The first of many

New Shovels and Buckets for the beach: $22.00

Philly Water Ice Pops for the kids: $4.00

Atlantic Ocean and endless beaches: $0

A day In Ocean City at the beach: priceless.

Thumb sucking and the growing kids

Anyone out there have any good ideas how to stop THIS:

He really loves his thumb, but he's five. This behavior is the worst, obviously, at night while going to sleep and also when he watches TV. I guess it might be time to stop him from doing it, any suggestions are welcomed!

Little Bean - seriously, I love this kid! Every time I get home from a Dr.'s appointment she says, "Mommy, did you get your baby out?" So cute. She said to me this morning on the way home from the store, "Jesus make me a mommy, ok?" I love that she wants to be a mommy!



Me and Gid. He's quite the mama's boy! Love, love, love his big brown eyes and irresistible laugh. He gets the biggest kick out of himself and of making others laugh. He's got a great sense of humor. So much fun!

Olivia's been really into writing stories, mostly about herself, but it a start, right? :) Today after she was finished with her homework she sat at the table and wrote this story:

ALL ABOUT ME

I love skool it is fun.

It is fun fun fun.

I lrn los uf stuf.

I do math.

Math is fun.

The End

I'm really glad she wrote this story because lately she's been a bear to get out of bed for school. She's also made so many friends at school and here at home that we are starting to deal with; how to be a good friend, how to choose good friends, and constantly hammering the idea of treating others the way you want to be treated. It's exhausting and hard to watch as she gets hurt by "friends" and continually wants to play with them anyway. We've started praying for these friends as well as how we can love them unconditionally (the second part is harder for daddy and I then for the kids!).

Big Boy Toys

In an effort to level the ground in my parents backyard for our easy-set pool, Josh brought home "help." Once again, he and my dad were like little kids talking about the tractor, using the tractor, and just LOOKING at the tractor. We got a lot done yesterday thanks to the "toy." All the moving of dirt would have taken much longer and the pool wouldn't be up and filled had we not had it. I'm thankful to Lawn Connection for lending us the equipment.

Here's the kids taking turns sitting in the drivers seat.

This is the truck that Josh drives everyday. It pulls the trailer with either the tractor on it, or all the other lawn care equipment they use.

Garrett's turn in the drivers seat. The two kids you don't recognize are neighbores who are frequently found playing in our yard. :)

Daddy and Gideon backing the tractor off the trailer. Esther was really scared and yelling at Josh, "Daddy, Gideon, ok?" Over and over.

In other boy news, here's Garrett's latest scrape. Actually, a slice, that I thought was going to need stitches. Luckily, it was a diagonal slice and not straight across the chin. He did this while running down the sidewalk, tripped and fell, hitting his chin on a brick. I didn't see it happen, but I'm assuming it was the corner of the brick. I'll be surprised if there's a time this summer when he doesn't have some sort of cut, scrape, or bruise on his body. He's sooo rough!

I love these faces!

Howcould
you

NOT LOVE

these

faces??

Boy Fun

If you're male and you are somehow related to my family, chances are you LOVE Jeeps. Wranglers to be exact. My dad has owned three (one that was actually my brothers), we have had two, Corrie has expressed the NEED for one, now that they live in a "4 wheel drive" town. I do have to say, they are fun to drive, especially with the top and doors off.

My dad got his hands on a free Jeep a couple of years ago that "needed work." Basically, it wouldn't start and the clutch was totally broken. It's been sitting in his garage all these years waiting for some tender loving hands to come fix it (and someone with some money to put into it). When we moved in, dad had to roll the Jeep out because all our stuff needed to go in it's place. A couple of weeks ago, we moved our stuff to the attic so that the Jeep could regain it's position and the guys could get to work on it. Did I forget to mention that a week before that, they got it started? The reaction of Josh and dad would have made you think that Jesus had come back for them, they were so excited! And actually, for mother's day, they thought that the highlight of the day would be starting it...so they did. Highlight?...not exactly...at least not for the mothers.

Esther sat in it on Sunday when they started it and was frozen with fear from the noise. She was sitting in the passenger seat crying for someone to get her out of the "scary Jeep." She probably can't appreciate the Jeep for what it is because she's female...

Gideon sat in it yesterday, full of smiles and laughs. I'm sure he was dreaming about the day when he could have one of his own.

Watch out! Here I come!

And what spells fun for a boy more than a pile of dirt and rocks. And man, is there more then enough of that around this place.

"I grab this here...and then...

I put this thing on this hard, dirty stuff....and (grunt) lift.


Check out my findings...

...looks good to me!"

Of course, I did say that this post was about boy fun, but seriously, I couldn't leave out this picture of Esther. She can get just as dirty as the boys and play just as hard, and that ragamuffin face...LOVE IT! She is my little girl who loves "spin-'round" dresses, but she can wear anything and be super cute, don't ya think?

