Life as a Lewis

I'm remembering what life is like in Middle Tennessee during spring. Rain, thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings. I think that about covers it. We had storms last night and lost power until about 7:30 this morning so I was late to work today. I was sitting at the kitchen table with Camden while he ate breakfast, and he prayed over his food and prayed that the lights would come back on. About 5 minutes later, the power kicked back on, which made the answering machine say it's standard message. Camden perked up with a big smile on his face and said, "Jesus made the lights come back on, mommy. Yep, I heard him." It was so funny! Right now all the county schools are closing early because of really strong thunderstorms coming through. So far Camden's school hasn't closed. I'm trying to decide if I should be worried or not. Our weather teams tend to way over-exaggerate things and scare us all to death for little to no reason.

Well, it was supposed to be moving day anyway before our illegal alien buyers skipped the country. :) I'm actually quite glad we're not moving today! Brian is swamped with schoolwork and student teaching stuff plus his full-time job that moving would have been a crazy added stress right now. Speaking of stress, he didn't even get home until 2:00 last night! Monday night it was after 1:00! At least I got to be in bed, but Camden got up SIX times last night from 10:30-4:30. The last time ended in a temper tantrum, which I totally ignored! Monday night, he went to bed at 6:30 and slept all night long without waking up until 6:30 the next morning so I guess he's all caught up on sleep now! Getting up 6 times isn't my idea of a good night's sleep, though. One of these days, we've got to get control of these sleep issues because when his baby sister comes home, I'm sure she'll have sleep issues of her own, and I'm not sure I can manage two with sleep i...

Yesterday must have just been a little fluke. Camden seems to be all better. No more fever and just a few sniffles. He did sleep quite a bit of the day and was a little quieter than normal, but was very sweet! I hate to say this too soon, but he's doing quite a bit better the last week or so - not as many tantrums. We've tried to change how we handle them. Maybe it's working! Poor Brian is up to his ears in school work. He is seriously so busy I don't know how he can get it all done! We will all be happy for this semester to be over with! He's been entirely too busy and gone way too much. All for a good cause, though! Just two layouts to share today. I love the pics from the first page - they are pictures of Elizabeth meeting William and Xavier for the first time at the airport in May and the bottom picture is Camden meeting them for the first time. The second page has an old picture - from Camden's first birthday! Look at that chubby face (with all the drool!).

We're back from our mini-weekend away with family, and we had a really good time. Camden consumed more sugar this weekend than what he has consumed in the last 3 years of life, but he managed to survive. Our cabin was beautiful and it was good to see family. All the kids played so well that it was almost like we had no kids this weekend. We went out to eat at a great restaurant for brunch on Friday and the women hit the outlet malls while the men took the kids to a dinosaur museum. Took over an hour trying to get everyone ready for a big group picture and some kid pics. We played lots of games Friday night while the kids played and watched movies and then we all headed home Saturday. Camden woke up with a small fever this morning so we've spent the day at home and unwinding from all the lack of sleep this weekend. The cabin All four grandkids - Ashton, Cheyenne, Camden, and Logan Ashton, Camden, and Logan Uncle Rodney, Camden, and Aunt Linda Camden and Logan at the dino museum ...

Today is my last work day this week. We're headed to Gatlinburg tomorrow for the weekend to spend it with lots of Brian's extended family. We're all staying in a monster-size cabin with something like 4 bedrooms, game room, 7 big screen TV's and 2 jacuzzis. We'll see how sane we all stay after being together for 48 hours. There aren't enough bedrooms for everyone so some of us is sleeping in the living room on a hide-a-bed. I have a feeling I won't be sleeping well. But it should be fun to get together. Brian had class last night, so Camden and I celebrated our evening alone with pizza and American Idol. We ended the day with a bang last night. We had a big hail storm about midnight last night that lasted for almost an hour. I'm such a chicken when it comes to thunderstorms anyway, so a hail storm was not my favorite way to spend the evening. Camden slept through almost the entire thing and just woke up for a second at the end. Brian slept straight throu...

