i guess you could say that ethan & steven's friendship began during water aerobics while kristi & i were pregnant! twice a week, we'd feel weightless (or at least less weighted!), and i guess the boys enjoyed the extra buoyancy?! who knows! but those boys had no choice but to be friends. :) for the first year of their life, they played together (with lydia too!) several times each week, and kristi and i talked about how we were so excited for our kids to grow up right down the street from each other. well, down the street changed to several states away when they moved in 2006, but we have been blessed to be able to get together with them several times since then. ethan talks about his sweet friends often, and as soon as he finds out that a trip is planned to see them, it is ALL i hear about until we leave! ethan loves every minute that he spends with lydia & steven!
and this time was no different... we arrived at the beach house around midnight, and lydia & steven had just given up on waiting up for us. we snuck into their room so that ethan could wake them up, and the three of them got so giddy seeing each other!
here are the boys bright and early the next morning... they were already laughing and playing before 7:15 in the morning... hey, at least they like each other, right!? :)
the kids got a big kick out of the jello guessing game we made up! they covered their eyes and guessed what flavor of jello was put in their mouth... oh, the little thrills of life!
ethan & steven are showing their muscles. :) this will be a great one to show in 15 years!
"who wants ice cream!?"
sweet, sweet, friends. we love you, lydia & steven!
caroline & meredith are also on their way to never forgetting each other. :) they even packed matching pants for our beach trip without planning it! i didn't get very many pictures of the two of them because they were always walking off in different directions, in someone else's shoes, dragging a random bag or blanket around...only to swap 30 seconds later. (they are so in that bag lady stage!)
how cute are these girls devouring ice cream sandwiches?! of course, we'd just given them baths a few hours earlier, and now melted ice cream had dripped into every little place possible! oh, but that's what vacation is for!
my kids loved being with their friends, and i sure did enjoy being with mine. as usual, we stayed up too late and didn't get to talk nearly enough, but the fellowship was sweet. (it was an extra special blessing having my wonderful sister-in-law there, too! kristie's heart spills over with encouragement, and it was just what kristi needed that week.) kristi and i talk several times a week (sometimes several times a day!), so in a way, it doesn't feel like almost a year since our last visit. i love that. i do miss her smiling face & the fun of feeling her baby kick, but what a blessing it is to know that my friend will be ever so close to my heart even if our visits get fewer and farther between.
we have walked a long road together this past year... and so even more than the talking face to face, my favorite part about this visit was the wonderful reality that i could hug my friend, belly and all, whenever she needed one. you can't do that on the phone, and sometimes, i just don't know when to stop talking. and that's where a hug is so great. so we shared lots of hugs, me, kristi, and shepherd, and we laughed when i plowed straight into her belly for a hug because i momentarily forgot she was pregnant. :) praise the Lord for this much-needed time with my friend!
(that's "lydia and steven's house", for those of you whose toddler-ese is a little rusty!)
yes, our last stop on this seemingly neverending road trip was to kristi's house. oh did we have so much fun!!! it is hard to recap like this. first, there is so much to tell...and second, i've been home for 2 weeks now! kristi recounted our 10 days together by way of several posts making a "meal", so if i am going to tell about our time together in such fashion, i guess i would characterize this post as one big all you can eat dinner with one HUGE plate! :) and yes, by all means, get dessert!
in fact, let's go right to dessert with a little slideshow! just click on the big picture to go to the next one...
the first order of business when i arrived at kristi's was to attempt to fit all of us in one vehicle. she lives across town from most of the places we'd be going, and that is some good fellowship and expensive gas wasted if we were to take 2 vans everywhere we wanted to go! SO we put lydia, steven, and ethan in the back seat of my van (lydia was in a booster seat-- no, 3 big car seats won't fit.), and meredith and caroline reclined in the captain's chairs in the middle. this was quite a task to get everybody in and buckled everytime, and i commented several times that this would NOT be possible with a pregnant belly!! but it WAS so much fun to ride together. while we drove, kristi got me up to speed with some good new worship music, and i introduced kristi's kids to hide 'em in your heart, which lydia absolutely loved (and can now quote in full!). it's bible verses put to cute little tunes, and several days into my stay, i overheard lydia singing "let the little children come... do not forgive them, do not forgive them..." so we had a lesson on forbid vs. forgive. :)
early into my trip, we decided to join eric at the beach as he was leading worship for the young adult group from their church. we took sandwiches to eat before worship started, which sounded like such a fun idea... until we arrived at the windy, windy beach!!! we had the babies in my double stroller so they'd stay put while we ate, so we couldn't wheel it very far down the beach. we were stuck, literally, eating our pbj's with our eyes closed. this experience gave a new meaning to the word SAND-wich!! the other kids were walking around while they ate, so they were doing ok, but of course ethan wasn't going to budge in that sand... i really wanted to get a picture of my poor little boy covered from head to toe in sand trying to eat, but i knew brian would kill me if i got sand in the camera... so i committed that picture to memory instead. this is the only way i can describe what ethan looked like... it's as if i smeared glue all over his face and then poured sand over his head... his face was completely sandy, and he just dealt with it. i was pretty miserable, so i know he was too!! after that, we had the sense to walk down to the wetter sand, where the wind was hardly picking up any sand. i think we would have done this earlier if it had not been for the double stroller with all our junk (and babies!) in it. we ended up having a wonderful time of worship and enjoying a beautiful evening. the kids played in the wading pool, and kristi's friend heather and i had fun taking pictures... her children are gorgeous! so the cute kids in the slideshow that don't belong to kristi or me are heather's children. (no, kristi and i did not pick up children on the side of the road! i mean, where would we put them? my van was full!!)
ok, i'm realizing this is going to be quite the long post. just check out the pictures if you don't want to hear my silly stories! (but kristi, you have to read all of this. you're required!)
the kids loved playing together. ethan loved loved loved having friends to just run around with and chase and be silly with day after day, all day long. they perfected the art of trashing the bonus room (their playroom/guest room where we stayed), as well as acquiring as many bug bites as possible by being out in the backyard for 10 minutes! they had a ball chasing kristi around as she attempted to fly a kite with NO WIND, and then the next day, we went downtown and enjoyed a wonderful breeze with no kite. go figure! yes, kristi and i took all 5 kids downtown, and no one got hurt (steven's cast is pre-our visit, just for the record). :) we also took all 5 kids to goodwill when naps were just about overdue, but we still managed to come out with some great deals. ya gotta love goodwill!!
kristi and i loved playing together, too. :) we managed to escape and have some girl time, thanks to sweet, wonderful, servant-hearted eric!!! we shopped a couple of times, ate a fun lunch, and got our haircut all sans children. oh and we sat in traffic for an hour too... which by yourself can be really frustrating, but it wasn't so bad with my best friend sitting next to me! it was my last day in town, and we were on our way home to relieve eric from his 3+ hours with all 5 kids (yes, we should have been bringing him a HUGE dessert home!)... we got stuck in traffic twice, once on our original route home and again trying to escape the first standstill.... so maybe God just slowed it all down so we could enjoy just a few more minutes laughing and soaking up our time together...
and then there was the cooking together, the throwing together of meals like we used to do so often as neighbors. i love kristi's ability to look in her pantry and fridge, find 5 or 6 things that really don't belong together, close her eyes, pour them in the crockpot, and voila! 4 hours later, you have an original concoction that really tastes good! and i mess up with actual recipes.
we were going to bathe all the kids together until i proved how maniacal caroline is in the tub. it's as if we covered her bottom in butter and put her in. it's absolutely crazy, and kristi (who usually successfully proves her point of "oh, emily, it's not so bad...") agreed that she is nuts in the tub! so caroline got a bath first, and then the other kids got in. :) once we got all the kids in bed and the house was quiet, we sometimes played games with eric and sometimes just co-computed and talked. we stayed up too late and ate way too much ice cream.
(sigh.) and here i sit missing my friend. our time together was so wonderful and so busy and so long but so short. it felt so normal to be in her home and to play with her kids and to unload her dishwasher that a part of me forgot that i had to leave, and that i could no longer drive 30 seconds home only to return the next day. it is a long, long drive from her home to mine now. i think we did a pretty good job of enjoying our time together and not worrying about how quickly it was going. i think we talked about every topic under the sun, and probably most of them twice. talking with kristi is not just small talk... it is usually deep, help-me-out, climb-this-mountain-of-sanctification-together talk! and i love it. i love kristi for her focus on the gospel in all things. she mothers her children with extreme love and extreme grace while at the same time reminding them of the severity of sin and of the reality of the things of this world. she talks often of her concern for her neighbors and others she meets who do not have Christ, and she really means it. she and eric dream of overseas missions one day, and their eyes sparkle and their smiles widen as they share this dream! kristi is one intense person, she'll tell you that herself... but her intensity is for the Lord, and it spills over into everything she does. i always, always, always come away from my time with my sweet friend longing not only for more time with her, but for more time in the Word, more time with my God. thank you, dear kristi, for pointing me to the Cross!
