blessed...and recharged

Father We Thank Thee
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

For flowers that bloom about our feet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For the song of bird and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,
Father, we thank Thee.
For pleasant shade of branches high,
Father, we thank Thee.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,
Father, we thank Thee.
For rest and shelter of the night,
Father, we thank Thee
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

And for a beautiful, wonderful, lovely Thanksgiving day spent with family that pushed away the stresses in our lives for a while helping us focus on what is really important,

Father in heaven, we thank thee.

a little ketchup...

Grab a cup of tea and a cookie, maybe even two because this post is a long one! I have been silent for far too long and thought you deserved a little ketchup...not on your cookies, but rather...

...on the Twins!

S, my brother L and I attended the best baseball game. EVER!:

• Twins vs Tigers, 10/6/09
• tie-braker for Division Championship
• section 202 row 6 (paid $85 a piece for the $11 tickets, but they were SO worth it!) - GREAT view
  
• ~54,000+ fans with homer hankies in attendance
• TWINS WIN in the 12th inning!
• Fantastic baseball by both teams - good and close game all night!
• G at friend A's house, Aahma rode along with L to watch W&C

Such a fun time with S and L and so great to see one last Twins game in the dome - thanks for asking us to go to the game with you, L! Love ya!

video after a home run by the Twins - shows how LOUD it was in the dome!

...on little C!

Oh the forgotten third child. I started this blog to hopefully be able to keep track of baby milestones and have failed this boy miserably! I looked back and I think the last official baby C update was when he was 2 months! Well, he is certainly not forgotten in our day to day life and is such a fun and good baby. But to catch you up a little bit, here are some quick C stats and updates.

• 4 months in May (27" tall - 97%, 17 lb 6 oz - 90%)
• fun giggles, especially at brother and sister, could reach for things, pick them up and hold onto them, started to clap too!
  
• at 5 months got his first two teeth on the bottom, two on the top quickly followed
  
• 6 months in July (27 3/4" tall - 90%, 20 lb - 88%)
• could finally roll over in both directions - lots of chub to move!, babbled a lot and was definitely not the quiet third child, got two more top teeth and one more bottom tooth
  
• at 7 months starting to sit up well

• at 8 months he loved to sit up and play with toys or just watch what was going on. So much fun to be able to just take him from room to room and have him be happy on his own on the floor as long as he wass by us, and he was getting good at rolling to whatever he wants too. Definitely mobile!
• and he got that last bottom tooth and had 8 teeth!..and no hair...and wore 12 month size clothes
• 9 months in October (29 1/2" tall - 80%, 22 lb 8 oz - 80%) - C was the exact size W was when he turned a year! He is our big boy and the 12 month size clothes are starting to be too tight
• C could finally handle solid foods at this point (digestive issues and could not process them earlier)! Started off easy with oatmeal cereal and quickly moved to baby food and before we knew it he was chowing down 3-4 jars of baby food a day! Too spendy for our budget and I was not having good luck with our blender or the baby food grinder, so we splurged and got a magic bullet for buzzing up our food into baby food for him. LOVE IT! It works so great and is really easy! It will definitely pay for itself!

• C is already betrothed. Good friends from church, M&A, had a daughter, G, in July. They also have a little girl, A, who is our G's age and good friends with her. One day they came over to play and turned out that our C and their G had the same outfit on! Without us even realizing that the other even had the same outfit (G's is 0-3 month, and C's is 12-18 month though)! We decided they were destined for each other, although I am not sure how C feels about it!
  

• right at 9 1/2 months C's mobility moved beyond rolling! He army crawled for about 2 days and realized he had too much weight to drag along the ground, so started getting up on all fours, and in a day or two had the crawling thing down!
  
• at 10 months he now moves quickly and is determined to get into anything that he is not supposed to - cords, computers, rocks, shoes, paper, books, shoes, brother and sister's things (G gets frustrated, W has all out tantrums!), shoes (he's like a puppy - loves to chew on shoes!)...it is so funny to see their little personalities already at this age - he is beyond sweet, but definitely could be our little stinker!
• C also signed his first word! We have been using American sign language with him from around 8-9 months when we are doing things like feeding him, picking him up, etc. And when Steve was feeding him one night and signing "more" to "eat" for him, he signed "more" back! And did it again and again for "more" bites, so we know he got it! So much fun to see their little brains really start to work and get things
  

...on W!

Oh this boy can be the sunshine of our lives one minute, and a frustrating "terrible 2 yr old" the next!

