A birthday weekend

We spent this past weekend in Yakima to celebrate my sister Lianna's 26th birthday. I got some cute shots of the day that I thought I'd pass on. I also wanted to explain the amazing swords and shields Nathan and Dane are holding. My bro-in-law David MADE them. All the woodwork, painting, the whole nine yards. The boys love them and have already sleighed (is that spelled right??) many a bad guy with them.

It was a great weekend.

As good as it gets

On the song "Highway 20 Ride" by the Zac Brown band, he says that raising his son was "the pleasure of his life." That's exactly how I feel today.

After shopping at the mall for some more maternity shirts I came home and told Greg that he was going to be blown away by my cuteness in my new shirt. He told me that he's always blown away by my cuteness.

It's been a good day.

They didn't tell me about this

Parenting. It always surprises you. I remember thinking with Aubrey that once she slept through the night that it would all be a piece of cake. ANYTHING had to be easier than sleep deprivation. Go ahead now, laugh amongst yourselves.

Those of you who know Aubrey understand that she is a sensitive soul. She doesn't like big crowds, is content working on art projects and crafts, and requires gentle parenting. She is thoughtful and considerate and kind but an extrovert or a dare devil, she is not.

Onto my story. We were at a birthday party this evening at McDonalds. It has a huge tunnel like play structure with a large, twisty, enclosed tunnel slide coming down off of it. Only recently has Aubrey even ventured down it and that was with plenty of encouragement. Nathan on the other hand likes it best on his stomach, head first, a face splitting smile on his face.

All night Nathan threw himself down that slide head first. Aubrey really really wanted to do it. She wanted to see what he was grinning wildly about. She came up to me, already nearly in tears, and said, "Mommy, I want to go down the slide head first but I'm so scared. BUT I WANT TO."

I encouraged her that she could do it and that I would wait at the bottom for her. Nathan went first to show her how. Understand, the entrance to this slide is way up in the middle of this huge tunnel structure and it's nearly impossible for this pregnant mama to get to her. I could hear her though, sobbing at the top, "Mommy, I want to, I want to, I want to, but I'm so scared!"

Other kids came down that had crawled past her. I yelled up to her, "Honey, just go feet first. I'm standing right at the bottom waiting for you. We can practice head first later."

Out came Nathan, head first, and bounced out shouting, "THAT IS SO MUCH FUN!"

Then I heard Aubrey's tentative voice saying, "Mommy, I'm coming, I'm coming." I could see her little shadow slowly creeping down, hands first. "YOU CAN DO IT HONEY! GOOD JOB!"

Then, the hysterics, the panic. "MOMMY, HELP ME, HELP ME, I'M TOO SCARED, I'M TOO SCARED!!!! HHEEEEEELLLLLPPPPP MMMEEEE!!!!!!"

Without a thought this mama climbed up the tunnel slide, nearly to the top, and held her hands all the way down. By the time we got to the bottom she was sobbing so hard she couldn't talk. I picked her up and held her while she cried and cried.

When she could talk she looked at me with these huge teary eyes and said, "Mommy, how come I'm not brave like Nathan? I want to be brave and I tried so hard but I was just scared. How come I'm not brave?"

Yes, there were tears in my eyes. There was my precious, just the way God made her, little girl, wondering why she wasn't good enough. Broke my heart right there in the craze of a McDonald's birthday party.

The thing is, I want her to have the courage to try things that scare her. I want her to conquer her fears and know the confidence that comes from thinking you couldn't do something but you did it anyways. I also want her to have the confidence to say, "I am exactly the way God made me and I'm satisfied with that. I'd rather not go head first down the dark twisty slide, thank you very much."

So, I talked my best talk and she listened. I told her that God makes everyone different and special. I told her that we are all made differently to fulfill the plan that God has for each of us. He wants to do something different with her then he wants to do with Nathan or Dane or Mommy and Daddy. That means that we are all special, with special talents and skills. It also means that we are each going to have things that we are naturally good at and things that we have to work harder at to be successful. I tried to emphasize that even if it's hard it doesn't mean we don't do it, we just do it knowing it might take us more work than a different person. I rambled on and on, trying to find the balance I had in my head with my inadequate words.

