If Ye Are Prepared...(who knew I'd need to use this title for another post so soon?)

Well...he went into church in his Sunday best. However, after wetting straight through a diaper and onto Mommy's hip, he had to leave church sans clothes. I haven't had to use spare clothes in months, so when I cleaned out my diaper bag a week or two ago, I took out the extra outfit since it was now too small and never replaced it. Big oops! I won't be making that mistake again (I hope).

James did, however, get a couple compliments on his new attire (or lack of) on the way out of church. I'm just glad it happened in the last 5 minutes!

Playin' at the Playa: Our Wild Goose Chase

As a small child I was taught that birds fly south for the winter. At the approach of winter, we sadly said, "Bye bye birds." I never thought that I would be on the receiving end of migrating birds. While many of the birds that we see here in Lubbock vacationed elsewhere during the Lubbock winter, hoards of Canadian Geese found the Lubbock climate well-suited to their needs. It was fun to watch them and...play with them.

James couldn't take his eyes off of the flock.

A close-up (relatively close at least).

As they took to the sky, James followed faithfully.

It really was amazing to see this mass of large birds flying right over us.

Like father, like son. James and Dad do a great open-mouthed stare.

It was neat to see them fly up in a muddled mass and then separate into their V-formations.

You may be wondering why they decided to clear the playa?

It looks like such a peaceful place...

Well...Jordan said it. I had some fun with the geese. I was very respectful. I just wanted to get closer to them. They, however, were wild Canadian Geese and did not want me to get closer to them. It was honestly amazing, exhilarating, incredible to have that many geese take to the sky right over our heads. Some flew right toward us probably about 6 feet above us. It was so exhilarating that I had to do it again...and again...and again until the entire playa was cleared out. Below is a video of James and I on our wild goose chase.

If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

A couple days ago there was a tornado warning for Lubbock. When James woke up from his afternoon nap, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then half-inch hail stones began to fall from the sky. The hail could be heard overhead, at our back door, on the windows, at our front door; I felt as if the apartment might cave in from all directions. I thought it was cool. I didn't know there was a tornado warning. James and I were at the window watching and video taping it all. We needed to pick Jordan up from school, but I doubted we could remain conscious trekking from our apartment to our car. (Sometimes I forget about a nifty little invention called the umbrella).

When the hail calmed down, I started to get James ready for our trip to the law school. My phone vibrated. It was Jordan. He told me not to leave the house because there was a tornado warning for Lubbock, and all of the law students and faculty were being herded into the basement of the library. A small bit of terror filled my being as I realized we had no basement. We had no cellar. We had no pole that runs deep into the earth to which we could be tethered (see Twister). What were we going to do? Where could we be herded? Then began the thoughts...hide under a table and hold onto the table legs...no no that's for an earthquake...stand in a door frame...no NO that's for an earthquake...stay away from the windows...yes yes away from the windows. We could at least stay away from the windows and then pray that the roof wasn't torn off.

I got off the phone with Jordan and turned on the TV. Sure enough three local stations were broadcasting updates by the second on the "wall cloud," "funnel clouds," and possible "tornadic" weather (yes, apparently tornadic is a word...even though spell checker is underlining it in red right now). Hail stones the size of golf balls and even baseballs were being reported. The weather was becoming quite calm around our apartment however. The thoughts began again...I'm glad 72-hour kits and a 3 month food supply is one of my goals for this year...it's too bad it wasn't my goal last year. After an hour or so, the tornado warning was over. We were spared.

I, however, was left with a deep impression concerning emergency preparedness. That night as I sang "When He Comes Again" (Children's Songbook, 82) to James before putting him to bed, I also became further impressed by the constant need for spiritual preparedness. We truly never know when disaster will strike or when the wonderful day when our Savior comes again will be, so we must always be prepared. The safety of our family and our eternal potential are far too important to slack in these areas.

Here are some helpful links for emergency preparedness and food storage:

http://www.providentliving.org/

http://www.redcross.org

Plan It: http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

Buy It: http://theobsessiveshopper.net/

Eat It: http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Grow it: http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/

Here are a couple helpful links for spiritual preparedness:

http://www.lds.org

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

http://www.mormon.org

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FYI: Natasha posted a new entry this evening, but it is BELOW the "If you've ever..." post because she started working on it before the "If you've ever..." post. But now it is posted under the title "What We've Been Up To: Christmas Edition Part 2", and if you scroll down a bit you can read the whole thing, free of charge.

If You've Ever...

