i have a 4 year old!

On this day in 2007 my life was about to change, I was about to go from a single (well, i was a wife) human being to a mom, I was about to fall in love instantaneously, I was about to understand the concept of unconditional love, I was about to meet Hunter Micah. 
My water broke at 6pm on march 23rd, 2007. we made it to the hospital about by about 730pm and i was hooked up and ready to go by 8. I was starving. we had planned for some friends to come over for dinner but instead they brought justin supper to the hospital. I was surrounded by justin, caitlyn (my sister), carrie (justin's sister), sherri (justins mom), ashley (my bestie who drove down from dallas after my water broke), ricky (justins dad), jen and jordan (our friends) and my mom via phone (yes she stayed on the phone all night long i think). I was having excruciating siatic nerve pain, despite the epidural, began to itch due to the epidural and was given some benadryl so i promptly passed out and the evening passed uneventfully. I was checked by the doctor about 230am and was ready to go. I pushed for 2.5 hours with no luck, hunter was stuck. I opted to forgo forceps or vacuum and agreed to have the c-section. By this point i was exhausted, my bp was falling and hunters heart rate was rising. I was wheeled down to the OR, and at 6:33am on March 24, 2007 I heard the sweet sound of my baby boy screaming. I was very out of it and while i remember justin showing him to me, i dont remember really seeing him until the recovery room. I had a difficult c-section, i lost a lot of blood and had a very low bp and very fast heart rate throughout the entire procedure. however, any pain i was in meant nothing when i first held and nursed my 8lb (i dont remember how many oz!) hunter. I was in love. madly in love. hoplessly in love.





Tomorrow my baby turns 4. I am having a hard time with this birthday because 4 year olds are old, they are not babies, they are not toddlers, they are almost school age kids. His clothes are now just size 4, no longer measured in months of age or even with the toddler "T" after it. He talks like crazy, he understands concepts, he knows when he is making a good or bad decision, he can write his name, he can count to 20, he can read a couple of site words, he tells jokes, he can tell me what he wants to eat for supper, he runs, he jumps, he sings, he yells, he gets angry, he gets sad, he is usually overjoyed and full of zest for life, he is my sweet boy who loves his brother, and adores his dad. He is my Hunter Micah, he is my son, and i only thought i loved him then.

things could be worse...

It was 11:03 this morning, the boys and I were just hopping on I-35 for a quick 90 mile drive to Waco to meet our favorite Ashley at the Cameron Park Zoo. The trip began in the most uneventful way with me reminding Justin to keep his phone handy in case I had car trouble, then I kissed his goodbye and we were off. I noticed traffic was heavier than normal but attributed it to spring break traffic (most texas schools are back in session tomorrow) and the hoards of people leaving austin after sxsw. We made it about 40 miles (time is now about 11:45) and came upon a wall of stopped cars, traffic was crawling along at about 5-8 mph, not the end of the world as accidents on this particular stretch of I-35 are not uncommon...it was just going to make us late to the zoo. About 30 minutes into sitting in non-moving traffic (time is now 12:15)i noticed the a/c wasnt kicking out much cool air, but i thought "hmmmm, must need to be charged. ill tell justin when we get home." again not too bad as it was a beautiful 70 degrees with a nice breeze. However, a few minutes later (about 12;25) i realize the temperture gauge in the car was rapidly approaching the red region (we live in Texas and it had never done this even in the heat of summer) and then suddenly SMOKE WAS POURING OUT FROM UNDER THE HOOD!!! (*NOTE:remember we are in bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of nowhere and i am in the middle lane). well, the nice thing about a smoking car in traffic is that people move out of your way rather quickly, so i managed to rush over the the outside shoulder lane, slam the car into park and turn it off before the boys and i explode. after a moment of me panicing i calm down and attempt to call justin. notice the word attempt and remember we are in the middle of nowhere...the calls do not go through, i do not have enough signal to make the call and my texts were not going through either. awesome. fortunately, we are right next to a rest station so worst case scenerio i walk with the boys to the rest stop. finally, after about 80 attempts the call to justin goes through.(time: 12:40) i tell him the car is overheating, he asks me what kind of smoke or was it steam? i have no idea, but he reassures me that the car is not going to explode and that it is safe to go across the grass median to the rest stop, he says he will head my direction. (remember i am 40 miles away from home and traffic is STOPPED for miles behind me). I get ahold of ash and tell her the bad news that we are not going to make it to waco, bad news for her is that she is just arriving in waco. after much discussion we decide its better for her just to head back home as she would be stuck in the same traffic trying to get back home. now the boys and i are in a jam packed rest stop and we are going to be there a while, so we decide to get out, go to the bathroom and then luckily there is a playground at this rest area so the boys run off some energy. we play until about 1:45 and then grab a vending machine snack and head back to the car. Just before 2 justin texts me and says he is at a dead stop about 10 miles behind me. at 2 i realize no cars are coming north on i-35, for some reason between he and i it is shut down. are you kidding me. at 2:30 hunter has to tinkle again so we et back out of the car and go back into the bathrooms and decide to play some more since its better than being in the car. at 2:40 judah barfs. (no worries, i dont think he was sick he had the hiccups and i think his drink of water went down as he was hiccupping and it just came back out). here are a few pictures from the playground...

