A LOT has happened!!
I can hardly believe it's been so long since my last post.
Elijah is 5 1/2. He started Kindergarten in August, just two weeks after we moved away from the Chicago area to west central Illinois.
Caleb is 27 months, or just over 2 years. He's showing off his terrible 2's in grand fashion and keeping us on our toes more than Elijah ever did at this age! Not sure if it's the move, transitions and adjustments, or what but it's been rough.
I turned 40 and Tim turned 41 this year. We've officially passed over the "young" years and are starting to feel old with each new crack in our knees, lol!
I went through a season after Caleb was born where writing and having time to myself just were not happening and mostly I was okay with that. I've not kept up with writing in his baby book or his memory journal, haven't printed pictures, and I haven't finished any scrapbooks. That is so unlike me!
Part of me gets saddened at that thought, but the other part of me knows why it's been that way.
It's been a really, really, really big couple of years for us.
When Elijah was born over 5 (!!) years ago now, life was slower. Was it hard adjusting to life with a newborn? Absolutely. Was I stressed out beyond recognition? For sure. But I worked at home half of my hours and in the office the other half. That meant 3 days at home with Elijah, juggling work in whenever he napped, when daddy was home, when Elijah went to bed, on the weekends, etc.
When Elijah was 2, that all changed. And after 6 months, it changed again. And it was that way until July when I resigned that job and am now working for a different organization, fully from home and just part-time.
Resigning from that job of 17 years was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but for the very best reasons. I did it for my boys... for a better life for them and with them. I was so burnt out on so much time commuting and them spending so much time at daycare. We knew with Elijah starting Kindergarten that some big changes would have to happen so after a lot of prayer for well over a year, God opened the doors for us to move to be near my family and to slow down the pace of our lives.
As we adjust to our new lives in a smaller city, we're just immensely thankful for the ways God is teaching us so much through every decision and change, every new experience and adjustment. We are loving being near my family-- my mom & stepdad are just 3 minutes down the road, my dad and my brother & his family are just 10 minutes away, and everything we need is so close. Elijah is in a very small, private Christian school that fits him and his current needs perfectly (his class combines pre-K and there's a total of 7 kids in the combined class!), and Caleb splits his days away from me between my mom and my cousin. It's FANTASTIC!!!!!
I've literally had to "detox" from all of the stress with lots of extra sleep and rest after we moved and settled in. It's still ongoing as we continue the transition, but we are so grateful for this new chapter!! Please pray with us though as we continue to nail down certain things like doctors, chiropractors, etc. That's been a bit of a challenge.
We miss our Chicago family, my bestie and her family, dear friends, our church, and being surrounded by a variety of activities and resources. BUT there's so much more here. Including a lot more time with our boys... and though that's also had its immense difficulties, we wouldn't trade it.
I know not many people blog anymore or follow along here, but I wanted to post anyway and use this again as a bit of a journal.
Many blessings to you & yours this Christmas season! Thanks for reading. :)
Showing posts with label General Life Updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Life Updates. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Sunday, May 3, 2015
What Stitches, Cancer, and Broken Fridges Teach You about Life
There are these young boys named Chase & Joshua that have had a grip on my heart for some time now. They are strong, brave, childhood cancer fighters.
Their parents and siblings are my heroes.
They've endured unfathomable pain, hardship, fatigue, and instability. They've had countless doctor and hospital visits. Joshua is now years past it and can hardly remember those days since he was 2. Chase is still fighting the battle of not knowing how long this remission will last or if the tumor that he still has will grow and he'll need more treatment.
Their little bodies have been through A.LOT.
This past week as we were already spiraling from some hard news the week before, and as everything seemed to fall apart left and right from our fridge breaking to Tim's car needing hundreds of dollars worth of work to Elijah twisting his ankle... we then had a bad accident on Monday with Elijah that sent us scrambling even worse.
There was a lot of blood. A lot of screaming. 1 ER visit. 4 stitches on his lower lip. 2 bumped back teeth. A pediatric dentist specialist. A chiropractor. Phone calls. Checking on insurance. Tears. Worries.
Hard news at work. Hard days in our marriage as we were both on the edge of exhaustion and stress. Financial concerns.
Thinking I was pregnant for a couple weeks only to find out we were wrong.
So then, the hormones. Oy. Right alongside Elijah's accident.
Let's just say, I'm really worn down. But in a different way than I have been before. Because God keeps showing me and reminding me of his truths, and I'm listening, feeling, and clinging to him.
Stitches.
4 of them. In his lip. And he still managed to give high fives and blow kisses to the nurses and doctors as we left the ER.
As we hovered over him in that ER, holding him down, trying to help keep him calm, reassuring him that he was going to be okay... I thought of all those parents. Parents like Chase and Joshua's. Parents who have to fight daily and pray constantly that their child will be okay today. That they won't have anything else happen to them. That the world would stop spinning long enough that they could just hold their child and know that it wouldn't be the last time.
I looked at the machines and prayed about the kids I know who are fighting some major illness or cancer and just wanting to have a normal life again.
As I've been thinking over this week and Elijah's two teeth that got knocked out of place, I have agonized and tortured myself about that moment he smacked into the corner of the coffee table and wondered what I could have done differently. How else I could have protected him from that hardship. How I'd give anything to go back in time and make it different for him.
Do the parents of kids fighting cancer deal with those questions every day? How do they face such horrific hardship? Especially those who do not have our hope in Christ?!
I cannot fathom it. And it's painful.
Our pastor and a team from our church have been on a tour (though they just got back) called Risen for the Nations (#risen4nations). They were going around to other church plants from our church around the world in Israel, Malyasia, Kenya, Nepal, and Haiti. They had just left Nepal within less than a week before the earthquake. In Haiti they still saw the devastation of the earthquake there years ago.
They were showing highlight videos. Slums. Poverty. Starving kids. Dark places.
And our fridge broke.
Frustrating days while trying to save money and having to eat out constantly because we can't have fresh food and I don't have the time or energy to figure out other ways around it. Eating anywhere that has kids meals with milk so that Elijah could at least get that into him.
