Robbery Update

We still don't know who or how and I doubt we'll ever know but we now have a DVD player and VCR thanks to Laurie Yarbrough, Ophelia's teacher. Last night, after reading our blog she called and offered us their extra VCR and DVD player and I picked them up from school this morning. Thanks Yarbrough's!

If you still haven't seen the pictures of the girls sledding keeping scrolling down... they're really cute.

Edit added later: And the DVD player doesn't work...

The Girls vs. Boys debate

Ok, so I already posted today but I have to share this and check out the pictures are below this and the next post.

Every once in a while people say things to us like: "Wow, all girls. Enjoy them while you can" and "Girls are so much easier than boys" or "you've got your hands full, three girls. Boys are so much easier" but my favorite is "Girls and boys are so different; girls are so much nicer when they're young because boys are just so wild and crazy but watch out when the girls are older..." My personal response? Children are children that are people too, already their own individual person.

My brother was, by my memory anyway, a pretty descent little kid but in his teen years all hell broke loose. I was pretty docile most of growing up, I tattled a lot and cried even more, a basic cry-baby goody-to-shoes and kind of stayed that way until I left home- and all hell broke loose. My sister... I think all hell broke loose when she was born but mom and Becc may correct me on that. Children are just little people. Now I have Ophelia, a new version of myself really with a huge desire to please and takes my over-achiever tendencies to new heights and really is a very trustworthy, all around good kid. Lavinia is smart, creative, determined and almost without a conscience... That combination means mischief in a big way; she can lie without batting an eyelash. And Helena, well, it's still early to tell but she seems to be a combination of the other two plus this attribute that must come from being the baby; she knows how to "work it." Children are just little people.

And my point with all this? The debate of what's typical of girls and what's typical of boys. I happen to believe that much of what we see as gender differences are in fact taught to our children by grown ups. Things like how adults talk to baby boys and baby girls for instance. Studies show that you can take the same baby and dress it up as a boy and adults will touch it less, show it trucks, trains and airplanes, and not talk to "him" in a sweet baby voice as much. Then later, take that same child and dress it up as a girl and the same adults (must be blind to not realize it's the same baby...) will hold "her" more, touch her more, sing to her, show her baby dolls, and sweet talk her. According to some studies, this type of behavior and treatment continues on well past babyhood. And we wonder why men don't seem as nurturing... But that's not actually my point. As a society we all tend to think of the boys being the crazy ones, doing the crazy things, fighting more than girls (HA!!!!) and having more of a tendency to be mean. I don't buy it. Children are just little people.

Tonight, Ophelia, my sweet, helpful, nurturing Ophelia, told her baby sister, Helena, to get INTO the toilet. I guess children will be children.

Looking for Beauty in Simplicity

This past week turned out to be one of those weeks that you makes yourself try to remember the good parts. I hate to admit it, and this isn't a reflection on those we went to visit but at this point I find myself thinking that this trip was a really big mistake. Please tell me you've experienced a week such as this and know what I'm talking about.

And so, I'm going to do the unthinkable; I'm going to list everything that went really wrong on this trip:

I got flu sick the night before we left.

17 hours in the car to get there.

Helena screaming "I no wanna buckle!" for about half that time.

The girls' difficulty sleeping in a strange place resulting in a lack of sleep for Jeremy and I the entire trip.

Total upset of routine resulting in lack of sleep for all of us (I really do like some structure!)

Jeremy loosing his wedding ring on toboggan hill.

Ophelia hitting a tree with her face and loosening a permanent tooth on toboggan hill.

The girls getting homesick- me too actually.

All of us missing our small but established family traditions around Thanksgiving (mostly food related but not only).

Missing our family traditions to start the advent season.

Ophelia developed a pretty bad cough.

17 hours in the car to get home.

Me coming down with a terrible cold on the way home complete with aches and fever- seriously, I had only been sick a week before too.

And though this didn't really happen on the trip, it did happen while we were on the trip: our house was broken into and our DVD player and VCR were stolen.

