recent activities

We have been very busy the past couple of weeks.

CJ has been doing swim lessons, and has done great!  Two skills to work on include front floating and back swimming, but I know it won't be long before those are mastered as well.

Laurelei has been busy with Leda.  The two of them are very much 2yr olds and it is fun to watch them.  We are working on Laurelei saying SIT a bit more clear, less like Sean Connary's accent.  She has also been battling ear infections and constipation. This move seems to have been hard for her and has had some health concerns.  I pray that we make a turn and she can be her spunky self from now on. She's my little peanut weighing in at just 25 lbs and is 36 inches tall.

Kjetil has been doing great!  He has added avocado and squash and loves eating with the rest of us.  He is getting around more and more, when Leda isn't around to try and play with him.  He is six months old today and has his check up July 9th.

Eric has had a few more delays with his flights, and we now hope he gets finished up by about July 10th.  We are considering a small family get away this weekend, but have to wait and see how the week turns out.  Jo has found a place, at least for the next few months and has an interview for a teaching position on Tuesday.  The kids enjoy having her around but haven't quite figured out that she'll be around and that we'll see her again, ~tomorrow.

I guess I need to remember to take the camera along a bit more...

Have a good week.

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Working it all out

How are we doing? We're of course busy. Enjoying having Aunt Jo around, as she looks for a house, hope for her house in IA to SELL, and applying for jobs. We did get her out of the house today for some cool relief at the pool. Overall, how are we doing? Great, but let this video show you how we're doing.




It has been a long time since Panther had great match for a play partner. She and Leda have hit it off great and the kids love to watch them wrestle. Now if I could get them to take it outside.

A busy week

With SONROCK KIDSCAMP vacation Bible school last week, we were very busy.  And try and imagine a four year old, constantly chanting, in only an unbelieveable decible level, SONROCK KIDSCAMP over and over...my nerves are about shot.  But she had a great time and it was a wonderful theme.  They had over 90 kids and over 100 volunteers, and that is what makes it a great week!  However, VBS was hit with Influenza A, and CJ's class that started with 13 ended the week with only 5.  She managed to not catch it (in part I'm sure to all the disgusting things she has found to lick over the years).  Today they had a program.

This week both girls have swim lessons.  Bit surprising, the water is actually rather chilly, and with AM lessons, this could be interesting.  Maybe mostly for mommy who has to get in with Laurelei.

Kjetil started rice cereal 10 days ago, and thinks he is now some type of big shot!  He eats it right up and we have since added sweet potatoes. I made approximately 1 oz sized cubes for him, and he is already eating 2 cubes + rice cereal at a time! Note to self, buy more sweet potatoes and get 'em ready!

Eric has a couple of flights this week, so we won't see much of him.  Another busy week ahead for us!

Thirteen hours of chaos

Deep breath.  Take a deep breath, slowly let it out...this is what I am telling myself.

God is good, has a sense of humor, but never the lest, God is good.

Today, Monday, marked the first day of Vacation Bible School.  Since I don't have kids going to school, getting up and getting going is not something we do real well, yet.  In fact, 9am church seems to be elusive to us, if it was at 9:05 we could be on time, if it was at 9:10 we could be early --maybe.  However, VBS starts at 8:30, is about 35mins from our house, and I realized last night that I forgot to pick up the snacks I had promised to bring. Thus, I needed to make a stop at Fry's to pick up bananas and yogurt on the way, add 20mins.

To help make the morning go smoothly, I was busy preparing last night, laying out clothes, packing the diaper bag, loading the van.  This is when the thirteen hours of chaos begins.

11:00pm taking items to the van I notice that it was peacefully quiet.  And that seemed disconcerting.  Why?  Because our deep freeze has been chirping and singing away to us for quite awhile and it wasn't. For a brief moment I was happy, until I realized it was making NO NOISE.  No hum, no vibration of the motor, silent.  Uh oh!  We checked the outlet...power.  Not good.  Made room to move items in the morning to the fridge freezer since the deep freeze was full, put a thermometer in the deep freeze along with extra ice and at 11:30 sent an email to my dear friend Stephanie alerting her that I was going to need to 'rent' some space in her freezer --and go shopping during VBS.  I did some research online, I checked craigslist, Sears, Lowes, and Home Depot.  Eric and I made a plan.  Set the alarm for the crack of dawn.   About 12:15am I thought, hmmm I wonder if it is a self defrosting freezer, and got up to check the manual.  After searching for the manual and not finding it, I walked out to the garage and with a GREAT SIGH OF RELIEF, it was running again -sans the chirping.  12:30am I sent another email to Stephanie and told her to disregard the first one, and at about 1am I finally headed to bed.

