And Now, in No Particular Order...

Why do the pictures I click on to add, get added in a completely scrambled order? It's tricky to change, so, well, here they are!

Peter getting brave 4th of July weekend.

I love this.

His imagination will never cease to amaze me.

Loves the cabin. And his boots. Don't forget the boots.

And the dock. And the Pooh hat. Love the hat!

Oh, and trucks and sand! We love trucks and sand, too!

So does David.

Sam's fish. I don't have a clue what kind it is...other than being freshwater something.

We've had so much rain this summer that some areas of the yard are always just full of water. Perfect. We've got rain boots! (note where the waterline is in this picture)

Elle and Peter playing with the boat. On the dock.

David (11 mos), Alex (9 1/2 mos) and Evelyn (5 mos). Cousins!

I love little feet.

Stacy took a few pictures for me of David at Rachel's open house. So cute!

The things that Peter's imagination can do...

Play date at the Berning's

New sunglasses

Anne Magnuson's (far right) open house. I used to babysit them (plus two more)! Erin (next to Anne) was David's age when I started babysitting them. Wow. Molly is holding David. 

We love dirt.

And anything else we can find on the floor.

Our attempt at a self-portrait didn't go very well.

My camera can do some pretty cool things!

Peter and Daddy out flying their airplanes. (Well, Daddy's can fly)

At the zoo! He was a little nervous around the goats, but did pretty well.

Tractors. LOVE tractors!

What a cutie!

It was pretty cool to see the bears up so close! Through VERY thick glass, of course.

We took our friend, Sam, to the zoo. He'd never been to one...guess they don't have them in Uganda. We all had a really fun day, even though it felt more like April than June.

And sleeping on the way home.

Not sleeping.

My climber.

And helper.

While moving....he's watching a video on Uncle Ben's phone and clutching the meat tenderizer. Funny boy.

Spudfest parade! 

David's birthday party. We love our family!

Birthday boy and daddy.

My hurridly made cake.

At least he liked it!

Ooohhh....a hat!

We had fun on the carousal ride. Peter picked the horse to ride on and choose the zebra.

David just watched.

Grandpas are so fun.

So are aunts.

The much dreamed of and drooled over and awaited motorcycle ride!

David and Alex at the beach again. 4th of July.

Perfect spot to play with the trains.

Goin' fishin'.

Getting brave!

Strawberry picking helper.

David just happily sat in the stroller eating snacks.

My boys. (really wish the flash on my camera worked)

Watching a teenager skateboard. Cool...

Wow! Check out the water level now! Where's the beach?

Dad and Luke had to raise the boat lift. And the dock almost all floated away.

For the Boys

I've been falling so far behind on my kids' updates that I've just started avoiding it all together. Ever have that happen? Something seems overwhelming and I get paralyzed by the thought of even starting, so I don't.

That works well. (note the sarcasm!)

And, so, we have a million pictures and very important information to document. I'll start with the info:

Peter:

