every captive thought

Home sweet home! James and I are so glad to be back. We had a busy and hectic weekend...well...first part of the week actually. I missed Brad and was so glad to get home to him. James is not so much of a great traveler as I have hoped he would be. So when we go places we take the little DVD player and put on Baby Einstein. We don't have one of those fancy schmancy cars that already has the player in the car. So I had to get all sorts of inventive in a Clampet/redneck sort of way to rig up the player with bungee cords and baby clips. But heck...we got the job done and James was happy. Just think what all I could have done if I had had some duct tape! Dang! Finally we got to my sister, Carrie's house. James has not met a dog he doesn't like and he fell flat in love with Carrie's dog Chloe. Who wouldn't!?!?! She' precious. I wanted to sneak her into my pocket and bring her home. This is Chloe and my beautiful niece, Morgan. Monday morning was set as...

James and I are heading out this afternoon with Mom and Dad. We are going to Fort Worth to my cousin's wedding. I am sure I will have lots of great pictures and stories to blog about when I get back. James helped me pack! And Brad waves good-bye. I am sure he is looking forward to a few quiet days of bachelorhood. See you in a few days!

If I could have dreamed up a better day...yesterday would have been hard to beat. Shopping with Mom and James, lunch with Mom and James, shopping by myself while Mom watched James, then came home and had a cozy evening with Brad and James. Lovely. Mom, Dad, James, my sisters, and I are going to my cousin's wedding in Fort Worth this coming weekend. Well, the wedding is on Monday but we will leave on Sunday and spend a little time with my sister and her family. Poor Brad will be left to fend for himself in the food department. Scary. And this morning is already off to a good start. Brad did the honors of getting up our little Jamesies and changing the first diaper of the day while I drink a cup of coffee and watch Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin.

I woke up yesterday feeling SO much better and ready to take on the day! Which yesterday meant shopping and cooking. Two of my favorite things. Remember a few weeks back when Brad went to help out at the cabin ? Well, he has been having some withdrawals for the Tres Leches Cake that Betty, my sister's mother-in-law....or my brother-in-law's mother...made. So I bugged her for the recipe and made it last night. And I now see why Brad loved it so. I took about 5+ years of Spanish in middle school and high school and the name of this recipe reaches to the outer brink of my Spanish speaking abilities...so the cake will be called TLC from this point on. It's just easier that way. Anyways....just looking at the recipe I couldn't understand what could be so special about this cake. But then I saw that it calls for sweetened condensed milk. And I have a rule that anything that calls for sweetened condensed milk deserves at least one try. Sweetened condensed milk makes e...

James and his lips! He has the pouty lip that he makes when he is sad and it just kills us. It rips the heart right out of our chest and stomps it into a million little pieces. It makes us do all sorts of things to make it go away. We find ourselves giving into things we ought not give into just to make it go away. But these lips make us laugh. We don't know why he does it. Maybe it feels good on his gums? Who knows? We think it is awfully cute. But we are pretty partial. We think everything he does is awfully cute. We are in love with him and all of his cuteness.

James and I have spent the last several days hunkered down and trying to get better. We both are on antibiotics for our strep throat and PRAYING no one else gets it. I've exposed my poor Mom to it and of course Brad. I will feel SO terrible if either of them gets sick. Brad was such a prince last night when he got home from work. He totally took care of everything for me and I just laid around and acted puny. He did laundry, dishes, baby-duty, and everything else. He's the best hubby ever. I'm so spoiled. My Mom made me a great big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. It was delish! I polished it off today. Too bad my appetite hasn't been affected. If I'm going to get sick...I wish it would be the kind of sick that made me skinny. Darn it.

Big plans. That is what I had for today. But I woke up feeling a little bit puny. Then I ate two donuts and drank some coffee and felt better. Never mind the fact that I had a 100.4 temperature. Dr. H called this morning to let us know that James' lab work came back and sure enough he has strep throat. Poor baby! That is what caused the 104.3 fever and all the crankiness. He also has developed some little blisters on his hands and maybe in his mouth that they think is hand, foot, and mouth disease. Ick. But after lunch with Mom we came home to start on my BIG plans to redecorate the whole house and I began feeling terrible. I could barely swallow. Brad got the flashlight and looked around in my throat...and sure enough we think I have strep too. So when I go to the doctor tomorrow, that will be the 4th doctor appointment in as many days. So back to my big plans. A few weeks ago we had something major done to our air conditioner up in the attic. I am not sure what becau...

