Short month, Short entry

Sooo..... hi. How are you? Nice.


My mom's been in the hospital since January 18th. She had surgery (again) on her knee to remove the original knee replacement and put in an antibiotic infused cement spacer. She's at a rehabilitation facility called Cane Island right now, and her doctor is worthless. Minimal progress on that front, but hey, the kids are getting good at steering a wheelchair.


I've been working a ton at the store, which isn't bad because I get to work at 8am Monday thru Friday most weeks and am almost always home by 3, unless I have a random late day of covering for someone who called out. I'm happy there. It's all good.


We have actually begun to make wedding plans. Real, actual wedding plans, as opposed to just, "Hmmmm... Maybe _____ would be fun!" The nice thing about having an extremely small scale wedding is that there isn't nearly as much to plan. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.


We've had 2 classes (out of 9) for our Marriage Matters class and we loooooooooooove it. It's so simple and yet it's something that no one really thinks about. We get so into our emotions and what we want and expect that we totally forget that we're dealing with another person and not some perfect creation in a movie. So far so great!


Now for pictures of my heart:









and the funniest video EVER:

they're so precious

Okay, you may not have known, but, um, I'm the proudest aunt ever. I am beyond in love with my niece and nephew. Seriously. How my brother and Katy managed to produce the most amazing children ever is beyond me, but I'm so glad they did.

Here are a few ridiculously adorable pictures from their birthday party this past weekend (Natalie turned 4 at the end of November and Isaac turned 1 at the start of December)









Too much cute, right?

I've talked enough about my 84,000 trips to Garden Ridge that I probably should post some of my fine work on here. I'd been procrastinating about blogging because my heart told me there was something big and meaningful coming that I needed to blog about. I'm sure it's still coming, but I couldn't stand not having updated in over a week, so here's this instead.

The day before Thanksgiving, Mom and I went over to bake cookies with Natty. I know I'm biased, but seriously, look at this kid and tell me she's not adorable:



















Decorating was decidedly less fufilling this year. When it's your own home, there's something deeply satisfying about it. The past 3 years, making the apartment cozy and festive for Denver and the girls just made me feel right. Even though most of the decorating I did this year was my decorations just at my parents' house, it still didn't feel the same. I like having them up regardless, so here's some pics of highlights.


That empty stocking hook sucks.







Lucie says, "Look, Mommy! I can help you unwrap decorations!"

until she gets tired and takes a nap on our stockings.











my beautiful Hallmark tree in the dining room!















Yea, I made that wreath. Garden Ridge hooked it up.











my amazingly wonderful UT tree and my super cute nutcracker pillow that magically matches my bedding (totally unplanned. I've had that pillow since high school)

why I love Sunday school...

There is nothing in the universe that makes my soul tingle more than when a child gets that huge grin and gives me a hug. I like kids. I can't help it.

I have this one little boy in my class of Kindergartners who has been more than a little difficult for me. We've been praying for ourselves more than him, because he doesn't have bad days... he has every day. I mean, he's hit, he's kicked, he's yelled, he's cried, he took his pants off once, and, according the the teachers who had him last year, he used to be a spitter. This Sunday, God finally gave us a break. This little boy, we'll just call him Timmy (cuz that kid was always falling in the well) had one of the best Sundays of his life, I'm convinced. He did what we asked with minimal discussion, he played nicely with the other kids, he kept his pants on, and he even gave me my 3 most favorite moments of the day.

1. When we were in large group worship, he pointed out a hot air balloon out the big windows. I don't know if you've just sat and watched a hot air balloon cruise across the sky, but there's something so calm and wondrous about it. Then it changed paths a bit so we got to talk about how it was like the cow jumping over the moon. We were pretty oblivious to everyone else in the room, and it was just a cool little moment.

2. When he had first arrived in the classroom, he was telling us (safe sanctuary policy is that there must be 2 adults present in the classroom at all times for there to be children. We don't want to get in any scandals like those CATHOLICS after all... lol) that he has really good deductive reasoning. We asked for examples, but he was kind of thrown. Anyway, when he and I were watching the hot air balloons, he totally busted out some deductive reasoning.
Timmy: That balloon is pretty slow isn't it?
me: yea, it is.
Timmy: is it slower than a snail?
me: no, I think its just a little bit faster than a snail.
Timmy: more like a slug?
me: maybe.
Timmy: Are snails or slugs faster?
me: I don't know. I've never raced them.
Timmy: It's slugs. Because snails have that shell and it slows them down.
DEDUCTIVE REASONING! You can't argue with that. You just can't.

3. And this one is my absolute FAVORITE. We were talking about Jesus dying for our sins so that we can be with God, because we started a new unit on Romans with the kids this week. So Timmy tells me that God is 4 parts, not 3. I said, "Are you sure? What are they?" And he goes, "It's God, Jesus, the Spirit, and Santa Claus!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SO AWESOME.

See why I love kids?