XC

Since we moved here, Terry has been involved with the Cross Country team. The first summer he even ran with them in the early pre-season mornings and kept up with the seniors! Two years later he's more busy and can't keep up as easily, but he still enjoys running with them after school. Plus, we get free season passes for home games. Sweet!

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A couple week ago we went to a XC meet a country club to cheer on the students.

Noah has been doing this "attack the camera" thing lately. He's coming for it now...

Terry is visiting w/his boss, our senior pastor, Rick. His wife Shelli is next to him in the yellow. Their sons Luke, a junior, and Jon, a freshman, both run. Luke is quite good.

Dr. Dave is playing with Evie. Or she's playing with his stop watch. Dave and Kathy's daughter Emily is a junior and runs too.

Evie was attempting to stand on her head...

...b/c she saw Noah doing it.

So daddy helped her out.

Noah's attacking nose. I figure that since it's my blog I can put up whatever pics I want and this one is funny!

There's Luke. He was up in the front, in the top 10 for sure.

Evie's just cute.

Noah's like, You lookin at ME?! And then he came at me w/his nose again.

Noah "playing" w/Evie

Evie tired out and rolling in the grass.

Evie's (very) bad day

Wednesday September 2nd started out rough and ended worse.

Evie musta woke early b/c she was cranky from the get go. But she was also teething, as far as I could tell from the copious amounts of drool on her shirt (I had hoped we were done w/bibs!).

I went out to get the mail in the morning and Evie followed me out. She went down the two front steps and then played in the empty swimming pool while I opened the mail just inside the door. Then she started crying, hard. You know, the kind where it's silent at first? Yeah. She fell on to the concrete while trying to get out of the pool.

Here's the goose egg. She's chewing on the tylenol syringe.

After that fall we all hung out in the guest room on the bed b/c there's a tv. The kids watched Sesame Street while I took care of some kind of business on the puter.

That Wednesday was the first day of youth group. So that evening Terry was already up at the building. I was home alone w/the kids in the backyard trying to pass the time before I could serve dinner and we could go to the building. Evie happened to walk under the monkey bar and was interested. I put her hands on it to show her how it worked. Then Noah saw. So he had a turn swinging on the bar. Then Evie wanted to have a turn. I put her up and caught her when she couldn't hold on any longer. Noah swung again.

That went on for a while before Evie wanted to swing too. So I held on to her hands and swung her a little. Noah's turn. Evie's turn w/lotza laughter. So I swung her higher. Too high b/c she whined. I thought she was just ready for dinner so I went and snuggled her on the swing before going inside for dinner. But she wouldn't stop crying.

So we went inside to read a couple peek-a-boo books b/c that always calms her down. It didn't work this time. She would only use her left arm. It was then I realized something was wrong.

Dr. Hult was still at the clinic and told us to come up when I called him. He said she must have subluxed her radial head - pulled her elbow out of joint and then it went back in. This happens when you jerk on a kids arm real hard. He said he didn't think she needed xrays or a cast.

He put her in a splint until the following Monday:
She did really well after that first night w/the splint - used it as if there was nothing wrong.

When we took it off Monday morning, she was fine. Didn't slow her down at all, thankfully. And I promise that I'm not that bad of a mom. It was just a really, really bad day.

Terry's 31st

Terry's 31st birthday was September 3rd so we celebrated when his family was here. Though it was nothing compared to last year's surprise sunglasses party, it was still a good time. The pie helped. I have a ton of rhubarb in our backyard that comes in extremely handy.

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Getting ready to sing. I attempted to make a #31 out of candles. It didn't work too well.

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Terry's cousin Tawnya and her family came over. Tim is part-owner of the funeral home in town. Kellen has the heart defect and Kalli is their youngest.
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Gotta feed the baby!
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Reading one of serveral cards. Terry got a watch, some books and David Crowder's new album. Rather, he will get that album in a few days when it actually comes out =)

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He got that book (The Jane Austen Book Club) for me from a garage sale that morning and decided to wrap it up even though it wasn't my birthday. I liked the movie so he thought I might like the book. I haven't finished it yet, but it's a little too something... not PG-13 enough for me.

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Alice's birthday was August 26th so she got a few things as well.

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Jesse's always smiling these days, and it's not b/c he was here with all of us =)

family visit

Labor Day weekend brought Terry's parents and Shari and Jesse H - Terry's sister and new husband of course. Woo hoo!

