The Greatest Physician

Today we went for a follow-up visit with Dr. White. While we are thankful that Danny can be under the care of such a great doctor, we were reminded during Danny's checkup that he is also (and more importantly) under the care of the Great Physician.
When Dr. White removed the packing she told Danny that it looked a million times better - she had said it had to be a thousand times better to avoid surgery. She said the tissue (which had previously been black and described by her to be an area of necrosis)was red and meaty. When Danny asked her how that could happen, that "dead" tissue could become "live" tissue, she responded by saying, "I can't really say. It's kind of a miracle." This means (if everything stays the same) that no surgery will be needed and he will only need staples to encourage the spot to heal. The first picture below is from today. Note the absence of black, dead tissue in the one from today compared to the second picture that was taken Monday.


We are so thrilled that we can say things like this happen. Last night, Danny's parents came over and told us they were praying for a very clear and remarkable recovery so that it would be obvious that no surgery was needed. My initial instinct was that it was a nice thought, but not really possible with all that dead tissue lounging around under the wrap. But then, God brought me to the book of Job and I was reminded that a small view of God is both an error and a tragedy. I was also reminded how Jesus used physical healing (the lesser act) as an evidence of the fact that He could forgive sin (the greater act). If I believe (AND I DO) that Christ has authority of the spiritual man, then I need to believe also that he has all authority over the physical man as well. God quickly encouraged my heart with the truth that, while He may or may not choose the no surgery option, He certainly was able to bring about whichever option best accomplished His will at this time.

We are praising the Lord for His goodness to us and want to thank all of you that were asking God to work. We hope that your heart is encouraged to see God availing much through your prayers! Now for some pictures of the girls celebrating the good news, each in their own way.

Spiderman

About a week ago, Danny noticed that he had a spot on his leg that looked like an angry bug bite. Since he generally reacts to bug bites, he didn't think much of it, but did decide just to watch it since it looked a little angrier than normal. He even drew a circle around it so he could tell if it was getting bigger, which may not seem to you like showing a great deal of concern, but this is the guy who tried to walk off a stroke-like incident and tough it out when he had a stricture. Any acknowledgment that an injury exists and that medical treatment might at some point be an option to consider is a sign of progress.
Well, it did get bigger and he acquiesced to seeing a doctor. We are SO thankful that we have a Doctors Now clinic nearby. It was Wednesday around suppertime when the irritation trespassed the boundary he had marked off (about the circumference of the top of a pop can) and so we decided to split our family along injury lines. Evie and I went in the healthy van to gather teens to take to the Sparks' house and Danny and Lily went to the clinic to get checked on. [Lily cut her forehead two weeks ago today and had it glued so I decided to kill two birds, er chickens - bad analogy. I decided to have them both go at once. :)]
When we met up at the Sparks', Danny said they thought he had cellulitis, [not cellulite, I am sure he has none of that] which is just a skin infection so they put him on a strong antibiotic. We continued to monitor the area and it didn't seem to spread but the nucleus seemed to get uglier. On Friday, I noticed that a little area at the very center that wasn't even the size of a dime was turning black under the surface. When I see black on a swollen, ugly looking area, I think something is dead. So, we agreed that if the black didn't go away in 24 hours Danny would go back to the doctor.
The black didn't go away but we weren't able to make it to the clinic Saturday before it closed so we decided to go back after the Sunday morning service. I think Danny was secretly just holding out because he wanted to (and did) use it as a visual aid during his Student Ministries lesson on Sunday morning and was afraid seeking medical treatment might interfere with his ability to use it in communicating of the Word of God. The man has his priorities. :) In case you are wondering, he used it when explaining what Jesus was saying in Matthew 9, "On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Anyway, we went to the clinic right after church and Danny went in while we girls ran errands and ate lunch. He texted me updates while he was in the clinic and informed me that the doctor was also concerned about the black area and was going to lance the area and clean it out. The doctor indicated that he was only slightly suspicious of a brown recluse spider bite, but not with any certainty. He instructed Danny to keep his leg elevated and return on Monday.
Today, Danny was in more pain than he had been when he woke up this morning and so we went into the doctor as soon as we could get all of us ready and out the door. So, yes, it was several hours before we left the house. We all went in to the procedure room and the doctor (one who hadn't seen the wound yet) unpacked the gauze. She was not at all hesitant to diagnose a brown recluse spider bite and told us that the area was looking "really angry" and that she "didn't like it at all". Because we hadn't been treating it as a spider bite, a lot of tissue had been damaged already by the toxin the alleged spider left behind. She added a stronger antibiotic, a steroid and some pain killers :) to Danny's medical arsenal and packed the wound again. We girls were absent for this process.
It was very interesting to observe some of Evie's personality in response to the event. She was very aware (and she can be so flighty) that something was not quite right with Daddy and kept asking questions about what the doctor would do. She wanted to be near him to know that he was okay and offer comfort, but had to leave the room when the doctor started treating the wound. I think her sensitive little heart gets overwhelmed. She would stand by the door and "check on him" periodically. Lily just wanted to ram the doctor's stool into the wall.
We decided to extract ourselves from the situation and went to the lobby to wait, but both girls came on way too strong to a nice little boy in the lobby so we retreated further to the van. Lily does not understand yet that hitting someone on the head as hard as you can with a variety of objects while laughing is not generally considered a gesture of kindness, at least not by this 4 year old boy. Even Evie's offer to let him hold her 2 foot long stuffed dolphin didn't seem to win him over. Perhaps it was because she was standing an inch from his face and petting him with it.
So, we waited in the van until daddy emerged. The final report was that we would come back on Wednesday for another evaluation and had to stay off his feet and home from work for a week. If everything goes well and Danny's body naturally deals with the dead tissue, the doctor will just help us manage the process of healing the wound. We are praying for that to be the outcome. If not, the doctor advised us that we would have to look into another option, most likely having a surgeon clean out the dead tissue and manage the process of healing the area.
In the meantime, I am holding out hope that Danny will soon develop the ability to climb up and swing from buildings so that we can maybe find a way to generate some income as a result of the whole ordeal :)
The pictures below are before and now (we aren't really to after yet) and they are not as cute as the ones I normally post here. They also don't come close to capturing the full ugliness of this thing.

A Birthday Wrap-Up

Evie has had a wonderful time celebrating her birthday. Her first party was on the 4th of July with the Austins. The pictures above are of her watching the parade and fireworks. I thought that was rather nice of them to help us celebrate :)

Then, we had a day at Adventureland and Evie was so much more interested in the rides than she was last year. It was so fun to see her try them out. Here she is on the kiddie space shot, aka The Frog Hopper. This one was a big hit because the guy running it was very good with kids and insisted that it wouldn't "go" unless they made frog noises.

Then, yesterday, we went to Incredible Pizza Company with the Capons and had a blast! Many thanks to the Raytown South football team for the free impromptu show to go with our dinner! We had so much fun before we even got to the games that we hardly had enough time to win enough tickets for Evie to get two 2-inch plastic Care Bear figurines (1 for her and 1 for Lily) - the only thing she ever wants there. I didn't get any picture of that because we had our new photographer (aka Grammy) along and she covered that for us.