Camden's cousins from Utah are in town, and these two were fast friends. They look like a pair, don't they! Camden spent the day at Gram and Gramps with his two cousins and had a ton of fun. Of course, he came home ROTTEN! He actually made a mean face and stuck his tongue out at me when I told him no to something and then lied about it when his daddy asked him. Oh, the joys of parenting!

Brian checked the blog this morning and called me a slacker! I guess it has been a few days, but they've been slow days, and I didn't have anything to say. Still don't! I met up with Kellie on Friday for a playdate with Camden and Mason. There were sooooo many kids at the mall playground, though, that it was maybe a bit overwhelming. It was fun to chat, though! Kellie took pictures so I'll have to snag them from her. Camden and I met one of my friends from work for lunch. It's been a while since I've been out with him by myself. I forgot how many times he needs to go the bathroom in one outing! I actually let him eat LOTS of candy at the restaurant to keep him happy for a while before our food arrived. I have spent all day today in my sweats doing pretty much nothing! I did manage to scrap a little bit, cook supper for tonight, and get tomorrow's lunch started. Brian took Camden to get his hair cut today - first time in a salon, and he was so good! Of cours...

Mine started last night! Brian's Tuesday night class started so he didn't get home until about 11 p.m., but he brought beautiful red tulips home with him and Josh Groban's new CD. Camden and I made an eventful trip to Wal-mart last night to pick up Valentine's cards and candy and food for his class party today. Apparently, I am not the only bad mother to wait until the last minute because it was an absolute MADHOUSE in the candy/Valentine's aisle. Camden had a blast picking everything out including a cake for his daddy. I was thinking more along the lines of a little heart container of candy, but Camden wanted a cake. I finally managed to talk him down from the big 10 inch round cake, and we just brought home a mini one. Spent quite a bit of time putting the candy bags together. It's kinda time consuming for a 3.5 year old to drop lots of candy one piece at a time into 20 bags. We sent our camera to school with him today so his teacher can take pictures of his p...

So most people when they're sick, they sleep it off. Not me. I get insomnia when I'm sick (which I'm sure doesn't help me get better). Last night I was up all night. Seriously. ALL NIGHT! My symptoms are better, and I was planning to try to go to work today, but after no sleep at all, I figured I would crash at work! Plus, I've still got a fever and spreading germs is never a good thing. I do feel well enough to scrap, though! Here's a page I worked on late in the night and completed this morning. These are pictures from our little baking experience when I totally messed everything up by not reading directions! We decorated them before we baked them, so they were not pretty when they came out of the oven, and Camden with his perfectionist (okay OCD) tendencies would not touch them! It was kinda fun to mix red and pink, which I would never do in real life!

During dinner Friday night I started to feel sick, and by the time we got home, I felt awful! I have the worst sore throat - have barely spoken in two days cause it hurts too much! I've spent the last two days in bed so hopefully I'll be better soon. We were still able to enjoy Friday evening. The Olive Garden was good, and we saw The Pursuit of Happyness, which was amazing! When we got home, there was a message on our phone from our caseworker telling us that we can proceed with the adoption and submit our homestudy even though our house situation is still up in the air. I am so excited! They're telling us there is about a 6 month wait right now so I can't wait to get everything finished and officially start waiting. We had people look at the house Friday and Saturday. We left the house Friday evening and thought we were safe, but got a phone call while we were still in the neighborhood so we ran back to the house to make sure it was super clean. Then on Saturday, Bri...

