Scott and Sarah Nichols

32 weeks

2012-03-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

8 weeks to go and so much to do! This little guy is so much fun. He spends the majority of his day kicking and squirming and stretching. It's so much fun to feel a little heel sticking out the side of my belly and then watching it move around. Goober doesn't know what to think when he is sitting in my lap and starts to feel my belly move. This week he kissed my belly for the first time but I'm still not sure he really understands there's a baby in there. Our friends just had a baby and so Goober has seen me hold her and he just gets this really quizzical look on his face.

I have narrowed down the doctors at my practice. There's a total of 6 and I have been trying to meet them all. The last one I met I really didn't like. She walked in the room, saw Goober with Scott and then looked at me and without so much as an introduction asks "So have you thought about what form of birth control you are going to be using after you have your baby?" I guess two kids is the socially acceptable limit these days. Most of them have been really positive about my attempt at a VBAC, however one told me I only have a 15% chance of being successful and that a second c-section doesn't hurt near as much because of all the scar tissue that's already there. All the others seem positive that we will be successful though, barring any unforseen complications.

So excited to meet this little guy!

Photo Challenge day 12 & 13

2012-03-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Day 12 - Fork

Guess who is very determined to eat with adult utensils? He actually does pretty well with a fork. A spoon - now that's another story.

Day 13 - A Sign - I took pictures of "signs" that spring is here.

Our budding lemon tree.

Romaine Lettuce

Blooming tomato plants

Strawberries!

Photo Challenge day 9, 10 and 11

2012-03-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

Day 9 - Red

Dinner - shredded beef tacos with lettuce from the garden and tomatos

Day 10 - Loud

We borrowed this game from a friend for youth group and it is loud and hilarious! A great group game!

Day 11 - Someone you talked to today

My goofy husband

my child who just happens to love sweeping the floor for his momma. :)

Photo Challenge day 8 - Window

2012-03-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

This is his "Seriously mom? Can't a boy play with his farm in peace?" look.

Photo Challenge day 7 - Something You Wore

2012-03-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

Maternity Clothes

(I apologize for the lame picture...I'm not too creative by this time at night!)

17 months

2012-03-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Dear son,

Mommy realized today as she was putting away your laundry that there are almost no onesies left in your wardrobe. I couldn't believe it. You are in big boy clothes with your big boy shoes and there is hardly any 'baby' left in you. At the dinner table you don't even like to sit in your booster seat anymore. You would rather stand on a chair or sit on the bench next to daddy. When you do sit in the booster seat, you don't want any help getting in it, you would rather climb up over the side and sit down all by yourself.

You want to do everything you see mommy and daddy doing. You pretend to talk on the cell phone, try to unload the dishwasher, insist for a turn with the broom and the vaccuum, and even dig in the dirt while we work on the garden. You pretend to use the tv remote, put clothes in the washer and dryer, throw trash in the garbage can, put your laundry in the hamper, and even show mommy where your diaper pail is every time she changes your diaper. When mommy is cooking dinner, you have to see everything that is going on. You want to help stir and pour ingredients and if mommy doesn't let you, then you keep yourself busy by unloading all the pans from the drawer under the oven. You help yourself to food from the pantry and if you were strong enough you would be helping yourself to ice cubes from the freezer. You climb in the car all by yourself and pretend to drive and honk the horn. If daddy or mommy is in the shower then you want to be in the shower too.

Whenever kids come over for mommy to tutor you think they are there to play with you. You start squealing at the door and go running outside. Mommy has had to start hiring teenagers to watch you while she tutors otherwise you are climbing all over the kids and trying to get them to play with your toys.

You have a very contagious laugh and you laugh at everything! You are running around quicker and quicker everyday and you love to ride your scooter around the house. You still climb anything and everything. You even try to climb into your crib if there's something in there that you want.

This past month you cut your top two molars. You would be fine during the day but at night you had a very hard time sleeping and you just wanted to cuddle with mommy and daddy all night long. You weren't happy when it was time for you to start sleeping in your crib again and for several nights you would 'yell out' all during the night. It wasn't even crying, it was straight up yelling in a very angry babble.

One of your new favorite things to do right now is to go into mommy and daddy's closet and get daddy's shoes and put them on your feet. It is hilarious when you put on his boots because they go all the way up both your legs and you can't move in them. You also love, love, love, to color with markers and crayons. You have officially colored on our sofa, some pillows, the kitchen table, the media cabinet, yourself, and lots of your clothes. Finally mommy went out and bought you special markers that only color on paper. We are both a lot happier now. We have your pictures taped up all over our wall. We love them!

This past month you also got a visit from your Grandma Shaw and Grandpa Shaw on two separate occasions. You had a great time with them. Next month you will get a visit from your Grandma Nichols. You are very blessed to have grandparents who love you so much!

You are growing and changing everyday. You make us smile and you make our hearts proud. Every night when you're asleep we sneak into your room and peek on you. We can't believe how much God has blessed us with you. You are our gift from Him and we love you to pieces. Happy 17 months baby boy!

Love and hugs and kisses,

Mommy and Daddy

Photo Challenge day 6 - 5 pm

2012-03-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

Usually at 5 pm Goober and I are in the process of making dinner. Tonight it was baked spaghetti and roasted brussel sprouts. Whenever it goes in the oven, Goober has to check on it 100 times. He points at the food and babbles on and on at me. I'm pretty sure he's saying "Is it ready yet momma? How about now? I think it's ready! You should look at it...." It's more entertaining to him than any cartoon on tv.

Photo Challenge day 5 - Smile

2012-03-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

Photo Challenge day 4 - Bedside

2012-03-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

Goober's bed...nearly ready to assemble.

Photo Challenge day 3 - Your Neighborhood

2012-03-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Wow does not even come close to explain it.....

2012-03-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

We were recently given a car. Free and clear.

We are pretty speechless. And grateful. And blown away by God's provision in our lives.

Oh, did I mention it's a Lexus?

It's a 1998 Lexus with everything we've never had. Automatic window buttons, a cd player, leather interiors, a button on the key thing that locks and unlocks the door, and even a sun roof!

Definitely a step up from our cars. It's also much more spacious which will be nice with two big car seats in the back.

Goober approves. He even had to bring his fake bugs into the car, 'cause that's what the cool kids do yo!

The only down side is the car can mislead people to believe that we actually have money. Yesterday I drove it for the first time and I went to fill it up with gas. As I watched the price go up and up and up a guy filling up next to me leaned over and said "Well I was going to complain about the price of gas but then I saw you are driving a Lexus, so obviously it doesn't matter to you."

I think it could be a great witnessing tool, however, because I was able to tell him how it was given to us to be a blessing to our family. He was pretty speechless. But then again, so are we.

Thank you Jesus!

Photo Challenge day 2 - Fruit

2012-03-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

So apparently I am incapable of taking only one picture...maybe that should be my challenge. :)

March Photo Challenge

2012-03-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I stumbled upon the following picture on Pinterest and decided to take the challenge:

One picture a day. I can do that. Plus it will give me something 'adult-like' to do every day (not that I don't enjoy playing with play-doh, changing diapers, and being the tickle monster to my active little Goober). Anyways I am fully accepting the fact that there will be days that I do not take pictures despite my best intention, but I am going to try. Today's word was 'up' so I had the brilliant idea to put the camera on a timer and lay it on the floor while flying Goober up in the air like an airplane...

That was a fail. No matter what I did the focus kept falling on the ceiling fan behind him. Then because I was too lazy to actually go outside and take a picture of something that was 'up' I decided I would just take a picture from the vantage point of being 'up' and looking down. Of course I used my cutie patootie again as my model.

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

and tickle those toes?

I can't handle the cuteness!

Tomorrow's theme is 'fruit'. I don't think it will be this cute.

30 weeks

2012-02-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

Time is sure flying by and I have to say I am loving it! When I was 30 weeks with Goober time seemed to drag. The days went by so slowly and it seemed like I was never going to get to meet our little guy. With this pregnancy I keep thinking "Only 10 or 11 weeks! I have so much to do, that's not enough time!" But of course I am also super anxious and excited to meet Beany. I love feeling him move and kick all day and night and occasionally he will even get the hiccups. We've been so busy that I actually forgot to go to my last OB appointment so we had to reschedule for the end of this week.

Having another child while being pregnant makes me ask myself some weird questions. I am constantly wondering if Goober even remembers what I look like without a huge belly and how he will react to having a new brother. Sometimes for a fleeting moment here or there I actually feel sad for Goober because I think he may be sad that he won't be the complete center of my world all day every day anymore. Those moments are fleeting, though, because I know he is going to love having a sibling and being a big brother.

I often wonder how I will do things, such as get two kids in and out of car seats, juggle two different sleep schedules, wash cloth diapers for two kids, etc. I know these are all things that we will just figure out on the way, but my brain has been swirling with these kind of questions for awhile now. I'm not worried about these things, just curious and anxious to figure out what our new "normal" will be.

I have to say I have also noticed a huge difference healthwise with this pregnancy since cutting most processed foods out of our diet. I just generally feel better, have more energy, and as an added bonus I haven't gotten a single lecture from my OB about watching my weight gain. :)

Only a couple of months left to go!

The Infamous 5 letter word - MOLAR

2012-02-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

We have had quite the week here as our usually happy, active, good-sleeping child has been cutting his very first molars. This comes complete with sporadic nights, loss of appetite, random fits of crying, runny-noses, drooly faces, and lots and lots of cuddling. He cut his top two molars and is now furiously working on his bottom two molars. Scott and I are very grateful he's going through this now and not after Beany gets here because it almost feels like we have a newborn again with the amount of times he has been getting up in the middle of the night.

We had a good distraction this week as my dad was in town for a business meeting and got to spend a couple days with us. He even fixed our sink problem so it doesn't make an obnoxiously loud "running water" sound every time we flush the toilet. Goober especially enjoyed spending time with his grandpa and almost seemed to forget he was cutting teeth for the majority of the visit.

Oh and if it seems like we have dropped off the blogging world for the next four months it's because we have already started working on this:

VBS!

That's right, the next four months I will be dreaming of sky-themed VBS sets and all-things VBS. Oh and somewhere in there I will be having a baby too. :)

Another post where I ramble on about life, love, and poop

2012-02-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

We have still been in a full-force, crazy, project-completing frenzy over here in our neck of the woods. Here's a little summary of what we've been up to since I have not been good about updating the ol' blog but I don't want to not blog about any of these things.

I finished the chairs. I have yet to take a formal after picture but here's the before...

and here's the only good after shot. Ignore Goober sitting there covered in marker. That kid is a stinker! You'll just have to take my word for it, the chairs are really cute and one of these days I'll get a good after picture.

We are done constructing Goober's bed. Who knew the hardest part would actually be the sanding/painting. We work on it every weekend during naptime and once it gets a couple more coats of paint and some polish it will be ready to assemble in his bedroom.
It snowed on Valentine's Day. I was too cold to go out and take a real picture so here is a picture through our kitchen window. That afternoon it was sunny and warm. Gotta love Tucson!
Right now I am in love with these...

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have never really liked brussel sprouts until I found this recipe on pinterest. They are DELICIOUS! Goober literally shoves a whole plateful down his mouth when I make them and Scott will even eat them too. I've already made them 3 times in the past couple weeks.

We've been working on our spring garden. We filled in the other half of our raised bed which required another trip for some composted horse manure. 20 bags worth of composted horse manure. I am so blessed to have a husband who puts up with all my crazy ideas since he's the one who had to shovel said horse manure since I'm pregnant and all.
Goober likes to help us garden. Usually it's not very helpful. He especially likes to throw things like concrete chunks, basketballs, and rocks into the garden beds. He really loves to help water though. Here he is watering our lemon tree. I love how he is sitting on a baseball in this picture. The kid cracks me up.

More garden updates coming soon. We should get the last of our planting done today.

It's Rodeo time here in Tucson. It's a big deal. The schools even shut down for several days because so many people attend the rodeo. Our church has started a rodeo event as well. We went to it last weekend and it was so much fun to watch Goober experience the little events they had.

I just finished reading "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin and I highly, highly recommend it. It just confirmed my desire to feed my family wholesome, real food and to stay away from highly processed foods. I learned a lot about the importance of the flora in our gut in keeping us healthy and I am hoping to continue to make positive changes to our diet to help our family be as healthy as possible. If I ever get an extra thirty minutes (I can dream right?) I will write up a book review about this book.

28 weeks

2012-02-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

28 weeks what?!?! How is that possible? When my OB told me it was time to start coming every other week I think my jaw nearly dropped. How am I already 6+ months along? This pregnancy is still going quite smoothly. I passed my blood glucose test (which I failed with Goober) although it was discovered that I'm anemic. I honestly don't know how I'm anemic considering I eat lots of red meat, brocolli, potatos, etc. but I guess when you have two pregnancies kind of close together it's a lot more common to be anemic during the second one. The only other strange thing I have is pain in my ribs. I can actually feel them popping in and out of place when I turn too quickly or lay in a weird position.

Beanie is super active and I can feel him moving, flipping, kicking, swimming around in there during most parts of the day/night. Goober loves to lift up my shirt and poke me in the belly button (or what used to be my belly button lol).

I took out all our newborn clothes from Goober and got them sorted and put away in preparation for Beanie. I can't believe we only have 12 (or 13) short weeks until we meet this little guy. We are so excited!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

May we never forget the ultimate act of love shown on our behalf! Thank you Jesus!

Another one for the Joshua Jar

2012-02-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

I got this in my email a couple days ago:

WHY WE ARE CONTACTING YOU

To inform you that the Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has determined that your student

loans listed on the back of this letter are eligible for the Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program.

