Happy Birthday Holly

Well the party is over. The left over barbecue is in the freezer. All that is left now is for us to send the family back home to West Texas.

More than that, it is time to wish Holly a happy 30th birthday...

A New Joy in Parenthood

by Holly

I don't even know how to say this in a pleasant way, so here goes. Eli pooped in the bathtub for the first time tonight. You can't fault him for this; he's been constipated and hadn't gone all day. Why wouldn't prunes for dinner and a nice, warm bath elicit a long-awaited poop? It caught me completely off guard, even though I should have been prepared with the toots and the subsequent red face, but he's never done it during a bath before, so I was oblivious. As soon as it happened, I stood him up where only his feet were touching the water and yelled for Justin. By yelling, I spooked Eli and was trying very hard to assure him it was okay and I wasn't yelling at him. He didn't cry, but I got some very big blue eyes and a worried look. Justin wrapped him in his towel and proceeded with an impromptu kitchen sink bath. I cleaned up the poop. Ah, the joys of motherhood. I'm not complaining- its a little gross, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I needed to. I love that little man, but I would appreciate it if he would stick to using diapers from now on!

Catch This #1

I am starting a new irregular blog posting entitled "Catch This". My goal is to bring you interesting things that happen or are seen throughout my days.

In this first episode you need a little background. The City of Dallas is debating an ordinance that would require all non-breeders to have their pets spayed or neutered. The Dallas Morning News has a blog that tracks city hall happenings. The headline for the blog caught my attention and this is the story:

"King among all advocates of removing animals' genitalia is Bob Barker, venerable former host of the game show The Price is Right, who for years ended broadcasts with the sign-off: "Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered."

Now I love Price is Right, but the best part was the headline that read: "City to Install Plenko Board at City Hall".

Pure hilarity for my otherwise bland day.

Day Game

Ahhh the ballpark. Sitting in the cheap seats (really cheap thanks to a friends Dad!); taking it all in. What could be a better use of a half day off of work than seeing a baseball day game? Holly and I along with our friend Jenise are headed out to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington today for a little afternoon baseball. The 1:05 start is sure to begin with a round of hot dogs and nachos. Now this morning rain needs to get out of town, quickly....

Welcome Baby Seabourn!

Eli and company are excited to welcome a new friend to the world, Luke Seabourn. Feel free to click the Seabourn Family link on the right for a more formal introduction..

Eli Photo Update

A picture update...Holly, Eli and I went to a nature preserve in McKinney a couple of weeks ago. Eli took it all in and more! He loved the view in his marsupial pouch! My back didn't enjoy it so much after two hours!!!


Eli went swimming for the first time at the Draper's! He freaked out a little at first, but got comfortable with it. Yes we know we are white, but we do not plan to die of skin cancer!

Eli found his feet and loves to play with them. He can get four toes in his mouth now!!! We try to avoid this at dinner.
Just plain pooped out. Too much fun this day. Besides Larry and Bob can just sing him to sleep at any point. The arm prop is our favorite part of this picture.

This is not Eli's first Southwest plane trip, but it is the first documented family trip. The last two times he flew he was with Holly alone. The reasons are too numerous to name here. The best part was the unexpected guest of Jenise (a friend and coworker) on this flight. This flight was this Saturday for a visit to the West Texas grandparents!

Here Holly gets in a last minute snuggle nap. We left Eli with Nana and Papa Jack in West Texas for a WHOLE WEEK.

A few more pictures are on the Photos de Eli link.

April 15th

By Justin

April 15th was the last time I blogged. That is a long time. I honestly think I just needed a vacation for the blog world. We have been busy with a million things and a lot of coming and going but nothing of note. I also think that a comment made about our blog by a reader turned me off to wanting to write. I am over it now and back in action.

The upcoming week is going to be an odd week. Eli's babysitter is heavily involved in our church's Vacation Bible School. To limit her exhaustion we are going to fly him to his grandparents in West Texas on Saturday. He will stay all week with them. We are going to be childless for an entire week.

Of course we have great plans of deep cleaning the house, working in the yard and spending quality time together...but I predict sleep (at least some please Holly!).

