How our Christmas Tree Tells our Story

Each year as I pull out our Christmas decorations and prepare to set them up, I come across our ornaments and am filled with sentimentality as I unwrap them one-by-one.   There are many precious memories or reminders among them, and this year I noticed that our tree, at least in part, tells our story.  

Our Family Tree
(sorry that our camera doesn't capture it very well)

Allow me to share.

I'll start with one of the very first ornaments we received.  We were married in November of 2002 and my sweet former roommate Amy (and her soon-to-be-fiance' Brady) gave us this as a part of their wedding gift.  Of course it was empty at the time, but soon we were given some pictures taken the day of our wedding and this one was a perfect fit!  This ornament remains our favorite. 

If you look closely you can see the 2002 engraved on it.  And yes, I did used to have blond hair =)

Our next couple of ornaments also joined our family tree in 2002.  

When we first got married money was super tight and we really didn't go out to eat or do much extra.  Since we were just starting out, we also had very little in terms of Christmas decorations, but it didn't take Trace long to discover how much I LOVED them.  A day or two after Christmas Trace came home with a surprise for me- a gorgeous Hallmark "Bride" ornament to commemorate our wedding!  He did well =) 

While he was at Hallmark Trace also found an ornament for himself...Darth Vader.   He was happy that I was so thrilled about my Bride ornament, but he seemed equally pleased with himself for finding this "treasure."  Since this was OUR tree I didn't think I could ban it...that year, but I certainly thought that he would soon realize that Darth Vader doesn't belong on a Christmas tree.   Well, nine years later he has grown on me (perhaps since Trace likes him so much?) and Vader now has a prominent place on our tree each year.

The only Willow Tree piece I own happens to be an ornament that was given to me by someone that knew how much I enjoy my dogs (if you read this- thank you Kara!)  Since we don't have any children we have been able to focus on our dogs a bit more, and they have been a source of fun and companionship for me over the years.  This ornament reminds me of this sweet part of my life. 

And this is our fun Moose ornament that Trace picked out...just because.  I think I recall him saying that our tree was "too pretty" and that it needed some ornaments that were more "him".  So he picked out a big wooden moose =)   It makes me smile whenever I look at him.

This is a tough one.  If you look closely you will see that it says "In Our Hearts Forever, Baby Jones 2009."  My sweet mother and father-in-law gifted Trace and I with this ornament to honor the child we lost to miscarriage in November of 2009.   After many years of infertility treatment I had became pregnant as a result of IVF, and a short time into my pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage, we felt that our child was a daughter.  Her name was Anna Laine Jones.  This is the first time I've ever written or typed her name, and I do so through tears.  Although we still grieve for her at times, I am thankful for this special ornament that acknowledges her presence in our lives.  

This ornament represents hope and our future, as the child we are in the process of adopting will come from the continent of Africa.  We bought this ornament last year and love that whenever we see it we are reminded that we have a son in Africa that we should be meeting soon!   While there are no guarantees, we are SUPER HOPEFUL and PRAYERFUL that our son will be home by next Christmas!

So now you can see how our Christmas tree tells a bit about us.  I love that we are just nine years into our family story and have many memories and ornaments to add through the years to come...

My Blog Post Ideas

Well hello there. Nice of you to drop by my…neglected little blog. I have had good intentions to write in the past month, but have had zero motivation to follow through.

To show that I have thought about my blog, I figured I would share a few of the posts I have been working on in my head…

1. “Gallery Wall Reveal”. Yup- I finished it quite a while ago and when I was taking pictures to share they didn’t come out the way I wanted. So, naturally I got discouraged and just put it off. {Status: hoping to post this at some point because I actually love it.}

2. “My Hang Up with {most} Nativity Scenes”. In this I plan to talk about my rare OCD-ness and how it relates to nativities. {Status: I probably will write this, but it requires a bit of actual research to prove said “hang up” and I haven’t felt like putting forth the effort quite yet.}

3. “Why I Don’t Deserve to be a Mother”. This one is difficult for me to write, but maybe the most important. {Status: I should write this but I think it’s still a work in progress.}

4. “How our Christmas Tree Tells Our Story”. I like the idea of this, but it’s probably a bit cheesy. I will say that I bet YOU don’t have a Darth Vader ornament on your tree. Oh yeah, I do. While I do most of the decorating, Trace does assert his taste here and there J {Status: Not looking good, especially if I write the one about nativities.}

5. “Adoption Update #143”. OK- not reeeaallyyy #143, but it feels like it. We might have a tiny bit of an update that we will feel comfortable sharing after Christmas. {Status: Probably WILL get written considering this blog was started to give updates on our adoption in the first place J}


So folks- there you have it!  Indeed I HAVE been thinking and planning for my blog, I’ve just been too lazy to write anything for it. Perhaps to motivate me, let me know which one(s) of the above topics you would be interested in reading. Go ahead and comment and cast your vote!

