Thankful

When times are good and we are coasting along smoothly through life, it’s easy to just go with the flow and not see the hurt and hardships that others around us may be experiencing. I’m reading a book for my book club called A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I’m totally sucked in. In fact, last night Jon was watching sports (maybe basketball, but could have been baseball) on one end of the couch and I was reading on the other. Every so often he would say something to me, and I would look up at him from the pages of the book and just nod or say “Wow” or “Really?” Sorry, Jon. You know I love you. Anyway, back to the book. It’s the story of the trials two Afghan women endure in their war-torn city of Kabul, and last night the Taliban came into power and made life absolutely miserable for women. They literally seemed to have no hope. It got me thinking about how good we really have it in America, even with health care issues and a bad economy right now. More specifically, God is so good to me, but so many times, I still through little pity parties for myself. Now, in all honesty, that’s probably not going to change anytime soon, but when I went to bed last night I couldn’t help but feel so thankful for the blessings that surround me everyday—a steadfast and healthy family, a secure roof over our heads, plenty of food and water, good jobs, and the promise and presence of Jesus through whatever life has in store for us.

Candy Dream Land

When I picked Liam up from daycare yesterday afternoon, Brenda told me that while he was napping, he had the biggest grin on his face…eyes closed and just smiling away. She said she wondered what he was dreaming about. I thought for a minute and told her that he was probably dreaming about candy. For the past week, he’s really been into the sweet stuff, especially M&M's. Whenever we get home, he points to the kitchen counter where we keep the candy and hollers, “Canny, Canny!” It could be because Grandpa was slipping him lollipops and chocolate all weekend. I'm sure it's not because Jon and I have indulged his sweet tooth for the sake of not wanted to deprive our little guy of the candy fun of Halloween.  I hate to break it to Liam, but once the Halloween candy runs out, it won’t be as easy for him to get his sugar fix.

Here's a sleeping Liam from this summer.  He probably wasn't dreaming about candy in this shot.

Houston Halloween

We had a really memorable Halloween this year. My parents and little brother, Patrick, came to visit Debby and Jeff in Houston, so we took off on Friday afternoon and headed down to H-Town to join the party. Debby and Jeff live in a neighborhood that is perfect for trick-or-treating, and the kids are bussed in to take advantage of this. We took Liam out for his very first trick-or-treating up and down their street and visited about ten houses. He loved all the candy, and I think next year, we'll be hitting the pavement pretty hard. Since he's still little, we came home early to help pass out candy. And, let me tell you, the kiddos (both big and small) came. We had almost 200 trick-or-treaters, and in addition to the four initial big bowls of candy, Jeff and my dad had to make an extra candy trip to the store. The last time the door bell rang was at 9:15. We also carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds. And somewhere in between the boys made a run to Sonic for drinks and 50 cent corn dogs. It was a fun night spent enjoying each other and the little ghost and goblins that knocked on the door.

Coo-Coo Costume

Liam and I went to Crockett's Fall Festival tonight. It was lots of fun seeing old Crockett friends and visiting Daddy who was busy working in the cart races. Man, I miss my friends at Crockett. They're a great bunch of people. Anyway, here's a little preview of one of Liam's Halloween costumes...the other one is Yoda. I think his (and Daddy's) vote is for Yoda. The coo-coo bird is wacky, crazy, and totally cool, but it does seem to have one major wardrobe malfunction--a wobbly head. Since the head keeps slipping down, and it's hard to trick-or-treat if you can't see anything, I think Yoda will win this year.

Bananas for Bananas

Somebody loves bananas, but he only likes them if he gets to feed himself. Guess they taste better that way.

Baylor Homecoming 2009

In the wee hours of the morning, we packed the car and headed to Waco for Baylor Homecoming. We met my sister, Debby, and her husband, Jeff, at the parade and spent the day together kickin' it in Waco like we did in our good old college days. We even had a chance to meet up with our friend, Mike, at Ninfa's for lunch. And the day wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the Richland Mall for old time's sake.


Four out of five of the people in this picture graduated from Baylor. Odds are overwhelmingly stacked in favor of the other little person in this picture graduating from Baylor, too. Let's just say, he's already practicing his "Sic 'em Bears!"

We saw all the cool floats.

Look at all the people at the parade. The crowd was HUGE this year because it's the 100th anniversary of Baylor Homecoming.

Aunt Debby and Uncle Jeff played ball with Liam in front of Draper.

Liam, maybe someday if you're very lucky, study hard, and Mama and Daddy sell a few non-vital organs to pay for tuition, you'll be sitting in this very swing thinking it's about time for you to stroll over to your next class.

After a fun-filled morning, Liam takes a break on Daddy's shoulder.

Daddy's Yoda He Is

Do all boys like Star Wars? I guess so. I have a feeling this costume won't be worn exclusively on Halloween. I also think that if I found one a little bigger, Liam and his daddy would both be dressed like Yoda.

Pumpkin Patches, Take Two

After our Pumpkin Dash this morning (see previous post), we meet up with Jon's family and took the kids to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina. Liam had so much fun playing with his cousins all day. The kids loved feeding the animals, going on a hayride, eating lots of hot dogs, playing in the bounce house, and, of course, finding the perfect pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. (Although, Liam decided he was much happier throwing pumpkins than carving them). All the kiddos were great, and I'm sure there are five little sets of eyes that were closed as soon as the lights were out tonight.

Pumpkin Dash

This morning the Bushwars were up bright and early and ready to compete. No, not really. But we were up early on a Saturday morning to meet two friends--Terry and Melita--at the Pumpkin Dash in Valley Ranch. This is my third year to do this 5K fun run (or walk for us) and Jon and Liam's first. It was a beautiful morning, and as you can see, Liam made it to the finish line in good form. What you don't see in the pictures is that we took him out of his jogging stroller at the very end, so he could stide proudly across the finish line.

Temper Tantrums Sometimes Work

Yesterday I took Liam to the doctor for this 18-month check-up and his flu shot. It was very important to me that both of these things happened when I brought him in because I didn't want to deal with taking time off work and spending my afternoon at the doctor's office and because that would mean another $30 co-pay. Since everyone seems to want a flu shot this year, I decided to call and make sure they still had them in stock. If not, I'd just reschedule the appointment. "Yes, yes, we have plenty of flu shots left." I even asked the receptionist when we arrived if they still had them. "Yes, yes we have plenty of flu shots left." When they called Liam's name to go back to the examination room, I asked the nurse if he would get the shot at the end of the visit. "Oh, we don't have any flu shots left. Sorry. Ran out this morning." Excuse me?!? I knew I wasn't hearing her say they were out. The next few minutes were a blurry rage. I'm pretty sure I didn't tell her that any responsible doctor's office would call the patient before they took time off of work to come in to let them know that they had run out of the vaccines. I don't think it was me who said that unlike lot of their patients who don't even have to pay a co-pay and medicaid picks up their tab, every time I step foot in their office, I have to pay out of my own pocket. And for good measure, I'm sure I didn't add that we've had to wait way too long one too many times in the exam rooms, and I was switching doctors. No, I'm sure that I would never say those things. But, I guess Jon may have sensed my frustration as I relaid the news to him over the phone while he was on his conference period at school. He immediately left school and headed over to where his wife was losing her cool. Before I knew it, he was striding into the exam room where the doctor was kindly explaining that they had indeed made a mistake, and Liam's flu shot would be delivered shortly. Thank you very much.

After leaving the doctor's office, Liam and I headed down to the lab to get blood drawn to make sure he doesn't have lead poison. They do this to the poor kid once or twice a year, since we live in an old home. Boy, did he throw a fit when they poked him and started filling two tubes with blood. He screamed! He thrashed! Finally, one of the ladies in the office gave him a teddy bear (see picture above)to make him feel better, and it worked.

So, in the end, Liam and I both learned a little fussing, kicking, and screaming seems to work wonders when you're trying to get things done at the doctor's office.