The Trauma of the Snowman

I wish I had a picture of this cute little snowman that causes so much distress for poor E. He's really a cute, little, stuffed snowman that stands a foot or so tall. You would never see him and think that he could cause a 1.5 year old so much trouble. But, he does.

We were out at my mom's house on Monday evening. My aunt and uncle had just arrived from Kentucky and so we were all sitting in the living room chatting. E was showing off as usual for the guests. She can be such the little ham. Anyway, she walked over to this little stuffed snowman sitting on the floor. Grabbed his nose and pulled. I'm not sure what her plan was, but she certainly didn't intend for the nose to come off in her hand. Everyone had watched this happen. I said 'uh-oh' and I think someone else had a sharp inhale of breathe.

E turned to my uncle, who was sitting on the floor next to her, dropped that nose in his hand like it was a hot potato and ran toward the kitchen like her pants were on fire. She dropped the evidence and ran for the hills! She ran out to the far side of the kitchen table and when she saw G'pa coming after her, she ran out to the back door. G'pa was just coming to comfort the poor little girl, but she would have kept running if she'd been able to open the door.

Meanwhile, the rest of us were busting a gut in the living room because it was so funny. Her facial expression was priceless. She panicked. Her eyes were as big as saucers...it was a complete deer in the headlights expression. It shouldn't have been so funny because she was very distressed, but it was just too cute. G'pa collected her and took her to the family room and tried to calm her down. She clung to him like a barnacle. Eventually, the horror of the broken nose faded and she was able to play with her puzzle and other toys. However, she did NOT willingly come back into the living room for the rest of the night...and when she did she clung tightly to the adult that forced her back in.

By yesterday, the nose was fixed...good as new. But, E still wouldn't go into the living room with that snowman. He had to be hidden. She saw him and got all distressed once again.

Fast forward to today. The snowman had been hidden in my old room where Stacey had been staying for the past 4 days. She was in packing up and so E was 'helping' her. E turned around, saw that snowman and ran out of the room terrified and had to be comforted. Three days later and she hadn't forgotten the incident. Such trauma for a little one...all because of a carrot nose.

We won't be at G'ma's tomorrow or Friday. Hopefully when we go back on Saturday, the snowman won't cause so much distress!

Merry Christmas!

E has done so many cute things recently, but our computer has been in the shop and so blogging about them wasn't an option. However, the most memorable was last week Wednesday. I was making homemade tortilla shells for dinner. I had the dough all made and sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter. E was standing up on the footstool next to me watching me make them. I turned my back to flour the table so that I had a surface to kneed the dough and in the 10 seconds that my back was turned E had grabbed the glass measuring cup dunked it in nasty, soapy crock pot water (it was still soaking from last night's dinner) and dumped in into my tortilla dough! Ugh! Luckily she poured it down the side of the bowl...so I just left the dough in the bottom that had the nasty water on it and used the rest of it. She's just so helpful sometimes!

People ask if she's excited for Christmas...the answer is that she doesn't have a clue what its all about. She really likes our Christmas tree. The lights have to go on as soon as she sees it. She likes to play with the bell on the bottom of it. She thinks that the bows and ribbons on the packages are fun to play with (consequently they are NOT under the tree anymore!). A couple of people from the church have given her presents, which she loves to unwrap and tear apart. But really, she just doesn't understand.

That is turning out to be a good thing for this Christmas. Jut's mom had a heart attack yesterday morning (Dec. 23). As Jut's dad and sister are both out of state, Jut needed to go to Holland to be with his mom. She's doing well. She had a stent put in yesterday and should be out of ICU today, but will still be in the hospital on Christmas. So, Jut is staying with her. Not our plan to spend Christmas apart, but it is what is best. As I stated earlier, E doesn't really understand.

Fortunately, we are so close to family that they will keep us busy for the next couple of days and hopefully E won't notice that her dad is absent too much. Tonight we are going to Mom and Dad's for church and dinner. Tomorrow the extended family has a gathering for lunch...we are very blessed to have people call and check up on us. It is all working out very well. Not ideal but it all could have been so much worse. We are thankful that Joye is doing well and Jut is able to spend this time with her.

We hope that your Christmas is less eventful! Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas!

"Eh!" and "Uh-oh"

I am growing weary of hearing "Eh!" all the time. Someday when E is talking a mile-a-minute and hardly stopping for a breath, I'll wish for a vocabulary of 10 words, but today, I'm wishing she would use words to ask for things. She is very good at communicating her wishes, but sometimes it is difficult and sometimes I'm just tired of hearing "Eh!"

"Uh-oh" is the other very common sound in our home. Anything that is not as Elizabeth thinks it should be warrants an "uh-oh". Accidental events as well as purposeful events require an 'uh-oh' exclamation. A picture of spilled oatmeal or Elizabeth dumping her water all over her tray in her high chair or Elizabeth tripping and falling require an 'uh-oh' proclamation from the little one. There is about a 2 second delay time from the event to the 'uh-oh'. It is actually pretty funny when you don't hear it 1,000x a day.

