Dentist gets married... then arrested?

I was watching the 10:00 nightly news, and I saw a strange and unusual story that became disturbing on a more personal level. Two local newlyweds were arrested on their wedding night for causing some sort of big fight in the hotel where they were staying. It turns out that the man that got married and then arrested, Dr. David Wielechowski, was the dentist that Isaiah went to a few months ago for his first cleaning. Dan, who took Isaiah to his first dentist appointment, said the doctor seemed nice. I guess you just never know...

Dan is Ernie and I'm Bert

The title has nothing to do with this post. It's just something Dan and I figured out while giving the boys a bath tonight.

I decided to work on Samuel's baby book this afternoon. I was trying to fill in the blanks, you know, first tooth, first time he rolled over, first time he discovered his hands, and I realized that I had no clue about any of those dates. So where did I turn? My blog and my digital pictures. Weird, huh? Thank goodness for that date stamp on the pics!

It's amazing how much he's changed already.

Did you ever have this weird feeling that you're looking into the past when you're looking at pictures that aren't that old? Sometimes I can almost imagine what I'll feel like looking at Samuel's baby pictures when he's two years old. It's the same way I feel about Isaiah's baby pictures now. I just can't believe he's gotten so big so quickly.

It's a good way to remind myself to try to enjoy every day.

Push me higher

Isaiah is getting a lot more brave and is willing to swing higher every time we go to the park. I was swinging next to him, and all of a sudden he yelled out, "Mommy, hold on!" See, I wasn't going very high and wasn't holding on. Of course, I have told him to hold on so he doesn't fall off. It's funny how he thought the same thing should apply to me, as if I would fall off as easily as he would.

Then I thought, maybe that's how it is when we impose our human limitations on God. We can only do so much, and sometimes we forget that God has no limitations. It's a very liberating thought, isn't it?

That don't impress me much...

There's a verse that Dan used in his sermon last week that has been sticking with me. It's Phillipians 2:4, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." It seems so simple and basic, but how often do we make our own interests a priority, forgetting about the needs of others? There have been a few times in the last two weeks that I have been in that moment of decision (you know that moment where you really don't feel like doing the right thing, or the best thing, and you just want to take the easy way out?), and that verse has come to mind. It has been the kick in the pants that I sometimes need to convince me to do the right thing.

Also, the verse before that one struck me. Among other things, it says (in the New Living Translation), "Don't try to impress others." Wow. How often do we make decisions based on what will impress someone. How often do we share what our kids are doing or something that we accomplished with the goal of impressing someone? How freeing would it be if we could stop trying to impress people? Thinking about this verse has really helped me examine my motives. Before I say something, this verse will come to mind, and sometimes I'll just keep my mouth shut.

This might reduce the number of abortions...

This is a follow-up to my post from the other day about abortion services. So here is my idea on how to reduce the number of abortions in this country: A non-profit organization could offer free ultrasounds before appointments at abortion clinics. I think that after seeing what (or who!) is inside her, a woman could make a more informed decision about the abortion. Of course, I would be rooting for her to decide to have the baby and either keep the baby or put it up for adoption.

With my own boys, I saw Isaiah's beating heart when I was only six weeks pregnant. if a woman could see that there is a beating heart inside her, she might think a little harder before stopping that beating heart. As I noted in my previous post, there are clinics in the Pittsburgh area that will perform abortions up to 24 weeks gestation. By 24 weeks, you can identify all the major, and many of the minor, parts of a baby! Even the untrained eye can see the skull, nose, spine, hands, feet, etc. Hopefully seeing that would help a woman think more about the baby inside her than herself and her own rights as a woman, and that it's not just her body any more.

Dan's thought was that with all the 4D ultrasound technology becoming more popular, the old black and white ultrasound machines will probably be obsolete in a few years. We could possibly aquire those used machines for next to nothing.

God truly does knit us together in our mother's wombs!

So that's my idea. Anyone know how to start making it a reality?

This made me laugh...

Fun Weekend

So this weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time. On Friday night Dan's parents watched Isaiah and Samuel while Dan and I went to see Eden Christian Acadamy's performance of Narnia. It was great to see teachers I used to work with and former students. It's amazing how much they've grown this school year!

Then on Saturday my mom took me shopping, which was a blast. I haven't bought clothes lately because I'd still like to lose some more weight and get back to my "normal" weight. But she got me some cute clothes, and Dan watched the boys at home.

On Saturday night we went to a friend's wedding. I hadn't been to a wedding since my sister's in January of 2005. So it was nice to get to go to one. A bunch of old friends from summer camp were there, so we had a great time. The wedding itself was traditional and beautiful. (By the way, I'm still not sure what "let no man put asunder" means...) The reception was in Pittsburgh on the South Side in a cute little restaurant called Folino's. The food was delicious, the cake was beautiful. (I should have taken a picture...) And Tom and Abbie seemed like they had a great time.

