the simple life

2007-01-31T06:38:00.000-06:00

my blog is MOVING!!!!!

after lots of problems with blogger i've decided to move my blog, so update your bookmarks, because i won't be here anymore...

CLICK HERE FOR NEW BLOG HOME!!!

2007-01-29T05:18:00.000-06:00

juju and cj

2007-01-29T05:00:00.000-06:00

they could be brothers, couldn't they? i was flipping through old pictures tonight, and i found this one of my brother, C.J.
the haircut, squinty eye smile, wrinkled little nose, same chin...
i love these boys.

2007-01-26T22:09:00.000-06:00

finally, a chance to share a few photos :) yay! still no internet, but i am working on it right now.

this is ezra at 8 days old. he is approximately twice this size now, with a very impressive double chin. if he let me pull him away from eating long enough to take a (good) new picture, i would post it and you would be amazed.

i did find one other little snapshot, from his 5th week, but it doesn't do his chin any justice.

julian turned 3 this week. we had a wonderful night (although bella had a really hard time not having 100% attention focused on her for that one day out of the year). Julian has really turned into such an amazing, loving, fun little boy. he still has a few wild temper flare ups throughout the day, but all in all, he is pretty easy right now. (easy compared to a 4 year old with the emotional sensitivity of a menopausal woman, and a 7 week old baby vacuum) i love him and his creative little mind. i love that he loves to play "dress up", even if that means that he has to be the "little princess" since there aren't cool boy dress up costumes. fortunately, uncle blair and stephanie sent us this little pirate gig for christmas, and he can take off the tiara and replace it with a skull n crossbones eye patch. we also found him an inflatable Superman costume for his birthday and it is so hilarious to watch him try to play in that massive thing. pictures will come soon.

little annabelle. she is such a sweet, perfect girl, but i never would have predicted the mood swings that a 4 year old could have. she goes from affectionate little mommy hen, reading books to julian...to bossy little tyrant, commanding julian to "clean up your mess, or you won't be doing ANYTHING fun again, EVER!!!"
her interests are changing, and she wants nothing more than friends right now. julian, ezra and a couple of hamsters just aren't cutting it for her anymore. every outing results in a new friendship, Samantha from IKEA, Isabelle and Sierra from the mall. but to be honest, Isabelle and Sierra deserved a good kick in the head. In observing their catty-ness toward my little Annabelle, I really started fearing Annabelle's upcoming kindergarten enrollment. are all girls so mean? so bratty? thankfully, annabelle is still so sweet, trying to have fun, rolling in the floor while pretending to be a dalmation puppy. Isabelle and Sierra would NOT play "puppies". they only liked "princesses".
i was so annoyed as Annabelle did everything that they told her to do, playing all of their games. and during a game of hide and seek (after intentionally ignoring bella for 10 minutes) they told annabelle to go hide her eyes and "count to 800 million...plus 40". then they laughed and walked away. little shits. pardon my language, but seriously. annabelle ran to hide her eyes, and then looked sadly at me and said, "mama, i don't know how to count that much." i told her, "count to 10...the blond one is hiding behind the slide".
fortunately, annabelle took it so well and was just grateful to have friends her age to play with. we went home and she said, "i'm gonna pretend that those two girls are coming to my house for a sleepover."
now more than ever, i am praying for annabelle to be a girl that is filled with compassion and integrity, and i am praying for genuine friends for her. friends that love to play dalmation puppies, and pet shop, and other 4 year old girl games. friends that love annabelle for the caring sweet girl that she is. with her personality, i am positive that she will draw the right people to her.

oh, and julian pushed Isabella. apparently she said something mean, and he had heard enough. i reprimanded him...but not too much.

2007-01-05T16:39:00.000-06:00

i am in austin.
i have no internet.
i have broken into my mother in law's house and have taken over her computer temporarily.
i lied...i used a key.
i have no pictures on her computer.
next week. next week i hope to have my internet back. and then there will be pictures.

family updates:

dustin is a lifesaver, and has taken over morning duty with the two kids that actually sleep during the dark hours. he has also spring-cleaned the entire house, which was no small task. and when i say entire, i'm talking organized closets and kitchen and office...he is my superhero.

annabelle is madly in love with her new hamsters, Kiki and Wendy, and bursts out in uncontrollable tears if we don't let her hold them all the time. she has also perfected a "cooing baby voice" that i have only ever heard her use with ezra. it is precious.

julian is wonderful. he seems so gigantic to me now that ezra is here. everything, his head, his huge feet and hands, his thick little legs. he seemed so small for so long and now he reminds me of a tiny version of my dad, with brown eyes. which is kind of weird to feel like you are parenting a tiny version of your father. he loves ezra too, and the hamsters, regardless of the fact that he almost squeezed the eyeballs out of Kiki's head last night. have you seen "Of Mice and Men"?

Lenny is to mice as Julian is to hamsters.

ezra is beautiful. even when he is covered in yellow poo and spit up milk. he is a big fan of not sleeping when i want him to, but he loves to dance and eat and take baths. he is no longer my tiny one, and is very pleasantly plump, especially his chubby little face. he is far from a gerber baby, but also far from the skinny baby chicken that we brought home from the hospital.

mindi is tired. very very tired. but very very happy.

more fun updates soon, promise.

happy feet

2006-12-20T18:19:00.000-06:00

mom and i took the kiddos (all 3) to Fort Smith (about 1 1/2 hrs away) this weekend to see "Happy Feet". actually we went with the intentions of watching "Charlotte's Web" and the kids decided on "Happy Feet" at the last minute. It was one of the best and funniest and sweetest children's movies that I've watched in a long time. I really had no interest in it before and now i am so happy that we got to see it.

ezra did beautifully. he slept in his car seat the entire time (until i woke him up for lunch) and that is just amazing to me. neither of the other kids ever slept in their car seats unless they were in a moving vehicle.

julian ate almost an entire medium sized tub of popcorn by himself. the kid can pack away popcorn like nobody i've ever seen. of course, he had a terrible stomach ache by that evening.

we took the kids shopping after it was over, and that was quite an experience. we had to do lots of shuffling around (ezra in stroller, ezra out of stroller, juju in stroller, bathroom trip, bathroom trip, stop for drinks, bathroom trip, feed ezra, etc. etc. etc.) and didn't get too much shopping done, but in the end, i was very pleased with how well we all did, considering it was a nap-free day, plus mucho sugary treats at the movie theater. i always have so much fun shopping with my mom too, and it was great to venture out of the house.

a few more days until all the men are here (dad, cj and dustin) and then we will have christmas. it is very festive here in mom's house, her tree is beautiful and very tempting for my juju, but he is doing pretty well with leaving it alone. a few nights ago, julian came into my room at 2 am needing to use the restroom. we had stayed up late that night wrapping gifts, so the tree was full. julian saw the gifts and said, "Ooooohhhh mama, it's cri-mass day! let's open presents!!!"

2006-12-20T17:15:00.000-06:00

annabelle loves to eat. if julian and i are home alone, i may forget to feed him for several hours, before finding him picking cheerios out of the couch cushions. but annabelle NEVER forgets to remind me when it is breakfast time, or snack time, or treat time, or lunch time....

yesterday, i was preparing lunch when ezra woke up SO hungry. i stopped to feed him, and moments later, annabelle came into the room expecting to eat lunch. she walked up to me and said, "mama, is lunch ready?" i said, "no baby, i had to feed ezra first." she sighed and said, "Mama, you STILL have to feed us TOO, ya know," and sulked out of the living room.

annabelle also has the best memory. if she sees a commercial for a new movie coming out, she will ask me how many days until the movie comes out and she will count down (on her own) every day until the movie should be out. while in the hospital after having ezra, she saw a preview for Fox and the Hound 2. I told her it would be out in 8 days. on day 8, she woke up and walked into the living room and said, "Mama, where's Tata?" I told her that she already left for work. Normally she bursts into tears at the thought of Tata leaving without saying goodbye. Instead she said, "Well whose car are we going to take to the video store to get Fox and the Hound 2? It came out today, you know"

2006-12-15T22:41:00.000-06:00

lastone, i promise. i just love ezra's sweet little face in this one. look at his long skinny fingers.

2006-12-15T22:39:00.000-06:00

ezra looks weird in this one, but the 2 big kids look so....well, big. i had to share.

2006-12-15T22:38:00.000-06:00

my 3 kids. bella, wearing her always inside out and backwards shirt, juju covered in a blanket as he only wears undies indoors, and ezra, so peaceful and sweet in his little hand-me-downs from juju. ezra looks so much like his sister, don't ya think?

attention valerie, kara and heather

2006-12-15T11:05:00.000-06:00

i am so frustrated with blogger. i just wanted to let all my blogger friends know that i am not being allowed to leave comments on your blogs, so valerie, (i already emailed you), i want you to know how much i love you and how much your writing makes me smile and think and laugh and i look foward to checking your blog everyday. Kara, I want to see pictures of your baby boy's nursery, and i hope you enjoy your laney christmas this weekend and i hope that baby comes soon soon soon for you (but not TOO soon. :) ) and Heather, baby Tristen looks so precious and snuggly and content. he and ezra were born within 7 minutes of eachother, which i think is just wild, and i wish we lived closer to eachother, as I am sure they would make the best of friends. :)

i hope you all still check my blog so you can see my comments here. i just want you to know that i am not at all trying to ignore you or neglect you guys. blogger just stinks sometimes. and that is all for now. (i am off to try to leave more comments on other blogs, and if it doesn't work...i'll be back here ;)

baby ezra

2006-12-14T11:07:00.000-06:00

we are alive and well. i am just neglecting my blog because i have been a tad bit busy.
our sweet baby boy, Ezra Harper Bartell, (i won!!) was born last Tuesday, December 5th.
7 lbs. 4 oz., he is the smallest of my three babies, and he definitely has the most calm, sweet spirit of the three (as newborns). He rarely demands anything from us, and spends much of his awake hours just snuggling us and contentedly sucking on his shirt sleeves and fingers.

the kids are just deliriously happy with him. i hear about 50 times a day, "baby ezra's cuuute" from Julian and Annabelle is seriously offended if I don't let her hold him on demand. she is such a great helper, and loves to rock him and sing to him.

ezra is small but has the longest, skinniest fingers and toes. he is a little baldie and has the littlest chicken legs and baby booty. he has jaundice but it is hopefully going away, as he has been doing a lot of "sunbathing" the past 2 days.

i am still using my mom's computer and don't have a way to upload photos, but i will share some as soon as i can. these are the only photos i can find on her computer, so i will share more when i can.

2006-12-04T00:53:00.000-06:00

*i won!!! i won!!! :) dustin un-vetoed my baby name! i'll share soon, i promise. (we're still kicking around a couple of middle names)

*my car is having transmission problems. serious problems (took dustin 3 1/2 hrs. to make a 2 hour trip tonight). i am stressing a little, because instead of driving to arkansas right now, dustin is waiting for the hyundai dealership to open. he is afraid that the transmission could fall out between austin and here. i *guess* that is a legitimate reason, but i just really want him here now.

*dustin also smashed his right ring finger while changing a flat tire two nights ago. he is in mucho pain, but fortunately his little brother is going to the doctor tomorrow, and dustin may be able to squeeze in an appointment around the same time to have his finger looked at. i really really hope it isn't broken, but at this point, it seems pretty likely. poor boy.

*we had such a fun time at my sister's house last night. she is all moved in to their new home and we had a little bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs and then watched the Razorback game on their big screen. i don't even like football, but i really enjoyed it.

*my dad was in Maine this week, and he picked out a stuffed lobster for Jocelyn, a stuffed moose for Julian and a stuffed Bear for Bella. Julian tried to trade his moose (my personal favorite) for Jocelyn's lobster, because he thought it was Mr. Crab from Spongebob. we convinced him that it wasn't a crab, but a lobster and he has called it a "Wosbter" ever since.

*the swelling has gone down in my ankles and knees, and has instead travelled to my face. i hate this part of pregnancy and was hoping i could avoid the fatty face this time around. no such luck. :(

*on top of the normal train and truck Christmas gift requests from juju, he has also asked for Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, and a pink purse. girls just have way better toys than boys...and clothes too. fortunately, while browsing a site full of disney pajamas, he chose the Lightning McQueen pj's over the Pretty Princess pj's....but i could tell it was a difficult decision for him to make.

*baby-with-an-almost-definite-name will be here in less than 2 days!

