Update on life

#1. I had a wonderful, wonderful weekend! We laughed so long and hard and late into the night early into the morning that I'm sure it counted as a workout!

#2. Anna got a fever (101.7) sometime during the night and started throwing up . . . poor girl! So we're laying low and sticking close to home today. Plus, when I took her downstairs at about 3 to check her temp I missed the bottom 2 steps and fell . . . thankfully the baby hardly noticed it even happened and I landed on my knee [which hurts a little]. But it could have been MUCH worse! Thank the Lord for His protection and watch over sleep deprived mommas who are stumbling around in the middle of the night holding precious cargo!

#3. We're up to 3 mice caught so far in the traps since Friday (one each night . . . even though we have more than one trap set . . . we still just catch one per night, funny!) It kind of grosses me out to think that there were [at least] that many in my house, but at the same time I'm glad we've got 3 less than we did the other day. We just keep settin' them and waiting to see what comes of it!

#4. Kirb did a bang-up job of holding down the fort over the weekend, AND he finished most of the kitchen project by paining the last 2 walls. He did a splendid job!

#5. I had a super fantastic time with my "peeps"! . . . oops, did I already mention that one? Sorry! Mel, Bridge, Sarah, Al & Nancy: thanks for the fun time. I love you! Can't wait 'til next year!

Joe, Joe, Joe . . .

Joe is being especially funny again this morning. [Or it may just be that I missed his silliness while I was gone this weekend]. He watched part of a Star Wars movie this weekend . . . feel free to keep your judgements to yourself, ok? and told me this morning:

"CR2PO is in this one." (who I imagine to be the love child of C3PO & R2D2, but I'm just not sure)

"When 'Dark Vadeh' was getting littler and littler he was turned into Anakin." (pretty smart boy there, eh?)

And on a non-Star Wars [but similar thought process] note, he also told me that "when I was little you put me in your tummy."

He does love all things Star Wars [even though he'd never seen it until this weekend]! Jacob reads him Star Wars picture books, we have light sabers to play with . . . and if he can't find a real light saber, most anything longish will magically "turn into" one anyway! . . . these are things Jacob would have had absolutely no idea about when he was just-about-4! Just one more difference between child #1 and child #4!

Rodent update

One mouse dead in the trap in the basement! Whoo Hoo! We (we meaning KIRBY!) will empty it and bait it again and see what else we can get. I was just thrilled it wasn't a rat . . . at least not yet, anyway!

We won, we won!

Last night was the annual carnival at Falcon Heights Elementary. It's always quite an experience. I figure it ends up to be a pretty significant investment for our family each year: each kid (I have 3 there!) comes home with 10 raffle tickets to sell . . . and you know who buys them, don't cha? Me! Like I'm really gonna go around selling them to others? Then there are donations to 3 classroom raffle baskets (a totally different thing from the raffle tickets raffle, so don't be confused). Then there are the tickets we buy to enter the basket raffle, not to mention the tickets that we use during the evening for 7 family members . . . actually, I don't think Anna did anything at the carnival that required a ticket, so make that 6! You know, 3 tickets for face painting, 1 ticket for "pick a pencil", 2 tickets for the soccer kick, 5 tickets for a piece of pizza, 3 for a slushie, 2 for cotton candy . . . and the list goes on. I think I've written 7 checks to "FHPTA" in the past week!

