99 Balloons

This family's story was included on Oprah this week. They are such an incredible witness to the hope they have in Jesus Christ. The hope we all have in Jesus Christ!! Of course, Oprah did not show the very end of the video on her show. Too bad, Oprah...you blew it again!

They are selling downloads of the video on a Christian website, so I'm assuming that's why I can't download it here (that could be a BIG assumption...I probably just don't know what I'm doing). But, it is on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0.

The family welcomed their second child, a daughter named Hazel, two weeks ago. You can read more of their story at http://mattandginny.blogspot.com/.

5 Little Monkeys

Yesterday I picked up Hannah from the nursery class after bible study and she immediately started singing "5 Little Monkeys." She was dancing and singing and just the happiest little girl. I asked her teacher Miss Michelle about it and she told me she had just purchased a new CD. Well, I downloaded it from Itunes this morning and watched Hannah go. The only kids CD's I have are praise music, so we've needed something like this for a while. The CD is "Party Like a Preschooler" by Go Fish. I THOUGHT I had taken a movie of her, but apparently I didn't so you'll just have to "imagine" her movement from the stills.

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch

"Cinderella"

Helping Daddy

Can you give me a hand?

"Pumpkinrella"

Well...sort of. We missed our trip to the big pumpkin patch at the country church on Saturday because of our great day at the UT game. So, Hannah has been asking every day when we would go to the pumpkin patch. To clarify for my friends from the north, "pumpkin patch" in San Antonio means you go to a Methodist church that is selling pumpkins to raise funds for the youth group. It was late and we tried the church closest to us, where we used to take Christian and Mark. They were more than picked over....those left had bad spots or were covered in warts. But, we had fun. So we headed to HEB, the grocery store. All they had left were "fairytale pumpkins." There was a round, white pumpkin that was called "Snow White." There was another pumpkin that was "flat" and was a kind of shiny, tan color (forgot it's name). We got a flat, orange pumpkin aptly called "Cinderella." We came home and used the "princess potato head" set that my Mom gave us to decorate the pumpkin. It looks really cute! Thanks, Mom!!

No Nap Ninnie

Hannah is a very strong willed child. She is always looking for things that she can control that I can't make her do. For example eating, sleeping and going potty. Eating is not much of a battle now. She was never a picky eater, she just chose to eat sometimes and chose not to eat other times. It never has had anything to do with the food being offered.

Hannah is completely potty trained and has been for months. The battle with that now is that she won't go when it's suggested. Whether it's in the morning or when we need to leave the house or when it 's time for bed, she will tell me "not yet, Mommy" when I suggest it's time to potty. This has resulted in a couple of accidents in bed lately when she refused to go (even when sitting on the potty) and woke up with a need that was too urgent to make it to the bathroom. The silver lining there is now she is more liking to go when I suggest it because she didn't like the accidents.

Sleeping....now that is a horse of a different color! Hannah has ALWAYS taken her time falling asleep. Since we brought her home from China, Hannah has need so time to decompress in her bed alone. Stacy calls this "talking herself down." Unlike a lot of toddlers/preschoolers, she has NEVER fought the actual going to bed. If fact, she has held us completely accountable for the nap time/bedtime routines. She will even tell us "5 minutes to night, night." But, once in bed she will sing and talk and play quietly in her bed (leaving only briefly to get a book or a stuffed animal). She doesn't call us unless she needs to go potty, which is her latest stall tactic. She will become quiet for 45 minutes to an hour and we are SURE she is asleep only to be greeted by a sweet little "hi, Mommy" when I peak through the door. The long and the short of it is that she goes to bed about 8:30, but often is not actually asleep until 11pm. Then, she gets up when she hears Daddy's truck door close in the morning. Then she won't go to sleep for her nap or collapses in exhaustion about 4/4:30 and the cycle continues. I've pretty much just learned to live with it. The only real problem is the tantrums increase without sufficient sleep, but even that is getting better again. Of course, since we had to be at Stacy's work at 2:30pm on Tuesday so he and I could get our flu shots, she fell sound asleep on the ottoman in the living room. Figures, doesn't it?

Happy Birthday, Elijah!

Nana, Papa, and Hannah all love you and miss you very much. Sorry we aren't there to celebrate, but we are so happy that much of the rest of your grandmas and grandpas, great and "regular," were able to be there.

And we would like to say Happy Birthday to Mark's girlfriend, Lauren. Hope you have a great day and we'll see you soon.

