70s Christmas Ornaments

i had a dream that our baby was 3, and i met him at the church nursery for the first time. it was bizarre! we hadn't abandoned him or anything, just hadn't met him yet. we have a name in mind (in real life) that i'm not ready to announce since we're not 100% set, but let's just say it's little timmy for the sake of the story. in the dream last night, i saw this ADORABLE little boy with straight white-blonde hair cut into a bowl, green overalls and red shoes. i said "little timmy?!" and he looked up and shouted "MOMMY!" and ran to me. all i could do in the dream was say his name over and over again and hold him close. it was awesome. i want a kid. good thing...

speaking of baby, he's moving around regularly now!! after i had the worst stomach bug i've ever had, he started kicking and swimming and flipping - whoo! even enough that chris can feel him. it's AMAZING. i'm loving this business of growing a human. it's fascinating!!

i'm sitting here on christmas eve looking at our amazing christmas tree. it's enormous (well, for me at least - forrest would say it was tiny since it's not scraping the ceiling...) and fat and only cost $20 at lowes. thank you lowes. we have a few new ornaments that we've collected since being married, but most of them are old ornaments that our parents have either rejected or had the heart to pass along to us. some of chris' classics: a CREEPY mickey mouse with gloved-hands that spin and no eyes. yes. no eyes. *shiver*; a little marching soldier; a white, lacey (but metal) violin. some of my classics - i apparently did more looting at my parents' house than he did: a santa driving a truck loaded down with christmas trees - it actually rolls around and i remember playing with it when i was a kid; a styrofoam/cloth drum; my favorite little clay drummer boy; all the old vintage hallmark carousels; and the crowning glory - our angel. she has a green burlap dress with white panty-hose wings and a plastic molded head with a 70's hairdo. GLORIOUS. i love her. as long as she is in-tact, i will never have anything different on top of our tree.

i wish i could post photos of all of these glorious ornaments. but alas, our camera is gone forever. no where. lost. vanished. i'm going to the store today, including a trip to (shiver) walmart, and i'm tempted to buy another one...without asking chris...we'll see what i decide.

speaking of "vanished", one of my 5 year old students used that word the other day. i put in a christmas video for them to watch and was looking for the case for video that had been in the machine. i was making a big deal about it being missing and couldn't believe i couldn't find it. preston shouted out with a LOT of feeling and expression, "mrs. slaten! it just VANISHED!!!" it was HILARIOUS. i love my kids.

God looked at the people He created and said "there's only one way for me to show them that i love them..." Jesus left His throne, all the glory of heaven itself, to come down here to dirty, nasty, smelly earth, just to show us that His Father loves us. but He didn't swoop down as an angel or a grown man or something easy for Him. He came down as a little baby. people had to change His diaper. He had to learn to walk, to talk, to tie his...uh...sandals. absolutely phenomenal. thank you, Lord, for loving us so much. may this Christmas truly be about the One that it is celebrating!

three little words

my whole life, i have always said that when i have kids, i want boys. all boys! no girls allowed!!! but when i got into teaching preschool and realized how fun little girls can be, i decided either would be really nice, for lots of their own reasons. since being pregnant, i haven't had a hunch one way or another as to which one this will be! someone told me that the mom is right 80% of the time about the gender, but i said "what if i don't HAVE a hunch?!?" one day i would say, "he...his...him....." and the next i would be saying, "her...hers...she....." i started really thinking it was a girl since i was having VERY vivid dreams about once a week that we had a little girl, and all the crazy "tests" came out as girl (the silly ones - string and ring and chinese gender chart) haha. like those are accurate. we had TONS of girl names that we liked, and not really any boy names that we liked.

so when we went to get our 16 week ultrasound on wednesday, and he said,

"it's a boy,"

i said "WHAT?????" i wasn't disappointed AT ALL, but i was definitely surprised!! A BOY!!!!!!!!!! it's really a boy. i wasn't aware that anyone from my generation in my family was capable of making a boy!! (my aunt and uncle have 6 grandkids - ALL girls!) i'm going to have a son. i have no words to express the emotions that go along with that phrase!!!!!

when i found out i was pregnant, i was beyond excited. when i had the ultrasound where it moved, the pregnancy became more "real" to me. not in any way that it wasn't real to me before, but to see it actually MOVE around, was...wow. it was amazing. but now that i know it's a boy...WOW. i can call it by name - or at least by gender - and know that that's who i'm talking to for sure!! (or at least i'm 75% sure...the dr said there's about a 25% chance it's a girl since it's still kind of early...apparently girl "parts" can be swollen while they're still developing at this stage, so there's a small chance it's a girl...but i SAW it man. it's a BOY!)

i will say i was tempted to keep it a secret from the general public b/c i don't want this boy to be overrun with BLUE. but i think it will balance out in the end. it's more fun to shout it from the rooftops anyway!

so if you're reading this and you have brilliant boy names, let me have it! sock it to me! don't hold back! we need some ideas, because everything we come up with is just sort of "eh." my k4 kids have named it "gizmo sillyface", and unfortunately, i keep calling it "gizmo"...i'm scared of getting used to it. so quick! send some ideas my way!!! we want it to be different, but nothing too terribly rare. easy to spell and pronounce. meaningful - either in literal meaning or because of family heritage, preferrably both. fitting for a child and an adult. i know, high hopes. but it will come. and we have plenty of time.

in other news, my k4's SHINED this morning! (or is it shone?) we had our christmas program, and i cannot even begin to describe how amazing they were. they stood where they were supposed to, sang the songs perfectly, didn't mess around or goof off, remembered the verse they memorized...it was AMAZING!!! not to mention they were beyond adorable in their natvity costumes. i wish i could post pictures of them, but i'm not about to post someone else's kid's face on my random blog! you'll just have to come over to my house if you want to see pictures or a video. :)