Happy Birthday!

Today is Rob's Birthday--34!

I've gotta say, I absolutely love this man! It's like each year just gets better and better.

Happy Birthday Rob, I love you more than you can imagine!

Harvest Party

(Click on the collage to make it bigger)

A few weekends ago we went to a Harvest Party with some families from NACC. It was a lot of fun and we got to do some cool things like play in a hay maze, have rubber ducky races, swim in a box of corn and shoot potatoes and corn cobs out of cannons. Oh, and we got pumpkins too. Leeann's was HUGE and Titus's was teeny.

Toward the end of the afternoon Rob's dad and brother came in on the train. They stopped by to see us for a few minutes before they took off to their annual Buhl men's football game. It was quite a fun weekend!

Disney on Ice

Last weekend Rob and I took the kids on a surprise date. We told them to dress up and then we loaded them into the car... they had no idea what was coming! We actually met Logan and Hope there because their foster family also had tickets, and we were taking them for the weekend, so it proved to be a terrific meeting spot!

Anyway, the kids had a blast, and so did we. We were excited to be able to give Logan and Hope a fun opportunity and to give our kids a little Disney preview. Not to mention, a much needed family fun date. Disney does stuff so well, it never disappoints. Speaking of, we are 33 days away from our Disneyland trip... I can almost taste it!

On the Mend

Titus has been awake most of the day and has been running around chipper as can be for the last couple of hours. I think we're on the mend.

For dinner tonight Leeann hopped up on the stool and peered through the opening to the kitchen cheerily inquiring, "Can we play restaurant?"

"Sure, why not. How may I help you?'

"May I please have just a bagel with some cream cheese and some water?"

"Sure, coming right up." I said.

"Actually, may I please have some juice? And, some pudding for dessert?" she asked, clearly testing her boundaries.

So, we played restaurant, and I was grateful for such a simple request from my beautiful customer.

Titus had a choice of juice, crackers, or both. His menu was a little more limited. He chose both, and appears to be handling them nicely.

We're now making some special crafts for Rob for his Birthday tomorrow. He's been at a Pastor's Prayer Summit since Tuesday morning. We're excited to have him back, and we're trying to think of fun ways to celebrate at home since we're still going to be on quarantine for his Birthday.
I'm excited to have him home after our crazy, chaotic, sick, couped-up couple of days!

Titus Update

Titus has a double ear infection which explains the fever and runny nose. The vomiting is likely due to a stomach bug. Double bummer for him. We're still looking for signs of dehydration, but he seems to be making a little bit of progress. He's even sitting up right now, and walked around for a few minutes today.

We picked up a whole stack of movies from a friend who picked Leeann up from school today. We got several that will help us learn the Disney characters better... we're down to just over a month until Disneyland! So, here's to another day full of movie watching and snuggling. I'm not complaining :0)

Poor Guy

38 hours later, Titus is still miserable, and seems to be getting worse. I was gearing up for an E.R. visit in the wee morning hours due to dehydration, but he was able to get a little bit of water down and produce a wet diaper just before the time I was told I'd have to take him in if he didn't wet. So, this morning we'll go into the clinic. I do appreciate that he wet last night as it is far cheaper to take him to the clinic than to the E.R.

He's still throwing up and unable to keep ANYTHING down outside of a few small sips of water at a time. It's all the strength he can muster just to keep his head upright for a few seconds. He's now to the point were he can hardly stand. He just kind of fell into me this morning when I was trying to get his jacket on to take Leeann to school.

So, the doctor's office is able to squeeze him in about an hour from now. I'll be sure to update you when I have any news. In the meantime I appreciate your prayers for this little guy, he's having a really rough time.

Christmas

Take my poll just to the right regarding how much you spend on Christmas presents. It's just for my own curiosity... I have no idea who votes, or who gives what answers. I'm just curious!

When the Pig Oinks

Last night we did a little bit of early Birthday celebrating and took Rob out for dinner and to shop for a new jacket for him. Titus was a bit warm when Rob took him out of his carseat and he made a comment that he thought Titus was getting sick.

