Two-Face

Adam here. I was reminded today of one of the funniest things I ever did, and I was inspired to make a blog post out of it. Back in my Singles Branch days, my best friend Michelle and I were sitting in Sunday School, kind of paying attention to the lesson. Michelle suggested that we play a game that she had played with her sisters in church when she was younger. She folded a paper in half and explained that the would draw half of a face, mark where the eyes, nose, and mouth were, and then the other person would draw the other half of the face without seeing what the first half looked like because it was hidden by the fold. Then they would unfold the paper and see what the face looked like.

So Michelle folded a paper in half, drew half of a face on the left side of the paper, and marked where the eyes, nose, and mouth were. She handed it to me, blank side up, and I drew half of a face, too. Struggling to keep a straight face, I handed the paper back to her. I wish I had kept the actual paper to scan and show you, but here is a close approximation of what she saw when she unfolded the paper:





We were both red-faced and straining with the effort of not laughing out loud in the back of the Sunday School class. Clearly, the hours I spend in 6th grade practicing how to sketch a Ninja Turtle paid off after all.

It's been quite a while since I posted anything on our blog. Lisa does most of the posting on here because she remembers to do it and she has access to the computer with all the pictures on it every day. So this post won't have any cute baby pictures or anything, but it will have some thoughts on what has been most interesting to me lately.

Firstly, we are right smack in the middle of thunderstorm season here in San Antonio. Last Wednesday, there was a pretty severe thunderstorm that had a lot of wind to go with it. It knocked out power for a bunch of people and blew down some trees. Luckily, nothing was damaged near our house (and our power only flickered; it never actually went out). We had another huge storm last night. It didn't have the really high winds of last week's storm, but it had a lot more thunder. From about 9:00 last night to some time past 3:00 this morning, there was constant rolling thunder and flashing lightning. It reminds me of my mission in Milwaukee when there were severe thunderstorms in late May and early June that would shake the apartment all night long.

I really enjoy listening to the storms, as long as I don't have to be out in them. If I can lay in bed in our dark bedroom and just hear and feel the thunder and watch the flashes of lightning, then it's really relaxing and fun. I'm not sure if Josh or Lucy feel similarly, though. Lucy was woken up last night by the thunder around 12:45 or so, and she was not happy. She decided that since she was up anyway, she should probably also be a little hungry. So Lisa gave her a little bottle and she settled down. Josh doesn't seem to get too startled by thunder, but then, I think he could sleep through just about anything.

Secondly, we have been attending classes for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I have known about Dave Ramsey for a few years, but never really bought into the whole "no credit cards, no debt, cash only" thing. Until now. It turns out that his whole system is based on painfully simple common sense. Sure, the General Authorities have been teaching these same principles for years, but I was never really ready to do anything about it until now.

We have finally hit the point where we want do escape the evil credit card and consumer debt game. We're tired of paying huge amounts of money just on interest because we bought something with a credit card rather than saving up actual money for it. We're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and never really having a reserve in the bank for emergencies. We're tired of trading our financial security and future to credit card companies so that we don't have to delay our gratification a little and save up for stuff that we want.

So we have called up our credit card companies and canceled our accounts. We have finally started making a monthly budget and sticking to it. We are on our way to becoming debt free. It's going to take a long time to dig ourselves out of the hole we created with our instant gratification habits, but it will be worth it. And some day we will be able to go wherever we want and buy a house where we really want to live and enjoy the fruits of our labor, rather than giving all of those fruits to a bunch of creditors.

Lastly, we are really excited to go to a family reunion in a few weeks. We're going to be driving from San Antonio to Park City, UT. We're making a stop in Denver for a couple of nights on the way to Park City to visit my friend Christina and her family. Then we will see the Pratt relatives over the ensuing days. We're really excited for everyone to get to meet Lucy and see how cute and sweet she really is. We're not necessarily excited for the approximately 48 hours of driving that will be involved in the round trip, but that's what podcasts and audiobooks are for.

More pictures!

Last week I took Josh to get his 3-year-old pictures taken. He was, of course, uncooperative, and didn't want to hold still for the camera lady. I was scared there wouldn't be any good pictures, but it turned out there were a few that I liked. This first one is the pose we chose for the pics going out to family.

4 months old!

Little Lucy turned 4 months old this past week. At her check-up on Friday she weighed 14 lbs and was 24.25 inches long. She continues to be just the best, happiest, and cutest baby girl ever. She is quick to smile, especially when she sees Mama, Daddy, or Josh. She is very vocal and loves to jibber-jabber after she's been fed and she's playing before it's nap time again. She is getting stronger and stronger and is very good at holding her head steady. She has discovered her toes and is seriously thinking about rolling over one of these days. In fact, she has done it once or twice, but none of us have seen her do it. When I was taking a shower one day, she was on her play mat, on her back, on the floor outside the bathroom door. When I was done, her head was pointing in the opposite direction, and she was on her stomach. Tricksie little girl. She can reach out and grasp her toys and tries to eat everything she gets her hands on. She also loves to pull on Daddy's goatee when he's feeding her. I think Josh got his first tooth around 4 months, so she might be teething soon. She certainly has gotten more drooly lately. Josh just loves his baby sister now and likes to try and hold her and help me with her. He likes to try and copy her when she's jabbering, and Lucy loves the attention. She is so much fun to have in our little family, and we love her so much!

Three years old!

Josh turned 3 years old on Monday. In the past, we have celebrated birthdays with family parties, but since we aren't near any family now, we had a pretty low-key day. We went to the park with our ward play group and I made cupcakes for everyone. Josh had fun playing with his little friends.



It's hard to believe he is 3 years old already. His speech has been improving a little these past few months. We knew he would have a speech delay because of his cleft palate. He has been more and more willing to say new words and copy words he hears us say, or hears on Blues Clues or Curious George. His pronunciation is still not very good, he usually leaves off the starting or ending consonants of words, and he is starting speech therapy through the school district at the elementary school down the street from our house. I can usually understand him because I'm around him all day long, but I doubt strangers would be able to understand more than a few words and phrases that he says. We are excited that he has qualified for this speech therapy and look forward to being able to understand everything Josh is trying to communicate to us.

We tried potty training about a month ago, and Josh is NOT interested in any of that stuff yet. I wish he was ready because I am tired of buying diapers for two kids at a time.

It is fun to watch Joshua grow up and learn new things. He loves to play outside, either at a park or in our back yard blowing bubbles or drawing in the drive way with chalk. He is constantly making us laugh with his little sense of humor and the way he tries to say new things. We are grateful he is a part of our family and we love him!