And, last, but not least, Evie has received some lovely cards for her birthday. One that has gotten particularly rave reviews came from GreatGramma and GreatPoppa in Indiana. I have posted a video so you can get the full experience of the card. If you want the really full experience, make sure you watch the video over and over again until it won't play anymore and everyone around you has it memorized.

Those are some strong words...

Warning: This post contains lots of references to this post. Sorry if the lack of context bugs you. :)
Sometimes the "small talk" I forget comes back to me, especially late at night. While Lily was napping today, Evie was singing on the floor in the living room. Her mother is an avid maker-upper-of-songs and she seems to be picking up on this game. We sing "God is So Good" every night after her bedtime (or should I say T-O-N-6-O-9) Bible Study with Daddy. Sometimes we make up our own verses that relate to things God has done in her life or the life of our family. Sometimes we adapt it to be about other attributes of God (love, etc.). This afternoon she decided to try an attribute of God we hadn't covered before. This is how it came out:
"God is so strongful"
That put a big smile on my face for several reasons.
1) I love that she can take what she has learned about God and express it in her own little way. I want her to know that God is strong so that when life gets tough down the road, she knows that her God is able to do what she cannot.
2) I love that she makes up her own words to songs (and even her own songs at times - today I was treated to "The Bean Bag Song". She seemed a little surprised that I hadn't heard of it before.) I believe music is a very powerful teaching tool and so I sing to the girls all the time (it will be a sad day when they start to understand what good singing is supposed to sound like and request that I go back to doing math- hope we still live near her aunts when that happens!). Anyway, I love seeing her embracing music as well.
3) The making up of songs may come from mom, but the making up of words is all DADDY! For any of you who have spent any time in Journey (watch out Student Ministries) at some point in your life, you are aware that Danny averages about one non-word per lesson. Usually that word is an adjective/adverb with an extra suffix on it or the wrong suffix on it. Sometimes the word is a fusion of two real words, like inquizzical, probably my most favorite of all of them. It took a lot of work to convince him that this was not, in fact, a viable word. He never seems to think they are complete until he puts his finishing touches on them and, I must confess, his versions sound much mightier. I think one of his life mottos should be, "Good words deserve to be long words." It is one of my favorite of his quirks. It ranks right up there with his ability to identify fabrics down to the percentages without looking at the tag. Anyway, "Strongful" sounds like something her daddy would say, or at least approve of her saying and that makes it even more special.

Bonus: Evie has developed her own description for the current weather pattern. "Mom, it's sweaty out here."

Small Talk

Sometimes, I think little people say the best things. This is my kind of "small" talk. I could fill this whole page with the things my girls say and do that make me smile or laugh, but I always seem to forget them before I get them recorded. Here are a few recent ones that I have managed to remember:
According to Evie:
We were at Wal-mart looking at shampoo. She handed me one and asked - "Is this the one you need?" I said, "No, I need the 2 in 1." Her response: "Oh, I think this one is 6 and 9."

Driving home from Walmart, Lily was whining. Evie informed us, "I think she is ready for (pause) T-O-N-6-O-9." Apparently she didn't want Lily to know she was spelling "bedtime".

According to Lily:
We tried to teach her to say "Happy Father's Day". It came out "Happy Day". Apparently she wants to be pretty generic in her well-wishing.

When wanting to be picked up she says "Up, Up". Wanting her to learn to ask nicely, we have instructed her to say "Up, Please" which comes out "Uppy, Uppy". We'll take it.

If you ask Lily, her older sister is named Eddy. We'll work on that one.

More to come...

Who's Knocking on My Door?

