Friday, May 8, 2009

Happy 2nd Birthday, My Sweet Ladybug!

Today is my sweet Ladybug's 2nd birthday. It almost doesn't seem possible that she is already 2 years old.. how did that happen?! ;)

She is such a joy & quite the little character. I love everything about her from the top of her head to tip of her little tickle toes! She definitely keeps us on our toes & has way more energy at 2 years old than both of our fireflies combined did at that age. There is almost nothing that she won't try to do by herself, too.

Today was all planned out for her special day, but God had other plans for all of us. Ladybug went to the pediatrician this morning for her 2 year exam & got a great report.. after that we were all going to meet up with my father-in-law & take all the kiddos to the St. Louis Zoo for Zoo Friend's Day to celebrate Ladybug's birthday. Well, last night big storms moved in to our area & are still here, so the zoo trip has been cancelled & we are trying to figure out something else that everyone would enjoy doing together. I suppose that instead of being gloomy about the crumby weather on Ladybug's birthday I should be thankful that we haven't had any damage from the storms.. others in our area have not been so fortunate.

So.. we're gonna put on a happy face & figure out something indoors to do for Ladybug's big day. Tomorrow evening we're all going out for dinner with the whole family to celebrate, too. :)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

please pray

I received a phone call from a dear friend tonight... her husband's little brother & his wife delivered a tiny baby boy last week--14 weeks early. Baby Caleb weighed in at a mere 1lb 15oz.

Caleb has not been doing well.. his tiny body has been fighting hard, but he developed pneumonia on top of trying to beat the odds being born so very early. His parents received the news that no parent ever wants to hear this evening.. he has taken a turn for the worse & is not going to make it. They made the heart-wrenching decision to take his tiny body off of life support tonight.

Please lift them up in prayer.. their journey is just beginning. Anyone who has lost a baby or child knows all too well exactly what they are thinking & going through right at this moment. May God wrap His loving arms around them.

crumby..

After a very busy weekend of doing a two day garage sale & cleaning house.. I am truly worn out and most definitely feeling crumby.

Our garage sale was fairly successful, despite the cold & rainy day we had on Friday. And Saturday's warmer sunny weather brought a lot of customers, too. I was able to get rid of a lot of out-grown clothing & some odds-n-ends that have been cluttering up our place for quite some time, too. I am not sure that anyone ever makes as much money as they'd like to make when they have a garage sale.. but I did alright and now we have some extra $$ for Ladybug's birthday and my father-in-law's visit, too.

As far as the house cleaning goes.. it needs to be done--period! But, my husband's Dad is coming in from Arizona this week and obviously, we want it to look nice when he is here. My husband is on vacation for the next two weeks so that he can spend time with his Dad & our ladybug's 2nd birthday is this Friday, so we've got a big zoo adventure planned. He also mentioned that he wants me to make a list of projects that I would like to get done around the house while he's on said vacation.. after I make the list he says that he will look at it & then we can "discuss" it. I am hoping that we will be able to work together to get a lot accomplished while he's at home. :) I have to give him some major credit though... while I was busy at the garage sale yesterday, he swept & scrubbed my kitchen for me. What an amazing surprise.. I could have cried! :)

Now.. to the part where I gripe a bit(maybe a great deal!) about how crumby I have been feeling the past few days. ;) It started out as dust allergies run amok & has morphed, mutated.. what have you.. into a horribly annoying cough that makes my throat hurt. Probably didn't help things for me to be doing a garage sale on Friday when the temperature dropped 12 degrees in a 3 or so hour span and it was windy and rainy the whole day. I am hoping to be on the mend soon.. cuz I don't want to be sick on Ladybug's birthday and I have way too much to do(as usual) in prep for that and for my father-in-law's visit, too.

Well, I am off to check laundry, take more allergy medicine & some ibuprofen.. then it's off to bed. Hopefully I can get some much needed rest tonight.

Monday, April 20, 2009

please pray..

Please pray for precious Baby Stellan. He is just 5 months old & is scheduled to have a very risky heart surgery called an ablation, tomorrow morning at 7:30am(Boston time). The surgery will be done at Children's Hospital in Boston and he has an amazing team of doctors working on his behalf.

