comatose...

they say history repeats itself. i don't know who "they" are but it seems accurate enough.

i noticed on a friend's blog (who has mine listed on her sidebar) that it said 7 months since my last post. i knew it had been a while, but still, 7 months?! anyway, here's my pitiful defense:

when matt was on his mission i kind of stopped writing him. i know-- and i'll be paying for that for the rest of ever. point is, i wanted to write. i really wanted to talk to him but it just wasn't going to happen, so one week turned into two, then two months and before i knew it, it had turned quite awkward. i felt like i would have to somehow acknowledge my lack of correspondence, which made the task even harder to approach. so it was... a vicious cycle that left my best friend thinking that i had abandoned him. i still feel guilty about inflicting those feelings of doubt on him, especially at that time.

so blogging world, i still love you. i've actually had so much to write about that i haven't written anything. i obviously still have not learned my lesson... at this point though, i may or may not do a post containing the events of the past 7 crazy months, to catch up. but i am going to start from here and try to do better. i love reading other people's blogs and will probably steal a few ideas from you. so thanks in advance for being so copy-worthy! :~)

topics to address soon:
- new house!
- status of my degree
- who knows what else...

the bear-necessities...

every year, lamar students are freed from classes for MLK day and matt and i usually wind up doing nothing. this year however, we got to keep our neice for the day since she was out of school but her parents weren't off work. matt did some hunting and found that the houston zoo has a few days a year -including MLK- that admission is free. so we decided to surprise gracie with a cool trip with her cool aunt and uncle.

unfortunately, miss grace was also planning a surprise... a urinary tract infection. the poor kid was squirming and dancing all evening the night before we were to go. i asked her mom why she had not gone to the doctor and carrie said she was worried about her missing anymore school since she had been sick 2 days the prior week with something totally unrelated. so the next morning, gracie was in the bathroom about three of every five minutes while trying to get ready. i couldnt stand it anymore because i knew she was miserable. i thought if we could get her in, that she could be seen and not have to miss school. a two'fer, i thought. so by 9 we had an appointment, and by 10 we were in beaumont, trying to get a 7 year old to pee in a cup. the dr gave us some antibiotic samples (yeah, no trip to the pharmacy!) but he failed to have them reconstituted... we then had to go to another location where they were to do another test, and have her fill yet another cup. by this time gracie was getting hungry again and our hope for a fun day at the zoo was fading. she didnt feel sick, she just had to pee every 5 seconds. i still had to go to a pharmacy, get a syringe that measured mLs, mix up her meds and get her fed.

when asked, grace didnt care what was for lunch. we had been wanting to try out a vietnamese place in bmt to see if it was as good as the place we like in houston and she agreed! she ordered something akin to chicken noodle soup and loved it! who knew?! grace got several awesome-kid-points for that.

so then we decided that since her medicine was kicking in that she might still be able to make it to the zoo. she really wanted to go. after sleeping the whole way (read "no pit-stops"), we arrived. it was the most beautiful january day to spend outside. the weather was perfect, and little-bit woke up happy, so double yeah! on the top of the list to see were the bears, then monkeys, then turtles. we managed to see all of them plus many more. gracie rode around on matts shoulders.

we talked about the dancing elephant (no kidding, he was literally grinning and swaying), how bats are really mammals, how venomous snakes have a triangular head, the difference between apes and monkeys, and how humans are primates too.

shes such a smart kid! i found out the next day that she recounted to her mom on the ride home the story about the borneo orangutan named doc who was born one day after i was. she even remembered the date to tell her mom.

we stopped for dinner at tortugas. by the end of the meal she was saying "i have a pet turtle at home" in spanish. uncle matt is the linguist of the family. i know to you moms out there, all this probably seems like just another day. but i truly enjoyed spending the day with matt and gracie. i enjoyed them. it just wasnt the typical babysitting duty ive become accustomed to. ive often felt like i dont really deal with 6ish-11ish year olds very well and ive wondered if i would lose the relationships i have with my neices and nephews once they got to that age. instead, i love seeing their personalities and interests develop and change. sure, they can still be bratty with the best of 'em at times. but they're becoming very cool, though still very small, people. after all, they better be good... they've already agreed to babysit mine one day. mwah ha ha...

snowball effect

ive been meaning to start this thing for some time now. so why now you ask? because it SNOWED today!! it was sleeting when we went to bed last night so when my sis-n-law carrie called and woke us up at 5:30 claiming that it was snowing, being the skeptic that i am, i got really angry. im not exactly a morning person... at all... she said gracie was building a snowman so i was thinking one of those muddy, slushie atrocities that we texans claim for snow. well, after that i was so mad i couldnt go back to sleep so i decided to take a look out the window... why not, right? this is what i saw...

i convinced matt to come look and i started grabbing for my camera right away. hes seen snow, played in it, camped in it, peed in it, ya know, scouting stuff. not me! i just couldnt stand it any longer and headed outside. it was the coolest thing ever! and bah humbug to all you that say "gosh you texans act like you've never seen snow before..." you're right! so i loved every minute of it! mocha, on the other hand was not amused. shes not much taller than the snow was deep, so her little footprints were on either side of a groove from her little dachshund chest. she didnt stay out long....

just couldnt believe it...

...working on the snowman...

...even matts b-ball goal was thrilled! we didnt do this, it just fell that way!...

...our snowman! my first ever...

we knew matts parents were up so we went to see if patty would come take our picture. then we decided we needed one of her too. so we traded places and while matt was snapping pictures and patty was cheesin it up, i was preparing a snowball just for her. i didnt want her to feel left out, ya know... i made it a soft one so it wouldnt hurt then i tossed it her way. she saw it coming and screamed! well... it hit her right in the face and filled her mouth up with snow! it was hilarious! thats a laughter face, not one of pain, i promise! even after that, she decided since her school was starting late that she would make us all breakfast. sweet, i know, right? love ya patty!

so needless to say, we had a blast. i finally understand the snowball effect!! and now i get it when someone says "its a different kind of cold" speaking of going outside in a tshirt when its in the 20s. i always thought that was the dumbest thing to say but it really wasnt that cold. maybe it will happen again this winter. why not? only in texas is there the possibility of class being cancelled 3 times in one semester because of hurricanes then snow. matt said he thought it was Heavenly Father's way of making up for the storms. i just hope everyone took the time to enjoy it. we definitely did!