25 Random Things...

I was tagged by my friend Christine tagged me from half way across the world via facebook. I'm afraid my answers will not be nearly as exciting as hers. Here we go!

1. I'm a pastor's kid- but I like to think I turned out pretty well.
2. I have a weird obsession for the Olympics. My dream is to someday attend a summer Olympic games and go to all of my favorite events.
3. My all time favorite food is macaroni and cheese
4. My parents made me get my tonsils out over spring break of 2nd grade- which was also over my birthday. It was a bummer of a vacation and a birthday!
5. I've had glasses since the 3rd grade. I even had bifocals from 3rd-10th grade. Usually they are for old people. I liked wondering around my third grade classroom with my head tilted up just looking out of the bifocal.
6. Two of my favorite TV shows of all time are Full House and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
7. (an idea from Christine) My first movie in a theatre was The Little Mermaid
8. I was incentivize to learn how to swim underwater by my aunt in Florida who said she would take me to see Kindergarten Cop if I swam the length of her pool underwater without stopping.
9. I am an extreme perfectionist and people pleaser which made me very successful in school settings, but has been hard to work with in real life.
10. I played Anne Frank in high school and my "temporary" black hair dye lasted for 6 months.
11. I was drum major for three years in high school
12. I am completely uncoordinated and have horrible eye/hand coordination. The gym teacher paired me with the special ed kids all the time. I like to think it was because I was nice to them (you know how mean high schooler's can be), but maybe it was my complete inability to make contact with the ball and racket.
13. I traveled around the great Midwest with a traveling drama troupe in college. Spending nights with random couples from random little tiny churches is always an adventure! I should write a post about the lady I stayed with in central Florida sometime. Think lonely widow filling her life with the love of animals- of all kinds.
14. Paul (my husband) was my first and only boyfriend. We met at Band Camp.
15. I am a child of the 80's- I wore stirrup pants, multiple pairs of colorful socks, and long t-shirts tied on the side with a scrunchy.
16. My favorite Christmas present was the Christy Miller book series- love those!
17. I've been on missions trips to: Guatemala, Jamaica, Grenada, Bangladesh, Southern China, and The Bronx.
18. I want to go to: Africa (Uganda most likely), Northern China, Australia, and South America. Maybe a layover in Spain.
19. Teaching is my passion and I enjoy learning how to use the skill sets outside of a typical classroom.
20. I think the tv show The Office in the funniest television since classic years of Friends.
21. I didn't start drinking coffee until I became a mother and understood the real meaning of sleep deprivation.
22. My worst habit is not shutting my dresser drawers all the way.
23. My least favorite chore is ironing.
24. I collect children's books.
25. I have fallen through the ice on Green Lake.

You all take a try!

Growing

Our dear little Izzy is finally growing!!! We went in to the doctor for a weight check this morning. The girl finally weighs 25 pounds! Whohoo for the 10th percentile! She kept dropping off the chart until she was no longer on it. Looks like the past 6 months have done her well! It may help that she has grown 2.5 inches in 6 months! Wow! No wonder some of her 2T pants have seemingly been quite short lately!

We are happy to know that she is developing and growing normally and there are no longer concerns with her height/weight.

Add to all of this excitement- our little princess has moved from the crib to a BIG GIRL BED!!! With the help of family we were able to put together a cute little bed and Isabelle got to pick out her bedding. She hasn't fallen or gotten out. Naptimes have been a little hard, but it could just be a phase. She is doing well with the transition- even putting her own baby dolls in the crib to remind herself that the crib is now a baby bed and her bed is the big girl bed.

This is how I found her when I had to wake her up from a nap on Saturday. So funny.

I love how the pigtails stick straight out!

Weddings

We had the privaledge of attending Paul's cousin's wedding early in January. Jenna and Jake are a great couple- we wish we knew Jake more- but he is stationed overseas in the armed forces. We had a great time at their wedding- minus the horrible migraine that hit me and the start of the reception and didn't leave until someone finally found some excedrin migraine (I now call them my happy pills- I was a first time user!) and it wore off after the first dances. Here are a couple pics.

Dancing- still with a headache Dancing without headache- renacting Paul's infamous dancing at his sister's wedding

Nice shot of us- but thats a headache smile

You reap what you sow

Sow a thought....reap an act
Sow an act.....reap a habit
Sow a habit.....reap a character
Sow a character....reap a destiny

In my women's bible study we are studying Galations. This week we talked about sowing and reaping from Galations 6:7-8. I loved this statement above because it shows how what we sow does have consequences- even if it is not immediate, nor do we always see it coming. It can build so slowly over time that we never realized that our bad traits and sins can be traced back to a single thought. At the same time, to change those ways and to reap good fruit like in Galations 5, it is going to take time. We do not produce a plentiful harvest overnight- it is process with the help of the Holy Spirit. We must sow thoughts of patience to act patiently to become a patient person. I found this perspective to be enlighting, encouraging, and challenging.

