Bella's 1st Hair-cut

So I'm finally getting some pictures from Dallas on here...

While we were in Dallas, Bella got her first haircut.

But it wasn't just from anyone...she got her first haircut from my grandmother's hairdresser, Xiomara (pronounced Cee-o-mara) that also cut my hair when I was about 6... She also gave the first grandchild on the Albright side (Karen) her first haircut almost 40 years ago.

She is the sweetest lady in the world, and she refused to let me take a picture of her...

But here are pictures of Bella... she didn't like it too much. No pictures of tears here, but the tears did come...so sad. But her hair looks better!

ABCs

I got this from my sister-in-law. Thought it was fun.

A - Age: 25
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: vacuuming - there just doesn't seem to be a point when you don't have a Rainbow...it just pounds all the dirt into the ground, clogs up the filter in like 30 seconds, and causes stuff to be in the air forever causing me to sneeze. Yeah...really need a Rainbow.
D - Dad's Name: William Kemp Albright
E - Essential start your day item: Bella
F - Favorite actor(s): Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Jeremy Piven...
G - Gold or Silver: Silver, or Platinum...yellow gold - not so much.
H - Height: 5' 4.5"
I - Instruments you play(ed): vocals, cello, guitar, and piano. in that order.
J - Job title: Stay-at-home-mom, or for the more "politically correct" version I laughed at my phone company for: "domestic engineer".
K - Kid(s): Bella (2 in April), Baby #2 due in September.
L - Living arrangements: comfy single-family house in a wonderful, quiet neighborhood, with Bella and Neil, when he's not out to sea...
M - Mom's name: Olivia Catherine (Matl) Albright
N - Nicknames: Pam, Pammy, Pamcakes, Pamcakes & Syrup, Aunt Jamima, Ramalamahampam, Spam, Cooking Spray, Panama, Ms. Pam, Baby, Hon, Sweetums, Mommy...and the most random..."Mrs. Mike Jones - don't act like you don't know"...weird story.
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: 2 or 3 overnight stays because of preterm labor scares, hernia surgery when I was 5 weeks old, and viral meningitis when I was 6 weeks old.
P - Pet Peeve: whining; clutter.
Q - Favorite Quotes: "Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate." Captain Jack Sparrow - Pirates of the Caribbean; "Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath." Godfrey of Ibelin - Kingdom of Heaven.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: Jessica (28), Brandon (19), Stephen (16)
T - Time you wake up: right now, about 7am. Bella's having trouble getting changed back to Eastern Time...
U - Unusual fact about you: My PJs have to match - always. It drives me crazy if they don't.
V - Vegetable you dislike: beets, radishes, turnip greens...anything like that. yuck.
W - What makes you run late: it's in the Albright blood. Drives Neil crazy.
X - X-rays you've had: Back, hip, shoulder, foot, teeth.
Y - Yummy food you make: French Dip Sandwiches, Chicken Spaghetti, Tortilla Pie, Chicken Salad, Pizza...oh, and lots of desserts...the list goes on! I love to cook!
Z - Zodiac: Gemini...but who cares?

In Dallas - week 2

1. Bella experienced the Little Gym this week - balls, bubbles, balance beams, sign language, and ALL the fun gym equipment she could! Who is Mommy anyway? Apparently she doesn't need me there!

2. Bella has been waking up dry in the mornings a lot since we've been here...we say "All night, All dry - BIG GIRL!" She gets excited. Usually she wakes up about 2 times to go to the bathroom at night when she's dry in the morning...so, so cool for a 22 month-old! I must say that I'm proud!

3. Dinner's company last night consisted of 3 cousins (Jennifer, Lauren and I), and 2 second cousins (Bella and Kaylee). way fun!

4. I finally get to spend some time with my mom tomorrow! I'm excited!

5. I think we may venture out to the grocery store with Gigi again today...much patience needed.

oh, and I've been averaging running once/ week. not cool. too many circumstances... hip hurting, foot doing something weird... ugh! I just want to run!!! There is supposed to be good weather this weekend. hopefully, I'll be up to par.

10 things we've done in Dallas - week 1

10. Had a HUGE family dinner (13 people) at Bucca de Beppo - a family style Italian Restaurant.
9. Didn't go anywhere for 2 days because of a crazy ICE STORM.
8. Signed Bella up for Little Gym while we're here. She starts Monday - way exciting!
7. Watched too much TV. I seriously don't know how people watch TV all the time. so boring.
6. slept way too much
5. Took Gigi to the grocery store. Sounds mundane...but no...very stressful, actually.
4. Colored a LOT with Bella
3. Played Dress-up with Bella's new PINK Feather Boa...she loves it! ha!
2. Played "Shape Searchers" while we were stuck inside.
1. went running in 60* weather a WEEK ago! I'm looking forward for the temps to go up again!

