Wright Frame of Mind

New Body Pillow

2010-07-31T15:06:00.001-05:00

JoJo had decided to share... she gave Grayson a new "stuffed animal"... pay no mind to the fact that it is as big as she is!

Lake Much?

2010-07-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Gray learned to swim quickly this summer, she now despises the fact that she has to wear her life jacket until we're safely "at the beach" to swim...

She was trying to steal my floatie!

Everyone gets tuckered out at some point....

Cousins and Fun

2010-07-18T14:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Uncle Juice and Aunt DeeDee, we will forever be going to 5 Guys!

Sophia and Gray were loving the Power Wheels... They were even taking turns:)

Jeffe/Daddy, the Floatie!

2010-07-17T14:39:00.001-05:00

"Let's go in the 'Swirly Whirly'!!!" means: "Carry us around the lazy river!"

It's Over!

2010-05-15T10:28:00.002-05:00

Something, something, something... Dark Side! I bought an iPhone...

Bristol Stool Chart

2010-04-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

Please don't be offended... Try to see the humor/irony in it. I had to tell you... This is an actual slide in the lecture I will receive in less than an hour... It's a part of the curriculum. For once, I can say: "I go to school for THIS _____." Gotta love nursing school. . .

Just Something recent

2010-03-14T13:06:00.000-05:00

The Progression

2010-03-07T22:00:00.001-06:00

Yay! A great Brenner family picture! We were lucky enough to get this pic outside the museum in Cincinatti we visited on Sunday afternoon! We had a great time and both Ayla and Emma were troopers and very tired after a big afternoon! Later that night, you'd think taking a pic of Krystal and I would be no big deal, right? Think again. Someone started giggling, and it was over. Here's a series of pics Jamie took all within a matter of minutes. Here's what we lovingly refer to as: The Progression.

At this point we gave up, and called it a day. Our faces hurt.

Who Loves Mother Teresa?

2010-03-01T15:42:00.003-06:00

I had to share something with you! I found a prayer written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It is the prayer of my heart. I'm going to nursing school, and I have found myself asking God to never let me become too jaded or worn. I asked Him to always remind me why I'm doing what I'm doing, and keep me focused with a servant's heart. A true blessing to me, I have found a prayer that I have taped to the inside of my Clinical Notebook and when I become a nurse, it will be lovingly taped to my locker for me to read and pray every day before work. (And perhaps a time or two during the shift on tough days:)

Dearest Lord, May I see You today and every day in the person of your sick, and while nursing them, minister to You. Though You hide yourself behind the unattractive guise of the irritable, the exacting and the unreasonable, may I still recognize You, and say "Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you."

Rain For Days

2010-03-01T15:09:00.004-06:00

I LOVE the smell of rain! It's probably at the top of my list, up there with "winter" and "Fall" and the freshness of "snow".... love it...

But it's raining today, and I can't help but feel: Blah....restless, stir crazy, home sick, tired...and I've heard landowners, farmers, and ranchers start asking for the rain to stop so that they can actually get some work done. And so it goes, "you want what you can't have". If it's dry, you want rain...until it does, of course. Then you'd like it to stop. I want it to stop, I'm not going to lie.

Instead, I choose to pretend I'm in Belieze, like I was in the summer of 2003. In Central America, those countries have very distinct wet and dry seasons. During the dry season, it DOES NOT rain, and in wet season, it rains without ceasing for days on end, or just several times during the day, each day. We were there that summer for the first rain of the wet season... It was so dry and hot. Water reserves were lacking and they worried for dry forests that could catch flame at the slightest spark! it was 8 pm, dark as night, and we were a mile or so out from camp in a small opening in the forest. Our guide smelled the rain coming. He told us it was going reach us in about 10 minutes, and if we wanted to leave, we'd better head out quickly... some went, most stayed. We thought he was crazy, but sure enough, the rain came... It was the hardest rain I have ever felt! It actually hurt, and by the time we headed back to camp, we were all but RUNNING! It was a joyous occassion indeed! Everyone celebrated! They had been waiting for their rain, and it was finally here! The mood had lifted. Every local was ecstatic. It was a wonderful event to witness (and feel as we were soaked to the bones with no chance of drying off any time soon).

So today, I will celebrate the coming of the rain. I will be joyful and laugh while I lift my face towards Heaven. I will praise God for his never-ending provisions. I will give thanks for this VERY wet season!

