Lighthearted Living

Happy Birthday Papa!

2011-09-29T21:11:00.002-05:00

Due to "library night" and having to shop for a last minute birthday party the girls were invited to, by the time they got to call Papa for his birthday the phone was busy and unfortunately it was already past their bedtime...and they were so disappointed. So we had them record their message to Papa...and since I couldn't decide between the two better takes, I uploaded them both :-)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Vacation

2011-09-13T20:06:00.013-05:00

We opted not to do a summer vacation this year, due mostly to Sean's age. We also knew that we planned to start homeschooling at the end of July. If we choose to continue homeschooling after this year we won't start until at least August, but for this first year we wanted to have some experience under our belt before public school started. From the beginning we planned to do 6 weeks of school and then take a break while all the other kids went back to school. It worked so well I imagine we'll do something similar in future years.

So the first week of September Eric took a week off of work and we planned a few fun things. We enjoyed Labor day with a picnic at some friends and then, probably the highlight of the week for Sean, he got to try his first solid foods. Which, believe or not based on the below picture, he did seem to enjoy :-)

We decided to space out our "field trips" a bit so Sean didn't get too out of whack and that turned out to be a wise choice since he was spent by the end of each day. We chose to go up to Door County and "The Farm" for our first trip. Since there were very few others there the girls got to give the baby goats several bottles (much to the delight of both varieties of kids).

While there the girls also got to feed corn to the older goats, milk a mama goat, pet a mini horse and her filly, explore an old well, meet a variety of other animals, and probably the highlight of the day...watch a baby chick hatch. We passed by and saw that there were a few eggs ready to hatch in an incubator in one of the buildings but figured it would take a long time and we didn't want to spend all day watching an egg crack. So I told the girls we'd check back on our way out and sure enough there was very little progress on the couple eggs we'd noticed had started to hatch. However, a new egg had started to hatch and this one was determined. When the progress was obvious I told Hannah that we could stay and watch, much to her excitement. And within 10 minutes it was out. It was a precious sight and an awesome way to explain to Hannah how chickens come to be.

They enjoyed their trip to the farm.

Our attempt at a family picture.

Our other chosen field trip was to the Milwaukee zoo. The girls have been looking forward to this since day one of school, so the entire day was a lot of fun. We printed off a "scavenger hunt" that we found online and helped the girls find the things on the list. One thing I really love about the Milwaukee zoo is their signs. They have some really great signs about the animals and their endangered levels, plus lots of interesting trivia. It is easy to read a sign like that to little kids and have them actually enjoy hearing it. Of course, the first thing we had to do was ride the train for Eric:

And after a hard day of walking, they needed to take a break and rest their feet in their "animals thrones". Everything is a throne to these little princesses.

We had so much fun as a family this last week and I think it helped affirm to us that we've made the right choice to homeschool. We feel so much more connected as a family and I love that learning is a family event. It is easier than I thought to find educational value in the world around us. Particularly with Hannah since she has an incredibly inquisitive mind. If we didn't offer the information, she would probably ask anyway!

We are looking forward to many more family vacations. Maybe next time we'll actually get to go away somewhere!

Swimming

2011-08-18T21:42:00.007-05:00

We have done lots of swimming this summer, probably because with Sean being so little and unpredictable it is one of the easier things we can let the girls do! Eric started taking the girls to "family swim" at our local pool every Thursday night starting in June. It is an hour of swimming that is offered at half-price, with the idea that parents are in charge of their children's safety. There are lifeguards, but in limited quantity. You are allowed to bring pool toys and other things that are normally not allowed, and Dad's are allowed to catch their kids (who are unable to swim!) jumping off of the diving boards.

Eric got Hannah started on this right away. It was something she loved and eagerly latched onto once she started swim lessons end of July. By the end of her swim lessons she was able to swim and go off the diving board by herself. And not only the lowest diving board but the medium one, too. She decided last week that she intended on going off of the "high dive", the highest one available for the last family swim of the summer...which was today.

Now this mother did not embrace the idea of her 6 year old who could barely swim jumping off of the high dive, even if Daddy was standing by below to save her if need be. But I agreed if Hannah could pass a "swim test" that Eric put her through. Once she passed, I reluctantly agreed to video tape her crowning moment. She has literally been talking about this for days and was very nervous about doing it, but excited nonetheless.

Her successful jump!

This is one of those moments where I sit back and realize that this is yet another reason why I want to homeschool. I love to witness the joy of discovery. Hannah is learning to do so much right now and she's very excited and proud of her accomplishments. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I love that I get to see so much of it firsthand. I love how she informs me how much easier math is getting for her and the way she assured me today that "of course" she could read her assignment to me, as if I was a silly question for me to ask.

Grace is night and day with Hannah. She's our cautious child. She does not enjoy the pool nearly as much. But we've discovered that if allowed to swim in the baby pool she is a lot more adventurous. I think she feels insecure in the deeper water and enjoys being able to test her abilities in a situation she feels in control of. After watching Hannah jump into the pool from the high dive, Grace "imagined" herself to be diving into the baby pool much the same way. I'm sure much of the hilarity of the moment is lost in translation and this is very much a "you had to be there" thing, but I took a video which I still think is funny :-)

Elaina seems oblivious to all the jumping going on. She seems to enjoy seeing just what she can do in the water. She's a lot like Grace in that she much prefers the shallow water. But Elaina will float (propelling herself with her hands) to the deepest part of the baby pool until her head goes under and she jumps up, sputtering and indignant. When she's not doing that she is running back and forth between the pool and me, yelling "It's fun!"

And of course, the amused audience :-)

We've enjoyed this summer...it makes me sad that the pool is closing (already) next week and that summer seems to be wrapping up. At least this year I won't have to prepare myself to say good-bye to Hannah. We will be hitting the books at home!

Three Months

2011-07-28T09:32:00.012-05:00

Sean is 3 months old! I think it was possibly the longest 3 months of my life, but we have come out on the other side finally! Sean is probably the most even-tempered, mellow baby we've had yet. He's pretty laidback, which is probably a good trait for the only boy in a family of girls. However, from the very beginning Sean has had one issue or another with sleep. More specifically, a period of time where he refused to sleep. It started out where it was just that he'd wake up after his early morning feeding and stay up...annoying, but manageable. But then it started that he'd sleep a few hours and then stay up for 3-4 hours. A lot worse. And then it turned into he'd sleep a few hours and stay up ALL NIGHT. Until 8 am in the morning. That was completely insane! Out of 4 kids, none of the previous ones had done such a thing!

But things have leveled out now and he's become a champion sleeper. You will get very few complaints from this Mama now!

To commemorate Sean turning 3 months, we decided that life wasn't hectic enough and started our homeschooling. We are four days in and it has been going pretty well. I'm not a fan of math, however, and after teaching it for two days I passed it off to Eric. Eric loves math and I felt like Hannah had a better chance at liking math if she had a teacher who did. Not to mention I think having a solid foundation of math is so important to excelling in it later. I was concerned that I wouldn't give her that...but it is only the first part of our first year. We'll see where we end up!

After lots of research we chose the Heart of Dakota curriculum. It has a detailed guide laid out for new homeschoolers like me who have no wish to spend hours planning out activities. It basically tells me what books I should buy and pieces it all together for me. So far I like it a lot. And looking ahead it just seems to get better. They emphasize a lot of reading of good books, and I can't argue with that!

We've had a fairly uneventful summer so far. We've stayed close to home because Sean has been such a challenge. There is still plenty of summer left to enjoy, though, so hopefully we can still get out and do that! Here a few pictures to show what we've been up to:

A graduation party (yea!)

A Visit From the PA Cunningham's

A day trip to visit Grandma and Papa at their campsite

(and having s'mores of course!)

A trip to the Green Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

A trip to Grandma and Papa's house

Family Devotions

Swimming!

My (Long) Birth Story

2011-05-02T20:18:00.006-05:00

Here is my birth story for Sean. It involves details, if you don't want details, skip to hte pictures at the bottom!

I went in to the doctor to get my membranes stripped at 11am Thursday morning. We knew it was a long shot, but it had worked for Elaina. We weren’t in any real hurry to get baby out, but our doctor was on call that day and Hannah had two days of vacation (making it much easier for grandparents to not have to deal with school!) so we figured it was worth a try.

We went to the cafeteria after that to enjoy a family outing. The girls love eating at the cafeteria, they just think it is awesome. We even splurged and let them get one of the fancy desserts the cafeteria has.

I was feeling crampy and generally uncomfortable, but from what I’d read that is fairly common and doesn’t always mean labor is impending. I laid down for a nap when I got home and hoped maybe something would be happening by the time I woke up…nothing was so we decided to go for a walk. By the time we got back from our walk around 6pm or so (which was actually quite long considering how pregnant I was and how difficult it was to walk!) I was starting to feel some contractions.

Contractions went on throughout the evening. We ran a few errands and got the girls to bed. I took my shower and tried to pay attention to whether they were regular, increasing in intensity, etc. I’m not good at gauging those things!! Finally Eric and I decided to lay down and watch a movie so I could concentrate on timing the contractions and decide whether or not we needed to head into the hospital. I called my parents to put them on “alert” and then we started tracking.

It was almost 9 by this point and the contractions were 7 minutes apart and only 40 seconds long so I wasn’t very concerned that we needed to move quickly. We relaxed and watched our movie and I kept tracking…it didn’t take long to realize that they were quickly getting closer together and longer…At almost 10 we called my parents again to tell them we were definitely having this baby and that they needed to come.

Eric and I started to gather last minute things and put our bags in the car. We were still hoping that my parents would make it before we had to head into the hospital, but it was quickly becoming apparent that it wasn't going to happen. I wasn’t officially timing contractions anymore, but I could tell that they were now closer than 5 minutes apart and were increasing in intensity. We called our neighbor and by 10:45 we were on our way to the hospital.

Walking into the hospital was difficult since the contractions were coming so frequently. This was so unusual to me since in my experience with Elaina (the only non-induced comparison I have) the labor was leisurely next to my previous ones (12+ hours compared to 7 and 5). I had half expected this labor to be the same.

We finally made it up to the L&D and were admitted. I was only dilated to 5cm and contractions were still coming in at every 4 minutes or so. Seeing that I again relaxed and decided that despite the intensity, surely we had a little while before baby would actually be born.

The difference between this labor and my previous ones is that we had decided to do it with no drugs. We practiced all the breathing exercises and were as prepared as we could be. I’m very thankful that we did the work because that was the only thing that got me through.

We started walking as soon as we were allowed to, probably around 11:30 by the time they monitored the baby for awhile. It didn’t take long to realize this walk was going to take awhile since I would go about four steps and have to stop for a contraction. We made it one loop and decided to try a bath. I’d heard that water could help with labor pain…I think we were in there maybe 15 minutes when I realized that things were progressing fast. I was feeling a lot of pressure and since I didn’t really want a water birth we got out and the nurse put me back on the monitor to track progress. At this point I started to shake, which I thought meant I was in transition.

Eric was such a good coach. Half the time he was literally holding me up through a contraction and he helped me remember my breathing. Nothing worked the way we thought it would, all the techniques we had in mind went right out the window in the face of pain. It hurt to be touched so even something as soothing as massage was unbearable for me.

It was now that the nurse told me I was already dilated to 8cm, in the space of an hour. She put the call into the doctor. We were all concerned that the doctor wouldn’t make it. 10 minutes later I was dilated to 9cm. I was having a horrible time not pushing and each contraction was worse than the last. My doctor made it when I was 9.5cm. My water had still not broken, so she did that and I quickly dilated the last half cm.

I started pushing about 12:30 and Sean David arrived at 12:48 weighing at 7lbs 11 oz and 20" long. We were shocked that it was a boy! I’m glad that I did it without an epidural. It was a decision we made because we think that Sean will be our last baby and I knew it was my last chance to do it. I don’t regret it, but it was certainly a different experience. Everything was that much more intense and the biggest thing I did not like was that when Sean was being cleaned up and cared for, I was still in so much pain I could barely focus on him. We missed some of the “first moment” pictures because I’d freaked Eric out so much he was afraid to leave my side!

The girls are settling in great! They adore their new brother. We didn’t doubt that they would, but it is so endearing to see them sitting beside him, just staring or stroking his hair. They are so precious and we are so blessed!!

They are happy we finally brought him home!
The "Frog Prince"

Elaina always runs to the chair, pats her lap, and says "See Baby"
Little Boy :-)

Proud Sisters!!

All Right, Baby...

