New Hair and New Hope

I got my hair cut yesterday. It always makes me feel better to get my hair cut. I feel like a new person, somehow. I can't ever stick with one style for too long. It always amazes me when I watch make-over shows and these women (or men) say they have had the same hair-do for twenty or thirty years. I'm like, "Seriously? Don't you ever get bored??" But everyone's different!



This weekend we were blessed to visit our dear friends, the Malletts, in Arlington. We didn't do a whole lot--just took the kids to the park and ate out a few times--but we just had a good time being together. Since their son Ryland is one of Will's favorite people, he was just ecstatic. When Will found out that Ryland had a full gammut of pirate costumes, he was in hog heaven. I didn't take many pictures at all the whole weekend, but I did manage to get a couple of Will in Ryland's Jack Sparrow costume and of Raylee, Will and Ryland together with their guns and swords.



I just felt like I needed to express what I'm feeling right now about hope. My outlook has changed a bit since this past fall. I still don't agree with everything he stands for, but I am very hopeful about our new president. What I have seen these past few days and even weeks has been so encouraging to me; that maybe our country isn't "doomed," but is possibly in for a few good changes. I was so moved yesterday watching President Obama, just knowing that an African-American has done what so many never dreamed of, or never wanted to see happen, is awe-inspiring to me. That in and of itself, makes me proud to be an American. It was so moving to see so many people, of all races, so excited that this man has become our president. I am proud of our citizens, and that gives me a new hope. I am excited to see what lays in store for our nation in the weeks and months to come. I am praying that the many people who are still doubtful will support our authorities and our nation and not bring it down. Like he said in his inauguration speech, what we need now are hope and virtue in order to move forward.

On a completely different and lighter note: Will was the only one in his Bible class tonight. The story being taught was Adam and Eve. When the teacher told him this, he promptly told her, "No, it's Wall-E and Eve." I thought we ought to send that one in to Disney/Pixar. What do you think?

Amazing!!!!

Two posts in two days??? Ahhh!!! Where is Lauren and what have you done with her?

Nah...just kidding. It's me. Really. I am alive (Mom). And I am jumping for joy. My husband's semester is OVER!! Yea. He's celebrating in style by going to be before one o'clock in the morning for once this year. He's been in bed since eleven. Hopefully my clickety-clacking on the keyboard isn't disturbing him too much.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures and also tell you that I put up a post on my work blog. I created this blog back at the end of January, but things got so crazy around home and work that I really just couldn't keep it up for a while. I don't know if anyone ever looks at it or even knows it exists (I only ever did one post on it and we didn't ever put the web address on our statements or anything, so there is really no reason for anyone to know it exists except my boss and I. But I suppose one might stumble upon it if and when they searched for "Inspirations Flowers and Gifts."). So, anywho-ey...go check it out! It has lots of cool pictures of our works of genius :)

Okay...on to the fun stuff:

Uncle Kendall making waves in the pool for Will to ride. He LOVED it.

My mom thought this was too hilarious. She wanted to paint Claire's toenails. So to distract her we grabbed the first thing we found that we thought she couldn't hurt and it happened to be a tampon box. My mom took about ten pictures of Claire with this tampon box!

Mom and Dad's church has the most beautiful garden. There is even a pond in it that they use as their baptistry (I'm sure it's chlorinated and I know it has safety rails and steps, etc.). When they have baptisms, they video it and the congregation watches it live from inside the auditorium. It's pretty darn cool. Anyway, here are a few pics of Will in the garden. (Claire was asleep!)

The Malletts came to town a couple of weeks ago so Leland could help his old Big Spring kids with their yearbook. We were blessed to spend three different meals with them and their precious kids. Here's a pic of the baby girls--Claire and Reese--standing at our coffee table.

Will's birthday is Saturday and we are having a rootin', tootin' cowboy party. My mom found some western duds at her favorite store, Gymboree, and we got the package in the mail today; in time for Will to wear them to his party on Friday! Thanks, Nana! We love them!