Poor Baby James...he is still puny. We are on day 3 (almost 4) of running a fever. We heard from our pediatrician's nurse (aka the best nurse ever in the history of the entire world) on Friday and they decided to put him on an antibiotic while we were waiting for the test results. I was hoping to hear something today and I didn't. So I will call on Monday. Meanwhile, we are keeping him on Tylenol and Motrin to keep the fever down as best we can. Dr. H (pediatrician) didn't think we should take him to church so Brad stayed home with him tonight while I went. I was sad to be there without them but I am glad I went. It is always such an encouragement and joy. For instance, I can be in a church with a thousand other people and our common bond is our love for the Lord....and His love for us. I had a 15 minute conversation with a woman I had never met and came away feeling blessed and refreshed from our little talk....because she loves and serves my Jesus. ~~~~~ Tomorrow...

Yesterday while we were in Lubbock, Mom noticed that James had gotten awfully hot. He was also super lethargic and noodle-like. We gave him some Tylenol. When I got home at 6:00 last night I took his temperature and it was 104.3. Brad and I quasi flipped out and called the after hours nurse line. So I was up all night checking his temperature and giving him medicine. Poor baby. Today we went to the pediatrician and they did all sorts of tests, including drawing blood and a catheter. It was really crummy. One blood test came back fine and we are waiting on another one and the results of the cath. So James has gotten extremely spoiled today since he has spent two full days at doctor's offices and hospitals. He could have done just about anything he wanted. And what did he want to do?????..... Explore the house with Puppy and find every undiscovered cabinet in the house.... He found the paper plates.... Every..... Single.... One... And he found the rolling pin... As well as rediscover...

Everything went GREAT today at the neurologist! Thank you for your prayers! Dr. Brown could not have given us a better diagnosis or put my mind more at ease! He said that he feels like it is definitely behavioral...meaning James is just learning to use new muscles and do new things. He said he feels like it is definitely not seizures, tics or infantile spasms. He told me just to keep an eye on him and let him know if anything changes or if we have any concerns. He did not order any more tests which I am thankful for. Over the past week...since we got the appointment...I have been praying for Dr. Brown. Specifically that if he doesn't know the Lord that he would come to know Him. I also prayed that he would get a good night's sleep last night, be well-rested and alert this morning, have had a good night with his family last night, and that he would give us plenty of time and patience. The Lord is so precious and personal. He answered all of these prayers. Dr. Brown talked a lot ...

Today I was busy talking on the phone and doing miscellaneous tasks while James played contentedly in the bathroom. (He likes to play with his bathtub toys...and it keeps him nice and occupied). So after awhile he came crawling up to me with something hanging out of his mouth. It looked like something white and slimy. And it was. It was a blob of toilet paper. Immediately I knew what had happened. I had noticed his growing curiosity and interest in the toilet paper. I had kept him in check pretty well. Then I let the little menace out of my sight. I called him into the bathroom in my most stern mad-mommy voice. Thud...thud...thud...thud...(little hands smacking against the floor as he crawled to find me). He knew as soon as he saw my face that this was no good. I said, "James, this is a no-no!" Then he did this.... And I melted. That face gets me every single time. I'm such a sucker. So I snatched him up and kissed him all to pieces and went and snuggled him up wi...

James was rockin out to his Baby Einstein jams when he lost his balance. Happens to the best of us.

We got to take care of Addison this weekend while Karin and JT were out of town. She and James really enjoyed playing. They followed each other around all over the house. It was so cute. She went to church with us on Saturday night and stayed in the nursery with James. They said she did really well. I am glad James had a buddy in there! When we got home from church Brad and I were in the kitchen talking and I was fixing dinner. We had put Addi in the highchair because she has to stay upright for 20 minutes after eating. Well, bless her precious little heart....she fell asleep right in the highchair. I felt so sorry for her but also thought she looked awfully adorable sleeping there with her tigger. Sweet little sleepyhead. But after she woke up from her little nap she snuggled with Aunt Snuzi on the couch. We always go to Mom and Dad's on Sunday and I was excited to take Addi with us today. Mom and Dad have been praying for Addi and so they enjoyed getting to see her. ...