i can think of no better way to end my road trip chronicles than on that note! this trip review is officially OVER! we had a fabulous time visiting loved ones, but i sure am happy to be back home! it will be a long while before i get the urge to pack a suitcase again... well.... at least a month or two. :)
today ethan turns 2 years old! he is such a ball full of curiosity, amazement, laughter, and heart. i can't believe he's 2 already. (i know that's a running theme on my blog these days, but he just does new things every day, and i am trying so hard to get used to this growing up stuff!) i wish i had time in my day to jot down the things ethan is saying or doing these days. i fear that he will be 10, and i will try to remember what he was like as this two year old, and i won't be able to remember much. so here is an "ethan is 2" list.... at least the things i haven't already forgotten.
-his favorite things to play with right now are anything with wheels... dump trucks and cars, especially. he loves to climb up on the couch and drive them on the arms and back of the couch.
-ethan is a "thinker" like his daddy. you can just see the wheels turning! when we're outside, he squats down, puts his hands on his knees, and just analyzes bug and leaves.
-he can spot the tiniest airplane in the sky or hear the faintest sound of a jet flying over our house. there have been several times that i've said, "ethan, mommy doesn't see the airplane" only to be wrong! maybe he has a future in an air traffic control tower!
-he loves "eeeee beeeee" (itty bitty) bugs, and when a roly poly ("ro-pee-oh-eee-oh") desides to visit us inside, he gets a thrill out of taking it back outside.
-he is not real into climbing onto things, getting under the table, or just running around all over the backyard. don't get me wrong: he's a busy little boy, but it's more along the lines of fine motor busy-ness, like stacking blocks, putting them in and out of a bucket, giving his animals a ride in the sailboat, things like that. he really doesn't stop all day!
-ethan loves his sister more than i could ever have prayed for! he honestly loves playing with her, although she is doing little more than sitting and watching him. lately, he has gotten upset if we've taken her from the living room to be fed or changed because he wants to play with her. he'll say "keh-yine pay v-v-vroom gint?" (caroline play living room again) he also gets so excited to see her every morning. though sibling rivalry will probably soon rear its ugly, sinful head, i am really enjoying watching the 2 of them together right now.
-his favorite song right now is "indescribable" (which he calls "amazing God" because that's in the chorus). he can hear 3 notes of it, and he will exclaim, "amazing God!" with the biggest smile on his face. he asks for this song many times throughout the day. move over, wheels on the bus! ethan also loves my fernando ortega cd that might as well be stuck in our van's cd player b/c it's all i play in there.... his favorites are "power blood" (power in the blood-- he echos the "power" in the chorus as if he were in a gospel choir), "crown him" (crown him w/ many crowns), and "Jesus Christ" ("grace and peace"- i think it's romans 1:7). he loves this whole cd, but he especially favors these songs. he knows where they are in the lineup on the cd and will exclaim the name of the song right before it comes on.
-ethan loves "hammer time" with daddy... anytime brian is hanging a picture or using any tool inside the house, ethan goes and gets his plastic hammer and screwdriver. the other night, we were hanging some portraits in the hallway, and ethan dragged his tool bench from his room to where we were working. he sat down, opened it up, got out his hammer, and stood up as if he was ready to work! he then found a small picture frame on the ground and tried to "hang it" like daddy, sliding it up the wall as far up as he could reach.
-if you're laying on the floor, he'll pull on your arm and GRUNT to try to pick you up. this gets a huge laugh out of daddy almost every night.
-he loves "ABCD"s and gets completely excited when he sees letters around town, around our house, or even on our t-shirts. he doesn't get all the letters right all the time, but he definitely can tell you it's an "ABCD!" he is so cute when he sings the alphabet song. it's hit or miss for about half the letters, but you know when he gets to the end b/c he sings, "next time...sing...ME!"
-thunder and rain really amaze him right now. if it has rained during his nap or in the middle of the night, you can betcha that the first thing he'll say when he wakes up is "funder boom boom!" or "rain aaaaaaallll gone".