A forgiveness payment in the amount of $12,533.73 has been applied to this loan(s).

This is a HUGE praise for our tiny little family. My loans have been forgiven! It was supposed to happen over a year and a half ago and maybe someday I will write a blog about the red tape and hoops they have been making me jump through the past couple years. I could go on and on about how when we made the choice for me to be a stay-at-home mommy we never imagined we would have to be paying on my loans. For a year and a half our bills have added up more each month than our income because of this unexpected burden. But we serve a big God who has provided for us miraculously in every way and for every need during that time. Thank you Jesus! I think Philipians 4:19 says it best "And God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus".

16 months

2012-02-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

Dear son,

You are 16 months old today and mommy and daddy are sitting here wondering where on earth time has gone. It seems like just yesterday you were laying in our arms a tiny little newborn. But here you are, 16 months old, and full of personality. This past month you have brought us many moments of laughter as well as many moments of panic.

You are very curious and you always want to explore everything. You get bored very easily and need constant stimulation and new experiences. You appear to have an 'engineering' kind of brain as you always have to figure out how things are working and why things do the things they do. You love to explore everything from the vaccuum to the washing machine and dryer. You want to push all the buttons, watch them in action, turn them on and off, etc. On the days that mommy does laundry you get very excited and want to check on the washing machine and dryer all day long to see what they are doing. You run into the rooms and grab clothes and laundry and try to stuff them into the machines yourself, regardless if they are clean or dirty. When we are in the backyard, you grab the water hose and take it to the different plants and pretend to water them. You open doors and turn lights on and off. You grab the broom and try to help mommy sweep and mop. We have even caught you with the toilet brush several times trying to clean the toilet.

You are a go-getter and several times this month you have given your mommy and daddy mini-heart attacks. The first time we were at Lowe's and you dove out of the shopping cart and face planted on the cement. Daddy had his hand on you the whole time and somehow you still managed to escape his grip. The Lord was surely protecting you because you didn't even have a bruise or a scrape from that incident. A couple weeks later you fell down a flight of stairs because you wanted to walk down them like all the teenagers were doing. Once again the Lord had his hand of protection on you and daddy was able to catch you on the way down the stairs. You walked away without a single scratch. Last weekend you fell again and this time you actually passed out. You scared us and all the teenagers at the camp, but a couple minutes later you were fine and running around laughing.

You have started to attend story time at the library every week and that is always an adventure. You always make smiley faces at the girls and pretend to be shy around all the adults. Then when the story starts you roam the room and try to climb all the furniture and open all the doors. You even managed to teach some of the other little boys how to climb furniture. I'm sure their parents are very grateful for that. ;)

You are talking up a storm. You say 'dis' and 'dat' when you point at things, you say "all done", and you have even been known to say other things such as 'ball', 'hot', and 'juice' although not very consistently. You always surprise us everyday with a new word. You are also very polite and sign please and thank you without prompting on most occasions. :)

As mommy's belly is getting bigger you are getting more and more curious. We checked out books from the library on babies and when asked where your baby brother is you often run over and rub mommy's tummy. Sometimes throughout the day you come over and put your head on mommy's tummy too. It's very cute!

You are such a joyful bundle of sweet baby boy who gives big slobbery kisses and the world's very best hugs. You are a lovable, squeezable, squeaky boy who we love more and more everyday. Happy 16 months little man!

Lots of love and hugs and kisses,

Daddy and Mommy

Look what I found!

2012-02-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Wonderfully nutritious free-range eggs! We found a lady nearby who lives on a lot of land and raises chickens to provide healthful eggs for her family. She has over-achieving chickens, however, and they can't eat all the eggs her chickens are producing so she started selling the extras. She gave Goober and I a tour of her chicken house and they have lots of room to roam around and eat bugs and do what chickens generally do. She had a name for each of her chickens and you could tell they were her pets.

I read once that as a wife/homemaker/mother it is not just my job to feed my family, but to nourish my family. I take that job very seriously and you just can't ignore the health benefits of free-range eggs:

Studies have shown they have 4 to 6 times more vitamin D as well as

"1⁄3 less cholesterol• 1⁄4 less saturated fat• 2⁄3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene " than store-bought eggs.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx#ixzz1lGiY3PCa

Of course I am not a crazy egg lady who shuns all store-bought eggs. I will feed them to my family when necessary, but for now I am very happy with our new little discovery.

It's the little moments...

2012-01-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Where's Goober?

There he is!

My first attempt at a rotisserie chicken

2012-01-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

About 6 months ago, Scott and I ordered a bunch of organic, grass-fed beef/free-range chicken. It was supposed to be enough to last 3 months and we were able to make it last 6 months. In that order I bravely signed up for a small rotisserie chicken. I'm still scarred from the turkey cooking incident of 2009, but I knew that a rotisserie chicken could go a long way and I could use the bones to make healthy broth. Well we went through our whole meat supply until we were down to that darn chicken. Every once in awhile I would open the freezer and stare it down. It would look at me and say "cook me" but I could never bring myself to do it. Until this week when I found a crock-pot recipe that didn't involve me sticking my hands all up inside that sucker. I present to you, my first whole chicken:

It turned out very yummy and I have overcome my fear of cooking whole animals. So without further ado here is the recipe modified from this blog:

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken (3 1/2 – 4 1/2 pounds)
1 onion, chopped
3-4 small potatoes
a couple peeled carrots, chopped
1 lemon cut into fourths
3-4 TB butter
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
salt
freshly ground pepper

Place onions, potatoes, and carrots in the bottom of the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.

Clean and dry chicken. Place lemon inside chicken. Place chicken on top of vegetables.

In a small bowl, combine butter, garlic, rosemary, thyme.

Cover the chicken with the butter mixture and then season with salt and pepper.

Cook chicken on LOW until an internal temperature reaches 160 degrees and the juices run clear (about 4-6 hours).

When cooked, brown the chicken under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes or until the skin is brown and crispy.

Eat and Enjoy!

I even used fresh peas from our garden and everyone loved it!

We're back!

2012-01-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we traveled to Overgaard, Arizona with a group of middle schoolers for winter camp. We stayed in a fun little cabin and did all kinds of fun and crazy things, including several sessions that focused on the theme "God does..."

Goober had a blast with all the 24 hour attention that he received and seems to be a little disappointed now that we're home that he only has mommy and daddy's undivided attention. I'm always uncertain taking him on trips like these because it is so much work and I often wonder if he is too much of a distraction. However, I also feel it's important for us to be together as a family as much as possible. I was feeling pretty good about our decision about coming on this trip until Goober took a major tumble down the stairs. Scott was with him when he started to fall and literally threw himself down the staircase to try and catch Goober. One of the youth leaders saw the whole thing and she said she saw Goober do a whole 360 down the stairs hitting his head and his neck and she was sure that the outcome was not going to be good. When we all heard the thumping I ran over to the staircase and Scott was completely upside down holding Goober up in the air unscathed. The youth leader who saw it all said God had to have performed a miracle because there was no way with what she saw that Goober couldn't have been injured in any way. Scott is another story. He's very sore and bruised. His quick thinking however probably saved us from a scary trip to the ER.

Overall it was a great camp. The youth were so much fun to hang out with and we had some neat moments of worship and bonding. We leave again for highschool winter camp in a couple weeks and I know that will be another special time.

And because it just feels weird writing a post with no pictures, here's one of Goober when we got back. I think it's safe to say that he may be spending a little too much time around teenagers lol.

24 weeks

2012-01-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

We are officially 24 weeks pregnant today. Woohoo! Only around 16 more weeks to go. I absolutely cannot wait to snuggle this little boy in my arms and smother him with kisses and I really can't wait to see Goober become a big brother. This pregnancy has been going very smoothly. I have the occasional contraction but nothing at all like what I had with Goober. I also have not experienced the ridiculous heartburn yet. Beanie is getting stronger and is becoming more and more active. I am able to notice his movements from the outside of my belly although Scott hasn't really been able to notice yet. I am also nesting like a crazy pregnant lady.

In other news, our neighbor's mom is a Bradley birth method instructor and a Christian (have I mentioned before that our neighbors used to be youth pastors). I met her on the way to the mailbox one day and I really felt like she was an answer to prayer. Because of my intense desire to have a natural birth this time around, I am doing everything I can to increase my chances of avoiding another cesarean section. One major thing is not receiving an epidural during labor. This is something that the more I research, the more determined I am to do. I strongly believe the epidural played a large part in the stalling of labor with Goober and in his head coming down at an angle since I was unable to move positions or let gravity help things along. On the other hand, I remember the intense, painful contractions and the pressure put on me to get an epidural with Goober. The thought of going through labor without a pain relief option is scary to me and it's something I pray about frequently. Enter the Bradley method.

The Bradley method is a method of giving birth naturally. The classes teach you techniques and things to do to manage the pain. The classes also teach your spouse how to help you and encourage you along the way. This is what I need. I need someone who can encourage me and help me not to back down and change my mind mid-contraction because I know that I will be tempted to do that and I know Scott would just go along with whatever I am saying at the minute. Unfortunately the classes are very expensive and we would not be able to afford that and a baby-sitter for Goober for the 12 classes.

My neighbor's mom, however, approached me today to see if Scott and I would be willing to host a class at our house. She would give us a discount on the class and Goober would get to stay and just hang around and do his thing during that time. I am praying that this works out because it would be a definite blessing!

Only 3.5 months until we get to meet our little Beanie. It's flying by.

Hair today, Gone tomorrow

2012-01-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

(I couldn't resist the cheesy pun)

Yesterday I bought clippers in an attempt to save our family lots of money on hair cuts. Goober's hair was in his eyes and it was painfully evident that he needed another haircut.

So I went out and bought some clippers, read the directions and began clipping away. The plan was I would practice on Goober and then clip Scott's hair next once I was an experienced pro. However, a case of pregnancy brain hit me and I got confused with the numbers on the blades and I accidentally started with the longest blade on the bottom and got shorter as it went to the top. This produced the hilarious effect of a mullet on my sweet little one-year old. To make it worse, by the time I was done perfecting the mullet and stood back to realize I had just given him a mullet, he was done. His sitting time was up and he would not let me do anything else to his head. Scott then informed me he would be going to Great Clips to get his hair cut today.

At least little Goober is still young and does not yet get embarrassed by things such as bad haircuts. Here's to hoping next time I can give him a hair cut more appropriate to this generation. :)

Our Joshua Jar

2012-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

I got this idea from a friend several years ago and it took us this long to implement it. I think it's going to be a long-standing tradition in our household and will hopefully be a constant reminder to our children about God's provision in our life. This is our Joshua Jar. It goes along with Joshua chapter 4 in the Bible where the Lord instructed Joshua to build a memorial with 12 stones to remember how the Lord had provided a miracle to help the Isrealites cross the Jordan river. This jar is our twelve stones, our memorial of what God has done in our life. We started it at the beginning of January and all year long we will write down on slips of paper the ways God has provided for us and miracles he has done in our lives. The slips go in the jar until December 31st, new years eve. On that day we will gather together as a family and look at all the ways God has provided for us that year. I am hoping that as the boys get older and learn to write that they will start adding their own slips of paper to the Joshua jar. I haven't decided what to do with the slips at the end of each year, perhaps put them in a photo album or maybe even create a blog post with all of the provisions for that year so that we can always remember. This is one way we are trying to be intentional as parents to build an 'attitude of gratitude' in our children and to instill in them an awareness of God's mighty hand at work in our lives everyday.

Nesting (aka marking off the honey-do list) part 2

2012-01-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

After we got our chairs for free (which are still waiting for me to sand/paint), I realized that opened up some of the money I had saved up to replace our entertainment center. The one we had originally was a cheap-o piece from Target that was just entirely too accessible to our explorative toddler. We dreamed of having something with actual drawers that we could baby-proof. After lots of searching I couldn't find anything I really liked. I knew that if I could design my own media-center it would look like an old-leggy dresser with lots of curves. I started searching Craigslist for dressers that matched my idea in my head and after about a year of searching I finally found one that was old enough, curvy enough, cute enough, and cheap enough for my liking. The bonus: It was a whole twin bedroom set. I already have plans underway to repurpose the second smaller dresser/hutch that came with hutch and I'm going to resell the adorable 4 poster twin size bedframe. I got the whole caboodle for $100 and will hopefully make $50 back on it.

Just for fun, here's what our old media center looked like:

And here's our new dresser turned media center.

We love all the extra toddler-proof storage it provides for us. To turn it into a media center we took out the middle drawer and all the hardware that attached it. Then we framed and built a box inside that area. We painted it white and punched some holes in the back.

On top of the new media center we found a killer deal for a piano on Craigslist. Goober has really started to show a lot of interest in music, especially pianos. We wanted one that he could take lessons on and just bang around on to hopefully continue this interest of his. Well, we found the perfect one on Craigslist for $50. The reason it was so cheap is that a dog chewed up the piano bench and one of the legs. That's nothing that we can't putty and then sand down and restain.

Oh and I sewed new black-out curtains for the boys' room.

We are still super busy with more projects underhand.

We still need to work on the chairs and I also have some other curtain projects I am slowly sewing during naptimes. We rearranged the whole nursery and have plans to build Goober a twin size storage bed that I am super excited about. Of course we will blog all about it!

Well, gotta go, have some more organizing/cleaning to do. I just can't stop. Seriously.

Nesting (aka marking off the honey-do list) part 1

2012-01-10T10:11:00.000-08:00

Wow have we been busy. We hit the ground running with some projects we wanted to accomplish, and I have to say, we've done a pretty darn good job.

