On running behind

I often allude to being behind on things, and I'm sure any reader might think, "What could a stay-at-home-mom possibly have going on that could be late?"

Ahhh, well, let me tell you. I had all of these grandiose plans this season of keeping our little digital scrapbook here updated with our Christmas comings and goings. I especially wanted to create a video montage of 2011 and have that post today. Instead, today is New Year's Eve, and we spent our afternoon making Christmas ornaments -- because I promised we would, but simply had not carved out the time for that activity. Once they dry, we will complete these artistic masterpieces and hang them on their trees... the trees that may very well be up for another week or two (or three).

Happy New Year's!!!

Friday's Quote

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

-Arthur Ashe

Birthday

Today is my birthday. Skip has been asking for a couple of days for me to think about where to go to dinner tonight, and I have been carefully weighing a couple of options. Fleming's, like last year, or possibly something else??? I was really torn.

This morning, over breakfast (in bed, with my four favorite people), Gracie announced that we would have my birthday party in the dining room tonight.

So there it is. Dinner at home! Skip and the girls have made a quick trip for the menu items, and they are going to wow me later with a scrumptious meal.  Dinner with the family is the perfect choice. 

Friday's quote

Youth is something very new: twenty years ago no one mentioned it.

-Coco Chanel

Shopping

Yesterday was errand-palooza.  By 1:00pm, I had made a total of 11 stops while completing various tasks.  Through a weird scheduling scenario, I had Gracie along for the ride.  She performed like a total shopping champ, and I gave her my highest behavioral rating -- five stars -- for being such a trooper. 

One of our errands was a quick stop at the mall to pick up Skip's gift.  Gracie has had some issues with discretion in the past, but she promised she would keep the gift a secret until Christmas morning.  She promised. 

This afternoon, Skip was loading the girls in the car when Gracie suddenly said, "Daddy I have a big surprise for you!"  He promptly told her not to say another word, to save the surprise, etc.  She is likely about to burst, and I fully expect her to run through the house screaming, "Daddy!  Your surprise is X!!!" at any point.  But, she did make it 24 hours before she alluded to the gift, and that is huge progress. 

In related news, we celebrated Christmas with my dad this past weekend.  We have had their gifts for a while, and those bags were the lone gifts under our tree so they have been a focal point for weeks.  They made it all the way through the gathering without spilling the beans.  However, as Lauren was handing PawPaw his gift she said, "This is for you, PawPaw; it's a book!" 

If Skip's gift remains undisclosed until Sunday, I am guessing he can expect a similar revelation.

Sunday best

I have a weakness for dress coats... and shiny black shoes and Christmas dresses.  

Gracie and Lauren have weaknesses for jewelry.  Although I still pick out their clothing, they accessorize themselves.  They put together the less-is-more look below, stopping with just one necklace and a few bracelets. 

Christmas program

Hooray for Baby Jesus!

The preschool choir began rehearsal for their program, "Hooray for Baby Jesus!" in August.  They have been practicing weekly for this event and have enjoyed learning all of the songs.  At the beginning of October, we were given a CD of the program to practice at home.  We decided to practice the songs during our morning and afternoon commute each day, and we were able to get through the program at least twice on the way to or from school, for a total of at least four times each day.  That's a whole lotta singing, and those songs are permanently burned into my brain (in a good way, of course). 

The program was the first Sunday in December, and my little point-and-shoot failed to deliver any usable pics from the event.  (My nice camera is still at the camera hospital where I am told it will likely remain until the first of the year.)  Instead, I dusted off the old video camera (that we, shamefully, rarely use) and got some great footage.  Unfortunately, I am not sure how to transfer it here. 

In the meantime, here is a shot of one of our many car rehearsals:

HOORAY!

Milestones

By way of update (and before I forget), we have a few more milestones to post.  (These tasks occurred between 4 - 4 1/2 months, as all photos were taken prior to Thanksgiving.)  William George is working on sitting up!  He has mastered the Boppy:

Along those lines, he regularly sits up in his chair and swing, and he can almost flail himself out of his Bumbo. 

