A New Post?

hoa! What's that I see? A new post on A Declaration of War? I wonder how that happened. Weird

Love,

Stubborn Shawn

hawn is practically refusing to blog. I slaved over his blog A Declaration of War twice. Originally it was called Biblical Blog, and I set the whole thing up for him. I even gave him some ideas on what to blog about. Then, he decided that he wanted to change his blog mission and theme, so I reworked the whole thing. I made graphics, which I am not good at and so it takes me a long, long time to make them. I changed the name, three time before he settled on one, and I made a new email address to match. I sent his website to various search engines to get crawled by... spiders... ick.

Vanity, vanity. Shawn hasn't written a single thing on his blog. I don't want to be a nag, but it is getting pretty frustrating. He is the first link on my blogroll. Not assuming that is a coveted spot, but I like to think that it is an honorary one at least. All I want to see is a paragraph or two about, well, anything. I did all this hard work and he can't even type a few words? It's not like it would be hard. The guy types, like, 90 wpm, no kidding. His dad was a typing teacher.

So yes, I am aware that the blog was my idea in the first place. That I set it up first and then told him about it when I was finished. But this second time around he was directing me to put certain things in place, and now that I have, they aren't being used. Shawn has so much to say and he is normally pretty entertaining. I just wanted to share him with the world, but he won't let me.

Shawn. Please blog. Blog about whatever. Blog about how your wife is nagging you. Blog about Benny Hinn slaying people with his chi. Blog about that ugly guy in FL who says he can travel through time and kicks people in the stomach. If you don't, I will be forced to assume your personality and blog for you.

Love,

(your doting wife)

Child Training: The Begining of the Begining

ecently, a friend of mine lent me the book, "To Train up a Child" by Michael & Debi Pearl. I'd heard a lot about this book and several of my friends are reading it. I was so excited to get my hands on a copy that I went straight home and read it. It works great! This book changed my whole outlook on discipline. I had an idea evolving in my head about how discipline worked and this book nipped it in the bud before I developed any bad habbits. This is part of the update I wrote to the friend that lent the me book.

Caleb and I used to watch sesame street on the laptop everyday, but he started banging the keys so hard that I had to stop. Eventually, his desire for the computer was so great, I had to keep it out of the room or he would cry if it was not in his reach.

I read To Train up a Child during his naptime and when he woke up I used the computer in his first training session. After about 10 or 15 corrections he would reach for the computer and when I told him, "No, no. Don't touch that" he would withdraw his hand and cry.

We went out to dinner and when we came home, I was able to hold him and use the computer at the same time without him reaching for it... until he decided to try to sneak and touch it with his toes. Can you believe it?! He would sneak just one little toe out and touch it. All I had to do was tell him "No, no" and he would withdraw his foot. This turned into our second training session.

Today, we were able to watch Sesame Street again. Caleb reached out for the computer, but withdrew his hand when I said, "No, no." He tried a new alternative, touching the computer with his stuffed animals, but was not upset or discouraged when he discovered this also was not allowed. The reason I felt compelled to write this blog is because now when I tell Caleb, "No, no. Don't touch that" He doesn't cry, he doesn't rebel, he turns around and KISSES ME!

This is a great start. I am so thankful for this book. I am going to have such a happy time raising and training my child!

Love,

Fixing The Fish

oday I fixed the fish situation. I got a replacement beta, moved the pregnant guppies into a 3-way breeder, and got Caleb a nice new goldfish name Mr. Wigglesworth. Here are the pictures...

Here is the new beta. I haven't named him yet because I didn't think he was going to live very long. I moved him from his tiny little container into his new home and he... sunk. Yes, he sunk to the bottom and sat there. He sat there; I'm serious. He sat on his tail with his face looking upward. After he settled in, I fed him and he struggled, swimming vertically, to the top of the water to eat and then sunk again. My brother had a beta that did the same thing and he said it was because the fish was kept in such shallow water while in the pet store that he had to bend unnaturally to stay submerged. After being this way for so long his back was permanently deformed. I thought about taking the fish back, but knew they would kill him if I did. Since the only thing wrong with him was the swimming thing, I decided to keep him. Bad news: I saw him jumping in the bowl earlier. I will have to try to find a way to cover the opening of the bowl Good news: I saw him swimming horizontaly this evening after about 6 hours of being able to stretch out. Soon I will give him a name.