Yet, we are full. We have all that we need and more.
I see these videos and I ache for the people who struggle to even have shelter and food for their families at all. I can't help but weep over the kids who fight cancer and wonder if they'll ever live normally.
I look at my child's busted lip and bumped teeth that make me sad and wish it had never happened to him because this could mess up his mouth for the rest of his life.
And then I remember I have NOTHING to really worry about. God is in control, he is sovereign, he cares for me and for Elijah. There are simply worse things in the world.
Way worse.
I felt so ridiculous complaining at all about our fridge... yet it was admittedly so hard and inconvenient for us, in part because the timing with everything else was just so terrible.
God wants our best. All he asks is that we obey and listen. I have to say I've been whining with him lately. And I know I can't stand it when my son is constantly whining.
Oh how God must view us. So thankless. So discontent. So whiney.
I'm learning a lot these days about life. About who my real friends are. About who I can trust. About God, kids, marriage, jobs, future dreams, life. About laughter and sunshine. About how our hard really isn't that hard when we get our perspective right.
I don't want stitches, cancer, or broken appliances to get in the way of who God wants me to be. So by God's grace, I'm learning and growing.
Tomorrow is a new day. Full of promise and hope.
Their parents and siblings are my heroes.
They've endured unfathomable pain, hardship, fatigue, and instability. They've had countless doctor and hospital visits. Joshua is now years past it and can hardly remember those days since he was 2. Chase is still fighting the battle of not knowing how long this remission will last or if the tumor that he still has will grow and he'll need more treatment.
Their little bodies have been through A.LOT.
This past week as we were already spiraling from some hard news the week before, and as everything seemed to fall apart left and right from our fridge breaking to Tim's car needing hundreds of dollars worth of work to Elijah twisting his ankle... we then had a bad accident on Monday with Elijah that sent us scrambling even worse.
There was a lot of blood. A lot of screaming. 1 ER visit. 4 stitches on his lower lip. 2 bumped back teeth. A pediatric dentist specialist. A chiropractor. Phone calls. Checking on insurance. Tears. Worries.
Hard news at work. Hard days in our marriage as we were both on the edge of exhaustion and stress. Financial concerns.
Thinking I was pregnant for a couple weeks only to find out we were wrong.
So then, the hormones. Oy. Right alongside Elijah's accident.
Let's just say, I'm really worn down. But in a different way than I have been before. Because God keeps showing me and reminding me of his truths, and I'm listening, feeling, and clinging to him.
Stitches.
4 of them. In his lip. And he still managed to give high fives and blow kisses to the nurses and doctors as we left the ER.
As we hovered over him in that ER, holding him down, trying to help keep him calm, reassuring him that he was going to be okay... I thought of all those parents. Parents like Chase and Joshua's. Parents who have to fight daily and pray constantly that their child will be okay today. That they won't have anything else happen to them. That the world would stop spinning long enough that they could just hold their child and know that it wouldn't be the last time.
I looked at the machines and prayed about the kids I know who are fighting some major illness or cancer and just wanting to have a normal life again.
As I've been thinking over this week and Elijah's two teeth that got knocked out of place, I have agonized and tortured myself about that moment he smacked into the corner of the coffee table and wondered what I could have done differently. How else I could have protected him from that hardship. How I'd give anything to go back in time and make it different for him.
Do the parents of kids fighting cancer deal with those questions every day? How do they face such horrific hardship? Especially those who do not have our hope in Christ?!
I cannot fathom it. And it's painful.
Our pastor and a team from our church have been on a tour (though they just got back) called Risen for the Nations (#risen4nations). They were going around to other church plants from our church around the world in Israel, Malyasia, Kenya, Nepal, and Haiti. They had just left Nepal within less than a week before the earthquake. In Haiti they still saw the devastation of the earthquake there years ago.
They were showing highlight videos. Slums. Poverty. Starving kids. Dark places.
And our fridge broke.
Frustrating days while trying to save money and having to eat out constantly because we can't have fresh food and I don't have the time or energy to figure out other ways around it. Eating anywhere that has kids meals with milk so that Elijah could at least get that into him.
Yet, we are full. We have all that we need and more.
I see these videos and I ache for the people who struggle to even have shelter and food for their families at all. I can't help but weep over the kids who fight cancer and wonder if they'll ever live normally.
I look at my child's busted lip and bumped teeth that make me sad and wish it had never happened to him because this could mess up his mouth for the rest of his life.
And then I remember I have NOTHING to really worry about. God is in control, he is sovereign, he cares for me and for Elijah. There are simply worse things in the world.
Way worse.
I felt so ridiculous complaining at all about our fridge... yet it was admittedly so hard and inconvenient for us, in part because the timing with everything else was just so terrible.
God wants our best. All he asks is that we obey and listen. I have to say I've been whining with him lately. And I know I can't stand it when my son is constantly whining.
Oh how God must view us. So thankless. So discontent. So whiney.
I'm learning a lot these days about life. About who my real friends are. About who I can trust. About God, kids, marriage, jobs, future dreams, life. About laughter and sunshine. About how our hard really isn't that hard when we get our perspective right.
I don't want stitches, cancer, or broken appliances to get in the way of who God wants me to be. So by God's grace, I'm learning and growing.
Tomorrow is a new day. Full of promise and hope.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Rough Weekends and Family Photos
It was a rough weekend and we barely survived it.
I struggled with severe anxiety on Friday.
But we had a great date night.
Saturday I hit my head HARD on our table and I got dizzy.
But I spoke with two doctors who are incredible
and it reminded me of our broken and sensitive our
finite human bodies are, and just how much we all
need Jesus. Daily.
I was required to rest and not drive for 24 hours just in case
concussion-like symptoms appeared.
But gratefully they didn't. I was okay.
And reminded how important life is
and how careful we must be with what God has given to us.
Hubby was gone much of Saturday, serving at church so willingly
and picking up two items we'd purchased online super cheap from two
area suburbs. We missed him dearly especially with my head injury.
