I Love It When That Happens

I love free things. Early this week I received a phone call from lady we know. She told me her neighbors were getting rid of a swing set and they had just put it out by the road for someone to take. (!!) I had been thinking about how nice it would be to have a swing set for Josh to play on when he gets just a wee bit bigger and since she said it was in good shape, we jumped on it. The set just needs a little washing and I am so looking forward to setting it up with Adam. It is the same set as is in the photo above, except that it has a baby swing too. (So we could use it this summer!!) I looked online and this particular set sells anywhere between $500 and $650, so I'm real appreciative to get it for nothing. (Thanks H & K!!) I'm hoping to get it set up this afternoon. It'll be fun to be able to take Josh outside to play. (Yea!)

Going Away

I am going on an "adventure" next week. My brother and sister-in-law head up the Junior High youth group at church and they are taking the kids to PA for a youth retreat. They had a couple kids sign up last minute, leaving themselves in need of another chaperone to go along. Dave called me and asked if there was any possibility that I could go. I was very hesitant and at first told him no, that I wouldn't be comfortable leaving Josh for so long. The retreat is from Monday- Thursday and I haven't ever left Josh overnight yet. But Adam encouraged me to go and said that he'll be fine with Josh. He even said that he'd enjoy the challenge. So I'm going along after all. As you can imagine, I'm rather nervous about leaving Josh for so long and I miss him already just thinking about it. I think being away from the little guy will be harder on me than on him. Adam will most likely fill the "Mommy Void" the best he can. Horrible as it may sound, I am actually looking forward to being away from Adam for a few days. Whenever we are apart for an extended period of time, we appreciate each other more. I think it does a couple good to miss one another :) Anyway, if you think of us next week, please say a little prayer for us. We always look forward to the Lord meeting us in a special way when we go on a retreat. It's kinda exciting to expect great things from our Savior. I hope to have lots of exciting pictures to share when we return.

These Moments

Imagine this: The sound of a child crawling across the floor. Hands patting and knees hurriedly swiping across the floor. He jabbers happily as he finds something new and exciting down there that just might fit in his mouth. It may be an old cheerio or a blade of grass tracked into the house on a shoe. Small fingers grip the hem of my pants. "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma." He wants to be held. I wipe my sudsy, dish-water soaked hands on the towel and bend to pick him up. He's not a lightweight anymore. He actually never was, but as time goes on, it is more and more evident that he is taking after Daddy's side of the family. My back is sore, but I wouldn't exchange this time for anything. His fingers grip my nose and his sweaty little hands wipe across my cheek. It is sheer adoration. Mutual adoration. He's a momma's boy. Blue eyes and round cheeks. Blonde hair that is just starting to grow. I can see my side in him too. A little bit of Daddy and a little bit of Mommy. Maybe some of Grandma, but the eyes are definitely from Grandpa. He starts to squirm and wants to get down. The attention span of a small boy is very short and there is so much more to see. This is living...



I haven't seemed to have much time for blogging lately. It is getting increasingly hard to find time to sit and write when someone else is so adventurous. Nap time is usually taken up with washing dishes, folding laundry or other odd household duties. It's not that there has been a void of exciting or interesting things to blog about. It's just that time to blog is getting rather sparse. I meant to blog about my sister (my baby sister) turning thirteen, how I spent $0.39 on two things of body wash and two packs of razors at CVS, and about Adam and his vibrant love of golfing. I had wanted to ask you all to pray for Adam's grandma, who was in the hospital last week and how it was discovered that she has bone and breast cancer. I was going to tell you about how my brother Joe has been helping us clean out our gutters. And how Josh got to play in our new pool the other day. There were so many things I had meant to blog about, but life has just been too much fun lately to sit here. Life has kept me going. Papers have to be picked up, floors swept, dog food taken out of mouths, cords wound and poopy diapers thrown away. I will have to reserve time somewhere to record the events and happenings of my daily life. I don't want to forget these days. There is too much to remember and to cherish. Today was one of the best days of my life. Joshua was so happy and there was so much joy in his face. I just love it. I want to thank God for giving me one of the greatest blessing He could give. I think that, besides the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, children just may be the greatest blessing. Amazing. I love it. I want to cherish every moment of it.

