Sunday, May 11, 2008

To Melt Our Mothers' Hearts

To all our mothers whether they be called Brenda/Mom/Mamaw, Kathie/Momma/Nini, Nonie, Big Grandma, Lil' Grandma, or JoJo...we hope your hearts are full of joy today as you think about the family that originated with you. We each hold a piece of you within us! We pray that our lives and legacies will reflect who you have helped us to become and that through us, you will receive the honor you deserve. We love you very much...so much that we are all smiles for you!








Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Judah Update

Well, his ear is still infected; but Dr. L said the antibiotic he just finished actually keeps working several days afterwards. His right lung is still bein' noisy, so Judah gets the pleasure of going on an inhaler for a week. It actually works out for me because Judah recently (innocently) broke the breathing chamber that goes with my inhaler. Dr. L prescribed one for Judah that comes with a little mask that I hope comes off. If it does, bingo! Breathing chamber for both mother and son in one fell swoop. :-) We go for a follow-up next Wednesday, at which point Elijah may also be checked if his nose continues to be green gunkiness.

Payback. I'm sorry, Momma! I understand now what it was like to have me as a kid. Happy Mother's Day to me. :-P

Because we took Matt to work, went to Target & Safeway, and then straight to the doctor. Elijah missed his morning nap. Most of it anyway...


Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Normal Within Reach

Good news. I think normal life is within reach. And just when we attain it within the next
18 days, Matt will become a Europe Traveler. ::hangs head:: But THEN when he returns, life will be normal. Oh wait...I mean after our anniversary-weekend-away...and then after Melody's visit in July...THEN life will be normal. Ha. :-P

Keep prayin' for Judah. I'm gonna call the doctor again about his breathing. He still gets pretty winded when he's active (climbs stairs, plays around). I've already resigned myself to the fact that I've passed on asthma to him. I'm just waiting for the doctor to realize it. :-) But God can change that!

I moved stuff to the attic today, go me. That included a box of year books -- do you know how heavy those things are? I felt primitive when I figured out I could rotate the box up those skinny attic stairs. It's the simple things that work! But I think my body has had it after all that. It's so amazing how having some sinus/lung trouble can really affect your activities. And it's annoying when you want to do things for your hubby to shrink HIS to do list. Anyway, I also hung some things on the wall. So, here is another "finished" room, our master bathroom. I say "finished" because I have to hot glue one of the sea shells back on the mirror, and Matt has to replace the toilet seat still. But I figured you all have good enough imaginations that it was finished enough to post pictures. That color truly makes it an oasis in there. :-)



And here is another video of Elijah's continued path into Big People Foods.

Monday, May 05, 2008

On the Mend

Woo, I think we're on the mend now. I'm still congested, but not nearly as much as the past three days; and I'm having some lung trouble, but nothing I haven't dealt with before. Most important, no more headaches.

Judah is fever-free and not coughing as much. But oh my word...the boy is on some asthma med for a few days. Did I mention it makes him hyper and hungry? He chatters so much that he actually uses short sentences now, and he constantly asks for more food at meal times. Matt and I often look at each other dumbfounded at his antics.

'Lijah ALMOST has that second top tooth, and he pulled up for the first time on Saturday. He was in his crib. Since then, he has pulled up on two different ottomans, the tub, his dresser, a riding toy, more in his crib... It's like he learned once and sha-POW. He does it all the time. Scary. :-P

Matt's still healthy, praise the Lord!

We're nearly done with the living room and 'Lijah's room, so expect pictures soon! I'm tempted to take some before we're done because I'm so excited.......buuuut, I won't. ;-)

Saturday, May 03, 2008

In the Sick House

Apparently our bodies were hangin' on to health until we had two major life events cease: the apartment and watching Lakota. We handed over the apartment on Tuesday, and our last day to watch Lakota was Thursday. We also took the kids for a check-up on Thursday -- coming out with a clean bill of health save for slight anemia on Elijah's part (he'll be on iron drops for a month).

Friday morning? Judah woke up with a fever and bad cough. I woke up with major sinus/head issues. Matt stayed home from work (thank you, Love!) to care for us. Elijah's yucky nose, we're assuming, is because of his teething. He's got a tip of one top tooth through, and the other is about to make it's debut.

Today, my head hurt so bad this morning that the cartilage part of my ears hurt. Weird (and painful). God bless Matt for being such a wonderful caretaker of family and home while the wife is down. Judah woke up with a fever again, and a gross cough. Last night was a hard night for him. While giving Elijah his lunch bottle, I noticed that Judah's breathing wasn't quite right. So after a quick consult call with my mom and another to our doctor, we took him to see Dr. L who "happened" to still be in the office (on a Saturday, thank you, Lord). Sure enough, Judah was wheezing and that silly right ear was turning red and trying to get infected. So he's now on an asthma med and antibiotic for this week. The asthma med makes him hyper. Oh my word, is it funny. I'm thankful he's a fun hyper and not obnoxious or disobedeint. The funniest thing he did this afternoon was go out in the hallway and turn in circles for a while chanting "Chocolate...chocolate...chocolate." Can we say random???

