Short Story

Luke had been sitting behind the couch silently for a little over five minutes.

me: "What are you doing, Luke?"
Luke (in an oddly muffled voice): "I have a pacifier!"

Treasure! Fortunately for us, Luke doesn't have a problem relinquishing these. But he will certainly sit quietly with it in his mouth until we discover it. Hilarious. I also love that he has absolutely no guile. Ask a question. Get an honest answer. Gotta love that.

A Reminder

This has been a long week. There have been moments when I thought, "This isn't what I signed up for." As I was putting Paul to bed tonight, holding this beautiful child in my arms, I was reminded of something. I didn't sign up for this. I prayed fervently for it. I asked God to grant me the desire of my heart - to be a mom. There was a time when we were told that I should never have my own children because of the medications I was taking for my epilepsy. God gave us two healthy pregnancies and two healthy births. We are blessed.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

This is a passage that I have marked in my Bible with the words, "2/13/06 When God provides Erik's dream job." But it strikes me as very applicable to becoming a mom as well. I need to not forget that the Lord has given these boys to us and even though there are really hard times, I can be thankful. I am thankful. Here are the pics. :-)

Future cubicle buddies? I love play dates.

Homage to Bryan Tingkang, former 9th grade student who made this mask as part of my coursework. Remember the scene in Romeo & Juliet where they crash the party in masks? My class made masks for that day's reading. Cool mask, eh? I was pregnant with Luke and just told Bryan he couldn't have it back. Thanks, Bryan!

I love this shot because it's Baby Paul watching his brother, trying to figure that guy out.

Mostly Pics

I am beat today. My house is a mess. My kids won't nap and I just want to take the night off. No such luck, but here are some cute pictures from the past few days.

Paul at the piano. He loves to play.

Luke at the cabin wearing Grandpa's hat. So happy.

Adriana, my English student and friend, helping Baby Paul ride Thomas. He was thrilled.

Thunderstorm and Other Excitement

It has been a pretty exciting day here in Sunriver. Mommy escaped early to shop the outlet stores without the kids. There were great sales and Mommy had a fabulous time. :-) She even found a cute skirt that fit best in a size 8. (!) She justified buying it because she got 20% off and it will look adorable at the family reunion in a few weeks.
Meanwhile back at the house, Daddy and Mark spent Paul's nap time playing Super Mario Galaxy with Luke watching. This is the one where Mario sometimes becomes a bumblebee. It is very popular with the toddler. When Paul woke up, the men went for a very slow and methodical walk which involved Luke on the tricycle and Paul in the stroller. I have no pictures, but I think it was probably a sight to see.
Mommy arrived home for lunch and afternoon nap time. The boys woke up just in time for the beginning of the thunderstorm. Both are doing great with the loud, crashing thunder and the hail. Paul did make a beeline for Daddy the minute the loudness started, but he has adjusted and is now sitting amiably in his saucer.

Last night after dinner Daddy was wrestling with the boys when Luke decided to hide under the throw rug. The look on Erik's face really says it all.

Luke and Mark talking about pedals on the deck together. Mark is a pretty amazing cyclist, by my standards at least. He biked up 9000 feet to Paradise on Mount Rainier. I would say he's qualified to help Luke figure out his pedals. :-)

Mommy and Paul being happy.

Luke checking out the hail. Yes, that is hail, not snow. Pretty amazing.

The Real Deal

Paul is crawling for real now. I should explain that for the last six weeks he has been dragging himself around using mostly just arm power. Impressive, but not as well-coordinated as his more recent efforts. Here is video of him shot this morning. We are in Sunriver at the cabin, hence the change in scenery. It ends rather abruptly because he heads toward the stuff he's not supposed to touch. Hilarious.




Luke spent the morning longing to play on the deck, so I finally suited him and turned him loose. He only spent about fifteen minutes out there. The rain has been pretty significant all morning. He came in to eat some warm soup, telling me that he felt "all freezy." Hopefully the soup helped!

Firefighter Luke getting wet.

This fabulous trike was on the deck. It took Luke about five minutes to notice it, but once he did, we dried off the seat and he spent the rest of his time on it. He hasn't quite figured out the pedals yet, but give him a day or two. :-)

Field Trip Bonanza

Two weeks ago Paul visited the zoo while I was at BSF Leadership and Luke was hanging out with Grandma at the Children's Museum. I just got the zoo pictures from "Mrs. Becky", my fabulous friend who has watched Paul on Tuesdays. Here are a few of the shots. I guess Paul was just a perfect baby the entire time. No surprise to me. :-)
I'm also including shots of Luke's field trip to the Children's Museum. Fun stuff!

