Greg's deer

Greg got his first deer yesterday. A nice 8 pointer! I am so excited to have MEAT! He is going to keep the horns but not mount the head, thank goodness. Where on earth would I put that? The garage is all that comes to mind. ha! Here are a couple of pics I got this morning. Our dads got some better ones out at the ranch but I don't have those yet.

Baby Update

Doctor appointment today went well. According to them, I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow, which is full term. I told them I don't want to be induced at all unless medically necessary, and she said she would let me go until 41 weeks, and then she induces no matter what. There's no way I'll make it that far though. Things are progressing already, and she even went as far as to tell me to take it easy this weekend because she's not on call and wants to be able to deliver my baby when she gets back on call.. I told her I'm not interested in having a baby this weekend since Greg is gone hunting and can't really answer his phone to come rushing home! She can just stay in until at least Saturday night when Greg gets home.

Since I'm not officially at 37 weeks yet, she said I am "threatened preterm labor" until tomorrow when I turn 37 weeks. No big deal with that though. The ultrasound also showed my placenta is getting old, which means it's about to quit working and kick the baby out. As long as fluid levels stay ok I won't need to be induced but if i notice less movements then I will need to go to the hospital and get checked out.

Progress! Baby! Wheeee!

Christmas Pics

Here are a few pictures from Caleb's last Christmas as an only child! He liked ripping the presents open, so much that he didn't want to stop ripping when he got to the inside!

At the Rices:

Santa Claus on Christmas morning at home:

Christmas Day with Papa and Mimi, Grannie and Tracy, Melody and Cody:

Uncle Dodo:

And this video is the one of Caleb ripping like a pro. Be sure to watch the last 10 seconds of the video!

surgery update

(another repost from About the Babes)

We are already home from the surgery and Caleb is sleeping away. He is totally out of it. He woke up very angry from the anesthesia and it took Greg manhandling him to calm him down, and even then it was hard. He cried so much! When they brought us back for the after-surgery doc consult we could hear him screaming down the hall. Less than 5 minutes later (it's usually about 20) they came to get us to try to help calm him down. I tried to but he kept wiggling and kicking me in the stomach so I gave him to Greg.

Anyway, the surgery was successful and the doc said he had a "pretty significant blockage" so that was reassuring that the surgery was necessary. Now he has a tiny tube in place for 6 weeks. Greg said he could see it up his nose but I haven't looked yet.

The coolest part about it all was Dr. Norman prayed with us before the surgery, and it was his idea. We were both blown away and completely reassured by that. It was so nice to know that our little guy's life was in another believer's hands. God hands us such blessings as that just to keep us going forward and to assure us that we are His precious children.

Thanks for thinking of us today! It went really well, and we hope the rest of tonight goes just as well.

Caleb's eye surgery

(repost from the About the Babes blog)

We take him tomorrow for his eye surgery at 1 pm. We have to be there at noon, and he can't have anything to eat after 7am and no drinks at all after 11. Poor guy, he's almost always attached to a sippy cup so it's going to be hard to distract him for two hours. It also means Greg and I can't have lunch until he goes back for surgery. That would just be mean to eat lunch in front of him. So our plan is to give him breakfast early, then give him a haircut and a bath, then get going to the mall or someplace to get him out of the house and distracted. Otherwise he'll be hanging on the fridge door by 9 am asking for juice, juice, juice..So pray for Caleb's surgery to go well and for him to react well to the anesthesia. And pray for me to have calm nerves about my baby being asleep without me! The hardest part is relinquishing control over my own child's wellbeing.

updates on things

Greg got "the call" last week from the Longview manager inviting him to come work for him. Yay! He is supposed to start February 1st, so a lot of things are up in the air now with living situations. Lots and lots of IFs that depend on the house, the baby, Caleb's surgery appointments..

Tomorrow is the last day of CDO, probably forever for me. I was going to try to go back in January, but it looks like my doctor expects me to have a baby before then. I'm not complaining about not going back to work, but I don't really want to have the baby that early. However, come Feb 1st it will be easier to have an older baby than a week-old one when Greg starts communting (the most likely situation at this point) to Longview. I am torn about what to do right now. Anyway, back to CDO, I hope we will be able to find a program for Caleb in Tyler because he has benefited SO much from being with the other kids in this one. His words have increased a lot and he listens pretty well (for an almost-two-year-old).

Caleb's eye surgery is this Thursday afternoon. We won't find out what time exactly until the day before. Pray for the anesthesia to go okay and for me to not be too worried about my baby being asleep without me!

Saturday morning with Santa

This morning was our neighborhood's annual Breakfast with Santa. Santa rode in on a Fort Worth Fire truck, and went through the streets honking the sirens and yelling HoHOHO on the loudspeaker. We had forgotten about it so it scared us to death this morning. We took Caleb down to the amenity center and took a few pics. We got a couple of cute ones with the fire truck, but Santa was a different story. This one is all I got before my stupid camera died. I don't think they would have gotten much better... sigh. toddlers........


