THE GIRLS...

berkeley and adelaide

(january 2008, ages 2 years and 1 week)

these two girls...

have always shared a bond.

berk can usually be found lounging in whatever room adelaide is playing.

the first thing adelaide does when she wakes up is

find berkeley and "rub her polka dots" (scratches her belly).

the last thing she does most nights before bed is

thank God for daddy, mommy, graham and berk.

last week...

when berkeley was lethargic and puking for 24 hours straight we were all concerned.

the most compassionate of all was adelaide.

when the doctors said she would have to have surgery to possibly recover

and told me she might not make it i was a total mess.

the thing that made the tears fall the most was the idea of having to

tell adelaide that berkeley wasn't coming home again.

the drama...

included surgery on her stomach and intestines,

retrieving fabric lining, a rubberband, cellophane,

small bone fragments, and unidentifiable objects,

sixteen staples from top to bottom of her chest,

IVs and catheters, and three rough nights in the vet hospital,

before she came home.

this week...

adelaide has continued to love and check on her,

graham has sweetly told her no less than fifty times, "berkeley, you are so pretty."

(in between being told she is not bullseye and he may not sit on her like a horse).

we are ALL so very thankful berkeley is back home with us and wagging her tail once again!

 berkeley and adelaide

(april 2012, ages 6 years and 4 years)

08-09-10...

some this and that from my brain to yours

on this fun date in history:

01.

for quite awhile now i've been in love with multi-grain cheerios.

more recently i met fruity cheerios.

their bright cheery color and flavors also won me over.

just this week i tasted chocolate cheerios.

now all three cheerios have a permanent place

on the cereal shelf in our pantry.

i pretend to buy them for the kids.

truth be known, i eat more of these circles as they do.

02.

sarah mclachlan world on fire,

you are my current repeat song of choice.

i've lost count of how many times we listen to you a day.

psalty's kid's sing praise volume one will be taking over soon.

thanks to amanda for reminding me of that greatness.

it's been a long time since i listened to kid's sing praise daily.

by long time i mean the year was 1985,

and the means was my cassette player.

it's been ordered in cd for this generation.

i'm proud to say, i'm bringing psalty back.

03.

poor berk wore the cone of shame for the past three weeks.

anyone seen up? if so you will never again simply call it a dog collar.

the plastic contraption will forever more be known as the cone of shame.

berk had an ear infection, a scarred eye (thanks to a barbed wire poke),

surgery & stitches under her ear due to a grooming mistake.

oh sweet berkeley dog, you are NOT the definition of low maintenance.

but we love you so much anyway.

04.

i have big dreams for halloween 2010.

if all goes as planned their will be coordinating sibling costumes.

i already asked my mom to help.

usually when i say, "do you think WE can make this?"

it quickly becomes her doing all the work, while i say i love it.

i found one of the fabrics last week and i'm so excited.

this time i might actually be somewhat a part of the WE equation.

05.

i can't take any credit for these matching sibling outfits.

after a smashing good time at grandparent camp,

adelaide returned wearing this dress made by grammy sherri.

sister girl couldn't contain her excitement to see her brother again.

she would hug him, start squealing and shaking, then hug him again.

next she giddily told him, "grammar, i have a freat (treat) you can wear!"

she couldn't wait 'til we got home to show him.

so she asked my granddad to go outside in the blazing heat,

dig through her suitcase, and get it,

"bill, can you get grammar's freat flease?"

she was so proud for them to match so of course we put it on him immediately.

06.

while we were pretending to be jet setters last month,

we came across some interesting characters.

on our first flight we sat next to a friendly woman en route to visit her grandkids.

i soon found out her friendliness knew no boundaries,

as she stuck her head under my nursing cover to say hello to g and tickle his feet.

later in the flight, she also gave graham his first

(and only for quite awhile) gummy bear.

i was able to scoop it out of his mouth one millisecond after she placed it in there.

no baby was harmed by this maneuver,

only disappointed not to get more tastes of cherry flavored goodness.

07.

on our flight home we sat next to a 26-year-old first time flyer.

through the course of two hours and our conversations,

i was humbled,

remembered why i shouldn't judge,

and reminded to never take anything for granted.

it was also a good reminder not to forget how amazing it is to fly.

go ahead, raise the sunshade, stop and smile at the clouds.

08.

i'm sure you've all heard of oprah's favorite things.

now let me introduce you to

annalee's favorite things- summer edition:

these were the items up for grabs for my bunco prizes.

tervis tumblers (click),

b b & b reusable straw cups (click),

williams-sonoma dish towels (click),

and lorina sparkling pink lemonade (click).

i wish i could give these items to each reader,

but i did add the links in case you need to order something.

09.

last week was the final week of this summer bible study-

ruth: loss, love and legacy by kelly minter (click to order).

it was short but packed a lot of punch in a six week study.

kinda like the book of ruth, short but packed with lessons.

i highly recommend it for girls in any stage of life.

10.

i might have over-ambitiously trimmed someone's hair.

his name starts with "g" and ends with "ram."

he looks as cute as ever

but i learned my lesson about getting scissor happy.

i should stick to cutting paper and ribbon, not hair.

i take full responsibility for (accidently) giving him his first chili bowl cut.

oops.

THAT'S SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED...

can i interest you in the house specialty?

we are featuring our very own BERKELEY MARTINI.

it's a quite simple recipe-
1 PART RUPTURED ANAL GLAND,
2 PARTS ANTIBIOTIC,
shaken, not stirred.

CHEERS!

LESSONS FROM THE ROAD...

ev and i recently returned from an incredible vacation. i believe adelaide and berkeley could say that exact same thing. even though we went to different places, we were all treated royally. the night before ev and i left for mexico, i drove to temple to hand a and b off to the grandparents for a five-day, all-inclusive, vacation to abilene, texas.

here are a few lessons i learned along the road between houston and temple:

the greatness of i love rock and roll and wake me up before you go-go span all ages. these songs provide perfect opportunity for a spontaneous car dance-off. the contestants were an 18-month-old and a 29-year-old. berkeley is still totaling the points as to who won. not to be petty, but i did notice the younger contestant stole most of my best car dance moves.
i can't decide if that is flattering or humbling. either way, getting to see your daughter clap her hands in the air, and sway her arms high above her head to the groove is priceless.

the dairy queen blizzard still reigns supreme. don't mess with the original. i rarely partake of it anymore, but i can see why it is still going strong after all these years. in fact one of my uncles recently admitted it was the sole reason he gained as much weight as my aunt did during her second pregnancy. i can completely understand how that would happen. if i gain another eight pounds at this month's weigh-in, at least this time i'll have something to blame it on. heath bar blizzard- it was worth every bite of you.

elmo and baby sign dvds are the magic ticket to peaceful car rides. i will only resort to these weaknesses when the good dance music on the radio is taken over by static. okay, i might also give in after hearing, "mor bebe sign, fleese!" or "fleese, mor melmo show!" approximately two hundred and twelve times in the most pathetic, sweet voice known to man.

thank goodness God gave us two thumbs. evidently one in the mouth and one in the belly button works just as well in the car as it does at home.


berkeley is the easiest passenger i know. she doesn't request dvds, sonic drinks, crackers, or pit stops. even more importantly she doesn't have to sit balanced on my lap while i take a pit stop of my own in a grungy gas station bathroom. if only berk was that easy to babysit. i heard a rumor, there might have been a little episode involving consumption of rat poison, an emergency trip to the dog er and stomach pumping during her vacation.

phone chats make the driving time fly by quicker. a big thank you goes out to ev, kik, and tiff. because of you, the trip only felt like four hours instead of six. i loved hearing your voices too.

kids take NO time at all to recognize grandparents. the flailing of arms, turbo-speed kicks, and ear-to-ear grin as they are spotted through the car window are all the proof i need. i will say it makes it a little easier to say good-bye to the said kid, when you know she will be with other people she loves so dearly.

