Remembering Catalina

Okay, this is pet number seven. We didn't count her in our previous post because, as a fish, she does not really intrude on our life like the others have done. (There is another such pet -- Maisy the Mouse -- that will be blogged about later.)

Catalina became, hands down, the greatest pet of our married life. She did eat her roommate -- another Beta fish -- but after that she turned very docile. She would sit at the edge of her fishbowl and watch us go about our day. And she would even come over to us if we put our finger near her bowl. She was more than just a fish... she was the only pet to actually complete its life cycle in our home. And if you read the previous post you know that this is a great accomplishment.

During the recent ice storm we were without power for six long days. We put her in our basement, which was the warmest part of the house, but when the lights came back on she was never the same. Two days after regaining electricity, Catalina went to the fishbowl in the sky.

We will miss you 'ol girl.

Six for Six!

Many of you know our history with pets... and some of you may have had bets on how long our current pet would last. Well, today we sent Pip to live with a friend. The girls were afraid to walk around the house because Pip wanted to play/scratch their feet. Not to mention the fact that ACD was almost abusive to him (in love, of course). JRD, who got Pip for her birthday, begged that he "go back to the pet store" -- a very ominous and real concept in our family.

With the exit of Pip it seemed appropriate to take a moment to reflect on the SIX pets we have had in our SIX years of marriage. (NOTE: the numbers in parentheses are not ages, they are the various lengths of time each pet stayed at our house.)

1. BLUE (1 week): he was a green parakeet we had our first year of marriage. We basically had to take him back because I was jealous of how Lee Ann doted on him. (This would only happen to newlyweds!) - no picture exists of Blue
   
2. BUZZ (1 month): he was a very high-maintenance cockatiel we had in our third year of marriage - named after Buzz Lightyear. Note-to-self, if you do not like having a $10 parakeet, don't go buy a $75 cockatiel -- there is just more to hate! We are not bird people and will never own one again. A bird is what happens when you live somewhere you can't get a real pet (sorry to any bird lovers).

1. ANNIE (1 month): Annie was my dream dog - an Australian Shepherd. Things started well but as Annie grew she decided she was above our 1 year old in the family pecking order. It was not the sweet match between little girl and a puppy - ACD got bad scratches on her face. But Annie went to live on a friend's big farm where she was very happy until she was run over by a truck. JRD was fascinated with the news of her death but was convinced that Annie had "died on a cross."
2. DARREN MCFADDEN (1 week): This cat was named after the Arkansas running back during his first Heisman campaign. We are not cat people but our eldest daughter is, so we thought we would give it a go. D-Mac might have made it had he not come with a bad case of ring-worm. The vet told us not to touch him for 10 days without thoroughly washing our hands -- you try to do that with two toddlers.
3. NELLIE (3 months!!!): Nellie was cute enough to be in commercials but the vet's analysis was telling. After just a few minutes she told us "this puppy is ornery." She almost destroyed our air conditioner and certainly all kinds of wooden things around the house. Many months later, we still get calls that she has been "found" - I wish her new owners would put their info on Nellie's collar!
4. PIP (6 weeks): he was a good little cat we got for our cat-loving daughter's birthday. His only sin was that he loved to play, but he was too young to be declawed and was scratching the snot out of our daughters. We'll miss having another man around the house, even though the girls made him wear a pink "necklace" and referred to him as a girl.

Tis the Season for Breaking

ACD is a bit of a bull in a china closet. We love her enthusiasm and her reckless love of life, but sometimes things get a little excessive. Christmas is affording her ample opportunity to break things. Here is a quick list (in order of a occurrence) and we should mention that our Christmas stuff has been out for FOUR DAYS!

1. Kissing Angels - one of Reed's favorite childhood decorations
2. An ornament made by Lee Ann's grandmother
3. An ornament someone made Lee Ann when she was one year old
   
4. An ornament that was Lee Ann's favorite from childhood
   
5. A Christmas coaster
6. A fun Christmas decoration we got as a wedding gift
   

A Little Girl's Prayer

Here is the prayer JRD prays every night before she goes to sleep...

Jesus,
Thank you for Momma, Daddy, JRD and ACD.
I pray I won't have monsters or any scary dreams.
(Breaking into song...) And I praaaaaaay that I will be a mermaaaaaaaid in the morning.
Amen.

The "song" portion of her prayer will vary from that short to almost like she is having a musical quiet time (about being a mermaid, of course). Once she actually prayed that God would make her a mermaid "right now" and then she got down on the floor and laid on her belly. She looked back in real disappointment that she still had legs. We told her it was a great thing to pray for as long as she is content with God wanting her to remain a little girl.

