New Car?

We're going to Jackson tomorrow to, hopefully, buy a car for Eric. His is about to bite the dust and we're trying to get some trade-in value for it before it goes. We're looking at a Ford Escape (orange) at CarMax in Jackson. We've got a "car equity loan" (I seriously doubt it's really called that, but it's like a home equity loan using our car instead of our house) for $5000 that we're going to use as our down payment. We've paid off my credit card and we'll be able to afford a car that costs around $15,000. Hopefully we'll get a little bit of something for Eric's car to help with the down payment. I think I feel more adult buying a car than I did when we bought a house. Weird.
I've got to seriously hunker down and get busy on my homework for this week. Eric's at the ball game and Kaleb's asleep, so now's the time. Too bad I'm engrossed in "Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta." I love the South!!

Kaleb's birthday was amazing! I have to admit, I teared up while we were singing "Happy Birthday." I basically mouthed the last phrase or two. We had a lot of family there, which was just what we wanted. I was sad a few of our close friends couldn't be there, but a lot of very important people were there. Kaleb got some musical instruments (of course). He got a couple of drums, a guitar, a xylophone, a workbench, a giant cube with all sorts of activities, a Jeep walker, and a multi-sport complex thing.
We went to his one year check up yesterday. Poor baby had 3 shots - one in each arm and one in his leg. He had MMR, chickenpox, and Hepatitus A. He'll have to go back when he's 15 months and then at 18 months. Then he won't have to go back until he's 4. He weighed 21 pounds, was 29 inches long, and his head was 45 cm, which translates to 17 inches. In general he's in the 25th percentile. Turns out he's a little baby. I think he'll be built like my dad.
My online class met for the first meeting last night. Overall, I don't think it'll be that hard. It definitely won't be as much work as my summer class, but it'll probably be more boring.
Eric's car broke down so we're going to go get another one this weekend. We might wait until Labor Day in case they're having any sales, but the way his car is holding up (or not holding up) we might want to go ahead and try to trade it in. We're hoping to be able to get a car for $15,000 or under. We'll have $5,000 for a down payment and maybe we'll be able to afford it.

Kaleb's Birthday Eve

Kaleb will be one in about 21 hours. It's absolutely unbelievable. I was looking through all of the pictures we've taken of him and just thinking about how much he's changed. I've included two pictures of him. One is when he was just born and the other is a more recent one of him. We'll be heading to Jackson tomorrow to prepare for his birthday party at Happy and P-Daddy's. I've stolen and modified an idea from a blog I read. I've written a letter to Kaleb for his first birthday. I'm going to do this every year for him and his future siblings until I can no longer write. Well, technically, type. Here it is:

Dear One-Year-Old Kaleb,

I can't believe you are already a year old. I think back to when we first brought you home and those first few weeks when you were in our lives. You were so tiny and you slept all day. Nighttime was a different story though. I remember one night when Daddy was at an away football game and we were on our own. You were just crying and crying and I couldn't figure out why. I had fed you, rocked you, changed you, and done everything else I could think of. When nothing worked I started crying myself. For some reason when I started crying, you stopped. I will always cherish that night because it was the first time I realized that you were a little person with feelings just like mine.

Now that you're one, you're crawling around like crazy. You could be an Olympic crawling sprinter. I put you down at Books-A-Million and you were around the corner within two seconds. You walk around holding onto things and you'll take some steps holding my hand. It is the sweetest thing. You've taken a few solo steps in the past couple of days. I know that pretty soon I'll be chasing you around the house.

You eat baby food three times a day and have a LOT of snacks in between. You generally take four to five bottles a day. We've started weaning you off of your bottle and onto your sippy cup. You HATED your sippy cup the first time we used it. You just cried and cried, I got ears all over my shirt, and I eventually gave in and put your formula in a bottle. We've started giving you milk in a cup and it takes you all day to finish. You're also clapping your hands and saying several words: Mama, Dada, baba, bye bye, uh-oh, baby, and hey. The last few words are hit-or-miss. When you wave bye-bye to other people you use both hands and wave towards yourself. Everyone always loves that.

You're such a little flirt. You smile your adorable, scrunched up face with your four teeth whenever someone talks to you. We can't go anywhere with you without someone telling us how adorable and friendly you are. You are absolutely the best baby in the world. I can't believe how much I love you. There is so much love in my heart for you that I feel like I could power the world.