If you've ever driven down this street...

or admired the beauty of this temple...

or watched this guy play a game at home...

or walked across this campus...

or enjoyed an outing in this scenery...

chances are you're familiar with the place we will be spending our summer.

We will be happily spending our summer in Utah! Yay for beautiful Utah! Yay for family! Yay for old friends! As much as we have loved being in Lubbock, it will be wonderful to be back home for a bit. Jordan has an internship with the Utah County Attorney's office. We will be staying with Jordan's parents in Lindon, so let's get together!

What We've Been Up To: Christmas Edition Part 2

This is the mom suctioning the nose on the face of the boy who had the cold which preceded the RSV that visited the boy during Christmas break (thankfully it ended before Christmas day after a couple of days of breathing treatments).
If you ever need to suction a baby's nose, this is a very helpful position. My friend Missy showed it to me. It keeps their head from moving back and forth and their hands from trying to tear the suction bulb from their nose. James is amazed at how immobilized he is.

James is always after remote controls and cell phones. So, if we come visit, beware.

This is a game we play. Dad or Mom puts a homemade helmet on James' head. James crawls around a bit and then pushes and pulls until the helmet is in pieces. James wins.

I found James sitting like this after a nap one day. He's a pretty cute little jailbird.

Are you here to free me?

I'm no longer sure I want to go. My crib has been so good to me...

Hey Jordan, what's that bulge in your cheek?

You didn't!!

Oh yes he did! He ate a piece of our Christmas Express! Our friends, the Nelson family, invited us over to make candy Christmas trains. It was fun and tastey! I think we may make candy trains a Christmas tradition at our house.

Here's the first mountainous view on our trip to Utah. I think it was in New Mexico.

I was really excited about any geographic feature above ground level when we left Lubbock, so here's a nice little rock formation.

I think this was our first view of Utah mountains.

It's amazing how breathtaking tall rocks can be when you haven't seen them in a long time.

Here is James with his great-grandpa James (Jim) Kelly. James was in awe of his great-grandfather's presence.

Two of a kind.

Still in awe.

James REALLY enjoyed chewing on carrots over Christmas break. It was a favorite activity.

I was trying to get a good "What's Up Doc?" picture (as in Bugs Bunny). I think this one's pretty good.

James spent some quality time in this play deal at my mom's house. It's my cousin McKenzie's. My Aunt Carol loaned a number of toys to my mom for James to use while we were in town. Thanks Carol, McKenzie, and Mom!

I think this is the best one. "What's Up Doc?"

This was supposed to be a serious picture...we just can't seem to do serious.

This picture doesn't do the ice spectacle justice. The icy frost on the window at my mom's house was really cool.

A beautiful view of mountainous Utah!

More Utah beauty.

I can't get enough of it! I love the mountains!

James has always loved strings: drawstrings on pants, my hair, pull-toy strings, drawstrings on sweatshirts, any string within his eyesight. Here he is enjoying the pull string on McKenzie's Alphabet Pal. The string was the best part of this toy...simple pleasures.

I can't remember how this even happened. But at 9 months, this was the worst battle wound he'd had besides the cut he received when he pulled the DVD player onto his toe. He's a tough little boy.

The first half of our Christmas break was spent at my mom's home in Sandy, Utah. Sadly, James was sick most of the time and sleeping a lot. But we did have some fun times. We went to the Living Planet Aquarium with my mom before going to Lindon to stay at Jordan's parents' home for the second half of our trip. James enjoyed looking at the fish, but I think he would have been just as happy doing this the whole time. He just LOVES playing with hair.

I think James is a little concerned about the large aquatic animals swimming toward our heads.

James and his uncle David spending quality time together.

Jordan's sister Tiffany and her husband Darren.

James is usually only cuddly when he's sick, but when he was reunited with his aunt Cindy, that all changed. He LOVED cuddling with his aunt Cindy and his grandpa Cullimore. James also, of course, enjoyed cuddling with his aunt Tiffany. (Now at 12 months old, he will cuddle with us even when he's not sick...yay for cuddling!!)

My brother Scott is credited with first teaching James to stick out his tongue. Here he is reminding James of old times they spent together.

James opened his first Christmas present on the lap of his uncle Darren. It was a book from his great-grandma Skeem.

so much to blog about and so little time

Now that's it's been forever since we've posted, it seems such a daunting task to blog again. I want to print our blog for a memory book, so I want to make sure to get everything in. So, it may take a couple weeks or months to get us to real time. I'll get to work.

Has anyone printed their blog posts? How did you do it? Did you go to a print shop and print it on nice paper in color? I'd like to have a fairly nice product. Any ideas? For example, is there a printer-friendly version of blogger?