Transition Time

We're still waiting to hear from our lender if our closing date on the new house is March 13, but so far as the realtor knows, that's what we're still shooting for. So we've reserved the truck, and we'll just change it if we have to. I'll be thankful to know for sure what we're looking at as a closing date... and at the same time, part of me will want to have a heart attack because it's all coming up already! :)

Saturday night some of our good friends are having a going away party for us and the Prestons. It's a little bit strange to think about the fact that, in just a few weeks, we won't be seeing all these people every week or more. There are SO MANY people we will miss terribly! While it's very sad, on a different level, the fact that we literally have hundreds of friends with whom we've connected in less than four years is an AMAZING blessing from the Lord! I cannot even imagine what our lives would have been like without our church family here! There is also a certain level of comfort that comes from knowing that our time on earth is short compared to the eternity we get to spend in heaven with these brothers and sisters in Christ!

Quite honestly, I think I would be crying every day if I wasn't so sure that we are indeed following the Lord's call on our lives and if we didn't have such a great team to labor and share life with as we plant this church.

Ladan has started clinging to his friends even more over the last few weeks. He does well with transition in most cases, but he's definitely going to miss his friends and his teachers at church. It's sad for me to see him have to leave his friends. The great thing is that he will likely be the one telling me that everything is okay! I would like to try as hard as I can to get the boys together with at least a few of their friends for a fun play time before we go... a time when it's focused on THEM having fun (as opposed to them having to be "quiet and controlled" while the adults get to have fun). Now we just need to pray for a decent weather day so we can give them some room to run!

As I've been packing and sorting through things, I've gotten rid of some of the boys' things. Before I get rid of each item, I let Ladan know what I'm doing and why we're getting rid of that particular item. Today, I was throwing away this random project he made one day, and when I told him what I was doing, he asked what was wrong with it. He asked if it was dirty. I told him it wasn't dirty but that we just needed to get rid of it. He suggested that I get rid of part and save the other part. I explained that it wasn't really going to work that way, and he quickly and happily agreed, "Oh, well, that's fine. Just throw it in the trash." I mean, seriously, he's awesome! It's like he just appreciates knowing what's going on and why, and that's all he needs. I'm not taking it for granted, that's for sure! He is LOVING the process of packing and is a great help to me! He brings me boxes, hands me things that are out of my reach to put in the boxes, gets me the tape/marker, and gives me a high five or a huge hug every time we get another box packed and closed.

Gabe has been really great too. He is clearly addicted to the movie, Cars. I know my two-year-old should not be addicted to a movie, but if you were moving and could see the way his face lights up every single time he gets to see it, you might not argue about it too much either. He has memorized many parts of the movie and recites them before they're coming up. He also plays with his cars at other times of the day and acts out scenes from the movie. Speaking of reciting movie lines, one of his favorite things to do is recite the entire Ring of Fire scene from Finding Nemo with Chet. It's hilarious, and I MUST get it on video!

When he wakes up in the morning, he plays quietly in his bed for a few minutes. As soon as I open the door, he jumps up and down in his bed and screams, "Mom!" Then immediately says, "Change diaper." While we're working on that, he says, "I wanna eat oh-mee-oh an miwk" (oatmeal and milk). And while we're working on getting that ready, he says with great excitement, "I wanna watch a voovie" (movie). He's still learning what it means when I say that we can do that later. As soon as he hears me say "We can do that...", he starts cheering and jumping up and down. And then when he's sitting there eating and I'm still not turning on the movie, he's emotionally destroyed and starts crying. Thankfully he gets over it quickly. I'm trying to balance being patient--considering that he's still learning the meaning of somewhat abstract concepts--with training him not to argue and complain when he doesn't get what he wants.

He has started saying, "I wuw [love] you, Mom!" more often and has been giving the best hugs lately. He squeezes his arms around me and pats me on the back. He's a cutie, that's for sure! These kids are fantastic!

My belly is growing at a much faster rate than it did with the previous two, but I'm gaining weight a bit more slowly. I ordered a new pair of maternity yoga pants when they were on sale last week, and they came the other day. I'm fairly certain that I'll be living in these pants for the next few months. They're AWESOME!

