Random

Lot's of random thoughts:

1) I was driving down 26 this morning and I saw an old lady driving a car with a bumper sticker that said, "Save the Tatas!". Of course it was for Breast Cancer awareness, but still, it struck me as really funny...and I chuckled.

2) Noah is really becoming a delightful young person to be around. Yes, he has his whiny moments. All in all though, he is pretty helpful, and is becoming very aware of his surroundings. For instance, he told me when the pizza was done when he heard the timer. He also remembers a time-line if you say you are going to do something, he reminds you. Not to mention he thinks I look like a princess. He's a pretty cool dude.

3) He's also a little young to keep secrets. He and Dave went shopping yesterday for me. They made me leave the room so that they could wrap the presents. However, when Noah was sent to get me, he said, "Come on mommy. Let's open your *camera*" Or at least that's what it sounded like. I am not sure that's right since I already have a nice camera. Dave kept shushing him though because Noah kept jabbering on about what else they got me. I REALLY didn't understand any of that though. Needless to say, I didn't tell Noah what we got Dave. :-)

4) As I was walking into Meijer this afternoon I witnessed an old man literally almost get hit by a car backing out. It hit his cart, and kept going. Fortunately, it stopped before it did more than just bump the poor man...who was in a walker. The man seemed OK though, since he pounded on the car's window and yelled at the people in the car.

5) Another old man (sensing a theme today?) paid me the nicest compliment. I was running after butter to make sugar cookies. I had no make-up on, wearing sweats and a fleece and have not even looked in the mirror today. He was in a motorized cart and I offered to let him go ahead of me. He said, "I always let's the pretty ladies go ahead of me." Now, you could take that a dirty way, but since I was starving for a compliment, I smiled and said that it was the nicest thing that I had heard all day...and then...almost cried. Literally, right there in Meijer. Thanks mister for making me feel, well, seen. My feet left the ground and I smiled through the rest of my trip to Meijer.

6) I made 50 "turkey" cookies today. They're sugar cookies with chocolate frosting, candy corn tails, and yellow frosting as feet.

7) Dave just came home with flowers...Sweet sweet man.

Weekend Away

This past weekend, we went up to visit Dave's brother and sister-in-law and their two kiddos. We had a lovely time. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was so nice to catch up.

We also got to see great grandma while we were there.




Noah fell in love with Tyler's train set (good thing he is getting one for Christmas eh?).



Uncle Mike reading a bedtime story:

Princess Callie (and Mommy)

I'll post a better update later, but I just wanted to share an interesting story about Mr. Noah.

Lately he has taken to saying, "See, Callie looks like a princess!". I think it's incredibly cute, because he wasn't even prompted. The other day, as I was getting dressed, he looked at me and said, "See, Mommy looks like a princess." He sure knows how to make a girl feel good. :-)

Productive

So, apparently my maid (read: me) was here today. My house is actually clean (while the kids are asleep), the laundry is folded, the phone calls are made. She did a great job. :-)

Or, I just decided to get busy and get stuff done. We are headed out of town tomorrow to go visit Dave's brother and family and I wanted to leave at least a semi-clean house for the girl that is coming over to let Chester out.

It's a good feeling though to sit down and know that things are actually clean. We got the Christmas decorations down this week. Yes, I know that it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but it's late this year. We needed something cheery, so we just decided it was time. It was actually a lot of fun. I can't really wrap my mind around the fact that it's that time of year again. Where on earth did 2008 go?

Well, the kid's are awake and Dave is on his way home. I'm hoping to convince him to do a little Christmas shopping this evening. We all need to get out of the house.

The luckiest guy on the Price is Right

This is INSANE!!!

Callie's Dedication

Callie was dedicated this morning. In short, we are committing to raise her to know Jesus. It was pretty moving, at least for Dave and I. Callie was just happy to be held at this point. The picture below, if you can zoom in on it, has the passage they read over the kids. It's pretty neat.






Grandma and Callie in their "matching" colors:


Callie and Grandpa hung out too:


Callie also loved snuggling with Auntie "M"

It's about time...

...for an update. It's been a crazy last few days. Let's backtrack a smidge though...

Friday/Saturday- We had our Fall conference through church. There was a lot of great ministry. Dave and I even got some good prayer. Lot's of good things happened and A LOT of people showed up. Thanks to Kat for watching the kiddos Saturday afternoon so we didn't have to worry about children not napping.

Happy Birthday to our niece, Katie, who turned one yesterday. We missed her party, which was on Saturday due to the conference, but we wish her all the best! We will be making a trip out there in two weeks to see them for longer than a few hours.

Sunday- a complete blur to me...I know that we went to church...oh yeah, we hung out with some friends that evening and watched the football game. It was pretty restful.

The rest of the week has just been full. I met with a lot of people on Monday. We had a great lifegroup on Tuesday. We went to the children's museum all day today and had a blast. We just got home and Noah is napping a little longer and Callie is playing nicely in her exersaucer. We'll have to start dinner soon.

Life has been a bit crazy, but good.

