ellie's haircut

sorry for such a delay from the last post. lots has happened. my sister graduated and is now a physical therapist (whoo hoo!) three of us in this house have suffered bad colds, we mourned the loss of my grandmother a week before Christmas, traveled to dallas for a quick pre-Christmas celebration with all kinds of family and friends (to be posted on at a later time), and are now back home listening to the wind howl away, bringing us frigid temperatures. 

can't complain, though, because it's still as sunny as can be. ellie's on the couch next to me after a little after-lunch nap watching a Charlie Brown Christmas on the ipad as i use eric's computer to get up to speed on our happenings this month.

but enough of all that. the reason for this post is all about ellie. just before leaving for garland she got a great little haircut (literally just before leaving...less than 2 hours from cut to car trip!) by the same girl who cuts my hair. it was quite an adventure for her, complete with wash, cut, and dry.  what a treat!

she sat on a stack of towels that were held in place by me as meagan washed her hair.

and then when all clean, she got a turban wrap on her head to walk to the chair for the cut. so big!

she held still for the most part, forgetting to hold her head straight every now-and-then. she didn't say much, was pretty quiet as she took it all in.

and then came the blow-dry part. which she never lets me do at home, but was good to let meagan do it that night.

when all done, she was spun around in the chair and taught to look in the hand mirror to see the back of her hair. and she paused to give a great smile!

aunt b accompanied us to the salon, and we dropped kaleb off at the bike shop for some man time while we went. apparently, he had the time of his life! and brett, the shop owner, loved having him around, too :) afterwards, we all met up for some p. terry's burgers - something new for aunt b. 

two posts, two days

i know...i'm exceeding expectations - two posts within 24 hours of one another. shocking. but so as to not exceed ALL expectations, there are no pictures tonight. just a few thoughts...

we got to go tonight to hear eric's friend, alan, play in a band at guero's tacos, close to downtown. we went last month (always the 2nd sunday), and since the kids had such a good time, we invited friends this month! one of the families from church took interest this morning, so they met us down there.

they're a couple we hadn't gotten to know too much thus far, but from what little we knew, we liked. she is a nurse (what's not to like?!?) and he is in grad school (majoring in library sciences...another win!) and substitute teaching when his own school schedule allows, which is more often than not. they've got 3 kids, one pretty close to kaleb's age. and noelle, their 11-year-old, is one who helps in ellie's class at church from time to time. ellie calls her, "miss noelle" - it's pretty funny :)

it was a great evening of getting to know one another a bit more...they were high school sweet hearts, and they met in youth group at church since they went to 2 different schools - hum, sounds a bit familiar...

after the music was over and we'd finished tacos and the cold front started to blow in, they introduced us to a new ice cream shop so close to home. it was called "lick" - great name for such a store! and yummy ice cream, too.

even in recapping our somewhat rocky journey from fredericksburg to austin, it's good for me to voice again and again that i know with all certainty that He'd have us be nowhere but where we are now. and truly to believe this. truly, we were called away from there and to here for His purposes - regardless of the circumstances which got us here. His plans are bigger than ours, and His ways are not at all like mine.

God is good to continue to confirm our presence/status right now where we are. He is gracious to continue to bring new friends into our midst to walk with and be supported by and to encourage one another on this journey, and tonight was an affirmation, yet again, of His goodness.

a couple of weeks ago, i ordered our 2011 blog entries in book form to keep for recalling in future times, for my kids to read through one day, for sentimental reasons that i can't explain. and it came friday. ellie and i read through the book (it started in august, as that's when i started blogging again, after our move to austin), and i was reminded in the few pages there were of how good God is to provide for us.

and in His provision for us, He provided atonement for my sins to allow me the privilege of spending eternity in His presence - the only provision that matters, really. thus, my 'way out' of death for my own sins came in the form of a baby, His son, during this season we celebrate as Christmas...such a great reminder for me to know that as we've talked about this advent season:

God created all things: for His purposes and His pleasure

humans sin and bring sadness to God

God always keeps His promises (noah and the ark)

God is faithful and expects the same of us

He answers prayers (truly...sarah and abraham were way too old for kids...so they thought!)

He protects us

He is ALWAYS with us

i've enjoyed the jesse tree of advent this year, as it's allowed us as a family to talk about these truths. it's opened my eyes to seeing the need for a Savior from the very beginning of creation, just about. it's funny how loudly Jesus' name is screamed in the stories of the old testament without ever being mentioned...

christmastime is here

happiness and cheer!

(kaleb decorating cookies last night...thanks, eric, for the hands-on help. it was a mess!)

fun for all that children call their favorite time of year

(carmencita came over for the evening, and the girls HAD A BLAST!)

snowflakes in the air (just for pretend. it's 80 degrees.) carols everywhere.

(kaleb's only cookie was eaten immediately.)

olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share.

