Lobster update

Today I stopped at the library to pay for the missing lobster. It came to $8. The librarian practically apologized for having to charge me. I didn't mind paying. I know it was my fault. I just didn't keep track of the thing and somehow it disappeared. So I paid, got a few new videos and went on my way.

Shortly after I got home from the library, the phone rang, and I didn't get to it in time. I checked the caller ID and it was the library. Weird. So I called them back, and the librarian said that they found the lobster in the on a shelf in the back with a note attached. Somehow the missing lobster FOUND HIS WAY BACK to the library! She didn't say what was on the note, and I was too shocked to ask. She suggested that maybe it fell out of the bag while it was still at the library before I checked it out. I wasn't going to argue, but I know that lobster was at my house. The kids were throwing it around, and it definitely was here. Oh well.

So when I go back to the library next time, I get my $8 back. =) Who knew.

Tagalong

No, this blog is not about those delicious peanut butter and chocolate Girl Scout cookies. I'm referring to Isaiah, who was my little shadow today. We had our last musical practice from 12:30 to 3:00. This is a good, mellow time of the day for Isaiah, so I decided to take him with me. He did so well! He mostly sat on my lap because he was pretty intimidated by the big kids. I got a chance to give him a back stage tour. He went up the stairs in the Who house and in Horton the Elephant's cage. He loved it!

A neat little side story... I was planning to get Isaiah a Cat in the Hat stuffed animal from Kohl's. They've had them for the last few weeks. Kohl's doesn't make any profit off of them. The stuffed animals are there to raise money for Children's Hospital. I almost bought him one yesterday but I didn't want to make one more stop. Well, when I got to musical practice yesterday afternoon, one of the lead characters gave me that exact stuffed animal! She and her mom bought them for all the directors to thank us for helping with the musical! I was so excited, because it's just one of those little ways God reminds me that He always provides everything we need... and some things we want. =) Of course Isaiah has been toting it around with him all day, but the tail, whipping it around and wapping it into everything in a perfect little boy fashion.

Back to today... Isaiah wanted to come with me to worship team practice tonight. He played nicely with our new drummer's younger brother who came along with him tonight. After practice I needed to run a few errands. Isaiah said he was, "Really hungry, like 25 hungry!" That means he's really hungry. He tries to use numbers to quantify how he feels about things. Like earlier (out of the blue) he said, "Mommy, you're not fair, like 13 not fair." I have no idea what that was about. So I got him a kids meal at GetGo.

Another side story... While we were in GetGo, Isaiah was holding a 16 oz. bottle of apple juice that I was going to let him get. For some odd reason, while my back was turned, he threw it up in the air, it landed on the floor, the cap flew off, and juice went everywhere. Surprisingly, I didn't freak out, but asked him, "Honey, why would you throw your juice in the air?" He just kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I notified the cashier and let him get another one. Oh well, right?

Things are so much easier when I just have Isaiah with me. Sam must be contained and supervised at all times, and it's much more of a struggle to get him into and out of his car seat. Isaiah can buckle his top car seat buckle, so that makes things a little easier.

So I had an unexpectedly nice day, spending much more time that usual with just Isaiah. Fun times!

Relaxing afternoon

Yesterday afternon, Sam napped from 1:30-4:30 - wonderful!!!. I fell asleep from 3:00-4:15, and Isaiah napped in between Dan and I on the double recliner from about 4:00-5:00. We had the windows open (something we couldn't do when we had our cat because he would pop the screens out and escape outside), and the warm breeze blowing through the house was so relaxing. We couldn't have asked for a better Sunday afternoon!

Seussical preview

At the end of the all-school chapel (see below) the Seussical cast performed one song to advertise next week's musical. I took a video of the song, but it's about five minutes long and would take forever to upload. So here are some pictures instead... aren't they cute!?

All-School Chapel

Eden's all-school chapel is a time when the entire school, all three campuses, come together to worship God. North Way's worship center was packed today, and the upper school praise band led worship. It was a privilege to see students, parents, teachers, administrators, and staff praising God together. The Eden family is made up of people from such diverse Christian backgrounds... from Assembly of God to Reformed Presbyterian and everything in between. We don't all agree on some fine doctrinal points, but we all sang "Mighty to Save" in unity. Very powerful.

Married for 67 Years

Check out this short article... this kind of love and dedication is rare these days!

Isaiah

I'm not really interesting. Mommy says I am. But sometimes I'm not really interesting. I went to the gym today. Ha! I was wondering if Aunt Janet will come to my house. I'm going to my Grandma Lorrie's house later because Mommy has to go to school again. After I go to my grandma's house I will leave from grandma's house. Then my mommy and daddy are going to pick me up. Thomas is so fun for me. I played with playdough and a game with Mom. But let's play a rhyming game. House. Mouse. Table. Bable. Cane. Bain. Zane. Gain. Lane. Done with the rhyming game. I want to go to Aunt Janet's house. And Papa's house. Someday I'm going to pretend like I am a puppy. Bye.

