Big Ol Texas Wedding

I'm finally blogging after getting home last wednesday! I don't know where to start, do people really want me to recap the whole trip to Tom and Mara's wedding? I guess I'll type and see where this all goes. :) The wedding was Sept 7th. We set out on Thursday driving to Chicago, it rained on us steady the WHOLE way. :) And it was chilly, like jacket and jeans chilly. We got to our hotel near the midway airport and ate an early supper. We then decided to go swimming, the fairfield's pool was under construction so we went across to the courtyard. And let me say, the walk back across the street was Cold in my suit, wet in the rain to boot... The kids would not settle down to sleep till we came to bed at 10 and we had to seperate them because they kept poking at each other and giggling. :) The kids slept good through the night, and I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't go back to sleep knowing I had to get up at 5 am anyway. Our flight left at 8:05am and we had to be at the airport by 6:30. We fly non revenue thanks to some buddy passes from my cousin who flys for southwest so we fly on the space left over and plan our flights according the loads. Checked bags are not garaunteed so we fit everything into our carryon's and that's quite a task with the rules now days, but we are thankful, we did check a carseat base for Isabelle, that did get to Austin with our flight but we did get it back before our flight home, go figure, but I'm not complaining that's forsure!! Anyway so if you can picture us going through the airport and security....4 suitcases, a dvd player, my huge purse, 2 backpacks and Mitch carrying Christian's carseat on his back in a carrier....Anyway, amidst all the navigation with that load in tow, the flight was wide open, and the kids did really great on the 2.5 hr flight. They did well on the ride backtoo and we discovered that Isabelle could not only carry her backpack on her back but also pull one of the suitcases...

grrr I just realized this didn't autosave my whole commentary on the wedding.... I HATE dialup. I may just need to do something about this internet situation....

so the wedding, beautiful venue, Mara looked like a model in her chic dress. Isabelle did great as a flower girl! Walked all the way by herself and tried to keep dropping petals once she got up to me and didn't want to stop. Cried a lot at this wedding, ahh sweet love. :) So great to see everyone! Love and miss my family so much!! Extended included, I was so thankful for this fun time to see everyone. It was great meeting Mara's family too!

I've been in the long tedious process of uploading pics on facebook+dialup= no picnic. I have to be here babysitting it, only doing a few pics at a time so as to not get logged off, ridiculous. So if you check back you may see pics you didn't see before, if you have that kind of time. :) Take care all and I will write more later and keep working on the pics.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41221&l=1dbb3&id=520472082

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41885&l=be41c&id=520472082

2 albums

Click The Pic

2 Weeks

I can't believe I haven't blogged for 2 weeks, and with all my talking... :) This is pretty much just a post for the sake of posting.
It's been busy... Mitch has been working lots of overtime... 57 hrs the other week... hmm maybe that had something to do with the lack of blogging...
Life is just busy lately, I'm still getting ready for our TX trip. There are so many little details to remember and bring. We leave the Thursday after Labor Day for Chicago and fly out Friday am!! I am SO excited to see my family and see my brother get married. I've been waiting for this day for a LONG time!! :)
This weekend we went to have a 30th anniversary supper with Mitch's folks, I'll get pictures up of that eventually.
More Christian one liners: When asked to say Kongable, he says Konbagel. He's been calling Isabelle, Isabelle instead of Izzy lately. And today as I had to take him back for yet another spanking for getting out of bed and going to Isabelle's room to play with her jewelry, he said " goodbye necklace... goodbye"
I'll just end there.

Sweet Corn Festival

Here are some pics from this weekend. The weather was beautiful and we took the kids to the sweet corn festival. Christian got to see a life size version of the kind of cars he plays with. He adores all vehicles, especially race cars. The sky looked threatening at one point and we thought we better leave, we got in the van and checked the radio, no warnings... other people were going in and we even saw some people come out of their house and start walking over the festival. I thought surely they would've checked the radar to know it must be ok to go. So we went back with an umbrella just in case. The the rains came, heavy rain blowing you. So there we were almost back to the festival, huddled under a tree, under the umbrella, getting soaked and muddy. ( there was no lightening by the way) Mitch then ran to the van in the rain and came and got us, he said we looked pretty funny under that tree.... so we went back sunday to let the kids use the rest of the tickets, the weather was even more awesome sunday!

More encouraging words from the book Loving God With All Your Mind...

Knowing God and His promise in Romans 8:28 also eliminates the need for to us to manipulate circumstances. ( I can tend to do this!! I think God needs my help for some reason) Taking matters into our own hands...is evidence of our lack of trust in God. We can have something of a hands- off approach to life when we are trusting in the truth of Romans 8:28, the promise that God causes all things to work together for the good. After all, God is the Author of life. - Liz George