-when we're at target or leaving a restaurant or something, he waves and says "hey" to every stranger we pass with a huge grin on his face, as if he's running for office. it cracks the people up. but then if we run into someone that i know or we're at church, ethan sometimes does this fake shy thing that drives me absolutely crazy.
-sometimes he walks like he owns the world. he takes these huge steps with his little bitty legs and swings one arm, and it cracks me and brian up.
-my mom and i were in joann's fabrics with the kids a couple of weeks ago. apparently, ethan had had enough of this girls' stuff, because he shouted, "home depot!" in the middle of the store. that really made his daddy proud!
-ethan loves to pretend he's on the phone. i know that's common for kids, but i had to mention that one. he uses just about anything for a phone if he can't find one of the 100 cell phones that his nana has supplied for his pleasure!! lately, he's been picking up the phone, saying "mmmhhmm.. k.... bye." and slamming the phone shut.
-since we've been talking up his birthday lately, he thinks any candle or anything sticking up out of anything LIKE a candle on a cake is a "happy birthday cake"....like brian's lunch yesterday-- a hamburger w/ a toothpick sticking out of it! "happy birthday cake!" "happy birthday cake!" so hopefully he'll be pretty excited about his actual cake tonite!
-he does not forget anything! this is a good thing and a bad thing....
i could go on all day, but i've got a two year old on my hands now!! :) if you have any memories of ethan that stick out in your mind, i'd love for you to share them. we are absolutely blessed to be his parents. he is a daily reminder of God's goodness in our life...as well as our need for a Savior!
ethan loves corn and peas. i do too...they're good for you, easy to pick up, and even when a whole bowl of them lands on the floor, they're relatively easy to clean up. i consider them great finger foods... and apparently ethan considers them great "nose foods" too!!! yes, ethan crammed peas and corn up his nose today. (sigh.) right before naptime. (sigh.) my naptime. (sigh.) we were finishing lunch (which on wednesdays is required to be completely fruits and vegetables because we eat chickfila before church), and i told ethan to get his finger out of his nose. this direction has become quite common this week, so i really chalked his behavior up to a boy wanting to stick his finger up his nose... until i saw something yellow hanging from his left nostril. the corn was easy to remove. i looked real quick and saw something green up the same nostril. peas. i couldn't get it out with just my finger, so i had to get the tweezers. it took a few minutes (yuck), but out came the pea. i thought that was it, but i decided to be safe and do a little nose exam with daddy's flashlight just in case. ok, now i could see green in BOTH nostrils-- way up in there. i called ashley at dr. tom's office, and she said to bring ethan in and she'd get them out. of course, caroline had just laid down for a nap, so i called mama d to come sit with her... before she arrived, ethan came into the kitchen and delivered a pea to me... but i wasn't sure if it came from his nose or if it was stuck in his clothes from lunch, so i figured we should still get his nose checked out... plus i figured a trip to see the doctor would show ethan that this was serious stuff and we don't stick food up our nose.
he sat up on the table like a big boy and let both dr. tom and ashley look in his nose with their nose-instrument-light-thingy (can't you tell i have my master's degree? ha). i was glad he cooperated, but unfortunately, i think he thought this was pretty cool. they didn't find any more peas up his nose, so i guess ethan blew it out himself before we left. this probably didn't really warrant a trip to the dr, but i knew our friends didn't mind us coming in... and i could rest assured that there was no green giant up ethan's nose! as we were leaving, e.j. asked if ethan got a sucker, and i told her no thank you. that's all we need is him shoving food up his nose every day in hopes for a sucker from the doctor!
so this is one for the baby books, as mama d said. i'm sure it won't be the last time he does it. i apologize for those of you who visited today hoping to see pictures and instead had to hear about peas in the nose!! :) i'll post the pictures soon.
posting those last pictures really made me think about last year's pictures with ethan... and how much he has changed since then. am i going to be like this for the rest of his life? oh dear. he really has grown so much in the blink of an eye, and this is only the beginning. we still have a big boy bed, potty training, reading, writing his name, learning to play soccer, and tying his shoes to conquer... and that's not even to 2nd grade yet (though to be honest, i don't know when kids learn to tie their shoes)!! how do moms do this? i love watching him learn new things, like recognizing a letter ("A! A! A!" they're all A), and oh, watching him try to jump is absolutely precious. he is saying new words every day, and i really wouldn't have it any other way. but remembering the baby he was and fearing that i will forget all of that just breaks my heart. (though my thousands of pictures can help remind me!) so these days, i am rocking him a little longer, singing more songs as he plays with my hair and sucks his thumb, and reciting "brown bear, brown bear" a few more times... and just when i think i've gotten a handle on this growing up thing, caroline's gonna get bigger on me too. i'm starting to understand why moms cry at everything... yes mom, i understand.
