The Pain of Loss

Please pray. On Friday, a friend from church delivered a stillborn baby. The baby, a precious little 8 lb. 8 oz. boy, was born on his due date with no previous indications that anything was wrong. I am struggling to understand why this would happen, but I trust that he is cradled in the arms of Jesus. The pain must be nearly unbearable. I've cried a thousand tears, and yet his parents surely have cried thousands more. Mothers,try to imagine having to leave the hospital without your baby and then to return home to his finished nursery without being able to lay him in his crib. Keep Ryan and Rachael in your prayers. They desperately need to feel the comfort and peace that only God can provide.

An Open Letter

Dear Mr. Clean Magic Eraser,

Thank you for allowing me to feel as though I have a brand new shower for the first time since it was actually brand new. For years, the red chalk residue left behind by my husband has been an unwelcome presence in the tub. I have searched long and hard to find a way to defeat this enemy but have been sorely disappointed each and every time. The search is over. This very day, victory is mine. Goodbye forever, pale red ring around my tub. I will not miss you. Mr. Clean, you are the man, and your magic eraser makes me happy.

Love,

Amy

Fall Festival Fun

Here are the rest of the pictures from the Fall Festival. The kids loved watching the parade. They really enjoyed getting to see Pa Pa (on the back in a red coat) riding on an old fire truck with the GHS Class of 1974. A lot of candy was thrown our way from that float! There were also a bunch of bouncy things for the kids to play in after the parade. It was a blast!

Pumpkins and Such

What? I have a blog? Oh, that's right. I do. We've been busy, yadda, yadda, yadda. That's the go-to excuse for not blogging, so I'll choose not to make excuses today. I just haven't been in the mood. Anyway, there has been a lot going on, which I will fill you in on in multiple batches of pictures over the next few days (that's my intention anyway). The girls and I travelled down to KS for the big Fall Festival/Homecoming extravaganza. We had a good trip. I started a new Bible study on Wednesday mornings, which I really like. Both girls are old enough to come with me and go to their own class. They're lovin' it. What else...? Oh, I'm in the process of potty training Lauryn. That's fun. I have been dreading this for the last six months, and here we are. It's going all right, I guess. She pooped in the potty chair for the first time today, so that's a definite improvement! Anyway, here are some pictures to enjoy!

We had lots of fun painting and carving pumpkins at Grandma and Pa Pa's house last weekend! Grandma carved the jack-o-lantern face and the Cinderella, which was a big hit! Too bad it's already starting to go bad.

The Big Two

My baby's 2 years old today! Can you believe it? Me neither. We had birthday blueberry muffins for breakfast and are heading out to lunch with Daddy this afternoon. Later this afternoon Grandma and PaPa will get into town, and Grandpa and RaRa, Aunt Twink, and Aunt Marla will all come tomorrow! We're looking forward to a fun-filled weekend of celebrating! Happy birthday, Lauryn!

Closing Out an Era

So, I turned 30 a couple weeks ago. I've had a little time to let it sink in now, so I have a few thoughts on the end of one decade and the beginning of another. I remember thinking that 30 was so old and was really far away. Yet here it is, not so old at all, and it really didn't take that long to get here. It just kind of sneaks up on you. One day you're 25, and the next thing you know - BOOM - you're 30. Just like that. But what's the big deal? I don't feel much different. One of my friends thinks her metabolism completely shut down when she hit 30 back in June. To that I say, "I never had any anyways, so I haven't noticed a difference."

I didn't think I was ready to let go. My 20's were so good to me. I got married, graduated from college, bought a house, and had two beautiful girls during those years. These are not small feats, mind you. Each of those things changed me in some way, for the better, if I do say so myself. So, I guess I do feel a little different. When the 3rd graders I taught in AWANA my frehman year of college are now in college themselves, a little pang of "oldness" hits the pit of my stomach. Oh well. "Like sand through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives." Right?

Anyway, I guess maybe I am a little older and a little wiser. The next ten years will be good years too. I will get to watch my girls grow up, spend more time with my husband, grow in my relationship with God, and hopefully gain a little more wisdom (and a little less weight). Thanks for the memories, 20's, but I think I'm ready to move on.

Morning Messes

Kaylee rushed into the kitchen saying, "Uh oh, Mom. Come look what Lauryn did." These are not the words you want to hear at 9:00 in the morning, or any time, for that matter. I found the bathroom a disaster: Q-tips, pads, and bobby pins all over the floor. I called Lauryn in and made her help clean up the mess. When we were done, the girls went back to play and I stayed to use the restroom. When I opened the toilet, I figured out why it didn't seem like we had picked up as many Q-tips as I thought we had. Yep, the rest of them were floating in the toilet. Awesome. I attempted to scoop them out with a big spoon. That was useless, so I resorted to fishing them out with my bare hand. At least Kaylee hadn't peed in there this morning and forgot to flush.

