Graduation

I apologize for my neglect to the blog the past few weeks. It is due in large part to the video card melting to the motherboard in my former laptop. The situation has been rectified by the acquisition of my new laptop "The Beast" handed down to me from my dad.















About 2 weeks ago, Tommy graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with his Master's of Divinity. Sadly, I don't have any really great photos from the weekend, despite the fact that both of our families were up to celebrate with us.

Tommy has worked tremendously hard over the past six and a half years. Before you scoff at how long that took, there are a few things you should consider:
He held down a full time job the entire time, being the sole breadwinner about half of that time.
His program is 96 hours long (for reference, a non-seminary masters is about 36 hours, and a bachelors is about 120 hours).
He took two languages.
He elected not to take summer classes but instead focus on family and life outside of school.
He actually read all his books (many of his classes required a statement of completion, saying that they really did read each and every page, from the title to the last appendix). If I had done this it probably would have taken me an extra 8 years to complete my 7 1/2 year bachelors.

It has been a long road, but such a good one. We really had no clue what to expect when we moved to Fort Worth four years ago. We didn't even have jobs. But our God is so faithful. SO Faithful.

Rain Day

On my wish list a few posts back was some plants to spruce up the outside. Daniel and I bought some begonias on a rainy Saturday and replanted them in pots we had at the house.




I'm telling him about how dirt makes your fingers dirty.










He was not phased at all by the rain. It was as though he noticed how it made everything else wet, but not him. He found a spot with the help of Daddy where he could place the watering can so it would fill up with rain water coming off the roof. He preferred to dump the water out of the can instead of pouring it out the spout.









He really liked dipping his head in the puddles and even tried to drink out of them.

Pack & What?

The other week, on a Tuesday evening, Tommy and I moved our bed into the guest room because our new bed was to be delivered the following day. We decided to put Daniel in the Pack & Play after he knocked over the box spring, so he wouldn't do more damage (to himself or anyone/thing else).
And then, he was in the room with me.
"Did you take him out?"
"No... why...?"
"Maybe it was a fluke, put him back in."
And there he was again.
This time we put him in and stayed to watch.
He hoisted himself out like he'd been doing it for months.
We turned it upside down to briefly cage contain the animal Daniel.




















"Good thing his crib is higher, I'm not ready for him to climb out of that."

Fast forward to Friday. Daniel was having a rough day, didn't want lunch, didn't want nap. So he got nap. He is usually a decent napper, but didn't want to go down this day. He was throwing a fit. Whatever, deal with it kid. Maybe I was having a rough day too.
And then I hear this noise. Like someone fiddling with the door knob.
Well, I knew the day was coming when he'd climb out. I'll just let him fiddle, sometimes he has a hard time with that knob, it's kinda sticky.
And then God prompts me to be merciful to the poor kid.

And he has locked himself in his room.

About 20-30 minutes later, after I removed his entire doorknob, the entire bathroom doorknob, grumbled at my husband for misleading how easily I could open his door should this happen, and finally opened the door, he's still pretty upset.
Apparently this incident was so traumatic, he has not climbed out of his bed again.

Wish List

This week I have been watching an 8 month old little boy for some friends whose regular sitter is out of town. Tommy said I could use the money they pay me at my discretion (he's great, I know).

I am having trouble deciding.

I am tempted to spend it all here:







and here:






But I've also had my eye on this:















along with some melamine plates from:







But then I noticed that Aldi is selling:









And I thought we could use some:








to spruce up the outside.

And Tommy will be doing this soon:














So I probably need to get him something too.

I think I need a job.

80th

Last summer my family celebrated my Granddad's 80th birthday and this past weekend we celebrated my Grandmom's 80th.




















I love my grandparents. I know everyone says that; but I really mean it. They are both phenomenal people.

I was the only grandchild on my dad's side of the family for 10 years. Until my grandparents moved in 2001, we lived only a few miles away. Just about every weekend until I hit high school and thought I had better things to do, we went to my grandparent's house.

Even though the house was torn down, it will always be preserved in my mind. In some ways I am glad I don't have a ton of pictures of the house. Pictures have a bad habit of replacing memories.

I can remember Grandmom's wig from her battle with breast cancer. I remember her painting the dobermans toenails red. I remember riding on the tractor with her. I remember her painting the garage desert pink with cacti on the walls. I remember her giving the dogs baths in the pool and locking them in the bath house until they dried. I remember shoveling cow patties with her. I remember her watering the hanging plants that lined the side of the house. I remember going walkies with her and all the doggies. I remember her singing off key praises to Jesus.

She is older now, and not quite as strong as she used to be; and sometimes she forgets things. Arthritis is bending her fingers and she watches Judge Judy more than she used to.

But the influence has been made. Creativity and a love for the outdoors has been impressed upon me.





Grandmom with my dad, at the beach, 1955

















When I first saw this line of fabric, I immediately thought of my grandmom. The bluebonnets and wildflowers had her name written all over them. This quilt is by far my fastest quilt finish ever. I used the time I spent making it as an opportunity to pray for her and for my family. I pray before my grandparents die, that they will without a doubt know that all five of their children will be in heaven with them singing gloriously on-key praises at the throne of Jesus.

Easter 2010

The weekend before Easter we went to the Seminary's Eggstravaganza where Daniel got a whopping two eggs.


Thankfully the dum-dum drool washed out of his shirt.
















The day before Easter we had an egg hunt at my in-laws where the kids hunted on one big team and then divided up the loot.

Isaiah

This past weekend we finally got to meet the newest member of the family, Isaiah Richard Vaquera. Tommy's sister spent a long few days with him in the NICU after his birthday, February 14. He is doing just fine now, Praise God.

I got the chance to cuddle with him some over the weekend. Daniel is already getting so big, stinky and sweaty so holding Isaiah was a nice change.
















This is Isaiah's favorite blanket. How could it not be? It was made by his favorite aunt after all.

My Day

Today Daniel got to hang out with two of his best buds while their mom and dad were out.

Allie and Isaac are twins one month older than Daniel. Their mama Erin and I met while we were pregnant and really bonded while trying to walk off baby weight after they came. I must say she did much better than I did! We had a blast today. The counter was a big hit. Go figure. I gave them each their milk and a magazine and they loved it.






























I also finished binding this quilt. I LOVE this tutorial on machine finishing the binding. So many quilters claim they love hand finishing the binding. I personally don't think I'll ever do it by hand again. This way is faster and comes out much neater for me.








What did you do today?