When you live on the East Side of Des Moines and your doorbell rings late at night followed by pounding on the door, a series of thoughts run through your mind in rapid succession that would probably leave you paralyzed if that same incessant ringing and pounding didn't jar you from your thoughts.
Tonight, when Danny opened the porch door, we found on the other side a mom in her early 20s, smelling of alcohol and obviously upset, with her slightly less than Lily-sized baby boy in a car seat asking to use our phone. The events that followed are incredibly jumbled in my mind but I will do my best to recount them accurately. As LONG as this post is, it is but a summary of all that we discussed and all that occurred.
This is not the first time this has happened (our "prime" location lends itself to unsolicited visitors) and, out of habit, I offered to call someone for her on my cell phone. The person did not answer and I am thankful because it gave me an opportunity to dig a little more into what was happening.
We asked her to come in to the porch with her baby where it was warmer and she did so somewhat reluctantly. I gave her my phone and she made 15 calls on my phone (most of them unanswered) before the battery died and she switched to using Danny's to make even more than that. A couple of the calls did go through and I gathered a lot of what was going on from those conversations. Yes, I was eavesdropping, and I have no regrets. When someone shows up with a small child on my porch late at night and seems slightly intoxicated and upset, I want to know what is going on. Why? Well, of course I am concerned for the safety of that child. And, I am concerned for this girl and what brought her literally to my doorstep. Ultimately, I know that it was God who brought her there, and I was able to share that with her, but I was wanting to know what she thought brought her to my doorstep.
During the moments between calls and the time we waited for the police to bring her the purse that was somehow in the possession of her "baby daddy" (a.k.a BD), I got to know Alexis a little more. I am not sure if it was the alcohol or her attempt to process what she was experiencing in life that caused the inconsistency in her explanations that varied from things that seemed a little off to flat out lies, but I tried to piece together from the conversations she had with me and others "who's knocking on my door".
When she came in, I asked her what happened and she told me that she was kicked out of her house because of a fight with her BD over a high school ex and then another fight with someone she referred to as her aunt (whom I later learned was her former foster mother). I discovered later -and she later admitted- that she hadn't been kicked out but had instead just left the house because of the argument.
Since she couldn't reach the BD who had the purse/diaper bag, and I was under the impression that she couldn't return to the "aunt"'s house, I asked her if she knew of anywhere else she and the baby could go and told her we could take her there if needed. She couldn't reach any of them either. She finally got in touch with the BD who hung up on her more than once. Eventually, it was revealed that her "aunt" had called the police and that they were picking up her purse and then bringing it to her. That all sounded strange to me, but her need to wait for the purse gave me more time to talk with her.
I asked her more about what she would do after the purse arrived (because I was afraid she might just walk out into the cold night with nowhere to go) and how we could help her accomplish that(the whole time praying for God to give me wisdom for how to reach out to her) and she kept insisting that I wouldn't understand because her mother had been murdered and her father was a drug addict, etc. I agreed with her that I probably wouldn't understand what her life was like and that if that was going to continue to be her excuse to not let me help her then I wasn't sure what progress we could make. I think me calling her out on it threw her off a little bit because she apologized and calmed down. I explained to her that few, if any, people out there would really understand if by understand she meant be able to relate to because of a previous identical experience (much less have an available porch at 11:00 at night). She laughed at that.
I then reminded her that I didn't go out on the street, drag her into my house late at night and beg her to use our cell phone. I reminded her that she chose to knock on our door and that, if she was willing to let us help by using our cell phone and our porch, she had nothing to lose by letting us try to help with her other needs. I shared with her that I cared about her and her son and wasn't going to give up trying to find a way to help. Again, a little bluntness seemed to go a long way, because she calmed down again and shared more.
She told me about her childhood and her relationship with the BD, who was definitely not a helpful influence in her life. She told me how embarrassed she was and that she didn't want her son to grow up like this (homeless and without a daddy). I told her that different results happen because of different choices, not different hopes. If she wanted him to have a better life, she needed to start making different choices. I was trying to get her to see that the problem was bigger than the moment and deeper than the surface.
I told her that if she really wanted things to change, it would take more than could be accomplished in one night on my porch. I asked if she would be willing to let me help her beyond this incident. She bristled a little at my offer of "help", which she was reluctant to admit she needed beyond the use of a cell phone. She countered that things weren't that bad, she had a good job, thousands of dollars with which she could secure housing and that everything would be fine in the morning. I asked her if in the morning her son would be in a happy, stable home with a mom and dad who love each other, love him and love the baby she was currently expecting. She agreed that he would not and that she probably did need help. I was pleasantly surprised. I could almost see her "push people who are trying to get close to me" coping mechanism trigger anytime I tried to suggest that her life wasn't perfect or that she needed anything she couldn't provide for herself. She had informed me that she was a "good person" and that the solution to the problem was a new BD. I asked her how she knew the next one wouldn't turn on her like this one had. I suggested that maybe the solution she needed wasn't going to be found in any other human, not even in herself. I asked her more about being a "good" person. I told her that I wouldn't deem myself a good person because I do selfish things, I have lied and hurt people, etc. My confession seemed to disarm her and she admitted that she would not classify herself as a good person either. I hope you don't misunderstand, I wasn't trying to kick her while she was down. I was just wanting her to realize why, ultimately, all of us are "down" so that she would see that she needed more than a new BD, she needed rescued by her Creator God. I later told her plainly that she needed Christ.
The purse was taking a long time arriving, thankfully, so we kept talking. Not knowing when the purse would arrive and our time would be up, I told her that I really wanted to talk about how her life, and her babies' lives, could be different. This was our point of agreement so I went from there. I told her that the change I thought she needed was to find her help in God, not another BD or the police or foster care or anything like that. I asked her if she would be willing to go to church with me or meet with me again. I shared with her that all of us, though maybe not to her extent, have pain and sadness in our lives and that she will not find the answer she is seeking apart from God and her son will become his father if she continues on her present path. She started crying and responded, "I know". I was heartbroken.
I asked her if she would be willing to learn more about what God wanted to do with her life and the hope she could have in Him and she said that her uncle was a pastor and he died - she told me this many times. It didn't answer the question, but it did evade it. I asked the question again. She admitted that she was mad at God and that she was content that way. I asked her how that (shutting God out because she was mad at him) was working for her right about now. She got a little embarrassed smile and admitted that it wasn't going so well. She then asked several questions like, "Why did he give me this baby when I was too young for it?". I reminded her that she had a significant role in the choice that got her pregnant and that God often allows us to experience hardship because unpleasant consequences lead us to make better choices. I also told her that I thought it was possible that God was allowing her life to get so desperate that she would realize how much she needed Him. I told her that I believed that God brought her to my porch so I could share with her how He loved her and wanted to change her life. I had already shared with her some of how God worked through Christ to provide her with what she truly needed, but wanted to go beyond. I asked if I could call her to check in on her and the baby and she gave me a phone number (at the house she had just left - so not the best), and as I was giving her mine the police showed up.
They took her outside to talk (apparently the "aunt" had described a much different and more accurate series of events to the police and they needed to deal with her privately) and for a few special moments we were able to pray for her and her baby while he gazed up at us from his car seat, completely oblivious to the fact that his mom was in serious danger of being separated from him more permanently. I didn't want her to go yet, but I really didn't want to let him go. Eventually the officer came back, though Alexis never did and she left without the paper that had my phone number on it. The officer asked some questions and shared more information with us. Alexis and her baby, most likely, would return to the nearby home she chose to leave. And we could return to what we were doing before Alexis landed on our porch.
Or maybe we couldn't. Moments like that take a toll on your heart. I will be praying for Alexis and her children. I will be wondering about the baby she is carrying now, wondering where she and her little boy are living, wondering if she is considering what we discussed.
And I will be watching. You might catch me every once in a while looking out my porch windows to see if she happens to be coming back to talk more about the Gospel and God's great love for her.
And I will be waiting...

Where Have You Been in the World?

The title of this post is how Evie would ask what you might be thinking, although I am not sure that my absence is really noteworthy. I have been silent on the blog scene for several weeks for a couple reasons.
1) I started a post about jury duty that I haven't completed and I didn't want posts to be out of chronological order so I kept putting off other posts because it was taking me too long to fully capture the whole jury duty experience. Especially for Ronette, my favorite court reporter, I will try to get that one finished off one of these days. I am sure she is plenty busy adoring her new grandson (and his older brother) right about now anyway.
2) I have spent some of the time that I might have spent blogging researching (my husband has worn off on me), booking and preparing for our upcoming vacation to the Dominican Republic. It took me weeks to find a deal within our budget and yes, my dearest mother-in-law, I did use a coupon. It brings me great joy to imagine the smile on her face as she reads that last line. Me and my coupons again...
There have been other distractions as well- container gardening, the excellent weather, projects, orchestra rehearsal, sorting and re-distributing toys, but I think that I can return to regular posts soon. The girls are certainly doing their part by providing (in my opinion) blog-worthy material. Lily must have noticed that she wasn't getting the blog time that Evie has and has upped her level of verbalization and personality exhibition in what I suspect is an attempt to secure a greater share of the limelight. Evie, not wanting to be outdone, has stepped up to the challenge. There will certainly be no shortage of "post"-able happenings.

For those of you Monk-ish people who might take note of the time stamp and wonder why I am blogging at this late/early hour, you will just have to read my next post.

A Real Pain in the... Back

I have intended to chronicle several events this past week (jury duty, getting Evie back from her weekend in Carroll, shopping outings), but have been delayed by, well, those things and the event that prompted this post.
So, I will have to fill you in later on how Evie told me on the way home from Carroll (when I turned on the cd player and Old McDonald, which we call Bill McDonald, came on) that "Grammy has Patch" or (when the sun got in her eyes when we turned onto the interstate) that "Grammy put the thing up so it isn't too bright" and (when I offered her a snack) that "Poppa bought me M-e-Ms". Nothing says, "I missed you, Mommy," like a litany of all the things Grammy and Poppa do better. Let's face it - It's hard to compete with an all-you-can-guzzle tea party and homemade spaghetti-o's. But, I don't want to compete. I LOVE it that my girls love being with their grandparents.
I will also have to tell you later about jury duty (have that post started) and the judge who admitted to not paying attention during Voir Dire shortly before the outbreak of an impromtu free-for-all forum on medical marijuana and ADD, both of which consumed time that would have been much better spent revisiting topics like super-elementary principles of government and public speaking. Or common sense. That would have done it as well.
I am probably most disappointed that I can't immediately share with you all the details of the incident during which my "potty-trained" 2-year-old (who knows when we are coming upon a gas station by smell, but apparently can only tell when she in coming upon a bowel movement by touch) filled her undies in the Valley West play place and dutifully provided direct evidence (or was it circumstantial?).

