Any guesses where I spent the last four days?

Here are some clues...

I'll tell you soon. The last four days have been beyond exhausting but fun too. I have lots to share but I must go to bed. In the last four days I think I've had a total of 15 hours of sleep. 

Just like Mama...

Eli and Emmy love being outside and even though we live in Mayberry and have a totally fenced, private, yard we're not comfortable letting them play outside without one of us being present.

Often Marcus and I will both sit out there or we'll rotate. Usually, when I go outside I bring a book to read or my computer so I can do some work. The other day we were outside and I left the door to our house open so Eli & Emmy could come in and out as needed. I was sitting in my chair reading my book and Eli and Emmy were busy doing all manner of things around me.

Emerson was very busy and kept going inside the house grabbing a chair from their playroom (which is clear on the other side of our house) and then dragging it outside. This was no small feat for her and it probably took her at least 30 minutes to get both of the chairs outside and set them in the proper place.

Then after she got both chairs outside, she returned with some books. Then she sat, opened her book, and began to read.

It was only after watching all of this that I realized what she was doing. I was sitting in my chair with a book, so Emmy decided she would do the same (except she always thinks of her brother and brought a chair for him too).

She wanted to be just like her mama.

Not the best picture because of the sun. But she told Eli to sit too and then handed him a book. She was reading very intently. Eli just looks confused, he's probably trying to figure out why exactly his sissy wanted him to sit with a book outside. 

Emmy was very proud and was showing me her book and piggy. 

Reading with her "bubba" 

(Have I mentioned that's what she calls Eli "bubba")

Funny sweet girl. So much concentration and work to get her chair outside to read like mama. 

Perspective...

Since we've moved to Mayberry we've been blessed with an abundance of fresh, organic, fruits and vegetables. Almost on a daily basis we receive more from various members of my congregation. Not to mention our own fruit bearing trees in our back yard full of Peaches and Plums. Eli and Emerson get the biggest kick out of picking a plum off the tree and then getting to eat it. (Our peaches aren't ripe yet).

This is just a very small sampling of what has been shared with us. (Jess those small, yellow, round, things are the lemon drop cucumbers). 

We are literally surrounded by agriculture on all sides of us and I couldn't help but think about how blessed we are. Especially when compared to the devastation, poverty, conflict, and famine faced by those in the Horn of Africa. 

My heart has been heavy for those affected, and Somalia was actually the focus of my sermon last Sunday. Each day with Eli & Emerson we pray for our food and then lately we've been remembering all of those in Somalia and those who are hungry around the world.  I know that Eli & Emerson are too young to fully get what it is we're praying for but I hope as they get older, they will grow up with an awareness of the world around them.

Also in case anyone is looking at a way to aid those facing famine. Here's a link.  I'm a big fan and supporter of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). When disaster of any kind hits around the world UMCOR is among the first responders and 100% of the funds given for designated causes are used in those areas. It's a great organization and the link will provide you with all kinds of information about their work (if you're intersted). If not that's fine too it's just something that's been on my heart and mind this last week or so. 

Speech update...

I've mentioned before that I worry about their speech delay. I really try hard not to compare them to other kids their age, but it's hard. Especially because the other kids that I'm comparing them too are also twins and were also born premature. So in my mind that levels the playing field some.

So I read that other kids their age can speak in sentences, count, knows their colors, can sing the alphabet etc. I just worry. They are making progress and that's what I mostly try and focus on but it's hard to get that voice out of my head that just worries.

So for some updates. Eli has very recently started putting two words together. This usually consists of the word "No" and then something else. For example, "No nap" "No eat" "No sissy" "No mine". In fact I can't think of any other two word phrase (aside from thank you) that he uses that doesn't contain the word no. His one three word phrase it, "Are you shoes" he's always wondering around the house yelling, "Are you?" those dang shoes are never where they should be. However, Eli still doesn't repeat words that we say.

That's where Emerson kicks in. She's not stringing any words together yet but she's a little parrot and tries to mimic the last word of everything we say. Which can get really fun. We've been praying for Somalia in our prayers and hearing her try and say Somalia is adorable. She also won't attempt to say Emerson, instead she just sticks with "Emmy" when we try to get her to refer to herself.

