday!

Here she is all ready to go: Funny thing is:

It was 76 degrees yesterday!

Nothing like playing in the snow and dripping sweat at the same time!

Kiera had never seen snow (not even the nice little snowfall we had here in Houston last month!) We thought she might get to see it during Christmas at our ski trip, but we had to cancel that. Turns out she wasn't real into it at school...

But, we will change that....

this weekend!

Kiera and I are joing Kevin on his 36 hour layover in Minneapolis, MN. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza and will rent a car to drive around. I am super excited! It is just not right to sit in a tank top and capris in January! I hope we have some terrific snow pictures upon our return!

Week in Review....

2009-01-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

One of things I would like to do this year is take one picture every day. I will scrapbook them by week and have our life chronicled over a year. Seems like a lot, but if I take it one day at a time (pun intended) I should be able to do it. Each week, I will blog about our week. So without further ado, here is week one in the Simpson household:

January 1st

I spend most of my day scrapbooking with Kevin's aunt.

I sure do enjoy passing the time cutting and pasting.

January 2nd

Kiera and I spent the entire day trying to get back to Houston. Here she is with some wings and a Coke in between her legs. I give up on trying to keep her healthy while flying. I let her splurge on snacks. Works like a charm. This is also the day I swore off flying standby during the holidays!

January 3rd

Santa left quite a present for Kiera while we were away...the dollhouse.

Kiera loves it.

Obviously she needs a maid!

January 4th
After being away for ten days, I come home to quite a crop of homegrown lettuce.

YUMMY!!!

January 5th

Christmas at the Simpsons.
Yah, I know...a little late. That is what happens when you are gone so much! I got a Scrabble game (and some other things) which I love! Kevin beat me on our first game together on that board. I got Kevin a sushi making kit which I can't wait to try out!

January 6th

This is what happens when you put Kevin in charge of naptime. He lays Kiera in bed with him and waits to attracts Kitties. Kiera absolutely loves Onyx. She will actually lay on her and allow Kiera to pet her and love on her.

January 7th

Orion on Oreo's bed.

Strange cat considering he hates the dog.

Maybe it is a sign of dominance to lay on someone's bed?

Week one down. 51 more to go!

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T19:49:00.000-08:00

Another year has passed and tis the season for resolutions. I am not very good at keeping, resolutions, so instead I will write a prayer that I hope God will answer in His timing:

Dear God,
Thank you so much for my health, my family, and my friends. You have blessed us in so many ways over the last year and I ask for your continued blessings. Both Kevin and I would desperately like to have another child. I know that each child is a gift from You and we ask that You entrust us with another lovely gift. The road of infertility is hard and we need You to be right by our sides. We also ask for the gift of health. Please keep Kevin healthy so he can go to work and provide for his family. Thank you God, for sparing Kevin a furlough. We continue to ask You for job security for Kevin as well as keeping him safe on each trip. I ask that you see me through the tonsillectomy and restore my body to a healthy state. Please support me in my struggle with eating correctly and exercising regularly. Please help both of us raise Kiera in a loving Christian home. Give us the patience, consistancy, and love that she desperately needs. Lastly, free Kevin and I from our strongholds. Help us simplify our lives so we can focus on You and bring You the honor You deserve. Thank you Father. In Jesus' precious holy name, Amen!

As I continue through this year, I will look back at this prayer and see God's amazing work. Happy New Year!

A Very Merry Christmas

2008-12-29T19:58:00.000-08:00

So, this was the year we were supposed to stay home and celebrate Christmas with just the three of us.

Just a week before, we got the most amazing gift from my parents, so we decided to come in and celebrate the Holidays with them. After all, the holidays should be spent with family.
So, now some of you have been waiting to hear what the big surprise is and why God is so good....

Well wait no longer, but first let me build a little suspense by giving you some background info...

We all know the economy is horrible and has affected nearly everyone. It definately affected our house in pay and in hours that Kevin was able to work, so it is like a double whammy. The WITs job never panned out, so we have had to watch every penny. Thankfully, we are able to pay all our bills, put food on the table, and still have a few extra bucks each month to go out and eat. The problem is that there is no wiggle room and when something happens we don't have the funds to turn to. You all know I have to have a throat surgery in January and unfortunately those are not free. But, I know as long as you are making some sort of payment to a Dr. they will leave you alone. Now, our other big expense is not as forgiving when it comes to money, nor is it something we will put on the back burner!

It is to have a second child.

I could go on and on about how unfair it is not only to not be able to have a child, but to not be able to afford one. Well, we all know our Lord is not about fairness, so I will not sulk in my misery.

Kevin and I started brainstorming last week as to how we could afford the FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) that we so desperately wanted. There were basically two ways:

1. Sell the truck and hope it sells and use one car for at least a year
2. Send me back to work for at least a year.

We discussed both ways and decided to go with the former since the latter would be very hard on our family. Kevin and I would hardly see each other, Kiera would be in daycare, and my stress level would increase drastically while I tried to balance all the demands put upon me.

Not two days laterafter making the final decision to sell the truck and go to one (quite unrealiable) car, did my mom call and give me the most wonderful news. My stepfather had been working on a project for many years and a settlement was reached when things got a little ugly. Instead of a percentage of the sale, he was given a one time payment. The money hit their bank last Friday and they decided to give each child a monetary gift. The money they gave us was more than enough to cover the surgery and have a child or two!!! I cried and cried on the phone as the timing could not have been more perfect. It was then decided that we would come in and celebrate. The following Monday I called and made my FET appointment for Jan. 5th. One of the questions my mom asked me was if I had been praying for her. Well, I do pray for her often, but as of late, I had not been. Well, I forgot that for the past six months Kevin had been praying with Kiera for a little brother. Oh God is good. Oh so good!

So, here we are in El Paso with our families. We spent Christmas Eve in Aimee's new house as well as Christmas morning. Then we headed over to Kevin's parents for another Christmas. Kevin had to leave that afternoon and Kiera and I had Christmas dinner with my parents, my sister's family and a few of her friends and their families. I have also been spending quite a bit of time at Kevin's parents scrapbooking my time away with his aunt. She drove in from Arkansas and brought a whole room of scrapbooking stuff with her...it is great! I got some really neat stuff for Christmas (including the Iphone:) ), but the real gift is the gift of family and the ability to expand it!

Here are some pictures from our holiday:

Kiera's favorite gift by far was the set of foam letters and numbers she got from Santa. I told Santa she would love them after we took the little foam ducks everywhere with us. Much to our surprise, she knows all of her numbers and about 20 of her letters. I was trying to think when she could have been taught all this valuable information because I don't typically sit down and teach her. Then I recalled the million times we have read the Numbers book and the ABC book. Turns out she really was listening. Hmmm!

It was definately, a Holiday of babies. Kiera got three of them which included a set of twins. Perhaps we need more cradles? Maybe bunk bed cradles?

Here is one from her great grandmother:

I made these polymer clay elves for gifts. I worked very hard on them and am quite proud of my finished product. I think they are the cutest things and so did my mom and sister!

Here is my mom and sister looking at them:

Granny Rebecca opening gifts with little Miss Kiera:

My mom and Stepfather enjoying the holiday at my sisters:

It truly was a wonderful holiday. I am sorry I ever wished it to be over.

I had no idea how very merry it truly could be!

2nd Annual Neighborhood Progressive Christmas Party

2008-12-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

Once again, our neighborhood put on quite a party! Last year we started an annual Christmas Party, where we travel from house to house eating and playing gmaes. The problem was we ate way too much and there were too many houses. The poor people (I was one of them) that were at the end had tons of leftover food and most of their food was overdone. So, this year we changed things up. We chose three houses:

appetizer house

main course house

dessert house

and it worked out wonderfully! The night started at our house where I served appetizers. I made Rumaki, stuffed jalepeno peppers, and my favorite spinach artichoke dip. Here is Raquel digging in:

Then to help us work off some of our calories, we played a few games. One of the best ones was Christmas Carol Charades. I added a twist to the game and split the party into two groups. Each group wrote five lyrics from Christmas Carols for the other team to act out. The team had to guess the lyric and the carol it came from. Among some of the harder ones were:

And our dear Savoir's birth from O Holy Night

Kevin got this one and actually got down on his back, grabbed his knees and pushed out a baby.....the party erupted with laughter

And if you ever saw it from Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer

this one was really hard

Here is a glimpse of some of our Charade fun:

And it wouldn't be a neighborhood party if Kiera didn't get some love from Chris:

Some of the men talking:

After a few games and some good treats, we moved on to the main course at Joanne's. Roast beef and Pork Roast were served with scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli and salad. It was prepared by several people and simply delicious! We had some table topics to keep us busy.

After dinner, as the time approached 9 pm, Kiera became a little whiny. She wanted me to carry her. I was preparing the next game, so I could not. Warren came over and asked her if he could carry her. She said no! So he started crying and saying, "Please Kiera, let me carry you..waaaaa" She stood there for a minute and just looked at him. He was pretend crying so loud, I thought she was going to start. She didn't know him and she was overtired.

Then she did the sweetest thing:

She reached forward and hugged him. She rubbed his shoulder and kissed him on his cheek. That is my Kiera, so sweet and sensitive to others!

After dinner, we really had to work off our food in order to be ready for the dessert house, so we had a digital scavenger hunt. Again, the party was divided into two teams. Each team was given a list of things having to do with Christmas such as a lump of coal, a gold star, Christmas boxers, etc. They were things that were a little harder to find. The object of the game was to find as many of the things as you could in fifteen minutes. Instead of actually bringing the things to show the other team, we took pictures of the items. One of the items to find was a broken ornament, so Joanne (who apparently is quite competitive) decided to take one of her glass ornaments and smash it into the floor so Kevin could photograph it:

So, we synched our watches and said you have to be back at 9:40 in front of Chris and Jerry's door or you are disqualified. My team was there at 9:38. Kevin's team was running (fast!) down the block and arrived at 9:41. We let them submit their pictures even though they were late and they still lost!

It was tons of fun.

The last stop was the dessert house and white elephant gift exchange. Apparently, my photograher got tired, so there are not many pictures. We did enjoy some delicious desserts that included Tiramisu, Black Russian Cake, and homemade Christmas cookies.

We did the tradional White Elephant game and there was lots and lots of present stealing going on. I ended up with what I brought....10 lottery tickets and Kevin got a ball cap.

It was a fun, fun night! I live in the best neighborhood. The parties just keep getting better!

Merry Christmas!

Kiera's First Time on Stage

2008-12-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

and she did not cry...I am so proud of her.

