Messy Monday

Mondays are either grocery and baking days, or nobody gets dressed and stay in PJ's. Last monday we baked, but because of all the thanksgiving baking I want to do later in the week, we didn't bake today. 

My mom posted a picture on FB of her back yard and how it was snowy. So I decided I'd take a picture of our "back yard". Super thankful that today it isn't snowy.

Part of my job is to be a home maker right?  I'm not sure this counts. I needed to organize the boys clothes so I could put JT's stuff away for Liam, and so I could take Liam's stuff to the consignment store. I also needed to organize it, because this drives.me.nuts. Every shirt type and size should have it's own pile. 

Just keeping it real. Happy Monday!  There is no Young Life which means Brian has to work longer, but he'll get to eat dinner with us. I'd call that a win! Enjoy your day!

- J

Adventures of the Colligan circus

Monday night after we got in from DC we had NO food in the house. So we went shopping early yesterday morning. The boys always do Better in the morning. 

Except yesterday morning. 

I'm so thankful for Dannette and Sharon for teaching him to walk like this. He doesn't do it always. But he will when I ask him to. 

The lady at the deli counter chased after me and handed me two fresh cookies. She said she bought them for the boys to help them shop better. 

Notice the missing sock. This was probably the 2 hour into the shopping trip. 

Homeboy passed out on the way home. Slept from 1-4:30. He partied hard with will. 

There was also a mad dash to the potty with the door left proped open by the cart. Because you can't bring a cart full of food into the bathroom. 

Never a dull moment. Love these boys. 

Pictures of our DC trip coming soon. 

Halloween

Sorry It's taken so long, we're a little past Halloween. We had such a good time with Maeve (Brian's littlest sister) while she was here. I don't know yet what I think about Halloween as far as the kids are concerned. I like the idea of dressing up and free candy. We treat Santa like Mikey Mouse. Not real, but a fun aspect of the Christmas Season. Anyway nobody cares about my opinions.

We had a good time making cookies. Well JT lasted all of 3 seconds. Clearly these pictures posted in the wrong order, but you get the picture. We finally convinced him to get dress and his pirate jake costume looked suspiciously like Spiderman, but all it all was a good evening. Diana, let us trick 'er treat with her in her neighborhood, and Randy was kind enough to let her. The top picture is them playing swords with JT.

Some idiot gave Liam a lollipop, and before I could pry it out of his little hands it was soggy and wet.  Who gives an 8mo old a lollipop! Oo and he was pissed to when I took it away from him.

Brian went as a lumberjack. Which did nothing for me. and I went as the cool mom. Wait. Thats me every day.

Hope everybody had a good and fun halloween! (If thats your thing)
OH the biggest win of the night.. All I wore was a light sweater and a scarf. It was a perfect 70 something degrees out. Take that Maine! I could never do the halloween thing growing up.

(1. because my parent's would let me. 2. because we lived in the middle of fields. and 3. and most importantly because it's like 40 degrees out at halloween and you have to wear your costume over your snow suit.)

The difference

People keep asking us what is the difference between Maryland and Texas. What are our first impressions. So I thought it would be fun to make a list. 

Texas is obviously flatter, which is fantastic for JTs car sickness. 

Texas is dryer in humidity than MD. BUT still not as dry as I thought it would be. 

I've almost gotten into two accidents because of stop signs and stop lights. Who puts a stop sign in the middle of a 4 lane high way! 

Also their lights are foolish. 

That's 5 lights for the turn lane. 5! One yellow light blinks to yield. But one doesn't blink, but they don't last as long as they do in MD  so you actually have to stop instead of playing the go faster game. It's super confusing. 

I'm in food heaven. Most of the food places are tex mex. we went to this place that sells bulgogi (sp?) tacos. It was awesome. 

Starbucks is everywhere. - Goodbye crappy Charlotte Hall DD. 

The roads are a different color. 

Everybody has a pool. And they never close it for the winter. 

The teenagers don't wear shoes. 

Everybody is super nice. And not just the people who we meet at church. But the maintenance guy had a full conversation with me. As well as ALL the check out people. At first I was weirded out, but I think they are just nice. -- yet I miss the mean new englanders 

The farmers market is more like a trade show? For lack of a better way to describe it. Like obviously you have farmers selling the most amazing peaches ever, but then you have legit people selling wine, cheese, olive oil, grass fed beef, salsa. It's really cool. It's our favorite Saturday thing. In MD the farmers market are either the Amish. Or creepy people selling junk- more like a flea market. 

In the time it took us to get to Grace from our old house, we can now drive to Dallas. I love it. 

The only place we saw Cowboys was at the state fair. 

People don't have an accent. Or at least the majority. 

The east coast is still way prettier, but this was pretty amazing 

Toll. Tolls. Tolls! Everything is tolled. And you can't even pay! You HAVE to get a toll tag. 

There are a lot less chain restaurants compared to the 'dorf. Which we love. There is only so many times you can go to chili's before it gets old. 

I think the air is better for JT. He is sick but his breathing is still way better than it would be normally. So praise God for that. 

Almost all windows are tinted. And most people use those sun things that fit on the dash. Being from Maine I use to think they were silly. I now understand I need one. That Texas sun is no joke. 

Everybody stays inside during the summer. If JT and I go outside, we have to do it before 10:30 because after is just too hot. 

Charlotte Hall was more redneck than it is here. I don't like redneck. 

I'm sure I'll find more differences. It's a whole new exciting adventure. 

The State Fair of Texas!

Last week we went to the state fair. Which is more like an amusement park. It was insane. The Northern Maine Fair had nothing on this.... Although I'm not sure Northern Maine one-ups anything (except mosquitos and beautiful scenery.)