Well I am back. Sorry for the long vacation!
Happy Friday

Jonas Paul Maney

by Holly

Congratulations to Paul and Sarah on the birth of their son, Jonas Paul Maney! He was born on May 20th and is so cute! Check out their pictures on the link to the right, the Maney's. We hope you guys are doing well, we pray for the very best for you all as you adjust to being parents and also that little Jonas would grow and sleep and eat well and be a very happy baby!

What's New With Eli?

by Holly

So we've been hounded for more Eli pictures and updates. Honestly, I have been wanting to share these, and just received my first lesson on adding pictures to the blog. (Yes, I learn by being shown and am absolutely useless at teaching myself anything.)

Anyway, Eli is growing and changing, and oh so much fun! He will be 5 months old on May 21st, and we can't believe the time is going so fast. He has two teeth, the two bottom center ones and they are surprisingly sharp. He grabs your finger and has it in his mouth gnawing on it before you realize what's happening! He has been eating baby food for a couple of weeks, starting with carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. I do believe we are starting peas tomorrow- a whole new experience with a different color. These pictures are actually him eating rice cereal which he started before the yellow veggies.

Eli started on the cereal, gained two teeth and rolled over all in the same week and my parents happened to be here visiting at the time. They were so glad to witness this fun stuff themselves. Justin was in Vegas for work and Mom and Dad came to visit and help me with Eli, while also giving Abbey a week off. The picture below is what happens when my dad has a little fun with Eli when undressing him for his bath. My bebe' looks French!

And finally, we drove to Lubbock this past weekend for my cousin's wedding and for Mother's Day and got to go to our nephew Jared's teeball game. It was so fun to watch the little guys play and they won 21-14! Go Mudcats! Eli sported his new shades, courtesy of Grandma Noble. He was a hit!

I hope to get back to blogging more regularly, but it seems each day passes so quickly, and another night of too little sleep is on us again!

Prayers Answered

Jackson did great through surgery and is recovering well. His tumor was BENIGN and it was a vascular malformation, nothing even remotely cancer related. He will have the same recovery as before, as the mass was removed, but there is no follow up in the way of chemo or radiation.

Read the Kolb's blog for all the details, but praise the Lord for his answers to prayer!!!

May we all rest in peace tonight as we thank Him for our loved ones and His provisions for us all.

Update on Jackson

by Holly

Thank you all so much for your prayers for little Jackson and his family! They feel the love and support of thousands of strangers besides their own family and friends, and it is awesome.

Please check their blog again for an update and some precious pictures of little Jackson. He is having surgery today to remove the tumor from his leg, which so far appears to be contained to the one area. Pray that it has not spread and that he will maintain function of his leg, that the surgery and recovery would go well, and that Seth and Kristen will have everything they need in the way of support and provisions. Seth will have to go back to work in Columbia in the near future, so pray that the timing on this will be okay and that God will sustain their family as they are apart.

Thanks for your love and compassion. May God bless each of you in turn!

Prayer for Jackson

by Holly

Please take a moment to read the last three entries on the Kolb family blog; the link is on the right. These are our friends Seth and Kristen who live in Columbia with their 9 month old son Jackson. Seth works for the State Department.

They learned yesterday that a lump on Jackson's leg appears to be malignant cancer. They are back in the States for medical treatment as of today.

Keep them all in your prayers as they go through this ordeal and stay strong for their son. Pray for fast healing/removal of the tumor, grace and wisdom for the medical staff, and peace for Jackson's parents and extended family.

Thank you all for your friendship and support. We thank God for you in our lives!

Earth Day

by Holly

Well, today is Earth Day! That may mean a celebration to some of you, or a reminder of what you already do, or maybe nothing at all. To me, it is a new beginning. I know there has been a lot of hype about 'going green', but honestly, its taken that much to get me to sit up and take note of what I am or am not doing, to make our family healthier, our waste less, and the environment cleaner.

I have been reading "Green Housekeeping" by Ellen Sandbeck and am captivated by just how much we live our lives according to what is advertised on TV and by what is convenient. So, I am going to share a few tips that I am incorporating into my lifestyle for the betterment of my family and the earth. Some of these may seem like common sense, but trust me, these are huge changes for me, and hopefully the beginning of much more to come!

* Buy reusable shopping bags at your local grocer. One WalMart reusable bag saves 50 plastic bags.

* Check out alternative cleaning products, such as using spray bottles of distilled white vinegar and then hydrogen peroxide for cleaning your kitchen counter, appliances and even your fresh veggies and fruit.