So that's where we are at with speech.

I do have a funny story though about attempting to teach colors. We talk about the color of everything all the time but so far they're not getting it at all. Eli just stares at us and Emmy just repeats the word without any real awareness of what or why she's saying the words.

The other day I decided we would do a color lesson. Some intentional learning time. So I pulled out our block set that looks like this.

I figured this would be good because it has four basic colors to start with yellow, green, blue, and red. I started with two kids but Eli quickly got bored and ran away so it was just me and Emmy ready to learn some colors.

In my hand I gathered several of the green ones. I think I had three or four in my and hand and I kept showing Emmy and saying "green". Then I laid four of them on the floor....

like this. And said "okay Emmy can you find me a green one."

She was so attentive and so cute and when I asked her to find me a green one, she stood up and took off running. She went to look around the house for another block. Haha bless her heart. She did find me another block. It wasn't green but it was a good effort.

It was hysterical. We did this several times and each time she stood up and took off running in search of what I requested. It was a good effort and she had fun, but no colors were learned.  

Maybe someday soon. We have a meeting with Early Intervention next Monday so we'll see what they have to say about the whole thing. 

 

Welcome to Mayberry...

So here's the tour of Mayberry that we finally got uploaded. Be warned it's not super exciting at all, but if you're bored... It's in two parts because Emmy wasn't sitting in the wagon properly and fell. So we had to take a brief timeout. So for your viewing enjoyment I present Mayberry.

Some Stuff...

• Today I went to the DMV to try and register my car again. It didn't work and our car still isn't registered. California does not want us to officially and legally live in this state. This makes Marcus pretty cranky. 

• There was a toad in our yard yesterday a really big toad. I'm afraid of toads and frogs... this fear goes back years. The result of several things I think. Being chased by boys with frogs at FFA camp (ahh... the memories). My sister's love for all things living and the odd collection of reptiles, amphibians and mammals that took residence in her room as her pets (Lizards, toads, frogs, runt baby pigs, baby turkeys, birds, guinea pigs, all number of things). Truly odd and smelly when a baby pig pees in your closest, or your sister informs you that her latest reptile has escaped. Marcus likes to joke that my living in Mayberry is getting back to my rural living roots. One day maybe I'll share the story of one of the first times Marcus visited my house in high school and my dad had just butchered a pig. (We raised pigs back in the day). Of course maybe I won't people don't react so well to that particular circle of life kind of story. I've discovered this in my city living days. Anyways, back on point Marcus played with the toad some yesterday so the babies could see it. I kept my distance trying to remain calm so as not to freak out the children.

• Eli peed on the potty. Well, what happened was we were getting ready for bed and Eli & Emerson are quite good and stripping these days. So while I got Emerson undressed, Eli took off his diaper. Emerson then wanted to sit on the big potty, so I of course let her, and then Eli sat on the little potty. However, he didn't quite get all the way on and so he peed on the floor, but he was sitting on the potty so I think this is progress. Of course he was totally unaware of what happened, but still a start, kind of. 

• Marcus has a job interview tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well. 

That's all I've got. Good night.  

Being a Pastor...

I don't think I've ever really shared much about my journey into ministry here on this blog. Part of that is because this blog started as a pregnancy blog, which was directly preceded by my infertility blog (which was private) and during our infertility my faith was shaken to its core.

Again, I didn't write much about that because I was in divinity school trying to answer questions about my call to ministry and what my future plans were and I was so mad at God I wanted to run down the street and apply for law school (as if I had a prayer of actually getting into Yale Law but I sometimes wandered the halls and dreamed haha). Through a lot of soul searching I've made peace with my anger at God surrounding our infertility in part because of the work of Serene Jones and in part because of my growth as a Christian. IF still sucks but God thinks it sucks too, so we're friends again :~) (That sounds more flippant than I mean it to be, but it's a pretty concise understanding of where I'm at with the whole thing).

I first felt a call to ministry when I was really young, around 7. Which of course I know only in hindsight but it was there inside and as I grew and was mentored my faith and my call grew. Primarily I accepted my call to ministry because it's a means for me to do the work of social justice. There are so many justice issues in the world that need a progressive voice (can I just add yay New York and the same-sex marriages taking place today. Those pictures make my heart happy and make me wish I was still on the east coast so I could celebrate and offer support to all those couple. Maybe CA will get its act together again soon). and passion behind them and for me it was either law or ministry. Ministry eventually won out.

