The Levers

Push Up Challenge

2011-04-13T16:39:00.001-07:00

As previously mentioned in earlier posts, I attend a boot camp class 3 or 4 days a week. The owner of the boot camp coordinated a Push Ups for Charity Challenge to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. In preparation for the challenge, almost all of our workouts over the past several weeks have included at least some push ups. I do not consider myself to be a weakling nor do I have any delusions that I am some sort of female Hercules. I can do squats and leg presses for hours but have never had much upper body strength. So while I don't despise push ups, I don't really love them either. The challenge was optional but since it was for a good cause I decided to sign up and then commenced pestering my friends and family for donations.

The way the challenge works is people can sponsor you by either donating a flat fee or they can donate a certain amount for each push up. I included in my donation plea to friends and family that my goal for the 90 seconds was to do 40 push ups. Remember, I am a girl, and I have very little arm strength. I knew that I would not be able to complete the entire 90 seconds doing military style push ups so my stated goal of 40 was meant to imply that some of those push ups would be the girly kind. Some of you may think this is cheating and that is fine. However, before you make fun of me, get on the floor, set your timer for 90 seconds and see how many girl push ups you can do with correct form. If you are a girl and you can do way more than 40 then you have earned your right to mock me. If you are a boy and you do way more than 40 girl push ups, well, you are a boy. You should be able to do that.

Anyway, one of my sponsors (we'll call him "Charles") made a complicated donation with a very generous bonus for reaching the 40 mark and an additional bonus for each push up over 40. Charles' donation came complete with weeks worth of friendly trash talk leading up to the event and plenty of complaining that I had "tricked" him by not originally telling him about the girl push ups.

About a week before the challenge I asked Myers if he would like to participate. He said he would, but that he hadn't been doing push ups as a regular part of his workouts and didn't know how well he would do.

Finally the day of the event arrived and I was happy to see so many people participating. It was the average Joes vs. the Coppell Fire Department vs. the Coppell Police Department. In order to make it as fair as possible the rules stated that you had to lower yourself until your chest touched a sponge placed on the ground below you and that when you can up you had to lock out your elbows. I am proud to say that Myers and I were 2 of the few that actually followed the rules. Most of the cops and firemen were doing fast mini push ups (still impressive) instead of coming all the way up. There were about 6 rounds of participants and it was funny to see everyone get completely pooped after about 50 seconds. Myers and I were no exception. We both started out strong and did really well for almost a minute and then our arms gave out. We both managed to irk out a few more push ups in the last 30 seconds but afterward we agreed that we could not have done 1 more push up if our lives depended on it.

I ended up doing 50 push ups which meant Charles had to fork over his original pledge for the first 40 plus all of the bonuses for surpassing my goal. Yay! He came out to the event to cheer us on (or psych us out, not sure which) but showed up about 2 minutes after we finished. I am grateful that I had such great sponsors and was able to help raise money for wounded soldiers. I was also proud that my weak arms were able to struggle through and do 50 push ups, even though I was pretty sore for the next several hours.

Myers who, if you remember, had not prepared at all for the challenge ended up doing 67 push ups in 90 seconds. I was very proud of him...and also a little jealous.

Go Myers Go! See the official sponge used to check for correct form?

Karen struggling through push up number 47 out of 50. Not looking (or feeling) so great at this point. Blerg.

Owen is sad that he is not allowed to participate, poor little guy.

Oh look, a dog! Owen is happy again.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

2011-04-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoons, I have the privilege of leading a Bible study for elementary students called CREW. This is, perhaps, the very best part of my job. We are doing a 6 week series in CREW on "Very Bad Days". We have already covered Moses' bad day and how God delivered Moses and the Israelites from the Egyptians, just not in the way Moses was expecting. Last week we talked about Mary's bad day which ended happily with the birth of Jesus. So this week we discussed the disciples' bad day (Mark 4:35-41) when Jesus calms the storm. I had the kids act out the story by playing the roles of Jesus, disciples, storm, water and waves. Little Timmy played the role of the wave perfectly. I think he has a serious acting career in his future. It was very loud and fun and I think the kids all understood the story by seeing it in action.

We then sat down and went over a few discussion questions about what they learned from the story. In order for them to get the full meaning of the passages, I always try to relate it to their lives somehow. So, I explained to the group how sometimes when people have difficult times in their lives it is called "going through a storm". I asked if anyone had heard that expression before and almost all of the kids said that they had. I asked for a volunteer to tell us about a difficult time in their live. Several hands shot up and I called on one of the boys. He said, "One time (by the way, 99% of elementary kids stories start with the phrase "one time") one time there was a storm outside my house and it was really loud." So I smiled and said, "Yes, that is an example of a real storm. Does anyone have an example of a time when things were hard or difficult for you?" I called on another student who said, "One time, there was a hurricane and I got hit with hail and it was like a 10 pound hail." I realized that if I didn't give them an example I was just going to continue to get more stories about actual storms. I told them how when I was younger I got mono and was really sick and had to miss a lot of school and it was a hard time for me. I heard a chorus of "ooooohhhhh"s which made me hopeful that they finally understood what I was asking. I called on one of the older kids who said, "One time (long pause) at my baseball game (long pause)....(at this point I have breathed a sigh of relief that his story is about baseball instead of bad weather)..."one time at my baseball game.........there was a tornado" Doh!

We switched gears and I asked them to think of a time that they felt like Jesus helped them. This is the question I should have asked from the start. They all had great answers that included a difficult time in their life and how now, looking back, they can see that Jesus was watching over them. Of course, one last comment came from a 1st grader who said, "one time...a tsunami came...and it touched my leg but Jesus helped me. I had to work hard not to laugh as I thanked him for sharing that story.

I love my job.

7 Years! (by Myers)

2011-03-28T12:47:00.001-07:00

I’m a listener and a thinker, not a sharer. It’s a shame I don’t share more because I often think about how lucky I am to have Karen as my wife, how much I love her, how much she makes me laugh and how beautiful she is. These are things I should be verbalizing as much as possible but the thoughts rarely leave my head. I could come up with the next great "That's what she said" style iconic one-liner and Mike & Meredith would still not let me live down telling Karen "I told you you were pretty last month." I was totally joking when I said it but sadly it's not that far from the truth. Sharing my feelings is normally a drain on my life force (much less on a blog), I find other people’s lives and thoughts much more interesting than my own. But 7 years of marriage calls for a little sharing. I apologize in advance for the scatter-brained layout of it all, I have a lot I could cover after 7 years but in an effort to keep this to a reasonable length I'll have to skip around.

At the time, March 2004 was the most life altering month in my 22 years of existence (more on this later). I started my first real job, moved into a new apartment (out of my parents’ house) and got married, in that order. Even though we were happy in our marriage and 100% confident we were doing the right thing, these were trying times. Why, you ask? We both hated our jobs with a passion. It’s funny how 9 hours of misery each day can ruin the joy you would normally find in other activities. There was only about a 24 hour period between Friday after work and Saturday evening where we could enjoy our free time on the weekend. By late Saturday evening we were already dreading the fact that we were on the eve of our last day of freedom. As each minute on Sunday ticked by we faced increasing anxiety over returning to what must be hell on earth the next day. We made it through the first year or 2 of marriage on love alone. Thankfully we both eventually got new jobs that we enjoyed to a certain extent; it was still work after all.

