"Thank You" is never enough.

I read several different blogs and articles about Veteran's Day and I found myself at a loss for words. The only thing that I could think of to say is "thank you", although I know that those who have served and who are serving now deserve so much more. I know this maybe not be eloquent or thought provoking, but here is my attempt at saying more than just "thank you".

Thank you to my husband. I know when you were deployed you were more concerned for your guys than you ever were for yourself. You showed me what an amazing man you are and how lucky I am to be married to you.

Thank you to my dad, who gave 25 years to the Marines at a great cost to himself. Even after years in Vietnam and year long deployments that kept him away from his family, I know he would go back in a heartbeat to serve his country.

Tim, his friend Ryan, and their M1-A2.

Thank you to my brothers, grandpas, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends. Thank you to everyone who has spent even a day away from their family to keep our country safe. I wish there were more days in the year when everyone looked at you and appreciated your sacrifice, because you definitely deserve more than one day, and you definitely deserve more than a "thank you".

Back from Iraq!

OH HAPPY DAY!

Today we didn't get the call we've been waiting for since February, but we did get a call that made our life a million times easier. We have renters!!! It's a military family that had turned in their application online a few weeks ago but didn't want to make a decision until they actually saw the house, not just pictures. They viewed the house yesterday, signed the lease today, and started moving in tonight. Our house was still on the market but our realtor is OK with releasing us from our contract with her without a penalty. The lease runs through June with the option to renew it annually, which means that we can put it back on the market next summer if the market has rebounded.

As happy as I am to have a lot of the weight of the mortgage lifted, it is still strange to have someone living in our house. It would be different if they had bought our house because then it would no longer be "ours". I wouldn't feel like complete strangers were sleeping in MY bedroom. I know that part of my problem is that we never intended to be landlords and I was really hoping to sell it and move on. However, I'm sure that in a month or two I will feel like our rental house in Tulsa is "home" and our old house is in the past. (Apparently I haven't adjusted to life in Oklahoma completely.) Just give me a few more months and I'll be jumping for joy. For now, I'll just stick to a small happy dance. :)

Christmas in November (The Tulsa Zoo)

We decided that this year for Christmas we wanted to get Brenden something that wouldn't be thrown aside when he was tired of it or stuffed into the garage when he was too big for it. Tim came up with the great idea of getting a year long pass to the zoo! We took Brenden to the Denver Zoo when he was about 6 months old and he seemed to enjoy it (as much as a 6 month old can), plus the Tulsa Zoo is only a little more than 6 miles away so it's very convenient. We didn't want to wait until December to buy it because we wanted to be able to use it a little this year before it got too cold.

Since Sunday was looking like a great day to be outside, we made Sunday our Family Trip to the zoo day. Brenden immediately became distracted by the buttons on the Coke machine and all the other little kids that were running around. I thought we would never get him to look at any of the animals. After a little persuading, and strapping him into the stroller, he decided looking at the exhibits was OK, too. We watched a couple of baby chimps playing and then running towards an older chimp. It was adorable to see the babies so excited! They jumped right onto the older one, who I would guess was their momma. (Reminded me of Brenden when Tim gets home.) Our next stop was the desert, which included snakes, lizards, and other creepy crawlies. Brenden found another little boy to follow named Dalton and they had a great time chasing a lizard back and forth in the display.

Dalton and Brenden...and the lizard of course.

Our next stop was outside to look at a couple of huge turkeys. We must have been the loudest group at the zoo, with everyone making turkey noises to get their attention. Past the turkeys we found some local animals, including raccoons and owls. By this time Brenden was more interested in Grandpa Warehime's cane and really didn't look at any of them. He temporarily forgot the cane every time we walked past another toddler, especially little girls. The boy is going to be trouble! The next building was a tropical exhibit, and my goodness was it humid! You would think living in Oklahoma would prepare you for all degrees of humidity, but it was actually hard to breathe. It was one of the more interesting stops since we found a little monkey that was extremely interested in another visitor's Cheerios. Brenden and Tim got to stand next to it and Brenden tried to pet it. Oops! I'm just glad that when we passed the dart frogs a few minutes later, which are pretty darn poisonous, he was preoccupied. They actually had a zoo keeper stationed near the frogs because many of them have gone missing. They hop around in the bottom of an open exhibit so I'm not surprised. You would think a piece of Plexiglas or some netting would solve their problem, but I guess a random dude with a ponytail watching everyone works, too. Anyway....

Hi there monkey!

