... and a new toy for me!

On the same day that UPS delivered Moses' guitar, I also got a package from work in the mail:





This means that I can now get my email ANYWHERE! I am already addicted.

Sorry, K. But at least this is a little less intrusive than having my laptop right next to me during dinner.

Blessed to be a Mommy!

Today was a wonderful Mother's Day (or "Mommy's Day, as Moses wrote in his card). And it wasn't just because I sported a new 24k gold necklace to church and read a new book and ate Starbucks espresso truffles this afternoon. (But let me tell you-- K and Moses sure know how to make a mommy feel special!).

It was because Mother's Day has become an overwhelmingly joyful holiday for me. It was always fun to celebrate with my mom. But it obviously now has a deeper meaning for me.

First, it actually overwhelms me with a sense of failure. I think "Why is there a holiday to celebrate me? I fail on a daily basis. Surely I could be a better mommy in a number of ways. We shouldn't be celebrating me."

But second, it overwhelms me to think about how blessed I am. How sacred it is to be a mother. How out of all of the women in the world, God picked ME to be K's wife and Moses' mommy. I am B-L-E-S-S-E-D. Thank you Jesus.

So to me, this isn't so much a holiday to relax and celebrate me (although my boys did that very well), as much as it is a time for me to pause and reflect at how joy-filled God has made my life by allowing me to be a mother.

I pray I live up to His calling.

Hi, my name is M----, and I am a Chex Mix Addict

Two of my friends have recently posted about Chex Mix experiences (you can read them here and here), so I decided I should post something I discovered today.

I am addicted to Chex Mix. Now, I am too lazy to actually make it myself, so we buy the Chex Mix brand from the store. I think we go through one of the big bags in about 48 hours.

Okay, I'll be honest. I think I alone go through one of the big bags in about 48 hours.

Back to my addiction. I crave it all the time. I think I have gained a few pounds lately-- and quite likely in relation to the 3 bags of Chex Mix I put away every week-- so I have been trying to cut down this week.

I have also had a headache-- actually, a borderline migraine-- all week. I've tried everything. Caffiene. Migraine medicine. Plain ol' Advil. Sleep. Nothing is working.

I jokingly said to K this afternoon that I think Chex Mix has some chemical in it, and I am in withdrawal. He said, "Well, why don't you eat some and see if your headache goes away?"

So I did. That was about 2 hours ago. And for the first time all week, my headache seems to be diminishing...

Think I will be able to use the tobacco industry litigation about 20 years from now as a framework to sue for my deteriorating health from CMA (Chex Mix Addiction)?

More Tidbits

The last couple of weeks have been full of random events, too short for separate posts, but important to our family just the same:


Moses
Moses now knows all of his upper AND lower case letters! He can also say them all in order. We've also been working with numbers lately, and he can identify the numbers 1 through 9, and he can recite the numbers 1 through 13. He loves yelling "thar-teen!!!"


He is also chattering like crazy. No full sentences yet, but he says several new words every day. On Easter alone, he said chair, eat, Moses, MaMa, PaPa, egg, quack, and several more that I need to write down when I remember, or else his baby book is going to look pretty pathetic...


Weight Loss Challenge
I won! I ended up losing 11 pounds. The money I won is being applied to a hefty custom framing job at Hobby Lobby... And pictures of our dining-room re-do will be forthcoming, when we hang all of the prints from my first order... Oh wait, I still haven't ordered the new curtain rod. Well, those pictures might come some day...


Spring
Spring has come to the river valley! We went for a drive on the river road last week, and saw the geese leaving, and the pelicans arriving (next to the ibises in South Florida, the white pelicans here-- and their giant orange beaks-- are by far my favorite bird). The tuips even popped up today! But I am wondering if we still have some winter left. On a drive yesterday (we've gone on several drives lately-- I love driving the the Mountaineer!), there was a bald eagle perched on a branch in the river, very close to shore. So apparently the eagles haven't left yet... as much as I love them, I hope they migrate away soon!

Once again, I "overachieved"

Sleeping as late as I want. Breakfast in bed. Not having to answer the telephone. Sounds good, right?

Not really. Not when I am in bed all day. And not when breakfast, lunch, AND dinner are in bed. And not when I don't have anyone to talk to all day.

SO, yesterday I tried to "speed up" the healing process a little bit. I thought if I was up and around, eating with my family, checking my work email, etc., I would feek better sooner.

And then I got so sick to my stomach that I threw up. NOT GOOD when you've just had abdominal surgery.

So my husband banished me once again to the bedroom. I can hear poor little Moses on the other side of the door banging to get in (he only gets to come in when Daddy supervises, since he likes to jump on Mommy). The poor little guy doesn't understand what is going on. We've shown him "Mommy's ouchies," hoping that he would understand that he needs to be gentle. I think he got the picture, but now whenever he comes in to see Mommy he wants to see my ouchies. :)

Not so bad...

Less than 24 hours after gall bladder surgery, and here I am sitting up in bed, checking email, blogging, etc.! I am very impressed with my surgeon and the nurses. The entire process wasn't really too bad. And once I found a comfortable position and was able to sleep yesterday, things got much better.

PLUS, it helps that I am being waited on hand and foot. :) K is one amazing husband.

