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Romantic Vampires?

via WithoutWax.tv by Pete Wilson by Pete Wilson on 11/20/09

Listen, I know men are weird. I know you ladies often wonder what in the world attracted you to us in the first place. You wonder…

-Why do men always have to buy the biggest and most expensive version of everything? We’re utterly consumed by the latest weed-eater, shopvac, knife, or electronic gadget.

-Why do men always think they can fix things? I’m sure women often wonder why we haven’t figured out after a hundred failed attempts this just isn’t our gift. While we can take apart everything from the TV to the garbage disposal, our expertise usually fails us when we go to put something back together. At this point we’re generally satisfied to leave it in pieces spread out all over the kitchen counter for weeks at a time.

-Why are men fascinated with video games? I believe most women are generally united in their disgust that men can throw so much of their life away playing a stupid video game until the wee hours of the morning. Somehow they don’t understand that this electronic therapy is our version of a day at the spa.

-Why do men think they’re so funny? While most women would say they desire a man with a good sense of humor that generally means something different than a guy whose own bodily noises can make him laugh so hard he almost pees in his pants.

Ladies, I know we have some complexities but nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the crazy obsession you grown women have with vampires. I know, I know, it’s perfectly healthy and normal to be 34 and wearing a “Team Edward” t-shirt while waiting in ridiculously long lines at the theater. I mean who wouldn’t be into pasty white men who sparkle and have really sharp teeth?

Please be patient with us ignorant men as we try to figure out how in the heck lusting after these immortal stalkers who are lured in by the scent of your “sweet blood” and have to fight the desire to eat you for a snack is somehow romantic.

But don’t worry about us. While you’re at the movies this weekend we’ll be at home fixing things, playing video games until late at night, and still laughing at our own bodily noises. Go Team Edward!

Edward JACOB brought Baby Reese

WARNING: There's always the risk with a really good girl's night out that someone WILL go into labor!













Less than 24 hours from our movie night and Baby Reese finally arrived!

Steph and I dashed up to see her this afternoon and she is beautiful! She has red hair and is the picture of her new daddy!

...when I think of where we were just a couple of years ago, San...She is such an unexpected miracle, right? I couldn't be more happy if she were my own.

So here are some debut pics from Aunt Tee Tee. You will be able to tell from the video clip that all the talking to her in Sandy's belly was totally successful! She completely knew me right away!

*sigh* I do love a baby...







The traditional Aunt Tee Tee baby blanket!

"New Moon"...and Old Friends

I'll briefly admit it despite your mocking...

I love the Twilight series.

I'm 35.

I'm married.

(I still love them!)

SO...Sadly, when my BFF's birthday was lost to a bad bout of morning sickness, she promised me that we would have our birthday night out when the second twilight movie premiered.

To our GREAT SHOCK, Sandy STILL has not pushed that baby out so YYEEAAHH....she got to go with us. (And her sweetie, James, who was man of the night! Thanks, Mr. Chauffeur!)

I made sure to run out this afternoon and get shirts for Steph and I. Sorry, San...no big belly Twilight shirts available! Steph is totally "Team Edward" and I'm cheering "Team Jacob". Who wants a perfect, pale looking man that looks like he has an eating disorder. I'll take a grizzly guy any day...ruff, ruff! (Totally thinking of you Matt, really!)

So, here is a preview of our night. Oh...so much fun, girls! I love ya'!





 

Bye, Bye, Baby Bump!

This week Josiah finally said good-bye to the little hernia above his belly button that we have long since called the "Baby Bump". He was born with it and while I was mysteriously told by a couple pediatricians that I sincerely trust that it would some day "go away"...this really doesn't seem to be the case.

It started to cause him some pain this fall and we decided to get a second opinion from a surgeon. On Wednesday, they took him in to repair it.

This was very, very, very hard for a parent. Watching them roll away from you and having to leave them no matter what the procedure is, is so difficult. But, we prayed with him and told him to go an enjoy another one of life's BIG adventures.

