Whatever Comes To Mind...

Transformation

2009-06-26T18:18:00.003-04:00

Today has been an interesting day. We started off the day with no power, so the boys woke up very early due to the fact that their fans weren't blowing in their room and they were really warm. We've been potty training Gabe this week, and he's been getting better and better every day. He woke up with a dry diaper this morning, which was pretty exciting! He had just a couple of little accidents on his way to the potty, but it was just because he didn't make it in time. For the most part, everything has gone in the potty for the past two days. So that was really great!

I think, however, that the early rise left both of the boys feeling a bit cranky. Ladan in particular was talking back quite a bit and just kind of being rude in general. We had several discussions about it throughout the morning. However, by the time early afternoon rolled around, he was NOT responding well to anyone or anything. I asked him to go sit on my bed and wait for me to come talk to him. Chet was in our room working on church stuff (his office area is in our bedroom), so he would be the one to administer correction. But I had to tell him what happened. So I started recounting with Ladan the things I was noticing about the way he was handling situations. He was listening pretty intently.

He then said, "Mom, I want to say, 'Sorry.'" I let him know that he could definitely do that but that he would still have to have discipline. He responded, "But discipline is..." (he usually inserts the word "mean" in this spot). Before he could finish, I interjected that the Bible describes that we will discipline our children if we LOVE them and that it's not mean because we are responsible to God for training Ladan and teaching him. Here's how the rest of our dialogue went.

Ladan: "Because I need to be transformed."
Me: "What do you mean by that?"
Ladan: "I need to be transformed and change from a person who sins against God into a man who loves God and obeys God. So I have to have discipline."

And that's when Chet took over. He called Ladan to his lap, and Ladan went without an argument... almost as if he was somehow seeing the value of what we were saying even though he knew that what was coming wasn't going to be completely enjoyable. They talked for quite a few minutes before and after Ladan received his discipline. I don't know how their discussion went, but at the end of it all, Ladan promptly came down the stairs and gave me a big hug and said he was sorry for disobeying. He said, "I love you, Mom," and then walked over to play with some toys while I prepared our lunch. Back to life as usual.

Both boys are napping now with the hope that they'll wake up ready to interact with the world around them in a more reasonable fashion.

It's so great to hear the things that Ladan is saying these days! And I'm SO THANKFUL we don't have to send him to childcare all day, because it means that we're the ones who get to hear him say all these cool things. What a blessing this time is with our kids! It's hard some days for sure, and it definitely takes discipline on our parts to maintain any form of consistency. But the Lord is faithful to help us.

Just recently, one of our friends said that his dad talks about raising children and says, "We did the best we could. It's not like you guys came with an instruction manual." Our friend's response to that is to be thankful that his parents did their best... but he doesn't agree with the part about the instruction manual. He's right on! What a gift the Word of God is to us as parents!

Happy Birthday to Daniel Bonura!

2009-06-05T23:08:00.002-04:00

Ladan was pretty much hilarious tonight! He doesn't always take a nap, but he slept long and hard this afternoon, and as a result, he was SO FUN!

We decided to go ahead and attempt to bunk the boys' beds tonight to see how Gabe responds. My main concern with doing it right as he was learning to stay in his own bed was that it would be even harder for him to obey and that it would possibly be more dangerous for him. He's a daredevil, so I don't think this was overly cautious. Anyway, he's not perfect at staying in his bed all the time, but he's loads better than he was 10 weeks ago. So we went for it.

Ladan is SO EXCITED that he gets to sleep on the top bunk again! He had been sleeping on the top bunk in Louisville for quite a while, and he was ready to get back to it.

Well, after moving the beds around, vacuuming their room, and picking things up, it was pretty warm in there. So we opened the window. The screen from the boys' room had fallen out in a wind storm before we moved in and suffered a small tear in the process. So we haven't put it back up yet. Which means that we very rarely open the window at this point, and it's only for a few minutes while we're in there. This was actually the first time the boys were in the room while the window was open to even notice that they could stick their arms and heads out. Don't worry... we were standing right there.

Ladan had a blast hanging his head out the window. At one point he shouted, "This is fun to have a new home!!!" And then he started giving the "sound your horn" signal (the one you give truck drivers if you want them to sound their horns) and shouting, "Whoo, whoo!" to every car that drove by. And then it got better! Ladan's good friend, Daniel, turned five today. Ladan didn't have a chance to call him to tell him happy birthday, so he decided he'd scream it out the window. He was yelling, "DANIEL BONURA! WHERE ARE YOU? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANIEL BONURA!" Keep in mind that it was about 10pm, and my previously super-shy four-year-old son was hanging his head out the window yelling all of this at the top of his lungs. It was GREAT!

So, happy birthday Daniel! Hope you had a great day!

Claire Ellise

2009-05-29T23:11:00.006-04:00

Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent out to some folks tonight to provide an update on Baby Claire after today's ultrasound. When we had our first ultrasound in mid-April, the only "issue" was that she has an echogenic foci (described below). They were checking today to see if it was gone yet and just to check to see that everything's still in good order otherwise. So here's the update...

I am 28 weeks and 6 days pregnant today. Claire weighs 2 pounds 14 ounces, which is right about average. She has hair on her head (we'll see if she keeps that or if it falls out and refrains from growing back for a year and a half like her brothers' hair). She does still have the echogenic foci, which shows up as a tiny shiny fleck in her heart on the ultrasound. About 1% or less of babies who still have this during the second trimester end up having Down's syndrome, which is really the only possible connected condition to the echogenic foci. So far, there are no other indicators that she has Down's, and the doctor today didn't even mention it. When he said, "Her heart looks good," I asked him if the foci was gone (because I was pretty sure I saw it about 5 different times during the ultrasound). He said, "Oh, well, there is a note here that it's still present, but there's almost no chance that it will turn into anything. We'll just let the pediatrician know, and that's about it." So, of course, we're not making assumptions that she's perfectly healthy with absolutely nothing to think about, but there's really no reason to research anything further at this point. We'll see what happens when she comes out.

There is one other issue to consider.... She probably actually has a greater chance of being born with whiplash than Down's syndrome! Today during the ultrasound, the tech was trying to get a 3-D image of her face, and she kept turning her back on us. I pushed up on my belly from the underside three times, and what we saw on the screen was HILARIOUS! Her head was thrown back and forth three times just like she had just been through a car wreck and they were replaying it in slow motion over and over again. She looked like a crash test dummy! We all cracked up laughing! I wish we had it on video! Praise God for allowing these babies to grow in a safe environment where they're protected from crazy moms! :)

Anyway, she's growing well, everything looks normal (even the echogenic foci is often considered a "normal" condition in that it shows up fairly regularly in healthy babies), there's just the right amount of amniotic fluid in there with her which is a sign of a healthy baby, and she's moving around plenty! At one point, she yawned really big, which was pretty funny. I started thinking though. Isn't it crazy how God designs for babies to develop in this strange fluid, breathing it in, swallowing it, and moving around in it... and if they come out too early, they can't breathe air well and will die? And then, once they're done developing, something happens. They're born, and as soon as they come out, they need to be cleared of all the fluid immediately, because if they're not breathing air, they'll die. In an instant, their means of survival changes to something so completely opposite. It's just wild!

I've included a couple of the ultrasound photos. Her cord was floating in front of her face, so we couldn't get a complete 3-D shot of her face... but there's definitely enough that you can see her pretty well. Keep in mind, of course, that things are a little bit distorted because of the fluid she's living in and because she's still got a lot of skin to grow into, so she's not likely to actually come out with a wrinkled face and droopy cheeks!

I have a whole list of things that I'm wanting to write updates about, but for now I'm going to call it a night. I'm planning to wake up "early" (which for me will be about 7am) to go to a used homeschooling book sale tomorrow. I've identified the curriculum I'd like to use with Ladan this next year, and I'm hoping I can find a good deal on at least a couple of the items. We'll see how it goes!

Getting Settled

2009-03-20T23:48:00.003-04:00

Well, we made the big move last Friday. Before we left, I was able to have a couple of girls' night outings with some of my best friends, high school age and older. My friend Jessica and I got to pretend we were college students one night when we went to Denny's at 11pm and came home at about 2:30am. Of course, the fact that we were two pregnant ladies sitting in the corner booth probably gave away the fact that we're a little older than 22! :) Ladan and Gabe did get to play with some of their friends a couple of times for extended periods of time during their last week in Louisville. I was very thankful for that as well.

We had SO MANY friends help us pack, load up, and clean in Louisville, and we had plenty of help once we arrived in Champaign-Urbana. Talk about a relief! We rented from the sellers here for a week and closed today. So now we're officially homeowners... or at least the owners of a hefty loan that tells us the home will really be ours when we're finished paying the bank a ridiculous amount of money! As long as the government recognizes us as homeowners when it comes time for tax returns/credits, we'll take it! We're definitely thankful to have this part of the process all finished.

We've met several neighbors, some with kids and some without. There are LOADS of kids in our neighborhood, which will be a great way to find friends for the boys and a great way to meet the adults! The other folks who don't have kids all seem to have pretty great gardens and/or homemade composters, so as I attempt to plant a few things myself and compost yardwaste, I'll have a good reason to talk to them and get lots of tips. There are also people from many different countries and backgrounds living in our neighborhood. For example, Chet met the man who lives across the street. He's from Bangladesh. All of the houses are pretty close together, which makes for easy opportunities to meet people. There's also a small neighborhood park at the end of the block. Chet and the boys met a mom and her two children (9 and 3) the other day at the park. She's in the process of a divorce and is staying with her parents who live a couple blocks down our road. Our neighbor his a strong Christian who works for a mercy ministry in town as a financial advisor for people who are struggling to make ends meet. And the people behind us are a chemistry professor at the university and a lawyer. It's really great to be in a place where there are so many different people! We're excited to see who we run into once spring and summer really start in full force and people are outside even more than they are now!