Quick Post

I don't have much time, but wanted to post something real quick. Last night turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Dave had to work, so I called my long time friend Jen to come over and hang out. Jen and I met when we were in second grade in Kankakee. We became best friends all the way through high school. We both moved away during high school and eventually lost touch, only to find that we had both moved to Lafayette (me for the church plant and her for grad school). Weird huh? Anyway, she came over and we watched a movie, and chatted for quite awhile. It was a lot of fun. Noah was so wound up, but he finally settled down to a movie in our room, and fell asleep. When I went to transfer him, he had peed through his diaper onto my comforter. Dang. Well, I guess it needed a wash.

It's been a busy morning, and we have the Fall Conference through church tonight. I'm pretty excited and praying that God really moves tonight and tomorrow.

Date's been cancelled. Dave is on call this week...and got called, so he has to go in. The unfortunate thing is that he is in a conference in Indy all day and will be hustling to even get to the AEC on time. We have a lot scheduled for tomorrow, so I hope, for his sake, that it is a slow night.

I managed to get my kitchen clean and do two loads of laundry. Now, if I can just get them from being folded in my living room to in the drawers, I'll be doing great. :-)

Random

-I love my lifegroup...alot. We went shopping last night for an outreach ministry to buy some clothes for some kid's in need. The amount that people gave was staggering. We also had a lot of people show up on Wednesday (even though they were just at lifegroup on Tuesday) to help pick out clothes for the kids. It was a lot of fun and there is always a sense of peace when you know that you can help another person.

-I'm worried about primetime television. I'm reading this book about how, as christians, we often get desensitized by all the sex and innuendos on TV. I know that. Well, on two of my favorite television shows, they have now introduced pretty steamy gay relationships. I just wonder how long it will take for our society to become desensitized to this...and what the "next" thing will be.

-Callie is coming out of her funk and is actually playing on the floor now. Last week, I couldn't leave her sight and the mere thought of her trying to entertain herself was, well, not to be entertained. Now, she is playing and laughing with Noah. Those teeth still haven't popped through yet, but maybe they are giving her a little more relief.

-I want to hire a maid. Yes, I know my prime responsibility is to raise the kids and take care of the house. And yet, I still struggle on a daily basis to reign in the chaos. I pick up the living room. Walk into the kitchen and come back...and it looks like someone has thrown up all over it again. I have been trying for 4 days to get the house cleaned up enough to steam clean the carpets. The problem is, I get started on something, then get interrupted by (fill in the blank: crying, juice needs, something) and then forget what I was originally doing. So, I start something else that needs to be done, and repeat the process. Add in there naptimes where I can't really vacuum. At the end of my day, I'm frustrated, because although I've made progress...it's barely visible. On days like that, I fantasize what it would be like to leave for a few hours and come back to a sparkling clean house. The kind where when I am sitting down, I don't see the cobwebs hanging off my ceiling that I know need to be dealt with. Yes, that's my fantasy...but it is not my reality. So, I had better buck up, get going and quit griping.

-Dave and I have a date tonight. Not sure when our last one was...it's been awhile. Our neighbor is going to watch the kiddos, while we grab dinner sans children. I'm really looking forward to it.

OK, I think I have it all out of my system. Have a great day.

Fun Night

So, my dear friend Karissa is in town (from Ohio). We invited her and whoever she found along the way, over. It was a great mix of people we knew well and those we had never met. We had fine gourmet (hot dogs) and played some mean games of euchre. It was a blast. Noah was running around having the time of his life with all the attention and even Callie woke up long enough to make an appearance.

It was hard to say goodbye to Karissa. I miss seeing her around. With the time change, we were all dragging around 9:30. She has to catch a 5:20am flight tomorrow morning and then work all day. Poor girl!

Dave is now watching the Colts, and I am thinking about reading some more of my new book.

Peace out.

Baptism Sunday

OK, I got to write while it's still fresh. We had our baptism Sunday today. I LOVE this day. There have been some hard times recently with the church, but on a day like today, it reminds me over and over again why we are here...to see people come to know Jesus. There were 13 people who were baptized today and another 3 who committed to following Jesus for the first time. I stood back there and openly cried all morning. Personally, this morning I woke up feeling attacked and needing Jesus. One of my dear friends prayed for me and it was just what I needed. I then got some good connecting time with a few other women whom I never get to talk to.

Let me just paint the picture of what it looked like this morning:
One of the guys gave his testimony. The others lined up and briefly explained why they were up there. The music started in some upbeat worship. As each person was dunked, there were loud shouts, clapping, cheering, rejoicing happening. There were 9 originally, but then 4 more during the course of worship decided to get baptised as well. Literally, wearing what they wore to church, they got in and were dunked. It's like this wild party, except everyone is praising Jesus. I imagine this might be what heaven looks like. It was so flippin cool!

I love Jesus. Thanks God for reminding me that this is why we are here...and thanks for doing it in such an awesome way!

Daddy and Callie dancing

Dave got Callie to dance with him. It was pretty dang cute.

Pics

Callie's cat pumpkin


Noah's dinosaur pumpkin


My two pumpkins with the two pumpkins


Our little pumpkin. :-)


Noah's 60 piece tractor puzzle that he spent his $5 on. He is pretty stinkin good at these.


I found a frame for Callie's pic at Target...along with some cool pumpkins. :-)