Praises...

People with enough moxy to stop by your house and find the yard sale, even when it's been canceled due to weather. Usually I would not praise random strangers knocking on my door wanting to come into my unclean house, however when my house is fairly clean and they are carrying wads of cash, I'm game.

Mom is here and she isn't phased by the chaos, the naked boys, the preteen drama, or me taking her along for the ride. (well, at least she's not showing it if she is!)

Yard sale over.

Good evening out with a great group of friends, Even if the service was bad, the food was good and the conversation better.

Friends pushing me out of my comfort zone into things I'm not sure I'm ready for. I'm honored they have more faith in me than I have in myself.

Great husbands who not only take my kids so i can go out with friends, but willingly volunteers to take a friends three little ones too. So this man is alone with 6 kids, ages 10, 7,4,3,2, and 1 for 3.5 hours. He managed to sell a bike, clean up the tables and other yard sale mess left in the driveway, feed them all snacks that involved fruit, and have 2 out of the 6 asleep without killing anyone or the use of duct tape. (even when I left it sitting in the middle of the table, just in case...)

Preview of Changes to Come...

On Sunday mornings in the summer you will find us here... Our church meets in the park for an early 8:30 service. The weather seems to be blessing us greatly this summer. It is a beautiful place to meet with God and see all the beauty around you. Although I must admit, this is sometimes hard to do with young children. I find myself leaving wondering what all I missed as a shushed my boys during the prayer, picked up the binky and other dropped items off the ground 14 times, attempted 25 different positive ways to say "you must keep your butt in your seat and your volume on whisper", argued with Lily about why reading novels throughout the service is really rather rude, and tried to figure out how Dax's shoe managed to get a good 60 feet behind us next to a tree. I only wish I had thought to take a picture of the ground upon our leaving. Let's just say every bird, squirrel, and other woodland creature get a little giddy when they see us coming, cause they know when that stroller rolls away it'll be a smorgasbord of Sunday treats!

Today, after our park church we visited the construction site where our new church is being built...

It was quite an adventure. Dax was quite overwhelmed.
They practiced being on stage. Finn explored all the places he shouldn't be and thank God for Hayley who chased him around and made sure he didn't eat screws.

We signed our names and wrote messages and Bible verses on the floor of the sanctuary. (this will be under the carpet)
The kids explored the sound booth.
Max discovered the freezer! He came and found me, took me by the hand and led me into his new favorite place. He was very excited when I offered to take his picture there.
Then some of the other kids found the freezer! This seemed to be the highlight of the tour. They were most excited by the notices on the doors that started with the words, "you are not locked in" followed by instructions on how to get out, just in case. Guess they are anticipating people panicking.
One day these pictures will stand as history. We will look back and think "wow, look how little they were when we moved in!" Confirmations, Graduations, maybe even weddings, there are bright futures waiting in the wings. A new building is a little scary. It's hard to leave history behind. There are so many unknowns, so many coming together for the first time. Think about how it feels (at least if you're like me and know) that night before a new child joins your family. There is this excitement, this fear of what is to come, even a small bit of mourning over loosing the family you know and love now. But in the end, when that new person is in your arms your family is forever changed and forever better. We will be ok. We will learn to love even better in this building God has given us. We have each other and we have them...all those little smiling faces who are so excited by the whole thing. If we'd just listen to what He tells us and come to Him through their eyes, things would just fall into place. He has plans for us, big plans!

Happy 4th of July!

Ahhh, sparklers! Yes they had parental supervision. No, noone got hurt.

Tossing poppers in the street. They brought back fond childhood memories of my little brothers and those things.
Look how patiently they are all waiting for someone to give them some fire to play with!
Why is it that when we were kids no one was concerned about our safety with these? I remember running all over the back yard with them. Dax thought these were pretty cool. We're gonna hope it doesn't wake up some inner pyromanic.
A certain big brother snuck off and lit all the smoke bombs (this was a legitimate big brother, not Dax). The little ones were quiet upset they didn't get to take part but they all aggreed the colored smoke was cool.
Hey, new location, more of these crazy firesticks!

Even though the sound of fireworks terrified Dax last night, seeing them tonight he seemed to be ok, although he needed "my Lil" to be safe. I love how there are those moments where they just love each other!
This was how Finn looked when the fireworks began.
This was how Finn looked when the fireworks were over. Why is it his brother or sister whispering can wake him at home but a half hour of fireworks ending with a 5 minute series of booms followed by many thousands of people laughing, talking, clapping, yelling, and honking did not budge him?
Praises...

