Here's What's Up or "One Seriously Long Week"

It feels like way too much has happened to play that dreaded game of catch up I've been wanting to start, but here are a few recent highlights:

*Julie's visit was much too short, as always. It involved lots of catching up, me cutting her hair (after much begging), discussions on how to convince your friends you were actually future you visiting them in the past (reveal key Harry Potter plot points before the books come out, duh!) and lots of cute pictures. This one is my favorite:

* Elliot recently had his 9 month checkup. He now weighs in at just under 22 lbs, measures 30" long from head to toe and is right where he should be developmentally. He is crawling at unstoppable speeds, pulling up and then attempting to climb on top of just about everything, and standing alone for a few second at a time.
He has moved on from basic sounds of "Da Da" "Ma Ma" etc to his own little alien language of sounds that keeps me laughing all day long. One of his favorite things to do is crawl in the kitchen and watch our cat, Tiger Lily, through the slider while he repeats "Hi Kitty" after I say it.

* Elliot and I recently had a play date with Stephanie and her two adorable kids, my mom and my nephew Landyn. We headed over to the toddler park and played ourselves out! I love that the weather is warming up and get excited about all the fun park adventures to come.

* Monday the 18th was our 2 year wedding anniversary. Josh and I had planned to go away for the weekend to the coast but Elliot and I were both not feeling great so we stayed home instead. We did, however, wake up Monday morning together because Josh called in to work and then had a delicious breakfast (banana chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and bacon...yum!) at Mimi's.

(I really like these lights and was trying to be sneaky and not get in trouble for taking a picture of them)

* Elliot was still feeling awful by Wednesday so I took him to the doctor. He had a slight ear infection in both ears, plus we believe he is teething. This past week+ has been a long one and I'm definitely glad we are on the downhill side of things. Because I have been exhausted and Elliot has been so clingy I have achieved very little. Luckily he is just about 100% better, but look at this pitiful sick face:

* Easter pictures coming soon.

Visitor!

My friend, Julie, is in town! The last time she was here, Elliot was only a few days old.

It will be fun for her to see how much he's grown!!

Updates soon on unicorn and Harry Potter filled conversation as well as possible lunch at Visalia's best kept vegetarian/vegan secret.

My Thursday

First and third Thursdays mean MOPS group meets again!

The agenda alternates between speakers and crafts. Today was craft day and, as usual, it was a cute one. Everyone was given a choice between a cream, brown or red painted board and a decal that said "Create" or "Doodles & Drawings" and three metal clips. You could also add flowers and buttons if desired.

Most people put their flowers up by the decal; I chose to add mine to the clips.

Now I just have to decide where to hang it.

Oh, remember these?

Sold! For $20!
This was actually an offer made, not my price. Apparently I am "a crafty mommy who makes quality items with precise, tight stitches."
Paraphrased, of course.

This gave me the extra cash to buy some new clothes for Elliot, as he is still growing like a weed and his rainy weather clothes all fit him about 2" too short.

And that was my Thursday!

Here's what's up

* I have a love/hate relationship with my mornings since Josh started working at Cigna. He leaves our bed much too early, usually with me whining for him to quit his job and stay home and snuggle with me forever. I know, what a supportive wife, right? This is usually mumbled while I'm half awake, so by the time I have gone back to sleep Josh comes in with Elliot and lays him in the bed next to me. Most of the time Elliot quickly returns to sleep and we snuggle in bed for another half an hour. Why get up early when you can snuggle your chubby little boy under warm covers? Yes, the theme here is snuggling. Around 6:30 Josh comes back in to the room to kiss me goodbye...more whining commences and we have another round of "We don't need money to live, stay home!"

When I finally make it out of bed with the child, I am in full "I love mornings" mode. I give him his bottle, which he finishes in about 5 seconds, grab a hot cup of coffee and leave him to his devices while I enjoy a little time on the computer. I check on him over my shoulder every so often and usually catch a scene like this:

The love is usually inspired by the fact that I am close to 2 years of not working. This glorious period may end very soon since bills continue to pour in with a $1000 price tag on them, so for now I am going to love every moment of it.

* I am obsessed with this peanut butter:

I have always been a big fan of peanut butter, but this is truly White Chocolate Wonderful. I bought this second jar so I could make a batch of peanut butter cookies for our Monday night Bible study group. The first jar never made it's way on to anything...I ate the entire thing by the spoonful over a few days. Actually, I may have had a few bites with banana until I felt the banana was impeding the delicious flavor of the White Chocolate Wonderful itself.

