Family Vacations

Ever since TC and I got married we always talked about what we would do for family vacations. That one special trip once (or twice) a year. While growing up my family would visit this resort in Western MN every Spring and then every Fall. Money was hard to come by so we were only there for the weekend. We always had a blast (even if my mom just sat in our hotel room all weekend and watch TV, sigh). TC's family would drive somewhere every year.

Sure we could keep going up North and stay at Eagle Ridge in Lutsen MN. We've done it a few times and will keep doing it. But it's hard when most of his family still live in that area. When they find out we are going up there they expect us to go visit. Honestly, we are on vacation. Don't get me wrong we love them and will happily take a weekend and make that our main agenda to visit all his family members up there. We have a blast every time but want something JT (and future kids) can remember as that special once a year vacation with our little family.

TC got an email from his uncle last week that said he won a free stay at this, well I don't know what to call it. They have cabins on a lake and you can fish or even hunt. It's in Canada and very beautiful. His uncle has been here before and loves it. TC was looking at their website and saw that you can rent cabin (with all necessities, laundry, running water and housekeeping etc) that sleeps 6 for a week for around $300. Now that's a steal! We talked about it and how fun would it be to go up there and fish. Hang out on the dock and watch the sunrise and sunset.

So we decided next year will be our first year. We are SO excited! TC will be getting his passport soon for his trip this year with his uncle (which is over July 4th weekend). JT and I will get ours sometime in the near future.

I'm so excited to start this new family tradition. The memories that will be created will be wonderful. Can you see us sitting in a boat watching JT catch a fish? Going to the cabin to fry it up for supper, then sit in front of a fire and talk and enjoy nature.

I can't wait!

Time

Time. There are days when time seems to move nice and slow. Like when I wake up and have half an hour before I need to be up and will lay in bed enjoying the quiet. Or when it's a beautiful sunny day, Little Man is napping and I'm sitting on the couch looking out our patio door. Or when it's 2pm during the workday and time seems to have stopped and sometimes to my horror started moving backwards.

Then there are days time just flies by. Little Man is now 3 1/2. Daddy and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary this coming March. It's 7pm and I want to sit and relax before going to bed at 10:30pm but laundry, dishes, cleaning and other mommy jobs call my name and before I know it it's bedtime and I haven't sat down yet.

Time. We have two weeks until we move. It seems like just yesterday I was counting 41 days. Only two very short weeks to pack. A little over three weeks until we have our final walk through. Three weeks until I have to do a major cleaning of the apartment so we can get our deposit back.

This past year has flown. Two new jobs, a new place to live, car and Little Man growing another year older.

We had a guest pastor at church this morning. He was wonderful. He is a teacher at one of our synod's highschool's, St. Croix Lutheran, here in MN. The highschool I graduated from. I caught myself thinking that I hope he's still teaching at SCL when Little Man starts highschool. Then I about passed out, that's in 12 years. Sure seems like a long time but time passes quickly. Twelve years ago I was 19. In college, working full time and praying every night for God to find me 'The One'. Now here 12 years later I have been married for 8 1/2 years, have a 3 1/2 year old son and am living the most wonderful life I could ever imagine.

I'm not going to speed up time and will quit thinking about sending Little Man off to highschool. I think we'll conquer Preschool first.

Whoa!

I knew it's been awhile since I posted but I didn't realize it's been this long. Life is busy and Little Man is growing. Recently he 'found' his little Elmo computer (it's not a real computer mind you) and has been playing with it and talking with it constantly. It's funny because I hear him arguing with Elmo. 'NO! That is NOT an octagon!' Ha ha.

Daddy is loving his job and I am loving mine. Daddy has been on overtime the past month or so. So it's just been Little Man and I most nights. I hate to admit that we are watching movies most nights or cartoons because I am so tired. Little Man doesn't mind as he'll sit in my lap and we'll snuggle.

He loves going to daycare at MS. S's house. Who wouldn't if you were the only boy? AND! Ms. S's husband has John Deere equipment and Little Man is in HEAVEN! He asks to go every day and loves to show off all the projects they do. He is quite the drawer. Speaking of drawing he has been asking for me to help him write his name. His favorite letter to make is a 'O'. I wonder why. :)

That's a pretty quick summary on what is going on and hopefully I'll be back to writing rather continuously soon.

Work and life

Well Daddy FINALLY got the job! Yoohoo! Now reality is setting in. Not that unemployment didn't but having to juggle dropping Little Man off at daycare and picking him up and Daddy driving a total of 2 hours everyday. It will work and we are truly blessed for him to finally be working. We are beyond excited. A huge weight is lifted off and we feel we can live. Not that we haven't but we have not gone up North in a year and 3 months. Daddy and I are itching to get up North and take Little Man out into the great outdoors.