The Second Car Seat

I mentioned in a previous post that we needed a second car seat. We need it because we are blessed to have the opportunity to host a group from Mongolia for six weeks, including a 2 year old girl. This precious girl "Nomio" is coming the to San Antonio for life-saving heart surgery through the work of Samaritan's Purse's Children's Heart Project. Medical teams are sent to countries that don't have the medical training or technology we have in North America to identify children that need life-saving heart surgery. Hospitals and doctors in the US donate their services and churches and families host groups while they are here.

Concordia is hosting two groups this time, a total of 3 children. They arrive on November 10th and should leave on December 18th. Surgery will be either the 13-14th or 17-18th. Nomio will be coming with her grandmother and an interpreter.

So you are probably thinking.....how can I help? Pray. Pray. Pray.

• for save travel for the group.
• for Nomio, who will be leaving her mother (I'm told she is afraid of strangers).
• for Suren, the grandmother, who suffers from motion sickness.
• that we are all able to shoulder together to show these precious children of God the love of Christ in tangible ways.

If you want to help in a tangible way, there has been a Care Calendar set up to manage specific needs for the group. Click on the link and enter Calendar ID: 7302 and Security Code: LOVE. You can sign up to provide a meal or to come over a visit with the group for while Hannah and I go to MOPS or bible study. I will also need some one to stay with Hannah while I am at the hospital with the group on surgery day, so I'll add that when I know the date. Also, as soon as the Care Calendar is set up for the other group I will add that info to this Care Calendar so you can love on them, too.

PS I was waiting to post all this to see if I could get pictures of the group. I have a picture, but it's embedded in a word document and isn't a regular picture file so my creative ways to try and post it (including taking a picture of the picture) have not been fruitful, so you'll have to wait until they get here to see who you are praying for.

Hook 'em Horns!!

Yesterday I got a phone call at 8:28am from my brother, Jimmy. He wanted to treat Stacy and I to the University of Texas game against Oklahoma State. That's #1 UT v. #6 OSU. Since he had just gotten home from a trip with my parents to England and Rome the night before, I quickly forgave the last minute invitation, especially since he had arranged babysitting with the help of my sister in law, Lori. Hannah, Stacy and I were still snuggled in bed watching cartoons, and we were a bit worried that Hannah would be upset that we weren't going to the pumpkin patch as we had planned all week, but a day with cousin Aubrey seemed like a good trade off to her. So we made to Chris and Lori's house at 10:01am (they live 45 minutes away), packed up the mini van and the six of us were off. Hannah and Aubrey, who is 2, just love each other and neither were much interested in good byes. The sitter said the got along really well together. We had a great time tailgating, eating, people watching, game watching, and eating. Brother Ray and nephew Dylan were in charge of securing the tailgate site and Ray manned the grill. And Texas won in a good game. It was 84 and warm and my brothers (season ticket holders) upgraded their seats this year (front row of that level, so no one in front....actual seats instead of bleachers....cup holders....and the sun in our eyes except for 5 minutes near the end of the game). It's been a while since Stacy and I have been to a game. They've expanded the stadium by 20,000 seats and it was a record that day. We partied with 98,516 of our closest friends. :) We had a great time!! Thanks, Jimmy!!!

Stacy, Dylan and Ray

The Showband of the Southwest

Enough said!

Bevo

Me and my honey

Jimmy and Kelli

Chris and Lori

Final Score: Texas 28 and OSU 24

Jimmy, Carrie, Chris, Ray and Dylan

Sea World

Yummy...cotton candy!

The star of the show....Shamu!

Penguins

Shamu and Dolly the Dolphin

Butterflies were everywhere!

Hannah and I had a great day at Sea World. During the summer, we went about once a week but now they are only open weekends, so it's harder to get there. Sea World added a few Fridays in October and today could not have been more perfect. Not crowded....gorgeous weather (80 degrees, spring-like breeze, bluest skies). I am sensitive to my northern family and friends that are wearing hats and mittens and expecting snow tomorrow. I truly am sorry you don't live here! Hannah loves Shamu and has been jumping up and down on the ottoman every time a Pacific Life commercial comes on (yes...I know it's not a killer whale in the commercial, but her 3 year old eyes are less discerning) so the timing was good. She didn't even have any ill effects from her flu shot, which she got on the way. I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures in an more artistic way, so you'll just have to enjoy them the way that blogger wants them to show up.

