Crazy

Things are crazy around here right now. We have a ton of stuff going on and it's all happening at the same time. I feel like a stressed out, worn out, unorganized mess at the moment and it's about to get worse. We head down to Indy on Sunday night with just Evan. We will be there for 3 days for doctor appointments and tests. Those kind of trips are not my favorite. He will be getting a 23 hour EEG, seeing the Neurologist, and were adding a new specialist now, Endocrinology. We are also throwing another test in at the lab while we're there, for good measure. (ha, ha)

But, since I would really prefer not to think about all that I'm going to post some pictures of the boys several weeks ago. They make me smile and I need that today!

I bought goggles on sale at Dollar General and thought it would be fun to let the boys try them out in the tub. They agreed.

HA! That one cracks me up! Ahhhh, I feel better now:)

Trusting Faith

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

It's been 71/2 years now since we held our sweet girl in our arms. Lately I've been feeling like it's getting harder for me. Seven years is a long time and I liked it better when I could say, "Just 3 months, 6 months, even a year ago we were taking care of Lauren and kissing her little cheeks." Oh sure, the emotions were flying high back then, but the memories were so fresh. I still remembered how she felt in my arms, how she smelled, and how her tiny cry sounded. Now it is so fuzzy. There are too many other things crowding those memories in my brain. So much time has passed and so many things have happened since then. Several weeks ago, Matt and I were developing some pictures for a project that my sister in law was working on for my parents. After we picked them up, I opened the envelope to see how they turned out. When I pulled out the pictures of Lauren I started crying immediately. Right there in Meijer, I just busted out the tears. I couldn't help it. I was standing there looking at my little girl and she was so beautiful and it had been too long since I had really looked at her. Time is a weird thing and it most definitely doesn't heal all wounds. It's a good thing I know Someone in the healing business.

I was clearing off a bookshelf the other day and came across a piece of paper with a passage I had typed out from a book I had read. I actually read it outloud to the group of family and friends who came to a balloon launch we had in memory of Lauren. It was just what I needed back then when everything was so fresh and it is just what I need to be reminded of 7 years later. Forgive me for not remembering what book or who the author is but here is what it says.

"Scripture tells us that in this life, our view of reality is like a blurry reflection in a mirror but that someday we will see God clearly, as He really is, and we will see Him face to face. Our earthly eyesight is just too imperfect to see down the road far enough for this life to make sense. That's when trust takes over. God doesn't expect us to understand all of life's circumstances. In fact He tells us not to rely on our understanding, but to trust Him. So when you are tempted to ask why or when your heart wants desperately to make sense of it all, remember Proverbs 3:5. You don't need to understand, what you need to do is trust in the Lord. When trust turns to praise and we open our mouths to thank Him for His goodness, something supernatural takes place inside our souls. We find peace and strength. We forget about ourselves and instead focus on the One who holds the world in His hands. When we stop striving to understand and give in to trust, we will see that His mighty hand was at work all along in the thing we thought would crush us."

You see, even though our daughter was born with a chromosome disorder that was, "not compatible with life", and we no longer have the joy of having her with us, God is still God and he is still good. He never promised that we would live lives, void of any troubles or hardships, but that he would be there with us and never leave us. He has walked this road with us and carried us most of the way. He knows every tear I've cried and heard every desperate prayer I've prayed. I have a reason to praise him and I should....and I will.

Deals

I made a trip to Target this afternoon with the boys to get some prescriptions filled for Evan. I also happened to score some major deals while I was there!:) I got a a little coupon booklet in the mail the other day from Target. It had (among others) a Luvs diaper coupon, Huggies wipes coupon and a Boost Kids Essentials coupon. It also had coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase of baby items. I was pretty sure I could turn this into a pretty sweet deal so here's what I did:

Luvs Diapers $17.99

Huggies Wipes $5.99

Boost Kid Essentials $6.85 (on clearance)

I used my $5 off $25 and then I used my $1 off Luvs Target coupon, my 1.50 off wipes Target coupon plus .50 off wipes manufacturer coupon, and my $2 off Boost Target coupon plus a $3 off manufacturer coupon.

