What's in a Name?

What is in a name? We have many little creatures in our house and they all have names. None of them are living - they are all of the stuffed animal variety. Almost four years ago I picked up a tiny monkey off of the swap table at church. He came home to live with us and soon became a regular companion to Jared. We had friends visit and when Griffin asked what his name was Jared responded "monkey" however Griffin heard "Mikey" and he's been Mikey ever since. Mikey has been to Belgium, Germany, France, and all over England. With naming Mikey Jared also started naming all his other toys. He is the quickest of the kids to name a new friend. We went to the aquarium a few weeks ago and they had lots of little animals for $1 so I let the kids choose a few. While I heard "where's my fish?" "where's my dolphin?" from the other 2 I heard "what happened to Rod?" from Jared. I'm still not sure if he even caught the cleverness of naming a fish ROD but I thought it was cute.

Jordan is also pretty good at naming her animals. She usually puts more thought in to it than Jared and sometimes they go through a few names before the right one is chosen. She has a bear named Baby Rosie but it isn't her "first". When she was 2 she fell in the Chicago Airport and we ended up in the ER getting stitches. When the entire ordeal was over the hospital staff gaver her a brown bear. The bear was quickly named "Baby Rainbow". Along with the adoption of Baby Rainbow Jordan also changed her name. For several months she changed her own middle name to Little River. Jordan Little River and her Baby Rainbow. I was never quite sure if she was getting in touch with some long lost Native American roots or if she was going through a hippie phase. Baby Rainbow ran away from home - maybe she was a hippie searching for her freedom? - and a replacement bear was called in via e-bay and Baby Rosie took her place.

Jackson is about growing out of the naming thing. He still has Lambie, a lamb he got after getting his tonsils out when he was 4. And Tigey - you guessed it - a Tiger. Come to think of it he wasn't ever in to the naming thing to begin with. I'm just hoping now when he has kids of his own they aren't named Baby, Boyie, and Girlie. We'll have to put the naming in to his wifes hands.

Happy Father's Day

I once read a sign that said "Anybody can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a Dad". I know for a fact how true this is. My Dad came in to our lives when I was just a tiny little girl. I knew from the beginning he was my Dad. I'm sure it was embarrassing for my mom that I called him Dad when they were just dating but I was obviously a little girl who needed a Dad. I have never referred to him as my stepdad, I have never even thought of him as anything other than my Dad. He has always been in my life. He baptised me, he brought me jell-o and sprite when I was sick, he was there when I got married and he's the best Grandpa my kids could ask for. He is absolutely someone special - he's my Dad!

Time for a Change

Recently I have noticed that my clothes just don't fit me. I've stepped on the scale, I've had to lay down on the bed to zip my jeans. Why is it when I was in highschool I looked HOT in tight jeans - now I just look, um not? It just didn't REALLY hit me until yesterday. I decided I needed a few new shirts so went to a local store here. There is NOTHING that tells you that you are fat like a 3 way dressing room mirror. I'm still trying to convince myself that they were magnifying my figure but I'm sure that isn't the case. Fortunately I have a little bit of motivation over at Baby Tea Leaves so we're going to fix this figure!

It isn't officially starting yet - but I'll just say that today I am 144lbs. I have never weighed this much without being pregnant. In fact, give me 8 more pounds and that's me 9 months pregnant. My goal is to be down 20 pounds by the time we move to Arizona but I don't know if that is realistic so for the challenge we'll say 10 and hope for more.

Hair in 3 Parts

So Jordan's hair has been pretty scraggly lately. She has to wear it up at school so usually by the end of the day it looks like this:



We've been growing it out so that she could look like this:


But now that is all over and we've gotten rid of the fly aways and stringy hair and she looks like this: