Top 5

The top 5 gifts that I love God for giving me....and yes in this order too:

#1. Travis...I love him so much more today than yesterday or even the day I married him. How does that happen? I love his sense of humor and the way he knows how to get me to "mind" him without me knowing it. Turns out he really does know better than me on A LOT of stuff..dang I can't believe I'm actually admitting that, good thing he doesn't read this too often

;-)

#2. JT....I love that little fart. He frustrates me, tires me and brings me to my breaking point, but I have never heard a giggle quite as cute or seem a smile quite as bright or felt a slobbery kiss quite as warm as I do from this precious little guy. He is my first little boy and I absolutely think he is quite a little man already.

#3. My family (this includes the in-laws)...I have to admit that it took me moving away from them to realize what a gift they are. Every family has their drama and mine is no exception, but the feeling you get of ultimate relaxation from just being in their presences...knowing that you are completely accepted they way you are.....it is beyond words.

#4 My church family...Travis and I have been so overwhelming blessed with the amazing people he has placed in our lives here in Texas and most of those folks attend McKinney Memorial Bible Church. These people have invested time and imparted wisdom in to Travis and I. We have grown so much in our walk with Christ that it is almost unbelievable how we managed a sane life when we didn't include the relationship with our Heavenly Father into our personal lives as well as our marriage. We also have created lifelong friendships with couples that are in our same life stage of marriage and kids, and also carry the same deep moral values that we do. I know it's not true but sometimes I say it just cause it's funny...Jesus truly is a Texan ;-) Granted God could have grown us in any church or situation, I'm not saying that McKinney is THE church, it's just our church in Ft Worth.

And finally #5. I love fall, especially in Texas. The weather here is perfect this time of year and although most Texans say that fall doesn't last that long here (whatever!) I have to disagree with them. Fall last about 2 - 3 months and even though the temperature doesn't stay the same during those months, it's still beautiful almost 90% of the time.

Here's some more pics!!

Going down the slide at the Aquatic Center in Casper. You could look at the huge windows and see it snowing big ol fat flakes outside and we were inside floating through the lazy river.

At the Aquatic Center in Casper
Wrestling with daddy
In Casper a few days before it snowed.
What a cutie!!

Near and dear to my heart...

I've seen this video before, but a friend of mine sent it to me last night and I thought that I would share. The part I find so interesting is how Obama says "if my daughters make a mistake, I don't want them to be punished with a baby." Wow, Mr Obama, maybe you should spend a little more time in God's Word...Psalms 127:3 "Children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward from Him."

"What America needs is spiritual renewal and reconciliation - first, man with God, and then man with man" - Ronald Reagan 1976

And again, I remind myself that GOD IS IN CONTROL, no matter what is going on in this world, and therefore I put my entire trust in HIM and HIM ALONE!!

Why Obama?

I'm just curious for those who are voting Obama, if you could give me some of your reasons. Curiosity is so overwhelming for me sometimes. Please post a comment, I would love to hear them.

Now for my opinion, because it's my blog ;-)...There are a number of reasons why I don't want Obama to be President, but I will just give you a few...:

1) bornalivetruth.org - You'll get all the details at that site. Abortion is a HUGE issue for me and while John McCain doesn't come up with any exciting alternatives to Abortion such as education about the truth of abortion procedures as well as Post Abortion Syndrome, I am in favor of his VP running mate Sarah Palin. She is very pro-life and her life shows it. She has a son with Down Syndrome (which sadly 90% are aborted) and a pregnant teen daughter (and don't even start with Bristol, we ALL have sinned and fallen short. "he who is without sin be the first to throw the first stone"). Life has value in Sarah's eyes.

2) I've done some non-biased, fact based reading on both candidates "tax-cuts" and while neither look all that promising, Obama's do lend the idea that he's more of a socialist....I'm not a fan of that. Travis and I have worked very hard. We didn't get the "all American College years" instead we both worked very hard and long hours to get to where we are today. "give a guy a fish to eat today or a fishing pole and show him how to catch his own forever"

3) This last one really doesn't matter, but it bothers me anyway. In an interview Obama said that he had already campaign in 57 states....I'm not even going to go any further on that one.

These are just a FEW reasons why I don't want to see Obama in the White House.

