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June 28, 2006
Digging through the wife's wallet...
I'm up too late listening to Alison Krauss (who has a new song released - "Jubilee" - gorgeous), working on our budget and balancing the checkbook - located in Adrienne's new, sleek wallet. She has several slots to put pictures, and I came across the following:
Taken on December 31, 2000, during a rare accumulating snow in Ruston, when we got stranded at Chuck and Eric's house. Pretty much the night I started falling hard for her. I'll teach my kids to avoid flirtatious snowball fights with hotties when they're 19...or maybe not.
Then there was this one:
What snowball fights can lead to...gosh, and in less than 6 years! I'm so blessed! Thank you, Lord, for your abundant goodness - no matter what the checkbook is saying...Alleluia, Amen.
Posted by brad at 11:36 PM | Comments (9)
calling all reviews
Please tell us what kind of digital camara and/or camcorder you own and what you like and don't like about it. We are in the market for both. Our digital camara has died and our children our just too cute to not have one. I am the one who takes sometimes up to a 100 pictures in a day b/c you can always go back and delete the not so good ones. Every day that goes by that I can't document what Stephen and Lexie looked like and what they did just kills me. But I hate sifting through long reviews and stuff online. I just want a camara that will take decent pictures, is not too big, with not too long of a delay and I can load them pretty easily into my computer. I am wondering how big the margin is on paying for what you get. I like my sunglasses pretty cheap b/c I know something will happen to them and I don't want to mourn them just run out and grab another pretty cheap pair. In my up down and all around with the kids I don't want a really expensive camara that I will be terrified of something happening too either. So tell me whatcha got and would I like it?
Posted by adrienne at 09:52 AM | Comments (8)
June 25, 2006
It really makes a difference
I try to make economical choices when shopping for household stuff. Therefore I usually try to buy pretty cheap paper products. Not the cheapest. What is the point of that stuff, anyway? It is so thin that you use twice as much and then you are out more often. But the cheapest of the still might be nice and sortof looks like name brand... For instance we use Angel Soft toilet paper. not bad stuff, works fine for us. Sparkle paper towels - that was a big switch. My mom was a pretty die-hard Brawny fan. And she is right. Sometimes you get what you pay for. And buying the more expensive stuff is just necessary for the quality. I was buying just the Great Value kleenex and pretty much have a box in every room of the house. But now that we are on our upteenth round of runny noses and after just one day Lexie's nose being all raw I decided to buy Puffs sensitive care or something or other like that. Well, I'm just here to tell you that there is a huge difference. It is definitely 20 cents well worth it.
Posted by adrienne at 08:02 PM | Comments (3)
June 24, 2006
Refreshing springs...
"Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our senses. We are sorry and ask You to forgive us. Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate Your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on Your mercy no matter what we may do. Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the gospel of grace, and to delight in Your love. Amen."
- From Brennan Manning's, The Ragamuffin Gospel.
This book had been sitting gathering scornful dust on my shelf since I received it as a gift over 5 years ago. I didn't read such "fluff." I was "Reformed." Gosh, I was an idiot, too. What a shame that it languished for so long. Now it has yellow pages when I'm reading it for the first time...it smells like an old book now. I've needed its message for too long now. And I thought in my theology-studying mind, I already had it. Again...I'm an idiot.
I've been "embracing some brokenness" that has plagued me all my life, and watching the Father erase its curses before my very eyes, as I seek to walk obediently with Him, bearing my cross and His light and easy burden. Funny how He works in paradox...when I hold up the pieces of my broken heart, showing the gravity of my weakness, I feel like I could conquer anything.
Amazing grace, indeed. I didn't even scratch the surface!
Posted by brad at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2006
Can't wait for the real thing
Posted by adrienne at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
It's an updation
Just to let you know in case you were wondering...
Lexie's checkup went just fine yesterday. We paid a lot of money for the Dr. to confirm what the echo-tech had told us back in february. Lexie has a small hole between the top two chambers of her heart, a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO).
"Fetuses have a normal opening between the left and right atria (upper chambers) of the heart. If this opening fails to close naturally soon after the baby is born, the condition is called patent foramen ovale (PFO).
PFO is the persistence of a fetal opening between the left and right atria (upper chambers) of the heart. This hole allows blood to bypass the lungs, because they are not used until a baby is born. The foramen ovale normally closes soon after the infant is born.
