The Craft-less Mom

I often laugh about the fact that I just don't "do" crafts. What I mean is- I totally suck at doing crafts. I don't enjoy them. They often seem to take too long, make a mess, and honestly I feel like I could be doing a million other things.  I DO appreciate my friends who are super crafty. I think its amazing that people can knit blankets, sew clothes and even do basic things like use a glue gun. All things that are totally out of my league.

As my daughter gets older and we have started working more on arts & crafts, Bible stories, etc. this lack of craft skills is really starting to prove challenging.

A couple of weeks ago, Rafi was asking me to draw a picture of her.  Although it is not the best picture, I was able to get through the whole eyes, nose, hair part, but then she kept asking me to draw her hands and arms. So- I had to break down and tell my 20 month old I just couldn't do it. Every picture she has, looks just like this:

Recently we have been working on the 7 Days of Creation.  When we talked about God making the birds and the fish, I made a picture for Rafi to color. When she was done we hung it up in her room so that when Tony got home she could tell him what she learned about. After I put it up I said "now what did God make Rafi?" She looks at the picture and says "Fish and Bats." I realized I better put labels on it to help Tony later that day.

Yesterday we learned about Noah. After reading the story in her Bible, I thought we would do a little craft to really help the story sink in. My goal was to make the ark mobile, so I made a slit in the paper and made it to where the boat could move across the waves. A very ambitious task I know. Well, I didn't really know how to create the ark, but an even bigger problem was that I didn't know how to draw ANY animals. So- this is what we came up with. Obviously that is Noah in the boat.

All of these things should make me want to try harder, take a class, or at least ask for some help. But instead- I think I will just start using my printer more and doing a lot of coloring sheets to go with our stories. And let's be honest here, children retain stories much better when told over a bowl of ice cream as opposed to a craft any day. So- for any of my craft-less moms out there, have no fear! Just give your kid sugar, and you will be way cooler than the other moms ; )

The Rules of Pregnancy

As I am sure most of you know, Tony and I are expecting our second child in April. What an exciting time it is knowing that we are going to have a baby boy and Rafi is going to be a big sister. It would seem that it would just be natural that everyone you encounter to be as happy and supportive of the situation, right?!?

Well, after many intersting situations and lots of stories from my friends who have experienced similar things- I have decided it is just about time to have a little handbook with a few Rules of Pregnancy. I am including examples on some of these for those of you who need a little more detail. And YES, all of these stories are true.

First- NEVER address weight when it comes to pregancy. I tweeted about this yesterday and I don't mean to get stuck on the issue, ok- well actually I do, because it is a big deal. I won't speak for all women here, but I will say for myself- gaining weight is probably my least favorite thing to do. I like it even less than having to actually work out to get the weight off. I am sure most of you reading this would never dream of saying anything about how huge someone is, or ask them if they are having twins, but I can assure you, some people just don't get it. I actually had someone tell me (who I didn't even know) that she would be praying for me as she had, and I quote "no idea how I would be able to keep up with a toddler for another 3 months considering how large I am." I will refrain from typing out what I wanted to tell her I was praying for, but it may have had something to do with her safety if I happened to see her in the parking lot when I left. So, do all pregnant (well and non-pregnant) women a favor- unless it is something along the lines of "oh my word you are so skinny" just don't talk about our weight.

Second- Just because my belly is sticking out, it is is no way an invitation to just jump all over me. I personally am not a touchy feely person. I am sure you are all shocked by this. So for hugs in general to make me a little uneasy, imagine what it is like when I don't even know a person's first name and they walk up to me and begin rubbing my stomach. Can you imagine anything more akward? What if I went up to you because you got a new hair color and just started petting you like a puppy? It's inappropriate. Should you ask and are cleared for touching, then and only then is this ok.

Third- It's never a good idea to share horrible birth stories with someone who is about to pop. You are already freaked out about this process and the last thing you want to hear is the worst case scenario. When I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant with Rafi I had someone tell me how she broke her hip bone giving birth to her daughter and considering we were the same build, she would not be shocked if that happened to me. Wow! That really makes you want to go into labor. My funniest/horrible story came just a few days before I had Rafi. Someone shared a story with me that they had seen on the news that week. It was about a woman who got a staph infection after having her baby in the hospital. Apparently it was so bad that the woman ended up losing her arms and legs, and now had this infant to care for. Talk about a motivational speech. It was so tramatizing to hear that immediatly after I had Rafi, I turned to my friend Stacy and said "do I still have my arms and legs?" Seriously, none of these types of stories help, best to just keep to yourself.

