Announcement #3

This announcement is just to let those of you who may not know it that James Judd rocks. Seriously.

This post has been in the works since early pregnancy. This is a compilation on of all the incidents I wanted to brag on him about but couldn't do so publicly until we had officially announced the pregnancy. And then we moved to China, then we had all kinds of tech issues and so here we are, but I still wanted to announce it:

JAMES JUDD IS AWESOME!

 Here are some of the ways he goes above and beyond normal husband and dad duty:

1. James cleaned up my puke. Multiple times. The worst incident involved a hotel sink and an entire Caesar salad. He also took care of the girls while I puked or while I sat wishing I could puke so that the nausea would go away.
2. James does night duty like a rock star. Not only when we have a cozy little newborn, but also when we have a preschooler who doesn't always sleep through the night. I have never been so thankful to marry a Ranger as I am when one of our children wakes up in the night. Thank you, US Army, for whatever horrible training you subject your Rangers to that make them able to rouse from deep slumber to full alertness in a manner of seconds. This ability was confirmed when one of James' ranger friends came to stay with us just before we left America and shared that he also possesses this superpower and uses it to help to wife with their children. I, however, was not an Army Ranger and do not possess that gift. I stumble around and grumble and complain so I'm grateful every time I hear his feet hit the floor before I've even moved.  
3. James doesn't complain when dishes are in the sink for days or the laundry is piling up. I'm somewhat keeping up with housework now, but during the first trimester I did not. And James didn't complain and often did much of the work of himself.
4. He lets me sleep in. Not every day, and I do try to repay the favor once in awhile, but many mornings James is the first out of bed tending to girls and I am so thankful for those extra minutes of sleep.

When I read over this I feel like it sounds like I do nothing. I sleep in, don't do housework, and then James gets up with them in the night. I'll let you make you own conclusions about what I do all day ad night, but just remember I am growing a human being inside my body. But, my point is I am very, very thankful for all of the help James offers in this crazy parenting gig.

laundry mistakes and how I saved them

Of course there is back story for this post. One Sunday James and I visited a church small group where a guy was sharing something he had learned from their church's recent marriage retreat. Apparently, at the retreat they had learned, "If I'm doing it, I'm doing it right." The point was that one partner can't complain about the way the other partner loads the dishwasher, does the laundry, mows the lawn, etc, as long as they are getting it done.
THE VERY NEXT DAY James did a load of laundry. With a pen. Before I could even make a joke, he said, "I guess this is one of those times doing it isn't actually doing it right." Thankfully, there were only two garments ruined: the shirt whose pocket housed the pen and a dress of Ann's that was recently given to us by a friend.

Here were my saves:

I used this tutorial for turning James' shirt into a dress for Catherine. I didn't do the waist and I made the sleeves a bit longer than the tutorial. Cutting away shirt for the dress took out some of the ink stains. For the others, I cut out the stained fabric and placed the birds with a backing over the holes. My model wasn't super cooperative :)

Since my model wasn't very cooperative, here are some closer up.

This dress below was long sleeved. The ink was all over the sleeves and a bit on the pocket. I made it short sleeved first, but I did a very dumb thing and didn't cut off all the ink, it was just folded under the new hem on the shirt. So, the next time I washed it, it got on more of the garment.(grrrrr) So, on round two, I just made it sleeveless. There was a bit of the stain still on the pocket, so I just sewed something right over it. (hearts are easier than birds) In the top picture you can still see remnants of the stain on the pocket flap. If that doesn't come out with another round of stain remover....

 I'll just tuck it in like in this picture below. A girl of not-quite two isn't using her pockets anyway. :)

5 years

Earlier this month, James and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage.  In five years we've had 2 kids, lived in 2 countries on 2 continents and in 3 homes...one of which was completely gutted and 80+ years old when we bought it.  We hosted at least 15 students, but the Saudi guys made me lose count. Combined, we've had at least 7 jobs.  We've welcomed 3 nephews.  We driven the stretch of I-40 between OKC and Amarillo more times than I care to count up. 

Some other highlights were hosting international students in our home, moving here to China, being debt-free (exclusive of our mortgage), a Christmas trip to Wyoming, our honeymoon in St. Maarten, an anniversary trip to Arkansas, being involved in our house church in Oklahoma, and of course, having Catherine and Ann! And James just read over my shoulder and said I should add "buying a trike" to our list of highlights. 

We were able to celebrate by getting "away" for about 24 hours.  We just went to a hotel a couple blocks from our house, but we enjoyed being removed from our normal life even if just for a bit.  A local friend watched the girls for us and did a fabulous job!  It was our first time away from Ann for more than 3ish hours EVER so it was nice to know we could get home quickly if we needed.  But, our local friend was amazing and the girls were good for her. 

Here's us pulling out of our complex.

 Some views of the hotel room.  Not bad for $48, right?  There's another area to the left of the chair I didn't get a picture of and another seating area and a small kitchen area. 

The first place we tried to eat dinner didn't exist.  Rumors.....grrrrrrr.

This is us at the second place we tried to eat dinner at.  We couldn't eat dinner because some tour group had the whole restaurant for the evening.  Then I had to use the restroom and it was bad enough for me to try to find an online complaint form.  It wasn't just bad for a 4/5 star hotel, it was bad for China.  :( 

 So we opted for a third location.  At least we weren't dragging the girls around from place to place with us and having time out and about in the city together was nice.  Although I wish I could say everything went smoothly at the third location, that's not exactly accurate.  Some of the things we wanted to order weren't available and we had to send some things back that weren't done; however, they were open, let us eat, had clean bathrooms, and resolved our issues well.  And we so enjoyed sitting and eating a meal uninterrupted by feeding little mouths or diaper changes. 

After dinner we stopped at a bakery for two pieces of cake. 

 James and I have kept almost every card, note, or letter we've written each other.  I had hoped to get them all compiled in to a binder or organized in some fashion.  At least I know have the project started.  It's just that the kind of task that involves spreading papers out across a surface is the very kind of task I can't do with the "helping" hands and feet roaming about.

Enjoying some last moments of rest before we return to reality. 

 Some views of our city from the hotel room.  16 floors up and floor to ceiling windows along two walls.