My kids...my blessings.

During this time of Thanksgiving and Advent, I think a lot about my family, my blessings, my gifts. I want to take this time to give you a bit of an update about my children, my biggest blessings.

Abbigail My Abbigail is amazing. She surprises me. She is growing by leaps and bounds. Yes, she is growing a bit taller, but not nearly as tall as she would like. The jeans that I hemmed at the beginning of the school year are starting to look a bit short on her. So, yes, she is growing. However, the growth I am talking about is more intellectual. My little girl has always been "smart." She has always seemed inquisitive, curious, and knowledgeable about so many things! She was reading at a 3rd grade level at the end of kindergarden. She is now in the fourth grade and reading at over a 7th grade level. She has read so many books in her school library that they are now bringing books from the middle school for her to read. She loves reading so much! She is always asking questions that I haven't even thought to ask. One of her Christmas gifts (DON'T TELL HER IF YOU SEE HER!!!) is a set of books called "100 things you should know about..." there are many books in the series such as "the Earth" "the Human body" "weather" etc...). We recently met with her teachers, the school principal, and a school resourse specialest to come up with strategies to help her be more challenged in her classroom. She does work rather slowly, but she gets it right! Abbigail is always singing a song or reading a book...and sometimes both. She is in a special after-school choir. She loves to go to dance class and art class. She is a busy girl!

AndrewMy little man. Oh how I love him! Andrew has recently turned 8 years old. I can't believe he is THAT old! I love him so much, but he can infuriate me like no other! He can be so sweet and kind. He can be be selfish and demanding...how can he be both in the same minute? I don't quite know! He is also growing like a weed!!! He put on some pants this morning for church that fit perfectly fine less than a month ago, this morning they are WAY short on him! These pants now look like they are almost capris! Seriously, a month ago they fit fine, and now they are about 2-3 inches short! No wonder this kid is ALWAYS hungry! He is also a very smart cookie! He scored THE highest of all second graders on some standardised testing. WOW! We are wondering where these kids got their brains and Hubby and I have deduced that we didn't use ours, so we just gave them strait to our kids! Andrew has started taking gymnastics this year. Somethign that surprised his dad and me! He loves it! It is an all-boy class. He enjoys his boy scouts, and wrestling will start this week. He's a busy kid as well!

Bethany

My "Little Bit." What a sweet heart she has. She is still my baby and loves to snuggle as much as possible. She would sleep in my bed every night if I let her! She is still my baby, but she is growing up so quickly as well. She says she is too old for princesses and "baby stuff." But she goes over to play with the neighbor girl who is 2...she says she HAS to play princesses with "H" because that's what she likes to play! I think it is just an excuse to play with the "little" stuff since she still likes it, too! She takes after her brother a bit in the "temper" department. She is so sweet and loving, but if you ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, watch out!! She is doing well in school, just like her siblings. She is scoring as if she was at the end of Kindergarden instead of the beginning! She decided to take gymnastics this year instead of dance classes. She has fun running and tumbling. She is now a "Daisy" scout and enjoys making the crafts and having fun. She is a little social butterfly. Love my Little Bit!
My husband is one of my biggest blessings. He is so wonderful to us. He likes spending time with us and makes sure we are never in need. He works so hard for God and our congregation. He is always there when people need him. He is such a wonderful pastor, father, friend, and husband. I love him SO!
God is good. He is so kind and generous to have blessed me so richly!

CRAZY weekend!

