Random mementos

I am a person who likes a certain amount of neatness and order in her home. I think God must know I needed to lighten up a little bit on this issue and having kids has definitely helped me do that. Since L has officially entered toddlerhood I find random objects in the most interesting of places. Usually about once or twice a day while she's sleeping I go through the house and try to make sense of where she thought things belonged. I can't help but sigh and smile at what she left in her wake...

Just in case we needed some viewfinder entertainment while getting some relief... (and yes those are tiny pieces of torn up toilet paper on my bathroom floor-they have become a permanent fixture in our bathroom)


Toothbrush on the end table in the living room...


CD in the printer...


Beloved "Lambie" taking a nap in the dog bed...


And finally, I've decided our floor must be growing socks because I can't tell you how many I find each day in various parts of the house...




And that's just from one day! Whew!

Read more...

My googled images

So I got tagged to do this and it ended up being pretty fun...

My age


Best friend


Current pet


First job


Favorite food


One of my favorite places


Birthplace


Current place of residence


What I'm doing right now


Favorite animal


Favorite object


Past love


Place I want to go


Place I've been


Nickname (former)


Favorite color


Who I tag

Read more...

More of my boy

W seems to be adding new words to his vocabulary everyday. We have to be VERY careful what we say as he "parrots" everything. S often calls me "babe" and the other day W was mousing around performing for me and he said, "Watch this, BABE!"

It makes life easier in a lot of ways now that he can communicate with words. As his speech gets more and more clear there are fewer frustrating times trying to interpret what he's just said. There are still quite a few words though that he gets confused about and although we're working on them, part of me finds them so endearing that I'll be a little sad when he finally gets them right.

Here's a few more W-isms:

"Yester-year"- A period referring to any time in the past, ranging from 3 minutes ago to over a year ago.

"Nose-balls"-Snowballs

"What-not"-spoken as a question, actually meaning "why not?" (We hear this in response to our "no" A LOT)

Read more...

Teddy Bear Picnic

I took W on a special mommy-son date to the Teddy Bear Picnic at the library last weekend. It was quite an adventure complete with a bear hunt, bear story, visit from Pooh Bear, and of course W's favorite-bear food (honey sandwich and teddy grahams). He had a great time and here's some pics from our day...





Feeding Teddy...

Read more...

One

It's been harder than I thought it would be watching my baby girl turn one. When W turned 1 it felt like it had been a year. A year of learning, growing, watching him develop. But for some reason this past year feels like a blink of an eye! I guess it's because I've been more busy caring for two. Of course I've still done the learning, growing, watching her develop but it's felt like it's all been in fast forward. As excited as I am about watching her grow up a little more each day, part of me is really sad that my baby isn't a baby anymore.

It's been a while since I've done a list here and in honor of her big first birthday I thought I'd list some of my favorites about her/this past year etc...

-She adores her older brother. W has definitely entered the "I'm-a-high-energy-goofy-little-boy-who-thinks-it's-fun-to-be-as-loud-as-possible-and-repeat-silly-behaviors-over-and-over" phase. Thank goodness L laughs hysterically at him because I just can't bring myself to after the 9th time!

-Her sweet little independent spirit. She is so good about playing on her own and I love to watch her determination as she "works" at playing with toys.

-Her dimple.

-The way she nuzzles into me and sucks her thumb when she's tired.

-The growling noise she makes when she's eating like she just can't get the food in her mouth fast enough.

-Her flexibility. She has been so accommodating when her routine has to be changed and I just have been amazed at how easy it's been to postpone mealtimes or naptimes if we have to for one reason or another.

-The way she crawls/toddles (whichever she is choosing at the moment) as fast as she can towards S when he walks in the door after work almost as if she knows she's got to compete with two other people and a gigantic dog for his attention.

-That God is letting me borrow her for a while and revel in every detail He designed in her.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl.

Read more...

I've been BAPTIZED!

I had an interesting first experience today at work. About 10 minutes before the end of one of my counseling sessions I began hearing what sounded like a drip coffee maker brewing coffee right above my head. This would ordinarily not be that unusual except for the fact that there is no second floor above the office I use, nor do I have a drip coffee maker in my office. I did a double take the louder it got thinking to myself, "that is really not a sound I've ever heard before in here and I hope my client doesn't notice that I'm totally not paying attention to a word they are saying as I'm looking around the room for a surprise coffee drink waiting for me."

