Let's get you caught up...Part Two

In the previous post I mentioned that things have been busy. If you missed Part One just scroll down. As grad gets closer things start to speed up.

This year I helped Diane get centrepieces ready for the graduation banquet. I was pretty happy with how this turned out. The pictures displayed were pictures of grads and we tried to coordinate the picture with the tables their parents would be sitting at. I think they looked really good sitting on a black table cloth with a white cloth napkin in the middle.



Graduation ceremony. It's hard to believe that another school year has come and gone. Lindsay felt that it was a good year. He enjoyed working with his student development team and the student council. He had a blast coaching the girl's soccer team which won the PAC tournament they hosted here and he enjoyed teaching five classes throughout the course of the year. So far our enrollment numbers are looking very good for the fall. We're excited to see what God will do in the lives of those that walked across the stage to receive diplomas and those that will be coming through our doors as freshmen in the fall.



We were very blessed to have my parents and the Witters come for Grad weekend. We were very surprised when Logan walked in the door with them. He's a student at UW Madison and he surprised us and his brother. We had a great time here. It included a "my stomach hurts from laughing" game of Trivial Pursuit. Great fun. Good food. Wonderful family.





On the Monday after Grad everyone but Lindsay and Brad drove back to Saskatoon and visited there. The kids and I stayed until Thursday morning. We had lots of fun.







On Thursday morning we all went to the Saskatoon airport to see Kirsten (my cousin's girlfriend) off. She is a nursing student and her and two others are now in India working at a mission hospital. We went out for breakfast after seeing her off and then the kids and I left for home. It was SO good to get back and see Lindsay again.







Well, that brings you up to speed on the last little while. Now that life is slowing down a bit I hope to get back on the saddle of blogging and check up on how you are doing. Happy Spring!

Let's get you caught up...Part One

Yes, it's me. It's been a while and I'm sorry about that. Life here on campus just gets nuts before, during and a bit after graduation. I'm going to take you through a quick journey of what's been going on with us lately.

We didn't get a lot of snow this winter but what we did get decided to stay around a lot longer than most people here would have liked. When it did start to melt there was a small window for things Liam had been waiting to do. His list: make a snowman, build a snow fort and get lots of water in his rubber boats (ha...that was a typo but it really is appropriate so I'll leave it there) while doing the aforementioned things. Here's us fulfilling a three year old's spring "bucket list".





This is Libby having some spring fun of her own. She discovered the flowers I had on the table the other day and was enthralled.





Continuing with our Spring theme, I decided to try something new. It is a new thing for me on a couple different levels. I had never tried starting my own bedding plants for the garden before and I had certainly never tried it with a three year old! So far so good. The plants live, most days in Liam's room and he enjoys helping me take care of them and watching them grow.

Cling-on from StarTrek or Liam from Anderson4

I was vacuuming in the spare room this morning when I heard crying. At first I thought it was Libby and then realized that the "MMMOOOOOMMMM!!! was coming from Liam. I ran to the living room where he had been watching kids CBC to see him kneeling down on the ground, holding his head at the foot of the blue rocking chair. He took his hands away and this is what I saw...







Poor guy. As best he could between sobs, he explained that he had hit his head on the front part of the chair. The wood part he pointed to was covered with the blanket that usually sits nicely folded on the back of the chair. The blanket was now spread out on the chair.

I've been watching seasons of Monk (a mystery type tv show, staring a ex-detective that is OCD...Murder She Wrote without Angela Lansbury. When he solves the mystery he says, "Here's what happened". So, here's what happened, as best as I can figure out. Liam was watching cartoons and like some men I know totally forgot his surroundings because he was so engrossed in his show. He misjudged how much chair he had left to sit on and fell. Because he was tangled up in the blanket he maybe spun around and hit his head on the front of the chair. This is purely guessing...we are going to have to hire Adrian Monk to be sure. :)

Thankfully Liam is doing well. The swelling has gone done a bit but he still looks like he should be starting in something called Star Trek: The Next Generation. Okay, what's with me and TV analogies. :)

In Christ Alone

Spring is a busy time for us because the winding down process here on campus tends to be filled with campus activities. Year end parties, dessert nights, banquets and graduation. I've been making lots of desserts lately and we have been able to host people quite a bit. I love it! Each year Easter usually falls somewhere in all of this and just like Christmas I find it difficult to stop and have time to think about what the holiday signifies. From years in church as a kid and now an adult, I know what Easter is about but I don't just want to know...I want the message of it to continue to change me and make me live with more passion and purpose.

