Joy's Stories

Mommyhood Max-Out

2012-01-22T20:41:00.001-08:00

I’m feeling out of sorts today. I think everything just kind of came crumbling down around me at once, and I got a little overwhelmed. Thank goodness for Ryan, who helps keep me grounded. :-)

We spent most of yesterday shopping for the perfect “Cinderella” costumes for Ryley’s school play. I am usually pretty driven when I have a goal in mind, but there’s only so much that Ryan and Ryley can take. Neither of them like errands too much, and I have to be careful how far I push my little family.

But after visiting a party store, a bridal shop, and two thrift stores, in addition to running several other errands, we found the perfect dress in the back of a spooky, dimly-lit little costume shop with boxes stacked high, masks and wigs hanging from the ceiling, and mannequin arms and heads scattered all over the floor. I hope I never have to go back there again.

But here’s our take on Cinderella….

Ryley’s favorite part is the hoop skirt!

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This afternoon, I had promised Ryley and her friend that we could go around the neighborhood with Girl Scout cookies. We only sold four boxes of cookies in the 25 houses we visited, but it was a really good experience for them. And they were adorable.

The funniest thing: After they had rung the doorbell to a friendly-looking house with an American flag waving, they suddenly freaked out and booked it down the driveway in pure fear.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“There was a sign that said, ‘Trespassers will be shot!’” they said.

Oh my gosh. It was hilarious!

“I think they’re kidding,” I reassured them.

But they could not be convinced to return. :-)

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Ryley and three of her friends have decided they want to put together an act for the school talent show. No information or communication has come home about the talent show, however, so I’ve been pretty confused about what exactly we’re shooting for. But being the mom that I am, I told Ryley I would help her organize a time to practice, and since the try-out is Tuesday apparently, we chose this afternoon at our house, since the one friend would already be here. But none of the other parents returned my calls or e-mail, and since I don’t really know any of them, I was pretty frustrated. I burned CDs of the song they wanted and typed out the words to all the verses. We were ready, but nobody came.

This is where Ryan disagreed with me. He felt I was going too far and being “that mom” that takes too much control. My argument was: “With 3rd graders, you have to help them or it doesn’t happen.” Ryan’s rebuttal to that was: “What’s the harm if it doesn’t happen?” ;-)

We have very different philosophies when it comes to extra-curricular activities. My thing is, it was Ryley’s idea to do it. She and her friends came up with the act themselves. I want to encourage that spirit in her. If she comes up with an idea, I want her to know she can do it.

So anyway, here is what the girls, or ahem, the “Fruit Hoops” have come up with:

It’s definitely unique! Haha! I want to reiterate: this was all their idea. :-)

So with Girl Scout cookies, Cinderella, and the talent show try-outs, it was all just a little too much for me today. Maybe I was getting a taste of the medicine I so generously dole out to Ryan and Ryley on a daily basis? Not sure. But around 5:00, I was just done.

We have a busy two weeks ahead of us. We are still waiting to see if our van is totaled. Ryan works almost every night this week, and I have just gotten way too used to him being home. I do better when we’re together.

He gave me the most wonderful compliment the other day. Ryley and I were goofing around with hula hoops in the living room, and Ryan told me later that he noticed that I am always trying to do things to make sure Ryley is enjoying her childhood…just like his mom always did. It was the very sweetest thing to say. :-)

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I always feel like I am late to the party on so many things. But I’m becoming more and more confident in sharing my discoveries. Because though some of you may be like, “She’s just now discovering that?”, others of you may not have heard of it, and I want to make sure to share the joy. And when I discover something, I DISCOVER it…meaning, I wikipedia and google the heck out of something until I know everything there is to know.

1. Desperation Band… God has been doing a lot in my heart regarding worship. I used to play keyboards/piano for worship in my youth group in high school, but it has just been so long since I have felt “good enough” to even think about being on a worship team again. Until recently. There’s something about our new church that has revived my love for worship, and I’ve actually found myself seeking out good worship songs and picking out the chords in my free time. Here are two that have been on my worship playlist for several months and I just recently realized how much I love them… Both are by Desperation Band:

Highest Place and Everlasting God

So worshipful. I could listen to them over and over again. The version of “Highest Place” on my phone is acoustic and is slower than this.

2. Completely switching topics, I’ve discovered the wonders of baking bacon. I have always, always fried it, but I hate cleaning the mess afterwards, not to mention that I have a horrible habit of burning it. Also, I hate how frying bacon makes our house smell for days afterwards. I feel like I go to work on Monday mornings with the smell of bacon permeating my clothes. “Ah, you made bacon this weekend?”, I imagine my co-workers think. I got to thinking that restaurants must do it differently to get it to turn out so perfectly every time. Ryan said, “Of course, they bake it.” Aha! And so we’ve been doing that, and suddenly it’s no big deal for us to casually stick some bacon on a baking sheet in the oven whenever we want. I love it!

3. The show “Fort Boyard Ultimate Challenge” for kids. I believe it’s on the Disney Channel. Ryan likened it to Double Dare. Remember those days? Anyway, it’s fun, and I am completely fascinated by the host’s unrealistically deep voice. We discovered it Saturday morning, and we plan to watch it henceforth. :-)

Off to bed now. Morning comes early, and I covet a better disposition tomorrow. :-)

Aunt Aly

2012-01-19T20:03:00.001-08:00

Ryley has a very special relationship with my brother’s wife Alyson. It is really very sweet!

At Thanksgiving, after Ryley was reunited with Aly, Justin, and the boys, and they had caught up about school, friends, etc. (meaning Alyson patiently listened while Ryley prattled on and on), Ryley passed me in the kitchen, sighed, and said, “See? Aly just gets me.”

Like we don’t? Haha!

Anyway, so I wanted to link to Alyson’s blog so you can see what very special thing she is doing for Ryley:

http://thesteiners.us/2012/01/ryley-elisabeth.html

Ryley was speechless when she read it a little while ago. Her jaw dropped, and I cried! It’s so very special. There are other wonderful surprises in store for that weekend as well, but you’ll have to wait to find out those. :-)

You have to know that Alyson is amazing. It’s been a rough day for all of us at work and school, and I thought we could use a boost. I texted Aly at 7 p.m. saying that I thought we should let her in on this surprise, but I didn’t necessarily mean tonight, as I knew she wanted to be creative. One hour later she had already put together this very special post! Of course, she is a multi-tasking mother of twins. :-)

Speaking of that, as we tucked Ryley in, it dawned on her that this is probably the first time Aly has traveled away from Will and Jack. She said, “So caring for the boys will be up to Justin that weekend? Wow! That will be a new experience for him!”

:-)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things…

2012-01-17T21:04:00.001-08:00

I’m trying to capitalize more on the moments when I’m in a writing mood, even if there’s nothing really to say. :-)

So here are the things I’m into right now…

What I’m Reading: I absolutely love Catherine Newman’s blog. Her and my politics and religious beliefs differ completely, but she is one of the most amazing writers I have ever read. I have been reading her stuff for nine years; I discovered her on the BabyCenter web site before Ryley was born, and I have followed her from site to site ever since. Her blog is seriously my guilty pleasure. Occasionally I will try one of the recipes she posts, and rarely does she disappoint!

I also finished the book State of Wonder right before Christmas, racking up so many fines with the library that they sent me a $4o bill for the book. I had waited six months on the waiting list for it, though, so I wasn’t about to return it without finishing it. It was so good, but you know how it is to find time to read during the holidays. It was worth it though, and when I arrived at the library with the physical book in my hand, they reduced the fine to $8. It was different than anything I had ever read before, and I highly recommend it!

What I’m Watching: We have really gotten into the show “New Girl” on Fox, mostly because Jess (played by Zooey Deschanel) reminds me a little of myself, always clueless and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and Nick reminds me of Ryan… “reluctant” and “stubborn” on the exterior, but a teddy bear deep down. :-) Very cute, happy show!

I also like “Up All Night.” The characters and situations are pretty believable and funny all at the same time. Good writing!

Next up, I really want to try “Downton Abbey,” which I hear you can access through Netflix. I’m just waiting until I have some time to really focus on it!

What I’m Listening To: “The Best Day” by Taylor Swift. I cried the first time I heard it. It reminds me of my relationship with my own mommy and daddy, as well as what I want my relationship with Ryley to be. I love this line in particular, as she sings to her mom: “You were on my side, even when I was wrong.” That’s resonated a lot with me lately, as we’ve had some situations at school where we feel like we need to come to our daughter’s defense…because she’s only eight. But that’s another subject.

Ryan created a “Florence + the Machine” station on Pandora, and I love pretty much any song that pops up on it!

As far as Christian music, I really like JJ Heller’s new album “Deeper.” I tend to gravitate towards folksy stuff.

What I’m Eating: I came across a chicken avocado salad recipe on Pinterest, so I made it over the weekend, and it was muy delicioso. It was also cheap, quick, and easy.

Here’s what you do: Buy a rotisserie chicken, two avocados, two green onions, a bunch of cilantro, and some lime juice. Shred the chicken breasts and let it cool in a bowl while you cut up all the veggies/herbs. Mix everything together with a dash of mayo and some salt and pepper. Just add and mix ingredients until it tastes the way you like it.

You could eat it alone, but I just used it as a dip for my tortilla chips, which was wonderful! Now that it’s all gone, I want to make more!!!!

So….what are YOU into? :-) I’d love to try new things! Recommendations…?

Looking for Miracles

2012-01-16T22:00:00.001-08:00

When I let Emma in the front door for her piano lesson tonight, there was no snow on the ground. But when I let Emma out 30 minutes later, a half inch of snow had appeared in the meantime. Craziness. I had forgotten it was supposed to snow this evening. I wish I’d thought ahead and bought firewood.

Last week, on Wednesday, we woke up to a couple inches of snow. We ventured out to go to school, and by the time we made it out of our neighborhood and onto the main road, I had made peace with the fact that we were going to be late. The roads were icier than normal (we found out later that the city had neglected to sand them because of budget cuts). Still, I don’t like traffic, and I felt like I could cut through this little neighborhood and save ourselves a few minutes, so I did.

Bad decision.

I slid down a hill and into the landscaping of someone’s front yard. There were tracks from somebody before me, and since I didn’t see any real damage, I backed out of the lawn and continued on my way. I told Ryley we needed to pray for protection, and she did. Twenty seconds later, as I was exiting the neighborhood and approaching the main road, I found myself losing control. I pumped my brakes and called out, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” as we slid right into the intersection where our van was promptly hit by an oncoming car.

You know that moment when you know you’re going to be hit and you’re just waiting for it? It was the longest second of my life.

I’m so glad we’re ok… that the man in the other car was ok. It could have been so much worse. I know God protected us. The other driver had minimal damage, but our van wheel was bent at a slight angle, and Ryley and I waited four hours at that intersection in the falling snow for a tow truck and rental car. We walked over to the corner convenience store for coffee and Fanta. Poor Ryley was such a trooper! She ate her lunch, and after two hours, I cried.

The good people of Hertz finally came to pick us up and took us to their shop, where lo and behold, it was discovered that my driver’s license had expired on my birthday two months ago! I was in disbelief. I am just not that person.

The Hertz worker turned to his manager and asked, “What do I do?”

“You can take her down to the DMV and have her renew her license,” the manager answered snottily, as if I were a piece of trash.

Here I’m standing at the counter with my eight-year-old daughter, whose heavy backpack is strapped to her back, my phone is about to die, our van is being towed, and I still have to get to work so I can run payroll. I’m not going to have some stranger take us down to the DMV and leave us there.

“Absolutely not!” I answered. “Not today.”

With my last few minutes of cell phone juice, I called and gave an update to Ryan, whose restaurant had been busy with a surprise visit from the health inspector. Of all days! He said he would come as soon as he could. In the meantime, my good friend Kathy came by on her lunch hour and drove us to Ryley’s school so we could drop her off five hours late!

So Ryan rented the car, and I took his car and headed to work where I renewed my driver’s license online in about 5 minutes (take that, Hertz lady!), ran payroll, and decided to call it a day.

When we got home that evening, we discovered that our dog Juliet had had diarrhea all over the floor. What a great way to end our drama-filled day!!!! Haha!

The van is very possibly totaled. The rear axel has to be replaced, and there are multiple internal issues as well. I just can’t think about that right now. We will hear our insurance company’s decision tomorrow. Part of us wants a new van because of all the other issues it’s had recently; but we also don’t want another monthly payment. God is in control. He’s already written that part of the story, even though we’re not in on that part of the plot just yet. :-)

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Wellness Update… I am continuing on with the dietary adjustments. I don’t eat wheat of any kind (bread, pastas, etc.). Also, no sugar, pop, milk, ice cream, or processed foods. I still take two dietary supplements that reduce inflammation, and I drink as much water each day as I possibly can.

I’ve lost 35 pounds total since September 18; I made up for the ground I lost over the holidays and then lost another 5 lbs on top of that. My goal is to lose 25 more pounds by the end of March, averaging 10 pounds per month. Then I’ll set another goal after that. Baby steps… :-)

The thing with weight loss is that it is a little addictive (not in a bad way). When you get that jump start and then start seeing some progress, (and in my case start feeling better, fitting into restaurant booths, fitting into smaller sizes, etc.) you want to keep it up.

I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of delicious foods. I’m discovering that I really like good, marinated meat. I like fruit, and I actually like walnuts and almonds. I don’t like salads, so I don’t eat them. The one thing I really miss is pasta, but I’ve started liking pho (which has rice noodles), and Noodles and Co. will substitute rice noodles in any dish. And because I still allow myself corn tortillas, tacos, and tortilla chips, I have the occasional burrito bowl at Chipotle with chips, salsa, and guacamole. If Ryan and Ryley are dead-set on fast-food, I usually can talk them into Wendy’s where I get a bowl of chili. It’s not like I’m starving myself.

It might be surprising to some and even sound a little silly that, after eight years, we haven’t given up on the idea of having more children. Ryley still prays for a sibling every night, just as she has for the last five years. It breaks my heart every time.

I can’t remember if I’ve shared about this or not, but last summer, we attended two informational meetings about adoption – one with our county and one with an agency. We came away so discouraged and overwhelmed by the process, the cost, etc. I guess I feel that by making these dietary changes and becoming healthier, I am giving my body one last shot at getting pregnant. At least then, even if we’re not successful, we’ll know we tried, and we can prayerfully move on to the next option. And I won’t have any regrets.

But in my heart, I still believe it can happen. I still believe in miracles.

Even though we’re half-joking when we dream about our family 10-15 years down the road, Ryan’s taken to calling our future children by name. He is, as the Bible says, “calling things that are not as though they were.”

I know we sound crazy and radical and “out there.” But I’ve been thinking a lot about miracles recently…how our society is so conditioned to think of the supernatural as ridiculous. We are so caught up in the black and white, and we forget that there is a whole other dimension. We forget that David killed Goliath. We forget that God consumed a soaking wet altar with fire from heaven. We forget that He shut the lions’ mouths and turned water into wine. We serve the very same God that did all of those things, and He never changes.

Ryley asked me the other day what it meant that Abraham’s wife Sarah was too old to have children (before she ended up with Isaac), and I found myself explaining menopause (!!!) and then thinking to myself what a tremendous miracle that was that God performed…and it is the very same one that I ask God for all the time. Isn’t it interesting that I had forgotten about Sarah?? How easily we forget!

So, if you didn’t think I was crazy before now, this might clinch it for you: I don’t think it was a “halo” that appeared over the Broncos stadium a week ago, but I do wonder if it may have been the visible glory of God…. Ryan and I watched a documentary where Tim Tebow was mic’d up for a game, and he was literally singing praise and worship songs on the field as he played. It was amazing. The Bible says that “God inhabits the praises of His people.” So if the quarterback is singing God’s praises, and God lives in those praises…well, I told you, I’m becoming a bit radical. :-)

I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. Haha. This is definitely new territory for me.

I love our new church because for so many years I have been complacent about my faith….content to sit and enjoy it and do nothing else with it. I am not a “street-witnesser,” by any means. I’ve been pretty reserved and conservative in my Christianity. But suddenly, my view of the world is broader, and I feel challenged to do more to spread the love of Jesus. We’re forcing ourselves to take part in more church-related outreaches. We’re becoming more open and more outspoken about our faith in our workplaces. This is an area of growth that I really need, and though it’s not fun, and I feel stretched, I am grateful for how God is continually expanding my heart.

Our church, though new and tiny, is globally-minded, and I love being challenged to think about how God makes Himself real within cultures around the world. We tend to bottle Him up into our American version, but there is so much more to Him than that….

He is so much bigger and broader and multi-dimensional and more capable than we give Him credit for.

He is more wonderful than we can ever even imagine.

I’m terrible at writing endings, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

:-)

Tebow Time!

2012-01-08T21:14:00.001-08:00

My voice is hoarse from all the screaming. My ears still feel plugged up and half-deaf from all the noise of the stadium.

Just yesterday, we were considering selling our play-off game tickets for the money, but deep down, we knew it would be fun regardless of the outcome. After all, it was our Christmas present to each other. Looking back, I’m so glad we went!!!!

Maybe I’m over-spiritualizing it a tad, but there’s something to this Tim Tebow/Broncos winning phenomenon. We’ve seen enough of the come-from-behind wins this season to realize there’s something happening behind the scenes. Enough miracles have happened during the games to warrant the phrase “Mile High Magic.” I’m not sure it’s as much about magic as it is about Jesus. Seriously, people.