i am really excited about this post... the fact that i am able to write what i am about to write is in itself a testimony of God's faithfulness. as i have shared on here in the past, i truly desired to avoid a c-section for caroline's delivery. my recovery after my surgery with ethan was a good one, praise God, so i must say that my "c-section experience" had no nightmares or problems attached to it... but i really didn't want to go there again for several reasons. 1- it's surgery. 2- i couldn't count on an easy recovery again. 3- this time, i had a toddler that would need picking up, chasing after, etc., and 6 weeks of not being able to do any of that would have been a challenge. 4- we would love a larger family, and i would love to not have x number of c-sections under my belt. 5- most of my friends had these normal labors with no complications... why couldn't i? (my competitiveness and need to feel included even spills over to childbirth! oh dear!!) SO from the day i found out i was pregnant, i began praying about and researching and contemplating a vbac (vaginal birth after cesaerean) vs. a c-section. some doctors are very leery of vbacs, and actually, you cannot have a vbac in some states. so i'm very thankful that the Lord provided my doctor, who was encouraging about a vbac from the get-go.
well, the big day came bright and early... it was so hard to fall asleep the night before, knowing that the next time i slept in my bed, caroline would be home! i woke up at 3:30 and showered before dragging my sweet husband out of bed. we arrived at the hospital right at 5 am, and i was taken back to labor and delivery. when the nurse checked me, i was dilated about 2 cm and was having some contractions but didn't know it. when the nurse got my heplock ready, my blood pressure hit the floor. i felt as if i were about to pass out at least 2 different times over the next half hour. they say this is common, but it did not make me think positively about how the rest of the day was going to go! the nurse had me wear an oxygen mask to help, and within the next hour, i was much better. my doctor came in around 6:45 and broke my water. i started feeling the contractions then, though they were still very light and not much trouble at all. they started the light pitocin drip around 8 am, and it did not take long for the contractions to get stronger and closer together (what i expected...). as the contractions intensified, i began to feel light headed again, and it only got worse. i did not want to revisit the nausea of my labor with ethan!!! at this point, i hadn't ruled out an epidural, but i was wanting to do as much as i could naturally. cindy (my sister-in-law kristie's mother-- pretty much a mom to me too) was there to help, and she was so great at reminding me to not tense up through the contractions... but boy these were nothing like i felt last time! i knew the pitocin was really kickin' in up a notch... i waited until the nurse checked me again because if i was going to get an epidural, i wanted to wait until i was at least at 4 or 5 cm... but at around 10 am, i was at 3 cm, and could not take the pain anymore. i was having such a hard time relaxing through the contractions, and i still had so far to go. i looked at cindy, probably with the look of "i'm giving up", and she said, "it's not a contest, em"... and that's all i needed to hear. bring on the drugs!
the epidural took no time at all to kick in, and needless to say, i was so much happier after that. my body was able to rest, and when the nurse checked me at 12:30, she exclaimed "i can't find your cervix!" i was worried for a minute, but she explained that that meant i was fully dilated! FULLY DILATED!!!!!!! i was so happy you'd thought i'd HAD the baby already! i had reached a point in labor that i had not reached last time! praise the Lord!! that was an answered prayer right there. so now i was excited. i couldn't believe i'd dilated so quickly, considering i never got past 8 cm after over 24 hours of labor with ethan. it had been less than 6 hours since my water had been broken!