I write all of this ramblings because of an email I received this morning. While I was at Yale I was awarded a scholarship that was endowed and named for a man who is an alumnus of YDS and I had the privilege of meeting him and thanking him for making my education possible. Since that time back in 2008 at the end of my first year, we've corresponded back and forth.

Me and Richard back in 2008 when we met. He was so funny he wanted to take a picture so his wife could see what I looked like. 

I recently wrote to him to tell him of my new appointment as a pastor at a church and I loved his response to me. He wrote:

Being a pastor is a unique calling/vocation. Among all the professions, it is the one that probably engenders the most trust on the part of others from the first contact on. Pastors don’t have to earn trust, rather they have to show why they can’t be trusted. They relate to people of every age and in every stage and condition of life. They can intervene when they see a need for intervention whether in personal, marital, social, civic and all other situations.  There is no other profession that has that authority or responsibility.  And, to think that we also have the responsibility and authority to speak for God. It is awesome. I hope that you will have a very satisfying ministry as well as a productive one for God.

For me this sums up what I'm trying to do. I realize I am tasked with an incredible responsibility and it's one that I take seriously. I am so appreciative of his kind words and his support (he too is a pastor, although now long retired). I love when I meet others in the profession who are not burnt out but instead can see the value of the work I'm trying to do and encourage me to do it.

It was a nice start to my Sunday after a particularly bad saturday and a struggle with my sermon.

Rough night=

a really bad day. My crohns has been really bad again recently (I have no idea why). To the point that I've lost about 4lbs. Normally I would be happy about such things but not when it's the result of the crohns. The really sucky part is I need to find a new GI doctor in the area and then because my insurance sucks I get to pay out of pocket for it all. I was up all night in pain, which has resulted in a completely lethargic, useless me, and does not bode too well for sermon writing.

I'm having a blah kind of a day.

This post has no point except it serves as a means to continue my sermon writing procrastination.

Busy, busy...

It's been a busy week. My church is hosting its Vacation Bible School, which is great fun, but a lot of work. I have to say though one my favorite things is when the kids say, "Pastor Sadie..." and then ask me a question about the story for that week, or something about the bible, or a prayer request, or to tell me a story about how they stubbed their toe.

Eli and Emerson have been attending Bible school even though they're two and the age starts at 4 (Perk of being the pastor's kids?). Of course Marcus attends with them (I'm teaching the bible lesson) but so far they've been doing really well. The only unfortunate part is for some reason they seem to think they own the sanctuary. They've decided that the steps at the front of the church belong to them, so that's where they sit. Facing everyone in the pews during our opening and closing programs.

Emmy on her step (with her super hero cape) and the tennis racket which the kids use as guitars while we sing. She also thinks she needs to hold a tennis racket every time. I try to hand them all out before she can get too possessive. 

Here's the sanctuary decorated. The theme this week is Superheroes and some of the different heroes in the Bible. The kids made capes yesterday. Eli & Emmy looked adorable running around in their super hero capes. (Eli only left his on for a few minutes though).

Emmy and her super hero cape.

Aside from Bible school this week has been the week for complicated paperwork. We're still working through the enrollment process for Eli & Emerson's insurance and we have to prove all kinds of things. 

Plus I got all of my pension paperwork in the mail. Fun stuff. 

I tried...

to upload a video tour of Mayberry (the tour takes 3 minutes haha), but I'm pretty sure at the rate it was uploading everyone who reads this blog could probably drive to Mayberry faster. Seriously, it was that slow so no Mayberry tour.

So I don't have much to say, since my post was foiled by a slow upload.

Eli and Emerson were a little bit antsy in church today. Emerson decided she wanted to be my associate pastor today and stood up front with me. Eli then might have escaped out the door behind the alter, oops.  Although Eli was very enthusiastic about the songs at the end of each song he yelled, "yay!"

I also got some new vegetables and fruit today. We got some lemon drop cucumbers, they're small yellow round things. It's a good thing that the woman who gave them too me told me what they were or I would have had to have another, "what are these?" post. Although once again I'm not sure what you do with lemon drop cucumbers.