When we took her in for her 15-month check, the doctor was concerned that she didn't have any words. However, Jut and I weren't concerned. She could communicate what she wanted and followed directions well. Her hearing was fine. Besides, she's really only around Jut and I and we don't feel the need to constantly fill the air with talking. So, we probably just didn't work enough with her on talking. We figured that she'd do it whenever she was ready.

Fast forward to her 18-month check, the new doctor was also concerned that she only had a vocab of less than 10 words. By 18-months, children should have about 50, I guess. He even suggested a referral for a speech pathologist. I told him that we weren't concerned and she'd develop at her own rate. He informed me that he would write a referral at her 2-year check-up if she was still lagging. I agreed to that.

In the last two weeks, she is getting more and more words every day. Her newest words are "baby" and "cup". Also, she now says "cat" instead of "meow" when she sees pictures of cats. She loves to read her books to herself. I don't understand a word of it, but she flips the pages and tells quite the story. It is very fun to watch her develop and I'm glad that I have the time to do it this year!


Word/Sound list:

1. woof 11. prune (she loves them)
2. meow 12. bye-bye
3. cat 13. hi
4. cup 14. bat
5. baby 15. yeah
6. shoes 16. no
7. coat
8. blub (walrus noise)
9. eee-aaa (monkey noise)
10. Crocs

We are working on 'please' and 'thank you'...she will mimic them. She mimics a lot more words, but 'eh' and 'uh-oh' are still her favorites.

Snow day

Today was our first snow of the season. So, I bundled E up in her 'winter' garb and outside we went. She was excited at first, until she realized that she had trouble walking in it, and it stuck to her mittens when she fell in it. E doesn't like dirt on her hands...she always would wipe off her hands on my pants, and the same is true with snow. She doesn't like it on her mittens, and her mittens are fleece. Consequently, the snow sticks to them a lot. Every time that she fell down she had to come over to me to wipe her hands off, and if she fell walking over to me, life was over because then there was even more snow on her mittens! She did allow me to finish shoveling off the driveway, but by the end she was woefully wailing that it was time to be finished. She was quite pathetic actually.

The funniest moment was when she decided to go head-first down one of the snow piles that I had created. It was a very small pile, and I watched her stake it out and look it over. She must have decided that it looked kind of like a slide. I stopped watching her at this point. A few moments later, she started yelping. I look over and all I can see are her boots flailing at the top of the pile of snow. She was stuck! Head and arms at the bottom and feet at the top. Had she not been distressed, I definitely would have run for the camera, but she didn't appreciate her predicament.

She was scared of the leaf piles when we started raking this fall, but by the end of the season, she loved them. I think the same will happen with snow. Eventually, she'll love our time spend in the snow and I'll have to drag her in...instead of her dragging me in. ;-)

Thankful...

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Today, I took E to her 18-month check up and she's doing very well. The dr thinks that she should be talking more, but I know that it will come with time and then she'll never be quiet. She was 24 lbs and 36? inches. Her height is above the 98th percentile and her weight is up to the 40th percentile. She's finally putting on some weight now that we aren't playing outside so much. (Unfortunately, so am I!) But, I'm very thankful that she's such a healthy, happy little girl.

I'm also thankful that we won't spend our Thanksgiving holiday traveling. We get to stay 'home' and yet still see all of our family! That is such a blessing. No more 2 days here and 2 days there. We are just here! Besides, E isn't quite as portable as she use to be, and she only sleeps well in her own bed. I'm thankful that we can just stay here and relax for the next 4 days! Other than tomorrow, naps will be on schedule. Bedtime should be regular. It will actually be a relaxing holiday! Yeah!!! Moving back home has been a wonderful blessing on so many levels.

I'm thankful that I'm staying home with E. It took me awhile to get into the new routine of life at home, but I'm enjoying it more all the time. E is so much fun to watch grow and develop. She's the most wonderful blessing. I'm also thankful that Jut stays home with her 1 day/week, so that I can remember how much I love teaching. I needed this break away from the classroom to remind myself why I love what I do. I was contemplating a new profession, but I know that my desire is to be in the classroom. My year off this year has really brought that into focus for me. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be home, and yet look forward to the day that God provides me a new classroom, whenever that may happen.

These brief few things don't even begin to cover all that I have to be thankful for, but it is a beginning. Lastly, I want to leave some pics of the things that E has been doing lately to make me smile and be thankful for my time with her.

My little reader

She really enjoys her juice!

Sitting in the clothes basket

Wearing the clothes basket...

Wearing her toy container...

Our blessing are too numerous to count!!!!

Mama's Little Helper

E is getting to be more and more of a little helper these days. She loves to 'help' me do dishes. Now, I have found that she needs to stand on the dirty dishes side of me so that she doesn't keep throwing the clean ones back into the water. So, she stands on the 'dirty dishes' side and keeps my water full of dishes to wash. It keeps her quite entertained until she runs out of dishes to throw into the water...and so far, she hasn't broken anything yet. So, that's a good thing, too.

