I've been sick...

for the last two days.


As a result my house is a mess,


My kids have watched way more Curious George than they should


and my front door won't open, which is awkward when someone comes over. We probably need to fix that. 


Emerson and Eli have both given me kisses to make me feel better and Emerson decided I should probably see a doctor. She's just now put together that when you're sick you can see doctors. 


Piggy was sick a couple of days ago and she told me Piggy needed a doctor.


Eli gave piggy kisses and told piggy to go night-night. 

I love...

Africa University, Zimbabwe 2005

I love my job even though it's not always easy. Even when I get frustrated or sad, or discouraged. Because there's also much joy and love and the message of love, justice, and the transformation of our world. 

I love Eli and Emerson even when they climb onto the kitchen counter in search of chocolate, eat 3 chap-sticks, throw 3 dolls, 2 trains, and a bear inside the bushes and then ask me to get them out, and find my make-up and make themselves look pretty like mama. (this was about one hour of activities this afternoon). 

Connecticut May 2009

I love my husband for being him, and showing up to a church party 2 hours late because he's been working, only to be greeted with clapping and cheering which is pretty much his nightmare situation. Yet, he comes to these things anyways and then goes to the church to make copies of my bulletin at 9pm on a Saturday night.

Connecticut Spring 2008

I love my friends and know that even from thousands of miles away that should I need them they are there.

(We were suppose to be making sad faces because we were graduating and moving away from each other. Some missed the memo. CT May 200)

I am blessed in all the ways that matter most. I think sometimes I have a tendency to focus on the things we don't have, or the frustrations, or the propane bills. This is a reminder of all the good and wonderful things that are more precious than anything else in the world. 

CT spring 2008

I am blessed.

Friday 5...

1.) I slept really well on Wednesday night. I think the winning combination is 6:30am prayer and an hour of zumba. Physically exhausting myself seems to be key. However, keeping that schedule daily may in fact kill me, but I need a sleep solution. I did zumba on Wednesday and have done the shred for the last two days. Go me!

2.) Eli & Emerson have entered a stage where they get into everything. They're toddlers they've always gotten into things, but it's at a whole new level. Their new favorite targets are my office and our junk drawer in the kitchen. Today Marcus took the drawer out and put it on top of the fridge. This did not deter them. Emerson dragged a chair over to the counter, climbed up, and was attempting to get onto the chair. Eli came and got me and said, "Emmy uppa der" I didn't know where she was up but I knew it couldn't be good and it wasn't.

3.) I've read 4 of the 5 books in the Jessica Darling series. They're not for me. I've heard such good things but I've been disappointed.

4.) Tomorrow my church as an "All church" birthday party. As part of it we have a white elephant gift exchange. I have a skunk that dances and sings "I'm to Sexy for my shirt". What are your thoughts on the pastor bringing that as the gift for the exchange haha...

5.) Eli and Emerson destroyed the question mark function on my computer so I can't appropriately punctuate questions. They also broke the "l" so I have to cut and paste and l each time I use it. Super fun times.

My first Vlog, and it's about books!

So a few disclaimers.

1.) If you want to see the video that I refer to when I announce my pregnancy to Marcus you can go here

2.) I talk quite a bit about the Twilight books in a criticizing way. I just want to say that I appreciate that those books encourage people to read who otherwise don't. That's awesome. They just weren't for me (especially #4). I also think I say Bell instead of Bella the bummer about vlogs is they're much harder to correct.

3.) Eli shared with everyone that he went "poo-poo" sorry about that, don't worry his dad had already changed his diaper he was just keeping me informed.

4.) My husband and two kids were present while taping... so yeah.

5.) I was inspired to color code my books by Julie at her blog here and Jacki at her blog here, I was inspired by their vlogs as well so check them out. 

Prayer, dentist, doctor and Zumba...

This has been a long exhausting day.

It started with 6:30am prayer. 

Then Eli and Emerson had their first dental appointment. It mostly went well. Eli went first because he generally the more relaxed of the two.

Doesn't he look cute.

He did really well a few silent tears rolled down his face once the chair was laid back and the dentist started trying to look at his teeth. He was very excited about his new toy story toothbrush though

Emmy flipped out. Which I totally expected but it made seeing her teeth much easier. We promised her a sticker when she was done, so as soon as the doctor was done she loudly cried, "STICKER"plus they each got two new books and the toothbrush so in the end they were satisfied. 

