Londt.com Musings

Since Joey’s birth, it seems like we have had only a handful of nights marked by 7+hours of consecutive sleep. The excuses are many and varied: newborn feedings, adjusting to two kids sharing a room, illness; you name it, and we’ve used it. If you ask either of us how we feel on any given day, the answer is pretty much the same: exhausted!

This past Friday was a rare night when both kids slept soundly the entire night. We have been slowly nursing Joey back to health in the past few weeks, and we’ve found that increasing his solid intake has helped tremendously with his middle-of-the-night wakings. We finally turned a corner and were looking forward to a restful night’s sleep.

But our visitor had other ideas.

Around 2am, I woke up to a rustling noise that sounded like it was coming from the corner of our bedroom. Typically I would just identify the source of the noise (i.e. Gromit shifting positions, a neighbor’s dog barking, etc) and roll over and fall back asleep. But this noise didn’t have a logical source–at least not one I could identify immediately in my groggy state. I sat up in bed to get the full stereo affect, and when I did Joe said, “it’s coming from the attic.” He had apparently been awakened several minutes before me, and was also listening intently. He turned on the light and looked around the floor just to be sure. Gromit was sleeping peacefully and didn’t appear much concerned. He’s certainly not winning any awards for schnauzer of the year.

After a few minutes of listening, the sound stopped. We both tried to go back to sleep, but you can imagine the thoughts that were going through our minds at 2 in the morning. Whatever was making that noise had to be huge, otherwise how would we have heard it? And if it is in the attic, could it not also find it’s way to our bedroom…or our bed? I pulled my covers tight against my chin and stared wide-eyed at the ceiling.

After several more minutes of silence, the noise started again. Joe suggested that we turn on the radio and maybe the noise would scare it away. We listened to an entire CD, all the while the critter continued its victory dance above our heads. It was nonplussed. By this time, it was almost 3:30, so Joe decided to take more drastic measures. He got up and found his cricket bat and started banging on the walls and ceiling hoping to encourage the little beast to move along. That seemed to work for a while, but the damage was done. We were both wide awake and unable to stop hypothesizing about the nature of this R.O.U.S. (Rodent of Unusual Size). Joe thought it was a squirrel, but I felt sure we had a nest of rats who were undoubtedly nibbling through our wiring at that very moment. As we talked, I started running through fire escape routes in my head and determining which scrapbooks I would attempt to grab if there was time for such things.

By about 4:30 the noises stopped and we were finally able to fall asleep. Only a few short hours later, our darling daughter bounced into our room, and we were jolted awake once again. I looked around the room (now bathed in sun light), hoping it had all been a bad dream; but the cricket bat next to the bed was a not-so-subtle reminder of the reality of our pest. I can’t go anywhere in the house now without the fear of coming face to face with whatever it is lurking above our heads. Yuck!!

I will spare you the details of our pest removal method, mostly because I don’t want to think about it anymore, and also because you probably don’t want to think about it either. We aren’t even sure it will work, but time will tell. All I know is that our perspective has now changed. The sound of babies crying, coughing, and even puking, is far better than waking up to the sound of unexpected visitors in the middle of the night.

November 4th was indeed a day of change. Change for our world, change for our country, and change for LondtCo headquarters. Unfortunately the change has not been what we had hoped for (on any front). Hours before the presidency was decided, Joe faced an immediate and unexpected change at work: he, along with 15 other colleagues, received an opportunity to pursue professional advancement–elsewhere. With two weeks’ severance in hand, he was ushered out the door and into a world of growing uncertainty. For those who wish to chalk it up to a happy coincidence, though, Heidi was the recipient of a very generous raise just last week. We, of course, see no coincidence at all, but rather the Hand of God at work in our lives. After an October that was fraught with illness and general malaise, both spiritual and physical, and this unpleasant start to November, our heads are spinning, but our ears are wide open to hear what the LORD has to teach us. We’re taking this turn of events as the perfect opportunity to trust Him to pay our bills, put the food on our table, and provide for our family’s health and security. Realistically, nothing’s changed at all, except that now we poignantly remember that it’s only our Father’s grace that has provided each of those blessings for us all this time!! We trust the God who is bigger than our circumstances–He is bigger than our country, and he is bigger than the world He created. While it’s uncertain what the coming weeks and months will hold for our family and our nation, we are holding fast to the hope we have in Christ.

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! Click here for more pics of our little bugs.

Trick-or-Treaters beware! Londtco corporate headquarters has been the unfortunate target of a viral infestation of magnificent proportion. This ominous virus has infected three quarters of the corporation over a three-week period, including President and CEO, J.J. Londt himself! Mr. Londt was briefly incapacitated by the virus two weeks ago, and after a full recovery, he was reinfected this past weekend. He bravely returned to work Monday morning, and full recovery is expected by mid-week.

