I am honored...

I admit...since marrying Daniel, I have become pretty knowledgeable about sports. Especially baseball and the Rangers. I can hang with the best of them when it comes to sports knowledge (hockey's my weakest sport). Even to the point that, when the Sports Illustrated comes to our house each week...I sometimes read it before Daniel. Daniel would say that I am a sponge for information.

Well, something happened today when I glanced through this week's edition.

A former student of mine was mentioned as a Freshman to Watch for Women's NCAA Basketball.


And so I am honored. But not because of all of her basketball awards, praise, and glory (which is very well deserved, by the way!).

No, because of her heart and sweet spirit. Because she is so much more than just basketball. She was one of the brightest in my Pre-AP Chemistry course that year (and I had some bright ones in there!). But most importantly, she lived (and still does from what I can tell!) a life of higher calling in her relationship with Christ.

My favorite memory of her is not on the court (although there are quite a good ones there), nor in the lab...but of all the different Bible verses she would write on the backs of her hands. Or her joy in the Lord that just radiates from her face and her actions. In the midst of a heated basketball showdown, she would just be smiling, helping other players up when they fell, and just ...enjoying life and having such joy in her playing, friends, school, and life- even when life brought some hard knocks.

I am honored to know and to pray for her. I am honored that the Lord would bring her into such a public, national arena to shine as a witness to all that she comes into contact with- her teammates, classmates, competitors, fans.

I am honored to call Whitney Hand a sister in Christ...

..even if she did pick OU over Vanderbilt. I guess it's ok if she has ONE fault.... :)

The dreaded 3-letter word...

Yep, we have hit that point in Emma's development. A time that all parents know is coming yet they dread so. And all of a sudden it hits you...and you can't escape its power. It's everywhere. All the time. No matter what. The dreaded 3-letter word....








WHY?

Emma, time to get into the bath... WHY?
Because you need to be clean... WHY?
Because you are dirty... WHY?
BECAUSE MOMMY SAID SO!!!




WHY?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to stifle her curiosity (because she sure has it!) by any means, and for the most part, she's not doing it out of disobedience. (even though she does occasionally!) But the word is now firm in her vocabulary as of this weekend.


Oh Well....

In other news, my surgery on Tuesday went well. The tendon shaft on my left middle finger had closed up, so after a cortisone shot didn't clear it up over a month ago, the surgeon just went in and opened it up. The surgery itself only lasted about 15 minutes, but I did get general anethesia. It felt great on Tuesday being knocked out...but not so great on Wednesday...or Thursday...or even Friday! I finally got back to school on Friday (I was originally planning on going on Wednesday!) but my brain still felt about 5 seconds behind the rest of my body. Considering my mind usually works about 100 mph, this was unsettling! Since Friday my body has actually finally righted itself from teh anesthesia, but I have actually had more pain in the actual incision site. I took off the major wrap/bandage on Friday as directed and have just been wearing a bandage over the stitches. Well, without that extra protection it's been a little more sensitive. Of course, then getting some food poisioning Saturday afternoon has just topped off my whole week!

Today, daniel was out and Emma and I were just hanging around at home. Me, trying to move very little due to my stomach problems. When Emma asked "why" to my answer that we couldn't go for a walk, I told her that mommy's stomach didn't feel goo. So she rushed into my bathroom and came back out with the package of band-aids for my hand. When I asked her what they were for, she pulled up my shirt and pointed to my stomach saying "momma's belly"! Of course, I obliged my little nurse and she then gave me several kisses on my band-aids (both stomach and hand!). She took good care of me!

Why?

Because she loves me!






Why? :)

Tea Parties!

It has been so much fun watching Emma starting to use her imagination and pretending! She has been playing "Tea" at her grandparents Montgomery house, so I got her a little tea set today at Wal-Mart. We set up a full tea party in the living room, complete with guests! She loved it!

Elmo, would you like a warm-up?
She realized half-way through the party that baby was not strapped in properly into her seat...so of course, she needed to take care of that problem:

At one point, I came back with my camera and immediately, she ran from the room. I didn't know what she was up to until she came back with the play camera that she also got at Wal-Mart today (I succumbed to the little toys that they place right by the checkout at kid-eye-level so that the kids will see it and insist their parents buy them that toy. Yep...I fell for it today!) She, too, wanted to take pictures like mommy of the tea party!

Later tonight, when Uncle Jeff and Aunt Val came over for dinner, she even got Uncle Jeff to join in the fun with her!

Halloween!

We had a great time on Halloween! We went to a Fall Festival at the Benbrook Park (there were TONS of people there), and then went trick-or-treating at a few houses in Daniel's parents' neighborhood. Emma was a duck, once again this year. She just wore her 12-month sized costume from last year. Except for showing a little bit of lower leg, you would never have guessed! Here's our sweet duckie at Halloween 2007:

And again, in 2008. It's hard to get her to really smile on command in pictures now-adays. When she says "cheese" she has this disfigured look on her face!
At the fall festival with Gandolf (her cousin Zac) and Spiderman (her cousin Zeb)

She enjoyed going Trick-or-treating, especially the treat part. Look mom, I got my first piece of candy!!!
At first, she was staying close to her cousins and either Daniel and I:
but it didn't take her long to get the hang of it! She would go up and knock on the door (we were very close, don't worry), and knew to say "Tweet" and hold out her Elmo basket! She always said, "Ank u" afterwards...she's one polite little duckie!
Enjoying her first spoils on the ride back to our car:Look at all of my candy!!!
Sharing a lollipop with Granddad: (and then she fell asleep with no problems on the way home!)

Chuck-E-Cheese!

We took Emma to Chuck-E-Cheese on Wednesday night and had a blast! (She was talking all evening Tuesday about going to "Cheese") It was great- they have a smaller area set apart for toddlers, so we were able just to sit down and eat, and Emma would come and get a coin, go ride something/play a game, then come back for another coin! Oh the memories of childhood come rushing back to you!!!
Talking to Chuck-E:Instead of the moles...hitting her A, B,Cs instead:

Riding with Barney:Then, we went to the park to get out some more energy and had a good time playing around as a family!

She LOVES to climb. The greatness of this picture is it only shows the first half of her journey to the top. She climbed all the way to the top like you see here, but then promptly climbs down for no apparent reason. Then, she went around to the other side of the steps, and climbed all the way back up, so that she would be on the "right" side to climb onto the platform!

She was pretty tired after all of the happenings and went to bed pretty easily. When we went to check on her before going to bed ourselves, this is what we found: Again, sometimes the floor is just more comfortable than your bed, I guess!