But the thing that I'm the most upset about is that in truth, we couldn't afford this trip. I never really talk about our finances here and with good reason but things aren't that great. Actually, they're pretty bad and now they are worse. I have been diligently working as I can and searching for a job to hold us over (but the job market isn't that great as many of you in Houston know) while searching and waiting for where God has us next to continue our ministry. Jeremy has been trying to build his private lessons back up but we're just barely making ends meet right now and that's if there is nothing extra. Jeremy's mom generously helped out with the trip but in order for our car to be able to make it to Colorado we had to spend everything she sent on the car and ended up spending the money for our bills and what little we had hoped to set aside for Christmas on food, gas, and lodging. We can't afford to replace the stolen items right now and I'm not even sure we can afford to buy a Christmas Tree let alone all the other stuff that goes along with Christmas such as, oh, gifts for the girls. I'm ok with telling friends and family that we can't exchange gifts this year but trying to explain this to the girls is a heart break. Some of you know that it really takes something to make me cry, this has. I called my mom last night and balled.

So, now for the good:

LOTS of time together as a family- mostly in the car of course.

Visiting relatives.

Sledding for the first time.

Jeremy found his ring- thank you God!

Ophelia has stopped sucking her thumb and the tooth that hadn't come in is well on it's way thanks to the tree.

Ophelia turned 7 while we were there.

Visiting Focus on the Family and getting to go to Whit's Inn and go down a three story slide (I kid you not).

Hearing Jeremy play his composition that he is hoping to get published for his family- he is a musical genius!

The girls making new friends with their cousins.

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with our bigger family.

The trip home seemed easier than the trip there.

We're mostly healthy.

Our computer, my grandmother's jewelry, our CD's and DVD's, our musical instruments, and other small but still valuable (at least to us) things were not stolen.

My mom reminded me that things always seem to work out and she's right, I need to remember that God knows what's going on in our lives even when it seems we may not fully understand. When I was little (and I'm sure Preston and Rebecca remember this well too) there were a few Christmases that we had very little, almost nothing but I also remember some neat events that came of that including me not knowing we had little until I was much older. My mom's creativity and resourcefulness as well as others sometimes generosity still helped make the Holidays memorable. And my parents never allowed gifts to be the point of the season, often encouraging us to share what we had with others still less fortunate as "Christmas Angels." On year mom made Rebecca and I "cabagge patch dolls" (and Michelle, a neighbor friend felt the need to show us our were fakes...) and dress up clothes- one of the best Christmases I remember- fake dolls and all.

All of us build up expectation for our holidays or for trips and vacations and sometimes things turn out just as we imagine them but most of the time they do not. This trip helped me to appreciate our home, our family, and how God has miraculously supplied all of our needs. My holiday "mood" is slow in coming this year, it seems strange that I'm not up to my eyeballs in rehearsals for Christmas plays and choir concerts and that I really haven't yet listened to Christmas music this year when I usually start a little in May and then regularly in late July and early August. The most of done is to make a simple rehearsal CD for the children in our church- I'm directing them in 5 songs but today as I was working with the kids I smiled to hear the kids sing "Away in the Manger." There is much beauty in simplicity, isn't there?

The birthday girl makes a silly face! 

Happy 7th Birthday Ophelia! 

Ophelia decides to try a bigger hill by herself- what a rush! 

Say "cheese" Mommy! 

Helena's pulling her share too. 

It's a long way up even the small hill, need some help here mom! 

Ophelia and Helena about to go down. 

View from the top of one of the small runs. 

How far up do I have to go to make this worthwhile? 

Lavinia pulling the sled back up. 

Helena and Daddy getting situated to go down toboggan hill 

Helena and Daddy: Ready, set, go! 

Pulling the sled back up the hill for another trip down. 

Ophelia and Lavinia before they ran into the tree. 

Helena at the bottom of toboggan hill watching her sister sled. 

Monument

We are in Monument, Colorado, just outside of Colorado Springs visiting Jeremy's mother, grandmother, sister, brother and family for the holiday. So far it's been an interesting trip, a very interesting trip. The weather is beautiful and the views spectacular and the events... freaky.

