Back To The Future

So we're hopefully back to some sense of normalcy around here. I was working my summer hours for the past few months (four 10-hour days) and getting up at 4 a.m. or earlier and it was really messing with my moods and our daily routines. But I started back to my 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday schedule on Monday. And let me tell you, you don't realize how short an 8-hour workday is until you've worked a 10-hour workday. Man oh man, I am finding that my time is more and more precious now that I only have 8 hours in a day to get my work done. I realize that it's still 40-hours per week, yet somehow the time is just going faster. I shouldn't complain that my workday is going fast, but when I am as busy as I am, it's not a good thing.

Just to recap our Summer of 2010: No vacations were taken, lots of time was spent around the newly created firepit in our backyard and plenty of time was spent getting ice cream at the Dairy Queen :-) This was the first summer in almost 8 years that Jed and I didn't camp almost every single weekend. In fact, we only went camping one weekend this whole entire summer...I know what you're thinking and I can't believe it either. We actually sold our camper the day before we went on our one camping trip and Jed's brother was gracious enough to let us borrow his camper for the weekend. I won't get into detail here, but let's just say it was definitely a "Jed & Becky kind of" weekend....blown out tires and all. The rest is up to your imagination.

Nora has been asking me if she can get a 'tar (aka: guitar), so I told her that if she starts listening better and helping to clean her room more then maybe she will get one for her birthday in November from Mom and Dad. I'd like to get her into lessons this fall, so if anyone knows of anyone who gives lessons to 3-year olds, give me a shout!  She is also asking if she can take swim lessons since she finally learned how to blow bubbles with her face in the water (I'll let her keep believing that). I am going to try to sign her up for lessons this fall or winter because we've been wanting to get her into them soon. If we're going to be taking her fishing with us on the Mississippi, the girl had better know how to swim!

Archer, oh Archer. He's got a case of the "second child syndrome" something fierce. When he wants something, he wants it all and he wants it immediately. He's extremely mobile and is on the cusp of walking. Should prove to be interesting once he is walking - maybe then his whining will cease since he can get to wherever he wants more quickly!  He got his very first haircut on July 1st and has since had yet another one.  Our little man is growing ever so quickly.

Jed and I have been attending Hope Church in Dubuque since April and I thank God every single day for leading us there. We have met so many wonderful and welcoming people. They have childcare centers where they do activities with them while Jed and I attend service and the kids just love going. I am going to start attending a Mom's group on Wednesday evenings starting this fall and Jed is going to start in a Men's group starting this fall as well. We are both really looking forward to getting more involved and meeting new people. I have also just volunteered my services to the church to assist with some of their children's programs and am very much looking forward to getting more and more involved as the year goes on. I am so excited with the relationship that I am fostering and developing with Jesus - I just may not have gotten through this past year without Him holding my hand every step of the way. He has been an ever present comfort, friend and savior. Sometimes the best things can come out of or from the worst things in our lives and my rekindled relationship with Jesus is just the beginning.

Archer before his first ever haircut

Archer after his first ever haircut

Camping at Morwood with the Habel Clan

Driving the pontoon with Grandpa Hurst

Baptism for Hope at Flora

Swimming

Holy Cross Parade & Street Dance

(Mom & Me)

(My Grandpa Gaul & Uncle Loren)

Jed & I all dressed up for a change

Where we spent most of the summer:  The Backyard
The new firepit I built

Beautiful, beautiful song.........hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Jesus Paid It All - Kristian Stanfill

Born on the Fourth of July...

I was indeed antsy with anticipation for a nice, relaxing 4-day weekend last Friday when I got out of bed that morning. What I got that night when I went to bed, instead, was the flu. Which lasted. And lasted. And lasted. And still lasted. I thought that maybe I had food poisoning (I'm truly sorry for ever doubting you Arby's!), but I am now positive it wasn't. Archer had some pretty foul diapers over the holiday weekend as well and just wasn't himself. Nora had some "bowel issues" earlier in the week as you read in my earlier post, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it? But now Jed's family is all sick and I found out that another little boy from Nora & Archer's daycare was sick on the fourth of July too. Wicked stuff going around.

