the sluders

In Honor of the Royal Wedding

2011-04-30T08:46:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know. I'm so behind. But this "royal couple" was too cute not to share. They're even riding around in a convertible. The funny thing is that there was a wedding taking place on the other side of the lake, and Daniel was convinced it was the real royal wedding.

Milestone

2011-01-25T23:37:00.000-05:00

We had a big milestone in our family yesterday. Literally, a MILE-stone! Finally, after 12 long years, my old Ford Explorer turned 100,000 miles! I bought that truck in January 2002 with 18,000 miles on it, and it has taken another 9 years to put on the next 80,000. What's so amazing is that this truck has actually seen the entire expanse of the United States. I drove it one summer from Texas to California and back, up to Wisconsin when we moved there, here to live in the Carolinas, and I think we might have driven it on one of our trips to Disney World (don't quote me on that). Still, this car has been around the block for one that has taken so long to hit 100k.

That poor truck has been through the ringer. Within a few months of buying it, it was side-swiped in a hit and run outside the house where I lived in Dallas. I never did get it fixed, so it's had the same long, flat dent for 9 years. About 6 months after that, it was broken into outside my seminary apartment and had the stereo stolen. And another 6 months after that, some thugs literally cut off the side view mirrors while it was parked outside "ghetto apartment." If you don't know about ghetto apartment, just ask me about it sometime. It's quite a story.

For awhile now, I've thought it was funny that my least favorite car is the one I've kept the longest. It has been surprisingly reliable, and since Mark started driving it almost 2 years ago when we got rid of his, he swears he will drive it for the next 10 years, if possible. As long as I keep getting the new cars, that's fine by me!

I have a new blog!

2011-01-19T19:22:00.001-05:00

"The Sluders" blog isn't going anywhere, but I've started a new blog chronicling a cooking journey I'm embarking on this year. It's based on the new Rachael Ray show, "Week in a Day," which allows you to do most of your cooking for the week (2 weeks for us) all in one day. I decided to do it to break up the monotony of our dinner menus and to simplify nightly meal preparation and clean-up.

Check it out here:

http://weekinaday.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Coming Soon

2011-01-18T23:27:00.001-05:00

I'm working on several Christmas and New Year's posts, but I had to post this adorable photo my friend Anna snapped at Catherine's Christmas parade. Each class dresses as something from the Christmas story or Christmas themed. Catherine's class this year was "Kisses for Jesus" and passed around kisses along the parade route. It was so sweet. Literally ;)

Chimney Rock: A delayed day-trip report

2010-12-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

I think I've already mentioned this, but one of the advantages of going to church on Saturday night is that we have all day Sunday to spend as a family. We have been trying to make the most of it, especially before the winter weather sets in. We took advantage of some nice weather and headed up toward the mountains to Chimney Rock Park. It's in a cute little town, and the hiking is pretty easy, and because it was Sunday it was much less crowded than it might be on a Saturday. Catherine managed the hiking pretty well, but we did have to trade carrying her on the long hike to the waterfall. In retrospect, I might have rented one of the backpacks they have there and just carried her on my back, but she really was fine. When we first got there, we took the elevator to the top, went out on the rock and had lunch with this gorgeous view. The pictures taken on an iphone don't do the fall colors justice at all. It was a rainbow of fall hues! We just might make this a yearly fall trek, or check out some of the other Carolina mountain areas in the fall. It's definitely worth the couple of hours in the car from Charlotte.

A cave where they used to make moonshine

Up at the top

The actual Chimney Rock

Catherine getting a closer look at the scenery

Our lunch view

Out on the Rock

A waterfall on one of the hikes

Catherine petting a salamander

Chimney Rock has this fun trail designed for kids, with stations along the way that have animal sculptures and educational signs. Some of the sculptures were beautiful, particularly one of an owl made out of copper. Catherine loved "interacting" with the animals. If you go with kids, it's a must see!

She climbed under the turtle for a closer look

Checking out the bear. Two other bears were in the tree!

One last shot from up top

Thanksgiving Visitors

2010-12-21T10:35:00.001-05:00

The turkey didn't brown quite as much as I'd hoped, but it was SO good!

Nonna and I helped Catherine decorate a gingerbread house.

Working on the roof

The finished product

Us with Nonna and Grandpa Jim

Jim and I putting the finishing touches on dinner

The Jubys came over for dessert, and this is Anne Botts, one of Catherine's "besties"

I know, it's almost Christmas, and I'm just posting about Thanksgiving. What's new? My mom and Jim came for the long weekend, and Mark's parents came down just for Thanksgiving Day. The reason they aren't in any of the pictures is that Mark's dad is the one that took them all! I made everything this year, from appetizer to desserts, and I'd say it all turned out just about perfectly! My friend Anna (of the Jubys) graciously watched Catherine for a few hours on Wednesday so I could prep to my heart's content without distraction. All of the prep work was SO worth it. I was really able to enjoy the day with our parents and not worry about cooking. Almost everything just had to be put in the the oven, and between the garage and the kitchen, we had 2 kitchens going. I tried something different this year with the turkey. I roasted a relatively small turkey (about 12 pounds), and then I also did a boneless breast roast. The breast meat is always more popular, so we had plenty to go around, plus some leftovers. I'm definitely going that way again in the future. We were so thankful to have both sets of parents with us this year. Being surrounded by love (and extra helping hands) was a real treat!

Then came Black Friday ...

Several years ago, I caught the Black Friday bug, and I've been going out every year since. I've shopped in California, Texas and the Carolinas, just within the past few years. Wherever we are, we go! Mark is a real trooper about it, too. I drag him out there every year. One year I didn't, and that was a mistake. Black Friday is a tag-team event. We've never been in the market for the big-ticket items, but I have scored some great deals over the year. I can usually get much better gifts for the money, so I make the sacrifice of sleep. And this year I was up all night! I went out to Wal-Mart (which is only a mile from our house) and Old Navy at midnight, came home for awhile, got Mark up to hit Target's opening at 4:30, came home again and laid down for about an hour, only to be awakened by my mom at 7:30, ready to hit the stores! That was a shocker because she has never gone out in the morning with me. Afternoon, yes. Morning, no so much. She and I hit Ulta and Southpark and were home by noonish. The crowds weren't even that bad until we were nearing the end of our trip, too.

After a nice nap, we went out to a really nice, fun dinner at Firebirds with mom and Jim. Catherine was SO good, and the food was excellent. We hadn't been there in ages! On Saturday, mom, Mark and I took Catherine to see Tangled. I'm sure Catherine would say it was the highlight of her weekend. Mark loves how she calls Rapunzel "Furpunzel," although she is starting to pronounce it correctly pretty often now. Mom and I left Jim and Mark at home to watch football while we went to church on Saturday night, and then they left early the next morning. It was a short but sweet visit, and since they live in Virginia now, we can see them more often anyway. In fact, we will be there for Christmas in just a few days!

Fall Fun

2010-11-12T00:20:00.002-05:00

Riding the carousel at Carowinds with Nonna

We've had a lot of fun this fall. I feel like we had something almost every weekend. Not necessarily big stuff. We just tried to take advantage of the weather and the million-and-one festivals going on around here. Plus, with going to church on Saturdays now, we have been trying to make Sunday a family day and do something together for part or all of the day. I've had to do a little bit of writing and Bible study prep on the weekends, but for the most part, Sundays have been great to have "off!" In early October, my mom and dad both came for back-to-back visits, which we loved, of course. Mom flew in from Virginia for the weekend, and she enjoyed the luxury of just an hour-long flight instead of the SIX that it used to be. We hope this means she'll be coming often! While she was here, we went to Carowinds, and she rode two roller coasters with me! Otherwise, we just hung out and went shopping. A good but short visit.

Two days later, Nonno got here, and we had a busy week! He and I tackled the looming task of installing the quarter round on the baseboards, in the areas where we had the new flooring installed several months ago. Dad assumed the role of carpenter and I was the geometry expert (which is hilarious, since geometry was not my strong suit!). Anyhow, we only made a few small mistakes, and in the end have a finished product that looks great! Mark worked on the yard while we did the baseboards, and his hard work has started to pay off. His precious lawn is coming back to life. Dad did some other small projects, as well as babysat while we went out on a date one night.

We drove out to York, SC on Saturday to attend a little fall festival at The Peach Stand, and while the weather was a little summer-like, Catherine still had a ball. Most everything was free, and everything else was very inexpensive. We picked up a bag of apples, and I baked up a couple of apple crumb pies, too.

Catherine getting her face painted

Running the hay bale maze with Daddy

Playing a pumpkin version of corn hole

Jumping like crazy

Planting a pansy with Daddy

Happy to hold a bunny

Painting a pumpkin

Putting together a puzzle with Nonno

During another weekend, we drove up to Winston-Salem to visit with Mark's parents and go to a corn maze with our friends Matt and Kristi. We really wanted to do the big maze, so we decided to leave Catherine with Granny and Papaw for the afternoon. The website said the average time to complete the maze was 1.5-2 hours, and we figured she would have tuckered out after about 20 minutes. I learned that, while I have an excellent sense of direction, I am terrible at navigating a corn maze! If it wasn't for Matt, we would still be in that maze. Since we were so lost, Kristi and I just followed along and talked the whole time while the guys attempted to find all of the clues. The maze had the theme of FSI: Farm Scene Investigation, so you had to visit all of these stations to punch your card and figure out who killed the farmer.

Up on the viewing platform in the maze

Catherine had lots of fall fun at school, too. Of course, many pumpkin-themed art projects came home and adorned the refrigerator. This picture is from the day of her class party, where they feasted on junk food and got their faces painted. Earlier that week, they visited the "pumpkin patch." A local pumpkin lot sets up a pumpkin patch in the field out in front of the church, and all week, the classes take turns going out there. The visit is complete with a hayride! I had to miss the hayride because of an appointment, but Catherine reported that she had a great time.

We joined our good friends, the Vespas for trick-or-treating this year. With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, our county had the brilliant idea of telling people to go out on Saturday. What?!! Who trick-or-treats on the wrong day?! We aren't home on Saturday nights anyway, so we had to figure out a way to go in Charlotte instead. Of course, Catherine was delighted to join some of her best buddies, including "Batman."

Alone-ly

2010-11-03T14:46:00.000-04:00

Catherine is really a people person, even at the ripe old age of 3. The greatest punishment she can ever receive is banishment to her room. Of course, this sentence is meted out from time to time, and she usually emerges with a better attitude. However, she seems to think that she should NEVER be left alone, whether it's in her room playing, downstairs watching a movie or using the bathroom! Whenever I try to encourage her to do these things alone, I'm met with, "But I'll be alone-ly." It's strange because she doesn't say it or pitch a fit when it comes to being alone in her room at bedtime. It's only when she's awake and knows I'm around. I'm sure there will come a day when she begs me to leave her alone, locks me out of her room and spends all of her time with friends, but until then, I'm trying to help her strike a balance between being by my side at all times and spending her days all "alone-ly." Good thing she has preschool, Bible study, gymnastics and church, or we both go mad!

Sweet Girl

2010-10-28T20:53:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling a twinge of mommy guilt over my rant yesterday. Don't get me wrong, Gramma is still driving me nuts. If you can believe it, I only heard about her twice today. I feel compelled to share some of the more endearing qualities Catherine has been exhibiting lately.

Recently, when I arrived to pick up Catherine from preschool, her teacher said that they had inadvertently forgotten to schedule a "special friend" for the day (they get to be the line leader and have other privileges throughout the day, and they usually bring snack). Since they didn't have one, the teachers decided to choose a child who was being an especially good friend. And they chose Catherine! I have to say it's not a surprise. This child loves her friends SO much. That's not a surprise either because I love my own friends so much ;) She is truly delighted when she sees them and insists on giving them a hug and a kiss when she says good-bye. In fact, after a couple of meltdowns in the car after forgetting to give said hug, we rarely ever forget that formality before loading into the car.

She's always thinking about the people in her life, evidenced by how much she talks about them. She also might have a career in journalism in her future because she reports all sorts of information to everyone she encounters. It doesn't matter to her that they have no idea who she's talking about. She gives a full report. I admit that I occasionally would like to edit her.

I can't tell you how many times Catherine blurts, "I love you, Mommy," out of nowhere. One time recently, she walked up to me while I was cooking dinner, put a sticker on my shirt and said, "You're a great mommy." Yeah, I kind of melted with that one. I also can't resist the spontaneous, "Mommy, you're my best friend."

She's developed quite a little conscience. Obviously, we have tried to foster that, but I certainly don't think that's something you can force in a 3-year-old. When she misbehaves or does something wrong (and has served whatever punishment), after awhile has gone by she will just say, "Mommy, I'm sorry for not listening," or "I'm sorry I yelled at you." or whatever it is she has done. Often, she will already have apologized at the moment we addressed the issue, but it shows me that she's been considering what she has done.

So that's some of the sweetness we've been getting from our girl.

"Gramma"

2010-10-27T22:44:00.000-04:00

Catherine has developed quite an imagination. She makes a delicious "soup pie" that can't be beat, and she plays with her dolls and stuffed animals like any normal little girl would. But what began as a few innocent references to someone named "Gramma" has grown into an entire world. If I'm going to be completely honest, it's starting to annoy me. It actually started with her imaginary pets, "Coskrina" the dog and "Cabrella" the cat. Your guess is as good as mine as to where those names came from. From there, we added an imaginary brother, and the family has apparently grown by three sisters (only 2 of which have names, and the brother is nameless as well. In fact, I haven't heard about him in awhile. Maybe she kicked him out). The matriarch of this imaginary family is none other than "Gramma."

If she kept these characters at home, I might be able to handle it better. Lately, it seems like every person we come in contact with gets an earful about Gramma. From Catherine's preschool and Bible study teachers to her real grandparents -- geez, even the Trader Joe's cashier -- heard something. It's usually something very sweet like, "I like to sing this song to my Gramma." or "My Gramma gave me this." And when they respond with "Aw, isn't that sweet," or, as in the case of her preschool teacher, tell me the story of the sweetest thing Catherine said that day, I had to let the truth to known. Sometimes, it will get a chuckle. Some will reminisce about their own child's imagination. Some just give me a look that says, "Lady, are you for real?"

I know she's only 3 (And a half. She won't let you forget). I know she's just expressing her little imagination. But it's getting a little embarrassing. Not to mention that she is technically lying when she tells these stories. I don't know how to not discourage her creativity without letting her walk around telling completely made up stories to everyone we see. Should I make this a matter of truth and lies or just grin and bear it til she grows out of it.

The only encouragement is that my mom says that both my brother and my uncle had wild imaginations that included imaginary friends. In fact, they had much crazier names like "Chitty" and "Jinxie" and "Uncle Sally," so I guess Gramma doesn't seem so weird in comparison. Since the two of them turned out alright and, to my knowledge, no longer entertain invisible friends, maybe I shouldn't worry about it so much.

From here forward

2010-09-23T09:45:00.000-04:00

So ... I've been thinking I would get a chance to catch up on all of the things I haven't posted, and I didn't want to post new stuff until I did that. Now I realize that I might NEVER get that old stuff up, so I'll just pick up from here. If I get to the old stuff, I do. If I don't, I don't. But just so we don't forget that this summer ever happened, let me sum up:

- Catherine started swim lessons in the spring at Charlotte Aquatics that ran through August. She made lots of progress in the pool! She also took a pre-gymnastics at Charlotte Jr. Gym and is doing that again this fall. Photos may or may not ever get posted. ;)
- Failed IVF cycle in May
- Catherine wrapped up her first year of preschool with a sprinkler party outside with her classmates and parents.
- Flew (alone, what bliss!!) to CA for Marisa's wedding in Early June
- Taught Bible at Vacation Bible School at Church at Charlotte
- Another failed IVF cycle
- Went to Virginia for 10 days to help Mom and Jim get settled. Cousin Riley also was visiting from Texas, and Catherine had SO much fun.
- Follow-up with doctor led to a 2-month break to try a new protocol of supplements and estrogen before another try.
- Lots of trips to the pool, Carowinds , and other fun places with friends and neighbors
- Worked as a contributing writer for Elmbrook's Women2Day study this year, "Epic." Still working on that through October.
- Surprised Mark on his 30th birthday with a trip to Washington, DC. He was shocked to learn that we were leaving the next morning! I really do hope to do a separate post on that.
- Catherine spent a few weekends/overnights with Granny and Papaw, which always yields lots of fun. She also got to spend a little time with her Sluder cousins while she was there.
- Catherine started a new year at preschool and hit the ground running. She loves her teachers and has started to make new friends easily. Most of her old class is together in another class, and because we switched days at the last minute, we had to take the spot we could get! Most of the kids in her class are older, Oct-Dec. birthdays, but she hangs with them just fine!
- Went to the NC State home opener in Raleigh with our friends, The Reichs and watched the Wolfpack start with a win.
- Started teaching Bible study for the fall
- Started "Making Saturday our Sunday" at church. It's a little strange not seeing everyone that we usually see on Sunday, but we might make an appearance once in a while on Sunday! We are also taking at least a semester off from our Wednesday night couples small group.
- Visited a mine where Catherine found lots of "gems."
- We are preparing for a potential 2 IVF cycles in the next couple of months. Those appointments, plus acupuncture (started that in June), plus preschool, activities, the writing gig, and teaching Bible study, and this is one crazy fall!
- Both Nonna and Nonno are coming for back-to-back visits in the next couple of weeks. We are SO glad that each of them is coming!

