Happy Thanksgiving

We wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you to all who have called today to check on Sadie and wish us a happy T-day. We are so grateful to have wonderful friends and family and especially for our little happy family of three.

May you all have lots of turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie. May everyone have safe travels. May the Aggies win tonight (wishful thinking). And may Daniel and I not get sick! :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

p.s. One of my coworkers called this morning to tell us he heard a commercial for Shiner Bock on the radio this morning. I guess Shiner is truly in Indiana to stay now, and Daniel is grateful for that!

Update on Sadie

I think Sadie is on the mend now. The only struggle left with her is still trying to keep enough food and liquids in her that won't hurt her sensitive tummy. We are still following a very strict diet. When talking to the nurse yesterday she asked, "Do you know about the 'brat' diet?". I thought, oh no she didn't just call Sadie a brat! Then she went on.... Bananas, Rice cereal, Applesauce, and Toast....B.R.A.T. Ohhhh! OK. So that is what we've been doing minus the toast becasue Sadie is still not on finger foods yet (she has to crawl with her belly off of the ground in order to get those....the rules on the finger foods containers, not mine). We've also been giving her some watered down Pedialyte to keep her hydrated. I will be so relieved when she shows all the signs to progress back to formula.

So now we wait to see if Daniel and I end up with "IT".

Sick Sadie...

Our little girl was sick this evening - poor Sadie. She thought the bowl we were keeping close by for 'accidents' was her new toy.

Christmas projects

So I haven’t written much on this blog lately. Daniel, thank you to him, has been carrying all the weight of our family in the blogosphere. I have been admittedly a little stressed at work lately and so busy planning for the holidays, that I just haven’t been in the blogging “mood”, so to speak! But, that is all about to change….I know, I can hear cheers of joy out there!!!


As I mentioned, I have been very busy readying our home for Christmas. We LOVE Christmas time, sometimes I think Daniel loves it more than I (he can go a little crazy with the Christmas jingles....aka, Christmas music...he wanted me to clarify what jingles meant in case anyone didn't know. ha!), but we both really like this time of year. Usually, however, we do not have anyone in our home during the month of December, and so we don’t go too overboard with many decorations other than a Christmas tree and the usual other things (basically setting out all of our nativity scenes), really because we’re just kinda loser-y like that (I mean that in the best possible way)! Well, not this year!!! Daniel’s parents will be coming to visit the first weekend of December and my entire immediate family (9 in all) will be visiting for Christmas weekend. We are so happy to be welcoming December travelers to our little home that we’re sparing no expense with the Christmas decorations (or at least I am sparing no expense…Daniel may stop me at some point because I WILL go overboard, it’s inevitable).


Anyway, since the holiday decorating has been draining all of my creative juices lately, I thought I would marry those projects with the blog and write about them. We are just so excited to be hosting Christmas for once (did I say that already?). I might as well share our decorating projects and decorated house with more than our visitors (with us living in Indiana, this may be our only chance at holiday hosting!) So now you will not have to travel all the way to Indiana to be able to take in the awesome Foley Family Christmas. We are coming to your home via this blog!!! Yes, get excited! Here is a teaser photo….more to come!

What to do...

Situation….Sadie now spits her food everywhere. She has spit before while eating, but it would be like once in a single feeding, and then she would keep eating. This weekend she decided to spit every time she ate and the entire feeding AND everything in her mouth. How is she supposed to get enough nutrition like this???? It is not because she disliked her food either, because she did it at every meal, and I KNOW my girl likes her apples and prunes!


Daniel and I have different “jobs” when it comes to Sadie. Feeding Sadie her meals is pretty much my job, mostly because I’m OCD and do not like the messes that Sadie and her daddy make together. :) Plus I really enjoy feeding her, or at least I did! I think I changed clothes twice yesterday and had to clean my glasses every time. I told Daniel last night that I was going to have to gear up tonight in a trash bag and some goggles before feeding her. ha!


So my question is: do you discipline an 8 month old baby (when I say discipline, I mean that in the lightest sense of the word...as in telling her no)? And if you are supposed to, then is food spitting something to be disciplined for? I mean she’s just learning that she can do things and get a reaction, right? I did try to use a stern (kinda) voice and tell Sadie, “No, we do not spit our food. Food is for eating. We don’t play with our food. Mealtimes are not for playing. It isn’t funny.” Over and over as I catch Daniel in my peripheral vision laughing in the living room. So much for my disciplining! :)


It isn’t all bad though. She smiles really proudly every time she does it, and THAT is funny!!!!

Trouble on the horizon!!!!

It doesn't seem like she is old enough, but somehow Sadie is on the verge of crawling. Right now she is mainly pulling herself around, but she is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, so it won't be long.

We have been told that she will get into everything when she gets her mobility, and here is the first proof of that - she found the baby wipes! The trouble for now is not her 'exploring', but how can we tell our little baby girl 'No' when we are loving what she is doing (for now at least)?!

And speaking of trouble on the horizon, surely she will get this out of her system and won't always want the remote!

The Economy and People's Decisions...

This post is a little different than our typical, but it has been on my mind, so I thought that I would share.

There have been a lot of conversations about our economy over the past several months and for good reason - things are currently bleak even for an optimist. This is the Dow Jones Industrial Average charted over the past year, and it is clear we have taken a downward turn.


