Battle of the cars - my wandering mind

So it's been 10 months since I gave up my cute lil' red, 2 door Accord, and I miss her dearly. Ah, the sacrifices we make as parents! I occasionally spot one like her and I reminisce about the "good ole days!" I can't imagine getting Colin in and out of the back seat of it now, but it was so much fun to drive!

Honda keeps sending us materials about their newly redesigned '08 Accord Coupe, and it's just gorgeous! I was just thinking the other day that when Colin is old enough to crawl in and out of the car on his own, it just might work.....hmmmmm.

Mazda must know that Honda has been tempting my mind, because they have put on a full court press and keep sending me all of this cool stuff -- a great zoom zoom magazine, and even a little touch up paint kit for my CX-7....just in case I've had a little too much "zoom, zoom" (clever, very clever.)

Will I look back on my Accord a bit like Uncle Jerry looks back on his classic Mustang? Probably. Am I just a little silly? Probably. But I sure did love that car!

Hammer Down

Gimme some feedback....How did I convince our little man that said new toy is intended only for use on the matching tool kit and not my kitchen counters, random other toys, or even the cat. OK, so the cat can stand up from himself . But the other things?

Savoring The Observable Presence

I am excited about this new Bible Study I am doing through the women's ministry program at my church. The study, called "Believing God," has a portion of each day's study dedicated to something called a GodStop; with STOP standing for "Savor the Observable Presence." This a journel time where I consider how God is moving in ways in my life where I can note that occurrences are more than just "coincidence" or a "random chance happening." In noting this, I can Savor The Observable Presence of God.

And then yesterday I received a card from a friend and the card was made by "Savoring Grace Greetings. On the back of the card, it gives a definition for Savor:

Savor: To recognize the value of. To undergo an emotional reaction. To have a particular flavor or suggestion. To receive pleasure from.

I have had some incredible GodSTOPS this past week, and I am definitely receiving pleasure from and am recognizing the value of this observable presence of God. A chance encounter with a college sorority sister. A chance meeting with another mom with some great thrift store tips. A chance meeting with a stranger in need. Not chance at all.

Spiders...They're Everywhere You Want to Be

I'm not a fan of spiders, though I do realize they have some redeeming qualities in the "eating other bugs" department. I was in the yard today preparing to plant some bulbs and I kept coming oh so close to almost running into all of their webs -- eeks! This one, in particular, kept "getting in my way."

At least they aren't cockroaches. I remember them so clearly from when we lived in Texas. You'd be sitting on the patio on a warm spring evening and you'd have to move indoors because they scurrying everywhere and we're the size of small children. OK, not really that big, but they were several inches long. I so don't miss that!

Praise For What I Didn't Even Know I Needed to Be Praying For

Rewind about 2 years when I was still pregnant, and I had the perfect vision for child care -- I was going to commute with child in tow to work via the bus, take him/her across the street to daycare (where I could join him or her to nurse throughout the day) and then we would commute home together on the bus and life would be blissful. I watched another mom/daughter pair do this, and I was just convinced! I somehow forgot about the long bus trip and the aweful windstorms in the winter!

Then a few weeks into my maternity leave I called the childcare facility and learned that every woman under the sun had a baby when I did and there were absolutely no spots downtown. What?!?! I searched desperately for a new place -- on the Eastside. I toured one facility and had that "not in my lifetime" feeling in my gut. It felt like a baby mill.

Then, with the recommendation from my mom, I looked for a church childcare facility, and I found The Ark. I enjoyed talking on the phone with the assistant director. When I toured the facility, it just felt right. I can't explain how I knew, but I just felt that Colin would be just fine there for 3 1/2 days a week. I had this same assurance when I toured Baylor University many years ago -- I just knew it was where God wanted me to be. This kind of assurance and peace is something over my life that I've learned is an assurance from the Lord that I am on the path he has chosen for me. And now, for me and my family!

