The other day, I was reading to Rori and Liam, from the Jesus Storybook Bible--if you have kids, get it! We were reading about Jesus dying on the cross because Liam was struggling to understand what a cross was and how someone could die on one. We got to the part where God turns His back on Jesus and the book says, "'Papa?' Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky.'Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!'" And I could tell that Rori could feel that. She started to cry and asked me why God left Him there on the cross and didn't answer Him. I started to weep. My sweet daughter's sensitivity and fear for Jesus gave me a clearer understanding of the magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father and God the Son made on that day. For me, sweet Rori. He turned His back on His Son for me and for you.

Igor

Most of you that know me, know that we used to have the world's best dog. Her name was Leia, and she died suddenly when Rori was just about to turn one year old. We looked into getting another dog soon after, but she was irreplaceable. We had talked about it here and there for the last 5 years and occasionally browsed adoptable dogs online. I told Bill that we could get a dog when everyone in the house could use the potty. I wasn't going to housebreak a dog while changing diapers. That's just too much poop for one person. Well, Brendan is nowhere near potty-trained...but...I am clearly not a woman of my word.

Bill is on an email list from a pet photography place that takes pictures of adoptable animals. Bill showed me one named Igor. I laughed at the name, but then started to read about him. He was smallish--35 pounds, he was sweet, got along with other dogs (which is important because of Sarge--my parent's dog especially because they bring him with when they visit), and he was housebroken. We emailed about him to see if he had been cat tested because we had tried to adopt a dog a few years ago (I think I wrote about it then) and she was not cat friendly and tried to eat our cats. I'm ok if the dog wants to eat the neighborhood feral cats, in fact, I encourage it. However, I'm not wanting that for my personal cats.

Cortney, the person fostering him, emailed us back and said he hadn't been cat tested but would be happy to bring him out to see how he did. So that evening she and her husband came over with Igor. Cortney, if you're reading this, I apologize about the state of my house--Bill gave me about 45 minutes notice that you were coming and we had been busy all day so the house was a disaster. Who am I kidding, the house usually looks like that by 4:30 on a Friday ;-) Anyway, they brought Igor in and he seemed a bit nervous. I had instructed the kids not to get all up in his face and scare him, so they hung back until I told them it was ok. Rori, I could tell, immediately fell in love with him. So, we brought him to meet Scout, our cat. He pretty much ignored the cat and he listened really well. I was starting to think this was our dog! They left and Rori immediately asked when Igor could come over again. That night Bill and I talked about it and decided that if they wanted to let us adopt Igor, we would love to do it!

The next morning, I had an email that they thought we were a perfect family for Igor! We were all excited and couldn't wait to officially adopt him. Even Liam, who does NOT give his love freely (which if you've met him, you know that) asked when Igor was coming back. Cortney dropped him off that evening and he was ours!

I was sure that he was going to become "my" dog since I would be spending the most time with him. However, I learned tonight that I was wrong. I had to speak rather sternly (i.e. yell) at miss Rori Rose this evening at bedtime because she was not wanting to go to bed. Igor leaned against my leg real hard and when I left the room, he laid down by her bed. I called him to come out but he stayed there. I took a shower and peaked in and he was still there with no desire to follow me. He has found his true love. And she has given him her heart as well.  I am pretty sure if she wasn't in the top bunk, the picture below would be a nightly occurrence! (For the record, he has won my heart too, but I don't think he cares nearly as much about that as he does about the children)!

Parental Supervision

I had an opportunity to go to an HR conference (I work in HR) and Bill offered to stay home and watch the kids so that I could go. While Rori was at school, Bill decided to work out. He assumed that Liam (3 years old) and Brendan (17 months old) would be ok upstairs while he worked out downstairs. When he was finished, this is what he found...

It's even in Brendan's hair. Bill said it was also down his pajamas...

Clearly they had a good time whilst un-supervised. Apparently they had also colored the wall. Thank goodness for washable markers!

Twi-Night!

My friend Karen was made to host parties! Our friend Beth suggested that several of us get together and watch the three Twilight movies and Karen volunteered to host it for us! They have an amazing movie theatre in their basement with leather recliners so we knew it would be a comfy evening. Everyone was bringing delectable snacks. The only night that worked for everyone was a Tuesday evening starting at 6pm. We all geared up for a late night! When we got there, Karen had decorated the bar with jewels, Eclipse plates and napkins. She had tattoos for us, and glowing engagement rings. It was AWESOME!

The food was AMAZING! We had beer bread, dips, potato skins, pepper jellied cream cheese, mini meatballs, Karen made amazing "blood" red velvet cupcakes, and I made hand pies--which were individual hand held pies in the shape of hearts--they were cherry and raspberry for blood, and apple because April likes apple :) Everything was delectable! We laughed and had a great time through the first two movies. You would think that would have been enough to get us through the night. Sadly, half the girls left as the third movie was starting, and two of us left (well Ashley was riding with me otherwise she probably would have stayed) at 12:30 because I didn't want to die in a sleepy, fiery crash on the way home. Only Leslie (who was 6 months pregnant and has 4 year old twins and a 2 year old boy) and Karen made it to the end. Karen, it was a fabulous party--but I am just too darn old to stay up that late and function at work the next day. I fell asleep by 1:45 and had to be up at 6:00.