Our life together at this point was fairly normal. We were financially secure, had a house, took some nice vacations and had a great time together. Karen has been my best friend since around 9th grade. We have been hanging out constantly since then. So to say we know each other well and are happy just being by ourselves is a huge understatement. She is the funniest person I know, I just try to keep up and carry my weight to keep her entertained. Have you ever wondered what a reality show inside your house would be like? And would people watch? I have and I think people would watch our show. Not because of me but because of Karen. She can make any activity entertaining … cooking dinner comes to mind. She has a goofy song and dance for everything. Just ridiculous lyrics about whatever she’s doing at the time that always seem to end up with a catchy melody stuck in my head. She is a very prolific song-writer, her songs just happen to be about how much she loves spaghetti, or about cranberry juice, TV shows, chewing food or whatever else is going on. I think she has made me laugh out loud nearly every one of our 2,555+ days of marriage. She is not afraid of using the same jokes over and over until they stop making me laugh. After 6 years of dating and 7 years of marriage she has plenty of material to fall back on.

Karen is also very supportive and caring and I know she would go to the ends of the earth for me if I needed her to. My dad died in May of 2009, it was easily the worst day, week and month of my life. Growing up, he was my Superman who could do no wrong. He did a pretty amazing job of living up to those expectations even as I grew older. Losing him caused pain and sadness that has to be experienced to be understood, words can’t really do it. Unfortunately, every one of us has experienced or will experience this sadness. Karen was the perfect friend, supporter and confidant that I needed and still need today for any number of reasons.

A little earlier, I mentioned March 2004 as the most life-altering month for me; well that was definitely replaced by a single moment in December 2009 with the birth of Owen. He has changed my perspective on everything. I think it’s safe to say nothing has made us happier than he has. He definitely runs our lives without even knowing it. Bill Simmons is a comedy/sports writer for ESPN.com, he refers to his young daughter as “the CEO” and I think this is the perfect description. Everything we do has to fit into Owen’s schedule. The funny thing is we don’t even care; we’d rather do anything for him before we do anything for ourselves or anyone else. I think my family is perfect. Karen is doing an amazing job with Owen; she is a natural with him and shows patience and understanding that is beyond me. All I know is I can’t wait to get home every day to be with them. Seeing them interact, laugh and learn together is better than seeing any number of my other favorite things (i.e. a great soccer game, Cowboys football, The Office, 30 Rock, any # of other TV shows). Hearing her sing “Go To Sleep Little Baby” to Owen when he won’t go to sleep is the sweetest sound on God’s green earth.

In closing, I resolve to do a better job of getting words from my brain to my mouth because the people I love deserve to know how happy I am to have them in my life. And I look forward to making Owen think I’m Superman for as long as possible. Karen knows I’m not and loves me all the same.

My mom has the unbiased opinion that I was the cutest baby ever. I’m a middle child so regrettably there is no photographic evidence but not even I could have been this cute:

San Diego Recap

2011-03-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Wheew. I survived my first trip away from Owen. San Diego was great...I'll just cover the highlights.

First Night - "Someone" (we'll call her Kelly) accidentally booked our flight for a few hours earlier than we had planned. Originally we were supposed to get into San Diego around 8:30 Monday night but instead we were on the flight that landed at 5:30. This turned out to be a really good thing. At DFW, American Airlines made Kelly gate check her bag even though it fit fine in their bag sizer thing. There were at least 6 guys on our flight that were heading straight from the airport in California to Marine Corp boot camp. They were all very excited. I was thinking to myself that they weren't going to be so excited in a few hours when a bunch of dudes were screaming in their faces, but I didn't tell them that. Instead I said a quick prayer for them and wished them well.

Our flight landed right on time. We immediately hopped on the Thrifty shuttle to get our rental car. At this point we were watching the clock but decided we would have plenty of time to grab a late dinner and settle into our hotel in time to watch the finale of The Bachelor. We were greeted by the *very* friendly attendant at Thrifty, Ian, who politely asked Kelly for her credit card and drivers license. Insert audible gasp. Turns out Kelly had left her purse...wait for it....on the plane. So, back on the shuttle, back to the airport, got the purse, back on the shuttle, into our awesome yet tiny rent car and onto the hotel. At this point we were getting very hungry and had lost all hope of getting to see the beginning of The Bachelor but were daydreaming of being able to sit and relax after a long day. At the hotel, we checked in, then had to switch rooms, then went to the hotel restaurant (we were too tired to drive anywhere) which had the slooowwwwest service. We made it into our room at 9:15 California time, watched what was left of the show and then immediately fell asleep for an early morning wake up call the next day.

Conference - The whole point of going to San Diego was for the Children's Pastors Conference. My first class (which was 6 hours long) was not very helpful and I started to get worried that the conference was going to be a waste of time. Thankfully that was the only bad class and every session after the first was fantastic. The general sessions provided music mostly by groups that write and perform for children. That was not my favorite. One band dressed in track suits and bucket hats had one line in the chorus of their song that mentioned something about razzle dazzie. BUT the classes and the keynote speakers were so great and so educational. We left with so many new ideas and concepts to use at HCC. Can't wait!

Other stuff - Even though our days were packed with classes and other sessions, we did manage to find an hour or two over the course of the week to see the sights. Kelly and I ventured out to nearby La Jolla and Coronado, plus dinner in Old Town San Diego. I also got to spend some time with Mike and Rachel and Mike's brother Joe on St. Patrick's Day. Never in my life have I celebrated St. Patty's but the people of San Diego come out in full force. People, music and green everywhere. We went to the roof of the Marriott Hotel downtown and watched the helicopters fly by. Beautiful. It was so much fun to see my friends but it made me sad they live so far away.

View from the top of the Marriott

And another

Me looking very touristy

Shopping

2011-03-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

Next week I will be traveling to San Diego with my co-worker Kelly for the Children's Pastors Conference. I have mixed feelings about the trip. I'm excited to be at the conference, take the classes, get some new ideas and browse all of the new curriculum and materials. I also look forward to visiting with my dear friends Mike and Rachel who live in California. They have graciously offered to pal around with me during my down time and show me the sights of San Diego. I am not excited about being away from Owen for the first time...ever...and for 4 nights.

In preparation for my trip I've done some shopping this week to buy travel hair products, tiny toothpaste, new filp flops...stuff like that. Earlier in the week I made a quick trip to Target. I went in intending to pick up 3 small items and didn't think I would need a cart or a basket. This is never a good idea for me. The same thing always ends up happening: I keep finding more things that I "need" and end up hoisting a giant (and carefully balanced) pile of stuff in my arms walking quickly but carefully to the register before I lose my grip and everything falls to the floor and someone has to call for a clean up on aisle 7. This visit to Target was no different. My 3 things turned into about 15, two of which were a gallon of milk and a half gallon of milk. Owen drinks a lot of milk.

Anyhoo, as I am briskly making my way to the register I end up getting stuck behind a girl who is walking quite slowly down the middle of the thoroughfare. Even though I usually don't get annoyed very easily, hehe ;), I was instantly bothered by this girl (probably about 20 years old) and her too-slow walking right in my way. I peered around my carefully balanced pile, which was getting heavier by the second, and saw a downright fashion emergency.

So you know how girls sometimes wear leggings under a dress? Well she was kind of wearing that except instead of a dress it was a shirt and instead of leggings it was see-through black pantyhose. I can only conclude that when the pair of pantyhose was purchased and all tiny in the package, they appeared to be opaque. I guess she didn't realize that when stretched, they would become transparent. So not only is she wearing see-through pants, her top wasn't even long enough to cover her
bo-hiney. At least she was wearing some giant, plaid, granny panties under the hose. Sheesh. From now on, whenever I get dressed I will make sure to look at the back of myself in addition to the front to make sure I am not breaking any public lewdness laws.