This afternoon I sat down for a few minutes to send out a post before we head to the city for the weekend. Before I got here, I found the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52kWPzQlw_A&feature=related

It is made up of scenes from The Passion of the Christ set to the Newsboys rendition of In Christ Alone. Warning...if you haven't seen the movie, please know that some of the video is quite graphic. As I watched it, I realized that I see Christ's sacrifice a little differently since becoming a mother. I realize a bit more how difficult it would have been for Mary to watch her son go through what he did. How difficult it would have been for God to sacrifice his son for the world. Not just people that would accept his love but for those that would deny him and never love him back.

I have been struggling lately with being real. Struggling with letting the message of Christ's sacrifice affect my life as a mother at home, as a wife, a friend...in every part of me. I want to get deeper with Christ but feel like I lack the energy and time to work at it. The other day while I was feeling overwhelmed with the task, a song popped into my head that I haven't heard in years. "Little by little every day / Little by little in every way / my Jesus is changing me ..." It's just a simple Sunday School song but it reminded me that I need to take steps, as little as they may be, and not just stand in one place worried about moving. I'm not sure if any of this blabbing makes any sense to you but thanks for being a sounding board either way.

I hope you have a great Easter!

Spring Is Here

At least I hope it is here and here to stay. In honor of the snow melting, the grass being visible again after about 4 months, and the sound of my rubber boots squishing into the mud, I decided to change up my blog background. I'm not usually a pink girl but maybe my little Libby and her pink wardrobe is rubbing off on me. Happy Spring!

PICTURES!

I had to post all the pictures below only two or three at a time because of their size...so, there are several posts. Happy viewing.

3 Years Old...II

Just a quick disclaimer for those of you who are wondering if I can post pictures taken professionally. I was given permission to do so by my friend Corrie who is also the wonderful photographer who took these pictures. I will say that if you would like a copy of something you see, I will print it and send it to you. :)

3 Years Old!

3 Months Old!...II

3 months old!

Family Pics

Back in February we got pictures taken by our friend Corrie in Nipawin. The occasion was that Libby was three months old. We had pictures taken of Liam at the same time so thought it would be cool to do it for Libby too. The story of the pictures for Liam is for another blog post at a later date.

Here are the family shots. They are rather large file sizes so I will post Liam's and Libby's separately.

A handful here, a handful there

I have a problem. An addiction really. One that I am trying to break but so far have not been completely successful. The problem centers around my pantry and my lack of self-control. Do you think when the Fruit of the Spirit are mentioned in the Bible they are talking about self-control as it applies to semi-sweet chocolate chips. :) Well, I have a feeling that what they list there can apply to all sorts of life situations, including fist fulls of chocolate chips. I remember that my good friend Doris (now hanging out with Jesus) used to have the same struggle and had recently kicked that habit before she passed away in March 06. It's silly but part of me feels a little closer to her and her memory when I sit on the couch with a good book and a little dish of chocolate chips.

However, I have actually improved a lot. Just so you don't think you could walk into my house at any given time of the day and see me in the corner with a bag of chocolate chips and melted chocolate all over my face and hands. The fist fulls now only happen once in a while with exceptions for bad days, brought on by my children's behavioural issues or lack of sleep the night before. It has also been better since I joined Curves and I have some accountability in the area of fitness and weight. An area where I have seen some very encouraging improvement in the last three months. So, all this to say that these pictures of Liam reminded me of my own issues. This is him during a snack a couple days ago and come to think of it, I think he's actually eating something healthy like raisins. Oh, wait...never mind. At closer inspection I see that he is partaking of the chocolate Easter bunny that Uncle Brad brought by the other day. We do get this honestly as it runs in the family.







