i gots lotsa leftovers

currently i have 26 items checked out at the library, 20 on reserve and 1 ready for pickup. it is good stuff.
thanksgiving was good but of course i didn't take any pictures. really gotta start just throwing my camera in my purse.
we went to colin's parents house first. jared's girlfriend was with us and she's pretty amazing. and the priors were there, friends of the family [whom i love partly because they have sweet new zealand accents, but mostly because they are just pretty awesome people]...
we played a cool 'game' that beth had just explained to me on the phone- everyone takes a piece of paper and writes a random phrase [i.e. the easter bunny scared the children.] then you pass your paper to the person next to you and they draw a picture of what the phrase is saying. then you pass it on and the next person writes a phrase describing what the picture is- but you keep folding the paper so the person can only see a phrase or a picture. you keep it going pretty quickly and we just stopped when we got to the end of a piece of paper. this all sounds random but it's pretty hilarious. it's funny to see how a phrase evolves and becomes something so different. it was fun with colin's family because they are seriously so artistic they can actually draw something completely random and have their picture be understood. i loved coming up with random lines. colin was next to me and he would pass these crazy pictures- i remember writing-'the bandana-crotch man protested his shackles' and 'the sexy pig came onto the indifferent chicken' i also got the phrase from colin's dad 'a viagra nightmare' what the heck was i supposed to draw?! i can't draw at all, in the least. anyway. fun, easy game. will play again.
we then went to my sister's house for thanksgiving #2. it was nice to have it at her house. i thought surely i'd be too full to eat anything but i before i knew what was happening i ate two plates at her house.. good stuff! we had a 'kid's table' set up for emily and saylor and emily's cousin jack. saylor was only one who wasn't too sure of it, but i was loving it. i can't believe i have a boy who is sitting at a kid's table. i still feel like i should be sitting at the kid's table.
yesterday we had thanksgiving #3 with my dad's side of the family. saylor randomly did not really get a nap in [he just talked and played in his crib for an hour and a half and we couldn't wait any longer] so he was kind of out of sorts. but he loved luke and sam- the two big doggies. and he loved playing with his cousin leilani [she is four and she just pulls him around and he happily follows]. my step-brothers worked very hard at winning him over and i think brian had the most success pretending to be the count from sesame street. we finally had to leave when saylor couldn't keep it together any longer, he fell asleep 5 minutes into our ride home and i put him to bed as soon as we got home-at 6:20! haha.
i was thankful to have colin here this year because he wasn't home for thanksgiving last year. but i actually totally forgot that until colin said something about it. it's funny how the years blur together.
i think the best part of the week was my friends heather and christina getting engaged! [i mean, not to each other]. heather and christina live together and both knew at some point they would be getting engaged. the funny thing was their men going to buy the ring and arriving at the same jewelry store, at the same time! we all found that pretty funny. so nick proposed tuesday night and seth proposed wednesday morning. SO happy for all of them, can't even explain my heart feelings. they are all four amazing people and we are so beyond excited for them. thank you lord!
alright i have a couple random phone pictures of saylor and leilani...

broken

on tuesday we lost a loved one. i grew up surrounded by people i've known since birth. our mom's were pregnant together and we all grew up in church together. on tuesday teena, mother of cabot, jessie and nicole passed away suddenly from a blood clot in her lung. i don't get it. the pain and the shock is doubled because their amazing father died in a motorcycle accident just two years ago. the pain of losing him was so intense. and now..this week..these were wonderful people who loved Jesus and fiercely loved their friends and family. i don't want to write every detail,i don't want to exploit their situation. but it's just one of those times where you just want to be mad at God. WHY why would you allow this Lord. they need their mother.it just doesn't make sense. and i know not much makes sense in this life... and i know tragedy hits us all.... i'm just tired of seeing things like this happen. it hurts. and it make me anxious and it really makes it hard for me to trust that the Lord wants good for us. that's always been hard for me to believe or to pray about. (reading 'the shack' really hit me in a personal way regarding those feelings).
services this weekend, prayers are appreciated. especially for the kids, their family. the holidays are going to be hard.i know the ache i feel is 1000 times more severe for them. please pray that they would somehow feel Jesus in this. and that they will lean on him. i don't think they could process this otherwise...

