Hannah's baby dedication

Saturday, April 4th, we dedicated Hannah to the Lord, formally, at church. Obviously we had already dedicated Hannah to the Lord, long before she was even born. Here are a few pictures.

April Fool's

Yesterday Jeremy and, well....the other shall remain anonymous (unfortunately it wasn't me, I would have liked to be in on it, but I couldn't), forked his mom and dad's house. What does this mean you ask? 826 plastic forks, knives and spoons stuck up through the grass.

Found out last night that their neighbors were heckling them a bit. Greg paid a couple of neighbor kids to pick up all the plastic wear. Hahaha....

Anyone else do something fun on April Fool's?

Our first crop

Yesterday I pulled up our first crop....radishes. On the envelop is says to harvest them in 22 days. Yesterday was day 23, so I thought I had to pull them or else they would start to rot. I know....not the smartest kid on the block, I think. Here they are.

They are pretty pathetic. Not even big enough to do anything with them except compost I think. My friend Beth said I should leave them in the ground longer...much longer. Who knew? I thought I had to harvest them with the packet said so. hahaha. I have more in the ground, I'll wait with those.

Other than that, other veggies are looking good. Our peas, beans, zucchini and cucumbers look the best. We've planted corn twice, and both times about day 6 when they start to sprout, little holes are made every few inches where they were planted. I think birds come and eat them. I haven't tried again since the last time. Our lettuces don't look great, but I'm not expecting much from them this summer. We really want to plant sweet potatoes, but I can't get any sprouts from my sweet potatoes to plant. Any suggestions???

A few cool pictures to share.

A comment that really Bugs me...

This morning we went to story time at a local library. Actually, I didn't know story time was taking place, we just happened upon it. Anyway, the librarian was reading a really cool pop up book in the shape of a hamburger. Each layer of the hamburger was made of something silly (like the lettuce was a yucky old sponge) with a bug in it....all kinds of bugs. When the librarian got to the ketchup (made of red poster paint), the bug that popped out of the flap was a cockroach.

Nicole said, "Hhhuuuhhh...mommy, just like at our house!"

Yeah, I just about died. Hey....we live in Florida, and I've never known a Florida home without la cucaraches every once in a while. And she saw me kill one a few weeks ago which I believe is why this is fresh in her memory

The Answer...The Question...and The Comment

The Answer...
Well, I have had some funny guesses to my mystery picture. Now to put some of you at ease (Jen K. :-) I did not intentionally take a weird picture. In fact, I didn't take the picture at all, Jeremy did. Here's a recap of some of the guesses...

humm ... looks like the inside of a light fixture to me??
I think your mystery picture looks like a yellow ball inside of one of the donut shaped toys you stack with
Your dad thinks the picture is a M & M in chocolate sauce. Hum, I think its an egg yolk in slim with brown food coloring.
It looks like an egg yolk
It looks like a bagel with an M&M in it, or it could be an egg yolk, but can't figure out why the brown is around it.
I THINK I KNOW WHAT IT IS! Sorry for the personal nature, but is it your crazy way of sharing your special news? Such as your specimen that was tested?

It seems like "egg yolk" was the most popular guess. But, you are all Waaayyyy off. Jeremy took a picture of his orange juice on Sunday morning looking straight down into the cup. It was a tall opaque blue cup with just a bit of OJ left in it. I was trying to find the cup to take a more normal photo for you, but I can't find it. It must be in his work van. So....no one gets dinner.

The Question...

So, what is this "special news" some have been alluding to both here and on facebook? I suppose it's time to let the cat out of the bag officially. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am pregnant:-) I'm not very far along, but for some reason we couldn't contain ourselves this time. I'm about 6 1/2 weeks and due in mid November. Obviously, I am still in the "danger zone" as far as miscarriages are concerned which was why in the past we kept it a closely guarded secret. I realize it could still happen, so all I can do it trust that whatever does happen, the Lord is in control and all things will work for His good and His glory. Obviously we are praying for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Everyone is asking if we want a boy. I guess the honest answer is yes....it would be great to have a boy. I know Jeremy would love to have a son. But, we both are quick to say though that we take a girl anyday because we know how fun and special they are. If the baby is anything like either Nicole or Hannah (and they really are both pretty different from each other) than we would be happy. This of course is why I haven't been feeling so great lately. I don't want to talk about it though, because I feel good right now and I don't want to get my head thinking I shouldn't, if you know what I mean.

The Comment...
All of my mommy girlfriends out there should head over (yet again) to the Girl Talk blog. They have been doing a nice little series directly specifically to mothers of young children. It's been both encouraging and convicting to me. It's well worth your time to read the past week or two in posts (and the posts are short, much shorter than mine!). I also finished two books yesterday... Stepping Heavenward by Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss and The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. The Magician's Nephew is part of The Chronicles of Narnia series and I really enjoyed reading it. I'm going to read all the books int he series, I think it'll be fun.

Answer coming soon

Hey ya'll...the answer to the mystery picture is coming soon. I haven't been feeling well, so it's just been low on my list of things I'm not doing to post it with a more recognizable picture. I'll try tomorrow.

