Life as a Lewis

Today is a coffee day, maybe even a double shot of espresso. I was up until well past 2 a.m. No idea why - just couldn't sleep. Less than 3 hours of sleep is not a good thing. This is the first year that Camden has been interested in Halloween. He even wanted to dress up this year and chose Spiderman. Unfortunately, our soccer Halloween party got canceled; the church canceled their Halloween party, and we've got church tonight so I'm not sure when he's going to get to wear his costume! I told him maybe he can trick or treat at Gram and Gramp's house this weekend. I've been meaning to list a few fun and not-so-fun things that Camden is doing right now, and I finally sat down and remembered a few of them. 1. He's discovered that his fingers fit really well in his nose. Not a fun thing. 2. His new favorite phrase is "You're wearing me out." I think he might have heard this from me one too many times. 3. He has always loved hugs and kisses, but now

Technically we won the game on Sunday, but officially, they gave it to the other team after 45 minutes of deliberation and lots of adult parents acting like ridiculous children. I've never seen so much shouting and yelling almost to the point of blows! And to think it was all over a 4-year soccer game. I don't understand all the technicalities, but apparently each player was supposed to have a specific amount of game time, and we didn't qualify because one of our players stayed in the whole game. Thank goodness the kids were oblivious to how the crazy adults were acting! All they cared about is that they did get a trophy and medal and their picture in the paper. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. I wish I could show more, but I am exhausted tonight! If you've never experienced soccer with 4 -years olds, I highly recommend it. They are all too cute.

I had no idea that a soccer tournament involving 4 year olds could be so intense and so fun! We're still in shock here, but Camden's team won 3 games today, and they're playing in the championship game tomorrow afternoon. They all played so well - I guess they saved their best for tournament time! Camden made a goal in the first game, and when the game was over, he came running to me, launched himself in my arms and was soooo excited! It was so sweet, and made the entire season worth it just for that moment. He was so proud of himself! The tournament pretty much consumed our entire day. I did get up early and go walk with my friend, and then we pretty much collapsed when we got home this afternoon. Camden was exhausted and in bed by 7:00. Tomorrow will be another busy day! I took some really cute soccer pictures, but I haven't got them uploaded or edited yet, but hopefully I'll get to it this week. We did have one thing happen today that while I've known was g

Well, I hate to complain about the rain since we've been without for so long, but this is our FIFTH straight rainy gloomy day, and I'm stuck in the house with a 4 year old that desperately wants to play hockey, baseball, football, any kind of sport. I've been busy protecting everything breakable in my house all morning! Tonight is supposed to be our last soccer practice, and we were making a little party of it. The parents were going to play against the kids and fun stuff like that, but I'm thinking that it's going to be too wet. The soccer tournament is tomorrow, but I guess we'll be rained out if it doesn't dry up soon! We have Camden's first parent-teacher conference late this afternoon. I am interested to hear what his teacher has to say. I'm not worried or anything, just interested to hear how he is doing in an environment apart from us. I scrapped two pages yesterday. The first uses pictures from our trip to the park last month, and I think the

It's my perfect day. I'm off work; it's cold and wet outside; I intend to stay in sweats all day and spend it scrapping and reading! Camden and Brian are both at school. I am getting some housework done. You're going to laugh at my system, but I've got the timer set for a certain period of time. I work for a while, play for a while. And I am not telling you how long the timer is set for because it would be too embarrassing. I've been hit by the Christmas bug. I'm in the middle of several big scrapping Christmas projects. I've started making my Christmas gift list (what I'm buying for people, not my own list!). I'm planning to hit the mall tomorrow with some coupons. I bought my first gift a couple of weeks ago and another one tomorrow. I know it's early, but it just creeps up on me if I don't start ahead of time. Here are two pages I've completed this week. I love the pictures in the first one. Camden is just too darn cute!

After months and months of no rain, we've had a straight 24 hours of pretty heavy rain with another 24-48 hours planned. Sure makes my commute into work a little scary and very slow, but I'm not complaining!! Maybe all the rain will help our water not taste like dirt! Camden learned about Zaccheus in Sunday School this week. Here are a couple of reasons why I know this. Sunday afternoon when I complained about not being able to reach the top cabinet, he said, "Mommy, that's just cause you're short like Zaccheus." My second clue came as he was coloring a picture last night of Jesus going to Zaccheus's Halloween party. Where he comes up with this stuff I have no idea! Jesus decided to go to the party as a ghost, by the way.

Saturday was the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Elizabeth (my youngest sister) put together a team, got t-shirts made for us, and raised money and we all walked together in honor of Becky. I can't believe there were so many of us! It was actually alot of fun (after the first 2 hilly miles were over). There were more shades of pink there than I ever knew existed. Many teams wore t-shirts with pictures that said, "in memory of . . " I saw one man with a flag and pink ribbons with a woman's picture on it that said, "My Patricia, this is for you." Very sweet and so sad. We walked the 5 miles in about 1 hour, twenty minutes. I will admit to being a little sore this morning, but not too bad. Before the Walk During the Walk End of the Walk Our weekend was very full as usual! I did the walk Saturday morning then met Brian and Camden at the soccer field. Camden's team won (second weekend in a row), which is always more fun than losing! Unfortunately,

I'm sure so many of you can relate to this, but does the tired feeling ever go away? As I got up this morning at my usual 5:15 time, I thought of my college years when it was the worst thing in the world to have an 8:00 class, and I got up at 7:30 to make it there. Oh, for the good old days! Camden heads back to school today. He's been on fall break since last Wednesday. He told us this morning that he likes play days better cause he can play and not learn. That's my overachiever for ya! :)

Our son is a genius. Last night as he was getting ready for bed, Dancing With the Stars came on, he looked up and said, "mommy, that lady looks like you." I asked him which lady because I was sure he was just being silly, and he said, "the lady right there" pointing to Samantha Harris, who is very beautiful, in great shape, and clearly looks nothing like me. He's a smart kid - it earned him an extra 15 minutes of play time before bed!