First trip to the zoo!

Becky told me they took this picture at the very end of the trip. Every one else is fussy and unhappy. Baby Paul - you are the happiest boy!

Luke enjoyed his field trip as well. These two shots are so adorable.

Redirection

If you haven't already visited the blog entitled Jessica Kaylor's Journey With Cancer, today is the day. The link is to the down and to the right. I love this woman, not just because she is my husband's cousin, but because she shines the light of Jesus Christ in the darkest places. Her joy is not subject to her circumstances. It is rooted in the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done and continues to do. Her testimony is the subject of her latest post and it is beautiful. Click and enjoy.

Luke Cuts It

This evening while we were "golfing" in the living room, a process which involves a plush baseball and a variety of implements for hitting (I was using a Color Wonder Crayola Marker myself), Luke made a funny comment. Each time he hit the ball he would say, "I just kinda cut it." I finally asked him, "Do you mean you sliced it?" He said, "Yep. Grown-ups slice it sometimes." I'm pretty sure he picked this up watching Daddy play golf on the Wii. Poor Daddy.

In other extreme cuteness, Luke wanted Paul in the living room with him tonight for post-dinner, pre-bedtime play. Paul sat in his saucer and Luke read him one of his favorite books, a literary masterpiece entitled, Pooh and You. A small Pooh puppet is attached which I think is why Paul loves it so much. Here are the adorable pics. Enjoy.

Hello World

I'm just trying out the process of posting from the widget on my new MacBook.  If you don't know what a widget is, I feel sad for you.  Just kidding.  A week ago I didn't know what a widget was either.  That's a lot of "W"s in one sentence.  It's too late to write more.  I'll do a "real" post tomorrow.  :-)

Ten Months Today!

Paul turned ten months old today.  That is just incredible to me.  His milestones thus far include hand clapping, nose identifying and to a stand pulling.  Pretty sure that's bad grammar, but it kept them in a series.  I actually managed to catch the last one with the camera today.  He did it first on the couch.  I missed that one.  Then he did it on Daddy's work boxes by the front door.  That one I caught.  The pictures are below.

It has been such a long week here.  Erik has been away on business for three days now.  One more to go.  Three cheers for friends Becky and Holly who saved the lives of my children today.  If I hadn't left this house we might all have made the 5 o'clock news and not in a good way.  Do you know a single mom?  Help her escape from her house.  Kidnap her and take her for coffee.  Invite her for pizza and help her put her screaming toddler in the car, even though your neighbors are looking out their windows at you.  Whatever you do for the least of these you have done for Him.  He said so.  Matthew 25.  The sheep and the goats.  Check it out.

Here are the pics.

I almost didn't get this shot.  The other attempts involve him doing his best to take a dive over the arm of the chair.  No injuries were sustained during the taking of this picture.

One of the few things Luke and Jorge are willing to share.  Luke spontaneously said, "MIO!" today while they were fighting over a toy.  That's Spanish for, MINE!  I had to ask Adriana, my English student, what Luke had said.  Who taught him that?

Right after this shot was taken Paul proceeded to climb up on the lower box headed for the taller one.  I wasn't ready for that one.  Watch out world.

So Very Fun

There are many fun things I could tell you about this evening, but I think the most exciting is that I'm typing at your from my new MacBook.  AAAHHH!  It is sleek and super neato.  Three cheers for stimulating the economy.  I especially enjoy supporting a cool company like Apple.  Everything they make is beautiful and functional.  I sound like a commercial, but I can't help myself.  They also aren't prone to being attacked by viruses.  That is a big hint about why a new laptop was needed, not just desired.  Sheesh.

Other super fun news:  My neighbor came for her first English lesson today!  We had missed each other numerous times and I was so excited to see her smiling face today.  Her two kids played with my two kids while we had our first lesson.  It was so much fun and I can hardly wait for next Wednesday afternoon.

Last bit of fun, albeit bittersweet, news:  Today was Luke's final BSF for the year.  He learned about the resurrection of Jesus and told the story to a friend of mine as we were leaving the building.  That's definitely cooler than the computer.  :-)

Here are the pictures, taken Sunday evening as Luke helped Daddy and Grandpa put together our new pantry.  Enjoy!

