The Langham Christmas ‘09

It was a fun Christmas at the Langham house this year.  We had Grandma Lynn and Mamaw here with us again this year, which the kids loved (and so did the grandmas).  We had our big dinner Christmas Eve so that we wouldn’t have to cook any on Christmas Day and could just enjoy our toys and our leftovers.  We woke up Christmas morning, as did the rest of NWA, to a white Christmas and it was beautiful!  What a blessing! 

Ok, prepare yourselves – there are a lot of pictures ahead.  I know!  You’re in total shock right now, aren’t you? :)

The bird… “before”…

 

The Christmas Tree

 

The stockings – hung by the chimney with care…

 

 

…and three stinkers that could barely hold it together for one good picture out of about 175 tries.

 

 

See what I mean?!

 

Reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2.  Didn’t Daddy do a good job being all creative in his picture taking? :)

 

Getting Santa’s cookies ready.

 

Rachel leaving the reindeer a little snack of oats.

 

Busting through the paper tapped over the door on Christmas morning – rushing to see what Santa brought.

 

See!!  I got tools!!!

 

One of the many looks Tanner had while saying “OH YEAH!”

 

Rachel was excited about her purple lounge clothes.

 

Porter loved his drum… he plays it a lot.  I’m so excited.

 

Opening his guitar.  The last time he wanted to play an instrument, he got a starter set for the bagpipes.  BAGPIPES, people!!!  I don’t think so…  We’ll see where this takes him.

 

Mike was very excited that he got peanut M&M’s from Granny rather than the lotion he expected was in that bag.  He HATES lotion! :)  Good job, Gran.

 

Over all is was a wonderful Christmas.  We’re all looking forward now to what the new year is going to bring!

Drumroll Please.....

We are officially able to be public with our news.....



WE'VE DECIDED TO ADOPT!!!



Adoption is something that Mike and I have talked about since before we were married. I think it's something we always knew we would do "in the future". Well, friends, the future is now. We have 3 healthy children that we totally adore and yet, our family doesn't feel complete. I knew I wouldn't be birthing any more babies - I'm soooo over that. So, obviously, adoption was a very definite option for us.

Sunday, November 8th, was Orphan Sunday and we had a big program that night at our church centered around Esther's House Orphanage and the Kennedy's trip to Malawi. That morning started off not so great. You know how the devil always tries to get his foot in the door on Sunday mornings? Yeah, he'd pretty much invaded our house that day. We were late for church and I ended up not singing in the choir, which is very unusual. Pastor talked that morning about how there's no clearer picture of the gospel than when adoption takes place. We are 'adopted' into God's family through our acceptance of Jesus, and what a beautiful picture of that when a family adopts a child. Adoption was very much in front of us as several of our friends have adopted and are currently in the process of adoption. I think subconsciously, it was something we knew was getting closer and closer for us, we just hadn't really talked that much about it and certainly hadn't made any decisions yet. Once the invitation was given on that Sunday morning, part of what Pastor called the people to pray for was whether or not it was in God's plan for them to adopt. Mike grabbed my hand and off to the altar we went to pray. It was a special time of us asking forgiveness of each other because of our attitudes that morning, but even through that, we felt God's stirring in us regarding adoption. We came home that afternoon and began to discuss what we felt like God was telling us and then had our Esther's House program that night, which just helped to solidify things even more. That week, we knew for sure that we were supposed to adopt.

But where were we supposed to start?

We pretty much knew international adoption was out of the question, purely for financial reasons. My heart has been tied to Africa since I was there in 1999, so if we were to adopt internationally, it would be from there. However, we really didn't feel like that's the direction we were supposed to go, financially restricted or not. We began looking into all of our options on what we could do. Like I said, several of our friends have gone before us in this process, so we had lots of resources for our questions. We looked at an agency that some friends have used and is a trusted agency. We looked at another local agency that does domestic adoptions. We researched just about everything and talked to just about everyone trying to decipher where we felt like God was leading us. We were blessed that some friends at church put together an Adoption Q&A meeting shortly after our decision to adopt. It was a very helpful resource for us as well. We contacted the AR Department of Human Services and requested some info from them as well. We learned they were having an informational meeting on December 3rd regarding foster care, fostering to adopt, and adoption through the state of AR. We went to that meeting as well. Once we left that meeting, I think both of us were very clear on what we were supposed to do.

We will foster to adopt.

The information we received in that meeting just about brought me to tears. In fact, it did the more I thought about it later. There are so many children, just in Arkansas, waiting for a Forever Family. And the statistics on what happens to these children if they are not adopted - it's devastating. The more we thought about it, the more we were certain to our bones that this is what God was directing us to do.

We are in no way assuming this will be an easy process. We know there will be challenges along the way and that there will be difficult times ahead. But regardless, we will not back down. We know that this is what God has called us to do, this is His will for OUR lives, and where He leads us, He alone will give us the strength to endure what He has purposed for us to do. And we know that in the end, we will have another member of our family, which will be worth it all.

So for now, we are just about finished with all of our initial paperwork and have a visit scheduled with a case worker on New Year's Eve. She will come to our home to "inspect" it and make sure that it's an appropriate place for a child. She will pick up our paperwork and then we will start some training classes. We have to go through about 6 weeks or so of classes and then proceed from there. I'm not sure yet of all the details, but of course, I'll be posting on things as they come up.

Our desire, and what would work in our home at this time, is to have another boy that's under 5 years old. We know that God has the perfect child ready for us. Please begin to pray that whatever child that comes into our lives will feel loved and accepted and that the transition would be smooth.

I will keep you updated on things as they occur. As for now, thanks for reading and for praying.

Most of My December - Cliff Notes Version

It has been entirely too long since my last post. To say we have been busy is a HUGE, I mean MASSIVE, understatement!

Since I last wrote, we traveled to Oklahoma for Mike's granny's funeral. It was a very bitter sweet time, but like one of the ministers said, there is no doubt whatsoever that Granny is in heaven with Jesus. It was nice to see all the family and get to visit with them for a few hours that day.

That same day, I learned that our music minister and his wife, Kim & Suzanne Noblitt, are leaving our church to go to a church in Florida. I cried more when I got that email than I did the whole day of the funeral. I love, love, love our music minister! I can't even think how to put into words how much I love Kim and Suzanne. When someone is as involved in the music ministry as I am, it means a lot to have a minister that you really enjoy, and I truly have enjoyed Kim. He has allowed me to grow as a person and a singer and has been such an encourager to me, and to so many others. I can't imagine someone replacing that position, but I know for a fact, no one will replace HIM. He is one of a kind and I'm beyond blessed to have gotten to know him and Suzanne in the time they've been with us.

Through all of that, we've had lots of rehearsals for our annual Christmas program, "Repeat The Sounding Joy". Even though we knew Kim was leaving, we still had to press on and put on our performances. It was a GREAT program this year and we all really enjoyed it. It was the first time EVER that I've gotten a chance to sing on the praise team during a performance like that. I was nervous about it, but SOOO honored that I'd been asked to do that. I was also able to do a smidge of acting in a video that the awesome Zach Kennedy put together. That boy has more talent in his pinky finger, I swear. He and his team put together a video to the song "A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill and it was amazing. I loved being a part of that as well. In fact, you can click HERE to watch the video on Zach's blog. Rachel was also able to be a part of the program for the first time. She was a marshmallow in the song "Hot Chocolate" from the Polar Express that the kids performed. She was pretty excited about being able to be in the program and then during the first performance, she was a bit upset because she wasn't able to be the "main marshmallow" that got to go up in this gigantic mug of hot chocolate. Oh, my child. She loves to be in the big middle of everything. Wonder where she could possibly have gotten that?

