John sent gifts...

John went out of town on what will be a zillion trips this year and since this one was a few days longer than normal he sent extra special cards in lieu of the normal postcard. Jack LOVED his. Dory, well... she had just waken up because after taking a ton of pics with Jack he decided it was time for her to see hers and show her his... so he went to the gate at the stairs and yelled at the top of his lungs for her until she appeared.



Overall, they were a HUGE success!

Kinda' a Surprise

:) I love my husby. He's so good to me!
Last night was the (overdue) 30(1)st 'surprise' party. I say 'surprise' because I had to bring the ice and keys so he could get into his office and cake knife... lol. Also, Dory knew... and well, she's a great secret keeper, I tell you! All week long it was, "There is NO PARTY, Mom."
However, the scope was a surprise, who was a surprise, etc... and may I say, it was wonderful...
I had the BEST cake I have had since my wedding cake. Period. To boot, it was GLUTEN FREE. AMAZING. I made myself absolutely sick on the sugar. And then had more when we got home.

Anyway, I'm rambling - and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Leaf Piles

Over Thanksgiving, 'Uncle' Andy came to visit. He stayed over at the IL's and spent one of his days raking the front yard into piles 'o fun for the kids - who then had a BLAST. Thanks Uncle Andy!
Follow photo to Flickr for more of leaves...

Halloween 2008!

Jack as Bam-Bam Rubble... and he would not leave the costume on.


Dory as a Monarch Butterfly, she would barely hold still. She is keeping a look out for Ba and the kids so we can head out!


Off we go, Dory flapping in the wind.


Bam-Bam and a hatless cowboy.


The men are organizing the attack. They did a great job!


Patiently waiting for the door to open. All night Jack refused to say 'Thank you.' Dory did well, but Jack got off with it being cute due to his age. The boy will have to learn.


Jack's very first lollipop. :)

All in all, a really good night. Dory traded her candy out for a knitting kit. She was pleased and is doing well with it. I think it is just a great tradition that Ba and family come with us, it makes it so much more fun. I also love that we have such a great neighborhood for going door to door. Dory's costume stank though, who knew the smell of a magnum sharpie wouldn't air out in a day? It gave us all a headache once back at the house, so she was stripped of her wings. By the end of the nigh Jack was *finally* saying 'bam-bam' and bopping the bat on the floor. He had earlier been quite determined that is was indeed a baseball bat and needed to be swung. Apparently he's a natural at that, John should be thrilled. Maybe he'll go as a Yankee player next year.
:) Yeah, it was good.

UPDATE: Ba posted some more of the kiddos here. :)

8 years

8 years ago today, John and I started dating.

8 years ago I could not imagine this house, many of my friends and my 2 beautiful children. What a wonderful 8 years! I look forward to the next 8 years, even though today is one of those days that will go down in history much like the night Diana died. The DOW fell 777 points, 1.2 Trillion Dollars, largest point drop in history, and one of our local banks, Wachovia, was taken over. What does that mean for the other bank in the area, Bank of America? It's all pretty downright surreal for me. What will the next 8 years look like? Where will time take us? I don't know. I could see it coming, believed it was coming, but still am surprised by it.
But I know I have a great family because of one little kiss, 8 years ago tonight. I know God put us together and held us there when we didn't want to be. I expect another great 8 years with my sweetheart and children. We are lucky John has a very stable job and that he's young enough that pension loss (if there is any) isn't catastrophic.

Tonight I count my many, many blessings.

Happy 8 years of Grand Adventure, honey... on to the next 8!

(PDL)

Prayers for all of you who are hurting tonight.

To the ER we go!

Ok, on with my story… Missed knit night tonight. Spent it in the ER with Hubby. He is the proud new owner of an Epipen.

So, I was on the way back from the Tuesday Farmer’s Market and he called to ask where I was since he was locked out, not having taken his keys to work. I told him we’d be there soon and that he should pull some weeds….

Got home and found him limping. A fire ant bed lit him up with 40-50 bites. He was standing on it because he thought he was backing in the holly bush and getting pricked. He completely tough guy ignored it. I was supposed to walk right back out to knit night, instead went to get benadryl at the super close store. Once I got there, he called… and we knew it wasn’t going to be enough. By the time I got home he was at the neighbor’s with the kids and I got the benadryl in him and called 911. As the paramedics were looking at him debating on a transfer, the lights swam on him. Off we went. Whole body was swelling. Lips, eyelids, arms, neck… teeth were going numb.

Long story short… he’s lit up with benadryl, pepcid, prednisone and epinefrin… swelling is down and he’s snoring hard. He’s going to be completely fine, but on drugs for the next few days still. We all got back home about the time knit night was completely over, whole thing from when I got there to walking back in our door was about 3 hours. I gave him the fully earned hard time.

So… ER - yeah, fun evening. I think I did good to get the food shoved still in my bag into the fridge.

eta: John's Version

Lavender, Japanese Beetles and Bees

My lavender bush has gone absolutely nuts, and I have promised all sorts of people lavender stalks for their yarn stashes... and it wouldn't be an issue if every bee in the city wasn't ON IT. I have never seen something so happily swarmed since I was a little kid and the green flowers on the bushes in the side yard back home. And, even then, this might just be *more*. So much for the bee population waning, as my lavender is singlehandedly supporting several species!
That said, John also gushed a Japanese Beetle on it this morning, right after killing tens off of our Azalea bushes out front. We thought we were doing great on that front so far this year. We had not seen very many, well, now we know why. They are eating the Azaleas!