• During our move, Peter "helped" bring things up and down and up and down. He was so proud and really a great helper. Unfortunately, this gave him a sense of freedom that he'd not had before. (Please note, I am sharing these stories merely to document them...not so that you can tell me how dangerous this is! I know!!) For example:
• One morning while we were still in limbo between 201 and 306, I left 306 to shower in 201 before the boys woke up. As I was drying off, someone tried opening the apartment door (which was locked). They tried again and then I heard a, "Mommy?" I opened the door to see Peter in his pajamas and green frog rubber boots.
• Another morning, after we were fully settled into 306, Peter was awake bright and early. Awhile later, David woke up. I went in to get him up, changed, etc. Peter HAD been playing happily in the living room but when I came out with David 5 or 10 minutes later, Peter was nowhere to be found. Trying not to panic, I grabbed David, my keys and dashed out the door. Where did I find Peter? OUTSIDE on the playground!!!!!!!! My heart nearly stopped. We had a little visit and fortunately, he hasn't left the apartment or even opened the door since. 
• He loves his wooden train set with Thomas trains. LOVES.
• One day I found him sitting on the toybox in front of his window, pushing on the screen to see outside better. Again, trying not to panic, I explained how dangerous it was to push the screen, since we live on the third floor directly overlooking the parking lot. He'd surely die if he fell! Later that day I asked him to do something for me and he calmly replied with, "I can't. I'm dead." :)
• We're working on potty training again. Here's how it works now. Sit on the toilet. For a long time. Nothing happens. Get up and put on underwear, go start playing and then I hear a, "Uh-oh! Accident!!"
• He helped pick strawberries for our jam. He'd pick one, take a bite and then toss it into his bucket. :)
• He LOVES going to G&G Prigge's cabin. He'll even jump off the dock into the lake (with help, of course) in the shallow area.
• When we moved to 306, he was pretty confused and sometimes rather devastated. For a few weeks, he cried every time we got to the second floor and kept going up. One morning he came into my bedroom before I was up and said, "Mommy, go back to big apartment." If only he knew how badly I wanted to be able to do that. Fortunately, he has adjusted now.
• He loves to mimic David, even when (or should I say especially when?) David's doing something naughty and Peter knows better. Boys! :)
• He's still dramatic and cautious.
• His favorite playground toys are: swings, slides and the spiral climbing thing. That was where I found him the morning he escaped to the outside. I still don't even know how he managed to open the outside door. It's HEAVY.
• Still asks periodically if we're going to BSF. Two more months!!
• He can put on his rubber boots and flip-flops alone. So big!
• He, obviously, talks a lot. Hmmm...must be his father's son. ;)
• One day when were out for dinner with my family for my brother Brad's birthday, Peter leaned over to me, rubbed my arm and said, "Mommy, you are so wonderful." I cried.
• Likes hotdogs now. Will eat carrots and green beans. Will try just about anything and automatically says, "Mmmmm! Good!" The true test of his feelings is to offer more. Typically he'll give you a, "No, thank you!" without even missing a beat!
• Rode the motorcycle ride at the Spudfest carnival 3 times. Free. What fun. He'd been drooling and dreaming about that ride all week.
• Hates fireworks!
• Loves to be tickled.
• Loves to play with and boss his little brother. The other morning, David was pulling books off a shelf and Peter came over. Very gently he said, "No, no David. That's VERY dangerous." Peter put the books all back and stayed to make sure David wouldn't take any more off. Occasionally I'd hear a, "No, no" and then a, "Good job, David! I'm so proud!" He is learning and I'm so proud of him!

David:

• Is ONE!
• We had his birthday party the day of our big move back to 201, before we moved to 306. I kept the boys out of the way for awhile by taking them to the Spudfest parade in the morning. Then we had lunch, got everything unloaded from the trucks and I made him a cake! It was a memorable birthday party, to be sure. Everyone was there, he got to open presents, and he loved his cake! Perfect!
• Cannot have dairy. He gets a red rash wherever it touches his skin. No milk, yogurt, butter, kefir, ice cream, whipped cream...sad! It has been suggested to me that he might be okay with homemade kefir and yogurt, though. I'm going to try!
• He's (almost) walking! Without any coaxing, he'll stand up and take a few steps before he falls, gets up and tries again. We're guessing he'll be an old pro within a week.
• Loves Peter.
• Loves Daddy.
• Loves Lucy.
• Has a huge sense of humor. He laughs a LOT and often has a very mischievous grin/smirk/face scrunched look on his face. Funny boy!
• Climbs on whatever he can reach. His favorites, currently, are Peter's bed, the kids' rocking chair and my beloved yellow chair.
• Knows how to climb off the couch the "right" way - feet first, on tummy, although he prefers to attempt face first.
• Says "uh-oh", "mama", "dada".
• Still mostly takes two naps, but often because of where we are/what's going on, he only gets one.
• Loves fireworks! On the 4th of July, he said, "ooohhhhhh" over and over. :)
• Getting picky about foods, but will eat a lot of the foods he does like! Likes: pancakes, fruit, toast, eggs, hotdogs, muffins, cake, crackers, cucumbers, burritos, beans & rice, spaghetti (until he gets a big chunk of hamburger).  He's not a fan of pizza (probably the cheese), meat, most veggies.
• At his 1 year checkup he weighed 17.8 lbs. He fell off the bottom of the chart for weight. We need to work on beefing him up, I think.
• He has developed quite the little temper!
• Is ALWAYS busy doing/going. Never stops moving except for sleep.
• Loves to be tickled!