(No picture of Emmy she was too upset for such things). 

Thus far their teeth look wonderful and there are no issues.

I hope I passed on my good teeth to them. I've never had a cavity. It's the only health related thing I want to pass on. (I've already passed on a bleeding disorder). 

Marcus has his follow with the doctor for the pain he's been having in his side. No clear answer. They did some more blood work and he has to keep a food diary. He goes back in a few weeks.

And then I ended the evening by attending Zumba for the second time. (The first time was last June). I'm so out of shape, but zumba is so fun. There was a woman there who was probably 6 months pregnant and she was amazing. If I ever have another pregnancy I want the kind where I can go to zumba. None of that hospital bedrest stuff. 

 I also made a vlog but I'm having a hard time getting it to post. 

My sweet boy...

Yesterday my sweet boy said, "God Bless you mommy."

It melted me heart.

Marcus laughed a little and said, "Eli you're such a Pk."*

He's such a sweet fun boy.

Quieter than his sister, but full of energy, with a sense of humor.

And sometimes he says, "God bless you mommy"

*pk= Pastor's kid

Today I learned you have to pay for prescriptions...

Who knew? This was brand new information?  (And for all those incapable of reading my sarcasm it's very thick at this moment).

I've posted before about the insane cost of my Crohn's medication to the tune of $679 (this time around).

Marcus dropped my prescription off at a new pharmacy a couple of days ago and today they called me and we had the following very enlightening conversation. The brackets are just the things I thought but didn't say.

Them: We have a prescription here for you and we want to make sure you want to fill it.

Me: Yes please. [That's why I dropped it off]

Them: You do realize this is a very expensive medication?

Me: Yes I do it's very unfortunate.

Them: It's $679.

Me: Yes that's about what I was expecting.

Them: You have a very high deductible on your insurance plan.

Me: Yes I know that too is unfortunate.

Them: You do realize that if we fill this we are going to expect payment.

Me: Umm... yes. [Generally that it how it works. I drop the prescription, you fill it, I pay you.]]

Them: Are you sure you understand that this is an expensive medication?

Me: Yes I'm quite aware.

Them: So you want us to fill it.

Me: Yes [this is why I dropped it off].

Good lord what a bunch of insanity, and I'm not sure I even convinced them that I understood the concept of payment. They seemed uneasy about the whole thing.  I've never ever been grilled about getting this prescription filled before. The first time I filled it the cost was $1300 (before insurance I had much better insurance when I was a grad student. How I miss that coverage) and that was a huge surprise and shock to the system but there was no debate and demeaning conversation in which they attempted to make sure I understood that I would have to in fact pay them.

*Sigh*

If any makers or researchers of medications (however that works) are reading could you please make a generic ASAP. I don't know what it involves at all but you can do it!

And while I'm venting about things related to money. I would like to add that I hate propane heat. It's expensive and it seems like every time we turn around the propane company is sending us another ridiculous expensive bill.

Random thought from reading...

This is going to be totally random but what's a blog for if not to record random thoughts.

I'm reading a crime novel that was originally written in Swedish. The author is swedish. I've only just started and of course like any good mystery the murder has just occurred.

The detective in a debrief about the scene described it as, "Something you would see in an American movie."

How incredibly tragic that our country, culture, and forms of media are know for horrific, bloody, violence.

Random thought over.

Back to reading or maybe sleep or something...

Puppy Love...

Emerson reminds me a lot of one of my younger sisters (who is also a twin). My sister Lindy loves all kinds of creatures, lizards, pigs, goats, dogs, etc. etc. Growing up she had all sorts of animals in her room.

Emerson is a lot like that. She loves snails, is fascinated by pugs, adores cats, but she has a special affection for dogs, all of with are just "puppies" to her.

Every friday Eli and Emerson accompany to the Bible study I teach. They sit and eat snacks and watch a movie while I lead the study. We meet in the home of one of my parishioners and she has a dog. I often find Emerson underneath the table nose to nose with the dog.

Laughing hysterically as the dog licks her on the nose.

The other day we were walking home from the post office when Emerson noticed an actual puppy in the yard of one of our neighbors. She instantly fell in love. Crouched next to the fence and waited for the puppy to come over. Which it did.

