Wearing Off

When Aaron first started his residency over a year ago he was given a pager. The first time that he got paged while at home I sort of thought it was cool...I got to hear him speak his "doctor talk" to the nurse who paged him, telling her what needed to be done with the patient in question. Well, now that we're a year down the road, the "cool factor" is definitely wearing off. Whenever I hear that pager buzzing I just want to chuck it out the window sometimes. It almost always goes off when Aaron and I are trying to catch up after he's just returned from another long days work. Mid-sentence that thing will go off, *buzz, buzz, buzz*, and I don't wait around to hear the doctor talk, because I know what it sounds like by now. Our conversation, which a lot of times has barely started usually gets forgotten, and my growing annoyance with that dang pager keeps being fueled. I think that patience is a virtue that I definitely need to work on since I'm pretty sure that Aaron will have a pager attached to his hip, or at least in the vicinity, for years to come. Cool, huh? Not so much!

*Okay, done with my venting, I'm good to go!*

"Hi"

Lately I've noticed that Johnathan really likes to "talk" on the phone. Whenever my cell phone is within reach, or whenever he sees his little telephone, he will pick it up (flip it open if it's my phone) and say "Hi!" He then proceeds to have a little conversation and then ends with "Bye-bye." It is absolutely adorable, and some more proof that he is indeed watching what I do and copying it! I guess I need to stay on top of my game so that he has a good example! Haha!

On a not-so-happy note, Johnathan currently has an ear-infection...his 4th...in his left ear. We caught it pretty early on though, so he seems to be doing okay after a few days on his antibiotics. I hate to have him sick, for whatever reason, and I will be glad once he is feeling all better again.

Today is the graduation ceremony for the doctors at Aaron's hospital who have completed their 3 years of residency. In only 2 short years Aaron will join them in the ranks of "real doctors!" For now though, he is a second year resident...or an upper-level as they are sometimes called! Woohoo!!!

Enjoying Summer

The last several weeks have been very busy here. First off, a couple of weeks ago we had some visitors...Auntie Gaily and Uncle Gaffin paid us a visit! Yay! We had a good couple of days with them, did a few uniquely "Corpus" outings...the Aquarium, the beach and Gatherings (the cutest little gift shop ever!). It was wonderful, and as always we totally loved spending time with some of our dear family! We love you, Gail and Matthew!

Then, during Gail and Matt's visit I got the news that we were going to have some more visitors!!! Yay! Gwen (and baby in tummy), Matt and Miles headed down south to enjoy some of the Corpus Christi charm...and to see us, of course! We did another round of CC, saw the Aquarium, went to the beach, and although we didn't hit Gatherings again, we did manage to visit a park or two...boys and parks, they go hand in hand! Gwen captured a lot of our 4+ days together on camera...ours is still broken, thus the absent pics from Gail and Matt's visit...and I think that you'll be able to see just what a wonderful time we all had. We love you guys!!!

Me, Gwen and the Boys at the Aquarium!
Johnathan staring at the dolphins swimming.
Miles and Johnathan...that orange ball was a favorite toy to play with and share!
Playing in the sand!
Building a sand castle with Mommy!
Miles eating his "snack"...a cookie! Must be nice to be on vacation!
Johnathan also enjoying his snack!
The men, grilling up some dogs!
Miles, racing to catch a wave!
Johnathan was NOT afraid of the ocean...at all!
Feet in Sand!
Cute little guy!
Sweet cousins!
I love his teeth in this one! CUTE!!!

Mrs. Fix-it!

We all know that moms wear many hats---mommy, wife, cook, maid, personal finance manager, and the list could go on...and on...and on...and on! Okay, you get the point, we do a lot! Well today I played the role of plumber! Let me explain...