The boys showing me their pears. and no, pears werent vending machine quality we had brought them for a snack at the zoo.

Hunter, who refused to look at the camera, was pretending to be the starbucks man. and i quote, "maam, would you like a grande latte?"

Notice how we are the only souls around? this is during the time when the hwy was shut down and so everyone left. not us, we waited.

isnt he too cute for words? notice the scratch on his nose, yeah that happened here too...

Finally, at 2:50 cars begin passing by...northbound lanes are open! and about 3:10 I see my prince charming rolling into the rest stop on his giant red stallion (aka: the truck). he opens the door and he doesnt have roses but he has 2 containers of engine coolant! he is my hero. Justin does some investigation under the hood, dumps the coolant in, turn the saturn on and lets it idle for a while to make sure that was the only problem. it was. so, at about 3:20 we enter the line of cars attempting to get back into the traffic that has backed up once again and hope that the car doesnt once again overheat. we drive through the median onto an access road that will bring us up to the next overpass so we can turn around and head back home. as we are flying down southbound i-35 i notice that northbound traffic does not let up for over 15 miles and even after that it is not going over 50 mph all the way home. i looked once we got home, at 4:10, to see if there was some major accident (i had heard from someone at the rest stop that at 18 wheeler had flipped) and i didnt find anything online, so i think it was probably a combination of an accident and just a massive number of people tyring to go north on the one road available...ih-35. so all in all it was a tragedy that we didnt make it to the zoo and didnt get to hang out with ash but here are the not so terrible things about our overheated saturn adventure:

1. we were 40 not 100 miles from justin

2. it happened only a couple hundred yards from a giant,  nice rest stop that had indoor bathrooms, vending machines and a playground

3. i had cash on me to use the vending machines

4. it was a lovely, breezy 70 degrees not a stiffling 110 degrees.

5. my cell phone didnt die despite the mulitple phone call attempts in a roaming zone (normally this zaps the battery)

6. a man was playing an accordian and he entertained the boys fora good 10 minutes.

7. despite it being the middle of normal nap time and the fact they didnt really have lunch, the boys did awesome.

i was reminded that things could always be worse and while i dont reccommend spending 2.5 hours at a rest stop with a 2 and 4 year old during the middle of what should be nap times...well, it was better than spending 2.5 hours in the car, with no a/c in the middle of summer with a 2 and 4 year old.

count your blessings friends. 

super hero photoshoot

Hunter: "Ok mom, you pretend that you are the bad guy and you are trying to capture Judah and I am the super hero who will rescue him and put you in jail."
Me: "Ok. Hey Hunter, whats your super hero name?"
Hunter: "Flyman of course because I am the most awesomest flier in the world."

Here is hunter flying:

Love this face

Once hunter began his flying practice (see photo above on swing) judah wanted to join in.

Then Hunter found a stick, broke it in half, pretended they were like numchucks and then decided to be a reindeer...

Now, we had been playing in the backyard for about 30 minutes at this point when Judah decided he wanted to "help" me take a picture of us...

Then he wanted to take a picture of himself, by himself...

Then I recieved a call from work and the boys did a lovely photo shoot...Hunter opted to take pictures of the yard and he was extra proud of these two shots...

This is looking through a hole in the fence...not bad for a 4 year old.

And when it was judah's turn again, he decided that pictures of himself was the way to go.

