3 weeks and counting

Earlier in the year my sister asked her siblings to send a family photo to her. She was doing a family "wall." I didn't get around to it until just before Joel and I left for Houston.
Well, we have three weeks of being very careful with Joel left!! Then he is not to drive for another 6 weeks and I will be taking him to work. (That should get a little hectic.) But after May 12th, he'll just have to do things as he feels he can handle it without pain. In the meantime, we take a daily walk that is up to 25 min. Eventually it will get up to an hour and I am sure taking more steps every day than usual. Luckily he hasn't been bored at all and we have had people come over and visit which has been fun!

Light hearted- Pre-surgery

I thought the hat was funny and got Joel's brother Micah to take a picture since I was on the phone with Micah's wife at the time. At the last minute, I decided to be in the picture too and unfortunately you can't really quite catch the effect of the hat since I cover a bit of it.


The bamboo arrangement was sent to Joel by an ex-coworker, Steve and his family. The flowers were sent by the women in the office he currently works at. Another set of flowers was sent to Joel's mom's house by the women and Steve O. in the office Joel worked in prior to this one. And of course so many people prayed for and thought of him.

Micah's wife Sarah brought lasagna, salad and cake to the hospital the night of Joel's surgery and I was so grateful. I had been fasting all day and pushed it just a little too far. It was so thoughtful of her!! Micah, Leann, her friend Ginger, Joel's mom, his dad and stepmom all spent time in the hospital with me during the surgery. I am glad to have had them there and to get to spend time talking with them and getting to know them better.

I'm not exactly glad for this experience, especially with what Joel has had to go through. But I learned and had some experiences that no other situation could have offered. I am a different person...hopefully that means better and that I can make those good changes permanent.

Sugar and Spice and puppy dog Tails

Keddi has this winter outfit that just looks adorable on her so I took her outside on a beautiful March day to take pictures of her. After taking several pictures she freaked out, lifted her foot off the ground and squeeled (just a bit) asking me what was that? I came to inspect what she'd gotten off her foot and a worm was just a wriggling in the grass. I laughed and said it was just a worm. She was asking if it hurt people at the same time that I was telling her it wouldn't hurt anyone. After I finished getting my sentence out, she was almost nose to the ground checking it out. It didn't take long for Shinara to join her and I loved the look of it so I snapped a picture. Then I called her back to her photo shoot. I needed to get dinner started!

O.k, she did it again last night. I have yet to find a recipie for homemade mac-n-cheese that I can make without the cheese coming out, "grainy?" Ya know what I mean? Anyway, Shinara didn't like what I tried out yesturday because of the texture and so she told me that the dinner was "making her brains go out" and that I should not give her that kind of dinner again. Later when she forgot to do something I had just asked her, she told me that she had forgotten because dinner made her brains go out. So, next time your brains aren't working normally, perhaps it was something you ate!

Shinara-isms

Is it the age? I feel like Shinara gets the most blog time, but then again she is the one home the most at this point in our lives. And she is just too funny!!

A few weeks ago, she was complaining that her head hurt and was pointing to where on her head it was. Joel said "On your temple?"

"No!? On my head."

"Well, that is the temple, on your head."

"No it's not a..." (This is where I interrupted and asked Shinara to listen very carefully and I explained that that particular part of our head is called the temple just like we have a face but one part of it is called a nose, cheeks...." We laughed that part of our head is called a temple.

A week or so later, I rushed out of my room when I heard a slow thuding down the length of the stairs. I got to the stairs in time to see Shinara standing, crying and holding the side of her head. She had fallen down the stairs and "hurt my church." Confused I asked her if she had hurt herself at church too. "No..." and then it dawned on me. I started laughing and rocking her while Joel and the girls looked confused as to why I was laughing. I told her that she hurt her temple not her church!

Today, after doing the things I asked her to do before preschool, she came down and told me that Jesus had told her to make her bed and put her pajamas away and she had listened. I commended her. Later, after clearing her plate and getting syrup on her hand I told her to wash her hands so we could go. She came out of the bathroom and announced "The Lord told me to wash my hands and I did!" This time I was a bit taken back and thought maybe I should say something. Instead I just asked who the Lord was. "Jesus", she said and I let it be.