Ok, and since I've already veered away from the boy theme once, I'm going to do it again and share some Olivia quotes from when she was sick the last couple of days.

I explained to Olivia when she feels like she's going to throw up to use the puke bucket...you all know what I'm talking about. Anyway, during her second spewing at 3 in the morning, I ran out to hear her saying, between gags and pukes,

"Oh, man, (gag) I got it on my pj's! (gag, gag)"

"It's ok", I reply, as I grab for the bucket. "Why don't you have the bucket?"

"Mom, I couldn't help it, it zoomed up so fast!" As she ran her finger up her throat.

The next morning, I was sitting with her while another bout of sickness was coming out of her, holding her hair back and rubbing her back. When she was finished, she looked up at me and said, "I'm all out."

That says it all folks, doesn't it?

not me again

This Monday has been extremely productive! For the first time in my married life I hung my laundry on the line outside (5 loads)! Garrett and I had some good mother/son time while he moved the line for me, and took down some dry clothes. The clothes are at this moment, folded and put away! I also got the van COMPLETELY clean. I mean, scrubbed the grime off the arm rest, vacuum the snot out of the carpet, take the car seat covers off the seats and washed them, smells like a new car, CLEAN!

In the spirit of some of those things, here's my "NOT ME" list.

I did not enjoy hanging the laundry out on the line. I did not hum a little tune, say a couple prayers, or utterly enjoy the quiet breeze whispering around me.

I did not let my 3 year old "help" me clean the van. I did not let her have unlimited access to the environmentally safe armor all and window cleaner to spray and 'clean' where ever she wanted. This control freak mother would never let a child "help" clean and not go back over to do it the "right" way! NOT ME! (I'm not sure how that reads, but really didn't go back over and re-clean her spots!)

I did not leave my 18 month old son unattended on multiple occasions this week while he successfully emptied food items. I did not have to clean up,

Cheerios (I did not make my mom clean these up!)

Tea bags, some of which he opened and was ready to brew up!

Or Cocoa Puffs. At least this time he was trying to get them in a bowl.

I did not find any of these things funny, cute, or bloggable. NOT ME!

I did not put off my blood work for this pregnancy AGAIN, just because I don't want to go. I would never ignore doctors orders, I'm always such a compliant patient.

I did not go 5 for 5 in guessing the sex of our children, before we had them or the ultrasound. I did not tell my husband last Monday, that I thought this baby was a girl. I did not listen to him tell me how he prayed that, although he knew the sex was already determined, he would really like another son. I did not gloat about being 5 for 5 to anyone, what kind of person would do that?? I am not kinda excited that I have a pattern going with my kids. Patterns aren't my thing...Not me!

And, on a sad note...I did not forget that my wonderful husband had planned a date for us this past Saturday. I did not start cooking dinner so we couldn't go out...I would never forget a date, we go on them SOOOOO often!

Joining the "Not Me" club!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

In an effort to keep my humor fresh and laugh at myself during this transition time in life, I am joining the "Not me!" Monday. I hope you enjoy these things that I would never, ever (not in a million years) do...EVER!

On Saturday, I did not keep my pajama pants on all day, put a sports bra on with a blue, "V" neck maternity shirt, which showed my purple sports bra (did I forget to mention that it was purple?) and walk around the neighborhood all day watching my kids.

On this same day in question, I did not run out of the house like a lunatic, screaming and yelling at my five year old son b/c he wiped out off his bike in the road. And I would never yell at him b/c he disobeyed me, but only b/c I was so worried if he got hurt or not. I would never think that he got what he deserved for disobeying! Not me, I'm way more compassionate than that.

And to make it a solid, three strikes and your out kinda day, that evening, I did NOT run down an entire street block (in my awesome, stay-at-home-mom outfit) screaming and yelling for Mr. Softee, the local ice cream truck, to stop so my kids and niece could have an ice cream cone for a snack.

I'm way above doing any of those things...it was "Not Me..."

He's my son

How many of you are following the Stellan story on MckMama's blog? I have to say, I'm a little obsessed the with it. I even thought about joining the twitter nation, just to follow her on twitter too. She is honest about her life as a wife and mother. She shares truth concerning her faith and struggles. She raises good questions about prayer and healing. But mingled in with all of that is a positive, never give up attitude that is contagious.

I say all of that to share a story about Garrett that brought me to tears. Ok, and a little bit of sobbing.

I was checking "my charming kids" for the fifth time yesterday morning and decided it was a good time to watch a picture montage, set to the song, "He's My Son" by Mark Schultz, that someone had made for MckMama. She warned to have tissues handy, which I didn't. As I began watching it, Garrett joined me. Picture after picture rolled by of Stellan in the hospital, hooked up to wires and tubes. Garrett continued to take in the images and asked, "What's wrong with that baby, mom?" I explained that he was born with a sick heart and that he had to be in the hospital so the doctors could fix his heart. I went a little further to explain that if your heart is sick, that your whole body is sick, b/c our hearts keep us alive.