The first project we decided to tackle was to saw down our bar-height table. We loved our bar-height table when we were newly weds. It was the first real piece of furniture we bought (aka no plywood and not from Ikea). We felt sophisticated when we would sit at the seats and our feet didn't even touch the floor. Then we had Goober. Then Goober learned to climb. Then we realized what a disaster bar-height tables are for family's with small kids. I searched for a new table on Craigslist for what felt like a small lifetime, but we couldn't find anything that we really wanted in our budget. That's when Scott came up with the idea of just cutting the table down to regular size. All he had to mention was power saw and I was all in.

Of course Goober helped.

First try of cutting down the legs and re-attaching them to the table and it was perfectly level with no wobbles. We couldn't believe our luck. I had visions of us having to sit on the floor because we kept sanding down the table legs trying to get it even until there was no longer room for chairs. Score!

However, this project led us to our next project. We could no longer used our bar-height chairs, and we decided cutting them down was going to look ridiculous because of the placement of the crossbeams and the fact that they are wider then standard height chairs. I knew that I really wanted a bench for our table so we could squeeze lots of kids at it but benches are super pricey. That's when I found a plan on ana-white.com for building your own bench....so that's what we did.

It was a super fun husband/wife project that was mostly completed while Goober was sleeping. My perfect idea of a date night. And the crazy thing is this bench came out super sturdy and not wobbly at all. The wood only cost us around $15 so we won't really care if it gets scratched up or beaten as our boys get older.

We painted it farmhouse red and I am in LOVE. Oh and this picture was taken 12 seconds before Goober came running over covered in dirt and climbed on the wet bench. He was covered in paint and my bench was covered in dirt. Why was he covered in dirt you may ask?

Because we also planted a tree (I told you we've been busy) and he had to be right in the middle of it- literally. But I digress.

The bench solved one problem but we still needed chairs. After Craigslist stalking the furniture section for weeks as well as garage sales and thrift stores I realized there wasn't anything out there that was what I had pictured in my head. So I went to Facebook and asked if anyone knew of a good place to get cheap old solid-wood chairs. That's when a lady from our church said she had some we could have for free and when I saw the picture I nearly died. They were exactly what I was looking for. I don't have pictures yet because I still have to sand them down and paint them. But an update will hopefully be coming soon for those.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I tell you about how my free chairs freed up the budget to add some more major furniture pieces to our humble little home. I promise more power tools and demolition were involved with these projects as well. :)

15 months

2012-01-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

This was the best picture we could get. Scott did his hair.

Dear Son,

You are 15 months old and boy are you busy. When you wake up in the morning you start bouncing in your crib waiting for me to come and get you. When I get you, you immediately want down and want to start playing with your toys. You are starting to play with your toys more appropriately and you will move cars along the floor making noises like car noises and you will put your farm animals in the farm where the animals belong. You love shape sorting toys although you get very frustrated if you can't get the toy in the right hole.

You just celebrated your second Christmas and your second New Years. You were a lot of fun this year because you really enjoyed your gifts and you loved pointing out baby Jesus to me in one of your story books. You also loved getting to be with people. You are such a ham and always show off for people. You love dancing for people and you clap your hands and twirl around and bounce up and down whenever you hear music. It doesn't matter if it's the radio, the TV, a commercial, or a toy - if you hear music you start moving. It is really hilarious but every time we try to get it on video you stop.

You have started mimicking things people say. Over Christmas you started laughing hilarious whenever one of your great aunts sneezed. Then you mimicked her and said 'achoo' several times. You have also copied daddy when he calls you 'bubba', and you say 'buh' for banana, 'ssss' for snacks, and 'bub' for bubbles. You also mimic what mommy and daddy do. When daddy was hammering on the closet door trying to fix it, you got out your toy hammer and stood there hammering away too. You also have learned how to feed yourself with a fork and a spoon by watching mommy and daddy eat. You are still very messy but you try very hard and enjoy being independent.

This past week you have begun a new 'mommy separation anxiety' phase. I cannot even go to the restroom without you screaming and banging on the door. This morning daddy got up with you instead of mommy and you immediately started crying and running all over the house looking for me. Then when I got in the shower, you broke into the bathroom and tried climbing into the shower with me. Daddy and I are hoping this is a short-lived phase. :)

You love to eat and so far you eat all your fruits and vegetables and you don't really turn anything down. You also feel entitled to eat whatever mommy and daddy are eating and get very upset if we don't share with you. You start signing 'please' dramatically and grunting like a little monkey. You also do this if you know there are sweets anywhere in the house. We have to hide all the cookies/candy because if you know about it, it's all you will ask for all day long.

You are getting so big and everyday you look more and more like a little boy. You give the very best hugs and have even started giving kisses, but those are rare. You blow kisses to everyone, wave at your reflection in the window, and start laughing hysterically at some of the most random things. You bring us incredible joy and we are so blessed to be your parents.

Happy 15 months baby boy, we love you bunches and bunches.

Much love and hugs and kisses,

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas

2012-01-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011 was very special. We got to see a friend from Alaska and her two boys.

We got to attend a Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. Goober wore an adorable outfit given to him by Grandma Nichols and he really enjoyed playing in the nursery with probably 20 other toddlers. We were worried he would cry and not want to stay, but in reality we had a hard time leaving as he kept trying to go back!

We drove to Hobbs, NM and Goober got to play in the snow and see a bunch of extended family.

After that short visit we returned to Tularosa and found a great park that I'm sure we will be visiting frequently whenever we are in town.

It was a wonderful Christmas. The only thing that would have made it better would be to get to see our Oregon family too.

Oh, and I almost forgot...Goober really enjoyed opening his presents!

The Nichols Family Christmas Story

2012-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

This past Christmas was nothing short of eventful for us. The plan was to wake up on the 23rd and drive the short 6 hour drive to Tularosa, NM to spend Christmas with my family. That morning we woke up and it was a beautiful day. We hit the road around 9 am and were enjoying the beautiful ride when we started to notice big signs along the highway saying things like "I-10 closed at border, seek accommodations". We had a hard time believing that the weather was so bad because there was not a cloud in sight as far as we could see. We decided it was probably an old sign or that certainly it would be all cleared up by the time we got there.

A couple hours went by and as we got closer to the border we noticed a remarkable change in the weather. It was cloudy and snowing, but there was still nothing sticking to the street. It was actually very beautiful and peaceful. When we got to Lordsburg, NM it became quite clear that the highway was indeed closed at that point. Semis lined the on-ramps for miles as all the cars on the highway were exiting into this tiny little town.

At this point we were still certain that the weather would clear up and the highway would open so we pulled over to Mcdonalds and had lunch. We had to eat in our car because there was standing room only in the restaurant. Goober climbed around the back of the car while we ate our cheeseburgers and waited. We waited and waited. Then we waited some more. We finally decided that maybe this wasn't going to end anytime soon. It was around 2 pm at this point and we decided to find a hotel room for the night before they were all booked. Unfortunately, they were all booked. Every door had a sign "No Vacancies". That's when my dad called. He had gotten word from the state police that the highway would be opening in the next hour. We decided to join the long line of cars waiting to get back on the highway. Poor Goober at this point was sick of his car seat. He wanted to run and play but was stuck in the back of the car. This was our view as we waited.

Finally the highway opened and an hour later we were able to merge onto the very crowded highway and continue on our trip.

We arrived in Las Cruces around 6. We were tired, hungry, cranky, and sick of the car. Goober who is used to running around 99% of his day had hardly had a chance to move so we ended up eating dinner at Peter Piper Pizza while he ran in circles all over the place with an energy that I only wish he would share.

At this point we found out that the pass to Alamogordo was closed and our only other option was to drive around through El Paso adding an extra 2 hours on to our trip. Driving just wasn't an option with a cranky one year old who to this day still screams when we buckle him back into his car seat. We decided to look for a hotel. Once again all the hotels were booked. We were starting to feel like Mary and Joseph. I was ready to see if anyone had a stable we could sleep in. One hotel manager, however, noticed my pregnant belly as I came into the lobby to look for a room. He had just told the person before me they were all booked. "You are going to have a baby!" he exclaimed. I laughed in my head because I'm pretty sure he thought I was going into labor or something. He ran in the back and I heard him telling someone "There's a lady here looking for a room, she's pregnant!" Next thing I know they are offering us the very last room they had available. It was actually on hold for someone else but they gave it to us (I think the other people didn't show up). On top of that they gave us a discount. A couple minutes later more people showed up looking for rooms and the hotel clerk told them that all the hotels in the area were booked and they would have to drive to Texas to find something.

Scott took this photo to commemorate the moment. It felt so good to be in a nice warm room and out of the car. Goober really enjoyed sleeping on the king-size bed with us and as he and Beanie kicked me all night long all I could think of was how grateful I was. I'm glad our Christmas story turned out differently from Joseph and Mary's (especially because I am no where near ready to give birth and, well, I am not carrying the Messiah). Nontheless God provided for us our own little Christmas miracle as we got the last room in all of Las Cruces on that snowy, blustery night.

Thank you Jesus!

Half-way There!

2011-12-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

Don't mind Goober picking his nose...that's a typical sight around here these days. Once he discovered his finger fit up there he's never gone back.

I can absolutely not believe that we are already halfway through this pregnancy. People told me it goes faster the second time but I had no idea it would fly like this. It also helps that I'm not having all the complications I had with Goober. By 20 weeks with Goober I had already passed a kidney stone, started having 24/7 contractions, and been put on bed rest. I am enjoying feeling beanie squirm around and kick. It is such an incredible, incredible experience.

Scott and I are really struggling trying to pick a name. To us, the meaning of the name is just as important as the name itself, which adds a whole new dimension to name picking. A lot of the meanings we like, the name is weird. A lot of the names we like, the meaning is awful! I just keep praying that God will make it clear to us what to name this precious little guy.

I'm still doing my research and weighing my options as far as birth goes. I feel way more prepared this time and way more terrified if that makes any sense. My doctors office has agreed to give me to 41 weeks to go into labor naturally before a repeat cesarean section which is a step up from the previous 40 week deadline. I am pretty sure I can drag it out even longer if I 'schedule' my repeat c-section for somewhere mid 41 weeks or 42 weeks. Apparently I have to schedule a c-section and just pray that I have the baby before that date arrives. My doctors are very supportive of a VBAC, though, which is very encouraging. They have performed hundreds of VBACS and actually opened their practice because they all agree to the benefits of a VBAC over a repeat cesarean.

Scott is now officially on vacation and is checking things off the good ol' to-do list. And when I say to-do list I mean the list we wrote of things that needed to be done before Goober was born. We (or should I say he) got a lot done yesterday and our flooring is 99% finished, we just have to find someone who will let us borrow a hammering drill so we can finish the final last part of our flooring. That will be such a huge relief. Today Scott is working on a new project and you will want to stay tuned because this one is a doozy. Let's just say it involves a circular saw, a compound miter saw, and lots of precise measurements.

Well, Goober is dramatically signing to me that he is hungry so I better get going.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I can't handle the cuteness!

2011-12-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

It's official, my baby is now a boy. A really cute boy. A really cute boy who giggles when you put on his shoes because it tickles his feet. A really cute boy who just cut his 8th tooth. A really cute boy who blows kisses to you when he knows you are leaving to go somewhere. A really cute boy who has his mommy and daddy wrapped around his chubby little boy fingers. A really cute boy who has learned how to open doors and opens them on you when you are in the restroom and then laughs at you...ok maybe that part isn't so cute. ;)

The Inner Workings of My Brain

2011-12-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

I really want to find a local farmer that would sell us fresh eggs so that I can stop buying them from the store. I've been doing lots of research on eggs and the amazing health benefits of eggs that are from chickens who are allowed to actually eat bugs and roam the land. I know there's got to be people out here that raise chickens, I've just got to find them!
For the first time in my life, I actually got a doctor's order that makes me happy inside. I have to drink a cup of caffeinated coffee a day. Apparently the daily migraines I get are hormonal and all I need is a bit of caffeine to dilate my capillaries (or something like that). Anyways, after 4 months without my beloved cup of joe, I am back to my morning ritual and couldn't be happier. Not to mention I have been headache free since this morning. Woohoo!
Goober has been picking up trash off the floor and then signing 'please' for me to open the garbage can for him so that he can throw it away. I feel like I've hit the jackpot. A toddler who cleans up trash off the floor. What more could a pregnant momma ask for?
Yesterday I did laundry and every single sock had a match. This is a first. I felt like I was in the twilight zone or something.
I'm making homemade lasagna, roasted cauliflower and foccacia bread for dinner tonight. (Don't tell Scott about the cauliflower)
Goober is the cutest baby boy that has ever existed. I kiss his cheeks a thousand times a day and force him to hug me two thousand times a day. I think he will be happy when Beanie is here because then he will get to actually play with his toys for longer than 5 minutes before I come swooping in telling him how cute he is and how much I love him. Or not, I'm a good multi-tasker, soon I'll have two babies to love on all day long.
I wish gifts were not an integral part of Christmas. I wish it was more about being with family, celebrating Jesus, and fellowship.
I should be folding laundry right now.
I should be cleaning the kitchen right now.
I should be taking a nap right now.
I think my husband is cute.

Tales from the Classroom #7 - Christmas Edition

2011-12-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

Every year in my classroom around December the same scenario would play out. Every. Single. Year.

[Enter student who comes barging into my classroom in tears.]

Student: (sobbing) Ms. Sarah, Bobby just told me on the playground that Santa isn't real. (sob, sob) He is, isn't he? (looking at me with a look of complete desperation)

Me: Ummm, What do you think?

Student: I think he's real! But Bobby says he's not. What do you think?

