Hair

Most of my life I have never understood why people grow beards and boys/men rebel and grow their hair long and wear mohawks or spiked and other odd ways. Now if this is something you like and want to do or let your kids do, then so be it, but my personal preference to have guys have short hair and clean shaven.

Today I was skimming the headlines on People and saw some comment about a football player's hair, so I clicked on it. On that page was a quiz on how people preferred the hair on different people who are famous. Out of curiosity, I started the quiz. Though I didn't know half the people on the quiz, I started to notice something. With the exception of 2-3 stars, greater than 90% of people "preferred" the men either clean shaven, short-haired, or a more natural look rather than beards, long hair, or hair with lots of product in it. After realizing the trend I was more paying attention to the results rather than what I was voting for.

Considering the rebellion of young people and our culture today of crazy rock stars and wild lifestyles, I was extremely shocked at the preference for the clean shaven. I have been noticing that since Troy Polamalu hair has become famous on the football field that a large number of linemen and defensive players have been growing their hair long. I'm not sure if this has to do with Polamalu or if it's simply superstition to not cut their hair on a winning streak, but it doesn't look good. Even the white guys are growing it long and they look just plain silly. Of course I don't understand how they could stand wearing a helmet with stubble on their faces either, but to each his own. What happened to QBs being the cute guys with a clean face and short hair? Have they made way for the bearded face of Ben Roethlisberger. Maybe Favre started it all with his short stubble and others have taken it further. I just don't like it.

Thank goodness it's Friday! That means I get to watch football for the next 3 days! Although, I doubt we'll go to the homecoming game tonight. The homecoming parade last night was exhausting enough! Go Yellowjackets! Beat the Scots!

8 Years Ago

8 years ago today, my brother, David Allen Hollowell, died at the age of 18 from cancer complications. He was a great young man with lots of potential. There are so many things about his life that I wish I could have seen played out over the years since he died, but God had other plans. One of my few good memories of the day he died was when my young cousin Ethan said to his mom, "David gets to worship with Jesus today." He died early on a Sunday morning before the sun had come up. I didn't sleep at all during the night because I stayed up talking with one of David's best friends discussing faith, life, and how things would be different when David was gone. I was supposed to be on a rotation with my parents to stay up with David, who hadn't really been awake in more than 24 hours. I watched his oxygen saturation steadily go down over a few hours. Eventually my parents woke up and they called the hospice nurse to let her know how low his numbers were. Some family and friends had been called to let them know how he was and they came and left, and came again. It was so hard seeing him die in need of oxygen and his heart pumping so hard to help, but it just ran out of steam.

There were some very important people there that day. Trent Futral, who stayed up with me so my parents could sleep and talked with me about David, his impact on his life, and the legacy he would be leaving behind. Stephanie Wilson (Pool) was there to hide my face in her shoulder as they took my brother out of the house to the funeral home. My best friend, Kara Van Dine drove in with my now husband, Jeff as soon as they heard. Jeff even got pulled over for speeding if you can believe it. When they got there, I just laid down to rest in a living room chair and was about to fall asleep. My 2nd mom from high school asked if I needed any food, and I gave her 2-3 dishes that I was dying to eat, since I was tired of eating Brookshire's fried chicken. I refuse to eat fried chicken with bones in it from any grocery store to this day. We literally received 4-5 boxes in 1 day. My aunt, uncle, and cousins came.

In the weeks leading up to and following David's death, there were so many people who were instrumental in helping us cope with the loss. David was on the area youth counsel (CYF-C) and they had gone to a Mercy Me concert and bought a shirt for David that they later brought to the hospital. I wore that shirt just 2 months ago and thought of them and their generosity towards their brother.

In some ways it seems like it was a lifetime ago because so much has happened since he died, but to think that it was only 8 years ago feels like maybe I missed something important. My parents have been amazing and have grieved well. I'm not sure I grieved well because I hate crying. I cry very easily, but I dislike it so much I fight it with every fiber of my being most days. When I do allow myself to cry, I'll just cry for a long time, like tonight, which is why I got up to blog about it. I don't mind talking about David and who he was and that he died, leaving me as an only child. I usually tell people that the one thing that always upsets me and makes me cry is that when we were younger, our parents would tell us we had to get along because when we got older, we'd only have each other to lean on when our parents died. Now I only have my husband. It makes me cry every time, no matter what. Our children will know who is was and that he's their uncle. We still have some of his things and my mom gave me a picture of us when we were little that's on our fridge, and there's a picture of him and my dad on prom night hanging on the wall. They get told it's Uncle David. I don't think they understand, but they will someday.

I guess I should go get some sleep on the off-chance that I have a baby in the next 24 hours.

RIP David Allen Hollowell

July 18, 1985-August 3, 2003

Forgotten Website

It's been way too long since writing on this blog. So much has happened and much has changed. Rachel is almost 3 1/2 and Rebekah just turned 2 last week. I had great intentions of blogging about our great travels in Northern Wisconsin and Illinois, but alas, I never got to it. Christmas even came and went without us sending out Christmas cards. Please don't think you've been barred from our list, because no one on our list got to feel special this year.

I have been working as a substitute for Rockwall ISD as a nurse, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I also became a Scentsy Independent Consultant and was doing pretty well until after Christmas. No one has even asked me about Scentsy since more than a week before Christmas. I've also been keeping busy with the girls, our Junior High group at church, and getting in full swing planning Vacation Bible School this summer as one of the directors again.

Jeff is at the end of soccer season, which has gone really well. His JV team might win district or maybe win 2nd place, but no one's really keeping up, so we don't have the full scoop. The Varsity will win 3rd place in district and go to the playoffs. The girls team secured the district win last week and will get to play back to back games at the same stadium for the first round of playoffs. Should be exciting to watch next Friday.

The girls are growing like weeds. Rachel decided to skip the terrible two's and make it the terrible three's instead. Rebekah has been slow to learn her words, so it has been a little frustrating trying to get her to communicate with us. Didn't you know I don't speak wailing? Why a 2 year old thinks I know what she wants just by her standing there crying at me I'll never know. Rebekah has always seemed so short in comparison to Rachel, but when I measured them recently on our closet wall, Bekah is within 1/4 of an inch of how tall Rachel was at the exact age. Not sure if her growing trend will continue, but we shall see. Rachel seems much more involved in knowing how everything works and pretty coordinated/athletic. Rebekah is looking like she might be our clumsy child that is more artsy than athletic. She does love to dance, so maybe a few years in dance classes will teach her some coordination and grace.

Over Christmas we got the joy of telling our families that we are expecting our third child in August. For the first time in my pregnancies I actually had morning sickness. I threw up almost daily for a time and couldn't eat much food at a time. I also had limited types of food that would go down well. Sugar smelled really bad, so I didn't eat any over the Christmas holidays. It was very tough. Thankfully I'm about halfway through the pregnancy and starting to feel pretty good. I have been congested through most of the pregnancy and definitely even more tired the 3rd time around than even the 2nd pregnancy. We are very excited about our impending addition. We haven't decided yet if we want to know if we're having a boy or a girl. Our sonogram is the first week of April, so we have until then to decide. We are excited about giving birth at a nearby birthing center this time. We've always wanted to go this way but we didn't know how my body would function with labor and delivery. Since I was able to have 2 natural births in the hospital, we are confident that everything will go smoothly, and if not, we have options.

This Crazy Life

This summer, like last summer has been crazy! It's a really good thing that Jeff chooses not to get a second job during the summer, because I would be stuck at home all summer and we'd never get a vacation.

We started out like last year having several Junior High events in a short period of time, followed by soccer camp, Mommy & Me yoga class, and did I mention Vacation Bible School? This year our children's ministry team had a hard time finding directors to plan VBS this year, so I volunteered my services. I'm not really sure why, but it ended up being a great experience, even though I was pretty busy for a while. I got to plan VBS for our church kids and all the visitors that came in with 2 of my good friends.

Since all that took care of the first 3 weeks in June, July was around the corner and left town on the Wednesday after VBS for a 2 week trip to the North Woods in Wisconsin and Chicago area to visit family and spend some time as a family. I'm hoping to give our trip it's own post soon, but we had lots of fun and loved building relationships with Jeff's cousins, and getting to see his aunts and uncles too. Jeff's grandmother has 7 great-grandchildren, and all but 2 of them are under the age of 3. Four of them were born within a year of each other!

Now that we've been home for almost 2 weeks, we're starting to enjoy our summer. The girls are playing in the backyard, I got to have a girls night out at the movies with my MIL and SIL. Sidenote: Letters to Juliet is an excellent movie if anyone's interested or wants to purchase it for me for Christmas! :)

We are just now starting to get busy again. We are making an impromptu trip to Athens this weekend to see my Grandpa who has cancer and isn't doing well, and next week Jeff has soccer camp and coaching meetings. We also have something else that's evading my memory at the moment. Next weekend we get to hang out with our good friends in Tyler.

We have even made plans to go to San Antonio for a few days without the girls. We are very excited about this trip (or at least I am). Over the past couple of weeks we have been watching a few different websites looking for the best deal for a hotel on/near the Riverwalk and had found a few things, but not that we were ready to book. We used Hotwire to book our hotel rooms on our way up and back from Wisconsin and got some great deals at 2 different Holiday Inns. Both were very nice and probably the cheapest price you could pay for any hotel. Last night while perusing for information on Priceline's Name your own price option, I found a coupon for an auction website that was $100 your first purchase. I clicked to see what it was and found a very nice 4 star hotel on the riverwalk.

It was a package deal that includes:
3 night stay
breakfast each morning- room service or in the restaurant
dinner for 2 one night at their restaurant (Approximately $50 value)
rose petal turn down
champagne and strawberries upon arrival
All taxes included
Must pay $40 fee for something

This package claimed to be worth almost $900 according to the website. We also reasoned that the cheapest 4 star hotel we could get was at least $100/night after taxes. The one we considered making reservations for was $100 before taxes. On this idea, the auction had 1 bidder who had bid early on and we were hoping this person wasn't paying careful attention to it. With all coupons and taxes paid, I am VERY excited that we won the auction and paid less than $350 for everything. It would be really great if the deal covers the charge for parking! We'll still have to cover a few meals and gas, but I'm just really excited and proud of my hubby for his diligence and frugal ways! We'll have to give our vacation it's own post too with some pics of everything.

Lost in the Wilderness

At the end of the school year, Jeff and his good friend Jason went backpacking in New Mexico just north of Santa Fe. I left with the girls to go work at Camp Longhorn on Wednesday and the guys left on Thursday morning. They stayed the night in Santa Fe and left for the trail head on Friday morning. On Saturday they hiked up to one of the peaks that they were trying to get to. They climbed most of the way on their hands and knees. I even got a phone call from the peak! It was great to hear from him, and a day earlier than I expected.

Unfortunately, Jeff didn't feel very well most of that day. For this and other reasons, they cut their trip a day short. I was very grateful, since I'd been at home taking care of the girls for 3 days. They did come home with some great pictures.

Lack of Inspiration

(Warning: long post ahead)


I've had a rough couple of months. We've been a little busy and I've been working more often, which leaves less time for me to write on the blog. Like the title of the post, I've felt like nothing exciting or worth reporting was going on in our lives. To some extent that's true, but now that I'm sitting here, I could have told you about:

- Jeff going on a backpacking trip Thursday
- Since Jeff's going backpacking, we have worked out more and have used our baby backpack quite a bit and even got a 2nd one recently so we can both get a good workout
- Our middle school trip to Rockin C Ranch
- Getting to spend time with some long-time friends of our at Rockin C Ranch

- Rachel talking up a storm and saying "Camp Longhorn, Attawaytogo" while holding her hands out in attempt to do the sign.
- Rachel saying "Horned Frogs" and her attempt at that sign, which looks more like ok or a partial Hook 'Em horns
- Now that I'm working, Rachel will often grab a bag or her shopping cart and say "I'm going to work" - it's so cute
- Rachel has no problem being bossy and taking on a role of being the 1st born child - we're working on her

- Rebekah has 16 teeth
- Some of her favorite things to do are play chase, play keep away/anything with her sister, going to see the ducks in the pond and saying "Quack, Quack" to them,
- Jeff and I will both tell you that she can say "giraffe", loves dogs and playing with them, still takes 2 naps each day, and loves anything with pasta and red sauce (which makes for a rather messy clean up)

- We had a garage sale in early May
- We helped our church with a garage sale as a fundraiser for the 2 BIG (expensive) mission trips this summer where they raised more than $7000!! Praise God!
- We bought a gas grill for Mother's/Father's Day with our garage sale
- Jeff got his bicycle up and running and he took the girls out a couple times on the bike trailer

- I'm in charge of our church's Vacation Bible School this year with 2 other women, which has kept me rather busy the past 2 months.
- Our summer calendar is rather busy. If you look at our computer calendar, there's something almost every day, and plenty of times when there's multiple things in a single day
- We just finished housesitting and watching Jeff's Grandpa for 1 1/2 weeks.
- We finally decided to go to Wisonsin/Illinois for the Mahachek family reunion and will be gone for almost 2 weeks in July

We have been so bad about not taking pictures. I got a new camera for Christmas that's small enough that I can take it with me and is almost always in my purse, and somehow I manage to not get it out and take pictures.

While housesitting, I read this book called the "Barnyard Dance" at least twice each day. My mother-in-law probably reads it to them each time the girls are over there. At first, Rachel was rather hesitant about doing the dance moves with the book, but now she does them willingly and excited most of the time. Bekah will even do the beginning. If you say "Let's read the Barnyard Dance," she gets a big smile on her face and starts stomping. The first three lines are "Stomp your feet, Clap your hands, Everybody ready for a barnyard dance." On the next page you bow to the horse and bow to the cow, and she'll bend over really far. That's about as long as you can keep her attention, but she's so cute when she does it.

I'm heading off to Camp Longhorn tomorrow in hopes of helping my aunt be less stressed about camp starting on Saturday and to enjoy myself a bit with the girls while Jeff is in New Mexico backpacking with his good friend Jason. Jeff leaves on Thursday morning. I will be back Friday night in time for my VBS meeting on Saturday morning and straight to pick up my mom and dad from the airport, who will be returning from Hawaii for their 30th wedding anniversary.

It seems like it's been really hot here lately, so I guess summertime is in full swing. We hope everyone has a great summer and gets to enjoy time with their family as we hope to do also.

Lost in the Shuffle

Finally...Some of Rebekah's birthday pictures!

Cakes for Bekah's Birthday

Cake was a little tough b/c I tried a low sugar recipe. All she got was icing!

Happy Birthday!

Rachel still doesn't really like cake

The babies reading all the new books

Really BIG soccer ball my (Teri) parents found

Loved the tutu!