Abbigail is better...for the most part. I don't believe she had the tummy flu or anything, I think she just got worked up playing at McDonal*s play pl*ce and started coughing. She was pretty congested and I think she gagged on her mucus...sorry, TMI!! She was feeling better on Saturday, so we had tons of work to do!
The preschool where I teach has a scholarship program. We want to be able to let all children in our community have a preschool education, no matter of their financial status. We do fund raisers throughout the year to help fund our scholarship program. This year nearly 1/3 of our children are attending with the benefit of a scholarship! We are so blessed by our community support to assist in this program...one of the fund raisers we do is selling pizza pockets. Not the frozen kind....fresh baked, homemade, YUMMY! So, yesterday, the preschool board, teachers, and a bunch of the moms got togther and made 200 dozen pizza pockets! Yes, 200 DOZEN!! Some of us measured out the dry ingredients on Friday morning...and then the lady at the donut shop allowed us to mix the bread dough in her BIG mixers! Starting at 6:00 Saturday morning, we worked nonstop until 6:00 pm...LONG day, but fun! I didn't actually get there until around 8:30 because I wasn't sure how Abbie was going to be...but she was fine. Unfortuantly all of my babysitters were busy, so I knew my kids would have to come with me and send the day there! We took games, movies, and then of course, all the toys at preschool to keep them busy. Considering how long we were there, they were excillent! Bethany came in and said "Andrew is being mean!" a few times, but they didn't fight all day, complain about being bored, and they didn't run amock around the methodist church! I was/am proud of them. Today, my feet are sore from standing all day, my shoulders and back are sore from rolling out the dough all day...but I did claim one of the "easy" jobs...I was the "scooper." My job was to scoop the filling onto the big pieces of dough and then someone would come along and cut the dough and fold it into a pocket. Quite an assembly line we had going! We had wonderful women working all day...which was the only thing that made such a long day bearable!!!
Last night when we got home, I just collapsed! SO TIRED!
Bethany is going to a birthday party this afternoon...a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party...she gets to be all gussied up in a FANCY dress. She is SO excied! I will try to take pictures of the fancy girls and post them soon!
Did I mention earlier that my brother-in-law, Nick, got to leave Iraq this week? His tour of service is over!!! He is currently in Hawaii for debriefing or something like that. I actally chatted with his wife this morning, and she is in Hawaii with him right now. What a blessing that he is safe, and they get to spend some time together again!!!
See...three posts in a week! A bit better!!! BTW, Mom and Dad...you wanted me to blog, where are the comments??? ;o)

Presenting...

Allison Kaia

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Mom and Dad's Anniversary Party

Despite the sadness I still feel, we had a great time this evening celebrating 40 years of marriage for my parents. They rented a building (Thank GOODNESS for air conditioning! It was over 100 degrees!!) and we had lots of good food and fun with so many people! Nearly all of my Wichita family was there. There were only two cousins who were missing, and my two aunts (Marilyn, I hope your elbow is healing and not tooo painful. Patty, you should have skipped your camping trip, it's too hot out there anyway! ;o)) and their husbands. One cousin had a good excuse, she had a baby this morning! (Congratulations Kym and Jesse, I can't wait to see pictures of Layne!) The other one, I'm not sure where he was...but anyway, it was wonderful to see everyone else. Lots of Mom and Dad's friends came to show their love and support. I tried to get a good picture of Mom and Dad, but he couldn't stop talking long enough to smile!

One of my cousins who I haven't seen in probably at least 3 years was there, but it felt like we had just seen each other last week. She has a blog, and it's been so wonderful to keep up on each other's lives even though we don't see each other or even talk on the phone...it was SOOO good to see you Loni! Let's not let another 3 years go by!! I want to see that little girl in your tummy when she's still a baby! :o)

As we were chatting with my cousins, we realized that all of us girl cousins were there (except Kym, but we figured we would let it slide) so we wanted a picture. As we got all together, Loni and I started looking around. So, why are 4 of them so tall and blond, and then there are Loni and I, not so tall and absolutely NOT blond? Well...looking at the picture, some of the blonds are more blond than others! :o) Go figure...Oh, well...we'll love them anyway, won't we??!! :o) The tall blond with short hair directly behind me just found out that she is expecting her second child in the spring, Loni is expecting her 3rd little girl in November, and Kym had a baby today...The family just keeps growing and growing! My grandparents have 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grands (with two more coming soon!).

There was this fun heart/love confetti on the tables, and the kids (ok, Dad {MY DAD} started it) would lick the confetti and stick it to their faces. They kept telling us that they were their tattoos! How funny!

