The Making of a Crazy Quilt Day 1

Cast of Characters: Titus (the future quilt's owner) and an assortment of 8 different kinds of yellow, green, brown and John Deere Fabrics. Several of the pieces were inherited by the late beloved Mee Maw.

Unsure of how this quilt was going to shape up (I'm refusing to use a pattern... don't ask me why), I started by cutting a strip of each piece of fabric the width of my plastic cutter-guider thingy. Why? It seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time. And I woke up several weeks ago with this thought in mind, but couldn't find a pattern to show me how. So I improvised.

Then I laid them all out together and pondered whether or not I made good selections. The jury's still out on that one.

Then I began piecing them together in crazy quilt fasion. I started with a piece of batting that was the same width as the other fabric pieces (but as long as the quilt is going to be). Then I sewed on one piece at a time, right side down. After I made the seem I flipped it back over, ironed it in place and started on the next piece as shown above. I put the new fabric right side together with the piece sewn on (overlapping 1/4 inch) and repeated the process until I had this:

A series of randomly pieced together fabrics.

Now I have a whole strip of them and I'm not quite sure what to do next. I could repeat this proocess time and again until the quilt is finished.

Or I could do some small squares on the next strip. Then big boxes, then bigger crazy quilt scraps, then smaller ones... until I run out of ideas. That would make a truly crazy, crazy quilt!

Or I could put a big large square in the middle and applique a big ole tractor in the middle and use this for border pieces.

Or I could stare at it for the next several days contemplating what to do next. It's a likely option.

Any opinions?

Rag Curls

My friend, Brenna mentioned the other day that she had done rag curls in her daughter's hair. It inspired me to give it a try myself. Leeann's hair doesn't curl with a curling iron, but rag curls did the trick. I thought it was adorable! Or course, I think she's adorable. It's a mom thing!

My Personal Trainer

Titus has been my personal Wii Fit instructor this morning. I gave him the Wii remote and let him choose my exericises. It was good because I ended up doing a bunch of things I don't normally do. And of course, he was loving it!

I gave him the option to play with me, but he can't play until his rooms are clean, and he'd "rather just watch" for some odd reason!

Too Much Time

Can you tell by the number of blog posts lately, I have too much time on my hands these days? The funny thing about being at home with sick kids is that I finally have all the time in the world to do those things that have been needing done (like some mending, cleaning out the garage, getting the files off of our 3... yes 3... computers that are all but worthless).

Yet, all I want to do is... hmmmm, what have I been doing for almost an entire week now? I mean, besides blogging? Let's see, I've been snuggling, resting, researching (Can you call playing on facebook researching facts about the lives of people I love? And some people I don't love but I feel obligated to have as friends because they sent a request), cleaning, snuggling, playing the Wii, watching movies, cleaning up yuck, comforting patients. Yeah, see, I've done at least a few things while they've been sick!

We're down to our last day of quarantine now. So today, I will dutifully continue to avoid all the things I should be doing. Why mess with status quo?

In other news, I have a cute kid quote for you.

Titus was on the Wii and Leeann was trying to tell him to do something specific. "Leeann, you're not the boss of me. No one's the boss of me!"

Excuse me, I said, tilting my head and giving him the stink eye.

"Well, except you and daddy, you guys are the boss of me. But no kids are!"

At least he knows his place!

Check These Out!

My sister-in-law makes trendy hair accessories. Like, super, super cute ones! You should visit her etsy shop http://www.theribboncafe.etsy.com/.

More imporantly, you should buy some. No pressure, but really. Buy something cute for a cute little girl in your life! Perfect for baby showers and birthday parties. Or just because!

*Yes, this is a shameless plug. And I'm hoping to get some cute clippies as a voluntary advertising kick-back. No pressure Suzy, no pressure.*

Talk, Talk, Talk...

Titus is obviously feeling MUCH better this morning. He's now using all of the words he didn't get to used during the last 3 days of being sick. He has not stopped talking all morning. He usually babbles and talks to himself regularly throughout the day, but he's on overdrive now. It's kind of funny actually.

I feel somewhat bad ignoring him, but I'd do nothing other than hold conversations with him for the ENTIRE day if I responded to his every word! It's good to have him back to his old self. As much I don't like being woken up, I've missed his pouncing on me for good morning snuggles!

Socks

I was completely out of socks today. I thought about wearing flip flops, but it's still awfully cold. Then a thought hit me... I walked into Leeann's room, opened her sock drawer and picked up a pair. For kicks I tried them on and ta-da... they fit!

I Am Loved

My husband came home with a decaf german chocolate blended mocha from Steamers for me today. Yes, I am loved. It's a great way to brighten my day! It helped that he gave it to much just after I woke up from a nice nap. Titus and I were both up much of the night, and he said, "I know you like unscheduled, unexpected stay-at-home time, but it's still hard to be stuck at home with sick kids." He obviously read my blog today (which is funny, because sometimes he'll go weeks without reading it and can't figure out why everyone else in the world knows about something I wrote, but he doesn't. It's not my fault if he doesn't read it, right?)

Leeann asked him to get her a snack and I told him cereal was on the menu for dinner tonight. Since Titus is sick and I'm the nurse, Leeann and Rob will go to care group at Dean and Deborah's tonight instead of us having it here. So he asked, "Since you love cereal for dinner, can I use the last of the Applebees gift card to take Leeann to dinner before small group?"

So those two went off on their date and will be gone much of the evening, while Titus and I watch some more movies and enjoy being lazy!

It might be pathetic...

It might be pathetic, but I've gone back to my blog several times today just to look at it. I love it's new design!

I was up much of the night with a sick baby. Yes, I still think of him as a baby, even though he's four. I'm the mommy, it's my prerogative!

I gave him some Pedialyte this morning and he kept it down for several hours, but we've had several "it came up again" instances now. He finally just went back down for a nap.

My hands hurt from so much washing and my laundry is piled up from the heaps of towels and blankets that have been used for protecting furniture and cleaning yuck lately. Unfortunately, my washing machine is only sporadically starting (you have to slam the lid before it will start the wash and spin cycles, though it fills just fine regardless). So I keep going to change loads only to realize that it was finicky and only got part way through the cycle AGAIN. Argg!

So here we are, having another lazy day. It's 1:47 and I've done very little today. I'm strangely more than okay with that!

You Know...

You know... sometimes I think God uses sick kids in my life to slow me down. It's a guaranteed 24 hour quarantine around this place after the final illness. Sometimes I secretly enjoy having unscheduled, unapologetic 'time-off' from the out-side world.

