Grumpy old man...

We are officially into summer. We smell like chlorine and need the airconditioner running. So Claira is almost finished with her swimming lessons. Jeremy likes to call it swimmig torture. She screams the whole time. She also claws at you and pinchs. She loves the water, that is not the problem. It is the structure and she is unable to choose what she would like to do in the water. Our second born does not enjoy being forced to do anything. You may have ice cream for her but to feed it to her would only cause her to become a grumpy old man. (I know she is a girl, but I have met many of grumpy old men and she is one when unhappy). She has finally stopped screaming when we clothe her. Right now taking baths is becoming a problem. She use to love them and would let you put her in anytime. Well now she does not want to go in. And after many many minutes of screaming in the tub we reach for her to take her out and guess what...Yup, she does not want to get out. What a headache. I love her to pieces. To see her laugh is amazing. She has 2 dimples one on each side of her cheaks. Her smile is so adorable. She even enjoys making others laugh. So it is not that she is unhappy, she is full of joy most of the day. But when she is forced into somthing that was not initiated on her own, this is where we encounter the old man in her. Oh well just 2 more days of swimming and than she is on her own accord.

Lets go to the movies...

Well we took the girls to their first movies last night. We went to see "Kung Fu Panda". I would put one of those picture icons here but I am not savvy with the computer. So maybe you can just picture it in your head. You know that big panda in a kung fu stance. Yup that's the one. Well it started off great than after 10min of intro and trailers the movie started. About 20 min into the movie Claira started to get the wiggles. She wanted to walk around the dark theater of complete strangers and say "Hiiiiii"! She is into saying hi to strangers everywhere we go. So than she tried to stand on the seat with a booster in it. Screaming as I tried to catch her before she fell. We walked to the back of the theater and she touched all the lights that light the path. Jeremy and Madeleine had migrated to the very front row of the theater. Claira and I finally joined them. As we were all getting a bit of motion sickness watching animated kung fu we finally found our spot in the theater. The girls loved the front row and stayed there the rest of the time. All in all the movie was a blast of humor. We really enjoy Jack Black. We also made a family memory and spent a little too much for snacks and evening tickets. I think this will happen again....Next year!

Prayer from a mighty heart...

So we have always put our girls to bed with a kiss and a prayer. We also have taught our girls to pray for sickness or anything that hurts. Madeleine is at an age where she will volunteer to pray when we are sick or do not feel good. Jeremy has introduced a new ritual for prayer. He has Madeleine choose a friend to pray for (in hopes later to have her pray for others who may need prayer or when there is a rift in relationships). He than asks her to pray for one of her family members. Last night she chose me. This was her prayer....

"God, Jesus pray for healing and for mom to go to church with me. Pray for love and for mom to go to gymnastics with me. I love her you love her too. Amen."

This is the best thing ever. God has given us a little prayer warrior. By the way I am sick and have been for a few days and missed church. This really made an impact on her for her prayer.

Count down....

Monday-Jeremy golfs, has a meeting, and works. I will clean our carpets.
Tuesday- Jeremy has his last academic day. I will go to the gym, babysit, and we both will work at night.
Wednesday- Jeremy will have award ceremony at school ,rest of school day at the skating rink, . and head to work. I will go to the gym, babysit, and work that night.
Thursday- Jeremy has his class party, and has 8th grade graduation (his brother is graduating). I will go to his class party, babysit and go to 8th grade graduation.
Friday-Jeremy has a min. day at school, and will go to work that night. I will go to the gym, babysit, and go to work.
Saturday-Jeremy is on call. We will go to the gym as a family and I am working afternoon into the evening.
Sunday- Jeremy and I are at church all day.
That next week Jeremy has inservice, will work 3 more weeks for his drive to Chico, and we will go to FLORIDA!!!!!!!
Okay, we are almost there. Yeah!!!
So if you are jealous of our week I will gladly share =)

103 degrees and 3 colds...

One little thought...Why are girl blogs generally longer than boy blogs? We all know statistics say girls say more in a day than boys so I guess this is just one more addition in proof to that theory.