E also decided that she liked to rake leaves, or rather play in the piles of leaves, after a few times doing it. We raked our backyard at least 4 or 5 times. We loaded the leaves up into garbage bags to haul them to the curb. Well, E loved to help fill the bags! She started by putting one leaf at a time into the bag. A pile kept her busy for a LONG time!! By the time we were finished, she was scooping them up using 2 hands to help the process go a bit quicker.

She will also be my little 'tree-hugger' one day. She always pick up trash or litter on the ground. People that don't know her well always hurry to warm me that she's picked something up because they are afraid that she's going to put it in her mouth. But, I know better. She picks it up, peers closely at it to figure out what it is and them she hands it to me to dispose of. It doesn't matter if we are playing outside or are in the church...if there is something on the ground/floor that shouldn't be, she'll take care of it! (By giving it to me to take care of, of course!)

New Diapers...

Now, I know that most people don't get excited about new diapers, but I do. I love my cloth diapers!! We haven't been using them much since we moved because of a variety of issues, but we are back to it. CottonBabies replaced my set that were worn out with their 1-year warranty and I bought some new ones to replace the ones that just aren't any good anymore. So, we are back to cloth diapering full-time. Yipee!! I hate disposables!

One of my orders was from a work-at-home mom. She made us what we call "Victoria's Secret" diaper. It is a leopard print with hot pink crushed velvet on the inside. It is so cute! It makes E into a crazy girl! She loves it too.

My next project was creating fleece soakers (think modern version of 'rubber pants') to go over her fitted diapers that I ordered. They are so expensive to buy, but super cheap to make. So, I found a pattern on-line, went to Jo*Anne's to buy some fleece and headed to Mom's to sew it. Now, what I found out was that I'm not going to make a living selling these on E*bay...I can't sew a straight line to save my life, but the cover is pretty cute, if I do say so myself. I don't think that it will fit over her enormous diaper for night. I will have to tweak the pattern a bit and try again, but it will fit over a prefold. I had forgotten how much fun it was to sew...I may have resurrected an old hobby...We shall see.

Happy Halloween!!

What a beautiful day!!! We raked leaves during the day (9 huge garbage bags full) and went visiting this evening. E dressed up as a Pikesville College Cheerleader. Jut and I were Pikesville bowlers...for those of you who aren't aware of this wonderful fact, the Pikesville lady bowlers have been the national bowling champs for several years. Enjoy the pics documenting our day...

A very long day....

Jut had a 'fun' day yesterday with Elizabeth while I went subbing. I think he's more thankful all the time that he's back to work full-time and I'm staying home...especially with days like yesterday...

The day started at 8:45 receiving a call from Alma to sub in 1st grade music. They were desperate for a warm body, and so I accepted the call. Jut actually had Friday off this week instead of Thursday. But, he still had some work to do at the church so he dropped me off at the school.

He and E went to the church. E did fairly well playing, but Jut didn't get too much done before lunch time came around. They brought me some Wendy's and went home to eat their lunch. Upon arriving at the house, Jut finds out that he's locked out. There is a door between our back door and kitchen, which we don't have a key to, and sometimes it gets locked. All of the easily accessible windows to the house are, of course, locked. Well, Jut tries to take the window out in the door to the kitchen, but that is unsuccessful. He then pulls the car underneath the breakfast nook and hops on the hood and both of those windows are also locked. Meanwhile he's trying to keep track of a wandering 1.5 year old. So, none of this is done in a timely fashion. Luckily at this point in time, the neighbors come home and offer him a ladder. So, he uses the ladder to check the windows on the other side of the breakfast nook. Luckily they are open! However, the window is only 18 in x 13 in. He didn't even think he'd really fit through, but after some precarious moments he did manage to hoist himself inside. First challenge of the day is conquered...and it only took a 1/2 hour or so.

E doesn't go down for her nap very well because she's overly tired due to the delay in getting inside the house, but she finally goes down.

I arrive home around 3. Thankfully, a very nice teacher from the school brought me home. Jut tries to open the front door and it won't open. The metal thing on the door frame has come loose. So we monkey around with that and in the process wake up E...We finally get the door to open, and find the wood inside the door frame has rotted. So, Jut, my "Bob Vela" goes to the hardware to buy some long screws to fix it by just drilling it in to the good wood behind the bad wood. After several frustrating attempts to get it to work, we call in the reinforcements...namely my dad. He's got more tools and more 'fix-it' skills. I was thankful that it was raining, so that he'd have time to come by. Because Jut had had enough...I think there was steam coming out of his ears by this time. His frustration level had definitely been attained!

So, Dad shows up. Fixes our door so that it would lock. We put E to bed and think its been a long day...little did we know it wasn't even close to being over.