Yes, all of that will have to wait because things are a little upside-down (or should I say crooked?) at our house right now. Danny told me he was having some back pain Wednesday morning, suggested he go to the doctor right after work at lunchtime and asked me to pick him up after work because he couldn't drive a couple hours before he was scheduled to leave work for the day. If you know my husband well, you know that the fact that he was not only willing to go to a doctor, but was volunteering himself for the event was astonishing. This is the guy who wanted to try to "sleep off" what was ruled to be a probable stroke and didn't reveal that he was having symptoms of a stricture until he was almost in renal failure. Needless to say, I took it seriously.
We were very relieved to hear from the doctor that it was probably an issue of a back spasm and not an issue of kidneys or something worse. They gave Danny a shot of an anti-inflammatory and sent us home with prescriptions for pain killers and muscle relaxers, as well as orders for Danny to stay home from work until Monday. Thankfully, my mom was staying overnight for a Thursday meeting and was able to stay with the girls while went to the late hours clinic. While we were gone, Grammy had explained to Evie where we were and Evie was very curious about Daddy's condition when we returned. She asked right away if he felt better and then followed into the bedroom as we explained that Daddy would feel better soon. Evie is not used to prolonged "owies" that can't be fixed with a kiss and "soon" means to her what "instantaneously" means to the rest of the English-speaking population. So, when she processed all of what she had recently taken in (including her hobbling, half-erect Daddy) through that little mind and heart of hers, she followed him into the bedroom and announced her conclusion on the matter:
"Daddy, I will stay here with you until you feel better."

It was one of the sweetest moments I have ever witnessed.

Post-Game Report

So this one is almost a week late, but who's counting? And, the report has nothing to do with the Upward game - it is a report on the post-game activities so you just might have to get used to disappointment :)

After almost every Upward game, we end up behaving like the Capons that we are and "shutting down the place" as we call it - meaning we are the last to leave. I don't know how many times this week alone we have been asked to shut off the lights when we leave. It doesn't help that our good friends, the Fishers, are coaches in our league and we always have something to talk about with them after the game. This time, Nicky and I had some heavy duty graphing of rational functions to tackle and the girls can never get enough of Cayden so we were going anywhere quickly.

Well, eventually the Fishers left and we were still getting on coats and tracking down socks and baby dolls when Daddy held an impromptu basketball clinic.

Even Lily is catching on to "Defense" now.


But then she decided to add tackling to her defensive maneuvers so apparently the difference between basketball and football is still a little shaky for her.



Sorry about the bluriness, but when you are moving this fast...

I don't know if these pictures capture it, but I love how God designs children to be in awe of their earthly fathers. My girls certainly are.

Family Fun Night

This past Tuesday was Family Fun Night at Valley West Mall. My mom was staying with us that evening because she had a meeting in Des Moines Wednesday, Danny was preparing for teaching Wednesday and the girls needed an outing so this seemed like a good plan.
Three of the "big draws" caught my attention as things that Ev would enjoy:
1) Inflatables

2) Face Painting/Temporary Tatoos

3) Elmo and Cookie Monster

We decided before we embarked on an adventure of this magnitude, we should probably get something to eat. We arrived at the food court and decided on Maid-Rite - which might be a bit of a stretch as a description of this particular dining establishment. Good thing I checked my order when I got it because it contained only 75% of my order (a score which would have only landed one of my math students a C). Little did I know that this "score" would drop even more as I could only give partial credit in several other areas.
I ended up returning right away for napkins. Apparently my mom and I seemed formidable enough to feed a 1 and 2 year old without the aid of paper products.(They were behind the Maid-Rite counter so I could not have obtained them myself without appearing both odd and out of line.) Maybe they thought I would feel insulted by the suggestion that we weren't a tidy family. They must have used these superior powers of deduction to determine that we were above straws because I had to go back for those next. When I finally opened my sandwich to eat it, (the rest of the crowd was pretty much done eating by now) I noticed the cheese was missing. I almost let it go for three reasons: I was tired of going back (we had conveniently seated ourselves on the opposite end of the food court), there was not much left for the girls to eat and stay occupied much longer, and I was pretty sure that the sweet grandma lady and her industrious twenty-something latino gentleman co-worker were not anticipating another arrival on my part. They really had been quite kind and patient from the beginning and I felt like I didn't want to make them feel badly about how this all turned out. But, my desire for cheese won out and I returned. My sandwich was cold at this point and so it wouldn't melt the cheese. My desire for melted cheese was not enough, however, to send me back yet again.

With the meal episode behind us, we decided to explore the "Big 3" attractions. When we got to the main fun area, I noticed that the inflatables were LARGE. Something told me that Evie was not going to scale a 30 ft. inflatable and slide into my waiting arms on the other side - especially if she had to wait in long lines to do so. Instead, she was quite content to throw coins into the water fountain until Grammy and I were literally penniless (and nickel-less and dime-less and quarter-less).

Next it was on to the face painting area. I was envisioning Evie getting a little heart or flower on her cheek. But when I saw bands of kids approaching me with an entire face covered in what looked like a cross between war paint and stage makeup, I decided to save myself the hassle of rubbing her raw to undo the artwork at bedtime. Once again, she didn't notice. She did notice what Grammy calls the "Educational Toy" store and what I alternately call the "Game" store or the "Hey, let's go in there, check if they have the Swiss expansion to Ticket to Ride, ask them for it when we don't see it, have them tell us their computer says they have one but we can't find it, have them check and not find it, have them tell us it must be an inventory error, then we sneak over and check again and tell ourselves that someday we will look through every box in there just in case" store. We have done that same series of events enough times to sufficiently warrant it becoming an alternate nomenclature. Anyway, we had a great time in that store and, of course, we left with some educational toys - but no Swiss expansion.

Finally, I thought Elmo and Cookie Monster would be a big hit. There had to be some reason why we needed to be here this night since everything else we had enjoyed up to this point was available any night of the week. But, when Evie saw her furry friends coming she started crying and clawing her way into Grammy's arms. This defies all logic to me, but the remainder of the evening she held tight to one of us when entering/exiting a new location and constantly asked if Elmo and Cookie Monster had gone to bed yet. We took her to the other end of the mall where she was pleasantly distracted by the play area until it was time to go home, the play area that is also not unique to Family Fun Night. Oh well.

Baby Love

Lily has recently discovered baby dolls and it is so cute to see what she does with them. Note: In our house, Evie has set the definition of "baby" to include stuffed animals. Lily appears to be following suit.

When handed her Lorax (Dr. Suess character), Lily squeezed it and shrieked with delight. Then she proceeded to eat its hair. Apparently, she is vacillating between the "everything is a chew toy" and "everything is a baby" stage.

Last night when I gave her a little duck "baby", she held it tight, rocked side to side and patted it on the back. Then she proceeded to eat its hair. You might be sensing a theme.

My favorite trick of Lily's related to babies is when she sees one of Evie's baby multitude (neither the Octomom nor the Duggars has/have anything on Evie when it comes to progeny - unless you count the fact that theirs are real...) unguarded. She will walk over to the baby, grab it by the leg (must have learned that from Uncle Tim) and take off as fast as she can - which isn't fast at all considering she has only recently decided that she prefers functioning as a biped. But, from the look on her face, she is getting away with robbery and couldn't be more delighted. Mysteriously, Evie seems to always know when this occurs and is horrified that her baby has been snatched - though moments earlier she appeared to not even be cognizant of the baby's existence.

