Quiz

What could cause a child to quake with fear, retreat to the floor of the car, and not stop crying until we were far away?

Linda the Llama? Nope, she's too gentle.

Willy the Wildebeest? Too bored with humans.

The pretty Oryx? No way! He let you pet him.

The other type of Oryx with the straight horns? Nope, wouldn't even come close.




The big bison? Too sleepy!

It's Ozzy. Ozzy the Ostrich! Helped himself to our car, and nipped Tyler's finger. He looks sweet here, but he's a maniac!

The Zoo

Several families in our ward have Zoo memberships. It's very inexpensive, it's something for the whole family, and the San Antonio Zoo is supposedly one of the best in the nation. So we decided to jump on the bandwagon and join too.

We had a lot of fun fake fishing...

Drumming...

Posing...


Jumping...



And climbing...

...Maybe next time he'll be interested in the animals!

This Made Me Cry

If you've been following NieNie at all, you know all about her and her husband's plane crash, and subsequent fight for life; you know all about her burns; you know all her family, especially her sister Courtney, who is raising her children. You also know how the blogging community has come together to support her and her family, and you know what a missionary tool it's been to thousands.

Well, after several months, Nie Nie is back, and she posted her first blog post AC (after the crash). That picture of her and her husband in their burn bandages...oh, it just hit me hard this morning. That is true love right there. To know how incredible of a couple they were before, and to know that by God's grace they can continue being together, even though it will be painful and costly, and scary, and whatever else...it's a miracle.

And speaking of miracles, how about that plane crash yesterday? Amazing!

Man Tag

My friend and former mission companion, Lindsay, tagged me just in time! I had no idea what to write about today, so here's my version of Husband Tag.

Brad's 5 favorite things:

1. Family

2. Lasagna

3. Playing soccer

4. Watching football

5. Vacations

5 things on his to-do list:

1. Spray the yard w/ weed and bug killer

2. Get a better office space

3. Go gray or bald, so people won't think he's a kid at his job

4. Prepare this week's Sunday School lesson

5. Take family to Wildlife Ranch (thanks TJ and fam!)

5 snacks he loves:

1. Chocolate ice cream

2. Chocolate

3. Cheese ball w/ Wheat Thins

4. Chocolate Chip Cookies

5. m&m's

5 facts you may not know about him:

1. He gets just about all his clothes at thrift stores, but he's a total shoe snob. He would NEVER buy a pair of shoes at some place like Payless.

2. His summer jobs as a kid included picking beans, KFC, and working at a shoe store.

3. He is freakishly strong.

4. He'll be getting his LCSW (the highest licensure in his profession) this month!

5. He loves bubble baths.

5 places he has lived:

1. Idaho

2. Utah

3. Oklahoma

4. Missouri

5.Texas

5 quirky things about him:

1. He compartmentalizes his food. No foods touching each other, unless it's a casserole.

2. He has been known to cheat at board games.

3. He loves the Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

4. He loves the feeling of getting in a really hot car, even on really hot days.

5. When I'm out of town, he has challenges with himself to see if he can go without going to a grocery store or out to eat. He'd eat PB from a spoon rather than go get something somewhere!

I tag anyone who doesn't know what to write about on their next post!

My Word for 2009

Nurture:

• to help develop; help grow
• to feed and protect
• to support and encourage

I feel a real push to be more nurturing this year. I've never thought of myself as a nurturing person. I've never really liked babysitting, or animals, or other nurturing-type things. I think my call to serve in the Primary has kicked me in the bum a little bit towards this. But I don't think this goal ends with the Primary kids.

I can definitely stand to nurture my relationships more: with my husband, my son, friends and family, and the Savior.

I want to learn how to nurture plants better. My dad gave me some MARVELOUS bulbs and I want to treat them right and have some beautiful flowers.

I want to continue nurturing my own health. I've been taking care of myself a little bit more and I want to continue on that path.

This word just has a lot of meaning for me this year, so thanks to Tip Junkie for the challenge.

A Taste of the Holidays

What a great Christmas Season we had! Blogging wasn't exactly first priority, so here's a taste of what we did last month.

Tyler's preschool put on a little Christmas concert for us.

The Big Guy in Red visited our ward party, and Tyler chatted his ear off. Seriously, we had to pry him off Santa's lap, because other kids were starting to get mad.


Our first day in Eugene brought SNOW!!!

Snow Angels with snow are a lot more fun than just pretending, like we do in San Antonio!

Christmas morning line-up. Love the teenager's glee on the top of the stairs. If he'd had his say, we would have waited a couple more hours. As it was, we had to wake all the kids up!

Santa hit paydirt with this one.

Back home in San Antonio, we had to try Pioneer Woman's black-eyed pea salsa on New Year's Day for good luck. We do live in the South now, ya know.