All this year after year after year and we never win anything . . . until last night! I had taken the 2 little kids home. [Joe was beyond meltdown by the time we left.] Kirb worked the 7:30 to 8:30 shift at the "Prize Wheel" and as soon as it was done they headed to the library media center for the big drawings. There is one raffle basket for each classroom (I think we have 16 homeroom teachers). They are themed (things like "Lego", "Snuggle Up & Read", "Endless Errands", "Family Movie Night" and stuff like that) and you buy tickets and drop them in the bucket for the prize you want to win. We always buy each kid 1 ticket that they can put in whatever basket they want and if they want more than 1 they have to buy them with their own money. Jacob put his 1 ticket from us and the 10 he bought with his own money all in the Lego bucket (nothin' like putting all your eggs in one basket!). This is what he does EVERY year. It's a good refresher on the pitfalls of gambling when he is truly disappointed each and every year when he doesn't win. Lydia just stuck with her 1 ticket and I think Rebekah bought a couple extra with her own money. [The raffle tickets -- which we were supposed to sell to others -- are for donated prizes from outside our school like a new bike donated by the local bike shop, a free limo ride, Twins tickets . . . you know stuff like that]. So they do what seems like a million drawings at 8:30 and the anticipation is thick! So they are raffling off the baskets. Mr. Charest [the principal] is announcing the winner of Mr. Hausman's 5th/6th grade "Camping" basket . . . and the winner is LYDIA STOLL! My family cheers loudly and is very excited. Families around us are excited for us. It's so fun! [Note: Lydia based her decision to put her one and only ticket in the camping basket because of the fact that it included some Hershey bars and marshmallows (you know, for the s'mores you'll make while camping). That's the only reason she wanted it. Silly girl!!] Now 2 or 3 baskets later they announce the winner of Mrs. Heille's 4th grade basket (Jacob's class) "Quick, Fast & Easy", it's filled with gift cards to make family dinner "quick & easy" so: McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway, Target, Boston Market . . . and the list goes on. Tons of gift cards! And the basket goes to THE STOLL FAMILY! (I always buy a few extra tickets and write "The Stoll Family" on them). Kirb and the kids are in shock. We never win and now we won two! Plus, I took the van home, so Kirb, the 3 big kids and two HUGE baskets have to fit in the Nissan (which has a trunk filled with stuff to be dropped off at Goodwill . . . which was put in there in roughly 2004!) A dad we know leans over to Kirb and says "You didn't cheer quite as loud that time." Anyway, now we'll always remember the 2009 Falcon Carnival and all the fun prizes it brought to our house! The year we won big! How fun! We really never eat out much . . . it's tough with Jacob's allergies and we can't really afford to eat out with 7 people anyway. What a blessing this will be. We'll still be using up gift cards well into 2010, I would imagaine . . . how fun! Plus, Kirb had planned to take Jacob on a "growing up" father & son camping trip this summer, so they'll be all decked out now for it!


Hooray! Don't tell the kiddos, but after they went to bed [since we hadn't really eaten dinner] we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut . . . that's one gift card down, about 25 to go! Actually, you can tell them if you want, we don't try to deceive them . . . too often, anyway. I was just kiddin' about the "don't tell the kids" part . . . they saw the evidence in the kitchen this morning since who really wants to take the pizza box out to the trash at 10:30 pm . . . in the winter . . . in Minnesota (even though yesterday was nearly balmy!!)

UPDATE: I have to apologize and print a retraction because I was inaccurate in my information on the distribution of Jacob's tickets. He has informed me that he did NOT put all 11 of his eggs tickets in the Lego basket, instead he put 5 in the Lego basket, 2 in the movie night basket, 3 in the Minnesota sports basket and 1 in the "Quick, Fast & Easy" basket . . . which we won, and turns out it was Jacob's ticket that was the actual winner and not the one that I put in . . . I guess I'm not a winner after all!

Eeeeeeek!

So a week or so ago . . . wait, let me back up even farther . . . a year or so ago I noticed some (what I believed to be) mouse poop in our basement. In my "office" even . . . the nerve!!! We never laid eyes on an actual mouse, just saw some evidence of one. So we got some sticky traps and put them out. Once one of them had a little fur on it, but nothing more . . . ever. The "evidence" seemed to go away so I thought the problem had somehow resolved itself. Whoo hoo!

Fast forward to a week or so ago: We store our overflow of pantry stuff (cereal, pasta, juice, etc.) in the basement on some shelving in the laundry room . . . 7 people eat a lot and it doesn't all fit in the (beautiful, newly spiffed-up -- see below!) kitchen cupboards. We have always kept stuff down there . . . without problem . . . until now. I grabbed a box of cereal from the shelf the other day and noticed a little corner of the cardboard box had been chewed, and the plastic bag inside . . . and all that was left of my huge box of cereal were a few crumbs. Yikes! Yuck! I tried not to freak out and told Kirb we had mice (as my dad so sweetly pointed out, "fat mice") in the basement again and we agreed we should pick up some traps. Well we hadn't gotten around to that yet (really, I don't know what we've been doing . . . possibly keeping up with 5 kids, giving the kitchen a face life, spending time with out-of-town company . . . )

