saying goodbye…

to sweets for a MONTH!! 

a few weeks ago I made a bet with my husband that he should go a month without soda.  if you don’t know him, you might think, “what’s the big deal?”, but my sweetie has a big soft spot for dr. pepper (or “DP”, as we call it in our house).  he does drink water, beer, and juice as well, but his main drink with meals comes in a burgandy can.  he starts tomorrow. 

we still haven’t come up with a wager yet (hard to do when you’re trying not to spend money), so i decided that i should give up something with him.  i asked him what i should give up and he said “sweets”.  ouch.  right where it hurts.  i thought about it pretty long and hard because i hate starting something and then backing out…i wanted to be sure that i could really do it if i said i would.  then i remembered that my birthday is next week (a birthday with no dessert?  um, NO.), and thanksgiving is at the end of the month (no pumpkin cheesecake?!).  so, ryan said he’d make an exeception for those two days.  we start tomorrow and my birthday is next thursday, so i only have to go a week to start with.  it’s going to be tough….like many others out there, i definitely have a sugar addiction.  one time in college when i wanted to test my discipline, i decided to go 60 days without chocolate.  i did it pretty easily, but do you know what i learned?  just that there are alot of other sweet things out there that don’t contain chocolate.  carmel sauce on vanilla ice cream is amazing!  🙂 

so, this’ll be my first long stretch with no sweets at all.  hopefully i’ll lose some fat or gain some energy or all of a sudden want to clean my floors or something…

i’m convinced that ryan’s going to lose at least 5 pounds.  we’ll see.  i’ll try to remember to post an update when we’re halfway through.

ps.  if anyone’s wondering, yes, i’ve been stocking up.  i ate four twinkies for lunch today.          (don’t know why it makes me feel better to annouce that…  confession lifts the guilt, i guess…)

tough love.

my littlest sister has been having some health problems….female health problems.  she lives in west palm, but the only gyno she’s ever gone to is in montana.  the doctor’s been trying to figure out what’s wrong with her just from comparing test results with symptoms.  she got news today that her ovaries and uterus are very sick…there’s a chance she could have to have a hysterectomy.  she’s 19.  yeah, NINETEEN.  she’s said since she was about 12 that she never wanted to be pregnant…she wants to adopt all her children.  today, that’s a blessing, seeing that if she ever did get pregnant (if it’s even possible after this), it probably wouldn’t go so well.  she’s been too tired to go to class or work, throwing up, and has been experiencing severe mood swings (who wouldn’t?!).  this brings another issue to the table:  whether or not to finish this semester at PBA…  she’s been planning since august to transfer “home” to MSU in montana, but still, she doesn’t want this semester to go to waste. 

as we talked on the phone today and she explained the test results and the forthcoming decisions to be made, i had little to say.  i KNOW that there is a reason for everything that the Lord allows in our lives, but it’s hard to convey that to someone else without sounding cliche’ or unsympathetic.  i prayed with her and cried a little and basically just felt like i wasn’t helping at all.  nothing bad ever happens to me, so i always feel pretty stupid trying to help others when they’re going through something…

a few hours after the phone conversation, i sat with harper in the doctor’s office.  she had her 18 month check-up/immunizations appointment today.  she had to get her finger pricked and then got two shots.  i held her as the nurse did her duty (and you wouldn’t believe how well she does it…SO fast!).  harper did great and was luckily very distracted by the sesame street band-aid, but it still made me want to cry to see her in any pain at all.

later as i was fixing dinner and thinking about courtney’s situation, it hit me.  harper didn’t choose to get those shots.  i chose for her, and i held her in my arms as she got stuck.  i knew when i chose for her to recieve the shots that they would be painful; but i also knew that the medicine going into her body could eventually fight off a much more painful illness, or even death.  this has to be how the Lord feels when we have to walk a hard road in order to avoid a harder one down the line.  He sees the future, we don’t.  He knows what’s best for us, we don’t.  it must be hard for the Lord to hold us in his arms and see us in pain…and the love that i have for harper can’t compare to love the Lord has for each of His children. 