Emerson sat and laughed and petted the puppy. Finally, it was time to go home and we literally had to pick her up and carry her away. The whole time she was sobbing hysterically, "PUPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYY, PuPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYY"

At that moment we were the meanest parents in the world. Once inside she ran to the door and continued to cry. It broke my heart so I walked her back down to have another chat with the puppy. Of course the separation was the same.

Yesterday, I saw the owner of the puppy outside and I mentioned how much Emerson loved it. She then made me a very surprising offer, "You want to the puppy? You can have it."

Eekkk not what I was expecting.

As much as I would love to get Emerson a puppy it's just not in the cards for us right now. 

Emerson was so cute though, she kept talking about the "Baby puppy." 

Emmy will just have to love puppy's from afar. 

This has been one of those weeks...

~Too much going on. Not enough time or energy to attend to them all.

~I have a funeral tomorrow and those are always difficult.

~Eli and Emerson have boundless energy, and chatter constantly. This is all wonderful but I really really wish they would take a nap.

~Eli and learned to say, "sissy did it" so when ever the two of them get in trouble the conversation goes liek this.

Me: What are you guys doing?

Emmy: Bubba did it.

Me: Eli did you do this?

Eli: No, Sissy did it.

Me: Emmy did you do this?

Emmy: No, bubba did it.

and the cycle continues. I think they've worked this plan out among themselves.

~Marcus has an ultrasound for the pain he's been having in his side. No results yet which is obnoxious.

~ I read Pride and Prejudice this week. My first Jane Austen I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, but I a so grateful to be a woman in this era and not that one.

~ Eli and Emerson drag chairs around the house with them and they get into every thing. It's exhausting and messy. Nothing is safe. They climb chairs, up onto the counters, into the highest cabinets. They discovered a package of gum this way.

~Lately Eli has been leading us in prayer. It's adorable and they go something like this, "Thank you, daddy, mommy, sissy, daddy, sissy, Eye-yi (that's how he says his name), daddy, mommy, daddy, house, noodles, dino, puppy, piggy, and candy canes. Amen.

~Notice that daddy gets lots of prayers, if he can't think of what to say next he just reverts back to praying for daddy.

~I've been asked to teach a Bible study from a feminist perspective to some students at the university nearby. I'm very excited about this.

~I need a vacation and want to go "home" (meaning my in-laws) for a bit.

~Hopefully soon I'll have some energy for a proper post.

Too much football...

Lately Eli and Emerson have created a new game that involves full out tackling. It's all good and fun until one of them runs into a wall, or gets tackled into a chair. Which was what happened to night.

Emerson has quite the bump on her head to prove it.

Later, when Marcus was recounting the event to me he said, "Eli got hurt on that play too. His ear was all red."

Me: Umm Marcus it was not a play our children were not engaged in a game of football.

I think there's been a little bit too much football watching going on in our house recently. 

Eli's new habit...

In November my cute 8 month old nephew Charlie came to visit. Charlie likes to stick his tongue out and it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. 

Eli apparently really liked that habit of his cousin because he's adopted it as his own.

Eli now sticks his tongue out all the time.  It's not quite as cute on my two year old as it is on my nephew.

Hopefully this will be a short lived phase.

Thinking of new phases Eli and Emerson have entered into the question stage. All day long they both point to every single thing they encounter and ask, "That?" "That?" "That?" 

Over and over and over again. I actually think it's kind of cute for now. They want to know about everything and I'm happy to supply them with as many answers as I can.

Plus, "That?" is a much easier question to answer then "Why?" We haven't entered that stage yet. 

Adopted Friends...

Several weeks ago now (probably about a month actually) there was a knock on our door. When Marcus, Eli, and Emerson opened it they found a stuffed puppy and a stuffed pig inside a box with a note that said "911 Emergency" on the inside it read:

"Please adopt us, we are very cold and hungry, we are so sad! Please don't send us away."

How could we say no to that, plus Eli and Emerson were immediately in love and of course they both knew that the pig would be Emerson's and the puppy would belong to Eli and so we welcomed two "new" stuffed friends into our homes.

I say new lightly because these little creatures are well loved (but clean) and Eli and Emerson love them.

I told them to hold up their new friends for the camera. Two year olds are very literal.

Then I told them to put the down a little bit

 

Then I said, "Not in front of your face" which they listened too but never mind trying to get a picture of them looking at the camera.

It was a fun surprise for Eli and Emmy to find new friends on the porch. I of course new immediately who they were from a wonderful women from my congregation. 

