Enjoying the end (so sad) of summer

Dinosaur fun at the park

Guess Who?

Aaaah, so much to say and so little time, but at least I am posting. Anyway, tomorrow will be the 10 week point for baby lemke #2. It seems that some of the early ultrasound scare is working itself out and things are looking much better. At least I have some cute pictures of the little one. I will certainly try to be a better blogger but now I am going to work on getting some photos on here.

Online again...Just couldn't wait to get online again

Thanks Tony for being a computer wizard! I am actually online and...alas...no pop-ups. Can cyberspace really be this peaceful? It has been so long since I have blogged that I almost forgot my username and password-for shame! It has been fun reading and catching up with all the blogs out there.

My life since disappearing from cyberspace has been busy but very enjoyable. So very much enjoying the nice weather-even the heat! We've had the pool out and are going for walks every day down the Berkley streets. Unfortunately, Ty is hating life working construction. Luckily, we are going to get some time off over 4th of July weekend-Yeah!

Caleb is a crazy kid. We realized/remembered yesterday during a sermon at church that when Caleb was born, we read the biblical story of Caleb and prayed for him to be bold and courageous. So far, God has blessed him with those traits ( sometimes to my chagrin). He is a bundle of energy, always busy, always movin' and groovin'. I love him lots.

Time Warp

It's been a loooong time since I posted. My main excuse is that Caleb is walking and the computer office area is not walker-proof but that is probably only part of the story.

As for the time warp I was in this past weekend, we saw friends from college and it felt altogether very nice and very strange. We see some of these friends a couple of times a year and others very infrequently. It was really good to see how this "circle of impending doom" has panned out and expanded with children and spouses. It was refreshing to be with people that Ty and I could see ourselves keeping in touch with for years and years. Fun times.

Round 1: Complete

Ty has returned from his business trip to Florida. He had fun but it was a long week for Caleb and me. Caleb was great, well-behaved even. It was a trial having my grandma here. She just does stuff, like starts feeding Caleb all kinds of foods he has never had and changing his schedule and cleaning my house. It was nice to have some company but she was here about a day and a half too long. But now it is over and Ty is home for a week then round 2 begins and it's even longer. I think this would all be more tolerable if it was warm and sunny outside but alas it is not so. I think I need to just change my attitude but I just want to get through it.

Hello-o-o (echo)

So Ty has left me for sunny Florida. He has accompanied SCS' senior class to Florida for the week. And of course I am home taking care of Caleb and Caspian wishing for Spring to come. Caleb is being super good (so far) but I get a little bored and miss my husband terribly. Although I think I would rather join him in Florida than have him come home. Anyway my grandma is coming to stay with us today and I am feeling a little conflicted. I love seeing her in small doses so this may be a bit trying for me.

Oh and I don't know if this is curiousity or anxiety but Caleb keeps grinding his teeth and it just makes me cringe. Why does he do this? Doesn't it hurt? Eeeee! I consulted one of the many baby books we have and it said that it is normal. I guess it is one of those 'normal' things I could do without.

Appreciated

I realize that I don't need to be validated by people but it sure is nice when it just happens. This week the principal from the school I worked at called me. He just wanted to know if I was planning on coming back to work next year or if I was going to extend my leave. He made me feel like he appreciated me and my hard work was validated. I hated telling him that I wouldn't be returning because a part of me would like to go back to teaching part time and I didn't want to disappoint the nice man. Anyway, he went on to tell me that he would try his best to get me back to the school when I did choose to come back. That phone call pretty much made my week. Sigh. Oh and of course I cried when I got off the phone.

Thank you Beth Moore

I resisted this bible study with Beth Moore because I had my hang ups but I am soooo glad that we are doing it. We are doing a study called Believing God. Mostly it is helping me to be disciplined about reading and studying the Bible again. I am so bad at that. And it doesn't matter how many times I hear the same truths over and over, I still get something new from them. Anyway, I was doing my homework this week for the bible study and I came across this story about a miracle that really struck me and is serving as fuel for my faith in the way that I pray and approach God. Anyway, here it is, I pray that your faith may be fueled by this man's testimony.

Rick Jones was a pastoral minister who was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic carcinoma in 1990. This godly family wept together after receiving the report. The Rick asked a question he believes, in retrospect, that patients are better off not asking:"How long do I have?" The doctor replied, "Ninety days at the most." He assured Rick and his family that he would do wnay thing he could to make him comfortable. Though he had issued the diagnosis, something inside the Christian internest compelled him to reject it relentlessly. After much research the doctor discovered a kind of radical surgery that was showing marginal results in slightly extending the lives of some patients with Rick's diagnosis. The most important factor for even marginal success was the absolute inactivity of cancer in any other location besides the pancreas.