2011-04-20T10:21:00.004-05:00

I have been waiting a long time to be able to relax and just say "Okay baby, you can come anytime!" For so long it has been because of Eric's school that we've hoped baby would stay put. No sooner had Eric completed his schooling, though, than Hannah got very sick. High fever, stomach ache, ear aches...and it did not get any better by the second day as we'd hoped, only worse! And in the midst of her illness I started having contractions. Very hard to feel "nesty" and anticipate the birth of baby when your firstborn is so ill. Thankfully the contractions subsided, and one trip to the clinic later, 2 doses of antibiotics, a good night's sleep, and we have a Hannah that is somewhat back to normal. An ear infection and possibly strep (which we won't find out about until later today), but whatever it is, she's feeling better and that's a relief to this mother's heart.

Not only did I hate the thought of leaving Hannah behind (in the event I should go into labor), but I hated the thought that if baby came while she was so sick Hannah would be unable to visit or snuggle with her new sibling. No fun! So we're very happy she's better and baby is still baking away!

In the meantime I've progressed quite a bit. As of my doctor appointment yesterday I was 4cm. The doctor exclaimed so much about my progress that we did not get exact numbers on effacement or station, just that the baby's head was lower than it had been (so in a positive station--yikes!) and a warning that it could be at any moment. She was wary of checking me any further for fear of setting labor off, which we didn't want yesterday since Hannah was still so sick! We go back in tomorrow to be rechecked and then she'll strip my membranes to see if she can't get labor going on its own. We'd love to have my own doctor on call so that is the reason we're willing to try. And nothing will happen if my body isn't ready yet and it certainly seems to be. The idea is just to stir things up a bit...sometimes baby just needs a nudge :-) I would rather have baby before this weekend than to go into labor on Easter when my doctor isn't on call...blah.

In the meantime I am literally waddling about feeling like baby is about to fall out anyway (as if it would be so easy!). And I'm tentatively allowing myself to feel excited about the prospect of our baby joining us so soon, although I will be fine if he/she chooses to wait a bit, too.

37 Weeks

2011-04-12T11:03:00.011-05:00

Not much to report on the baby front and I guess that's a good thing. Had a good doctor appointment today and while there hasn't been much more progress, my blood pressure is great. That is really encouraging since I've never made it past 37 weeks without some issue arising. With Elaina they had just begun to express concern when I went into labor...which prevented it from becoming a problem! I monitor it daily and have been pleased to see the low trend.

I've been sick on an off all last week so even my weight gain was minimal! That's a first!!

Eric is hoping to have most of his schoolwork wrapped up tonight and once that's all submitted we'll be free to concentrate on last minute preparation. Almost everything is done at this point but we do have a few little things left. Particularly practice our breathing...something that has fallen by the wayside with Eric's last big push to get done!

This pregnancy has been a delight as far as the girls' go. When I was pregnant with Grace, Hannah was just too young to really understand what was going on. She seemed to get it a bit more with Elaina, but was still fairly disinterested. She participated by having babies in her own belly :-) At that time Grace was really too young. This time around, however, Hannah has been excited from the beginning. Grace is just naturally more into babies and that sort of thing, so she's also been very interested. Elaina is absolutely oblivious and has, after all these months, finally started pointing to my belly and saying "baby". Does she get it? I'm guessing not.

Hannah won't leave for school without her good-bye kiss to the baby, and they both love to kiss the baby goodnight. I told them a few months ago that the baby could hear them so they should talk to the baby, read books, etc. It was only a few days after that, while I was painting the baby's room, Grace came running in with a pile of books to read to the baby, sure that the baby was bored! I hope their enthusiasm continues once the baby is actually here!

36 Weeks

2011-04-05T15:34:00.005-05:00

The last weeks have been busy getting ready for baby. Dragging little yellow and green outfits out of storage, washing, and putting them away. Folding blankets while tenderly remembering how my little girls looked wrapped in them. Pulling the bassinet out of storage and situating it by our bed. Moving the rocking chair up to our bedroom and getting it all set up for late night feedings. Practicing breathing exercises and hoping I'll actually remember them when the time comes...yep, lots of preparation going on here!

It seems like most everything is done and so now we wait. Of course the biggest thing we are waiting for is Eric to be done with school. He is officially done April 16 so we are hoping that baby does not make his/her arrival until after that time. However, this is his last week with homework due. Next week he'll probably be scrambling to put the polishing touches on his final project. I'm hoping that he'll have it done enough in advance that there won't be any conflicts should baby wish to appear, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Things are looking good so far...no blood pressure issues yet. Hoping that remains the case. Things are moving along. I've been checked for progress the last two weeks at my doctor appointments...today I was almost 3cm (out of 10), 80% effaced (out of 100%), and baby's head was at 0 station (+4 being the goal). Last week I was at 2cm, 70% effaced, and baby's head was at -1. Sooo...things are moving forward slowly. And that's good since I'm not in any hurry, as much as I'm eager to meet this little one.

I am still hoping that this baby will hang out until at least the 19th, preferably until after Easter. Your prayers that baby will at least wait until Eric is done with school are appreciated. That would be an amazing blessing on our family...

But God is the master of all timing, so we shall see what He has in store for us this time around!

Nursery

2011-03-29T16:33:00.006-05:00

I finally got a nursery to decorate! It only took until my 4th kid. Today I finished it. All I am waiting for is a mobile, but I'll be getting that soon enough.

When we bought this house we envisioned this room to be a perfect kids' room. It is a bit small, but it has those cute built-in's that make up for space since you don't need dressers.

Now, officially decorated, I love how it turned out. Still not that big, but I love how cozy and warm it feels.

The crib nook. Love how cozy the built-ins make that area.

Facing the door

I hope to get some pictures up of how the girls' room turned out (as soon as they clean it!) I am loving the upstairs now.

Miraculous Timing

2011-03-17T22:45:00.005-05:00

As we were doing our taxes this year Eric and I were paging through paperwork looking for documentation regarding the purchase of our home. It brought back memories of just how amazing our home selling process was. And how faithful God was to us.

We had our house listed for awhile when they extended the "first time home buyers" tax credit to "long time" homeowners--people who had owned their home for at least 5 years. We knew getting that was a total longshot since the tax credit expired on April 30 and we wouldn't reach 5 years of owning our home until April 28. So we'd literally have to sell our house and find the new one and close within those two days. Highly unlikely, right? Yes, we had pretty much figured that would never happen.

And then along came March. By this point we'd had the house on the market for 9 months and were growing weary of the entire process. But then, finally, we received and accepted our first offer. And with a leap of faith we put the closing on April 29th...which would give us about a month to find a house to move into and get the tax credit. And on March 29th we finalized our offer on the house we now live in...giving us a month to move out and into our new house. Neatly clinching our tax credit but a mere one day margin.

I remember we were in total awe at the time because it just seemed so unreal. That was absolutely no way we could have orchestrated that, it was a God thing. Going through our taxes and seeing the corresponding dates...April 28, 2005 we purchased our first home and April 29, 2010 we sold it. The home we purchased was actually listed on the same day as our first home...just 5 years later.

The entire journey of selling our home taught me a huge lesson. God's timing is perfect. Throughout those long months of trying to sell our home I certainly envisioned what would be the "right" timing. I saw the house I wanted come and go and couldn't imagine finding another home I would love. But we did. And we would not change the way things happened.

Our home how we first saw it. It looks a little bit different now...but not a lot! We hope to "beautify" the front a bit more this summer. Hopefully with Eric being done with school we'll have a bit more time!

I've surprised myself a bit with this pregnancy. As much as I want to "control" when baby makes an appearance I know that I can't. And I don't need to. God's timing is so much better than mine. He's proven that to me time and time again. I get it :-) And every time I feel myself wanting to snatch back the "control" (as if I really have any!) I just remind myself that I don't need it. Every time I think I know how to do something the best way, God shows me that His way is much, much better.

Germs, Germs, Go Away...

2011-01-18T10:11:00.008-06:00

I feared that this was going to be a rough winter in the health department because it is Hannah's first year of kindergarten and so she is exposed to (and bringing home) all sorts of new germs. We started off right away in December with some sort of fever/congestion deal. Elaina was first and then Grace, and finally, just before Christmas, Hannah caught it. And hers turned into an ear infection. While they were battling their sickness, I got to battle the stomach flu. But miraculously all were well in time for Christmas and the ensuing week of vacation.

Hannah's birthday is the week after New Year's, so it falls just when we are trying to get back into routine. We noticed just before her birthday that she was having a hard time hearing. Of course, wouldn't you know it, the ear infection never actually cleared up all the way, so round of antibiotics #2. She had her hearing mostly restored in time of her first birthday party and was able to enjoy that day to her utmost ability! However the next morning I woke up with the beginnings of a nasty cold. Which has not left (despite receiving its eviction notice multiple times). I can't take much for it, so it really is just a matter of endurance and rest. And of course, just because a cold is never enough to plague a pregnant woman, I got pinkeye on top of it. Just a bonus, you might say :-P And ironically I'd never had pinkeye before until I was pregnant with Elaina (so now I've had it twice). So apparently pinkeye enjoys picking on pregnant ladies. I think I'm starting to head toward recovery, though. Just in time for Grace (and now Eric) to catch some sort of virus that involves the throat. We thought it was probably strep, but the strep test was negative for Grace. She seems to be pretty much over it, though, so now we just wait on Eric :-)

I'm sincerely praying that this is the last of it. My poor immune system needs a break! I'm so grateful that this time around we are expecting a late spring baby. So I can weather all this sickness without worrying about a newborn being born into it. Hopefully by the end of April/beginning of May everyone will be healthy and outside enjoying spring weather!!

We have some fun things coming up around the corner, too, so we need to be healthy for that!

Fun for me, perhaps (and maybe not so much for the rest of the family), is that we're soon going to start decorating the nursery. It will the first actual nursery I've had to decorate, so I intend to enjoy this one. We'll hopefully be doing that over the next couple weekends. We need to tackle the girls' room, too, since we'll be moving Elaina in over there shortly. That room was a "nice" shade of pink with a horrid sand texture, so we need to re-plaster the walls so that the walls stop leaving scratches on our girls' hands while they are sleeping.
We'd like to get our room painted, too, since it is this shade of yellow:

This is our bedroom before we moved in. And what this picture doesn't truly show is the darker color of yellow that goes around the trim...and how it fails to blend with the rest of the wall. Ugh. I do not feel rested in our bedroom! And since I'm soon to be spending many hours at night awake, I want to enjoy our bedroom.

Besides home improvement Eric and I are going to a couples retreat at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp with some friends Valentine's Weekend and then I get a "girls weekend" at the end of Feb. where, for the first time ever, I will be leaving Eric alone with the kids *gasp* for an entire weekend! And then we've enrolled the girls in a "big sibling" class which will probably be more fun for Mommy than them! And mixed in there somewhere, hopefully, will be a visit from Grammy and Grandpa from PA.

I will leave you with some pictures from the last few weeks:

We had to get rid of Daphne in November because she started peeing consistently in the house and despite our best effort (replacing carpet to remove the smell, frequency of cleaning litter, better lighting by the litterbox, etc) she just didn't stop. So we rehomed her with some friends up north, where I've heard she is happily living the life of a farm cat. And Sophie is the newest member of the family. So here is Elaina snuggling with Sophie (Elaina is a huge fan of cats, the cats for Elaina? Not so much)

After Christmas Grace got her first "big girl" haircut and got to go to the kids salon where she got her hair styled and a mini-manicure. She was in her element!

Hannah's 6th birthday came and went. I can't believe that it has been 6 years since she was born and I became a mom! Somedays it just seems like yesterday.

Eric playing "duck, duck, goose" with Hannah's party friends.

Hannah's little party enjoying their treats. She loved it. Parties for Mommy? Not such a big fan.

Hoping that this next month brings lots of before and after pictures and good health!!

Baby's On The Way

2011-01-03T22:17:00.004-06:00

While this hasn't really been a "secret", it is still unknown by a lot of people. Our fourth (and likely last biological) child is on the way. We had the privilege to sneek a peek last Tuesday and it was an amazing experience. I love the ultrasound for the simple reason that it is our one chance to "meet" this little person before we actually get to meet them. To catch a glimpse of little fingers and toes, and if we're lucky, a face.

We did get to see the face this time, too. Probably better than we have with any of the others. Unfortunately there was no picture to show for it, but we got to see the most precious nose, mouth, and chin. Can't wait to kiss them!!

Baby is due May 2nd and we'll see if he/she actually holds out this long. I'm hoping to actually make it beyond 37 weeks this time. I would love, love to not have a baby on my birthday (April 15) so I'm concentrating on holding this one in!! My birthday falls right about at 37 weeks, too, so I can't let this one have an early exit pass!!

