Taking a break...

Well this Saturday is the big "moving" day! We are moving our whole house into a Uhaul van this weekend. Next Monday the 19th, we are leaving Oregon and driving to California with my sister and the kids in her vehicle behind. (sniff, sniff) :-(
My sister is coming to town today to help me finish packing my house. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful sister who's willing to stop what she's doing and come to my aid. Since my son's brief and sudden illness last week, we have hardly been able to pack at all. My sister has planned to come for quite a while but after all that has happened, I am so thankful that she is coming. There will be plenty to pack! :-) And a fussy little boy to take care of as well. :-(
Anyway, to make this short I will be taking a break from blogging until we get settled into CA. We will be staying with my sister until we get jobs and then we will find a place to live. I will update as soon as we are settled.
Please, if you think of us, will you say a prayer for our son's continues healing, and for us to obtain insurance coverage for him in CA, and for us also to find good jobs and a good place to live. Thank you so much!
Happy Holidays... AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Blessings to you, Jennifer

My baby boy...

So, to answer your question to the picture, no, he doesn't have enough blankies on and yes, he does look quite pitiful. If you had the kind of night he and we had then you would probably feel like he looks... maybe worse if you're a guy. After getting him home yesterday, I caved in and even gave him a christmas toy early. :-) But honestly, any mom out there, tell me you wouldn't have done the same after hearing about our day/night. :-)

Tuesday afternoon I took Josiah in to see his pediatrician after some worry about the look of his... shall we just say "boy parts." She was extremely concerned after seeing him and doing the exam, so we were sent to the hospital to do an ultrasound to have "look-see" and try to decipher what the problem was exactly. After he endured a painful procedure, we went to dinner across from the hospital, and then as we finished eating we were called and told to go straight back to the hospital. We were seen by a couple nurses and the ER dr. We were finally told that we needed to drive our son to the children's hospital to have surgery tonight. We were told the Pediatric Urology Surgeon would meet us at the ER there.

Phew... at this point I am completely overwhelmed and in shock. At the very worst earlier in the day I thought that maybe he had a rash, or possibly an infection... not needing surgery. Now, my son has had a few complications in his life, that I won't get into now, but it tends to leave me a bit overprotective when it comes to dr's and health issues. The nurses finally came in to put in his IV, and I decided that maybe I should step out and let Daddy and Grandma help. The one thing that gets my stomach queasy is blood, and big needles... so I thought this would be best since it seemed like a simple procedure and I needed to call my sister to inform her of our current situation anyway. Well I come back to find that he is in major distress and crying heavily. If that just isn't enough to make you push your way in there and hold your baby tight and want to say "leave.him.alone!" Instead I went over to him and put my arm around his head and talked to him ever so sweetly and began to calm down the wheezing coming from my baby's lungs. After 8 tries, they finally got a successful spot on his right foot. They wrapped it carefully with gauze tape and all night we had to hear all about the owie on his foot. :-)

The hardest part of the night for me was watching my son being wheeled away, down the hallway to the operating room. And saying goodbye to him. And not feeling like it was forever. I'm really not trying to be dramatic but I had a very hard time letting him go. My most significant moment of the whole evening was being able to rock my son to sleep jsut before they wheeled him away to surgery. He was pretty upset still from being pricked by all the e.r. nurses and then being wheeled for what seemed like forever, so I picked up his exhausted body (it is now 12:15am and his bedtime is 8pm) and rocked my son and spoke sweetly to him. I was told later that he did not wake up before his surgery, he slept through the whole thing... well of course through surgery since he was completely under and was given significant pain medication. I was glad that my face was the last thing he saw before going "under" and was who he saw when he woke up disoriented afterwards... there is nothing like a mother's words to soothe an ailing child.

Well we were released from the hospital about 11 hrs after he got out of surgery and got him home and as comfortable as possible. Thank goodness I had made a roast the day before in the crockpot that my folks put in the fridge for me, so I heated that back up and we ate that for dinner last night(wed night). I was so completely exhausted and my son too, I put him to bed at 7:30 and I went to bed at 9:15 last night. He woke up about 7:30 and I woke up at 8am. WOW, that is a lot of sleep. But honestly, I don't feel like I slept too long either. I think my body was utterly exhausted, I don't think I have ever been more tired in my life... not physically or emotionally. Well maybe when I gave birth and the few months following... but I think of that time more like my "zombie" months. But this was stressful in such a completely different way.