Now fast forward to this morning . . . I am down in the basement. The kids are pretty much ready for school . . . Friday mornings they go to school early because they are in "Chess Club" that meets on Fridays before school (love it!), so I drop them off there. From the basement I hear screaming. I can tell right away that this is not your average fighting sibling/"he is annoying me"/"she hit me"/"can't find my toothbrush" kind of scream. It's for real. I go upstairs to all 3 big kids yelling about having seen a mouse . . . on the main floor!!! Not in the basement where we do laundry and store extra "junk" and play in the summer when it's not freezing down there, but ON THE MAIN FLOOR where we live and eat and sleep! Now I'm mad! They said it ran out of the bathroom and into the hall and headed for the boys room. I am super grossed out and, honestly, a little scared! I ask Jacob (who is pretty calm) if he's afraid of it, he says "No, but I don't want to get rabies". I assure him he won't (although I'm not sure it was the truth) and tell him to go in his room and see if he can see it . . . he claims to not be scared of the mouse, but doesn't do it . . . neither do I! Lydia is hysterically sobbing on top of the bench in our kitchen! She is terrified. Rebekah thinks we should name it . . . "until we can kill it anyway", she adds. I pack up the kids as quick as I can and leave the house!

I drop the big kids off at chess club and Joey off at ELL . . . long story . . . obviously he is not an English Language Learner, but I'll post that longish, funny story another time if I remember. Anna & I go to the (mouse-free) Y, stop at the hardware store and buy all manner of mouse annihilating stuff and pick Joe back up at ELL . . . they do have curb-side pick up, so that's a perk even if he doesn't need to learn English.

Now we are home and I am anxiously awaiting Kirb's arrival so he can help me out . . . well, after he takes his sister and her family to the airport . . . they are going to (mouse-free) Florida for, like, an insane amount of time (2 weeks or something). Lucky them . . . actually I'm kind of a home body and while the sunshine and warm temps of Florida sound fabulous (not to mention the mouse-freeness), I really wouldn't want to be away from my house that long . . . unless, of course, my house was infested with a mouse, or possibly mice, or possibly a rat . . . thanks to my mother for opening my brain to that line of thinking. It was just what I needed!

So, I'll keep you updated on the situation, but for now here is a photo of what $26.11 worth of mouse killer looks like:

flashback friday

I leave tomorrow morning for my annual "girl's weekend". Whoo hoo! I can't wait! We call it a "weekend", however truth be told it's not even 36 hours. But, we take what we can get. I think this is our 4th annual, if I remember right. We go up to Grandview Lodge near Brainerd. We spend a little time at the spa getting some once-a-year pampering (I'm getting a 60 minute massage!! Can't wait!!!) and then stay up most of the night eating and chatting and laughing 'til we pee and other fun stuff like that. Then we pretty much drag ourselves out of bed in the morning, eat a little more and head home . . . but not without stopping at the Albertville outlet mall! So much fun to cram into 36 hours! I'm also looking forward to NOT being pregnant this year . . . although my breast pump will have to accompany me on the weekend. These ladies are such great women and I love spending time with them. I'm so thankful to my bestest, bestest friend, Al, for introducing me to these wonderful women about a decade ago. They started out as strangers whose names I could never remember no matter how hard I tried, (actually, I could remember the names, but not which person went with which name!) but have now turned into great friends even though I rarely see them apart from our annual winter weekend away!


This picture was taken at our girl's weekend in 2007 and it makes me happy even though it's not very good of any of us (it was, after all, taken in the morning following little sleep or personal grooming . . . well except for Elisa, she's always well groomed!) . . . and it would seem that Mel & I didn't get the memo about wearing blue. I'll try to remember that this time around when I pack!

Enjoy your weekend, I know I will!

A little something new

I have a new favorite children's author (and all-around pretty cool lady from what I can tell). Amy Krause Rosenthal. You can see quite a few of her books if you just shift your eyes a little to the right and peek at my book shelf. Her books are so true, so fun, so refreshing. She has a blog and did this thing she called The Beckoning of Lovely. You really should watch it!!

Also you should read a few of her books, if not all of them . . . I haven't found one yet that I don't like! Don't try to find them at my library though. I currently have everything they have that she has written checked out, and I don't plan on returning them anytime soon . . . you can renew twice, you know. That makes a total of 9 weeks that you can have a book out before you HAVE to return it. If I don't buy them all before the 9 weeks is up, I guess I'll have to take a little break and then check them out all over again. So, probably head to another library . . . actually there is probably more than one copy of each one, so you might still be in luck, or you could just request them! I would tell you my favorite one, but every time I think I've decided on my favorite, I change my mind and think of another that must be my favorite. You should start with Cookies, The OK book, It's not fair, Little Hoot & One of Those Days! Man, they're good!

Hope you enjoy them too . . . if you take my advice and check them out, that is!

