Little Girls Growing Up

Daddy with my two beautiful girls.

We went to the store one night, came home and Norah crashed. I was feeding Naomi, Norah climbed into my lap and this is how she fell asleep. See her head? Hardly. She was literally flung over my lap with her head between the pillows of the couch.

This is Omi covered in glow sticks. We enjoy using our children for our personal entertainment.


Norah likes to sit on the bathroom counter and watch me get ready everyday. Sometimes she 'gets ready' too. This is her lipstick job.

I have a dish with all my makeup in it. She enjoys going through it and imitating what I do with each object. This is one of the torturing devises: the eyelash curler. If only you could just hold it up to your face and it worked.

Norah is going to grow up and I'm going to tell her that her favorite past time is flossing her teeth. Notice the three feet of floss it takes to floss her 8 teeth.

This was bath time turn potty time. Standing in the tub, she tells me she needs to 'poop' which really means, "I'm ready to get out and I know if I say 'poop' then you'll get me out of here." She is very amused with herself here.

Princess Norah (who still fits into her Bumbo seat at 2 years old) with Hannah, Hannah, and Lydia (who is hiding) I'm not sure who's idea it was to carry her around like royalty. I wouldn't put it past Norah to insist on going for a 'ride'.

New Glasses

Who would have thought that much complaining would lead to a HUGE blessing. I must first say, if you ever hear me complain, first stop me in my blubbering thoughts, and second, I'm not doing it to GET a blessing. With that said, I was completely unaware of how my words were coming out.
My sister, Lori and I have a date every Wednesday. I very much look forward to Wednesdays now. Sometimes we secretly meet for lunch, this is to say that we eat at La Hacienda when there is little money in my pocket and her husband doesn't like Mexican, so that is a very reasonable excuse to eat out. (the secret in this is that our poor husbands are probably stuck in their offices eating left overs from the night before) Sometimes I go to her house with Naomi and we chat and eat a whole box of crackers in her bed. And sometimes she comes over here with my nieces and they play with Norah on the trampoline in the blazing sun. No matter where we are, it's our time. I love it. So recently, Lori was here at my house. Long chats, lots of fun, venting, all the things sisters do when they gab. And I started to tell Lori how, come tax return, I was going to invest in some glasses. See, investing being the key word here. Dollar store glasses have worn out their welcome. You get the option of either 2.00, 2.25, 2.75, etc. When you put these ingenious glasses on, everything right in front of you seems magnificently larger, but when you look up, the world is now a total blur. I'm sorry, how is this supposed to help me with seeing things farther away? That's right, it's the dollar store, and they are dollar store glasses. I've been straining and squinting for some time now, and let's face it, a lady squinting all the time is really very unattractive. I was having trouble seeing road signs (even during the day), reading things on TV, and the PowerPoint at church (that sounds so pathetically high-tech when I put it like that...). So, all this straining has become rather old and I'm telling Lori how February won't come soon enough.
That weekend, I get an email from her telling me she has made plans for us. She insists that I must be ready and out the door by 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. I must also bring a bottle for Naomi as I will not be able to feed her for about 45 minutes. My minds begins to wonder...how exciting. It's like a REAL date (minus the fact that I'm bringing my three month old daughter and it's with my sister not my husband, beggers can't be choosers). I had my ideas of where we might be going, but then I shot them down because none of them made any sense. We left the house promptly at 10:00 and began the drive. Chat, chat, chat while driving. I thought for sure she'd blind fold me or something. Finally, we pull into a EyeGlass World and it didn't occur to me until we were really getting out of the vehicle why we were there. How awesome!! What a surprise!!
I had a wonderful dr. tell me he blames the eye problems on the children. Chuckle. After telling him all the things I'm having trouble seeing, he tells me it's time to: stop driving altogether, get a bigger TV, and quite going to church. Chuckle. That is his Rx. As he's writing out the actual prescription for glasses, he tells me he can write one for Ryan for a larger tv. I told him, "My husband would really appreciate that."
With Lori holding Naomi, and me holding about five pairs of glasses, trying to decide, I would put one pair on, get her opinion then put another pair on. After much deliberation, she helped me pick out two new pairs of glasses. What a wonderful blessing. When we handed them over to the tech to get them ready, I told Lori how much I appreciated this. I never could have imagined this is what she had in mind. She told me, "Six months is too long to wait for glasses."
Lori, I love you. You're amazing. Glasses or not, I had a perfect day with you!