The foramen ovale may remain open in as many as 1 out of 5 people. The cause is unknown and there are no known risk factors for developing a PFO.
This condition is not treated unless other heart abnormalities exist.
The infant will have normal health in the absence of other heart defects.
Unless there are other associated defects, there are usually no complications associated with PFO. There have been some studies suggesting that older patients with PFOs have a higher rate of a certain type of stroke (thromboembolic). The reason for this is that older people frequently develop blood clots in the veins in their legs. These clots can sometimes travel from their original site to the right side of their heart.
If PFO is present, the clot can then pass from the right side to the left side from whence it can travel to the brain and become lodged there, preventing blood flow to that part of the brain (stroke)."compliments of Medline Plus.com
So she is fine. Just check back up with him once a year and at some point it will most likely disappear.
The house. We found out that we are the only bites this house has gotten in 6 weeks. And that the couple doesn't really want to come down on their price. We don't want to come up to their price. Brad did some research at the court house and found out that they bought the house about 9 mths ago and paid a whole lot less then they are currently asking. We are going to go look through the house again this afternoon. Before we were mostly just running from room to room oohing and aahing. This go around we will look more closely at closets and stuffs. And then we will pray about and maybe make an offer. We really like this house but we can walk away from it too. We don't have to move. We just want to. So we will just wait and see what happens and keep y'all posted.
Posted by adrienne at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2006
Children of the 90's having children...
Does anyone else out there sing Pearl Jam's "Evenflow" to themselves while either filling their infants' bottles, loading their children into car seats or strollers, or dealing with lots of infant/toddler products?
I've done this for the last three years, and didn't really realize it until this morning.
Posted by brad at 08:13 AM | Comments (2)
June 21, 2006
Kids say the darnedest things
Earlier I prepped Stephen for tomorrow morning's agenda. Brad and I are taking Lexie to Monroe to see the cardiologist and Stephen will be spending the morning at the Pierce's with Mrs. Nancy, Clark and Jack.
Brad just got home from prayer meeting a few minutes ago and Stephen informed him right away that he was taking Baby Yexie to the Doctor and that Stephen was going to stay with peoples.
I guess remembering Mrs. Nancy, Clark and Jack was a little too much, but he got the general idea!
Posted by adrienne at 08:11 PM | Comments (5)
June 19, 2006
A Post
This is to say I posted. What are we up to? hmmm... Mostly everyday life. Trying to get everybody well and keep them that way. Lotsa swimming. I'm really glad my kids are showing signs of tanning. Busy with the milestones. Stephen is potty training. That seems to be going pretty well. I just need to be consistent about putting him underwear. I guess the diaper and lack of worrying about tee-tee puddles on the floor is habit for me as well as for him. I need to get it through my head that there is no going back. We are doing this. He will walk around like most other humans in underwear from now on. It is my job to know where the bathroom is at all times and to remind him frequently that that is where he tee-tees now and does he need to go?.
Lexie is teething and will soon look like a vampire. She has had the two front bottom teeth for a while. And now the top canine teeth are coming in w/o the top center front ones. My mom is worried and thinks I should call a dentist. (which I still haven't done) But anyways, it is still normal teething and is not very much fun. Lotsa stinky poop, lotsa cranky, lotsa Ibuprofin and Oragel. She is also pretty close to walking. She pulls up on everything and if you hold her hands will take off walking almost running if her brother is in sight. She can't wait to chase him for real. But if you let go of even one of her hands she usually notices and then just plops down.
We are counting down til birthdays. Brad will be 25 on the 1st of July, Lexie 1 on the 12th, and Stephen 3 on the 15th. It is definitely the summer for little boys dreams to come true. Everywhere we go there is Superman or Cars stuff. Stephen is in awe. I avoid huge sections of Wal-Mart now b/c it just makes life easier on everybody! He doesn't understand time sequence too well yet. He knows his birthday party is coming and that it will be fun and that there will be presents and stuff. But to tell him it is in July and this is not July yet means nothing to him. He often wakes up from his nap and says something about being ready for his party. Or we leave the house and he asks if we are going to his party. It is going to be an Under the Sea party. He is fascinated with octopi and sharks. I can't believe it but they won out over Superman and Cars for what he wanted his party to be. I am going to attempt a 3D Octupus birthday cake. I think I can do it, but it will be much harder than just icing a Superman logo on a square cake!