caroline still needed to come down a little more before it was time to push, so we waited for the next hour or so for me to "labor down". my epidural was turned down a bit so that i would be able to feel more to push, and around 2 pm, they said i was ready to start pushing. another new thing for me here! another nursing tech (who was also a doula) came in to help. after practicing pushing (i'd never gotten this far with ethan, remember?), they said i was ready to start. it was very strange, though, because i could not really feel that i was pushing (even though the epidural had been turned down). i knew i was doing something, but i had no sensation of if i was pushing hard or not. after a little while, sometimes i could tell if i hadn't pushed as hard on one count of 10, but they would tell me to push harder, and i couldn't tell if i did actually push harder. my dr. came in and said i'd be pushing for a good 2 hours, so i was prepared to be WORN OUT when all this was over. after about an hour of pushing, the nurse noticed that i was bleeding more than usual, so she went to get the dr. they were worried that this was a sign of my uterus rupturing, which would have meant an immediate c-section, but the dr. said it was ok... so i kept pushing for a few more counts, and then caroline's heart rate started to indicate that she would not tolerate all of this much longer. my dr. said, "we're gonna get this baby out in 10 minutes or we're not", so of course i was determined to get this baby out!! he said he needed to either use the forceps or the vacuum to get her out, which i was not really crazy about, but it was definitely a better option than surgery. he worked on getting the forceps around her head for a good while, but he just couldn't get them both on (now we know why-- she had such a big head!)... so he used the vacuum for one contraction, and out she wriggled!
brian cut the cord, and then they laid a very messy but beautiful baby girl on my chest... she was finally here! as i laid in bed and watched the nurses clean and weigh caroline, my eyes welled up with tears of thanksgiving. thank You, Lord, for a safe delivery and healthy baby. thank You, Lord, for answering so many prayers. thank You, Lord, for your faithfulness.
luke 18:27- "what is impossible with men is possible with God."
i love getting together with my college friends. we try our hardest to get together every summer... out of the 9 of us, usually at least 5 or 6 can make it. now that babies are entering our lives, some summers are just out of the picture for some of us! last year, i stayed home because it was 3 weeks till ethan's due date, and i was not up for traveling. it killed me not to be there. this year, 3 girls had babies to tend to. anyway, whoever can make it comes, and we always have a great time catching up and telling the same stories...looking at christie's perfect scrapbooks, and shuffling thru the mental file of everybody's most embarrassing college moments. :) we even make a few new memories every year.
christie's parents hosted us at their house this year, and can i just say that i was pampered? the minute i walked in the door, i eyed a chocolate cake... not just any chocolate cake, but one with pudding and melted chocolate chips inside.... mmmmmmm.... i got there a day early, and by the time the other girls showed up, i'd had at least 3 pieces! (most of you are not surprised.) christie's mom had to make another cake by mid-weekend because we all devoured the first one (yes, i had help!). every morning, i was served eggs and bacon (or whatever else i would have wanted), and i had tons of hands to help with ethan. he loved all of the attention and i loved not having to carry him! we really didn't have much on the agenda except talking and laughing, and it was all worth the drive. though we've all gone different directions, some of us married, some with kids, it takes only a minute together to feel like we're back in our college days. we are blessed to have stayed close these last 6 years, and i pray that we'll continue these summer reunions. soon, these girl weekends will turn into family weekends... and we will love every minute of those, too. here are some shots from last weekend with the girls.
me, ethan, christie, lynsay, ashley, christy
they got a big kick out of ethan saying "please"... ethan style (two hands)
a vicious game of mexican train
ashley's husband, cary, was determined to get ethan to like him! peekaboo will always do the trick!
christy lovin on ethan
i told you ethan was spoiled!
he did so well on the road trip... he loved facing forward where he could see what was going on!
i was also able to spend some time with my grandmother and brother while i was there. my mom drove up with me and stayed w/ my grandmother during my reunion weekend...so that was a huge help, too! grandmother was amazed at how much ethan had grown and how mobile he'd become since march! she just moved to a smaller apartment at the assisted living home, and ethan enjoyed exploring her knick-knacks and furniture. i think i told him "no" at least 100 times in the short time we were there! he especially loved her butler's table that has plenty of hinges to tinker with... and he just about wore out granddaddy's chair that helped him get in and out so easily. with the push of a button, the chair basically catapults you out so you don't have to strain to get up. ethan gave grandmother quite a ride in that chair!!
ryan was sick during most of our visit, but we were able to eat with him and his friends at cracker barrel on our way back home. since he still had a fever, i made him sit as far away from me and ethan as possible... sad!! i couldn't even give my own brother a hug or let him hold ethan! but we still enjoyed visiting with him and his friends.
