Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas Vacation Part 4


Day 5:
Margee & her family went to Sea World on Saturday. The rest of us went to the beach! We packed lunches, sunscreen and towels and headed out for a fun-filled day. On our way to the beach, we crossed a draw bridge and had to wait for some boats to go under. It was rather exciting for those of us who live inland. We had a lot of fun at the ocean except for the fact that our boys are afraid of the ocean. Asa almost liked getting his feet wet. They just had fun playing in the sand. The other problem was the weather. It was really windy and not quite hot. Once you got out of the water it was pretty chilly. James decided to feed the seagulls. That was nearly a really dangerous decision! They're pretty vicious when they see food.
Overall we had a great day at the beach! Here's one more picture of our family:

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Christmas Vacation Part 3

Day 3, Christmas Eve:
James and I decided that we should go to the beach the first chance we got. We found the closest spot was about 30 minutes away. We put the kids down early for nap and headed out after the woke up. We were planning on a short trip since we wanted to go to a Christmas Eve service somewhere. So we got to the beach and put the boys in the water a little bit. They weren't the biggest fans of the water but they loved playing in the sand. James was playing in the water with Asa when I heard his yell something. I ran over to see that his glasses had fallen off. In the ocean. We realized that the glasses were gone. James is pretty much blind without his glasses. I went to the lifeguard to leave our number just in case the glasses washed up later. James used his iPhone to find the nearest Lens Crafters. They would be able to get new glasses for him as long as the prescription wasn't too strong. So James called our eye doctor to have his prescription faxed. A couple hours later James had new glasses. I was shocked that our eye doctor's office was still open on Christmas Eve. I was surprised that the glasses were so cheap. And I was happy that James bought me a Christmas present while wandering around the mall nearly blind! After all that excitement we rushed back to the house to shower and get ready for church.

Day 4, Christmas Day:
Our day started the typical way. We opened our stockings. The older girls had to wait a while until our babies woke up. Asa and Judah enjoyed their books and candy in their stockings. James and I got candy and ornaments! My ornament is a little bit less than cool. James thought he would be funny and buy me a lame Hannah Montana ornament! Later we opened presents as a family. The other family units had already exchanged gifts among themselves so our little family was the only ones with gifts to open. Judah got a bowling set. Asa got a big magna doodle and a puzzle. James got a pillow and the movie Slumdog Millionaire. And I got two pair of pants.
Again our kids had an early lunch followed by naps so we could go swimming in the afternoon. James and I ended up going down with the older cousins and Asa before Judah woke up. The weather was great and the water was warm, perfect scene for Christmas day! Asa loved the pool, especially jumping in. He wasn't a fan of getting his face wet and coughed up a lot of water. We ended the day with a Christmas dinner of steak & chicken, courtesy of James the grill master. And of course, we played some pitch!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas Vacation Part 2

Ok, I'm not with the blogging thing this trip. We're having so much fun. We'll see how much I can remember.
Day 1: We left home at 6:00 PM and drove until we could drive no more. And then we kept driving. We met one of my sisters in Mount Vernon, IL and caravanned the rest of the way. The trip was pretty normal until day 2.
On Day 2 we met up with my other sister in Atlanta. We stopped at the welcome area in Florida for lunch. It was a nice break from the drive. Then we had a slight problem. Judah and his cousin Lea (2) were walking along. Judah tripped and Lea fell on him, causing his head to slam against the concrete. He screamed! And then he threw up on me. Nice. James went to find someone to clean up the puke and the guy showed James to a water faucet so he could clean it up himself. Lame! Anyhow, Judah finally quit crying and we got everyone cleaned up. Several hours later we arrived in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Our condo is pretty nice: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, 2 eating areas, screened in porch and a neighborhood pool. We settled in, ate some pizza and went to bed.

Stay tuned for more....

Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Vacation

This year we are doing something a little different for Christmas. We almost always travel to be with our family, either in Iowa or Arizona. (I'll include Texas in the list as well even though we don't have immediate family there anymore.) This year we're going to Florida with my family. We have rented a house in Port St. Lucie for a little over a week. I think it will be a good time. How can you go wrong when there's a beach nearby? We will be leaving tomorrow evening around 5:00. I'm hoping we'll be in warm Florida by 5:00 Wednesday evening. We'll see how the driving goes! Stay tuned for the journey!

PS: Someday I'll have a "Christmas Card Blog." Someday......

Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas at the Light House

Since it's starting to be the Christmas season, I thought I would share a few of our family traditions.
Tradition #1 Pick out a live tree. Usually we cut down a tree from a tree farm. This year, however, that was not possible. We decided to decorate early since James' parents were here for Thanksgiving and we will be gone for Christmas. We wanted to put the tree up early and enjoy it for a while. Since we put it up before Thanksgiving, Santa's Tree Farm wasn't open. We drove by a few places to price trees. The ones at Earl May were $75! Luckily Home Depot had nice trees for about $17. Here is our tree before we took it inside:


James & Asa putting the star on top:


The finished product:


We've had a bit of trouble with our tree since we have two little ones. Judah likes to pull the ornaments off. He is usually fine but for a while every day he gets it in his head that he needs to play with all the ornaments. I'm afraid to put presents under the tree. Who knows what he will do with them! The other problem with the tree is related to the cat we're watching. He's been eating the icicles (those little silver stringy things). James found a hairball laced with icicles and I saw Baby eating some more today. I hope he doesn't die!


Tradition #2 Drive around and look at Christmas lights. This exciting event took place just this evening. Asa wanted to get into his jammies for the ride in the van. We made popcorn and brewed some coffee and drove to a neighboring community known as Lakewood. It's a fancy neighborhood and a lot of folks hire people to put up their lights so they look really good. Asa was happy to point out all the lights. He said, "Look, there Christmas lights on that house." I'm not sure that Judah enjoyed much other than the popcorn on our little trip. While we drove we listened to one of the Point of Grace Christmas albums. Suddenly Asa said, "Oh I love this song!" and then sang, "Joy, joy, joy!" I was impressed that he knew that song; it's also one of James' favorites. Then Asa said, "Junior sing it." Oh, it's one of the Veggie Tales Christmas songs! Now I understand how he knows that song.