Work for me is going great. Because of Daddy's new job he needs to go up and get a physical. He has to do this tomorrow and since our daycare gal is on vacation this week (perfect timing huh?) I'll be staying home tomorrow morning. I thought I'd ask my supervisor and see if I could work from home that morning. She emailed our manager and she said yes! How cool is that?! It's suppose to be hush hush, which is fine. I'm so thrilled I get to get a few hours of work in and won't have to make it up, use vacation or risk not getting paid at all. And the fact this could be an option whenever Little Man is sick and I could get some work done while at home and not have to use up vacation or sick time.

I also ask for your prayers as one of my friends dad just passed away unexpectedly a couple days ago. This is a rough time with her and her family.

We match!

We went to get Little Man's feet remeasured last week or so and decided to get him some sandals. I told Daddy I would like new sandals too. The ones I have are flip flops and probably passed their usage about 5 years ago.

So Daddy got us all some Keen footwear. We all now have matching sandals. How cute is that?! We have the Newport H2 sandal. We love the outdoors and hope to spend lots of time out there this summer. These sandals will be perfect for walking/hiking while keeping our (especially Little Man's) feet cool and comfortable. And they are perfect for Little Man to wear while swimming in a lake with a rocky bottom.

Plus Daddy's discount made them the perfect price. :)

Life and such

Today I weighed myself so I can start keeping track of how much weight I lose (if any). I've lost 5 lbs since December. Thinking back to what happened in December and the fact all I was eating was chocolate (and very little of anything else) I've come to realize maybe I was more stressed out over what is going on (with my nephew) than I thought. I also measured my waist and am hoping to lose 2 1/2 inches. Yep it's that big. Eep!

As you all know I'm reading the book Love and Respect. I highly recommend this book to all married couples, even couples who are engaged and going out. It truly is an eye opening book. Dr. Eggerichs talks about how God commands husbands to love their wives but doesn't really state to wives to love their husbands. That's because we already do that. It's programmed in us. What isn't programmed in us is respecting our husbands.

This has really hit home to me. I never had any role models so to speak in the marriage area. My parents don't have a marriage. My mom yelling at my dad all the time and pretty much telling him what he was doing wrong. Then seeing him go into himself and just shut down. This book made me see how my mom wasn't respecting my dad and my dad was reacting the only way he knew how, by shutting down. My mom wanted love, my dad wanted respect. Neither was/is showing each other love or respect and so begins the Crazy Cycle (as Dr Eggerichs describes). Unfortunately my mom sees everything as my dad's fault (and my dad not able to communicate why he's not loving my mom) and unfortunately this Crazy Cycle is continuing.

A couple weeks ago I was talking to my mom (which unfortunately looks like will be the last time for a long time) and she said she was wondering when the fairy tale life will start (meaning a wonderful life, with no conflict in anything; ie, marriage). At the time I kind of agreed. Well, not kind of, I did agree. As I get deeper in this book and look at my own life I realize I am living a fairy tale. God has given me a wonderful, caring and supportive husband. He has given us the tools (and the open mind) to know how to make our marriage better. He has continuously blessed us even during the hard times. We still act like we are going out. We talk, joke, hold hands, and snuggle.

I think back to when my mom was my age. By 30 she had 4 kids (ranging from 2 months (twins, by the way) to 6 years) and one daughter who was very sick (me). She would talk about the things my dad didn't do during this time and the years following and how she had to do it all herself. As I look back my dad did help out, a lot. He did everything my mom asked of him. Many things he did without complaining. My mom couldn't see that unfortunately. Now I look at my marriage. I see how Daddy and I both work together. I see the respect we both have for each other. I see how we both can turn to each other in our times of weakness.

To that I thank God. Thank you for having Daddy and I find each other. Thank you for the joy you have shown us. The love we have for each other is because of you and through you. I am thankful Little Man will see how because of God all things are possible. Even when things are tough.

It's Christmas

I am very excited for Christmas but I am also stressed out. Not because of Christmas shopping, cooking, and the anxiety that goes with going to my in laws.

No shopping this year, no job. Cooking? I already did my cookie baking and am done. And we're not going to the in laws this year.

I am stressed over the situation I unfortunately can't talk about (but it has to do with my nephew and his safety). I have been crying all day. I cried while I wrapped the few presents we bought Little Man. I have Christmas music on and I'm crying. I pray I can make it through our Christmas Day service without bawling. Daddy and I sing in the choir and play handbells and it would be a sight if I'm bawling up there.

