2012

I'm sort of a dork.  The week between Christmas and the New Year is always a reflective, contemplative one for me.  I can remember reflecting on the past year and planning for the new year, even when I was in 8th grade, but probably before that.  What can I say? I like new beginnings.

Nerdiness aside, I am going to summarize our 2012 right here for you.  When I look back on this year, I see three specific ways that God provided for me.

1- Our new house.  We had prayed for it, and even out of frustration of not knowing where to go/what to do, we prayed, and he provided.

2- New friends.  Another prayer out of frustration of not feeling like I had close friends to do daily life with (because many of my closest friends either work or live in other cities or don't have kids, etc.).

3- Austin Stone Women's Development Program- a program through my church that I am doing with my new friends (mentioned in #2).  And this program, which if I'm being honest- I would have never probably signed up for on my own because I had been so burnt out on church activities, has been the source of several answered prayers for me this year.  It's a big time commitment, but it goes on the blessing list for 2012.

And here is the notable stuff I can remember from 2012.  It was a relatively boring year, activity wise, but a good one, nonetheless.

Jan- I had a newborn.  So this is kind of a haze, but I remember being very proud of myself for going ANYWHERE on my own with both kids.

Feb- This month is truly a haze.  Can anyone else tell me what happened last February?  AH! Henry turned two.  We dedicated both kids at church, and had a family bday party.

Mar- Celebrated SIX years of marriage.  Took a family road trip with my sister and her kids to see my mom in Alabama over spring break.

Apr- Can't remember.  Pretty sure Easter was in March, leaving me with hardly any memories of April.  And... upon looking back at my blog, I should not that last April was my first experience at Hopdoddy. Ummm. SO GOOD.

May- Can't remember.  Seriously, this didn't feel like the most boring year ever until now!  Oh I know!  My BFF from HS had her first baby, Eme!

June- This past June was 10 years since I remember the gospel becoming a reality in my daily life.  See this post.  And also, I created my 30 before 30 list, but since I turned 28 in June, it means I have two years to complete the list.

July- Matt turned 29. ? I hosted a 31 party for my sister.  We put our house on the market and it went under contract in ONE day.

Aug- Beach trip with the family.  First beach trip that I was not pregnant, and it was so much more enjoyable this time that I might just plan all my future pregnancies (not sure that should be plural) around our beach trips.

Sept- Moved out of old house, into new house.  Started Women's Development, and Henry started preschool.

Oct- I pretty much just remember that both boys were sick a lot, and my mom came to visit once.

Nov- Ran my first half marathon since like 2005 or something crazy like that.  Ran the turkey trot.

Dec- Did not send out Christmas cards.  Sam turned ONE!

There it is my friends. And please forgive me for not posting!  I actually had written a post about a week ago, and then I later realized that I had never published it... oh well, you can just number me with the half-hearted, slack-bloggers.

Merry Christmas, I'm a slacker.

Merry Christmas to you all!  How thankful I am for a Savior that I so desperately need and who I also love.  And please forgive me, friends-and-family-who-normally-receive-a-Christmas-card-in-the-mail... I wasn't with it this year, and it's just not happening.  So here is the card I actually made and had printed, but never got around to sending.

Hope you have the happiest day!

Happy 1st Sammy!

Why is it that kiddos are always exhausted for their own parties??

I'll post his well check stats soon- all I remember is 50% for weight, 75% for height and head circ.

Love my little man.

Sam... and Santa

It is officially the week of Ham. Or Sam, as you know him.  I sort of can't believe that last year Henry couldn't say "Sam" and that he also couldn't say Snowman (he said "ho-man") and that he looked like this...

Well, I guess it is not just the week of Sam, but the week of "How in the world is my baby almost one and how in the world is my firstborn baby almost three?"

Guess I'll just have to get pregnant again... just kidding. Not trying. Not ready. Believe it.

So let me think of fun Sam things to tell you.

He has words.  They are "mama" "dada" "more" (which sounds exactly like mama and the only way we know it's different is because there is food involved when he's asking for more.) and also "CHEESE."

Seriously, he loves cheese and he can say the word.  Also I've never seen a child go more insane over the sight of some good ol' fashion blackberries.  Seriously... he passes up quesadilla for blackberries.  Totally weird.

I think there are a couple more words, but I can't think of them right now, and most likely he is saying words and I am just not paying enough attention to notice because that's kind of how my life is these days.  Note, Henry's latest phrase is, "MAMA! Listen to me! I'm talking to you mama!"  (Sad? Yes. But true.)

Other things.  Sam loves to brush his teeth.  Thank the Lord, and I mean it.  Henry also loves brushing his teeth- we have not gotten a child who hates that yet, thankfully.  BUT, both of them will protest their dinner and throw it on the ground, a habit we are trying to break- Henry went to sleep hungry tonight.

In the spirit of posting old pictures, here's an awesome one of me, Matt and Sammy in the hospital bed.

Look at that sweet little munchkin.

I can't be lookin' at those pics too long cause it makes me want to do it all over again. Remember, I like having babies... I'd go to the hospital and deliver a baby every stinkin' day of the week. :)  Like I said, no, not ready yet!

Okay, that's all about Sam for now...  Can we talk about the lyrics to Santa Clause is coming to town?