There will be more traditions to come, we just haven't done more Christmassy stuff yet. The fun has only just begun!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Extreme Makeover

A little more than three years ago James and I moved to Lee's Summit. He was taking a few seminary classes in Kansas City and we found a cheap place to rent. James looked on the Church of the Nazarene's website to find the nearest Nazarene church. We went that first Sunday with hopes of finding a place where we could be involved and grow in our faith. Three years later we have the closest friends we've ever had. Keep reading to see what I mean.
A couple weeks ago we went to Tipton to visit my sister (Melinda) and her family. It was a pretty short trip but we had a great time. We ate a lot of good food, saw most of the rest of my family, went to the super fun library and played games. Asa and Judah loved playing with Zoe and Lea. I also went to the high school with Melinda as she taught a class. They have a really cool high school, especially for such a small town. Melinda & Ryan had recently moved into a new house and it is awesome! It's an older house with really cool features like built in storage and beautiful wood-work. They have so much space!
As we drove home, I was talking to my sister and was still on the phone with her when we pulled in the driveway. I noticed that outside lights in the front and back were on as well as a light inside the house. I was a little freaked out because we never leave lights on when we go out of town, especially three lights! Melinda told me that something was going on and we should just go inside. What on earth? James and I walked in to see our living room and kitchen completely made over. As we were crying and I was trying to explain to Melinda what had happened, a few of my friends walked in the door. We were filled in on the little scheme as we looked around at our new home. We walked back to the bedrooms and found Asa's room without purple carpet and with blue walls. They had pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwood floor. It is so beautiful! Asa also has a new comforter and end table. There were a couple new outfits for the boys as well. Then we went into our bedroom. Can I just say amazing? We had mocha colored walls with our blue & white striped comforter. Now there are gray walls with a beautiful light blue-gray & dark brown comforter set. Then we went downstairs and found an organized basement with some of James' artwork on the walls.
During the whole tour I was wondering how they did so much work in two days and how they got into our house. Apparently there were a lot of people in our house while we were out of town. My oldest sister had been down for a visit in October and stole a key to the back door for our friends.
Here's what I'm thinking: We have great friends! We are loved more than I ever understood. These people gave up a lot of time and money for us. I don't really get it! The timing was perfect. This week we hosted James' parents and we have a beautiful house. They also cleaned and stashed away all the clutter. It was so refreshing just to have a clean house!
I'm not doing a very good job explaining everything but I've added some pictures. They don't even show the beauty but it's close. Please excuse our luggage; it wasn't there when we walked through the doors! I don't have a good picture of Asa's room. There are also beautiful pictures of our kids as the focal point in the living room. I think part of the greatness of this makeover is the previous state of our house. We hadn't painted or decorated at all since we moved in back at the end of August.

Living room with new TV & TV stand:


Living room, new curtains and recliner:


Dining area of the kitchen, new paint, table, place settings, mirror & curtains:


Bathroom with my friend Amy's great painting:


Our bedroom:


The bathroom off our bedroom, wallpaper gone, beautiful paint, towels and a sink that works:

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Rescue Mission

A couple weeks ago James and I went to the Kansas City Rescue Mission (KCRM) to help distribute clothing. Although many of our friends have been volunteered at KCRM, we have never gone. James and I had the job of taking clothing orders. Throughout the course of the evening we each talked to over 20 men. "I need a pair of socks, jeans 32/32, an XL t-shirt and underwear." I heard variations on that list twenty times. "Do you have any long johns?" "No, not yet."
Between writing down orders thoughts were racing through my head. What is this man's story? How do you get to a place in life where you're asking a stranger for size 34 underwear? Where can I come up with about an extra $200 to buy a whole bunch of warm clothes for these guys?
My heart just broke for those men. I can't imagine only having a few outfits that I carry around in a backpack. I can't imagine having no one to go to for help. I've been letting the experience roll around in my head for close to a month now. James and I have collected a few bags of clothes to donate from our friends. When we dropped them off, I recognized several faces. These guys are always there. They're actually homeless. I just can't wrap my mind around that kind of life. I'm searching for a way to make a difference.
And then I look around my house. It's a comfortable 70 degrees as I sit on my couch and look at my Christmas tree. I have a soft bed and a separate bedroom for each of my kids. I don't necessarily think it's wrong for me to have my house in Lee's Summit but I do think that God has called me to give whatever I have, perhaps even more than I can spare.
I don't really know how to wrap up this post. I don't have all the answers...

Friday, October 23, 2009

Many Random Thoughts

Yes, I did forget to mention that my mom came to visit in the last month. Sorry, Mom. I was just looking at my calendar and remembering what I could. We did enjoy your visit as always. The boys always flock to Grandma with books. No one reads like Grandma!

This weekend we took a little trip to Tulsa to visit some good friends. I've been friends with Mariah for something like 15 years. She had a baby in September and we made the drive down for a visit. James got us a "ritzy" hotel in downtown for an amazing $50 a night. When we went to the pool Friday afternoon were highly disappointed. The water was freezing! I finally went to the front desk (in my swimming suit and dripping wet, in the lobby of the ritzy hotel) and inquired about the water temperature. As it turns out, they recently had resurfaced the pool and couldn't yet turn on the heat. Brrrrrr! We let the kids play in the hot tub for a while and then called it quits on the whole thing. We spent all day Friday and most of Saturday playing and driving around the rural-ish northern part of Tulsa. It is always so great to spend time with good friends!

My husband has been pretty entertaining recently. A couple nights ago after the kids were in bed he built a tower out of blocks. Yesterday when I got home from school he told me about a show he saw where they were making jewelry. He had some good ideas for making a Scrabble tile into a pendant for a necklace.

My oldest sister is coming to visit this weekend. I'm super excited! Saturday we are going to a retreat at our church for women. Hopefully we have a good time and learn something!

Asa is trying to put Judah's shoes on right now. They're a little small!

I'd like to start having a few deeper posts, something more than the mostly boring details of my life. Here's a start:

U2's Bono recently received the NAACP's Chairman's Award for his work to end poverty and disease in Africa. I recently saw his acceptance speech linked on facebook. In the speech he said a few things that struck me. "Where you live should not determine whether you live or die." How true. There are babies born all over the world that have no choice about the economic and political situation they are born into. We are blessed to have two healthy boys that receive all the food and medicine they need. This next quote really woke me up: "True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom." How often is our "religion" just something we think about on Sunday? I have really been striving recently to make my religion more than just a title. It's transforming my life and my perspective of things.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

One Month

It's been exactly one month since my last post. Why the long break? I'll tell you why. My friend Janae has started home-preschooling her kids and she doesn't have enough time to read blog posts. Well, that's not really the reason but she did ask me not to post anymore.

In the last month I have:
-taught 9 days of preschool
-taken a little boy for his 15 month check-up
-gone on our youth group's fall retreat
-been to Bible study every Wednesday morning
-had a visit from Aunt Janet and Uncle Steve (James' sister)
-gone to Sam's Club (twice)
-driven a few times to Tonganoxie to see Aunt Janeille and family (James' other sister)
-attended two birthday parties
-made dinner for some sick friends
-hosted small group a few times
-hosted a BBQ
-gone to church every Sunday morning

I'd say that's a pretty good reason for not blogging!

We finally had the opportunity to go to James' nephew Drew's birthday party. His birthday is in September and we've never been able to attend his party because of school. Now that they live in the KC area, we can go to all the parties! It was great being there to see him open his presents and hang out with his friends.

Have I ever mentioned that James has a new job? Well, he does. He's the communication coordinator at our church. It's been a big change for us. We're still trying to iron out some of the details that come with a new job. I experienced on of the benefits of having him working in town this morning. We ate breakfast together! At a time when James would have previously been at work, he is home now and we can sit at the table and talk over waffles. On a side note, I've not seen Asa eat so much at one meal in a long time. He ate an entire waffle!

