Trace the Gecko Slayer

Let me preface this story by saying that Texas has geckos.  It freaked me out the first time I saw one, because they come inside houses and crawl around on the ground and wall and stuff.  However they actually play a very helpful role in the house because they eat little bugs!

Anyways, about 2 months ago Trace, Justin, and I were just hanging out at the apartment.  It was a typical day, Justin was studying, I was doing who knows what, and Trace was playing in the kitchen.  He was going through a pretty drooly stage in his life (and he still is... when does that stage end?!).   And it was not uncommon for us to find random puddles of drool around the house marking the places where Trace had spent more than 10 seconds.  Well, he played in there for a while and then crawled on to find  more exciting trouble to get into.

Later on Justin went into the kitchen and looked down to find a poor little gecko barely moving, sitting in an abandoned pile of drool... WHAT?!?!?! SICK!!!

So pretty much this is how I see the whole thing going down...

The poor gecko is just scuttling around minding his own business eating bugs when all of a sudden out of no where a little 7 month old Trace comes crawling around the corner.  The gecko decides it should probably take off and starts to run away, but Trace has spotted him, and somehow manages to catch him.  How that happened? I have know idea because Geckos are pretty fast and Trace was not the most coordinated crawler at this point.  Anyways, after he catches the Gecko he does what any normal person would do and stuffs it into his mouth because maybe it will taste good.  But the gecko will not go down without a fight and starts wiggling around, startling Trace who spits him out onto the floor, makes a weird face, and crawls away thinking, "that was not food!"

That's the most likely story... but I personally like the version that Jenae came up with.  The gecko was sprinting across the kitchen floor and slipped in one of Trace's drool puddles and broke his legs so he could not move which is why he was still lying there when Justin walked into the kitchen.  That version makes me feel better as a mother.  I'd rather not think that my son had a reptile in his mouth.  Who knows what sorts of things were living on it... sick...

Anyways, I have made up a little song to warn any other geckos that might be still living in the apartment... feel free to sing along as you read it!

It looks like we have a gecko slayer in the apartment!
He's crawlin' round your floor,
snatchin' your geckos up,
tryin' to eat them,
so you better hide your kids,
hide your wife,
hide your kids,
hide your wife,
and hide your husband cause he's eatin e'rybody in here!

I know, it's a pretty good song... I bet if we made a youtube video out if it'd go viral!  I'm just sayin'!  Well anyways, this was a true story, and I just wanted to write it down somewhere before I forgot it.  We sure do love the little guy, and we are so happy to have him in our lives!  :)

We Did Not Buy a Zoo

This past Saturday we went to the San Antonio Zoo with our friends the Ence's!
  It was so much fun, and we were really impressed with all the cool animals!  We saw hippos, lions, a huge turtle, and some impressive snakes.  And of course we posed with a bunch of bronze animal statues (because you can't go to the zoo without posing with bronze animal statues).
  We love zoos!  Both of us for different reasons, Justin loves to see the animals and try to mimic their noises, and I love to watch Justin try to mimic their noises!
Anyways here are few pictures from the day.

Trace and his friend Austin posing in front of a pair of large hippo bums!
Austin is 1 day younger than Trace, but 5 pounds larger than him!
(And for  little babies, 5 pounds goes a long way!)

Bears!

OK, this snapping turtle was HUGE!
I thought that putting trace up would help show how big the turtle really was, but that was an epic fail of an idea... So you'll just have to imagine!  But in this picture trace is 3 feet away from the glass... it was the biggest thing I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure it could eat me, whole!

Trace posing on a Komodo Dragon!
I am already impressed with Trace's ability to really become one with the bronze animals.
He's a zoo picture posing master in the making!

Anyways, it was fun to take a brake from school, and teaching, and do something fun in this awesome city!  Thanks to the Ence's for inviting us to come!  

