Crossing the Mexican border...Dustin told Annabelle she could have ice cream when we got to Mexico. She did not forget that promise. We stopped at the border to get our car bonded so that we could drive into Mexico and they just happened to sell ice cream inside. Bella HAD to have one and was so excited about it. I just love the expressions on the kids faces at the sight of the fudgcicle.
soundtrack of my life #11-19
11. Dustin and I got engaged: "Both of us will feel the Blast" by Waterdeep. One of my most favorite bands ever. We even saw them in concert (one of many times) on our honeymoon.
12. Entire YWAM experience can be summed up by the "Enter the Worship Circle" CD. It's a GREAT album.
13. Africa trip--Bebo Norman's "The Hammer" and "A Page is Turned" His voice and beautiful songs soothed me during a rough rough time.
14. Our wedding!!! :) We had so much music at our wedding, but the one song that sticks out is "Somewhere North" that Dustin sang to me on our wedding day. He changed a few of the words to make it fit us better ;) (even the song title had to be changed to "Somewhere South" since I'm an Arkansas girl and all...)
15. Newlyweds. Dustin was gone with the band all the time. I listened to jazzy music from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald when I was home alone or constantly driving for work.
16. Bella's birth. Immediately after Bella was born, CJ and Dustin went to buy pineapple pizza and Girl Scout Cookies for me (I had been on a fairly restricted diet for the last 2 months, and NEEDED these foods) and the first song they heard was "Honey Baby" by Damien Jurado. CJ declared this to be Bella's song, and it always reminds me of the day she came into our family.
17. Dustin working away from home ALL the time. I missed him so much and cried everytime I listened to anything from Damien Jurado.
18. Julian's birth. Anything from Bob Dylan. That is all I listened to for days leading up to his birth.
19. 2004, the roughest year of my life. Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside" album and "Live from Mars" album is what got me through it.
20. Mexico. Our time living in Mexico reminds me of the song "Cannonball" by Damien Rice. Dustin learned to play it at my request.
It is driving me crazy that I've had to leave out so many influential bands/artists...but I'm such a music lover that this list could be a thousand times longer...
so...anybody got any music recommendations for me??
a mini soundtrack of my life...so far...Songs 1-10
my friend stephen inspired this entry :) thanks!
my life is filled with music constantly, so this is hard to narrow events down to one or two songs, but here's my shot at it.
1. First song I remember hearing as a baby "You are my Sunshine", my Mom's voice.
2. I remember riding around with my Aunt Valerie and Stacie and maybe my Mom and listening to "Just a Swingin" though I don't know who sings this song.
3. Two childhood favorites, that i used to listen to when I stayed up all night (child insomniac) reading books and cleaning my room, "We Built this City" by Starship, and "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles. Man I loved the Bangles. I used to do the Egyptian dance all around our house.
4. We used to have sleepovers every weekend. We would stay up all night and make up dance routines to songs and try to perform them at school for our friends. We were so awesome. Our favorites were "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles, "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul, and "Vogue" by Madonna. Oh, and anything by Wilson Phillips, Tiffany or Debbie Gibson.
5. One of my first overseas mission trips. One of the older girls on the trip wrote down all the words to "Chasing Waterfalls" by TLC so I could memorize them and sing them along with all of the other older girls. I felt so cool.
6. Driving on my own, riding around with girlfriends. We had such a wide range of music for our listening pleasure, but one of my favorites was "Summertime in the LBC" by Warren G. This was also the beginning of my "rap/r&b phase" that my husband is so thankful I outgrew. (although i still know all the words to all my favorite songs and sing along with them when they come on the radio...it drives him crazy)
7. Song I think of when I remember my BEST friends in high school, "Beautiful You" by Considering Lily. Also any songs from Five Iron Frenzy, The W's, and Bleach.
8. Working at my favorite job thus far, a video store run by 2 of the craziest bosses I have ever had. It was all young college kids that worked there and man, we had fun. The whole experience can be summed up by 3 bands, "Everclear", "Cake", and Jimmy Buffet.
9. The first time Dustin and I held hands, we listened to "Underneath the Kissing Tree" by Sara Masen. Although, I should probably admit that the first song that comes to mind of my first meeting with Dustin is "You were Always on my Mind" by Willie Nelson. Dustin sang it to me when we first met. He's such a strange boy.
10. First kiss ever (and first kiss with Dustin) "Fell in Love at 22" by Starflyer 59.
Okay...that's just the first edition...I'll be back with the remaining songs in a minute b/c this post is getting to be too long.
my blog has turned into one of "those" blogs...
As i'm listing all the funny things bella has said today, I realize that my blog has turned into one of "those" blogs. An easily identifiable theme...my kids of course.