We also got some nectarines and Eli and Emerson love them, they've also discovered the plum tree in our yard and are always asking to pick a plum off the tree (or picking them up off the ground eek). It still kind of cracks me up that our fellowship hour at church is like its own mini farmers market.

Marcus is a nerd...

no seriously he is (and I love that about him). He's one of those unexpected nerds because he was never too into school and reading is a struggle for him, but he loves all things nerdy.

For example the discovery channel, the history channel, space, the human body & how it functions especially the heart, and dinosaurs. This last week he's been reading Eli & Emerson some dinosaur books and then they even looked up some different dinosaurs together on the internet.

Then today I got this text from Marcus (he took the kids to the store while I worked on my sermon, which is what I should be doing but I decided to blog really quick first).

Marcus: We found dinosaurs

Me: Okay...

Marcus: They love them and I'm scared to put them back

(haha I suppose he could sense a potential 2 year old tantrum x 2 in the store should he remove the dinosaurs from their hands)

Me: Uh oh.

Marcus: $1.68 for the dinos?

Haha, I knew he'd give in and just buy them the dinosaurs.

I can't wait to see what these beloved $1.68 dinos look like.

Improvements...

I've written before about how clingy Emerson is around me. From the second I came home from work she was glued to my side, and she wouldn't let Marcus or anyone else do anything for her if I was present.

This resulted in an epic meltdowns at the wedding she was suppose to be in last month, plus it isolated family and friends because she would not let anyone near her if I was around. She was beside herself all the time if I was not physically holding her. It was so frustrating and it was unfair to everyone around especially Eli. It was to the point where I felt like I never had any time with her brother because she was so needy and dependent and monopolized every second of my time.

What's crazy is in the last 20 days (since we've moved) she's done a complete reversal. It's like she's not even the same kid. She's outgoing, friendly, lets her dad help her, in fact she willingly goes and sits on his lap when I'm present, we haven't had a single, "mama, mama, mama, mama..." hysterics incident, and even more astounding is that at my church she's friendly and willingly approaches other people.

One of my biggest fears for my first Sunday was that Emerson would freak out while I was up at the pulpit (which happened at my previous church when she wasn't in the nursery). I was also worried that she would freak out when it was time to go to Sunday school, but we haven't had a single issue.

In fact it's just the opposite. On Tuesday a few of the church people were over at our house getting some vacation bible school stuff ready. Emerson walked right up to her Sunday school teacher and put her arms up to be held, and then she laughed and played and she didn't even seem worried or concerned that I wasn't next to her.

Today our church treasurer stopped by to drop of my pay check and once again Emerson approached her and was showing off some of her things. It's truly astounding.

Although here's where the mama guilt starts in. The primary thing that's been different these last 20 days is that I've been home pretty much all the time. My new church congregation is much smaller and I work from home. Whereas for the last year I've worked full time outside, plus I was tutoring, and had nightly job related things several times a week.  Currently, unless I have meetings, visitations etc. I'm at home, and since it's summer most of our programing and classes are on hold until Fall so there hasn't been a whole lot of time commitment away. Plus the church is right next door, so even if I have to go they can often come with me or at least see from our house window where I'm going. I honestly think that her new change in attitude has to do with some comfort over the fact that I'm present and not leaving her on a daily basis.

Which makes me so happy, but also makes me feel like crap that for the last year she's been dealing with some major anxiety about me leaving and not being present which then manifest itself in some crazy, clingy behavior.

*sigh* There's nothing I can do about the past so I'm just going to be grateful for how much calmer and happier she's been lately. She's the adorable, sweet girl that I always knew but that nobody else ever got to see.

Do I look like a teenager?

Because I often get mistaken for one and I honestly don't see it at all. I think maybe I look a few years younger than I am but I do not think I look under 18.

Recently at my annual church conference many of the other pastors assumed I was a youth delegate until I was recognized as clergy during the setting of appointments.

Then today I went into the city that neighbors Mayberry to meet another pastor at his church. A woman there was running a food program which provides free meals for kids k-under 18 in the summer, since they're not getting meals at school.

This woman approached me and asked if I was waiting for the food program. At this point the other pastor introduced me as the Pastor of Mayberry.