Me: Well, I believe in a lot of things about Christmas.

Student: I knew it! Thank you so much Ms. Sarah! (big slobbery, blubbery hug)

[student leaves classroom faith restored that he will, in fact, be receiving gifts under the tree that year]

The first year this happened I was completely caught off-guard because we had never done the Santa thing growing up. Regardless, however, I never felt it was my place to "ruin" the surprise for the kids. However, my first year of teaching, in a moment where I had lost all control of my classroom and didn't know what to do, I do admit to calling Santa Claus up at the North pole and giving him the first and last names of all my students and putting him on stand-by that they may need to be put on the bad list. I'm so glad I learned other 'classroom management' strategies because although it definitely worked that one time, I felt so guilty for doing that. Another year after what seemed like 100 repeats of the above conversation I finally 'banned' the word "Santa Claus" or any derivative from being used in my classroom. Ah the time of year for peace and joy. :)

We are Thrilled to Announce...

2011-12-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Goober is going to be getting a baby BROTHER!

Scott called it and now has claimed bragging rights to being the only person who guessed it would be a boy. Even I thought it was probably going to be a girl, but I am thrilled to find out we are having another boy. Goober is going to love having someone to rough-house with and it's definitely nice that we already have lots of baby boy clothes. The tech said beanie was moving around in there and she had a hard time getting pictures because he was so squirmy. I have finally started feeling him move (4 am this morning he decided to let me know he has some good strong kicking legs ).

Ah, we are in baby bliss right now. Is it crazy that I want to run to the store and buy a stocking to hang for our unborn child? We just love this little guy so much already, our hearts are overflowing. Thank you Jesus for this precious, precious gift!

14 months

2011-12-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

Dear son,

You are 14 months old! It's hard to believe. This has been a busy month for you. You went to Grandma and Grandpa Shaw's house in Tularosa, New Mexico for Thanksgiving and got to pet a horse and a goat. You loved the horse and you loved being outside in a big open pasture where you could run around. You got into all of Grandma and Grandpa's cabinets and drawers and rearranged many things for them. They are probably still wondering where some of their stuff is.

You are a busy-body and are always moving around and playing with something. Right now you love to throw all your toys over the baby gate into the kitty-cat area. Then you try to get us to get them out for you. The second we get them out you throw them back over the gate and start laughing. You are a stinker.

You are a good sleeper and love to eat although you get distracted really easily and sometimes it takes you a looooong time to finish your meals. You consistently sign milk, more, and please. You point at things you want and then sign please and mommy's heart just melts. You will also occasionally blow kisses.

When music is playing you will sometimes start dancing now. Your dancing is quite hilarious. You bob your bottom up and down and wave your arms around. Mommy took you to youth group one night and we had to leave early because you stood up on a chair and started dancing and none of the youth were listening to daddy because they were all laughing at you. You are a ham and love it when everyone is giving you attention.

In the nursery at church you always have fun. Last Sunday there was a six-month old baby in the nursery and you brought him a toy and showed him how to bang on it with another toy. Then you gave him the toy and when he started banging on it you clapped for him.

You are starting to mimic everything mommy and daddy do. You saw daddy cleaning the cat litter once and so all week long you kept getting the kitty scoop and pretending to clean the kitty litter. At dinner you mimic the way we eat with a fork and a spoon and even the way we wipe our mouth with a napkin. When you see us throw stuff away in the trash can you want to go get things and throw it in the trash can too. You are always amazing us with what you are learning.

You are a cheerful, joyful, little boy who always has a smile on his face. From the second you wake up in the morning to when we lay you down in your crib at night you are always babbling and happy.

We love you so much baby boy. You are our shining, smiley, gift from God and we are so blessed to get to be your parents. Happy 14 months!

Much love and hugs and kisses,

Daddy and Mommy

The Art of Eating an Ice Cream Cone

2011-12-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

First, and most importantly...don't ever, ever, ever let anyone touch your ice cream cone.

2nd - dig your finger in and swoosh it around until you get a good amount.

3rd - Stuff your finger into your mouth as fast as you can to maintain the maximum ice cream amount.

4th - Don't worry if it get's all over you. It just makes you sweeter than you already are!

Make Your Own Taco Seasoning

2011-12-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Ever since I discovered how easy it is to make my own taco seasoning I haven't had to buy those packets at the store. I was never wild about all the additives/chemicals/preservatives that were in those packets anyways. This would be a fun Christmas present to make and put in little jars and give as gifts. Oh and it's delicious! Recipe modified from here.

Taco Seasoning

(makes enough to season one lb of ground beef)

1 TB chili powder (more if you like really spicy, less if you don't like spicy)

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp sea salt (not table salt)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp crushed red paper flakes (more if you like really spicy)

After beef is browned throw in spices with 2/3 cup of water. Stir and simmer until well incorporated.

Caught Red-handed

2011-12-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Someone figured out how to get by the baby gate and proceeded to spoon kitty-cat food into the kitty-cat water. P.S. It wasn't the kitties.

17 weeks

2011-12-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

I popped! It was actually quite funny, I was in New Mexico for Thanksgiving and one day my jeans fit me and the next morning I could barely get them to button, then I regretted buttoning them because my belly was sore the rest of the day. I'm still anxiously awaiting those first kicks. I occasionally feel something that may be the baby but nothing that I can definitively say is for sure the baby. I'm trying not to be a worry wart, but it sure would be nice to feel little beanie (that's what we named him/her since "it" seems so impersonal lol) moving around in there. The only strange thing about this pregnancy so far are the daily headaches/migraines that I get. I can pretty much count on having one at least 5 days out of every week. Tylenol doesn't touch them. It's so strange, they always start on the right side of my neck and creep up into my right temple and behind my eye. In other news, Goober sat on my belly this morning. I told him he was sitting on his little brother or sister and he started laughing. Let the sibling games begin. :)

Tales from the Classroom #6

2011-11-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

Last week I told you about a parent I had who took a bomb threat that was written in crayon and severely misspelled very seriously.This week I tell you about his son.

Arnold was not one with much of a sense of humor. I really can't remember anytime that I have seen Arnold smile much less laugh. When jokes were told in class he usually didn't get them and he took everything very literally. Arnold also had some peculiar behaviors that caused him to be a bit socially awkward and kind of a loner. For example, oftentimes he would start clucking like a chicken around the classroom. The advantage for him in being in a self-contained classroom, is that most of his classmates had been with him for years and thus no longer noticed these kinds of behaviors. Eventually I learned to ignore them as well. Until one day when we got a new student. That afternoon when Arnold started clucking around the classroom the new student very loudly exclaimed "What were you raised in a barn?" The whole class went quiet and looked up at Arnold. "Yes" he replied very solemnly. "And let me guess," the boy continued in a very sarcastic tone, "You were raised by chickens?" All of a sudden Arnold became very outraged and with a burst of emotion I have never seen before he stood up and yelled "NO WAY!" I kind of breathed a sigh of relief until Arnold continued, "Everyone knows chickens aren't good for much, I was raised by the cows". And with that he clucked once around the classroom and right out the door. The aide in my classroom and I looked at each other, and as she went out the door to retrieve my clucking student we both came to the realization that he is either a genius prankster or one time some one told him he must have been raised in a barn. I guess we will never know. ;)

The life cycle of a raisin

2011-11-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

***disclaimer: if you have a weak stomach or are easily grossed out, you may want to skip this blog entry. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Goober has recently discovered he loves raisins. If he sees a raisin or even the raisin box, it is all he will ask for for the rest of the day. Yesterday morning he had just woken up and was getting all his toys out for the day. I was checking my email. Sporadically he would come over to me, reach in his mouth, take out a raisin, and hand it to me. I was baffled where he was getting these raisins. They were very moist and plump and after about 5 minutes I had several in my hand that he kept handing to me. I figured he must have hidden some the day before and was just now finding them and sucking on them for awhile before generously sharing with me. That was until I smelled it. The undeniable smell of a very dirty diaper. "Time to go change that diaper!" I told him. As he turned to head to his room I noticed that every couple of steps a raisin was falling out of his pant leg. He would bend over and pick it up and put it in his mouth. I was completely baffled as to how raisins were falling out of his pant legs until I took off his pants. Yep, they were falling from the side of his diaper, down his pant leg, onto the floor, into his mouth, then into my hand.

Ah, the joys of motherhood. I think we'll be cutting back on raisin consumption in this household. That's all.

Our Thanksgiving {in pictures}

2011-11-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

A trip to the zoo with our little monkey

2011-11-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

When Scott told me last week that the zoo was free for the day it was like he was speaking my love language. We threw Goober in the car (gently of course) and made a mad dash across town to see the city zoo. We were so excited because Goober is now at that age where he notices everything and we knew he would love it.

He did.

A little too much. Aside from keeping him from climbing inside all the exhibits, it appeared the tigers were his favorite.

So thankful for free zoo days, family time, and our rambunctious 13-month-old-blessing!

Tales from the Classroom #5

2011-11-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

I once had a student write a bomb threat, in crayon, on the slide at recess time. It looked something like this:

"A domd wil eksplod tumaro." translation for you non-teacher types: A bomb will explode tomorrow.

Not only did he misspell every word but 'A', he also reversed his bs and ds. Not my proudest moment as a teacher. However, he did remember a period. I guess I did teach him something.

Well per law the school, upon discovery of this 'bomb threat', had to call the police and an investigation ensued. It was pretty obvious that it was my student because his handwriting closely resembled chicken scratch - literally. He had to give the police a writing sample. Wouldn't you know that he deliberately disquised his handwriting on the sample and wrote the whole thing in block letters. Not obvious at all (insert sarcasm). Well the police couldn't for sure identify him as the culprit so they made the school send home a letter to all the parents warning them of this 'bomb' which was going to 'eksplod' tomorrow.

The next day a couple of parents chose to keep their kids home from school just in case. All of my students showed up (of course) until about 9:30 or 10:00 when a parent came storming into my room visibly shaken. His whole body was trembling and he quickly grabbed his son and started stuffing stuff into his backpack while exclaiming "NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THE BOMB THREAT!"

"Sir", I interrupted, "if it makes you feel any better, it was written in crayon on the slide, every word was misspelled, the kid didn't couldn't even get his bs and ds straight, and no one really knows how long it had even been there." "NO THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER, BYE!"

Stay tuned next week for "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" aka a story about this man's son.

15 weeks

2011-11-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

Ok so the sweater I'm wearing may make me look a tad more pregnant than I really look, but I definitely feel like I am going to "pop" a little sooner this time. Goober just had to be in the picture too. Everything is going well so far. We heard the precious little heartbeat today beating away at 144 bpm. You could also hear the baby kicking the dopler and moving around in there. It looks like we may have another active one! December 13 we find out if we are having a boy or a girl if he or she decides to cooperate. This pregnancy is flying by. I'm feeling good, still wearing my regular clothes but definitely ready for a baby belly. Also eagerly awaiting those first little baby kicks. So very blessed and thankful for this precious gift!

Goober knows fire alarms

2011-11-14T11:34:00.000-08:00

We had no idea we caught this on video camera until yesterday when we uploaded all our videos. We think it's pretty hilarious. Scott often just starts filming Goober for no reason at all. During this particular video I was cooking dinner and realized I was going to set off the fire alarm. You can see from Goober's reaction that this is not a rare occurance in our household.

He shoots, he scores!

2011-11-13T20:55:00.001-08:00

A Little Funny

2011-11-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight after his evening bath I wrapped Goober up in his towel and set him down so I could get his diaper ready. In a flash he threw off the towel and then went streaking through the house. In the couple of seconds it took me to catch up with him I couldn't find him anywhere. "Goober, where are you?" I called out. I heard a giggle coming from the laundry room. The stinker had crawled into the dryer and snuggled underneath the warm clothes hiding from me. He thought it was pretty hilarious.

Tales from the Classroom #4

2011-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

The Art of Being Evaluated Part 2

(for part 1 go here)

My third year:

My third year of teaching was quite hilarious. I had a very supportive principal who understood the unique challenges presented to me in my classroom. Most of my students had such significant behavior problems that academics was not even a requirement, it was more like survival. The principal gave me plenty of warning before my evaluation and I wanted to make a good impression. I sat down with my students and we had lots of talks/reminders about how to sit and how to raise our hands. On the day of the evaluation I had decided to do a math lesson since the students seemed to enjoy that part of the day the best. They loved when I brought out the overhead projector and let them come up to the front and write answers on the transparency. Most of them had never had a teacher who attempted to teach math to them in this manner and they felt very special.

When the principal walked into the classroom every student was engaged and working hard (which was truly a miracle). He looked pleasantly surprised and took a seat off to the side. The peacefulness lasted all of three seconds when I called up a student to the overhead. Another student became upset that I didn't call on him and proceeded to start screaming obscenities and then knocked his desk over before starting to crawl around the classroom barking like a dog. Like domino work he proceeded to set off another one of my students who was very sensitive to loud noises. She stood up and screamed a blood curdling scream before lunging at one of my aids who skillfully sidestepped her before she (my student not my aid lol) threw herself on the ground and started rocking back and forth while crying/screaming. This was all enough of a distraction that no one noticed another one of my students, apparently upset that math time was over before he got his turn on the overhead, giving the overhead projector a huge shove. The projector goes rolling across the room straight for my principal. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Looking over and seeing my principal staring at the chaos, completely unaware that a huge overhead cart was zooming towards him at surprisingly fast speed. Fortunately he noticed it in the nick of time and was able to deflect it with his foot as it went crashing to the side. I was mortified. My principal then stood up, brushed himself off, and said "My admiration is with all of you ladies." before gathering his stuff and quickly scurrying out of the room. That was my only evaluation that year. Somehow I passed with flying colors (or should I say flying overhead projectors). Anyways not many people can make the claim that evaluating their classroom is an occupational hazard.

