Jakey is free!!!

I know this sounds cliche, but I can't believe my baby is three ("free" if he says it)!  His birthday was Monday, the same day we got to get Brandon stitches...if you don't know what I'm talking about...check here.  He wasn't up yet when Tim left for work in the morning, so I told him all day that we would open his presents once Tim was home from work and the boys were home from practice.  When it got close to time for everyone to come home, I put the gifts on the table, and reminded him that we needed to wait for Daddy.  Tim got home soon, and before I knew what he was doing, Jake was ripping open the first present.  He had, after all, waited for Daddy to come home.  :)

He got a new BSU shirt, new shoes, puzzles, books, a pop gun, and a "Big Mater" that talks.  He was pretty excited!  I love the picture of his chubby little hands opening a present.  And I realize that all too soon, he won't have chubby little hands anymore.  I've said this before, but I'll say it again.  I'm so glad we have him!  Today was Conference, and there was a talk about multiplying and replenishing the earth, and it reminded me about when I got that feeling that we should have another one before Jake, and how I just wanted that feeling to go away.  I'm so glad it didn't and that he's ours.  He's pretty much the best kid I could ask for and he makes me laugh every day.

 After the gifts, he had to change into his new shirt right away, before we did the cupcakes.  He kept tilting his head and giving a goofy smile every time he saw me with the camera.  Posing already.  he chose "green" ice cream to go with the cupcakes, and he tried to eat it straight out of the tub.  And I let him.  You only turn 3 once, after all.

Today I called him my sweet baby and he said, "No, I big. I free."  I kind of wanted to cry.

Football

Once again, Brandon is playing football.  It's his last year of middle school.  This year he has been playing defensive end.  For his game last week, I finally remembered to take my awesome new camera.  I have to say, it does take amazing pictures.  I was pretty far away, and the pics are still really good.  Here is a collage of some of the better shots I got of him.  He's number 33 in white.  Click on the picture to see it a lot bigger, Mom. :)

Stitches

My first-born is almost 14.  I have 4 children.  None of them has ever needed stitches or has broken a bone.  That's quite a track record, I think.  Crazy lucky, I know.  Brandon decided earlier this week that it was high time to change that.

Monday around noon, after running errands all morning long, and before I even got the groceries put away, my cell phone rang.  "Hi, Catherine (I love it when they call me that), this is Mrs. So-and-So, the nurse here at Sage Valley, and I have Brandon with me."  "Great," I thought...just what every mother wants to hear...  She went on to say that he had been playing basketball after lunch, and had somehow split his lip.  She said I needed to come look at it and decide if I thought we should go get stitches in it or not.

So I loaded Jake back into his car seat, left the groceries on the counter and headed for the school.  I had to ask where the nurse's office was...I had never been there.  When I saw him, I immediately knew we would be heading to get stitches.  I think I said something like, "Yeah, that's not good."  He was pretty bloody and had a chunk of his upper lip hanging down.  Awesome.  He said he had gone up for a rebound, and hit some kid's head with his jaw on the way down.  His tooth must have gone straight through his lip.

We stopped at home to put the cold things in the fridge and to get him some more ice, then headed to the Dr.  Tim had called Quick Care to see if they could do it so we could spare an ER bill.  They said they could, so that's where we went.  He ended up with 4 stitches total--one that will dissolve up inside his mouth and 3 normal ones.  I held his hand while they were shooting his mouth with the Lydocaine (sp??), but had to look away for the actual stitches.  I was not cut out for seeing blood.  I don't even look when I donate blood.  Outta sight, outta mind...  Nasty.

He is supposed to get the stitches out this Monday, so we'll see if they did their job and he looks better.  It has to look better without those black threads on his lip...

Here are a couple pics of the stitches for your viewing pleasure, haha.  I should've taken one of before when his lip was hanging, but we were in a little bit of a hurry.  And it was disgusting...

And pay no attention to that 'stache...we took care of that a few days ago.  My little boy has now officially shaved...guess that means I'm old...nah, it just means he's really hairy.

Holey Ears

I've always told Sydney that when she was ready, she could get her ears pierced.  I figure there's no law or commandment saying when you can do it, so it's up to her, as long as I thought she was old enough to handle it.  For the longest time, it's freaked her out, so I didn't worry about it too much.  Then a few weeks ago, she and I had a little girls night out and were looking at earrings and she started to get the idea that she might be ready to get her ears pierced.  So we talked it over with Tim and convinced him it wasn't the end of the world, and she and I went on a Saturday morning to Claire's for the big event.

Here she is before the pain was inflicted--all smiles...

Now the lady is marking where to make the holes.  Notice she is still all smiles.  Little does she know...