This week I also purchased the world's tiniest blow dryer and the world's tiniest flip flops:

aaaaannnnnnnddd here's an Owen picture just for funsies

Dallas Arboretum

2011-03-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Owen and I went to the Dallas Arboretum today with Jamie and Baby William. I have wanted to check out the Arboretum for some time now but have been too cheap to venture out there. When Jamie invited us to go with her, I thought this would be a good opportunity to go to the gardens and was extra excited when she mentioned that she has a year membership and we would be getting in free. Woo hoo.

We had such a great time! It was a little cloudy and breezy when we first arrived but warmed up a little as the day progressed. Owen was very interested in checking out the various sights to be seen and William was content in the Bjorn with Jamie. The annual "Dallas Blooms" event JUST started a few days ago which meant that there was a plethora of newly planted flowers to enjoy. My favorites were the tulips and the greener-than-green grass.

Along with getting to experience the sights and smells of the Arboretum, I also got to spend some quality time with Jamie and William AND got to practice my novice photography skills. If you are in the Dallas area, I highly recommend making a trip out the the Dallas Arboretum, you won't be disappointed.

I took about 45,000 pictures...here are a few of the better ones.

The Lemon

2011-03-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

I just finished 10 days of a pretty strict detox-style diet. Lots of water and fiber and veggies but no dairy or wheat products. I was happy with the results (a slimmer and more energetic Karen) but was desperately craving some "real" food. Sooooo I treated myself to one cheat meal before getting back on the healthy eating horse. For those of you that know me, you know I take my food very seriously. Choosing 1 meal of indulgence was difficult but I ended up selecting one of my favorite Mexican restaurants for some delicious quesadillas.

It was nice to relax and enjoy a dinner out with Myers and Owen. Owen was in good spirits and was entertaining us with his antics. The restaurant gave him a kids menu complete with crayons. We let him draw on the back of the paper but it was really more of a stabbing motion with the crayon rather than the smooth strokes of Picasso. At the wee age of 14 months he still has time to come into his own as an artiste.

Toward the end of the dinner, Owen noticed the lemon on the side of my water glass. He started pointing at it and letting me know with his limited communication skills(mostly hand signals and grunts) that he wanted the lemon. At this point, we as parents had several options.
a. Ignore him
b. Distract him with other food or toys or choreographed dances
c. Calmly explain to him that the acidic content of the lemon would do a real number on his budding tooth enamel
d. Throw the lemon onto another table so that he can no longer see it

or....you can do what we did...and let him bite the lemon.

My mother thinks it is cruel to let a baby bite a lemon. You may agree with that. Be it cruel or not, it sure is funny to see the reaction. Owen took a bite and after about 3 Mississippis, his face scrunched up tight and a shock wave went from head to toe. Then, he opened his eyes, smiled, laughed and opened his mouth for another bite.

Super Bowl

2011-02-07T06:25:00.001-08:00

Super Bowl 2011 was just as fun as Super Bowl 2010. The game was fine, the commercials were fine, the food was delicious and the company was GREAT! Mike and Meredith were kind enough to invite us (and our buddy Wes, holla!) over to their house for the second year in a row. This is Owen's second Super Bowl and I think he enjoyed this one more than the last.

None of us were particularly excited to see the Black Eyed Peas at halftime and their mediocrity was just as we suspected it would be. There is a reason all of their songs are so heavy on the synthesizing...they are all terrible singers. Somehow our conversation got around to the topic of babies dancing to Beyonce's music video for Single Ladies. I have seen a video of this before and found it quite hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q

We decided to put the video on to see if Owen would dance. Approximately 2 seconds into the song, Owen started dancing! It was really funny and he kept up the dancing for most of the song. He even did a lot of the same moves as the baby in the original You Tube video. I don't know what it is about Beyonce but apparently she has some kind of hypnotic power over the babies of the world.

During the second half while "intently" watching the game we got onto the topic of movies. Wes declared that he has never seen Forrest Gump. In unison the rest of us (not including Owen) exclaimed, "I can't believe you haven't seen that!" Within a few minutes we had each come up with a movie that we had not seen that everyone else (or almost everyone else) had. Thus was born the idea to get together to watch each of the 5 movies over the next several weeks. The 5 movies are:

Forrest Gump
Slumdog Millionaire
Saving Private Ryan
The Big Lebowski
Pride and Prejudice

My vote was to make it like The Finer Things Club from The Office and have themed snacks and drinks to go with each movie. Don't know that everyone else is going to go for that idea. :) I will keep you updated as we start watching the movies.

2010 Super Bowl

Sitting on Merdi's lap

Sitting on Merdi's lap a year later

Wicked Cold

2011-02-03T15:08:00.001-08:00

Last night as I was just about to get in bed, I heard Myers grumbling in the bedroom. I got up to see what he was doing and quickly realized (as I got out from under my blanket on the couch) that the air was distinctly colder than our pleasant 72 degree setting. After fiddling with the thermostat on the wall, Myers headed into the attic to check things out. Oh, by the way, it was 17 degrees outside so not having heat was potentially a gigantic problem. Anyway, 15 minutes or so later, I was up in the attic with him putting my zero percent knowledge of HVAC into good use. We unscrewed the control panel from the unit in the attic and followed the instructions for dummies that were printed inside. All of our attempts to fix it were in vain.

We made the decision to pack up Owen and the dogs and head over to my parents house. Not only was it cold outside but the roads were pretty icy so the drive was very slow and intense. I was praying that we would not slide off into a ditch for 2 reasons: a) because we didn't want to slide into a ditch and b) because I didn't want anyone to see what we were wearing. It was late and we didn't feel like changing out of our pajamas so we just added some hats and coats and shoes to our pj ensembles. Not very attractive.

Although I was delighted that we had somewhere warm to sleep, I was not looking forward to sharing one room with Myers, Owen and 2 dogs. Owen is usually a super sleeper but he doesn't go to sleep easily when he knows there are other people or animals in the same room. We tried putting him in the pack n play for a little bit, then we tried letting him crawl around the bed, then I walked around the house rocking him but he was wanting to play instead of sleep. After a few hours my wonderful mother offered to stay up with him so we could get some sleep. Bless you mom!

I called our go-to repair company for all things heating and air: Climate Care. They are awesome. It took awhile to get a hold of them but thankfully they had an open appointment at 11:00 this morning. Myers had to go to work but stopped by the house to check on things and let me know that the inside temperature had reached 45 degrees. Brrrrr. By the time I got there the water from the dripping faucets (must protect the pipes) had turned to ice in the bathtub.

I went home to wait for Climate Care. It was really freakin cold. I had on 2 pair of pants, a long sleeve shirt, 2 jackets, 2 pairs of thermal socks, gloves and a hat and I was still pretty chilly. The guy showed up right on time and was able to get things fixed pretty quickly. And as an extra bonus, he made no rude comments about my unconventional indoor attire. Unfortunately, it takes awhile to reheat a two story house whose temperature has fallen 30 degrees below the normal level of comfort. I think Robot was a little colder than me. We survived and are now back to normal. Weather forecast is predicting more snow tonight, lovely.

Crazy Weather

2011-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the New Year's Resolutions in the Lever house is to take more pictures. We are slowly getting a little more skilled with our camera and are enjoying practicing photography on our favorite subject: Owen.

3 days ago the weather was 70 degrees and sunny. We took Owen to the playground to soak up the sun and get some energy out at the park. Today, (just 3 days later) the weather in sleety and snowy and icy and frigid. We went outside briefly to snap a couple of photos in the snow but had to come inside quickly because it was way too windy and cold. Here are a few of our favorite photos from the two outdoor shoots. Enjoy.

This one is my favorite...