This week, we also had our first ever Kids Day Out Christmas program that I directed and our little kiddos performed for their families. It went SO well!!! I'm so over the top proud of all my kids! We'd been working on Christmas songs since October with all of the classes from the older 2 year olds through the Pre-K class. The oldest class was our cast of biblical characters and everyone else got to wear their Christmas PJ's. It was super cute and all the parents that I talked to were extremely pleased with it and thought their kids were all rock stars, which of course they were!

Last night was our very first "Merry Christmas Springdale" program in which we honored all the city employees of Springdale. We were able to have a dinner for them and then our choir and orchestra performed a few songs, along with some pretty adorable kids. As Kim said, it was a dream come true for him that we were able to get outside the walls of our church, as a choir, and do ministry in the community. It was a really neat night and it seemed like everyone there really enjoyed themselves. Hopefully it'll be a tradition that continues each year.

We're heading over to my dad's tomorrow for our Christmas time with him and my stepmom and then we'll be finished traveling for the holidays. I don't have anything on my calendar for the next couple of weeks and I'm ecstatic about it!! I'm excited about sleeping in (or not setting an alarm), not having to BE anywhere, and just having time to hang with my family. I'm so excited about Christmas and getting to see the reactions of my family when they open their gifts. That's always more fun for me than opening presents for myself. I know I've done a good job when they are excited.

Some exciting news is coming up in the next couple of days, so stay tuned. I promise it won't be that long until I post again.... for those 3 of you that actually read my blog. :)

Holy Werewolf, Batman!!

For those of you that know me, you know that I am a lover of the Twilight Saga. Loved the books. Loved the first movie. LOVE New Moon!!

Tanner and I went to see it Saturday in KC and I was beyond excited to see it. I couldn't wait until I had another opportunity to see it in the theater. Today, I get that opportunity... with some of my mom friends! When we saw it in KC, the theater had a pretty even mix of young girls and older moms. I, in no way, felt out of place. In fact, I may have been one of the younger moms there.

I loved the movie. It had been such a long time since I'd read the book that I'd forgotten several of the details of the story, which was probably a good thing, that way I wasn't too critical of the things they did differently for the movie. I loved Mike and Jessica in the movie. They had some really cute, funny lines. Mike's character was a hoot and I loved the banter between him and Jacob. But let me say, throughout the book series, I was wholeheartedly on Team Edward. No swaying over to Team Jacob whatsoever. Even after Twilight came out in the theater, still my loyalty was for the vampire. Then I sat in the theater and watched Taylor Lautner portray Jacob... I do have to admit that my loyalty was swayed for a good hour and a half. Mercy. But then.... there was the last 30 seconds of the movie. Oh. My. Gosh. If ever there was a scene in a movie that screamed there would be more to follow, that, my friends, was it! I'm pretty sure my mouth hung open for a good 5 seconds before I realized where I was and that I was not Bella and Edward was not..... Well, you'll just have to watch it to really get it.

I'm off to see the love triangle on the big screen again. Can. Not. Wait!

Actually Writing... with a pen

I'm a way faster typer than I am a writer. I kind of gave up on "traditional" journaling because it just takes so darn long to do it. Blogging is a much faster way to keep up with stuff. And Twitter/Facebook is just lightning fast compared to actually getting a pen and paper.

However, I'm going back to the traditional paper and pen journaling for a while. I haven't actually started, but I'm going to. I really am. Not everything will be sent to the paper journal, but I'm starting it for a specific subject. I'll eventually put it all online, but for now, I have to actually pick up a pen and write. Should be fun. :)

All is well in the Langham house. We had a great Halloween. We went to a few houses to Trick-or-Treat, but not many people were home. Somehow, even though we didn't get to as many houses as last year, we ended up with WAY more candy. I'm still rather perplexed about that. It could be that I bought four bags of chocolate at Target the day before Halloween. Because I wanted it. That could be the reason for all the candy. But I'm not totally sure. Rachel and Katie were cheerleaders and Porter recycled his lion costume from last year. Tanner stayed at our house and passed out candy with her tie-dyed hair. The kids ended the night by going to Grandma Lynn's to spend the night. G'ma did it up something special with her costume. I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture of that, but she had on a metallic green mullet wig, freckels painted on her cheeks, and a set of those rotten looking teeth. Real nice, my friends. Real nice. Porter was a little bit leary of her at first, but got past it pretty quickly.

I will update with pictures soon. The little picture uploader thing doesn't like me this morning and I have to move on with other items on my to do list before I feel completely unproductive for the day.

Our Big Weekend

So I know this is coming a couple weeks late, but I wanted to update about our trip that Mike and I took with our friends earlier this month. And prepare yourselves... there will be pictures!! I know!! You're gasping in shock right now, aren't you.

**and just on a side note - does anyone else besides me ever find themselves spelling words that they've known for years in a totally wrong way? For instance, just now, I started spelling the word pictures like this... picksures. REALLY?! Does this mean I'm getting some sort of brain disease? Because I never really think about how to spell stuff when I'm typing. I think of the word and it just hammers out without too much effort. But picksures?! I'm worried! But I digress...

Our weekend:

My mom and granny came over to stay at the house with the kids and Mom and Mike's mom, Grandma Lynn, were in charge of babysitting for the weekend. The kids were excited about getting to spend time with the grandmas. I think the grandmas were even more excited to spend time with the grandkids.

Mike and I headed out Friday afternoon with our friends Darrell and Heather and were on our way to Tulsa for the Dave Matthews Band concert. For those of you that don't know, my husband LOVES the Dave Matthews Band! We've had these concert tickets since the minute they went on sale. We got to Tulsa and checked in to our hotel and headed out to dinner. We wanted to eat at sort of a dive type place, and boy did we find it. It was this little Mexican place and when we walked in, there was not a soul there that we could see. And they served organic foods that were mostly locally grown. Mike's not big into "organic" type stuff and actually asked to have non-organic items. He's just annoying like that. But the food actually turned out to be amazing! And before we left, the place was packed and there was a line! There's something to be said for going to the Early Bird dinner. :) These old people have a good idea! We did find out right before we left the place that there was apparently a whole extra section in the back that was full of people. We had to pass all those people to get to the weirdest, most odd excuse for a bathroom I've ever seen! I seriously should have taken a picture. You talk about a "hole in the wall". Yep. That pretty much described it.

We then headed for the BOK Center and got there as Willie Nelson was beginning his opening act. He was... well... Willie. I can tolerate his recorded music, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if I never heard him sing in person again. I can't stand it. But it was kinda funny when he started singing "On The Road Again", which is one hilarious song to watch my husband play on Guitar Hero. I literally cry laughing. He did redeem himself by singing "I'll Fly Away" as his closing song. It was actually not horrible.

Here's a pic of the stage when good ol' Willie was out there. You can sort of tell just how far away from the stage we were.

Here's a picture of me and Mike as we were enjoying DMB. There was no flash on my camera phone, so the best I got was when they brought a little more light onto the stage and even then, I got my arm shadow in the shot. Oh well.

Dave on the stage. My husband was just a wee bit more than excited to be there.

It was a fantastic concert! I enjoy DMB, but they aren't a band that I will go out of my way to get on my iPod. However, I would go to another one of their concerts in a heartbeat. I seriously sat there and bobbed my head the whole time. It's just that kind of music. You can't help but move. However, there was this one couple sitting in front of us that didn't move an inch the whole time we were there. Didn't even remotely come close to breaking out any kind of even a head-bob type move. Nothing. They sat like lumps on a log. HOW do you do that?! Especially with Dave?! I loved it and would go again. I hope we get to soon.