Good Day. Good friends.

Being free. I think we get so worked up with the fireworks and the picnicking (or pizzaing, as the case may be) of the day that sometimes we forget what it all means. We are blessed to live where we do, even in the midst of chaos like times now, we are still very blessed to be in the United States. There are some amazing people putting their lives on hold somewhere far away to make sure it's safe for us to sit at a park, by a river, in a parking lot, or in our own backyard and watch the sky fill with amazing lights and sounds. Because of them we have these days to just play with friends.

Girl Days! Lily and I haven't had one for a while, but today we took some time out and saw a movie and went to lunch, just the girls. This is one of those things that we used to do often before the boys joined our family. We don't do it nearly enough anymore. Today we saw, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl . I am telling you this because it was a great movie! If you have girls in the 6 to 12 age bracket it is really worth seeing. Honestly, even if you don't you might enjoy it. I teared up many times. Seeing people's lives affected by the depression really touched me. I think this may be in part because it would be so easy the way things are going at the moment to reach that again. It illustrated just how fast you could go from having everything to losing everything and how the kindness of strangers and the attitude you carry can get you through. It helped that it had a great, very familiar cast. My only complaint would be that it's supposed to take place in Cincinnati but it was filmed in Canada. I wasn't sure when watching it though, the houses looked very much like the houses in Mt. Adams (the burb it was set in). Lily and I did get a little thrill when they showed a big map of Ohio and one of the arrows on the map was pointing at Wilmington.

I have speed!

Speed!

Not the illegal kind.

Not the really expensive red convertible kind.

I have the kind of speed that comes with a new updated computer! My old computer, the one I have been working on is a good 7 years old, the other beast in the house is about 10. So, when Lily asked if I'd give her this one someday I promised her she could have it for graduation. I'm sure I'll be ready for a new one in 8 years! Let's just say I don't buy toys for myself, well, ever. I am enjoying myself! I might be able to take advantage of my cool camera a little better now. This speed may even be the cure for blogger's block! (well, we'll see!)

Today we had a grand morning at the farm park with our neighbors. All the kids seem to get along well. Lily was the best "big sister" to all the preschoolers and the "Finns" hung out and enjoyed the ducks. If you don't know the story, I am a little bit of a name freak. (those of you who actually know me, please don't choke at the use of the words "little bit") I studied hospital web nurseries of the area hospitals, I talked to nurses at both my regular obs and my high risk obs. I wanted to make sure there were not a whole slew of local Finns being born that I did not know about. I had met my neighbor a few times. I knew she was expecting. We ran into each other at a playground a few weeks before I gave birth and talked for quite sometime. We thought it was cool we were both having boys within a month of each other and we'd be right down the street. A couple of weeks after I gave birth, we came home from church and found a little gift hanging on our door. In the gift was a little note, signed "Kevin, Rachel, Jay, Emi, & baby Finn due in two weeks." I called, half laughing, half hoping it'd be enough to change their minds! Turns out Rachel had loved the name Finn since she had Jay and it had finally warmed up on her husband. He was just thrilled that there would be another one, so maybe his wouldn't get beat up on the playground after all. (gotta love dads!) I guess that trumped the fact that I pulled the name off Grey's Anatomy and my girlfriends approved because they were sure a guy named Finn would be "hot". So now, almost exactly one month and three houses apart there are two Finns. It could have been worse, their Finn is Finn Michael, and that isn't even his daddy's name! I hear there are many Finns popping up all over the country, although my ob nurse swears there have been no more in their office. sigh... Best part is that I have really enjoyed getting to know Rachel and her clan. Blessing in all places! (sorry about the rambling, it's the topic, well and just that I ramble a lot!)

It was a beautiful day to be at the park and the new little brood of baby ducks made it even better. Other than one small incident with a very cute calf that licked my Finn and set off a scream that could have been heard a good 10 miles away, the day was full of happy little children and happy mommies and that is something to praise the Lord for!

Breaking through the Blog Block

So, I could say I've been meaning to write for a week now, but truth be told, I haven't. Many times I've thought, "wow, I should blog that." But, I haven't. Tonight I called home to my mom's and a familiar voice answered. I gave Ryan grief, because that is our pattern, only to realize it wasn't Ryan at all, but Dosh. He was supposed to do a quick run home this weekend for a friend's wedding and to see his best friend, also in the service, who is home because he recently lost his little brother in a tragic accident. I guess hearing Dosh's voice after so long broke the block a bit. It rememinded me how important it is that I remember all those little things that make me smile, all those little things I'm grateful for because it's the little things that add up to create a life of joy, of peace. Those big things, they hit you like a ton of bricks, but the little ones slip away too easily if we don't take the time to catalog them.

