Caught By Surprise

So on Monday night (July 23rd), Kimi and I got into a dreamy mode and started looking at different new homes in the neighborhoods around our area. We're trying to compile a wishlist of amenities that we just "have to have", which basically turns into a drooling fest. Anyway, we stay up and talk late into the night (for us) about our plans to build or buy and were just having a great time getting lost in our thoughts. Looking at the clock and seeing it was 1 1/2 hours past our normal bedtime, we start to stir around, get ready for bed, leave the dogs in the front room and finally climb into bed about 11:30pm. But we were both so wired that we couldn't really sleep. I had left our door to the bedroom cracked so if Makenna needed us in the middle of the night, we could get up without disturbing each other. About the time midnight rolls around, there was this noise coming from the front room which sounded like a knob turning with a slight creak. Just then the doorbell sound went off, but it was in a prolonged buzz sound as if someone were pressing up against it for an extended period of time. At this, the dogs jumped off the couch and ran to the door. Kimi yelled, "Jason, I think someone is trying to come in through the front door!" Now, when you are aroused out of the beginning stages of sleep (and without your glasses), you fumble around for reality for a minute or so until it becomes clear that your hysterical wife means business and you should get a move on with your husbandly duty of checking out the "noise". I stumble to the door and try to look through the peephole to see who is out there but to no avail. Whoever had been there took off when the doorbell rang and the dogs barked. When I got a grip on reality, I ran to the place where I keep my shotgun and 22mm rifle and headed back to the front room in case they tried something else. We turned on the alarm (we used to never keep it on...) and checked all the doors and rooms to make sure everything was okay. Makenna was up at this point so we had to put her back to bed. We tried to go back to bed but our adrenaline made for terrible sleep the rest of the night. I had all these questions running through my mind. I kept thinking, "What if the front door had been accidentally left unlocked... we could have been the victim of a home invasion! What would I have done then???" As a husband and father, I am implicitly charged with the safety and protection of my family. You hear in the news about a man's family being raped and murdered in front of him and you just cringe from the horror but you never know how easily bad things can happen at a moment's notice. We specifically chose a cul-de-sac because people are less likely to be there without a purpose but it doesn't really matter much these days. We are going to keep a careful eye out from now on but it is a bit unnerving to have such a close call. What ever happened to our neighborhood watch group? It's a farce. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you all to be a little more careful and to have a plan in place in case someone tried to break into your home. I know we do now! Maybe it's time I thought about getting a little bit better methods of protection like the kid in "Home Alone"...

Switching to lighter and better subjects, Kimi has spent the last two weeks applying and interviewing at a few places for the upcoming school year. She had two interviews that went well and was offered both jobs pretty much on the spot! How cool is that? Each one, including the one she currently has now, offered different things that made them stand out over the others but it was clear as mud as to which we should choose. So we compiled a list and labored over it all weekend. We took two trips out to each school to determine the drive time, traffic conditions, ease of access to the highway/shopping areas, local daycare situations, etc. That helped a lot but the little things just kept bugging Kimi. We sought advice from friends and family and some were adamant that we should go one way while the others were adamant about the other choice! After much deliberation, Kimi finally had a peace about which school to choose. She chose the smaller of the two schools because she could have more freedom over the direction of the program, whereas the other school is already established in their ways and Kimi would be just another employee subject to someone else's way of doing things. We will (FINALLY) have consistent pay and Kimi has the option of health care and retirement benefits. All very good things in case something happens to my job (long story). So thank you family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. Kimi is extremely excited about the upcoming school year and is ready to get it started!

