fall fever

i'm sitting at work listening to john mayer on my ipod. it's one of the bonuses of having my job. i get to listen to music all day (when i'm not in meetings). if you know me, you know how much i love music. so this just works out great....if i have to work :)

i've got john mayer on shuffle--all his albums. yes, ALL of his albums. i own them. it makes me think about my very first john mayer album that i bought in college at acu. i'm the type that buys an album, listens to it over and over and over and over (you get the picture) until i know the words to the ENTIRE thing...and i love to sing along. about a week ago i went with a good friend, jess, to the john mayer concert here in dallas. i warned her that i like to sing along and that i really did know all the words...not sure she realized the extent of it until we were at the concert and i really did sing the entire concert. it was awesome. we're a great duo. i think i should go on tour with him :) anyway, back to my point. and no, it's not that i think john mayer could possibly be the greatest musician of our time (i really do think this could be true, though), but rather nostalgia. every couple of songs they play one from the very first album--and i listened to that sucker almost an entire semester at school neglecting all other music. it just happened to be the end of fall/beginning of winter. so when i hear these songs it makes me long for autumn.

also....

i remember the first full fall drew and i spent in our house. we'd get up every saturday morning (that he wasn't working) and college game day was the first thing to come on the tv. he took the love seat...i took the sofa. we laid there and watched the entire thing just waiting to see who lee corso would pick to win the premiere game. i remember every once in a while i'd glance out the windows that look out to the backyard and watch the leaves fall from our neighbors pear trees. i'd think about how pretty the leaves were...how nice it was to be out of the heat of the summer...and how much i loved football season--except for drew working all of the time. it was just such a peaceful time in the week and very relaxing. i remember burning pumpkin/spice candles to give it the full effect. oh i LOVE when my house smells of pumpkin spice in the fall and cinnamon in the winter. i don't care how much it costs to make my house smell of these things, its worth the sacrifice. well, i say that now. maybe after 3 weeks straight of peanut butter and jelly i might change my mind. MIGHT. but probably not. :)

also...

i remember when friends first started having kids. they'd always send these really cute pictures of them at the pumpkin patch (which we happen to have TWO down the road! i LOVE living in the country...HAHAHAHA), their little girls wearing cutsie pumpkin onesies with ornate orange tutus and matching bows. i remember pictures of their costumes for halloween--no, they weren't going trick-or-treating at only a year old, but they still had costumes!

all this to say, i love this time of year--or maybe what this time of year represents. currently, it's still hot and surprisingly humid for mid september. but i have something to look forward to. fall starts officially a week from today (my sister-in-law's birthday!) and i'm just DYING to really wake up, watch college game day, and see the leaves changing colors and falling. and for the temperatures to REALLY be falling--not for it to just look cooler outside through my windows. i REALLY want to get lana all dressed up this year and take her to a pumpkin patch. but why? just for pictures sake? because the pumpkin patches around here are ridiculously expensive. and let's face it...even if i broke down and bought one, am i really going to take the time to carve it out? yah, probably not. but i want the pictures! and i want lana to have a halloween costume. why? its not like 18month old kids should be eating that candy...heck, they can't even say 'trick-or-treat' to ask for candy! so why? i dunno. just because its fun and cute! and because i just want to embrace everything "fall" to not miss this special season.

but i just love the changing of seasons. i'm ready to leave summer behind and start fresh with fall. i'm ready for more football, cooler temperatures, and some really fun experiences as a family creating memories for a lifetime. hopefully, i'll be a better blogger this fall and actually document the things we do! that's my goal.

ok, sorry. no pictures. just me rambling. thanks for reading! :)

raw raw ra-ah-aaaw

someone PLEASE tell me this is NOT real....every interview i've read she insists it is...and it looks real. please, Lord, no. this world is nuts! if you don't know what this is, it's Lady GaGa at the VMA's sunday night wearing a dress made of raw meat. yes, you read that right. raw meat. and i've read numerous articles praying that its just fabric washed and treated to resemble meat, but seen interveiws where she insists its real. can it really be? how much would she wreak wearing this? wouldn't it have attracted flies/bugs? wouldn't it be dripping of fluids? (sorry to get graphic on you) i'm trying to convince myself this can NOT be the world we live in today.

some people call this artistic...i call it crazy. check this girl into the looney bin. and her designer/stylist too.

prayer request

***Update***

well, surgery was very successful. they removed all of the endometriosis--it was really bad. but there was some super fantastic news--she did NOT have fallopian tube disease like they had thought. they were able to clean out the cysts, and leave her tubes! praise God! she is resting at home now with 2-6 weeks worth of recovery. thank you for the prayers. our God is so GOOD! (PS...even if this hadn't turned out the way i had prayed for, God would STILL be GOOD!)