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Do This

The baby with no name

So this little Rice girl still has no name. I am being picky and dorky and keep changing my mind. Greg is doing the same thing so we are just stuck! I have actually been telling people that I am open to suggestions. We had some family over for Thanksgiving and had a brainstorming discussion that didn't bring in anything new. I have looked online for everything I can find, and have one long list of 7 names. Here it is: (I'll take votes or opinions on all the names.) We have decided on Hope for a middle name for 99% sure.

Carly
Carissa
Christina
Abby (Abigail but will go straight to calling her Abby)
Allison
Bethany
Julianna

I can't remember if I mentioned this yet, but I got in trouble at the doctor this week. The time before I had gained 4 pounds, but this time I had (allegedly) lost one pound. I only saw the nurse practitioner so she didn't get out the switch and whoop me, but she did tell me, "If you don't gain some weight by your next appointment when you see the doctor you will be in BIIIIIIG trouble." Of course she didn't say it just like that, but that's what she meant. I really need to gain about 10 pounds to catch up with the "normal" range, but as I have said before, I'm am SO not normal.

Halloween Pics

Here's Little Mr. Charlie Brown.. good grief!


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Caleb's language

Please disregard the animal abuse that appears to happen... she probably deserved it anyway. :) (He didn't actually hurt her. She was growling at the open windows and passing cars.)


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In other news, I got my official letter from the real estate commission telling me that my license is on inactive status. Now if we could just get moved and settled in a new place I could start working.. well maybe I'll wait a bit longer, like after baby girl is born.

I passed!

I finally took my real estate license exam this morning and I passed! My deadline was coming soon in November so I had to take the test now or never. After failing two practice exams I wasn't at all confident about how I'd do, but the test was easier than I expected. (And way esier than the practice tests!) I'm glad I did some last minute cramming last night, because a LOT of things I learned last night were on the test today. I guess it was worth not getting much sleep. My next step is to find a broker to sponsor me and activate my license so I can start working. I'm not sure if I should go ahead and jump in here, or wait and see if we get to move to Tyler anytime in the next few months. Then there is also the problem of finding drop-in occasional childcare for Caleb.

You can call me Mrs. Real Estate Mama now! ha

yuck.

So I had a strange/gross thing happen today... I got thrown up on by a toddler... and it wasn't my own child. GROSSSSSSSS. I have never had to deal with kid puke before... so I didn't know what to do! What frustrated me was the other teacher ran into the other room to get away from the smell.. leaving me holding a puking baby and five other kids standing there watching. Oh and there was gagging happening too... Luckily, it was 15 minutes to pickup time so I didn't have puke on my shirt for too long... as soon as I got home I took a shower and felt much better. But GROSSSSSSSSSSS!

Happy Hot October

I can't believe it's October and it's still 90s outside. I guess it's payback for a mild summer.. just dragging it out for a higher average for the year. (In my finance brain that makes sense).

Preschool rocks! Now that we are in cribs, the kids actually sleep! Today, Caleb even slept in his crib in our room. It was simply amazing. It may have helped that he's on drugs for a sinus infection, but he was so pleasant all day (not that he's not lovely all the time) and he didn't have his paci except for sleeping times. A miracle! Starting tomorrow, no more pacis besides to sleep with. Today was a turning point on that. And I got to thinking, if he's not totally off them by the time baby girl gets here, it will be even harder for him to give it up if he sees little sister sucking on one. So that's the new goal. No more pacis by the arrival of little sis. Potty training can wait, and so can a big boy bed, but the paci has to go! Now I need the will power....

Ever lost your child? I have.

I'll start by saying that allergies, exhaustion, and tears make for a nasty headache.

Today at preschool started off alright but went downhill very quickly. By lunchtime we had especially fussy and tired kids, and naptime went the same as usual. I have said it before and I will say 100 more times. Whoever thought 18-month old babies should sleep on the floor on mats was seriously demented. The one boy who always sleeps did sleep so that left six backs to rub and pat and four hands to do it.. which doesn't add up quite right. Caleb, as usual, refused to lay down at all, the twins cried loudly, and another girl kept popping up and escaping to play. (I think there was speed in her lunch or something, because she was seriously hyper.) So an hour into rubbing, patting, crying, and being asked by the adjoining teachers to please hold it down twice, we scrapped naptime altogether and decided to go for a walk outside. (For the record, I didn't think it was a good idea to start with but I'm not experienced enough to say so, so we went anyway) The kids got hot and sweaty and even more tired and cranky so we went back in. On the way in, we passed two older classes and in the confusion, ours just scattered. Seven kids ran in 7 directions. I chose to chase the two who were running toward the treehouse (large indoor McD's type playscape) to rescue them, and by the time I got those two back to the elevator nook, we only had six. The one missing was Caleb. My coteacher tried (unsuccessfully) to corral the remaining 6 while I went to find Caleb. After searching the entire first floor, meeting the director halfway up the stairs, and about 5 minutes later I still couldn't find him and was starting to freak. By then the director, music teacher, receptionist, and librarian were all trying to hang on to our kids and find Caleb. Then the resource lady called down from the second floor saying, "Umm, I have Caleb upstairs." So up we went, with four adults, six kids, and me in tears. (of relief, anger, embarassment, and exhaustion) When we got off the elevator at the THIRD floor there was Caleb with the resource lady. My son climbed two flights of stairs!! I'm still trying to figure out what he was thinking and where he was going. He normally hates those stairs and insists on being carried up them. All the other adults were very surprised that he would strike off on his own since he hardly ever ventures very far from me. I'm atill just baffled.