Maybe He just wants some attention. Maybe He’s using America’s past-time to get it. Maybe He knows He can trust Tim Tebow to help Him.

Tim Tebow is not a “pretty” player by any means. So when our wins defy talent, explanation, and expectations, it seems that “God’s power is being perfected in weakness.”

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

A couple of weeks ago, a Miami Dolphins player was actually quoted as saying that Tebow was so “anointed” on the field that his teammates could feel it and recognized God’s hand was at work. Many of the players have started going to church as a result.

So now the Broncos have done it again. God’s done it again. This game tonight was the most amazing one we have ever been to. We don’t know what’s going to happen next week against the Patriots, but somehow, as our punter said, we know God is in control. It’s all for His glory anyway.

Look at this video….I started recording a couple of minutes after the game was over and we had won in overtime 29-23, and the stadium was still full and rocking. It was absolutely insane. Strangers were hugging and high-fiving.

I just keep thinking….Here are 75,000 people praising the Broncos.

The Bible says that someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. How incredible will that be?

Soup for a Snowy Night

2012-01-07T18:49:00.001-08:00

I’ve never posted a recipe on my blog before, but I just have to share this absolutely delicious goodness with all my friends.

When I first started working with my nutritionist, she sent me a ton of recipes via e-mail. We printed them and laid them out on our living room floor; then Ryley and I sorted through them and decided which ones we should try. Some recipes were not so good (like the egg quiche and the endive-heavy minestrone soup).

But this recipe is amazing. The first time we made it, Ryan and I stood over the pot with our spoons, several hours after dinner was over, shoveling spoonfuls of leftover deliciousness into our mouths until the entire pot was empty. We just couldn’t stop.

I think we’ve made this soup six times since October, which is saying a lot since it is extremely labor-intensive. In fact, this morning as he was getting ready for work, Ryan said, “I don’t want to put any kind of pressure on you, but you know what would be really good for dinner tonight? The soup.”

We don’t even bother identifying it anymore. It is the soup.

The copy of the recipe that I have is a scanned PDF that looks like it came from a magazine. But the very bottom is cut off, so I have no idea which magazine. I have googled the title and the words, hoping to find it online so I can add my rave review. But I cannot find it.

It is so delicious, and tonight was our best pot yet. Even as I sit here typing, I have my second bowl of the soup on the coffee table next to me. It is so amazing. It is also good for you…full of fresh ingredients that help with sickness and weight loss.

So, I hope someday on a chilly Saturday when you have some extra time to prep and cook, you will try this recipe. It is just too good not to share….

SPICY CHICKEN, TOMATO, & GARLIC SOUP

Makes 6 Servings

You could certainly make this recipe with chicken breasts, but thighs have much more flavor (we returned to thighs because breasts seemed to end up too dry). This soup is just middle-of-the-road spicy, so if you like spice you can increase the cayenne and jalapeno. My family doesn’t like too much spice, so I leave out the jalapeno altogether, do just a dash of cayenne, and then add more cayenne to my individual bowl.

You could also double the recipe. We have doubled it on two occasions, and it was nice to have leftovers for a week. But it’s already a lot of work, so be warned!

One more thing: I suggest you do your garlic prep work in advance. Peeling garlic takes time (you have to use fresh whole garlic cloves; don’t take a shortcut), and if you try to multi-task like I did, you will find that your broth is boiling long before the garlic is ready. You can prep the bell peppers while you are boiling the chicken and garlic, but you will need to work quickly.

8 cups chicken broth (canned)

2 cups water

1.5 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs

16 cloves of garlic, peeled (yes, 16!)

2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes

3 yellow or red bell peppers, cut into small squares

1.25 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup brown rice (I use 1 bag of frozen brown rice and cook it for 5 minutes in the microwave)

6 tablespoons minced cilantro

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon minced pickled jalapeno (I have not done this)

1. In a large saucepan, combine the broth and water. Bring to a boil, add the chicken and garlic, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until chicken is just cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside. When cool enough to handle, shred or cut into bite-size pieces.

2. With a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic to a food processor or blender along with 1/3 cup of the broth and puree until smooth.

3. Add the garlic puree to the pan along with the tomatoes, bell peppers, cumin, salt, and cayenne. Bring to a boil, stir in the rice, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. (Even though I microwave my rice ahead of time, I still let the broth simmer for 15 minutes so the flavors become infused. The longer you let it cook, the more tender the peppers are too, and everything is just more flavorful.)

4. Return the chicken to the pan along with the cilantro, lime juice and jalapeno, and cook just until heated through, about 1 minute.

Enjoy!!!!!

One Day at a Time

2012-01-04T23:04:00.001-08:00

Hooray for a new year! I just finished setting up my daytimer and calendar with our schedule and goals for the year, and I have to admit that it’s all a little overwhelming. :-) One day at a time, right?

Our January is already packed to the brim with Cinderella play rehearsals and Girl Scout cookie sales and freelance writing opportunities and a writer’s guild meeting, not to mention work, school, and piano lessons. Surprisingly, none of our events conflict, which was a pleasant surprise. Somehow I think that this is how it’s going to be for us from now on, though. :-)

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend. We received a bunch of snow the week before Christmas, and uncharacteristic of clear and sunny Colorado, the snow hung around to give us a white Christmas and then some. In fact, Ryley’s snowman is still a tiny mound in the front yard, surrounded by the sticks she used for arms.

We did some more sledding on Christmas Eve, and something about the way Ryley ditched her snow hat, let her hair flow loose, and held her sled over her shoulder, added six or seven years to her in attitude. She reminded me of a snowboarder or something. She was really becoming quite confident!

Christmas Day was lovely, though it seemed that time got away from us, and the day flew by in strange ways.

The big highlight was that Ryley received a guitar from Santa.

She has been a Taylor Swift fan for several months, so now her new dream is to take guitar lessons. She’s already taught herself the first few songs in the lesson book Santa also brought.

“I have a new lifetime goal,” she announced the other day. “Before I turn 18, I want to learn how to play a Taylor Swift song on the guitar.” Such a lofty endeavor.

She also received the first season of I Love Lucy, which was a huge hit. Ryley is a big fan of slapstick, so she just sits and giggles at all of Lucy Ricardo’s antics. Oh my.

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Our original plan for Christmas was to fly to Atlanta and be with Ryan’s sisters, brother, dad, and stepmom for the holidays. But unfortunately, with airfare as ridiculously high as it’s been, the $1,100 plane tickets just weren’t possible for us. Also, Ryan wasn’t confident in his ability to be across the country from his restaurant for more than a week.

A couple of weeks ago, however, he realized he could have a few consecutive days off around New Year’s, and looking at our budget, we decided we could afford the gas for a quick trip to Oklahoma to see my parents. We hadn’t been to Tulsa in a couple of years, so it was really nice to get to show Ryley where we went to college, where we lived when we were first married, etc.

Here’s Ryley watching I Love Lucy on my laptop somewhere in western Kansas…

Ryley at the Praying Hands at ORU, where we attended college.

In front of the field where we had our first kiss… :-)

We showed Ryley the gigantic air vents by the classroom building, where Ryan and I used to go on hot days and just let the cold air rush our Oklahoma-scorched bodies. We used to call it “Little Bit O’ Colorado.”

They have done a lot of updating in recent years, so the campus looked amazing. We showed her our dormitory buildings and explained how we used to have to wait in line to use a computer or rush to claim the TV before anybody else. We showed her how I could stand in my dormitory window and see Ryan in his dorm room across the courtyard, and how we would stand in our windows and talk on the phone. Lot of good memories. :-)

Then my mom drove us around to see all three of our apartments we lived in after we were married, as well as the Railroad Bridge, where Ryan proposed….

All of that was very interesting to her! :-)

That evening my parents took us to the Rhema Lights, which though seemingly cheesy, always ends up being so beautiful. Ryley loved it.

Then we went to this place my parents had heard about in Sapulpa, whose lights were even MORE amazing. We got there too late, so we weren’t able to walk through them, but we did drive by…

My brother and his family drove up from Dallas for a couple of days, and it was so fun to be together! The twins are starting to walk and talk, and by the end of the weekend they were even saying “Ryley” in their own special way. Very fun!!

Will and Mammaw…

Ryley and Jack…

Jack denies any more kisses from his daddy…

Pappaw shows Ryley how it’s done! :-)

Ryley shows the boys how the train goes around the Christmas tree, a Steiner family tradition! They LOVE trains!!!

It is REALLY difficult to get good pictures of these little guys. They are constantly on the move!!!!

Yes, he’s napping. But he’s more of a Cowboys fan, I suppose. I’m not sure where his loyalties lie, and it bothers me, Justin. It really, really does.

Lots of games were played…

My mom made Ryley and Ryan “R”-shaped pancakes. Haha!

Uncle Ryan and Will in their Broncos gear on Game Day!

Just when I think I can tell these boys apart in their looks, they completely throw me for a loop. Will’s bump on his head is a real blessing! But they have absolutely different personalities. Oh my goodness, it will be fun to watch them grow up!

Ryley and Will, chillin.’

All plugged in…

My mom and dad with the grandkids…

What a trip! It was quick but full, and I’m so thankful that we were able to work it out. We had really good family time. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for hosting us!!!!! You guys are amazing, and we love you so much!

So hopefully now we can get cheap tickets to see Ryan’s family on Spring Break!!!!

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Wellness Update:

I decided sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas that I was just going to enjoy the holiday and not feel guilty for “splurging.” Since I have never really dieted before this fall, I have never ever felt guilty for treating myself to what I want. I never fully understood the guilt people feel when they eat something they shouldn’t, so it was new for me to feel that way. I know that sounds strange!

But that’s when I decided to set a date of January 2 as my return-to-wellness day, and with that in mind, I was able to relax. I still stayed off pop and processed foods like chips, but I allowed myself some wheat and dairy within reason, like pizza, noodles, and ice cream. And it was all very delicious!!! :-)

When I weighed myself when we got back, I had gained 5 lbs since before Christmas. But after two days back on the wagon, I have lost 3 of that already. I am returning to my original restrictions, except I’m allowing coffee this time around. So my total weight loss is at 28 lbs. and hopefully I will be able to keep going! We’ll see. By God’s grace.

A month ago, I ran my blender into the ground because I make myself a protein shake every morning. One day it just exploded from the bottom, and blueberries, bananas, and almond milk went everywhere. So Ryan and Ryley got me a new blender for Christmas. I used it for the first time this morning, and I am glad to be back in business! Having a protein shake really helps me make sure I eat breakfast (because I look forward to the deliciousness) and helps curb my appetite for the rest of the day.

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I’m also going to keep doing freelance writing for this company, Good Catch Publishing. I wrote that one story in November, and it was really well received. They sent me many compliments, and I guess I just figured that they are a very complimentary bunch (because they are). I did have to make quite a few edits for them, and I had to rewrite my ending, so I wasn’t sure how much they really liked it. But before I knew it, I was being invited to join a Writer’s Guild here in Denver, and my story won the January Story of the Month for the whole company! I just found out yesterday. I am just so grateful to God for this opportunity to work with them, become a better writer, and use my words for His glory.

It also gives me hope when I have a bad day at my day job. This job is not forever; God has other things in store for me down the line! Sometimes I wish it were just a tad quicker though. :-)

So those are my big goals for the year: keep achieving wellness, keep writing, and keep reading (because reading makes me a better writer, and I am not good at reading).

I’ve also been thinking of resolving to listen to more country music. Ryley has me pretty convinced with Taylor Swift. :-) We listened to every single album of hers (a gift from Ryley’s aunts) all the way across the plains of Kansas.

I kind of want to learn the guitar along with her, but I don’t know how I would ever find the time and focus for that. One day at a time, I suppose. ;-)

13 x 365

2011-12-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

We're in Kansas tonight, driving together under the December stars. And our marriage is 13 years old.

It was a night just like this one, 13 years ago to the day, with patches of unmelted snow on the ground, stars and clouds interspersed in the sky. My brother sang "'Til There Was You," and all our family and best friends were gathered there together in the candlelight.

A lot of moments have passed since then.

Tonight we kissed in the aisle of a convenience store in the middle of nowhere. I drove to the tunes of our daughter's newfound obsession, Taylor Swift, while Ryan slept. Ryley sat in the backseat of the Hyundai, headphones on and my laptop perched on her lap while she watched hours and hours of "I Love Lucy" episodes, her unsuppressed giggles interrupting my quiet, reflective thoughts.

And I thanked God for how GOOD He has been to us these last 13 years. Sure, there have been hard times and easy times. Sad and happy. Ups and downs. But through it all, His mercies have never come to an end. They are new every morning.

That's 13 x 365 mornings.

And we love each other more than ever.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T10:17:00.001-08:00

We spent the night on the floor next to the Christmas tree last night. While it was a great idea in theory, Ryan and I didn’t end up sleeping very well. :-) He was on the couch, and Ryley and I shared the air mattress. But it was fun.

It will be just the three of us for Christmas this year. But it’s actually going to be quite nice after a busy holiday season thus far…

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Ryley’s school Christmas concert was pretty cute; her 3rd grade class sang Jingle Bell Rock and Sleigh Ride.

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Ryley’s best friend has been spending a lot of time with us recently because of her mom’s work schedule. One Saturday, we went to our local nursery to see Santa and the reindeer…

Ryley was rather unimpressed by the reindeer. She said they weren’t the real ones.

“If they were really Santa’s reindeer, they would just fly right out of that pen,” she stated, so matter-of-factly.

We waited 30 minutes to see Santa, but the girls were hungry and decided they’d rather go eat lunch than meet Santa, so we left.

Ryley didn’t think he was the real Santa anyway. She was unimpressed that he was asking the kids their names .

“If he were the real Santa, he would KNOW your name. He wouldn’t have to ask.”

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The next weekend I held my annual piano recital for my students. Our house has certainly become “the little house that could.” We have asked a lot of it in the last few months! We had 27 people squeezed into our tiny living room for the recital.

As we were waiting for students, parents, and guests to arrive, there was a knock on the door. I answered it and invited the two well-dressed ladies inside, thinking they were there for the recital. They seemed bewildered by my welcome, and as they crossed the threshold, one of them said, “Thank you for inviting us in, but I don’t think you were expecting us. We’re here to see Ryan.” And that’s when it dawned on me. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses – the very ones we’ve been hiding from for years! Ryan was friendly to them once and promised to read their literature (all with the intent of sharing Jesus eventually), but ever since, they’ve always come when Ryley and I are home alone or none of us are dressed, etc., and we’ve been dodging their attempts to contact us. So, Ryan came downstairs and talked to them, and they were so gracious and agreed to come back at a better time. Ha ha!!!! It was quite funny in retrospect. :-)

This is me giving my students a pep talk before the performance:

“If you mess up, just keep going,” I’m saying.

Each student played two songs.

As you can tell from my face, I was just as nervous as the kids!!!

Then Ryley and I played a duet later in the recital. We had literally decided to do it just a week before, and we didn’t tell anyone, in case it didn’t work out. But we practiced hard, and it went well! I personally hate performing, so I was nervous and shaky and sooooo glad when it was over!!! :-)

Don’t the kids all look so beautiful??? I love this picture!!

They all played so wonderfully, and I am really, really proud of all of them.

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That evening, in keeping with our “clean the house once; have two parties in one day” tradition, we recovered our house from the recital and had 32 people at our Class of 1996 Christmas Party/15-Year-Reunion. It was a great get-together; lots of laughter ensued.

This is my bestie Danielle; she was maid of honor in our wedding.

All of our kids (the ones who came anyway) got along so well….just like we all did, back in the day. :-)

The boys make small-talk.

And of course, new baby Macy made her debut among our group of friends….

I don’t think we’ve changed all that much. The biggest difference is that we wear less flannel and don’t sit in corners playing the guitar and singing anymore. Ah, the good ol’ nineties.

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We had a lot of snow this week, and Ryley and Ryan had fun playing in it! I think there were 10 inches at our house, with drifts up to 18 inches in the backyard. We let Ryley open her present of new snow pants early. She wears a size 10 now and has been squeezing into her size 6x snow pants for the last three years!

Then yesterday we went sledding. I think it was the first time in five years. Last year we didn’t really get enough snow to sled. Some years the conditions are hit or miss. But the snow was perfect this time, and she had a blast!

She’s getting a new coat for Christmas. This one has seen better days. :-)

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I have so many more thoughts that I’ve formulated over the last few weeks, and I’m sure I will blog again soon. But here are a few Ryley Stories to leave you with…

1. A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and Ryley went to the Zoo Lights for Girl Scout Night. There was a large light display of a “whale,” and Ryan was curious if Ryley knew that it was specifically a blue whale. Science and animals are not my strong point, so I think this whole story is funny as it backfired on Ryan.

Ryan: “Ryley, do you know what that is?”

Ryley: “Yes, balaena.”

Ryan: “What?”

Ryley: “That’s whale in Latin.”

Ryan was taken aback. It certainly wasn’t the answer he was expecting! Ha ha! Ryley’s school has been teaching Latin this year, and it’s actually been interesting to see how quickly all the kids have picked it up. I wish she could take Spanish or something!

2. The other day, as we passed Toys R Us, Ryley asked why the R was backwards in the store name.

“Well, I think it’s because they think it’s silly…like how a kid might write it,” I answered.

Later, she brought it up again.

“I just don’t understand why they write the R backwards. Do they really think that kids don’t know how to write an R?”

I could tell that she had been thinking about it, and she was so offended!