His parents are asking for prayer support & if you want to show your support in a more visible way.. wear some orange in honor of Stellan tomorrow, too! :) I am gonna dig some orange up from somewhere to show my support, too.. can't wait to see how much orange I see tomorrow!

I will try to update on my blog as soon as I get an update from Stellan's blog. :)
Check it out at: http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Friday, April 17, 2009

i'm still alive ;)

Never fear.. I am still alive. Nothing like taking another month & a half "vacation" from posting, eh?!

As I sit & ponder what to say in this post, I am enjoying looking out the window at the beautiful sunny day that God has blessed us with here. The forecast is for sunny skies & a high of around 75 today.. Hello, Spring!! :) My huge purple lilac is blooming to beat the band & is gorgeous to gaze at through the family room window. When the breeze blows just right it smells wonderful, too. Looking out my other window into the backyard.. our redbud(that we, incidentally, got as a seedling at an Arbor Day celebration 8 years ago) is loaded with pretty purple blooms right now.

This has been a busy week in our household.. our youngest firefly is all registered for Kindergarten now & has had his physical & dental exams in preparation for being a "big" school kid in the fall. My husband took the day off today so that he could go on the walking field trip to the fire station with firefly's preschool class. Preschool is about 4 or so blocks from one of the fire stations in our town & it's a tradition for them to walk to their field trip there every spring. I honestly don't think that they could've ordered better weather for their adventure today.

I am helping decorate for the spring book fair at our oldest firefly's school this afternoon. This evening is the kick-off for it.. Family Reading Night... spaghetti dinner.. and the Mini-Art festival--all rolled into one crazy evening! :) Actually, it should be a lot of fun. Everyone always looks forward to the spring book fair because it is the "buy one book & get one free" sale! :) I am helping this evening with it & I will be working three full days next week, too.

I've really missed being super involved with PTO stuff at school(I took a long break after having my Ladybug & for some other reasons).. so I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I've felt for a long time that God is calling me to volunteer my time at my firefly's school(s).. there are so many kids that don't have positive influences in their lives & it always makes my heart smile to see their faces light up when I see them in the halls. I have always made a point to learn their names & say hello specifically to them, too. I know that for many of the kids.. the only hug they may have received on a given day may have been from me.

Well.. I need to get ready to head over to school, so I will close this first post since my birthday last month! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of several things in my life.. including posting on my blog again! :)

Friday, March 6, 2009

woo hoo.. it's my birthday

Actually.. it's not that exciting. Today is my birthday.. #34 to be exact, but it felt/feels very much like just another day.

It has been a bittersweet day for me for the last few years because my birthday was also my due date with my precious Elijah Thomas... he would've been 6 years old today. I wonder what he would've been like, what he would have been interested in.. how his sweet little voice & his giggles would sound, too. Would he look like his brothers & his cousins. All things that I won't have answers to here on earth.

Today I have done a pretty good job of focusing on enjoying my day, the beautiful 80 degree sunny weather & my ladybug & fireflies. Ladybug, my Mom & I went shopping for me this morning.. ok, so I did get some stuff for the kids, too.. but I found a couple of shirts for myself with the nice gift card that my Secret Sister gave me. I had hoped to find some new shoes for myself, but the selection at Kohls was kinda underwhelming to me.. perhaps somewhere else! :) Perhaps another shoe shopping excursion another day soon. My ladybug loves to look at shoes.. we may have a little monster on our hands one day really soon!

Right now I am supposed to be deciding where I would like to go for my birthday dinner.. my choice, although there is a budgeted amount that can be spent, so I have some guidelines and with the kiddos going, too.. that narrows the field a great deal. I am leaning heavily towards a nice mexican place that I have a buy one/get one free coupon for. :) Hey.. I've said it before.. I'm a cheap date!

Well, it sounds like my ladybug is awake again.. at least she got a little bit of a nap before we all go out this evening. ;)

Friday, February 27, 2009

prayer request...

Please pray for the Johnson family.

