Mocking Birds

This bird sat on the porch with Lewis and me while I packed up the closet. He didn't look very healthy. Also a group of mockingbirds have labeled Lewis an enemy of some sort. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't done anything to threaten them, nonetheless, they swoop down and peck at him.

Free Money

If all goes well at Walton's Market today, I will save $11.65 in coupons for things I would be buying even without a coupon.

URGENT!!!

Opinion Survey:

Can refried beans with lard be frozen?

A picture for pictures sake

This is at playgroup. The other 2 boys are Silas' best friends, JG (dark hair) and Quade (no hair). They're showing him how to stand up at the table. Not pictured is Silas' role model Andrew. He's 15 months and likes to throw things, just like the other 3 boys hope to do someday.

In other news, this apartment is a huge mess. 25000 points to whoever can guess what's happening over here. But it may not be what you think...

Happy Mothers' Day

Domino Effect

Silas learned to feed himself Cheerios! Here's more on this week:



Joel finished his last rotation yesterday. He now has 1 day of ACLS classes and 1 day of ACLS testing, and exit interview, graduation and our time at UTSouthwestern if finished.

I successfully organized one baby shower that I didn't get to attend and hosted another where I made prosciutto roasted figs stuffed with gorgonzola cheese.

Silas and I went to work, mailed some letters, cleaned the heck out of the kitchen, dining room, and living room, arranged flowers, picked up toys, rented a movie, wrote a get well note, had coffee with a friend, took everything out of the outside storage room, put everything back in the most organized fashion possible and scheduled a massage for next Tuesday.

I think I deserve it.

A happy birthday

Joel's birthday was April 17. I mean to post this back then but all of you pestered me so much about the house pictures, I had to put this off.

Happy birthday, Joel! Here are some things we love about you:

1. your hair
2. your great doctoring skills
3. you used to make noises like dinosaurs
4. you are a great loser at dominos, when you lose. And I really mean this as a compliment-
5. you don't wear your orange shirt with your red shorts anymore
6. you're trying to branch out in the music you listen to
7. you're a great dad
8. you're a thoughtful husband
9. you're one of the best dog owners I know
10. you empty the litter box
11. you try to drink a lot of water

I really could go on and on...really.
I'm glad you were born!

House

You're all invited to come visit. All of you.

Two things I can't wait to put in the house

Spring Growth

Spring break ended last night at midnight. Here's the list of last weeks activities:

Went camping at Albert Pike.
Survived "severe thunderstorms" in a tent with 2 babies.
Were trapped at our campsite because of a washed out road from the aforementioned "severe thunderstorms".
Spent the night in a suburban.
Finished the camping trip at #3 Northridge to avoid the following round of thunderstorms.
Celebrated birthdays at Nana's. Happy birthday to Nana, Katie, Mom Poteet and Joel.
Looked at houses.
Bought a house.
Got sick.(Silas and Alice)
Threw-up. (Silas only)
Had fevers. (Silas and Alice)
Bought a dress for the Utter/Ussery wedding. (Alice only)
Swinged on the tire swing.
Played Dr. Mario.
Went on an anniversary date to Bennigans for Death by Chocolate only they didn't actually have any death by chocolate. Or coke.
Watched "the Corpse Bride" since we got married FOUR YEARS AGO. I love you, Joel!
Drove home.

Spring Break makes you do crazy things

I made baby food. I carefully read about all the fruits and vegetables Silas can eat and then we all took a trip to Walton's Market. After two hours of cooking and freezing, NOT including cleanup, and calculating the cost of the food against the cost of canned babyfood per ounce, I think we saved about $2.

Joel did our taxes today. Silas is really raking in the big bucks for us. Looks like we'll be able to pay our rent in June after all!

This video was taken on our last real day of winter. Silas and I took a little trip to the Apple Store to make an appointment with the Genius. We always feel like real city people when we shop in that part of town. What do you think Silas is trying to tell us here? All I know is that he's not sad/mad.

Smocks and Sweater Vests

This is Silas' older (by one day) friend, Madeline. This photo represents a little of how maybe all of us were feeling on Match Day, just before the envelopes were opened.

The other picture is Silas' Cambodian gramma, Seong Kim Sao. Once a refugee from the Khmer Rouge, she has lived in Dallas over 20 years and has been a long time student of our East Dallas Language Center, where I teach once a week. She wants to know how to make bread pudding. Any suggestions for her?

And...

After some technical difficulties and some frustration due to blogspot's malfunctioning, we can announce to the world where we'll be.

It's Little Rock!

Some family members responded, not surprisingly, with better attitudes than others.


Of course, Sabrina would've had a bad attitude regardless of where we matched.