Like many people feel when they emerge from a big, life adventure, he looked up at me as I held him in the hospital room and said, "I wish it never would've happened!" *sigh*

But, he's up and at it and I'm trying to keep him calm per Doc's orders. TWO WEEKS. How am I going to manage that?

I thank the Lord for watching over my baby and keeping him safe. He is my sweet monkey!


 
 
 
 
 

Halloween 2009

"All Harmless family members must participate!"

And, I won this year as everyone went along with my command!

Matt was a...hmmm, I'm not sure how to title him without it potentially being offensive...I guess you can decided what he was! I was an 80's homecoming queen. Jo was a skeleton guy AGAIN...I'm getting worried about his skeletal infatuation! Hopefully, he's interested in becoming a radiologist or something! And, Sam went as himself, basically! Computer Nerd!

Good times had by all!

What inspired this?

A few weeks ago I took a new friend out to lunch. This is one of the perks of not working anymore. Occasional "lunching". Everyone should "lunch" in my opinion.

Anyway, we got done and maybe I was numb from too many chips and salsa or I'm having a pre-mid-life crisis...depressed..maybe?? I don't know but I had just had my hair that I was growing out trimmed three weeks prior AND colored but regardless, I felt drawn to a salon in the same building complex.

I had heard that this guy from Covington had gone to this salon and I wanted to see how much it would cost if he did my hair next time. He is edgy and seems farily current. Maybe he could make me happy!

Well...it just so happened that he was free at that moment and thought that my longer hair was not complimenting my neck (I know?? I'm still not sure) and that I should do some patches of brown/red color in various places and trim a little....

And so I did something I NEVER do. I grinned at him...sat down..and said, "DO whatever you want."

Crazy.

So, after years of being compared to her quirky personality and silliness...I now have her haircut....



I'm waiting for the perfect picture to post when it does just what I want. I do think mine is a little longer than this pic, though. I have to say, I usually over-fix it but it is fun most days.

It doesn't appeal to my desire to be in a Jane Austin book with beautiful, long locks of glorious splendor but it is "cute". I guess "cute" is what you settle for when the wrinkles around the eyes and the less than perfect figure pushes you far away from the "Beautiful" category. I'm hoping to transition into my 40's as "classic"!

Actually, I'm REALLY hoping to go into my 50's...just not caring as much! Won't that be nice?

Everybody says the new cut is "Sooo you!" Is that a good thing? I thought I let him cut it so I could be "SOOO not me!"

Girls and hair. Aren't we pathetic?

Scrabble Club

Well...it's my suspicion that I have lost all readers with the signifigant gap in posting but that's ok. This is the first day that I've really felt like blogging and so I'll do it for me! I'm sitting in bed in a quiet house with my laptop and I'm patiently waiting for my tylenol pm to kick in(fat chance since I swallowed it down with my gigantic Diet Mountain Dew!) So, here goes...

Tonight I was introduced to a world that I didn't even realize existed. I guess I am pretty naive about what other people do on Monday night in their spare time but I'm still grinning to myself that no matter how old you are...you can continue to be surprised!

What was this alternate universe that has my head spinning?

"Scrabble Club"

Let me back up and tell you how I came to venture into this new group of people that simply love "tiles and racks and the valuable letters Z and Q".

You see, my life is very unfamiliar to me right now. I'm back home in Danville and much to my dismay, it has been very difficult to find a house to buy. So, I'm going back and forth between living with in-laws and while it has been such a generous blessing on our parent's behalf, we are all wanting a place to call "home".

I've gone from being a full-time working mom to a stay-at-home mom again and I'm homeschooling the boys from whatever kitchen we happen to be in that morning.

Funny enough...my friends all have lives so what I thought was going to be an endless array of "girl's night out" and play dates has ending up being "Can we hope to see each other THIS month??" When did we become big girls?

The greatest change is that on Sunday and various visits in between, I am now called "The Pastor's Wife".