They are good friends of my parents--since high school days(all of them--except the niece--are in their 70s). Lloyd & his wife, Minnie, were in one car & his brother, Cyrus & his wife Charlotte were in another car with a sister, Mary & her daughter.

A car broad-sided Cyrus' car & he was killed.. his wife, sister & niece were seriously injured. They were in Mississippi headed to a family funeral. Please keep all of them in your thoughts & prayers. I will update as I hear more.

The only blessing in this tragedy is that they are all believers & Cyrus got to meet Jesus today!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

worn out

Okay.. so I am officially worn out & ready to put both fireflies & my ladybug in bed right now--yeah, it's only 6:20pm. Ladybug is just busy all the time & feels the need to get into everything under-the-sun today! The fireflies had been playing in the backyard, under strict orders to not get all muddy.. yeah, like they listened to that commandment. ;)

At least I will get a little break from the fireflies this evening, my husband is responsible for the devotional lesson for the shut-ins at a nursing home in Bunker Hill(about a 1/2 hour to 45 minute drive from our house) and I already informed all the male folks in my household that they will be spending quality time together this evening. :) Most of the time, we all go as a family to the nursing homes & shut-in's houses to visit each month, but I don't have the energy to wrestle my ladybug this evening, so the girlies are stayin' home.

Oh yeah.. and it's National Pancake Day today.. so I am going to be baking some yummy bacon & making up a huge batch of homemade pancakes using my Grandma's "famous" recipe for consumption when all the men folk get home. :)

I have been busy this afternoon with laundry(yeah, big surprise there!).. de-cluttering our entry area & uncovering our dining room table. See, the dining table is the first big flat surface that you come to after walking through our entry area & it always gets piled sky high with junk mail & all sorts of other crap. Of course, at this point.. my stuff is cleared off the table(for the most part) & what is left would be my husband(& the fireflies') model rocket stuff. It is always my goal to keep it cleaned off after every time that I un-earth it.. so far, I haven't ever kept it up.. kinda pathetic, I know. Dare to dream, eh? ;)

I am so.. totally lookin' forward to some quiet time this evening--well, now only the oldest firefly is going with my husband to the nursing home. Yippy! Guess I spoke to soon.. such as life!

Friday, February 20, 2009

puking, the pink panther & other fun...

So.. this morning started way too early for me. At around 4:30am my little ladybug started crying and calling "Mommy.. Mommy!". I, barely awake, stumble across the hall to see what she needs.. hoping it was a bad dream. I turned on the bathroom light across the hall from her room to give a little light, but so as not to fully awaken her if at all possible. Well, she was already all the way awake & proclaimed to me "froggy ucky.. froggy ucky.. blankie ucky", it was at that point that I quickly flipped on her light & discovered that she wasn't tellin' me a story!! Sure enough.. she had puked all over her purple blanket, her crib sheet, her jammies & her (new) favorite froggy blankie, too! My husband got up to see what was going on and got ladybug stripped down & into a warm bath while I set about stripping her crib(again!) and starting a load of laundry. I got her bed all put back together, she was bathed & put back together herself and we were all ready to go back to bed by 5am. The kicker was that although she was still sleepy, she didn't want to have any part of sleeping in her crib. We let her crawl into our bed with us.. but that was not a comfortable proposition for ladybug & myself. I didn't sleep well at all and "woke-up" with a stiff neck & headache from our early morning "adventure", ladybug slept very fit-fully and ended up sleeping most of the morning at my folk's house while my youngest firefly & I went on our field trip.

The field trip was awesome this morning! We all had a blast at the hospital as we followed Pink Panther to get his broken tail x-rayed, have his blood drawn(turns out it's bright pink!) and then we got to tour the emergency room while he went into "surgery" to have his tail fixed. It seems that Pink Panther was having a bad morning, too.. he accidentally shut his tail in the car door & it broke. The kids were cute as they comforted him throughout the journey. One little boy even held his paw while they drew his "blood". My firefly wasn't too sure if he wanted to get real close to Pink Panther when we were first introduced to him in the hospital lobby as the public relations director wheeled him up to our group.. but he got over himself when I explained that it was actually a person dressed in a costume--kinda like it was Halloween. By the end of the morning my firefly was perfectly cool with standing next to Pink's wheelchair & even gave him a few high-fives, too! ;) All-in-all.. it was a great morning, despite my monster headache.

