he is ok.

Last night was a typical night around our house. Hubs went off to work, I entertained the kiddos until bedtime finally and mercifully arrived and enjoyed a couple hours of editing and then headed off the bed to watch snl. It was a rerun, so I flipped it off and fell asleep.

ding-dong

11:30pm

Agh. I HATE it when our drunk neighbors randomly ring our doorbell in the middle of the night. I peek out our bedroom window and see what every firefighters wife dreads.

A big red engine, no lights on. Quiet.

My heart started racing as fumbled around to get to the door. Please God no.

I opened the door and there stood the rest of my husbands crew, without him.

No, no, no.

Thankfully, his lieutenant was quick to say "Your husband is ok. He is ok. He is in the ER, but it's minor... he just overheated after a fire."

They reassured me they would check on him, offered to find someone to help with the kids, gave me hug and went off the hospital to check on him with a promise to call me with an update. They would have called rather than scaring me to death, but they didn't have my number.

I just stood there shaking for a few minutes. So thankful to God he was ok, but so shaken by how quickly my world could have flipped upside down.

I looked around my house... total disarray. Boxes half packed, dirty sippy cubs in the sink, random toys and other kid stuff strewn all over the house. A mountain of folded laundry and a mountain of dirty laundry. My kids are sound asleep. Can you even take kids to the ER? I have no idea, the only reason we ever go to the ER is because of the kids. I scan the list of people on facebook chat. Several who live out of town, a single mom on the other side of town, and a photographer I barely know but whom lives very close. We don't have family in town, and only have a few close friends who I would unashamedly ask to come sleep on my couch in my messy house. Most of them are out of town for the weekend or have guests or would have to leave their own kids alone to come help. So, I called a friend, no answer..... but come on it's nearly midnight by now, we should all be asleep! So I prayed for peace, for an update, for his safety.

Within 5 minutes, the phone rang. It was my husband. He said he was fine, he sounded fine, he said not to worry, and not to come to the hospital, and not to wake the kids up. Thankfully, he really was fine and was home a couple hours later. He had been running on the treadmill at work for an hour (or more) when they got called to a fire. It wasn't a very big fire, but it still required them to do a bunch of physical hose dragging and whatever else they do on scene. He started feeling lousy, took a break, tried to go back to fighting the fire, but still felt lousy, got dizzy, and possibly blacked out a little. So, they took him to the hospital, ambulance and all, to get checked out. 2 bags of fluid later he was good to go. No big deal to him. He was just mad he had to take the rest of the shift off, he would have loved to go back to work.

I am ashamed my response was to worry about inconviencing others or what they would think of my less than tidy house rather than saying I need to be with my husband no matter what. Sometimes living life with other people means they see the messy side of your life. It might mean waking up a friend and seeing them stumble over to your house to watch your kids or letting go of the little stuff.

Anyways. He is ok. He slept till 10:30am (the kids and I snuck out to church) and looked like he had a bad hangover combined with the flu but is just tired. Another day and he will be back to normal.

*sorry, that was really long. if you read all of that you deserve a treat!

wipe balls

As often as our schedules allow, we sit down and watch Wipeout, wipe balls according to moo, as a family. Both our kids love it, and obviously we love watching people fall flat on their faces and generally make fools of themselves. My personal favorite "event" is probably the sweeper. It's always good for a laugh since it's not me enduring the embarrassment or hardship.

Lately though, I feel like I am getting pummeled by the emotional, mental, and physical "sweepers" in my life and it is wearing me out. No, it has worn me out. Too much of the crummy stuff, virtually none of the "good" stuff.

"I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." Job 3:26

Too much of me, too little of God.
Too much worry, not enough prayer.
Too much conflict, not enough peace.
Too many accusations, not enough grace.
Too much stuff, too little joy.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30

I am weary. I am burdened. And I am sick of it. So, I am going to led God lead again. :)

friend or foe

Moo and Ella Bella are starting to interact with each other more and more. Mostly it consists of Moo telling Ella Bella what she can and can not do and trying to take away things he deems are his or not for babies. Like baby toys and cheerios, those are clearly not safe for babies. Duh mom.

But there are those sweet and glorious moments few and far between when they actually enjoy each other. Like sharing a papa's old rocker while putting retro rubbermaid play kitchen toys on various parts of your head. Let the good times roll.

I have now really lived....

A couple months ago, my sister in law was visiting from the land o' corn. A common parenting adventure came up, one that in our 2.5 years of parenting had not experienced. A veteran parent, She was shocked by this and said:

"Well, you haven't really lived then!"

Well, dear sister in law, I have now really lived. This delightful dual bathing experience was brought to an abrupt end when for the first time ever the Moo man pooped in the tub. Even better, or worse, I inadvertently caught it on camera. I'll spare you THAT photo.

