Bring on the Chicken

You have no idea how much it took me to get Randy to wear these wings... too cute!

Halloween, Part One

Today Lacy went to preschool as a fairy princess. Around 10am they will have a little parade and march around the complex and get candy from the nurses. Too cute. For tonight's festivities, Lacy has the COOLEST chicken costume!

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I had to block out the faces of the kids that I didn't have permission from their parents. Just thought I'd be on the safe side with it! These are a few girls from her preschool class.

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Lacy wanted to go visit her old roommate from TK... so we made a quick stop before going to preschool. (She has a very cute face under that blob... trust me!)

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The wings were a perfect touch.

Of course

Randy had to one-up my pumpkin...

Jerk.

If I didn't have to work the next three days, this pumpkin contest would sooo be on!

When Randy and I were first together, I used to wake up in the mornings to find him watching Martha Stewart on TV. I'm just saying...

Pumpkin Carving

I made Lacy a pirate jack-o-lantern. She helped me by "pulling the guts" out of the pumpkin. She was really into turning off the lights and watching the pumpkin glow! Very cool!

Preschool Pictures...

How freaking cute are these pictures?!? I'm not sure what I think about the fact that they pulled her shirt up over her trach, but whatever... maybe it's less distracting that way.

Going Green...

There is a new movement among Christians today. It’s all about going green. From g-diapers to eco-friendly light bulbs, from saving your own refuse and using it in your green garden to driving the most energy efficient car… it’s the new WWJD bracelet. Everybody’s sportin’ it.

I am torn by this new craze. While I believe that we, as a society, are horribly abusing our environment; and I passionately believe that humanity will have to accept responsibility for the neglect, I’m not quite sure I want to fully embrace this new movement. ‘Cause I have seen me them Christian movements… and somes of thems are none to pretty, I say!

Here’s the deal… at what point does “going green” become the status symbol for our faith? What if I don’t want to use reusable diapers? Am I going to be shunned by my bible study group? Do I have to worry about what light bulbs we are using in the living room when the ladies group comes for tea? I hope not.

I pray that the green movement doesn’t become a contest of spirituality. So with that, I will keep my list of recycling tendencies to myself just as I feel my tithe and giving amount is personal. It’s between me (and Randy) and Him. He knows where my heart is and he knows whether I keep my microwave plugged in when I am not using it.

Happy Birthday to Lacy!

We finished off the festivities with a birthday celebration at our house. Since Lacy loved the Pirates ride so much, I made her a pirate ship birthday cake complete with "real cannons" on the side where I put the candles. I used malt balls for the cannon balls! I was pretty impressed with myself for the 20 minutes of effort I put into it! Unfortunately the ship sustained a nasty attack by a coke can while in the refrigerator and there was some minor damage on the starboard side of the ship. Alas, Lacy was none the wiser...

Lacy loves chocolate cake. It's not unusual for her to ask for chocolate cake and fries multiple times in one day! I have no idea where this came from... and no intention of fulfilling that request... but I figured I could at least give the kiddo some chocolate for her birthday!

Obviously this is one happy customer!And then she ate too much! (Actually, Randy told her that she couldn't climb on top of the kitchen table! I know, I know... we are terrible parents!!!)Lacy's friend, Aja, (pronounced Asia - Steely Dan - ...I know, cool name...) one of the RT's from TK came to share the celebration with Lacy. She brought some adorable clothes including the denim jacket and a very cute pink soccer ball. Lacy was pretty excited to see her!

Lacy's Third Birthday!

We spent the day at Disneyland for Lacy's third birthday. She was given a Snow White dress from one of my co-workers at the hospital and I thought it would be a cute outfit to wear on this trip! We didn't end up having the birthday party on Sunday. Unfortunately Gramps became very sick earlier in the week and is still in the hospital, so we made the decision to cancel the party and just spend the day with Lacy. She had a blast.

At first she was very overwhelmed. I was really nervous. On the tram ride from the parking structure to the park, she was very quiet and wouldn't answer any questions except with the nod of her head. I was about to turn around and go home, but then she found her stride and never stopped talking!









Lacy received a stroller for her birthday from Gramps and Grams Isley. It was strong enough to carry both Lacy's vent as well as the car battery needed to power it when not near a power source (such as a trip to Disneyland).Our first ride was Pirates of the Caribbean... she loved it so much we had to go on it again. The entire drive home, Lacy sang "Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirates life for me". She cracks us up.









We took her to Toon Town to see Mickey Mouse and she was bursting with excitement.









She loves to people watch too...

We told her to sit on the tires, not fall through the middle!

Later we went to California Adventure. Once we arrived at Calif. Adventure, I grabbed a map to figure out where we should go first, I glanced at the map a few times and tried to find where we were on the map... after almost 5 minutes I realized that I had grabbed a GERMAN map. No wonder I was having such a hard time! We went over to Bug's Life area and Lacy had a blast on the rides there as well.