Chet and I took a break the other night to watch Fireproof. It was really an excellent movie--very encouraging! The bonus features were definitely worth watching too.

How's that for another random assortment of thoughts and updates? I'm sure my posts will resemble this pattern for the next little bit.

Short Snip-its of Life

Okay, over the last few weeks, I have had about a million random thoughts, and quite a few things have happened. Here is an effort to bring you up to speed without taking an hour to get it all down. This list will be in no particular order of events or thoughts, because that's not how my brain is operating right now. So here's a glimpse into my head...

We are buying a house in Champaign-Urbana, IL so we can move hopefully within the next several weeks.

There's a lot to do in the next several weeks.

I have a hard time considering leaving some of my best friends in the whole world behind. But I'm thankful for the phone and internet and cars that get good gas mileage.

I'm going to miss taking long showers and not running out of hot water ever. I think that's the only thing I can think of right now that I'll miss about this apartment in particular.

I'm excited that the only footsteps I'll hear overhead are from people I have let into my own home.

I'm also excited that I won't have to hear the same song being played repeatedly (did I say REPEATEDLY?) on another person's piano at strange hours when it's not very convenient.

I'm looking forward to being in a place where the ground is flat enough that I can see the sunset on a more regular basis.

I'm going to miss going to the river and just sitting there to collect my thoughts. I'm sure there will be some other place I can find to do this kind of activity.

My belly is becoming larger by the day! I was hoping to hold off on getting the maternity clothes out of storage before we move, but I'm thinking it's not going to be possible. I am thankful I can still wear my regular jeans (not even my size larger regular jeans), but I'm thinking that's going to end very quickly.

It's going to be great to have Chet home at night and awake during the day. However, it's going to be a bit of a transition for me not to have my couple of hours every night when the boys are asleep and he's gone at work to get my own stuff done in peace and quiet.

Times like moving make me miss my dad more than normal. He helped me/us move several times. He was a workhorse and would get the job done well and efficiently. He never got mad at me for doing something that didn't make sense (like putting a box down right in the middle of the walking path), but he did make plenty of jokes about it! When I asked him to do something, he'd always say in his monotone voice, "Yes, dear," and tried to communicate to Chet that this was a helpful thing to say. I wish my dad could help us move into our first house and that he could see the boys get really excited about their new basement, back yard, and bedroom. I wish he had been able to meet the boys in the first place. He'd be really excited for us, I'm sure... that is, if "excited" is the right word to describe my dad at any point! The Lord knows best. I think Dad would for sure be proud to know that we used the money he left us to get through seminary and that we're starting a new adventure without any debt (aside from that massive home loan we're taking on, anyway).

I finished a book called Always Too Soon to Quit by Nancy Bramlett last week. It was good. It was also nice to finish a book.

I need some time to shape my eyebrows. I feel like they're taking over my forehead. I'm thankful I don't have a unibrow, or I'd be in trouble.

I love my family. I'm really proud of Chet. Ladan is getting huge (he's grown another 2 inches and gained 5 pounds in the last few months) and is so smart and thoughtful. Gabe is still tiny, and I'll be glad when his cuteness factor wears off a little bit more so I'm not constantly second-guessing myself when I'm giving him direction or training him.

I'm very THANKFUL that Amber (my sister-in-law) learned that kids like Titus (my nephew) and Gabe who are super-active often have skin issues because their bodies use up all of their vitamins when they're running around and they have nothing left for basic health. They apparently also need extra omega-3's. So we put Gabe on an immune booster and an omega-3 supplement on top of his Flintstones, and within 2 weeks, ALL of his eczema and weird wart things were TOTALLY gone!

Gabe then got a bacterial skin infection somehow. He had to be put on his first antibiotic (well, if we wanted him to be able to be around other kids instead of stuck at home for 2-3 weeks). It's been 3 weeks, and it's almost all completely faded. Within the next week, he should be back to that baby-soft skin kids are supposed to have... as opposed to alligator- or snake-like skin.

I get very irritated that the Sports Illustrated swim suit issue is displayed at the check-out counter without the paper "modesty" cover it used to have. For the next month at least, please beware. It's everywhere! And it's not at all helpful for any person to see it.

Thanks to Judy, I got my chocolate-covered strawberries last weekend!!!!! Excellent treat!