The alarm went off, Eric got up and checked, still running and temp -20...all seems well.  Got the girls up, nursed the boy, and we all headed out the door, no one with shoes on, but at least in hand.  We even appeared to be running almost ahead of schedule.  Stopped at Fry's, loaded all three kidlets into the cart got in, got out, re loaded everyone into the van, off to VBS we go.

Kjetil began to fuss.  Odd.  But only a couple of minutes before we are to church.  I grab my Snugli, and reach for Kjetil and think, he is in an awkward position...and my heart sank!!!  I failed to strap him in properly, um at all, before we left the house, an hour ago.  I gave him the big guilty mama bear hug and THANKED the LORD for ALL of our safety and watching over us.  I then proceeded to put shoes on both girls (again) grab the snacks and head in.  As I checked CJ in -early I might add, I needed to pay for the T-shirt, oops, my wallet is in the car --I said I'd be back.  Met up with Stephanie, dropped off CJ, dropped off the snacks, watched a bit of worship and then left to run some errands.

Walking to the parking lot, Stephanie and I talked of carpooling, sounds great!  I turned to grab Kjetil's car seat and at that moment I realized that I had locked BOTH sets of keys in the van --with my wallet (however very happy that it wasn't full of meat from my deep freezer as well).  I called roadside assistance set up for someone to come and unlock my van, and Stephanie and I --after a bit of rearranging of her car seats, headed to waste time at Target.  Went back to the church to wait, surprised that we hadn't heard back from the company yet.  at 10:10am I called again, and as I tried to enter my reference # I realized a critical error I had made, I gave them my old cell number. --a product of moving too much recently.  Once I got a hold of roadside assistance again, they said that the company had already been there and gone. UGH!  Gave them the correct number and we headed out to grab a snack for the girls.  Got the call back, it will be 55 minutes before they can get back there.  No problem, THANK YOU for coming again.

Everyone fed, blood sugar back to normal and feeling better, Laurelei napping, we pull into the church parking lot, the lock smith is already there looking for me and the leaders of VBS are calling me on the phone looking for me --he was 15 minutes early.  Got the van unlocked, grabbed my purse, diaper, nursing cover, and we headed for some much needed retail therapy at Ross's.

Beginning to feel a bit better, and finding some great deals, I noticed at about 11:30am, that Laurelei, who is now potty trained, had pooped her pants.  Cleaned her up, threw away the panties, and at noon we headed back to the church.

I am very thankful. Despite surprises, set backs and even hurdles, Monday appears to be ending better than it began.  Everyone gets and extra kiss and hug as I tuck them in tonight, and I know that God promises that tomorrow is a new day, with new adventures.

Taking a deep slow breath in.

Summer fun

Despite having 100+ degree weather for the past month, Memorial weekend really did put summer into swing for us. We have checked out the base pool a couple of times...it is really fun and looks to be part of a new Sunday ritual. Next week CJ heads to VBS for the week. Swim lessons for the girls the following two weeks. We have hosted a BBQ Cookout and been to a couple. Evening hikes as a family are becoming the norm.

Eric has tried to fly several times, out of the past 4 flights, only one has counted. Frustrating but good to know they don't fly the plane when it is broken. He still has 5 flights to finish up for his mission qualification.

In a couple of short weeks, my sister will be moving out here. Very exciting times for us, as we have not lived close to family, let alone had family locally for a VERY long time. In case anyone is looking for a cute starter house in the Iowa City area, please let me know, I have a sister selling a house! ~I can hook you up!

At the moment we do not have any summer trips or vacations planned. Waiting for Eric to finish up, and with CJ starting school on July 20th, our summer is very short this year.

I took this video a while ago...at first the game went from...oh oh oh, I'm going to slide to, I Did It! Swimming even in the back yard is a great way to wear out the kids.