We had a ton of fun. We went and saw the stingrays and all the fish.

he wasn't to sure about the turtle, he thought it was going to hurt him.

We had to take our picture with big, tex. It was the beginning of October, and it was 80 degrees out that day, it was so beautiful.

JT wasn't in the best of moods, but I think thats because he was sick. It was so much fun. However i'm pretty sure i have the only kid who won't eat fair food. Everybody passed out on the way home. <3. Sorry for the lack of blogs, my phone isn't working and sitting down to the computer takes more effort then I am willing to give. Love you all!

oh and big giant thanks to tish who gave us her stroller before we left Maryland. Liam loved sleeping in it. And I loved that I didn't have to wear him.

Being a mom sucks

This week has been probably my worst mommy week yet.

They aren't sleeping all that great, JT has been in rare form. He has had more accidents this week, just random, not even telling me. Liam is teething. He can also crawl, which means he tried to eat my DVD's this morning. My house smells funny because of the dishes, and all the shirts that make me look skinny are dirty.

Being a mom can suck.

I was never that girl with dolls, I never wanted to babysit. I can count on my one hand the number of times I was asked to babysit. When I found out I was pregnant with JT I was pretty sure my life was over. I didn't want children, let alone stay home with them.

All I do all day is clean. I clean poop, laundry, poop out of laundry, dishes. Thankfully there is no poop on the dishes.

Being a mom can be awesome. It can also suck. A lot.

But, I feel guilty in saying that.

I hate that I have given up my life (desires, clean house - (lesb-honest my house was never clean), a real job) to take care of these ungrateful little mess makers. I usually don't get dressed, I rarely put makeup on. This is all new territory for me.

I just started reading Mom Enough which is a compilation of blog posts from Desiring God.  If you're a mom you should get it, even if your kids are grown.  This is a quote from the first chapter that had me in tears.
"Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know. Put their value ahead of  yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine, If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.
     Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone."

Ugly Cry.

Being a mom can suck. But God is good, and tomorrow may I have enough grace to SHOW the gospel to my kids. Even if he uses all the clean underwear.

Potty Training and such

It's been a week since we started potty training. He's had a couple of accidents at night and he has had one at school everyday but other then that he's been doing good. I think there might be an issue at school which is why he's having the accident. Because he's fine when it's church. So I don't think he likes his teacher. But it's only been two days. 

Liam has two teeth! Little sharp mouse razor teeth. 

Last night we went out to dinner with one of the pastors and his wife. Afterwards we went to a little splash park 

JT had tons of fun. Super thankful for the Engelthalers and the blessing they are to us. 

Wees and Caner come today!! Super excited. We've got lots planned including date night! 

Have a good long weekend everybody! 

Day 1: potty training

This morning we had a meeting with JTs new teachers. You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them JT use to be rocked to sleep for nap at his old school. He's going to realize just how spoiled he was. Thankful he goes to nursery at church in the same room as he will go to school. But it will be different teachers. 

When we got home we had the ceremonial burning of the diapers. Which really was us "throwing them away". He did really well all day. He peed in the pot more than the floor-  so well done. We are however running low on bleach.

I however have spent most the day in tears. It's sinking in that we aren't going back to Maryland. And it's sinking in just how much i miss everyone and have no one down here. Which is only made worse by the fact that my only non-child interaction is Brian and youth group. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go back to Maryland. I know this is where God wants us. And I am happy here. I live Dallas.  I also know that life on life relationships take time. And no relationship takes the place of previous- they are all different. 

Upon all of that, my sweet chubby baby is now 2. Can have full coversations with me, and is peeing on the potty. (Mostly) I still don't know why he was given to us. But I'm so thankful. 

Colligan Life.

This time next week I will have just picked JT up from school.

Praise. The. Lord.

I'm glad I'm home with him. I'm equally glad he will be going to school 2 days a week. I have mixed emotions because for the first time in 2 years it's somebody new taking care of my son.

No Dannette. No Sharon. No Lauren.

Weird.

I'm surviving.  Brian is thriving.

Sharon and Caner come next weekend and we couldn't be more excited.  JT is super excited. I can't wait for him to see them.

Brian and his youth team put together a big back to school night for the middle and high school. There were over 80 students. It went well, but both of us thought it could have gone way better.

A lot of churches in our area are doing this thing called explore God. The purpose is to start a conversation about God. To explore who God is. Check it out at www.exploregod.com  BUT I'm super excited. Over 360 in the DFW are participating in this. Inviting people to just talk bout God.

We're doing it with the teens. I will be co-leading a High School senior group.

Pray that teens will have the courage to show up to youth group the next couple of weeks.
Pray they have courage to ask questions.
Pray the leaders have the ability to sit back, keep their mouths shut, and listen. (we all know my       inability to keep my mouth shut)
Pray that teens will invite their friends.
I just want them to come. They don't need to make a life decision right away. I just want to plant seeds. I just want them to be curious enough about God to give us a shot.

Thanks
-j

OH and I'm potty training starting Thursday. The tree-day method. I'm either a genius, or an idiot.

Banana bread

JT and I made banana bread. We were suppose to take it to Brian a work for his staff meeting. But in tee fashion it wasn't done in time. But it was well worth the adventure. 

Don't let this fool you. Liam screamed the whole time we made bread. I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe. I added chocolate chips. It's very yummy. 

Little boys and baseball

A lady that Brian works with gave us some tickets to go to a minor league baseball game. The Frisco Ruff Riders. 

It was tons of fun, he had been to a blue crabs game but that was almost a year ago. All he wanted to do was watch the game. During the 6th inning the little bats were on sale - so of course we had to get one. He was so proud of it. 

Nothing says family time like a sweaty baby and a drooly shoulder

Thanks Amy for the tickets we had a blast!