An Inspiration

A lot of my blog friends have been challenging themselves to post every day in November. Well, I'm going to do that for December. And here's number 1.

I'm Still Alive!

Yes, I fell off the blog train. NO, the scary guy didn't get me. Where do I start? I guess first, with Thanksgiving. This is the first year my dad asked us down for Thanksgiving. I was very glad to get away as we are always with my in laws. That is usually fine, except that we didn't have turkey. I think this is the 2nd or 3rd year now, and I'm going to have to talk to the powers that be. So, thank you good old dad, for providing us turkey, and leftovers.

We are thinking of getting a dog for the boys. We want a free one. And it has to be good with kids. We'd like to start with a puppy that grows to a medium size, but that means we have to train it. Ugh. Angie shalt not train dogs. Angie has not had a dog since she was 4. Dog/pup shall be a female since I am already outnumbered. Those are my own personal requirements. I'm so picky :)

I will update soon, but in the meantime, shoot me some ideas on this!

Scary guy at the store

I've always loved going to the store at night. Especially now that I have kids, there is no disagreements about sugary cereal and the like. One downfall: scary people. The minute I rolled into the store hear, "do I know you from somewhere?" Maybe I'm too nice. I should have just said no and rolled away. 5 minutes later he is telling me about his ex-girlfriend. After my shopping, he is at the checkout. NOT checking out, BTW. He's just standing there watching everyone checkout. Thankfully the checkout guy notices that I'm uneasy and has someone walk out with me.

Not in the clear yet, as scary dude is standing there at his bike; I decide to not wait, but to high tail it out of there. As I turn onto the main road, he starts his bike towards me! Aaaah!! I speed, I mean SPEED down the street to make it safely home. I live very close to the store, but there is enough turns that I could definitely lose someone if I had to. This may turn into an interesting blog. Did you know this has happened to me before? Seriously, scary guys coming after me: at a QT while in college and at my apartment (while riding my bike) when I was in grade school. God has protected me thus far, and don't think He'll stop now. I still sit here though, uneasy, thinking what if this guy knows where I live? Now that I have kids, I have more irrational fear. I think of my defense: this guy has a bike, I have a minivan and a powerful $26k wheelchair. He has no chance!

There is so much more going on right now that I can't tell as of yet, so I will leave you hangin' with that!

My little man is 4!

So 10 days is the approx. time I feel like blogging again. I really have to get a wild hair to get it done. It seems, though, that timing couldn't be more perfect. Our youngest turns 4 today. Oct. 19th, 2007. We stayed up tonight making pumpkin muffins, playing with his new toys, and listening to Christmas music (it gets earlier every year!)

Here is my reflection on how this little guy lights up my life:
1. When he wakes up, and it is still dark (more often than not). He asks: is it the day (or today) yet? I say no, it's still dark, so you should go back to sleep.
2. Whenever he caused a spill/hurt his brother etc. he immediately says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry....I said I'm sorry!!!" (He really wants us to know)
3. He has always been fascinated with his lips since birth. The moment he started sucking his thumb (at 6 mos.) he noticed them. Now it has moved to others. It's like his comfort blanket. He wants to be able to feel our lips if he is laying down to sleep, watching a movie, etc. Big brother's lips will also do.
4. He is still small enough to cuddle on my lap. (Tears)
5. He said he still wants to nap even though he is 4 now.
6. He is thorough. He will finish an activity book/maze/connect the dot to the end. Hours I tell you!

I love this kid and can't imagine our life without him!

Worship Leaders...again?

Ok, so it's just temporary. While our church looks for a full time leader, a few of us are going to "fill in the gap". It's pretty exciting. I admit, we can't stay out of direct church involvement for long! It is a part of our life, and always will be. The kids love their Awanas groups, and I am really liking the age group I teach. I had real doubts. Pre-K isn't my strong suit. You know what, though? They have a very similar schedule each week, and it's nice. They really need that security, and so do I.