If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances. -D.L. Moody

Operation Pottytrain Status : ABORTED

That's it, I gave up, for now on pottytraining little man. I feel that since he is enraged at his potty, I need to work on his many temper tantrums right now instead. I'm DONE. I will close my ears and eyes when I hear of younger children pottytraining and just except that is where God has my child at this time. I can only force my structure on him to a certain extent. So I can ruin my life now... or just wait till he's ready. Which trust me better be before 3, but I can give him 2 and half at least right?
I'm now reading Loving God With All Your Mind right and I found a few things encouraging that I will share with you. Gensis 41:52 " God has made me fruitfull in the land of my affliction" Now orginally I thought that this verse would be encouraging to Mitch since his job can really take it out of him, mentally and physcially. But today my kids are afflicting me!! Ok so it's minor, I'm not living in cancer but I can't even seem to be fruitful in these things today. I got ENRAGED when Christian dumped a whole bag of goldfish out, he knows not to do this, and he threw a fit and said no when I told him to clean it up, and this was before breakfast... then Isabelle gets gum on the carpet....AAAHHHHHHh I was ticked, and I don't think pmsing helps either. I'm so ashamed at myself for not controlling my anger. I had to apologize to the kids for the cracker incident to which ISabelle says with a hug, " I forgive you Mommy" and Christian hugs me and says " I love you Mommy" you'd think I would've learned my lesson but I lost it again over the gum incident, I am down here trying to do bills, balance the checkbook, see how bad the budget looks, Christian's throwing a fit upstairs not wanting to take a nap. Isabelle comes over, " Mommy, I got gum on the carpet... forgive me..." I was still ticked....humbled by my own sin, ain't it grand... the Christian walk is a such a stumbling journey. God will break you if you're not broken already I am finding out. When I'm broken, I walk in a more careful manner, talk etc; more sensitive to Lord and His Word etc; when I have it together, I just go stomping, ranting and raving, till I fall on my face and get back where I should be again....
ok so now my other quote from the book, she quotes a pastor

see God as the God of the Bible-supreme, sovereign, and sensitive....The Christian life is kept fine-tuned by biblical theology. We should always interpret experience by truth-we should always filter every pain through the lens of deity. When God is in sharp focus, then life is also undistorted.

Talking So Much, Potty Training SO Little

While I'm thinking I thought I should blog Christian's latest cute sayings... while he says funny things all the time, he really does NOT want to potty train. I've been having him sit on the potty every night before his bath that's how Isabelle started out and also when Christian had his 2 and only potties EVER. I guess I should be glad for at least two. Anyway I've tried everything, got cool Thomas Train undies, I told him I'd buy him a new hotwheels, give him marshmellows, be really happy, sad if he didn't. Begged. please Christian, he says, I don't want to, can I get down now? He got m right up this morning when I heard him say, I need to go potty. He sat on the potty and Isabelle got up and needed to go to which he said while sitting there It's my turn now, Izzy. He didn't go after like 5 minutes of sitting, oh yeah we even sing songs while on the potty, look at toys and books to no avail, oh well...I think put him a (girl left over from Isabelle) pullup, he went a few minutes later... so I don't know I give up for now except for the sitting before tub part.

Other things he says that I'm recalling, he likes to go around saying this word Jumba J! I ask him what does jumba j mean??? Ina know what it is..." but it's funny anyhow.

This morning, he gave Isabelle a big hug to which Isabelle got annoyed because she said it was making her fall over. I told her that wasn't very kind to her brother trying to hug her. And Christian says I love you, Izzy. So sweet!!

And while Christian seems to be the funny man around here, the other day Isabelle did make me laugh ( I had the news on) and she comes into the kitchen saying with a big smile like she thought she was funny Barak Obama,Barak Obama. You know you're watching too much politics on tv when your 4 year old pics that up and we don't even have cable!

Our Big Fat Wedding Weekend

We are back from Trevor and Alexa's wedding. The weekend started off with us leaving at 4:30 on Friday and we got back home at about 8:45 pm Sunday night. It was a nice wedding, we are so happy for Trevor and Alexa, she is such a sweet girl and we are happy she is in our family now! Mitch's cousins Lauren and Evan were back in Iowa, along with Shelly, Evan's girlfriend, she is a such a sweetheart. They all were really nice help with kids since Mitch and Linda were out of commission for large chunks of time.

In other big news, on Sunday they also were shooting clay birds and I shot a gun for the first time in my life... it's hard, hard to stand right, hold the gun up, let a lone right, aim right. I asked for the a lightweight version and I guess that's what I already had that was fatigueing my forearms. It was so humid out and I thought let's just get this over with, so I shot, I missed, what a shock. I tried one more time, Randy said, you have to think you're going to hit it or you're not going to. Ha real funny. I'm just all sticky holding up a gun with trembling forearms. So he threw the clay disk and Audrey shoots, and HITS it! And not just a knick, it actually went into pieces, I was so proud of myself being the weenie girlie girl that I am that I tried it and I hit it. Randy asked if I wanted to do it again and I said, no thanks, better stop while I'm ahead... :) Plus my arms couldn't take much more of holding the 20 gauge shotgun that's supposed to be light.

And for the Christian's funny words segment of the post...

He wakes up at 6:30 am last week, and I'm not getting up that early, sorry, so I tell him to go back to sleep or be quiet and play in his room, (he's gated in and yes he can climb it but he usually wipes out on the other side which is a detourent) So he's whining at the gate .... Can I get up now? I need Daddy... I need Izzy... I pooped... I'm stinky.. so I go into check and he's laying by the gate and says I need some friends....and by the way he wasn't poopy. Anothert thing he says that makes me laugh is when he's mad in a "tone" I'm not gonna PLAY! huh!

That's all from me for now!