But we were reminded just how much we cherish him and his
helpfulness & sacrifices. And we are so grateful to be rid now of said-table
that I hit my head on, now that we have a new organization center for our kitchen,
and we have an incredible new climbing/slide/play station in our family room
for Elijah. Both items are fantastic additions to our home for only $30.
So grateful and humbled by what we have.
My mom called a couple hours after lunch with the bad, distressing news
that my stepbrother had been found dead.
No reason. 45 years old. Tragic.
But God has given comfort to so many in the midst of this tragedy.
Please pray for Jay's 3 kids, 3 sisters, my stepdad and mom,
nieces & nephews, etc. Please pray for people to come to
know and love Jesus from this.
Late Sunday afternoon, we managed to squeeze in taking family photos with our tripod and remote.
And if you get our Christmas cards, you'll get to see the rest of the good ones. ;)
It was nice to be able to end the weekend on a high note!
Rough weekends happen. It makes for long weeks sometimes.
But God is there in the midst of all of it.
It could certainly be better. It can always be worse.
And we are so grateful and humbled by his love and goodness to us.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Long Overdue Update
Well hello there, friends!
It's been a while. {Except for my two quick posts about Elijah's monthly changes, which I did after writing this one. So please bare with me.} We've been sick a TON this winter and spring, and it seems to just unceasingly continue to linger, despite all my attempts to sanitize, bleach, and rid our home of these nasty bugs. So when I say we've been sick a ton, I really mean it's been nearly non-stop since November. And we've just added Elijah getting the spreading-like-wildfire hand, foot, mouth disease from his daycare center. This happened while we were traveling last weekend. Good times.
All part of parenting a wee one, with access to germs 3 days a week in daycare and church nursery. And that's okay, he's soooo worth it. But still, ughhh. So over it!!
Speaking of him, he's 11 months!!! He's growing and changing every day, and I'm just doing my best to soak it all in while juggling a million things. You know how it goes.
In the meantime I've been learning a lot about what's important. This blog has always been an outlet for me and a tangible way to express myself quickly and easily to a certain group of readers, though the list of readers has certainly altered with my topics now mainly focused on parenting.
And I used to really struggle with feeling guilty about that.
No more.
I'm putting a stop to my torturing myself to please people I've never met in real life. Certainly, no offense. And I miss getting to know everyone here. But as much as you want to keep some of your life the same... parenting does in fact deeply change who you are. It alters the very core of your being as you wrestle with the 24/7 care of a tiny little human being you still can't believe is in fact, yours.
That reality still strikes me out of the blue sometimes, and I just have to stop and stare. I'm so in awe of all that God has done in our lives. This little boy baffles me. I'm so amazed by him. By God's goodness in giving him to us. We don't deserve him. But we are soooo incredibly blessed by him!!
So anyway, time for an update from around here....
In the meantime since I've last posted, Elijah has outgrown his infant car seat and has moved up to bigger & better! Now he's also on the side instead of the middle, technically some say it's less safe that way but I'm not too worried. It's definitely helping my back!
He's had his first Easter!
He turned 10 months with big smiles, more crawling, more getting into things, more attempts and words, standing on his own for more seconds at a time, and still not very interested in table food! He smiles so much and lights up our lives, even when he's fussy. He loves to play peek-a-boo, plays by himself lots more, and loves to stand up anywhere he can.
We finally got Grandma time again for the first time since December, twice in just the past two weeks, hooray! We loveeee Grandma time!!
And ohhh how we love Spring. Our front tree blooms so beautifully in the Spring! We couldn't believe the storms that hit about a week after this was blooming, and less than a full 2 weeks later, it's just fully green now. Sad how fast it goes.
After this, we hung out around church for a bit, got a snack at the muffin/coffee counter, walked around, and an hour and a half later went to the 2nd church service at 11:15. Meaning Elijah went to the nursery and still didn't nap until we got to the car about 1:00. We let him sleep in the car for 25 minutes {with daddy's supervision} while the rest of us went into the restaurant for our lunch celebration and ordered lunch {and texted daddy to come in when the food was almost ready}. Gratefully Elijah had a really good late afternoon nap to finally recover from his busy day!! What a great day though!
More Grandma time and Elijah's first ride on a swing that Monday! He loved it!!
So that's it for now. We're still trying to survive this crazy hand-foot-mouth disease craziness. He's lots better than he was. The 103.8 fever on Tuesday night seemed to break the infection and after Tylenol, a doctor call, more fluids, and sleep, he was back to acting much more like himself on Wednesday! Praise God cuz we sure were missing our sweet and fun little boy!!
Please continue to pray for us, that we'd all soon be well for a good long season. I'd very much appreciate that! But I continue to be humbled and so grateful for Elijah, the lessons we're learning in parenting and in God's grace, and for God's love and patience with us even when we whine and complain after he gave us such an extraordinary gift!!
He didn't have to give us Elijah, but he did. And sick or not, we are so grateful and want to soak up every second!
It's been a while. {Except for my two quick posts about Elijah's monthly changes, which I did after writing this one. So please bare with me.} We've been sick a TON this winter and spring, and it seems to just unceasingly continue to linger, despite all my attempts to sanitize, bleach, and rid our home of these nasty bugs. So when I say we've been sick a ton, I really mean it's been nearly non-stop since November. And we've just added Elijah getting the spreading-like-wildfire hand, foot, mouth disease from his daycare center. This happened while we were traveling last weekend. Good times.
All part of parenting a wee one, with access to germs 3 days a week in daycare and church nursery. And that's okay, he's soooo worth it. But still, ughhh. So over it!!
Speaking of him, he's 11 months!!! He's growing and changing every day, and I'm just doing my best to soak it all in while juggling a million things. You know how it goes.
In the meantime I've been learning a lot about what's important. This blog has always been an outlet for me and a tangible way to express myself quickly and easily to a certain group of readers, though the list of readers has certainly altered with my topics now mainly focused on parenting.
And I used to really struggle with feeling guilty about that.
No more.
