Mocha Love

Here's a funny story. Well it was funny to me and this is my blog. So there.

Mocha loves John more than just about anything. Definitely more than anyone else, but she proved last night that he is her favorite thing ever, too.

Before we feed her, we have her "down" at the entrance to the kitchen. That way, she's not all up in the food as we're getting it ready. She has to wait until told, "Mocha, come." Sometimes we'll tease her and just say "Mocha," but she still has to wait for the "come" command.

(reenactment)

Last night, I had her waiting there and got the food in her bowl, and then had a pregnancy moment (or probably just an Anna moment) and forgot about her. I was looking in the fridge for my own dinner to appear when I looked over and saw her waiting.

Just as I told her "come," the door (downstairs) opened and John came home from work.

I wish I could've captured how tortured and torn this poor dog was. Almost equidistant from her was her dinner, which she had been patiently waiting for (since breakfast), and her master, around whom her world spins. What to do, what to do?

She chose John. Sortof.

She ran about half-way down the stairs as I was laughingly explaining to John what was happening. I guess her expression told him everything so he was laughing too, so he took his time taking off his shoes and getting up the stairs. Meanwhile, she ran up and down to that half-way point, making sure the food was still there, then going to check on him.

When he finally made it up and was greeted properly, she allowed herself to come eat.

I, on the other hand, just kept looking in the fridge for my dinner. Clearly, I have my priorities straight!

Happy Friday!

Oh, would you be a hero to some special needs kids and go vote for them if you haven't already? My nephew's school is in the running for $500,000 from Kohl's, but the contest ends tonight at midnight (CST). They are providing him with a $30,000 education for absolutely nothing and run completely on donations. Winning this money would make a world of difference. See the September Love post for more info. Here's the link http://apps.facebook.com/kohlscares/. 

Baby Love

Today I got some unexpected surprises, both welcome of course!

This morning after eating my first breakfast of cereal at around 6 (John's alarm woke me up, so what was I supposed to do?), I tried to go back to sleep, but Blueberry had other ideas.

I've been feeling flutterings and twitches for about two weeks now, but nothing I could feel from the outside. This morning, there it was. My hand bounced off my belly! I think the kid was doing somersaults, because it was this long, slow motion, definitely not gas bubbles! I texted John who was out walking Mocha and he ran back in, but Blueberry was on break. Sure enough, as soon as he was out the door, s/he started it up again.

I wish there was a way for me to capture what that feels like for John. I know you other women who have carried babies understand. I can't take any type of recording or impression of it. All I have are words, which are very failing.

Finally. Finally, after months of knowing there's a baby in there, even hearing a heartbeat and seeing the pictures, I don't need any machine to tell me I'm having a baby. The scale and my clothes have been hinting at it, but now I really know it. Simply amazing.

Ok, moving on to the next fun thing.

Baby F's mom called me yesterday and asked if I could watch her today. Her regular daycare provider had the flu, so of course I was excited to hang out with her. For my newer readers, Baby F was our first foster care placement back in February and we had her for the first month of her life. Here she is when we got her:

(2 days old)

Here she is today with her new best friend, Mocha:

(7 months old)

That girl is crawling and trying to stand up! She's eating baby food. She was totally fearless around Mocha and the adoration was mutual.

We also went to visit our good friends, Bre and Seth, who we were in a Beth Moore study with earlier this year. Here are the kids in February:

And here they are today:

And finally, here's one of me with the little lady. 

(Yeah, it's my "i'm holding a kid" picture smile. I hope I learn to smile naturally by the time Blueberry makes a debut!)

September Love

I love September!

It's mine and my nephew, Solomon's, birth month. The tourists go home.* The weather should cool down. And the new season of my favorite shows start!

This year, September is also going be my 30 Days of Blogging month. We're doing alot of fun things this month, and I'm not working anymore so I have no excuses!

Oh, and John got me a Cannon Rebel T2i for our anniversary, so as I learn how to use it, I'll share my best or favorite pictures with you.

For, now, I'll get this month kicked off right with an awesome video my brother made for Solomon.




Here's the link if you want to be a part of Solo's team and sponsor him for the Mini Laps event taking place Sept 25. He changes the life of everyone he meets, so now's our chance to help change his. Another absolutely free way to help him and the Little Light House, where he goes to school, is to vote for them in the Kohl's Cares contest on Facebook. They are the only school in Oklahoma in the running for $500,000 and only 9 slots away from the top 20! Would you be willing to spend about 2 minutes clicking some links to give them your vote? Then, go here: http://apps.facebook.com/kohlscares/ Would you also be willing to share this link with your friends? It takes so little to make such a huge difference. Thanks in advance!

