You know, there are SO many ups and downs to life. It's dizzying really. Life being what it is just has this habit of constantly throwing you for a loop.
Monday was, well, a Monday. You know what I'm talking about. One of those days you'd just rather stay in bed for. The first half of it went just fine. We did some work around the house (we being the kids and I), then later drove out to a place we're looking at for my Dad to possibly buy. Yep, it's a decent place, excellent price, nothing doing. THEN, Mama decides to go to Goodwill. Oddly enough, looking back on it now, I debated back and forth, almost to the point of driving 3/4's of the way home, about whether to go. In the end, the lure of cute little dresses for Ari and storage ideas for small toe- stubbing toes won out. First off, I should probably have taken my cue to head home when Ari said "Momma, I have to go potty." In my head I'm processing this, thinking, "Hmm.. don't think they have a bathroom, we just got in here, don't really want to leave right now.. WHY RIGHT NOW??" So I opened my mouth to say, "Well, can you wait honey?" And that's when I noticed her stance... You know it, if you're a mother, you know it. Legs wide apart, almost bow-legged, arms slightly out and raised, head tilted down staring in horror. "Ari, NO, please, no, not... AWW, man!!" Oh but doesn't yellow stand out so nicely on the white tile floor. I look around frantically, find a baby blanket that will shortly be making its way home with me, plus some toddler urine and clean the mess up. And so, Ari has now earned herself a place in the back of the cart. Again, why I didn't leave RIGHT THEN, I don't know. So, we wandered around the store and even made it 90% of the way through the store before "the event". Disaster struck in the form of 3 small children and a very poorly made shopping cart. You see, Caleb was up in the front section of the cart, enjoying the ride. Arianna was sitting moistley.. err, nicely in the back, also enjoying the ride, and Quenton was walking along with me.
I stopped to look through some pants for my hubby and Quenton, wanting to look at something a bit further away, pushed the cart along with him. All fine and good except when what he was looking for wasn't there, he put his feet up on the bars of the cart (like any child would if they were going to ride on the side while Mom was pushing) and accidentally overbalanced the cart, bringing it crashing down on himself/the floor. PLEASE Lord, let me never again hear that chorus of three little voices all crying out in pain at the same time. :( Caleb and Quenton both took really hard hits to their heads. Ari seemed to take the least of it, I suppose from being inside the basket part. Quenton recovered quickly and was up and jumping around like always after about 3 minutes. Caleb, however, did not seem ok at all. Though he was already a couple of hours past due for a nap, he started acting overly tired, in a way that he doesn't normally act at all. He was nearly falling asleep sitting up. In fact, when I put him in his carseat hoping to be able to head home I could see he would fall asleep in about 15 seconds, so I got him right back out of it and lightly bounced and talked and tickled him, wanting him to stay awake for fear of a concussion. I eventually had to call my hubby and ask him to come help because I knew I couldn't get home without Caleb falling asleep and I just didn't see that as being a good idea. We got him home awake (barely) and after really examining him and checking his eye movement and such, we decided I'd nurse him and let him go to sleep.
That was NOT a good 1.5 hours for me. But even in the midst of a very nerve-wracking situation, I could still feel the presence of the Lord and His hand on me. I knew/know that He was there tending to us.
As it turns out, Caleb woke up completely fine. Barely even worse for the wear. I did go ahead and take him to our chiropractor, as he did seem to be having some neck pain which was giving him some fits while nursing. But since then he's been right as rain. He's enjoying life and crawling like a champ.
So, even in the midst of trouble, YET will I praise Him. Over and over through all that I kept thinking of the verse "You have redeemed my life from the pit." I just felt so strongly that the Lord redeemed the life of my son, and brought me up from the pit of despair. He gave me back the gift of my precious boy. I'm so thankful for His mercy.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Happy March!!
Well, things have been going very well here in MO.. albeit VERY busy! I was blessed to have my Dad come an visit in the first couple of weeks of March. We all enjoyed his visit very much. We now have a new roof, new kitchen sink and faucet *Hallelujah Chorus* and all of our doors shut better ;) Grandpa is
Very good at fixing things!!
So, now that we've got a bunch of things fixed up on the house *eyeroll* we're hoping the Lord will let us sell it. We've found a place a tiny bit out of town that we're VERY interested in. It's a smaller house but has nearly 10 acres!!! We're praying hard for the Lord's guidance. We'd really like to move toward a more self-sufficient way of life, re: Big garden, butchering animals, fruit trees and so on. The place we're eyeing is in just about the perfect setting, already has a barn, has a HUGE basement with a great big root cellar area (actually 2 places for it), and in fact has TONS of empty canning jars that will go with the house. There are a couple of fruit trees there, apple we think, as well as some walnut trees, and possibly some other things. When our whole family went out there to look at it, I watched Quenton's face just light up and I thought "This is IT!"