I'm putting a stop to my torturing myself to please people I've never met in real life. Certainly, no offense. And I miss getting to know everyone here. But as much as you want to keep some of your life the same... parenting does in fact deeply change who you are. It alters the very core of your being as you wrestle with the 24/7 care of a tiny little human being you still can't believe is in fact, yours.
That reality still strikes me out of the blue sometimes, and I just have to stop and stare. I'm so in awe of all that God has done in our lives. This little boy baffles me. I'm so amazed by him. By God's goodness in giving him to us. We don't deserve him. But we are soooo incredibly blessed by him!!
So anyway, time for an update from around here....
In the meantime since I've last posted, Elijah has outgrown his infant car seat and has moved up to bigger & better! Now he's also on the side instead of the middle, technically some say it's less safe that way but I'm not too worried. It's definitely helping my back!
He's had his first Easter!
He turned 10 months with big smiles, more crawling, more getting into things, more attempts and words, standing on his own for more seconds at a time, and still not very interested in table food! He smiles so much and lights up our lives, even when he's fussy. He loves to play peek-a-boo, plays by himself lots more, and loves to stand up anywhere he can.
We finally got Grandma time again for the first time since December, twice in just the past two weeks, hooray! We loveeee Grandma time!!
And ohhh how we love Spring. Our front tree blooms so beautifully in the Spring! We couldn't believe the storms that hit about a week after this was blooming, and less than a full 2 weeks later, it's just fully green now. Sad how fast it goes.
On Sunday, May 4th, we had Elijah dedicated to the Lord at our church. Since our church is so big, they don't have it as part of the regular service. Instead there's a separate dedication service in our assembly room where families are invited and the place does still get pretty full {probably holds about 100 people}, and it's lead by our campus pastor of family ministries {not our senior pastor}. Since we don't believe Elijah can be saved or baptized by any means of our own and instead needs to make that decision on his own when he's older, this is simply dedicating him... and us, really... to God and raising him according to God's commands.
We had an incredible amount of family supporting us and we are so grateful to those who came! We also got to see two friends dedicating their youngest kids the same day, and it was all really wonderful. It was handled so well and all of the family was impressed. We are so glad it went well and that Elijah is officially dedicated to God! It was a special day.
Grandparents
Standing up front with our fussy wiggle-worm {it was conveniently nap time}
So incredibly grateful for Pastor Marc and his leadership and care for us!!
Left side: Tim's family / Right side: my mom and stepdad
And Tim's sister was in from Pennsylvania for a conference and drove over that morning from an hour away to see Elijah's dedication. It was absolutely priceless.
Tim and his mama. Figures I took a blurry pic of them. :(
Siblings!
Sweet animal distractions.
Me & my bud
After this, we hung out around church for a bit, got a snack at the muffin/coffee counter, walked around, and an hour and a half later went to the 2nd church service at 11:15. Meaning Elijah went to the nursery and still didn't nap until we got to the car about 1:00. We let him sleep in the car for 25 minutes {with daddy's supervision} while the rest of us went into the restaurant for our lunch celebration and ordered lunch {and texted daddy to come in when the food was almost ready}. Gratefully Elijah had a really good late afternoon nap to finally recover from his busy day!! What a great day though!
More Grandma time and Elijah's first ride on a swing that Monday! He loved it!!
Please continue to pray for us, that we'd all soon be well for a good long season. I'd very much appreciate that! But I continue to be humbled and so grateful for Elijah, the lessons we're learning in parenting and in God's grace, and for God's love and patience with us even when we whine and complain after he gave us such an extraordinary gift!!
He didn't have to give us Elijah, but he did. And sick or not, we are so grateful and want to soak up every second!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
A Beyond-Baby Update
I've been quiet lately in most things unrelated to Elijah. Every time I read someone else's blog, I just feel like I don't have much additional to contribute to the online conversations.
My world has changed so dramatically over the past year and a half. Ever since November 2012 when I found out I was pregnant, my world has encompassed a lot of pregnancy and baby-talk.
The Fibromyalgia conversations have gone by the wayside because I fear a new vulnerability - being considered any sort of an unfit mother because of some of the things I deal with daily in private as a result of my chronic illness.
My latest pictures have been pulled randomly or from my iPhone. We recently purchased our first Mac for our home {woohoo!!!} and I've managed to screw something up with iPhoto already {doh!}. Too. many. pictures. :(
My camera has mostly been all Elijah pictures. Last week I finally took some random pictures of random things around the house and outside. Maybe I'll get to share them with you soon.
I've had a lot on my heart to share, just not the words to say it. I just feel like everyone else says it so eloquently.
But I've been doing well, despite being super sick this past week. I'm learning so much these days - whether parenting, relationally, about our great God, balancing working full-time with mothering/housekeeping/cooking/being a wife full-time, or about how so many things matter so much less than they used to. And it's quite freeing.
Though these days - I've been enjoying March Madness... somewhat, though my brackets are certainly all destroyed as I know many of yours are!... and enjoying time with family visitors, get togethers with friends, a jewelry party for some friends, catching up on our favorite TV shows which we so rarely get to watch live anymore {which is totally fine! Elijah is wayyy more important}, and being one of the last people on earth apparently to still not have seen Frozen. {wait, check that, just saw it. great movie, but it was so hyped up that it sorta fell flat for me. please don't throw things at your computer.}
Elijah is really our lives. So completely. So much so that I know it spills over into everything else. What I talk about on social media, how I pray, lacking severely in my quiet time with the Lord, how I relate with other people, and so on.
I know that's not what so many of you have come here for. You either came to this blog because of Fibromyalgia, chronic illness, finding my recipes on Pinterest, or some such thing.
That's just not what I'm about lately. My life revolves around so much beyond any of that. And I wouldn't change it for the world.
He is such a gift. I'm amazed by him. Every time he shakes his head no, giggles at the hair towel on my head after a shower, leans his head back into me or Tim in a sweet/snuggly way, when he giggles hilariously as Tim rubs his head into Elijah's tummy, or when he gives me baby kisses, cries for me, can't get over to me fast enough, or laughs at my crazy antics... I can't help but feel like now my life has really begun.
