What's Been Going On

It's bee a while since I've posted an events post...here goes!

Last Thursday: Thanksgiving Day, spent at my grandparents hosue. Jadie, Kristin, Caleb, and I arrived on Wednesday night. Since we aren't too fond of the 3 hour drive, we alwyas try to get it out of the way. We had a yummy home-cooked breakfast with Granny and PawPaw. Mom arrived somewhere between 9 and 10 am. The rest of the family (Aunt Shirley, Uncle David, Pam, Larry, Uncle Steve, Uncle Clifford, Max and his 2 baby boys) arrived between 11 am and noon. Can we say yummy food?!? My favorite: Sweet Potato Casserole! All Caleb ate was Chex Party Mix and cookies! Thanks everyone!

Last Friday: The drive home in time for Jadie to watch the UT vs. ATM game at 2:30 pm.

Last Saturday: Thanksgiving Dinner with Jadie's Dad and Fran. We went to Cracker Barrel.
Again, so yummy! Exciting event: We left our light on so our battery was dead when we got out to the car (it was rainy and COLD!). Jadie's dad, Fran, Aliene, and Vanessa had already left, so we had to wait a little while in the rain for them to return to give our car a jump. Thank goodness my daddy always taught me to keep a set of jumper cables in the car!

Last Sunday: Thanksgiving with the HORN clan (Jadie's mom's side) at Grandma's house. Caleb loves to see other kids, even if they are all older than him by at least 5 years. We all had a great time, but all Caleb ate was a banana and a cookie. Yikes!

Monday: Jadie's first day of this week-long vacation! Doctor's Appointments for Jadie back-to-back! 10 am Dentist, 12:00 pm Lunch with me and Caleb, 1:30 pm Eye Doctor, 3:30 pm Dentist again for a filling. We had dinner with Bonnie and Steven at BJ's Restaurant and Brewery in Temple. A little overpriced by my standards, but every bite was delicious!

Tuesday: My wonderful sister Kristin babysat Caleb so we could go play a round of golf! I gave up pretty easily since it was only my second attempt ever and Jadie took me to a par 5 this time. Those are some long drives! It takes me somewhere between 4 and 6 strokes just to get to the green!

Wednesday: I spent all day with Miss Bonnie and her kiddos! Jadie and Steven went to play golf and also took care of cutting down a bush at our house and repairing a table at their house. So, Bonnie and I spent the day chasing our kids, talking, and chasing our kids some more. Good times!

Today: Jadie's playing golf with Paul and I'm here relaxing (at least until noon or so)! Who knows what the rest of the day will hold!

Bonnie Update by Request

A friend emailed me the day after Thanksgiving to ask for an update on how Bonnie's doing. She said that she had been praying for Bonnie (even though she doesn't know her!) and was really wanting to know how she was progressing. I pray that God would bless my friend Kim as she has blessed Bonnie through her prayers and convern.

Here's the update...

• She returned home to Waco with her family on November 1st. They drove home for several reasons. 1. They could pull over at any time for her to get out and walk (She walked for the first time on October 19th). 2. They could take their time, stopping for two nights to rest. 3. The plane tickets were too expensive. 4. They had a vehicle in Ohio that they needed to get home anyway. 5. They had many household items and small furniture items to transport home also. 6. Her parents were in Ohio for the duration of her time in the hospital, so they would be driving home at the same time.
• At the time that she was dismissed to return home to Waco, she was instructed to walk at least 250 feet a day to promote stretching and increased ability to walk for longer periods of time. I don’t know how much she is walking now, but she is walking more and more everyday.
• Bonnie returned to our church for the first time on Sunday, November 10th. As would be expected, everyone was glad to see her and hug her neck.
• Bonnie spoke in church on Sunday, November 17th about her fall and how God has been changing her. In the weeks before her fall, God had been revealing to her how ugly her heart had become. She discovered that she wasn’t really loving anyone around her the way God would have her love them. She began praying for a change of heart. God began to slowly transforming her. During her time in the hospital, God continued to change her and reveal his heart to her and his plan for how she is to live. These are not my words, but the words I have a very vivid memory of her speaking to me as I visited her in the hospital in mid-October and then again to the church on November 17th.
• Bonnie has not yet made a decision about her elbow. She has an appointment with a specialist in either January or February (I can’t remember which). Since the fall on August 30th, her right arm has been set at the same position and angle. The bone between her elbow and shoulder has healed and she does have the ability to move and use her right hand, but not with very much functionality due to the fact that she can’t use the elbow. She uses her left hand for just about every task.
  
  I hope that this is a pretty thorough explanation of how Bonnie’s doing now…if you have any questions, please ask. I’d be happy to answer them or ask Bonnie for the answer.

Giving Thanks to Our Troops

As you take time this Thanksgiving to refelct on the things you are most thankful for, please remember our military heroes who are working everyday to keep our country safe and FREE.

My mom sent me an email telling me about the "Giving Thanks" text message project. The project invites you and your families to send a text message of thanks to our military service men and women serving in 177 countries. By sending a text message to 8 9 2 7 9 between now and Thanksgiving Day we all can say thanks to our troops during the holiday season.

You can also visit the "America Supports You" website at http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/ to see the messages already sent.

Thanks for helping keep America connected to our military in such a meaningful way.

I also want to personally thank those of you who have in the past or are currently serving in the line of military duty for our country. Thank you to those of you who support your husbands as they serve in our country's military. Thank you to those of you who pray for our military. Thank you to my PawPaw for his service to our country.

Cute Caleb Stories

• On Monday, I was blow-drying my hair in the foyer so I could still watch Caleb play. When I finished, I rolled out the vacuum cleaner to get up any stray hairs from my blow-drying. My mom was still here from the weekend and she stopped me in the middle to look at Caleb. I thought he was scared of the vacuum, but I continued with my task. When I finished, I began to put the vacuum away, when my mom said, "Lauren, you'd better vacuum the living room floor, too." I wasn't sure what she meant...then she explained. Caleb had picked up every last piece of his train set and put it away in the box so that I could vacuum the living room. What a little helper!
  
• Last night (Wednesday), Caleb came to find me, saying, "Baby. Baby. Baby." He bagan to walk away. I thought this was weird, but continued what I was doing. He approached me again, saying, "Baby. Baby." This time I decided to follow him. He led me to the living room to this picture of one of our end tables.As you can tell, it is one of my pregnancy pictures. Caleb began to point at my belly and say, "Baby." This moment is truly a moment that has blessed me forever!

Cutest Little Backpack Ever

Two weekends ago, a couple of friends and I went to First Monday Trade Days in Canton. We shopped, shopped, shopped.

I bought Caleb a few Christmas gifts including this adorable little backpack!

Caleb Dressed up as "Mommy"

So, Caleb pronounces monkey as "mommy." No comments about how it's probably because I look like a monkey...PLEASE! I was told that plenty when I was young. I know you remember, Mom (and I'm calling you out)! I seem to remember a song that you'd sing to me in the morning. It goes like this:

Good morning to you

You live in a zoo

You look like a monkey

And you smell like one too!

Anyhow, here's Caleb in his monkey costume!

This was the Halloween costume I picked out for Caleb this year. We started out at Family of Faith Nazarene Church for their "Trunk of Treat." Then we went to Jadie's grandmother's house to visit with her for a while and show her how adorable Caleb was in his costume. Next, we went to Western Heights Baptist Church for their Halloween Carnival (I used to work part time for their PDO program). Then we went and visited with Jadie's dad for a little while. Finally, we went Trick-or-Treating in our own neighborhood, which turned out to be a great idea because we were able to meet several of our neighbors whom we had not yet met in our 3 years here.

The Truths of Modern Television Shows

This past spring, Jadie and I became interested in a new TV show on ABC entitled "Notes From the Underbelly." The show centers around a married couple who finds out that they are pregnant. Only 8 episodes aired in the spring, but the show it set to begin again next Monday!

What makes this show particularly intriguing for us is that much of what this couple faces and much of what they worry about and mull over are things that we faced and mulled over when we were expecting Caleb. Anywho, for those who may be interested, check out last season's episodes before the new season starts on Monday. I think you'll get a kick out of them!

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP

Ten Items or Less

I usually only blog when something new, exciting, or at least noteworthy happens. Well, I'm fresh out of those types of stories, so I now subject you to the ramblings of my heart.

I was walking with my friend Melanie this morning, discussing relationships between friends and how we develop friendships and how we tend to lose friendships. Anyhow, what we were talking about is beside the point. We were both keeping an eye out for a certain tree that I had seen on Monday morning during our walk. This particular tree had one of those fake tree faces on it. In fact, there were 2 such trees in the same neighborhood. I was able to point one out to her, but the other I have been unable to relocate. Anyhow, she had pointed out how observant I was that I had even noticed these "faces" on the tree trunks.

Today, I was saying that I had felt complimented by her comment, but that there had been something that had happened to me recently that gave evidence to the contrary. Through our conversation, I could not recall the incident, but it is fresh in my mind now. So the long and lengthy explanation of the "unobservant" incident commences.

I spent Monday afternoon from about 4-5:30 pm at the grocery store. I had spent about 1n hour and fifteen minutes doing the shopping portion (it took longer because I didn't have my usual list format with me), and was searching for a check out line. It seemed that there were quite a few lines open, most about the same length. I decided on a particular line because the lady at the end only had 7 or 8 items in her basket. I thought this would make for the quickest escape. I unloaded the items onto the conveyor belt. As the cashier began to scan my first item, I heard him say "ten items or less." Apparently he was talking to the man in line behind me, confirming to him that this line was for customers with ten items or less. I looked up at the lane number and low and behold, the "10 items or less" sign was lit up. I was mortified and began to apologize to the man in line behind me. His response was a stone cold look of dismay and zero words of forgiveness for my blunder. I tried to avoid his stare as the cashier scanned my 60 or so items and my 8 coupons. I continued to apologize to the cashier, hoping the man behind me would hear and at least acknowledge my sincerity.

Anyhow, the point is...I am not always as observant as I'd like to be. The kicker to the story? I looked around at the other check lanes and literally every lane was open...and my lane was the one and only "10 items or less" line. I power walked my way out of HEB that day!