I am so thankful that God has sustained my son through a very difficult time in his life. I am glad that this happened now rather than 2 weeks from now when we would have already been moved to CA and possibly not have insurance. This would have been so much more difficult for my son physically if he was a bit older too. God really takes care of us and really does carry us through hard times. I don't know how else I would have made it through the past 2 days if it had not been for God carrying me through. Today I am at peace, which is something I could not have said a week ago becuase of the stress I was feeling about our move. God's peace is truly amazing and I am extremely thankful for so much today. (quietly weeping)

Thank you for your prayers. It is appreciated greatly! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I do hope that you all have blessed Thanksgiving.
As I baked away in the kitchen today, I pondered on all of the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us this year. I thought of many happy moments we have had in this house, that has now sold. I am sad to leave this house but it has given me some of the best memories of my life. Today I am even more thankful that I have been able to be a mom, wife, daughter and sister! Blessings to you all and I pray that God would bless your day with joy and peace.

May I brag?

I just wanted to show how good my son's fine motor skills are getting to be. He has really been working on his coloring skills lately, he colors for probably about 2 hrs every day! Really, he does! :-)

Look at how he colored in the tops of the ice cream cones. He is really getting good about staying in the lines. :-) Yes, I know, a Proud mama I be!!!



Also, the day before he was playing with his big lego's, and he sorted out all of this certain size and then proceeded to sort those particular ones into the colors that they were. So there was a line of blue ones and greens ones. He even pointed to the blue ones and said "boo." Oh, I couldn't have been a more proud mama ever! :-)

Lots of News

Sorry for not posting much lately but I have been on refreshing week away at my friend Amy's house in Lakeview in southern Oregon. It was nice to be away from all the stress of selling a home and the energy that it takes to keep up with all those little things. I come back feeling able to face it all and ready to pick it up a gear and pack my house up and move.

Yes, our house has sold finally to one of the original couple's who put an offer on our house. It wasn't the price we wanted but we did compromise on numbers we could all manage. It is likely that our house will close a week before christmas. We are preparing to deal with family issues that may be effected by our moving so soon before christmas. We are trying however to make the best decision for us and our child. We know moving several times will be harder on him than one big move so we have decided that when the house closes, no matter what time that happens, we will make our move to California. I think unfortunately, much to our families dismay. You see we live near both of our parents and my husband's siblings families, so this will be a very hard move for several families, but good for our future and things to come. We are very excited about all that is to happen in this next year and look forward to what 2006 will bring to us.
One of the things that stresses me so much is that I will have to go back to work. There isn't a day that goes by that I remember soon I will be working during the day and Josiah will be with my sister and her chidlren during the day. I am truly so thankful that we have someone we trust to watch him and he will love being with other children during the day, but it just means we don't get "our" days together anymore. You know all those precious moments, I will miss coloring, or reading books, watching Sesame Street together or just watching him run around and learn new things like dribbling a basketball. I will miss these days and am currently trying to soak in every moment and cherish them in my heart.

Well on another note, I am going to leave you with some pictures from my trip to southern Oregon. The first is a picture of my son's first encounter up close and personal with cows. My friend has 3 cows on her property that they raise for beef. The second picture is of some bald eagles that we saw on our drive home. When we first saw them they were about 20-30 feet from the road! It was spectacular! We did one of thos quick u-turns and whipped it back to the spot they were but they were already flying. We finally caught them as they stopped on a cliff to take a rest from their magestic flight.
Enjoy! and blessings to you and your families.

Josiah and the cows

Bald Eagle

Trials of our lives...