I think that's it. I'm sure I forgot something, but at this point I don't care!

So that's the short, photo-less version, but at least I provided lots of links for entertainment, right? Now that we're all caught up, I should be able to post more frequently. Catherine has been saying and doing a lot of post-worthy things lately! If our never-ending computer issues ever get resolved, I might even post a picture. If we could get one laptop to work well for more than a few months at a time, we'd be set! I'm not holding my breath ...

Are we alive?

2010-08-09T14:40:00.000-04:00

Ready to hunt bugs

At Vacation Bible School in June

Jam-packed in the car with Riley and Carlo for a slumber party at Nonna's

Playing at Imaginon with Daniel

Yes, we're alive. We've had a busier-than-expected summer, and I can't believe it's almost over. Here are pics a few things we've been up to. I haven't pulled out the camera much, as you can see. In fact, these are just from my phone. More to come on the rest of the summer (as well as the end of spring!) soon. I've picked up a little freelancing and have a deadline at the end of the week, so hopefully I will have time over the weekend to post several updates. Catherine is going to be in preschool 3 mornings a week this fall, so I likely will be able to keep up!

The Elephant in the Room

2010-05-25T11:47:00.010-04:00

Ugh. Blech. Grrrrr. Ahhhhh!!

I don't even want to write about this, but I feel like I have to. Perhaps I need to. So I'll just come right out and say it: we're infertile. To be exact, I'm infertile. Mark's swim team apparently could give Michael Phelps a run for his money, but these days my equipment is running about as well as a 1982 Ford Pinto.

We started trying to have another child early last year, and since I already monitored myself pretty carefully, I knew within a couple of months that I simply wasn't ovulating or I was ovulating at the wrong time. I visited my OB/Gyn, who was willing to be as hands-off or aggressive as I wanted him to be. I really appreciated that. He wasn't concerned at the time, but I was close enough in age to when fertility naturally begins to decline that he wanted to make sure there wasn't a problem.

After 3 cycles with zero response from Clomid (which actually took more than 3 months because my cycle was so messed up), he referred me to a Reproductive Endocrinology (RE) group here in Charlotte. The months followed with countless blood draws, ultrasounds and rounds of fertility drugs, all of which have failed. Not just failed, but miserably failed. Months rolled by that we didn't even get to legitimately "try" because my ovaries simply didn't respond. There wasn't even an egg for the little guys to try to find.

I suppose I should explain what's even wrong with me. One benefit to recent advances made in reproductive medicine is that doctors can often figure out what's causing the infertility. They might not be able to fix it, but at least you're not left trying in vain month after month for years on end without knowing the underlying issue. In November, I received a call from my doctor's nurse explaining that one of my tests had come back and indicated that I have "low ovarian reserve" or "diminished ovarian reserve." It means my ovaries are running out of eggs, and when they start running out of eggs, the hormonal cycle gets all out of whack and presents the challenges we've faced since discovering this. Just to give you an idea of how "low" my reserve is: I looked up the range for the particular test that she called about. There are ranges for very high, high, normal, low and very low. The very low range on this test is something like 0.3-0.6, and then low starts at 0.7 and goes maybe to 0.9, and so one. Mine was 0.1, lower than the low end of the lowest range. I'm not even on the scale. My ovaries are pretty much on life support.

Because of that diagnosis, we had to skip entire classes of drugs and jump straight to the big dogs. Still, my RE remained cautiously optimistic. He was hopeful that, because of my age (which is actually still OK as far as eggs go), that if he could just get my ovaries to release an egg (or eggs), that the quality would still be good and pregnancy possible.

At one point, my ovaries were so confused that they were in a seemingly constant state of ovulation, which is kind of a catch 22 with my condition. Because there are so few eggs, my ovaries don't have the capacity to send the hormonal signals to my pituitary to stop producing the hormones that ready eggs for release. You'd think that ovulating every couple of weeks might help. Twice the chances to try, right? Wrong. Your uterine lining and other hormone levels have to be in the right place, too, or pregnancy can't take place (or be sustained).

So here we are, almost 6 months since my first round of the big dogs. Most cycles have been canceled or have failed, although we are in the waiting game for now on the current cycle to see if it worked. Most women on the level of drugs I was on would produce 12-30 (or more) eggs or be so overstimulated that their ovaries would practically explode. I topped out at 40 shots in one week (all self-administered because Mark faints at the sight of a needle) and produced ONE egg. Granted, there may have been others that they couldn't see, but still mostly a failed response. The bruises are just about faded, and I'm glad to get a break from the shots, the blood draws, the ultra sounds and the drives downtown. I've traded the shots for a pile of dollar store pregnancy tests. I think when you've been through what we've been through, you've got a right to pee on as many sticks as you want. Three a day if that's what you need to get by. At a dollar a pop, who cares. I don't actually test that often, but I wouldn't judge anyone if they did.

There are some things we are grateful for through this process. First of all is Catherine. We have no idea when my ovaries started to malfunction, but we are thankful that it didn't interfere with conceiving her. We appreciate her more than we ever have before.

We also are thankful that we live somewhere that has the level of medical care that we've been able to receive. In many parts of the country, people drive for hours or even fly to see the nearest Reproductive Endocrinologist. Not only do I see an entire group, they aren't even the only ones in town.

We also have pretty good health insurance coverage. On paper one might say it's outstanding because it covers procedures at an amazingly high rate. However, our drug coverage isn't so great. For the most expensive drugs, we pay almost the cash price, which runs into the thousands for a single cycle. Unfortunately, we have needed drugs more than procedures, so we haven't even be able to take advantage of the "great" insurance that we have. Thank you, Murphy's Law.

We are thankful for supportive friends and family. I don't know how people can keep this struggle completely private. I guess it's hard for me to conceive because I'm not a particularly private person. I'd rather have people praying for us and pulling for us than wondering why I'm acting like a freak all the time and canceling plans for "appointments." I think it has prevented about a thousand "When are you having another baby?" and "Don't you want more children?" questions that I surely wouldn't have answered gracefully. I know people do what they have to do to survive, and being somewhat open has been helpful.

We are thankful to have experienced no miscarriages thus far (before Catherine or since), and while not achieving pregnancy at all stinks, I cannot imagine the devastation of a pregnancy lost.

Still, this is hard. Catherine has moved out of the nursery, and it feels like a little ghost town whenever I enter the room. I'm not even sure what to do with it because I assumed she'd have a sibling kicking her out of there by now. It's a mess because I don't want to be in there long enough to clean it up. We've had to discuss medical, ethical, spiritual and theological issues that we never dreamed we would have to tackle. And all the discussion in the world doesn't necessarily provide answers. Even though we have the answers to what is causing our infertility, we don't know why. We probably won't ever know. We've asked God, and frankly, he doesn't owe us an answer. In fact, He doesn't even owe us another child, but it has been hard not to demand it from Him because we want it so badly. We believe He is good. He's not out to punish us or make us miserable, and when we take into account our life outside of this particular struggle, we have a great life.

And so we wait. And pray. And hope.

Home Improvements

2010-05-15T17:00:00.005-04:00

One reason for the infrequent posting lately is that we were doing some work on the house. It doesn't seem like we did much, but when you empty an entire room and have to figure out where in the world you're going to put the contents of that room (permanently!), we found it takes much longer than expected. We cleared out the guest room and turned it into Catherine's big girl room. While we believe she would have slept in the crib until she turned 5, we thought her third birthday would be a good time to make the move. We talked about getting a big girl bed with Catherine for awhile before we did it, and she had slept in a bed for several nights at Nonna's house, so we knew she would be fine. She had no idea we were re-doing the guest room for her, so she was ecstatic when we unveiled the room to her.

I had been scoping out this bed at IKEA for months because it not only has 3 drawers of storage underneath, but it also pulls out into a big bed (a double or almost a king depending on which way you sleep). Since we still need her room for guests, we thought the bed was a perfect solution.

I made that mural with wall decals affixed to a canvas

She has a little table now to color at and have tea parties.

The other home improvement was new flooring for the downstairs. I have wanted to replace the carpet since we bought the house more than 4 years ago, and I never wanted carpet in the dining room in the first place. We picked out a wood laminate that looks like tile and took it all the way from the entry, through the dining room and into the kitchen and powder room. We LOVE how it turned out, and I think it made the entry and dining room look so much bigger. And it really does look like tile. A guy came to work on our DirecTV, and he commented on how his parents had just put tile in their house, and I said, "Oh, that's not tile." He was shocked! The carpet is perfect, too. I was vacuuming the old carpet almost daily and shampooing almost monthly because it showed absolutely everything. We chose a thick, tall, multi-tonal carpet, and now I only vacuum when I clean. I feel like I've gained hours of my life back! ;) The only downside is that I had just bought a new vacuum, and it can't adjust to the height of this carpet. Ironically, I have to use the old cheap vacuum on it because it can adjust!

We still need to do the molding around the baseboards.

From the dining room into the kitchen

Catherine had a heyday running around on the carpet before we moved the furniture back in the house. She was amused by the lines her baby stroller made and shouted, "Stripes! Stripes!!"

A Happy, if belated, 3rd Birthday

2010-05-13T16:45:00.013-04:00

Catherine on her Barbie scooter from Granny and Papaw

Catherine Sophia, you're a little piece of work. Mommy's getting a lot of payback with you! Just read what Nonna wrote on my 3rd birthday in my baby book: "Angela's very talkative and friendly. She has a strong will and a little temper." Try to go easy on me in the coming years. I don't have even half the patience of Nonna.

You are the friendliest little girl I know, and your friends are always on your mind because you never stop talking about them! You even have memorized which friends you are going to see depending on the day and which place we are going. I think you've also inherited Mommy's sense of direction because you always seem to know where we are going before we get there. When we arrive, you without fail exclaim, "We made it!" as if Mommy's driving left that in question.

You exhibit your sweetness in the way you have started to "give" me presents at least 5 times a day. Even though it's the same princess Polly Pockets every time (along with other toys), I know your heart is in the right place. The way you say, "Mommy, you're so beautiful," whenever I put on a dress (even if it's a swimsuit cover up) gives me a little boost every time.

I love how much you love Daddy. Only you could convince him to wear a tiara and play with your princess Polly Pockets. Yes, that is the second mention of them because you never let those princesses out of your sight! Obsession might be an understatement. You are convinced you'll be marrying Prince Eric, and you scream at the sight of the frog in our back yard, exclaiming, "I'm not going to kiss a frog!"

You have a remarkable memory, which both encourages and scares me. When I think of all of the times I've lost it with you, I'm challenged to fill your mind with memories of a joyful mommy.

We love you, Catherine!

For Catherine's birthday, we went up to Matt & Gwyn's, and Nonna and Grandpa Jim were in town, too. This was the first birthday she got to spend with my side of the family, and she had a fun-filled weekend! Gwyn went above and beyond, having one of her friends make the most gorgeous Tinker Bell cake (see two posts ago for photo), and she planned for us to go Duckpin bowling as well. Duckpin bowling has these short, fat pins (I think there's 12 of them), and the ball is much smaller. Catherine had a great time and cheered everyone else on, too. Thanks again Auntie Gwyn and Uncle Guido!

We also helped my mom and Jim look at some houses that weekend because they are moving to Virginia this summer! It will be nice to have them a 6-hour drive away instead of a 6-hour flight.
Catherine and Auntie Gwyn before she opened her present, which was two adorable Melissa & Doug play food sets. Catherine has been scooping ice cream and grilling for us ever since!

Catherine and Mommy

Daddy helps Catherine and then tries a shot with her on his shoulders.

Catherine had a little party in her preschool class, too. I actually appreciate the way her teachers do birthdays. Snack time is the last 15 minutes of the day (12:45-1), and if it's your child's birthday, you can bring treats and decorate. I think whoever came up with the rule that you have to invite everyone in your kid's class to birthday parties is ridiculous. With the cost of parties, I'd rather go on a short vacation than spend $500-1000 on a party for a bunch of people Catherine hardly knows. I personally don't care to be invited to 15 birthday parties, and I'm certainly not inviting 15 extra kids to all of Catherine's birthdays! I know it might sound mean, but it's a pet peeve of mine. By having a party in class, I think that left everyone off the hook from inviting everyone to their parties. The result: We've only received one other invitation, and it's from a child that Catherine is actually friends with.

Catherine's decorations were Little Mermaid, of course!

Her teachers had a birthday hat for her.

Her class enjoying cookies and lemonade

I completely forgot to schedule Catherine's 3-year well appointment at the doctor until almost April. So, she didn't have her checkup until last week. Catherine weighed in at a meaty 26.2 pounds (5th percentile) and measured 36.75 inches (50th percentile). Who would have ever thought I'd have a tall, skinny child?! She has gained 4 pounds since last year, so the doctor has no concerns about her weight. They attempted to check her eyesight, but that was hilarious. I could barely see the shapes, so I'm sure Catherine couldn't either, and she didn't really understand what she was supposed to do. The nurse said they usually just try it at 3, but they'll just check again next year.

Spring Has Sprung and It's Almost Summer

2010-05-12T13:51:00.010-04:00

So, March and April ... where do I begin? Well, since the photos uploaded in reverse chronological order, I'll just have to tell it that way. Separate posts on Catherine's birthday, some minor home renovations and other life stuff will follow.

Easter: We had a pretty quiet one. Mark's parents were supposed to come down for the weekend, but Mark's mom was sick, so his dad came alone. He helped with painting Catherine's big girl room, and on Easter we went to church and lunch, and Catherine searched for a few eggs. I had intended to have Catherine dye Easter eggs with Granny, but since she didn't make it, we dyed them the next week. Better late than never!

One thing that stood out to me during Easter (and Christmas), is how much spiritual truth Catherine picks up from us, school and church. In the same way that she proclaimed "JESUS I BORN!" on Christmas, she exclaimed "JESUS IS ALIVE!" on Easter morning. It was about the sweetest thing ever.

Catherine had an Easter egg hunt and party at school, and since I had volunteered to hide eggs, I got to witness the chaos of 15 two- and three-year-olds madly hunting eggs. One little girl cracked me up. Her entire basket was filled with pink eggs. I asked her about it, and she said she only liked the pink ones! Catherine was not nearly as distinguishing.

In early/mid-March, we all flew to California for a visit with my family. We had beautiful weather and a great time, although the trip seemed so short. Catherine did really well on the flights, and I even was able to watch a movie on my new (at least it was new then) iphone!

Wherever you're from, there's probably food you always want to eat when you go back home. We have a few spots we try to hit when we're in town, and it always includes one or more Mexican food places. This was lunch at Nena's, where Mark devoured his chile verde and Catherine loved her quesadilla. The tortillas at Nena's are so good and so fresh that I could literally eat an entire stack.

We got together with some of my dad's family at his house one night, and Catherine got to play with her 2nd cousin Gia, who is just a few months older than her. What a couple of sassy girls!

My cousin Mario doing a double superman with the girls.

Me and my cousin Alicia

The highlight of our trip, though, was an overnight getaway to Monterey. My parents' friend, Greg, works at The Links at Spanish Bay, and he was able to get Mark a tee time and us a room at the Inn at Spanish Bay for such a ridiculously low price that it would have been crazy to turn down.

The Inn was amazing! I could go on and on about the service and how luxurious it was, but I couldn't possibly do it justice. This truly is how the other half lives. As the concierge personally escorted us to our suite, we knew it would be no ordinary stay.
The Inn offers a "Lexus Driving Experience," where you get to borrow a Lexus for a couple of hours and take it to do whatever you'd like. We chose the convertible and drove up and down 17 Mile Drive. Mark thought he had died and gone to heaven.

The view from the window seat in our room, overlooking the first and 18th holes.

We also celebrated my mom's birthday while we were there. I thought it would be funny to put 30 on the cake :) Jim had just had surgery on his hand, so I made dinner (and the cake). It was strange to be serving dinner to the chef, but both dinner and dessert got great reviews!
We were able to sneak in a visit with my dear, old friend Liz at her parents. We've been friends since high school, and I used to spend a lot of time with her children when I still lived in Stockton. I was even present when one of them was born! I used to pick up McKenzie (pictured above) from preschool and take her to McDonald's (the way to a child's heart,right?), and I think I even took her to her first movie. She's going to be in high school next year! My, how time flies. Liz lives up in the mountains now, so we have struggled to coordinate a visit over the past couple of years. But this time we did!

Me and Catherine with McKenzie, Gracie, Danny and Jakob

And more food ... somehow during our previous visits, Mark had missed out on eating at Chuck's. Catherine had even been there! Chuck's is an institution in Stockton and is the very definition of a "greasy spoon." My parents used to eat at this place in high school, and the same family still stands at the griddle. Well, Mark finally got his opportunity, and he heartily approved.