“Maybe they meant younger kids,” I responded.

“Maybe. But I still don’t think it’s nice.”

3. Ryley auditioned for the school play (a funny Cinderella spoof) a few weeks ago. She worked really hard on her monologue, and Ryan and I thought she was well-prepared, but we didn’t want her to get her hopes up either. I told her that if she didn’t get a part, it was okay because God must have something else in store. It was hard for her to fathom anything better than being in the play:

“If I’m not in the play, then God must have some really big plans for me!”

The day she was going to find out if she got a part, I was just as nervous as she was. It’s that fine line where you want your child to succeed, but you also want what’s best for her growth and development as a person.

So as I drove up to her class in the pick-up line after school, Ryley had the biggest smile on her face. It was not a smile of “I got a part.” It was not a smile of “I got the role of fairy godmother.” It was the widest, toothiest grin I’ve ever seen; even before she spoke, I knew it. “Mom, you’ll never believe it: I got the role of Cinderella!” :-)

We have a lot of lines to memorize over break, but it will be fun. We are thankful that she gets the opportunity and experience.

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In some ways it feels like Christmas Eve, and in other ways it doesn’t. These last few months, God has been doing a lot in my heart, and Jesus is becoming so much more real to me. He’s changing my mindset about a lot of things, and it’s really, really good. Those are thoughts for another time though.

May you have the merriest of Christmases, remembering that it’s Jesus’ birthday and not our own. :-) That, to me, is the biggest lesson of all.

Grace, peace, and joy to you.

Home Is Her Favorite Place to Be

2011-12-06T21:11:00.001-08:00

Recently, Ryley was filling out some sort of questionnaire, and she listed “home” as her favorite place in all the world. Ryan read it first and then brought it to show me.

“Even more than DisneyWorld?” was my response.

“Yes,” she answered, with no hesitation.

Honestly, we took it as such a compliment – that with all its shortfalls, our sweet little house has become such a haven for her from the ickiness in the world. We consistently invite God to dwell here, and we pray that our home is filled with His peace.

In the weeks before Thanksgiving, we gave the house a scrubbing -- the likes of which it had never seen. And somehow, despite the fact that yes, we need new carpet/flooring all over…and we could really use an updated/expanded kitchen…and our second bathroom isn’t really working…and our yard needs serious landscaping, the cleaning we did seemed to have breathed new life into what we do have. And in light of what others don’t have, God is speaking to us about being content.

Today was one of those afternoons where my drive to get things done simply pushed Ryley too far. I was trying to purchase some various gifts for a few upcoming parties, and looking ahead, I realized this would be the best night to do it. For more than three hours we traipsed from store to store, fighting icy parking lots, wielding heavy coats, and waiting for slow cashiers. We broke two ornaments in Hobby Lobby, spilled custard all over the backseat in the van, and upon arriving home, Ryley clumsily broke two plates in our living room. I was so upset with how things had gone, and poor Ryley just sobbed at my less-than-patient snap at her from across the yard when I heard the sound of breaking glass: “What did you do?” They were all accidents, of course, so we curled up together in our cushy chair, and she said, “I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! All that time we were out shopping, I just wanted to be home.”

Ryley is becoming my buddy. She quite excitedly accompanied me to visit my friend Katie and her baby in the hospital last week. She offers unsolicited but appreciated advice when I’m shopping. She is opinionated about everything, yet enthusiastic and encouraging. She sorts my groceries into piles and, when we’re shopping on a gift registry, she hogs the registry list and leads the way. Very type A. Though she loves her daddy to pieces, she chooses to ride in the car with me -- because I will listen to Christmas music, whereas with Daddy, she has to listen to sports talk radio. Some days she’s eight going on thirteen; other days she’s simply eight going on nine.

What she wants more than anything else for Christmas is a pair of comfy jeans with an elastic waistband. Second, she wants a wall clock that plays hymns at the top of each hour. I love it. We might actually have to get them both.

At school, she was given an assignment to create a PowerPoint presentation about Cleopatra. It’s not due until next Monday, yet she’s been working on it faithfully for the last week. It’s actually pretty good, though with its tales of adultery and suicide, the Cleopatra subject matter is a little interesting.

“Did you know that Cleopatra and Julius Caesar had children, even though they were not married? They were loving each other the wrong way!”

Ryley was diagnosed with eczema on her hands a couple of months ago, and it’s been so hard to watch her struggle with it. At its worst, right before we took her to the doctor, her skin was bleeding at school, and she could hardly hold her pencil. With the weather as cold and dry as its been in the last few weeks (below zero this weekend), we’ve been vigilant with the lotions and creams, and sometimes she sleeps with gloves over her lathered-up hands. My heart just breaks for her. Just when we think we’ve got it under control, it flares up again.

Well, today is our dog Juliet’s third birthday. She sits here at my feet, contentedly chewing her Dingo and passing gas. Lovely. My Scentsy warmer is working hard to combat the odor with its blissful “Festival of Trees” fragrance.

Leahh and I had Yolanda’s Tacos for lunch at work today because A) there is nothing like their deliciousness in all the world, and B) I’ve noticed I lose another pound every time I eat them. I can’t figure why, but we’re just going to keep that up!!! :-) The weight loss has slowed down some. I finally reached 30 lbs. this past weekend, so I cheated in celebration, and back up to 28 I went. Ha ha. It really does take constant work. Back on the wagon I go…

Our lives are imperfect. Our house is imperfect. But it’s cozy, warm, and Christmas-lit, and we just have so, so much to be grateful for. Ryan is almost home now, and we will probably watch some TV before bed. Then we’ll start again tomorrow…another day of traffic and work and school and errands and traffic, all with the goal (or reward) of coming home and being together in the evening. It’s what we work toward all day long.

I have to agree with Ryley’s (and Dorothy’s!) sentiment that there’s simply no place like home.

And there were 29…

2011-11-29T20:50:00.001-08:00

We began the Thanksgiving holiday with a pantry, fridge, and freezer busting at the seams. Our shelves had never been so stocked. I took Tuesday off of work, solely so I could go grocery shopping, and it took Ryan’s help (exasperated sighs and all) and two full shopping carts. Then I spent hours organizing the groceries and using a lot of creativity to cram them all into our extremely limited space. But it was worth every single second.

As the weekend progressed and each meal was prepared, the pantry became roomier. The fridge became easier to work with. While I rejoiced that there was breathing room at last, I also became sad. Because with every meal that was cooked, we were that much closer to everyone leaving and to the weekend being over.

And I can’t speak for the entire family, but I was having a really good time. :-)

This was the first time in six years that our entire family on my mom’s side had been together in the same place at the same time. It was heavenly…

My brother Justin and his wife Alyson drove through the night and arrived around 7 a.m. on Wednesday. We had lots of time with Will and Jack, my 15-month-old twin nephews. My parents flew in that morning as well, so soon we were all together!

I thought I had baby-proofed pretty well, but I guess I’m out of practice, and I missed some spots! And unlike our dog, baby gates don’t deter little boys! They turned the DirecTV box off, on, off, on, off, on, all weekend long. :-)

Justin pointed out that, staying true to the story, Super Girl (Kara) and Super Man (Kal -El) really were cousins! Yes, we’re not too ashamed to admit that we’re a family of nerds. ;-)

On Thanksgiving morning, we got up early and worked together to create the meal.

After tripling the stuffing recipe, it still didn’t seem to be quite enough, so we quickly octupled (?) it.

Ryan and Justin had a separate little project going on for Turkey #2. We were experimenting with deep frying.

We thought that if anything was a fire hazard, it was our flaming pot of oil in the backyard. But no.

While Mammaw and the grandkids were on a walk…

the fire happened in our oven with Turkey #1:

Unfortunately, I don’t have an actual picture of the fire because I was busy diving into the flames to SAVE THE TURKEY!!!

Thank you, Alyson and Daddy, for knowing how to put out a fire quickly. Thank you for saving our house!

Alyson and my dad cleaned up the oven, and we transfered the turkey to a different dish, and Justin and Ryan aired out the house, and soon we were back to normal, peeling our potatoes and waiting for our company to arrive.

It was a lovely day, so we lined up most of the food outside. My aunt pitched in and made the casseroles.

Family arrived just in time! We had 25 for dinner and then 4 more came later that afternoon…

We did it!

Brotherly love.

Kids ate upstairs, and adults ate downstairs.

That evening, when all 29 of us were there, we did our traditional Christmas white elephant gift exchange:

And then we gathered at the hotel for family portraits. My uncle used his amazing camera. This is my entire family, minus my grandpa.

My parents with their grandkids:

My grandma with her six grandchildren:

The next day was the Nebraska football game, and we were right where you would expect. And yes, there was Rotel dip.

The cousins played on the trampoline for most of the weekend…

My mom and her siblings started singing around the piano on Friday afternoon, which was really fun…

The Korell Family Singers, just like in the days of old. I promised I wouldn’t post a video, so just imagine four-part harmony to just about any old hymn. :-)

On Saturday, everyone started leaving, and it was really hard to keep my emotions in check. And poor Ryley -- whenever she sees ME crying, she starts crying too. It had been such a perfect weekend and family time. We all actually like each other, which we know is rare, and we are grateful.

Around noon, all that was left were my parents, brother, Aly, and the twins, so we had some family fun at our local nursery, which was having a festive open house:

We returned to the house and played some board games…

But before long, it was time to say goodbye to all of them too. It was really rough!!! Ryley went on and on (through heavy sobbing) about how she didn’t spend enough time with her Mammaw and Pappaw, how much she just loves those boys, etc., etc., etc.

We just chilled on Sunday. It was a quiet and sad day. We had looked forward to Thanksgiving for so long that we were really feeling the letdown. We recovered our house and put up our Christmas tree, but it’s still been hard. Ryley still has a whine in her voice three days later.

The house is empty.

Thanksgiving is done.

The pantry is re-stocked.

Now Christmas can come!

Odds and Ends

2011-11-15T21:32:00.001-08:00

Tuesday nights are becoming my night to blog, I guess. Ryan usually works late, and it’s a good time to have some Joy-time. It’s funny, though, that even with all the writing I’ve done this week for my freelance project, I still have trouble getting a blog post started. :-)

My project was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for the next one. I think it stretched me and made me a better writer. I am still waiting for feedback on my story– a 7,100-word ghost-written autobiographical story about a young girl’s struggle with anorexia and suicide. Other than my senior paper in college, it was by far the longest thing I’ve ever written. It took a lot out of me, but it was so satisfying!

Even the subject matter, though depressing, made it such an interesting challenge. I literally looked forward to working on it every evening. Writing begets writing. I guess I hadn’t realized how much fun work can be when you’re doing what you’re called to do. I also hadn’t known how much I really like writing more than editing. Editing can be so tedious, whereas, with writing, I was given a blank canvas and the license to weave words together to create and bring a story to life where there was none before...to create new thoughts that now, through the miracle of words, can be shared. I love it!

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I’ve been impatient with people this last week, specifically ones who create drama in their daily lives and then impose it upon me. I really don’t like drama.

I honestly think that some people sit at home in the mornings and think, “What will be my shtick today? Should it be my ex-boyfriend? My sick cat? My friend’s job problems? What human interest story can I develop that will revolve around me?”

Ryan and I both have these issues with people at work, and we often text each other throughout the day, comparing our employee problems.

“I’ll one up ya,” Ryan wrote. “K just called off work for her shift. Because of hives.”

I think that overall I am a pretty merciful, loving person. But I’ll tell you what: You push me too hard and too far with your drama, and the cold-hearted, merciless German comes out of me. And it’s not pretty.

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Ryley has been funny this week. She’s been finger-weaving scarves as gifts for people and suddenly decided today that she will be starting her own business making and selling scarves. She will sell said scarves to her friends for one cent each.

“Ryley, I really think you should charge more,” I suggested. It will cost you several dollars to just buy more materials. Maybe you should charge a dollar.”

“No, Mommy. It’s my business. People won’t spend a dollar on a scarf. Cents sound better.”

She has her first order to fill tonight, and she’s making this one for free because her friend does not have even one cent! So funny. It reminds me when my friends Christie, Katie, Kendra, and I had competing stationery, name plate, and perfume businesses which we officed out of our 4th grade lockers. :-)

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Ryley reads a lot of classics and old-fashioned books, therefore, she uses the word “queer” in everyday conversation. It cracks us up every time.

“How queer!”

“Mom, don’t you think it’s queer that….?”

Etc., etc., etc.

And tonight she used “eh” at the end of a question. Yes, like a Canadian. I’m not sure where she even got that!!!

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The other night, Ryley was beginning her homework downstairs when she realized she had forgotten both her paper and pen upstairs. She made a comment about going upstairs to get the paper, and I suggested she remember to get the pen too. Because sometimes we have trouble multi-tasking. :-)

“Get the pen while you’re at it. That way you can kill two birds with one stone.”

Ryley looked at me and shrugged: “Or a gun.”

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Wellness Update…

I just keep thinking, why didn’t I do this sooner? With every outfit that fits better, every restaurant booth I slide into easier, etc., my life improves. I have a list of things to do when I’m skinnier (ride a rollercoaster, jump on Ryley’s trampoline, etc.), and I’m not brave enough to share all those things just yet. My weight has crippled me in a lot of ways, and I’m gradually feeling less-handicapped.

After years and years of gaining, it’s strange to do subtraction on the scale instead of adding. I am down 25 pounds in just over 8 weeks. I have a long way to go though! And with the holidays approaching, it’s going to be extra difficult! :-)

Ryan has lost 10 pounds without even trying…just by eating the meals I’ve provided for dinner, but not drastically cutting out the extra things that I have. So that’s good too!

I don’t know if it’s related to eating differently or not, but I’ve found myself stuttering more, spelling things wrong, and generally lacking focus at work. I don’t handle stress as well, and I get defensive and angry very easily. I also get sleepy early in the evening. I’m sure everything will even out eventually, but it has been weird to notice those changes.

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Bonus pic of Ryley:

There are so many things wrong with this picture!!! Namely, the little boy who is patiently waiting for the big girl to get off the 1-cent pony. Ha ha! Then, the side-saddle cracks me up too. Also, she’s very serious. Just typical Ryley. ;-)

Not Even SuperGirl Could Fix My Dishwasher

2011-11-05T22:10:00.001-07:00

I’m squeezing in this post tonight because it might be a few weeks before I have time to write “recreationally” again. Tomorrow is my first assignment for my new freelance project, and I will have nine days after the interview to fashion a 7,000-word piece, using the best writing of my life. I am extremely nervous about it, but I’m excited too, because there is nothing as rewarding and fun for me as writing well. We will see! There are a lot of expectations and rules, and I’m hoping I can remember them all!

It’s been an interesting week for us, on many levels.

My uncle Paul took these lovely pictures of Ryley playing in their leaves last weekend while we were at the Broncos game:

Meanwhile, we were watching this:

That ended up being my favorite part of the game, since we played so horribly. :-) We lost 45-10, or something like that. We left in the 3rd quarter. We are big Tim Tebow fans, and we didn’t want to see them boo him. It wasn’t all his fault.

The next night was Halloween, and we kept our tradition of attending Word of Life’s Harvest Carnival. Ryan had to work, so it was just me and SuperGirl….

It was really super.

On Wednesday morning we received eight inches of snow, so school was closed. Yay!!! Ryley and I stayed home, and it was wonderful! We built a fire in the fireplace, slow-cooked a pot of chili, watched prairie movies all day, and played…

It was one of those perfect, perfect days.

Thursday was my birthday, and I turned, ahem, 34. I’m getting to that point where I have to do math to remember my age. Haha! It was not the best of days for me at work and at Ryley’s school (aforementioned irritability?), and it ended up being a “confrontational day.” But we had a nice evening, and all my family made me feel so special. :-)

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Wellness Update….

Our dishwasher died two weeks ago. Ryan woke up at 3 a.m. one night, and our dishwasher was still trying to run (we started it around 9 p.m.), and it smelled like melting plastic. It has never really cleaned our dishes, and it has always leaked regardless of our occasional caulking. So after trying to run it a few more times with no success, we declared it officially dead.

This has made our lives extremely difficult, especially in light of all the cooking we’ve been doing recently. And even when the dishwasher service guys came out to deliver the new one, they couldn’t get the old one out of the cabinets, so the drama continued. Ryan was able to get it out on his own, albeit by putting a chip in our countertop, but then the old dishwasher sat in the middle of our kitchen for three days before the service guys could come back out to remove it and install the new one (last week’s episode of The Middle was extremely timely for us!). So, with a sink full of dishes and an inability to keep up on the washing with limited hot water and overall time/energy (not to mention it was my birthday), we decided to eat out in the meantime, and I feel like I didn’t make the best food decisions this week. We ate out a lot.

I tried to choose low-carb options everywhere we ate. As my nutritionist said, we are trying to get my body re-trained to view protein as fuel instead of viewing carbs as fuel. So the fewer carbs there are in my diet, the more my body leans on that protein and re-learns how to burn fat instead of store fat. Tonight we had my birthday dinner with my aunt and uncle at Texas Roadhouse, which was a first for me. I’ve never craved steak before (I usually crave pasta), and today I did!

But even with the weird week, my total weight loss since September 18 is now 20 lbs, and that is exciting. It’s certainly not easy, but it is do-able. The new amazing dishwasher is now installed, and our healthy meals are planned for the coming week. I will never take my dishwasher for granted again!!!

I got home from my friend’s baby shower this afternoon, and Ryan could hardly wait to show me:

“Look, our glasses are clean! So shiny!”