So pray for this sick house. Pray for Matt to be protected from all of this -- we need someone to be well to care for the rest of us and he has to work. Pray that Judah and I will heal quickly, whether it be colds/allergies/whatever. Pray that Elijah's issue will remain just teething and not compound itself. I don't want anymore hospital stays in our near future -- we're still clearing up insurance stuff from the last one! :-P

Here's a little travel blank I made for a baby shower this past week. It's the first crochet thing I've made by following any instructions (for the most part). ;-)



And we got to do something fun amidst this hardship -- get new phones! It was time for us to "upgrade" because our plan expired, yadda yadda. So we invested in phones we plan to keep for a while (and not let our kids play with). This is what mine looks like, and Matt's is the exact same in black with orange accents. It is SO cool to have the same phones but different colors. No more putting a sticker on the back of mine so we can easily tell them apart. :-P And mine would be a great lip gloss or polish color. Woo, ok, vergin' on bein' too publicly girly here... If you call me and I don't answer right away, it's probably because I'm listening to my ringtone. :-) We can do bluetooth file transfer, so we clipped out a little piece of "Here Comes the Sun" by the London Symphony Orchestra. I think it is so me, and it is so peaceful and happy to listen to.



And here are some fun pics/video. G'night!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Eat Your Heart Out

This is one of those posts everyone can enjoy, but I realize that the grandmas and aunts will be the ones to enjoy it most. Some people wonder why parents take videos of what seems to be nothing. But to far-away-family, "nothing videos" are everything!

This is a collection of photos and video from recent meal times. I haven't been able to post much because of life's busy-ness, so there's more comin'!



Monday, April 21, 2008

A Surprise and Some Progress

The secret's out! For a few weeks, Jaclyn and I have known that she was going to fly here on April 18th...as a surprise to my parents! After a few outright lies to my mother because of a little slip, she was genuinely shocked at seeing Jaclyn around 12:15 on Friday night. It was so much fun! I'm pleased that they have now met in person, and that I have now seen Jaclyn FOUR times in our entire friendship! Wednesday will make five. :-P We drove her up to PA to work a few days at OMF's retired missionaries home. We stayed there Saturday night and met several of the lovely treasure troves that live there. Such amazing women who have too many stories to count! We also got to go to SONIC (twice) because there is one near Lancaster, which is where we were. Matt was so excited he was twitching! The boys and I are going back up on Wednesday to have lunch, meet more missionaries, and bring Jaclyn back to the airport. Note: My dad can be very silly, and one of these pics is proof.






Progress! We have now completely finished one room in the townhome -- the little half-bath. But, hey, it's still progress! I LOVE this room, people. Very different from any style Matt and I have ever used. Even a touch of "southern." Watch out! But it is beautiful, clean, and just...just lovely to my soul. A simple haven with a touch of garden. Check out the awesome soap dispenser we found at Target!



Thursday, April 17, 2008

From the Other Side of the 29

Translation for non-Californians: From the Other Side of 29

Well, we're here. :-P

Move Day was last Sunday, and boy was it amazing! So many people showed up with good food and muscles ready to work. Boy, Emily made some smokin' good pork BBQ. Yep, that's right. I enjoyed EVERY bite and want some now that I think about it. I've definitely converted from BBQ hater to BBQ lover (as long as it's not hard core BBQ). The men swept through our apartment and got all the furniture moved in just a few hours. Only some odds, ends, and all our books are left at the apartment. I know you all want pictures, but have patience. I want to get things a little more settled to create more shock-n-awe with before and after pics. ;-)

Some things I'm lovin' so far:

~Dropping something upstairs and cringing only for a moment, then realizing that the people who live below us are MY people. :-)
~An even, quickly heated FLAT top stove...I can crack an egg into the CENTER of my pan without it running to the back edge and cooking unevenly. ::sigh of relief::
~The masterbedroom. We went back to yellow instead of green. So sunshiny with three good sized windows with old fashioned wooden shutters that match the feel of the yellow room. I took my first afternoon nap in the yellow room yesterday. It was so warm, peaceful, cushy, and sunshiny. Did I mention we painted the room yellow? It's yellow.
~The masterbathroom. I painted it green yesterday. It is like a peaceful, simple bamboo forest now. If you're looking for a relaxing shade, use Behr's Mother Nature. I love it.
~The walking trail that runs behind our home and goes on forever is chock full of nature. I forsee many walks with my boys!
~No neighbor noise.
~It feels like we live in a park...lots of mature trees and flowers with squirrls, groundhogs, tons of singing birds, and even some foxes others have seen.
~The new antenna Matt bought...we get all the channels our shows are on for the cost of one month of cable, indefinitely! ABC, NBC, and Fox. What more do you need? Anything else would only mean a TV trap -- especially TLC.......
~The dishwasher and washer. Quietest electronic servants I've ever *not* heard!
~We have too much storage space. Say what? You heard me.

