I never told you what happened to the van.

When we came home from spring break in Ohio about a month ago, we stopped at Westfield Dodge in Westfield, New York to trade in our van for one with a little less mileage and some other extra niceties. We LOVE our new van! It has the Stow and Go seats, automatic opening doors, power locks that work(!), ponies, confetti... OK. Maybe not the last two, but it's cool all the same. Micah named the van Sally.



About two weeks ago, Matt was driving home from a prayer meeting on route 70. The car beside him lost control of her vehicle and started to fishtail. She ended up with her front end in our passenger side. Fortunately, Matt was alone in the car and no one was hurt (he was a little shaken and stiff the next day, but is fine). The other driver totally admited fault and felt bad for what had happened.



On another fortunate note, the other driver also has great insurance coverage. Our van is in the shop until the beginning of June and we are driving a Chrysler Town and Country that is even a little nicer than our new van.

So, though this made a few days particularly stressful, I am also very thankful for God's grace and all of the "best case scenarios" here. Even though we only got to drive our new car for about three weeks, I still have a husband who is in one piece, I am driving a car even nicer than the one we bought and all is generally well with the world.

So be blessed little campers.

And be careful out there.

Happiness is...

...my husband catching the biggest fish he has ever caught on Tuesday! He got to go out in the bay on a fishing boat compliments of his friend, Richard.

Needless to say he was a happy camper... er fisherman.

And I might add that we had a delicious fish dinner that night!

Way to go, babe!

Six years ago today...

...this little monkey came into the world.

Now, mind you, if he had come on time, his birthday would have been over two weeks ago! But, alas, today my baby, my final-born turned six. (See how much he's grown since last year.)



Jacob pretty much thinks that the world should stop and do whatever he commands on his birthday. He didn't have school yesterday. Because of conferences? No. According to him, because of his birthday. We actually had to have a little talk last night to clarify that having a birthday does not justify acting however we want. Believe it or not, I've spanked on birthdays before (gasp!).



Now here's the slightly amusing part. We were a little rushed tonight because Matt and I were going to the Youth for Christ banquet (more about that later) but we didn't want Jay's special day to go by without doing anything to celebrate. We are going to have an official party in a few weeks, but really wanted to commemorate today... well, today. So after the boys got home from school, Matt went to Baskin Robbins to get an ice cream cake. Meanwhile, I fed the boys their dinner and got ready for the cake. Now, even though I've used them since we moved, I couldn't find my candles anywhere. Blast! The only thing I could find were the special number candles: 0, 1 and 5 (which can conveniently be made into any combination of 1, 10, 5, 15, etc.) I was starting to panic a little. I had to have something for this kid to blow out! I discussed my predicament with Josh and he suggested, "Why don't we just use the 5 and 1 because 5 plus 1 is 6?" Time was running out so that was exactly what we did.

So even though it looks like my son turned 51 today, he really is only 6! Oh what a wacky, weird life we lead!

Happy birthday, Jay Jay!

A favor...

Hey friends.

Just a quick favor.

I was wondering if you happen to read this before Sunday morning, if you could pray for me. I've been asked to sing and share at our friends Pastor Tom and Rosalind Swind's church tomorrow morning. I don't mind the singing part, but speaking always makes me nervous -- plus Mother's Day can be a bit of a difficult holiday for me. I am actually going to share about Caleb tomorrow and tell my story of God's goodness and faithfulness in the midst of sorrow. Please pray that God speaks to the hearts of the people beyond my words.

Thanks... and a very beautiful Mother's Day to my mother (of course;-) and all my mommy friends out there!

Happiness is...

...ordering pizza online. Not having to mess with human contact on this one is kinda nice :-)

Now, THIS is stuff you need to know...

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Katy!

1. Katy was banned from Finland because of not wearing pants.
2. If you toss Katy 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom!
3. About 100 people choke to death on Katy each year!
4. There is no lead in a lead pencil - it is simply a stick of graphite mixed with Katy and water.
5. Katy is the male seed of a flower blossom which has been gathered and treated by bees!
6. While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes dressed up as Katy.
7. Katy can grow up to three feet in a 24 hour period.
8. There are six towns named Katy in the United States!
9. The first toy product ever advertised on television was Mr Katy Head!
10. Owls cannot move their eyes, because their eyeballs are shaped like Katy.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

You can't handle the tooth

As somewhat "typical" Christian parents, my husband and I decided early on that we wouldn't put a lot of emphasis on the imaginary holiday characters like Santa and the Easter Bunny. We're not super dogmatic about it, but we don't usually initiate or make a big deal out of them. If one of the boys brings up Santa Clause in conjunction with Christmas we don't jump down his throat, but we do tell them that St. Nicholas was a historical figure and that their gifts come from family and friends. Wow. We're fun, huh.

For me, however, there is one exception.

I love the tooth fairy. And, yes, I lie to my children and tell them the tooth fairy takes their teeth and leaves currency in exchange. I really get into, too. When they ask questions about this and that with the tooth fairy I make up all kinds of stories and well-known facts pertaining to our winged friend. It seems that I've gotten more into it with my younger two than our older two. When Joshua or Caleb would lose a tooth, I'd put money under their pillow, but let tham know that it was good ol' Mom and Dad and not some fictional nymph.

I don't know. Maybe I'm loosening up in my old age. I think when I was a newer parent I was more concerned about the "correct" way to parent and now I see the value or having fun with this stuff.

So Micah lost tooth #3 last night (with a little help from his father and some dental floss). Immediately, we discussed the techniques of exactly where to leave the tooth, how the tooth fairy will find it, and what her plans are for said tooth.

