Sunday's Symphony

Sunday our local Symphony had a children's event so we decided to take the children. I must admit I was fairly apprehensive about taking them but it proved to be a wonderful afteroon. Before the symphony they had a "petting zoo" with the instruments so Emma got to play all of them. She seemed to really enjoy herself. I was so proud because after watching Baby Einstein's Meet the Orchestra she knew all of the instruments and even what section they belonged in. I could tell the performers helping her were impressed as well. After the petting zoo the symphony performed and Emma had a wonderful time. She enjoyed all of the songs, "read me" the program, and clapped politely at the end of each piece. She also showed me how to bow like the maestro did. She is so cute. Poor Cal was just along for the ride on this one but he seemed to be interested looking at everything and was very well behaved. Playing the drum

Emma with a small violin...the funny thing about this was that she slung the violin under her chin like she's been doing this for years.

Awesome Website

I would like to draw your attention to this new website I found, 6pm.com It is amazing! There are a ton of awesome deals! I have not bought anything from there so I don't know how their return policy is but they have a ton of really detailed pictures, which I love. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Too Surreal To Talk About

I have not mentioned the new events in our life on here because I simply have not wanted to talk about them: it just doesn't seem real. I keep waiting for someone to pull the rug out from underneath us and for the walls of the World to crumble before us. But alas, this still hasn't happened. Nick got a new job: a REALLY good new job. Excellent benefit package and he will be making more plus he will actually be doing what he wants to do. They will send him back to school if he wants to...which may mean we would move to Rome for 6 months. In taking the new job we are needing to turn in the company car, so we bought a new SUV. All of this is amazing to me and what we have been praying for for months. Seriously, his interview process with this company started when I was in the hospital having Calvin and he is now 9 months old. I know this is God answering prayer and working in our lives but I can't help but feel that it is just too good to be true. How do you get past this? I have even been carrying somewhat of a chip on my shoulder and being kind of angry about it. Nick told me to knock it off because it isn't too good to be true. I am working on rejoicing: Really, I am. I know that God is amazing, I guess sometimes it is a hard bite to swallow to realize he is this amazing, you know?

Our First Date

I would like to tell you about our first date. It wasn’t a date with just Nick and I, so it wasn’t our first official date, but it was a double date, or a group date you may even say. We went bowling together, along with my roommate Jess and Nick’s friend Brady. I was so flipping excited…this boy actually likes me! So we went and what do you think Nick did? He flirted with my roommate the entire time! What a little weasel! He defends this by saying that he didn’t know me that well and that it wasn’t actually a date. Creep. After bowling we went back to the dorm to watch a movie and while we were watching a movie he refused to hold my hand. Now if you didn’t know a girl why would you try to hold a girl’s hand? I just don’t think that his story is adding up. Anywho, he later told me that my hand was sweaty so he didn’t want to hold it. Thanks a lot mister. So that is what happened on our first date…just wanted to set the story straight. If it sounds like we were on a double date to you, please let me know.

Christmas Shopping

In other news, we are done with our Christmas shopping for the kids. We are also almost done with shopping for all but three people…I am so excited to be this close to being finished. Actually now that I think about it I haven’t gotten anything for Nick either but I will... I promise. How do you do Christmas Shopping? Last year I made everyone Christmas gifts which I loved doing but I couldn't think of any good ideas for what to make so I decided to buy everyone something. Next year I am going to be making things though as I have thought of a good idea that is going to take a ton of time so I will need the entire year to finish. I say this now but have a sneaky suspicion that I won't be able to finish...wishful thinking, wishful thinking...that's what I need. I just think it is really important to teach kids that Christmas isn't all about getting stuff that people buy you...its about showing your love because God showed His love for us. I had a problem with this lesson while shopping for the kids. Nick wanted to get the kids a big gift (not an elephant or something, but something that would be around for a while) while I wanted to get them a bunch of little presents to fill out the tree. I finally saw things from Nick's perspective...if the kids don't have tons of presents under the tree now then they won't come to expect tons of presents under the tree. We got them a train table with a train and then a few small gifts. So when you get a chance, tell me about your Christmas shopping. Do you make homemade gifts? Do you buy your kids lots of stuff? What is your take on Christmas shopping?

I Heart DSW

I would like to tell you again how much I love DSW! I got a pair of Kenneth Cole Reaction shoes there and spent under $20.00. And since I shop there so much they had sent me $20.00 in reward certificates to use so I had to get something else to even get to $20.00…pretty neat huh?