Oh boy...it was hard to even type that. I keep thinking that if the congregation really knew me-well, it wouldn't be pretty. I have an ongoing discussion with God that when I felt I was qualified for this role (in my blind pride)- He kept me from it. Now that I feel totally messed up and weak...I'm running harvest cupcakes to the church cookout and leading music for our services. I join John Bunyan when he was comforted by looking to the heavens and realizing that his righteousness was ever before God in the person of Jesus Christ.

There is a Messiah...and it isn't me. It isn't suppose to be me. It doesn't HAVE to be me! What a relief.

So, I remain the sorriest excuse for a pastor's wife and that seems to be ok. I'm still fearful and irrational and very often WAY TOO SILLY...I'm late to nearly every service and I'm learning more from the teen Sunday School book than the girls are! I attack the visitors that seem like they can handle it with embarrassing enthusiasm and I still haven't sent out the welcome packets from a month ago! The food pantry has no food yet and that works because I have trouble getting the messages from people that have called in need of food!

I'm a wreck. Nothing has changed except the title!

(Matt, as usual, is perfection at the job. *sigh* Have you ever wondered if your husband's REAL wife is just wandering around somewhere...being responsible and godly in an appropriate jean skirt and a spotless reputation???)

But...I've taken a rabbit trail. Back to scrabble!

So, in all the confusion that is my life right now, I decided to take up a new friend's invitation and join her scrabble club. I haven't played for years but she lured me in with talk of "amateurs and casual fun". She's a big fat liar!!

These people are awesome! I was shocked. I was in WAY over my head and couldn't concentrate on my own game because I was hearing the scores from the other tables! I was glad that I made I made it through the night, scoring close to 300 on both games but that was nothing compared to this group. I appreciated that they weren't condescending to my playing ability and were insistent that I keep at it and come back.

They shoved a Scrabble book in my hand....hooked me up with a Scrabble computer game and filled me in on online Scrabble. In my bleary-eyed state, I think I remember someone saying something about me "memorizing" stuff this week? Wha-huh?

Did you know that they make card tables WITH the Scrabble board printed on it?? I guess there are tournaments where you go and play upwards of 9 games in a day!! It's crazy!

I don't know. It was so stressful. My friend Anne used to call me a "Wordsmith" but it doesn't matter if you can tell a story creatively in Scrabble! You have to know that "Djin" is a word!! Is that really true? I was too scared to challenge it.

So, I guess I'm now in a Scrabble Club. I know I will be mocked for this. I'm comforting myself by saying that I can practice with Sam and it will help him with vocabulary or it gets me in the community and meeting people. There's always that occasionally they play in Champaign at the Barnes and Noble and I will get a night out by myself with unlimited coffee drinks!

Ahhh...Already I'm feeling more like me again! Thanks, Becky!

Eliza Faith

Today would have been my due date for the baby I lost in October.

I was kind of dreading this week for a while. Sam and Matt leave for an overnight field trip today and I can remember getting notice of it while I was pregnant and asking for special permission for Sam to miss it since we would want him (and Matt) around for the birth.

I think that just sort of sealed the date in my mind....and the expectation of what this week would have brought.

I was reading early this morning from the book of Luke about the 10 lepers that came to Jesus. It's interesting because the lepers were a combination of Jews and a Samaritan. Normally, the two groups would not have mixed but disease and rejection had put them all on equal ground.

Christ sends them to the Pharisees for the official report of "clean" (we don't know when they were actually healed but apparently as they were going to the next destination) and only one..the Samaritan...returns, falls before Christ and says, "Thank You".

I can remember being pregnant with Josiah and thinking that I was going to miscarry. My doctor at the time sat down and leveled with me. He told me that he had three pregnant women waiting to see him (I was one of the three) and statistically one of was likely to have a miscarriage.

That floored me! Those aren't great odds when you're desperate to deliver your baby.

I thought about that this morning when I read about the lepers.

