oh really?!

Jeneva: Mom, can you please please just ignore me right now when I am talking to you.

Me: Why is that?

Jeneva: Because I think I am going to say something to you that you won't approve of.

manners

my hunky hubby

After ordering a pair of glasses for Steve online and having them shipped to our house....this is what arrived. Graciously our spectacle shoppe allowed us to return them and corrected our order.

He is Risen!

This is probably one of my favorite songs we sing at Easter. He is risen! Indeed! Happy Easter!

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev'ry bitter thought,
Ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

easter 2008

The only Easter dresses in the stores are like this: SLEEVELESS.
The only weather we have here in Minnesota on Easter is this: SNOW.
DOES THAT MAKE SENSE TO YOU?

jude's stats

4 1/2 months
15 lbs. 15 oz. 50th %
27 in. 90th %
27.25 in. head circ. 90th %

When Jude was about 6 weeks old we noticed his head was beginning to be very flat on one side. You could tell from his profile and from the back. It was like while lying on his back he would only lean his head to one side and since babies heads are so soft, it flattened. At his 2 month check up the doctor noticed it right away and was concerned. She referred us to a physical therapist who would treat him for torticollis. In severe cases of a misshapen head the concern is that the brain may not develop properly. Jude's "flat head syndrome" was NOT this severe. His was mainly a cosmetic issue. Upon meeting with the physical therapist she found that it was not an issue of torticollis as his movement and rotation were just fine, but we just needed to train him to sleep more on the side of his head that he did not favor. We tried sleeping him on his tummy (I realize this is a no-no in the pediatric world), but he didn't like that. He much rather is a back sleeper. So we put him on his side or we would prop his head up so he would lay it to the un-favored side while sleeping at night. Over the past month or so we have noticed a significant improvement. Yesterday, Dr. Lisa said that it is looking much better and is not concerned anymore because he still has a big enough soft spot which means that his head will expand normally. She still wrote us a referral to meet with Dr. Wood who specializes in Cranial Caps for babies. Because he looks very normal and symmetrical from the front we decided to not do that. I think in time it will even itself out.

swim

josh, sara, steve, jill, andy, sophia, brent, jenna, avery, miles, jillian, wade, dina, jonathan, lydia, seth, steve, tiffany, jeneva, jude.

these are the names of all of the adults and children from our small group from church who stayed together for two nights in a 4 bedroom cabin in Paynesville for the weekend. lots of noise. lots of fun. the pool was a highlight!

jeneva's "deep" thought of the day:

"I bet as I grow bigger my taste buds will grow bigger too and then I will like mushrooms."

untitled

any ideas?

this morning...

...I was heading out the door to go to the MOMS group at Bethlehem to hear Sally Michael speak. Jeneva pleaded with me "mommy, don't go!" as she would be staying home with Steve. I told her that I would be back in a couple of hours. Still she said "no, no, don't go" while tugging at my shirt. I'll have you know that this is all an act and she does this for attention. This time I say "I'm going to go learn how to be a better mom!" This time she didn't put up a fuss. "Okay." she said simply. That says it all.

Well, some of you that read this blog heard this message already this morning. I would encourage anyone to listen to this message.

Leading Children to a Solid Faith
scroll down until you get to this title.

mmm mmm good

While we enjoyed a most delightful spinach, artichoke, bacon, tomato, and feta pizza this evening... Jude was able to enjoy his first bite of rice cereal. Mmmmm...






























Yes, those hands that are helping him partake of his most tasty mush belong to big sister Jeneva.

Yes, he is much too young to realize or even mind that the bib he is sporting is pink.

change is good

I needed to change my template. The orange and green one was looking too much like my dining room. I love my dining room, but needed something different to look at on the computer screen.

jude & elaina

jude with his new little lady friend. elaina kay.

i was tagged...

Okay, so Jenna tagged me awhile back and I'm finally getting around to filling this out and exposing my deepest, darkest secrets. Here goes:

10 Years Ago:

I was living in a really funky, old, yellow house in good old 'nordeast' with great roomies. We painted the kitchen bright blue. We had very 'loud' orange counter tops to match and some retro tablecloths for curtains. There were three interesting, odd, crazy fellows that resided in the upstairs living space. We had neighbors named Bob and Bunny. Their teenage son dressed goth and had a habit of backing into our vehicles. Every once in a while we would trap a mouse with a pan (or we would scream loud enough for the guys living upstairs to hear and come to our rescue.) We hung on the stoop a lot. Our rent totaled a whopping $400 a month. Divided by 4 that's a pretty killer deal! Our landlord gave us gift certificates to a hole-in-the-wall steak place every year for Christmas. This may have been around the time I came home from class one day to find a school bus had run into our house. Really. Truly. So, anyway, besides that, I was a junior at Northwestern and I think at about that time I retired from the Cross Country team. I also at that time retired my obnoxious bangs and layered t-shirts. I had a deep down crush on someone (I won't mention any names), but started dating someone else from....dare I say it....Bethel.

