1, 2, 3...

This looks like an ordinary sink in an ordinary bathroom in an ordinary house, right?  Well if you are familiar with our "new" house, you know all too well that nothing here is ordinary.  This bathroom -just ONE of our many "ordinary" rooms- has no door, it just got a light no less than a week ago (when Tim blew a fuse in here and went to the box to flip the breaker, the box shot out sparks, therefore the fuse will remain blown for now), the toilet rocks just a little, there are no window coverings on the window that is smack next to the toilet (I hope none of our back door friends stop by at break time), there was only room for a 20" sink (go ahead and hold your hands about that far apart) and the ceiling is extra low in there so I feel like a giant, and to be honest, you can see daylight where the baseboards ought to be.  I see all of those things, but not in this picture.  In this picture all I can see is that someone (MicahJoy) didn't get the sink turned all the way off (at least she might have washed her hands) and because our ordinary sink doesn't drain properly (why should it?) the sink over-flowed.  The floor was soaked as was the sidewalk outside, I'm sure, and who knows how long this mini pool will be sitting in the sink, rendering the bathroom somewhat useless yet again.  Ah, water.  How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways...

Rescue Me!

So I was reading In Colossians yesterday.  I will confess that if I'm not in a book study I tend to be a Proverbs fall back kinda gal, or I'll go to read a book I haven't read in a while, if ever, but then I end up in Chronicles...not exactly what gets me going in the morning...so yesterday I chose Colossians because I will be doing a study in it soon.  I got down to the end of chapter 2 (you can check that out if you want to see where my mind might have been at the moment) and my mind began to wander.  Many of us do this.  One minute I'm thinking that rules don't stop the indulgence of the flesh, then I think about what will stop that indulgence and naturally I think about Heaven and "Jesus, just come already" because then I won't have to worry about things like my weak flesh and how I get led astray so easily and...and...that leak in the bathroom.  Oh that leak.  I wouldn't have to worry about that stupid leak because I wouldn't have a house full of surprises around every turn.  Oh why did we ever pull on another project?  I know it was the best -if not only- option for us, but why, God?  This is torture for us. I just want someone to rescue us here.  Rescue this renovation.  Come do it for us so we can be parents and just parents.  So we can be husband and wife and not general contractor and laborer.  Someone just rescue me.  Please!

Then I start breaking into song, as I am known to do too often (and those of you who know this song, DON'T laugh...).  Guess what song I sang?  Oh, I know a select few of you have it going in your head right now..."Rescue me from the sin I seem to cling to.  Rescue me from this fight within my soul.  I need You to empower me with more of You so that in the end, with you I will be whole."  Now, seeing as the author of this song may be reading this, I apologize if I butchered the lyrics...I was going off memory.  But I digress.  The point is, I was focusing on my current situation and I wanted (still want so desperately) to be rescued from it.  The problem is, I have a far bigger problem in life that needs rescuing, as the song said.  I tend to focus on my situation and not my sin.  While I'm sure many of us do that, how many of us want to be rescued from sin as desperately as we want to be rescued from our bad situation?  I'll be honest.  I would give or do just about anything for someone to say "Here's $50,000; $100,000.  Dig yourself out of this ditch (it's quickly becoming a deep ditch) and go take care of your family."  I got you laughing now, right?  It's not happening, is it?  The reality is that I've been offered something greater than the means to fix my house...I've been offered the means to fix me.  Would I give just about anything for that or am I too fixed on my situation to have time to pursue my Rescuer? 

Pollyanna! Pollyanna!

I have a computer again.  Tim has had my computer at work with him since he started in early July, so that is my delinquency excuse this time.

We have been in Iowa for a couple months now and we still aren't settled.  Not in the sense that I would like.  We are knee deep in a school that the kids like, the older boys are in football, we have met tons of new people that we have begun friendships with, we love our church family and can't believe we got so lucky to live so close to Tim's work, but we are by no means settled.  We are living in a rental that was an answer to prayer, for sure, but it's still a rental; a temporary home.  Our house in Indiana has not sold yet, and it holds half of our belongings including all personalization we own.

Our rental has no pictures on the walls and no decorations either.  In the bigger picture of life, that is not really important, I'd agree.  However, if I'm to be honest, I will tell you that it's beginning to wear on me; on my emotions.  I want to be able to be the best mom and wife that I can be and I find that more often than not, I am discouraged that I know we are going to be packing up and moving...again.