Just as we were getting to go to bed at 11, E wakes up screaming and having trouble breathing. I couldn't get her calmed down so I took her out in the cold to help her airways. That worked. Then, she decided that she was hungry. So, she ate. I decided that we needed to clear her airways better. So, we give her a Vick's bath, which she played in for at least 40 minutes. I kept adding hot water and more hot water and more hot water as the bath cooled. She had a great time. She didn't care that it was after midnight.

Jut hunts down the humidifier and gets it going in her room. We go through her entire bedtime routine, put her down...and she cries, and cries and cries. Long story a bit shorter...I didn't get her to sleep until after 2! We finally figured out that the humidifier absolutely terrified her. Poor girl.

Now the blessing in all of this is that Jut was suppose to be gone to a high school retreat this weekend. Luckily for me, it was cancelled. I'm glad I didn't have to do the 11-2 shift by myself!!

My funny girl...

We've been sitting E on her potty quite often in the last couple of weeks. Not that we think she'll be potty-trained anytime soon, but as a preventive measure from peeing on the carpet. She's had a nasty diaper rash and we like to give it some good quality air-time. However, I don't like cleaning the carpet numerous times a day. Hence, now when un-diapered, E sits on the potty. Well, she thinks its pretty cool and so she sits on it diapered too.

Today after she had finished lunch, she went over and sat on the potty. I sang her our little "potty" song, and then turned back to my lunch. A bit later, I turned my head to check on her and she was backing up to my stock pot that she pulled out of the cupboard. She then proceeded to sit in it, like she would her potty. The look on her face was priceless as she sunk in and didn't just stay on the top like the potty chair...then it was even more funny when she realized that she couldn't get out. She was not impressed that I had to run and get my camera to record the incident. But, it was hilarious!!!

Fall is definitely here. Jut, E, and I took a walk yesterday to enjoy the beautiful weather, but it was rather chilly. E had lost the mittens by the end because you just can't hold on to leaves and be your own little parade when your mittens are on. However, the cold didn't bother her a bit. She is our little outdoors girl!

Daddy's Girl

For those of you with us at Statewide '07, you may remember Jut buying this ridiculously overpriced onesie for our baby-to-be Sri. At the time, we didn't know if she was a girl...Well, Elizabeth has finally grown into that silly onesie. (Hint: she is wearing a transformer onesie, if you are not up on your '80s culture...)

Just a little of life with a toddler...

Nothing too much newsworthy has been happening around here this week...or last week for that matter. However, that is a good thing, in my opinion. Newsworthy items are not always good things.

E is getting more creative in her attempts to cause trouble these days. One morning while I was in the shower, I hear a "thud, thud, thud". My first thought was that I hadn't secured the baby gate and E had fallen down the stairs. I raced out of the shower to the stairs, but the baby gate was still sitting at the top. I popped my head in E's room and then our room, but no E was to be found. There was also no sound coming from her, which lead me to believe that the fall that I had heard had knocked her out somewhere. So, I raced back into the bathroom and grabbed my glasses so that I could actually see something. Still, no E in either room. Just then, I heard the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs click. I went down the stairs and there was E and Pumpkin playing with the baby gate. The little munchkin must have slid UNDER the gate at the top of the stairs and rolled down a few of them before picking herself up and finishing her way down the stairs. Crazy girl. I now secure the gate as low to the floor as I can. I am learning!!

She is also finding ways to climb up to get things that she wants. She loves to constantly try and climb on the Jut's stereo speaker from the coach. And yesterday, she pulled her little green car that she sits on to ride over to the bookshelf. She then proceeded to stand on top of it to try to reach something that was up high on the bookcase. She also pulled the small step-stool that I have in the kitchen over to the sink, and Jut found her playing with some dirty dishes in it. Persistence and ingenuity are wonderful qualities as an adult, and she's exhibiting them right now. I'm working on reminding myself of that when I get frustrated with her actions.

She's constantly on the go, dumping toys all over the floor, throwing her food off her tray, eating crayons, climbing all over the house like its a jungle gym, but at the end of the day, she still loves to cuddle, and sleep in my arms. She's such a little cherub when she's sleeping. That's the reward for all of the crazy toddler behavior. (Yes, I realize that those crazy toddler antics are only going to get worse!)

The Little Things...

E is becoming quite the little investigator. Anything that is new or different needs to be studied and examined. She is noticing the little things in life more and more. Birds get her 'oh'ing and 'ah'ing and pointing every time that she sees them. Birds are amazing and wonderful to her. We live in the flight path of geese. Several flocks go overhead daily. As soon as E hears them, she's looking and pointing. Yesterday we were at a park, and a flock landed in the little league field on the other side of the park. Off E went to see those geese. She was marching very purposefully toward them. She was very perturbed when they took off on her when she got too close.

She loves playing on the soccer fields near our house. The field is huge and there are a couple sloped inclines on the edges of the field. She could spend hours going up and down and running around. I also never knew that a soccer goal could provide so much entertainment to run around and reach your hands through. Plus, there are always interesting things left on the ground to investigate. It is a favorite place to spend time.