;-)

Fall Stuff (and lack of chocolate)

2011-10-29T23:24:00.001-07:00

It’s been a good Saturday…a lazy family day of the very best kind. Ryan just helped Ryley and her friend solidify their blanket fort with duct tape, and they are finally tucked in for the night in their tiny, self-made home.

Today we did pumpkin stuff at our local nursery. It’s always more fun with a friend…

But instead of doing our customary carving, we decided to let the girls paint their pumpkins. This is the first time since Ryley was a baby that we haven’t carved our pumpkin. Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for the mess, you know?

I believe the pumpkins’ names are Susanna and Tasha. At least that’s what I was told.

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Almost overnight, Ryley has become gangly. I think she’s grown an inch in the last week. She is always getting hurt on our stairs, on our coffee table, in her room, outside, etc., etc., etc. Always a sign of growth. Look at those long legs….

She’s also maturing. In the last few weeks she’s been finding that we (her mommy and daddy) are funny. She suddenly understands irony and little inside jokes Ryan and I have shared all along….We’ll be talking and joking about something, and she’ll just start laughing in honest appreciation of the humor. It’s been fun. She really likes wordplays and puns.

We had her parent/teacher conference this last week, and after a tough few weeks at school, Ryan and I went in to the conference with a plan of things we wanted to address. We don’t want to be those parents who think their kid is perfect, but since we do know our daughter best, we had some ideas for the teachers. For instance, when they are constantly on her case and issuing “strikes” for talking or other negative behavior, she gradually spirals downward. She gets a lot of strikes. Whether she deserves them or not, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of mercy, and sometimes I just want to say, “Give the girl a break!” When I pick her up in the afternoons, many times all she can talk about is how horrible of a day it was and how she just can’t do anything right. That then affects her attitude going into the next day. We know her heart, and we know that she really wants to please. So we suggested to her teachers that if they reinforce her when she is acting correctly, it might help her stay on track throughout the day. The very next day, she came home so excited (she doesn’t know that we talked to them about it) because she received so many compliments and no strikes! This continued to be the trend for the majority of the week. She’s still going to deserve strikes at times, but I think the teachers got the point. In Ryley’s case, when you encourage her, she keeps it up. There’s nothing she likes more than a compliment. I was so nervous about talking to the teachers about it, but Ryan reminded me, “They’re just kids. We’re her parents.” It seemed to work out ok. :-)

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We had our first snow of the season on Wednesday, and funnily enough, there was more snow than we’ve received in any storm in the last two years. We had five or six inches at our house.

It’s all melted now, but there is hope for more this week. We don’t mind. :-)

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Last weekend we had our Girl Scout ceremony.

Ryley wore my uniform from when I was a Brownie. But she is taller than I was, so it is quite short on her. So instead of wearing it as a jumper, she wore it as a long shirt over jeans. It was actually pretty cute!

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Last weekend she and I also went on a little date to see Alice in Wonderland, the play. It was a children’s theater, and they only charge $6 per person, but it was so fun.

The actors involve children in their performances, so Ryley was called on stage to participate in the tea party scene.

She loved it! We will definitely have to go back there for more performances.

Then, after the performance, we also had some fun in the park, since we knew the snow was on the way….

Ryley found these leaves this way in the shape of a heart and begged me to take a picture…

Ryan took this lovely picture of Denver…

And also this one of Game Night…

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And now for a quick “wellness” update….

It’s now been 41 days, and I am getting into a good groove, as long as I take time to plan and shop for our meals for the week. One thing my nutritionist has done is equip me with dozens of healthy recipes. I think that’s key. A low-carb diet seems impossible to implement until you know exactly what you can replace your old diet with.

So we’ve tried a delicious spicy chicken tomato soup, some sweet potato fries, a not-so-delicious minestrone soup, and an interesting and colorful tuna salad:

Some recipes are hits, and others aren’t. But I’m learning for myself that it doesn’t always matter if it tastes good. Tasting good is merely a bonus these days, not a necessity.

I have lost 17 pounds. I tried to eat some McDonalds French fries a couple weeks ago, and within an hour I felt nauseated and headachy. Crazy. I was craving bacon and sausage one morning, so I got some (thinking that it would be ok because they’re protein), and I literally couldn’t finish them I felt so sick. That scares me a little, because those are things I don’t want to give up forever! But if they don’t make me feel good, I guess we’ll see. It felt good to know that my body has gotten so used to fresher, healthier items that it rejects the other stuff.

Also, we noticed such a big difference in my energy level between the Broncos game we attended in August and the next one we attended a couple weeks ago. There is always a lot of walking and stair-climbing involved, and seriously, after the August game, I was considering seeing if we could sell my ticket to the remaining games. It was so painful! But this last one was much easier for me and so enjoyable. We’re going again tomorrow, and I am excited.

So that’s the scoop. It’s been good, and I am feeling better, though I have noticed some increased irritability. I’ve been incredibly impatient with traffic and stupid people, and I even screamed at a co-worker over the phone the other day. Yeah.

I kind of think it’s the lack of chocolate in my diet, but whatever. ;-)

A Few New Things (“We Are Fast-Food People”)

2011-10-18T21:51:00.001-07:00

Happy Autumn! Colorado is fully emerged in beautiful fall colors and crisp, cool temperatures right now, and I love it. It’s time for sweaters and socks and chili and (though I know deep down that it’s still too soon) cozy fires in the fireplace.

I got a little crazy a few weeks ago when the leaves first began to change and insisted that Ryley pose for a few pictures outside in the rain before the leaves all fell off the trees and fall was all over.

But as you can see, fall had just barely begun at that point, and now, weeks later, the leaves are still on the trees, and the colors are even more brilliant than they were. Silly me. These pictures, with their puny amount of branches in gold, look awfully silly. :-)

Oh, well. :-)

We did come across this little grove one night on our walk, though. Very pretty!

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We’ve experienced lots of “new,” as well as several changes in the last few weeks.

For one, Ryley has decided to join Girl Scouts again, and I was asked to be her Brownie troop’s co-leader. So this weekend, while Ryan and Ryley enjoyed a nice Saturday together, I was stuck at a random church doing Girl Scout leadership training with 100 other Type-A mothers of little girls. :-) But I know Ryley’s excited for me to be involved. We’ll see how I feel come January when I have hundreds of cases of Girl Scout cookies in our garage. Better yet, we’ll see how Ryan feels at that point. He doesn’t yet know that that’s part of the deal. ;-)

Ryley has also decided to join her school’s after-school Drama Club (which seems to be a really good fit for her), as well as Odyssey of the Mind, which is a group of students that practices “thinking outside the box” to create solutions to a variety of problems. They then compete against other schools in the spring. So suddenly, Ryley is staying after school several days a week doing “extra-curricular activities,” and she’s such a big girl. I know this is only the beginning, and it makes me a little wistful for the days when she was so tiny and cuddly and wanted me to pick her up at 3 p.m. But I’m also glad she likes to be involved in everything. It’s a trait she gets from me. :-)

I have gained a freelance writing opportunity that I am really excited about, writing out people’s Christian testimonies to be published in books that churches will then distribute as witnessing tools in their communities. It’s actually a really interesting idea. I am nervously awaiting my first assignment. It’s one thing to edit other people’s writing (what I’m used to!); it’s quite another to be the writer…to have to interview people over the phone for hours and then make sure I accurately and perfectly put their stories into words, only to be edited by others. The challenge excites me and intimidates me all at once. I look forward to getting started.

Since June, we have been attending a different church from the one we’ve been involved in over the past seven years. It all happened very suddenly. We weren’t looking for a change per se. Ryan’s cousin had started a church, Jesus Church, just 10 minutes from our house, and we had heard so many good things about it. So one Sunday, Ryan was working, and Ryley was throwing some attitude about getting ready, so we were running super late. I just made a quick decision: “You know what? We’re going to do something new today.” And so we went to Jesus Church. And we loved it. And we took Ryan back the next Sunday, and he loved it. And we’ve been there ever since. I haven’t been sure how the switch affects some of the ongoing editing projects I was involved in, like SHINE Magazine, so we’ve been hesitant to commit completely. Until this week. At church on Sunday, we had so many “moments” within the sermon and with the fellowship that just served to release us from our old church. We feel complete peace with our decision to switch. I hope to still be used in those editing projects if I’m able to, but if not, it’s ok. We’re excited about church, and it’s honestly been a long time since I’ve felt that way. Is it ok to be honest about that? And it’s got nothing to do with the old church and has everything to do with me. This is a fresh thing. It reminds me of that scripture: “Behold I will do a new thing, and now it will spring forth.”

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I am 31 days into my “wellness journey.” And boy do I have a lot of thoughts about that. :-) Let’s just say it has been a long 31 days, and there are apparently a lot of reasons why I am fat.

For years, I have made fun (in my head) of skinny people who think those plain cookies with the Hershey's kisses on top are so good. This is my thing: Why bring those to a party, when you could bring gooey chocolate brownies? Or German chocolate bars? Or pretty much anything with whipped cream?

Who seriously prefers an oatmeal raisin cookie to a chocolate chip cookie?

This might sound strange, but I’ve never ever felt guilty for eating something delicious. I feel like I am a connoisseur of fine foods and desserts. There is so much goodness in the world to taste and enjoy. It’s obvious to me that if people are content with these health foods, they haven't been exposed to the amazing foods that I have. How can something ever be too rich? Unfortunately, it seems that my lifetime theme of indulgence caught up with me a long time ago.

It still mystifies me that while I have been eating fried chicken all these years, there have been people stressing and obsessing over whether their flour is white or whole wheat. My nutritionist was pretty much horrified at the amount of pasta that we eat, much less the fact that Ryan works at a restaurant called “Noodles & Company.” She told me she only has spaghetti once every six months because she doesn’t really like it.

Things I've thought we were doing right (mediocre choices maybe, but not unhealthy) disgusted my nutritionist.

Really, I’m learning I have to take all the advice with a grain of salt. ;-)

I told my grandma, “I can’t believe how much I’ve been doing wrong.”

“No, not wrong,” she answered. “Normally.”

Even so, I promised I would do it for 30 days….no breads, pasta, processed foods, sweets, dairy, soda pop, or coffee. I’ve only cheated three times, and those were minor cheats. I’ve been taking three different vitamin supplements and trying to eat much more wholesome foods, like fruits, veggies, nuts, and lean meats, and lots of cilantro, avocado, and cinnamon wherever I can fit them in.

I’m learning to eat to live, not live to eat… to view food as fuel… to "feed" my body, not "stuff" my body. And let me tell you, after 34 years of being me, it is tough to re-train my mindset.

It’s definitely been an education. I had no idea that our grocery store carried flax seed or quinoa or almond milk. Honestly, what are those things? I feel more in touch with our grocery store and more purposeful about my grocery shopping. I’m learning about the merits of protein powders.

I've never been a fad dieter or gone on Weight Watchers. I always knew in my heart that eating naturally was the way to go. It makes sense. God made our bodies; He also made food for it. As my nutritionist says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The problem is that it all tastes so good!!! I've always known that changing one’s food intake to the way God intended would yield results, but I've never been willing to make the sacrifice. If it was easy, then everyone would do it.

I know I’m extremely heavy, but you have to understand that I don’t feel like I am. I don't feel fat. Yes, I get tired easily. But overall, when I'm sitting, I don’t feel like a fat slob. I feel beautiful. And I credit that to my loving husband who never makes me feel "less" for all the weight I've gained. I am generally surprised at how I look when I see a picture of myself.

I find it amusing when football commentators say, "Wow, this guy is 220 pounds!" As if it’s so huge. Ha!

Anorexics say that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. Well, I wouldn’t know. It’s actually kind of hard for me to believe that right now. :-)

I want the results, but I don't want to become one of those people that’s obsessed with losing weight and obsessed with talking about it. I know it’s important to be more in control of my food intake, but at what point does preparing three wholesome meals each day become a version of my food controlling me?

I keep promising myself that the drastic changes are only experimental...temporary until we get my body where it needs to be. We're not the kind of people who are going to give up hamburgers and spaghetti longterm. And even if there are things I have to decide to give up forever, I hope that someday I can still appreciate that delicious foods exist without having to partake in them.

I have seen results. I can walk through Walmart without my back hurting. I’ve lost 8 pounds (which doesn’t seem like much to me considering how drastic the changes have been). My skin seems clearer, and I sleep better.

My mom was asking Ryley what we were having for dinner, and this was her response:

"I am so tired of my mom making healthy food! My dad and I don't need to eat healthy. We are fast food people."

:-)

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Here are some images of things we’ve been doing the last few weeks:

The pumpkin weigh-off at our local nursery

We went with our friends Rachel and Emma to Secret Keeper Girl, an event aimed at teaching girls to live lives of purity, even from a young age.

We got to see Tim Tebow’s big 4th quarter comeback at the Broncos game. It was so exciting and fun, even though we lost.

Ryley set up her own jewelry show in our living room after I had a jewelry party. Very cute!

Ryley and her daddy spent a day at the science museum.

And we thoroughly enjoyed the circus!

Good times!

And good night!

Figuring Things Out

2011-09-13T21:16:00.001-07:00

I come bearing Ryley stories of various kinds. As with all kids, the older she gets, the less “cute” her stories become, of course. But she still has a way of putting things that consistently catches us off guard, and we cherish each little sliver of light that allows us some insight into her active, quirky, beautiful mind. :-)

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The first week of school was a tough one. It’s hard to get back into the rhythm of school, you know. Between remembering to bring her red pen here and there (sound familiar, Riverviewians?), and working hard not to speak out in class, 3rd grade is just plain tough. As bright as she is, and as dedicated to being right as she is, our Ryley is only eight, and she struggles with being ~~a tad~~ scatterbrained.

(Funny sidenote: I don’t know if I am forever scarred by my own six years of experience with Mrs. Wille, the responsibility Nazi of my youth, but I literally burst into tears one morning when I discovered Ryley’s red pen sitting on her seat in the van as I arrived at work. She had expressed to me her concern of the policy “No red pen, no grade” and had been so excited when she remembered to grab the pen on our way out the door that morning. But it never made it to her backpack. I ran crying into my office and immediately wrote her teachers an e-mail along the lines of “she tried so hard, and please have mercy on her this once!” They wrote back, “No big deal. It’s the first week of school, yada, yada, yada.” Mercy? Really? What a concept!!! Clearly I have my own issues to deal with. And now Ryley’s teachers quite possibly think I’m insanely Type A.)

So anyway, Ryley’s big problem (being of her dad’s blood, of course) is being a bit of a know-it-all. She shouts out the answers without raising her hand. When I addressed this with her, her response was, “But Mom, they never call on me when my hand is raised.” So obviously, if her teacher is to know she knows the answer, she must yell it out. Naturally. We discussed this at length and talked about why this is wrong on many levels.

A few days later, Ryley said that the teacher had told them that she would actually be calling on people who didn’t raise their hands and weren’t paying attention. Which gave Ryley an idea.

“I just look around and look at the wall and act like I’m not paying attention, but the whole time I have the answer in my head, ready to answer just in case they call on me.”

Yes. A win-win.

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Ryley has been reading the Mandie Books, a series I adored when I was her age.

Tonight she asked me, “Why can’t Mandie learn to swim? In all these books, she doesn’t know how!”

“I don’t know,” I responded.

“Ohhh, I know why,” she said. “It’s because it makes the story more interesting every time she falls into water!”

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The other night we were eating dinner, and, as I have for the last eight years, I cut up Ryley’s chicken breast for her. We were talking about some of her favorite foods that they serve at school, like chicken fried steak. It dawned on me suddenly that she eats chicken fried steak, yet hasn’t learned how to effectively cut meat yet….Hmmmm….

“So when you have meat at school, do the teachers cut it for you? Or do you do it yourself?”

“Neither.”

“How do you eat it then?”

And Ryley proceeded to stab the uncut chicken breast with her fork and (quite awkwardly) lift the whole thing to her mouth to take a bite, gravy dripping down her chin.

Ryan and I both gasped in simultaneous horror and ashamed laughter.

“Tonight you’ll learn,” I told her. “What do your friends do?”

“The same as me,” she answered.

And breathing a small sigh of relief, I pictured tables and tables of 3rd graders with no table manners, struggling to eat their steak, and teachers trying hard to turn a blind eye. :-)

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As we knew they would eventually, the questions about the Birds and the Bees have started flocking into our home. And they’re always at the most awkward times…like as we’re walking into swimming lessons, or at 8 p.m., the night before school starts. I don’t want her to think I’m ignoring/avoiding her questions or that they’re bad questions, but I also want to have time to sit down with her and prayerfully, wisely tell her what she needs to know. I want to protect her innocence as long as possible, but I don’t want her to hear things from the wrong people either. I was so much older than her before I even cared to know, so it’s caught me off guard.

Ughhhh.

I bought some books on the subject that we felt were a little too revealing, even though they are Christian books. Like Ryan has always said, after she knows, there’s no going back. And we want to make sure that even though she’s smart enough to ask, she’s also mature enough to handle the answer.

She has such an inquisitive, scientific mind, and I try to approach all my answers from that perspective. But it won’t be long before the vagueness isn’t enough anymore. The questions just keep coming and are more and more detailed.

God’s given me a lot of wisdom so far, and I’ve felt like each conversation has been extremely informative and has effectively answered the questions asked. After our Labor and Delivery 101 lecture this morning, however, I’m thinking it’s a matter of days rather than weeks. :-) Jesus, help us.

