Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog...

Good grief it's been awhile!  I ran into someone over the 4th, and they said, "I read your blog" and I thought to myself...oh that's right!  I have a blog!  I should write on it! :)


Summer is crazy fun and crazy fast.  I feel the clock ticking away already.  Apparently I can't have fun and write about it at the same time.  Too much work.


Instead, I sit here staring at the screen while drinking coffee and eating left-over graham crackers (from smores.)  Smores that we made in the microwave on the 4th because it was raining.  But really...they're better in the microwave anyways.  And interestingly enough, we always have left over graham crackers and never left over Hershey bars.

Lucy's first 4th of July

It wore her out.

Odie enjoying summer in his own special way.

And more of Lucy...because she can't run away from me yet. :)

Notice how Noah and Eli are missing from the pictures?  They've become increasingly annoyed with being in pictures.  And I have become increasingly annoyed with their annoyed expressions when I take the pictures.  It's time for an intervention.  

I'm off to take their pictures... *wink*

  

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Life Happens

Life...

• Lucy turned 2 months old yesterday.  Jake, my 5 year old, took this picture of us while we were in the nursery during church...while my husband was preaching.  I blame the baby for my goofing around in the nursery.  The photographer:  

• We had lots of fun on Fathers Day, partying it up with family.  I ate no less than six pieces of cake.  I wish I were exaggerating.  
• I stole this idea from my friend Wendi.  That's what I do.  Let you creative ones come up with the idea and then I steal it.  I'm like the generic store brand kind of product...it works for me, what can I say?!?

• Notice the strap going across Eli's chest.  It's my old camera case.  He's storing his game boy and misc. treasures in it.  He refers to it as his European Mens Handbag, which he no doubt picked up from some movie. 
•  Jake started running a fever yesterday.  This occurred after our goofing off in the nursery and during the Father's Day/May & June Birthday Bash.  He's ok as long as I keep him pumped full of Tylenol/Advil.
• Lucy gets shots tomorrow.  
• I've been running now for about 4 weeks.  S-l-o-w-l-y easing back into it.  Ran 4 on Saturday and it finally felt good.  Haven't lost a pound.  Friends keep telling me how great I look...because they are liars kind.  I know they're saying it to encourage me...yet part of me wants to blurt out the number that my scale gives me because they would gasp and be surprised, and it would prove me right that I have a LONG LONG LONG ways to go....but sometimes it's just better to be wrong, no?
• Lucy is sleeping through the night.  And taking a bottle on occasion when I need her to.  During the day, however, she sleeps lightly, and doesn't like to be put down...and she especially likes her mama, which is oh-so-sweet...except for when its not.  She redeems herself during the evening hours.
• It's been raining buckets here.  If it continues, tiny town is going to flood.   For real.  Please God let the rain stop.
• We're doing a parenting class at church on Wednesday nights.  It's by Chip Ingram, called Effective Parenting in a Defective World.  It's really good.  Punch-in-the-gut kind of good.  I'll share more on that another time.
• Gotta go, my baby is crying because I have disobeyed her rule by actually putting her in the bouncy seat.  Little stinker. :)  

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Like Mother Like Daughter

It's a little humid here...

Looks like baby girl has inherited her mama's hair.

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Swagger Wagon

A friend brought this video to my attention...because they know my quirky love for my minivan...and white people rapping.


If you get a chance, check out the other Meet The Family videos from Sienna.  Hi-lar-i-ous.


Interestingly (or sadly)...I really do think I'm cool in my minivan Swagger Wagon :)


For realz.  Enjoy.

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It Can Wait...

It's raining here today.  


I need to clean this house.


But there's a Little Miss. that wants to snuggle her mama...


Look at those cheeks...

Irresistible, no?!?


Lucy is 7 weeks old today...the house will wait...the baby won't.


Don't worry, I'll give her a smooch for you.

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I Heart Them

I've been thinking a lot lately about things I love.  And yes, I am one of those people who says love in all sorts of contexts.  I'm also one that says things without always technically meaning things.


Have I lost you yet?


Here's some of my favorite (random) things right now:

• Lily Padz.  They're reusable silicone nursing pads.  I heart them.  

• My back door that is now painted red...

Ignore my shadow ;)

• The blog Morning By Morning.  I adore it.  I was hooked the moment I found Stacey...which has been awhile ago now.  Her life sucked me right in...and the blog...well just go look.  I can't quite explain it, but it plain just makes me happy every time I visit.  The pictures, the lay out, THE COLLECTION...seriously, I want to copy her in about ten different areas.  I mean, really, this is a gal who makes me want to collect vintage Pyrex...who knew!?! She just opened her own Etsy shop and...well...part of me doesn't even want to tell you about it because it's so dang cute I want to buy it all myself.  She has me hooked on vintage. 
• Lucy Feet.  Good grief I can't leave them alone.  Or cover them up.  Man I love baby feet.  Grown up feet = bleh.  Baby feet = sweetness.

More to come...

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Julie is Gone.

Julie flew back home to Norway last Thursday.  


April (with Lucy's arrival) and May had been so crazy around here that we all sort of lived in denial about her leaving.  Me especially...I'm pretty good at denial.


It has been a whirlwind of a year here in the parsonage.  As we walked into the airport to send her back to her own country, I couldn't help but feel like we'd just been there to get her.

And at the same time, it was sort of surreal thinking of all that had gone on while she was here.  The last time I walked into that airport as the mother of boys, and this time I walked into the airport with a teenage daughter and baby girl...a baby girl that wasn't on my "plan" list for the year.  I can't help but look at myself in this picture and laugh a little...because that Sarah didn't have a clue what she was in for. :)


I still don't.


Before Julie arrived, you probably noticed *cough* that every other post involved her.  And then August came, and Julie arrived and then she pretty much dropped off the radar from my blog.  Before she came, I remember thinking how much fun it would be to blog about life with a teenager.  And then she came, and I realized, I can't blog about that, not now at least.  Because at the time, no matter how funny, or frustrating, it was just too soon.


It's amazing how some time can give us a different perspective on any given situation.  Over the next year, I hope to look back on the time Julie was here and reflect and learn from those experiences.  


Julie became a part of us.  And saying good bye at the airport that day was much harder than I had anticipated.  Or maybe it was just the fact that I had to come to terms with it...there's no denying she's leaving when you watch her board the plane and lift off.


I learned a lot about myself, having Julie here.  I learned I have waaaay more to learn about having teenagers.  ;)


It was for a time.  I keep reminding myself of that.  So much of life is just for a time.  So much of me  wants to hold on to everything just the way it is.  I look at the boys and I think STOP GROWING SO FAST.  And Lucy...already filling out and growing by the minute, and I find myself sad that it's going so quickly.  Yet...it's supposed to.  They're supposed to grow.  Julie was supposed to go home to her family.  And if I'm sad for too long, I'll miss out on the joys ahead.  


So here's to learning to let go, embracing change...even enjoying it. 

Love you, Julie!  

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