I was able to get signed up for health insurance and scheduled my ultrasound and doctor appointment. Also this week, we hooked up the internet, started our trash and recycling services, met with some folks, unpacked a lot, took a couple trips to Menard's and other stores to purchase necessary household items, went to church at Twin City Bible Church to visit and see what's it's like (it's one of the churches in town with the largest student populations), talked to some neighbors, let the boys play outside some, and located various necessary businesses/stores around town. Chet applied for jobs at a few places and will hopefully hear more on Monday. We're really praying hard that it will work out for him to get a job at the Starbucks right by campus. We'll let you know more about that when we find out.

We moved Gabe into his big boy bed a couple of days ago. We started with naptime and had a pretty hilarious experience. The boys are sharing a bedroom now, and both have bed tents on top of their beds. We got Gabe all settled into his tent and closed the zippered parts. There is a flap door that is held on with just a couple of velcro strips, so he can get out if he wants to. And of course, he wanted to. He had to be corrected a couple of times for escaping. After about the second or third time, Chet decided to sit in the room with him to see if he was getting up. Since Gabe was in the tent, he had no idea Chet was still in the room. Chet said he popped out through the tent flap, looked up and saw Chet, and DOVE right back in through the tent opening. Of course, he had to be corrected again. At this point, he stayed in his bed, but he kept using his tiny little toes to lift the tent flap just high enough to look out and see if Chet was still there. Can you just imagine his tiny little face with his big eyes peeking out of that? Chet had a hard time not cracking up at him! He's a smart kid, that's for sure. After Chet warned him again not to try getting out again, he finally got it and went to sleep.

I had suspected that we'd deal with this sort of misbehavior from him repeatedly for days on end... but we've only had to correct him just a few times for getting out of his bed. It's been AWESOME! I'm so thankful! Whenever he gets out of his bed, his brother is right there to call for us through the monitor and tell on him. Not that I want to encourage tattling, but in this case, I don't complain when Ladan volunteers the information.

I thought the bed tent would help, but I wasn't sure it would be this great. It helps both the boys not to be distracted by one another while they're trying to go to sleep, and it gives Gabe a boundary, which is very helpful. I think these tents are probably the smartest Christmas gifts we've bought the boys so far! The boys love them, they're practical, and they preserve our parental sanity. Perfect!

At some point during the first or second day here, I overheard Ladan talking to Chet. It went something like this:

Ladan: "Dad, this is our house! We get to live here!"
Chet: "That's right, Buddy. This is our house."
Ladan: "We have soft floors here!" (Falls down on the floor on purpose, which he would never do on harder floors for fear of hurting himself) "Look, Dad, we have soft floors!" (Stands up clapping) "I'm clapping because I'm so happy!"

At various points he's wanted to move back to Louisville, and then sometimes he really enjoys our new home. When he talks about these things, we try to explain that he'll likely have these different feelings for a little while. He's very anxious for his friends to come to town. He keeps asking when Maddie, Asa, Harper and Addison are coming to our house. He doesn't really understand the timeline very well, and since there is no official timeline for the other families to arrive here, I can't explain it very well either. He's also regularly talking about his other friends from Louisville telling me about things he remembers and things he enjoyed with them. There are some boys his age just a few houses up the street who we met the other day, which will help but won't take the place of his friends.

Honestly, I am so thankful that Ladan misses his friends. A year and a half ago he wasn't super close to his friends and was really just as content to play by himself. I think it's a great sign that he's opening himself up a bit and is loving people around him enough to care when one or the other is not around anymore. It also gives me great confidence that he can meet good friends here.

Finally, our temporary housemate, Kayla, will move in tomorrow. We have her room all cleaned out for her. I have a few other things I'd like to get in order before she gets here, but we'll see how that shakes out. The biggest things are done. We're excited that she's going to be able to stay with us for a while as she transitions as well.

I'm sure I'm missing a million things, but that's always the case. I'll try to upload some photos as soon as I locate the card reader. We have much to be thankful for, particularly for those of you who have helped us in practical/physical ways and for those of you who are praying for us!

Man vs. Woman -- No One Wins In This Competition

2009-03-05T15:03:00.005-05:00

I was just sitting down to take a quick break from packing, and I thought I'd check my e-mail. I get the daily feed from the Desiring God blog, a ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. One of today's entries titled "Over My Dead Body, Son" was written by John Piper. In response to the fact that a girl is going to the MN state wrestling championship for the first time, Piper provides an excellent call to those of us parenting boys (and particularly to the dads of boys) to help our sons think and act in a God-honoring fashion, specifically in the sports arena. After all, it can be a training ground for all of life. Here are a couple of excerpts, but you MUST check out the entire entry here:

"Come on, dads, have some courage. Just say, 'Over my dead body are you going to wrestle a girl.' Of course, they will call you prudish. But everything in you knows better.... Give your sons a bigger nobler vision of what it is to be a man. Men don't fight against women. They fight for women....

... This is not about courageous commitment to equality; it's about wimpy fear of criticism for doing what our hearts know is right.

... we should raise sons to think of themselves as protectors. Tell them they should lay their lives down to protect girls. Help them know that God designed them to grow up to be a picture of Jesus in their marriage. Nurture the instinct of a boy to fight for girls not against them."

For us, this training has started at the toddler stage. The boys are simply not allowed to wrestle or tackle girls. And even when they play football with me, we're helping them learn the difference between playing gently with Mommy and getting to go all out with Daddy. When we wrestle or tackle, they know they need to be gentle because I'm a girl... and because they're protecting the tiny baby growing inside me. And even then, we tell them over and over again that they cannot for any reason tackle or wrestle with another girl. Hopefully it sticks.

When I was in high school, there was a girl wrestler at one of the other schools in our district... and she was really good! I can't remember if she made it state, but she made it very far, that's for sure. Piper is definitely right to talk about how we can train our boys to care for and protect girls, but as a female myself, I think there is also something to our role in not trying to defeat the men around us. Talk about setting these guys up for total humiliation! Any guy who got beat by this girl was completely embarrassed to even walk through the halls of his school.

As women, there will be plenty of "manly" things at which we may excel... but it doesn't mean that we have to exercise all of those gifts in a competitive way. After all, if we do this, we're in danger of squashing the God-given desire of the men around us to love and cherish us, to honor and protect us. OF COURSE this does not mean that we are incapable of taking care of ourselves sometimes or that we have nothing to contribute to the world around us or that we can NEVER play a game of basketball or soccer against men/boys.

However, there is a certain way to handle ourselves as we enjoy these activities without crushing the men around us. For example, before my c-sections, I used to be able to hold Chet in my arms (under his back and legs) and swing him in circles. I could have flung him across the room I guess, but that wasn't the point. It was just fun, and we both thought it was fairly hilarious seeing as how he was at least 80 pounds heavier and 7 inches taller than me. I would have crossed the line if I had swung him around, flopped him down on the ground, pinned him to the floor, stood over him shouting in victory, and then told all my friends and the newspaper about how weak my husband was compared to me. Visualizing that picture makes me laugh in one sense because it's so ridiculous. But in reality, if I was actually capable of doing this and really carried it through with a heart to defeat this man, can you imagine what that would do to destroy our relationship and his ability to adopt his God-given role as leader of our home?

I definitely think it is fair to say that a woman should never try to wrestle or box or otherwise beat up a man with a heart of competition in any situation outside of protecting herself against an attacker. So, parents of girls, I guess that's my encouragement to you. Don't let your daughters manhandle the guys around them. Help them learn to respect and honor men, and help them learn to receive love and care from the men around them. This is honoring to the God who created us, and it is a real picture of the interaction between Christ and His bride, the church.

Now, back to packing!

Transition Time

2009-02-27T00:23:00.002-05:00

We're still waiting to hear from our lender if our closing date on the new house is March 13, but so far as the realtor knows, that's what we're still shooting for. So we've reserved the truck, and we'll just change it if we have to. I'll be thankful to know for sure what we're looking at as a closing date... and at the same time, part of me will want to have a heart attack because it's all coming up already! :)

Saturday night some of our good friends are having a going away party for us and the Prestons. It's a little bit strange to think about the fact that, in just a few weeks, we won't be seeing all these people every week or more. There are SO MANY people we will miss terribly! While it's very sad, on a different level, the fact that we literally have hundreds of friends with whom we've connected in less than four years is an AMAZING blessing from the Lord! I cannot even imagine what our lives would have been like without our church family here! There is also a certain level of comfort that comes from knowing that our time on earth is short compared to the eternity we get to spend in heaven with these brothers and sisters in Christ!

Quite honestly, I think I would be crying every day if I wasn't so sure that we are indeed following the Lord's call on our lives and if we didn't have such a great team to labor and share life with as we plant this church.

Ladan has started clinging to his friends even more over the last few weeks. He does well with transition in most cases, but he's definitely going to miss his friends and his teachers at church. It's sad for me to see him have to leave his friends. The great thing is that he will likely be the one telling me that everything is okay! I would like to try as hard as I can to get the boys together with at least a few of their friends for a fun play time before we go... a time when it's focused on THEM having fun (as opposed to them having to be "quiet and controlled" while the adults get to have fun). Now we just need to pray for a decent weather day so we can give them some room to run!

As I've been packing and sorting through things, I've gotten rid of some of the boys' things. Before I get rid of each item, I let Ladan know what I'm doing and why we're getting rid of that particular item. Today, I was throwing away this random project he made one day, and when I told him what I was doing, he asked what was wrong with it. He asked if it was dirty. I told him it wasn't dirty but that we just needed to get rid of it. He suggested that I get rid of part and save the other part. I explained that it wasn't really going to work that way, and he quickly and happily agreed, "Oh, well, that's fine. Just throw it in the trash." I mean, seriously, he's awesome! It's like he just appreciates knowing what's going on and why, and that's all he needs. I'm not taking it for granted, that's for sure! He is LOVING the process of packing and is a great help to me! He brings me boxes, hands me things that are out of my reach to put in the boxes, gets me the tape/marker, and gives me a high five or a huge hug every time we get another box packed and closed.

Gabe has been really great too. He is clearly addicted to the movie, Cars. I know my two-year-old should not be addicted to a movie, but if you were moving and could see the way his face lights up every single time he gets to see it, you might not argue about it too much either. He has memorized many parts of the movie and recites them before they're coming up. He also plays with his cars at other times of the day and acts out scenes from the movie. Speaking of reciting movie lines, one of his favorite things to do is recite the entire Ring of Fire scene from Finding Nemo with Chet. It's hilarious, and I MUST get it on video!