This time last September , I cried as I packed his bag for his first day of "school." I had ironed nametag labels into all of his extra clothing, and I had everything set. My mind knew he was going to be cared for by a woman with a huge heart and lots of love for my son, but letting go with my heart was SOOO hard. It also meant that I was returning to work (with a new boss and a new employee reporting to me, at that!)

The first day I picked Colin up, "Miss A" was playing a CD of Phantom of the Opera, and it warmed my heart somehow -- that was one of my favorite shows (though I slept partly through it when I was in NYC when I was in the 8th grade -- a whole other blog topic!)

The timing of taking Colin back to daycare coincided with many other sleep and nursing challenges, and there were days I was gleeful to take him in at 7:01 am. Just being honest, but "Miss A" was a life raft for me as a mom. Those first months were so tough, and the thought of taking Colin to someone else so I could recharge was pure bliss! I love him, but "Miss A" had the patience to see me through a very tough time. A time when I needed to learn how to be a mom and learn from her things like, "Oh, he needs a stage 2 bottle nipple, " or "Oh, his nails really DO need a trim so he won't keep scratching all of us!"

And the time came in December that I knew I needed to be home full time with Colin. As I wrote my resignation, I knew this was God's will -- that I stay home full time with Colin. I knew with clarity that was beyond a doubt. God has given me such peace and clarity about this decision that I praise Him for this peace of mind.

I didn't know when I was pregnant that I needed to be praying for such an awesome childcare center -- and yet I ended up with an awesome place with people that love him. And we gleaned another blessing from all of this.

Colin's afternoon teacher, "Miss J," was/is a special friend to me. She was there when I would pick Colin up after a frazzled, crazy day of work. And she could 'read me like a book" when I was just totally spent. She later offered to care for Colin when her schedule allowed.

And at Colin's 1st birthday, he was SOOO excited to see "Miss J!" He just loves and adores her, and we do, too. We didn't know to be praying for a special person to love and care for our son, yet God sent 2 women who love and adore him. Like the love from our Father, who loves and adore us.

Praise be to God for The Ark that kept me afloat during a rough storms of parenting, and praise for "Miss J" who was able to be with Colin tonight while Mommy was out at a meeting.

God takes care of things we don't know that we even need to be praying for. I didn't know I needed to be praying for his daycare situation; I didn't know that I needed to be praying for a woman who would love Colin and come care for him from time to time so mom and dad could have date night. Thank you Lord, for taking such good care of us and our son.

Hail, Caesar!

We joined 3 other couples for dinner Saturday night -- always a great time of food and fellowship with other families that have small children (the other 3 moms all have #3 on the way -- yikes!) Colin had a great dinner and ate everyone under the table....on Caesar salad, of all things! I hadn't ever offered him salad (silly me, I suppose!) and he chowed down on it like there was no tomorrow, thus gaining the name from our friends of "Hail, Caesar!"

Can I remind him of this love for green foods when he is 4?

Holy Cow -- Or, Bull, Rather!

The picture says it all. Congratulations, Grandpa!

Fun in the Sun/Son

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day that we enjoyed right in our own neighborhood. Each year the neighborhood community association hosts a picnic to come meet your neighbors, nibble on a hot dog, play with the bubbles and other kids toys, and meet the local police and fire department. Colin enjoyed checking out the fire truck and even got his very own fire chief hat. Pretty cool!

We then headed over to Bellevue Waterfront Day at the Bay, a celebration on the waterfront where the city also shared more about plans to expand the public waterfront based upon some recent acquisitions. Colin enjoyed dipping his toes in the lake and playing with some of the big kid's activities.

We capped off the day by going to our first ever Saturday night church service. Colin did really well (he's an early-to-bed sort of guy), and now we can sleep in tomorrow and read the Sunday paper. It was so easy getting out the door for evening service -- because, afterall, we've been dressed and ready for the day for well over 10 hours.

Jammie Drama

With the upcoming arrival of fall, I decided it was time to get some jammies that fit our lil' man -- his t-rex and shark jammies were just stretched to their limits. Freddies was having a half price sale, so I decided to stock-up. As you can see, we're now on to more "fun" designs, such as Lightnin' McQueen from the movie "Cars."