...as I was feeding Johnathan his lunch, I heard what sounded like an explosion---coming from his you-know-where. Aah, just another day in the life of me! Haha! After he finished eating I prepared to get him out and change his dirty diaper...and that's when I saw it...brown ooze dripping down the front of his high-chair, and upon further investigation I could see it oozing all the way up the back of his shirt! YUCK! I ran to the bathroom and got the water going, and then carefully carried my dirty little Monkey into the tub...I plopped him in, clothes and all. Little bits of yuck started floating in the water, and as I un-clothed Johnathan and tried to rinse off the nastiness and wash it down the drain I discovered we had a problem...a slow, very slow drain. I had noticed this in the past day or so, but didn't really think about it until it was too late! After several attempts to clean out the tub I was somewhat successful. And, after drying off Baby J. and sticking him in his Pack'n'Play to play for a while, I put on my "plumber's hat" (no crack involved) and got to work.

Several weeks ago I played this same role. Only that time it was a whole lot easier to play. I went out to Home Depot and bought a drain auger...a nice little instrument that is very handy in cleaning out some of the gunk that accumulates in old drains and pipes and slows them down. It was a nice, quick job---20 minutes, drain all cleaned and parts put back in place. I thought that today's job would be easy too...and it would have been if an old piece of pipe hadn't fallen off of the back-side of the tub and down into the abyss otherwise known as the space between our house and the ground underneath! What to do???!!! Well, as any smart-thinking-quick-on-her-feet woman would do I went fishing...hanger duct-taped to an old curtain rod fishing! I peeked through the opening from Johnathan's closet to the space beneath the tub, and I fished! And it worked, first time too!

After I "fished" the needed pipe off of the ground I went about screwing back together the pieces that I had taken apart. It was a frustrating time, but I sort of felt good knowing that I had accomplished a "manly" task all by myself. I'm not quite sure if I have totally fixed the slow-drain for good or not, but for now the tub is clean and I'm feeling quite smug about being a Mrs. Fix-it!

Window to the Soul

I'm sure I'm not the first one to say this, nor the last that will feel it, but I truly believe that music is the window to the soul. It evokes so many emotions and feelings, brings back long-forgotten memories, and can provide a perk to pick you up when you're feeling down. It allows us to communicate our feelings with each other, and to give praise to the ONE who created us to enjoy one of life's biggest joys---music!

It is somewhat mysterious how one medium can cause so many differing emotions. Lately I have been listening to the Anna and the King Soundtrack. I purchased it via Amazon.com, and as soon as I hit that "Place Order" button I started to actually crave listening to the music...I almost went to the store to purchase the CD before the one I ordered got here, that's how much I wanted to listen to it. I got it on Monday, and have listened to the whole CD multiple times since. It has provided something that I think that I have been needing for a while. Time to reflect on how I'm doing emotionally. And, upon reflection, I guess I'm doing okay...at least I'm doing "normal" for me. There are bits of happiness, love and even a little bit of sadness that I've found in myself, yet overall there is an extreme sense of thankfulness that I feel for all that God has blessed me with. Anyways, I love music, love what it does to me when I'm surrounded by it, and I love enjoying one of life's simple pleasures!

Here are some of my music favorites right now:
-Anna and the King Soundtrack, especially the "Execution" song, track 15 I think
-Grace, a song that I'm learning to play on the piano right now, it is simply beautiful
-East to West, from Casting Crowns' album The Altar and the Door, I pretty much love anything by Casting Crowns, their music really makes me think about how I'm living the Christian life

Well, those were just my thoughts today about music. Now it's time to go work on some of that thankfulness that I'm feeling, and go enjoy taking care of the precious baby that God has blessed me with!

'Ant'ics

The past several weeks I have noticed a sparse little trail of ants crawling on my kitchen counter close to the sink area. While I pride myself on having a fairly clean kitchen, those little ants seem to be able to find even the smallest little speck of a crumb. When I first saw those little critters, I thought I'd try to do something to get rid of them, but here it is a few weeks later and they are still here. I haven't gotten rid of them, and in fact I've even started to enjoy their appearance as they run to and fro getting food for their ant hill friends.