Thursday started like any other Thursday. Kiera had preschool. But, it ended in something we had been waiting for since September...Kiera's Christmas Presentation. To celebrate the holidays, her class had a small Christmas party. Kevin and I both got to attend. At first, she did not know we were in the room. She was sitting like a good little student listening to one of her favorite books: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

It wasn't long before she realized we were there and then wanted nothing to do with school anymore.
So the school day ended with an ice cream party and gift opening. The teachers gave all of the kids a gift. It was so sweet. The kids gave us a handmade Christmas card and a letter to mail to Santa with cut outs of what they wanted. Too cute.

Then the big night came. Our little Boo, who just turned 2, would be on stage. I prayed and prayed no one would be sick for the big event.

The ones, twos and young threes class was all on stage at once. The ones (Kiera's class) was seated in the front. Not one of them sang, but one of her little friends sitting next to her, got up and busted a move:

Finally, Kiera warmed up to the idea and started clapping. She is the one in the center right below the girl standing in the navy blue dress. You can still see her little friend busting a move and also catch a glimpse of their adorable reindeer shirts. They were made with their handprints and shoe print.

Then she even started ringing the bells, for the last song:

Ring, Ring, Ring the Bells

Mia (on Kiera's left) is looking at her like, "What the heck are you doing?"

It was very cute and very exciting. She did not sing (not that we would have heard her anyway), but she seemed to enjoy herself as did we!

God is Good!!!

2008-12-19T20:06:00.001-08:00

Oh so good!

Unfortunately, I cannot share any details at this time, but something quite amazing has happened to Kevin and me. No, we are not pregnant. I hope to share it with you very, very soon! After a particularly rough week, the news could not have come at a better time. I am so excited...I just can't wait to tell..... but, I will most likely have to wait until after Christmas.

It is going to be a very, very merry Christmas after all!

God is good....oh so good!

2008-12-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday

Kiera

Just 2 years ago, God blessed us with the most amazing gift:

The above picture was taken just a few days ago and truly captures Kiera's true personality. She is so sensitive and sweet and has an abundance of love for living and non-living humans and creatures. Everyday, you will catch her truly loving on someone or something. In this picture she is sharing some love with a Madame Alexander doll that I got as a gift for her at one of my baby showers. Kiera has never held it before.

Now for a walk down memory lane....

December 16th, 2006 and was a big day in the Simpson household. It started at 5:30 am with a phone call to Texas Women's hospital to see when and if they could fit us in for our scheduled induction. They said we could come in that morning. Kevin and I were so excited, we could hardly contain ourselves. Off we went and after a long drawn out labor, it was decided that Kiera would arrive via c-section.

At 8:10 p.m. our lives were changed forever as our little 7 lb 9oz bundle arrived

at the perfect length of 19.5 inches!

Within minutes, we captured our first family photo:

Time went on, and our little bundle grew and grew. Her head became covered with the most beautiful red hair (from Mommy) and then her eyes started clearing to a deep beautiful blue (from Daddy). She touched our hearts as her wonderful little personality emerged! Here is a little glimpse of some of Kiera's sweet personality at just six months:

The months came and went and our hearts continued to expand with more love than we ever knew possible. We planned a big celebration for our little one's first birthday. We had her dedicated to the Lord in front of our closest friends. Here she is in her dedication dress made by her Granny Rebecca and sewn from her Aunt Aimee's wedding dress:
Just as we reminisced one year, another one passed. Kiera turned into a beautiful little girl who is quiet and musical like her daddy's family, but independent and loving like her mother's family. She is smart, compassionate, and sensitive as well.
Today, we took cupcakes to her school and celebrated our little girl's 2nd birthday:

Kiera,
we love you more than you will ever know or you could ever imagine. In the last two years, you have touched our lives in an amazing way. We knew we were blessed on December 16th, 2006, we just had no idea how much!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

My Christmas Wish List

2008-12-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

'Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.

I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.

Could it be cardstock or chipboard or lace?

Or a Cricut, I said, with a smile on my face.

And that's when I heard him,"Hi Santa, " I said

"You know....good little girls should be in their beds."

"I know I should Santa, and now I've got caught.

But I was just so excited

To see what you brought."

"Well, let's take a look in this room where you work."

He shook his head quickly,

And left with a jerk.

I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.

"You've got enough crap, I'll see you next year!"

'tis true, isn't it?

I found that on my Scrapbooking Forum and just had to share!

One of the activities for Breakfast Club this morning, is to bring your Christmas Wish List. Since I am home tending sick ones, I will post mine here. Of course, just like a child, money is no object.

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl this year. I would like the following things for Christmas:

An embroidery machine

The complete Willow Tree Nativity Set

The Cursive Cricut Cartridge

A Scrapping workshop above the garage

An I-phone or something similar

An I-pod and some speakers to play it on (Santa, everyone has one of these except me!)

A new bed ( I REALLY like the one in Sky Mall)

New dishes

Glass coffee cups

A new coffee maker

Jewelry with diamonds

and a little brother or sister for Kiera.

Thanks for reading my letter Santa. I am very excited to see what I get Christmas morning.

Love,

Jenn

It is good to dream a little! Since I missed the Christmas wish list activity this morning, will you share yours in the comments?

What would you like for dinner?

2008-12-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

Spaghetti!

And that would be Kevin answering that. If I had a dollar for everytime he requested Spaghetti, I would be a millionaire. It is like he doesn't tire of it. And guess, who has followed suit.....

I do like spaghetti. Once in a while. But, with these two, once a week is not really enough.

An Heirloom

2008-12-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Kiera and I went to a craft show. It was really neat, but I didn't get to browse the booths the way I did before I had kids. Anyway one of the booths, was wooden baby beds. They were absolutely beautiful and Kiera was attracted to them like a fly to honey. When I heard the price, I politely peeled her off the baby furniture, and was on my way, feeling a little sad. I did happen to catch the website hoping I could buy one after the holidays or at least sometime in the future.

The next day my mom called and asked if she could just send money instead of gifts and I could buy the gifts for Kiera. I said sure, and asked how much do she wanted to spend on her. She named the amount which included her birthday and Christmas. There was more than enough to buy the bed. So, I contacted the guy via the website and he honored his craft show special. We went and picked it up the next day!

Since Kiera has school on her birthday and those days are rushed, we decided to give it to her this weekend. We put it in the middle of the living room while she napped. Here she is checking it out....

"Well, what do we have here?"

"Better, recover the baby. Somebody has done it all wrong!"

Now you can't hear through pictures, but if you were there in person, this is what you hear Kiera saying in a very low, sweet voice:

"It's Ok baby. Want some butters (covers)? Pat Pat. Ok baby."

over and over! It is the sweetest thing!!!

"Hey, I just woke up. But, I LOVE my new baby bed!"

Sweet Kiera with sweet Sofia.

Calling Grandma to thank her!

I am so excited this worked out. I really wanted her to have it. I know you can buy them for cheap at Walmart, but this is heirloom quality. I would like to keep it for all my kids and grandkids. I hope I never forget how it came to be in my home. I truly walked away from that booth sad. God works in amazing ways!

What a difference a day makes!!!

2008-12-12T02:42:00.000-08:00

24 hours ago I felt terrible!

Not because of the friend fallout (well maybe partly to that), but because the moment my feet hit the floor in the early morning light, after a slumber I cannot recall, I was ready to go back to bed.

For the day.

Hmmm, not good. I knew I was sick. On Tuesday, I knew something was wrong. I had 0% energy, I was ovelwhelmed, nothing was getting done, and I was fighting with my husband for no reason at all. Now, I had had a cough for two weeks, but with my nice festering throat infection, I shrugged it off. I am on a low dose antibiotic until my tonsillectomy in January to keep me healthy. HA. I should be immuned to all the little bacteria trying to take up residence in my body. Not so. When I went to bed two nights ago, I could hear crackling in my breathing. Last time, I heard that, I had pneumonia. Now, who the heck has time for pneumonia in December?

I had Kevin listen to my back for crackling or wheezing. According to his professional medical advice...there was crackling and wheezing and I was sick.

So, off I go to the Dr. (the regular PCP not the ENT) and off Kevin goes to work for God knows how long since he is on call. Kiera went to school.

Nice timing, right?

Dr. confirmed it. I was sick. Bronchitis! But, but.....not pneumonia.

So, I got the good drugs.......steroids and a stronger antibiotic!

I am not one to love to be on medicine. I hate pain killers. I hate anything that puts your head in a cloud or makes you feel unlike yourself....except for steroids. I love steroids.

I took my first dose at 2. By 7, I felt like a totally different person.

My long lost friend, Energy, had returned. I took a shower, cleaned up, started laundry! I felt great.

I am currently writing this post at 4:30 am. I have already started a load of laundry, fed the strays, and made coffee. One of the side effects of steroids is it will amp you up. Ahhhh....I needed some amping.

Now, I can make my Christmas cards! Energy...it is a good thing!

What a difference a day makes!

Therapy Session #1

2008-12-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have heard blogging can be a form of therapy.

I need therapy, so here we go.

Session #1

No charge

I have lost two friends this year.

Not to death...Thank God...

To Drama!

Seriously! Last time I checked we were adults and long out of the pettiness we saw running rampant in middle school. I won't go into details of how or why the friendships ended to save you all from the same drama. But, I will not save you from an explanation of how I feel.

With one particular friend, it was like riding a roller coaster.

Times were great: I did all the right things. said the perfect comments, hosted the perfect get togethers, etc...we were UP.

Times were tough: I said the wrong things. I didn't agree with everything she said, etc...we were DOWN.

I am tired.
I can't take it anymore.

I want off the roller coaster.

I consider myself to be a pretty good person. I feel that I am giving, compassionate, real, dependable, and honest (to a fault sometimes). But, I sometimes make mistakes and need to be more encouraging, supportive, and a better listener. I will continue to work on that....with my other friendships.

One thing I have learned through all of this...
Words hurt! They cut through the soul like a sword. They cannot be taken back. EVER! And, when they are written, they hurt even more. They just seem so permanent on paper.

Life just sucks sometimes, doesn't it?

No matter how bad the situation, it hurts to lose a friend. But, as the old saying goes:

Friends come and go.....

I have had many friends come into my life, and a few fall out. It is never easy. But, I have to put an end to the drama and focus on my family and other, more stable, friends.

Thank you for listening and being my silent therapist.

I feel better.

A few of Daddy's favorite things

2008-12-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

This being my first post on the "family" blog, I thought I might start off with some comma splices, a few miss-spellings and many poorly worded sentences. So you don't expect much. Some of my favorite things are in my workshop. I have many power tools which provide hours of frustration and dashed hopes. I have better luck repairing cars. Outside of the shop, I am an avid hunter, focusing all of my activity on the elusive orange-speckled clay targetist (I shoot skeet). By far my favoritest hobby (and the only one I can currently afford) is photography. Today, Christmas came early in the form of a used set of studio strobes. Out of the box, I am impressed with the quality.