How my heart yearns for a place that he can run around outside and enjoy the sunshine and the animals and have a puppy and and and and :) I love the house that we're in now, EXCEPT that it's in a housing development (read: small yard) and it's not fenced, nor does it have a window in the kitchen where I can see my little ones if they want to go outside to play.
Please let this house sell Father God!!
So, now that we've got a bunch of things fixed up on the house *eyeroll* we're hoping the Lord will let us sell it. We've found a place a tiny bit out of town that we're VERY interested in. It's a smaller house but has nearly 10 acres!!! We're praying hard for the Lord's guidance. We'd really like to move toward a more self-sufficient way of life, re: Big garden, butchering animals, fruit trees and so on. The place we're eyeing is in just about the perfect setting, already has a barn, has a HUGE basement with a great big root cellar area (actually 2 places for it), and in fact has TONS of empty canning jars that will go with the house. There are a couple of fruit trees there, apple we think, as well as some walnut trees, and possibly some other things. When our whole family went out there to look at it, I watched Quenton's face just light up and I thought "This is IT!"How my heart yearns for a place that he can run around outside and enjoy the sunshine and the animals and have a puppy and and and and :) I love the house that we're in now, EXCEPT that it's in a housing development (read: small yard) and it's not fenced, nor does it have a window in the kitchen where I can see my little ones if they want to go outside to play.
Please let this house sell Father God!!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Trip Home
Well, after the getting stuck episode, we wizened up and got some better tires, then waited for the first clear day and made a run for it. Did I mention by this time Seattle had a good 18inches-2feet worth of snow?? SHOCK!! NOT GOOD!!
The first day wasn't too bad at all. It was so nice to have dh with me :)
The second day, I got it in my head that I wanted to drive, and it, of course, turned out to be the worst driving day we had. Pictures barren plains and then hollow canyons winding around in good ole Oregon, where apparently they don't feel the need to salt or otherwise "de-slick" the road in any way. Then add to that WIND... and LOTS of it. I'm fairly sure our steering wheel has some new ridges in it where I left finger indentations. Fish tailing at 65 mph is NOT ideal. I must say it was amusing to hear Quenton in the back going "WEEEEE!!" while w
e were fish tailing. Poor innocent child.
So, because we wound up stuck in Seattle longer than intended, we ended up being on the road Christmas day. Guess what we had for dinner?
Not ideal certainly, but at least it filled our bellies. Or somethin. :)
Anything can be enjoyed if you're a little cheeseball though, right?
The first day wasn't too bad at all. It was so nice to have dh with me :)
The second day, I got it in my head that I wanted to drive, and it, of course, turned out to be the worst driving day we had. Pictures barren plains and then hollow canyons winding around in good ole Oregon, where apparently they don't feel the need to salt or otherwise "de-slick" the road in any way. Then add to that WIND... and LOTS of it. I'm fairly sure our steering wheel has some new ridges in it where I left finger indentations. Fish tailing at 65 mph is NOT ideal. I must say it was amusing to hear Quenton in the back going "WEEEEE!!" while w
e were fish tailing. Poor innocent child.So, because we wound up stuck in Seattle longer than intended, we ended up being on the road Christmas day. Guess what we had for dinner?
Not ideal certainly, but at least it filled our bellies. Or somethin. :)
Anything can be enjoyed if you're a little cheeseball though, right?
Continuing on ..
Ok, so I figured I'd better continue the story of my long journey to Idaho (and back).
Let it be known, that one should not have one's wisdom tooth pulled as their very first experience seeing a dentist. Shudder. Oh, and ideally, don't do it on vacation when you are visiting somewhere that you want to enjoy the foody places.... On the bright side, it's gone now... on the not so bright side, I will never get those hours of sleep I missed back ;)
So, I go to leave my Dad's house to head over to Seattle and my In-law's house, only to get halfway there and here a discouraging pass report. It'd been snowing off the whole time, and when the crackling radio informed me that the pass was currently closed and would "probably" be opened in an hour or two I thought better of waiting in the 10+
mile line of cars that would be accumulating before the pass opened again. As much as I wanted to go over the pass at 8-9 pm after being in the car 9+ hours with 3 little kids, with 2000 other Seattle drivers on snow covered roads. I, uh, went back.
I did eventually make it over the pass about 3 days later, free of chains, praise the Lord. Ironically several days later as snow fell with a vengeance on Seattle, my poor hubby got stuck one night while he was out getting me a milkshake. Now that's LOVE!!