Another fun place is the park. She loves to climb through the big tube and slide back down. The steps are fun to go up and down. There are those silly animals on the springs that she loves to climb up and down. And of course her favorite is the swings. My girl loves swings! Plus, she gets to watch the ducks on our way there and home. She likes to watch me feed the ducks, but she eats the old, dry bread if I give her any to feed the ducks. I haven't been able to convince her that she doesn't need to eat it.

It is amazing to watch the world through a one-year old's eyes. Everything is new and amazing. Everything needs to be investigated. The little things that we take for granted is mesmerizing to her. It is so much fun to see her become more aware of her surroundings and just enjoy life.

A theological illustration/thought that struck me...

Last weekend my sister, Stacey came home for the weekend. Mom decided that we were going to make an apple pie and applesauce from the apples in her apple trees. So, we dodged raindrops and ventured outdoors to pick the apples.

Mom filled her bucket within minutes. She was done before Stacey and I even got outside. We grabbed our bags and headed out. Stacey and I picked the first few apples and they were gross. They were full of worm holes and just looked nasty. We chucked them into the cornfield and tried for a few more. They all looked gross. We decided that mom must have gotten all the good apples. So, we watched Elizabeth jump in a few mud puddles and inside we went.

Later in the evening, Mom brought out the apples for us to core, peel and slice. Her apples looked as gross or grosser (is that a word?) than ours had that we'd thrown into the field. We kind of made a stink about it, and Mom told us to core and peel the apple and cut away all the yucky parts...it was going to make a good pie. Amazingly, for a yucky as the apples looked on the outside, they looked pretty good on the inside. The corer took out all the center, which was where the majority of the worms resided. So, we just had to cut out the worm holes. Sure enough, after a while, we had peeled enough apples for the pie and the applesauce. My only thought was "I hope it tastes good and Mom's not crazy and that no rogue worms got in"

For lunch on Sunday, we had the delicious pie and wonderful applesauce. It was better than I had even thought it might be and no one found a rogue worm...

Now this leads to my theological thought. It reminded me that we are all flawed. We each have different types of 'worm holes' running through us. We have rotten spots in our core. Yet, God can take all of our 'nastyness' and turns us into something wonderful, if we let Him. The question then becomes, will you let go of your worms so that something wonderful can be the result???

I liked that applesauce so well that I brought home 2 bags of those dirty, rotting, wormy apples. I have been making applesauce all week after Elizabeth has been in bed. We have several bags of it in the freezer so that we can enjoy the fall apples in the middle of winter when the sun seems far away...and it will serve as a reminder to me to self evaluate for any worms that have squirmed into my life recently...

Into the world of Subbing...

Well, I entered into the world of subbing today. I actually set my alarm this morning...got up before the sun was up and ventured into a classroom that was not my own. I was very hesitant to pick up a job this early in the year. It was still the 'honeymoon' period in the classroom. The students are only 8 days into the new year. I was very worried that routines would not be firmly established. I chose my position carefully. Several jobs were posted for special education settings, but I didn't want to jump right into that kettle of fish. I know those positions are usually super easy or very demanding and I wanted to ease into this whole subbing thing. Yesterday, a middle school language arts position became available in Shepard. Without mulling over it too much, I decided to pick it up. I didn't sleep well last night imagining all the horrible ways that students can torture substitute teachers.

However, today has been a very pleasant surprise! I think that I worked at an at-risk, title 1, urban setting of a school building for entirely too long!! My view of the middle school world might be a tad jaded. I walked in and the office staff was EXCEEDINGLY friendly. The secretary walked me down to my classroom and located the sub plans for me.

I got there plenty early to review the directions for the day and get comfortable in the classroom. The first thing I noticed was how organized this teacher is...kudos to her. The lesson plan was easy to follow and seating charts easy to find. So, the kids starting coming through the hallways. At Central, we all took our stations in the hallway at that time. However, I was the only adult visible in the hallways...and the hallways were so quiet and orderly compared to Central. I was shocked. The kids were kids, but it was a totally different experience here.

My students entered the room...all 17 of them. Can you believe a class size of 17 in the general education setting?! My classes averaged 26ish last year and I had a couple maxed at 32 throughout the year. There are only 22 desks in this room! Crazy!! In hours 1-3, I haven't had a room of 20 students yet.

Anyway, the students got out their lit logs and took their seat with their silent reading books. When the bell rang, they actually started reading. I didn't have to quiet them down or pressure them into working. It was wonderful. They did their work all hour and rarely needed re-direction. I couldn't have asked for a better group of students.

2nd hour wasn't as smooth, but they were still better than my best classes at Central. I have been so impressed. I have 2 hours to go at this point, and I know that afternoon will be more difficult because the students wake up after lunch...but hey, it has been great so far. So, I don't think I'll complain much...even if the afternoon is challenging.

I've been very impressed with Shepard Middle School, so far...the secretary just dropped off copies for the teacher!!! I wish someone would have run my copies for me!!! Well, I did have that experience in Napoleon...but I missed it at Central!