4th of July in Photos (late, as usual)

Thank You, Wisconsin Dells

Well, we're back to the old grind. Vacation to Wisconsin Dells was great. The weather did not choose to cooperate, but we had a good time anyway. I think the high one day was literally 60 degrees. Nothing like wearing jeans and jackets to a water park. Let's just say we spent a lot of time on roller coasters and indoor water parks. The girls had a blast, and Kaylee said at dinner the other night, "I wish we were still at Mt. Olympus. Can we go there again?" Maybe this will turn into a yearly event. There were a total of 8 of us staying in a 2-bedroom suite. (B&J and the kiddos had their own room.) It worked out well, but what's a family vacation without someone being walked in on in the shower? In this case, I was the one in the shower, and my father-in-law was the unlucky walker-inner. Long story. I'll spare you the details. And now that it's out there, we shall never speak of it again. And now, what you've all been waiting for:

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Thank you Grandma for taking Kaylee & Lauryn on the spinning rides!

This ride was like the Detonator at World of Fun - but for kids. She LOVED it!

Lauryn and Uncle Chad formed a special bond during this trip!

Kaylee on the kids' roller coaster. She makes friends everywhere.

Chris, Ally & Kaylee on the ice cold water slide

Kaylee on the go-carts. She is the stereotypical woman driver. Sheesh.

Mind wanderings...

Why am I concerned about my carpets being nicely vacuumed before the carpet-cleaning guys come? What are they going to say? "Hey, lady, your carpets are really dirty." Well, isn't that why I called you in the first place?

I'm all about the Ford F-150 right now...

We are pleased to introduce the newest addition to the family - the pool. The girls and I trudged across town, visiting our second Wal-Mart of the day, in search of this little gem. Thankfully, the 2nd store had it, but our spirits were crushed when we discovered we couldn't fit it in the van to bring it home. Kaylee cried. I considered following suit. Seriously, it was hot that day. Super crazy hot. I resigned myself to helping the Wal-Mart employee carry it back inside to be picked up at a later time with our truck. Then, out of nowhere, an angel in an F-150 came up beside us and offered to drive it to our house - across town, mind you. She had been waiting in front of me in line with her 2 kids to pay for the exact same pool as I was getting. We are indebted to this woman, whose name we don't even know. She would only let me compensate her long drive with popsicles, God bless her. Thanks to her, my kids didn't melt into small puddles.

Life in the 'Burbs Part Deux

We were cleaning up from the garage sale on Saturday when a man came running up our circle screaming, "Does anyone have a fire extinguisher? We've got a vehicle fire over here!" Um, ok, so I know we have one, but, of course, I can't find it. (Turns out it's in the back of Chris's work truck which was parked directly in front of our house.) The man ran away fairly quickly, so what else are we to do but follow? This was the scene within minutes:

The firemen finally put out the blaze, and the van was hauled away by a tow truck, leaving a stream of ash behind. The people in it were ok, but there van is, well, toast.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We're having a super busy week. Vacation Bible School has a lock on our mornings. The kids are having an awesome time. Lauryn's in great hands in the nursery and seems to be enjoying herself. Kaylee is really having fun in her class of 22 4 & 5 year olds. (How would you like to lead that class?) She's making crafts, singing songs, learning Bible stories and verses, and enjoying playing with her friends. Mommy is having fun too - in the craft department. You probably know that my crafting ability ranks low on the scale, but it's a fun step out of my comfort zone.

I'm also in the process of preparing for a garage sale in a week and a half. Chris thinks I'm crazy. Maybe I am. Hopefully we can make a little extra cash to take on our vacation to Wisconsin.

Tomorrow we're off to visit PaPa and Grandma for a long weekend. Chris can't come because he has to work. He's making a mental to-do list of things he wants to get done while we're gone. They include re-sanding the drywall and repainting the bathroom, patching the drywall holes from the baby gate, and who knows what else. I'm excited to see the progress he can make without two little girls begging Daddy to push them on the swing!

Oh, and did I mention I'm going to see Rascal Flatts on Friday night? It's been too long since I've seen them in concert, and I can't wait. The kids will be in good hands, and I hope they don't wait up for me. I'm going to try and weasel my way on the tour bus.

Backyard Fun

Have you guys seen this yet? We have the best daddy in the whole world! Look what he made us. Come over and play any time!