On Marriage

An open love letter to my Groom:

About 10 years ago I made a decision after God had smacked me (a second time) in the head to get me to listen. It wasn't easy. He wanted me to choose what He had for me, rather than what *I* wanted. I left hopes and dreams and my rose colored glasses behind with many tears as I mourned every step with resistance to His will. I tried to backtrack several times (about 2 years worth) before I went to "One Day" and encountered His will.
That was... Him.
Only Him.
No more men, boys, guys... Only HIM.
Wow. Um, I didn't know how to be single. To NOT date at least. I only knew how to be a part of something. To give of myself, in ways good AND bad. To be dependent.... but not on whom I should have been. Him. How would I survive without help? Seriously, self esteem, money and partnership came from those relationships. They were important.
That summer, 2000, was life changing. Starting with 'One Day', and continuing into the fall, once I bowed to His will and made Him 'the One', that's when my life that I was hunting for started. He provided me with the best paying, most lenient job I have ever held. He provided my head with a pillow, even on the day when I didn't know where it was going to be that afternoon! He spoke to me in ways I have not heard His voice since. I sought after His heart, every day, but especially on Saturday nights, on my "Date Night" with God at the college group prayer meeting.
That said, it wasn't an easy thing to do. It was hard. REAL hard. I worried about ever getting married or having children. I worried about the timeline I had set out for myself. How would I find someone if I was not busy looking and establishing? Everyone knows that takes work and time.
That summer I lived with different friends, my pastor, at camp, in Amman, Jordan, at Gail's house... you see, I had no house. All of my things were in storage. My life was on hold. Or, so I thought. Turns out, not so much.
By the end of the summer I was working in a fly by night job, interviewing for the position of my life. And I didn't even know it.
John offered me a job position in his store. I accepted. From there we grew to know one another rather well. Becky approved of him, and we TRIED not to start a relationship. We failed. It was something that we fell into, that we had no control over. I pleaded with God for it not to be right. To tell me 'no'. It wasn't what I wanted. I searched, one night at prayer meeting, for any 'NO'... even went to the Old Testament... it would be there at least, right? No. I looked for other signs, every time getting a positive.
What I kept finding was what has sustained me.
1 Corinthians 14:1a
"Pursue Love"
It takes work. You pursue it. It is not effortless. I have to work at it. I have to make it a priority. And most importantly, I have to remember the next part: "yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts..."
That means, to me, keep God in perspective. HIS majesty, His control, His POSITION as number one. Not number 2. Not something to honor occasionally. He is what makes it possible to pursue.
This, for the last 6 years, has held true. 1 Corinthians 13 is true, beautiful, necessary and profound, but the key to it's perfection is usually skipped- 14:1... Pursue Love. Work at it and remember God's place in it.
In the years since we have hit some massive bumps. We will never be the couple 50 years down the road who says, 'We never fought'. Yet- we are also so blessed. I think, more so. We know God's plans for us and His will for our relationship. Granted, we might not understand it, but we know it is such, and it gets us through when we want to quit. I love that about us. I love that when I asked you on the dock at University Lake rather or not you could be a Godly husband and you said you could try. Neither of us makes the perfection mark. We both have tons of growth to go.... but it's the act of Pursuing.
Thanks for Pursuing it with me.


Happy 6th Anniversary, John. I love you.

Gout

Looks like it caught up with John. :( Hit him on Sunday in the toe.

EEEAAAKKKGGGGGAHHHHH!!!

Translation: "Daddy's HOME!!!!"

John took a serious red eye back from the Las Vegas convention on Friday night/Saturday morning. Very lucky for me, his Dad volunteered to pick him up from the airport so the kids and I were not up at 5am trying to get out there to get him at 6:20am. THANK YOU GRANDPA!!!! Anyway, we were all perfectly happy sleeping until Abby went NUTS barking and ended that. Dory was super excited and ran down the stairs to greet both Daddy and Grandpa and then curled up for a few hours while they both continued to sleep on the couch. Jack and I stayed upstairs, snuggled, nursed and slept just a bit more. When Jack finally came out of his morning stupor I told him Daddy was home. I got a huge hug that means, "I'm ready to head downstairs, pick me up! Let's go!" We got to the stairs and he wiggled out of my arms to go bump bump bump down the stairs in a near pooh style on his own. Dory heard us and proclaimed to John that Mommy was downstairs and John, still asleep, responded with a half groan. Upon hearing his voice, Jack squealed "EEEAAAKKKGGGGGAHHHHHH!!!!!" with sheer delight and picked up his bumping pace. It took Jack a few minutes to let go of Daddy and when John tried to go upstairs to take his jet lag nap, Jack nearly panicked. Poor guy. Missed his Daddy.

Welcome back John!

Happy Birthday John

35 looonnnnnnngggggggggg years.

Dory wants to throw you a surprise party. She said we had to invite Craig. And Emily and Megan. And all your friends. And bake you a cake. :)

Happy Birthday John

I hope you like it, I knitted you a lanyard for your new nano. I've been working on it for 2 weeks when I go out. :D It's ivory, blue and green.

The Santa Train

We were invited to a train ride birthday, and Santa just happened to visit and ride with. We had a blast. For the record, it was my first real train ride. We didn't go far, but we had fun.

My very first Caption Contest

Life is fun when you have a toddler.
Have at it, but keep it clean. That includes you, Andy and Ted.
'Gear Head' is taken.