Not Me! Monday-Stellan Style

So, you may have seen my Not Me! Monday posts that were started by MckMama
. Not Me! Monday is a way for all of us to rid ourselves pf guilt as we confess all the things that we did not do the previous week. As you have read on here, her youngest, Stellan, is very, very sick. So, someone in the blog world has decided to start a Not Me! Monday-Stellan Style post to show our support for her and her family.

So, here's my post.

I did not obsessively check MckMama's blog and tweets on Twitter at lease 10 times a day in the hopes of an update.

I did not ask my husband over the phone to check MckMama's website while he was home for lunch and I was leaving Wal-Mart.

I did not stay in a constant prayer mode over a little boy and family that I have never actually met.

I did not give my own children more hugs and kisses last week because I was not thinking how blessed we are.

I did not end up in tears as I read MckMama's posts.

I did not use the word "pissed" in a reply post to her post about being that since I never use that word.

I did not have flashbacks from when Adriana was in the NICU and we were frustrated about her heart dips and fast breathing.

I did not immediately check my cell phone for tweets and become frustrated because I could not figure out how to get tweets to come through.

I did not have my sweet children pray for someone they do not know.

And, I certainly did not add his sweet face on the button to my blog.

Now that I have confessed my Stellan Not Me!, please go and have a quiet time of prayer for him.

Birthday weekend

This weekend, we surprised the children with a trip to the circus. We also took our mothers along as part of their birthday presents. (My mother's was Saturday, she turned 70, and my mother-in-law's is Wednesday, she will turn 79.)

We had done really well with keeping the circus a secret until the grandmothers descended upon us on Friday. They were talking about going to the circus, and Jonah heard them talking about it. When we picked the girls up from school, Jonah started saying, "We're going to the circus." He said this several times and one of the girls said that we weren't and asked me what he was talking about. So, we told them. They were so excited. Adriana kept on and on about how she had always wanted to go to the circus. And, she kept thanking me. I finally told her to thank Daddy, too, because he's the one working hard so we could go.

We had a wonderful time even though I was scared my mother was going to fall going down the steps. I had tried to get us handicap accessibility, but that turned into a nightmare, so I just got us regular seats. The people at the center were so nice afterward, though, and helped us get her on an elevator back up to the main floor.

It was a wonderful time, and everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves. Bruce kept saying he thought we had a great weekend as a family, and that was probably the best time we have had at an event like that. He even said he had not seen his mother laugh like that in a long, long time. And, the children really enjoyed it, of course. Jonah seemed the most entranced.

The girls asked for a toy after the show, but we convinced them not to get one. I have to say, they did well with that. No real breakdowns. Okay, I think Cara cried, but she got over it quickly. They did get popcorn and cotton candy before the show and I thought we were going to have to take out a small loan for that.

We went through a McDonald's drive-thru after the show, and I circled the drive-thru three times before I finally didn't pass the lanes. Everyone was laughing pretty hard, including myself. The drive-thru person put me on hold, and Bruce said she was probably calling the police about a suspicious driver. No one came after me, thankfully.



On Saturday, the children and I decorated a cake and had the grandmothers blow the candles out at the same time. We spent the whole day inside because of the rain, which ended up being a good thing because we were all tired from the night before.


My Mama and me

Sweet prayers

So, you all should by now know about baby Stellan, or have at least read my post about him. We have been trying to teach the children how to pray outside of the regular "canned" prayers. (You know, like "Now I lay me...")

The last couple of nights, the girls have asked what is the baby's name who has the heart problem as they have prayed. Cara last night was so sweet, she prayed, "Help Stellan's heart be well better."

So, that's it in a nutshell, we pray that Stellan's heart be "well better".

_______________________________

On the funny side, the other day Jonah was getting his haircut when I noticed a picture in the stylist's shop that was of a girl who was in a pageant.

Of course, that had Jonah saying something about Cara being in a pageant. The stylist said, "Was she beautiful?"