And as of a few days ago we are really distracted by this. Not sure what will come of it. Wondering if we are crazy since it is on and near busy streets and south of the Interstate, but it is such a big, beautiful Southern Living house...
Posted by adrienne at 05:23 PM | Comments (5)
June 14, 2006
The Diet Coke and Mentos Video
Earlier today when I got online to check my email one of the Yahoo! headlines was for a Mentos and Diet Coke experiment article and video. I couldn't help it. I clicked. The article mentioned that Coke is not too thrilled with these experiments. I don't know why. Every guy who watches this video is going to run out and buy Coke and try this. (Ed) Which boosts their sales, so why should they care. It is amazing the things you can find on the internet. Now anybody who wants to be an idiot in front of the camera can post the video on the internet and it will quietly begin to circulate until it becomes a phenomena. Anyways, that is a different bunny trail. I've looked at some of the stuff on that website, but couldn't tell if the "scientists" were legit or not. (and now I may look dumb...) but really, who thinks of this stuff? who does this stuff? do they actually get paid for this stuff? absolutely amazing what we can accomplish in this free enterprise land of ours.
(not that I'm downing this video. It was pretty cool to watch. Actually I've watched it 3 times now, thanks to showing it to my sisters and then Brad when he got home from work.)
Posted by adrienne at 09:27 PM | Comments (3)
Baptists, Baptists, Baptists...{sigh}
Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?
EDIT NOTE: When the above was originally linked, the article was in fact discussing an actual plan the Southern Baptist Convention was discussing for a mass exodus out of America's public school system. Apparently, this plan lacked support within the Convention, and so the trigger-happy sensationalist journalist had to go back and do some damage control...that being said, though I still wonder about what I wrote below, I'm sure our media have NOTHING to do with casting some of these odd SBC announcements in a strange light, because they're so objective and stuff.
It's not this specific topic, necessarily. If they come up with a viable option for families who can't typically afford Christian schooling, or for whatever reasons homeschooling cannot be an option, that would be a TREMENDOUS solution for the church at large. In essence, SBC, what will you do about the single moms seeking grace and growth within your walls? I don't ask this defiantly...it's a real issue.
I'm glad they're discussing it...my {sigh} is because it seems like the SBC has a sort of a PR problem. I'm remembering the Disney boycott, their big deal about encouraging women's submission, and their open, media-covered announcement that they would be praying for Hindus. I'm sure the Convention is just dealing with issues as they pose significant questions for their denomination...it's just I guess the particular issues, timing, and mode and manner of communication to "the rest of the world" just seem so stinkin' random! Or is this just me?
With each bit of this coverage, my responses have just been a concerned, "Hmm...OK?", "Hmmm...OK?", and {whack! slap forehead, shake head} "Hmmmmmmm.....huh? OK?"
Today's was more like, "Interesting...."
Posted by brad at 12:13 PM | Comments (13)
June 12, 2006
Whoo-Hoo!
Stephen is currently at Wal-Mart right now picking out a toy Harwey (Harley motorcycle). It is not his birthday. It is not Christmas. Why is he picking out a toy Harwey?
Why thank you for very much for asking. HE WENT POO-POO IN THE POTTY! for the first time this afternoon. Ever since then he has been anxiously waiting for his daddy to come pick him up and take him to get his motorcycle. He has tee-teed in the potty several times, but lacks a consistent mommy. But anyways, just wanted to share our excitement and news with the WWW. I'm posting this under the category of mommy angst, not because I am going to miss changing his diapers any, but I just can't believe I have a child old enough to be potty trained. Whoever sped life up does not have my thanks.
Posted by adrienne at 07:22 PM | Comments (2)
June 08, 2006
Late on the bandwagon...
We still need to post about our interesting Memorial Day weekend trip to Birmingham to hang out with my brother and sister, because we have lotsa fun pics from the trip...BUT...
I've seen the name "Sufjan Stevens" pop up not infrequently over the past year or so, and usually associated with Emergent-Churchy kinda stuff...my brother recently let me in on the secret.
Wow.
It's amazing. Breathtaking. Extraordinary. Some of the best entertainment my auricles have ever funneled into my soul. Ever. Illinois has been playing in my car and on my desktop nonstop for the last 12 days. Every track over and over. Lyrically and musically, IMVeryHO, it's astounding. I can't believe I've been missing out on this.
Posted by brad at 06:52 PM | Comments (1)