Of course, I always feel bad for whichever young 'un isn't feeling well. But, I'm optimistic and I look to look on the bright side!

I Should Have Listened

Me: Titus, you need to clean your stuff up from the table.

Titus: Mommy, I can't or I'm going to throw up on everything.

Me: Titus, that's the most ridiculous excuse I've ever heard.

*As I was speaking the last of those words, large doses of vomit hit our living room floor (which is laminate luckily).*

Hmmm, maybe I should have listened? I did immediately apologize and then Leeann and I got to work at cleaning the floor, washing clothes and bathing Titus. Rob mysteriously disappeared!

After his bath, I asked him to sit on these cute brown leather cubes we have that the kids put their shoes in.

He was doing fine at first.

Then he got sleepy.

So pushed them together and I laid him down and realized it was actually a perfect spot. Soft and cozy, yet easy to clean!

Throughout this whole episode I was reminded again of how wonderfully helpful and compassionate Leeann is. She doesn't shy away from sickness and yuck, she flocks too it. Almost like she just can't help it. She just wants to help.

After she helped (which she truly, truly is very helpful!) she grabbed her blanket and pillow and laid down on the bottom step, just a few feet from Titus. She wanted to be near him so she could take care of him.

Rob commented that he's sure she'll go into the medical field (which we'd both put money on at this stage). I asked Leeann, "Would you like to go into the medical field?"

"Yes, I would. I'll come visit you. Or maybe you could come visit me lots. Mommy, where's the medical field?"

Face Lift

My blog got a new face lift today. One I'm pretty proud of if I do say so myself!

Too bad it has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything I was hoping to accomplish today, but that's okay.

(Really, it is. It's just fine. Mount Washmore can wait, the kids are fed, no one's crying or screaming, and I haven't neglected any appointments... that I'm aware of.)

Earthquake

Who in their right mind would stack all of this (and more... like another box and a lego house) on top of a dresser? Obviously someone who wasn't thinking.

Not thinking that is, until it falls on her! I was putting Titus's clothes away when I was impaled with sharp corners and flying lego pieces.

It's going to take a lot of work to recover from this Earthquake!

And now I should be responsible and find a new place for all of the things on Titus's dresser. I'm glad it didn't fall on one of the kids!

Real Life Dress-Up

I took a picture up in the kids bedroom today for my next post, and decided to shoot a picture of this.

This is our kids' dress-up corner. They love to play with these things, especially when friends come over. They can be a chef, a princess (we have several varieties), a frog, a chicken, a motorcycle man, an astronaut, a ballerina, Buzz Lightyear, a race car driver, a doctor, a cowboy, a bride or a builder.

Then of course they can accessorize with any number of hats, head adornments, jewelry, scarves and purses/backpacks/handbags.

It's a lot of fun when the kids take on these different personalities. Our dress-up corner is a family favorite!

Our Mii Family

Getting to create your own personal Mii character on the Wii is like the ultimate in virtual paper dolls. You can change and adjust every part of your body and ever accessory to make the closest possible replica of you. Then your Mii is the one who actually plays the various games.

My kids have been having a blast with this. Leeann's Mii is always wearing fancy hair and make up and Titus's Mii takes various twists and turns depending on the day. Yesterday's was the funniest yet. He was trying to convince Rob that it really, really, really did look just like him!

Now, I gave myself a tan because I wanted one. Titus had a similar idea yet took it to the extreme :0)

Tillamook Cheese Factory!

As we left the conference on Thursday we decided to head down the coast to make a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I used to go quite a bit as a little girl because we camped in nearby Garabaldi. Rob took me on our 6 month anniversary and I think that was the last time I was there. We decided it was high time our kids learned the fine art of cheese making. And let's be honest, I wanted some ice cream!

Rob got some coffee something and espresso something.

Titus wanted plain ole Vanilla. 38 flavors, and he wanted vanilla! We at least talked him into Vanilla Bean.

I went with German Chocolate Cake and Grandma's Cake Batter. Yummy!

Leeann wanted plain chocolate (I know, my kids are boring!) but we talked her into Udderly Chocolate (half regular, half white chocolate with chocolate chips.)

We all enjoyed watching them make the cheese. If you've never been there, it's quite entertaining!

And these are my kiddos pretending to be a cow and a farmer. They were udderly fascinated with this. Get it? Udderly... I crack myself up!

I'm glad both the kids only got jr. cones because they both came back up later. I'll leave it at that!

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

(Click on collage to make the pictures larger)

We spent Monday through Thursday of this week in Seaside at the CBNW Pastor's Enrichment Conference. We rented a beach house with Pam and Denny, and Joel and Brenna. It was great to spend time with the staff and to be encouraged by so many others who are living similar lives.

We saw old friends (including my former Youth Pastor and his wife and my former Pastor and his wife, and parents of several different college friends), and met new friends and generally enjoyed a good time.

We also got to hear from some very godly men and I was incredibly drawn to realize the need for me to live a life that includes speaking of the truth of Jesus Christ to those all around me. Only Jesus can change lives for eternity and as a believer in him I get the privilege of being used by him to share his truth and love. I also get the ability to equip others to do the same. My inclination is to reach out to people by inviting them to church (so the Pastor can tell them about Jesus). That's so backward though. God's spirit lives in me so that I don't need a Pastor to share the truth, I can do that myself. So simple, yet so profound! This paragraph doesn't do justice to God's work in my heart this weekend, but it will have to suffice for now.

One afternoon we went out to the beach to fly kites. These are kites that Mee Maw gave to our kids some time ago, but we'd never had the ability to use them until now. Leeann had a rough start getting hers off the ground, but she was eventually able to get it all the way up in the air. Titus got his up right away, but gave up on it after a short while in favor of digging in the sand.

It was actually a beautiful day for being at the Oregon Coast in March. In fact, it was beautiful almost the entire time we were there. A little cold, but not so bad! Plus, it was perfect kite-flying weather!

Wii Fit

I got up bright and early and headed out of the house well before I needed to be at church to make sure I secured a Wii Fit Plus this morning. The kids and I barrelled through the store to get it and get on our way as fast as we could. And, we were successful!

The hardest part was spending the next 4 hours at church knowing it was waiting, just waiting to be played. Though, church was wonderful today and and so much more beneficial than the Wii. Still, it's fun to have something new. It feels like Christmas around here!