Meet Baby #4

We are patiently awaiting his/her arrival!!

2010-12-03T10:27:00.003-06:00

It is sad when I can't remember how to log into the blog, right? I’m long, long overdue in an update. I had intended on updating as soon as we moved into our new house but that was a busy time and I never got around to it. And then I intended to update with pictures of our “pool demolition” but again…time got away from me! I still do intend on posting pictures of our new house and pool demo. However, my desktop computer is awaiting a new hard drive and until my overwhelmed-school-attending husband has time, I’m stuck with my laptop. Which has no pictures!

Life is busier than I’d like it to be. Hannah started kindergarten this year, which has been a big adjustment for us all. With that comes Monday nights at church, so one more night we’re out and about. Plus there is the addition of homework into our evening schedule. Who ever heard of homework in kindergarten?

We joined an new small group that only meets every-other week, but somehow it still feels like we meet all the time! We just finished up a class working through the book "Shepherding a Child's Heart" on Monday nights. I'm also involved in a mom's Bible study Thursday mornings. I really enjoy this most of the time, so I'm glad I do it despite the time involved in the "homework". And in addition to all that I signed up for two separate mentoring groups. The idea being that it would be nice to have some company and support while Eric is chin-deep in classes. And that has been true, but at the same time I will be glad when they are over in January. Not because I haven't enjoyed them, but just because it will be nice to have less obligations.

Eric is still in school and is wrapping up this semester. He will be done in May and then we won’t know what to do with ourselves. He has been in school since Hannah was just a baby, so it is literally all she has ever known. I, for one, am just looking forward to being able to have consistent help with the dishes and maybe, fingers crossed, the laundry!

Grace and Elaina are doing fine having just each other to play with while Hannah's off at school. I was surprised at how easily that transition was. Grace and Hannah are inseparable and the types of games they play are definitely more “pretend” and use of imagination. Elaina isn’t there yet. But Grace manages quite fine with Elaina, and just seems to enjoy having her around. I often hear her calling Elaina “sweetie pie” or similar things. Just this morning Elaina woke Grace up by hoisting herself up into Grace's bed and proceeding to kiss her and tell her to "go play". Definitely warms this Mommy's heart.

The biggest discussion around here lately is homeschooling. It is a big “to do” or “not to do” debate. It would probably be a lot easier if we had a definite reason for wanting to do it…like Hannah was being bullied or they were teaching her inappropriate things. As it is we got thinking about it when we noticed a change in her demeanor (and during that time she asked me if she could be homeschooled). But that has since improved. And actually the school is just fine and is, in fact, part of the reason we insisted on staying in De Pere while house hunting. The school is well known for being good.

But public school, so far, just hasn’t been a great fit for our family. Although Hannah goes to school without complaint and even seems to enjoy herself most days, she doesn't anticipate it like I think a kindergartner ought to. Part of the issue may be that she is frustrated. She loves to draw (in great detail apparently) and her teacher said that she takes too long to complete her pictures, assignments, etc. and needs to learn to work faster and keep up. Hannah has also said that if she doesn't finish her picture her teacher makes her finish it during free choice time, so essentially takes away her recess to finish her work. And Hannah is so detail orientated, she won't stop short of a masterpiece. She's constantly frustrated that she doesn't have time to finish. The teacher said that it just takes longer for Hannah when you compare it to the rest of the class drawing stick figures...And that her teacher's solution was simply for Hannah to "go faster" did not go over well with me. It seems to me that if they had their way they would hold Hannah's talent back until she was no better than any of the rest of the kids, essentially making them all the same. How is a child supposed to shine if that's the way it works?

I do find it interesting that I am here, considering this, at all. Eric initially brought up homeschooling before we even had kids. My response was immediate rejection. No, that would require too much patience. Too much time. I would have kids in my house forever! When would I ever have “me” time? And talk about the pressure…I’m not a teacher! How would I get my kids to actually learn from me?!

So I’m a bit surprised to be here, now, seriously considering it. With no “real” reason. Other than that I don’t like having Hannah gone all day and that what we are doing now just doesn't feel right. I feel like the few hours I see her in a day are just not enough. Our time with our kids(before they grow up and leave!!) is so limited in the scope of life and I feel like I am wasting it with her being gone all day. I feel like I am missing so much of her life and have no idea what information is being put into her head...and to be honest, the vast majority of things that she chooses to dwell upon (and ask questions about) are not things that she has learned at school. But things that she has brought up and discussed with us. Like "why does the moon glow?" and "why do geese fly in v's?" And I love those conversations, and the fact that she retains that information and thinks about it!

Anyway, that's the "big news" from our family lately. No decision has been made. We are going to "interview" some families in the next few weeks and try to make a decision. We need lots of prayers!

Now that I've written a novel...I'll have to come back with a few pictures and updates of our past activities soon!

2010-01-25T22:50:00.005-06:00

I can't believe it has been so long since I updated! Between having our home for sale and the holidays, time just escaped me, I guess.

Still no go on the house. We're royally sick of it. While before when we'd get the call that someone wanted a showing we'd be excited about the prospect of a sale. Now we just get irritated at yet another inconvenience that ultimately leads to nothing. Earlier this week we had a second showing scheduled where the realtor told us that she thought our house was the "one" for her client. Two canceled showings later we were informed that the interested buyer's financing fell through. ugh!!

We are trying very hard to trust in the Lord's timing as we watch our neighbors sell their homes while ours sits. Right now there really isn't anything out there we'd like to buy (the house we wanted fell through) and so that makes it easier to wait. We'll see what happens!

I'll do a quick "catch up" on us since it has been so long.

Hannah just turned five. We're amazed that she's that old already. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that she was born. She's quite happy in the role of "biggest sister" and is currently not looking forward to kindergarten because it means that she has to be away from her sisters all day. I don't think that will last more than a day! One of her favorite things to do is to play with Elaina. Gotta love that! She's a great helper.

Grace is our little "princess". At least if she's wearing a dress. Any dress qualifies. When I teased her about being "sleeping beauty" the other day because she took such a good nap she informed me that she couldn't possibly be Sleeping Beauty because she wasn't wearing a dress. She's a "girly girl" and loves to tell Mommy how "beautiful" she is. She's also Hannah's shadow. Sometimes I forget that they are different ages because they want to do everything the same!

Elaina is a lot of fun. She is a bundle of energy always on the go. She adores her older sisters and gets a kick out of watching the pets. I'm hoping that she starts walking a bit sooner than Grace, but she isn't anywhere near there yet. I've been working on trying to get her to stand at least :-)

That's the quick summary of the last few months. I will try to be better about updates. Particularly since (in my opinion) my kids do such cute things! I should have something to write about!

Catching Up

2009-10-15T13:39:00.008-05:00

I have been putting off updating here because I've been hoping I'd have some good news to report. But so far none...our house still sits. The house that we want to buy still sits, as well, so at least we're not sitting here without hope. But it is a very frustrating situation and we have to continually remind ourselves that God is in control. As things in our current house seem to keep breaking, requiring us to put more time and money into a home we are finished with, it just gets more disheartening.

We've been very busy this fall. Probably more so than we were all summer. Eric has been traveling pretty consistently, which is a hardship for us all. We've been trying to focus on the fact that he has a job, which is a blessing, but it is hard when we miss him and my sanity is slowly slipping away...

But God has been faithful! It is hard sometimes to be content with our situation, but God reveals himself in the little things. Both Marcy and Callie have run away in the last two weeks. Both returned after my turmoil and prayer, much to the joy of our little girls. I often think life would be simpler in the country! If they ran off we wouldn't have to worry quite so much. Here we rely on our neighbors to return our pets, or at the very least to not interfere with their returning on their own.

We have had some fun this fall. We got the chance to go camping for the first time with Elaina. Not an experience we shall soon be repeating. Eric ended up spending the night in the van with her because she wouldn't stop crying and we didn't want to keep everybody up! we went with our friends Brandon and Carrie and had a really good time. The girls liked it, too. I think they were especially tickled that Brandon and Carrie actually played with them. So many of our friends tend to ignore them, which is fine, but the girls love getting attention (who doesn't?!).

Posing by Lake Michigan. They really do love each other most of the time :-)

Our very sleepy (and dirty) girls. Eric joined Grace a few moments later.

Our little family

We also took a trip to South Haven, MI last weekend to meet with Eric's parents and sisters along with their fiance and boyfriend. Unfortunately it felt like we spent most of the weekend in the car since getting through Chicago was a pain both ways! But we had a good time and hopefully we'll do that again. It was a nice in-between place so that no one had to drive quite so far.

Dave, Grace, Connie, Hannah, Me & Elaina, Eric, Bree, her boyfriend Shawn, Kala & her fiance John

On the frigid beach! I'm not sure why we don't look more happy. I think we were blinded by the sun and FREEZING!

Hopefully I can come back very soon with some happy news!! Your prayers are coveted!!

Preschool Adventure Begins

2009-09-03T10:19:00.003-05:00

We've been trying to decide what to do with Hannah for schooling for awhile now. Our school district doesn't offer any 4-K program. Even if it did I'm not thrilled with sending Hannah to school already. I feel like you get precious few years with them at home, why hurry them out the door? We checked into a few local preschools but they operated more like a daycare and even if they didn't, they cost more money than we had or were willing to put into preschool.

So...that left trying to teach her something at home. I didn't know where to begin, though. I needed some guidelines but everyone I'd asked for tips had not really given me anything more than a grab bag of suggestions. What I really needed was a structure to follow. And so I started searching for something. It had to be something easy for me to do, after all I still have a 2 year old and 6 month old at home, too. And it had to be something that Hannah could do and be encouraged about school, not frustrating and dreading it.

I fell upon a site that had a pre-formed curriculum called "Letter of the Week". After looking it over I realized that it was pretty good, and that I thought Hannah really could probably do most of it. Probably more importantly, I felt pretty confident that I could teach it to her and do a good job.

We started Monday and so far it is going fairly well. I think we'll do better as the weeks progress. For instance, I had glanced over the science and social studies topics but hadn't put any thought into how I was going to teach it. A couple days before I realized that I had no idea. So that consisted of a mad scramble for some library books about alligators and astronauts! I'm hoping that future weeks will have less "scrambling" and more "pre-planning". In fact, I already have all the books I need for the letter "B".

This weeks' art activity was to make "Animal" puppets. Hannah made a cat and Grace a cow. Here is the puppet show they put on for us for your viewing pleasure:

Nine Days

2009-07-10T22:07:00.003-05:00

Today, while I was whining to the Lord about how much I want to sell our house and feeling positively frustrated that it has taken so long, a sudden thought popped into my head.

God is faithful even with the silly things.

A few months ago, while I was approaching my due date, I was very upset by the thought of our baby being born on Grace's birthday. I was fervently hoping for a bit of space, both for finances and for the sake of specialness. So each girl could have "their day". After agonizing over it and realizing that I couldn't do a single thing to control that situation, I came to the realization that God loved Grace far more than I ever could, and me worrying about how two close birthdays would affect Grace wasn't getting me anywhere! So I gave it to the Lord (still with difficulty, I'm sassy like that!) and hoped that He'd have mercy on me! But that was after many attempts to bargain with God or otherwise "control" the situation.

While at small group one day toward the end of my pregnancy, I shared my frustration with my small group. One of the women mentioned to me that her children were only eight days apart. I laughed and said that I would gladly take eight days! I was concerned that there would be zero days, so eight sounded great to me! I began to pray that specific prayer, "Please, Lord, let the baby be born at least eight days before Grace's birthday."

Now, I know this is silly. But it was important to me. And when I went into the doctor on February 26 and I was still not in labor, my blood pressure was still looking decent (so less chance of being induced early) and my next appointment wasn't until March 6, I was a bit disappointed and was mentally preparing myself for having two birthdays side by side.

But God answered that silly prayer. Elaina was born February 27. God said "Here you go, My silly girl, I'll give you one better than eight. How about nine?"

I won't say that I'm not still struggling with wanting to worry and stress over whether or not our house sells in time for us to get the other house. But it did make me pause. It was such a silly little prayer, really. It wouldn't have scarred either Grace or Elaina to have close birthdays. Lots of siblings do! But He answered my prayer anyway. Even if the house doesn't sell in time, I need to better trust that the Lord knows best. And he's so faithful, even with the silly things!

No Further Interest

2009-06-24T20:12:00.003-05:00

That's something I'm very tired of hearing. That's realtor lingo for "they didn't want your house". We've had a fairly steady stream of people coming through our home, but so far we've had mostly "nos" with a few "maybes" sprinkled in there. The "maybe" people want to keep looking and if they don't see anything else they like better, then they'll consider our house. Which means a long wait.

