davejenbarnes

James was in the shopping cart, grabbed this apple, and bit into it before I could turn around and get it out of his hands. He picked a BIG ‘UN. Of course, we had to buy it after the bite.

Dave fixed Chicken-n-dumplings last night.  From scratch.  I wish I’d taken a picture, but it would have looked exactly like theirs.  This was delicious!  DELICIOUS.  This is a recipe we are definitely keeping in our repertoire.

Yeah, I’ve had it before.  I’m pretty happy with it, though I added the bangs myself.  Just didn’t have time to cut them at the appointment as she took an hour and a half as it was.

The color was $1.50 at HEB.  Revlon Colorsilk Shade #44

Today -

November ‘05 -

So, I got a new haircut and new color too, so things are feeling pretty good these days. I’m really sick of being inside so much in such a little place with a 2.5 year old that doesn’t give me a moment’s peace (Do you have shoulders, mommy? Can you point to your elbow, mommy? Mommy, what’s Baby Lowell doin’ now, mommy? Can we play a puzzle, mommy? Are we gonna go for a walk, mommy? Can I have a snack, mommy?) because, I really don’t enjoy the cold weather and the tiny boring back yard and the treeless bordering-on-junky-so-far-away-from-a-decent-park rental neighborhood we’re living in. As far as rentals go, it’s a decent place to live, and much better than being in one of those impersonal, oversized, anonymous apartment complexes but it’s not a community. There’s no “pride of ownership” here except in the expensive cars that seem to fill some of the driveways. Anyhow, the real reason we stay inside so much these days is because I’m controlling the day in such a way that Lowell has the smallest sliver of a chance at actually getting a nap. You see, I’ve found that if I nurse-rock him for 30 minutes in the morning, he might, maybe, possibly, take a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. If that morning nursing doesn’t happen, then all bets are off for the afternoon nap and I get stressed out when that happens. Something about getting an hour of “me” time really does make all the difference.

In un-child-related news, I just heard of the first divorce of any of my acquaintances and it really has rocked my world. I mean, now “the statistics” seem a little more real, though not by a whole lot; we know a lot of people who are married, and still married, so our sample of the general populous is obviously not even close to “the statistics.” I guess when the vast majority of couples you know are people you met through church and around your same age, you’re not getting a consensus of what’s really going on out there though I hear that over half of marriages end this way. Shocking, really. This news has made it all seem more real. That marriages really do end sometimes. I’m unbelievably sad for this couple though it may very well have been a great decision for them.

For David and I, divorce is a foreign word. We will never consider it and I don’t believe we will ever have to. I have been blessed with the most gentle, steady-natured, God fearing, wonderful husband and I can’t even fathom us having a knock-down-drag-out fight; Dave and I just don’t fight all that much. His logic is impeccable and we usually end up making each other laugh so hard that we forget what we were being selfish over in the first place. What fun it is to be married to such a man!

I’m not making much progress on anything knitterly these days as I’ve, well, um, I’ve been crocheting. I cannot reveal here what, exactly, I’ve been crocheting but I have been enjoying it. Pictures and blogs to come later about it… just keep checking back.

I’ve also been doing a ton of photoshopping. I enjoy it more than I thought I would and it’s addictive to learn new tricks, tips, and skills and then apply them in the real-world to photos that people actually buy. Most of my work has been coming in from my brother as he is getting more into the world of engagement/bridal/wedding photography. With every shoot, he’s getting more creative and becoming more confident and I’ve got less “duds” to weed out. I’m hoping he sets up a photoblog of sorts, but until he does, you’ll just have to take my word on it. He’s amazing.

I’ve given up the house search to David. It was stressing me out and we’re not even in the “action” phase of the process. I have enough to worry about with these boys and the laundry they create not to add something else to the pile. With that said, we are planning on doing another round of walk-thrus this coming Saturday in a more Northerly direction (last time we looked East) of where he works. Too bad we cannot afford to live in the neighborhood surrounding his school. Well, I guess we could afford it but I’d have to find a dang good paying job and put the boys in fulltime daycare and it just isn’t worth the financial gain to me to do that. One reason - this month is the first month we’ve had sick kids (sick here meaning take them to the doc and get prescribed antibiotics because it’s not just a cold or a virus) and James is 2.5 years old. Wow. Those were some really healthy 2.5 years. Yeah, it’s been worth it staying home with them.