I can't believe how quickly my 4 days off went by! Here's a quick recap. Thursday I had lunch with my friends, then Brian and I headed to the zoo with Camden. Somehow those zoo trips are never quite as much fun as I remember, but Camden had a pretty good time. He was kind of in a quiet mood, but he really loved the reptile house with all the snakes and fish and nasty bugs. He was quite insistent on intently peering into every single glass enclosure and finding the creatures (ya know, the ones that are always hidden!). Thursday night was soccer practice (I skipped out on that!). Friday we sent Camden off to school and Brian and I headed out to run errands together; had lunch at Logan's, grocery shopped, etc. It was nice to be out and about for a bit. Saturday Camden had a soccer game, and they won their very first game! I think the final score was 8 to 1. Winning or losing doesn't seem to be a big deal to Camden right now, which is why they don't keep official score

Guess what I just started - four whole days without work! Brian is on fall break this week so I took a vacation day. I'm headed to lunch for my friend's 40th birthday, and then we're taking Camden to the zoo. Tomorrow it's date day for us! The weather is just beautiful - sunny and slightly cool. I am loving the cooler weather! I discovered a new restaurant yesterday. A group of us from work went to Pei Wei to celebrate a birthday (there's lots of those going around this week!). I'm not usually a fan of Chinese, but this was so good! I am definitely going to go back! Here is a layout I worked on until late in the night! It is my current favorite!

I think fall has arrived and is here to stay! It was a cool 50 degrees this morning when I left for work, and it felt great! Now I can pull out all of Camden's new fall clothes, cause really, that's what's it all about, isn't it? We had a very uneventful evening last night, but I do have a quick Camden story. This is fire safety week at school, so he's been telling us lots of things that we're supposed to be doing at home (having a plan, crawling if there's smoke, etc.). Well, he was telling us that the fireman said to call a number if we get in trouble, but he was having some difficulty remembering what the number was. After several pauses, he finally said, "You should call the stick with a hump on it and 1 plus 1." He couldn't remember what the 9 was but he remembered what it looked like anyway!

Camden informed Brian yesterday on their way home from school that, "I really wanted to be a horse, but God made me this way instead." I think this stemmed from a conversation about Grandpa and his birthday, which naturally led to wanting to be a horse. Camden's coach decided they needed a break so he canceled practice last night - made for a nice quiet evening at home! Here's a layout using the last (I think) of the pictures from our trip to Missouri with mom and Becky in September 2005. I love how Camden is just giggling at Maya and Landon. Maya and Landon, however, don't seem all that impressed.

What a busy weekend! I spent Friday running errands, heading into Nashville for work, back home to pick up Camden from school, out to soccer practice, home at 7:15 p.m., then supper, bathtime for Camden and bedtime. I didn't stop the whole day! Saturday, I spent all morning working at the brunch, but was able to leave in time to make it to Camden's soccer game, and while we still do not have a win to our name, they did play MUCH better this weekend. I think some of the practices and training sessions are finally starting to kick in. When we started this whole soccer thing, I had this fantasy in my head of our son blooming into a soccer star, cool crisp fall mornings, etc. Well, the reality is that he's only 4 and the temperature has been in the 90's every weekend. Oh, well! It has been fun at least. Fun random quote that came out of Camden's mouth Friday night on the way home from practice: "You know what, mommy. When I'm a grown up, I'm gonna shoot a b

This has been a busy week, but it’s all just “everyday life” stuff. I’ve been running errands on my lunch hour, attending wedding showers in the evenings, and crashing at night! My friend Kathy and I have been to Gymboree the last two days during lunch so I can’t complain too much about that! It’s Gymbucks redemption time ( and I had three ), and I was able to find really good deals and almost finish off Camden’s fall/winter wardrobe. And, if you can believe it, I even came home without any girly things – it was all for Camden this time. Tomorrow I’ve got to work a couple of hours getting ready for a women’s brunch on Saturday. Brian has a school thing Friday night so it will just be me and Camden at home. Saturday is the brunch that will take up the entire morning, and then Camden has a soccer game at noon. I’m hoping to finish up at the brunch in time to get to the game, but we’ll just see how it goes. I’ve not scrapped all week long so maybe I’ll get in some this weekend.

I read a new translation of Psalms 23 this morning and thought it was very appropriate for how I've been feeling lately. The Lord is my peace. I shall not live in anxiety. He puts me under his wing of comfort and calms my spirit within me. He takes all my anxieties on Himself and helps me to focus on Him.Yes, though I walk through a time of grave uncertainties and fierce anxieties, I will not fret - for You are my peace. Your Word and Your presence calm me now. You hold my uncertainties in the palm of your hand. You soothe my wrinkled brow. Surely serenity and trust in You shall fill me all the days of my life. And I shall keep my mind stayed on you forever.

Ten months and counting - that's how long it's been since we started this second adoption. We're now past the length of a pregnancy (for all those well-meaning people who like to remind me that everyone else has to wait too). Maybe it won't be too much longer. I know others who have waited longer and are still waiting, but it doesn't make my wait easier to remind myself of that. I'm sure it should, but it doesn't! We're now quickly approaching the date that our agency said we would have a referral by, but it's not looking so positive. I know that God has the perfect little girl in mind for us, and I do remind myself of that often, but the wait is getting difficult. This is a pretty busy week for us. Brian is gaining more and more responsibility at school, which is good, but hard too. Today he has the unique opportunity of being the teacher with his mom as the teacher's aid. Kinda funny, and I'm pretty sure he would have never anticipated tha