* Think twice before reaching for that paper napkin or paper towel- could you use a cloth napkin instead and then throw a load of them in the wash at the end of the week? Or even use inexpensive dishcloths for this same purpose.

* Place a small glass dish of either baking soda or a cotton ball soaked in vanilla extract on your kitchen or bathroom counter for natural air freshener.

* Take your own coffee cup to work instead of getting the styrofoam one. I'm actually using the last of my WalMart plastic bags to bring home my rinsed recyclable items since my company does not have recycling programs.

Whatever you do, think about the impact you may be having on your family and the earth, and enjoy! Its fun to learn new ways to love the Earth!

M.I.A.

I will forgo the song that is in my head about "We've been to ... ... ... ..." and just say we have been busy. First off we owe a big congratulations to my childhood and boy scouting friend Scott on his marriage to Laura this last weekend. Scott and I go way back. His mother has pictures of us in diapers. Laura found a good man!

After weeks (or months) of hounding, I have added pictures to our Photos de Eli link. There you will find two new folders, one of Eli and the other of our DC trip. The photos of Eli are in time order so the most recent are at the end of the group. Here is our cute little boy now....

More details coming soon!

Five Years

Five Years is a long time to be married. People will laugh, but it is true. A lot of people don’t make it five years. You add our five years of marriage to five years of dating and that is just genuinely odd. Holly and I have made it a tradition to get out of town to celebrate our anniversary. In recent years we have always celebrated in late March or early April due to a certain Scouting event and its propensity to be on our anniversary of March 15^th. This year we got lucky when I opted out of Twin Arrows due to Eli’s birth. We made the most of it with a trip to Washington D.C.

We left Thursday night with a goal of making it to Nashville and to overnight and catch the 6 am flight to Baltimore on Friday morning. When you are flying free you don’t want to fly on holidays or Spring Break. It is extremely difficult to pull off. We decided to break the golden rule. I had a great plan all worked out until our original flight from Dallas to Houston was delayed due to maintenance. Not good.

We landed in Houston with plenty of time to catch the connection, however; by the time we got to the gate all open seats had been given to other ‘free flying’ passengers. I was not happy as the agent technically gave boarding passes to people below us on the pecking order. Oh well. We quickly changed plans and decided to get to Jackson, Mississippi and overnight there instead. After some frantic calls to my dad and some hotels we canceled our Nashville room and found a hotel in Jackson. The next morning we left Jackson without delay!

We arrived in Baltimore and took a train into DC. This was our first time on a ‘train’. While not a true cross country experience, it was still very exciting for us. Unfortunately on the train is when we learned of Trigger’s death. After some tears and checking in with Eli and the grandparents we arrived at Union Station in DC in time for Lunch.

We stayed at Hotel George right next door to Union Station. It was a nice place, but overpriced for what they billed as boutique hotel. We checked in, scoped out the lay of the land and decided to make an afternoon run to Arlington National Cemetery. Unfortunately our guide said the Cemetery closed at 7pm, when in fact it closed at 5 pm. We wasted a good chunk of time making the run up and back. We decided to see if any tickets remained for a show called Capital Steps. They are a Comedy Troupe that makes fun of political situations. I knew Holly wouldn’t catch a lot of it, but I loved it. She said she enjoyed it and caught a majority of it.

Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and made our way to the capital. We got our tickets for our capital tour and head to the Library of Congress. It is an absolutely beautiful building. I think my friend Jenise has it right when she says it is the most beautiful interior in DC. After LOC we walked around the capital past the Supreme Court and into the new American Indian Museum. Besides being a great building architecturally, they have a really good cafeteria serving food of native tribes from across the country. We left the Museum and headed over to the Capital for our noon tour. We had an excellent tour guide, which is always a plus. Following our Capital Tour we headed back out to Arlington.

Holly and I both said on our next trip we will allot a greater portion of our trip to Arlington. Besides the obvious, the cemetery is truly a national treasure full of great monuments. We simply did not have enough time to visit what we wanted to with before closing. We did get to see the changing of the guard and laying of the wreath ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a must. After Arlington we went to Pentagon City for our anniversary dinner at a pub. We left the pub and then took the metro back to the city for a monument tour at night.