2006-11-28T17:18:00.000-06:00

i love me some polka dots. :)
i've been poring over the baby gap site today, bad idea.
they have gone polka dot crazy. and i love it.

i was feeling pretty well today, so i got the kids dressed, shoes on, found the football and soccer ball, announced we were going outside to play, and opened the door to a rainy, muddy, cold, wet yard. why oh why didn't i look out the window first??? my kids were so so sad...so we made brownies.

now i have sugar monsters flying around the house. i just duck, cover my head and try to stay out of their way.

7 days until "baby no name" arrives. i'm getting excited, but am kind of dreading the delivery. i normally am super excited about the delivery (weird i know) but this time i am in a lot of pain already, and it worries me how it will affect that whole pushing-the-kid-out part.

dustin has vetoed my baby boy name. i countered it by teaching the kids my baby name, and am having them refer to the baby by that name. i am hoping that juju will sound so cute referring to the baby by this name that dustin will cave. it's worth a shot...

2006-11-21T16:44:00.000-06:00

it looks like a BOY!!!!! we are all so shocked, as EVERYBODY just felt like it was going to be a girl. this baby has definitely been a surprise in more ways than one ;)

annabelle is a little disappointed. she said, "well, i'm a little bit excited, but i don't really like boys. i guess i can marry my new brother AND juju." after we told her that she would soon have her OWN room (NO BOYS ALLOWED) she got excited and said, "my toys are going to be SOOO happy!"

so after all the fuss trying to come up with girls names, we're trying to find some baby boy names, especially middle names as i am pretty decided on my boy name. any ideas???
2 more weeks! i've got some shopping to do...

2006-11-20T19:39:00.000-06:00

the doctor's appointment went really well. 36 weeks, baby's heartbeat at 148, everything is perfect (other than the arthritic like pain, but we're hoping that will all go away very very soon)

we scheduled an induction (unless i deliver early) so as long as all goes as planned, the baby (who annabelle is currently calling "Curly Shirley CatDog Bartell") will be here December 5th!!

our ultrasound is tomorrow at 3pm, so fingers crossed that we will know who's old baby clothes we need to run through the laundry...bella's or juju's.

and now, cute baby find of the day: doesn't this little polka dot pony make you smile? :) julian would totally trash this thing in about 2 1/2 days...

EDITED TO ADD: this little pony is from Babystyle.com i believe. sorry i forgot to include that. how am i supposed to be a good enabler if i don't post links??

fun name game...play along!

2006-11-20T01:11:00.000-06:00

1. Rockstar name (your first pet's name + current street name)
Brownie Mellow Meadow

2. Gangsta name (fav. ice cream + fav. cookie)
Chunky Monkey Double Peanut Butter

3. "Fly guy/girl" name (first initial of first name + first 3 letters of last name)
M-Bar

4. Detective name (favorite color + favorite animal)
Green Monkey

5. Soap Opera name (middle name + city where you were born)
Rae Mena

6. Star Wars Name (First 3 letters of your last name + first 2 letters of first name)
Barmi

7. superhero name ("the" + second favorite color + favorite drink)
The Blue Pina Colada

8. Nascar Name (first names of your grandfathers)
Curtis Jim Bob (how perfect is that???)

9. Stripper name (favorite perfume + favorite candy)
Chance Chocolate

10. Witness Protection name (parents middle names)
Diane Curtis

baby alive

2006-11-16T16:05:00.000-06:00

annabelle and julian have been obsessed with Christmas consumerism this year. despite my efforts to fast foward through commercials when they watch cartoons, they have been confiscating the toys-r-us mailers that come through our newspaper, and at bedtime, this is the "story book" that they want to read. i'm pretty creative, but i just can't come up with an interesting story line for these "books".

annabelle told me the other day that she wanted a "Baby Alive" for Christmas. I told her, "Annabelle, you don't even like baby dolls, why would you want a "Baby Alive?"

She said, "I AM getting a Baby Alive for Christmas. and she pees and poops and eats and cries..."

I told her, "Annabelle, I think I am getting one of those for Christmas too...you can just help me with mine."

baby stuff...

2006-11-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

i kind of love this. i looked at it in our target at home and it's so much cuter in person than online. it's green and chocolate brown, which i love, and i think it's great because if baby #3 doesn't cooperate at our next ultrasound, this bedding isn't too feminine/masculine to be used for either gender. i always love the "Amy Coe" nursery line at Target, and it's so affordable.

they have another line that is pink and chocolate brown that has butterflies instead of elephants, but you know, i think dustin wouldn't be too happy if we had a baby boy in a pink butterfly bed. he used to think i was so strange when i would dress julian in annabelle's old girly pajamas. it's not like anybody is going to be judging juju's masculinity at bedtime, so i don't think the pink dora nightgown did anybody any harm....now his obsession with wearing annabelle's red dress shoes and flowery bathing suits...that's a little weird.

so i'm approximately 35 1/2 weeks. my dr. goes out of town thanksgiving week, so i've been forbidden to go into labor too early, but he also goes out of town during the week of my due date, so i've been forbidden to go late as well. i think we may schedule an induction around the week of Dec. 8th, because as much as i hate pitocin, i hate the thought of going into labor and my husband not making it here in time (he's over 9 hours away right now). i can always see the on-call doctor, but i prefer not to contract out the husband position. :)

i'm having a pretty hard time this week. i've never had problems with swelling before, but my feet look horrible. i was concerned (although my dr. told me not to be) because i feel like i have arthritis in all of my joints. every joint that could hurt, does. and not just in an achey way, but in a "could my ankles/knees/wrists/elbows/toes/fingers be broken???" kind of way. has anybody else ever felt like this during pregnancy? i am a pretty tough girl, so i know i'm not just wimping out, but i'm at a point where i want to be medicated, even if it causes the baby to come out with three eyeballs or something.

this morning, i was having a particularly hard time, with julian getting into things and me not being able to do anything about it because i couldn't walk. i finally just burst into tears (i'm a tough girl, but i am pretty emotional 24/7). annabelle ran to me, and in the most nurturing way, started patting my arm and saying, "don't cry. poor mama." which caused julian to stop his tyrant ways long enough to administer some sympathy of his own. "poor mama...juju's here...juju's here."

annabelle took my hand and said ever so sincerely, "mama, if i was a grown up and my legs felt brokened, i'm sure i would do the same thing. i'm sure i would be cryin too."
yeah...she got a cookie at lunchtime for that one.

2006-11-16T01:55:00.000-06:00

i'm in arkansas. i forgot to tell you all that.
i don't have time to update right now, just wanted to let you know that i'm here. i'm going to have a baby in a few short weeks. i am going to have an ultrasound on tuesday and HOPEFULLY we will find out the sex. but we may keep it a surprise...i mean, we've waited this long, right?
lots of out of town family will be here soon for thanksgiving and i am super duper excited.
dustin and i are tossing a couple of baby (girl) names at eachother, and i am determined to win.
a boy's name is fairly easy...but dustin does have a tendency to change his mind last minute.
annabelle's latest contribution is "Cat Dog Bartell". my sister is really rooting for that one.

my birthday!!!

2006-11-10T02:01:00.000-06:00

so yes, today is my birthday. it was an average thursday, since Dustin had to work and my little birthday party planner (aka Annabelle) is in Arkansas visiting the family. julian and i had a fabulous day, although it pretty much revolved around him.

we spent the morning at mcdonald's, and i indulged in a cinnamon roll AND a sausage biscuit...horrible, right? don't judge me, it's my birthday. ;) then julian ran around the play area for a bit, but got bored quickly as:
a. bella wasn't there
b. most (sane) mothers don't take their babies to mcdonald's playland at 9am.

so we went home....where we found that dustin had locked the door before leaving for work. we headed to the office for a spare key, and julian found a large inviting bowl of halloween candy. he said, "ooooohhhhh! trick or treat!" and promptly grabbed a chubby little handful. i put them all back except for one roll of smarties (his fave).

we cuddled and watched a cartoon.
julian rocked out on his little keyboard.
we took a nap, and julian cooperated really well today, which made me happy.

we headed out to get a haircut (for julian, he really was starting to look like a shaggy puppy) and it's a BIG boy haircut. he loves it and admires himself so proudly in the mirror. and his favorite part (because he HATES the process of getting a haircut) was when she put a little gel in his hair and used the hair dryer on it. he thought it was a cool "tool".

then, we stocked up on some goodies and headed to the dollar theater, where we ate entirely too much junk food (popcorn and gummy bears for juju, milk duds and a root beer from sonic for me) we watched *most* of "Barnyard" and it was really hilarious. but about 15-20 minutes before it was over, the gummy bears really kicked in, julian was crawling under the seats, and with threats of taking him home, julian finally said, "mama, i wanna go home. please?" so we did.

i came home to SO many sweet birthday wishes online, and several phone calls. i don't care to talk on the phone very often, but i LOVE talking on the phone on my birthday. i spent the better part of 6 hours on the phone tonight talking to friends and family and i feel so happy and refreshed after getting to talk to people i love.

dustin brought me another root beer from sonic and since he has tomorrow free, we are making plans for tomorrow night. i'm excited and i'm even more excited to see my little annabelle this weekend. we miss her so much. dustin has been walking from room to room like a mama dog that can't find her puppies. it's really funny/sad at the same time. julian talks to her so eagerly every day and asks about 50 times a day if we can go to poppy and tata's house and see bella.

so anyways...that about wraps up my birthday! thanks so much to everybody for thinking about me today, i really felt so so special.

tomorrow: pictures of the juju man's new do...and maybe a funny story about dustin's near death experience with a rabid killer possum...

welcome to texas

2006-11-05T22:45:00.000-06:00

edited to add:
this was intentional, he's been trying to get a cross eyed drivers license photo for some time now, but usually the person taking the picture won't let him. i didn't want anybody feeling sorry for him or anything ! :)

dustin went to get his new texas drivers license a couple of weeks ago. the lady didn't preview the picture first, she just approved it and told him it would be mailed to him in 1-2 weeks.
we got it in the mail yesterday.
dustin jokingly says it is his greatest accomplishment and i've never been so proud.
(this is his attempt at crossing his eyes.)

Flashback Friday

2006-11-03T23:51:00.000-06:00

several people mentioned that Julian's Halloween costume was so "creative", and honestly, it was a last ditch effort to correct my laziness in not trying his costume on him before the day of Halloween.

my mom, on the other hand, was amazingly creative with all of our costumes each year. i honestly don't remember any store bought costumes, although i'm sure i must have had one sometime.

the ones that i remember really stand out in my mind and i always appreciated the time and effort that she put in to making me look super cute each year, on a budget.

the first costume that i remember, was probably around 4 or 5 years old. she dressed me as a red crayola crayon. i had red sweats on (properly colored sweat pants/shirts were almost always the base of our costumes). then she wrapped a piece of red posterboard into a round, skinny tube and stapled it around my body (*around* my body, not *to* my body...that would have been horrible). she wrote "Crayola" and "Red" down the side, complete with the squiggle line under the crayola. then she fashioned a little cone shaped hat out of construction paper for the crayon tip. i felt so awesome.

another year, she put me in black sweats, painted my face dark, and then put a puffy black Hefty bag around my body, and a pair of gloves completed my outfit. I was a California Raisin. Genius, no?

one of my favorite memories, that i was sharing with Dustin tonight, was these "Hallelujah" parties that we used to attend as children. Even though we trick or treated (guiltily at times, depending on which church we were attending) we always made an effort to make sure that Jesus knew we weren't celebrating the "devil's holiday". We did this by making our costumes based on Bible characters, singing Christian music, and having a pinata, because apparently Jesus is BIG on pinatas.

the funniest part, though, is that most people had these typical "safe" costumes. Angels with wings and halos, sheperds in robes with big sticks (staffs) and fake beards. No. My Mom always went a step further.

One year, she found some halloween makeup that was supposed to be mixed with oatmeal and applied to look like peeling flesh or something. she applied this to my brother and he became the "leper" that Jesus healed. gruesome, but awesome.

another year, she dressed me all in white (white sheet, makeup, hair, everything). we had to go to the front of the church and "act out" our character. all i had to do was walk a few steps, stop and turn around, and then freeze. I was Lot's wife, after she turned into a pillar of salt.

but my absolute favorite, was when i was probably 5 or 6 years old. my mom dressed me in a velvet glittery dress, heavy costume jewelry, and LOTS of makeup, complete with a beauty mole. every other little girl was dressed as Mary or an angel....but me...I was JEZEBEL.
yes, my mom dressed me as the Bible harlot.

Thursday Thirteen

2006-11-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

13 things that make my life easier right now...

BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE (IF you have a blockbuster near you). Their rates are the same as netflix, with the additional bonus of returning dvd’s instore and exchanging them for one on the shelf. Also, you get a free rental coupon emailed to you WEEKLY. If you are obsessive compulsive about this, that is a LOT of free rentals!
BLOGLINES. Seriously, it’s so easy to use, I don’t know why everybody doesn’t. I used to keep all my blogs in my bookmarks, but checking them daily (sometimes multiple times daily) and not seeing updates was frustrating and time consuming. Now, I just log into bloglines and all my blogs are listed in one column, with the updated blogs in bold. it’s not always completely accurate, especially with typepad accounts, but it’s still way easier than randomly clicking on blogs, hoping for updates.
dvr. I can’t say enough about how wonderful dvr is if you enjoy watching tv without loud people in the room with you. I no longer watch any television before 9ish pm, and dustin and I can find stuff that we enjoy together. Before dvr, we didn’t watch anything together other than the occasional movie when he was home. It’s also great to record children’s shows, fast forward through commercials, and not have to let them watch more tv than necessary while waiting for their favorite show to come on. (we watch lots of curious george and Charlie & Lola)
sidewalk chalk.
itunes
Tylenol pm. I would seriously never sleep if I didn’t have this to use a couple of nights a week.
cocoa. I am not a tea or coffee drinker, and I find one mug of this a few nights a week makes me feel deliciously relaxed.
crossword puzzles. I attack our daily paper with a pair of scissors, and collect the crossword puzzle. I keep them stapled together until I finish one and then toss it. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and my dad would be so proud.
washable markers/paint/colors. A must in this creative little house.
crockpot. I’m finally figuring out how to use it and it’s wonderful. I am starting to have crockpot envy, when I see bigger ones, with self timers and different settings.
picasa2. one of the fastest, easiest (*free*) ways to store photos on your computer, plus you can send them to friends, upload to web albums, crop and edit photos and upload to your blogger account. again, why doesn't everybody use this?
caller id. Do you know how many phone calls a day I get from people that I don’t want to talk to?
online banking. I haven’t bought stamps in months, which is great b/c that’s one less place that I have to try to navigate with kids in tow.

so what about you??? do you have some must haves to share? :) please do.

the boss and the dragon

2006-11-01T00:12:00.000-06:00

so we went trick or treating on Saturday at the local YMCA. they had a cute little trick or treat trail, face painting, giveaways and games...fun stuff. the only thing was that i didn't put the costumes on the kids until we arrived, so it was too late to notice that julian's little teddy bear costume came up to his knees. these are last years costumes and i couldn't buy new costumes this year, so i thought they would work. guess not, huh? :)

so tonight, i got a little creative, got Julian's little man suit out of the closet, slicked his hair over and added a fake mustache and TA-DA! He's "the boss".

We went to the local mall, store to store, collecting candy until Julian's candy bag burst (from being dragged along the ground all night). we were next to a cell phone kiosk, so we begged the t-mobile man for a bag for all of julian's goodies. he looked like such a little businessman, and he kept the mustache on all night (other than for a couple of bites of teriyaki chicken from our favorite chinese place).

by the end of the night, he stopped saying, "trick or treat" and took to saying, "hi, what's your name?" which he quickly followed with, "I Juju. I da boss."

Noni (dustin's mom) was with us and she said, "is he making friends?"
i said, "No. He's networking."

Thursday Thirteen...a little late

2006-10-27T06:10:00.000-05:00

1. i am suffering from insomnia. it's 6am and i still haven't been to bed. this is completely normal for me and yet very very very frustrating. how can i make myself sleep without the help of Unisom?

2. annabelle remembers the funniest phrases from movies. i have to be very careful of what she watches, because after seeing something one time, she will be quoting it out of nowhere, 4 months from now. tonight she told her 2 year old brother, "Juju, you can't run from love." I'm thinking she saw it on Brother Bear 2.

3. it was a yucky, groggy, rainy day yesterday and after much begging and whining and fighting from the kids, i bundled them up and took them to Barnes and Noble. We played at the Thomas the Train table and Annabelle found about 400 stuffed animals that I am to buy her for Christmas. It was the best time, and I kicked myself for not taking them there earlier.

4. i took the kids to Target and we were sharing some breadsticks, when I spilled my very full drink directly onto my crotch. the items that i was there to pick up were essential to the smooth running of my household, so I then had to shop for the next 25 minutes with a large "pee looking" crotch stain. I told Dustin about this tonight over dinner at Taco Cabana, and approximately 2 minutes later, he spilled Julian's cup of ice water in my lap, complete with particles of tortilla and cheese floaties.

5. Barack Obama will be at the Texas Book Festival this Saturday and I desperately want to go, but Dustin may be working, and I know that Julian would be impossible to take with me. this makes me so sad.

6. the kids went outside to play today, and got the brilliant idea to mix their chalk with yesterday's rainwater and create "war paint". Julian painted his entire body, while Annabelle stuck to the safe places, like her stomach and legs. I threw my back out, while carrying them from the patio to the bathtub, and spent the next 30 minutes lying on the floor, wishing that i was heavily sedated.

7. julian only knows of two brand name foods, and points them out to me everytime we go to the grocery store: Lucky Charms (thank you mother) and Cheetos.
Annabelle, however, could make up her own shopping list if she only knew how to write.

8. Dustin fixed my computer and I am super duper happy about this.

9. we registered our vehicle, and including out of state licensing and vehicle inspections, it cost us close to $250. my mouth is still hanging open in shock.

10. i am a happier woman because of my new fall wreath and my pumpkin and hazelnut candles. they make my apartment feel more like home.

11. i officially hate cooking once again.

12. i am afraid that this baby #3 does not sleep. you could touch my belly at ANY time of day and feel the he/she is moving wildly. i am scared.

13. discussing baby names in the car tonight, Annabelle tossed out a few keepers, including "Regular Cow Milk Bartell" Julian's only idea for a baby name was "baby Jocelyn". after explaining to him that we already had a baby Jocelyn and we needed a NEW name, he said, "hmmmm.......i know! Baby Jocelyn!"

handy manny

2006-10-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

annabelle came to me this morning and said, "mama, i had the best dream ever. i had a dream about a lot of toys and there was a BIG box of tools...two screwdrivers and a hammer and...wow. it was just the best dream ever."

i think this comes from our recent fascination with the cartoon, "Handy Manny". it's so cute and i admit, i have a little crush on Manny myself. he's like a Bob the Builder for brown people :) and he has the cutest accent.

i just think it's funny that this show can cause my 4 year old little girl to dream about hammers and think it is just the best ever.

By the way: Dustin fixed our computer tonight!!!!! No more internet problems!!!! :) He's my own personal little Handy Manny...but he's a whitey. Maybe he's my little Bob the Builder :-)

my new fall wreath

2006-10-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

as soon as i saw our red door, i knew i wanted a new fall wreath. annabelle saw it for the first time as she was talking on the phone with poppy and tata. she almost dropped the phone, immediately forgetting about her conversation and started oohing and aahing over the beautiful berries.

julian tried climbing over the brick wall of the patio to get to the wreath. when i told him to get down, he said, "i can't. i've gotta get those grapes!"

*after taking this picture, i realized the wreath would have more of a dynamic impact if i washed the filthy door. sorry. :)

bug poop

2006-10-25T08:43:00.000-05:00

annabelle woke up with itchy feet.
she scratched furiously and kept saying, "stupid stupid bugs".
then she pointed her finger at me and said, "YOU forgot to say, 'don't let the bedbugs bite' last night!"

both of the kids woke up with horrible tiger breath this morning.
i told annabelle, "maybe the bedbugs pooped in your mouths before biting your feet".
she said, "mom, bugs don't poop. do they?" looks like i need to find a copy of the book "Everyone Poops".

julian walked into the living room, itching his bellybutton.
he wailed, "mama, mama!! the buuuuuugggggggsssss!!! the bugs are eatin ju-we-an!"

you may want to refrain from visiting our house for awhile, seems like we have a "bug" problem.

chalk peace

2006-10-24T20:07:00.000-05:00

i bought a 24 piece box of chalk from Hobby Lobby for $2.99 I have had approximately 4 hours over the last 3 days of peace and quiet in my home. It's a mess to clean up everyday, but hey.... PEACE and QUIET. i'm a happy camper and may go buy a few more boxes this week.

Julian likes to use the chalk as chapstick (well, lipstick, but I'M calling it chapstick) and rubs it all around his mouth like a little clown. He also collects all the small chalk crumbs and puts them in his little dumptrucks and bulldozers and pretends that they're hauling colorful rocks. and of course, he lines up the worn down stubs of chalk and pretends that they are train cars.

annabelle is a little grafitti artist, and is working on coloring every brick on the patio. i hope she completes her task before it rains.

the oprah voice

2006-10-24T18:02:00.000-05:00

annabelle has an Oprah Winfrey voice. when oprah is announcing a guest or something fabulous, she always yells and holds the last word for a longer time than necessary
("you'll never guess who we have with us today...it's DR. PHIII-YULLLL!!!" as everyone goes crazy)

annabelle only uses her voice when Julian has something that she wants. she tries to distract him with something else, but he is on to her tricks. so she turns on the oprah voice.

"Juju, look what i have! It's DOOOOO-RRRRRAAAAA!" (holding up a Dora toy)

Julian didn't want to play with Dora. Dora had been laying at his feet for 30 minutes without so much as a glance from him, but once the oprah voice comes out, all of a sudden, Dora is very very appealing.

i am working on perfecting my oprah voice, saved for bedtime.
"hey kids, guess what time it is??? BED-TIIIIIIIIME!!!! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!"

maybe that will make the 11 hours of separation from Mommy and Daddy, involving lying still and not eating, playing, or talking....fun. probably not. but it's worth a shot.

picture books

2006-10-20T00:58:00.000-05:00

julian has been having such a hard time sleeping lately, and since i don't sleep well right now, it's causing me to be one sleep deprived mama.

when he wakes up, he gets into everything, so i have to sleep in the recliner in the living room so that i wake up when his bedroom door creaks open.

today, julian surprised me by sleeping longer than an hour at nap time, and i took advantage of it by sleeping in my bed (instead of the rocking chair). i woke up 2 1/2 hours later, in a panic, sure that julian was sticking toys in electrical outlets or toilet fishing or something. i looked around and he sat in the floor, next to my bookshelf with several of our half-unpacked books strewn around him.

the one he chose to read? "The Celebration of Sex". the only picture book in our grown up library.

Thursday Thirteen

2006-10-19T20:31:00.000-05:00

i hate cooking, seriously, seriously hate it. i don't even like microwaving. cold pizza never hurt anybody and a bowl of cereal is the perfect meal, in my opinion. strange for someone who obviously enjoys eating so much, right? but for the past month or more, i've been trying to make an effort to plan (and actually cook) meals and i think we're better for it. and i'm surviving. so today is a list of thirteen things that i've cooked (or baked) this month.

1. lasagna
2. chicken enchilada's (like my mom's)
3. beef stew (like my dad's)
4. mexican chicken
5. fettuccini alfredo with asparagus (kids favorite...and that's a homemade sauce too!)
6. apple bread
7. peanut butter cookies (i love baking cookies, licking the bowl clean is my incentive)
8. mushroom porkchops and potatoes
9. tacos
10. spaghetti
11. italian seasoned chicken and broccoli
12. taco soup
13. bbq chicken

so a big fat yahoo for me! just so you know...i'm sure this is all a fluke. next month i will probably list all the take out orders we've eaten. :)

dustin's first bra

2006-10-15T12:51:00.000-05:00

so dustin turned 31 last week. we had big plans: babysitter, movie, dinner at cheesecake factory, just a fun night alone. plus, we were going to spend the day with the kids, maybe do a little shopping, go to the park, that sort of stuff that we never get to do with his crazy schedule.

except he got sick.

we have the worst luck when it comes to birthdays/anniversaries/holidays. one of us ALWAYS gets sick. only this time, it was really really bad. he spent half the day in bed and the other half in the bathroom throwing up. i think he got pretty dehydrated, plus he is still recovering from a bad cough/cold he had last week.

finally, around midnight, he asked me to take him to the ER. his mom came over to watch the kids and gave him some medicine for nausea, and told him to try to get some rest and to go to the doctor in the morning (because a third ER bill in 2 months would NOT be fun). fortunately the meds helped him sleep and in the morning he couldn't breathe well at all, so he headed to the doctor, got an x-ray and found out that he has fractured a rib. i guess between all the coughing and throwing up???

they gave him some medicine and a rib belt. it's about 12 inches wide and he wears it up high on his ribcage, just over his chest. he's so thin that he can't wear it under his clothes, it just slides down, so he has to wear it over his shirt. even then, it is always sliding down and he has to keep hiking it up. if you are thinking he must look really cool, you are so right. :)

when he walked through the door tonight, i could not stifle my laughter. very dryly, he replied, "don't laugh at my man bra."

lazy sunday afternoon

2006-10-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

one hour out of our lazy sunday afternoon...