I love them. I just love them. Oh, and in other news...we are about 2 signatures away from officially buying a house :)



nightly routine

Each night the boys have their own routines...
Judah likes me to sing "Jesus loves Judah" and then he asks Jesus to make him not scared of monsters. He likes to hug, give kisses (mostly nose kisses), tell me that he loves everybody (followed by, "and everybody loves me!") and just have quality snuggling time. Judah squeezes my neck tightly and says, "I got you mom, I got you always." to which I reply, "I got you Judah, I got you always." and as he laughs about it i am humbled by the incredible simplicity and honesty in the statement. He's got me wrapped around his little fingers and I've got him always. (***note: Judah uses odd phrases such as, "my owie hurts me always" instead of my owie still hurts, or "i hit hunter never" instead of I never hit hunter, or "i drink milk forever" instead of i like milk. etc)
Hunter on the other hand likes to give me the full, very detailed description of his day. It starts with what he ate for breakfast, what he did until lunch, whether or not he took a nap, what he had for snack, what he did in the afternoon until i came home and then he ends it with, "well, then you were here and you know what we did until bed time." here is my best recolection of what he told me today (some words will be spelled phonetically as he says them just for better effect), "well, for brefkast me and judah had the waffles you put in that shiny paper. gigi ran out of srypup so we had cinmon and sugar on them instead. kate had eggs because her mom didnt send a brefkast because she had a sleepover last night. isnt that awesome she had a sleepover last night, why didnt i have a sleep over last night? kate said she slept on the air bed in her sleeping bag, i dont know why she didnt sleep on the play room bed. she didnt sleep in the guest room bed because aunt sharon was at gigis because she needed to pick up her car that was broken and she had eggs for brefkast too. then we went to the park, you know the one with 3 parks, the sprinkler park but the water was turned off because it was pretty cold out still. and kate and i climbed on the big rocks but i didnt go over the crack. well because it was looking a little scary and so i just played on the part that were like stairs and then i jumped off the really high one and kate was pretty brave because she went over the crack and well, judah didnt climb very high but it was pretty good for him because he is still little. and then we ate our leftover chuys in the back of gigis car! and we had to eat in the back of gigis car because gigi was cold, even though she had her sweater on. and kate had a coat on. i didnt think it was awesome though because it had brown and white polka dots and well those are girl colors so i would have liked it if it had been red and blue because those are boy colors and they are my favorite. then we went back to gigis house and i didnt take a nap, i only got out of my bed one time and gigi came in the room and said "woah" and then i got back into bed and stayed quiet until she said i could get up. i just couldnt sleep because i was so excited about eating my apple for snack ya know. then after naps me and kate watched 3 movies, hot wheels, one about polar bears and something else i cant remember, and ate the apple while judah was still sleeping. i ate the peel and kate ate the insides of the apple. then we played outside until you got there mom and well then you were with me so you know what happened until bedtime. so that was my day, how was your day mom?"
whew, he is a chatterbox.dont know where he gets that from :)

I love our nighttime routines because it displays my sons very distinct and different love languages. Judah is a physical touch-he loves to snuggle and feel cozy in your arms. Hunter is quality time-he just wants you to listen, pay attention and be with him while he is doing life. I love the differences in my boys, i love that they both love in different fashions and i love learning how to love them.

Travelling carnival

This evening we ventured out to the travelling carnival down the road from my in laws house. we have attended this carnival a couple of other times and last year hunter loved it. this year both boys got to enjoy the rides, lights and excitment of the carnival!

love this

judah was very nervous when we first got there, the lights, noise, crowds and rides were very overwhelming for him...but after he rode the train with hunter he got over his fears and went nuts. Pardon the terrible quality of these photos but my camera was having trouble with the moving rides, lights and darkness...you'll get the gist.


Hunter on the helicopters



Hunter and Judah (hiding) on he train

gigi and judah laughing on the merry go round :)

The boys LOVED this car ride that whipped them around the turns, they rode it 3 times.

we give up.

1. official counter offer sent from the sellers agent and the bank (home is short sale so they are involved) a mere 7 weeks afterwe put in our offer
2. price officially raised 13,000 dollars and does not include closing costs, any home repairs, or additional misc fees
3. they will not bay the buyers agent (our agent) commission because it says we (the buyer) are realtors. (last we checked we are not realtors)

all in all we give up. this house was a smokin deal at the listed price of 135000, an okay deal at the discussed 144000, still below market value at 148,000...not worth 148,000 plus several thousand dollars in additional fees.

so, off we go back to square one. buying a house sucks.

Breck.