So tonight, I am grateful that my little brother and Jessy made it home safely with a couple extra days to spend at home. I pray that he know how to be there for his friends and that he know just how loved he is, even if we don't tell him enough.

I went to the visitation for the father of yet another church friend. The grandfather of one of our confirmation kids. Seems this club is getting bigger and it again reminds me to not let the little perfect moments slide. I'm grateful that God doesn't let us be alone in our grief, but I'd be ok if those of us in our church family (both new and old church!) just stopped losing our parents for a while!

I am grateful for the sound of tiny feet even at midnight, when they should be firmly planted in bed. For the way their sleepy little bodies feel when you pick them up and how their little neck smells when you nuzzle into it with one more hug as you send them back to bed.

I'm grateful for little baby boys who dance and clap with wild abandon to Jesus songs.

I'm grateful for daughters who bring me this, and get me that, take their brother out to play, get sippy cups full of this or that, and 89% the time don't complain or ask for anything in return. I've even seen her kiss boo boos this summer.

I'm grateful for the sound of my mom's voice tonight. The way it just sounded happy even though Dosh showed up while she was tearing apart the bathroom and his room wasn't ready, and the house wasn't clean. Those things in the grand scheme of things don't really matter, do they? (I'm trying to convince myself of this, because although I may go with it, I don't always feel good about it, or like I'm keeping up with the girls.)

I'm grateful that I did not panic when my babysitters for the morning did not get my cancellation message and showed up at 8 am to a very messy house and half naked people. I'm glad they felt comfortable enough to pop on in and hang out for a while anyway, even if I wasn't paying them. (Did you guys hear Finn scream when you left??)

I'm thankful for a church where Bible school is full of life and love. A place where we can giggle and love on each other's kids even on their not so good days. Where we know our kids will be loved on, and maybe cracked down on now and then when they need it. And, I'm glad it's over for the year!

I'm grateful for time with old friends. Time to lunch or just grab a drink and talk about nothing late at night.

I'm grateful for women who bless me with gifts of remembrance. Those same women who bless me many Thursday mornings and evenings.

I'm amazed and a little awed that God blessed me with a full circle moment this weekend. A little over four years ago Mike and I made our first journey to Illinois. We came for a job interview, open, but scared. Mike's parent's took us to a steak house in a warehouse by the river (yeah, it sounds bad, but it's really a decent place!) I remember that night sitting in an upstairs area waiting for a table. I looked over the balcony and watched the people below laughing and drinking while cooking their steaks on big open grills. I remember thinking very clearly, "these people really don't look that different from the people in Ohio. They look nice enough, they look like they're having fun. Maybe they'd take us in, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live here." And they did. 4 years later we sat at a table overflowing with people, friends. People we didn't know 4 years ago. They aren't that different from those in Ohio, they are nice enough, and we are so blessed.

Best sound of the day "I want to hear another Jesus Song!" Dax on the way home from Vacation Bible School.

Worst sound "No! The Jesus song!! That's not it! No, that's not it either!" Yeah, he couldn't figure out which one off the new CD he was waiting for. A three year old doesn't deal well with Bible School ending after 8:30. He loves it...just no fun after it's over!

Best Combination (Good & Bad) Finn's loud high pitched wail coming from the recovery room after his surgery was over. He made it through with flying colors, but alas, the screech remains. He went to Bible School tonight and was happier than he's been all week! We weren't going to take him, but he was dancing and talking. He is saying words that sound a lot like "Where is it?" "What is it?" "There it is." and "I don't know." He talked more today than he has been and smiled the whole time! I love seeing that happy little guy back!

Praises...

Quick surgeries with kind nurses and cute little baby hospital gowns.

Great sitters that I am counting on a lot this week!

Beautiful weather!

Being able to take preschoolers to the park at 8 to blow off steam. I love their happy smiling faces!

Happy smiling faces! VBS seems to be full of them, from kids to grownups and people in between. Even in the chaos there is music and celebration!

An amazing 4 year old team of teachers, shepards, and youth helpers. (I'm not totally kissing up, but yes I know some of you might stop by here...)

