......And then he ran out. And, then, fast as a fox, The Cat in the Hat came back in with a box.
A big red wood box. It was shut with a hook. "Now look at this trick", said the cat. "Take a look!"
Then he got up on top with a tip of his hat. "I call this game FUN-IN-A-BOX," said the cat. "In this box are two things I will show to you now. You will like these two things," said the cat with a bow.
"I will pick up the hook. You will see something new. Two things. And I call them Thing One and Thing Two. These Things will not bite you. They want to have fun"
Then out of the box

Came Thing Two...

And Thing One!

And they ran to us fast. They said, "How do you do? Would you like to shake hands with Thing One and Thing Two?

.....Then Sally and I saw them run down the hall. We saw those two Things bump their kites on the wall! Bump! Thump! Thump! Bump! Down the wall in the hall..............Then those Things ran about with big bumps, jumps and kicks, and with hops and big thumps and all kinds of bad tricks.

..........So, as fast as I could, I went after my net. And I said, "With my net I can get them I bet. I bet, with my net, I can get those Things yet!" Then I let down my net. It came down with a PLOP! And I had them. At last! Those two Things had to stop. Then I said to the cat, "Now you do as I say. you pack up those Things, and you take them away!"

Then he shut up the Things in the box with the hook. And the cat went away with a sad kind of look.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to a "pumpkin patch" at a church here in town. There are more pictures, but Lola was too distracted to look at the camera.

This is Lola's fun hairdo. She likes it done with rubber bands to match her clothes, so we did orange and black this time.

This is her halloween shirt that blinks and glows in the dark. She is very proud of it.

Yesterday at the doctor's office, she got a glow in the dark spider ring to match. I took her in for allergies, but she also has an ear infection. The doctor said she has probably had it for 2 weeks. She hasn't told me her ears hurt or been touching them at all, I guess she got used to it hurting. But now she is on antibiotics and allergy medicine and on the road to recovery.

We're going to carve our pumpkins this weekend! Pictures of that to come later...........and then Halloween!

"Glad you got to see me!"

This is my grandmother and I before my wedding. When I was growing up I remember coming to Lubbock to visit a couple of times a year, and I have a few funny memories of her from my childhood.

I knew her best as an adult. I lived with her for my last 2 semesters of nursing school. While it was not always easy to live together, considering the 52 years of age between us, I am glad that we did. I think back now on some of the things she would say and I laugh out loud.

She would have very vivid dreams that were SO strange, and she always remembered them well enough to tell you the next day. One morning she called and cancelled her subscription to the newspaper right at 8 a.m. because it was raining and they threw the paper under her car. She was a BIG fan of Star Search and American Idol - we disagreed about season 2, Ruben vs. Clay. She loved Texas Tech sports, always watched the games on TV. I never heard her laugh harder than when she watched old episodes of the Match Game. She bought the purple dress she is wearing above at Dillards a few weeks before my wedding. My mom, sister, aunt and I were all there. I will never forget how hard we laughed in the dressing rooms.

She loved old Hymms from the old songbooks. We sang some to her the hours before she died, and even as weak as she was, she tried to sing with us. I had never been, and haven't been since, at the completion of someone's life with them.

She died when Lola was about 6 weeks old, May 15, 2005. Later that summer, I was driving to work one morning and I remember feeling so sad. I heard a song by Chris Rice, "Come to Jesus" and it reminds me of her everytime I hear it, still. I think because she had a very full life, with ups and downs. Lyrics are below. Enjoy them, and the picture. As Mimi would say, "Glad you got to see me!"

