Memphis: A puppy in a big dog body!

Chewing paper, eating my plants, escaping from his outdoor pen, digging my flowerbeds AND digging in my flower pots have all become "fun" puppy playtime for my new "puppy" Memphis.

Memphis is now about five months old. He's nearly as big as our full-grown chocolate lab, Dixie! He has a ravenous appetite, and still loves coming in the house and taking a nap under the (unused) high chair or the kitchen table.

He's been an awesome student in "Travis Hunting School." He's whistle-trained to sit and stay, then come. He's working on multiple retrieves with his blaze-orange fetching "dummies," as we call them. Thank you to my awesome husband Travis for training him!

Memphis likes the water. Thankfully the alligators didn't eat him when Travis took him swimming in a local swamp. Seriously. Memphis has also discovered the "poop ditch," as we fondly call it (the sewage ditch where the 'supposedly' 90% clean water goes after it leaves our little treatment thingy).

Between smelling like poopy mud and wet dog and shredding every bit of paper and crayon he can find on the floor, he has spent more time outside than in, lately.

Memphis is growing to be a smart, loyal dog! Hopefully we can train him to stay away from the poop ditch, now!

My Valentines

A rose and a very sweet card from my hubby were waiting for me beside me on Travis's pillow this morning. Travis wanted me to find my Valentine surprise first thing, and since he was up 'n' at 'em before 5 they had been waiting there for me a while! He goes to bed early. I stay up late. I get up late, and he gets up early. Totally opposite, but we've managed to make it work! Thank you for working to bless me before the sun was up this morning, Travis. I love you!

My four little Valentines are running around with Valentine tattoos they got from Grandma and Grandpa Chadd all over their arms and chests. They had fun exchanging Valentines with their friends from home school group
yesterday at the park. Attendance was about 50 kids, instead of the expected 80, because of rain. The rain didn't spoil the fun! We had a good lunch, with tons of sugar cookies, of course, and the kids played on the nice playground before exchanging Valentines.

Jillian was hilarious. She had no idea why she was standing and holding her little paper Valentine bag out, and she was getting VERY agitated and impatient. Someone finally put a SUCKER into her bag, and then she held that little bag out until the cows came home (while stuffing candy into her mouth with the other hand)!

Travis and I will be taking our Valentine's date either tomorrow or another day next week. I'm not big on fighting crowds just for the novelty of Valentine's Day, and neither is Travis. Both of us would prefer a QUIET dinner out and a few hours away on an evening when we can be one of the only couples in a restaraunt. Maybe Monday should be our Valentine's Day!

Facebook: I Finally Gave In

"Jae, are you on Facebook?" Is a question I've gotten many times from my friends in the last year or so.

Ask no more, dear friends! You may now visit me on Facebook.

I usually don't hold out on learning to use and embrace new technology, but I had to warm up to Facebook. The way it "networks" you to so many people, although neat and helpful, is a bit spooky to me still. The fact that I can control whom I allow be my "friend" on Facebook makes it safe, though. Only my Facebook "Friends" can see my info. on the site, so if you want to be a Facebook friend of mine, join Facebook, too. It's free!

Now I get to ask. Are YOU on Facebook?

There were six in the bed and the little one said, "ROLL OVER!"

Finding a hotel room that accommodates a family of six is not easy. Functioning as a family of six in a hotel room is even trickier! God bless suite rooms, is all I have to say.

We were blessed with an extra special two-room suite when we stayed at our hotel in Houston. The pull-out couch bed was in a room separate from the two queen-sized beds. The fact that the suite had the extra room gave us a little extra peace...but it also gave me a HUGE scare!

I woke up to the alarm the day of the marathon and started to rouse the kids. Travis's dad had already dropped Travis off at the marathon downtown about 1 1/2 hours before. I woke the boys first, who had slept in the queen bed opposite Travis and I in the same room. I then went to the other ("living") room and woke Madalynn up and JILLIAN WASN'T THERE. The girls had slept on the pull-out couch.

I calmly walked back into the "bedroom" and walked into the bathroom to make sure she hadn't quietly passed me and gone to the bathroom without me noticing her. I asked the oldest three to help me look. Madalynn then said she hadn't seen her for a while.