The internist found an experienced surgeon who was willing to perform the radical procedure, but on opening Rick up, they found cancer everywhere. The deflated surgeon told those attending him that nothing else could be done and to close him up. Just moments later when he walked away, a man put a hand on his shoulder and said, "James, you can do this surgery. I gave you the talent. What would you want them to do with you?" He turned to see who was talking to him, and no one was there. He returned to the operating room and announced they would continue the procedure. After removing as much infected tissue as possible, he turned away to take several sips of orange juice. When he turned back to his patient, every visible sign of cancer in Rick's abdomen had disappeared. This is a documented event that was caught on videotape. In fact, the sight was so dramatic that the doctor looked straight into the camera taping the procedure and said, "What you've seen here is the hand of the Great Physician." Furthermore, after tissue samples were sent to the lab, the surgeon received a message saying they must have received the wrong samples. The patient whose tissue they received had no sign of ever having had cancer.

Amazing, God is truly amazing. I don't know this Rick Jones guy but knowing there is documentation certainly helps the unbelieving skeptic in me. Thank you Beth Moore for using this story to reveal to me how big and loving our God is.

In a nutshell

My week in a nutshell....

• Caleb got to go swimming for the first time ever. He LOOOVED it! He is such a go-getter. He just wanted us to let go of him and let him swim.
• Ty was home on winter break. He made a little extra cash doing some construction and we started a bit of a home improvement project. We finally took down the wallpaper going up the stairs (i know you are so disappointed) and ripped out the carpet. We are going to paint and upstairs and sand the stairs and put a runner on it. Should look better we hope.
• Ty and I went out on a real grown-up date. Dinner, shopping, coffee, good conversation. I love my husband.
• Got to see friends playing guitar and singing at a coffee house.
• Ty is up north today working on the cabin-will it ever end?
• Tomorrow Ty is preaching in Windsor again.

Good week. Fun week. I love my family. I love my friends.

Girls just wanna have fun

Okay so last saturday, i got to leave Berkley in the dust and strike off for Birch Run with Kelli and Sherri. I must admit I was a little worried leaving Caleb with Ty but i figured that it really was only 26 hours-so would any permanent harm come to him from a weekend with dad? Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got to shop, which is always fun and I even bought some things (with a little encouragement of course). I think my favorite purchase was my Banana Republic boots for $6.00. Not me, but who cares they're fun. We had a great time chatting about life, marriage, kids, families, and our hearts. We laughed, we sat in the hot tub, we shopped for hours and hours, we ate good food. It did my heart good to hang out with such great women.

And Ty and Caleb were none worse for the wear when I returned-yeah.

Far too long

It really has been far too long since I have posted. Ty has been on break this week and I haven't had Keely. You would think that I would have more time to blog, read or whatever but it has been exactly the opposite of that. Why do I have such trouble with the changes in schedules? There are plenty of things that I need to blog about but they need their own space. So here is to a fun week of Ty being home (some days) and Caleb's front teeth finally coming through (say goodbye to Fang).

Little walker extraordinaire

The amazing walker extraordinaire (circus voice). It is so much fun to watch Caleb stretch his boundaries. He is walking, very excitedly I might add, all along the furniture and walls (not on the walls but along the walls). He can go from room to room even and thinks he is big stuff. Caleb has even incurred a wound from his adventures, wild at heart i tell ya. He was traversing from his bedroom into the bathroom when *crash* down he went on the tile floor. Nasty goose egg bruise on his forehead.

While it is very exciting for me to watch him learn new things (especially when he is more content now that he can move more on his own), I think I am already missing the helpless newborn stage. I guess I still get little tastes of it though. Like this morning, he got up from a very short nap and I laid him in my arms and he fell back asleep for like a half hour. So sweet he is. What an adventure parenting is!

Let's take a moment. . .

The Super Bowl...can't say I get it. Actually, I get football in general and fantasy football especially, even less. But let me just take a moment and say "HALLELUJAH" football season is officially over!

Nursery Duty

Ty and I served in the nursery for the first time at Genesis yesterday morning. I was looking forward to it. I know half or more of the babies from playgroup on Wednesdays and I really was looking forward to giving back to the church in some tangible way. Anyway Ty confessed as we were waiting for the kids to come that he was more anxious about watching a few babies than he would be if he were getting up in front of 500 people to preach. Funny how different we are. I was totally comfortable with these kids. Now I will admit that there was some insanity involved. We had about 10 infants under one year of age and at one point a majority of them were crying but what are you going to do when you are completely outnumbered? We did the best we could. All that kept going through my head was the time that the children's ministry guy said "You never see the numbers come up on the screen because we are just that good." Apparently Ty and I weren't that good because he went and got a couple of the moms. Oh well, we did our best.