Here are some impromptu shots of Kiera and Jenn in front of the tree:

For comparrison, here is a shot without the strobes followed by the same shot with the strobes:

I still need to practice, so bring over your family, your pets, a blank CD and anything that might work as a backdrop.

A few of my favorite things....

2008-12-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

Ever since I can remember, my mom had these cute little elves that she would put in our tree. I would take them out and play with them as if they were dolls from a dollhouse. I remember 4 of them, and my favorite was the plaid one; she was the cutest. Well, a couple of Christmas' ago, I was admiring my mom's tree and I saw them. I told her about my childhood memories, and she gave me the elves. My brother and sister have been asking me to give them one, but I keep *forgetting*! This year instead of putting of hiding them in the tree, I decided to put them on my mantle in my NOEL stocking hangers:

*I cannot get the above picture to turn around

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Claus watching over baby Kiera.

I just love this picture taken of her last Christmas.

Since Kiera's first Christmas, I have been collecting the Willow Tree Navity Set.

This year I got two more animals for my birthday. And yesterday, I picked up this wooden backdrop at a craft show.

Here is our tree all decorated.

Many of the ornaments are handmade by me!

Here are some pictures of us decorating the tree:

Kevin hoisting Kiera up to put the angel.

As you can see, she did not like it and turned back to him to help her down.

So, he did it himself:

So, now we are officially decorated. Thank you for letting me share a few of my favorite things.

Camp Kiera

2008-12-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

Kiera's 2nd birthday party was a great success! We had a campout party. The weather cooperated beautifully and it was in the 50s which made it cool enough for everyone to want to cozy up to the fire. We gave all of our guests the option of hanging outside camping style or remaining inside lodge style!

Here is Kiera in front to the fire pit with her custom Cricut made camping sign:

Emily enjoying the tent we put up inside:

Each child got some glow-in-the-dark glow sticks and could make a bracelet or a necklace.
Here is Kate showing hers off:

For dinner we had grilled hot dogs w/ or w/o chili , beans, marshmallow salad and chips.

Kiera was quite fond of the chips. But, they got so low (everyone was quite fond of them) that she drug her booster chair over, so she could stand in it and eat more chips:

The kiddos outside enjoying the cool, crisp camping weather!

Kiera and Jakob are two peas in a pod.

They love each other and are so very silly together!

We got Kiera this tent set for her birthday and let her open it before her party.

She liked it for five minutes and then Oreo took it over!

Oh well.

One of my favorite activities was family flashlight tag. Each child got to choose an animal flashlight (as a party favor) and their name printed on a label. The reason for this was so we could play tag...family style. Each family hid somewhere outside on our property and the family that was IT had to go find them. We were it first. Here we are counting in the garage:

Turns out the Simpsons are really bad at Hide and Go Seek!

We were found the most, so we were it the most.

Part of our problem was Kiera didn't understand that you had to be quiet, she sort of viewed it as a punishment and the dog ran around like a maniac until he found us.

It truly was a lot of fun , though!

Next, was cake time.

I made Kiera a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I made a camp fire out of sprinkles and frosting.

One of the cutest things, was Kiera trying to feed her BFF, Kate, some of her cake. Kate is so polite, she didn't scream NO, she just turned her head.

Present time....

Kiera got some great gifts! Thank you to everyone!

We had such a terrific time!

I just love planning parties and this one was a huge success!
Happy Birthday Kiera!

A few of her favorite things....

2008-12-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Kiera has so many favorite things, but I wanted to share a few of her latest ones.

The first one is a 2 for 1:

Her nose and her foam ducks from her favorite book, "Quack Quack Come Back!"

Here is a close up of her favorite ducks. They practically go everywhere with her...upstairs, downstairs, in the crib, in the tub, on a walk...

Since we have put up the Christmas Decorations, she has become quite fond of a little snowman musical decoration:

She is very careful with it and knows how to turn the base and make it play, "Oh Christmas Tree!" I think someday I will give this to her and tell her the story of how we listened to it every day during the holiday season many times! Here is a sweet picture of her enjoying it:

One of Kiera's favorite jobs is putting up the silverware. Anytime I open the dishwasher and begin taking out dishes, she says "Help Mommy with the spoons!" and she runs and gets her chair. I wouldn't exactly call it helping. She ends up taking more things out than she puts in and many times she taste tests each utensil.

A little red monster has made a daily apperance at our house everyday for the last month.

Any guesses?

We DVR Sesame Street each day and then Kiera watches Elmo's World while I make dinner. Must be nice to tell Mommy, "Find Elmo's World!" Remember the days when we actually had to watch ALL of Sesame Street to get to Elmo's world? Well, actually Elmo was not around...and I am sort of glad, weren't you?

And lastly, Kiera LOVES to lay on the couch with us. She lays a little and wiggles a lot! But, we enjoy our cuddle time with her!

Tainted Turkey Tradition

2008-11-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Before we get to the reason for the title, lets share some good news from the holiday!
On Tuesday, Kiera had a Thanksgiving feast at her school. Here she is with some friends you might recognize (Mia is next to her with the blue hat on and Alexandra is in the purple at the front of the picture):

Here is Kiera and her two teachers, Ms. Kerri and Ms. Jeanna:

We both love her school. Her teachers are so sweet and Kiera adores them. We had a great time. It was fun to see Kiera in her school surroundings!

Now, on to the actual turkey day....

We went to Corpus Christi (actually North Padre Island) to have Thanksgiving. My stepdad's parents live there in a beautiful beach house on the Gulf. It is chalk full of expensive antiques, so Kiera requires a watchful eye. Also, one step off the deck and she would fall into the Gulf. All of the houses have decks that mimic fishing piers (which Kevin LOVES), so there are no balconies.....not too safe!
Luckily, Kiera was the only child, so she was easy to keep track of. She had a terrific time until about 3:30. Here she is with Great Papa, whom she loved:

So as dinner was being prepared and the final touches were being attended to, Kiera started really whining, sweating profusely, and then turning a lovely shade of white that would make any sheet jealous. My mom, who is in tune with these sort of things, said, "Jenn, take her outside." So, like any good daughter, I followed my mom's wishes and thank God I did because Kiera threw up twice. Here she is minus the pretty dress, wrapped in a lovely blanket with Sofia with Grandma:

Now, I know all kids throw up, but, every Thanksgiving this child has celebrated (which only equals 2 at this point) has included barf! At least this year she didn't barf at the table like she did last year. Neither time included being sick from the dinner. I am sure they are purely coincidental, but I sure would like to get rid of this tradition.

The rest of our holiday was fabulous. I continued my yearly tradition of shopping Black Friday. I got some great deals...including Cricut cartridges for $29.99 (reg. priced $89.99). Kevin did a lot of fishing and we all did a lot of eating!

I hope your Thanksgiving was a little less messy than ours!

Drinking in the Driveway

2008-11-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

Friday is our neighborhood designated, "Get Together" Day. We don't do it every Friday, but we do get together at least once a month. We named it Drinking in the Driveway because that is what we do. No one gets stupid drunk. Some of us just drink coffee. Last Friday, was no exception. Even though it was nearly freezing according to the thermometer, we stuck it out and got together. We ordered pizza and I brought a salad and cookies. We had a fire pit to keep us warm. Kiera had to wear her snowsuit. Hey, at least we got use out of it!

I have the best neighborhood in the world. We have a great time together.

Decoration Day

2008-11-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I started a new tradition for our family:

Decoration Day

We always end up putting our Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving because we are always out of town and then by the time we come back, we feel crunched for time. So, we decided to make a tradition out of it. Of course our plans were much bigger than our actions. We wanted to have the outside and the inside decorated today and have a lighting ceremony and a nice (but easy) dinner. Well, we got the front done and the inside partially decorated. So much for big plans!

Let's take a short walk down memory lane!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from last year.

Kiera helping Kevin put the lights in the yard:

And here she is again helping Daddy. She acutally did help this year:

After we got everything up, we waited for it to get dark.

Here she is awaiting the lighting ceremony.

1, 2, 3, Plug it in Daddy!

*The camera does not capture the true beauty!

WOW!

This year, we actually did not do as much as we usually do. We decided to do only a few icicle lights. We are a little tired of them. We plan on putting some lights in the back yard, where we can actually enjoy them. Those pictures will be available when the lights actually get put up. :)After the lighting ceremony, we enjoyed a nice dinner of our favorite...Chicken Tortilla Soup.

To end the day, we read our favorite book and donned our favorite Holiday hat:

The Holidays are here.....

2008-11-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

but you already knew that!

Christmas music has been playing in the stores for weeks now and many of the stores have had their decorations up for over a month. But, they are here for US. Every year the middle of November sneaks up and we celebrate a little known holiday called:

MY BIRTHDAY

Now, before you start judging and forming opinions..... let me just share a little Starbuck's opinion with you that I wrote myself :)

The way I see it #456
I don't understand why people don't enjoy celebrating their own birthdays. It is the only day of the year that is truly YOURS! The celebration can be as BIG or as little as you want. It is not about the gifts or the cake (well sometimes it is!), but about the fact that GOD brought you into this world on that very day and you should celebrate. Guess what? Even if you ignore your birthday you will still get older. Ha Ha...nothing you can do about it!!!! Also, when you act like your birthday is no big deal, others don't know how to act. Do I get her a gift or not? Do I tell others it is her birthday or not? So, get over yourself and start clelebrating!

Don't worry, Kevin is one of those non-celebraters as well. Drives me nuts. I never know what to do. I feel like if I ignore the day then that is really crappy and maybe he is crying on the inside. Hee Hee...Kevin crying on the inside....I hardly doubt that.

Anyway, back to the almost National Holiday...my birthday! I love it because I have to wait ALL year to get to the funnest part: my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I feel like my birthday kicks it all off. But, the last two years I got an added bonus: the Holiday Dinnner at the Met. It was held on Friday, November 14th. It is a terrific kickoff to the Holidays. I should be getting some pictures emailed to me shortly, so I will save that for another post! It is a great night, you just have to see pictures.
Well the next day was my birthday. I awoke only to see K and K pulling out of the driveway, sort of stealth-like. They spotted me in the window and big K came in and said they were going to Wal-mart, so of course I made him a quick list of things I needed. When they returned, Kevin had a dozen tiger striped red roses and little K had a card that she and Daddy had recorded. It goes something like this:

Kevin: "Happy Birthday Mommy!"
Kiera: "Appy Birth Ommy!"
Then it proceeds to play You're Unbelievable.