i pray that my little sister will feel His arms around her as she is in pain.

growing up.

harper will be eighteen months old on saturday.  yesterday she and i went to the pool and she jumped off the side into my arms!  that got me thinking about how much she is changing and growing and it made me want to write a blog update.  here are some new things she’s doing:

plays pretend (puts her doll in the cradle and tells it night night and gives it a bottle; waves bye-bye with stuffed elmo’s arm and says “bye-bye”; pretends to sleep to be funny)

talks a blue streak (she copies alot of words we say…ususally the last word in a sentence; she’s obsessed with saying “Dora” and finding Doras to point at and talk about wherever we go [i never realized that Dora is EVERYWHERE]; she talks to herself alot too…makes it sound like she is saying sentences)

she still signs alot and can learn a sign very quickly (the other day my mom taught her “cookie” in about 5 minutes).

she is obsessed with large loud things (trucks, planes, helicopters, bulldozers, etc…)

she’s doing a great job with association (sees a Rinker plant, says “Daddy!”)

tries to run, but still trips alot

will say “night-night” and lay her head down when she’s tired but not in bed

we’ve started doing storytimes at the library and she really loves it.  sometimes she’s shy and won’t hardly leave my lap.  other times she is up walking around the whole time.  it’s fun!

ew.

tuesday, 7:42 AM:

i took the dog out and was in the process of picking up his poop with a plastic bag when i realized there was a huge hole in the bottom of the bag.  yeah.  i had dog poop all over my hand.  GROSS.

one last check…

-unpack

-tuesday storytime at the library

-laundry  (still working on it…UGH)

-print and cut invites for Melanie’s shower

-deliver invites for Mel’s shower

-come up with several Save The Date cards/tags designs for Kasey’s wedding

-meet with Kasey  (over the phone)

-order Save The Dates for Kasey’s wedding

-upload a week of pictures to the computer (including two paid sessions)

-editing for the Dean family session

-editing for Landon Sumner session

-upload edited images to Exposure Manager

-grocery shopping

-call 2 families in the church who just had babies to see if they want meals delivered (who wouldn’t?!)

-get 6 volunteers from meal ministry to make a meal sometime in the next two weeks

-PRAY  (we can never do enough, right?)

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for sunday’s church picnic

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for saturday’s church picnic prep (cutting and stacking hamburger toppings)

-call people who haven’t volunteered for either

-ironing (so my husband doesn’t have to go pantless to work)  [Still haven’t gotten to it…luckily it’s the weekend and he ironed for himself a week ago so he still has some pants left.  haha]

-mom’s group on thursday

-photo session with the Green family on thursday evening

-soccer on friday night (stress relief!)   [we lost 5-4, but we were down by TWO players!]

-get pregnant (haha…just kidding….)

-wash the dog

-spend time with my husband

-raise my daughter

11:11 pm Thursday

-unpack

-tuesday storytime at the library

-laundry

-print and cut invites for Melanie’s shower

-deliver invites for Mel’s shower

-come up with several Save The Date cards/tags designs for Kasey’s wedding

-meet with Kasey

-order Save The Dates for Kasey’s wedding

-upload a week of pictures to the computer (including two paid sessions)

-editing for the Dean family session

-editing for Landon Sumer session

-upload edited images to Exposure Manager

-grocery shopping

-call 2 families in the church who just had babies to see if they want meals delivered (who wouldn’t?!)

-get 6 volunteers from meal ministry to make a meal sometime in the next two weeks

-PRAY

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for sunday’s church picnic

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for saturday’s church picnic prep (cutting and stacking hamburger toppings)

-call people who haven’t volunteered for either

-ironing (so my husband doesn’t have to go pantless to work)

-mom’s group on thursday

-photo session with the Green family on thursday evening

-soccer on friday night (stress relief!)

-get pregnant (haha…just kidding….)