Pumpkin Picking

Yesterday afternoon we piled into the car to go pumpkin picking. It was such a fun time! We went out to the actual patch to pick our carving pumpkin and then we came back in to the little kid area to pick some other pumpkins. They also had a petting zoo and all kinds of activities. Afterwards we lunched with Nick's parents which was really fun.

Proud to be cancer-free

Just in case you were wondering…I don’t have cancer. A few weeks ago I started having some problems. The same type of problems that my mom had when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. So I went to the doctor and when I told him that my mom was 32 when she had been diagnosed he asked me why I had never had a colonoscopy. Um, because I didn’t know I needed to? That is my truthful answer after all; I had no idea. So in for blood work and a colonoscopy. I know all of those things are pretty standard run of the mill things except for after learning that my father had had gallbladder and stomach cancer the doctor informed me that “there is a very strong possibility that we are looking at cancer here.” Yikes. A million things ran through my head: would I be alive to help Emma through her first heart ache? Would I be around to see the kids off to Kindergarten even? Would Nick remarry? A million thoughts ran through my head as I cried in Nick’s arms. “We’ll fix this, you are going to be fine.” He promised. So this past week everything was done. I was happy to find out that my blood work showed everything to be normal: calcium, normal; electrolytes, normal; blood count, normal; iron, normal. And I was thrilled when the doctor met with us after the colonoscopy to tell us that they found nothing…my colon is squeaky clean. Yeah! Praise God! I know God has a plan but I was having a really hard time understanding how me not being with my babies was part of it. And fortunately it isn’t in the plan…at least not now. But one of the things this did teach me was that you really never know. I mean, I may be scared of getting cancer but I may get hit by a drunk driver on the way to work and never have seen that coming. We never know when our final hour is my friends. So we need to live every day with everything we have, and to represent The One who gave us everything we have.

October at the Beach

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to take one last visit to the beach. We had such an amazing time. We didn't go swimming but we had a great time exploring and dipping our feet in. This was the first time for Calvin to stick his feet in the water and he was not a very big fan of it. Emma enjoyed showing Calvin feathers and shells and what everything looks like while Calvin just enjoyed trying to eat the sand. I won't tell you that we may have been there for a photo shoot for a certain photo for a certain reason. I am so blessed with our family and I am so happy we were able to make it to the beach during the Autumn months!

God is Bigger than The Economy

Let’s face it everyone, times are tough right now. Sunday we came home from a family event and Nick and I basically had a giant meltdown together. Nick and his brother fixed our car last week and now it is making a different funny noise: more money for that. We got home and saw things in our house that need done as well as things in our house that we would love to have done but there is just no extra money right now. I am having some medical tests done and silly old money is what I am worrying about with them: I hope we can afford this. But God is good and His love endures forever. I must remember that. I must. I know that God will provide for us. I know people who are going out and getting second and third jobs to survive this and yet I only work part-time. As hard as it seems in day to day life we really are blessed. Nick was blessed enough to survive the budget cuts of the city: apparently they think they really do need him! He has a job and I have a part-time job and we are able to pay our bills, put food on the table, diapers on our baby boy’s behind and heat our home. We aren’t short in our bills and we do have at least a tiny bit extra to call our own. On top of all of that if we ever do struggle we are blessed with a fantastic support system of people we can turn to for help. Plus we both have our health that if Nick and I needed to go and mow lawns somewhere, we could go and do that. I know that times are tough but we need to try our best to look at the silver lining to our economy cloud. God is bigger than our economy! He’s bigger than that big bill you may not be able to pay this month or the groceries you may be dreading to have to purchase. Lets not rely on good luck or budgets or anything else…lets solely rely on Him to work everything out for us.

Baby Items

When you are pregnant nowadays you go to the huge store and register. There is so much crap that you feel a little overwhelmed. When I was pregnant with Emma there were girls I knew who were pregnant at the same time as me; as I poured over their registries I felt so inadequate because I was missing so much stuff off of my registry. However I got the last laugh because so much stuff you just DON'T NEED! People please let me in on a secret...the baby business is a business just like everything else...Christmas time, old people scams, back to school. Here is a short list of things I think you should leave off of your list:

Wipes Warmer: nice except that several have been recalled for setting people's houses on fire. Do you want the fire started in the nursery? Probably not. Also it just makes the baby scream even louder when you are changing your baby in a public bathroom with cold wipes

Bumbo chair: Trust me, they will learn to sit up when they are good and ready. Otherwise you can buy them some type of custom-made pillow to support them while in their college classes