Junior staffer, A.C. Londt had a brief run-in with the virus during its initial attack, but her symptoms only lasted a few days and she has fully recovered.

Junior staffer, J.E. Londt has been most drastically effected, and his illness has persisted intermittently for almost three weeks. His symptoms worsened last week to include severe vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. Londt’s decreased health has resulted in numerous visits to the pediatrician and a brief stint at urgent care where he underwent intravenous therapy to replace essential fluids. His condition was only slightly improved over the weekend, and yesterday he developed a further complication–a rash. After today’s consultation with the doctor, we determined that the rash is related to the virus, and it may in fact indicate that an end to the infection is near.

Chief Communications Officer, H. Londt has managed to escape infection from this now infamous virus, and she continues to monitor and refine the corporate sanitation policies to prevent future outbreak.

Profit margins continue to hold steady despite a severe blow to productivity over the past week.

We’ve become frequent visitors to the Target portrait studio lately! We had a sneaking suspicion that Abby would be less than cooperative at this particular sitting, not because she was in a bad mood that day or anything, but because she dislikes having her picture taken in general. It didn’t help that this was a “staged” effort, and she isn’t easily fooled. The photographer did everything she could to help Abby relax and enjoy herself. She brought out a barn backdrop, flowers, pumpkins, and everything she could find in her closet of props. But Abby was much more interested in playing in the closet than sitting for a picture. Her defiant response to every request we made was, “I can’t!” At one point we even put Joey on the set just to see if a little friendly competition would motivate her, but what we ended up with was a bunch of cute pictures of our 7-month old (that of course we did not buy having just taken his pictures a month earlier!) Toward the end of the session, Daddy got into the picture to help calm down our camera-wary toddler. He started tickling her while I held Joey up and jiggled him back and forth. Her rigid exterior finally cracked a little, and Daddy got her laughing. We ended up getting a few good ones to use in her scrapbook and a decent portrait shot for the hallway. Originally we thought about asking for a shot of both kids for our Christmas card this year, but now we’re thinking store-bought cards might be the way to go.

Click here to see the full album.

For those who don’t yet know, our baby girl turned 2 over the weekend. (Click here for full album). We can hardly believe it ourselves. I personally remember much more about Abby’s first year…the second year seems like a total blur. I imagine, based on the feedback I receive from other parents, that we are entering a period of warp speed and before long we will be preparing for her high school graduation!

It’s always tempting to go overboard on kids’ birthday parties, so we have made a conscious effort to keep things simple–especially when our children are too young to remember much of what is happening anyway. As a result, we decided to have a simple gathering with family and close friends at the park near our house.

The week prior to her birthday was marked by rampant illness at LondtCo. Fortunately by Thursday things were looking up. The weather forecast predicted 70-degree weather on Saturday, and there was no rain in sight. Perfect weather for an outdoor birthday party!

We had a relatively stress-free Saturday morning getting the kids bathed, dressed, and ready for the party. My mom and aunt went to Kroger to air up the balloons, and our friend Mike came early to help with the grilling. Everything was going exactly as planned.

At 10:45 we headed down the street to the park to set up for the 11am party. Abby was in the midst of a 2-year old tantrum, because she wanted to walk to the park instead of ride in the van. When we arrived, we immediately saw that another party was setting up at the pavilion! Well, I wasn’t completely unprepared for this. After all, it is a public park, it was Saturday, and the weather was ideal for an outdoor party. There are four picnic tables and two grills under the pavilion; in the dozen or so times we have used this park for gatherings, we have never run into a problem sharing the space with other park-goers.

Well that day was different. Apparently this party had paid to rent out the entire pavilion from 11 until 2pm that day! Yikes! At that point there was really no room to negotiate. They paid…we didn’t. I just stood there dumbfounded and I became more and more angry at myself for overlooking such a major detail! It was just minutes before 11 at this point, so we had to figure out a Plan B–and fast!

Fortunately Joe (who excels in putting out fires), was able to think clearly while my emotions took over. His first suggestion was to employ our “rain contingency” plan–which meant we would head home and have the party there. It was such a beautiful day, though, that it seemed a shame to hole up inside the house. Plus we didn’t really have any activities planned to keep the kids busy at the house. Next, he suggested that he and Mike could grill the hot dogs at home and bring them down to the park when they were finished. After all, the playground was still available even if the pavilion was rented out. It wasn’t a bad plan, but not ideal either. I looked over at my mom who was holding a dozen balloons in her hand, and all I could think was, “where will we put the balloons?” I know, minor details! But in reality, there isn’t anywhere else to convene at that particular park unless you bring your own tables and chairs. Plus there is no shade except under the one (occupied) pavilion.

