Thanks Elmo!

Do you love Elmo?

 Me neither.

Ok that's not really the truth. Ben was never interested in Elmo or Sesame Street for that matter. He was a Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine kind of man. But the twins love Sesame Street, I loves Sesame Street as a little one too. But recently the writers of Sesame Street have taken the show to a whole other level! Today while watching with the little ones I was suprised to see Ricky Gervais, one the funniest men alive! You must check it out, Elmo has such great chemistry with celebrities!

Thank you Sesame Street writers for making my 'children's shows only' life a little more interesting.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Independence

Boy am I glad it's Wednesday, I'm feeling rather wordless these days....

I title this

Independence

It's a wonderful thing!

Not My Christmas Cards....

I am working on a much longer in depth post, something about perspective, so this will be a short Not Me Monday but I wanted to post one none the less.

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

So have you  put all of your holidau decorations away? Are they safely packed away for next year? Mine are! Well at least that's what I thought until I realized that I had forgotten something. This is most certainly NOT the back of my front door. There is no way that I didn't notice the few token Christmas cards left hanging there. I am way more observant than that... really....

I guess it's time to take those down....

My tangled ball of yarn

I don’t feel like blogging. I don’t feel like myself.

I feel like this:

A tangled mess of yarn, pulled and twisted into something unfinished at both ends, wound into knots and shoved into a little plastic jar.

Life happens to be stressful right now. And I have no desire to take it in stride. I am blessed to be married to a man that just goes with the flow. He may be like “what the heck” for a moment but then he simply shrugs his shoulders and says “that’s life”. But I don’t want to be that level headed and adult. I want to stomp my feet and pout in the corner. But I can’t. I shouldn’t.

We have to move soon, out of a home that I love. A home that we really thought would be ours but is being sold out from under us and we have been asked to leave. So in April we leave. But I don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like looking for a new rental when what I really want is a home of my own. I don’t feel like packing or moving or leaving my big backyard or the morning doves that live in the tree in the front yard. I just don’t feel the way I want to feel. There is nothing at this point that I want more than to be excited about this change, to take it on as an adventure and a chance to grow as a family. To learn to rely on my Lord, my rescuer. But sadly, I just don’t feel like it.

The mood that I’m in is no help to where we are in life. Liam has been sick for the past few weeks. His asthma has been persistent which called for steroids. Oh the steroids! Poor Liam is a savage when he’s on steroids. He is uncontrollable and aggressive. I am truly exhausted from policing his wake. But I’m forced to look on the bright side; the wheezing has stopped and the inhaled steroid he was put on causes fewer side effects than the oral one (like turning my sweet gentle baby that says ‘thank you much’ for everything into a sibling attacking monster).

Thankfully, venting helps. Airing my complaints and frustrations down on paper…or a computer screen… puts things into perspective. And quite honestly it makes me feel bad for feeling like this. So I’ll make an effort to feel better, to find joy in my frustration, to make my tangled mess and turn it into something wonderful.

Generations of Love

As Valentines Day approaches, I've been thinking a lot about love. Not just the love between my husband and I but the love that created each generation of my family. The past in my family is a long and beautiful tale of lifelong marriages.

Can you see it in my Great Great Grandparents?

The beauty of a family's love story.

My paternal Grandparent's had never met but fell in love through letters during WWII.

 

My stunning maternal Grandparents on their wedding day, my mom wore that dress too.

My mom and dad, married six weeks after they met, had five beautiful children and have been the greatest influence on my life.

Erik and I have a lot to live up to, a long way to go. But as we get ready to celebrate our thirteenth Valentines Day together, more in love than ever, I'd say we're off to a good start.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello computer, you've been missed

Whew… I’m glad that’s over! A little over two weeks ago my husband sent off our little laptop, our window to the outside world. It was suffering with a whole punctured in the monitor by a rowdy toddler with an iPod cable and a not so touchy touch pad. I wasn’t prepared for its departure or the length of its absence. But it’s back now and like a whole new computer. Thank goodness!

So what have we been up to for the past few weeks?

Plenty.

This wonderful little man had a major asthma flare up.

Yes, this angelic little face is currently on four medications, not counting the Motrin to control the fever that came back after over a week. But his asthma is under control for now, on Monday we are addressing more allergy testing. I’ll be pushing for a gluten test. Wish us luck!

So what else have we been up too? Let’s see…

A nasty cold traveled around the entire family.

Fed my niece Cosette (Baby Coco) a bottle for the first time.

Papa got contacts (it’s so nice to know he can see when he drives…)

Watched Ben skip for the first time and celebrated what this means for his coordination.

We played with Grandma and baby Coco at the children’s museum.

Filled out an accident report at said museum.

Drew on the sidewalk with chalk for the first time this year.

And then watched it wash away in the rain.

Spent time with my husband instead of the computer in the evening.

Ben started reading, well trying really hard to read before frustration takes over.

Joined a women’s Bible study at Ben’s school and am stepping out of my comfort zone.

The twins colored on themselves, the walls, the fridge, the floor, each other…

Decided that building a house is the best option for us, when that is actually an option sometime next fall.

Ben went back to occupation therapy, otherwise known as Lynn’s Gym.

Learned about Churches Helping Churches (check it out!)

So really we’ve been up to nothing at all. Life went on with or without our computer, with or without blogging. But I’m glad both are back.