I was trying to put these new pants Little Man got (I'll explain in a bit) and he did NOT want them on. They are camouflage. I asked him why he didn't want to wear them. He said 'They're Kyle's'. Insert a bawling mom here. Whenever we would see Kyle he would be wearing camouflage pants and Little Man didn't want to wear them. I told him he can look like Kyle and wear them, if he wants. He did! And boy is he the cutest in those pants!

Back to how we got the pants. When I left yesterday (to deal with this whole issue) Daddy said a lady showed up asking if we lived here. He said Yes and she said she'd be right back. She went to her vehicle and brought us 6 bags full of clothes, toys, gift cards, a Wells Fargo card with a lot of money on it, some books for Little Man, a stool with Little Man's name on it and a couple of books for Daddy and I. One of those books is Multiple Blessings by Jon and Kate (of Jon and Kate plus 8). I wanted that book but didn't have the money!

We have such wonderful friends (and people we don't know). It truly is amazing how God continues to bless us and blesses us with such wonderful people in our lives.

This and that

Well Christmas is only 5 days away. I can't believe how fast this month has flown. I still need to wrap Little Man's presents. I haven't put them under the tree yet because I don't feel like saying 'Don't touch' 8 million times a day. So his presents will go under the tree Christmas Eve. I'm still undecided on when he'll open them. I would like to have him open one Christmas Eve night and the rest Christmas morning but we need to be at church by 8am to practice for handbells and choir. I'm hoping he wakes up at 6am and heads to the tree and digs in. That would be wonderful! :)

I've been under alot of stress the past couple weeks. I won't be going into details on here (and no it's not about Daddy not having a job). We bought Christmas candy 2 weeks ago and I've been spending my days eating cookies and chocolate, and I can't have chocolate. So far I don't have stomach cramps but that could change. I'm also not sleeping well. Thursday night I was having chest pains so bad I was thisclose on having Daddy take me to the ER. I'm glad I fell asleep because we don't have insurance. I pray that this will all be solved quickly and my nephew is safe. I also wonder if maybe it's a good thing Daddy, Little Man and I are more than likely moving out of state. It seems our friends are better family than family.

Sad, I know.

Chaos

I was reading Angie's blog (by the way she is the wife of Todd who is a member of the group Selah). On a side note I suggest you add her blog to your list of blogs to read. She really is a remarkable woman with great strength and faith in our Lord.

She wrote about some Chaos going on in her family. And posted a video I thought was perfect for what Daddy and I are going through. I thought I'd post it here and share it with you all because I know we aren't the only ones with a stumbling block in our lives.

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something heavenly

Life and jobs

Well Daddy had an interview this morning with the president, manager of the department, and HR manager for the job in Omaha. They said they have 3 more people to interview. So we wait... While more employers are getting ahold of Daddy about possible job prospects. All are out of state.

I told Daddy I want to live in a state with all seasons and has some snow. Florida is out of the question and so is Texas. I always thought I'd want to live in Texas but I like my seasons too much. Florida is just way to hot. One job prospect has an office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I told Daddy that'd be a good place to move. He said that there is no snow and they have heat. I said 'But my (older) sister is there.'

So here we wait and pray. I really don't want to move but if we must, we must. It's just hard knowing where God wants us to go. I have put my trust in God and know he will send us where he wants us and we must be patient.

Speaking of needing snow, we are about to get slammed later today with a bunch of snow. I pray everyone drive safe and all my teacher friends get a snow day tomorrow. ;)

Friends

Last week Daddy lost his job. As everyone knows (and is probably living) this economy is awful. I was talking to a friend today and she said there's only one thing to do in a time like this, fold your hands (pray) and trudge on. So true! God will get us through.

God also does another thing. Puts the most wonderful friends in our lives. Someone once told me a friend is someone who you could call up at 2am and say 'I'm stuck' and they would drive across town and pick up you. Or if your having a hard time sit on the phone with you until late into the night even if they have to get up early the next morning.

I always hoped to be that friend. I love my friends. When they are hurt, in trouble, or scared I like to be the shoulder they need.

Well in the past couple weeks we have been shown how awesome our friends are. God has truly blessed us with wonderful people in our lives. The couple that watch Little Man while we have church practice on Monday night gave us a generous gift card to Cub. Their daughter just gave us a generous check. We've had friends offer room in their house for us, names of people to help Daddy find a job, and even suggestions on how to help us and where to go.

It is so overwhelming appreciated. We are SO blessed!

I want to take this moment and thank all my friends out there. I don't even think thank you can express how much you all mean to me. You truly are the greatest. I thank God for you all. Your generosity, your prayers mean the world.

Thank you.

Health Insurance

With God by my side I'm on a mission to get us health insurance. It is very scary knowing that on Dec 1st we won't have insurance. Even more scary when we have a 2 year old boy. I know God provides and he has provided (did I mention Daddy's unemployment and Cabela's covers what he got paid at Precast?). We just need insurance to cover us incase something happens.

