Still kickin'

Just a quick update so you know we are still around. We had an amazing (God is so Good!) vacation and just got back Saturday night. I did a quick load of laundry, repacked and headed down to Ohio with the kids the next morning. My long lost cousin from Texas was in town. We got back home this afternoon. Our house was decent before we left and now looks like it exploded. I am not feeling well and therefore, we postponed our marriage couseling meeting and the house will probably remain chaotic until tomorrow when hopefully I can get more laundry done, pick up the house, do a little grocery shopping and try to get back into a somewhat of a routine. Marc went and got our new laptop this afternoon. So hopefully in the next day or two, between work, church meetings and doctor appts, we can be officially back up and running with pictures and everything.

I will post more about vacation later. It really was great (don't let this downer post fool you... I'm just not feeling great).

Belated Father's Day Pictures

This is what happens with no crib...

This is how Marc found AJ the other day during nap time. (We move the rocking chair over to where the crib used to be.)

Bad News - Good News

• The Bad News is our laptop is dead. Dead-dead.
• The Good News is we will get a new laptop thanks to the warranty we bought.
• The Bad News is everything on there is lost.
• The Good News is I was able to back up quite a bit of stuff the last few days when the it would actually boot up for a few minutes before crashing.
• The Bad News is we still lost more than I would like to think about.
• The Good News is I have my blog, so not all that I lost is completely lost.
• The Bad News is even though the new laptop is covered, we will still have to buy the extended warranty for it which will run about $400. (I know we don't HAVE to buy it, but this will be our second new laptop we've gotten now when our old one died - for us, it's worth it.)
• The Good News is we are leaving on vacation soon, so I won't have to think about it for a while.

So, when we get back from vacation, we will have to go pick out a new laptop and spend a while getting it all set up to our liking again. (I feel like I should be excited about that part, but I'm really seeing it as more of a chore.). Ugh.

Milestone Update

Marc thinks he found the rough patch on the bunk beds and sanded it down a bit. And we officially took the crib down. The room still needs an overhaul, but having the one big piece of furniture out really helps. So, last night, AJ had his official first night in the big boy bed with no crib back-up. His feet seem fine. He did get in trouble for being out of bed once and he was crying the middle of the night once, so Marc laid with him a bit, but other than that... he did fine.

And I thought it was just gas...

Yesterday at dinner, Andrew was explaining to me how much he liked one of his cars. In fact, he likes playing with it so much he has be been "playing with it for one thousand days!" I explained to him that 1,000 days is a really long time and that means he would have started playing with it when he was a little bity baby. He explained that, yes, he did start playing with it then. In fact, he went on to explain how he had it with him in my tummy before we got him from the hospital and he played with it "while rolling around in there."

Maybe their's was just a 'special' truck.

For a couple years now, ever since Andrew was old enough to peek over the windowsill, we always get excited when the music truck slowly rolls by. It's right up there with the garbage truck and the mail truck. Really anything with wheels catches the boys attention, but the music truck is extra cool, because, well, it plays music and drives real slow. They run from wherever they are playing, yelling, "Music Truck! Music Truck!" as they bolt to the window.

The other day, we are at our friend's house. All the kids are playing outside, when we hear their neighborhood music truck in the distance. The dad announces, "It's the ice cream truck! Who wants ice cream?!" He then proceeds to treat all the kids, including mine, to ice cream from the side of the colorful van. While, I was thankful for his generosity, I kept thinking, "Uugh - now they know." The gig is up.

In the Presence of My Enemies.

Yesterday, I finished the book In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham. What a good book. Well, I don't feel right saying it was a good book since it's true account of being kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists in the jungle for over a year. Here's Gracia's website synopsis:

For American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, what started out as a relaxing, once-in-a-lifetime anniversary getaway at an exotic island resort turned into one of the most horrific nightmares imaginable. Kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group with ties to Osama bin Laden, the Burnhams were snatched away from friends and family and thrust into a life on the run in the Philippine jungle. During a perilous year in captivity, they faced near starvation, constant exhaustion, frequent gun battles, coldhearted murder—and intense soul-searching about a God who sometimes seemed to have forgotten them.

Wow. I have thought so much about Gracia and Martin this last week. I've even dreamt about the jungle more than I ever imagine I would. My mother in law has even met Gracia. What amazing strength God gave these two when they felt they had none on their own. I'm reminded of a verse I just found in our Psalms of Ascent study:

Psalm 84:7 - They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

God only gives us the amount of strength we need for that moment until fresh strength is given.

Happy Father's Day!

Wet & Smoldering

Well, today proved to be mostly uneventful. Andrew is sick. Unfortunately, we were supposed to hang out with friends and instead we hung out on the couch all day and watched way too much TV. I'm not really sure what the problem is. He has a fever. With this kid, it doesn't matter if he has a double ear infection or just a runny nose, his body reacts with a high fever. So my kid who usually goes a mile a minute was just laying around today, cold. And he only wanted to snuggle on the couch. (Which I confess is kind of nice - except that while he's cold and under covers, I'm sweating from the 40+ pound heater on my lap.)