4 generations
hang on grandmother!
his new favorite toy
until he found this suitcase...
uncle ryan and gram with ethan
amber, josh, and chip (amber is a faithful reader of my blog!)
well, eric and kristi and the kiddos are gone. they are actually gone. they left town from my house about 30 minutes ago... and i miss them already. i was proud of myself for not bawling like a baby when they left... but i'm sure i'll make up for that later. i spent the morning watching lydia and steven so that eric & kristi could sign closing papers and take care of last minute packing, and then we had one last lunch together before the kids melted down and they drove away. i'm sure kristi will eventually blog about the frustration that has been thrown upon them by the woman who is supposed to be buying their house, but i'll just say that they could use your prayers today. we are all confident that God will work out the details (when does He not??), but this lady has been shoving these last-minute, greedy bargaining attempts at eric & kristi as they have literally been trying to load up their kids in the van and make an 8 hour drive to their new home! so anyway, just pray for their safety and sanity today. and eric doesn't have A/C in his jeep, so pray for some act of God to cool him off along the way.
i'll post more pictures of our last days together later, but here's some shots of our busy morning... and last minute good-byes.
ethan's gonna miss his partners in crime...
kristi wanted this picture taken before they headed out, and i said, "wait, let me change out of my pjs"... but she said this would depict real life with us... and she's right!
last minute instructions from daddy...
wait! i'm coming with you!
now you see them....
now you don't...
i'm praying traveling mercies and good kids for them today...
granddaddy is now at Home... the Home we all talk about as a better place, a place of no pain or suffering, a place of perfection and glory...he's there now. granddaddy died yesterday morning, and i wonder what he's doing right now.... i picture him running, jumping, bending over... all things he hasn't been able to do for so long. his eyesight is no longer diminishing... he can see everything! especially JESUS! that just overwhelms me to think of that being a reality for him. though i miss him already, knowing that he is singing praises for the rest of eternity with the angels brings peace to my heart. i remember granddaddy to be such a calm and quiet man that it makes me smile to think of him skipping down streets of gold, singing at the top of his lungs. :) i've been trying to imagine what else granddaddy is probably doing in heaven right now... maybe remodeling a house or two? nope, probably not, since Jesus has already prepared the place for us (john 14:2-3)... i doubt he's working on cars or chopping firewood. if there are gardens in heaven, granddaddy is enjoying blooms that don't wither. if there are jigsaw puzzles, he's loving that no box is ever missing a piece. :) and if he can look down and see earth (but why would you, when you've got HEAVEN?), he can enjoy all the beautiful sights he & grandmother didn't yet see in their camper. granddaddy was always helping someone with something... i guess we won't need help with anything in heaven because it's a perfect place, but it's strange to think about my granddaddy NOT serving others. the more i think about what heaven will be like, the more i just want granddaddy to be able to send me a postcard or something! boy do i sound like a 6 year old! i can't wrap my brain around the reality of it all, though by faith, i know it's real and true... what a blessing that is. and one day, praise God, i will join granddaddy and so many other loved ones in this perfect place. i can't wait to see him again. i think he'll be sitting in a comfy chair with a flannel shirt, drinking his coffee. he'll be able to see me, and i can already hear him say "hiiii, em-ly!" (yep, 2 syllables...he's from tennessee). that will be a sweet sound, but not as sweet as hearing jesus say "welcome home". welcome home, granddaddy. i love you.
this morning, my mom received a call from my uncle saying that my granddaddy was not doing so well. he is well into his 80's, and his body has just seen better days. my grandparents realized last year that they couldn't keep up their precious house anymore, so they sold their house last winter and moved into an assisted living home. since then, granddaddy's health has really been declining. he has been in and out of a couple of rehab/nursing home type places after falling, and he has been in a similar facility since our last visit in march. this morning, my uncle couldn't wake him, and he had a high fever. my mom packed in a hurry and headed up to nashville this afternoon, though we weren't able to go with her. i just talked to her a few minutes ago, and she said that granddaddy is very emaciated. his eyes were open, but he was staring off into space. he didn't seem to be aware that anybody was with him. i also was able to talk to my grandmother, who seemed to be at peace with how everything was going. watching him slowly go downhill has been exhausting for her, and i know she is ready for him to be with the Lord. what a blessing we have to hope in the Lord. earlier today, i was rereading the post i'd written after grandmother and granddaddy sold their house... how these words ring ever true tonite. thank you, God, for Your Eternal Glory:
though these gloomy emotions came over me, i found peace in the fact that this house is just a house. all this stuff that i've grown up loving and visiting is just....stuff (and a whole lot of junk!). one day, this house will be destroyed. everything will be destroyed, but my grandparents will have another home, a permanent dwelling not made with hands. one day they will live for eternity in a mansion in Heaven, and there won't be junk and there won't be dust. Matthew 6:19-21 says,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
i am thankful that i have Hope in more than a sweet little house surrounded by beautiful trees. i am thankful that i have Hope in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He causes my heart to be filled with joy instead of sadness, and He has given me a treasure greater than i could find in the endless storage at my grandparents' house. praise God for His gift of grace and mercy that allows me to look past the momentary trials of this life to the glory of our eternal God.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
as my granddaddy is literally wasting away outwardly, he is about to achieve that eternal glory. WOW. may i remember to fix my eyes on what is unseen, for that's what really matters.