The fourth year:

My fourth year I was in a new school with a new class and a new principal. By this point in my teaching career I kind of felt like evaluations were a big joke. When I switched districts on two different occasions, the new hiring districts never even asked to see my previous evaluations. I wasn't quite sure the purpose of them except for self-improvement and school-level accountability. Still, this was a new school and new principal so I wanted to be sure and do a very good job. I was excited because I was working in more of a small group environment and didn't have the behavior problems I was used to dealing with. I planned and prepared a really great math lesson. The small group was from 12:30 - 1:00. I got the students early just so I could be sure to start the lesson at exactly 12:30. Well, 12:30 came and went and the principal didn't show. I didn't know what to do, but since I only had 30 minutes I went ahead and started the lesson. The principal didn't show up until 12:50 and so she only caught the very end of the lesson. I was disappointed but not too concerned until I got the evaluation back and she wrote down that I was deficient in many areas. Most of them were things I had actually included in my lesson, just not during the last 10 minutes. When we met to go over the results I voiced to her that I had in fact included all those things in my lesson. She told me not to worry about it and to just sign the poor evaluation. Later I found out from other teachers that you kind of want a bad first evaluation because then you can show good improvement with the next evaluation. I kind of thought that was ridiculous, but every district is different and has their ideas of how a teacher should be performing/improving over time.

My second evaluation went much like the first, it was only about 10 minutes long and it was my one time of the day where I worked one on one with a very needy student. My evaluation came back much better. I thought it was kind of funny because she wrote down things that I had said and done in the evaluation that I had not said or done. Also sometimes it said 'he' instead of 'she'. I'm pretty sure it was just copy and pasted from another teacher's evaluation.

My fifth year:

13 months

2011-11-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

Dear son,

You are growing up so fast! What a joy and a delight you are to this family on a daily basis. You absolutely amaze us in your ability to understand directions and in the unique and creative ways you find to communicate with us. You are able to follow simple commands like "bring mommy your shoes" or "go find your sippy cup" or even "turn off the light please". You have learned the sign for milk and use it constantly. You also use it when you want something else but don't know how to ask for it. Yesterday we set up our Christmas tree and you wanted to play with one of the ornaments. You walked up to the tree and started signing milk while pointing to the ornament. You kept looking at us to see if we knew what you wanted. When we told you no you cried and then tried to climb the Christmas tree. You do not like to be told no.

You are walking/running everywhere and never really crawl anymore. You are fast and we can't ever take our eyes off of you. At the mall you love to play on the play place. You know how to climb up the stairs and sit at the edge of the slide and push yourself to go down the slide all by yourself. We have to watch you closely though because oftentimes you run out of the play place into the mall. One time you ran straight for the toy store.

At home you are a monkey and climb every piece of furniture we have. Yesterday you climbed up the side of our bar-height kitchen table and were sitting on the top within seconds. When I told your dr. what you did, he looked very surprised and said you have 'advanced motor skills for a 13 month old'. All I know is you are giving your momma lots of gray hairs.

You love your daddy and whenever we are in a new environment you prefer for him to hold you. You will climb up his pants if he doesn't pick you up fast enough. You have learned to give hugs and you melt your mommy and daddy's heart every time you wrap your arms around our neck and lay your head on our shoulder.

You are 99% weaned and you eat a lot of table food. You can eat a whole slice of a large pizza and still be asking for more. You can even eat a whole hamburger (although I promise we feed you more than just pizza and hamburgers). If you are hungry you go in the pantry and bring us boxes of food that you want us to feed you.

You are a cheerful boy and bring joy to all around you. Even when you are throwing tantrums because you were told no you are easily distracted and are usually back to smiling and laughing within minutes. We pray for you every single day. In six months, you are going to be a big brother and I just know you are going to love having a sibling. We love you baby boy. You make our hearts proud and we understand God's love for us a little more everyday because of our great love for you! Happy 13 months!

Lots of hugs and kisses,

Mommy and Daddy

Our Monkey

2011-10-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe how much fun it is to be a parent.

We very appropriately dressed Goober as a monkey, then took him to the fall festival at our church.

He had so much fun. A little too much fun.

He kept cutting all the kids in line so that he could chase the balls. One of the games was a ball pit where the kids had to search around in it for a rubber ducky. Goober went running and did a stomach flop in the ball pit while 6 children were waiting in line. Then he started squealing and throwing the balls out of the pit.

It is so much fun to experience these little joys in life through the innocent eyes of your child. Everything is new and amazing. The smell of the carnival popcorn, the feel/taste of cotton candy, the hustle and bustle of kids and their families all dressed up in costume. Scott and I were lame and didn't dress up as anything. We wanted to be Barney and Betty from the Flintsones and have Goober by BamBam since he likes to bang on everything, but we couldn't find cheap costumes anywhere and since I was in charge of concessions and bouncy houses for the festival I didn't have time to try and make costumes. Maybe next year.

Ah we sure love our little monkey.

Fall Festival Then & Now

2011-10-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

2010

2011

It's finally official!

2011-10-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Scott, Goober, and I are overjoyed to announce the newest addition to our family. Baby Nichols is due to join us around May 8. I am currently 12 weeks pregnant and let me tell you, this pregnancy is already nothing like it was with Goober. The exhaustion, food aversions, and nausea have definitely been more extreme which has made raising a toddler quite interesting. There have been days I have just layed on the rug in the living room and let Goober climb all over me as his source of entertainment...for the whole day. Also, I'm pretty sure this baby is trying to be a vegetarian because smelling meat, looking at meat, or even thinking of meat is enough to send me running to the bathroom. My prenatal makes me sick, random smells make me sick, being hungry makes me sick, being full makes me sick, I think you get the point. I'm grateful though. Grateful for this little bean growing inside of me. Grateful that God has decided to bless us with another gift. Grateful for being sick because I know there is a precious reason behind it. Here are some other random thoughts we have about this baby:

We are excited that Goober is going to be a big brother. Our babies will be 19 months apart. Some people may think we are crazy and they are right. But we are happy crazy people. I know it's going to be hard at first, but they are going to grow up and be close friends and experience life together. What a blessing!
It's amazing to me how fast this first trimester has already gone by. With Goober the days literally dragged by. I remember calculating every day how close I was to getting out of the first trimester. Mostly because then I would feel much safer about him sticking around and not miscarrying. This time I wasn't as worried about miscarriage mainly because I was a lot sicker and a lot busier.

After 3 different doctors I have finally found a practice that I think we are going to stick with. I am determined to do everything I can to avoid another Cesarean section. I had to find a practice that performs VBACs (Vaginal Births After Cesareans) but most have very strict limitations. This could be a whole blog post on it's own so I will skip the details. Suffice it to say that I have done lots of research and finally found a practice that will give me a shot. The only downside is I have to go into labor naturally on my own before 40 weeks. I just don't see that happening. I think Goober would have stuck around for quite a bit longer than his expected due date had we been a little more patient. But I serve a big God and I can be quite convincing, so we shall see if that restriction sticks around.
I can't wait to order more cloth diapers!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

2011-10-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Changes

2011-10-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've noticed some big changes in our little boy recently. I can't exactly place my finger on it though. It's not the fact that he is walking/running everywhere. It's not the fact that he has become very independent. I think it's the way he is trying to communicate. He is no longer the little baby who cries when he is hungry and smiles when he is happy. He has things he wants to tell us. If he's hungry, he brings me the box of goldfish crackers and hands it to me as if to say "I would like to eat these." He frequently picks up a book and lets out a high pitched scream before running it over to me. He sits in my lap and we read it together. If he wants up on the couch with me, he tries his darndest to climb up and then reaches his arms to me with a look like "Please help me up!" And if something doesn't go the way he wants it to, he lets us know that as well. We've been working on the baby sign language but he doesn't seem to be a fan. He'll sign 'more' and knows 'all done', but he prefers just to yell out "dadadadada" or "mamamama" when he wants something.

Yesterday at the park he saw another man playing with his son and pointed to him and said "dada?" with almost a questioning look. I know he knows it wasn't Scott, but I think that's the only word he knows to describe a man. It's hard for me to imagine that soon he will have a vocabulary and will be conversing with me. There is nothing in the world like watching an infant grow and develop. It is truly the most incredible experience. Well, this mama better sign-off now. Nap-time is almost over and there's laundry to do and dinner to make.

Tales from the Classroom #3

2011-10-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Art of Being Evaluated Part 1

There comes a time in every teacher's career when he or she must go through a formal evaluation. These usually occur twice a year during your probational period and then once a year or every other year once you have passed probation. I was lucky enough to move districts every couple of years so I was always considered probational. Here is my experience with formal evaluations...I am sure many teachers have had a much different and much more professional experience than I.

Student Teaching:

When I was student teaching I never actually had my formal evaluation...that I know of. The second week of my student teaching I was approached by a district representative who told me they had heard great things about me and wanted to offer me a job. This was hilarious because I had not done anything yet, I was still just observing the daily grind of the classroom. I thought it was odd but later when I realized how short-handed districts are on special-ed. teachers it made sense. They wanted to snap me up before any other districts regardless if I was competent or not.

My first year:

My first year of teaching I was a nervous wreck. I had one of those principals who liked to surprise you with evaluations instead of warning you she was coming. She just happened to pop in the first time during a geography lesson. First - geography is my worst subject of all time. Second - I was administering a quiz off an overhead that I had copied that had all the answers on it. I was so nervous I never even realized I was giving a quiz off an overhead with all the answer on it until I got my evaluation back. She asked my reasoning behind giving the kids all the answer for the test. I was mortified. None of the kids had pointed it out to me. I thought it was strange they all had the right answers with all the right spelling.

The second evaluation that year I knew she was coming. I prepared a huge reading lesson on shipwrecks. I had a lot of students with behavior problems so I knew my lesson had to be really interesting in order to keep their attention and maintain order and control. I found a book at a library sale that was a huge picture book on shipwrecks. I bought it up excited to use it in my lesson. I should have known to preview the pictures first. Rookie mistake. My lesson was going great until I opened up the book and there in big ol' real-life pictures were a bunch of mumified bodies found at the bottom of a shipwreck. All my students practically fell out of their chairs with horror/rabid curiosity. They started laughing and snorting and pointing fingers. I could not get them to settle down. I'm sure my face was beet red. That was the end of that lesson. I think I said something along the lines of "If one more person talks about dead bodies you are going to be in big trouble. BIG trouble." Very professional.

My second year:

My second year I was at the same school. I don't remember my first evaluation that year, it must not have been too traumatic, but my second one should go down in history for best example of inopportune timing. There was a rule at this school. No movies. I thought it was a good rule in general, however, with a class of students with learning/behavior/motivational issues, sometimes you need something to get them excited and motivated. The principal had only been in my room once the entire year and my students were really struggling. It was the end of the year and they were done. They were burnt out, discouraged, and generally in a very bad mood. We were trying to read through the book Tuck Everlasting but they just didn't care. Finally, in a moment of pure rebellion I stood up, banged my fist on the desk and said "Class, if you read this book and act like you like it, we will watch the movie and have a popcorn party." That did it. They thought I was a pretty cool teacher and they read that book and did a very good job of pretending to like it as well. The day came for our movie party. It was the last week of school and we were very excited. We settled in with our popcorn and blankets, pushed play and not two minutes into the opening credit in walks my principal.

Flustered, I tiptoed over to her. "They worked really hard for this." I whispered. She looked up at me then back down to her laptop and started typing away. I had to do something to recover myself. I went up to the front of the classroom. Paused the movie and said "Class, let's compare the opening of this movie to the opening of this book, how are they similar?" One student protested "Aww man, you didn't say you were going to make us talk during the movie!" I looked over at my principal. She had obviously seen enough, she was packing up her stuff and starting to stand up. A flood of relief washed over me. There's a saying in teaching "Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission". I knew we could salvage the rest of the movie time once she was gone and I would probably get a small talking-to.

Then, as if fate just likes to laugh in my face, there was an announcement that our school was on immediate lock-down due to a gunman in close proximity to the area. On lock-downs there is no exiting the classroom, and everyone has to stay put for the length of the lock-down. Usually they are short-lived, but there has been times students have had to pee in buckets behind the chalkboard because we were on lock-down for so long. This was a long one, so the principal ended up remaining with us for the entire movie and popcorn party. I was so embarrassed. She never did talk to me about it, although a memo did go out the next day as a reminder of the no-movie policy.

Stay tuned next week for the remainder of my evaluations. I promise, they are just as entertaining.

Life is flying by!

2011-10-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Whew! It sure seems like things have been just speeding by lately. It's already been a week since Goober turned 1 and I haven't even posted pictures from his cake smash yet. I never thought I would actually do a cake smash, but I'm glad we did. It was fun and we got some cute pictures. Unfortunately, the one time we really wanted him to make a mess he didn't. Scott had to help him out. Ironic since this boy is the king of messes at the dinner table.

This past week my parents were in town for a couple of days as well. They are on vacation and exploring southern Arizona, so they stopped by for a couple of nights to do some local sight-seeing. One day we drove to Wilcox and visited an apple orchard and pumpkin field, another day they hiked Sabino Canyon, and yesterday we drove to Tubac, AZ and visited some of the neat shops they have there. It was great to see them again.