Galations 6:7-8
NIV: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

The Message: Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

New Living: "Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit."

New Izzy-isms

Betcha didn't know...

kitchen is actually pronounced "chicken"
swimming pool actually is a "swimming poop" And you wear your "swim soup" while enjoying it!

Kids mimick us....

As overheard while in the kitchen cooking dinner, "Duckie, you need to change your attitude!"

During playtime in the basement, "hurry up baby! We need to go to the store"

Creativity abound...
Izzy draws people as a circle with lots of dots in the middle and sometimes a straight line coming out of it...one person she drew only had two dots and she exclaimed, "Oh no! He only has two eyes!"

Book Review: The Unseen by T.L. Hines

I recently finished reading a rather interesting novel entitled The Unseen by T. L. Hines. I enjoy a good fiction book now and again as a form of entertainment. While I usually lean towards a romantic genre- I felt compelled to try this mystery/futuristic type book.

Overall, I felt the book would highly impress and be enjoyed by those who often read this genre or type of book. The characterization of this book is by far one of the most complex and interesting in any of the books I have previously read. I felt as though Lucas was a long time friend that I have known deeply my whole life. His emotions and reactions were true and there were reasonings behind every decision. The characters Hines creates were facsinating.

While I'm not sure if it is my lack of enthusiasm over the genre or if it a characteristic of this novel or author, I felt as though the plot line was to full and confusing. I felt myself lost many times trying to follow all of the many subplots and trying to connect all of the dots. While some of these were resolved in the end, I still feel as though the plot lacks clarity, organization, and consolidation.

Would I recommend this novel? Hesitantly, and only to those who I knew enjoy the mysterious adventures and don't mind a little far fetched characteristics. I was moved by Hines acknowledgement section where he describes writing this novel while battling cancer. May the Lord bless him with many more years and continued health.

Oh, how she has grown!

I was working on Isabelle's baby book this afternoon. I am terribly behind and hardly record anything. But, I wanted to put in some of her recent artwork and it prompted me to write in it and print off some pictures for it.

Boy how much she has grown and changed. As much as I love where she is at now- singing songs in aisles of Me.ijer (including ones with full motions!), telling me what our schedule should be for the day ("mommy I really hungy, then super-i and clifford next, keep jammies on" all within the first few seconds of being awake) , pretending to "hurry" with her baby because she has somewhere to be (not sure where she ever picked up on, 'come on now, hurry up!'), and all sorts of things- I miss those early months of her cooing, smiling, and sitting still and not talking my ear off. I think she needs a sibiling as another set of ears for her to fill (hmmm..).

Its amazing how God develops a child over such a short period of time. Its going so fast. Hang on!!!

Hours old...................................5 months old.....................1 year old................2.5 years old

Child Like Faith

An interesting thing about this Christmas season has been my increased understanding to what it means to have a child like faith. My 2 year old daughter is the one to thank for that.

We have been talking all season long about how baby Jesus was born in a manger, that He was born to save the world. We had a paper doll nativity scene that she loved playing with. We hoped that somehow these lessons were getting across.

On Christmas Eve we were up at my parent's church to attend their Christmas Eve service. Izzy was playing around on stage as we got everything ready. She loved looking at the big, beautiful tree and all of the sparkling lights- but then she was drawn to the manger they had on stage. She immediately shouted, "Jesus is born!" She ran over to the manger to find, that it was empty. My poor distraught child! Where is Jesus? Where did he go? Is he playing hide and seek? Will someone go find Him? An endless line of questions and concerns followed. I finally said, "Well, baby Jesus grew up to save the world, and now He is in Heaven!". Izzy replies, "I want to go to Heaven too! I'm excited to see baby Jesus!". And then the question of why He wasn't lying in the manger insued again.

I couldn't help but be slightly annoyed with the constant asking of where baby Jesus had gone and why he wasn't in the manger. Some people had begun to arrive at this point, and she began telling them that baby Jesus was gone! One woman in particular felt for her, and even tried to convince her daughter to run home and get a baby doll! Well, come to find out later, my daughter became a little missionary that night.

This woman was so touched by Isabelle's little heart of faith. She told my dad how she learned from my 2 year old, that the absence of Christ invites turmoil. How the absence of Jesus in Christmas, is really not Christmas at all.

I was so proud of my daughter. I began listening more to her questions about Jesus and where He was. She continues to ask every so often, "where did Baby Jesus go? Will someone else find Him?" I continue to remind her that Jesus is in Heaven because He saved the world.

My daughter's longing for this person named Jesus and her excitment to go to this place called heaven touched me deeply. She doesn't fully know who Jesus is and what it meant for Him to save the world. She doesn't really know what Heaven is and how to get there- but she has a longing for it. Shouldn't we?