sweet little lorelei is back in the hospital as of monday. the only information i have is that she is not gaining weight and that the doctors are worried that she is starving. please pray for this precious baby who has been through so much in her short little 6 weeks of life.
i'll try to keep this updated with news from my family and from lorelei's situation. thanks for all the prayers.
valentine's day has come and gone, and with that day enters the excitement of love and flowers and special sentiments from your valentine. we had a wonderfully relaxing valentine's day here. on valentine's eve, brian came home with white roses that look beautiful in our white linen bedroom. the next morning, i began my surprises for him. :) i snuck out to his car and put heart window sticky things all over the inside of his windows. he was also greeted with messages of love written on his windows. though he thought this was cute, he also reminded me that "he worked at a place that makes things that blow up and hurt people, and he couldn't drive through security with hearts on his windows"... aww shucks. :) i went to mops that morning, where we were greatly encouraged by a wife of over 30 years on how to love our husbands and bring glory to God. it was awesome!! i don't think there was a dry eye in the room. i hurried home because brian was taking the afternoon off to spend with me. before he got home, i had hearts hanging in every doorway of our house. (they're still there, actually.) on each heart, i wrote something that i loved about him. i originally had cut out one heart for each doorway, but i kept thinking of things i loved, so i had to keep making more hearts! when he got home, we had a romantic lunch of heart-shaped grilled cheese, and then we had the whole afternoon to relax! it was a blessing. later that evening, we went to our valentine's day restaurant, topped off by marble slab ice cream. :) oh, and i put the hearts back up on his car windows for our evening out.
though valentine's day was special, i'm so thankful that brian doesn't wait till february 14 every year to tell me that he loves me. he remembers those vows we committed to on our wedding day, and he lives them out all year long. he's the picture of patience with me!!!! (i can't put sufficient emphasis on that!) he is a wonderful husband and daddy, and ethan and i are blessed to have him take such good care of us!! inside our wedding bands is engraved "every day i do". we stole this phrase from one message in a series on relationships (click here for the mp3 file) at covenant life church that really encouraged us before we got married. eric simmons talked about how The Wedding Day that is most important is not the wedding day when you become husband and wife... it's the Day that we will become the bride of Christ! and every day leading up to that Wedding Day is a day to say "i do" to God. as much as we looked forward to our wedding day of becoming "mr. and mrs.", there is a Day that we should look forward to even more! this message helped us remember that getting married was not the end of our waiting and anticipation and excitement. it should be the beginning. and to us, this phrase "every day i do" also reminds us of the day we exchanged our wedding vows...how we vowed those words for life. it's our little secret phrase... well, it was. ha. sorry honey. :)
...a stay at home mom who is seeking to glorify God every day as i take care of precious ethan, sweet caroline, busy amelia, and brand-new hallie! i am married to brian, the love of my life and the best daddy in the world! my audience for this little blog is my friends and family, though i understand it's available for all the world to see. in an effort to preserve my family's privacy, i choose to write without using last names and specific locations whenever possible. i've got to look out for those forty little toes!
the kids got a big kick out of the jello guessing game we made up! they covered their eyes and guessed what flavor of jello was put in their mouth... oh, the little thrills of life!
ethan & steven are showing their muscles. :) 
"who wants ice cream!?"
sweet, sweet, friends. we love you, lydia & steven!
how cute are these girls devouring ice cream sandwiches?! of course, we'd just given them baths a few hours earlier, and now melted ice cream had dripped into every little place possible! oh, but that's what vacation is for!
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