Catherine and her giant pancake. They are as big as a dinner plate!

My good friend Christy flew up from San Diego for a night so we could catch up and our girls could play together. It was so great to see them!! If you go back to one of the very first posts I blogged, it was Christy and Brian's wedding that I officiated. Now they have a beautiful, sweet little girl!
So that's the skinny on March and early April. More to come ...

Hello?

2010-04-28T14:26:00.003-04:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. There's much to report, and I'm not sure where to start. I'll leave you with this shot of my sweet girl on her 3rd birthday. Stay tuned!

Goal achieved

2010-03-07T14:24:00.002-05:00

Anyone who has known me long enough knows that weight has been a small battle for me ever since I was about 9 years old. I made peace with my weight as a teenager, so it's not like I've gone through life constantly miserable with how I look at any given time. Since then, I've been everything from a size 6 to a size 16 (which was right after I had Catherine). I spent most of my 20s on the smaller end of that spectrum, but the years we lived in Dallas and Milwaukee were not good to my waistline. By the time we moved to Charlotte, I was on the higher end, and I was pregnant with Catherine within a few months of moving here. I was determined not to gain a ton of weight during pregnancy, and through a healthy diet and exercise, I only gained 27 pounds.

I still don't know what happened during Catherine's birth that caused this, but I came home from the hospital after having her weighing barely 5 pounds less than before I had her. I was so swollen (I hadn't swelled at all during pregnancy), and 6 weeks later, I still had not lost a pound. My doctor put me on a diuretic, and that helped to at least tackle some of the swelling, but the weight loss was very slow. It took 9 MONTHS to lose those darned 20 pounds, so by the time I reached my pre-preggo weight, I didn't have it in me to get down to a healthier weight.

A little over a year ago, I decided I was ready to lose that last bit of weight and joined a gym. A little while after that, I added Weight Watchers Online to the mix, and that seemed to do the trick. I lost somewhere between 10-15 pounds and then took a few months off. I've since ditched the gym and work out at home, mostly with a wii game called EA Sports Active. It's basically circuit training guided by a "trainer," and it's really convenient.

Just after the holidays, I decided to shed the final few pounds and jumped back on the wagon with Weight Watchers online. I got down to within 1 pound of my goal weight, and wouldn't you know, it took THREE WEEKS to lose that last pound!!! On Friday, the scale finally ticked down to the 20 pound mark, and I reached my goal.

I'm still going to keep up working out and the point counting with WW, so if I lose a few more pounds, that'll be an added bonus. I'm just so glad to have the extra pounds gone, be in a healthy weight range and not fear that a potential pregnancy could catapult me into obesity.

We're going to California this week, and I have been known to gain weight while visiting (seriously, one time I gained 7 pounds!), so let's hope all my hard work doesn't get ruined.

A Secret

2010-02-27T22:26:00.002-05:00

One of Catherine's latest favorites is telling secrets. She talks in a whisper and puts her hand up like she's talking in your ear, but it's clear that she's not clear on exactly what a secret is. Despite this fact, she sure has taken to telling them. Well, one in particular. Almost every time we get into the car and every single time we put her to bed and nap, she tells us some variation of the same secret: "Because Nonna is coming to visit next June." "Because Nonna is coming tomorrow." "Because Nonna is coming and then Grandpa Jim." Because a secret always starts with "because," right? Where in the world did she get that idea? I don't know, but I think she's itching to see Nonna, you think? Good thing we're going to California in a couple of weeks.

I'm a Big Kid Now

2010-02-03T22:06:00.002-05:00

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but Catherine is officially potty trained! She still wears a diaper at night and naptime, but that is because I'm convinced this child produces more urine than any other human being. She occasionally wakes up from a nap with a dry diaper, but never does she wake up dry in the morning.

Still, she's doing great during the day. I mentioned awhile back (maybe October) that we were starting potty training, and we did start then. She was doing alright with peeing and was even wearing panties most of the day, but she absolutely would not poop in the potty. After cleaning up one too many poop accidents, we decided to back off until she was willing to do it all. We still put her up on the potty when she asked, and gradually she started asking to do it more often. By the time December rolled around, I decided to do a little boot camp to get her over the hump.

We stayed at home the entire week of Christmas so she could go several days in a row getting her body into a routine. And it worked! She's been doing so well since then. She still has an occasional poop accident (when she goes and hides in a corner and secretly does it ... what a rascal!), but she's a pro otherwise, public restrooms and all.

I apologize for the potty talk, but it was a big milestone at our house.

Snow!

2010-01-30T21:34:00.004-05:00

We got 1-2 inches of snow last night. I was such a skeptic. I went to bed convinced that I would wake up to a big bunch of nothing. After all, last night it seemed all of Charlotte got dumped on except us. I left to pick up Mark at the airport (he was gone ALL week!!) around 4:30 p.m. (I got a babysitter so we could enjoy dinner alone on the way home), and by the time I picked up Mark at a little after 5, snow was falling at a pretty good clip at the airport and the surrounding area. By the time we got about 5 minutes from our house, there was nothing! Not a drop of rain, nothing! The streets were bone dry. We kept watching for the snow, but by the time I went to bed after midnight, we hadn't seen a flake. Just as I was falling asleep, I could hear something pounding the house, and I was sure it's was freezing rain or sleet, but definitely not snow. Lo and behold, when we woke up, we had a thin blanket of snow! It was kind of wet and icy snow, unlike the perfectly fluffy stuff that fell at Mark's parents' house in December, but we had some fun with it anyway. Even I went outside! Yes, try to contain your laughter. I do have snow clothes. I actually was pretty excited because I fit into some old snow pants! Poor Catherine needs some. Mark and I were sitting pretty in our ski pants and jackets, but she was in sweats. She excitedly wore the rain boots that Matt, Gwyn and the kids got her for Christmas. She loves those things! Mostly she plays dress-up with them, but she was thrilled to wear them outside.

The roads are pretty icy. We haven't been out on them, but a lot of stuff seems to be closed or canceled for tomorrow, including church. Tonight it's supposed to be 12 degrees!! And Monday it's supposed to 15 in the morning, and I have to be at a doctor downtown at 7:30 a.m. That's going to be a fun drive!

Getting ready to slide

Down the driveway on an tube

Weeeeeeee!

It was a short ride.

Mark tried to tube down the street, but he couldn't pick up enough speed.

Year in Review: 2009

2010-01-21T21:28:00.010-05:00

It was a good year for the Sluders. I mean, a year that starts and ends with Disney World has to be good, right? We're pretty sure Catherine would agree with that, but we had a full year between those trips.

Like I said, the year started with a trip to Disney World with Matt, Gwyn, AJ, Crissy and Carlo at the end of January. We had great weather and a fun week with them. My mom came to visit in February to help me prep for both a leadership retreat I was planning and a trip to Liberia, which was just days after that. Click here if you'd like to read more about the trip to Liberia. We worked with a ministry in Liberia that runs a home for orphaned and indigent children. Due to a long and bloody civil war that ended a few years ago, the number of children who meet that description is high. We spent time with them, and I also helped my friend Angel with some organization at the ministry's headquarters. It was an amazing journey for all of us who went.

Catherine turned 2 in April, and she has been a great source of joy for us. She's also an honest source of accountability as we see her repeating what we say and emulating our behavior. We have so much fun with her, and sometimes she drives us nuts. Nothing unusual about that! We spent a lot of time at Carowinds (an amusement park here in Charlotte) with our friends the Vespas in the spring and summer, and by the time fall rolled around, Catherine was finally tall enough to ride the kiddie coaster. We discovered that she can be a little daredevil because she loved it!

She started preschool two mornings a week in the fall and loves it. Both she and mommy do. She's a little bossy, and one of her teachers recently called her "a pistol." That pretty much sums her up. I spend one of the mornings she's there at Bible study and the other is usually filled with appointments and errands. Occasionally, I do get a morning at home by myself, and I have to admit it feels strange to be home while it's quiet! Catherine continues to be social and tries to talk to just about anyone she sees. Recently we taught her to shake a person's hand and say, "Nice to meet you!" and she already has started to put in into practice. She loves her family and friends and talks about them CONSTANTLY. Lately she's started to make up stories about some of them, so we've been talking a lot about telling the truth. We can't believe she's almost 3. The time has flown by so quickly. We're hoping for a sibling for her in 2010 and know she would be a great big sister.

As I was sitting down to write this, I realized I never shared part 3 of our trip to Mexico in May. Mark and I went to Playa del Carmen to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Mark's parents kept Catherine for the week, and we had a fabulous trip. You can read the other two posts about it in the archives. These are a few photos that would have been included in part 3! Above is Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins where we took a day trip.
On recommendation from some friends, we went on a zip line tour at a place called Selvatica. We had so much fun, and the only downside was that I had a raging sunburn on my legs. Those leg harnesses hurt like crazy!
The nearly constant stream of visitors and our own trips kept us busy through much of the year. With parents, family and friends all over the place, it's kind of a revolving door around here. We had had multiple visits from Nonna, Nonno, Heidi and Marisa, plus our own trips to California, Texas, Mexico and Florida and Myrtle Beach. Add to that lots of fun day trips, visits to Granny and Papaw's in Winston-Salem, Matt & Gwyn's in Virginia and a little time in Raleigh, and it seems like something is going on here every two weeks.

Mark continues to enjoy working for Travelers. He had to travel more last year than in previous years, so I'm getting better at going solo with Catherine while he's gone. It's only a week here and there throughout the year, but we miss him when he's gone! Other than that, he continues serve on the focus countries committee at our church, attends a men's small group (at an early hour I would never make it to!) and ushers some Sundays. Together we teach a large group of preschoolers twice a month. We're quite a sight as we attempt to get the children excited about the lessons they're learning in their classes. On any given week, "Mr. Mark" can be seen donning any number of costumes and props, and I mostly just tell the Bible story when he's done. Then we send them out the door, back to their teachers. It's a pretty good gig, and it has been fun for us. We served in a similar way at our church in Dallas, so it was fun to do that again! I've been attending Bible study serve on a committee that plans training for small group leaders.

We also attend a small group on Wednesday nights that is actually a few small groups that meet together and then break off for discussion. It's the place where we've built the most community at our church, and this year we're leading one of the small groups. We have a great group of 7 couples, some of which we already knew well and some who are new friends.

So that's it. Our year in review. I left out a ton, but that's why you should visit here more often! I promise to post more faithfully in 2010. Catherine certainly has been giving us more to post about lately.

Another Wake-up Quote

2010-01-16T16:30:00.002-05:00

Mark went in to get Catherine this morning once he heard her stirring around 8 a.m. He walked in and saw Catherine standing on the far side of her crib (yes, our 2.5-year-old still sleeps in a crib, and we love it). She was holding onto the side and squatting up and down, up and down. Once she realized he was there, she turned around and said, "Daddy! I'm doing squats like Mommy!"

I've been working out with EA Sports Active on the wii lately, and Catherine loves to play along. Apparently she's caught on more than I realized and is an early morning exerciser, UNLIKE her mother!

Cute Catherine Quotes

2010-01-08T20:13:00.005-05:00

Mark told me that he heard Catherine crying this morning around 6:30 (I'm NOT an early riser, and neither is Catherine). He went into her room, where she was sitting up in bed. Whether she was awake or not, we're not sure, but Mark is certain of what she said over and over again. "I need to read the Bible! I need to read the Bible!" After one baby Jesus story, she was back to sleep.

Ah, our little seminarian.

It's Been an Interesting Week

2010-01-08T15:02:00.003-05:00

- I almost burned down my kitchen. Thank goodness for fire extinguishers and 911 (like the real one you have with a land line), but that was a heck of a mess to clean up.
- Catherine told her preschool teacher that "daddy got put in time-out because he hit mommy." I think I can hear CPS knocking on my door right now.

But hey, I lost 3 pounds. There's a plus.

Where in the World Have We Been?

2009-12-30T20:55:00.019-05:00

Where haven't we been would probably be a more appropriate question! Amazingly, our crazy November and December didn't involve a flight to California. Imagine that! Starting in mid-November the traveling and visitors began and has finally stopped ... for a few weeks.

Mark had to go to Dallas for work the week before the week of Thanksgiving, so a few months ago we decided to coordinate that with Catherine and I coming later for a visit to Dallas (we hadn't been back in 5 years!!) and then Thanksgiving in New Braunfels (near Austin) with my Uncle Chuck, Aunt Dana and their daughter, Riley, who I might add, is quite loved by Catherine. My mom and Jim flew out from California for the week, too, so we got to see them without flying across the whole country! I can't tell you how excited I was to only have to fly to Dallas. We often connect in Dallas, so when I'm in that airport, we usually have to get back on a 2nd plane for another 3-4 hours. I though it would be a piece of cake. Right. Catherine was not at her best, and that's being diplomatic. Let's just say that it went so badly that, at the end of the flight, she cried so much that she threw up twice (thankfully all landed in her blanket). In the craziness of the moment, I left the DVD case containing almost EVERY kids movie we own!!!!!! I didn't discover this until 3 days later when I went to put on a movie for Catherine as we had just embarked on a 5-hour train ride to my uncle's. Another not-so-pretty travel moment. At one point, Mark even banished me to the dining car. Eeek.

The time in Dallas itself was so sweet. We stayed with my dearest friend and roommate from seminary, Heidi (yes, I have two), her husband and 2 children. We actually have seen them on a few occasions during our flights back and forth to CA. They live close to the airport, so we have planned long layovers to visit them before. None of the stopovers has ever included Catherine, so our kids finally got to play together! We had a great time with them, and they were such gracious hosts. We also drove downtown to visit the seminary and meet up with Sharifa and then Kevin and Jenny and their baby girl Reagan. After that, we got to spend the afternoon with one of my dearest friends since college, Bonner, and her family. What a treat! We hadn't seen each other since Catherine and Carolina (Bonner's youngest) were babies, and they played out in the back yard while we caught up inside. Before we went to their house, though, we ate at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants of all time, El Ranchito. Yummm!!!! Bonner is so sweet. I accidentally ordered the wrong thing, and she ordered what I actually wanted, so she offered to switch with me. Those sour cream enchiladas had a little extra dose of love that day ;)

We had lots of fun at Chuck and Dana's. We met some of their friends, ate way too much food, including a famous BBQ place called The Salt Lick, played Rock Band, roasted marshmallows in the back yard and shopped. Did I mention that they live near one of the best outlet malls I've ever visited? Mom, Dana and I went out and got some Christmas shopping done, and then I had to figure out how to fit it all in our suitcases. We also saw "The Blind Side," which was a great movie. Riley stayed and babysat Catherine, and she was such a pro! I'm telling you, she was The Catherine Whisperer. She put Catherine down for almost every nap and bedtime while we were there, and she even let Catherine sleep with her some of the nights.

The only bummer is that I didn't take ANY pictures the entire 10 days we were gone. Granted, with my track record on that trip, I probably would have dropped the camera into a river. Actually, I wouldn't mind the camera landing in a river because that's the other reason I haven't been taking many pictures. That camera's days are numbered, though. I have finally saved up enough for a digital SLR! I know, it's not like they're thousands of dollars, but when your job doesn't actually pay you anything, it's hard to save up ;)

Four days after we returned from Texas, my dad came for about a week. We did little projects around the house, took Catherine to Sports Connection to play in the bounce houses and put up the Christmas tree and decorations. I'm so glad he was here so we could get that done!

The day after he left, we left for Disney World. Yes, you read that right. We left the next day. It was a Wednesday, and we were home by Friday night! Talk about a whirlwind trip. It was completely worth it, exhaustion and all. Heidi flew out and met us there, and then she drove back home with us. We went to a character breakfast at our hotel, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and the Wishes dessert party all in one day! For my birthday (and my free admission day!) we went to the Animal Kingdom the next day. It's funny how much I like Animal Kingdom considering that I'm not much of an animal lover. Catherine had so much fun on the safari, and we all loved The Lion King and Nemo shows (we always do!).

Breakfast with Minnie

Catherine reacts to Pluto

All of us with Pluto

Visiting Santa at the Very Merry Christmas Party

My free birthday ticket! Tigger at Animal Kingdom

Heidi and me with Expedition Everest in the background

Mark coordinated with Heidi to get me an ice cream cake.

We got home from Disney at about 2 a.m., and the next morning we got up, got ready and hit the road for a wedding in Greensboro. I'm surprised we even remember a thing about that day because we were so exhausted! When we got home that evening, Heidi had picked up a cake for me that Mark ordered (above).