I decided to look at individual plans with Health Partners. That's who we had while Jeff worked and I use to work with them when I worked at North Ambulance and TCO. So I'm very familiar with them and how they operate. I found a plan that is only $240 (or so, it's late and I'm drawing a blank on the actual number right now) a month. Oh, Daddy is actually making $200 MORE with unemployment and Cabela's. Hmm...I think God just provided. :) The plan isn't perfect, there's a $4000 deductible. YUCK! But we'll get 3 office visits that are covered at 100%, the deductible will be waived AND if for some reason Daddy hasn't found a job by July Little Man's well check visit (and any shots he may need) will be covered 100% and again the deductible won't be included.

I have one question to ask Health Partners on Monday and maybe by the middle of the month (do to their processing time) we'll have insurance. (insert excited shrieking here) So much better than paying $882 a month for Cobra.

Pray that the plan can be canceled any time (that's my one question) and I can sign us up.

Also pray Daddy starts hearing back from some of the jobs he applied at next week. Some companies have had his resume for almost 3 weeks.

Blessed Thanksgiving

God loves to surprise me everyday. He blesses and continues to bless us even more. Daddy calculated his unemployment and pay at Cabela's and we are actually breaking even (with $100 extra!) from what he was making at Precast. God is awesome! He can concentrate on looking for a job and know we have enough money to put food on the table and pay the bills.

We spent the day at home with just the 3 of us today. It was wonderful. We had church this morning where Daddy and I sang in the choir. Little Man got to sit through the WHOLE service with A and B. They watch him every Monday night when we have handbell and choir practice. He did very well and I didn't hear one peep from him the whole service.

We got home around 10am and I got the cheese and crackers out and put some on a plate for Little Man and stuck him in front of the TV to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. And of course, he had the annual Thanksgiving Turkey to color that is in the Star Tribune. My sisters (and brother) grew up coloring this turkey every year and I'm excited to pass this tradition onto Little Man.

Daddy and I got the turkey ready to cook and I did my first batch of homemade gravy and mashed potatoes. I had a little problem getting the gravy to thicken but it turned out pretty good.

Oh, around 11am Little Man looked at Daddy and said 'I'm tired'. Daddy told him we'll all take a nap after we have turkey. (Little Man's normal nap is around 11:30am.) At about 12:30pm Little Man said it again and Daddy and I both were ready for a nap too. We ate around 1:30pm and Little Man ate his full of Watergate salad, Applesauce Jello, and Crescent rolls. He wouldn't touch the turkey. He had a few bites of stuffing and mashed potatoes though. He also was having troubles keeping his eyes open. He put his head down a few times during dinner.

We finished eating and Little Man went down for a nap at 2:30. I follwed shortly after (Daddy stayed up looking for more jobs). I was woken up around 5:15pm by a little hand trying to give me a hug.

For supper we had pie and more Applesauce Jello (Little Man's choice).

Today was a great day. We are so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Faith

You know, God has a reason for everything. We may not understand at the moment why something is happening but there is a reason. We may never even find out the reason why it happened but again, there is a reason.

Daddy came home from work today and said I need to meet him in the garage. I thought he meant me AND Little Man. I quickly had to get Little Man back into his booster seat to eat his kidney beans so I could go back into the cold garage. But I didn't fail to notice the box sitting in the backseat. I thought "Oh No". I went back to the garage and Daddy took me into his arms and had me look in the car. I only needed to see his radio to know he was laid off. He said 3 of them were laid off today and only 2 are left and Bill may have enough work for them until the end of the week. Then he'll be closing down his office.

There's alot of emotions that go through you during a time like this. There are also a few the could go through you; anger, fear, resentment, anxiousness, pity, doubt, confusion, frustration, and sadness.

I on the other hand only have one emotion, well come to think of it, 2 emotions. Faith and Love. Faith that God will lead us through this. Faith that he will keep us in his palm and protect us. Faith that he will provide for us and take care of us. I also have Love. Love for my God, love for my husband and love for my son. Nothing is more important to me than those 3. And yes God is first. God rules in our house and he is number one.

He has blessed us through everything and is blessing us now. I was reamed by Daddy's grandpa a few months back about our finances and he kept asking how we are going to get money. I kept telling him God will provide. He didn't seem to understand that you can't put your trust in earthy things. Your trust belongs in God. Only he can get you through. We've been down this road before and he provided and he WILL do it again.

Right now, Daddy is home and we are going to enjoy our Thanksgiving with him. We are going to shout our thanks to God and know that when one can't look at another we can always look to him.

Slow Fade by Casting Crowns

I love this song. It applies to all aspects of life and our choices we make.