Confession

So, I have a confession.

I watched a video on You Tube. I was moved by it. Then I realized that the Lord has been good to us financially this year in spite of a hard economy so I could really give all the gifts I've been starting to mentally think of AND still give to others this Christmas. Later, I realized that's pretty selfish of me. What if I gave the money we have planned to give AND took MORE out of the gifts we were planning to give to people that don't really NEED anything? I'm not saying gifts are bad...in fact I think its appropriate to show appreciation and love with small tokens or gifts from time to time. 450 billion though is just flat sick....really sick.

So, I'm joining the conspiracy. I dare you to join me.

In fact I dare you to not just figure out how to give, but to really cut back on the gifts you are giving to give more. I'll even go out on the limb and say if everyone one of you actually does this (and you won't, admit it)...we'll still be giving more gifts than people need. It's a sickness and I want to be healed this Christmas, do you?

If you dare:

Monumental Dentist trip....

Clearly the Crack Team takes our teeth seriously. Of course we would never eat Easter egg dye to see if it would stain our teeth like it does eggs. (It does, which is why we think all those boxes say parental supervision suggested).

After getting married we did the whole Dr. shuffle where we tried to align the Dr.'s we'd be attending. Chris was quick to X my dentist from the list. Something about him being tall, dark, handsome, with bleached teeth...and from Kingwood that made him unfit to have his hands in my mouth. So, we went with Chris's dentist. In fairness they are 3 minutes from our house (mine was 30ish), they let you watch TV, and they are pretty quick with the routine stuff. So, for the past 2.5 years we've faithfully gone to his dentist each 6 months for our appointments at the same time. We usually celebrate our clean bill of health by promptly eating out afterwards. I have no cavities...not even one....so I figure we might as well enjoy getting the post clean slime feeling gone as quick as possible.

Anyway, yesterday was a monumental dentist trip for the Crack team. Noooo...I didn't get a cavity! It was our last one together...by next time we'll have a baby in the family. While we might be nuts enough to eat Easter egg dye, we know LOTS better than using our babysitting fund for his and her dental appointments. Soooooo, I'll have my on Monday and Chris's on Tuesday. I almost choked up while doing the fluoride treatment. I'm sure there are many more things that will be changing come March 20th but I just had to post about our dentist trip. I realized how many things I like doing with Chris...even getting my teeth flossed. Goodbye Duo Dental trips...don't worry we finished off with a meal at Jason's Deli complete with the free ice cream and topped with Chocolate Syrup.

Matthew...up close!

So here's the post I've been holding out on for entirely too long:

Almost 2 months ago when I was in the midst of some of the worst morning sickness of this pregnancy Chris and I were also teaching our Gateway U class. Each Thursday was carefully maneuvered around having my best energy and strongest stomach for the two hours we'd be teaching. Amazingly I got through. During one of the weeks of the class, I share a story that is too long for this post but includes my thoughts on Matthew McConaughey. I thought he was precious in How to Loose A Guy in 10 Days. Then one of my younger cousins thought Chris reminded her of Matt. Anyway, long story short, I shared my Matthew story in our class which was literally 2 -3 minutes of a 2 hour class.

About a week after that story, one of the girls in our class emailed me. Our class did not know we were pregnant. Since we teach a dating class it didn't seem like a necessary announcement. She had scored some tickets to Texas Monthly Talks through her company and asked if I wanted to go with her. The guest speaker...Matthew McConaughey. So, in the middle of being a horribly sick pregnant woman, I thought what better way to get my mind off the pukes...and I accepted.

She and I went down town and got there a little, ok 1 hour, early for good seats and literally were the first in line. We ended up getting in the front row, middle seats, less than 5 feet away from Matty. It was a fun interview. He's a great talker, has a sweet Texas drawl, and knew how to keep us laughing. I was so impressed with his interview and even more impressed that I made it the ENTIRE afternoon without getting sick. I'm attaching the pictures that were taken with my camera phone. They are blurry and not well done BUT show you how close we were for a fun interview.

