I need to do this

so I will start blogging again. I guess since we had a week of holiday I took a holiday from everything! So... here I am friends! Here are the highlights:

- Eli had a cold all week. neat.

- Eli threw up all over Wes after his bottle one night. also neat.

- I ruined my Christmas surprises from my parents. they thought that was neat.

- I got to see all my family!

- I had a lot of really good food!

- I loved being with Wes and Eli so much!

- Ebony ran away but then Wes caught her.

- Liz started a blog! 

- We got our check in from the contest! yay!

- Wes traveled from Arkansas, to Louisiana, to Dallas, to Abilene, to Austin, and back to Dallas.

- Eli is doing really great on walking on and off.

I know... it's not my best work, but I'm so glad to be home and can't wait to catch up with you guys! Happy Thanksgiving!

yes, I do realize there are more important things

...however... I just wanted to do have just a brief moment to vent. Is it constructive? probably not... Is it positive? definitely not... but I just want to get it out there.

I made the most amazing strawberry cake to take with me when I went to visit Sarah and Jennifer. We ate some at our little party and then Sarah kept some and then what I took home was basically half of what used to be the whole cake. Great! I knew I could take it up to school on Monday and everyone would love it!

So, I take it to school, put it in the fridge, and am so excited about taking it out during lunch time. The third period bell rings, class is over, and I basically am skipping along (in my head people... haha... I do work at a high school remember) so excited to take out the delicious cake to share with my co-workers.

I go to the fridge, take out the cake, set it on the table, and I go and get some small plates. I get the small ones because remember, it is only half of a cake and there is a decent group of the lunch bunch, like up to 10 people sometimes, and small plates plus the fact that there is ONLY half a cake there, should clue people in to take a small portion. do you see where this is going??

In comes Person A. Now Person A has only eaten with us like maybe 5 times this entire year. I have no problem with Person A spying the cake and wanting a piece because seriously, who could resist such a beautiful specimen? I am open to sharing this goodness with all who walk through that door. In comes Person B. Person B is a regular lunchie and eats a good share of whatever is brought every time. I set out the little plates, cut the cake into small slices so everyone can clearly see that only small portions should be taken. 

Well Person A grabs a plate (remember... SMALL plate...) and proceeds to take his slice of cake. Only Person A seems to think that his slice of cake is HALF OF THE CAKE!!!! And please don't think that I am exaggerating! I have witnesses! Person A takes HALF OF THE CAKE!!!! and scoops it all onto this tiny little plate which is now overflowing with cake! 

I wish you could have seen me fighting my sin nature. My mouth dropped open and almost hit the floor. Well, Person B turns around from the computer, notices that Person A took HALF THE CAKE!!!! and I kid you not, takes two giantly fast steps to the cake (please keep in mind that lunch has not even started yet... the bell has yet to ring and no one has even finished warming up their food...) and grabs a mini plate and takes HALF of what is left of the cake!!!!!! 

This time, my mouth dropped open and actually hit the floor and REMAINED OPEN the entire time Persons A and B (who didn't even eat their lunch first, because they were scarfing down the cake!!!) were eating their cake! I was looking straight at them just wishing and hoping that they would look up at me staring at them with my mouth open to the floor in complete shock that before the lunch bell even rings, 3/4 of my already half a cake is gone!!!!!!!!!!!! 

no one looked up. But I think they knew.

Person A gets up after eating half of my delicious cake, throws his plate away, and leaves. 

Person B eats his cake, doesn't throw his plate away, and goes to heat up his food.

By this time the majority of the group is there fighting back the laughter they are holding in because of how I was staring at A and B with my mouth open and also because they too thought this was ridiculous feeding frenzy for Persons A and B. 

I mean, really?? Really???? You come in, notice half a cake, notice miniature plates, notice miniature precut pieces and then STILL take all that food? Do you really not have any etiquette at all????

wow.

So, Person A was long gone and not too much after that, Person B went back to the computer. The rest of the group took the smallest slivers of cake I have ever seen. The type that can literally be eaten in one bite. They ate their bite of cake, said thank you, and laughed deep down at what we had all just witnessed.

There are so many lunch stories... I need to be writing these all down. They could be a best seller someday.

the rat

Here's a quick update:

Wednesday: Wes was home so we hung out with Eli! Doesn't he look so cute in his new pjs? I went to Target and bought him about 4 new sets because that child is continuously growing and was wearing out his old ones!