I guess the time has come to explain a few of the comments I have made lately about all that we are going through these days. I will briefly explain them and then I can expand on any if I am not clear, just ask. :-)

About a month ago is when our non-stop stressful life started, when my husband who is a flooring sub-contractor hurt his back. He is better now, only with some occasional pain still, but it's normal with his type of work to have some pain. The following week I was at dr's offices 3 times with my son for ear problems. We found out that he has some hearing loss in his right ear, but we are not sure why. The ear, nose & throat dr wants to wait and re-test his hearing in 3 months (well 2 now). He said that with children this age it's like being a veterinarian as far as guessing what is wrong b/c they cannot tell you what hurts or why. So for now, we have been trying to speak more to his left side. The dr did say that this should not be impeding his speaking. So we are off to a developmental pediatrician on Dec. 1st to explore if there are any physical problems as to why he is not speaking. Now, he does say some some things but only some of those are actually understandable. Long road my little boy has been through and we will make it down this one as well. :-)

The next week my husband's work van was stolen out of the parking lot of the apartments he was working at that day. He only had a few simple tools with him in the apartment at that point as it was still early in the day. So needless to say they got all of his major tools like air compessor, nail gun, saws, drills... etc. And then to find out we do not have any insurance coverage on any of it, including theft of the vehicle itself. The police did find his vehicle a couple days later but everything was gone... they even wiped his dashboard down and all. Who would of thought... clean theives! They even spray painted a tacky yellow stripe over the red one that was there. So it's like a new vehicle to us... well not really. It broke down yesterday... so not only did it cost us to get it back, from towing, but we had to spend more money yesterday getting a new clutch part.

Last week, (week we got van back), we got an offer on our house! We were thrilled! Until we heard the actual offer. Then they ammended their offer which was worse. But we found some do-able things within it and made a counter. Well after many counter-offers we are completely offended by these people and they know what they can do with their offer. Basically, every time a new offer from them came in they asked for us to do more and we got less money! I'ts not supposed to work that way!

We did get another offer from a different couple last friday, and we quite excited becuase there was no expectations of us to do anything, and it seems like it will be quick transaction as well. That is a good thing. BUT.. their offer was 9k less than what we were asking so we countered that night and are still waiting to hear if they are going for it, countering, or rejecting it, becuase eveidently they went out of town and their real estate agent is not able to get in touch with them. So more waiting...

I think the God must think that I need to work on my patience this last month, becuase it seems that's all we've been doing. Waiting for dr's appt's, or answers to health issues, for good health to return, and for our house to sell to somebody!

Well I think you are all caught up now. I better get back to patiently waiting for now... I will check back in later when I have more answers. :-) Thanks for sticking in there and reading this long post. :-)

Feeling goofy...

Well in the midst of all that is happening right now... I thought I would write a silly blog instead just to lighten my mood today. :-) Bear with me. :-)

As any of you who know me personally, you know I like to cook but may not really know what I get to do with what little free time I have. I am food network junkie. Yep, I must say I may need a support group for this. LOL! Really though, I love to cook and I learn some really great things when I watch... maybe that is why I have improved over the last few years. I have all this time at home now. :-)
Here is my ode to my favorite shows: (remember, bear with me.... feeling silly)

Oh Sandra Lee, how I wish I could entertain like thee;
Then there's Alton Brown, he brings such joy to my son to make him jump up and down;
And zippy Rachael Ray, she'll whip you up a meal in 30 minutes, me, replicate, maybe someday;
We cannot forget Mrs Paula Deen, and her scrumptious recipes of which I am very keen;
Oh how the food network has saved this old marm from such boredom or other such harm,
I wish you all happy cooking from this day on.

Halloween Fun

I made a yummy dinner of worms and eyeballs. Actually spaghetti and meatballs... the meatballs had a half of a olive in the middle so they looked like eyeballs. Very cute... although I did not take any pictures of it. Sorry I don't get to share our yummy meal with you.

After dinner Grandpa helped Josiah get dressed in his Giraffe costume. I got quite a deal when I bought this for under $12 from Ebay. :-)



He was very excited to go....



But not very excited about wearing the hood until he got to see himsef in the mirror.



Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa took Josiah trick or treating around the neighborhood. We didn't go very far since Josiah was pretty tired. He was so tired that when we got back to the house, we got his jammies on and he laid on the floor with daddy until the grandparents went home and then he got put to bed. He has been fighting a temperature all weekend and it came back last night after he went to bed. He woke up at 11:30 last night with 102 temp, hopefully he will get over the fever soon. I think halloween was much too fun for the little boy this year. And need not worry, he ate plenty of candy thanks to Grandpa. :-)

A day at the Orchard(s)

Last saturday we spent a fabulous day in Hood River exploring all the many farms there that sell their crop of fruit for the year all throughout October. Last weekend happened to be the Apple and Cider Festival. This is a time where many of the orchards have their big "blowout" for the fall harvest time.