Rob and I both feel such an amazing sense of relief to be done with our loans. As much as I think it's important for kids to work their way through college and really own their experience, I wouldn't wish the feeling of bondage that student loans provide on either of our children. It's now become our sincerest desire to have the ability to put our kids through college without saddling them with debt if they choose a career that requires a higher education.

Just last year I wasn't sure we'd ever make enough money to provide our children with a debt-free education (though the church takes good care of us, ministry isn't known for it's high earning potential!) Now I realize it is not about how much you make, but what you do with what you have. I know people who have a lot of money coming through their hands that are extremely broke. I know others who are thriving off of very little. It's all about choices. We're making the choice to stay out of debt, to live well below our means and to be wise with what God gives us. It's so freeing!

And now that we're debt-free maybe my mind won't be so focused on financial things and my blog will return to it's regular scheduled programing. Though I feel a bit like I'm running out of comedic material since our kids are out of the cute baby/toddler stage. Hmmm, what should I post about next?

Wii'RE DEBT FREE!!!!

As soon as we finished paying off my loans and I finished blogging about it we set out to make our first major post-debt purchase. A Wii! We've been wanting one for a while, but we've intentionally put it off until we were out of debt.

First we went to Target in Albany. No Wii. Then we went to Game Stop. No Wii. In fact, they told us they have a waiting list more than a month long and pretty much everyone's out of them.

What? I almost panicked. We've been waiting 14 months and waded through $25K to get the Wii (well, not just to get the Wii, but you get the picture). Someone has to have one. So we went back to Target and asked them if there were any stores in a 50 mile radius that had one. There were a couple of stores 40 minutes in any direction that had one, so we at least knew there was hope.

I stopped by Fred Meyer here in town, but they were out too and assurred me that all of their stores are out. For good measure I called a couple of stores closer to us (thanks Suzy for being my personal operator), hoping not to have to set out on a 40 minute drive. Wal-Mart-Out. Toys R Us-Out. Best Buy-Out. They're all out of the Wii Fit balance board too (the one thing I really want).

So, we headed up to Keizer and I called them when we were on our way. They agreed to hold the last one for me. I felt like we were on a wild-goose chase! But, lo and behold, we came home with a Wii! A Wii! We have a Wii!

We had our friends, Dean and Deborah and their kiddos over. If we were nice we would have let the kids play, but we aren't and we didn't. We played golf and bowling and the boys played baseball. It was a lot of fun! After our company left we did play a family game of bowling.

My next wild-goose chase will include an early morning trip to Target this Sunday. They're supposed to have balance boards in and you better bet I'm going to be there bright and early!

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Me. Making my FINAL student loan payment... and our last ever debt payment outside of our house.
You should feel the mood in this house right now. WE'RE DEBT FREE! Our kids are just as excited as we are! Okay, almost as excited!

Rob, preparing the accounts to make our last payment. Right now Rob is throwing Titus in the air screaming "WE'RE DEBT FREE!"

Did I mention, "WE'RE DEBT FREE!"


Our Debt Free Story:

In early 2009 we began learning about the basic Dave Ramsey baby steps. The steps made a lot of sense to us, but we didn't have a lot of wiggle room in our budget. Our first calculations last Winter indicated we would be out of debt sometime in 2013.

Then the gazelle-like intensity began. We socked $1,000 in our emergency fund (baby step 1). Then with our tax returns from last year we knocked out a couple of our smaller medical debts and started our first extra payments on Rob's student loans (baby step 2). We put the payments we were paying toward the medical debts and any extra money we could scrape up into his loans each month too.

In September we paid off his loans and rolled ALL of that money into my student loans. We re-worked our budget to scrape out more money to add to our snowball each month. We sold more stuff and added that too. We didn't buy anything we didn't need and we stuck to our budget like glue.

 When Rob got a raise this year along with his new job, we just pretended he didn't get one and socked all that money into my loans also. We sold some more stuff, got a tax return, made a final payment on my loans as soon as that money landed in our account and viola, we've paid off $25,000 in 14 months. WE'RE DEBT FREE!

Surprise!

This is the scene that greeted me as my family finally came down from completing their sneaky mission upstairs.

Titus gave me his Curious George, Leeann gave me her Ballerina Bear and Rob gave me some Steamers gift cards. Yummy!

What can I say? I am a blessed woman!

Sly Guy

Titus just ran downstairs and said in a sly little voice, "Mommy, we are doing NOTHING." Then bolted back upstairs. Should I be expecting a Birthday surprise soon? :0)

28

Today I am 28. That means I'm in my late 20's. I still feel 22. Sometimes I think I'm always going to feel 22. You know, somewhere between a college kid and a grown up?

I'm hanging out at my friend, Eroica's house today. I got on the Wii Fit this morning and it told me Happy Birthday and greeted me with my lowest weight yet, 6+ pounds below my starting weight 7 weeks ago. Yippie! It also told me my Wii Fit age is 24. I think it was sucking up to me because it's my Birthday!

I've been telling myself all week that I refuse to do housework today. I usually spend my Tuesday's doing housework to get ready for small group. But, not today! In fact, I dragged Rob into the kitchen with me late last night after I baked a cake-ish dish for small group (a whole night ahead of time, which is far better than an hour ahead of time which is what I usually do) and politely asked him to help me get done whatever he wanted done before small group because I'm NOT cleaning on my Birthday. Either that, or we could leave it and he could do the 4 o'clock panic tomorrow (which is today). He opted to help last night. And since my house is currently clean I figured I better not step foot in it today lest it get messy to the point that I'm forced to clean on my Birthday. I refuse. Is that ridiculous? Ah, shucks, who cares, it's my Birthday!

Baby's Gone

Smith got to meet his new mommy today. Our morning started out early, feeding and bathing baby, and gathering his things to send along to his new home. After Leeann went to school I got to meet his mommy and his case worker and before too long they were off. Just like that, he came and went. He was here for two weeks which seemed so long and so short all at the same time! I sure am going to miss those cute chubby little cheeks!

Baby Smith

First things first, I just got peed on. Seriously... peed on! I wasn't speedy enough in getting the new diaper on before he let loose. Lucky me though, it only caught the cuff of my pants!

Secondly, Smith gets to go home on Monday! I'm so excited for him. For a while it looked like it might be shaping up to potentially be a couple of months. His cute little toes will be feeling the warm Hawiian sand in less than a week. Lucky boy!

Walking Zombie

When I set out on the adventure of taking care of baby Smith I wondered how long it would take me to be totally delirious from sleep deprivation.

Answer: 1 week.