Random Updates...

So, life has been interesting lately. Lots of things are in-the-works so to speak, but there are a few things that I can give updates about, so I figured that was my best bet for posting on this blog for a while. Here goes…and I warn you it is a bit long, feel free to skim or skip entirely J

Update #1- Tulsa Trip No Go
The first weekend of March I (Randee) was planning to take a short trip to Tulsa to visit with family and a few friends. I was S U P E R excited because I had nephews to hug and kiss and lots of quality time to be had, but alas it did not happen. Trace had not been particularly thrilled about me going for the 2 weeks leading up to it, but I chalked it up to him missing me while I’m gone and just being grumpy about it J Well, the morning I was packed and ready to go he really prayed about it and felt he was uneasy so he asked me to reconsider going. I decided to trust him and stay home even though I was not happy about it. I eventually got over my sadness and tried to have a good weekend anyway. Well, about 5 days later we had a flat tire in the car I would have been driving and I KNEW that was the reason I shouldn’t have gone! I would have been driving on a dark highway late at night, and a flat would have freaked me out. So thankful for God and a praying husband!

Update #2- My Crazy Dress Up Week
You can see the pictures of me dressed up as Charlie Chaplin, a cowgirl and Belle if you click here and scroll down for a theme week we had at my company. There was a team contest and an individual contest so after I did well on the first day of competition I decided to really go for it and try to have a shot at a win. Well, it turns out I DID WIN the individual competition and I was rewarded with a brand new iPod!!! Since we raffled off the last iPod we had for our adoption this is our first to actually use, and I’m a little embarrassed to say that 2 weeks later the only thing I’ve done on it is play around with the camera app. We are not techie people, sooooo yeah- I promise I LOVE the iPod and will utilize it for real someday J

Update #3- Coming events
Any day now my dog Colette Simone (this is the middle name we picked- it means “listening” but I’m not sure that matters to her) is having puppies. This means I will get up with them every 2 hours to make sure they are eating and growing properly. I see lack of sleep in my future…imminently. One or both of my parents will be stopping by for a short visit the first weekend in April, and the second weekend of April we have an Ethiopia get together in Dallas along with an anticipated visit from friends. Better add “clean the house a lot” to my list of upcoming “events” J

Update #4- Yard Sale
We have decided to postpone our scheduled April 16th yard sale to a later date TBD. There are so many things going on right now (see Update #3 plus more not mentioned) that we felt it was better not to push ourselves right now. We WILL be having it, so please know that we are grateful for all the donations so far and we can continue to collect things for the BIG SALE.

Update #5- Ethiopia Adoption
There really is not much of an update to give, as we’ve not heard a whole lot. Next week we will be 5 months on the waiting list to be matched with the child that will become our son. It feels like there has not been any “movement” for a while and that can make this process seem never ending. The ministry in Ethiopia responsible for approving adoptions is still in flux regarding how they will handle certain things, so it is yet to be seen how this will affect the length of our adoption. Rumblings are that it will be worked out for good, so keep praying when you think of those precious children in Ethiopia waiting for a family.

Update #6- Guest Bathroom

You thought I would stop at #5 didn’t you? Well, I was going to do a “before and after” post about this, but my “before” pictures were so bad that I decided to lump it in with all my other updates. A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to go for it and paint the sad little hall/ guest bathroom. The walls were ivory and I had a white shower curtain and rug as accessories (complimented by cream tile)- boring eh? The bathroom is REALLY small, so it’s super hard to get any decent pictures but I did my best (my camera died during the before pics but I didn’t want to wait to charge it before beginning the painting). The actual color of the blue does not come across in these pictures (it’s less baby blue and more has more gray) but whatever, it is A COLOR. I have a couple more plans for this room, but my sweet husband needed a break from my project mania, so I’m going to hold off J

The "BEFORE"

The "AFTER"

I had these flowers and white hand towels already

This towel rack is the only thing I bought for the bathroom, the picture was a yard sale find that I hadn't found a place for previously.