Ah, the gingerbread house. It's been a little point of contention in our home since, well, before we even were married. While we were engaged, an attempt to make a gingerbread house ended in a big fight and Mark swearing off gingerbread houses for good. I've tried over the past few years to get the ban lifted, and this year I staged a coup and bought a couple for us to try. I bought a bigger one at Sam's for the adults and a little one at IKEA for us to do with Catherine.
Before we could even get started, Catherine broke and took a bite out of the smaller one, rendering it structurally unsound. Mark attempted an a-frame structure, but in the end, he and Catherine were on cookie duty (on of the sets came with a few cookies to decorate, too). Since it was really my "dream" to make the house, Heidi provided mostly consultation and placed some of the candies :)

Mark's A-frame

Under construction

The finished product

So Heidi left Tuesday (oh, I forgot to mention that Mark left town for work again while Heidi was here), and then Catherine's nativity parade and class party at preschool were on Thursday. The parade was about the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Each class had a different element of the nativity story. From animals to angels to little Marys and Josephs, they had everything! Each "float" had a Christmas song playing, and the children in that class were dressed according to that song. The best example I can remember is the little drummer boys, but Mark's favorite was the end of the parade. The banner had John 3:16 on it, and each child in the class was dressed in a costume from a different country. I took a lot of video, so I hope at some point to put it all together once the computer doesn't freak out over video files anymore.

Catherine as an angel. Yes, this is the only picture I have. This is why I am buying a new camera.

The children get ready to sing.

Catherine and one of her favorite buddies in class

Catherine and one of her teachers, Miss Paulette

That Sunday, we drove up to Mark's parents to celebrate Mark's dad's birthday and an early Christmas with them. We've had some unusually cold weather here in the Carolinas lately, and Winston-Salem even got snow! It was well timed with our visit and Catherine got to play in it for the first time. It actually snowed here once last year, but I didn't let her out in it. I am so mean!

Catherine, Papaw and Mark put together this cute snow man, and Granny provided everything to make him look like a "man." She had so much fun.

A little love for the snow manSnow angelOpening her present

She loves her new easel!

We ate, opened presents and then went to the Tanglewood Festival of Lights. I've been to it a couple of times before and loved it. Unfortunately, there was a HUGE crowd that night, and even though we got there before it opened, it still took a couple of hours to get through.
Part of the reason we celebrated early with Mark's parents is that Matt, Gwyn and the kids were coming on Christmas Day. Of course, I took no pictures. These ones from Christmas morning should give you a good idea of how unmotivated I am to snap shots with our current camera.

Catherine got this adorable kitchen from Nonna and Granpa Jim, and we furnished it with pots, pan and cooking utensils. Jim (who is a chef) got Catherine the most adorable chef's coat and hat that I had embroidered with her name. So cute! Nonno got her the cute pajamas she's wearing, some other cute clothes and a few new favorite toys: a medical kit, a Mr. Potato Head set and a Little People garage. She also got a Little Mermaid doll, a Snow White costume, Cinderella nightgown, the cutest little pair of rain boots from Matt, Gwyn and the kids, a new Nemo DVD from Auntie Heidi, and more. We talked about Santa with her a little bit over the course of the month and said Santa had come to visit when she came down the stairs on Christmas morning. We think Santa is a cute tradition and are OK with her believing some of her presents came from him, but we don't intend to play it up very much. She was excited to see him when we were at Disney, but the several times that she exclaimed "Jesus is born!" on Christmas morning melted our hearts. We want to have fun with holidays, regardless of which ones, but at the same time we want Catherine to understand and appreciate the more important reason for Christmas. We're delighted that she gets it, even at age 2!

Daddy pointing to her kitchen covered in a blanket. You also can see the easel and the Little People garage.

We had a great, albeit short, visit with Matt, Gwyn and the kids. We enjoyed a feast on Christmas Day, played lots of Wii (my dad got me one for my birthday and Christmas), and Gwyn and I got to spend an afternoon out without the children. That was a present all by itself!

Because I can't let Thanksgiving come without posting at least one Halloween photo

2009-11-19T08:14:00.004-05:00

Updates on Liberia

2009-10-26T15:24:00.006-04:00

I haven't mentioned anything about Liberia lately, and there have been some recent developments that you should check out:

Update on adoptions in Liberia here

Current and past updates on the Daniel Hoover Children's Village Mission Boarding School here

Charlotte Families on Oprah's "Fascinating Families" episode here

These are our sponsor kids, H (girl) and M (boy). I'm not going to publish their names. Would you pray for them and the other children in Liberia? Pray for their current situation and for a hopeful future. Maybe you can consider being part of that hopeful future. There are many other children at the orphanage (now mission school) who still need sponsors.

Just a Little Something Funny

2009-10-22T20:18:00.002-04:00

I have been waiting for this segment to come up on youtube since this episode of "Parks and Recreation" last week. Mark and I hit rewind and watched it at least 5 times when it was on.

California Pics

2009-10-11T17:43:00.003-04:00

Beach Trip and Birthdays

2009-10-11T10:01:00.011-04:00

The weekend after Labor Day, we met up with Mark's parents in North Myrtle Beach for a few days. The weather was perfect, which was nice because when we went last year, the weather was cool and overcast. We barely got to play on the beach, so we enjoyed multiple opportunities this time.

We played a few rounds of mini golf -- once with Papaw and once while we were out on a date. The place we played with Papaw was part of a group of three courses that we played two of them last year. One of the fun things about the courses is that they have these spinners at several of the holes that instructs each person to do something different such as putting with your eyes shut, putting between your legs or using one of the other players as an obstacle. I think it makes the round more fun.

We also met up with Mark's aunt and uncle, George and Hazel, in Calabash for lunch one day. They live in Carolina beach, and our plans to see them last year fell through, so we were happy that everything worked out this year. As you can see in the pictures, Catherine warmed up to them quickly!

Catherine made a new friend at Build-A-Bear, and she now totes Pup Pup around almost as much as her Flopsy Bunny. Weeks later, she is still playing with that box!

Mark and I enjoyed a date one evening. We saw an IMAX film, played mini-golf, had a great dinner, and Mark showed me the "real" Myrtle Beach. I'm glad we don't stay there. :) Catherine stayed back at the condo with Granny and Papaw, who played Little People with her and made a tiara and other things with some craft supplies I brought. They also took Catherine to the beach while we went shopping one morning, too. We were able to find some great stuff in a short amount of time without toting Catherine around with us!

We introduced Granny and Papaw to Five Guys on the first night we got there, and they liked it so much that they had it again on the night we were on our date! I think they'll be visiting the one in Winston-Salem now that they know how good it is. They also brought their Wii, and we had the most fun bowling. We played a new game called Bananagrams, which is quickly becoming a favorite.

Beach time

This is love because I do NOT like playing in the sand.

With George and Hazel outside Callahan's in Calabash

Fun with George and Hazel

Between the legs shot at Molten Mountain

More beach time with Papaw and Granny

Catherine made a little friend on the beach.

Mini-golf on our date

Just being silly

Catherine made this tiara.

Catherine loves to play in PupPup's house.

Peek-a-Boo!

We surprised Granny and Makayla during their birthday celebration at Granny and Papaw's house. It couldn't have been more perfectly timed. The mailman was delivering the mail just as we were sneaking up to the door to ring the doorbell and leave Catherine on the porch. The mailman caught on to what we were doing, so when they answered the door he said, "I just found this little girl in your yard and thought she might be yours." Granny was so surprised, and Catherine had fun playing with her cousins.

Earrings for Makayla

Catherine eyes the presents.

Fun Field Trips, Part 3

2009-10-10T21:09:00.005-04:00

Marisa came to visit the last week of September/first week of October. It was great to have her here! We had fun hitting the Dillard's fall clearance and even made it to a movie. I finally saw The Proposal, which I really liked. We also made the trek to the North Carolina Zoo. Becky (also a friend from CA who moved to Raleigh this year) and I were planning to meet up there in late September, so we decided to do it while Marisa was here. The zoo is, but it's very spread out and requires a lot of walking. I don't mind all the walking, but at times it felt like we were going in circles. I'm a pretty decent map reader, and I felt like we were lost all the time. If we had been there when it was hot and muggy, then it might have been miserable. However, it was a gorgeous day! We brought a picnic and enjoyed a few hours together while the kids ran around looking at the animals.

"Auntie Misa" and Catherine

Reading the map in search of giraffes

There they are!

She got really attached to that map.

Josiah and Catherine check out some animals.

Then they climbed some monkeys.

Becky points out an animal.

Marisa, Catherine and Ashley check things out.

A seal soaks up some sun.

Fun Field Trips, Part 2

2009-10-10T08:47:00.007-04:00

In late August, our neighbor Stacey and her younger daughter Ena and I visited Lazy 5 ranch in Mooresville. I had been wanting to make the trip there for at least a year, and I'm so glad we finally made it! As with EdVenture (see previous post), the timing was great. We went the first week of school for Charlotte public schools, so the place was practically empty. We had gorgeous weather, too!

Lazy 5 is a wild animal park where you can either ride a wagon (hot and sunny) or drive your own car through on the roads. Stacey drove and wanted to take her minivan through, which worked out well because the girls could either sit on our laps or stand up in the van. As you'll see in the pictures, the animals literally walk right up to your car! I'm sure that's partially due to the bucket of feed we were holding out the window. However, the ostriches needed to coaxing. They were bold! A couple of them freaked me out when they stealthily made their way to the window around the back of the car.

Lazy 5 also has an area that's more like a petting zoo. We walked through there pretty quickly, so the girl mostly just saw the goats. There's a playground and picnic area that the girls enjoyed, too. I imagine this place gets really busy on the weekends and with field trips during the school year, so it was such a treat to have the run of the place! It was worth the hour-long drive.

That ostrich is coming for us. Can't you tell?

I'm holding out a bucket of feed.

Some of the animals are sweet, like these deer.

A llama (or alpaca, not sure which) greets Stacey and Ena.

Sitting on mommy's lap. Catherine loved that!

The giraffes were behind fences in their own area.

The taller ones could bend over the fence to eat.

I see we have another visitor.

Catherine doing her own animal impression. Heaven only knows which animal!

Catherine and Ena check out the camel.

Petting the goats

Fun Field Trips, Part 1

2009-10-09T22:00:00.005-04:00

Future Dentist?

Lexi, Emily, Lainey and Catherine in front of the giant kid

Catherine, Daniel and Lainey "riding" a camel

Catherine the firefighter

And the driver

And the shopper

Oh, how they shopped

And shopped some more

That make-believe store was a HUGE hit

Right after Catherine started school in August, my friend Megan and I took all the kids to EdVenture, which is the children's museum down in Columbia. What a great place! It's definitely the best children's museum I've visited. The timing turned out to be perfect as well. School had just returned to session in South Carolina, so we practically had the place to ourselves. Catherine had so much fun, and she had friends to ride with in the car and to run around with! Megan and I both enjoyed adult conversation while the kids talked and, at times, screamed and inflicted bodily harm. :) I foresee many trips to EdVenture in our future!

Momma's Got a New 'Do

2009-10-09T12:45:00.004-04:00

I think this is the end of the 18 month drama for my hair. It goes like this: Butchering in April 2008; grow it out for approximately a year; cut, color, highlights and re-cut and re-highlight in the spring to get something I liked (although not as severe as I wanted); another butchering in July; a clean-up later in July by my mom's hairdresser in CA; and finally, FINALLY, a great cut by a friend's hairdresser in Pineville. I love it!!! I took in 3 pics of Victoria Beckham (when she had this hairstyle), and it's a perfect replica. Whitney (the hairdresser) was so confused as to why no one seemed to understand that I wanted this. It was a piece of cake for her. Trust me, I took pictures in to the others. I'm so excited that after almost 4 years, I may finally have found a hairdresser.

Degenerate Blogger

2009-10-09T09:56:00.001-04:00

I have been such a slacker on the blogging. It's not that we haven't been doing anything fun or have anything to share. I've just been highly unmotivated to put it to words, convert the pics and get stuff posted. In a word: LAZY! We're planning to stay home ALL DAY today (see #10 for the reason why), so I hope to post more than this highlights list. I actually started this more than a month ago and forgot about it, so I made some revisions.

1. Recently, as we were pulling out of the parking lot after some children's ministry training at church, Catherine exclaimed, "Mommy, look at the moon! Look at the moon! Look at the moon!" It was a big, bright beautiful moon, and we would have missed it if she hadn't pointed it out to us.

2. Catherine got put in timeout at preschool during the second week of school back in August. I've gotten over the horror of my child committing serious enough acts to get in trouble at school, but I was horrified at the time! I'm sure this will be the first of many (let's hope not too many!!!) times that a teacher will tell me she's been up to no good. I thought I'd make it through more than 2 weeks before that would happen, though. :)

3. Other than the timeout, Catherine has been enjoying preschool. She's produced several works of art that could be classified as Picassos, of course. A paper detailing their activities is sent home each day, and there has been lots of signing, playing and learning to share. In September they started some of the "academic" learning, which mostly consists of learning colors, body parts, senses, etc. They have started Spanish, too. She clearly knows a handful of body parts in Spanish now and says cabeza (head) and ojos (eyes) pretty clearly. The first 2 or 3 weeks of school, I feared that naps were on their way out because she was wired when we got home from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm happy to report that she's used to the schedule and back to a good 2-hour nap.

4. Catherine has a couple of DVDs from a series called "Hermie," which uses the life and interactions of a little caterpillar to teach moral concepts and biblical truth. I think Tim Conway is the voice of Hermie, and in one episode, he has a friend played by Don Knotts. One weekend afternoon recently, there was a Scooby-Doo movie on Cartoon Network (it was actually on for me, hee hee). We weren't paying much attention to it, and Catherine was just playing with her toys, so when she started saying, "Hermie! Hermie!" and pointing to the TV, we didn't know what she was talking about. After listening for a minute, we realized that Don Knotts was one of the voices of one of the characters. She recognized his voice and connected in her little brain that it was the voice from Hermie! I don't know much about child development, but even if that's normal for a 2-year-old, I'm impressed.

5. We took away Catherine's pacifier back in August, and she didn't even fight it that much. She only had it at bedtime and naptime, but we thought it was time anyway. Well, I only lasted 2 or 3 weeks because she started waking up earlier and taking shorter naps, and I was convinced it was the absence of the paci. So I gave it back. She didn't even ask for it. What a crummy mother I am!!! Now I'll probably never get it away from her. I do think it has helped, though.

6. I'm certain that Catherine would live on yogurt and peanut butter if we let her. And cookies. And ice cream milk. What's ice cream milk, you say? When we were in California, my dear mother began giving Catherine milk with a little dash of flavored creamer in it and called ice cream milk. Now we field daily requests for ice cream milk, which really is pretty harmless. It's a very small amount or creamer, but I don't want her to refuse to drink regular milk. Trust me, she can tell the difference, too. I've tried to trick her. We've been trying to make it just a treat, but if you ask her, she can't live without it!

7. Catherine is just a little bit bossy (No comment on which parent she gets that from. It couldn't possibly be me). She hasn't gotten in trouble for it (yet) at school, but the teacher did mention last week that she was particularly bossy that day.

8. Like many toddlers, Catherine loves to dance around the living room and even does a little groove in her carseat. Two dances that I've been trying to catch on video are when she dances to me new "Don't Stop Believin'" (Glee cast version) when the phone rings in the car and when she grooves with the dancing cow on the Maola milk commercial.

9. We are in the midst of a six-week stretch without visitors and without one of us getting on a plane. Woo hoo! Not that we don't love the visitors and travel. A little break just helps me get things done (like blogging!). Once mid-November hits, though, it's going to be a crazy month or so: business trip to Texas for Mark; Thanksgiving in Texas for all of us at my aunt and uncle's (Nonna and Grandpa Jim, too!); a weeklong visit from Nonno; a CRAZY 2-day, 1-night trip to Disneyworld for my birthday; and Matt, Gwyn and the kids for Christmas. It's going to be a fun several weeks, but I think I need this down time to prepare for it.

10. POTTY TRAINING!!!!!!!!! Catherine had been going on the potty before bath time pretty consistently for awhile, and last weekend, she just decided she was ready to go for it. I'm still using pull-ups because I just don't want to deal with poopy panties yet, and she has refused to poop on the potty. However, after I told the teacher about the potty training on Tuesday, she asked that I bring Catherine in panties on Thursday. And what happened? A poop accident. I sure am glad I didn't have to clean up that one. Some friends have told me that once they have a poop accident, they rarely do again. Here's hoping ... We're staying home all day today in panties to give it a trial run.

Birthday and Preschool (Updated)

2009-08-18T14:41:00.006-04:00

Posing for the camera before we leave for school

Out front before we went inside

Holding her princess lunchbox (she calls it her backpack)

Ready to be picked up

Playing with fake food in her classroom during orientation last week

Today is a big day in our house: it's Mark's birthday and Catherine started preschool! She's just going 2 mornings a week, but both she and I were ready for it. It seems like an outstanding program, and I think she will really thrive in that environment. Drop-off was a breeze. She walked right in and said, "Bye!" When I came back to pick her up, she excitedly ran over and didn't cry. What, you say? Didn't cry when you left? Why would that happen? Well, last week when we went to her orientation, she was having such a great time that she cried and cried when we left. I was concerned that she would do that again. She was fine, though. She did have a meltdown later on the way home, but I think she was just pooped from the exciting day.

At the end of each day, Catherine will come home with a sheet that tells what they did that day. Today's activites included: making a picture with dot markers, singing, learning about body parts and playing outside and in the playroom. They talked about sharing, read "Spot Goes to School" and learned about thanking God for friends.