We knew that putting our house up for sale in this market was a long shot, and we also knew it would take awhile. I don't think either of us expected there to be so much interest, so we were very hopeful that it would lead to something. But so far nothing...we have a major flaw in the fact that we have only a "partial" basement, and it too big to be considered a crawlspace, but really too small to be a basement. That is the one consistent thing we've heard complaints about and there is nothing we can do to remedy that.

Please continue to keep us in prayer as we sell our house! Things are moving along on the home we've offered for and it would help us immensely to have a (good) offer on our house so we can get on with things!

On a brighter note, Hannah got to go to VBC this week for the first time. She's loving it, as we knew she would. She's such a social little girl, things like that thrill her. It has been hard for Grace to have Hannah leave her behind everyday, though. I've been trying to use the time to get Grace and Elaina closer, but lets face it, Elaina is just not a whole lot of fun yet!

But...in our opinion she is very cute (as are her sisters!)!

Here We Go Again

2009-05-17T22:17:00.003-05:00

We had decided last fall to call off the house search. We knew we were expecting Elaina and knew that looking for a house/trying to sell our house would be too much to deal with while I was pregnant. Not to mention we were hoping to use the chance to pay off some debt and fix up our house a bit. The goal was to start looking for a house a year from now before we try for our fourth (and last!) baby. At that point we will have outgrown this house twice over and will really be out of nooks and crannies in which to squeeze our children.

Just becuase our plan was to look a year from now doesn't mean that we didn't keep checking the MLS once in awhile to see what was new in the neighborhood, keep up with current prices, etc. A few days before Elaina was born I discovered a house that intrigued me, the first one in our price range with nearly everything we wanted. But seeing as how I was going to deliver at any moment, I passed it by wishing it had shown up the previous fall when we were looking. Once Elaina was born, looking at houses was the furthest thing from our mind. Until this week...

I came across this same house again. And as I tripped over the same toy for the tenth time in one hour I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to wait another year to look for a new house. I wanted to look now. This house was in our price range, why were we waiting?

We decided to launch the home search yet again. And this time we are bound and determined to actually get a new house. Please, Lord, please, let this be the time...

We loved the house. There was so much potential. It was big enough for our family to grow into (yes, actually room to grow) and really didn't need much work. Just a lot of updating. There were some terrible paint jobs. The entire house is hardwood, so worst case scenario it would need a bit of refinishing. It had so much character. Unfortunately (there is always something for us) it is in short sale. Which adds complications. And this is an awful market. Awful. But we're going with faith and we're going to list our house for sale anyway and hope that someone wants to buy it fast enough that we can get this house before it goes into foreclosure, or someone else buys it out from underneath us. We're trying very hard not to get too attached to the idea of this house because we have bad luck with houses. But maybe this time, this will be the one...

Please keep us in prayer as we begin this process (again!). We are frantically finishing up a few projects that we have left and are starting to pack up toys and junk that can be stored in the anticipation of upcoming showings. We're praying that if we're not in the Lord's will that He will make that clear. He has a good track record where we're concerned. Everytime we venture toward a house, the Lord slams the door. And each time that has happened we are eventually glad that it did and we anticipate what the Lord has for us. But we really, really hope that this is what the Lord has for us.

I'm tired of kids in my closet!

What Do You Think?

2009-04-29T11:53:00.006-05:00

Here are three pictures of our girls all around 2 months old. We've compared different pictures where they look more alike than others. However, these three were all similar poses and facial expressions.

What do you think? Do they look like each other?

Hannah

Grace

Elaina

I think it is neat to see/compare all three of them at different ages (but when they are all the same age). See their differences and similarities. It is amazing to me that all three of them could come from Eric and I. Children are truly one of God's greatest miracles.

The First Six Weeks

2009-04-13T21:39:00.007-05:00

I'm the type that needs goals. I like to plan. I like to know how things are going to end up. I have to force myself to not read the end of a book. I will quite frequently read the entire plot outline of a movie before I watch so that I know what is going to happen. Although this is not always the case (there are definitely movies and books where I want to enjoy the surprise), I enjoy the story more for knowing what is going to happen.

Newborns drive me crazy. Crazy! From the moment of birth (even before that if you count the uncertainty of when you'll go into labor) they are unpredictable. Why are they crying? It is a toss up! How can I get them to sleep? Trial and error. Just not my cup of tea!! Although I love all my daughters dearly, I do not enjoy the infant stage.

So from the very beginning I tell myself that the worst of it will be over after the first six weeks. Realistically I know that at six weeks babies are still newborns. They still cannot express themselves. They still cry all the time! But the big difference? Every once in awhile, when you are very lucky, they will lock eyes with you and give you a smile. And that makes the sleep deprivation melt away. For a few minutes anyway :-)

So Elaina is now six weeks old. And ultimately nothing has changed. Elaina still doesn't nap well during the day (unless she is being held, of course), she still wakes up every 3-4 hours at night (unless she only does 2!) She has had her first smile, but most of the time she's too darn cranky to bother with that! But the end is in sight, because things really do start to get better from here on out. Even though I'm still up half the night, I know that any day now it can turn around and get better. And hope is a good thing.

Here are a few pictures to commemorate 6 weeks!

This is a common scene in our house. The girls love to talk to Elaina! I can't wait until she responds to them more.

If Eric and I look tired it is because we are! We barely slept the night before!
Our Little Easter Bunny!!

We're looking forward to the next 6 weeks! We get to know Elaina more everyday. Please keep us in prayer. We could all use a little extra strength...and maybe a bit of mercy, too!

One Month Old!

2009-03-30T13:45:00.002-05:00

We made it through the first month! It is actually really hard for me to believe that Elaina has been part of our family for an entire month.

We're eagerly awaiting her laughs and grins. I know that Hannah and Grace will be over the moon when Elaina looks at them and actually reacts to their nonstop chatter!

At Elaina's 1 month check-up she weighed 8lbs 10 oz (50th percentile) and 21.5 inches (75th percentile). She's shooting right on up the charts.

Spring will soon be here (although it technically already is!). It is teasing us this year with a few warm days, then a few cold. It won't be long though until it warms up and stays warm. We cannot wait! Not only am I desperate to get outside in the fresh air and sunshine, but I am eagerly anticipating shedding these postpartum pounds! Yea spring!

She's Here!

2009-03-22T23:14:00.010-05:00

I'm sure by now this is common knowledge, but I'm finally getting around to updating here.

Elena Jane Cunningham arrived on February 27. She weighed in at 7lbs 6oz, 2o inches (a full pound heavier than Grace, and a full 2 inches longer than Hannah!) She was three weeks early, and much to my delight, a full 9 days before Grace's birthday.

The story, if you are interested, is as follows:

I noticed that my cramping had turned into something more like contractions around 6pm on February 26. I wasn't sure if it was "real" labor or not and I was fairly convinced that it wasn't since it didn't seem to be falling into any sort of regular interval. Eric was actually out getting diapers for Grace in the snowstorm and I kept thinking what lousy timing this would be. Even though I suspected I wasn't in labor yet, and was instead suffering from Braxton Hicks contractions, I still felt relieved when Eric finally did show up.

By the time we got the girls into bed and I took my shower, it was around 9:30 and I laid down to actually time my contractions. It didn't take long for me to realize that they did seem to be falling about every 5-6 minutes. Still, it was like a blizzard outside, and I wasn't about to call friends to watch the girls and have my parents venture out in the snow for a false alarm. We called L&D to ask what we should do. We felt like total morons, but with both Hannah and Grace I was induced, so going into labor naturally was something totally new to me. And with both Hannah and Grace, I didn't suffer from "early labor" but was thrown pretty quickly into the harder, faster contractions that are impossible to confuse with false labor!

After being passed around to a few nurses and eventually the on-call doctor, they determined that even if I wasn't in labor, I'd been far enough progressed in the doctor's office that morning that I should come in and get checked out.

We called friends and also my parents and then headed off through the snow. I was really filled with dread at the thought of inconveniencing everyone only to be sent home. I was so relieved when the nurse reassured me that my contractions were regular and that I was dilated to 5cm, so I would be staying. I was disappointed that this would be the first birth without my doctor, but I figured that it had to happen eventually. Although it wasn't deliberate on my part, it was in the back of my mind that if the baby held off until my doctor's office hours, then I'd get my doctor instead of the on-call doctor. So I didn't do anything to hurry labor along and let it progress on its own. I did get an epidural around 3am so I could sleep, though. I well remember how tired I was when Grace was born, and then the long night that followed with them bringing her to me constantly to eat! I wanted some rest before I had to do that again!

Lucky for me my doctor showed up around 7am and I was still in labor. She broke my water and put me on a bit of pitocin and 2 hours later (9:05am) out popped Elena! Although it certainly wasn't that easy, she was born in 2 or 3 pushes and Eric and I both noticed that there were scarcely anyone in the room this time around. As far as births go, I think mine was pretty uneventful.

Things have been going well. We had to be readmitted to the hospital on March 2 because Elena's jaundice levels had gone too high. They told us that we could leave her on a biliblanket for another week or put her under the lights at the hospital for one day and be done. We opted for the faster cure. So we were pretty peeved the next morning when the doctor wanted us to stay longer, and when we resisted that, we had to put her on the lights for another three days! So much for a fast cure!

So now we're at 3 weeks and the last few nights have been following a similar pattern. I'm hoping that she'll fall into a routine. I'm not foolish enough to think that newborns are ever 100% predictable, but I thrive on knowing what to expect, so the sooner she becomes somewhat predictable, the happier I will be.

The girls are adjusting well, so far. They seem to really like having a baby sister around. Even Grace, whom I was the most concerned about, loves to hold her. She will hurry to talk to her when Elena cries, and loves to identify her body parts. Hannah thrives in the big sister role, and enjoys helping with baths and diaper changing. I'm so proud of both of them.

We've also made the decision to change the spelling of her name from "Elena" to "Elaina." So from here on out, that's how it will be spelled. We discovered that the name was being mispronounced, which was not the reason we chose to change the spelling, but it was a factor. I Googled the name "Elena" and saw the other spelling and fell in love. I wish I'd realized that before we made it official, but oh well. We're waiting to here from someone about the actual procedure, but we hope to get it straightened out soon.

Hope to update much sooner this time!

37 Weeks

2009-02-26T14:36:00.003-06:00

I'm officially the most pregnant I've ever been. Yea for baby #3!!

We had our 37 week check-up today. There is more progress to report--yea!!

I am now dilated to 4cm, which is the minimum they like to see before they'll admit you. I'm 80% effaced and the baby's head has now lowered into the 0 station. It is exciting to see so much progress in a week.

The doctor stripped my membranes today (they do this in attempt to trigger labor) and said that if anything is going to happen it will within 24 hours. Other than some extra crampiness I haven't had anything happen yet, so we'll see. Of course we are also going to have a snowstorm tonight and a change in barometric pressure can sometimes trigger labor. I'm not crossing my fingers, though.

My blood pressure was still okay, but slowly rising. This is often a step toward preeclampsia, a slow upward movement. I mentioned to the doctor that Grace's birthday (the 8th) is next weekend and since my next appointment is two days prior (6th) to Grace's birthday, I'm concerned that if my blood pressure is high they'd want to induce me on the 6th. My doctor was very understanding and is going to have me come in next Tuesday for a blood pressure check. If it is showing an increase, they'll induce me that very day.

I'm of the opinion that I don't want my blood pressure to go up, but if it is going to I'd rather they do something about it before Grace's birthday rather than wait for it to get worse and then have to be in the hospital for it.

Looks like it might be soon!

Progress

2009-02-20T15:53:00.002-06:00

We had our 36 week doctor appointment (although I'm nearly at 37 weeks, oh well) today. This is the first time that they checked to see what progress has been made. That's always exciting because you know the end is near. The baby will hopefully be born sometime in the next 3 weeks or so.

My blood pressure looked completely normal, so it appears that I may actually have a baby on his/her own schedule (but please, please not on Grace's birthday!!). Although with Grace it was actually rather nice to be induced since she was considered full-term and that allowed my parents to get here in time without all the rushing to the hospital business. But it would be nice to deliver without the benefit of a blood pressure cuff strapped to my arm.