Good.  I was listening to this song with Henry a few days back, and the lyrics, "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake" were sung, and I was like, "Dang, that's creepy."  Does anyone else think that's creepy?  Okay, I'm the weird one.  Anyway, carry on...

Sammers...

I cannot believe that in one week my Sammy baby is going to be a big one year old... I know I should technically wait till his birthday next Saturday to write a sappy post and put up this picture from the day he was born (and the day I almost died), but I can't wait...

 

One of my most vivid memories from the first month or so of Sam's life was that he had some serious lungs aka he was L.O.U.D.  Literally the second he came out, I made a comment to the Dr. that he sounded much louder than Henry did.  It was like he was always screaming "FEED ME!"  My memories in the hospital with Henry were that he slept a lot and barely whimpered when he was hungry.  With Sam, he screamed, often, and it made my insides want to come out... we had a rough first couple of days together, me and Sam.  But I loved him and of course, he continued to steal my heart...

I also have vivid memories of him screaming during Henry's nap time during those first few months home... while I frantically told him to please be quiet and found many ways to try to calm him down.  And how can I forget that the kid slept in his car seat for the first 5 1/2 months of his life?  And how can I forget that my phone doubled as a white noise machine for the first 6 months?

He is still loud, and probably always will be. :)  I love his emerging personality... he is quite rambunctious, but I knew he would be from day 1.

Hopefully I'll get more chances to reminisce this week.

best turkey trot ever

We do the Turkey Trot in Austin every year... and that's been a tradition for like six or so years now.  Anyway, I have been known to either 1- walk, 2- cheat, 3- quit or 4- be pregnant during each trot... so of all six, I think I have actually only finished TWO successfully.  But after this year I can add another to that list.  :)

I was pretty proud of myself... I averaged an 8:40 pace, finishing the 5 miles in 44 minutes almost exactly, which is still only a trot, but it was still faster than I've ever ran it before (even six years ago when I was 22), and I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed myself while running.  So that was nice.

If you don't like me bragging about how super-awesomely not fast I am, I can make you feel better by letting you know that (besides when I've been pregnant), I also weighed (weigh) more during this year's turkey trot than I have weighed in any previous turkey trot ever... or pretty much in life ever.  Extra poundage got nothing on my time, peeps!  Haha.

Also, I had an awesome plan to write about some stuff I was thankful for last week, but that got away from me.  I am, however, very thankful for many things.  Much love!

Here we are post race.  No, Matt didn't push the double... you almost thought he was superman, didn't you?

confessions 11.27.12

Confessions.

Last night I made Paleo Pumpkin bread... yes, I used almond flour and coconut flour and honey, etc.  But it was a fail with Henry, unfortunately.  So you know what I did tonight?  I thawed those bananas in my freezer that had been there since JUNE (as mentioned in a previous confession), and I used some applesauce that had been sitting in fridge since we were in our previous house, and I made that kid some banana bread, flour and all.  Here's to hoping he doesn't come down with food poisoning after breakfast in the morning.

I have a bad, BAD habit of buying things for my house before I know if they will work/fit or not.  What I mean is that it would be really easy for me to get out the tape measure, and figure out if a picture will fit in a certain area, or figure out what size rug I will need in my living room, etc.  But I don't like to measure, so I just buy rugs and pictures, and then I hope for the best... this means a lot of returns and a lot of re-selling things that I have bought... aka lost money.  Probably should stop that.

Did I mention that I have not 1, not 2, not 4, but FIVE half gallons of ice cream in my freezer?  (Now, not exactly half gallons since most of them are at least halfway eaten.)  I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I have some ice cream that needs a home.  Any takers?


I really need to get working on some of my 30 before 30 items.  Mainly the consecutive pushups... I can't even remember how many I am supposed to be accomplishing, but I can tell you that the number I can do now is nowhere near the number I have set for myself.  Oh well.

And lastly, I haven't been blogging - but you already knew that!

7 out of 30

Please forgive me for my bad attitude about the neighbors' kids. Ha. Maybe a little bit of an overreaction?  With that I present to you...

I ran a half marathon!  As you can see, I placed very high. (Joking.)

There were 16488 competitors overall (it was extremely crowded, dodging people the whole time).  There were 1588 competitors in my division, and there were 10,110 females.  Apparently women are way more into running half marathons than men.

I ran the whole time minus to stop for water.  I was happy with that.  It was fun to spend the weekend with my pal and training buddy, Becky, my sis in law Mary, and my brother David - all who finished the race strong!

And now I'm glad it's over.  I celebrated by getting 2 out of 4 of the seasonal Blue Bell flavors.

Till next time blog friends.

Best part of the race was seeing my little cheerleaders along the side of the road!

happy Veteran's Day to you too

It's veterans day, which means my neighbor's kids don't have school. Which means they are outside screaming.  Which means my child who FINALLY went down for a nap 30 minutes ago after fighting it for a good while just got woken up and is screaming bloody murder.  Which means I may not be getting anything done today. Awesome.

I'm giving myself an award. Haha.

Okay, so both of my friends, Amanda and Courtney, were nominated for this awesome blog award call the Liebster Award.  They were supposed to tag like 11 friends to win the award too, but neither of them obliged, and both of them offered that any of their readers could participate.  So besides the fact that "Liebster" sounds similar to a nickname "Leebers" my mom had for me as a young child, I most definitely want something other than my weekly confessions to write about, and with that I present to myself...