With that said, I am looking forward to another day of silly questions and maybe, maybe we’ll just go for a walk out in the cold around our rather drab neighborhood tomorrow. We’ll see.

Oh, and the bed pictured below is the KURA bed from IKEA. Forgot to mention that and inquiring minds want to know. And if you’re not very close to an IKEA, check out your local craigslist.

So you may or may not have noticed some new header images up there at the top of the blog. Yep, I finally learned the easy way to make those suckers.

I subscribe to the photoshopusertv.com podcast via iTunes so I catch every episode these days to learn more tricks to stuff up my sleeves and pull out every so often. This week’s episode contained a tip by Dave Cross that happened to be just modifiable enough to create a “template” of sorts for the creation of our header images. Just go here, watch it in flash if you like, and skip ahead to 11:45 to view the tip I’m referring to. Now making new headers is as easy as 2 clicks of a pen. (Oh, and if you’re trying to figure out how he clicks in the layers palette to get to the “make smart object” thing he does right off the bat, it’s control+option+click (or control+alt+click for a pc) in the whitespace of the layer he is wanting to affect; he doesn’t explain that one in the podcast.)

This is one of my favorites of Lowell to date. The focus is fantastic on his eyes and the expression on his face captures his personality perfectly.

He got over his ear infection pretty quickly, only to have James come down with one a few days later. THEN, as luck would have it, Lowell caught whatever James was sick with. We’ve had one sick boy or another since Christmas. This has not been much of a fun year so far.

James has adjusted to his big boy bed fantastically. He did not have any problems with leaving his crib one bit. Surprisingly, we have not had a problem with him getting out of bed to play with his toys. I thought we would struggle with that but I bet the green sheet keeps the toys out of sight and out of mind. It helps a lot that there is an outlet “inside” his bed and he can turn his nightlight on or off depending on what he wants.

So far, we’re really amazed by all these “big” transitions that people warn us about — he gave up his paci with no problems, weaned just fine, weaned from the bottle super easily and now moved to a new bed with no problems. I’m praying that he’ll just decide to give up diapers as easily, so I’m kind of dragging my feet on pushing that one right now.

James hasn’t seen it yet; he’s at Grandma’s house for the weekend. It’s designed to be a high or low bed. We’ll start off low then flip it to high once we trust the little monkey.

We were originally going to go with traditional bunk beds but this was much more in our price range than real furniture. Plus, it doesn’t much matter if it gets beat up as it won’t become a heirloom.

We are, for all intents and purposes, fully recovered from the ear infection Lowell had last week. He’s still on antibiotics until it’s gone. I think there are only about 2 more doses left in that little bottle. He started feeling better the third day on the antibiotics and started babbling again. He’s pretty happy most of the time, in fact.

We have been out and about this week to two playdates with other toddlers/babies and both days, Lowell refused his afternoon nap. I think we should spend time at home to get him back on track because I can’t live like this, with Lowell screaming in the afternoon because he IS SO TIRED. So, tomorrow we are going to run an errand and mail a package, and maybe stop by Target for a popcorn-and-coke-for-a-buck to look for a book with a flashlight that he played with this morning, but then we will be headed straight home and probably to bed.

James is getting very expressive in being able to tell us exactly what he is thinking. He does not like sleep, apparently, and knows precisely when it is time to go to Time-Out. Every day, he amazes us. Although he is not an outwardly affectionate child, he gave me lots of hugs today and lets me kiss his forehead more than normal. Yesterday, he pooped on the potty, twice, without prompting (we only attempted potty training one day this week) but today, well, he didn’t go at all. I’ll be watching for the signs tomorrow to attempt to get him on the potty for that again, too. Who knew I’d be talking about poop tonight?!

Here is a picture of Lowell doing what he loves to do. Pointing. He is very good at pointing, but only ever with his right hand. I just love it. Most of the time, I bend over and gobble up that little finger which delights him and brings out a giggle ever time.

Behold, the Almighty Graham Cracker: