I LOVE my Wife.

Wow.

I've spent a lot of years bragging about how if my wife would just make enough money, I'd stay at home and be Mr. Mom.

I'm not backing off that statement, but I am realizing how amazingly stupid I've been.

Nothing about being solely responsible for Zeke is easy. (And he is a fantastically easy baby to care for!)

My job Wednesday? Get him up, fed, dressed and delivered to Grammy's so I could run some errands with John (all by approximately 9:30am).

Up? Good.
Fed? Check.
Dressed? Yep, and everything down to the pacifier holder matched.

Of course this wouldn't be worth sharing if it went as planned. Approximately 7 seconds before we walked out the door, Zeke chose (I'm still not convinced it was an accident, no matter how many times he's apologized since) to spit up all over the front of his adorable outfit and various parts of the carseat. Zeke rarely spits up, (I know...we're lucky) although trips to Lubbock activate his allergies so that he does some really heavy duty (think the Exorcist) vomiting, so I know it was merely his way of challenging my parental authority.

So I did one of the things I promised I would never do. I actually said, "Zeke, why would you do something like that?" Never mind he's only 5 months old, that would be a stupid question if he was 35 and had a PhD! So after getting over my considerable typical guy reaction. I stripped him down, cleaned the car seat, actually started the washer with the soiled outfit and various other baby gear, redressed the little guy (again in a matching outfit, go ME!) and started towards the door. Only to realize that in the process of cleaning him up, I got it all over me!

All that to say, I was about an hour late.

Jill does this Monday through Friday and makes it to work on time. I couldn't even do it once.

All hail Mrs. Mom.

Once a King or Queen...

Just saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe.

Must admit to being very excited about the movie, but nervous as well. Beyond the fact that this is just too important a story to mess up from a Christian standpoint, this story holds several other connections for me.

1. First true play that I ever performed. Played the part of Mr. Tumnus in our high school one act play as a freshman (we went to state, placed third....)

2. First musical that I performed at the Waco Civic Theatre. (Lots of great people, not much else...the show went on, and that about all I can say...)

3. First play that I ever directed (also at the Waco Civic Theatre). Lots of great kids fun adults and overall a pretty strong show (even if I do say so myself).

So with all these memories and a good deal of trepidation, Jill and I attended a viewing Tuesday night to celebrate my survival as my first semester as an assistant principal and more importantly, Jill's birthday. (Happy birthday, honey.)

Quite simply, I was very impressed.

It was very good. Well done. Not word for word, page for page literal, but very close to the original story. The animals were fun without being funny and the battle scenes were very Lord of the Rings-like.

It was fun to watch with Jill as she was not as familiar with the story. Watching her make the connections as the movie progressed was a joy.

So catch it if you can this holiday season. See if you can drag along that friend that is on the fringe of seeing Jesus. This movie may be able to do what you haven't been able to yet, or at least provide a great conversation starter. Definite thumbs up from the Borland household.

(Don't worry Scott, the multi-part list is under construction.)

Chris

Free at Last

Turned in my last two papers for my grad classes this semester. Even still have an outside chance at maintaining my 4.0. We will have to see how that plays out. The important part is that I've survived the graduate school part of this semester and just have 2 1/2 days left of the work school portion. Hooray for Christmas break!

Holiday Stress

I'm rapidly becoming addicted to these lists. Guess they are just too easy. Here are my top holiday stresses.

1. Shopping. I am not an intuitive, catch a clue shopper. I need huge blaring hints. (Barring those, I guess I could use Scott's castoff roaster for Tracy...)
2. Zeke being sick. That is no fun. He's better, but I worry more now than before he was sick.
3. Christmas decorations. I'm not good at them. I'm in dire need of Santa Eye for the Christmas Challenged Guy...
4. Texas playing for a national championship. Now I'm forced to root for a team I despise simply because they are from my home state and I despise USC even more.
5. Kids with spring fever in December.
6. Money, or more precisely the lack thereof.
7. The Dallas Cowboys. I haven't been this frustrated in a season since Gary Hogeboom started at QB.
8. Tookie Williams. I'm all about redemption and turning a life around. Just not sure I want to support him (if I was a CA taxpayer) for the remainder of his days (however short they may be.)
9. Grad school. Just one more paper to write for this semester...(Actually I should be writing that paper instead of doing this...)
10. Families that don't treat each other as such.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!