The Fall festival is quickly approaching at church and I'm in charge of the concessions and bouncy items. That is also keeping us busy! Never a boring day in these parts. :)

Creating a Godly Heritage - Birthdays

2011-10-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote a blog about creating a Godly heritage for our child/children. Scott and I want to be intentional in the things that we do and the way that we celebrate different occasions. We want our children to grow up with a rich heritage and deep understanding of why we do things. As we thought about his birthday, we picked several things that we would like to do from year to year.

I got these ideas from many different places including friends, books, and other blogs.

1 - A birthday Banner. (please excuse this very poorly edited picture, but I had to put something and I didn't want his real name to show!)

This idea came from a book called Family Celebrations; Meeting Christ in your Holidays and Special Occasions by Ann Hibbard. I heard of this book through a friend and ordered it online. I love so many of the ideas inside of it.

The purpose for the birthday banner is to honor your child on the day of their birthday by hanging it somewhere prominent in the household. When the child wakes up for the morning on their birthday, they see that today is their special day. It's also a reminder for the other siblings. Every year you add something special to the banner that represents that child's year. If you look closely at Goober's birthday banner you will see a small monkey on the left and a gift on the right. The gift represents the meaning of his name - a gift from the Lord. The monkey represents how Goober climbs and gets into everything. We are always calling him our little monkey. The book also gives several different family devotions you can do together on each child's birthday.

I know the banner is cheesy looking, I'm not the craftiest person in the world, but my hope is that year after year as things get added to the banner, each of our children will know what a special place they hold in our family. I hope they look forward to waking up on that special day and seeing their name on a big banner hanging in the family room. And when they're teenagers and think the banner is ridiculous, I'll still keep adding stuff to it, because one day they will once again appreciate all the meaning behind it.

2 - Pictures

I take a lot of pictures, it's a disease. It would be a waste if I never printed them or displayed them for our children to see. Furthermore, I am not a scrap booker. I wish I was but I know myself too well. I would invest in all the great scrap booking materials, create one or two awesome pages, then lose motivation and spend the rest of my mothering years saying "I'm so behind in scrap booking, I really need to get busy."
Therefore, we decided we're just going to create a simple photo album for each child. Every year on their birthday we will print out some pictures from their year and add it to their album.

3 - Something Homemade

We would like to make something special each year on our children's birthday. This year, for Goober, I made him a Bible ABC book. I got the verses from a friend and made a page for each letter. I hope as he gets older the verses on each page will become written on his heart.

4- Family Outing

Of course we will have small parties for our children as they grow up, but we would really like to take the focus off of gifts and lavish parties and instead let the child pick a family outing to celebrate their birthday. For Goober's first birthday we went to the park (we think that's his favorite outing lol). Of course there will be limitations, Disneyland will probably not be an option, but the goal is to focus on family fun time that the birthday kid gets to choose.

Hopefully we will be able to keep up these family traditions as the years go on. We're excited to celebrate many more birthdays with our little Goober (although we are in no hurry for the next birthday to get here).

1 year

2011-10-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Dear son,

The day is finally here. You are one year old and your mommy and daddy can hardly believe it. You have gone from being our little sleepy baby to a very active toddler in the short time period of one year. You are walking all over the place now, practically running. You are developing preferences and opinions which are quite amusing. You used to eat anything and everything that we would give you and now when you don't like something you throw it on the floor or hide it on your seat behind your diaper. Mommy thought she was lucky when you would gladly eat all your vegetables, but that was a short-lived phase. You bang your hands on everything and are always making noise. You say 'dada' all the time no matter how hard mommy tries to get you to say 'mama'.

You have quite the sense of humor and you laugh/snort at all kinds of things. You love to surprise daddy when he comes home from work by hiding behind the wall and popping out to scare him. You love your toys and spend hours a day taking them all out and playing with them. You climb everything and you are pretty fearless.

This past month you got to go on a mini-vacation with mommy and daddy to Scottsdale, AZ. You went shopping with mommy and swimming with daddy. You did such a great job even though your sleeping schedule got messed up. You also visited the International Wildlife Museum and you had a great time looking at all the different kinds of animals.

You are such a fun little boy. Everyday is an adventure with you and watching you have fun and play brings us so much joy. Tonight you opened your birthday presents and you had so much fun playing with them. You are our very special gift from God and we love you so much. Happy birthday baby boy!

Much love and hugs and kisses,

Mommy and Daddy

12 months of Goober

2011-10-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

Cows moo and kids snort....wait a minute!

2011-10-06T11:45:00.001-07:00

The Light in the Attic

2011-10-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about the popular kid's book by Shel Silverstein.

photo

I'm talking about the light I saw coming out of our attic this morning at 1 am. I woke up to Goober screaming which is very unlike him these days. I went into his room, hugged him and laid him back down. On my way back to bed I noticed a soft light coming from the laundry room. When I looked closer there was light coming down from the ceiling through the cracks of the attic entry.

My heart started pounding as I knew that in the past two years we've lived in this house we have never been in the attic and that light has never been on before. I crawled into bed with my adrenaline pumping. I didn't know if i should wake up Scott or just call the police. By 2 am I was convinced that a man named Eugene had taken over our attic and was using it as a spy station to kidnap our son (I was delirious...it was 2 am!). By 3 am I was still wide awake with my heart pounding listening for any sound. Every scenario went through my head of why the light may be on in the attic. I considered maybe it was a fire. I remembered earlier that day how I had opened the doors to let the first bits of cool air blow through the house. I was convinced that was how our intruder gained entry into our house.

I imagined my phone call to the police..."Hi, there's a light in my attic, could you please send someone to check it out". Somehow I think they would have more important things to do. Besides, I worried Eugene

might hear me calling the police and I could picture him doing a ninja karate kick down from the attic to stop me. I started wishing you could text message the police department.

At 5 am Goober woke up again and this time was inconsolable. I brought him to bed with us figuring it was safer if we were all together anyway. He woke up Scott. "Scott" I loudly whispered. "There's a light on in our attic." "Huh?" said Scott. "There's a light in the attic, do you think I should call the police." Scott got up and looked at the light. "Strange" he said as he climbed back into bed.

Then in a moment of pure brilliance I remembered something. I remembered that in our laundry room there's a light switch that we have never been able to figure out what it's connected to. "Scott" I loudly whispered again. "Do you think it's that mystery light switch in the laundry room?". Scott got out of bed, flipped the switch and announced "Yep" before crawling back in bed. Problem solved. Boy was I glad I didn't call the police, I would have felt ridiculous. Except now it was nearly 6 am and I hadn't slept since 1.

Moral of the story: Always know what your light switches do. Save yourself some sleepless nights and imaginary run-ins with a man named Eugene.

Attention all moms and grandparents!

2011-09-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Veggietales is giving away free Veggietales dvds! All you have to pay is $3.99 shipping. This makes very cheap and entertaining Christmas presents!

Here's what you have to do:

1 - Go to store.veggietales.com.
2 - Create a store account.
3 - When creating the account you have to subscribe to their newsletter, there's a little box that you check.
4 - Add one of the five dvds that they are doing for this promotion to your shopping cart.

(I ordered Abe and the Amazing Promise for Goober)

5 - Enter discount code VEGGIECFA to make it free. Note: the discount code is entered on the first page it takes you to when you add the dvd to your cart.

6 - Pick the $3.99 shipping.

I LOVE Veggietales and I love good deals, so I thought I would share.

Information from here.

Pastor's Retreat

2011-09-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we got to take a mini pastor's retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona. The hotel we stayed at was right on a golf course and our room was like living in luxury (jacuzzi bathtub anyone?). We did lot's of window shopping while the boys went golfing and at night time we all ate dinner together. I didn't hardly take any pictures which is disappointing, but I did get some of Goober being a ham at the dinner table one evening. He had a piece of bread sticking out of his mouth and everyone was watching him and he was loving being the center of attention.

Can anyone say future class clown? He did a great job traveling and even though his entire schedule was thrown off, he was still his usual bubbly self for the majority of the time.
When we got back, however, we quickly realized our vacation was definitely over. We had accidentally locked the cats out of the kitty litter room and so our whole house reeked of bad cat smells. We spent the whole afternoon sniffing the house trying to locate the source of the smell. I think we found it all, yet everyonce in a while I still smell something. I think it's just stuck in my nose...you know how smells do that right? It's not just me right? Overall we had a wonderful, relaxing time though. Very rejuvenating. We are definitely so thankful for opportunities like these!

Tales from the Classroom #2

2011-09-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is my new weekly post about some of my memorable experiences I have had as a teacher. There have been so many moments that made me want to laugh, cry, or both and I don't want to forget them. Of course all names will be changed and I won't go into detail about which schools these experiences occured at.

Alberto

This little boy bounded into my room on his first day of fourth grade. He was skinny, scarred, and his hands and fingers were covered in multitudes of warts. They also extended up his arms. Later he told me the doctor told him it would be something that would never go away. He threw his arms around me in a giant bear hug and held on. As he was hugging me he looked up at me and said "I'm so glad you are going to be my teacher this year. I really, really need to learn how to read". After initial assessments it was clear that he was right. This bubbly boy barely had a grasp of half the letters of the alphabet, much less any idea how to decode words. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to be my biggest priority with Alberto, though. It did not take long to see how the other students treated him.
One day I found him slumped over at his desk with his head wrapped in his arms. I asked him what was wrong and with big tears he threw his hands up in the air and said that everyone was too grossed out by his hands and no one wanted to be his friend. In fact, the other kids didn't even want Alberto near them. If he touched something they would make faces and laugh at him like he wasn't even there. Of course I talked with the other students, but that just made it so they made fun of him more secretly.
   Alberto was starved for touch. I realized this quickly. He was always hugging me, stroking my arms, holding my hand (which would embarass just about any other fourth grader), and so forth. I wondered how much physical affection he was getting at home. My heart hurt for him and so I decided that anytime he touched me I would say a little prayer for him. I also made it a point to give him high fives and pats on the back (more appropriate touch) as positive reinforcement.
He was a hard worker, desperate to learn how to read. He would stay in from recess on his own volition to practice with me. One day he would seem to have finally grasped a concept, and then the next day it would be completely gone. I became determined to find a way to teach this boy how to read. I knew using the kindergarten curriculum (which is the level he was at) was not appropriate, so I brought in everything I could think of. I brought in homeschool materials and even made my own little phonics rhymes for him. I would like to say that one day it just clicked. I would like to say that at the end of the year he was reading. However, I got so caught up in teaching him to read that one day I looked down at his hands and noticed that every single wart was gone.
"Alberto!" I exclaimed. "Look at your hands! They look great!". "I know" he said beaming. "What happened?" I asked. "I don't know, the other day I just woke up and they all fell off!"
   The whole rest of the year not a single wart grew back on that little boy's hands. I made it an effort to continue to put my hands on him and pray for him as the year went on. Later on in the year I felt the Lord laying it on my heart to talk to Alberto about gang activity. I had no idea why. I hadn't heard of any gangs nearby and quite frankly, I didn't feel it was really my place. However, the feeling was so strong I knew I had to do it.
   So one day during one of our recess reading sessions, I stopped him for a second and said "Alberto, I want you to promise me something." "Ok" he said looking up at me with his huge smile. "I want you to promise me that you will never ever join a gang." I said. "I know it sounds silly but I really want you to know that this is very important." His face suddenly dropped and very sadly he looked up at me and said. "I know, my big brother was in a gang and he got shot and died".
   That year Alberto made some progress in reading, but once again, I learned the bigger lesson. There's a crisis in the public school system these days. Kids are underperforming and teachers are being held to higher standards. It's high-stress on everyone involved. God is not allowed in the schools and neither is personal problems. It is so sad to me that this boy had been in school for six years (he had been retained) and as I looked back on his records it just pointed out all his areas of deficiency. Teacher after teacher had taught him using the same exact methods and of course with no progress. Nothing spoke of the death of his brother although I later confirmed that conversation with his mother. Did nobody stop to even ask him how he was doing during this time or did they just keep on shoving the abc's down his throat? How can we seperate personal problems from public education, certainly if a child is distracted by problems at home they are not going to be thriving academically. Sometimes all it takes is someone who cares, but if a teacher takes time to care they are losing educational moments. I determined then and there that I would always make time to let my students know I care. If any administrator had a problem with that, well then, that was their problem.

First Haircut

2011-09-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

We've been putting it off for months, but today we finally did it. We took our little Goober to get his very first haircut. We weren't sure if he would sit still long enough for a haircut, but he sat in Scott's lap and did very well. They gave him a lollipop at the end and he LOVED it. He got very upset if he thought Scott or I was going to take away his lollipop and he ate the whole thing down to the stick. Then he got mad when we threw away the stick. I can't believe what a little boy he has become. Oh and he is going through a 'camera avoidance' stage so I couldn't get any really good pictures. :(

Before

During

After - don't mind the alligator, we went to the wildlife museum after his haircut.

Tales from the Classroom #1

2011-09-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

I want to start a new weekly post about some of my memorable experiences I have had as a teacher. There have been so many moments that made me want to laugh, cry, or both and I don't want to forget them. Also, someday I may get motivated enough to write a book, so this will be a good reminder for me. Of course all names will be changed and I won't go into detail about which schools these experiences occured at. I truly valued all of my students, and should any of them ever happen across this blog, I hope that their memories of me are just as pleasant. :)

Being a teacher I have overheard many amusing conversations between students. One, however, was so gutwrenching I can still hear the student saying it to this day. It was little moments like these that I wished I could just adopt all my students and take them home with me.

Rob (to another student): What are you doing tomorrow? I get to go hang out with one of my dads.
Jack (one of the few students in my class who still lived with both biological parents): Dads?! What? You have more than one dad?!
Rob: Duh! You know, there's your father - the man whose blood runs through your veigns; your dad - the man whose raised you his whole life; and your step-dad, the man who is married to your mom.
The whole class nodded in agreement as Jack just sat there with a real confused look on his face. I learned a lesson in that moment and often think back to those fourth grade boys sitting there talking about these facts of life.