He was very happy to finally have an official seat at the table.  Now he is holding out for actual "real" food, and he stares longingly at everyone's meals. 

He is engaging more and more.  He loves to help Gracie cook, and he grabs at their toys now.  It is the dawning of a new era:

Finally, he is about a week away from having his first tooth.  We will see how quickly he learns that teeth make for an excellent defense strategy with regard to his sisters. 

Friday's quote

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.

-Woody Allen

Portraits, December 2011

As I mentioned previously, we had some updated photos taken a couple of weeks ago.  There was a problem with the disc so I have not been able to share until now.  Considering that our appointment was right after school, that we changed into clothing "on the fly," and considering that William George was very hungry, the session went really well. 

George was very happy, and the camera loves him:

Gracie and Lauren are always up for getting dressed and having a good time:

Unfortunately, they were more enamored with the photographer's assistant than with the photographer, and therefore, they are looking off center in each shot:

Regardless, they had a good time laughing:

When not laughing, Lauren struck some lovely poses:

And Gracie looked like a beautiful little school girl:

William George liked being in the spotlight almost as much as his sisters:

The trio:

All in all, we had a great afternoon, and we finished the night by going out for Mexican food. 

Photos by Portrait Innovations

Exterior illumination

We debuted our Christmas lights on Thanksgiving night.  Once I finished the final steps, the girls came outside to check out the lighting of the Lindsey Christmas lights. 

I am teaching them everything I know about exterior illumination.

Friday's quote

"My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people."

-Steve Jobs

Styling my children

I have mentioned, ad nauseum, about how we do not watch television.  The primary reason for this is that we simply cannot hear our television over the din of noise constantly being made by our three children (joyous, happy sounds!).  When we absolutely must view something on television, we resort to relying on the closed caption feature, but concentrating is difficult. 

When I was sick recently and completely wired for four days from the steroid shot I was given, I found myself downloading something -- anything -- to watch on my iPhone in the wee hours of the night.  I exhausted all of the free news programs first.  Sometime around the third night of being up until 3:00am, I downloaded an episode of the Rachel Zoe Project.  I am not proud of this, but I have watched seasons 4, 1, and 2 in their entirety (in that order).  I am completely up to speed on the Taylor drama, and I look forward to Brad's betrayal of Rachel in season 3.  Largely, I find the manufactured drama completely devoid of entertainment value, but I adore the clothes.  The clothes!  Love, love, love!

Last week, I took all three of the monkeys for photos.  And, I totally channeled Zoe when I was prepping the monkaroos for having their photos taken. 

I pulled choices for Lauren and Gracie:



I pulled choices for William George:




And, I put together looks that coordinated nicely:




Finally, since we were going to the studio after school last Friday, I put together a kit containing their accessories and grooming tools.  Unfortunately, there is no photo of said kit, but trust me when I say it was incredibly thorough. 

All in all, the whole affair was exceptionally organized.  Very Zoe.

Visiting Santa, 2011

We visited with Santa the day before Thanksgiving, back on November 23rd.  This visitation was very impromptu --  so spur of the moment that the girls were wearing their hand-crafted Thanksgiving turkey t-shirts.  Nothing like bypassing Thanksgiving altogether and diving straight into Christmas! We went to the Chick-Fil-A at a local mall, and Santa was there, too!  We were surprised to see him so early, and the girls were giddy at the thought of seeing him.  The upside to being super early is that there was no line whatsoever, and we got to spend a few minutes talking with Santa.  I guess the early bird really does get the worm!  Who knew?!

Friday's quote

"Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun."

