Mom

My parents always called each other by their first names.  Now they would say stuff to us like "go tell your dad that dinner is ready," but when talking to each other they used their given names.  My mom once explained it to me by saying well I'm not his mom, why would he call me that?  That made so much sence.  I knew when I had kids I wanted to do it the same way.  I told Jeff that under no circumstances is he to call me "Mom."  My in-laws laughed and said don't be so sure, you might change your mind, but I brushed them off.

Fast foward to now and I have been "Mom" or "Mama" to both of the guys in my life for almost 18 months.  Boy was I wrong.  I don't mind that Jeff calls me Mom.  It works for us.  That just goes to show you that you never know what you will like or not like as the circumstances change.

Love,
Mom :)

The Beach at Elephant Butte

Locally we have a lake that has a nice sandy beach.  We tried to take Jason there last weekend, but got rained out almost as soon as we got there.  We decided to try again today and Jason had a blast!  He loved playing in the sand and wanted to rush the waves.  After ingesting a bit too much of the sand we decided it was time to get up off the beach, but the only other thing we had to do was go sit back in the hotel room.  Instead we decided to fill up Jason's water table from the spicket at a local campground and let him play with that in the bed of the truck while we were still at the beach area. 

To avoid getting sand and water Jeff took his watch and wedding band off.  At first he set them nicely in the cab of the truck, but when we were playing in the water table he didn't want to get sand on his feet again so he tossed them in the open window thinking that they would both land on the passenger's seat...well his watch did.  We searched high and low for his wedding band.  We took everything out of the car, moved around seats and got out flashlights and still could not find his wedding band.  Finally after dinner Jeff took us back to the beach where we had been just in case the ring missed the window and fell in the sand.  We sifted and shuffled around the sand but eventually started looking in the truck again.  I'll admit it I was getting pretty tired of looking at this point and had kind of given up hope when I popped off one of the plastic parts of the seat and heard a small tinkle.  I know I had either broken the seat or had found his ring.  Sure enough there it was!!! 

We were buckling Jason in his seat (he had been such an angel by patiently waiting) when I heard Jeff say "is he stuck?"  Yup there was a guy down there stuck in the soft sand by the water.  So we drove down there and got out the tow cable that Jeff had gotten years ago, but never used hooked him up and pulled him to stiffer packed sand.  Growing up in the suburbs I had never towed another vehicle with a tow rope, so it was a little scary, but along the way I said to Jeff that God obviously wanted us to help this family.  Jeff told the guy so as he tried to thank him.  There was no reason that Jeff's ring should have been so difficult to find, there was no reason why we would have been out on the beach after Jason's bedtime and there was no reason I found the ring right as that guy discovered he was stuck.  God was watching out for him and us that day.

You could go away with the moral that you should never throw anything into the car and hope it will be somewhere you can find it OR you could go away with the fact that God has a plan for us even if we don't know what it is.  It may take enduring some hardship, but God is watching out for us.

Huntin' Buffalo

So Saturday was a hard day for Jeff.  After working for just a few days at his new job he had to work all day on a proposal due on Monday.  By the time Jason went to bed we decided to relax out on the walkway in front of our room with our beverage of choice, talk about klassy!  Jeff had beer and I had a girlly drink because well... I'm a girlly girl.  We got to talk and relax which was exactly what we both needed.

The next day we were talking and Jeff said something about hunting buffalo last night.  Um...what?  I'm pretty sure I've never been hunting and even if I had it wouldn't have been for something as rare as a buffalo and we weren't doing anything like that yesterday.  As he often does Jeff waited for an extra minute before explaining himself.

When the west was wild and the bad white man wasn't interfearing indians would hunt buffalo by scaring the herd and killing the stragglers.  Thus killing off the weak, sick or old buffalos and making the herd stronger.  Because you, of course, are only as strong as your weekest link.  We have all been told that when you drink you kill braincells, but Jeff argues that it is only the straggler, weak, sick and old braincells so you are actually becoming smarter.  This isn't the first time I heard this theory or even the second and if you ever get to drinking with Jeff ask him about it because he loves to tell it and does it WAY better than I do.  Have fun huntin' your buffalo.