1. we made a rubber band ball and the kids screamed wildly as we bounced it off the walls and tried to catch it (but mostly just getting hit with it)

2. bella and julian love to put baskets on their backs and pretend that they are turtles under their "shells".

3.juju scouring the sunday paper, pointing out his favorite cereals in the grocery ads.

4. a sun frame, missing the mirror. julian puts this around his neck and walks around the house proclaiming, "I am the SUN!!!!"

5.an orange train

These are very normal, everyday events in our house that i often overlook. today i decided that i wanted to remember these little details. i could follow them around with a camera all day and probably come up with 200 different photos at the end of the day. right now they are on two different areas of the tiled floor, hopping on each square, counting the tiles. did you know that there are 36 visible tiles in my kitchen? i didn't either, until bella counted them.

and now bella is balancing a spoon on her nose, just like she saw on Charlie and Lola this morning.

and now julian is naked, yelling "i am the PEE PEE MONSTER!!!! RARRRRR!!!"
i better go wash his hands and febreeze the furniture...

funny kids

2006-10-13T03:10:00.000-05:00

*after having an accident in his "Tow Mater" undies (from the movie "Cars") Juju said, "Oh no....Tow Mater's cryin."

*today the kids were playing outside in their usual garb and i wish i had gotten a picture. annabelle loves to play dress up, so she had on a long sleeve shirt, a pink/white striped dress, a hair band around her neck, a sheer scarf over her face (as a veil) a long blue ruffled skirt, red patent leather dress shoes, a gingerbread apron, and her magic wand.

Julian was wearing his pirate "dunnies" and his dorky "Thomas the Train" light up shoes. he refuses to wear any clothing when wearing big boy dunnies. we may need to work on that.

*annabelle has been playing with a nickel lately, making us choose “heads or tails” and then does what she can to make sure that we win whatever we have chosen. it’s really sweet to watch her and juju play this together. yesterday, julian took the nickel and said, “mama, heads or tails? or eyes. or nose.”

*this morning i walked into bella’s room, to find her sitting perfectly still, legs crossed, eyes fixed straight ahead on the wall. i said, “bella are you okay?” she replied, without looking at me, “yeah…i’m just made of glass…”

*we live next door to a fire department, so we see fire trucks every time we leave our house. julian always squeals when he sees them, begging for me to let him ride the truck. i think he believes that I can just stick a quarter into the fire truck and he can ride it, like the sesame street fire truck at the grocery store. well, a few nights ago, we had the patio door open, and we heard the familiar sirens of a fire engine and julian said, “MAMA! MAMA!!! FIRE TRUCK!!! I WANNA RIDE!!!” i calmly said, “julian, we can’t ride the fire truck, it’s going bye bye.” he was still insistent that he be allowed to ride and i said, “julian, we can’t ride the fire truck, it’s not at our house.”

suddenly, the red lights from THREE flashing, blaring, bright red fire trucks appeared at our doorstep. julian smiled, knowingly and pointed out the window. “mama, MY fire trucks!!!” we watched in awe as several large firemen in full gear walked up our sidewalk and made a last minute turn up the stairs to the apartment above us, who apparently had a small kitchen fire. it was a rough hour, trying to contain my little fire man at the window who desperately believed that the fire trucks were there for his enjoyment.

Thursday Thirteen

2006-10-12T21:31:00.000-05:00

i thought it would be fun to do Thursday Thirteen , like my Aunt Valerie has been doing, so today, i present to you Thirteen names that annabelle has chosen for the baby. (note that this is not a complete list, just 13 random names that made me smile, and her list makes it pretty obvious that she expects this baby to be either a girl....or a puppy)

1. Treeleaf (good for a BOY or a GIRL)
2. Slobbers
3. Jocelyn Too
4. Sarah
5. Scamp
6. Colorado (???)
7. Luther (after Poppy's dog)
8. SpongeBob
9. Potato Head
10. Eva (after her Noni's dog)
11. Nala (Lion King)
12. Mexico
13....my favorite. tonight we were in wal-mart and annabelle turned to me and said, "Mama, I just thought of the PERFECT name for your baby....Jesus!! Jesus Mexico Bartell.
The couple in the aisle with us almost fell over laughing so hard, and I did too.
The best part, is that is her name for a girl. Sweet little baby girl, Jesus Mexico.

One other funny little story, I was sharing some names with Annabelle that I was considering for the baby, as I just love to hear the names with her little twinkly voice and tone. I told her that for a boy, i liked baby Ezra. She loved it and had no problem pronouncing it.

I told her several girl names that I was thinking of, but still can't find a name that I love. I mentioned Gabriella. I said, "Gabriella would be sweet because we could call her Gabriella, Gabby, Brie, Ella...whatever you like! Plus it sounds sweet with Annabelle. Gabriella and Annabelle." She thought it over with a furrowed brow and declared, "Grabernella. Hmmmm.... I like it!!" So, if we chose that name, we would definitely need to work on a nickname, because while I love that Annabelle first started calling Julian "Juju", "Grabernella" would take a while to grow on me.

haircut!!!

2006-10-11T19:16:00.000-05:00

we finally got bella's haircut. we LOVE it, even though it's not quite what i wanted. in the middle of the haircut, annabelle said, "i gotta tell my mama something." the lady said it was okay and bella turned to me and said, "mama, i love you so much. thanks for letting me cut my hair."
the hairdresser almost started crying. it was really sweet and we're all happy that there are NO MORE TANGLES. :-)

i have more to post later, but no time now, i just know there are a few people waiting to see this picture...

i just no want mess it up

2006-10-07T00:14:00.000-05:00

i woke up to annabelle's hair in a complete mess. tangles everywhere. i knew that there would be a battle to get it brushed before we could go anywhere today, so i told her i would take her to get her hair cut (since she's been begging for some time now...due to all the tangles)
i got the brush out and went to work, and she immediately went wild screaming and crying. i felt so bad, but knew i couldn't take her into a salon, much less anywhere else with this birds nest on her head.

as she screamed and yelled, julian ran into the room to investigate. "MAMA STOP!!! MAMA!! we're saw-wee mama!! we're SAW-WEE!!" it broke my heart. he thought i was upset with bella and this was her punishment, me ripping her hair out. his little apology almost brought me to tears.

after i removed about 4 pounds of hair from her head, we proceeded to the salon where we got julian's hair trimmed a few weeks earlier. annabelle was so excited, as she sat in the little salon chair and draped the jungle animal cape around her body. i explained to the lady (who also cut juju's hair, and happens to speak VERY little english) that i wanted it pretty short. just a bob style hair cut, but short enough in the back to see her neck and just a little longer in the front.

"um. no. i can't do dat. you come back, tomorrow. 11 o'clock. lady here tomorrow dat can cut her hair."

i looked puzzled. surely she must think annabelle will be as wild as julian was last time and she just doesn't want to do it, but annabelle is sitting so big and prim and proper in her little seat, just waiting for her little transformation into a short haired girl. so i repeated, "you can't cut her hair??"

"no. i know what you want, i just no want mess it up. sorry. come back tomorrow."

annabelle was so disappointed, and so was i. we gathered our things and left. we walked around and did some shopping and as we passed the salon again, the lady sat in a chair, reading a magazine. i realized that everytime i come here, she is sitting in the chair, reading a magazine, and NOT cutting hair. maybe she's paid hourly, rather than by the job and she just turns down any work that comes in. i don't know, but as we passed, annabelle waved really big and said, "HEY!! There's that lady that can't cut hair!!"

i guess we'll try again tomorrow.

2006-10-05T18:32:00.000-05:00

annabelle is often making up songs, and singing in her bedroom while she is playing. today i overheard her singing, with her girly little southern voice,
"just listen to your heart....it will tell you....listen to your hearrrrrrrrrrrtttttt...."

julian then piped in, "...broccoli....celery....gotta be....veggie tales!!!"

in other news, julian has worn dunnies all day, and has only had one accident. we have been in the bathroom approximately 45 times, as he now semi-understands the difference between pooping and farting. while i was typing this, he sat on my lap and farted. he grinned and said, "no poopoo, just tooties, okay mama?"

big boy dunnies

2006-10-03T23:37:00.000-05:00

julian is potty training, but man, it is wearing me out.
he probably sat on the toilet 80 times today. he is so funny, running around in his "big boy dunnies", grabbing himself and yelling, "i gotta pee pee!!!"

the tiring part is that he feels like he has to sit on the toilet everytime he needs to fart. which means that he will be an ultra-polite young man if he keeps this up...but the other boys may make fun of him.

he loves his "dunnies" and insists on changing them several times a day. i can tell what a big part of his Christmas will be this year...."dunnies" in all of his favorite cartoon characters.

just so everybody knows, my computer has a virus. it literally takes me 50 times longer than the normal amount to get anything done online, especially posting pictures, so until we can get it fixed, my blog will probably continue to be a little neglected. not because i don't love you all. :)

street fair

2006-10-03T03:43:00.000-05:00

yesterday we went to the "Old Pecan Street Festival" on 6th street. it was such a blast. they close down a huge section of 6th street, and several adjacent streets, and fill it with vendors and rides and games. i wish i had brought my camera, there were so many unique and fun photo opportunities, and one of my favorites was an old scruffy man standing in leopard print bikini undies and roller blades, holding up handwritten political signs in one hand and a never empty beer can in the other...good times.

our first stop was for lemonade, popcorn and cotton candy. then we headed to the rides and the kids got to play on a couple of inflatable slides and obstacle course/fun houses.

we walked and walked and walked until we found a place giving pony rides next to a petting zoo. annabelle went into the petting zoo by herself and was totally in her element. she didn't look for me once. i finally went to the gate and called her name to let her know that she had a few minutes left, and she was just glowing. she is a little dr. dolittle, for sure. she pet all kinds of baby goats and a kangaroo and baby deer and something that looked like a miniature hairy cow thing.

we had such a great time, and ended the night with dinner from Taco Cabana and a big bubble bath.

i notice new banners downtown every week announcing a different festival, and i love that. Apparently next weekend is the Mediterranean Festival. austin reminds me a little of mexico in that there is always something to celebrate. i love it here.
PSA to all my loved ones: move to Austin. i will love you for it. :)

randomness

2006-09-26T00:58:00.000-05:00

i forgot to post this picture. i think this is either Amy and Salomon or Poppy and Tata. Whoever it is, they have nice big teeth. :)

i am so excited about this wonderful weather. before we moved, i was dreading the Texas heat. having been in Texas the past two September's, I knew the heat wasn't over just because it was "autumn". However, the one thing that has really been cooperative since we've been here is the weather.

in honor of Autumn, I have:
*burned constantly my favorite Hazelnut and Pumpkin candles.
*baked homemade peanut butter cookies (and apple bread tomorrow)
*cooked a huge pot of stew for the first time ever. it's nowhere near as good as my dad's, but it's pretty darn tasty.
*making chili tomorrow.
*dug out our fall/winter clothes and julian picked out one of my favorite long sleeve green shirts to wear today.
*realized I better come up with a baby name for this little one, whatever he/she may be.
*begun thinking about the holidays/birthdays. Dustin will be 31 next month and I hope we get to do something special. it's not like we don't live in a city with resources for a good time. :)

I have not, however, abandoned my daily requirement of lemonade. I think it could carry over into autumn quite nicely.

Randomness: Should I cut Annabelle's hair? I love how long it's getting, and so easy to pull into a ponytail or piggies if we need to leave the house quickly. She just hates the tangles and has been asking me to cut it short for some time now.

Randomness #2: Julian has been coughing like crazy now also. Their fevers are gone, just lots of coughing. He keeps saying, "Mama, I'm siiick. I wanna "chew chew chew"." (chew chew chew is either gum or cough drops)

Randomness #3: Julian won't keep his clothes on. He strips down (completely naked) and asks for his "big boy dunnies". I love that he calls his "undies", "dunnies". He has peed all over this house, but for the first time in his little life, he is actually showing an interest in using the toilet. He has done 4 poops in the potty and I am actually seeing some hope that someday he may want to actually be potty trained.