• W's has always had a advanced vocabulary, but it has really been taking off lately! With it went the ability to understand him for a while since he was trying to talk in big people sentences, but now is really talking clearly, and a lot! He also has known all his colors for quite a while and knows his alphabet and letter sounds too. (Helps to watch big sister there!)
  
• He is such a boy. He loves being outside, getting dirty, trucks, throwing balls, making noises, and is just now starting to get into the rough-housing and tough-guy stage (which momma is not liking as much, especially when he tackles baby C!).
  
• Even though he is a boy-boy, he does have an older sister whom he loves and wants to copy every thing that she does. He will tell you his favorite color is pink, can be seen wearing his snoodle as a "princess dress" and has a baby-doll named "BA-nana" whom he nurses "just like momma!"

• W is also very into coloring lately. He concentrates very hard when he colors and loves to show off his pictures
• He loves books. All our kids do and we foster that as much as we can by reading to them, having them around all the time (in every room practically!), and going to the library often for storytime and to pick out new books, which is a favorite outing of W's lately.
  

...on G!

She's 4! We can't believe how old she is some days. Seriously, how did that time go so fast! Don't even start me on how she will go to school next year...unless you want to deal with a blubbering puddle at your feet!

• our fabulous family photographer has been uber busy lately (like with this...and this...and this!), so 4 yr old pics of G by her did not happen around G's birthday which we totally understood! So one nice day in September I decided to channel my inner auntie C and took some pics of G in the backyard:
  

• She is growing up so much! And she wants to be part of the "grown-up" conversations so bad! She listens intently to S and I when we talk and regularly interrupts them trying to re-say or re-tell what we just did so that she can be a part of our conversations. Like when we were discussing rearranging furniture on our yellow level. After talking about different ideas over breadsticks one Sunday night, G says "wait a minute! I have a GREAT idea! We can move this couch over here and this couch against that wall...and the TV over here (basically what S and I had just talked about doing)...and then W and I will have a LOT more room to run and play!"
• Her big interests lately have been coloring and drawing. The little kids table we had purchased from IKEA quite a while back was proving to be way too small for her and her brother to both work on, so we rearranged our office and desk area and now have a new "art table" desk for the kids that has plenty of room (can fit two more cousins to color too! =), and also "their" computer on it as well. We might as well buy stock in 3M too, because this girl loves her scotch tape! She loves to cut things apart with her scissors and then tape them back together again! She tapes drawings and coloring pages into books, fixes holes ripped in her paper, and "decorates" things by taping little shapes that she has cut out and colored
• She loves dancing (we have watched Dancing with the Stars together for years now!) and singing and is always coming up with a new "show" to put on for us. She catches on to songs and lyrics very quickly, and also likes to make up her own!
• Her favorite outing lately is church and Sunday school. She loves her friends at church and learning new songs and Bible stories in Sunday school. She is really a social bug who loves to be around people and we have to drag her crying to the van every Sunday because she doesn't want to go home!
• Being able to do things on her own has been one of the biggest joys of her being 4. It was almost like there was a switch in her head "I'm 4, I'm a big girl, I can do this by myself!" She can dress herself, go potty by herself, pretty much get anything that she needs by herself or with only a little help. She is also my big helper around the house! G loves and cares for her family and genuinely wants to help with everything.

...on random other stuff!

• We had a big snow on October 11/12 and the kids had SO MUCH FUN! My grumbling about it coming so early quickly melted as I watched their sheer joy at playing in the snow and making a snowman. October was very wet and cold, and we just weren't ready to go from that into winter! Fortunately, November has been really nice so that we have been able to get out and do more things outside.
• G and W have had a new game in the backyard - G calls it "pulley." She stands on the deck and lowers a rope tied to a bucket, and W fills it with whatever treasures or toys he finds and G pulls it up to her. They can do this for quite a long time and giggle and laugh at all the things W puts in the bucket! They came up with this on their own - their imaginations continue to impress me every day!
• Our computer's motherboard went out...AGAIN! So we had to ship it off to HP once more as it is still under warranty. I like the comment that my friend T made about it: "Perhaps there is a lot of mothering going on in your house?! Maybe all the mothers are just tired?" You have no idea, T! =)
  

OK. Phew. Are you still with me? Am I still with me? I probably would have fallen asleep by now. Really though, this was just as much for me as for anyone else so that I could journal a little bit about the little people that fill my day that S and I love so much. But now I feel like we can move on not feel so behind that I don't even bother! Hope you all are doing well - we love you all and think of you often (even if we don't always communicate that =)!

while you wait...