Fun with Cousins in Frisco/McKinney

2010-02-27T20:00:00.006-06:00

Fun in Frisco and McKinney with cousins! We got together to take a group pic of all the grandkids for Gimo's (Barbara) birthday. It was quite entertaining. Baby Aniston doesn't run around with the big kids yet, but Sophia and Hudson have just as much energy as Gray... they stay busy! Sophia LOVES her Uncle Jeff...

Watching Hudson and Gray just makes me smile. They are soo funny together!

Uncle Joel was blowing bubbles for the girls, this pictures just shows how much of it was bubbles, and how much of it was actually going all over her!

Cat Growth Chart

2010-02-26T16:24:00.005-06:00

August 09-Cat 9 weeks-Gray 3.5 yrs

Dec 09-Cat 7 mos.-Gray 4 yrs

Background Check

2010-02-26T10:02:00.021-06:00

Okay, I'm not 100% sure how this site works yet, but call me silly, I'm just going to do my best. I wanted to post a BUNCH of pictures... kind of catch up to where we are now. Pretty much, it'll probably be a lot of pictures of Grayson. I snagged just a few from home on my way out this morning, so I don't have all my favorites by any means, and even now, I'm imagining some pics I LOVE and don't have with me. But I do have a few, so here they are...

These first ones were all taken in early June 2009. Gray had just started coming and staying with us! She seems so small looking back.... she was only about 3 and a half years-old.

Wow, you have to be smarter than a silly website, but apparently, it's an issue for me! Okay, next up, let's skip ahead (because i couldn't grab EVERY picture this morning!) p.s. the summer months we're currently skipping were some of my favorites! We had an amazing time with Grayson, filled with swimming, birthday parties, new friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, Gimo and Papa Steve! (and the new Step-family: Poppy and JoJo, Uncle Mike-funny how roles have changed there!)

We visited Jeff's grandmother in Oklahoma last October (Gray had just turned 4). Gray had a great time, although the car drive was nuts! It was great for Jeff to see his Grandma with his daughter there too! She's only met her once, but every time we drive north on the high way, she tells us that "this is the way to Gigi's house! She's too smart...

Okay, I'm about to wrap this one up, because well, I keep messing up and have to re-upload pics!!!! Agh!!! Okay, these are just a couple from November 21-22, 2009.... She was too cute, she kept getting the ball/string wrapped around her! And then, while with Papa Steve and Gimo, she found part of my birthday gift.... the other party was a 15,726 piece prince set... It was as bad as a husband giving a new wood-working bench to his wife for Christmas! So funny....

We had a blast over Christmas! and had 5 million places to visit! We had got to go to McKinney to hang with the Wrights a couple weeks before for Sophia's Birthday! And while I don't have all the best pics, I have a few with me, so I'll post those! Jeff and I had just visited NYC the first week of Dec 09, so Gray's sporting her I heart NY Tee! Sing with me: "In New York...."

She totally just curled up with me while I was reading Breaking Dawn for the second time.... :) It was completely adoring. I left to do some shopping with the girls....and found this upon return:

And I thought I was special.... :)

K, I've got more, but well... I'm hungry, so I'm ending this bad boy. Maybe I'll feel better about all this when I feel caught up and current. Oh well, off to lunch. Gray will be here this evening, so there's always the chance we'll have more randomness to post:) Love that girl....

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2010-02-25T14:23:00.010-06:00

Dad's mascot: the Tinman!

I understand that I will sound a little silly, but as many of you know, I don't mind that one bit. I love snow. Now, I love beautiful green pastures too, so I would never be able to give up the green completely, but for now: I love snow! For the first time in the 22 years I've lived in the Waco area, never has there been close to an ACTUAL good snow fall! Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is! I'm proud to say, this is the home I grew up in. Note: it is cover in snow!

I had to....

After asking my father the proper techniques for making a snowman... and being laughed at I'm sure, I started in. After the first big snow ball, I was about ready to walk inside and tell Dad it sure was fun white washin' this fence..... So I solicited some volunteer work in the form of a dog... She's standing on top of her snowball. I was so proud! Dad's hat magically volunteered too...

I was going for a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon look alike... It was a little more obvious in the actual cartoon, but it was funny enough! So for the countdown:

Snowman, Day 1

Caption here: "Someone got a little too competitive during the afternoon's snowball fight..."

Snowmen, Day 2 AM

Snowmen, Day 2 PM
Dad apparently rescued the hats and scarves...

Snowmen, Day 3 AM

Snowmen, Day 3, PM

Needless to say, the next morning they were both goners...