So I'm at this Labor Day party later in the afternoon, and all the moms are talking about the toxic fire retardant chemicals in pjs and how they only buy all-cotton, which then has that huge yellow tag hanging from it saying something about not wearing loose clothing to sleep in. They go on to talk about how these chemicals in polyester jammies are so toxic that traces have been found in breast milk, etc.

And then I'm thinking, "Did I purchase the 'right' kind of jammies this morning?" It's never crossed my mind until now. And then I decide that some people find too much to worry about. Such jammie drama!

If This Yard Could Talk...

This evening I started the process of whacking away the tulip bulbs from our backyard. We inherited a large area of tulip and iris plants that are just not blooming like they should. Could be that I don't really know how to care for them year after year (most likely.) But I had such pleasure in taking a big garden hoe and removing insect-hollowed bulbs from our yard.

If anyone knows the garden fairy (similar to the cleaning fairy I mentioned a while back), please let me know. I have a yard that needs some inspiration!

Matt also started ripping out the thorny ground growth (can you say "not Colin-friendly?") in the back right corner of the yard (including the thorny blackberry bush.) Our yard has hidden dirty little secrets -- several old tree stumps hide among this growth. hmmm., I guess every yard has its secrets!

Mommy's Little Helper

Today was cat food sack day. An exciting time for our 6 year old cat, Elliot. You see, we pre-measure 3/4 cup of his super ultra reduced diet Hills Science Diet cat food into daily rations in a snack-sized ziploc baggie. On cat food sack day, Elliot always gets "cat bonus" (aka extra food that doesn't make it into his daily ration sacks.) Ahhh, the dieting joys of being a big-boned Indiana farm kitty!

Today, Colin helped. This was a stressful day for Elliot, as Colin would taunt the cat by holding a full baggie right in front of his nose. He took the baggies and made a basket with them in the basketball hoop. He carried them over to the food container and back. He had so much fun picking up stray pieces of food, as well.

The cat just wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet of "cat food bonus day," and Colin just wanted to shuffle around the catfood sacks so that Elliot could see how helpful he was. Mommy's little helper, alright! Helping keep our cat under 15 lbs : )

Elliot has requested we wait until the "baby is asleep" the next time we do catfood sacks!

Delightful Surprise

This past week we got such a nice surprise in the mail. Don't you just love getting an unexpected package? This one was from Colin's Great Grandpa Sturm. He lives all the way across the country, so we haven't seen him since Colin was 8 weeks old. We keep in touch with him with calls and pictures.

When Grandpa sends packages, they generally come disguised in some box that we wonder how he managed to keep for all of these years -- this one was a box that at one time contained 1000 buttermints. I wonder what he ever did with 1000 buttermints?!

Much to our delight, Great Grandpa got all dressed up and went to Olan Mills and got a picture taken to send to us. It is mounted on canvas and is in an oval cherry frame -- how beautiful! And such a treasure! Now Colin can see his 93 1/2 year young Great Grandpa each day!

It's very touching the thought that went into this on his part -- I can just hear him telling the sales person at Olan Mills, "Oh it doesn't matter what kind of frame. Just something nice. If you think cherry is nice we'll go with that one."

We know you'll never read this online, great Grandpa, but, "Thank you so very much! Your thoughtfulness means more than words can say!"

Tomatoes, Beets, & Napa Cabbage, oh my!

This afternoon we went to a local farm and did "U Pick" produce. I had never dug up beets before... Colin had fun picking the tomatoes. And no, he didn't call each of them "Bob" (he loves Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales). We also came home with a cucumber, butter lettuce, napa cabbage (we thought it was romaine -- oops!), and some apples.

Colin Hard at Play

Colin was hard at play last night at our local children's museum. He just loved the small kids area with all of the fun toys. This was a fun way to kick off our Labor Day weekend.