His final suggestion was to find a different park. Our favorite park is just a few miles away in a neighboring city. It is a much bigger park with a nice duck pond and lots of picnic tables and grills scattered around the heavily treed area. I liked that idea the best, so we all packed up and headed to the “duck park”.

Praise the Lord that there were plenty of available picnic tables and we even found one relatively close to the playground in the shade. The rest of the party went smoothly and the highlight for Abby was hearing everyone sing her favorite song, “Happy Birthday!”. Her face lit up as she sang along and put extra emphasis on the “Abby” portion of the song.

As an added perk, Joe’s company had given away free tickets to the circus in downtown Fort Worth, so we thought it would be fun to take Abby for her birthday. Joey slept through most of the show, and Abby’s attention was fairly evenly divided between the circus performers and the unnaturally high-pitched squeals of some young girls enjoying the show in the seats behind us. She was most interested in watching the animals, and although she was really hoping to see some monkies, she was more than satisfied with the amusing performances by the elephants, ponies, and a troop of talented Ukranian poodles. The show really was pretty amazing, and it was the perfect way to end her special day!

Last weekend we packed up the kids and headed to the local pumpkin patch for our much anticipated annual pumpkin day. We started this tradition last year, and while it’s not a new or unique tradition, we decided it was a fun way to document our October baby around her birthday each year.

In my mind, the ideal day to visit a pumpkin patch is mid-October when the skies are overcast and the temperature is hovering around 65 degrees. But the reality is that this is Texas, and we’re lucky if temperatures fall below 80 in October. And overcast skies are rare around here, any time of year. On this particular day, it was sunny and 87 degrees. Oh well.

Our pumpkin patch visit was the highlight of the weekend. It kind of went downhill after that. When we got home, Joe decided to use his only free Saturday in the foreseeable future to tackle a leaky shower faucet in the kids’ bathroom. The leak started some time ago, but it had recently become a steady drip that we could no longer ignore. After several trips to Home Depot, he was ready to get started. The first step was to turn off the water main. After that he disappeared into the bathroom and wasn’t heard from again for a good hour. I thought things must be going well, so I looked after the kids and tried to stay out of the way. Finally he emerged, torch in hand, and from his face I could tell that it didn’t look good. He told me that there wasn’t enough room in the tiny hole behind the shower workings to maneuver his torch, and he was afraid he was going to start a fire. The only other option (besides calling a plumber) was to remove shower tiles to gain better access. We weren’t really prepared for an entire bathtub remodel at this point in our lives, so he was stuck.

It was about this time in the conversation that we heard something that sounded like water spilling in my office. We ran over and found Abby puking all over herself and my office chair. Timing is everything, eh? We both felt a bit overwhelmed at this point. The water was off, and we couldn’t turn it back on until the plumbing in the bathroom was fixed. Like it or not, it was time to call a professional.

Joe got on the internet (after I cleaned the office chair of course) and found a local plumber who was available on a Saturday night (it was after 6pm by this time). The plumber worked for over three hours and ended up having to cut out a hole in the tile and drywall to gain access to the pipes. He did get the leak repaired and the shower is functional, but we now have a big hole in the wall around the workings that we had to temporarily cover with plastic and tape to keep water out. We are now looking at potentially remodeling the tub and tile since both are old and in need of updating–all because of a tiny leak! It’s like going to the doctor for a hangnail and ending up in heart surgery!

It’s a good thing that the plumber came, though, because it turned out we really needed water this weekend. By Sunday both kids were sick with the stomach virus. So far Joe and I haven’t come down with anything more than a sinus infection, but we are keeping a bucket next to the bed just in case.

Joey turned 7 months old yesterday, and he’s definitely our little over-achiever! I mentioned in a previous post that he has gone from crawling to pulling up. He’s quite proud of himself for mastering this new skill, and he practices all the time. At this rate, we are speculating that he could be walking as early as Halloween. (Gasp!) Shortly after he was born, my younger sister gave us a hand-me-down catapillar costume that my mom made for her when she was an infant. So far, Joey is the only baby in our family born in a winter month since my sister, so we were eager to stuff him in the 3-foot long costume and let him crawl away! It’s perfect for a four-legged creature, but I rather doubt it will accomodate a wobbly walker!