This was not so great: on Saturday night, I saw the mother of all spiders in our bedroom. Dan was already sleeping, but he woke up and heroically squashed the thing, amidst squeals and screams from me at its every move.

On Sunday afternoon, I got to go to a spa party hosted by a friend of mine. She had all these wonderful smelly lotions and stuff. It was great. And my feet still feel soft and smooth.

So that was a fun weekend in my book. I feel like I got lots of breaks from the boys, even though I love them and missed them. It is nice to have them in someone else's hands for a while.

Life

Yesterday we received a new phone book. I was flipping through it, looking to see if there were any good coupons. I noticed that the first listing was for Abortion Alternatives. Listed there were some good local family counseling services and adoption agencies that are free to the birth parent. Good stuff!

The next listing was Abortion Services. What I saw on those ads literally made me sick to my stomach. There were ads for abortion services up to the time a woman is 24 weeks pregnant. That thought alone just blows my mind. How anyone could perform these services is beyond me. I've seen my own boys' ultrasound pictures at 20 weeks, and there was no doubt in my mind that they were living beings. They kicked and squirmed and sucked their thumbs. Their beating little hearts had four distinct chambers. To end a life at that point is nothing short of murder. (In fact we were able to see Isaiah's heart beating when I was only six weeks pregnant - truly remarkable. I didn't have an ultrasound that early with Samuel.)

Every child has such potential. Just think. That unborn baby could be the next Mozart, Sidney Crosby, President of the United States, a community leader, or a pastor. There are so many families who want to adopt babies, that if a woman could just stick it out and make it through the pregnancy, her child would surely be adopted into a loving home.

P.S. In an upcoming post, I will share with you an idea of mine that I really think could reduce the abortion rate.

Today's shenanigans

I was drying my hair, and when I came out of the bathroom, the door to outside was open. The child and the cat were both outside. Oy. When I asked Isaiah what in the world he was doing, he said, "Obi wanted to go outside." He is an indoor cat. Isaiah knows Obi isn't allowed outside. So that was the first crazy thing.
While Isaiah was cleaning up before bed time, I laid Samuel on the floor and played piano for a few minutes, with my back to the living room. I heard both of them laughing, and I looked over my shoulder to see Samuel in a totally different orientation than a minute ago. I asked Isaiah what he did to Samuel and told him to show me. He rolled Samuel over, in a way that should be terrifying to a baby, but Samuel was laughing his head off! So Isaiah basically rolled him around the living room a few times, and, even though Samuel seemed to be enjoying it (he is a very beefy baby after all), I eventually put a stop to it.
Now they are both sleeping and I can breathe easy... until tomorrow morning. =)

Sam's teeth

Samuel sprouted his first tooth on Friday and his second one on Sunday. I took these pictures, and even though you really can't see his teeth, I thought they were cute anyway. The amazing thing is that his gums don't seem to be bothering him. We haven't given him any Tylenol, and he's been sleeping just fine. Yeah Sam!
And Isaiah apparently is not going to nap today. So I told him it's quiet time, and he's playing nicely with his trains. This is the second time that he's skipped his nap. We'll see how that goes.
He has also started this new thing where he wants to know how to spell everything. "Mommy how do you spell _________?" Fill in the blank with anything a child's imagination can dream up. It's fun though. I feel like I'm in a perpetual spelling bee.
By the way, there's a word that has always kind of bothered me. It's the word "paradigm." It's the word that I spelled wrong in the final round of my high school's spelling bee. I spelled it "paradygm." I have relived that misspelling moment so many times. Such a shame. =)

Ahhhhhhhhh.... =)

There's something about sleeping in 'til 10:00 a.m. that makes you feel like a whole new person. (Especially since we were up 'til 1:00 a.m. working on taxes). I haven't slept in that late since before we had Isaiah. It's a beautiful day outside, though somewhat cold, and we don't have much, if anything, planned for today. Sounds like the makings of a wonderful day!

Just some thoughts...

While Isaiah was at school this morning, I got a call from his school. Talk about scary! Immediately, a million thoughts raced through my head. He was sick. He was hurt. It turns out they had just lost a check and needed me to rewrite it. Boy, was that a relief!

• After school, I took him to the library. He was holding two Thomas videos that needed to go back to the library. When we pulled into the parking lot, he said, "Are we going to put these in the library garbage?" That made me laugh really hard. He thought the book and video return was the garbage. All this time, he must have been thinking we were throwing away library books and videos. Ah. Kids think the funniest things.


