Monthly Archives: January 2009

by

25 random things about me

I’m feeling better!  Rissa threw up yesterday several times and it was heartbreaking to watch, but now she is feeling better too!  Yay!

For the first time ever, I wrote something on Facebook and copied it over to my blog rather than vice versa.  Here it is.

25 random things about me

1. I have never been more excited about a job than being with my children every day. I always wanted to be a mom but I used to worry that I wouldn’t find a godly man to marry or someone who would be good with kids and then I worried that I wouldn’t be able to have children. What a surprise to marry my wonderful Matt and to be blessed with our beautiful twins! My exact words at the ultrasound: “What??? Are there any more in there?”

2. I am a crafting fiend. I love to make things! I like to work in square or rectangular shapes… crochet, cross-stitch, scrapbooking, sewing. I love to make gifts and my current obsession is sewing piggies (flannel stuffed animals). Not really square so I guess I’m branching out?

3. I value honesty tempered with kindness. I hate it that anyone might feel pressured to be fake or to be brutal. I want to hear how you really are and I want to feel safe when I tell you how I really am. If we can’t do that, I don’t see much point.

4. I fluctuate between being overwhelmed by how God acts with perfect timing and love and justice and being overwhelmed with all the injustice that is breaking people into shattered shards everywhere. It can be paralyzing to not know what to do but I trust that God is sovereign and He cares so much more than I do!

5. My dream is to be significant. I want it to matter that I loved Jesus and that I tried and that I shared myself.

6. I can’t stand girly Victorian books and movies. Conversely, many of my dear friends are obsessed with them. Despite this critical difference, we find ways to interact and enjoy other things together and I overlook this obvious flaw in them.

7. I don’t quit even when I should. I stick with things because I am determined to make it work. This is both a great and a terrible quality.

8. I’m trained as a speech-language pathologist and never changed my major in school… I went straight through to grad school. Then I graduated, worked for a few years and decided I want to be a marriage and family counselor too, so I went back to school for that. I spent my second trimester of pregnancy sitting in uncomfortable desks at graduate coursework and realized that I needed to take a break from school to be pregnant and a mom. I am excited to get back to it when the time is right.

9. I define family very broadly. People have invested into me throughout my life by giving me beautiful examples of what a marriage and a parent/child relationship and a career and a friendship should look like. They have been mentors and dear friends and to me, they are family. My fabulous mom is my mom and also a mentor and a dear friend, so it works both ways. I add people to my circle of family if I decide to, and once you are in, you are in. You are stuck with me because now we are family.

10. I discovered grace in my late 20s. I don’t fully understand it yet, but feeling free from rules and legalism in my walk with the Lord has been a beautiful journey for me. I don’t miss controlling Jaime and I kick her out whenever she tries to weasel her way into my life again.

11. I love to blog. I seriously love it.

12. I wanted to marry Matt long before he asked me to be his wife. And then I forgot to say “yes” when he did ask because I was so excited and seriously contemplated running up and down the sidewalk yelling that I was engaged. Matt reminded me that he needed an answer and I tried to be clear but it was all very thrilling and sometimes I actually run out of words.

13. I really love funky nail polish, but only on my toes. Nina gave me a gorgeous purple color for Christmas and it is super cool. There is no point in painting my fingernails because they will chip immediately or break.

14. I think I am (by far) the funniest person I know. I have laughed until tears streamed out at my own jokes far more often than I have at anyone else’s. Matt says this is not indicative of how funny I actually am but rather of how much I enjoy my own sense of humor. I say, who cares? I’m hilarious! My sister and my husband and my children are next… they make me laugh all the time.

15. I LOVE pictures. I’m that annoying person with the camera in your face at every event. I wonder if this is because of my grandpa… he gave me a really nice camera when I was too young and irresponsible to be trusted with such things and as a result, I learned to be careful and to spend all my spare money on buying film and developing it. Digital is so much cheaper!

16. I have a deep-seated psychological attachment to 7up when I am sick. I cannot survive without it. I also need my mommy when I’m sick but she currently lives far away.

17. I love sugar. Cheesecake, cupcakes, frosting, ice cream, candy, chocolate… I will probably make myself diabetic given my sugar addiction.

18. My family lost everything in a huge tornado in 1990 in Plainfield, IL. All of us lived through it which was in itself a miracle, and God used that one event in countless ways to provide for my family. It is one of the biggest and most significant markers I can look back on as a time when God directly cared for me.

19. I practically lived at my church’s youth group and the Christian Youth Center in junior high and high school. I don’t know how anyone survives the teenage years without places like that.

