William Wednesday

Just a quick little story before I dive into tax for the day.

This morning William asked what day it is today. I told him it's Wednesday February 26th. He got excited because he knows he is going on a field trip to the post office today - he's so excited about it! After he realized its field trip day he added, 'we are almost done with February!'

Austin said 'after February is march, then April, then may, and then what happens after that?'

'MY BABY!!!'

Austin laughed and said 'yes your baby brother will be here in June!' 

'And then mommy will be small again!!!' Said my sweet precious son.

............................

Hopefully you've had an equally exciting morning :)

Where's the big city girl?

I spent 18 years in one of the largest cities in the nation. I also spent 6 years in Denver. It's not quite Houston but it's big.  That means I have spent 80% of my life as a big city girl. Big freeways, large shopping malls, traffic and congestion should all feel like home to me. When we first moved here I remember thinking, 'where is everything?' As I searched for food venues, shopping centers and other metropolitan type locations. Date nights even seemed gloomy with such limited options.

Apparently 2 years in a smaller area will wipe that completely clean.

This weekend I started to get a bit stir crazy and I interpreted that to mean I needed to get out of the Monterey peninsula region. It's small here and sometimes I just think I need to have a taste of the faster paced, bigger life.

No no no no no. In hindsight, my stir-craziness was most likely a result of spending my time couped up in the office, NOT a result of needing some big city air.

Yesterday William and I went to San Jose to go to the container store. SAN JOSE. It's not even a big city people! It was a long trip just for the container store but I thought I just needed to get out. Plus I'd travel almost any distance if the destination is the container store - that's a no brainer. 

I will say the 1.5 hours we spent in the store were quite heavnely. William was well enough behaved for me to go up and down every aisle and I got some fun little things for Charles's closet. Nothing big - I went for a $20 item and came out only spending $100, so I think it was a controlled success on my part. Plus it's just such a relaxing place!!!

However.

The 20 minutes it took for us to park - from the moment we entered the garage to the moment we walked out - plus the 30 minutes (and one near-rundown in the crosswalk by a cool guy in a muscle car) it took us to exit the parking garage nearly took away all of the zen the container store had provided. It was a complete madhouse.

Poor William knows nothng of that kind of traffic. As we were trying to get back on the freeway he said 'mommy the light is green we are supposed to be moving' -- yes sweet dear small city child, I know. But sometimes you sit still through a few rounds of a green light for no apparent reason. 

Then when we were about 20 minutes from home William said, 'mommy we have been gone a long time. I'm homesick for Monterey'. 

I'm not sure where the journey of life will take us next. but if it's anywhere bigger than this quiet little 50,000ish peninsular region, I'm gonna guess it is going to be quite the culture shock. For all of us.

Bring on the anxiety - and bring on the tequila!

My Royal Family

 I promise I'm not obsessed with the royal family, but it's hard to deny I'm practically related. Out of respect for Aunt Joy I won't publicly share how we are (err, may be) direct descendants of the British Royal Family, so let's just say there is a high possibility. To know I have some direct royal lineage is cool enough. Add to that the fact that some refer to me as Texas Royalty (you know you're jealous) and I'm practically a queen. Which makes my boys princes right?

We already have Prince William, born shortly before the royal wedding which brought a lot of publicity to his name. So now it's only fitting that we'd dub another Wallis a prince don't you think?

Let me introduce to you - a few months in advance - Prince Charles Archer Wallis

That's right folks, our unnamed baby now has a name! I was so worried We'd have to read the doctor's name tag at the hospital to frantically pick a name but we finally decided on one.

William hadn't quite let go of Archie. Well, he hadn't let go at all actually. And we were at a stand still on a few names which had pros and cons. Bottom line Austin and I couldn't agree, and William was absolutely certain it was Archie. This was a problem. 

