thanks faithful readers!  we hit a new high today of 248 hits today…nice…now if only 248 people would leave a comment so i’d know it just isn’t my mom checking the site 200 times a day scouring for new deacon pics…

at clayton’s office again just praying that the comcast overlords will take pity on me and come before saturday so we can have phone/cable/internet again.  you’d think they’d be tired of me calling everyday asking about cancellations and rush orders, but they don’t tire of it…

i am busy planning a fun summer schedule for deacon and i.  i’m thinking little gym on mondays, swim lessons on tuesdays, library storytime on wednesdays, maybe houston highlights on thursdays and the friday can be whatever.  all i know is that i can not watch the wiggles for 8 hours a day for the next 6-8 weeks.  i bought deacon a fun shirt to wear on friday (the 4th!) when we go to one of three different celebration opportunities…the shirt says ‘mom’s little sparkler’ which is funny b/c last year on the 4th he wore a little onesie that said ‘mom’s little firecracker’….i think i’ve started a tradition!

I’m writing this on my mac at home and will use the glorious thumb drive tonight to move this post and pictures (yay!) to the internet via clayton’s work computer…

first, big congrats to my girlfriend detania on her new baby boy!!!  lucas jubal nix was born 7/29 (after a week long hold out) via c-section.  proud papa is Kelly and big sister is Olivia.  Congrats Nix family!!!  next up…the middleton family with their baby girl due any day now… come on gail, have your baby so you can come to seana’s wedding in 2 weeks!!!

so now that most of the boxes have been unpacked we sold them on craigslist.  we sold them cheap to move them fast and then the oddest thing happened.

the girl that bought them sent her father-in-law to pick them up at our new apartment.  deacon was napping and I answered the door and greeted the man.  he pulled his truck around to the right sidewalk and then came back to load the boxes up.  he pulled out some cash and handed that over….then he took out a church bulletin and said, “my daughter-in-law wanted me to give you this.”

I assumed that clayton (who had been corresponding with the girl) had talked about church and how he is a worship leader…I don’t know why I thought clayton would have picked this random stranger to get chatty with seeing as he is known for his stoic non-chattiness.  I just said thanks and put it in my pocket.

the man loaded his boxes and took off.  so then I’m looking at the bulletin from faith west the door of hope church.  I think maybe there is something about us in it or someone we know or something.  but no, nothing.  then I check out the sermon topic on the back in the notes section where the man’s wife had taken notes this past Sunday.

the sermon was titled “The Object of Worship”.  hmmmm….i always have to ask myself when random things happen, ‘ok, lord, what are you trying to tell me???’  out of every sermon topic available why did this man hand me the notes to a sermon about worship?  the irony that my husband is a worship leader is not lost on me.

I guess the girl thought that since we were new to the area and we would need some church recommendations?  i feel bad though that the mother-in-law lost her notes about worship.  maybe I should mail the bulletin back to the church and ask that it be returned to the rightful owner.  or at least let the pastor know that his congregation are all about spreading the word about their church.  even to strangers on craigslist.

and now on to the good stuff…deacon is cracking me up lately…he is really becoming a comedian.  here are some recent pictures of our move..deacon was crawling into cubbies, playing with his george pinata that usually hangs on the ceiling, and just being funny.  the funniest is now whenever he sees a camera, pointed at him or not, he says ‘çheeeeeese’ and then scrunches up his face and closes his eyes.  great….that will make future portrait pictures look swell.

ok, well, we won’t have internet at our home (apartment) until saturday.  that is why i’m using clayton’s computer at work to do my bidness.

i’d love to post some pictures..but that will have to wait until saturday.  we have finally beaten down the massive amount of boxes in our apartment and now all that remains is the huge pile of garage sale stuff that we are going to move to my mom’s garage tomorrow!  besides that we are pretty settled.  just little things to do now…hang some curtains and pictures, buy some actually groceries for our kitchen, hook up the imac (as impotent as it may be without internet), keep the ants a bay with our huge bottle of bugstop and just regular stuff like that.

i plan on starting a little miniseries next week titled ‘not a baptist, not yet a lutheran’ or ‘lutist vs. baptheran’.  those are both working titles…the main idea being that i have been exposed to a whole new way of churchy things.  these things are confusing and exciting at the same time. 

we have spent much time with our families this past week and that has been awesome!!!  it totally makes the ant infestations and humidity worth it.  family is awesome.