Thankful Thursday

Well, I took a week off from being thankful for my parents (actually, I was thankful for them all along . . . I just didn't write about it), but I'm back at it. Today I am extra thankful for my dad and for our fresh new kitchen. My dad's been workin' (somewhat hard) off and on for the past 10 days or so to help us with a kitchen transformation. (We would LOVE a complete kitchen remodel . . . and an addition . . . and a mudroom . . . and I could go on and on but the sad truth is you can't do these things without gobs of money -- which we don't have -- so we settled for the $150 makeover, actually all those extra trips for "one more thing" that we forgot probably pushed it closer to the $200 mark, but still worth it!). It didn't turn out to be quite as simple as we hoped (when does it ever?). We thought, simple enough . . . take the doors off the cupboards, spiff 'em up a little, paint 'em and re-hang 'em . . . not too tough. I mean really, just the other day I saw someone do almost the exact same thing on HGTV in about 30 minutes!! Well, it turned out to be a little more of an undertaking then we expected, (you don't really want all the details, I'm sure) but it's (pretty much) done and it looks great! I still have a little distressing work I'd like to do on them, but even as it stands right now it's a huge improvement from 2 weeks ago!! If my uncle Den would have stayed longer (or spent more time workin' and less time playin'!!) it could have really gotten a professional makeover, but we'll have to settle for the really nice amateur job we got instead! Thanks so much Dad, we appreciate it (and you) lots! I love you and am glad, quirky as you can sometimes be, that you are my Dad. I wouldn't trade ya for anyone else!

Plus, just look how cute he is. He's trying to hide behind Anna, but I know you can still tell!


If you don't already know, my dad is also an amazing artist, Doug Carlson gallery even has a website of all things (it's listed on my right side bar so you can hop on over any time you want to!). We have a great Ethiopian landscape that he did hanging above our couch in the living room . . . we love it! I know he would have much preferred to be painting on canvas rather than my cupboard doors, but he did it anyway. What a guy! You can get back to your canvases now . . . thanks for taking a break from the "fun painting" to do some "not-as-fun" painting for us! I think there is still a square foot or two of bare wall space in the stairway coming up from your basement, so you better paint something to fill it up!

And did I mention this is what he spends about 8 months of the year doing?


This was last summer on some insanely long ride that he signed up for . . . I think he was the oldest guy to finish it. He rode for like 36 hours straight with a few short little stops to eat, go potty and catch a nap for like an hour. He's one unique grandpa, that's for sure!

And here he is working hard on the kitchen:



And the [almost] finished product:



Stop over & see it in person if you want! That is, if you know where I live!

HOORAY!

I got some extra great news today, but I can't say much about it yet! More to come soon . . .

What a fiasco!

We spent WAY too much time at the doctor yesterday!

All day long Anna's diapers smelled like someone had opened them up and poured in a bottle of ammonia. I am not exaggerating! The smell was so strong I thought something had to be wrong. Now, being on baby #5, I'd like to think I've been through my share of weird stuff and not a lot phases me, but I just couldn't get over the fact that her pee smelled so strong and I figured that probably meant something . . . and that something was probably not good. So first off I call a few of my mom friends to bounce this weirdness off them, but NONE OF THEM WERE HOME! Honestly ladies, where are you when I need you? Home phones, cell phones. No one was answering me. I called my mom, but she didn't have a solid answer. But she also thought that it was weird. I called our pediatrician and they were having phone issues, so the phone was answered by a receptionist at the Woodbury branch of our pediatricians office. She took down all my info and faxed it to the St. Paul office (I guess faxing was working, but not the actual phone!) and said someone would call me back. It wasn't really an urgent need and I knew it wasn't an emergency and I didn't need to "hang up and dial 911" or anything (it always cracks me up when they say that. If my kids is about to die or is bleeding like mad or has 7 broken limbs would I really call my pediatrician? Who does that? Sorry, I digress!) But I was hoping for a call back in timely manner. Anyway, the initial call was probably at about 10 am and the return call came about 2:30. They thought it should probably be looked at (really? I feel like they always say that). So I got an appointment for 3:30. (But our pediatrician, who I love, doesn't work on Tuesdays. Bummer!)

Here's a cute picture of the patient to break up my extra-long rambling!