Life is great. It's almost 11:00, and I'm in sweats in front of the computer home alone! So you don't think I've been lazy this morning, let me just tell you I have folded and put away 4 loads of laundry, and my house is almost spotless. Of course, the clean house part I didn't really do this morning - it's just leftover clean from having it ready for people to look at it as we try to sell. Camden is at school today until early afternoon, then he'll be heading to Gram and Gramps' house to spend the night. Brian and I are going out to eat and to see a movie. It's so nice to have grandparents close by. Two layouts this morning. The first is using a picture from Liz's wedding (hope you like it, Liz!). I think it turned out very soft and pretty. The second page is using pictures from Valentine's Day last year.

So! It seems the people who are buying our house are illegal aliens and have fled the country, which means our house isn't sold! Honestly, these people are illegal and were somehow able to get a large loan approved from a bank? (I guess I shouldn't be surprised since they can also have drivers licenses here in Tennessee.) Except now they're gone. Our house has been OFF the market for a couple of weeks while we were under contract. We've packed up a big portion of our things (we were to move in 2 weeks). We're back to square one! I guess the one positive coming out of this is that we won't have to live with my in-laws temporarily. I know that God has a plan, and that His timing is perfect, and I'm trying to really remember that. More than anything, I'm just upset because of our adoption plans. Originally, our agency said we could continue the process even though we would be moving at some point, but backtracked once they found out that our hou...

When I went to bed last night, I had every intention of getting up and working out this morning. However, when the alarm went off at 4:55 a.m., I could not do it! Brian and I both had promised we would do it, but it just didn't happen. This scenario has repeated itself many times throughout our marriage. I think I'm going to just throw in the towel! So, do you think 3 Valentine's Day shirts for a 3 year old are too many? I just couldn't help myself. I bought a cute Gap one, then found some cute Wal-mart shirts - and they were on clearance for $3 last night! I can't resist a sale. I'm headed to the dentist on my lunch hour for my regular 6 month cleaning. Sounds exciting. I've got a wedding shower to attend after work, then it's home to Camden for American Idol night. Here's one layout I managed to finish up last night. Camden and this little girl started daycare at the same time (at 12 months old). She was adopted from China, Camden from Korea - they...

And what a nice weekend it was. We had our snow day on Friday and pretty much just stayed in, ordered pizza, and got a movie (Barnyard) for Camden to watch. It was just a good family day. Same with Saturday. We did do a bit of shopping and ran some errands, but mostly just a nice quiet day. Sunday was full of church, a soup luncheon after church, more church, and then the Super Bowl. My brother-in-law and sister and another friend came over for the afternoon and evening, and we had a nice time. I'm not a big football fan so 4 hours of football was maybe a tad too much for me, but it wasn't bad, and I got some good laughs out of the commercials. I used to be able to crank out 1-2 layouts a night, but that just isn't happening lately! Here is the one lonely layout I did over the weekend. These pictures are from November 2004, so Camden was little. The pics aren't the best quality, but I love that cute grin he has here, and while I was working on this page, Camden came ove...

Well, we missed out on a snow day yesterday, but today we have a surprise snow day! Brian and Camden have been out playing in the snow. I've been taking pictures! This is possibly the ugliest snowman you've ever seen! When I came out to look at it, I told Camden it was a baby snowman, and he said, "no, no, it's my baby sister." Not too many plans for the weekend other than the regular laundry, grocery shopping, and our new weekend activity - packing boxes!

. . . are the best. You all know Camden's been a bit of a stinker the last several weeks. Doing things like wiping off my kisses, not wanting to sit on my lap, and did I mention all the tantrums? But the last couple of days, he's been so sweet - just hanging out on my lap or bringing MANY toys up on the bed with me when I'm reading, lots of random hugs and kisses. I was so worried that my time with my sweet boy was over and that he was just going to be a big daddy's boy from now on, but maybe not! I was all geared up for a big snow day today and hoping to stay home, but after all the hype, there's nothing! No snow, no rain, no sleet. In fact, there's a bit of sunshine peeking through my window. Finished up a layout last night. I spent alot of time on this page trying to make it more complicated, but kept just coming back to this so hope it works!