In the last month or so, Joey has started eating baby veggies (peas, carrots, green beans, and squash), and I’ve even offered him Puffs on occasion. He still doesn’t have enough control over his “pinchers” to pick them up on his own, but I’m sure he will by next month! He also said “ma-ma” the other night. It might have been a fluke, but I choose to believe it was intentional.

I added new pictures to the Photo Gallery, so feel free to peruse at your convenience!

So here’s the thing: Heidi NEVER surprises me on the actual dates of “special days” because she just can’t keep a secret. I love surprises, but she’s usually so excited that as soon as she’s purchased, ordered, or physically received a gift item, she can’t keep a straight face, and when I ask her why she’s smiling like a Cheshire cat, she blurts out the following loaded question: “Do you want your gift NOW or on the day-of?” Sometimes I relent and let her tell me about the happy hand grenade she’s got ticking, but I also do enjoy surprises, and just as often I’ll make her wait the remaining days or week until the special day, watching her squirm…

Well, she pulled it off, this year.

Because we alternate years in planning and surprising each other for our Late September anniversary, this year, Number 6, was Heidi’s turn. I didn’t expect much this year because:
1) we’re pretty busy these days
2) we’re tightening down the budget in this adverse financial climate, and
3) keeping track of 2 toddlers has us on the ropes pretty much daily.

So, imagine my surprise, when my office’s receptionist paged me at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, to come to the front where “Mrs. Londt [was] waiting.” My first response was, ‘how did my Mom get here today, by this time?’ Then, of course, I knew it was Heidi, and when I got to the front of the office, she was standing there, all dressed up and looking coy. We stepped aside into a small conference room and she asked if I’d have the time and inclination to get some dinner? Of course, I was ready to leave for the day, so I closed up my small area of the shop and we walked through the fresh early evening to Mi Cocina, a nice little Mexican restaurant on Sundance Square. Since it was only about 5:15 when we got there, we had the place essentially to ourselves and we had a nice chat and a lovely dinner. Afterward, Heidi suggested that we head over to Barnes & Noble, also on the square, for some quiet browsing and general adult alone time, a luxury we once thoroughly enjoyed but haven’t done since the kids were born. Since we typically lead a small group from church on Friday nights at 6:30, I was a bit concerned that we were already late, but then I reasoned that Heidi, normally nervous about the smallest details, wasn’t concerned and was actually unusually relaxed… I interpreted this as a sign that she had taken care of things for the evening, and I just didn’t worry about it. We enjoyed browsing for a while, then found a quiet corner to look at some books, and eventually went to the on-site Starbucks for coffee.

After we finished our drinks and got up to leave, we noticed a large number of people heading into the Bass Performance Hall across the street. On a whim, we crossed over, just to see what was going on, and read on the Marquis that the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra was performing works of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Respighi in their 2008-2009 season opener that night. Just as I said “Oh, that would have been a nice show to see” she handed me a small envelop and said, “well, let’s go see it then!” The tickets were for seats in the second highest row, but since it was the symphony, our experience wasn’t reduced in any way… the sound was perfect, even in the rafters, and we had plenty of space around us to enjoy the beautiful music.

After the show, we wandered out and headed through the crowd back toward the parking garage, but Heidi let go of my hand in the shuffle and we were separated. I saw her moving quickly through the crowd and followed, knowing that we were headed in the wrong direction but just focusing on catching up. By the time I did meet her, she was already crossing the street onto a different block. I started to mention that we could make better time on the next street over, when she gave me a sly glance, took my hand, and led me into the lobby of the hotel that we were passing at that moment. I followed her directly onto the elevator, and watched her push the top button… She had made a reservation for that night at the Courtyard Marriott, and had been randomly given one of the 5 rooms on the penthouse level! When we opened the door to the room, she had prepared a basket of fruit & chocolate, wine glasses, a candle, and there was wine chilling along with a nice piece of cheese on top of the ice in the ice bucket… She had brought clothes, bathing suits (for the rooftop pool & hot tub, which was great) and most importantly NO KIDS!

We had a great night, and slept in until almost 7am! After packing up our “Staycation” gear for the 18 minute return trip, we checked out and strolled through a classic car show that was happening on the streets of Fort Worth on Saturday Morning. We enjoyed a rich and tasty breakfast at our favorite French Restaurant, La Madeline, and then took our time picking the kids up at Joy’s house at around Noon. We also picked Gromit up from Grandma’s and just had a nice afternoon and evening at home, playing with the kids, who were as happy to see us as we were to see them.

It’s going to be a challenge for me to come up with an equally good plan for next year’s anniversary… I’m starting my research now!

Yesterday I walked into the living room and found Joey looking just like this:

Apparently his big sister is teaching him tricks in the night!