Ummm, hello, he is potty trained now! We almost made it 3 years without really living as parents.

hot date and dung stationary

Our friend R is a rock star and PAID for us to go on a date and watched our little anklebiters for FREE. I am pretty sure I get the better end of our friendship. We love you R! Thanks for being our kid's "local" aunt.

It's been eons since we went on a real get dressed up, wear uncomfortable shoes, eat fancy food date. Maybe it's never happened, but it certainly has happened since Moo was just a few weeks old we left him with M & J. And that was memorable, for them!

We are rusty at dating but had fun inspite of ourselves. We ate fancy food with the wrong silverware. No one grabbed food off my plate or threw a tantrum. Heaven. We didn't even talk about the kids, I don't think.

We topped the date off with a run to wags for formula and diapers. Back to reality.

When we got home, R gave us this very fun card made out of elephant poop.

elephant dung.

And it didn't even smell.

We were both greatly amused by the elephant on the pot in the card explanation.

Hot date indeed.

ten months

Ella Bella Boo turned 10 months yesterday, yikes... one is just around the bend! She is changing so much right now, it's very fun to watch. Just today I noticed she has cut FOUR new teeth bringing the grand total to NINE. Watch out kids she may not be fast but she has a nice set of chompers if she chooses to use them. Notice I said she may not be fast, but as of yesterday she is MOBILE! She is a butt scooter and backwards slider. We should have seen the butt scooting coming given her love of shakin' it. See the video post from earlier today. She is devouring any food we put in front of her. She particularly loves grabbing whole rolls and mulching them up.

One of the most "aww" things she has picked up is her new bff "bear-bear" who she squeals in delight when she sees and holds all night long. Hubs put her to bed without bear-bear the other night and oh she was heartbroken. She has been playing model this past month for a local mom's etsy shop. She is a great sport about it generally, although red hats make her cry. Again, see the video post to see how much she loves bear bear.

She is still huge, other babies her same age are much smaller. She is wearing 18m and 24m clothes. Ella Bella Chunka Monka indeed. She was 22lbs 9 oz and 29.5inch at her checkup last month, judging by the pile of clothes that don't fit... she has gotten longer since then.

Current raves:
-fresh peas and roasted carrots
-peeking under and over her bumper at moo across their room.
-being naked
-eating any fun thing off the floor
-music with a beat
-digging through boxes and baskets
-bath time, again naked
-trees in the wind
-talking baby talk with you

Current I'd rather not and ummmm nooooooooo:
-being buckled in her carseat
-having anything eaten off the floor being scraped out of her mouth
-not having our full attention
-waiting for her food to be made
-sharing with moo
-sippy cups, that would be a NO WAY
-standing, walking, crawling on all floors... she screams when you try.

faceplant

Faceplant off the back porch + no rain in months + tears = one very muddy little boy

1,057

2 years + 10 months + 2 weeks + 6 days = FREEDOM.

Of diapers, during the day, for one kid.

This past Monday we set out to get Moo on the pot. Hubs and I made a pact, no more diapers regardless of how bad it got. We broke out the gatorade and loaded him up. Monday was bad. We were out of underwear (12 pairs) by noon. He didn't seem to mind sitting in puddles of his own effluent. He raged at the potty. Tuesday was only marginally better. I was ready to throw in the towel.

And then Wednesday, something happened. It just clicked. He made it the until 5pm without any accidents or needing me to tell he needed to go. Poopoo, no problem. Pee, a breeze. Had to be a fluke.

Thursday, woke up DRY, For the first time EVER. No accidents until right before bed. AMAZING. He still has trouble when we leave the house and with "real" potties. We'll get there.

WOOHOO! No more diapers to buy! (remember we use cloth for Ella Bella) Only half the diapers to change WOOHOO! I am seeing why people say once you get them out of diapers you will never want another baby.

hold me to the sky

This one, this little man has been giving me fits lately. My will has been tested time and time again. He has my stubborn streak and he can fit for hours. We are still feeling around for a discipline that is a good fit for him and us. In the meantime we are just trying to stay sane!

This morning he climbed in my lab while we were playing on the floor. He just wanted to be there being loved by his mom. These days and moments are fleeting, both the good and the bad.

This week in bible study we talked about times in our lives when a scripture verse just came to us and this was one of these moments. As I looked on the precious little boy these words came to mind.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17

My son is not perfect, but he is definately a gift from God! God, please help me remember that in the midst of the trials of parenting him.

smooth

I often tease my husband mercilessly for his little life mishaps. For example, dressing Ella Bella in a sweater and t-shirt. Most of us would put the t-shirt on, then the sweater. Nope. Not my husband. Sweater then t-shirt. Poor guy.

God must be thinking I need to learn a little humility in this area.