Hi. My name is C. I have a blog. I usually post to it every week or so. But for some reason I only posted once last month and this month isn't going much better. I am still here. We are still alive and well. Just busy with life I guess. I think I should update you before continuing with posts. I have been working on that update post for a couple of weeks now and it gets longer and longer the longer I wait. I will finish it soon so we can continue. But while you wait, here are some pictures of the very recent visit from dear auntie A!. Thanks for coming to see us, A, (we ARE the real reason you came, right? IKEA had nothing to do with it. =), we love you so! Come any time, and bring that pesky brother of mine next time...

trip to MI, G's perspective...

We haven't written in a while because it feels like life has just straightened out after the accident. Thanks to Aahma B for all she did right after the accident, and also Aahma R for coming and helping us out for a few days after we got back from MI. Thanks also to dear friends that have helped with the kids and also helped me regain some sense of emotional sanity in the weeks afterwards.

We had a good trip to MI a few weeks ago. Maybe not as relaxing as we hoped due to the circumstances, but good to travel with family and visit family while we were there. After we got home, G was upset because we didn't send her cousins a postcard while we were there. I told her that she could draw a postcard about what we did on the trip and she thought that was a good idea. She modeled it after a postcard we had received from K and was very deliberate about what and how she drew it. She also dictated exactly what I was to write on the back about each picture. She did such a good job, I thought I would share it and let her tell you about our trip instead of me rambling on...

(I will throw in a few comments in (), but otherwise, take it away G!)

1. (talking about circle in the middle) This is the van we drove to Michigan. Because our van got an accident. It is a red van now. It was a long trip. (the kids did really well though!)

2. This is Great-Grandma B's apartment. We went inside it. There was A LOT of windows and a lot of people lived there. It was fun to visit her and she gave us ice cream!

(supper with Grandma, Uncle S and Aunt B in the community room)

(G remembered Grandma's apartment, or should I say the ceramic dog and kitty in her apartment. Her and W had so much fun with these!)

(4 generations)

(Grandma and our family)

3. This is Great-Grandpa A's house. We went inside it. He had some fun old toys. We liked playing outside in all the purple leaves. (purple leaves??? hey, she's 4! =)

(C laughing at Grandpa tickling him)

(hanging out on Grandpa's lawn on a beautiful Sunday afternoon)

(group shot! Uncle D, Aunt S and Aunt J came by Sunday afternoon)

(4 generations)