Finally- Unless you are a doctor, and more specifically MY doctor, please hold back all medical opinions. I am certain you probably know more about the risks of epidurals, c-sections, placentas, cord blood, etc. but really, I am going to guess my doctor may know a little something about these things too. If he doesn't I will be sure to use my life line and ask the general public for their expertise on the matter.

I am sure there are many more rules that others would like to include. If you have any, please share, and include any funny stories you have. I only write these things in humor because I have learned the best way to stay sane in the pregnancy process, is to just laught about it : )

The Adventures of Childhood Chris Collier

A few weeks ago my dad came over with a bunch of old pictures that he had at his house. He wanted to be sure my mom still had some pictures of my grandparents, my brother Chris and I when we were kids, etc. after she had lost all of her pictures in the fire.

One of the BEST things we found were these really strange wood cut outs of my brother Chris and I. Why did my parents get these made of us you may ask?!? Well, as I explained to my cousin Caitlin "My dad is wearing cut off jean shorts and tube socks up to his knees in most of these pictures, he probably thought this kind of thing was really classy back then."

Well, of course we couldn't just let this kind of priceless item go to waste. We have decided that the Childhood Chris Collier just didn't experience enough excitement in the late 80's! So, he will now live the life he never had. Below are some pictures of the things he has already been able to do in the last couple of weeks. He will go on many more adventures, in many more places, and my guess is- he is going to love them all. Or at least he will look like he is loving them all.

Here he is going out for date night with Tony and I...

Ordering Thai Food...

Wearing a napkin bib while having a family pizza dinner...

Learning all about technology. Here he is playing Call of Duty on X-box...

I think childhood Chris Collier will have a Facebook fan page soon, he seems to be interested, so keep an eye out for it.  Oh, and if you are wondering if people think you are strange when a little wooden figure of a boy is sitting with you at a dinner table, looking at the menu,the answer is- of course not!

Life with a Side of Serious

As many of you know, my Mom and Rodger live in Bastrop. They have 10 acres of land with a beautiful home that Rodger built with his own 2 hands. He built all the cabinets, the beds, the dining room table- if he COULD do it, he DID do it! Below are pictures of the outside and inside during Christmas this past year.

A little over 2 weeks ago, we got a phone call from my mom that the fires in Bastrop were on their property. She was driving in from work, and only made it half way up the road before a police officer told her she couldn't go any further. Rodger saw the fire coming and did what he could to water the house down, and just when the flames got too hot (which happened VERY fast) he grabbed their 2 dogs and headed out.

They got out of the house with nothing but the clothes on their back, their 2 dogs and one guitar that happened to be close to the door of Rodger's shop. That's it! He had to leave their 22 chickens behind, couldn't find the cat, and of course no paper work, pictures, clothes... all of it was left behind.

For nearly 2 1/2 weeks, they have been staying with Tony and I. Waiting and wondering. They were the very last group of people to go in to their property. They FINALLY just returned on Thursday morning to see what was left. To say it was overwhelming to see would be an understatement. Below is a picture of Rafi looking at what was left of the house.

It was hard to see this. All of the memories we had created in the house, as well as all of the items that meant so much to us. I started going through every room in the house remembering what was there. Pictures of my grandparents who passed away 11 years ago, an entire refrigerator my mom spent years filling with magnets from every state she had visited, all of Rodger's wood work that he had spent so much time on- gone in just a matter of moments.

We are so incredibly thankful that mom and Rodger are safe. We are so grateful for all of the people who have sent food, gift cards, clothes and encouraging words to them through the last several weeks. Not to mention, 6 of the 22 chickens did actually survive! 

Mom and Rodger have truly been inspirational to watch through all of this. They were the ones telling us "don't be sad. we just move on and make more memories from here." God has been so kind in allowing us to spend time with our family that we have so missed in the "busyness of life" in the last several years.

And unlike many others who were effected by the fires, they will be able to rebuild and move on. Our prayers go out to those who are less fortunate, without insurance and still staying in shelters all over the area.

Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers. Your words have been so comforting. Below is a picture of one of the only items still standing on their property. I believe this says it all.

Classic Maria

My Aunt Maria is one of the funniest people I know. At 64 years young, she is so adventurous and full of life. There are often times she makes me laugh to the point of tears. I don't know why I don't share more stories that involve her, so everyone can benefit from her humor. So I am going to share 2 of my favorite Maria stories for now. There will be plenty more to come.

