I had to post a picture from last weekend, since, well, nothing's happened this week.

Greta's been sick since Monday, which is a sad thing. She's definitely getting better, but we also definitely haven't accomplished much this week (unless you count the number of times we watched Pocahontas or Pocahontas II or the discovery of the new hits Pet Party and Puppy Party).

I did, however, manage to get good and hit on by a black man at least 40 years my senior the other day. The conversation went something like this:

"So.... are you married? A girl like you's gotta be married."

"Yes, actually, I am married!"

five minutes later

"So.... are you married for real?"

"Uh, yep. We've been married just about 4 years!" I scramble to look busy with Greta, try not to make eye contact, try to ignore him as much as possible.
"Well, do you love your husband?"
I decided it was a good idea to answer this question. "I do love my husband. We're really happy."

"But does he give you everything you want AND what you need?"

"You know what, he does. I'm really happy with him."

By this point, I'm blushing pretty badly, which never helps anything.

He turns in again, "Do you want to know a secret of mine?"
"This really isn't a good place for secrets."
I then really hustled to ignore him and play with my baby. I'm not sure what exactly he was saying, and I also know I tried very hard not to know what he was saying.

Luckily, another man interrupted and let him know it was his turn at the next window.

So. There you have it. I've clearly still got game.

And though we canceled our Galveston beach plans for the weekend since Greta's still a little too under the weather, we're going to try and get our act together for something this weekend.

Have a good one yourself!

prayer roll

...meanwhile, we're having to institute some pretty heavy prayer restrictions at our house.

Greta's recently learned how to fold her arms and is pretty jazzed about participating in family prayer at mealtimes and bedtime. But, we're clearly not meeting her prayer needs--nor her zeal.

Inevitably, during dinner, she'll fold her arms, nod, and look between Jason and I until we do the same. Not wanting to discourage prayer, we went along with it for awhile. Three dinner prayers. Two lunch prayers. Several bedtime prayers.

Then, as she got more demanding, we decided we had to rein it in. "Sorry Greta, we only pray once at dinner." "No, we're not going to fold our arms right now."

Sometimes I cave. After she kept requesting prayers last night and I was refusing, she let out a pitiful "please?" Seriously? How can I resist that one year old 'please?' (Especially since it sounds like ''eeeeeesh'' and she says it in the back of her throat.)

The other night as we put her to bed, she was exceptionally hysterical. In an effort to thwart her screams, I started praying. It worked. Jason and I took turns, back and forth, back and forth. She folded her arms and would calm momentarily until the "amen." After 6 or 7 prayers and a remaining hysterical child, I just went with it. I started praying and you can bet I kept praying aloud until that child was good and asleep.

Which is also to say, we're praying for a lot of things these days and a lot of people by name (good thing this girl has lots of family!) If anyone else would like in on the prayer roll, we're happy to throw you on board.

We have realized today we may have done her a bit of a disservice. We tried to teach her that after we say "Amen," we don't need to fold our arms any more. So today at church after the "Amen" she knew the cue and would throw her hands up into the air. A-men!

We made it to Texas!

Can I tell you about the drive? Here's our state by state report, with some phone pictures thrown in.

Utah: beautiful canyons and fall colors.

Wyoming: Nothing. Sweet, desolate nothing. WIND. Cold. The baby puked in the middle of nowhere, which is always a delight. We drove through a rainbow!! That was a first. We also drove through a SNOWSTORM, which was pretty unbelievable for September 11th.

Independently drawing in the back seat. Clearly, she has all the room in the world.

Cleaning barf out of car seats on the side of the road.

Wyoming/Colorado: More people wearing camouflage than I've ever seen in my life. And all the gas stations were selling guns and ammo by the front door. We're pretty sure it's hunting season. We're also pretty sure we were the only ones not wearing camo.

Colorado: Beautiful. A lovely state to drive through. So frigid. We were not expecting 30-degree weather.
Our Colorado motel was the worst we've ever stayed in (even worse than our $30 Manti motel that we thought we were going to get murdered in). It was so bad. Our opinion was further swayed when the baby fell off the bed and town sirens went off in the morning. Continental breakfast was rotten milk and green bananas and that's about it.

Cold and miserable.

Same caption could apply here.

Kansas: Nothing but cornfields, Christian rock radio, and anti-abortion or "Trust in Jesus" billboards. Which was more than Wyoming, so at least it's got that.

Oklahoma: Surprisingly lush and green! A fair amount of nothing. Tulsa was surprisingly delightful--a good, big city and we had a blast visiting Jordan. We may have locked our keys in the car and had some unexpected time waiting for a locksmith, but at least we were with good company. We gorged ourselves on a good BBQ dinner and Braum's ice cream to really get the full Oklahoma experience.

Visiting uncle Jordan's school. 

Pretty pleased to take uncle Jordan around. Or as she affectionately started calling him, "Grandpa."

Our third morning on the road, and feeling pretty homeless at this point. Notice the two plastic jelly shoes on top of the car near Jason's shoulder? Unfortunately, due to bad communication on the part of Greta's parents, neither parent removed these shoes before we started driving. Sadly, this is the last sighting.

Texas: Not as pretty, but considerably more inhabited with more signs of life along the interstate. We reached Dallas pretty quickly. So far, I'm pretty freaked out by the bugs and the birds, not going to lie. That constant rattle of the cicadas kinda gives me the creeps.

I think this was actually just over the border in Oklahoma. It was one of my favorite establishments we saw. 

Sleep on, sweet sticker baby. You're almost there. I also highly recommend stickers to anyone else trying to pass time with a one year old.

Arrived in Dallas.

We are thrilled to be off the road and that everything went relatively smoothly. We are also pretty impressed that our 16-month old has now set foot in 16 of the United States -- North, South, East, and West included. I'm sure she'll remember her well-traveled childhood (wink).

More from Texas soon!