The next few stops included a lion, a couple of penguins who weren't too keen on swimming, and some humongous turtles. By this time Brenden was getting pretty tired so it was more interesting for us than it was for him. He still allowed us to take a few pictures and really didn't fuss while we laughed at the toys in the gift shop. Just to prove how tired he really was, he fell asleep in the car about 2 minutes after we put him in the carseat....WITHOUT his pacifier. This may not sound like a big deal for other kids, but if you know our child then you know about his attachment to his pacifier when he's tired. I took this as a sign that he enjoyed his early Christmas present, and I'm excited to take him back again and to find out with animal is really his favorite. Although, I have a feeling that they will have some tough competition if there are any little girls around. :)

So tired!

I took a ton of pictures, which you can see here if you'd like. Enjoy and Merry Early Christmas!

French Fried Goodness

Tonight we were lucky enough to be able to meet GiGi, Papa (AKA Ginny and Dan), Mike and Connie for dinner. Dan has tax school this week so he and Ginny are in Tulsa for a few days. This marks the 51st year he is attending. (WOW right!?) We decided to meet at Red Robin since they have some awesome french fries, and it's close to Dan and Ginny's hotel. Brenden did a great job of feeding himself a dinner of grilled cheese, mandarin oranges, and of course those scrumptious french fries.

YUMMY!

Tim and I are both super excited that he has learned how to feed himself, although his skills with a spoon are a little lacking. Actually, I think his reluctance to use a spoon is less about skill and more about laziness. It's much faster to have momma feed him! So, even though the beginning of our day was a little hectic (that's a different post entirely) it ended on a great note. :)

Mike, Dan and Brenden

Cool kids wear glasses!

Can I eat your necklace, GiGi?

I rocked the vote!!

Ok, so my candidate did not win the presidential election but I did have an interesting time at the voting church. That is what they are here in OK they are voting churches, because all the voting places are churches. So I get to the voting church around 7 am and there is already a line, it was not long, but still a line. So I get in the line for A-K last names and wait like everyone. I get to the door and and realize the A-K line is much longer than expected b/c it wraps around in the church's kitchen and I can't even see the end of the line.

So the sample ballot is there on a table just inside the door and I start to read and I consider myself somewhat knowledgable about what is going to be on the ballot in OK. There is the usual Senator, Representative, and of course the President, and the measures for Oklahoma legislature. But there is another section about judges and whether or not to let them stay on their seat as a judge. Who knows judges!? I sure didn't and later I talked to come co-workers and they always vote to send them packing. So I read through the names thinking maybe just maybe I might know one of them, nope. Not one rings a bell. So I think to myself, maybe I'll flip a coin, guess, or pick the ones to stay who have the coolest names. But I decided to just not vote on those. But most of the decisions I made on who to vote for before I got to the voting church.

So I am almost up to the table to get my ballot and have to pass the exit where a lady is passing out the "I Voted" stickers. I have deemed her the "I Voted" Sticker Nazi. Yes, you were getting an "I Voted" sticker whether you wanted one or not. One lady was exiting and tried to take the sticker and put it on herself, Oh no!, the Sticker Nazi has to put it on you herself. And she just can't put it anywhere, she has to put it on your shirt, well since it is a cool morning she opens your jacket for you and puts it on your chest area. Now, you don't have a say in whether you get one or where it goes, just know the Sticker Nazi is putting a sticker on your shirt! But, while I was standing there one woman tried to tempt fate and not get a sticker. She was polite and said no thank you, some people don't like stickers. That does not go over well with Mrs Sticker Nazi, she gets angry and mumbles impolite words under her breath as the woman walks out the door. Thank goodness the line moved because I didn't want to hang around any longer.

I now have my ballot in hand and go the voting booth, and these are not the voting booths shown on tv,. with the curtain and privacy, they are just cardboard thrown on a table, but I get to vote. So, I vote for my candidate and not the judges and run my ballot through the scanning machine and now I have to face the "I Voted" Sticker Nazi. I thought about just running out the door as she tries to put a sticker on me or zipping my jacket up so she can't get to my shirt. But, I decide that the easiest way to get out the door is to show my shirt and have her put it on. I did escape.

So, congratulations to all the winners and Barack Obama. I hope he proves me wrong.

Like velcro!