When he wakes up in the morning, he plays quietly in his bed for a few minutes. As soon as I open the door, he jumps up and down in his bed and screams, "Mom!" Then immediately says, "Change diaper." While we're working on that, he says, "I wanna eat oh-mee-oh an miwk" (oatmeal and milk). And while we're working on getting that ready, he says with great excitement, "I wanna watch a voovie" (movie). He's still learning what it means when I say that we can do that later. As soon as he hears me say "We can do that...", he starts cheering and jumping up and down. And then when he's sitting there eating and I'm still not turning on the movie, he's emotionally destroyed and starts crying. Thankfully he gets over it quickly. I'm trying to balance being patient--considering that he's still learning the meaning of somewhat abstract concepts--with training him not to argue and complain when he doesn't get what he wants.

He has started saying, "I wuw [love] you, Mom!" more often and has been giving the best hugs lately. He squeezes his arms around me and pats me on the back. He's a cutie, that's for sure! These kids are fantastic!

My belly is growing at a much faster rate than it did with the previous two, but I'm gaining weight a bit more slowly. I ordered a new pair of maternity yoga pants when they were on sale last week, and they came the other day. I'm fairly certain that I'll be living in these pants for the next few months. They're AWESOME!

Chet and I took a break the other night to watch Fireproof. It was really an excellent movie--very encouraging! The bonus features were definitely worth watching too.

How's that for another random assortment of thoughts and updates? I'm sure my posts will resemble this pattern for the next little bit.

Short Snip-its of Life

2009-02-21T01:18:00.005-05:00

Okay, over the last few weeks, I have had about a million random thoughts, and quite a few things have happened. Here is an effort to bring you up to speed without taking an hour to get it all down. This list will be in no particular order of events or thoughts, because that's not how my brain is operating right now. So here's a glimpse into my head...

We are buying a house in Champaign-Urbana, IL so we can move hopefully within the next several weeks.

There's a lot to do in the next several weeks.

I have a hard time considering leaving some of my best friends in the whole world behind. But I'm thankful for the phone and internet and cars that get good gas mileage.

I'm going to miss taking long showers and not running out of hot water ever. I think that's the only thing I can think of right now that I'll miss about this apartment in particular.

I'm excited that the only footsteps I'll hear overhead are from people I have let into my own home.

I'm also excited that I won't have to hear the same song being played repeatedly (did I say REPEATEDLY?) on another person's piano at strange hours when it's not very convenient.

I'm looking forward to being in a place where the ground is flat enough that I can see the sunset on a more regular basis.

I'm going to miss going to the river and just sitting there to collect my thoughts. I'm sure there will be some other place I can find to do this kind of activity.

My belly is becoming larger by the day! I was hoping to hold off on getting the maternity clothes out of storage before we move, but I'm thinking it's not going to be possible. I am thankful I can still wear my regular jeans (not even my size larger regular jeans), but I'm thinking that's going to end very quickly.

It's going to be great to have Chet home at night and awake during the day. However, it's going to be a bit of a transition for me not to have my couple of hours every night when the boys are asleep and he's gone at work to get my own stuff done in peace and quiet.

Times like moving make me miss my dad more than normal. He helped me/us move several times. He was a workhorse and would get the job done well and efficiently. He never got mad at me for doing something that didn't make sense (like putting a box down right in the middle of the walking path), but he did make plenty of jokes about it! When I asked him to do something, he'd always say in his monotone voice, "Yes, dear," and tried to communicate to Chet that this was a helpful thing to say. I wish my dad could help us move into our first house and that he could see the boys get really excited about their new basement, back yard, and bedroom. I wish he had been able to meet the boys in the first place. He'd be really excited for us, I'm sure... that is, if "excited" is the right word to describe my dad at any point! The Lord knows best. I think Dad would for sure be proud to know that we used the money he left us to get through seminary and that we're starting a new adventure without any debt (aside from that massive home loan we're taking on, anyway).

I finished a book called Always Too Soon to Quit by Nancy Bramlett last week. It was good. It was also nice to finish a book.

I need some time to shape my eyebrows. I feel like they're taking over my forehead. I'm thankful I don't have a unibrow, or I'd be in trouble.

I love my family. I'm really proud of Chet. Ladan is getting huge (he's grown another 2 inches and gained 5 pounds in the last few months) and is so smart and thoughtful. Gabe is still tiny, and I'll be glad when his cuteness factor wears off a little bit more so I'm not constantly second-guessing myself when I'm giving him direction or training him.

I'm very THANKFUL that Amber (my sister-in-law) learned that kids like Titus (my nephew) and Gabe who are super-active often have skin issues because their bodies use up all of their vitamins when they're running around and they have nothing left for basic health. They apparently also need extra omega-3's. So we put Gabe on an immune booster and an omega-3 supplement on top of his Flintstones, and within 2 weeks, ALL of his eczema and weird wart things were TOTALLY gone!

Gabe then got a bacterial skin infection somehow. He had to be put on his first antibiotic (well, if we wanted him to be able to be around other kids instead of stuck at home for 2-3 weeks). It's been 3 weeks, and it's almost all completely faded. Within the next week, he should be back to that baby-soft skin kids are supposed to have... as opposed to alligator- or snake-like skin.

I get very irritated that the Sports Illustrated swim suit issue is displayed at the check-out counter without the paper "modesty" cover it used to have. For the next month at least, please beware. It's everywhere! And it's not at all helpful for any person to see it.

Thanks to Judy, I got my chocolate-covered strawberries last weekend!!!!! Excellent treat!

We had a great time serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House with our small group a couple weeks ago. If you've never done it, you should give it a shot. If you have done it, you should do it again. Good times!

I don't really like that my dreams seem to get crazier and more vivid when I'm pregnant. I could really do without that. It kind of freaks me out.

I've had fun figuring and refiguring our finances during the last few months. Excel spreadsheets are my friend. (FYI--I know that last sentence isn't grammatically correct.)

I've had the incredible urge to ride in some sort of topless vehicle (convertible, jeep, whatever) with the radio turned up... singing loudly with my friends. Monster ballads would be fun!

For some strange reason, I kind of want to watch the Oscars this year... even though I honestly haven't even heard of at least 60% of the movies, and I think I've only seen two of them on the entire list of nominated films. And I probably would get annoyed with it anyway. I just always think it's fun to see someone be recognized for hard work, especially work that I am not cut out for at all.

I'm thankful for the group of people who is committed to our church plant in Illinois. So far we have 12 adults and 8 kids (soon to be 10 kids). It seems like we'll be a good team!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and feel MUCH better now that I'm out of my first trimester. My gall bladder is even behaving. Sure makes moving and doing all of these other things more reasonable!

This is nowhere near a million thoughts, but you can get a picture of life around here for the last little bit. We'll keep you posted!

"Amen" to "Jump Snacks"

2009-01-30T01:01:00.004-05:00

We had a super-cheap and easy dinner tonight... pancakes. That's all we had. It's great, because the boys would eat pancakes every day if they could, so it's always a treat! Tonight, we sat down to eat our pancakes, and here's how our conversation went:

Ladan: "Yay! We get to eat pancakes!"
Me: "Yep. We love pancakes!"
Gabe: "AMEN!"

Hilarious.

Later, the boys took turns taking showers, another one of their favorite activities. When Ladan was finished with his shower he asked if he could have a snack. I said, "Maybe you can have some applesauce." He replied, "No, I don't think I want that right now." I'm thinking at this point that he's going to ask for some fruit snacks or something, so I say, "Well, you can't have any junk food right now. You have to eat a healthy snack." He says, "I'm just hoping for Life cereal. That's not a jump snack."

On Sunday, he also came home after church and told us about how the soldiers put "horns" in Jesus' head. He was easily corrected, but it was very cute because he was speaking so confidently about what he knew.

I love it when my kids say funny things!

A Long Overdue Update

2009-01-20T14:19:00.004-05:00

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks! We went to Missouri for 10 days to do our Christmas marathon of visiting family. The boys started the trip sick with colds and ended it sick with the flu. But we had a great time visiting with everyone and were able to see most of our family members and even some friends, which was great!

While we were gone, Megan (Chet's sister) helped me identify that the unusual symptoms I was having were likely related to gall bladder problems. So when I got home, I started researching in my Smart Medicine for Healthier Living book and found several natural remedies. Since I'm in the first trimester of pregnancy, the only one that my doctor wants me to try is the olive oil and lemon juice combo. The book recommended 3 tbsp. of olive oil mixed with the juice of one lemon, which is to be ingested right before bed and then again in the morning before breakfast. I did this for a couple of days...

and then I got the stomach bug that the boys had! Needless to say, I didn't attempt to drink olive oil and lemon juice at this point! In two days of having the flu I lost 4 or 5 pounds and was not in good shape. My gall bladder did feel better because I was eating absolutely no fat (or much of anything for that matter), but as soon as I ate a slice of cheese when I was better, the gall bladder problems came back.

I went to the doctor today for my first OB appointment, and we talked some about the gall bladder issues. She's ordered an ultrasound of my gall bladder, and we'll decide what to do from there. When I came home a friend had sent me directions for a different (more intense) version of the olive oil and lemon juice cleanse. So I'll run that by the doctor to see if I can try it before the ultrasound or if she'd rather I wait until after. I'm really hoping it works! I'm not exactly all that interested in having an unnecessary surgery, particularly if something like olive oil and lemon juice can take care of it.

On a more exciting note, there was a 5-day discrepancy between when the paper dating wheel they use in the doctor's office said I conceived and when my temperature changed (signifying ovulation if you don't know anything about the fertility awareness method of charting). The doctor likes to do c-sections one week early, and so the 5-day difference could be big one way or the other. In order to determine my exact due date, she had me have an early ultrasound during today's visit.

