Things I am Thankful For

I think this should be at least a monthly exercise for me. I forgot how blessed I truly am in the midst of this crazy life going on around me. Lately I have known so many people that are experiencing pain deeper than I can imagine. Mothers that will never be able to take thier babies home and hold them in thier arms, young people battling serious health issues, people that have sick parents and grandparents, just to name a few.
I have the tendency to isolate myself and think "I am so tired, I don't feel good, my back hurts, I'm lonely..." the list could go on and on. I realize that this is just spiritual warfare and that I am purposefully being distracted from those around me, so that I won't recognize thier needs and hopes and wants and desires, so that I won't want to help or to understand.

So today here are the things that I am thankful for:
1. My beautiful, loving, crazy, creative and energetic daughter
2. My wonderful, supportive and helpful husband
3. A house with a roof to cover my head and keep me safe
4. Renters for our house in Kansas
5. The money, even though it is tight, for me to stay home with my daughter right now if I can't find a job
6. The healthy, very wiggly baby growing inside of me
7. A fabulous supportive family that takes care of each other even living miles apart
8. Friends all over the country that I can pick up a conversation with after months or even years and it feels
    like we never had time apart
9. Friends that are more like family that go above and beyond to help us out
10. Two lovable dogs
11. Cool weather
12. Brilliantly changing leaves
13. Apple picking
14. New friends
15. Free things for Ella and me to do during the day
16. A much more flexible schedule for Jimmie and because of that, more time spent together as a family
17. My daughter's ability to fit in most situations easily
18. Ella's joy and excitement about almost everything
19. A healthy husband who can ride his bike to work
20. A surprise of VERY good insurance

I know that this is a very short list that is part of so many things that I have to be thankful for. I just need to remember these things sometimes. I need to pull myself away from myself long enough to notice the needs around me. I need to turn to the One who gave me all of these things, especially when I am feeling down.

Coming this Winter...

This is Aubrey at 24 weeks. She is due December 8th! Ella could not be more excited for her to make her grand appearance!

Bulldog, Bulldog, Bow wow wow!

Today we went to our first Yale home football game. It was an experience that's for sure!

I come from the South and spent my last five years in the Midwest, where football is kind of a big deal. I now live on the East Coast in an Ivy League town, where aparently football is not that big of a deal. That worked out worked out well for us today. Jimmie is on staff and so he gets to go for free and bring a guest. Children under 14 get in the games for free as well. We are all for anything that is free and fun and we have been missing live football, so we decided to go today.

We pretty much had our pick of seats in the stadium. Yes, we were sitting right on the end zone behind the wall! I doubt if the stadium was even at 65% percent capacity! Quite a few more fans and lots of little league football teams showed up during the game, but there was PLENTY of room to move about the stadium. Ella enjoyed it because she was able to run up and down the rows without bothering anyone.  

This is Handsome Dan, the Yale mascot. We were going to go down and take pictures with him, but there was a pretty grouchy security gaurd that was running all the kids off. We were still really close and Ella loved seeing him!

While most of the game was not terribly exciting, the fourth quarter didn't dissapoint! The Bulldogs were down 34-35 and intercepted the ball right before Georgetown was about to score. They made it quickly down to the other end zone and thought a score was inevitable, when they fumbled! They ended up getting the ball back and scoring a winning touchdown with 13 seconds left in the game!

After the game they invited all of the kids down to the field to play and meet the players. Ella LOVED that part. It's not too often that one gets to roll around in the grass on a college football field!

All in all it was a pretty fun day, even if it was very different from what we are used to.

Ella was asking tons of questions about the game. I love that she is starting to understand little parts of it! By the way, notice the super fashionable outfit that she chose to wear? Yup, that would be a polka dotted shirt and snowflake leggings with bejewelled flip flops. I figure as long as she is dressed weather appropriately she should get to choose her clothes. Makes for some interesting outfits!

Maybe another day I will talk about the "marching band". Definitely not the Priiiiiiiide of OOOOklahoma!

New York

Riding in on the train. We told Ella she is one lucky girl. She has had more life experiences in her short little life than many adults!

She really enjoyed the carousel in Central Park. If you ask her about it she gets very animated, using her hands, saying "and the horses went up and down, and up and down, and UP AND DOWN!"

