{what's in a name?}

Let's take a moment and gaze at the wonderful chubby cheeks on this precious newborns face.....

Ok, now for the purpose behind this post.

After almost 6 years, my precious son fulfilled his name this past Sunday in children's church.

I'm sure you're asking exactly how he fulfilled his name and if you'll keep your pants on for a second I'll tell ya.

About 2 months before Eli was born, my younger brother, Tim, and his sweet wife, Sarah, welcomed their beautiful daughter, Amelia Jameson, into the world. Now, my dad's name is James and Sarah's dad's name is also James, so I knew there was a possibility that Tim and Sarah would use the name James in some fashion for their baby. We were also thinking of using James for Eli's middle name, but nothing was set in stone. So, when Tim and Sarah named Amelia, we were on the hunt for a middle name for our sweet boy. I began asking God to show me what to name our son.

At the time, our SS class was reading/studying The Purpose Driven Life. Every morning I sat in Eli's room and read and pray. One morning the reading was talking about friendship and how we all need people in our lives who will uplift us and we need to be that type of friend also. It gave the example of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms during the Israelites battle w/the Amalekites. I thought that was interesting so I looked up the passage in my Bible.

In the story, the Amalekites had attacked the Israelites so Moses told Joshua to choose some of his strongest men to go out and fight the Amalekites. While they were fighting, Moses stood on top of a hill with his arms raised. As long as Moses' arm were in the air, the Israelites were defeating the Amalekites, but if his arms fell the Amalekites overtook the Israelites. Aaron and Hur were w/Moses, so they got a rock for Moses to sit on and they each held up one of Moses' arms. The Israelites defeated the Amalekites!

I loved the idea of being the type of friend who lifts others when they can no long go on on their own. So, I began praying about the name Aaron as a middle name for my son. I prayed about it for several days before talking to Rich about it b/c naming a child is a big deal and I wanted Eli to have godly name that meant something.

A few days later I approached Rich w/the name in my heart and the book in my hand. I began by telling him the story of the Israelites defeating the Amalekites, then I went to The Purpose Driven Life book to show him. Well, I could not find the little blurb I'd read just days earlier. I ended up reading the entire book again and still couldn't find it. I took that as a sign from God that He wanted Eli's middle name to be Aaron.

Fast forward almost 6 years to last Sunday. To illustrate the story of the Israelites defeating the Amalekites, Pastor Joy brought kids up to play the parts of the key characters in the story. My bff, Jean, just happened to be in children's church Sunday and was able to snap a few pictures w/her phone. Her son, Brock, was the rock Moses sat on and her sweet Luke was Joshua. And...you guessed it...Eli was Aaron!

I excited to see what great things God has in store for my boy's future. I pray he has many more chances to lift others up in the name of Jesus.

{another miracle}

Quite a few years ago...28 years to be exact...my dad was in a horrible car accident on the day I started 1st grade. My dad was 33 yrs old when he had the accident and his entire life was turned upside down. My 4yr old little brother, Tim, was in the car w/dad.



God totally saved their lives that day.



My dad suffered some sort of seizure and as Tim later told my mom, "dad laid down in the seat and stared at the radio". When the car came to rest in a cornfield, Tim was basically unharmed and Dad was a broken, bloody mess.



He suffered a broken pelvis, broken jaw, broken ankle and an unbelievable amount of blood loss. Dad technically died 3 times that day...his heart stopped at the scene of the accident, on the way to the hospital and on the operating table.



God totally saved his life that day.



Dad's ankle was a mess. In the accident, the floorboard wrapped around his foot and literally twisted his foot almost off. He was wearing a pair of cowboy boots which saved his foot from being ripped off. His ankle bone what sticking out the side of the boot...unbelievable. Dad was told he would never walk again, but he did.



God totally healed him over the following few months.



Needless to say, Dad has had trouble with his ankle/foot since the accident. About 2 years ago, the pain had started to get so bad that there were time he could hardly walk and his ankle would give out on him. It was very scary to watch. So about a year and a half ago he had surgery to fuse his ankle. He had been in more pain since the surgery, so he went to see his orthopedic surgeon in June. After doing an mri, the dr explained to my parents that the surgery done in April 2008 was not successful. There was raw bone and exposed joint where there should have been complete fusion of his ankle. So another surgery was schedule for Oct 16th.



On that Friday, Dad was prepped for surgery and prepared to be laid up for the next 18 weeks. The surgeon visited w/Mom and Dad before surgery to explain again what he planned to do. He would take a bone graft from dad's hip to complete the fusion process, insert at least 2 screws to stabilize everything and sorta clean up anything he saw. The surgeon said he hoped to be finished in 90 minutes.

Almost 2 hours later, mom and I were called in to meet with the surgeon. He walked into the room and sat down across from us. Let out a long sigh and said "it's great news".

Once he got into my dad's foot, he found that the ankle was completely fused. He even said it was "solid as a rock". He did not have to do the bone graft. He did not have to insert any screws. Dad does not have to be in a cast. Dad will not be laid up for 18 weeks.

Mom and I sat there dumbfounded. We kept asking him about the bone graft...no bone graft. We kept asking him about the screws...no screws.

God totally fused my Dad's ankle!

{bruised teeth}

Several weeks ago, Eli fell and smacked his face on the ground. His two front teeth bled and were loose, but no major damage seemed to have been done. Thank goodness!

Well, a few days ago, I noticed that both teeth, but one more so than the other, had started to turn a funky color. Off to the dentist we went.

They took an xray. There is no damage to the roots and the teeth look just fine. They told me that just like w/any other part of our bodies, teeth can bruise. Who knew?!