Thursday: I went and tried on my bridesmaid dress for my sweet cousin Susan's wedding in February. She had about 8 different styles we could choose from but only wanted like 2 of each style to show up so I wanted to go early to get pick of the litter :) They were all really pretty but most definitely not all pretty on me! haha... there was a really sweet girl helping me out and we narrowed it down to three, then to two, and then we were stuck for a while. I ended up getting the one that made me look a little slimmer than taller, rather than the one that made me look shorter and wider. Saying it like that sounds like a no brainer but if my torso had been even an inch taller that second dress would have been perfect! I tried walking around as tall as I could but had a reality check moment and knew I couldn't do that the entire wedding so I went with the other one. :) It's really pretty though!

Friday: Friday was my "study for my final day" and I always do my studying with Julie because we always take the same classes together. My lovely mother was on her way to pick up Eli to watch him so Julie and I could study. She called me to tell me that she was getting close so I could be sure to have Eli ready. I hung up the phone and Eli was playing with this drawer by the TV and slammed his fingers in the drawer and of course, started screaming and crying. I

 snatched him up and was headed outside and then my cell phone started ringing. It was Wes. Then my home phone started ringing at the same time. Eli is still crying so I bypass the phones, take him outside with Ebony so he can calm down. We get outside and I see Ebony kind of sniffing around more than usual. Eli is starting to be ok and I start looking around. I turn towards my house and that's when

 I see it. The rat. The sick disgusting rat (who proba

bly lives in the field behind my house) that is now literally about 4 inches from my back door. I really don't want Ebony to see him because that is a bloodbath I could not stomach at the moment so I make Ebony go back

 inside, put Eli in the house with a snack, and of course come back out to take a picture for you guys! ewwwww!

Saturday: I woke up bright and early, went and picked up Julie, dropped of Eli, and went and took my final in Dysfunctional Psychology. I did awesome!! She had the key 

up at the front so we could check our answers after we turned in the test and I'm pretty sure I only missed 3 out of 50, so whoo

 hoo for me! That night I went to Sarah's house to hang out with her and Jennifer and it was really fun! We ate pizza, salad, and a lot of cake and the kids just ran around and played!

Sunday: My parents went to church in town so I decided to go with them. The guys were playing in Arkansas and Oklahoma and got home last night right before church at Fellowship. We took Eli to the nursery and went to "big church" and after it was over of course went to get him. He was screaming and crying and the nursery worker was holding him. The other kids were playing and having fun... not Eli... I'm sure they hear this all the time, but Eli is not like that! He seriously isn't! But, he wasn't feeling that great 

yesterday and it was close to nap time... I guess... I don't know. I just hate that! It makes me feel sick to my stomach. 

Last night we met the guys at church and Eli did great! He loves being around everyone because he gets to play and everyone hangs out with him and tickles him. 

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today at school we had our annual Veteran's Day celebration! It's actually really cool because we have a really big AFJROTC and so they do a formal pass infront of all the veterans that come to the program. They announce all

 the different wars, then play the specific songs of each brand of military and the veterans stand to be applauded. It's really cool. Our students probably don't really appreciate it as much a

s they should. Although there is real live war going on right now in their lifetime, they don't see it as high school students during WWI or WWII or even Vietnam would see it. It's interesting and sometimes frustrating at some of their behavior, but overall they get that they should be respectful and do what they can... for the most part. 

Two of the younger schools came and they were so adorable! One of the elementary schools all had little American flags that they were waving and it was really sweet! 

The only downside of the day was that since it has been raining all morning everything was wet! They had wiped down the bleachers as much as possible (don't you worry... I brought towels just in 

case!) but our pant legs were soaked! I sat with Katie, Liz, and Adam and was laughing so hard because Liz's pant legs were really wet and she was getting cold! She wrapped up in one of the towels and tried to wrap me up with h

er but I wasn't having that! haha.. she was like, "aren't you cold?!" and I said, "not cold enough to wrap up in a blanket!" haha.. yeah, you had to be there huh. :) 

As we were walking in, there was a group of emo kids (I know some of them and love them! They are so funny!) but they were being very emo at the time and not wanting to go into the program. Liz said, "let's go guys, it's hard to be emo on Veteran's day." Hahahaha... uh oh. Is this another you had to be there moment? dang. Anyways, it was really funny. The emo kids, staying true to form, didn't laugh. shocking.