The next day was the K-State/Iowa State game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Last year, we went to this same game in Manhattan and got to tailgate with Heather's family. Her dad is the ULTIMATE tailgater. I mean, I have never seen anything quite like it in my life. His name is Walter and this is a picture of his trailer, "Walt's Wildcat Wagon". That man has everything down to a science! He would be ready to take that thing out anywhere anytime. Any other tailgating will seem like it's in vain after experiencing Walt's type of tailgating! In this pic is Mike, Heather, and Darrell enjoying some award winning baked beans. DELISH!!!

Our seats at the game were awesome! We were on the 5 yard line and so close to the field! It was crazy fun! Here is a picture of a guy going in for a touchdown. I have no idea how I captured this on my phone, but I was excited about it!

And just in case you couldn't see it in the picture above, I zoomed in a little for ya...

Quite cool, right?! That game was so fun! K-State ended up winning 24 to 23 because of a blocked extra point in the last minute of the game. My husband literally turned to me, picked me up, and started jumping up and down with me when the guy blocked Iowa State's kick! It was so funny! It was a GREAT game to have been at this year. It was exciting til the end. I love those... but only when the team I'm rooting for wins. :)

That night, we met up with Mike's brother Andy for a late night dinner and stayed there in KC. We came home that Sunday and were zapped, but had such a wonderful weekend. I loved just spending time with my hubby. We don't get to do that too often, so we certainly cherish it when the opportunity presents itself.

So, there you go. Pictures and everything. Don't get your hopes up for that to come again soon. It's taken me all day to get this one done. :)

And Then There Were Three...

My white chunky boy puppy just left this evening. And I'm sort of sad about it. I'm glad he's going to the home he went to because they have a boxer already and seem like they will really love our puppy. Some friends of ours adopted another one of the girls today, too. I'm so glad she went with people we know. That's what we want. We want good homes for our babies with people that will really take care of them as members of their families. But I really sort of hoped no one would take my big white chunk. He's been my favorite since he was born. We bonded. :( And I'm sad he's gone.

Now there are three remaining puppies. They are having to snuggle a bit closer tonight since they are two less tonight than they were last night. I'm almost to the point of considering letting the remaining ones come in the house to sleep. We have a heater out there with them in our sunroom, but I just hate for them to be cold at all. They're just still so little.

I'm praying for the other three families to come quickly to adopt these three that are left. Not because I want them to leave (although I will NOT miss the poop smell), but because I know they will be so happy and so spoiled in their new homes with the families that will care for them.

Check out www.langhamboxerbabies.blogspot.com to see pictures of our babies and to see which ones we have left. There's one boy and two girls.

Wonder how long after these are gone that we'll be itching to have more babies? There will have to be another mama for that to happen though. Don't tell my husband, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings to get another female to breed. I will be super picky with the next dog we get though. Now that I really know more about boxers, I know more of what I'm looking for and what will be a good dog. But that's down the road a bit. We still have Zoe and as long as our sweet little mutt is a part of our family, there will be no more big dogs at the Langham house!!

Blue's Clues

My son is obsessed with Blue's Clues. He LOVES Blue. He gets really, really upset if we have to turn off one of our dvr'd episodes before it's over. Any time he sees any sort of paw print, he yells, "A CLUE! A CLUE!" It really is pretty cute. He sleeps with a stuffed Blue and asks to watch it every day. And let me take this opportunity to give a big shout out to Noggin for playing that show so many times so I can have a variety on my dvr. Whew.

But I've got a dilemma. I've got all kinds of "Cars" stuff for his birthday this year. I found it on clearance last year and thought I would just steer him toward "Cars" for this year. I never figured on him loving Blue as much as he does. So now I'm torn. Do I use the stuff I have or do I try and find Blue's Clues stuff, which I'll have to find online because there is nary a store that carries that stuff anymore.... believe me. I've looked.

Let me also say that my son, who will not be two for another 3 weeks, pooped on the potty last night. That's right, folks. He POOPED on the potty! WOOHOO! He was standing in the kitchen and I had JUST put a new diaper on him. He said, "Poop?" so I immediately grabbed his hand and said, "Let's go poop in the potty!!" He was ok with it at first and then he wanted down. I let him sit there for about 6 or 7 minutes and then all of the sudden, there it came. Of course I hooped and hollered and he got excited because I was excited. Although I'm sure he didn't know what I was excited about. He was just glad to have an opportunity to clap and squeal for something. I'm pretty sure this will be a one time thing because he doesn't quite get the concept yet of "if you do this, I'll give you this" yet. And until that point, you just can't bribe a kid to go sit on the potty. But by golly, if he says poop again, don't think I won't be grabbing him up and heading to the potty!

Lastly, check out our puppy blog. I'm posting some new pics of our puppies. If you know of anyone that is interested, please send them our way. We're in the process of looking for good homes for our babies. We have 10 to place - 6 girls and 4 boys.

www.langhamboxerbabies.blogspot.com

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Dinner conversation tonight:

Rachel, out of the blue: "I broke up with my boyfriend today." she said, totally nonchalant like it was part of every day conversation.

Daddy snapped his head over toward her and I know I did a double take!

Me and Daddy: "WHAT?!"

Rachel: "I broke up with Jonathan today."

Me, as Daddy stares at her like she's just grown three horns out of her head: "What do you mean you 'broke up' with your boyfriend?"

Rachel: "I broke up with Jonathan because he wasn't listening to me when I was talking to him."

Me: "What does a boyfriend or girlfriend mean?"

Rachel: "You know. You play on the playground together and you do your stuff together."

Mike, steam coming out of his ears: "What STUFF?!" he said, with nary a crack of a smile on his face.

Me: "Do you mean like stuff in class together?"

Rachel: "Yeah, like homework and centers and stuff. But, actually, he was talking to another girl and not talking to me, so I broke up with him."

Me - TOTALLY DYING trying not to laugh: "Well, you can be friends with boys but you're not to have a "boyfriend" or to be anyone's "girlfriend". That's just for big people, ok? But you can still be friends with boys and that's ok."

Rachel: "Ok."

Lord, help us. My mom says I'm paying for my raising. I'm pretty sure it was in Kindergarten when I had my first crush and I had that same crush all the way through 6th grade. Then I went to prom with him my 10th grade year. He was a senior. Dream come true, right? It was the yuckiest night EVER. Gross!! What in the heck was I thinking when I was in Kindergarten?! :)

When a Mom Isn't Watching...

Earlier tonight, I was on the phone with my friend Angela getting some English homework help for Tanner. Angela is an English major, so I figure she's the perfect person to ask... and I was right! Thanks, Ang! Anyway, while I was on the phone with her, I hear her daughter yelling, "Jeb Alert!! Come quick! Jeb Alert!" and then I hear her husband yell something like "Oh NO!" and then Angela... bless her sweet heart... relays a story to me of what she has just witnessed. I can't even explain it and do it any kind of justice, so you just need to go to her post here and watch for yourself. I have seen the video at least 5 times and I'm still laughing about it! It's too funny!!

Noises

Currently, my son is pushing a plastic kids chair back and forth across our kitchen floor. It makes a completely annoying noise. And he keeps. doing. it. He also enjoys pushing it on the concrete floor in the sunroom. That's even worse. But again - he keeps on.... and on.... and on.

Why do boys just love to make noise? And the more irritating, the better, it seems.

Now he's carring said chair over his head, sort of bent behind his back. Yeah, I don't see anything that could go wrong with that!

A Whole New World

My baby is in Kindergarten! And yes, I'm one of the moms that cried. I heard today about a teacher that gave each of her Kindergarten parents a package of tissues and a tea bag! Now that is too cute! Could have used those today for sure!