On another note, Archer has been teething like none other. The little munchkin screams in his sleep and is just miserable. He's been sleeping alot more too. It is pretty uncanny how similar his teething "habits" are to his sister Nora's. We always knew when she was cutting teeth when she would wake in the middle of the night because otherwise she wouldn't wake up during the night whatsoever. We have been blessed with wonderful sleepers in Nora and Archer, I must say. *proud mom moment*

These past few days/weeks have been...what's the word...I can't think of the word, so I'll just say that they have just plain sucked (how eloquent, eh?). With budget reductions across the board within the school district, our department has lost 9 custodians and 5 maintenance employees due to "lack of funds". I'm really going to miss these guys as they have become like family to me.

This weekend brings with it the moving of my Grandpa Habel from one retirement home to another. Long story short: He was getting ripped off. Being taken advantage of. "Legally" robbed. Cheated. Conned. Bamboozled. Taking it up the you-know-what. I'm happy that he's getting out of there for obvious reasons, but my heart is sad for him as it has been the only home he has known since losing Grandma 3 years ago and he has made many wonderful friendships in those 3 years. But I'm confident that he will flourish in his new surroundings and make many more new friendships to cherish. He makes it easy to love him :o)

And now on to my 3-day weekend...here's to hoping for a better one than last.

Wednesday's Fiasco

Recently, Wednesday’s are the night of the week that I look forward to the most because of our park playdate.  However, last night turned into a disastrous fiasco I won’t soon forget.  A bit of back-story first.  I think in all of Archer’s 9 months of life, I have changed 4 really messy diapers, the rest being clean little formed nuggets of poop for us to clean up.  So yesterday when we got home from daycare and he had a really pungent and unpleasant diaper, I assumed either a) he has a stomach bug, or b) he is teething.  Fast-forward a few hours to just past dinnertime.  Nora yells that she has to go poop so she runs into the bathroom and I hear a loud shriek.  She comes running out of the bathroom with her pants and underwear around her ankles as though she is being pursued by an enraged bull .  She had diarrhea and didn't make it to the toilet in time.  Great, grand, wonderful.  I asked her if her stomach hurt, but she said she was ok.  I got her cleaned up and off we quickly went to the park with Jed for his horseshoe league and our weekly playtime.  We got to the park and without so much as even asking if she could go play, she was running full speed towards the playground equipment.  Archer and I set up camp next to the playground equipment where I was enjoying my latest Jen Lancaster memoir and Archer was having himself a hearty snack of Cheerios.  We were there for about an hour and a half when Nora and Archer’s daycare provider, Codi, showed up with her mom and aunt.  In a flash, I see Nora on the playground and I could tell she had to go to the bathroom as she was doing “the potty dance”.  So I made haste and got her to the bathroom.  She made it in time and it was solid.  Phew!  All seemed fine, but my mother’s intuition kicked into high gear and I got the feeling she just wasn't quite done yet so I asked her if she had to still go.  Nope.  She insisted that she was done.  I asked yet again.  Nope.  Done.  So we went back outside and back up the hill.  She literally stepped one little foot onto the playground and screamed, pulled her shorts and undies down around her ankles, and began yelling for me.  She crapped her pants again.  Diarrhea.  And then it was down her leg.  Wow.  What a scene.  I had to hand Archer over to Codi's mom Ellen and clean the wailing Nora up with wipes as best as I could  Luckily her shorts had averted the major disaster and remained clean, so I put those back on her.  I took her down to the bathroom to wash her up with soap and water.  So you’re probably wondering what the back-story of Archer at the beginning was for.  I suppose I’m wondering if the kids have a stomach bug or of Archer is just teething.  Just a coincidence that he happens to have one of his infrequent putrid diapers the same day that his sister has a legendary display of embarrassment?   After all of that, she was fine.  Me?  The jury's still out.

Who Are You Again?

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.  It has been 2 months since my last blogging". 

When tackling the substantial task of recalling the past two months' events, my brain aches and my eyes cross.  So I shall start from the beginning. 