Another weekend road trip...

Jut's grandmother turns 80 tomorrow. To celebrate this monumental b-day, his mom and aunt threw her a surprise b-day party on Saturday. We decided that since we hadn't seen her for a year that we would go down on Friday with the cover story that we were on our way down to Indianapolis for a baby shower on Sunday and were just dropping in to see her. We had a great time catching up with Grandma Mi-Mi and Aunt Gaye over dinner on Friday evening.

We headed to a local hotel to spend the night. Well, true to form, E doesn't sleep well in hotels. It took forever for her to get to sleep (11 pm) and then she was awake crying by 3 again. By 6:30, she thought it was time to start the day. Needless to say, it was a short night!

But, my girl loves a good party! She did wonderful throughout the entire b-day party. It was fun meeting some of Jut's family for the first time and seeing others that we hadn't seen since our wedding 6 years ago. A good time was had by all.

Around 6, my sister showed up because we were carpooling down to Indianapolis together for our cousin's baby shower. So, we climbed in the car about 7 and hit the road. Stacey entertained E for quite a while. E didn't fall asleep until it got dark about around 9. So, we arrived in Indy around 10:30 and decided to get a suite at a hotel. We would take the bedroom and Stacey would sleep on the couch.

Unfortunately our definition of 'suite' and the hotel's definition of 'suite' were not the same. We were thinking that we'd get a 2 room living/bedroom...well...we walked into a slightly larger than normal hotel room with a king size bed and jacuzzi. Myself, Jut, Stacey and Elizabeth one room. It was a touch weird and uncomfortable, and between the roll-away and the pack-n-play there was hardly any room left. But, we decided to make the best of it. We were cozily making memories, I guess. Well, anyway, we probably would have been able to keep E asleep had we had a separate b'room, but as soon as she saw Aunt Stacey, she knew that it must be time to play and NOT sleep. She was awake and ready to go.

Actually, we had a pretty good time. We joked about heading to an all night restaurant, but I didn't want to be one of 'those' parents that have their kids out past midnight in their pjs. So, we watched E run around the room...fed her another dinner of mac 'n' cheese at 11, gave her bath and somehow got her back to sleep sometime between 12 and 1, which is not an easy feat with 3 adults in the room. She just wanted to be the clown.

Again, it was another short night, but many times better than the previous night. But true to form, our girl loves a party. She had a lot of fun at Aunt Evie's running up and down the stairs. She was mesmerized by the other babies there. At one point in time, she was reverently stroking a 7-week old's feet. She was quite amazed by Conner and the lo. She loved helping Kendel open presents...I think Christmas will be much more fun this year...It was a great baby shower and fun to celebrate Nicholas' impending arrival with Kendel.

We drove back to Jut's aunt's. Dropped off Stacey and Grandma Mi-Mi gave E a b-day balloon. The balloon keep E awake until we hit Gratiot county, which was perfect because we were able to get her into the house still sleeping so that we could also go to sleep.

It was a fun weekend road trip! I'm glad we had the adventure!!

Life in Gratiot County...

We are learning about life living back home. This week has been interesting. My parents were out of town for the week visiting my aunt and uncle. Consequently, I learned about the responsibilities of living back home this week.

First of all, I got the 'Grandpa' duty. Mom asked me to at least pop out on him once this week. He's 90, but in very good health...but he lives by himself, so Mom likes to check in on him at least weekly. So, we pop over on Wednesday after dinner. Ring the doorbell, but no one answers. We do it again to no avail. Well, Grandpa's hearing isn't the best. So, we head to the front door and knock real loud a couple of times. No answer. So, Jut goes and peeks in the window. Sure enough, there's Grandpa watching the tv. So, Jut flags him down and we visit with him for awhile. That was fun responsibility.

Second, we got the 'corn' job. My parents plant more sweet corn than our entire extended family could eat for the year, I think. Well, a batch was ripe this week while they were gone. Since I am home, it fell to me to pick it, shuck it, blanch it and freeze it.

So on Friday, we went to pick it. I wish I would have had the camera. E went with Jut and I. Number 1, she loves the dirt. Playing is dirt is great and a garden is full of dirt...so she was having fun from the get-go. Then, she found my grocery bag full of shucked corn. She pulled out one ear, ate a few bites. Pulled out another and ate almost an entire row...pulled out another and ate a for awhile...you get the picture. She never eats cooked corn, but I guess she likes it raw because she at least one full ear. Anyway, the corn made her just a sticky mess...and you combine that with the already dirtyness of playing in the garden. She was a site to behold. When I got her home and threw her in the tub, I even found a corn worm in her hair. GROSS! But, she had a good time and so did Jut and I.

We took the corn home and froze 27 pints. Not a ton, but it was a good first effort. I've done it numerous times with Mom, but never on my own. So, I put my first notch on my belt as a 'real' grown up. I wouldn't say that doing up the corn is fun, but it wasn't too bad either.