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers, and nominated by fellow bloggers. Liebster is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

(Haha. Up and coming guys, watch out.)

Thank you to myself!! (Guys, I realize how lame this is.)  And also thank you to Amanda and Courtney, who both didn't actually tag me, but whose blogs you should definitely frequent.  They are hilarious and fun!  (Of course, they are also Chi Omegas. Hoot hoot.)

So one of the first things I am supposed to do is list 11 facts about myself. I can do this.
1. My mom called me Leebers as a child. 2. I have lived in Austin since 1990, minus 3.5 years of college. 3. I went to Texas A&M 4. I was a Chi Omega. 5. I was a bad Chi Omega. 6. I'm in desperate need of an eyebrow wax. 7. I used to tweeze my own brows, but that is like torture for me now. 8. In March I will have been married for SEVEN years. 9. I have two kids. 10. I'm running a half marathon on Sunday.

Then I am supposed to answer questions she (the girl who tagged Courtney) asked! So here goes...  (ALSO, the formatting got off somewhere along the line and I didn't fix it.  Please forgive.)

1. What is something you've always wanted to do but never have? Why not?
Unfortunately, I'm kind of boring and my dreams are pretty small - and if not small, then they're changing - so I can't really think of ONE thing I've ALWAYS wanted to do.  Except, MAYBE... go to Hawaii.  Now, it's not like I'm just dying to go to Hawaii or I would have made it happen - the thing is though, I love beaches.  How can a true beach lover NOT want to go to Hawaii? So there it is.

2. Fill in the blanks. People sometimes think I'm ___ but really, I'm ___.
Haha. I have the potential to be totally narcissistic and completely OFF on my guess of this, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.  People sometimes think I am unfriendly but really I'm just shy/intimidated.  I'm not even going to analyze.  This may be way off.

3. What are your favorite kinds of gifts to receive?
Thoughtful ones.  Although I'm completely hypocritical in saying that bc I'm queen of giving gift cards to people. Haha. BUT, if it's not thoughtful then I'd be very happy with useful.  A starbucks gift card would be both thoughtful AND useful.

4. What is something someone has done for you that really touched you?
Wowzers. Going deep over here.  How about anyone who has ever forgiven me?  That would definitely be the most "touching" thing someone can do for me.  Like, I know that I let Matt down and let my friends down and I neeeeeed their forgiveness.  The well-being of our relationship hinges on their willingness to forgive me, even though I am not deserving (point of forgiveness).  There may even be people who I hurt in the past whose path doesn't cross mine anymore, but if they forgive me, I consider that a huge gift.

5. What are three things you really like about yourself?
Haha. 1) I like that I'm funny. Not gonna lie.

2) I like that I am a deep thinker.  Not because I think I am the most profound person on the planet, but deep thinking has caused me to seek for answers in Jesus and in the Bible.

3) I like that I am hilarious. Haha dang it! I couldn't help myself.

6. If you have kids, what are three attributes you hope to instill in them?
Off the cuff
1- I want them to seek to know and love Truth. Capital T.

2- I want their worlds to be bigger than themselves - like lets extinguish narcissism - God is too big for us to be stuck on ourselves.
3- I want them to love Jesus and others.  
7. What is something you struggle with?
Umm. Pride.  Thinking I'm awesome and that I know every.thing. 
8. What are you really good at?
I don't know if I'm really good at anything.  I'm a decent writer, hence the blog and the 5th grade D.A.R.E. essay award I won (but only for my class, not the whole 5th grade, which is why I give it the word "decent" verses "really good"). 
9. What do you wish you could be better at?
Hmm, this might just be circumstantial but TODAY... I wish I could be better at loving people who are suffering or in crisis situations.  I STINK at this, and I usually feel awkward when I try to love or reach out to someone who is suffering.


10. Tell a funny joke.
Yo mama.


11. How many hours do you sleep per night, on average?
I have no idea, really. I'm afraid if I counted it could depress me. I'm gonna guess around seven hours a night. Not bad.

weekly confessions

Sam is almost out of formula, and he's also almost 11 months old.  Secretly, I just want to give him milk and be done with it.  Also, I'm tired of bottles.  We'll just start milk from a sippy cup one month early? No harm in that, is there?

In the same way, Henry is almost out of diapers.  I may be motivated to potty train him based purely on the fact that I don't want to go buy more.  Unfortunately this weekend is inconvenient because of my half marathon... so diapers it is.  Looks like I'll have to wait till the next time we run out...

There are like 10 ripe bananas in my freezer because I've been meaning to make banana bread since, oh... June.  I finally got three of them them out today, and I think I will be making some banana, prune, zucchini bread concoction so that I can feel good about giving my kids refined carbs- and so the food won't go bad..

On that note, I haven't made any kind of bread for months.  I was, for awhile, baking a breakfast bread weekly.

On that note, last year when I was pregnant, I went pumpkin-crazy.  I got all pumpkin-ed out, and apparently that lasted over a year because I'm still not interested in making, baking, eating anything pumpkin.

Henry had a fever last week, and he voluntarily laid himself down on the couch to watch movies.  The confession is that, while I really felt terrible that he was so miserable, it actually made my life easier.  No, I'm not secretly wishing he was sick more often...