Dog Vomit Mold

Remember my post about all my strange bugs? Well I can now add slime mold to my list. My garden beds have now become a bed to, not only my flowers, but "Dog Vomit" Mold. That is actually it's common name and very similar in appearance. This particular slime mold can often be found growing in garden mulch. It starts off on day one with a beautiful golden yellow color (yes, I just called mold beautiful), before fading to a nasty muted brown color. The mold really is hideous looking (even if it is a beautiful color at first) but after doing some simple research, they say that it isn't harmful to anyone or anything. With the exception being the looks of my garden. I read there is absolutely nothing I can do to get rid of Dog Vomit Mold, so I might as well just deal with it, get comfy with it's appearance and leave it be. I tried washing it away last week, but it just popped up elsewhere. Oh, those nasty little molds and fungi...

Tickle Him WIth Kisses

I just love hearing my boy laugh, especially when it's about something I'm doing. I hope you love to hear him laugh too.

Water Baby

Josh loves his bath time. I love watching him during bath time. He has too much fun splashing and playing with his bath toys. He should've been a fish. I took him swimming at Aunt Rachel's house on Saturday and you should've seen him smile and laugh. He could've stayed in all day, if I hadn't been so chilly. I'm waiting for myself to get up enough gumption to blow up his little swimming pool, so he can play in it at home. He would really think that was neat.

Gardasil Vaccine: Think Twice!

My mind is reeling. I have spent the last two+ hours researching the Gardasil vaccine. Ugh. It's very brain-tiring. I hope you all do your research and get all the facts before vaccinating your children. Especially with a new vaccine that hasn't even finished it's third phase of safety tests. These informative sites have certainly motivated me to do more research on what I allow Joshua to be given. Not all doctors know all the facts. Especially insightful is the "judicialwatch" link.

*http://www.judicialwatch.org/gardasil
*http://www.nvic.org/Diseases/HPV/HPVrpt.htm
*http://cbs5.com/wrapper_consumer/seenon/gardasil.merck.vaccine.2.721920.html
*http://cbs4denver.com/local/gardasil.danger.paralysis.2.766473.html
*http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58004

These are just a few. When looking up information on this vaccine, many of the results on the first several pages were all good reports from "reputable" sources. But after sifting through more pages, I found quite a few not-so-glowing reports. These that I linked to were only a handful.

Please, I think it is quite urgent that we let our friends know that this is not a safe vaccine. There are very dangerous side affects that parents and young girls are not being told of. Paralysis, seizures, Guillian-Barre Syndrome, blood clots, extreme low blood pressure, and Syncopea (a temporary suspension of consciousness due to inadequate blood flow and lack of oxygen) to name a few of the more serious side affects. I didn't see any of these side affects listed with the CDC's evaluation of Gardasil vaccine. The CDC website says:

Safety of the HPV vaccine

This vaccine has been licensed by the FDA and approved by CDC as safe and effective. It was studied in thousands of females (ages 9 through 26 years) around the world and its safety continues to be monitored by CDC and the FDA. Studies have found no serious side effects. The most common side effect is soreness in the arm (where the shot is given). There have recently been some reports of fainting in teens after they got the vaccine. For this reason, it is recommended that patients wait in their doctor’s office for 15 minutes after getting the vaccine.

Why aren't they telling us the rest of the risks? If they won't tell, we need to!

A Golfing Sort of Day

It was a beautiful day for golfing... Yes, I said golfing. It may be a foreign word for you readers of my blog, but it was the word of the day. Adam took me out golfing with my Aunt Rachel and Uncle Dave. I have never golfed before, besides mini golf, and that doesn't count. I tried to look like I belonged on a golf course and wore my visor like they do on TV. Aunt Rachel had only golfed once and that was ages ago, so I wasn't terribly worried about being left too far behind. I didn't have to worry anyway because Aunt Rachel had even forgot how to stand properly when swinging the club. She had to have a LOT of help from Uncle Dave to figure it out. ;) Us girls tied on a lot of holes and we both got a lot of "1's". Okay maybe they were really 11's... but that is two one's at once... Uncle Dave nearly got a hole in one and Adam had so much fun, he was ready to play the whole course again. I really enjoyed myself and I think everyone else did too, for the most part :) I wouldn't mind tagging along again sometime!