(Grandpa with our family)

~~~~~~~~

(a quick aside for 2 extra photos - we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express 4 minutes away from Grandpa's house while we were in MI. The kids did really well and LOVED the pool there! They also had a good hot breakfast so we would definitely stay there again!)

(we brought an air mattress for G & W to sleep on)

(pool! G asked Grandpa to come and watch us swim Saturday morning so that was fun too.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4. This is J and L's house. They had scooters and bikes and an electric 4-wheeler. I had fun riding on all of them. They had a big sandbox and a fast slide and we had pizza with them.

(Saturday night we took pizza over to S's cousin B's house. We had a great time visiting with her and her husband T and their 5 yr old J and 3 yr old L. Oh yeah, and the kids had SO MUCH fun playing with J&L and all their kid stuff!!! The big sandbox with soft MI sand was a hit.)

(they had a nice big flat driveway to ride bikes, etc. on)

(oh C, you will be running and riding around with them all too soon!!!)

(the electric 4-wheeler was a lot of fun for G to ride)

(what scared me was that she could drive it so well too! at least everyone wore helmets...)

5. This is the zoo. We went inside it on our way home. We saw penguins, polar bears, giraffes, birds, fish, gorillas, tigers, lions and bears. Then we had to drive a long way home. It was a long ways, but Aahma B played with me (thank you Aahma for being so patient with G and playing with her a lot in the van).

(family photo at the zoo! at least S and I are looking at the camera...)

(this is such a great little zoo in Chicago!)

(W could have watched the fish all day)

(Dad B, had to include this pic just to rub my camera zoom in again a little bit! =)

(kids get "rides" back to the car)

G, I couldn't have described the trip any better! We have had so much fun traveling with our kids in the past couple of months, but we are also looking forward to being home with them for a while now...

goofy...

Had a good night - everyone slept well. And after 2 days on the phone, stuff with the van is all set up. Received incredible customer service everywhere. We are headed for MI in a rental van. Didn't want to leave the last blog post up for a week so I thought I would post just some goofy kid pics for fun!

not what I wanted to blog about...

...I was hoping to do a kid update or a garden update.

But instead you get a story about our afternoon. Not because I want to write about it, but I need to get it out of my brain and onto paper (so to speak) so I can sleep, and also it will hopefully let lots of people know about it without having to make a bajillion phone calls.

We were in an accident today.

WE ARE ALL OK! I will start out by making sure you know that! Seriously all ok. I cannot tell you how thankful we are that the Lord protected us and we are all safe.

S left today for work meetings in Chicago. He was riding with another pharmacist manager from the area and drove to this guy's Costco with our car to meet up with him. The kids and I met Papa and Aahma B halfway this morning and made plans to come back and pick S's car up on our way home so it wouldn't sit there for a week (Papa and Aahma B, the kids and I were/are planning on leaving Thursday morning to drive to Chicago to pick up S and continue on to MI for a long weekend with family). We picked S's car up and Aahma B was driving that and following the kids and I in the van. I was at a green light wanting to make a left turn. There was a yield to left turns on green sign, and I pulled the proper 1/3 into the intersection waiting for my turn. The light turned yellow. I looked at the cars coming my direction and all of them were slowing down to stop, including a semi-truck. Being that they were all slowing, I made my turn and glanced back for a split second to check where Aahma B was and what she was going to do. When I looked ahead, the semi-truck was not stopping and headed right for us. It was not going fast, but it hit us on the passenger side front tire, and continued to the front passenger door and the rear passenger door.

The imact and damage was not as big as what you would think being that a semi just hit me. Because the air bags din't even go off. But it was still a jolt. And the fear for my children's lives gripped me stronger than I can ever explain. The site of a semi about to hit you, no matter how slow, will do that.

I swore. (I never swear.)

G&W immediatly started screaming. (G watched the whole thing happen.)

little C slept through it all. (a seriously strange blessing.)

I pulled to the side of the road and immediately went into mommabear mode. I gotta get my kids and make sure they are safe was the only thing I could think. Many people pulled over and were trying to ask me if I was ok, but I couldn't answer anyone until I got the kids out. I unbuckled W and held him, checked him over tried to calm him, and talk to G, who was ok, but screaming and upset. I checked little C who was still sleeping and made sure he was ok too. Aahma B finally was able to get there and W, who was calmer now, went to her so I could hold and calm G.

What just happened? Did that really just happen? What did I do? Did I do something wrong? What if...?

A good samaritan in a white Tahoe had pulled over had called 911 right away. She also gave me her name and phone number and said to call her as a witness. What I think happened was that the driver of the semi-truck was slowing down to stop and then at the last minute decided to go through the yellow light. So he wasn't going fast, but he didn't see me until it was too late. It was almost so that we both thought we were going to avoid it. The driver of the truck was fine too. He was very concerned about us. He didn't say a lot, but didn't try to defend or crazy justify his side of the story either. I didn't care about who was at fault for what at that point. All I cared was that we were all ok.

And now what? I couldn't get a hold of S as he was in the air on a plane at that time. He is the one who always takes care of us and would know exactly what to do right now. What do I do?

OK. Mommabear survival mode again. I kept the van and the air conditioner running so that the kids would stay cool. Of course today it gets to 86 and we were in the blazing hot sun with no shade around. Thankfully, the kids seemed to calm down quickly. Aahma B was a huge blessing to have there for that. The other driver actually thanked her for her help with the kids too. And as she climbed in the van with them at one point he looked at her a little funny and asked who she was. "I am the grandma. So it is ok!" G & W played actually happily in the van climbing all over and seemed oblivious to the accident that had just happened not 15 minutes ago.