George Scialabba

When the holidays take you down

We had a great Thanksgiving, and hope yours was wonderful as well.  As William George's photo indicates, he was wiped out by the entire experience.  Illness has struck at our house so I am simply going to provide an enumeration of where we are today:

1)  I have been so, so sick.  By Friday afternoon I was not feeling especially good, and by Saturday I had a fever of 102.  By early Sunday morning, my fever was at 102.7 so trekking out to an after hours clinic Sunday afternoon became a priority.  They ruled out the flu, considered walking pneumonia and finally settled on treating me for a sinus infection.  I received two shots, medication and a giant, flask-sized container of cough syrup.  Seriously, this is the largest amount of cough syrup I have ever been given.  Even though I have been taking the cough syrup every four hours and although it contains hydrocodone, I have been so WIRED from the steroid shot that I could have re-roofed out home with my bare hands, you know, but for the illness. 

2)  My camera is in the camera hospital.  I have noticed that the quality of the pics has really declined, but I assumed that was attributable to my photographic skills (and it may just that).  The last decent photos I captured were George's two week shots.  I finally received an error message, and the entire camera shut down.  I took it by Wolf, and they have kindly sent it in for repairs.  The upside?  They are so thorough and awesome that I am sure it will be returned better than new.  The downside?  It will be in the shop for 4-6 weeks.  So... my good camera is out of commission for the holidays, but I am very thankful to have my old camera (point-and-shoot) as a back up.  Otherwise, I would be looking at the girls' cameras.  (Speaking of, that it is a post in and of itself and one that I have been meaning to write forever.  I will get to it soon.)

3)  Somehow, the girls and William George have not caught my bug so it has been business as usual for them.  The girls have their big choral event this weekend so they practiced last night and will do a full rehearsal Saturday morning.  I think there is more to this weekend (a couple of performances?), but I will get up to speed on that once my head clears from all the cough syrup.  We have piano this afternoon, and we have portraits tomorrow after school.  (Since my nice camera is on the blink, we are heading into the studio.)  We caught a break with no ballet after piano today (due to our town's Christmas parade and our studio having a float in the parade) so we will at least have a short afternoon.  The girls are too young to walk in the parade, meaning that we can have a nice, quiet evening at home. 

4)  Finally, we all reek of Lysol, and my hands are permanently damaged from excessive use of hand sanitizer.  I think "sick season" is here. 

The holidays

Not to rush through Thanksgiving, but it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. 

Exterior illumination/decoration?  Check.
The upstairs decorations?  Check. 
The mantel decorations?  Check. 
The family tree?  Check. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Friday's quote

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

Big win

All William George wants for Christmas is a big win on Saturday... ROLL TIDE!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

From our home to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

WGL, 3 1/2 months

Back on November 1st, I took a little video of William George.  He had said "momma" about 4-5 times in a row so I attempted to capture his words on film.  As you might imagine, he immediately clammed up and barely made any sound at all.  He may not have delivered on saying "momma," but his adoration for his sisters is evident.  He is a tricky monkey!

Significant changes since filming include 1) WGL can now sit up in his seat, 2) he has said "daddy" a few times, 3) he has said "LuLu" twice, and 4) Gracie has him on probationary status until he learns to make a "G" sound.

Home improvement

Gracie during one of our many trips to Lowe's

We have finally completed phase one of our home improvement to do list.  We had our home painted, complete with some minor repairs on the trim.  We had several electrical projects performed (e.g., replacement of seven light fixtures, replacement of a garage door, replacement of two flood lights and several minor repairs), and we had to purchase a new refrigerator.  We also purchased a new microwave/range hood, but we are having to re-order, as the installer doesn't "cut tile" to make the new microwave fit.  Apparently having the right measurement for the height is important.  

These repairs constituted a huge portion of my to-do list.  While I am glad to be able to check those items off, I am now more behind than ever.  Updates to come soon. 

The last home game

Last Saturday we went to the last home game of the season.  We cheered for our team, had hot dogs, did the wave and had a fantastic time!

Blessings

Throughout the month of November, everywhere I have read, I see comments from people expressing "thanks," or taking the "thankful challenge," and/or otherwise simply embracing the spirit of Thanksgiving.  Giving thanks is something that we do not even begin to do often enough.  In fact, I would guess that many of the gifts we are given are not even noticed or really appreciated -- at least, this is the case for me.  This lackadaisical appreciation should and must change. 

