A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

For the Jordan prediction of tomorrow's TTU vs. UT game, see the photo at http://www.hcbcredraiders.blogspot.com

Good Friends, Good Food, Great Memories

Jeff and Jenny (aka Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jenny) came to visit us from Indiana last week! We had such a great time with them- talking until late in the night, eating all the best things TX has to offer, and introducing them to our life here. Really, the whole story of the weekend can best be told in pictures (except for Jeff playing the Wii. I didn't get any pictures of that, so you will just have to take my word for it. He was good. And what he wasn't good at, he practiced until he got good.)

After a late flight in Wednesday night and and even later bedtime because none of us could resist staying up to talk despite the exhaustion, we all got up early Thursday morning. Jenny and I went to my women's Bible study and to have lunch at school with Elias, and the boys went downtown. You can see them exploring Whole Foods here, which Jeff referred to as "Georgetown Market on steroids. All natural ones at that."


This is an actual product that our husbands found in Whole Foods. Naturally, being the boys they are, this deserved a picture of its own and a spotlight on the blog.

Then they went to tour the statehouse. Now Jeff wants to visit the Indiana state house when he gets home. As a Texan I am obligated to say that it won't be as cool as ours.

After Texas burgers for lunch, the boys headed over to the University of Texas campus. Not to be confused with Texas Tech. They are the longhorns. We are the red raiders.

Jeff decided to try on some UT paraphernalia at the campus store.

Adaryll almost left him to ride the bus home for the previous picture.

Friday, Jenny and I got to have lunch at La Madeline. I got to have lunch there with Lori when she was here. Now we just need to all have lunch there together! :) Think you can swing that, girls? Friday night we had Elias' birthday party, which will soon get a post all of its own.

Saturday morning we went to Ikea. J&J had never been in an Ikea and enjoyed being able to try out the furniture.

Elias enjoyed it too. :)

A totally impromptu dancefest broke out right in the middle of Ikea!

Of course, you can't come see the Jordans and not have Rudy's BBQ!

If you stand in front of this Texas flag long enough, you will want to move here and become a Texan yourself...

Saturday afternoon, everyone except me and Elena (we chose sleep) went to a TX band competition. Again, something about bands in Indiana but on steroids was mentioned. I guess it is true that everything is bigger in TX. But, c'mon, we don't use steroids for all of it!

After a nice dinner out with just the grown ups Saturday night, we all got to go to church together Sunday morning. This is our standard "church fountain" picture we take with all our visiting friends.

Doesn't that make all you Indiana folks want to come to Texas?

Seriously, it is 81 degrees here today. Tomorrow's forecast is 84. Think about it.

Wordless Wednesday

A whole week and no blogging?! I know- I can't believe it either! But when I find time to upload pictures and post what we were up to, you will understand why there was no time to blog! Fo now, here is Wordless Wednesday. What's this little girl thinking? Leave captions in the comments section...

Wordless Wednesday

Two pictures this week, but they are going in a frame together, so I couldn't post one without the other. I had these taken today. Leave a caption in the comments!

Boyfriend

Elena's "boyfriend" visited from Indiana over the weekend.

Let me explain.

Brion and Beth had baby Isaac exactly 2 weeks before we had Elena. They were fond of each other from the very beginning. When Beth and I would both happen to be standing in the back of church swaying our fussy babies, they would reach out and hold each other's hands. When they got a little older and we had playdates, they would just look at each other and giggle. They were friends. So we started to call him "boyfriend" and they started to call her "girlfriend". Not that we are in any way encouraging any sort of dating relationship at age 2, but we are hoping that one day they will get married and we can be in-laws with people we already know and love! (not really, Elena is never going to get married. or date.) :) Here are some sweet pics from their trip.

The Most Awesome Day Ever!

When I picked Elias up from school on Friday, he informed me that is was "The Most Awesome Day Ever!!!!" It was his 6th birthday and he had taken multi-colored cupcakes to school to share with that class. That alone probably would have been fine, but we proceeded to drive home and open presents with Daddy.
Unbeknownst to Elias, I had combined ALL his and my birthday money and purchased a Wii. He has been asking for a Wii for months and I had told him it would probably be Christmas before we could get one. So, thanks Honey & Raun, GrandDad & Oma, and Grandma-Great for contributing to this great gift! Thanks Brent & Jenna for the LeapFrog book and to GrandDad & Oma for the flight suit! He loves all of it and concluded the night telling us that it was the best birthday he had ever had. And we haven't even had his party yet!