So, here is the guppy tank. It's just a little 2 gallon thing on the kitchen counter. Lemme tell ya, every time I get guppies they give me nothing but grief. Someone remind me of that next time I try to buy some. The first time I got guppies was to cycle a 30 gallon tank. I got attatched to them after a month of cycling and when it came time to put in my tropical fish, I decided to keep the guppies. They killed everything. They killed fish ten times their size. I saw a sunburst guppy bite and hold onto the eye of a powder blue gourami. The poor gourami spun around and around trying to shake the guppy. I should have flushed that little jerk right then and there, but I kept him and he eventually terrorized every fish in the tank to death. This time, I am going to end up with at least 2 tanks. One for the adults and one for the fry until they are big enough to feed to the turtle. Heartless I know, but just sing The Lion King song to yourself. If everything goes well, I might keep a male and breed them again. Comander Turt Turt loves to chase these little suckers.

Last, but certainly not least is Mr. Wigglesworth. He is definitely my favorite fish besides the emperor plecostomus in the turtle tank. We call little baby goldfish "wiggles" because of the cute wiggly way in which they swim. That is how Mr. Wigglesworth got his name; from wiggling around all cute-like. He is bigger and brighter than a guppy and so he is a lot easier for Caleb to see. He is also a lot more active and that makes him more fun to watch. Tonight when I put Caleb to bed he just rolled over onto his side and watched Mr. Wigglesworth swim around. No fussing, no crying, no complaining... just silent watching until his eyelids get heavy and he goes to sleep. I took a short video so that you can see for yourself how cute and soothing Mr. Wigglesworth is as he swims in his tank.

Love,

Crazy Fish

y fish is missing... What? Yes, my fish is missing. I was feeding Caleb his lunch at the dinner table, where my fish lives. This is normally the time when I would feed the fish his food. I sprinkled a bit of food in his bowl and quickly noticed that he did not come around to gobble it up. My first thought was that he was sick. OH NO! I checked the bowl and... It is empty!!! Seriously.

Empty Fish Bowl

I have heard someone say, if your beta hasn't jumped out of the tank yet, he just hasn't gotten around to it. That's the kind of fish I had, he was a beta. This must be it. He must have jumped out of his fish bowl. I checked the table for fish prints. Nothing. I checked the floor. Nothing. I can only suspect that the fish jumped from the bowl, suffered a bit on the table and then flopped onto the floor where he was eaten by a dog. Probably this one. -->

So what is going on with fish these days? Caleb's guppies keep eating eachother. My beta has committed suicide. I don't know what to do about it. I am planning on getting Caleb a nice goldfish that can live alone without any tankmates aka victims. I'd like to replace my beta with another one. Maybe a red one. I did see a pretty crown tail beta at the pet store the day we bought the killer guppies. What will I do with the guppies? I'm feeding them to the turtle. This one. -->

Love,

Teeth and Cookies

y poor little son is having such a hard time with his second tooth! The first tooth came in so easily that I didn't even notice it until he bit me with it. This tooth is causing him so much pain and grief that its hard for me to bear. He was awake all night crying in pain. I kept getting up and rocking him back to sleep, but he would only stay asleep for an hour or two before waking up again. Neither one of us got very much sleep.

Shawn used his lunch break to run to the store and get some teething tablets. I gave Caleb 2 of them and he quickly fell asleep, something he had been unable to do while he was in so much pain. When he woke up, he ate lunch fine and to help him with his hard day, I gave him his frist chocolate chip cookie. As you can see, that went over very well.