It started out that way, because we were in Mexico and it was the easiest way to share pictures with my family, but now that they get to see them all the time, i'm stuck in a rut. I'm open to suggestions. Non-kid related blogging themes...ideas anyone??
Until then...here are a few little bella quotes. i'm still going to record them here, because it's faster for me than writing them all down right away.
1. we're in Taco Bell, picking up a quesadilla for Annabelle and Julian. We go inside because our Taco Bell has the slowest drive thru in the entire U.S. As we are waiting in line, a very large macho man comes to the counter to pick up his order, a fried chicken sandwich. Annabelle looks at the man, and then points at his sandwich, saying, "Mama look, they have "crabby patties" here!"
2. She was having a rough day, lots of benadryl and calamine lotion for bug bites all over her legs. At one point she was just so sad and started to cry. i said, "Bella, what's wrong?"
"Oh Mama, I got boo boos,
and bug bites,
and coughs,
and, and, and...boogers in my nose!!"
Apparently it was all just too much for her to handle.
3. *singing*
"row row row your boat,
gently down the stream,
Mawly Mawly Mawly Mawly,Life's About a dream!!!"
i don't remember if i've ever posted this picture here before...whenever bella sees it, she says, "Mama, do i still have that flower in my ear?" and then touches her ear, just to double check...
poor julian
poor julian...
he busted his lip on the glass coffee table today while chasing my sister around the living room. trying to have some good clean fun and he ends up bleeding and crying, but not wanting to be held because he is still trying to chase amy...
then his hair starts driving me crazy, so i brush his bangs straight while he is in the high chair, pick up a pair of scissors to just snip a little and he freaks out, so i end up making one diagonal cut across the front of his bangs, giving his hair a major hack job...but it does the trick for now. (dustin is making fun of it terribly, but he does look really cute...in a "jim carrey from dumb and dumber" kind of way)....
finally, anybody have any magic tricks for curing a "biter"? yes, my kid is a biter. and a ferocious one at that. it usually starts out innocently enough, as a slobbery kiss...and turns into one large chunk of flesh being clamped down upon until i can wedge one of my fingers in between his razor sharp teeth to pry them off of his victim...
Annabelle was being a little bossy today (well, everyday. but today was especially bad) and I told her, "Bella you are not the boss." Then I asked, "Bella, who is the boss?" She looked at me very solemnly and said, "Mommy is the boss. And then lions and then bears." So, I'm glad we got that straightened out, and it's good to know that I can finally pull rank over all the wild animals around here.
When we were still living in Mexico, I had written my kids names on the sidewalk with chalk. A few days later, I noticed that one of the neighbor boys had traced over the names with green crayon.
Well, when my brother CJ comes to visit a few weeks later, he is leaning against the palm tree outside our door and asks, "Mindi, can Bella write her name?" I say no and ask why. He says, "this is why...her name, written in green crayon on this palm tree."
I was confused at first and then realized that the same boy that traced their names on the sidewalk must have done this. And I thought, perhaps, it's a token of love. One of many "tree inscriptions" from "boyfriends".
A.G. + ?? = (insert poorly drawn heart here, to represent "love")
I took a picture to show my little Annabelle when she is old enough to really appreciate the sentiment behind it.
fireworks!!
Every year, my hometown has a big celebration in June. A day filled with fried foods, country crafts, and OLD time gospel music. Not my idea of a good time, but because it is my hometown, I try to make it if I am home. The night ends with a literal *bang*, fireworks.
Now, my hometown has a population of about 400 people. We are a SMALL town. But we are very proud of our fireworks show. It easily beats any other fireworks in our county, even better than the long-running July 4th shows in nearby towns.
Tonights show was great fun. We had lots of friends and family crammed into the back of Dad's truck, lying on blankets and watching the show. It was the first year that both of my kids enjoyed it (usually one or both of them end up screaming and having to watch it from inside Poppy's truck) Julian kept reaching for the bright explosions and saying "mine. mine." Bella would follow each display with "Oooh, wow guys. Really coooooool." This was said in a LOUD voice, so that everybody in the park could hear her play-by-play commentary. Her comments were especially loud, because she kept her little fingers jammed into her ears throughout the entire 30 minute show.
As we were watching them, I was reminded of the first year that our town presented the fireworks display. It was awesome. Beautiful. Loud. Very very loud.
My friend's, Jeff and Jerusha had their little boy at the show. He was a little over one year old, and not impressed at all with the fireworks. They were TOO loud. Scary. Frightening. Jerusha was trying to convince him that they were okay. "Look Fisher! Pretty lights!" She tried to explain to him that they were pretty and not scary and that we were having so much fun!! Fisher wasn't buying it. He wanted to go HOME.