So I tucked my little darlings in with the mental reminder to give Micah some time to fall asleep and then do the switcheroo.

There was only one problem.

I totally forgot.

See, 24 was really good last night and I was folding mounds of laundry at the same time and... I just forgot. So at 6:30 this morning, a very panicked 7-year-old is standing by by bed whining, "I can't find my tooth!" I rolled over toward Matt and mouthed "Oh crap. I forgot," and then in the same breath, "Let me go look for it, bud. Sometimes she makes the money hard to find." I headed upstairs, first to my wallet and got a dollar out and went into the top bunk. He was right. I couldn't find the tooth either (I did find it later when I was making his bed). So I headed back down with the dollar and all was well with the world.

My husband told him, "You're lucky. When I was a little kid, I only had a quarter under my pillow."

Micah said, "When you put a little kid under your pillow, you get a quarter?"




So though I may not be the best tooth fairy in the world, I've decided to make the most of it with the teeth we have left. Micah has several more to go and Jacob hasn't lost any yet. I'm imagining the tooth fairy may leave them not just dollars but notes and glitter and whatever else I can come up with.

And next time, I will try really hard not to forget.

Dirt

Ask me what I did today...





Well, thanks for asking.

We had dirt delivered today. Our front yard is a little patchy and uneven, so my husband went this week and ordered some dirt to fill in the front and grow some grass.

My husband is in Texas doing a Chain Reaction weekend at our friend Pastor Kevin's church. So I was given instructions to tell the dirt dude to back his truck up into the yard and dump the dirt there.

Well, the dirt dude shows up this morning (wearing khaki pants and a white shirt, which I thought was a strange outfit in which to deliver dirt) and says he can't get his truck in our yard that way and he's going to have to dump it somewhere else. I can tell this is NOT going to be good, but agree to let him dump it in the driveway, and I know my husband is not going to be happy because dirt indeed goes in a yard, not a driveway.

So, yeah. He's not happy. And I'm looking at the dirt thinking, "How hard can it be to move some dirt?"

Well, three hours later I have my answer.

Dirt is heavy, by the way.

Two shovels, a hoe, a wheel barrow, my 13-year-old son and my friend, Rachel, and I got all of that dirt into the yard and, though I know my arms and back will probably be aching tomorrow, I'm pretty proud of us. It was a lot of dirt and a lot of work but it's done and my husband was pleasantly surprised when I told him.

So that's what I did today. I moved a big pile of dirt. I could probably create some wonderful analogy of how that pile of dirt is like our lives and how we can overcome just one shovelful at a time....

... but I'm too tired!

Happiness is...

All of the beautiful, colorful things growing in my yard right now!!

Hey! I'm blogging again...

Wow.

I kind of missed the whole month of April, huh.

For those of you who have still been checking in and seeing the SAME DARN POSTS -- sorry.

I recently contacted a friend on myspace to ask him how he was doing and his respose was as follows:

Life is pretty good right now. I feel this tendency to say life is busy, but that's not it. Life is full. Which is a good thing. It's not overly exciting, but it's purposeful.

I decided that I really like that response. It sums up very well how I feel about our life lately. Things have been so busy that I feel like someone hit me on the head on New Years Day and I just now woke up and discovered that it's May! When did time get to galloping along so fast?

In the past month, we've celebrated Easter, dyed hard-boiled eggs and discovered our yard is perfect for an easter egg hunt, enjoyed a trip to Ohio to see family and friends over spring break, mourned the senseless death of 32 innocent people in the Virginia Tech shootings, lead worship twice at Emmanuel Christian Fellowship in York, PA, took on three new students, did four scrapbook pages, made another trip to Ohio (this time just me :-) for a Women of Faith conference and to see family and friends, met some great new friends, got the boys' 3rd quarter report cards and celebrated my husband's 38th birthday (he's old! hee hee).

No excuse not to blog, mind you, but busy all the same.

So I've got pictures and stories to share, but not tonight. I will leave you with a thought, though (and will get back to my Happiness is... Fridays tomorrow).

I flew out of BWI airport a week ago today. It was an overcast day. The half-filled plane took off in a fairly smooth manner and I began to settle into my window seat and enjoy the flight. I was tired, having gotten only about four and a half hours of sleep the night before in my preparation for leaving my boys for four days.

I must tell you that I'm the type of person whose mood is affected by the weather. On sunny days, I tend to be more productive and just in a beter mood overall. When it is rainy or overcast, I would be better off just going back to bed!

It wasn't raining, but the sky was gray. As the plane rose higher, I watched the houses, roads and cars get smaller. Soon, we were in the middle of a cloud, surrounded by it's white/gray fuzz. I got bored and considered closing my eyes and trying to get some sleep (not that I ever sleep well in airplanes).

Then, all of the sudden, it was sunny. As much as I hate to admit my stupidity, my first thought was, "I thought today was supposed to be overcast," but then I realized the sun was shining because we were over the clouds now. The day, or every day for that matter, was already sunny -- just covered by clouds.

My thought quickly turned to my life and some things I've walked through in the past few years. On my "cloudiest" days -- layers of grieving for my son, staying silent when lies were being told about me and my husband, even the intense pain of a kidney stone -- the sun was always shining. It just didn't feel sunny.

The thought literally brought tears to my eyes. I was brought to a realization that God is always there. I know that sounds really simple, but I think I forget that sometimes. It's so easy to focus on the fact that the sun isn't shining and forget that God is just on the other side of the clouds.

I hope you wake up and see the sun tomorrow -- whether it's behind the clouds or not!

(and thanks for sticking in there during my absence!)