Just some new picures :)

I've been playing around with my new phone, which actually has a half-way decent camera on it...ya know, half-way decent for 1995....but I digress. It does make it quite convenient to take pictures, because I'm not having to carry something extra around with me to do so. My last phone didn't have a camera, and I didn't miss it too much, but it is nice to have. Anyway, enough talky - here's the pics!

Ethan - the handsome devil...

Beautiful Brooke, who LOVES to pose!

My two favorite women :)

A decent candid shot

A GREAT candid!

Ok, so I realized after the fact that these were not at maximum resolution, so the next ones will be a little better, I promise ;)

The End is Here!

Well, with the summer coming to a close that means that we are back to the start of school. Brooke is in First grade this year and is thriving. She has two teachers this year and they are doing what they call team teaching. To tell you the truth I am so excited for her, because now she will hopefully be challenged in school this year instead of getting bored because she is one of the smartest in her class.
Ethan is not in school yet but he and I are getting along well at home. I think that he enjoys being the center of attention most of the day. He does get along very well with Brooke now when she gets home from school. I think that they needed the break from each other.
On top of that I started school again and this time I am in the Nursing course so I am totally excited to be going and I cannot believe that we have been through two whole weeks already. This semester will fly by at this rate.
Summer was fun and I am sad to see it go. We had a good time this year, but it seems like we have been more busy last month this month and next month then we have been all summer. With me working every other weekend it is hard to plan anything for half of the summer. In the end God is good that I am able to have a job and that my place of employment is paying for me to go to college - that is a huge burden off my shoulders - I do not have to find out how to come up with the money to go I just have to pass the class.

When parenting can be difficult

Hmmm...this could be a short post if I just answered very frankly: always.

Specifically, parenting was difficult last night. First, a little background. I work a day job Monday through Friday, 8-5. I usually get to talk to Kelly once or twice during the day. Being away for 9 hours isn't much fun, but it is what I have to do for now. So yesterday, I talked with Kelly in the late morning. At the time she was helping Brooke count her money.

We've been trying to train Brooke in how to handle money. She turns 6 later this month, so she's pretty young, but we wanted to start young. We've been giving her chores, which if she completes she gets paid commissions on (a la Dave Ramsey). We've been doing this for a few weeks and she has never completed all of the tasks to earn her full commissions, but she usually does one or two, and has been making money each week. By the way, this helps out tremendously in the store when she asks for something - we can ask her if she has enough money to buy it, and if not, she doesn't *usually* get it :).

The thing is, Kelly thought that Brooke brought her a lot more money than she used to have. She mentioned it to me, but I couldn't offer much insight. So she counted everything up and went about her way. I wish that was where the story ended.

Later that night, while getting the kids ready for bed, Kelly noticed something odd. The change jar on our dresser seemed emptier than usual. She asked if I had taken any money out, and when I said I hadn't she called Brooke, who was in the bathroom. She must have overheard our conversation...

Instantly she broke out into loud sobs. She began to apologize profusely and say that we could take all of her money. While she was sobbing and apologizing she went into her room and brought us her money box. For clarification, she didn't have much to begin with. At most, she had under five dollars she had earned.

Honestly, my heart was breaking. It wasn't because she had taken the money though. I instantly felt sympathy for my daughter. She couldn't get away with it. It wasn't because we found the money missing. If we had never known, she still couldn't get away with it. Her instant sobbing and apologizing came from within. She was thoroughly convicted of what she had done before we uttered a word. She was so thoroughly convicted that she knew what she did was wrong, and she knew that it deserved punishment.

Imagine how hard this situation was. The stack of thoughts and emotions going through my head was hefty. A little betrayed - because she broke our trust. Disappointed because I expect so much of her. Saddened that we would have to have the forthcoming conversation. Knowing that we needed to talk this over with her. Knowing that we needed to punish her for this. Knowing that she needed unconditional love.

We went through the logistics. We made sure she understood that she had stolen from us. We made sure she knew why stealing was bad. We counted out the money, and tried as best as we could to figure out how much she had before this. She underestimated and we overestimated. We got it somewhere in the middle. We talked about a punishment together. She will do all of her chores this week without pay. We talked about forgiveness, and we forgave her.

When we talked, we did it out of love for her. We don't want her to walk down a path less than what God wants her to. We don't want her to be a slave to desires. She admitted that she just wanted more money, and didn't want to do her chores. We talked to her about how she knew what she did was wrong. How even though she didn't know why it was wrong, she knew it was wrong. We talked about how God has put inside each of us a knowledge of what is right and wrong. Then, after He gave us a sense of wrong and right, God told us in the Bible what is right and wrong.

