What a year!
January 2009 - Eric found a jawbreaker in the ductwork in the van...Now where would that have come from? Will's JRA flared.
February 2009 - Will shoots & scores as he LOVES YMCA basketball.
March 2009 - We adopted our Compassion son from India - Vijaya Pandi. Soccer started with snow still on the ground.
April 2009 - Several trips to DM as we said goodbye to a dear friend and were blessed by his last days. Morgan turned 2!
May 2009 - My mom retired. We had a great visit to Des Moines with my family including my grandparents.
June 2009 - Will finished Kindergarten and started Summer School. Mommy worked lots of hours rolling standards. We celebrated our country's birthday with the Freedom Festival Parade.
July 2009 - We had a wonderful time at the lake with my sister & fam and my mom but missed Eric terribly. Will surfboarded!
August 2009 - Will turned 7! We took our ill-advised trip to Chicago but the CUBS WIN! Will started 1st grade, soccer and flag football.
September 2009 - Morgan rode in an ambulance. Thankfully it turned into a happy ending. Eric got a new job!!
October 2009 - I'm engaged to marry the man of my dreams. Thank you for loving me my sweet. We had a clown and a fighter pilot for a chilly Halloween.
November 2009 - Our 1st Thanksgiving together in DM at my mom's. Lots of good food and fun! oh, and shopping :)
December 2009 - Our 1st Christmas together engaged! My first Christmas without the kids. Grateful for so many blessings and looking forward to 2010.
We praise God for the blessings and challenges that he has given us and brought us through this year. We're grateful for the hope and promise of the year to come.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
And the time just flies by...
It's been a busy couple of weeks! It seems like with last minute shopping, lots of time with the kids and snow, snow, snow the time has flown. December 8th & 9th we had a BIG blizzard with 12 inches of snow and very high winds. Rockwell hasn't closed in my time here (~10 years) but was closed on the 9th. We stayed inside, watched movies, baked cookies and fudge, and had lots of fun time together! Then came the sickness. First Morgan had a brief (Thankfully!!) bout with the stomach flu. She was sick once and then all was well! If only my time with it had been as simple. I had it for the next two days and didn't venture outside the house during that time. I finally started to rebound on Saturday only to have Will come down with strep throat. Finally, I think we are all well in time for the holidays. Yesterday, we wrapped packages and got things set up under the Christmas tree. The kids are spending Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with their dad, so I'm hoping that these couple of days are relaxing and restful for Eric & me, even if we will miss the kiddos. We're planning to have our Christmas together on Saturday when they get home and then will head to Des Moines to visit my family on the 28th. We saw John & Karen last weekend for dinner and hope to celebrate the holidays with them over New Year's weekend after they return from Vail. Eric & I are so blessed to have the Dec 24th - Jan 1 off from work. Yep, we're SPOILED!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
SNOW DAY!
Today is a snow day and to hear the weathermen, the world might be ending as well. :) We are home in our jammies watching movies while Mommy's working some. I'm glad we don't have to be out in the yuck today! A few pictures from our weekend...
If you're gonna be a bear...
BE A GRIZZLY! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Making pumpkin bars...
I think Eric's not sure :)
Our outside decoration "Frosty" who became a sun porch decoration after he couldn't stand up in the wind.
Hanging out with Eric
Loving movies in their fort on the floor in Mom's room
Loving movies in their fort on the floor in Mom's roomDancing to the Wiggles
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The thing about faith...
The thing about faith is it’s not about what you want. It’s a confidence that God won’t give you any challenge you can’t handle….you just don’t know what that limit is.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thankful - Am I Really?
Around this time of year, the word thankful seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's wonderful to have a day set aside to give thanks. But should we NEED a day set aside to give thanks? I know I shouldn't. I have so much. Materially, relationally. I am so incredibly blessed and I don't know why I fail to be thankful. Instead, I want newer or better things (clothes, phones, cars, whatever). I want more things. I want Morgan to stop screaming when she doesn't get her way, when I should be grateful that she's not screaming from hunger. I want Will to listen to me the first time (or the fourth!!) when I should be grateful that he has hearing (even if he chooses not to use it). I have the love of an incredible man, yet I get snippy when he doesn't do something exactly the way I would.
Lord, please heal my selfishness. Please help me to look at each person as YOU look at them. Please help me see situations as opportunities to learn and to be grateful. Please help me be thankful...today and every day.
Lord, please heal my selfishness. Please help me to look at each person as YOU look at them. Please help me see situations as opportunities to learn and to be grateful. Please help me be thankful...today and every day.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
So Uncreative...but updates on us!
I wish I was better at keeping track of our life with witty stories and funny quotes. However, I'm not, so here's the rundown on the last few weeks.
Morgan was sick again. We were convinced it was her ears, but it turned out to be "something bacterial", likely strep throat. FINALLY, now that she's on day 4 of Zithromicin, she's getting back to her normal, sassy, funny, stubborn self. I'd like to put her in a bubble so she wouldn't get sick again! She's developed an obsession with the Wiggles, overtaking Mickey Mouse and causing Eric & I to decide to sell the tickets to Playhouse Disney Live that we purchased last summer. I think we made a good decision as life for Miss M is all about Greg, Anthony, Jeff & Murray these days, not Mickey & Minnie. To spare our sanity we went to the library on Saturday in hopes of finding some additional Wiggles dvds. Thankfully there were some, so we were saved from another day of Toot, Toot or Top of the Tots over and over and over and....