Talk about pulling the heart strings. I love it!!!! We spent the rest of the day running a few errands and getting ready for my little impromptu birthday party. I decided to throw myself a party with all of my favorites: Fajitas, Friends, and Fun. A few of my closest friends brought a pot luck dinner and dessert and we played Pictionary. It was a lot of fun. My friend, Katja, made a delicious carrot cake. I had a really good day and now we can begin to celebrate the rest of the holidays..... :) I will leave you with a pic from my birthday:

The way I see it #234

2008-11-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

When you go to school as a youngster, there is always a supply list handed to you at the beginning of the year. On it you will find such things as pencils, markers, crayons, scissors, etc. One of my most favorite memories of all times is school shopping with my sister. We chose the best of everything. We wouldn't dare choose Rose Art, oh no, it had to be Crayola. And wooden pencils were not good enough, we had to have mechanical pencils with extra lead. A clickable eraser was a must too and when we were younger we absolutely had to have the box of Crayolas with 64 crayons and a built-in sharpener:
To have these was to have status. I also took great care of my supplies and made sure they lasted as long as possible. Most of my friends did the same, but some of my classmates.... well they lost their Rose Art crayons with the first art project.

So, what does some genius come up with..... collecting all supplies to go into a class set. So, there go all my beautifully named colors floating in a plastic bin with some cheap imitations. And if that weren't enough... they outlawed mechanical pencils. Teachers thought this was just brilliant thinking. They collected everything and redistributed, so the supplies would last longer. Well, you know what happened..... the supplies did last longer for those that don't take care of their stuff. Turns out, just a little longer though because Johnny still doesn't put the cap back on the markers tightly and he still breaks the crayon when he attempts to color his picture. So now instead instead of a handful of students with dilapidated supplies, you have six class sets that are dilapidated.

So, you are probably wondering why we are talking about school supplies in the middle of November. Well, the whole class set vs. individual supplies reminds me of our political parties. The Republicans let you keep your own supplies and entrust that you will take care of your possessions and make them last. They stay out of your stuff for the most part. The Democrats collect everyones sets and redisdribute making it fair for everyone. They figure some people can't afford supplies so everyone else has to share.

I am personally for the let's keep our own supplies because I know how to take care of my stuff and I don't want anyone's Rose Art Markers mingling with my Crayolas! But, that is just the way I see it!

Kiera's First Slumber Party

2008-11-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

This is what a slumber party is supposed to look like:
Yes, I am in the picture!
One of our participants did not know how to slumber very well, but had the party part down pat!
You guessed it....Kiera!

You see, last night was Dustin's birthday and he and Tasha had some friends over so we watched their kids, Katharine and Jakob. Rather than try and keep them up or wake them up at some unGodly hour, I decided to keep them overnight. Tasha and I agreed to give it a try and if it didn't work, she would come get them. Well, little did I know, my little one would be the one with the problems. She was so excited she forgot to sleep or lay down for that matter!
We watched Madagascar with strict rules of :

YOU MUST STAY ON THE BED!!

That is it, one rule and guess who broke it:

Here is a close up of the perp:

Turns out Kiera is a little class clown. Katharine and Jakob would have gone to bed probably within ten minutes of the movie starting, but Kiera made it her mission in life to keep them awake. She giggled, she jumped, she kicked them, she patted them, she shhhhhhed them(I mean seriously, who shhhhhhhs their older friends? ), but at no time did she actually try and slumber with them until I helped her! So don't be fooled by this picture:

Here are our sweet little slumber buddies:

It is pretty sad when your two year old friend tells you, "Kiera, lay down, it is night night time!" Kiera visited her crib a couple of times because she could not remember the one simple rule. After awhile, I gave up enforcing my rule and laid with Kiera and she finally fell asleep and so did Jakob and Katharine. Kevin and I finished the movie and our babysitting duties were done until 5:30 am when Katharine woke up. I am sure she was cold (I forgot to tell Tasha to dress them in parkas due to our meat locker we call a house). I covered Katharine and she fell back asleep, but Kiera was already awake. So I laid with them for another hour until Jakob awoke and said, "Get up---- it is wake up time!" Ok, so we did! Our first slumber party was pretty fun! Hopefully next time, Kiera will remember the slumber part!

A time to give thanks...

2008-11-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

November is the month to give thanks, so I feel it is only appropriate to remember what I am thankful for.

Let me start with God. I feel like without Him, I have nothing and I am nothing. Enough said!

I am thankful for family-immediate and extended. I have the most unique husband in the world. I did not choose amazing because everyone claims to have the most amazing husband in the world. I have more than that! Kevin is a dream come true. He supports me in so many ways and shows unconditional love. He is a wonderful father and aspires to be even better. He is dependable, kind, and very generous with his time and money. I can only hope that Kiera inherits some of his wonderful attributes. Then there is Kiera, better know in this parts as Boo or The Littlest. We prayed and prayed to have a child. We never knew it would be so rewarding. We truly believe she is a gift from God. She is beautiful inside and out. Behind her stunning strawberry blonde hair and beaming blue eyes, you will find a little girl full of love for babies (real or not), empathy, and a musical sense that amazes even strangers. I cannot imagine my life without her. Then there is the extended family. I am thankful for a mother and a sister who are my friends. We have so much in common, it is like hanging with my girlfriends. I am thankful for my stepfather who stepped up to the plate and helped raise a daughter that was not born to him. I am thankful for my brother who always has fun planned and is there in any emergency. If he weren't my brother, I would be lucky to have him as a friend or even just a neighbor. He radiates all the characteristics that people yearn to have.

I am thankful for my extended family: my friends and my neighbors. When I moved to Houston, I knew one person...my sister. Within a year, she moved. Since then I have filled my life with the most amazing people. There are so many, I could not name them all. But, a few have really shown me that it is sometimes the differences that bring you so close together. For example, my friends Tasha and Staci. I don't believe we would have ever been friends had it not been for our children and IVF. We had very different upbringings and beliefs, but I now consider them my 2 am friends. I could easily spend all night hanging around them and having so much fun...and we have!!! I simply cannot imagine my life without them. Then there's Jillian. I never knew I had such a good friend so close to me for so many years. I have seen our friendship change and morph into something beautiful over the years and now we sit and dream about so much together. I am thankful for God keeping her in my life after all this time. My neighbors are not just neighbors. They are extended family as well. Maybe it is the hurricanes that have brought us closer together or maybe it is just luck. Everyone wishes they lived in Fairfield or the Woodlands, but really it is not the amenities or the scenery that make a neighborhood-- it is the people! I have been blessed in so many ways. I never would have thought that a couple of my friends on my street would be my parents age. Just goes to show you that you never know who you will be drawn to. I have no family in Houston, so I am thankful to fall back on my friends.

I am thankful for my talents and gifts. I feel like God gave me the best gifts of all... creativity and leadership. When I get stressed or tired from leading, I get to be creative. I think it is a pretty neat combination. I just pray that I get to put my talents and gifts to good use.

I am thankful for my life. I am thankful that God chose Kevin to be my husband and give him the job he has in order for me to stay home and raise Kiera. Also, I have time to further God's kingdom through Cypress Calling and still find time to scrapbook and write my blog. It takes balance, but it really is a great life.

I am thankful for my pets. Just the other day, my little cat, Onyx, had to go to the Vet because she was sick. She has never been sick. In fact, Kevin and I would have bet our life that she would be the last one to go to the vet. Just sort of gave us a wake up call...you never know when your last day is or someone you love's last day. She is fine, but for awhile we were very worried. I started imagining what life would be like without her and tears welled up in my eyes everytime. My pets mean so much to me. They are my furbabies and reside in my heart right next to Kiera.

There is so much to be thankful for that this post could go on and on. I just wanted to share a few of things that mean so much to me! Thank you for taking the time to read about our life. You mean a lot to me as well!!!

Little Ladybug Scores some loot

2008-10-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

First off, Happy Halloween! We had an uneventful day with me laying on the couch nursing a cold. Kevin and Kiera ventured out and went to the library and Chic-fil-a. Then it was time for Kevin to go to work and Kiera and I to get ready for Halloween. I took her to about 8 houses, which were houses of people I knew. She was a huge hit! Here she is ready to go:

and we're off...

First stop..Ms. Raquel's house

After a few more, we ended up at Chris and Jerry's. Just look at Chris' face.

On to Joanne's, where she got to pick her own candy!

She did really well and had a lot of fun. She really knew how to spread her little fingers out and grab as much candy as possible! Smart kid. For only eight houses, she came home with half a bucketfull.

For the rest of the night, we joined our neighbors in Joanne's driveway for dinner and trick or treating. We had more kids than I have ever seen here, but we still came home with candy. It was a great night. Halloween is a lot of fun when you have kids.

relaxCREation

2008-10-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today, I woke up with a sore throat and a runny nose. Anytime I have anything wrong with my throat, I have to be very careful because I already have very irritated tonsils. So, I knew it was a day of relaxation, but I decided to make it a day of relaxCREation. Kevin obliged and took Kiera to school and then spent the rest of the day cleaning house and doing laundry. Yes, he is the BEST husband in the world, and no, he is not for rent!
Anyway, I have been working on some recipe pages, but I can't share those until some of my fellow readers see them in person. But, I did want to share what I did work on. I pulled out last year's Fall pictures. I cannot believe how much Kiera has changed. And Kate (yes, Tasha's little girl) looks totally different. We had so much fun last year. Take a look:

I got this really awesome frame from Creative Memories. You can put anything in it, but I like to display my scrapbook pages:

I had a great day. Now if only my throat felt better...it would have been perfect!

A Sharp Shooter???

2008-10-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well no, not exactly....

For the past couple of years, Kevin has spent his funny money down the street at the shooting range. He always thought he was a pistol loving lone ranger, but turns out he likes to shoot little clay targets. For those of you that have no idea what sort of image you are supposed to have in your head. I will provide you with one:

Sort of resembles a flower pot being blown up in mid-air. Well yes, that is exactly what it is like. Here is one intact: So, this what men that don't really like killing God's animals go do with their guns. They blow up flower pots and call it skeet. I tried to figure out were the name "skeet" came from and couldn't figure it out--- possibly from "OH SKEET, I missed another little flower pot saucer." All kidding aside, I have to admit is fun and quite challenging.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me catch you up:

Imagine standing between two small houses that alternate shooting out these little clay saucers. You start really close to one house and move around spots like on a compass. You end up shooting from eight spots with a total of 25 shots. One house shoots the targets high and one shoots them low, but thankfully none of them come at your face.

So as you guessed it, Kevin took me the other day. I guess it was a date because he used his funny money to pay for it. So sweet. Since we were the only two there, they let me practice just shooting the targets thrown from the high house without moving around the spots. I got 10 out of 25. Not bad for someone who has NEVER shot a shotgun in her life. Then we decided to do another round, but this time we did it correctly (moved around the spots). I got 6 and Kevin got 19. Kevin did tell me that he has seen people score worse, so I guess I should feel good.