He didn't touch his dinner and complained about being cold, so we let him wear both his jacket and Leeann's, and we didn't make him eat.

After dinner he chippered up a little bit and we went and browsed the mall and Rob found a jacket (which Leeann was distraught over by-the-way... how could we wrap it and give him something to open on his Birthday if he saw it now?)

We were headed home and decided to pull into Sonic for a slushie. Just then Titus started whining that his stomach hurt and he was hungry. I figured he could be hungry, but was more likely sick. I then verbally made my prediction that we'd see vomit before too long.

Sure enough, we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway and it was everywhere. Tear-the-carseat-apart disgusting! I thought corn was bad--try grapes! Unfortunately for Titus we still had a 1/2 hour drive home.

So, we cleaned up as best as we could, and I wrapped my blanket around him. He slept all of the way home and then he and his carseat both came inside for a much needed bath. It probably took me 20 minutes to disassemble that thing. I'm sure it will take the next two days to put it back together!

I'm grateful that he slept through the night, but he was up sick again early this morning. Leeann and I are doing our best to take care of him. I decided to keep her home from school as a precaution. So, I'm officially confined to my house for at least 48 hours after the last symptom... I'm sure I'll catch up on my blogging soon!

Leap!

I have to say, if you have kids or grandkids who are anywhere between the age of 0-6, you really ought to consider getting the Leap Frog Learning videos. They are SO good!

We have the Letter Factory which teaches all of the letters and their sounds in a really fun, memorable way.

We also have the Word Factory which teaches how letters work together to make words.

Then we have the Storybook Factory which shows how words work together to make stories (including punctuation and such).

We also have the Math Circus which teaches about numbers and groups of numbers including basic addition and subtraction.

Finally, we just picked up the newest one, Let's Go To School which compliments the other videos by teaching about letters and numbers too, but it also includes animal families, calendar, clocks, basic school rules and other things kids will experience as they go to school for the first time.

Anyway, they run about $10 at Wal-Mart, but I recently picked up the newest one at Costco for $6. I think you can probably find them on-line cheap.

All that to say, I highly recommend these. It's much cheaper than preschool, but covers all the basics in a really fun, creative, memorable way! And, I have no problem regularly putting my kids in front of these movies. That's how they all (including Hope and Logan) have learned their letters, sounds and numbers. Titus was spouting off his letters and their sounds as soon as he could talk!

There's my promotional plug for the day :0)

8 Years

Eight years ago, today, Rob asked me to be his wife and put a beautiful, shiny, sparkly ring on my finger. And, of course, I said yes!

It's hard to believe it was eight years ago, I remember the details like it was yesterday. We were so... young! Eight years together has brought about so many beautiful memories and so much joy in marriage that's it's almost enough to make me giggle like the 19 year-old college girl I was when Rob swept me off of my feet!

We're seven weeks away from being able to say we survived the proverbial "seven-year itch". I'll be honest, it has been a doozy of a year with the various life circumstances that we've had to walk through... but I can't think of anyone I'd rather walk through years like these with! I love you Rob, thanks for the shiny ring and eight wonderful years!

Scary Mommy Moment

Yesterday I went through the kids' clothes, put their summer clothes away, passed down ones that are too small and pulled out their winter clothes. While I was doing this I moved Titus's clothes over to Logan and Hope's room so Leeann and Titus's dresser wouldn't be so full. Titus was excited to have his own dresser when he was getting his clothes on today.

Well, this morning while I was doing Leeann's hair I heard an enormous crash and my heart sunk. I knew Titus was in that bedroom and I knew there was only one thing in there that could have made a crash like that... the dresser.