After we were all done, and the emotions had subsided, we asked her to go get her toothbrush ready. She went into the bathroom and was talking to herself. After a minute she came back with a coloring book and a pen, and asked how to spell week. She then proceeded to write in her coloring book:

WEEK

WEEK

WEEK

...and then numbered each one (1 week, 2 week, 3week). She said she didn't do it all at once (take the money), but started at one or two, indicating this was the second or third week she had been taking money. At this point I was surprised again. Not because this had been happening for a while, but because after we were all done, and did not need to talk about it any more, she still came back and felt it important to fully disclose everything.

We push her hard. We expect so much of her, and she does such a good job of living up to our expectations. After last night, I KNOW God will use her in a great way one day. I don't know how or when, but I do know that He will. I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit convicting her. Thank God for what he has put in each of us, even the smallest of us. Oh that I would have had that connection with Him at such an early age. She has already amazed me.

I love that little girl, and just hope that Kelly and I can be the good stewards we are called to be. That we can bring her up in the right way, and most importantly that she can know God. That we can teach her and train her and help to develop her into a strong, whole woman. We don't want to be absentee - there but not really there. We aren't just biding the time until she moves out and away. We're given a heavy burden. We thank Him every day for that burden. With his help, one day we hope to say that we've finished well.

Ethan is ON FIRE!

Just a quick post noting that Ethan is ON FIRE with his words! He is currently chasing the cat around saying "Hi kitty" and "Hellooooo" to the cat. He is so cute! He's picking up words at an amazing rate these days. Fitting though, since his second birthday is Sunday! Yikes!

The Count Down Starts

The count down starts I only have three more weeks left until the end of this semester at college and then I will have the summer off of school. Then when I go back in the fall I will be starting my nursing classes. I can't wait. Plus not to mention I am really getting tired of my English class. For someone who has never liked English very much 15 weeks is forever. That is kind of unfortunate because English is the only language I know :-)

Finally Done

Well let me see here it was about two weeks ago when my daughter got sick with the flu. It was a Thursday night and the poor girl was up all night. I am sure that she was the one to start this whole epidemic with what ever disease that she brought home from her school. Not to place blame on her but it just goes to show you how these things can just spread like wild fire. So anyway after she was done being sick I tried so hard to clean everything to keep it from spreading. Well I thought that I was doing really well until a week later when my son got sick. This is when it all went down hill. First he had to go to the doctor because his temp would not go away. Come to find out he had strep throat, poor thing. Then a few days later he started to throw up. Then it went to my husband and myself on the same day. Then it hit our daycare sitter and she was sick. Well I needed someone to watch the kids while I was a work so I had my mother-in-law come over and watch them. Well two days later she was sick. So then I had my mom come over and watch the kids then she got sick. I tell you what no one is going to volunteer to watch my kids any more :-) Well after about two weeks I think that we are finally all done with what ever flu that was getting passed around. Thank the Lord.

Tonight we went out to eat for my Grandma's 84th Birthday. She was born on April 1st 1924. I just have to write a quick little snippet about her. She was a very important person in my life. She was the one who always made sure that I went to church. She was always the one that I remember watching me when I was young. I also remember living with her when ever we were building new houses. She is the mother of two obviously my dad and my uncle Ray and a grandmother of four: me, my sister Kristi, my cousin Scott, and my cousin Troy. She is also a Great Grandmother of two, Brooke and Ethan.

Another thing that I am very proud of my grandma and those in the nursing field would I think agree. She fell and broke her hip about three years ago. she is still living on her own and she does not walk with a walker or even a cane and I have to say that I am very impressed.

I just hope that she has many more years to come and that each one is better than the next.

Love Ya Grandma!!

Praise God

So back in July of 2007 I got so called laid off due to lack of work. Well at that time it was really hard for me to just accept that. I was really upset because it was not done (letting me go) very well by my employer. Over the course of time from then until now I was on unemployment and going back to school while I was still looking for a job. I sent out about 300 or so resumes and had only heard back from a few, and all of those were the "Thanks for your application but we regret to inform you that your skills were not what we were looking for blah blah blah...." So I had this brilliant idea that I was going to go and get my certified nursed aid licence ( That is a whole other blog ), well I did and I sent out two application and the very next day I had an interview for the following Wednesday. Then a few days later I got a call from my other application and had a interview set up for the Thursday after my first interview.
So on Wed. I went to my interview at Shorehaven and that went well but they said that I would not here from them in about two weeks. Well Thur. I went to my other interview at Hackley Hospital and walked out with a job.
Just to show you how God is awesome. I lost a job but in its place I went back to school to continue my education towards my nursing degree. Had I not done that I would be further behind this fall when I am actually able to start my nursing program. If I had gotten another job out of the numbers of applications I sent out I would not have gone and gotten my CNA nor would I have this job in a hospital. With all things working towards helping me out in my goal to become an RN.