Brrr...bundled up for the snow.

Pajamas and boots are always a good combination.

What was I Thinking?

2011-01-31T09:02:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I had an idea that turned out to be great and terrible all at the same time. Due to the fact that I work at a church, Sundays are usually fairly busy for me. Last weekend I had an exceptionally hectic Sunday with activities that kept me running around town all day. By Sunday evening I was dead tired and looking forward to a relaxing Monday at home with Owen.

After my workout Monday morning, I found myself thinking about my Grandma. I hadn't seen her in awhile and thought it would be nice to go to lunch with her. The only problem with that idea is that she lives in Yukon, Oklahoma which is about a 3 hour drive from my house. Being the spontaneous person that I am, I called my mom (also spontaneous) to see if she wanted to come. After an excited call to Grandma to warn her that we were coming and a quickly packed bag for Owen we were on the road! In my mind I was picturing a nice leisurely drive of chatting and laughing with my mom. I pictured Owen sitting calmly in his car seat playing with his toys until he peacefully drifted off to sleep only to awaken when we arrived at Grandma's. I could not have been more wrong.

Owen does not sleep in the car. About 20 miles into the trip I knew we had made a mistake. IF we hadn't already told Grandma that we were coming I would have turned back and gone home. Owen was so tired but refused to go to sleep. After he threw his toys and his cup about 100 times (with me reaching behind my seat to pick them up) I decided to move to the back seat to sit next to him. I gave him some cheese and Cheerios which calmed him briefly but he quickly reverted to whining and crying. If you have spent any time with Owen you know that this is in no way his normal behavior. He is usually very calm and quiet so, not being used to the decibels he was emitting, I got a headache. Since my head hurt and Owen was crying, my mom and I stopped talking. We stopped several times to get Owen out of the car to walk around. Finally with about 30 minutes left before reaching Grandma's, he fell asleep.

After a looonnnng and uncomfortable drive it was so great to see my Grandma. She lives in the Spanish Cove Retirement Village and I got an in-depth tour of the whole place. Everywhere we went, Grandma was happy to show off Owen to her friends and to the Spanish Cove employees. At this point Owen was on his best behavior and was charming the ladies with his smiles and giggles. We ate in the cafeteria which was actually quite delicious.

Spanish Cove was pretty nice. They had a card room where there were several tables of people playing Canasta. I told my Grandma that you have to be at least 70 to know how to play Canasta. I got to meet the Activities Director who bragged about my Grandma saying that she is in great shape and takes exercise classes at least 5 days a week. Seeing the smile on my Grandma's face while she held Owen and introduced him to her neighbors made the whole trip worthwhile...

Even though he cried and whined on the way back as well.

Discipline (Written by Myers)

2011-01-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's unfortunate that saying, "NO!" while laughing is not an effective method of disciplining a child. I find myself doing that a lot. Owen is a funny little guy even when he's doing bad things. For instance, he has started doing a pelvic thrust as soon as we put him in his car seat, in his mind this makes it impossible to hook him in. It's even funnier because he starts sliding out of the car seat while staring me defiantly in the face; like "what are you going to do now, Dad?" His huge stomach sticking out, funny; the obviously uncomfortable position he's stuck in, funny, his face staring back at me, funny...but also bad. Karen locks him in the seat way more often that I do and is probably well past the point of this being funny.

The other bad thing he almost always does is feed the dogs food from his plate. I'm pretty sure he knows he shouldn't be doing it but that doesn't stop him. He'll look us right in the face with his best smile all while leaning over and putting a piece of waffle in Jack The Dog's mouth. It doesn't help that Jack is immediately pacing around the chair as soon as we put Owen at the table. Again, it's funny...but also bad.

The last one happens all the time so it's not quite as funny anymore. We're sitting on the floor to be on Owen's level but he always wants to be on the couch. He's too small to get up there on his own so what does he do? He uses us as human ladders. He has no problem stepping on our faces to propel himself onto the couch. Of course, once he is up there he just laughs and laughs until we put him back down on the floor.

Other funny things Owen has been doing that are appropriate for laughter:
doing a Frankenstein walk across the room (I know, it's Frankenstein's monster), thinking about and starting the motion to jump on the couch (he might get a centimeter off the ground, it's hard to tell), shaking his head quickly then stopping abruptly while smiling, and a Woody Woodpecker style laugh that I'm pretty sure he only does because he knows it will make us laugh.

Fall Weather and New Tricks

2010-11-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

Last week we had some nice fall weather in Texas which hasn't happened a lot so far this year. I took advantage of the cooler temperatures and had an impromptu photo shoot with Owen in the front yard. As you can see, I am not a very good photographer but it was fun to pretend like I was. I am pretty sure the two lawn service men taking their break across the street thought I was a crazy person. My goal for next year is to learn how to use my nice fancy camera so that I can take better pictures. I also probably need to learn how to use a good editing program too.

In the last week or so, Owen has learned 2 new tricks that are particularly amazing to me.

1. He is now able to stand up in the middle of the room without holding on to anything. For some reason, this milestone was almost more exciting to me than his first steps. I am not sure why but it just seems like a difficult thing to do and he was really pleased with himself when he was able to finally do it with ease.

2. I am in the process of transitioning Owen from bottles to cups and have not had the best luck. Over the course of the last week we have made great strides with the sippy cup but I am still holding the cup for him rather than Owen being able to drink it by himself. He knows how the sippy cup works and every now and then he will successfully drink from it, but most often he just shakes the cup instead of drinking from it. The other day I decided to see if I could get him to drink from a regular cup using a straw, on the first try he was able to do it!! This was another trick that was amazing to me. I don't know how he was able to figure it out on the first try but it was pretty neat to see. Now he loves using a straw to wash down his gourmet meals.

"Ones" Upon a Time

2010-11-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Before today, I did not have a valid library card. For as much as I read I don't have a good explanation for not having one. I have been meaning to go get a card for some time now but just haven't gotten around to it. Over Thanksgiving we will be taking a long-ish car ride and Myers and I decided it might be fun to get a book on CD for the trip. I like to talk in the car on long trips and Myers does not. He once said to me (after 7 hours of driving, which is about the midway point on the trip from Clemson to Dallas)"Karen, driving is for driving, not for talking." We figure that a book on CD is a good compromise between constant conversation and complete silence.

Anyway, I had vowed to go to the library this week to get a card and choose a book to listen to on the drive. On Monday we had a Preschool Playtime with some kids from church. One of the moms mentioned that she had just been to a story time at the library. I thought that sounded pretty fun so I went to the website this morning to check the schedule. Turns out they have a "Ones Upon a Time" story time for 1 year olds. According to the website, the class has a limit and you are encouraged to arrive early to get your ticket. Since Owen is only a month shy of 1 year I figured it would be no big deal if we attended even though he is not technically old enough.

When we got to the library there were tons of little kids waddling around. They have a pretty large section for kids that has toys and books (obviously) and little tiny tables. Owen was really interested in looking at everything and everyone. I was immediately aware that he was the only non-walker in the room and was sure that they were going to eject us before the story time even started. He crawled around and stared at a few different kids and eventually settled in front of a big wooden puzzle thing.

The class (I guess you call it a class) basically consisted of singing 10 or so songs with hand motions and then listening to the lady read a gigantic book. It was exactly like what I have seen in movies and on tv. A bunch of moms waving their kid's arms around in the air and singing nursery rhymes while making various animal noises. There were puppets too. As dumb as that sounds, it was actually pretty fun. I didn't feel like an idiot singing hickory-dickory-dock because everyone else in the room was doing it too, plus Owen was smiling and laughing the entire time.