However, this evening, since the families couldn't get together, my friend and I still went out. Marc said he had the boys covered, so I got to go out for Mexican. I stopped by the store on the way home to buy fixings in an attempt to make an ice cream cake for Father's Day. I hit a wet spot on the floor and fell hard on my knee while practically in the splits. I think if I wouldn't have been so instantly embarassed and angry, I would have just rolled over and cried... it really hurt! And I was wearing my new jeans. While I am limping through the store, I was thinking, "Man, if I have a hole my jeans, somebody is going to hear about it." What ugly emotions can quickly arise?

However, on the way home, I saw the most beautiful sunset that I might have ever seen. I am convince it was painted just for me. God is good, even while limping through the store with wet pants or smoldering under a sick child.

I think our laptop officially bit the dust.

Fortunatly, we have an old desktop downstairs that we can connect with. We don't use it much, however. This is also a busy week getting ready for vacation and then of course there is vacation, so I may be offline quite a bit. Just giving a heads up.

Milestone Retracted

AJ is back in his crib. We found dozens of little splinters in his feet the other day. Marc spent a good portion of an evening with tweezers and one exceptionally patient two-year-old getting them out. We had not idea where they came from.

We then put him back into wooden 'big boy bed'. Next day - more splinters. Now, I am not sure how, but these little bity peices of wood shoved into his feet don't seem to bother him in the least. But until we can locate the rough spot and sand it down... he is back into the crib.

Andrew's new cool thing to do.

Binder Park Slideshow

Milestone Alert.

My Baby is no longer in his baby bed. My AJ is now out of the crib and in the bottom bunk under Andrew. It's a little bittersweet. Sad to think my baby isn't really a baby anymore no matter how easily "Baby AJ" rolls off the tongue. But's it's also sweet to think we will soon get that crib out of the boys room and actually have some moving space in there.

AJ is l.o.v.i.n.g. his new bed. It's "AJ Big Bed" to him and he wants nothing to do with the crib anymore. (Although he did just get his legs stuck between the bed and wall a few minutes ago and screamed to high heaven until Daddy ran to rescue him). Guess it's all part of the big boy bed learning curve.

No time for housework...

Wow - it's been a while since I posted! I am trying to think of what we have been doing? Well, last week, I had Bible Study, I was finishing up a transcription job (which I am not longer doing after much consideration) and getting the house ready for my parents to come up on Wednesday. On Thursday, we sent Marc and my Dad off for a week long fishing trip in Minnesota visiting Marc's brother and sister and their families.

So Mom has been here with us and we've been keeping busy. On Friday, we headed down to Binder Park Zoo and met up with my Aunt and Cousin and kiddos. The boys and us grown-ups, too, had a blast! I'll post pictures soon. We even got to feed giraffes!

Saturday, we took a walk/bike ride in the morning, then hit a birthday party in the park in the afternoon, then hit the Festival downtown late afternoon before coming home and practically crashing in the evening. We were beat. Several storms came through this weekend as well and my boys are at an age where they are bothered by thunder, so Saturday night was a late night riding the storms out.

We ended up not making church on Sunday. We were just exhausted and the kids actually slept in for once. Bad excuse, I know.

Yesterday, we hit the library and the grocery store in the morning before coming home for lunch and naps. We went out for dinner at Logan and ended up at the mall where I finally got a pair of jeans that fit and have no holes in them!!

This morning, we had our finally Bible Study meeting completing Beth Moore's Psalms of Ascent. Of course, we had to finish with a potluck and then we all swam a bit in our hostess' pool. The kiddos (especially AJ) was super cranky, so we didn't swim long, but still didn't get home for naps until around 2:30pm. Now Mom and the boys are napping. We might hit the Gardens this evening a bit. The weather is so nice and the "Great Lakes" are open... It could be hard to resist it.

The guys are planning on coming home late-late tonight. It will be nice to see them. I miss my Marc and I know the boys are, too.

Can we fix it?

Last Wednesday, through our reciprocal membership, we were able to go to the local Children's Museum. The boys had a great time and I had a pretty good time myself. We went a little bit later in the day and it really wasn't that crowded either.

We might be set on diapers...

Latest CVS trip. Total out of pocket = $15.42. Received in CVS Bucks for next trip = $15.00.

I don't plan on posting anymore trips even though I plan on continuing to shop CVS. I tend to get caught up in what kind of deals I can get instead of how blessed I am to have this resource available to me. I am getting proud of myself rather than given God the credit for this blessing. Posting the deals doesn't help. So this post is to tell you that rolling the CVS Bucks works - go for it, but I don't plan on posting them anymore.