no we haven’t been crushed by moving boxes.  we just don’t have internet at home yet, so that is why the news of our arrival here in h-town has taken so long.  we built a great box fort in our new place and hopefully will get unpacked today and on with life.  besides an ant problem, our new apartment is fun!

back to unpacking!

last post in fort worth, tx. movers will be here in about 7 hours to load us up and then we head south. it is a weird feeling to be so sad to leave something behind but so excited at what is ahead.

clayton is packing this computer as i’m typing, so farewell fort worth!!!!

check it out…gladney has a new website! and deacon is kind of all over it (at least in the ethiopia section!)

from the home page, click on interested in adopting. then click on international adoption. then click on ethiopia. i think they have rotating videos when you click the little wagon that takes you to the ethiopia page…click it to refresh and change the video..if you are lucky you’ll see us in a video testimony we did at gladney’s 120th celebration. also, once on the ethiopia page, click on adoption fees, adoption travel, country/culture and ethiopia blog to see deacon and us!

if i haven’t said it before…gladney is awesome…5 stars, 2 thumbs up, only people i trust in international adoption. and now their website also has link for orphan care ministry resources!!! awesome!!!

back to packing.

found the ethiopia olympic coke cans at target in lake worth, tx!!! i only mention it because people keep finding our blog by searching for ethiopia olympic coke cans…so, check the stores now!

we were at target for supplies and stuff and i walked by the endcap with all the coke on it. i wasn’t even going to look at the cans b/c i checked this endcap about 2 weeks ago (and i checked every case last time! yeah, like 20+ cases..). but i thought to myself ‘i’ll just check one and if it isn’t ethiopia, i’ll give up. and i checked the case and it was ethiopia! i kind of screamed like i just won a small lottery!

so, there you have it. i’d take a pic of us with a can, but packing does not lend itself to my cuteness…so maybe tomorrow!

i hate packing for no other reason than it is a overwhelming reminder of how much crap i have that i don’t ever use. i’d say 80% of the stuff we have packed i’ve not touched since i paid for it. this frustrates me to no end! but, pack we must for the movers will be here at 6AM on Wednesday to haul our lives down I45 and replant us in houston!! yay!!!

i have to blog fast while clayton is out buying boxes…he’s kind of a packing nazi. here are some snaps from this past week…also, in case i didn’t mention it already (and my mind is so mushy right now i really don’t remember) clayton got the job! he is now the music director at covenant lutheran church. we went to our first service yesterday…very different. but that is subject matter for another post.

here we are at that awesome rest stop…so pretty and clean.

best part of moving home…family and friends…here were are catching up….hi to ginny and leslie who read my blog daily (or multiple times daily!!)

went to katy mills mall and ate at rainforest cafe…deacon was having a blast…

this is how deacon napped most of the week…he slept in the car much of the time.

ok, so probably no post for a while…until we unpack the computer in houston on wednesday or thursday…so i hope this post tides you over!

sorry for no post in long time…we are now nomads in houston. clayton got back on wed. and we’ve been preparing for the move down here in houston. we are living out of our suitcases, but i think we have an apartment lined up for next week when we make the final move down here. it is a nice apartment complex with a work out room (while we may never work out there, i think i burn calories just typing the word ‘work out room’), a sweet pool (time to get tan) and a nice new home with no yardwork required!! love it! also, it is less than one mile from clayton’s new gig at covenant lutheran church.

i’ve been wikipediaing lutheranism to try and figure out the differences from baptist. i still don’t understand what makes the 2 denoms different. any ideas?

i’ve got tons of great pics and stories from just the past 4 days, but my camera cord is in fort worth. i’ll try and post them on monday or tuesday when we get back to fort worth.

“No son of mine will have a pink piano. The world does not need another Liberace. ” –Clayton’s comment from previous post.

I think the pink piano was just the beginning…See exhibits below…I’m going to assume that all this girly-stuff-liking is just because Dada is still in FL for school. Hurry home Sweetie because if he grabs a Barbie tomorrow at Target I may just buy it for him!!!

“Do these pearls go with these jammies?”

“Dwight Schrute: Do you even know what this is? It is a fitness orb, and it has completely changed my life. Forget everything you thought you knew about ab workouts.”

he picked this pink ball out of a million other colored balls. just saying.

and finally, deacon is super smart…he sorted out the contents of my wallet for me…see, there is the money pile and then the not-money pile…and yes, i only have $4 in my wallet…well, actually i have $0 in my wallet now b/c of the ice cream and tipping the chinese-food delivery guy.