After I cleaned him up from lunch, he didn't last much longer. He played in his exersaucer for about 10 or 15 minutes before he got tired again. It seems like whenever he is sleepy, the pain really starts to get to him. I gave him some teething tablets, and they didn't help very much. I gave him a juice bottle and that only calmed him for about 5 minutes. Finally, I broke down and gave him some tylenol. He finally fell asleep 40 minutes after his normal nap time.

I can't stand how much pain he is in. His face is so helpless and needy. He looks at me and cries and I can tell he is wondering why I can't make it better. I wish I could explain to him that everything will be better soon, or that he will really like his new teeth when they come in all the way. I wish this second tooth would be as simple as the first tooth. Most of all I wish that I could take the pain away.

Well this housebear has got to catch up on sleep for now. There is no telling just how many sleepless nights he will have, so I don't know when my next chance to rest will be.

Love,

Chompers

aleb was having such a hard time going to sleep tonight. He just kept crying and crying. For over an hour he would cry and then sleep for 5 or 10 minutes and then wake up crying again. I changed him, I gave him juice, I swaddled him, but nothing seemed to work. The last time that I went in to check on him he was crying louder than ever and when I peered over the edge of the crib I saw he had two fistfulls of blanket in his mouth. I checked his lower gums and lo and behold, he had cut another tooth!

No wonder my little guy was being so fussy. He now has two bottom teeth above the gums. His first tooth, the one on his right, came in quite a bit more today, and his new one is pretty far a long too. Since it took so long for his teeth to break the gums, I thought it would take them a long time to finish coming in. It seems that I may have been mistaken, but with Caleb you never really can tell. His teeth could hang out exactly where they are for several weeks, or they could shoot up over night.

I was really surprised to see the second tooth come up. I had been waiting for the first one for so long. I could see it under the gum, I could feel it under the gum, and was waiting for it several days before it appeared. This second tooth just sprung forth in a matter of hours. When I picked him up at my parents house around 8:30 he was happy as a lark. He was playing and giving kisses and being completely normal. By 9:30 he was fussy and by 10:30 he had a new tooth. They are pretty easy to see now, which means that if I can get past the drool, I should be able to take a decent picture to post. I'll try to keep everyone informed.

Love,

Best Buy Made Me Happy? Weird.

ay! The computer is fixed! The problem is fixed, I should say. Nothing is really "fixed" The cable to the computer is still broken, it's just been replaced, but HOORAY all the same! I never realized how much we used the computer for things we actually need. Today when Shawn told me that we could listen to the sermons and classes from this year's Shepherd's Conference online it was the last straw! We went right out to Best Buy to get a replacement cable.

Normally, I am not a fan of Best Buy. I am (or was) utterly convinced that they were, in fact, not the "Best Buy" for anything. I was amazed at the customer service that we received. I was even more amazed that no one was trying to push a product replacement plan on us. I was overwhelmed with happiness when they dropped the price of a top of the line brand to match the price of the lesser brand we were looking for, even though it had been recalled. So, thanks Best Buy and the guy from the Geek Squad who helped us. I am quite pleased.

Also I would like to announce that my future sister-in-law, Jena , has recently graduated hair school. She is now specializing in formal hair styles and lemme tell ya... she is wonderful! She did my hair and make up for my brother's wedding as well as the hair and make up for several bridesmaids and the make up for the bride and the mother of the bride. She is still in the process of getting it all together, but you can check her out here. Also, I will be adding a link to the sidebar so you will always be able to find her! You can thank me later, after she does your hair.

Love,

Standing Firm

aleb just pulled himself up. I was just about to try to find something to blog about when he did it. It isn't the first time. The first time was 2 weeks ago in the middle of church. He pulled himself up holding onto my jeans. I told Shawn, but I don't think he believed me.

