Owen-isms

Owen has been really inquisitive about God lately

he says, "mom, lets talk about how God loves me"

and "why is Jesus made out of God?"

and "mom, if I sit in this car seat will you talk about me?"

I respond "sure, what do you want to talk about?"

"God" he replies

I have been cherising these conversations

and hope they continue for a long time

Phrase of the Week

Caeden: "mom, I can burp my ABC's"

First Race

Friday night was Caeden and Mike's first BMX race. They joined the NBL (national bicycle league) and raced at the track in Naples where they have been practicing for some time now. We took our time to make sure Caeden was ready to race, and now it is toward the end of the BMX season. I think the state championships is in two weeks. We are not sure when they will race next or if they even have many races in the summer, but last Friday was so much fun watching them both out on the track and it was worth the wait.

Caeden raced against two 6 year old boys because there wasn't anyone else in the 5 and under age group. Mike raced against 4 other people in the 35-39 age group, which apparently is one of the toughest categories in the state of Fl. There was a 16 yr old. who is in the top 5 in the state that raced in Mike's heat. At the end of the night, Caeden got a first place trophy and Mike got a second place trophy.

My parents, Hope & Todd, Kylie & Drew and Owen & me were in the stands cheering loudly.Later that night Caeden said, "I want to win another trophy." and the next morning he said, "Mom, how did I win first place?" It was cute, because he couldn't understand how he could win first place when he came in third in each heat. This is just the beginning of a very long future in BMX for our family, and I love it!

24

Tuesday April 20, 2010. Mike has been out of town for 3 days now and will return Thursday evening. We are trying to survive. Here is our personal 24.

06:45 am- i am awake

07:10 - caeden is awake

07:30 -wake up owen to take his medicine for his ear infection

07:45 -eat breakfast and talk to Amber and Dylan on Skype.

08:30 -owen finally takes his medicine after a lot of bribing and several threats

09:00 -caeden runs in the house and falls on a unsharpened pencil (yes he was holding it while running) and punctures his eye

09:30 - meet realtor to sign papers for another offer on our house

09:45 - pediatricians office for caedens sore throat and newly punctured eye

10:30 - come back home with no meds and no stitches for caeden

11:00 - reserve 15 spots on May 1st on the Pieces of 8 family pirate cruise for Caeden's 5th bday

11:30 - Prepare green smoothies, left over pizza, and homemade gluten free butter cookies for lunch. Kids loved the smoothies!

13:00- all 3 of us lay in my bed to take a rest, because we are all feeling under the weather

13:30 -owen goes to his bed to take a nap, (he wasn't resting)

14:15 -kylie comes to the house to babysit so I can go to my orthopedic surgeon for more x rays and an update on my fractured radius

15:00 - 18:15 -at Dr. Kagans office with no book and no water bottle and no good magazines. YES the doctors visit lasts 3 hours. All to find out that my fracture is healing well but I am to wear this darn sling for 3 more weeks. Then he offered me a PT job of all things. I must have been hiding my annoyance well. I passed the time with mingling with other disgruntled patients and by counting my pulse and figuring every 10 beats my heart would skip. I have been feeling these palpitations since Sun. but never sat down long enough to figure them out. I just figured it was due to the large amounts of Extra strength tyelonol, organic iced green tea, or Echinacea I had been ingesting lately. During this time my thyroid doctor called me to tell me that my T3 levels were too high, I needed to lower my thyroid dosage, and that was the cause of my malfunctioning heart.

17:30 - my parents relieve Kylie and pick up the boys to meet me for dinner

18:00 - we are supposed to be at the bmx track for C's practice. His first race is the 23rd.

18:45: -eat Alice Springs Chicken at Outback with my parents and kids

19:30 -take the kids to play on the playground at lakes park

20:45 -bath time, Bible stories, then put Caeden to bed, he is exhausted and feeling sick

21:00--21:30 -Owen lays in my bed and we talk, he was wide awake and happy to have his turn of sleeping in mommys bed since Daddy was out of town. He would ask me serious questions like, "mom do you have a motorcycle?"

22:00 Caeden comes in my room crying really hard. I thought maybe he had a bad dream and i told him he could lay in bed with us. (we had been asleep by then)

22:00 -1:30am caeden cries all night long every time he swallows (now we are not sleeping)

01:30am -I finally give him some tyelonol I then go to use the bathroom

01:35am -The Toilet Clogs. And my one-armed plunging is not fixing it

02:00am - to 06:45 am try to fall asleep amongst 2 kids and a dog in my bed making a lot of noise all night.

Dear Husband, AKA Jack Bauer, we need rescued!

I am getting better, only cried once. I would like to say that I am able to handle it all on my own, but that would be a lie. Truth is if I hadn't gotten up at 6:45 to pray and fast for my husband, then i would have been a basket case the rest of the day. Thank you Lord, for protecting my son and his eye, for letting me see the humor in a day gone awry, for giving me a husband who loves and laughs with me through it all, and for rescuing me every 24.