Christmas Break

Ok, so here's the story of our Christmas stand-down (Christmas break for you non-Navy folk):

We flew in on Christmas Adam (Heather's term...Adam came before Eve... Dec. 23)

We went to mass with my family on Christmas Eve - and Bella successfully sat (stood, crawled...) through her first entire church service - and it was MASS!!

Here's Neil and I Christmas Eve Night at St. Mark's:

Here's my Dad and Bella...Dad is in a choir robe for those wondering, and he's pointing to the Nativity scene...showing Bella Baby Jesus.

This is my cousin Jenn and her daughter Kaylee. Kaylee is almost 5 months now...and has grown a lot since the last time her picture was posted here (see Sept. 08). Beautiful Girls.

So we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family, then drove to Dry Prong, LA (Prospect Community actually...) the day after Christmas to spend time with Neil's Family. We also got to see some long-time friends we haven't seen in a while.

This is Maryann. Awesome Girl. College Best Friend. Bridesmaid in our wedding. We talk and it's like time and distance never happened. She still challenges me in my walk just as much as she did when we saw each other all the time. She's the new youth minister at First United Methodist in Pineville. Isn't she beautiful??

This is Bella's new friend, Kaitlyn. Daughter of Brent and Michelle Sawyer. Brent was a groomsman in our wedding. Kaitlyn Just celebrated her first Birthday - Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

On our way back to Dallas from Louisiana, we had to stop in Tyler, TX for som Bodacious BBQ. Just. Plain. Texas. Good. YUM!!! After we ate, we spent some time playing around outside the resturaunt to get some blood flowing...and to keep Bella from feeling so trapped.

When we got back to Texas, we spent a couple more days with my family. One of those days was spent going to Glenn Rose and Granbury, TX. There is a nuclear power plant in Glenn Rose, and we wanted to check out the town to see if it was a place where we may want to live. It's seriously perfect! Granbury is about 20 min. from the plant. It has one small, cute downtown square area.

Here we are at an ice cream shop that Dad said he and Mom used to take us girls to every time we passed through Granbury. We had RootBeer floats. Bella's first RootBeer float experience, and obviously...it was a good one!

other than the downtown area, it has one street that has tons of resources - Walmart, clothes stores, another grocery store, a bookstore, etc. But that's it! The rest of the place is country...and I can't forget to mention the absolutely beautiful LAKE in the middle of the town. seriously beautiful. So...country for Neil...resources for me...cute downtown...an hour away from my parent's house. About 30 min. SW of the westernmost part of Ft. Worth...we're trying not to get too excited about it this early...but it's hard...

This is Dad and Bella at a playground we "happened upon" in Glen Rose... Dinosaur Valley Park is in Glen Rose, so this playground was completely Dinosaur themed. kinda cute.

We got back to Georgia on Jan 2. and it's been kinda crazy since then.... but, until next time...

Rock my World!

Much to my amazement and pure delight, about 2 weeks ago Neil suggested that we start reading together at night - meaning reading to each other. A little background: We've been at a soul-searching kind of place since Neil's been home the past 2 months...(ok, maybe longer). We've been seeking God in deep ways - with lots of changes coming up, making decisions about the future. It's a great place to be in, because we're open to new possibilities. We've been hungry for something real - challenging us to the core - yet something tangible - how do we REALLY show Christ to the world? How do we REALLY walk in His steps? How can we, in a sense, be "Jesus with skin on"?
We wanted something that challenged us more than just in our marriage. We wanted a fresh realization of God's word - something that didn't just make us "feel good" and we could walk away from it and never think about it again. We wanted something to rock our world as it shed light on scriptures we didn't fully understand.
So, after looking at our home book collection and not finding anything that fit the bill, we drove with Bella to Jacksonville to the Christian Book store, and just started thumbing through books. Neil came across one that he was really excited about and he showed it to me. At first glance, it didn't seem like anything special - but he had read more within the book than I had, since I was kinda chasing Bella around (a kid that LOVES books in a store FULL of books...not a good combination...), but he was so excited about it that I was like "OK, sure. If that's the one you want."
we took it home and read the first chapter that night. The whole time we're reading, we're looking at each other all wide-eyed and after we finished the first chapter, we wanted to jump up and down and shout out loud in pure joy. Perhaps most people wouldn't be, because it challenges everything we have ever been taught about what it means to be a Christian in America. It challenges us to read the Scriptures in a way we never have before...To read scripture and bring it to life! It challenges us to think outside of ourselves in a way I never have before. Our butts have been officially kicked over and over and over, yet instead of feeling defeated and beat down, we feel relief. We have heard something real. something tangible. Something that matters. Something that puts some skin on Jesus in a world that desperately needs Him to be real.
we're still reading...and learning...and growing...and seeking God in every way imaginable. He's rocking our pretty little privilaged American suburbia world, and we can't get enough!
The name of the book?
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
Here's just a clip, and it doesn't even scratch the surface...(pg. 41)
"I know there are people out there who say,'My life was such a mess. I was drinking, parying, sleeping around...and then I met Jesus and my whole life came together.' God bless those people. But me, I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life. The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued, and hoped for upside-down. I am still recovering from my conversion."