Anyway, for those who are interested I am dilated 3cm (out of 10) and 70% effaced (100% is the goal) and the baby's head is in -1 station (0 is considered engaged and +4 is when the head is leaving the body). Relatively good progress for how far along I am. Technically speaking the baby could arrive at any time. Or I could remain the same for the next few weeks. What will be more telling will be seeing whether there is any change between now and my next doctor appointment. Or, I suppose, if a baby shows up before then :-)

The Plague

2009-02-16T13:36:00.003-06:00

I've been MIA for far too long, I know. But bear with me, I do have a good excuse!!

Just after my last post we discovered that our brand new kitty had brought more than love into our home, but also ringworm. I'd heard of it, but never realized what a horrible thing it is to deal with.

Apparently there is no "cure" for ringworm, just treatment. And it takes a long time. We are going into our 6th week of treatment for Callie, and our dog Marcy also caught it, and she's going into week 5 (although only 4 for both with oral medication). Daphne has escaped unscathed so far, and we're hoping it will stay that way. Apparently ringworm will usually resolve itself in about 3-4 months, but if you want to shorten that, you must treat it aggressively.

Every week we give the animals two lime dips (a foul-smelling rinse that stains everything it comes into contact with and threatens to suffocate you with its stink!) and two anti fungal baths (that we have to let sit on their skin for 10 minutes before rinsing off). We are also giving them daily oral meds which costs a ridiculous amount of money. It has been an ordeal, to be sure, and all of this in my last trimester of pregnancy.

The vet told us that Callie is a carrier, and doesn't have any actual "spots", so there is no visual way to see if she is recovering. Marcy has spots on her nose which are pretty much gone now. We're taking a gamble and releasing them this Saturday when they are done with their medication. The vet said that they are usually clear two weeks after hair starts growing back into their spots. Marcy's started that two weeks ago and Callie never had any. However, the only 100% sure way to find out whether or not they are cured is to do a fungal culture, which can take up to 3 weeks to show results. Since we don't have the money, nor patience, to treat them for another 3 weeks while we wait for the results (when they are probably fine), we are just going to pray that they are cured and let them out of their cages and back into our lives.

Of course is they are not cured, we risk the chance of reinfecting everyone, including a newborn baby. It is a struggle for me to trust that the Lord can take care of us, and that all will be well. I am frequently tempted to do just "a bit" more treatment just to make sure, even though we've been reassured that they will probably be fine, and it is costly and time consuming. I'm also literally at the end of my strength when it comes to dealing with this. At 36 weeks of pregnancy I want to rest, not give my cat a bath!!

Please keep our family in prayer this weekend as we go ahead and release our pets and reenter "normal" life. And pray that the ringworm truly is gone so that we don't have to deal with this all over again after the baby is born.

Check back soon...we hope to have news on the newest addition very shortly!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-29T10:02:00.008-06:00

This post is long overdue. I had intended to post Hannah's debut in a Christmas program, but I've yet to get the clip to work. The live-in computer guru hasn't had time to look it over, so alas, you have to miss out on that lovely singing (or pretending singing).

Christmas this year was a lot of fun. We weren't sure we'd all be healthy to enjoy it, but we got healthy just in time! Hannah is finally at the age where she adores everything about Christmas, and of course that's fun for us.

Our Christmas Card

A few pictures of Christmas morning:

The Girls Favorite Present

We decided to get the girls a kitten for Christmas. Since the baby is going to arrive in a few months, and I didn't want to be adjusting our family to a new cat too near the arrival of our baby, and I felt that summer was too long to wait, we decided that if we were going to get a new cat, it should be at Christmas. Since I can't say that I was really emotionally ready for the arrival of a new cat, we felt a kitten might be easier. Something completely different than Aurora. So we have Callie :-)

Unfortunately I now have a swollen eye to celebrate the arrival of a new allergen into the family. I'm allergic to cats, but once they are in the home I usually adjust. I must've touched my eye, I figure, since it is just one eye that swelled. I keep hoping each morning will bring relief, but I'm going on day three with no relief in sight. I guess I keep waiting! In the meantime I try to avoid Callie as much as I can, but she is determined to be as close to me as she can be. I may spend the rest of my life with a swollen eye!!

We hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and that you enjoy your New Year!

Just Be Glad

2008-11-26T13:15:00.003-06:00

We've been teaching Hannah a Bible verse each week before bed. We go until she gets it and then start a new one. Her latest is Psalms 118:24 "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

She's pretty much got it down, but gets hung up on the Psalms part. We try to incorporate not only the verse, but explain in 3 year old language what the verse means so she can understand what she is learning. It is always good to see that she is absorbing what we teach her.

Yesterday Hannah and Grace were playing in a clothes basket while I was in the kitchen. Hannah was being quite bossy telling Grace to "Sit down" and I heard a lot of "No, Grace". I was getting irritated with her and reminded her several times to stop being so bossy, that Grace doesn't always have to play the way Hannah wants to. Needless to say, I was surprised when I overheard what Hannah's next command was.

"Just rejoice and be glad, Grace."

Now that's memory verse application. I think we should probably work on it again!

Introducing...???

2008-11-20T18:11:00.006-06:00

A baby!! We don't really know who we are introducing yet. We don't know if it is a he or a she. We don't even have a cute nickname that has really caught on. What we DO know is that the baby is due March 17 (but if the previous two hint at anything, we'll see him/her before then), is seemingly healthy, and if the amount of wiggling is any indicator of happiness, our baby is ecstatic to be on the way!

From here on out we shall refer to the baby as a he. This is not in anyway to suggest that the baby IS a boy. We don't know. We asked to not find out, the ultrasound tech didn't utter a word about it, and we didn't see anything to give us any clues. We referred to both Hannah and Grace as "hes" in the womb and they are both secure in their femininity (at least so far!) so we'll keep the trend going and just call the baby a he!

Baby's face profile. We got to see lots of this and I can't complain. We never find out the gender, so the face is the thing I always look forward to seeing the most!

My favorite. Baby's whole body profile. He literally has his legs up by his face!

This was the first profile we saw. The "growth" by the baby's mouth is his hand. He had his hand up by his mouth for most of it. I suspect this is why I feel near constant "tickles" in that area of my belly.

And the classic picture of the foot. I can't wait to tickle them!

So this is our newest pride and joy. Since this baby wasn't necessarily "planned", I've found that I've taken to thinking about the baby as the blessing that God wanted us to have. We were planning a baby in "our" time, and God said "Hey, wait, I have this special little one for you NOW." It took a little bit of time, but I'm very exited to meet him (or her!) I view him as a surprise from God! And I'm always one for surprises!

Belated Halloween

2008-11-15T22:31:00.007-06:00

I had intended to post pictures of our Halloween festivities right away after Halloween, but the unexpected loss of Aurora threw away that ambition. But since I think the pictures are still cute two weeks later, I will post the pictures!

Hannah was much more into the carving of the pumpkin this year. She helped scoop out the insides and once she overcame the general "yuck factor" I think she enjoyed herself. Grace was thoroughly disgusted by the entire thing, but she was really excited to sit on the table!

Our grumpy bumblebee and beaming bride. Grace was just bemused by the entire thing. "Why do I have antennas, again?" seemed to be the question in her eyes. Hannah adores dress-up on any day, so dress up that involves getting candy was just pure childhood heaven for her!

When asked to pose for a picture Hannah gracefully settled herself beside her prized Jack-o-Lantern and smiled. I couldn't have set up the picture better myself!

Grace just would not smile in the bee costume. At least not until we asked her to go and get candy. Then she was all smiles! But unfortunately by that point I didn't have the camera!

We had a lot of fun. Next year will probably be the first year that Hannah will specify what she gets to be for Halloween. Usually we use whatever costume we have laying around. That should be interesting!!

In Memorium

2008-11-01T21:29:00.015-05:00

Psst. I have a secret.

I'm actually one of those people who treats my pet like my baby.

Well...I used to...before I had my own babies.

Seven years ago in the summer of 2001 a very special pet entered my life. I was young and living in a strange city. I had moved to Philadelphia to be closer to my then-boyfriend Eric and was awkwardly living with his roommate's girlfriend. Being the introverted person I am, I rarely ventured far from his apartment or hers. Eric worked all day and I was basically on my own. I was pretty bored and very lonely. And then one day I walked into the downstairs apartment and there she was.

A white cat sitting on the counter staring me down with her penetrating blue gaze. I had never seen her before and was certain she wasn't supposed to be on our friend's counter. I hurried to safety, not entirely sure if the cat was rabid or something. The moment I found out she was a stray that had been hanging around for awhile I knew it was meant to be. Our friends had sent her back out the street (she'd sneaked in through a hole in their screen) and so I went and searched for her. She casually sauntered into my path, I scooped her up, an the rest is history.

Aurora Dawn was literally my saving grace that summer. She was a companion, someone to look after and keep me entertained. She was very entertaining. She was such a dominate personality. She harassed Eric's roommate's cats to no end. Her favorite trick was to hide up under the kitchen table on a chair...and when they would walk beneath her she would drop down on top of them and scare them to death.

When I got a job in the fall she moved with me across the street to my own apartment. Every night I would hear the bell on her collar dinging as she ran to the door to greet me. I would lay on the floor to say hi and she would roll in my hair. I doted on her. I bought her all sorts of toys. Grass in a pot to eat. A back scratcher attached to the wall (filled with catnip!), brushes, combs, etc. We even splurged and bought her a travel carrier with the top-opening lid because she hated getting into the front door of a kennel. She had just as many presents under the Christmas tree as I did, I think :-)

When Eric and I got married we moved back to WI and she came with. I actually used to wonder how I would manage when she grew old and died because she meant so much to me. She was my steadfast companion. Eric's first job of our married life was not easy, and Aurora and I spent many late nights together. Her favorite place to sleep at our first house was on the back of our couch, but inside our curtains. She would squeak every single time we poked her through the curtain. We loved it.

I read once that a cat's greatest sign of trust was to fall asleep on her belly. Aurora showed us her belly constantly, whenever she wanted some attention. Once or twice, though, she actually took a snooze while laying on her back. It made me feel so good to know she trusted us that much.

Things changed when we moved to Green Bay and I got a full-time job. She was lonely so we got her a cat to keep her company. It actually did help, although Aurora never did seem to fully appreciate our effort.

Her status changed further once kids arrived. There were so many other things to do I rarely had time to give her the attention I wanted to. I do remember one night shortly after Hannah was born where I went into the bathroom and spent a long time combing her and loving her up. I missed our connection and she gobbled up whatever she got. She'd fallen from her pedestal of "baby" and had become "pet". I remember feeling pretty badly about that.

Aurora and Hannah bonded before too long, though, and Aurora adjusted to not being the only child. It didn't take too long for Hannah and Aurora to be friends.

Aurora was a huge part of our family. She was one of our girls' first words. Both girls referred to all forms of cats as "Rora". Hannah even said that when she saw her first lion in the zoo! Both grew from newborn age loving and cuddling with their friend and playmate.

Aurora loved to lick plastic bags. I don't know why...she just did. She loved to lay on Eric's briefcase. Or suitcase. Or backpack. Or in them. She'd lay on any paper or book that might be laying on the floor. She sought out every snuggly or sunny place and camped out there. Her favorite place to "chill" was on top of my computer, and from there she would inevitably migrate to my lap. Aurora came when she was called, knew her own name, and gave me the kind of love and adoration I could never deserve. She loved to sleep with me, and if that wasn't possible, she'd sleep with Hannah. Anywhere I was, she'd most likely be. Snuggled as close as she could get. She didn't purr easy...and usually only when I gave her attention. She loved chicken fingers. One of our favorite memories is of seeing her creep beneath our glass coffee table and slyly reach up with her paw to grab a chicken finger...as if we couldn't see her through the glass! She might occasionally be caught dipping her paw in a milk glass...She loved the outdoors and ran away more times than I can remember...but she always found her way back. Even though I worried myself sick while she was gone.

Aurora will be sorely missed. She died on November 1. She was only 8 years old. I thought I had many, many more years with her. I used to wonder how I would feel when she died (imagining it to be years from this day) and I have to say, nothing in my imaginings prepared me for this. There is just something missing. Something that has been there for so long that I'd taken it for granted.

Now that she's gone I miss her in a way I didn't think possible for a mere animal. I miss her like I lost my best friend. And so it is now in her death that I find myself returning to the feeling that we started off with...I lost someone I loved like my first "baby".

Apple Pickin'

2008-10-20T10:27:00.010-05:00

We decided to go apple picking this year. It is something I've wanted to do for awhile now. I'm honestly not sure why we never have! But it is a great activity to get out and get in the fall mood. Not to mention that apples are a lot cheaper when you pick them yourselves!

It was a lot of fun and definitely something we will have to repeat. The only bad part was that there wasn't much for selection left because we waited until too late in the season. Of course if there were apples that I loved available, I probably would've spent way more time and money than we did!