This morning the extra hour somehow left us with TWO FREE hours before it was time to take Henry to school.  Everyone was fed and dressed and we still had two hours till school time.  SO, I decided to take the boys running in the double stroller.  I was going to take them for 5 miles.  On my route almost the entire first mile is a gradual incline.  And Henry was not just politely asking, but WHINING, "Faaaaaaster! Faaaaaaaaaster Mommy, I want to go faster!"  Like in the most whiny, high-pitched voice ever... and I could not have ignored it if I wanted to.  After yelling at him (confession 1) while running uphill with double stroller, I was out of energy and my 5 miles turned into 2 (confession 2).  Poor child is so spoiled because his daddy actually runs fast.  No more running with the double unless I have some music to tune out the kids.

And that's my last confession - I washed my ipod and it is no longer...

Till next time.

Happy November! (Recent Pics and an Update)

Hello. It's been awhile since I logged what my kids are doing for the world to see, and well, since their lives are basically passing by before my eyes, I figured it was about time to make sure I remember something.  Don't worry, I decided to upload some pictures to make it more entertaining for those of you who happen to be interested in how many teeth my children have.

Mommy and Hen at TacoDeli.  He was determined to make sure his food was showing.  Such a boy in so many ways.

Henry is an excellent conversationalist and has pretty legit verbal skills if I might say so. He has started asking intelligent questions. Like, for instance, we were practicing some memory verses, one of which used the term "atoning sacrifice." "What's that?" Henry asks. "Well, Hen, it's what Jesus did. He died for our sin so we could be with God." "Oh really? Where's God?" And on and on the conversation went.

Another sweet conversation we had the other day when I was sick went something like this.  "Henry, I'm sorry mommy's sick.  I'm sorry I can't take care of you."  "Can I take care of you, Mommy?"

We are so thankful to have a duck pond nearby our new house.  Matt had a lot of memories with Hen at a duckpond near our old house, so this is really fun.  Henry is excited about dandelions.  He did get confused at first and asked me if he could blow "the lion kings."

It's tough to get a picture these days that doesn't have at least one blurry section.  Here's Frosty the Snowman and Super Sam the pumpkin on Halloween.  I was determined to make them get in their costumes even though both Henry and I were sick.

Sam, as you know, is a little bit wild! The kid just wants to move, and I think we are entering into a can't go anywhere stage because he is always miserable if he's not down on the floor walking. And yes, I think we can officially say that he walks (or tries to walk) more than he crawls now!  I have some footage, but I've never been good about uploading videos to the blog, so no promises.

OH! And this is big news, but Sam officially says "Mama," and I think we can call it his first word.  Sad, I can't remember Henry's first word, but I think it was Dada.  Odd though, because H is a major mama's boy still, and Sammy LOVES his daddy.

Blurry blurry Sam.

This is typical - Henry sitting down like he's supposed to.  Sam trying to climb, crawl, move, go...  One of the days we were quarantined we went to ride the train at the Domain.  Check your ego at the door and do it... worth every penny when you need something to do!

I have no clue where this was, but I will say that about the only time Sam is content to sit is when he is in the stroller.  (Or watching a movie in his carseat.  The kid literally turns his head around in his carseat to see the screen in the car.  It's sad.)

Daddy carved a pumpkin!  Aren't my boys cute??

Henry and Sam together is also pretty entertaining. First you have Henry who is definitely the big brother and will tell Sam, "No Sam, you can't have that." Most of the time, it's just because Henry would rather be playing with whatever it is, but occasionally Henry has really been helpful in keeping Sam out of trouble -- you know like keeping him away from outlets and the stairs, for instance. 

Sammy has a temper! To be honest, I've known this for awhile. Like, since the day he was born and he would scream at me to feed him. Even as a newborn, it was much different than the very polite way that Henry would notify me that it was time to eat.  So when Henry takes toys away from Sam, Sam gets SO MAD. He clenches his fists and his whole body tenses up and then he SCA-REAMS!  Trust me, all.day.long. it's really fun. No, I definitely don't have wisdom for how to teach your kids to share/care about each other more than they care about themselves.

Kid shovels food into his mouth like nobody's business.

I love this one, even if it's blurry.  He's always on the move.

My three longhorns.  Ask me about the lady at TacoDeli who thought I was trying to "hide" the fact that I was an Aggie.  I'll blog about that later.  Here's a perfect example of Sam being extremely unhappy because he is forced to sit still.

He saw his big brother doing it. I'm telling you, he is so active.

Sweet Henry put himself down on the couch the other day when he wasn't feeling well.

Have I mentioned I don't want to cut his hair?  He's still seems like such a baby to me!  It's long, but I just want it to stay baby-ish for now!

Henry is doing awesome at preschool and at his CBS class. His teachers tell me that he always cleans up after himself between activities. And I think he has some other weird things that he "always" does like he HAS to put his water cup into his lunchbox after lunch, etc. This behavior most certainly comes from his dad, who eats the same lunch everyday and has an exact routine in the shower. TMI? My shower "routine" is more like doing whatever feels right and then I ask, "Did I shampoo? I can't remember, I'll just do it again to make sure..." Anyway, Henry definitely likes to be clean, too. Should be good for potty training which I am still putting off.