Up until recently, we had no idea where we were going to move.  We have been looking at every house that would come on the market in our price range, trying above all things, to get a move-in ready house.  We have been living in "projects" (not to be confused with "the projects") for 10 years, technically, and I very much wanted to be done.  There have been no houses come up in good proximity to the kids' school, the church and town that wouldn't be a complete project.  We don't want a project.  Did I say that already?

I was getting discouraged, to say the least, that every house that was in move-in condition, that would fit the 7 of us, was out of our price range.  Does anyone have an extra $250,000???  That's how much over budget the house was that I thought was perfect.  For once, we could move in, unpack and live.  Period.  We could absorb the impact of this move without distraction.  We could be mom and dad to these kiddos and not jip them of our time and energy because we were fixing a house that was in disrepair.  Did I mention I didn't want anything to do with a project?  I'm sure you know where I'm headed by now.

What's the title of that song????  ♫♪"Oops, we did it again?"♫♫  Yeah.  We did.  We went and signed on to buy (renting it until our house sells) another fixer-upper.  Dear Lord, You know my heart...and my level of sanity here...what gives?  Do we never get to be the people who pay someone to do this stuff?  Is this really the only way to get a house to fit us...in our budget?  Inhale through the nose.  Exhale out the mouth.  Ok.  We have to do it again, and here it is:

Things to be thankful for (and there are many):  The exterior is done.  There is a large, pretty lot.  There are original 1940's hardwood floors throughout the original house.  There has been an addition put on of a huge family room and an office.  There are enough rooms for the boys to each have their own, something we feel we need to try for a bit.  It is 4 minutes from church.  It is over 10 minutes closer to town.  There are no gravel roads.  There is an awesome campfire area already put together in the back yard.

I feel a bit like Pollyanna playing the glad game.  I guess I am.  For the sake of this blog entry and those reading it, I will refrain from the list of complaints and woe-is-me-isms that I have and focus on being Pollyanna.  God is still good when I have to live with sub-flooring instead of carpet.  He's still good when we see water dripping from behind the siding near the backdoor and He's still good when standard toilets won't fit in the space they're supposed to go in.

Were those backdoor complaints?  Maybe.  I just choose to see them as truths and glimpses of a bigger picture.  A picture where no matter what, we are going to be living in the place that God provided for us and it's a house that He wanted us to get and I have to believe that the steps it took to get me to be content with taking on another dad-gum project were steps used to bring my focus off myself and perhaps even off what I don't have rather than what I do.  In the meantime, I will try not to care that the bathtub and surround need to have a lot of thought put in to them to figure out how to conceal the flanges left behind without looking hillbilly...somehow...and instead, I will be thankful for finally finding the house that will allow us to get settled into our new life here in Iowa.

Owls and horses and mice, oh my!

Well, we have been in our new home for just over a week now and what a week it was! Tim's parents and my mom came along for the move. When we got to our house, we were greeted by several of our new friends and church family, all ready to unload our truck. Much to my surprise, and gratefulness for sure, once the truck was unloaded, men got started on assembling the bunk beds and putting together the TV area while women were setting up our kitchen and unpacking all other boxes to get us settled right away. One of the ladies even ran home to get a much needed set of sheets for me.

While all that was going on, Tim's parents were blessing us by cleaning the boy's area (the converted attic) which hadn't seen many guests over the past who knows how many years. While they were in one of the storage rooms up there, they found a clue as to how long it had been since the area had really been cleaned last. Wow.

The next morning it felt like we had an eternity to get ready for church with how early everyone got up, so I decided on a cup of joe in one of the cute owl mugs that Ruthie got me before we left to spend some of that precious time.

While I was thoroughly enjoying my Sunday morning coffee, I got this picture from Tim telling me about some of his Sunday morning. Should we invest in some cats around here or what?

For lunch we went to a local favorite place called Gators where the the menu is large, just like this pork tenderloin sandwich, and very tasty. I was glad not to have to think about what I was going to feed everyone just yet. I'd eat here (shoot, I'd eat out) once a week if we could! For now, I'll settle for this treat!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...ok, it's not a ranch, but we do have a couple horses and the kids love them! This is Scooter and there is another one called Ready, but the kids call him shy guy...a much more fitting name. I really hope we get the chance to ride Scooter. The kids will go crazy if they can! In the meantime, the kids take turns feeding them apples and carrots and going in the pen to pet the horses and talk to them. The neat thing is that the horses come around when the kids come over. If its just me, they look up, roll their eyes and keep on grazing. It's rather sweet, really.

The kids have been able to ride their bikes more regularly, and I am very excited about that. What's more exciting to me is that when Micah said she wanted to ride two wheels only, Eden took it upon herself to dig through Tim's tool box to find the right wrenches to do the job herself. I wonder if she knew they were called wrenches?

Five days after we moved in, I left everyone for a leadership conference with some ladies from Harmony, leaving Tim and the kids alone for a few days. When I got back, I was saddened that no one came out of the house to greet me. Clearly they did not miss me. When I got in the house this is what I saw.

If Micah's "Mere Christianity" didn't do it, Titus' "Christian Manifesto" gave the joke away. Perhaps they did miss me, if only a little!

I am back in Indiana for a long weekend to get a few things I didn't pack up when we moved, bring dad's trailer back and get my hair done and so far we have made mema cry (in a good way) and spent the morning with our friends. Tonight we will see grandma and grandpa for dinner and to get a head start on some of our back-to-school shopping (thank you grandma and grandpa for some help with that load!) and then later we will visit with aunts and uncles before heading home. Perhaps next week we will take a crack at out first normal week in Iowa, whatever that will look like. I can't wait!

Just plain sad

So we finally have Internet...which means I am already behind...again. Great. We've had a lot going on lately, but right now Elijah and Levi are at football camp and the other kids are watching Monsters, Inc. (They are soooo awesome!) and so I have some free time on my hands. I should be putting away the laundry or dust mopping the floor, but im just sitting here looking out the window at the cornfields and wondering, is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa. In case you haven't heard, we moved to Iowa last Saturday morning.

Now, I haven't got the stamina to go into the whole story right now, but suffice it to say, God picked us up out of the hustle and bustle of NW Indiana (where Tim and I grew up and all our kids have lived since they were babies) and carried us to our little cottage in the cornfields of Danville, IA. To say "I didn't see that coming" is an understatement, but to know that God directed each step of the way is divine! We have a house sitting in IN empty (oh when will it sell?). We are going to be living in what most would say is "too small" a house for 5 "lively" children. Tim just left his job of over 15 years. I suppose I could go on but I want to point to what has become the overriding theme in all of this (as in all things, right?!?) which is that God truly has orchestrated each of these seemingly negative things for our good and for His glory. The best part is that we can already see His hand through it all.

Before I start on life in Southeast Iowa, I'm going to talk about one of the sad days the kids and I had recently. Granted I don't think they fully realize what happened, but they will soon. If it wasn't hard enough for them to leave their mema and poppy, grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles, saying goodbye to their closest friends was. Last week, we said goodbye to the Taylors. They've hung around each other for over 8 years, and don't know life without each other. They are brothers and sisters. They are cousins. They are friends.

Let me start with the big boys, Levi, Jackson and Elijah. I'm surprised they all smiled (Levi). These boys can make a ball game any time, anywhere. One of them will most always quit mid game to play with the girls, another will get mad at the quitter while the last one will try and keep the peace. They are indeed brothers. Elijah and Levi are going to miss "Jack" (Levi, you know miss Erin doesn't like that name) and I will miss all the things that make him who he is! I will most affectionately think of you whenever I hear the word "pout!" ;) Sorry, Jackson, I had to say that!

Eden and Abby. What can I say about these girls? They may not look like it (Eden hasn't grown in years and Abby is shooting up like a weed putting Eden at Abby's shoulders) But these girls are two peas in a kind-hearted pod. They rarely ever fight, and yet they each have opinions about how to do things. They love drawing and writing and playing dress-up. They are little mothers to their "spirited" little sisters. I find unfinished cards that Eden has written, almost all of them to Abby. Eden will miss Abby terribly. I will miss their giggling fits and the late night (early morning) sleepover chit chat that those girls made so effortlessly...what on earth did you girls have to talk about anyways?