Oh yeah, guess what we did last week? We went to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Ford Center in OKC! The pic was taken with my cell phone camera so it's pretty terrible. But notice ALL of the people with cameras and cell phone's taking pics? So funny! Kimi dragged me talked me into using my birthday present this year to take her to her favorite country boy band since she was pregnant last year and I wouldn't let her go. (Boo, hiss, bad husband!) It's only fair I guess because the last two out of three years I've gone to NFL football games on her birthday! :) I've gotta tell you, I was having a great time making fun of all the cowboys and cowgirls in the place, drunkly singing out at the top of their lungs with their heads back, eyes closed, swaying around to the sweet lullabies of the Rascal bunch. But when they played "Life is a Highway", I couldn't help myself from really getting into it. Too bad that was the last song! Haha! I like most of the Rascal Flatts songs but I guess I'm not as big of a fan as my wife is. She kept grinning and giggling each time they played a song she recognized. Apparently, she tells me she got hooked on them because of Leah Bierwirth giving her a copy of their CD from back at the apartment days when we lived like 100 feet away from them. Now Kimi says she "needs" all 5 of their CD's and wants me to pre-order their new one coming out in September. Let me personally tell you thanks Leah, I appreciate it. :) Kimi says her perfect concert would be one in which Kenny Chesney (gag me) comes out singing a duet with Rascal Flatts (pretty boys). Yeah, I can just hear it now, "She thinks my tractors sexy-eee and I M-E-L-T every time she looks at me that-a way..." Maybe Matthew McConaughey can join in and make it a real party. That would just be super. <-- Sarcasm fully intended. Did you know that my wife gave me permission to have a crush on any Hollywood actress or singer just so long as she can have one on Matthew McConaughey? She was serious! Did you just roll your eyes like I did? Or did you think, 'Hmmm, I should try that with my husband?'. Of course, I agreed. But I just can't narrow it down between all of the Hollywood starlets. My brother would choose Avril Lavigne but do you guys have any other suggestions? I can't wait to hear them...

I hope this post finds you all well and happy.

Jason

Welcome Ethne and More

First and foremost, I must announce, though very late, the birth of Ethne Louise Mathias, who is almost a month old already! She was born on June 27th (two days before Makenna's BDAY!) and was just as long and weighed 6lbs 8ozs, which was about 5 ounces more than Makenna did! So cool, here is a picture from the proud new parents, BJ and Wendy, that we stole off of their website! (Hehe!) Congratulations you guys, I am SO glad and thankful that this pregnancy went so smoothly and God spared you from the cancer this time! (CHECK OUT THIS BLOG ENTRY FROM LAST YEAR WHEN LILYANAH WAS BORN). We absolutely can't wait to meet this little lady. ;) (BJ & Wendy, send more pics!)

We recently took a trip to the Arbuckle Mountains down in Sulphur, Oklahoma. If you've never been down there, it's an experience you won't soon forget. Why? The streams in Sulphur smell like rotten eggs! I'm serious, totally like undigested sour rotten festering eggs. Ugh! But this spot has been a popular tourist attraction for years b/c of it's reported "healing powers" and health benefits the streams provide. The rocks below have an unnaturally high concentration of minerals which drew thousands of sick people in the early parts of the 20th century to take a swim in the waters in hopes it would make them feel better.Not sure why smelling like feces would be an enjoyable thing, but hey I can't say much b/c we went anyway. :) There are several places where the beginning of a spring is at. The water is insanely cold but it is pure and crystal clear. Near the nature center there are a couple of spots where you can sit and put your feet into the bubbling water and I've got to tell you, it really is a refreshing experience. On the day we went, the rain clouds were starting to sprinkle so we didn't get any pics of the springs but you should check them out sometime. I remember when I was a very small child, my family took a trip down there (cheap vacation, huh?) with my Grandparents and we toured the whole area. I've got a picture of it somewhere. Anyway, there was this area that I could never remember where it was at. It turns out that my dad remembered where it was so we stopped by. Bromide Hill is a rocky outcropping that is basically a hundred feet or so above the town of Sulphur and gives you a view of miles and miles away. It makes you feel like you are standing on top of the world! We took some pics there and headed down to "Little Niagara", which is a small water fall that is popular b/c of its jumping off points and the arctic temperature of the water! We didn't do any jumping in but we did wade around and watch the local wildlife, I mean, teenagers do tricks and dives before a crowd of people. Back in my younger days, I would have been right there with them but little Makenna didn't enjoy the cold water so much. No biggie, we had fun nonetheless. Here is a link to our set on Flickr of the pics we took that day. Enjoy!

The 4th of July was actually pretty boring around our household. The weekend of Makenna's birthday party, Kimi and little Makenna headed down to Texas to spend some time with GRAMMI AND GRANDPA while dad got to pretend he was a bachelor for a few days! It wasn't much of a bachelor party though b/c there were still a list of chores I was required to do but still, I took up the whole bed to myself and slept like a baby! I also got some good XBOX Live time in with my bro, but that's a different story. On the 4th, Kimi and Makenna flew back in but had a very rough flight so I treated the girls to lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was so funny watching Makenna starting to eat table food instead of her baby food. There are some things she LOVES and others that she's not too fond of. For example, we gave here some scrambled eggs and carrots to eat. Wouldn't you know, she meticulously picked through the eggs and grabbed every single carrot and threw it on the floor while shaking her head no! I couldn't hardly believe it! She is becoming so independent and making her likes and dislikes known. At home she throws pieces of her food onto the floor for the doggies to eat up. And when we tell her "no no", she just shakes her head back and forth, as if she understands what we are saying but it doesn't quite register we actually mean STOP! Haha! We are also trying to teach her how to drink out of a cup without a lid, yikes... she likes to tip the cup up like she does with her bottles but she ends up wearing her drink instead! I can tell we're going to have some fun times in the future with food and drinks. (Say a prayer for our sanity, would ya?)