And these last two pictures are just for fun courtesy of Pinterest.  They made me laugh.

Happy Novemeber! I am looking forward to the holiday season!

happeningssssss

So, since I fell of the face of the planet last week, I thought I'd fill you in on the life and times...

First of all, remember how Matt got his identity stolen?  Well it turns out, the extent to which that happened was/is far greater than we originally thought.  The theft had both mine and Matt's information. That includes every address we've ever lived at, bank account numbers, everything you'd find on a credit report, etc...  So, theft is in jail after opening accounts at Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot, and renting a U-Haul in Matt's name.  And apparently of all these places, Neiman Marcus was the only store who thought the guy was suspicious enough to try to check into beforehand?  Thank you Neiman's, if it wasn't for you, we'd have no clue this was happening.

How did he get it?  Apparently someone at our home lender's corporate office decided to print that all out and share it for fun?  Note: This lender sends us Starbucks cards on our birthdays... I personally think they should send us Starbucks cards for life as an apology for this terribleness that has gone down.

So that's fun?!  How do you deal with that?  Who knows who else got our info?  And we have "protection" for seven years... what happens after that?  Whatever, I guess I'm cool with never moving again and paying cash for everything... and trusting in the sovereignty of a good God over what man intends for evil.

Next!  We've all been sick- well everyone except Matt.  As you remember reading last week, Sam was pretty sick.  After several trips and calls to the Pediatrician, we think he may have had RSV, which Henry then got (which is more like a bad cold in a two year old), and then just when we thought we were on the up and up... PUKE CITY!  For me, that is.  So far no one else has puked.  But yes, we got the 24 hour stomach bug.  Henry went to sleep with a fever tonight, and I'm hoping he doesn't wake up in a pile of puke.

So that's why you haven't really heard from me. Not only have I been quarantined, but I also haven't quite been functioning.

Ahh, it feels good to be back though.

long run long shmun

It's flippin' cold outside.  And I'm supposed to leave my house in an hour at 6:30 AM to go run 11 miles with my friend, and I am just N.O.T. excited. Dreading it. DREAD-ING it.

But now that I've gotten my bad attitude out on the table, I think I'm just going to get over it and try to be excited about freezing my buns off and chafing my thighs.

OH MY GOSH.  Just checked temp. It's 44 degrees.  This is terrible.  Seriously, you guys don't know how much I do NOT want to do this.  I guess that's the benefit of training with other people... you can't let them down.  I am 99% sure that if I canceled on my friend, she would still go running.  If she canceled on me, I would get back in bed.

In other news, I voted early yesterday. Anyone else feel like people act weird at the polls?  Like there's just a weird air happening there... maybe people are excited, or nervous, but no one really talks to each other in line, and people seem super serious.  Maybe it's just me.  I felt the urge to ask the people in front of and behind me, "So who ya votin' for?" (As a joke.) I resisted the urge. 

I'm also a little ticked that I somehow forgot to get an "I voted" sticker... my plan was to save it and use it for free stuff on election day.  You think if I go back and show them my receipt they'll give me one?

On that note, I actually e-mailed Starbucks about the free drink card that got "lost" in the mail.  As I was writing my email, I thought to myself, "Really, Leah, are you seriously doing this?"  Yes, yes I am.  Plus the dear hubs appreciates anything free from Starbucks since 95% of our fun money goes there.

I'm sure I've told you this before, but people at work give Matt Starbucks gift cards. BEST. GIFT. EVER!  Why? Because they come straight to me.

That's all for now.  Here's to hoping I see you on the flip side of this dumb run.

more confessions?

Cause really they never get old...

Right now at this moment I am sitting in front of a Starbucks, kids strapped in their seats watching VeggieTales, and I am taking care of email/computer/blog business... Seriously, guys... when you are quarantined from all activities due to kids being sick, you have to do SOMETHING.

I taught Henry to say, "Mommy needs her coffee."

I was supposed to go to bootcamp this morning... I snoozed on my alarm... twice... on purpose.  I seriously need someone to come to my house and drag me out of bed.

I spend too much money on coffee.

Last week I ate a krispy kreme donut.

Also, this is not a confession but other news... we got a call yesterday from Neimann Marcus because some dude named Matt Gibson was trying to open an account under Matt's SSN.  He had an ID with our old address, he had checks from our bank... and fortunately he did not get the Gucci purses he was TRYING to buy on our dime.  We found out later that he had already spend $1000 dollars at another nearby store w/ a newly opened account under Matt's name. So now we are official victims of identity theft.  And guess what - we have a credit protection service!!  Drama, drama, people. :)  Fortunately, we caught him early and it hasn't been too tough to get it all worked out, but dang people.

It's Thursday, and I've already blogged 4 times this week!!  Maybe tonight I can catch up on your blogs!

Confessions

When all else fails, write a confession post. 