When you find yourself trying to negotiate with a one month old for a few more minutes of sleep and when you find yourself whining like a small child, pleading, begging, and trying to reason with him in the middle of the night... you know you've gone over the edge!

Honestly, I'm tired. I miss Mee Maw. She'd come take the middle of the night shift for a night or two if she could. Oh, I wish she could.

Really, I'm okay. I'll survive this state of sleep deprivation just like billions of others have before me. I just may walk around like a walking zombie for a while before my body readjusts to this madness.

Still, somehow once I finally peel myself out of bed, pick up that little guy, make him a bottle and start loving on him, the irritations of middle of the night feedings don't seem so bad after all. He needs someone to get up with him in those wee hours, and that's what I'm here for. I can't really blame the boy for wanting to eat-- someones got to help him keep those beautiful cheeks chubby! :0)

Dreams vs. Reality

First, if things are terribly misspelled in this post, I do apologize, I don't have my glasses on... it's early in the morning around here, 3:38 am. When Smith wakes up to eat anytime after 3:30 or so he just wants to stay awake. Unfortunately, he's quite noisy. He's not crying, he just makes a lot of baby noises so I can't put him back to bed until he conks out a little... for Rob's sake, his bassinet is at the foot of our bed. I'd read something on the net, but again, I don't have my glasses and I'm blind as a dingbat, so I'll write to you instead!

So, let me tell you about my crazy dream. I was in the middle of this dream and about to pinch myself when Smith started crying... I guess that was meant to be my wake-up call!

This was a crazy vivid dream. Rob and I pulled into a parking spot backward in a space at the back of our church's parking lot. The kids were in the back and I'm not sure why we were just sitting there, but we were. A car pulled up next to us (pulled in backwards as well) and this guy with his head facing forward the whole time stuck his hand out the window and handed us an envelope... then drove away.

Like any curious person would do I opened the envelope. It was actually two envelopes, and it was quite heavy and oddly shaped.

The first envelope contained a plastic baggy full of random change and dollar bills. It was taped to a second envelope that contained a $50 bill, a $1 dollar bill then a thick stack of Target gift cards each with $1 taped to them (I'm pretty sure the sum total of the money and gift cards was enough to buy my Wii and Wii Fit Plus with the balance board. I didn't have time to check the balances, but hey, it's my dream!). There were also stacks of random paper that appeared to be receipts of some sort? Again, since it's my dream and I didn't have time to finish it, I'm going to assume they were concert tickets for the upcoming Reba McIntire/George Strait concert :0)
To top it off he slid in a Netflix DVD

It was crazy how vivid the construction and contents of the envelopes were. And, I can practically smell my surroundings at the time.

(insert 25 minute break)

That was my beautiful dream, but my stark reality is that I was just spit up on by a baby who owns the cutest chubby cheeks. He's spent the last 20 minutes screaming (which is abnormal for him).After a few minutes I decided to see if he needed to burp some more and he spit up all down the inside of my shirt which takes some skill seeing that I'm wearing a high-necked t-shirt!

After some more fussing I decided to make him more formula even though he'd already eaten more than normal. I attempted this one handed so I could try to calm the screaming baby hoping the rest of my household might remain asleep. One handed formula making should be an Olympic event! After bemoaning the fact that the formula can I opened just a few days ago is almost gone already (seriously, it costs far less to feed my 2 kids than to formula feed a baby!), I finally managed to assemble the bottle. I repositioned baby up higher on my shoulder so I could have a good grip on him while I shook the bottle. Unfortunately he then proceeded to spit up on AGAIN, only this time, just over the top of the burp rag that covered most of my shirt and shoulder.

To top it all of, he only drank .5 oz more!

So, now my shoulder is wet and icky and he cried another 1/2 hour or so. I'm deliriously tired after being up for 2 full hours now (especially since we went to bed late, the movie we watched was WAY longer than we thought it would be!). It's okay though, he appears to finally have conked out, and I can sneak and hour and a half of sleep before I have to get Leeann up and ready for school. I need to go change my shirt. At least I get a good blog post out of the deal! This post reminds me of a song. Lucky you, you don't have to listen to me sing it like Smith does... "Back to life, back to reality... (Hmmm, hm, hum, hm, hm, huhuhuhum...)"

Lazy Afternoon

Rob's at work, the kids are napping and I'm enjoying the quiet. Well, it's not exactly quiet because baby Smith is a loud sleeper, and he's hanging out next to me. Still though, the sounds a sleeping baby make are rather precious!

Smith has been sleeping through the night much better, and his 1+ hour feedings are taking far less time now. He seems to be a lot more alert and responsive then he was at first. Most nights I'm only up with him once, smack dab in the wee morning hours, then up again early morning. Well, early to me means before 8!

I'm getting used to multi-tasking once again, though I still need to figure out how not to neglect my household chores for the baby, nor to neglect the baby for the household chores. It's a delicate balance we mommy's have to walk!

I have blisters on my palms, and my arms are ridiculously sore from carrying around this 12 pound bundle of joy. Seriously, it was all I could do to lift my lunch to my mouth today!

We survived the millions of questions at church today. It's amazing how people flock to babies! Our really good friends also came to church with their new foster baby today so it was an especially fun baby day!

We would like to ask for your prayers for baby Smith. He has a family that loves him and can't wait to hold him and meet him and love on and care for him, but there's a lot of confusion and red-tape that's preventing him from getting to his new family in a timely manner. Pray that the powers that be can figure out how to sort through his complex situation to get him home to his family. We're happy to love on and care for him, but let's face it, there's no place like home!

More Baby Stuff

My life has been consumed with Baby since Tuesday. I'm constantly amazed that we're responsible to care for and love on this little guy until he can get home to his new family. His case is a bit complicated, as he has a family including his biological siblings that can't wait to love on him, but they're out of state and can't have him until all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. And, that's a complicated processes in this case especially.

So, in the meantime we're loving, kissing, hugging and caring for him until his family can have the honors. It's so crazy that for some strange reason God decided to include us in the process of caring for him for a short while. I'm purposefully trying really hard to strengthen a bond between he and I. It's so important for babies to develop bonds early in life, even if it isn't with their permanent family. It provides the foundation they need to create bonds later in life which is vitally important for their development.

I've read a bit about bonding, attachment and adoption in preparation for what we had once hoped would be our older adopted child. Now that I know what I know about the process it's crazy to actually feel it happening. The first night we had him I dutifully cared for him because he needed care, though I didn't have particularly warm fuzzy feelings, due to the fact I had just met him. After some really long feeding/bonding sessions I've gone from dutifully caring for him to absolutely loving on him in just a few short days. Now I just want to snuggle those cute little chubby cheeks. I'm really enjoying having him around, he's such a sweet little boy!