Here is Bethany with her two youngest cousins...they just LOVE being together! They have SO much fun! (Oh, look, now Dad is smiling!)

I just wanted to put a few of these pictures up so everyone can see my awesome family.

ND Pictures

Here are the long awaited pictures from our trip to North Dakota...at least a few of them.

The cutie with the curly hair is my niece, Addison...isn't she just about the cutest thing you've ever seen??? And just ask her any question and she shakes her head "NO!"...it's so adorable! The only question she doesn't answer "NO" to is "Do you want a raspberry?" She'll come running from the other end of the house to answer this question with a mouth open wide! Again, I say...ADORABLE!

Here the kids are waiting for the 4th of July parade to begin...and the raining of candy, which of course is the best part of ANY parade! The boy in the chair behind the kids on the curb is my oldest nephew, Hunter (he's too old for chasing after candy...yea right!)...and his younger brother, Braden, is sitting next to Andrew (Braden is 8 months older than Andrew...they are the best of friends!). Addison is their baby sister.Here Bethany is a bit saddened because she didn't get one of the candies thrown out from a float, the other kids are much quicker than she...but they all shared in the end! (WAY too much candy anyway!) What would the 4th of July be without sparklers and fireworks? My new camera has a cool "fireworks" setting! Very neat. Got some cool shots of the kids with their sparklers and the fireworks. We had 8 children, and 4 "grown" men who shot of literally hundreds of dollars in fireworks...WHEW! Can you say NERVOUS! I am always so worried that someone will get hurt. Then when one of the guys lit a roman candle, and put it in the pipe (stuck in the ground to hold such an item!) UPSIDE DOWN! (it was an accident, he thought that was the right way!) It flew out on the first round and then shot it's fireballs right where all the children were...THANK GOD no one got hit! We all were pretty freaked out, but all went well from then on. Bethany did back into Abbigail's sparkler, but only got a tiny red mark on her shoulder, but I think it scared her more than anything.

While we were in ND, the church where hubby grew up celebrated their 125th anniversary! We had picnics, horse carriage rides, games, a balloon release, and lots of other fun stuff. Here are a few pictures from that! It's literally a little country church, dirt roads and all! This is what the church looks like from the back of the horse carriage.

Here is a very rare picture of my mother-in-law. I think this may be only the third or fourth picture of her that I have, not including wedding pics. She doesn't know I took it! ;o) She did a lot of the work for the anniversary festivities.

These other cuties are my other niece and nephew (Bailey & Maddox). Their dad is in Iraq serving in the army...actually he should be HOME right now for his 2 weeks of R&R. Originally we thought he would be home over the 4th, so we would be able to see him, but the army postponed his leave for a few weeks, so it didn't work out. Prayers for his continued safety are very much appreciated!

OKOKOK...so there are more than a few, but hey, it's MY blog! Besides, they are cute kiddos, what are ya gonna do? :o)

We're in the south (ok, center) again!

We made it home last night around 11:00 pm. We're EXHAUSTED! We had lots of fun, took lots of pictures, and had lots of fun (did I say that twice?? :o))

To answer one question from the comments in the last post, yes, there is Internet UP there in the NORTH country, and my brother-in-law actually has high-speed now, last year it was dial-up (I DO NOT have the patience for dial-up!)...but we were too busy chasing the 6 kiddos, shopping with my sis-in-law (LOTS of good clearance deals!) and just hanging out and having a good time to sit on my computer all day. I'll try to get the pictures off the camera and post them soon. I'm going to be a bit busy this week getting ready for VBS which starts on Sunday, but hopefully I'll have time to do the pictures this evening!

The trip home was much less eventful in the area of wild life (are bulls wild??), but it got interesting toward the end when my dear hubby started feeling sick. My niece had a bit of a tummy bug for a few days during our trip, but we all thought she was eating too much fruit (little fruit monster!) and teething...but apparently not. I ended up driving the ENTIRE way from North Dakota to Kansas! I have bragging rights now! Hubby hasn't ventured much out of the bedroom today, so back from a trip and he's already taking sick days! Poor guy!