After Mark and I dropped Catherine off this morning, we enjoyed breakfast ALONE at The Flying Biscuit to celebrate Mark's birthday. After a leisurely stroll through the dollar store, I decided to make my way home for a couple of hours before going back to get Catherine. It was so funny, I kept thinking I needed to be quiet, like she was upstairs sleeping! I honestly don't recall when I've been at home alone without her there. I get out of the house without her all the time, but being home alone felt so unfamiliar. I guess I had forgotten what it was like!

I enjoyed the quiet, did a little Bible study and started brainstorming all I can accomplish with my new free time. I've got plenty to do, and come mid-September, I'll have Bible study at church on Tuesdays, so I'll really just have Thursdays.

Mark's parents came over the weekend, and we celebrated Mark's birthday with them. Below are some pictures. Mark and I spent the afternoon out together, which was a nice treat.

I'm a total slacker. I didn't even make him a cake this year.

Mexico, Part 2

2009-08-11T14:09:00.009-04:00

Waterfall inside the butterfly sanctuary

Catherine would have loved the aquarium

Special shot for those with an unusual fear of sharks (a.k.a. Heidi!)

Stingrays

Big turtles. There were some adorable little ones, too.

Those clouds stayed off shore, and we had great weather the rest of the day.

A Mayan ceremony

Getting ready to play an ancient Mayan game

EEEK!

Yes, the ball was on fire.

Replica of a Mayan cemetery

Mark HAD to take a picture of this urinal. It went all the way along the wall.

A puma (above) and Mark trying to look fierce like the puma (below)

Iguanas walked around all over the place.

The day after we arrived in Playa, we visited an eco-waterpark called Xcaret. I'm sure there are some who would say it's too much of a tourist destination, but we thought it was great. For reasons stated in the previous post, it was pretty much dead. In fact, we only wish we would have arrived later in the day. We got there right when it opened in case it was busy, but by the time the evening rolled around, we were so pooped that we decided to leave before the big nighttime show.

Still, we had a great time there. Of course, there's a ton of water. You can sit on the beach, swim in a pool, float in a underground river, go snorkeling and more. I chose to do Snuba, which is a cross between SCUBA and snorkeling. Mark isn't a very strong swimmer, so he spent an extra hour on the beach. I used an underwater camera, but I haven't scanned those in yet. I'll post them once I do. They're just on a waterproof disposable, so they're not the finest quality. :)

There's a lot to learn about Mayan culture there, too. While everything (buildings, exhibits, shows, ruins) is just a replica, you can still get a good idea. Personally, I liked how it combined recreation, leisure and learning all in the same place. It was a great way to kick off our week!

Still to come: Chichen Itza, zip line tour and more (including those underwater camera photos) ...

Mexico, Part 1

2009-08-10T16:11:00.010-04:00

Hanging out in our suite

On the beach in Playa del Carmen

An AWESOME breakfast at La Cueva del Chango

A towel swan left by the housekeeper

Mark standing by one of the pools

This Bud's for Poo

2009-08-05T16:21:00.004-04:00

Pardon the pun in the post title. I couldn't resist.

Some people may have heard of a recipe for Beer Can Chicken, where you stand a whole chicken on a can of beer and grill it. On an average weeknight at Macy's in Stockton, it's more like Beer Can Toilet. That's right. Not Wal-Mart (although I saw a naked toddler in a just a diaper there one night). This was at Macy's.

Absentee Blogger, UPDATED

2009-08-03T17:48:00.003-04:00

I haven't dropped off the planet, although Catherine and I are on the other side of the country. We've been in California for almost 2 weeks and get back on Wednesday morning. We're having a great time! I had hoped to post while we were here, but I somehow forgot the cord that connects the camera to the computer, and my mom's computer doesn't have a memory car slot. Sigh ... I'll try to get it together when we get back. The weather has been AMAZING, and even the couple of 100-plus days weren't so bad. We've gotten together with countless friends and family, eaten like pigs and spent plenty of time in the pool.

My mom was prepared to start potty-training Catherine while we were here, but Catherine will have NOTHING to do with it. She thinks the princess potty seat is fun to look at but screams when we try to put her on it. I guess I'll just save all of the fun rewards my mom had ready for her and try again later. :)

More to come when we get back!

UPDATE: So I sit down this afternoon to set up and load my mom's photo key chain, and what did it come with? A cord that works perfectly with my camera!! Of course I would discover this on the the last day here. A lot of good that does!

Check this out

2009-07-16T23:45:00.002-04:00

Mark and I attended a benefit event this evening for a friend's ministry called Weaving Families. It provides support to those in all stages of the adoption process, mostly in the form of education and counseling (both pre- and post-adoption). My friend, Rebecca, and her husband, RJ, have 4 children adopted from Guatemala and Ghana, and have followed God's leading to use their experience to help others.

Tonight's benefit featured Carolina Panther, Mushin Muhammad and his wife, Christa. The couple (who have 4 biological children) adopted 2 children from Ethiopia a couple of years ago. WCNC ran a story on them this evening as well. Click below to see the story.

One-on-one with Muhsin Muhammad | WCNC.com | Local News for Charlotte, North Carolina | Top Stories

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Broccoli Bandit

2009-07-15T18:29:00.004-04:00

Mark was a little later than usual tonight, so I fed Catherine before he ever got home. Her meal included broccoli, which she ASKED FOR! We have been struggling with her eating vegetables for a few months but recently rediscovered broccoli. In fact, later on when Mark and I were eating, she stood at my feet and begged (and I mean begged) me for more broccoli. Apparently she still hadn't gotten enough because she climbed up next to Mark and swiped some of his when he got up to get something to drink. When he returned to his seat, she was stuffing a big floret into her mouth.

I guess you could say he caught her green handed.

Bits and Pieces

2009-07-12T22:41:00.004-04:00

Can't start too early!

How many times do I have to do this?

Below: The empty drawer Above: Some of Catherine's favorite "toys" from the drawer

Catherine's name in Jell-O jigglers

These are just a few recent photos. We went to Matt & Gwyn's for July 4th, and of course I barely took any photos. We brought Carlo back to spend the week with us and had a great time with him. Again, almost no photos. Catherine and I spent the day with my dear, old friend (not old in age) Becky in Raleigh when we went to meet Gwyn to exchange Carlo. Yep, not a single photo. Catherine was a complete cranky pants that day, but I sure enjoyed spending several hours with Becky and her children (and Brent for a short while before we hit the road).

Computer Blessings and Woes

2009-07-09T10:04:00.003-04:00

Long story short:

- Our Dell laptop is a piece of junk and has been since about 6 months after we bought it.
- Mark's parents had an extra laptop that they have given to us. Thank you!!!!!
- I now can print documents (after MONTHS of not being able to) and chat and surf the internet without crashing!
- The old laptop took offense that we were replacing it and now refuses to connect to the internet, so for now I can't post any pictures that I already had on that computer. That includes Mexico. The USB ports don't recognize anything either, so I can't transfer them. I don't have the patience to put all of the pics and video on CDs at this point.

Ugh.

So while I am jumping for joy about the new laptop, the old one continues to haunt me.

Delay

2009-06-29T00:00:00.003-04:00

I had a much busier weekend than I expected. Good, but busy.

I brought the laptop upstairs to put together something about Mexico, but then I got sucked in. I was getting all caught up on Angel and Ellen's trip to Liberia. I had been keeping up with Angel's blog, but I didn't even realize that Ellen had been posting!

So it's midnight. I didn't even start on the Mexico post.

I'll try again in the morning ...

Declaration

2009-06-26T15:20:00.003-04:00

I, Angela Sluder, do solemnly swear to complete and post a full account of our trip to Mexico before the end of this weekend. We've been home for more than a month. I'm ridiculously slow!

Compliment?

2009-06-26T14:32:00.004-04:00

First let me say that Mark rarely puts his foot in his mouth in regards to how I look. He's usually full of compliments. Real compliments. Not like the one from this past weekend:

"I kind of like your hair all frizzy like that."

That "compliment" instantly made me think of a video my friend Jamie posted recently. Men, watch and learn. Ladies, laugh and remember all of those "compliments" you've received from your beloved.

Paul and the Underground Church

2009-06-26T14:15:00.012-04:00

The week before last was Vacation Bible School at church, which is for kids K-5th grade. People who volunteer can send their children to the preschool program, so the groups are nice and small and they do a whole program for them that's similar to what the older children are doing.

Here's a sample of the preschool worship time with Jenny, who always makes sure it's high energy!

This year's theme was "Paul and the Underground Church," and the underground church was exactly where I spent my week! I played "Lucia," a first century christian who met with the children in a "cave," not unlike the caves and catacombs where the early church in Rome met. Four groups of about 60 kids each rotated through the dark, cold room decorated like a cave where we talked about the time they spent with "Paul" and at the other VBS stations. In each station they learned about first century Rome, the Apostle Paul and the underground church today in China. Catherine and I both had a great week, but I was POOPED by the time we got home each day. I haven't napped that much in a long time.

A "big girl" in the 2s class

Friends Lexi and Lainey during preschool worship

Singing along

Um, I think I'll make my exit

Friends Daniel and Graham were in her class

Catherine's class had the usual suspects: Graham, Daniel, Ava and Holt (not there on this day)

That's Catherine in the light pink dress.

Slacker Post

2009-06-23T15:22:00.008-04:00

We've been busy having a lot of fun lately! I'm too much of a slacker to write more, so here are some highlights from our recent weeks.

Um, yeah. We live in South Carolina, where it is totally acceptable to use lawn chairs as living room furniture. Catherine asks for this chair all of the time, so occasionally I indulge and pull it out of the garage.
We've been making plenty of trips to Carowinds, trying to use our season passes all we can! This was from a quick trip over there a couple of Sundays ago. She definitely likes to ride by herself now. We went last Sunday (Father's Day) with Mark's parents and finally made it to the water park. Catherine had lots of fun splashing around as many areas as she could while Mark, Papaw and I took in a few slides. This week we met up with the Vespas for a few rides and a romp around Kookabura Bay. She had so much more fun with them than with her boring old parents!

Riding Boots Balloon Race with Daddy

Nonna (my mom) came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a fun and productive visit. Fun included symphony in the park, a trip to the pool, Mark's brother's wedding, an awesome breakfast at The Original Pancake House, shopping at IKEA, going to see "UP" at the theater, a mani/pedi and lots of eating! Productivity included cleaning the whole house, catching up on all the laundry and my mother re-organizing my pantry. How great is that!
Mom says her highlight was the evening she and I spent at Pops in the Park. The youth symphony opened that night, and they were outstanding. Then we enjoyed the Charlotte Symphony's renditions of some Rodgers and Hammerstein, Copeland and John Williams show tunes. The weather was PERFECT, dry and mild, a rarity in June in the south.

Posing by the fountain at Southpark outside The Counter

Our small group had a BBQ and swim party at the Capuas. The guys were so great, splashing around the pool with all the kids while the ladies visited. I'm surprised that Mark didn't pass out from exhaustion because Catherine was the only toddler and required constant close supervision.
So that was June, for the most part. Catherine and I also did Vacation Bible School, but that will have a post of it's own. We're getting ready for a trip to Matt & Gwyn's next week, and I'm sure that will yield lots of photos!

Cute stuff Catherine said

2009-06-05T18:20:00.002-04:00

Catherine and I had to run to the store this afternoon for a missing ingredient for dinner. After we finished, we hopped in the car and started to drive away. I grabbed the hand sanitizer and squirted some into my hands. I often give Catherine some, too, but her hands were full with a cookie and sippy cup. She kept repeating something that I couldn't understand, but after a few times and looking back to see her outstretched arm, I finally realized that she was saying, "Wash hands!!!"

Ah, my little germophobe. Already trained at the tender age of 2.

When we got home, Catherine stopped to have a "conversation" with the rolly polly bug she saw on the way out to the car when we left for the store. When I asked her to come in, she said, "OK, bye bye bug. Bye, bug!" She said a few more things I couldn't understand before I shut the door, and then she continued with the "Bye, bye, bug!"

I hope she's not too brokenhearted when she realizes that I kill as many bugs as possible.

Fun Times with Papaw and Granny

2009-06-05T10:11:00.005-04:00

Reading with Papaw

Climbing everything in sight

"Dress up"

Becoming a Wii master

Bubbles in the back yard

"Shopping" with Granny

Tea time with Papaw

"Cooking" with Granny

I think I'm on about a 2-week delay these days ... Anyway, while we were in Mexico, Catherine spent the week up in Winston-Salem with Mark's parents. She had a great time! They visited the children's museum, played in the nursery at church, went to Chuck E Cheese, played with cousins, sharpened her wii skills and enjoyed the big back yard. She kept Granny and Papaw on their toes with her constant running around!

We're glad they all got to spend so much extended time together. Since they live so close, we tend to see them in short spurts, whereas my parents come for weeks at a time. I think it was great for everyone (including us!) that they had a week of their own.

Home, Sweet Ghetto

2009-06-01T09:06:00.004-04:00

My poor hometown. It seems like whenever a new "worst" list comes out, Stockton has to make the top 10. I know I haven't lived there since the end of 2001, but is it really that bad? I mean, one of the most recent lists I saw it on called it one of the most miserable places in America. More miserable than Detroit. Really? More miserable than a city with a declining population, average home sales value of $10,000 and a felon for a mayor?

This is the one I read today. Stockton is listed as the 5th most dangerous city:
Click here.

Don't get me wrong. I know Stockton has declined over the years in a number of ways. But I do visit a lot, and while I much more mindful of locking the car (although if you read my post from last November about when I unknowingly left my mom's car running outside of Chuck's for over an hour, you might disagree), I don't feel like I need to pack a glock anymore than I did when I lived there for 25 years.

I'm curious what current Stocktonians think about this trend of Stockton making the "worst" lists.

First Solo Rides

2009-05-27T18:50:00.005-04:00

We got back from Mexico on Saturday evening (post forthcoming) and had such a great trip! On Memorial Day, Jeff joined us and we met up with the Vespas for awhile at Carowinds. Catherine has been on countless rides with us at Disney World, but she had never had the opportunity to ride one by herself. Above are her two "airplane" rides. Emily, a highly-trained big sister, accompanied Catherine on the rides. As you can see, she was NOT happy on the green plane. We tried again later on the jets, and she was much happier when she could sit next to Emily. On the video, you can hear Emily say that Catherine keeps saying "Weee!!"

Mother's Day Requests

2009-05-11T10:36:00.003-04:00

I had a good Mother's Day, complete with this cute card from my obviously genius child, who at age 2 penned this request for more Mexican food and a little brother or sister.

After a failed attempt at IHOP, we ate breakfast at Panera (we went to church on Saturday night this week). The weather yesterday morning to was too good to pass up a trip to the park, so we stopped at Pineville Lake Park for a few trips down the slide and a walk around the "lake" to spot some turtles (I have a hard time calling it a lake, since it's more like a big pond). After a quiet afternoon, we feasted on Baskin-Robbins sundaes for dinner and watched The Amazing Race finale.

The gift I received should help with the first request. It was the cookbook, "Mexican Everyday" by Rick Bayless. It's 300 pages of yumminess, and I only wish it had more pictures. I like to see what dishes are going to look like before I try them!

I'll do my best to deliver on request #2 in the next year, but I'll need some help from Daddy on that one :)

As I watch my little munchkin dance around the living room, I'm reminded that I'm such a blessed mommy!

Swine Flu and the Sluders

2009-05-02T11:55:00.004-04:00

We've had an anniversary trip to Playa del Carmen planned for this month since last summer, and it's going to take more than the overly-hyped swine flu to keep us from there. It would be great if we'd focus on containing and/or wiping real threats to the world population like ... let's see ... malaria? That kills about a million a year. AIDS? 3 million in 2005. TB? 1.7 million.

The flu? About 400,000 worldwide each year.

I understand the caution when a new strain emerges, but some of the measures that local governments and employers are resorting to are a bit much. My uncle told me the entire school system in their town in Texas is closed for 2 weeks, and no one in their schools had even had swine flu. One company (which will remain nameless) is not allowing employees to return to work until 7 days after returning from Mexico. Even the Catholic church in Charlotte is discouraging parishioners from greeting each other with a hug or handshake.

I read this yesterday, posted by an American couple that lives in Playa del Carmen. It contradicts the misinformation that is being disseminated by the media. There are no reported cases of swine flu in Playa, and people are continuing to enjoy the beautiful weather and activities. Almost nothing is closed, with the exception of nightclubs holding more than 1,000 people and some archaeological sites.

Read the post here.

So unless the swine flu takes a turn for the worse in the next week or so, ADIOS!

A few recent photos

2009-04-28T23:22:00.003-04:00

Tea Party with Nonna at the Outer Banks

Going for a frigid walk on the Beach with Auntie Gwyn, AJ and Carlo

A swim with Nonna (It was FREEZING outside, but the water was warm)
Silly AJ
Making new use of her new water table
She just climbed right in
She played for awhile outside of it, sending all of her animals down the slide.

"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"

2009-04-20T12:24:00.003-04:00

Jumping back to Easter Sunday ...

