Meet Chris

2 Posts in one day!? I know. I'm such an overachiever. (scroll down to see this morning's post)

We woke up to a cool, rainy, dreary day. It was nice to have an excuse to just stay inside. Clean. Do laundry. Play. And just all out chill. But apparently when you have an almost one year old...that's tough. So we bundled up and headed the door.

And we saw Chris:

Yes this is Chris from our regular feature "Musings from Chris." He's the inspiration. And as you can see...he is quite that.

Chris is 5. 

Chris is our neighbor.

Chris is a talker.

Chris is a random story teller.

It really wasn't that cold outside. But you know, when you're 5 and have the excuse to wear a ski mask, why not?

Today's musing from Chris goes like this:

Chris: "hey, do you have a grandmother?"

Me: "Sure do. She's in Texas. I miss her a lot."

Chris: "I have two. Nana and Granny. Nana has a pool in her backyard and Granny has a freezer full of ice cream!"

Me (chuckling at the randomness of his stories): "That's awesome! I bet you love to go and visit both of them then!"

Chris: "yeah. But wouldn't it be cooler if I could do both at the same time? have a pool full of ice cream!"

Me (trying not to fall down in hysterical laughter at this point): "That would be great! What flavor would you choose?"

Chris: "Banana shake!! But, really. It wouldn't matter!"

And that, folks, is our neighbor Chris.

The only thing to fear is...nursery workers.

Maybe its the mass hysteria that is innately all church nurseries.

Maybe its the fact that ALL the other babies are crying too. (at first)

Maybe its the fact that Eden is growing increasingly clingy.

Maybe it's because she has to wear a paper diaper instead of a soft fluffy cloth diaper.

Or maybe it's a nasty conglomerate of all of those.

Whatever it is...Eden absolutely hates the church nursery. She cries as soon as we enter the building because she knows of the impending tortuous doom she must face of playing with other babies her own age with new toys and non-stop excitement and music! All of which she loves on any other occasion than Sunday morning.

And I have no answers. 

So the last few Sundays Brandon and I are taking turns making best friends with the nursery workers while the other of us gets to enjoy the service. If we even attempt to leave her for a few minutes we are summoned back only to hear the screams of fear of our only child as she reaches her arms out to us to rescue her from this incredibly terrifying situation of friendly babies and new flashy toys.

So then our presence in the room brings Eden enough peace that she once again feels comfortable rough-housing with the boys, taking snacks from other children, nabbing pacifiers, and running over toes with her walking toy.

And every Sunday we repeat the process.

Enter church. Scream. Fill out paper work. Hand her over. Scream. Walk away from the screams of our child. Sit in Sunday School for 15 minutes barely able to focus because we wonder how she's doing. Summoned back to nursery. She plays for 20 minutes while one of us gets more acquainted with the nursery worker. Escape to hear one or two songs in the service. #564 is flashed up on the big screen summoning us back to the nursery. (we're becoming all too familiar with this number). Play in the nursery for 20 more minutes. Wave bye bye to everyone as they look at Eden's puffy, red, teary eyes and say, "ahhh...poor baby. Maybe next week."

hmmmm. maybe.

Anyway.........

She's making awesome strides in other areas of life. As her first birthday quickly approaches she's beginning to walk all over the house. Just 4 or 5 steps at a time before she gets fed up with it and realizes she could crawl there faster. And she's decided that morning naps are for sissies because she doesn't like those anymore. Which means I'm quickly adjusting to taking showers no longer than a Sesame Street podcast. And she's taking after her daddy, loving anything sour and tart. ie Minute Maid Cherry Lime popsicles. Aren't we awesome parents? Although she makes up for it with green beans, which I'm convinced she'd eat even while sleeping. She LOVES her some green beans.

That's the news from Eden-land...where her BonBon and Pops will soon be visiting for her first birthday. We're excited about their arrival tomorrow!!

Wonderful Little White Box

This is our new best friend:

Just in case you can't tell what that is...it's an Apple Time Capsule. We bought it when we ordered our MacBook and can I just tell you all about it's awesomeness?

I wasn't so into the purchase...I mean, it's a lot of money. But after Brandon's tireless efforts of convincing me that we needed this product, he won me over.  And now I could kiss the man. Well, I did.