I sort of wanted to take home a piece of a target that I shot up and maybe scrapbook it, but was too embarrassed to ask. So, I just settled for a massively sore shoulder. Shooting a shotgun is like getting punched over and over. I was tender for five days.

So, I did a little research to prepare for my post on the history of skeet, and to satisfy yours and my curiousity:

It all started on the ground of the Glen Rock Kennels in the town of Andover, Massachusetts in 1920. It was there and then that a small group of upland game hunters, including the late C. E. Davies, proprietor of the Glen Rock Kennels, his son Henry W., and the late William H. Foster, all of Andover, were shooting at clay targets as a means of obtaining wing-shooting practice with their favorite upland guns. Their shooting gradually developed into a regular program that gave each shooter the same series of shots so that the competition, which was inevitable, might be even.
Originally, the arrangement was a complete circle of twenty-five yards radius with the circumference marked off like the face of a clock. The trap was set at "12 o'clock" and was set to throw the targets over "6 o'clock". The competitive program consisted of shooting two shots from each of the twelve stations. The shell that was left over from a box was used, first as a stunt, to shoot at an incomer from the center of the circle. This later proved to be a shot offering real snap-shooting practice and has since developed into the plan of Station Eight shots of the regulation program.
"Shooting around the clock" as it was informally called, had most of the elements of modern skeet shooting. But, a commonplace incident then occurred that had a distinct bearing on the present day program. In "shooting around the clock", shots were fired to all points of the compass, until a neighbor started a chicken farm in a lot adjoining the kennels. That put a stop to shooting in that direction. Foster solved the problem by producing a second trap and placing it at "6 o'clock" so that it would throw its target over "twelve". This gave the shooter the same problems as were found in the original clock face, but reduced the danger area by half.

I do have to tell you that within twenty four hours of shooting, Kevin had me at Gander Mountain trying on shotguns. Seriously, can you see me paying $1000 for a shotgun? You better not. All in all, I had a great time learning a hobby that my husband has come to love. I know we will go back. I have entertained thoughts in my head of one day beating him at his own game....hee hee hee!

Little Piece of Paradise

2008-10-25T19:35:00.001-07:00

Just take a look at this picture:

and this one:
What words come to mind?
Words that fill my mind are:
serene
natural
beautiful
calm

Those are just a few. This is what we woke up to on Tuesday morning. One of the perks of being married to a pilot is that you can vacation midweek. We decided to pull the RV out and blow the dust off the counters and take it for a roll. We headed up to Lake Somerville and enjoyed a little piece of paradise. We got the choice of sites and only saw two other campsites being occupied. It was heaven. The weather was beautiful and the above pictures were taken when the temp just barely reached 57 degrees. That is cold. Here are Kevin and Kiera bundled in the RV:

We kept ourselves busy playing cribbage, riding bikes, and I even did a little scrapbooking.

This is a sweet picture of Kiera approaching Kevin. It was pitch dark, so he could not see her. Again, the picture will not turn around, but you can still appreciate her cuteness.

Here is our rig (Kiera is ready to go in the passenger seat):

Some of the scenery on our little bike ride:

Kiera hanging out:

Mommy and daughter spending time by the fire.

We had a fabulous time. We wished we had some friends that could share this little piece of paradise with us. Kiera needed a playmate. Anyone want to join us next time??? We hope to go again soon.

Party, Party, Party

2008-10-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

Whew, we are tired! We had two parties yesterday and were gone from our house from 12-10pm with only an hour in between. Now, please don't take this as a complaint...we had a fabulous day. It is nice to be a part of so many fun things.

The first party was the Dauphine twins first birthday. They had an impromptu party because their original plans fell through. It turned out to be a great party. The weather was perfect.

We enjoyed making crafts:

Playing with our BFFs:
Jumping in the bouncey:
Being held by everyone in sight:
And watch two kiddos prepare to dive into their first bite of cake:
Preston was the best birthday cake eater I have ever seen. It was hilarious.
Little Lily was having none of that messiness...such a girl!
So, after three hours with our good friends, we decided better head home and get ready for our next party.

So, onto Oxford Groverfest
(much like Oktoberfest, but more appropriately named after our street).
This is how it worked: Each neighbor chose a country and bought two or three different beers from that country for us to sample. They also brought a food from that country. We had the following countries represented with the following beers and food represented:

Ireland: Irish Red, Irish Stout, Guiness and a Lamb Stew
Italy: Peroni and Antipasta
Germany: Warfteiner, Spaten and Baroque Appetixers
England: New Castle, Boddington, Old Speckled Hen and Fish & Chips
Mexico: Negra Modela, Sol, and Tres Leche Cake
Texas: Shiner Bock, St. Arnold's and beef fajitas with guacolmole

I know, Texas is not a country, but Chris and Jerry were hosting the party and it was what they wanted! :)
Jerry and Paula
So, by looking at Kiera, can you guess which country the Simpson's represented:
Yep, Mexico!
Kevin chose the beer and I made the Tres Leche cake (which was FANTASTIC). We took third with Sol.

Here are the winners:
Kevin in third with Sol, Raquel in second with Warfteiner and Jerry in first with St. Arnold.

It was a fabulous party. In fact, I think it may be an annual one!

You should try it in your neighborhood party.

Crisp Mornings and Busy Afternoons

2008-10-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

Fall has rolled into Houston and it could not be more welcome. There is nothing like crawling out of bed to pull on your favorite flannel pajama bottoms only to stumble downstairs and warm your hands with a perfectly flavored cup of coffee.
We have welcomed the weather with open arms and it will just add to the already fabulous weekend we have planned. Last night was spent apart with me at the MET scrapbooking and Kevin at home resting after his trip and 4:30am wake up call. Today will be sent celebrating with the Dauphine twins first birthday and then ending the night at our Block Party appropriately named Oxford Groverfest in honor of Germany's Oktoberfest. I will definately tell you more about that through a story of pictures in another post. Tomorrow I believe we are heading out in the RV to do a little camping. We have not been camping in some time, so I am very excited. Now that Kiera is getting older, it should be a lot of fun!
As you have been reading, we have been super busy working in the house, but it hasn't been all work, we have had some fun. Last Saturday, we (Cypress Calling) went the The Source in the Northeast Houston to shower ten girls who are experiencing a crisis pregnancy. It is an absolutely amazing God-filled event. Here are some pictures. I am so excited about the future of this ministry. It has been a lot of work and tons of worry, but I know God is calling me to do amazing things through this ministry. We are gearing up for 4 regular showers next year and 2 big showers where we give each girl a crib! It will be a challenge to raise the funds, but I know we can do it. We also have a retreat planned in February to plan the future of CCM.
My friend, Staci, is in town from Canada and I have spent a lot of time with her as well. Wednesday we had playgroup at my house. It was just like old times and made me realize how much I miss Staci and her little bambinos. After playgroup we headed to our old standby, McDonald's for lunch. After filling everyone's bellies with devilishly delicious crap, we went to the pumpkin patch for some photos. This picture pretty much sums up that experience:
You see, the place was filled with ants. I guess the rain brought all those clever little creatures up from their homes. They found Kiera very quickly and she refused to wear shoes. A little while late, I put Kiera on this large haystack only to find my foot covered by ants and starting to burn with fire. I ripped off my Croc in record time, paying no attention to my daughter six feet above ground crying on the haystack. I then told Tasha to watch her and then she stepped in ants. So here are Tasha and I desperately trying to rid ourselves of ants while Kiera is sitting on hay trying to fend for herself. After that, I decide it was time to go. We did get a few good pics (well everyone else's kids look good)

Checking for ants
On Thursday, Tasha, Staci, Deanna, and I went to On The Border for a girls dinner. We had a great time muncing and chatting. Thanks Staci for a fabulous dinner!

Friday rolled around and it was a MOPS day (Mothers of Preschoolers). We meet twice a month and alternate between having a craft or a speaker. Yesterday was a speaker on Organization. I feel like I am pretty organized, but I did learn a few things. And then the evening was ended with some good ole scrapbooking amongst friends.

So there you have it, a fun filled week and weekend to follow! Happy Saturday!

Two for Tuesday

2008-10-14T18:56:00.001-07:00

I am too tired for 10 for Tuesday, so how about 2 for Tuesday?

1. One of the reasons I am so tired is because Kevin and I have been working very hard on the house. We have made a to-do list a couple of weeks ago and been crossing things off ever since. One of the biggest things on the list was redoing the craft closet. Four years ago, Kevin made me a very nice craft closet with a custom made desk and drawers. It just never worked out because the desk was not wide enough and it was hard to get to the drawers. Also, when I would scrapbook with friends, I would end up lugging all of my stuff to the kitchen table and it was a lot of work. So, Kevin and I ripped out the desk and drawers and replaced it with a rolling cart for the Cricut and paper and a huge cart with organization bins. When I want to scrap, now I can just roll out the two carts and use the kitchen table. Here are some pictures:

2. This Sunday, Kevin surprised us and came home early Sunday. The whole family went to the Scarecrow Festival in Chappell Hill.

It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day:

We found a cute little petting zoo for Kiera. She was a little unsure at first and stayed very close to Daddy:
There were rabbits, goats, pot-belly pigs, donkeys, ponies, chickens, pigeons, and ducks in the zoo. Kiera enjoyed petting all of them (not sure why the picture is on its side):
We also let her get her arm painted. She really watched the lady as she created a black kitty. The lady also wanted to put a witch's hat...

(OK Lady, she is not even 2, she doesn't know what a witch is)

One of the things we bought was this super cute pumpkin shirt for Kiera. She really likes it. I paid wayyyyyyyyyyyy too much for it, but it gave me some great ideas for future holiday shirts that I could make myself for half the price.
Behind Kiera you will see another one of our projects...a storm door. Both Kevin and I think this is the best project we have done to our house. We love it!

We have been working VERY hard in our backyard. As soon as we put mulch down, we will take pictures and let you see!

Happy Tuesday!

A Pilot's Wife...

2008-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Back when Kevin and I were dating, I distinctly remember discussing what being a pilot's wife would be like. Kevin knew he had to make sure his future wife understood the lifestyle (even though he didn't really know himself). He had a pilot's license when we met, but he was just beginning to start flying for hire. He had been flying skydivers to build his flight time, but did not go on trips. So, we would spend many hours discussing what "our" life might be like. He knew he had to find someone very independent and strong because they would be running the household in his absence. His future wife would have to be capable of making decisions in his absence and be prepared to attend special events without him. Holidays were a luxury and could not be guaranteed off. But, even though this particular career choice dictates many sacrifices, the benefits were plentiful. Flight benefits all over the world on almost any airline. The capability of leaving his work at the workplace and of course, the pay.