(the girls were so proud of their work. and hungry to eat their favorite cookie.)

carmencita's favorite

and ellie's

it was a great night of dress-up and baby dolls and a bubble bath and falling asleep to tangled - well, ellie fell asleep anyway. we loved having a friday-night playdate!

and today was the kids' christmas programs at school. two different ones for their two different classes. kaleb was to arrive at 4.45 for a 5pm program, and ellie at 5.45 for a 6pm program. or so i thought.

that's right. i got a call at 4.15 from the assistant director confirming we were coming. "yes. we'll be there in just a bit." i said. "oh, ok. because the toddler class performance starts now, at 4.15." holy cow! throw on clothes! brush some hair! skip brushing teeth! kaleb got shoes/socks in the car. and actually was only halfway buckled i realized as we leapt from the car at school.

it was ok. he didn't want to perform anyways. he and i sat off to the side watching his classmates sing and dance. and then he was scared of santa - not such a bad thing, i suppose.

and then he hammed it up outside with ellie for some pictures between performances. ellie helped him open his gift from santa.

"look. i got a book from that man over there."

and then came ellie's performance...this was the one i was waiting for. last year, she stood silent from start to finish. and this year, she'd been so excited about things, and even came home this week and told me she had a surprise at the end of the show. and she was good not to give it away. but i feared she'd get cold feet again.

she observed to make sure everyone stood in their place in line. 

and sung and signed with the songs. and then the surprise at the end - she was the statue of liberty for the national anthem! she did such a great job!

santa came after her performance as well. she was nice and polite, but not overly friendly. again, just fine by me. we had refreshments with classmates and families before heading home to eat dinner. such a great weekend celebrating the friendliness of the season!

thankful

it's over a week late, but i still want to share about thanksgiving - it was a great day for us! this was the first year since eric and i've been married that we haven't been with at least one of our families on this holiday. because of the way our vacation schedules were for for, we all only had thursday off. he had wednesday, too, and i had friday. but only 1 shared day - not long enough to travel to garland with two pre-schoolers. especially since one's kaleb!

it turned out to be a light wednesday in surgery, so i actually took off from wednesday through the weekend, and had 6 stay-at-home days in a row! the kid were out of school thursday and friday, so wednesday was spent in the kitchen baking all day. it was great!

we went over to the house of our pastor and his wife, with just one other joining us - so 5 adults and 7 kids. it was nice and low-key. all contributed to the massive lunch we served, we ate on paper plates, then sat back to enjoy a little fellowship while the kids all played upstairs. about 3pm, it was FINALLY nap time for kaleb, so we came home and all took a nap. thursday night, some of our friends, allen and mo, stopped by the house to visit for a bit, but we were all so stuffed we didn't need dinner!

the kids and i steered clear of black friday, but did some saturday shopping instead - and no great deals were missed by delaying a day. barnes and noble, best buy, target. then chick-fil-a for lunch. kaleb fell asleep in the cart at target, so we picked up chick-fil-a, ran some up to eric at work, then went home and had a great girls' lunch.

the peyton's came over saturday afternoon for a spontaneous park playdate, and they ended up hanging around until bedtime - so thankful for the fun! the kids played and watched movies, the adults played carcassone. kaleb decided not to eat dinner, but rather to be fussy, clingy, and want a bath and bed. he ended up running a medium-high temp all night and was up a couple of times during the night, sweating through his pjs. poor baby! no other symptoms, though, so all i can figure isa bit of teething (his i teeth are coming in, so maybe that's it...).

eric worked sunday morning, and with kaleb's fever of unknown origin (an official medical term :) ) the kids and i skipped church. i hated to be the family who infected all others with something we didn't know we had. we got out sunday afternoon for an early dinner with allen and mo to celebrate allen's birthday, and then home to get ready to return to school/work for the first time in a long time!

although we really missed time with family, eric and i reflected on how nice it was to be so relaxed and with no agenda for the weekend. it allowed us to spend extended time with friends that we normally don't have because of chaos of work and school and everyday life. perhaps that's wrong...perhaps we should aim for more of that thankfulness for people and spending time with them than we should the hustle and bustle of life as we know it...i hope to head into the Christmas season with this thankful attitude and enjoy the extra excuses for getting together with others (parties and school programs and family gatherings and all) to really enjoy the relational aspect of the get-togethers.

and in my attempt to share pictures of the day, i discovered i've maxed out my storage space here on the blog. but i did upload the thanksgiving pics to facebook...check them out (there aren't many, but one of kaleb in his hat makes me laugh every time i look at it. he's such a ham!)

guero's

last sunday we got the awesome opportunity to get out and see some live music - in the self-proclaimed live music capital of texas, our own home city! and we took the kids!

one of eric's riding buddies plays base guitar as well as drums and piano and also sings. one sunday a month, he plays base for a guy named trent something-or-other, and this month we had time to go see him. it was such fun! here he is with the green spotlight on him:

the weather was PERFECT and about 70 degrees. our jackets could stay in the car. the kids took a bit to warm up to the setting - not cold, just shy - but then you couldn't keep them from dancing. we had a picnic table at the back of the area, and there was some good open space just next to us. 