Ty-guy and Mesay-guy. Oh how I wish they had more time! Unlike the other kids, Titus and Mesay (Mu-sigh) weren't "diaper friends" but they are so much alike that I felt from the beginning that God even had Titus in mind when he made Mesay for the Taylors! They are rough and tumble. They are strong willed and even quite obnoxious when they want to be (when the big boys leave them out). They are bulls in the china shop of life who are always on the go. Despite all of that, both of them are quite tender-hearted, loving little boys. I remember early on in their "all boy" friendship when they were both in my car and Titus gently pats Mesay's arm and says, "my chocolate" (I'm tearing up remembering that one). These boys aren't gentle (don't let that precious picture fool you), but in that endearing moment, I knew Titus had found his best friend. They had their ups and downs, mind you, probably more than the other kids, but I have no doubt that God brought them together. Oh how I wish they had more time! Titus will miss Mesay and I'm going to miss all that fair-n-square rough-housing.

Oh boy. Makenna and Micah. Good grief, just look at them. They have trouble written all over their faces!!! The babies of the family. Little sisters. The perfect storm. There is just too much to say about these precocious little girls. They are always into something making some kind of mess that their big sisters get roped in to helping clean up (these two know how to work that system). They have boundless energy (except when it comes to cleaning up those messes) and imagination galore. They fight and boss each other around, but must always hug each other goodbye. Micah will definitely miss "Kenna" and I will miss never knowing what to expect when Makenna and Micah are together!

God knew what He was doing when He brought our kids together and since I know that to be true, I trust that God knows what He is doing in putting the distance between these kids (and their parents). I am sad that it has to be this way. I pray that we find God's will in all this and perhaps, above all (from a mom's perspective) I pray that God sends along some new friends, for my younger kids especially. I know that Jackson, Abby, Makenna and Mesay cannot be replaced because of who they are and the specific spots they fill in mine and my kids' hearts, but I believe God cares about each of these kids and will send all 9 of them the friends that they need. In the meantime, I believe we as parents, the ones whose friendship carries on despite the miles, are challenged to be very purposeful in keeping the kids connected. It won't be the same, I know, but there is too much history to just say goodbye. I am excited to see how God uses this time in our lives and look forward to seeing each of the kids grow during this transition that right now is just plain sad.

 

Speechless

Wouldn it have been fun to wait until a full year had gone by before updating the blog to life in SE Iowa? I'm so close. Moms? You say no? Hmm, well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to jump in head first with this little doozie of a post. I'll come back to fill everyone in on the Iowa details later.

We have been trying to sell our house and have had 11 showings in 3 weeks. All that time I have had some smell in the kitchen that I thought I was imagining after a while. I had cleaned and scrubbed and asked my friend over to confirm my nose's suspicions, only to find that, yes, something smells. Ok. Now that the obvious had been confirmed, I was at a loss as to what to do for showings, so I befriended Febreeze for each showing (Clearly the Febreeze is not working...our house is still for sale. That's a whole different story).

So yesterday morning I get up and reach in the pantry for some Rice Krispie knock-off and didn't feel the expected crinkly bag in the box. The bag was smooth. Odd, right?!? Well, this is what I pulled out:

 

I was speechless. How? When? Who? Perhaps most importantly, WHY??? I think at this point it will only be fruitful to be thankful for the fact that the dead animal smell has been found and buried!

 

Back to school campout

We just had our second (unofficially) boys back to school camp out in our back yard.  10 fabulous boys showed up around 5pm for the start of the festivities.  Now, don't go getting some idea in your head that imagines an evening full of planned activities for the kids.  No sirree.  We are on the fly and off the cuff.  Once Tim got home they all walked down to the ball field and played a game of baseball and from there it was (breathe in) sports, (breathe out) sports and (repeat) more sports. 

I don't have a clue what the teams were, though I know they could rattle them off in a heartbeat.  All I know is that they got filthy dirty (most on purpose) and they had a blast!

This is how they all got "cleaned up" for dinner...mass public shower!

If they'd just sit still long enough to capture a clear shot...but naaa, fooling around is more important.

I know you can't see what this is, so I'll tell you.  After dinner, while the kids played in the yard, Tim hooked up a projector outside and shot a movie onto the side of the house.  We started off with Stargate, but due to some unexpected expletives streaming their way through our neighborhood, we put in Napoleon Dynamite.  We ♥ Napoleon. 

I sent these two inside to play the wii when we had Stargate on because it was a bit much for them.  They didn't care.  Apparently I did them a favor.  Each of them having several older siblings, they never get to play the wii by themselves.