Here are some pictures of our apple picking adventures!

Hannah was a really big help!

Grace and Daddy

Grace was really getting into the picking.

She was loving being a helper. Ask her to bring apples to a bag and she's in!

Our beautiful girls.

Hannah was the only one who would cooperate for the corn husk photo op.

Trying out our new camera's timer!

Grace had the most fun running away from us!

My pumpkin heads.

Hope you are all having equally fun and festive falls! And Hannah's gymnastics photos are yet to come!

Shoe Fiend

2008-10-05T23:25:00.006-05:00

We may have our hands full.

Within the last few weeks Grace has really started to pick up a lot of new words in her vocabulary. One word that clearly emerged among the rest was "shoe". It started that she'd just talk about them while I put them on. Then I'd discover her digging through our shoe bin, dragging random shoes around the house (so we can never find our pairs!) It wasn't long before she'd recognize the shoes that were hers and she'd bring me one or the other and say "shoe". This week she actually started to bring me both shoes in a pair, hand me the shoes, say "shoe" and then climb on my lap so that I can put them on. She likes to wear shoes!

"Shoe" is usually the first word she says in the morning. I will pick her up out of her crib and she'll just start asking about her shoes. It isn't too long after she's dressed that she'll fetch hers and request to wear them. She'll try on Hannah's occasionally. She'll bring Hannah's shoes to Hannah! It has become very obvious that she has shoes on her mind.

And then today we realized just how much. Hannah and Grace were playing with their doll strollers. Hannah, being older, has a blast pushing the actual dolls and treating them like they are actual babies. She puts them to bed, tucks them in, takes them out and feeds them, gives them baths, etc. She's pretty involved in her doll's well being. Grace will usually stick a doll (or stuffed animal) in the stroller just to be like Hannah and off they'll go chasing each other with their strollers.

This evening I saw Grace struggling with her stroller. I assumed her doll was falling out and I went to investigate. She'd pretty much sorted it out by the time I got there and off she went...with my shoe placed happily in the seat.

Oh, dear... we may have a shoe fiend our hands.

Crafty Mama

2008-09-30T14:19:00.005-05:00

Yes, it is true. I'm a crafty mama. All right, that is a major exaggeration. A lady at church offered to teach me to crochet. Now, I'm not the most coordinated of people. I tend to make giant knots in the thread when I mend clothes, and anytime I've sat behind a sewing machine it has led to disaster. But for some reason I've been wanting to learn to do something a bit craftier, like crocheting or knitting.

I've been enjoying learning, though. The initial lesson wasn't that successful, but once I figured out my own method and watched a tutorial on YouTube a dozen times or more, I began crocheting a scarf. Now the scarf was less than successful, due to a number of reasons. Number one reason being that each end goes at an angle rather than being straight. I have no idea why this happens. I'm working on a blanket now and I'm trying my best to prevent the whole uphill crocheting...

I've been terrible at updating lately. Hannah has started gymnastics, so I need to take some pictures and come update on that! So I will be back!

August Happenings

2008-08-27T13:48:00.007-05:00

I've been woefully bad at updating. Looking back at this last month it seems like there should've been plenty to write about and yet nothing had struck me as particularly blog-worthy at the time.

We've been hoping for some house news, but unfortunately the kind we have is not the kind we were hoping to share. The home we made an offer on didn't play out. At. All. They counter offered without lowering their price one penny, and on top of that they added 5 or 6 more conditions. It felt like we were negotiating with them so that they could do us the favor of letting us buy their house from them. In this market that was absolutely ridiculous and so we passed.

Since then we've gone over our finances again. And again. And just realized that with some of our upcoming expenses this year, we really need to have extra money. Which we finally do...as long as we are living here in our pitiful starter home.

So we've decided that unless something shows up in our super-low price range in the next month, we shall just camp it out here for another year or more. Pay down more debt and work on beautifying our house even more. By the time we're finished we will be doing someone a favor of allowing them to buy our home. hehe.

We went to visit Eric's family in PA at the beginning of August. It was a very long trip (for us) and we were very glad to get home. We all caught colds (except Hannah) right in the middle of the visit and that made the whole trip very tiring. We had to cut it short because of the illness, and it just felt like it took forever to get home! It was a good visit, though, despite dealing with Hannah's typical attitude adjustment. She always becomes sassy when we visit family...we're not entirely sure why that is. Ultimately it was a good visit and we had a good time.

Our most recent news is that our firstborn, our kitty Aurora, met with an unfortunate accident. While I was at a woman's event she and Eric had an altercation. I'm still not completely clear on the specifics, but there was an exchange of biting and kicking that led to Aurora's hip being broken. It was all an unfortunate accident...and for the next three weeks Aurora is confined to a cage in the hopes that she'll heal. It never fails to break my heart!

To make up for lack of updates, I have a couple cute pictures from this last month.

Walking along Lake Michigan on our way out to Pennsylvania

Hannah did SO well in the car on the trip

One of the few times they shared nicely

One of my favorite pics of Grace. Oh how I wish it hadn't been such a "spur of the moment" shot which led to her head being cut off!!

A House (hopefully)!

2008-07-29T23:08:00.003-05:00

We casually restarted our house search this month. There isn't much in our preferred area that meets our specifications, so by house "search" we really mean waiting with sheer boredom for new houses to come on the market, and when they don't, going over the houses that are already on the market over and over, just in case we missed one that might appeal.

Our intention was to take a gamble and list our house in September even if we hadn't found something. We lowered our target price range, which also meant we lowered our expectations.

We decided to go look at a house only a block from our current residence. We hadn't previously been interested because it seemed too small (not to mention we weren't keen on living THAT close to our current home), but it was the right price and seemed to have most of the things we wanted. We liked it more than we thought we would, and made an offer last night! We have yet to hear back and even if they do accept it we still have to sell our house so we really have no guarantee that we'll get it. It is one of those lovely things in life that is completely in God's hands. There is nothing we can do to make this work in our timing. It is a good practice in faith :-)

In the meantime we are leaving to visit Eric's family in PA this weekend. We will most likely leave with the house situation still up in the air, which we hate to do, but there isn't much we can do about that. We are crazy people! As if we didn't have enough going on packing for a week-long trip, but then we had to throw in buying a house on top of it!

Please keep us in your prayers in the coming months. We need every one we can get!

Our Flowergirl

2008-07-20T23:11:00.004-05:00

Hannah got to be the flower girl for her uncle Nathan's wedding this past Friday. She did a good job and had a lot of fun (I think). She felt like a beautiful princess for the day and I was so proud of her. Unfortunately she is probably too young to have too many memories of the occasion, but oh well...that's what pictures are for!

The saddest part was realizing that we would not be seeing Nathan and Mollie again until Christmas since they are moving to Texas. It wasn't like we saw them all the time anyway, but we attended the same church, and it was nice to at least see them in passing. We hope to make it down to Texas at least once while they are there, but with two little ones and the cost of gas, it really depends.

In other news, we are planning on putting our house on the market in September. The hope would be to get it on the market in time to sell before winter. It will probably take a couple months the way the market is now. Our only wish would be that there was a house on the current market that interested us. There are a couple that would do, a couple that are nice but a lot of work, but nothing "just right" yet. We are praying that by the time we are ready to sell, the right house comes along.

If you are interested in viewing a few more pictures of Hannah and the wedding, here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49726&l=d9eb4&id=593949611

We Survived Freshwater Fury

2008-06-24T22:19:00.016-05:00

Eric and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend (seriously--have we been married that long?). We went to Door County, and spent one night at a B&B in Sturgeon Bay.

Before we headed further north, we decided to go to the Maritime Museum. Eric has a thing for boats--and I reluctantly traipsed along because he obviously wanted to go. The Maritime Museum had signs everywhere touting "Can you survive Freshwater Fury?" Nowhere did it say what Freshwater Fury was, we assumed it was some sort of exhibit. Realistically I knew they were just making it sound very cool, but that it was probably just a simple display. Even still, I was a tad bit disappointed when I realized that it not some crazy ride or other exhilarating exhibit. So, since the alternative was to perish of boredom, we made it more interesting. Or at least I did--I think Eric was a bit embarrassed by me (although he did play along--good sport that he is).

"Do I spot a storm coming? Captain, you better check this out!"

"Uh oh...this doesn't look good."
"I've never been in a storm this fierce! If I let go I'll wash away!"
"I better send out a call for help right away! Good thing I know the morse code."

"I should never have agreed to man the wheel while the captain relayed his message! This is harder than it looks!"Yea! We seem to have made it through!

What kind of adventure would this be without the obligatory kiss of the hero and heroine at the end?

Yes, we did go on to spend the rest of our anniversary getaway achieving more romantic (and less goofy) pursuits including walking along Lake Michigan and enjoying the amazing world that God made for us. We attended an outdoor play in the woods, which was fun (if not a bit bug-infested). It was wonderful to be able to enjoy each other and actually be able to finish a thought without having to stop to answer a toddler's question. Ahh, bliss...

And So It Begins

2008-06-19T23:41:00.008-05:00

My kids are already fighting!! I was never so disillusioned as to think that they wouldn't. And they've certainly been at it lately over toys. But it is amazing to me that they are fighting verbally...when Grace does not even know that many words!

My proof:

Hannah can't stand that Grace doesn't agree with her, and so they'll continue this back and forth until Eric and I are absolutely bonkers!

But...they are very cute while they do it.

Can't wait to see what they will come up with as Grace learns more words!

Future Politician

2008-06-17T23:06:00.004-05:00

While outside playing today, Hannah found a plastic tube from one of her toys. She proceeded to use it as a microphone and deliver a speech. She lowered her voice and projected. I was really holding in the giggles as I watched her play the part.

Her speech follows:

"Marcy is a dog. Daphne is a cat. My car is a hippo. Grace is a baby. And I am just Huckabee. You can clap now."

And then she turned and expected me to clap and cheer for her, and to her utter delight, Grace joined in with the clapping, too.

I found it so cute that months later, she still thinks about Huckabee and pretends to be him. Obviously watching him speak a couple times had some sort of impact on her memories. What a girl!

Broccoli Saga Part II

2008-06-17T15:37:00.006-05:00

As if I needed any further convincing, Hannah has continued to prove to me that she's crazy where broccoli is concerned. Perhaps I ought to try some frozen broccoli so I can understand what the fuss is about.

Last night as I stood by the stove cooking Chicken Alfredo, Hannah says to me "Can I have some frozen broccoli in a bowl, Mommy?" Secretly surprised, I quickly stifled any reaction. I let her think that it was a privilege, inwardly exalting that she's eating a vegetable!! I fill up her bowl and continue cooking.

A few moments later I hear Grace crying (which almost always means that she's fighting with Hannah over something she wants or something Hannah has taken). I ask Hannah was is going on, and sure enough, they are fighting over the bowl of broccoli. I ask Hannah if she can share, and she reluctantly does. Grace is a little less enthusiastic than Hannah, but even still she continued to protest if Hannah wouldn't let her have a piece.

The weirdest part? Hannah came to me about ten minutes later and asked me if she could have some new broccoli because the stuff in her bowl had become yucky. Upon examination, I realized that it had had not become "yucky" it had just become thawed. So broccoli itself? Not so much. But throw it in the freezer and you have a winner. Go figure!

Here is some proof. These were not taken last night, but on a prior frozen broccoli binge:

Caught in the act of snitching.

Mouths full of frozen broccoli!

Showing off a handful of the "good stuff"

Fair Fighting

2008-06-10T15:50:00.004-05:00

This is my 3 year old's new word. Where did it come from? Not a clue. In fact I'd never even heard her say it before last night.

In the tub last night while Hannah was getting her hair washed, Grace's finger somehow poked into Hannah's mouth. It didn't take long for that itty bitty finger to get bit, and what followed was chaos. Grace screaming with shock and pain, Daddy furious that Hannah had done such a thing, Hannah shocked that one little nibble had created such mayhem, and Mommy sitting back in bewilderment...wondering which one to calm down first!

After Daddy had rescued Grace and had taken her off to ready her for bed, Mommy probes Hannah for some answers. "Why did you bite Grace?" Without hesitation came the reply "But I was just trying to fair fight." Come again? After she repeated it several times I came to the conclusion that she did indeed mean what she was saying. I didn't hear wrong. But what is fair fight? I asked her to show me. She reaches up and tickles me! It is then that I begin to wonder if "fair fight" is equated to "play fight" in her head.