I found this highly amusing. Snow White and her apple. Not shortly thereafter she fell asleep (doubt it was the "poisonous apple" she was two hours past her nap time)!

She is our out-of-the-box thinker!

It was our first major event taking the vent out into public (and just running it off a battery and not an electrical plug) and it was really no problem at all. Phew! We managed to get a few looks from people but I am doing better at time goes by with just ignoring it all. On the plus side, we got to sit in the handicap section for the parade. Nothing beats front row seating!

Takin' off the Diapes...

We are doing a few hours of underwear and NOT DIAPERS every day. We are getting better and better, I think. Of course, it's only a matter of time before my couch gets peed on, right? She put these on all by herself. Backwards and kinda crooked, but I love it. When we are rockin' the underwear, we go without pants so we can make it to the toilet in record time... just in case!

My early birthday present...

Grammy and Grampy stopped by to drop off my first birthday present! They brought me a classic tricycle and I love it.

Grammy also brought me some butterfly wings!

Thank you for my birthday present!

Return To Blogging!

You know, I need to get back to blogging. I started this blog back in 2005 to keep my writing skills up... now all I do is post pictures... what's a mom to do? What if I'm not insightful and amusing anymore? Ha! I scoff at that... Guess I will just write about what's going on right now and maybe something good will come out.

Lacy was up at 5 am this morning. No nurse last night, so Randy and I took turns doing vent checks. We get up every two hours to make sure that she is still breathing ok, and that the circuit to her vent is not falling on the floor, and that her diaper is dry (yes still working on that). I realized during my 2:30 am vent check that we just managed our first month living together as a family. Pretty cool.

Lacy is court ordered to have visitation with her birth mom once a week, but so far we have not had one visit. Sometimes I still worry that everything is going to go terribly wrong and we are going to lose her. I just have to trust that our family was put together by the Lord and that He is not going to leave us wounded nor Lacy in danger. But I still worry. Sometimes.

I dropped Lacy off at preschool at 8 and the house is so quite without her. All I can hear is the water running in the toilet in Lacy's bathroom... wait... lemmie see if I can go fix that... little handle jiggle... nope... take the lid off and move the plug thing around... problem solved. Looks like it's going to be a good day.

Ohhhh... I have a great blog story for you...

Last week I was walking out of the craft store in Redlands. As I walked to my car I noticed a very large woman oozing out of her minivan. That's really the only way I could describe it. She just let her body slide down till her feet touched the ground, and then she wobbled across the side of the van 'till she had enough room to close the door.

Yes, I was being judgemental... as well as reminding myself that I needed to get to a gym sometime in the near future.

Normally I wouldn't be so hateful (ok, maybe) but she was wearing a very tight t-shirt that didn't quite manage to, shall we say, "cover the entire subject". The fat roll ABOVE her belly button was hanging out beneath her t-shirt and her stretch marks were on public display for all to enjoy. Beneath her belly button was another large mound of flesh that drooped and bopped on her thighs. This, in itself, was not what caught my attention.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed a plume of smoke coming out from beneath her belly roll (the bottom one). Evidently she had recently lost her ciggie onto her lap, and when she oozed into a standing position it got caught between her belly and her thighs. Hence the smoke.

As an innocent bystander to this situation I felt I had some responsibility. My options were as follows:

1) Help her out. "Heeeeyyy... I think your fat roll is on fire" or "Um looks like you lost another cigarette. Pull up your belly and I will grab it out for you"

2) Pretend I didn't notice.

3) Justify not doing anything with the following reasons:
A. Smoking, when done properly, will kill you. Maybe a burn to the leg (and belly) will be reason enough to quit.
B. The fraction of oxygen between her flesh is much lower than that of ambient air. Everybody knows that fire needs oxygen. Most likely the cigarette will just go out on it's own.
C. If I am wrong about option 'B', she will eventually feel the burn and move the cigarette.

I went with C, of course. As she moved her way towards the store, the smoke eventually went out. Problem solved.

The Pumpkin Patch

Otherwise known as "The Patch" by Lacy...

Inspiration...

I was catching up on some blogs that I follow and I saw the cutest invitations... thought I'd post mine as well... you can't quite see the texture and all, but the brown base of the card is like a paper bag. Trust me, it's cute. I'm still not sure what I think about the "3" on the hat, but whatever... what's done is done!

Looks like we aren't exactly going to be serving BBQ... I realized that the cost factor was just NUTS for all of that meat... fortunately my MIL found a great deal at the local grocery store for chicken. 100 pieces of fried chicken for $50. woot woot!

Street Fair

We took Lacy to the downtown street fair in Redlands this evening. We introduced her to "fair food". She loved her corn on the cob!

I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky Randy and I were to see her enjoy all of these things. There was a live band playing blues and Lacy loved it, she was bopping her head and tapping her little pink converse to the beat! What a cool kid!