Yesterday was quite interesting in the "Lily meets babies" department because we had a real, live baby in the house, Cayden Fisher. Evie calls him "Baby Cayden" and I am pretty sure she will still call him Baby Cayden when/if they are in youth group together someday. It is a good thing he is so easy-going. Let's hope that lasts. Anyway, I was a little surprised at Lily's reaction to Baby Cayden because, when Lily was added to the household, Evie did not have a similar reaction. Must be that the extra six months from 1 to 1 1/2 really facilitates that "territorial" instinct. Lily was thrilled to see Baby Cayden. She would walk over to his car seat and display her utter euphoria by means of a high-pitched squeal that vaguely resembled her typical "Hiya" greeting. I can't imagine why Baby Cayden began crying. She, being much more the sharer at this age than her older sister, thought Baby Cayden needed toys - so she filled his car seat with toys, When he didn't respond as she saw fit, she banged to toys into his head as if to make him more aware of their presence. Needless to say, we had to create a Lily-proof barrier around Baby Cayden. Even then she would peek over at him and "talk" to him in a sing-songy voice. Baby Cayden just cried. I think she had ruined her opportunity to make a good impression - he was scarred. And scared.

It's back to fake babies now and I think we are all happy about that.

Totally unrelated, the Ankeny DQ had 1/2 price day today so we took the girls and met Aunt Amy for supper. Here is how that turned out.

We Are A Family

I have been working on teaching Evie the concept of "Family" in recent days (it is one of Daddy's favorite concepts). Last night on the way home from Upward practice, while riding in a separate vehicle from Daddy and Sister, Evie asked me where Daddy was going. I told her he was going home just like we were.
"Why?," she asked. (I am sure all parents of former 2 yr olds are shocked that she would respond with that question.)
"Because we are a family so we live in the same house and like to do things together as a family."
"Why?"
"Because God made us to be a family - a mommy and a daddy and two little girls. That is the family God put you in. Isn't that wonderful?"
Of course, since we live as far from church as we do, the conversation was over at this point because we had completed the 15 second trek.

Well, apparently, she is catching on because she was sitting on her stepstool in the bathroom this morning with her baby Cayden - at least it was named Cayden yesterday - when I walked by. She looked up and asked me to "Come in here and be as a family with me."

Olympic Math

Boromir (Sean Bean)
+
Adrien Brody








=

Evgeni Plushenko

Where Do I Begin?

So, I haven't blogged in a few days and this blog's title is a big reason why. I have a hard time figuring out how to start a post. And, you can't blame me, really. It wasn't like my high school English classes devoted a large segment of time to Blog Composition. So, I decided that maybe I should approach a blog intro in the same way I approach forms of communication that I do have experience using.

I could start my blog like a letter. Who am I kidding? I don't even remember the last non-electronic correspondence I constructed. I could start my blog like an e-mail. But, my e-mails generally have defined recipients and blogs don't exactly. I guess I could address my perceived potential audience, "Dear Grammys, small band of followers, hopefully none of my English teacher friends* and random person who hit "Next Blog" and landed here," but that gets a little too wordy and too formal for a blog.

So, I could start blogging in a slightly more casual way, maybe more like a phone conversation. If I took a cue from my daughters I would start like this:

Lily - "Hiya, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba" with head bobbing up and down like Pac-baby while holding any object, phone-like or not, up to her ear. Maybe not.

Evie - "Hello, this is John Capon? And want to know if you could help us get the bugs out so we don't scare Lillers. Ok. Bye." So she is talking to someone that doesn't exist and cutting them off before they have a chance to reply. That does seem a little more like blogging but still not exactly my style.

Now that this post requires a scroll-bar I think I am well past the stage of figuring out how to start my blog. On to my next dread: transitions. I remember one time in high school, my "honors" English class (which was a joke because almost anyone could join the class because we didn't want to hurt feelings) apparently didn't do such an honorable job with transitions and my teacher made us all rewrite our papers. It stuck with me for two reasons:
1) I had never even considered how one paragraph transitioned to the next when writing and remembered thinking that it was a novel idea to learn to do that well.
2) I thought it odd that she was very disturbed about our poor performance in a skill that we had never been taught - maybe she assumed that it had been covered in our previous 11 years of public school education. Perhaps she forgot that it was a public school education :) **
She did proceed to take some time to correct our dishonorable ways and it was actually quite a turning point for me when it came to how I perceived writing. I really did want to learn to write better, but the next year another teacher told me, in response to my request for a book that would help me better understand punctuation usage (especially commas), "It doesn't matter - do what you want," which probably explains why this sentence is constructed as it is.

I think it is safe to say we have arrived at the culmination of my composition shortfalls: the end. Since I did place two asterisks in the above sections, I think I will simply end with those because little annoys me more that abandoned asterisks - I have spent way too many precious moments of my short time on this planet scouring documents in vain for the match to a hastily-placed asterisk...

*I really do hope that my English teacher friends don't spend much time reading my posts, not because I fear the correction - actually I would love one of them to edit for me. Is there such a thing as a red e-pen? But, that would be a monumental task that I would not wish on any of them. Rather, it is more because I can imagine the pain they feel when they encounter a run-on sentence, passive voice, flagrant punctuation errors, incessant past-tense, usage issues (like "you" instead of "one" or "a person"), and so on because I know how I feel when people say "conversely" and it is nothing like a mathematical converse or how I cringed at the cell phone store when the salesman displayed his total failure to comprehend the concept of percentages. Oh, I haven't told that one yet? Here goes:
So I was at the cell phone store a while back and they were having an accessory sale where you, I mean, a person could get 10% off the first accessory, 15% off the second accessory and 25% the third accessory. The salesman was explaining the sale to another customer and commented at the end that if the person purchased three accessories they got a total of 50% off. I didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or attempt to save this young man from the error of his ways. I really wanted to ask him, "So, if you offered a fourth accessory for 50% off, would I get 100% off and then it would all be free?" I refrained. Barely. I wish my mother-in-law would have been with me. She would have caught it instantly, too, and shared my pain.
Anyway, I don't want to cause my English-skilled friends that kind of pain - ever.

** All kidding aside, I must say two things in fairness. It would be fair to my public school to give them credit where credit is due. I did have an outstanding education overall that I am truly thankful for- especially in the areas of math, science and self-esteem. Fortunately, my math teacher undid a lot of the incorrect self-esteem teaching that I think actually sets kids up for great disappointment in life when they hit the real world when he taught me that you should do something worth feeling good about if you want to feel good about what you do. Oh, Mr. G, where are your kind now?
And, secondly, it is fair to assert that something was lacking in the area of Language Arts. We went to whole language at some point during my career and that was damaging, to say the least. I really, really wish I had been instructed and corrected more. I am guessing most of my English teachers wished that as well. My brother went through the same school and teachers several years early and he is a fantastic writer so they must have done something right back then.
On an ironic side-note, (or is it really irony? - more pain probably being inflicted, huh?) my college English professor from the U of I moved to Williamsburg because she wanted her daughter to go to the same school I did so she would learn to write. Pretty cool extension to that side-note, when I took the GPBS Calc Club back to the 'Burg as a math teacher, I got to meet that daughter - in an advanced math class. She made a good move :)

When Soap Gets in Your Eyes

They asked me how I knew
What Evie was up to...

