The Combs Krewe

At the end of last semester Jackie told me that instead of finishing in December of 2012 as we'd thought, he didn't expect to graduate until May 2013. I'd sort of hinged a lot of things on being here only one more year. My thought was that I could handle our crappy mattress one more year and it wouldn't be so bad having Piper in our room for one more year  and so on and so forth. But 18 MONTHS? That's a different story. Don't ask me why. (Because I don't know; I'm just crazy like that!) So I decided to just lose our school room in favor of making Piper her own room. I moved all of our school supplies into our pantry beside our dining room area so now we can easily sit at the table and still have access to all of our school supplies. Then I started working on Piper's room! I chose a jungle theme mainly because I couldn't find any owl-themed bedding that I liked that would fit our crib. I loved the colors in the bedding--pink and lime green and...

Saturday, January 21, 2012 Piper in her freshly painted room. Sunday, January 22, 2012 Ryland playing waiter at Cafe Freret. Unfortunately his service was better than our actual server.  Steakbomb. Monday, January 23, 2012 Piper loves Jathan. I think the feeling is mutual. <3 Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Piper could only figure out how to crawl backwards. Frustration ensued . Wednesday, January 25, 2012 Weirdos waiting for the dermatologist. Killing time before church at City Park. Thursday, January 26, 2012 Footstool redo project. Forgot to take a "before" picture. Friday, January 27, 2012 Having breakfast at the couch trying to keep the house clean for Showcase Housing.

After I had Piper I longed to fit into my old jeans. It was my goal to lose enough weight to be able to wear them by the time the weather turned cold. Little did I know that I would NOT be able to wear them not because I hadn't lost enough weight but because I'd lost too much--they were now too big! I suppose it's a good problem to have but I did have a lot of good jeans in a particular size. One size too big. Since I only had one good pair of jeans I decided I'd spend some of my Christmas money (I'm S-T-R-E-T--C-H-I-N-G it out!) on a new pair. Jackie suggested we hit the outlet stores in Gonzales and try to find a good deal. I tried on countless jeans at at least five different stores to no avail. I was not going to waste money on something that wasn't just  right. The closest fit was at Old Navy. I like the Dreamer style because it fit properly in the waist and hip area without gaping open in the back. The only problem was that they don't carry the short...

Today has been one of those days. There have been several minor crises involving two little boys, hair, scissors, toilet water, and paint. And it's only 1 p.m. I'd like to share some pearls of wisdom, to conclude with some inspirational anecdote, but I got nothing. I haven't been taking my own advice today. Maybe tomorrow. The question of the moment is to cry or not to cry. EDIT: Okay, just as I was hitting publish I looked over to see Jathan seated at the table working on his handwriting. He had put his pencil in between his toes and was holding it up singing, "SUPER TOE!" Thank You, God, for comic relief. = P

This morning at church I learned that today is Sanctity of Life Sunday , a day of recognition of the value of human life first instituted by Ronald Reagan. Our church flyer talked about it and shared the remarkable story of a young woman who has recently joined our church. Last year she found herself pregnant with her third child and made an appointment to have an abortion. God worked in several ways (including the closing of the abortion clinic) to save her unborn child who turned out to be a beautiful little girl that I got to see today. The baby's big sister is in Ryland's Sunday school class (where I'm a helper) and is so sweet. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know this story; I know so many stories go unheard! That's why I wanted to share a little bit of my story. 13 years ago I was 15 years old and pregnant. Of course it was heartbreaking to my parents and family. An abortion would have been completely acceptable, understandable, and even welcomed. And ...

Saturday, January 14, 2012 We went shopping at the outlets in Gonzales. Piper shopped til she dropped. Sunday, January 15, 2012 We missed church because of our sickly guys. Jackie was battling an upset stomach and Ryland had a terrible cough. I just had a big mess to clean up. Monday, January 16, 2012 Everyone was feeling better so we went shopping (again). Ryland and Piper were happy to share a seat in the grocery cart. Tuesday, January 17, 2012 After a year of working on it, I finally finished my crocheted rug! No, it shouldn't have taken that long but I didn't *actually* know how to crochet when I started it (it got unraveled several times) and there were some interruptions along the way. You know like, Piper. ; ) Another crafting accomplishment was this hand towel for the stove. I saw this design at a flea market in Alabama and thought, "I could do that!" It was impossibly easy. I love it!                 ...

And, look! It's even on Friday this time. = ) Saturday, January 7, 2012 Today, after many days of Ryland running around naked and pooping on the floor, the thought occurred to me to bribe him. We had a bag of suckers left over from Christmas; I pulled out the biggest, sugariest one and said, "Ryland, if you poop in the potty today, I'll give you THIS!" Later I happened to walk by the bathroom to see this sight. He did it! All by himself! Woo hoo! On Saturday we also said goodbye to our Little Tikes table. It's been a great place to hang out and do preschool but we were running out of room for it and it's found a great new home in someone's back yard. Now I'm going to pretend I'm not dreaming of a *real* backyard. Sigh. Sunday, January 8, 2012 It took Jathan 30 minutes in the Walmart toy aisle to choose what to spend his dollar on. This is what he chose. Totally worth it.  Monday, January 9, 2012 Our old neighbor, Tim, got to come o...

Alternately titled: When One Expects Too Much From Cardboard and Particle Board "Well that was harder than I expected it to be" is something I've been saying a lot of lately. Latest case in point? Keep reading. I've been cleaning out our school room in order to make Piper a room. I'm super excited about this project because I've never had a nursery and I have great *colorful* plans. It hasn't been easy, however. As some of you know I have a craft addiction so I tend to save every little scrap of salvageable trash that might be transformed to treasure. Lots of things have gone to the SWAP shop. Lots of things have gone in the trash. And I've found a new home for lots of other things. Our pantry has become our school closet which I think is going to work out nicely. Almost everything has been cleared out of the school room--everything except two bookshelves. I'd decided to move them into the hall and reorganize them so that each kid would have a ...

Dear Ryland, Happy birthday! I hope you had a great day. I sure did enjoy celebrating it with you. It's hard to believe that two whole years have passed. In fact I looked down at my stomach today and remembered a special moment you and I had together a couple of years ago... I snapped this one last photo of you in my tummy and tried hard to remember everything about the moment...the pure magic of feeling your little self move inside of me already full of spunk. I tried to picture what you would look like when you emerged, what you would look like as a boy. I even tried to imagine you as the wonderful man I know you're on you're way to becoming. And today. I had a different sort of bracelet on my arm but it was for you, too. (And, hey, thank goodness I got a new outfit, huh?) But it made me think back to your first breath when the doctor held you up for me to see. And then when she placed you on my chest... You were perfect and I loved you. I thanked ...