Eric has a new toy! We LOVE it. A little over a year ago, he traded in his nice big truck (a Sequoia) for a 2009 Maxima. It was totally redesigned and very cool but proved to be more of a sports car than a "family truckster". So we went to our dealership (Jim Miller Nissan - I cannot say enough GOOD things about them) just to see what we might be able to work out without much change to our budget. We walked away with a one owner 2005 Pathfinder that was fully loaded. We are thrilled! Eric & I love it and the kids now much prefer the "truck" to mom's van. We're glad to have 4x4 for these Iowa winters as well. He's gotten lots of use out of it lately as he's been running the kids back and forth to school while I tackle the closing week that won't end :). He's also started his new job and it's going slowly through that phase where you are meeting people and learning but at least it's not A350, right hon?! :)
Will is doing well in school and loving reading. He's reading at a second grade level and can frequently be found with a Junie B Jones or Star Wars book. We had a great time at his school carnival a few weeks back - winning all kinds of "fun" stuff - rubber balls, tattoos, tootsie rolls and bottles of PowerAde and Pepsi at the ring toss. Will has avoided the sickness so far at home and school but his eyes and knees are giving him fits again. The methotrexate really never worked for him so the next step is for him to go on an injected medication (yes, that means I have to give him a shot) called Humira. It's a class of drugs called TNF inhibitors that has shown great promise in treating JRA patients. We're praying and doing research as we discuss the pros and cons of this medication for him. The choice if we do nothing or continue on the current path is certain joint damage...some of which is already beginning. When we compare this to other situations that we know of - children having surgery, facing cancer, or other situations, we feel blessed. But this isn't a decision we take lightly. His eyes are also involved again, so he's back on eye drops 4 times a day. I was also grateful that he got his H1N1 shot at UIHC yesterday!
As for me, I just try to keep up with the munchkins, meet deadlines at work, spend time with my sweetie, and cook a somewhat healthy meal once in a while. I did get a cool new phone and have had fun being a geek with it ;). Eric & I are both looking forward to a few days off at Thanksgiving (we'll be in Des Moines with my family), a long weekend in Chicago in mid-December and a week and a half off over Christmas.
Morgan was sick again. We were convinced it was her ears, but it turned out to be "something bacterial", likely strep throat. FINALLY, now that she's on day 4 of Zithromicin, she's getting back to her normal, sassy, funny, stubborn self. I'd like to put her in a bubble so she wouldn't get sick again! She's developed an obsession with the Wiggles, overtaking Mickey Mouse and causing Eric & I to decide to sell the tickets to Playhouse Disney Live that we purchased last summer. I think we made a good decision as life for Miss M is all about Greg, Anthony, Jeff & Murray these days, not Mickey & Minnie. To spare our sanity we went to the library on Saturday in hopes of finding some additional Wiggles dvds. Thankfully there were some, so we were saved from another day of Toot, Toot or Top of the Tots over and over and over and....
Eric has a new toy! We LOVE it. A little over a year ago, he traded in his nice big truck (a Sequoia) for a 2009 Maxima. It was totally redesigned and very cool but proved to be more of a sports car than a "family truckster". So we went to our dealership (Jim Miller Nissan - I cannot say enough GOOD things about them) just to see what we might be able to work out without much change to our budget. We walked away with a one owner 2005 Pathfinder that was fully loaded. We are thrilled! Eric & I love it and the kids now much prefer the "truck" to mom's van. We're glad to have 4x4 for these Iowa winters as well. He's gotten lots of use out of it lately as he's been running the kids back and forth to school while I tackle the closing week that won't end :). He's also started his new job and it's going slowly through that phase where you are meeting people and learning but at least it's not A350, right hon?! :)
Will is doing well in school and loving reading. He's reading at a second grade level and can frequently be found with a Junie B Jones or Star Wars book. We had a great time at his school carnival a few weeks back - winning all kinds of "fun" stuff - rubber balls, tattoos, tootsie rolls and bottles of PowerAde and Pepsi at the ring toss. Will has avoided the sickness so far at home and school but his eyes and knees are giving him fits again. The methotrexate really never worked for him so the next step is for him to go on an injected medication (yes, that means I have to give him a shot) called Humira. It's a class of drugs called TNF inhibitors that has shown great promise in treating JRA patients. We're praying and doing research as we discuss the pros and cons of this medication for him. The choice if we do nothing or continue on the current path is certain joint damage...some of which is already beginning. When we compare this to other situations that we know of - children having surgery, facing cancer, or other situations, we feel blessed. But this isn't a decision we take lightly. His eyes are also involved again, so he's back on eye drops 4 times a day. I was also grateful that he got his H1N1 shot at UIHC yesterday!
As for me, I just try to keep up with the munchkins, meet deadlines at work, spend time with my sweetie, and cook a somewhat healthy meal once in a while. I did get a cool new phone and have had fun being a geek with it ;). Eric & I are both looking forward to a few days off at Thanksgiving (we'll be in Des Moines with my family), a long weekend in Chicago in mid-December and a week and a half off over Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