If you live in or around Coppell and have a 1 year old (or almost 1 year old) I highly recommend Ones Upon a Time at the Coppell Library....as long as you don't tell anyone that Owen is too young.

A Bit of This, A Bit of That

2010-11-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in awhile. I was waiting for something exciting to happen in my life so that I would have something exciting to write about. I realized that I might be waiting for a long time so I might as well just write whatever. So, here is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Enjoy.

1. At my high school reunion I had a handful of people tell me that they had found my blog through other blogs. I was pleased to hear that I wasn't just writing to no one on here. I was even more pleased when a couple of the people said that they actually enjoyed what I had written and/or thought it was funny. So, to all of you who are reading this, thanks! I am glad that you are taking the time to see what I have to blabber on about. Please consider leaving me a comment, I love comments. :)

2. I LOVE Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday. I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving since about July. This year my sister Sarah and (double) brother-in-law Reese are hosting the Lever and Ellington families at their house. I can't wait! I have been asked to make the most important (and most difficult) dish...green bean casserole. I have to go shopping this weekend for the best and most fresh cans of green beans and cream of mushroom soup.

3. Owen took his first steps last week! He walked from Myers to me and it was great! We have walking practice every night. He prefers to walk if he is holding a remote or toy in one of his hands but has doubled his previous record of 6 steps in a row to 12. Crawling is still his main mode of transportation but I bet by Christmas he will be challenging other babies to sprinting races down the streets.

4. Owen's birthday is just over a month away. I have made no plans for it yet. My co-worker Kelly says I better get on that soon. She is probably right.

5. Owen has really started liking his bath time. He has very fancy bath toys that most people probably couldn't afford but I will have nothing but the best for my baby. His bath toys include: a wash cloth, a tupperware container and two floaty fisher price men that are left over from when I was a baby. So, for a grand total of about 2 dollars worth of stuff, Owen has lots of fun playing in the tub. He mostly just splashes around by slapping the water with the wash cloth. It is pretty funny.

6. This past weekend I went to a baby shower for my good pal Jamie. There were about 45 pregnant ladies at the shower. One of them was going to the hospital that same day to have a baby. It was great to see a bunch of people that I have known for 20+ years, but don't get to see very often. I am hoping that even though Owen will be older than their babies, Jamie and Amanda and Liz will still invite us to their play dates!

7. Sorry for jumping all over the place...and for the sarcasm. Happy Thanksgiving.

Parks and Playgrounds

2010-10-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

If you were to ask everyone I know to describe me in one word, I assume none of those people would choose the word "outdoorsy". I am a big fan of couches and television and other indoor things. I have nothing against nature but it is definitely not where I feel most at home. I feel most at home, well, at home. However, I am starting to embrace my inner hiker/camper/park ranger by spending more time in the great outdoors. Of course this time outside doesn't involve any actual hiking or camping or park rangering, it's pretty much just walks and trips to the playground.

Lately our little family has been heading to various playgrounds and parks around town. Owen is at an age where he is just starting to be able to explore some of the playground equipment and can slide down the slide with a lot of assistance. At our high school reunion a few weeks ago, Owen took his first ride on a swing and seemed to love it.

Yesterday we walked to Wilson Elementary school and played on the playground. I thought it would be fun for Myers to take Owen down the "big slide". I have fond memories of sliding down the big slide of my elementary school. If I remember correctly, my elementary school slide was approximately 30 feet long and made of metal. It was fortunate that you traveled about 60 mph down that thing because if you went any slower, you would burst into flames from sitting on a metal slide for too long that had been baking in the direct sunlight for the entire day. Side note: my elementary school also had a piece of equipment called the "looner lander" that was very odd and seemingly out of place for a school playground. It was not until I was in college that I realized it was actually the "lunar lander" (lunar, as in the moon) which made a lot more sense.

Anyway, Myers hiked to the top of the slide and sat with Owen on his lap. I had my camera ready to hopefully catch a quick shot of Owen zooming down. Apparently, things have changed since I was in elementary school. Maybe there were too many broken bones or something but slides now seem to be designed for low speed travel. It took about 45 seconds for Myers and Owen to travel down this 10 foot long, bulky plastic slide. There were lots of bumps and even some mid-slide scooting necessary to make it the entire way down. I managed to take several pictures during their descent. I even had time to take a water break. Ok, not really, but you get the point. I had a good laugh and the boys had a nice, slow, safe ride.

Neighborhood Stroll and The Ark

2010-10-11T12:38:00.001-07:00

Pretty much every morning that I am off of work, I wake up and say to myself, "today Owen and I are going to go on a walk!" I would say we actually end up going on a walk about 30% of those days. Today was one of the days that I decided we needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. So after Owen's morning nap I got all geared up in my running shoes and shorts, loaded Owen into the jogging stroller, and hit the pavement.

I promised myself that we would travel no less than 2 miles and that I would jog (rather than walk) for as much of that 2 miles as I could. (sidebar: I hate running) Approximately 10 feet from our front door I walked through a gigantic cloud of gnats. About 10 feet after that, I walked through another gigantic cloud of gnats. Since the street was pretty much deserted I moved off of the sidewalk and on to the street to escape the swarm of gnats that now seemed to be engulfing the entire neighborhood. I detoured from my usual walking route to head toward Wilson Elementary to see if there were any kids on the playground. I forgot that it was a holiday and the school was as deserted as my street. Soon after I turned the corner onto the main road, I noticed an old gray truck lingering for far too long at a stop sign even though no cars were coming in either direction. I immediately came to the conclusion that the truck held an axe murderer/kidnapper who was waiting specifically for Owen and me. I turned around and headed back to the house. My 2 mile walk ended up being only about 200 yards. Time spent jogging = zero seconds.

I still wanted to get out of the house so we went to "The Ark" at First Baptist in Coppell. The Ark is an indoor playground with 2 separate areas for big kids and little kids. It is free and open to the public most days of the week. We had only been one other time. Last time there were between 40 and 50 kids, this time there were 3. Owen is just starting to stand up on his own but isn't walking yet. He crawled and climbed and seemed to have a lot of fun. There were several times that I had to crawl at maximum speed inside the playground to keep up. My knees are bruised and I definitely had to push the limits of my aversion to germs but all in all it was a lot of fun.

Consignment Shopping

2010-09-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Divine Consign is a gigantic sale of baby stuff that is held twice a year in Dallas. They offer a pre sale for 100 first time moms. About 6 weeks ago I came across the Divine Consign website and emailed them my information to see if I could get in on the pre sale. Turns out I contacted them early enough that I made the cut. The pre sale would allow me and a guest to go peruse the items before the sale was open to the public. I was picturing myself calmly walking around the convention center doing some methodical and intelligent comparison shopping since I was important enough to shop before the rest of the riff raff general public. I mentioned the pre sale to two of my friends and was concerned when BOTH of them said, "oh good, usually there are still some good items left at the pre sale, make sure you get there early and be ready to run". Hmmmmm.....

My mental picture of myself calmly browsing was now replaced with an image of crazy pregnant ladies elbowing and throat punching each other over the last Tickle Me Elmo. And women with babies strapped to their backs sprinting down the aisles of clothes grabbing any item they could reach. To make matters worse, I had invited my mom to be my "plus 1" but she backed out a few days before because my grandmother was coming for a visit. So now I was doomed to face the crazy mothers alone. I had made up my mind not to go at all. My original excitement had faded and I was now not wanting to wait in line and fight over used stuff that I didn't necessarily need in the first place.