We had already put Charles on the table as it is Austin's middle name and we both liked it, but we weren't sure. Then a few things happened. First a coworker made a joke that we could have two princes. The joke was funny, but more than that I liked that the random suggestion was one we had already been debating and she had no idea. Then one day we were talking on the phone to oh gosh and William called the baby Archie. Oh gosh said 'what about Charles? Or Charlie?' I let William react and at first he wasn't sold, but later that night he said 'let's read books in Charles Archie's room'. I texted Brian to ask where he got Charles and he said 'I don't know, just kind of liked it. And isn't it Austin's middle name anyway?' I explained that it is, and it was currently one of our front runners.

We hadn't sealed it off as a done deal but for the next couple of weeks William would occasionally just call the baby Charles or Charles Archie. We were both growing more and more fond of it, and also realized the longer it went the harder it'd be to change William's mind. So, when Austin was in Texas I tried to sell our other top 2 names to William and he wasn't having any of it. He just kept saying 'no he's Charles'. So I said 'ok how about Charles Archer?' He got VERY excited and kept repeating 'my baby brothers name is Charles archer!'

So, we made a video and sent it to Austin with a caption that read 'I think we have a name' he replied 'I love it!' And that was that.

William is SO excited for Charles to get here, and so excited about his name. He got some practice this weekend and if you ask me, he looks like he's in heaven.

P.s. If we have a third boy I promise his name won't be Harry.

Happy valentines day!

William and I made cards for dada last weekend while he was in Texas. William designed his own a he wanted to make a circle book, so he picked colors and I cut them into different sized circles. After the pieces were all finished I poked holes and connected the pages with a cute brad so it is a little love book, as he calls it. Then he added some stickers for decoration. William impressed me with his writing. I didn't help him write any of these letters, I just told him how to spell LOVE. I planned to tell him how to spell YOU but he wrote a U before I could tell him, so I left it alone. Too cute!

Oh and if you're confused on the spelling of his name, apparently the M is 'eating all of the other letters' - I personally love it :)

Hope you have a very happy Valentine's day!

Sometimes it's Just a Little Sign

16 years ago on Wednesday we celebrated my dad's life at his memorial service. What a beautiful service it was. I was 13 and had no idea what was ahead, but with my mom and brothers at my side we stood and praised God and lovingly remembered the man He blessed us with. The whole day (or maybe the whole month) is a pretty big blur but I do remember a few key aspects of the service and one of those aspects came from Father Tom's sermon. 

Tom spoke about the loving husband and father he was. He spoke about the devoted preschool Sunday school teacher he was. He spoke about the great witness he had been for people in the church. And at one point, I remember very clearly, him saying from my dad's perspective, 'I haven't gone far; I'm just only in the next room'.

For years, at my lowest points in my grief, Tom's words have comforted me. On that day and still now I envision myself sitting on that front pew of our church and I imagine my dad just up the back stairs on the corner, waiting in the prayer room. He's not far. He's just in the next room, sitting with our Father and watching over us in all we do.  The truth is I have no solid knowledge about where heaven is or how close or far my dad is. But the thought that death and heaven aren't as far apart as we sometimes imagine has brought more comfort in 16 years than any single line I have been told by someone.

And it's amazing when and where you'll get a sign from God and from a loved one if you are just open and ready to receive.

Yesterday at church our pastor continued his sermon series on the book of revelation. He wasn't speaking about this for long, but toward the beginning he was discussing the concept of Heaven being 'up' and what 'up' really means when you're talking about a world that is a sphere. Then he said, almost verbatim, that he believes 'heaven isn't as far as we usually imagine. I think maybe Heaven is only as far as the next room'

You can call it a coincidence or not, but on the 16th anniversary of my dad being gone I was reminded of the comfort those words have provided. I'm thankful that God guided Father Tom's words 16 years ago and that He guided Pastor Bryan's words yesterday. 

I'm also thankful for the outpouring of text messages, comments and emails that had my phone buzzing nonstop yesterday. Thankful for the love people have for my baby on his birthday, the love people have for my dad they remember, and thankful for the love they have for me. 

I don't always find joy on February 2nd but this year I did, and for that I'm so thankful.