Not at all to mean that anyone out there without kids should ever feel that their lives aren't worth anything because they don't children. NOT AT ALL. Please hear me in that. I remember those years. You have so many vastly important things to do and be involved in.
It's simply that once you do have kids, it just changes. Everything. In every good and challenging possible way. I'm so exhausted. I miss the free days of dashing anywhere I wanted to whenever I needed or wanted to. I miss shopping without worrying about whether or not I can make it through quickly enough without Elijah freaking out, screaming, or needing to be fed/changed/etc.
And I also don't miss those times one iota. Because I have an adorable, sweet, fun little sidekick that makes every pain-in-the-neck moment also filled with more joy and love than I ever knew my heart could hold. He grabs everyone's attention when we're out and causes me to strike up conversations with some random people, which we both love. He flirts with all the ladies, turns whenever a young girl goes by {uh oh!}, and smiles lots at all the lights, sounds, and fun stuff in the stores. He makes my life more interesting and oh so joyful.
So pardon me that things have changed so much around here. They will continue to be a lot about Elijah and parenting and babies and advice... because that's what my life is about now. I'm more than my Fibromyalgia. I'm a mom fighting daily through it and doing great because God has blessed me so abundantly that I cannot complain.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
A Whole Lotta Random
it's been a weird month, yo!
i've been all over the place, lots of little cooky things going on. so yes, it's going to be a long, random post with odd pictures here and there. and it's going to be a lazy one without caps. you'll survive. i'm tired. ;)
as i start typing this on friday night, i'm just enjoying the sweet quiet stillness of our home. while tim reads news stories to me from his phone that i'm only partially listening to as i type while laying on the couch and sipping my favorite tea from the local tea shop. precious.
we are entering a relaxing, lowkey weekend. another one. i'm so thankful for the regularness of these in the winter months because later in the year they become a rarity.
we've been so blessed with a mild winter, but i'm also thankful march isn't dragging on and on, and that we've gotten some really good weather lately! this week one day the high will get up to 77. now, that's a bit too much for march in my opinion, but i am really enjoying it all nonetheless. just keep bringing on the 50s and i'll be peachy.
i ate some chicken pot pie last saturday and burnt my tongue like 4 different times. my tongue hasn't been the same since. i've been able to drink hot chocolate and hot tea a lot easier this week since my mouth isn't as sensitive.
my body always revolts when the time changes. i like more daylight at night, but i hate it being darker again in the morning, blarg. and my fibro just seems to hate change of any kind, no matter what. here comes two weeks of fibro flare-ups, guaranteed. days of getting to work late. days of taking the elevator more at work. days of pushing through the pain to just come home and collapse on the couch.
we went to church last night {saturday, when i wrote this section} so we got to sleep in a little this morning. that means the first day we'll really feel the daylight saving time effect is tomorrow {monday} when we head to work. perhaps we should have had a change in strategy.
{just as expected, it was nearly impossible to get up on monday for work. tuesday was even worse. ughhhhhh.}
last saturday we went to ace hardware for a free quart of their new primer & paint in one for our basement spare room. we got the color "roasted squash" which looks a bit more peach than we wanted, so we'll see. it's meant to be more of an orange/gold/brown type combo. hmm.
this friday night we painted a patch on the drywall that's up and let it dry to see what we think. it's SO hard to tell from just a block of paint! but i think we're going to go with it. it really looks good with one of the pictures i'd purchased on black friday! :)
the rest of last weekend was spent doing other house projects, cleaning up in preparation for a house guest, and for me lots of shopping and organizing as i prepped for a coworker's baby shower on monday night after work.
on monday for lunch a few lady coworkers and i were going to have lunch together. one of them needed to talk to the other 3 of us about something. we were all nearly bursting as we waited to hear what was going on. it was also odd that she was very specific on where she wanted to eat {she's not usually like that} but we just couldn't figure out what was going on.
first, let's backtrack a little... last july i found out one of my best friends, annemarie, was moving away to washington and i was in denial. then in september we helped them move.
so when coworker karen told us she had to talk to us about something and we walked into the restaurant ready for a meal and to hear what she was going to say...
and instead...
annemarie was standing there saying "surprise!"...
my jaw dropped. it took a minute to register that she was actually standing in front of me.
we hugged. i cried.
and i didn't stop hugging her at every moment that i could. it still doesn't seem real.
was i dreaming??
it went too fast. we had an hour plus a little bit more time alone as she drove me back to work behind the other girls. it was sweet and special.
oh what a blessing!
i'm still blown away. it knocked my socks off. what a great, great, great surprise!!!!
but i had to pull it together really fast as i was helping cohost a baby shower for a super, sweet, wonderful coworker/friend right after work. which was also amazing.
i was in charge of decorations, games, door prizes, sign-in, getting the group gift, and the gifts list at the shower. all of which i absolutely love doing!
since erika is crafty, i had the sign-in on scrapbook paper where people could fill out more than just their name, they could give advice, well wishes, etc. i also wrote her gift list on scrapbook paper so that she can put together a cool scrapbook for baby when it's all done.
the beautiful erika who is our fabulous assistant to the president. she's amazing and we all love her!!
it was a really good time, and all of us ladies really love excuses to get us all together! :)
not the best pic perhaps because it was my cell phone, but alas, it's all the hosts together with our guest of honor so it's special regardless. love these ladies!
we cleaned up and then i waited about an hour at work before my guest for the week arrived. tara, one of our off-site editors, was going to be in from monday night to thursday morning, and i was soooo looking forward to having her! she arrived at work by car service about 8 pm monday and we headed to our house to get her settled and to catch up.
it was really fun to have a girl to get ready for work with for several mornings and to have a companion in the car! i loved it!! tara is such a sweetheart and i've really grown to love her dearly over the years. i think what really helps is that she also has a chronic illness, severe fatigue, and struggled with infertility for 10 years. we relate to each other so incredibly well that it was like almost having a bit of a twin here! even tim commented one evening "well you just fit right into our family!" love it! so glad he enjoyed having her here too and it was not stressful.