The night before the sale Myers and I agreed that this really was a good opportunity to get some stuff for Owen at a great price and dear sweet Meredith offered to go with me. The game plan was that Meredith would head to the clothes section and look for fall clothes (since Owen has exactly zero clothes for cooler weather) and I would head to the toy section to look for a few items that I had in mind.

We accidently got to the convention center about 40 minutes early. It turned out to be a good thing because we beat the rush and were about 30th in line out of 200. Once the doors opened, promptly at 7:00, we walked briskly to our pre planned designated areas. I immediately found what I was looking for and picked up a couple of toys. The prices were lower than I was expecting and the items looked brand new. We definitely got caught up in the excitement of the event and left with the following:

1 activity piano
1 musical pusher thing
1 sit and ride thing
1 set of stackable rings
1 put-stuff-in-the-top-and-it-shoots-out-the-bottom-thing
1 musical hit with a hammer ABC thing
1 train
1 truck

5 pants
4 jeans (not sure why we got so many jeans, it seemed like a good idea in the heat of the moment)
7 shirts
5 jackets
1 Adidas track suit in mint condition

9 Months

2010-09-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Owen had his 9 month check up at the doctor's office today. I like to make the first appointment of the day in order to avoid as many sick babies as possible. Usually at the 8:30 a.m. appointment time we are the first ones in the office.

The first thing they do is weigh Owen completely nudey. At all of his other appointments I have had to lay him down on the scale and hope that he doesn't shoot a stream of pee at the nurse. Today it was weird to have him sit by himself on the scale with no problem. Owen weighs 20 pounds which, according to the doctor, puts him in about the 45th percentile for weight. He is 30 inches long/tall (93rd percentile).

Once the doctor comes into the exam room she lets us ask all of our questions. We love Dr. Han! She never seems rushed or annoyed and always answers all of our questions. Owen is right on target for all of his milestones and was in a really good mood for his check up.

I personally hate, hate, hate getting my finger pricked for the doctor to draw blood. They had to do that to Owen today and I was nervous for him. He didn't even flinch! I couldn't believe it. He also had to get 2 shots and although he did cry, it was only a little and he stopped as soon as I picked him up.

I know everyone says this, but I can't believe Owen is already 9 months old. Even factoring in the first few months of surviving on barely any sleep, the time has flown by. It is weird to think that 9 months ago he just laid around, slept, pooped and cried and now he is crawling, pulling himself up, feeding himself, "talking" (he says mama and dada), and smiling and laughing all the time.

Although it is a lot of work (duh) Myers and I are having a great time being parents! Owen is a laid back baby and is almost always in a great mood.

Labor Day Road Trip

2010-09-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

At approximately 9:00 p.m. last Friday night, Mike, Meredith and 3 Levers jumped in the car and headed south for a weekend with Tony and Moe in New Braunfels. Although I was excited for our first vacation in a long, long time, I was very nervous about traveling with Owen. We originally planned to leave first thing Saturday morning but at the last minute I got it into my head that Owen would do much better in the car if we left at night, rather than in the morning. Turns out I was right. Owen didn't make a peep for the entire 4.5 hour trip and was even awake most of the time just staring at us in the backseat.

Our car ride started off with Meredith and I discussing work. After 3 minutes on this topic Mike loudly exclaimed, "BORING!!!" Which we took as a subtle hint to switch to a different conversation. We spent the rest of the ride playing "would you rather" with the most memorable being: would you rather have both male and female parts or no parts at all like a Ken doll? That became a reoccurring conversation for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was a great day in New Braunfels. We started out the morning by walking around the Farmers Market and downtown NB. Tony was a great tour guide. He pointed out the world's first bakery, the world's biggest tree, the world's first German person etc. For lunch we headed to the Gruene Flour Cupcakery to visit Moe at work. We figured since we were already there we might as well try 1 (or 37) cupcakes. Yum. I do not care to admit how many cupcakes I consumed over the course of the weekend.

Saturday night and Sunday night I laughed more than I have in a very long time. At one point I almost stopped breathing because I was laughing so hard at a mental picture of a woman with no lower body. Ok, I realize that sounds morbid and disturbing but at the time it was very funny.

Overall, we gave Owen a 37 out of 42 for his weekend behavior. For the most part he was great!! He was a good sleeper and loved rolling around town in his stroller. We deducted points from his overall score because on Saturday he was a little "stopped up" (I will spare you the details) which made him a bit cranky. Then on Sunday and Monday he made up for lost time in the pooping department. We had to stop twice on the way home.

Turns out all of my anxiety about traveling with a 9 month old was unnecessary. We have such amazing friends that were willing to ride in the car and spend an entire weekend with a baby. Mike and Meredith and Tony and Moe all pitched in way more than they had to and helped take care of Owen which meant a lot to Myers and me.

Can't wait for our next road adventure!

Baby butt crack...

Rockin' at Church

2010-08-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

I (Karen) really enjoying singing. I do not claim to be a professional or anything close. I would say that I am a decent enough singer that you are not likely to cover your ears and run away if I am singing in your presence. If you were to come to Hackberry Creek Church at 9:00 on a Sunday morning, you would most likely find me singing (yes, into a microphone and everything) at the altCHURCH service. Last weekend there was a party to welcome the new 6th graders into the youth group and we performed a cheesy medley for the parents and teenagers. The medley included such classics as What I Like About You, Boom Boom Pow (haha), Wanted Dead or Alive and Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.

This morning, just for fun, we decided to play the medley at the end of the church service. Owen was there and Myers had him on his shoulders in the back of the room. There is a part in the Immigrant Song that goes, "ahhhhhhh ahhh" (look it up on YouTube if you are not familiar). Anyway, there is a slight pause between "ahhs" in the song and during that instrumental part, Owen was singing along shouting out "ahhhh". Everyone turned around to look at him and it was pretty funny.

Up until this week, Owen was going down for a nap everyday right around 9:00 a.m. This was fine during the week but posed a problem on Sundays since that is the exact time that church begins. It is great that he is now awake longer and we can all go to church as a family which is so important to us. When all of those tired teenagers are staring blankly at me whilst I sing, it is nice to see a smiling baby face among the crowd. Plus, when the message is boring I can play with Owen instead of paying attention, just kidding.

And now some pictures....just because.

Just so you know, he is laughing in this one, not crying out in pain. He has ticklish shoulders apparently.

Elbow Rodeo

2010-08-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

When Myers and I were just young pups, we used to play elbow rodeo. Not sure if this is a game that we invented or something that other people did as well. The way it works is one person would grab on to the elbow skin of the second person. Then, the second person flails their arm around while the first person tries to keep hold of the elbow skin. I know everyone is going to pause right now for a quick game of elbow rodeo with their friends and family. Not the most exciting game in the world but it was fun for two 13 year olds.

The reason I bring this up is because Owen has started to play the game of diaper rodeo. Once he started crawling, he decided that a great time to practice crawling was the exact moment that I was attempting to change his diaper. He flips himself over and tries to scoot away no matter if he is on the changing table or the floor. There were several occasions where he would be on the floor army crawling away with his butt cheeks hanging out of a partially attached diaper. This whole routine seemed to be very amusing for Owen but quite exasperating for me.

After several days of chasing him around the floor or repeatedly flipping him over on the changing table, I decided to try and distract him with something to see if that would make him forget to play diaper rodeo. The first thing I grabbed was a baby shoe and handed it to him before I started the diaper change. He loved it. Owen was inspecting (and biting) the shoe and was so engrossed that he completely forgot to flip over and try to crawl away. I couldn't believe how interested he was in a tiny shoe. Now, he gets to play with the shoe during his diaper changes but only at that time. This way he doesn't get bored with it and I genuinely think he looks forward to playing with the shoe as a treat.

