my grandma called me yesterday (made my day!) just to see how we were doing and to tell me she "read that blog thing on your mom's phone".  she told me she's proud of me for writing... so that got me thinking i should probably actually keep writing something. 

i do have a praise report to share!

we went back to the doctor last monday so they could recheck presley's lungs from the pneumonia. she hadn't been coughing in over a week, so i figured she was good.... and she was! so thankful for that. BUT, while she was checking presley's heart the doctor casually says "remind me...did we talk about the murmur last time?" well CUE all the blood rushing from my face and me scrambling to say "UHHH NOOOOO...." in the nicest way. she said it was probably just from growing, and that was common, but that she wanted me to see a pediatric cardiologist. 

i immediately texted my girlfriend from church, helen, who is a nurse practitioner and an actual angel. she recommended a cardiologist and offered some (much needed and helpful) explanation.

we were able to get into the cardiologist yesterday morning, and after the longest appointment ever (long waits, but also a VERY thorough ultrasound and ekg and long talk with the doctor), he said her heart was perfectly normal. he said whatever sound they heard was normal, and nothing to even be concerned about. he said if they hear it again in six months or even five years from now, it's NORMAL. he said a lot of times murmurs are from defects or holes in the heart, but her heart looked great and her blood flow was perfect. i know a lot of people don't get such good news after a visit like that, so i am VERY VERY thankful (and VERY VERY relieved!) my girl is ok! 

besides that, not too much going on over here at the teel household. we are back in our routines with school and dance and church and hallmark movies.

back when i was on social media, instagram to be specific, one of my very favorite accounts to follow was @things.i.bought.and.liked ...basically she posts about, get this, things she bought...and liked. mind blowing, right? but it was SUCH GOOD STUFF. like everything from everyday household items, to beauty products, to books she read, etc. literally all kinds of stuff. if you're on instagram and you aren't following her, you are really missing out.

annnyway, i thought i'd post some things i bought and liked, just in case anyone wants to make their lives a little brighter.

1. THIS blow dryer. if you want to live your best life, you need this thing. i have watched countless youtube videos and read a bajillion pinterest articles about how to give yourself a blow out. and i just could never do it. my arms don't work that way. but with this thing, this miracle worker, i am able to give myself a blow out in MINUTES. volume for days. 

2. this TOOTHBRUSH. it is just the right amount of electric...meaning it doesn't shoot toothpaste across your mirror if you accidentally pop it out of your mouth for a second. and, they automatically ship you new heads every 3 months, so you basically feel verrrry put together and on top of things... even if you aren't.

also, one of my very favorite things to do is shop from aliexpress which is like china's version of amazon. you can find things for verrrry verrrrry cheap, if you don't mind waiting a month to get them. so here are my favorite things i've bought so far.

1. this wireless charger. my phone has the ability to charge wireless-ly, and i wasn't about to spend $50 to try it. so i found this for $2.39 and it works perfectly! i have it on my kitchen counter at the moment and while i'm cooking or doing dishes, i'll throw it on there to charge.

2. this pen/pencil pouch. i used to keep a pen in the spine of my bible, but then i got a hardcover bible and it kept falling out... or RANDY would steal it. so i got this nifty little case that has an elastic strap to attach to my bible that holds several pens!

3. this countertop vacuum. is this frivolous? yes. and for $6 it is one of my favorite mom hacks. i just zoom it over the table after every meal and snack. bonus points because presley loves to use it too! 

4. this ear tool. don't gag... but this thing is awesome. it has a super bright light that lets you see what you're doing when you need to go elbow deep on your kids earwax. it is super sturdy and fancy looking.

5. these earring backs. i've talked about these before... but these are THE BEST purchase i have made from china thus far. they keep all your post earrings sitting perfectly in your cute little ears. it is magical.

your aliexpress carts should be filling up now, but here are some other things i buy there regularly...

phone cases, screen protectors, mini melissa knock offs for presley, those cool silicone shoelaces, and packing cubes (you NEED these if you travel a lot!).

ok, that's all i've got for now. i'll leave you with some pictures of the world's cutest kids.

a year ago today was one of the hardest and scariest days of my life.

i boarded a one-way flight to california to LIVE HERE.