Basically, what it comes down to is that God is in control, no matter who is in the White House. I would hope that everyone going to the polls has done there homework and are voting on the issues that matter most to them (sadly, some don't know what matters, they just go with the crowd). Voting is a huge privilege that we all should exercise, but most of all GOD IS IN CONTROL!!

Now to be honest with ya'll and open myself up for criticism...I'm not registered to vote...uh, oh. I don't know what happened when I got my TX drivers license but somehow I slipped through the cracks and to make matters worse I found this out a week before the voter registrations were due, but since we were leaving town and JT & I were fighting the stomach flu I never got around to mailing in my registration. So while I know why I don't want Obama in the White House, unfortunately I don't get to say so on November 4. How sad! :-(

Daddy's home, Daddy's home to stay!

Travis has been traveling for work at ton lately. He has been probably gone for about 5 or 6 days every 3 weeks or so for the past 4 months. It's either business meetings in West Texas, classes in OK and NV or doing some recruiting at the University of Wyoming...but in about 30 mins he will hit our front door and will be home to stay! He doesn't have to go anywhere again till February and we'll get to go with him because it's another class in Houston.

I'm such a whiner I know, but I HATE IT when he's gone. I can't sleep because every little noise keeps me on my toes and I miss the adult conversations. What can I say, he's my best friend...we've been married for 9 years...dated for 4 years before that....it's just weird with out him around. I know that I can do it, but I sure don't like it when he's not here. But in my defense Travis doesn't like it when I'm gone either. He says he can't sleep...maybe he's scared of the dark too ;-)... that he's bored and he wants us to come home. It's never fun to be the one left at home.:-(

He was looking at rocks in the dessert in Nevada all week. At night they would come back to their motel in Alamo, NV which is about 10 miles from Area 51. Travis said that it was a strange little town. He told everyone in his group "hey, I'm from Wyoming y'all (yes, he said 'y'all') and have been to some really strange little towns, but I have never seen anything like this!" I guess it was just the weirdest place he's ever been. I only got to talk to him once because you had to call the motel office to be placed through to his motel room and the office closed at 5 pm. Guess if you were a weary traveler looking for a place to stay you'd have to make it to the Alamo Motel by 5 pm or keep driving another 1 1/2 to Las Vegas to get a room. Travis couldn't call me because his cell phone didn't work and he did have a calling card (who uses those anymore, anyway?!) and the only internet service he had was dial up. Did I mention that this town was only 1 1/2 north of Las Vegas? I guess the technology stops about 10 miles north of there :-). I'm sure the folks in Alamo like it the way things are and I'm sure life moves at a more peaceful leisurelly pace, but when you are used to high speed internet, a blackberry and businesses that stay open past 5 pm, I'm sure it was a little frustrating and somewhat mind blowing that there are places like that in America. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Travis discovered he couldn't make any calls, receive calls, and have to wait 10 mins for a page to load on the internet.....in the words of Ralphie from The Christmas Story: "in the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity, that as fare as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan"

I think we're going to steal Ben & Brenda's idea and go to Babe's chicken for an early dinner tonight! Travis and I haven't been there since JT was born....mmmm it's sooo good!!!

I HATE SHOTS!!

Probably more than the little guys getting them. EVERY TIME JT gets his shots he is sooooo fussy for days and he sleeps or should I say doesn't sleep for days either. I'm right now listening to him cry himself to sleep AGAIN because he is so tired but because of all the little viruses running through his body he can't sleep. I feel like mom of the year right now. And no I can't just rock him to sleep because he throws his body around when I try and rock him. If I lay on the floor with him he just rolls and tosses all around...and believe me folks....HE IS EXHAUSTED...but so tired he can't sleep.

Please say a little prayer for him, that his body with react to the shots a little quicker and he'll be able to get the rest that he needs.

Thanks,

Mom who is pulling her hair out!!!!

Post birtday celebration and some other fun stuff

Time flies and flies and before you know it it's 3 weeks later...dang where did the time go?

Well, when I last updated this we were all fine and getting packed to head up north. Then the stomach bug hit our house one last time, guess it didn't feel it did enough damage the first go around. I was beginning to think we were going to have to just not go, but the sickness pulled out Friday (JT's birthday) and we flew out on Saturday morning....talk about cutting it close.