We attended Sarah's life celebration in Williamsburg, Virginia, on November 12th.  We were given our marching orders by the family before arrival:  This was to be a time of thankfulness and celebration.  We tried our best to follow their wishes. 

On our drive into Virginia, we were struck by seeing a moonrise over the Virginia foothills.  The moon was so awesome -- so large and luminous -- that I sent a text to my mom who was here at our home, babysitting our three children (yes, she is a saint), to please take Gracie outside to let her see the moon (she loves the moon, and this was the largest moon I had ever seen!).  Truly, it was an inspired sight. 

An hour or so later, we stopped in Wytheville, Virginia, had dinner, checked into a hotel and slept for the night.  And, I did not think much more about the moon. 

On our return trip we drove straight from Williamsburg to Birmingham -- approximately a twelve-hour drive.  When the Birmingham skyline came into view, the buildings were lit with the most perfectly beautiful sunset we have ever seen.  This time, however, I thought much more about how awesome the sunset was and the timing of it all.  I do not really know how to explain this, but the timing did not seem coincidental at all.

Sometime after Sarah's diagnosis and surgery, she began penning her "daily blessings," mostly on Facebook.  Her musings inspired everyone who knew her (me included) or knew of her.  There were innumerous blessings last weekend.  My ongoing homage to Sarah will be to be much more deliberate about recognizing those blessings, acknowledging that they come from God and continually giving thanks.

Friday's quote

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Faith, hope and love

Sarah Lindsey Gupta was healed on Sunday, November 6th, 2011, by being called home to her Heavenly Father.  Although Sarah's illness was aggressive and vicious, she chose to embrace each day as the gift it truly is from God, to present herself as a living testimony and to live each day to the absolute fullest.  We will miss her beauty, grace, wit and charm.  And we will miss her megawatt smile. 

Words from Kathy Lindsey (Sarah's "mumma"):

All the Whys?????

This is not all about Sarah, but it is about God’s work – and one young woman willing to be used by God in his work. To be a witness of appreciating His gifts, His blessings, to show love to others before a concern for yourself, to appreciate the miracles that occur everyday in our lives, to notice that God does provide ALL of our needs, at All times, and at just the right moment.

It is all about God, and giving Him thanks and praise through his son Jesus Christ at ALL times!

It is a witness to the peace that passes all understanding.

It is about the joy of friendships; accepting and appreciating the help and love from family and friends.

It is about seeking and knocking and asking; about increasing your faith, asking for more faith, when you feel yours is too small; hoping for things not seen, trusting in your heavenly father as a small child,

It is about enduring pain and suffering, for a reason you do not yet understand.

It is about sharing tears of both joy and sadness.

It is about sharing the communion of the love of Jesus Christ, with people across the world that you don’t even know.

Of being lifted in prayer, by thousands, who only know your name – but love you in the love of Christ, our creator and redeemer and Savior.

It is about the unfathomable power of God, at work in the hearts of the ones you know and love, and those you may one day meet in heaven.

It is about remaining strong in your faith, never compromising, always striving harder to come in first place – to do your best.

It is about faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. Sarah is receiving the love she cast abroad, coming back in full measure, pressed down and overflowing abundantly!

God is so good, because of His multiplication of love, through His son ,Jesus Christ!

Amen

Well done, my good and faithful servant, will be the words that Sarah hears when she meets her Lord, Jesus Christ, face to face. And he will hold her in his strong arms, as a shepherd holds a small hurting lamb – and she will be healed,and have no more pain, and live in the house of the Lord forever!

Sarah’s favorite two memory verses:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Psalm 56:4 In God, I have put my trust
I shall not be afraid.


Sarah Lindsey Gupta, October 27, 1980 - November 6, 2011


Lovely words from Sarah's sister-in-law.   

Sumit's beautiful tribute to his beloved bride. 

Thank you for responding to our many requests for prayer for Sarah.  Please continue to keep her family in mind in the days and weeks to come.