It was hysterical, this poor woman was so embarrassed for having mistaken me for a high school student. haha...

It's been three years...

and why I still hate infertility. Three years ago (almost to the day) we made our donor selection and purchased 12 vials of donor sperm. We purchased 12 vials because that would give us 6 chances at trying to have kids, and we have always been very adamant that if we were using DS, and we wanted additional kids that they all come from the same donor. (We have our reasons for this that I can further explain if anyone is interested. I'll also mention that I have no judgment for those who have to use multiple donors for any number of reasons).

As part of purchasing 12 vials we got three years of free storage. So after getting pregnant and using 4 vials to do so, the remaining 8 have been in storage and we haven't had to think about it, until now.

We recently got an invoice in the mail because the free storage is up, and now we have some decisions to make and frankly we don't know what to do. At this moment in time I cannot even think about attempting another pregnancy. I'm just now feeling really good after the trauma and the PPD/anxiety. At this point I honestly don't know if I ever want to attempt another pregnancy.

I'm worried about another multiples pregnancy and the complications that we faced last time, except this time I would be facing those complications in addition to already mothering the two kids I have at home, plus having to leave work for an extended period of time. Not to mention I had much better insurance while at Yale then I do now, which is the worst insurance in the history of mankind, it's seriously as though I have no insurance.

Adding to this the cost of storage which is almost $600 a year that we have to come up with right now, I just don't know what we should do.

We could sell the vials back, but if we do that we are essentially making the decision that we're done having kids and I'm not fully ready to make that decision yet either, and Marcus has expressed his desire for ONE more baby (notice the emphasis on one).

We only have another week to decide what we're going to do before the payment deadline.

Stupid, infertility.

I hate this. I hate that we're forced to even think about things like storage fees, and the availability of vials. (The donor we selected left the program shortly after we purchased our vials, so our 8 are likely the only remaining vials in existence).

Why two year olds are fun...

1.) Because they're so helpful when you're trying to write a sermon. See...

Having my office at home is taking some adjustments for all of us. 

2.) They love tupperware, and illustrate very clearly why baby/toddler proofing is still necessary.

3.) Their sense of fashion. Eli loves my shoes, and bags, and squash (which incidentally he thinks is a ball).

4.) Also they're really good at reminding you why everything should be left out of their reach. Things like my reading glasses (which are missing in action) and are already broken because of Emerson.

They're just so helpful haha.

I love them...

Eli & Emmy amaze me these days. They're so full of life, and energy, and they're hilarious. One of my very favorite things to do is sit outside and just watch them play. They can communicate with each other in a language I can't understand and they're just so intentional about their playing these days.

Tonight they brought me books and climbed onto my lap and we read. 

Then after we were done reading we said our bedtime prayers together. It's so cute because Emerson is in a parroting stage in that she'll attempt to repeat anything we say. Eli doesn't do that and instead choices to say only the words he knows. So our prayers usually go something like this "Dear God we love you. Thank you for food, our house, mama, dada, Eli & Emerson. Amen" 

Simple and short. Emmy attempts all the words, Eli just says Thank you and mama and dada, and then when we're all finished he shouts Yay! Which seems perfectly fitting to me. 

I love these beautiful babies of mine. 

I think....

I'm more nervous for my second sunday as the pastor than I was for the first.

For some reason I feel like there's even more pressure.

Vegetable confusion...

As I've mentioned before we've recently moved to a super tiny agricultural community aka Mayberry. In the week we've been living in Mayberry several different members of my congregation have given us home grown vegetables which I'm incredibly grateful for. Except for one problem, for the most part I don't actually know what the vegetables are or what to do with them.

Yes, I will fully admit that I am ignorant about vegetables. Part of this comes from being an incredibly picky eater. I don't like vegetables except for: corn, raw broccoli, and raw carrots. Anything other than that I don't eat. (I suck about food it's a constant source of embarrassment). However, I want my children to be better eaters than I am, and so I want to introduce them to all kinds of food. So here's my question for all of my intelligent, presumable vegetable eating friends, what are these?

I'm assuming the yellow stuff is squash. I'm only a little bit confident in my guess because last week someone else gave us some squash and it looked much different. But what is the green stuff. Is it a bean? Is it a pea?