According to the ultrasound, I am exactly 10 weeks and 2 days pregnant, which means my due date is August 15, 2009. The baby was moving around like crazy. It has only one head with developing facial features and has two arms, two legs, tiny little fingers and tiny little toes. There is a very strong heartbeat racing along at 169 beats per minute. They say faster heartrates can indicate that it's a girl, but I'm not counting my chickens, because Ladan and Gabe both had fairly high heartrates as well.

As the ultrasound tech was trying to get around my uterus to see my ovaries, I was watching the baby jumping all around doing something like jumping jacks. I said, "Can you even believe that people throw these babies in the trash can like it's nothing?" She said, "I have never been an ultrasound tech who is pro-abortion. I just look at these tiny little bodies and how early their hearts beat and everything starts developing and have no idea how someone can discard them as nothing important." Seriously. This is why it is so great when crisis pregnancy centers can have ultrasound machines right in their offices.

I was bummed that Chet didn't get to see it (he's sitting in a philosophy class all week), but he'll for sure get to see the later one, which will be even more fun!

With regard to our move to Champaign, Chet's been working HARD to get things in order. Our good friends, Logan and Allison Preston, and their three children are making the move with us. There may be others who decide to go as well, which would be awesome! There are already 5 people in Champaign who are committed to the church, and there may be more before we even arrive... thanks to Jim Smith, our good friend there who is working from that end. Chet is applying for jobs, and we'll start talking with lenders to determine if we'll be able to buy a home at this point. We still have enough in savings, but since our future income sources seem a little bit all over the place, they may require that we get there and get established a bit before buying. We'll see how it shakes out. Anyway, once Chet gets a job and we find a place to live, we'll make the move. It's a bit of a whirlwind, that's for sure!

I'll end with a little story. The other night during small group, one of the high school girls was watching the kids. Apparently, Ladan had a very hard time obeying and was openly defiant several times. She explained the situation to me, so before I left to take her home, I told Chet that Ladan would have to have discipline when they got home. Chet took care of that, and I was putting Ladan to bed a while later. I talked to him for a few minutes about how it made me sad to hear that he had disobeyed Cali and had treated her and the other kids poorly. I reminded him that this is sin and that it is what separates us from God. I reminded him that this is why we need Jesus, to save us from our sins.

After that quick talk, we moved on to our story. We just happened to be on the story of Zaccheus in his Jesus Storybook Bible. The story talks about how Zaccheus didn't have any friends because he was stealing from people. This was disobeying God, and he was a sinner. Jesus came along and rescued Zaccheus from his sinning. He forgave Zaccheus and gave Zaccheus a new heart. Zaccheus wanted to obey God after that.

We prayed after the story. Ladan hasn't wanted to pray out loud for a little while for some reason. He likes to just close his eyes and listen to us pray. But this time, as I was thanking God for sending Jesus to save us, he interjected, "Thank you, God, for saving me from my sinning." We went on to pray that God would help Ladan understand what Jesus did for him when He died and rose again and that God would help Ladan believe and trust in Him and want to obey and love others well. I was so thankful that he was owning his sin and that he is able to verbalize that he needs to be rescued from it. The Lord is working in his little heart!

Oh, one more thing. You'll never believe it....

CHET HAS A FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Photos

2008-12-29T15:54:00.011-05:00

Well, I've been really exhausted and nauseous lately, so I haven't done as well as keeping up as I thought I would after the semester was over.

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend meet us to snap some photos of our family. It was a FREEZING cold day, so despite our three or four layers of clothing, Gabe had tears streaming down his face the entire time... not because he was crying, but just because it was so windy and cold. That means that he didn't smile more than once the entire time! The good thing is that, because it was so cold, he didn't try to run around! He wanted to stay as close to us as possible! And Ladan made some really funny faces, so without further ado, here's your entertainment...

Can Anybody Figure This Out?

2008-12-11T22:12:00.006-05:00

Do these provide any clarity?

If that's not enough, how about this?

August 18, 2009.

Hairy Arms, Burping Bottoms and Other Fun Stories

2008-12-07T14:24:00.005-05:00

Here are a few funny stories from recent days...

One day Ladan was trying to open something that was pretty hard to turn. He said, "Wow, Mom. This is really tough to open." He looked down again at it and said with determination, "Well, I do have hair on my arms, so I must be strong enough to open it." He gave it another try and got it opened... then yelled, "Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!! I did it!!!" FYI--Ladan has a few clear pieces of hair on his arm that can't be more than 1/8 inch in length. Nevertheless, it is there, and apparently it makes him strong like Daddy.

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Last weekend I was watching the MU football game with Ladan. They lost. I told Ladan what happened, and he said, "Well, I guess they'll praise Him." Have you seen Facing the Giants? There is a line in the movie where the coach tells the team that if they win, they'll praise Him [God], and if they lose, they'll praise Him. When Chet came home, Ladan told him that the Missouri Tigers lost and were praising God. Let's hope they were!

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Just yesterday he woke up from his nap and was playing with Gabe. He accidentally tooted. He announced, "Whoops. I just tooted." I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He responded, "No. It's kind of strange. It's almost like my bottom just burped." Nice observation. I replied, "Yes, that's pretty much exactly what it's like. And yes, it is kind of strange."

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Our neighbors are moving back to California and are leaving town tomorrow morning. We're so sad to see them go. I don't think I'll ever take for granted the days we've had with them right next door. Over the course of the last few days, their two little girls have been playing at our house a lot so Glen and Jessica can pack. Ladan and Hannah (who will be 3 in February) have been playing a lot of house. Ladan has a small tent set up in his room right now. It's a 3x3 foot tent with mesh walls so you can look in easily. They have the kid-sized lawn chairs set up inside the tent. Many times over the course of these days, Ladan and Hannah have gone into their house to sit together. It's really funny because they just sit there for up to 15 minutes at a time just talking and doing nothing else. It's like they're an old couple just chilling out on the screened-in porch chatting the day away.

They have taken their "kid" (a small snowman made out of a tube sock) to school. Hannah sits on the little riding toy holding the "kid", and Ladan pushes them to school. They drop the kid off, and then come back down the hallway to do something else for a while. Inevitably, they remember their kid and go back to get her from school.

At one point, Gabe tried to walk into the tent while Hannah and Ladan were sitting in their chairs. Hannah said, "No, Gabe. You can't come in the house right now, son." Awesome!

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We put our Christmas tree up after we ate our Thanksgiving dinner. Ladan has been so excited about it and keeps shouting out, "It's Christmas in our house!" He tells me regularly that he just loves Christmas and is so glad that it's Christmas in our house.

Amber, my sister-in-law, made us a set of ornaments last year that have different names of Jesus on them. Each one has a name that Scripture uses to refer to Jesus as well as the Scripture reference where we can read about it. There are 25 of them, so we do one each day, reading the scripture and talking about what it means when we refer to Jesus as ___________. Ladan has been having fun trying to read the names of Jesus on the ornaments. He gets some of them right off, and some (like "The One Mediator") are a bit more challenging.

One of the ornaments reads "Man from Heaven". It was the first one we did. When Ladan woke up the next day and came to the tree to try to read it, he said, "Man... (insert long pause) who goes to college." I helped him figure it out and he now gets it every time, but I thought his original version was pretty great!

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Gabe has been pretty funny lately too. He's starting to use all kind of fun phrases. Today I was wiping the oatmeal off his chin, and he said, "Oh my goodness. I'm messy."

When he does something wrong to Ladan, he says, "Foddy, Nanan" (Sorry, Ladan).

His favorite game is to wait for someone to get up from his/her seat, RUN over, climb into the vacated seat, and yell, "You get out of my seat!" This game NEVER gets old for Gabe and is a constant source of entertainment for him.

We got the following message from one of Gabe's Sunday School teachers a few weeks ago:

"... one of the parents asked us if we were teaching the kids to kneel or bow down when we pray...if you have noticed your kids wanting to do this when you pray at home it is not because we have taught them to do this. Although, at some point one of the kids just decided to lay face down when we started to pray and the power of influence on kids is I guess pretty big, because when we pray in Sunday school, most of the kids will now lay face down. So if you are wondering what your child is doing, that's the explanation!"
Can you even imagine a room full of two-year-olds laying face-down on the ground during prayer time? I so wish I could see it!

Well, that's all for now! Chet finished his classes for the semester, so I'll try to get better at posting more regularly again. Please be praying for us as we make all kinds of decisions in the next little while!

The Pot Pie Recipe

2008-11-20T00:01:00.002-05:00

Here it is!

Ingredients:
14 oz chicken broth
1/2 cup water, and another 1/3 cup water
4 medium carrots, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups quartered medium mushrooms (I don't use these)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 refrigerated unbaked piecrusts (for 9-inch pie)
2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. (If you use a glass or dark metal pie pan, may need to decrease heat to 400 degrees)

2. Combine broth, 4 oz. water, carrots and potatoes in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms (optional) and onion; saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth mixture and peas.

4. Whisk remaining 1/3 cup water into the flour until smooth. Then whisk it into vegetable mixture. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to a boil.

5. Grease pie pan and line it with one of the pie crusts.

6. Stir chicken into the vegetable mix. Then transfer it all into the baking dish. Just heap it all in there. It doesn't need to lay flat.

7. Lay the second pie crust over the top. The edges of the top crust should overlap the lower crust. Tuck it around the top of the bottom crust (inside the pan) and pinch it around the edges... so that it creates a seal around the filling.

8. Cut some fun or pretty shape out of the top using a knife or cookie cutter.

9. Bake until filling is bubbly and crust is browned, about 20 minutes.

*You may want to add salt and pepper, but I tend to just allow each person to doctor his/her own food.

I don't have the photo on this computer, but if you want to see what it's supposed to look like, click here.

(FYI--I got the basic idea from a sample recipe my grandma gave me from Easy to Bake, Easy to Make and made several changes.)

Fight the Freedom of Choice Act

2008-11-12T00:21:00.005-05:00

Way to go Beth Bloom!!!! Beth is a senior in high school at our church, and she sent me the link to the petition to fight the Freedom of Choice Act. This is exactly the type of thing I was talking about in my last post! Please consider taking 30 seconds and signing the petition yourself.

