used to play the guitar...

I got an e mail this morning that made me happy yet frustrated. Trace Bundy is the absolute best guitar player I have ever seen. Check him out.

So he is coming to the east coast, and I am definitely going to go see him play again. Why the frustration? Everytime I watch him play, I get chills up and down my spine. It is beautiful and amazing to watch. I get excited and want to try to pick up my guitar again play. I thought that I would one day be good enough to play & give my kids chills. I used to get chills watching my dad play. He gave me a little kid guitar when I was about 9. He tried to teach me, but I gave up because I got sick of yankee doodle. I wanted to play Peter Paul and Mary from the start. Now I want to play Canon! My dad gave me his beautiful classical Martin when I went to college and I had it for about 10 years. He took it back because I wasn't playing. I started to think the banjo would be something fun to play. Well, Chris surprised me with a banjo a year ago in the middle of my finals and studying for the boards. I didn't have time to pick it up despite my excitement. Before a week had passed, that banjo became Chris'. He loves it. He has gone through all the lessons and plays on our front porch regularly. No, he isn't good yet, but he has a lot more patience than I to work through those silly songs.
So it makes me a bit frustrated to see Trace Bundy, but happy at the same time. If you are in the area, you shouldn't miss the show! In the mean time I am going to try giving the guitar another chance.

ESTOY ABURRIDA

I've just been laying around under the weather the past couple of days. So bored I even took a picture of myself. India is quite the drooler. I about cried today thinking about how soon I will be giving her food. She is sleeping 12 hours now. 8-8. Whew, got to love that. But it is making for a lazy mommy. I am almost finished a 550 page book in 3 days. Thats good for this slow reader. The Hawk and the Dove is a great novel about the life of monks and the true love between brothers committed to obedience, celibacy, and poverty.

Monumental Moments

I have been thinking about how days and days go by with nothing memorable to speak of. How I want to remember every moment with India as she grows more every day. How I want to remember those cute things that Alexa and Moriah say 20, 30, and 50 years from now. Having a blog helps me a little but I am still pretty bad about writing things down.
Well, yesterday I had the worst grocery store experience of my life (so far). Not that I have had any super bad experiences, and I am sure I will have a worse experience eventually. But this is still one that I won't forget. I dropped Moriah off at school and took off for Acme with India. I didn't have a list (because, like I said I am horrible about writing things down). I just roll up and down the isles, getting my WIC stuff and all of my other necessities. It took some time because I am trying out a new store and still don't know where everything is. Finally I was ready to check out. I stood in line for a while and then the cashier started checking out all of my WIC stuff. Immediately he told me I had to get the regular carrots and not the mini ones, and I got the wrong kind of tuna. I told him I had gotten those plenty of times before, so he gets out his WIC booklet to show me that sure enough he was right. So, I left all my stuff except the carrots and tuna to go swap them for the right kind. I was rushing because I didn't want to start a long line. Anyways, I grabbed the stuff and came back. The cashier dude says he is so sorry but I still got the wrong tuna. "IT MUST BE CHUNK LIGHT< NOT CHUNK WHITE." Hmmmm I wonder how I could have gotten so confused. So, I asked if he could go get it this time or have someone get it because I didn't know what he was talking about. I am not a big tuna person. I have no idea what the difference is, though if i had taken the time to read it i would have gotten the right one. So he got someone to get it for me. Meanwhile he is double checking everything else I had which was really a process. He also made an issue of me bringing my own bags! Finally he got it all through and I realized that I had left my wallet in my other bag (you know how confusing it is having a purse and a diaper bag!) So I told him to put my other groceries off to the side and i would run home real quick and be right back to buy them. So off I go, lugging the groceries and the baby home, run in the house, grab the wallet and off to the store again. I go through the store to grab one more thing i forgot the first time (no list), and go to the cashier dude. I stand there a few minutes in line and then he looks at me and says that all of my items were put away. You have got to be kidding me, I said to him. I didn't have a list, and I was going to have to go through every isle again!!! SO I stormed off and grabbed a few of the things I could remember and passed by him one last time (giving him a mean look--he didn't notice) on my way to the self check-out isle! I forgot half the stuff and had to go to the store again today. I am sure the checkout dude might be a very nice guy but he needs to learn a thing or two about customer service. And maybe I need to learn to be patient.

