06-14-15 Thank You, Pastor and Diana

This evening was the retirement celebration for Pastor Wagner and Diana. It has been a privilege to be a part of this church community and be under his leadership for a good portion of my life. 

So to Pastor and Diana, thank you so much for the time, energy, and prayers that you invested into us. We are grateful for the way you pointed us towards Christ by your words and deeds! We love you!

Tim and I put together three few videos for the service. One of them didn't play because we ran out of time, but I thought I'd post the links to all three if anyone wants to watch them.

TEACHING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMg-g0VZFA

IMPACT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZJKTFUd_oI

THANK YOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nroaS9hofFY

06-13-15 I'm officially obsessed with my toes...

So I'm obsessed with my toes! I know, you are probably thinking "enough with the toes already!" But really, they look freakish. Just stick me between the bearded lady and the monkeys riding unicycles. 

Actually today was the first day that I thought they started to look a little better. The purple was turning back to red and the swelling wasn't as bad.

That was until the incident.

Dun. Dun. Dunnnn...

I went grocery shopping this evening with my sister, C and baby E. While we were walking down the frozen food aisle I was looking at packages of sweet and sour chicken when apparently C started twirling. She was twirling so much that she lost her balance and her shoe landed full weight, in motion on my swollen toes. That's right, 37 pounds (plus momentum) smashed/scraped across my toes. 

If you were in Safeway tonight and heard a scream and then pathetic whimpering coming from the frozen pizza aisle, that was me. So much pain. I had to sit on the floor in the middle of the grocery store, waiting for the pain to ease up enough to stand. Almost instantly my toes swelled back up and turned dark purple. *sigh* 

Poor C felt horrible about what happened and by the time we got home, she said the most heartfelt apology I have ever heard from her. I hugged her and told her I forgave her and then reminded her for the 100th time in four days to be very careful around mommy's feet!

Right about now I am ready to invest in some steel toed boots! I can only get my feet into flip flops at the moment, and they don't provide any protection. 

So tonight you get to see a picture of my toes. But first a picture of Baby E. (The blogger app automatically chooses the first picture to display with the link, and I want to spare you having my puffy toes on your news feed!)

Have I ever mentioned that I hate feet? I think they are absolutely gross. In fact, I only like six feet in the whole world and they all belong to my children! 

Remember my purple pedicure on girls day? It's gonna have to last awhile cause no one is getting near these feet!

Please pray that my foot heals quickly and that there are no more mishaps! Thank you!

06-12-15 At least it is Friday

Here is another picture of my baby... Instead of my toes... Cause seriously they look like they are gonna explode! The purple turned to dark purple today and naturally I freaked out. I called my doctor and she told me that 'dark purple' is ok but 'black' is very bad. If my toes turn black I need to go to the ER immediately. So tonight I am sitting on my couch with my foot propped up feeling very grateful for "dark purple!"

Fortunately the infection hasn't spread. It's still very hard to walk. Tonight it has started to itch. I'm hoping that's a sign of healing. 

Thanks for the prayers,

06-11-15 A bad week for toes...

So the night that Charlotte scraped up her toe, my foot started itching. It wasn't bad and I figured that I must have gotten a mosquito bite. When I woke up yesterday it started itching more and throughout the day it increased. By nighttime, it was beginning to hurt and get swollen. When I woke up this morning it was even worse. During the day the swelling continued. My toes were hot to the touch and it got to the point that I could not bend them. They were starting to go numb! I took some ibuprofen and after a couple of hours the swelling started to subside, and the red started morphing into purple. When I got to the doctors office at 4 pm I could move my toes again and the pain was going away. (And in my true graceful fashion, I proceeded to accidently ram my toes into the leg of a chair) So much pain!!! By the time the doctor saw me, I had fought back the tears and explained everything that had happened. She asked me a bunch of questions and seemed surprised that my toes had gotten that bad in less than two days. She said it is definitely an infection and my body is trying to fight it off, hence the purple hue. She prescribed a strong oral antibiotic and a steroid cream for the area. She said it was good I came in because it likely would have spread. She couldn't determine the source, but said it could have been reaction to a bug bite or any number of other infections.

So now I am home. My toes are swollen again, but I've taken ibuprofen and my first dose of medicine. She said within 24 hours the swelling should be down. I sure hope so as this is pretty painful! Pray that this heals quickly and doesn't get worse. 

Instead of showing you pictures of my swollen toes, I will end this post in a cheery note! Baby E is working on his sitting skills!

I did say "working on" not "mastering!"

06-10-15 Want to see a gross toe?

C and E were running around outside last night when C tripped and fell. She got a pretty bad scrape on her knee and hurt her toe. I cleaned and bandaged them and she went to bed. When she got up this morning it wasn't looking too good. The toe had been oozing and the skin looked pretty damaged. I cleaned it and rebandaged it and proceeded to obsess about it all day. I decided to take her to the doctor just to make sure it was ok. 

After a short wait the doctor came in and took a look at it.

She said that "the skin was reattaching nicely." I'm pretty sure I felt a shiver down my spine with that phrase! (I don't do well with other people's blood or injuries!) she didn't want to risk introducing an infection by stitching it, so she prescribed an antibacterial cream that I need to apply three times a day. Yay...