We had a great time serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House with our small group a couple weeks ago. If you've never done it, you should give it a shot. If you have done it, you should do it again. Good times!

I don't really like that my dreams seem to get crazier and more vivid when I'm pregnant. I could really do without that. It kind of freaks me out.

I've had fun figuring and refiguring our finances during the last few months. Excel spreadsheets are my friend. (FYI--I know that last sentence isn't grammatically correct.)

I've had the incredible urge to ride in some sort of topless vehicle (convertible, jeep, whatever) with the radio turned up... singing loudly with my friends. Monster ballads would be fun!

For some strange reason, I kind of want to watch the Oscars this year... even though I honestly haven't even heard of at least 60% of the movies, and I think I've only seen two of them on the entire list of nominated films. And I probably would get annoyed with it anyway. I just always think it's fun to see someone be recognized for hard work, especially work that I am not cut out for at all.

I'm thankful for the group of people who is committed to our church plant in Illinois. So far we have 12 adults and 8 kids (soon to be 10 kids). It seems like we'll be a good team!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and feel MUCH better now that I'm out of my first trimester. My gall bladder is even behaving. Sure makes moving and doing all of these other things more reasonable!

This is nowhere near a million thoughts, but you can get a picture of life around here for the last little bit. We'll keep you posted!

"Amen" to "Jump Snacks"

We had a super-cheap and easy dinner tonight... pancakes. That's all we had. It's great, because the boys would eat pancakes every day if they could, so it's always a treat! Tonight, we sat down to eat our pancakes, and here's how our conversation went:

Ladan: "Yay! We get to eat pancakes!"
Me: "Yep. We love pancakes!"
Gabe: "AMEN!"

Hilarious.

Later, the boys took turns taking showers, another one of their favorite activities. When Ladan was finished with his shower he asked if he could have a snack. I said, "Maybe you can have some applesauce." He replied, "No, I don't think I want that right now." I'm thinking at this point that he's going to ask for some fruit snacks or something, so I say, "Well, you can't have any junk food right now. You have to eat a healthy snack." He says, "I'm just hoping for Life cereal. That's not a jump snack."

On Sunday, he also came home after church and told us about how the soldiers put "horns" in Jesus' head. He was easily corrected, but it was very cute because he was speaking so confidently about what he knew.

I love it when my kids say funny things!

A Long Overdue Update

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks! We went to Missouri for 10 days to do our Christmas marathon of visiting family. The boys started the trip sick with colds and ended it sick with the flu. But we had a great time visiting with everyone and were able to see most of our family members and even some friends, which was great!

While we were gone, Megan (Chet's sister) helped me identify that the unusual symptoms I was having were likely related to gall bladder problems. So when I got home, I started researching in my Smart Medicine for Healthier Living book and found several natural remedies. Since I'm in the first trimester of pregnancy, the only one that my doctor wants me to try is the olive oil and lemon juice combo. The book recommended 3 tbsp. of olive oil mixed with the juice of one lemon, which is to be ingested right before bed and then again in the morning before breakfast. I did this for a couple of days...

and then I got the stomach bug that the boys had! Needless to say, I didn't attempt to drink olive oil and lemon juice at this point! In two days of having the flu I lost 4 or 5 pounds and was not in good shape. My gall bladder did feel better because I was eating absolutely no fat (or much of anything for that matter), but as soon as I ate a slice of cheese when I was better, the gall bladder problems came back.

I went to the doctor today for my first OB appointment, and we talked some about the gall bladder issues. She's ordered an ultrasound of my gall bladder, and we'll decide what to do from there. When I came home a friend had sent me directions for a different (more intense) version of the olive oil and lemon juice cleanse. So I'll run that by the doctor to see if I can try it before the ultrasound or if she'd rather I wait until after. I'm really hoping it works! I'm not exactly all that interested in having an unnecessary surgery, particularly if something like olive oil and lemon juice can take care of it.

On a more exciting note, there was a 5-day discrepancy between when the paper dating wheel they use in the doctor's office said I conceived and when my temperature changed (signifying ovulation if you don't know anything about the fertility awareness method of charting). The doctor likes to do c-sections one week early, and so the 5-day difference could be big one way or the other. In order to determine my exact due date, she had me have an early ultrasound during today's visit.