Snow Day in Waco!

2010-02-23T20:49:00.005-06:00

It was sooo beautiful in Waco today! I love it! So did Jo and Estee! I hung out with the kids for a couple hours, so we had some fun with the camera! I told them to pose in the snow and this is what we got!

Jonah, Eden, and Esther!!!

Teegan is the kids cousin! She loves her Jonah, and was following him and laying right behind him for about 30 minutes.... I've never seen a toddler be that still that long!

Helping Daddy Get His Tools Put Up

2010-02-17T15:23:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share these pictures because well, it amazed me. Jeff, Grayson, Dad, and I were at home, December 27, 2009, enjoying the last of the Christmas gift exchanges....Dad (Poppy), had given Jeff a tool set that had it's own little casing system... Anyway, I have no clue what I'm doing. I guess I was taking pictures of the cat (Wilson) playing in the shredded Christmas paper and then watching the dog (Abby) wrestle with the cat for the first time ever, even though the cat (Wilson) had been attacking the dog (Abby) since the day we brought him home 5 months before.... So, I was distracted... probably. I look up to see Grayson sitting with Jeff's tool drawers in her lap, one at a time and putting each piece away as he handed each one to her and told her what size it was. No instruction needed. He just told her "5/8" or "3/4", and she would put it in the appropriate place. It was amazing, touching, and sweet to see them building something together.

Our Favorite Pozsers....Last November

2010-02-15T12:15:00.001-06:00

Esther says: "Too much Rock for one hand!"

The Texas Family and some of my favorite kids in the world...

Okay, I just wanted to post some pics from a day with the Pozsgai's.... Mark, Shannon, Jonah, Esther, Eden was sleeping, and their friend (so of course: my friend) Grayson Gibson.... Shan lovingly calls us, their Texas Family.... and our Grayson LOVES Esther and asks to see her the second we pick her up! On this particular weekend, Jeff and Mark took the kids over to our friends' land to see their animals... Thanks Gail and Robert!....But not before tackling me to the ground!

This pic of Estee...for some reason...I love! It makes me giggle and smile on the inside:). And other than that, there are no words to explain.

Some Valentine's Love

2010-02-14T13:39:00.000-06:00

Well, our first year with Grayson is coming close to an end, CRAZY!! So Unless I'm missing something between Valentine's and Easter (other than St. Patty's Day)... this is our last big "first" holiday with her... Daddy took her to Build-a-Bear, and now we have a panda bear named Carly! Then when I went to meet Ashley and Shaunta for pedi's, Gray decided she wanted one too! Only if she got pink with blue dots!

"You're not scheduled."

2010-02-06T12:45:00.008-06:00

Well, I need to correct something! On arrival to the hospital yesterday morning at 5:45am, I was told that I wasn't scheduled for surgery... so after a few minutes of this, it was obvious that saying, "yes I am" wasn't getting us anywhere.... Turns out, they had a Maggie Sloan scheduled, and refused to change the name....Fortunately for me, when they wanted the correct person available to bill, they were willing to change the name to Wright with a few simple key strokes...

Point of this post was, we have determined that I have in fact only been pregnant once, and that residual..."stuff" from the miscarraige last October had stayed in my body causing a few issues and keeping my body from returning to normal. This is oddly an answered prayer as I will likely not have to take a medicine I wasn't looking forward to...The D&C probably took care of it all! It's an answer to questions we couldn't figure out. So praise God, and thank you to all of you who prayed for me!

As Usual, I'm a little late...

2010-01-29T16:05:00.005-06:00

Wow, I've been putting off this blog for a long time... What to say first? How to start? I have yet to come up with a good answer to those questions, so I'll just jump right in there and try to catch up as I go! It was surely an interesting year in 2009!

First year of marriage was fun and interesting and crazy!!!
Meeting Jeff's daughter, Grayson, was super scary, uncharted waters !
Building a relationship and having Gray in our lives has been AMAZING and such a blessing!! We thank God every day for her!
a couple of miscarriages is a roller coaster of emotions, but it's out of my hands!
starting my second semester (of 4) of nursing school has been a whirlwind to say the least!

Those are some and most of the main highlights I suppose, since Jeff and I married in October 2008. We have a God that has protected, provided for, and blessed us every day, an amazing family that's been so supportive and kept our heads above water, and friends who have wrapped their arms around us and kept us sane and on our feet. We love you more than you'll ever know!