Getting to bed at midnight makes for an extra early 6am.  Isn't that right Tim?  Tim was more than wonderful through this whole thing and if I had to guess, I would say he even enjoyed it when all was said and done.  Is he tired?  You bet he is...because after all this, he went to my grandpa's house to help my dad install wood flooring...but I have to say that he made the camp out the success it was!   ♫♩What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man♪♫!!!

For breakfast was pancakes and waffles.  He even let some of the boys flip their own pancakes.  Now THAT'S saying something for anyone, much less a sleep deprived parent!

This is what the divine breakfast looked like, if you chose the waffle...slathered in butter...then slathered in peanut butter...then slathered in syrup.  Need I say more?

Well, I guess I should say something to show it didn't all end right after breakfast.  The boys played a game of soccer followed by a game of football, and I only had to tell them once that "using" the great out doors is for cover of night only!  By the end of the football game, parents started showing up bringing the rain with them.  It was a great camp out with a great bunch of boys and in my opinion, ended with a perfect rainy day complete with thunder and a cup of coffee. 

Lavender Fresh

You know, who would have thought that doing laundry takes mental prowess?  Clearly you cannot set a poorly capped jug of freshly purchased laundry detergent (Lavender Fresh) on top of a running washing machine full of bulky blankets and sheets.  Who knew?

MicahJoy is 4, and every bit of it!

Today our "baby" Micah Joy has turned four years old.  Wow!  The other day, due to an injury from a year ago, she had her front tooth pulled and was drugged.  Today she turned four and I think she is still high on the gas because all of a sudden she is more boisterous and more dynamic and more dramatic and more chatty...did I think any of that was even possible?  No!  But here we are with this kid that doesn't stop.  She has truly been a total joy to us all.  She has been making us laugh since she was around 6 months old and I don't see her stopping any time soon.  We have been so blessed with her and by her and we are excited to see what the future holds with her in our family. Thank you God for placing her in our care.  You couldn't have been more right.  Grin.

Happy Birthday, Micah.  We love you so so so so much!!!

Our baby is here!!!

After much anticipation (not as much for us as for Phil and Shelley, for sure) and a whole lotta patience, we now know who Wesley Bob really is.  Flashback:  Shelley gets pregnant.  A little while later they "are pretty sure it's a boy."  A little while later and out of the blue Titus says, "I hope aunt Shelley names the baby Wesley" and Levi chimes in, "yeah, Wesley Bob."  Today at 3pm Massachusetts time, Quinn Gabriel Svoboda was born, weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and measuring 20" long.  We couldn't be happier for the former trio and are ever so eager to see them again and meet our nephew.

 Proud parents Phil and Shelley (with an "e") Svoboda.

 

I can't say for sure who I think he looks like, but I can definitely say he has some of Nadia in him...at least for now!  He is beautiful and the perfect addition to our family.  Now, in discussing his name, our boys have decided that they are going to call him Gaber.  Or just Gabe.  I don't know that they will follow through with that, but that is the boy's decision.  Eden says, "No, his name is Quinn.  I am going to call him Quinn."  Micah couldn't care less!

Not been one of those days...

You know how sometimes, you get up and you hug the kids good morning and you ask if they slept well...then you make them pancakes because you haven't made them in so long, but you don't have anymore "just add water" mix so you gladly break out the internet to whip up a batch from scratch...everyone sets the table together and then eats breakfast while thanking mommy for making their favorite breakfast and afterwards they put their dishes in the dishwasher as they have been asked to do after every meal since they could walk...you tell them it's time to clean up their rooms because you'd love to take them to the pool on this very warm Summer day and because they want to go swimming so badly, they all say "yes ma'am" and run off to do the 20 minute job...the necklace that has been sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs for a week gets picked up by one of the boys on his way to his room and he kindly drops it off at the girls room, since he's passing by anyways and his pair of shorts and the light saber that have also been stepped over by everyone in the house also gets picked up by someone, even though he didn't play with it and leave it there...the girls don't fight about who's cleaning and who isn't and because of all that you can actually get your own "chores" done with out breaking up fights and checking attitudes and babysitting the kids to make sure they can get over themselves enough to clean up their rooms even when they may not have touched the specific item that needs to be put away...?  Yeah, well, it's not been one of those days.

Eden is 7!!!