T(uberculosis) minus 1 day

And tomorrow's the day. Calm, calm yourself. Here's another soother. These are Silas' favorite toys: a barrel of elephants that Abbie gave him for Christmas. He especially likes it when the lid is off and he can pour them out on the floor and eat them. Also pictured is a rattle with a mirror on the top. Next to Silas is the toy that surpasses them all: Lewis. Silas' has never lost an oppotunity to try to put Lewis in his mouth. Dang that dog, though; he's too busy trying to get us tall people to throw his ball.

T minus 2 days...

I'm posting this picture to sooth your nerves because I know you're all so anxious to know where we're going. Here's something to fill your thoughts in the meantime. Silas is now eating squash, carrots, sweetpotatoes and applesauce. He's now eating 2 meals of solid food. He's sitting up almost well enough to play alone but the occasional topple is enough to keep that kindof play supervised. And finally, he cries after 3 minutes of tummy time now instead of 3 seconds. Oh, another thing- he thinks it's really fun to pretend cough.

What do Doc Holliday and Joel have in common?

Here we see Silas waiting to find out the answer. And for those of y'all who are wondering, it isn't that they both started off a career in medicine, only to have it cut short by TB. Nor is it that they are both gunslingers.

No, in fact, I am not contagious. And I don't have to drop out of medical school and become a professional gambler. Which is fortunate for me because I'm only mediocre at Texas Hold 'Em and less than mediocre with a gun. In Tombstone (an historically accurate movie if ever there's been one), Doc challenges Ike Clanton to a spelling bee in AZ. Yes, there is our similarity.

"Oh daddy, you're so funny. And I'm really happy that you're not going to get me sick."

Someone must tell me why!!

A couple things frustratingly baffle me today. For one, Lewis likes to spread his toys out all over the house. If I put them away, he gets them right back out and places them in different rooms in different spots each time. Now he's started doing that with his food. Is he trying to establish territory? It's making a mess.

Second, Joel has the consuption. It's official. It's alive and kicking. The question is, is it contained?? Let's review all the wacky health issues Joel has had this year:

1. while having blood drawn, his median nerve was stabbed causing numbness and tingling all the way from his elbow to his thumb. Neurologist said it should be fine. But it still tingles...

2. our dermatologist church friend recommended that Joel have 2 moles removed because they were very suspicious looking. The pathologist reported that they were indeed dyplastic nevis (potential pre-melanomas). Student insurance doesn't cover suspicious looking mole removal unless they're maglignant, at which point, you'll probably die from them. Mega Life Student Insurance, consider this post an insult to you. How I wish I could be meaner.

3. Now, tuberculosis. Joel gets to take INH and vitamin B6 for 9 months, IF his chest x-ray is normal. Stay tuned to find out how insurance will screw us this time, not to mention if Joel is...

...contagious.

Just for the picture

And completely unrelated, the countdown to match day begins tomorrow. T minus one week, one day...

But now we're back

It's been a busy week. Full of preschool accounting (billing parents, that is- we don't actually teach accounting to the preschoolers at Northwest unless you include counting dots and butterflies), visiting Shreveporters, neurology, paying bills, and trying to be outside as much as possible. Here's a few highlights:
We went to a Luau on the last real winter day of Dallas.
Silas is sitting up more and spitting up less; he's also been pretty talkative these days saying things like "ttttttt" mixed in with some drool.
We taught Lewis to lie down on command.
Joel arguably got misdiagnosed as not having the consumption.
Sabrina almost escaped into the beautiful weather. I was tempted to just let her go. Isn't that what they say? When you love someone you gotta let them go?
The adult Fankhausers took us to Cafe Brazil, Dallas' best coffee bar in my opinion. I had some of the best black beans I've ever tasted.

Speaking of black beans...since we were so busy this week, last night Silas kindly cooked us Gallo Pinto (painted rooster)- a popular Costa Rican dish with black beans, rice and eggs. But no one bothered to clean up last night, so that's what I'm going to do now.

Not once, but twice

Several months ago, I had the privilege of meeting one of my favorite authors. Lillian Calles-Barger has written and largely influenced my thinking on womanhood and spirituality. She lives in Dallas and I always thought to myself that if I ever met her I would thank her for helping me better understand myself and the world at large. When I met her face to face, I couldn't think to say anything.

There are only a handful of writers that I feel have really had such an influence in my life that I would actually want to tell them so. Among them are the aforementioned Mrs. Barger, Paul (from the Bible- but he's dead), C.S. Lewis (but he's dead too) and Don Richardson.

Well, I met Don Richardson this Sunday. In fact, I was in the right place at the right time and was volunteered (by myself) to escort him and his wife to a lunch at our church, which also meant that I would be sitting at his table. No one has inspired a longing to reach the farthest ends of the earth like he has. I wanted to tell him that he had helped shape my plans for life, even before I met Joel, maybe even before I graduated from highschool. I wanted to tell him that he was a childhood hero. But all I could say was, "Hi! I'm Alice. I'm escorting y'all to the lunch." At least Joel was brave enough to get him to autograph his new book.