• Samuel has been rolling from his belly to his back for over a month now. He's been so close to rolling from his back to his belly for a few days now. This afternoon, he finally did it! Now the diaper changing gets more interesting with him trying to flip over while I'm changing him. =)

Piano parallels

When the piano tuner called and said he could come today, I moved the piles of music books from the top, because he would have to open it up to tune it. (See some pictures below.) I also got out the pledge and dusted the whole thing. I vacuumed around it and behind it. It smelled great and looked clean and shiny.

When he arrived and started taking things apart, it was frightening and embarrassing to see what was hiding deep in the piano: loads of dust bunnies and even a spider. Yuck!

So I started thinking that our lives can be like that. Just how I thought the piano was clean, and the piano tuner showed me that it was really very dirty inside, so God shows us things in our lives that need to go: sin, bad habits, destructive behavior, jealousy, or whatever. We may think we are living good lives, and I hope we are, but God may reveal something undesirable when he shines his flashlight into the deepest parts of our lives.

Piano Tuning

I finally got my piano tuned today. (It was my birthday gift from my mom, Katherine and Matt... My birthday is in September.) Push came to shove when one of my piano students was having a hard time playing her recital song last week because my piano had a sticky key.
In order to fix the key, and check for other sticky keys, the piano tuner had to take all the keys off. I knew the keys came off a piano, but I guess I thought that they came off in one big piece. That's not the case. Each individual key comes off separately. I was a little concerned that the keys might not all go back on in the right order. He explained that for my brand of piano, which is an older, American-made piano, each key will only go in one place in one piano. And just in case, they're all numbered. =)
Yes, I did kind of feel like a dork taking these pictures, but I've played piano for 20 years(hard to believe... I'm getting old), and have never seen anything like this!


Isaiah kept pointing to all the tiny pieces inside the piano, wanting to know what they're all called. Bill loved talking to him and kept saying, "This is such a fun age." What a great guy.
So if anyone's looking for a piano tuner in the Pittsburgh area, I'd highly recommend Bill Glesner at A-1 Piano Tuning. (The last time he tuned my piano, Dan asked him how he chose the name for his business. He said, "Simple. It's the first one listed in the phone book." So simple, it's ingenious.) He'll show up with a brief case filled with tools that look like they were made in the 1800s. He uses mostly a tuning fork and his ears, and does a great job.

Bye bye baby swing

Isaiah's preschool had a kid's consignment sale that was a fundraiser for the school. So we took over a bunch of baby stuff that we never really used with either of them. Some gender neutral outfits, a baby swing that scared both of them, a back pack carrier, a front carrier, and some other small items.

Getting rid of baby stuff is kind of sad. It's the end of one chapter.


Why aren't we planning on any more kids? Well, before we were married we agreed to try for two kids. Dan and I each had one sibling and thought it was great. Now we're thrilled to have two boys. So bye bye baby swing.

I have to give a shout out to my cousin Jonathan who's turning the big 2-5 today. Here's to another quarter century Silly Will.

This picture would never be me...

Exercise balls are evil. That's what I decided during my Zumba class on Saturday.

My first encounter with an exercise ball was when I was pregnant with Isaiah and we were taking a labor and delivery class. Apparently some women like to use these exercise balls during labor to help manage pain. As all the other round-bellied women in the class were happily bouncing on theirs, I was just trying to get my balance on one. I wasn't able to do it, even with Dan helping me! Ever since then I have stayed far, far away from them.

Well, yesterday at the end of Zumba the instructor did some strength training with us. For the abs exercise, we had the option to use the ball or lay on the floor. Obviously, out of fear for my own life, I chose the floor. Then there was another lower back move that you had to do on the ball. Since people twice my age were doing it successfully, I decided to give it a try. What else was I supposed to do? Just sit there and look dumb? I figured it was better to look dumb trying. It was ok. I didn't fall off, but I spent all my energy just trying to stay on top of the thing.

I did almost fall over during the squats though, and these didn't even involve the ball. To do a proper squat, you're supposed to keep your knees behind your toes. Somehow when I went down, I just about lost it. It would have been quite hilarious if I actually fell over. I eventually got the hang of them. Then the instructor said, "If you're doing these right, you'll feel them tomorrow." She wasn't kidding. =)

And the award for worst mother of the year goes to...

me! Thursday night around 9:00 p.m. I checked Isaiah's school calendar (he goes to a two-year-old preschool on Friday mornings) because I wanted to see if this Friday was the day he was supposed to bring his favorite book to school. It was. Then I looked closer at the small print. It said, "Happy Birthday Isaiah." (First panicky realization) Oh no! Since Isaiah's birthday is in the summer, his teacher had said that he would have his birthday sometime in the spring. Suddenly, I realized that I had to come up with snacks for the whole class (10 kids). If I had realized ahead of time that it was going to be his birthday party, I could have come up with some creative, delicious, healthy, fun snack. I could have googled "fun birthday snacks." I probably would have incorporated trains somehow, since that is Isaiah's two-year-old obsession.