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We didn't do a whole lot. We just hung out together which was great. It's been so foggy and overcast around here. Apparently that means there will be snow December 1st. I dunno. I did do a lot of cooking and baking. I made 3 pizzas, which I've never done before. Terry's 31st birthday was September 3rd so I made a cake and a pie.

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We had such a nice time.

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Grampa hangin w/his Evie.

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Jesse comforting the Evester, as he likes to call her. She was quite cranky at this point for whatever reason. Could be teething or the split she's wearing on her arm...
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Too cute though. Jesse's always been quite fond of her =)

Oh, and gotta love this shot of their two rings =)

one more thing

Oops. I forgot to mention that Terry works from home and watches the kids on Thursdays when I'm at the clinic. He doesn't know how to do hair, being a guy and all. I have to fix Evie's hair when I come home for lunch since it's always in her face.

Here is his attempt to put it up =). Love it!

Here is an example of Evie without her hair up. She's pretending to go "nigh night." Her hair grows straight forward so it needs to be up.

falling in to place

Two years. Over two years.

It's been over two years since I've worked outside our home. But not any more.

When we moved here, I had just quit my first nursing job on a crazy busy and stressful telemetry floor (heart monitoring). I hadn't hardly looked back. Most times I completely forgot that I went to school and have a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. But the job messed up my sleep in a bad way, amongst other things. And I was always missing Noah so much even though I only worked part time. I was always missing Terry since I had to work every other weekend. It felt so great to be done.

But here, I found out that staying home with Noah (and then Evie) was hard work too. I guess I hadn't ever really done that because I had been in school when Noah was born and then straight to work after. I realized that I needed a break. Just something one day a week or even less.

In March I dropped my resume by our hospital. They didn't have any openings though. Bummer. Then I kind of forgot about it amidst the busyness that was our summer. One day in July after I got an invite to a conference I just thought that I should try another hospital. I was ready. It was time. So I dropped off resumes to two local hospitals. I talked to the director of nursing at one, a really nice woman who seemed genuinely interested but didn't have any openings. The following day I got a call from the other director and we set up an interview for the following Monday.

One day Kathy watched my kids while I went to run some errands. When I got back her husband Dr. Dave, as Noah likes to call him, was there. He asked me if I would like to periodically fill in for the nurses at his clinic. I said I was interested but that I had an interview on Monday and was hoping for one day a week.

The very next day Dave and Kathy came to our house for a youth group meeting (b/c they help) and the first thing out of his mouth was, "How would you like to work one day a week?"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was kind of flabbergasted. I was really really excited and accepted almost without talking to Terry. I called the Lex director and cancelled my interview and started at the clinic the next week, which was Wednesday, August 26. I work one day a week, Thursdays, with Dr. Dave's PA, Amy. And actually, last week I filled in for the other two docs that work there. It was a challenge. The whole thing is a challenge, but it's good.

It's a complete "God thing" if there are such things. B/c I'm learning more and more that nothing is coincidence, that God is in complete control of my life. As I wrote in my journal yesterday:

"God has just as much of a plan for me as He does for ______ [b/c I compare myself a lot].
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God is just as sovereign in my life as in _______'s life [b/c He "seems" to be more active in other places].
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God planned for me to have what and who I have in my life [b/c it seems like it's my responsibility].
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God's hand is on my life. I am where He means me to be. I am who He means me to be [even today]. My family are who He means them to be: FREEDOM"

So, God's hand has always been active, but it's seemed just a little more obvious to be lately.

Oh, and that reminds me of what else He's done... We want to home school. But we're not sure how to do it in this house b/c we don't really have a "school area." We've discussed different options but hadn't decided how to make it work.

The decision was taken out of our hands, sort of, b/c we're moving!

We live in a parsonage. A really great parsonage (people are always really surprised when I remind them that's where we live). The senior pastor lives in a parsonage too. Well, soon, he will no longer. He's been here 13+ years and the church is going to give him more freedom with a housing allowance. He bought some land and a house that he's going to move onto that land the beginning of November.

Since the church owns both houses, they gave us a choice - to stay in this house or move. Originally we thought of just staying. But after seeing the other place, we feel very confident and excited to move. It's got more space (not that this place doesn't b/c it does), a better neighborhood, TREES!, a wonderful backyard, a homeschooling room and even a guest room (b/c we do love having that for our family and guests).