So here's to praying that the wound heals clean and quick!

06-09-15 Lovely Surprise

I got home this evening to a lovely surprise... A landscaped front yard! My mother in law dropped by while I was at work and did the whole thing! I love it! Thanks, Mom!!

06-08-15 Stomach Bugs and Laundry Piles

Big E came down with a fever on Saturday night and had thrown up, then yesterday his fever came and went, but he seemed to be on the mend. The kids woke up at 5:30 this morning and within 20 minutes, Big E was throwing up... A lot. I spent most of the morning either holding a bowl under his mouth or doing a gazillion loads of laundry. Washing, drying, and not folding. (There are mountains of clean clothes on my bedroom floor right now. )

Finally by 1 pm he was starting to perk up and the fever was going down. By this evening he was back to normal, albeit a little crankier than normal. 

The other kids did well today. We watched a lot of tv and just laid low. Hopefully we are in the clear. :)

My supergirl!

We played a family game of Das Malefiz Spiel (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but I'm too tired to go back downstairs and look at the box!), a board game I picked up during my trip to Germany when I was seventeen. 

Sometimes you just have to fall asleep in the hallway... By a ladder. 

I'm looking forward to a quiet evening! Hopefully everyone cooperates!

06-07-15 The Recital

Last night was C's big recital. We got home late last night so I only got to post a couple of pictures. 

I was so proud of my little girl. She has been working so hard all year for this performance. She is the youngest in her ballet class and I wondered how she would hold up under the pressure. 

I dropped her off at call time and got her dressed and did her make up. Then I left her with the other girls and found my seat. I will admit that as I sat there, I started to get worried for her. What if she has to use the bathroom? What if she needs a drink? What if she is sitting in the room terrified to go on in front of all those people? What if she gets onstage and shuts down from fear? 

Thankfully the first act went quickly and it wasn't long before she skipped onstage. And she was adorable! For being the youngest in her class, she really held her own. She didn't need to watch the teacher offstage. Also, since she is the shortest in her class she got to be up front, which made it much easier to see her! It was such a wonderful evening!

We weren't allowed to take photos or video during the performance so I snapped these in the dressing room.

That dress was made for twirling!!

Me and my girl!!

06-06-15 Recital Night

06-05-15 Disc Golf

I don't typically blog about work, but today will be an exception. Every once in awhile we get the chance to get out of the office and do an activity. We have gone bowling and played pool in the past. Today was disc golf. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me, so you will have to settle for an amateur drawing depicting my afternoon. 

You can see me there, in the center, with some fabulous hair. I was on a team with three guys. Now, my drawing is a bit deceptive in that it would appear that when I throw my frisbee it lands somewhere near the goal. The truth is, that I actually do throw a frisbee pretty straight... Just not terribly far. Hence, it never really landed in the goal unless I was throwing from about five feet away. Regardless, it was actually a lot of fun :) 

After work. I took C to her dress rehearsal for ballet. Her big production is tomorrow night. We are all looking forward to it!!

Doesn't she look adorable?! Love that little girl! 

06-04-15 The Laugh

C and E had the same laugh from the beginning.... A great, deep belly laugh that shook their whole bodies. Even now they sound pretty similar. 

But baby E sounds much different when he laughs. His laugh sounds like the beginning of a cry. If he is really happy he will start to grunt these loud guttural sounds, almost as if he is growling. 

Here is a short video of him being very excited. 

https://youtu.be/yTc32NtaiZ0

06-03-15 The cutest guinea pigs...

So I took these a couple of weeks ago. The kids were good sports about being 'guinea pigs' for mommy's test shoot! 

06-02-15 Farmers' Market

Our little town does a farmers' market every Friday night and this is a huge highlight of our week. Before we moved to our current house we only came a few times, but now that we are within walking distance, I imagine this will be an almost weekly occurrence!

A couple of weeks ago I had my hands on a nice camera, so I took it with me that evening to get used to using it before a video shoot I was going to do. It took some amazing pictures!

One of the highlights of the farmers' market is getting to pick out some kettle corn. C has a habit of picking based on color, and inevitably she doesn't like it and ends up eating mine!

The market is filled with fresh produce and flowers, wines, breads, and handmade crafts. It is also a huge social event and a chance to run into friends and neighbors. And sometimes the kids also get the chance to play on the big pirate ship on the beach. 

We ran into our beautiful niece, Natalie!

Big E 'helping' daddy walk down the boardwalk.

The farmers' market is also a chance to people to bring their classic, vintage, and unique vehicles to show off to the community. The kids enjoy looking at the different cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

What a great little town we live in!

06-01-15 A cute baby and a couch

This isn't just a picture of a ridiculously cute baby with an oversized head...

It's a picture of a ridiculously cute baby with an oversized head on a brand new couch!!

After seven and a half years of marriage, Tim and I have officially bought our first brand new piece of furniture! (I know, we bought a house before we ever bought furniture!)

There are a lot of exclamation points in this post in hopes you will understand how excited I am about this couch! (Is it a sign that I am comfortably entrenched in my mid thirties that I am this excited about a couch?)