May was May and went by faster than our dogs run when they think they're going for a ride for ice cream.  June?  Same story.  Here it is, June 30th and we are already staring down the culmination of summer. (Yes, yes, 2 months left...but still).  June 11th Jed and I made the journey to Iowa City with Nora to have her hips checked out again.  She had her usual X-rays done and made it through them like a champ.  I even got her to crack the tiniest of smiles while she was laying on the table.  To the doctor's room we weny to wait.  After reviewing her X-rays, Dr. Dietz arrived in the room to ask us a few questions and to watch Nora walk.  Diagnosis? Stop using the braces (score!) but only because in his studies over the years, they do no good after 18 months of use.  This poor girl has been in braces/casts since she has been two weeks old.  But he also stated that her hips were not improving as much as he would like them to be.  They are improving, but only infinitesimally.  He informed us that he has been working with children with hip dysplasia for over 30 years and she has one of the most severe cases he has ever seen (not a score).  All in all, he told us to go and let her be a kid for a year.  Let her run and fall, play on the swings, fight with her brother and just be your typical 2 year old. We take her back down in December to check hip progress and he will decide next spring/summer if surgery is the next step.  Jed and I both had our parent's intuition clicking away at full speed that day and we just get that gut feeling that surgery is inevitable.  But since it is such an invasive surgery, he needs to wait as long as possible hoping that by some miracle of God (they do happen, really they do) that her hips will begin to correct over this year's time.  Keep the prayers coming because putting Nora through that surgery would break our hearts and spirits, but it is all out of our control.  The only thing we can do now is pray that God will do whatever is in His plan for Nora and that He will make her well.

Our little Archie McPhee is getting to be such a little man!  He is our happy boy.  Although, he our demanding boy :o)  When he wants something, he wants it and he will let you know he wants it.  And not in 1 minute.  Right fricking now.  The day we took Nora to Iowa City for her hip appointment he cut 4 top teeth, all in the same day.  So I guess I can't entirely hold it against him for being a little bit on edge sometimes!  The best medicine for Archer? Take him outside.  Doesn't matter what we do outside just as long as he's outside the confines of whatever building he happens to be in.  He and Nora are both my little nature bugs.  They are most definitely similar to their mommy in that respect.  Lately I have taken to boycotting the indoors unless absolutely necessary (i.e. a swarm of angry bees is making haste aiming directly at my throat, a tornado looms on the horizon, flood waters surge threatening imminent danger....you know, the usual).  Wednesday nights Jed plays in a horseshoe league at Flora Park and while he plays, I take the kids to the adjacent park.  I sometimes meet up with a friend and her kids, so it's a nice little playdate for all of us.  And every once in awhile a mutual friend of ours meets up with us, so it's a nice time for me to get some adult time while the kids play and Jed gets some adult time as well.  Wednesdays are our saving grace.

I just scheduled Archer's very first haircut :o( It makes me so sad to think that he's old enough to be getting a haircut.  I asked Jed if I could let him just grow it into cute golden waves and he laughed me right off the stage.  And then after giving it much thought, I realized that it wouldn't be that really cute, curly hair like alot of babies have.  He would just perpetually look like he woke up from a sweaty nap.  Thus the haircut appointment on Thursday.  He's one step ahead of his sister at least.  She still has never had a haircut.

Jed and I have been attending Hope Church since Easter of this year and haven't missed a weekend since.  (Well, Jed missed one weekend, but who's keeping track?).  I have fallen in love.  Never could I have imagined finding a place to feel so welcome and so at home.  Jed and I have struggled with our Christianity as a couple because he was raised Lutheran and I was raised Catholic.  We just couldn't find a common ground with regards to our worshiping.  But thanks to Hope, that has all come to an end.  We can now worship TOGETHER and openly.  I am forever indebted to Hope for everything that they have done for our relationship and our relationships with Jesus.  And the kids love it there.  They go to the daycare while we attend service and Nora (even throughout the week) talks about Jesus and when we put her to bed at night she now prays by herself (with a little bit of guidance, of course!).  Jed and I are attending a 4-week seminar starting in July called Equipping U which we are both really looking forward to.  We are slowing testing the waters of getting more involved with the church and ways in which to enrich our Christian lives.  I just honestly cannot say enough good things about our new church. I am so grateful every single day for having found it.