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The other day Ryan and I were having a disagreement about something. When Ryley and I were alone for a minute, she said, “In movies, when two people disagree, they always kiss and make up. You always kiss and make up too, but I’m never there, so that’s good.”

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And last but not least, randomly:

“I hope someone marries me for love and not for my fortune!”

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Up, Up, and Away….

2011-09-07T21:26:00.001-07:00

I know you are breathlessly awaiting the continuing story of our Labor Day adventures.

It has been cold and rainy today (65 degrees or less), and as we all know, nothing puts me in a writing mood more than a good old rainy day! And so, even though it’s been a tough few weeks at work, I find so much solace, comfort, and joy in our little home on a rainy night, and even more so in our little family. It was 15 years ago tonight that Ryan called me up in my dorm room and asked me to go on a walk to “discuss a book.” That was only the beginning of something wonderful. :-)

So the trip to the Royal Gorge was quite exhausting, especially since we had gotten up so early at 4 a.m. on Saturday. Plus, there’s just a lot of hilly walking at the Royal Gorge, and since we’re not really what you would call “in shape,” we were really physically tired when we got home that evening. The Balloon Classic was supposed to take place Sunday and Monday mornings as well, weather depending, and we still really wanted to make it work since we had looked forward to it for so long! But when we went to bed Saturday night, I didn’t have high hopes for convincing the fam to take yet another sunrise trek to the Springs.

But we did it. We were up at 4, and after checking all the weather reports this time, we decided to buzz down and try it again. And I am so glad we did….

The first balloon at the Colorado Balloon Classic in Colorado Springs….

We made an interesting choice, and I feel like if we ever attend this event again, we might do it differently. Because we had read online that the best photographic opportunities are across the lake from the launch, we decided to set up camp there. So though we saw some beautiful scenery (and missed traffic, crowds, etc.), we missed out on actually witnessing any of the balloon lift-offs up close. I don’t regret our decision, but I think I do want to try the other experience too sometime. :-)

But it was just so peaceful sitting there, watching balloons slowly lift into the sky….

Boring? Probably, to some. But we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

They just kept coming and coming and coming. Just when we thought they were about done, more would appear on the horizon.

Can you guess which balloon in the picture below was Ryley’s favorite?

I know all these pictures look the same, but they’re just so pretty!!!! :-)

So around 8:30, it seemed that the balloons were all gone – probably 40-50 in all. We lost count after awhile. So we packed up, headed out, and decided to go find some breakfast. But unbeknownst to us, the fun wasn’t yet over!!!

We were probably 10 miles down the interstate when we saw several balloons headed for landing in the area. One was particularly close to us, so we pulled off the highway to see if we could watch.

It flew right over our car, and I jumped out to take some pictures.

We drove to the next intersection, flipped a U, and pulled into the parking lot of a hotel and McDonalds just as it was landing.

It was so exciting!!!

What a way to end our hot air balloon experience! :-)

After grabbing breakfast, we decided to also stop by the Garden of the Gods since it had been awhile. We felt like we’d been there fairly recently, but when we did the math, we decided it had already been four years, and Ryley had no memory of it.

I think Ryley had envisioned an actual garden, so I’m not sure of her level of disappointment.

(One of Ryan’s creations with his phone’s panoramic app):

But she seemed to really get into it, and since we had let her use her own camera all morning to take pictures of the balloons too, she really got into that!

God’s beautiful creation!!!

It was a great little day-trip, and get this: we were home and back in bed by 11 a.m. for a much-needed nap!

The rest of the weekend was spent resting and recovering/prepping our house for yet another busy week. Oh, and we taught Ryley “The Game of Life.”

That was a huge hit!!

Thank you, my friends, for reading about our exciting weekend. :-) Sometimes the best fun to be had is when exploring your own state, and we know we are blessed to live in Colorado. Other than our coupon-assisted admission to the Royal Gorge Bridge, as well as the expense of a tank of gas, all of the things we enjoyed this weekend were free. That might be the best part of all!

Stay tuned, as I have been collecting Ryley Stories and more inconclusive thoughts about parenting. ;-)

Bridge over Lovely Waters

2011-09-06T21:18:00.001-07:00

The grand finale weekend of our “summer of fun events” dawned early Saturday morning at 4 a.m. We had penciled the Colorado Balloon Classic on our calendar back in June, unsure of what the summer would bring and whether we would actually be able to make it happen this year. In fact, up until Wednesday, we had toyed with the idea of a last-minute quick trip to Texas to help celebrate our twin nephews’ first birthday. But when it came down to it, the Texas trip didn’t really seem do-able for many different reasons, and we decided to stick with a less stressful route for our three-day weekend together.

So at 4 a.m. on a Saturday, we bounced out of bed, too rushed to make coffee and too early for Starbucks. It’s mornings like that that I realize I don’t really need coffee, as much as I enjoy it. :-) By 6:15, we were in downtown Colorado Springs in search of a parking spot, and it was quite cold and windy. But as we fought traffic, we realized that cars were driving away from the park, and people were walking away from the park. We asked a police officer, and sure enough, the event had been canceled due to 40 mph gusty winds! Apparently you can only fly hot air balloons in winds less than 10 mph (or 11.5 “knots,” said in a hoity-toity voice). :-)

We were so disappointed! So…what to do, an hour away from home, at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?? We decided to go out for breakfast, but everyone else had the same idea. We tried three different Denny’s/Village Inns before we found a wait time we could live with.

After breakfast, we headed southwest for the next part of our plans…The Royal Gorge!

But first we had to had to take a detour at Skyline Drive, which Ryan and I both had childhood memories of driving with our families. It’s a very high, narrow road with scary drop-offs on both sides at times…

View from the top…

Ryley was not too pleased with the situation!

The next stop was the Royal Gorge Bridge. Neither of us had been since we were teenagers, so we were really excited to show Ryley!

Look at that! Doesn’t it make you feel so small and vulnerable??

We decided to walk across, and Ryley was very leery of being out of arm’s reach of one of us at all times. (Like we could have helped if the bridge collapsed!)

Ryan shows Ryley how you can see the river between the slats. And of course, the bridge is swaying the whole time!

The Arkansas River…

I love the shadow of the bridge on the canyon below.

Look how casually I’m leaning against the ledge! At the time, it felt pretty safe, but when I look back on it, what if the railing had failed??? Interesting factoid: They replace 250 wooden floor boards on the bridge each year. Ryan noticed some were missing bolts.

Whoa, Ryley….Don’t fall over the wall!

Of course we took the cable car across….

Then we took the incline railroad to the bottom…

Sidenote: While we were in line for this incline railroad, we were right behind this mushy sugary-sweet family with four little kids. They all had matching shoes (even the parents), and they were constantly hugging, kissing, and dancing around to the music playing nearby. I mean, we are the mushy, huggy, kissy, dancy type as well, but this was over the top. The dad was even keeping a dance beat at the bottom of the gorge, where there was no music. Then his wife would join him and dance to his beat while swinging their baby around. Oh wow. Ryan and I were having trouble keeping ourselves from dancing to their beat!

So I noticed their son was wearing a shirt advertising a chiropractic practice. Well, seriously, who buys a chiropractic shirt for their kindergartener? Unless you are a chiropractor! I took note of the name, and get this: when we got home, I googled it, and I found them! Both the husband and the wife are chiropractors for this practice in another state. I found out their names, and I found Facebook pages and kids’ names, etc. I know I’m crazy, but these people just fascinated me! It is amazing what you can find on the Internet. And kind of scary, too.

And now, whenever Ryan or I start tapping a beat, the other of us starts dancing. And Ryley joins in. ;-) It. Is. Awesome.

Ryan had some fun with a new panoramic app on his phone! More on that later!

It was a perfect day in so many ways. Even though our balloon plans fell through the cracks (pun intended), the trip to the Royal Gorge was really nice. We had perfect weather, and we were all in good moods. Haha!

But the weekend wasn’t over just yet! More fun was in store for Sunday as well. Stay tuned for Part 2…

Craving Fall

2011-08-30T21:13:00.001-07:00

Ryley started 3rd grade yesterday.

After dropping her off, I cried all the way to work. And then some. :-(

Because, look:

Kindergarten: First Grade:

2nd Grade 3rd Grade

I don’t remember her growing and maturing this much.

Her face is different. I think the difference between 2nd and 3rd grade is especially pretty drastic.

Let this be a lesson to my friends with younger children: enjoy every second of babyhood while you can. Soak up every stage. Someday they won’t want you to walk them to their classroom. And they’ll only be eight years old.

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Back-to-School Night was last week, and she got to see her classroom, meet her teachers, etc.

Very fun! The first day couldn’t come soon enough!!!! :-)

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The Broncos games are also back! Does this mean fall is on the way???

We only have two tickets this year. Look at that rain storm in the distance!

Ryan and I went to the first pre-season game and had a great date night. We ended up walking around the stadium and taking a lot of pictures…. I love these pics of downtown Denver and Elitch’s. The clouds were so beautiful that evening, and the weather was lovely.

Pre-season games are perfect for moseying around the stadium because once the season starts, it’s all business!!! :-)

The next weekend Ryan and Ryley went to the pre-season game. They had a really great time!

Ryley got to meet Thunder.

Bring on the fall!!!!

What I’ve Learned (and Writing It All Down)

2011-08-17T22:40:00.001-07:00

It’s been a different kind of summer. Despite the ongoing issues we’ve had with bedtime, irrational homesickness, silly fears, and tummy aches, it’s been a fun few months, and I hate to see it come to an end.

Ryan gave me the sweetest compliment the other night as he was folding up our telescope: “Joy, I have to admit that though your planning was a little annoying at the time, your ‘summer of fun events’ turned out to be really fun. We did a lot of things we may not have done otherwise, and I’m appreciative of all the research and planning you put into it.”

The fun is starting to peter out, though, as the first day of school approaches. Bedtime is getting earlier and earlier. The school supply list didn’t include scissors or construction paper this year, a sure sign that 3rd grade is here, and our little girl is growing up. When she told someone the other day that she loves the first day of school because usually they just do crafts all day, I told her not to be so sure! :-)

I am realizing that, if anything, I have been humbled in my parenting this summer….I have learned that you can do all the right things and do everything in your power (and then some) and max out your creativity in discipline, etc., etc., etc., and still your child can get the best of you. You can wonder what other parents do that works so well, and you can wonder where you went wrong, and you can feel sorry for yourself and think that nobody in the world has ever dealt with these issues you are dealing with. But in the end, you remember that there is nothing new under the sun. And really, truly, God is the only one who can help, and even if it doesn’t seem like He’s helping, He is quietly doing His work, deep below the surface of your child’s heart. And you know that God has special plans for your child….that the over-sensitivity was placed in her heart with a purpose, and with patience, God will mature it and develop it to be exactly how He wants it. And despite my best efforts to mold her how I think she should be, God has the last say. And I must learn to back off and let her learn from Him herself. The very things I am fighting in her character are very possibly there for a purpose, and instead of smoldering them, I must prayerfully help her redirect them.

That’s what I’ve learned this summer. That’s what I’m still learning this summer.

I’ve also learned how much I LOVE being with Ryan. I mean, I’ve always known it, but now that he’s home more, I am feeling it more. We’ve been playing the board game “CLUE” as a family on random evenings, and I remembered that the last time I played CLUE was the summer I visited Ryan and his family in Florida for a week when we were 19 and dating.

It was that brother-sister banter and silliness during an innocent game of CLUE that made me realize I wanted to marry Ryan…that I wanted to build a family with this man. And now, here we are, almost 15 years later, with our sweet girl laughing and pronouncing it “leed pipe” and “Co-lon-el Mustard.” And we’re a little family.

And we’ve had several perfect weekends of doing things like meeting each other’s eyes above our daughter’s head as Jackie Chan hums a cheesy Chinese lullaby during the “hit” children’s movie “The Spy Next Door.” And we’ve been sleeping in, talking, cheating together at CLUE to make the game go faster when bedtime approaches, laughing at the hidden innuendos in the reality show “Hillbilly Handfishing,” and generally catching up on all the time lost when he’s worked evenings the last 12 years. And I just really, really love him. :-)

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Images from the last few weeks:

Having a little chat on the patio…

We stumbled across the Budweiser Clydesdales just a 1/2 mile from our house last Saturday… How crazy is that??

Looking at the moon…

My boss gave me a “spa day” for reaching the 5-year milestone with the company, so I took a few pictures to show Ryley…

I was particularly fascinated by the hot stone massage, which was a first for me…

Ahhhhh. That was a great day. :-)

Then, Ryley’s been hanging out with me at work for a few days this week since her daycare is closed for the summer, and school doesn’t start until the 29th….This is her camp-out under my desk…

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The other day we were talking about “Little House on the Prairie,” and Ryley asked, “Why is Laura Ingalls so famous?”

“Because of her books,” I replied. “Everybody loves them. Don’t you?”

“Yes, but there were thousands of pioneer girls just like Laura,” Ryley responded. “Why is she famous and not them?”

“Because she took the time to write it all down,” I answered.

So, I’ve been pondering that for a few days. Everybody is unique, of course, but when it comes down to it, why do we care more about some people than others? In the grand scheme of things, our lives are like fading flowers, and our stories aren’t super different, from one person to the next. I mean, just think about all the blogs you might read, and everyone is just living life and putting their own spin on it.

I think about all the pioneer girls who were just as special as Laura, but because their stories aren’t written down, we know nothing about their existence. It’s actually kind of sad.

I love the power of writing, and even though my stories (at this point, anyway) are simple and nothing more extraordinary than recounting the events in our lives, I am doing this for Ryley and for the history of our family. Someday in the future it will be treasured, and this moment in our lives will not go unnoticed or forgotten...

…Because I took the time to write it down.

Treasure Hunting

2011-07-31T14:32:00.001-07:00

The birthday party was a huge success yesterday! Ryley and her friends loved it.

I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the whole thing was planning the treasure hunt with Ryan. We stayed up late Friday night writing clues and devising a plan to actually bury a treasure chest in our yard, an idea which didn’t pan out in daylight (but Ryan’s last-minute improvisation was amazing). I just love being married to my best friend.

I won’t bore you with a complete play-by-play, but here are some images from the hunt. The first clue was found in the fridge.

Thinking hard and discussing solutions:

The hunt took them off the premises:

And back:

We took a little snack break after Clue #9:

Then they continued the search with a key hidden in a book on our bookshelves. Ryan used a knife to carve it in and everything. Don’t worry; the book is stupid. :-)

Then they had to assemble the puzzle with all the pieces they had collected along the way:

X marks the spot:

Only the ground was too rocky to dig a hole and bury the treasure in the allotted time we had before the party. So Ryan added one more clue…

…leading them to the crawlspace:

Cries of “Jackpot!” “Woohoo!”

They were given bags to fill with loot:

Amirah is a ham!!!

We followed the treasure hunt with cupcakes, presents, and trampoline:

Cheers !

Ryley said it was her best birthday party yet, and we tend to agree.

But next year, let’s do something that requires less work! ;-)

“Something Wonderful Is Happening to Me!”

2011-07-28T22:33:00.001-07:00

I can hardly believe our little girl turned eight years old on Saturday! When she was born, we had absolutely no idea what an amazing miracle and blessing her life would turn out to be. We’re genuinely crazy about her!

Ryan had Friday off of work, so he took Ryley shopping at the little upscale boutiques in the Cherry Creek district where he works. It actually ended up being an impromptu “date” for them, which was super sweet!

And she actually came home with her ears pierced!

They didn’t set out to get her ears pierced, but it’s been something Ryley’s been thinking about for several months, and once she got up the courage, they decided to just do it!!!! Such a young lady!!

Later that evening, another big surprise was in store! My aunt and uncle came over, and while Coleen, Ryley, and I went “shoe shopping,” Ryan and Paul assembled the trampoline that all of us had pitched together and bought used from one of their neighbors. And when we finally got home, she was soooooo excited and surprised!

“Something wonderful is happening to me!” she told my mom on the phone.

She quickly changed clothes so she could bounce a little more modestly. :-)

But the assembly wasn’t done until after dark!!! Full-fledged bouncing would have to wait for another day!

On Saturday morning, Ryley woke us up at 5:45, ready to start festivities. We convinced her to let us sleep until 7:00, then it was time for a few presents!

More than gifts, I am all about “experiences.” Like, I would prefer a perfect day as a family to just about any gift for myself. I want to instill that same mindset in Ryley, so we are trying to make each birthday a day of special memories by doing something we wouldn’t ordinarily do (or spend money on).

We told Ryley we had a birthday activity in store, and somehow we let it “slip” that we would be attending a tour of a sausage factory downtown. As we drove closer and closer to the “factory,” I saw real tears in my daughter’s eyes. She was trying so hard to be grateful.

“But I don’t even like sausage,” she said, as sweetly as she could muster.

So you can imagine the joy when we pulled up in front of Elitch’s, our city’s amusement park! She had never, ever been there before, so she was THRILLED. She had also won a ticket through our city’s summer reading program, so that helped with the cost of admission!

It was a different experience than what Ryan and I had imagined for her. It turns out that Ryley is not nearly as “brave” as Ryan and I are (or were when we were her age) when it comes to thrill rides. So it took some coaxing to get her to finally go on a real rollercoaster, and in general, she preferred to stick to the basics.

She had a blast though.

Elitch’s has a water park too, and I had snuck her bathing suit in the bag, so we spent the last 45 minutes of our day there. That may have been her favorite part.

