Max's 3rd season of t-ball...

MAN, I LOVE THIS KID!!! Can't believe we have started our 3rd year of t-ball.
He is doing great & loves his baseball. My favorite thing about watching him is seeing him get so excited when he does something great & not getting down on himself when he misses a grounder. I am hoping to get a picture of this spirit soon, but until then let me try and paint you a picture.
Tonight, a grounder came right to him. He called out, "I got it! I got it!" He squatted, put his mitt out, fielded the ball. Then he wound up, kicked out that leg like his daddy taught him & then he threw it to first. He then put his arms up in the air & jumped up and down with a huge smile on his face. MAN, I LOVE THAT KID!!!


May 22, 2010

May 16, 2009

May 24, 2008

Forgot this one...

Back on April 16th, the kids had their first ehub production. They did fantastic. Max hid behind one of his taller friends for his first class, but he had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

The kids had their regular classes in the a.m. and then the production went until after 4 that afternoon. Right before leaving the parking lot Max mentioned that he had to go potty. Aaron told him that he would take him and then Max changed his mind. He said that he could hold it. I didn't doubt that he could. The last time he had an accident was when he was potty training. So we kissed Aaron good-bye and told him that we would see him soon. Of course, traffic at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon in a construction filled city...I would have lost control of my bladder. At first Max was just sort of hopping around in his seat. Then it began to get a bit more serious. There was no where to turn into the mall. They had all of the entrances closed off on the road we were on. And of course, we were on a boulevard type road so we couldn't turn around. I tried to get him to pee in the empty water bottle. No way, no how. He was not doing that. Can't say that I blame him :) So by the time we got out of that jam Max was crying, "Momma, I think I went a little bit. I'm so sorry. I should have listened to daddy when he told me to go." I felt just awful. I told him that it was alright and that momma should have taken him. Then I asked him if he went to the bathroom at all while in Miss Ashley's class. He said no. I said, "Honey, did you go potty this morning when you woke up?"

"No."

My jaw dropped. To this day, I am still hoping that he did in fact go potty that morning and truly didn't go from the night of the 15th to the afternoon of the 16th without using the restroom. Mom of the year....right here! :(

So...after all of the traffic jams and potty mishaps, we finally pull up to Stacy's house (we were dropping the kids off right after the production b/c Aaron and I had a date night). The kids and I arrived before Stacy and the kids so we just hung out in the van for a bit and Max changed his clothes. :)

Then this happened:

Max: Momma, I love legos. I love legos even more than Mario. Me: Stunned. Really, even more than Mario. Max: Yep, but you, You I love more than anything Momma. Me: Instant tears and thinking that he will NEVER leave me and get married!

My Dear & Sweet Friend, Amanda...

My sweet and dear friend, Amanda, passed away today, April 24, 2010.

She had been admitted to the hospital for dehydration & miscarriage.

I just spoke with her on the phone on Tuesday evening. She thought that she'd be home the next day, the lastest Thursday. The last I heard from her on Wednesday morning. She emailed to say that there were no new updates and that the docs may run a few tests. I didn't hear from her the rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday. I spoke with one of my friends Thursday night. We were both worried because neither of us had heard from her in almost 2 days. That was very unusual. I stayed up late that night writing her a card and packaging up a little photo notepad thing I had gotten for her. Thought it might put a small smile on her face after the miscarrage. I never mailed it to her. Early Friday morning, around 2 a.m., we received an email from her mom saying that Amanda was in critical condition and in the ICU. She needed our prayers. I spent all day on the phone...back and forth between friends trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Halfway through the morning we were told that Amanda had had a massive stroke and then they could not get her blood to clot. I just cried. I couldn't do anything else. I wanted to get in my car and head straight for the hospital. Instead, we sat and just waited to hear. Around 12:15 p.m. Amanda's sister-in-law called and told us that they were waiting for her brother to arrive from out of town and they were going to take her off of life support. I went upstairs and just fell on the floor. I couldn't breathe. I just wanted to lay on the floor and cry. Max came upstairs. Right before I got the phone call from her sister-in-law, Max had stapled his finger. The call came in as I was rinsing and cleaning Max's finger. I left the bathroom and headed upstairs. Max came up while I was crying and said, "It's ok, Momma. See? I cleaned it already and put a band-aid on it. It's all better so you don't have to cry."

I ended up at the hospital with my 3 other dear friends. We were able to say our good-byes and spend some time with our sweet, goofy, and spirited Amanda. When we left the hospital I couldn't believe that we actually left. We went back to Jess & Jay's. We ordered pizza and drank Miller Lite in honor of our dear friend. The next day we went to breakfast, got pictures around for the service, shopped for matching bracelets for the 5 of us + Amanda's mom. The day dragged on and flew by all at the same time. We kept waiting for an update.

Being at Jess & Jay's reminded me of the time that Amanda and I spent the night there a few years ago. We slept in the spare bedroom with Amanda on the regular bed and me below her to the side on the trundle. She said that I kept her up with my strange sleep talking. She just giggled at me the next morning. Not saying anything bad about it. The last time we were there was March 21st. We spent some time on the couch hanging out. Even though we had most of the couch we kinda sat really close :) I am not sure why...just glad that we did. I just really regret not taking more pictures of all of us. We called the hospital a few times that day to see if she was still listed as a patient. She was. I made it across the state and back home around 9:15 pm. I got the call around 10 pm from my dear friend that she had passed. Our sweet Amanda.