Isn't she a doll?! She was super excited this morning. Even up to the time when we walked into her classroom. Then she got a little nervous and clung to my leg. But a friend from church came up and talked to her and she went right on in the class and never looked back. I, on the other hand, lost it when I walked away from her room. It was a bittersweet moment for me. On the one hand I'm so extremely excited about her being in kingergarten and knowing that she'll learn SOOO much this year. On the other hand, my baby girl is entering a new stage in her life. The baby stage is gone. Not that it wasn't gone about 3 1/2 years ago when she started talking in full sentences and letting her opinions be known with a bit of attitude, but still. We've entered the "school age". We're in a new era with her. It just hit me the other day that the only days she'll be home with me are on school breaks. BOOHOOO!!! But she's going to have so much fun and her teachers will soon be falling in love with her, I'm sure!

This has been a day of tears. I shed some at Rachel's school this morning and then once I got over that, I thought I was done. That is, until I got to choir. Holy cow. First thing when I sat down, I got some sickening news about a friend. That put me in a funk. Then, we had a prayer time for the Kennedys who are leaving for Africa Sunday. It's so exciting what they are doing, but sad at the same time that they will be away for so long. I gave them each big hugs before they left from choir, but heavens. That was a tear jerker. THEN, Kathy Ferguson spoke to our choir... there isn't even space or time to relay what all she talked about, but it was so good and so sweet and I was crying again! And then at the end, that stinkin' Kim Noblitt talked about meeting Katie Rowe out today and how she gave him a big hug and said how much she appreciated her church during this difficult time after they've lost their baby girl. Tears again. I don't remember the last time I've cried this much in a day. It's been a while.

I think it's time to go to bed and shut down this emotional day!!

Memory Lane

You know how with just a word, you can take a trip down memory lane? Yeah, that was me today. I found out that my boss (and dear friend) is really good friends with an ex-boyfriend's wife! I hesitate to even say "ex-boyfriend" because I don't know that we ever really declared that we were boyfriend/girlfriend - but we were more than friends. He was that "bad boy" that I didn't need to like but couldn't help myself from loving. And like I told my friend today, since we were never really boyfriend/girlfriend, there was never really a breakup, so to speak. So that finality, that closed chapter, didn't really exist for us - at least not that I remember.

The last time I saw him was after I had Rachel. We were in Kohl's and I came around the corner pushing Rachel in the stroller and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw him, his wife, and a baby in a stroller with them also. His wife was so, so nice. I remember she sort of went about her shopping and left us to chat for just a second. That takes a good woman to do that. And it was VERY weird to know he had a child. It was one of those meetings where you almost didn't need to say anything. And what was there to be said. He was married. I was married. We both had kids. We were in the spots we were supposed to be. It's not like we wished things were any different, I'm sure. But it WAS weird...and good all at the same time.

I hear now that he's going to church with his family and is a "good family man". Honest to God, I prayed for him so much to be saved and to be a church-going, God-fearing man - and told him that on lots of occassions. And I was glad today to hear that my prayers had been answered.

It's funny how God works sometimes. I shared about Christ with him several times, bought him a Bible, and brought him to church for some events I was in (since it was the only time he would come). Maybe I was just supposed to be that breath in his life for a short time to nudge him in the direction of finding the Lord. I hope I was able to do that - even just a little...

Africa Bound

My friends, the Kennedys, are moving to Africa for two months to be interim directors for Esther's House orphanage and to film a reality show while doing that. I'm so excited for them about this opportunity, even though I'm sick that they won't be here for two months. They just adopted a precious, beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia last year and he's about the same age as Porter. They are buddies and have fun playing together in the nursery.

Their heart for Africa tugs at MY heartstrings because of the ties I have from my mission trip to Zimbabwe 10 years ago. So many times I've wanted to go back, but at the times our church was sending people, it just hasn't worked out due to pregnancies, nursing, etc. There are some times coming in the next several months that teams are going back to Malawi to work with the orphanage that our church has started there and my heart has been gripped. I'm praying about a time when I could join one of our teams to go. The only "fear" I have is that I'll get there and be with those babies and kids at that orphanage and either won't want to leave or want to bring every one of them back with me.

Take a minute to read the Kennedys' blog post about their upcoming travels. It's exciting stuff!

Moving To Africa

So Many Thoughts...

There are so many thoughts running through my head as I sit here typing. There are some things I wish I could wright about in this venue, but I cannot. I think I may come up with a pen name and just write a bunch of stuff, just to get it out, but no one would know it's me. I wouldn't even care if anyone read it. It would just be nice to "say" it without worry. I'm thinking about it...

New Candidate...

I just finished reading the website for Mark Darr. He and his wife are friends of mine and I sing with them at church in choir and on the praise team. Mark has decided to run for Lieutenant Governer or Arkansas. I know Mark and when I first heard he was going to run, I thought he would do a great job. After reading his website, I'm even more inthused. Take a minute to look at his site. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings for Mark and his family as they campaign.

http://markdarr.com/

Too Much To Say...

Gosh, I have been so lazy about updating this thing! I make sure to keep up with everyone else's stuff, but haven't been so good about keeping up with my own blog.

There's so much to update about that I'm almost overwhelmed. So, I'm not going to do it right now. At least this little post will make me feel better that it hasn't been a hundred years since I posted something, bare though it may be.

Let me just say that as posted in my last update, Mike and I are still going to the gym. We are on week three and I have been to the gym 5 days a week each of those weeks! Go me!! Sadly, I haven't lost hardly any weight. That's a bummer considering how much sweating I'm doing on that darn treadmill at 6am every day! And let me just put it out there that I HATE the elliptical machine! HATE. IT. But my shins were hurting so badly this morning that I only did a mile on the treadmill and thought I'd suck it up and give my shins a break on the elliptical. Good. Lord. First of all, that sucker is a beat! I get winded in a hurry on that darn thing. However, I did learn that I burned a crap load of calories quick! Woohoo! Maybe I should do that more often. Then again, maybe not. I do need to get back to Body Pump. I know that will help with the calorie burn and with my muscle tone, because Lord knows I definitely need that! I tried on a bathing suit a couple weeks ago and let me just say, that was not a pleasant experience. I got a suit that had a little skirt covering the booty, because let's face it - no one needs to be exposed to this booty in the shape it's in! That's what I keep reminding myself when I'm doing my short little sprints in between walking - cottage cheese booty!! Keep moving!!

Oh - I'm reading Angels & Demons. I've already seen the movie, so I'm not totally surprised with the turns in the book like I would have been had I not already seen it, but it's really pretty good. It took me forever to get in to the darn thing, but now it's hard to put it down. It's as long as I don't know what, so it's taking a long time for me to read. But it's really good.

Porter is sitting in his high chair watching "Icky" and "Onald" (Micky Mouse Clubhouse) and I just sneezed - he said "Bess You!" four times. So precious! I love how he's learning so much! Gosh, that kid is cute!!!

And here I said I wasn't really going to post anything. I know some of you want pictures, though. Those are coming. Sometime.

Mini Update - Bullet Point Style

*Tanner is on her way to Beach Camp in Florida. She didn't fare well when they were leaving, but once they were on the road, I think she was fine. I'm so anxious to see what this week brings. If only my Twitter people would update more! :) And all I have to say is thank the Good Lord for unlimited texting!

*Rachel had her first T-ball game on Saturday and did really well. Daddy's coaching is paying off. She was SUPER cute and loved being out there! I've got tons of pics and will try posting some of those tonight or tomorrow.

*We had a good Father's Day here at the Langham house. Mike got a new charcoal grill and is anxious for the weekend.... because apparently, that's when you use charcoal grills. Whatever will he choose to cook first for me?! Mmmmm!!!