Now that everyone is up to speed on most of the goings on around here (at least for now until I slip into another blogcoma), I can post an event that just happened.  Not one that is over a month old.  A for-really-real current event.  Shocking.  That's an event of its own, I know, but I digress.  Eden's birthday.  Now, she turned 7 last Tuesday (not completely current) but we celebrated her birthday last night (about as current as it gets anymore).  It's always interesting to me, as a mom, to watch my kids open their gifts and I have come to notice a vast difference between Eden and the boys.  I will have to see about Micah before I call it a girl thing, so for now, it's just Eden.

When the boys are opening their gifts, first of all, there are a whole lot fewer gifts because theirs are always more expensive (Legos are not cheap, plain and simple).  Then, when they are opening gifts, they couldn't care less about a card unless it has money in it, and they never get money, so they don't care about cards.  They are forced to endure going through the formality of opening them first in order to give the proper person thanks, inevitably directed by a "now what do you say?"  Even Elijah, after 10 years of training needs to be reminded to say thanks sometimes.  Seriously.  That drives me nuts!  Once their gift is opened and the mandatory "thanks" has been thrown out there, they are off to the next one as the previous gift is shoved to the side to make room.

Eden is different.  She will get several gifts mostly because her gifts aren't that expensive and she will be antsy excited to open them, but she will calmly sit and wait until the go-ahead is given.  She will sweetly get a gift and make sure to find the card.  If, for some reason she doesn't see one, she will ask everyone who's gift this is to see if she should be looking harder for the card.

Once she finds the card, she painstakingly opens the envelope, pulls out the card and proceeds to read everything inside of it aloud, including any of the personal notes to her, pausing only for help on an occasional word.  That part is really cute.  After the card is read, she opens the gift, loves the gift and hugs the gift giver.  VERY different from the boys for sure.

Even the kids got hugs for the packs of gum and travel office supply kit they got her!

When Eden is done hugging the generous gift giver, she will even stop to pose for a picture for her mommy.  Here is an outfit she got for her Madame Alexander dolls.  This birthday was all about them.  The three dolls she has got a Red Racer wagon, the outfit you saw above and they each got a twin bed that all bunk on top of each other.

Naturally the dolls would want to sleep comfortably, so I made these three reversible comforters and matching pillows.  Unfortunately the beds won't be here until tomorrow, but how much fun we will have putting it all together "for the dolls."

I think Eden made out like a bandit and I know she loved everything she got.

 

I should have gotten her some pony tail holders, right?!?  She wanted a DQ Blizzard cake again this year, and since she got a pink one last year, she decided to get an Oreo one this year.  Mmm.  Mmm.  Good!

While there was down time, grandma snuck in some reading to some of the kids, 

 

and not one to miss a beat, Levi was sure to entertain with his antics.

Thanks to everyone, even Kevin, for making Eden's birthday a fun night together with [most of] our family.  (We missed you Uncle Phil, Aunt Shelley, Nadia and Wesley)!!!

Titus can ride a two-wheeler

Since we don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood (Boo.  Hiss.) I didn't know when or if the 2 younger kids were going to learn to ride their bikes.  One weekend away at the farm, Titus decided he didn't want his training wheels on anymore, so I took them off and had absolutely no intention of ever putting them back on.  Once he got over the attitude of "I CAN'T!!!!!" he did really well and learned how to ride and did it all in less than 20 minutes.  Think about that timeline.  Let's just say it took him 10 minutes to learn to ride.  That left him 10 minutes to start trying, realize he "can't", mope, pout and throw the attitude around for a bit, me talk to him with the motherly "if...then..." statement and then come back down to reality.  I am sure it took him less time to do all that drama and more time to learn to ride the bike, but what does it matter now?  Once the attitude switch was turned to "off" he was fine.

 We had plenty of space for him to learn to ride, to do turn arounds; the whole nine yards.

I have two kids in particular that can defeat themselves (in their head) in seconds and go crazy but the universe is right when their mindset it right.  There's a life lesson!

Titus really did do such a great job...and I'm guessing that the traditional learning how to ride a two wheeler reward of ice cream helped clear up any attitude deficiency he had!

Creepy!

Ok, so the other night Tim came up to bed and said I had to see what was going on in the hallway.  I did, and let me tell you, it was creepy at first, then funny and then just really cute.  Ready?  Here goes:

At some point after going to bed, Titus got out of bed and eventually fell asleep, like this, outside our door.  That's our Tidyboy!