Hopeless for the Helpless?

2008-11-08T00:28:00.005-05:00

In the wake of Election Day 2008, I have heard many people commenting on how sad they are for unborn children who will be aborted in our country. I have to say that I am totally right there. If Obama and Congress move to pass the Freedom of Choice Act and lift the ban on partial-birth abortion, there will likely be more helpless babies killed than ever before. (For a description of partial-birth abortion, click here. Warning! It's horrifying!).

I read a few ads during this political season saying, "It's illegal to give a Tylenol to a child without parental consent, but it's okay to perform an abortion on that same child without consulting the parents. Something is wrong with this picture." Pretty wild if you think about it, but sadly it's the case in many states. In the end, the whole thing seems a bit hopeless, right?

Well, maybe not. Here's my take on it. It is totally true that the Lord is sovereign and that He is in control of all of this. We can fully trust Him. However, that doesn't mean that we have to sit back and wait around for some edict to come from the government making abortion illegal in order to protect the helpless unborn. Our sovereign Lord doesn't use only elected officials and their power to outlaw abortion as His means to save babies. If we really are pro-life, then here are a few possible ways we can help to save unborn children right now...

One obvious one is to volunteer at an established crisis pregnancy center. Or team up with other believers in your community to get the necessary training and start a crisis pregnancy center.

Another is to continually remain involved in public affairs and political issues. We can regularly contact our elected officials and let them hear from us on this matter. We should for sure be praying that the Lord softens their hearts, that they hear His voice, and that "pro-choice" officials change their minds.

We can also be proactive in many ways. For example, what about investing our lives in young men and women, whether they are our own or someone else's? What if we loved the Lord so much ourselves that it was contagious and these kids wanted more than anything to have what we have with Him? What if we spent time helping them to realize that, even if abortion is legal, it's wrong? And better yet, what if we spent time helping them to tell the difference between a good relationship and an ungodly one, helping them to realize that, besides pregnancy, there are MANY consequences of sex outside of marriage. The possibility of pregnancy is just one of a host of issues that comes along with doing things in the wrong order, and even perfect protection from pregnancy couldn't protect them from these terrible effects. We also need to teach them that there are MANY rewards and good reasons to save themselves for the one they will marry... and that it really is totally worth the wait. What if we didn't wait for these young people to "figure it out" on their own, and we actually cared enough about them to tell them "no" sometimes, even if they didn't like us very much for a while?

All of those same things apply to college students and grown adults. Even if we don't have the authority to tell them "no", we can take an opportunity to speak the truth to them and lovingly, but firmly, say something they may not want to hear. After all, while the majority of abortions are chosen by young people, there are plenty of adults who make the same choice for themselves.

This is no small battle, and it seems like we're fighting on an uphill slope that keeps getting steeper. Yet, we're not left without hope!

Let's say that each of us took seriously our responsibility to love people well and to proactively work to prevent bad relationships, inappropriate and unhelpful sexual behavior, and untimely pregnancy. What if we were able to help encourage men, women, boys, and girls in their walks with the Lord so that they were positively motivated by the right things? I wonder how many abortions would be prevented then?

And what if some of us were able to dedicate ourselves to serving and loving men, women, boys, and girls in the event that they do end up conceiving a child that they aren't sure they're ready for, in a crisis pregnancy center setting or not? I wonder how many abortions would be prevented then?

It is my encouragement to every person to study what it means to live life in a way that honors the Lord. Find out what it means to fulfill your God-given role as a man or woman. Find out what God says you should look for in a relationship or how He says you should carry out your relationship if you're already in one. Then be committed to that. Commit yourself to sharing that with others and pouring yourself into the next generation of young people who are making tough decisions every day. You will not only be preventing the death of unborn children, but you will be giving life to those who are already walking around outside the womb!

Happy Faces and Homemade Goodness

2008-10-30T23:50:00.005-04:00

What a day! This morning I was able to go to Panera for ALMOST TWO HOURS BY MYSELF! I ate a whole grain bagel and read my Bible the entire time. Well, I didn't eat the bagel the entire time, but I did read my Bible the entire time. I popped my earplugs in and was able to focus really well. I finished 1 Kings. I just joined up with a couple other moms for a Thursday morning kid swap, so I was able to take Ladan to a friend's house. Since Gabe was sick, Chet stayed home with him. Normally Chet comes home from his morning class and goes straight to bed, so this was a really big treat for me that I thought wasn't going to be possible because Gabe is sick. Yippee!!!!

When I got home, Ladan asked if he could have a piece of candy from our church Reformation Party. He picked a blue Starburst, and this is what it did to his mouth...

It was great! He thought it was hilarious! His blue mouth made his face happy for quite a few minutes. I'd say that there was enough dye in that one piece of candy to color enough icing for an entire cake.

Once the boys were in bed for their naps, I did a few things around the house. For dinner, I made a chicken pot pie... with a happy face cut out of the top (forget the boring scalloped circle recommended in the recipe)! It only takes about an hour to make this, and it's really good. It's also huge, so it lends itself well to leftovers. And apparently you can assemble it, wrap it well, and freeze it for future baking. I'll post the recipe in another entry just in case you're interested in trying it out.

Once I got dinner cleaned up, I started making some pumpkin bread out of that friendly pumpkin we brought home from the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. Although it took a while from start to finish, it was very easy and included long chunks of time to do other things. If you'd like to see the recipe, click here. I turned our pumpkin into one loaf of pumpkin bread and three cups of pumpkin puree that are in the freezer waiting to be turned into three loaves of bread sometime in the future!

As if all that wasn't enough homemade goodness for the day, I decided to attempt to make the ear infection drops suggested in a FABULOUS book I reference all the time--Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Natural and Conventional Treatments for Infants & Children. (I just realized that there is actually an adult version of this book when I went to copy the link. I'm going to add it to my Amazon wish list immediately! I've been using the kid version even for myself, and it's been great, but this will most certainly be even better for we old folks.)

Anyway, back to the ear infection and drops. I can't be sure if Gabe has an ear infection. I haven't taken him to the doctor, because even if I take him, all they'll do is give him an antibiotic. All I know is that he sure has been crabby for almost a week, has hardly eaten, and today he started pulling on his ears. He's got a pretty wet cough, so I wouldn't be surprised at all by an ear infection.

I know there are varying opinions on antibiotics for this type of thing, but in short, I don't like them much and will avoid them if at all possible. I talked to a nurse who works at Children's Hospital in St. Louis once, and she told me that they don't even administer antibiotics there unless there is danger of death. She was shocked when I told her that so many of our friends' kids are continually put on antibiotics for ear infections. Sure, ear infections are painful and irritating, but there has to be a better way in most of these cases to help kids get through it that doesn't diminish their resistance to future infection. Well, I think I found at least one helpful solution today!

In Smart Medicine, they suggest making some simple ear drops. You put about 2 Tbsp. of olive oil in a small pot on the stove. Then peel a fresh garlic clove and cut it into about three or four pieces (the book doesn't say you have to cut it, but I did so the garlic would get out into the oil faster). I heated the oil and garlic on medium for about 5 minutes, removed it from the heat, and let it cool until it was still a bit warmer than body temperature but not too hot. You then suck up a bit of the oil in a medicine dropper, lay your kid on his/her side, and drop one or two drops into their ear canal.

We did this in both of Gabe's ears, and while he absolutely hated the process of being held down, after about 10 or 15 minutes, he was up and running around like himself and had a great time until he went to bed an hour and a half later! Apparently, garlic has antibacterial properties and works to heal ear (and other) infections. And the warm oil mixed with the garlic helps to relieve pressure and pain. It was awesome! We'll definitely be doing this once or twice a day until this thing is gone completely.

So I sent him to bed with a bit of Olbas Oil on his shirt, the humidifier on normal setting, and a HAPPY FACE on the front of his head for the first time in almost a week! Praise the Lord!

Chet even had a happy face before he left for work. He was able to write half a paper in the chunk of time after dinner until he left. Great work! He's still got a TON to do between now and next Monday, but he's on a roll!

Oh, and I made some hummus from scratch earlier this week, which turned out to be 1/4 of the cost of buying it in the store. I'm on fire! Too bad I don't have a photo of my happy face tonight!

Illinois... and Gabe in Concert

2008-10-27T12:31:00.008-04:00

We spent Friday and Saturday traveling to Springfield and Champaign, Illinois. It was a packed 38.5 hours from 11am on Friday when we left Louisville till the time we arrived home at 1:30am on Saturday night (Sunday morning for those of you who are concerned about precision). Gabe was a showing some signs of being a little bit under the weather before we even left, so I packed the Ibuprofen and Olbas Oil.

When we set out, Ladan asked for a cookie randomly. I told him he could probably have one when we got to Illinois. On the way, we stopped at Old McDonald's (that's what Ladan calls it) in Danville, Illinois and got some chicken nuggets for the boys. Danville is just inside the state, so we had just told Ladan we had entered Illinois. When we were pulling out of the parking lot, Ladan said in distress, "Oh, no! We almost forgot to eat a cookie in Illinois!" We had to explain that Illinois is a big place and that we'd be in it for another whole day. Whew! He felt so much better.

The boys didn't sleep at all on the way. Nice. We got to Springfield at about 4:30, settled into our hotel room, and met up with Chet's old youth pastor, Ed Ingram, and his family. We went to dinner at a place called the Pizza Machine. It's something like three stories, but you can see each of the levels from one side of the restaurant. There are all kinds of crazy things to watch and do in the place. They hold birthday parties on the lower level, which you can see from any spot in the place. They make a 40- or 60-inch pizza, put it on a massive pan, and lower it with a chain and pulley system from the ceiling above the third level. Crazy! Needless to say, the boys were a little bit overwhelmed to start. It really wasn't until about 20 minutes before we left that they even broke in and wanted to play with things.

Gabe had a horrible time falling asleep and even woke up in the middle of the night. Not normal for him. We had to have the boys ready by about 7:45 so they could go to Kevin Ingram's soccer game. I was not optimistic that they would do very well. They're used to having 12 hours of sleep at night and at least 2.5 hours of rest/nap time in the afternoon. They had missed their nap on Friday and only had a maximum of 9 hours of sleep that night. And Gabe was definitely getting sick.