That evening we had her birthday dinner and also visited the American Girl store so she could spend her birthday money on something she has been eyeing for months: a sister for Elisabeth (pictured below).

Her new doll is on the right:

She named her Rebecca at first, but after several days of calling her Jessica by mistake, she decided that “Jessica” must be meant to be. :-)

On Sunday she had some fun on the trampoline, at long last:

Daddy got out the water hose, and Juliet wanted to get in on the fun too!

“Ryley, are you tired?”

“No. Just sitting.” :-)

And when Mommy or Daddy can’t be out there to supervise, Ryley has come up with another use for the trampoline: reading with her puppy in the shade!

Looking back at this post, it would seem that it looks like we spoiled Ryley on her birthday. Yeah. Maybe we did a little. Or a lot. Honestly, we didn’t set out with an intention to spend a lot of money, and we did get a lot of good deals. We’re also thankful that Ryan had gotten an extra paycheck that arrived the week before, which we hadn’t expected and which enabled us to spend a little extra. Ryley was super thankful for everything, and she even wrote each of us a thankyou note, completely unsolicited. Ha ha!!!

Thank you to all of her family members who blessed her so much too!!!! She was overwhelmed and extremely appreciative!

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Tonight Ryan worked late, so Ryley and I met our dear friends Sarah, Rachel, and Benjamin at the park for a country music “Concert in the Park.” It was super fun!!! Great conversation, atmosphere, and friendship!

It’s hard to tell, but they’re “dancing”!

That steeple belongs to the church/school where Ryley attends daycare this summer. It was right next to the park where we attended the concert. I like how the picture turned out!

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This weekend we are having a birthday party for Ryley with a few of her friends from school. It is a treasure hunt (which we have yet to come up with), so wish us luck!

I’m sure there will be pictures up here chronicling the treasure hunt…eventually. ;-)

Growing Pains, Pangs, and Peace

2011-07-21T22:37:00.001-07:00

If only I could write without having to think of a clever title, intro, or conclusion, blogging would be ever so much easier and definitely much more frequent for me!

So we’ll just dive right in. My apologies if it seems rash and absent of smooth transitions. :-)

Ryan got the promotion!!!! His knowledge and ability and ideas were tested to the core, and he passed with flying colors. We are so excited, and I have sensed such a peace in his spirit ever since. I haven’t even told him this, but I feel like he had so outgrown his old position that he was feeling chafed in his physical inability to move into the leadership role he was so ready for mentally and spiritually. It was more stressful to be second in command than it is to be first in command. Does that make any sense at all? I am just so, so proud of him.

It seems that this promotion opens up so many doors for our family. Even though it requires more responsibility, he is in control of his schedule, which will ultimately lead to more time together. There is potential for more income down the line, and that inspires a whole host of possibilities. Time will tell. But in the meantime, we are very thankful.

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We got our daughter back from her grandparents’ house, and there have been additional struggles with bedtime. It’s almost insane how weird it is that Ryley is such an energetic, sweet, healthy girl during the day, but bedtime seems to be a nightmare. The tummy has seemed a little better, and now it’s just dealing with unfounded fears and anxiety. I kind of wonder if she maybe gave herself an ulcer, which the medicine healed?

It’s almost like, because we have sheltered Ryley so much, she cannot process the world as it is. We have set such a basis for a universe of butterflies and fairies that when she hears about tragic news stories, or people that we know that have died, or people that are just plain mean to her, she simply can’t handle it. So those things stick with her, and her mind drifts into fears of death and sickness. She became so afraid of throwing up that she was making her stomach sick. And the sicker she felt, the more afraid of throwing up she became. And that is a spirit of fear. The icky, horrible, satanic spirit of fear that wants to do nothing but cripple us.

So at my parents’ house and also at ours, we have all been drilling the Word of God right into the center of her heart. We’ve had long talks with her during the day encouraging her to so fill her heart up with thoughts of the Lord that there’s simply no room for that spirit of fear.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Phillippians 4:8

The other problem is that when Ryley was little, we started letting her crawl into bed with us early in the morning. Well, over time, it got earlier and earlier until she started waking up at 1 or 2 a.m. and crawling into bed with us. Sometimes she’s sleep-walking, and sometimes she’s awake. It depends on the night. But we were too tired and lazy to deal with it back then, so we grew accustomed to it, and now we rarely wake up at all. And now we have a little girl who only wants to sleep with us (or her grandparents), and her sleep cycle is only 3-4 hours long.

But we’re learning to deal with one thing at a time. I did some online research about child insomnia, as well as the benefits and negative effects of co-sleeping, and I learned that co-sleeping’s not as harmful as the western world has made it out to be. But I couldn’t find anything about what age it should stop. So we decided to not fight that battle just yet.

Right now, we just need to get her to go to sleep in the first place. And as much as I fought against it, one trick seems to work. Soft John Michael Talbot worship music, vitamin B, a glass of milk, and one of us sitting with her in her room while she’s drifting off. I fought it. I thought, “She’s seven. This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to sit here.” But it’s been a week, and it works. And she’s actually been sleeping longer and ending up in our bed less and less.

Plus, she’s still pretty little. As much as we try not to baby her, maybe she still needs it a little bit. ;-)

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Ryley and I went to our city’s free KidSpree this last weekend, and she had lots of fun…

We waited 30 minutes in line for the pony rides. But she loved it!

Except for when the ponies pooped! Check out Ryley’s face…

She got to make her own top…

And try out instruments at the musical petting zoo…

Pappaw’s girl…

Mammaw’s girl…

I think she looks pretty good!!! :-)

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Some funny Ryleyisms of late….

Ryan and I were looking for something in our garage, and we came across my piano trophies from the little competitions my piano teacher signed us up for in grade school. There’s a whole box…not because I was that great, per se, but just because there were lots of competitions.

Well, Ryley was in awe. “Mommy! Why on earth don’t we have these on display in our house?” :-) She was so upset with me!!!

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We were at dinner with my aunt and uncle the other night, and Ryley was being very talkative, like usual.

My aunt leaned over and whispered, “You talk a lot!”

Without missing a beat, Ryley leaned back and whispered, “That’s my gift!”

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Ryan and I really enjoyed our week alone. Not that our friendship needed rekindling, but it sure was nice to talk without being interrupted and actually be able to express a complete thought for once! It was really, really nice to just be best friends. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for putting up with sleepless nights and talkative days for an entire week. ;-)

It is so good to have Ryley home, though. She is such a tremendous blessing, and we are absolutely crazy about her. It’s hard to believe that she turns EIGHT only one day from now. Many birthday surprises are in store. Stay tuned!

(1st birthday)

(2nd birthday)

(3rd birthday)

(4th birthday)

(5th birthday)

(6th birthday)

(7th birthday)

Busy as Bees

2011-07-10T19:51:00.001-07:00

Ryley is still living it up with my parents in Oklahoma, and she doesn’t return until Thursday. We are really starting to miss our sweet girl, and she misses us too, but we know it’s good for all of us to have a bit of a break!

So again, I sit in a quiet, clean house with storm clouds brewing, feeling like I should be doing something Joy-like…yet just not able to put my finger on what that is! Light some candles? Make some coffee? Watch Anne of Green Gables? Give myself a pedicure? The possibilities are endless, and overwhelmed, I choose to sit blankly and stare into space. Oh, and blog.

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The week before the 4th of July was a busy one. Like, the kind of busy that you can hardly believe is happening all at once, and you can see it coming, but there is absolutely nothing you can do to change any of it.

Wednesday, June 28, was Ryan’s first day as acting general manager of his restaurant -- “acting,” meaning he has all the responsibility but doesn’t officially get the title until he has his big panel review this week. He has worked so stinking hard for this, and I am so proud of him! I’ll never forget when he texted me on the evening of the 27th:

Pray for me. Troy’s gone. It’s all me now!

So naturally, that Wednesday was a big day for him as he stepped into his new role, answered for some things he wasn’t prepared for, etc., etc., etc.

Wednesday, June 28, was also my company’s moving day. Yippeeee! And until Tuesday night, my co-workers and I were all still in denial that we were actually moving. Because though we had a U-Haul booked, we didn’t actually have a lease signed until Wednesday morning. So I didn’t actually start packing my office until the truck arrived…. Yeah…. Smart move.

This picture was taken on Tuesday sometime, because of course, Vacation Bible School happened that week, and it made more sense for Ryley to come to my office each afternoon than for me to pick up Ryley from VBS, drive her across town to daycare, and then pay for it. I put her to work. She was fine.

Here are my co-workers feeling the strain of our move….

And arguing over strategy….

And relaxing.

I look back at it, and it’s amazing we stayed sane in the mess of figuring out our new facility. For instance, the only option for Internet is a T1 line, and they are 3-4 weeks out on T-1 installation. We have a digital phone system that is dependent on a stable Internet connection, so phones cannot be installed until we get our Internet up. So right now? We use wifi cards for Internet on a need-to basis, and we have our company calls forwarded to a random cell phone, for which we can’t agree on a ringtone.

But look how pretty….

I really, really love our new office so much better than our old one. And I am very happy about my new desk and space!!! :-)

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The very next day, my mom arrived for a visit! And the day after that, we headed to Nebraska for a mini-reunion with my extended family at my grandma’s house.

Ryley and my cousin Cora are buddies. :-)

Ryley and my mom swam at the hotel…

Then we sat on my grandma’s patio and waited for a storm to roll in. There was a tornado warning to the west, and they were expecting large hail. None of it ever came. Just high winds and rain.

It was fun all being together. :-)

Ryley swam some more….

And we did fireworks on Sunday night.

Before we left, we had to get a four-generation shot! My grandma, my mom, me, and Ryley.

And as we drove away, my family waved their hankies…So silly!!!

That evening we watched a fantastic fireworks show here in our suburb, and it was very good!

Ryley and my mom flew to Tulsa on Wednesday night, and they have been having lots of fun.

My brother and sister-in-law drove up there this weekend, so Ryley got to see her adorable twin cousins too!

How I wish we could have been there for the fun!!!

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving Ryley such a wonderful time this week! We love you!!!!!

Twinkle, twinkle

2011-07-07T17:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday evening we watched our little girl pack up her carry-on bag and wave good-bye as she and her Mammaw boarded a plane to Oklahoma for a whole week of fun!

Whatever will I do without my girl??? The house is sooo quiet. No sound of TV, no fast footsteps up and down the stairs, no random piano-playing while I’m on the phone. And when I put something somewhere, it stays there. The house stays clean! My goodness, do I miss her!!!

We’ve had a full few weeks; I know I must say that every time I blog! But once again, it’s true. So with tornado sirens blaring in the open window next to me, and while I wait for the green clouds above our house to open up with hail, I will attempt to recount our special moments with brevity.

***(Sidenote: I find it funny that, being in the roofing business, I root for hail. Big hail. Destructive hail. The farmer’s granddaughter in me has to clarify that we only want hail in the city – not on the farms where the crops will be destroyed). :-)

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Most importantly….

For many, many months, Ryley has been bugging us to be baptized! Our church only does it a couple of times a year, so when they announced they were going to do it on June 26, Ryley jumped at the opportunity. It was so very special, and my uncle Paul captured the event with beautiful pictures:

Ryley was thrilled to learn that Pastor Eric, her children’s pastor, would be the one to baptize her!!!

Isn’t that an amazing picture???

A new creation in Christ! Pastor Bagwell prayed for her…that she would continue to follow Jesus all the days of her life.

I love this picture! We celebrated with ice cream at Cold Stone. :-)

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Ryley’s telescope from her grandpa has spurred an interest in outer space, so we did a little research and learned that Denver has its own observatory! It is super cheap ($3/person) and is totally worth it. Ryley was more excited than she was at DisneyWorld. Ha ha.

We sat through a lecture about comets, which was highly entertaining….

Then we climbed up into the observatory where we saw the 20” telescope, which was something like 100 years old!

Science nerds unite! I got yelled at for using the flash to take this picture of Ryley viewing Saturn. But it was worth it!

Then we went home and found Saturn on our much smaller telescope. It was so very cool!!!

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Though I’m not even close to being done blogging about the last few weeks, I unfortunately must stop here for now….Ryan just got home, and we are due to have dinner with our friends Chris and Taryn who are moving away to Texas, much to our disappointment!

To be continued….

June days and nights

2011-06-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

I was thinking we should be doing something more fun last night, in celebration of Father’s Day, since Ryan has to work all weekend long. Then I realized that Ryan was having fun, sitting there watching National Geographic specials on underwater caves and the Redwoods with his sweet daughter curled up contentedly in his lap.

He was in his happy place. :-)

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For the last four or five weeks, Ryley has been struggling with bedtime. Every night, when it’s time for bed, we hear, “I don’t feel good,” or “my tummy hurts.” Then, “what if I throw up?” and “will you please stay up here with me?” This is inevitably followed by tears and tantrum-like behavior when we say, “Sleep is the best medicine; go to sleep,” and walk away. Then this is followed by a little girl traipsing up and down the stairs all evening to complain (even after being warned against it) while Mommy and Daddy get very angry by the disobedience and shell out discipline accordingly until the whole evening is ruined and we’re all on the verge of tears. It has not been fun.

Well, as parents, there are so many conflicting emotions with this. First of all, she has seemed fine all day long. Bouncy, chipper, energetic, etc. Normal. So the fact that it was happening at bedtime made us feel like she was making it up. Second of all, why was she having trouble with going to bed? She’s seven, almost eight, and we’ve not had this problem since she was a toddler. So we began to question whether or not there’s a reason she doesn’t want to go to sleep -- emotional, spiritual, or otherwise. So we prayed with her and we talked with her in depth about her fears and we had her quote the scriptures she knows. We prayed over her room and anointed her doorposts with oil. Nothing seemed to help. We were beyond understanding, and bedtime had become dreaded on all counts.

We were getting so angry with her at night. Yet in the mornings, she was so sweet and happy, and all was forgotten. Just like God’s are for us, we realized our mercies for her were new every morning. :-) That scripture took on new meaning for me.

Two weeks ago or more, we finally decided we needed to have Ryley checked out by the doctor just to make sure it wasn’t an actual illness. We made an appointment with the pediatrician, and she was diagnosed as having a UTI and was put on antibiotics. But nothing changed regarding bedtime. We tried bribery, and that was the first little bit of progress we made. We promised her candy the next morning if she stayed in bed at night. She did, and we followed through, but the problem wasn’t solved permanently.

It was a mystery to us. I started googling things like “child stomach pain when lying down.” When we had finished the course of the medicine, we made another appointment with the doctor. This time she was diagnosed as having acid reflux and was put on two medications. It’s been almost a week, and she still complains every night, though it’s not the battle it used to be. Sometimes it’s so hard to walk that line of discipline and know when your child is telling you the truth. I guess a UTI and acid reflux combined would make one feel pretty yucky, but I wouldn’t generally associate stomach pain with either of those things. We’re just praying that as we’re consistent with this medicine, it does the trick and she’s feeling better soon!

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Other than all that, it’s continued to be a good summer, and we have participated in a few more fun free events!

Last weekend was a free day at Delaney Farm, which is right up the street from us. We got to tour the oldest home in Aurora, which was timely with all the Little House reading and watching we’ve been doing:

Then, on Thursday we attended a free big band/swing concert in the park. We brought a picnic of fried chicken and had an extremely lovely evening!!!! It was lots of fun.

Can you tell we were some of the younger people in the crowd? But Ryan and I both love “big band” music.

We loved this couple!!!! They danced to every song!

And we danced too!!! Mid-twirl:

Ryley learned how to finger-weave a few weeks ago, so she’s been doing a lot of that recently when hanging out at home. She’s constantly making headbands, bracelets, belts, necklaces, etc.

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This week I attended two funerals. My dear friend Kathy lost her mom to cancer, and that mass/wake was on Wednesday. Then our high school friend Alethea lost her husband in a motorcycle accident, and we went to that funeral yesterday, though we couldn’t stay for the whole thing. Very sad for both families, and our prayers are with them all!

My company is moving in just 10 days, so things are starting to get busy at work. And Ryan is in the midst of being promoted at his job, so he has been super busy as well!!! I’m so proud of him.

So that’s the update from our neck of the woods. I read a blog consistently that makes me sick to my stomach every time I read it. I can’t quite put my finger on why it bothers me so much, but Ryan tells me to stop reading it, and I just can’t stop! I feel myself getting sucked in every time, and then I read it aloud to him, and he hates it more than I do. Ha! Anyhow, it makes me blog-shy because it makes me self-conscious about my own writing, and I hope nobody feels that way about my own blog. :-) Oh, well. Thank goodness for freedom of speech.

Happy Father’s Day. I know I am so blessed to have a wonderful, godly daddy myself and to have married one for my little girl. God is so good. Love to you both!!

FREEdom

2011-06-05T22:38:00.001-07:00

What a weekend! For one thing, it was hot. And hazy. And we don’t have our air cooler working yet, so everyone is hot and sticky and salty to the touch. You know that feeling when 12-hour-old sunscreen mixes with 12 hours of sweat? Yeah. That. :-)

But we had wonderfully full days! It turned out that this was the weekend for free events, and since it is my summer goal to take advantage of them, we were kept hopping.

Friday night we ate dinner at this awesome taco place called Yolanda’s (not free!). Oh, goodness. It’s near my work, and I have driven by it for five years but never tried it until last week. It is so delicious, and I had to introduce Ryley and Ryan to it!