Brenden has always been a very social baby. He has never been clingy or needed to be able to see me at all times. At playgroups he never had to be right next to me or on my lap. When we take him out to go shopping or to eat he screams to get attention from complete strangers and then pretends to be shy so they will smile at him. He doesn't hesitate to run after other kids (I've learned to have good reflexes to catch him before he grabs them) or animals, and has always leaned away from me to go to anyone and everyone. So when he screamed at me when I left him with his grandma at the table at church I was shocked. Who is this child? I have always been able to let other people watch him without any sort of fussing. Not only that, he was with his grandma! He doesn't seem to understand that she will spoil him WAY more than I ever would. (Coincidentally, that was the night she shared popcorn and ice cubes with him...EEK!) That same night I also got to hold Bailyr, which was amazing. I cannot believe Brenden was ever that small! I turned around to show her to Brenden and his face contorted into the most horrible sad face imaginable. He then proceeded to scream, and fling and wiggle until I gave her back to her dad and came back to hold him. I can only assume that separation anxiety is kicking in, which was not something I was prepared for. I've started to notice that he is behaving differently at home as well. If I am in the room he wants to be on my lap. If I am standing anywhere near the baby gate to where he can see me, he grabs the gate and rattles it until I look back. When I take him to the dance studio with me he gets upset if I am not paying attention to him and won't let me get anything done until he's being held. I know that he's teething and has a double ear infection, but he's been sick before and hasn't acted this way. I guess it's just one more developmental stage we have to deal with, although it's not as welcome as walking or crawling. He has also learned how to arch his back and fling himself on the floor. Yay for early tantrums...NOT.

We also heard from the insurance adjuster this week. He said that it is almost impossible to prove negligence and that he doesn't want to try. Tim believes it's all about how much money it would take to prove it. The guy did say that if they went after every case that our premiums would be crazy expensive. Guess what...our premium is going to go up anyway if it's not ruled negligence! Unfortunately for Tim, I wasn't about to sit back and let some guy in San Antonio who has never seen our car decide that Tate Boys did nothing wrong. I mean really, wheels don't just fall off of cars! The mechanic said it was one of two things, either the 2 lug nuts that were gone were loose which caused stress on the other 3 and made them snap, or the other 3 lug nuts were too tight, which caused them to shear off and strip the other 2. All I said was "DUH!" I could have told you that the day the wreck happened. So the adjuster agreed to send our case to a subjugation board which will decide whether it will be pursued. We are sending the pictures of the wreck, along with the receipt for the work done on the car to prove how long it had been since the work was done. Hopefully we'll hear something positive, although it doesn't seem like anyone wants to stand behind us. If nothing else, I just need a mechanic to say "This was not a failure of the car, it was human error" so we can go to Tate Boys and try to get our deductable back and a darn good apology for my mom, who is still nervous about driving on Hwy 75. That's the least they should do.

My, my I'm a gripey one today! I really would rather end on a happy note. :) Tim and I have been discussing the fact that Brenden has not had his first hair cut yet. I understand that he has beautiful little curls, but he looks so shabby sometimes! Luckily he's husky so no one has ever thought he was a little girl, which is exactly what happened to Connie when Tim was little. Yep, at one point Tim had beautiful, curly blonde hair! I really need to find a picture. When Brenden grows up and gets upset that his hair isn't straight he won't be able to just blame me! So last night I was looking at old pictures of Brenden and was shocked to be reminded that for a long time the boy was practically bald. He dealt with some pretty awful eczema until he was 7 months old and we're pretty sure that is why he was unable to grow hair. Every time I mention a haircut to Tim he tells me he doesn't want Brenden to be bald again, which is just silly because even if his hair is shorter there is no way he'll look bald. Looking at those pictures, I can see what Tim is so worried about. He does look kind of funny! Our poor, bald baby. How far you have come!

Brenden at 6 months

Brenden at 13 1/2 months.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Since Brenden is only 13 months old and we live right on Yale, which is a busy 4 lane street, we decided Trick or Treating at Tim's work would probably be enough. We dressed Brenden in his puppy dog costume and headed in for some candy. He was not exactly a fan of it, would move his head only slightly, but he didn't cry! And I think he was the cutest puppy EVER!

The next day there was a Halloween Fair at my church in Bartlesville. Since the puppy costume didn't go over very well, we decided to use his other costume, the spider. I think it's just as cute!

For more pictures from Halloween click here.

And CONGRATULATIONS to Jay and Meghan on the birth of their daughter Leah Brooke!!! She was born Oct. 31st, weighing 5 lbs 10 1/2 oz, 19 inches long. Both mommy and baby are doing great and should be able to go home very soon.

Leah, Mommy and Daddy

Hope you all had a wonderful last day of October!