The nicest thing about being home happened this evening. Mom and Dad needed to go grocery shopping and so they dropped by this evening on their way to the grocery store. We were able to chat about their trip and they played with E. We ordered pizza and had dinner. It was really, really nice. I'm glad to be home.

Settling in

We are managing to get settled in. E loves our new house with all the rooms and the stairs. She's always getting into something new here.

We have been exploring the area. Today we walked to a wonderful park that had a huge wooden playscape. E made a new friend, Caden. He's 2 and had lots of fun showing E how to go up the steps and down the slide. She would have followed him anywhere. It was pretty cute.

The landlords are FINALLY finished with the house. They finished the last touches to the bathroom yesterday. Yipee!! However, I was thankful that they were in the house because our sewer had a couple blocks and it was backing up into the basement. We didn't know about it because we never went down to the basement. So, luckily they were there and got the problem fixed right away and cleaned up the yuckiness, too.

Internet and phone are being hooked up next week and it will finally become "home"...I miss those 2 items. I'm a bit too dependent upon the Internet, I think. This month break has been good for my 'addiction'. ;-)

Moved in!

We've finally moved into our house!! Yipee! However, the laundry/utility room is not finished. Consequently our washer and dryer are still sitting in the middle of our kitchen...not the ideal place for them. But, we are there and no longer residences of my folks...so that's a good thing.

I have 1/2 of the kitchen unpacked and hopefully will finish that and the living room this evening...and then it will begin seeming more like home and not just a place filled with boxes.

I'm going to be adding pics sometime...hopefully soon.

Moving day...and our 6th anniversary

Well, moving day has come and gone. All of our worldly possesions are at 425 Euclid Avenue. However, we are NOT living at 425 Euclid Avenue. Upon entering the house on Saturday, we found a note from our landlord explaining that the house was not ready. Mind you, we knew that the downstairs bathroom would not be ready because they are in the process of completely redoing the entire bathroom, but we thought that we would be able to stay there. But, we were wrong. Luckily, I had packed overnight bags, and so after all of the boxes were left inside the house, we went to Mom and Dad's and spent the night.

The moving out went very smoothly. E slept until 9. So, Jut and I were able to get a lot of those last boxes finished without E "helping". When the guys from St. Louis showed up, we plopped E in her high chair to eat a couple of popcicles that wouldn't make the move and she sat there for at least an hour watching all of the furniture get moved out of the house. She was quite entertained by the entire process. She also was fed numerous donut holes as she sat there...I don't even want to guess how many she ate that morning! But, she was a happy girl all day. We left our house at 2, ate a quick bite, and hit the road for Alma. E wouldn't eat any lunch at Wendy's, but as soon as we hit the road, she decided that she was hungry. So, she downed about 6 aprocots, a couple handfuls of teddy grams and she zonked out for the rest of the ride to Mom and Dad's.

The moving in wasn't quite so smooth. We went from living in a 1-story duplex to a 2-story house that is at least 100 years old. Everything in the house is built very small. Our headboard was the first piece of "big" funiture to go up the stairs...well, the wall at the turn in the stairs now has a very nasty scrape and needs a bit of repair work after the headboard passed by. Our mattress fit up the stairs because it could bend. Then, they tried my dresser...there was no way that was going to make it up the stairs. That also meant that E's dresser wasn't going to make it up the stairs either because it is deeper and longer than mine.

Now, we had a bit of a quandry...2 dresser downstairs and 3 bedrooms upstairs. How does that work out? We haven't quite got that figured out. Fortunately, the house is huge...about 1800 sq feet. So, I think that the "office" is now going to be a dressing/office area. The house also has a large foyer, and I'm thinking that E's dresser will stay in the foyer. Not ideal, but it will be workable.

You might be thinking...well, can you put any of the furniture through the windows upstairs? The windows upstairs are very narrow. Our window a/c is barely going to fit. It is definately not an option to hoist the dressers through the windows.

The fridge was alow an issue. It wouldn't fit inside the front door...so we had to pull of the front door and the doors to the fridge, but afterwards, it went right through. The couch was another fun piece of furniture to make it though that tiny front door, but it eventually made it with some pushing and pulling. So, we at least got everything inside the house...even if its not in the rooms that we thought that it would reside.

So, Sunday was our 6th anniversary. With all the craziness, we didn't even remember until we were at church. After church, we headed to the grocery store to buy stuff for lunch to feed us and my dad. We had a glorious meal of hamburgers and potato salad. Then, we crashed for the entire afternoon. Jut went to youth group at 5. When he got home, I had just put E to bed, and we decided that we needed to go to our house on Euclid to get all the boxes out of the kitchen so that they could finish doing their work in there...and maybe do something special since it was our anniversary.

So, we went to the house. Moved our boxes. Explored our new home without 20 other people around. Thought about where to place furniture...grabbed a couple more items that seemed important, and left.