The picture above is the picture that reminded me the most about my deep-seeded chocolate chip issues. It reminds me of those pictures you see on the tabloid covers with someone like Brittney Spears walking out of somewhere with her hand out in front of the camera covering, in her case, a bad haircut, so the photographers can't fully see the gruesome details. Consider this next sentence the small print...in using this example I am not wanting to or attempting to put myself in the same category as Brittney Spears. :) I may consider myself to have much different ideals and morals but no matter what each of us has done or not done we are both in need to improvement when it comes to the Fruit of the Spirit...as I am daily reminded whether it be with chocolate chips or patience with my three year old.

Well, I feel a little hungry...I wonder if there are any more chocolate chips left...just joking. Maybe I'll grab an apple. :)

Mommy's Little Helper

This video just came to me today in an email from my Aunt. It made me laugh and reminded me of how much Liam wants to help with things around the house. Anything from putting on his own socks to cracking eggs for cookies. He will not be viewing this video. :)

More from a three year old's perspective

Liam asked if he could take one picture the other day. I was there so I thought it would be okay. I got called away to something else and a couple minutes later returned to see Liam still walking around with the camera. I asked him to relinquish it and much to his disappointment he did. Later when I downloaded the pictures onto the computer I noticed that my cute little boy has a bent for photography...or just likes to press buttons...probably more the latter. He took several more than the ones below but I won't bore you with the blurs that I think are actually close ups of things in Libby's room.

Our little rock star

We bought these sunglasses for Liam sometime during his first year of life and they quickly became known as his Bono glasses. For those of you who are not U2 fans or know who I am talking about, here is a picture.



It has come to our attention in the last few weeks that Libby either has a very long tongue, a short tongue tie, or just really likes to show off her tongue so we are noticing it more. The picture of Libby above made me think of Bono but with that tongue the lead singer of Kiss, Gene Simmons also came to mind. I was going to include a picture of him in his Kiss get up but decided against it. They are kind of on the scary side...not "ahh, texas chain chainsaw massacre" kind of scary but more "seriously, what were those guys smoking" kind of scary. :) Feel free to look it up on your own time.

The things kids say

The last two mornings at breakfast Liam had said something that has made me laugh. Yesterday I opened the curtains to see that it had snowed quite a bit over night. Liam sighed and said, "I guess it's not summer yet". This morning he was eating breakfast and talking about his Leapfrog letters on the fridge (this is an every meal occurrence) and he once again was lamenting the fact that we lost the "Q" a while ago. He looked up at me and said, "maybe outside there is a Q shop". If it only were that easy. :)

1920's Bookie or Amish Man?

So, what do you think? It's the Co-op's big anniversary celebration and because Brad works there (in the Nipawin Home and Agro centre) he and the rest of the employees were supposed to dress up like they would have in the 1920s. This picture was taken on Monday when my parents and Grandpa were here. We had a good laugh because with the beard a few of us thought that Brad looked more Amish than someone you would meet in an opium den in the 20s. What do you think? Does Brad look like he should be milking a cow (minus the tie) and driving a buggy or dancing with a girl in a flapper dress?

Brother and Sister

This was taken last weekend when my parents and Grandpa were visiting with us. It was a busy weekend...soccer tournament, Board meeting, visiting, mom getting sick...all in all it was really good to have them here. The kids did a good job of sleeping and being happy when awake, even with all the company. It was actually a fairly easy transition for the kids from company to just mom during the days following their visit. For the last couple days we have enjoyed more company. Our friends Matthew, Robin and Nathaniel are here because Matthew took a class this last week. It's been really good to connect with them again. So you can see why I haven't blogged lately. :)