And, Grandma and Grandpa came and took Moses to a hotel yesterday, so Kurt can focus on me. In the meantime, Moses is having a blast. They went and saw the new baby chicks at the farm store (once I figure out how to get the video from my phone to the computer, I will have to post it-- Moses went from gently petting the baby chick to smacking it on its head... it hurts when I laugh that hard!). They went to the mall and the coffee shop. They attemped to go swimming, but Moses was having too much fun making silly faces in the full-length mirror in the hotel room.

And the pain isn't too bad after all.

And here is the best part: the surgeon was able to identify some problems with my gall bladder that were causing it to not function. That means I WILL feel better after this!

All in all, I am feeling very thankful to God for his provision for our family!

Okay, that's enough sitting up time now... back to bed...

More Tidbits

My husband

I don't talk about K much on here-- partly because I tend to focus mostly on Moses, and partly because K wasn't so thrilled about a "family blog" in the first place. But I just have to take a moment and write about how wonderful he is. He is so helpful around the house (I think he does more "housework" than I do most weeks), he is a wonderful pastor, and I love him more than anything. Of course, part of the reason I like him so much as my pastor is because he looks so darn good in his suits. :)

Anyway, I need to brag just a little. He is currently working on his M.Div., and this year he is taking 4 semesters of Greek in just 2 semesters. He aced last semester (or, two semesters...), and my guess is he is well on his way to acing this semester. But I am looking forward to June-- because he is taking 6 months off from class! What will we do with all that time...?

Work

After a few crazy weeks, things are finally starting to slow down to a pace I can keep up with. Which is good, since I might be out for a week due to...

Surgery

Thank you Daniel, Erin, Sara, and Crystal (and anyone else) for the prayers! This weekend was a good weekend-- with the exception of morning nausea (and NO, I am NOT pregnant-- I am getting tired of that question... as if I would be so stupid as to miss THAT! Besides, after 6 months, I think I would be showing my now...), I really wasn't very sick at all. Perhaps that is because the fattiest thing I ate was lunch meat...

No word yet on whether the surgery will actually happen on Thursday....

Moses

Moses is just becoming such a little gentleman. We had such a good weekend. It is a joy to spend time with him, and every day he makes us laugh-- or melt. In the last week, he has started singing "holy, holy" when he hears "God of Wonders" on our worship mix CD. I don't think there is anything more precious than hearing a not-yet-two-year-old sing at the top of his lungs, "Ooooo-eeee! Oooooo--eeeee!"

Just for fun

Ouch.

I've been "sick" for months. Literally. Severe abdominal pain and other symptoms I won't disclose. :) I think I have been through every test there is: ultrasounds, HIDA scans, colonoscopy, etc. And over the course of 6 months, the physicians still don't know what is wrong with me.

Last Friday, I got incredibly sick. I probably should have gone to the emergency room, but we were about 2 hours from home and I just really wanted to get home. The pain continued for 5 days-- at which point I was referred to a surgeon. It looks like they are going to remove my gall bladder (isn't this a pleasant post?!), but they first wanted to do some more tests (because all of the tests on my gall bladder have shown nothing-- I have all of the symptoms, but no clinical "proof").

Those tests were yesterday, and were by far the most grueling I've had so far. Both of my arms are bruised and sore today from an IV (to allow for a fast flow of fluid, the IV tube was as big as my small veins, and VERY painful....), blood test, etc. The worst was that, for a catscan and ultrasound, I had to drink 60 ounces of fluid in a two hour period of time. Have you ever had 60 ounces of fluid in a 2 hour period of time? NOT fun. I wanted to die right there.

But the worst part was probably the psychological aspect of yesterday's tests. If something shows up in those tests, it will mean I could have a problem with my reproductive system. At that prospect, I suddenly find myself desiring 12 more kids. And feeling guilty that we plan children (through NFP) around OUR schedule-- and not when God decides to give them to us.

Anyway, if I am non-existant on here for the next couple of weeks, you will know why! I've entered the "I'm sick every day until they finally remove this darn gall bladder" stage.

The annual weight loss challenge

Every year, my parents compete against each other to see who can lose more weight in a 8 to 10 week period. Each week, each person puts money (between 5 and 10 dollars) into an envelope, and whoever loses the most at the end of the time period keeps all of the money. My mom exercises and eats well year-round, so this is just really her way of trying to get my dad in shape (he is a tad competitive; and the winnings give him a good reason to spend money on electronics).

Three years ago (2005-- before baby, but after Kurt had worked at Krispy Kreme for a year!), I competed with my parents, and lost a whopping 20 pounds (and snagged the 245 dollars that year). I ended up at 112, which was actually a little on the skinny side. I didn’t compete in 2006, because I was pregnant with Moses (but I would have won for the amount of weight gained that year—I gained 60 pounds with him!). Fortunately, with breastfeeding the weight came off fast, and I lost 50 pounds within 6 months after he was born (as seen in this picture):

So now it is 2008. And after a year of eating incredible church potlucks and homemade pies and such but not breastfeeding, I’ve gained over 10 pounds since that picture was taken. So when my mom offered to let me in the competition this year, I jumped at the chance to compete for the 300 dollar pot. Plus, they are evening the playing field this year: instead of going by pounds, we are going by percentage weight loss.

In two weeks, I’ve lost 8 pounds, or approximately 6 percent. Only 5 more pounds until I look like that picture again! I’ll keep you posted!