8 months ago today

Laney-pants came into our world and what a blessing.



Of course, she used to sit still when I was taking pictures . . .

City Slickers

Howdy pardners! Yesterday, we went out to a co-worker's ranch for his annual Spring Party and City Slicker Rodeo. After about a 2 hour drive we arrived in the middle of nowhere, with cows, horses, a great old house with a wrap around porch and what every Texan needs to kick of a "rodeo" - barbeque!

Kathryn shows off her hat that she bought a the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

Then she let Laney try it on. After lunch the festivities began with 2 egg hunts. I have no pictures of the kid's hunt - it happened too fast! Kathryn ended up with a bunch of eggs and thus a bunch of candy. Then it was the adult hunt. I found diddly. Rob found 4 eggs.
The results - $7 (two eggs had $1 each, one had a fin) and an airline sized bottle of Barcadi Rum. Thus the reason for the separate egg hunts.
Next, it was hay ride time. Kathryn, Laney and I rode, while Rob stayed behind.
Then the first event of the city slicker rodeo - calf penning. Now here's the deal - I was pretty hyped and I wanted to compete. I even e-mailed an old friend with horse knowledge for help on one of the challenges. Then they let the 5 calves involved in the calf penning out of their trailer and into the pen. Two promptly ran out and head butted the pen and then proceeded to run around like idiots. I no longer wanted to participate. I've never been afraid of a baby cow until yesterday. Rob had intended on spectatorship from the beginning and then got suckered in by two of my co-workers.

Elaine, Rob and Anna - the calf-penning team
The competition involved getting one calf into a small pen and keeping the rest in place. Pretty early on, I thought I saw Rob get kicked, but he kept going. Halfway through Anna got a rear hoof to the chest.
All done - he's in and penned. Rob then walks out and says to me, "So what hit me at the beginning?" Ummm - check the hoof print on your shirt! (I do not regret my decision not to participate.) Unfortunately, his team didn't make the top 3, but they did get an honorable mention for most injuries.
Jamie and a very sleepy Laney watching Daddy run after cows.
Next, the roping competition. Use a real lasso to get around the plastic cow head on a bale of hay. 3 points for both horns and head, 2 points for one horn and head.
Rob is "in for a penny, in for a pound" at this point, so he keeps participating. Doesn't he look like he's done this before? Nope, never.

The results: 2nd place and a fabulous Brahma cow topped trophy he named Mooby.
Then, the 3 legged sack race which in which the contestants had to follow a barrel racing pattern. Kathryn and a new friend tried the "barrel racing". See the 14 month old following them - he ended up making things difficult. As most toddlers are apt to do, he wanted to play too!

Here they are on their way down.Then it was Rob's turn - I'm a klutz. That's all there is to it and there was a belt buckle at stake, so I volunteered Elaine to go with him.
Rob and Elaine went early and showed everybody else how to do it. So, the later groups had better times. Better luck next year . . .
I did manage to get on a horse (and I put Laney on with me for the photo op). I also tried out my tips from my horse friend and was successful, so rah for me.
Kathryn also did some riding. She looks pretty good, doesn't she? Thanks Lauren for the mini-riding lesson in December.
Rob's winnings - $7, Mooby and Barcadi - not a bad day at the ranch.

BTW- Rob is fine. No bruising and no pain today. I'll find out about Anna when she comes in to work on Tuesday. Oh, and even with all this insanity, Laney still slept through the night last night. *Mommy does the happy dance*

Our Very Own Edith Ann

Notice the resemblance?

I'm not sure who among you knows Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann. I remember her from the PBS kid's show " The Electric Company" and then later from watching a "Laugh-In" retrospective. And that's the twooth.

The Next American Idol

Totally fun hair - Check

Fabulous singing voice - Check

Popular with pre-teen girls - Check

Hollywood here we come!

Baby's first work of art

Finger paints! Elena did this at the day care, with a lot of help from her teacher, but those are HER hand prints. I had a total Mommy moment when I saw my little girl's work on the wall for the very first time.

We're back . . .

No good excuses for the lapse in posts, just life happens and sometimes blogging doesn't.

Rob was on the team for the in church retreat this year, which meant he was only home to sleep this weekend. My parents came down to help out around the house and with Laney, a full weekend by myself seemed like a bit much. Tara, I don't know how you do it.