After this experience, Luke asked me if Daddy was Bob, the Builder.  So cute!

Today's Story

Today was Luke's second to the last day of BSF for the year. That went so fast. Each Wednesday when I pick Luke up from his class, we walk back through the sanctuary to get to the parking lot. On our way we usually stop and talk with my teaching leader, Kathy, who always asks Luke what he learned in the story that day. Her own daughter, now a law student at Stanford, went through BSF beginning at the age of two. Today's story was about Jesus' crucifixion, death and burial. I seriously had no idea what Luke was going to say. This is how it went:
Kathy: "Luke, what was today's story about?"
Luke: "It was about sin." (I just about fell over when he said that.)
Kathy: "Yes, it was. Did Jesus hang on the cross to pay for all our sin?"
Luke: "Yeah. And then they put him in a cave and put a big rock right over the hole."

The interaction ended there, but later on at home when we prayed over lunch, I expressed my gratitude to Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins. Luke, who usually pipes in with "Protect everyone," changed his prayer to "Thank you, Jesus."

In other news, my sister has inspired me to include more video on the blog. I shot this of Paul this afternoon. The quality isn't the greatest, but I love the way he moves things around and is interested in the little details.

Park Play

We had a fun surprise this morning. A friend from BSF called and invited us to a park play date. This is especially delightful because Mondays are typically a long, tedious day for me. We drove to a new park and enjoyed the swings and the big toy. This was the first time Luke played on the big toy all by himself. I didn't actually get any pictures of that because at that point Baby Paul was eating. It was a great time. :-)
At this moment Paul is crying in his crib and Luke is yelling in his. So much for good naps after time spent outside. Maybe next time!

Luke is saying, "I just think this is a horse." Yep.

I'm said this picture isn't well centered and that I cut off Paul's cutie curly hair. But it's still cute.

Fun and Crazy

Rarely do I take the opportunity to update you all on my personal endeavors, partially because they aren't many in number. Today, however, I will take a moment to celebrate with you the upcoming completion of my thesis. Back in August 2004 I completed all of the coursework for my Masters in Education. The final submission of my thesis paper was all that remained before the degree could actually be conferred. Through a series of somewhat trivial events, that paper, although entirely completed, was never submitted. The entire tale would be too boring to relate, but it involved a great deal of bureaucracy and tedium. I gave up. The finished thesis sat lonely on my thumb drive, ignored and shunned.
It came to mind a few months ago as I was realizing that my last group of ninth grade students are graduating from high school this June. It was pleasant for me to think back on them and all the others with whom I learned during my six years in public education. It was unpleasant to think that I had left something unfinished that concerned one of them. My thesis is a case study written on the experience I had while working closely with a recovering teenage drug addict. My primary question of inquiry was how can the classroom teacher help the recovering teenage drug addict succeed academically. I knew it was time to pull out the thumb drive.
My in-laws took the boys for an afternoon while I printed out the single longest piece of writing I have ever done. I mailed it off to PLU to be approved by the APA Guideline Girl. This is not her official title, but it's the one I like to use. It was a rather interesting two weeks waiting for its return. I kept thinking, "She's probably going to send it back and tell me to forget it." This did not happen. Instead it arrived yesterday with relatively few red marks and a bunch of paperwork regarding publication rights and the Library of Congress. Wow. I was pretty stinkin' excited. The next step is the "fancy" paper print, followed by important signatures and then a binding. Like a book. By me. That's fun and crazy.

Another Short Post

Baby is waking up. Toddler's movie is almost over. I still need to shower. T.M.I. Pictures are from this morning. Enjoy. :-)

Happy in the playroom while Luke sleeps in a bit. VERY rare.

This book is very interesting to Paul. It has little "windows" that slide open and shut.

At breakfast, Luke just had to feed Paul.

Too cute.

For Oma

The Oma is missing her boys. Who can blame her? Here are a few shots from the past week to satiate her and the rest of the fans.


Paul has found a new use for his saucer. It is a great place to sit. We only do this when Luke is asleep because it's not something we want him to take apart while Paul is using it the other way.

We had some nice weather and Luke got to spend some time outside "working" in the yard. Both he and the trucks needed a bath afterward. :-)