GO HOGS!

And while you are enjoying the victory, go vote for Darren McFadden for the Heisman.

End of an Era

Our little ACD has turned a huge corner with her talking recently. She is so aggressive that she has always talked whether or not she could ever say the words -- this has meant really good names for things around our house. So it is not without some sadness that we see her correcting herself as she speaks. It is not only the end of some great little words, our little girl is simply growing up. Here are some words that we will miss...

Cry-Cream = ice cream
Foe-Funt = elephant
Kie-King = lion (i.e. Lion King)
Foe-Feet = penguin (i.e. Happy Feet)
Bar-Me = "bothering me"
Kim-Me = "are you kidding me?"
O-my-geese = "oh my goodness!"

Minivan Theology

JRD: I know God is amazing and all, but how did he talk when he made everything?

Daddy: ...thinking...

JRD: Did he quit talking?

Daddy: ...thinking even harder...

JRD: Why don't I hear him talking now?

In the blur, I don't exactly remember how I handled these questions. I think I said something about God not really even having a mouth - effectively undermining the trust my 4-year-old has in Scripture already! Next I tried to draw an analogy of how we say things so they are easy to understand; like when we say the sun is going to sleep at night... and then I remembered that JRD still thinks the sun does go to sleep at night. Yikes! Explaining the anthropomorphic qualities of Scripture may need to wait a year or so. In the meantime I pretty much have to say things like, "I don't know honey, but I know that God loves you a whole bunch."

Which, actually, that answer was pretty satisfying to her.

Go Hogs!

JRD and I got a chance to go see the Razorbacks play basketball last week. This was her second time to see the Hogs play basketball. It is nice to get to share with her our love for things like Arkansas sports. As you can see below, she was geared up for the experience. Oh, and just for the record, John Pelphrey is great! We flat killed our opponent and yet I don't think I ever saw Pelphrey sit down. We needed that kind intensity in a coach. I am glad he is here. Now back to family stuff...

Though JRD talked about Big Red the whole time, she didn't really like the idea of being this close to him. I would have been doing the same thing at her age! JRD continues to be exactly like me and ACD is just like Lee Ann. She would also want you to see the "tattoo" on the side of her face.

Happy Halloween!

Here are some of the Halloween pics from our house...

Last year we made the mistake of doing a great job carving pumpkins and got a reputation around the neighborhood - and with that came the expectation that we would produce again this year. This is nothing less than Tinker Bell carved into an 80 pound pumpkin. YIKES!

Both the girls were fairy princesses, which means they really didn't dress up at all! ACD was supposed to be a dragon but after seeing her big sister she decided she wanted to be "pretty."

Here is JRD hitting the streets.

Adoption Update

There is no substantial news to report. It is amazing how much there is to do. Lee Ann is doing a wonderful job with everything: from coordinating appointments for our shots to ordering birth certificates and proof of insurance policies. We have felt that our life has been reduced to nothing but paper work over the last month.

I certainly don't mean to complain, the fact that there is a little girl on the other end of this is motivation enough. However, we don't expect any big news until after the home study is complete - and we are about half way through with it now - and that news will most likely be that the agency has matched us with our little girl. That amazing day will probably be a couple of months from now. After they have made the match and she has been at the orphanage for three months, then we should be able to go to Ethiopia and bring her home.

Hiding Out

Here is where we found ACD the other day. Her sister must have helped but by the look on her face she seems to be enjoying her time in the cupboard.

The Silver Lining

JRD is in the midst of bad allergies or a small cold and this is the conversation we had about it last night...

JRD: Daddy, I can't breathe through my nose 'cause it's full!

DADDY: I am sorry sweetie. We've already taken some medicine for it.

JRD: Well, my hands are happy because I get to pick my nose.

Birthday Blues

Birthday presents are always fun... unless they aren't for you. On the right is JRD with the little kitten we got for her birthday and on the left is ACD after she had to give it back to her sister.

Happy Birthday JRD!

Our little girl turns 4 today. When we found out we were pregnant with her we had only been married 10 months, been in Philly 8 months, and were starting the second term in seminary. Our world pretty much crashed in on us... everything changed! But now we can say that those things changed for the better.

She is our fairy princess. She is a caring big sister. She is sensitive, thoughtful, and introspective. She is an artist to the core. She is truly beautiful.

Who knows what life will hold for this little girl but these first four years have been the best of our lives. Happy birthday sweet girl.

A Baby on the Way!

We are not pregnant. But it does feel that way. The doors have been opened for us to pursue our third baby girl... we are going to adopt from Ethiopia!