Some things to get used to:

~Oh my word, the flying bugs. GAH! Bees are everwhere. The Verizon guy came yesterday (very kind guy named Patrick from Kenya -- excellent customer service!). I discovered there is a gap in our screen door after I had to kill a bee on the living room window. Right after I killed it, I went to the door to check it out...to find another bee on that window. I made a frustrated sound, and Patrick asked if I was ok. So I told him I had just killed a bee and now there was another. He saw me with a shoe, and said I should just open the door and let it out -- and then he came and did it for me. ::blush:: Silly girl afraid of bees. I explained to him we had just moved from California where there are no flying bugs, just ants and spiders. So this is going to take some serious getting used to. If the bees and wasps would just promise not to sting me, I might be more ok with them flying around my 5' personal space bubble.
~A heating system that works well except that the upstairs is always warmer than downstairs. It'll take some time to figure out what temps are best.
~Some parts of the townhome are pretty run down looking and therefore affect me psychologically. I know the place has been cleaned very well by us and our friends, but I still have the willies when I give the kids a bath in the tub. That will probably go away over time.
~Trash pick-up. We actually have to remember when the day is, keep our trash in our trash cans throughout the week, and take our trash to the curb rather than a dumpster. Weird.
~Creaking floors.

Things NOT to get used to:

~The carpets were cleaned, sure, but my allergies are still picking up on the cat dander. I vacuumed yesterday and then proceeded to have quite the allergic reaction. A few people have commented that there is still a faint scent of cat, and I agree (esp. in Judah's room). Pray with us that the owner will be amiable to replacing the carpet when we approach him with the idea. Cat or no, it's about time anyway.
~The cat closet. Yep, that's right. There's a closet under the stairs that opens to the dining room that actually has a cat door in the door. Open it and cat scent hits you like a wall. I can't clean it for obvious reasons, so Matt is going to try and tackle it today. Best case scenario: the owner will let us drywall and finish the area off for a nice pantry or hobby closet.

We are so lovin' livin' here! Can't wait to post some pics!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

TownHome Update

After much confusion amongst the carpet cleaner, property manager, owner, and us...the carpets did get cleaned yesterday. We stopped by last night to have a looksy to find out that we were completely locked out of our own new home thanks to a thorough carpet cleaner. :-P But, because of that, Matt got to meet the owner -- an Indian chef at a local Indian restaurant. Matt said he is very nice and friendly. He even asked Matt if we wanted food! I wish I was able to meet him, but I did get to see a picture on the door of the restaurant. He reminds me of what an Indian version of the big chef on Lady & the Tramp would look like. :-)

Once we were able to get into the townhome, we were SO relieved and surprised at what a DIFFERENCE the carpet cleaning made! Yowsa! As of yesterday afternoon, we were dreading the carpet and praying we'd be able to convince the owner to replace it sooner than later. This morning, we're totally fine with it.

A friend is coming over today for lunch/naptime. Once the kids go down, I'm gonna head over to play Cinderella in that house. I'm fired up and ready to clean counters, shine up appliances, sweep/mop floors, scrub bathrooms from top to bottom, and wipe all the walls down. Talk about exercise for a day! It'll also let me know if the cat essence in the carpet is gone -- if I can be in there for more than 15 minutes without allergy problems, the job was done right. (If not, mabye we CAN get him to replace the flooring.....I'm a dreamer!) Boy, I can't wait to see this place finished and show you all pics!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow......

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

TownHome Preview

Yesterday was the day we got the keys to our new home! We went last night to see it again. It's alot bigger than I remember, especially without the previous tentants' furniture in it. But they left it messy! There are a few things we get to sell and make money on (i.e. air mattress, nice high chair); others we plan to keep (i.e. corningware dishes, santoku knife, great blanket). The rest we throw out -- food, personal items, bottles, etc. It needs a good scrubbin' from top to bottom; and I really hope the carpet cleaning today will help the floors tremendously, especially because my allergies detect cat after 15 minutes of just standing in there.

Here are a few prelim pics to tickle your fancy! Just wait until you see the finished product -- it's gonna be lovely! Praise the Lord!

Nice, big kitchen! There will eventually be a door to hide the washer/dryer -- it's currently broken. * Foyer. * Foyer looking into dining room to see Lovely Laura and Excitable Elijah.


Elijah's future room which will be the future nursery for whenever we have another kid. * Judah's future room which will be both boys' room once Elijah has a similar sleep schedule to Judah's. I'm MOST excited about the plans for their room! ;-)


Master bedroom and bathroom. I love the wooden shutters -- they will go great with our bedding!


Elijah Note: This morning, Elijah made his way from the toys in the living room to his chair in the dining room. Matt and I were in the kitchen making breakfast, and I realized Elijah's voice sounded much closer than it should have been if he was at the toys. He did it so quickly we didn't even see it happen!
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