A lot more has happened recently, but I'm not going to be able to remember all the details. I'll see if we have any interesting pictures and might post them later. Good to "see" you all again!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Preschool

Well we have put two days of preschool behind us! I was pretty nervous about the first day. Will the kids in my class cry all day? Will I have enough activities to keep them busy? Will Judah cry in his class? Will I like teaching little ones? All these questions were racing through my mind before we started on Tuesday. It really was a pretty good day. James helped me get out the door on time. The boys played in my room while I got things ready for the day. Asa was excited when I took him to his class. He walked right in and sat down at his place at the table. Judah started the day out pretty well in his class. Two of my six kids were absent that first day, leaving me with one boy and three girls. They were pretty easy to manage. The downfall happened when Judah's teacher stepped out and left him with the music teacher. He wasn't happy. I was taking my class to PE and he saw me in the hallway. I decided to hold him for a while. He was very happy to see his mommy! But very sad when Mommy left again. His teacher said that he never recovered from this sad turn of events. And the most exciting part of the day came upon getting home. I saw that the front door was wide open. Apparently we had forgotten to close it when we left in the morning. I called James to come home and look through the house before we all went in. By the grace of God nothing was stolen.
Thursday was the second day of preschool. I was more prepared than the first day. Judah did great in his class. Asa got to paint. All my kids were there and I kept a bit of order. I've been working on plans for the rest of the month and it's hard to have enough activities to keep 3 year olds busy and interested all day! Let me know if you have any good craft ideas!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Pictures

I finally have uploaded more pics to flickr. Link to the right.

This is the best effort I made at lunch all summer:

More Walking

Judah is getting really good at walking. He just can't stand up on his own in the middle of the room. Asa did that forever before he even started walking. In the background you see Asa sitting on a blanket with a bucket because I thought he was going to throw up when he woke up this morning. Everything has been puke-free so far this morning. Judah tries to play with the bucket and Asa says, "No. My bucket."

The Jungle

For some reason the back yard of our new house wasn't taken care of all summer. I guess the kid who mowed the yard was only paid to mow the front yard. As a result, the grass was more than knee high and there were weeds as tall as me. In addition to the grass problem, there are millions of tiny trees growing along the fence line. And there's an invisible fence line about 5 feet in front of the back fence from trees sprouting up. After we had lived here for a couple weeks James tackled the jungle with the push mower. He successfully mowed down most of the grass. The next step was raking. Two Saturdays ago I was feeling ambitious and went out to start raking. The problem was that there was still really long grass and it was too hard to rake. So we just had to mow again. After mowing, we raked up all the trimmings and bagged it up. (Let me insert here that the garbage company will not pick up our yard waste unless we call and ask them to do it. I asked if this was necessary every time and they said it's not. Maybe they should communicate that to the people who drive the trucks. Frustrating!) After mowing again, the yard is now usable. We still have a lot of trimming to do but we can at least let the kids play outside.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Judah Learns to Walk

Well our baby is officially a toddler. He has been cruising along furniture and walking while holding our hands for a while. He finally let go and took a few steps a couple days ago. Yesterday he started walking across the room by himself. I think Asa walked slowly to keep his balance. Judah almost runs. He goes fast and falls easily. I put a short video on my Facebook page but won't bother on the blog. It's really not that good. I'll work on another one!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Game

Here's a game that's very popular with little Judah right now. All you need is a ball you can hold in one hand. Or half an Easter egg will work as well. First you throw the ball then run-crawl over to the ball and pick it up. Then you throw it again, crawl after it and pick it up. You can repeat this over and over, giggling all the while. It's really a great game; Judah loves it!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Anniversary

Our six year anniversary was Sunday. Last year we talked about how the celebrations keep getting more and more lame every year. This year was less of a celebration than last year but we had a great day! I woke up early to make breakfast. The boys slept until we had finished our candle light breakfast. After church we had a church picnic. It was dreadfully hot but we survived and had fun. Judah and I sat under a tree and talked with friends while James and Asa played disc golf. Asa got pretty red from being so hot. Next was a little drive home followed by nap time. We decided to go to a greasy burger joint for dinner: Five Guys Burgers. There was an attempted but failed shopping excursion to get some more undies for Asa. Stores aren't open very late on Sundays.

I think we will be redeeming our anniversary celebrations. I found out that Relient K (one of our favorite bands) is going to be in Kansas City in October. From what I have seen, the tickets are affordable and I'm planning to get some when they go on sale tomorrow. Whoo hoo!

You may be wondering if we are potty training Asa. No, we aren't. We only have three pair of underwear. He wore it once and had an accident after a few minutes. I'm not giving up, I am just looking for more affordable undies!

Job

A few months ago a friend mentioned to me that they were in need of a couple teachers for the preschool she teaches at. I talked with the director about the position and filled out an application. I had an interview the week we moved and am happy to announce that I got the job. The preschool is at a church about 15 minutes away and meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-2:30. I will be teaching about six kids who are right now turning three. I really have no experience with teaching little ones and I'm a little bit nervous about how it's going to go. My boys get to go for just $15 a month each. I think it will be good for all of us to get out of the house and have a little structure in our week. School starts September 8.

On a side note, Asa had a drippy nose yesterday. He did a great job getting kleenexes to blow his nose. Today he woke up and asked, "What wrong my nose?" It's starting to get dry and chapped. He isn't a fan of blowing his nose today. Judah also has the drippy nose now. He is pretty drooly as well so he gets to wear a bib all day!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

We Moved!


Well, we have been in our house for about 17 days now. 14 of those days we have had guests! The move went really well. We had several people help us, I didn't get a head count. We got everything out of the old place and into the new place in about three hours I think. Our house has felt like home from the very first minute. The day after we moved in I cleaned our apartment. I talked with our land lady this week and she said that they have never had the place left so clean. She said that she cried when she saw it. I was a little surprised because I didn't feel like I cleaned very much. I guess we're just clean people.
Anyhow, James' mom flew in on Saturday (July 25). Sunday after church I headed out for Nashville with our youth group on a mission trip. James and Sandy survived with the boys for a whole week without me. Asa, Judah and Sandy took turns throwing up. I think Asa had the worst of it. The other excitement of the week was the refrigerator's slow death. They ended up taking the frozen items to a friend's freezer and putting the food from the refrigerator side into the freezer side. Other than the puking and broken refrigerator, everything was great! (I'll write about the mission trip later.) When I got home Saturday evening Asa was really excited to see me. Judah acted confused. He seemed to prefer James that evening but Sunday he clung to me. I can't believe that he survived in the church nursery without me.
My mom got here Sunday afternoon (August 2). We all drove up to the airport to drop Sandy off for her flight home. We didn't do much exciting during my mom's visit. She helped me clean and organize some things. The boys sat and listened to her read books for what seemed like hours.
Wednesday morning my sister Melinda and her family came. We all went to our favorite local place for lunch: Neighbor's Cafe. After we got back to the house, my mom headed out. The Stonebrakers went to the Royals game while we went to a meeting at church that evening. Thursday we took the kids to the park.

Friday we went to Fritz's train restaurant at Crown Center followed by frollicking in the fountains for a while afterwards. Let me just say that Melinda's kids enjoyed it more than my kids did.

