Thursday, September 4, 2008

A shout out...






First and foremost....


A HUGE shoutout to my very dear friends, Sheri & Mike, who will be getting married next fall. They were just engaged this past weekend in my very favorite place on Earth, northern Michigan.

This shout out was supposed to happen on my last Hodge Podge post. It was supposed to be about all of these different things I wanted to write about, but of course, I end up losing out to my exhaustion and my posts are cut way shorter than I intend.

I am so excited for their wedding. I think maybe because it's in the fall when Aaron and I got married. Maybe I am so excited because I know how great our wedding was...how much fun we had...how we didn't even spend a whole lot of time together while we were at our reception, but he caught me starting at him a whole lot and I caught him staring at me a whole lot that night. I wouldn't change one thing about it. I can't believe that it'll be 6 years next month.
He truly is my best friend and my rock. He is the head of our home and having him as a husband and a father to my children is more of a blessing than I deserve. He is the one person I am not afraid to tell anything to and I know that it won't change the way he sees me...not even for one second.
Oh how I miss him...I don't know how wives send off their husbands for these long extended tours of duty. May God Bless them.
Let's see...what have we been up to???
Aaron came home to visit last weekend. Molly is seen up above working on the blueberry pie she made for him. I think she was more interested in eating as many blueberries and as much cool whip as she possibly could everytime I turned my back to stir the filling. She has taken a nice turn in her behavior lately. We made a sticker chart and who knew that stickers would be so powerful in Molly's world. The last thing she wants to happen is for her mom to take a sticker away from her. She LOVES her stickers.
A few things out of Molly's mouth lately:
"I hate you Max."
"Momma, this tape is really pissin' me off."
"Momma, it was my fault."
"Absolutely, Momma."
"I want my daddy."
The first was because the 2 of them were fighting. They were arguing b/c Molly insists on teasing Max. They were in the back of the van. She kept telling him that he was 2 and that she was 4. Well....that drove Max CRAZY. He started yelling at her. She yelled back.....back and forth back and forth. Finally, Molly said, "you aren't my friend anymore. I hate you Max". I felt awful. We had a nice long talk about how our brothers are very important to us...especially to their sister and that it's ok to be mad at him, but not to say those hurtful words. Last weeks bible verse has helped alot..."be kind and loving". It has really come in handy over the past few weeks. (It's a real testament on just how the bible can truly get us through our days!)
Molly's verse this week, in case you were wondering, "God knows everything about me". Thank goodness because I am not sure I want to know everything about Molly. It's a little scary to think about if I am being honest.
Now, the tape thing. I said it under my breath in the kitchen. She was in the living room. 10 minutes after the fact she comes in the kitchen with her own scotch tape saying the same thing.
Unbelievable.
That is another one of their words lately. They love unbelievable.
Max is doing great. Loves school. Loves Awana. Loves Sunday School. I really couldn't be more proud of him. He comes home singing a new song. Telling me stories about his day. He loves going to bed at night knowing that when he wakes up in the morning he gets to go to school. He spends Fri-Mon. night asking when he gets to go back. I hope this enthusiasm for school will last. If he is anything like his father it will.
Maggie is doing wonderfully. She is getting on a bit of a routine and I can't say enough how lucky and blessed we are with 3 healthy children who sleep thru the night regularly. Her smiles melt my heart and remind me in an instant that I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
I told her she can't move into her crib until her daddy gets home.
Oh, that reminds me. When Aaron came home this past weekend he brought gifts for the kids. One of the gifts was a stuffed snake for each of them. The second night Max had a horrible nightmare. Monday night he brought the snakes downstairs to me telling me, "Momma, their eyes are too big. I want daddy to get me a new snake with small and nice eyes". The snakes now hang out on the chair with me at night.
Again, here I go with the bobbing head and droopy eyelids.

Monday, September 1, 2008

A Hodge Podge....

A few different things running through my mind tonight....

Do I have the faith that I have b/c nothing really awful has happenend in my life?

The Lord has showered me with blessings...it's an honor to be married to Aaron, I have 3 of thee most beautiful and caring and adorable children, loving parents, fabulous sisters, a great brother, hilarious nephews, wonderful niece, I get to call some of the best people in the world my friends, my family and I attend a terrific church where I get to praise my Lord and my children are learning about their creator, I have a home, 2 cars, the ability to visit my family when I want, food for my children, the means to send my son to a Christian preschool and my daughter to gymnastics class...I could go on and on.

If I was crushed by devestating news am I strong enough in my faith to say, "I believe my Jesus is the same Jesus before this news"? I hope so.

I read some of these of these blogs and sometimes the tears just flow and then I get on my knees and grab my children and don't let go. The faith of these women is truly something special.
I believe that God works all things for good. I believe he has a plan that we are neither supposed to question or know.

A little something on the kids.

They are learning bible verses in Sunday school and Awana. Molly's last week was from Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and loving.
Anyone who knows our little Molly knows that when she is kind & loving no one can top her. However, when she is not, I pray this verse over her sweet little head.
This weeks verse is from Psalm 139:1
God knows everything about me.
Thank goodness he does, because I can't be everywhere and it brings comfort to my heart knowing that God can see her and know everything about her.

I was going over Max's bible verses with him. We were talking about all of the people that love him.
I asked him, "Max, who loves you?"
His reply, "John and Clay do."
Those are his 2 new buddies from church.
The answer I was looking for was, "Jesus loves me".
My little boy is going to be 4 in 20 days....I can't believe it.

My other Max story (this is why the title of today's post is hodge podge)
The kids have this frisbeet that is hollow in the middle. They enjoy putting it on their heads and wearing it as a hat.
Max put it on his head yesterday as we headed out to the falls.
He put it on his head, grabbed it between his fore finger and thumb and said, "What can I do for you ma'am?" ADORABLE.
Oh and Aaron brought the kids home these huge stuffed snakes. The kids were really excited at first. We are pretty sure that they caused some pretty major nightmares Saturday night. I was sitting downstairs tonight watching the Scrubs marathon when Max came down for the gazillionth time carrying his snake. He asked if I could hold onto the snake because he was scary. He told me that he wanted his dad to get smaller snakes with smaller and nicer eyes.
I told him I would speak to his dad about that. Up the stairs he went and a few seconds later was down with Molly's snake too.

My little Maggie. She missed her daddy. She was smiling at him all weekend.
I am in awe of those women who ship their husbands off overseas and are alone in raising the children months, sometimes years, at a time. May God bless them.

Well my eyes are slowly shutting and we have another busy week.