So here we are into Kevin's eighth year of being a pilot and my fifth year of being a pilot's wife and this is the way I now see it.

Yes, I have had to be independent and strong. A pilot's wife is not a job for the lonely, or the overly worried. I spend almost half my days without him. I think that is why my girlfiends and my hobbies are so important to me. Without them, I would go insane with loneliness and boredom. I run the household pretty much on my own and just let Kevin know when I need help. Of course, we make major decisions together, but all in all, he leaves most of it up to me. I have learned to be flexible on the holidays. It is a treat when he has a holiday off. In fact, this Thanksgiving is the first year he has had three days off. We are thrilled! I have attended many, many events and holidays without him and usually do fine unless it is a wedding or Christmas and then I am sad and lonely. :)

Now you have probably thought that I have made Kevin's career sound dreadful and you wouldn't dare think of suggesting it to anyone you know. Not so!!! One of the absolute best parts of Kevin's job is having weekdays off. Yesterday, we went and ran errands and had a fabulous time. Do you know how different an experience Wal-mart can be on a Wednesday at noon as opposed to a Saturday? How about the Outlet Mall on a Wednesday where the only people you see are other SAHMs with strollers and a few senior citizens? You can have lunch and let your child play on the playground and love life. This is when we truly enjoy Kevin's job and the it's ability to let me stay home. Once, we added up all of the days Kevin had off per year and compared it to a teacher. Guess who has more days off? A pilot! Amazing.

The other major payoff in the airline industry is that when Kevin's trip ends, his work ends. He does not bring anything home. When he is at home, he is truly at home and usually it is four three straight days. It is very nice.

I never thought I would enjoy being home alone without him. I love my husband and miss him when he is gone, but life sort of changes when he is at work. Dinners are simpler, the house stays cleaner, and I pretty much do my own thing. It is nice for a couple of days and then I am ready for him to come back.

One thing we did not ever discuss in those late night talks was the economy and the cyclical nature of the industry. Kevin was well aware of it, but when he got hired, times were good and we just didn't think like that. Well, as you all know, times are not the same. Hopefully this is just part of the cycle and soon we will be back on the upswing.

A Pilot's wife....it is a great life!

2008-10-06T06:25:00.001-07:00

Friends and family,

My newest post is out of order. Don't miss my negaholic attitude post.

Love,
Jenn

2008-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

While trying to think of something to blog about, this came to mind....

5 of my faves:
Coffee
Fall
Christmas
Playing Games
Colorful Flowers

5 of my fears:
Witnessing a fatal car crash
Drunk Drivers
Seeing an animal get hit by a car
Hearing people retch
The woods at night

5 of my friends:
Selina
Tasha
Staci
Jillian
Katja

5 of my future endeavors:
Have another child
Lose weight
Finish a book and get it published
See Cypress Calling become something huge
Live on some land

5 of my family memories
Camping with my dad
Playing radio host with my sister
My brother teaching me to snow ski
Kiera's birth and seeing Kevin fall in love
Seeing Kiera take her first steps last Christmas

5 ways I have fun
Scrapbooking
Girl's Weekend
Dinner parties
Decorating for Christmas
Going to the theater

5 of my favorite foods:
Beef fajitas
Pumpkin Bread
Brisket
Asparagus
Anything chocolate

Baditude

2008-10-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

Chalk it up to the infection running through my body or the heavy doses of meds trickling through my veins....
Maybe its the busyness of the Fall or the everlasting effects of Ike trauma....
or maybe it's a severe case of baditude.....

Yep, my name is Jennifer and I am negaholic.

Laugh if you must, but it is serious. I can't even determine when it started, but I am ready to cure it. I sort of feel like I lost sight of the happy Jennifer. I am usually a pretty positive person, but as of late, that has dwindled. I am ready to change that.

A little background first.....

I will be having a lingual tonsillectomy and a adenoidectomy on October 21st. For the last two years I have been fighting off throat infection after throat infection. I was hoping with high doses of steroids and antibiotics, I could save myself from having surgery...but tis not true. My throat infection has flared up again and now is the time to have the festering tissue removed. Hence the throat infection and medicine mentioned above.

Cypress Calling is a ministry that a couple of girls and I started in March of this year. God has done AMAZING things through this ministry in the short six months we have been working, but along with His work comes a lot of other work and tons of worry. It seems that when you are working for the Lord, life can quickly get in the way, and the first thing to go for many people is their commitment to the ministry. So then what happens? It comes back to me. I have questioned many times what God has intended for this ministry. Time after time, He sends me amazing people or messages to tell me that all this is worth it. I am thankful for the people who have stepped up and helped further God's kingdom with me and I pray for those who have had to step back. Hopefully they will be able to come back and join us soon.

Then there is the Hurricane and all its aftermath. Enough said. After the hurricane, we traveled both weekends and that just added to the stress of everything else.

So here I am...
Tired, overwhelmed, sick, concerned, ...feel free to add your own adjectives as they will probably fit.

And then an amazing thing happened:
On Saturday night, Kevin and I went to church and heard a great message. It was about marriage, but it's main focus was changing your attitude. One statement that struck a chord with me is:

Trouble is inevitable, but misery is optional!

Basically everything else was stuff I already knew, but needed to hear again. We were left with this scripture:

"For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him." Phil. 2:13

I know I have heard that scripture a lot, but this time I took it to heart. God gives us the desire (which is definately missing) and the power (which I so desperately need) to do what we know we need to do.

I felt very free after this sermon. Like I have heard so many of you say, I felt like a spotlight was shining down on my head during the service. I am so ready to change my attitude and quit being a negaholic!

Recurring Dream

2008-10-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was once again visited by my recurring dream. The scene is usually my parent's house and last night it happen to be Christmas Eve. I am a little younger than I am now and Kiera is not in the picture (most likely not even born). The theme of the dream is Kevin and I are divorced or broken up (not sure) and I am waiting for him to call me. I am very sad and he usually doesn't. Last night he did call, but he was very short and acted like nothing. I remember walking to the spare bedroom of my parent's house in tears. I was actually going to lay down and cry...that is when I heard Kiera cry and I was awoken to my much happier REAL life.

For you dream analysts, let's break it down:

Now, the theme is always the same....Kevin and I are apart and I am waiting on his call.
It never takes place at my house. It is commonly at my parents.
I usually end up talking to him, but it is always disappointing.
I am younger and Kiera is never in the dream.

Dreams don't usually mean what they seem. They are very symbolic. Ideas?

Televison

2008-10-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

You know, I am not much of a TV watcher, but I do like to get hooked on one or two shows. I like to look forward to those shows throughout the week. And now with DVR, you never miss them. In the past I have like shows that include: Friends, Frasier, Cheers, Bachelor, Apprentice, Grey's Anatomy, and American Idol. I also really like the Discovery Channel and documentaries on history & mysteries, but those types of shows don't seem to have a set schedule and are a little hard to follow. Anyway, back to the prime time shows---I guess you could say I mostly like sit-coms, realistic drama, and reality TV with a competition.
So as this season began, I was really looking forward to Grey's Anatomy. I hadn't really planned on watching anything else until January when AI and Bachelor (with my favorite runner up) will air. Can I just say that I was so disappointed with Greys?

****Spoiler Alert*****

I found the story line very implausible and not very likeable. The three women with their three husbands was absolutely pathetic. I wasn't even sure who I wanted to live at the end. And then, Christina falling and being impaled by an icicle? Seriously? Then there is Izzy falling in love with Alex? He is such a jerk, I cannot imagine that. Their hook was that McDreamy got the nurse pregnant, but that was a joke? I cannot believe it. Probably that will come back and be real. Who knows. I won't even go to the two girl doctors falling in love. Gives me the heebie jeebies. I think I decided I am done with Grey's. There is no one I like on that show and the story lines are horrible.

So just when I was about to give up on this season, I DVRed Private Practice. I LOVED it! First of all, Kate Walsh is absoutely beautiful in my eyes. She also has a very cool job. I am starting to like the other characters as well. I thought the story lines last night were great.

*****Spoiler Alert*****

The two story lines involved a 14 year old boy who parents chose to not tell him he was HIV positive. His doctor (one of the character's who's name I have forgotten) was not allowed to tell him either. Well he confided to his doctor that he was planning on having sex with his girlfriend. So, the Dr was in quite a predicament. He couldn't tell the boy he has HIV and he couldn't tell the parents the boy was going to have sex due to patient/DR. confidentiality laws. In the end he ended up telling the parents about their son...but it was too late. The teenagers had sex the night before. The show ended with both families coming back to the DR. to discuss what had the teenagers had just done to themselves.

The other major story line involved the Fertility Dr, Naomi, taking a large sum of money from a couple going through IVF inhopes of finding a perfect match for thier dying 7 yr. old son. Reminded me a lot of the Jodi Picoult book, My Sister's Keeper. Well, turns out that the couple wanted to have their baby at 27 weeks because they needed her cord blood for their son right then. Kate Walsh's character had a hard time justifying put one child's health at risk for another, so she would not induce. The girl broke her own water with a knitting needle and ended up having the baby. It was very tiny, but alive. The show ended at that point too.

I really enjoyed it and am considering making it one of my new faves. I also DVRed Pusihing Daises (which I have never seen), but heard it was good.

Chicago

2008-10-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Chicago is truly a beautiful city. We had a wonderful weekend with my aunt and uncle. We even came in on the same weekend as my cousin, Katie. I had not see her since she was three. She is a little taller!

The Charland's had quite a weekend planned for us. Our adventures started on Friday morning at Blackberry Farms. In the middle of the Great Plains, amongst all the farmland sits a small little town called Aurora. Blackberry Farms is located right outside of town and can best be described as an antique farming community with many museums and live demonstrations of what life was like over a hundred years ago. Here is a beautiful picture of the farms:

One of my favorite parts of Blackberry Farms, was the replica of a small town in the 1800s. You actually went into a building that had two main streets with many shops that would have been popular back then. You could not go into in shops, but instead just looked through the windows. It was quite fascinating.

Here is Kiera walking down the street:

Taking a peek in the music store...one of her favorites!

There were also many animals around the Farm. Practicing all of our animal sounds really paid off. Kiera was excited to see all of the animals and knew all of their sounds.
They had a girl painting pottery. Kiera was very interested, but a tad shy (she definately does not get the shyness from me)...

The one room schoolhouse was very neat as well. They actually had a lady dressed up and "teaching" the children how school was back then. Kiera is all ready:

Kiera experienced many "firsts" in Chicago. She had never been on a train ride or a tractor ride. She had never seen her second cousin and she had never had a cookie with cream in the middle. So, we gave her one and she loved it! She took her finger and very carefully scraped the icing with her finger to eat. Who needs the cookie, when you can have the icing?
The above picture was taken right after a very nice picnic with the bees! Not thinking, we packed Kiera a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich with a side of mandarin oranges. I think these are bee's favorite foods. They were all over us. Katie did not really enjoy sharing her lunch with the little critters. The rest of us did not mind too much. Kiera kept looking around like, "What? What is the problem?" She doesn't know to be afraid of bugs. I am not really afraid of bugs, so she probably won't be either.