Randomness #4: I miss my family. especially Baby J with the chubby cheeks that is now army crawling and rolling over. But for those who have asked, Yes, despite all the setbacks, I love Austin and am so happy to be here. I promise I will take new pictures soon, I just need to get into the groove here.

check engine

2006-09-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

The day I moved to Austin, I got an oil change. The next morning, I woke up to my "Check Engine" light glaring at me. Sure that the mechanic must have overlooked something minor during the oil change, I took the car in and was told that nothing was wrong with the oil change. The mechanic told me that sometimes with newer cars, the light will come on without reason after a certain mileage, in a way, forcing you to get a tune up. Check everything out, make sure everything is okay internally. It was just coincidental that it happened to come on the day after my oil change.

Our computer is less than 9 months old. The day that we got our internet turned on, we've had nothing but trouble. Slow speeds, problems with our connection. I was (and still am) sure that it is a problem with our internet service provider, or that the cable is possibly bad, but after an hour and a half of talking with a customer service rep, he's convinced that it is an internal problem with the computer itself. He suggested that I call Dell to check it out before sending a technician out, and just make sure that there are no viruses or anything. The timing of it's demise after our internet hookup....just coincidental.

On my second full day of living in Austin, I found myself in the emergency room, sure that I was dying, or going into preterm labor, or possibly just terribly sick from something I ate. The results showed that I should be perfectly healthy. Dehydrated from all the vomiting, and low potassium for the same reason, but otherwise...fine.

You will recall that Dustin was in the hospital last month as well, and the results are still inconclusive. We assume that he has stress related migraines, but we just don't know.

I am thinking that our bodies have a "Check Engine" light, going off right now, forcing us to slow down. Breathe. Concentrate on being healthy and happy and content. Nothing is really wrong with us, but we need to recognize the importance of taking care of ourselves. Routine Maintenance that we would otherwise overlook, had it not been for the "Check Engine" light.

I am realizing that there are more important things than getting all of my boxes unpacked RIGHT NOW.
There are more important things than clean floors, clean laundry, clean bathtubs.
There are more important things than stressing over bills that are late, because they will get paid, regardless of how much I stress about them.
There are more important things than being upset with my kids because they won't keep their messes in one corner, and instead must drag them all over the house.

A healthy home, healthy heart, healthy mind. These things matter. Why do I forget so easily?? Thank God for the "Check Engine" light.

we made it

2006-09-21T21:45:00.000-05:00

we're here!!! our drive went so smoothly, around 7 1/2 hours. Julian started asking "Are we there yet?" around Dallas (hour #4) , and didn't stop until I let him listen to his favorite song by the Killers ("All these things that I've done") approximately 37 times. I am not exaggerating.

it's been very eventful and uneventful at the same time.
uneventful because we (me and kiddos) have been home without a car/phone/internet/television. but not anymore!! you should have seen us when the cable guy showed up yesterday. he said, "you haven't had anything for two weeks? You must have the patience of a saint." (he said this as Julian was tugging on his shirt, and repeatedly saying "I want your flashlight. I want your 'puter. I want your telephone. I wanna go with you. I want your flashlight....") I told him, "No, I don't. That's why I am refraining from hugging you right now."

The eventful part is that we have all been sick. Annabelle is in bed asking me to please take her to see Dr. Finck so "we can find out what's wrong with me". annabelle and julian have had fevers, and Annabelle has had a cough and "head breaks". (headaches) Because of how we've raised the kids to not eat too much sugar, Annabelle is convinced that she has had too many sweets and she needs a break from sweet treats. Then, she immediately asked me to buy her some popsicles tomorrow.

julian just mopes around the house and says "Mama, I wanna hold you." (which means he wants me to hold him. i don't judge him for his improper grammar, we're just happy that he is communicating in more than screams and robot gibberish)

on our second day here, i got food poisoning and pretty badly dehydrated and was admitted into the hospital overnight. it was horrible. at one point i thought that dying would bring some relief, and was trying to hold out until Dustin got home, so the kids wouldn't be home alone. Fortunately, as you can tell, i didn't die. I cried a lot, and thought for a second that i might go into labor, and wanted to die after throwing up all over myself in the hot bath that I was taking to try to ease the pain. Since I had no phone, I semi-dressed myself and the kids and walked to Dustin's grandma's apartment and had my brother in law watch the kids while Meme took me to the ER. Because I was pregnant they wouldn't give me much other than phenagren and tylenol. It was just basically a quiet, cool room to cry in until the pain subsided on it's own.

All of that sounds really horrible right? So let's move on to fun news.
*ACL was fabulous.

*I now have internet (which is running really really slowly for me, but I'm not complaining too much.

*I also have a telephone, and although I hate talking on the phone, it's nice to know that I can if I want to....especially to call 911 if I ever again think that dying would be better than the pain caused by bad tuna.

*Our cable package included DVR, which means that I can watch "Grey's Anatomy" and "Survivor" now that the kids are in bed, instead of trying to catch bits and pieces of it in between cooking dinner and giving baths.

*My mother in law is letting me use her other car for a bit (since Dustin has mine for work)
We found a mall, Super Target, WalMart, IHOP...only the necessities. We bought princess wands and a tiara for Bella in the $1 bin, and Julian got these little prince crowns and fake mustaches. He looked awesome. Annabelle decided to find other uses for the mustaches and created armpit hair, a unibrow, and a hairy buttcrack. Here are a few funny pictures. She seems to think that Poppy will really enjoy them. She and Poppy have a similar sense of humor, I think. But hairy butt cracks on a 4 year old girl, that's always funny, right? (click on them to see bigger size)

we're moving today!!!

2006-09-09T19:25:00.000-05:00

i am about to take my computer apart, to pack it in my car. i just wanted to update everybody and let you all know that we are moving today. i won't have internet access until the 20th, sooooo, don't forget about me :) i will check in on all of you when i get my internet up and running!!!

the fair

2006-09-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

we're taking the kids to the fair tonight. i'm so excited, some of my favorite childhood memories are from the fair.

*jumping like a maniac in the inflatable balloon house
*riding the bumper cars with my dad and uncle Kent and CJ
*winning ribbons for my construction paper artwork(and sometimes not winning, which was very hard for my little competitive heart)
*sucking helium out of the free balloons and singing loudly at the top of the ferris wheel
*getting free ride tickets (in high school) for picking up Subway sandwiches for the "tilt-a-whirl" conductor
*nearly putting a girls eye out with my free yardstick
*seeing the big shot from my high school get sick on the "Zipper", and vomiting his Sonic Cherry Limeade all over himself and the other riders (not fun to watch, but fun to laugh about later)
*getting free rides with my friend Heather on the aforementioned "Zipper", until we just couldn't handle it anymore and begging through tears to be let out.

that's the thing with small towns, there's not a lot to do, so when something as magical as a little fair comes along, you enjoy it for all its worth. we used to try to go every night that it was open (Wed-Saturday)

we're moving to Austin this weekend. I've been making a list of all the things that I'm excited about, such as living within blocks of a Super Target, Starbucks, Hobby Lobby and Michael's, & a huge movie theater. Living in a city that has an Ikea, Costco, Whole Foods Market and Pottery Barn. I told Dustin he may need to take on another job just to support my big city spending habits for the first few months.

However, I'm so excited about taking my kids to the fair tonight, that I am reminded that I am very much a small town girl at heart. We will have cotton candy and funnel cakes and lemonade, and try our hardest not to throw up on the rides. We will spend entirely too much money trying to win "priceless" stuffed animals. We will admire the elementary school artwork and ride the carousel and the huge slide and jump in the bouncy house. we will look at the huge animals and pet the bunnies, for as long as my pregnant nose can handle the stench, and we will come home exhausted, and a little smelly and very much content from a long fun day. if you live in my area...are you going to the fair this week? hope to see some of you there tonight :)

Baked sweet potatoes

2006-09-04T12:41:00.000-05:00

this long labor day weekend has been full of yummy food.
my brother and my dad came home for the weekend, and between CJ's pasta and pecan crusted tilapia and dad's bbq, and of course, anything that my mom makes....well, let's just say that "the baby" gained a bit of weight this week ;)

Salomon said to my Mom, "Out of all your kids, it's your son that got the cooking skills. Amy's idea of a good dinner is a scrambled egg and an Eggo Waffle!"
Amy replied, "Hey, I cook when the Schwann's man comes! Those mini pizza's are great!"
My dinner's aren't too far from that either! Dustin is definitely the cook in our family.

I think I must get my love (or lack thereof) for cooking from my grandma, "Mimi".

Mimi doesn't cook often, but she makes the most phenomenal cheeseburger in Arkansas. We dubbed them "Mimi burgers" when i was much younger, and used to beg her to open her own restaurant. For the past several years, however, Mimi's "cereal for dinner" nights have far outweighed her "cooking" nights.

One night, she got a craving for a sweet potato.
She went to the grocery store and bought two large sweet potatoes, and put them in the oven for dinner. When my grandpa, PaBob, came home, he said, "Oooohhweee Mimi, what are we having for dinner?"
Very proudly, Mimi replied, "Baked sweet potatoes, don't they smell good?"
PaBob said, "They sure do. What are we having with them?"
Without missing a beat, Mimi replied, "Well....I was thinking maybe some butter."

2006-08-28T19:36:00.000-05:00

sniff sniff...
my first modest child
kept his/her/it's legs crossed tightly the entire time.
dr.'s best guess is a girl, but it's just a guess.
better luck next time.
i guess this will be a surprise baby, in more ways than one...

ultrasound

2006-08-28T14:50:00.001-05:00

i'm off for our ultrasound...
hopefully Treeleaf will cooperate. :)
i will update tonight if he/she/it does.

dustin update and a little photo love

2006-08-28T00:20:00.000-05:00

thanks so much for all the sympathy, it's been a little rough. Dustin was doing well, and today he got worse. His symptoms came back full force, complete with vomiting (he has vomited 1 time since we've been married, well...2 times, if you count the time in Mexico when a friend put Mescal in his punch...but we won't talk about that...). The dr. said to go back to the ER if his symptoms came back (especially b/c of his spinal tap) and they did a cat scan (i have no idea if that's how it's spelled). They are at a loss...they know something is obviously wrong, just not what it is. It could be anything from a viral infection to a really bad migraine. This could turn out to be the most expensive migraine in the history of the world...

On a happier note, I did a photo session for my sister's family this weekend, and I just love some of the images we got. I will share a few, if blogger cooperates ;)

sick days

2006-08-26T09:28:00.000-05:00

julian was sick a couple of days ago. he came to my bed around 5am and shortly after, threw up everywhere. tons of fun.

a few hours later, we were up and the kids were playing. julian would just randomly start crying. when i would go to check on him, he would be shivering and he said, "mamaaaaa.....juju's cryin! i wanna rock." (i wanna rock, meaning, rock me in the rocking chair, not i wanna rock, as in "buy me an electric guitar, i'm gonna join the rolling stones")

shortly after, we were sitting at the table, and bella was at our feet, pretending to be a puppy. julian started crying and then just threw up EVERYWHERE. all over the kitchen floor, all over me and him and annabelle.

Annabelle jumped up and shrieked, "DISGUSTING!!! JUJU!??!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT????"

little miss hospitality, took it as a personal attack.

fortunately it ended as quickly as it began, and we are all well, once again. well, all of us except for dustin...
he was rushed in an ambulance to the er yesterday. he said it started out as a horrible migraine, then he lost most of his vision. he couldn't drive (we try to avoid that when we have no vision ;) ) his mom called an ambulance, she was so worried.

they did an iv, a spinal tap (who knew they still did those??) lots of medication. apparently too much, his blood pressure decreased very rapidly and then they had to pump lots of fluids and stuff back into him to get his blood pressure back up. if you know dustin at all, you know that just drawing blood is an ordeal with him.

he said that they put a needle into his spine 8 times. i can't imagine. i talked to him late last night, and he was still in pain, despite the vicodin, morphine and whatever else they had him on.

in the end they weren't sure what was wrong. they feared it was some type of viral issue, possibly meningitis? he's not supposed to walk, much less work for 3 days (b/c of the spinal tap) but we'll see if he sticks to that. he's hoping to be back to work by Sunday.

i don't like that feeling, of everything being up in the air, and not being able to do anything about it. it's quite unsettling.

sugar rush

2006-08-22T22:23:00.000-05:00

more random little quirks from my OCD children. Annabelle has to separate everything by color. Like how the red skittles are with the red starburst, orange with orange. It was quite disturbing to her that there weren't pink skittles and purple starbursts.