Jonah's reply, "No." True brother and sister relationship.

_______________________________

We are going to the circus tonight! We are taking both grandmothers and it is a surprise for the children. Of course the other day Cara said she wouldn't want to go to a circus because she didn't want to see the clowns go up high.

So, let's pray the clowns don't go up too high.

Please pray for Baby Stellan

Right now, pray that God will slow this little baby's heart down.

Okay, now that you have prayed I will give you a little background so you will know for whom you are praying.

I first found out about Stellan through Angie Smith's blog Bring the Rain.

Stellan is the youngest child of MckMama, who created Not Me! Mondays, and her husband. When she was pregnant with Stellan, they were told that he had an incurable heart condition that was incapable with life. Basically, if he made it to full term he would surely die. That was until as one of my seminary professors used to say one of his favorite Scriptures said, "But God..." God performed a miracle and Stellan was born healed and complete.

The poor little guy has had a rough time, though, with RSV earlier this winter and now this. His heart is starting to do what it did in the womb that made everyone think he wasn't going to survive. The doctors are trying, but they are not being successful in keeping his heart rate down.

They need another "But God" moment right now. If you feel inclined, Angie Smith has written a beautiful prayer on his behalf on her blog. Click here to access that prayer.

We serve a mighty God who, as a spiritual that is sung around here says, "He's brought (him) too far to ever leave (him)."

Beautiful weekend=tired kids

We had a beautiful weekend here and took full advantage of going outside and getting around. Friday, Adriana had an appointment to pick up new inserts for her shoes. She has to wear them because her vestibular (balance) system is out of whack. She tends to throw her feet out and turn her ankles in, so she wears these inserts.

I told the children that we would go to McDonald's after going there and Wal-Mart if they behaved. And, they could play on the playground there for a while. Bruce met us there, and we let them play for a little longer than we probably should have, but they had fun.

On Saturday, Bruce did his visiting in the morning while the children and I did a little straightening and cleaning around the house. After lunch, we went on a walk around town and to our local drugstore where they each got a treat. The girls used their own money and Cara even had exact change.

When we got home from the walk, the children and I stayed outside while Bruce worked a little on the inside. While the children were playing, I decided to take down the barriers for the flower beds that we never use.

From what I have been told, the previous owner loved to garden and he had the flowers and plants to prove it. He had some nice flower beds, but he had been deceased for five years before we bought the house, and we have had the house over 8 years now. We have not done anything with them since we bought the house, so you can imagine what the beds look like.

I have been thinking lately that we would have so much more room if those flower beds were gone.

The barriers were wood, kind of like railroad ties. Some of them had already started coming apart, so I started ripping them up. And, some of the plants with them. I also finished digging up the rocks that were in the middle of the yard where he had another flower bed.

Bruce even treated me to an early birthday present with a nice metal rake and shovel to help. And, he helped me for a little while. Now, I am eyeing a chainsaw to take some other things down.

On Sunday afternoon, the children and I were back outside after church. They stayed outside for a couple of hours and played "tour guide" in Adriana's little wagon that her Uncle Chris gave her when she turned one. Even Jonah was able to pull his sisters in it. That is one strong little boy!





And, I think he took spring cleaning a little too far.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Okay, I had fun doing this the first time, but I have been neglectful at doing it again. So, here goes with some of the things I have not done this week.

I absolutely did not struggle with my sweet seven-year old-on her homework this past week. I certainly did not struggle with her on a half day of school to the point that I made her miss choir practice because she was being uncooperative. And, this definitely was not the result of our own doing since we had been going nonstop since the prior week. She was not exhausted from all the running around.

I did not lie to my five-year-old over the weekend when I agreed with her that cleaning the bathroom was fun. And, I did not leave her and her sister to clean the bathroom on their own since they volunteered.