Mama

I Fall SO Short

Church as really been challenging today. I like that it's challenging, but it's going to be difficult to change my life to meet the challenge. We're still talking about marriage and, I've got to admit, I've felt that my marriage was pretty much perfect...except in one area. Today's sermon hit on that area. The general topic was Radical Marriages: Meeting Each Other's Needs.
Her needs were:

• Kindness and Gentleness
• Conversation and Affection
• Loving Leadership

His needs were:

• Respect and Admiration
• Sexual Fulfillment
• Domestic Support

After the preacher talked about each person's needs, he asked us to evaluate our own performances. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I fall short on meeting Eric's needs. When I read verses that refer to the woman as the "weaker vessel" or being "submissive" to my husband, I get angry and defensive inside. I know that I want to be taken care of and that I want Eric to be the head of the household, but it seems so degrading. Like all I'm meant to do in life is cook, clean, take care of the kids, and meet Eric's NEEDS (if you know what I mean). Like I'm not supposed to have any personal goals, any thoughts or ideas, anything that doesn't serve someone else. I know it's not supposed to be like this and I have to get over this feeling so I'm just going to go for it. I'm going to try to live like the submissive, weaker person I guess I'm supposed to be. Even typing this fills me with dread, anger, and tears. But since it's Biblical I'm going to try to do it. And try to do it with a good attitude.

Fevers of All Sorts

So I might have seen a black widow while I was weeding the front flower bed. Some sort of black spider with a red marking ran out of the ground after I pulled up a weed. I tried to smash it with the rocking chair on the front porch, but it somehow disappeared. Now I'm a little paranoid that it's in the house or curled up somewhere making little black widow babies. Yuck!

I'm starting to get baby fever. It seems like a lot of people are pregnant right now and I'm starting to look back and remember what it was like to be pregnant. I had a fairly easy pregnancy so I wouldn't mind being pregnant again. I know I want to wait another year. With the class I have now, I don't need to be exhausted and huge. I need to be on my game. Plus I need to finish my Masters and wait until Kaleb is a little bit older. At least to the point where he can talk and tell me what's wrong and what he needs. Right now he's saying mama, dada, baba, bye bye, uh oh, and hey. That's not very helpful when he's crying (except the baba part). But it seems like a tough time to be pregnant. Three out of the four people I know that are pregnant right now are having complications. The fourth one just found out this week that she was pregnant, but the other three are farther along.

I finished up my Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum class with an A and will start Histories and Philosophies of Education in a couple weeks. Since I took Teacher as Researcher last summer, after this trimester I'll be finished with the hardest and most boring classes that I'll have to take. If I take one class every trimester and 2 this summer, when school starts next year I'll have 3 classes left to take. I'd like to finish up after the winter trimester because we're planning on having our second baby next April(ish). Of course these are all plans and God could have something else entirely in mind.

10 Commandments for Marriage

Ladies:
1. Give up your quest for a perfect marriage.
2. Give up all hope of changing your husband through criticism or attack.
3. Give praise and affection.
4. Do things your husband likes to do.
5. Provide a peaceful place.

Guys:
6. Assign top priority to your marriage relationship.
7. Dare to talk.
8. Listen without feeling the need to solve the problem.
9. Avoid criticism.
10. Remember the importance of the little things.

First Few Days of School

School started back on Wednesday. By Wednesday night I was totally exhausted. I forget how little kindergarteners know about the daily routines of school when they first start. Getting 20 five-year-olds to be quiet long enough to tell them the days of the week is a serious struggle. As the week progressed things gradually got better. Hopefully next week will be a little calmer especially since we're starting our phonics and math lessons. It will be more structured and that is sure to help improve behavior.
I have 7 girls and 13 boys so it is a VERY active class. Of those children I have one who is severely allergic to several things, a couple with asthma, one who has seizures when it gets too hot, one who has nose bleeds when it gets too hot (yay for a heat wave, right?) and 17 with speech problems. This may be my most challenging year yet. I know that if I write down some of the things that happen to me this year I will be able to look back on them and laugh. Look back WAY later. Eric thinks it's just hilarious. This is what I've heard so far:

1. Me: Who can tell me a month of the year?
Child: Butt-tober!
2. Child: I took my underwear off because I didn't feel like wearing it anymore.
3. Child in the middle of nap time: (Stands in the chair at his desk and shouts) Woo woo! All
aboard! Chugga chugga! (Does his arms in true chugga-chugga fashion)

