every captive thought

I am so thankful that James got his father's sunny disposition. I just love it. When James is ready to get up in the morning he just starts talking or singing to let us know he is awake. Not crying or screaming...just a sweet little voice. This morning when I went in to get him I snapped this picture first thing.

Wow! I think that is the longest I have gone without blogging since I started. I've missed you! Last night was the first night of Saturday church and we LOVED it. We didn't actually get to hear the full sermon yet because Brad worked in the Cafe, I worked in the bookstore and James was in the nursery. It was such an exciting atmosphere and the numbers far exceeded what the church leadership was expecting. Tommy is doing a series on Sex Dating and Marriage. It is fabulous and you really don't want to miss it. Anyways, we are super-pumped about going to church on Saturday night and sleeping in on Sunday. What a treat! We love our church! And not just because we get to sleep in. After church Brad and I were starved within an inch of our lives and thought we might die if we didn't get some chips and salsa right away. Then Brad had the fabulous idea to call in an order of chips, salsa... & southwest eggrolls from Chili's. So we had a late night floor picnic date af...

Just a quick update about James. His pediatrician called today with GREAT news! His EEG came back completely normal. So the next step is to keep a log of every time he does his little thing...whatever it is...and to note when it happens & the circumstances surrounding it...like if he is mad, sad, happy, hungry, etc. So we will keep track of that until Monday and then talk to the doctor again and go from there.

Oh my goodness....I have been without my computer for 2 whole days! I got it back tonight and I will never let it go again. Unless it gets another virus. So as you know...we are waiting to hear the results from James' EEG. I thought there might be a slim chance that we would hear something today but we didn't. Hopefully it will be this week though. Today was my Dad's birthday and we celebrated with him and Mom tonight. Mom always makes the birthday boy or girl their meal and cake of choice. Yeh...she's awesome like that! Dad chose chicken fried steak, cream gravy, fried okra, potatoes and onions and a German Chocolate Cake. He's my hero! Mmmmm....it was SO good. AND I got to bring home some cake to have for breakfast! This concept still baffles Brad. Cake for breakfast. I can tell that he would REALLY like to forbid me to eat cake for breakfast but being that I am an adult, he cannot. And the fact that it bothers him only makes me want it more. I'...

Today is my sweet Daddy's birthday. Happy Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you so much! What a blessing you are to me and our family. I am so thankful for you!

James is getting really good at standing all by himself. I think walking is soon to follow!

Can I just tell you how glad I am that it is Friday night at 11:00? What a week! I am so ready for two days off...wait...I have everyday off! Who am I kidding??? As you know we had the two wretched torturous EEGs this week and so from the nice long hospital visits as well as the sleep deprivation, both James and I are sick. He has a massively snotty nose and a nasty cough and I think I am getting strep. Anybody want to come give us some kisses??? Neither of us are running a fever so perhaps I am just being an alarmist...or a hypochondriac. Maybe we just have a cold...or allergies. Whatever it is, I am 1000% certain we caught it from the hospital. I did see one poor pitiful woman roll by in a wheelchair holding a bucket by her mouth...bless her heart. I really felt so horrible for her. I am glad we didn't catch whatever that was. Tonight we dropped James off with his Grandma (Brad's Mom) and I got to help Brad with a fundraiser for his work. It was lots of fun! I tried to keep m...

Hooray! It is over! We did it! Brad kept James up until 11:30 last night while I slept and then I got up at 3:00 a.m. and woke him up. He wasn't real happy about that but soon perked up to his sunny little self! And let me just tell you...my wonderful Mom gets the Nana and Mom award of the year! She got up and met James and me and Wal-Mart at 4:00 a.m. We walked and walked and walked all over that store for 2 hours. But it did the trick! It kept him (and me) awake. So we got to the hospital and the technician, who I now know is named Felicia, hooked him all up again. And he screamed and cried. She even wrapped his whole little head in that white bandagey stuff so the electrodes wouldn't come off again. You know how on soap operas they wrap the actors head's up in those white bandages when they have concussions or are in the hospital for any reason at all...and they look like great big light bulbs? Well...that's what she did to James. It was real sad looking. But the sec...

It just has to be said. It did. It flat out sucked...big time. So today was EEG day. We had no earthly idea what to expect. And what we got was far worse than I had anticipated. First of all...they told us to wake James up at 5:00 a.m. to sleep deprive him so he would fall asleep during the EEG. Well...that didn't even come close to sleep deprivation. I think it just made him mad more than anything. We went into this little room with a big comfy chair and cartoons. The technician stuck 40million little sticky gluey gummy things all over James' precious little head. I was surprised to see him handle it so well. He didn't try to yank them off or anything. He was a real champ. THEN...she turned off the lights and closed the door and we waited for him to go to sleep. Or not. He started screaming bloody dadgum murder. And his tears kept making 4 of the little electrode thingys come off...because that stupid gooey glue they put them on with is water-soluble. So she kept having to...