Pretty in Pink

Last night on our way home from a birthday party, we got a phone call from our neighbor who said that someone was spray painting our mailbox....PINK! At first we were mad since there has been a bit of mischievous activities in our neighborhood lately, but who would do something in broad day light? Then, the person on the other line said, I think you might know him. Crazy something...Crazy Dan maybe? Oooohhhh...Crazy Dan. Jeremy's friend and co-worker. These two are always doing something to each other (as of late, Jeremy has been tossing fire crackers at Dan as he gets into the van). Anyway, here is our pretty pink mailbox (I erased our address numbers which is why there is a big white circle in case any creep-os happen upon this picture). So...what do you think?

Jeremy spray painted it black right away. I thought he should leave it at least for a day. We could see the mailbox when we first turned on the street....that's how bright it was:-)

And, here is a funny video of Hannah doing pull ups at the kitchen table. This kid is amazing. Oh, I decided to add a couple more clips to the video. As you know, last Friday we went to the beach with Grammy. Hannah was not thrilled with the sand and Nicole couldn't wait to "roll around" in it. So...here are the two contrasting and opposite sisters.


And a cute picture of Nicole and I.


Finally, if you can guess what this picture is, I may consider buying you dinner. Any guesses?????

Beach Day

Today was Grammy's day off and we took the girlies to the beach. It was a lot of fun. Nicole was excited to "roll around in the sand". Hannah was not to thrilled about the sand until near the end. We made little sand castles, picked up shells, and had a picnic. It was a perfect beach day. However, the water was FREEZING!!!! Brrrr.

Memories

Yesterday at MOPS a lady spoke who has a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary schooler. She didn't have any great new revelations about motherhood, but she did do a great job at reminding us why we do what we do, and encouraged us (me)in our (my) ventures. We have been so busy lately and I'm tired. I'm tired of being gone so much, I'm tired of running around, I'm tired of trying to meet everyone's expectations. So, this talk was good for me. I am inspired to get back down to the basics of why I am a stay at home mom. I'm not a stay at home mom to constantly be gone and hang out with other people. I am a stay at home mom to be with, raise, train, and teach my darling little girls. I want to have tea parties more often, play in their house, play in the pool, read more books, take more walks, and chase (Nicole for now) around the house. My absolute favorite days are the days when we are home with very little on the agenda. Both girls (ha, I should say all three...me too) respond better on days like that.

Well, after MOPS, Hannah fell asleep on the way home, so Nicole and I went inside, made lunch, and had a picnic outside...like we used to do ALL the time! It was fun, and she was super duper excited. Then, it was nap time so she slept (and so did Hannah!!!!!) and I got down to business picking up the house. After naps though, we went outside again and both girls got to play in the kiddie pool and swing for a while. It was fun. Hannah wasn't sure what to do about the pool. She just crawled in and out of it for most of the time. But, she definitely had fun.

After Jeremy came home, we had a yummy dinner and went for a walk to get ice cream. In my opinion, a perfect evening.

I love my life. I love my family. I want to treasure my moments with my girls because I do realize that all to quickly they will grow up. I don't want my memories of their preschool years to be me stressed because of demands others, or I, place on myself. I don't want to look back and wish I had slowed down a bit and just been there with my girls. I don't want to look back and only remember them sitting in their car seats as I gallivant around town running errands (which of course, must happen, often even...but not every wakeful moment they have). I want to remember having picnics, playing at the park, chasing, playing catch, eating crackers and drinking kool-aid at tea parties, stopping to smell flower (even if they are weeds), being silly and laughing. And, that's what I want them to remember too.

CVS....yep, I still go there

Last night, my friend Teri, picked me up at 8:30 and we went on a littler excursion. First, we drove to an undisclosed location and she went dumpster diving! hahaha. Sort of. She needed a couple large cardboard boxes for her son's birthday party this week. It's nice that businesses have to recycle because the dumpster she look (and got into) I believe just had paper goods. It felt rebellious though even for me to sit and watch in the truck! hahaha.

Then, we hit CVS. The deals weren't spectacular, but they weren't to bad either. I had 4 ecb and walked out with 0, but I paid very little for my paper towels. Let me explain.

Trans. 1

Irish Spring soap $4.99 with $4.99 ecb back

$.50 Coupon

Total $4.49 used $4 ecb, paid $.55 oop

Trans 2.

4 Glade Candles 4/$10

3 (small)boxes wheat things 5/$5

1 (small) box Ritz Crackers

2 $1.50 Glade Q

2 $2.00 buy 2 wheat thins or ritz crackers

Total $7

Used $5 ecb

Paid $2 (plus tax) for my order oop

Received 3 ecb

Trans 3.

Bounty paper towels sale $5.99

$1 off Q

Total was $4.99

Paid with 3 ecb

and $2.00 oop.

So, I paid just under $5 for all that stuff. Not to bad. I walked out with zero ecbs which really stinks, so...I'll have to cash it up next time, but I only paid 2 bucks for paper towels. Yay!

We went on a wagon ride yesterday. Hannah LOVES the wagon (although she doesn't look like it in this picture).