{admittedly though, whenever we have guests we love having them, but we are also thankful for when they're gone! ;) }
with tuesday morning came a HUGEEEE relief so i had to take a screen shot of my phone the exact moment that i received the text, because it's just a really big deal....
WHEW!!! PRAISE GOD!
{I'm writing this on a new day and just came back to reread this and noticed I changed my capitalizating. I know I'm going to drive some people bonkers with this post, but I really hope you'll forgive me. It's been one of those weeks and I just don't have it in me to go back and edit it again.}
Shortly after that text I had a meeting with a couple coworkers and one of my very favorite authors! What a perfectly timed reminder of how much I dearly love and enjoy my job. It was such a delight to meet with him! I was like a giddy teenager... :)
I took him back to one of our designers to talk about the new map that will need to be drawn up for the front of his latest fiction book, and it was sooo much fun to watch them go through the details!
So I couldn't help but be giddy this weekend when I just had to bring a little bit of work home with me. Heeheehee.
On Tuesday afternoon Tim's brother Paul was back to work a little bit on our basement room again. We came home to a new window, so we were excited about that!
Tuesday night was interesting. I can't say much here, but let me just say I'm thankful for one very low-key, laidback, chilled-out house guest!!! Tara was amazing! We enjoyed some sweet time together later that night after the interesting drama and she kindly let us show her the Chuck finale {she'd stopped watching at season 3, so she had a sense of what was going on}. Good, good stuff!!
Wednesday, Tara & I definitely needed our doses of caffeine {thank you Starbucks} as we both wanted to just go back to bed!! It was a crazy busy day at work and I was exhausted by the end of it all. Tara had a dinner planned with our boss, Al and his wife, whom she's known for many years since they'd worked together at a previous company. So while she did that, I had a great time hanging out at Brian & Monica's. I got some sweet time with Parker & Nolan. The only picture I grabbed though was a moment on the couch with Parker as we watched Curious George.
Love.
Did I mention that all of my lunches last week were also full? I barely had a chance to breathe lol!
Thursday morning Tara & I got a little extra sleep, and we were ready surprisingly fast so we headed out early for Midway airport. Have I ever told you before that this country girl loves going to the airport?
Yes, you read that right. I'm an airport geek. I love it. Really, really love it.
I giggle and nearly explode in glee.
It might be crazy, but the one I really get a kick out of is O'Hare. It is one crazy airport, but trust me if you've ever had to drive around or be around or even slightly take a peek at LAX, O'Hare is a cakewalk. LAX makes me want to hyperventilate.
O'Hare is a hoot.
Anyway, enjoyed the trip and extra time with Tara before dropping her off and whipping my way back to work. I remember the times I was scared of driving the interstates near where I grew up where there wasn't traffic but just the extra lanes were intimidating. Oh how far I've come....
Then poof, Thursday was over. It's amazing how getting to work a couple hours late can do that to ya.
That night I decided it was a nice enough day for a car wash, without any rain in the immediate forecast, and after having added a good amount of gook to my car after driving around the city & expressways. I'm one of those who loves automated car washes, especially one at a Shell station near my work. Seriously, love. It's sooo relaxing and I really wish it would last longer. So funny because everyone is always in a hurry and you want it done soon - but truly, I wish those things were longer. *sigh*
The leaves and gook that were around all our flowers for the winter {I'd heard a long time ago that this helps fertilize the flowers/soil during the cold winter months} are all cleaned up now. And of course I took a picture before we cleaned it up, but not after. Doh!
We also cleaned up our bedroom and replaced our bed frame. We've spent a lot of time looking for a new mattress and we thought we'd settled on something, but still the price always makes us take a second look. Tim did some research and found out that getting a new frame can really help breathe new life into a mattress. So we got a new one, ditched the box springs, and wham! New life to our 10 year old bed!
And yes indeedy, I was surprised to also find out after a few nights that this really does seem to work!!
I don't know how long this will go for, but for now it's working great!
You may notice that we have blue walls and pink carpet....
The blue walls were our idea to match our bedding, but the pink carpet was there from the previous owner {who had bright pink walls to match it} and it was in such great shape and hidden by our king-size bed in our queen-size room so we opted to leave it alone.
Saturday night after church we had a wonderful date night, with super yummy food at Red Robin. I should not have taken part in eating this... but it was soooooo good, it's hard to care, lol.
Followed that up with some marvelous Cold Stone ice cream! We had a really good time reconnecting and focusing on each other and building up our marriage. It was really nice!
We were very excited at church to pick up our copy of the DVDs from this controversial conference that our pastor lead back in January. I was at last year's event and even though I knew there was some hype over the type of event it was, ultimately it honored God, exalted the name of Jesus Christ, and got a lot of people talking. This time, the hype was mostly negative and all in response to one person who was invited to speak there.
We weren't able to be there this year, but we read a lot of blogs, tweets, and concerns from multitudes of people. I cried a lot and got sick to my stomach for days when it all started. It effected me more deeply than I could even put into words at the time. We prayed. I talked to people involved who we deeply trust and respect, both at work {since some of it is directly linked to my work} and at church. We sought out a lot of wisdom and counsel. We spoke with our campus pastor and an elder.
I'm not going to specifically name the event on here because I don't want that kind of publicity or controversy here, that's not what my blog is about. So those of you reading this not getting here by a search engine, you can see the picture below and see what it's called, and google it if you want. But I caution you to read with a grain of salt the various things being said and debated, and grab your Bible.
Those of you who know me personally know that this really, really hit me hard. All that you really need to know is that we went through the steps that we needed to in order to make sure we understood the heart of our pastor and the others involved. We may not agree with everything he says and does, but we know our pastor to be a godly man who follows his convictions but who also apologizes when he knows he has done wrong. We support him, love him, and pray for him and his family regularly. We are not changing churches, we are not changing our support of him, and we are not saying anything more than that. This controversy is too close to home for me to say much this publicly. Those who know me and know my email address, feel free to email me and I'm happy to talk with you more one-on-one.