Daddy play fights with his girls quite a bit. It always consists of lots of tickling, some tossing of little bodies in the air, and plenty of wrestling and chasing. Since I don't think Hannah has ever been bit, I don't think (at least I hope) that she didn't know it would hurt Grace, but instead was trying to start some sort of play.

Either way, this morning I set Grace down on the couch and Hannah joined her there. Before too long they were chasing each other across the couch, stopping to tickle each other and laughing hysterically. And the whole time Hannah is yelling "Fair fight! We're Fair fighting!" Goofs!

Tagged

2008-06-03T23:30:00.003-05:00

My friend Allison "tagged" me to answer these questions. I've been so terrible at blogging, but I figured I'd ought to at least do it!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Hmm...10 years ago I was finishing up my sophomore year of high school. I was 16, had just gotten my driver's license. I doubt anything fun or exciting was going on...it was high school!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
Well, the IL's are heading home and so I will be busy reclaiming my home.
1. Laundry!
2. Fold Laundry (yes, I know this could technically fall under the "laundry" chore, but I have so much piled up it will probably take enough time to count as an actual separate chore)
3. Sweep and mop my kitchen and dining room since it has so many people tramping through, and it has been rainy.
4. Reacquaint myself with my girls. So often when we have company for more than a day I feel as if I don't get to spend much quality time with the girls, I just get the mundane stuff (diaper changes, baths, bedtime, discipline) and so I need to spend some time just being with them.
5. Vacuum...same story as #3. A lot of people...lot of shoes...lot of traffic. Needs a good clean!

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate! Although that seems too decadent to be a "snack". I like low-fat kettle corn, cheese popcorn, baked pretzels, and apples if they are tart and crunchy.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay off all our debt
Buy a new house
Adopt our African babies
Support Missionaries
Donate to Christian organizations (especially LLBC!)

5) Places I have lived:
Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania

Suggestions Requested

2008-04-25T14:00:00.002-05:00

Behold, our home:

This is an outdated picture, taken before we even moved in. We've changed very little on the outside, really, except that the second-story door is now a window. Anyway, we are hoping to move within the next year and so don't really want to undertake another large project. BUT we want to get rid of the second-story railing on the front porch.

We had considered actually removing the whole thing and replacing the porch, but since we are hoping to move soon we aren't motivated to put that much work into it. We are concentrating on small fixes/improvements around the house. So it needs to be simple, and cheap...

We want to remove the railing, but leave the roof intact. Any suggestions?

Why We'll Never Be On Time

2008-04-10T13:10:00.003-05:00

I've pretty much given up on being punctual. I'm usually content with a "little bit late" versus "a lot late". Before Grace was born I could do all right, but ever since the second child entered the picture...it is an uphill battle.

For your enlightenment, our morning:

I woke up a little late, but still well within the "can still make it" time frame. Grace woke up while I was fumbling with my drawers trying to get my clothes out (they never open quiet when you want them to) and so I got her and headed downstairs. I had laid out her clothes the night before, so she was all set to go (see I am attempting to be supermom!). I got her into her clothes, threw some breakfast on her tray, and headed up to get Hannah. She was groggy and disoriented (so moving very slowly) and kept shaking her head as if to clear her mind (never a good sign!) I dug out her clothes with her clinging to my side (see, I'm only half supermom) and managed to drag her down the stairs. Once I got her situated (she opted to eat in her jammies), I rushed off to get myself ready.

Finally I'm ready and the kids are done eating.I clean up Grace and send her off to play. I still have enough time to eat, so I hand Hannah her clothes and go to get myself breakfast (I don't always get this, so I'm happy when I have time!) A few moments later Hannah comes in with her shirt backward so I inform her and she attempts to flip it. Now it is off and inside out, and so I have to fix it for her before she finally gets it on straight. Eric calls and talking to him reminds me that the van is out of gas. There goes being on time! Now I know that I'll be a little late because I wasn't anticipating having to stop for gas, but I'm hoping with some fast-eating I can avoid being "a lot late".

I send Hannah to hunt for her shoes while I finish eating. After I'm done I go off to find Grace and get her shoes on. I know as soon as I locate her that I'm going to have to change her diaper before we leave. Unexpected delay, but we're still okay. I put her shoes on and head off to the changing table only to realize that her poop has leaked through her pants! So now I have to go locate a new pair of pants, take off her shoes, change her diaper, put her new pants on, and then her shoes all over again. I throw her coat on at this point just to save having to find and catch her again later and go to see if Hannah has located her shoes yet.

Nope...of course not. She has found one shoe and when I ask her if she can go "find the other one" she announces that "she already found the other one!" holding her one shoe up high. "No Hannah, the other shoe." She looks at me seriously. "I have the other shoe." I'm losing patience at this point. "Hannah, you need two shoes and you clearly only have one. You need to find the other one." There is no comprehension on that little face, so I head off to find the other shoe myself. I find it and get it put on and then have to battle Hannah to brush her hair. Sometimes I don't know why I bother because her hair is so fine that it looks just as messy five minutes later. But I feel that I ought to at least attempt for her hair to look neat.

Finally, she's all ready (or so I hope!) so I tell Hannah to hurry and go potty before we leave. As I watch her walk away I realize that the front of her pants is in the back...so I have to take her shoes off and switch her pants back around, then put the shoes back on once again.

I tote everyone out to the van and get them buckled in only to realize that all the chaos inside caused me to forget my keys...so I have to rush back in and get them. I'm beginning to realize that I will be more than a "little late". I will definitely be "a lot late", IF I make it at all.

I finally back out of the driveway and look at the fuel gauge to decide if I can make it to church without filling up...It is on empty, the warning light is on, and with my luck we would run out of gas on the highway and have to be towed...and that would be after the walk I would have to take with the kids to get the nearest phone since I don't have a cell. I decide considering the morning I was having, it was safest to stop now and just be "tons late".

The rest of my trip was uneventful. I got to church a mere 15 minutes late. Considering, I thought that was pretty great. Since I had long since given up on being on time I took my time getting the kids out of the van and felt pretty over the whole situation. And then I hear a little voice that says "Mommy, I stepped in a puddle" as we walked across the grass. I knew that there weren't any big puddles and so I wasn't too worried. "Just watch where you are walking, okay, Hannah?" I tell her. And what does she say in reply? "Oh Mommy, just calm down."

And that about sums it up.

Stomach Woes

2008-04-01T11:44:00.003-05:00

I had almost dared hope that we had made it. The winter months had gone by and no one in our family had gotten more than a sniffle. It was almost the end of March...surely I could take a breath and relax. My kids weren't going to get sick.

And then unexpectedly on Good Friday Grace woke up vomiting. I did not expect my first parental experience with the stomach flu to be with my one year old! It was actually fairly mild...involving two hours of us sitting in the rocking chair holding her over a bucket rather than allowing her to go back to bed where we'd be returning every ten minutes to change sheets...finally after a couple hours she just started to scream and made it quite obvious that she was ready to go back to bed. And she made it through the rest of the night without much activity.

Saturday came and went and no one was sick, so we dared to believe we had dodged the bullet. And then came Easter Sunday...and not one of us came out unscathed. Unfortunately, since we thought we'd gotten by without catching it, we decided to visit my parents for Easter. So we spread the love...and the germs.

So here we are a week later and I think we're finally over it...it seemed to mysteriously linger in Hannah and show up randomly throughout the rest of the week. But even that has settled now, so fingers crossed...we're over it.

I have to say I'm disappointed. I was anticipating Easter this year. I really wanted to really take time to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice. And it was a little difficult to do with the circumstances going on. I guess I don't need Easter to reflect on that, but it is somehow easier to do on that day.

To make matters worse, during the week that followed it was incredibly hard to get back into doing my Bible study, and just returning to the habits that I had formed. I hope I can get back into the groove this week...

The only bummer about being better is that now I have no excuse for the mess my house is in. I've finally (mostly) caught up with laundry, but not the folding...but my floors need mopped and I have no good excuse...oh wait...I think I feel a fever coming on... ;-)

Contraband Broccoli

2008-03-14T13:59:00.003-05:00

Okay...I've come to the conclusion that there is no rationale where kids are concerned. No, this really isn't a recent discovery, but it was reaffirmed for me today...

While I was making lunch, Hannah got a bag of frozen broccoli off the counter and proceeded to eat out of it like a bag of chips. Grace comes over, thinks that looks like fun, and so they are tug-a-warring over a bag of broccoli.

Humoring them, I give Grace a bowl and Hannah fills it. Grace takes one bite and her eyes get wide and she's like "Bleck! I thought this was going to be good!" BUT, she sees that Hannah is eating it and keeps on munching away anyway. Once she empties her bowl I figure she'll just go on her way, but no...she again goes after the bag. Hannah happily refills Grace's bowl, and so on they go...munching away on frozen broccoli.

I'm certainly not going to stop this activity...normally I do not condone eating before dinner...but yeah, seriously? "No, girls, you cannot eat broccoli! Put it away! You'll spoil your appetite!" THAT would be dumb.

And yet I know that if they were sitting at the table and I plunked frozen broccoli on each of their plates they would turn their noses up and refuse to eat it. There is no logic here.

Girls' Night

2008-03-13T23:14:00.003-05:00

Tonight I had the treat of getting out of the house minus husband and children! Now normally I am quite a homebody, and even though I enjoy these outings when I get there, I have to talk myself into getting there. I hate sacrificing family time, or even just husband-time to go out and "hang with the girls". It is something I like to do, and even something I recognize as being important to my mental health, but a part of me is always home.

But this week was a long one...I haven't been feeling well all week. I thought for sure I was getting sick, but no...it is just a headache that is hanging on. Everyday at around one I get a headache, it is like clockwork! I've tried different things like drinking more caffeine, completely eliminating caffeine, eating food...nothing really seems to help. Anyway...all of this means that the girls are even more exhausting than usual, my patience runs out quicker, and that goes for patience toward the husband as well. I think it was Monday night when I remembered that this week was my Oasis (Bible Study) dinner and rejoiced!

So it was great to get out and sit down and eat with other adults without worrying about feeding someone else first, cutting up someone else's food, or fussing about whether other people ate. We all sat and enjoyed dinner while secretly chuckling behind our napkins at the thought of what our husband and children were probably eating.

I think what I love most about getting together with other women is discovering how many things are universal. How our kids are doing the same strange/annoying things, how our post-baby bodies are also doing the same strange/annoying things. Lamenting how things have changed since we had children, but rejoicing in the gift our children are. It is great that we can swap stories and advice and uplift each other.

But the absolute BEST part about getting out is coming back home. I loved that Hannah woke up and called for me and then filled me in on all the things that Daddy did (both right and wrong) and caught up on a few snuggles. I love that I have something to say to Eric that is not about the kids and that he, for once, has a few stories to tell me about the cute things the kids did.

It is good to go to bed and for once feel a tad bit energized and not 100% drained. And I miss my kids, so tomorrow should be a good day! :-)

Good-bye Huckabee

2008-03-05T09:52:00.002-06:00

I was so disappointed in my country last night. It seems that we can never see something that is good and right and embrace it wholeheartedly--either we allow media to manipulate our thinking, or we are just to blind to see truth.

Huckabee gave me hope for my country, my children, and for myself. He ran a good race, and unfortunately was not able to finish with the win. But he finished well, and that is important, too. He did not participate in dirty politics and was a good, honorable man. I've never been so excited to vote, or so proud of my vote.

I sincerely hope to see him back in 2012. I can't imagine being more excited about another candidate.

As for supporting McCain as Huckabee suggested we do...I do not think I'll be able to do that. My husband I will review and discuss before we make a final decision, but I am fairly certain that we had decided to vote for Huckabee or for no one. Most likely we will still be voting for Huckabee. I don't see that McCain is a whole lot better than whichever Democrat makes it to the end.

Thank you, Governor Huckabee, for giving me hope (for however briefly) and for risking it all to run for our president. I wish you had made it!

Huckabee Rally

2008-02-16T20:47:00.011-06:00

We had the fortunate opportunity to attend a rally for Mike Huckabee on Thursday night. Yes, it was Valentine's Day, but neither one of us would have rather done anything else.

We got a few wires crossed as far as the time, so we ended up waiting for close to two hours in line with both of the kids. So they were pretty much out of patience by the time he actually started speaking. Eric ended up walking around behind the crowds with Grace, while Hannah and I actually got to stand in the front row. That was very nice :-)

Seeing him in person was amazing. Part of me was a little afraid that I wouldn't like him as much as I thought I would. But he was honest and sincere, and as usual, witty and engaging. But most of all he echoed all of the things that are important to me. Prior to learning about Huckabee, I had lost a lot of faith in this country. Unfortunately, I still don't have much faith because of the choices many voters have made, but one thing is for sure, I have hope in the America that Mike Huckabee describes.

