Hello

I just wanted to give a quick hello to let everyone know Joseph is home. It has been so wonderful to have him here, all of us are on cloud nine and thoroughly enjoying getting loved on by Dada. Its a very short stay though, he leaves this coming Saturday to head back up to the base for his C school and will be there for 14 weeks. The boys and I are planning on following after him sometime around the 15th of January.

Please continue to keep my family in prayer. I know I have not been keeping everyone updated, but I know that most of the people that read this blog are living and breathing everything that is going on with my Aunt Christi and it has just been to hard to write about. After no change since the day of the seizure ( a heart attack was ruled out) and proof that she no longer has any brain activity going on, the incredibly hard decision to take her off of life support was made yesterday. The reality is that she left us two weeks ago when she slipped into a coma, but its still hard to reconcile the fact that she is gone. I do need to clarify that at this point we are just waiting for her body to pass away, but my Christi is gone. It is a very strange feeling to mourn someone when you know their body is still laying in a hospital bed breathing and doing all its basic functions, but needing to remember that the body is no longer the woman I loved. Please pray for me and my family as we say goodbye to someone we love. Pray for my grandparents who are having to watch their oldest child die, my mother and her sisters, Kim, Jaime and Kelly (my mom) and for Christi's husband Frank and her son Justin, along with everyone else I love and call family.

Ok, the tears are starting to threaten so I am out for tonight.

Peace

Seven Days People, Seven Days!

HOLY BATMAN EVERYONE! JOSEPH WILL BE HOME IN ONE WEEK!


Ok, well technically I will be sitting in my hotel room twiddling my thumbs waiting for the night to pass so that I can get up at 5:30 in the morning to go sit in an auditorium for three hours before I finally even get to lay eyes on my hubby. But since tomorrow is only two hours away lets not get technical, especially since everyone will probably be reading this when it is officially tomorrow anyways :)

In other news my Aunt Christi could really use some prayer warriors right about now. Earlier this morning (so technically yesterday) she had a heart attack. When the paramedics arrived she was not breathing and her heart was not beating. She is now in the ICU in critical condition. Please pray for her health, for peace and strength for my family as they walk through this with her and also clear minds for her doctors and nurses. But most of all for my family (myself included) to put her in the Lords hands and trust that the Great Physician is the best doctor and decision maker she could have.

And to leave you all on a brighter note...

SEVEN MORE STINKIN DAYS PEOPLE. SEVEN. MORE. DAYS.

Sweet Nothings

It is so wonderful to finally not be sick! Its amazing how easy life is when your not exhausted, cranky and generally feeling like poop. I mean this single mothering stuff is a piece o' cake now! Really, it is...But that will all end in THIRTEEN days!



Now that I am back to my cheerful self I have been able to thoroughly enjoy the sweet little boy that Conner is. His two favorite things to say are "Got it!" and "Maaaaama!" He just cracks me up, especially when I get a "Maaaaama!" after he just threw a ball at the back of my head, as if he is saying "goodness woman, why didn't you see that thing coming at you and catch it!?" I mean come on, of course I should have caught it :)



LOVE this picture! Isn't he precious? Brooks has really been blossoming these past couple of days, especially now that he is officially crawling. Its amazing how much they change once they get the motions down and are off. He is such a little talker too. When he is really happy you can hear his deep little "mmmmmmmmmhhhss" all through the house. He has got such a deep voice for such a little guy, but man when he is upset he goes from low to high really fast!

Creative Spark

Some babylegs for Brooks... if you have no clue what these are, they are like leggings with no bottom, which make for easy diaper changes. I use them specifically in the winter because it keeps their legs covered when their pants ride up while you are holding them. In 17 degree weather.



This is a Moby Wrap I made for a friend along with the carrying case.


A nursing shawl for same friend. Never seen one of these? You can check them out here (although those ones are not made by me)


Some felted wool balls I made for the Woman's Gift Exchange my church holds each year. I made 32 in total :)






These Marble Magnets were made by my friend Rebekah and myself, also for the Woman's Gift Exchange. Want to know how to make your own? Click here. They are super easy and a great gift.



I have had a busy couple of weeks sewing and being crafty and since Joseph is gone I thought I would share my fun, yet hard labor with you :)

Anticipation

Joseph will be home in SIXTEEN days.

Because of that fact I have been taking a little hiatus from the blogging world, so I apologize for no updates, cute pictures or even just a little bit of my sweet self. Why is it that the coming home of my husband has caused me to temporarily abandon the blogging world? Is it because I have been swamped with housework? Nope, my awesome mother took care of that while she was here last week. Overwhelmed with two sick children? Naw, I had pneumonia, they have a cold, piece o' cake!

Its the anticipation. And the not trying to think of the anticipation.

So far the anticipation of only sixteen more days has been harder then the last forty two days. Its getting harder to talk and think about him because sixteen days is so close yet still so far away, so I know have this neat big Joseph self in my head. If I try to take too much off of it at once and I am not alone, it gives me a swift punch to the stomach. I am not a very publicly emotional person, so I much rather take my time, alone and in the privacy of my own home. But it goes against the grain to put him up on a shelf. Missing him is natural and expected, but when I think of him too much, life stops, well life outside the boys that is. That life thankfully never stops. So then the anticipation and the not trying to anticipate try to take over my days. Hence the no blogging, because for some strange reason that requires me to think of him. And thinking of him makes a post that should only take 20 minutes to write take about and hour and a half. "sigh"
Ok, all of that was really a long version of " I love and miss my husband so much it hurts", but I like long versions. I actually don't think I know how to tell a short version without saying the long version first.

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As I was writing I realized I had not posted about our temporary change of plans. For the time being Joseph had to change his specialty. In a year he will get to reapply and by that point the obstacles that where keeping him from his original specialty will have been cleared. We should be back on track unless we feel the new one is where God really intended for him to be all along. Instead of going straight to our original destination, we will be spending 4 months in a city in the Midwest (At least I believe it is considered the Midwest...). Because this is a public blog I do not want to share exact locations, but for the curious, cousin Nicole lived in this city not to many years ago.
Its up in the air exactly where we will be at the end of the four months, as choice of location for the next assignment is given out based on class rank. So if there are 30 people in the class there will be 30 assignments (some may be to the same location) and obviously some of those are going to be much better or preferable then other. Joseph's goal is to get either number one or two. I trust Joseph, being the crazy academic that he is, to do the best he can to make that goal, but more importantly I trust Him. Instead of feeling anxious, mad or even disappointed about these changes I find myself overjoyed by the fact that He is in control, that He knows my worries, my fears and my hopes and that I can anticipate and rest in the knowledge that He has us in the palm of His hand. And the palm of His hand is a pretty darned good place to be.