Friends

Wednesday mornings I attend a Women's bible study at Concordia. We are currently doing Beth Moore's "Beloved Disciple--The Life and Ministry of John." It's a really good study. A few weeks ago, my dear friend Greta showed up for the bible study. It was such a pleasant surprise (to me--I'm pretty sure she knew she'd be there)! We went to lunch afterward and Hannah loved spending time with Greta.

After lunch we stopped by Kid-to-Kid resale to pick up a second car seat for Stacy's truck, but the urgency will be explained in a future post. They have the cutest homemade bows so I got some for Hannah's new fall wardrobe (thanks Mom Bond) and they had the prettiest tiny little grosgrain bows. Hannah and I decided that Riley needed a couple of bows for her beautiful blonde curls. So we stopped by unannounced to give Riley her bows. A former boss of mine taught me that sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than get permission (sorry Robyn C.). Robyn was so gracious and invited us in. The girls played so well together and Riley gave Hannah a couple of hugs. Robyn and I had a great visit, too. It made for a great afternoon with friends. I love you, Robyn and Greta!

Early Voting

I'm usually not much for early voting. I've actually never done it before. For me, I like the ritual of waiting in line with everyone else on the actual Election Day. I don't like opening presents early either. :) But, now that I have Hannah in tow (and remembering that I was in line for over an hour last time....luckily at the middle school library, so I had something to read), I decided I'd think about it this time. Well, the library we went to on Tuesday is an early voting site so I took that as a sign from God. It was only the second day of early voting in Texas and there was actually a line (about 15 minutes). After storytime, we waited 5 minutes and were out of there. Hannah put her "I voted" sticker on her storytime craft project.

Breakfasts and Books

On many Tuesdays (a penciled in if nothing else comes up kinda thing) Hannah and I meet the Sander's girls at McDonald's for breakfast and then go to Storytime at the library. The girls get along well and so do the moms. Rachel is a month or so older than Hannah and Maya just turned 5. Baby Leah is not pictured, but is cute as a button and such a sweet baby.

Just for you, Sarah

My sweet friend from Wisconsin is asking for pictures. She's assuming that I have figured out how to use my camera, which I'm still working on. She's also assuming that I've figured out how to upload pictures to this blog. So, I figure now is a good a time as any to try.So here is our little princess aka Hannahrella. Ain't she cute.

In case you are wondering about the title

To me, that was the hardest part of getting this blog started....coming up with a title. I couldn't think of anything as cute as "Ritten by Robyn" or "Notes by Nicole" that could be "____by Carrie." Believe me I tried. I got the thesaurus out and everything. And it didn't seem right to use my last name, as I have two children that I plan to embarrass on this blog and they have a different last name. I knew I wanted some kind of purple background since it is my favorite color. It got me thinking. I remember reading a poem when I was younger called "When I am Old I will Wear Purple." Well, I'm old. Maybe not as old as the poem intends, but I am trying to live the way the poem intends (sort of). The poem is about getting to a point in your life where you unashamedly live the way you want. No apologies. Stacy and I have made decisions about how to live our lives that are not the norm. We have made a choice to live a life that is pleasing to God, seeking His will and that is not the norm. At least not to the world. Of course, many of you that will read this blog live the same way. And you are encouraging to me! So I've decided to start wearing purple now, instead of waiting until I am "really" old. Here's the poem:

When I am Old I will wear Purple!

When I am an old woman,I shall wear purple - -

With a red hat which doesn't go,

and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension

on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals,

And say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

and gobble up samples in shops

and press alarm bells

and run with my stick along public railings,

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit!

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at ago,

or only bread and pickles for a week,

and hoard pens and pencils

and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,

and pay our rent

and not swear in the street,

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner

and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me

are not too shocked and surprised

when suddenly I am old,

And start to wear purple!
--Jenny Joseph

If everyone else jumped off a bridge...

Well...here I am in blog land. After a long time of watching other people's blogs I've decided to jump in myself. I have a great life, but I'm not so sure it will be that interesting to others. I so enjoy reading my friend's blogs. It seems like I learn things about them that are fun and interesting and connect them deeper to my soul. In a busy world, where there just isn't enough time to talk on the phone or "do lunch" blogging is a way to stay connected. So, I hope you will forgive my ramblings and occassionaly rantings and join the fun. Blessings to you all!