More pictures...Wichita trip

Picture post #2...

The first week of June, we went to Wichita to visit my family. We had TONS of fun with cousins, and the rest of the family. At one time, the kids were running WILD (ok, MORE than one time!) and they were told to sit down and SLOW down for a while. Abbigail read them all a story...how SWEET! Don't they look ornery!My mom put water in their hot tub (they don't use it much anymore, so it was empty) so the kids could play in the "COOL TUB!" They had so much fun! My extended family came over to celebrate Abbigail's birthday. We had yummy cake and ice cream! We went to the zoo with my parents and my nieces and my sis-in-law.

Here, the girls are trying to wake up the gorilla by tickling his toes through the glass...He actually did wake up and move his leg...it startled the girls and they jumped back screaming, they almost fell of the bench they were standing on! SO FUNNY!

Here are all our monkey's watching the gorilla's play.

Missing out on family...

I live about 4 hours from most of my family. I have gotten pretty used to it, but some days it's very hard. This past week I've been missing my family a lot! Both being sick and missing out on "family stuff" made this week harder than most. I don't care how old you are, when you are sick, you just want your mom to take care of you. I was so weak and feeling so horribly, I would have given nearly anything to have my mom here just to take care of me. My hubby did an awesome job of taking care of the kids and getting them to and from their activities...he also stayed home with me nearly all day on Wed. I appreciated all he did, but there is just something about having your Mom around...
Also this week, my extended family gathered to celebrate my Grandma's 83rd birthday. Grandma and Grandpa live in a nursing home about 10 miles from their "old" home, and all their kids. Grandma is very proud to tell everyone who will listen that ALL their kids, grandkids, and great grans live right there in town, except Andie. EXCEPT ANDIE! Do you have any idea how much this breaks my heart? (Now, I know that this is the place that God has placed Hubby and I for this time in our lives. I know that, and I wouldn't want to move...but I just am missing my family right now....besides, they all live in a big city {yes, Kansas has a few big cities!} and I like living in my little town!) I miss all the family gatherings for birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc...I haven't seen some of my cousins in years. I've never met some of their children. I probably wouldn't recognize them if I passed them on the street. This makes me so sad. We were all so close growing up!
Ok, enough of the pitty party...my dad was kind enough to send me some pictures from G-ma's party. They all met for pizza and b-day cupcakes in a park not too far from the nursing home. SO, meet my family!

First of all...Grandma and Grandpa. If you look closely, the napkin in Grandpa's shirt says "Party Girl" Someone has a pretty funny sense of humor!Here is my cousin Kailey with her nephew Kaiden. Kailey is the youngest of the cousins, and Kaiden is the youngest great-gran...for a few more weeks.Here is my cousin, Loni, and her youngest daughter, Vanessa. Loni is one of my cousins that I have gotten to know again because of this blog! She has her own blog, and I feel like I know her more now than I have since we were little! Loni is expecting her third baby!Here is my mom with my two nieces, Ella (the blondie) and Ava (the brunette).Here is my brother and Grandma...give her a hug for me!
And finally a picture of my Grandma enjoying her new rocking chair. The sad thing is that the next day she called my dad and asked why she had so many chairs in her room...where did the new one come from and why was it in her room. She is suffering from Alzheimer's and didn't remember that her family had given it to her as a gift for her birthday since her old one was wearing out. Grandpa has had Parkinson's disease for almost as long as I can remember, and now grandma has so many problems with her memory. She tells the same story over and over, and asks the same questions repeatedly. I love them both so much, and it is just so hard to see the problems they have. I wish I could see them more often! I told one of my aunts to make sure she sang EXTRA LOUD and EXTRA OFF KEY so that Grandma and Grandpa would think I was there! :o) Love you all!

The future....