The dr said the discoloring may fade and it may not. How's that for helpful? Seriously. They want to see him back for another xray in a month. I'm just praying that his little, baby teeth don't turn black or something gross like that. They're already a tad on the bucky side...we do not need our son to look like a buck-toothed hillbilly. Bless his heart.

{mini-update}

So much has happened since my last post, but thankfully it hasn't been me finding more gray hairs!

We're all moved in to our new, wonderful house...not quite settled, but that doesn't matter at this point. We're out of the middle of the city and we all love it here! God has blessed our family so much with this new home...I'm so thankful! My kids are loving school and making great new friends. I've enjoyed not hearing sirens and helicopters and strange people yelling at all times of the day. Central heat is also a new one for us! ;)

I'm in the process of transferring all my pictures onto a new external hard-drive so I can show y'all my new house. Actually the transferring is my boyfriends job...I just tell him what I want transferred!

Internet access has been a bit of a pain in the keester. Who knew moving 15 miles west of town would put us out of reach of the major internet providers? Seriously, some people out here are still on dial-up...I'd die! We're finally connected, but w/a much slower speed than we're used to and there have been a few glitches that aren't quite worked out.

Check back soon...getting pictures of our new house are on my list of things to do this week.

{what is this nonsense?}

Yesterday, Sept 3rd, 2009, 15 days before my 35th birthday, I spotted the first tiny strand of oddly textured and foreign colored hair on my head. I simply could not believe that it was there...daring to show its taunting self amid my glorious muddy-hued locks. I mean, really, what did I do to deserve such a rude, premature arrival?

I'm actually quite surprised by my reaction to this new visitor. In all reality, he's been there quite some time since almost the entire 5" strand had been affected. Jerk! I was always certain that I would just accept my aging as it came and deal with it gracefully. Well, I've changed my mind! I'm not sure yet how I'll rectify this situation, but I can assure you that it will be rectified soon.

Oh and for all you "train wreck" watching, misery-of-others lovin' folks, pictures of my nemesis will not be seen on this blog...EVER! And for my real-life friends, I'm not discussing this issue.

{talk about an uncomfortable greeting...}

After 8 years, we're closing the door, literally, on a chapter of our lives. Thursday I dropped my keys off at the house. I left the new owner a card telling him that the house had been a wonderful home for our family and that we pray he will be blessed there as well. I took one final, sobbing walk through the house, through each room...remembering good times and thanking God for His protection and provision through the years.

As I was closing the door for the last time I turned to tell our old house one last goodbye...with tears streaming down my face. I knew this would be an emotional time, but I had no idea that final goodbye would be so tear-filled. I had planned to walk across the street to tell my sweet neighbor, Sara, goodbye, but I was a blothcy mess that no one needs to see...gracious sakes! So, with tears still pouring out of my eyes, I turned to shut the door and escape to my car where I could cry some more as I drove away. No such luck.

There was a man standing on the sidewalk looking at me like I was crazy. Just to prove that the sobbing woman in front of him wasn't a nut-case, I straightened my shoulders and said hello in the cheeriest of voices. He continued to look at me with a very puzzled expression, so I asked if he was Steven...the "new" owner of our house, to which he replied yes. I told him who I was and that I was just dropping off my keys. He's seemed to relax a little. I then proceeded to turn into a blubbering fool before his very eyes...yes, I'm that cool! I apologized all over myself as the tears kept pouring all while trying to reassure him that I wasn't a whack-job...not too sure if I succeeded in that one.

Anyway, we talked for about 30 minutes until his realtor showed up. He told me some of the plans he has for the house and asked me what all we did to the house. He really seems like a nice kid and I pray he's as happy and blessed there as our family was.

Goodbye old house...we'll miss you!

{laundry, laundry, laundry}

Jenny at Zach's Gang is hosting her very own blog carnival today...Thursday's Top Tips. Head on over to her blog, check out all the amazing tips and be sure to give her some bloggy love.

Now, here's my tip...it's kinda dirty! ;)

In an attempt to #1-make life a little easier for ME and #2-instill a little more responsibility into my children, I've changed the way I do our families laundry.

My old method of doing laundry consisted of everyone bringing their hampers into the bathroom on laundry day and I sorted all the laundry by color and a little bit by type(jeans, school uniforms, etc), then the gigantic task of LAUNDRY DAY began. {did you just hear me say LAUNDRY DAY in the big, scary voice of the blue blob on Monsters vs Aliens when he says "SUUUUU-SAAAANNN" b/c that's how it's supposed to sound?!} Once the clothes came out of the dryer, the basket was taken to my bed and dumped out to sort all the clothes into each persons pile and then was folded and put away. Now, please don't think that all of this happened in one day. I'd hate for you to think I'm perfect! More often than not, the clothes sat in the dryer so long that the dryer could have easily been called a "dresser" or I forgot a load of clothes in the washer for a day or maybe two and had to rewash it...cuz that's how I roll people.

When we decided to homeschool last year, I knew some of the household chores would have to be changed up a bit and laundry was the first to hit my radar. Thus was born my new and greatly love method of doing laundry. It's quite simple and hopefully will help you and your family.

Step 1---cut a hole in the box...oh wait, this isn't SNL nor is it a Christmas gift. Let me start over!

Step 1-have each child deliver their hamper to the laundry room
Step 2-turn the water temp on the washer to cold/cold
Step 3-start washer and add detergent
Step 4-dump entire contents of child's hamper into washer, close the lid and walk away
Step 5-put entire load of clothes into dryer
Step 6-put all clothes into basket and call for child
Step 7-hand basket of clean clothes to child w/instructions to put them away neatly in their room

That's it! This has really made doing laundry and the task of putting it all away so much easier on our whole family. I do help Eli fold some of his, but Emma is on her own.

I'd love to hear if you try this w/your family and how it works.