-wash the dog

-spend time with my husband

-raise my daughter

i’m really getting a kick out of logging on and copy&pasting just to cross more things off.  🙂

the greatest generation.

i only have a few minutes to type before harper gets up, but….

this past weekend my grandparents had an anniversary party in sun city (near the other coast).  my entire family traveled down for it, and so did many other people (other family and many of their friends).  it was kind of a big deal…thier 60th!  i guess alot of people have those types of parties over there…grandpa was super stressed when he was getting everything organized (caterer, entertainment, centerpieces, etc.), but i think he had a great time at the party and reflecting back on it afterwards.  we had the chance to look at many pictures of grandma and grandpa growing up and dating…all the way through to the present.  it was really cool. 

that night, back at the hotel, ryan and i started talking about that generation of people and how it’s so sad that they are slowly disappearing.  i don’t know many people that age, but it seems that everyone i come in contact with leaves a lasting impression on me.  i don’t know if it was the time in which they grew up, being forced to pull together during the war, or just the fact that their parents raised them right, but these people have real class.  watching them on the dancefloor and talking with them when they so readily initiated conversation was TRULY a pleasure.  my dad said later that he really feels like historians will look back 200 years from now and say that that generation (“the greatest generation”) was the pinacle of the american society.  i hope it’s not true, for our country’s sake, but i can’t help aggreeing…i can’t see us getting much better than that (minus the racism).

i know that we have made social advances since WWII, but i wish  my generation could model some of what these older folks exemplify: strong love for their country, good manners, simple faith, sitting on the front porch doing nothing.  may we learn all we can from them while we have the chance.

here’s how it looks today…

-unpack

-tuesday storytime at the library

-laundry

-print and cut invites for Melanie’s shower

-deliver invites for Mel’s shower

-come up with several Save The Date cards/tags designs for Kasey’s wedding

-meet with Kasey

-order Save The Dates for Kasey’s wedding

-upload a week of pictures to the computer (including two paid sessions)

-editing for the Dean family session

-editing for Landon Sumer session

-upload edited images to Exposure Manager

-grocery shopping

-call 2 families in the church who just had babies to see if they want meals delivered (who wouldn’t?!)

-get 6 volunteers from meal ministry to make a meal sometime in the next two weeks

-PRAY

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for sunday’s church picnic

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for saturday’s church picnic prep (cutting and stacking hamburger toppings)

-call people who haven’t volunteered for either

-ironing (so my husband doesn’t have to go pantless to work)

-mom’s group on thursday

-photo session with the Green family on thursday evening

-soccer on friday night (stress relief!)

-get pregnant (haha…just kidding….i think i ovulated last week…haha)       I WISH.

-wash the dog

-spend time with my husband

-raise my daughter

busy busy busy.

okay, so i’ve been out of town for a week and just got back last night.  i came home to a TO-DO list as long as my arm.  got up this morning at 6:30  just to check my e-mail, my mySpace, and to write this blog.  here’s what i have to get get done between now and sunday:

-unpack

-tuesday storytime at the library

-laundry

-print and cut invites for Melanie’s shower

-deliver invites for Mel’s shower

-come up with several Save The Date cards/tags designs for Kasey’s wedding

-meet with Kasey

-order Save The Dates for Kasey’s wedding

-upload a week of pictures to the computer (including two paid sessions)

-editing for the Dean family session

-editing for Landon Sumer session

-upload edited images to Exposure Manager

-grocery shopping

-call 2 families in the church who just had babies to see if they want meals delivered (who wouldn’t?!)

-get 6 volunteers from meal ministry to make a meal sometime in the next two weeks

-PRAY

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for sunday’s church picnic

-finalize volunteer sign-ups for saturday’s church picnic prep (cutting and stacking hamburger toppings)

-call people who haven’t volunteered for either

-ironing (so my husband doesn’t have to go pantless to work)

-mom’s group on thursday

-photo session with the Green family on thursday evening

-soccer on friday night (stress relief!)

-get pregnant (haha…just kidding….i think i ovulated last week…haha)

-wash the dog

-spend time with my husband

-raise my daughter

wow.  and to think that i’m “just” a stay-at-home mom.  🙂  better get started!