* Joshua and I both had our cars serviced on Monday. On the upside, Josh took a vacation day so we would be able to get both cars done at once. On the downside, our Focus required new tires ($$$) and the Fusion required a new battery, battery connector and air filter along with the oil change (more $$$).

I am watching our lovely tax return that was supposed to pay off our credit card go very quickly towards a whole bunch of other things. Life refuses to take these lemons and make me a glass of refreshing lemonade. It just keep squirting the lemon juice in my eyes.

* Elliot is finally crawling!! I briefly mentioned this in my last blog but I feel it needs some more attention. After 9 whole months of refusing to do anything other than work on his "Downward Facing Dog" and various other yoga moves, he finally is CRAWLING. I somehow think my excitement over his mobility will be short lived. 

* We had to wait till Tuesday to pick up the Fusion from Exeter. Once we got the carseat transferred back to the Fusion, we decided another round of Frosty King's delicious seasoned fries was in order. I prompted Josh to call some friends of ours, Jason and Katey, to see what was up and how their son, Nolan, is doing. Apparently every Tuesday Exeter has a small farmer's market which was happening just around the corner from where we were eating. Katey sells handmade soaps at a booth there, so Jason met up with us when he got off work and we all walked to her booth and played catch up for awhile. Usually I am a total crab about unplanned nights like that, but it was a lot of fun to run in to people and see how they have been doing. 

Plus, I love babies. So, bonus!

I am going to attempt to try out my sewing machine today. I may decide I have no energy to leave the house and play around with my crocheting instead. We will see.

9 months old

Elliot officially turned 9 months old yesterday and that seems impossible. I cannot believe it has been close to a year since I was lying in a hospital bed for a mere (hah) 15 hours before I held my beautiful boy for the first time. I still remember how warm he was...I remember the room was blurry, my head was fuzzy, my eyes were burning with tears and I was a mess taking every bit of him in. The nurse handed him to me and I thought...he is mine? I'm first in line to hold him, kiss him, love him and hug him? It gave surreal a new definition.
Now he is so strong and tall and amazes me every day with the new things he can do. Already the way he needs me has changed. He crawls from one place to another, he can make sounds and tell me what he wants with his chubby hands and smile. He has mastered the tantrum.
His range of food is expanding to exciting things like yogurt (a new favorite), all sorts of fruits and veggies, pasta with good (and good for him) fillings like spinach and turkey, chicken, bread and soup. Of course, cheerios are the classic staple at any meal or snack time.

So here is to my son that somehow keeps finding deeper parts of my heart to fill and steal away. My love keeps growing with him!

Here's what's up

* I have been without a sewing machine for the last two+ years. I have wanted to buy a new one but everytime the funds are there they end up having to go to something that falls in the "need" category instead. The machine is nothing fancy, in fact it is several years old and probably a model meant for beginners...but a sewing machine it is nonetheless.
 I finally tracked down a number to call for replacement parts, ordered my pedal and manual and was planning on waiting patiently till the end of April for them to arrive as the pedal was back ordered. However, there were packages waiting on my doorstep on Tuesday that hailed their early delivery! I cannot wait to dig in to my stack of fabric and whip up something exciting!

* My latest obsession, in place of sewing, is crocheting. ILOVETHIS! Stephanie showed me some basics back in January and since then I have become truly obsessed. It is all I want to do! I am constantly looking through patterns, checking out new yarns, reading about recycling old fabrics to make my own rug yarn! Sewing gives me the same feeling of excitement in regards to creativity, but crocheting is different in that you are actually making the fabric of your project. So neat! Here are a couple of my most recent projects:

Elliot has decided he loves my yarn. Observe:

*After having a very late Bible study on Monday, Josh decided to call in "sick" from work the next day. It was so fun getting to sleep in and have coffee together that morning! Around lunch time we got ready and met with Rob for a reunion Taco Bell hang out. Then we headed downtown to shop the antique stores. It was a day of many steals. I found a really cool gecko decoration for my dad to hang on the fence for only $3, a pretty blouse for me (navy blue with tiny white bows printed all over) for only $10 and a really cool tin for Elliot's nursery for $2! I didn't get pictures of the other two but here is the tin:

I think it goes well with his forest animal theme.