For example, cutting decorative pine cones off your pre-lit Christmas tree is not the best idea. It may result in snipping the Christmas lights and mildly shocking yourself. Not that I would do that. I also wouldn't realize after cloth diapering for nearly 3 months that the container I have been putting dirty diapers in wasn't completely waterproof. Or a couple weeks ago when I took newborn photos of my friends baby and deleted them all before I left her house. Nooooooooo, not me. Oh well.

Well, now you know..... I am seriously flawed.

Back to regular, photo filled postings soon. And, gee this is suppossed to be a creative blog and all I do is yammer on about my kids. I promise some easy creative projects are coming.

keeping it simple

I am hoping for a simple Christmas. I want to enjoy these precious days of celebration with my sweet kids and family. I want to say yes to friends and family and enjoying the simple things in the holiday. Yes to long evenings of hot chocolate, good company, and imperfection.

But, can you feel it?

The ads, the craziness, the shopping frenzy, the frantic cookie making, the wrapping, the lines, the cursing (or is that just me?). It tries to suck me. It tempts me with alluring deals and superficial holiday merriment in the form of gaudy Christmas decorations.

The truth is this.

I don't need another thing.
My kids don't need another toy.
My husband doesn't need another gadget.

It was simple. One baby. One starry night. One stable. One promise fulfilled.

That is what I want my kids to learn about Christmas.

So, we will be keeping it simple.

happy birthday auntie m!

What???? My aunt is how old? Wow! That's shocking! Happy Birthday Auntie M! We hope you have a great turkey day.

anniversary

October 13, 2004

It was a cold, cloudy, and windy day and I had been at work watching some sweet kids from church and was on my way home. It was late afternoon and I was ready to head home and kick back. I was thinking about nothing in particular waiting for the green arrow to turn left.

The words came across my heart as clearly as anyone has ever spoken to me.

"Do not go in your house. Do not go inside."

I drove the last 1/4 mile to my house with fear rolling my mind. I immediately noticed our bedroom light was on through a broken window blind. It was off when I left. I creeped around the side of my house and saw our back window was busted in. NO NO NO. Not again. We had been robbed. Again. For the second time in 3 months, with our car being broken in, and a car window shot out between the two.

I ran to my neighbors to use their phone to call hubs and the cops. The neighbors offered to go in the house with me while we waited for the cops. My home, was trashed. The first time we had gotten robbed, it was very subtle. A few things were moved and the back door was kicked in but otherwise it was still my home. Not this time. Every drawer had been ransacked. Every room thoroughly tossed. All the gas stove burners were on as high as they could go. As if it was enough to violate our space they wanted to burn it down as well.

They didn't take much. My digital camera. My husband's wedding ring (he never, ever wore it), his school backpack, $40 in small change, and my husband's mountain bike. Amazingly, the one drawer they had not riffled through contained my brand new laptop under a pile of sheets.

My sense of security was shattered. I refused to be at home by myself for awhile. I rang the doorbell repeatedly before I would go into the house when I was by myself. We boxed up anything remaining of any value and stored in a friend's garage. We got a giant doberman a couple days after being robbed so I would be less fearful. We took the advice of the cops and let our lawn get messier and threw some kids toys around the yard. We removed all insignia of our college off our cars and pad locked all the gates in and out of our yard. We put our house on the market and ultimately decided to not sell.

Slowly the fear as gone away. It still comes with the darkness of night sometimes or a loud crash in the alley. I would never imagined we would be living in the same home 4 years later. By the grace of God, we have had no more break ins and have been blessed with some wonderful neighbors who keep a watchful eye on our home when we are here and when we are away.

vomit filled ear

Anyone need a garage band name? How about Vomit Filled Ear? It has a nice ring to it...

We took advantage of the home school day out at our local corn maize, making it FREE for us to go. We love free, and normally it would be $16 for us to go! Moo wheezed his little heart out as he ran through the hole maze. He really wanted to join up with one of the mega families there and be one of 8. Sorry bud. Ella Bella pulled her hat over her face and snoozed the morning away.

We also went to the apple butter festival whole Hubs was working. Our dear friend R spoils my kids rotten and teaches them all about the world around them. She chased Moo through the orchard and caught a frog for him. They fed goats and sheep and threw apples at each other. I am so thankful for how she just adores my kids. We adore her too! NAd yes, i do dress my children in ridiculous attire. It's fun!

parenting truth 987

Your baby will always have a blow out in the brand new outfit, never the old hand me downs.

civility

Today, hubs stayed with the kids so I could as he says "buy high quality items for low cost." It's a treat to be able to go out on a weekday sans kids and really think about what I am purchasing. Yes, I got some sweet deals. Perhaps more on that later.

Normally, I hate shopping at Target if I am using any kind of coupon. They usually accuse me of running a black market coupon operation and stealing from there store by wanting to save .50 on a box of cereal. Grrr. However, there is one older gentleman who works as a cashier and he is pure sunshine. I always get in his line because he is so content to just be. To be there scanning all my "crap" and not even batting an eye as I hand him a dozen coupons. I want to come across as that, Content. Happy. Fulfilled.