We're so excited!

Cody Park

We went to Cody Park almost two weeks ago. Oh, it was the day we got the drawer pullers for our refurbished dresser. Yes. So we stopped by for something "fun" to do. I'm afraid the only fun part was the cheap ice cream at the end but that's mostly b/c it was just SO hot.

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Anyway, this is the same park that we went to last September for Rail Fest when we went to that Golden Spike Tower. It was a year ago. Awww, Evie was just a little baby and Terry had her strapped to his chest and everything!

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Anyway, they had kid's rides there, but only on the weekends, which this wasn't. So we couldn't do that. But they also have animals. The kids were only mildly interested in them. As I said, it was really hot, and it was nap time. So we checked out the animals and played a little before retreating to get some ice cream...
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The pea cocks were just walking about the parks. I don't know if they could fly out of the cages or what keeps them there. But they were pretty cool.

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The fountain was inviting, but we weren't allowed to get in!
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A white peacock! I immediately thought of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Stephanie b/c I knew she'd know what I was talking about. Lucius...
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I think he should be named Lucius. What do you say Steph?

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I thought the baby peacocks were cute but my kids didn't care so much.

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They were even small enough to fit through the fence!

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Donkey! Noah connected him to Eyeore, which I thought was good. He just got a Winny the Pooh video from a garage sale.

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Swinging the girl in the heat. I'm pretty sure I'm wishing someone would swing me so I could enjoy some air movement.

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Climbing out of the tunnel.

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Evie is such a big girl anymore - always trying what Noah does.

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On our way back we saw this buck. Noah connected him with Bambi =)

refinished dresser and bookshelf

A few weeks ago when my sister, brother and his wife were here, Steph and I found these two items at a garage sale for $10 each. I thought they had promise...

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This dresser must have been stained at some point b/c the previous owners had it all stripped down except for that bottom piece. The handle/puller things were falling off, not to mention ugly. The wood was kind of soft and the whole thing was filthy. They must have used this outside b/c they had nailed a metal screen (like from a window) to the bottom of the dresser so bugs (?) couldn't get in. However, the inside of the drawers were still really gross... .

There was a board on top that was loose, though you can't really see it here. You can see the putty that they used to even it out instead of just raising that one board to the level of the rest... So I sanded all of that putty out and Terry raised the board. It's still a little low in the middle, but it works. Character. We got rid of those handles, obviously.

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Here is the book shelf. I thought I would just sand it a little to open the grain. But it was so hard and old that I was going to need some more help than just my own elbow grease (my elbows are really weak. as terry will tell you, my Chinese name is Weak Ling)...

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So I borrowed Terry's uncle's electric sander thing. It took some getting used to but it did pretty well. I probably should have brought some paint stripper since there was lime green paint under this cream stuff and maybe more under that layer. But I didn't think of that until yesterday when I the stuff at Walmart. Here is the shelf after I applied real power.

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See the green? I thought this was good enough to be going on with.

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Then I used four cans of black semi-gloss spray paint on the shelf. Terry showed me how and I wore a mask for the first 3 cans (the 4th can I didn't wear one and regretted it when I spit out black stuff...). Here is what my face looked like when I took that mask off. Smudge much. But I was so proud that I was making the shelf pretty.

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Here is the shelf!!! This is where you first come in our front door. In front of the shelf is our couch.

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The view when you walk in the door.

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Okay, now for the dresser. I used the electric sander on the bottom piece that was still stained and that worked really well. Oh, and after I took off all the pullers, I used the sander there too. It was a little too rough for this soft wood, but again, character. I used Java gel stain from Unpainted Furniture, which is what I used on our armoir. Then I put two coats of polyurethane on. All we have to do now is put on the new pullers we got from Menards, on sale.

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Looky looky! Amazing huh???!!! I am so pleased w/it. I think it's too pretty to go in the guest bedroom where it will never be looked at and hardly used. I'm voting that it stays in a living room. So that's where it is now.

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This is our front living room. Amazing!

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This is my view right now, during the day.
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Okay, here is the shelf w/some stuff on it so you can actually see that there are shelves there. I have to get something pretty to put on it... Or I will just put books up since I don't like clutter.

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We put the lamp on that buffet since we had to move the kids book shelf away from the chair and put it next to the loveseat.

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Okay, now you just have to come over so you can see them in real life! I'm so pleased!