Coming to you LIVE: Your local Norris update!

Hello, Family (y nosotros amigos)

Quick recap on the most interesting weekend to date...

So, sweet Cate caught an allergy to cheese- oh wait. Incorrect diagnosis from someone educated enough to know better- she actually had a virus! (Apologies for my bitterness. I just wish I would've known, is all)

Cate threw up all of Thursday and still continues to have "tummy troubles" as of this evening. I caught the bug late Saturday and (as of about 9:30 tonight) feel several times better- just in time for Caleb's first bought of it. Poor kid, he's in running to the bathroom as I type...
~~~~~~pause to help out~~~~~~~~

Cale left Friday afternoon for ?San Marcos? to go camping and float the river with a couple guy friends. I've heard some silly stories and all in all it sounds like they had a great time! On the drive up they witnessed a driver "under the influence" get caught (I thought: thank goodness no one was hurt! the boys thought: perfect youtube moment!!!) by a state trooper. Caleb said it seemed like a pretty dangerous situation- so of course they videotaped it. haha. typical guy thing, I suppose. They had some strange "campsite neighbors", too apparently. They grilled fish (that Caleb caught the weekend before) and had manfood and then floated all day Saturday and napped on and off until Sunday morning when they had to come home because my insides were trying to come out my mouth...
which leads to our side of the weekend!:
On Friday Cate helped me take apart and wash the carseat covers (since she was the one that vomitted on them) and put them back together. Friday night the kids and I went to the Hunsuckers' house for dinner and I played cards with them for a bit before the kids were ready for bed. On Saturday Josiah and Cate went to my mom and dad's so I could fill in for Sister at her soccer game (we lost to the worst team in the league- go figure). It was super fun. Although, I had the strangest feeling in my tummy for the majority of the game- like right as you're catching the flu...- which that night turned out to be the virus that Cate so sweetly passed on to me. My sister came over and petted me to sleep and I (rockely) made it through the night; although, my mom and sister had to hold my house down the next day!

Side note: (thank you, God) I'm holding a pretty decent GPA considering the amount of time that I actually have compared to amount of time I assumed I'd have. Woo hoo!
Also: Be praying for Caleb. His job's..... getting him thinking about our future.

That's enough! Love you guys!

2 blogs in 1 day!

Totally got a job (if you can call it that)! I'm so excited! Even though I'm super-pumped about the job itself, I'm over-the-top crazy about the fact that it's a set start and end time. I am such a flaky person and I get bored at jobs really easy (even thought it's been two years since I've had a job, i'm sure it'd be the same!) and quite frankly we don't need the money. So, I don't want to work hard. I want to have fun and get out of the house to do something mindless and be around adults! Hurray! I get to! (Don't ask me what it is; my mother's ashamed and said keep it on the DL)

...........I'm not a stripper. They said my boobs are too small.


Jerks.

nerdy, nerdy, bo berdy; me, my, mo merdy...

I typically can't wait to get Caleb out of the house so I can have some "quiet (ish)" time by myself. I LOVVVEEE reading and I think that's one of Caleb's biggest pet peeves is my love (obsession) for reading. So, me and my books, typically, have a torrid affair any time Cale's out of the house.
I'll usually find something flannel, pop two or three bags (that's the amount it takes to get an unburned bag; I'm not a pig!) of popcorn and wash my face of all my "pretty" (as Josiah calls it) and hunker down on the couch with my AWESOME gramma quilt and just read until my eyes can't take it any more.
I was reminiscing at my mom's the other night in her library. I rode my bike (Cate in -tow) to my parents to have my daddy fix this bolt-thing and it took a bit more time than we both thought. Well.... I was looking in my mom's library and I noticed that almost an entire wall was MY childhood reading: All of Rhald Dahl's novels, Mark Twain, Diary of Anne Frank, books on Geology, Bugs, Geography... I didn't really have any books that were age appropriate and as I recall almost every single one of those particular shelves contained books from before I was 10.

All of this to say, I realized why I had no friends growing up! As much as I joke about being a nerd and admit to having very few friends growing up... It's true. I say these things in jest, but they're all bloody true! It's so sad.

Ah well, we all have things. Caleb talks in his sleep; I'm a nerd.