Cubbie Kaylee

Kaylee had one of her first major accomplishments at the end of April. She finished her first Cubbie book in AWANA. For those of you not familiar with AWANA, it's a Bible memory program with games, skits, songs, and book time for kids ages 3 - high school. (Our church only does it through 6th grade.) Anyway, Kaylee memorized every verse in her book and got her first award. She was very proud, and you can bet Daddy and Mommy were too.

The Fabulous Fours (I hope!)

It's cliche, really, when parents say things like "Where does the time go?" and "It seems like just yesterday..." I always thought those were the lamest things to say when talking about your kids until I had some of my own. Seriously, where does the time go? Our first little bundle of joy turns 4 today. Kaylee is so much fun. She loves her daddy, mommy, and little sister, and she is learning to love Jesus. We thank God that he chose us to be her parents. She brings us a lot of joy.

She got a bicycle for her birthday, along with a helmet and knee/elbow pads. She put them on first thing when she got up. I think her first attempt out in the street went pretty well. We need to work on how to use the brakes.

Happy birthday, Kaylee! We love you so much and are enjoying watching you grow up from a "little kid" to a "big girl!"

Life in the 'burbs

It was a peaceful Saturday night. I retired around 11:30 to do my nightly crossword puzzle while Chris fell asleep in his chair (his nightly routine). I dozed off and was rudely awakened at midnight by the sound of a very loud engine. Those of you who have been to our house know that this is pretty much guaranteed to be a particular neighbor of ours. I dozed back off and woke up 10 minutes later to the same sound. This time Lauryn started crying. Now I'm ticked. I wanted Chris to go over there and tell the guy to cool it. I mean, seriously, it's after midnight. Chris opened the window to see what was going on and to see if it looked safe enough for some sort of middle-of-the-night confrontation. Intoxicated Neighbor gets back in his truck after punching his garage door and peals out - loudly, once again. Anyway, I start spouting off about how he's going to get somebody killed acting like a 3-year old and driving after drinking. Next thing you know, we hear the sirens and within seconds, Neighbor's truck is pulling back into his driveway, two police cars following closely behind. Needless to say, Chris and I crowded around the one open window to see what was going down. Neighbor got out of the truck when he was told not to, so Cop #1 spread-eagles him and cuffs him immediately. Nice. After a while, Cop #2 gets neighbor out of the car, uncuffs him, and attempts to do a field sobriety test. After 3 attempts at "put your hands at your sids, tilt your head back, and close your eyes for 30 seconds," said attempt was deemed a failure. He ended up getting recuffed and taken to jail, charged with a DUI. Who says nothing exciting happens in the big O? You should move to our neighborhood.

The Big 3-0

Chris turned 30 on April 15th, so we celebrated Saturday night with family and friends. My mom made an awesome monster truck cake, and our neighbor, Brandon, smoked some awesome pork roast that turned into awesome BBQ pork sandwiches. He got a Wii for his birthday and a Monster Jam game. A good time was had by all.

Myrtle Beach Part 1

Congratulations to Jeremy and Marla who have been married a little over a week now! We had a good time in Myrtle Beach. These pictures are from the actual wedding, and I'll follow later with more from the rest of our trip.

Newest Addition to the Family

Join us in welcoming the newest addition to our extended family, Tana Rae. She was born yesterday afternoon to Chris's sister, Brenda, and her husband, Jason. Big sister Ally and big brother Drew are super excited to have a new baby sister! Chris's mom called yesterday to tell us the news, and Kaylee was so glad to hear it was a sister. I told her the baby's name was Tana, and she said, "Oh, like Hannah Montana. Cool. I always wanted a baby Tana." How in the world does my kid know Hannah Montana already? Sheesh. Anyway, congrats to the proud mama, papa, sister, and brother. We're looking forward to meeting Tana in person soon! Oh, and also a big happy birthday to Ally. She's six today - just one day after her baby sister was born!

Livin' on the Edge

I did it. I tanned on Monday night, and after only 6 minutes in a Level 1 bed, I got burned. Not badly, but enough to make me cringe a little. To be perfectly fair, the burned parts are those that never see the light of day and most likely never will. I believe I mentioned before that I was a little nervous about closing myself into the coffin-like tanning bed. Julie told me that her biggest fear while tanning was that there would be a tornado while she was in there, and she would have to evacuate the building completely naked. Huh. I never thought of that... Lisa told me that her fear is that some dirty old man has a secret peep hole into the room and watches her undress. Huh. I never thought of that either... I guess all I had thought of was some crazed man breaking through the locked door and stabbing me to death while I lay oblivious in my loud, heated cocoon. And as if that weren't enough, check out the article Kim sent me. Don't worry, Marla, I have every intention of going back. I like life on the edge.

