Meant To Be

Some things are just meant to be. So far beyond my tiny little brain, God has this huge plan in his mind of how things will be. He is able to see the big picture. This came to mind last night as Jeremiah and I were talking about our kids.

Back up a couple days and you'll see the four of us- Jeremiah, me, Jonah, and Aphia walking into the clinic to have the ultrasound for our 20 week old baby. The ultrasound will tell us if things are looking good for the baby, that s/he is growing and healthy and will also tell us whether it will be a he or a she! We did not find out the sex of Jonah or Aphia before they were born, but we decided to go the other way with baby #3. During the ultrasound all was looking great and then our doctor told us that we would be adding a boy to our family! We're overjoyed! Jonah was a bit upset at first, he was really, really pulling for another sister, the entire duration of the pregnancy until now. But he's very easy to reason with and quickly adjusted to the idea of a brother.

So now fast forward to Sunday evening when the children are asleep and we're talking about our family. We've decided to name our baby boy Isaiah John and we were talking about how Isaiah was meant to be. He was meant to be because I was about 5-6 days past when I "should have ovulated" when Jeremiah said, "Let's try tonight," those many months ago.... neither of us really thought anything would happen. Well God had bigger plans to formulate because Isaiah was meant to be. It was very, very exciting to put a so-called, characteristic to our forming baby boy. We know already that Jonah is a structured, rules boy and very sensative. We know that Aphia is a limit tester, with SO much charm it's practically oozing from her. And now we know that Isaiah was our child who just had to be and God made it happen. The miracle of conception and birth is always incredible to me. But this time it takes my breath away. God's mighty hand creating and covering our sweet boy, forming him, and strengthening him. wow.

Jonah and Aphia are LOVING knowing that they're going to have a little brother. They are really starting to refer to him as one of the family now, which is so awesome to see and hear. Aphia still continually looks into my belly button to see if she can see him, but to her slight disappointment, still cannot :)

Isaiah's been moving more and more, each night I can feel him tumble around a bit when I lay down. I go back to the doctor in two weeks so she can take measurements of his heart and see his face (hopefully). He was laying face down during the ultrasound and so she didn't even attempt to get heart pictures and measurements because she knew she wouldn't be satisfied with them.

For now, I continue to try to do what's best for my body, thus being best for Isaiah. I try to continue to be present and intentional in my "momming" and the same for my "wifing". God is good and I'll praise him through the good (which is now) and the bad (which is hopefully never, but most likely inevitable).

Back in the Game

She's back in the game folks!

For many, many years back at Calvary, I taught Vacation Bible School. I absolutely LOVED doing it. I started as a helper, have worked side by side with many friends and both of my brothers assisted me a couple times. I do have to say, Michael and I had some of the GREATEST classes ever (Michael, do you remember, "Are you rrrrrrrrready?!"). Richie and I... well Richie was awesome- the insane 5th grade boys were a whole nother story! I kind of wanted to convince them all that they suffered from allergies, give them a BIG dose of Benadryl and watch them all zonk out. Just kidding... kind of.

Anyways, sorry for the ramblings there.

This year I was back in the VBS game at our church! I got to do the Bible stories each day for the "Little VBS"ers (2-3 year olds whose parents are volunteering), the 3-4 year olds and the 4 year olds. IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST! The little ones were amazingly good listeners for their (approximately) 10 minute story! They'd sit on their blanket and stare up at me in awe and wonder. I'm hoping the wonder wasn't as to why I look so goofy or something. I was a little nervous leaving Aphia's class the first day, thinking that she'd want to go with me. She did wimper a bit, but the second day, when their teacher said to say thank you to me, she shouted, in her little high pitched voice, "Sanks fo da stowy, Mommy! Bye Mommy!"

On Wednesday, Jonah was "that kid." You all know who I'm talking about, the one who raises his hand and really has nothing to say, but who just wants to talk. Yep, that was my boy. Just as I'm starting the story and getting the kids engaged, he raised his hand (which he must have learned this week- thank you to Teacher Trisha! Because he was a blurter before) and when I called on him, he said, "Ummm, ahhhhh. Ummmmm, Mom. We're going to go camping in a couple weeks." "Yes, Jonah thank you, now let's listen to the story." And at the end of the story I let the kids as questions or make comments about the story. After Jonah's couple of comments he says, "Mom I have a LOT more questions." I said, "I'm sure you do. We can talk about all of them later at home."

I'll post some pictures that my wonderful friend Jen took during the week, I know she got a shot of both Jones and Phi. So when she puts them on Facebook, I'll get them and put them on here too.

So to conclude. I love VBS and I'll do it til I die.

Not Me! Monday

I haven't shared a Not Me! Monday in a while and so I thought I'd drop in with some things that I, of course, did NOT do!
Not Me! Monday is an origination of my dear blog friend MckMama. You can check out more stories by linking up to her blog here:


So onto the things that I "did not" do in the past while...

*Today I did NOT see the Schwan's man driving his big yellow truck down the road and think to myself, "I need ice cream sandwiches right now!" and then proceed to run down the road after his truck, waving my hands at him so he would stop and come to my house. My neighbors would have all stopped and stared had I done that, so I did not.

*Last week, when asked about the keys for a closet at our church, that had been in my possession for MOPS, I did NOT tell a church staffer that I gave that key back last year, only to get out to my car, actually look at my key ring to see it hanging innocently where it has been for the last two years. Nope I would never do that, it would make me seem like such an airhead! I, of course, did NOT go back into church with my head hung in shame and would NEVER blame it on pregnancy brain.

*A week ago Friday we started potty-training Aphia. The first day did NOT go so well (no actually, it really didn't- it was horrific). Saturday did NOT go better (sarcasm back in place here) and by Sunday she was NOT dry all day! After 7 days she was NOT telling me each time she had to go potty and I am NOT extremely proud of her!!

*My cravings for veggies and hummus have NOT calmed down a bit over the past week, because I figured to curb my cravings I'd buy a brand of hummus that I'm not as crazy about as Athenos. This craving that has NOT calmed down is good because I was NOT eating it non-stop... or just by the spoonful because it's so yummy.

*Finally, tonight, I did NOT convince my family that they each needed an ice cream sandwich or orange push-up simply because I wanted another one. Nope not me! And when they all happily agreed to having our yummy treats that I worked so hard to get this afternoon, I did NOT get them out of the chest freezer, only to leave the chest freezer WIDE open for the next hour and a half. That would have been very absent minded of me and I would never do that. Not me!

Got any "Not Me!"s to share?? We all do. It's therapeutic... give it a shot ;)