I know I am exceptionally behind with photos and updates but here is the fast 411 on us right now. Emmie had ear tubes successfully placed and her adenoids removed today. I am having surgery for my kidney stone Thursday. My mom and grandma are here to help until Wednesday, thank the Lord! We had a lovely Christmas minus the pain of the kidney stone. Luke is glad to be back in school but I miss him being home so much! Kevin is staying very busy, especially planning the summer youth trips. He will be taking a quick vision trip Haiti next month in preparation frontage summer trip. Many, many exciting things in the coming months. I will do better updating!

I know that this approach may seem harsh to some but after reading the article I linked to above, I once again found my resolve to go with it. Now, with that said, I did choose to do this on the night that I KNEW it was something that Luke would like. He loves pasta, red sauce, cheese, and ground beef (what he calls “lion meat), so I knew lasagna was a good starting place. It was a little more difficult because Kevin was working late so I knew getting him over to the table would be a challenge in the first place. But, I told him, “Luke, you can eat this lasagna now or you can eat it later. If you choose not to eat it now, you will not get any snacks until you eat it.” He shrugged it off with, “okay, I’ll eat it later.” So…that was it. I had to get the kids ready and myself off to choir practice. I dropped him off in his class and told the teacher he really shouldn’t have much snack because he didn’t eat dinner. It gets a little tricky when you do this while leaving your children in someone else’s care. I wasn’t going to tell her he could NOT have a snack when she is the one who would have to experience his reaction to that for an hour.

We get home from church and immediately he says, “I’m hungry.” I told him, “you can have lasagna.” He proceeds to get a little aggravated as he is used to having a banana or crackers before bed. I reminded him no snacks until he eats the lasagna. He goes to bed. When he wakes up, he is ready for his morning routine of chocolate milk and a banana. This was a little more difficult for me…I didn’t want to send him to school on a completely empty stomach so I tell him he can have white milk or lasagna. He picks the white milk.

Next we have lunch time. We almost always go to lunch with friends on Thursdays. Its fun for all of us and we look forward to it. He hears all his friends excitedly talking about going to lunch and he says, “I get to go to lunch with my friends!!: Okay, now this was the hardest part. I really hated to break it to him that we weren’t going. I wanted to go. Kevin wanted to go. Luke wanted to go. I had to explain that he had to go home and eat lasagna. We get home- he will not eat the lasagna and goes down for a nap. I know the child is getting hungry at this point. I am hungry FOR him, for goodness sake. Fast forward to dinner.  As I was preparing dinner, I explained I was cooking something for mommy, daddy, and Emmie that he could have after he ate the lasagna. Apparently he and Kevin had a conversation about the lasagna before dinner that consisted of a lot of, “no I WON’T eat lasagna.” But the next thing I heard was, “Luke, are you ready to eat your lasagna?” “Yes, I am!!” He proceeds to eat what is on his plate and ask for seconds. Fast forward to today and he asks this morning, “Can we have lasagna tomorrow?” So…I think we have some success.

It was a difficult 24 hours but, yes, I would do it again. Am I going to force my children to eat a food that they gag on? No. But I think the true dislike foods are very few and far between. I think that most foods can at least learn to be liked. Kevin would definitely agree as he has learned to like many foods that he would not eat. This is just my experience and I think the article that I linked to can explain the reasoning behind it better than I can. But I look forward to my children experiencing foods far beyond the realm of traditional “kid” foods.

It will be great to have more one-on-one time with Emilia. We are really working on correcting her very strong-willed spirit. It is a learning experience for all of us. Here are some photos of Luke’s first day. As I was taking pics of him, Emmie started to have a fit and was trying to grab my camera. I quickly realized that it was not my camera she was after, but she wanted me to take a picture of her!! When I started taking pictures of her, she quickly dried those tears and brought out that beaming smile. Such a little stinker! She, too, is a blessing and is God is certainly using her to shape my character!

Praise the Lord our Simon is home! Since many of you have asked for the story, here it is:

On the morning of Saturday, July 17 we had been running errands. We returned home early afternoon with one child asleep and one extremely cranky and ready for a nap. I told Kevin to get Emmie and I would get Luke. I carried him in and left the door ajar for Kevin to bring Emmie in. Unbeknownst to us, it was during this time that Simon walked out the door. I suggested to Kevin that he go lie down in Luke’s bed with him since Luke was not really wanting to nap. He did and turned the sound machine on (so that you can’t hear anything that is going on outside of the room). I was rushing back out the door to go run more errands. I told Oscar bye on my way out, noticing that Simon was not with him and assuming that he had jumped up in the bed with Kevin and Luke. I ran my errands and came back home. As I walked in the door, my first words were, “Where is Simon?” Panic immediately set in as we realized he was absolutely not here. The next 16 days involved many, many trips to the animal control centers, rescues, vets offices, as well as putting up hundreds of fliers, posting on Craigslist daily, and running ads in the papers.

