Staycation

My parents drove away with my children about 30 minutes ago. They are taking the kids to Galveston for 1 whole week! Eric and I are going to hang out here hopefully eating out every night and seeing late movies and catching a glimpse back on what our lives were like lo, these many years ago. We are looking forward to this week. I will admit, however, that I will be missing my kids in a couple of days. This is going to be the longest they have been away from me ever. I don't know that they'll miss ME at all, what with all the spoiling which is the norm for my parents, but I will be so happy to have them home next Friday.

In other news, Eric is starting back to school again this semester. For those of you who may not know, he's getting his Masters in Theology at Lipscomb in Nashville. This semester he's taking 9 hours which we're a little wary of since that's a full graduate load and he's got lots of non-school related responsibilities as well. But the timing was right for them and he though he'd be able to keep up on everything and knock out a big chunk of hours all at once. Here's hoping it goes smoothly.

In other, other news...I had a very long conversation on the phone yesterday with a sweet friend I have that I met in GA. She was a brand new Christian when we met at Steven's Creek and we hit it off with her and her hubby. Now, several years later, she is such a testimony to God's never-ending love and His unfailing promises. Sometimes (to my everlasting shame) as an 'old Christian' the newness and miraculous saving power of the gospel is lost to me. I am so thankful to God that he provided my friend to me at the right time to remind me how He is never done working; that He is never satisfied to leave us where we are; that He has good plans for us and will bring them into fruition, we just have to hang in there.

Y'all have a great weekend. I have a date with my boyfriend tonight!


PS: I just did the spell check and it said,"No misspellings found." This is a first for me!

Time Flies

Jaylie opened her presents today, Sept. 1. She isn't officially 3 until tomorrow at 12:45 or so but since Eric and my Dad were off work and Isaac was out of school we decided to open gifts today instead of making her wait until after supper tomorrow night. She got quite a bit of playtime this way.

So now she is 3. A baby no longer. And we have achieved an important milestone in the Livingston house: there are no 2 year olds living here anymore! Ethan turned 2 in May of 2006 and since about 4-3 months prior to that time (he started early), we've had someone in the midst of 2-ness. Those of you who have folks who are 2 know what I am talking about. I do enjoy my children, no matter what phase they are in, but the 2's aren't my favorite. I do think I'm getting better at enjoying the 2s but I am happy to be ushering in a new phase of life.
It always surprises me how quickly time flies. We have been in MS now for 2 1/2 years; Jaylie was 6 months when we got here--still nursing and napping, barely sitting up, bald. Now, she's still napping...and that's where the sameness ends. She's not only not bald, she has masses of curls. She's the least picky eater of the 3. She's funny and sweet and observant and smart and just plain wonderful.

I think every gift she opened today was either pink or somehow princess related or dress-up related. She is very pleased with her haul! I had to go re-arrange some things in her room to get it all in there!
Here's some pictures to catch you up. Happy Birthday Darlin.


Here she is telling us she's 3 years old
Here she is overlooking her bounty

Here's her cake that I made, nothing fancy, but she wanted princesses.

This is Jaylie on her birthday last year. ( I love this picture!)
This is Jayie (and me) on her 1 year old birthday
Here she is when she was brand new...I'm a little choked up now

3 Days Down

This is just a quick post to fill everyone in on how Ethan's first few days have gone. In a word: perfect. He hasn't been upset to go at all (much different than Isaac---it was 2 weeks before Isaac would let me leave the room without a panic attack, poor guy) Ethan is wiped out when he gets home. So far Eric has taken him in the mornings and brought him home at lunch (so he can get on his scooter and ride that back to work!) Eric says that he is super quiet in the car and just sort of stares out the window. It is only 3 hours but it is a much more structured 3 hours than he has had at home. He is usually hot and sweaty since they play outside at the end of the day. This makes for one tired kid by the time lunch is over and it's time for nap. Ethan is having a great time though. He sounds very important when he talks about school. He likes to inform Jaylie that she doesn't go because she' s not big like he is. When I was getting him ready this morning I asked him if he sees Bella Rose on the play ground and he said yes. "Do you play with her?", I asked. "I play with all my friends.", he said which made me smile. 'all his friends.' That is so sweet.