Happy 3oth birthday Uncle Todd

It was a Beatles theme, we had each couple or family pose with John Lennon glasses.

Even at 30, you need a pinata

the two boys on the left are Todd's nephews

It was a blast of a surprise party.

Handmade Church

C's latest project at school was to build a handmade church.

Here it is!

We covered a box in scrapbook paper, then cut out windows and decorated the sides.

He made people, a carpet, a bench, and a cross for the pulpit. the guy in green by the cross is the pastor. I tried to teach him how the Bible refers to the church as God's family. The building is not the church, but God's people are. I tried to have him use different colored paper for the people, but he liked the white paper better. But, he did draw different sized people, men, women, and a spider with 8 legs, so.....!

The roof was all his idea, we took a flat sheet of cardboard bent it in the middle and glued the edges down. He created it how he saw fit. One side says, "God loves me" and the other side says, "I love God"

I like the doors. they are covered in purple paper and tied with a ribbon to close

Voila!

10 things i am loving right now!

1. this etsy sign that says READ

2. my friend Lee who blogged about this sign and who wrote an incredible and inspirational book by the name Found Art

3. I am enjoying reading so much more than I ever have. My 2010 resolution of reading one book a month has been very enjoyable. Right now I am reading, Shepherding a child's heart by Ted Tripp. I am also enjoying God's Word, it has been my delight and my salvation each day. I am falling more and more in love with God and that makes me so excited.

4. Elana's Pantry: I love her cookbook and her online recipes. They are healthy and delicious and my boys have devoured them all with glee.

5. Almond Flour: for someone who is trying to stay away from gluten, yet loves to bake, this has been a God-send. It is higher in protein, lower in carbs, lower in glycemic index and still bakes well. Cookies are the one food that I have had a more difficult time baking because this flour makes the cookies fall apart more easily, But I have made pancakes, cupcakes, brownies, biscotti, and a chocolate torte and all were delicious.

6.my new zebra towels from West Elm

I got the brown color along with plaine green king size sheet set for 14 bucks. SCORE

7. Spring Break (pics not loaded yet)

was most enjoyable because we had so many fun outings. My good friend from college, was here for a week, we spent several days with them lounging by the pool. We also went to the beach and gymnastic world with some of the kids friends. Then My sister in law, brother in law and nephews came to stay with us for 3 days. The boys have had so much fun lately with so many different boys to play with and being busy made it a little easier week for this one-armed mother.

8. my new navy sandals from a little store in Bell Tower shops (sorry no pics)

9. Dylan, my adorable nephew who needs to visit the states again really soon

10. Date night

tomorrow night, we are going on a date to see the movie Date Night

A couple of posers

stupid idea

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.

~James E. Starrs

unless you are a clutz with a broken arm who tries to

ride downhill in the sand on a bike with bad pedal brakes!

yes i did

yes it was stupid

yes my arm hurts

the END

Phrase of the Week

Caeden:" Mom, I am gonna serve the Lord and all my family, and all my friends!!"

Me: "wow, that is awesome. Me too"

Owen: "Mom, you don't have any friends"

Not in the plans

Just when life seems so smooth, watch out for the roadblock or the cement block in my case.

I signed up to run a 10k in Naples on April 11th. It is a little farther than I usually run, but I was up for the challenge. Last Saturday I was planning to run 4 miles. 3 miles into the run, I glanced down at my watch when i should have been watching the ground. The sidewalk split and the lip stuck up higher than normal, my foot hit it just right. I went down so hard that I didn't even know I fell until my face smaked the ground. My first thought was I broke my nose. I sat up, stunned, then Abby and I walked to the car as she consoled me. When I got home, Mike laughed at my clumsiness and I had some scrapes, bruises, aches, and pains but didn't think I was hurt that bad. 2 hours later my left elbow felt like it was going to fall off if I moved it. We got a sling so i could rest my arm, spent the day at the Easter Extravaganza at C's school, went to church that night, ordered pizza, and by 8pm I thought maybe I should go to the ER. It was definitely feeling worse. My mom accompanied me to the ER for 3 1/2 hours. We passed the time with people watching, NCAA tourney watching, and reading books. X-rays revealed that my arm was broken. They put me in a half cast (the purple thing above). Fast forward to monday, we saw the Orthopedic surgeon who explained that the bad news is the head of my radius is fractured, the good news is no surgery, and no cast. Just need to keep it in a sling for 2 weeks, then more X-rays. The doctor drained my elbow because it was so swollen. He took 2occ's of blood out of my elbow and then proceeded down the hallway showing to everyone because that much is usually only found in the knee and not an elbow. The pain has improved and the motion is better but still limited. It is not easy living life with one arm. This experience was not in my plans, but will slow me down for a while and will make me more empathetic Physical Therapist.