Change of Plans

This morning when I got up I had great plans for the day. I was going to clean the house a little and then go to my mentoring meeting with our senior pastor's wife. She meets with me and 3 other young pastor's wives every other week, and I always look forward to that time! Then I planned to wrap Elias' birthday gifts and make beef stroganoff for dinner. Funny how we tend to make lots of plans and sort of live in the future by thinking we have it all figured out.

Then I got Elena up. She has had a cold for about a week now, which was preceeded by a high fever and the throwing-up-in-the-car incident last week. But it seemed like just a cold. Runny nose, cough, fever, etc. This morning her breathing sounded really crackly. I called the pediatrician to see if I could bring her in tomorrow morning if she wasn't any better. Because I already had plans today. The nurse heard her breathing over the phone and said I needed to come on in. So I packed Elena in the car and we headed to the doctor. All the while I'm thinking of how it is going to end up just a cold and I will have wasted a copay. Turns out Elena has pneumonia!! I know- crazy huh? Some great mother I am! She had a breathing treatment there and we were sent home with antibiotics and more breathing treatments and instructions on when to go to the ER if she gets worse this weekend.

She is in bed napping now and I am off to wrap presents and hopefully get a nap in myself!!

Happy Birthday Elias!

Elias is 6 years old today! That's right- SIX! I can't believe it! It seems like yesterday I Adaryll and I were staring into the beautiful eyes of our new 6 pound, 5 ounce scrawny little wrinkled boy. And to think that those are the same eyes that I look into each day now just amazes me.

Elias is such a blessing to our family. He is extremely caring and sensitive and loving. He has a great sense of humor and loves to make people laugh. He makes friends easily. He is just such a cool little boy!

There is just something special about a monther-son relationship. I am learning more about it each day. So, Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy in the whole wide world!

(This pic is actually a couple of years old, but I love it!)

T-Shirts

My mom is selling Mccain and Palin t-shirts. There are about 11 different designs on the website below. I really like the "Weepublican" one for babies. :)
Let me know if you want one. They're $14 each with shipping. Also, feel free to forward the site to anyone you know who would be interested.

www.mccainpalinshirts.blogspot.com

Feelin' the Love

WOW! Ya'll sure did make yesterday feel special with all the birthday comments!!! Between the blog and facebook and phone calls and text messages, this was definitely the well-est wished birthday I have ever had!
Which brought me to thinking about something. In this age of technology, with blogging and all, it is kind of funny how lots of comments = feelin' the love. There are sometimes days when I post and nobody comments at all! Not that there is anything wrong with that really because my main purpose of this blog is just having a record of these days as our kids are growing. A big perk is that it allows me to stay in touch with all of you! But other days, like yesterday, everyone seemed compelled to leave a comment. It's like getting a big hug everytime my email box says "New comment on Texans and Hoosiers"! So thanks for all the warm hugs and encouraging words!!!
Now, about the new haircut- because SO many of you have mentioned it now!!! I will post a pic when I can, but please know that it is not that spectacular!! I feel like I need to go get another haircut to somehow live up to the expectations that are out there now!
I has posted something in my "Texan and Legal" post about needing to look a little older, since my current driver's license picture is not that different from my 16 year old one. I suggested that maybe I needed a "mommy haircut". When I went to women's retreat there was a lady in our house who cuts hair, so I got a haircut a like midnight that Saturday. It is super-cute and I felt like it made me a little more 30-ish. So I went into Elias' Kindergarten room the next day to drop him off and said to Lissie (his teacher), "I did it!" (because she had commented "resist the haircut!" on Texan and Legal). Then the assistant teacher, Jana, walked over and said how cute it was and how it just took 10 years off of me, just like that! I explained that I was actually trying to add a few years and not lose them. We all had a good laugh when I asked if I now looked 5 since I started out looking 15.
So it really doesn't look all that different from other "short" haircuts I have had before- it is about chin length. But it had gotten pretty long, so it was a change for people who had seen me recently. Sorry for all the hype!