......and Cate's first book was The Great Gatsby (someone save her now! haha)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9 'no's for every 'yes'

I think whoever made up that saying is a liar... I'm going on about a gagillion "no"s and have yet to get a bite.
I am hoping for a glimmer of hope to appear in the form of Manhatten cuz one of my most favorite friends lives closeby and I'd get to see her!!!! That'd be the highlight of the trip; not the job. haha ................thinking if this truly IS the case, may need to rethink desired profession.


What doesn't kill you or reduce you to a pile of pathetic mess will only make you stronger....maybe.

:) Glad to be alive and healthy and have something to look forward to!

"Dr. Mom Monday"

So, our precious Catie-bugg ate fuzz yesterday... Specific Fuzz, not just "silly Cate ate some carpet fuzz! hardy har." nope. Not my baby girl.

Story goes this way:

I walk into our room after chasing Tucker down to retrieve some over-priced, ruffled baby socks from the back of his throat. After checking to make sure he hadn't stored anything else away for the winter, I put the pathetic socks into the kitchen sink to soak in bleach, scrubbed my hands, and then scrubbed them again... and then headed to my room to collect Cate and head to the store with her and her big brother.
First thing I saw when I walked into the room was this HUGE foam baseball bat up in the air. Oh, and so sweet! This enormous bat was holding my sweet cate. I wish I'd taken a picture, now! Well, my first thought was how sweet it was 'Josiah LOVES baseball', and then 'he should see his Sissy holding this bat!' I got down on the floor to coo with her about how cute it is that she loves what her Bubby loves, yadda yadda and I notice that the bat is no longer a bat, but a wounded prisoner to our crazy dog! It's missing an alarmingly large chunk from one side! I look at Cate and say, "Silly Tucker must have knawed Bubby's bat!"
Cate thinks this notion is hilarious and opens her mouth to let out her infamous belly-laughter.... Her whole mouth is FULL FULL FULL of this styrofoam! She was the guilty party in dismembering the bat!!! She looked like a little chipmunk! The best part was Cool Kid wouldn't let me get it out. She absolutely flipped out on me like I was the plague and made a break for it. Long story short I pinned her down (I know, I know, Call CPS, right?). I tried to open her mouth and she just got more angry with me and locked it shut (after biting me twice).
FINALLY, I sat her in my lap on our bed to try and laugh it out of her. First thing I tried: Opened my mouth as wide and awkward as I could and went "awwwwwwhhhhhh!!!!". Right at first she just stared at my mouth and furrowed her little baby brow.... not even a second later she opened her mouth, stuck her tiny toungue out and copied me: "awwwwwwwhhhhhh!!!!"

This story is three-fold:

1. My baby learned to say "ahhhhh" (and to mimic those who do it first)
2. Cate survived this tragic foam event.
3. I have the cutest kids in the world, bar none.

sex sex sex!

I hate how the church has abandoned junior high and high school girls and guys. Sure, there's a ministry for them, whatever. But, honestly. I have not met a girl that feels genuinely loved on or a young man that feels like he's growing into a man. A real man.
Seriously. Instead of marrying off the young pregnant girl and calling it a day, let's freaking be proactive and teach the kids about sex! Not that it's bad and not that it's only for marriage. They need to know what it is, and they need to bloody be aware of what safe sex is. I'm not condoning sex outside of wedlock; But, seriously. Hoping to raise ignorant, naive little girls isn't going to cut it. Buying a ring and making them promise is CRAP when they fall in "love" for the first time, have their heart broken, have little or no relationship with their earthly daddy. Honestly, now. I am sick, I'm physically sick over listening to girls my own age gossip about teenage pregnancy like it's a joke and even listen to high school girls with plans to get pregnant. It's disgusting and I don't know where the hell their parents are or why they choose not to pray for, love on, or discipline their kids. I realize there are extreme cases; I know that God allows things to happen to bring glory to himself, but unless your child is forced into sex and a pregnancy occurs- file charges on the fool if you can't kill him first- there is no excuse for parents to neglect teaching teenagers about safe sex. We should teach them and fill their little heads with knowledge and then pray them into the right direction.