A husband who gets two wisdom teeth pulled at 3 in the afternoon and chooses to go to Bible School to help. I simply assumed he and Finn would stay home, but no, they wanted to go. Totally free will. Gotta love a guy like that. He has not whined even once!

If I can't do it, I'll find someone who can!

Ok, so I haven't written much for a while. Seems I have lots I could write. Stories of whipped cream, yogurt, Ketchup, cranberry juice, sand, dog food, baby soap, desitin, and toothpaste. Any idea what all these have in common? (I'll tell you later!)

So since I haven't written and there are others out there that have done so in a way that is far better than what I could have written, I am giving you my recommendation for a great read! Angie has written another amazing piece. I know, I told you I wouldn't force you to go, and I won't. It's just a suggestion! I do know that a few of you have started reading her regularly and that makes me happy! So if you're looking for a devotion today or you just know there is something you need to read but haven't found it yet, here it is.

Someday I'm going to actually update my blog and add her link permanently. I'm not holding out for this week, it's VBS. My good friend, Amy, is in town for the week. I'm hoping to talk to her more than 5 minutes at VBS! Finn is having tubes put in his ears tomorrow morning at 8ish. Please be praying for the little guy! We have well child visits on Thursday for both boys. Special thank you to my extra daughter, Hayley, for agreeing to go with the me and the monkeys. Maybe I will be able to hear the doctor rather than chase kids down the hallway and try to come up for creative explanations for the stirrups hidden in the exam table. (thanks to Hayley's real mama for letting me borrow her!)

So, It ought to be a fun filled week. Maybe my boys will have less time to dump, eat, or smear upon their persons or their brothers any of the above mentioned items. I do have some pictures, and of course stories I've been meaning to share. You all wish you lived in my house, don't you? =)

God Bless all (3ish) of you who actually read this!! I'm grateful for you!

Praises...

Friends who are there when you start to fall apart.

Friends who will put let your kids join their day at the last minute.

Prayers.

A 3 year old who can charm a medical staff in about 20 minutes.

Great doctors who are blessed with amazing gifts in medicine and a special heart for kids.

Great news and people who want to hear it.

Kids who go with the flow.

A husband who is there when I need him.

Freshly mown grass and three healthy, beautiful children to play in it.

A God who is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow no matter what happens in our day.

The Future is so Bright....

I gotta wear shades... We are home. I was calm. Dax was very well behaved and cooperative. The building was big and beautiful. All three of us were a bit nervous. Dax admitted to feeling nervous before going in. Then there was the Stuart Little movie, lots of cool things to play with, a cool little urinal (requiring 5 trips to the potty in just over two hours), funny glasses, Monster's Inc., Sesame Street Characters, a disappearing Cow, crazy lights, lots of nice nurses & techs, a fun guy named Dr. Steve who was wearing a Sponge Bob tie, some horrible little eye drops, more play time, a few more lights, and finally some groovy sunglasses to take home.

And the diagnosis from Dr. Steve...

Dax is illegally cute and is a beautiful, healthy little boy. A little farsighted, which is normal in kids and has pupils that can be as much as a millimeter different in size. He told us to go back through past pictures and see if we could spot it earlier, that he thinks it's been there since birth. He told us that the pediatrician was very worried, rightfully so, different sized pupils can indicate some very bad stuff. He listed off a few syndromes, brain bleeding in which pupil size can be a sign of imminent death, tumors in the neck/top of spine area, and of course the brain tumor thing which had me in a tizzy. So when he smiled and said he didn't see signs of any of these and he doesn't want to see him for 3 years, I finally stopped holding my breath.

It's amazing to think how fast your life can change. I feel more blessed today than yesterday, but my blessing have not changed. Sometimes a jolt on the road makes you just that much more grateful for every moment of "normal" life we are blessed with!

Prayers for My Guy

At 10 this morning we will be taking Dax to the pediatric Opthamologist to have his eyes dilated. We've been noticing some strange things with his pupils and our pediatrician is sending us on to a specialist. I, of course, made the mistake of Googling "different sized pupils" and learned more bad than good. Mothers should be banned from Google when worried about their kids! It just makes it worse! So I'm asking for your prayers. Prayers that you'll keep my mind focused on the positive. Prayers that Dax will stay calm and will find the whole thing an adventure. Prayers that this will just be nothing, just a bleep on life's radar that helps us remember how much we truly have been blessed with.