Anyway... starting to watch what really transpired at the event has been really good. Being able to figure it out for ourselves and know how to respond personally instead of just hearing about it from everyone else was also really, really good.
And now, here we are already in the midst of another week. I'm not sure where the time goes! I hope you are all doing really well and having a good time living life and enjoying what God has surrounded you with!
Thanks for sticking with me through a blindingly long post and random topics!
i've been all over the place, lots of little cooky things going on. so yes, it's going to be a long, random post with odd pictures here and there. and it's going to be a lazy one without caps. you'll survive. i'm tired. ;)
as i start typing this on friday night, i'm just enjoying the sweet quiet stillness of our home. while tim reads news stories to me from his phone that i'm only partially listening to as i type while laying on the couch and sipping my favorite tea from the local tea shop. precious.
we are entering a relaxing, lowkey weekend. another one. i'm so thankful for the regularness of these in the winter months because later in the year they become a rarity.
we've been so blessed with a mild winter, but i'm also thankful march isn't dragging on and on, and that we've gotten some really good weather lately! this week one day the high will get up to 77. now, that's a bit too much for march in my opinion, but i am really enjoying it all nonetheless. just keep bringing on the 50s and i'll be peachy.
i ate some chicken pot pie last saturday and burnt my tongue like 4 different times. my tongue hasn't been the same since. i've been able to drink hot chocolate and hot tea a lot easier this week since my mouth isn't as sensitive.
my body always revolts when the time changes. i like more daylight at night, but i hate it being darker again in the morning, blarg. and my fibro just seems to hate change of any kind, no matter what. here comes two weeks of fibro flare-ups, guaranteed. days of getting to work late. days of taking the elevator more at work. days of pushing through the pain to just come home and collapse on the couch.
we went to church last night {saturday, when i wrote this section} so we got to sleep in a little this morning. that means the first day we'll really feel the daylight saving time effect is tomorrow {monday} when we head to work. perhaps we should have had a change in strategy.
{just as expected, it was nearly impossible to get up on monday for work. tuesday was even worse. ughhhhhh.}
last saturday we went to ace hardware for a free quart of their new primer & paint in one for our basement spare room. we got the color "roasted squash" which looks a bit more peach than we wanted, so we'll see. it's meant to be more of an orange/gold/brown type combo. hmm.
this friday night we painted a patch on the drywall that's up and let it dry to see what we think. it's SO hard to tell from just a block of paint! but i think we're going to go with it. it really looks good with one of the pictures i'd purchased on black friday! :)
the rest of last weekend was spent doing other house projects, cleaning up in preparation for a house guest, and for me lots of shopping and organizing as i prepped for a coworker's baby shower on monday night after work.
on monday for lunch a few lady coworkers and i were going to have lunch together. one of them needed to talk to the other 3 of us about something. we were all nearly bursting as we waited to hear what was going on. it was also odd that she was very specific on where she wanted to eat {she's not usually like that} but we just couldn't figure out what was going on.
first, let's backtrack a little... last july i found out one of my best friends, annemarie, was moving away to washington and i was in denial. then in september we helped them move.
so when coworker karen told us she had to talk to us about something and we walked into the restaurant ready for a meal and to hear what she was going to say...
and instead...
annemarie was standing there saying "surprise!"...
my jaw dropped. it took a minute to register that she was actually standing in front of me.
we hugged. i cried.
and i didn't stop hugging her at every moment that i could. it still doesn't seem real.
was i dreaming??
it went too fast. we had an hour plus a little bit more time alone as she drove me back to work behind the other girls. it was sweet and special.
oh what a blessing!
i'm still blown away. it knocked my socks off. what a great, great, great surprise!!!!
but i had to pull it together really fast as i was helping cohost a baby shower for a super, sweet, wonderful coworker/friend right after work. which was also amazing.
i was in charge of decorations, games, door prizes, sign-in, getting the group gift, and the gifts list at the shower. all of which i absolutely love doing!
since erika is crafty, i had the sign-in on scrapbook paper where people could fill out more than just their name, they could give advice, well wishes, etc. i also wrote her gift list on scrapbook paper so that she can put together a cool scrapbook for baby when it's all done.
the beautiful erika who is our fabulous assistant to the president. she's amazing and we all love her!!
it was a really good time, and all of us ladies really love excuses to get us all together! :)
not the best pic perhaps because it was my cell phone, but alas, it's all the hosts together with our guest of honor so it's special regardless. love these ladies!
we cleaned up and then i waited about an hour at work before my guest for the week arrived. tara, one of our off-site editors, was going to be in from monday night to thursday morning, and i was soooo looking forward to having her! she arrived at work by car service about 8 pm monday and we headed to our house to get her settled and to catch up.
it was really fun to have a girl to get ready for work with for several mornings and to have a companion in the car! i loved it!! tara is such a sweetheart and i've really grown to love her dearly over the years. i think what really helps is that she also has a chronic illness, severe fatigue, and struggled with infertility for 10 years. we relate to each other so incredibly well that it was like almost having a bit of a twin here! even tim commented one evening "well you just fit right into our family!" love it! so glad he enjoyed having her here too and it was not stressful.
{admittedly though, whenever we have guests we love having them, but we are also thankful for when they're gone! ;) }
with tuesday morning came a HUGEEEE relief so i had to take a screen shot of my phone the exact moment that i received the text, because it's just a really big deal....
WHEW!!! PRAISE GOD!
{I'm writing this on a new day and just came back to reread this and noticed I changed my capitalizating. I know I'm going to drive some people bonkers with this post, but I really hope you'll forgive me. It's been one of those weeks and I just don't have it in me to go back and edit it again.}
Shortly after that text I had a meeting with a couple coworkers and one of my very favorite authors! What a perfectly timed reminder of how much I dearly love and enjoy my job. It was such a delight to meet with him! I was like a giddy teenager... :)
I took him back to one of our designers to talk about the new map that will need to be drawn up for the front of his latest fiction book, and it was sooo much fun to watch them go through the details!