Let me set the scene.

I put Eli in his flying skull sweater tonight for church and of course brought along my camera to take pics of his adorable self in it. side note: blogger has been kind of ticking me off today with not allowing me to post pictures! I'll have to post some more on here when it will let me! grrrr!!!! So, we're at church, he's crawling around everywhere, of course, and I'm following behind him taking pictures. Well after church, Eli is in the room saying hi to everyone and I told Jeff to have him play the piano because Eli loves music! So, I take a few pics of him doing that. We move on to the stage so Eli can play drums with Jason, stay there a while. Then everyone was coming up to congratulate us on Eli winning so I took that as a perfect opportunity to show Eli off. He has been doing SO good at walking with us holding his hands and now he's getting pretty good at walking while we are holding one of his hands. 

We sit down on the floor and Jeff is holding one of Eli's hands and Eli lets go and takes one step. I thought, oh my gosh. I think he's about to walk! Where is Wes?? So, we stop Eli from doing anything else and finally Wes comes in. We sit down again, we let Eli practice walking one more time by holding one hand and then he gets set to take some serious steps on his own. Jouleen gets my camera so she can film this beautiful moment that we all know is about to happen! We are all clapping and cheering for Eli, and now, everytime you say "yay!" Eli starts clapping, so that's where this clip begins!

Isn't that SO cool????? Of course, tears filled my eyes, we kissed him all over, and then made him do it again! By the third or fourth time he just sits down and crawls away but we were all truly amazed by his sweet, perfect, magnificent steps! Eli! We LOVE you!

I have to be truthful and tell you that half of me was so amazed and happy at that moment and the other half just wanted to cry tears of sadness! Yes yes yes... I know... he's healthy and happy and doing awesome! But I still remember those early days and miss them! But obviously life moves on and we get to go to new and wonderfully special things!

What a great night... thank you God for such an incredible son. 

The 24 hour toy

Eli, like most 10 month old's I'm sure, loves to play with musical toys, loves to beat his hands on anything and everything, and loves it when he hears music. Wes has a studio set up in our guest bedroom (sorry guests) and Eli is fascinated by the big keyboard that is in there! Being the thoughtful mother that I am, I saw this little keyboard that was really inexpensive and looked so fun! So, on my way home from counseling (more on that in a minute) I stopped by, picked it up, and had it all on and ready for him when I walked in the door. I knew how much he was going to love it and so Wes and I were really excited about this!

I bring in the mini keyboard, set it on the ground, Eli immediately starts playing it, smiling, and of course starts hitting it and banging on it and loving every second. Wes and I on the other hand are staring at each other in disbelief. This toy. This keyboard. This monster of a thing is the LOUDEST THING I have ever heard! I kept thinking, this must be damaging Eli's hearing! This is out of control! We pushed the "volume" arrows which sounded like shrill shreaks until it went as low as it would go. But really, only the shreaks got lower, the actual key tones did not!! I am not exaggerating, this toy is insanely, eardrum breakingly, ridiculously LOUD! So, I'm taking it back. :) 

goodbye mini keyboard. we will not miss you.

I went to counseling yesterday morning and I just cannot express to you enough how much I love counseling! And, I am not just saying that because I'm working on being a counselor. I really do mean it! If any of you in the DFW area need a fantastic counselor, let me know! 

I was given a new book to read by a sweet friend at church last Sunday. I had never heard of it, but I might be the only one because when she brought them into the room everyone was so excited! I'm starting to read it today! Haven't read a word yet, but I'll let you know!

I can't believe I wasn't able to go to Jourdan's CD release concert. But I listen to her CD nearly every single day and every word is so beautiful to me. She has gone through so much this last year and I love to think back on her journey at this point because she has worked so hard to get this far! Please go visit her new, wonderful website. She is one of those girls who your flesh might want to dislike because she is so incredibly beautiful, but the moment she opens her mouth and talks to you, you fall head over heels for her because she is so wonderful! I love you Jourdan!

Are you freaking out right now???

I AM! As so many of your sweet comments have said, ELI WON the contest!!! And of course, this would not be possible without you guys! literally!!! Thank you SO much!!!

Please go check out his sweet winning picture one more time!

Thanks KISS FM for hosting this freaking sweet contest!