Since that was a littledeep, I will end this with a funny story:

Amy: Ms. Sarah, did you know today is crazy clothes day?!
Me: Yes Amy, I see you have on some crazy clothes, I love it!
Amy: Well, where's your crazy clothes? I mean, you've got crazy hair, but your clothes are normal.

My favorite baby items!

2011-09-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Goober's birthday is right around the corner. This business of growing up got me all sentimental and thinking about the day we brought him home from the hospital. Thinking about bringing him home from the hospital reminded me of how clueless Scott and I were about what we would need. When we went to register for baby stuff at Babies-R-Us, they seriously handed us a pamphlet with literally hundreds of items on it that we "needed" to register for. Did you know they make baby wipes specifically for binkies that have fallen on the ground? Or how about those luxury baby bath tubs that bubble and foam and have separate sprayers and lotion warmer dispensers? I can't believe people actually buy this stuff. Anyways, I thought I would write a post about our favorite baby items because, believe it or not, you don't need hundreds of things to successfully raise a baby. Actually you really don't need any of the things I am listing, but they sure made life easier for us! Following are the things that we have found to be our favorite baby items:

PUJ Baby bath tub

photo credit

I love this tub because it folds completely flat. We have ours hanging on the back of our bathroom door and it's so nice because it does not take up a lot of space. It fits in our tiny bathroom sink and Goober fit in it all the way until he was sturdy enough to sit up in the big tub for baths.

Baby Food Grinder

We knew to save money we were going to be making all our own baby food. This little handy machine makes it really easy to grind up whatever we are eating for dinner to make purees for Goober. It does sometimes give your arm a work out, but definitely saves a lot of money from buying jarred baby food.

photo credit

Swaddlemes

In the hospital, we couldn't believe how tightly those nurses could swaddle our little Goober. Whenever he was swaddled he was so peaceful and calm. When we got home from the hospital we just could not swaddle him as tightly. First of all, he is part houdini and could get out of any swaddle we made, second of all we were always nervous we were swaddling him too hard. Someone had given us several Swaddlemes at a baby shower and they were wonderful! Goober didn't learn to escape out of them until several months later at which point he no longer needed to be swaddled.

photo credit

Booster Seat

This was another thing we did not register for but love. It straps to the chair and is the only seat that Goober has not figured out how to get out of. We even took it with us on the mission trip.

photo credit

Rocket Scooter
Scott made me add this one because it is Goobers absolute favorite toy. He spends hours a day pushing it around the house, riding it, pushing the buttons, and hiding things in the pop-up seat. It also goes with the air-plane theme of his nursery.

photo credit

Diaper Sprayer

We love our diaper sprayer. Makes cleaning dirty diapers very easy. I also use it to spray down the tub after I've cleaned it. I imagine it would be great for spraying down a dirty child as well! :)

photo credit

I'm sure there are other items that I just can't think of, but as of right now, these are the things we love!

A Photo Shoot

2011-09-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I got the privilege to take some senior pictures for one of the teenagers in our youth group. (P.S. She gave me permission to put her pics on the blog!)

When Scott started as youth pastor she was barely going into her freshman year. I can't believe she is now graduating as a senior!

Her and I have a special relationship - we have hung out on a weekly basis for almost the whole past 4 years - give or take traveling/sickness/childbirthing breaks lol.

I have seen her heart grow tender towards the things of the Lord as she has served on several mission trips. I truly can't wait to see what God does with her when she graduates highschool!

She doesn't like cheese though, but that's ok, I'm holding onto hope that one day she will come to truly appreciate the finer culinary aspects of my favorite food!

What fun it was to take her pictures! Praying she finishes the year strong!

11 months

2011-09-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Dear son,

In one month you are going to be one year old. I find that absolutely incredible! This month has been exciting for you. You are officially signing the word 'more', you officially took your first steps, and you finally figured out how to drink out of a sippy cup.

You are so much fun these days. You are always finding new things to get into and you have a really infectious, contagious laugh that you do when you know you have gotten into something you shouldn't have. Tonight you dissassembled the bottom part of our refrigerator and yesterday you rearranged some of the furniture in the living room. Whenever you see that the dishwasher is open, you make a mad dash towards it and try to climb inside. You also love to open drawers and pull out all the contents. When mommy puts the clean laundry on the couch to fold, you excitedly crawl over and begin throwing the laundry all over the rug while laughing uncontrollably. You love to tackle the kitty cat, push your rocketship scooter around the house, and you love your touch and feel books.

Last week mommy was in the kitchen making dinner and turned around just in time to see you walk half-way across the kitchen, at least four steps, for your very first time. I couldn't believe it. Daddy was so sad he missed your first steps that he bought a video camera on his way home from work. That same day Grandma and Grandpa Shaw came to visit and they brought a video camera too! Now we will have lots of videos of you to embarrass you at your wedding someday (just kidding!). The funny thing about you is you don't just walk, you try to run everytime.

This past month you have really improved in your sleeping habits. You now sleep through the night really well and you take two wonderful naps a day. You have been less and less interested in nursing and more and more interested in eating regular food. You eat anything and everything that we eat and you love water and apple juice.

Everyday when daddy gets home from work, you get so excited. When you hear the garage door you stop whatever your doing and crawl over to the door waiting for him to come through. Sometimes I hold you and we pop out and scare daddy. In the mornings when daddy is in the shower, you crawl over to the door and lay down right by it and try to peek under it all while 'talking' very loudly to daddy.

You are such a joy to us, you make everyday an adventure and we can't possibly imagine our lives without you. We can't wait to celebrate your very first birthday with you next month allthough we are a little sad that you are growing up so fast! We love you baby boy, our precious gift from God!

Happy 11 months!

Hugs and kisses and lots of love,

Mommy and Daddy

A quick family visit

2011-09-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my parents drove up for a short visit.

I think they had a little bit too much fun with their grandson. :) He was showing off his walking and screeching skills. Oh, and we can't forget his mess-making skills.

A great time was had by all. It's always nice when we get to spend time with family. Oh, and they brought us a new kitchen sink faucet...I foresee new plumbing adventures in our very near future. Of course I will blog all about it, let's just hope I don't have to cut up any more of my shoes.
Thanks mom and dad for coming to visit, we had a great time!

Baby Steps

2011-09-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

This kid will do anything for some cake!

Somebody learned a new skill

2011-08-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Can't let his two new chompers go to waste!

He loves his new toothbrush so much he just holds it with him wherever he goes. Even when it's time to eat - you know, just in case he gets the sudden urge to brush his teeth.

What not to do when redecorating your laundry room

2011-08-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

aka A Day in the Life of a Youth Pastor's Wife

See this?

It used to be the switch on the washing machine that made it...well...work. That rubberband was what I used to fix said switch a year and a half ago when it broke. What can I say, I'm creative. (Don't ask about the shoe I used to fix our plumbing.)

Well, during our extreme laundry room makeover weekend, we moved the washer into the garage and apparently jostled the switch. When I went to see why my rubberband/hot glue concoction wasn't working anymore I accidentaly snapped the whole piece and broke it. :(

Side note: when you cloth diaper, having a broken washing machine is pretty much the end of the world. I pictured myself washing them by hand in the bathtub, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.

My first plan of action was to scour beloved Craigslist for any ridiculously cheap washers. I found this one:

But even that was out of our price range.

Finally I called a parts shop and found out they had the part I needed for $35. So while Scott was heading off to Funtastics to play bumperboats and laser tag with the middleschoolers, I packed up Goober and drove all the way down town to this shop. I had to call them several times to get directions and finally the guy just kept me on the line and walked me street by street how to get there. I told him I haven't lived here long. 3 years isn't long, right?

Finally I got home, fed the boy, bathed the boy, peeled the boy off the couch/cat/furniture, and put the boy to bed. Then I got to fixing the washer. At one point I had the whole thing dissassembled. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous I wasn't going to be able to put it all back together again like our home phone growing up. I got bored one day and took it apart and put it back together while my parents were gone. I had like 15 extra parts leftover I didn't know what to do with. But the phone still worked.
But I did it! It's washing laundry right now as I ~~speak~~ type this. I can't wait for Scott to get back from Funtasticks. I imagine our conversation going something like this:

Sarah: So what did you do at Funtasticks?
Scott: Play laser tag, eat pizza, chase youth around. You know, the usual. What did you do?
Sarah: Get lost in downtown Tucson, prevent our child from climbing large pieces of furniture/killing the cat, and fixing our broken washing machine. You know, the usual.

Laundry Room Makeover on a Budget

2011-08-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have had so much fun turning our house into a home on a very limited budget. For a long time I've had my eyes on our laundry room, trying to figure out what I could do to make it less cluttered and more cute. The shelves were overflowing since we moved all our poisonous chemicals out of the cabinets into this room.

Before

(Don't judge the clutter! lol)

Then I found it, the perfect craigslist find! 2 cabinets that match the rest of the cabinets in our house for $20 total. Scott was in youth group and it was bedtime, but I packed Goober into the car and snatched up those cabinets as fast as I could.

We also replaced the shelf and we ripped up the old gross linoleum and laid new linoleum for around $30 total. We already had the paint and I made the artwork out of supplies I already had.

We love it! It's so much fun to come home now, since this is the first room we walk through. The only problem is now I want to re-decorate the rest of the house. Have I mentioned how much I love Craigslist?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

A unique way to give

2011-08-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

I am so excited about a new project that the Maya Mesoamerica Mission is doing in Guetemala. This mission is run by David and Kathy Doss who have been friends of our family for a very long time. They have a heart for the people in Guetemala and have been serving faithfully there for many years. One of the ways they are able to serve the people is to provide meals three times a week for around 40 people per meal. The food prices in Guetemala have recently sky-rocketed, leaving the impoverished town where they live hungry and desperate. Many families try to escape to America to find jobs, but most never make it and get caught up in exploitation and human trafficking.

David and Kathy have several different things they do to try and help these people, but times are getting desperate and they are running out of money to even run their food program. From their website they state:

"Guatemala's President, Alvaro Colom, declared a 'state of calamity' last September, hoping to get international assistance to help some 54,000 families who are at high risk because of a regional food shortage.

Food is short, and the number of children undernourished is sky-rocketing. The country of Guatemala was recently placed third on the UN's list of countries in deepest poverty with a staggering 61 percent of children under five malnourished."

As you can see, this is a vital part of their ministry.

Anyways, they are starting a new program which is a brilliant solution to several programs. They are collecting old 'formal' dresses that people have just sitting in their closet and they will be opening a little store to sell these dresses at a cheap price for the girls in Guatemala who are celebrating their Quincineras. The Quincinera is a huge birthday celebration and it is imperative that the birthday girl wears a beautiful dress. Most families cannot afford these dresses and it becomes a huge hardship on the family. With the Doss's opening up a shop with gently used dresses, these girls will be able to find and wear a beautiful dress for a much cheaper price.
Furthermore, the money that they make from selling the dress will go directly to the food program to keep it running.
This helps the community in so many ways:
1 - it provides jobs because they will need a couple people to run the dress store.
2 - it provides girls with dresses without bankrupting their families
3 - it provides money for the kitchen to keep feeding the hungry. Basically one dress can help feed 40 people one meal.

Do you have a formal dress just sitting in your closet? Would you like to donate it to this wonderful cause?

It's very easy to do. If you live in Tucson, just bring your dress to me as I am collecting dresses for the next month to send over. If you do not live in Tucson then you just need to ship your dress to:

Maya Mesoamerica Mission

504 Dogwood Drive
Knob Noster, MO 65336-1589

It would be helpful if you could include $5 with your dress to help pay the shipping cost from MO to Guatemala (they can't drive it across the border or it will be confiscated).

For more information about this program go to http://www.mayamission.org/ and click on the Party Dress link at the top. I know that sometimes it's hard to find ways to give and serve in this tight economy, but this is one thing we can do with something we already have to really bless others!

Mathew 25:40 "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Creating A Godly Heritage

2011-08-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Everyday I wake up and prepare myself to do the most important job I have ever been given; raise the son that God has given us. I do not take this job lightly and although it is full of late hours and early mornings, messy diapers and endless laundry, I wouldn't trade this job for anything in all the world. I go to bed feeling so honored that God entrusted this child to us and Scott and I often talk about the importance of our job. We decided very early on that we want to be very intentional parents. We want to create a Godly heritage for our kid(s). I think one of my worst fears would be for Goober to one day look back on his childhood and not be able to recall anything special about his raising, or even worse, decide that the God of his parents is not the God that he chooses to follow.

So how can we as parents be intentional in creating a Godly heritage for our son?

Believe it or not I think this is almost harder to do when you are involved in ministry. I can't tell you how many families I have seen put serving others before serving their own family. I see people pouring their hearts out in very successful ministries while their children are at home missing their father or missing their mother and acting out because of it. Thankfully this is not true for the families that we serve with, but it is definitely something we see often and it hits close to home. For this reason, we have a designated family day every week. A day for just our family to do whatever we want to do together . Yes, even now with a 10 month old we find things to do together as a family. Also, when events come up that require traveling, when possible, Goober and I go along. It's certainly more work, inconvenient, and not good for sleep schedules, but it keeps us together as a family and will create lasting memories. We love the advice Doug Fields (a prominent leader in youth ministry) and his wife give for raising a family in youth ministry: treat your kids like they are the most important kid in your life. Sounds easy and pretty obvious, but sometimes it's not when you have teenagers in your youth ministry going through crisis' who turn to you for help. Doug Fields mentioned how they rarely missed any of their children's games, concerts, recitals, etc. Youth events were planned around family events, not vice versa.