I invited my folks to come along with us and we made a terrific day of visiting several orchards that featured fresh pressed apple cider, pumpkin patches, a corn maze, antique stores, a huckleberry festival, and a fabulous BBQ lunch. It was truly worth all the time we spent there, which was all day. The weather was warm, in the 70's, and the sun was bright, you can't ask for a better day to spend visiting the farms and orchards of the Hood River valley.

For those who may not know, Hood River is located in the Columbia River Gorge, which seperates Oregon and Washington. We were on the Oregon side, up in the hills. The area is world renowned for the fabulous growing weather for fruits such as apples and pears.



To end our day, we visited an organic farm that was tucked way back into the hills. It was a beautiful farm with a big old farmhouse, with a couple of little cottages scattered about. As we drove on down the road following the signs to the "apple house" it was very nicely decorated with fall items and pumpkins. The owner of the farm was in the middle of redecorating/designing a new facade to the "apple house" where they sell their produce and make apple cider, this man also had a HUGE wood working shop that any man would drool profusely over, including my husband. You could tell that this man was extremely talented. We scraped together $1.50 worth of change so we could buy some of their Mountain Rose variety of apple that is pink in the middle and very sweet but small. They are very yummy.

The man who owned the farm came over to us to invite us to check out the pond on his property. He told us it was stocked with lots of fish and that we were welcome to feed them. He went and fetched a big bucket half filled with pellets of food to feed the fish with, and pointed out the way up the hill in which were supposed to find the pond.

After trekking probably a couple of blocks uphill and into the woods we finally discovered his little gem(pond). The pond is overlooked by 2 mountains, Mt Adams on the northside and Mt Hood to the south. The trees around the pond were all spattered with beautiful fall colors. Now he wasn't kidding when he said he had fish in the pond. Oh my goodness, there were TONS of fish in the pond. We would throw out a small handful of fish food and they went crazy jumping out of the water and swarming around under the water until every last bit of food was eaten. We spent an hour up there just throwing handfuls of food to the fish and enjoying the sun warming us as watched how close the fish would swim to our wonderful 2 yr old son. He had a blast! He would throw a couple pieces of food at a time and then clap with exictement over how quickly the fish would eat his offering to them. It was a bit muddy along the waters edge so of course there were incidents of him getting to excited and slipping. So we came away from the pond with a very muddy little boy, but that is par for the course when you have a 2 yr old boy. Good thing mommy was thinking that morning and brought extra clothes. Overall it was the best day of my whole month. This month has been filled with much disappointment and irritations and this was a breath of fresh air that I for one so badly needed. It was good for our family to get some time away from it all and enjoy God's beauty.
More later on what else is happening in our family... God's blessing to you this fall.

A day at the pumpkin patch

Daddy got off early today so we spent the afternoon picking out the perfect pumpkin! It proved to be a hard job, because they were awful heavy. But I think I found just the right one.



Well, mommy thought that one looked a little rotten so she found another one. I thought it had pretty bumps on it, so I approved, eventually.

I got a little grumpy at the patch so we took the hayride back to the barn. It was fun becuase we got to bounce up and down and all around. It was really fun to watch the pumpkins roll all around, but Daddy got ours placed just right so it wouldn't roll off. I helped him watch it just to make sure though.

This was our afternoon according to Josiah. :-) Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Of course, this is what I think he might say if he would actually speak to us. :-)