2 year old check up today...

If the title confuses you you're not alone. I've been trying to tell Eli and Emerson's current doctor's office that they had their two year old check up the day after they turned 2 last May. Yet, the insisted that they were due for another.

So off we went for their 2 year 7 month check up. Eli weights 26lbs 12oz & Emmy is 25lbs even.

They got a flu shot. Emerson still dislikes doctors but she didn't cry as much today so we're making progress. Eli isn't bother by them at all. During the shot he whimpered for about a second. Then when the nurse was done in a very tiny, small voice he said, "Tank tu." Then he happily pointed to the band-aid on his leg and said, "That?"

Emmy got a referral to an ENT and we were on our way. Good times.

Minor, petty, vent. I hate that whenever Eli and Emerson are given stickers at the doctors Emerson always gets princess stickers. She has zero idea who any of the princesses are. She's never seen a single movie or anything else for that matter with a princess.

She wasn't pleased that Eli got Elmo and a truck. In the end Emerson ended up with an Elmo sticker too. Stop gendering my kids people. (I say this mostly joking but also not, but that's another post for another time).

She is her father's daughter...

There's a story about Marcus that lives on and on. I wasn't even in the picture when this happened but I've heard the story several times over the course of our relationship. When Marcus was either an 8th or 9th grader his parents asked him to rake the leaves.

He didn't want to and so he simply refused to do so. His parents then offered the following consequence; "If you don't rake the leaves you can't go to the carnival tonight" (It was a small town, when the carnival was in town it was something to do.) Marcus decided that was fair and decided to forgo the carnival and hanging out with friends, and continued to refuse to rake the leaves. He didn't want to do it, wasn't going to do it, and he decided to just take the consequence. Ultimately, Marcus didn't rake the leaves that day.

I think the reason the story lives on is because generally Marcus is incredibly easy going. He will pretty much do anything, but there are occasions when he absolutely refuses to budge from his position.

Today, Emerson had the same moment. I was quilting and asked her several times not to touch the straight pins. She did anyways and knocked them all over the floor. I asked her to pick them up. She  picked up one and then stopped, and finally she just refused to pick up anymore.

So I told her, "Emerson you need to pick up the pins or you're going to sit in the corner." This works wonders with Eli. If we even mention the corner he immediately does whatever we're requesting. Emerson on the other hand walked over to the corner of the room sat down and said, "Mama, I corner."

Like, her dad, she decided she would just deal with the consequences rather then do something she didn't want to do. In the end she won. She sat in the corner and I picked up the pins.

I'm going to need to re-think my strategy when dealing with Emerson.

Sleep, piggy, books...

how's that for a random title?

This is going to be a boring, random, post just FYI.

1.) I need sleep. I cannot sleep at night, it's not good. I meant to ask the doctor on Wednesday for a sleep aid but I forgot due to Marcus' pain.

2.) I've mentioned before that Emmy's comfort item is a stuffed pig. I adore home much she loves the pig. Lately, everything she does, piggy must also do. "Piggy need sucker, paint piggy's nails, piggy night-night." Tonight before bed we sat down to pray and she attempted to cross piggy's ears, then during the prayer she threw in a quick, "tank tu, piggy."

3.) I just finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King, it was amazing. You all should read it immediately. I haven't read many of Stephen King's books. I read It and The Shining about 15 years ago, and then more recently I read his memoir, but nothing since. This book inspired me to seek out some of his other non-horror related books.

Colors & Magic...

Eli shows off his color skills and some new magic tricks he's perfecting.

To translate when he says 'da' he's saying "Ta-Da!" 

2 Hours of Sleep...

That's what Marcus and I have been operating on today. Marcus has had an intense pain in his left side for the past several days which is impeding his ability to function. He went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor ordered blood tests and an ultrasound but said in the meantime if it got worse go to the ER.

So around 1am it was worse and off Marcus went to the ER. Unfortunately, Eli heard Marcus leave and he came sobbing into my room "daddy, dadddy, daaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddyyyyyyyyyy." It was very dramatic.

After a bit I got him back in bed, but then I couldn't sleep. I was worried about Marcus and despite all efforts no sleep for me.

I finally fell asleep from 5-6, but at 6 Eli woke up again crying, which then woke up Emerson, and they both found their way to my bed. I was too tired to care at this point and since Marcus still wasn't home I just let them stay. Of course I was awake again.