The Ingrams kept the boys for about 6 hours, and when we met up with them again, the boys had been really good! They had eaten well, obeyed, and had a great time! The Lord provides just what we need when we need it. Gabe was in pretty bad shape at this point, though. He was hardly talking (a sure sign he's not well), had a fever, and was coughing.

We popped the boys in the car and headed off for Champaign. They each slept for about 45 minutes in the car. Hardly a full nap, but at least enough to hopefully sustain them. We met up with our new friend, Jim, in Champaign. He hopped in our car and showed us all around the city. It was awesome! Pretty much like Columbia, only a little bit more of everything. The campus is a little bit bigger. The downtown area is a little bit bigger. The city is a little bit bigger. However, it pretty much has exactly the same feel to it. I guess the only difference is that there probably weren't nearly as many wooded or road walking/bike trails in Champaign, but they had more large parks than Columbia. Nevertheless, it was just our speed... pretty much everything we love about College Town, USA. We had never been there before, so it was definitely fun to see it.

We ate dinner with Jim and his wife. Throughout dinner, I'm pretty sure that Gabe didn't say even two words and ate only his applesauce. Ladan, on the other hand, was shockingly social. He was talking and playing with the kids in the booth behind us. He laughed and joked with Jim. He even ate all his food, including some appetizers. All of this on very little sleep is really great for him!

After dinner, we got back in the car and headed for home. We stopped for some $2.23 gasoline outside of Indianapolis, but other than that, we just kept moving. We were SO TIRED! The boys slept most of the way, and Chet and I wanted to sleep most of the way. I was trying to stay awake just to keep Chet awake. Let's just say that it was a good thing he was driving, because I would have sent us off the road.

We got home at 1:30, unloaded the van, and got ready for bed. By this time, Gabe's temperature was 103.4. I gave him some Ibuprofen, put some Olbas Oil on his shirt, and Chet turned on the humidifier. He was so happy to be in his own bed. He just quietly smiled when I laid him down and went to sleep immediately. He slept until 1:30 on Sunday afternoon.

When I went in to get him, I opened the door and was surprised to see that it appeared as though he was in concert! Chet hadn't paid too much attention to the setting on the humidifier, but it turns out that it was putting out so much mist that all I could see was Gabe's head popping out over the top of all the fog. It literally looked like those fog machines people use in concerts/plays. It was hilarious! Everything was damp, but I noticed that the curtains had been pretty nicely steamed. Definitely a benefit. (Note to self--never iron curtains again... just turn the humidifier on high output and shut the door!) Gabe felt so much better that he was eating, playing and chatting like normal. We determined that Olbas Oil and the humidifier on "concert setting" can possibly cure most anything!

In reality, Gabe's still got a cough and is pretty hoarse, but he's on the mend. It's actually been kind of nice to have him want me to hold him so much. He's not overly demanding, but he comes up and wants to sit in my lap while I type on the computer... and he doesn't even feel the urge to punch all the keys and wreck what I'm doing. He's just been sitting here pointing at all the letters on the keyboard and whispering what he sees. I can handle that. Last night we were watching baseball, and he was just chillin' on my lap with his little hand on my arm. I'll take it while I can get it. In no time he'll be too big to sit on my lap, and probably even sooner than that, he won't want to.

"Vote Your Conscience"

2008-10-23T16:54:00.004-04:00

A friend sent me the link to this video produced by the Catholic Church. I would suggest that most of what's included in it pertains to all Christians, not just Catholics... so please take 3 and a half minutes to watch it.

Proud of My Boys!

2008-10-22T00:20:00.007-04:00

I've been attempting to edit one of Chet's papers for an hour and a half now, but I'm totally delirious and can't focus. I guess four hours of sleep last night didn't turn out to be enough to sustain me for a late night of academic paper reading tonight. Shocking!

I just thought I'd post a quick note to say I'm so proud of my boys... all of them! Chet's been working HARD to get through this semester. In about six weeks, he'll complete his last full semester. Then he's got two classes to finish up. He's totally exhausted and has a ton on his plate right now, but the end is in sight! He's such a hard worker!

Ladan and I finished lesson 16 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons today. He's reading some short words, some short sentences, and has been introduced to some picture interpretation over the course of the last few lessons. And he's TOTALLY LOVING IT!!!! He can hardly wait for his lesson every day, and he is so excited throughout each one. It's so much fun to see him learning and enjoying it so much. I forgot what he did the other day, but when he finished, I told him he did a really good job. He replied, "Yeah, I'm so proud of myself!" This may sound a bit puffed up to some of you, but I am so excited to see this new confidence coming out in him. We've worked and prayed long and hard for this, and it's finally showing up! Rather than hearing him say, "I can't," I see him backing up, thinking, and then trying again until he gets it.

Gabe has really made some big progress in the last few weeks with his letters also. I wasn't too sure if he was going to be into letters and sounds, but he's really blown me away. He stands at the refrigerator or the white board and points out all his letters. He still gets about 5 or so of them confused every once in a while, but considering that he only knew 5 letters total about a month ago, I'd say that's pretty great. And considering that he does it all voluntarily, I think it's REALLY great!

Learning is so much fun! And lest you think that my boys are the only ones doing the learning, I'll let you know that I too am catching on to new things. I had a chance to take Beth Bloom's senior photos yesterday. In preparation, Chet had to teach me a little bit more about our big flash. Beth, Kathy (Beth's mom), and I went out to a few fun spots around town to snap the photos. We had so much fun! I almost fell in the creek about five times, but thankfully I managed to stay on dry land. I had downloaded the 30-day trial of Photoshop Lightroom to play around with, and I had a blast using Beth's photos as a learning experience!

Then tonight I went to a meeting of current and potential homeschoolers at our church to learn more about how to homeschool on a tight budget. Homeschooling freaks me out in many ways... but every time I think about acquiring materials/supplies, taking time to learn or re-learn all that content myself in order to teach it, and then watching my kids' faces light up every time they learn something new, I realize it could the perfect combination of all the parts of school that were my favorites!!! Only the Lord knows if it's what we'll end up doing for sure, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity to learn from so many wise, experienced people here. My friend, Becky, is always telling me that I'm already homeschooling my kids, and she's right. It's just not structured-sit-down-and-do-worksheets homeschooling.

Ladan and Gabe are both having a great time singing. Their current favorite is "Holy, Holy, Holy". Ladan knows all the words and sings it along with his air guitar while he dances around. And Gabe apparently doesn't want to miss out on the fun, because he inevitably chimes in, "Woewee, woewee, woewee!" and then belts into an endless stream of babbling with the occasional clear syllable until finally at the end, when Ladan is shouting out, "Blessed Trinity," Gabe ends on cue with "i-tee!" as if he just sang the song as clearly as his older brother. Great!

Ladan is loving his Jesus Storybook Bible. We've been through it quite a few times already, but he still can't get enough of it. Whenever it's time to read together, he only wants to read his Bible. I can't argue with that. He saves his other books for his independent "reading" time. Tonight we were reading about God's message to Isaiah, and the story referred to the coming king as a servant. I asked Ladan if he knew what a servant was. He kind of stumbled around for a bit, so I explained that it's a person who helps another person. He replied, "Yeah, Jesus is that servant. He helped us because he died on the cross to take our punishment." Okay! I guess he knew right where this story was headed!

Gabe, on the other hand, tends to have a hard time sitting still for books that have any length to them. But that kid cannot get enough of prayer time. Especially before bed, he loves it when we hold him and whisper our prayers in his ear. He bows his head, snuggles close, and says, "Pay?" So we pray with him, and when we finish, he'll ask again. My prayer is that this time will provide a foundation for him and that he'll know without a doubt that the Lord is near and that He hears us.

Consider This...

2008-10-17T01:31:00.005-04:00

I've mentioned before that I'm on a quest to read the whole Bible in a little over six months. I started with the New Testament and am now working through the Old Testament. I don't think I'll always read through it this quickly, but it's really great to get the big picture in a short period of time. I'm finding that I'm picking up connections that I didn't necessarily get in longer, more spaced-out reads.

I've been reading 1 Samuel for the last few days, and I wanted to mention a couple of things that caused me to stop in my tracks all over again even though I've read them many times before.

The first is in 1 Samuel 12. Israel is asking God for a king. Samuel warns them that they really don't want a king. They insist that they do indeed want a king. They're tired of trusting a king (God) that they cannot see... they want an earthly king, partly so it's someone they can see and partly just because it's what everyone else around them is doing. The Lord appoints a king, but it's not without consequence to Israel. Here's how it goes down:

1 Samuel 12:17b-25 (ESV) [Samuel says,] ... And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

And all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king." And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king."

I mean, seriously. Just sit and read that second paragraph again. It's amazing, and it applies to every human being who ever walked the face of the earth. Israel totally blew it! And yet they had this great encouragement from the Lord through Samuel. And they still messed up. Over and over and over again. We mess up over and over and over again. Which is exactly why God had a different plan from eternity past, one that doesn't count on our ability to get it right. Jesus.
And isn't Jesus' message to all humanity the same as Samuel's message to Israel? We have all sinned against the Lord and worshiped "empty things that cannot profit or deliver" (ourselves, other people, knowledge, things, status, good hair, a clothing size, etc.). If you are reading this and are in a place where you are not trusting in Christ ALONE for the forgiveness of your sins and hope of eternal life, you can choose right now to recognize that God is the only One worth worshiping, turn away from your sin, receive His forgiveness, and begin to serve him faithfully with all your heart.

Even those of us who have already accepted the Truth of the Gospel still need to hear it over and over again. It's sweet every single time we hear it and recognize how wonderful God's grace is. The Lord has done great things for us, and He alone is worthy of our praise and honor.

Samuel points out that it would be a sin against GOD for Samuel to give up praying for Israel. There are times in life when we have done all we can physically do for a person, but there is NEVER a point in time when we are allowed to give up praying for those who are wandering or separated from the Lord. He also says that he will continue to instruct them in the good and right way. As an added note, if we're receiving instruction or correction in "the good and right way", let's not reject it. It is a gift from the Lord, a mercy that gets or keeps us on track.