The book of Acts is full of people whose lives were messed up when they met Jesus.
If the gospel hasn't messed up our lives, then maybe we're doing something wrong...

New Traditions

Today is all about new Christmas traditions.
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that our family is doing Christmas a bit differently this year. Well, there are a lot of things that are different, actually.

First of all, we aren't exchanging gifts this year. There are many reasons for this, but let's focus on the main reason. Growing up, it didn't matter that my parents told me time and time again that Christmas was about Christ's birth. It didn't matter that we went to church every Christmas Eve to celebrate that fact, and I always sang a solo of Oh Holy Night. It didn't matter that we did things as a family to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christ's birth. It didn't matter that we always adopted an "Angel Tree" family and helped deliver gifts to people in need - teaching us that Christmas was about Giving rather than getting, and that we should help out those that are less fortunate than ourselves. All of these things were amazing, and I give props to my parents for trying really hard to get the real reason of Christmas instilled into our little heads. But no matter how much they tried to emphasize Christ on Christmas, I still always looked forward to one thing - what I was getting on Christmas morning. That I was getting presents. From everyone. From Santa, from my parents, from my brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. I gave all of these people gifts as well, but that wasn't exciting to me. It was the gifts I got that mattered. What can I say? I was selfish.

Neil says that growing up, leading up to Christmas, he was always thinking about what he was going to get on Christmas morning. He says that even as an adult, he would be more excited about what he was recieving than what he was giving.

So we started thinking about this. We wanted a change. Our hearts were changing, and we wanted to get rid of the baggage. And do we really want Bella growing up expecting gifts on Christmas morning as we did? No, we want more for her than that.
We want her to really, truly understand that the day we celebrate Christmas is totally focused on Christ. And the only way we can teach her that, is if we experience it for ourselves.
We no longer want the focus on ourselves (meaning everybody - people in general). we want the focus on Christ.

Many may argue that the wise men brought Jesus gifts. And they did-it's true. But that's just it - they brought Jesus gifts. Not Mary, not Joseph, not the Shepherds...it was HIS day - not Mary's day, or Joseph's day...you get the point. It was all about Christ. That He, and He alone is worthy of our praise.
So instead of giving each other gifts on His day, we want to give our hearts to Christ. How do we do that in a tangible way? Well, that's a good question, and we're still working on it. But I think it means being his hands and feet. Doing what we are called to do all year long - love. and love is an action. I've got some thoughts in my head that have been brewing for probably about 8 years...maybe I'll actually follow through this year.

In the meantime...here's some other stuff we're doing instead of gifts:

1. The Jesse Tree. Not a Christmas Tree, although from a distance it may look the same, simply because we're using what we already have. We set up our "Christmas" tree, put lights and an angel on it, but the rest is quite different. These are no ordinary ornaments, and the tree doesn't get decorated all at once. It started out just with lights. A day at a time we add an ornament to the tree - and our tree tells God's love story over the course of 4 weeks. Each ornament is decorated with a symbol that represents something in scripture. Starting in Genesis, and leading up to the birth of Christ, we read a passage of scripture every night, then Bella gets to put the appropriate ornament on the tree that represents what we read.
examples: a mud-man for Adam, the ark and the rainbow for Noah, the burning bush and the 10 commandments for Moses, a harp for David... I love it.

2. Making a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake, singing "happy birthday" and celebrating that it's His birthday.

3. Having family worship time. I'm taking my guitar to Texas, as my family has requested, and we're going to sing and praise the Lord together as a family.

4. Enjoying each other's company and soaking it all in.
So many times, we've noticed that when it comes to our family gatherings, we would all be talking and hanging out together, and then as soon as it became "open gifts" time, the conversations would cease and all attention is focused on the opening of gifts. How sad, when we don't get to see each other very often! So this year we are just enjoying one another and having good quality family time.

5. Giving to charity. Somehow what we decided to do (not exchange gifts) with our immediate family (Neil, Bella, and I) had already started spreading to MY immediate family...which then started spreading to my mom's side of the family...
anyway, on my mom's side, we've decided to put together all the money that we would have spent on each other for gifts and give it to a charity. One person each year gets to choose what charity we give to.

So I guess you could say that all those things my parents tried to instill in me as a kid really weren't a waste after all. It's just taken all of us a while to really "get it." I'm excited to see what this year holds. So far, it's amazing...and it's not even Christmas yet! I feel like I'm anticipating the coming of Christmas the way I'm supposed to for the first time ever. And I feel closer to my Savior because of it. What an amazing thing.