Note to self: Make sure future classes know I like peach salsa, shoes, and paper in case anyone else has some hook-ups they'd like to share!!! Thanks Claudia for a super fun memory!

Our Bambina

As promised here are some of the pictures from our ultra sound. My favorite is her precious little foot. The first shot is a profile of her head and her hand is near her lips. In the second picture you can see her thumb (whiteish) in her mouth for a little thumb sucking. The last is the foot...which I am feeling kick many times a day. It's soooo precious to have a picture to imagine what I am feeling is those tiny little feet. Isn't she beautiful?!

More Halloween....

Lots of updates today. I finally downloaded the pictures of my Future Soccer Mom costume. The soccer ball on my belly is actually painted on my belly...I cut a hole in the shirt and painted our little girl (which at the time we had no idea of the gender!). So, you can see a little baby bump, my soccer ball painting, orange slices, team flag, and...completed with a proud Mom pin that has Chris's soccer picture from High School.

We went to Chris's work party and I got to see lots of people play him....deal or no deal! Kids were so cute with the game! Then we headed to a couple of other parties and Chris even won a "Most Creative" costume award at one of them! Such a fun Halloween!!

Really - It's a....

No more tricks, this time we know. I've been anxiously awaiting Chris to scan in our pictures but decided I could wait no more.

This morning we were able to find out the gender of our little Bambino and in fact it's a bambina. We're having a G*I*R*L!!!!!! I screamed sooooooo many times today and each scream was met with a kick from our sweetie. At least we know two things: 1. She hears. 2. She is already being exposed to the fact her mommy is very expressive!

Actually though, it appears she's be a little expressive herself. In our lengthy ultrasound this morning she was in non-stop activity. She was kicking, punching, thumb sucking, yawning, twisting, and even showed us a #1 finger....of course that has to be because she heard the news of my screaming from Saturday night and understands that Red Raiders could be #1 !!!! With all that activity she spread her legs plenty of times for the nurse and Dr. to really be certain she is a girl. It was fabulous to see soooo much activity and character. We've got a DVD and some pictures and just have to get both of them on to the computer so that soon we can add them here!

Chris's very logical next step is for us to start naming her. My very "Karen" next step was to suggest that Chris take the day off so we could go shopping!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, at least I can dream and be balanced to reality by the man I love and after all, we can go shopping tomorrow :). We don't have even one name picked so while I am sure it won't be Laverne, we've got lots of name throwing around to do before we've checked off Chris's next step. We'll keep you posted....

I just gotta post!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a hard day at the Crack House. For those non-Texas folks today was the day that University of Texas (#1 in nation) headed to Lubbock, Texas to face off Texas Tech (#6 in nation). The problem is that both teams were undefeated and Chris loves the Horns while I graduated from Tech and love the Red Raiders.

We started our day by heading downtown for a ALS walk. It was an awesome way to walk off some energy, be in denial of the pending game, and ultimately help an awesome cause, defeating ALS. Of course we couldn't be in total denial of the game so Chris wore his UT garb while I proudly and more courageously had my red and black on. Hey - I know what you're thinking...but it was more courageous as we live in Longhorn land after all. Luckily there are some other Tech fans and some OU fans in town that cheered me on.

Anyway, I just had to post because as you all know by now Tech pulled off a shocking win in the last second against Texas. I am trying to hold my excitement to a fair minimum for the sake of my husband so I thought I'd post here....did you see it? Did you see Graham Harrell? Did you see the random Donald Trump message to Mike Leech...who would have thought they could be friends. I'd be surprised if Leech owns a single suit. It was an awesome game. I couldn't be more happy for Tech to have such a huge win with the entire nation watching. After years of seeing the same football program we saw tonight it was THRILLING to see it all click for them and a win to be had. I'll be cheering that Tech goes all the way this year....I can't think of a better way for Baby Craxton to enter the world...with TEXAS TECH holding the National Championship. But, I won't get too far ahead of myself. For tonight I'll end with two simple words....two words that I've said uncountable times in the past 8 years. Two words that rarely meant anything to most people across the nation....but two words that got some serious attention tonight....

Gun's up!