dinner time at the lahrs

dinner with the lahrtribe is never boring. it may be stressful, annoying, rude, sometimes enjoyable, and other times pee in your pants funny...but boring is something that it is not. the added pleasure of a content 3 month old seems to calm me through even the most ridiculous of dinners. Tonight we started dinner off like all other dinners asking who wanted to pray. I was volunteered. So I prayed and then dished out the grub (as chris calls it). then Moriah yelled, "WE DIDN'T PRAY!" I guess she was daydreaming the first time. So, she prayed her "God is great, God is good" prayer. I had just gotten the first bite of food in my mouth when Alexa yelled, "WE DIDN'T PRAY!" So she prayed, and then as you can guess Moriah yelled, "WE DIDN'T PRAY!" So daddy prayed. They seemed to really enjoy this game so they started taking turns making prayers that rhymed. Like God is great, God is nice, let us thank Him for this rice. They went on for a while with these rhymes and Alexa just started laughing so hard she couldn't control herself. We kept asking her to tell us but she said she couldn't at the table. She was laughing so hard that she wouldn't eat, so we gave her freedom to say what she had to at the table. She laughed through the whole thing, but we made out what she said:
"God is great, God is hooty, let us thank him for my booty. AMEN!"
Pretty funny, though I am not sure what hooty is.

A visit from mama harler

Rockin out! (as alexa calls it)





It has been a busy week since coming back from spring break. I have been spending most every day organizing and working on Indias room. We had Kirk and Laura mayer over on friday. ( Lovely hanging out with ya'll! ) We talked about a lot of old times and memories from Eastern days and our trips overseas together. Now my mom is here for the weekend. She brought us our dog back. We ate out at a yummy portugese place last night. We were supposed to go to Chuckie Cheese today for a b day party today but got jacked up directions and never made it there. It poured rain all day so we got a couple ogf kids movies and make popcorn and chocolate chip cookies. India turned 3 months today. She is trying to sit up on her own.
Chris has been busy trying to finish the basement this week. It is getting closer.
Here are the girls doing a dance for my mom in Indias room. They are quite the little performers. If you like free entertainment, just come on by for a visit.


India and her new toy. She loves chewing on it. I really think she is teething!

India eating her hand!

India has been so into her hand lately. She seems more interested in it than her pacie. She loves squeeling with laughter when we talk to her or when she is in her swing talking to her fish. She is 12 weeks now and growing like a week. We had a great time in IN though it snowed every day. I was sick part of the time and was glad to be somewhere that i didn't have much house work to do. I have been busy getting the house straight since we have been back. we got indias room finished too! I will post pictures from our trip soon.

On the Road...

This is Alexa and Chris' spring break week, so we hit the road for about 30 hours of driving! First, I took the girls and the dog down to Richmond last Thursday. We hung out with my folks for a couple of days and went to the zoo, saw my brother, aunt, cousins, ate some killer thai food in the fan, and the girls got muddy playing in the woods and creek behind my parents house. Richmond was so nice, weather wise. I have been trying to get back to running every day, and it made it easy with the 80 degree weather and the flowers in full bloom. Chris came by train Saturday night and we left for KY the next morning. What an amazing drive. It is 8 hours, but it is all beautiful. The kids were perfect for the ride. We left Oskar with my parents. I guess he has been sitting by the front door ever since we left waiting for us to come get him. Poor guy. Well, KY was even more beautiful than Richmond. The flowers were even in more full bloom, and it was 80 degrees there as well. Running there was more of a challenge with all the hills, but I love it. We hung out with our dear friends who are like family to us. Mike and Kathe Cohagen always house us when we go there. Their house is like a petting zoo, which the kids love. Everytime we would leave there house to go anywhere, they would beg us to let them stay with Kathe. They kept asking why we can't move to KY and live with Kathe since there is so much grass to play in and all the animals to play with. Their dog is a golden retriever also, but twice the size of Oskar. He is a little rough too. I was playing with him once and he grabbed ahold of my belly roll gently in his mouth and just looked up at me. I thought, good lord, if this 120 lb dog were to chomp down, I would get an instant tummy tuck. Oh well, he decided to let me go, and I still have the roll. We were able to visit with Communality a bit (a church that we were part of when we lived in KY). We hung out with our good friends, the Kenneys, and saw their beautiful new home and ate some yummy Indian food with them. We also did a surprise visit to see some girls that we hadn't seen in 9 years. The year we got married we worked at a daycare and got real close to these amazing girls, Randi and Courtney. We took them to church every Sunday. They would hang out with us after church and we would take them back home. They were 8 and 6 then. Well, They are 15 and 17 now! We didn't think they would rememebr us but they did and we just stood there staring at each other. It was very weird. THen I got all emotional and teary because I thought about our girls at that age and just how quickly these past 9 years past will seem even quicker with my kids. We also had a picnic and went hiking by our favorite spot by this little water fall. Moriah was in her element. She loves climbing and getting dirty. How is she a city girl?! Now we are in Indiana. It is snowing and 30 degrees! I have been running on the treadmill which isn't near as motivating. We have enjoyed hanging out with the grandparents and seeing the nieces and nephews though. We had a date night last night which was nice. I don't have any pictures because our battery died on the digital and i forgot film for the other one. I will try putting some up later.