Julian makes a "train" out of everything. EVERYTHING. At our apartment, we kept all of my shoes in a basket by the front door, b/c I always lost my shoes and would be late for work. Typical. Anyways, Julian would line my shoes up on the coffee table as a "train" and play for hours. So it only makes sense that his Starburst candies couldn't be eaten until he had made them into a train.

grape tomatoes

2006-08-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

Mom brought home grape tomatoes for our salad last night. Julian was curious and tasted one and LOVED it. He probably ate 6 or 7 little tomatoes and we bragged on him for being such a big healthy eater. Annabelle said, "I want one", so we gave it to her and she spit it everywhere. "Gross, that's disgusting" she declared.

Trying not to let Julian realize that it wasn't the most popular snack among kids, we kept pumping him up, "what a big boy you are, Juju! I'm so proud of you for eating all those tomatoes!"

Finally, Bella had had enough. She threw herself dramatically across the kitchen table, and declared, "IT'S NOT FAIR!!! It's not fair that my mouth just doesn't like the way they taste!!!"

how did you find me?

2006-08-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

i have this little blog counter that keeps track of people that visit this site, how they find it, where it is linked.

about once a week, i go to check it out, make sure i'm not linked to anything dirty, and i check "TOP KEYWORDS"

These are things that people type into Google, Yahoo or MSN Search, and somehow find me sometimes. For instance, apparently lots of people are looking for fruity cheerios online. So they type "fruity cheerios" into google search and on page 9, there's a link to my blog, b/c i mentioned fruity cheerios recently.
I get found a lot for the "My name is Chubby" joke that I posted on here months ago, and people searching for Waterdeep songs, since I have somehow managed to blog at least 5 times about their music. What can i say? i'm a fan.

So today, I log on, and somebody found my little blog here by typing in "Poop Stained Undies".
Whaaaaaat?????? and there on page 5, in all it's glory, is a link to this, ONE of my most embarrassing stories ever. I don't drink, otherwise I would have assumed that I was drunk when i thought it was a good idea to share this with the world. this time, i have chocolate to blame. i've eaten 2 pieces of german chocolate cake, and i'm kind of thinking, "hey this would be funny." i'm sure tomorrow i will regret it. i mean, who wants to be known as "Mindi, that girl who crapped her pants in Nicaragua"???

apparently, i do. maybe i need professional help.

2006-08-15T17:32:00.000-05:00

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. Here are last year's winners:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m., at a speed of 35 mph

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth. 16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

2006-08-10T16:57:00.000-05:00

I finally went to the doctor yesterday. First prenatal visit and i am 21 weeks pregnant. I've heard lots of nagging, even from people I don't know. So everybody be at ease, little "Treeleaf" is doing wonderfully.

The heartbeat sounded perfect, though it took a few minutes to find it as the baby was apparently wiggling around. I was afraid that he was hearing twins, but fortunately, there is a single baby in my womb and all is well. The heartbeat was a strong 154 bpm. Annabelle's was always around 155 and Julian's was always between 130's and 140's. Which makes me think that this is a little girl "Treeleaf".
We will hopefully find out within the month.

I've only gained 3 pounds, but to look at my belly, you would think it was a lot more than that. Okay, i'm lying. What I should have said was, "to look at my BUTT, you would think it was a lot more than that."

Dustin left for Austin today. We had lots of discussion this week, over moving vs. staying, but in the end, we both knew it would be better for us to move. I will be sad to leave, but for strange reasons.

#1 i love my doctor. After having Julian, I told Dustin I wanted to have a third child, just to use Dr. R again. I was still a little wacked out from those endorphins. Apparently, God took me seriously.

#2 the hospital just renovated and built a huge, gorgeous new women's facility with birthing suites and i was looking foward to experiencing agonizing, horrific pain in the comfort of a suite the size of our old apartment. Not to mention the comfortable leather couches that could easily seat 50 of my closest friends, while watching me in the most embarrassing positions possible. Anybody up for watching me use a bedpan? Come on, it could be fun, right?

#3 i love this area in the fall. it's my favorite season ever, and there's nothing like driving up the mountain in November, with a mug of hot chocolate and a book. I know there's going to be lots to love in Austin, but i miss my hometown in the fall.

Things I'm really excited about:
*a 3 bedroom apartment. we so need it.
*ACL next month!!!! the tickets are in my bag right now and everytime i open my purse to search for money that isn't there, i smile at my ACL tickets. who needs to buy diapers when you are going to get to see Willie Nelson next month, right??
*my first 4 "Friends and Family" photo sessions are this weekend. I'm pretty excited and hope everything goes well. Tomorrow is the last day that I can book any more sessions (due to moving date) so email me ASAP if you are interested.

good night :)

new photos

2006-08-07T00:14:00.000-05:00

i've finally got the wedding album on my photoblog. it's been a lot of fun, and even after all the work, i think i may want to do more weddings in the future.
i guess time will tell...

taxi

2006-08-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

julian loves this little NYC taxi that dustin brought home. he's played with it for hours and hours.

i'm a fan of anything that keeps this little tiger occupied for hours and hours. :)

we're hopefully having a picnic tomorrow. i'm so excited for a fun family day. hopefully there will be no rain, but no scorching heat either.

just for fun: go to google.com and type in "(your name) looks like" and see what you get.

i got "Mindi looks like a walking carnival."

dustin's home!!!

2006-08-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

a little eye candy for this happy thursday :)

i made another last minute trip last night, this time to fayetteville. dustin is home!!!!!!!!!
yeah, i'm pretty excited about that. he was gone for just over a month, and seeing him again made both of us feel like when we were first dating. when we first met, he was in a band that travelled quite often, 2-3 weeks at a time. it was hard, but kept things fresh. we rarely fought, because just when we started getting annoyed with eachother, he had to go on the road again.

we've matured a bit since then, so i don't need him to be gone for long periods of time so that we get along, but reunions are always so sweet. :)

i've received a few more emails regarding photo sessions, so i'll try to get back to all of you tonight. now that my hubby is home to keep kids occupied while i get a few things done, everything should go much faster.

legal question

2006-08-02T02:05:00.000-05:00

i have a legal question for you guys...
this is the copyright message that i have on my photography site.

© 2006 Mindi Bartell
Please do not use any text or images from this site without permission. Don't make me hurt you. Have a nice day.

do you think it's still all legal and everything if i make a threat in the middle of my copyright message?

while i was driving furiously to memphis last night, amy and salomon kept my kids. salomon went to pick up a pizza and saw these tattoos at the check out counter. he bought one for each of the kids and bribed them with the tattoos to get out of the bathtub. (they LOVE bath time and i usually resort to screaming "Juju!!! There's bugs in the water!!" and he'll hop right out, a little shaken, but whatever)

anyways, he told annabelle that hers had ponies on it, but upon closer examination, there wasn't a single pony on her tattoo. amy said, "well, he said he couldn't see them very well, they're so small and it was dark in the pizza place."
i said, "Oh, is that why Julian has a fairy and flowers on his tattoo?"
she said, "Oh no, he knew that's what was on it. he thought it was funny."

i have the coolest brother in law ever.

2006-08-01T01:35:00.000-05:00

<---this little girl is sleeping over tonight. :) my bed always smells like baby jocelyn when she goes home. i love it :)

i made a last minute trip (10+hours roundtrip) to Memphis today. I am so tired and sore and I came home to an inbox full of people that are interested in having a photo session with me this month. I am overwhelmed (in a good way) and so excited about the possibilities...

I am off to bed, just wanted to update and let you know that I will email everyone tomorrow evening with some details.

**Tonya, can you email me (mindibartell@hotmail.com) and give me your email address?

**Betsy, if you email me (see above) I will get back to you as soon as i can about a possible date that I could come to your area.

**Emily, I will email a couple of pictures to you tomorrow evening also :)

tomorrow looks like a day full of email love :) If anybody else is interested in a photo session this month, let me know as soon as possible, because dates are filling up pretty quickly and i'm trying to find an organized way to fit everybody in. click here if you missed the original post and want more info.

2006-07-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

interesting tidbits floating around in my head:

*juju turned himself into a human piggy bank today, by swallowing a penny. annabelle came screaming about it in the living room...apparently it was HER penny. Julian just patted his throat and said, "Mmm, i got money!"

*i had just taken a load of laundry out of the dryer and set it on the couch. i went back to the kitchen to wash dishes and when i went to fold the laundry (all towels and wash cloths) they had all been very carefully folded by bella. she is such a sweet helper.

*everytime julian comes to me for something, he says, "ok. thank you. okay. bye mama. see ya later!"

*julian bit annabelle hard on her chest (right above her little chi chi) she came screaming to me, and after she calmed down, she asked to be taken to see dr. finck. after every crisis, annabelle asks to be rushed to see dr. finck. this kid is getting desperate for candy.

* i'm not a huge fan of the cartoon "Rugrats". I enjoyed watching it occasionally as a teenager, but now that I have kids, i'm not a fan. however, when we were moving, the only vhs tape that we had was a Rugrats tape, and since the VCR was all we had to use, the kids watched a lot of Rugrats. It has quickly become one of Julian's FAVORITE shows to watch and he asks everyday to watch Rugrats. Anyways, there is one part of the Rugrats movie, where Tommy is about to get a baby brother, and this little girl sings a song at the baby shower that goes something like this, "A baby is a gift, a gift from a Bob, a baby is a gift from a Bob, Bob, Bob" (Bob is their misunderstanding of the word, God)
At the grocery store today, my kids sang this song, at the top of their little lungs during the ENTIRE trip. It got a little loud, but it was much better than chasing them around the store while looking for the best strawberries.

*2 of my favorite words to hear julian say, "disgusting" and "delicious". (of course, they sound nothing like that to the untrained ear.) fortunately julian has deemed most of my cooking "deishish".

*yesterday annabelle came to me and asked for a piece of paper. then she needed a pen. then she needed "three, no four would be better" pieces of scotch tape. finally i went into her bedroom to have her pick up her toys, and saw that she had drawn a picture and hung it (with tape) beside her bed. she said, "Momma, it's a picture of me and juju and we're holding hands. now i can see it everytime i wake up."

*a few days ago, it was raining really hard and Luther ran outside. i called him to come in over and over and finally gave up and went to lay back down for another 45 minutes. i woke up to him scratching ferociously on the front door, covered in rain and mud from being outside. he is NOT an outside dog. he glared at me as he shook the water from his fur and disappeared for his first nap of the day. i walked into my bedroom to find him curled up (still wet) in a ball on my pillow and comforter. we had words.

2006-07-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

pregnancy craving of the week:
blueberry bagels and lemonade

oh happy days :)

green cheerios

2006-07-29T18:52:00.000-05:00

annabelle's favorite color (for over two months now) is green. (previously orange for almost 2 years) i love the little obsessive way that she sorts through her fruity cheerios to make a pile of green ones.

random little quirks like this prove that she is definitely a product of dustin and me. :)

new photo blog!!!

2006-07-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

i am starting a second blog for photography.
it's a lot of fun to put together, but a little time consuming.
i fear that i've neglected the kids for the past two days, so i'm taking a day off to
take them swimming.
i also need to find where dustin put the rest of my photo cd's so i can upload some of my favorites from 2005 to my new site.
i'll still keep up with this one with more personal stuff, but check my photo blog for pictures :)
click here to be taken to my new site :) yippee!!!

2006-07-28T01:10:00.000-05:00

For the next 2 weeks, I will be offering photo sessions in the local area at a reduced fee. I will be offering a “Friends and Family” session for $40 (up to 2 people, $10 for each additional person) and will be offering prints at 50% off of my 2006 prices.

Keep in mind that these are on location, natural light sessions only, not studio sessions.

If interested, email me at mindibartell@hotmail.com to set up an appointment. I will email you details of what to expect/wear/etc. If you know of somebody that may be interested, please feel free to share this website or my email with them.

Book quickly, as dates are limited and this offer will end August 10!

2006-07-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

my first genuine "cheese-y" smile that juju has given for my camera in a LONG time. usually he avoids my camera like a plague.

2006-07-27T12:24:00.000-05:00

not-so-patiently waiting for the train to arrive.

2006-07-27T12:22:00.001-05:00

"WOOT WOOT!!!" what juju said during the entire ride

2006-07-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

juju in the drivers seat of the little train.

2006-07-27T12:20:00.000-05:00

bella feeding the little deer (with one ear)
all the animals were in this refuge for a reason, this one was saved from a brush hog accident where it lost its ear.