Backwards Baby

Baby really is a terrific baby. He doesn't fuss much and is more or less happy unless he's hungry. He does have his days and nights mixed up though. I tried often to wake him up yesterday since he was up virtually ALL NIGHT the night before, but he really didn't want to. Finally, he stayed awake for almost an hour just before bed time. That was beautiful because he didn't wake up until 2:30. Then he was up until 4:30, but slept in until 7:14, just one minute before my alarm went off. Beautiful! Well, not the 2 hours I spent awake in the middle of the night, but beautiful in that it was only once!

Even the 2 hours weren't so bad. I spent a lot of time snuggling him last night remembering my kiddos as little ones. The smell of teeny baby diapers (the clean ones of course) is something that takes me back in an instant. The soft skin, the chubby cheeks. Ah, it's good to enjoy the baby stage again... just for a little while.

Leeann and Titus are being BIG helpers. They really like having Baby around, and spend a lot of time just looking at him. Leeann has actually been a huge help because she's been taking turns holding the bottle during his feedings. He takes more than an hour to eat, which as you can imagine takes a good chunk out of our day. She's extremely happy to hold the bottle and talk to him as he eats though. She pulls out the bottle and checks to see if it's gone down an ounce. Each time it goes down an ounce she calls me over, "It's time for him to burp mommy." I'm telling you, this girl is going to be a great mommy someday.

Titus has enjoyed getting whatever I need for him and likes to 'keep an eye' on him when he's in his swing or bassinet. By that, I mean stare at him and then yell in a panic when he moves or makes a noise!

Well, that's all the updating I'm able to do for now. I've got dinner company tonight and two people coming over to look at two beds we have for sale this afternoon. That would be another $265 toward the debt snowball. Now if we could just get some lookers on the Condo. Freedom, here we come!

I also have two fantastic high school girls who are coming over during their free period today to love on the baby. I'm going to take advantage of the baby love and get some stuff done for tonight. Thanks for checking in!

Baby

We have a baby. Well, for a short time anyway. I'm not at liberty to post much in the way of details, but we are currently fostering a 3 week old baby boy. Within a couple of hours of a getting a phone call from a friend who is a friend of someone who works at an adoption agency, we are caring for a very small, very precious little life.

We'll likely have him around a week or so, but every case is unique and we're not quite sure what this one will hold. Other than knowing that it is definitely temporary. So there you have it. We're embarking on another adventure in parenthood. This one involves sleepless nights. I can handle sleepless nights when it's due to a cute little (temporary) baby.

Here's to seeing how long it takes us to figure all this baby stuff out again!

Lips!

We got a Valentine's Day package in the mail today from Great Grandma M (Leeann's birth mom's grandma who lives in Texas). She sends the most fun items in the mail just in time for most major holidays, and sometimes just because! Well, today's box was full of splendid Valentine's fun. Like these sucker lips! The lips are attached to a sucker, so you look super cute and kissable as you're enjoying your sucker. Or you look miserable as your older sister attacks you with her big giant lips as mom is taking a picture to post on the internet for all the world to see... that's the other option!

How can you put a title on this?

Two days in a row, this is what I walked into after I told Titus to get dressed in the clothes I set out for him. What a funny kid!

Almost Late is Perfect Timing

I got out the door a few minutes early today. This doesn't happen very often, because I usually have somewhere else I need to go, which means I need to be ready myself. Today though, I didn't need to be anywhere else, so I didn't bother getting myself ready--hence being out earlier than normal.

I don't think I'll make that mistake again!

I think I just about ran over 6 kids, 4 parents and a school bus. Things are crazy around a school when you are arriving at the same exact time as 380+ other kids (okay, that's obviously an exaggeration... some were already there, and some were yet to come, but you get the picture!).

As I've said before we live very near the school. The back road out of our condo complex is the same road the school is on. It is a windy road though, so there are kids and parents darting out from behind all the cars lined up on the street. And, because cars are lined up on the street and it is a windy road, you really can't pass other cars easily as they're coming in the opposite direction. You literally have to pull all the way over to avoid getting crushed by the school buses as they pull away.

Then the drop off section is not nearly big enough to handle all the parents dropping their kids off at the same time. And if you pull in but can't park, you have to pull out, try to aviod hitting 6 other children in the meantime, and try again. Arg. You do this enough times and your kid is late anyway, regardless of whether or not you actually pulled in 10 minutes before the bell rang!

These are all problems I don't usually have, because I'm almost late, which is perfect timing. Yes, I think I'll stick with my almost late status. It's better for my blood pressure and anxiety levels! Besides, I think it's cute when Titus starts yelling at Leeann when we pull in front of the school. Almost daily he says, "Leeann, hurry up, unbuckle, run, you're gonna be late!" Hmm, I wonder where he would come up with such a phrase?

One Bad Secret Keeper

Today I had made arrangements to pick up a friend of Leeann's after we picked her up from school. We have lots of friends over when we're swapping childcare, but this was going to be a real 'play-date'. Just because!

Well, I wanted to keep it a secret, but Titus already knew what the plan was, so I told him to make sure he keeps it a secret. So, the first thing out of his mouth once Leeann got in the car was, "Sarah Varner is NOT coming over to our house today!"

Apparently he has a thing or two to learn about secret keeping!

I'm waiting for some water to boil for some good ole mac n' cheese, and Titus is being Godzilla in the midst of their dress-up princess party. It's rough being the little brother!

Funny Boy

Is it awful when your 4 year-old son sees you cleaning and inquistively asks, "Mommy, is it small group night?" As if that's the only time I clean! Come to think of it though...

Legoland

I'm currently dreaming of Legoland. www.legoland.com. Yes, I do believe it is in my future! Well, at some point anyway...

I'm so irritated with myself!

Once upon a time, about 21 months ago, we bought a condo. This condo had been foreclosed on and was more or less a wreck. We thought "Hey, we're young, and we might as well!", so we tried our hands at some handy work. We ripped out the entire bathroom and remodeled it. We painted every wall in the house. We put in new carpet, re-did a chunk of ceiling, took down some pop-corn ceiling, peeled, sanded and painted the kitchen cabinets, painted the stair rail, replaced light fixtures and door knobs, and did various other handy, dandy type tasks. All in all, I'm really proud of us. I'm especially proud of my husband!