This is craziness!

7:30 Wake up, shower

8:15 Take Isaiah to school

9:00-11:00 Teach piano lessons

11:15 Pick Isaiah up from school, sit down for a while, eat lunch

1:45-7:00 Head to school to teach band then musical practice

7:00 Drive to pick up our guitar player, made it to church 10 minutes early for practice!

8:00-9:30 Worship team practice

9:30 Drive guitar player home

10:00 Sit down!

I actually saw Sam for a total of 25 minutes today. He was napping for most of the time I was home for lunch. Luckily he woke up around 1:20, so I got to eat lunch with him.

Anyway, I am exhausted. I can't wait til Seussical is over. The two weeks before production are always taxing, but I think it's kind of like having a baby. From year to year you forget the pain! That's how I always get myself into these things. But the kids are doing a great job and working so hard. It's going to be Eden's best show yet.

Video of Sam from a few weeks ago...

Soft heart

This isn't going to be a long preachy blog, but I wanted to share something from a book I'm doing. It's called, "Letting God Change You From the Inside Out," by Bill Hybels. In the first chapter, A New Heart, Bill wrote a side note about having a hard heart that really struck me. He writes,

"Hearts get hard when we habitually say no to God. The very first time you say no to God a little layer forms around your heart. The second time another layer goes around your heart. The third time another layer forms, and on and on it goes. A person who ends up saying no to God for a lifetime ends up with a heart encased by steel. As a person's heart grows hard, two things begin to happen. First the hardness drives them farther away from God. There is no openness, no sensitivity to spiritual things, no desire to hear God speak... Second, when a heart grows hard, there is a lack of sensitivity toward others. Selfishness sets in a generosity is driven away... True love in relationships and care for others is no longer a possibility for people with hearts lined with steel."

Hybels goes on to say that to cure a hard heart, we must admit our sin, let God forgive us and give us a new heart. He uses the apostle Paul as an example of a formerly hard-hearted person (Saul who murdered Christians) who eventually allowed God to move in his life, giving him a soft heart toward others.

I think this chapter helped me to realize how crucial those moments of decision are. When you're standing there and you know God wants you to do one thing, but you want to do something different, the consequences are farther-reaching than that one moment. Deciding against what God wants you to do will add a layer around your heart, between you and God.

Calling all babysitters...

Eden has been working on Seussical since mid-February. We've made good, consistent progress since then. But the two weeks before production always leave me saying, "I'm not doing this next year!"

The next few days are going to be totally crazy for me. We have practices and then performances every night for the next two weeks. Honestly, I'm exhausted and ready to be done with the whole thing, but the toughest work may lie ahead.

On top of that, Dan will be in Altoona for district conference for part of this coming week.

If anyone is willing to help out by watching Isaiah or Sam or both any evenings, please let me know!

Cabella's

On Monday Dan had the day off of work, so we headed down to Cabella's in Wheeling, WV. It was Dan's idea, and I'll be honest. I wasn't totally enthusiastic about the idea of driving an hour and a half to an outdoors store. But I have heard people rave about it, so we decided to go for it. The kids did great in the car, and I have to say that it was worth the drive.

The store had a mini-aquarium, some life-sized replicas of animals and many stuffed animals, taxidermy style. In the center of the store was a two-story mountain filled with animals. As you walked around the mountain, the seasons changed. It was pretty cool. There was also a waterfall down the mountain with a pond and stream filled with fish at the bottom.

The store itself had any kind of fishing, hunting, or camping gear you could want. Upstairs there was a general store with dozens of delicious flavors of fudge. I don't usually give into buying fudge, but who can resist blueberry pretzel cheesecake fudge?! Yum.

We ate lunch at the cafe which served everything from ostrich burgers, elk sandwiches, bison sausage and duck wings to home-cooked favorites like chicken dumpling soup.

The boys had a fun time as you can see from the pictures below.

Isaiah and Sam in the aquarium. You can see a sunken boat in the background.

Isaiah and me getting attacked by a leopard.

This elephant was fake, although most of the other animals were real... at one time.


Look out honey.

Two sleepy heads.

Easter weekend

I'm a little late putting these up, but here are some pictures of the boys with their Easter baskets and Isaiah coloring eggs.

Isaiah with his completed eggs. He had fun... and I love that vinegar smell!

Sam just watched and shoved Kix in his face. =)
Sam with his first real Easter basket. Last year he slept through the whole thing!

Isaiah loved his helicopter. =)

911 problems

As you probably know by now, three police officers were shot and killed recently in Pittsburgh. One development in the story is that the 911 operator who took the call about the domestic dispute failed to inform the police officers that there were weapons on the property. Had they known this, they could have been much better prepared to defend themselves, and maybe this tragedy would not have happened.