• My brain does not currently work.
• I keep my phone on vibrate almost 100% of the time.  90% of the time I don't hear when people are calling.  10% of the time I do hear when people are calling.  About 90% of the time I hear my phone, I don't answer it because it's not a good time. (There's a math problem for you: What percentage of the time does Leah purposely not answer her phone?)
• I know I admitted this like a week ago, but I have neglected having a clean home and taking showers.  Nothing has changed.
•  I really appreciate the time while Henry is in preschool.   (Usually Sam is napping too.  Double Bonus.) Recently, I have almost been late to pick him up because I have gotten so carried away in whatever business I happen to be taking care of, and I'm not talking about the bathroom, McGrosserson.
• As previously admitted, I am a hypochondriac.  Sometimes I struggle deciding whether to take my children to the doctor because I don't want the doc to look at me like, "He has a cold you idiot."  (No need for lectures on how dumb this is - I know.  And yes, several times my children have only had colds.)  Sammy has been pretty sick the last few days, and I had a huge internal debate about whether or not to take him to the doctor yesterday afternoon (for the second day in a row).  Not wanting to get the "Oh it's just a bad virus" answer, I sent MATT to the doctor with Sam.  Of course it turns out that Sam probably had/has some actual bad infection, and it was a good, good thing he went.
• What I did not admit in my last hypochondriac confession is that in one attempt to figure out if I was in fact, diabetic, I actually bought a finger-pricking at home glucose monitor so that I could figure it out myself.
• Also, I have mentioned before that I know my body pretty precisely... I may have recently taken 4 pregnancy tests in one day because I was "late" (forgive me, non-existent, gentleman readers).  Note: Control freak.  Note also, I was genuinely "late" and not pregnant...
• Last confession: I am now having a huge internal debate about whether I ovulated late or whether my luteal phase has lengthened.  If you know either of those words, we should be friends.

Goodbye.

and some other excitement...

Two more things to be excited about right now...

One, Super Sam has taken multiple steps (and more and more by the day)... I think he's up to 5 or 6 consecutive steps... and he is SOOOO stable, he just needs some confidence.  I'm telling you the kid is gonna be running tomorrow, and no, I am NOT down with that.

NEXT, we are switching from one family football feud to another!  Goodbye to Texas University, and HELLO AUBURN.  Now Mom, David, Nana, I am so, so sorry, but on Saturday it is ALL BTHO Auburn over here!! Whoop!

And since I slept less than 5 hours last night, I've decided it is probably time for bed.

five reasons why I loved my 10 year reunion

So last night we finally had our 10 year reunion, you know the one I helped plan, and I had a great time. My BFFs and I were in charge of greeting people at the door and checking them in, and not gonna lie, after most everyone had arrived, we looked at each other like, "Are you sure we have to go up there?"  Haha.  Anyway, we, of course, went to mingle, and I had a blast.  I thought of a few reasons why our reunion was awesome... here they are (and it goes without saying, I speak for myself here).

1. Everyone was nice.  I didn't encounter one jerk.  Victory.
2. No one was playing the one-upper, posturing game.  Seriously, who wants to hear people brag about themselves?  NO ONE (at least no one I encountered) did that!  Another reason why my high school class is/was/is the greatest.  The conversations were fun, energetic, entertaining, and completely lacking any one-upmanship.
3. My hot husband was there.  I mean really, that makes everything great right?  I truly believe if he had not married me there would be no chance he was at that reunion.  I mean it.  So all of you old classmates out there who got the satisfaction of know what Matt Gibson was up to... I say, you're welcome.
4. Atmosphere was perfect and NOT LAME AT ALL.  The only goal I had when my bffs and I started planning this thing last year was, "PLEASE DON'T LET IT BE LAME!"  Check mark.
5.  Pretty sure I didn't have one conversation that I was dying to get out of... also a success.

So to my awesome class of '02.  Looking forward to whatever will go down in the year 2022.  Or 2017, if some brave soul would like to plan a 15 yr reunion.

In true form, I took no pictures.  Thanks to my BFF for snapping at least one... nevermind that we don't look 17 yrs old anymore.

funny starbucks story

So Starbucks has this gold card program where, if you maintain "Gold Level" status on your gift card, you can win points towards free drinks.  It should go without saying that I am Gold Level, duh.

Anyway, because I have the handy Starbucks app on my phone, I am usually notified that I have earned all my "stars" and that I will be receiving a free drink card in the mail soon.  Just recently they changed from sending you a free drink postcard to a free drink email.

So I find myself at Starbucks telling the barista that I never got my last free drink postcard, and he was kindly giving me the info I need to get it.  At this point I say something to the effect, "It's probably a good idea that you guys started to e-mail those because if I was the mailman, I would probably steal one every now and then..."

Then the barista points to the customer in front of me, and he goes, "Careful what you say about the mailman... this guy comes in here with free drink postcards ALL the time!"  I kid you not, without realizing it, the guy in front of my in line was a mailman!  And I don't know if barista was kidding or not about the dude bringing in free drink postcards, but I wouldn't doubt it if it was true!

of late

It turns out that these days I am most awake and productive during the hours from about 10PM-1AM.  Needless to say when my children wake me up before 7 AM, or at 2:30 AM, I'm not quite fully-functioning.

Forgive me (or don't, whatever) for straight up neglecting my baby (not Sam, the blog).  If you must know, it is not the only thing I have been neglecting of late...

I have also been neglecting my half-marathon training schedule... yes, regardless of training, I WILL be in San Antonio on 11/11 running a half-marathon... how that turns out for me will be determined by how much I continue to slack over the next month (less than a month, but rounding up feels better).