Friday evening we went to Blues and Jazz Fest in downtown Lee's Summit. We didn't last very long with the kids. Once we had all the kids in bed we were free to do our favorite thing: play cards and eat snacks! When we all lived in Oskaloosa we played cards all the time. I really miss that the most. The Stonebrakers left Saturday after lunch.
As I look back on all of our guests, I didn't feel very stressed. It was great to have so much family here. We have the house to ourselves for three days before James' sister gets here! I don't know what we will do in September with an empty house!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Moving Day

Today is moving day. Judah was up at 6:00. I am not complaining though because he fell asleep around 8:30 on our way home. James carried Judah in and put him in his bed and he slept until this morning. I guess he was really tired!
I think we're in pretty good shape for the big move. We have a lot of people coming to help us tonight. Hopefully everything will go as imagined! Stay tuned for more updates and maybe a picture or two!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Housing Update

At the end of Monday (day 1 of moving week) the new house is mostly clean. Two friends broke in with me this morning and tackled the dirt and cat fur. (If you have a cat, get rid of it. I'm totally grossed out by all that fur all over the house!) I think I almost barfed at one point because of cat fur and the previous owner's hair. Blech! I still need to get a carpet cleaner and clean the carpets. That's on the list for tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out when that will fit in.
We have a time to close! 9:00 Thursday morning. Woo hoo! The last piece of getting everything in place to close happened today. The city required that we have an inspection for lead paint because they are giving us money. I was terrified that we would have some cracked paint and would have to get it taken care of. I actually saw a lot of chipped paint on the door frames but that must not have been what the guy was looking for. After he looked through the house he said, "You have my blessing. Good luck on the move!" Whew! Things are falling into place.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sleeping

In my family, I am the one who doesn't need a lot of sleep. My sister Melinda needs tons of sleep. James could sleep all day but I usually don't choose to take a nap when there is a chance to do so. I've been thinking about this recently because of my kids. I'm pretty sure that Judah sleeps less than Asa. I don't know exactly when Asa always falls asleep because he plays in his bed a little before he goes to sleep. He could stay up for a long time and I don't know it since he is in the basement. Last night the boys went to bed a little late, but at the same time. Judah has been awake for an hour and a half and Asa is still sleeping. This happens almost every morning. I think that Judah just needs less sleep than Asa because of his personality.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Editorial Comment

There's a note about the 4th of July three posts below. Don't miss it.

House Heartbreak

We have found a house to purchase. It's one block away. We wanted to close on July 7. The lady from our mortgage company couldn't make that work. We were set to close July 21. The same lady can't make that happen either. I'm not sure what she does in her office in Texas all day, but she doesn't return James' emails or calls. The major hang-up right now is that we are getting a grant from the city and they don't have all the information needed to cut a check for us. They really just need one form filled out by that lady. And she can't find the time to do it. We hope to close July 23.
The twist:
I am going on a mission trip to Nashville with the teen group from church. We leave July 26. Between July 23 and 26 here's what we have to do:
-clean new house
-move into new house
-clean our apartment
-unpack so my mother-in-law can find things (She is staying with my 3 boys while I'm gone.)
-pack for the mission trip
-make a side dish for a BBQ
I know what you're thinking. That's nothing. You can do all that in one day! Right. Well, if something else gets messed up I might just die. There are other things we would like to do in the new house before we move in, but there is no time. I think we're going to take possession and move in all on Thursday (one week from today!) I am going down on Monday with a friend to clean. I'm hoping that's not a problem with anyone. If we can get everything clean Monday morning, I will feel a lot better about the whole situation.
The final twist: I have an injured knee. I think it's tendinitis but I'm no doctor. I am going to see my chiropractor tomorrow morning. Hopefully he will help me a little.

It will be a busy week; I still have a lot of packing to do. I am mentally prepared. Now if my body (and kids) would cooperate, I will be in luck!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Wedding

The Today Show throws a wedding every year and today is the big day. I haven't really been watching much recently but tuned in this morning by chance. The wedding was about 5 minutes long and right after that, they got to talk to the show hosts for a while. I'm thinking that I might want to talk to my family and friends instead of strangers (though quasi famous) minutes after my vows. I guess if someone is willing to throw you a great wedding for free, you would be happy with almost anything. They also get a free reception and honeymoon. I'm thinking that I would do almost anything for just a free week of vacation.

James and I are trying to get back into running. James has run the last 4 mornings. I have run two mornings now. I've done Pilates for about a week now. It's nice to be working on exercising again, but it's a slow process. Three cheers for runners!

4th of July Excitement

Our 4th of July weekend was busy. Friday morning we got up and drove up to Iowa for my friend Claire's wedding. She is one of my good friends from college. We stayed at a nice hotel right next to the place of reception. The kids loved being in a hotel. I don't know what it was, but Asa was so happy to be there.
Here we see Asa relaxing on the bed, watching some TV:


The wedding was great, except for the fact that our kids were there. They weren't bad but were just kids. James took them out about half way through. We had some down time before the reception so we let the kids run around in the room for a while. We had a great time at the reception. We sat with some of my friends from college. It was great to spend time with them again. Asa loved the dance. Judah almost got stepped on but enjoyed dancing as well.



After the reception we decided to put the kids down for bed in our room and then go to another room to talk with our friends. You may think this was a terrible idea, but it worked so well. We set up the monitors and were only a few doors down. The shocking thing is that both boys went down without any problems. Judah slept in our pack & play but we didn't have anything for Asa except for the second queen size bed. He has never slept in a regular bed by himself and this one was about three feet off the ground. We lined the edge with pillows and told him that it was time for him to lay down. Lucky for us he was exhausted enough that he fell asleep fine. We were able to stay up way too late with friends and didn't have to deal with our kids. It was awesome!

Saturday morning we got up early to drive to my mom's house. We had a little birthday party for Judah. My sisters and brother were there with their kids. We had a great time! Judah made a royal mess with his cake and got some cool gifts!




After the party we drove home with the hope of seeing fireworks all along the four hour drive. We were lucky enough to see lot of fireworks. We kept pointing them out to Asa. He in turn would say, "Judah, look. Fireworks! See 'em?" Very cute. We were about 20 minutes from home when traffic slowed. There had been an accident on 435 and we were stopped for at least ten minutes. It was inconvenient but we were able to just sit and watch fireworks all around us.

We finally got home around 10:00 and realized that we were out of wipes. I had to run to the store after we got the kids in bed. When I got back I was watching the Capital Fourth special. Barry Manillo was on and at first I thought he was doing a parody, but then I realized that he is just like that. (Do you know what I mean?) Wow. I think he's better heard and not seen. I hope I don't offend anyone. Before him was Aretha Franklin. She can still sing! I was a little afraid that she was going to pass out during one of her songs. She seemed to have some trouble getting around.

The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. We went to church and just relaxed Sunday afternoon. Everyone was ready for some quiet after our busy weekend.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Judah is 1!