Soooo, the ending of the day decided that we are moving our class to a room with cribs. Thank Goodness!! So hopefully no more naptime trauma.

And I decree that Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 no longer exists.

This is really about Caleb, but it was a family affair... his first HAIRCUT!!

All-over haircut I mean. We've trimmed the rat tail a few times, and around the ears, but never gone all over shorter. We geard up by putting him in his swing on the back porch, slapped on a #4 guard on the clippers and went to town. Greg held his head still and distracted him while I (gasp gulp) cut his hair. It looks surprisingly good for a VERY amateur job, if I do say so myself. Afterwards I couldn't stop starting at my little big boy. He looks like a little boy now, but he still just a baby. So sad. Here are pics. You can see how long it was before in some of the recent blogs either below or on About the Babe next door.








Just look how long it was!!! (The scissors are just for size comparison. I only used them around his ears, which doesn't look so great)

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Whew

The first day of my second week of being a preshool teacher. I haven't even started having kids yet and all I can say is WHEW am I tired. Today was a planning/work day and I worked like a dog to get all of my lessons planned and bulletin boards hung. Got the month of September totally done, (a good thing since I have to turn them in Thursday) and 2/3s of my bulletine boards finished. Caleb had a great time tearing up the room while I stapled and crinkled paper. Thursday is meet-the-parents day and I am only slightly freaked about that. I think once I get everything organized in my head I'll be okay, but it's all still flying in circles in there. At least I though of an art project, which was the source of much stress this weekend. Fingerprints and paint, should be a blast!

Oh, looky there, it's raining. How bout that.

random good news

I saw an ad in the church bulletin two weeks ago saying the church CDO (children's day out) still had openings. I assumed that it meant for kids, but I still thought to myself, "I should ask if they need teachers." I never did call or talk to anyone at all. Today out of the blue the phone rings and it is the director of the CDO, a nice lady I know of but have never met. She said they were looking for teachers and had two more openings and asked if I was interested. I thought, "Absolutely YES!" but I was a little more business like with my actual answer. She got my name from someone else at church that we know. I am just amazed that she called me so randomly when we really need the money right now. And the best part is Caleb gets to go to the preschool for half price and he'll be right next door to me. It's Tuesday and Thursday 8:30- 2:30. I'll be teaching the kids that are the same age as Caleb (18-2years) and Caleb will go into the higher class since I can't teach him. (policy) I'll only have to work about 8 hours to recoup the cost of having Caleb there and the rest of the month is income. YAY.

Also, Greg asked the church secretary last week if she knew of any part-time work that was needed and today she called with a possiblity for him. It's also at the church doing maintenance/moving type work. Not glamorous, but it's money and we're glad for it.

Lightning

We *think* our house got struck by lightning yesterday evening. We had a quick, bad storm pop up. Obviously it didn't burn down (darn it!!) but us and the neighbors had several breakers that tripped randomly when a lightning bolt hit really close. I think it actually hit the neighbors house, or between ours and theirs. The pot-smoking teenager next door said their fireplace whooshed with a flame (the pilot light caught the strike, maybe) but we never know if what she is seeing is reality or the weed talking. Their gas was blinking"offline" and she *says* the TV is fried and half their breakers tripped. We lost 2 breakers, and the TV went off, but the lights in the rest of the house didn't even blink. It was pretty weird. We didn't think much of it until the firetruck showed up next door. I guess when you're 19 and your mom's not home, you call the fire department. The fireman said it probably hit us but not directly. We were joking about climbing up in the attic and starting a fire and blaming it on the lightning strike... that's one way to get out of this house!!

Another thought. Maybe God was trying to scare those kids into going to church. Hah!

update on the living situation

So greg had a meeting on Friday with the bosses and was praised for his excellent work. Unfortunately he was told there aren't any openings in Longview and they can't say when there will be. A month, three months, a year, two years, etc. SO, while we are still going to sell the house, we will be sticking around DFW until there is an opening in Longview and then reevaluate the situation then. For now, when the house sells, we will find a house to rent in our price range and stay there a while. Hopefully we can save money by not paying upkeep, property taxes, etc. So that's the plan!