I quickly walked back toward the bedroom and glanced at the door, noticing the deadbolt undone. Travis, obviously, could not have returned the deadbolt back to it's locked position when he left that morning, making it possible for little Jillian to have simply walked right out the hotel door without anyone noticing! I made a b-line for the telephone, trying to reassure myself that she was probably across the hall in Scott, Cheryl and Holly's room for some reason.

Scott picked up the phone and I asked him (sure he'd say yes) if Jillian had gotten up early and gone along for the ride to drop Travis off at the marathon and had stayed in their room. He sounded kind of worried and told me that she wasn't in there and to look again and call me back.

Panic mode struck and the kids and I rushed around, looking in the kitchen, bathroom, under the beds in the bedroom. I then went to where she was laying and stood. Her pillow was still on the bed, and so was her blanket. I was just about to call Scott back, the front desk, and the cops, when I decided to get down and look under the pull-out bed.

Right smack in the middle of underneath the bed was Jillian, fast asleep. She had slept right through our panic. I said, "Jillian, how'd you get down there?!" She SLOWLY started stretching and finally climbed out from under the bed, totally unfazed. I can't figure out if she fell of the side of the bed or slid down between the back of the couch and top of the mattress! I called Scott back with the good news and a sigh of relief.

Here are the sweet pictures I snapped of Jillian when I found her under the bed and the kids peacefully sleeping together in the hotel beds.

The Handy Man Can!

Travis is very handy, and he blesses me and the kids with his skills often. His latest project is matching twin beds for the girls. He finished Jillian's bed just a few weeks ago and she is now sleeping like Daddy's little princess each night.

I showed Travis a style of bed I liked on PotteryBarn.com and he volunteered to custom build me two that could accommodate trundles underneath for sleepover guests and extra family when they come.

Travis measured, wrote up the plans, and gave himself a crash-course in bed-making. Constructing the beds took longer than Travis wanted it to, but setting that pretty white bed up for her and seeing the smile on her face was worth the wait for all of us. Now Madalynn cannot WAIT for Travis to finish hers up and set it up. He's not too far from having hers done, too!

The beds are VERY tall since they were built so a trundle would fit underneath. Travis is going back to the drawing board to make a double-step stools to help the girls get up into them. He made cute little single-step stools, but they tip over and Jillian falls trying to get up when she uses one.

The girls, boys and I are all thrilled with Travis's handiwork. The boys like to climb up and just sit on the bed with Jillian, because they think it's so cool to be high up.

Mr. Details: Justis

"Mom, where's Daddy?" "Is Daddy in last place?" "Is Daddy winning?" "Where is Daddy?" "Did Daddy beat those people?" "Will Daddy win a trophy?" "Where's Daddy!?"

My Justis. He's our little memory Superman and technical guru of the bunch. He had so many questions and used the marathon (as well as he does every new event) as an opportunity to fill his big ol' noggin with useful information and facts.

Madalynn, Dawson and Jillian accepted the fact that Daddy was a champion for simply running the marathon in Houston a couple weekends ago. Travis will always be Justis's hero, victorious or not, but Justis wanted to know more. "Did Daddy win?" "How is Daddy winning if those people are in front of him?" "Why do those people have their names on their chest?"

The most abstract lesson he learned is that sometimes winning doesn't mean coming in first place! He just couldn't understand how Daddy would "win" and get a medal if all of these runners were crossing the finish line in front of Travis. I explained to him about setting personal goals and the discipline and satisfaction involved in choosing to run a marathon.

Somehow I think little Justis is going to grow up to be very driven like his daddy. Watching him grow is fun, and his ability to grasp new concepts and information and turn around and apply it is humbling, for lack of a better word.

Patience is not always easy for Justis, and these pictures prove it. When you're a logical thinker, sometimes tolerating a wait when, logically, someone doesn't have an excuse to not be done with something is HARD. Justis is growing impatient and worried in these pictures. The race was over and we were waiting for Travis to be weighed, get some food and a massage before meeting up with us in the family reuniting area. Curtains were covering all of the runners' post-race weigh-in, etc, so for all Justis knew Daddy was MIA. Justis watched Travis cross the finish line, yet he hadn't come out from behind the curtain to meet us. A look of relief and a big smile came across Justis's face an hour later when Travis emerged from the post-race "refueling" station.

Jillian's Post-Straightenend Hair

Here's a picture of Jillian's hair after we straightened it and she took a nap. It pretty much looked like this before she took her nap...but the pillow did some extra "fluffing"!