Mom and Laney joked around at the breakfast table early Saturday morning. The story behind this pic - This is right after Laney finished her breakfast. I have taken to feeding Laney topless sometimes (geez - that sounds wrong). She can be such a messy eater and cleaning her skin doesn't require color safe bleach and stain spray. She's picked up a new game in her high chair of shaking her head (like she's saying "no") while you try to get the spoon in her mouth. Thus, the green bean stains on her sleeves. The Rubbermaid plasticware she has on her head is hers. I give it to her to keep her entertained while the rest of us eat. She bangs it together and on her high chair and then tosses it across the room. Roger Clemens, you've got competition! Oh, 7 months is fun! And I really do mean it.

After breakfast it was off to the front yard. Spring has come back to Texas! Laney, being unable to handle a hedge trimmer, got to play in the Exersaucer while we worked. Fleur played guard dog. Big scary poodle, raar!

We did eventually put Laney to work.

After we finished cleaning out the front bed and trimming our bushes, Mom and I did what we love to do on a Saturday afternoon - we went shopping. A trip to Wally World and Katy Mills Mall. And who got most of the stuff? Laney, of course. Mom and I each got a blouse. I bought Kathryn some hangers. (In my defense, I don't shop for her without her and she was with her Mom) Laney got a swing for the back yard and four new outfits from the Carter's outlet. We needed summer play clothes in 6-9 months sizes, she's finally starting to grow out of some of the 3-6 month outfits.

Laney and Mom check out the new swing after our whirlwind trip.
The verdict - she loves it! She squealed and giggled the whole time she was in it.

On Sunday morning, we went to church. Laney wore the new outfit she got from my parents for Easter. I taught Sunday School without Rob. :( But my friend, Matt helped out and we geeked out making Mobius strips with the kids. Did you know you can teach the story of "Doubting Thomas" with a stuffed Eeyore and Mobius strips? You can if you think like a geek and have a little help from John McArthur.

Have a great week, ya'll.

Hoppy Easter!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. I know we did. We went to my parents in Dallas.

Elena is ready to go to Daddy Ron's and Mama Janie's.

Elena did pretty well, we stopped after the first 2 hours to let her out of the car seat. Second stop - blue bonnets. They're everywhere along our route and once we found a safe place to pull over, we took pictures. It had been several years since we had bluebonnet pictures of Kat and this was, of course, Laney's first wild flower season.

It was windy - the cold front was heading in already. On Saturday we had snow flurries (they actually had accumulation in East Texas - see Shea's blog to the right for pics). Our trip to the botanical gardens and zoo was cancelled, so we hit the mall and did some shopping and Rob, the girls and I rode the carousel. Then the boys went to Best Buy and the girls napped and watched movies. I needed that kind of Saturday.

Easter morning was warmer, but still cold. We went to my mom's church and she got to show off her granddaughter's and her future daughter-in-law.

This is Laney's real Easter dress - note the lack of sleeves. I took this picture back in March when our azaleas were blooming so beautifully.

If you saw the Palm Sunday post (below) you've seen the dress she wore on Easter. We had a long sleeve onesie to go under it and it was far better for the weather. But then not many of the ladies wore what they planned. Lucky men.

Kathryn is totally psyched about her Easter present.

Laney had more fun with the tissue paper, but the dress is adorable! Thanks, Mama Janie!

We come by it honest, that's my dad giving Laney "bunny ears".

The straight picture.

Ronny was in the mood to practice prom poses. Lauren practices her "long suffering" face. At least she knows what she is getting into.

The straight photo - Laney, Uncle Ronny and "Auntie" Lauren.

Our happy family. With Mama Janie
Laney works on her new skill - pulling up. She pulled that off for the first time Thursday night when I had her in the crib to keep her entertained, but contained, while I packed. She can pull up into the standing position in the crib or holding someone's fingers.

Ronny teaches Lauren and Elena to play the piano.

The first road trip was good. Laney did real well in the car. She got tired of the car seat after a couple of hours and needed to get out, but nothing overwhelming. Kathryn was a HUGE help with keeping her entertained, "binkied", and fed. Rory dog didn't try to sit in the carseat with the baby, in fact she pretty much ignored her during the whole car trip. Elena slept horribly on Friday night, but I'm not sure if that was because the bed was strange or cold, she did far better on Saturday, when we had the heating pad to warm up the bed before we put her in. I packed too many diapers and not enough wipes. But it was a good dry run for later trips. We just have to keep learning.

Once again, I hope you all had a wonderful, joy filled, Spirit filled weekend. God bless.

I digress . . .

I'm feeling a little lonely here, no comments in two posts. :( I kid, I know your busy, I noticed a decrease in general blogging these last couple of weeks.

However, the paranoid part of me wants to explain my post from last week. I believe in prayer for all things - even little things like work. The H-1B cap is a major part of my life every March (and usually April) and it means a lot to my department and our clients. It's been affecting our work lives and our home lives.