As Goober's one year birthday is quickly approaching (*sniff*), I got to thinking about how special a birthday is and wondering what kind of traditions we could bring into our family to celebrate birthdays. We don't want the "big parties and the expensive gifts" kind of traditions, but rather something God-centered and memorable. We also didn't want to start any traditions that were so involved we wouldn't be able to keep up with them when we have future children and an even more limited budget. Finally, they had to be something we could do no matter where we are since we travel a lot. After reading some books and praying about it, we have picked a couple of special things to do for Goober on his birthday and every birthday after. I'm not going to tell you what it is though...you'll just have to wait and see. :)

We've also discussed how we can use other holidays to build a strong heritage for our kid(s). We're giddy with excitement for all the holidays that come with October through January because we know Goober is just going to love them! We're also excited to start teaching him about Jesus in real and meaningful ways. Oh boy, this parenting thing certainly is an adventure!

Lord, help us on this crazy journey to create a Godly heritage for the child you have entrusted to us so that he can one day choose to follow you. Amen.

Zzzzzzz

2011-08-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Someone is sleeping through the night again! Woohoo! It only took 5 months to get back to this point, but I don't blame the poor child. His whole schedule got messed up when we went to Chicago in March and then we came back and spent the next couple months at church everyday working on vbs, then we traveled to Oregon and California. Now if I could only convince him to sleep in later than 5:30 in the morning! Oh well, I am certainly not complaining. :)

Big heads and bigger praises

2011-08-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's official. The ultrasound results have come back completely normal. Our child has a large head for no other reason than that is exactly how God created him to be (oh and his father has a large head lol). We really weren't too concerned about it, but of course there was that nagging little thought in the back of our brains telling us it could be something. God is faithful, though, and I know even if the doctors had found something wrong it would still be part of His plan for this precious life.

I was telling Scott that it was strange being the parent on the other end of the test results. As a special education teacher I spent countless hours at meetings showing parents test results, sometimes average, but usually the results showed deficits in some area. Nearly every time the parents would cry and we always made sure to have a box of tissues on hand. I never really understood the emotions these parents were going through, after all, it was just an educational diagnosis and in most cases, was in no way indicative of the child's ability to grow up and be successful in some field of interest. It just meant they had extra hurdles to jump and would have to work a little harder. We would show the bell curve to the parents along with where their child tested as an added visual. However, when the doctor showed us the growth chart with the average curve and where our Goober was (way off the average curve) for head growth, I better understood the emotions of these parents. I am so grateful to have a mighty Savior to turn to for guidance on this crazy adventure called parenting.

10 months

2011-08-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Son,

You are growing so fast! In only two short months you will be one year old and we can hardly believe ourselves. Yesterday, mommy and daddy went through all the clothes you have outgrown and we couldn't believe you were ever small enough to fit into your newborn outfits.
This past month you went on your very first mission trip to Campo, California. You slept on two old couches pushed together with mommy and you even took a shower in a truck-stop shower attached to a casino. You loved being with the teenagers so much you hardly slept the whole trip.
You are a speed crawler and you love to climb on everything. You have given mommy several heart-attacks this past month. You crawled out of your crib one night at 3:30 in the morning, pulled open the door of your bedroom, and crawled out into the living room. I don't know how you got out of your crib without getting hurt, but you did! We had to lower your crib to the lowest setting, but we still worry that you will find someway to crawl out of it again. The next day you crawled up on the couch and pulled yourself to standing on top of the couch.
You bring so much joy to your daddy and I. You have a contagious smile, a silly squeak you do when you get excited, and you often say "mama" and "dada" although we still aren't certain you know exactly what you are saying. You love to bang your hands on everything like a little drummer, play hide and seek, chase the kitty cats, and get into your laundry basket spreading around dirty laundry.
You are a very healthy little boy, but you did have your very first sickness this past month. You had a fever for 3 days around 101 degrees. One of those days all you wanted to do was lay in our arms which is not like you at all. Usually you are a very busy little boy. After your fever broke you developed a rash all over your body. It was so hard watching you be sick and not being able to make you feel better. The doctor said you had Roseola which is a common fever/rash that happens in children.
At your 10 month appointment the doctor also noticed that your head is growing at a much faster rate than the average child, so in a couple of days you will have to go have an ultrasound of your head to make sure that everything is ok. We're not too worried though, we know you're a healthy, happy boy - you just have a big head like your daddy hehehe.
We love you so very much baby boy. More and more everyday if that's even possible. Everynight I go into your room and see you sleeping in your crib and praise God for thinking you up and creating you in His very image, and then entrusting you to us. Your name means 'gift from God' and you truly are! Happy 10 months!
Lots of love and hugs and kisses,
Mommy and Daddy

Do babies come with bumpers?

2011-08-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last night at 3:30 in the morning, Goober somehow managed to crawl out of his crib, pull open the door to his bedroom and crawl out into the living room. Imagine the heart attack I had when I went to get my crying baby from the crib and there he is on the living room floor. My heart is still palpitating!

Several hours later I was updating Facebook about our nightly adventure and Goober was sitting next to me on the couch...so I thought. I turned around and he was standing on the top of the couch looking out the window! Oh my, the Lord sure has been answering our prayers of safety over this boy. Scott said this morning he was watching Goober and he went into the bathroom and pulled up on the side of the bathtub like he usually does, except this time he propelled himself over head first before Scott could even stop him. There was no water in the tub thank goodness! We can't even blink with this child. Every day is a definite adventure. Now we are stuck wondering, how do we foster his need to explore and climb but at the same time set safe boundaries for a 10 month old? We don't want to spend all day telling him 'no' but at the same time he is definitely old enough to understand the word no. He knows he is not allowed to chew on electric cords, but at least six or seven times a day he crawls over there as if to tease us.
I ordered some books online and currently am reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. I'm hoping to glean some words from wisdom on how to survive these next couple of years with our little billy goat (literally).

On another note, if you could keep our little guy in your prayers we would appreciate it. At his ten month appointment yesterday the doctor was concerned about his head growth and is sending us to get an ultrasound of his head on Tuesday just to make sure everything is ok and there's not fluid in there. I feel like everything is going to be fine but at the same time no parent likes to be told there's even a small chance that something could be wrong. The doctor pointed out Scott has a big head too (lol) so that is probably why Goober's head is over the 100th percentile and not quite growing along an average curve. Thank you for your prayers, they are much appreciated!

Scott's Birthday

2011-08-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

I got a picture of the birthday cake, but I didn't get a picture of the birthday boy - wife fail!
Anyways, a couple days ago was Scott's birthday. It happened to be on a Wednesday which is the busiest day of the week for him with youth group. We did a small celebration with dinner and a homemade carrot cake, but we are hoping to do something fun together on Saturday. We are good at post-poning and rescheduling celebrations for times more convenient (we didn't celebrate our one-year anniversary until 3 months later because we were moving and then he had just started his job as youth pastor). It just comes with the territory.
I'm so blessed to get to spend another year of his life with this man of mine. Happy birthday Scott! Your wife and son love you lots!

Celebrations, Worms, and a Rash aka Our Week

2011-07-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

Last Monday was my birthday.

I woke up to red roses, a steaming latte, and pancakes for breakfast.

Even Goober joined in the pancake festivities. (Notice we still have not found his hairbrush!)
After breakfast we went to my favorite coffee shop where I got another latte (hey it was my birthday).

Then we spent the day thrift/antique shopping since I am determined to find some old pieces of furniture for this house with lots of character that I can repurpose. I didn't find anything. We tried to get a family picture:

(This is a good example of what I usually look like after I've ~~drinken~~ ~~drank~~ sipped two lattes)
A good time was had by all. Oh and my present is a lemon tree! We haven't gotten it yet, but I'm super excited about fresh lemons!

Two days later it was our 4 year anniversary. It was on a Wednesday which is Scott's busiest day. We tried to make it special by eating a picnic lunch together in his office and then having a homemade dinner of good old fashioned lasagna and cream puffs for dessert.

The next day I was watering my garden (which has made a miraculous comeback) and I noticed this on my bell pepper plant:

Then I noticed more!

They were everywhere just eating up my plant that I had finally nursed back to health. Grrr. I took scissors and cut off the leaves they were all on and threw them away. That probably was not the right thing to do now that I think about it. Anyways, here's more pictures from my garden just how you can see the miraculous recovery it has made:

My strawberries

My rhubarb!

My zuchinni

That same day, Goober also became sick for the very first time. For the next three days our little guy had a temp hovering around 101 -102. Everytime we thought his temperature broke it would come back again. Then today he broke out in a rash all over his body. As first time parents experiencing our first time sickness, Scott and I pretty much freaked out, but the helpful nurse on the nursing hotline said it's nothing much to worry about and after some research we are next to positive he has Roseola which is pretty common in infants and nothing to worry about. Phew! This parenting thing sure messes with your emotions. Have I mentioned lately how much we love this little guy?

4 years

2011-07-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary to us!

We're Back! Our mission trip to the Campo Indian Reservation

2011-07-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we took 10 teenagers to Campo, California to run a VBS program and do several work projects on the reservation.

We stayed in the town hall meeting room which is where the church also meets.

I pushed two couches together to make a make-shift crib and that's where Goober and I slept the whole week.

The day we arrived we attended church. The local pastor was so excited to have our team there as were the people attending the service (there were about 6 people that came to the church service besides our team).

He said something that really resonated with me. He said on the res, it's very rare for a teenager to still believe in or follow God. He looked at our teenagers and in a voice of admiration said "Look at you! You're 16, 17 years old and you are still following Jesus! What a testimony."

I found that interesting because sometimes I think that by going on a trip like this some of them are just starting to follow Jesus, but in their eyes, it's a miracle that they have made it to the teenage years and still follow Jesus.

He said that Christianity was introduced to the reservation around 1991 but the majority of the reservation is stuck in a cycle of alcohol, drugs, and abuse. Missionary teams didn't start visiting this reservation until 2 or 3 years ago.

The 6 people that attended the service, however, they had a fire for the Lord. When the pastor prayed, they all joined in, crying out to the Lord. When he spoke, they uttered amens and encouragements. I could tell it made some of our youth nervous and a little uncomfortable because that is not how they are used to praying or worshiping the Lord.

That first day there, the youth also went and delivered flyers announcing our vbs program and personally inviting children to attend the vbs program. We were told there were only about 30 children on the res and that we would probably have an attendance of 10 - 15 children. We spent a lot of time in prayer and preparation for this vbs. It was a beach-themed program so we even tried to add our own decorations. We held it in the community center which is where they also had a daycare program for some of the kids.

We were unable to find poster board that first day and so we had to get creative and paint our Big Question of the day and Bible verse on the back of people's shirts. The first day we had 4 kids. Kind of disappointing at first, but it went really well. It turns out we were having vbs during the same time as a cultural fair and that was where all the kids were. We adjusted our times for the rest of the week so that they wouldn't conflict.

The next day when we got to the community center to set up there was a bunch of kids already there 30 minutes early, just waiting for us. Plus, the daycare ladies had watched us the day before and decided to bring over some of the 2, 3, and 4 year olds that they were watching. The question for day 2 was "Why can I trust Jesus?" The bible story that went along with the question was about a man whose son was healed. We had one of the teenagers dress up like a bible character and come running in, interupting story time to tell the story about his son being healed by Jesus. The children were mesmerized and all sat still and quiet for the whole lesson (very, very rare). We gave the children a verse to memorize. We had about 13 kids that day. At closing time, when Scott asked them how Jesus has provided for their needs, one spoke up and said "By sending you guys here to teach us about Jesus".

On Day 3 we presented the gospel story. We had so many kids show up we had to frantically come up with a new craft for the little kids since we only had enough for 24 kids. Many of the kids had memorized their verse from the day before which was very exciting. We also split into groups for rotation. The youth did a phenomenal job with being flexible, thinking on the spot, and turning a chaotic moment into something that went smoothly. This day we talked about how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, and our youth came out and washed the kids feet. We didn't know how that was going to go, but they loved it and I know that will be something they will never forget. We also talked about why Jesus came to earth and how to get to heaven. One child prayed that day to accept Jesus as his savior. It was very difficult to hold their attention during the message because of the sheer number of kids and their lack of self-discipline (behavior is a huge problem, many of these kids flat out ignore instruction and just run in circles doing whatever they want. This was a trend we also noticed on the Navajo reservation several years ago). During our debriefing session we decided the next day to try a small group approach to really see where each child was spiritually.

The last day we had close to 30 kids. Unbelievable. We had many who came because their friends had told them how much fun they were having. We had kids from age 2 to 16. Many of them were saying their verses from all three days. That day, during small groups, our youth were able to pray with 3 or 4 of them to accept Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior. Hallelujah!

There is so much more that I could say. I could go on and on about each day and how these kids won our hearts over again and again. I could talk about the very special relationships that formed with two kids in particular who come from very rough situations. I could talk about crafts, and games, and songs. I could go on and on about the incredible work projects that our youth did, landscaping, installing insulation and drywall, mud and puttying, painting, etc. I could talk about our trip to the beach, about showering at a casion truckstop, about exhaustion and joy. I could talk about how incredibly difficult it is to bring a 9 month old on a mission trip. I could talk about how impressed I was with our team. I could go on and on, but I won't because this is a blog, not a book.

***Please forgive the lack of pictures, I didn't want to post pictures of teenagers or kids without their permission so I had to get creative. I may go back later and add more pictures if it's ok with everyone who went.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T16:05:00.000-07:00