There's also another thing I wanted to do on this blog that I stole from another person's blog. But it's okay because she stole it from someone else, too. In random order (for the most part) here are My 20 Favorite Things:

1. Eric - knowing that God put one special person on this Earth for me to be with is amazing. There are things that happen with Eric that would completely embarass me if I was with other people...let's just leave it at that.
2. Kaleb - he could actually fill up the rest of my 19 slots. I love his little teeth, rocking him to sleep, watching him grow, hearing him talk, watching other people watching him, his tiny hands, his beautiful blue eyes, when he sucks his two fingers instead of his thumb, when he crawls as fast as he can to me when I pick him up at the nursery, when he giggles when I tickle him, watching him eat Baby Mum-Mums, you get the picture.
3. Keifers - I crave this at least twice a week. It's probably a good thing I don't live near it.
4. The South - I don't think I could ever move away from the south...it's too much a part of who I am.
5. Reading - If I'm not reading something, I feel awkward. I do have a personal policy about starting new books. I have to wait one complete day after finishing a book before I begin a new one. This gives me time to fully digest the first book so I won't mix it up with the second one. Exclusions include books I've read so many times I have them memorized (i.e. Twilight).
6. Kids in general - I wouldn't teach if I didn't love kids.
7. Kudzu - I know it's probably a pain in the butt, but I love it because it epitomizes the south.
8. The start of school - I still get excited about going down the pen aisle at Wal Mart and setting up my classroom for the start of school. I hope this never goes away.
9. Sushi/Hibachi - Why say more?
10. Girl's Night - Getting some time with girls my age who are going through the same things I am is really a release. I love spending time with my boys, but sometimes I just need to be with girls.
11. Coming home after vacation - There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed after a vacation.
12. Hawaii - This is what I think about if I wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream. It calms me down and helps me get back to sleep. We went on our honeymoon, and although the flight was AWFUL, I can't wait to get back. There's enough to do that you don't have to be a beach bum the whole trip. Hawaii is my one exception to my "I hate beaches" rule.
13. Going to the movies - It's such an escape. Every now and then I see a movie I want to rewatch a hundred times. Case in point - Inception
14. Drumlines - God must have given me this special love in preparation for marrying a drummer. I love all of the rhythms and the dichotomy of simplicity and complexity they involve.
15. The thought of traveling to Europe - I have so many plans (well, Eric and I have so many plans) to go to Greece, London, Ireland, Austria, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and so many other places. This will have to be after Kaleb (and other potential kids) are out of the house so we can be gone a while and see it all at once.
16. Reese's Easter eggs - I love seeing them in the aisle at Wal Mart. They also represent the ending of most likely a hard school year.
17. Bed time - Aaaaaah. Talking to Eric at the end of the day is great. I love it because you don't have to support any of your body. When the sheets are clean, it makes it even better.
18. Flip flops - I don't know why, but I love them. I might prefer being barefoot more, except for walking on concrete and asphault.
19. The smell of burning leaves/The smell of freshly cut grass - Fall is epitomized by the burning leaves...when the weather is getting cooler (theoretically) and football is really heating up. Freshly cut grass is more of the Spring and Summer equivolent of burning leaves.
20. Porch swings - I can't wait to have a porch that I can put a swing on. In the summer you can sit outside and listen to rain or drink lemonade. In the summer you can bundle up with a blanket and hot chocolate. There's nothing bad about a porch swing.

Day Before School Jitters

School starts tomorrow for the kids. We've been going for the past couple of days and got to meet the parents and kids on Monday afternoon. Kaleb's been going to a new babysitter since Kristi moved to Shubuta. I'm really sad because she was great. Carol came highly recommended so I'm not too worried about it. Kaleb's always been a happy, easygoing baby. I miss him a lot more this go around than the last one. I only got to be with him for 7 weeks when I first went back to school. Now I know him and have been with him all summer. It's odd not being able to hold him and kiss him and see him smile whenever I want to.

I've started taking sleep aid medicine at night to help me fall asleep. It works great getting me to sleep, but I still wake up a lot during the night. I know I'll need it tonight because so many things will be going through my mind in preparation for tomorrow. I hope I'll be able to stay at school a little bit and get some work done for the rest of the week, but I have to pick Kaleb up at 4 every day so probably not. I'm sure I'll have a more interesting post after these first few days of class.