This journey began with our conviction that God has given us this great family for a reason - we felt called to share that family with someone who didn't have that blessing. We have always wanted to adopt but those dreams were always somewhat foggy. But this summer it became obvious (through many different things) that now would be the optimum time to pursue this desire.

Adoption is expensive, and yet anybody can go get a loan for $20,000; Lee Ann and I are impatient enough that we almost did just that. But we felt that if God wanted us to have another baby he would open some financial doors to get the ball rolling. We put our beloved Prius up for sale and we looked for potential financial help. And it came! We got a call this morning that someone wants to pay for all of our adoption expenses!

We barely have words. We have prayed so hard and felt the barrier so great. And yet the money has been provided. We thought God might just crack the door for us to walk through; we had no idea that he would blow the door of its hinges. So with this news we find that all our dreams have become concrete. The "ifs" have become "whens." It is as if Lee Ann just showed me the positive pregnancy test and we are starting that dizzying but fun journey of bringing home our newest little girly swirl.

We'll keep you posted.

Complete Opposites

These little girls are total opposites in almost everything they do. From these two pictures you can see how they typically approach life. Notice JRD's lips are even pursed as she perfectly paints her birdhouse, while ACD has somehow forgotten about the birdhouse entirely because of the joy that can only come from painting one's face. And this is NOT an age thing - they have been opposites from the womb.

Violin Update

Like most things in our life, we got started on the Suzuki school of violin and JRD completely lost interest. She LOVED the violin before the lessons started but was pretty apathetic after things got going. We have tried our best to make it interesting... even Skittles didn't work!

But everything is fine now. In her last lesson she learned that after she finishes playing she is supposed to cradle her violin and bow for the "audience." Needless to say that, for our little drama queen, this has revolutionized the whole idea of practicing. If she can get a round of applause and get to bow, then she is all about it. This was a funny, yet unsurprising, development.

We think she is taking to it. Right now she is only playing various rhythms but in the next lesson or so she will begin working on notes. We bought the "Suzuki School CD" so she can listen to what she is learning and she REALLY loves that. So, for now, we are optimistic about the violin.

Coal Miner's Daughter

This is ACD after playing in a dormant fire pit on vacation. This is completely typical. No matter what she is doing, she will find a way to get filthy. We have actually seen her simply lay down in a mud puddle - she wasn't playing, kicking, hollering, or anything. She just wanted to lay in it.

Typical Evening with Daddy

The other night I was keeping the girly swirls while Lee Ann was at her ceramics class, and both of them wanted something to eat. Not wanting to wait for me, ACD got in the cabinet to get an instant oatmeal packet. I praised her initiative and kept working on JRD's chicken nuggets. Moments later JRD came running into the kitchen spitting. Between spits she reported that her little sister had given her some "bad oatmeal." As it turns out, ACD had opened the packet (in the living room no less) and had fed her big sister raw, instant oatmeal.

Only a few minutes later I went into the living room to find that ACD had taken her now edible oatmeal, put it on the couch, and was now STANDING in it!

Needless to say it was bath time after such an affair. Which reminds me; we bought the girly swirls one of those scrunchy-bath-things-that-go-with-body-wash, and whenever we wash ACD with it she starts hollering "CAR WASH!"

VIOLIN! ...or fiddle

JRD officially began violin lessons today! She is only three and a half but we figured if it is between learning an instrument or going to preschool, she could learn to stand in line next year. She liked her lesson, though there wasn't much to it. We have to get her an even smaller violin than we already have, a 1/32 (which is as TINY as it sounds!). On a somber note, this does mark the beginning of our long love/hate relationship with the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Even though she has had only one lesson, I still fear that they will pigeon hole her into playing Vivaldi all the time. So to counter that, we are going to the Arkansas State Fiddle Championships in September - a little Orange Blossom Special should balance things out.

ACD's Monster

We play "monster" around the house pretty often (which basically means I chase the girls as they run squealing around the house). But lately JRD has been really fearful of all kinds of stuff, particularly monsters. This means we get to see her little sister's version of a monster, and what we have found is quite funny.

She will ask me to be a monster and when I get into character she will grab my hand and lead me around the house showing me, the monster, all kinds of stuff - her favorite baby dolls, her bed, etc. Far from being scared, she is rather polite. She says "thank you" and "please" and even makes sure the monster is not hurt or crying. She seems to think the monster is some kind of pet!

One thing we love most about ACD is her sunny little disposition (which she gets from her mom, of course) and it may be most evident in the kindness she shows to the scariest of creatures.