My big girl

We keep looking at Natalie and wondering where the baby went? She is speaking more and more everyday. We moved her from her crib last week because she was too long and kept waking up all the time. She has slept much better in the toddler bed. That may be because she is no longer taking medicine she is allergic to, but we'll say it's the new bed. :-) Natalie is still itchy, but she is doing better. Anyways, here are a couple recent pictures. I have a bunch of stuff to say, but it's forming in my head, so I'll write more later this week.

Doctor says

Ear infection + amoxicillin + Natalie =






So, nothing in the penicillin family and round the clock benadryl for this baby...

being cynical

I have been praying this month. On a regular basis I have asked God to help me be less cynical. I enjoy being sarcastic. Somewhere along the lines this has turned into cynicism. It's not a characteristic I recognized in myself. However, it has been pointed out to me on a regular basis, by well meaning sarcastic people. When I realized this about myself, I prayed. I wanted to be less cynical. I believed that cynical is one step away from critical. I don't want to become the person that criticizes and critiques everything I see anyone else doing. I don't like that person. Oops, I mean I would like to not be that person. So in my praying and searching I had the fabulous idea of looking up the definition of cynical. It is "Believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others" or another definition is " a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view". After reading the definitions and the Bible, I'm wondering aloud, is it bad to be cynical? I mean Jesus had to come because we are selfish and flawed people. If any of us are only motivated by human actions we can be nothing but selfish. Spirit filled actions are different. They are the antonym of selfish. Those actions are filled by love. Love is not selfish. Love listens. It's motive is only to love unconditionally. I am becoming more okay with cynicism if it is spirit led. My prayer has changed. I'm praying for discernment and wisdom. If someone is motivated purely by themselves, I'm praying to see it. We all should be. Nothing good comes from us. God is good. We are fallen, broken, bleeding, hurt people. We are so incapable of helping ourselves; how can I possibly help anyone else on my own? I'm praying to be spirit led. To walk with God. To radiate unconditional love to those He brings into my path. I might hang on to the sarcasm though. I think it is a God given creativity to force people to see the world differently, hopefully while they are laughing. If you just sneered at me, you too my friend might be cynical. The question then is this, do I want to hang on to my sarcasm out of spirit led reasons or fleshly ones? This my friend will be the question.

This makes my heart happy

When I was little, Monk-Monk went with me everywhere. My family can recall exactly what he looks like. My college roommates mocked him and my Iowa friends said he is scary. And, well, he is old, but he is still my favorite. When my mom was at the hospital having DJ, my grandma and I were performing "surgery" on Monk-Monk. This is one of my first memories. He needed more stuffing, poor monkey was falling apart. This monkey has a special place in my heart. After Natalie was born DJ and Sarah went in search of a monkey for her. They found one and I loved it. But, I decided to let her choose her own favoirte toy. For months now she has played with everything, and not had any particular favorite. That all changed this week. Suddenly Monkey did what Monkeys do and he won out over all the other toys. He now must accompany her around the house. We feed him and kiss him. Most importantly, Monkey is by her side in her crib. For this very moment I am so happy he has won. Natalie does not look a thing like me, but it's nice to know my quirky behavior is somewhere tucked inside her.

Life with Chris

I'm sorry it's been a week since I've written. Things here have been quite busy. It's been more difficult then I thought it would be to get used to working again. Natalie is loving day care. She is Miss Independent.

Chris, my do everything in a big way husband, decided it would be fun to go the ER yesterday. Now for those of you who know him, his body is weird. I mean that literally. When he was in high school, he was sent to the ER with chest pains, stomach pains, and his left arm was tingling. He thought he was having a heart attack. A long story later, his family doctor discovered he had strep. Apparently some "rare" individuals show these symptoms to strep rather then having a sore throat. Because of his rarity, I tend to not have much sympathy for him when he is sick. So fast forward to Wednesday of this week, when he comes home complaining of mid to low back pain. He is walking like an old man imitating John Wayne. He was nauseous and had a fever. By yesterday morning he thought he was better. But, by early afternoon, he had a bad headache, along with a backache, and a fever now to 103.1 So, we go to an urgent care since neither of us have bothered to get primary care doctors yet. They are immediately concerned about his kidneys. Now, I'm getting more sympathetic. Kidney stones made my dad cry. I've seen him cry twice. They do some test and the nurse practitioner comes back in the room and says, "I'm sending you to the ER". My stomach sank. My growing sympathy turned to genuine concern. So off we go. Of course, we wait forever in the ER. We sat in the post triage waiting room with half a dozen other people, including one ADHD kid with a head injury from a car wreck. Then they bring in a nice lady in a wheel chair. Right after they parked her, she starts throwing up everywhere. The triage nurse says, "Get some help in here." I jump up. One- I don't deal with throw up well, Two, I'm the only one in the room who does not currently have a broken foot, headache, or ADHD. Surely I can get help. I step out of the room and look at three nurses behind the station and say, "uh, we need some help in there." They all stare at me. Nothing. Finally one says in a very condescending manner, "who needs help?" I didn't have time to be social worky on them and explain that it doesn't matter who they should jump simply at the words help. So I simply said in my best non sarcastic, your going to treat my husband so I'll be nice voice, "There is a lady throwing up and can't stand and the triage lady asked me to get some help." Ahhh, the magic words, they got up and ran in. Log into memory, people run in an ER when the words "triage nurse needs help" are stated. Anyways, now we are in the hallway with our ADHD child. Even more fun. Finally after one and half episodes of Charmed, we get called back. Chris who is still walking like John Wayne just really wants to lay down. He does for a second, then moves to the recliner. Another thirty minutes later, the doctor comes in. He looks at Chris, talks for a while, and is also concerned about his kidneys or gallbladder. He decides to run a few test and look Chris over really well. So he does find something. It doesn't fit with any symptoms and all the test came back normal. My husband, the one with severe back pain and horrible headache. Yeah, he has an ear infection. And, no, his ear does not hurt.

Moral of the story is, if any of you are ever around Chris and he complains that his toe is hurting him. Please start CPR. I'm certain he'll be having a heart attack.

New video

Here is another video of Natalie. I know a couple of people had some trouble opening the last one. It should open in Windows Media Player. I don't know enough about this stuff to tell anyone how to open it another way. But, many of you say the last one and while we have a free subscription, I'm going to use it. :-)
praying 1.wmv
We have a super busy weekend coming, but I'll fill everyone in on life after we get back. Have a great weekend and enjoy this video.