I also went to our high end grocer today. We don't normally shop there because it's expensive and their sale items are still usually more than Walmart. Shopping there is just about as fun as grocery shopping can be. Lots of great food, beautiful displays, samples, and very friendly cashiers and cart escorts. I was waiting in line to checkout and the woman in front of me was on a tirade. She had bought a huge cart full of brand name items, easily $200 worth of items. And she was yelling. Yelling at the sweet cashier and the cart escort. Hollering and carrying on to a manager. Wow she was mad. She was so mad.

Because the &*%$#@#$ grocery store didn't have generic pop-tarts in double chocolate fudge cookie.

Yep. She was berating people because of the lack of variety in generic pop tarts. She left and I proceeded to pay for my groceries which took quite a while. The cart escort came back and was really shaken, apparently she had continued to holler all the way to her car about pop-tarts. Pop-tarts.

I promise this all has a point.

It has made me think about the kind of customer I am, and the kind of person I am. My son has the book No Biting and it covers the basics. Don't bite your friends. Bite an apple. Don't kick the Dog. Kick a ball. He loves that book. He has it memorized. But he doesn't LIVE it. I have a book that gives me great advice on how to live. It's my Bible, passed down to me from my sister. I love that book, yet it often sits on my shelf ignored and dusty when the challenges of life come up. I read it, sometimes. I feel like I don't LIVE it though.

I want to LIVE it.

I want people to see Christ in me, as I see it in the cashier at Target. I don't want to be so focused on earthly things that I am screaming about pop-tarts.

family portrait

I have been wanting to do a family portrait for several months, this is not what I had in mind.....


Not exactly what I had in mind. This is the Moo's idea of our apparently dysfunctional family. Upon closer inspection you will find that my father is missing a nose and a thumb while having a horrible eye brow dye job and my mother is a prom dress animal wearing teeny bopper wearing lace up tennis shoe tanks. My husband is apparently a big time player cheating on me with my near identical twin while I stand by. She is only referred to as "not papa". No idea who "girl moo" is or why he joined the fam. I do like that I am really skinny with long luxurious hair and am very stylishly dressed while carrying Ella Bella. Also notice that my son finds it completely acceptable that babies be drug around in wagons. No idea where he got the idea that was ok.

And yes, my son plays with Barbies.

*edited to add: None of this was staged, not the outfits the names, or the "posing"

friday night live

A few photos from an outdoor concert and BBQ our church has every August. Moo got to ride a "train" repeatedly and Ella Bella got to sleep on someone's shoulder meaning they were very happy little kiddos. Except for the photo of Ella Bella above, when she decided it was high time I feed her. I love that she prefers a good pout to a cry! I wonder how much time she spends awake in her crib at night making that face waiting for me to rescue her.

end of an era

Today is my last day as a traditional stay at home mom. No, I am not going back to work! Hubs finishes his training tomorrow and then begins a crazy shift schedule that will take some getting used to. But, he will be home during the day 4-5 days a week! Please pray for lots of GRACE as we adjust to living with each other again. I am not even kidding! For pretty much the entirety of our marriage, we have seen very little of each other and since Moo was born I have been the "on" parent except for occasional weeknights and a few hours on the weekends. We are so excited that he will get to have a more active role in our kiddos lives, but wow... there are gonna be some fights!

Also, sorry for the lack of crafty updates.... this being a sorta craft blog and all. I busted my sewing machine good just as I was finishing a large stack of hooter hiders*, burp rags, hooded towels, and baby legs when bam I broke this little tiny piece that is absolutely essential to my machine working and me not "mom" cursing like a sailer. The above photo is of a hooter hider and pouch sling I made as a gift for my friend A this past month. I'll dig around and find the tutorials if anyone is interested in directions...

*If the term hooter hider offends you, how about knocker blocker, or titty tent.... thats just for you Uncle D, hope you guys have a great time at the wedding!

new

I slept in this morning.

The kiddos did not. I was a bit of an olympic insomniac last night and din't fall asleep till 3:30am. I figured Ella Bella would holla' and wake me up between 7:30 and 8. WRONG! I woke up on my own at 9:20 to only hear the faintest of cooing from her and chattering from the Moo Man.

I open the door, turn and look in Moo's crib. Moo is dancing in his "emperor's new clothing" gleefully saying "Where the diaper?". I find a very dry diaper crumpled on the floor and a completely DRY crib and bedding. Ummm, maybe we should look into that potty training thing. Seeing as my very unpotty trained toddler went from 8pm to 9am without a diaper, apparently...

about 10 minutes later I was reminded Ella Bella is certainly not ready to be potty trained when she shot poo all over me, her, and the boppy while I fed her. Lovely.