One day I noticed that whenever I'd come into the kitchen they would all scurry back into the small crack in the window where they had come from. I just thought that they were scared of the "big giant" that I am to them, and found it curious that each time I showed up they would all run away. Yesterday morning I walked into the kitchen, saw the typical little trail of ants and waited around for them to go running...but they didn't, they stayed. Hmm, I started to wonder why they chose this time to be brave, and then I figured it out. I hadn't washed my hands yet, so the water hadn't been turned on---time to test a theory. I turned on the water and sprayed it close to where the ants were walking down into the sink, and you know what, they all turned around and ran for the hills! It was so funny! Also, whenever an ant was walking toward the sink the ones running for dear life would stop right in front of them, and, as if they were having a little conversation, both ants would touch antennas and then they would head back to the hill together. Amazing! This happened with each set of ants passing each other...except for one really stubborn ant who had to see the water for himself, and then he turned around and headed back home.

Another cute thing that I have never seen ants to is give themselves a bath. Last night after I had "scared" another little group of ants back home, I noticed that on the way back almost every one of them stopped by tiny, minute little droplets of water. They all got on their back legs, and as they were standing straight up they would dip their front legs into the water and then wash off their face and antennae. Isn't that amazing?! They even had tiny little ant shadows! Haha! Anyways, I've been enjoying some of God's smallest creation, and have marveled at how wonderful He made them, and much more so how wonderful He has made me. So, the next time you see a little trail of ants, take a moment and watch how they live. I promise you will marvel at God's handiwork too!

What a Weekend!

We had a fantastic weekend! It was one of those rare occasions where Aaron actually had Saturday off...I know, amazing, right?! Right now he is on a rotation that gives him only 2 days off out of 28! Dang! It's not too bad during the week since he usually gets home around 5:30 or so, but the weekends have been a little tough. Anyways, this past Saturday was the first day Aaron has had off in 2 weeks, so we wanted to really enjoy it...and we did!

Saturday afternoon STARS hosted a family movie day, and we went to go see the new Night at the Museum movie. The movie was great, Johnathan did totally wonderful and sat in his booster through the whole thing, and Aaron and I were able to have a good time too. If you're wondering what STARS is, it stands for South Texas Association of Resident Spouses, and it is a program designed to bring the residents and families of the residents together through different events/parties/get-togethers. I have been helping out with it this past year, and have been able to meet a lot of really nice people. This year I'm taking over STARS since my sweet friend, Blanca, who has been running it is moving. I'm excited about this opportunity, and thankful that I'll have a new friend, Tiffany, who will be helping me! Yay!

Okay, moving on with our fun weekend...

...Saturday evening we went to a bonfire on the beach, and if you've never been to one of those, let me tell you they are a blast! We went along with several other residents and their families, and we all had a great time. The moon was gorgeous shining over the water, the fire was awesome and provided some warmth from the chilly ocean breeze. Once again, Johnathan was a champ and did great during our evening out. He really enjoyed playing in the sand, and was able to hang out with some of his little buddies building sand castles. After playing for quite a while, Johnathan got a little sleepy and following a moonlit walk on the beach in his stroller, he fell asleep for an hour or so. We left the beach around 1:15 in the morning! On the way back home our friend's car died, so we stopped on the side of the road to wait for another friend to come tow them back home. It was fun, although I do feel bad on my friend's behalf since her car has to be fixed, but we used the extra time together to continue our wonderful evening. Someone got a bag of Doritos out and some dip, and we passed the bag around and laughed and had a grand ol' time on the side of the road! Haha! We got home Saturday night (Sunday morning) at 3:00! Aaron had to be at work at 7:00 so we all hit the hay asap. It was a fun evening, and one that I'm sure we'll remember for a long time.

Sunday wasn't too noteworthy, except that Johnathan did take a 4 hour long nap!!! I guess all the partying from the day before had him really worn out! Haha! I did go check on him a couple times during his nap just to make sure he was okay. He woke up really hungry since he had slept straight through lunch and snack-time. After I filled his little belly up he was good to go and just had fun playing and hanging out with me. Aaron returned home from work around 3 in the afternoon, and he was exhausted! After a quick cat nap he was ready to go too, and we all enjoyed the rest of the day together.

Well, that was our weekend more or less. It was so nice to have Aaron home all Saturday, and I'm already looking forward to the next Saturday that he has off---in two weeks!