In other news, my parents returned from their month long trip to TX in the night on Wed. (1:15 to be exact; about 45 min earlier than the GPS estimated which is always the goal) They went to sleep but set their alarm to get up and bring Krispy Kreme donuts to the house at 6:30 to surprise the kids---they missed them a lot. They are going to be taking the 3 of them to Galveston for a week next Friday (Eric and I were not invited, which is fine, how often do we get a WEEK at home alone. We'll be having a STAYcation.) Anyway, my mother bought each kid their very own suitcase. Jaylie's is pink (of course) with green stripes. The boys saw theirs after school and were nominally interested and appropriately appreciative, but didn't turn flips or anything; it is just a suitcase. However, Jaylie's suitcase is now her favorite toy. She pulls out the handle and rolls it around behind her talking to it,"Come on. You can follow me." When she came into my room this morning, I could hear the wheels clicking over the lines in the tile in the kitchen, She then proceeded to take it upstairs (bump, bump, bump) and play with it there. It is really funny to me. I'll try to snap a picture of her with it later. Her birthday is right around the corner. She is pretty excited.

And He's Off

Today, Ethan had his first day at preschool. This is actually a first for Eric, too. He has never taken anyone on the first day. Yesterday, we went to the Meet the Teacher tea party so he could meet his teacher (obviously) and play in his room a little bit and see some of the other kids in his class. Before we left he was saying that he didn't want to go to school; that he was afraid. I talked to him about how EVERYONE is nervous on the first day of school and that he would have a great time and that Daddy would be right there the whole time. (In case I haven't clarified, he is going to the preschool at our church and his classroom is maybe 20 steps from Eric's office) So when we got there he was a little shy but did greet his teacher (Ms. Sara) and immediately went to play with the dinosaurs. There are 5 boys and 4 girls in his class. He didn't know any of them but his favorite friend, Isabella Rose, is next door (in a class with 8 girls!). After he had played for several minutes he looked at me and said, "I'm going to be good in here." which means he'll do just fine. It was time for Eric and I to go to the parent meeting in the gym and he didn't bat an eye. We were gone maybe 20 minutes and he was happy when we came back. We got him a Meadowbrook Preschool t-shirt that he is very proud of. On the way home I was telling him that he'd have music on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and he was excited about that. I told him he'd go to school 3 days a week but that after Christmas, he'd get to go 5 days and he said,"Yea, I want to go 5 days!" I was thinking that he'd no doubt do fine with 5 days a week, but we're easing him (and me) into the rhythm of a school day. I don't think I'm ready for him to be out every day. He was ready for school about an hour early this morning, he was so excited. I can't wait til he comes home to hear all about it. There's no stopping him, now!

So now, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:45-11:45 Jaylie and I will be hanging out doing girl stuff.

A Blue Day

It's been a few days since I posted...sorry about that. Yesterday was a blue day for me. Do you ever get those? Nothing at all is wrong, I just felt slow and quiet and worn out. Ethan has an ear infection that I had taken him to the dr. for the day before. Yesterday Jaylie started a runny nose and fever. Isaac just got over a cold Wed. and Eric is now sick. I think I get to feeling overwhelmed at times and a blue day is my way of re-focusing somehow. Today I feel normal, which is a great blessing.
Despite feeling 'blue' I found a few very special moments that made me smile yesterday. Luckily, I got one on video and another in a picture. I don't know if they'll make you happy but it was sweet to me. Let me set the video up for you. The boys were playing marvelously (wonder of wonders) and I was making supper in the kitchen. I had Casting Crowns on (my favorite) and I heard Jaylie humming in the living room, so I decided to sneak in there with the camera and see what she was doing. It was really sweet to me...especially with the music in the background.
(pay no attention to the clutter on the foor)




This next picture is of Eric and Isaac on Eric's new scooter. Yes, he has decided that for the good of our planet (you know, carbon dioxide emissions and all that) he needed to get a scooter and start getting 75mpg! It arrived last Tuesday so he has been in the process of getting insurance/title/helmet/licence and all the things he needs to be able to legally drive it to work.
He's been driving it around in the neighborhood for the past few days. With all the speed bumps, it's not all that great but he is still having lots of fun. He is so cool!

A Little Bit of Personal Trivia

I am a person who has led a fairly sheltered life. I don't have fantastic, amazing things that I have done or accomplished (unless you count my children, which I do). I'm totally pleased with that; I don't mind it at all.