This is what's inside. What is it and how do I cook it? Do I cook it in the green shell or do I take the bean looking things out? Help me please :~) 

(And try not to judge my lack of vegetable knowledge to harshly, I know it's shameful).

ETA: I've been informed that the green bean looking things are indeed Green Beans. Haha I'm brilliant. 

Code word...

Eli & Emerson still take a bottle *sigh*. I'm so over the bottle, they're 26 months old shouldn't they be over the bottle too? I mentioned before that we were down to just one bottle in the morning before our move. Since the move Eli's desire for his bottle has increased 10 fold and we've been giving in more than we should (and when I say we I mean Marcus haha).

Anyways if Marcus or I happen to mention the word bottle Eli gets hysterical and starts crying for one, so Marcus and I have derived a code word. Now instead of saying bottles we say pickles. Which is super confusing and kind of hilarious.

The other day I came out of my office and Eli was throwing a fit. I asked Marcus what he wanted and Marcus said, "he saw the pickles and now he wants one."  I forgot about the "code word" and was wondering where the heck we got the pickles from.

Also we say it to Eli & Emerson "baba" nope sorry we have no pickles. "Baba" sorry all out of pickles. Emerson gets the funniest look on her face and smiles at this response, but Eli just cries louder.

I seriously, don't know how we're going to get rid of the "pickles"... any suggestions? 

Cold turkey seems so mean. Eli gets so sad. 

Should we wait a little longer so he can transition more with the move? I don't know what to do. 

Honestly, I think if Eli didn't still take one Emerson wouldn't miss it. She just takes one because she sees that her brother has one. So I'm not so worried about her transition it's just Eli. 

Timeouts...

Eli and Emerson got into their bathroom today and put the entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet and played in the water.  They also did this yesterday (you'd think we'd learn to keep the door shut or something). Anyways, because they were told no yesterday today they both got a time out in opposite corners of the room.

Emmy, is much more sensitive and sat in the corner, pouting and crying. It was really sad.

Eli sat in his corner smiling and playing with the wall. So I requested he fold his hands (he didn't) but Emerson did immediately.

After a couple of minutes I had them both come over and Emmy gave me a hug and sat on my lap. Eli on the other hand ran to Emerson's corner and sat there too. Apparently, this corner game was fun for him.

About an hour later he put his skunk (puppy) into each of the corners too. I don't think he was phased very much by the whole timeout thing.

Fun at the DMV...

I've heard that people often have a hard time at the DMV but up until today I can honestly say I haven't been one of them. Until today the only DMV I have ever visited was the quiet, calm, pretty much never busy, DMV in my small hometown in Nevada.

We have lived in three states since being married but because we were students we could legally hang out in other states and not become full fledged residents (although I might have broken some CT laws by not paying taxes on my car or something... but I'm just going to try and ignore that because I didn't know until it was too late).

Anyways, now that I'm a grown up and have a real job and all the fun stuff I went to the DMV in the city closest to our small town Mayberry (note: this is not actually the name of the town but it's so incredibly small it just seems fitting, I think Mayberry might have been bigger since it had a jail house).

We bought a new car at the end of May in NV, and we had one of those temporary registration things that gives you a month to officially register your car in the state where you reside. This temporary thing ran out exactly one week before we were scheduled to move to CA and it didn't make sense to me to pay to register our car in NV when we would have to turn around and do it again in CA a week later.

Maybe, I'm crazy but this made sense to me, and so our NV DMV gave us a 15 day temporary pass which allowed us to drive from NV to Mayberry.

So at the DMV today we were ready to officially get our CA plates yay us! Except no, apparently we cannot get plates without the title to our car. The only problem with this is we financed our car so we don't have a title. The company who we financed through has it, and we don't get the title until we finish paying for the car.

So somehow I have to convince this finance company to send the DMV the actual title, not a copy, but the real deal. In what universe does this make sense? I can prove I financed the car, I can prove that NV told me it was okay to move to CA without registering the car, I can prove that the car is insured but CA doesn't care. They just want to see the title.

I'm really curious what the finance company is going to say to my request for the title when I've made exactly one payment to them. This should be interesting.