Judah turned one on July 1. Here's what he does:
-cruises & crawls really fast (usually chasing Asa)
-says Da, Mama, no, yeah
-eats almost anything
-uses a sippy cup
-loves books

On Judah's birthday we had a very busy day. My mom was here in the morning and had some time to read to the boys. It's their favorite thing to do with Grandma. I ran a few errands and then returned home to do a million other things. I watched our neighbor's little girl as they moved in next door. I made dinner for a family at church and dinner for our family. I also baked and decorated some cupcakes. After James got home we did a video chat with Aunt Janet as Judah opened his birthday present from her. Asa was happy to help Judah open his presents!




We had been trying to get together with our friends Ken & Abbie who recently moved to Kansas City. It worked out that we were all free on Wednesday so they came over for dinner. After dinner we did the birthday cake thing for Judah. We sang and lit a candle on a cupcake for him. He really enjoyed the singing. Like most one-year-olds he didn't know how to blow out the candle. But he did enjoy his cupcake! I was surprised that he didn't make a very big mess with it.


I know that I will say this for the rest of my life, but I can't believe how quickly time flies! It has been a great year with two kids. There were some rough times but we have really been blessed with awesome kids! For example, this morning they let me sleep until 9:30! It was a nice present since we were up late and I was up for an hour in the night. I do love both of my boys (and their dad) very much!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Celebrations

Well, my birthday was a couple weeks ago. James and I went to a Royals game without the boys the evening before. On my birthday I went to a brunch at a friend's house. She had everything organized so well! There was a paper bag with snacks for each kid (like 12 of them) and had little name tags on the cups. It sounds funny but it was really cute. We had a great time. When the boys and I got home, they ate some lunch and laid down for naps. I was also exhausted and took a long nap. When I woke up, I heard Asa and Elmo. I figured that James must be home. We went to a great pizza place for dinner and then took the kids to the park. Most of the day Asa wouldn't tell me happy birthday. As we were driving to get dinner, Asa mumbled "Happy birthday, Mom." It was so cute!

We didn't do much for Father's Day. I made enchiladas for lunch and we spent most of the day relaxing. I taught Asa how to say "Happy Father's Day." It was pretty cute. It sounded more like "Happy day."

We have been busy around our house. We are planning to close on our house July 21. My mom came down this week to help me pack. We got a lot of things packed and I can rest easily knowing that everything is packed well. While Mom was here she read a lot to the boys. That's Asa's favorite thing to do with Grandma. There's a book that asks a question on every page and the answer is "no" on every page except for the last page. Mom said that Judah was saying "no" right along with Asa. Today I was reading the book and he did it! It was so cute seeing him say no and shake his head.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

It's Hot!


Asa has been wearing his BK crown lately. It was the first thing he wanted when he woke up this morning.

I told James last night that I was glad I wasn't 9 months pregnant like I was this time last year. I know that it isn't as hot here as it is other places, but it is really hot and humid. Luckily our air conditioner is kind of working. I know people whose AC is completely broken. Ours is having some trouble keeping up with the heat. I am trying not to use the oven to make dinner. It's difficult since our grill is also out of gas and we're not grilling either. We made a trip to Wal-Mart last night. I asked Asa if he was ready to go in and he said, "No. It too hot." That about sums it up. While at Wal-Mart, we discussed getting a pool. I think we might do that soon.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Just In Case

If you didn't look, there are new pictures to the right. Enjoy!

Judah has learned how to stand up right in front of the TV so he can really watch his favorite show. Baby Einstein holds his attention. That's what he is doing now, at 6:50 AM.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Weekend Trip

Wednesday was filled with cleaning and preparing to go to Iowa for the weekend. My friend Mariah drove up from Tulsa and spent the night. This meant that I had to make the basement presentable. It really wasn't a huge disaster as it often is. I'm really not going to share all the details of the terribly busy day, but I didn't even pack for the weekend until Thursday morning when I was also busy making breakfast and getting last minute things ready for the trip. I felt really bad because Mariah was just waiting on me to get ready.
We left Thursday morning just in time to make it to my mom's house in Oskaloosa before another friend from high school got there. It was so good to sit and talk with Lois and see her cute little daughter!
Other high-lights of the trip include a trip to Tasos' Steakhouse, a visit with a couple other friends from high school, attending a cowboy-themed birthday party, sorting through some of my grandparents' things at Mom's house, watching my boys play with their big cousins, talking with my brother and sisters, going to church and enjoying ice cream from the Frosty Udder.
We got back to Lee's Summit Sunday evening just in time to go to our small group. Mariah and her kids left Monday morning.

Our potential house was inspected yesterday. I was there for a portion of the three (3) hours Woody was inspecting. I can't believe that it took so long! I am very glad, however, that he did a thorough job. The biggest problem is that the furnace doesn't work. We have to get that looked at before we go ahead with the house. Now we just have to get all of the financial things in line so we can close at the beginning of July. Where do I begin packing?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Pictures Are Coming, Next Week

It's been a busy week full of cleaning and unpacking. Monday I made a banana cream pie to share with some friends after dinner that evening. Tuesday I went strawberry picking with some friends. Which meant that Wednesday I had to clean strawberries and make jam. My friend Mariah (who is my best friend from high school) drove up last night from Tulsa. This morning we're heading to Iowa to visit our families and our friend Lois. I am super excited for the trip.
Also in the last 5 days we've looked at a house to buy that's 6 houses down from us. We put in an offer and it was accepted yesterday. Now we're having to get things figured out to make the purchase. James is turning on utilities and scheduling the inspection today. (I think.) If all goes as planned, we'll close on July 7. I am finally excited. We have made offers on several other houses and I haven't been excited. I don't want to be disappointed and I would have been really let down with all the other houses since we didn't get them. But now I think that I can be happy!
I have a lot of pictures from our trip last week that I will put on flickr. But it won't happen until next week.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

As we were loading up the van at Slide Rock Asa was running around the van and wiped out. He hit his face on the curb thing at the front of the van. He was bleeding from his upper lip and mouth pretty badly. It was so sad because there wasn’t much we could do for him. We cleaned him up as best we could and put some neosporin above his lip. After just an hour his lip was pretty fat. I was also sad that most of our pictures of Asa from vacation would have this awful scrape on his face.
We drove down to Phoenix and over to James' grandparent's house. They are in somewhat of an assisted living house so we were able to stay at their house and make a big mess with all of our stuff. Wednesday morning we went to pick up Grandma and Grandpa and took them to their house. I made lunch and we just sat and talked with them. They were very glad to be in their house again. The boys really liked their great grandparents! Asa crawled up and down on their laps. I hope they didn't mind much! Grandma was reading books and singing songs while Grandpa took care of the tickling! It was sweet to see the boys playing with them.
Later that afternoon we took them back to their other house and headed to the other side of Phoenix to our favorite restaurant ever: Z Tejas! We met one of James' friends from college there for dinner. It was amazing. We ordered our usual: chorizo stuffed pork tenderloin for me and diablo chicken pasta for James. Great food and great conversation. It was a perfect night!
On our way home, we stopped by Sonic for free root beer floats. They were a hopping place! I started packing a bit when we got back to the house but I really was exhausted!

