Recent Jack Pics

Jack is Four!

Here are some pictures of Jack's early days with us. He turns four years old tomorrow, which is surreal and totally unbelievable. When someone asks how old Jack is, and I say he'll be four, I expect them to stop what they are doing, look at me slackjawed, and express awe and amazement. However, I guess that the rest of the world knows what I am slowly learning: babies grow up. When I see him, smaller than a pumpkin, or laughing like a one year old who doesn't know yet how to walk, I simply cannot believe that the baby in the pictures is the same baby who offered me "options" that I must accept for his bed time. As you can see, he was (is) a rolly polly baby who felt like butter in my hands. His skin was so soft, and his neck rolls so inviting that I literally stayed home just to kiss and nuzzle him. He is still a joy to be around, and I am thankful that four years ago, God blessed me with such a life changing gift. My life is made into two categories, before Jack was born and after Jack was born. I know this sounds crazy, but I, unlike most girls, never really cared about having a family. (I used to use my baby dolls to get out of church by telling my mom that my baby needed to be taken out. Then, I would sit in the nursery and read a book or something).Never wanted to get married. But, When I met Mike, that was it for me. He was my family. So, when we had Jackson, my love and devotion to him totally took me off guard. And, God has used Jack to transform my heart from selfish and self centered, to more unselfish and aware of the needs of those surrounding me. God is an amazing gift giver, as I have said here before. And, it is so like him to give a gift that will transform you to make you more desireable to him. So, thank you for changing my life through my son, Jack, whom I adore, God. I am definitely a better person because of this sweet, sweet child.

My Sweet Tin Man

Jack and Molly are obsessed with the wizard of oz. Molly has a dorothy dress and shoes, and for his birthday this year, Jack is getting the Tin Man costume. Wizard of Oz is showing at Bass Hall, and I got discounted tickets iwth my press pass. We went for half off and saw the whole performance. It was an excellent show. Jack wanted to wear his tin man hat, soooo cute! Of course, I would never say no to that. He loved the whole performance and even did the tin man dance during "If I only had a heart". He was so well behaved, and I was so proud of him. AFter the show, he asked me if I liked it. Of course I did; but the best thing for me by far was taking my little tin man to the show. I cannot believe that four years ago, I was huge and grumpy and pregnant with this sweet boy! Fast forward four years, and my favorite experience with him by far has been this little outing! Molly Ann was too young; the performance was 21/2 hours without counting the intermission. I cannot wait until she can join us, maybe next year.

Future Entymologist and Future Grunge Band Guru

Here are some pictures I've taken recently of the kiddos. Jack is obsessed with Arachnitopia at the zoo. He loves the exhibit, talks about it, can recognize the sign for it, and is particularly interested in the every growing black widow spider at the zoo. He even got to see a black widow's egg sack; the exhibit curator brought one out for him. He was thrilled and a little freaked out, too. He can stare at the arachinids forever musing on their comings and goings and comparing their life to that of his favorite spider's, Charlotte. And, in the picture of Molly Ann, she dressed herself, replete with froggy boots and an old hat that nanna bought her last winter. I love the one of her singing.
It has been a good weekend; but busy. Jack's birthday is fast approaching. I simply cannot believe he will be four in a few weeks. Time with him has literally flown by.

Top Ten Rejected Names for My Husband's Fantasy Football Team

Just got a rejection note from McSweeney's on this. Ahh, someday my dream of having a literature published will come true! (Admittedly, it was a little funnier late at night after a glass of wine...I digress). I hope you enjoy this rejected piece.

Top Ten Rejected Names for My Husband's Fantasy Football Team

1. The Howling Rowlings (Why did he hate this one? It obviously has bite, his team would sound wild, almost like werewolves. Who would want to play werewolves? Yet, he did not like it at all!)



2. The Vampires (Again, it sounds scary...vampires suck blood, and kill people. Would you want to be tackled by a vampire? Just think of that scary Jon Bon Jovi movie where he is a vampire hunter. And, yet, he rejected it. Maybe Blood suckers would work better.)



3. The Gambling Referees (I know nothing about sports, except that some referee was just charged with betting on games. Perhaps he could have tweeked this one a bit and made it more manly? Maybe changing Referees to Refs or Umps would get me credibility here.)



4. Hail Mary Suicide Tacklers (Distateful? It's possible. Yet, I think the problem here was the use of the word Tacklers. What do you call those guys that hit people on the field except tacklers or meanies?)



5. The Face Recyclers (I loved the allusion to the green movement. Especially with all those eco terrorists who are destroying hummers, mountain top developments and what not. Yet, this name was rejected).



6. Chris Hansen's Predator Catchers (Maybe not so clever unless you love the Dateline show where grown men show up with beer, condoms, candy, Hello Kitty Dolls and whatever else they think a 14 year old girl required for seduction. I guess Mike's buddies would not be amused.)



7. The Team Which Must Not Be Named (This one got a laugh, but it was too long.)



8. Vick's Fighting Canines (Not even a smile!...Come on Mike, this stuff is golden!)



9. Romo+ Underwood=Dropped Balls! (Too juvenile, he said. Also, what would the team mascot look like? My answer, Carrie Underwood with a baseball bat aimed at somebody's pretty little supped up ride, hopefully not with Jesus behind the wheel. )



10. Mark Cuban's New Toy (Here, he rejected the word "toy" as a part of a scary football team. Still, the Mark Cuban reference shows I at least scan the headlines of the sports section, so I get points for that, right?)



Mike suggested names like seahawks, or jaguars.... or maybe some inappropriate name that denotes some one's ethnicity like Indians, redskins or fighting Irish. I am pretty sure that if anyone out there needs clever name suggestions for the fantasy teams, I am the one to come to!

The Gifts of a Gracious Giver

On my last post, I wrote that I felt like God's spirit was prompting me to this phrase: The Giver Above The Gifts. I am glad I was patient and didn't write about it before now, because at our church today, Drew talked about how God bestows upon us spiritual gifts. I thought that was really cool given what I had been thinking. I totally admit, when I wrote The Giver Above The Gifts, I was thinking with my human eyes, about the physical gifts we receive. But, much more tantamount to our Christianity is the Spiritual Gifts God has given to us via his Spirit. These gifts (really paraphrasing here) are, according to our Bible and Drew, given to us to help the church body we are in so everyone can see all the different wonderful parts of God's personality. Today in church, he challenged us to go a website and take a test to identify our spiritual gifts. Here is the link: http://www.spiritualgiftstests.com/. You should go to it and take the test: it took me around ten minutes. There are about a hundred questions and then it identifies your gifts. My gifts that were above 15 points were: Discernment 21, Faith 21, Knowledge 15, and Mercy 18. Now, it is my job to figure out how to best use these gifts so others can see God's glory and recognize the ultimate gift, Jesus' sacrifice which brings our salvation. So, take the test and let me know what your spiritual gifts are and how you the best way you can think to use them. (Obviously, you don't have to do this on the comments, but seriously, I want to know what spiritual gifts you have and how you use them!) And, here is a link to my church website where you can download the sermons: they are so awesome. Last week's was entitled What, Me A Priest?. Here is the website: http://www.hmcc.org/.
(I am not sure how one uses the gift of discernment...if anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate them!)