grandparents earn that name grand. they drive across the state to provide a week of free babysitting, have accommodations that rival any five-star hotel complete with unlimited hours of swinging in the backyard each day and complimentary snow cones each night. they will take your beloved pet to a vet emergency clinic and act like it was the easiest way ever to spend a saturday afternoon. they will coordinate schedules with the other grand, grandparents to ensure that they can meet in the middle again and have your precious ones back in houston when you arrive home yourself. i think it's safe to say, adelaide and berkeley are not the only ones spoiled by these grand people.


once a car rat, always a car rat. the car rat is a distant cousin of the beach bum. a true car rat can be in the car for 30 minutes or 30 hours and either way emerges with messed up hair (from wiggling around so much), sticky hands (from eating junk), barefoot (from kicking off shoes the instant the engine starts to run), and squinty eyes (due to sleeping on and off). this pip squeak comes by her car rat status honestly, she was destined to be one. just take one look at the photo you see here, and i think you'll agree.

"AH GEEZ!"

it's somebody's berk-day!

it's been almost three years since evan and i got our first pet. i knew it's somewhat predictable for pseudo-newlyweds to get a puppy, but that's exactly what we did. one of the first blog entries i ever wrote was about berk- berkeley the presha dog as i used to affectionately call her.


from the beginning evan has "talked" for berkeley in his infamous "berkeley voice." oh how i wish he would agree to it being recorded for all the blog world to enjoy, but i can assure you that will never happen. plus the things berkeley "says" contain much too crude of content for my blog.


when berkeley turned one we celebrated. the first berk-day still makes me laugh. there were friends of friends in town that weekend. the first time they met us was at our dog's birthday party. it was "berkelicious."



the second berk-day fell on easter sunday. berkeley was slightly overshadowed by newborn adelaide in her first easter dress, but of course we still loved the berk too.


and now here we are on the third berk-day. berkeley is out of the puppy stage. she has acted that way for quite awhile, but now her age also reflects her grown-up dog status. she still makes evan and i smile on a daily basis but this year she has an additional best friend too.


adelaide's favorite pasttime is scooting around as she attempts to "gently" pet berkeley. berk knows just how far away to sit so she can be near her new friend but not be bothered. unless it's meal time in which case she is as close as possible and is glad to "kiss" adelaide's hands and lick away any crumbs.

"CAN I GET A SAMPLE?"

i wish i would have counted how many times i was asked for a sample during my 7 years as a cajun cones employee. i also wonder how many hundreds of times i have asked someone else to try a sample of something. but for now here's a sampling of what's been going on with us:

adelaide got sick for the first time. it ended up being just a cold, but it was still absolutely pathetic to watch her feel puny. seeing her little eyes water and the constant run of her nose broke my heart. when she started throwing up drainage i almost got sick myself.

don't worry, she felt well enough to join jim, austan, evan, and me for her first astros game. we loved the first baseline dugout seats. it was crazy to be so close and be able to see the player's faces and proof that they really do sweat out there.

ev finished the bar. he won't find out the results for 3 months, but at least the test part is done. he survived it all and i'm so proud of him. we couldn't be happier that he is on this side of it.

berkeley went to the vet and was diagnosed with incontinence. she is only a couple of years old but when dogs get spayed it can lead to this problem. for the past 2 years our otherwise perfectly trained dog has wet the bed almost every night. i have often wondered how she can go all day inside without an accident but can't make it through a single night. we had tried everything with no positive results. now this is where it gets good, our dog now takes estrogen pills which have finally help her not wet the bed.

on our daily walks adelaide has been sitting pretty in her stroller in the shade. she loves coming along and jabbering back at all the birds she hears. berk begs to come along too. she does really well the first 3 miles. after that she ends up catching a ride in the basket underneath adelaide's stroller. i've decided our dog just might be spoiled- she takes hormone replacement pills and rides in a stroller.