After that we decided to find the Art Walk down in Denver’s Art District. It’s a monthly event, and we had never heard about it until this year. I’m not sure how we’ve gone this long without knowing that Denver had such a happening art district! But once we got down there, we quickly realized that it was not a “family-friendly” event, per se. We would enjoy doing it as a date night sometime, but it wasn’t a place for Ryley. So we did a drive-by, and we were more than content with that. :-)

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, and we headed across town to have breakfast at the only place in Denver where you can buy Kolaches….The Kolache Factory.

I have really grown to like these little bread-wrapped sausages whenever I go visit my brother in Texas, so I did some research and found out that they’re a Texas thing. The Kolache Factory was busy the entire time we were there! And it was delicious!!!

Our next stop was the Cherry Creek Farmer’s Market, which Ryan had heard about from his boss. We loved it!

It was a happy little place, and there were lots of cute and tasty things being sold.

Ryley bought a little elastic bandana. So cute!

By the way, my aunt Coleen made her the sundress. Isn’t it adorable?

So on to our other free events! We have been meaning to attend a free day at the Denver Art Museum for years. But Ryan is never off work on that day, or we are out of town, yada yada yada. And then on Ryan’s birthday in March we were actually willing to pay admission, so we went all the way down there and found out they are “closed on Mondays.” But it finally worked out:

See how the walls are all diagonal and weird? They’re like that inside too. We got vertigo more than once.

It was a lot of fun, and we loved looking at all the exhibits. I love wondering what the artist was thinking when he painted a portion of a landscape or what was going on in his life at that time. Because for me, when I am putting together a puzzle or something, I can look at it later and remember what I was listening to or what was on TV while I was putting that part of the puzzle together. I know that sounds weird, but I find that kind of thing interesting!

I like thinking about the fact that the people in the portraits were probably in the same room as that painting, and I wonder how far the paintings have traveled.

We didn’t finish the museum. After three hours we were feeling hungry and mentally overwhelmed, so we decided to come back another day. We stepped outside, and it just so happened that this free People’s Fair was going on 50 feet from the entrance to the museum. You can kind of see it in the righthand part of this picture taken from a window in the museum.

The fair was in Civic Center Park, which is basically the Capitol’s lawn and surrounding streets, and we ventured in, in search of turkey legs and funnel cakes.

But unlike the Farmer’s Market, this festival was “dark” in feeling, if you know what I mean. It wasn’t happy. We kind of got the feeling that some of the vendors were selling pot behind their tomato plants. And after a grown creepy fairy sprinkled glitter on Ryley’s head and we found out that a funnel cake was $8, we decided we were done. We were in and out in 10 minutes.

And we were so hungry and tired that we decided to also forego the FREE sidewalk chalk art festival happening just a mile away. WHY did they schedule all these free events on the same weekend? Seriously, spread them out a little bit!!!!

My aunt and uncle watched Ryley so we could go see X-Men on Saturday evening, which was a nice air-conditioned finale to the day. :-)

Today Ryley’s best friend joined us for church (FREE, ha ha!, except for tithe, of course), and then we attended the free day at the Denver Museum for Dolls, Miniatures, and Toys. I was unable to find pictures ahead of time online, so I wasn’t sure what kind of experience we were in for. I actually warned the girls that we would go in and check it out but if it’s creepy, we’ll leave.

It was great. It’s run by friendly old ladies, and there were tons of dollhouses to look at. I don’t know if I would pay money for it, but the girls completed a scavenger hunt of dollhouse items, and it was a really cute museum. A nice way to spend an afternoon.

There is something about Ryley’s profile in the picture above that reminds me of myself. I don’t usually think she looks like me too much, but something about her hair makes her look very similar to how I did when I was her age.

Anyhow, so that was our weekend! Very busy, and the house seems a little cluttered overall, but there’s always next weekend to clean it, I suppose.

Because the free activities are a little lacking for the rest of the month. :-)

Taking Control of My Summer

2011-06-01T20:36:00.001-07:00

“I woke up to the sound of birds singing!” Ryley said excitedly as she crawled into bed with us early this morning. “I love sleeping with my window open!”

I’ve been getting excited about this summer because, for once, I am determined to make the most of it. I know it’s trite to say that life is passing us by, but that’s just about right sometimes.

For several weeks now I have been making a list of things I would like to work on with Ryley…things that I have tended to gloss over during the busyness of the school year – like multiplication tables, organizational skills(!), scripture memory, and learning to control our emotions. There are also tangible things I want to complete – like organizing our garage, planting flowers, and “doing more” in our great city.

Too often we let our Saturday hours pass us by without eeking out any fun or productivity. We find ourselves watching too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie and then cleaning our house, over and over and over again. But maybe if we weren’t in our house so much, we wouldn’t mess it up and need to clean it as much! When I’m driving to the grocery store on Saturdays, I pass so many cars of people out and about, heading towards the city. I often wonder where they’re headed, and I think to myself, “Look at these families out having fun! I want to do it too!”

All around, I want to be more heedful of what Ryley’s up to -- more present in her life. I want to really listen to her when she talks incessantly. I want to make sure I’m dealing with the issues that need to be dealt with and enjoying her personality at this delightful age. I want to help her grow.

(This is what Ryan came across on our computer tonight… We had NO idea our daughter was getting married! Ha! And to Bob Barbber, son of Vixen and Lina! YES! Can you tell she reads our framed wedding invitation a LOT??? :-) )

I want to be more mindful of where things are within our house, what comes in and what goes out. I want to know what’s in our fridge on a daily basis instead of wondering what’s growing there in the dish of three-week-old pasta.

I want to be a better person…a more productive and fulfilled person.

We should eat outside more.

We should play more board games.

We should go camping more.

We should go to the mountains more.

We should do more “new” things and go “new” places.

So as a result, I’ve taken control of my calendar. In general, if something is on my to-do list, it gets done. So I have crafted my to-do lists for the next few months, laying out our specific goals and planning activities for our family on the many “free days” that Denver offers. Ryley has a 36-page math packet to complete before school starts, so I’ve mapped out a way to get it done in a timely and Ryley-friendly manner. I may have overbooked us on some days, but only time will tell. We don’t have to do these things I’ve planned; but at least now we won’t forget they’re available! Like the hot air balloon festival, for instance…Every year Ryan and I kick ourselves for not being “in the know” enough to go!

Two weekends ago we started cleaning our garage. It felt so good, and we are still kind of riding on the high from that experience. We are excited to finish it so we can finally get a repairman in there to fix the garage door springs. We have not been able to open the garage door for four years. It turns out that half of the “junk” in our garage was just our collection of boxes. We keep the boxes for everything, and when going through it all, we found boxes for things we don’t even have anymore. How crazy is that?? We are box hoarders! We also look forward to having a garage sale sometime this month.

Before:

Progress: (with garage sale items to the right!)

You can see the floor! Haha!

Anyhow, so I injured my lower leg during the garage cleaning day, and I limped around for a week, thinking it was broken. X-rays proved it was not broken, but just a torn muscle (just a torn muscle!). But it feels so much better every day. Thank you, Jesus! It is not fun to be less than 100 percent, especially when your mind is whirling with all the things you want to do! :-)

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Ryley’s grandpa bought her a telescope as an early birthday present, and being the science nerds we are, we are really enjoying it! Ryan loves it as much as Ryley does. I think it makes us look smarter than we really are, having it sit in the corner of our living room. :-)

The only problem is that Ryley’s bedtime occurs before it gets very dark, and the moon has been out in the mornings rather than in the evenings. But it is such a great gift, and we look forward to using it for years and years.

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Ryley has been at work with me this week (daycare doesn’t open until next week), and my co-workers get a kick out of how much she makes herself at home:

You can’t read it very well, but the white paper “gate” she’s constructed says “Keep Out.” She’s created a little fort for herself where she can eat trail mix, watch Netflix, and read Nancy Drew all day long. She’s been having a blast.

Ah, summer days are here again. :-)

Sisterhood

2011-05-29T22:54:00.001-07:00

My mind is whirling from a very full Memorial Day weekend already. I feel like I have learned and gleaned so much in the past 36 hours alone.

This sounds completely geeky, but the entire time Ryley and I were on her Girl Scout overnight trip in Winter Park, I typed notes into my phone of “oddities” that I witnessed in others and wanted to remember to share with Ryan and explore in more detail. I think I may just have learned more on this trip than Ryley did.

Let’s just get a couple of things clear: I jay-walk. I wear flipflops in winter. I am not one to buckle my seatbelt when driving from one side of a park to another. I wouldn’t chase a napkin across a picnic area for the sake of the environment. I don’t worry about whether or not paper is safe to burn in a campfire. I enjoy it when my daughter picks a wildflower for me. I like cooking with salt and pepper. I like real bacon, not turkey bacon. I don’t dig through trashcans looking for CapriSun wrappers. I don’t make my daughter put an equal number of peanuts in her trail mix to counteract the number of M&Ms.

In summary, when it comes to the environment and health, I am pretty carefree and relaxed. I am not overly cautious and “aware” in those areas. Maybe I should be.

On the flipside, I haven’t told my daughter about the birds and the bees or used the official terminology thereof. We don’t listen to Radio Disney or really watch any Disney Channel shows at all. Ryley will probably never read Harry Potter, and I don’t feel like I should have to apologize for that. I don’t want her reading about a school of wizardry and witchcraft. I just don’t. In those ways, I am an extremely protective and overly cautious mother.

So, as it dawned on me that my parenting style is so different from that of the other moms, I struggled with feelings of inferiority. I don’t usually consider myself a “young” mom, but I soon realized I was the youngest mom by far. Two of the moms were old enough to have been my own mother; the others were in their 40s (which isn’t THAT far off, I know!). And as I felt defensive of my cooking habits, our conservative beliefs, and our apparent non-existent respect for the environment, I found myself jumping to unfair conclusions and judgments of the other ladies.

But just as I did so, I was welcomed. They weren’t judging me. My inferior feelings were my very own. And as I warmed up to them in return, I saw the need for Jesus in their eyes. I found a common bond in others.

I realized that all seven-year-olds are whiny, no matter the parenting style. They all cry. They’re all scatter-brained. They are ALL obsessed with flashlights.

I discovered that whether or not a mom knows all the words to the Justin Bieber songs, our daughters are all about the same. None of us are perfect. We were each little girls once, whether it was in the 60s, 70s, or 80s. And we are all doing the best we can with what we have and what we know.

We all agreed it was easier to cook the meals ourselves than to watch our 3rd graders drop ingredients and make a mess of the kitchen.

And gosh darn it, they liked my hashbrowns. It must have been the salt and pepper that I snuck into the skillet.

Ryley and I both made some new friends, and it was so, so wonderful. Considering I had been dreading this trip for months, I really enjoyed myself!

So here are some more pics:

The “bunk-bed talk,” in which the girls “expressed concerns” regarding the need for each of them to sleep on a top bunk (aka World War III).

Gathering kindling:

Friends eating S’Mores:

Good morning, Mommy! (from the top bunk)

Ryley and her group learned how to build a shelter:

Fun times!!!!

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In other news, Friday was the last day of school, and Ryan accompanied Ryley on her field day! She received the “Bookworm Award” from her teachers, which is extremely fitting!

Miss Stupansky with Ryley and her friend Emma!

Miss Neufeld too:

And on to 3rd grade we go!!!!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

It’s Complicated

2011-05-20T20:44:00.001-07:00

So I was raised in a family and church where drinking alcohol was considered wrong. We simply didn’t have it in our home. Call it the “brand” of Christians we were or whatever, but that’s just the way it was. I once heard it compared to Puritanism, and I think I tend to agree with that. My parents may have had a rare glass of wine with dinner at a friend’s house, but overall, from school to church to even our extended family, we simply did not drink, and we didn’t know anybody who did.

It’s funny because when people find this out about me, they are appalled that there are places in society where this is the case. But it is just as funny to me to imagine a society or Christian upbringing where the fridge is stocked with beer. It’s just ingrained in me that alcohol is wrong.

When you really think about it, what’s wrong with a society like that? My parents were strict and protective, but what’s wrong with being overly protective of your child’s soul? What’s wrong with instilling a mindset of abstinence in your children and finding other ways of having a good time? My family is pretty stinkin’ funny, and we’ve never had to rely on alcohol to bring relaxation and fun.

But Ryan was raised the opposite of me….His parents, Spirit-filled Catholics, drank freely and saw nothing wrong with it. Beer was found in the fridge as easily as Coke would be. Our favorite picture of his mom and dad is one where they are having a romantic dinner in Mexico, alcoholic drinks visible in the foreground.

I had my first drink of alcohol completely by accident on a college missions trip to Germany. The mayor of Hannover served us what we thought was orange juice, but what turned out to be a “screwdriver.” Mmmm. Can you imagine what ORU would have thought if they had found out they sent a bunch of underage Christian kids to Europe who were then served Vodka??

I married Ryan, and we bought some champagne to toast in the New Year on our honeymoon. Little by little, I was converted to the belief that alcohol isn’t evil; it’s the over-consumption of it that’s wrong. It’s drunkenness that’s the sin. Even Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine, right?

Even so, because it wasn’t part of my upbringing, I forget about alcohol most of the time. I forget it exists because I was raised where it didn’t. Sure, I love a little glass of Bailey’s and cream now and then, but I don’t buy it regularly. Wine makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but I only have a rare glass as an afterthought. Ryan, though completely unopposed to it, has never liked the taste, so we just don’t think about it. We don’t need it.

I have had two co-workers get DUIs in the last six months. I can’t even imagine. I’m a little naïve, so when an employee isn’t answering their phone, the thought that they’re nursing a hangover or passed out somewhere doesn’t even cross my mind. I’m learning fast, though.

So this week, I had to buy beer for a company BBQ we had today. I bought 40 beers for 25 people. That’s enough, right? But I’ve gotten a lot of crap about it.

“That’s not even two beers per person.”

(You need more than one? Don’t forget we had water, Coke, Diet Coke, etc., in abundance)

“Two cases? Think you got enough?”

I am so confused!!! I mean, come on….The BBQ took place at 1:00 on a Friday when we were still technically working!! I wouldn’t think it would be prudent to drink in the afternoon when you still have to drive home. But what do I know? :-)

So after looking in the fridge and offering up a loud guffaw at my expense, my boss brought a ton more beer today. Sure enough, people drank it. Not all of it, but a lot of it.

You can laugh at my naivety. I guess I will just never be completely comfortable with it, and I will never understand the obsession. I’m not knowledgeable about it, and who really cares? No matter how much I try to “be cool” and change my perceptions, I still feel a little bit “naughty” when I drink, and I just don’t care enough about it to go gung-ho either way. It makes people uncomfortable when I don’t drink (when they are), and it would offend others if they knew I did on occasion.

Whatever.

It’s certainly complicated. :-)

Love for the Babies

2011-05-18T18:46:00.001-07:00

Ryley and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Texas to see my brother’s family and attend my twin nephews’ baby dedication. We’ve been looking forward to it for so long that it’s a little sad to get back into the rhythm of things here at home! :-(

Denver and Dallas are very different cities. Sometimes it’s especially depressing to come back to our cold and still-winter-dreary city and “older,” cluttered Denver home when everything in Dallas seems spring-like and new, and Justin and Aly’s house is super cute and clean!!! But Ryan had cleaned the house thoroughly over the weekend, and it was so nice to come home to cleanliness!!! He’s a wonderful husband. :-)

Ryley is ready to up and move to Dallas, and the beautiful 70-degree temps there this weekend did not help matters any!

But here’s the real reason she wants to move (or at least half of it!):

Jack loves his cousin Ryley! He’s so handsome.

Oh, you want more pictures? Ok. Well, maybe just a few… :-)

Ryley with Aunt Alyson and Jack….Ryley was such a big helper to Aly this weekend. She fed lots of bottles, and she was always ready to hold one of the babies!

She learned pretty quickly that babies like to hold on to hair! She ended up doing ponytails and pigtails for much of the weekend!

Pappaw holds a happy baby Jack!

Look at his dimple! They both have that cute dimple!

Pappaw holding Will, and me holding Jack

Will is indeed pretty awesome, just as his shirt implies!

Cousins watching Baby Neptune, our favorite! Their little feet would get moving so quickly to the beat of the music. It was so fun to see their different personalities emerging, even now!

Hanging out with Will

I love this pic of Mammaw and Will! He loves to chill outside on their patio swing!

I love this one too! He was chewing on Mammaw’s fingers!

Ryley and Jack

During bath time, Jack tagged his daddy! That was a first!

Game time after the babies were in bed!!

This is a very typical scene in their household….one baby in one recliner; one in the other!

Pappaw and Will

Steiner men…Three generations!

William John, Ryley Elisabeth, Jackson Paul…

We tried so hard to get a good pic of the three cousins all weekend, and these were the best we could get.

Pappaw showed Ryley how to make paper airplanes, and she had a lot of fun with that! She even threw them into the yard from the window of the upstairs loft, where we slept.

On Saturday night we headed to Justin and Alyson’s church to dedicate the babies to the Lord! This was a special time, especially because of the long, sad journey to parenthood that’s finally behind them. These babies are miracles, and they are God’s!

There was a reception afterwards, which was really nice!

I absolutely love the picture above!!!

Mammaw the English teacher shows Ryley what she did wrong on her pronoun homework!

Grandmas feeding babies!!!

Sunday afternoon chill-time

Mammaw and Ryley

Ryley with Mammaw and Pappaw

We had such a great time; thank you, Justin and Aly, for your hospitality!