Music lessons

We have tried to be judicious about the activities we schedule for our children.  We introduced ballet and choir last fall, and we briefly had some gymnastics classes over the summer.  We have avoided getting ourselves over-extended and over-committed, and that is a strategy that has worked for us. 

We knew we would formally introduce music into the girls' extracurricular activities eventually.  Last week I was prompted to go ahead and do so now.  Skip's cousin, Sarah, who I have mentioned many times here, is continuing to fight Adrenal Cortical Cancer (stage 4).  About 10 days ago, her a capella group, The Accidentals from William & Mary, performed one of their classics, "Passionate Kisses," with Sarah singing lead (audio only).  Sarah's portion was recorded at her home on October 24th, and current and prior Accidentals recorded the below video, wherein they sing back up, at W&M. 



The gesture, the lovely vocals, the amazing talent... all of it is too beautiful for words. I rarely make decisions based on emotion, but I decided not to postpone music lessons any longer. The girls' first piano/voice lessons were today:

They are so ready to be future Accidentals and make Sarah proud!

Friday's quote

"Picasso had a saying: 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas...I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

-Steve Jobs

The story of Gracie's loose tooth

Gracie in the examination chair

As alluded to here, we had some dental drama Tuesday night.  Over the last 12-18 months something has happened to the girls' energy levels.  Particularly at night and/or any time they are tired, their energy has had this unbelievable trajectory.  In response, we have instituted all of the normal rules and regulations, e.g., no running indoors (that was expanded to include skipping, walking fast, etc.), no throwing objects, no aggressive jumping, etc. 

When we brought William George home from the hospital in July, our upstairs became party central every night at bath time.  They get so excited they literally run laps through the bedrooms and Jack-and-Jill bath.  Get a visual image of that, if you will.  They literally run through the upstairs in circles.  What used to be a tranquil bedtime routine has morphed into Lauren and Gracie behaving like monkeys at the zoo, while Skip and I are herding them into the water and into their pajamas while barking refrains of:

"Stop running!"

"Stop jumping on the furniture!"

"Stop running!"

"Don't hold the pillow over your sister's head!"

"Stop running!"

"Don't hold your head under the water!"

"Stop running!"

"Don't you dare jump on your bed!"

"STOP RUNNING!"

All of that is the opposite of tranquil.

Keeping them focused on the task at hand was always a challenge, but something has happened now that William George has entered the mix.  Once they see me distracted with bathing George, they really come unhinged.  Since George is 3 1/2 months old, I know that I have reiterated the "no running" policy at a minimum of 100 consecutive times, every night since he has been home.  In reality, I have probably told them not to run every single night for the last three+ years (as soon as it became an actual danger).

Tuesday night was no different.  Imagine all of the above.  I was standing at the sink in George's vanity area, bathing George, when Gracie began running laps.  As I was rinsing George's hair, I heard a very loud THUD, followed by cries from Gracie.  She had missed her turn back through the bathroom and slammed into one of George's walls.  Because she was running at top speed, she never had a chance to get her hands up to shield her face.  Thankfully, the injury was minor.  She busted her lip and now has a loose tooth.  Her lip was very swollen, and her lip and gums bled a good bit. 

We got her in to see the dentist Wednesday morning.  The hygienist completed a cursory exam and asked what we were seeking in terms of treatment, asking if I wanted them to pull the tooth.  Poor Gracie looked traumatized and started violently shaking her head "no".  An x-ray confirmed that her adult teeth are poised and ready to make their appearance, and Dr. G confirmed that she will likely lose her tooth sooner rather than later.  She may get to hang on to her tooth for another six months, and she was very happy with that plan. 

After picking out a trinket from the treasure box, she had shaken the trauma completely.  And, of course, Lauren wants to know if she can "bonk" her tooth so she can go to the treasure box, too. 

With our nightly routine, it is only a matter of time. 



Status Update

1) Awaiting the opening of my children's dentist so I can schedule an emergency appointment.

2) Painters have arrived to complete exterior painting.

3) Electrician expected to resume interior work today.