Believers and unbelievers alike are all subject to suffering. It doesn't matter how much fame, wealth or position one holds....we will all have loss in our lives. In some ways that puts us all the same place. It's the commonality among humans.

We are all similar in another way.

Christ offers to heal us of our diseases. Maybe not literally or physically...I did not have that healing with Baby Joy or Eliza. But, He met my greatest need on the cross. He attended to the disease of my heart. His Word has been a continual balm for my pain and suffering and like those group of lepers, I have visited the Head Priest and have been officially declared "clean".

As I sat on my bathroom floor this morning and wanted to feel sorry for myself or compare myself with others that get to hold their newborns today, I was reminded not to run off and forget ALL that God has done for me. I don't want to be guilty of bringing charge against the Lord when He has loved me with a perfect, faithful love.

Piper said once that "No one is born in love with the sovereignty of God...they're born in love with their own sovereignty!"

I know this is true because so much of my life, I have longed to know exactly what is to come and why. I'm learning differently these days. I know that in God's sovereignty, He numbered my babies days before they were born and the moment they were taken was exactly their spiritual destiny. I know it was good for them. I know it is good for me. I'm coming to love that God is doing just the right thing at just the right time.

So today...the "Saints below join with the Saints above" rejoicing that God has been the remedy for our sickness. May we all fall down and say, "Thank You".

Blog Inconsistency

I normally love to blog but it has gone on the back burner with the craziness that is our life and schedule. I believe it will eventually slow down...I believe, I believe..Oh, I believe!

I read a quote this morning in my library that totally summed up my blogging!

"A man swimming a horse across a turbulent stream does not stop to take a picture of the experience. I'll get my colts across the stream, see them thoroughly dried off, well fed, and on their way-then perhaps a picture." C. Marshall

Summer is around the corner. I'm looking forward to the changes that may bring.

Then..perhaps a picture!

A Fingerprint

The Lord has been so gracious to situate my circumstances to "press" me to change in big ways. It has been painful and fear has often been my choice but in His patience, He is leading me to His peace.

I am seeing His fingerprints all over my life. My past, with all of my sins and trials and now my present. As Andy Stanley has said..."So many fingerprints that some of the glass I can't even see through!"

At my church on Sunday, they completed the message with this YouTube Video. It is so great! Everyone was cracking up but since it was sent for ME...I got to be the only one crying my eyes out! It's another fingerprint.

Give it a watch! I've been holding on to my balance beam but I'm changing! I want to give myself totally to the exciting, challenging, fearless, whole-hearted Christian walk.

A Birthday Tribute

I'm posting this for my BFF, Steph.

I never make it a secret when my birthday is approaching. As mentioned on Stephanie's blog, I spent our high school years putting post-it notes on everyones locker as a countdown to my big day.

Well...as unbelievable as it may seem...this Friday I will turn 35.

35

When did that happen?

I'm doing a little something different with my day. I've decided to reverse things and focus on remembering those people that have been influential in my life for the last five years and celebrate who "they" are and what they have meant to me.

The invitations have been sent and I'm looking forward to a great day of lunching and laughing and expressions of spoken thankfulness for so many amazing women that I will sadly have to leave in a couple of months.

Well...I didn't want to leave everyone else out that are patiently waiting for me to come! So, while I have tons I could say about my very best girlfriend, I will take just a sec and leave her this youtube video. I watched it at school and it cracked me up and reminded me so much of all the hours and hours of long,difficult, "hashing out" conversations that I have had with Steph. Literally, you've been the key to my sanity through so many stages of life.

On my 35 year of life, I'm thankful for my Steph. What we have is rare and a treasure. I love you, girl!

Josiah

Today is my sweet Josiah's 7th birthday.

There is so much I could say about my beloved JoJo because he has brought an endless amount of happiness and joy to my life. He's been a breeze to raise (so far!) and everyone he's around can't help but love him. I watch him in his class at school and much to my amazement (because of the parents he got)...he's that "popular kid" I was always jealous of! He has a unique influence and he's so gifted in anything artistic.