So we went to the big open spaces of Wyoming for 8 days to celebrate JT's first birthday. On Sunday all of my family and Travis's congregated to Travis's mom and dad's house for a birthday party. It was a lot of fun. A ton of Travis's family lives in Wyoming, but not in Casper, so it was really nice of them all to drive over several mountain ranges to come and celebrate with us. I bet I haven't seen some of his family in about 4 or 5 years. All of them have little girls so it was kind of interesting to see how JT would play with them. Of course at this age it really doesn't matter, but next year should be something to see. My friend Jessica, who I haven't seen in 5 years, came too with her 2 little girls. Jessica and I have been friends for years and I love that we can go a whole year with out talking to each other and pick up right where we left off when we do get a chance to chat on the phone. Thanks Jess for coming, I know you were there more to see my little boy, but I was still happy to see you! For those of you who can remember back 9 years, Jessica is the one that sang at Travis and I's wedding. She has a beautiful voice!

The rest of the vacation was spent relaxing and trying to get JT to take naps. He's not a good sleeper and this is no secret, but now that he has gotten bigger he was having a really hard time sleeping in the pak-n-play. We spent a lot of time with family and I love watching JT play with his cousins. I know to him they are just more kids to play with, but it's fun to see them at this young age and then know that they will be forced to play together the next 10-15 years. I have great memories of my brother, Scott, my younger cousin, Stevie and I all playing together at grandma and grandpa's, at the lake, snow-skiing and we also lived only 2 blocks away so we were around each other a lot. Of course I was the only girl so I can remember being ganged up on a few times, but mostly have great memories. Older girl cousins can be so much more sweet so when JT finally gets ganged up on, they will probably just play dress up with him. I know that some cute pictures of him in lipstick and princess dresses are only a few years away. Hopefully Trent and Mason will save him from this. :-)

The weather was interesting. When we got to Casper on Saturday, it was mid-60's. It hoovered around those temps in the day and then would dip down to the upper 30's at night during the first part of the week. THEN the winter storm blew in on Thursday. The high was in the 30's low in the 20's and on Friday Casper got about 6 inches of snow!!. I have some great pictures of JT playing in the snow. This wasn't his first time being in the white stuff, but it was the first time he's gotten to play in it and let me tell ya HE LOVED IT!! We flew back on Sunday and when we left Denver it was about 35 degrees. When we landed in Fort Worth 2 hours later it was 86 degrees with high humidity....talk about extremes. I felt like we went back in time...from October to July.

These pictures were from the camera on my cell phone so they're not that great. I'll post the ones from our camera later when I get it charged.

This is our little neighbor, Sabastian. He's a year older than JT and the love playing together. This was a few days before we left and the night before JT got his first haircut!!

Pre-haircut photo....gettin pretty long!
And after....
Much better...makes him look like a little boy again and older...looks like a toddler!

He LOVED this mower at Grandma Sandy's house. I think he mowed their entire driveway at least 8 times...and it's pretty big as you can see :-)

Daddy and...what, where's JT? Oh there he is! The camo hides him well..ha! ha!
Still mowing....I love this picture. If you click on it and make it bigger you can see his big baby blues!
This is our serious concentrating face...I just love it!
When it started snowing we took him for a drive by the mountain so he could see the deer. He loved it! The boy is a natural born hunter. At Travis's mom and dad's house he was just completely fascinated with the stuffed Moose, Deer and Big Horn Sheep hanging in their living room.
If you click on this one and make it bigger you'll be able to see the deer all the way to the left. He was so excited...JT that is!
Awwww...playing in the snow for the first time. Thanks to Travis's step-brother Matt and his wife Janel for the columbia fleece coat. We didn't bring a coat for JT because we don't have one for him yet....hello, y'all it's TEXAS!!
Travis bought him this elmer fudd hat while we were there...but unfortunately JT's head is HUGE and it wasn't fitting like it should
The hat lifting off his head because it's too small

Daddy freezing and JT having a great time

Back home again. This little bounce house was set up in the entry way of JT's school that he goes to on Wednesdays. He figured out how to jump real quick...it was so cute
The little slide that is attached to the bounce house
Oh, this is sweet...can I go down it?
He turned mid slide and ended up landing on his feet....how smart is he? My baby knows not to go face first!!

Another note...We finally had JT's one year check up (2 weeks late) and he's doing great!! Only concern is that he has only gained 4 oz in the past 3 months, but considering he got the stomach bug twice and has been walking non-stop (and I really do mean non-stop) the DR is sure he'll start packing on the pounds again.

Have a great weekend!