Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Priceless

Matthew's Wrap Sheet 2/28/07

1. Climbed on kitchen table..tried to jump off...10 times
2. Sat in "naughty spot" between the hours of 3-6pm...8times
3.Tried to hit Caroline in the head, tummy, foot ...12 times
4.Cried in his crib, while shaking it refusing to take a nap, so mommy had to go upstairs and threaten"You need to take a nap!" 5 times
5. Climbed in Caroline's exersaucer, got stuck, mom had to put a screaming baby down to rescue 4 times
6.Number of times"Stop it Matthew" came from my mouth...too many to count

Watching Matthew play in the snow..toddling around...seemingly erasing all of the naughty"terrible twos" from my mind....PRICELESS!

Long, frustrating day...but still blessed none the less!

S

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Brothers...uggh

I am really sad right now. Without going into too much detail or on an angry rant...my brother is really angering me! I had to talk to him about something we are trying to do for my mom and he just blew it off. The thing is that I know if he isn't a part of this..she will be really hurt. I basically hung up on him. I really wanted to scream..." You are such a selfish brat!" But, I settled for idiot...I know real Christian of me!

Now that I have my own kids, I really can't believe how different they can be. But, my brother and I...I am talking polar opposites! I am so perplexed on how me and my sister can be overly emotional and such pleasers when he could really give a damn...how does that happen. Maybe its birth order. I am the middle and pretty much fit that to a tee. My sister is the oldest and I think she fits that too. My brother...baby...brat! Ok. Enough! But what do you fellow bloggers do when people in your lives really let you down? People you have to have in your life??

S

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Caroline Stats



Oh those poor second children! I always let everyone know everything after Matthew's checkups...Caroline, not so much! Poor little girl! She went last Tuesday for her 4 month checkup,


She weighs 17pounds and is 25 inches long, which place the little oinky in the 95% for weight and 80% for height. She looks like she is 6 months instead of 4. She is almost rolling over and as of late is on A SCHEDULE! Yippee! She goes to bed at 6:30 ish everynight, sleeps till 3ish, eats and goes immediately back to bed till 7ish! She is taking two naps too! Also and a big praise for this ...HER COLIC HAS SUBSIDED! She is such a happy baby now! A real joy! She loves watching her big brother play and also loves the exersaucer!


Thats about it! Here are two pics, the one is when we had a babysitter and she was pretty fussy and finally the babysitter laid her on her tummy and she was OUT! It was hillarious to see! The other one is in her carseat..where she is spending less and less time as she gets bigger and less likely to sustain serious injuries from big bro!


S

Thursday, February 15, 2007

My funny little Valentines!






Hello

Yesterday was the big V Day! The kids and I had our typical Wednesday. Speech therapy in the am and then just hanging out. Jeff and I went over to our friends for a small group Valentines Day get together. It was a lot of fun. We laughed alot and had way too much yummy food! Here are several pics of the kids...enjoy the ones of Matthew ,who snuck into the dryer while I was unloading the washer! For those of you who know me to be a paranoid freak you may be saying to yourselves..."Oh, I guess she is a freak for a reason...." That kid seriously looks for ways to injure himself! The other day I ran a test to see if I could "trust" him to play in his relatively childproof room...nope after one minute alone he was going right for his lamp! Good thing he is so darn cute! Caroline is sick of all this snow and cold and is dawning her Cubbies sleeper and hat in the one pic in celebration of catchers and pitchers reporting....daddy told her this! :)


S

Monday, February 12, 2007

Hear My Soul

That is the name of the cd that Josh Buck and some musicians from our church made as a fundraiser for our L3 service. I really love that song, I mean I listen to it at least 25 times a day and often rewind a certain part in the song where Josh is playing the guitar so intriqutely and beautifully that its truly worshipful to me. ME, the person who truth be told, really struggles with singing at church and other places too. I just have trouble getting into it and I often find myself being so critical of the musicians. But, and I am not just saying this, when Josh led music at LCC, I would get so excited to see him. Even Jeff, whose adversion is worse than mine sometimes, would state gleefully..."Oh, good its Josh" when he saw him.

Anyways, as Shelly has of late asked for specific prayers for his fingers, I think of that particularly when I hear his fingers magestically play that song and to hear his words

Hear my soul Lord
Sing to You
Words of praises to worship you
I pour out my heart Lord and sing to You
Fill it up Lord with more of You
Holy Lord, I worship You
Holy Lord, I praise You

This is just parts of the song, and I might not have it all right, but the point is to me that one of the many lessons Josh and Shelly are teaching me through their perserverance is that Josh continues to pour his heart out and fill it up with Christ, even in his darkest hours...even though he can't play the guitar and has no guarentee that he ever will again...

I continue to pray that God will restore those fingers, those hands, all parts of Josh Buck to glorify him in that way again..but also know that if not, he will anyways in a new way. Please pray for them!