This year I'm posting the Keith Green song that caused us to name our youngest son "Josiah". I was pushing for "Wesley" since Matt and I loved the movie Princess Bride but Matt won the toss-up and mostly in part to this song.

This is our song for Josiah. So much of it rings true with our world today and as with all Mamas...It will always be a struggle to let him go.

We love you, JoJo!

"Song for Josiah"

Oh my son, you were born in a world that hates you,

And I swear I will never forsake you.

But there was a father centuries ago,

Who watched his beloved son die. Oh, die.


Oh my son, I am weak and I'm trembling,

For the Lord I am always remembering.

Oh what a strong shepherd holds you in His arms.

He'll break you and make you His own.

And then take you home.


Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

This world will promise love and beauty, but it lied to me.

And I will show you, if you will listen.

And I will promise, to listen too.


Oh yes, there are some who love the lies, they will kill you if they can.

Though you speak the truth in love, they will hate you like the man,

Jesus, although he was God, he allowed himself broken for you.


Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

The world might seem so alive, but it's dead to me.

And I will teach you, if you will hear me.

And I will promise, to hear you too. Yes I do.


Oh my son, I am only your brother.

For a sister, God gave me your mother.

But just like a mother, so long ago, had to watch her beloved son die,

Oh son, we will try, to let you go.

FSBO

My house is up for sale. We've resigned from our jobs and packed a few boxes and told the sweet children that we work with the news....

We're goin' home.



So many people have asked us what has caused this decision and the answer isn't as easy to put our finger on as you might think. Coming to the South was exactly the right thing for us to do 5 years ago. It was a hard but good choice and I suppose I always thought that I would have to stay here. I've wanted to be home since the day I left but God has never opened that door for us. I had accepted it and then BAM...open door. I guess that's how it happens sometimes.

It isn't going to be easy to leave- this I know for sure. I have many friends that I love here and a church that very much has been a wonderful source of encouragement to us. But, I know from leaving the North that God places special people in your life for a season and thanks to technology, you can always keep in easy touch.

I could say so much about the step of faith that is required of us to make this move. We will most likely be looking for jobs "after" we get there. Eek. We have to sell our house before June. Double Eek. It is not my style to make major life changes without getting my "ducks in a row" but God is just not letting me control this and I'm learning slowly to take my hands off the situation and trust. He is stripping away at my defenses and back-up plans until I have nothing left but to understand that this is His life to govern over and His plan to work out in my family.

I'm sure I'll talk more about this as the days and months pass by. Meanwhile, I wait in anticipation for God to do miraculous things in a time that can seem very hopeless and scary in our economy and country. I know that the end result will probably look nothing like what I imagine but I do pray that some of it is....

(Quick sale, great job, sister trips, coffee with dad on Saturdays, groceries with Mom and GG, learning to knit AGAIN with Mother Teresa, double dates with Steph...and maybe our husbands!, and a big, beautiful garden.)

One of those moments....

Have you ever had one of those moments in a group situation where you and another person mutually find something VERY funny that others just don't seem to embrace the same?

And you continue to laugh and laugh...and laugh some more until everyone around you is irritated and thinks you are obnoxious?

I had one of those moments this Christmas with my sister-in-law, Brandi. Matt was kind enough to catch the whole thing on tape and I STILL laugh when I see it! (And am a little embarrassed at how annoyed my brother-in-law looks!)

I could try to explain to you whatt we were laughing at, but I'm fairly certain you would respond like the rest of my family did! In a nutshell...we were watching Brandi's son, slumped down, subjected to near death by his mother on a go-cart.

See...that doesn't sound that funny, does it?

In our defense...this was after a VERY long day at my parents house, celebrating Christmas and eating and gift-exchanging and sweating from my dad's fireplace! That explains the giant, unflattering t-shirt that I stole from my dad!

So, I'm really posting this for Brandi. I miss you, sista'!

Christmas 2008 Favorites