VERY seriously and with his lip quivering he asked me, "Is he going to die?"

I shrugged my shoulders, getting ready to explain that LOTS of people are praying for him...etc, but he cut me off.

"He's not going to die, mom. Jesus is going to"...he struggles to find the right word... "cure him."

Ok, so the video hadn't made me cry, yet. But that comment started the tears. I grabbed him, put him on my lap and finished the video together. Me, quietly crying behind him all the way through it.

When it finished he looked up at me, lip quivering a little harder this time, tears welled up in his eyes. "Why are you crying buddy?"

"Because, that was a really sad song. I don't want that baby to die."

We went on to talk about how we can pray that God will heal him completely and how we can be thankful for our healthy family.

"Let the little children come to me, and so not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Mark 10:15

We miss him!

It's official. I miss Josh. Olivia misses daddy. Garrett misses daddy. Esther misses daddy. And I'm sure, in his non-verbal way, Gideon misses daddy. And I know Indy misses his walks with daddy!

We are happy, different, changing, and the same. We are the same 6 people who moved from Michigan two months ago undergoing a major shift in life.

One of us is a little thinner.
One of us is a little bigger.
One of us is a little more tired.
One of us is a little more structured.
One of us wakes up REALLY grumpy from our naps.
One of us just keeps getting cuter.

But we're all the same people, dealing with change in our own way, and yet we deal with it together.

Olivia told me she was crying at school today. She thinks that because she's there all day, she's seeing Josh less then the other kids. I don't know if she thinks he's coming home at lunch, but I told her that she sees him as much as the other kids. I'm sure she misses walking home from the bus with him, eating lunch with him, and having him home at dinner 7 nights a week. I know I miss those things.

Garrett asks to wrestle at least 2 times a night. This was their activity. Josh wants to do it, and usually does, it just really hard because he's so physically drained.

All the kids would get excited when he would come home from work, but not like now! Man, they run out the door and meet him on the street. Esther yelling, "Daddy home!" and Gideon screaming joyfully all the way across the yard. The older two usually pull up on their bikes a minutes or two later to say welcome home.

I just thought of this while I was typing. Last night, while my dad and I were making dinner, all the kids were playing outside. Olivia asked me, "what does daddy's shirt say?" "His work shirt says, Lawn Connection. That's who he works for." "Thanks!" And she ran down the driveway. A couple of minutes later I walked down to find her drawing a chalk picture of Josh, in his work clothes, standing next to her. It was cute and she couldn't wait to show it to him.

So, we're all adjusting, some of us slower then others, some of us more verbally than others. We continue to trust in God and seek his direction as we train and lead our children through this new time in life. I know most of you already saw these pictures on facebook, but they are the most recent ones I have of my amazingly hot, hard working, husband...who I love!

Spring Break

School starts back up today. I don't know if I'm glad or dreading the schedule that I have to get back into. The kids had fun this week making new friends in the neighborhood, playing with cousins, and going to parties. The not so fun part was waiting out the rain for two days. Here's some pictures from the week.The girls at "Auntie Brooke's" (my cousin) baby shower. From left to right, Katie, Brooke's sister-in-law (no, I didn't type the relation wrong, she really is Brooke's husband's sister!), Olivia, Ella (my cousin Lauren's daughter), Esther and Avery.

The kids really love the playset in my parents side yard. Many, many hours are spent swinging and sliding!

One of the rainy days I covered the kitchen table with paper and let the kids go after it with Dot Paints. They are awesome! No prep, easy clean-up, fun for hours (ok, minutes), FUN!

Imperfection is perfect

Now that I'm living in the same house I grew up in, I've got a new appreciation for the house, the neighborhood, and the town that I grew up in. But most of all for my parents...here's the story...

I've always appreciated my parent's willingness to have an "open door" policy. When we were little, this was the house everyone came to. It wasn't well decorated, adorned, or fancy. BUT, it was a HOME, lived in, and loved. When we were teens, the freedom to bring our friends home didn't stop and you could often find our living room full of teens watching TV or just hanging out. One by one we went off to college, and you could almost guarantee at breaks, we brought people with us. Mom and dad never complained, never said no. They've had friends of ours live with them for long lengths of time. Co-workers, who needed temporary housing. And even fiances, who needed to save a couple of bucks, who moved in. When we were all finally out of the house two years ago, they were ready to be empty nesters...and for two years they were. However, the "open door" policy came back to haunt them. Josh and Corrie needed to save some money for a big move they had coming up and moved back into 428 Bem st. Mom and dad once again, embraced the extra bodies, including a dog. In January, Josh and I had a big move coming too, and the first place we knew to go to for help was mom and dad. Even with our four kids and dog in toe, they didn't hesitate to make it work. We moved in, took over two rooms and created enough upheaval in their lives for 10 years. Never a complaint, dirty look, or sigh of annoyance. Unconditional, 100% sacrificial love.