He is his father's child

Crabby john-john. Caleb gets his temperament from his father. He likes to have people around all the time and get him off his schedule and watch out (okay maybe that part is from me). But yeah, he slept from 8:15 last night until 6:45 this morning without a single peep. I think he was a sleepy little guy after our busy day yesterday.

Snow Day!

I love snow when I don't have to be out in it. It is crazy how much snow we have been getting this year and it sure looks pretty when everything is all white and clean looking. It doesn't take long however to get gray and sloppy looking from the cars and plows. I must say that I don't like having my Saturday evening plans thwarted however. I have had a somewhat mundane week so it would have been nice to get out and hang with friends and hopefully not hear about the "giving sermon" all night. Actually I'm not hearing about it which is a good thing.

Why is giving so hard for me? I love giving to friends and family especially time and gifts but the idea of giving more than my tithe to the church is difficult to swallow sometimes. Maybe I shouldn't be the one in our family to do the bills. Then I wouldn't think about it quite so much or maybe I just would be naive about it, not likely but maybe a good idea.

Case Solved

The culprit: 2 nasty teeth. Alas, the mystery is solved and somehow it makes everything better. When Caleb woke up every night for the past 5 nights, I felt something was wrong but I didn't know what and I had all kinds of theories. Then when I give up trying to figure it out, there they are, those nasty teeth pushing their way through those tender gums. It feels good to know that there has been a reason for the madness and we are not losing our sanity. Now I can help although for him the worst is probably over. Hallelujah!

5 nights in a row- Aaaarrrgghh

Imagine me saying that in a pirate voice. I am feeling a little slappy today. I am beyond the tired phases of crabby, barely functioning and mean now I have moved on to just plain strange. I pleaded with the Lord last night for some sleep but it was not to be so. The little Caleb man decided to be up again. I am out of theories and will now just take each night as it comes. We are heading up north to the cabin tonight and I will worry about whether he is waking everyone else up in the house but what is one to do? They're family, they'll have to deal with it.

On a brighter note, my husband is the sweetest man.

What to do???

I got a business proposal today. I have the opportunity to watch two other children. Still only in the morning for another teacher from the school where I was previously employed in my other life. The kids are twins (boy and girl) and the teacher is super sweet and would pay really reasonably. I wouldn't have them until February and there is a big break in Feb and March/Apr. And Bham gets out of school June 3, so it wouldn't even be that long but do I really want to watch 4 children?@*? Am I crazy to even consider? Ty did say that we could partially finish the basement and have a playroom/family room downstairs. That makes it really tempting just for that. Maybe it would get Ty off his video game/football watching butt(hee hee). Maybe I would get the doorknobs on my closet too, who knows. I'll be mulling this one over for a little while I think.

Grrr...

The maze of shelves. The endless array of boxes and cans. Dollar signs. Sale signs. Carts with crazy people. More crazy people. Long lines. Slow checkout personnel. Slower baggers. I can't stand the grocery store!

I am a Christian and most of the time I like people. But put me in a grocery store and I am put to the test. You see, I am on a mission. Get in, get food, save money, get out. Simple you would think, but people get in my way and it starts to take forever. And my patience wears thin very quickly. And I start saying lots of bad things in my head toward others. By the time I get into the car, I am frazzled. Who knew the craziness that could ensue from a Tuesday evening at Kroger!

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!

That is a happy sigh of relief. I so look forward to the holidays every year. Great food, lots of time spent with family and friends, and gifts to give and receive. But I must say I breathe a little easier when it is all over. I always seem to need a little recovery time after this so called "break". I have enjoyed all the parties and get-togethers (some more than others) and I love seeing everyone and celebrating Christmas and New Year's but I am now looking forward to getting back into my routine. Those of you that know me, know that I thrive on schedules and routines (apparently it's a first born curse). I become all out of sorts after some time of having Ty home, going to bed after midnight and driving all over the world. Not bad out of sorts, just unsettled. So, I'll probably regret this but I am looking forward to the normalcy and mundane in the month of January. Still trying to think of my faith resolutions for this year as well.

Oh and for all of you who I have told about blogging and who peep at mine but do not have your own, I think it is time for you in this new year to set aside your fears of blogging and JUST DO IT! You really don't need to have a lot of time and it isn't scary. I want to hear about your lives and thoughts in 2005. Come on, jump on the BlogWagon! Anyway, Happy New Year!