Well - she smelled like Lemon.

Evie frequently claims the need enter the bathroom under the false pretense that she has to go potty. In reality, she is just playing the only card that will guarantee her access to the area where she can secure water and its accessories (soap, spray, etc.) without having to actually ask to use those things.

Today, though, she was quite honest. She told me she needed to go wash her hair. This is the girl that panics when the rinse cup is even in sight during bath time. Instead of fully enjoying her opportunity for unfettered water indulgence, she spends much of the time dreading the culminating event and intermittently asking me, "Do you not have to rinse me?" So, I figured I was safe in telling her she could go wash her hair, surely she would just pretend. She does this quite frequently with other tasks she sees/hears Mommy and Daddy doing. She goes to meetings (usually at church) without leaving the house. She makes daddy tea in her non-existent tea machine and pours the imaginary liquid into a cup and delivers him nothing. So, I thought I was safe. Isn't that when you are most vulnerable, when you start to feel safe?

Anyway, I heard crying from the bathroom and out came Ev with a half-wet, half-dry, half-lemony, half-unscented head. Apparently, she had tackled her fear long enough to lather herself up with the soap at the bathroom sink and then dump some measure of water over part of her head. But, at that moment, she also must have remembered why she doesn't like rinsing because she came out bent over trying to fling her hair out from her face to keep the soap out of her eyes. It must have stung like crazy because, from the strength of the lemon smell, it appeared that she had used a lot. And, from the looks of the front of her shirt, she must have poured water right down the front of her head which then ran down her face and pooled on her shirt. For the first time in quite a while we had an accident in the bathroom that required a change of shirt and not a change of pants. This will certainly help even up the laundry ratio.

Anyway, she was not happy to hear that the cure for her ailment was also what caused her distress in the first place. Ev had to endure several more instances of rinsing before we sufficiently reduced the amount of lemoniness exuding from her scalp. And, even after doing that, Daddy still walked into the house after work and asked if Grammy Capon had been there (because the soap smell reminded him of her house - fitting since they did come as a Christmas gift from her). I told him that he would just have to read my blog to discover why his daughter was functioning as a living, breathing Glade Plug-In. I am sure nothing he reads will surprise him. After all, she did measure him the other night with her tape measure and estimated him to be 2 1/2 weeks.

No, not much she says is surprising, though some of it is quite embrassing - like last evening when we were at Pastor and Mrs. Smith's house - at least that is how we have instructed her to refer to them out of respect. We ladies were downstairs while the men were praying upstairs and Evie wanted to ask our beloved Pastor's wife for something so she called out "Hey, Smith, can you....?" I don't remember the rest of the question because I was still trying to process my daughter's display of total disrespect which was as unintentional as it was embarassing. Fortunately, Ronette, has such a sweet spirit, because she was as gracious as I was mortified. We did work on remembering to add the "Mrs." to the beginning for the rest of the evening though it sounded more like "Hmm Smith" even at the end of evening. I think Evie just felt so comfortable around her that she decided she could use a shortened form of her name because Ev was all kisses and hugs for them when we left and she asked first thing this morning if we could go back. I love it when the church functions like the family that it is - what a blessing!

A Way With Words

I love language and, when I stop to think about it, am totally amazed at how God designed humans to acquire it and use it. What a creative God I serve!
I mostly love watching my children develop language and the exciting adventures that result. It is crazy to me that my children are born speaking no English at all and will have a workable knowledge of it within a couple years of life and will be quite fluent not much later. If only I didn't mind sounding like they do from time to time, I wonder how quickly I could finally master German...

I LOVE talking to my children. I remember when Evie was non-verbal (well, incomprehensibly-verbal) and I would take her grocery shopping and talk to her the entire time, knowing full well that she understood little or nothing I was saying. I would instruct her to say "hello" to people when she was probably too young to even distinguish a human face from an oddly-shaped melon. I did this (and do this also now with Lily) because I don't know which day they will finally understand and so I want them to know the joy of greeting others as soon as they are able.

I used to long for the day when Ev could communicate with words. Well, those days are here for her and quickly arriving for Lily. And I love it. I know I am supposed to want them to grow up and become independent (and I do, because God gave them to me to raise and send out), but there is also a part of me that wants to keep them in this stage forever because I love to hear Evie say things like, "Mommy, can you stay here for a long time ago?" I love pondering how her brain picks up phrases and associates meaning faster than it does with individual words - how usage is everything for her little mind. She hears how we use phrases in certain contexts and applies them in similar ones - often with precious or hilarious outcomes. Here are some examples:

Tonight when Daddy got home from work she ran to him and said, "I'm so glad you're here," as though he were an unexpected guest. She often follows that one up with, "because I love you so much." In her own little way, she is showing all the affection she can muster.

"Earlier" - This is one of Evie's favorite sentence starters. "Earlier" applies to anything that happened in the past. So, tonight when she almost pinched Daddy's neck in the zipper on his fleece, she reminded him that she had also done that "earlier". The event in question happened last year.

"Yestertime" - Things that don't qualify for the "earlier" category are described as occurring "yestertime".

When I carry her and she starts slipping, she asks me, "Can you carry me straight up?". I think she must be associating that with us asking her to stand up straight but who knows where she comes up with things, really.

Or, if I am carrying her sister, Ev will ask me , "Can you carry both of them?", not "both of us", though she uses us frequently in other sentences.

And, if I ask her to carry something, she frequently can't because she "has both hands". Apparently specifying that she has both hands full would be an overstatement because she does not see the need to include that detail. And, generally, they are not full. So maybe she just has a sensitive conscience about lying... or maybe not. I am pretty sure her "Grammy in Carroll" knows her daddy's history too well to believe that one :)

Speaking of her daddy, I would be remiss not to mention his interaction with Ev here. He has always spoken to Evie like she is 20, not 2. I love listening to him explain things to her and telling her things that she can't possibly understand. She loves it. I think she feels big and important. While he takes the time to put things on her level when needed, he also puts some things a little out of her mental reach just to keep her on her toes. He asks her questions all the time and she loves being talked to like she knows things and has something to contribute. She thinks about what he is asking and responds very seriously - though sometimes quite off the mark. And he just keeps it going. Like tonight, she was drinking from her sippy cup and he asked her why she thought it was called a sippy cup. She responded, "because I call it a sippy cup". He then asked her a bunch of questions about why that was and she repeated "because I call it a sippy cup" with increasing hand motions and verbal intensity to convince her dad that the question had been answered. Sensing it was time to move on, he asked her if she knew what his cup was called and then told her it was called a styrofoam cup. Her response to this revelation, "Um, I think it tastes like Dr. Pepper." Good answer.

Out of the Ordinary

Today was an odd day (don't let 2/2/10 fool you). Nothing was overwhelmingly strange, just a lot of events that are not normal occurrences. For example:

1) Lily decided she wanted to be in her jumperoo (which is for somewhat younger children) and that she wanted to stay in there for about an hour. She never liked being in it for more than about 15 minutes when she was younger. I don't know if it was a good view of the action (aka Evie) or if it she felt safer there than out where her sister roamed free, but that is where she wanted to be.