Elijah is 10!!!

Yep, you read that right! Elijah is 10. Some of you are laughing right now. Why? Oh, you think it's funny that Eden's birthday was Tuesday and Elijah's birthday was well over a month ago. Yeah, well, it's busy in this little abode of ours; laundry to my knees, yard work on a 3 1/2 year neglected yard and consequently I end up with house work on a very neglected house, I clean 2 houses twice a month each (no, not mine) and I am trying to run a few times a week. Oh, and did I mention that the kids are home for the summer...that automatically makes everything weeks behind any would-be schedule. Somewhere in there I need to remember that I am an active neighbor and friend, we have been in the midst of Little League and are now starting All Stars, I have to make dinner every evening we are home and still have some resemblance of a marriage too, so fine, laugh, but I gave up the quest for Superwoman a long time ago. You can have it!

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, that long-ago birthday.  It was good.   Elijah got to drive down to Indianapolis for an eye checkup for the happy day! (All was deemed well for Elijah and his eyes and he even can go without his glasses for sports if he wants to)  Lucky for Him, he also had a party that night. 

 He is getting so big I can hardly believe it!

We love Legos around here.  This was the birthday gift of choice this year.  This and to go to a White Sox game.  Lucky kids that we have, he got both!  Tim and I decided to take him to a game and it happened to be a night game.  Doubly fun.  He couldn't wait, though secretly he hoped to miss school to go to it!

On White Sox game day, our friend Chris got us front row seats (technically 5th row) that were right behind the White Sox dugout on the third baseline.  We used the dugout as a footrest, perfect spot for a 10year celebration!  The journey getting there was ridiculous for sure!  Let me tell you all about it.

So I look up "Southshore Train Schedule" online and the first option gave me a schedule.  Rather than looking at all that schedule said, I looked for what time I needed to be at the Portage station and called it good.  It's not like I am a train regular, so what would I know about the possibility of there being "weekend" schedules?  I picked up Elijah at school and we moseyed on to Starbucks where he enjoyed his very first iced coffee (and might I add only for his birthday will he get one until he can buy them from money earned from his own job) and we headed for the train station.  We got there with what I thought was plenty of time to spare.  Wrong.  Remember the possibility of a weekend schedule?  Well, of course I was looking at the weekend schedule when I planned my trip and the train had just come and gone, little did we know.  The next one wouldn't come for another hour.  For pete's sake.  Really?!?

I decided I would try to make the train at the Gary station, knowing that the idea was for Tim to pick us up at the station downtown so that we wouldn't be taking 2 cars to park at the stadium.  If I make the Gary station train, we will be just fine.  Here's the trick.  I haven't a clue where it is.  I called Tim and just like Chloe would dictate a route to Jack Bauer, Tim showed me the way.  In some parts of Gary, as one might imagine, there are little to no street signs and because of that, I missed the turn to the train station and had to go around the long way.  I finally get to the other entrance of the train station but couldn't get in...because a train, my train, was stopped on the tracks, picking up passengers.  Dagnabbit.  If the first turn was more than a back alley entrance to a station, I may not have missed the thing.

So now what?  I thought I'd speed my way back to Portage and catch that train, plus then I wouldn't be in the heart of Gary after the game to get my truck.  I headed back and Tim said that I probably wouldn't make it.  I practiced submission you all, let me tell you, because every fiber in me said I could get there in time, no matter how long it took the first time and no matter what Tim said.  Good thing I listened, I suppose.  We had to change where we met Tim, but in the end, we made it to the park with time enough to spare to wait in the long line to use the bathroom.

Because we were so close, every time the Sox ended an inning while fielding, they would run in to the dugout and toss the fans the balls they had.  Twice Alexei Ramirez caught an inning-ending line drive to short and twice he tossed the ball to Elijah on his was in the dugout.  He was excited!  Can you tell?  Yeah, not so much, huh?  I guess he has a little of me in him after all!!! 

It was no picnic for me to get our boy to this game, for sure, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves once we got there and were glad to take our first "double digit" kid out for a special night, just the three of us.  Happy birthday, Elijahboy!  We are so blessed to have you in our family.  You have brought us 10 years of smiles and laughter and we can't wait to see what you have in store for the next 10 years!  We love you!