Meanwhile…

On the day in question, Simon apparently walked out and disappeared just long enough for me to not see him as I left to run errands. I imagine ke came back shortly after I left because he is a homebody and hates being outside for too long. He probably came to the door and whined and scratched while Kevin and Luke were snoozing to the sounds of the rainforest via the sound machine. Apparently there was a yardsale and Simon heard people. He went toward them and found a woman sitting in an air conditioned car and made himself at home. She took him home to play with her chihuahua and four little girls. A couple weeks later they notice some of the hundreds of fliers and craigslist listing. They said, “we have your dog. We are going to be gone all day. You can come get him in 10 hours.” 10 hours of torture ensues. Kevin goes to retrieve the trouble maker. Nice family refuses our vacation fund…I mean, reward money. My bed is way too crowded once again. That’s okay with me

Simon with his hero, Oscar

We are busy searching for our sweet Simon. He has gotten himself lost and we are so, so sad that he has not turned up yet. I just keep wondering what he is doing and knowing he is missing his home that he loves, his family, his toys… And especially his Oscar. They love to snuggle up in bed at night at the foot of our bed. Always crowding me…which I am, of course, missing like crazy now. I just wish he was here to jump up and try to eat my food or drag his nasty toy over to Emmie and entice her to put it in her mouth also (gross, gross, I know…) But, really, I do miss him so much. I have been preparing myself for Oscar to be gone…permanently. He has lived a fascinating 15 years in 4 states  and had a full life. But, Simon, my trouble-maker is just getting started. I am not giving up hope yet, but praying and knowing that God’s plan is so much bigger than me and my sweet little dog. So, say a prayer for us and him. I am hoping and praying for good news but knowing that the outcome may not be what I hope it is.

Luke is starting to be so helpful when I ask him to do chores. He had a little moment today when he didn’t want to help at first. He said, “but I’m too little. Look at my body, it is SO small!!” I couldn’t help but laugh. But then he did what I asked him to do.

We have really enjoyed going to the splash park with friends the last couple of months. It is fun for me too because it is a safe place for the kids to run around and play and  I can cool off in the water and chat with my friends and play with the kids.

Luke loved the 4th of July. He thought the “fireworks” that we had (which weren’t much at all!) were the most fantastic thing he had seen in a long time. I love seeing his imagination emerge. He is really enjoying acting out parts of characters in movies and assigning characters to the rest of the family (including the dogs!)

Emmie’s personality is really something. I know I did not give Luke time out at this age, but she is in time out almost every day (less than a minute each time). I put her in the middle of her rug and she cries and cries. She has been bad about biting an pulling hair, which Luke never did so it is a learning experience for me. But she loves to love on us too! When she is being rough and I correct her, she’ll change what she is doing and say, “gentle, gentle” and start rubbing instead of hitting/pulling hair. She gives the sweetest hugs too.

Here are a few pics of our summer so far.

Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank).

I just read this article today. Wow, so very true.

I really am amazed that God brought together 2 teenagers with not a whole lot in common and…

Senior prom

created a friendship between us and allowed that friendship to grow,

changed our hearts to be more like Him while we began to love each other more,

and worked on us as individuals and at the same time strenghthening our partnership.

He took us through happy times and  difficult times…all before Kevin asked for my hand in marriage.

And then we took those vows and began a whole new journey together, leaving all that was comfortable and familiar.

Now, having traveled to more than 10 countries in Europe

Berlin Wall

Paris

Scotland

Liverpool, England

Our home away from home...London

and roadtripped across the U.S. together,

At the Hollywood sign

Grand Canyon

having seen 3 different Disney castles

Disneyland Paris

Walt Disney World

Disneyland California

accumulated three masters degrees, moved to four homes in three states, been through several jobs, kind-of trained two dogs and experienced the bumpy and wonderful road of parenting together…

I can honestly say I am so very glad that Kevin is my best friend on this journey and I am blessed that our amazing children call him daddy. We are not that couple with “so much” in common on a superficial  level. We are hard pressed to find one movie that we can both agree to watch and our ideas of “keeping things tidy” are pretty different. But we agree, and always have agreed on the truly important things- that we want to keep Christ first in our lives and raise children who want to love and serve Him.

Then…

and now…

…you are my best friend. Happy 7th Anniversary!