Samuel warns Israel that if they continue to do wickedly, they and their king will be destroyed. Likewise, if we fail to turn away from all of the empty things that we worship and fail to repent of our sin, we will be destroyed right along with all the stuff we focus on that doesn't last. This warning is very scary. But ultimately we don't worship the Lord only as a way to get out of being destroyed (although it's definitely a healthy part of our motivation). We worship and serve him faithfully with all our hearts because he has done great things for us. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). There is so much more (infinitely more), but hopefully, I'm getting the basic point across.

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The second thing I wanted to mention is the story of David and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25. I would encourage you to read the entire chapter, but I'm not going to type it all out here. In short, Abigail is married to a guy named Nabal. Nabal acts a fool and is a punk to David. David decides that he's going to seek revenge and kill Nabal.

Abigail finds out about David's plan and approaches David to ask him to have mercy on her husband (who she admits has acted foolishly). She encourages him to let the Lord take care of it and says, "And when the Lord has... appointed you prince over Israel, [you] shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for ... taking vengeance [yourself]." (1 Samuel 25:30-31)

"And David said to Abigail, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand!'" (1 Samuel 25:32-33)

David decided not to kill Nabal. Abigail told her husband all of these things. Ten days later the Lord struck Nabal dead.

"When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing.'" 1 Samuel 25:39.

The Lord used Abigail to speak to David, to prevent David from doing something terribly wrong. Even if the Lord had not struck Nabal dead, it would still have been His job to decide to avenge David. It is not our responsibility to get back at people who do wrong to us. We are to trust these things to the Lord. And we are to heed the warnings of other people that God uses to warn us. David humbly accepts Abigail's warning and praises her discretion. He didn't continue on with his plan just because he had already resolved to kill Nabal. He snapped out of it and realized that it would be a big mistake. He saw Abigail's action as loving.

Like Abigail, when we see other people heading into a situation where they are about to make some big mistakes, it is our responsibility to come to them in love and warn them.

The Weird Shouting Guys

2008-10-13T22:08:00.019-04:00

Tonight, Ladan and I went for a walk to Walgreens and to the bank. It's about a mile or so each direction, and since it was a nice night, I decided to see how long Ladan can walk. It was lots of fun! He held my hand the entire way and wanted to run every time we needed to cross a street (after looking both ways and yelling out, "We're safe!" every time of course).

Well, we got into Walgreens, and since Halloween is approaching, there were lots of strange looking creatures hanging from the ceilings and the walls. Ladan doesn't know a whole lot about Halloween, so these things were a little bit surprising to him. He kept saying, "Mom, look at those giant weird guys up there."

We were walking out of the store to go to the bank, and he saw a strange-looking ghoulish kind of guy. The guy was bald, had no eyebrows, had his mouth open like he was yelling, and had a sort of dirty-looking robe thing on. This particular guy stood out to Ladan for some reason. He stopped to look at the guy and said, "That's really strange, Mom. That guy is shouting."

I asked him what he thought the guy was saying. He replied, "I think he's yelling, 'Help! I lost my eyebrows and my hair and I'm all dirty!'" Nothing about, "I'm going to get you!" or any such phrase that might be scaring someone else. Ladan was fairly certain that the guy was just freaked out because he looked like a freak! Hilarious!

On the way home, he was talking about the weird shouting guys in the store, and I said something like, "It's not too nice that they're shouting like that, is it?" He answered, "No. That guy should have said, 'Would you please help me find my eyebrows and my hair and clean me up?' He didn't need to shout about it." We laughed all the way home!

On Saturday we took the boys out to Huber's Orchard to pick a pumpkin. We went into the kids' area and rode out to the field to feed the animals. And then we rode a different tractor out to the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few photos...

This is about as close as Ladan got to a goat's mouth.

Gabe, on the other hand, was all about the goats licking the corn right out of his hand. He loved it when they had to pry his little hand open to get their food! His own tongue was sticking out the entire time he was feeding them.

These are out in the pumpkin patch...

The boys loved this green pumpkin.

We had to convince them that it wasn't necessary to throw it like a football.

Ladan was having a blast!

I think Gabe was trying hard to develop a strategy for choosing.

(Doesn't he look like a coach standing on the sidelines?!?)

Here's the little guy we finally brought home. As a result of our new friend's presence in the middle of the table,

Ladan is very proud to be properly pronouncing pumpkin (as opposed to "ponekin").

Did you notice that Gabe has to wear his hat just slightly tilted to the side just like Ladan did? How cute is that?

The New 20

2008-10-08T23:55:00.002-04:00

Today I turned 30. My brother called me a couple of days ago and asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I can never think of anything when people ask me this question, but I remembered that I do have an Amazon wish list. I got on the computer while I was talking to him and sent the link to Amber, my sister-in-law. While she was pulling up the list, my brother was heckling me about how old I am. I heard Amber yelling out from the background, "30 is like the new 20!" He said, "Yeah, she said that 30 is like the new 50!" Nice. That's what little brothers are for I guess.

I was just excited to hear Amber say that she thought my Amazon wish list was so fun that it caused her to think that she needed to spice hers up a bit! I guess I'm not a total dud yet.

Last night my guys gave me my birthday present early. They got me Volume 1 of the Love Comes Softly movie series. We do like them because they're wholesome movies... but apparently part of the reason Chet bought them is that we laugh really hard at some of the acting, particularly the body movements and facial expressions of Dale Midkiff (Missie's father). Chet can do a mean Dale Midkiff impression that causes me to crack up. You'll have to ask him to oblige you sometime.

Earlier today I was getting ready to go to the grocery store, and Ladan walked me to the door. He gave me a hug before I left and spontaneously said, "I think you're really cool." That's a great birthday gift right there!

My mom had Chet go out and get me some balloons. He thought it was too much to get 30 balloons, so he got six latex balloons and wrote "5", "plus five", "+ five", "add cinco", "+ V", and "add another five" on them. Then he had them include a mylar balloon that says "thirty". He said that 6 x 5 = 30... and he was able to accomplish the goal with only seven balloons. Efficiency is definitely key. Now you see why we fit well together.

Before I went to the high school girls small group at church, I stopped at Starbucks and got my favorite treat, a mint javachip frappuccino. While I was waiting for it, the barista gave me a free multigrain roll and apple bran muffin. He didn't even know it was my birthday, so I consider that a gift straight from the Lord!

Then the small group gals had another little treat and a very sweet card for me. All of these things on top of the MANY Facebook, phone, and e-mail birthday greetings were a real blessing today. I definitely don't feel much different than I did when I turned 20. That said, I think Amber is probably right on. It's the new 20!

So I Slapped My Husband

2008-09-30T23:04:00.003-04:00

Here's the story. Sunday after church I went down to the nursery to get Gabe. I realized that he had a dirty diaper after a few minutes and went to find Chet so we could go ahead and get home. We were also planning to go to a party for a recent Marine boot camp graduate from our church, and we needed to get home to get a few things together first. So I found Chet and explained that we needed to get going because Gabe had a dirty diaper and because we needed to get some things ready before going to the party. After a couple minutes, his conversations were wrapped up, and we were heading out to the vehicle.

We got in, and Chet started it up. He looked at the clock on the dash and realized that it was only 12:15 and politely asked what the rush was all about, obviously still not fully understanding what I was talking about but attempting to go along with me. As he was turning over his shoulder to make sure we weren't hitting anything when we pulled out, I was explaining that it was because Gabe had a dirty diaper and that we needed to get a few things ready before the party that started at 1:00 (I guess he didn't hear me the other two times I explained it, but that's fine).

Well, as I was explaining this, he was turning his face back toward the front, and I noticed a mosquito on his cheek. If you've spent any time with me outdoors in summer humidity, you know how much I hate mosquitos. I'll do just about anything to see them dead, and apparently that includes slapping my husband's face! Without even thinking about where the mosquito was, I just knew that it had to die, so my reflexes took over, I threw all caution to the wind, and let that mosquito have it... or so I thought until I saw it flying over the top of his head. Whoops! I missed! Then I suddenly realized that I hadn't missed Chet's face! I really let him have it!

He turned and looked at me with horror and asked, "Why did you just do that?!?" You should have seen his face. All I could do was start cracking up... pretty much just like I'm doing right now as I write this. I explained that there was a mosquito and that I just had to get it! He reminded me that it probably would have hurt less to have a mosquito bite than it did to have me slap his cheek! Right. I guess I should have thought of that. But like I said, there is only one thing I'm thinking about when I see a mosquito--IT MUST DIE!

We have laughed hysterically over and over again since Sunday about this. I told Chet that he needs to write a blog entry to tell his story, and then we played out all the ways he could exaggerate it. Talk about hilarious!

I'm praising the Lord for a husband who's so gracious and who's willing to laugh with me when I do crazy things! I do have to warn you that if you're standing near me and have a mosquito (or bee) on your face, I might not have any more sense to hold back than I did on Sunday. Let's just hope I get the mosquito and that the smack isn't without value!

Our Baby is TWO!

2008-09-29T23:34:00.012-04:00

Gabe turned two today! I can hardly believe it. He's such a little man! To celebrate his special day, we had pizza for dinner and invited our neighbors over for brownies. Jessica, Hannah, and Maddie are three of Gabe's very favorite people, so it was great fun for him!

Here are a few photos of our birthday fun... (You have to click on this first one and look at what he's doing.)

We (Chet, Ladan, and I) got him a doctor kit. The boys are pretty freaked out by the doctor, and since they have to go again in two days, we're hoping this type of toy will help ease their anxiety about things that happen at the doctor. I'm also going to make Gabe an ABC photo book, but there are still a few photos that I need to get before I can make the book. Basically, it's a 6x6 scrapbook, each page displaying a photo of Gabe doing something starting with each letter of the alphabet.

He also received two sets of trucks (thanks to Gigi and Grandma) and some money from several folks that will go into his account. It was a good day for our little guy!