Thursday morning Judah woke up early again. I guess he was having trouble sleeping late because of the bright sun coming through the windows. We all were up by 7:00 and started gathering up our things. It's amazing how many things can be scattered around in such a short amount of time. While I was getting our things together, James took the boys outside for a walk and photo shoot by a cactus and palm tree. As he was out, some of his grandparent's neighbors asked if he wanted some pie. Someone had given them two pies and they had a piece of each of them. We *reluctantly* took the pies and hauled them clear to Winslow to share with the rest of the family.
Anyhow, we packed up and went to the other house for another visit with Grandma and Grandpa before we left. Again, the boys had a lot of fun! We drove back up to Winslow. We had a delicious lasagna at Janeille's house for dinner. Around 8:00 we took the boys to James' parent's house and put them to bed. Sandy stayed there and we went back to Janeille's to talk the night away. We left around midnight and I was exhausted. But how often to we do that? Practically never!

Friday we went to James' other grandparent's house to look through some of their things. They have both passed away and James' dad and aunt are trying to sort through their stuff and get the house sold. It was amazing looking at pictures, letters, tax returns, books, blankets, dishes, news papers, furniture, their whole lives. You just look through things and imagine living their lives. How different from what we experience today!
We had to finish our walk through the years quickly in order to get to a retirement party for our friend Larry who actually lives in the Kansas City area. Now that he's retired he travels all the time and they were in Winslow so they threw a party! We ate at a restaurant and had an awesome "Janeille cake." Then we stayed up late at the Light's house talking. It was great!

Then Saturday morning came and we had to pack everything up in our van. Sad times. Our vacation was almost over.

Other state license plates we’ve seen:
Alabama
Vermont
Ohio
Virginia
Florida
Wyoming
Hawaii
Utah
Washington
Indiana
Montana

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Home, Sweet Home

We got home this morning at 9:30. We quickly took showers and went to church. It was so great to see our friends again! To think, it had just been a week!
We're beat and I'm going to bed. I'll have notes about the rest of the trip and pictures up in a couple days.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Drive Home

It’s 2:30 on Saturday afternoon and we just stopped to get gas by Joseph City. We would have filled up in Winslow but the Flying J was really busy and people were leaving their vehicles at the pump while they went inside. So we drove on to the next town.
This morning we went to the Buckley’s house for Dawson’s birthday breakfast of banana & chocolate chip pancakes. Janeille instructed me on how to make a cream pie. I’m looking forward to trying it for myself when I get home. We finished loading up all of our stuff in time to see Dawson’s baseball game. Those little ones were pretty cute! After the short game we said our good-byes and were on our way.

It’s 7:00 PM in the Mountain Time Zone, 6:00 in Arizona. We’re just pulling out of Flying J in Albuquerque. Four hours down, fourteen to go!

It is 10:19 in Arizona. We’re at the Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center in the Amarillo area. They have free wi-fi! Thus the update.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Tuesday

Tuesday morning after breakfast all the boys ages two and up went fishing. Asa wore his swimming clothes so that he could get wet. I'm told that they had a lot of fun but didn't catch anything for lunch. While they were away from the camp, Judah took a nap and I had some time to enjoy God's creation and read a little bit. It was so relaxing!
After lunch we packed up camp and headed for Slide Rock. There is a place where the water has run over the rocks and cut little water slides. Asa loved playing in the water once he got used to it. Judah even liked the water after a little bit. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of our boys in the water. By the time we got out the camera the sun had gone behind a cloud and the boys were shivering.
James' Nephews:


Our family sitting on the rock:


More pictures to come....

Sunday & Monday

Sunday we went to church as normal. We saw a few people that we wanted to catch up with a little bit. Afterwards we ate lunch and watched Janeille’s boys while they went to the quarterly church meeting.

Monday morning we headed out for Oak Creek Canyon for some camping fun. We stopped at the top of the canyon to take in the view. It was pretty spectacular. Asa would point over into the canyon and say, “Look, I see it. Canyon.”


We drove down to our camp site in the canyon, by the creek and started setting up tents. Asa had fun running around picking up rocks and sticks. I got out a pack & play for Judah to play in. He was pretty content in there for quite a while. Especially when Asa would stand there playing with him. At some point Janeille realized that we forgot to buy hotdogs when we were at Sam’s Club. That was totally my fault. I had the list and confirmed that we bought everything on it. Oh, I’m so dumb! After much discussion about where to drive to get hotdogs and who would go, Ken and Sandy drove into Sedona to get them. Anyhow, we had hotdogs and later smores over our camp fire. Asa loved playing in our tent. It took a while to get him calmed down to go to sleep. Every time he got in the tent he would giggle and crawl around, running into the sides of the tent. Our boys actually slept pretty well in the tent. The only problem was that Judah woke up early. Janeille’s youngest, Dylan, did not sleep well. His new nick-name is Tazmanian Devil!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Road Trip 2009- part 1

Here we go. This is the beginning of my vacation journal.
We left Kansas City around 1:00. We got all the way to Kansas City, Kansas before we had to stop for gas. I didn’t have a chance to fill up before I picked James up at work. I started out the trip driving, but had to pull over and switch drivers because Asa wouldn’t let James get things for him. Everybody loves the mommy! The trip is really going well. It’s about 5:45 and we’re close to Oklahoma City. I was just looking at the map and realized how well things are going. Once we get through OKC, it should be about 12 hours of driving time. And by then Asa should be ready for “bed.” Judah has been sleeping for a couple hours. I hope he’s tired today because he will have plenty of time to sleep!

9:45 PM
We stopped on the west end of Oklahoma City to get gas, use the restroom and get out our sandwiches. At the gas station they were remodeling the women’s bathroom. Luckily they realized how women would react to using a portable bathroom outside and decided to use the men’s restroom in the building for women. There were a lot of signs up pointing the men to use the portable facility on then north side of the building. It wasn’t until I was getting Asa out of one of the stalls that I noticed that it was a men’s restroom. Anyhow, we got back on the road and ate dinner as a family, it just wasn’t around a table.
Shortly after we left OKC, I smelled one of my favorite smells in the world. I looked over and saw a big field of hay all ready to be baled. Mmmmmm.
On previous trips to Arizona we have driven this stretch of road in the middle of the night and saw a bunch of flashing red lights. It was a little creepy. When we got home last time, I think we looked on the Google satellite view of the area and learned that it was a bunch of wind turbines. We think they’re owned by T. Boone Pickens. All of that to say that it’s still daylight and we got a good look at the wind turbines. They are a sight. There are so many of them and the power they generate is amazing.
Back to the current time, James is still driving. Judah is asleep again. Asa is watching “Ernie Sauce.” It’s actually the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound. Thanks, Mom, he seems to enjoy it. He kind of sings along and claps at the end of each song. I have had a few naps also so I will be ready to drive soon.


10:37
We are pulling out of a gas station in Amarillo, Texas. Basically we were creeped out be every person at the gas station. Asa has all of his bedtime lovies; Judah has a bottle, and they are watching a Veggie Tales. All is good for now.