Weak and wounded sinner

Lost and left to die

O, raise your head, for love is passing by

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus.... and live

Now your burden's lifted

And carried far away

And precious blood has washed away the stain,

so Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus.... and live

And like a newborn baby

Don't be afraid to crawl

And remember when you walk Sometimes we fall...

so Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus .....and live

Sometimes the way is lonely

And steep and filled with pain

So if your sky is dark and pours the rain,

then Cry to Jesus

Cry to Jesus

Cry to Jesus......... andlive

O, and when the love spills over

And music fills the night

And when you can't contain your joy inside,

then Dance for Jesus

Dance for Jesus

Dance for Jesus...... and live

And with your final heartbeat

Kiss the world goodbye

Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side,

and Fly to Jesus

Fly to Jesus

Fly to Jesus........... and live

Anita J. Riggan

July 6, 1928 - May 15, 2005

Lola is One With Nature

On Sunday, Dean was grilling in the backyard. Lola went out there and ran around for awhile, and then she decided she needed to "use the potty." So, she took off all of her clothes AND her diaper and was about to squat right as Dean caught her and brought her in the house. She did this a couple of times this summer while we were swimming out there, but now it is significantly cooler and she was completely dressed. The picture above is after she came in and actually went potty ON the potty, and her mouth is full of smarties. Yes, I have resulted to bribery to get her out of diapers, and it works wonders. Except for when she wants to strip down in the great outdoors.

Dean has a new position at work. He is the Assignments Editor at KCBD News Channel 11. He has been there for almost 3 years and this is his third position. I'm pretty sure he could run the place if he had to. He has to dress up for work now, which is a pretty big deal when you have worn jeans to work every day for 3 years. We spent Saturday shopping for him, his new stuff looks great! I tried to take a picture of him this morning before he left for work, but he declined. Another plus - his hours are 8-5 Monday thru Friday!!!

Lola and I also spent Friday shopping for her. We had a great time, and discovered that she is in love with the mall. On Saturday when we were in the men's section of Mervyn's, she said "can we go to the pretty part of the mall now?" Talk about the apple not falling far from the tree. She is her mama's girl. :)

Halloween pictures coming soon!

Funny Stuff and Good News!

Last weekend we went home to Allen for a wedding. Ray and Shauna, 2 of our friends got married. We had a great time at the rehearsal and the wedding. It was a great party. Above is us at the rehearsal dinner, and Dean with some of his BFF's.

I found Lola like this one day last week. She had been putting on makeup with me, and she ran off. When it got quiet, I went to look for her. This is what I saw, and I almost fainted from laughing so hard. She covered her face in baby powder, and put some on her baby doll too. I said, "Lola, what did you do to your face?" She replied, " I have a moostache."

We had our first ultrasound today. From what they can tell, it looks like a BOY! By the size of the baby, I measured a week ahead. However, they won't officially change my due date until we have another ultrasound in November. I didn't have an ultrasound this early with Lola, so I didn't expect to see so much. It (he) looks like an actual little person with a face, arms, legs, etc.... In November we will have a for-sure due date and we should know the gender with 100% certainty.
We are still deciding on names, but we have a strict policy of NOT telling the name until the baby is born. You can ask, but we won't tell you. I mean that in the nicest way possible. :)

I will post more pictures when I can get them downloaded.

Fall and All

Not much new has been going on around our house. This weekend we went to the Corn Maize in Shallowater for my work's employee day. It was a lot of fun. Above are the pumpkins we picked and named. Lola's is the one she picked all by herself from the pumpkin patch.

Lola and Dean had an equally great time on the "cow train" as you can see above. She has ridden on little trains like this before at family reunions and at Mamaw and Doyle's, and she loves them.

This is what the pumpkin patch looked like. For some reason, I thought all the pumpkins would be perfect looking and all in a row, but they were still on the vine. There were gourds and other stuff too. This is our "daddy" pumpkin.

There were pigs, goats, and turkeys in little cages for the kids to look at. Lola saw the pigs and said "Oh hi Wilbur!" She loves Charlotte's Web.

One "fun" thing we did last night was tweezing a million prickly pear splinters out of Lola's hands. She was with her great-grandparents yesterday, and when she came home she wouldn't use her hands. She even ate her dinner solely with her mouth off of her plate. (like Wilbur!) Her hands are much better now.

One more thing - today is our 3 year anniversary. Happy Anniversary to Us!