It has been so amazing to see how quickly he picks up new skills. Within a couple of days he went from army crawling, to real crawling, to pulling himself up and now "cruising" on the furniture. We had to lower his mattress because after he pulled himself up he was trying to eat his way out of the crib!

Parenting, 7 Months In

2010-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Having a kid is great; some might say it's the best thing a (sufficiently mature and financially stable) person can experience. I would agree. However, the greatness is hard to explain while the struggles are easy to see. The average person doesn't think your baby's first smile or roll-over is the greatest thing ever but probably thinks a baby crying or lack of sleep is the worst thing ever. You get used to those things. There is no doubt parenting changes you.

Like just about everyone else, I love food. The other day I made the most beautiful bacon and cheese omelet I've ever made. It was a perfect light brown on the outside and melty on the inside. I had my toast buttered and was ready to eat (note: I thought about using the word "nosh" but I couldn't do it. It's a recent addition to my top 3 least favorite words list. Just writing it makes me cringe.). As I was getting my fork Owen woke up from his nap and started crying, he needed a bottle. Karen was at work so it was up to me. In the past, just about anything could wait if food was on the table. Not anymore, I calmly put down my fork and fed Owen with only a single forlorn glance back at my omelet. I eventually got to eat my cold masterpiece and soggy toast. All that is to say, priorities change and you're happy to do it.

I love relaxing on the couch almost as much as I love food but now we spend a lot of time on the floor with Owen. First it was trying to get him to roll over, then sit up and now crawl. I am on the floor just about from the time I get home from work until Owen goes to bed. The other night I had just made dinner (a cheddar, bacon and guacamole hamburger if you're scoring at home) and was headed upstairs to watch TV while I ate. Owen was already asleep and Karen was at the grocery store so it was just me. I was halfway through my hamburger when I looked around and realized I was all by myself sitting on the floor eating my dinner, right in front of a perfectly comfortable couch. I thought "what's going on?" "how old am I?" I gave the non-existent camera a Jim Halpert look and kept on eating. The floor isn't that comfortable but still our furniture had become pointless.

At the beginning I said a baby is a great thing for a sufficiently mature and financially stable person, I suppose you can never be too financially stable but you can definitely be too mature. And if you are, it takes all the fun out of it. You'll see and hear things that would make a 12-year old laugh and if you're not able to laugh you'll just be grossed out and miss out on some of the funniest moments of your life. I had a point to this post but I got up on my soapbox and lost sight of it. Kids aren't always great but YOUR kid is always great; they'll make you do funny things and will do funny things to you. I think that was it. Seven months makes me an expert, right?

New Friend

2010-06-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full swing! This year, summer means soccer, soccer, soccer, and work, work, work. Since I got my new job as Education Director for Hackberry Creek Church, I have spent a lot of time planning and preparing summer activities for kids. It has been lots of fun but also quite exhausting and it is only June. Any of you who have worked a week of Vacation Bible School will know what I mean. In between working and sleeping, we have been watching game after game of the world cup. Myers took the day off today in order to watch the US vs. Slovenia game. It was an exciting match that Owen missed most of due to a long morning nap.

We have all been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Owen's new friend, Lady Hiss. Little Emily Forney was born last weekend and Owen got the chance to meet her today. Myers and I were both surprised at how tiny Emily looked (she is only 6 pounds) since we were used to seeing our big guy. Matt and Laura were surprised at how gigantic Owen looked since they were used to seeing their petite lady.

Emily came about 2 weeks early. Last Saturday, the Levers, the Haynesesesss, and the Forneys all had a fun day together cooking, talking, watching soccer and playing games. The very next day Emily decided she was ready to enter the world!

Teefs

2010-05-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Owen has been a really good baby. Not much crying, good nap taker, lots of laughs etc. However, over the past couple of weeks he has been a bit grumpy. Myers and I often find ourselves making the most ridiculous faces and noises in order to make him stop crying. Glad Owen doesn't have a camera of his own to take OUR picture.

About a week and a half ago, we discovered what all the crying was about: he has sprouted 2 teeth! Both teeth are on the bottom and they make him look like a distinguished gentleman. I can't believe he already has teeth, it makes me realize that he won't be a baby forever.

Other recent milestones:
1. Rolling front to back and back to front. He likes to practice these moves in his crib. We never know what position he will be in when he wakes up in the morning. We often find him sideways, face down, with his booty sticking up in the air. Very cute.

2. Cereal eating. It was a slow process, but Owen now seems to have gotten the hang of eating from a spoon. He has made some pretty funny faces along the way and is now eating cereal twice a day. I think we are going to start adding some fruits and vegetables to his diet soon. Another step away from being a baby.

3. Sleeping!!! After months of waking up 3 or 4 times a night, Owen is FINALLY sleeping through the night. Hallelujah. He usually goes to bed at 7:30 and then wakes up to eat at 5:00ish and then back to bed for another 2 or 3 hours. It is fantastic.

Helmet

2010-05-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

At Owen's 4 month doctor appointment, the pediatrician suggested that Owen might need a helmet to correct a gigantic flat spot on the back of his head. Myers and I noticed the flat spot a long time ago but were hoping it would correct itself. (yes, we were delusional enough to think that Owen's skull would magically mold into a normal shape all by itself). I have to admit I was a little upset at the prospect of getting a helmet for our baby. The more I thought about it though, I realized that if I were a teenage boy with a misshapen head and my parents could have fixed it and chose not to, I would be really mad.

Cranial Technologies is THE PLACE for this kind of thing. They have several locations around the country and apparently people drive hours and hours to get their helmet (DOC band) at Cranial Tech. I feel very blessed that there is a Dallas location. We went for a consultation where they take mugshot-like photos from all different angles of Owen's head. It was very difficult to have someone point out all of the problems with your baby's head/face/skull. Anyway, after a cool digital imaging appointment Owen is now in his helmet. Since he is so young they are hoping he will only be in it for about 6 (maybe 8) weeks.

Big Changes

2010-04-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

After 4 years at ACIG, I will be leaving the insurance field to begin a new phase of my life. After months of prayer, thoughts, meetings and interviews, I have been hired as the Director of Education - Membership at Hackberry Creek Church. I could not be more excited and can't wait to get started. My new friend, Kelly Shultz, will be the Director of Education - Outreach and the two of us will both be working part time.

Since I am moving from a full time job to a part time job I will now have a lot more time at home with Owen! Myers and I feel so blessed to be in a situation where one of us can be home with Owen most of the week. We are going to have to get used to cutting back on some of our favorite luxuries (i.e. going out to eat) but we both know that the "sacrifice" is well worth the reward!

Swimming

2010-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, this time I promise I will start updating the blog more consistently. Do you believe me? Didn't think so.

Owen is turning 4 months old this weekend. How exciting! His new tricks include grabbing things, laughing, sitting up (well, sitting against the back of the couch and not falling over) and swimming! Last weekend we heated up my parents' spa to a nice luke warm temperature and gave Owen his first swimming experience. He wore his fancy little swimmers diaper covered by very stylish orange swim trunks. We had high hopes that he would absolutely love the water. While he didn't hate it, he didn't exactly love it either. He almost seemed not to notice that he was in the pool. We held him in there for about 5 minutes and then got out. Even though he didn't laugh and splash and play, I am still considering it a successful experience.

As the weather gets warmer we hope to have many more trips to the pool. By August, Owen will be a regular George Hamilton sporting a beautiful bronze glow.

Stay tuned for a new post next week with a report from Owen's 4 month check up.

Not So Great at Blogging...