Much to worry about

Well since my last post I have been quite busy worrying about stuff. If you know me very well, I am notorius for worrying. I have many times tried not to, but it just creeps back in. Maybe one of these days God will teach me once and for all, that he is in control and everything happens for a purpose. I do not need to worry about tomorrow becuase He can take care of it for me. Well until that time comes... I am distressed.
As you all know, my house is for sale. It has been on the market for 2 months! The last month however we have had 4 realtors show our home. Yes, only 4! All I can think about is the fact that our home needs to sell so we can relocate our family to CA so my husband can go back to school. (Speaking of husband and back... well more on that later) Anyway, I do not do well with uncertainty. It drives a me a little bonkers after a long period of time. Maybe I am a bit of control freak or something, but something just drives me to know what is going to happen to me, and have some sort of choice in the matter I suppose. But as far as when my house will sell, well I have no control over that at all! So I am left with, 1) when is our house going to sell? 2) when will we move? 3) will we be around here for christmas this year? 4) what wil this do to my son? 5) will this adversely effect his relationship with his grandpa(my dad)?
UGH... the questions that nobody can answer...
The other main worry on my mind, I briefly mentioned above. My husband hurt his back last week. Now, my husband is a flooring sub-contractor, so a hurt back means no work. He took some much needed time off last week but decided he needed to work this week to continue providing for us, his family. I admire his need to provide for us, but I worry that he will only injure himself further. I find myself praying without ceasing all day long for him this week to be well and not in too much pain. He assures me that he is working slowly and taking it easy when he has to lift things, and I am left to trust that he be walking home that day. How do you trust that will happen?
I am sorry to sound like such a sap today but there is much on my mind, and I can't seem to find much else to say. I leave you with my heavy thoughts for today. We all have our valleys and maybe today is one of mine, but this too shall pass. I know that God has a plan for us and it will all work out in the end, and for now that is what I will rest in.

How do you not laugh?

When your 2 yr old wants to wear his sleeper jammies still, but only have the arms on right, and the legs are hanging off the back of him. Then he dones his head with the bucket from his happy meal from Carl's Jr (that Daddy took him to over last weekend). Then he proceeds to stack all the couch pillows, very carefully I might add, on the floor next to the couch and then backs way up and takes a run at them and pounces onto the stack of pillows so hard that it bounces him right off and lands on the floor on his head and he giggles wildly! Thankfully the bucket was lost in the run to the pillows or it could have been a bad landing.
Oh the fun of having a toddler!
Can you remember those days?
I am so blessed to be able to experience these days with my son. I love every giggly moment and each one in between too.





Here is a pic of him prior to finding the pillows on the couch. Just so you can visually see how truly funny this is. :-) Enjoy viewing! He's even got slippers on, too funny, I didn't notice till I looked at the picture.


Maybe he can be a clown for Halloween! What do you think?

Finally!

Josiah has finally tried his birthday cake... 3 days after his birthday party!


I think he thought "Mmm, this is yummy, why did I wait so long to eat it?"

I think this becuase once he tried it, he totally devoured it in less than 30 seconds! No joke!

5 things...

5 Things I plan (Lord willing) to do before I die:
1. visit Europe ~ extensive list of places to go
2. see my son accept Jesus
3. watch my son get married and have kids (Lord willing of course)
4. See my husband graduate college
5. have another baby? (again, Lord willing)

5 Things I can do:
1. cook yummy dinners
2. bake cookies with my son
3. babysit my friend's babies
4. help a friend in need (listen, cry on my shoulder, cook them dinner)
5. get my son to giggle by tickling under his chin ~ love that laugh

5 Things I cannot do (yet): ( and for some, may never)
1. sell my house! ~ lol
2. get a degree
3. memorize the bible
4. keep my mouth shut when I should
5. speak a foreign language

5 Things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1. good Humor
2. the Smile
3. sense for adventure
4. a nice bottom ~ (ok i know... get over it, I have eyes)
5. safety

5 Things I say most often:
1. don't touch that!
2. No, nooo, and again nooooo - (to my darling son who is 2)
3. Rad! ~ my fav. word
4. dude ~ probably way more than I should
5. Joooonnyyyy

5 Celebrity crushes: (not crushes but faces I enjoy watching)
1. Adam Sandler
2. Orlando Bloom
3. Brad Pitt
4. Matthew McConaughey ~ wowsers!
5. Michael Vartan ~ huuuge Alias fan!

5 People I want to do this:
1. Dawn - sister ( I know, like you have the free time and all) :-)
2. don't know
3. whoever
4. wants
5. to

Josiah's 2!

On Sunday we had Josiah's birthday party and we had a blast. I can't say that he did, at least not the whole time. He really needed a longer nap before everyone came, but sadly he has been suffering from nightmares lately. Poor little guy. :-(

Anyway, we played a game called "Pin the nose on Elmo." We also had an Elmo pinata, of which was broke open by the last child, so no adults got to hit, much to my husband's dismay. :-) We opened all of his many presents. He received lots of trucks and clothes, of which Josiah loves every one of them. We then came inside and had cake. Josiah even tried to blow out his candles but I think he got to close to the candle and didn't like the heat so he wanted away from it. He wouldn't even take a bite of birthday cake. He didn't have any cake all day... I think becuase he snuck way too many cookies and chips from the table. He is pretty crafty in those arts lately! :-) This was all too familiar becuase on his first birthday he tried to grab one of his candles on his cake and in the process put out the candle, and he cried a little bit as we all sang to him. This year he was just grumpy as we sang to him and wouldn't even touch his cake. Kids don't always "perform" the way you want... that's ok. It was just for picture sake anyway...