We took a train ride and a tractor ride:

Turns out we came in just in time to celebrate my Aunt's 50th birthday! Happy Birthday Fran!

My cousin, Katie is also in the picture.

After a fun filled Friday, we were anxiously anticipating Saturday. This was the day we were getting Kiera a babysitter and heading into Chicago. We saw the broadway production of Mamma Mia. I was absoutely in heaven! I knew that I found a new interest...theater! The singing was amazing and I just loved how they told a story through music. Kevin enjoyed himself as well. We will definately be going to more shows. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures in the theater.

A fabulous picture of my Uncle and Aunt prior to the Mama Mia show. This is taken in their backyard--which is quite a nice place to relax.

Just thought I should add that my Uncle is my Father's brother and favors him a great deal. Can you see any resemblence between him and me?

All of us, ready to go...
The lovely Simpsons!
I thought this was a very nice picture of Kevin and me:

We headed to Chicago and had a fabulous lunch at a restaurant called Louie's Bar. The picture below is the building it is in:

Can I just say that I love clocks? It was only appropriate that we eat in a place tucked under a beautiful clock. Pure coincidence, I swear!

So, we don't usually take picures of menus, but just take a look at some of the burgers available:
Does the second one seem a little strange? I mean, seriously, an egg on your burger? Do you not have enough fat and cholestrol with just the burger? Well, Kevin thought he would give it a try:
Even though he said the burger was delicous, he will never live it down. He was asked several times for the rest of the weekend if he wanted a fried egg with his food.

The best was, "Hey Kevin, you want an egg on your S'more?"

Other sights around Chicago:
In this picture, my Uncle is actually showing me where he worked (IRS) before he retired a couple of years ago. The Sears Tower is right in the middle with the white towers. His building was next to it. He told me that the Sears Tower might have been a target during the 911 attacks, so he had to evacuate as well, since his building was so close.
We visted a HUGE downtown library. It was many stories tall. The children's section was bigger than most entire libraries. I just love this quote:
An unique picture of the raised train tracks downtown.
More sights:

That night, we enjoyed the crisp Fall air, by sitting outside and making S'mores over a small fire. Kiera wanted nothing to do with an actual S'more, she just ate graham crackers. Thankfully, Kevin did NOT have a fried egg on his!

As just as quickly as the weekend started, it ended! We had an absolutely wonderful time. My Aunt and Uncle were so kind and accomodating, we will for sure go back. In fact, there is talk of a meet up in NYC for a real Broadway Show! I can't wait.

But, I wish the story ended like that! One of the perks of being a frequent flier, is the headaches you put up with flying standby. Our original flight left at 12:05. We got the airport at 10:30 and were bumped off of 4 flights. Here is how we entertained a one year old all day:

Acutally, about 6 pm we found a really cool museum that had large exhibits that resembled a real airport. It was really neat. Too bad we didn't find it sooner. Kiera only got to play in it for about 15 minutes. Then it was time to go to the gate of our 5th flight (and last flight leaving that night). We actually got the last two seats on that flight! Whew! 9 hours in one airport is 9 hours too many. Of course, Kiera did wonderfully.

As you can see, we had a fabulous time. I have also added an album of our trip if you wish to see a few more photos!

Ten for Tuesday

2008-09-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

1. We are back from Dallas and resting up for our next adventure (Chicago). Our friends bought their first house and needed some help moving in. Quite a starter house....3500 square feet with a pool. We enjoyed all the free food they purchased for us to pay us back for helping and of course, we enjoyed the pool.

2. Our next adventure starts Thursday afternoon. We will be going to Chicago to visit with my uncle. The four adults will be going to see Mamma Mia on stage. I am super excited. They even got us a babysitter. I hope we will see some beautiful fall leaves while there. The weather is just where I like it: 70s for the high and 50s for the low. We will have pictures to share upon our return.

3. I still have not started my job at WITS. The hurricane really added a delay to this. The schools here have been out for at least 7 days, so that just backed up WITS starting even more. I am sure the last thing on the principal's minds is having writers come in to their schools. I don't even know my assignment (grade level and school location) yet.

4. Kevin has been very busy with projects around the house. We changed the locks because it felt as if the key was going to break off when you used it. He also added a storm door to the front. We LOVE it. It adds so much light to our house and since it is the front, the hot afternoon sun is already in the back, so it doesn't add a lot of heat. I love natural light, so of course, this was my suggestion. Funny thing is: I got the idea after we lost power. We had the front door open to let in light and just put a gate, so Kiera could not escape. We really enjoyed all of the natural light.
He also cut up our pine tree that fell with evil Ike. I still feel a little sad when I walk past the empty mulch pile where it once towered. All of its tree parts sit decomposing on our front sidewalk. I am beginning to wonder if they are ever coming to clean up the hurricane debris.

5. Kiera is doing amazingly well. She has been so incredibly flexible during the past few weeks. She has slept in three different houses in the past ten days and had absolutely no problems. She also has redeemed herself on airplanes and has been allowed to fly again. (I told her she could not fly again a few months ago because she was horrible.) Kevin and I taught her that the seat in front of her is a NO-NO, so she doesn't kick it or play with the tray table. Now when we get on a plane, first thing she does is point to the seat and say, "That's a NO-NO!" I recommend this practice to any frequent fliers.
She also has had another language explosion and is speaking in sentences. She always says "Bless you, Mommy" when I sneeze, which is quite often lately with allergies. Half the time she says "Bless you, Mommy" when Kevin sneezes as well. She also thinks that going poop or passing gas is called UH OH. So when Daddy passes gas, she will say, "Mommy go UH-OH!" Ummm, not exactly. Kevin thinks this is great fun and can't wait to let one rip in a public venue, so he can hear Kiera blame me.

Ok, so ten things is a lot to think of.....

6. I am still writing my book, but the little power outage we just had put a damper on that for awhile. I also put a call into my infertility doctor to ask some questions to help me with my book, but she did not answer me. Maybe I will have to call.

7. The pets are doing great!

Ha, Ha that was easy, onto 8....

8. Seems I have gained some unwanted pounds while eating like crap during the Hurricane and its recovery. I am going to jump back on that bandwagon and continue on with my goal of losing 20 pounds by Christmas. I will put my weight loss ticker back up. Please pray for me...losing weight is incredibly hard!

9. I planted some fall vegetables in my garden. I planted peppers and tomatoes. I need some lettuce and broccoli, but once again the hurricane has gotten in the way... Are you seeing a trend with the stupid hurricane and it getting in the way???

almost there....

10. Kevin and I finally found a church. We will be attending Community of Faith. I have really warmed up to this church. The pastor is quite funny and completely dedicated and it shows in so many ways. I was completely blown away during the hurricane when they had a service in the dark while pouring sweat. I needed that service and am thankful they had it! Also, a couple of weeks ago they did spontaneous baptisms and I was moved to tears when people stepped into the aisle to be baptized. It was truly amazing and God was all over that building that day! We will take a membership class the next time they offer it and pray about becoming a member. It has been almost a year since I found out that FOH was no longer going to be in business. It has been a long road deciding if the MET was the place for me and then finding a place that was good for me and my family!

Ahhhh.... I made it. Maybe from now I will do Five for Friday! Have a great day!

A God given gift....

2008-09-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

September in Houston is usually a dreadful month weatherwise. Temps still push 90 degrees and the humidity is unbelieveable. I think the fact that the rest of the country is enjoying "Fall like" weather adds another punch. So, when do most major hurricanes hit and cause power outages? Yep, September! Rita was horrible not because of the wind and rain, but because of the nearly 100 degree weather that accompanied it during the unprecedented evacuation that occurred here. People actually died evacuating in their cars. Sad!

But, this time God gave us a gift. Monday night a glorious Northernly cool front blew threw the air and tickled the cheeks of those without power. Low temperatures danced around 60 degrees and high temperatures did not dare past 83 degrees. Only God could have given us this wonderful gift in one of the historically hot months of the year! All week we have enjoyed some "Fall like" weather.

So, we took full advantage and went to our playground to enjoy His gift!

Kiera would swing all day if you allowed her:

She is getting braver everyday and climbing higher and higher!
Daniel was such a helper with Kiera!
BFFs having a picnic lunch

A sweet face with baby doll Sofia!

"Anyone up there?"

"Awww Kate, you are so pretty!"

My good friends relaxing while the kiddos play.

One thing to say....

2008-09-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

WE HAVE POWER!!!

Sight for Sore Eyes....

2008-09-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today I drove into my neighborhood with a heavy heart. We are on Day 5 of no power. My wonderful friend, Selina, has graciously housed Kiera and I for the last three days and I am thankful for that, but I miss my home and my pets. Each morning I go to my house and check on the kitties and get Oreo from the neighbor and give hime some love as well. I feel so happy in my home even without power. I turn on the battery powered radio that I borrowed from my neighbor and open all the windows so I can feel the heaven sent breeze dancing over the tile. Seriously, there is no other reason for Houston to have a cool front in September with temps barely reaching the 80s except that we have an awesome God. I figure He sent us this cool front to help the millions without power. Although it has been nearly a week without power, every time without fail, I flip the switch when I walk in the bathroom or when I am in the closet getting dressed. I sort of chuckle to myself each time. DUH..no power.

Because the weather is so beautiful, Selina and I took the kids to my neighborhood playground for a picnic lunch today. I drove through my neighborhood to pick up my neighbors cell phone so I could charge it for her at Selinas. This is when my neighbor told us some glorious news.......

There are 23 trucks, yes 23, from Michigan at the entrance of my neighborhood fixing my electric poles!!! We all cheered when we heard this! I just love Michiganians or whatever they are called! I am sure it will take them awhile to fix it, but at least they are working on it! It truly was a sight for sore eyes! Hopefully in the next few days we will have some power!

Ike did NOT take a hike...

2008-09-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

This blog is being brought to you from a satellite location.....

I am quite thankful to tell you that we are fine and have minimal damage from Ike. We completely underestimated this intense storm, but have come through it just fine. In my pre-Ike post I told you that we were prepared for Ike, so much so that we even made cookies on Friday night to pass the time:

Kiera could not wait for frosting, so she just grabbed a cookie and started munching away, sprinkles in hand.

All the neighbors came out to enjoy the nice cool weather that graced Houston before Ike. The wind was quite nice after the intense heat and humidity we had been experiencing. Of course, no one was complimenting the wind anytime after this particular evening.