I did use a trip to McDonald's as a bribe for them to behave while we went to an appointment and then to Wal-Mart. What self-respecting mother would take her children to McDonald's anyway? Especially one of them two days in a row? I am glad that wasn't me.

I did not say a quick prayer that the all mayhem would not break loose at lunch yesterday after a patron at another table complimented me on how well behaved our children were. No, of course, they are always well behaved and know how to conduct themselves at the table.

I did not pull up the flower bed barriers in our backyard that the previous owner obviously painstakingly laid down many years ago. I did not leave it all in a pile in our backyard with no way to haul it all off. No, that would be an eyesore and not the way you would want your backyard to look.


I did not refuse to touch Adriana's new "pet", a locust that I did not dig up while I was not tearing up the flower beds. Any cool mother would absolutely touch the bug and show her children she is not afraid of anything. I am glad I did not refuse to touch it.

And, I most certainly did not worry that maybe said bug was not a locust after all and actually something that they should not be touching. No, I am not paranoid like that.

I did not take them all to Wal-Mart this week to purchase new helmets for bike riding after hearing of the death of Natasha Richardson. No, once again, I am not a paranoid parent.

I did not take a cue from MckMama and take pictures of Jonah when he was so tired and upset yesterday. I am so glad that I did not take those pictures to show him when he is older.



Whew! I am glad I did not do those things this week. How about you?

Pageant Highlights

For those who are my friends on Facebook, this is not news to you. Please don't think I am a bragging parent, I just need to update my blog. Okay, actually I am a bragging parent. Aren't we all?

Cara was in a pageant last week at her school. The pageant was used as a fund-raiser for Relay for Life. Adriana decided not to participate because she gets "stage fright".

A little background-when I was pregnant with Adriana, Bruce went with me to a pageant that I was covering for our local newspaper. After watching the little girls' reactions and how heartbroken some of them were when they did not win, we decided then that we would not enter our daughter (that we knew we were having at the time) or daughters in any pageants.

Now, don't get me wrong. I watched them growing up and dreamed of wearing a crown one day. (Yeah, I had big dreams.) I still watch an occasional pageant when I have the chance. And, I am definitely not passing judgment on parents who do put their children in them or those who have participated in the past, but we just did not feel like that would be something we could do.

So, what do I do one day when Cara (and Adriana at the time, but like I said, she changed her mind) came running out of school all excited about being in a pageant? I said, "We will talk to Daddy and see." (Now, this is the place where I am thinking, I know what he is going to say and it is going to be a big fat "No", and I will come off as not being the bad guy.)

What does Daddy say? Something like, "I guess." Huh? Around here that means Daddy just agreed to let the children do whatever they want. Once again, honey, we need to work on our cues.

In this pageant, the committee emphasized that parents should not go out and buy a special dress or clothes, and that the results would be based on an essay, classroom behavior and stage presence. Yes, even the five and under crowd had an essay. They drew a picture and then interpreted for the parents to write out.

The afternoon of the pageant, I told Cara that she may not win, but that didn't mean she wasn't beautiful, beauty comes from the inside as well as the outside, etc., etc. I told her just to have fun.

Her reply?

"I want to win. I want to win." (The week before when we went over this, she said if she didn't win, they could have another pageant the next week and then she could win.)

She then proceeded to tell me that she wanted to do another one. Uhm, still thinking about that one. Okay, no. Don't think so. My nerves can't take it.

She wore Adriana's flower girl dress from Bruce's nephew's wedding that was a couple of years ago and a slight touch of make-up because of the stage lighting.

She did great except her true personality did not come out on the stage.

The only time that I felt my heart sinking was when the names were called for those who had raised sponsorships for the pageant. We decided not to participate because it was optional and we just finished Girl Scout cookie sales. I felt like we would be hitting up the same people for money.

Those who raised extra money were given a special plaque and Cara looked like she was going to cry because she didn't get a plaque. Right after that, though, her name was called as the runner-up for her age group! (Each group had a winner and one runner-up.) Hopefully, this will do her for the pageant circuit.