Overall, the highlights for Josiah were getting his new bike from mommy and daddy, opening up all his trucks, and playing with the streamers after we took them down when the party was done. In fact, thinking back he had the biggest smile and giggled when he and Grandpa ran through the house with the streamers. Oh well, at least he had fun with some part of the party, even if it had to be the clean-up. :-)

The highlight for me was showing off the DVD I burned on my computer. It took me several days to finish it, so it was a huge accomplishment. I made a slideshow with pictures and short video showing off the most important events of his first 2 yrs of life, with music in the background too. It really turned out beautifully! Proud mama here.

(Yes, I really did make the Elmo cake. It was really fun!)

Elmo cake, mommy made it! 

My new bike, gift from mommy and daddy 

"I don't want any cake, mommy!" Gimme the chips! 

Pin the nose on Elmo, game... lots of fun! 

Happiest all day, with the streamers! 

A spontaneous, whirlwind trip to the Zoo

On Saturday while Josiah was down for his nap, we decided to go the zoo. We had been wanting to take Josiah to go do something fun in the afternoon and had a hard time deciding what to do. When my husband came up with the idea to go to the zoo, we both jumped up and said yeah, let's do it. It was nearing the end of Josiah's nap, so hurried ourselves to finish getting ready. From the time we decided to go, 2:25, to leaving the house at 2:45 and getting to the zoo at 3:05, we made pretty good time.

We had decided on the way that we would hit the big exhibits first. Josiah and I have been having a blast watching the Africa webcam, that my sister posted on her website, so we wanted Josiah to see those animals up close and personal. So we made a b-line for the elephants and then the Africa animals after that. Josiah was still pretty sleepy when we got to the zoo so the elephants were neat but not so exciting. So by the time we got to Giraffe's he was wide awake and really excited about what he was seeing. I think maybe by then it had really hit him that we were looking at animals in real life. He loved watching the birds in all the exhibits. The Giraffe, I think, were the most exciting though, it was out walking around right in front of where you watch them. He pointed at it through the fence and talked to it, in his wonderful little jibber jabber. We went from the Africa animals to see the Alaskan ones but they were almost all sleeping. Not much fun there. So we went on to the big cats, and while the lions slept, the leopards were up walking around making their presence known. Josiah loved watching them and also told Jonny all about them. It was very sweet. After looking at the boring penguins, we went to see all the monkeys. They were very fun. There was this one orangutan that sat right beside her window looking out onto us. It was as if we were her zoo for the day. Josiah walked right up to the window and began talking to her as if they were long lost friends. My husband knelt down and they talked about what kind of animal she was. We sat and watched her, watching us for a long time until she finally left the window to go play with some of her various toys. Josiah was the most interactive with her though. It was very sweet to watch my son make "new friends."

Sometimes the best times we have with our children can be the most spontaneous! I urge you all to spend some quality, spontaneous time with your children. Those precious moments go by all too quickly... and to think of this awesome time we would have missed if we hadn't gone. I thank God for these memories to forever cherish.

The orangutan and me, "hello my new friend" 

Wow! Look at the Elephant! 

Giraffe at Oregon zoo 

Show mommy the leopard! 

Watching the otters with daddy 

Planning a party

Well I know I haven't written in many days, so I thought I would catch you up real quick on what has been occupying my time.

The picture below is the home-made invitations that I finished up yesterday for my son's 2nd birthday. I have been busy planning an Elmo party. Hence you can see all Elmo designs I downloaded from various internet sites on the invites.

The invitation in front, on the right, is the back of the invitation and has a picture of Count von Count saying "1,2, Somebody is turning 2, ah..ah..ah.." That was my hubby's idea. Then in the picture the invitation on the left, is the front of the invitation with a small elmo sticker holding it together. Yes the design on front and back is a picket fence.