A few weeks ago when we were at the cabin, James started making a cute new face. I actually posted a picture of it because I thought it was so cute. Well...over the next few weeks he kept doing it more often and it would last for longer periods of time. Then he started turning his arms out when he was doing it. It really started to worry me because I felt like it was some sort of a spasm. I called the pediatrician and she asked me to bring in a video of it. I did and it concerned her enough to send us for an EEG. Tomorrow morning we will be doing that. It is very terrifying to think of something being wrong with your baby. But I am trusting the Lord and knowing that He loved James first and He loves him more than I do. None of this has taken the Lord by surprise. He knew this was going to happen and He knows the outcome. So I can rest in that. We have to wake James up at 5:00 in the morning to deprive him of sleep. Not looking forward to that! The EEG will take a couple of hours and th...

James' hair has always been an issue of grave concern to me. I have always obsessed over it. I have fixed in "the cupie doll", sticking straight up, curly all over, the "church" do, and the messy look. But lately it has taken on a look all by itself that I have not been very fond of. We've called it "the Donald"...as in Donald Trump. You know what I mean....all combed over and very toupee-ish looking. Except all curly in back. It has also started to bother me that whenever we take him out anywhere someone always asks how old "SHE" is. Even though he is dressed all in blue. Therefore, James had his first haircut today. It was traumatic for him. Catastrophically and horrendously traumatic. The sweet lady was so patient and really did a good job considering he was doing everything within his power to get away from her. He even squirmed right out of the little cape they put on him. Brad had a death grip on him. It started out innocently enoug...

Here are some pictures from today. James was an absolute delight! He was in a cheerful, jolly, adorable mood. And he was so happy to see his Daddy when he came home from work! And since we are soon going to be trying to get James to drink exclusively from a sippy cup...I am treasuring every last bottle feeding I can. I even hold him like a little baby...when he lets me.

James spent several of the past few days with Nana. He loves his Nana bunches! And I love these pictures of him with his Nana. Sweet little boy!

Ugh....yesterday was a doozie! I'll tell you about that on another day. But for now, I have 90bajillion things to get done today. Here's my list: pay the bills, do the laundry, clean the house, go grocery shopping, go to Victoria's Secret to use my free panty coupon, go to Bath and Body Works to use another free something coupon, (can I tell you how much I love getting those get-something-free-coupons?!?!?!), change several light bulbs that have gone out (I HATE doing that!), wash the baby, play with the baby, feed the baby, go scope out (spy on) the new neighbors, and fix dinner. Ok, so that is not 90bajillion but it feels like it. OH MY GOSH! I forgot to tell you my riveting news!!!!!!!!!!! We got some new neighbors across the street and THEY AREN'T OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least I don't think they are. Knowing my luck they are probably fixing up that house for their elderly grandparents or something altruistic like that. And they have super-fancy cars...which mak...

This was an icky day. I'm glad it's almost over. First off I had to go to the dentist. The new dentist was really nice. I like him and I told him of my intense fear of him and everything he does and he was super nice about it. Good news though! No cavities! Bad news...I have a cracked tooth and that is upsetting. O-well. We'll deal with that another day. I won't bore you with the details of the rest of my sucky day. But one thing made it better.... Yeh....he makes everything all better!

I gotta hand it to you working mommies. I don't know how you do it day after day! I helped out up at the church today and I am tired, want to cuddle with James, don't want to fix dinner, didn't make the bed, didn't do any laundry, didn't do any dishes, didn't get enough coffee, didn't iron Brad's clothes for work, forgot to feed the dog, thinking of having chili dogs for dinner (gag), and got teary at least twice before I dropped James off at Mom's because I didn't want to leave him. I am more grateful than ever to my sweet husband for providing for this family so that I get to stay home with our baby and raise him and play with him and see every cute little thing that he does. It has also made me thankful that I GET TO take care of this house, fix all the meals, and do the laundry. Amazing how just one day of "working" (I say work...but it was more like fun) can make me so abundantly thankful for all of those things. When I got to Mom...

Ahhhh.....Sunday. I love Sundays. Church, the good ads come out in the newspaper, lunch at Mom and Dad's and then nap time. For lunch Mom made one of my all time favoritest meals ever...Chicken & Dumplings. Yum! And she also made some fancy new brownies with twix and pecans in them and a chocolate ganache frosting. Impressive and delish. So now James is napping, I'm about to, and where is my darling hubby? At the movie theater by himself watching G.I. Joe. I am thankful I didn't have to go. I offered but he didn't want me to bring the baby. Whew! AND now it is thundering outside! Perfect! Love it! (At least I think that is thunder....maybe a loud truck or something. I'll pretend it's thunder.)

Last night Mom and I went to see the movie Julie & Julia . Love. It. It was such a great movie. Both Mom and I love to cook...and eat...and anything else that has to do with food. So if you like those things too, you will love this movie. It was darling. After the movie we went to eat at Outback and that was fabulous too. She introduced me to the wedge salad which I have never had before and honest-to-goodness if I had one in the house right now I would eat it for breakfast. So good. Instead I settled for 2 chocolate chip cookies and a cup of coffee. And about those chocolate chip cookies...you know the difficulties I have with them ... major difficulties ...well my Mom whipped up like a zillion batches of them (show-off!!!) yesterday and gave us a HUGE bag of them. I doubt they make it through the weekend. Delish. Ok...as I am sitting here blogging my son is making it abundantly clear that he DESPERATELY needs my attention. As well as a comb run through his hair. "Here, let...