Ashley spent the night at our house because we work together--she slept in Liam's bed and he slept with us. In the morning she offered to help me with my makeup because I am makeup-illy challeneged. Apparently it didn't help. A co-worker asked if I was feeling ok, because I didn't look so good! It was totally worth it! It was a wonderful night that managed to make me feel young and old all at the same time!

you can see Karen's tattoo and April's ring is glowing. I am in sweats because I am planning for a long evening--don't tell Bill--he says we don't wear sweats...

Look at all that yummy food!

Valentine's Blood Sweat and Tears

So, after the Snowpocalypse, we had Valentine's day! Last year I made Valentine's buckets for Rori and Liam's Sunday School teachers and for our small group friends. They were a lot of work, so I said I wasn't going to do them again. But then my friend April mentioned them. And I thought to myself, "eh, it wasn't that much work and I would really like to do it for Rori's teachers at school. So, I decided to do them again. This year, I saw ladybug cookies on my favorite food site and Rori was really excited about them. I didn't think they looked hard or even that time consuming, and Bill was going to watch all three kids so I figured it would go fast without any "helpers". I am a terrible judge of what is time consuming.

I set up an assembly line for the cookies. They were adorable. While I waited for each part to dry, I worked on the rest of the treats for the buckets. I rolled the truffles, cut out the marshmallows, and dipped all of them in chocolate. The entire process took from about 11:30 am until 9:00 pm. I am an idiot. My back killed me from bending over, frosting the cookies, my kitchen was trashed, and I was exhausted. Poor Bill was tired too--I had banished him and the kids to the living room to eat their lunch and dinner. Of course I didn't get pictures of the final bucket because, well, I was stumbling to my bed that night. I won't be doing them again next year, except I probably will. My sweet Rori Rose gave me a picture frame and half of her sugar donut for all my hard work. She also made a point of telling people that I worked on them from lunch to bedtime--I didn't even have to tell her to do that. I love that girl!

For my mom, dad, and Anna

I haven't posted in five weeks! And I have been gently reminded by my mom and Anna, and my mom said even my dad said something. I really don't have an excuse except I have been busy--but who's not?! I am actually reading real books these days--maybe I'll write about them and what I'm learning at some point :) But, going back a few weeks we had the great Snowpocalypse.

The weather reports were all warning us, so I suggested that Bill borrow his parents snow blower since his dad was in Arizona at the time and his mom would be using it. He said he would, but it was in his tone of voice that I know he is blowing me off. So the night the storm started, I went out and started to shovel. We already had several inches and it was supposed to continue through the night. I wasn't a happy camper. When Bill came out to help, I'd been out an hour already. I strongly suggested he get the snow blower. He whined something about having to take seats out of the van to get it in. I even more strongly suggested he get it. So he did. He only had to fold down one seat. The next morning we woke up to this.

He was supremely grateful to have the snowblower. While looking at this, all I wanted to say was, "The pass is open, the pass is open!" I'll give you a quarter if you know what movie that's from!

The Vomitorium, Cupcakes, and Gallbladders

You can plan and plan, and life often doesn't fall into place the way you want it to. This last weekend, is an example. Faith's birthday was Saturday. This was the first year we decided to "celebrate" it. Rori wanted to make her cupcakes--Oreo cupcakes! She was very excited and asked, "who are we going to celebrate with?" Well, it just so happened that we had planned on going to my parent's house on Saturday and my sister and her family were coming too. So we made cupcakes, I made cookies--just to make sure there would be enough dessert. It was working out well that we were all going to be there on Saturday because my mom was having her gallbladder out on Monday. I think my mom was looking forward to the distraction.

The kids decorated the cupcakes--I even swirled the frosting on to make them prettier. Then my mom called and Jenna and her family wouldn't be coming. Jenna had a stressful week and was exhausted. I was bummed because we were looking forward to seeing the kids too.

After we made the cupcakes, the kids were all upstairs watching television in my bedroom. I came downstairs to start working on Faith's blog post. I heard coughing. And then a shout. More coughing while I was running up the stairs. Rori had vomited all over our bed, my pillows, and carpet. I called Bill's mom to come over to help me take care of the other two kids while I stripped the sheets and got Rori cleaned up. A few hours later, Liam started throwing up. Every half hour until the wee hours of the morning, the kids were vomiting. We were officially in the vomitorium. I called my mom and broke the news to her that we wouldn't be coming the next day either. I would be going to the store for new pillows!

We were all really disappointed, and the kids still felt a little off on Saturday, so while we sang "Happy Birthday" to Faith, we didn't partake in cupcakes (really, who wants the cupcakes made by children who proceded to toss their cookies within an hour of frosting them). Rori was very disappointed and still really wants to celebrate and make new cupcakes. So, we will do that in two weeks. Alas, it was not what we had planned, but life so rarely is. Just ask Brendan ;-)

I would appreciate prayers for my mom's recovery--she has a tougher recovery than normal because of her diabetes as well as the fact that her gallbladder was pretty inflamed. She's feeling pretty miserable and would appreciate prayers for a speedy healing!