A Sunday with Friends

On Sunday afternoon, Adam and I drove out to meet a couple friends of ours for dinner. Stephanie and her husband Stephen live rather far away but were much closer for the weekend, so we had to meet them while we could. The five of us (Josh was with us) went to Uno's Chicago Grill for supper and ordered two pizza's. We sat patiently and visited for a while, Josh ate all his crackers and his mixed veggies, and we downed several glasses of soda. We watched as the sky turned black with clouds and as rained poured out in the parking lot. Time went on and still we waited for our pizza. It must've been about an hour before Adam went and asked if someone could check on our pizza. Our waiter had forgotten to push "send" when he put in our order, so we had waited that long and the kitchen hadn't even started making our meal! By that time, Stephen was starving and our waiter offered us a free appetizer to enjoy while our pizza was baking. I guess sometimes it pays to wait patiently. I wonder how long we would've waited if Adam hadn't gotten up to ask? We might've been able to eat for free! All in all, it wasn't too bad that we had to wait so long. I only get to see Stephanie once or twice a year, so we soaked up all the time we had together and didn't mind the rumbly tummies too much.

After we left Uno's, we headed off to the bowling ally (much to Adam's chagrin, as he hadn't been bowling in ages). Stephen and Stephanie enjoy a good game of bowling and I don't mind either. My only dilemma was that I hadn't dressed for the occasion, in my wrap skirt and flip-flops. Thankfully, Stephanie had some overall jean shorts I could borrow and a extra pair of socks in her overnight bag. The two of them had spent the weekend working at the Bible camp where we had met as kids. By the end of the night, Adam had decided that bowling wasn't as horrible as he had remembered it to be and even suggested that maybe we go again sometime! That was a shocker to me. He has always despised the thought of bowling. Good work Stephanie, getting him to like something new!! Look at that bowling form! Way to go Adam!!

A Sandy Saturday Evening

Finally, some respite from screaming and temper-tantrum throwing... Hopefully, after a nice nap, Josh will be "Mr. Happy Pants" again. Now I will tell you about the things that keep us busy these days.

Since last Friday, we have been dog sitting for some vacationing friends of ours. You may remember that Roxy stayed with us a few times over the last summer. Molly loves having her visit and I do too, because having a doggy friend over keeps Molly occupied so I can concentrate a little more on other things. Anyway, now that we have two dogs for the week, we have more inspiration to go fun places like the "beach". Saturday evening was Joshua's first trip to Sodus Point. Sodus Point is a historic hamlet on the shores of Lake Ontario with small cottages and big cottages alike. Boats can always be found in and around the bay and fishermen are almost never absent from the pier. We took Josh and the dogs for a walk across the sandy beach and then down toward the lighthouse on the end of the pier. I had found some old bread in the fridge at home, so I made it my plan to feed the ducks before heading back. While feeding the ducks, we spotted a mommy swan whose babies she had tucked up beneath her feathers riding on her back. I had never seen such a thing in person, so this was quite exciting for me. Even Adam found the mommy swan to be fascinating. I didn't get any good pictures because by the time we were feeding the ducks, the sun had started to set and it was too dark. So you'll have to enjoy these other photos we took while it was still light out.
Adam walking the dogs along the beach.













Josh was skeptical of the lake.

















The water was very cold on our toesies.













This is one of many similar looking summer cottage homes.

















Molly and Roxy meet another dog on the pier.













The Sodus Point Lighthouse.

















Homes line the Bay on nearly every side.













I took this photo because it reminded me of my blog friend, Jessica, calling her baby "Li'l Mo".













One of many boats that pass by the pier on their way in to dock.













Sunset on Lake Ontario.

Tip Of The Day

I've been a bit busy this past weekend (but not as busy as some, so I really have no excuse). But I haven't much time left before I need to leave with work, so I'll just tell you my tip for the day. Never, never neglect to put sneakers on when using the weed whacker. Flip-flops just don't cut it. And this is why...


I hope to have a moment or two later today to tell you about the wonderfully exciting weekend my family and I had... So stay tuned.