My very smart neighbors, Chris and Jerry, boarded up their house. Please notice that they painted their window covers to match their house. Very nice touch!

Kiera enjoyed herself on the skateboard at our prehurricane party.

The wind really picked up; look at her hair.

We even did some kite flying!
The clouds came rolling and were quite spectacular.

I saw a sign that said IKE stood for Intense Killer Evil. My thoughts exactly.

A nice touch to welcome IKE:

Now, all of the previous pictures were taken before the hurricane. Words cannot describe what we went through Friday night and early Saturday morning. I have searched every corner of my brain to explain what 18 hours of intense wind sounds like, and I have come up completely blank. The wind started about 5 pm on Friday and as you saw we were out enjoying it. About nine or ten, it really picked up and the power flickered. About 10:30, the power went out and that is when worry set in. We had previously decided we should all sleep downstairs just in case. We set the craft room up for a tornado shelter since it is in the middle of our house and has no windows. We set up a mattress in the living room, and brought Kiera down for the night...just in case. From 11 pm to 7 am, the wind absolutely howled. We were not worried about storm surge or flooding, we were worried about wind damage and tornadoes. I wished several times that we had boarded our windows because I just knew they were going to blow out. I wasn't sure how we were going to hear a tornado, when it sounded like a tornado for at least eight hours. But, I found comfort in having my husband near and a God who loves me. We all had little cat naps here and there because there was no way anyone could sleep through the chaos that was going on outside. At 5 am, we thought the worse was over and had a nice candlelit breakfast of Cheerios:

Turns out that the worse of the storm hit us around 6 am. The wind was truly incredible, somewhere around 90 mph is our best guess. Around 8 am, we opened the windows and for the first time all night, Kiera actually noticed we were having a bit of weather. She pointed to the wind and said, "That's rain!" We chuckled to ourselves and were quite thankful that she was oblivious all night. At 2 am, she said, "Light ON, TV ON!" As if it were that easy. She then just wheeled her baby around in the stroller in the candle light.

After the wind subsided, we opened the door for some fresh air. Orion looked outside as if to say, "What exactly went on out here last night?"

The only damage we suffered included about six feet of fence damage and we lost one tree. We also had some rain come through the backdoor, but the rain water was nothing we couldn't contain. One of our pine trees fell straight forward and broke its roots. We tried to save it, but were unsuccessful. Here is Kevin's attempt to upright it:

Now, it is Monday and we are still without power.

This is why:

What you are looking at is the entrance to my neighborhood. Please notice the power lines lying across the signs to the neighborhood signs. Six huge electric poles snapped in half at the entrance of our neighborhood. The poles fell and were stopped by a brick fence. Had they not been stopped, they would have crashed into houses and surely killed people. Amazingly, they fell in the backyards of one story houses. If they would have been two story houses, the damage would have been fatal, I believe.

There is sign damage everywhere. We sort of find it funny that Burger King's signs ended up in McDonald's parking lot. Here are some signs very close to our house:

Here is a view of the six poles down. We believe that these particular poles snapped because they are directly across from an empty field. I am sure the wind ripped right through there and caused the poles to snap.

Most likely, we will be out of power for some time. They have dropped new poles off, but that is it. Luckily many of my friends have power, so we are fine. We are staying with some friends for the time being. I know it could have been a lot worse, but it was pretty bad. I sure am glad it is over!

Take a hike...IKE!!!

2008-09-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

You know it is truly amazing to me that there is a huge hurricane in the Gulf, because you wouldn't really know it by driving around town. First of all, the weather is beautiful right now. It is sunny with a nice breeze (don't believe we will be saying that later) and actually quite a nice day. Of course, that will all change in just a matter of hours. There are still many businesses open and tons of cars out. Amazing.

We are as ready as we can be I guess. We have a battery powered weather radio, three days of food and botttled water, cars are full of gas, and all lawn furniture has been stored. We decided not to board the windows because we are at least 70 miles inland and there is not really chance of flying debris because there is no new construction around here and the trees are just barely taller than the people. So, now we wait....

Yesterday we went to Wal-mart to get some things and that was an adventure. I have to laugh at what people fill their carts with....cookies, chips, and crackers. Seriously, are you gonna live on that for three days? I won't even talk about how much alcohol people had in their carts. I just wonder what happens when they're too drunk to take care of their family in an emergency like they very possibly could be facing! I don't think people think through their actions.

This morning we took Oreo took a dog park since he won't want to be outdoors in the next couple of days. He had a blast! For those of you don't know what a dog park is....
It is just like a people park with benches, a pond, play equipment, water fountains, etc EXCEPT it is all for dogs. Everyone lets their dogs off their leashes and they just roam around chasing each other and sniffing in inappropriate places. There is a double gate, so there is no worry that dogs will leave. They also have a place to bathe your dog when you leave. Kevin and I were very stupid though and brought McDonald's in....DUMB MOVE! We had dogs come from all corners of the park to beg. Poor Kiera had to be held to eat her breakfast. We won't do that again! As I said before, you would not know that a hurricane was approaching...everyone seemed happy and unconcerned this morning.

So as I close this post, I ask for your prayers. Please pray for our safety. We are worried about windows blowing out, spontaneous tornadoes spinning around us, and losing power for days on end. We pulled our RV in our driveway so we could leave after the storm if we have no power.
Thanks in advance for the prayers.

Stay safe, stay dry, and stay put!
Jenn

Boo Brags

2008-09-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Littlest Boo is not so little anymore, so we thought it might be time for an update.

Stats:

Age: Old enough to know better than to stand in her booster seat.

Weight: A lot

Length: Long enough to kick the back of the seats in our car

Height: Tall enough to get into a lot of no-nos

Teeth: More than enough to chomp down on your finger

Really I have no idea how much she weighs, or her height (and yes I know it is the same as length, just trying to be funny), but she is currently in clothing size 24 months and size 5 shoes and is six days shy of 21 months.

New Things:

Color Identification: she can identify all primary and colors with pretty good success and some of the other colors fairly often such as pink, orange, and purple.

Counting: Depending on the day, she can count to ten with lots of help. Some days she only seems to know the number two.

Animal Sounds: (Not sure why this is important-but it is great Boo fun) She currently knows the sounds of: cow, sheep, snake, kitty, doggie, tiger, duck, birdie, rooster, horse, and turkey.

Chores: You can always count on Boo to take things to the trash, put her shoes away, put her dirty clothes in the laundry basket, clean up her toys, close the gate and any door, wipe up milk she has spilled herself (she will pour it on the floor and say "Wipe! Wipe!" meaning she wants a wipe to pick up the mess she made.) You cannot count on her to pick up a giant pile of cheerios she has decided to throw on the floor-we are still working on that!

Words: Oh, she has way too many to list. But, some of the newer ones include Boo (she realizes she is also Kiera), truck, lumina (our car), apple sauce (have no idea who taught her that), airplane, here we go, Ay Chihuahua (no I am not kidding), Mamma Mia (again, I am being truthful), etc.

Potty Training: She is fully trained and in big girl panties all day and night! Yea right-we just barely bought her a potty. She likes to sit on it and bear down trying to push something out. It is hilarious. She has not learned to let go and pee in it. Once she does, she is in for a big surprise...it plays music when she pees!

Music: She can carry so many tunes at this point. The ABC song is getting really clear and so is Night, Night, Sleep Tight, Do not let the bed bugs bite, .... In fact every night when I lay her down in her crib I say "Night Night" and she says "Sleep Tight"

A Boo funny:

For quite some time Kiera has been praying with us before meals and bedtime. Everytime she sits in her chair, she nicely clasps her hands together and says PRAY. Then a couple months ago she starting saying AMEN after we would pray. Well, actually it came out...AAAAAAAA MEN!!!! So, we thought it should be time for her to learn to close her eyes while praying. So we told her to close her eyes and she unclasped her hands and took her hands and closed her eyes tight and just held her hands there. We busted up. I told her to look at me and I preceded to show her that we can close our eyes without using our hands. When I did, she said..."Night Night Mommy!" She cracks us up!

An amazing Boo moment:

We read to Kiera all of the time. We read some books over and over. One of those is called Angel Baby. Well one day recently I decided to not say the last word of each page. When I wouldn't say it, Kiera would. She knew almost every single last word. Kevin and I were amazed.

Well there you have it.... Our Boo Brags!

Personal Biography

2008-09-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

For my WITS job, I have to submit a personal mini biography for their website. The only specifics are that it is told in third persona and be around five sentences. Here are some examples:

Varsha Bajaj writes fiction for children. Her first picture book How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight? was published by Little Brown & Co. in April 2004. It has won several awards, and was featured by the Texas Library Association on the 2x2 recommended reading list in 2005. She has also published short stories for children in the South Asian literary magazine Kahani. She is currently working on picture books and a middle grade novel. Varsha is also a counselor, with a master's degree in counseling from Southern Illinois University. She worked as a therapist with both children and adults at the St. Louis University Medical Center from 1988 through 1996. Varsha lives in Houston with her husband, two children, and dog.

Bryan Bancroft is both a public school teacher and a writer of poetry and non-fiction. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in English literature in 2004 and has worked and written for the advancement of public education in inner cities since then. After working for a year teaching beginning literacy to three-year-olds through a Head Start program, he joined Teach for America and was placed in Houston to teach sixth grade at Jackson Middle School. He has taught English as a second language, creative writing, and social studies. He is currently working on collecting poetry and journal entries for an as-yet-untitled book.

Artist and elementary teacher Carina Christensen gained her first teaching experiences in her native country of Argentina. After completing her studies in art and elementary education, she taught in elementary schools in Buenos Aires. She then completed an international lifeguard instructor certification and taught swimming to over 500 students during the summer time. Before coming to the United States she instructed children and teenagers yoga, art, and language at a non-profit rehabilitation community center in her hometown of Rosario. Carina lives in Houston with her husband and one-year-old son.

I am stuggling a little with this because I don't quite feel like a writer and certainly don't have anything published. So what do you think about this:

A love of writing developed when Jennifer Simpson begin teaching elementary students in North Carolina. She enjoyed writing her own Language Arts lessons to help empower her students to be creative writers. A 1999 graduate of Texas Tech University with a degree in Psychology and a post-bac teaching certification more than equipped her for this great endeavor. After many years of trying to have children, Jennifer and her husband were blessed with a daughter who is almost 2. When she chose to stay home, it was then that Jennifer really began enjoying her own writing. She enjoys keeping a family blog and has recently started a fiction book based upon her infertility struggles.

Ok, be honest...what do you think? I don't want to copy anyone elses, but I like how some people didn't start with their name. I also want to mention my infertility struggles because that is helping me write my own book! Be brutal if you have to...I can take it!