Do you ever wish you had a crystal ball? Do you ever wish God would whisper the secrets of tomorrow in your ear? Oh come on...I KNOW you do! Everyone does. What does the future hold? How will this situation turn out? I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about the future this week. I mentioned the desire to go back to teaching a few weeks ago in a post. Well...I might have that opportunity.
The local preschool has contacted me. Their director has decided that she would rather follow her heart and limit herself to teaching and not directing the preschool. The school would like to grow, and with the current director's qualifications, they aren't allowed to do this (state regulations, etc). The current director is a wonderful Christian lady, and awesome teacher! She knows that the program cannot grow with her in the lead, so she is stepping down and going to her first love, the children. The day that she announced to the board her decision, I received 2 phone calls from the board, and one from the current director. They wanted to know my background, education, experience, etc. The director and I have become friends over the two years my children have been in her class, and she wanted me to know she was recommending me to the board as her replacement.
Well...I have a meeting with the board tomorrow afternoon. They have not offered me a job, nor have I accepted. I have too many questions, but my mind is just swirling...even after knowing this information for 6 days.
Here are some of the things swirling in my brain...

1. I don't want to put Bethany in child care. My dad says it's no big deal...but this is one hurdle I keep coming back to. She will be in the 4 yo program, which will be 4 or 5 afternoons a week, so she would only need care in the morning. According to our state regulations, the director must be there all hours of operation...so I would have to be there mornings and afternoons (if they want me as director...maybe I'm jumping to conclusions here???) Is it fair to her to have her in child care when her brother and sister never had to do that?
   
2. Would I even get to teach? Would my time be filled with "director" duties? By the way, what are the director duties? Would I even have time to be able to teach one of the age groups??? Am I organized enough to keep everything strait that I would need?
   
3. The preschool is run by a church, a Christian church, but it is not our church. I am a certified Lutheran school teacher. That means that I took courses in college to certify me with our church body, I have a certain status with our church body. Since I have been a SAHM for the past (almost) 8 years, my status has been moved from active to inactive, but I am still on the roster. Would I have to give up my roster? If so, what would I need to do to get it back in the event we move somewhere with Lutheran schools? Would I be able to teach "Jesus time" to children in this preschool? I know you don't go deep into theology with 3 & 4 yo, but there is always a hint of theology no matter what Bible story you teach. Would I be allowed to teach what I believe?
   
4. Abbigail and Andrew are mainly concerned with who would take them and pick them up from school. I don't think this would be an issue (one of the current teachers has a daughter in elementary school, and I see her at drop off/pick up all the time).
5. There are the obvious questions about salary/benefits, but honestly they aren't very high on my list of concerns.

What a joy it would be to be back in the classroom again. I think if they were offering me just a teaching position that would simply be while Bethany was in another class...I would jump at it. Right now I cannot honestly say which way I will go if they offer me the directorship. I know my own fears and self-doubt are playing a large part in my hesitation.

I pray God gives me discernment to decide what is best for my family, the preschool, and me. I pray He calms my fears and gives me confidence. I pray He makes it clear which path I should take. I also pray that He will help to quiet my mind so I can get a decent night's rest...which I haven't been doing lately. I know it's already 12:35, and I'm still not in bed, so the good night's rest is already out of the question, but a decent one would be nice! ;o)

Well...I'm heading to bed for that rest now...I'll write another post tomorrow after the meeting, if I can form coherent sentences (I know, my sentences are rarely coherent, but I do my best!!! :o))

Life is crazy

Leave it to Kansas weather! Yesterday morning we had to cancel the "BIG" Christmas program practice because it was so icy that you couldn't even walk without falling on your fanny...by the afternoon it was 72 degrees...go figure! We rescheduled and had the practice this afternoon. We used a digital video camera to record some of the scenes (the ones with the kids in biblical costumes) so they don't have to wear costumes or remember all the lines on the night of the program. That night they will wear their "Christmas outfits" and sing songs and recite their other lines. The recording session went so well. They were all so cute!!

