Edward...

Every night I sing a song to the kids at bedtime. Tonight Kaid requested, 'that Edward song.' My mind was racing to Edward Scissor hands, Edward the Vampire, Grandpa Ed, but nowhere, nohow could I think of a song that I might know of that had the word 'edward' in it. So I asked him to sing a little of it for me. I got, 'Edward, ever edward...' The song would be Called to Serve and the words are 'Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name...'

Catchup on Pictures if Nothing Else!

Warm enough to go outside...

He looked long enough to say 'cheese!'

First warm day....

Good old bunk-bed jumpin'

You say the word 'swimming' and this is how Lexsie appeared after a few moments...

The tree in our back yard doing a 'backbend' during the ice storm. It never broke, and resumed an upright position the next day. What you can't see is the branch behind it backbending over the power line to our house... it didn't break either...

Quinn's 4th Birthday Party

Father Daughter Dance 2011

Cause Men don't Have Babies

We are (I should say I am) the parent that all the other parents dread. When my kids ask the birds and bees questions, I usually try for some watered down version of a mommy and daddy love each other and make a baby. However, when the questions are serious, and specific, we bust out daddy's text books and look at pictures and explain the situation. Tonight was one of those nights. So we looked, we discussed, and I told the boys, that yes is does hurt to have a baby... as I laid the boys down to bed Kaid and Quinn where still have a lengthy discussion about the topic and I hear Kaid say, "cause MEN just don't have babies." Well, at least he got some of it! And Lex wasn't about to miss out on the conversation. In fact, she felt the need to sleep on it.

Making our HOME a house...

It's a lot of work to make our home back into just a house again. Besides the painting, carpet cleaning, wall cleaning, everyday cleaning, snow shoveling, snow days, studying for boards, working shifts, going to classes, puking children, laundry, field trips, homework, gymnastics, karate, church, and wed night activities, it's starting middle school, it's starting kindergarten twice, it's the home of the dangerous duo (yes, Quinn and Lex), it's the fact that our pictures are off the walls, closets are cleaned out, baby stuff given away, toddler stuff given away, moving on... It's saying good bye to our first home that we bought and remembering how excited we were to find it, it's remembering that Lexsie was due to be born any day as we unpacked and moved in, and seeing this big girl walking around the place wondering, 'where did the time go?' It's friends and neighbors slowly pulling away anticipating us leaving, it's the pre-preperations for moving on. Moving where? you might wonder - we still don't have a clue. But we know we must go. Already saying good bye to our home and still living in our house.

He Stikes Again

This boy of mine... he IS supervised! But, he decided to help me get the house on the market with his own fresh coat of paint. So after quickly assessing the situation I decided my most prominent need were the cherry hardwood floors. They would be the hardest and most expensive to replace, then all the wood work up and down the hall and bedroom, and lastly the floors - we were going to replace the carpet (probably) anyway. Now it is a definite. Why oh why can't he be like other normal little boys and write on the wall with crayon?

As I have been working with the Young Women (12-18 year old girls at our church) lately, I have come to the knowledge that eye rolling is a teenagers socially acceptable way of telling their parents that they love them too. I have just realized that my entire purpose of serving in the young women's was to prepare me for my own children who will soon be telling me they love me with an eye-roll. Now, all you nervous nellies out there worried about how to handle your teenager... I have just shared with you my profound insight! Go and roll your eyes...

Picking Sides

The other day my neighbor called and was chit chatting with me. I didn't think too much of the conversation until I was relating it to Craig later that night. The conversation went about like this:

Neighbor: How are things going? We haven't seen Craig's truck around much.

Me: No, he's been out of town, he had to go to Chicago...

Neighbor: Oh, well, how long will he be gone for, when will he get to come home?

Me: Oh, he's home now.

Neighbor: Oh, I guess we just haven't seen his truck around.

Me: Oh, well yeah he was gone for a week, oh yeah and the night before he left he had to buy a new truck.

As I related the conversation I realized what she was really getting at... "who is the strange man coming over - he comes in late at night and leaves early in the morning..." So if the neighbors had to pick sides, I have no doubt they would choose Craig. He is pretty awesome. But rest assured I am only picking Craig - and we had a really good chuckle.

And by the way, we had to say good bye to the 'king of the jungl'e - it got us through med school, deployment, 4 moves, most of a residency, and 160,000 miles of commuting! But, we both have to say, 'ooo lala!' This new truck is a beauty