*Mike and I are starting a 40 day challenge at the gym. There are prizes we can get if we go 40 times to the gym from today until August 22nd. Wonder what my body would look like if I actually stick to that? We shall see. Zumba tonight and I might get REAL crazy and go to Body Pump in the early am. HA! Yeah - don't hold your breath.

Bears - A Tutorial. By Rachel.

Out of nowhere, Rachel started telling me what you have to do if you meet a bear in the woods. Here's how her story went:

Rachel - "Ok, Mommy, you have to remember - bears are very simple. First thing, do not play the clarinet. Do not wear big red shoes. Do not wear a pink skirt. And never, ever wear a sombrero. And the last thing is, don't wave your flashlight back and forth really fast. That's really true. It was on Sponge Bob. And then draw a circle around yourself cause the perimeter makes the sea bear go away because they stay away from circles. Don't draw an oval or a diamond or anything like that. Only a circle. And that will get into it's conscious - that's what's inside the bear's heart."

Me - "Hmmm. I never knew that. Let me write that down so I don't forget it."

And then I came to the computer to publish that little jewel for all the world to see and for me to embarrass my daughter with in a few years. :) So I wrote down all that I remembered and then had her tell me again, just to be sure. Gosh, I love that child's imagination.

Flowery Surprise

Mike came in from work yesterday carrying these. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face. It was very unexpected!! I hadn't gotten flowers from him like that..... maybe ever. He used to have it on his calendar to get me flowers every so often. I told him I didn't want to be a part of his to-do list. Those would always be shipped. And they were nice. But still. I felt like it was just another thing checked off his list. Yesterday was an exception. He came in the house carrying nothing but the flowers. I LOVED IT!!

Thank you, Honey!! You're the best! And yes, I do like those more than roses!!

Let the Moving Continue...

We're getting "Mom" all moved in. Mike's mom got here on Wednesday, her stuff arrived on Thursday, and we've been hitting it pretty hard ever since. It's beginning to look like someone actually lives there now, which is good. There are so many little things to do around the house that, when they are done, are going to make it look GREAT! She's got lots of good ideas about things she wants to do. Number one on the "handyman" list is to get rid of the BROWN, poop colored toilet in the master bathroom. It's really just scary. Now mind you, this house was built in the 70's. She has the same yellow sink that we have, which is livable. But that master toilet, and the BLUE one that's in the hall - yeah, they have GOT to go! Just a little updating on the rest of the place and we're in business.

And the fact that she's just literally around the corner from us is GREAT!! We've seen her every day since she's been here, but that's to be expected since we're helping her get settled. And she's already been able to babysit for me once for a couple hours!! How great is that?! The kids LOVE that Grandma is here! And we do too!!

To Feel Scared or Safe, That Is The Question

Two nights ago, at a little after midnight, I was awakened to my husband barreling out of bed.



Now let me step back a little and say that he has bad dreams every so often. His bad dreams are of his biggest fears, which usually include either me cheating on him or someone trying to attack his family. Most of the time when he has these bad dreams, it's no big deal. He'll make noises or bolt up in bed, but most of us have done that at one time or another.



Well, Sunday night was an exception. A little after midnight, apparently my dear, sweet husband was dreaming that someone was standing in the corner by our bedroom door, waiting for him to fall totally asleep, and I guess then was going to attack us. Instead of continuing in his sleep, Mike decided he was NOT going to let this dream-induced stranger attack us and he was going to nip it in the bud, attack this stranger first, and apparently kill him... right there in our bedroom. So, Mike barreled out of bed and headed for this imagined stranger and didn't wake up until his head ricocheted out of our sheet rock and onto the door frame, or our dresser, I'm not sure which. Once he landed on his butt, I saw the wall in the dark and was convinced that we were going to have to either call 911 or rush him to the ER because, in the dark, I thought what I saw was a big splash of blood on the wall. I quickly turned the light on, jumped out of bed, and went racing over to Mike on the floor and grabbed his face to see where the blood was coming from. Thank GOD there was no blood on his face, which actually left me a bit confused. I looked back up at the wall to find this:



This, my friends, is a 2 1/2 foot long, 1 1/2 foot wide HOLE in my bedroom wall! Mike tackled the WALL.

Should I be terrified or should I feel completely safe that even in his sleep, my hubby can produce a hole in my wall with his head? I'm not sure I've decided which.

I wanted to repaint my bedroom anyway. This gives me a good excuse.

FREE KFC Dinner

Go to www.oprah.com/kfc and print a coupon for a free chicken dinner with 2 sides and a biscuit! YUM!! We're about to head there now with coupons in hand! WOOHOO!! :)

***But you can only print them through tomorrow!! They're good through 5/19, but can only be printed before tomorrow at about 5pm or something like that. So hurry!!

Wish Come True

So in my last post, I decided I needed a wife and nanny. Well, my husband has decided to be both as my Mother's Day present!

Last year, I told him I wanted to have my house professionally cleaned and my van cleaned (by him or whoever he wanted to get to do it). That was GREAT to have my house cleaned! I loved it!!! So, I was thinking of doing the same thing again this year.

However, I've been "complaining" about how I haven't had time to do any of the appointments that I'd like/need to do, i.e. dentist, eye doctor, hair stylist, etc. If I do any of those, I have to arrange for someone to keep my kids. I can't just go on my lunch hour or leave "work" early to get those things done like my hubby could do. And to take kids to those types of appointments??? Yeah. Not a good idea at ALL.

So for Mother's Day, my husband told me he is going to take a vacation day, stay home with the kids, and clean my WHOLE house while I leave that morning to go run all my errands, have lunch with friends (any takers?) and just enjoy a whole day to myself to do anything I want/need to do!! Can I just tell you that I'm about to BURST with excitement over that deal?!! I cannot WAIT!! I'm going to start scheduling appointments today!

Is it pretty messed up of me to be so excited to be getting to go to the dentist? I'm sure Wade doesn't think so. :) HA!

Still haven't gotten the pics off my camera. Maybe soon. Why is it that there are always a hundred more things to do than I ever have time for? I need a wife. That's what I've decided. That and a nanny. Oh wait - if I had a wife, she'd be a maid AND a nanny. Yep. That's what I need.

House Hunting

Grandma Lynn is coming back down tomorrow to do some more house hunting. She has to be out of her place in less than a month, so there's no time to waste. I know she's getting anxious and a little nervous about getting something that she loves in time, but I also know it will all work out. And if we have to have a live-in babysitter for a little while before she finds a place, then so be it. :) Heck, I might even get to go get a hair cut!!

It is on my list to download pics from my camera today, so hopefully I will have some time to post some pics from Rachel's dance recital last Friday. She did great!!

We're also doing a little landscape action in our back yard. The rain and yuckiness have hindered our work a bit, but at least we got our landscape bricks around what is to become our flower beds... or as Mike likes to call them, dog borders. Pictures to follow.

I'm off to do some organizing today. I may be calling Superchikk to help!

The Week From.....

This has been one of the craziest, busiest, most irritating weeks of the world. Sunday morning, I had praise team which meant being at church by 7:30 am. Sunday night was the children's musical and my choir kids (including Rachel) singing in "big church". Monday was work and then a 2 hour dance practice. Tuesday was babysitting and then a 3 hour dance practice. I thought I was going to get the evening sans children, but plans changed at the last minute and that didn't work out. Wednesday was Grandma Lynn's arrival. She's looking for a house here, so she came into town to do a little home shopping. Wednesday night was our last night for children's choir and our pizza party. Today was work and immediately after that was getting the girls ready for the 2 hour dance dress rehearsal. Let's not forget all the prep I've had to do for Friday Night Out since I'm not going to be there tomorrow night. Tomorrow is house hunting all morning and then the afternoon will be getting things ready for the recital tomorrow night, and we have to be there an hour and a half before starting time. Saturday morning will be more house hunting and I'm not sure what the evening plans are now, as they have changed in the last 24 hours. Sunday morning is serving in preschool. Sunday afternoon, I might crawl in a hole and not come out until Monday morning.