I moved from Denver to Waco on August 14, 2004 and on October 10, 2004 I became a mom...to a four legged, black and brown puppy. I picked her out on a Saturday and had to wait until Wednesday before I could bring her home, I visited her each day in between so that she would know me before I took her away from her litter mates. She was 2.8 lbs and could fit into the palm of my hand. The humane society people said she was a catahoula (we'd later find out she is some sort of doberman mix) and would maybe be 25 pounds full grown. i loved her from the moment i saw her. she has one floppy ear, a tongue that sticks out the side of her mouth when she pants, a tail that is too long for her body, and an incessent need to lick. She sleeps under the covers, right up next to me with her head on my pillow. she lays on the rug in the bathroom while i a in the shower. She follows me around the house when i am doing chores. she is my true companion, my first baby, my security system and my 55 pound lap dog. She is my Breck.
Here she is the day I fell in love...

Here she is at her puppy preschool graduation (about 8 months old)

Here she is just the other day...

Me and my breck.

Breck and I have been together for almost 7 years, and as she nears her 7th birthday I am noticing slight changes in her. She isn't so fast to get up anymore, she doesnt want to play ball as long, she likes to take longer naps, she is content with more snuggling and less playing. her hair around her chin has started to turn white, but she is still my baby. she will always be my first baby.

down, deflated, depressed, dissatisfied...

we have no word on the house yet. we have no faith that the sellers agent is providing honest information he has recieved from the bank. we have no date to where we are guarenteed to hear something. we may abandon the ship on this one because of the amount of time it is taking to move forward. we are not happy wannabe home owners. it really stinks when you want to be out of your current living situation asap, you have the pre-approval, the down payment, etc and you are the one who loses because of the housing market disaster area.
grr.

love is in the air...

*disclaimer: sappy post.*

On this day in 2003 I blindly began a journey down an unknown road with a 19 year old boy named Justin. this is the condensed version of our story and how we came to be...

My first memory of Justin was during the first week of class in August 2002, my roommate (Mel) and I took a shortcut through his apartment and stopped to say hi. this was a justifiable act as anyone at CCU who has a bottom floor apartment could expect a person to knock on the door and wander through to the back sidewalk, additionally Mel and Justin had a class together so we at least "knew" the 4 guys who lived there. We opened the door and Justin was building a TV stand, not putting togethe a TV stand he was actually constructing it from various hardware items and I vividly remember asking him, "why dont you just go buy a tv stand instead of build one?" ha, clearly i did not know him at all. he has said that he too remembers this encounter and was not exactly knocked off his feet by me...mostly because i dared to ask why he would buy something when he could build it. needless to say, it was not love at first sight :)
over the course of the next few weeks/months we began to get to know each other as his group of guy friends and my group of girlfriends became one large group of friends. i remember thinking he was an interesting guy, so not my type who always had a story to tell and was easy to just hang out with.
Justin has said that he also remembers one of the first times he came to our apartment i came barelling in the door saying something like, "wow, i could sure go for some apricot tea" as i wandered to my room. why he found this random statement of mine as intriguing, i will never know... :)
When it came time for winter break i would say that justin and i were friends, nothing more and nothing less. however, we did exchange AIM screen names before going our seperate ways for Christmas so that we could keep in touch via instant messanger over the long holiday. i will never forget that he was colorado95zj.
We chatted a couple of times over the break via AIM and he would tell me how warm it was in Texas and how excited he was to eat at this place called chuys because they have this dip called creamy jalapeno...my thoughts on that: gross, i didnt even really like mexican food at the time. but i was starting to become more interested in the boy who liked this so called creamy jalapeno sauce...
when we returned for spring semester in january 2003 the dynamic of our group changed slightly and justin and i found ourselves hanging out more often, spending more time just the two of us and i found myself really enjoying those times.
In Feb 2003 i knew that there was something about justin, i didnt just want to be his friend any more but i wanted to wait for the right timing and didnt want to jump into a relationship too soon (lets be serious here we were 18 and 19 years old).
however, neither of us consider patience to be one of our better virtures so on march 1st, 2003 justin sat in my apartment with me and said somtheting like this, "rachael, when people think of you i want them to think of us." to which i replied, "ok, sounds great" and the rest is history.
we found out later from some of justins guy friends that they bet we would last 1 month, now here we are 8 years later. it has been a long, hard, trying, adventursome, interesting, thrilling, loving journey that we have travelled but we've lived to talk about it and more importantly we have done it together.
i am so blessed to have this now 27 year old man as a husband, father of my sons and best friend. i started to fall in love on this day in 2003 and on this day in 2011 i am still falling in love.

here is us at chuys on spring break about 2.5 weeks after we started dating. the same chuys we still frequently dine at (the boys love this giant fish). i had scanned a bunch of other pictures from the 2002-2003 time frame but i am technically inept and couldnt figure out how to get them from the pdf version into this blog. not sure how this one worked but none of the others did...oh well.