As she is trying to calm him down from the safety of the van, one of the coolest f.w. is going off in the sky. A screaming, chasing, "sperm shaped" one(according to my friend, Paul), that comes a little too close to the ground. One small flaming ball flies far from the baseball field, and STRAIGHT towards the tent that we are sitting under, hitting none other than JEFF, Fisher's daddy. Still burning, it lands on Jeff's leg, scorching leg hair, and sending Jeff to frantically run circles and slap at his legs until the fire is out. As you can probably imagine, this did not make Fisher feel better about the "pretty fireworks".
Since that night, the show has gotten considerably safer. That I know of, only one other man has ever been hit with a fireball, but he was a jerk and that kind of made it funnier. But still, sitting in the back of my Dad's truck, watching those little "sperm shaped" flaming suckers shooting towards us, I felt a twinge of anxiety...and though I truly enjoyed the show, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was all over. I think that we all did. Another good show, and we each returned home unharmed (aside from minor eardrum damage)...until next June...
A few nights ago, my Dad was reading a Precious Moments Bible Stories book to Annabelle. The first story was called "Peace". Dad said, "Annabelle, do you know what peace is?" She said, "Yes. Peas is my brother Juju's favorite snack."
Bella's humor
Bella has been full of one liners and funny observations...here are a few:
1. Bella was walking past the couch (that i was sitting on) and passed gas. She giggled, looked at me and pointed, "Mama, i left some farts there." As calmly as if she were telling me that she left some casseroles in the freezer or something. I laughed until I cried.
2. Julian woke up from a nap, and Bella couldn't stop hugging him. She said, "Mama, you hold my Juju so I can pet him." As she rubbed his soft cheeks, she said, "Mama, Juju is like an animal, but he's not really an animal...he just has "pettings" on him" I understood "pettings" to mean that there was something about him that made her NEED to pet him. She loves her brother...when he's not messing with her stuff.
3. Dustin's been out of town for a little over a week, and she's missing him a lot. In Wendy's a few nights ago, she went up to my cousin's husband and said, "Hi Clay. You're my Daddy." Moments later, she went up to Clay's brother and said, "Hey, You're my Daddy" She has a tendency to say things like this to random strangers in Wal-Mart and I feel like they think I am a single mom, sending my daughter to pick up men for me!
4. My sister Amy was teasing Annabelle, and said, "Annabelle...I sure do love youuuuuuuuur...brother Juju." Annabelle responded with, "Amy, I sure do love youuuuuuuuuuur.,..boyfriend Salomon." She's a quick one, that girl.
missing dustin...he's been in Florida this week. he's got important meetings this week and we're hoping for good good things...so it would mean so much to us if you kept us in your thoughts, prayers, send happy vibes...whatever. :) and i want him home SOON. :) the good thing is that Mom and I got our dates backwards, and celebrated Father's Day last Sunday, which worked out great since we won't get to see Dad (who is in Oregon) or Dustin this Sunday. Sometimes being scatter-brained pays off! :)
this is one of my favorite things about staying home with my babies. although rare, i love to see them just being still, lying together with cups of soy milk watching Blues Clues. So so so sweet together, sharing, instead of the typical fighting over Little People toys and Jumbo Legos. Mornings like this bring peace to my heart and reminds me of why I love to stay home with my little rugrats.
Julian diving into an ice cream cone. He LOVED it, especially considering he doesn't have a sweet tooth like Bella and I do. Although...he did spend more time rubbing it all over himself (and his sister) than he did eating it.
the meltdown after the ice cream cone was taken away...(after Julian smeared the ice cream all over himself, his Meme's windows, the deck, and the final straw...an ant pile)
Since I am on Mom's computer, I have access to all of her pictures...and since she never prints pics, I never get any of hers. This is the first time I've seen this picture, and I like it, because i'm pregnant with Julian (wearing a maternity shirt), i never get pictures of me and my kid(s), and I kind of like the short hair (growing my hair long right now) Just thinking that maybe I should cut it for summer?
Dustin calls this my "cheesy" smile...he thinks it's silly, but it's just how it comes out when i'm really happy. :) I'm cheesy.
pictures are back!!
I got my picture dilemma taken care of...and now one more yucky Juju story.
Okay, see that bottle of yellow liquid on the back of the toilet lid in the picture below? Well, it's not a urine sample ;) it is a fragrant oily air freshener thingy. Mom puts this oil stuff in a little air freshener machine, and it makes the house smell good.
So today, Julian is being quiet for too long (about 30 seconds) and just as I am saying "i better go see what the animal is up to", I hear my sister screaming.
"MINDI!!! COME HERE!!! HURRY HURRY!!!" Followed by shrill screaming.