What's your favorite thing about September?

(* of course, I love it when the tourists are here to visit me, but everyone else just clogs up the city :))

Belly Pics and a Camel

Ok, here's the long-awaited Blueberry-belly pics. It's not much to show right now, but it's all I've got.


For comparison, here's 16 weeks, when I first started taking pictures. This is really how I looked pre-pregnancy, I would just never have shown a picture of my gut looking this big!

Here's 19 weeks

And a view from the inside

Now, 20 weeks (taken today)

(Yeah, I realize I am arching my back, but people have been giving me a hard time for not showing very much, so I was overcompensating!)

And finally, have you ever seen a lump of hay that was in the same shape of the camel who was sitting next to it?

No?

Well here you go.

You can't say I never gave you anything.

Happy Five Years to Us

To my husband, my precious gift of grace from God. You bring so much joy to my life. I'm thankful beyond words for the five amazing years we've enjoyed together so far. And to think....

This is just the beginning!

I love you. Happy Anniversary.

Get ready, baby!

Five years ago this morning, John and I were getting ready for our wedding rehearsal. We had a rehearsal breakfast instead of a rehearsal dinner, which I blogged about last year at this time. I promised I'd post pictures from that and I never did, so here's a few.

l-r: Mommy, Neelka (my sfam), me, Martha (my sis), Kim (my sil)

(sfam= sister from another mother)

In addition to being a rehearsal, we also had a time of praise and worship and had a time where people prayed over us, and gave us individual blessings, charges and prophecies. It was incredibly special. I was looking through our pictures to find a good one to show how awesome it was and it seems I have a very weird worship face. I look like I'm in pain. I'm really not. I don't have to worry about anyone ever using me on the cover of their worship CD, that's for sure! Anyway, so this is the only picture of us that I have from that time that you can't see my crazy pain-for-Jesus look. Also, I had gotten spray tanned the day before and it hadn't quite faded yet, so I have an orange tint in most of the pics!

Speaking of pictures.

Today, five years later, we're going to get another very special picture. This time I don't have to worry about my hair, makeup or weird expressions.

This is the day we get our first picture of our Baby Blueberry! (!!!!!)

This weekend, we're taking a little local vacation, so I probably won't get a chance to post it until Sunday. Please do try to breathe and find something else to think about in the meantime.

PS. We took Boy D to be with his aunt and uncle Thursday. It was a joyous and smooth transition for them, but his parents seemed to be pretty shaken up. I believe they're all a journey to a better future for Boy D.

I'm Proud

I'm proud of my husband. Friday was a tough day for me and he put on his hero cape and made it all better.

By noon, Boy D had managed to push every single one of my buttons by breaking ALL of the few, simple rules we have established for his benefit. Don't go downstairs without an adult, don't open the doors without an adult, don't touch things that aren't yours, we only pee in the potty, and the toilet paper goes in the potty, not the trashcan.

So, you can do the math and figure out why I broke down and decided we needed a leather couch. Between the constant battle with Mocha hair, baby spit-up and little kid "messes", it just was the best option.

John has wanted a leather couch since we got married, so before my tale of woe of the horrible day was over, he was online, finding deals. And what a deal he found!

He found this $750 leather couch for $250 in DC, just a few blocks away from our church. He talked the owner down to $200, rounded up some friends to help move it up and our old couch down, and had our old couch on Craigslist and sold by Sunday night (don't worry, I had it dry cleaned and de-messed)! And sold for $250 no less!

Did I mention the hero cape?

I will also add that I'm pretty proud of myself. On Friday, which was a pretty tough day if I didn't mention that, I actually planned for the week ahead. I knew I'd be going back to work for a 3-week Reserve tour on Tuesday and I'm no good at doing meals while I'm working if I don't plan for it. So, I made a meal plan and a shopping list, went to the local farmers market to buy fresh produce and the grocery store for everything else, and along the way decided to stop and vacuum the car while caring lovingly for a little boy who was pushing all my buttons.

Oh, it doesn't stop there! Between Friday and Sunday, I also prepared 4 meals, including a ratatouille and butternut squash soup I learned how to make in my cooking class. Both turned out delicious! I am so proud!

Maybe I should get my own little hero cape. Hmmm... On second thought, that plus the little horn I'm tooting might be a bit much!

How was your weekend?

PS. As for Boy D, we have a good wonderful friend who is going to come watch him starting tomorrow while I'm at work. His social worker is pretty confident that the paperwork to get him to his aunt's house will be finished by Thursday. If you pray, please pray for no glitches and that this little guy can go be with family soon!