Other things going on: we went to WI to visit grandma last weekend. It was nice. I think we tired her out, but we got to see the fall leaves (as they already are changing up north). We also got to see the house she grew up in. And yes, my grandma did walk to school 3 mi. one way. I'd say that's a big proponent for homeschooling! Can you imagine the central WI winters, and having you and 7 other siblings walking to school each day? Yikes!

Tonight we went to Dennis' house. He is the only family (in my family) that I have close by. It's so funny that a man that was married to my mom for the last 3 years of her life has become one of the closest members of our family. He is very special to us. He also challenges us on our conservative ways, in the same way we challenge him on his liberal ones. It's fun!

My youngest will be 4 in 11 days...where does the time go? I've recently started enjoying this age, where I was so uptight before. He will only be 3 for a short time, then no more. Tears well up as I type, knowing I will have no more of my own. God, don't let me take this time for granted. Sooner than I want, they will be men. God help us to do a good job raising them.

Lost Tooth #2

For being an online journal, I really haven't been very faithful! Either I have no life and, thus, nothing to write about, or I'm just lazy. Probably the latter. Don't you just like to read about other people? I have to force myself to write about myself. (Does that make sense?) Well, the tooth losing seems to happen on Sundays. Sept. 23rd. About 6 weeks after the first one. Much excitement. E then had a double header in soccer that day. It was quite a crazy day. Little one has been on the nebulizer, and I think he is past the bad part.

I am having trouble with the growing mound on my kitchen table. It's like we try to homeschool, and I don't have the supplies, then the mail comes, then we have to eat... It may not sound like a big deal, but that stuff overwhelms me. I have been having this annoying headache the past 2 days, then there's the gutting of our bathroom. Oh, haven't I mentioned this? That's right, our friend and contractor came over to install an exhaust fan. We knew that paint/drywall was peeling off our walls from water damage and mold, we just didn't know the extent. We knew, right then, that we needed to just gut the whole thing. It should be done sometime next week.

We are planning to leave today for WI to see my grandma. It will be good to get out of this house. Hanging out by the lake, looking at the changing leaves, and the best: eating at Chet and Amos. All you can eat, family style--so much for cutting calories. But it's worth it for my grandma. It's certainly not the same since my grandfather passed away Jan. 2006. I feel like grandma is all alone up there, eventhough she now lives in a retirement community. She is such an amazing woman. I love talking to her.

Well, I hope everyone is doing great, and I'll talk to you again in October!

Random Musings

OK--now for a more positive post! We had an interesting experience that I'll tell you about: we saw the RV that will be driven on the Live Lightly Tour. This amazing family converted their RV and personal vehicle to run on veggie oil. What's amazing is that they totally rely on God to meet their needs by traveling full time. How many of us out there would abandon our house, lifestyle, job to just just travel? I would so love to do that someday. These people have done this, and here's my plug to support them.

Another thing on my mind: What happens from age 3 to age 4? My almost 4 year old is testing testing testing his independence. I admit, I yell. In my case, just picking him up out of the trouble does not work. Corner time and taking things away is what we use at this point. I definitely tell him the times that he is being good...maybe not as often as I should? Maybe because it hasn't been happening very often. Aaaaah! But I love him.

How sad is it when you hear of someone your age dying? Recently, there was a car accident up by Ames in which the deceased was a guy from my graduating class. I will be going to the funeral tomorrow. I didn't even know him well, but I remember at my mom's funeral, I wanted as many people there. There's something about a lot of people making time in their day...people who have been touched by the person, even if they've only ever heard their name. It's comforting as human beings that we can go up to someone we don't even know and say, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Next stage of house remodel: we are gutting our bathroom. Yipee. Our original plan was to just install an exhaust/heat/light dealy-bob. But, if you've seen our bathroom, and most everyone reading this has never seen our master bath (if you can call our 5x8 a master). The drywall is peeling because of 7 yrs w/o this said fan/exhaust thingy. Hence, there is mold. Everywhere. Not the dangerous black stuff, but the let's quick put this bathroom in to bring up the house value and skimp and not put in an exhaust fan kind of mold. So we go from a $50 fan to $3000 renovation. Yikes. But, we like our little house. It teaches us daily that things are not important. Not material goods, space, things.

Thanks for listening.