I also know this probably makes no sense to anyone, because to be honest I'm confused by the whole thing, but it was incredibly frustrating.

:::::

In an unrelated note a man at a furniture store today told me he felt sorry for me because I had twins, and then he claimed he had it harder because he had three kids in three years. People are so weird. First, he doesn't need to feel sorry for me, and second it's not a "who has it harder" competition.

He also brought up some weird infertility stuff related to multiples but I'm just going to pretend like he didn't.

July 4th and other updates...

Things have been busy around here with the unpacking. We're making progress but I'm just so indecisive and we have so much junk that I can't seem to part with. I'm a keeper and a saver I always have been. I have all of the cards from my wedding, I probably don't need to keep those and yet 8 years later they've moved around with us... we'll get it unpacked at some point.

Yesterday, we had a very mellow 4th. I think everything just kind of caught up with me because I spent most of the day in bed with a migraine headache. Luckily, by the evening I was feeling well enough to go out and we went to visit with some new friends of ours in a nearby city.

They're a clergy couple and have two young kids we had a really great time and I hope to do more with them in the future.

It's interesting because we were live fireworks are legal so the city didn't really do anything. Instead people in the neighborhood were setting off their own. So we sat in the driveway and watched. Eli & Emerson were entertained for about 2 minutes before they decided they would rather run around. After all it's pretty exciting to be outside in the dark.

Eli & Emmy in their red, white & blue. 

(The skunk Eli is holding is his "puppy" nothing we say will convince him otherwise).

On the work front my first Sunday went well. Eli turned off the speakers at one point in the middle of a song but everyone just thought he was really cute. I was worried that Emerson would freak out and want me to hold her during the service but she did really well sitting in the pew and then they went to Sunday School, which is kind of hilarious to me since they're only 2.

The sunday school teacher was so excited to have them go. I told her to not expect much from them, since they're 2. They did great though and after the service Emerson brought me to the sunday school room, showed me her glue stick and told me to "sit". Funny girl.

We're settling in, but we still don't quite have a routine down of how our days will go. I suppose that will come with time. 

Unpacking, planning, and figuring out life...

That pretty much sums up what I've been doing for the last few days. We moved to a small town, a really small town, and it's going to take some time to get used to it.

We're slowly getting the house unpacked, so far we've only found 2 things broken by the movers (the one downside to having others do it for you). In all my other moves that we've done on our own we've never broken anything.

We had a nice welcome from a few members of my church and they helped me unpack my kitchen. At first I was afraid having people help me unpack would stress me out, but to be honest it was great. They washed, dried, and put things away. In a matter of about an hour the kitchen was done it was amazing.

Eli & Emerson are doing okay. Well, actually Emerson is doing just fine she seems to love the new place and doesn't really seemed phased by the whole thing. Eli, on the other hand is a little extra clingy and his desire for his bottle has increased 10 fold.

We were finally down to one bottle a day (just one in the morning), but since moving he's been whining for them all day long. In fact he'll finish one and immediately start crying for another. I don't know what to do. I am so ready for them to be over bottles but I also know that this is a transition time and they don't really know what's going on. I guess we'll just see how it goes these next few days.

Eli & Emmy are in love with our backyard. It's a huge, fenced in, and grass. It's perfect. We put up their pool today and they had a great time swimming. They've also been getting braver venturing out without me or Marcus present. Emerson seems super uncomfortable with the idea of being outside without us.

She often brings us our shoes, points to the steps, and then says, "step" just in case we need some assistance actually getting outside. Yesterday, they found a frog in the yard (I hate frogs they scare me) but Emerson would jump every time the frog jumped it was cute.

I'll leave you with just a few pictures:

My Church

Emmy looking serious (notice the baby that went for a swim, her piggy also went swimming)

They've been playing so well together. They crack me up.

I love when they hold hands. It's pretty much one of my most favorite things ever. 

Ants! Bugs are very exciting these days. Every time Eli sees one he shouts, "BUG!"

Then every time he goes past a spot where he's once seen a bug, even if the bug is no longer present he shouts "BUG!"

I hope to have more pictures soon of our house and the town (because it kind of makes me laugh it's so small). We can walk every where we need to go in a couple of minutes. It kind of blows my mind after living in cities for the past 8 years.