Look what I made

It took three tries, but I finally made a successful loaf of sourdough bread. And it was so good! The kids loved it. And, now that I have the starter figured out, it is super easy to make.

A Ross Funny

Tonight while I was doing Reid's speech homework with him, Hannah took Ross into his room, tucked him in and read him a book. She is so good with the little ones and I thought it was super sweet that she wanted to help out. Now, Ross normally is a disaster to get to bed, though we've been working on it a lot lately and things are dramatically better than they were a month ago. Anyway, Hannah came out of the boys room, turned their light off and we didn't hear much of anything from Ross. Not wanting to mess a good thing up, I stayed out. After a bit, Reid was ready to go to bed, so we quietly tip-toed in. Ross was half sitting up in his bed with his finger firmly lodged in his nose. He didn't move when we came in, but announced loudly, "pick my nose". Yes, Ross, I can see that...

A few pictures from our Christmas

I, unfortunately, didn't get a lot of good photos of our Christmas celebrations this year. Here are just a few, however, showing some of the highlights.

We decorated Christmas cookies last Monday. Hannah & I made the cookies on Sunday. I tried to include the boys in the rolling and cutting out of the cookie dough, but that was a disaster. After I had re-rolled the same dough 5 times without so much as a single cookie to show for it, I booted them from the kitchen. We did, however, have a lot of fun decorating them on Monday. Reid and Ross thoroughly enjoyed the process. Ross was a hoot. He was mostly interested in eating the frosting. For whatever reason, he would put the frosting on a cookie, then set the cookie on the counter and lean over and lick the frosting off.

My Aunt Deb & Uncle Thomas sent this dinosaur costume for the boys. Isn't it cute? Ross wanted to wear it, but didn't want the hat on his head. Hence the reason Hannah is in the background of the photo, trying to keep it on. He kept nodding his head trying to get it off (not using his hands for whatever reason). The effect was quite comical -- he looked like a head banging dinosaur!

And here is little Lucy showing off her new Christmas outfit from Aunt Valerie & Uncle Steve.

Guess what is special about this bow?

Besides the little girl who is wearing it. I made this one. Isn't it cute?

It comes just the same...

This morning I woke up pondering how we could possibly celebrate Christmas without Jeremy here. I’ve been up since 4:00, so I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. And this quote, which is one of my favorites, came to mind:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. " -- Dr. Seuss

I realized that, no matter how noble the thought, Christmas isn’t about family. Nor is it about parties, food, cards, gifts, or any of the other trappings of the season. It is about the birth of our Savior. And it will come, even if my husband is in Iraq. And it has just as much meaning, even if Jeremy does miss Lucy’s first Christmas. Yes, I wish Jeremy was here to share this with us, but he is not and it makes no difference to Christmas. It comes just the same. And what a blessing that is. Regardless of our personal struggles, Christmas will come each year, reminding us that hope came to us in the form of a little baby. So, this Christmas, I have hope that God will see me through this deployment and help me keep perspective on what Christmas is about. After all, this isn't our birthday (see, John & Betty, I was listening at church on Sunday) -- we are celebrating Christ's birthday. I can praise God for his gift here and Jeremy can praise God for his gift in Iraq. And all the other stuff really doesn't matter.

My latest knitting project and my pokey little puppy.

I'm impatiently waiting for my parents to arrive here tonight with Hannah. It has been too long since I've seen her and I just cannot wait for her to get here. So, to bide the time, I thought I would update here.

Last weekend I FINALLY finished the hat that I started knitting for Ross two months ago. I had to get it done, because his old hat just did not fit him anymore. (On a side note, it hasn't been cool enough for him to need it since I finished it -- go figure. It was in the 70's today.) He is too stinking cute in this thing! I love that the tassels sway back and forth when he runs around. And they are really easy to knit -- an excellent 1st hat for a beginning knitter. You just knit in the round enough stitches to fit around the head and until it is long enough and then do a double bind off. It is seriously simple, but oh so cute!

And what is Ross so intently playing with in these pictures? Scraps of the yarn from the hat. He and Reid repeatedly "decorated" the tree with the scraps. In fact, I think I got a good four hours (yes FOUR hours) of entertainment for the boys out of the scrap yarn over the course of about 2 days.

And about my pokey little puppy...that would be Ross. I'm calling him this because the book The Pokey Little Puppy is the only place I have ever heard rice pudding referenced. On a whim a few weeks ago I made a batch of rice pudding. I've never had it in my life. It was really quite simple and oh so good. Ross LOVED it! He polished off two bowl fulls at dinner the night I made and managed to not get a single drop on his bib or face -- he wasn't about to waste this stuff. Grandma B. made some a week later and he was all over it again. So, tonight I made another batch for him. He'll be pleasantly surprised tomorrow when he finds out that is on the menu for dessert. Interestingly, Reid won't touch the stuff.

One down...

So, as of Wednesday, Jeremy was deployed for one month. Only 5 more to go until R&R (I can't bring myself to think of an entire year like this, so I'm choosing to focus on just making it to R&R). It has been, without a doubt, the longest month of my life. I will say, however, that in the last week things have gotten a bit easier. We're in a routine now. The weekends really suck, though. That was when Jeremy was home the most and we went and did things. Evenings really bothered me at first, too, but I seem to have adjusted to those. Hopefully the weekends will get easier as time goes by.

So, one of my coping mechanisms has been to work out a lot. I run my elliptical at least 6 days a week and try to do arms (push-ups and tricep dips) and abs every day. I'm planning on picking up a set of barbells soon so that I can start doing the weight lifting that I used to go to a class for. This works for me for two reasons:

1. I'm physically tired at the end of the day and fall asleep easier.
2. Makes me feel better physically and releases lots of those good endorphins, so I just feel better on a whole.

As a result, I have lost 7 pounds since Jeremy left. My pants are all getting baggy. My abdominals are in the best shape they have ever been in (now I just need to get rid of the little bit of padding left over from my pregnancy that is covering them up). When I get to 10 pounds lost I get to go sky diving (although, I'm don't want to go until it warms up a bit)! I'm definitely looking forward to that!

So, here I go, keeping on keeping busy!