I wish that a man, somewhere, would saddle up and teach these young guys how to be men. I was floored when a (christian!) high school boy joked (in front of me, my husband and my 3 year old) about getting his high school girlfriend pregnant (she's not). And I am furious that the girls that at one point have called eachother 'friend' have alienated themselves from this sweet girl and possibly driven her into a physical relationship that they assumed was already happening. If there was a girl that shared the body of Christ with me that I knew or thought I knew was even just entertaining an idea of a physical relationship outside of what she'd do in front of me, the LAST thing I'd do is leave her and allow her to cling to that relationship more. Girls need girlfriends! What happened to sleepovers and silly games and braiding eachothers' hair?!
Where are these girls' dads to teach them how to be respected and loved and treated daintily. Probably trying on high heels and pearls while mom's out mowing the lawn, waiting for November 4th so she can vote for Obama.

Lord, please break the christians of this nation and humble us. Please remind us of what this, one shot at life we've got. Thank you, God that you have not reduced us all to ashes and that in your grace you allow me to vent my anger towards an unrightious nation and community, even though I not once taken notice that I unjustly take my anger out on my children, talk ugly to my own husband and leave a sink full of dishes for tomorrow's day. Your name is what I should say when I'm weary and when I'm angry and when I 'just don't feel like it'. Lord, call this nation back to you and bring about even just one more revival before you send Jesus back to collect us. You tell us clearly that you'll answer if we just humble ourselves and call on you. Lord, make us humble. Help all the dad's to follow you in everything they do. Help us wives to be gentle, quiet, and peaceful and remind us to pray over our husbands and that you have everything under control. Give even one young man the desire to step up for the guys in our church. And, lead him to a place where you can use him to show the boys.... how to be boys. Heal the little girls' hearts and fill them with the comfort that only a heavenly father can provide. Remind them who their body belongs to and that only once they've married the one whom their heart is called to love, do they give their body to become someone else's. Help us as parents know how to speak to our kids; I'm sure it must be hard, Lord...because otherwise it'd get done.
Praise you God. Thank you, Lord for calling me.

I'm a housewife with politics in my DNA, not a bloody gardener!

This week I got a little over 200 pictures developed from the span of February to mid-May. I realized two things after getting those pictures back: 1. I don't take enough pictures and 2. something is amiss with my shrubs.
Included in the pictures are the photos of Cale and I planting the little guys, and funny- THEY'RE THE SAME BLOODY SIZE as they were in March! The shrubs out front have been there for....3 months or so. We planted them exactly when the card (Home Depot "plant me" card) said and they're tiny. They're quite small, anyway, compared to what the picture said they'd be.

It's so bewilderring the selective magical powers you receive when you become a mom. I got the "I can totally handle any poo diaper" and "bat ears" powers. I don't know why God left out the gardening-power. I've always desired to be that gardener. You know, the one that looks at a baby weed-like thing and goes: "Oh, this is a lkjsdflke Tree. It's native to lkjlj;lj." Nah, much to my chagrin, I'll have to find something else to fill the yard-shaped hole in my heart.



So Cate's totally climbing my bookshelf. Yup, I sure did take a shelf out this week to make it more difficult for her.... we shall see

*Side note: Picture: I'm walking down the hall to get Cate from her crib. She's just awaken for the day and is cooing. I notice quickly that she and Josiah are talking. I peek just enough around the corner to see them and duck back around out of sight, again. Josiah's telling her a story: ".... and then I hear the thumber and I climbed up, up, up my tool bench. Suddenly! I saw it was raining, sissy! I watched it rain for 40 nights and 40 days and God flooded for the whole earth. and Noah sends his friend a dove to get his Olive leaf and look! God sended his rainbow in the sky. It's His rainbow for his promising He's not going to flood the earth again. Noah had a BIG ark, Sissy!" There was a brief pause, and knowing Josiah he's planning on venturing into the animals that were contained inside the ark and all the birds and zoo creatures and how they kicked out the dinosaurs because they smelled bad.... "Sissy, gimme back my umbrunda, Sissy! Mine!!!" Beautiful moment: over and out.

How do you spell SAN-EE?

I have got to blog this before I forget to write it down somewhere!

Intro: Josiah has named each pet that has (somehow) gotten into the house and on "feed and keep" status. His (first) cat of almost two years has actually gone through a meriad of names (won't give you a list) and has settled (nicely because of the jolly jelly that he carries 'round his midsection) on "Santa".