2006-07-26T21:41:00.000-05:00

on sunday we decided to drive up the mountain to have a picnic. we invited amy and sal and baby J (of course) and our friends paul and ashley and their two kids.

the picnic didn't last too long, b/c there is a little scenic train that gives rides around the mountain, and it happened to pass right by our picnic table. of course, my little train lover couldn't handle just looking at the train, we HAD to ride it, so we packed up and headed to buy our tickets.

julian was in heaven. he "woot woot-ed" during the entire ride. his little eyes were so sparkly and happy. annabelle sat next to him, obviously bored. she complained about the heat and about still being hungry. but we couldn't rob julian of his precious train ride. when it was over, the conductor let julian sit in his seat (for a quick picture)

after the train ride, we headed to the wildlife rescue and let the kids pet baby deer, and look (from afar) at a bear (who was in mating season...he was quite restless) lots of squirrels and birds, a crocodile, snakes, bobcats, red and grey foxes (the grey one slept in the tree above our heads) and my favorite...this little owl.

annabelle's favorite part was petting the baby deer and feeding them milk from the bottle. one kept trying to eat her shirt, but she didn't let her fear of being devoured by a fawn get in the way of pretending to be dr. doolittle.

julian grew bored quickly (my kids definitely know what they like and don't like) and tried to get random people to take him back to the train. his ticket was free, so if i was sure he wouldn't try to jump off, i would have just let him ride all day. now that would be a cheap baby-sitter, eh?

on the way to the car, i saw a bird feather. i knew it was something that bella would have thought was cool, but when i showed it to juju he said, "oh." i said, "juju touch it, it's really soft" and so he did and quickly threw it on the ground, exclaiming, "yuck! caca!"

when we got in the car, i told mom about it and bella yelled, "What???? A bird feather!??? You should have kept it for me, for my collection!!!"

yep, my kids definitely know what they like.

p.s. my pictures won't upload on blogger anymore (in 2 days) is anybody else having problems with it??

love sick

2006-07-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

We have a joke that we tell eachother all the time. Annabelle usually says, "Mama, I don't like you.....I LOOOOOVE you!" Then she will quickly follow with, "Daddy, You make me sick! LOOOVE SICK!!!"

Julian has quickly caught on and loves to tell his LOOOVE SICK! joke. I was teaching him sign language for "I love you" one day, and I had him repeating after me:
me: "Julian, say 'I'"
juju: "i"
me: "looove"
juju: "sick!"

Anyways, we were at the hospital, on the way to Bella's room and Julian said, "Mama, where's Bewwa?" I said, "Bella's in the hospital because she is sick."
Julian very sweetly asked, "Bella's sick? Love sick?"

a yucky week

2006-07-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

Annabelle was starting to get sick this week, coughing, breathing hard, sore throat. She got sent home from school with a 104 degree fever that developed very suddenly and when my Mom picked her up, she started throwing up.

We took her to see the doctor, who ran tests and x-rays and learned that she had bronchitis. Apparently once you get bronchitis, it stays with you, because she first got bronchitis about 3 or 4 months ago.

He sent us to the hospital overnight, to have an IV inserted and a couple of rounds of steroids, antibiotics and something to get her potassium levels up.

Annabelle was such a trooper. She LOVED the hospital. People kept bringing her popsicles and lollipops, stuffed animals and sticky toys. She recited all of her jokes and sang songs for all of the nurses. She even booked her reservations for next year, saying, "Hey, when i come back next year, can i have some more candy?" The nurse just laughed and said, "hopefully you won't have to come back next year!"

The IV was horrible, an intense, anguish filled 10 minutes of Annabelle crying and saying, "That's all that I want! I don't want anymore!" It was rough.

After the IV everything was perfect. She took a little nap while visitors came in and out, bearing gifts. When she woke up she said, "Mom, this is like a birthday party!"

She had to do breathing treatments to try to stop the wheezing, forced breathing she was doing. She had this nebulizer in her mouth that smoked out of the end of it. The nurse told her that she would put it in her mouth and "smoke it". Annabelle said, "But I don't like smoking." We convinced her that it was "good smoke" for little kids. Now it's her favorite thing to do. She would wake up happily at 4 am to "smoke".

She threw quite a tantrum when we told her it was time to go home. She said it was so much fun at the hospital and she loved all the doctors and her "cute little bed" and her popsicles.
Dr. Fink gave her several handfuls of lollipops and sticky toys and she was good to go.

We're home and well now. She is taking lots of medicine, and is not allowed to go outside until her appointment Monday. But she is really looking foward to the appointment at Dr. Fink's office. He's the candy man. When Annabelle was little, she had to visit Dr. Fink once and he gave her a handful of candy (even though she had never had candy before) From that day on, everytime my Mom mentioned Dr. Fink, Annabelle would light up and say, "Ummmm, Dr. Fink!" He definitely lived up to his nickname this time. He sent us home with 12 Blow Pops.

2006-07-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

i'll update soon, just wanted to let you all know we've been in the hospital with bella. she has bronchitis and had to have an IV and lots of meds, but we're home now and well. i'll update with details soon, just wanted to let you all know where we are. :)

just for fun :)

2006-07-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

fun with swim toys :)

not much to say today, i'm tired and missing dustin and ready to not have everything i own in a storage unit.

and for my family, don't you think this second picture looks like Emily and/or Rebekah? i see them in her all the time, but very rarely capture it on film.

2006-07-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

These kids love each other. So so much. I wish I could record Julian's excitement when Bella comes home each day. Yesterday I yelled into the bedroom "Julian, come see who is here!"

He came down the hall, sprinting, with his little arms swinging at his sides "BEWWA!! BEWWA!!!" He threw himself at her, knocking her to the ground and just hugged her over and over with little "Bewwa" exclamations every other second.

They love each other. And I love that.

2006-07-14T00:05:00.000-05:00

i love something about this photo. i think it's the mixture of the classy pearls and polka dots against the tattooed back and cigar. it's like looking at one of those "What doesn't belong?" pictures.

this was taken at Ty and Sarah's wedding last month. I'm finally done proofing all the photos and hope to show a few here soon.

2006-07-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

Annabelle is on cloud 9.

She woke up and dashed around the house, getting dressed, eating breakfast, reminding Tata, "Don't forget my bag! i need my bag!!"
She wasn't even dressed yet and was already headed out the door. She gave me a sweet hug and kiss goodbye and without hesitation, headed to school.

According to Annabelle, she was a little nervous, standing in front of the classroom as her teacher announced, "Class, we have a new student. This is Annabelle and she is four years old."

Annabelle says (every time she tells the story) "I was feeling a little bit nervous, and then a little girl came up to me and made me feel better and then I was really happy because I knew I had a very best friend."

Apparently Annabelle and her very best friend spent the entire day together, hand in hand, riding in the wagon, going down the slide, taking care of the class guinea pig, even going to the bathroom together. Girls start young with the group bathroom breaks, don't they?

I was worried mostly about nap time. She is pretty particular about the order of her bedtime routine (it's Dustin's fault, as he has spoiled her with bedtime back scratches and stories since she was very tiny).

The teacher said, "Annabelle was my BEST napper today. I told her, 'Annabelle, get your blanket and lie down on your cot, it's nap time,' and Annabelle said, "But what if somebody steals my shoes?" The teacher assured her that nobody would steal them if she stowed them underneath her cot. You would think we had stayed in a lot of dangerous homeless shelters or something, with a question like that. She was apparently comforted with the teachers answer, because she laid down and was asleep within minutes.

Annabelle said, "It was my best school day ever!" and is adamant that she go back tomorrow. It's a class field trip day to the library and she is so very excited.
And the snickerdoodle cookies at snack time is a pretty strong incentive to go back as well...

happy birthday poppy!!

2006-07-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

today is poppy's birthday. we already celebrated, b/c he knew he would be out of town on his actual birthday, but bella is insisting that we have birthday cake when he gets back home.

i read the most wonderful tribute to him tonight on my Aunt Valerie's blog. I started out laughing so hard, reading each little memory aloud to mom. a few minutes later, mom walked into the kitchen to find me with a mascara streaked face. she said, "i thought it was funny?"

it is funny. but so very touching. i love my dad so much, and appreciate all he is to our family. you can read Valerie's blog here.

we love you poppy, and are eagerly awaiting your arrival...and the cake. :)

preschool

2006-07-10T23:10:00.000-05:00

my little girl is starting preschool tomorrow. the excitement in this house is overwhelming. Luther is even excited and he hasn't yet realized that he will be alone with me and his torturer-Julian-tomorrow.

she has all her clothes picked out and the blanket that she will sleep with at nap time. She has her breakfast planned and has already decided on all the things that she will play with.

i hope she is not disappointed. julian and i are going to miss her so very much.

2006-07-09T18:33:00.000-05:00

we went to the park a couple of days ago, and within minutes, we were swarmed with kids. everywhere.
annabelle approached a little girl who looked about Annabelle's age and said, "Hi, I'm Annabelle and I'm 4."
The little girl in VERY baby-talk gibberish said, "I's free (3) I wike de swide (i like the slide)" and then after a bit more babble, bent over and showed annabelle her butt, and said something like,
"Dis is my butt. i sit on it to swide." And then laughed maniacally and ran away.
Annabelle shrugged her shoulders and said, "Whatever. Crazy girl."

2006-07-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Julian can't stop kissing Jocelyn. He loves her so much and i think she is pretty fond of him as well. Today he and Annabelle were fighting over a toy (which usually ends in his eruption of anger filled babbling screams) but today, it ended very quickly...because he spotted Jocelyn in the bouncy seat across the living room. he said, "baby Jocelyn, need kiss." He forgot about the toy and ran to her, smothering her with kisses. She makes him a better man :)

2006-07-04T23:04:00.000-05:00

we spent the evening at my aunt sharon's house. my aunt sharon is notorious for her homemade butterfinger ice cream. it is my absolute favorite in the world, and makes such few appearances that i attempt to eat 6 months worth at a time (while saving a little for the others who are awaiting the special treat)

Julian spent the evening chasing amy, salomon and his cousin Drew around on their 4 wheelers. he even got to ride a couple of times with Salomon and then just played on Drew's for the rest of the evening. (that is, when he wasn't destroying all of Drew's lego collection and shaking the plastic ball that contained Drew's pet hamster, Lulu. I apologized, but how far can an apology go when your son has just potentially inflicted brain damage on one's pet hamster?) i like this picture of Julian on the 4 wheeler. Juju is looking seriously cool while wearing his "I do all my own stunts" t-shirt.

we watched fireworks, but both kids were not so interested. they used the time in between lighting of the next firework to say, "watch this run!" and then ran around the yard as fast as they could, obviously burning off some nervous firework energy. finally, they retired inside to watch cartoons and annoy the hamster. (leaving me to miss all the good fireworks except for the last one, in which Drew strapped an over-sized GI Joe to a missile, which tipped over and shot straight at a bush, erupting in an on-ground explosion of pink and white crackly light)

on the way home, we saw fireworks in the distance and Julian proclaimed, "oooh, wow!" apparently fireworks are much more magical from the backseat of an Expedition, while driving through Arkansas at 60 mph.

the best part of the day (besides the ice cream...nothing trumps the ice cream) was spending a little time with Baby Jocelyn. She is just a jewel, and I'm going to be quite angry if baby #3 isn't at least as calm and easy going as baby Jocelyn is. The best part, was that when I hold baby Jocelyn, everybody else has to chase my children. I try to keep her happy for as long as possible, which isn't too hard.

here's some eye candy for you all on this happy 4th of July...

2006-06-29T00:12:00.000-05:00

Juju has finally learned to love the water. this is the pool Tata brought home for them. Julian surprised me by jumping under the water (at the big pool at our apartment) and just floating there until I brought him back to the surface. Apparently he thought it was fun to see if Mommy would have a heart attack.

so...we moved. kind of.

2006-06-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

did i tell you guys that we were moving? well, we just moved. well, we just started a 1 1/2 month moving process. dustin has a tour from now until mid August, so me and the kids are staying at my parents (b/c our lease was up) and then we will head to Austin, TX.

At this point, most people say, "why are you guys moving?" and I answer, "Because our lease is up." The confused look on every face leads me to believe that not everyone moves one to three times a year. Maybe we're weird?

we went to the family reunion last weekend. Julian discovered the joys of fire ants. His chubby hands were covered in them after falling into an ant pile. "it buuurrrns! it buuuurrrrns! dos bad bugs!"

annabelle fell in love with Shane's girlfriend Jacee. (shane is dustin's oldest brother) Jacee said that in the car on the way to Pizza Hut, Annabelle looked out the window and said, (not a direct quote, because Annabelle is a bit of a rambler, like her daddy)

"Star light, star bright, first star i see tonight (blah blah blah....you guys know this part, right?)
I wish for a REAL puppy of my very own...not a toy puppy but a very real puppy and bring it to me but not right now because we live in apartments and we can't have pets or they will make us move out but when we move in a little while to a house where i can have a pet, i wish for a real puppy of my very own. Thank you."