There are so many factors that affect our economy and we have heard about a lot of them recently. There are also many thoughts and varying opinions about what went wrong, who’s to blame, and how we are going to fix things. I would agree that these are important questions, but in trying to answer them have we, myself included, forgot about or skipped over a very basic truth of economics – it is a SOCIAL science. It is PEOPLE that drive economics – demand, supply, prices, etc.

We have heard so many times that our problems are the result of something far removed from us as individuals (consumers and citizens). It appears that we are laying the majority of responsibility of our struggling economy on big corporations and our government, but is this really the case?

• Does the blame for people losing their homes lie with big corporations such as ‘greedy’ mortgage banks or ‘predatory’ credit card companies? Or, is it to some extent that we as a country spent beyond our means because we ‘have’ to have this or that?


• Are our energy costs a result of ‘huge’ American oil companies taking advantage of us? Or is it at least in large part the result of our demand for manufactured goods and our desire to drive the vehicle of our choice wherever and whenever that has driven the GLOBAL market price for oil to its highs.


• Is our own government to blame because of our ‘broken’ tax code and their ‘uncontrolled’ spending? Or is it that each of us tries to minimize our tax burden, but yet we demand that the government keep us safe, build and maintain our infrastructure to some of the highest levels in the world, provide social welfare benefits, etc.

I am not saying that I don’t agree that there are problems with each of the above that need to be addressed, and I certainly can’t say that I understand all of the complexities of each of these. However, it is ultimately the decisions and actions by individuals that have made our economy what it is. Our economy is on the decline right now, but history has shown us that our free-market economy works. When allowed to function, markets will dictate to businesses to produce more or less and to individuals to consume more or less. They also lead to price discovery and equilibriums, innovation and entrepreneurship, and in some cases, the failure of a company.

Our free market economy has been down before only to rebound and grow. This is part of the American Dream!

Tooth #2

Dental update.....Sadie got her second tooth yesterday!

Sadie's first word

She didn't start with Mommy, Daddy, or even anything similar, but she still won our hearts over! Ahh --- gee!!!

Soooo, maybe this is a stretch for a first word, but hey, it's close!

I voted....

....very good turn out in the two precincts that voted in our subdivision. We left the house at 11:30 and got back at 1:20. So it took about 1 hour 45 minutes. The poll workers were predicting a 90% turnout. Sadie was worn out by the time we got back in the car and fell asleep right away, but she got her sticker (Note her patriotic outfit)!
And now we wait......

p.s. I just noticed you can see Sadie's tooth in this picture when you open up the close-up. Check it out!

And on a lighter note.....

Election 2008

We are only a couple of days away from the 2008 elections, and we thought that we would share a few feelings with those interested in hearing them. We originally had thought we would not post on the election; however, some words our pastor spoke this morning during Sunday school, while discussing the book of Genesis, really hit home with us.

It is a privilege to be able to cast a vote in this great country, and we shall all remember that. Most of us eagerly gripe about the state of the world around us and our supposed failing government, but yet we don’t take the time to realize that we live in a country with more freedoms than most anyplace in the world, and the day to day luxuries that we take for granted are beyond most people’s wildest dreams.

We are not writing this blog to say that one presidential candidate (or any other elected official for that matter) is correct or wrong. We do not totally agree with either party on all issues. We all need to educate ourselves on the issues and the candidates, and we should not simply be Republicans or Democrats.

That which our pastor spoke of this morning was regarding the creation of life, God’s creation of life. This is an issue that has and continues to weigh heavy on our hearts: the sanctity of human life. All of us in the world today are here because God made us. Human life begins at conception in the womb because this is the way that God created it. God did not place his son, Jesus, directly on earth, but rather Jesus came through Mary’s womb. In Hebrew, the word womb is the same word that is also used for compassion, only one is in a noun format.

There is no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy in God’s eyes. There is no handicap or disorder that may be detected during a pregnancy or after birth that prevents a person from being loved by God. We are all special, we are all unique, and above all, we are all loved. This is a gift that has been given to each of us, and it is not our place to take it away or deny it to anyone else so that we can be comfortable in our selfish and sinful ways. As a matter of fact, our Declaration of Independence even states that ‘life is a God-given right’.

There are many important issues that have been discussed leading up to Tuesday’s elections, but with Sadie setting before us this election season, we do not believe any are as important as the sanctity of life. God will take care of us as He has said that we will not face anything that we can’t handle without His help. Our taxes may go up or they may go down, our health care may change, our strategies for dealing with international affairs may be altered, but of all of these situations, with faith, God will provide.

Below are links to each of the presidential candidate’s websites. Please take a look and please vote! Please also take the congressional and other local elections seriously. Government starts from the ground up.

Senator Obama's Website

Senator McCain's Website

99 Balloons

Sadie's in bed, The Beatles Abbey Road CD is on, Daniel is typing on his computer (wait for him to post his novel later), I'm playing on my brand spanking new computer, and we're waiting for Desperate Housewives to come on. Oh what a life! We hope everyone had a good weekend, we did! Here is a link to a video, 99 Balloons, that I just can't quit thinking about. It is so touching and makes me so appreciative for every day spent with Sadie and Daniel. It was on Oprah last week. So some of you may have seen it already.

Gig 'em Aggies!

Gig 'em Aggies! Whoop! A&M wins again. I wonder if Sadie's smart choice of attire helped the team out this week.....



No, we do not believe in brainwashing, just encouraging!

Thanks Tracy for the get-up!