What's Been Going On

Our dear friend Nana is getting married this April. I'm happy for her and concerned at the same time. She and I have a lot of similarities. We were at the Baptist church this past Sunday and I asked if she'd thought about that church as a place to have her wedding since we don't have our own building yet. She said no and I told her some of the ideas I'd had for decorating it and she liked it. The pastor was right there and he said they would be welcome to have their wedding at the church for no cost! Nana and her fiance, Matjaz, are coming over Thursday evening for supper so that Timothy and I can voice our concerns, offer our support and I can show them the design scheme I've drawn up. I hope we say everything in a way that shows them we care and they won't feel threatened by anything we share.

This coming Saturday our friend Tatiana is also getting married down on the coast. They've informed everyone that they're not waiting to have kids. Tatiana is only a year or two older than I am, but I guess she's figured she's waited long enough already. Dameon, the groom is in his mid-thirties.

Our friends David and Lucia are about to have their first baby in the next month or two and we'll be having a baby shower for them here next Sunday. I think we've invited the whole church! I'm going to ask the farmer if we can park cars down by their barns and then give them an apple pie as a thank you.

Clay is in the bathtub singing a new song. He's always making up songs. I can't wait until we can understand what he's saying! A lot of times I'll just catch the last word so I sometimes have an idea what he's singing about. I'm finding that the best time for me to blog is while he's in the tub. The office is right by the bathroom so I can do this without feeling like he's unsafe or something. I can hear every move he makes.

Thadeus is sitting here in his car seat making it rock as hard as he can. He really likes the letter D and is starting to use it a lot more. I'm trying to get it on video, but he's not a performer yet. He's getting hungry and is starting to ask me to hurry up and finish so he can eat.

The boys are in the same room again. Clay really seems to like it and will wake up acting as if it's a comfort to have another person there. He's very careful to be quiet if he goes in and Thad is already asleep. We keep telling Clay how proud we are of him and that makes his little chest puff out.

Clay is also doing really well on the potty. Unfortunately, he's learned that all he has to do is say the word and we jump. Last night I figured out he's using this to get out of meals he doesn't want to eat. Didn't work, supper got longer last night.

He's also started stalling at bedtime. When we tell him it's time to pray he asks for juice or the potty or anything else he can think of.

Timothy is pretty well caught up with his work, but now it's audit time and that keeps everyone busy and even a little stressed. He's been handling it well though and every spare moment has been down in the basement lifting weights to help himself physically.

I have so much work to do outside. I want to get as much snow and ice off the drive way before the baby shower and my bird feeders are empty. I think the birds have been cleaning them out the same day I put the seed out. We have had a lot of snow this year and there's still several inches out there. I guess they're hungry.

Sheila Harper, president of SaveOne, emailed us yesterday and said she's been invited to Germany and The Netherlands in March and would we like company as well. Sure!

Brownie Request

Does anyone have a good, simple fudgy brownie recipe? I like the gooey kind of brownies. Thad is 5 months old today! Woo Hoo!

Clay's Funnies

Clay's speech improves all the time and now things are getting said by him that are worthy of writing down and saving.

After eating lunch the other day he jumped off his chair and started heading out the door, but turned around with a wily smile and announced, "Uh oh. Poopy!"

I was bringing Clay his bedtime bowl of yogurt to the family room where all the guys were playing Friday night. As I'm coming up the stairs I can hear Timothy count off a number and then Clay repeat the number. They were down on the floor doing sit-ups.
Timothy: "Eight."
Clay: "Eight."
Timothy: "Nine."
Mommy walks in with bowl of yogurt.
Clay: "Eat."
Timothy: "Ten."
Clay: "Eat."
He kept doing the sit-ups though.

Every morning we read a chapter in Proverbs. Saturday morning, just as I've read one of those about quarrlsome wives Clay follows it by giving me a serious look and saying "Yeah."