i have started the 16 week training plan as i prepare to do the susan g. comen 3-day walk in november. i am very excited to get to be a part of this. but one thing is for sure, i'm not as good at long walks as i was once upon a time. but that's what the training is for.

after a week of driving in houston i discovered austin drivers are generally more friendly than houston ones. i am that driver who doesn't know what lane i'm supposed to be in until it's too late. in austin you can still get over. if you are in houston just go ahead, miss your turn, and do a u-turn later. it's really not worth the dirty looks.

evan paid me quite the compliment. he said i have become somewhat of a "laundry expert." for someone who never did a single load of laundry until age 19 that meant a lot (in defense of myself i did fold, hang, and put up countless loads of clothes before that). our grandmas are wonders at getting stains out of things so i have always depended on them to help out with this area. now with baby food stains you gotta tackle them immediately if there is even a hope. i am learning the power i possess with a bottle of zout in my hand.









we watched penelope and loved it. it was a fun movie, had a great storyline, and good message for everyone. i don't remember the last time we sat relaxing on the couch relaxing watching a movie but thanks to netflix i'm sure it will happen again soon.









this past weekend was my high school reunion. what better way for evan to celebrate being done with the bar than to mingle for two days with people he didn't know, haha. he was a good sport and we had fun. and since it only happens every 10 years i'll post more than one picture from it:

class of '98 was the first class in abilene high history to have the same officers all 4 years of high school. so it was not only our class reunion, it was also an officer reunion for the 6 of us to get to plan something together again. (ahmad, me, michelle, leneica, stephanie, craig, and ms. roper)







friday night we had a "toast to conversation" at the warehouse, saturday there was a mid-day "golf and gab" at playfaire park,
and that evening was "dinner and dancing" at perini's steakhouse.
(friends since franklin middle school- adelaide and me, rylie and deanna, blake and meredith, olivia and irma saturday afternoon)








my family was also eating dinner at perini's saturday night. they were inside while we were at our event outside but of course we met in the middle for a photo opp.









since it was an abilene high function there had to be some dancing involved. i am choosing to post a stillshot picture of us doing the electric slide instead of the video ev decided to take.








overall i was suprised how easy-going and enjoyable the weekend was. i loved being able to catch up with people from back in the day and i'm glad i got to be there for it. i wouldn't wish to go back to high school again, but i did really enjoy spending some time remembering those days and being together again. (some of the GNO gang at perini's- me, sara, natalie, mary catherine, meredith)

SHEER DELIGHT...

DELIGHT yourself in the LORD
and he will give YOU
the DESIRES of your heart.

-psalm 37:4

IN YOUR EASTER BONNET...

we have been in warrenton getting ready for antique show.
it is coming in just a week! we worked some and hung out lots.

and to round off the weekend...
easter sundayi must say this was my favorite easter yet. it was too fun getting to be on "this side" of the easter bunny, and i am now more amazed than ever by the sacrifice God made by giving his son. i don't pretend to comprehend it all, but now as a parent, i have a slightly greater appreciation of what a gift it was.

here are a few recurring easter highlights of mine...
being with family
the reminder of God's sacrifice
easter baskets
dressing up in spring colors
then taking pictures to commemorate the outfits
singing hymns
dying eggs and adding details with crayons
and enjoying my favorite sunday of the spring season

and finally a shout out to our favorite pup who is now 2 years old.
happy 2nd berk day to berkeley!

"WE HAVE HAD OUR SUMMER EVENINGS, NOW ONTO OCTOBER EVES!" -Humbert Wolfe

hooray, it's october!

(october 2006)

i love...
decorating for fall
antique show
october birthdays
fall weather
fall colors
football games
pumpkin carving
pumpkin seeds
busting out the long sleeves
wearing hoodies
tortilla soup
others will finally eat soup with me
pumpkin spice steamers
acu homecoming
parades
watching movies under a snuggly
baking apple pies
crunchy leaves
halloween
and so much more!