20. I’m allergic to dogs and it is devastating. we had dogs all growing up and I always dreamed of getting a golden retriever puppy under the tree during my first married Christmas. When I was 19, I found out that I was severely allergic to dogs and cats and dust mites and corn pollen. I cried for 3 days… it was the loss of my dream to snuggle doggies throughout my life. Thankfully, our then-landlord caved when Hoochie came along and Matt and I snatched him up. I love that little guy. He’s my Gruntlestiltskin.

21. I spent years worrying about whether I was okay or likeable or valuable. It caused me to ignore the needs of others and to focus on just getting through life because I was so worried about myself. I’m now free to love because I don’t worry about that anymore.

22. I don’t like conflict but I’d rather get through it than fake it or ignore it.

23. I’m very frugal except with groceries. For some reason, I can justify luxury food purchases because they make me happy where I would never do that in any other purchase category. Very strange.

24. I’m a fix-it girl! Matt and I renovated our 110 year old house and we did almost all of it ourselves, with the love and help of family and friends. I know how to do most everything except plumbing.

25. I love to travel. I’ve been to Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, most of the continental US, England, Greece, Japan, Belize and the Ivory Coast. I can’t wait to for Matt and I to take our kids backpacking through Europe… I’m dying to see Prague with them. Colorado is my favorite US vacation spot.

by

Volcano

I spent last night as an erupting human volcano.  Stomach flu or something.  I came back to bed after the first round and announced to Matt that I was very sick in a sickly little voice and IN HIS SLEEP, he snuggled me, told me he was so sorry I didn’t feel good, and asked if I needed anything.  He remembers none of this.  This morning, he went to the store at 6:45am to get me 7up because I can’t survive being sick without it.  I couldn’t think of anything else that would be good because food sounds disgusting to me right now, but he brought back the 7up (one cold in the fridge if I want cold and one room temperature on the counter if I don’t) as well as Saltines (his favorite comfort food), yogurt for the probiotics, mild cheese, yummy tea that he knows I love, chocolate pudding, and bananas to “replace the potassium I lost while puking” as he put it.

Then he stayed home to keep an eye on our little rascals who thankfully are not yet sick while I snuggled the deliciously warm bundle of silver fur we call Abysmal Hoochie in bed under mounds of covers and finally got some actual sleep.

I don’t have anything in me right now except 7up and I seem to be able to handle that.  And I want to publicly announce that I’m not sorry that I snatched up Matt and married him.  I would marry him everyday if I could.  I realize this means that no one else is able to benefit so directly from his wonderful caring skills besides me and our children but I’m still not sorry.  He is amazing.

by

Barbed Wire

Our Tinies are 17 months old today and not so tiny at all!  These kids have been contemplating putting their foot up and over the crib wall, though thankfully, they cannot yet get it that high.  They indicate that they want to climb out by leaning out as far as they can and staring hard at the carpet, as if willing themselves to the floor.  And we respond with fear and trembling.  They can’t actually do it yet, but the intent is quite scary!

I was telling Matt a story about someone else’s baby who does not want to stay in bed and he said the following in his typically hilarious way:

“What is this with all the climbing out of the crib?  We have to get the barbed wire.”

by

Fun with Furniture

Parents are always saying that they get some expensive toy and their kids are more interested in the cardboard box it came in.  Our kids have been given the sweet hookups in the toy department:  we buy them very little but the grandparents are constantly finding the coolest and most fun toys and sending them our way.  Some of them we have actually requested!  “We need a rocking chair… Christmas is coming up… anyone?  anyone?”  Grandparents to the rescue!  Matt’s parents got this little alphabet caterpillar or some sort of thing for us for Christmas:  it has 26 feet and you push the feet to get each letter or the letter’s sound or the color of the foot.  I saw it and thought, “that’s cute but will they get bored right away?”  I couldn’t have been more wrong!  That caterpillar is a hit!  It has a music setting with 26 different instrumental children’s songs (each starting with the associated letter of the alphabet) and our kids dance and dance and dance with that caterpillar.  Grandparents to the rescue again!

This intrinsic skill of sending the coolest gifts doesn’t end with the grandparents!  Uncle Tim has provided hours of ear-splitting excitement with maracas, Aunt Mari and Uncle Ryan bought the twins a kitchen set that they are excited about even when it is in the box because it is as tall as them, and Aunt Alana and Uncle Neil ordered us a set of these:

All that to say that we have plenty of super cool toys around here to pique their interests.  But guess where the REAL excitement is?  It’s furniture.  Yep, furniture.  The new rocking chair is the most popular piece and I often find Rissa sitting in it, rocking out, and reading herself a story (usually the book is upside down but she points to each thing on the page and says something to herself!).  But their interest in other furniture items is a little harder to explain so I’ll just give you the pictures.