Truth or Consequences

So we completed the final leg of our trip and arrived at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico about a week ago.  We are currently staying in a local hotel while we try to find a suitable home.  In fact, Jason and I are going out to look at one in a little bit so I will have to keep this short, but I wanted to share some pictures we have been taking lately.  I have been practicing with our new camera and trying to figure out all the settings so most of these photos were taken at the hotel.

Jason had a bit of trouble sleeping at first with all the schedule change so we went outside for a sunrise photoshoot.  Good thing he is so cute!

Oh how we love this boy!

Learning to use aperture priority mode and pretty roses.  Except for that dead one on the right.  Next lesson: photoshop!

After being asked "where's Mama?"

Mid clap

What Jeff and I come in to stare at every night.  Don't worry we are right outside the door with a monitor, but any noise inside will keep him awake.

Have I discussed how he is such a boy?  Loves, loves, LOVES to run through puddles.

Last one:  my cuddle bug relaxing in his chair. 

snake and snails...

...and puppy dog tails!  Our little boy is a man's man...er..boy.  He loves rocks and doggies.  He wants to make things go CRASH, BANG, and BOOM! 

He likes to splash you and play in the water.  His favorite thing to eat is meat with a side of bread!  Something he is not a fan of: getting dirty.  He will hold out his messy hands to you as if saying Mommy fix this and clean them off!  Then he will dive in and get them dirty again.

We went camping earlier this week and he loved being outside in nature.  I had bragged for a while that he was such a good boy and didn't put things in his mouth...opps.  He showed me and decided that while we were camping EVERYTHING belonged in his mouth.  The rocks, dirt, spicket, spicket handle. He loved it though.

When did our baby get so big?

In San Antonio

We survived!  We actually made the trip in 2 days instead of 3 as I thought we would.  To do that we only completely stopped for about two hours during the night at a rest stop.  Jeff said he wanted to be done with the trip so we just pushed through.  I was happily surprised at how well Jason did.  There was some fussing, but for the most part he just hugged on Pooh bear.

We have enjoyed seeing family down here in San Antonio and loved spending Father's day with them.  We have been spending tons of money shopping down here and Jason has really been enjoying the pool and all the extra attention.  It is great to have built in babysitters that can watch Jason so I can get a much needed haircut without someone fussing to get on my lap.  Jason still loves to be read to and everyone knows what his favorite book here is about Pooh bear and the supersluths.

We are debating on getting a new car as we were able to sell our BMW a week ago (thank God!)  We know that a new car is a want and not a need because Jeff will be getting a company truck and I would be able to drive around our truck.  It is just such a pain to get Jason into and out of his carseat in the pickup and doing simple things like grocery shopping becomes a hassle.  We have been visiting a couple of dealerships in the area and have narrowed down a few cars that we like, but the issues is how Scrooge-like we want to be.

We're Moving...again!

No this isn't deja vu (see We're Moving!!!)  This time we are moving back to the States.  We will be so sad to leave the good friends we have met here! 

Jeff accepted a new job in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and they want him there by the begining of July.  His last day of work here will be on June 11th and hopefully everything will work out that we can start our long drive south on the 12th.  We are still working on getting through all of the current company's relocation hoops, but hopefully we will be lucky and get it all figured out soon.  We are planning on first going down to San Antonio to try to sell our car that has been living there while we were in Canada.  After we have that acomplished we will head off to T or C to find a place to live.

If you have been following us for a little while you know that I can be a bit of a nervous Nellie about keeping Jason entertained while traveling.  Our 3 day drive to Texas is no change.  I'm trying to sort out the snacks I should bring and if he will be interested in watching a DVD player.  It was so much easier to drive up here with him when he was only 3 months old.  Then he was happy to sit in his chair and sleep most of the way.  Now everything I am reading is saying that you should let the child get up every 2-3 hours, but we are of the mind that you keep driving until you can't drive any more.  I am sure there will be some tears, but we will persevere.