Marcus was at the hospital for 6 hours before he saw a doctor. Then he saw a doctor for 2 minutes, she prescribed some pain meds and sent him home. He arrived home around 7:30 we both dozed until 8:30 when I had to get up and go to a meeting in another city.

Very good times today. I had a little bit of a second wind earlier but I'm starting to fade again.

Marcus is still in pain and I really hope Eli sleeps through the night.

(In my exhaustion I almost ended this blog post with "Amen" before I caught myself).

Good-night

Funny things Marcus says...

I'm attempting to an exercise program at home. One of the listed suggestions was to do 7 burpees

Me: What the heck is a burpbee

Marcus: Bend down, put your hands on the floor, push your legs out, bring them in, jump up.

Me: Are you sure? I'm going to google it... Okay you were right.

Marcus: Yeah I know what don't you believe me.

Me: That's right because you got a degree in it right.

Marcus: Yeah I have a degree in burpees. (This was full on sarcasm).

I realize this is probably only funny to me, but the way Marcus looked at me when I said he had a degree in it. Haha... he has a degree in Exercise science I probably should just trust his advice.

ETA: I Just finished the exercise routine. Burpees are hard and I'm in very very very bad shape. It's really quite sad.

What I read in December...

I had a good reading month mostly because I was determined to make it to my second yearly reading goal of 111 books. I initially wanted to read 150 but it became pretty clear a couple of months ago that wasn't going to happen. Writing a sermon every week really cuts into my reading time. I did however make the 111 goal, I read my 111th book on New Years Eve, just in the nick of time.

1. Home for Christmas by Andrew M. Greeley (this book was horrible never, ever read it)
2. Fierce: A Memoir by Barbar Robinette Moss
3. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
4. The Procrastinator's Handbook by Rita Emmett
5. If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation by Janine Latus
6. The Giver by Lois Lowry (I hadn't read this since 8th grad it was fun to revisit it).
7. By the Time You Read This by Lola Jaye (This book was also really awful)
8. Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox
9. Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
10. The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem by Adam Hamilton
11. Sold by Patricia McCormick
12. When She Woke by Hilary Jordan
13. Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham
14. The Magic Room: A Story about the Love We Wish for Our Daughters by Jeffrey Zaslow
15. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
16. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
17. Flunking Sainthood by Jana Riess
18. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Total for the Year 2011 ~ 111 books

My goal for 2012 is ~ 112 books.

Today I cleaned for 6 hours...

and now I'm exhausted and can hardly move. However, I'm grateful that I felt well enough to actually do some intense cleaning for once. The last few nights I've actually been able to sleep for a change and a full nights rest (plus a few more hours) is amazing.

I managed to take down all our Christmas stuff. Now Eli and Emmy keep walking to where our trees were and asking, "Tree Go?"

And as we were packing everything away they kept saying, "bye tree, bye tree."

Emmy was not pleased when I packed all the Christmas books up though and Eli tried to get me to hang the stockings back up. Crazy kids.

Then Eli and Emmy helped me clean the fridge. Emerson's job was taking all out the condiments. A few times she would stop and ask, "What that?" when she grabbed something she didn't recognize (Cream cheese and butter were two such items).

After she was done she said, "Hands cold", and then climbed into the empty fridge (I took out the shelves and drawers for a very thorough cleaning).

The greatest part about our Christmas book countdown is that Eli and Emmy still ask for a book every night, and I love that.

Tonight they picked a few books and one of them had bible verse so we practiced learning their first one a Psalm, "Clap your hands all you people, shout to God with Joy." We had hand motions to go with it of course. I'm going to see if they'll do it on Camera for me it's so cute.

And in other news Eli knows his colors!! Yay!! He's doing so well he can identify all colors (Except brown) and he does so with about 95% accuracy. The funny thing is he likes to joke, so he almost always says the wrong color first and then says the correct one. He's thinks he's hilarious.

Emmy knows white and yellow and then she thinks everything else is blue.

And now I'm going to end this random post which has jumped subjects about 3,000 times.

How we rang in the New Year...

I finished my sermon, I started and finished my 111th book of 2011 and then I watched Gilmore Girls on DVD. I have a very exciting life.

Marcus on the other hand did this...

He grew a Mr Potato head mustache haha (I told him this was going on the blog when he sent the picture).

Happy 2012 to you all!!