Feeling Good Again

It's taken two nights in a row of being in bed before 9:00, but I finally woke up rested this morning for the first time in weeks. It's a wonderful feeling to actually want to get up and start a new day. It's almost 9:00 and Clay is still in bed. hmmm He must be needing the extra sleep too.

My head is still fighting off cold germs. My brain and hands are helping in the fight by giving my head lots of vitamin C and water. "By His stripes I'm healed. By His stripes I'm healed." Mom used to say that's the best medicine. Timothy is doing a lot better as well. He came home early yesterday to rest because he ran out of work at the office. This morning he also woke up feeling great.

My doll baby, Thadeus, has been in my lap all morning while I've been on the computer. He's such a sweetie! I don't know how much he sleeps at night, but he doesn't usually complain when he wakes up in the mornings. Last night he went to bed a little after 8 and I didn't go upstairs to get him until 6:30 this morning. He was just laying there, wide eyed and smiley. He's learned how to fake his coughing already. We'll sit there and cough back and forth until he gets too excited and then can't remember how to do it, so he just lets out this strange half growl, half laugh sound.

Ivana spends all her time in her room studying. She's getting social support from the government so now she feels like she can afford extra things. "No, sorry. We're still in control of your budget." She has university to save for so all that money has to go in the bank. I remember having moments like that. She'll thank us when she graduates from university debt free.

Life in Jama

There were a couple nights last week that Clay kept us up by crying all night. We believe it has something to do with us all sleeping in the same room at my sister Becky's. For all his shyness, he's a very relational person. After two sleepless nights he got his fair warning that if he kept us up crying he would be spanked. An hour or two later when I went to bed I could hear a very faint voice, "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" We hadn't said anything about just asking, did we?

We did go to the pool yesterday after running errands. They have a children's pool that is enormous; almost the size of my house! Both the boys had a blast. There was a little girl there who could swim under water. Clay was fascinated. Thadeus jumped and squirmed and threw his head under water. We need to find a better time to go though. I would rather be there in the afternoon, after nap time, so that they sleep good at night, but I don't have a car most afternoons.

Now my body is trying to get sick. It's not allowed.

In A Nutshell

I don't really have time to write, but I thought maybe the general population should know that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Timothy's had tonsillitis and is just going back to work today. Clay and I have had an awful time getting over jet-lag. Timothy blames it on our lack of exercise. Found an indoor pool not too far away for pretty decent prices. Will check it out today. This morning we're going to the office where I need to start the process of getting my drivers license. Still working on the church website, but need a better graphics program. Planning a baby shower for my friend Lucija.

There, consider yourselves caught up.

Now There's Blog-Tag

In a pathetic attempt to get me to blog again my sister has tagged me. This is similar to those questionnaire emails that people send out, except it's amongst bloggers. Well, I'm just pathetic enough to play along, the only problem is, I know very few bloggers to tag when I'm done.

Four Places of Occupation:
1. Cleaning house for Ramona King.
2. Walmart (Store #1771 Sturgis, Michigan)
3. The Vantage Group. Not a particularly exciting seat as office manager of a small company. I hardly remember what they did anymore.
4. Cleeton Davis Court Reporters. This was the best job ever. No vending machines. Just free sodas and candy.

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. The five hour version of Pride and Prejudice and any of the other Jane Austin movies for that matter.
2. Ever After
3. Pirates of the Caribbean
4. Tommy Boy

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. Burr Oak, Michigan
2. Duns, Scotland
3. Nashville, Tennessee
4. Ljubljana, Slovenia

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. Any home and garden type show.
2. We liked CSI before it got nasty.
3. Cops (redneck!)
4. What Not To Wear - I know! The guy on the show is a little wierd, but I still enjoy the show.

Four of My Favorite Foods:
1. Horse Burgers - ya gotta try 'em!
2. Pasta with tortuffi (it's a mushroom)
3. Ice cream
4. Almost anything chocolate

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Asleep
2. Napping
3. Snoozing
4. All of the above

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging:
1. Jackie Chapman
2. Tisra Fadely
Those are the only bloggers who I know read my blog...