Life Life Life

Wow!  Have things picked up around our little apartment lately!  Approximately 1 month ago I was offered a job to teach 7th Grade Science at Harris Middle School!  After a lot of prayer and soul searching I decided to take the job.  Without going into all the details I will just say that the decision to  work outside of the home was a hard one, but it is the best decision for us right now as a family.  Anyways, Last week was my first week and I absolutely LOVE the students I get to work with this year!  I can already tell that they will be a fun group!
Ever since getting this job however, our lives have become quite a bit crazier!  Since I am working we have put Trace in a local day care (which I am pretty sure is the same day care I attended till I was 4 years old!).  Putting Trace in daycare is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do...  and the first day we dropped him off I was (as my sister-in-law Kindra likes to say) "a hot mess!"  I was crying when we dropped him off, and crying when I thought about him there, and then I was crying again when we picked him up!  And there have been some tears since as well.  But I am so pleased with how well he is doing!  And a lot of the ladies there that watch him have expressed to me how much they love him, and that is very reassuring to hear!
Anyways, today I came across this poem that kind of sums up our lives right now!  Even though our apartment might be a little messier than normal, and our lives are so busy, I truly feel like I am able to appreciate the time I have with Trace so much more!  The few hours we get to spend with him each day are by far the highlights of our lives right now.  Those moments are what get me through from one day to the next, and I am so grateful for him and for Justin, and the true joy and happiness they bring to my life!

Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(Pat- a- cake, darling and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew

And out in the yard and there’s a hullabaloo

But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look!  Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.  Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby.  Babies don’t keep.

1958   Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Trace at 8 months old!

White Coat Ceramony

So I have officially lost my Husband for the next 4 years... sigh... :)

This past Sunday we attended Justin's White Coat Ceramony which signifies his entry into medical school.  The parts of the ceremony that I saw were very impressive!  Unfortunatly Trace did not find them as entertaining as I did, which is why I spent most of the ceremony out in the hall... 

This was who I got to hang out with while the ceremony was going on!
He played in the grass for the first time! and subsequently ate grass for the first time...

But I was able to see the important parts before Trace freaked out!  Justin and the rest of his class walked in. Then later he walked up on stage and got his white coat (the symbol of a healer), and after that they all took the Hippocratic Oath and promised to help the world!

Justin walking down after recieving his white coat!
Thanks to Justin's Mom for taking these great pictures!

Justin's parents took time off from their busy, busy post mission lives to come down and celebrate this happy day with us!  

Trace still has not mastered looking at the camera and smiling..

Trace loves his dada!

And all in all it was a great day to celebrate Justin's achievements thus far! Good luck on the next 4 years Justin!!

Justin? Where's the truck?!

Last month we moved to San Antonio!

Oh ya, if you haven't heard, Justin got accepted into UT San Antonio for medical school!  So after 10 minutes of deliberations over which school we should attend, we decided to go to San Antonio instead of El Paso!

So anyways, at the beginning of June we moved down to San Antonio.  We were way excited as you can see in this picture.

Packing for the move was pretty easy since we had been living in Justin's parents house and really hadn't had to unpack any of our stuff from our previous move.  So the only new stuff we had to pack was Trace's stuff.
Side note:  I was shocked at how much stuff we accumulated for Trace!  Goodness Kid!  Babies add so much stuff to your life... clothes, diapers, furniture, it really is crazy!

The actual move was awesome!  I had to drive alone with Trace in the car to San Antonio while Justin drove the truck, and due to prior experience I was fully prepared to listen to whining and crying the whole 5 hours.  But a small miracle happened that day (with a little help from my best friend, Baby Tylenol) and Trace slept for the first 4 hours of the trip and then cooed happily for the rest!  Thank goodness!

That night we unpacked the entire truck with some help from our new neighbor Jessie who was kind enough to come down, introduce himself, and then offer to help Justin with all our heavy furniture.  I mean, I was fully prepared to use my insane upper body strength to aid Justin in moving all that heavy stuff, but when Jessie came down I figured I would let him and Justin have some male bonding time.  I know, I am such an amazing wife, right?! ;)

The next day we spent the whole morning inside our apartment unpacking and when we came out to take our handy dandy Budget truck back to the dealer it was MISSING!  As in, the parking space where Justin parked it the night before was empty!  We quickly visited the front office of the apartment complex and found out that it had not been towed, therefore someone had STOLEN it!  what the?!  Who steals a moving van?!

So Justin called the police who sent out an officer to our apartment and while we were talking with him we got a call from an apartment complex about 20 minutes South of us saying that they were going to tow our truck if we didn't move it out of their parking lot soon.  I think they were expecting us to be bummed about possibly being towed, but we were just elated that they found our moving truck!  So we asked them to hold the truck there, we through Trace in the car, and went down to reclaim our stolen truck.