According to the ultrasound, I am exactly 10 weeks and 2 days pregnant, which means my due date is August 15, 2009. The baby was moving around like crazy. It has only one head with developing facial features and has two arms, two legs, tiny little fingers and tiny little toes. There is a very strong heartbeat racing along at 169 beats per minute. They say faster heartrates can indicate that it's a girl, but I'm not counting my chickens, because Ladan and Gabe both had fairly high heartrates as well.

As the ultrasound tech was trying to get around my uterus to see my ovaries, I was watching the baby jumping all around doing something like jumping jacks. I said, "Can you even believe that people throw these babies in the trash can like it's nothing?" She said, "I have never been an ultrasound tech who is pro-abortion. I just look at these tiny little bodies and how early their hearts beat and everything starts developing and have no idea how someone can discard them as nothing important." Seriously. This is why it is so great when crisis pregnancy centers can have ultrasound machines right in their offices.

I was bummed that Chet didn't get to see it (he's sitting in a philosophy class all week), but he'll for sure get to see the later one, which will be even more fun!

With regard to our move to Champaign, Chet's been working HARD to get things in order. Our good friends, Logan and Allison Preston, and their three children are making the move with us. There may be others who decide to go as well, which would be awesome! There are already 5 people in Champaign who are committed to the church, and there may be more before we even arrive... thanks to Jim Smith, our good friend there who is working from that end. Chet is applying for jobs, and we'll start talking with lenders to determine if we'll be able to buy a home at this point. We still have enough in savings, but since our future income sources seem a little bit all over the place, they may require that we get there and get established a bit before buying. We'll see how it shakes out. Anyway, once Chet gets a job and we find a place to live, we'll make the move. It's a bit of a whirlwind, that's for sure!

I'll end with a little story. The other night during small group, one of the high school girls was watching the kids. Apparently, Ladan had a very hard time obeying and was openly defiant several times. She explained the situation to me, so before I left to take her home, I told Chet that Ladan would have to have discipline when they got home. Chet took care of that, and I was putting Ladan to bed a while later. I talked to him for a few minutes about how it made me sad to hear that he had disobeyed Cali and had treated her and the other kids poorly. I reminded him that this is sin and that it is what separates us from God. I reminded him that this is why we need Jesus, to save us from our sins.

After that quick talk, we moved on to our story. We just happened to be on the story of Zaccheus in his Jesus Storybook Bible. The story talks about how Zaccheus didn't have any friends because he was stealing from people. This was disobeying God, and he was a sinner. Jesus came along and rescued Zaccheus from his sinning. He forgave Zaccheus and gave Zaccheus a new heart. Zaccheus wanted to obey God after that.

We prayed after the story. Ladan hasn't wanted to pray out loud for a little while for some reason. He likes to just close his eyes and listen to us pray. But this time, as I was thanking God for sending Jesus to save us, he interjected, "Thank you, God, for saving me from my sinning." We went on to pray that God would help Ladan understand what Jesus did for him when He died and rose again and that God would help Ladan believe and trust in Him and want to obey and love others well. I was so thankful that he was owning his sin and that he is able to verbalize that he needs to be rescued from it. The Lord is working in his little heart!

Oh, one more thing. You'll never believe it....

CHET HAS A FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Photos

Well, I've been really exhausted and nauseous lately, so I haven't done as well as keeping up as I thought I would after the semester was over.

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend meet us to snap some photos of our family. It was a FREEZING cold day, so despite our three or four layers of clothing, Gabe had tears streaming down his face the entire time... not because he was crying, but just because it was so windy and cold. That means that he didn't smile more than once the entire time! The good thing is that, because it was so cold, he didn't try to run around! He wanted to stay as close to us as possible! And Ladan made some really funny faces, so without further ado, here's your entertainment...

Can Anybody Figure This Out?

Do these provide any clarity?



If that's not enough, how about this?

August 18, 2009.

Hairy Arms, Burping Bottoms and Other Fun Stories

Here are a few funny stories from recent days...