S

Friday, February 09, 2007

Stuff

Hi
I am in my basement right now, where the computer is and I have come to the realization that we , ok mostly, me...I have too much stuff! We're going to transform our basement, which currently serves as a "holding station" for so many things that we don't know where to put, but hopefully this late spring it will be a playroom/computer room/reading nook/scrapbooking center! That is a lot of titles for a relatively small space!:) So, my friend Nicole who has an organizing business on the side is coming over on Sunday to help me figure out how to set everything up, so I came down tonight to go through many items.

Jeff is notorious for not throwing anything away..his whole family is like this..sorry Kim if your reading this post, no offense:) Its just hard to keep things organized with a person like that. So, instead of getting in arguments about clutter in the kitchen, when I get sick of the pile up, I simply put the offending items in a Meijer bag and transfer them to the basement. So far the system has worked ok, although when I hear Jeff ruffling through old bags I get a twinge of annoyance. But, when the basement is a playspace, we can't do that because we will only have a small designated "office space"! I can imagine it now coming down to find Matthew and Caroline playing with old paycheck stubs and Sports Illustrateds!

Ok, my point, we need to get rid of ALOT! We have so many books that I am sure we will never read again, we have alot of pictures that most likely never will hang anywhere in our house ! I usually am good at getting rid of stuff but feel like I might want it later, I guess. What do you people out there in blogger land do with your basement stuff?

S

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The Sweetest Things




Hello

Well, we're doing ok over here! Caroline is still one sick little girl, but I gotta tell you, for being so congested and having such a horrible cough she is in the best spirits! She has had the best tempermant since becoming sick...weird!! Matthew is still coughing a ton and if he doesn't clear up by Fri I am taking him back in! I hate taking him in uneccesarily though b/c that place is just crawling with germs and he could come back with something worse!!:)


Caroline was doing great big belly laughs tonight as I was holding and playing with her. So sweet and really does make all the frustrating times just melt away! Matthew had speech therapy today and you could tell he wasn't 100% because he kept coming up to me and laying his head in my lap! Again, I found myself grateful for the little, sweet things in my life...we never know what tommorrow holds so enjoy it while you can!


S

Monday, February 05, 2007

RSV

Hello
Well, last week Matthew was very sick with a horrible cold, runny nose, horrid cough, fever, whiny....and on Friday night it hit Caroline, only it turned into RSV for her! Poor thing! I went to Chicago for my girls night. I debated not going but she really only had a slight cough Sat am and I really needed to get out. But, when I got home on Sunday afternoon she was just waking up from a nap in her carseat when all of sudden she had this really weird look on her face, started gasping for air and then coughed so hard that she puked up phlemgm all over my friend, Sarah who had driven with me and came in for a potty break! Poor Sarah! It freaked me out and so I just took her into the ER. They really made me mad because they didn't do anything, they just checked her lungs by listening to her breathing.

Then this am, her cough was worse and the amount of wet diapers decreased signifigantly so I called and they wondered why the ER didn't do a RSV test or chest x ray. So, I had to load up Matthew and Caroline, drop Matty off at Grandma Barb's. By the way, thank GOD for her! She saves me !! There was about 50 million kids there! The doctor we saw was pretty sure that she had RSV, they did the nose swab test and we found out this afternoon. The doctor warned that we are at the beginning of this so it could get worse and she may end up on breathing treatments, and maybe the hospital but I am hoping not. Matthew had it when he was 6 months an it cleared on its own, but her cough is pretty nasty!

On a side note, there was a lady in the doctor's office with four foster kids and when I was leaving, she was loading them up and I overheard her saying to one of the kids, who had to be around 4 or 5, "Get in the car, get your coat on...that is it...your not living with me anymore!" Can you believe that! I mean we all have our moments when our kids or even other people's kids drive us bonkers! But, when your someones foster mom and your condition on whether or not they stay with you is that they took their coat off! Its no wonder so many youth are raised with no empathy or emotion. If something that small can get you removed from a home, I assume you learn pretty darn quick not to give a damm! I was so angry, it took a lot not to say anything! I just keep saying prayers for that little boy and the foster mom!

So, week 2 of being inside! We'll survive!! After my night away, I am in a much better place!

S

Friday, February 02, 2007

Let it out!

Hi,
Has anyone seen the Kleenex commercial where the random people are talking and crying to the complete stranger and wiping their tears with of course...Kleenex? I love that song and found it on You tube. Here are the lyrics:

Do you want to lay your head on my shoulder? I don't mind if you cry. Sometimes we all just need to let it out. Just let your tears run down my arm, so I can keep them in a blue jar. We'll drink them later, so just let it out. Let it out. Let's take a walk just to clear our heads. I don't mind that you're holding my hand. You say you love me, so just let it out. Let it out. Your smile is a pleasant change from before; when you thought that you couldn't take anymore. Sometimes we all just need to let it out. Let it out. Let it out.

I think of people like Josh and Shelly and our family friends the Stutelbergs who have been through more hurt and loss than really is humanly possible to endure. I think of my sister in law and brother who went in for an ultrasound on Monday and found out that at 9 weeks, they were pregnant with twins, neither of which had a heartbeat.

Yes, the commerical is cheesy but sometimes, you do just have to let it out!

S