2) We went to Wal-Mart to try to get our oil changed - that part seems to be fairly recurring. We actually succeeded this time. That was the abnormal part.

3) Lily did not want to sleep at all. She didn't get grumpy during the morning and she didn't even fall asleep in the van. It wasn't until almost 5:00 that she decided she was tired. Not the best timing...

4) On the way home from Walmart, I was cruising around the 50317 to try to get the girls to sleep and we had to stop and wait for a lady to get arrested on a narrow street. I guess maybe that also is not so unusual in our neck of the woods.
It was heartbreaking, really.
When Ev was first born I went through this realization that every person was at sometime "somebody's Evie". I was overwhelmed by how much I loved her and the weight of responsibility I felt for what kind of person she would become. It really changed the way I see people. It makes it really sad for me to see someone who is suffering for their choices, though I do believe they should be held responsible. I just think how devastated I would be if that lady being arrested were Evie (or now Lily). Not just because she would be in trouble with the law or have a bad reputation, but because she would have been raised and nurtured to walk in the grace of God, given every opportunity to experience life the way it was meant to be lived- and would have rejected it. That would sadden me the most.

5) We had an appt. to fill out life insurance applications. Now, who doesn't look forward to that? I am glad it is not a regular occurence - though I must admit it wasn't bad at all.

6) I finished our taxes tonight using Turbo Tax. I spent all that time on deductions just to find out we are better off not itemizing. I was trying to determine if I could deduct my time spent on taxes at an absorbitant per hour rate, like "priceless", but I thought that was sure to raise my chances of getting audited.

7) Praise the Lord jury duty is a rare occurence - I have been summoned for the week of March 1st. I finally filled out my juror questionnaire tonight, much to my husband's relief. I think he thought I might be the next lady in 50317 to get arrested. This is one of those times in life (akin to going to the dr. or dentist) when being a stay-at-home mom is not an ideal child care arrangment. There are no "subs" for mommy :) *Okay, so there are Grammies, but they have to work and they aren't subs for mommy according to my girls, they are upgrades.*
I am wondering how quickly I might get excused if I bring them with me. Now that would be "Out of the Ordinary". It's worth a shot.

Bonus: Some memorable little moments with the girls today:
*At Walmart Ev got a very serious look on her face and said, "Mom, where are my keys? Because you need to stay here and I need to go to Walgreens."
*Ev looked at some paper carefully and determined, "It has to be November."
*Lily was hyper tonight. She was "chasing" Daddy and fending him off with her loud, violent karate moves.
*Evie sat down on Mommy's chair and said, "I look just like Lily's mommy, Brenna." She had also told me earlier that day that she was her baby's grandma and I was the mommy.
*While "Ethan's Grandpa" was here, Ev felt a little left out of the question/answer/form-filling-out event so she sat down with a paper and asked questions eerily similar to Ethan's Grandpa and wrote that down. Many, many times she asked me "How old is your grandma? Is she 2 and a half." I said, "No, she's 100(going with the older one)." Evie said, "Okay, I'll write that down," and filled out her form, too. I wonder what rate she could get me...
*Finally, we were watching Charlotte's Web and there is a song at the end, "Zuckerman's Famous Pig", and Evie was singing her rendition with all her heart - "Zuckerman's name is Pig".
How do you not smile at that?

Catching Up...

Just a few tidbits from the weekend:

Sunday was kickoff to prayer week and we enjoyed having prayer in our home Sunday evening. Though it was a bit embarrassing when Evie went over to Jael, whom she adores, and asked, "Can you go bye-bye now?" She didn't want her to go (and neither did we) so I am not sure why she asked. We are glad Jael has a sense of humor.

Lily is really into climbing. She finds ways to climb up on the couch and gets a smug look of victory once she succeeds. I think she feels more like she is on our level. She also climbs on the stool in the bathroom and shouts into the sink. I am not sure why she shouts into it, but I am sure she gets most of her ideas about how to behave from Evie so that could explain it. My favorite is when she pulls all the toys off the shelf and climbs in the shelf - not the bottom one that is easily accessible - the top one, of course. Then she sits there all hunched over and sort of bouncing a bit. Any notion that she might be cramped or uncomfortable is overcome by the aforementioned smug look. She couldn't be happier.

I wish my brother had been here today to see Evie running around the house with only her undies on insisting that she wasn't cold and didn't need clothes. I am sure it would have brought back memories for him. Sometimes she tells me that her clothes actually make her cold. Did I ever try that one, Buck?

Today it snowed a little and we girls decided to brave the elements so we could go to Walmart while Daddy went to deacons' meeting. On the way to the garage, Evie noticed the snow and, after making sure to get up to her knees in it somehow, decided that she needed to shovel. She retrieved her shovel and began a one-handed swirling motion that accomplished great things from her vantage point. I encouraged her to keep going and then, when she decided we could probably get the van out, we shoved it in a snow pile right next to Daddy's shovel. The look of satisfaction on her face was more than worth the few extra moments spent out in the cold. I love it when she senses that she is helpful - I want to encourage that as much as I can. (The picture above shows her hard at work raking this fall.)

Well, when we got to Walmart, I carried them both to the sidewalk because it was slushy in the parking lot. When I put Ev down, she took a good look at the parking lot and had a very serious look on her face as she took in the scene. It was obvious she considered herself a shoveling expert now because she looked at me and said, "Maybe I need to shovel here," with a tone of voice that implied that the weight of this task rested squarely on her shoulders and she alone could manage it. We had to table that idea for another occasion.

This trip to Walmart was much less exciting than last time. Evie spent most of the time "going to meetings" and Lily spent most of the time trying to get out and play with Evie. She adores Evie and does not like being away from her - when she wakes up the first thing she does is look and shout for Evie (pronounced "Ehduh" - a rather violent sound usually accompanied by a swift, choppy arm motion) . Lily was not even held off by my lame attempt at distracting her - a pretzel. If only it had been cheese...

Some Things Come in Threes

Today, I had three interesting experiences at the Carroll Walmart that I thought I might share.