Well, with all that being said, there's one thing that's REALLY bothered my since the day we moved in. My kitchen sink. It has always had these nasty paint and stuck on water spots and streaks. It's finish has been dull and smattered with ickiness. Honestly, I've always been embarrassed any time anyone was in my kitchen, and I've been frustrated every time I've looked at my sink. EVERY TIME!

And now, I (gulp) show it to you, for the whole world to see what I've put up with for 21 months!

The only thing I took solice in is the fact that I knew I've cleaned it and scrubbed it (a lot, with various products, the stuff just doesn't come off) and that it was sanitary. It might be nasty looking, but it was at least clean.

Well today I decided to look up how fly lady shines her sink. http://www.flylady.net/pages/FLYingLessons_Shine.asp I remember from years back when I was learning her principles that the first thing she tells you to do is shine your sink. It's all the more reason I've been frustrated for 21 months... fly lady says do this first! She is really big on this sink shining business!

So, after soaking my sink in bleach water for more than an hour, scouring it with a scratchy pad, scrubbing it with baking soda, shining it with Windex and polishing it with lemon juice... here you have it!






The right side is a before picture and the left side is after. Some imrovement huh?














In case you need a close up of the nastiness I'm talking about.







My new and improved, not perfect, but shiny sink!


Why, oh why, oh why did it take me 21 months to turn from the error of my ways and look you up again fly lady? You are my hero!

Pretend

The kids are playing in my office right now. They're playing with little people and a kitchen set. Leeann started doing the potty dance and then told Titus, "Don't play with my girls while I'm gone", then she headed off to the bathroom. She came back a few seconds later and said, "Titus, just pretend they are statues and the bad guys can't see them okay?" "Okay!" Titus obediently and gleefully exclaimed. He got bored watching the statues and quickly moved onto something else in her absence. It cracks me up that they 'obey' each other so well when they are playing make-believe. There's no end to what one of the kids will tell the other one to do, say or play that they just follow along with. I miss being a kid!

Today

Today I'm enjoying some 'quiet'. Bob the Builder (in Spanish no-less... Titus wanted it that way!) is blaring in the background, Leeann is at school, Rob is at work and I'm pondering life. I ought to be showering, but I'm lost in my thoughts... so I'll share some with you.

I'm thinking about Sanctity of Life week, and I'm grateful every time I look at my daughter that though she was barely 14 when she found out she was pregnant, her birth mom chose life. It would have been so easy for her to 'fix' her mistake and pretend that it never happened. God doesn't make mistakes, and for that I am so grateful. Leeann is a beautiful, thoughtful, sweet, sweet, sweet little girl. This world is a brighter, better place because she's a part of it. I'm so, very, very grateful that Kyndall chose life for Leeann.

I am proud of Kyndall. It's so awesome to watch her turn into a beautiful young woman who is now serving her country in the Air Force. We are enjoying the fact that she is home for a week and a half before she takes her orders. We're also grateful that her orders keep her close to home. She'll be stationed in Washington, so we'll still get to see her fairly often.

I'm also thinking about Financial Peace University. Our small group finished our course last week and had a party to celebrate last night. It's been so awesome to be a part of something so... freeing! We're seeing light in our financial life like we've never seen before. And we see hope for our financial future like we've never seen before. The best part? So many others are feeling that freedom too, one baby-step at a time!

Speaking of small group, the two desserts I ate at our small group party last night made me feel sick. They were both small helpings, but more than I could handle. It means I'm on the right track, because that amount of sweets normally wouldn't have effected me. The Biggest Loser, NACC style has been going well. I still didn't get weigh in's from 7 people, but without those weigh in's for this week the 30 of us have lost 125 pounds total in 3 weeks! I've lost 5 of those, which is pretty stinking cool if you ask me. It was far more than I would have hoped to have lost in 3 weeks, but I'll take it. My goal is to slowly head in the right direction week by week.

I gave Rob the gift of a half-marathon for Christmas year. He's been diligently training since just after Christmas and he's doing well. He's worked up to 6.6 miles. I'm proud of him!

In other news, we've put our condo back on the market once again. This time we're going to stick with the for sale by owner gig and see how long it takes. It would be beautiful beyond belief if we were able to sell this in the near future. So now, I'm slowly working through my perpetual to-do list in regards to the house. Keeping my house in show worthy condition is not something I'm great at. But, I'll do my best! Starting tomorrow of course...

I am having my staff review today at work. That should be fun! Really, I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to sit down with Rob and Denny and get some clarification on how things will work in regards to my job now that Rob is the Lead Pastor.

I am writing on my new Toshiba, that I love (so far anyway)! I'm grateful for my new computer.

I don't want to get too far into this (because debating politics isn't on my list of fun things to do) but I'm thinking about it since the facebook world is going crazy over the passing of two measures that increase taxes for businesses and the wealthy. It's to fund 'education' of course. All I have to say is this. I hate hearing around every corner that if we don't do __________, we won't have proper funding for education. Dear Oregon budget makers: In my house, when something is a priority to me, it goes to the top of my budget list and gets funded first. The less important things fall to the bottom and get cut when times are tough. If education really is important to you, fund it first. Period. Stop trying to play on tax payers fears by threatening to cut education if we don't pay up more. And for that matter, budget makers, you really should go through Financial Peace University. You could learn a thing or two!

In other news, I'm burdened about the hurt lives, unemployed people and failing marriages that are all around me. Then there's Haiti. These situations are all particularly difficult because I can't do anything about them. It's so tempting to ignore them because there really is so little I can do. Yet, my heart hurts for the people affected in these situations. So I pray.

I know that we serve a good, gracious, loving God who cares for us more than we could imagine. I know he works all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. In time we see his hand at work, but in the midst of trials and tribulations those facts are difficult to see clearly. Nevertheless, God is so good!

And these are my thoughts for today. Now, now I must shower, and get back on track. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts... whoever you are!

Convergence and a New Job!

*I have no idea why blogger is formating my posts the way they are these days. I've tried to fix the crazy formatting, but it does it's own thing regardless of what I want, or how badly I want to fix it. Sorry!*

For the last three years Rob has been participating in a Pastoral Training program through Conservative Baptist Northwest, called Convergence.

Seven times a year he spent time prior to class reading books and doing other things to prepare for his class. He would leave early Thursday morning and spend all day Thursday, all day Friday, and part of Saturday participating in a class, or weekend intensive.