A real puppy of her very own. It truly is her heart's desire. Someday soon. Until then, Juju is our little animal.

2006-06-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

we're headed to oklahoma for dustin's family reunion. we plan on having a honky tonkin good time. there's rumors that there will be a talent show, and possibly a gospel sing. i've prepared a beautiful rendition of "Wore out" if the gospel sing is a go. (Dad is probably the only one that will know what song i'm talking about) I figure "I'll fly away" is probably already taken.
bummer.

i'll see ya when we get back. :)

2006-06-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

i told Bella and Juju to go pick up the toys in their room. All was well for a minute or two, when i heard a crash, a squeal and a scream.

Bella came quickly to tattle on Julian, who apparently crushed her hand with a toy and it left a small mark on her finger.

She sat down on the couch and said with a sigh, "Ohhh. I don't think I have any more energy left."

Sneaky little girl, trying to get out of cleaning. :)

smart poppy

2006-06-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

So apparently Annabelle and Julian had a good weekend at Poppy and Tata's last week. She called me to tell me that she got some big surprises.

Apparently Tata got a kiddie pool for the kids, which Bella loved. It's little enough for Juju to enjoy too and Tata said that they spent most of the day in it.

Then Poppy came home...with a new scooter. Annabelle said, "But Poppy, I haven't done all my work yet" (referring to two posts ago where I told Bella she could do some work for some money to buy her own scooter)

So she's still going to do the work, and spend her money on a new helmet and knee and elbow pads. That's our family for ya; "fun first, safety second". Maybe that's why CJ's had so many stitches...

Anyways, the scooter is a big hit, and just a little fighting has been done over it. Poppy scored big in the "cool Poppy" department. We really appreciate your sweet gifts (the pool too, even though it won't fit in our car...or our apartment)

A big shout out to Poppy, on father's day. We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us....so how about some BBQ? :) Love you dad.

and you too dustin...but you already know that. ;)

EDITED TO ADD:
As I finished this post, I hear Annabelle crying from the bedroom and Dustin saying, "Mindi look! Annabelle can put her leg behind her head!!!" I said, "Dustin, stop that!" and he let her go. He thought she was laughing. He said, "Sorry, I thought you could do it." and she said, (through tears) "I can do it, I just couldn't handle it!!"

thunder and lightning

2006-06-18T22:37:00.000-05:00

I taught Annabelle some new trash talk,
as i think it's very important for young girls
to develop their trash talking skills early.
She flexes her arm muscles and says, "This is Lightning. This is Thunder. Don't make it storm."

She has called Amy, Tata and Poppy to tell them her new joke. When we called Poppy, he was having a hard time hearing Annabelle over the roar of the big truck. She told him her joke, and he obviously hadn't understood her, because he didn't laugh.
So bella said, "Yeah. That's pretty funny." And then looked at me as if to say, "this is awkward."

for Bella

2006-06-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

Bella wanted Tata and Poppy to see these.
She wants a scooter, RIGHT NOW. I told her she could do some work for me and maybe Tata and earn some money and she could buy her own scooter.
She wrinkled up her nose and said, "Um, no. I just want the scooter."

We're headed to Eureka Springs for the wedding, so I'll update when we get back!

oh and look at Juju's sweet little man haircut. He's such a stud. :)

2006-06-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

<---dustin made pitas last night. apparently they were tasty. :)

it's been a busy week. i went to Bella Vista and took some bridal portraits for Sarah a couple of days ago. She and Ty are getting married this weekend and have asked me to photograph their wedding. It's my first, so I'm pretty nervous, but also really excited.

Sarah is gorgeous and photographing her was like working with a model. I never had to pose or direct her (although one of her friends did, she was hilarious. She'd be like, "Okay, Sarah you stand here and do this with your veil and Mindi, can you lie on the ground, upside down and take the picture from this angle?" I was like, "Sure!" It was a lot of fun and took a lot of pressure off of me to think of creative poses!)

With her permission, I'll post some of their pictures after this weekend. They are really gorgeous and I'm pretty proud of them.

We also got a rough due date this week...Christmas Day. fun fun :)
i keep having dreams that i'm having twins. last night it was twin boys. i woke up really frightened.

little boys love me.

2006-06-01T00:52:00.000-05:00

so i think little boys love me. my most recent encounter was with a two year old chubby hispanic boy. he made eyes at me, winked at me, even tried to whistle (but it came out as more of a loud gush of air between his lips "wooOH WOOoh").

He tried on clothes and in between, he walked around, bare-chested to where i was standing to show off his chubby belly.

he whispered to his mom (quite loudly) that i was "bonita", (pretty) and that i was his "novia". (girlfriend)

when he left, his mom said, "say goodbye to your girlfriend."
he waved and said, "BYE!!!"

then he turned around at the escalator and yelled one more time, "I LOVE YOU! BYE!"

refreshed...

2006-05-29T23:21:00.000-05:00

cutie juju

i feel refreshed. after a long couple of weeks, i got a three day weekend, and my sweetie pie parents invited us out of town, got us a hotel room where we swam and played and watched "Over the Hedge" with the kiddos. (hilarious kids movie, by the way...we laughed so hard)

The only bummer was that i got a little nauseous during our lunch at Olive Garden and couldn't really enjoy my pasta. The one thing i truly love...eating large quantities of carbohydrates...and i couldn't even do that. bummer. i made up for it at Outback by ordering the "Chocolate Thunder From Down Under".

Annabelle took over the last few bites of my CTFDU (a huge warm brownie covered in ice cream and chocolate sauce and whipped cream...) and I told her that she should really share with Poppy. She hovered over her brownie and said, "Well...I don't think Poppy really wants a bite...DO YOU Poppy?" She raised her eyebrow at him, secretly hoping he would say that he was too full from dinner to indulge in her sweet treat.

He informed her that actually, he would love a bite, so she sweetly passed him her plate. He was scraping a good amount of brownie and ice cream onto his spoon when she declared, "Well don't eat ALL of it!"

After that, she made sure that she was the only one that would serve bites to Poppy. Very very tiny morsels of brownie on the tip of her spoon.

We got to keep baby Jocelyn for a few hours while Amy and Salomon went to a movie. Super fun. That little girl LOVES me. :)

Then I bribed my dad to smoke some BBQ for me and this baby love nugget in my belly since that's what we seem to be craving right now, and had a super time with my sweetie pie family.

Even Dustin didn't drive me crazy and I thank him for that. I can't say the same for myself. He may have wanted to hurt me after abandoning him at the mall with both of our little monster children (high on sugar, i might add) to go perfume shopping with my mom.

But I smell delicious. :) And he doesn't seem to mind that...

I better get to bed, I have a long day of standing around and doing nothing at work tomorrow.

2006-05-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

i'm drained. i work 10 days in a row before my next day off. i'm nauseous 24 hours a day and i've gotten some kind of ear infection.

i'm in no mood to blog or read or be remotely interesting. i just want to sleep.

sorry to whine, just having a rough week. i'm probably not going to get a chance to blog again until next weekend, so here's a picture of cutie pie kids until i get back. sorry for the downer.

the best part of my day was coming home to the kids, and seeing Julian with Bella's Dora undies on his head. he was also wearing bella's blue/white polka dot p.j. bottoms and a bright pink shirt. dustin said that he changed his clothes 5 times before Julian INSISTED on wearing Bella's things. It felt like I had two little girls running around the house tonight. these kids are too much fun. :)

one more thing...ACL lineup is out, and it is going to be GOOD. you can click on the ACL Festival link to the right to see who's going to be there. despite being 6 1/2 months pregnant in the Austin heat...i predict a very very very good time is going to be had. :)

spaghetti

2006-05-11T00:02:00.000-05:00

Dustin went out of town Monday and Tuesday, leaving me to fend for myself against these crazy children. I did everything I could to make sure we had fun, making pizza and popsicles for lunch, watching movies, playing games. Annabelle, however, was quick to point out all the things that I did differently from Daddy.

Annabelle was giving me attitude about me not giving her a snack before dinner.
"Daddy ALWAYS lets us have snacks before dinner."

I told her that I gave her a popsicle when she woke up from her nap. She informed me that a popsicle was a "special treat", but a snack was like raisins and kix or crackers and cheese.

I told her, "No. You will not get a snack, I'm making dinner right now."

She said, "FINE! I don't want ANY dinner!"

I told her that was okay, there would be more for me and Julian. Then I reached for the spaghetti out of the cabinet.

She hovered around the kitchen a few more minutes and then politely asked,
"Mama, what's for dinner?"

I said, "Juju and Mama are having spaghetti."

She said, "Oh. I think I will have some dinner tonight."

I asked, "Bella? I thought you didn't want ANY?"

She shrugged and said, "i didn't know you were going to make my FAVORITE dinner."

don't quit your day job

2006-05-09T12:25:00.000-05:00

last week at work, a little boy (maybe 4 or 5 years old) came to me and said,
"I remember you."
I said, "you do?" and smiled, assuming I had helped him in the store before.
he said, "Yeah. I saw you on TV."
I was a bit surprised. "TV? Really? What was I doing on TV?"
He said, "Oh, singing...and all kinds of stuff. I think you are a movie star."

I just smiled. The kid was so cute and sincere.
he really thought i was a movie star. with a day job working retail. :)

the scoop

2006-05-08T18:32:00.000-05:00

thanks so much for all your well wishes :) we really appreciate them. we wanted to keep it a secret a bit longer, but our little bella....she was too excited. turns out that she told EVERY visitor to my parents house during her visit last week.

see, the whole point of waiting to announce our news, was to not take away attention from sweet Jocelyn's arrival. however, every one of Jocelyn's visitors asked Annabelle, "Bella, so what do you think about this sweet baby?" and her standard answer was a quickly spoken run-on sentence (I'm sure so nobody could stop her):
"you now what i think, i think my momma's gonna have a baby and it's a secret and it's only this big (thumb and forefinger indicating one inch) and it's in her belly RIGHT NOW!!!"

so yeah, i guess our gig is up. we're due sometime in December. no clue when. it could actually even be November or January for all I know. I've never been that good at remembering some things. So my best guess is mid-December, until I can see a doctor and get a better idea.

One day while visiting baby Jocelyn, Julian woke up from a nap to an empty house. He came to me sleepily and pointed to J's bassinet. "ba-bee saw-a man?" (he calls her baby Salomon, which is her daddy's name) I told him that Baby Jocelyn went bye-bye.

For some reason, I thought it would be a good time to let him in on the little secret. I said, "Juju, did you know that Mama has a baby in her belly?"

Juju touched my belly, a little confused, and started crying. Seriously, boo-hooing. At first I thought he was mourning the loss of his role as the Baby of the family, and then I realized my mistake. He thought I had eaten Baby Jocelyn.

Once she came back to the house, he was much relieved, and has been carrying around the baby doll that Mom got the kids for Christmas ever since. He is intent on being a good big brother to this new little one. I just have to teach him that we don't carry babies around by their legs.

surprise!!!

2006-05-07T23:39:00.000-05:00

the simple life

juju and cj

happy feet

***attention valerie, kara and heather***

baby ezra

fun name game...play along!

baby alive

baby stuff...

my birthday!!!

welcome to texas

*Flashback Friday*

Thursday Thirteen

the boss and the dragon

Thursday Thirteen...a little late

handy manny

my new fall wreath

bug poop

chalk peace

the oprah voice

picture books

Thursday Thirteen

dustin's first bra

lazy sunday afternoon

funny kids

Thursday Thirteen

haircut!!!

i just no want mess it up

big boy dunnies

street fair

randomness

check engine

we made it

we're moving today!!!

the fair

Baked sweet potatoes

ultrasound

dustin update and a little photo love

sick days

sugar rush

grape tomatoes

how did you find me?

new photos

taxi

dustin's home!!!

legal question

green cheerios

new photo blog!!!

love sick

a yucky week

just for fun :)

happy birthday poppy!!

preschool

so...we moved. kind of.

smart poppy

thunder and lightning

for Bella

little boys love me.

refreshed...

spaghetti

don't quit your day job

the scoop

surprise!!!

attention valerie, kara and heather

Flashback Friday