So, there is supposedly a new ice cream shop in town. So, we went there...and it was closed. Well, Big Boy was where we first met for coffee, so we headed there...it was closed. The only thing open was the drive-throughs at the fast food joints. So, we went to Arbys and ordered some jalopeno poppers and a jamoca shake and drove to a park at the edge of the Pine River and played the "would have you ever imagined" game for a bit. Then, we ended our anniversary by sleeping at my parent's house for the night. Exciting day. However, it was better than the anniversaries that we spent as the dean's of camp at Wolervine...so go figure.

Weekend road trip

What a crazy couple of days...



Let me give everyone a little of a backdrop to this story. E is teething. Her molars. Can you say "Ouch". The poor little peanut has been doped up on Tylenol and Oragel for a week. She hasn't been sleeping at night...so needless to say, neither are we. 2-3 hour stints of wakeful unhappiness each night were common place during the week.



So, of course, why wouldn't we pack up for a trip to Indianapolis for the weekend? Everyone loves to have a crabby baby next to them in the hotel, right?! Thursday night was another one of the those long nights. We had planned on leaving at 10Am...well, we didn't even roll out of bed until 9 due to our 3 hour stint of unhappy wakefulness from 2:45 to 6. So, it was a late start. We eventually rolled out of town around 1.


E was tired! It was way past time for a nap. But, the car seat now faces foward...oh, the fun and joy of looking foward. So, one cannot sleep...there is too much to see. We made it to Lapeer before she fell asleep. Once again, it wasn't really happy wakefulness during this time...I was questioning our decision to leave until E slept until just before the MI border. The remainder of the trip was much better than we had anticipated.

Once we arrived at the hotel, it was time to explore. E checked out every nook and cranny in our hotel room. She then proceeded to check out the rest of the hotel. Like all toddlers, she has a natural draw to the stairs, which she must have climbed at least 10 times. At 9, I finally called her exploring quits and made her go to bed. Hopefully our neighbors were not in their room as bed time insued. Jut could hear her screaming from the lobby at one point in time. But, eventually tired one out and she slept peacefully...for awhile.

About 2:45 AM, the little peanut woke up very unhappy. We gave her the teething medications, but to no avail...she was not going to be quiet unless her mom stood up and held her. Our poor neighbors! I walked the floor with her for about 1.5 hours and Jut took her down to the lobby for an hour or so after that...we again were awake until about 6. Crazy baby!

When she woke back up at 9:20, she was very happy to find her Grandma and Grandpa waiting for her in the lobby.

So with much trepidition, we were off to a wedding with a baby with not much sleep and 2 parents that didn't get quite as much sleep as her.

But, as E proved with Aunt Stacey's wedding in December, she loves a good wedding and she's up for the challenge. E was as good as gold. She let everyone hold her. She loved having a shadow follow her everywhere watching her go up and down and up and down all the wonderful staircases at Aunt Evie's house. Grandpa kept close tabs on her and made sure that she did not get into too much trouble.

She got fed more treats than she had ever been fed. She got to eat two of her new favorite foods...chocolate chip cookies and blueberries. The blueberries were divine!! However, I was glad that she was in disposable diapers because when those blueberries came out the other end...YIKES! The chocolate chip cookies were wonderful too. She made more of a mess with them than she dreamed of making with her 1 year b-day cake.

She was a trooper, but at 6 (mind you, no naps today), Jut and I decided that we had pushed our good luck long enough, and we headed for the road. We didn't think that she could keep rolling for much longer. Sure enough, within 5 minutes of being strapped into her carseat, she was out!

E slept for the entire trip home...5.5 hours. However at 11:30, guess who woke up, wide awake ready to play. So, we fed her dinner (at midnight, do you call it dinner?) and played until 2. Crazy girl. She was awake at 7:30, again.

We were tired!!! and still are, I think...what a fun, crazy weekend!

Beginning Blogging

Well, I guess I've entered into the world of blogs. I'm not sure how, but with the newest changes in our lives occuring, I figured it would be the easiest way for people to stay in contact with what is going on in our lives.

We are on the verge of moving (again...2 time in 9 months). We were offered a position with a church in St. Louis, Michigan. So, we have a candidating weekend scheduled in 2 weeks, and if no one in the congregation objects, we will be moving at the end of the month.

So, the potential move date is July 25th. Today is the 3rd. The math teacher inside of me counts that as 22 days until we move. Do we have a place to move into? Nope...not even any leads? Have we started boxing up anything? Nope...nothing. Are we going to be home in the next 3 weekends to pack? Well, of course not. Why would we want to do that?

We are headed to Indiana this weekend to celebrate my cousin's wedding. Next weekend is our candidating weekend at St. Louis. Jut is going to be chaparoning a week of camp the following week. E and I will be staying at Mom and Dads...and hopefully house hunting. The following weekend is Flegel Family Fun weekend (aka my family reunion) at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Then, the following weekend we are scheduled to move. AGH!

I'm trying really not to stress about it...it will all get done. I'm just not sure how and I guess that is where God comes in.