Things on My Mind...and blackmail pictures

After my success of two blogs posts two days in a row I needed to rest and try and think of something interesting to say :)  Although I will not claim that what I am about to write is all that interesting- it is just what occupies many of my thoughts at the time being.

1- Nephews.  This coming weekend I will get to see four of my adorable, kissable (all under the age of 4) nephews.  One is less than 3 months old so he is extra kissable (maybe because he cannot run away from me like the other three quite yet).  There might not be a need to say more except that I also love the parents of those adorable nephews and really enjoy seeing them as well.  And I also should mention that I love seeing my sister that does not yet have any children- and she better not since she is 20 and single...

2-  Yard Sales.  We are preparing for our FOURTH adoption yard sale coming up on April 16th.  The other three have been immensely blessed so we think it's time to go for it again before it's too hot, or before we start traveling for the adoption.  I feel somewhat like a yard sale perfectionist when it comes to pricing and organizing, so it takes me a long time to prepare for one.  Already we are getting donations from some unexpected places (strangers even) and feel so grateful that people are willing to help.  God is good!!!

3-  Distraction. These "waiting for our adoption to happen" days can be filled with lots of thoughts and emotions.  Many of those emotions are not necessarily healthy if you dwell on them for long periods of time, so I've found distractions to be a welcome friend during our adoption process.  Now distraction is not always good (ex. I should be cleaning the house, but I'm distracted watching TV) but it can be a wonderful coping mechanism to focus our energy on things other than how many days it's been since our dossier landed in Ethiopia...to name one.  Thankfully, I've had many distractions that are productive- a bonus!!!  The upcoming yard sale is a great example of this.  Another fabulous distraction I have coming up is a litter of puppies my dog Colette has due the end of March.  There is 2 months worth of focus and energy sucked up right there!

4-  Marriage.  I LOVE being married to Trace!  Recently we had the opportunity to attend a free one-day marriage conference.   We have been married 8+ years so while we are not "old vets" we are also not "newbies" either.  If you know us very well you know that we are co-dependant really enjoy each other and being together.  I see our many childless years together as being a wonderful chance to grow our relationship deep and hope that will help us build a solid foundation from which to parent.  I adore my husband and am thankful for him every single day.  Seriously, I don't deserve him but I thank God he helped me catch him :)

5.  Silliness.  All week that I've been participating in the dress up theme days at work I've been thinking about whether or not I would post visual evidence for the world to see how crazy I am.  Apparently the competitive nature that displayed itself when I played sports growing up did not end when I ceased playing softball and soccer in high school.  After I got pretty good scores the first day for dressing up as Charlie Chaplin I decided to really go for it (there are prizes to be won!) so while I may regret this later (and may remove this post) I hesitantly present my silly pictures.  I am generally a low-key kind-of-person, not the artistic and creative person these pictures might suggest.  Trace is the really the one behind me even posting them- he's been telling me all week to share them.  The theme was "Movie Week"- so at the risk of losing all potential "serious Blogger" credibility, here you go...

As Belle on "Disney Day"

On "Western Day"

As Charlie Chaplin on "Comedy Day"

Puppy Love

I thought I would take a break from the adoption talk to share about another love in my (Randee) life- our sweet dogs!  We have two adult dogs- Savannah and Dakota, and over the years both have had litters of cute puppies.  Four weeks ago Dakota gave us a beautiful litter of pups and I thought I would share some pictures of my little darlings.

They are a blessing to us in many ways.  First of all, when we find great homes for the puppies all the money we make will go toward our adoption- YAY!!!  Second, I love puppy kisses and they are quite good at giving them- ADORABLE!  Trace does not appreciate the puppy kisses, more so just the money we make :)    Lastly, they are a welcome distraction right now while we are waiting to be matched with our child.  Soon they will be keeping me very busy before I go to work in the morning and at night when I am home.  Between the holidays coming up, and caring for my puppies, life is full right now.

We have an exciting adoption announcement coming up soon...but for today it's all about the pups!  ENJOY!!!

                                          Puppies playing in their whelping box

                                          Get Mama- she has the food!!!

                                                    Jefferson hanging out....

                                                    Jefferson tuckered out...

                                          Sleeping puppies- even sitting up!

                                          Sleeping puppy pile- so sweet!