3:30 we show up at the office. Check in. Wait in the waiting room. I'll just say right now that I should have brought a book. Funny that this post would closely follow one all about waiting!! Hmmmmm. We finally get called back. I take all Anna's clothes off and they weigh her (18 pounds 10 oz. if you care!). I explain what's going on with her to the nurse. Nurse takes her temp (97.9 or something 98ish) and says the doctor will be in shortly but that he's a little behind. After a not-too-long wait the doctor comes in and asks what's going on. I explain, again, about the ammonia smelling pee. He says it could be some sort of an infection, but she's not showing any other signs of infection (no fever or anything) so he thinks that's not it. It also could be that she's a little dehydrated and her pee smells because it's more concentrated than usual . . . she has had a little cold and a stuffy nose and hasn't been nursing quite as well as usual, but, honestly, her pee smells just terrible! Like literal ammonia . . . have I said that yet? Anyway, he suggests they stick this bag thing on her that will catch her urine (since she is super disobedient and won't pee in a cup like I would like her to!). Then we'll hope that she pees quickly. They'll test it for infection and we'll go from there. The nurse comes in and sticks this little adhesive baggie on her and we wait. I nurse her thinking . . . liquid in, liquid out. She pees about 5 minutes later but somehow NONE of it goes in the bag! Argh! A different nurse comes in a puts on another bag and brings us some apple juice for Anna to drink. Since she has just peed quite a bit (which, incidentally went mostly all over my jeans) they are hoping the apple juice will do the same liquid in, liquid out thing again. When we've waiting quite a while with no more pee they ask where I live. When I tell them not far they send me home with the 2nd bag still on and tell me to come back when it's full. The nurse says I can just tell them at the front desk why I'm there and head right back to the nurses station. I leave.

When I get home my mom is over. She holds Anna and we talk for a while. We go down the basement because I want to show her something. She is holding Anna in the basement and Anna pees . . . on my mom. Again, none in the bag! Now I'm ticked.

I pack Anna back up (after changing her wet clothes) and return to the doctor. The lady at the front (it is now "after hours". Our clinic houses an urgent care too, so we're at the same place but all the staff has changed over) looks at me like I'm from another planet when I tell her I'm just supposed to go back to the nurses station. I explain the whole fiasco to her. She tells me she can just take my urine sample from me. Hello, weren't you listening? I don't actually have a sample, herein lies the problem!! She still looks at me like I'm from Mars and tells me to wait in the waiting room and she'll go find someone. She comes back alone and apologizes. She can't find the nurse???? Really, where could she have gone, I wonder. She comes back out again alone and after probably 5 or 7 hours minutes she returns again, with a nurse. I know this nurse. I've had her before. She's pretty good. Yes! After explaining the whole thing again . . . came at 3:30, first bag didn't work, went home with 2nd bag, 2nd bag didn't work, now what? She says we have 2 options: Try the bag again or just try a catheter, which is much more uncomfortable but if there's urine in there it'll get it out. I tell her I'm not opposed to a little discomfort . . . she's a 5th child for heaven's sake. Let's just get this thing done! She says ok and takes me back to a room. She says that since she just peed again she'll have to be rehydrated to successfully get something out of her. So, just to be safe, she puts on a 3rd bag in case she pees (and, I must note, puts it on completely differently than the other 2 nurses . . . in a way that looks like it might actually catch some urine) for her to wear while I nurse her (again . . . the 3rd time in like 2 hours . . . I feel like she is 4 days old! I haven't nursed her this frequently in . . . ever, I think!). Then when I'm done nursing her they'll do the cath. This is the plan. Amazingly, (well, not amazingly, I was praying like crazy and should have known better than to doubt) while I'm nursing her she's pees a ton and it ALL ends up in the bag. I take her out to the nurses station with much excitement. They remove the bag (you might imagine, this is not pleasant . . . especially for the 3rd time in one afternoon . . . it has adhesive . . . and you know where it is attached . . . ouch!) and test the urine. No infection. It isn't even more concentrated than usual! So, she's good . . . we can go home!

So, in the end it was a very expensive and time consuming (not to mention gas consuming) weigh in. But, she's up to almost 19 pounds . . . I guess that's good to know! What a mystery? If anyone has any idea why her pee would smell like straight-up ammonia, I would love to hear it! Weird!

"Hey lady, may I please use the bathroom?"

Fun visitors!

2 of my dad's siblings were here for the weekend. It was so fun to see them. My aunt Denise and uncle Dennis (they are twins!) Denise's daughter goes to college here, so they came to visit her (and us, but mostly her!) Here is a picture of them, aren't they cute? I love you guys! xoxoxox

I find it interesting . . .

There's a way (through google) to keep track of the stats from your blog (how many people visit in a day, where they are from geographically, how long they stay on your site . . . lots and lots of pretty trivial info). If you want to track the stats for your own blog, please don't ask me how. I did it quite a while ago and don't remember! Sorry!