Summer has arrived here, Yay and yuck all in the same thought. It is sad that we have not really eased into summer. Just like when you get into the pool in the beginning. There are 2 kind of people. Person #1 you slip your feet in until you feel comfort and than your up to your knees until you are in up to your waist. Then the last bit and the hardest you plunge in. Or Person #2 You just go crazy and cannon ball in. There your done. Well summer this year looks like Person #2 except there your in and done, is not done, the heat is so exhausting. You try and spend as much time indoors than actually outdoors. You know blow drying your hair causes you to sweat. Well at least you can spend your days in the pool, sprinklers or even the lake. But summer for me means Jeremy is home, Yes!!!

I am always baffled at the thought of colds in the summer. Both girls and I have colds it is 103 degrees out and we all have colds. Just does not seem to be possible. Oh well, here's to stronger immune systems!

A little shout out.. "Yay" for my friends who will be bringing in their new baby from Ethiopia this year. What an exciting time and God is so good to you both. We need to have a shower!!!
(Sorry, I guess shout outs usually contain a name or two. I just needed to talk to them first and make sure they would appreciate a shout out). Just know 2 people are getting the desire of their hearts soon. Yay, Yay, Yay!!!!

Gates and boundaries...

Why do we all start out pushing limits. We see a gate we are attracted to it instantly. We want to know why there is a gate, why we can't go beyond it, or how can we get beyond it. Gates are our boundaries. We are limited. Where can we get our full access pass is what is in our minds. I was not a fan of gates with my children, really for that reason. I want my children to know their limits. And if they get into a situation that is not safe, I want them to know how to handle it. We try and train them. You may think it is a little liberal. And this may be the only liberal thinking my husband may be attached to. But really it works (for my children). We have stairs my children are drawn to them. Most people gate them. We train our children to slide down the stairs in control. We have to be there and show them over and over. But really in life there isn't going to be a gate in unsafe places. So we try to develop some kind of thinking that if they know the safe way they know why. The stove is hot, why? Well that is what we are told. Or the stove is hot, do you feel the heat? Do you see the fire? It will hurt when you touch it. They still will touch it and now they know. They may fall on the stairs but we were there. They know now that it can be dangerous to play on the stairs or they can use it to transport to our room the safe way. Why? is a common question now for our children. We often want to tell them because. But now we talk to them with as much communication as they can understand. Why do I have to hold your hand when we cross the street? Because there are cars, and they do not see you, but they will see me. Why? Well, I am bigger. Why do the cars have to see me? Well, if they don't they may hit you. You know when you fall it hurts and you want to cry? Well the same thing will happen when a car will hit you. But this time you will have to see a Dr. It may be scary, but there little minds (I think) need to know to think of consequences.
Sorry, this is heavy on my mind. Jeremy has a little brother who is 14 and saw a gang fight were a kid was seriously injured. By the description he may have had permanent brain damage or may not have survived. His brother thought how cool it was to see. He never thought that the kid was bleeding out of his ears and nose and mouth for other reasons like trauma. His reaction was, "I don't know the kid." His mom and I looked at him in awe that it did not sink in. His mom was actually very disturbed. Pray for him, and the kid who was rushed to the emergency room. So sad.

Poison Oak

My husband is a good man. He works way too much. Too much for his own good and it may be killing him slowly. He is stressed. Yesterday we were up at 6:45am for church (to work in the nursery). He got a call and had to go (he works for a company that services machines, can't say much more). He came back and got another call, this time to Medford, Oregon. 3 hours later services a machine. Drives back 3 hours, and has calls waiting on him. He did have a fellow employee that went to 4 calls while he was gone. He had 3 more. So at 8:15 last night he was home to eat dinner, get his hair cut (by me), and put the girls to bed. This is our life. I really can not wait for June. We will have more time since he is cutting things out. PTL (praise the Lord!!!!).
One little tid bit about my husband, he is obsessed right now because it is prime season with poison oak. Everywhere we go he can see it. We drive he sees it. Even the tiny little sprout he knows so well. He gets poison oak almost every year. So he feels love when I express interest in his. One day we were driving (to one of his calls far away) and i tried to point out the poison oak before he could. Funny thing he really felt love, I was just joking around. Well I guess my job as an amazing wife was fulfilled that day.