Robes/towels/washcloths in gender specific colors: okay this one I learned the hard way or should I say Calvin has learned the hard way by having pink towels...sorry buddy. Somethings can just be white or yellow

Outfits in 0-3 month size: at this size all they can really wear are p.j's and you'll be so tired that you won't want to be a wardrobe coordinator anyway

Things Called Burpcloths: grab a blanket or get some cloth diapers because the burpcloths aren't absorbant and are small. Socks, dishcloths, anything begins to look appealing to catch spit up when you are covered in it

Travel Systems: Again I bought into this one because of the convenience of the putting the carseat in the stroller. But both of my kids were too big for the carseat by the time they were 6 months old and lets face it, those strollers are freaking enormous!!! Ours is nicely stored in the attic while our umbrella stroller is used on a daily basis.

A Bassinett: both of my kids hated ours...which is a shame because its so cute!

Please note that if you have these I am very happy for you. I am sure they are fine items; I am just sharing my opinions and what has worked for us. I hope this has given you some direction if you were in need of any.

Orchard Fun

Saturday we went to pick apples at a nearby orchard which was so much fun for Emma. In Puggles she had been learning that God made the trees. To tie into that we thought we would teach her about apples since they come from trees and now is a perfect time with us smack dab in the middle of Fall. We colored apples we talked about apples, we love apples. I had one day I planned on teaching Emma where apples come from. She'd say they come from the store and I would explain that they come from trees and God made the trees so God makes apples! But when I asked her where apples come from she said "God!" So that lesson plan was tossed out the window as she had jumped ahead of me. Another day I tried to tell her there is a surprise in the center of an apple. Before I could even cut an apple open she was telling me that there is a star in the middle of apples as if this is just soooo yesterday. Luckily though picking apples wasn't old to her so I got her with that one!

My happy campers ready to go apple picking!

The first apple...she was so proud of herself! Amid the pumpkins

Someone loves apples...and someone's Mommy loves this hat!

Uncle Monkey's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Uncle Monkey! We are so glad to have him back home. Emma thinks that he is cureall for everything. When Calvin is crying he must want him, when Emma is grumpy she wants him to read to her. We love him being home and are so excited we get to celebrate his Birthday with him! Happy day to the Birthday Boy!

Vacation

Vacation was amazing! We went to the Cabin that we go to every two years and had such an amazing time. Emma was old enough this time to know what was going on and had an opinion about things. It was so fun to be with friends and family and just relax. We took Emma on a pony ride and she had a really fun time; to my surprise she wasn’t scared at all! We ate at our favorite pizza place down there and had a wonderful meal. Afterwards this photo was taken of Emma and her Daddy, isn’t it precious?

A perfect fall day. Afterwards we decided to go to the Lodge and play some checkers and look who fell asleep…adorable!

Saturday my parents and sisters watched the kids so Nick and I could sneak away. We had a fantastic meal at one of our favorite restaurants, and we got to make a memory by getting completely lost on the way!

There was a new waterpark inside of the Lodge which was just so much fun for us and the kids. Each night when the kids were tucked in bed we left them with their grandparents so Nick and I could bond in the hot tub. Ah, just heavenly.

All in all we had a fantastic time. Nick’s mom let us drive her car so we’d have more room and because there was a part of our car needing to be fixed that we didn’t have time to repair before leaving. It was an amazing time and I will always cherish the time we had of getting to spend time together.

blah says me

photo courtesy of readingeagle.com

Sorry again that I have stepped away from the computer. We returned from vacation last week and I have been a little out of sorts since then. First of all dealing with all of the unpacking and mounds of laundry that inevitably come with vacationing. I am done washing all of the laundry but putting it away is a whole other story. My spirit has also been a little down since returning because being on vacation made me realize how much I want to stay at home with my kids. I feel as though I am missing everything with just the few short hours I work a week. I know I work only part-time and I know I am home by the early afternoon but working and worrying takes so much out of my day and out of me personally. I guess I have just been in one of those funks you get in when you hate your situation but can’t really do anything about it. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to make it so I could stay home. Become an Avon lady? Sell jewelry? Ebay? All are viable solutions I guess but none that would make it an option to put my notice in at work now, you know? So I continue to keep on with the work. The problem with this whole funk is that it has affected everything. I look at our messy home and think that if I didn’t have to work I would be able to clean but since I do work I just don’t have the time. And because I work I don’t want to find the time…I apparently am okay rolling around in my own filth playing with my children. I know all of this is jibbersh but that is the way I am feeling. Does anyone out there identify with this? Does anyone have any rockstar idea for being able to stay at home?