The sad thing is, there seems to be extra stuff that just keeps popping into my week - this week of all weeks. Today, I was about to explode but refrained, somewhat, from throwing a few choice words around. I haven't been able to get to my exercise class for over a week and haven't had time to myself AT ALL in about 2 weeks. I'm just so tired that it makes me want to cry sitting here thinking about it. And yet, there are still demands for my attention and action that won't quit and I have to keep going. Oh what I wouldn't give to not have anything more pressing to do, anyone to be responsible for, or anyone else to think about but myself for even a couple hours. That, my dear friends, would just be bliss. Unfortunately, I do not currently have that luxury. What if I had a lunch hour to go out for a while by myself? What if I had a drive to or from work where there were no children in my car? Even that would be wonderful.

I told Lynn that when she moves here, I have one request - that she babysit my kids for a day so that I can go get a hair cut, my eyes checked, and my teeth cleaned. Because to do any of that stuff that most people would consider easy/manditory things, I have to get a babysitter. I haven't had a hair cut since October. I haven't been to have my eyes checked in about a year and a half. And we'll not even discuss how long it's been since I've been to the dentist. Let's just say I've been on Tyson's insurance for over 8 years and they've never paid a dental bill for me.

Do you feel sorry for me yet? I certainly feel sorry for myself after writing all that. Is there a bright side to things? I'm trying really hard to see it, but not having much luck.

Movies and "Zac Outrun"

Yesterday, Tanner and I went to see "17 Again". It was super cute and hilarious. We laughed a ton. And yes, I thought Zac Efron was a cutie! Today, Rachel and I went to see "Monsters vs. Aliens". I'd never seen a movie in a theater that was in 3D, so that was a treat for Rachel and me getting to wear our "super cool" 3D glasses. It was a cute movie and as Melissa said, I had to snicker a few times at the sci-fi movie references that were in there. Went right over Rachel's head, but whatever. And one of the funnist things that I still snicker over was when the pres said he was going to change the threat level to brown...cause he had to go change his pants. HEHE! THAT was funny.

But the funniest part of the day was when Rachel was talking about Tanner and I going to see the movie yesterday and she said, "I really like Zac Outrun." I'm pretty sure I snorted from laughing so hard when she said that! Zac Outrun. Yep. Still giggling from that.

Well, I Thought I'd Cried My Last Tear... for a while...

...but I hadn't apparently. I was told about this blog, so I had to go check it out. I'm literally in tears as I write this. It's by Angie Smith of the group Selah. They lost a baby last year and had a post from April 7th, what would have been the baby's first birthday. Go read it when you have a chance, but bring a tissue. Mercy.
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/


And I just found this video on their site. Literally - I am WEEPING!! I think I'm crying harder now than I did all three performances of playing Mary Magdelene. Can you even imagine? It tears my heart out of me to think of losing one of my children. That must be the MOST horrible pain any mother could ever face. God, bless that woman right now and give her an enormous portion of your peace today.
I'm totally serious - if you have any sort of a tender heart, do NOT try and watch this without a kleenex. I'm not even kidding!! It will rip your heart to shreds!
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2008/04/slideshow.html

Alone Time

.... if I don't get some soon, I think I might scream at anything that walks near me! I usually am a pretty good people person and I enjoy being around people. But I think I've been around people (and by people I'm including my children) and I haven't given myself enough time just by myself. I love my children and even as I type this they are doing some really cute things, but sometimes I just need to have some time where I'm not thinking about anything and I'm not around anyone.

Porter is as cute as can be but oh. my. gosh!!! He's into EVERYTHING!!!! Before I sat down to type this, he found the box of Alphabits that I just put by the trashcan and took it to the living room and thought he'd see how much of a mess he could make on the living room carpet. I had to get the vacuum cleaner out and suck up all the crumbs. It wasn't even that it was crumbs so much as it was that powder that's in the bottom of the cereal bags. This morning, it was an empty milk jug and a banana peel that he pulled out of the trash and was taking through the kitchen. He also loves to get the pens out of the drawer at my desk, as well as all the lotions, hair products, band aids and medicines we have in the bathroom cabinets. And Lord help me if I leave a book or magazine within his reach. Rachel was NEVER in to stuff like Porter is. I feel like I would have to keep him caged most of the time to keep him out of things! It's enough to wear a woman OUT!

And Rachel.... apparently that child has a problem with not being obedient in her class when it comes to talking. They have a discipline system to where they have little clips they move to green when they have a warning, to yellow if they are told again, and to red when it's really bad. When I came to get her today, her clip was the lone clip on the RED!!! I still don't have the full story, but her teacher told me that it wasn't as bad as it looked and that she didn't realize her clip was already on yellow or she wouldn't have had to move it again. I don't know exactly what happened there, but apparently she wasn't "red clip" bad even though that's where her clip was. Last time she moved her clip to yellow, she got a spanking from Daddy when she got home. It doesn't look good for her today.

Can you get a feel for why I need a smidge of alone time?

Oh Dear Computer

We have our computer back!! Glory Hallelujah!! All the files are there. We're still having email issues. It'll be fixed soon, I'm sure. I'm just glad to have a screen bigger than an inch to look at! That phone is fabulous and I'm glad to have had it this past week for keeping up with stuff, but my goodness, it was beginning to be an "eye sore".

I've been challenged to a baking competition by Angela. You know, I usually can't let a challenge go past me. I'm going to try and not let this one get past me either. I'm not sure how it's going to fit into my schedule this week, but I'm going to give it a shot at some point.

Porter has been very snugly this week. He was just standing beside me and laid his head over on my lap and was saying, "aawwww". How precious is that?! He's been very into giving me and his sisters hugs, too. I'm going to try and savor every moment of this because, as we all know, it won't last.

MOPS is calling and my hair needs to be washed before I step foot out of this house!

Later...

Slacker

So I haven't posted anything in a week! I'm either a slacker or just busy. Maybe both.

Just a few points of catching up:

The Duggar laundry soap has been working like a dream! So far, it's gotten everything clean. Even smelly pits aren't smelly after they've been laundered. And Porter's shirts that usually are caked with food have come out totally clean. I do use Snuggle fabric softener (cause it's my favorite scent). At the rate I'm going, I'll probably be spending about $1.50 a year now on laundry soap!! Can I get a WOOHOO!!!!

I think the spring cleaning bug has hit me. I'm ready to get rid of stuff again. I feel that need to have everything clean and fresh. I wish today was warmer so I could open my windows and let the breeze in.

I'm going to a Twilight party on Friday night! I can't wait!! Some of my other mom friends and I who are crazy about Twilight are getting together to watch the movie, play a little trivia and just enjoy a night together. We're all excited about it! I can't wait!!! I need to watch the movie again and brush up a little on my trivia because I WILL WIN!!!!!



We went up to KC this past weekend to help Mike's mom clean out her garage. Her house is up for sale and we've already helped get the inside clean and ready for show. This time we had to tackle the garage. There was stuff we found that had been kept for literally decades! There was a box of income tax returns dating back to 1971!!!!!!! I mean, really?! The funniest thing we found was a box that had mine and Mike's name on it and was sealed in packing tape. Mike's mom started snickering when she saw it and had me open it. It was a wedding gift she'd gotten us EIGHT YEARS AGO that she'd put away and had forgotten about. Oh my granny! We just decided it would be an anniversary present instead of a wedding gift. And the fun thing is that I think I'll still be able to use it!