I also bought:

Yogos $1.75

3 individual cups of Cheerios $1 each

2 tubes of Carmex $1.02

I used a .50 off Kellogs fruit snack Target coupon plus a .50 off Yogos manufacturer coupon, 3 $1 off General Mills cereal Target coupons, and 2 $1 off Carmex manufacturer coupons.

I paid a total of $19.79 for all of this! Not too bad since the diapers alone were originally $17.99!:) I love shopping trips like that!

And then there were two

Evan left us this morning. The first day of being at school all day! He is repeating kindergarten this year, which is half day, and will spend the other half of his day in a class for kids with different special needs. He is thrilled and had no worries this morning.

He just walked onto the bus like he'd been doing it his whole life....no looking back! He could have at least humored me and pretended that he might miss me a little.

Now, I am trying to wrap my brain around only having two boys for the day. Only two bodies to cart around, only two mouths to feed at lunch, only two pairs of shoes to tie and only two little tornado's running all over the place being crazy. This is going to be weird! Jake and Colin sure will miss Evan during the day. Jake already told me this morning, "This is taking forever!", referring to Evan getting home. It might be a long day with only two! But aren't they cute:)

Blueberry Summer

We love blueberries at our house! This summer I've taken the boys several times to go picking with me. The first time was a little iffy but they got the hang of it soon enough. (and by "got the hang of it", I mean they realized they could use the pick and eat method.) The first time we went, Jake was picking on a bush behind me and kept asking me to look and see if the berry he picked was a good one.

I told him to taste it and if it was good then the berries like it would be good too. He decided that was a good enough answer and went back to picking. Pretty soon he said, "Mom, I'm tasting each and every one!" I thought he just meant he was eating all that he picked instead of putting them in his bucket. I looked in his bucket a minute later and found that he was indeed tasting each and every one. He was picking, taking a bite, and then dropping the half eaten berry in his bucket!

Evan didn't even mess around with putting any in his bucket. They went straight down the hatch and when I tried to convince him to pick them to take home he tried chanting, "Don't eat 'em, don't eat 'em, don't eat 'em." , while he was picking. It didn't work and every time I asked him how his bucket was coming along, he said "Not good".

Colin mostly ate his too but wasn't good at remembering that only the blue ones were good to eat.

I'm glad we made so many fun memories this summer! I'm really going to miss the blueberries and the picking now that summer is nearing an end and school is starting very, very soon. There are fun things that go along with that but there is nothing quite like summer time!

Mr. President

President Obama visited our little town today. It was a big deal, with nearly 500 police officers positioned all over town (one in my sisters driveway), secret service all over, bomb sniffing dogs, and snipers on the middle school roof top. I dressed the boys in red, white and blue and we headed out to see the action up close at my sisters. (She lives right across the street from where the helicopters actually landed!)








I don't exactly see eye to eye with President Obama but it was fun to see Air force One fly in right over our heads and to have Marine One fly in and land right across the street! That sort of thing doesn't happen everyday!








The boys thought it was cool to see all the police cars, motorcycles, and helicopters. Maybe someday they will look back on all these pictures and think it was cool that the President of the United States of America came to their town and they got to see it!

Pete and Repeat

Colin is Jacobs shadow. He does (wants to do) everything that Jake does. If Jake wants his shoes off, so does Colin. If Jake is finished with lunch, so is Colin (even when he isn't). If Jake climbs up on a huge rock at the park and jumps off, so does Colin. You get the idea. This annoys Jake sometimes and I hear, "Mom, he's doing whatever I do!", a lot. We have been trying to talk to Jake about being careful to make good choices because Colin is always watching him and trying to do what he does. It is semi-affective at best. I think it is adorable to watch and I'm so thankful that all my boys are such good buddies. I hope they always stay close and enjoy being together.