Chocolate and The Dog

Yesterday morning we awoke to a tiny bit of wrapping paper laying on the floor, torn and a bit wet. I did a bit of investigating with the only clue being a little sticker on the paper saying "nuts and chews". Hmmm... then aha! Indy must have gotten into the chocolates that Liz, the babysitter, brought over last night! Oh bother. Fast forward throughout the day...

- Contact vet.
- Contact animal poison control.
- Give Indy hydrogen peroxide to throw up.
- James throws up.
- Etame has poopy diaper.
- I have an appointment at the gym which I need to get everyone to.
- Indy throws up.
- Leave Indy outside.
- That evening, talk to Lee and ponder if Indy really could eat all the packaging too.
- Suggest to Lee that maybe it got scooted under the couch.
- Look under couch.
- There's the full box of chocolates with one little bit of wrapping paper missing. I assume it said... "nuts and chews".

Merry Christmas to all!

The Prayer

James got down on his knees with his hands clasped together and prayed tonight:

Lord, thank you for the birds and the flowers. Thank you for my sister Etame and making me and all my family. And my cousin Drew is in heaven with you. Please take care of him. In Jesus name, Amen.

What a sweet and simple prayer. It brings tears to my eyes.

Chick-Fil-A Overnight

*Here we are right after we got our coupons and waved to the helicopter overhead with our matching Chick-Fil-A shirts.

My good friend Angie talked me into going on a camp out on Wednesday night. She is a regular at Chick Fil A grand openings. These openings have quite a following of people who camp out the night before the opening of the store in order to get coupons for a full year of combo meals (52 free meals). Only the first 100 people to register qualify and you have to stay on the premises the full time (they do random line checks to make sure).



*Eating yet another chicken sandwich (they provide them for everyone).

There is more reason to do it than merely the free meals. There are organized activities, a DJ that plays music, you meet people, and it's surprisingly family-friendly.


We camped out from 8:30 am until 6am the next morning when they let us in and gave us our loot. Then we tore down the tent and packed up 3 kids and all our supplies.


Here's the conversation when I told James we were going camping:

me: We're going to go camping tonight!
James: What?! Will we have a campfire to roast marshmallows?
me: No, they won't allow fires.
James: Will we be in the forest?
me: No, in a parking lot.
James: What? (with a totally confused look on his face)

James has never been camping, as in sleeping in a tent. This may be the closest he gets to it in a long time. It was cold, although not as cold as the following days have been (in the teens!). At one point in the middle of the night Etame was crying so I took her into the (warm fast-food restaurant) bathroom and just stood in there thinking how I was going to make it through the night.


It was a big adventure, and maybe one of the craziest things I've done since having kids. I would totally do it again - in the summer.

School Performance

This is why it is good to have a fabulous school and teachers for you child. Happy smiles all around. We could not be happier with our decision to move him back into his old school with the nurturing environment that it is.


James' school performance was Sunday. He sang out the songs along with the rest of the children.

He was proud of himself and we were proud of him! He made a little speech of how the children made turkey for families in need.

They brought canned food up to the alter to show the preschool's contribution to the food drive.

Lots of hand motions and smiles as they sang their songs... "Blue is the color of blue blue sky. Yellow is the color of the sun up high... way up high in the big blue sky. Jesus, you sure know how to color... color my life with love". Something like that. Very sweet.

Cutting a Tooth

Etame is cutting her first tooth, on the bottom front. She was fussy yesterday and we finally realized this was why. Today she hasn't been fussy at all so it must only hurt at certain times.

James had a birthday party today of one of his friends. Duckpin bowling. He had a great time with all the (mostly) bigger boys and as he put it, "it was fun once I got the hang of it". His new words for the week are "wicked", "awesome", and "wicked awesome". They gave out Bakaguns as party favors and this was a huge hit for him as well. Swell day all around.