OK. Get police here, get information, get towing for the van, figure out how to get home, and through it all make sure the kids were ok and not scared anymore.

We have been cleaning the van getting it ready for vacation and apparently cleaned it a little too well because all the papers were out of the glove compartment including the proof of insurance! So I frantically called my brother M in Nebraska to get him to look up our insurance lady on the internet and give me her phone number. I was able to get a hold of her office and get the numbers and instructions needed.

The policeman filed a report. The other driver and I exchanged all the information we could possibly think of. I called the insurance to get set up with a tow. We waited for the tow. I was on the phone A LOT. We cleaned out the van. Installed 2 out of the 3 carseats in S's car (SO very thankful that we had something to get us home!). Explained to G how today was a special emergency so she got to sit in the backseat with just a seatbelt on.

2 hours later.

Towing for the van finally came and we could head for home. In rush hour traffic now of course. I had to drive. I know that may sound strange as I was just in an accident, but I was still in mommabear mode and I had to get my kids home safe. Not that Aahma B couldn't do that, but it was something I had to do!

3 long hours after the accident we are home. We missed an appointment in the afternoon, my plans for getting packing done today were shot, but we were home and safe. No one had to go to the hospital. I hugged each of the kids again hard, hard enough that they all complain a little. I didn't care! I still had more phone calls to make with insurance though, so I left them all with Aahma B in the backyard and set in for another hour on the phone.

I also was finally able to get a hold of S. I completely broke down while telling him what had just happened. He was so supportive and talking with him was exactly what I needed. I know it was hard on him not to be here and be able to take care of us and fix it though.

Our evening was fine. I am so thankful that Aahma B was here. Not only for helping out with the kids, but just someone else in the house with us tonight. Once again, the kids seemed to be just fine, and they talked about the accident kind of matter-of-fact like "this is what I did this afternoon" conversation. G said she just looked up and saw a big truck hit us and it was the biggest biggest BIGGEST crash she has ever heard. W was able to verbalize everything too and told me that a big truck bonked our van and our van now was owie. He said it was SCARY and then he was so so so so so sad. The kids took a little bit to get down to sleep, but finally made it. I am not sure how the night is going to go. I hope that they don't have nightmares. I hope I don't have nightmares. And I fully expect to have at least 2 if not all 3 kids in bed with me by the end of the night. But you know what? This mommabear won't mind it a bit!

And what about MI? Do we go? Do we cancel? I think tomorrow's events will tell the end to that story.

It is now almost 12:30. I spent some time on the phone with S again after everyone else had gone to bed here, and we said goodnight well over an hour ago saying that we would both go to bed right away. Sorry sweetie, but I couldn't sleep. I was antsy, couldn't get my brain to stop and relax enough to drift off. So now that this is all out here, maybe I can get some rest.

Will I be ok? I may have a few sleepless nights. More worry over how the kids are going to handle it. And if we do go to MI, I may choose not to drive if I don't have to. But ultimately, yes I will be ok. Because my hope and trust is in the Lord no matter what happens. And I am overwhelmed by that peace. I am also overwhelmed with His protection and love and power today.

May His love and protection surround you all too.

farm girl and friend eat city girl's csa veggies...

Since J&C and fam are on a great camping adventure for a couple of weeks, they asked if we wouldn't mind picking up their CSA box for 2 weeks. Boy, that was a hard one...free fresh veggies that are already picked and fresh eggs as well? Yep. We would gladly do that. We shared them with our friends from church that live near us both, M&B.

On a side note, M&B's son Peter has recently been able to come home from the hospital! Praise the Lord! He still has a trach tube and home nurse care 24/7 and is not out of the woods yet, but what joy to be able to have their sweet little boy at home and not have to make the 30-45 minute drive to the children's hospital every day! We only had 10 days of driving to the hospital when G was in the NICU after she was born, while M&B have had almost 4 months, but we remember the sheer relief and joy that first day you did not have to get in the car to drive to the hospital. So we ask for continued prayers for complete healing for Peter, and we offer great prayers of thanksgiving for how far he has come already!

Back to the veggies. C has been posting about thier weekly CSA boxes on thier garden blog. I thought I would follow suit with what we did with thier veggies! I didn't think of this until after we had split up the veggies with M&B, so this pic is only of half the box:

This week:

Sweet Corn (3 ears to M&B)
Watermelon (1 very small cute one to M&B)
Muskmelon (tiny one enjoyed in one sitting by me and the kids)
Anaheim Peppers (split with M&B, ours went in omlettes with our fresh roma tomatoes, bacon and onion)
Poblano Peppers (split with M&B, ours went into chicken spaghetti)
Jalapeno Peppers (split with M&B, will freeze ours)
Tomatoes (all to M&B as they did not get a garden in this year and our tomato plants are full and ready!)
Carrots (split, ours for eating as snacks)
6 eggs (M&B have 1 rooster, 4 hens and a new baby chicky so these were ours to keep and were made into omlettes with the fresh veggies)

The other yumminess that we are enjoying because J&C are gone is the raspberries from their own garden. They have quite a few bushes that have been producing well the past couple of weeks. We picked on Tuesday and got 2 quarts full of beautiful berries, but only one made it home as G & W as well as S & I ate a whole bunch right there in thier back yard! The rest we have been enjoying on yogurt and ice cream as well as just eating out of the container in the fridge!


So thank you, J&C, for this great late summer treat of fresh veggies and raspberries! So yummy!