Let it be known, that one should not have one's wisdom tooth pulled as their very first experience seeing a dentist. Shudder. Oh, and ideally, don't do it on vacation when you are visiting somewhere that you want to enjoy the foody places.... On the bright side, it's gone now... on the not so bright side, I will never get those hours of sleep I missed back ;)
So, I go to leave my Dad's house to head over to Seattle and my In-law's house, only to get halfway there and here a discouraging pass report. It'd been snowing off the whole time, and when the crackling radio informed me that the pass was currently closed and would "probably" be opened in an hour or two I thought better of waiting in the 10+
mile line of cars that would be accumulating before the pass opened again. As much as I wanted to go over the pass at 8-9 pm after being in the car 9+ hours with 3 little kids, with 2000 other Seattle drivers on snow covered roads. I, uh, went back.
I did eventually make it over the pass about 3 days later, free of chains, praise the Lord. Ironically several days later as snow fell with a vengeance on Seattle, my poor hubby got stuck one night while he was out getting me a milkshake. Now that's LOVE!!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Just thought I'd share
There's not really a story behind this picture, other than I took it while we were on our way to North Idaho from Missouri (all 2000+ miles of it). Yes, me, a woman, driving by myself with three kids under 4 :) Yes we made it, and yes I still have all of my hair. Well, minus the bit that my friend cut off to make it more stylish (Thank you LeAnn). Hmm, maybe I took this picture as proof that my kids were actually happy and congenial on the trip. Who knows? But is sure is cute, no?
Welcome Home!
First off, Happy New Year!! Praise God, I know He has so much in store for us this year. Things are changing around here, and I'
m curious to see what God is doing.
For starters, we just got back from a month, yes, that's right, a full MONTH of vacation. What a blessing. Geoffrey's parents blessed us with this trip as our Christmas present. And Geoffrey blessed us by allowing us to go and be away from him for nearly three weeks before he could fly up himself. I can't even tell how wonderful it was to see all of my wonderful family and friends after nearly a year. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder. Oh and how my heart did swell driving over the crest of the hill into Spokane and seeing all of my old favorite sites. Can you tell I miss my old home? Quenton and Arianna certainly enjoyed seeing everyone as well.
It was such a joy to see how Ari bonded (again) with her two cousins, Colton and Hailey. She absolutely loved sitting in Colton's (8) lap, and would do so whenever he sat down. He seemed slightly embarrassed, but flattered as well.
We stayed at my Dad's while we were there. Poor guy. He's used to living alone. I'm pretty sure it was culture shock for him to have 3 young kids in his house for more than two weeks. He took it well though, and was a wonderful gymnasium for the kids ;)
We actually started to leave his house once, and made it all the way to Moses Lake, Wa., which is about halfway between North Idaho and Seattle. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm traveling over the mountains at that time and they closed the pass for a while. So, back to Grandpa Bill's we went. We waited a couple more days and then made the trip for real.
m curious to see what God is doing.For starters, we just got back from a month, yes, that's right, a full MONTH of vacation. What a blessing. Geoffrey's parents blessed us with this trip as our Christmas present. And Geoffrey blessed us by allowing us to go and be away from him for nearly three weeks before he could fly up himself. I can't even tell how wonderful it was to see all of my wonderful family and friends after nearly a year. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder. Oh and how my heart did swell driving over the crest of the hill into Spokane and seeing all of my old favorite sites. Can you tell I miss my old home? Quenton and Arianna certainly enjoyed seeing everyone as well.
It was such a joy to see how Ari bonded (again) with her two cousins, Colton and Hailey. She absolutely loved sitting in Colton's (8) lap, and would do so whenever he sat down. He seemed slightly embarrassed, but flattered as well.
We stayed at my Dad's while we were there. Poor guy. He's used to living alone. I'm pretty sure it was culture shock for him to have 3 young kids in his house for more than two weeks. He took it well though, and was a wonderful gymnasium for the kids ;)
We actually started to leave his house once, and made it all the way to Moses Lake, Wa., which is about halfway between North Idaho and Seattle. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm traveling over the mountains at that time and they closed the pass for a while. So, back to Grandpa Bill's we went. We waited a couple more days and then made the trip for real.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Just Checkin' In
This year is flying by!! Can you believe we're almost to the end of 2008!!!! Wow! At the end of this month Quenton will be FOUR. My goodness, it seems like only yesterday ;) I really really need to scan some pictures of Quen when he was a baby; he and Caleb look identical other than Quen has the darkest brown eyes and Caleb has the brightest blue eyes. My guess is that their personalities will NOT be the same though. Caleb is far more layed back, very easy come easy go. He loves to just lay and watch what's going on around him. Quenton was and is a busy dude. He likes to be on the go and he likes to be in charge. I'm sure we'll have some interesting times here in about a year or so :D
Following are some pictures of my two little guys together, see if you can see the resemblance before I scan in a picture of Quenton as a baby.
This one was taken to commemorate Grandma Vicki sending these adorable hats for everyone. Ari was eating lunch at the time or she would have been pictured sporting her pink one. Caleb was going to his happy place. Have you ever met a baby that likes hats?