Up and Coming

The second edition of "Flip This House - Chris & Amy Style" is almost ready to air. Stay tuned for pictures in the coming days. It will be on the market this week! We are thanking God for an answer to prayer - the house passed both city inspections the first time! Well, we did have to properly install the smoke detectors, but on a house that previously had multiple code violations, that was a piece of cake. Anyway, like I said, pictures will be a-comin'.

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In other news... my sister will be happy to know that I'm going to start tanning for her wedding. It's on April 4th, and I'm just starting this week. Better late than never. That's my life motto. It's my first time tanning since my own wedding - and that was my first time ever. I dislike it very much. It's just for you, Marla.

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And let me just vent for a second about my DVR. Don't get me wrong, I really do love having the ability to tape a television show to watch after my children are sleeping without having to insert a VCR tape. However, when American Idol decides to go overtime without letting my DVR know about it, I get a little huffy. I didn't even know they let Anoop AND dueling-piano-guy in until I saw that it said Top 13 on the show's info screen for next week. I had to go online and watch the video clip. Sheesh. And for those of you who just rolled your eyes at me, sorry. Can't a girl watch just one (or two) hours of useless television nonsense a week without having to explain herself? I think so.

I'm ready for spring. Can you tell?

Goings on and such...

Did I tell you what we did for Valentine's Day this year? We're wearing out our babysitting rotation this month, so we decided to celebrate family Valentine's Day this year. We took both kids to the movies. It was Lauryn's first time and Kaylee's second time. We figured that as long as we had a giant tub of popcorn, everybody should be good. Thankfully, we were right. Lauryn was getting a little fidgety by the end, but I'd call it a success. "Bolt" is a pretty cute movie that's totally clean and acceptable for little kids. It was probably a little too involved for Kaylee, but she enjoyed it. We went to the cheap movie matinee, so it actually cost more for the popcorn and drink than it did to get into the theater. Gotta love it. I hope you all celebrated in a way that was special! Chris and I have "couple" things to do for the next two Friday nights, so we're glad we got to do a fun family thing last weekend.

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We're excited that Grandma Ra Ra and Aunt Twink are coming to visit us this weekend. (They will be our Friday-night babysitters!) Here's to good weather while they're traveling.

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Oh, and if you think of it, say a prayer for my Aunt Cindy. She's in ICU and possibly had a massive stroke. They're calling in the family. Remember my mom too. She's lost both parents and one sister already, and now there's the possibility of losing another. It's not easy.

Back to Reality

After a couple of 60* days this past week, God chose to remind us that technically this is still winter by dealing us a pretty decent snow storm yesterday. I think we ended up with 6" or 7" of snow. Seriously, it was about 50* on Thursday, and then a snow storm on Friday. That's the Midwest for ya. Needless to say, we did not have our usual Friday afternoon lunch with Chris yesterday, which was a bummer. But, Daddy made up for it when he got home by taking the kids out for some fun in the snow!

Add this to the list of things I never thought I'd hear my child say...

We were picking things up in Kaylee's room the other night just before bedtime. She was putting away tiny foam crafting stickers that she had been playing with when I heard the dreaded words. No, not "I just puked." Although those are definitely up there. They are the other words that strike fear into the heart of any mother. "I JUST GOT IT STUCK IN MY NOSE!" Are you kidding me? Chris said he saw her do it, but he thought she was just picking her nose. Nice.

As I assume my natural freaking out position (includes wide eyes, flailing hands, and a shrill voice), Chris tries to calm the also-freaking-out child. I pull myself together and look in her nose. I can see it. It's orange, and I think I can get it with tweezers. Chris asks Kaylee to blow her nose to see if it will come out, and of course, she sniffs in instead. It's not that she doesn't know how to blow her nose. It was just instinct, I think. At that point, the foreign object is sucked into oblivion and no longer visible to the naked eye. I'm getting nervous again. By the way, she's screaming in pain pretty much this whole time.

I go call Urgent Care, and as I suspected, they tell me that I need to take her to the Children's ER where they are "more equipped to handle that sort of thing." Sheesh. After hanging up, Kaylee says, "Hey, it's gone! I'm OK, Mom." Hmmm... what does one do now? We decided to do nothing. I consulted a nurse friend the next day who agreed with my suspicion that she probably ended up swallowing it without even realizing it.

Our new favorite saying around here: We never ever put anything in our nose, right? Right.

Trying to get caught up...

OK, finally something you guys actually want to look at: pictures of the fam. For starters, does anyone see a pattern in the gifts Chris got me for Christmas this year? He says he honestly didn't realize that every single item was red. And he says he's colorblind. Hmmm... Oh, and I have no idea why my camera decided to date stamp everything 1/1/2003. These were definitely taken this Christmas. Trust me.

The kids had fun opening presents, and they got lots of good stuff!