The drive was VERY long, very, very long and I think that by the time I may actually feel rested again it's going to be time to head back. Helena perfected screaming the phrase "I don't want to buckle!" over and over again. We were all ready to be out of the car long before we arrived. It had snowed the day before we got here but warmed up quickly. Still there were spots where the sun had not melted the snow away so on Sunday we went to tabogin (sp?) hill and the girls got to try tabogining (is that a word?) for the first time and loved it. The snow was still there on Monday so we went again for a bit. Helena's not a huge fan, two or three times down the hill was enough for her but Ophelia, Lavinia, Jeremy and I couldn't get enough. But it was on tabogin hill that tragedy struck: Jeremy lost his wedding ring in the snow during a snow ball fight. We searched for a while but couldn't find it any where. Shortly after, I left to take a cold and bored Helena back to the house while Jeremy and the girls stayed to play. About 90 minutes later the three of them come walking through the door with a very upset Ophelia sporting a bloody mouth... She and Lavinia had run straight into a tree. After some examination and Nurse Aunt Anna-Lynne's observation, we decided we needed to see a dentist. Ophelia had hit the tree with her face, catching it in the mouth. It looked as though there was tree bark embedded in her gum above her front teeth. Grandma Weber got us an appointment with her dentist for three that afternoon and it turned out that she did indeed have tree bark in her gum. Dr. Jones cleaned her up and when we asked about the missing tooth that hadn't come in since she lost the baby tooth in June he told us that sometimes a new tooth can seem to push through the gum and they will have to make a small surgical cut in the gum to let the tooth come through. He thought this was the case with Ophelia and upon closer examination said that was indeed the case but that surgery was no longer needed as when she hit the tree the tooth cut trough the gum on it's own and should be "erupting" any day now. We'll have to go back and thank that tree. Her other tooth (a permanent one) is a bit loose after running into the tree and she was told she has to stop sucking her thumb so that it can heal and be secure again, we're praying that it will take just a little bit of time before that is healed completely or it could mean some dental surgery in her future (he scared me when he mentioned root canal...). Over-all we had good news from the dentist, she should be fine, she'll have some pain, sure after all she did catch a tree with her face but fine.

While Ophelia and I were at the dentist, Jeremy and Anna-Lynne went searching for his wedding ring with a metal detector and... found it! It was lying in some grass some 20 feet from where he felt it come off. We're grateful that he was able to find it, his ring, like mine, is an antique and very unusual, there's no way we could replace it.

It's been a very interesting trip so far and lots of fun. We will be back in Houston Saturday evening. Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Xnihilo

I get to work with the Xnihilo Gallery as "co-curator" and I don't really have any idea what I'm doing but I get to learn! The website is out of date but go check it out anyway. Hopefully we'll get that back up to speed soon. It's a really neat place and if you live in Houston you need to go check it out and get a cup of coffee from Taft Street coffee in the same building. We are hanging a new show Wednesday so there's nothing there right now but go sometime after Thursday to see the pieces that are part of the Image conference coming up later this month at U of H and Ecclesia. This is right up my alley and I'm looking forward to this experience, should be fun.

Trash day

Thursdays are trash day in our neighborhood. They usually come in the morning between 7 and 8, empty the can and then throw it down so it usually lands on it's side half way in the street and on our yard. I tell you this to set up the pictures below and so you don't freak out that we put Helena out on trash day... she did this after the trash was already picked up and she and Lavinia were outside playing while I was within ear shot but not looking directly at her as I worked. Why she decided that a garbage can was a good place to set up house I'll never know, but I had to snap a few pictures before I cleaned her out of there. Talk about great black mail pictures when she's older!

"Strange noises are coming from the trash can..." 

"Hello?" 

"Ta-Da! Look who it is!" 

There she is! 

Helena gets compfy in the trash can 

"We're off to see the Wizard..."

Only we got rained out. Hasn't rained in something like a month and last night it decides the time is right. Thousands of children in Houston were disappointed last night because we all got tricked by a gigantic thunderstorm. We had a bit of warning of the storm but what are you supposed to do but hope for the best? So we persisted in getting ready at least to go show off to a few friends and neighbors. The storm rolled in just as I finished putting on my oh-so-comfortable green face paint which meant we were not about to let a little bit of rain stop us, not after I had gone through all that trouble. So we finished costuming up, watched a portion of the Wizard of Oz and then went and crashed on the Glaser family, hitting the candy jackpot in the process- they hadn't had any trick-or-treaters. After the rain let up a little, we went to a few houses stepping through puddles and running from the huge drops still falling of the old oak trees in our neighborhood. We had fun, didn't let a little storm rain on our parade. Check out the pictures below to see our trick-or-treat style.

Dorothy with her Ruby Slippers- AKA Ophelia 

Follow the Yellow Brick Road- The Martin-Weber Family Halloween 2005 

Glinda the Good Witch of the North- AKA Lavinia 

The Cowardly Lion- AKA Helena