Lucy Grey

I have baby on the brain.

Not just any baby, but this one.

My newest niece Lucy Grey!

She loves me.

But not as much as I love her.

I love her so much, I shared her. :)

Now there is only one sibling that is not a mommy yet, although she is a super-dee-duper aunt! Lord willing, it won't be long until she joins our ranks. (No pressure, Bobo!)

Hey y'all, wouldn't it be fun if we were all prego at the same time? I wonder if Coco will have any more babies? I bet my mom would go crazy trying to figure out the logistics of visiting and making miyuk gook!

(No, I'm not prego... yet.)

Lucy's middle name is Grey. I can picture her writing out her name when she is older. Wouldn't it look lovely in cursive all loopy with the y's?

Her current nickname is Lulu.

Her mommy Leah's nickname is Lele.

Doesn't Lele look AMAZING? Hard to believe she gave birth just a few days before!

We always knew Jason and Lele would be fabulous parents. They are naturals (even if they are slightly nervous about baby poop and spitup).

We thought that Lulu would look more like Lele.

Right now, she looks a lot like her daddy-- they even have matching hair!

I can't wait until March when we'll all get together again!

*disclaimer: this post was written at 1am after a weekend of waking up every 2 hours to change a precious baby's diaper, have her mommy feed her, and then settling her back to sleep. i can already tell that some of what i'm saying is rambly and non-sensical and more akin to my normal writing than i would like to admit. :)

Step right up

Noah ran up to me and begged, "Come see this, mommy!"

I followed him into his room where my eyes beheld this imaginative vision.

Do you see a junky table or an afternoon of fun and games?

Knock down these...

With three shots from this...

And you might be lucky enough to win any one of these fabulous prizes!

Closer inspection will show that these are garbled marbles.

Next on the prize list...

Cards, a spinning top (that lights up!), and two racecars (slightly used).

If you happen to have mad shooting skillz like Noah, you have a shot at winning the GRAND PRIZE!

(The variety astounds me.)

I know you are wondering just how much all of this fun will cost you! What price must you pay to experience the excitement?!

I think it's a small price to pay. :)

And he assures me that "it is not a scam or a rip-off, mommy."

Would this face lie to you?

All the pennies he collects will go towards our church's penny drive. Austin and Noah have been saving up since the night of their defeat at the hands of the girls last year (the horror!).

So step right up!

Isn't he so fun AND sweet?

Much like his mother. *snort*

Life

This is my friend Andrea and her little guys Artimus and Gollum. We have been friends since the 5th grade, but grew apart as we got older.

This past year, God allowed us to get together again and reestablish our friendship! We have kept in touch over email, texts and blogging. :) I had planned to get together with her during my next trip to my parents' house...

Andrea passed away this past Monday in a drowning accident.

(How I hate even writing those words out!)

I ask your prayers for her family and for her husband Tom.

Andrea's great laugh, beautiful smile, happy eyes (they were the twinkly kind) and compassionate heart will be greatly missed by myself and many others.

I am reminded yet again of the fleetingness of life, the sorrow in this world, and always always the hope and salvation that can only be found through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. - I Thessalonians 4:13,14

Do YOU believe? Do your actions and life prove otherwise?

Be ready.

10 on the 10th

I’m participating in 10 on the 10th, hosted by Life at 7000 Feet.

(Maybe this will help me get out of my non-blogging funk!)

1. I have no new year's resolutions. The last thing I need is yet another to-do list! Yes, I would like to lose a few pounds and get rid of my doubling chin, but would like and will do are two very different things.

(I suppose I wouldn't have this issue at all if I had actually done this way back when.)

2. The above-mentioned doubling of the chin is getting on my nerves. It makes me snort more when I laugh and makes me snore more when I sleep.

3. I have been sleeping better this week since I switched to decaff mode. It's not a resolution, just a good thing to do. I had a bad habit of staying up until 2 or 3am and sleeping in until 9 or 10am. Since my switch, I have even been waking up before my alarm goes off in the morning! Yay for me!

4. David does not like me to set my alarm clock when he's home. I don't see what the big deal is since he automatically wakes up at 7am anyway. So my 8am alarm wouldn't be waking him up.

5. I once stopped being roommates with a girl in college because she hit the snooze button on her alarm clock NINE. TIMES. EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. She was completely sweet otherwise but geeze, why have an alarm clock if you aren't going to get up when it goes off for the NINTH TIME?!

6. I wonder how they came up with nine innings in baseball? Why not 8 or 10 innings? The boys went to their very first baseball game a little over a year ago. Due to being surrounded by other people's bratty children and our distaste of parking lot traffic jams, we left in the 7th inning.

7. My belly button is an innie (in-y? inny?). What's yours? Oh wait, that might be TMI like the whole bra thing on Facebook. I'm not sure if envisioning my belly or anyone else's belly is a good thing.