3:03 AM
We are getting gas in Albuquerque. James pulled over just before midnight and asked me to drive. Right after I started driving we crossed over into New Mexico. What kept me awake during the drive? My Christian and jazz mixes of music on my i Pod, attempting to pronounce the names of towns along the way and a few random radio stations. Among all the towns with Mexican names like Tucumcari, Albuquerque & Quemado is a town called Wagon Wheel. “One of these things is not like the other.”
Oh yes, Asa woke up during this leg of the trip. He would whine and cry for a minute and then be quiet for five minutes and then do it all over again. James finally turned on a movie for him and he fell asleep. Both babies are sleeping now. I love it! We only have four hours left. That will put us in Winslow at 5:00 AM.

We arrived in Winslow at 7:15 Central Time. That is 5:15 Arizona Time. Grandma and Grandpa got up early today! We've been here for less than two hours and Judah has already been injured. He was in the pack & play and Asa decided to throw some toys in. One hit him right under his eye. Wonderful! Now he will have a red mark on his face the whole vacation!

On our drive to Winslow we saw cars from the following states:
Missouri
Kansas
Nebraska
Iowa
Oklahoma
Massachusetts
California
Texas
Arizona
Nevada
Arkansas
Oregon
Illinois
Virginia
Wisconsin
New Mexico
Mississippi

Monday, May 25, 2009

Iowa, Celebration

I just heard Asa count to 11 all on his own!
Judah likes to crawl around holding a toy in his mouth.

Now on to what's been happening.

Tuesday (May 19) was my mom's birthday. I decided that the best gift would be a visit from some of her grandchildren. I drove up Monday morning with the boys. I decided that with our family so far away it would be worth the investment to buy a DVD player for the van. Asa was very excited to see Grandma. He even recognized her house when we pulled into the driveway. Not long after we got there we left again to meet my sisters and nieces for dinner in Iowa City. We ate at Old Country Buffet. I was surprised by Asa's behavior there. He sat at a table with all his cousins and ate his dinner. He only got down and ran around a couple times. Judah was another story. Every time I got up he screamed. I guess he really likes me! After dinner we took the kids to a play area in the mall and we had a chance to visit some more.

Jodi, Margee, Melinda:


Other exciting things we did while visiting my mom include eating at Tasos, feeding the ducks at the cemetery, playing in the yard and pulling fence posts out of the ground by the new tree. We left on Wednesday to drive back home in time for church.

My oldest sister Margee was here for the weekend. They are staying with friends in Olathe. It is fun to see Asa so excited to see his cousins. Faith and Joelle really love Judah. Between the two of them I wouldn’t ever need to take care of him.
Sunday evening we made our third annual trip to Celebration at the Station. It is a great outdoor concert by the Kansas City Symphony on the lawn of the Liberty Memorial with Union Station as a backdrop. We invited a lot of people from church and my sister’s family to go with us. We had a group of close to 30 in the midst of a crowd of 50,000. We had a great time listening to music and talking with our family and friends.

Friday we're leaving for Arizona for vacation. Stay tuned for summaries of our vacation excursions!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Big Move

Asa has been sleeping in the basement for a solid two weeks. We put him down there so that we can let Judah put himself to sleep in his crib. When Judah was born we talked about moving Asa's bed to the basement, but I couldn't stand having my baby in that dark cool place. In the last ten months, I've lost enough sleep and had a baby in my bed so much that I don't really care about all that silly sentimental stuff anymore. I decided when Judah turned 10 months old that I would stop nursing him in the night and almost always holding him until he falls asleep. It really has worked out well. Judah is doing very well going to sleep in his crib. About half of the time he cries for less than five minutes. He also has slept through the night several times in the last 12 days.
Anyhow, back to the big move. Asa has been sleeping in a pack and play downstairs. Remember how he jumped out of it about a month ago? He hasn't been doing that. Since he seemed happy sleeping in the basement, we decided to move his bed down there on Monday. I am sure he is happy to have some extra wiggle room.
Since we moved a bed out of the upstairs bedroom we had room for the rocking chair. My rocking chair has been in the basement since we had our Christmas tree up. And I have missed it. It's back in Judah's room and I love it! I have rocked him for a few minutes before putting him down for every nap and bed time. I'm in baby heaven!

I cut Asa's hair last night. He did a very good job sitting still. The part that bothered him the most was the cape. He started trying to pull it off about half way through.

Judah woke up at 5:45 this morning. I thought that if I nursed him he would fall back asleep. Wrong. He was lifting up his legs, playing with the sheet. I finally decided that we may as well get up. I started making breakfast for James (a rare task during the week). And guess who I heard talking in the basement? That's right. Asa. We all ended up eating breakfast at 6:30. Judah is already down for his morning nap. I'm guessing Asa will go down early for his nap. I hope the day isn't too long.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pancakes

We had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes this morning. I decided to feed some to Judah and he really likes it! The only problem is that when they get wet the pancake bits get slimy. I'm almost ready to clean him up. Asa on the other hand wanted to put peanut butter on his pancake by himself. As I was helping him with the knife, I realized that there is going to be a problem. Asa is left handed and I am right handed. I was trying to hold his left hand with my right hand and guide him as he was spreading the peanut butter. Not so easy.

I had a great Mother's Day. Saturday I went shopping with a friend while James took the boys shopping for me. He said that everything would have been fine if Asa had wanted to sit in the cart. He instead wanted to be held. Anyhow, Sunday morning there was a beautiful plant setting on the table:


After church James grilled steaks and presented me with growth charts for the boys. Some day we will tack them to a wall in our house. For now they are just in the dining "room" and I hope that Judah doesn't pull them over on himself.


Last night Judah was eating some cheerios on the floor in the living room. At one point he was lying on his stomach while eating. It was so cute. By the time I got the camera, he was sitting up again.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Blog Help

If it's not a template, I don't know how to use it. I just stumbled across some programming hints for editing the text in my posts. So I'm asking for help. Where are the cool backgrounds? How do I make my blog different? (Maybe I should ask my web-programmer sister...) I'm open for any tips you have and I'm humbled by my request.

Last night we had this conversation:
Asa: I need more crackers.
James: Can you say please?
Asa: No. I can't.

This is how Judah crawls. He can get up on his knees and crawl, but he prefers to act like an alligator.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Monday Night Royals Game

As we live in Kansas City and are always game for a little entertainment, we decided to go to the Kansas City Royals game on Monday evening. Every Monday the upper deck seats are $5 (plus surcharges, give me a break). We loaded up our van with the kids and food for our dinner. We walked 20 miles and climbed a million steps to get to our seats. It took me a while to get my bearings. The game was great. They have a pitcher who is suddenly good this season and he was starting. We cheered and booed when necessary during the game. Apparently the catcher from the Chicago White Sox is hated by KC fans. Who knew? Asa loved the whole thing and Judah didn't seem to mind all the excitement. We think Asa thought he was watching TV because of the huge screen in the outfield. I think he saw the actual players on the field at some point during the evening. The most exciting/annoying part of the night was drunk people. There was a bunch girls sitting right behind us that were very loud. James heard one of them say that they started drinking around 4:00. (It was after 7:00 at this point.) They were using pretty colorful language and I was just about ready to say something to them when one of the girls told another to watch her language around those cute little kids. (I had been surprised that they were making comments about our boys but still swearing. Hello, these are little kids!) Then after the game we saw what James described as a taping of Girls Gone Wild. There were a couple girls dancing on a car and lifting their shirts. Luckily we didn't see any skin and our boys didn't notice anything. Despite the awkward moments with intoxicated people, we had a great time at the game.



