Musings

I just can’t help but contemplate life these past few days.  Yesterday the kids and I enjoyed a laid back day of swimming and relaxing.  Today we’ve been playing, mowing, cleaning, doing “ordinary” stuff.  Another young Mom spent yesterday planning her 25 year old husband and father of her two girls funeral.  Another friend wonders if her body will miscarry another baby.  Still another friend recently carried the caskets of his twin boys, born to early, seemingly gone too soon.  And as I sit and think about it, it all seems to unfair.  I think, why them?  Why am I walking through an ordinary day and they are grieving.  I have been a born again Christian for 10 years and will be the first to admit that I don’t always understand God, yet somehow in the core of my being, I know that God is good and God is in control.  So, in the midst of my “ordinary” day I will choose to be thankful for my two energetic children, even when they are fighting and whining, I will choose to thank God for another day with them.  I will hug my husband a little longer when he gets home from work tonight, thankful for another evening with him, realizing that I may not be given another day.  When I lay in bed tonight, sweating because of the human furnace I lay beside and the human furnace inside me (baby boy Rassi), I will thank God for the chance to have someone beside me in bed and the baby that we hope to meet in a few short weeks.  And I will remember again that I am not equipped to handle what somebody else has, both the good and the bad, and I will thank God for everything that I have and for everything that I don’t.

Lots of fun

We have had a fun week doing a few special things before baby comes. We went to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet one day and another day Mike took off work an hour early and met us at the Children’s Museum. We spent 3 hours at the Children’s Museum and still had to drag them away to eat supper at 7:30pm. Mom was hungry! We went to Culver’s for cheeseburgers, fries, and ice cream, but Kate and Lincoln tuckered out and didn’t want to stay for ice cream.

Reading books with Daddy

37 weeks

Saturday we were supposed to go boating with Dawn, Janet, and A. Joyce. However, I wasn’t feeling very well, so they graciously agreed to hang out at my parents pool instead. (Thanks Dad and Mom). We spent all day by the pool, relaxing, swimming, and eating. Thanks for being so flexible, girls!!

From the Mouth of Kate

We were outside on our driveway drawing chalk pictures. The conversation went like this:

Kate: Stupid Ant! (While smashing it with a sandal)

Carmen: Don’t say stupid, it’s not a nice word.

Kate: (seeing another ant) Stupid Ant!

Carmen: Kate!! Don’t say that.

Kate: Well, stupid is the perfect word for an ant.

Hmmm…just how do you argue with that?

Corn Fun

We had a pretty low-key week, so not much to report on from last week. Friday night we enjoyed dinner at Kevin and Jody’s. I didn’t take many pictures, but the meal was delicious and it’s fun to see our kids start to become friends. Thanks for inviting us!!

The kids LOVE to help make supper. They were helping with the meatloaf sauce, it was a little lumpy, but they get really offended if I try to “fix” things. :)

Saturday we were supposed to be in Indy with some friends, but after my weekly doc visit, we didn’t feel comfortable being 3 hours away from home, just in case. It ended up that Uncle Jeff called and said there was some corn ready if we wanted to freeze some corn for the coming year. So, we ended up doing that Saturday morning and it went the best I think it has ever gone. Dad and Uncle Jeff picked it, we started shucking it at 8:30 and by 11:30 we had it cooked, cut off the cob, put in plastic bags, and the mess cleaned up. Aunt Jane and I got the “cush” air conditioning job, which we thought was great, until we realized we had a couple of jobs to tend to (cooking corn and putting it in bags). :) Actually it all went great and with all the many hands, nobody was even that tired. We enjoyed some time cooling off in the pool after we were done.

Bucket List

We were together to celebrate birthdays with Mike’s family again this past weekend. It is actually our smallest group to celebrate birthdays, but next year Seth will join. Happy Birthday to Jack and Hope! I asked Hope, Kate, and Jack to smile for me, but all I could get was this. :)

Lincoln really enjoyed his dirt and worms and taking a turn holding baby Seth.

Recently it finally sunk in that the arrival of our next child is actually very close (4 weeks or so). I have several things on a “bucket list” so to speak that I have been wanting to do with Kate and Lincoln before the baby arrives. So, today we set out (with Grandma’s help) to accomplish one of those items. We went to the Glen Oak Zoo. While a bit warm, there was a lot of shade and the kids really enjoyed it. Kate is sulking in the background of the picture of her, Linc, and I because I wouldn’t let her buy an animal lollipop…such a mean Mom. :)

Trying to get a picture with Grandma, however, instead of saying “cheese” they wanted to say “crocodile” or “turtle” or “lion” – hence the wide open mouths. :)

All About K-A-T-E

I’m not ordinarily quite so quick at updating the blog, but I woke up early and couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I thought I’d post a blog entry. Last night my Dad, Brett, Lincoln, and Mike (who was late due to a meeting) went to a Father/Son event. Lincoln was so excited. He bounced around the house talking about “Bapow, Brett, Daddy, Bubba.” When Kate and I dropped him off to Dad he could not fathom how “Bapow” could not be quite ready yet. :) Here’s a picture of them before they left.

We had a few minutes before Mom, Tessa, Kate, and I were going to leave for supper, so I took a few pictures of Kate for her 4 year shots. Here are a few of my favorites, although I may try again just because I like it and I can. :)

After a few pictures, began our girls night out, or our all about Kate night. I had been wanting to take Kate to do a few things she would find fun before the baby was born and Mom and Tessa graciously agreed to come along too. We started out at Steak N Shake because the girl LOVES french fries and milk shakes. I think her night would have been complete at that point, but…then we took her to Kohl’s because I had promised her I would buy her a new purse when Daddy and Lincoln had their night out. The poor girl hardly knew what to take in first. Clothes, shoes, purses….oh my, she had a blast. Due to having a very generous aunt and Grandma along, she ended up with more than just a purse. :) Below Kate is showing her new outfit from Grandma (and purse) and then Grandma and Kate modeling some hats. :)

Lastly, when I had asked Kate what she wanted to do for girls night, the other thing she mentioned was having Aunt Tessa paint her fingernails and toenails, so being the great aunt that she is, Tessa painted her nails for her. For a 3 year old life just doesn’t get any better than that. It was a treat to get to love on and spoil Kate a little bit. She is so independent that I often let her do her own thing, so it was fun for me to get to see her having such a blast doing “girly” things.

Happy 4th of July