Tuesday, September 3, 2013

34 by 34...



Once again it's that time of year....birthday time.  I am party planner through and through, not so much a party person.  I don't get real jazzed about the "Big Day" and my idea of a great birthday is low key with great friends and good food!  I know for some of you that is unreal, because the hub's as a matter of fact is a huge birthday person (which works out nicely when your married to a party planner :)).  I am just not wired that way.

The danger though is that I can be very negative about my birthday and needless to say the Lord has been challenging my thinking these past few weeks.  Lets be honest, I am melancholy by nature and can be pretty negative when I want to be.  So I've been asking myself, what is it that makes me dislike my birthday?  Perhaps unaccomplished goals or being one year closer to passing the baby birthing age or maybe even another year in a house that is not my own.  Whatever the cause, when I dwell on the reasons I am discontent I fail to remember this one thing....I have been given another year of life!  Another year to serve Him, with new goals, a roof over my head, a precious baby boy and an amazing man to walk beside me and remind me just how special birthdays are.  Looking back on the past year, with all I have been blessed with, I should be overflowing with joy!  And that is cause for celebration!

So here's how I intend to celebrate and I hope you will join me!  Since giving and serving others brings me so much joy, I can't imagine a better way to celebrate this past year and start a new one.  What better way to do this than to complete 34 Random Acts of Kindness by my 34th birthday, this Saturday!  I'm calling it 34 by 34!  With only 5 days to go, I am hoping you will help me get there.  Just complete a Random Act of Kindness (RAK), take a picture and tag #hj34by34 on Facebook or Instagram.  

Some ideas might be....
*Tape change to a vending machine
*Write a thank you note and leave it for your mailman
*Bring your child's teacher flowers
*Send a letter to a soldier serving overseas 
*Anonymously pay for someone's dinner at a restaurant
*Purchase a gift card at the grocery store and hand it to the person behind you in line
*Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive through 
*Help an elderly person unload groceries
*Hand out water bottles at a sporting event
*Bring lunch to a homeless person
*Donate food to the local food bank

It's up to you, no need to get elaborate, it's about blessing others because you have been blessed!  I hope you will join me in making this a birthday to remember. 

Many Blessings!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Catching up...

It's hard to believe it has been 9 months since the last time I posted to this blog!  Needless to say it has been a VERY LONG 9 months and so much has happened/changed.  So just like old friends, let me try to catch you up...

December 2012....Probably will go down in history as the hardest December on record.  Between sick baby, sick mommy and choosing to stay in New York for Christmas the Holiday spirit just didn't seem the same.  Perhaps the sweetest part in all of it was the mail man coming to our door every day for a week with package deliveries from friends and family.  The little man even asked if the mail man was Santa :).  Since Christmas consisted of just the 3 of us, we created some new traditions and spent Christmas day with some very precious friends!  
As I said, baby was sick!  Poor little man just had one ear infection after another...it was a rough month!

January 2013....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  To be honest I don't really remember how we rang in the new year, deep down I think 2012 had been a rough year and I was just glad to see it end.  January was filled with bible studies, conference planning, trips to the museum with little mans best friend Macy and lots of play dates.  I was blessed to have some of the best mommy friends!!  The only down side was a continued sick baby :(.  We spent the last week of the month moving into our new rental right next to our church!!  We loved all the space and the HUGE yard.

February 2013...Little man had his first Valentines Day Party!  We invited all his toddler buddies, along with their mommies, over for a fun and food.  It was truly a great time and something we will continue doing.  We also started a new tradition of Valentines Day Date as a family.  Not to worry, the hubs and I got out for a date that weekend.  We continued to struggle with ear infection after ear infection.  I praise God for such an amazing doctor who helped us work through this rough time.  Little man saw an ear specialist who confirmed tube surgery was necessary.  We were not thrilled with the demeanor of the specialist we saw.  We continued to pray and God showed up!  Our wonderful doctor called to see how it went and was not thrilled.  Scheduled us in with a pediatric specialist in March!

March 2013...Was BUSY!!!  We saw God move in great ways in our student ministry through the PINK Conference.  The best part was having Grandma come for the week to spend time with little man and also getting to meet a new buddy Noah!   The day after we said goodbye to grandma we boarded a plane to Omaha, Nebraska to visit good friends.  Not surprising to us, little man ended up with yet another ear infection while on vacation.  Thankfully God worked in mighty ways and we were able to get in to an actual pediatrician instead of going to the ER!  
Shortly after returning home we celebrated Easter!!  We took the little man to a farm to hunt eggs, meet live bunnies and ride the train.  He had a blast!!!  We spent Easter Sunday with our dear friends the Fortney's and celebrated with a traditional ham dinner.  

April 2013...Met with the pediatric ENT specialist who confirmed the little man would need surgery for tubes and potentially adenoids.  We loved her!!  The reality of his sickness hit a low during the hearing test.  During the testing it was difficult to see him not respond to any low sounds due to muffled hearing.  The results came back and he had little to no hearing in the lower register.  Our sweet doctor informed us he had probably been hearing that way since 18 months old.  
April also brought so MAJOR change as the hubs accepted a position as associate pastor at a church in Omaha, NE.  We spent a good majority of April packing and preparing for surgery and our big move.  

May 2013...Was nothing short of INSANITY!  Right off the bat the little man had surgery to put in tubes and remove his adenoids (which were blocking 70% of his nasal passage).  Daddy had strep over mothers days and mommy...well we discovered my sickness was all related to a severe mold allergy and mold in the house we were renting.  And all of that in the first 15 days of May!!  We began looking for temporary housing until we moved, SO thankful for great friends!!!
We also visited Thomas the Train with our little mans buddy Andrew.  I headed to Nebraska in the middle of the month to find housing.  Shortly after I returned we finished packing and the trailer arrived.  Little man dubbed it our "Conbraska Truck" and it brought a weekend of toddler fascination!

June 2013...We said some of the hardest goodbyes to some very special people, loaded up our lives and headed to Nebraska!  Along the way we took a much needed family vacation...with a toddler...and a dog...and a packed out van?!?! :)  I'm sure we will recap all the fun in our summer bucket list blog, stay tuned!  A huge highlight was seeing our very dear friend and prior student Micah!  We arrived in Nebraska and stayed with our great friends for 2 weeks while we waited for our rental to be ready.  We explored spray grounds, shopping malls and generally just worked on getting settled.  We made so great new friends and had play dates at the zoo.  

July 2013...We began doing some major unpacking and enjoyed seeing things we hadn't seen in seven months due to our last rental being furnished.  We celebrated fourth of July by walking in a toddler parade, bar-b-que'ing with new friends and MOST insane fireworks display I have ever seen, pretty sure the entire city was lighting them.  Our travels took us to Oklahoma for a wedding and to Kansas City for the little ones first experience at an amusement/water park with our students!  Much to the joy of the hubs the little man LOVED the roller coaster, but even more exciting was how much he adored the water park :).  I have never had so much fun as spending the day just the two of us.  We rode rides together and splashed around, it was just to much fun!!  

August 2013...That brings us to the present month!  Things have slowed down and we are just enjoying the end of Summer.  In just a short month we will be starting a very busy Fall!  The little man will taking violin lessons, swim classes and tumbling.  We are also attempting this thing called home school.  He is not old enough yet for pre-school, but there will be plenty to do at home!  No doubt the fall will be filled with pumpkin picking, zoo trips, museum fun, family visits and even a trip for mommies birthday.  I can hardly wait!!    

Hope you stick around for all the fun!

Blessings!!!