Faux-Toe Overload

Here's what you've all been missing while I hovered around the porcelain throne for the past two months.

Melody's graduation: May 18thish:
The Sibs:



Vacay to the desert- Dad's "1000-acre wood" (Razor-sharp mesquite shrub, that is.)

C walking the lonely road. Classic!



C driving the golf cart. Notice the tan soft-sided weapon case next to him, complete with loaded weapon inside. Ahh, the country life.



Me, in a deer stand.



Greg and Caleb in a deer stand. Notice the completely awesome view behind it.



The wildlife. Ewwww. Eeeeeeek.



The views from the land. My dad owns this ridge, yes, the one in the far distance.



This is the rest of it.



This one too:



Here is a closer-up of that first ridge. Dad says he's climbed it. We were going to try but there was lots of weedy grass growing on the path and we were afraid of getting into chiggars. You know, those little invisible bugs that burrow into your skin and itch you for days... we turned back. Maybe in the fall when the grass is all dead?



Highlights of the trip: I did DRIVE up a small slope in the golf cart with everyone haning on for their dear lives. Great fun. Sleeping out on the windowed porch was a cool deal, I only wish the stars would have broken out from behind the clouds. In the span of 2 weeks since Dad had been out last, it had rained 8/10ths of an inch which is a lot for the area. It was pleasantly cool and slightly muddy. There was also the nice old man that runs the combination Gas station BBQ smokehouse that gave Caleb a quarter when we stopped to stretch our legs. He was probably the mayor of Robert Lee. Robert Lee is located in Coke County, Texas where there are literally 5 towns in the entire county. Robert Lee, I believe, is the county seat, which is funny to me because the population is about 87. Or maybe 187. Close enough.

Check out the Babe blog for more pictures of Caleb's life.

Public Announcement

There is news here. Not house news, not job news. Baby news. Yup.

Dedication day

We are so excited for this Sunday! We are finally having Caleb dedicated at church. We missed the last one and then found out they only do it twice a year, so he's a little older than I would have liked, but it's never too late! Lunch afterwards, fun stuff! Can't wait!

Our house is showing today for the first time in a while. Paid the big mortgage last night. It really hurts to write that outrageous check every month. Someone just buy this house! We are still having faith that God will take it when it's the right time, but man it's getting close.

My new business is up and running

I am spreading the word as far as I can. My new store is up and running and I'm proud to introduce it!

www.hyenacart.com/AlexiaJean is the link to it.

I have lots of ribbon blankies for babies, burp cloths, crib bedding, and coming soon are cloth diapers, Boppy covers, custom curtains, and other custom creations. If you have an idea for something let me know and I'll see if I can do it up for you.

Please think of me next time you need a baby gift (or have a baby of your own!)!

starting a business?

Here's my idea. I can make things, and I want to sell them for money. That's the idea behind a business isn't it? I did learn a little something with my business degree... (I'm not going to remind anyone though, that Finance knowledge does not necessarily equal wisdom, or we wouldn't be in the financial situation we are in right now.)

Here are two things that I have made and I am thinking of opening an internet store selling these things and other cutesie things like them. This first is a taggie blanket, or a lovey for babies. The second is just a bag I made, it's not a diaper bag, just a cute tote. A custom order baby business is where it's at baby!







As a bonus, check out my diaper stash: I have a few more but they were in the wash.

Yikes, it's been a whole month!

Back by popular demand!

We've been busy going in circles. Like a holding pattern, that kind of circles. It's not the funnest place I've been but I know it could be worse. Here are a few pictures from the last month or so:

Another walking video. He's gotten a lot better since this one too!



Easter Sunday:



Hunting an egg at Grandma's. Apparently one was quite enough!









My big boy in Whitehouse:





tending the garden:



This is one saucy toddler!



Pool fun!


Four inch faux-hawks are the bomb baby!



Mommy's new hobby - cute cloth diapers!


I'll take one to go please!



So, I guess that pretty much covers the last month. We've learned to walk better, started using cloth diapers, planted some free flowers in the back yard, gotten in the pool once, and just been hanging out. Greg's job is getting better, but he's still going forward with the Dallas Police process. Yesterday a detective called him who has been assigned his background check and said it will take two or three weeks before she can get to him because there are about 7 people in front of him. So, at the middle to end of June, expect to get called by Detective Hensley of the Dallas Police Department and say all good things about Greg!! (We had to put down EVERYONE we know, except extended family (aunts and uncles), with addresses and phone numbers, so you WILL get a call.) If all goes well and he chooses to do this, academy starts in July, or September.

That's that I think!