The next thing I knew my tranquil, safe counseling room had been transformed into a tropical rainforest, complete with water pouring through the ceiling tiles and soggy insulation dangling from the ceiling. If my chair had been 6 inches to the right I would have had a nice little pool right in my lap. I leaped up and grabbed a garbage can to catch as much of the water as I could. Imagine trying to contain water from a fire hose with a teaspoon--this is a similar picture of what good work my garbage can was doing. Soon the church staff came to my rescue and we all had a good laugh about the whole thing. I've always wondered what it looks like when a pipe freezes and bursts, and now I know first hand.

One of the hardest things for me about counseling is knowing how and when to gently end a session. I try to stick to a 50 minute session so I can be sure to have a few minutes to transition between clients. But sometimes it's just very awkward ending a session when a client very clearly is not ready to gather themselves and walk out of the room. It's a good thing this particular client had a sense of humor and could laugh about this. I definitely didn't have to state the obvious at the end of this session, "Well, I think our time is up!"

Read more...

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to find some limbs like this one down in our yard Friday morning. Our power was out from about 2 am to 6 am. You never realize how quiet a house can be until the power is out. The water heater, the furnace, humidifiers all create a blanket of noise that is so comforting to sleep under. I was laying awake (because who can sleep in total silence?!) listening to car after car spin their wheels at the stop sign next to us and hoping none would careen into our house. Then I was hearing the tree branches crack and fall-from the way it sounded I thought the whole tree was falling into our house.

I thought they looked kinda cool in our yard but S is already out there picking them all up. If anybody needs some firewood or kindling let us know!

Read more...

Visiting Santa

We went to visit Santa when he came to the Library last week and apparently W was still terrified of those spankings Santa gives out so he was NOT interested in sitting on his lap. We opted for the family pic instead. Even poly pants in winter static don't cling as tightly as W was clinging to Daddy!

Read more...

Scared

As heard at our dinner table this evening...

W: "I'm scared."
S: "Why?"
W: "Because Jesus and Santa spank people."

Clearly we have some work to do in the area of differentiating disciplinarian authorities.

Read more...

One down...

Woo hoo! S passed his first licensing exam today and we are SO relieved! He's been studying for over a month now and it's been kind of consuming our time and mental energy. He'll actually receive two licenses, one for Life Insurance and one for Accident and Health Insurance. This will enable him to write policies and is the first big hurdle he's tackled in his new job. What a great thing to be thankful for this week!

Read more...

Halloween

We spent most of the end of October sick and battling colds but I was glad by Halloween we all seemed to be on the mend. L is on an antibiotic so I'm hoping she can get over this stuff that she's had off and on for almost two months now! Halloween was fun and W was really starting to "get it" this year. Someone gave him a Halloween pencil trick-or-treating and he kept trying to give it back to all the houses they went to after that. Only candy please!

Here are my little creatures...

Read more...

November

Can it really be November already? October was such a blur I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged!

We took a trip to Iowa as a family mid-October. My friend was getting married and I was her bridesmaid so we made a little getaway of it and spent a few days doing fun family stuff before the wedding. We had a nice time although unfortunately I got the stomach flu the day of the wedding and was pretty bummed about not getting to celebrate the way I'd expected to. Every wedding has a "glitch" so I guess it was better me than the bride!

Here's our day at the zoo...



We went to a place called Go Bananas! It's kind of like a glorified Chuck E. Cheese and W LOVED it...

Read more...

3 Years

Psalm 139:13-16

Read more...

Happy Birthday!

W has been asking for a dinosaur birthday for over a month now. I don't know where he came up with that as we have nary a dinosaur in our home but his wish was granted and now our house is overrun with dinosaurs! We celebrated last night with S' side and he was thrilled with our party!



One of the more special presents he'll receive this year was from Grandpa. He spent this past month restoring his childhood 1956 Farmall red pedal tractor for W. We've been riding it every day since he got it and I can tell it's already a favorite.

Read more...

Together for Lincoln

There are times when I get irritated living in such a small community. The resistance to change and economic development, the lack of entertainment, the absence of a shopping mall...ahem...sometimes a girl just needs some quick window browsing therapy and having to drive 40 minutes to get it is such a drag.

But there are other times when I realize how extremely fond of living in Lincoln I've become. It's quaint, relatively safe, people are friendly and there are lots of good things about living in a small town. In fact, I think I can say sometimes I'm downright proud of Lincoln.

Today is definitely one of those days.

Our church, along with 10 others, has organized a community wide service project day where individuals from all over the community are coming together to serve people and show the love of Christ through their actions. They have close to 100 service projects lined up with more than 800 people signed up to participate in volunteering. All kinds of things are happening today from building wheelchair ramps to visiting nursing homes to cleaning hard to reach areas of homes for people who just can't reach there anymore. It has received such a positive response that I'm certain it will become an annual event.