Instead, I went to Giant Eagle, bought the first easy bake pre-mixed tube of goo I could find. I also picked up this can of icing (kind of EZ-cheese style of a can) that came with its own tips. I came home, threw the cookies in the oven, and tried to think of what to draw or write on the cans. (This story is getting long...) I couldn't figure out anything good, so I just wrote "I" (for Isaiah) on each one. Poor kid.

So the next morning, I sent Dan and Isaiah off to school with his cookies. Dan called me shortly after dropping Isaiah off and said that someone else already had cupcakes there. What? I knew there weren't two birthdays on the same day. (Second panicky realization) Oh no! Today's not April 11th! It's only the 4th. Will the kids all have a sugar high? What will the teacher do? (I talked to the teacher when I picked him up, and she was fine with it.)

Aack.

All I can say is that I really tried. And Dan and I decided that this is why kids need to go to preschool. So we parents can figure out how to do this whole school thing. (And no, teaching for 6 years didn't help at all.)

=)

Strange story

In a bit of strange and unusual news, my middle school made national news. Apparently a girl from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, CT was attacked by a hawk at Fenway park in Boston while they were on a field trip there. If you want to check out the story, you can see a video here. Anyway, just the mention of my middle school brought back a flood of old memories, mostly good. I had a blast in middle school. I had great friends, and most of my teachers were really fun. So today, I'm thankful that I had a wonderful middle school experience.
By the way, this is the only picture I could find. I'm sure it didn't look nearly this romantic in real life!

Watch out! It's very contagious!

Blogging that is. =) Recently several of my bffs from college have started their own blogs. I think it's great. It's hard to keep in touch now that we're all older and have kids. So I love being able to sit down when I have a few minutes and catch up with what's going on in their lives and hear their thoughts. So watch out. The blogging bug might bite you next.

To dye or not to dye

I can't believe Jaime blogged about gray hair! Just on Tuesday night I was looking at that exact same scripture about gray hair, Proverbs 16:31 "Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life." I was trying to think of how that verse applies in our American culture today and to me personally.

It seems that, according to the Bible, I should be proud of my gray hair. I should see it as a reward for living a long (is 29 years considered long??), Godly life.

What message am I getting from the media and Hollywood? Are they proud of gray hair? No. The message I get from them is that the way to look beautiful is to look young. Actors even go to extremes like repeated plastic surgeries, botox, etc., to maintain a youthful look.

What message am I getting from the older women in my life? Not many of them have gray hair, because they have chosen to color their hair. I guess that means that they don't see gray hair as something to be proud of. Are they influenced by the media? Or should it just be a personal decision?

So does the whole gray hair thing matter? Is it one of those cultural things that doesn't apply now, like how women in the New Testament weren't supposed to wear braids and jewelry? I don't know. I can't figure it out. But it won't be long until I have to make a decision for myself.

Through different eyes

I've gone to church all my life and tend to accept many things about the church without thinking about them. But lately God has given me the ability to see things as an unchurched person might see them. Two examples:

1) On Sunday we sang a song that said about God: "be magnified." What. With a magnifying glass? =) You have to admit that it sounds kind of weird. I mean, we used 'magnify' to mean 'glorify' etc. But try to see it through the eyes of an unchurched person. Here's another one:

2) God wants to 'use you.' We think, "Great! Awesome! God can use me!" An unchurched person might think it's not such a great thing to 'be used.' When your friends use you, it's not such a great thing. People can use you for financial gain, to climb the corporate ladder, or to make friends with someone else. In general, it has a negative connotation. Now, I was thinking, if someone feels they have no purpose in their life, the thought of them being able to be used by God could be well received.

So, those are just some thoughts I wanted to share, especially for those in ministry or those talking to unsaved friends.

Not surprising...

On Sunday we had a guest speaker named Rev. Jim Ailes. He is just a great guy who loves God. I knew the title of his message and his scripture passage the week before. So I just went from that when I was planning the music for Sunday. We sang this song called "The Love of God," which is an old song which has been redone to sound more updated. Anyway, the words to the song are just so profound, and come as close to expressing the vastness of God's love for us as I think our human minds can comprehend. When Pastor Jim got up to speak, he said that that song was one of his favorites, and it also went right along with the point of his message. We hadn't planned it, but God did. =) Now, I'm not blogging about this because it surprised me. I'm actually blogging about this because it didn't surprise me.

When I was teaching at Eden, I led worship for two chapels per week, and I usually didn't know the speaker or what he/she would be talking about. The first time the speaker got up and said, "Wow. You read the exact scripture that I'll be speaking about," I was surprised and amazed. Over time, I grew to expect God to work like that.

Anyway, here are the words to the song.

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure -

The saints' and angels' song

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill

And ev'ry man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Tho' stretched from sky to sky

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure -

The saints' and angels' song