a year ago i was barely holding on. i had agreed to this move... maybe it was more begrudgingly than wholeheartedly, but i agreed. i was terrified. i had been to bakersfield exactly ONE time before i moved here, and it was for exactly 2.5 days. and now i was going to be LIVING here for a few YEARS? why was this happening? why bakersfield, california? nothing made sense. bakersfield had NEVER even been a blip on the radar for a potential rotation with randy's career at exxon. this position/rotation just kinda created itself after the previous tax manager at aera energy decided to retire. it was just so sudden, and i felt like i was drowning.
not to mention, the whole relocation process hadn't been smooth sailing like we had experienced with our dallas move. our woodlands house didn't sell. everything was rushed. we had to have our cars shipped. it was all happening around the holidays. randy was already living in bakersfield for 3 months while i was dealing with selling the house and taking care of the kids by myself. it was HARD. i found every excuse to hate this move and to feel sorry for myself. i was really down, i was really mad. i was NOT happy.

but something happened... something incredible.
it didn't happen right away, it took many months for me to stop being stubborn and open my eyes to see that God was moving.

in retrospect, i can absolutely see what happened.
over the last few years, randy and i were complacent. we were comfortable in our routine. we were only going through the motions of life. we were members of a church, but often felt lost in it. we talked about making changes, but never did. we didn't make our relationship a priority. and above all that (and i'm only going to speak for myself here) i was a lazy christian who felt like i was doing what i should by just going to church for sunday service. my relationship with the Lord was bleak.

then, when we heard we were going to bakersfield, instead of being thankful for the opportunity, i felt punished. why was God taking us away from our families?
and sadly, i kept that attitude for the first several months of last year.

but, in the spring, things started shifting. then spring turned into summer, and summer into fall. and then the end of the year just flew right on by.

now here i sit on this perfect bakersfield afternoon (it's cool, overcast, and raining!! my very favorite!), smiling. i am truly happy. bakersfield has suprised me. God has surprised me.
He took us out of our comfort zone, and we have not only survived, we have flourished.

we have made good and real friends.
our neighborhood is amazing.
our kids are happy.
the church we joined has pulled us right in, and we have already made such strong relationships and connections within it.

but most of all, these two things.
1. my relationship with randy has grown stronger and deeper, and i can honestly say i've never loved him more. he puts God first, and you have no idea how much that has molded our whole family dynamic here. he still drives me crazy, but i still drive him MORE crazy. he has been so supportive and loving through all my moods this past year, and i hope he knows i'd move to antarctica for him.

2. my relationship with Jesus. i believe God moved us here to get us closer to Him. i think he knew that we weren't relying on Him like we should, and what better way to change our selfish ways than to uproot us from our comfort zone and place us 1,700 miles away from everything and everyone we know....well, it worked!

it took me too much time to realize that God put us here to fulfill HIS plans for us. now i have open arms to this experience and adventure and am doing my best to follow His direction each day.

don't get me wrong..i still miss my family terribly. i get homesick for my parents daily. and of course i still have bad days and sad days, but they are fewer and fewer.

also, i'm never getting tired of these sunsets!

coming to you live from pemberley manor (i cant stop wont stop hallmark)... that's right, we made it back to the golden state friday afternoon, after two glorious weeks in h-town.

first, a few things.

1. to everysingleperson we didn't get to see while we were in texas (basically everyone besides our families, and the people who work at whataburger on the beltway), I AM SO SORRY. i have really good intentions coming into these trips. it's not that i don't want to see my friends (please don't stop being my friends!), it's just so hard to take time away from the family we get to see less than a handful of times a year. so... really i'm sorry, but also, you're welcome? because we all got nasty colds and my parents house was basically a breeding ground for flu-like symptoms. for real, i'm failing at being a friend lately, please don't give up on me.

2. thank you for all the christmas cards! i love seeing so many sweet faces in our mailbox. in case you didn't know, i save every christmas card we get. when i take down christmas decorations i bind all the cards we received for the season (and our own card!), and when i decorate for christmas the next year i have a coffee table full of books of christmas cards past! it's so fun to look back and see how families have grown

so we've been back for 3 days and everything is a mess. my house, my life... everything.

presley should be back at school today, but instead we were at the doctor's office as soon as they opened to be given a diagnosis of PNEUMONIA. my baby girl is so sick. she also has the beginning of an ear infection on top of that... so everytime she coughs(which is literally NONSTOP), it hurts her ear. she is currently resting--by choice, which, if you know her, is very very out of character for my child that never stops moving. it breaks my heart to see her so down. please pray for a quick recovery for our presley girl.