rockin' the thriftin'

a few of us ladies hit up ohio thrift this morning. i haven't gone thrifting in awhile and was doubting my ability to find anything. i was fortunately with some people that seriously knew what they were doing, and i scored a jacket, tee, and a fantastic purse just because they held it up to me. and i grabbed. i don't always trust myself to find those sweet finds that people manage to find... but this store was great, chock full of amazing things. i am quite excited about my suitcase

three dollars! it's in perfect condition too. and i love these sailboat earrings too

we just got home from a friend's house and put saylor down for bed at a record late time of 10 pm. when he was a baby he slept everywhere. on people's floors, beds and then packnplays and cribs. when he started refusing to do that we often just put him to bed at one of our parent's house and then went out. now we are excited that occasionally we can just keep him up late. there was a couple other toddlers there to keep him company and he was perfect! i am so proud of him. part of me is like crap he needs to be in bed! and the other part was in awe of how well he played and behaved. and fortunately for us he still loves bedtime. so we put his jammies on before we left then when we got home we kissed him and rocked him for about 15 seconds then lay him down! aaaah i love him. we will see when he wakes up.... the past few days he has been back to his waking up happy around 8ish playing and i've been able to keep him in there until close to 9. yay... i am not even going to think about how things will change when we move him into a bed....gonna use that crib as long as he'll stand it.
i am SO in love with christmas music. it brings me a ridiculous amount of peace and comfort. i also feel a stupid amount of comfort from the red starbucks cups.
other things i'm loving this week- saylor happily going to the nursery tonight!!!, $1.69 gas, 30 rock, my husband's art he's been working on, gilmore girls, sweatpants...AND this website i found [through relevant mag]- swaptree.com. it's great! any books, movies, cd's or games you own and are willing to trade? this is a trading website. you pay shipping and that's it. you tell them what you have and thousands of options pop up that you can trade for! i am all about it.

am i an overreacter?

i really try to be calm and not spaz- like if i bang my foot and it's searing pain i try to remain silent or if i break a glass i laugh instead of curse...in general i try to be this way... i think? and in general i think i am pretty chill with my son. se la vie, so be it, ah he's gonna get dirty anyway, so what if the popsicle drips all over him.
on the other hand. i think i have overreacted when he is sick. when he was a brand new baby we trekked him to the doctor one time because his nose was stuffy...and another time because of a rash. that all babies get but i swear his was 'really bad'. i totally don't feel like i'm one of those moms, but maybe i am!? i don't freak out or get all nervous, but i do feel like i may as well have someone else look at it and tell me what they think.
when he was six months old he started this weird head shaking tic thing. it was very scary-sortof looked like a seizure. and we took him to the emergency room and all the doctors saw it and were intrigued but not too concerned-but were trying to watch their backs as they weren't entirely sure. so he had a cat-scan AND an overnight stay at children's that included a late night EKG. AND an MRI. we were nervous parents and crazy thankful that we could say it was 'nothing'. yet embarrassed at the same time in a weird way. now if a doctor sees it on his charts i have to explain, no it was just a weird tic thing,mumble mumble.
this past summer colin's mom was going down the slide with him and his foot twisted back. he cried and cried and his foot swelled and was bruised. he was ok but he wouldn't walk. so of course we go to the doctor for x-rays. they don't find anything so we keep waiting and he still isn't walking. the doctor wants to see him again and realizes the x-rays weren't thorough enough. more x-rays! he is ok. the boy didn't walk for TWO weeks. i can't explain how weird that is. in a way it was easier to watch him. he was totally at the run-every-which-way-and-must-touch-everything-age so it was weird/funny to go to a friends house or starbucks and just have him sit patiently and play. but it was sad too and when he started walking again he was wobbly and limping for awhile!
back to what i'm saying. do i overdo the doctor thing? there have been other appts. for an ear infection and fevers as well... this morning saylor woke up at 5:45am crying and screaming. he had a little fever last week and still has a runny nose and cough. colin wasn't home and i could not console saylor. he wasn't out of it-rock me to sleep mama-he was in pain. he was crying nonstop for over an hour.and as i had planned to have ella today i didn't want to wait and make a doctor appointment, plus his doctor is a good half hour away. so i headed to ER again [about 5 minutes away]. fortunately i got in immediately. fortunately the doctors loved him [and were loving his name, a-thankyou]. fortunately they couldn't find anything significant, he is fine. again i feel a little silly. but i guess i err on the safe side. but i'm sure with subsequent children i will do this less.
poor saylor's throat is sore we think that's why he was crying so much. it's hard because he tries to tell me but much of his 'talking' isn't coherent yet. pointing at the throat a lot got the point across.
YAY for-
christmas music! hot apple cider! scarves! blankets! soup! christmas music!!!
this is one of my favorite 'songs'. it is my ringtone on one of my friend's phones.

also i love puppets. a lot.