I say if you are going to view the monuments in DC, do it at night. Not only are crowds less, but they have a completely different feel at night. Plus they are practically the only thing open 24 hours in DC. Do the daytime only stuff during the day and leave the monuments for later. We visited the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, DC WWI Memorial and the WWII Memorial. All amazing. We have to go back to get the other side of the tidal basin!

Sunday we slept in a little and made our way through the rest of the must dos. We started by actually going through the American Indian Museum. We made a quick pass through the Air and Space Museum. We then headed over to the National Archives to view the Bill of Right, Declaration of Independence and Magna Carta, the highlight of the day for sure. We closed our time in DC by eating and partaking at a place called Capital Brewery.

Monday morning we caught an early train back to Baltimore to catch a connecting flight through St. Louis back to Dallas. I headed home and Holly headed to Lubbock to pick up the kid. All in all it was an extremely exhausting, rewarding and active anniversary trip.

Sorry for the long post, but it has to be detailed right? We will post pictures in the next couple of days.

My Heather

by Holly

I would like to welcome a new addition to our friends listed on our blog. If you look to the right you will see "Heather" who was my college roommate and very dear friend. Please check out her blog and let her know you've seen her site.

Heather is an artist and designer and lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She is a beautiful, talented woman and I am blessed to call her friend. Welcome Heather!

The Passing of A Legend

It is with very many tears that we announce the passing of Trigger. We will postpone our full post about our anniversary trip to DC for a few days as we deal with the loss of our kiddo. He wasn't just a cat to me or Holly. He was a member of the family. It is true that his place in the food chain changed when Eli came along, but we still loved and cared for him deeply. He passed while at the vet being boarded for our trip. We already miss him deeply.

2 Year Blog-aversary

Two years-whew...

Who knew we could come so far. Now it is the primary tool we use to stay in touch with so many of our far off and close by friends. In two years we have had a child and shared they joys of that news through this amazing new medium. In two year we have had our ups and downs and journaled them all here. In two years we have come a long way.

Through blogging we have learned that some friends in the Carolina's read but chose to remain silent. There are others like the east coast friends, say our friend at Audelia and 635 or the person who sits across the cube wall at work. You know who you are, and there are others.

A few blog stats:
156 Posts
"Secret Stairwells" had the most comments with 21

Thanks for reading and Happy Anniversary to US!

Texas Weather

This week's weather has been particularly amusing to me. Monday morning I went to work knowing that it was going to be a cool day. With highs in the forties and a chance of rain. They said there was a small chance of snow, but with no accumulation.

Now normally with the slightest chance of the possibility of the isolated probability of one snowflake causes TxDOT to jump into action, the news station put the sorry saps outside in the freezing rain and all we talk about is how it MIGHT POSSIBLY think about MAYBE have some ISOLATED showers. Not this time. For once in their life, the news didn't overreact. The funny thing is, they were wrong.

I was at a Company event until 9 p.m. on Monday night. I left the Nokia Theatre with HUGE wet snowflakes falling from the sky. It was so beautiful. You native Texians know how special snow is to us. It wasn't sticking, but it was pretty. On my drive home I was driving 60 mph in Plano. Five miles later in Allen the roads were slick. The overpasses were icing and I was driving 30 mph. Oops.

The following morning Holly and I carpooled and it took us about an hour to do thirty minutes of driving. Now this Tuesday morning was cold, by Texas standards. But the afternoon high was 55. By Wednesday the temperature was a nice and balmy 65 degrees. From snow to 65 in two days.

Now the big flip happens again. They are predicting snow again for tonight and tomorrow. Fear not, the news won't be caught off guard again. They have crews stationed "around the metroplex for complete Team coverage". Oh boy.

A bombing occurred in Times Square this morning. I listened to fifteen minutes of weather on my way in before it was mentioned. Even then it was a "developing story that we are following, now back to Brad Barton in the KRLD Weather center." I turned it off.

Snow twice in a week? Must be Global Warming...

Now I am off to buy a snow shovel.

Remember the Alamo!

Fellow citizens and compatriots: I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna--I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man--the enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison is to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken--I have answered the demands with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the wall--I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism and of everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country--Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis,
Lt. Col., Commander.

March 2nd, 2008: 172 years after Texas Independence we still stand proud.

Happy Texas Independence Day.