*During our Monday night Bible study prayer card time, I was really encouraged and excited about some of the plans I have for our church's nursery ministry. All of the girls chimed in with thoughts, ideas and plans of action! I can't wait to see it all come together and truly hope it helps awaken a desire for younger generations in our congregation's hearts.

*Tomorrow Josh will be helping at his mother's school, Sundale, for the third year for an event called Weird Life. I believe it has a connection with Young Life, but is for elementary school age. He leads worship before the speaker. This year they are having a bonfire, which could potentially be a lot of fun! I've been helping Josh prepare his list of songs to sing and in this process he believes he has discovered that I can sing. Ha! He is now calling it "my secret." It has been the running joke of this week and has caused endless fits of laughter from me. Apparently I haven't let the world know I have a mediocre voice. I'll get right on that! 

*And at the last minute I am adding that I am fairly certain I will get to see a good friend of mine this weekend. Something to look forward to!

Applesauce

1. Wash, quarter and core apples.

2. Fill saucepan 1in with water, place apples in steam basket and boil water. Cover and steam for 10 min and apples are very tender. Remove from basket and cool completely.

3. Remove skins from cooled apples and puree, adding enough of reserved water from boiling, to desired consistency.

4. Enjoy!

Because poignancy should be noted

Has anyone else been entranced by the show Everwood? It aired a number of years ago but was one of my favorites. I never agreed with all of the shows "opinions," but I always loved that they showed more than one side of an argument. They created a story about real people in a real town...with real life problems. Many shows claim to do this. Most of them don't. Some of what happens in Everwood is extreme or unlikely. A lot of it, like the quote taken from the following episode, are things that are rarely handled with such grace and surprising eloquence.
Andy Brown is the character at the heart of the series, a renowned surgeon who's wife was tragically killed in a car accident, after which he moves his family to a tiny mountain town in Colorado called Everwood. In the episode I'm referring to, a young girl becomes pregnant and is being pushed into having an abortion by her religious family. Andy, having hailed from New York and being the go-to (and only) liberal in the community, is sought out by the girl's father to handle the issue. Surprisingly, Andy can't go through with the procedure. When asked by his friend why, he gives this beautiful reply:

"I've always believed that women should have a right to choose...Julia and I sat on the board together in New York. She thought it was the most important thing a woman owned, and I agreed with her.


Then, about 8 years ago, I did a surgery in utero. It was a spina bifida baby. I was trying to prevent paralysis; it was a best case scenario. The mother wanted to carry it to term. It was a success...and then it was a she. A patient...with a file, a history and a name: Emily. Do you know that you can take a picture of a fetus that's 54 days old? All the organs are visible. Not a  person, not able to live outside of the womb, but a perfect possibility of a person. 


Kate Morris has been pregnant for 62 days.
I don't know when life begins. I don't even know if, for a scientist, that question is answerable. 
But I do know when it ends. And after this year, after losing Julia, I just don't think I can be the one to end it."

It's still a safe answer, not wanting to qualify "when life begins," but to know when it ends? An ending requires a beginning.

The other doctor who actually performs the abortion is a very conservative gentleman, and though he goes through with the procedure he does not agree with it. The show ends with him in confession. I really appreciated for once seeing a show that can present two sides of an argument and come up with the same answer.
For me, abortion has a simple response: It's wrong. I don't agree with it. It makes me sick to my stomach hearing the statistics increase every year. I've heard every possible side of this issue and I'm not looking for a debate. I just watched that particular episode again (I'm going through the 3 of Everwood's 4 seasons) and it always leaves me with the same feeling. And that is all I wanted to say.

The (not so) little things

This, in a few pictures, was my Thursday afternoon and evening. My mom, nephew Landyn, Elliot and I all went to the park, ate at the mall and played in the play area in the food court and then had a nice long round of light saber battling back at my parents' house.

These are the electric moments of my life. My son giggles and his eyes sparkle and I feel something inside me explode with a joy that is indescribable. I am so excited for him to get a little older...he and Landyn already love each other so much but what a sweet thing it will be to watch them run and play together!

After a long Saturday evening of many tears and gallons of hot tea, I am ready to curl up next to my husband in bed and snuggle up with our sweet new pup! YES, we have a PUPPY! I have misplaced (sad day!) my camera at the moment but I will have pictures soon of little miss Faye, in all her iconic and adorable glory.