Friends and Fun

We were so excited to be able to visit our dear friends the Malletts this past weekend. We arrived late Friday night and stayed up much too late talking. On Saturday, Harmony, Scott, the kids, and I trekked out to the Fort Worth Zoo (Leland had a UIL meet). It was awesome! That is a really great zoo. It was a great time to go because most of the animals were out and about and not just snoozing in the shadiest spot they could find like they were in San Antonio when Will and I went this summer. We got to see lots of primates, big cats, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, kangroos, birds, fish, and snakes. A fun time was had by all! I made the comment that it will be nice when our kids are older and we can actually stop and read all about the animals. Right now they just have such short attention spans and get tired so quickly. There was a whole section of the zoo that we didn't get to see because we needed to get the kids home to nap.

Sunday was a big "extra events" day at the Malletts' church. So, Harmony and I went to a "Ladies' Tea" that afternoon. It was really fun and gave me some good ideas for women's ministry that I'd like to share with my sisters here. Sunday about wore us out, so we had pizza for dinner and conked out early. On Monday, Scott went on to Abilene for school and my kids and I stayed with Harmony and her girls. We got out early and went shopping. Harmony's having Christmas/Thanksgiving all at the same time with her family next week, so she got several gifts and I also picked up a couple for my kids. It was a good day. Later, after naps, we loaded up and headed down I-20 to meet Scott and go home. Thanks, Malletts for having us...we can't wait to see you again!!

On the way into the zoo
The huge silverback gorilla...king of the mountain!
Giraffes
Elephant
Smiley Will at the zoo
Claire, Will, Raylee and Reese in their Mickey & Minnie matching outfits!
Will turned two in May and Raylee will be two on Friday!
Reese was born on May 30 & Claire on July 8.
The four of them :)

Special Visit

Reese and Claire--Reese is only 5 weeks older than Claire!

Reese, Claire, Raylee, Will, and Ryland--this is the only decent picture I got out of about six!

Today we were blessed to see the Malletts again; they had to come to town to tie up a few loose ends. Leland and the three older kids hung out at our house while Harmony, Reese, Claire and I went to play bunko with friends from church. We had fun and were able to get a few pictures of all our kids together. It was good to see them again!

Life

It is now just the four of us; all the family has gone and we are trying to get used to our new life as a family of four. Claire is doing great. Thankfully she finally got the hang of nursing, so that is going a lot smoother. She still just sleeps most of the time, which is kind of nice. It's kind of easing us into this new sense of normalcy. Will is interested in his new sister, but not overly so. He likes to touch her on the head and kiss her every once in a while. He's always interested as to where she is. I am doing pretty good; still tired, of course, but catching sleep whenever I can. Scott, if you will remember, the best dad ever, so he is of course doing everything he can to help out.

Last week was quite an emotional week for me, what with just giving birth, having to stay in the hospital an extra day and seeing my two day old with an IV in her arm. On top of all that our best friends moved away. Harmony and Leland and their three precious kiddos moved out of Big Spring on Wednesday (a little over a week ago now) and we were fortunate enough to be able to share one last meal with them before they left. I had told myself, "don't cry, you've done enough of that in the last two days," but when we parted ways in the parking lot, I couldn't help it. The Malletts have been very special to us over the last several years. They had always been here and it seemed like we'd always have each other.

But it was inevitable that with Leland being a teacher and Scott a youth minister that one of our families would eventually move on, and it so happened that it was their time to do so. It hasn't hit me quite yet because of the fact that I've been occupied with Claire and visiting relatives, but soon I'll expect to see them at church or to get a call from Harmony asking me if I want to go eat lunch or head to Midland with her. And that isn't going to happen. I miss them incredibly already and it's going to be difficult getting used to life without them here. I'm so glad that we were able to become such good friends with them and I know that we will remain friends; we'll just have to visit the Metroplex a lot more often! (Harmony, get ready, because we're coming as soon as we can!).

***Of course, my computer still won't let me upload photos...I've tried three times already. As soon as I can, I'll get pics up. Don't give up on me yet!***