I ran into the room and experienced the scariest mommy moment to-date... my nearly 4 year-old pinned squarely underneath the dresser. I mean, it was flat on top of him, completely covering him. I pulled it off of him as quickly as I could and picked up him up. I sent Leeann outside to get her dad who was just leaving for work (and I'm so glad he went in later than normal today!). She ran out the door crying and screaming at the top of her lungs. I brought Titus out to Rob, shaking as we looked him over. He only cried for about 20 seconds then he was just kind of staring at me in a state of shock. So, while Rob tried to get him to tell him if anything hurt, I called his doctor. I wasn't sure whether to watch him, take him to the doctor, urgent care or the E.R. The nurse said just to keep an eye on him, make sure he's talking, drinking water and that his eyes are normal. Whew! By the time I got off the phone with her Rob brought Titus back in and he was talking, running and bouncing as normal.

I'm still a little shaky. It's one of those things that you think will never happen to your kids. I know that falling dressers and t.v.'s have led to peril for many young children. And it can happen... in the blink of an eye... just like that! I'm so grateful that he is safe and doing well. Let's just say, he's gotten an awful lot of hugs an kisses this morning!

For the record, he wasn't climbing on the dresser. He showed us that he pulled all of the drawers out, which made it tip over. Maybe that's why it turned out okay, because some of the drawers might have stopped the dresser from falling too hard too quickly. Scary, scary!

Financial Peace University

I'm really excited about going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University with our small group. There are 14 adults and a boat-load of of kiddos. I am SO excited to be going through this, and even more excited that we're getting to do it with other people!

In just a couple of weeks I'm already seeing the lights click on and people devote themselves to achieving financial peace through rocking the baby steps. We kind of got a jump start when we picked up one of his books 6 months ago, but now we have a weekly lesson that forces us to think through our finances more clearly each week.

I can almost taste the freedom, and I LOVE IT!

Reunion

I've spent the better part of my last couple of days trying to track down classmates since our 10 year reunion is just around the corner. And, well, it's hard to have a reunion without people!

I was class president my Senior year. I knew that meant that I'd be in charge of reunions for life, and at the time it sounded like just the kind of job I'd want! SO MUCH has changed in 10 years though...

I don't know how I would have imagined my life back then. But if back then, you had flashed forwarded to now... I would have probably spit my Sobe across the table in the Commons in utter disbelief. Me, working as a Children's Ministry Director, married to a Pastor for the past 8 years. Two beautiful kids and an utterly crazy, absolutely astonishingly beautiful life? Who'd a thunk?

The funny thing is, I've changed so much in 10 years. Yet, I can't imagine my classmates as anything other than what they were 10 years ago--because that's all I know of them. I almost shudder to think of how people will view me by default--because that's all they know about me.

It's almost a shame that we're so defined by our high school experience. There are no do-overs. You can't change anything (and oh, I wish I could!), and you can't get that time back. It is it what is. It's four years of our life, yet we spend the next 60+ years reliving the glory days every 5-10 years. As if any of us are remotely similar to who we were back then.

For the first time in my life I'm beginning to see why some people choose not to participate in reunions. I really am looking forward to mine in some ways. Yet, in other ways I dread it. Mostly, I dread trying to track down all these people that I have no idea how to contact! I've found 77, but I have 97 more to locate. Yikes!

As reunion time draws near you can't help but reflect back on those days. At least, I can't. Most people who read my blog didn't know me in high school, and I'm tempted to try to describe myself back then for you... but I'm not even sure where to start.

I wasn't popular (I was never invited to 'cool' parties and such), yet everyone knew me. I had a few really close friends, and toward my Senior year I got sucked into a pretty cool (cool in my book anyway) group of friends that all went to church together. I had a crazy home-life, and throughout high school pretty much raised myself. My mom moved away when I was 8 and my dad had periods of um, lack of sobriety if you will, which led to him being on an extended vacation for the last year and a half of my high school days. At that age I was too old to be cared for by someone else, yet too young to take care of myself.

