Outside fun

Last week sometime, Grace drew this picture. (It's drawn with a water pen on special foam, so it eventually evaporated.) Can you tell what the two figures are? They're people! See the circles with eyes, and then the lines for bodies? I can't remember which one, but I think the one on the right is Luke! I was surprised she could do that already!

We also got to spend some wonderful time outside when the weather was nicer than it is now. Glorious! The kids played for a while on the cement (bubbles, sidewalk chalk, truck, ball, etc.). And then we went for a walk around our pond. Grace tried desperately to see the many turtles that were sitting on the fallen logs in the pond, but she just couldn't seem to see what I was pointing to. She kept saying, "Turtles, where are you?!" I wish we had a little rowboat so we could go out on the pond and maybe catch one or two. I'm certainly not going to step in the nasty muck (I got that out of my system at CU), so I'd need a boat.

And here's Caleb, driving around his truck like a little man. I love seeing the gender differences in Grace and Caleb that God has instilled in them from birth! I didn't teach Caleb to bang on things and drive trucks around on the ground and be loud. He's just a boy! And I love it!

I had another OB appointment Tuesday. All is well. Baby's heartbeat was 155. Our ultrasound is scheduled for Monday, April 30. Yay!

And this weekend, we'll be spending some time up north with my family. It'll be good to see them again. Grace has been asking for about nine days when we'll get to see Grandma and Papa again. We've been counting down the days, multiple times each day. So, I'm ready to get to "0!" :-)

Hope all is well with everyone. "HI!" to my sisters-in-law who are currently totally engrossed in college work. Not long until Erin's a senior and Betsey's a junior! Yay, you two!

That's all for now!

How much did you say that was going to cost?

We have Kenmore appliances. I have generally liked them the whole year-and-some that we've lived in this house. Especially our fridge; I love our fridge.

Oh, but our oven. It has a problem. Its handle likes to fall off. It was down to every couple of weeks it would fall off, and then eventually, every couple of uses. So, eventually, we screwed the screws in so tight, that one side was stripped. And, of course, we procrastinated and didn't call about our problem within the one-year limit of the warranty. (DaRn.) So, we ordered a new handle, and were assured that our screws would work with this new handle, or it would come with screws if it needed to. (The guy didn't really know.) Uh, yeah, the screws are just slightly too large. So, after paying an exorbitant amount for this stupid oven handle (don't even ask), we can't even use it.

So, of course I called Sears today about the screws. We went through the whole ordering process, and the lady never mentioned a cost, so (silly me) I thought maybe they'd be free. (I mean, the screws were supposedly supposed to be in our original order.) Then we got all the way to the end, and she said she was ready for my credit card information. Okay, way to try to slip that one by me, lady. So, I ask how much it comes to. Do you want to know how much Sears wants me to pay for two screws and two tiny teeny little washers? $18.82. Almost twenty dollars! Are you kidding me?! So, I told her "No, thanks" and canceled the whole order.

Sheesh.

Happy belated Easter!

Here are our sweet children on Easter. I wanted to get a perfect picture of them, but it's pretty much impossible to get them both sitting still and both looking at the camera at the same time, not to mention looking happy. Ah, well, it's a good thing they're cute anyway!

Caleb had his 1-year check-up this Tuesday. He's 20lb 5oz, and 30-1/4in long. Not huge, but better than he had been. I think it's the 20th percentile for weight (up from the 8th) and 70th percentile for height (up from the 50th or 55th). So, not bad!

Speaking of Easter, Grace's favorite teacher at church, Miss Wendy, bought her a set of Resurrection Eggs. Each egg has one item in it (except the last one - which is empty). By going through these eggs in the right order, Grace can tell me the story of Easter! Isn't that cool? We start with the donkey in the first egg, and I ask her who rode the donkey. She says "Jesus...Jerusalem...Hosanna, Hosanna!" Then, there are coins in the next egg, and she says, "Money...betray Jesus." Although, she has a REALLY hard time remembering the name Judas. (It sounds an awful lot like Jesus.) And we go on, until we open the last egg, and she says, "Jesus is alive!" Isn't that cool? And she's only two. What a kid. I hope she really internalizes the meaning of the story as she gets older.

Welp, that's all for now!

Concert, birthday party, baby, surgery...

*Note: I actually wrote this post last Friday, April 6, and Luke uploaded the pictures for me from work. But then, a busy weekend took over, and dial-up is just excruciatingly slow. Sorry it's a little out-of-date!

As Alonna mentioned on her blog, we attended a concert last Thursday evening. Alonna, Luke, and I went down to K-zoo and were privileged to see Need to Breathe, who put on an amazing show, and Jars of Clay, who did a good job but weren't quite as exciting. But who doesn't like Jars of Clay, right? There was also another "band" called Disappointed with Candy. It was two extremely talented guys playing some extremely weird music. I was not a fan. Sorry, guys. It added insult to injury, since we were supposed to see Burlap to Cashmere, but they dropped out. So, Disappointed with Candy was their replacement. Boo.

My wonderful parents were very gracious and generous to come down on Thursday morning and watch the kids while Alonna, Luke, and I took off for the day/night. We got back around midnight on Thursday, I think. (Can't really remember.) Then they stuck around until Saturday evening. It was really nice to be able to have some quality time with them, and my mom was a HUGE help in getting ready for the party. Thanks, Mom! (And thanks for blowing up the balloons, Alonna!)

The party was a success! Caleb turned ONE on Sunday! Wow, huh? How time flies...Both of our families (minus Erin, Betsey, and boyfriends - we missed you!), plus the Brewsters and Sheridans came. It was fun. Lots of food, lots of wonderful gifts. A pretty sweet little boy. He didn't like his cake at first, but he did end up getting pretty messy. Wouldn't you know, I didn't take one picture of the cake part? Isn't that lovely? I've copied some pictures from my mom's camera, but I don't know if anyone got a good picture of the end result - Caleb covered in chocolate cake/frosting - before we threw him in the tub. Oh, well, I guess. That's what happens when the new baby is zapping my brain 24/7.

Speaking of baby, I had my "real" doctor appointment last Tuesday. It went well. The doctor said everything looks great. And she didn't even tell me to watch my weight! Good job, Dr. Anderson! The baby's heartbeat was up to 167 this time, so maybe Grace is wrong and it's a girl. We shall wait 25 more weeks (or 27, depending on how late the stinker is) to find out.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for my dad's surgery! It went extremely well! He had the surgery around 9:30am on Tuesday, and he was doing great when we saw him on Tuesday evening. He said he felt better after the surgery than he had before! Which is huge, since we expected a rough recovery. I hope everything continues to heal quickly and painlessly. Anyway, thanks for your prayers! They're effective!


I think that's all for now. I'm exhausted, and dial-up is stinking slow. I might actually blog more if we can ever get high-speed again. Then again, maybe I won't, since I'll soon be a mother of three. (YAWN.) Just thinking about that makes me want to take a nap...







-{lkr}