Heidi and I attended a screening of the film, "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." This film chronicles the joint efforts of Christian and Muslim women in Liberia to bring an end to the civil war that had plagued their nation for years. Sick and tired of the murder, rape, forced child soldiers and displacement of so many Liberians, a small group of women launched a grassroots movement that pressured dictator Charles Taylor and opposition warlords to the negotiating table.

It was hard to watch, but at the same time full of hope. The tenacity and unrelenting spirit of these women was inspiring. Their situation was about as despairing as one could possibly imagine, and they stood up without fear of consequences. That was what struck me most of all. The government was against the people. The opposition fighters were against the people. Everyone who had any power at all seemed to be in it for themselves, but these women banded together to become a unstoppable force working for future generations in their tiny nation.

The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA (check out her recently-released memoir here). It was a short but good dialogue (except for some ridiculous technical difficulties, and the guy interviewing her seeming to know little about her or Liberia, ugh). Many, if not most of the people who attended the screening were either adoptive families (those who already have adopted or are stuck in the stalled process) or were somehow associated with our team that just returned from Liberia. They were able to communicate their commitment to using their own time, skills and experience in the process of rebuilding Liberia, as well as their desire for their Liberian children to be part of it, too.

The film is being shown across the country (and around the world). Find a screening here. Otherwise, you can Netfilx or rent it when it becomes available. Below are links to some reviews.

The Huffington Post
NY Times
KQED (SF PBS station)
Fataculture (just some guy's blog, but I liked what he said)

You Gotta Have Friends

2009-04-19T15:15:00.001-04:00

I count myself pretty privileged. I've got awesome girlfriends. We live in an age where people have the ability to be more connected than ever, yet so many feel isolated. At every stop along the way in my life (and there have been numerous stops), the Lord has blessed me with girlfriends who have walked through that chapter with me. Some of us have been walking together so long, I can't believe we haven't passed out! We've laughed, cried, argued, shopped, ate, prayed, planned, traveled, lived together ... the list is endless.

So when I read this article today on the types of friends a woman needs, I didn't feel I was lacking for any of them.

You know who you are. Whether you've been there since we were on monkey bars or have we have just jumped in on the most recent chapters of each other's lives, you're special to me!!

It was on MSN, but I think it was originally in Glamour (just want to give proper credit):

Talking about 7 Friends Every Woman Needs
They’re there when times are bad (with a dirty martini or a carton of B&J in hand) and they’re there when times are good (with a dirty martini or a carton of B&J in hand). They’re our sisters, our secret-keepers, our sage advisers. Read these odes to some of the world’s greatest friends, then pick up the phone and call yours.

Papaw's House?

2009-04-18T09:19:00.003-04:00

Since Catherine looks absolutely nothing like me, I have at times wondered which of my personality traits, skills, interests, etc. that she would inherit. You know, just to confirm that she's really mine and didn't get switched at the hospital.

I don't exactly have any stand-out talents, but from a very young age I could tell where I was and how to get from here to there. I love maps and have been known to flip through an atlas for hours. Thus, I've been lost very few times in my life.

Catherine may have inherited the "directions gene" because a few months ago, she started shouting "Daddy, Daddy!!!" whenever we pass the street where his office is located (we pass it at least a couple of times a week on the way to church or other places). At first I thought it was a coincidence, but she does it EVERY time. I can't believe she's figured that out.

Then this past week, we happened to go to two different Cracker Barrels (we only ate at one of them. I was just making a pit stop on the long drive the second time). Anyhow, BOTH times when we pulled into the parking lot and across the front of the restaurant/store, Catherine said, "Papaw!" You see, we've met Mark's parents or just Mark's dad at the Cracker Barrel several times. She's probably seen them there more times than she's seen them in their own home, so in her mind it makes complete sense ...

... Papaw lives at the Cracker Barrel.

Easter

2009-04-16T19:36:00.004-04:00

We didn't attend a sunrise service on Easter, but we were still up before the sun. We (including Heidi!) were on nursery and preschool duty for the 8:15 service and then went to church after that. We enjoyed a great celebration of Jesus' resurrection and headed home for a mostly quiet day. Heidi and I attended a film screening in the afternoon, but that's for the next post.

I am becoming quite convinced that I will never get a photo of my child with a smile, looking at the camera, eyes OPEN and in a nice setting (and with a decent camera). It's getting really frustrating. The kid never stops moving. I've taken more great photos than I can count of my niece and nephews over the years, but I can't seem to get just ONE frame-worthy picture of Catherine. And I'm not paying a professional to try until I'm convinced enough that she'll stop moving for 1/18th of a second.

Happy Birthday, Catherine

2009-04-15T16:29:00.010-04:00

Heading out for the hunt

Checking out her goods

An easy find

Coloring with Makayla, Angelyn and Henry

Grabbing some milk with Papaw

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Testing the bell on her tricycle

She loves this puzzle

With Heidi and Julie

A happy belated birthday to my girl. We celebrated plenty on the big day, but with Heidi’s visit, Easter and packing to meet family at the Outer Banks, I just didn’t get anything up until now.

First, I can’t believe how quickly the past two years have passed by. At the same time, April 10, 2007 seems like ages ago. Catherine Sophia Sluder practically crawled right out of me that day, and she has not stopped moving since! Seriously, I’m convinced that I’m doomed to never get a photograph of this child in which she’s not in motion. Heidi and I attempted a shoot with my 35mm, but I haven’t taken them to be developed (not that I think any of them will have turned out!).

Catherine still talks a lot and is a busy little beaver. She loves to be around other children, particularly older ones. Some of her cute new words are “snuggle,” AWESOME!” and "booger." Most of the time she’s so sweet, but she has already thrown a temper tantrum or two … or ten. We’ve implemented timeouts and the “naughty stool” over the past few months, and for the most part, the mere threat of timeout is enough to stop her in her tracks. Mealtime remains the most challenging time of the day. She won’t sit at the table for more than five minutes, so most of the time we end up eating without her. Any old pros can feel free to offer up suggestions on that one.

At her 2-year check up, her doctor continued to be pleased with how well she has been. In the entire past year, the only time I took her for a sick visit was to make sure she didn’t have a sinus infection before we left for Disney World (she was fine). Catherine is still long and lean: 33.5 inches and only 22.6 pounds! Her tiny frame hasn’t caused the doctor much concern. I was a munchkin of a toddler, too, and it’s largely genetic. Plus, if I ran around as much as Catherine does, I’d be skinny, too!

We took advantage of Catherine’s birthday being near Easter this year by having an Easter Egg hunt. Rain was in the forecast, but it held off for just long enough for us to finish the party. Catherine and a bunch of friends (both big and small) raced around the clubhouse in our subdivision to scoop up some loot, and everyone seemed to come away with plenty! In particular, Catherine loved the tricked-out tricycle from Nonna and Grandpa Jim. She also has been enjoying some new puzzles and books. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather so we can bust out the water table that Nonno got her. She’s always trying to play with the hose in the back yard, so I’m sure the water table will provide hours of entertainment this spring and summer.

Liberia Video

2009-04-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

Dan Rutledge has produced a short video about our recent trip to Liberia. To view it click here and then click on "View our Video" on the left side of the page.

Dan (who is a filmmaker) also wrote a little piece about it on Angel's blog. Click here to read.

TV Notes

2009-04-08T10:36:00.004-04:00

Yeah, I know. I probably watch too much television. But in my defense, I'm usually accomplishing another task while I watch it (laundry, dishes, exercising). I'm not sitting around popping bon bons day and night while I veg in front of the TV. Still, this little story may be evidence that I've watched too much American Idol over the years.

When I heard the Idols were picking songs from the year of their birth this week I thought, "Wow, I'm so old. Some of them will be singing songs from when I was in high school." And then I thought, "I'd like to hear Allison sing a Bonnie Raitt song. In fact, she should sing 'I Can't Make You Love Me.' " (I later discovered when reading a recap story that MTV predicted the same thing. I'm sooooo culturally relevant ... HA!!! Yeah right)

And what did she sing last night? "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt. It wasn't my favorite performance by her, but the judges sure loved it.

On a sidenote, American Idol needs to figure out how to run their show on time because it ended so late that my DVR stopped before Adam even came on to sing! Maybe they should have spent a little less time ripping poor Lil' a new one. At least I was able to catch Adam's performance on the idol website.

Oh yeah, it's back. Season 5 starts next Tuesday night, and if American Idol runs over, well tough cookies because the DVR will be switching to Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. This show is proof of just how strange I really am. A bunch of scruffy sailors brave the Bering Sea to catch a food I don't even eat, yet I can't get enough of them. Mark makes fun of me because the advertising during the show is clearly not geared toward my demographic (Budweiser, shaving products), but I don't care. These guys are awesome.

Big Night Out

2009-04-06T18:56:00.004-04:00

Catherine already having a good time with Sarah

We had a first around our house this week ... we hired a babysitter! I know that might seem ridiculous since Catherine is about to turn two, but we really do get out by ourselves. We seem to have some kind of out-of-town visitor every few weeks whether it's my mom, my dad, Heidi or Mark's parents (Not to mention that I/we go out several times by myself/ourselves whenever we are in California). Those visitors are usually gracious enough to offer to watch Catherine for a night while we go out. The few times that I've needed someone to watch her for an hour or two during an appointment, friends have been able to keep her for that short time. All that to say that we've been planning to try a babysitter for a long time and just haven't. So when Mark got me Chris Tomlin tickets for Valentine's Day, I thought that night would be a good place to start. Catherine did really well, just a little pouty lip when she realized we were leaving. Sarah (the babysitter) did a great job and said Catherine played for a couple of hours and then went to bed with no fuss.

We might have to try a babysitter more often!

Good-Bye to ER

2009-04-03T14:39:00.003-04:00

Last night wrapped up 15 years of ER, and I stuck it out through every season. And some of those seasons were pretty bad. After 9 years or so, though, I vowed to stick with it to the end, and I think it got better. I can remember the first time I saw an episode. In the fall of 1994, I spent the semester in London. During Thanksgiving, I flew over to Philly to see my brother and Gwyn (Matt was in his first year of medical school), and while I was there my brother mentioned there were 2 great new Thursday night shows on NBC that season and they had some of them recorded. I watched and was hooked.

So to pay tribute, I'd like to share my top 10 ER Memories. Some are actually from the show, and some are just related to it.

Angela's Top 10 ER Memories (I know I'm going to forget some!):

10. I would classify my friend Jamie as an ER superfan. Well, at least she used to be. She might not even watch it anymore. All I know is that she had an autographed photo of Noah Wylie and visited the set.
9. The sense of justice I felt when Dr. Romano had that helicopter drop on his head. What a jerk he was.
8. The urgency with which nurse Carol Hathaway exited the ER and made a bee-line for Dr. Ross (George Clooney), who had moved to Seattle. I think I actually may have cheered out loud.
7. Chloe's (Dr. Susan Lewis' strung out sister) hair. When Karen's hair would get all dried out and limp, we called her Chloe. It wasn't pretty.
6. The "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" ending to the episode when Dr. Green died in Hawaii. I shed a tear or two during that one.
5. The story line that followed the illness and death of Scott Anspaugh (Dr. Anspaugh's son). I think I just liked his character and the kid who played him. The funny thing is that most of the story line was along with Jeannie Boulet, who was one of my less-favorite ER characters.
4. ER and margaritas: a senior year (in college) staple for me and my roomies. Fun times with my girls.
3. The small pox quarantine. I have an irrational fear of small pox, and the sight of any kind of pox is enough to make me lose my lunch. I barely made it through that episode.
2. Who could forget George Clooney popping up out of that storm drain holding the limp child he had just rescued from the flood waters in the driving rain?
1. A personal one for me: The episode when Lucy Knight was killed by a schizo patient (and Dr. Carter was critically injured), it freaked me out. One of my very best girlfriends, Heidi, looks like she could be Kellie Martin's sister. Depending on the hair color and style, maybe even twin. Anyhow, I felt like I was watching Heidi get murdered before my eyes. I called her immediately.

Oh, and were you wondering what the other show that started in the fall of 1994 that my brother told me was so great: A little series called FRIENDS.

Liberia Photos and Follow-Up

2009-03-30T22:32:00.012-04:00

TO SEE THE PHOTOS IN A LARGER FORMAT, CLICK ON THE PHOTO. THAT WILL TAKE YOU INTO THE SLIDE SHOW IN PICASA

It's been a little more than two weeks since we returned from Liberia, and I'm FINALLY posting something. Please don't take that to mean that I don't have much to say. It's quite the opposite. There's so much that I've almost been without words. The range of issues at hand in a place like Liberia are so vast and so complex that to sum it up in one post would be nearly impossible.

War, past history and cultural norms complicate what is already a difficult situation. The daunting hurdles faced by the people of Liberia and outsiders who are trying to help rebuild could easily cause many to throw in the towel. Some may have, but I left Liberia with a sense of hope.

So instead of rambling on and on about the millions things in my head, I thought in good ol' journalistic fashion that I'd just interview myself to give you an idea about what went on while we were there:

What was Liberia like?
In a word: HOT! Yes, it was hot and sticky. I drank about 3 LITERS of water a day, and I'm sure I sweat out a lot of it. I wouldn't say it was worse than Venezuela (where I traveled in 2001), though. It was probably better, and it helped that we avoided the rainy season. Dan and Angel said it was very different from when they were there in September 2007. Monrovia is a large city, but there weren't many tall buildings. The main roads in the downtown area were paved, but we drove on many bumpy dirt roads lined with tiny homes (the size of my living room or smaller) built of woven straw. I think I saw one traffic light the whole time we were there, and it wasn't really functional. Needless to say, every day included a wild ride, no matter where we went! Still, people find a way to get around whether they walk, ride a scooter or cram into a minivan.

What kind of things did you see there?
An important thing to note is that all of our time was spent in and around the capital city of Monrovia. While a large chunk of the country's residents live in this area, many others live in the interior, so I can't speak to that at all. Liberia's years of civil war came to an end just barely a few years ago. Think of places like Afghanistan, the Balkans and even the south after the American Civil War. It's just devastating what war does. The land is stripped of resources, people are completely thrown for a loop (and some have only known war having grown up during it), and because of instability, many countries and companies don't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. The need for infrastructure to be rebuilt is massive. Running water is a luxury. Everything is powered by generators. Gasoline is poured from jars that, in the Carolinas, would hold sweet tea. Life functions on an everyday level just trying to get by. People go to market every day for their needs, and most people walk to get there.

What did a typical day look like for your team?
We visited the Daniel Hoover Children's Village or the Deaf Home every day. The majority of our time was spent there. However, a few members of our team were in other places at different times. Cyndie and I accompanied Angel one day as she met with other agencies who are efforting to get the moratorium on adoptions lifted. That was fascinating. Part of another day I spent with Angel in the offices of African Christians Fellowship International (ACFI) working to get things organized into file cabinets that will be easily accessible to the staff there. Bob investigated various investment opportunities and investigated ways for the orphanages to become more self-sustaining.

Most of the time, though, we were engaged in various projects around the orphanage. Part of the team worked on construction and maintenance issues, but many of us went through the process of seeing every child for the purpose of giving them a brief medical exam and collecting information for the sponsorships and adoptions run through Christian Adoption Services. This is just a simple example, but I think it speaks to how life was so interrupted by war. One day I weighed and measured height for each child. Almost none of them knew what to do with a scale. Some stared at it like it was a UFO, and others I had to push up onto it. If they were little enough, I finally just picked them up!

Later in the afternoon, we would break up into all of the kids' dorms to play games, listen to a Bible story and make some kind of craft. Eden and I were in dorm 5, which was mostly comprised of girls age 9-11. These girls love to sing!!! Before we would even start we would have them sing us a couple of songs because they were so good and clearly love it so much (and we did, too). It was hilarious when Eden and I would try to get up there and teach them a song because neither of us is a gifted singer.

We did some other things like visit churches, walk to the beach and a little shopping. I also preached a brief message during a service that ACFI hosted in our honor the night before we left. It was a priceless time of celebration, especially because they had brought about 50 children from the orphanage to join us. We sang, danced and praised God for all he had done over the course of the week.

What were the children like at Daniel Hoover Children's Village?
First of all, there are so many of them! It was hard to walk from place to place without being surrounded by children. They love to write letters, and many of the team members received them from the kids they were spending time with. It goes without saying that the children LOVED a little extra attention. They were a lot healthier than I had expected. Having ministered to people in the Venezuelan jungle who were very sick from water-borne illnesses and parasites, I was relieved to not see much of that. I'd attribute that mostly to a well that is onsite. Still, their food supply is small and not nearly as nutritious as they need, so most of them are smaller than American children their age. They liked to have fun in different ways, just like our children do. Some loved dodgeball, others (OK, most of them) play lots of soccer. Many of the girls sang and sang and sang. The older girls like to braid hair, and some of our team got lovely braided hair-dos of their own! I found that the children at the deaf home had good communication skills, probably because of their need to learn how to read and write earlier in life than their hearing counterparts. We were immediately greeted by some of the older children who carried on long conversations with us on paper. Both the DHCV and the Deaf Home are run by ACFI, and so they receive a Christian education along with their school subjects. They know the gospel and are taught the Bible.