She also enjoyed the toddler playground area. They had a rolling slide that she thought was particularly fantastic. I failed to snap a shot of that one, much to her dismay.

She is pretty lucky to have such a great daddy!



No one on the East Coast understands OU football

This past weekend we were so lucky to be able to travel to New York City to visit some of our friends from college. It was fun because we were watching the OU game together. Our friend Mitch thought it would be fun to have a "No one on the east coast understands...OU watch party" and our friend Mindy was gracious enough to host it at her apartment. It was special because we hadn't seen each other in probably six years! I feel very old saying that I have good friends that I haven't seen in six years.
It was so wonderful to catch up where we left off and to see how different and at the same time very much the same we all were. We obviously have very different views of the world since we left our small private liberal arts bubble to see the world. And yet, deep down we are still the same people. That is comforting to me. It was nice to have a taste of home when we are so far away! I hope to get to cultivate these relationships more while we are here!

Water Dog

Max, our Yellow Lab, loves the water. He is also the kind of dog that will do aything to please his owners. We feel pretty sorry for our dogs right now because we moved from a single family house in Kansas with a big backyard to the first floor of a multi family home with a sliver of a backyard that is not fenced. We are pretty lucky because we have this awesome park that is not far away with a lake that you can hike around. We did learn that hiking with a three year old, a large Lab and a fairly naughty little Cavalier is quite a lot of work. We were all ready for a break at one point so we stopped and let Max practice his retrieving. He is acutally very good and loves to do it!

After every good dip in the water it is really fun to shake and get everyone within a ten foot radius wet. I think he does it on purpose.

This is Max on the top of the huge hill that looks out over New Haven. If you notice, there is a small strip of blue in between the sky and the trees behind him. That would be the ocean. Yup, we are that close!

And here is Stanley walking Ella in the trees.

He likes to run away, so he rarely gets to be off leash, even when there aren't other dogs around. Ella is getting to the point where she really loves "helping" to walk Stanley. She is pretty good at it most of the time, except when she has a three year old moment and gets distracted, drops the leash and Stanley runs away anyways. She has also started calling him Stan which is really funny to me for some reason.

All the Pretty Little Horses

The fabulous thing about living in Connecticut is that there are so many fun things for kids to do. There is this little farm close by that has pony rides on Wednesday afternoons for kids. Ella and I went with one of the playgroups that we met. She LOVED it. She has always loved animals and she really enjoyed being able to ride and feed the horses. Sorry that the pictures aren't great. It's kind of hard to get good pictures when you are trying to make sure your three year old isn't falling off of a horse!

As always, Ella demonstrated her impeccable fashion sense. Everyone loved her pink boots! It's crazy to think that last Wednesday she was wearing a sleeveless dress and this week we are wearing sweatshirts.

This girl was pretty upset when we had to leave the horses. Maybe someday we can have a horse that she can take care of and ride!

The Long and Winding Road

I promise, we really did move to Connecticut. Here's a little pictorial diary of our journey from the Midwest to New England.

This is what you do when you have packed most of your belongings and sent them ahead of you. You pack your car with everything left that will fit inside and on the top! It was so sticky and humid outside that my camera lens kept fogging up.

Poor boys! I was so concerned that they were going to die because they didn't have enough air and because they had to stay in their kennel for so long. Turns out they were getting plenty of air and were probably more comfortable than we were. They love their kennel!

So I missed the real Welcome to Missouri sign because I was talking to Matt on the phone. This is from the Welcome Center outside of St. Louis.

This sign was particularly cool. It was on the top of an arch covering the road. It was dark and we were both at the point of delirium by this time, so I didn't get a great picture. I promise it was cool though.

Here's a shout out to all my friends that are fans of The Office. We thought about going to Scranton, and then we thought, hey that's a ways away and there's nothing really IN Scranton, so we just kept driving.

There is New York, across the bridge. It is so close! I LOVE NYC!! It is one of my favorite places! I am hoping to take a day trip or two before I can't travel anymore.

We're almost there!!

We made it!

Here's Matt and me at Pepe's Pizza. I forgive him for making me miss the Missouri sign because I like him so much and he drove all the way up from Maryland to welcome us to the East Coast!