I talked about what true bravery is. Yes, it's doing something despite its difficulty. What it really is though is doing the RIGHT thing, the Godly thing, despite its difficulty. We talked about a time that she refused to exclude the younger sibling of a friend from playing even though the big sister wanted to. I told her that was true bravery, doing the right and kind thing even when it felt hard. That's the kind of bravery God is interested in, not whether or not she goes head first down a slide.

This might seem like over kill for a scared kid on a slide but this is the tough stuff I tell you. Teaching our kids to value themselves not because of what they accomplish but because of who they are in Christ. If only I knew how to consistently apply this to my own life, maybe I would feel better about teaching it to my children. My precious babies who are created and knit together by God, the exact way they are supposed to be.

As for the slide? Well, Greg loves roller coasters and I hate them. I'm okay with that and I pray that Aubrey can be too.

IT'S OFFICIAL

The house is on the market!!!!!!

Now that I have made that sound so thrilling, so life changing, can I say that it was completely anticlimactic? We are going to try and sell the house ourselves so "putting it on the market" consisted of me putting a For Sale By Owner sign in the front yard, making a blog site, and posting the sale on Zillow.com and Craigslist. Which, by the way, I need some encouragement about Craigslist. Does anything really sell off of there??? It's just miles and miles of nondescript lists. I personally never use it because there are rarely pictures and I'm skimming through lines of words. Do you use Craigslist?

Can you get my feeling? I am not sold on For Sale By Owner. I want someone else to get us out there, show the house, and take my 7%. (Okay, not really the 7% part but doing all the work part.) We are going to see what happens in the next two weeks. I'd like to post the house to ForSaleByOwner.com but Greg wants to give it a bit before we spend the extra money. I might have accused him of taking the cheap way out. Not a nice wife moment. Anyways, we are for sale now and praying that things move quickly. Little Baby Mojo feels like a great big ticking clock to get this move over and done with.

Go take a look for me and see if you can find us on Craigslist or Zillow. I don't want to put out too much information on this blog since I'm not positive who reads it. Let me know what you think of the blog I put together. Tell me that you are desperate to buy my house.

Cheerio!

Something

Something I like: Cherry Pepsi. Only 35 mg of caffeine per serving! Mojo has agreed that on occasion I should have some in a frosty mug while lying on the couch and moaning.

Something I don't like: Potty training. Today I amazed myself by saying for the 16th time, "Okay Dane, tell Mommy before you go in your undies okay? But good boy for trying!" Inside I was on the couch with Cherry Pepsi moaning. And cursing the digestive system.

Something I like: Already made date nights for Valentine's Day weekend. Two I tell you! Baby-sitting already set up, reservations made, the works. I hope to drown myself in buttery foods and hours of playing footsies. Come on, I'm pregnant and exhausted, you don't really think it'll get more sexy than that, do you?

Something I don't like: Every single thing I clean gets dirty again. All of it. All day, everyday. Including myself. SO INEFFICIENT.

Something I like: People magazine. Fine, I said it out loud. You know you like it too.

Something I don't like: Making dinner, especially these days. And by the way, Rachel Ray is only able to make dinner in 30 minutes because she can chop at warp speed and because she's not doing her dishes afterwards.

Something I like: Really good friends who don't judge my complaining and who I don't have to start the conversation off by saying, "You know how grateful I am and how much I love them and how I wouldn't change anything, but..." Nope, with these kinds of friends you start with, "Today is wretched. I probably won't survive." and end with, "I have to go, the little ingrates are up."

Something I don't like: Laundry. There must be a better system out there but I don't know what it is. Laundry is a rapidly reproducing rabbit that lives in every room of this house. That was a metaphor by the way, not a simile. (I threw that in so that you would remember that I have a college education and have from time to time been known for having a brain. )

It's 2:30 p.m., do you think that's too early to shower?

Three stooges

One thing I love: these three adorable kids.

One think I hate: picking out window treatments.

One thing I'm good at (most of the time): being a mom

One thing I'm bad at: picking out window treatments.

Seems I'm in the right occupation.