One day Ladan was trying to open something that was pretty hard to turn. He said, "Wow, Mom. This is really tough to open." He looked down again at it and said with determination, "Well, I do have hair on my arms, so I must be strong enough to open it." He gave it another try and got it opened... then yelled, "Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!! I did it!!!" FYI--Ladan has a few clear pieces of hair on his arm that can't be more than 1/8 inch in length. Nevertheless, it is there, and apparently it makes him strong like Daddy.

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Last weekend I was watching the MU football game with Ladan. They lost. I told Ladan what happened, and he said, "Well, I guess they'll praise Him." Have you seen Facing the Giants? There is a line in the movie where the coach tells the team that if they win, they'll praise Him [God], and if they lose, they'll praise Him. When Chet came home, Ladan told him that the Missouri Tigers lost and were praising God. Let's hope they were!

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Just yesterday he woke up from his nap and was playing with Gabe. He accidentally tooted. He announced, "Whoops. I just tooted." I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He responded, "No. It's kind of strange. It's almost like my bottom just burped." Nice observation. I replied, "Yes, that's pretty much exactly what it's like. And yes, it is kind of strange."

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Our neighbors are moving back to California and are leaving town tomorrow morning. We're so sad to see them go. I don't think I'll ever take for granted the days we've had with them right next door. Over the course of the last few days, their two little girls have been playing at our house a lot so Glen and Jessica can pack. Ladan and Hannah (who will be 3 in February) have been playing a lot of house. Ladan has a small tent set up in his room right now. It's a 3x3 foot tent with mesh walls so you can look in easily. They have the kid-sized lawn chairs set up inside the tent. Many times over the course of these days, Ladan and Hannah have gone into their house to sit together. It's really funny because they just sit there for up to 15 minutes at a time just talking and doing nothing else. It's like they're an old couple just chilling out on the screened-in porch chatting the day away.

They have taken their "kid" (a small snowman made out of a tube sock) to school. Hannah sits on the little riding toy holding the "kid", and Ladan pushes them to school. They drop the kid off, and then come back down the hallway to do something else for a while. Inevitably, they remember their kid and go back to get her from school.

At one point, Gabe tried to walk into the tent while Hannah and Ladan were sitting in their chairs. Hannah said, "No, Gabe. You can't come in the house right now, son." Awesome!

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We put our Christmas tree up after we ate our Thanksgiving dinner. Ladan has been so excited about it and keeps shouting out, "It's Christmas in our house!" He tells me regularly that he just loves Christmas and is so glad that it's Christmas in our house.

Amber, my sister-in-law, made us a set of ornaments last year that have different names of Jesus on them. Each one has a name that Scripture uses to refer to Jesus as well as the Scripture reference where we can read about it. There are 25 of them, so we do one each day, reading the scripture and talking about what it means when we refer to Jesus as ___________. Ladan has been having fun trying to read the names of Jesus on the ornaments. He gets some of them right off, and some (like "The One Mediator") are a bit more challenging.

One of the ornaments reads "Man from Heaven". It was the first one we did. When Ladan woke up the next day and came to the tree to try to read it, he said, "Man... (insert long pause) who goes to college." I helped him figure it out and he now gets it every time, but I thought his original version was pretty great!

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Gabe has been pretty funny lately too. He's starting to use all kind of fun phrases. Today I was wiping the oatmeal off his chin, and he said, "Oh my goodness. I'm messy."

When he does something wrong to Ladan, he says, "Foddy, Nanan" (Sorry, Ladan).

His favorite game is to wait for someone to get up from his/her seat, RUN over, climb into the vacated seat, and yell, "You get out of my seat!" This game NEVER gets old for Gabe and is a constant source of entertainment for him.

We got the following message from one of Gabe's Sunday School teachers a few weeks ago:

"... one of the parents asked us if we were teaching the kids to kneel or bow down when we pray...if you have noticed your kids wanting to do this when you pray at home it is not because we have taught them to do this. Although, at some point one of the kids just decided to lay face down when we started to pray and the power of influence on kids is I guess pretty big, because when we pray in Sunday school, most of the kids will now lay face down. So if you are wondering what your child is doing, that's the explanation!"

Can you even imagine a room full of two-year-olds laying face-down on the ground during prayer time? I so wish I could see it!

Well, that's all for now! Chet finished his classes for the semester, so I'll try to get better at posting more regularly again. Please be praying for us as we make all kinds of decisions in the next little while!