I guess someone had just been looking for a moving van and when they saw ours they decided it would work! They popped the locks and then took a screw driver to the ignition.  Since it was stolen Budget didn't charge us for any of the damages, and they even came and picked up the van and towed it back for us!  So, all's well that ends well!

I'm not even mad really.  I think it's a funny story!  But I still wonder what the truck hijackers were needing to move so badly?  A really big dead body?!  Toys stuffed with drugs?!  Stolen art worth millions of dollars?!  The possibilities are endless really... let me know your theories!  And come visit us in San Antonio sometime!  Though we can't promise your car won't get stolen... :)

My first official Mother's Day

So, this year was my first official mother's day.  And I just have to say that who ever decided we should have a day solely devoted to celebrating mothers should have a monument made for them... or something.
I have always loved mother's day anyways, (because I have pretty much the best mother EVER!  And I am pretty sure that my mother in-law, and sister in-laws, and grandmas, and aunts, and friends, and friends mom's are some of the most amazing women on earth!!).  It's so fun to celebrate your mom and treat her like the most amazing person in the world, because she is!  But now to be on the receiving end of mother's day celebrations, to actually get to cash in on this great day and all that goes with it... well it's like having a second birthday!  And you could say that I am a fan.

So anyways, since this was my first mother's day Justin went all out.  I'm talking, roses, a funny card, breakfast in bed, cleaning the house, watching Trace so I could sleep some more, making dinner, and tickets to a Ranger's game!  (I know, I know, I have a pretty amazing man!)  

Here are some pictures of the festivities...

Thanks for the card and flowers Trace!

Um look at Trace's face when we lit the candle... can you say future Pyro?!

Justin humored me by taking some family photos before the game.

Yu Darvish was pitching.
YUUUUUU!

My two guys!
This is one of my favorite pictures of them.

Rangers stadium is so beautiful!

The game was the following Wednesday, we played Oakland, and we won!  So you can't be upset about that!  Anyways, all in all it was a fantastic mother's day/second birthday.  Now I just have to plan for Justin's first fathers day... he has set the bar pretty high!  If you have any good ideas let me know!

Justin speaks Parseltongue...

For those who don't know Justin and his brother Jerry have a snake breeding business!
Apparently Justin grew up with pet snakes, and about a year and a half ago Justin convinced me that we should get a ball python.  Being a science teacher in training I thought it would be fun to own a pet that I could maybe take into class with me some day.  So we purchased a little ball python and named her Zeus.  (Yes, Zeus is a male name... we thought she was a male for about a year before we found out she was in fact a lady snake!  But by then it was too late to change, so poor Zeus will just have to live with her masculine birth name for forever!)
Around the same time we got Zeus Jerry bought a ball python and then he bought a couple more and decided he wanted to breed them.  At first Justin was just giving Jerry "advice" in his business.  However one day much to my surprise the discussion turned from "Jerry's snake business" to "Our snake business".  And that was the birth of JMBP's Since then their 2 snakes have turned into 15 SNAKES!

Their logo that Skyler Thiot helped them make

Here are some of the snakes!

Bengal the Ghost Het Carmel Albino Ball Python

Daisy the Albino Ball Python

Sahara the Desert Ball Python

Carmen the Carmel Albino Spider Ball Python
(Justin's Favorite!)

And here is the URL to their website: http://www.jmballpythons.com/

No worries, they are all locked in their cubbies upstairs, and no snakes have escaped since we installed the locks...  

So the first comment I get when I tell people about the snakes is "Wow you are a great wife for letting your husband do that"... and to that comment I respond "do you think I have any control over Justin and what he does?!"  haha no!  No, Justin is his own man, and in most things he takes my opinions into consideration.  But if he really wants something... he'll get it!

The next thing they ask is"what are your feelings about the snakes?"  The answer to this question is that I am indifferent.   I don't really mind the snakes, mainly because they don't take up a lot of room, and they are upstairs so I don't ever have to see them if I don't want to.  Also, I don't have to clean or feed them, Justin and Jerry do all of the dirty work.  And the business does actually have the capability to earn quite a bit of money in the upcoming years if Justin and Jerry go through with it!  But I do get some funny looks when I tell people my husband is a snake breeder... haha oh well!

So if you are ever bored check out the website!  Hopefully the first eggs will be hatching this time next year, and we'll see where this little business venture of theirs goes from there!