Speaking of our anniversary, last Tuesday was our 8th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long already. Time has sure flown by. While we were in KC, we went out on a date on Friday and went to Dave & Busters for dinner and some games. We had a choice of waiting who knows how long on a table in the main seating area or we could sit at the bar right then. We chose the bar. It's always fun watching those guys throw those bottles of liquor and make some pretty little drink. We sat by a couple that was out on a date as well and the grandparents were babysitting for them also. They were a fun couple and we were all enjoying our time just chilling. Alas, I do think I'm getting old because by 11pm, I was yawning and thinking about how good it was going to feel to go to bed. How sad is that?! However, it was a great evening and we really did enjoy having that time together. Since I'm working every Friday night, we don't have a lot of opportunity to go out, so it was a nice treat.

Now it's off to cleaning. I have a bunch of things I want/need to get done and with trying to keep Porter out of the stuff he shouldn't be getting in to, it's taking WAY longer than necessary to get stuff done. Such is the life of a mom of a 1 1/2 year old, right?

The Duggar's Laundry Soap

So I have tested Michelle Duggar's recipe for laundry soap. I must say, it was VERY easy to make and VERY, VERY cheap!!

Here is the bucket I used...

And here is what the laundry soap looks like...

It's sort of like watery jello. I made it yesterday and let it sit overnight. I just stired it this morning and mushed the gelled parts (which the kids helped me with for a minute until they thought it was too gross) and then took a big mixing bowl with a spout and dunked it in the soap. I filled an empty laundry soap container half full with my new laundry soap and the rest of the way with water. You're supposed to shake the contents before each use as it gells after sitting for a while. So far, I've washed one load of towels with the soap. They smelled great when I pulled them out of the wash. We'll see how it does with some of the more "smelly" clothes later.

Let's just say that if this stuff works like it looks like it will, I will have cut my laundry budget by a TON!! Literally, I spent less than $10 on all the ingredients and then spent about $4 buying the bucket and lid at Lowe's. The ingredients make 5 gallons worth of detergent, but then you dilute that mix (1 part mix to 1 part water), so it actually makes 10 gallons worth of detergent that will be used.... out of that one batch!!! And you just use a little over 1/2 a cup of stuff in each load of laundry!! Holy CRAP!!!!!! I mean, seriously - this is SOOOO cheap! I'm so excited!! Can't you tell?!

Michelle Duggar and Friday Night Out

Thursday night, the ladies from our Sunday school class (and some extra girls) got together to visit with Michelle Duggar. We were all so excited, as Michelle is, you know, a TV star and all! :)



She is very gracious and has such wisdom. She was the same last night as I've seen her on TV and when I had the opportunity to be at her house a couple years ago. Just a very down-to-earth lady who loves to share about her family. And I tell ya, she absolutely breathes the Bible! I mean, she's able to incorporate scripture into just about every sentence she says, but in a good way - not a "preachy" way.

Most people think they are crazy for having 18 kids. And rightly so. That is incredibly unusual for a family in our day to do that. And they'll be the first to admit they didn't start out with the plan to have this many kids. However, something that Michelle said about that made it click a little bit more for me. She said that she was so humbled that God had chosen to use them, because of their unusually large family, as vessels to share Christ. Hmmm. I'd heard her say before they wanted as many children as God would give them, but didn't really consider the perspective that this is the situation God has allowed them to be in so that He can be acknowledged and He can be seen. The media is so interested in their family, as are all of us viewers, and like I said, Michelle absolutely breathes God and His Word. Anytime anyone hears her speak, they'll hear the Word and they'll be able to see Jesus through her. God uses people in different ways. Looks like he choose to use the Duggars, with their enormous family, to get people interested enough, to listen long enough, that they might hear Him.

Changing gears, tonight is our first Friday Night Out. I'm a little nervous about it, but excited! I think it will be good. We have over 130 kids signed up to come!!! YIKES!! I think I'm prepared for the most part. I'll just be glad when 10:00 comes and we see that everyone has come through it safe and sound. :)

Yay Melissa!!!

Melissa is on Dancing With The Stars!!!! I voted for her as many times as I could. Not only do I just love her, she did a GREAT job!! I hope she stays on there for the duration.

Blood Draw and Screaming

After 8 straight days with a fever, we took Rachel to see the doctor today, only to find out she's a medical mystery. The doc examined her from head to toe, literally, and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, besides a runny nose. She got to pee in a cup and have her blood drawn, which let's just get it out there right now, my child does NOT like needles in her arm!!! She's had that done once before a couple years ago and it traumatized her so much that she tells the exact story verbatim every time we pass the doctor's office. She knew what was going on as soon as I told her they would need to get just a little bit of blood from her arm. Oh boy. You'd think they had a hack saw to her arm the way she was acting. It was so hard to sit there and not get teary while she was literally screaming her head off. Then, she said, "I want my grandma!!!!" and Mike and I both started getting tickled. She followed that up with "I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS!!!!" After the blood draw and the screaming, we're still waiting to see what her blood tells us. The urine was fine, so we'll see if there's anything going on with her blood. I certainly hope there's not. Because she had such a tough time, she got 3 stickers AND a coupon for a free kids dinner at TGI Fridays. So, the moral of the story is that if you have to go to the doctor, tell your kids to scream bloody murder and you might get a coupon! :)

And for your picture viewing enjoyment, here are a couple pics of the kids taken by our KDO photographer, Mr. Michael Drager. He's so great! I love when he comes to take pics of all our kids.

Rachel, of course is always super photogenic and knows when to crack that smile.



Porter did great as well. He's usually pretty good with the camera. Could be the ten thousand pictures I've taken of him in his 16 months of life so far... I'm just sayin'.

Except when it came to a group pictures, I think my little tyke was a bit disturbed that he was NOT the center of attention anymore...

Sick and Tired

You know that saying that our mothers used to say to us... "I'm sick and tired of...." and just fill in the blank with the quote of the day. Well, that's kinda how it is around the Langham house right now.

Porter was sick last week and has been doing much better. However... that little bugger decided to empty the contents of his stomach at about 1am this morning.... all over his bed. I heard him crying and I said a quick prayer that he would go back to sleep. No such luck. The cry turned in to one of those that a mother can tell means more than just "I lost my passy." So I got up, went into his room, and was immediately assaulted with the foul scent of what my son had been doing. I all but yelled in to my snoozing hubby and apparently, it just took one "HONEY!!" to wake the man from the dead because he came running in Porter's room and we were then both immediately on the clean up crew. I took Porter to the bath tub and Mike took care of cleaning up the bed. What a mess that all was. Even after washing Porter's hair, the smell was still there. He threw up a few more times and after about 3 hours and a conversation with the on-call nurse at the hospital, my little munchkin fell asleep and slept until nearly 9am! Which is more than I can say for Mommy and Daddy. We got a 3 hour chunk taken out of our night, but thankfully got to sleep until about 8am. He's done much better today. He had a bit of "spit up" this afternoon, but nothing like last night and he's kept down everything he's eaten and drank today... can I get an AMEN?!

Rachel has been fighting a cold for a few days. We figured she was getting the leftovers of the croup that baby brother had. She hasn't felt super great the last couple of days and this morning, she was acting very tired. She had a smidge of a fever this morning, but ibuprofen kicked that in a hurry. She had a great visit with Grandpa and Nana, who were down today, but wasn't her bouncy lively self. Then tonight, she felt a bit warm again and when we checked her temp, it was back up to 100.2. So low grade, but still enough to keep her home from church tomorrow. She's been taking some "grape" medicine (Dimetap) and some "yucky" medicine (Mucinex) to try and ward off her cold symptoms. And now we have Tylenol and ibuprofen in the mix. God help me if that child wakes up and starts throwing up. I might have to scream.