When I was pregnant with Sam, I passed out one morning. I was home alone with Isaiah, and when I came to, I was pretty freaked out and called 911. I specifically told the operator to have the ambulance cross the railroad tracks at the end of the road. I mentioned this several times and that our house doesn't show up on GPS. The ambulance took about 30 minutes to arrive, and we're only about 15 mintues from the nearest hospital. The paramedics apologized profusely saying that they couldn't find the house. Of course I asked if the operator had told them to cross the tracks, and they said that she didn't tell them that. Good thing it wasn't a life threatening situation!

Our 911 system needs an upgrade and maybe the operators need more training or accountability. I realize they take hundreds of calls per day, but for the sake of our residents, they need to increase their efficiency.

Regardless off the 911 situation, I think we're all reminded of how much these brave men and women are willing to sacrifice to protect us and maintain order.

Sense of direction

I've noticed that Sam has an unusually good sense of direction for his age. We went to Ross Park Mall today so the boys could run off some energy at the kid's play place. We haven't been there lately, so it was all new for Sam. He would walk over to a slide then immediately head to the opposite side to find the stairs. When he went through a tunnel, he would go through it, then go around to the other side to go through it again the same direction.

The other day we went to Adams Township Park which we hadn't been to before. I showed Sam where the stairs were on a big piece of playground equipment. He climbed up, went down the slide and found the stairs again without any prompting.

This should be a helpful advantage for Sam.

Missing lobster

I have nothing interesting to report except that I am plagued by a missing lobster. Our library has educational packs you can check out that contain a book about an animal, a stuffed animal, and a cassette tape to go along with it. We have no way to play a cassette at our house. The books are geared toward elementary kids and are way past Isaiah's understanding. So when we check one out, it's basically an excuse for the boys to play with a stuffed animal for three weeks.

About a week ago, I noticed that the lobster from our lobster pack was missing. I have checked inside pots and pans where he loves to hide trains; I have checked behind the recliner where I have found Dan's keys twice; I have searched everywhere I can think of where a squirrely 17-month-old might shove it.


I sent Isaiah up to his room to look for the lobster in his toy chest where he keeps his stuffed animals. He actually took all the animals out to see if it was in there. I thought that was a pretty good attempt at looking for something, especially for a three-year-old.

I called the library today to explain my predicament (since the pack is due back tomorrow). See I wanted to be proactive because I am really paranoid about our account getting flagged. That happened once when we accidently put the dvds in the book drop instead of the media drop. Two librarians alerted us to the problem before they would unflag our account! It was embarassing. Anyway they said it would be $8 to replace the lobster (which actually isn't a bad price - stuffed animals are expensive!).

For now, the librarian renewed the pack, so the lobster search will go on...

Weird story of the day

Apparently officers in Detroit broke up a pillow fight.

Night out

Tonight Dan and I got the rare opportunity to go out to dinner... alone! I looked through my Enjoy book, and we chose Miyako in Wexford based on the offer in the book.

We were seated with a family of five around a large grill. I would have preferred not to sit with a three-year-old who didn't want to eat (I can do that at home!) But they serve everything family style, so we just had to grin and bear it. First we had soup with mushrooms and sushi in it and salad with mystery dressing that was really good.

Then our chef came to our table and started flipping knives and stuff. He lit some onions on fire and started grilling shrimp and mushrooms for our appetizer. After he made some delicious rice and vegetables, he made steak and chicken. While he was grilling, he was sprinkling the food with various sauces, oils, and seasonings. Everything was absolutely delicious and the portions were perfect.

About a half hour after we finished eating, we were picking Sam up from Vern and Lorrie's, and my stomach started feeling iffy. By the time we got home it started making these weird growling sounds, and then I spent a good amount of time in the bathroom.

A few more trips to the bathroom, some imodium and tums later, I think the worst is over. What this all means to me? My digestive system has been too protected for too long. It's time to branch out!

The funny thing was that while we were eating, Dan and I were joking that Saturday nights probably aren't the best time to try weird food because of church the next morning. Fortunately for me, I think this wave of food rejection has passed quickly.

Busy week

This has been a bad blogging week for me. The week started going downhill on Monday night when I stayed up until 1:45am getting the music for church ready. I was on a roll and prepped all the music for Palm Sunday, Good Friday (a solid hour of music), and Easter Sunday.
I went through my normally busy Tuesday like a zombie. Wednesday I managed to drag myself through my gym routine, clean the house in preparation for the piano kids that ended up calling and cancelling 15 minutes before their lessons. That's annoying. At least the house was clean. Wednesday evening we went to Adams Township Park and walked around. Sam just loved all the people walking their dogs. And Isaiah waved to every passerby like he was a long-lost relative.
Wednesday night I went to bed early and got a nice eight hours of sleep. I woke up wide awake and (dare I say) peppy for the first time in a LONG time.
In general though, I feel worn out. The musical is going well. It's less stressful because the teachers in charge have a pretty solid plan. The rehearsals are still physically exhausting. I still like doing it though because it's a nice break from those two little... um... cuties.
Going to bed early seems to help a lot. So I'm going to do that now.