Lastly, I wanted to share a video we took from this last month when we got to catch an Oklahoma Redhawks game with Makenna. She was dancing to AC/DC's Back in Black. You gotta love this! :)


Link To Video Here

Happy 1st Birthday!

On June 29th, our daughter turned a wonderful ONE YEAR OLD! We had a mini party on her actual birthday that night and the big one the next day! At the mini party, she got a few presents from her grandparents and us but the highlight of that party was when she got her baby dolls. Kimi and I knew that she’d go nuts if she got one for her birthday and we were totally right! When we went through the baby doll aisle at Toys-R-Us, she just went crazy grabbing for as many as she could all at once, bouncing up and down in my arms making uh-uh-uh-uh sounds while pointing rapidly at each and every baby doll she could see. Absolutely bonkers. Anyway, at the mini party, she got TWO of them and tried her best to rip them out of the package before I could get them undone! It was hilarious and adorable at the same time! But she just loved them.

The next day, we had a much bigger party at my mom’s house where about 40 people showed up! I was shocked that so many people came but it made the whole day so much more fun with them there. We had food catered by Makenna’s Aunt Lindsay, who owns a catering business. It was wonderful! We had brisket, baked beans, mac and cheese, cupcakes, and more! She even made a very special princess cake all just for Makenna!
But I’ll get to that here in a minute. We had a bubble machine that boasted 4000 bubbles a minute, and after playing with it for a while, I believe it. It guzzled the bubble liquid up faster than my car goes through gasoline but it did fill the air with bubbles! There were several kids there close to Makenna’s age and they stripped down to their diapers and played in the kiddie pool out back for a while, splashing each other and spraying each other with the hose! Makenna had a blast but the water was very cold so she got out of there pretty quickly.

Makenna had a mound of presents to open. All of the kids helped open them one at a time, which was cute. Makenna couldn’t decide which ones she wanted to play with so she’d pick up a toy, drop it, pick up another one and do the same. I guess that’s a good problem for her to have, huh? Anyway, at the end of the party, my mom put down a “Happy Birthday” tarp on the floor and put the big princess cake in the middle of it. After some help blowing out the “1” candle, we let Makenna tear into it. At first she squatted down and gently put a hand in and stopped and looked up at her mommy, as if to say, “Is this alright?” With an assured look from her mommy, Makenna put both hands in and squished it all around! She then sat on the cake, got up onto both knees and proceeded to get her face all covered with two fistfuls of icing and cake! When we pulled her out of there, there was a hilarious “cake angel” where Makenna’s knees had been, wings and all! Too funny! She didn't appreciate us hosing her off outside with cold water but oh well! All in all, it was a great day and we just wanted to say that we appreciated everyone for coming and celebrating our daughter’s first birthday! Thank you all!

In other news, Makenna just had her 12 month wellness check up this past week. Not a whole lot of new info other than these stats: She’s now 29 ½ inches tall and weighs right at 19 ½ lbs. Tall and skinny, not much of a change there. However, she’s turning into a toddler by the minute! She took her first steps right after we got back home from vacation last month. She hadn’t really tried on her own before this so we stood her up to see if she’d even try to take a step. Just one, please… she gave us two instead! First from her mommy to me and then back again. The first step was solid but the second one was wobbly. Still, very cool stuff. The next day we tried it again and this time she took 4 steps, albeit like she just got off of the tilt-a-whirl. :) Now she’s practicing standing up straight and getting her balance down. It reallllly won’t be long until she’s running everywhere! I just had to baby proof the cabinets throughout the whole house because she’s discovered how to open them up and take everything out. What’s next I wonder…

I thought I'd wrap this posting up with a few pictures from her first year of life. She's changed so much in just one year that I'm scared to death at what's going to happen this next year, or the next, or the next... Kimi and I would like to tell each and every one of you who supported us mentally, physically, and spiritually this past year how much we truly appreciated your love as we journeyed through our family becoming even better than before. Here's to the next year and beyond!