Ten Years

So tomorrow marks the 1oth anniversary of 9/11. It's doesn't seem like it was that long ago. How fast time has passed. I'm sure for the families that were tragically affected by the events that day the time has not gone that quickly. I'm sure that they have been aware of every day that has gone by that they don't have their loved one with them anymore.

So to answer the question of "Where were you when..."

I was 16. At home, just finished breakfast and getting ready for the day. About to do my schoolwork for the day. (I was home schooled) My mom called to me to come and see what was on the TV. At this point my story is much like so many others. Just watching what was going on, with the same questions that everyone else had.

Somewhere in the craziness going on in my head, I felt urged to pray for my future spouse. I laughed at myself! Now where did THAT come from? How would I, a girl from Texas, ever marry a guy from New York?! I had never even been more than a state or two away from Texas. Silly me! But I followed my heart and prayed for my future spouse. For whatever he would be needing for at that time, wherever he might be. I felt a little silly, and didn't tell anyone. I didn't really think about it after that day.

Two years later I meet my future spouse, Tony. And one day I remembered that crazy thought years earlier to pray for my future spouse on September 11, 2001. So...where was my future spouse on that day,when the planes flew into the buildings...when I prayed for him? On a train in New York City...planning to visit the twin towers later that day.

What I thought was something silly, was actually the Holy Spirit. And this Texas girl didn't marry a guy from NYC...but he was visiting!

I still get chills when I think about it today. I'm so grateful that he and his family was safe that day! But if they had visited the towers a littler earlier, my life today would be completely different. Although I would have no idea, because I had never met him! Just thinking about that makes my brain hurt. lol! What I can say is, it's awesome to see how God is in complete control of the smallest details of our lives. And sometimes the Holy Spirit can sound silly to you. :o)

So...what's your 9/11 memories?

MAY WE NEVER FORGET.

I've Been Busy...

As usual it's been longer than I would like since I last blogged. However, this time I feel like I have a good excuse. I've been busy. Here's an overview of what has been keeping me from spending more than a few minutes at a time on the computer.

On July 6th, Baby girl #3 joined our family. Savannah Juliet was born at 3:59 AM, and was 6lbs, 8oz. 19in long. I was induced with both of the other girls, and really wanted to experience what it was like to go into labor on my own. I was about to give up on that, as I was told at my 39 week check up that I still wasn't really making any progress in that direction. I was very disappointed, as I was more than ready for her to be here. However I was also measuring smaller than I did at my previous appt, so after a quick sonogram, they discovered that my fluid was low. The Dr came in and said
"Congratulations, you're having a baby tonight!"
Me: "uuhhh, ok. Can I go home and get my husband and bag?"
Dr. "No. You have to go be admitted right away."
I think I had a dazed look on my face, because the Doctors and nurses kept asking me if I was ok. Ha ha!
Induced again. I'm totally convinced that my body does not know how to go into labor on it's own.

Everything went fine, and about 12 hours later Savannah was here. I did learn one thing...you can go from only being dilated to a 5, to holding your baby in your arms in less than 30 min. Surprise! :o) Savannah was over 1lb smaller than her sisters were at birth, so it was so fun to have such a tiny newborn!
She is a super good, happy baby. She is 9 weeks old now, and has been sleeping through the night since she was about 4 or 5 weeks old. Her big sisters adore her, and are huge helps to me.

Since she is the 3rd baby, and 3rd girl, things have been pretty easy for me. I am however using cloth diapers for her. That has been a new adventure, and one that I am finding is more fun than I thought it would be! I wish I had started doing it 2 babies ago...but I didn't. I'm loving how much money we are saving! I had decided to CD before she was born, but all the diapers that I had bought were WAY too big for a tiny newborn. So I used disposable for the first 3 weeks until I got smaller diapers. We used $100 in diapers in just 3 weeks. YIKES! That made me feel good about our decision to CD, and made me feel better about the initial investment of buying the cloth. More on this adventure later. :o)

Natalie is officially in Kindergarten! We decided to home school her this year. Hawaii schools are not so good, and she was already way ahead of what she would be learning at school. So that has been keeping me busy as well. We have recently joined a local home school group and will be doing a co-op twice a month. Fun!

Natalie and Gabbie have been taking swimming lessons all summer. Two weeks every month from June-Sept we walk down to the pool in our neighborhood for lessons. They are having a blast and learning a LOT. They have one session left for this summer. Then hopefully Savannah will be big enough that I can keep taking them to the pool so they can practice and keep up the skills that they have learned.

AWANA has started back up. I now have one in Cubbies and one in Sparks! How am I old enough to have one in Sparks??! I am helping out with the high school group again also. That keeps my Sundays full.