At one point, I thought that I was going to be needed to babysit my nieces again this afternoon for a little while, but my sister-in-law called and said that her other Grandma was available to watch her ladybugs while they took their afternoon nap. I was kinda glad that someone else was able to do it because I was still fighting my headache, so that was nice to hear. :)

Ladybug & I both had a quiet afternoon hanging out with my folks while my youngest firefly had a playday with my Aunt.. she even offered to pick up my oldest firefly from school and have both of them over to play at her house for a couple of hours afterschool. She's awesome!! :) Ladybug & I both ended up getting naps.. her's was longer than mine, but both were much needed after the craziness that we experienced in the wee hours of the morning. My Aunt even brought the fireflies back to our house for me this evening, too.. so I was able to get a few things accomplished at home--not as much as needs to be done mind you.. but it's a start!

We've got quite a lot going on this weekend.. tomorrow morning my husband is going to surprise our youngest firefly with a trip(just the two of them) to a model train show here in town, then tomorrow evening our fireflies & ladybug get to have dinner and hang out at my folk's while we go to a church meeting. Sunday will be crazy, there is a guy trying-out to be the new minister for our congregation and we have a potluck luncheon after morning services & then a dessert fellowship after evening services!! I am making my homemade spaghetti & meatballs along with a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing for Sunday morning's festivities and chocolate chip cookies for the dessert fellowship. :) I'll be a crazy cookin' woman tomorrow preparing for Sunday!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

ok.. so perhaps i'm a laundry snob

Today has been another long day for me! I've been super busy doing all kinds of things for everyone with the exception of myself today(of course.. that sorta somes up most of my days.. but anywho!).

My sister-in-law's Grandma is very sick.. in fact, she is near death & has been placed on hospice care at the hospital. She is 95 years old and her body is simply worn out--her mind has been slowly fading away for several years as well. My Mom and I watched my nieces today so that my sister-in-law could be at the hospital with her Grandma Bertha.. to say good-bye and spend a little more time with her so she wouldn't have any regrets. My nieces are some feisty little ladybugs with a ton of energy.. combine that with my youngest firefly & my ladybug and let the "fun" begin! ;)

Overall, they were all good.. no major issues ensued the entire afternoon and all three of the ladybugs did eventually take naps. :) While the kiddos played in the finished basement, I took it upon myself to help out with the laundry room mess. My brother & sister-in-law have a little(okay, a hugely) different approach to how laundry is done at their house.. and I suppose I am a bit of a laundry snob when it comes to how particular I am about how things should be seperated, etc. So.. although it took me several hours, I was able to get all the clean clothes that were literally wadded & piled on the counter across from the washer & dryer all folded. I ran out of laundry baskets to put the folded clothing, towels, bedding.. you name it into. I then took it upon myself to sort down all of the dirty stuff that was piled on the floor of said laundry room into neatly organized piles(adult darks, towels, quilts, dark girls, whites).. you get the picture. I was also able to get 3 more loads washed & mostly dried before she got back home from the hospital. Of course, as usual.. no good deed goes unpunished.. I ended up getting bleach on one of my favorite shirts & my black cardigan, too. ;( (story of my life!)

Although all the hard work that I did today will quite possibly be destroyed in a matter of hours, I am proud of my accomplishment. I feel weird just sitting around not doing anything--especially when the kids are napping, so I made myself useful. My sister-in-law thanked me for what I had done and then this evening my brother called me to say thank you, too. :) It was nice to have my hardwork acknowledged.. sometimes the mundane things of life that nobody thinks much about (until you haven't done them).. go pretty much un-noticed.