For a little over a week, Josiah's been calling Santa "san-ee". "It's his nip-name," I'm told. "You know, like Emma calls me 'Yah-yah' and A-toya (Victoria from Playschool) calls me 'siah'. My nip-name, Mom." Of course, I'm extremely uncool for not knowing this already. Duh, who wouldn't nicname a cat "Sannie"?! Earth to Mom!

He's so sweet. I just really didn't want to forget our funny kitty's "nip-name".

World small. God big

It's so funny (ironic might be a better word) that I express my feelings about God finding enjoyment in "showing off" for us, but I think that- correction: come to realize that- I don't really believe it. Well, I don't act like it any way... My Paw paw taught my mama that "you do what you want to do" meaning actions speak louder than words/walk the walk/ among others...

All the babble to say... God showed off for me. In my funny Biology class, God showed off for me! He cares about ME! How awe-some. I feel special and important. And I'm so excited to show Him to the others in my class. I'm so excited to know that even before Adam was brought to a beautiful garden and before God made the sky, He thought about me leaving college to marry the one my heart loves, begin and complete our melodious little family, and then come back to school on a whim and be in exactly the class I'm in, with exactly the teacher I have with exactly the people He wanted to touch through my sinful, discusting, wretched, saved, redeemed, loved and mercied.... self. How wonderful.

I will love the Lord with all my heart with all my soul with all my mind... with all my strength.

*I got to sing to the Lord last night with my surrogate big sister and a close friend from high school. At the same time a very new, amazing friend was laboring to bring her husband's first son into the world. We were all worshipping God together.
The song said "sing all you want to. But, don't get me wrong; worship is more than a song." It was stuck in my head all day. I keep thinking about it- and it was so COOL explaining it to Josiah- that I DO I DO I DO love to sing to the Lord (stop laughing. I know you think it's aweful! But God Almighty thinks it sounds like Celine Dion!) but it was so nice being reminded that yes, sing all you want to. Freaking sing!!! All the time, if you must! But worship is more than just that. I think (a friend of my mom's will have to let me borrow a quote) that a huge portion of worship is looking at the same thing as everyone else, but seeing God's hand in its place.

on the 5th

Cate started climbing at some point recently. Last week on the 5th, I looked up from cooking and she was standing up on the couch, leaning over the armrest looking at my collection of magazines...

Should have painted a "pre baby dying" story picture: the cushions are off the couch and she's about 4-6 inches off the ground as she crawled up...

But she was so sweet! She just looked at me and grinned; so proud of herself. I am too. She's wonderful. Josiah's excited about her learning to climb because he is desperate to play football with her. Any time I have to tell him "Sissy's just not old enough yet", he'll respond: "Yes. Sissy's not old enough. She's almost old enough to play football with me. She can play football when she's old enough." Such a silly boy. But he loves his sister. And she adores her big brother... for good reason.

Here we go with another week at the Crazy Farm! :)
I start summer school tomorrow. Little nervous, but I'm so excited to be done. I told Josiah at dinner that I was excited about school (I've been carrying my books around everywhere!) and that I start back tomorrow and he said, "And I start MY job tomorrow!" haha. He's just so silly!

What's his job, you ask? Well, he told me that he'll be working on his bike and his hummer. You'll have to get details from him....

Here comes Monday...

2+2= 10?!

Jackie's two youngest kiddos are here this morning through the afternoon. It's so amazing to see how far they've come in such a short time! Caleb and I and the kids got to hang out with them just a few months ago and from then to today.... it's like 2 different kids! I'm so proud of their adoptive parents and excited for the two boys that they now have such an amazing life ahead of them because of the start that was given them. Praise God for people that have a heart for hurting babies.

But for now.... in my house today... my two kids and her two kids feel like 10! In the first hour.... Micah's been barreled over by Tucker (our mutt), his face has been smashed by Josiah's bucket, Noah is frightened of the dog and was slapped by Cate (enough to cry)....
But, go me: I had breakfast and coffee made for all 4 and they're (I think) having a good time.

.....I could have 10 kids

*coffee was for me! ;)