4) Our refrigerator still leaks.

5) The new refrigerator is expected for delivery Friday.

6) I am self-medicating with candy corn.

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011 features Barney, a puppy and Cinderella.

Originally, Lauren had planned to dress up Cinderella, and Gracie decided to be Sleeping Beauty.  George's costume was ordered about six months ago (on clearance), and he was happy with being a puppy. 

Lauren was very excited.  We seem to always coordinate our birthday themes with our costumes, and Lauren was very happy to have a Cinderella birthday party and then don her costume for Halloween. 

Gracie, on the other hand, wavered.  She had her Aurora party, but once she saw her Barney costume from last year peaking through the dress up clothes she knew she had to be Barney.  Or, as she said, "I think I need to be Barney again."  I think she enjoys being the crowd favorite.  Besides, out of the hundreds of children at the Fall festival, there are many princesses, but there is only one Barney. 

George did not make it to the festival, as it is really close to his bedtime. 

He dressed up at home, posed for some photos and then got ready for bed. 

I actually think the girls could have joined him.  They had already partied at school during the day.  Their (saintly) teachers dressed them in their costumes, and they trick or treated at school.  They also had a school party at 2pm.  By 4pm, the girls looked exhausted, but they rallied and had a good time trunk-or-treating. 

Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were unable to visit friends in our neighborhood.  We'll get them next year, and maybe William George will be able to keep up by then. 

Happy Halloween from the Lindseys!

Appliance sticker shock

I have spent some considerable time over the last three days shopping for appliances.  The impetus for our shopping is a leaky refrigerator.  We had a problem eight months ago with our refrigerator, and I arranged for a repair in February of 2011.  The exact same problem has returned.  During a "live chat" with the repair folks last Thursday, they verified that their repairs are only under warranty for 90 days.  Luckily for the live chat representative, I was simultaneously feeding William George a bottle, meaning that I only had one free hand with which to type, so s/he was spared the full brunt of my opinion about the 90 day warranty.  I could guarantee a repair with duct tape for 90 days -- seriously.  Ninety days is nothing. 

Having ventured into six stores and researched many options, I have concluded that there is an appliance bubble.  When the salesperson presented me with a refrigerator costing $3,200, I should have explained that we do not have an upcoming segment on MTV Cribs, thankyouverymuch.  And the mid-level model that costs $2,600?  It will need to double as a mode of transportation.  The expenses are simply beyond my comprehension, and the entire process was insulting.  Excessive, over the top options (e.g., appliances with stainless interior as well as exterior and refrigerators with touch screen computers) remind me of the spoof Apple ad... the one where a consumer is bemoaning the lack of design change with the iPhone 4S.  She says, "But how will they know I'm better than they are?" 

We are not looking for a Viking range or a Bertazzoni, and we can do without the stainless interior.  Today I will continue looking for reasonably priced appliances, and I am going to be more pointed with the sales staff.  I will be respectful; I will refrain from asking them if they are "high" when they quote prices.   However, I will remind them that there are starving children in the world, and they should be ashamed of these products.   

Wish me luck.

Birthday update

This update is really late at this point, but here goes. We celebrated Skip's birthday by having dinner with his parents last Sunday night (above), and then we had a family dinner on the 24th. On the morning of Skip's birthday, the girls came down the stairs shouting "happy birthday," and then Lauren said, "Daddy, we didn't get you an iPad because we got you that last year!"

Lauren had not been apprised of this year's gift, or she would have blurted it out in that second. You have to love their commitment to total honesty and their no-secrets policy.

Friday's quote

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

-Steve Jobs

William George's view

We continue to play with the birthday balloons, the ones that simply will not go away. 

Needless to say, William George does not know what to make of the inflatables and is perplexed as to why a balloon is often tied to his arm. Mostly, he watches the girls very, very closely, following their every move. 

Sometimes, like the below photo indicates, he seems to be willing himself to follow in hot pursuit.

But then he gets distracted by the miracle of helium.

Besides, his sisters always seem to come back to him eventually.