It's 11pm, and the hospital is calling

Sleeping soundly through the end of "Shrek the Third" the other night, I was startled awake by the sound of the ringing phone. With a sleepy stumble, I made it over to pick up the receiver. I looked at the clock. 11:00pm. This can't be good... any phone call at such an hour must be bad news. The kids are here with us; they're ok. Maybe my parents? My brother? It doesn't help my nerves when the voice on the phone says, "Hello, this is so-and-so from Natividad Hospital..." My mind races through the list of loved ones once again. Who would be in Natividad Hospital? She goes on. "Your son, Colby, was seen here last Tuesday?" Yes. It was only an ear infection. Could there somehow be bad news associated with that, and a week later? "Well, we've discovered that instead of charging your credit card, we issued you a credit."

Ok, wait. You made a mistake in your billing office, and you're calling me at 11:00 at night to clear it up?

"Do you think you could give us your credit card number so that we can make the charge?" Let's see. It's late at night, I just woke up, and some stranger on the phone is asking me for my credit card number. Is this one of those incredibly bizarre yet somehow still realistic dreams? I told her I wasn't going to give out my card number over the phone, but suggested she bill me. "Please hold." Several moments later, she comes back with a response: "Ok, we're going to avoid (yes, "avoid") the charge and we'll send you a bill for the copay you owe."

Gee, thanks. And GOODNIGHT!

I did it!

I had taken this picture of a sweet little girl enjoying the "snow" falling at the Christmas tree lighting at the mall the other night. I liked the composition, but some of the other elements in the photo bothered me. A lot.

After googling around for a quick second, I came upon a video showing me how I could accomplish the affect I was going for. Of course, it always works so perfectly when somebody else is showing you how to do it, right?









Complaints to Brian for help resulted in him sitting down beside me on the couch to see what he could figure out. Lo and behold, just by the mere act of him sitting his wise self down, the method from the video all started coming together. So I guess I should say "we" did it, though it was mostly just his auora contributing to the effort.

Anyway, this is what "we" came up with. I still wish the background was something other than the facade of the mall with spotlights glaring down. A nice fluffy pine tree or Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland would have done the trick. Were I more proficient at Photoshop, maybe that could happen. But for now, it's a sweet little girl in the courtyard of the AV Mall, and I like it a whole lot. Who knows... maybe in her imagination, there's a snow-covered pine tree there after all.

It's the thought that counts

It truly is the thought that counts. But what if money nor time was an object? What would you get me for Christmas? Leave me a gift, and let's find out! Put one on your page and I'll return the favor. :)

bgcolor="ffffff" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" />

Thank You

We just have no concept of how lucky and blessed we are. Please watch this and say thanks to a serviceman or their family.

Big boy bedroom

I love this little pirate bedding set by Olive Kids (http://www.olivekids.com/dr-pira.html). Tyler's going to be needing a new bedroom theme since the Boyd's Bears are a little baby-ish for him now, and I believe this one is the winner! They have wallpaper border, pillows, window valances, a clock, the whole nine yards. So fun! And most likely the last bedding set I have any input on...haha!

Trip to the cat house

A few miles out of town, there's what they call an Exotic Feline Breeding Compound. This is a sanctuary for exotic cats, and they were having a Kid's Day today. Instead of the cats sleeping all day like usual, the volunteers gave them toys and food to coax them out of their slumber. Ironically, the price of a child's admission was higher today than any other day of the year. Maybe they should call it "Make Money off the Kids Day." They also had another wildlife group there displaying some other rescued animals not of the feline persuasion.

This guy greets you as you enter the gift shop. They're really serious about preserving the species.

Don't you wanna just take this guy home with you? Bad idea. He'll eat your face off.

Maybe it's just me, but this one doesn't look like he really wanted his picture taken. Bad hair day maybe.

Despite trying several different angles for this shot, he just would not get his face out from behind that annoying bar on the cage!But check out those patterns!

This one is just pretty.

Here's a cutie (psst, it's not a cat).

Baby desert fox...
....and the face of a baby desert fox.

The definition of "so ugly, it's cute":

Aren't the colors just electrifying? (Please, don't hate me because I'm clever)

We concluded the outing by eating burritos at Taco Bell. In Rosamond. It just doesn't get better than that.

Are they for real?

I recently signed up to get these ads from Google placed on my blog. Supposedly I'll get paid when people click on them. They only send a check when you amass $100 worth of income, so maybe by the time Colby goes off to college I'll find one in my mailbox.

Clicking on my own ad would obviously be a violation of the terms of the contract with these ad people, but when I saw one touting hypoallergenic cats by "Lifestyle Pets," I had to check out the URL for myself. Please note, I didn't click on my own ad, just to be clear. :)

So I found something quite disturbing at http://www.allerca.com/index.html. They have actually genetically engineered cats so they won't trigger allergies. Apparently, these cats which were "developed using proprietary methods...patent pending" are "produced by LIFESTYLE PETS" to provide "a significant new alternative to the traditional treatment of cat allergies."

Wow. I mean, they're cute and all, but am I the only one who finds it a little creepy? Not to mention you'd have to be out of your mind to pay $6000 for a cat (that's just the starting price). I dunno, maybe there's something to it, but right now I'm filing it in my "not so sure about that" category.