And, no, I did not wear her crown around the house later regardless what anyone else says.

A three-year-old's theology

Jonah and I were running some errands today when he made some very interesting comments. Of course at the time, I thought about blogging them, but now that I am doing it I cannot remember the conversation verbatim. I am going to give it my best try.

Jonah said something about God and church.

"Mom, why do we go to church?"

"Well, we go to church to worship and praise God."

"God's not at church."

"He's there. We just can't see him."

"God's not at church sometimes."

I paused and really thought about what he had just said.

"Well, Jonah, I think God doesn't show up sometimes at some churches because he doesn't feel very invited and that's why we need to make sure we ask him to show up."

Picnic

We are having some beautiful weather here and the children were able to spend a good amount of time outside with Daddy this weekend while I finished storing the rest of the Christmas decorations that were in the living room.

I did take a couple of breaks to see how they were doing outside. The children got hungry after being outside for a little while. They were hungry mostly because they did not eat their lunch. I decided to save their lunch for dinner since they had not finished it, so when Adriana came in asking for a sandwich for a picnic, I told her, "No." I did say they could have their spaghetti from lunch, and she agreed. So, they had spaghetti for their picnic along with a few Girl Scout cookies.

Of course, I snapped a few pictures to remember the first picnic of the year.

Cool kids' cute sayings

Yes, now is the time for another round of Cool kids' cute sayings. Or is it cute Cool kids' sayings? Anyway, here we go.

The other day at Girl Scouts I was helping with a game where the girls tossed a ball around and would say their name and then something they were good at doing. Eventually the ball came to me and I paused while I tried to think of something to say. Adriana tried to help me out by saying, "She's good at washing the dishes." Hmm, I guess I have her fooled.

Cara and I were singing a song out of Adriana's children's choir musical last night. (Notice I said just Adriana. Cara decided to drop out of choir this time.) We were singing away when I noticed what Cara was actually singing.

"No, no, no, no one, no, no, no, no one but Jesus gives a turtle life."

Jonah went with me to the doctor yesterday for a recheck from the stuff I had a couple of weeks ago. When the doctor came in the examining room, she was asking Jonah a bunch of questions. She asked if he had any brothers or sisters, and he told her he had two sisters, Cawa and Adriana. (He seems to pronounce the "r" fine on Adriana's name.) She asked him if his sisters are nice to him. He said, "Cawa isn't sometimes."

10 years ago today

Ten years ago today my world was forever altered as my father died unexpectedly. We think he had a heart attack. He died while he was cutting the grass at my grandmother's. As Bruce said earlier, obviously the weather was a lot different 10 years ago. (It is snowing as I type this.)

I remember getting the phone call to get to my grandmother's and figuring out on the way that he had probably died even though no one had told me yet. I never felt more alone than I did during that time period. I had family and friends who supported me and were there for me, but I still felt alone. I knew Jesus was there for me, but I still felt alone. I felt helpless.

I remember several years before when my grandfather died seeing my mother through different eyes. I remember all of a sudden she looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders and I didn't understand why. When Daddy died, I realized what she went through.

Almost four years after Daddy died, I stood with my husband as my father-in-law drew his last breaths. I remember that night that Bruce said he couldn't believe what had just happened. I remember telling him, yes, and one day you will wake up and four years will have passed by. Now, for him six years have passed and here I sit with 10 gone by. Still doesn't seem real some days.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't dwell on his death. I don't mourn too much anymore. I do hate the fact that my children do not have a living grandfather and will never have the memories I had with my grandfather. I remember how my father was with my nephew and nieces and I know he would have loved them and enjoyed them. I wish he could have met them and see the person I have become. I wish he could have known Bruce and know that his little girl is the happiest that I have ever been in my life.

I hope and pray that one day I get to see him again and let him know all that.