Shawn is lying on the floor watching the news and Caleb is crawling around in front of him. Caleb crawled up to Shawn's shoulders, grabbed a hold of them and pulled himself up. Maybe it was because he thought it was the first time, or maybe it was because of the exictement of witnessing it first hand that caused Shawn to exclaim, "HE JUST PULLED HIMSELF UP!"


The look on Shawn's face was just as priceless as witnessing Caleb first pull himself up. He had his hands in the air with his fingers spread and a look of amazement on his face. I imagine its the expression he had the first time he rode his bike with no hands or the first time he hit the ball in little league.

I think that must be one of the ways that our children bring out "the kid in us", by making the whole world new again.

Love,

My Name is Mama

was sitting here on the couch with the cell phone trying to remember what I was going to talk about. It takes so long for the pages to load on this thing that I often forget what I was aiming to do upon getting online. So there I was on one end of the couch with Shawn on the other and Caleb in between us. I have me leg extended the length of the couch so that Caleb won't accidentally roll off or purposefully try to climb off. I'm staring at the screen when I feel five tiny little monkey toes wrap around my second toe.

I looked down and saw Caleb flopping around with his foot wrapped around my toe. He was flailing, but his little toes stayed in place. He brought over his other foot and started wiggling his other five toes around mine. My cute little guy was playing footsie with me!

Maybe you understand how adorable that is, maybe you don't. I just had my heart stolen AGAIN and I had to document it.

Love,

Mobile Blogging

he computer is still down so I am blogging on Shawn's cell phone. He has the sidekick slide, which is nice because it has a qwerty keyboard and all of the punctuation is available without having to go to a seperate menu.

Hmm... it still seems to be taking a while to type things out. I really wanted to try it out because of my new idea.

I want to blog at least once a day, everyday for a year. Even if it's a short little blog, I still want to post it. Along with blogging everyday, I also want to take a picture of Caleb everyday so at the end of one year, I can line them all up and see how he's grown.

I'm not exactly sure when I want to start. I wish I would have started the day he was born. It's too late for that now, and I don't want to wait until his next birthday; that would take too long. I think I will just start today. It might be a random day, but it is definitely better than waiting.

Well then, I am off to take a few snap shots.

Love,

Hot Days, Cool Times, and Broken Gums

h My Gosh, it is too freaking hot outside. It is supposed to get up to 99 degrees today and tomorrow its supposed to get up to 104! That is just too dang hot! Yesterday was 85 and I thought I was going to melt away just from that!

My mom bought Caleb a little tiny baby pool. It is just big enough for him to sit in and have a couple of toys float around to play with. He just loves splashing around in it. I brought him to my parents' house yesterday to enjoy it, and he loved it so much, we came back today. He is taking a nap right now, but after he wakes up and has lunch we are going to go splish splash.

Speaking of my darling Caleb... He has his first tooth! He was fussy all day yesterday. I kept checking his gums, but didn't feel anything. Today in the car he grabbed my finger and bit me (a normal occurrence), and there was a TOOTH! I don't have my camera with me, but I will be taking pictures as soon as we get home and will post them as soon as I can.

And speaking of posting pictures... That might be a little difficult considering that my computer cord broke! The cable that charges our computers already shot battery finally succumbed to the wear and tear of what I thought was normal usage. My brother thinks he might be able to fix it, if he can get his hands on the right tools. If not, I will have to drop 60 bucks on a new one. If I had 60 bucks, I'd pay my phone bill, so I doubt that is going to happen. Until then, I will just have to blog from either my mom's house or a cell phone.

Shawn's 30th birthday was on Monday. The day before, we had a surprise party for him at Lewisville park. I finally surprised him! Even though he almost figured it out when he saw his mom's car and his sister's van in the parking lot... and then we ran into his aunt, uncle, and cousin who were trying to find our picnic spot! He still didn't know how big of a party it was. I was really glad to FINALLY be able to pull something off and surprise him, but best of all, he said he had a wonderful time.

Well, it's time to feed Caleb his lunch. I will do my best to keep in touch.
Love,