The lid to that neat little bottle of oily smelly stuff wasn't on well, and Julian had pried it off. He drank a certain amount (unsure of how much) There is only half the amount left in the bottle, his new shirt (just bought today...but not too much complaining over a $2 WalMart shirt) is soaked, it's running down his legs, it's soaking into Mom's newish carpet...and his face is slick with oil.
oh yeah, and he smells like lemon breeze.
I nearly drown him in the sink, trying to clean out the (toxic? not sure) oily mess in his mouth and off of his face. I've spilled this stuff on my arm before and know that it can burn the skin...and it's soaking into his skin.
After about 2 minutes of intensity ("WHERE"S YOUR IPECAC??????? YOU DON"T HAVE IPECAC????) he stops screaming. He wants a "crarkar" (cracker) And he settles down into the recliner with a crarker and some soy milk, not to yell again.
And the women tend to the trail of oil he's left all over this house.
I'm starting to think we are wearing out that big fat WELCOME we received
2ish weeks ago. :)
my toilet loving monkey (FINALLY got pictures hooked up to mom's computer! :)
adventures of a toilet lovin boy
so Julian loves toilets. he likes to stick his little hands in them and splash around, even if his sister is sitting on it. Her little booty doesn't take up much room, so he tries to squeeze behind the toilet and splash in the water. Fortunately, I've caught him before she's actually done her business.
Well, yesterday I left Mom's bedroom door slightly open, and Julian sees it immediately. He waits for the perfect timing...Dustin's doing laundry. I think Julian has gone into the laundry room, Dustin doesn't see him streaking down the hall and within 2 minutes, Dustin comes into the living room...alone.
"Where's Juju?" I ask.
Dustin shrugs and glances into the kitchen.
I RUN down the hall, into Mom's bedroom, and it's too late. He is in her bathroom. The door is closed. (he is quite sharp. he thinks that nobody will find him if he shuts the door behind him) I open the door and GASP at the new fun play he is having.
He is sitting INSIDE the toilet. Like it is his own personal baby swimming pool. He is splashing and grabbing things off of the counter and dropping them into the toilet. He drops a large battery into the toilet, and then picks it up and shoves it into his mouth. (as if a child should be playing with a battery that hasn't been in toilet water)
gross. gross. double gross. have i ever mentioned that i have a terrible fear of bathrooms. not really a fear, but anything having to do with bathrooms disgust me. a piece of furniture that is entirely for pooping into? gross. hair on the floor? carpeted bathroom mats with wet spots from hair-covered shower feet? GROSS.
He goes straight into the bathtub (after I take about 10 pictures...i'll have to share on the blog, right?) Dustin cleans up the watery toilet mess. I scrub his stinky little toilet feet for 20 minutes and am still convinced that I smell poo all over him.
I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can get them onto Mom's computer (as if everybody doesn't have a strong enough mental image in their head of my toilet water soaked boy)
ahhh...the daily adventures of a monkey-boy's mother...
Thanks!
What a happy and warm welcome back! You guys are so sweet, I felt so happy to hear from all of you yesterday regarding our safe return home! :) Thanks again.
Today was a lot of fun. We went to the closest town (1 1/2 hrs. away) for a little shopping, eating, and a movie. My parents took Bella to see "Madagascar" so she is full of new movie quotes. She loved it. I went to see some new Adam Sandler movie, which was pretty funny. I had a hard time, b/c I haven't seen movie previews in 4 months, so I had NO idea what would be interesting. I was not too disappointed.
Dustin kept Julian around the house since he still doesn't want to be anywhere near a car seat. Unfortunately for him, Julian has developed diarrhea and exploded during his nap time. (all over his crib, his clothes, everything) Dustin said he had no idea what to do, especially with Julian reaching out to touch Dustin's face with poop covered hands.
He ended up just throwing him in the bathtub, fully clothed while Julian played in his own poo. Let's just say I was so thrilled that I wasn't the one to deal with that one today ;)
Not too much to share for now. We're having a little BBQ party on Sunday, my Dad's going to be cooking like crazy tomorrow. I hope to be sampling yummy food all day and avoiding childcare duties as much as possible...or at least diaper duty.
We're home :)
I don't have access to my computer (with all the pictures and fun stuff) but needed to update so you all don't stop coming around ;)
We're at my parents house for a bit, looking for a new home and money (anybody seen any of that stuff lying around?)
The trip was...not terribly fun. We did get to go to Kerrville to visit Dustin's family's camp and that was wonderful. The drive, however, was horrible and we will not be doing that again for some time.
More about all that later (when I can find the perfect picture of my kids screaming, crying, and foaming at the mouth...i like my posts to be as realistic as possible)
Anyways, it's good to be back and we'll be talking soon...
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