Almost Wordless Saturday

Guess who finally got a new camera?! Enjoy

Rythm

As of today we have now been at my parents house for four weeks and apart from Joseph for six. Only nine more to go until Joseph graduates from his current schooling and heads off somewhere else, not so close to us. When this is all said and done we will have been apart for 6 months, gah! One of the hardest parts about all this is that after the first couple of weeks you get used to being alone, it becomes harder to remember exactly what it was like to have them home, what it felt like when you were wrapped up in a big hug, or simply feeling the joy of looking up from a book to see them smiling at you from across the room. And you know what is the hardest part about all that? The fact that you don't even realize you cannot remember until one day you are laying in bed feeling very alone wondering about life and suddenly you remember your not alone! In that moment though you feel more alone then any other because suddenly your heart aches as it allows you to feel the very real hurt of being away from your spouse, the ache of not remembering and let me tell you, there is a lot of pain with not being able to remember. It is at that moment that I find myself clinging steadfastly to my Father, knowing that He has brought me through these moments with grace. Grace because He has covered my pain and allowed me to "forget", allowed me to not sit in every moment in pain because I "feel" alone, because the reality is that I am anything but alone. The Lord is always with me, giving me the strength to be away from my beloved and the peace to know that this is right, even though there can be moments were this can feel so wrong because we are apart. God has called us to be faithful, and even though it hurts like crazy, I am so thankful to even have the opportunity to be faithful.

By the Sea

We are speanding the weekend out at the ocean, relaxing in this house...


and enjoying this view...
and celebrating this little guys third birthday!
I am enjoying myself and thinking it about time to upgrade from the cell phone camera to a real camera...
ANDDDDDD Happy Valentines day! My valentine pancakes may not be as pink as Trina's, but they were pretty yummy!

A little break

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you all know that I am taking a little bit of an Internet break right now to spend some quality time with my boys. It has been a hard adjustment and we are still trying to get into the swing of things, so time spent on the computer is taking away from that. Just know I miss and love you all! Oh and a certain little boy of mine is turning THREE on Valentines day! Holy cow batman how did that happen?

When doors close God opens a window

Or in Conner case, when Mama makes it impossible to get out of the bedroom by the door, lets go out the window! Yes people, Conner, my sweet sweet Conner climbed on the window sill, removed the screen from its casing, scaled the wall to the nearest foot hold and then promptly sat in the rocks and began playing outside. Thank goodness my parents live in a one story, and thank God they live off the main road tucked into a small pocket of trees. I found him with a screw in hand playing the drums on the side of the house. I wish I could say that was the end of it, but he is a sneaky little on. After putting him back into bed and keeping an eye on the window for 40 minutes I finally went to relax. Well 40 minutes after that I hear a thump thump thump outside on the deck and there comes Conner thumping up the stairs! Soaking wet, since you know it was drizzling out side! Talk about giving Mama a heart attack.
A new playpen has been purchased and the boys rooms switched up, so Conner is sleeping in the laundry room and Brooks is with me. Funny thing is Conner will climb out a window onto rocks, but wont climb out of a playpen onto tiled floor...

Down

This past Saturday Conner was playing out in the backyard with Grandpa, having a grand ole time running up and down the property. My parents have a pretty large backyard, the only downfall is that it is all down hill, well except the part that is going up...So anyways they are both having a grand ole time when Conner falls down for the umpteenth time, but unlike all the times before, this time he lands hands first on a stick full of rose bush thorns. The good news is that only one thorn went into his hand, the bad news is that one thorn went into his hand.

Its now Tuesday and we were just finally able to get this puppy to work its way out as it was pretty darn deep in there. Poor baby has barely been using his hand and would cry anytime you would so much as look at it. So after many many long soaks in a nice warm bath I was able to take his hand captive and as gently as possible squeeze it out. We really weren't sure how much was left in there because you could no longer see anything, but it was getting pretty badly infected and it just hurt him so darn much that I knew something had to be in there. But I was not expecting this to pop out...
sorry about the quality, but my beautiful camera decided to randomly kick the bucket, but for a reference point, it is the size of my baby finger's nail. Lets just say I got a little queasy when this popped out. Conner on the other hand is doing marvelous! For the first time in three and a half days he is actually using his right hand. Thank you Lord!

On a totally different Conner note, today I had to buy a special childproof lock for a handle door to the bedroom we are sharing because he keeps escaping and exiting the house through the doggy door in our bathroom. That's right people, the doggy door, the doggy door that's made for cats I might add. We have been having problems with him sneaking out and hanging out in the hallway, bathroom or right around the corner from where we were sitting. Everything would be quiet, not a sound on the monitor, when suddenly a giggle appears behind you and then the quick pitter patter of feet that now they are about to get in trouble. Or my favorite was when he decided to serenade us with some beautiful music from his guitar. There he was standing behind us all perfectly pose suddenly playing with all the gusto in his being.

But the final straw was the exiting through the dog door, while the others were disobedient of him, this one was and is dangerous. So on the lock went and now as I type this I can hear Conner trying his best to figure out how the heck to get that thing off. Good luck love, but please don't try to hard, because we all know you will succeed. Someday ask me how long it took him at the ripe age of 18 months to remove the child proof door lock from a regular door knob and then how long it took me to return the sucker...


Update~ Guess who was sitting in the hallway not even five minutes after I wrote this post? The good news is the lock works, the bad news is the door does not. Apparently the latch and handle are not perfectly lined up, meaning the door rarely locks in place, meaning a lock for the handle was rendered useless...big huge sigh there. But never fear, just a little twisting here and pushing there and Voila! Latch locks in place and door handle lock is now no longer rendered useless. PHEW!

This cat sure looks like Nihko, but he doesn't act like him!

This is my first gray baby Riley, the sweetest tomcat in town.