So, needless to say, I'm a bit tired. I feel like I've gone non-stop this week. It's been a drain for me. And my nerves are fairing better than they were at the end of last week, but I'm still not "normal", whatever that is. Tomorrow is going to be busy and it doesn't look like next week is going to give me a break. I would just about pay someone to take care of my children so I could get a good night's sleep and wake up at my leisure... no electronic alarms.... no human alarms.... no K-9 alarms.... just to be able to go to bed without having to get up at any certain time the next morning. Without having to be somewhere. Just to be. Gosh. I love my kids and by no means am I wishing the time away, but man am I ever looking forward to the days when they can all fend for themselves and can take care of things so Mommy can rest.

I feel like I have so much more to blog about, lots more pictures to post, but like I said... I'm tired. I will try to be more diligent about posting and getting all my stories and pics up here. For now, I think I'm going to bed.

A topic for another day - Redbox. I love it!!

So the doctor says....

Double ear infection and croup. That's what Porter has. Which is what we found out after waiting over an hour in the waiting room of the doctor's office and then another 20 minutes in the room before the doctor actually came in.

He took 14 teaspoons of steriods (yes, you read that right) for the croup and some antibiotics for the ear infection.

I think it might be because he drank all that toilet water.

So, in the time it took me to fix dinner tonight, several things happened:

* My son spit up on himself. At least that's what we're going to say. He drank his juice too fast. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

* My son spilled an entire sippy cup of juice on my kitchen floor because the lid came off.

* In trying to keep my son contained for a few minutes, I let a pot of water and milk boil over on my stove. And you know that makes a lovely spot on the burners...

* While I was getting meatloaf in the oven, my son found the cup we use in the bathtub to rinse hair and came out of the bathroom, coughing, spewing water from his mouth from the FULL CUP OF WATER..... It took me all of about 1.2 seconds to realize that water came OUT OF THE TOILET!!!!!!!!!! AND MY SON WAS DRINKING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told that to Mike and of course, he was laughing his head off and was talking about how impressed he was that Porter was able to figure out how to dip water out of the toilet. Yeah, impressed isn't exaclty how I was feeling about the situation.

* My son is now contained in his high chair and both the girls and my husband have been told that they MUST put the lid down on the toilet after they've used the bathroom or they will be grounded!!! All of them!!!

Rachel was never like this. EVER. She just didn't get in to stuff. We tried to put latches on our cabinets (that didn't end up working) because we thought that's what you were supposed to do with a baby, not because she was in to everything. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up needing to cage my son if I want to do anything that causes me not to have at least one eye on him at all times.

My gosh, Porter is precious, but heaven's to betsy, that kid's wearing me OUT!!!

The Power Has Returned...

...and Rachel is NOT happy about it!!

The Thompsons have been staying with us the past 6 nights because of their lasting power outage. I've really enjoyed having them here (contrary to what Jeremy would tell you that I supposedly said...) and Rachel has really loved having a slumber party with Katie every night. It's been like a vacation for those girls. They've been best buddies since they were babies. So, although I KNOW Michelle is very glad to be back in her own home, my baby girl was absolutely weeping tonight when I put her to bed because she missed Katie so much. She was trying to say her prayers and when she asked God to bless Katie, she just broke into tears. I almost couldn't pray then because that choked me up.

I'm sure the Thompsons will be sleeping MUCH better tonight in their own beds, but Rachel sure does miss sharing her room with Katie.

Before and After at Mom's and Granny's

As most everyone knows, a big ol' bunch of ice came through these parts... and it didn't stop in Springdale. It kept going right on over to Harrison (where my mom and granny live). This was the view from my mom's porch down in my granny's yard before we got started. I imagined it was bad, but I didn't realize they had limbs as big as trees that were downed.

This was after we finished our work for the day. Needless to say we didn't get nearly all of it done, but I think we made a pretty good dent. My granny couldn't even get to her mailbox without going through the maze of limbs and sticks, but now she can get out to her newspaper and mail and up to Mom's without climbing over trees in the yard.

There's lots more to be done, but Mike and I wore ourselves out doing just this much. Man, this stuff is such a huge mess. It's going to be months before it's all back to normal. And then, I'm afraid, it still won't be quite normal.

Ancestors

My dad sent me an email today with some information on my ancestors.
My grandpa is Wayne.
My great grandpa is Ross.
My great great grandpa is John.
My great great great grandpa is - yeah, get this - Orange Peel Tucker.
Now if that doesn't make an Arkansas girl feel like a hick, I don't know what will.

The info that was in the email was fascinating. Orange was full blood Cherokee and was adopted by a "well to do white man" and didn't know his original last name. According to records, he killed his Captain in the military during the Civil War because they cut off his pigtail (or ponytail), which had been an Indian sign of manhood. He was tried and convicted, but before he could be executed, his adoptive father intervened and saved him. He went on to live until he was an old man and had a ton of kids and it was noted that he was a farmer that couldn't read or write.

Interesting.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I have been watching inauguration coverage pretty much since I got up this morning. Regardless of how you feel about the incoming or outgoing president, each inauguration is historic. It's something that will, without question, be in our history books and will be regarded and studied and remembered. This one is especially unique in that, obviously, we have our first African American president. That, in itself, is a subject for another time.

There have been many moments today that have choked me up. I'm not the biggest Obama fan. I didn't vote for him, but he is our president, so I'm at least praying for him and will support him as much as I can. However today, just because it was so "big" - a new is man taking over the most important office of leadership in the world, and a man who has served in that job for the last 8 years is leaving what has been not only his office, but his home. I can't imagine what the Bushes must been feeling. The sense of nostalgia, as well as possibly some relief that the time is finally at an end. And what are the Obamas feeling today? I'm sure there's a wide range of emotions. What must that be like to have your lives totally changed in a day? To now be known by every single person pretty much in the world. And Obama, who's likely been used to being called Barak, Obama, Senator, etc, is now almost exclusively going to be referred to as Mr. President. And Michelle. I mean, my gosh. To be the wife of the president? Overwhelming. But somehow, that woman strikes me as a lady that can handle that job and handle it well.

I haven't really said much to Rachel about my opinion of Obama. I told her as the election process was going on that we were in favor of John McCain and not Obama (though at first that really disturbed her becasue she really liked Obama - mostly because I think she liked saying his name). That's all I've said. I've watched the news and she's asked me nearly daily if Senetor Obama is going to be President Obama yet. Today, she asked and I told her that yes, he would be President Obama today. As we were watching the Inaugural Ball tonight and Barak and Michelle were dancing their first dance as President and First Lady, as Beyonce was singing "At Last" (which by the way is one of my favorite songs ever and she did an AWESOME job!), I was enjoying the moment, almost getting choked up yet again, espeically seeing Mary J. Blige with tears streaming down her face. But my sweet, innocent daughter, who was sitting in the chair with me, leaned over and whispered, "President Obama tells lies and steals money, right?" I thought I was going to fall out of my chair! WHAT?!?! I was convinced that her daddy had told her that at some point today. I asked her if Daddy said that to her tonight and she looked at me, very honestly, and said no. I asked Mike if he'd said anything to Rachel at all today about Obama and he swore he didn't. I told her to repeat to Daddy what she'd told me. Daddy heard it and immediately asked Rachel if she'd like some ice cream. In fact, how would she like 3 scoops of ice cream? And chocolate syrup? Sure, she could pour it on herself. Go ahead and get as much as you like, Daddy told her. She didn't realize she was getting ice cream for making a statement that her Daddy emphatically agreed with.... thank goodness.