And tomorrow is July 1st.  Are you reading this correctly?!  JULY 1st!!!  How is it that summer can come and go so fast but winter always seems to hang on like a bad case of the shingles?

April Showers...

I realize it has been well over a month since I have posted.  I've had little to no time to post...life with two small children will do that to you somehow :o)  That, however, is a misleading statement - I've had time to post, but I've been trying to spend it with Jed and the kids as much as possible!

Let me begin with an "Archer Update".  Our baby boy has been doing wonderfully!  He is learning to sit up by himself, eating Cheerios and has sprouted two bottom teeth.  He really is growing like a weed.  His favorite pastime is to sit on my lap on our porch swing in the backyard after work and watch his sister play or watch his daddy doing yardwork.  He is a very happy little boy - his smile melts my soul into a puddle at my feet.

And now...a "Nora Update".  Geez, where to begin.  First off, I can now appreciate why these years are called the "terrible two's".  Her moods are about as stable as a summer thunderstorm during a low pressure system.  She is really testing her limitations with us to see how far we will bend before we break.  There really is a fine line between just letting them be children and just letting them be children with a set standard of rules that must be followed in order to raise well-adjusted children.  I've been doing my research - I don't think we're too far off the mark! Parenting is hard, hard work! 

Last Thursday, Jed, myself and the kids went to Menard's to look at some stones for a firepit that I am building in the backyard.  Most times when we go shopping with both of the kids, we use 2 carts, but we figured that since we would only be there for 10 minutes at the most that we would just use one cart and let Nora ride in the big basket part of the cart, provided she stay sitting down.  (Note to self:  Never trust a 2 year old to keep her word).  GIGANTIC mistake.  We were outside looking at the stones when Nora fell out of the cart and onto her head (onto the concrete ground).  When I saw her fall, all I could think was that she had broken her neck.  I knew right away that something was horribly wrong when I picked her up off the ground.  We quickly got ourselves out of there and rushed Nora to the hospital emergency room.  They took some X-rays and told us her forearm was broken in 2 places.  Great.  So they put it in the splint and told us to wait for the orthopedics department to call us which would probably be Monday or Tuesday.  I stayed home from work with Nora on Friday and they called and wanted to see her immediately that day, so I took her in.  I asked him about her elbow because she had been complaining that her elbow hurt.  She has a strong fear of doctor's due to her Iowa City visits, so she wouldn't let Dr. Schemmel examine her - I did it for him and sure enough, he could tell by her reaction that it was probably broken, so he did another X-ray.  Turns out that her elbow was broken too.  So Nora has now gotten her third cast - all before she is even 2 1/2 years old.  Goodness gracious!  She adapted to having the cast immediately and it hasn't slowed her down one bit.  She is my little super trooper!

We got news at work Friday that (5) of our maintenance employees are being "let go" due to budget reductions.  These men that I work with have become like fathers, uncles and brothers to me.  I feel so helpless and sickened that they are going to be out of jobs, especially when I see other things happening in the District that could eliminate some of the budget crises, potentially saving the jobs of some of these men.  Needless to say, it is going to be a tense, sad and hard couple of months ahead.  I still haven't heard about my own job yet.  Friday was supposed to be the deadline for doing so, but nothing has been said yet.  The unknown is the scariest part of life.

A few weeks ago, Jed and I decided to take Hope Church for a "test drive" and immediately fell in love with it.  We have been looking for something new to re-ignite our Christian faith and the Hope community has definitely been a start.  We look forward to integrating ourselves into the community and becoming better Christians in the process.  When we picked Nora up from the nursery area this morning after services, she cried because she didn't want to leave!  And on our way home from church, she was so excited because they "got to sing about Jesus today".  It. Was.  Awesome.

Needless to say, it has been hectic, busy and exciting at our house.  There are days it takes all I have not to pull my hair out by the roots, but then there are days when I don't even have words good enough to thank God for my good life....whiney children and all!