Wise Golden Hair

This is blog worthy. Okay to me.
It is late. I am on my way to check email one last time before going to bed. I was in the bathroom, pulling my hair back into a clip. The light must have hit so subtly, in just the right spot. I had to take a closer look. Closer. "You've got to be kidding me." That's all I could think. As I begin to filter through the strands of hair pulled back I finally get the one I'm looking for, it's a single GRAY HAIR!! I held onto it for a few seconds before deciding what to do with it. I held it up to the light to make sure it wasn't just some highlights that hadn't faded yet. It wasn't. Then I tugged on it ever so slightly to make sure it wasn't a really long cat hair that made it's way into my own silky locks. Blasted! It wasn't. Still holding this nuisance, I decided to do the only thing a women my age would do...I PULLED THAT SUCKER OUT!! You would have thought I was a CSI by the way I was examining it. From every angle, holding it up to the light, touching it. And then I thought, there is a difference between gray and WHITE. This was a white piece of hair. But when I held it, it was strong, thick, and shone like none of the other strands of my hair. It was like spun gold. I like that, spun gold. Doesn't make a girl feel so old. I had to call Ryan in on the investigation. He came in with much excitement (shock). He said, "You're 15 years behind me in getting gray hair." Was this suppose to make me feel better? Still fascinated and in awe of this discovery, I decided I had to keep my new found jewel. I placed it on a dark cloth on the bathroom counter, the contrast of colors is spectacular. As I came to bed, surprised to be smiling, Ryan said, "Gray hair is a sign of wisdom." He's so gentle with words. I said, "I just pulled my wisdom out." I've always been very excited to begin a new decade, but this is ridiculous. Oh well, I will venture on in hopes of gleaning wisdom in ways other than the top of my head.

Road To Emmaus

"This is our highway to heaven. Our American dream. Two fools on the road to Emmaus. Well it might as well be you and me." Jason Upton

I love this song. But for the longest time I didn't really know what it meant. This is why I started this blog. Not only for those of you who care to keep up with us, but to leave a mark on this path.

To not live my life so foolishly that I miss what is happening all around me. What God is doing all around me.

In Luke 24, it tells about what was going on after Christ was crucified. V.13 begins with these two men walking along this road, the Road To Emmaus and talking intently about the past three days events. Along comes a man and begins to chat with them. He asks what they are talking about and why they look so down. The two men are in shock that this fellow hasn't heard all that has happened in town. They begin to tell him about Jesus and being wrongly judged and sentenced to a horrible death. They are so upset that the rumors they heard about Jesus being the One to save Israel must not be true because alas the tomb is empty. All this time they had believed in the prophets and now even the body of the Savior cannot be found. The man walking with them says, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to listen to all that the prophets have said." It was Jesus all along. Walking with them, listening to their sob story and they were missing the glory. They were so caught up in the "woe is me" and "look what has happened to us" that they didn't even recognize He was right there with them.

THIS IS US! Our nation, our culture, our children. We don't listen, we think we know it all. We think we've got life all figured out. We are not teaching our children to listen to that 'still small voice' when it is right there next to us. We cannot afford to be those 'fools' on the road. Can you imagine the conversation had they known they were walking with Jesus? I bet it would have gone completely different. I do not want to be a fool on the road. I want to see Him in everything, in everyday, in every conversation, in every smile, tear, and embrace. I do not want to miss Him. And so, I'm teaching my little ones to recognize. Do not be so caught up in the worries of the world, when we are not of this world, that you miss what He is doing with you, where He is taking you.

"Do you ever get angry at the homeless? Do you ever throw your dollar in disgust? Do you ever get so angry that you can't see what you've got, right in front of you." Jason Upton, Road to Emmaus