Tomorrow morning my youngest firefly & I are going on a special field trip with his preschool to one of our local hospitals. They have what they call "Pink Panther" tours, basically kids(with their group from school or preschool) get to follow Pink Panther on his journey through the hospital to get his broken tail x-rayed & treated. The goal of the tour program is to help kids understand that hospitals aren't as scary as they might think. We are both looking forward to our hospital adventure. :)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

rude awakening.. of sorts

It's a drizzly, gloomy-ish day here today & I was moving somewhat slow this morning as I was trying to get myself out of bed and in gear making lunches for the boys. My oldest firefly came down to the kitchen to inform me that he had just gone in to say "good morning" to our little ladybug & discovered that she had puked all over herself & almost everything in her crib. LOVELY!! Thus, the title of my post for today!

She is fine now & you would never know that she had puked early this morning.. happily singing and playing now. :) Needless to say, my morning routine was instantly transformed into see if you can get two lunches made, feed two fireflies breakfast, get everyone dressed, put ladybug in the bathtub(making sure to comb all the puke out of her hair!) and get the oldest firefly to school by the 8:15am bell... keeping in mind that the clock is now reading 10 minutes until 8am! Luckily, we live a couple of minutes from our oldest firefly's school and my husband started a new routine of working 9am to 5:30pm and was able to help get the bath water running & take our oldest to school before his own carpool left. Somehow we got it all done.. but I am positive that if he hadn't been home for us to work as a team, I may have completely lost my mind!

Everyone cooperated fairly well, so things went more smoothly than originally expected when I was told that ladybug was covered in puke first thing this morning. Never a dull moment around here folks! ;) My youngest firefly had a little trouble staying focused on getting himself dressed this morning.. seems that this morning's episode of Diego was way more exciting than putting on his outfit for preschool. We got it all together though & ladybug and I dropped him off at preschool right on time. Today is "Q" day.. they had to take a picture in of something that starts with that letter. After some thought & asking my husband via google chat what I should search for to print out.. we came up with "Quail". The moment he typed "quail" into the chat window I felt somewhat dumb.. however, it had been a crazy morning.. so I suppose I should cut myself a tad bit of slack.

Hopefully the rest of the day will be much less "exciting"! Ladybug & I are having lunch with my Dad today.. my Mom's Sunday school class ladies are having their monthly luncheon. I look forward to getting to have our lunch date with my Dad.. my ladybug adores him(well, actually.. the feeling is mutual, they are buddies). :) We always tease my Mom about the fact that we're going to "crash" their luncheon.. but haven't ever actually followed through with our threat. ;) However.. today it's tempting because they're going to Amarillo Tex.. a great steakhouse here in town. So.. ya never know!

Lovely.. ladybug just announced to me "shoe off off".. I looked down to see that not only her shoe is off, but she has conveniently removed her sock, too! SWEET! Like I said before.. never a dull moment!

Well.. perhaps I should close this post before she decides to try her hand at taking off her pants(which is a new trick in her bag of fun these days). She definitely keeps us on our toes!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

yes.. i am still alive!

So... it's been over 2 months since I've written a post on my blog.. kinda pathetic, eh? Many reasons for my "vacation" from blog posting.. stomach flu, colds, ear infections, all the holiday craziness.. a general funk(yet again)! I have continued to keep up with all of the blogs that I read every day, just haven't felt like posting on my own.

Hopefully I will do a better job with this endeavor in the days & weeks to come. I've been doing a lot of re-evaluating of areas of my life and working on improving at least one thing(in some cases many things) in each aspect.

Marriage is one area that is getting some detailed look & work these days. My folks pre-bought me a copy of the movie "Fireproof" for Christmas & it released last month. If you haven't seen it yet.. GO GET A COPY of it!! It's awesome & really hit home for my husband & I on several levels. There are a lot of churches in our area(and across the United States) that are holding free movie nights along with marriage themed Bible study classes. There is a great devotional book that goes along with the movie called "The Love Dare".. it's a 40 day challenge for husbands & wives complete with activities & scripture passages.

Our congregation is hosting an event on Saturday, February 28th at 6:30pm... Vaughn Hill church of Christ in Wood River, IL(on Rte. 111 just up from Walmart).. FREE babysitting is provided that night, too! We will also be doing a series of Sunday morning adult Bible study classes about marriage during the month of March. If you'd like more information please call: (618)259-2100