we leave for houston in less than 48 hours and i have ALL THE THINGS to do... but instead, here i am. sitting in bed blogging (while randy irons his work clothes), and watching impractical jokers.

impractical jokers is randy's newest favorite show... and i'll admit, it is pretty funny. but it makes me SO UNCOMFORTABLE to watch. i get anxious during every episode, and basically i'm just a weirdo. bless my little introverted soul.

anyway. so yes. lots to do, lots to do. but i want to share our fun weekend before i probably (very highly likely) abandon this little blog for two weeks.

saturday night we went to bakersfield christmastown with our favorite neighbors!
it was so much fun, and the kids LOVED it. they had so much to do and see, and i have a feeling we will come back and visit every christmas as long as we are living here!

they had "ice" skating (it was some sort of plastic tiles, but you wore ice skates? idk, i let randy take presley, and by LET, i mean designated. not my kinda fun.), hay rides (eli's favorite!), snow tubing down a giant slide (presley and i went, so fun!), face painting, characters (elsa apparently got braces 😂), tons of bounce houses, and of course, christmas lights.

sunday at church was the kids christmas program that presley was SUPPOSED to sing in. but nope. she told me she "got shy". that girl!
sunday afternoon we had our neighborhood christmas party at the clubhouse. before we left randy said, "i wish we didn't have the party tonight. i just want to stay home and not go anywhere." that is literally something that comes out of my mouth at least once a week. we are so boring, and i'm not even mad about it.💁

the party was so cute! we took a horse drawn carriage ride around the neighborhood, and had some fun in the photobooth. they had an ornament decorating station for the kids and mr. and mrs. claus came for pictures (even though we chose not to participate for eli's sake!).

today presley had TWO christmas performances, which made for a super long day, but seeing her up on stage makes it all worth it.
this morning she had a little christmas show at dance class! they performed a couple little dances and she was just precious, duh. 💗💗💗

tonight she had her christmas program at school (at 6:30pm...why?). she did so great up there singing her songs. i took videos, but no pictures... ugh. of course. there were LITERALLY 99+ three to five year olds on stage and all of their parents and relatives in a smallish place and it was a tad overwhelming, so forgive me.

i can't believe my birthday is in a couple days. i told presley that, and she got really upset and just really wanted it to be HER birthday in a couple days. she started crying about it. i told her like 324 times that you CAN'T CHANGE YOUR BIRTHDAY. and she insisted that you can, and that she wants hers to be in two days. i told her NO, that it was MY birthday in two days, and so she said, "ok, then i want my birthday to be in three days." 🙄 

she is surely a mess, but so is her brother. he copies every.single.thing she does and says.

lately she has really been into sounding out words and figuring out which letter they start with... lots of "puh puh puh presley starts with P" and "sa sa sa sword starts with S". 

she was doing it in the car the other day on the way home and pretty soon eli started too. his weren't quite as acurate.... "sh sh sh MOMMY" "duh duh duh PRESLEY!" "ca ca ca DADDY!"

he had me laughing so hard. 😂😂😂

he NEVER wants me to take his picture, like ever, unless i am making presley pose for a picture... then it's all "eli's turn! my turn! eli's turn! cheeeese!"😍

alright, i've got to stop. it's 9:13 and that means it's way past my bedtime. byeeeee.👋

i've been putting it off for awhile, but today i finally just went for it... i took the kids to see santa.

if you've been around awhile, or you got our christmas card last year, you know that eli hasn't been santa's biggest fan...or the easter bunny, or any disney character (even the princesses.) for that matter. brother just doesn't do characters.
presley, on the other hand, total pro. she smiles on cue. gives hugs, high fives, talks. today santa asked what her favorite cookies were and she squealed, "rainbow ones!". he asked her to leave some for him on christmas eve and she promised him she would. and she has reminded me 82+ times today that we have to make rainbow cookies for santa. thanks old man. he also asked her what she wanted for christmas... "a baby! a baby alive! that pees." of course.

what did eli ask for?
well. i'll let you decipher that.

pretty sure all eli wants for christmas is to NEVER SEE SANTA AGAIN.

poor guy. but don't feel sorry for him. he was on santas lap for approx 40 seconds, "smile!" click. done. one take. then he got down and acted like nothing ever happened.