2010-02-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Big News! Owen is here! Ok, so he was born 8 weeks ago. Our initial plan to update the blog several times a week is not going so well. Oops. Anyway, the first 8 weeks of parenthood have gone pretty well. Lots of eating, lots of sleeping and lots of pooping for Owen. I read a message board that was polling new mothers to see how often their babies poop. Many of the women said once a day or once every other day. Some even said that their little ones poop once every 5 days!! Owen is pooping, on average, 5 or 6 times every day. Usually he poops immediately after we change his diaper and then laughs at us. (Myers is not a fan of the word "poop" so I wanted to include a story that used the word poop as many times as possible)

Other highlights...
I swore to myself that I would not refer to myself in the third person and that I would not talk to Owen in a ridiculously high pitched voice. I am sad to admit that I am now doing both. If you were a fly on the wall at our house during the day you would likely hear me say something like, "smile for your mama" or something dumb like that. What is it about having a child that makes you suddenly talk like an idiot? At least I keep this nonsense contained within the walls of our house.

At 8 weeks of age Owen is able to hold his head up. He also smiles and laughs and sleeps like a champion. When he was born he weighed 8 and a half pounds, he has now chunked up to an astounding 13 pounds. Most of that weight is contained in his gigantic cheeks!

Big Boy

2009-12-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

A week ago I went to the doctor and had a sonogram. The sonogram revealed that Baby Lever is a big ol' boy weighing in at just under 9 pounds with two weeks left until my due date. The doctor is estimating that he will end up being somewhere around the 10 pound mark (plus or minus a few ounces) once he arrives. After much deliberation and discussion with the doctor, we have a scheduled delivery date of Friday, December 18th at 7:30 in the morning. We are both really excited to meet this baby but are now scrambling around to finish all of the chores and errands we have been putting off.

Yesterday I had a burst of energy and thought it would be a good idea to wash my car. At one point our neighbor came outside to see a nine and a half months pregnant lady, barefoot, in her pajamas, washing the car in the middle of December. I am sure it was quite the sight! I also managed to buy and wrap all of our Christmas presents, purchase and put up a Christmas tree, do some laundry, hang some stuff in the nursery and catch up on all of my TV shows. Of course today I was exhausted but at least I got some things accomplished.

My last day of work will be tomorrow. That gives me 2 full days to finish getting ready for the baby (although I am sure you are never really completely ready) and rest. Friday morning Myers and I will head to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and by 8:00 or so we will be able to finally meet that baby face to face!

A Couple of Firsts

2009-11-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

We took our first ever first-time parenting/child-birth class, aka An Introduction to Gross Stuff. I'll keep this part of the post as general as possible, this is a family blog. I tried to maintain my "I'm about to be a dad and I' m an adult" face the whole time but it was difficult. We were sitting about 5 feet from the instructor and 10 feet from the projection screen, I didn't want to seem immature. I failed twice. Once was when they had a Power Point slide of circles measuring from 1 cm to 10 cm with the nurse proclaiming "this is what 10 centimeters looks like." Ok, well, maybe on the computer screen it measured 10 cm but on the projection screen it measured about 2 feet. I could've fit through that circle. It struck me as very funny, particularly the nurse's proclamation. The second time was during another slide. I'll just say that my eyes got big and I had to do a double-take (and then immediately look away again) to see if the picture was real or a drawing. It was a drawing and I don't think the instructor saw me. I was entertained by one of the instructor's accent, she was Irish, she pronounced baby as "bebe" ... she might have said "bellay" or maybe I just hoped she would. That's Fat Bastard if ridiculously hilarious late 90s movies aren't your thing (I know he's Scottish but what's the difference, really?).

We also got a baby CPR instructional DVD and a blow up baby on which to practice. For some reason the deflated baby reminds me of one of those papery Burger King crowns they used to give away, except it has a creepy baby mask with hollow eyes. They probably still have those BK crowns but I haven't been to Burger King since the turn of the century. I got a chicken sandwich circa 1999 at the one that closed in Coppell, if you're interested. Back to my original point, we have not yet attempted fake baby CPR.

The second "first' was that we took the baby to his first ever sporting event; of course, he'll never know it happened but I'm counting it as something. We sat in a suite at the Cowboys game so he had all the water and 7UP and cranberries he (or Karen) could handle. Karen said he was very active when the crowd got loud; let's hope he was doing fist-pumps and self-high-fives and not high-kicks and jazz hands (if you've seen So You Think You Can Dance celebrations you know what I'm talking about). Also, he better not get accustomed to that level of luxury because when I'm paying for the game it will be nosebleed section all the way. The stadium was great, the free food and drinks were great, the humongous HD screen was so humongous and HD ... and the Cowboys won.

Showers and Sickness

2009-10-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ugh. About a week ago, my throat started hurting. Myers had just gotten over a 2 day bout with a sore throat but his symptoms didn't progress much beyond that. I hoped I would have the same luck. Unfortunately, my sore throat advanced to a full blown cold. Yesterday I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Even though I dislike going to the doctor (mostly because of the germs in the doctor's office waiting room) I figured I better suck it up and make an appointment. I didn't want my cold to turn into the swine flu and end up in the hospital with pneumonia. Ok, so I am a bit of a hypochondriac but better safe than sorry, right? Anyway, my appointment with Physicians Assistant Kelly Cook (who happened to be a man) went very well. I was negative for swine flu and strep throat and was told to rest, gargle with salt water and sip Sonic drinks so I could chew on the ice. Cherry Limeades are my kind of medicine! I'm still feeling pretty puny but hope I am on the road to recovery.

Last Saturday I had my very first baby shower! It was hosted and attended by ladies of our church and turned out to be a lot of fun. Pat, one of the hostesses, had been teasing me for weeks that she had several cheesy shower games planned. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised when we only played 1 game. It involved guessing celebrity baby names and was not awkward or cheesy at all. Thanks Pat and Karen C. for not making us chug baby bottles of milk or guess the melted candy bar in a diaper.

After the fun of opening presents at the shower (man, those newborn clothes sure are cute) I got to do it all again when I got home to show Myers! We immediately put together the crib mobile and the bouncy seat. Our nursery is still a work in progress but it starting to come together.

That beautiful quilt on the table was made by my mother, in 3 days.

Did somebody say cake?

Concentrating

I just made a comment about how this "sleep sack" looks like one of my dad's sweater vests. haha. Mom agreed.

Ok, so this picture obviously isn't from the baby shower. It was taken a week earlier at Amanda's wedding.

Welcome

2009-10-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

Thank you for checking our blog, I’m glad you think our lives might possibly be interesting enough for you to keep up with. We’ll try not to disappoint.

Since this is the first post, here is what you can expect:

o Facts about the baby and pregnancy
o Hilarious anecdotes
o Probably some musings and general observations
o Pictures of us as we prepare for the arrival of our baby
o Eventually, pictures and movies of our baby

Here are some things you shouldn’t expect:

o We will not refer to ourselves as “Mommy” and “Daddy” … ever
o We will try not to refer to the baby as “it” but no guarantees, so don’t judge us … it doesn’t mean we love it any less
o Phrases such as “we are pregnant” … Karen is doing all the work and deserves all the credit

So here we go. We are, of course, very excited. I think that goes without saying but let there be no doubt. Our baby boy is due December 22, we got some still-shots from the sonogram and he had 10 fingers and 10 toes and everything was where it should be. We are happy about that. A friend told us he looks kind of like Voldemort so let’s hope that changes before December 22nd. Our baby did not kill Harry’s parents.

We’ve already painted the nursery and purchased the baby furniture. We’ll post some pictures of the nursery when it’s complete.