Judah has enjoyed time this afternoon playing with a magazine. I can't believe how exciting it is to little ones to play with such simple things.

Asa had a fever all day yesterday. He ran up to me this morning saying that his mouth hurt and showed it to me. He has a bunch of sores on his tongue. I took him to the doctor and he said it's a virus that will have to run its course over the next week. I really hope the sores are better soon. Asa looks so miserable!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Peas

The day I have been waiting for since I got married has finally arrived! If you know my husband, you know that he doesn't eat vegetables. I knew that a time would come when one of our children would notice that James wasn't eating his veggies and call him out on it. That time is now. We were just eating a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken, potatoes and peas. I was talking to Asa about his peas and noting that he liked them. He looked over at James' plate and noticed that his peas were gone. Asa pointed to the pan and asked if he wanted some more. I said that Asa had made a great observation and that maybe Daddy did need some more peas. I however (being such a loving wife) did not give James any peas since he really doesn't like them. It was very funny that Asa recognized that James wasn't eating peas. I know that this conversation will continue at different levels in the future.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

It's Happened Again!

Yes, that's right. Another round of mastitis. I'm miserable. But I'm very glad that James has been home with me the last two days. Now that I have some antibiotics I'm hoping that I'll be on the mend very soon.

On a side note, we noticed Sunday that Asa had bite marks on his arm. I guess someone bit him in the nursery? I thought he would have cried based on the imprint.

Friday, April 24, 2009

The One With the Broken Thumb

James got his cast off his hand/arm yesterday after three long weeks. He changed a few poopy diapers, but only when I wasn't home. I was ready for him to again have use of both his hands. When he got home from the doctor, he was sporting a brace. He doesn't have to wear it all the time, just when he's going to be using his hands a lot. The doctor said that it looks like things are healing. James said he could tell from the x-ray that it still wasn't quite right. And he says that it really hurts. He has the brace for three (3) more weeks and then goes back for another look.
The most interesting part of James' visit to the orthopaedic office is that it was take-your-child-to-work-day. There were a lot of little people "working." He noticed one little girl who had a cast on her arm. He found it ironic until he saw another kid with a cast. He then realized that they had put casts on all the kids' hands for the day. Ha! When it was time for James to get his x-ray, a little girl went in the room and told him that he could go have his hand x-rayed. Cute! Personally, I enjoy (endure) take-your-child-to-work-day every day.

I mowed the yard on Tuesday. I didn't realize how much work it is. I now have an increased level of respect for those who mow tons of yards every week. They deserve to be paid a lot!

Now when Asa wants something he says, "I need ______." Last night it was "I need a cookie."

Thursday, April 23, 2009

They Are Figuring Things Out

Judah can officially sit himself up. A couple evenings ago he was scootching around and then I noticed that he was sitting up. I asked James if he had helped Judah sit up and he said that he had been sitting by me the whole time. I still didn't believe that Judah could sit himself up. This morning Judah was sleeping in our bed. I heard some little baby sounds and decided to go check on him. He was sitting up on the bed looking around. I was impressed. Then later I had put him down for a nap in his crib. After a while he was still crying and I decided to rescue him. He was sitting up in his crib! Yeah! Now I just need to see him do it with my own eyes.

For a long time I have been saying that Asa would be into lots of trouble the day he figured out that he can use his ability to climb on a chair to reach things I don't want him to have. Well, that day is today. He has been taking pictures and magnets off the fridge and opening the pantry to help himself to snacks. Hmmm. I don't know what to do now.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

More Teeth

This was written on Tuesday....
So Thursday Judah had a temperature and I thought it was because of his new tooth coming in. Then on Friday Asa had a temperature. I figured that Judah must have had a bug the day before and the fever wasn't actually related to the new tooth trying to pop out. Asa has been in the crabbiest mood of his life the last few days. He actually hurt James' feelings last week because he said no and cried every time James talked to him. Yesterday was probably Asa's worst day. He was up early and was sad most of the day. We were invited to the park with some of our friends. I thought that would be just the thing to perk Asa up. Before we left I asked Asa if he wanted to go to the park. He said no and cried. It was so pitiful, he was sitting on the couch, watching some cartoon and crying. I decided to drag him to the park, still confident that it would lift his spirits. He honestly cried most of the way there but he finally did cheer up a bit. For the most part, he watched his friends play and ran around by himself. I've posted some cute pictures from the outing on flickr.

Today during a crying spell, I peeked in Asa's mouth and saw some new molars coming in. I hope that's why he's been so upset recently. I hope it's not really the "terrible two's." I don't know how to handle that.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Teeth

I knew from early in Asa's life that he is pretty laid back. I attribute that to the Light family. In my eyes, they are laid back people. Asa got teeth and it never really bothered him. He would suddenly grab my finger and I'd feel a new tooth in his mouth. Judah isn't doing as well with it. There is a tooth on the top of him mouth that is just trying to break through. I can only imagine the pain! He's been up more in the night this week. This morning he woke up early and was just crabby. He was whining while he played and was drooling like a fountain. He didn't want to nurse or really even be held. I finally put him back to bed and he just fell asleep. I hope that tooth breaks through soon so he will be Happy Judah again.

I'm throwing a bridal shower for some people from church this weekend. It's actually a couple's shower. I decided it would be fun to make cream cheese mints for the shower. I got instructions from my pastry-chef-sister-in-law Janeille and made the mints yesterday. Can you say YUMMO? It really was easy, just time consuming to make. I helped pass the time by watching some TV shows online. I also listened to part of a sermon James has been nagging me to hear for a long time. I'll have to finish it today I guess.

As you probably know, Asa LOVES Blue's Clues. I found a little notebook in my office supplies and gave it to him last week. For my family, it's one of those Hail Insurance Company notebooks that Dad used to carry around. Asa likes to carry around his notebook and a crayon. He wanted to take them to bed last night!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Asa Needs a Bigger Bed

Asa started out with no "lovies" about a year ago. At some point he started having a bear in his crib. It was the "State Farm Bear" from James' Aunt Shirley who is a State Farm agent out in Arizona. We added in a blue dog who we call Blue. Asa thinks it is the dog from Blue's Clues. Then we noticed that Asa liked laying on our pillows when he laid in our bed. I found a little pillow and put it in his bed. He usually covers up his head with his pillow. A while after we added the pillow, our friend Carol made a pillow for Asa with his name on it. I tried to replace the pillow, but he needed the the old one still. A few weeks ago we couldn't find State Farm Bear so we gave Asa a different bear. Guess what? Now he has to sleep with that one too. Then we found out that there was a recall on the State Farm bear. The eyes can fall off and pose a choking hazard. I mentioned something jokingly to Aunt Shirley. Saturday we got a box in the mail from her. There was a new bear for both boys. Again, I tried to replace the old bear, but Asa wouldn't have it. So now Asa sleeps with two pillows, three bears and a puppy.


One more thing. Yesterday after bath time Judah was holding the lotion bottle. Asa said to him: "No. I need that."