My favorite scene was when they all dressed up as angels (well, all but the two oldest boys!), so adorable!! Here they are singing "GLORIA"

Of course we had shepherds, wise men,(yes, Andrew is staning on a small chair!) and the funny pic of the 'not-so-perfect' angels, with their halos on crooked!! One picture was supposed to be of someone pretending to be a Sunday school teacher, and the students...we used a REAL Sunday school teacher and her students...she is the ULTIMATE SS teacher, she's a wonderful woman whom I appreciate so much!

Last night after our 70 degree day, Santa rode into town on a firetruck. Apparently Santa is a Chiefs fan!

Yesterday afternoon I rode with two of my aunts and a cousin to visit my great-aunt Louella. She was a wonderful woman, so classy. She had a fall on Tuesday and things just didn't look good. She wasn't able to communicate, but she kept humming parts of hymns. I tried to figure out which hymns she was humming and sang them for her (as much as I could). I even started singing some well loved Christmas songs...and she smiled. I almost cried. She kept reaching out and saying "It's so beautiful!" and "I love you." We told her we loved her, too...but I don't think she was talking to us. What was she seeing? Whom does she love?? I can only imagine. I think perhaps she was seeing the angels coming to get her, or Jesus himself.

Louella went home to be with her Heavenly Father this morning. I'm thankful that I was able to go to her side and reassure her of our love for her. She had no children, so she was always another "grandma" to me. She called us all her sweeties. We always loved it at Christmas (or any other time) when Uncle Larry and Aunt Louella would arrive. We will miss her very much, but I am glad she is in heaven with God now, and no longer alone (Uncle Larry died many years ago and she's been living alone all this time...I worried about her, but knew that she had MANY friends who checked in on her often).

Hi, it's ME!

Well, after reading other's blogs for months, I got tagged, so I decided it was time to start one of my own. I have thought for a long time about starting a blog, but truly don't think my life would be interesting to others. I am blessed, but not very exciting! So...I decided to start this blog to keep a journal of my children and their growing up years (I never was very good at the baby book thing...and my scrapbook is about 6 years behind...maybe I'll keep this going!)

So...let me introduce myself! I am first and foremost a child of God. I thank God for all the blessings in my life...most importantly, forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. I am the wife of a wonderful man (most of the time ;-)). My husband is the pastor at our church, and a wonderful father to our three blessings. We have been married almost 11 years, and have only been together for not quite 12...quick dating & engagement, but what are you going to do when love gets a hold of you?? I'll tell you the whole story sometime. We were married the day after he graduated from college, and 6 days before he started seminary. Those were some crazy years!

After struggling with infertility for a few years, we were blessed with our first daughter, Abbigail Grace. She is a joy! She is about to finish her 1st grade year. She loves school. She is reading at more than a 4th grade level. I know we're in for trouble in a few years...she's too smart for us!

Andrew Martin came along 17 months after his sister, our surprise blessing. He is all boy and a joy to me. He is so excited about going to kindergarten next year! He has been going to a Christian pre-school this year and has enjoyed it so much! He says he doesn't want to leave his teacher, he wants her to go to Kind. with him.

When Andrew was 12 months old, my hubby decided that maybe one more might be fun, so we began "trying" again. After 8 months, we tried one round of clomid, and we were blessed with Bethany Joy. She will be 3 on Monday, where has the time gone???? She's in the trenches of potty-training, but is having more good days than bad (finally!). She's also really looking forward to going to preschool next year.

While my husband attended the seminary, I was able to help pay the bills by doing what I love...TEACH! I love teaching! I taught preschool for 3 of the years, and junior high for one year. During that jr. high year, I realized how much more I am suited for the little ones! We have been so blessed...since our children have been born, I have been able to be a full-time mom. I was my husband's secretary for a few years, but our children were able to go to work with us. Now, I'm a SAHM, though I have a few extra most days. I am able to stay home with ours, but to help with the bills, I also watch a few others.

Well, this is a bit about my life...I hope I didn't bore you to tears!

Blessings-
Andie