I am a math person through and through. I always have been. I love statistics!

Anyway, I was peeking at my stats this morning (for the last month anyway. . . they track one month at a time. I'm sure you could change the time period you were studying, but again I'm not real tech savvy and don't really care quite that much. Thus, the stats are from the beginning of January up until yesterday). Would you believe a bunch of people from the US looked at my blog this month, like 8 hundred or something like that? Seems like kind of a lot to me, but I guess I buy it? What surprised me was that I had 4 visitors from Canada, 2 from France and 1 from each of the following countries: Malaysia, Germany, Italy and Bolivia. (And guess what else? 31 of my blog visitors visited using a dial-up connection . . . I was a dial-up girl until just the other day, so I feel their pain!) Who are all these people and why do they care about my little life? I find it a little weird. I guess it's ok, but just weird. I read a few blogs but they are people that I know or have some connection to. I'm pretty sure I don't know people in any of those countries (except Canada, I guess). So, if you live far from here and don't have any idea who I am in real life, but are reading this anyway, "Hi, welcome". Enjoy this little glimpse into the life of one (probably rather abnormal) American family who lives in Minnesota . . . where it is REALLY cold today! To the readers who have actually met me in real life and could pick me out a crowd at Target (where I will be at some point in this chilly day), "Hi" to you too. I hope you have a splendid day!

Blessings!

Man, I love that guy!

I love Dr. Seuss! That man was a genius with words! His books bring such big ideas down to such a basic level that even the tiniest little people can get them, and yet super wise "adults" like me can learn huge lessons from them too. (I guess, for some reason I feel I need to clarify that the Bible is still the best source of wisdom around and the place to start when you need to get perspective and an expert opinion, but man that Dr. Seuss sure had lots of amazing thoughts to share in his many, many books.)

One passage from "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" that has been rolling around in my brain for days now (years, actually!) and one that resonates so perfectly with the way I often feel is this one:

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled road at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place . . .

. . . for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow [um, nope!]
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow. [amen!]
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearl, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

I did use the book to make sure that I got it all right, but I think I could recite most of the section from memory. I feel like that's how I live my life lately (always, maybe! at least it seems that way) and I wish it weren't! That's something I'm working on. I always feel like I'm waiting for the next "big thing" be it a date night with Kirbs, payday, coffee with friends, dinner at my parents, my meeting tonight, running errands ALONE in the evening, getting EVERY LAST THING checked off my to-do list (that one hasn't really ever happened yet!) next week when I can get my haircut (and then immediately wish it would grow longer!), bedtime so the house will be a little quiet, the concert I have tickets to in a couple weeks, my book that's on request to come in at the library, the girls weekend. I just feel like I bide my time from one "thing" to the next. Inevitably whatever it is I'm waiting for always comes and goes so fast and seems somewhat disappointing after all that waiting and mental "build-up" to it's greatness! And in the meantime I've pretty much missed all the wonderful life happening in between during the time that I am wishing away. Arrrggghh, I hate that! I wish I were better at "being present in the moment", as my friend Jill always says. But, I figure at least I am aware and am trying to work on it. That's somethin', right? I have a feeling I'm not alone in this mindset and that it's probably pretty common, actually, in people in my life-stage, but man, how it bugs me.

Anyway, all that rambling . . . enjoy your day and each and every little moment that makes it up. And have fun during your next "big thing" but also enjoy the time until then because it's probably gonna hold lots of great stuff! "Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying . . . "

Happy Monday!

oops!

I was feeding Anna breakfast and dropped a big bowl of applesauce on the floor. Amazingly, it landed right side up and most of the applesauce was still in it! I picked the bowl up and kept feeding it to her. Then when she was done I cleaned up the floor. I have no idea how it got dropped. One second I was holding it and happily feeding my adorable little bundle and the next second it was lying on the floor. I swear it jumped right out of my hands. Weird!?

verse 3

Well, I can't believe it's February and I'm on my 3rd verse of my 2009 scripture memory challenge. There is so much in the Bible that is applicable to my life EVERY day! This is the passage I'm going to work on for the next couple weeks:

This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3.21-23, NIV)

If you don't know about my "resolution" to memorize 24 scriptures in 2009, you can check it out here.

Happy February! I'm hopin' the groundhog will see his shadow tomorrow . . . or that he won't? Whichever one means it will soon be spring. I can never remember it right . . .