Scene 1:
Headed out to spend the day at the park with the family. It is Summer in Texas so we know its going to be hot and sunny. Maria is going to ride with me in my car but said she needed to get something out of her car first. After a few minutes she comes over to jump in the back seat and says "I forgot my sunglasses at home, so I'm just going to wear these." I start to turn to look at her thinking that she will be wearing a hat, or maybe even some crazy shades just to get by, but instead I see that she is wearing 3D sunglasses that she got at the movies. 

Scene 2:
My brother Chris is a gun guy. He loves to teach people about guns, how to shoot, safety, etc. As we are all having lunch one day at my house Chris starts to tell us how he wants to do a class for just our family to teach us basic gun safety. Maria chimes in and says. "I don't need to know how to shoot a gun because I would never buy a gun." She pauses, then continues "Well, I guess I should learn about how to shoot it just in case I ever FIND a gun." I start to ask her where in the world she is hanging out that she would have the potential to find a gun, but she starts up again... " Or I guess if someone came at me with a gun and I overpowered them, I would need to know how to shoot after that."

Not sure what goes on in that ladies head, but I sure do love it.

Survivor: Galveston Island

The Beach. A place to relax, catch some sun and not have a care in the world....

We arrived at our hotel in the early afternoon Sunday. We could not wait to get in the water so we changed as soon as we got there, and headed downstairs.  We looked over the brown bath water that we call a beach in Texas with excitement. After lathering up with sun block (now in our late 20's Caitlin and I have traded in the baby oil for SPF5000) we went leaping into the water.

The waves were pretty strong so my mom, Rafi and aunt Linda stayed playing in the sand while Caitlin, my aunt Maria and myself took our floats and headed to the deep water. After only a couple of minutes in, I start to feel a little itchy. I thought it was a tag on my swimsuit so I moved it out of the way. No luck. I started to see all of this plant stuff in the water so I thought it must be that. I started moving it away, and still- no relief. Finally I look over at Caitlin and say "Hey- I'm really itching. Are you itching?" She says yes. Thinking we are going crazy we yell over at Maria.
"Hey Maria- are you itching?" As she looks over she is already scratching and assures us that its only in her shorts that she is itching. So that of course makes us feel better.

We immediately start running out of the water. As we get to the shore Caitlin pulls something off her leg that is a small blob with a dot on it. We now know something is in our swim suites and start freaking out. The only thing we have to rinse off with is ice cold water which is now being poured down our swim suites as we jump around screaming.

Upon research we realize we have been "attacked" by sea lice. YES, Sea Lice. These are jelly fish larvae and are abundant in warm beaches from April-August. Are you freaking kidding me. Sea lice. Who the heck gets sea lice. I had never even heard of this and I have been in Texas Beaches my whole life.

Needless to say after the itching had been washed away, we make the easy decision to not get back in the water. We will stick to laying out in the sand.  I was sitting with Rafi digging a sand castle and trying to get over the sea lice situation when all of a sudden something hits my leg. I look down to find a 1 foot snake jumping around in my lap. In a split second I am screaming, throwing the snake away and running with Rafi to get away from it. Ok- now, how in the world did a snake end up in my lap?!? A seagull. Yes, a kind seagull who I suppose felt that I needed a gift after being infested with sea lice, dropped a snake out of the sky onto my lap.

So, now we have sea lice and snake- beach is over! We go to our hotel, burn our skin in hot water to make sure everything is dead and walk down the Sea Wall to go to an uneventful dinner. After lots of laughter and stories we are walking back to our hotel when suddenly this group of kids come speeding past us on bicycles. We hear some shouting, turn around and see a fight has broken out right behind us. My mom and Linda start running toward us to get out of the way, just as we see my Aunt Maria inching closer to the fight. Not sure if she was trying to get a better look or maybe throw some money in for a bet, but she was right in the action. After screaming (theme of the trip) at her, she finally gets over to us and we watch these kids go Street Fighter on each other. And I mean that literally. Traffic was swerving around them as they threw punches at each other in the middle of the busy street. Finally some guys run out to stop them, and then the police.

Realizing that nothing else we could do would top our triple threat of sea lice, snakes and UFC fighting, we called it a night, and in our world "a successful vacation."

My favorite sign in Galveston

The Interpretation of Dreams

This is the dream I had today...

-I was in a Chinese Prison.
-My "cell mate" was a super sweet Zombie who was really scared of me.
-When the guards were angry, they would release a sea creature to chase after us and try and sting us. It looked just like Patrick on Sponge Bob Square Pants, except with an angry face.
-I woke up each day with no memory of the day before. So each morning I would scream in fear and the Zombie would sit across the room and explain where I was.

Ummmm.... WHAT?!?

Take that Sigmund Freud!