How did things go for your team?
I can't give anyone but the Lord the credit for how well things went. We brought 32 suitcases packed to the brim with supplies for the orphanages and ACFI. Every single one of them arrived on time and undamaged. For the most part, we were all very healthy during the trip. Considering all of the time spent on airplanes and airports, it's a miracle no one picked up a cold or flu bug. I did spend the first couple of days sick from a combination of the heat, Malaria meds, and most of all car exhaust. A brilliant idea from someone (I think it was Angel or Dan) meant I got to ride in the one air-conditioned car the rest of the trip. I felt bad that I always got to ride in there, but the guilt was a lot better than losing my breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. The Lord worked it out that we accomplished much, if not all, that we planned to do. We all wish we would have had more individual time to spend with the children, but the time we did get was precious. We all got along pretty well. Everyone got a decent amount of sleep. We laughed. We cried. It was a great trip all around.

How can I help?
A sponsorship program for the two orphanages is run through Christian Adoption Services, and I encourage you to check out the web site and consider sponsoring a child. It's www.AfricanChildSponsorship.com Mark and I now sponsor two of the children that were particularly special to me. When you sponsor a child, you can communicate with them through letters and possibly even send them something small with future teams. You also have access to newsletters and photos from visiting teams and from ACFI. We sponsored another child through a major aid organization, and I found the communication to be far less personal than what is on the website for DHCV. Not to mention that it seemed we got additional requests for money from the organization on an almost weekly basis. I'm not trying to knock what other organizations do. It just bothered me that so much money was clearly being spent on incessant marketing and so little seemed to be done to foster communication.

What else?
If you want to know more about what is going on in Liberia, particularly with the children at DHCV and adoption, check out Angel Rutledge's blog, rutledge6.blogspot.com. She updates it pretty regularly.

If anyone has any specific questions for me, feel free to email or ask in the comments.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who prayed, donated money for travel costs and donated supplies for us to take. I'm always amazed how God brings together team to support those who actually get on the plane and go. Some of us are able to get on that plane, and others of us aren't or just aren't called to. God uses all of us to accomplish the mission, though, and I think that's one of the coolest lessons. I was reminded of how much we need each other to accomplish what God asks us to do. After all, God himself is community -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- so it only makes sense that we should carry out His will in the same manner.

I think that's all for now.

What I Did While Mommy was in Africa

2009-03-15T20:17:00.003-04:00

With her buddy Graham It looks like a head lock, but it's really a hug

Going wild at the Vespa's

Playing with Emily

It goes without saying that Catherine did just fine without me. She would probably rate this week up there with a trip to Nonna's in California. Every time I talked to Mark, the updates were great. It was so nice to know she not only was well taken care of, but she was having a blast! She's in for a rude awakening this week when she just has boring ol' mommy to play with. It's a good thing we have a few things planned.

In Liberia

2009-03-07T08:07:00.001-05:00

We made it. We're doing great. Keep checking Angel's blog for updates.

Liberia Updates

2009-03-04T16:06:00.003-05:00

We have less than 24 hours to go before I leave for Liberia. Angel Rutledge has been posting lots about the preparations for the trip, and you can continue to check there while I'm gone.

http://rutledge6.blogspot.com/

Or you can click on Rutledge6 down the right column.

Once I get back, I really to hop back on the blog wagon. In fact, one of my goals this year is to start another one. Stay tuned for that!

At last, Disney Pictures

2009-03-04T16:03:00.001-05:00

I've been a little short on extra time lately, so all I've got is a slideshow. I hope to make a video later with the 100-plus bits of video we took, but that isn't happening for awhile. At least you can get a glimpse of the fun!

Catherine Minnie

2009-02-17T21:46:00.004-05:00

Who knows when I will actually get all of the Disney photos and videos posted. For now, though, I had to post these. Catherine looked so adorable in her Minnie costume that people in line kept commenting as we stood in line to get in the park (yes, we were there before it opened).

Where's Daddy?

2009-02-01T22:18:00.002-05:00

This morning when I went to pick up Catherine after church, the first words out of her mouth were, "Where's Daddy?" Clear as a bell. Could I get a "Hi Mommy?" Nope. It was so cute that I've decided to not be offended.

She also said "I love you" on the phone tonight to Granny (Mark's mom). I think I could actually hear her melt through the phone.

Not that I consider Disney World to be an educational destination, but Catherine did start saying a lot of new words and phrases while we were there. Maybe it was all of the attention from us, Matt, Gwyn and the kids. Whatever it was, we cannot get her to stop talking.

Disney World photos and videos forthcoming ... haven't even uploaded them yet. I have to try to get Catherine's Tiki Room dance on video, too.

Today's Post Is Brought To You By ...

2009-01-23T08:19:00.006-05:00

... the letter "H." As most children Catherine's age, she's learning and discovering new things every day. One of her more recent interests is letters, and a few of them in particular. Her favorites for the time being are "H" and "O," which is funny because she said "Ho, ho, ho" so much at Christmas time.

She learns new words on an almost daily basis and tries to say just about anything. Lately Catherine has been stringing together two, and sometimes three, words and occasionally will even ask a question (complete with adorable inflection).

I can't believe the first month of the new year is almost over. We leave for Disney World this afternoon, so this is going to be a short post. We're meeting up with Matt, Gwyn and the kids for what should be a great week. The forecast is beautiful!

Speaking of weather ... we had snow this week, 2-4 inches! Don't expect to see any adorable pictures of Catherine bundled up and playing in the snow. I didn't even take her out in it. We just looked at it through the window and learned the word "snow." I don't have any snow-appropriate clothes for her, and she has a cold. With the Disney trip approaching, I just didn't want to chance it. Not to mention it was way too cold for my taste. I know, I'm a crummy mean mommy. My child watches too much TV and occasionally eats cookies for dinner. Don't judge me.

We want to put Catherine in preschool a couple of mornings a week in the fall, so we have been investigating and visiting some possibilities. I won't be sleeping outside anywhere in line to get her a spot, but I'll definitely be registering online at the first possible second.

I've been meaning to post some goals for the new year, but alas, that will have to wait another week.

Quiet Christmas

2008-12-28T22:17:00.004-05:00

Christmas was pretty quiet for us this year. Since we spent Thanksgiving in Virginia, just returned from California and will meet up with Matt, Gwyn and the kids in less than a month at Disney World, we decided a little time at home was a good idea anyway!

Mark had to work Christmas Eve, so he got off a little early so we could get the the kids' nativity pageant at church in the afternoon. We thought Catherine might like it, and a lot of our friends' children were in it, too. Adorable chaos! That's how it would describe it. I'm glad we went, since Catherine fit right in with the chaos. Still, we did put her in child care for part of it when she got a little too squirmy.

Mark's parents arrived just after we got home, and we had a nice dinner, munched on the crazy amount of sweets and played a couple of games.

We woke up on Christmas morning and I had an awful cold! I tried to not let it put a damper on the day and popped a combination of pills to combat every symptom. Catherine was adorable with her new toys, and the biggest hit was a $1 slinky. We tried to not get her very many things, and she seemed genuinely interested in all of the bigger toys she got.

Mark's parents left after brunch, and we headed over to our friends, The Rutledges, to hang out for a little while before they hit the road for Michigan. Did I mention that it was something like 70 DEGREES outside on Christmas? What a beautiful day! We were so glad we got to go over there because Catherine had both room to run and bog kids to play with. Mark and Dan started on a 1,000 piece lego Star Wars ship that their boys got for Christmas.

I kind of expected that I wouldn't be in the mood to make a big dinner for just Mark, Catherine and I, so I didn't plan on it. Good thing. I was so wiped and felt so crummy by the time we got home that Mark ate leftovers while I had waffles. I am such a bum. Maybe I'll make up for it on New Year's Eve or Day.

The Reason We Sing

2008-12-23T14:44:00.003-05:00

I love this song by Third Day, and I thought this would be a fitting final post before Christmas. I found this video on youtube. Although there's a lot on the screen because of both the words and the chinese characters, but I think it illustrates how Jesus really was, as a line in the song says, "given for all men."

Merry Christmas!

Exercise Sideshow

2008-12-23T14:26:00.003-05:00

I joined the gym about a month ago in an effort to improve my health and, I'll be honest, to improve my appearance. After all, my grandmother did ask me if I was pregnant while we were in California. Let's just say it wasn't because I had the "glow." Anyhow, I've been pretty good about going since it's so close to our house, and Catherine plays in the child care there.

This morning, though, it was so cold outside that I decided to do few exercises here at home and just go to the gym tomorrow. I thought doing it during Sesame Street would be a good time because Catherine would be pretty focused on that anyway. Wrong! Apparently watching mommy attempt squats and lunges is far more entertaining because she could not stop cracking up laughing. At first she tried to copy the squats, putting her hands on her itty bitty hips and bending her knees with this huge grin on her face. It was the lunges that really got her. Every time I put me leg out, she would let out this huge cackle of a laugh, and before long, I was cracking up, too. She then proceeded to straddle my belly while I did crunches while laughing in my face.

I don't think Catherine has a future in personal training. Her clients probably wouldn't appreciate the laughing as much as me.

Chow Time

2008-12-22T14:08:00.006-05:00

Yeah, that's not chocolate

The victim

We don't do a lot of coloring at our house yet, mostly because I know that when I take my eye off Catherine for 2 seconds, she will have a Picasso scribbled on the walls and furniture. We sometimes color at home, but it's usually only for brief times. Otherwise we let her color all she wants when we are out to eat, on a plane, or sometimes during a long car ride.

Then the brilliant idea of strapping Catherine into her high chair was posed to me, and I thought, this will be great!

I don't know if it was the sitting in the high chair that made her think the crayon was food or that she thought the brown one was chocolate, but she took a HUGE chunk out of it!

We'll be taking a break from coloring for awhile. I hope she gets over this before pre-school, or she might get a reputation like the kid who eats paste.

I'm 33? Well then I should have 3 birthdays!

2008-12-20T23:29:00.006-05:00

Ready to head out to Papapavlos
Yummy Greek food
Coffee Crunch, my absolute favorite!!!!

That's the original "3" candle my mom used for Matt and Me

Nonna and Grandpa Jim with Catherine

The candle in my strawberry

Soooooo good

Mark takes a dip

Heidi gets a little steamy during the meat course.

My sweet Mark

I LOVE the green goddess sauce

Chris, Heidi and Marisa

Christina, Me and Mark

We were in California during my birthday, and I got to go out 3 times! Twice without Catherine! We relish those nice meals out with adult conversation and no interruptions. One night we went with friends, the next with Mom and Jim, the next with Dad. Whew. It was a lot to eat 3 nights in a row, and while it was soooooo yummy, I felt like I could skip eating for the next week and be just fine. The night we spent at The Melting Pot with friends was a highlight for me. It's rare that we are all at the same table at the same time! We also really enjoyed Papapavlos and Dave Wong's and are thankful that so many people wanted to celebrate with us.

I have more from our trip, but I'll post later.

Trip to Africa

2008-12-20T22:53:00.007-05:00

More evidence of how far behind I am ... for the past few months, I have been planning to join a team of people from our church and some other churches around Charlotte on a trip to Liberia (on the west coast of Africa).

Our friends Dan and Angel Rutledge are leading the trip, and she will probably be posting more frequent updates than I will. In addition, the Rutledges, who have 2 children adopted from Liberia, frequently post additional information about what is going on in Liberia. Their blog address is http://rutledge6.blogspot.com/ or you can click on the link on the right titled, "Rutledge 6."

I'm excited by how much the Lord has provided already in the way of prayer and financial support for the trip. Generous family and friends have already contributed more than $1000 to help send me, and more have committed to pray for the trip.

I'll just copy and paste the letter below. If you didn't receive a letter and would like to contribute or get prayer updates, just leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Dear Friends and Family,

During this time of year, festive holiday cards and Christmas letters begin to flood our mailboxes, complete with family photos and highlights from throughout the year. Our children may squirm and protest the necktie or the dress, but in the end we find that perfect snapshot.

Cut to the snapshot above. They’re just a handful of 150 million orphans worldwide (that’s half the population of the United States) who have either lost their parents to war, famine and disease, or have been surrendered or abandoned by parents who are unable or unwilling to care for them.

If you have partnered with me on previous trips to South America, you’re familiar with my heart for short-term missions and helping meet tangible needs for those in tough places. Consequently over the past few years, several friends and acquaintances have adopted internationally from around the world. Knowing these sweet children really brought to the forefront of our minds that we, as Christians, are to care for them.

The sheer enormity of the orphaned population led me to wonder what we, as one family, could do. There are many occasions for us to give our money and resources, but I desired a more hands-on opportunity. I was approached recently about joining a team traveling to Liberia to work at an orphanage from where many Liberian children who have been adopted by families in Charlotte have come.

A 14-year civil war came to an end in 2003, and Liberia has been struggling to overcome the destruction. As we’ve seen in countries like Bosnia and Afghanistan, the years of war strip the land of its resources and infrastructure. Though the political climate is fairly stable, Liberia still lacks basic public services like electricity, clean water and road maintenance. The unemployment rate is 85%, and the average lifespan is 40 years.

In the midst of this transitional time, African Christians Fellowship International (ACFI) provides a home to nearly 500 children through two orphanages it operates near the capital, Monrovia. ACFI is an indigenous, evangelical church planting ministry that was founded in 1986 by Rev. Edward Kofi. Since that time, the ministry has planted 286 churches in six West African countries. As Liberian children lost their parents during the civil wars, ACFI saw the need to care for them and started the orphanages.

The multiple purposes of our trip are working toward the ultimate goal of the orphanages being self-sustaining. Several members of the team with business and technology backgrounds will be working to train some of the ACFI staff in accounting practices and basic computer skills. At the same time, the team will help with immediate needs, like working on a construction project to better secure the main warehouse where food and supplies for the orphanages are kept. Due to the high unemployment rate of the surrounding community, the orphanages are frequent victims of theft, leaving the children with an even smaller food supply.

I personally will be involved in the collection of information and photos of the children for the adoption and sponsorship programs. In addition, much of our time will be spent simply ministering to the children themselves.

We will be traveling to Liberia form March 5-14, 2009. Mark will stay here with Catherine, and a mixture of generous family and friends will take care of her while Mark is at work during the day. We’d like to ask if you would join us in prayer and financially to help make this trip possible. My personal expenses total approximately $3500, and the construction project cost is about $20,000.

I pray you’ll consider partnering with us, in whatever way that you’re able. We trust the Lord to take us there and bring us back, and to help us be a blessing along the way.

In Christ,

Angela Sluder (Mark and Catherine, too!)

Thanksgiving or Christmas?

2008-12-20T22:38:00.002-05:00

These are photos from when we spent Thanksgiving at Matt & Gwyn's in Virginia. That's how far behind I am ... pictures of Santa before pictures of Thanksgiving! In my defense, we have been experiencing a lot of technical difficulties with our laptop, particularly with the printer and uploading photos from the camera. Ugh. Those are two of the things I use most often.

We had a good time and did all of our driving on Tuesday and Saturday, so we avoided most of the traffic. Thanksgiving day was more interesting than usual because we had 2 exchange students who had obviously never experienced Thanksgiving before. We fielded lots of questions about the food and the tradition, so that was a fun change. Anna Maria, a 16-year-old German student even joined Mark and I at 4:30 a.m. to get a taste of Black Friday. She was a trooper! We only went to Wal-Mart and Target, and we were in and out of both places pretty quickly. We had a plan, and it worked! We were back home (at Matt & Gwyn's) by about 6:30 and went back to sleep.

We have much to be thankful for this year. We have great friends and family who, even though many of them live far away, we still get to see often. It's a luxury we know we're blessed to have. Catherine is bright and sweet and unbelievably healthy. Mark continues to enjoy his job, and Travelers has remained stable during the economic downturn. We have a caring and supportive church family and are content with where the Lord has us right now.

May we be thankful every day of the year!

Visiting Santa

2008-12-10T19:28:00.004-05:00

We're in California right now, and we took Catherine to see Santa this morning. She loved him and tried to crawl back up into his lap after we were done. There were no other people in line, and Santa said she could stay as long as she wanted! There is another cute one that we got a couple of prints of, but I'm not sure if my mom has a scanner, so I might update this when we get back.

We had a great flight yesterday. I have to admit, nonstop is soooooo nice. The plane was more than half empty, and Catherine did really well. She got a little antsy for the last 30 minutes or so, but 5 1/2 hours is a long time to be strapped in a car seat.

Our other notable moment was that Steve Young was on our flight! We were seated right next to him while we were waiting at the gate to get on the plane. Mark and I really wanted to ask for his autograph, but he looked pretty tired (from covering the Monday Night Football game the night before), and it was 6:30 a.m. We never saw him again after we got on the plane ... something tells me he was in first class!

Piano Prodigy?

2008-12-06T10:20:00.004-05:00

Walking Pneumonia!