aren't those jammies presh? randy told me that one day eli is going to be really upset with me for making him wear those. really RANDY? i could have put him in so much worse. like the elf costume the kid in front of us had on. 

presley is such a sweet big sister, though. before we left she told eli there was nothing to worry about and that she would hold his hand the whole time. she told eli, "if you're scared, just talk to jesus. he will make you not scared anymore." MELT MY HEART. seriously i almost cried. sometimes when presley is fighting me to go to sleep at night, she'll tell me she's scared of the dark. and every single time i tell her, "if you're ever scared, just talk to jesus... he will make you feel safe." i mean, she never heeds my advice, but at least i know she's listening!

hello again!

so wild that we are already a week into december. why this month always seems to fly by at hyper speed, i will just never quite understand. give me a year of decembers, PLEASE!

anyway. let's talk about christmas traditions. i really need some for my little family. particularly some with ZERO ELF INVOLVEMENT. i'm not knocking you elf-on-the-shelfers, but i.just.can't.do it.
two years ago while perusing pinterest i found a pin for salt dough and made some homemade christmas ornaments. i cut out different shapes with cookie cutters and let presley paint them. i also got one with her handprint, and since he was just a tiny little thing, eli got a footprint.*

*side note--why do baby books have a place for hand prints?
foot prints? totally understandable. ink foot, stamp paper, done, cute. easy.
hand prints? have you ever even pictured this situation? try it. try just imagining what might happen. first of all, good luck unfisting that NEWBORN hand. second of all, maybe you're thinking, oh, well newborns sleep a lot, i could just do it when they are asleep. ok, well i'm not trying to wake up a sleeping newborn, so if you want to take those odds, then i guess you probably have handprints in your child's baby book.

idk where that came from, but you're welcome.

anyway, last year, since we were selling the house and showing the house and all that really UNFUN  stuff, we didn't decorate for christmas or do any fun things in our house. but this year i brought back the salt dough and presley declared it "the best day ever!". she was so excited to put on her "print", or what you and i call an apron, and paint. i got handprints for both kids and call me crazy, but i'm just really excited to overload my christmas tree with these special ornaments as the years go by.

so, in summary, salt dough is my only tradition. HELP.

not much else going on, the weather has been AMAZIIIIING. in my opinion, anyway. overcast, drizzly rain, you know, the good stuff. the best part of the rain is that it clears all the nasty stuff out of the air and you can actually see the mountains!

and you're not gonna believe this, but there's a mountain so close to us, i can just reach out and touch it. i believe we are going to call it mount laundry, and i have several news outlets reaching wanting to interview me about this "miracle". apparently it's the fastest forming range in california growing at record speeds and currently overtaking the entire second floor of my house. so, sorry, i must run. going to scale that beast!

just wanted to check in and say hello to everyone who's visiting from our christmas cards!
i started this little blog last year at this time as a way of documenting a huge transition that was taking place in our lives, and to give my family a place(since i gave up social media!) to see how fast the kids are growing! (even though we facetime a bajillion times a week)

it's been quite a year, and our time here has only just begun!

anyway, we made it back from texas in a much less dramatic way than we got there.
more people ended up sick, including my sister (who i only got to see for a whole 4 hours the whole time i was in texas😭). it wasn't the week of perfection i had expected to have, but we got to spend lots of time with family, and that made it all worth it. and i kinda loved that i got to take care of my parents for a change... they took care of me, and my kids, while we were disposed, and i got to return the favor. serving them was a blessing.

and let's also address the elephant in the room.... IT'S DECEMBER! birthday month! christmas! back to texas! i can't believe it's already my favorite month of the year. i'm hoping the days flow by like molasses so that i can savor them completely. i read somewhere that as parents we only get approx 18 christmases with our babies living in our homes... and that hit me like a gut punch. as if i needed another reason to be the crazy christmas lady, my status just upgraded to the maximum level of crazy possible. 🎄

if you're new here, (basically anyone besides my parents and sister.... also, HI AUNT JOAN!), thanks for taking a minute to read my run on sentences and overly-punctuated and always lowercase ramblings. if you like to hear silly stories about the things that come out of the mouth of sassy 4 year olds, or see pictures of the cutest kids that ever lived, or you're curious about what life is like in the metropolis (ha.) that is bakersfield, california, you found the right spot!