I HAD to include this picture cause it's SO stinkin' cute, and though you can't SEE Quenton in it, he's the one that Caleb's smiling at. Some of Caleb's first and biggest smiles were for his big bro.
LOVE those baby cheeks!!!
Now don't wet yourself, but yes, that is my not quite 4 year old holding, without any support (!!) his 16+ lb baby brother. And he even looks happy about it. I tried it out with him before hand, seeing if he was strong enough and then I HAD to get a picture. How cute is that?
Following are some pictures of my two little guys together, see if you can see the resemblance before I scan in a picture of Quenton as a baby.
This one was taken to commemorate Grandma Vicki sending these adorable hats for everyone. Ari was eating lunch at the time or she would have been pictured sporting her pink one. Caleb was going to his happy place. Have you ever met a baby that likes hats?
I HAD to include this picture cause it's SO stinkin' cute, and though you can't SEE Quenton in it, he's the one that Caleb's smiling at. Some of Caleb's first and biggest smiles were for his big bro.
LOVE those baby cheeks!!!
Now don't wet yourself, but yes, that is my not quite 4 year old holding, without any support (!!) his 16+ lb baby brother. And he even looks happy about it. I tried it out with him before hand, seeing if he was strong enough and then I HAD to get a picture. How cute is that?
Thursday, November 6, 2008
My precious worker man!
I couldn't bring myself to close my blog tonight without showing off what a wonderful helper I have in my precious Quenton. He is a very hard worker, with a wonderful attitude. I've been blown away by how much he can already do. He's not yet four, and as you will see, he can pretty much do the laundry completely by himself!!
Usually Arianna (his two year old sister)
is in there pushing the clothes into the dryer for
him so he doesn't have to get up and down,
but for the sake of the documentary, it seemed
fitting that he should be doing the pushing himself. lol!
Alrighty, washer is empty, dryer is full. Start 'er up Bub.
Pushing the button is the favorite part you know.
Now, let's see about starting up another load!
Now, get Mom's homemade soap, 
yes Mom does make her own
laundry soap at times :) ,
measure it out and throw it
in the washer.
And now the clothes go in!!
Voila! The clothes are in, the lid is shut, and my little man did an awesome job!! At this rate I will have worked myself out of a job by the time he's about 8 ;)
I'm accepting applications for marriage at this time. *Snort*
Here we have a Quenton dangling precariously off of the edge of the washing machine, taking wet clothes out and putting them in the dryer. Did I mention he has extraordinary balance (and there's a stool down there out of the view of the camera)?
Usually Arianna (his two year old sister)
is in there pushing the clothes into the dryer for
him so he doesn't have to get up and down,
but for the sake of the documentary, it seemed
fitting that he should be doing the pushing himself. lol!
Alrighty, washer is empty, dryer is full. Start 'er up Bub.
Pushing the button is the favorite part you know.
Now, let's see about starting up another load!
Now, get Mom's homemade soap, 
yes Mom does make her own
laundry soap at times :) ,
measure it out and throw it
in the washer.
And now the clothes go in!!
Voila! The clothes are in, the lid is shut, and my little man did an awesome job!! At this rate I will have worked myself out of a job by the time he's about 8 ;)
I'm accepting applications for marriage at this time. *Snort*
Let's see, where did I leave off
It seems to me I was posting pictures of my little doll face :)
I'm having one of those warm fuzzy, I just love my kids so much I can barely stand it nights. *Grin* God is so, so good!
Here's Caleb getting a bath. I heart bath pictures. Babies are just so stinkin' cute nekked. Love the rolls ;)
Here we have Ari, trying desperately to
be a little mother. As you can see, Caleb is having nothing to do with it.
This was taken on Ari's birthday (Sept. 23rd). That little doll in her lap has been dubbed "Baby Rachael" and she carries her everywhere. Every time Momma gets our the nursing pillow, Ari likes to carry baby Rachael over and "nurse her" from her protruding belly button *snort*. She is ALL girl. I can't wait (in some ways) to see what a terrific mother she will be.
I'm having one of those warm fuzzy, I just love my kids so much I can barely stand it nights. *Grin* God is so, so good!
Here's Caleb getting a bath. I heart bath pictures. Babies are just so stinkin' cute nekked. Love the rolls ;)
Here we have Ari, trying desperately to
be a little mother. As you can see, Caleb is having nothing to do with it.
This was taken on Ari's birthday (Sept. 23rd). That little doll in her lap has been dubbed "Baby Rachael" and she carries her everywhere. Every time Momma gets our the nursing pillow, Ari likes to carry baby Rachael over and "nurse her" from her protruding belly button *snort*. She is ALL girl. I can't wait (in some ways) to see what a terrific mother she will be.
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