I stayed up until about 4 a.m. just looking at photos of her and writing back and forth to Jax. The next morning we headed to church. It's a church that we have only been to one other time as a family. The pastor read Psalm 23. I almost completely lost it. It was as if Jesus was sitting right next to me holding me up. The message was all about how great our shepherd is. How He has it all taken care of. That He will be our good shepherd no matter our doubt and struggle.

Tuesday was the service. It was beautiful. When the music began, I recognized the song right away. It was Need You Now by Lady Antebellum. I put the kleenex over my face and lost it. I thought I was good until I looked over and saw Amanda's husband walk into the room with their 8 month old son, Patrick. I couldn't breathe. You could hear all of the gut wrenching cries throughout the room. Aaron said that he thought that there were at least 400-450 people there. I just don't know what to do with the feelings of knowing that her little family lost a momma & a wife. Listening to her mom, brothers, and husband & little man speak about her was unbelieveable. A true memorial for her. It was nice to tell stories about her all evening.

She loved my kids like they were her own. She never forgot a birthday, Christmas, special occassion. She always thought of them. She always thought of everyone before herself. In an article written by the local paper, it was reported that she would be able to help 50-70 people with her organ & tissue donation. What an honor it is to tell the world that she was my friend...that God blessed me with Amanda's friendship.

Molly turns 4....

Our sweet & sassy girl turned 4 yesterday!

I can hardly believe it.

It seems like just the other day that I began feeling contractions around midnight, dozed off until 2 a.m., got up and cleaned a bit, called the doc around 5:30 or so and then called Stace right after to come and stay with Max.

It seems like just the other day that Dr. Blunden said, "She's a 4...let's break her water and get her going." When I decided it was time for the epidural, my husband asked, "Do you think it's a little early for that?"
I never labored hard with her....well, I'm sure I did, I just didn't feel it with the wonder that is an epidural. I think I did about 3 sets of pushes with her...15 minutes after starting she was out. I felt great. I was able to watch everything around me...the nurses working on her, giving her a bath, wrapping her up, handing her to me....then the picture I'll always remember....Aaron holding his daughter while working a crossword. He was a pro with our newborns.

Now...she is a bouncy, full of energy and precious 4 year old.

She went to church with Aaron and me and cuddled with her dad.

We headed to the store to pick out the perfect pink frosted cake and snickers ice cream.

We got home and she got to open the rest of her presents and play with her neighbor friend.

We went out to the "peanut restaurant" where she stood on a chair in the middle of everyone while they all "yee-hawed" for her. On her way back to the table, a kind woman motioned for Molly to come to her table and she gave Mol a dollar. The kindness of some really does overwhelm me at times. Reminds me that I could spread a little kindness of my own to strangers. We returned home and jumped straight into singing happy birthday and eating cake & ice cream.

In 4 more years...a few days from now....she'll be 8.

Oh my!

Growing & forgetting...

Just got finished reading some old posts...ones from June of '08.

The summer of Maggie.

I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes.

The kids are growing so fast and I had forgotten almost every single story that I had posted.

Tonight while driving and listening to Kari Jobe, Max piped up from the backseat.

"Momma, can you turn it to number 11? I like it when she says 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty'".

The other night we all went into Target to get the sandels that were on sale. Molly found the pink sparkly ones in the sale paper that morning. Max went down the boy aisle and presented the sandels he found and told me that he would like to get those. I asked him if he would like to look at the flip flops I had picked out for him. He said sure and put them on his feet.

He looked up at me with those eyes, smile and in his goofy voice said, "Momma, these are mommy shoes...flip flops are mommy shoes! I don't want to look like a momma!" I cracked up. So did the ladies in the shoe aisle with us. I put on flip flops as soon as the weather hits 50 degrees and I don't look back until the first snow fall. Max knows this. I told him he could get the black flip flops instead of the brown/tan ones (that looked exactly like mine) if that made him look more like a little man than a mom. :)

Our miss Molly has gotten her ears pierced and hair cut. She looks like she is 9. I can barely stand it.

Today, we headed to Meijer to do some grocery shopping. She wore her new sparkly flip flops and her sunglasses. About halfway through the shopping trip an older gentleman and his wife called her a movie star and talking her up. She LOVED it. She hid a bit behind me, but smiled through the whole thing. They were very friendly people and Maggie couldn't help but smile too. After the couple started walking away, Molly tugged on my shirt and whispered, "Momma, can you go over there and tell them 'Happy Spring' for me?"

Oh, my sweet Molly. Will she really be 4 already?

Miss Maggie, Miss Maggie, Miss Maggie....she has her momma's temper. She can throw quite the temper tantrum. I think I prefer those to the whining though. She is starting to repeat everything....car, bagel, birdie, puppy, Zachary...I wish it wasn't so easy to forget this stage of their life. She is a sweet & comforting little thing. Whenever Max gets upset or hurt or Molly is upset or hurt, she drops whatever she is doing and goes over to them. She pats their back, squats and looks up at their face as if to say, "It's alright. This too shall pass."

How blessed we are.

We don't deserve any of this.

I am one blessed lady!

Phone call...

Tuesday morning, I woke up to hear Molly talking.

"Daddy, this is Molly. Momma, won't wake up and make me Kix cereal."

It was early...7:15 maybe. I was exhausted from having the lsweet little Molly one in my bed moving all around since 6 that morning.
I thought I was doing a good thing when I taught the children how to get a hold of daddy if they needed to :)

Happy New Year!!!

January 1, 2009 January 1, 2010