8. Speaking of bellies, my sister Lele has yet to give birth to Lulu!

She is due on the 12th and by golly, it is already the 10th. My sister Coco and I assumed that since we gave birth to our kids anywhere from 2-5 weeks early, that Lele would follow suit. Silly us! We forgot that Lele is not one to be on time for things, let alone early, so why would Lulu be any different?

9. People will often ask if Lele and I are twins. They ask the same thing when I'm with Coco, my sister Bobo or even with my brother. Since I think they are very pretty, I will take that as a compliment! Except for my brother, he's not pretty. He's downright weird but in a funny and entertaining way.

(Look! He has rabbit ears. har dee har har.

It's not as fun to pick on him when he has no blog to pick back at me.)

10. Wanna know what's really really gross? When people ask if my brother is my husband! Ewwwwww!!!

(Bro and I circa 1980. I think.)

To read more 10's or join in the fun, go HERE.

Happy Birthday HOTM!

I can't believe that Heart of the Matter is turning TWO!

When the Amies first began Heart of the Matter, there was quite a bit of discussion as to what it should be called... THOM or HOTM?

THOM was from THE Heart of the Matter, which pretty much dropped into obscurity.

There was, however, a slight hesitancy with HOTM. If you glance at it rather quickly, it makes you think "Hot Mom". Or at least it did to me. (Does that make me weird? or creepy? or juvenile?)

How does it look to you? Would THOM (tom) make David jealous? Or would HOTM (hotmom) cause us even more problems? Just wondering...

BACK TO THE POINT...

In the past two years, I have been challenged and blessed by the encouragement, advice and (more than occasional) kick in the bootay that I have received as a reader of HOTM.

And as a writer and team member, what can I say? Words cannot describe just how thankful I am for the close and amazing friendships that God has given me, not only with Amy and Amy, but with all my other writer and reader friends.

Y'all have really loved on me and my family this past year. Saying "Thank You" just doesn't seem to cut it!

Okay, enough of this *sniff sniff* stuff!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, HOTM!!!

Be sure to head on over there to say Happy Birthday and enter to win some awesome prizes (like giftcards to Starbucks, Target and Amazon)! Eeeeeee! Who doesn't love free stuff?!

My first gift of 2010

I have been so weepy of late. Melancholy. Tired. When I'm not crying, I am trying to keep from crying.

On top of that, I realized that this past year of 2009 began and ended without my Christian.

That just stinks like nobody's business, y'all!

Around 4am on January 1, 2010, I had a dream. A glorious one that I feared would end. Subject of that dream? Yup, Christian!

I was here at home and heard these noises-- quiet shooting sound effects like Christian would make (think semi-whispered pow pow pow). My heart raced with excitement! I knew he was gone from us and I recognized it was a dream-- and yet I knew that having him IN my dream was a gift from God! (In the past 16 months, I have had 4 dreams total about Christian.)

I walked toward the noises, heading into our kitchen/dining room area. It is there that I saw him!

He was standing there, slightly turned away from me. I KNEW IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!! He was wearing navy blue athletic pants and a gray turtle neck. His blonde hair was very short as if I had just given him a haircut (like here).

I was so excited when I saw him, but feared that he would disappear from right in front of me. I had to see his face, his bright blue eyes, his smile! SO I stepped closer and reached my hand out towards him.

And he didn't disappear!

All I could do was look at his face and then hold him close! He smiled. A quiet but happy smile.

It's funny but in my dream he had a little cut that was healing on his forehead, directly above his right eyebrow. It made me smile even more because that boy always had scrapes and bruises from all of his climbing, jumping and well, playing like a boy should play! :)

I held him out slightly in front of me so I could see him clearly again. Then I squeezed him close... again. I can still almost feel his soft skin, smell the shampoo in his hair, feel the squish of his belly and arms (he was skinny but still had that nice layer of baby fat-- dimply and perfect).

I thought again that he might disappear right in front of me. But he didn't.

Instead, I woke up.

I literally woke up praising and thanking God for this great gift! For this dream! For Christian not just being in my dream but in my life!

Thank you, precious Lord for giving me this dream, this GIFT! Your timing is perfect and your love overwhelms me.

I have told y'all before about God speaking clearly to me. This time He didn't use words, He used a dream, this very dream. One that my heart was yearning for but I could never create on my own, no matter how much I hoped and tried and begged! I wish I could make you understand exactly what I'm trying to say, exactly how God was showing me that HE LOVES ME. He has not forgotten my pain and sorrow. He has not forgotten my anguish. He has not forgotten my empty arms.

And He reminded me of the truth-- that all is not over.

I want to shout to everyone that Christian's real life has begun!

Like C.S. Lewis said, his life here in this world was but the cover and title page. Now he has begun Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on for ever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Christian is in the place that he was created for. He is home!

Where will your home be? How will your story end?

Interlude

"The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude

and not to the finale."

-F.B. Meyer

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;

and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

-Psalm 36:5

It's not a fruitcake

Believe it or not, it is not a fruitcake. Can you guess what it is?