The invitation standing up is the inside. It says...
"Sunny Days, Chasing the clouds away
On my way to Josiah's birthday party!
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to
{my street address here}
Josiah is turning 2, won't you join us too?
Elmo is ready to celebrate, Are you ready for some cake?
September 25th is the date, from 4-5:30pm So don't be late!"

It also has an Elmo face in the middle and then it says...
"Please join us for cake and ice cream,fun games and of course, presents!"

At the end under the Elmo and blocks border, it says...
"Brought to you by the letter "J" for Josiah and the number 2!"

I had a lot of fun making these invitations. I did get some ideas from reading Elmo Fan Site webpages, which is also where I got some of my images. I also got some pages to print out for coloring book pages. Which will be one of the activities for the party. I also ordered a big Elmo pinata. Thought that would be fun for Josiah since he loves to hit things right now. (Oh yes, I'm in that wonderful stage now!) We will also play a game called "Pin the nose on Elmo." I thought that ought to do it for games. My wonderful sister, Dawn, will be coming for the weekend to help me out on making this all happen. YAY for sisters! The party is in a week and a half, I will post pictures afterwards. Please pray it all turns to be lots of fun for Josiah. The little guy deserves to have some fun this year!

Homemade invitations for son's 2nd bday party 

Haircuts

I decided that today was the day that I would take my son to get his first professional haircut. I searched out all the "kids" specific places out there and decided on the one closest to home. Well, lesson learned... the closest to home isn't always the best.

When we arrived the lady was very stoic, and asked if had a reservation and I said yes. She looked at her book and said "for Joshua?" I said his name is Josiah. (I don't know how many times I have corrected people for that same problem! OPEN YOUR EYES) She then asks if he needs to play first and I said no, let's do this while he not all wound up. So she walks back to her chair and says you can bring him back. After getting him all settled in this stack of blocks that looks way too precarious, she starts cutting his hair. She doesn't say anything at all to him. Not even a look this way or that way, or you're a good boy. Nothing, no words! Finally I asked if I could take some pictures, and she says "oh is this his first haircut?" I said well, yes it's the first professional one, I usually jsut do it myself at home. She agreed to my picture taking a I only felt comfortable to take a couple. My son sat and ate his goldfish snacks and watched her every move. She was finally done, and frankly my sons hair does not look one bit different, she told me that they have first haircut certificates for free. I accepted the offer and gathered my son off the chair and our stuff and paid her for her "services" and we left promptly. I suppose it could have been worse and I am truly thankful it was not, but it certainly was not what I expected from a hair salon named Kids Kuts. Oh well... what's done is done, and we are no worse off for it, so our day must go on.
Shucks... should have went to Castle Cuts. :-) Live and learn! :-)

My first professional haircut 

Sprinkler fun in last days of summer! 

Happy family! 

Happy Sunset

My highlight of the weekend was Saturday night's sunset. Let me paint the picture for you... and then show you. :-)

The sand was warm from the day's sunshine and my husband and I and our son and our dog, plus my dad sat on a log as we watched the sun drop into the ocean in front us. The sky was pianted with oranges, yellows, pinks, blues and purples. It was beyond words... just fabulous! There was a slight breeze, only enough to move a couple hairs on your head though. There were people's voices heard nearby and children's voices squealing with delight as they play in the last few minutes of daylight before heading off to camp. It was a serene moment. The most I have had in many months. It was much needed quiet rest for this weary momma. My husband and I began to tell our son about how the sun goes down and explained to him that he should tell the sun goodbye. So he stands up on this log we are sitting on and waves as he always does and then out comes the words, the words we haven't yet heard him speak, he says "bu by." Then before I could process the words he said it again, as he waved and looked at the sun nearly gone, "bu bye." I was the proudest momma in the world! My eyes teared up as I looked at my husband and said did you hear that, he actaully said bye bye. My dad and husband and I sat in amazement for there was such beauty in front of our eyes, but our ears may have been more happy, for Josiah had finally uttered the words we'd so long been trying to teach. Maybe it was just a moment for me, but it was truly the highlight of my weekend. Such beauty there is in this world that we are so blessed to not only see but to hear as well. All is well in my soul! :-)

May God bless you with such joy this week!

Beautiful sunset on Oregon Coast! 

Birthday Blues...

Yep, today it is... that is my birthday.
It seems like such a let down every year for my birthday to be the day after labor day.... or at least it seems to fall right around then every year.