2008-11-26T16:01:00.002-05:00

Mark caught a cold/cough while Catherine and I were in California, and he just never really improved. In fact, over the past few days the cough had been worsening. We were managing the symptoms with strong meds during the day and the "good stuff" (as I like to call it) at night. While we were driving to Matt and Gwyn's yesterday, Mark didn't really get a chance to keep up the meds, so by the time we got here he sounded awful. I thought Matt should listen to his lungs. Well, Dr. Guido to the rescue ... he said there was a lot of crackling, and now Mark is getting nuked with antibiotics.

It really is nice to have a brother who's a doctor ;)

An End to the Tooth Drama

2008-11-24T13:56:00.004-05:00

Well, the tooth drama is finally drawing to a close. I have nothing to complain about, really. If the worst "health problem" we've had all year is the tooth saga, we'll consider ourselves quite blessed. Granted, I did reach the yearly maximum on our dental insurance, which is something I never thought would happen.

TEN dental appointments later, the temporary crown is in place, and my dentist used the word "perfect" to describe the end result. I typically don't like to name names of medical/dental professionals online, mostly because if I have something bad to say about them down the road, I don't want to be facing any libel/slander suits. But since the likelihood of having anything negative to say about them later is pretty slim, I'll call them out. As for the crummy dentist who got me in this situation, he will remain nameless, but if you live in Charlotte, you've seen commercials. I'll just leave it at that.

So here are the good ones:

Dr. Chamorro (an endodontist) did the root canal. Every dental professional who has looked at the post-procedure x-rays has commented on what an amazing job he did on such a complex case. He has a very "green" practice. In fact, the only paper I encountered in 2 visits was toilet paper and my credit card receipt. Literally everything else was computerized.

Dr. Kerr (a periodontist) did the crown lengthening (that's the gum surgery). He was GREAT! I had to drive all the way across town to get to him, but it was worth it.

Dr. Aten is my dentist, the one I switched to after the saga began. When I got the original crown several years ago, I remember it hurting pretty badly, but this time it wasn't bad at all.

So that's it, and hopefully the last thing I ever write about teeth on this blog (well, except for when Catherine starts losing them).

The Latest Visit

2008-11-21T16:51:00.007-05:00

Playing with Ella and getting a hug

Driving race cars with Carlo

What a speed demon

A couple of pooped kiddos

I was terrible about pullling out my camera while we were in California. I've been kind of a slacker with photos in general lately. Let's hope it's just a phase.

I really did have a great time, which is why I'm bummed that I take more photos. Other than the pictures above which show time with Carlo and a visit with Kendra, Ella and new baby Leo (who I didn't even get a picture of!), we actually got to do a lot of other stuff, too. I also got to see Karen's new baby Evelyn, Christina's new baby Chase, and go to Natalie's baby shower (do you see a theme here?). We had dinner at my dad's with Nonnie (Catherine's namesake), had a quick visit with my grandparents, spent lots of time with Marisa and caught a couple of movies. Catherine got to tag along when we saw Madagascar 2 on the IMAX. She loved it and was dancing along in her stroller while Carlo cracked up for most of the movie. We had a nice dinner out for Jim's birthday (thanks to Marisa watching the kids), and I had In-N-Out not once, but TWICE!

Catherine had a meltdown on the flight back, but what 19 month old wants to sit on a plane for 6 hours? Poor kid. She has to do it again in a few weeks. At least it's a nonstop flight.

I'm Not Usually This Bad of a Mom

2008-11-21T14:46:00.002-05:00

There are so many things wrong with this picture. First, my 19-month-old is still sucking on a pacifier. She's glued to a DVD player (who knows what she's even watching!). Plus I've subjected the poor toddler to sponge rollers to try and combat her straighter than straight hair.

Granted, we were at my mom's, and pretty much anything goes there. Still, when Heidi sent me this picture from her camera I thought, what in the world was I doing with my child??!!!

A Couple of Stories

2008-11-21T14:15:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not, neither of these stories has much of anything to do with Catherine, other than that she was present during both incidents.

Part of the reason I haven't posted much of anything in the past couple of weeks is that Catherine and I flew back to California with my mom at the end of her visit and stayed there for 9 days. It was a great trip! In fact, my brother and Carlo were there for 5 of the days, so Catherine was is hog heaven. It was fun to be there with Matt, too, because our trips out there never coincide. We see them a lot since they live in Virginia, but we haven't spent any significant time at home together in years.

These aren't in chronological order, but this first one is funny:

There's this place in town that has been in Stockton for years. It's called Chuck's, and it's total greasy-spoon kind of place that would be on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." Our parents used to eat there, and the same family has been running it the whole time. They have yummy breakfast and these huge, dinner-plate sized pancakes. You definitely don't want to eat there within 2 weeks of a cholesterol test.

Matt, Carlo, Catherine and I were up earl yon Saturday and went there for breakfast. I drove my mom's car, and we parked out front. As I was walking in, I was trying to dig the keys out of my purse to lock the door, but I couldn't find them. I figured it was no big deal, even if we were in Stockton (a likely place to get your car stolen or at least broken into). We went inside, waited a good 10-15 minutes and then got a table. We had out artery-clogging feast and headed back to the car.

I sill couldn't find the keys, though. I knew the doors were unlocked, so I climbed in the driver's seat and noticed, oops! I left the keys in the ignition. Hee hee, no big deal. We've all done that once in our life, right?

But I bet you haven't LEFT THE CAR ON!!!! I sure did. My mom's car idles so low that none of us had even noticed it was still running when we got out of the car or back into it! It's a good thing it was early on a Saturday morning because if it had been any other day or time in Stockton, that poor car would have been long gone.

And story number 2 ...

On the trip out there, my mom and I were able to coordinate our flights to be on the same one, and we also were on a huge 767 on the leg from Atlanta (trust me, when you fly across the country and back as much as I have, you start paying attention to the type of plane when you book). It was pretty empty, so we brought Catherine's car seat. If you have a lap infant (which means you haven't bought an extra ticket) and there's enough room on the plane, they will let you have the seat anyway. We only had 40 minutes between our flights and had to change terminals, so we literally ran the entire way holding carrying all of our stuff. I mention later exactly what all that stuff was. But Catherine ended up with her own seat and just chilled with some DVDs until the battery ran out. All of the seats had TVs on the back, so then I bought her a movie to distract her for the rest of the flight once her books weren't doing it for her anymore.

So things were going pretty well. That is, until we got off the plane. Between my mom and I, we were carrying 2 carry ons, 2 purses, a diaper bag, a car seat and a stroller. Oh yeah, and a child. Our brilliant plan was to take BART all the way to Pleasanton because Jim had to teach class and we didn't want him to have to leave early. Sidenote: My mom said getting on BART at the airport was "easy" and didn't require changing trains. That's why I agreed to it in the first place.

We get halfway out the terminal when my mom realizes that she left her wallet on the plane. So I stand there with Catherine in a Baby Bjorn, a 30-plus pound backpack, a 20 pound diaper bag and a purse while she runs back to retrieve it. Of course, they had already sent it out to baggage claim. We got our bags and started following the BART signs. At this point, Jim has already called and is at the BART station in Pleasanton. He offered to drive the rest of the way, but for some crazy reason, we kept going.

Long story longer ... TWO HOURS later, we arrive in Pleasanton with semi-permanent damage to my shoulders. We had gone up and down at least 5 elevators, waited 15 extra minutes to CHANGE TRAINS, and the actual ride was about 35 minutes longer than my mom thought.

Ugh. Let's just say that BART isn't an option anymore, unless I'm by myself and have minimal luggage. It's a good thing Catherine was so pooped from not sleeping on the plane. She just hung out in the Baby Bjorn and slept through much of the ordeal.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-02T23:14:00.004-05:00

On the run

Climbing over some pumpkins

This was pretty much what I did the whole time ... ran around after her.

Happy birthday!!!

Auntie Heidi was here for a quick visit last weekend. While she was here, we took Catherine to the pumpkin patch. Jeff came along, too, so between the 4 of us adults, we could hardly keep up with our speed demon. For some reason, Catherine kept trying to go toward the port-a-potties. instead of looking at the pumpkins. We also must have been there at a strange time because it didn't look like any of the other fun stuff was open, except for the hayride (which we thought Catherine might jump off of). We ran around trying to get some cute pictures, but of efforts were in vain. I took some shots with the film camera, too, so we'll see how those turn out.

We celebrated Heidi's birthday and intended to carve the pumpkins (did I mention that we ended up buying them at Harris Teeter because they were cheaper there?). We got distracted and then broke 2 carving tools, so we called it quits and went with the uncarved look.

Trick-or-Treating

2008-11-02T21:01:00.009-05:00

While I do think Catherine looks adorable in her Winnie the Pooh Hunny Pot, I don't get any points for creativity this year. This is the eact same costume as last year! It's only a 6-12 month, but it was so huge last year that I decided to try it again before wasting money on another costume. Plus, this one was a double bargain. I originally found it on craigslist.

Catherine didn't seem to mind her costume at all. She wore it for at least a couple of hours. We joined up with neighborhood costume parade for the last block or two, and then we went to the clubhouse for a party. It was so crowded that we just walked through the "haunted" entrance, through the building, and out the other side. We posed for a couple of pictures with the blow-up decorations and headed home.

I tried to upload a video of her going up to one of our neighbors doors (we only went to 6 houses), but I don't have the patience to troubleshoot it right now.

Halloween Haircut

2008-11-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

There's actually nothing Halloweeny about this haircut other than it took place on October 31. I like how it turned out, except for the bangs being really short. I don't blame the hair dresser. It may have had something to do with her super-squirmy client. Catherine did really well until it came to the bangs. We had to resort to holding her arms and her little face so they could be cut. I didn't take a picture of it, but the back looks really cute.

18 Months

2008-10-29T22:11:00.003-04:00

I am so far behind on the blogging. I'll try to tackle it bit by bit ...

I can't believe that 18 months has flown by since Catherine was born. It seems like yesterday, but at the same time, it's like she's been part of our family forever. If I could sum up Catherine is one word, it would be ACTIVE! Seriously, the child never stops. I'm sure a lot of it is typical 18-month-old behavior, but she is a mover. And a dancer! She sways, twirls and shimmies her shoulders in the cutest way. Kayla, one of our friends' daughters who was playing with Catherine while I was in a meeting recently, even told us that Catherine likes to tango.

She also has a lot to say. Her vocabulary is growing and certain words are getting more clear. I have been trying to get some video of her talking, but she gets so distracted by the camera that it's nearly impossible to get any decent footage. She's growing more affectionate and will now give hugs and slobbery kisses.

We had a great checkup a couple of weeks ago. Catherine finally broke 20 pounds!! She weighed in at 21 lbs., 4 oz., and about 31 inches (I think the paper with her measurements has already been filed). Her jump in weight and height since her last appointment made the doctor very happy, since Catherine is otherwise a pip-squeak. However, she continues to be impressed with Catherine's overall health. She still hasn't had an ear infection and barely a cold! I can hardly believe it myself.

Catherine's Latest Favorite

2008-10-13T09:56:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago, Catherine was with the older kids in child care at church while I was helping put together Sunday school materials. Because she was in a room for older kids, some of the toys were ones we wouldn't have at our house yet. The child care workers mentioned how much Catherine loved playing with the Magna Doodle, which I never would have guessed. When we were at the beach, Mark's mom and I were shopping and came across this one that combines TWO of her favorite things, the Magna Doodle and Mickey Mouse! She plays with it every day and loves to crawl up into our laps to "draw." Over and over again, she scribbles something, erases it and immediately draws something else. Sometimes it's messy, and sometimes it looks like she was being intentional. I love it because I don't have to worry about crayons scribbling on my walls or dining room table!

Beach Photos

2008-09-29T19:21:00.003-04:00

Beach Trip

2008-09-28T18:06:00.000-04:00

We had a great time last weekend in North Myrtle Beach with Mark's parents (Papaw and Granny). We spent 5 days there and played 5 rounds of mini golf! Since I really love to mini golf, that was actually fun to me. Our condo was right on the beach, so taking Catherine there was pretty easy (which I can't say about the clean up!). There also were indoor and outdoor pools and spas, but since the weather wasn't hot, we spent more time in the hot tub. Catherine liked floating around the lazy river the best. Other than the beach, Catherine's highlights were the children's museum and the aquarium. Mark and I even enjoyed 2 nights out without Catherine, thanks to Granny and Papaw! The video is a compilation of photos and video from our time there, but I will warn you, it's almost 8 minutes! I guess it beats the 2-hour long vacation video tapes of the past. ;)

Beach Trip

2008-09-28T17:51:00.004-04:00

She's Such a Little Lady

2008-09-25T15:43:00.001-04:00

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

2008-09-25T14:43:00.011-04:00

Well, it has been more than a month since this incident, but it still seems as ridiculous today as it did then ...

When Heidi, Marisa and I went down to Southern California, one of our main purposes was to go to Disneyland. Many people aren't aware that Walt Disney built a private club on the Disneyland property, nestled back in New Orleans square and just next to the Blue Bayou restaurant. If you don't know about Club 33, you wouldn't even be able to tell it was there. The club is pricey to join and has a very long waiting list, but we are lucky to have a good friend whose family are members! Kendra had made reservations for us there 4 years before, and Mark and I went to dinner with Matt & Gwyn. It was awesome!

The club has a dress code, and when we went before, we dressed pretty nice because it was dinner. Kendra had mentioned that the dress code was considerably more strict than at lunchtime.

This time we decided to have lunch at Club 33, and since we were spending the entire day and night at the park, we tried to dress in something nice enough for lunch but comfortable enough to wear around the park all day. This is what we were wearing on our way in.
When we first got to the park, we checked in at customer relations, where they gave us our tickets and some information on Club 33. It listed several items in the dress code, and one of the things was no flip flops. We all had flip flops on, but we certainly couldn't drive back to Heidi's to change and figured our overall appearance was acceptable.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we checked in and were about to be escorted up the elevator to the main dining room. However, the older and snarkier of the hostesses informed us that we wouldn't be admitted with our flip flops and that we would need to go out in the park to buy some shoes.

Side note: When we first walked in the lobby, there were 2 girls with booty shorts on getting on the elevator. Even though the rules say "walking length shorts," they were admitted.

It gets better. She then says that MY flipflops are OK, but Heidi and Marisa's aren't. She had some lame explanation about the width of the strap and the thickness of the heel. We couldn't believe our shoes were being inspected like this AT DISNEYLAND!! It would have been better if she just would have stuck to the no flip flops rule and made me buy shoes, too.

Still, we left and went to the store that had shoes. The girls purchased $25 ballet-type shoes that were conveniently packaged in such a way that they could easily be returned. We returned to the restaurant (now 15-20 minutes past our reservation), and the girls put on their shoes.

Here's a photo of us with the shoes on. You'll see they make a huge difference in our overall look. Again, we were about to board the elevator when the same snarky lady said to Heidi, "Oh no, you can't go in there with that shirt." Scroll up and take a look at Heidi's "inappropriate" shirt. WHAT! Heidi said, "You've got to be kidding me!" There was another woman standing in the lobby who was like 50 and wearing a more revealing tank top and nothing was said to her. The snarky hostess brings out this hideous green men's camp shirt and tells Heidi she has to wear it in the restaurant. Here she is modeling it at the table. You'll see it really dresses up her outfit.
So we are already pretty annoyed when we get on the elevator, but when we stepped off, we were shocked by what we saw. There were girls all over the restaurant wearing strappy little tank tops and booty shorts. There were literally at least 15 other women in the restaurant who were dressed far more "inappropriately" than Heidi, and that just threw me over the edge.

I went into private eye mode and secretly snapped photos of as many of the offenders as I could. I was not leaving the restaurant nor Disneyland without someone in charge knowing what happened. I ended up speaking with the manager (who was only slightly apologetic) and then reported the incident (and the manager) to customer relations. He didn't seem to get it that three grown women were forced to be inspected like Catholic schoolgirls before we could eat a simple meal, and then our being singled out was exacerbated by the fact that no one else was being held to this standard.

Here are some of my private eye shots:

Finally, I do want to mention that our meal was fabulous, and our waiter was amazing. When we reported the incident and the manager, we did report our waiter's awesome service to customer relations as well. He made up for a lot of the ridiculousness we encountered that day.

Ticket Update

2008-09-17T14:20:00.002-04:00

My court date for the big ticket was this past Friday, and although I think the system here is a little backward, it at least worked in my favor. For the bargain price of $90 more than the original ticket, my trusted attorney (who I hired through the mail, remember?) got the charged reduced to "improper equipment." This prevents the ticket from going on my insurance record, which was the whole point of it all (pardon the pun). I'm not sure what equipment he or she argued was broken or improper, but whatever. This is the state whose most famous lawyer is John Edwards. Oh yeah, and the DA in the Duke Lacrosse case.

Other California Snapshots

2008-09-14T21:31:00.002-04:00

I had oral surgery this week that still hurts (and requires me to eat "soft" foods for at least another several days), I have a cold, and this morning I caught my arm on the back windshield wiper of the Explorer and gouged it so badly that it's still bleeding 12 hours later (no, I do not need any more stitches!). All that to say, this little slideshow is about all I could manage today.