Oh Vern

You may remember the time that Vern just really wanted to hang out with the chickens, so he jumped the makeshift chicken fence we made and got stuck in there.

OR, you may have heard of his two attempts at being a watch dog- one when our friend, Ryan, was staying with us and came home at 11pm and Vern cornered him in the living room growling.  Or two, when we had bats in our house and Vern tried to attack and eat one, but instead just injured it and it flew around the house angrily barking or whatever bats do.

Some of you may know the story of when our drunk neighbor tried to break into our house in San Antonio.  Dan had to defend the house and escort him home and where was Vern the whole time?  Licking a candy wrapper that he had found in the trash can in the bathroom.

Or even his daily habits of barking at the mailman or waiting for someone to throw him his ball.

Suffice it to say, Vern just has his priorities a little messed up.  Or maybe there is one screw loose in his head.  I'm not sure what it is, but his latest forays have not made me happy.

Everyday, Vern camps out on our back door step, basks in the sun and waits for Dan to come home and take him on a walk.  Well, everyday, while he is sleeping in the sun, the horrid crows come and one by one, eat all his food.  This infuriates me and every time I see them, I yell at them (and weirdly run at them from inside the house) to go away while Vern is not moving, laying RIGHT next to them.  They see me and skedaddle- giving me no photo opps.  (I have no love for crows.)

So, I decided to move his food right next to him on the step so that they would maybe be a little scared and not go after it.

And where did he go?  He just moved far away in the grass so as not to interrupt their pillaging so that they could happily munch away on his food...

...doubling the amount I have to pay every month to feed Vern and his 20 crow friends!

Ken Burns? Really?

So, I'm sure all of you are wondering why you need to read a post about someone named Ken Burns and I will wonder right along with you because there is really no reason, except this needed to be documented.

We have this adorable older man that lives next door with his wife.  Think this guy:

but actually not quite so cute and more like the nerdy scientist man in Rescue Rangers that always tried to destroy the world:

Ok, so a cross between the two.  Anyway, he lives next door and is super nice and we are all friends and his name is Hershel.

Well, today, he came by to talk to us about reciprocal airport rides.  We give them a ride to the airport (this saturday, in fact) and then they give us a ride whenever (probably whenever our kids our grown and we can leave the house again.)  Anyway- nice idea.  So, he hasn't seen Annie in a while and he is just taken aback, and when I say that, I mean, seriously taken aback at the striking resemblance to this man's documentaries he watches.  He can't remember this guy's name, but he just can't believe the resemblance and swears that he has never told anyone that their child looks like this guy (great, ours is the first- what an honor) - Tim something.  Well, already I'm not too thrilled (in my mind only, outwardly I am of course) that my daughter looks like a man, but I am thinking surely it is one of those men that kindof looks like a woman and maybe has beautiful sisters or daughters that look just like him.  Mad Scientist/Sweet Old Man Hershel proceeds to go on and on about Tim something and tells us to look him up- we just won't believe it.  We laugh along with the idea about our child looking like a famous older man and then he leaves.

THEN, he calls ten minutes later when he gets home and has looked up this actor and is calling to make sure we have done the same so that we can tell him yes, our daughter does look just like this man and thank you for comparing him.  So, we look up the name that he has now remembered, Ken Burns:

REALLY?  Need I say more?

Ok, maybe the bangs.....a LITTLE....

Only one word: FAIL

Well, I won't leave you hanging, but I will tell you that Dan and I spent a solid 48 hours staring at June's face trying to pick up her "cues" of when she had to go.  I will also tell you, that 58 out of the 60 times she went, we missed it.  Yes, that was 60 pairs of underwear that we washed - all kinds, and quite a few we threw away.  You can guess the stress levels or maybe you can't, but suffice it to say, this morning we gave up.

We basically looked back on the last 48 hours and asked ourselves- is this really that important?  Are we doing what is best for our family or what is our plan?  We decided that either June wasn't ready or we were over-eager, or we just weren't three-day potty trainers, or something, but we were not going to waste a whole other day trying to force June to figure out what she just wasn't getting, what she was feeling bad about, and what we were all killing ourselves over.

So, I write with humbled pride - Nay-sayers proved right. ;)

I was thinking the whole time that perseverance was the main goal here and that if we just thought hard enough that it would happen, it would.  But, then I looked at the situation and thought, maybe the lesson here is that sometimes, I need to gracefully accept that I am wrong and that we do all fail at times and that in itself is a lesson- one I can teach my children.  That failing happens, but it happens a whole lot more when you aren't walking with the Spirit's guidance, and this weekend, we sure weren't.  But its how you deal with the setbacks, failures, and disappointments that sets you apart.

So, we are back to diapers and ok with it.  Even though she still tells us every time while she is going that she needs to go pee pee, we will re-visit another time.  But she is back to the sweet happy toddler that she was and no worse for it and I have learned a valuable lesson, one that I unfortunately must continually re-learn: "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.  Each day has enough troubles of its own."  Matthew 6:34

Just let it go and be content.

Potty Training

I am writing a post about potty training for all the nay-sayers out there (you know who you are) who say this cannot work.  It can and it will! :)  I have read, re-read, and memorized the 60 page e-book just like I did with June and Annie's schedule book (many nay-sayers there too, btw) and I have confidence that it will work with, as she says, a TON of praise, patience and accidents.

I come armed with an arsenal (suggested by the book but made up by yours truly) of food and drinks (to make her go to the bathroom alot so we can train)....

Prizes (I'm sure she will just pick candy every time, but variation and options are always good :)....

30 pairs of underwear (for lots of mistakes and trying again)....

Incentive posters (she can't read, so I might as well enjoy the poster! ;)....

And a bed time routine poster (yes, we are multi-cultural and gender friendly in this household!)

So, I will check back in on monday- it is proven to work in three days or less and I believe it!  I have to be at her side for the entire three days and she will be good to go on Monday (with about 100 accidents before then).  But I figure it beats potty training over a few months.

Where will Annie be, you might ask?  Just hanging out with daddy all weekend, probably watching football while I conquer the insurmountable!

Where the time goes

Where does the time go?  I think all of my the time since Christmas has gone to relaxing and putting everything back together.  Although Christmas is fun and wonderful, it creates a lot of chaos that doesn't exist without it.

Plus, Annie moved upstairs to her own room from ours, so we have been working on that transition too :)

I heard something good today- "we all have the same amount of time; it just depends on how you choose to spend it."  That is something I really need to look at, because I  am always wondering where all my times goes.

At our small group this past week, we talked about looking at where you spend your time just like you look at where you spend your money.  By looking at where most of your times goes, (aside from sleeping,) you can see what is most important to you.  After a thorough analysis of this, for SURE June and Annie are the most important thing to me if you judge by time, but work is second.  And I wish it weren't so.  Thankfully, sweet Dan just helps as much as he can and is such a good husband and Daddy.  Time doesn't reward him enough.

Anyway, I will have to chalk this post up to ramblings, but something to think about.

On another note, my friends are obsessing about this free iphone app instagram.  I finally downloaded it and got a pretty cute picture that would have been totally blah had I not used the app.  Try it out.