I know immigration is a hot button issue. For working in the immigration field, I am remarkably conservative and I have some very strong feelings about it. I hope I did not offend.

Baby's First Road Trip

We're off to my parent's tomorrow. It ought to be interesting. Elena has never been this far from home before, the trip is about 5 hours and before this the most she has done is about an 1 1/2. It's my first time packing for a munchkin this little. Her packing list is twice as long as Kathryn's and I keep adding things. I am trying to figure out how to get the kitchen sink in the car, if you know what I mean. Luckily, my parents do live in a large town where we can buy diapers and other supplies for a reasonable price if necessary. It's not quite as if we were going camping in the Rocky Mountains.

Anyway, wish us luck! I'll post Easter pics and an account of the trip upon my return.

A weird sort of prayer request

This is what all the OT last week was for:

"The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today that it has reached the 2008 fiscal year 65,000 H-1B cap.

"As of late Monday, April 2, the Service received approximately 150,000 cap-subject petitions. Pursuant to its regulations, when the H-1B cap is reached the first day, the Service must include filings on the “final receipt date” and the following day.

"All cap-subject filings received on April 2, 2007, and April 3, 2007, will be subject to a computer-generated random selection process by USCIS. Those petitions that are not randomly selected will be rejected and returned with applicable filing fees. All petitions received on or after Wednesday, April 4, 2007, will be rejected.

"For all filings received April 2nd and 3rd, USCIS must perform data entry before the random selection process is conducted. The Service has announced that because of the high volume of filings, they will not be able to conduct the random selection for several weeks.

"At this time, USCIS does not know how many of the 20,000 cap-exempt H-1B petitions filed on behalf of aliens with U.S. Masters or higher degrees have been received as these cases are mixed with the cap-subject cases. A later announcement from USCIS will follow concerning the final receipt date for these petitions. "

H-1B visas are for non-immigrant professionals with bachelor's degrees or higher. Not making the cap has a huge effect on our clients lives. Not to mention the sheer frustration of working into the wee small hours of the morning to get these cases filed on time and then to find out they did not make it. For a point of reference - in 2004 it took 6 months to make the cap, in 2005 it took 4 months, and last year it took 2 months, this year was unprecedented.

Now the request - the firm I work for filed nearly 500 of these cases. Please pray that these cases make it through the random selection lottery.

It could've been a Alexander kind of day

My day reads like the pages of "Alexander and the Horrible No Good Terrible Very Bad Day" or whatever . . .

Kathryn got up 40 minutes late and missed her bus, so I take her to school, cutting short my sleeping in.

I had to take Elena to the peditrician. She's had junk coming out of her nose and a cough for a couple of weeks. Turns out it is an ear infection.

Then I took Laney to daycare - dosed her with acetomenophine (for the pain and fever from her Flu booster, which we also did at the doctors), cough syrup, and antibiotic. She's none too fond of any of them, at least she just let them ooze out of her mouth, instead of spraying them.

I called my supervisor on the way from the day care to find out how things are going, as the recovery from last week begins. She tells me that a transformer blew. They're on emergency power only - no computers, no copiers, and no bathroom because of the electronic flush.

I get to work 20 minutes later and a fire alarm has gone off so everyone is in the parking lot.

We get in 20 minutes after that and we have power now. Wait 10 minutes to get the server back and another 30 for e-mail. About the time we get e-mail, the AC goes out.

It was a day worthy of Alexander. And yet, I'm in a good mood. I managed to get some work done and anything is better than last week. Final count by the way - 56 hours last week. And that is on the low end of the department.

Palm Sunday

It's been a long week - thus no blogging. Work has been nuts (and I din't work nearly as long as my co-workers) but here's hoping it's all over for this year. I could blog for a day and a half on all that's happened, but I'd rather just see the back of it.

Laney turned 7 months old Friday, and in some ways I feel like I missed it. I remember reading something about being a working mom - it talked about theletting go of the importance of firsts. I guess that can hold up with "birthdays" too. We had a lot of fun today when she turned 7 months and 2 days. As most of you know today is Palm Sunday. Our church hands out palm crosses at the beginning of the palm litany. They even gave Laney one today. She had a great time with it. We also did some shopping and got in some play time on the floor.

The crazy week continued at church today, too. I teach Sunday School and our class exploded today. We normally have about 4 kids. Today, between the children's choir - which brought kids who normally attend church, but not Christian Ed, and the fact that it was Palm Sunday, we had 19! What a blessing and a lesson in controlled chaos. Hopefully they took something meaningful away from class, we certainly had a lot of fun.


Hope you have a quiet, prayerful holy week as we prepare for the miracle of next Sunday.