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Other things we’ve been up to in recent weeks:

My friend Sarah is a 1st grade teacher, and her class hatched some baby chicks! So she was sweet enough to invite us down on a Saturday morning so Ryley could see them!

And of course, there was the school’s spring choir concert last week….Ryley’s class performed a piece based on Aesop’s Fable “The Fox and the Grapes.”

She was a grape.

I can’t believe school is almost over, and summer is just around the corner! Crazy.

Happy Trails.

Ode to Motherhood

2011-05-08T08:27:00.001-07:00

In honor of Mother’s Day, I am posting pictures of my own beautiful mother and grandmother….I am so blessed to have such a wonderful heritage of strong, godly, beautiful women!!! :-)

Four generations: me, my mom, baby Ryley, Honey, and Grandpa

Honey holds her great-granddaughter Ryley

Mom, Ryley, and me in Montana

Me and my mountain baby

Mammaw and Ryley blow bubbles!

Ryley and her great-grandma Honey make cookies!

Enjoying a beautiful day on the boat in Mexico with my mom

With my mom in Puerto Vallarta

Ryley and me at Easter

Yay for motherhood! Happy Mother’s Day to these beautiful ladies and everyone else as well! :-)

Learning “Ryley-speak” and Loving My Job

2011-05-01T22:39:00.001-07:00

So it’s taken me seven and a half years, but I am finally realizing that everything is easier when I speak Ryley’s language. Yes, her very own. “Ryley-speak.”

Scenario #1

Me: “I could really use your help today getting the house clean. Do you think you could help me?”

Ryley: “Yes, just give me one second….”

She comes downstairs wearing a blindfold around her eyes. She is now Blind Ryley (pictured in previous post).

Me: “Oh, I don’t know if being blind is the best way today. It’s hard to help clean the house when you can’t see. Maybe you can be deaf? Or maybe you can’t use one of your legs?”

Ryley: “Deaf!” (And she runs off to find more scarves to block off her ears and mouth.)

As I look at the finished product, I’m realizing it’s going to be hard to communicate with my little “helper.”

Me: “Maybe we shouldn’t do deaf after all. What else could we do instead?”

Scenario #2

Me: “Ryley, will you please take all these shoes upstairs and put them in your room?”

Ryley: “Yes, let me just put all the shoes in a fairy bubble first to keep them all together.” (She waves her hand over them and around in a circle). “And let me just sprinkle some pixie dust on top…”

Me: “Oops, we lost one. Put this one in your bubble too….”

Later….

Ryley: “Oh no! My fairy wing broke when I was coming down the stairs!”

Me: “Oh you’re kidding! Will it be ok?”

Ryley: “Are you making fun of me? Because your voice sounded like you didn’t really mean it.”

:-)

Everything has to be a game. Sometimes she wears a bonnet and carries a basket. Whatever the notion is for the day, I’m learning that if I want her to buy in to whatever the task is, it’s best (and more pleasant in the long run) to play along. We can’t do anything normally, you know.

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Ryley performed “Fur Elise” in her school’s talent show this week, and we were so proud of her!

There were two performances, and other than having “ants in her pants” (her words), she is really quite fearless. I personally hate performing!!! She said she prefers playing the piano to singing because she doesn’t have to look at all the people. :-)

Her daddy brought her a bouquet of roses! He gets so nervous on her behalf; it’s really sweet. He loves his little girl and thinks God gave him a performer for a daughter on purpose! Ha!

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Monkey Ryley!

I’m not sure what kind of mother this makes me that I let her do this! She just shimmied right up! I guess she’s been doing this all along, and this is the first I’ve seen it.

(notice our mistletoe that’s been up there since 2009….we just see no reason to take it down!)

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Quote of the week (as we were watching the Royal Wedding):

“Do you think anybody in the world watching this just fainted, because it’s so romantic??”

Oh, she ate up every single second.

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And Michael Scott stole my thunder on Thursday night when he said something along the lines of, “When you get down to it, your best friends are really the people you work with.”

I had just been thinking about that all week long…that I spend more time with my co-workers than I do with any of my real best friends. And as time has gone on, we’ve developed our own little inside jokes – our own little All in One “culture.”

You’ll never believe this, but we speak “gangsta” to each other, quote Office Space and Anchorman all day, sing along to AutoTune pop culture videos, text each other phrases like “Honey Badger Don’t Care,” and generally nerd out around one another. It’s a fun group, and it makes our work environment more enjoyable.

We get all our work done, too, lest you be concerned. :-)

I mean, think about it. We have roughly seven hours together each day, so there’s plenty of time to squeeze in a little humor here and there. I’m hoping our joyful atmosphere can hang in there, even when it starts getting busier again this month!!!

So when we got to create and host a booth at a tradeshow this week, we had a blast. It was hard work, but it was rewarding too.

That’s Leahh. Luke is sitting, and Joel is talking to a potential customer.

We’re hoping we can do more events like this, maybe even the Colorado Home and Garden Show!

We all work well together, and we all live by the same quotable mantra hanging above my office door, courtesy of the movie Office Space:

I’m grateful for a good job right now. I’m grateful to be working with pleasant, fun-loving people at the moment. I’m grateful for the fact that I finally feel productive, appreciated, and proud of my work, even though it’s not in an industry I ever imagined.

Not only is it good for the company, it’s good for Joy. :-)

Stay classy, San Diego.

He Lives!

2011-04-25T20:10:00.001-07:00

“Hear the bells ringing; they’re singing that you can be born again!

Hear the bells ringing; they’re singing Christ is risen from the dead!”

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard my childhood pastor sing that song on an Easter morning, so instead, I’ve taken to singing it myself, annoying Ryan and Ryley by taking my soprano abilities to new heights. :-) I love that song. I love Easter. What a beautiful Love Story we are a part of!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend as a family. Ryan had three days off in a row, which was a real treat. It was somewhat chilly and rainy, but that’s ok.

Ryley and her “BFF” Amirah had so much fun at the church’s Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning!

There were 10,000 eggs and 700 kids….

Reviewing their winnings….

For seven years, Ryan and I have been an active part of the egg decorating. But let me tell you what we learned this year: it is so much more fun to have a friend involved. More fun for everyone! All we did was set them up, and then they had a blast.

The Easter Bunny was very crafty in where he hid the eggs in our family room. It took Ryley much longer to find them than it has in past years.…

Ryley in her Easter dress…

At church, I have to mention that a guest pianist played “The Hallelujah Chorus,” and when he did, I stood up (like you’re supposed to). It was just me and the old folks standing. I whispered to Ryan, “You’re supposed to stand up during the Hallelujah Chorus.” I knew he knew that. But alas, Ryan (being a tad on the rebellious side like usual), stayed seated until the song was almost over. This led to a lively and teasing discussion after service about whether or not we are still obliged to follow the rules of the King of England, whom Ryan says his forefathers fought hard to break free of. Ha ha. My mom entered into the conversation via text saying that I was a good girl to stand and, after all, doesn’t Ryan love Jesus? It was pretty funny. :-)

After a delicious dinner of grilled BBQ chicken, Ryley and Ryan peeled all those decorated eggs from the day before and made deviled eggs!

We hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating Jesus and all that He has done for us!

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

Have a great week! :-)

Busy Days

2011-04-21T21:20:00.001-07:00

I’ve been trying to get a blog out for the last three days, but everything I have to say seems boring or sounds like I’m trying too hard. So we’re just going to do a picture post of our lives over the last few weeks.

Ryley’s school has a roller-skating night a few times each year, and it is always a huge hit. Poor Ryley is an awful skater, but she sure doesn’t mind going out and trying! Her tailbone hurt for several days after this. :-)

We released the sixth edition of SHINE Magazine about a month ago. It’s our best yet. I enjoy being a part of the production team, however, this particular edition took a lot out of me. I invested 105 hours in it between August and February, thus the reason I don’t find much time to blog. :-)

Ryley’s Brownies troop sold enough Girl Scout cookies that not only were they able to fund some outreach projects, but they were also able to have a little fun at Build-a-Bear, making their own animal dressed in a Brownie uniform!

Ryley and I are different people and thus make different choices. I repeat that to myself at least five times a day. :-) I would have chosen a teddy bear or a fluffy bunny. But Ryley chose a dog.

It did turn out pretty cute, but the sundress helps a lot. :-)

Ok, this seems a little weird to post this, I know, but at work we have been upping our marketing efforts big-time. I am so excited about it, and I am really enjoying this part of my job. We have a new web marketing initiative, and I was also given a small budget to order the above swag for a tradeshow we’re doing next Friday. I was also allowed to get business cards. Yay! It’s funny how happy this stuff makes us….Leahh, John, and I have been rejoicing any time we see the UPS truck drive into our parking lot. :-) We are a silly bunch, often giving in to our love for song and dance by belting out the “Laverne and Shirley” theme song or Rebecca Black’s viral “Friday” at will.

Ryley’s best friend Amirah came over last weekend, but her visit was cut short by sickness. So we’re trying again tomorrow night and Saturday. We will take the girls to the church’s egg hunt on Saturday morning, so that should be fun.

We did some spring cleaning last weekend, but of course Ryley can’t do anything “normally.” :-) So this is my “blind” spring cleaning princess. Such a big help, stumbling from room to room. ;-)

My friend Kathy and I had coffee last week, so Ryley got to play American Girl dolls with Kathy’s daughter Emma, who is a few years older. Ryley really looks up to her, and it was so cute because she said, “Yeah, we didn’t really ‘play’ with our dolls, but we did talk a lot, which was so fun!” So funny – that bridge between wanting to pretend/imagine and just wanting to do the dolls’ hair and hang out.

Ryley is getting to that age where it is so fun to converse with her; she gets our jokes and is such a delightful companion. Tonight, for instance, we were at an old Walmart, and it is in the middle of a massive renovation project, so everything is in a different spot, and we found ourselves walking around in circles. I muttered under my breath, “Remind me not to come back to this Walmart for a very long time!” Ryley just looked up at me and giggled and said, “Ok!”

After much convincing on my part, she finally picked up “Little House in the Big Woods” and read it cover to cover in two days. I have told her for months that she would love it, but she hadn’t believed me. Finally she decided to try it. “Mom, you were right! I love this book! Are there more??” Oh. My. Goodness. :-) The fun is just beginning.

We Are Pioneers

2011-04-05T21:41:00.001-07:00

I would say that Spring Break came right on time this year, bringing with it needed ~~brakes~~ breaks for ~~both our vehicles~~ all of us. It makes me sad that Ryley is a mere seven weeks from finishing 2nd grade, which means she will soon be a 3rd grader, which means that we are only a year away from her being a 4th grader! She seems so much smarter and wittier and put-together than I ever felt at that age.

Last week she spent one day with me at my office, and she sat across the desk from me, typing a story on my laptop. That’s her new thing…typing a story about a princess and begging me to edit it and then saying, “Ok! Let’s publish it!” (Like it’s that easy….I wish!! :-))

So anyway, suddenly she groaned and complained that the capital R wasn’t working anymore.

“And I plan to have so many capital R’s throughout my story!” she moaned.

I told her I would look at it when I finished the project I was working on. In the meantime, however, she became impatient and started trying different things to try and fix it on her own.

“Oh, ok….Mom, look,” she began, turning the laptop to face me. “You’re just going to have to remember this. Whenever you want a capital letter, you just push the key by itself. But if you want it lowercase, you have to push SHIFT with the key. So it’s opposite of normal.”

I could have eaten her cheek right then. Ryley has never taken a typing course, so of course, CAPS LOCK is a foreign idea. She was so relieved when I pointed it out!

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The next day Ryan had his day off, so Ryley stayed home with Daddy while I worked. I was in the middle of something when I missed a call from “home” on my cell phone. I called back the first second I got.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sweetie. Did Daddy call me?”

“No, I did. Daddy’s in the shower.”

“Oh, ok. Did you need something? Is everything ok?”

“I have a question for you. Do you think there could be a piano that could have Braille on the keys so that blind people know which keys they’re playing?”

“Oh, Ryley, that’s a good idea! But I think most blind people can tell where they’re at on the piano by feeling for the black keys…you know what I mean?”

“Ohhhhhhh, yeah.”

“But it’s a good idea, and it’s very sweet of you to think of it!”

“But…how do they read music?” She was very concerned.

“Well, they can’t. They have to play by ear.”

I love that she called me at work just to talk about blind people and the piano.

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I took several days off during Spring Break, one of which was Ryan’s birthday! We had a wonderful family day together. Ryan would prefer cookies to cake any day, so Ryley and I baked up a huge, delicious chocolate chip cookie. Well, we just took that cookie and a jug of milk down to our coffee table and ate off of it all afternoon while we watched Goonies and Pirates of the Caribbean. Bliss!

It was so relaxing, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate my amazing husband’s birth!!

Ryley is such a daddy’s girl. :-)

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Speaking of, Ryley and Ryan had a reading competition with each other over Spring Break. She buzzed through at least 20 chapter books and “won.” :-) We went to the library three times, and for one thing, she discovered Nancy Drew. She is reading faster than I do. She’s gone through many of my favorite series, and it’s hard for me because I kind of want to hold some favorites back for later. I don’t want to show her all my cards when she’s only seven! I am so glad that she likes to read, though. :-) I always considered myself a bookworm, but Ryley takes the term to a whole new level.

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The highlight of our week was Ryley’s and my trip to visit Honey, my grandma in Nebraska! Honey took us on a tour of her childhood, which was definitely a treat!

We explored the one-room schoolhouse where my grandpa and mom both attended:

My mom’s desk was in the back left corner of this room, according to her memory. Crazy! It’s very Little House on the Prairie! I love it!

We heard stories about church picnics, outhouses, etc.

Then we came upon this treasure of a house where Honey lived as a five-year-old, more than 75 years ago!!!

Of course we had to go inside.

That heater thingie replaces the wood stove that was there when Honey was a little girl (because there was no electricity or running water), and Honey remembers that Santa left her a baby buggy behind that wood stove one Christmas!

The house has been updated, but honestly, it probably hasn’t been lived in for decades. And Honey hadn’t been there since she moved out!

Looking back, I realize we could have come across anything in that house….raccoons, a dead body, a homeless person. We could have fallen through the stairs…because of course we had to explore the upstairs!

This was the room Honey shared with her two brothers….Her bed was in the corner to the right. The mattress there on the floor had thousands of mouse poopies all over it.

The living room….

It was amazing to imagine my great-grandparents raising their little family in that house…working the land, sending their kids to the one-room schoolhouse, surviving harsh Nebraska summers and winters…. And to think that Honey had memories there! Very, very cool. :-)

We went on to take Ryley by the Oregon Trail, which greatly interested her….

Chimney Rock…

Ryley Ingalls

Scottsbluff Monument:

We also watched Gone with the Wind with Honey, which was so much fun! Honey hadn’t seen it since she was on a date with my Grandpa when she was 16!!!

And we did pedicures. :-)

The entire trip was SO much fun!!!!!!!

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And here are a few more pics of March….swimming lessons and Ryley’s trip to the Denver Zoo with Aunt Coleen and Uncle Paul:

And that’s all she wrote. For tonight anyway. :-)

What Would It Be Like?

2011-03-15T16:19:00.001-07:00

So this is going to seem like a downer of a post, which is uncharacteristic of me, but it’s kind of where I’m at today, so I’m going to flow with the muse while I’ve got it.

My back was just beginning to feel better when I got hit by the tree pollen in the middle of the night. I woke up sneezing (which is an odd experience in and of itself), and my allergies were so bad this morning that I could feel my nose literally dripping while I stood at the pharmacy counter at 7:55 a.m. waiting for the cashier to ring up some allergy medicine and a box of Kleenex. Oh, the irony.

All day long, each time I sneezed, I would feel twinges through my lower back. Then Ryan called me and he was having a bad day, and someone asked me if I wanted to order lunch with them and I said no because we don’t have the money, and well, around 10:30, I just shut my office door and decided to have myself a good healthy cry.

Why does it seem to be harder for us than for other people?

Why can’t we seem to get ahead?

Why do we work our butts off just to come out even every month?

What do we have to do to get a job whose work/pay-off ratio comes out a little more proportionately (or favorably)?

How do people have money for vacations?

What would it be like to have a house that doesn’t need so many repairs?

What would it be like to have money to do the home repairs we need?

What would it be like to have money to do the car repairs we need?

What would it be like to get paid a sum of money for editing and actually be able to use it for the things we want to use it for, instead of seeing it slip through our fingers for bills and necessities that just so happen to come up that very week?

What would it be like to have amazing metabolism and be able to eat like a normal person and not gain weight?

What would it be like to have more than one child?

Why is parenting one child all we can seem to manage?

What would it be like to decide to have another baby and then just… have it? Wow, that’s a novel idea.

It’s not that I’m ungrateful….In all sincerity, I know how to put things in perspective and how to ask: What would it be like to be hit with an earthquake and tsunami and lose all your possessions and your family in a matter of minutes?

I get that. I know things aren’t really that bad, and I know they could be so much worse. But sometimes when I look around at other people, I just think, “Wow, how are you doing that?” Sometimes success just looks so easy from the outside.

I’m not jealous or even unhappy at others’ fortune. I’m not that kind of person at all. I just want to know how I can get in on it, too. :-)

I’ll be fine. We’ll be dandy. Everything is really ok. Tomorrow my pity party will be over, and I will look at the world through fresh eyes… I will breathe the world through a pollenless nose.

I’m just curious, that’s all.