Not only is this machine our external hard drive which automatically backs up our computer every time we do anything on it.

But it's our wireless router (and wireless printer access)

Our firewall.

AND

Our time capsule...which enables our computer to literally jump back in time and retrieve any priceless data we might have accidentally deleted. Like say, oh, our newest purchase of PhotoShop CS3. Somehow in the installation of this new software we deleted one of the main components needed for running this program effectively. And even after removing the program and trying to re-install...still no success.

But then we remembered our trusty, not-so-rusty, Time Capsule that jumped back in time and remembered upon command that we installed this missing component of CS3. And with the wave of a wand (or a mouse click) BAMMO! Adobe Bridge of CS3 was back on our dock lickity split. 

That one instance alone has made the purchase of this blessed Time Capsule completely worth it. 

May I suggest you look into getting yourself one?

Yes I may.

Wordle

As if I don't have a million other things I could be doing...I wasted a bunch of time this evening creating a wordle! I totally ganked the idea from Melissa Jill, but it was too cool to pass up. It's a collage made up of our blog...or all the words we use on our blog anyway. How fun is that? Apparently I, like, use the word "like" as much as Eden? That's not good. Have fun creating your own! :)

hint, hint...

Sorry for our absence in the blogging world lately. With Brandon completely submerged in stacks of books for studying, and me taking on our new adventure... our time to blog has been sparse. But just so you know that we're still here, I'm posting another tide-you-over post. 

Notice our blog look is changing? Well...it's still not there yet. We're unsure of where we want to go...so it's a gradual change. Hope you don't mind the construction. :)

Here's a small hint as to what I've been up to the past few weeks...more to come on this new adventure in posts to come! :)

Wordless Wednesday

This all goes under one post title...

Why is Rhythmic Gymnastics an Olympic sport? Seriously. Could they come up with a more pointless "sport"? It's like someone decided to make an event for all those gymnasts that couldn't quite cut it on the balance beam and threw in a hula hoop to make it more exciting. As long as we're inventing pointless Olympic events, I'd like to know when the Crab Crawl will be making it's debut in the track and field events.

Anyways. On to more important things in our lives this week.

Some of our most favorite friends ever spent the night with us this past week. It was soooo wonderful to see them on this side of the ocean again! Because of their way important jobs and awesome opportunities, they make us feel cool for having cool friends. Hooray for cool friends! :)

A few more pictures of Eden because you wouldn't recognize our blog without them...

Tell me she doesn't look like a toddler...

Playing the "I'm from the Middle East" dress up game...

Brandon has completed his first full week at SEBTS and it's shaping up to be a lot different than we expected. Don't get me wrong, we love SEBTS. I can't say enough awesome things about this amazing school that is so grounded in the word. It gives me so much joy to see my husband being taught by such faithful men of God.

However, this week is the week that reverse culture shock decided to settle in our "well adjusted" hearts. We've just been faced with the reality that Brandon is going to have to attend classes at least three hours a day, 4 times a week. He's going to have to work at least 30 hours a week. And he's going to have to study quite a bit to make the grades he wants. ...... which in turn leaves (what feels like) very little time to hang out with me and Eden. I know I'm being a whiny un-adjusted American, but we just can't get used to that American lifestyle again. We were so spoiled in The Big Chicken by having so much time together. That was our luxury in Chiner. Sure it was hard to find milk, tostitos, and cereal in Chiner. But at least we had time together. I know this is something that most families struggle with, but this is the first time for us as a family of three that we've had to deal with a daily routine that doesn't include all three of us doing (almost) everything together.

So that's my blog rant for the next few weeks.

In other Chancler news...

A family that we spent 7 weeks with up on that little Virginia Compound two years ago has now moved in right next door! yes, literally, we share a wall with them. What a small world!!

I'll leave you with one more Musing From Chris

yesterday on the swings...

Chris: "Hey, how do you spell her name?" (pointing at Eden)

Brandon: "Why don't you take a guess!"

Chris: "hmmm. ok. (pondering) T. N. O. P."

I always thought Eden with a silent P and T could be cool. I could be one of those hippy crunchy people that think their being creative by naming their child a wacky spelled name. We're naming our next child Bawb.