I've also been neglecting any sort of healthy eating habits, cooking dinner, sleep, my unpacking/decorating/making-my-house-a-home duties, and (dare I admit) PINTEREST.  (Yes, you know it's bad when you neglect Pinterest.)

You may be wondering, what HAVE you been doing Leah?  Well, here are the things that I have NOT been neglecting.

Social life.
Community.
Bible Study.
Children. (I didn't say I don't ignore them sometimes.)
Dear Husband.
NBC on Thursday nights.Comfort food.
Laundry.

Now, if I could just switch the comfort food on the "not neglecting" list for the healthy eating habits on the "neglecting" list, then I'd be pretty pleased with life in general.  Oh well, there's always hope.  I'm joking.

No but for real, if you'll allow me to continue with this very self-involved blog post, I will say that although I am totally worn out most of the days these days, I haven't had much time to focus on myself, which I'm gonna go ahead and say is A WONDERFUL THING... really, really... I only wish I could forget about myself EVEN more... because the way things are going right now - well I am just super happy.  God is showing himself to me in new ways, which I hope to share and process with you soon.

For now, though, I need to go get H back to sleep.  Later.

Things I am excited about plus some pictures!

Okay... Obvs I haven't updated much since moving to the new place, but I thought I'd share with you some happenings/stuff I'm excited about right now!

- there are two new farmers markets opening within a mile of our new house! Matt and I are into the farmers market idea, so this is fun news!

- there is a little over one month until my half marathon! I have run 8.5 miles once, which is probably not enough- but I also ran 7.5 miles the very next day... So I feel confident! Yay!

- my high school reunion is in two weeks! Somehow my two bffs from hs and I are responsible for planning it together because we were also class officers back in the good old days... I won't lie, I wasn't really looking forward to it till about a week ago, but now I really am excited to hang and party like it is 2002.

- speaking of bffs, some of my newest bffs and I got to get a night away on the lake this weekend (made possible by our awesome husbands), and it was so fun to relax and recharge with some of my newest friends/sisters in Christ who I love dearly! They are seriously gifts from God.

- we LOVE our new location and feel like God was so kind to us by putting us there. I promise to post more pictures soon!

- I am doing a women's development program through my church (as referenced in my 30 before 30 list), and I am loving it, mainly because I love the Word of God!

Enjoy the caption-less pictures and feel free to tell me something that is exciting to YOU right now! (Oh I must mention that the pictures of me and Matt were taken by Henry!)

whoop

I interrupt the silence on my blog to say... the Aggies are still alive, and so am I.

Thanks.  And Gig 'em.

hola! como estas??

Yo! My friends, I have been long lost, absent, nowhere to be found until, AT LAST... INSOMNIA!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again... this blog would be nothing if it were not for my insomnia. Whoop whoop.

It's only right for me to not be able to sleep in the SECOND TO LAST NIGHT in our first house... it's like my body is telling me that I need to remember all of the sleepless nights I have endured here.  Of course, as fate would have it, my insomnia also falls on the night before I'm supposed to be running a 12K (in the Austin Marathon Relay) at 8AM.

So since it's been like weeks, and you've all been sending me thousands upon thousands of emails and comments along the lines of, "Where are you/My life is not the same without your blog/Please come back and tell me why in the world you haven't been here," I'll go ahead and fill you in on recent happenings.

House "remodel."  I use the term loosely, because we've only done basic stuff, but MAN has it made the biggest difference!  Matt and I are dumb dumbs and we didn't take before pictures.  In the last two weeks we have - scraped popcorn ceilings, painted literally every paint-able square inch of the house except for bathroom cabinets which are going to get the boot anyway, knocked an opening in one of the main walls, installed new carpet, and fixed some other ghetto-ness on the stairs, etc.  (And before you ask, when I say "we" I mean "we have paid people to.")

Obligatory Packing.  No emotional breakdowns yet.  So far my excitement about new house has trumped my sadness about old house. Movers are coming at like 8 AM on Monday morning.  And yes, Matt and I reached a "compromise" and hired movers.  Guess who wanted to do everything by himself, and guess who would have paid her right pinky toe to have the movers pack and move it ALL?

Fall Stuff.  With "back to school" and all the happenings of Fall, we've just been more structured and have had more activities every day.  I think it's good for us!

In other news.  Yesterday Sam went from sitting to standing without having to pull up on ANYTHING!  And I would have considered it a fluke, except then he did it two more times.  I have caught him standing alone a couple of times, just for a few seconds.  He never does it when we are trying to get him to, but only when he is on the go or after something.  Watch out, World, Super Sam is on the loose!  (Have I told you we call him "Super Sammy" like 95% of the time?)

Henry is saying the most hilarious things every single day, and I love his little personality.  Here are some of the most recent convos I remember.

After Bath, Henry is running around without a diaper on.
Leah: Henry, let's put your diaper on!
Henry: Sorry, mom, but I'm playing with my puzzle right now.  (Note also, the kid is obsessed with puzzles.)

We went over to the new house to see progress the other day, and I tried to go in the door from the garage to the house, but it was locked...
Henry: Mom, is it locked?
Leah: Yep, it's locked.
Henry: (Annoyed tone of voice) OH GREAT!

He's also doing great at Preschool and has only cried a couple of times at drop off, which for us is a HUGE success. Huge!