Things to do on my TO DO list for today (or tomorrow morning):

*Finish putting laundry away.
*Talk to Jenna about food for our small-group-to-the-cabin excursion this weekend.
*Call Molly
*Do Fire and Reign Bible study before the weekend.
*Give Jeneva a bath.
*Cancel Jude's Physical Therapy appt.
*Figure out what's for dinner.

3 of my bad habits:

*Obsessively checking my e-mail.
*Jumping from task to task rather than focusing on one thing at a time.
*Hitting the button on my answering machine so that it stops blinking and then forget to listen to the message and return the phone call.

If I suddenly become a Billionaire:

I would pay off our loans and mortgage and put enough away for our children's education and for our retirement.

I would pray that pride and greed would not enter my life, because of this truth in Scripture:

23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19: 23-24

I would want to keep enough to live comfortably and modestly, but not lavishly. I would like to give a lot of it away and find creative ways to bless people. I would also like to travel with my family and re-decorate my house. I really have to check my heart on this one. I guess I would REALLY have to pray about it and ask God for wisdom and guidance. I would probably help to support organizations such as: Robbinsdale Women's Center, Desiring God, Here's Life Inner City, Hope Academy, Gospel for Asia...

5 jobs I've had:

*Cheese Factory
*Walgreens cosmetics---you know me and makeup!
*ACR Homes (group home for people with physical and mental disabilities)
*2nd grade teacher
*Cutting hair for a wee bit of cash in the laundry room at NWC.

6 things people don't know about me:

*I was born with 6 fingers on one hand (passed that trait along to my son)
*I love to read, but rarely finish books.
*I like to eat the heart and gizzard from a chicken (yes, fully cooked)
*I have fat ankles (really, ankle bracelets don't fit)
*I've been to Montana 6 times.
*I like pants. I like to buy pants. I like jeans. I always notice what kind of pants others are wearing. If I go shopping because I need new shirts, I will probably come home with a pair of pants instead. (You can add that to the billionaire question. Yes, I would buy more pants)

Okay, that wasn't so bad. I am going to tag...Shari

prayer

We sang this song yesterday in church and for some reason the words really struck me. As I sang it I found myself praying those words for Jeneva and Jude.

Speak, O Lord
-Keith Getty

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

gone. vanished. forever.

If one fails to properly back files up on one's computer before updating it one can lose things such as: resumes, 3 years worth of their journal, 2 years of photos neatly organized, tax information for their new small business, kindergarten lesson plans, passwords and usernames for on-line billing, and various other things of significance. It's even more unfortunate if one does not have hard copies of many of these things...

and now we are back

We are apparently exhausted from a long but very fun week in Iowa. My old stomping grounds.We loaded up the car last Saturday morning. Dropped my honey (gee, I'm sounding like Yvette) off in Cottage Grove where he then left for Little Falls to take a paramedics refresher course for the Guard. Jeneva, Jude and I headed south where you would THINK it would be a bit warmer. It wasn't. We are on highway 52 just across the Iowa/Minnesota border and immediately brake off the cruise control and "white-knuckle" it for about 45 minutes through black ice, blowing snow, and the sight of semi's and pick-up trucks in the ditches. God was gracious. We made it without so much as a little screech and slide at a stop sign. Jude slept the entire time and Jeneva listened to Adventures in Odyssey and then told me stories of little girls and birthday parties, pandas and peacocks. "Wake me up when we get to Grandpa's path, Mommy." Jeneva said. Apparently to a city kid a gravel road is called a 'path.'

While we were there, Jeneva helped my dad and mom get ready for their next batch of 8,000 turkeys.

We spent some time with my grandma's. Jeneva and Jude's GREAT grandma's. They are great for sure!

We also visited with an old friend and her three super cute kids, ate a lot of my moms AMAZING food, took some much needed naps, and visited a few aunts, uncles and cousins.
We had a super time. I am so thankful to God for blessing me with GREAT parents! They love Jesus and pray for their grand babies daily. That's one of the greatest gifts!

surgery?

Yep, folks, hernia surgery. If you need hernia surgery you might as well tag along with Mr. Miller! We were visiting Ma and Pa Stutzman in Kalona, IA this week and I noticed this in the local paper. I used to joke about a front page headline in the Kalona News a few years back: "Library Gets a New Door." Only in small town, USA would that make the front page! Gotta love it!