My dad and I sat outside watching the kids play, in the same yard I played in as a child. There were kids everywhere. Eight in our yard, three across one street, and five across the other. One day, not so many years ago, it was us filling the air with laughs and conversation with our friends. Playing football in the side yard, suicide on the big abandoned building, and whiffle ball on the corners. Now, a generation later, it continues. The life of this blue collar, low income town still rings loud and true. We've lived in three towns since being married, and only now do I realize what was missing from them. The freedom to play, uninhibited, as children should play. To get dirty, really dirty. To make friends, with every kid, no matter what color they are, what language they speak, or what their house looks like.

That same afternoon, while we sat outside, a guy on a motorcycle pulled up in front of the house. My dad wasn't alarmed, but said, "Oh, it's Bruce." Bruce was one of the kids who grew up in the house across the street from my parents. He and my brother were friends and we often took him to church. He was a great, friendly kid. All these years later, he stops at the house to catch up with my dad. He's a man, living on his own, with his own life. But, and this is just my opinion, I believe that my parents had such an impact on Bruce's life, that he enjoys coming back. He knows he was loved here once and feels that love when he comes back. The "open door" policy, unconditional love...are you seeing the pattern?

Do you know what I love about this house? All the imperfections. Including the inhabitants, past and present. I love that every wall tells a story, of before I was born, to after I was born, to the present. There are pieces of art made my by grandmother's hands, framed by by grandfather. There are pieces of art made by my mother's hands and our hands, framed by my father's hands. There are missing walls, that tell stories of in-laws working together to make a more comfortable living space for everyone.

Here's some of the history that hangs on the staircase walls.

I love that all of our paintings from our Sr. years of high school still line the walls of the staircase.

Here's the missing walls. And yes, the room has two different colored carpets and two different color rugs, but WHO CARES?!?!? Those multi-colored carpets continue the story that the walls started.

You know what these kitchen counters are telling me? "Yeah, there's not a lot of working space on me. And yeah, I feel crowed when there's two people in my space. But I love the conversation that happens around this table. I love being a part of the game nights. I love all the years of Easter egg dying, pumpkin carving, and cookie baking, no matter how many people are here. And you know what, I really like being crowded!"

This is the room I grew up in. The purple carpet is what my mom picked out for our room when we put the addition on. And it's never changed. I think the red is the third coat of paint on these walls, and I think they like not matching each other. Yep, they do, they really do!

This is the imperfect hallway upstairs. And if it could talk it would tell you this: That it really likes being uneven. It likes being the thruway between my parents room and the most lived in bedroom in the house. It likes the little feet that cross it every morning to wake up Grammy and P-pop (even if they don't always like it)!

Oooooo, this is one of my FAVORITE things about the house. The way it's heated. Do you know what this is? It's a radiator, (pronounced, 'rad'- (as in "That's totally rad!") -iator. Please do not read it RAIDIATOR or you will ruin the picture. I remember as a kids, we liked to warm our feet on them while we watched TV. They were great for drying our snowy clothes and warming our coats before going out in the cold. They really screw up the wall space available for furniture, but add such character, especially when you pronounce it RADiator. :)

I love that when we added on to the house, my grandfather and father slaved away to build us a better home. I love that my husband has added to this house. That there are nails hammered in by generations of loved ones, past and present. That it's a work in progress. Because, isn't that what we all are? Imperfect, flawed, uneven, and crowded out. But put together with unconditional love.

This is what the house looked like when my parents bought it.

This is what it looks like today. Notice the open door... come on over for a visit...we'd love to have you!

I love this house, the people who live here, who have lived here, and the neighborhood it's a part of. I love the history, the imperfection, the beauty.

The tooth is gone

Finally! Olivia's first tooth has been loose for months. The dentist told us she would loose it before we moved. She didn't. She didn't work it the way I remember working my teeth when I was a kid. This tooth has been hanging at a really gross angle for weeks. We tried everything to get her to work it out. The tooth fairy, unlimited DS time for a day, nothing worked. Until dinner tonight. One bite in, and it was out.



O: "Mom, I don't feel my tooth!"

M: "You lost it!?! Where is it? Is it in your mouth? On your plate? On the floor?"

We looked everywhere, except the one place that it probably is, her stomach. She said she didn't feel it go down, but it's the only explanation. So, in place of her tooth, she wrote this letter:

I guess we'll see tomorrow if the tooth fairy takes notes. :)


Token, "I just lost my first tooth" picture.