S is a project leader for a woman who needs some painting and staining done on her home. That means my role today is to be home with the kiddos. I have to admit, honestly I was a little resentful when we left for church this morning realizing that I had to give up hubby for the day and for me this would just be another day. But then our preacher gave an inspiring message about unity and serving others. Then they played this song while flashing pictures of various sites around Lincoln up on the screen and I got all teary and warm and proud of what was happening today.

When W and I were eating lunch we heard people talking outside and he asked, "What's that mom?" I got up to look and saw a group of people I'd never seen before picking up trash on our street. Their ages ranged from what looked like about 4 years old to middle age and I instantly got excited about what an impact this project could have on our community. Not just on the people being served, but on the people serving. I got excited about teaching my children why we do what we do on this day every year. I got excited to serve alongside others from different faith backgrounds for one unified purpose: showing the love of Christ to others.

Lincoln, I'm proud of you.

Read more...

Busy

This is what I mean when I say she's "into everything!"




What a sweet busy season of life this is.

Read more...

Dedicate a Day

As part of Hearts at Home Blog Tour during the month of September I'd like to republish a previous post I wrote after going to their National Conference two years ago. I had to miss it this past year as it was shortly after the birth of our daughter so I'm already getting antsy for next year's conference. The past few weeks have been a bit defeating dealing with sick kids and a toddler in the throes of terrible 2's/3's. I am more than eager to fill up on a little mommy encouragement in March at the 2009 Conference!


I went to a conference last Friday called Hearts at Home. It was a really nice day for these reasons:

• the car ride up and back with my friend E
• spending all day with my sis and getting her undivided attention (i'm still the baby, ok?) (by the way, check out her new business venture)
• crying through the first song (they really shouldn't make you cry within the first 15 min. of the day)
• laughing my head off during our first workshop. The speaker was hysterical
• learning that no matter what I deal with as a mom, some other mom has been there, done that and can often provide encouragement for the journey.

Read more...

Redemption

In applying for new health insurance for S's new job we were asked to give detailed account of any medical treatment we have had in the last FIVE YEARS.

Excuse me?

FIVE YEARS?! I can't even remember the last time I had 8 continuous hours of sleep, let alone every medical detail anyone in our family has experienced in the last FIVE YEARS!

Not only did they want to know dates, procedures, diagnoses, they wanted to know medications, dosages and frequency of medications. Surprisingly it wasn't quite as hard as I thought it might be and the specifics I couldn't remember I just guessed.

We filled out our application online and apparently even that did not provide enough detail because I received a call a few days later from an underwriter wanting more information about several conditions we had reported on our app.

One of the issues she wanted more info on was our infertility, specifically the endometriosis I had treatment for. What had been done, when, what results occurred, what subsequent treatments have been done, any recurrence...? She asked me several questions more than once. There are certain times in my life now when I have a hard time believing we went through all that. It seems like such a long ago period of our life when I see my squealing toddler running through the house and cuddle my little baby girl.

That's why I was caught so off guard by my emotional reaction to all her questions. I had to bite my lip several times through our conversation to keep from crying. I felt like once again my privacy was being violated by a complete stranger wanting to know the ins and outs of my painful past in order to make a judgement on paper as to my health condition. I wanted to scream, "THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" and hang up. I just kept wondering through the rest of the day if that dark period of my life will ALWAYS follow me.

And yet our sermon at church Sunday was a perfect reminder to me about the value of remembering our past when living in today. How can we really appreciate the power of redemption without remembering what we are redeemed from? As long ago as our years of infertility seem, they have greatly influenced who I've become today with a heart for hurting people. God has worked His redemption through my life in so many ways: healing my empty womb to allow me to carry children, healing my heart from the pain of my past, healing my soul that would otherwise be destitute and hopeless without Him.

Maybe God knew I needed that phone call from an unknowing underwriter to remind me of His Great Power in my life.

Read more...

Happy 25 years DM!

Discovery Ministries is a wilderness adventure camp that S interned at two summers in college. They were celebrating their 25 year anniversary this weekend so we took the fam to enjoy the festivities. Here are a few hi-lites...

W and Daddy rock-climbing


L rock-climbing (don't worry mom-S's holding her, you just can't see it in the pic)


W liked swinging better than climbing!


Alley Springs...gorgeous scenery


Daddy and W discovering


Stylin!

Read more...