Now if they could figure out a way to genetically alter dogs so they wouldn't pee in the house and chew up toys, they might be onto something!

I love Christmas as much as the next guy...

... but really, decorating already? I know the stores get Christmas merchandise right after Halloween, but usually you don't see people decorating their houses until at least Thanksgiving weekend. As of yesterday, I've seen no less than 3 houses in various parts of the city already decorated for Christmas! It's not even mid-November!

Here's how we've started getting prepared for the holiday- cleaning out the bedrooms!

It's been about.... oh, 5 years since we've gone through the toys and cleaned out the ones we don't use anymore. We had saved most of Colby's toys for Tyler, but Tyler ends up just playing light sabers or Legos with Colby! So we loaded up a truck-full of toys and took them to the Goodwill. Colby said he didn't mind because it just made room for him to put more new toys. Somehow I think he missed the point.

Even America

On the way to church, Colby was "reading" his Bible to us.

"God said, 'Bring the light!' and light came to all the worlds, even America."

Sorry, your cat had a hole in it's head

To the person or people who put the flyer on the mailbox,

I see you're looking for your cat. I think I took it to the pound. What else could I do? I took it to the vet, but they wanted $300 to fix the HOLE in it's HEAD. Yes, you read that right. Your cat had a quarter-sized, 3-inch deep hole in it's head.

Maybe I should go back a bit. You see, the cat is actually mine. I got it from the pound back in June. It stayed around our house for a few days and then disappeared. I assume this is where you came in. Strange, since it had a collar, a tag, *and* a microchip, that nobody called me. I guess you thought you might as well take the collar off and claim it as yours since it wandered into your yard. That's actually fine with me. I didn't want the cat, but it was so darn friendly, I couldn't bear to think of it being put down.

In the last few weeks, "your" cat had been visiting our yard frequently. One morning a few days ago, Tyler saw it on the block wall and wanted me to get it down to pet it, and that's when I noticed it. Yes, the hole. Don't ask me how it got there, but right in the top of the cat's head, near the ear, was a hole so deep I could see the cat's brain inside. Like I said, I tried the vet. Not going to spend $300 on this cat.

So that's when I took your cat to the pound. I'm not sure if it's still there. You may go check. It'll be the one that seems a little air-headed.

Heaven for feet

Meet the newest addition to my Crocs collection, fuzzy bliss for toesies.
Picked these up tonight at the mall after browsing the web and finding them sold out everywhere. Interesting that things sell out online faster than in the stores these days; a sign of the times. Anyway, I was actually just wondering the other day how I was going to continue to wear my crocs through the winter without my feet freezing. I had resigned myself to the fact that my toes might just have to get cold. It's not like I'll be trudging through snow here in the desert. But then, lo and behold, I saw these advertised in one of my parenting magazines and I thought, "Yes! The answer to all of my problems!" They're so incredibly soft. The thing I love about Crocs is that it feels like you're not wearing shoes, and if I have to wear shoes, I'd rather feel like I'm not. These feel just like you're wearing your most cozy socks out into the big cold world. Brian still thinks they're ugly, now just with fuzz added. It's ok. I'm good with that.

Tyler's back!

For the past...oh, 3 or 4 weeks Tyler has been under the weather. I didn't realize how much it was affecting his personality at the time, but I couldn't help but notice how whiny he was. There were days when he literally just moaned "mama mama mama mama" over and over until I thought I would pull my hair out. Then a couple days ago, it was like he woke up a new boy. He had a smile on his face when he got out of bed, and just continued to bring joy to the household all day. Brian and I both immediately noticed the change, and even now, a few days later, we keep saying, "wow, it's great to have Tyler back!" Right now he just told me, "I stand righ' here an' talka you" in the cutest voice ever. I forget he just turned 2 sometimes by the way he talks. He even ordered his own grilled cheese last night at Red Robin, and the waitress had no trouble understanding, "I wanna grill cheese." Although, he refused to say please. Working on that! Anyway, since he's finally in good health, I hurried him over to the pediatrician to get his flu shot. He didn't even whimper or wince. As I told a friend yesterday, our kids ain't no pansies. I think he had his eye on the lollipop. :)

Speaking of Red Robin, Colby almost surprised us by departing from his tried and true order of mac & cheese. He was on the verge of ordering grilled cheese, but decided at the last minute to get one more mac & cheese so he "could say good-bye." And he literally did. We'll see if he can bear to abandon his cherished mac & cheese next time we go. I'm betting not; he's a pretty sentimental guy.

And lest you think the only thing I have to blog about is my kids, I shall tell you of our date last Friday. The boys stayed over with my parents and Brian and I drove to Santa Barbara for a Chris Tomlin concert. It was outdoors at the Santa Barbara Bowl, which is a really unique and beautiful venue- the ideal location to praise God and contemplate His greatness. In keeping with the "How Great Is Our God" theme, speaker Louis Giglio gave an awesome talk about how awesome God is by using the universe and stars to show his point. Did you know that if the earth were the size of a golf ball, the largest *star* we know of would be the diameter of two golden gate bridges laid end to end? And that's one star in one galaxy in all the vast universe. Amazing. And if you want to hear something even cooler, check out this video-