Settling In

I must begin this post today by letting you all know that we are settling in quite nicely into 306. Yes, it is snug. Yes, I do have to haul the kids and dog up to the third floor sans elevator several times each day. But, such hauling is not without its exercise benefits! And what's not to like about being able to vacuum the entire house from one outlet? Without stretching the cord? Other blessings:

• We have fabulous NEW carpet in the living room (it is soooo soft!)
• We have beautiful laminate hardwood flooring in the kitchen/dining/entry/hallway areas. With a little one who likes to throw food on the floor at each meal, this is a true, true blessing!
• TWO bathrooms! I've never had a master bathroom before. It's pretty nifty!
• We have an incredible view...well, once you get beyond the parking lot and neighboring apartment buildings.
• Laundry room is just down the hall! No more stairs for me!! I will admit, though, to being rather attached to the other one...so on Monday I lugged our laundry down the hall, and down to the first floor. Why? The dryers work better. The third floor dryers don't dry everything all the way.
• I have a HUGE island in my kitchen. I love it!
• Tons of more storage space in the bathrooms. These have large closets in them. Our old one had bare minimal storage space.

Things at "the house" ended peacefully, too. We visited with the landlady who, by law, could have charged us more rent money, but chose not to. She was content to keep the whole deposit and money we had already given her. We were GRATEFUL!

I visited with my BSF teaching leader today, Lynn A., who said that God always has a place for His people. And He always has a way of getting them there. Such comfort, even in these bizarre circumstances.

Thank you, Father, for having a place for my little family.

Big Changes

I've been pretty quiet for awhile. We've been busy, I guess.

The past month has been a little crazy.

This past week has been close to pushing me over the edge. I can't stop crying.

We thought we'd try to find a home to rent that's closer to Luke's work - GVGH - as well as to Trott Brook. We found it. We negotiated the price, the move in date. There was just a funny smell in the house, but we passed it off as a closed up, older house, lived in by many sort of smell.

We signed the lease, paid the deposit (that the Lord alone provided!), paid half of the first month's rent and started moving in. The smell got worse. I cleaned the carpets. It didn't go away.

Blinds fell.

Other blinds were all busted up.

Closet doors fell.

Closet door knobs came off.

Door knobs came off.

Doors didn't shut all the way/dragged hard on the carpet because they weren't properly installed/fitted to the door frame.

Towel bars fell off walls.

Shower head didn't work. Just a trickle.

There were bats in the walls.

The carpet radiated a putrid cat urine smell. That we couldn't. get. rid. of. And believe me, we tried. We pulled out the big guns.

We felt sick. Literally and figuratively. What did we get ourselves into?

Oh, but then a quail strutted across the front yard and a deer was in the back. It took two minutes to drive to GVGH and Trott Brook. A plethora of babysitters was a mere moments away! It couldn't be that bad...

And then we all woke up the next morning feeling sick to our stomachs.

What DID we get ourselves into?

So we called the landlady to mention our concerns about the MANY broken items and carpet fragrance issue.

"Open up the windows. The carpet just needs to dry. The smell will go away."

Really? I'm sorry to say that the carpet WAS dry. And we had the windows open. Constantly.

"Make a list of the repairs that need to be done and we'll just slowly start chipping away. But not this week. Maybe next week."

Really?

What did we get ourselves into?

Now I know that the Lord allows all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His good purposes. I also know that He does not give us more than we can handle. I also know that my joy is not to be found in my circumstances, but rather in Christ alone. I also know that we have a responsibility to take care of our children. So, we called our apartment management company to see if we could stay here. And we can!

But not in our current apartment. The guy already signed his lease and he doesn't want a different one. He wants this one.

And so now, I get to test my head knowledge and see how well my heart knows it. So far it's failing the test. We'll be moving up a floor (no elevator), down to the middle of the hallway and losing 122 square feet. And I cry. We barely fit here. How will we fit there? And I cry again. No, I sob. Hard.

Then the Lord gently reminds me of His constant faithful provision.

So tonight and tomorrow our faithful, loving family will rally around us to move our things back here to 201 and next week when 306 is clean and ready, we will haul it all up there.

The Lord has also gently reminded me of many possible ways this trying circumstance could be used for His glory. And a large chunk of that is utterly dependent upon my attitude.

While I still do not know how this story will play out, I do know that the joy of the Lord is my strength. And I love my sweet precious little boys and darling husband.

Sometimes I wish things would work out differently than they do. But, then I suppose I would miss out on the Lord's best for me. And my family.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.