I never really blogged about it, because there was something about telling the world that my husband was regularly gone for days at a time that seemed irresponsible. Nevertheless, it's been a large part of our lives. We always missed him terribly while he was gone, but we learned to make the most of it. Titus and Leeann got to sleep in my bed while he was gone and that was something we all looked forward too. Many weeks Rob also came home with a present for the kids (and sometimes for me too!).

Secretly (or not so secretly), I'm grateful that he was able to have meaningful Pastoral training outside of seminary. I do not now, nor have ever had the desire to be a seminary widow. God bless the men who go, and the women who support them, but I'm glad it wasn't us... especially at this stage in our lives. Those who go to seminary typically spend a TON of time studying over the course of several years, and attend class regularly on top of it. And in our case it would have had to have been while our kids were very young and Rob was working full-time. That would have meant over the last 3 years any 'time off' Rob would have had would have been wrapped up in studying and travelling to class in Portland at least

once a week. By doing Convergence he still studied and took classes, but they were one at a time and all of the class work was covered in a long weekend. As hard as it was to have him away for those 3 days at a time I was always grateful that it was only a long weekend.

When he started this adventure in 2006 Titus had just turned 1 year-old and Suzy and the boys had just moved in with us for what ended up being 8 months. During his third year we had my siblings Hope and Logan living with us for 6 months too. I can't imagine having had the opportunity to do either of these things if Rob had been in seminary.

It's crazy to think of all of the life changes we've endured since the beginning of his training. Time flies!

The first week of January Pastor Denny and Pam, Rob and I attended Rob's graduation from Convergence. Three years of training culminated in a delightful dinner and fun night of encouragement and reminiscing.

Pictured above are Rob and I with Pastor Denny and his wife, Pam. Rob and Denny. Rob and me. And, Rob with his fellow graduates showing off their new swords. Yup, you read that right. They don't get diplomas to hang on the wall to remind them of what they have accomplished, but the get swords to hang on their walls to remind them what they are in the midst of. Kind of cool, huh? It's actually a real, heavy, genuine sword!

On another note, I've been very negligent not to have written about the fact that my husband has a new job! One month ago today, the church voted to go through with the transition and officially hire Rob as the Lead Pastor of North Albany Community Church. So, as of January 1st, Rob became the Lead Pastor and Denny moved into the position of Associate Pastor. Pastor Denny is an amazingly humble, godly man. He has spent 8 years building into and training my husband as a Pastor. Only a humble, godly man would step back and submit to the leadership of the man he has trained. He is nearing retirement age and has excitedly decided to spend the last few years on the job focusing on doing what he loves and what he's good at, while he continues to support and mentor Rob as he takes the lead.

So, now we embark on a new adventure. My husband is a Lead Pastor, and I am a Lead Pastor's wife! Yup. Who'd a thunk? A new journey and new excitements and challenges await us as Rob has taken on a new role. I'm excited for what's to come. It's fun to see my husband step up and take charge in ways he hasn't been able to before.

We've been here almost 8 years now. We feel very blessed to be continuing to work in the same congregation that we started in. The typical life-span of a first time Pastor is 2 years. It's not uncommon for a man to change congregations frequently. To be in the same place for 8 years is not heard of very often. To move from a Youth Pastor, to an Associate Pastor, to the Lead Pastor in the same church is even more rare.

Hopefully God will keep us here for quite some time. We love Albany, we love our church and we love the people. We would love to be able to raise our kids here. We'll see what God has in store, but I'm hopeful that it includes ministering to the people of NACC for years to come.

For Aunt Suzy

Aunt Suzy, this one's for you... Hannah Montana style!

For the rest of you that we love, we will create more videos in the future. We're now taking requests and dedications.

For Grandpa and Grandma Buhl

Does anyone smarter than me know why the sound is delayed by a few seconds?

For Chuck and Shelly

If this works out we're mastering the art of capturing video and putting it on the blog. This is going to take my blog to a whole new level of excitement!

Skype--Family Fun For Everyone!

My kiddos are LOVING the Skype. Two nights in a row we've gotten to talk to my Aunt Pam and Uncle Steve via Skype. They love to have meaningful conversations. I.E. "Look at me, watch this, can you see this?" as they shove things in front of the camera. It's cute, they love to watch themselves on the webcam.

Someday I'm going to figure out how to let them take some video that they can post here. But for now, we'll enjoy our adventures in Skyping. The world sure has changed a lot since I was my kids' age. The only phones we had were attached to the wall by a cord. We had to look phone numbers up in the phone book. My kids don't even know what a phone book is! And because there wasn't caller ID we frequently called random numbers and used lines such as, "Is your refrigerator running?" Ah, good times--Yes, I was a rebel!

But Mom...

Earlier today the kids and I didn't get to go where we had originally set out to go because I forgot that some places aren't open on holidays. I was explaining to the kids why our plans had changed and in the midst of this I was asked a routine kid-question.

"What's a holiday mom?"

Surprised by my own difficulty in answering a seemingly simple questions I replied, "Well, a holiday is a time that we remember or celebrate something. Christmas is where we celebrate Christ's birth. The 4th of July is when we celebrate our freedom..."

"But mom," Leeann chimed in concerned from the backseat, "We're not debt free yet!"

Skype

I'm getting ready to Skype for the first time! Look at me, I feel all grown up with my big girl computer that's fast enough to do two things at once and that comes with a webcam. Let's just see if I can make it work now...

Toshiba!

I'm coming to you live from my NEW Toshiba Satellite! Boy, oh boy, am I excited! Yippeee!

The Streak Ends

Today marked the first of many yet to come. Leeann was tardy. Yup. You'd think I might be frustrated with myself, but truly, I'm so excited the streak has lasted this long. 70-some days of school have come and gone... and she just now got her first tardy slip! For me, this is a huge accomplishment!

The funny thing is, I was helping at her school today. Many Fridays I help make cookies for cookie day. So, we ran in together and stopped by the office. They told us to keep going, that we might make it. Just as we were hanging Leeann's coat up outside of her classroom though, the bell ring and we got called back for a slip. Bummer. So close!

In other news, Leeann had left her coat at Eroica's yesterday. And, we were obviously running late this morning. So, instead of going upstairs to find another jacket that would work for her, I just gave her my jean jacket to wear. Not only did it fit nicely, it really brought her outfit together today! The sleeves were a little long granted, but it fit pretty stinkin well considering she's in Kindergarten and I'm 27.

Her feet are really close to being as big as mine too. I'm really excited for the day we can wear the same shoes because her Great Grandma M sends her some of the CUTEST shoes. The time will come soon enough... soon enough...

The Updated Debt Snowball

As I've said before, it's quite awkward to blog about our personal finances. However, we are so excited about what God is doing in that realm of our lives that we can't help but want to share and perhaps, inspire some of you! We have been following Dave Ramsey's 7 steps to financial peace for one full year now. In January of 2009 we had approximately $24,799 in debt.

As of January 1st of 2010 we have $8,676.81 left to pay on my student loans! We have paid off an ambulance bill and Rob's student loans.

That means that in one year we have paid off around $16,123 in debt. Even writing that down it seems impossible. That is an extremely significant chunk of our income. We have a very average income and a very average lifestyle.

How did we do it? Well, by the grace and provision of God, first of all. In addition, we are living cheaper than we have in previous years since we are currently in the condo instead of the house. We sold stuff. We haven't bought anything that wasn't a necessity (except for our trip to Disneyland which was a near fully-funded trip prior to 2009 when we started the 7 steps). We received some money each month that our foster kids were in our care and at the end of each month we took every penny that wasn't spent on their expenses and added it to the snowball too. We used our tax returns for debt instead of fun (like I'm usually tempted to do). We cut our budget as much as we could. We focused our budget. We stopped trying to save money or to invest money and stuck every penny we could muster into our debt snowball. We stuck every penny we got in gifts or bonus's into it too. We began to practice the principle "Every dollar has a name before the month begins". We told our money where to go, it didn't mysteriously disappear. We measured every purchase against the statement, "What do I want more _________ or to be debt free?" The answer was almost always that we wanted to be debt free. It's amazing how many things I didn't buy in 2009 that I normally would have because of that comparison! We didn't pay any credit card fees or late charges because we cut up our credit cards. We adjusted our life in many ways to focus all of our financial effort on one goal: GETTING OUT OF DEBT.

Every time we paid off a debt, or squeezed out some extra money it went right into our snowball. Just as snowballs get bigger when they go down hill and pick up more snow, the amount of money we were putting toward our debt snowball grew and grew and grew each month. Before we knew it we rolled our way out from underneath of our ambulance bill, then Rob's student loans. Now, all of the money we were paying on each of those things is going to pay off my student loans. Next week we will be adding in our raises which will help our snowball grow even faster.

We are $8,676.71 from being in debt for the last time (well, except our house... but there will come a time that we attack that with a vengeance too!). I am $8,676.71 from being enslaved to monthly payments that provide me with nothing but past experiences that have already come and gone. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly grateful for our educations, but I look forward with great anticipation to a day when half of my income doesn't go toward the payments for it.

And that my friends, is how two average people managed to be $16,000 closer to the freedom that being debt-free provides in just one year! I hope you consider 2010 as the year that you will begin the baby steps on the road to financial peace. See www.daveramsey.com for more information and inspiration. He doesn't sell anything or offer any magic cures. He simply walks you through the necessary steps of taking control of your finances one small little baby step at a time. Good luck!

Snuggle Sneaker!

By the time we got home from being out and about today Titus had fallen asleep in his car seat. I lugged him in and walked inside to find Leeann sitting on the couch with a blanket in hand and her arms outstretched.

Her little eyes seemed to be begging me to let her hold him like a little baby. And so I did. I placed his head on the arm of the couch and she cradled his body, making sure he was snuggly wrapped and comfortable.

I put on a movie for her and she spent the next 45 minutes sneaking cuddles and snuggles from her little brother.

He's a snuggler too, so I'm sure it wasn't too painful for him to enjoy her 'mothering'. I'm going to guess he might have been annoyed by her constant kisses (as he is when I kiss him at night time when I check on him), but as always, he managed to sleep right through the kisses.

We are a kissy, lovey, snuggly household. My kids have no idea the average siblings their age squabble and bicker at each other all day. And that's just the way I like it!

It's not uncommon for me to walk in the room and see them snuggled up together in a blanket on the floor watching a movie. Or sitting really close together on the couch. They love each other. I hope in some subtle ways that they are best friends forever!

Laptop

We have decided that we will replace my laptop. It's a bitter-sweet decision for us.

Bitter because we will have to interrupt our debt snowball to purchase it and I want to be finished with my student loans in a desperate way!

Sweet because my computer has had nothing but problems from day 1 and I will be grateful to have something more reliable and of higher quality.

My limited internet/computer access as of late has really complicated my world. I didn't realize quite how much I rely on the computer until it was no longer at my disposal. There's so much about the world that I can't figure out without it. Like how to cook chicken legs. Or what kind of new lap top to buy.

I've also been unable to blog. I have so much catching up to do! Rob went to bed without me tonight so there's a good chance I'm going to be up way too late trying to catch up on all the things I haven't been able to do on the computer lately. I'm expecting a number of blog posts will appear shortly!

This is what I'm looking for in a computer, any suggestions?

I have $500 to spend, not a penny more. I want a 15 inch (or so) screen. I don't like Dell or Vista. I'm not overly concerned about the storage space because we have an external hard drive and I'm just now running out of room on this computer and it's 3 years old. I think it's only like 80GB. Of course, I'd like the most bang for my buck though. I'd like a webcam, though it's not necessary, and I wouldn't mind something with decent battery life. I'm not inclined to refurbished unless it comes with a super warranty. I'm not inclined toward a mac (and they're not available in this price-range anyway).

I watch videos, create publisher documents, blog, facebook, and store pictures... and that's about it. Any recommendations?

I will not covet...

I will not covet my neighbor's Wii, I will not covet my neighbor's Wii...

I've spent a little too much time over the last couple of days playing Eroica's Wii Fit. And boy, am I SORE!

I really, really, really, really want a Wii. We've decided that will have to wait until my student loans are paid off. All the more reason to attack them with a vengeance! Rob is second guessing getting a Wii a little bit though. He thinks they might be too addicting. I think he might be onto something. But it's a healthy addiction, right?

I am particularly fond of the Wii Fit games. Who knew exercise could be so much fun?

Speaking of, there are 23 people from our church who have joined the Biggest Loser Challenge. So, from now until May I'm making an extra concentrated effort to be active. I need to make better food choices, granted, but my main need is the need to exercise. I've never had a deep love for exercise.

I do recognize that I can no longer use the fact that I have 'baby weight' as an excuse since my son is 4. I also recognize that wishful thinking has yet to do anything to help me shed these unwanted pounds. So, here's to a weight loss challenge! If I do well, I'll let you know how it goes!