Here are some fun things about Gabe:

He's starting to learn his letters and probably knows about 5 or 6 of them.
He LOVES to read books and is unbelievably cute when he sits on the floor with his little legs straight out with a book spread from his hips all the way to his feet.
One of his favorite things to do is take out all of the kid movies one by one, looking at the front first, then the back, then lay them on the floor. (I'm thankful that he doesn't seem to enjoy this as much as he has for the last several weeks, because it's a pain to put them all back in their proper places.)
He's using more and more sentences all the time, but you still have to know him pretty well to be able to pick out what he's saying.
He's a magnet for pre-teen and teenage girls! Probably because he freely distributes lots of kisses to them and says their names with a super-cute voice.
He can jump really high with both feet off the ground. They say this is a helpful sign that he has the muscle tone necessary for successful potty training. However, since he doesn't like to sit still for longer than 2.9 seconds, I haven't had a whole lot of success getting him to even pretend he's going potty. Good thing I'm not all worried about getting him potty trained and won't be for quite some time.
He still seems to prefer his left hand while eating, throwing, drinking, or doing just about anything. We'll see if he turns out to be a lefty or if it's just a random thing for now.
He is getting better and better at throwing, kicking, catching, and hitting any type of ball. He's had some recent success with his tennis racquet. It's a pretty funny sight since his racquet seems like it's almost as tall as he is!
He sleeps with his ball blanket, his little bear blanket, his binky, his football, and sometimes a Mega Bloc Lightning McQueen and a London double-decker bus.
He can never get enough milk.
Every morning, I get his cup of milk for him, and then he promptly goes to the cabinet to get his little glass bowl out for his "pancakes"... which is really oatmeal. He loves both pancakes and oatmeal and would be happy with either. So, when he hands me the bowl, I ask him if he's ready for some oatmeal, and he shouts, "YEAH!" Then he happily announces that he's going to shut the cabinet and waits for me to confirm that I heard him before he actually closes it.
He is still a great sleeper most of the time. He sleeps about 12 hours at night and 3 hours in the afternoon.
I can still tell when he's got a dirty diaper... not because he smells, because many times he doesn't. It's because he's getting into trouble. Whenever Gabe is disobeying, when I hear screaming, or if there's some kind of scuffle between Ladan and Gabe, the first thing I generally check is Gabe's diaper... and it's almost always dirty. Crazy.
He's starting to get a little bit more shy the older he gets.
I've had to trim his curls a couple of times, but they seem to keep coming back. We'll see if that lasts forever, or if it's just a little boy stage like it was for my brother.
He has such fun expressions, both facial and verbal!

We love this little boy and are so thankful to the Lord that He's given us two whole years with him. We are praying for many more. More importantly, we're praying that he is captivated by God's Word and that he develops an intense love for the Lord that brings him to his knees in repentance, obedience, and JOY!

This afternoon Ladan was asking Gabe if he wanted to pretend like he was Baby Jesus, and Ladan could be Joseph. Ladan told him they could pretend they were in Bethlehem, and it would be fun because he (Gabe... aka Baby Jesus) could rescue everyone! Wouldn't it be amazing if the Word came to life in Ladan's heart and he ended up teaching his brother in such fun and understandable ways that Gabe can't help but fall in love with the Lord?!?

The Hurricane That Hit Louisville

2008-09-28T23:54:00.006-04:00

As many of you know, Hurricane Ike went through Galveston and Houston and came straight for Louisville. By the time it reached us on Sunday morning (the 14th), the rain was gone, but the wind was still 75-80 miles per hour. Trees and power lines all over town went down. We were driving out to the Murrays' for lunch after church that Sunday. We were almost there when suddenly a telephone pole snapped in half just about 40-50 yards ahead of us. When the transformer came crashing down, it exploded right in front of us. The top half of the pole was left tangled in the wires and dangling over the road. If we had gotten to that spot just a couple seconds earlier, that transformer could have exploded right on top of us. So we found another way to get to the Murrays', and we all enjoyed lunch without power.

On our way home, we saw ridiculously large trees laying all over homes and cars across town. When we entered our neighborhood, we saw that there were several large trees down. The main entrance had already been mostly cleared of a large tree that fell and spanned the entire roadway. The power was definitely out. We learned that about a half million people were out of power in our area and that it would be 10-14 days before everyone got power back (apparently, they had sent a bunch of our local folks down to the coast to help with Gustav clean-up, so they had to wait for them to return).

Thank goodness I had recently purchased new flashlights and maintained a stock of things like batteries and non-perishable food! Of course, I thought I was keeping them for something like a tornado... definitely not a hurricane. We had also purchased a new cooler right before Ladan's birthday party this summer. Our old one leaked and wouldn't hold ice.

Our food supply was actually my main concern. I had planned our meals really well and had acquired most of everything we'd needed to prepare them for the rest of the month. I was hoping to only spend about $25-$50 more for the rest of the month. Realizing that I couldn't complain if having to spend additional money out of our very tight budget was the worst of it, I still prayed that the Lord would help us keep our food from going to waste. We determined not to open the fridge and freezer so that as much of the cool air in them could stay put.

On Monday morning, we found out that all classes on campus would be cancelled for the entire week. So Chet was home for breakfast! I made pancakes and eggs on the grill. We have a side burner, so it wasn't difficult. The worst part is that a strong wind came toward the end and knocked the remaining uncooked eggs on the ground, making a pretty disgusting mess to clean up.

I decided it would be fun to follow up our breakfast with some coffee. So I marched out to the van and attempted to use our AC adapter to plug in the grinder and coffee pot. It worked GREAT for the grinder, and it warmed up the coffee pot, but I guess it takes more power to actually pump the water through. It didn't work, but at least now we know just in case this need/desire ever comes up in the future. You know, in case we're out camping for real sometime!

A few hours later, our neighbors (who happen to work at Outback Steakhouse) called and said that they had just picked up a box of 24 11-ounce steaks from the restaurant because it had no power and couldn't save the meat. Several of us pitched in veggies, and they invited a bunch of neighbors over to share in the fun. They even had one of the Outback grillers come over and perfect our steaks for us. We definitely weren't suffering!

Then we learned that the seminary was going to be serving dinner that night to the entire seminary community. They decided to serve three free meals a day to everyone for a couple of days (after which their power came back on, and people could purchase meals like normal if they wanted to). We were at dinner that Monday night and ran into Ryan Townsend, our church administrator. He told us that the power at the church had come back on that afternoon and that we could take our freezer stuff and put it in the church freezer! We went home to open our freezer for the first time. Since it was jammed full, everything was still totally frozen through! We transferred it to the church that night and didn't lose anything!

By Tuesday morning, our fridge wasn't very cool anymore, but since we had only opened it about twice, everything was still okay. We were able to find ice at a nearby gas station. It was not an easy thing to find for MANY people, but Chet happened to find it at the first place he stopped. AMAZING!!!!! I did decide to get rid of things like ranch dressing (which we don't often use anyway) and a few other containers that had just a tiny bit left. Otherwise, we didn't lose anything major from our refrigerator either.

Wednesday night our church provided dinner before church. I was at church late for a meeting, so the boys came home first. When they got here, OUR POWER WAS BACK ON!!!!!! Chet sent me a message right before I left the church letting me know it was back, so I was able to load up our freezer goods and bring them home.

I walked in the door, and Ladan shouted, "Mom! God gave us our light-tricity back!" He normally says electricity correctly, but he was so excited that it came out funny. Later that night I was putting him to bed. He walked down the hall to his room, turned, and looked up at his light switch. He slowly moved toward it and flipped the switch. It came on! He was once again SO EXCITED that he started jumping up and down with his hands in the air, screaming, "My light turned on!" He jumped up into my arms and gave me a massive hug and a kiss on my cheek! He prayed that night thanking God for everything that came back on and for taking care of us when our lights were off. Amen to that!

Some people were without power for quite a few days longer than we were. Most of the schools were out for at least a week. And many people are still cleaning up tree limbs and making repairs to their homes all over town.

Compared with many people, we really didn't have it bad at all.

It was kind of like a camp experience, including the nightly visit to the "mess hall" for dinner... except we were staying in a really nice cabin with our own beds, running water (although cold), flushing toilets, and no bugs!
We didn't lose any groceries other than a few items we don't use often anyway, and we really did make it through the rest of the month only spending $30 more!
On top of that, we had meals provided for several days so that the groceries we had will end up going a lot farther than I thought they would.
Our old antenna works now. Several weeks before the storm, we were having trouble getting even the most basic channels on our antenna, and it was very difficult to get anything to come through on the digital converter box. The problem with digital is that it's all or nothing, but the analog signals were terrible too. So we decided to try a new antenna from Radio Shack. We had 30 days to try it out. The power went out on day 26. By day 29, we decided to return it because the remote had never really worked, and it wasn't really great at getting a strong signal. When I took it back, they explained that these were extremely unusual problems for this model, but because of the power outage, they didn't have any others. I went home, and we figured we'd have to continue the hunt later. When the power came back on, we decided to just plug the old antenna in and see if we could pick up any news (we still hadn't heard anything about what kind of damage was done in Texas or anything). Well, something must have happened during the repairs, because our old antenna works FABULOUSLY now!!!!!!!! We don't have to spend that extra money at all, and if it weren't for that faulty Radio Shack antenna, we may have never known it! (Not that we would have "had" to spend the extra money, but I think you get my point.)
We got to spend a lot of time with our friends and neighbors helping one another.
We realized even more what the Body of Christ can do together when there is a need. We were so blessed by things as simple as our friends allowing us to shower in their homes, wash a couple loads of laundry, and store our frozen goods.
Chet got to rest a little bit more since classes were cancelled for the entire week. Chet's schedule is especially challenging this semester (not the classes, but the times of them), so we were both getting really exhausted. The fact that he was able to catch up more on his sleep was a huge provision from the Lord.
Our power returned literally hours before the heat returned to town. We didn't have a single sweaty day or night during the outage (although plenty of people across town did).

Hopefully you can see that none of these things are coincidences. And to think that there are probably a million other ways that the Lord meticulously cared for us that we don't have any clue about! That's enough to cause me to fall on my face before Him!