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. :)

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.

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!

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! :)

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. ;)

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!