ellie used one of the picnic benches for a balance beam and would do her routine from one end to the other and then dismount in a different way each time. kaleb watched with fascination, never was allowed to try, but did kind of roll around on the ground in break-dancing fashion once or twice :)

alan, eric's friend, brought his dog. well, his fiancee mo actually kept up with sweet hudson. kaleb was very thankful hudson was there!

we had such a fun time listening to the tunes and snacking on some chips and salsa - we'll definitely return! 

halloween and other things

i've been home today with kaleb, and what a sweet time for me, but what an awful time for him - he's battling croup, a horrible cold, and all that led to pink eye. his eye looks awful!

but he's been a great helper this afternoon in the craft room. we've hung a shelf (one that i swore i'd never hang again after it was in ellie's room in the fbg house...it took forever to hang and left massive holes. i think it went better this time around) and a curtain rod, and wrapped our first christmas present. kaleb's favorite part was getting out all the tools to hang the shelf and rod with. 

and then i got ready to get the pictures from my camera to the computer and realized i hadn't transferred the halloween pics over yet - which means they haven't been shared! it's been a crazy couple of weeks...

the kids got to dress up for school on halloween, but took a spare outfit to change into after the costume parade. i went to work a bit late to make sure there were no wardrobe malfunctions...especially since kaleb's pants were homemade. i've never before made a pair of pants and i had that feeling that they were going to rip down the seam to moment he stepped into them. that happened later in the day.

ellie and the la-loopsy that inspired her costume standing with ellie's pumpkin.

argh matey! kaleb and his pumpkin. never could get one of him looking at the camera with a good expression on his face...

and one of him just getting started trick-or-treating. he used his sack to collect the acorns along our front walk before putting candy in there from the other houses. my friend, katie, and her family walked over from the next street over, and we trick-or-treated with them.

about 2/3 of the way down the block, we saw lights and a little commotion, and thought, "ooh, cool...the people in the cul-de-sack must have a halloween block party." and about 2 houses later, we realized that that was no block party but rather a city of austin sanitation truck trying to fix a sewer problem...it was shooey!

when walking up to the last house, ellie caught her toe on the driveway and took a hard fall forward, catching herself on her elbow and knees. she screamed (wailing for the entire street to hear) uncontrollably. we dusted her off, katie offered their stroller for ellie to sit in, but the sweet tooth she has wouldn't let her stop...through the sobs she got out she wanted to go up to the last house. so we did. with many tears. and were rewarded with not one but two handfuls of candy. just what she needed :)

we made it home to find she had a pretty good strawberry and knot on her elbow, and despite first impressions of a possible break, it is healing just fine without any treatment beyond bandaids. lots and lots of bandaids. for 10 days after the event.

pretty fun night out, actually. and i think ellie just as much enjoyed passing out our treats to the kids who stopped by as she did collecting treats of her own. she'd answer the door and put some in each kids' bag while i held the bucket. she is so sweet!

Reflection

 I sat in a budget meeting today at work for Capital requests for the next year. The OR management gets together and throws all wish list items together for someone higher up in the organization to deem worthy or unworthy of funds. And if unworthy, you're just left with what you already have. We are asking for everything from a couple of wheelchairs in OPS to new retractor sets for the robot. And as the session continued for a bit longer than 20 minutes, discussion escalated from a conservative nature of what we really might need to what we would absolutely love to have..."if we never ask they can never tell us yes." They could still tell us no, but the unasked question will always be a no.

And then tonight in small group, we discussed our memory verse for the past week.

Ephesians 3.20-21

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all we could ask or think according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ for all generations forever and ever. Amen."

 We talked about the limitations we place upon God by not being creative enough and by not giving enough credit to Him to do all He is capable of and wanting to do. We continued on to discuss other things from the passage of Ephesians 3.14-21.

Then in sharing prayer requests, I asked for Gods provision of a new job for me to continue to provide for my family as needed but to allow me to work less and have a bit more freedom and flexibility to serve my husband and kids as well as minister to those around me. I discussed my need also for some contentment for the moment, resting in knowing that God has called me to this, and that He has purposes greater than I can see or understand.

And as I was just in the shower, where I do some of my best thinking, I was struck with the realization that I so quickly after reciting the memory verse limited God to one way out. I asked for peace to be granted in the moment, but ultimately for me to find a new job. I revoke that and ask for what I truly want...

I want to feel effectively used by God to be a mother and wife and neighbor and friend and employee/coworker/boss, all for His glory and His Name to be made known. I want to trust Him with the power He has (really, is there any other kind?) to creatively grant my request as He sees fit and to provide understanding for me through this process.

I can ask all sorts of things of a group of men/women who control a limited amount of money and power within an organization, yet when it comes to the Creator and Maker of all things, I get specific and controlling of what I think I want. May I be bold in my faith to stretch things, knowing that if I, "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all these things will be added to you." (Matt. 6.33)

And I know it's been awhile since I posted any pictures, so I promise some kid pics to come soon...they're pretty stinkin' cute, so stay tuned!