Well, I think that's all for now.  I will try to have a more entertaining, less technical update post in the near future. Laterz.

weekly confessions

Last weekend we forgot to lock Henry's door, so he came in our room in the middle of the night.  When he wanted me to scratch his hand (something he typically wants), I pretended I was asleep.  He fell asleep much faster.

Last week I made some awesome, healthified zucchini bread.  When we offered it to Henry, he first refused.  So then we changed the name to apple bread (since it does, in fact, have applesauce in it), and he was more than willing to down several pieces.  Now we play a game.  "Henry, do you want some zucchini bread?"  "No!"  "Well, do you want some apple bread?" "YEAH!"

When I was in third grade, each class had a reading contest.  Who could read the most books (and write book reports on all of them)?  I won the contest for my class.  But here's the confession.  There was another girl in my class who was a true bookworm.  The girl was ALWAYS in a book... even in high school I remember she was always reading.  She rode my bus in elementary school... ALWAYS reading.  It turned out that she actually read an insane number of books that year... because she LOVED to read.  ME?  I just wanted to beat her.  For real.  I read books as fast as I could and wrote reports so that I could win.  So at the end of the year, we both got an award because I'm pretty sure she still read an insane number of books (and I probably beat her by one or two).

This isn't so much a confession, but...  I think I'm just going to stop cleaning.  I mean really, I waste so much time cleaning and picking up and organizing, when I could actually be DOING stuff- and then it just gets dirty again - like before I ever finish.  It is a viscous cycle!  Laundry too.  No more laundry.

hen is killin' us

Henry is so funny these days... Here are some more recent conversations.

Henry in the bathtub.

H: "I'm laying down!"
L: "You're laying down?"
H; "Yeah, I'm tired!"

Henry at random...

"Matt, come here!"

While driving in the car...

H: "Mom, you get back here!"
L: "I can't get back there, I'm driving!"
H: "No, don't drive, Mom! Get back here!"
L: "If I get back there, then who is gonna drive?"
H: "SAMMY!"

While eating dinner...

"Mmm, mmm, mmm.  Mom, this is delicious!"

He can also quote the books we read him and the movies he watches WORD FOR WORD.  He usually does this while falling asleep at night.

I'm sure there will be more where this came from.

It's ours!

We closed on our new house this morning!!  Here it is!  We will be moving in the next couple of weeks after we get some little things done inside.  We will close on our current house later this month.  We are so excited!!!!

on that note

If you read yesterday's post then you'll appreciate this... today I went to workout early before anyone else had woken up.  When I walked back in the door at about 7:45, both of my children were crying... and Matt was asleep.

"Hey babe, are you aware that both of your children are awake and crying?"

"Huh?" (startled) "No."

Anyway, Henry is starting to be pretty funny when he talks, so I wanted to document some of the things he has said recently.

The other night, Matt was disciplining him and in true dad form, Matt called Henry "young man."  Henry replied, "Dad, I am not a young man.  I'm just a little boy."

On Henry's first day of preschool I said, "Henry what are you going to do today?"
He said, "I am going to go to preschool all by myself!"
Leah: "Yes you are because you are such a big boy!"
Henry: "Actually, I'm not."
Leah: "You're not what?"
Henry: "I'm not going to go to preschool all by myself.

Yesterday Henry was throwing a tantrum and I said, "Henry, why are you moody?"
Henry said, "No I'm not!  I'm not moody!"
Leah: "Yes you are, you're moody!"
Henry: "No I'm not!  I'm HENRY."

riddle me this

God blessed dads with an amazing ability to tune out their children.  I'm telling you, Henry had been crying in the middle of the night to get out of his room for more than TWO hours.  Matt had NO clue this was happening.  Meanwhile, I wake up when my children cough.

On the other hand, the alarm clock on my phone goes off to purposely wake me up, and I barely respond, but Matt's all complaining about how my alarm is so obnoxious.

You think maybe it's because the children are in a different room, but when we were at the beach, both kids slept in our room (part of the reason we are having middle of the night trouble now) and even then, Matt did not wake to Sam's crying in the middle of the night.

Not gonna lie. Sometimes I wish I was a dad.

6 out of 30

While on our trip to the beach, not only did I finish The Great Gatsby, but I also read The Help, completing my sixth item on the 30|30 list-- to read a fictional book (but not a classical fiction). (You see, normally I ONLY read non-fiction books, so reading something fictional really is new to me.) I LOVED the book, and I can't wait to watch the movie now.

5 out of 30!

A couple of weeks ago we went to Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family for our annual trip. WAY more fun when you aren't preggo. (I had been pregnant the previous couple of times.)  We actually had way more pictures (via Matt's iPhone and camera, but if I don't post this now, it may never happen.)

All the kids on the beach! (This was not stressful, I'm telling you...)

Look at our 2 and 1/2 year old

In the car on the way to the beach...

Figured it was only fair to have one where Henry was smiling...

We decided to be brave and take all the kids out to eat... here is Sam and Laura!

Mommy and her boys!

The babies with Uncle Peter

My pretty sister and my bro in law... we took a double date.

Me and Matt on our date (instagram style)

Sam on the beach!!

There were never such devoted sisters.

We had a rockin' condo.  It was awesome.

And that, my friends, is 5 out of 30.