So, in a wild effort to not be defined by my home life, I threw myself into school work and extra-curricular activities. I was class president all four years, in all sorts of clubs, and volunteered for just about anything that would be considered a worthy activity on my college resume (someone was going to have to pay for college), or that would get me away from home for a while. I played (or attempted to play) soccer for three of those years... but let's be honest... I'm not exactly athletic! I never partook in anything of substance. I was always busy. I probably had a boyfriend for 90% of my high school days. Again, looking for something else to pour myself into. See note above about things I wish I could change.

I was loud, and opinionated... and wanted to change the world. I intended to get into politics. Really, I think I wanted to be famous. Yet, I wanted it to be for something good and worthwhile. I wanted to be well-known, but in some ways I didn't care if people liked me. I've always had a very clear view of right vs. wrong and I wasn't afraid to share my thoughts. I always tried to be 'smart' and I was in comparison to many, but I was always deeply jealous of the really 'smart' people. Looking back, I realize most of those smart people had a lot of encouragement at home to do well, and probably had parents walking them through a lot of the difficult assignments and such. I was often operating on a whole lot of stress and very little sleep.

I regularly sought approval from my teachers, and tried very hard not to disappoint them. As much as I wish I weren't, I'm sure I was prideful and arrogant. I tried to build myself up so I wouldn't fall apart. I walked through life with a few defining philosophies at that stage. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, and what's meant to be will happen.

See, even before I knew the truth--that God had a plan for my life, I always imagined that someday I would look back and be grateful in some strange way for all the pain, hurt and drama. That some how, some way, some good would come out of the rubble. That perhaps I had to be on the road I was on to get to the road that I was meant to be on. And that when I got to that road, I would be grateful that the broken road lead me there. That's why I cling to my life verse, Romans 8:28, "For we know God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose."

Specifically, every time I went through a painful break-up, I thought to myself. Someday, I'm going to be standing at the alter, staring into the eyes of my husband, and I'll be so grateful that this didn't work out. And I was so right! I can't imagine myself living the life that I would have lived in any of those scenarios. God knew so much better than me. My husband is so much more than I could have dreamt about if you'd have given me 1,000 years to write my own love story!

I never would have imagined in high school that I would go from being defined by what I did, to being defined by who I am. I am a child of God, Creator of the heaven and Earth. I have slowly grown from who I was to who I am. And I'm sure in another 10 years I'll look back on today with even more marvel at how God has changed me over the years. God is so good!

Natural Consequences

This morning Titus got a good taste of natural consequences. Literally.

See, he's been told plenty of times to pee sitting down. He's not tall enough, nor coordinated enough to do his business standing up. And let's face it, I don't like to spend that much time cleaning my bathrooms.

Well, this morning, Titus learned that lesson all too well. Leeann walked in my room panicking, "Titus is peeing on the floor!" So I darted into the bathroom just in time to see him standing in front of the toilet peeing EVERYWHERE. It was going straight into the air... all over the toilet (thought not in it!)... around the toilet... on the floor... and worst of all...

...all over his face. I think he's 3 year old curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to 'see' what was going on. Instead he got it in his mouth and eyes and all over my bathroom. He spent the next few minutes spitting and wiping his eyes. I'm pretty sure he's going to heed our warnings of sitting down from now on.

For whatever it's worth, he said it tastes disgusting!

Facebook and Blogging

I know I've been a blog slacker lately. There really are many reasons, but none that are interesting enough to post about. But, one of the reasons is because I assume many of my readers follow me on facebook, thus making the need to blog regularly not as important. That's quite an assumption on my part though. So, I created a poll... just to the left. Take a minute to let me know if you follow me on facebook too.

If you feel really adventerous, leave a comment and tell me why you read my blog. I'm just feeling at a loss of blogging direction lately...

Make fun of me no more!

Rob has long made fun of me for being fearful of opening cans of biscuits and rolls. Well, I have recently discovered that there is a healthy reason for my fear! We have now switched to frozen rolls instead of refrigerated ones when they are needed and we don't have fresh rolls on hand.

I could have lost an eye, or, a tooth. And, I happen to like my eyes and teeth!

Poor Kid