There is, however, one fact about me that I think is fairly unique: I have never lived in the same geographic location for more than about 3 1/2 years. ( I take that back, I guess I lived in North Dakota for right at 4 years. But we lived in 2 different houses while there) The house that I have lived in the longest is the first one we had in ND (it was a 4-plex) and that was for about 3 years, then my Dad made rank and we moved into a duplex (luxury of luxuries!). The first real house that I remember living in was our house in Nebraska (I was 13), my parents bought that one because we were supposed to be there for 4-5 years. Later, when Eric and I got married, we lived in Searcy, AR for a while, then 2 apartments in San Antonio before renting our first house there. Then he went into the AF and we moved into military housing in Monterey CA for 14 months, followed by a 6 month stint (and another apartment) in San Angelo, TX. Then we went to GA. We rented our first house there and stayed about a month (there were tons of problems with that house and the landlord wasn't interested in fixing them...and I was in the early stages of pregnancy and wasn't inclined to be in limbo for a long time). The second house we rented we really liked. We had been told that the waiting list for on-post housing was over a year so we felt comfortable signing a 12 month lease. After getting all settled, 3 months later the housing office calls and says a unit is available so we move again (I was 6 months pregnant at this time...not much help in the moving) We lived on post for a little over a year and a half (Isaac came home to this house, ( another 4 -plex and really run down) When we had about 2 years left in GA we decided to try to buy our own house. It was beautiful and we loved it. Our very own home (Ethan was brought home to this house). We sold it in May of 2004 when we moved back to SA. We rented a house in SA before Eric got a permanent job there and lived in it for about 7 months. We bought our 2nd house (I was again 6 months pregnant and it was the middle of the summer and I was REALLY not a help in the move) that we loved even more than the first and intended to stay in it until we were old and gray. We lived there for 9 months (Jaylie was brought home to this house) ! Then came here to Jackson MS where we have bought our 3rd house and love it more than any other house that we have ever lived in. This past May marked our longest time at any one address in our 13 years of marriage:26 months. Here's hoping that we stay at this address for many moons.
I don't have digital images of all those homes, but I do of the ones we've owned. Here ya go.

336 Avery Landing, Martinez, GA
April 2002-June 2004
2606 Circle Tree, San Antonio, TX
May, 2005-Feb. ,2006

Ridgeland, Ms
2/2006-present

In case you're keeping count, this is our 13th address. I had 11 before we got married. We're really good movers!

Hey, I hope y'all are enjoying the Olympics. What has been your favorite parts so far? Mine has been when the US men won the 4x100 Freestyle relay. I couldn't believe it! So cool!

Politics

Politics

I have completed several posts now and they have been relatively easy to do. I mean, telling you about my family is easy. But up til now I haven't posted about anything tough. I don't want you to get the wrong opinion about me, thinking that since I only post about sweet, easy things, I don't struggle with larger issues...perish the thought!
We're coming up to a rather significant election in November. I had been thinking for several months that I would simply not vote. I haven't been blown away by either candidate. I think there are pros and cons to both. But the main reason I had decided this is because I don't think that the person in the White House has much to do with how I live my life as a Christian.
I got to talk to a sweet friend of mine who is fortunate enough to be living in France for the next few years. Heatharlyne always gives me things to think about and I guess that's one of the things I like best about her. She explained to me that Europeans are horrified at the apathetic view most Americans have regarding politics. She said that they consider it very irresponsible for us to take so little concern over what our country does when it effects the whole world. She noted a friend from the UK who was talking about our housing market slump. Very soon after ours tanked, Britian's did too. Our globe has gotten smaller and America is such a powerful country that for good or bad, America has enormous influence.
Which all leads me to seeing my previous view as rather self-centered. "The President doesn't really effect ME;I don't care who it is." Maybe this is part of my American-ism. It is hard to see past my own self. But here's my new quandry: Should I vote for the person who I think will keep America strong (because a strong America is good for the world) or should I vote for someone who will promote equality and justice even if that weakens America. Hmmm...
Of course, there's no way to boil down McCain and Obama to those two things but you see what I mean. If I can't figure it out I still may not vote...but I'm thinking about it more now.
Thanks a lot, Heatharlyne!