hey friends/family in the blog world.

i'm coming to you coveting your prayers for a dear friend.

she's my very best friend from high school and still my favorite friend in the world! tomorrow she's having surgery to remove her fallopian tubes...she has fallopian tube disease and stage 4 endometriosis. this has made it impossible for her to conceive and with the removal of her fallopian tubes, she'll only be able to get pregnant with IVF. i praise GOD for opening the eyes of doctors/researchers in the medical field--that she still has a great shot at getting pregnant and having children through this process. but more than that, i beseech God for a miracle! i would love for the doctors to do one last sonogram on her only to find that she's 100% completely healed. even if this isn't the case, i trust in God's plan.

my heart breaks for her, because i know her desire for children. please pray for jo and her hubby, seth. these past several months (maybe even years) have been so trying. pray that they continue to press into God during this season of their lives and that they find peace amidst this storm they're enduring. pray for an even stronger marriage to emerge from this. pray for the doctors during the procedure--that everything goes as planned with no complications. pray for a quick healing process and as little physical pain as possible.

thank you, friends! i know she'll feel your prayers tomorrow afternoon!!!

happenings

well, you'd think that the reason i haven't blogged in a while is because we've just been so busy! but that's a lie. i'm just lazy :) so let me update you on life.

drew's parents came in town to spend some time with us for a few weeks in august. we had such a great time. we took them to the rangers/red sox game for john's birthday. then for a belated father's day gift, we took them to tour cowboys stadium. it was a lot of fun. i think lana even had a good time running on the field!

we really enjoyed their time with us. we got a lot of home-cooked meals, many repairs done on the house, and what great timing--lana got hand/foot/mouth while they were here. i was so grateful to drew's mom for getting up in the night with her while she was sick and allowing drew and me to rest for work. it was such a blessing to have them here. and we always have a good time with them.

drew has started back to school. well, he started back to school before they went back to school. i think at the beginning of august/end of july he was already doing meetings and football camps or practices or something. i've given up on trying to keep it all straight. all i know is when he's going to be home late. and we've pretty much hit the time where that's every night. tonight he's breaking down film up at marcus. tomorrow night he scouts and breaks down more film. so, hopefully, i'll get to see him sometime saturday...hahaha no really. keep him/us in your prayers during this extremely busy time of year. i think it's going to be harder on lana than last year because she actually knows he's gone. and he just gets so wiped out. i feel bad for him. but i know he really enjoys what he does--the majority of the time, anyway. :)

i'm still enjoying my new position as a store planner at jcpenney. i won't bore you with the details of my job. i'm a numbers/financial nerd. enough said.

lana is still at the in-home daycare by our house. sharon has been such a blessing to us. we've really enjoyed getting to know her and were thrilled to run into her at our church a few weeks ago. it's nice to know you're on the same page spiritually with the person caring for your child...

yesterday lana turned 18 months old. i took her in for her check up and everything is going just super. she's 31" tall (31st %) and 21 lbs 6 oz (8th %). yep, still small. but that's ok! the doc isn't worried one bit. she's growing and developing just perfectly.

well, i'll quit boring you with words...here are some pictures. i know that's the only reason you come to our blog :)

drew has popcorn nearly every night before bed. lana has recently started to want to be a part of the popcorn eating...and she really likes to feed us now. weird.

here's lana looking at a toy my dad gave her for christmas last year. it turns over and laughs. sometimes she giggles. other times she just stares at it wondering what's going on....this is one of the times she's just not sure what to think of it.

we recently started dropping the morning nap. here's one of the first days without her morning nap. she passed out around noon while eating...poor girl. she's adjusting much better now.

here's lana sitting in the seats at cowboy stadium

us on the field...

our little lana

with nana & grandpa near the star in the center of the field

the four of us at the end of the red sox game...yes, we look whipped. this was toward the end of the game--that went into extra innings. i'm sure it was close to a 4 hour game. oh, and it was 100+ degrees when it started. luckily, we took a cooler of water in as well as battery operated hand held misting fans. genius. oh, and the rangers won with a walk off homer by nelly! great game which was concluded by friday night fireworks at the ballpark.

well, one last thing before i go. i'm running a half marathon on december 5th, so training is in full swing! i'm running the white rock here in dallas and i'm completely terrified. but it was something i want to do before i turn 30, so i'm going to do it! wish me luck!

have a super labor day weekend. i'm off tomorrow to have some 'jamie-time'. i'm definitely planning a nap somewhere in there...and possibly a drive to dallas for sprinkles cupcakes. :)