We got home last night from spending a wonderful weekend camping with some families from our church at the Oregon Coast at a state park. God blessed us with spectacular weather. For the Oregon Coast, good weather is sunny with hardly any wind and about 65 degrees. It was a little chilly at night but not unbearable. We slept in a tent but had an air matress and my son slept in his pac-n-play quite happily. Well, after having such a great time and getting home last night and doing all the laundry this morning, it just seems a bit of let down. It's always enough of a let down after a great weekend but to add your birthday on top is just a bummer.

But through all of that, my husband finally remembered it was my birthday before he left the house and told me happy birthday. I am thankful for that. :-) And I am also thankful this morning for my wonderful sister who never forgets me, sent me an email with a beautiful e-card. I also have a present sitting on my kitchen table from her waiting for me to open. Of which I am thankful for also. Sitting right beside it is a present from my mother-in-law who left it for me while we were away this weekend. I am truly blessed with wonderful family who really do care about me and I thank God for each of them this morning.

Besides I sit here in my warm home with clean running water to clean ourselves and our clothing and plenty of food to eat. I am blessed with much. Where on the other side of our country it could be someone else's birthday who has nothing, no home, maybe no family and sitting in flood waters... I really have no place to complain. Instead I want to be thankful today for the things I take for granted today and let those be my "presents." :-)

Overwhelming!

Wow, watching the news this week can certainly be that and extremely sad.

As I watch the morning show, I sit on my comfy couch eating my breakfast and watching my toddler son try to ride the dog with extreme excitement. And on my television there is nothing but story after story of displaced families or families looking for other family members, or people on the rooftops or yelling from inside their home for help. This reporter voluntarily went into flooded neighborhoods to show us the devastation, (like we didn't already know!), and they would motor by people begging for help, holding up signs saying "Help me." My heart was breaking for those families being driven by, I can't help but wonder what will happen to them. As tears are streaming down my face from all the devastation before my eyes, my toddler looks into my eye as I give him his breakfast and gives me his biggest smile and does a little giggle, from where it came from nobody knows. But I truly believe that God knew I needed that to lift my spirits this morning.

This morning I sit here and count every single one of my blessings, my life, my child's life, my home, food to eat and water to drink. The basics, yes, but those are things that our fellow americans simply do no have any of right now. Today I am truly thankful for all I have and I hope as you read you know how truly blessed you are to be able to read this as well.

May God be with those lives who have been ruined this week. My heart goes out to all of them.

My little cutie pie's! (son, Josiah and sister Rachael) 

Friday Five

This is from a fellow blogger's site. Thanks Donna! :-)
It's a way for you all to get to know me better or at least my mood for the day. :-)

Do you get excited when the season begins to change?
~ I love it when season's change. It means I get to switch my clothes, like put away all the shorts and take out my pants. Or if I've lost weight, get new ones! :-) But back to season's, I always think the change in weather from season to season is fun to watch and feel.
Which season do you most look forward to?
~ I love it when Spring comes. Spring is by far my favorite season of all! It's a new beginning and who doesn't just love and cherish new beginnings!

Who was the first person you had a crush on?
~ Mmm, well I'm sure it was some boy in Alaska when older sis and I lived there. But I do remember thinking that Ralph Machio was really , really cool!! Even had a big ol poster of him on our wall. :-)

Would you consider yourself to be strict when it comes to grammar and spelling?
~ Not really when I am writing friends and family, but I am when it comes to writing anything else important.
What's an example of the worst error you've seen?
~ Well the most recent typ-o I have experienced that really irritated me was in our MLS listing online. Our real estate agent did not have very good grammar or spelling and I had to read the sentence a few times to kind-of understand what he meant. Just made it seem very un-professional to me.

Who has a birthday coming up, and what will you give them as a gift?
~ Well my birthday is the day after Labor Day this year, but soon after that is my son's birthday on the 25th. I am very excited for his second birthday! I still need to decide on a theme and what I will buy him. I'm tyring to decide between something he needs like clothes, or something fun like a new toy. Either way, I don't think he'll mind. :-)

If you could have any new piece of clothing for free, what would you pick?
~The perfect pair of jeans! That aren't too tight on belly or bottom but makes you totally sexy! Or is that just an enigma. :-)

Happy as a clam in my new fort!