Yes, it looks nearly impossible. The odds don't appear to be in his favor. And maybe he won't get the nomination. But maybe he will. God has proven, through the Bible, time and time again that things are done in His time and in His unpredictable way. And if Mike Huckabee is meant to lead, then it does not at all surprise me that God would choose to make it an amazing journey.

Many people have said that voting for Huckabee is throwing your vote away. I disagree with that. If McCain is already the presumptive nominee, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, then why vote? Why go out and vote at all? It is already decided without your input. But if you vote for Huckabee you give him a chance at winning, and every state he wins is a state that McCain doesn't win, and then McCain is prevented from getting those delegates, and from getting the majority that he needs to become the nominee. And if he falls short, even by one, then it goes to the convention and is decided there. And there Huckabee stands a chance.

We have already decided, nominee or no, we're not voting for anyone other than Mike Huckabee come November.

That's my political rant of the day :-)

A blurb from the speech, Huckabee on abortion:

Hannah's Endorsement

2008-01-26T19:07:00.000-06:00

This about sums it up:

Politics

2008-01-23T20:12:00.001-06:00

I've never been one for politics. Probably has something to do with my grandpa blaming me for the election of Bill Clinton when I was too young to vote. Or perhaps it was that during every quiet moment at family functions, I would hear "Did you see what the Clinton did now?" or something very similar which would lead to the most boring conversation between my dad and grandpa. Blah!

Which is why I surprised myself by getting interested this year. I pretty much ignored the Republican candidates early on because there were so many of them. I tried to sit down and sort them out after the Straw Poll, but I got too confused in all the weird names and different, yet similar, stands. As time went on we heard that Ron Paul was a good choice and investigated him and liked what we saw for the most part. We figured we'd just watch and see what happened with him.

Ironically it was The Tonight Show that triggered my interest. We were tuning in to see how the lack of writers (due to the strike) would impact the show and the guest was Mike Huckabee. Everything he said resonated with what we believed, so we went and investigated him further. We checked out You Tube and really liked a lot of the videos. Even when focusing on a specific candidate it can take a awhile to sort out what they really believe on all the issues.

What amazed me is how open he is about his faith. Some candidates claim that they are Christian but never say another thing about it, and downplay the importance of it in their lives. You are left wondering if they are a "Sunday Christian" or if they truly know our Savior. Mike's strong faith has been pointed out to me as a negative by a few people, and I just don't get that. I think it takes such strength of character to openly embrace a faith in Christ. You can be strongly conservative and get votes that way, without proclaiming your faith. I give him great credit for being unashamed.

Eric loves his Energy Independence policies, which is where he is typically frustrated with Republicans. We both love his stand on Second Amendment Rights. He is not at all wishy-washy about abortion. We think he has some good ideas about Fair Tax, and also immigration.

I've never watched politics like I have been lately. I check the polls regularly and have actually sat through two debates from beginning to end (I usually hate debates because I can't stand to watch people argue and disagree!). The very fact that I am writing this shows that I believe in what Mike Huckabee has to say. Normally I wouldn't want to deal with people arguing with me. I'm not at all confrontational. But with his chances dwindling, Eric and I feel like we can't not speak up about it because, like we usually are, so many people are just not interested when it comes to politics! So they don't know who is who and what is what. Most of the people we know probably won't even vote in the primaries.

So, as soon as February 19 gets here (got that all you WI people, February 19!), we will be casting our vote in his favor. Why don't you check him out, too? You might like what you see!

Christmastime

2007-12-20T12:11:00.000-06:00

It seems like the last month has gone by in a blink. Busyness will do that, I suppose. Christmas is just 5 days away. Fortunately we are pretty much ready!

It has been lots of fun shopping this year. I love it when you find exactly what you are looking for, and feel like you are really getting your loved ones something they will like and enjoy. And it is even better if it is something they won't expect. And even better than that is if it is something they like, something unexpected, and something on SALE!

Of course there is always the downside to that...I received an email yesterday informing me that my gift for Eric was out of stock and it would not arrive by Christmas. So that left me in a lurch, scrambling desperately to figure something else out for Eric in time for Christmas. His Christmas gift will become his birthday gift, I guess. That's one benefit of a January birthday.

On top of all the Christmas hustle, we noticed that a home we've been watching for some time went down in price. We decided to go and look at it. We have no idea why we were so compelled to go look at it because we both knew it was most likely impossible that we'd ever be able to afford such a house. But we fell in love...it is the perfect house, perfect neighborhood...it needs some cosmetic updates, but after the overhaul we did of our current home, a few cosmetic things is trivial.

Unfortunately the home is in short sale (what happens sometimes prior to it foreclosing) so because of that we cannot place a contingency on the sale of our home, and also cannot "close" the deal until the actual sales papers are signed. Typically when you make an offer on a home, the seller accepts your offer and then it is legally binding and to back out there is a penalty. Not so in this case. It remains open until the actual closing. So if the seller receives a better offer, we could potentially lose the house. So we really have no idea if we'll get the house, or sell ours, and at this point we don't even have an accepted offer from the seller, although we're in negotiations. So tons of prayer would be appreciated! We really want this house to work out, but if it doesn't then obviously God has something different in mind for us. All we can do now is wait, and pray, and wait, and pray...you get the picture.

This weekend we are going to try and "complete" our home. We want to refinish the floors and finish putting some trim around some windows. Things that we've been wanting to do for some time now. Not what we'd like to be doing at Christmas, but we're hoping that there will be some interest in our home starting in January, so we'd like it to be finished by that time.

Well, the clutter is calling for me to clean it up, so I had better get to that. I'll leave you with a picture of the girls at Christmas. In our opinion, there isn't much more precious than that.

What a Week So Far

2007-11-14T20:41:00.000-06:00

I've been having the worst week so far. This is the third day in a row that I've had the kids to myself from morning 'til bed with no adult contact. It isn't like Eric is off partying so I can't complain a whole lot, but between work and school his schedule is taking a toll on my sanity!

Just tonight was mayhem...Grace has a cold so she was incredibly fussy, so I was carrying her around while clearing the table, I go back into the kitchen to find the dog eating off the table (lost my temper, let me tell you!) and then go into the bathroom to find that Hannah had dumped all of my powder make-up onto the floor. And this was after a day packed with similar incidences...the kids both went to bed early and I wish I could say that it was time to relax but no...now I have to do dishes and fold laundry. Blah!!

To top it all off Eric was roped into doing the Christmas program at church. So logically I realized when I looked at the calendar that this involved Christmas Eve. But yesterday it hit me emotionally when I really realized that Eric was going to be gone for the entire Sunday before Christmas, and on top of that all of Christmas Eve, so that means all family festivities are shot. I'm so the type of person that just thrives on the little family traditions and the fact that this is Grace's first Christmas means a lot to me. So Eric threw a wrench in the whole operation because he couldn't say no to the church, and I didn't realize how much it meant to me that he didn't do it until now. He has the two weekends before Christmas pretty much filled up with rehearsals, performances, etc. Should make for a very lonely Christmas season.

Some highlights from my week:

Playing together so nice

Hannah singing the "Crocodile Song" from Peter Pan

Here's hoping the rest of the week goes better!

Halloween

2007-10-31T19:40:00.000-05:00

Hannah's second year of Trick-or-Treating went successfully. Last year we just took her to a few houses on our block. This year we graduated to our street. Maybe next year we'll do a couple streets. The benefit of living in the city is that you could potentially spend the entire 3 hours out there and still be nearly in your backyard with many more streets to go! When I grew up it was just our little town, and you did those houses, and that was it! I doubt it was 3 hours worth, and you hit every house, not just a few streets.

Hannah went dressed as a princess this year. Last year we just had a hand-me-down costume, and since I can't see spending tons of money for this one day, we decided to figure something out. Hannah received a crown from my aunt and uncle when Grace was born, and she had a frilly dress, so it just seemed to fit together well. Add in some costume jewelery, and some pretty shoes, and voila...a princess!

Grace was a tiger. She did very well watching Hannah go from door to door. Her costume was pretty warm so I think she fared better than her big sister did!

They were just so cute together! Can't wait for many more Halloweens with our two little girls.

We carved a pumpkin this year, too. Hannah did not remember last year (not surprisingly) and really seemed to enjoy this year. I love these early years when everything is new (again!) each time. Eventually she will start to remember doing it previously, but until then it is fun to discover each new thing one more time. The only trouble is that now she thinks we're going to eat it.

In the midst of all this October fun, Eric has been slaving away on his midterm and a presentation for his class. He's still made time for us, though, which we've enjoyed (and appreciated). He's still not quite finished with the midterm (it was a take-home) but he has until midnight tonight, so here's hoping he gets it done! He's been pulling "most of the nighters". He can't quite manage an "all nighter" anymore. Showing his age and all that ;-)

Now we get to look forward to November and Thanksgiving. Grace is soon to be 8 months and we're looking forward to this month and all it will most likely bring (like crawling!). Should be lots to write about!

Marathon

2007-10-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

We are back from Eric's marathon. He ran the Whistlestop Marathon in Ashland. We "test ran" the kids on the 5 hour drive, seeing how they did in preparation for our Thanksgiving trip to Pennsylvania to visit Eric's family.

We decided that Hannah starts out strong, makes it about 4 hours and then passes out. Grace starts passed out, and then gets sick of the whole scene and melts down about 4 hours in. Should be interesting all the way to PA...we are stopping after about 8 hours on the road and then have another 3 the following day. Yikes!

Back to the marathon...Eric completed it successfully. We were all very proud of him. He was pretty exhausted by the end, and is still hobbling around because of his aching muscles. He claims he won't be doing another one, but I think we'll find ourselves watching another marathon before too much time passes by. He wasn't completely happy with the results, and that is always a driving force to try again!

My Favorite Runner

The Finish Line

Marathons are Tiring

Triumphant Finisher

The kids have been sleeping like a dream since we got back. I think the whole ordeal tuckered them out. They didn't have a decent nap all weekend! But life will start to get back to normal today, I'm sure. We're looking forward to a few weeks with nothing at all planned.

Milwaukee Marathon

2007-10-07T21:26:00.001-05:00

We spent the day in the hot sun driving from spot to spot to support our friend Todd who ran the Lakefront Marathon today. He and Eric have been training since May, so I think we were all glad to see him finish. We both felt badly for him, though, because he trained for a fall marathon, and the weather was in the 80's, and he struggled a good deal because of this. We came home exhausted, dehydrated, and a little bit scorched from sitting in the sun too long. In OCTOBER.

I cannot get over the weather. I hate this unseasonal warm streak. I like the weather in the 80's, don't get me wrong. In JULY. October is light-jacket season, where you get to wear jeans and occasionally a snuggly sweater. The season of a crisp breeze and fall camping. Where you can sit by the fire to stay warm. I cannot wait until the seasonal weather returns in a couple days. The weather guys keep talking as though this warm weather is a good thing...and I do not agree!!

Next weekend is Eric's marathon in Ashland. The weather promises to be in the 50's and sunny, so we're hoping that proves true. This is Eric's first (and most likely last) marathon and we want it to go well for him.

We're going to stay in a cabin and we're hoping it will be a bit like fall camping, without the tent, and with separate bedrooms for the kids. The best of both worlds ;-) We're hoping that my parents can make it, but they will just be getting back from a long vacation and I'm sure they'll be ready to crash at home, unpack, and get settled. So who knows...

Can't wait until next weekend and this whole marathon thing will be in the past!! It has begun to dictate our lives just a touch too much. We'll see what Eric chooses to do next :-)

Lighthearted Living

2007-09-26T20:58:00.001-05:00

Trying to come up with a "clever" blog title is a challenge. Do you make it something silly about your family? Do you deem some great purpose behind what you are planning to write? You don't want to set too high of standards, and you don't want the title to be so silly that you cannot write something serious. It is a quandary.

We chose something that reflects both, I hope. We (Eric and I), as Christians, are committed to finding joy in everyday circumstances. No matter how icky. We need to live in a state of joy because no matter what life brings our way, we have joy in our relationship with Jesus. And that, hopefully, would lead you to be lighthearted. Not that we have to be "happy" all the time. Joy goes deeper than mere happiness. But I digress..."lighthearted living" was an attempt at both silliness, as well as reminding us that we should be finding joy in our lives.

Ultimately, this will be updates on our family, and perhaps some "day to day" musings. Every now and again there may be something of great substance, so don't forget to check back. You wouldn't want to miss that!!