Thursday, October 27, 2011

Today, my "baby" turns twenty-four

Empty nesters are we. Today, my youngest son, my "baby" turns twenty-four years old. 10-27-87. I got to choose his birthday. His was a planned C-section. I enjoyed walking to the hospital that morning, as I knew the drill. I needed the exercise, and it was a deliciously foggy morning. Fog this time of year always reminds me of that morning. My Mom was watching my 14 month old and six year old.

Now he is grown. Flown the nest. Moved to Austin. Enjoying his new career. Working for an electrical contractor firm.

He called me yesterday. His background check came up clean. He was suprised. Ha. The Incident back in Alpine when he was twenty was mysteriously gone. I think he was suprised at that.

Ben recently built a friend a bunk bed set. He showed us the picture on his phone. Impressive. Ben is able to see something and then build it. He is gifted. We are so proud of him for going back to college and working toward an electrical degree. It was over a year of boring classes and challenges, but he stuck it out. He enjoyed the hands on parts. Told us stories and we are so glad his prof recommended him for his new job. The solar industry was dying, and while he enjoyed the challenges of climbing on roofs, and putting systems together, there was no money for it anymore. Government "stimulous" money never materialized. Companies went under waiting for promised money.

If Ben were in town, if Ben were home, I'd bake him a cake. Pineapple upside down cake. My presents run to the practical. Tee shirts, towels...something red or orange, his favorite colors.

Happy Birthday, Benjamin! Love, mom

Monday, October 3, 2011

Fun numbered date coming up

a week from Tuesday, a fun numbered date is coming up:

10-11-11. And in November, 11-11-11. Next year, Bob pointed out, there will be a 12-12-12. But that is it for this century. fun, huh?

Midnight Call

It had been a few days since I had seen a post or remark by firstborn deployed. When I caught myself worrying, I would pray. And it was so wonderful, when I asked firstborn's wife if she had heard from him...he posted a reply. whew. AND a picture. added blessings. Now we can visualize the mustache. And beautiful scarf his wife knitted him. And he got the packages. yeah.

Saturday night, nay Sunday morning---at 12:43am, the phone rang. There was no way i could make it to the phone by three rings. So, I took my time. Got up without tripping or falling, and went to the bathroom, and then wandered out to the living room to check the caller ID thingy. It was middle son's phone. His wife is 16 weeks along, and they have an 8 month old baby...so I called him back. He was walking around outside holding wide awake 8 month old. I could not hear the baby, so he was content in Daddy's arms. Enjoying being held, enjoying being outside, and our son said this was his second night doing this. What to do?

I later googled "baby waking up in the middle of the night" and found out that this is normal for this age. And that sometimes night terrors start at this age. So between teething, hunger, thirst, needing a diaper change, practicing new skills, and night terrors...take your pick. Growth splurt?

I felt blessed that our son was not afraid to call us in the middle of the night. Middle of the night calls are mostly never good. This same son was not afraid to call when he was deployed and ask me to go help his wife. These are treasured calls. He reminded me of when he was little, he used the speed dial on our phone at the time to call his Aunt Sally. When asked why he was calling at such an hour, he told Aunt Sally, I can't sleep. When asked why he was not telling his own parents about this, he said, well, their door is shut, and we are not suppose to bother them when their door is shut. Needless to say, we took them off speed dial.

He said he was tempted to call Aunt Sally again, and explain that the baby that shares his name cannot sleep...

I am not guaranteeing that I will even hear the phone ring after midnight. But, I am glad I got that one. I came back to bed and bragged to my deeply slumbering husband, but he did not hear me. But, he was wide awake when I told him the next morning...

Fun times.

Baby David turns ONE on Thursday. wow. They are coming to visit next weekend. YAY

And Baby James turns 9 months on the 22nd. And might learn whether he is getting a baby brother or baby sister this weekend. Hang on!

Courage and Thankfulness

http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?SpeakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&Keyword=Voddie%5eBaucham

wow. a preacher not afraid to teach what the separation of church and state truly means! and not just on Oct. 2nd, but for two Sundays, and maybe more promised!

we need to learn history. Lutherans in nazi Germany were told to shut up with Romans 13.

we need to go back to the old, 1800 definition of "politics" for the furtherance of morality.