Tony's mom was able to come and visit right before, and right after Savannah was born. We always enjoy her visits! We are planning a trip back home to Texas to visit my family at the end of September. We are super excited! At that point it will be a year and a half since seeing any of my family, or being off this beautiful little rock in the middle of the ocean. I am not looking forward to the 8 hour flight (12+ hours of travel time, AND 5 hours time difference) with a baby and 2 little ones...but it will be worth it. :o)

Well, this is a small overview of what I have been up to these last couple of months. Trust me, it feels crazier than it sounds. My days are filled with laundry, dishes, nursing, feeding the other girls, cleaning up messes, cooking, cleaning again and more laundry. I have such a glamorous exciting life, don't I ? :0)


Her very first bath...she wasn't a fan!
My 3 girls.

Savannah on Left, Natalie on right. I feel like I am repeating myself...

The Logic of My Children

The other day we were in the car and the girls were talking to each other as usual. I Don't always listen to what they are saying, but I happened to tune in just as Gabbie said something about mommy's work. (We had just passed the building where Daddy works.) The rest of the conversation went like this:

Natalie to Gabbie: "No honey, Mommy can't work, she doesn't have any work clothes!"

Me: "Mommy still works, what is my job?"

Natalie: "No you don't!"

Me: "Yes, I do. My job is to stay at home with you and Gabbie so I can take care of you. Who would take care of you if Mommy wasn't there?"

Gabbie: "GOD!"

Now I get to explain that God does take care of them, but they still need Mommy for other things. God can do all things...but I have yet to see Him make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Is It Really For the Best?

I'd like to post about something that I feel very strongly about. Not everyone agrees with me. In fact, a lot of people don't. That's ok. This is my side.

We are preparing to take a trip in late September. We will be flying. So this has gotten us to thinking about all the new TSA security screenings that are in place since the last time we flew, almost exactly a year ago. As parents, we have to decide what we are willing to let our little girls go through.

Now, before you give me the whole " you don't agree with it, don't fly" bit...I'll stop you before you wast your breath. We live on a rock in the middle of the ocean. To go to any land farther than 40 miles away, we HAVE to fly. Period. So flying is the only way that we will get to Texas. And besides, if we "boycott" flying because of the security invasions I don't think it will do any good. The airlines will think that people are not flying because of the economy or high fuel costs.

So, now that we have established that we have no choice other than to fly we have to decide. Will we let our children be exposed to excess, unnecessary radiation? Get touched
inappropriately?

They have recently come out with research that is saying that the radiation levels are up to 10x higher than they originally though! (and reported, of course!) Now, will a person be harmed through one trip through the machine? Probably not. Multiple trips...possibly. Would you go get an x-ray frequently without a thought to the side effects? Most people would probably say no. Radiation aside, would you let someone, a stranger, see a picture of you or your child without any clothes on?? For me, that answer is HECK no!

So that brings us to "opt out". So our other option is to get the "rub down" Ok, is this done by women TSA workers to women passengers? No. I have heard stories of women passengers having to request that the person that gropes them be a female.

What about our children? As parents, we stress to them that no one is allowed to touch them in certain places. How do we explain standing there holding them down while we the parents allow a stranger touch them where they shouldn't be touched? They don't even get touched like that at a checkup at the Doctor! What about children, or even adults that have been abused in the past? Should they have to go through this? You can look on YouTube and see videos of children screaming "don't touch me" as the TSA agent rubs them down. It's heartbreaking.
A TSA agent was recently arrested for rape and sexual assault. Of a minor. Did this happen at the airport? Of course not. Did parents going through the screening line know that a pedophile was touching their children?! NO! Now we don't know whether this guy has liked touching children all along and was able to do it with the government's approval in the name of safety, or perhaps he decided he liked it after he got to do it all day long? Who knows. But for me it doesn't make any difference.

My husband is just one of the thousands that is making sacrifices to keep our country free. Many have sacrificed to their death! I feel that the people that are fine with sacrificing their privacy for the sake of "safety" are just spitting in the faces of all that have made, and are making these sacrifices. They are saying, "no thanks". We don't really want to be free, we would rather have the government run every aspect of our lives. We would rather be sacred of the terrorists. Well, you know what?? The terrorists have already won!! If we are too scared to fly without putting ourselves and our children through this, then we may as will just give them the victory right now. Their goal is to terrorize. Make us scared. They have succeeded. We would rather be treated like we are criminals and put ourselves and our children through something that if it were done outside of an airport would be ILLEGAL! Just so we can feel safe. We aren't really any safer. We have just made the terrorists very happy.

How far are the American people willing to go? What are we willing to give up for the name of safety? The right to go where we want, when we want? What we let the government do to our bodies, or the bodies of our children? All the while saying" It's ok, I like to know that I'm safe." This is just the first step I believe. For now the government is "keeping you safe" from terrorists...what will keep us safe from the government when they decide that they must do even more to take over our lives??

What are your thoughts on this?

11 Steps to Becoming a Parent...

I stole this from a friend on Facebook. I wanted to pass it on!

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!