 And here is right after the first one has been done.  I had assumed that surely there would be 2 employees at Claire's so that they could each do an ear at the same time before Syd realized how much it hurt.  Never assume...only the one lady on this particular Saturday morning...  Right about now she's starting to cry and telling me that she doesn't want to do the 2nd ear.  And I'm calmly reminding her that this was, after all, her idea, and besides, only having the one ear pierced will look quite silly.

 Look how pretty that sparkly purple earring is!  It would be a shame to not give it a match!  I love that you can see the little tears in this picture!  Get ready for #2, Syd!

 Even more close-up of her sad little tears.  But she's done!  She did it!  I really was quite surprised she went through with it.  She's been so scared to do it for so long...and even though there were a few tears, she really was quite brave and only whimpered a little bit.

 One sure way to get her to smile after inflicting that amount of pain is to give her a mirror and tell her how beautiful she is...she gets her vanity from me...  She's done really well taking care of her earrings and reminding me to put the solution on them day and night.  And we marked on the calendar when she will be able to take out the studs and put in something else...right around Halloween.

Run, Forrest, Run!

My cute little 6th grader has a new interest. One or two days before practice was to start, he decided he wanted to run cross country. Really? You want to run and run and run on purpose, with no one chasing you? O. K. Sure. I fully believe in letting my kids follow their interests as far as sports go. And amazingly, this has been a good thing for him. It's something that his older brother doesn't do, something that is just him racing against himself, and something that has truly whipped him into shape. I've been so proud of him for trying something new and not giving up. A couple weeks ago was his first meet. This was my first time at a cross country meet, and I have to say, they are nice and quick. First, the girls raced. Then about 30 minutes later, the boys started. Ryan might have just been the smallest boy that was racing that day, but he did great. He beat his personal best by 2 or 3 minutes, I can't remember exactly.
Clearly, I'm not in the running for Mother-of-the-Year...  But I did go, and I did cheer, so that has to count for something, right??

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Manna

Manna--The dictionary defines it as something of value that comes unexpectedly.  True dat.

This summer has come with some challenges.  In May, our van was hit in an accident.  A couple of days later, Tim was informed that his position at SuperValu was being eliminated and he would eventually be out of a job.  A few weeks later, I lost our nice camera during my trip to Texas.  It was like Bam, Bam, Bam!!   To say that it's been a long few months is an understatement.

Things are turning around, though.

After months of wishing, and hoping, and worrying, and praying, and stressing, Tim has accepted a new position with Micron as the corporate internal audit manager and will be starting in September.  We had prepared ourselves for all sorts of things--a decrease in pay, a relocation, a period of unemployment.  None of those are going to happen now.  Manna from heaven.

It has been a humbling experience, but we have tried to keep the faith and put our trust in God, and He has not forgotten us.  I had to fight back the tears when I saw Micron on the caller I.D. and knew they were making him an offer over the phone...manna.

Other good news at our house is that Jake is finally being receptive to potty training and the kids have started back to school.  And I'm pretty sure I can start shopping for a new camera now that I'm not fearing unemployment in the near future.  It feels like I can finally breathe this week!  I'm sure there are more trials in our future, but I am glad to be done with some of these for now.  It was a great learning experience for our kids.  We told them in the beginning what was happening with their dad's job, and how we knew the Lord would provide in His own time and in His own way, and they would remember to pray for him in our family prayers.

We know of many others who have had similar struggles, some for much, much longer.  I know we are no better than they.  The Lord's time is a hard concept to grasp.  I can only be grateful for the tender mercies he has shown us now and throughout our lives.

It has been a joyous week full of thanksgiving at our house.  On to new adventures!!

Progress!!

It has finally happened!  Sunday night, Jake finally went poop in the potty!  There are no words to describe the pure joy felt by every single member of our little family at his accomplishment!  It has been a long time coming!  I seriously almost cried, lame I know...

I thought it was high time to post some pictures of his cute little underwear-wearing bum.  This is what he looks like all the time, because I have learned that he's much more likely to forget to tell me to go potty when he's wearing pants.  So he doesn't wear pants.  It means less laundry anyway, so I'm over it.  Whatever works to get this kid to do it!!!  What's cuter than a 2-year-old in Lightnin' McQueen underwear??

As I mentioned before, I told Jake he could have a new toy once he learned to do #2 in the potty.  I was sure he would want a big Mater, but he chose this Cars race track instead.  And he loves it.  And I have found that the threat of taking it back to the store if he has a poopy accident is helping to keep him in check.  Added bonus.

 It seriously makes him so happy!

 Gosh, I love this kid!  So happy that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this challenge!