It is our nativity set readied and waiting to be put in the attic. (Bet you feel really silly now.)

When we took the meager decorations for this Christmas (two wreaths, one nativity set and one 18 inch pre-decorated tree) down from the attic, the overabundance of dust was killing me. My right eye was red, itchy and swollen halfway shut for 2 days.

It was so bad, people were staring at me in public.

And not in a you-are-a-hot-mama kind of way.

I have a secret weapon for avoiding this debacle next year.

First is to lose a little weight. Second is this...

Plastic wrap.

But not any old plastic wrap, nosirreeeebob! See the word "professional" up there? Yup, that's me. A pro at wrapping. I am such a pro, you can almost sometimes let me demonstrate my expertise in a court of law. Fo shizzle.

Safe and sound and snug as a dust mite in a Christmas tree skirt. This wrapped tree will then be stored in a red plastic bin (red bins are only for Christmas things-- makes it easier to find for next year). I'll let you know next year if it helped. Assuming I remember.

Don't be jealous that you didn't get this brilliant idea before me. You may borrow it if you like. They say that copying is the greatest form of flattery.

Have you put your decorations away yet? Are you a stickler like some people and have to have "Christmas" put away ASAP? Or are you the type that will be trying to convince everyone that these are very special "Valentine's Day" decorations?

A Closer Look

It's finally beginning...

to look...

like Christmas!

Look closer...

and you will find...

that there is so much more than just lights and sparkle.

There is so much more than just a baby in a manger.

The Son of God came down to earth to become the son of an ordinary man, to be born in an ordinary stable, to come from an ordinary town... and all to do something so completely extraordinary!

He came to save YOU. And ME.

Can you imagine what would've happened if Jesus Christ had never been born?!

I'd like to share with you the entry for December 25th of Streams in the Desert.

(Read to the end... it's worth it!)

"A few years ago a striking Christmas card was published, with the title, "If Christ had not come." It was founded upon our Savior's words, "If I had not come." The card represented a clergyman falling into a short sleep in his study on Christmas morning and dreaming of a world into which Jesus had never come.

In his dream he found himself looking through his home, but there were no little stockings in the chimney corner, no Christmas bells or wreaths of holly, and no Christ to comfort, gladden and save. He walked out on the public street, but there was no church with its spire pointing to heaven. He came back and sat down in his library, but every book about the Savior had disappeared.

A ring at the doorbell, and a messenger asked him to visit a poor dying mother. He hastened with the weeping child and as he reached the home, he sat down and said, "I have something here that will comfort you." He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended at Malachi, and there was no gospel and no promise of hope and salvation, and he could only bow his head and weep with her in bitter despair.

Two days afterward he stood beside her coffin and conducted the funeral service, but there was no message of consolation, no word of glorious resurrection, no open heaven, but only "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," and one long eternal farewell. He realized at length that "He had not come" and burst into tears and bitter weeping in his sorrowful dream.

Suddenly he awoke with a start, and a great shout of joy and praise burst from his lips as he heard his choir singing in his church close by:

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;

Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels,

O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.

Let us be glad and rejoice today, because "He has come." And let us remember the anunciation of the angel, "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11)."

Isn't that amazing?! Let us remember that Christmas is not just about the birth of Jesus Christ, but that He chose to be born, so that He could die, so that WE may LIVE. With hope. Eternally.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y'ALL!

Holiday Traditions

I am #2 out of five children in my family and we are spread out on both coasts of the country-- California, Oregon, two in New York and yours truly in the Lone Star State (that's Texas for those that haven't seen the commercials).

Throw in marriage, children, pregnancy, in-law's, jobs, distance, money and time (or lack thereof) into the mix and you find that family gatherings where we are ALL together become more difficult with each passing year.

So we have learned to take turns!

This year, my sisters and brother (and their families) are sharing Christmas together, while Thanksgiving was spent with our in-law's. Next year we will all get together for Thanksgiving and spend Christmas with our in-law's.

It has been an easy way to guarantee at least one full family reunion a year. :)

This year we'll be minus one sister and her familia. But she's got a good excuse.

We think Lulu will make her appearance before 2009 is over. Maybe we should take bets on when her birthdate will be? If I win, I think baby's name should be Lucy Marsha. I know it doesn't flow at all, but that's not important right?

The Hodges family Christmas traditions are a simple mix of both old and new. Pizza and presents on Christmas Eve (so no one has to cook). Christmas Day has stockings filled with goodies, a traditional turkey dinner, and a birthday cake for Jesus.

There is Santa on Christmas morning for the ones that choose to do the whole ho-ho-ho thing. Personally, we don't with our kids and have taught them to not ruin it for their cousins. Kinda makes me nervous though! I think I need to remind them again (pretty much every single day) to not blow Santa's cover. Yikes.

What does Christmas look like at your house? Any tips on fusing traditions from different families together?

The theme of this week's challenge at I Heart Faces is Holiday Traditions. Pop on over to I Heart Faces to join in the fun or to read and see other people's entries!