Ethan is Binky-less

That's right. Ethan is finally free from the comforts and confines of a binky. What's that? You don't know what a binky is? Well...neither do I really, but it's what we call his pacifier.

In any case, now, at 22 months old, Ethan no longer needs one to get to sleep. We wanted to wean him off of it before he was two. When have you weaned or do you plan to wean your kids off of a pacifier?

I need to do this more offten

Yeah, Well it has been a while and I thought that I should update this blog for a change. It seems like when ever I want to sit down and update it something else always comes up. Well for the last two weeks I was sitting in a CNA training class and let me tell you that was fun ( Heavy on the sarcasm ). Praise the Lord though, because when I was laid off in July of 2007 I had sent out like 300 resumes and did not hear back on but maybe a few that were all thanks for applying but blah blah blah... The very first resume I send out after this training was to Shore Haven in Grand Haven ( ha ha Shore Haven, Grand Haven.. Haven Haven :-) no well any way) That was on Monday this week and the DON (Director Of Nursing) called me on Tuesday and wanted to set up an interview. How Cool was that. Oh and the icing on the cake on my first week of this training was my spring break from college and I got my acceptance letter from MCC that I am going to start the Nursing Program in the Fall. ( Finally ) So I was talking to Matt about all of this and I said that I is apparent that God wanted me to go through this door. Nothing Like a swift kick in the pants that this is the way that he wants me to go. I mean 300 resumes to 1 that is ONE!! Thanks for making is obvious.

First Night Alone

Tonight is a first for me. After being married five 1/2 years to my wonderful, terrific husband we are spending the night apart. Well I take that back. When I had my gallbladder out in Jan. I stayed in the hospital alone that night, but I was so drugged and disoriented that it really doesn't count. He is Madison, WI for some work thing that he had to do.
My Pastor has to travel quite a bit for his "Tent making" job and he is gone usually longer then two days. I just don't understand how his wife deals with it so well. I mean my mind tends to run sometime and I can't stop it, and it is usually not with good thoughts. Like what am I going to do if his plane were to crash or he were to get into a car accident over there or something like that. I don't really like to think about what life would be like if he were gone :-(
My best defence to it lately has been to just pray to God and ask for him to take away the thoughts in my head and to give me peace of mind. You want to know the BEST PART? HE DOES!!! He is truly wonderful. I guess that I really answered my own question from earlier How does my pastors wife do it? With the help of the one true almighty God.
With that being said though I can't help but miss Matt when he is gone. The one thing that I am glad of is that this is not a normal thing for his job. My father in law was here this morning and he said that it would be nice if someone noticed Matt and offered him a job traveling around the country doing things like this. All I could think was (NO offence Mike) No Way. Unless I get to go with him :-)
OH yeah there was one other thing that I had forgotten to mention while all of this was going on (Matt leaving) I have also had to deal with having to study for a lab practical. one word to that AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! It is almost too much to handle sometimes.
Well anyway I had better get to bed I suppose some sleep would be good. If that is even possible. :-)

Family Fun

Okay, so last weekend we went up to the cabin with my parents and went snowmobiling. That was awesome. The kids had a lot of fun as did Matt and of course my self. It was so nice to just get away for the weekend especially after everything that we are going through with Matt's Family. The fist day that we were up there it was quite nice the weather was good and the trails were kind of bumpy but none the less it was a great time. The second day was like -2 degrees and bitter cold, but if you were to bundle up just right it was not so bad. (This coming from a person that hates winter and can't stand the cold.) Anyway I can't wait to get out there again, I am just afraid that it will have to until next year.

Kelly is learning the Guitar!

Kelly is learning the Guitar :-) She's been strummin on it for a few weeks now and is getting better every week. I would post a sound clip, but I'm not sure she would say she's ready for the big time yet ;)

Thanks Mike!

Wow so this is what it is all about.

Okay, so everyone else that I know has one of these things. Even my husband Matt. So I started one too. We will just have to see how this works out. I have a feeling that there are a few people who are saying. Welcome to the 21st century.