We were in Carroll today to celebrate Poppa's Palladium birthday and I decided to avail myself of the opportunity to get some prints made of the girls' pictures and get the oil changed in the van (The Carroll Walmart puts the "Express" back in Tire and Lube Express.) Though the speed of the oil change experience might vary, some things about Walmart are universal. Here is how it all turned out.
Round One:
I left for Walmart about 10 minutes after 4 and arrived at Walmart 8 minutes later only to find that I had left my purse behind. I drove back, got my purse, and returned. It was just past 4:30 when I arrived the 2nd time. I walked up to the door and saw a sign that stated that they closed at 5 pm on Fridays and was relieved to have made it in time. When I inquired at the desk about an oil change, they told me they had to clean the shop and so they couldn't take my car. I wish they took that same degree of care when cleaning the bathrooms...
Round Two:
Though I was still feeling defeated from Round One, I knew there were pictures of my precious girls waiting for me at the 1-hour photo center so I decided to head over there and give Walmart another shot. I made my way to the photo desk only to find it completely unmanned. This was a bit unnerving to me because I had never seen it empty before. What if someone just walked behind the counter and pocketed someone else's personalized photo paper weight? Apparently, they don't share my concern. I stood there for a long while, checked my email, waited some more, imagined the Tire & Lube crew scrubbing and sweeping - maybe they had to call in the photo center guy for backup... Still, nothing. So, I looked up the Carroll Walmart phone number on my Blackberry and called them. Yes, I called Walmart from inside Walmart. If that sounds odd to you, imagine being the lady answering the phone who kept wanting to transfer me to the photo department despite my frantic insistence that nobody would be there to receive my call. Once she understood my predicament, she paged a young man who promptly arrived and handed over my photos. Please note the simplicity of the actual photo transfer process - it will add to the drama of Round Three.
As if to kick me while I was down, the Tire and Lube Express literally barricaded me out of their area in the meantime (they locked the doors shortly after 5 - had there been someone at the photo center when I arrived I could have escaped in time, but I digress...) and I had to go out the front exit and walk all the way around the store to get to my van, which appeared to me to be wearing an expression of defeat mirroring my own.
Round Three
Once I reviewed the pictures, I realized that I had not ordered correctly and needed to reorder three more prints. So, I hopped on walmart.com and made a new 1-hr order. I had noted earlier that the photo center closed at 9 pm so I knew I had to be there by 8:30 in case they needed to clean. I arrived just in time and the guy was ready for me this time. However, he couldn't find my order anywhere. After what I thought was a rather thorough search, he went to the computer to look up the order. He told me that it had been denied. I thought to myself, "I didn't apply for a credit card, I just want my pictures. How could they be denied?"
I got my answer quickly. He told me that they looked professional and they can't print those without signed permission from the photographer. Little did they know that the "photographer", who was sitting out in our minivan with two little girls who greatly dislike being trapped in their car seats for any period of time, would have probably signed away his inheritance if it meant he could get out of there any sooner.
I explained that my husband had taken the pictures and the worker said he would have to call a manager, which he did promptly. The manager did not respond in kind and so he called again. Eventually the manager arrived to reconnoiter the situation. She began reviewing the pictures that were printing and asked me where they came from. I answered honestly when I replied, "my basement". She decided to rephrase her question and asked me if I had e-mailed them to the store. I told her that I had ordered them from the website. She next asked me where they were now. I wanted to be snide and tell her they were in her hand, but I decided that would be less than cordial. So, I gave another honest answer which was met with more disbelief. I began to understand why people confess to crimes they didn't commit. I wasn't sure whether to lawyer up or laugh hysterically.
My unsatisfactory answer had been that the images were currently being housed on my husband's compact flash. Apparently, the next logical question (which was more of a statement, which was more of an accusation) was this: "So, you scanned them." I am glad I was able to keep my composure to respond in the negative because I had decided at this point that I was either leaving in a police car or with a really good laugh. "So, how did you get them on the compact flash." The teacher in me decided to give a nice little lesson in photography. "My husband put the compact flash in his camera. Then he took the pictures and they were stored on the compact flash. I took the compact flash out and uploaded the pictures to the website. I then placed my order and that brings us to this point."
I think she grunted, though I can't be sure, and then returned to examining the photos. The level of scrutiny I was experiencing was right on par with the intensity of cleaning that I imagined the Tire & Lube Express must have experienced during my earlier visit. After a dramatic pause she looked at me and said, "They look pretty professional." She was giving me one last change to come clean. I would not be baited into a false confession. Apparently, she was not aware of how much stamina the mother of a 1 and 2 year old can maintain in a battle of the wills. I replied that my husband would be happy to hear that and I would pass along the compliment. I had attempted to remain pleasant and upbeat the whole time and I must have "killed her with kindness" because she looked at the photo center employee (and never again at me) and told him, "Give 'em to her." She walked away looking as defeated as I had a few hours earlier. I had my first victory.
It was short-lived.
I had been so engrossed in my jury-less trial, that I hadn't noticed the volume of photos being generated by the machine. After the manager was well out of earshot, I told the young man that I hated to tell him this, but that I thought he had the wrong order. I reminded him that I was there to pick up three prints and that he must be reprinting my first order. He returned to his computer, clicked around for a bit and soon my three prints came flying out of the machine. He handed them to me without a word and I thanked him sincerely. One of the photos in question appears at the top of this post, in case you would like to judge for yourself.

Author's Note: Since I cannot convey tone of voice or facial expressions, I want to clarify that I am not writing this to complain about Walmart - I totally understand their policy about professional pictures. I just want others to be able to get a laugh or a smile out of this the way I did. I find that to be one of the greatest joys of a Biblical worldview. In what many can only see to be mistakes and mishaps, I see a day that was ordained for me before I even existed by a God who knows me and loves me more deeply than I can comprehend.

DEFENSE!

What a great way to define today - DEFENSE. I felt like we were fighting things all day. Here is a brief recap:
1) Mom and Dad had insurance physicals today so we had to fast for 12 hours. Fighting off hunger while feeding your kids semi-constantly is incredibly challenging. Supper never tasted so good!
2) Lily is getting a tooth and has been particularly cranky. She shoves things in her mouth, bites down and SCREAMS. The tylenol and orajel don't seem to be doing anything - poor thing seemed to be battling all day.
3) Evie just wants to play real defense. Thursdays are Upward practice nights and, though we aren't any help, we girls like to go along. Evie yearns to be on the court doing everything Daddy and the boys are doing. She watches and imitates - it is adorable. She has a special shirt she wears on game days that she calls her "Upward Player". She shows us how to dribble and (as demonstrated above) is really good at defense! She did defensive slides all the way into the house tonight after practice - with all the intensity she could muster.
I think we are all going to cherish our sleep tonight - no fighting that. Even Ev asked me during our nightly bedtime songs to sing "God gives us sleep" and He gave it to her quickly :)

Let's Try This Again

Well, it has obviously been a LONG time since we have kept this up, but I have decided that it is time to start up again. Life with our precious girls cannot be adequately captured in words, but I am certainly going to try to catalog some of the moments that we never want to lose.
Recently some family friends bought coordinating overalls for the girls and we had a wild photo shoot in the basement with them. The picture at the top is just one of the results.
Evie is 2 1/2 going on 20. It is so funny to listen to her talk and realize that she sounds just like us. The other day when Grammy Marilyn was here for a meeting, Evie told her it was okay to leave Lily in the living room and go to the bathroom by assuring her, "I'll watch the kid". She can "read" several books almost word-for-word from memory because we have read them so many times. She frequently finds "E for Evie" and "B for Baby", etc. in signs while we drive or on packages when we are shopping. I just love watching language develop in young ones.
On that note, Lily is also making advances. She does say or try to say several words (ball, please, tickle, hi, doggie, papa) but calls most things "DaDa", has some definite word for Evie that sounds nothing like it, and does ask for "MaMaMaMaMa" when she is tired or hungry. Speaking of when she is hungry, she eats cheese. If it were up to her, it would stop there. However, she does eat all kinds of things and usually eats all of whatever she is given - after picking out all the cheese first. She walks a few steps at a time and then goes back to crawling, but really seems to want to stay upright. She loves her sister dearly and laughs easiest and happiest for her.
When we aren't just soaking up time with the girls, we enjoy spending time with our extended family and participating in the ministry of Grandview Park Baptist Church. What blessed days these are!