So I couldn't help but be giddy this weekend when I just had to bring a little bit of work home with me. Heeheehee.
On Tuesday afternoon Tim's brother Paul was back to work a little bit on our basement room again. We came home to a new window, so we were excited about that!
Tuesday night was interesting. I can't say much here, but let me just say I'm thankful for one very low-key, laidback, chilled-out house guest!!! Tara was amazing! We enjoyed some sweet time together later that night after the interesting drama and she kindly let us show her the Chuck finale {she'd stopped watching at season 3, so she had a sense of what was going on}. Good, good stuff!!
Wednesday, Tara & I definitely needed our doses of caffeine {thank you Starbucks} as we both wanted to just go back to bed!! It was a crazy busy day at work and I was exhausted by the end of it all. Tara had a dinner planned with our boss, Al and his wife, whom she's known for many years since they'd worked together at a previous company. So while she did that, I had a great time hanging out at Brian & Monica's. I got some sweet time with Parker & Nolan. The only picture I grabbed though was a moment on the couch with Parker as we watched Curious George.
Love.
Did I mention that all of my lunches last week were also full? I barely had a chance to breathe lol!
Thursday morning Tara & I got a little extra sleep, and we were ready surprisingly fast so we headed out early for Midway airport. Have I ever told you before that this country girl loves going to the airport?
Yes, you read that right. I'm an airport geek. I love it. Really, really love it.
I giggle and nearly explode in glee.
It might be crazy, but the one I really get a kick out of is O'Hare. It is one crazy airport, but trust me if you've ever had to drive around or be around or even slightly take a peek at LAX, O'Hare is a cakewalk. LAX makes me want to hyperventilate.
O'Hare is a hoot.
Anyway, enjoyed the trip and extra time with Tara before dropping her off and whipping my way back to work. I remember the times I was scared of driving the interstates near where I grew up where there wasn't traffic but just the extra lanes were intimidating. Oh how far I've come....
Then poof, Thursday was over. It's amazing how getting to work a couple hours late can do that to ya.
That night I decided it was a nice enough day for a car wash, without any rain in the immediate forecast, and after having added a good amount of gook to my car after driving around the city & expressways. I'm one of those who loves automated car washes, especially one at a Shell station near my work. Seriously, love. It's sooo relaxing and I really wish it would last longer. So funny because everyone is always in a hurry and you want it done soon - but truly, I wish those things were longer. *sigh*
I can't totally explain the funk I was in on Thursday though. It was a combination of events that lead me to feeling the way I did and posting that mom club post. I really appreciated all the comments, emails, and conversations about it though - God is good! I'm not worried friends, I know God has a plan for us. But thanks for letting my blog be a place of comfort and healing for me when I need to just get my thoughts and feelings out there.
Friday came and went in a whirlwind. Had a good day. Fun times with friends at lunch. Painted some of our basement room when we got home, as you saw above. Enjoyed a nice weekend together, reconnecting after company and enjoying just hanging out together, and getting more house projects done. I've just been really thankful to have the energy to do all this! We even enjoyed time together fixing up our flower garden!
The leaves and gook that were around all our flowers for the winter {I'd heard a long time ago that this helps fertilize the flowers/soil during the cold winter months} are all cleaned up now. And of course I took a picture before we cleaned it up, but not after. Doh!
We also cleaned up our bedroom and replaced our bed frame. We've spent a lot of time looking for a new mattress and we thought we'd settled on something, but still the price always makes us take a second look. Tim did some research and found out that getting a new frame can really help breathe new life into a mattress. So we got a new one, ditched the box springs, and wham! New life to our 10 year old bed!
And yes indeedy, I was surprised to also find out after a few nights that this really does seem to work!!
I don't know how long this will go for, but for now it's working great!
You may notice that we have blue walls and pink carpet....
The blue walls were our idea to match our bedding, but the pink carpet was there from the previous owner {who had bright pink walls to match it} and it was in such great shape and hidden by our king-size bed in our queen-size room so we opted to leave it alone.
Saturday night after church we had a wonderful date night, with super yummy food at Red Robin. I should not have taken part in eating this... but it was soooooo good, it's hard to care, lol.
Followed that up with some marvelous Cold Stone ice cream! We had a really good time reconnecting and focusing on each other and building up our marriage. It was really nice!
We were very excited at church to pick up our copy of the DVDs from this controversial conference that our pastor lead back in January. I was at last year's event and even though I knew there was some hype over the type of event it was, ultimately it honored God, exalted the name of Jesus Christ, and got a lot of people talking. This time, the hype was mostly negative and all in response to one person who was invited to speak there.
We weren't able to be there this year, but we read a lot of blogs, tweets, and concerns from multitudes of people. I cried a lot and got sick to my stomach for days when it all started. It effected me more deeply than I could even put into words at the time. We prayed. I talked to people involved who we deeply trust and respect, both at work {since some of it is directly linked to my work} and at church. We sought out a lot of wisdom and counsel. We spoke with our campus pastor and an elder.
I'm not going to specifically name the event on here because I don't want that kind of publicity or controversy here, that's not what my blog is about. So those of you reading this not getting here by a search engine, you can see the picture below and see what it's called, and google it if you want. But I caution you to read with a grain of salt the various things being said and debated, and grab your Bible.
Those of you who know me personally know that this really, really hit me hard. All that you really need to know is that we went through the steps that we needed to in order to make sure we understood the heart of our pastor and the others involved. We may not agree with everything he says and does, but we know our pastor to be a godly man who follows his convictions but who also apologizes when he knows he has done wrong. We support him, love him, and pray for him and his family regularly. We are not changing churches, we are not changing our support of him, and we are not saying anything more than that. This controversy is too close to home for me to say much this publicly. Those who know me and know my email address, feel free to email me and I'm happy to talk with you more one-on-one.
Anyway... starting to watch what really transpired at the event has been really good. Being able to figure it out for ourselves and know how to respond personally instead of just hearing about it from everyone else was also really, really good.
Thanks for sticking with me through a blindingly long post and random topics!
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