sleep less, stack more,buy an ornament

ever since our pennsylvania trip, saylor has been sleeping less. i can't complain as before he was sleeping more than the average toddler his age [13-14 during the night, plus a 2-4 hour nap!] the other huge difference is he used to wake up and play for awhile in his crib. so we'd hear him around 8:30 or so but could easily leave him in there till 9 as he was just laughing and talking to his stuffed animals. now he wakes up whining. althooo a couple weeks ago he was waking up screaming and now it's just quiet whining. i think that's progress. and the wakeup times are around 7:15. [keeping in mind we put him down at about 7. sometimes even 6:50 or so! so he's still sleeping 12+ hours] and his naps around about hour and 45 minutes [although the one time he was sleeping longer than two hours i had to wake him up to go somewhere! are you kidding.] but again i think he is starting to nap longer as when we first got home his naps were only an hour or so. i know this isn't interesting but i like to have it noted and i know with the next kid i'm going to wonder 'how did saylor sleep at this age?' not that i'm pregnant now! i do keep talking about the 2nd child, but the little hamster does not exist yet. colin keeps saying he wants a second one now and he's just waiting for my ok.... so ya i'm thinking about it more! but not ready just yet.
anyhow i kept hoping saylor would fall back into his old fantastic sleep schedule when colin came home. but then we had the time change, and then he got sick, so there are all sorts of things against us. so we will see...
i am doing something called the great ornament exchange. you know you wanna get in on this! click the box and join the party!

saylor loves to stack! here's a couple pictures but it doesn't do it justice because he can stack twice as high. i love finding little towers, he stacked candles the other day, with a car on top of course.

amusing..to me

nice as my phone is, it can't hold a lot of texts and my inbox is constantly '100% full'.... threatening me, forcing me to erase, erase...so here are a couple ones that i always laugh at and couldn't bear to erase... maybe if i've got it written down somewhere i'll get the nerve.

from colin in june,while hoh was at a show- he is quoting stephen baldwin
best quote so far...'are you guys stoked about this ministry or what? cuz if not, i may have to slay your ass in the spirit'

from beth in august
my husband just bought BRIGHT RED LOAFERS. they look like they are womans shoes from talbots for crying out loud. he got them so he could wear them WITH SHORTS...WITHOUT SOCKS. and he is NOT JOKING. we are currently not speaking

from colin in august,while hoh was at a show in chicago
so we pull up to the venue and aj says 'this area looks sweet, i bet there's some cool stuff on this street'. 2 seconds later we look down the road and there's a store called 'Cool Stuff'

and this one from jayme talking about how she waited in line for 7 hours! to vote
yah,to top if off, me n john got stuck in line with a crazy cat lady showing us pics of her 3 legged cat and tried to get us into a pyramid scheme selling bracelets that heal the body thru holograms. and she also asked me to come to our wedding and she'll do my makeup cuz shes also a mary kay rep. was a long day!

only she would end up in a line next to a crazy bracelet hologram mary kay 3 legged cat lady. haha! these all may very well only be amusing to me, but that's ok. i feel free to delete them from my phone now.

last night colin and i went to dinner at Alana's, a recommendation from friends of ours. fantastic! i can't even adequately explain the vibe and the food but i think all my columbus friends should check it out. [its at 2333 north high st right next door to the taj mahal restaurant]. it's intimate yet casual in a way, alana herself walks around handing out samples..the menu changes weekly,often daily. [i just went to their website and she has a new menu up from last night] which makes it hard because you want to try everything on the menu! we spent over two hours there and a lot of money on some crazy deliciousness.colin and i have been wading the waters of vegetarian...ism. we haven't had meat for awhile, but we did have some last night! [we are mostly staying away from meat that isn't organic and that is processed and full of...crap. we knew alana's meat would be quality] one of my favorite things we tried was this chicken basteeya- dark meat chicken in phyllo sprinkled with powdered sugar with like...cumin and cinnamon, i don't even know but it was like a chicken dessert. i don't even like dark meat and i have never tasted something so luscious...and an extensive wine list to boot. yum!!
i am glad the election drama is over! i am nervous about how these next years will play out as i did not vote for obama, but i do celebrate that we have a half african american president. half, 1/8, black, mixed, whatever- he is handsome there's no denying that! much more that is thought about but at the end of the day [and the beginning and in between] i serve christ alone so there's peace in that.

happy november

i'm really not a big music person.well i love music but i don't exactly seek it out. i don't own cds or an ipod, i'm never on itunes.colin is always playing amazing music in our house and i listen to it and there are some musicians/bands that i absolutely love. but i am particular....so it is a huge compliment [from me] if a band house of heroes is touring with captures my attention. i usually don't even stay in the room to listen to them play, unless they are friends of ours...but i have really enjoyed watching LUDO perform this month.it is i think the 3rd band that has really made me stop and go waaaait. this is fun! [other two being family force 5 and love arcade- of course.these bands are all gimmicky in a way.they dance, they dress up.. i like]. i think it says alot if you keep wanting to watch even though you've never heard the songs before.and even if you saw the same set the night before..
here is the ludo music video of the one song in particular that i like-

i LOVE it! the lyrics are seriously brilliant. this song could be in a musical.watch this video and try to not get it in your head.
looking forward to voting, then colin coming home, then on wednesday is our 4 year anniversary! [go us!]
there are a couple little side streets i pass on the way to my mom's house that amuse me every time i notice them... first being stoner alley. stoner alley! and the second houghoon alley. now how does one pronounce that?!