Ain't He Sweet?

Josh and I had a real good night together tonight. Adam had gone out for the evening and the little guy and I had already been to the outlet mall together making returns at four different stores. It's not always a fun thing to do, going to the store with Josh, but this time he had a little motivation to be good. He had spied one or two of those coin operated ride on toys that are conveniently placed outside of stores to tempt small children, and was so hoping for a ride on one. I have never let Josh ride on one before, and in the first store we went into he didn't use his "best listening ears" and I told him he couldn't sit on one despite his desperate pleas. But he would not be too discouraged, and was on his absolute best behavior in the remaining stores in hopes that he could earn some brownie points. This was the start of a very nice evening together. When a small child is doing his best to please his or her parent, the parent is going to be a little more, let's say generous, than normal. (Kid's make sure you learn this while you are young.) Let's suffice it to say that before we left the outlet mall, Josh got his ride on the Mickey Mouse fire engine.

So our good evening continued on together. We ate our supper together, just the two of us. I offered him a choice of reading our new storybook together or cleaning the basement, and much to my amusement, he chose cleaning the basement together. He helped me get the newspaper ready for starting a fire on our wood stove, and wrinkled much to much paper. He dusted the tables while I swept the floor. We shared hot cocoa in his new Sponge Bob mugs he received from our family gift exchange at Christmas. I helped the little guy with his bath, though we made sure that his bath toys would not go down the drain before we filled the tub. And then we looked at the new Highlight's magazine that came in the mail, thanks to Aunt Leta. After wards, we delved into our new storybook, The Jeremy Mouse book, by Patricia Scarry. I decided that I like her stories. By the end of our evening together, Josh and I were both in such good moods. He was tucked into bed very pleasantly with two of his tractors and I didn't hear another peep from him. I guess our good night wore him out. I like being a Mommy. :)

A New Language to Learn

I've been contemplating language today. Yesterday I went to the mall with a friend and stopped by the Rosetta Stone kiosk just for kicks. They allow you to "sample" their program right there, and I asked about Bahasa Indonesia. I was able to learn (and remember) a couple new words in just a few minutes, including "laki-laki" and "wanita" meaning boy and woman. I've heard great things about Rosetta Stone's program and have been tempted to purchase the Spanish program before. But now, since I am going to Indonesia and know only three (now five) words in their language, and since it's said that you can pick up a language very quickly using that program, I am very tempted to get it. There is now less than two months before I go... A quick overview of what I need to do before hand:

• call Passport Health
• get vaccinated/get malaria medicine
  
• collect craft supplies and items to be donated to the centers that we visit
• decide what sort of gifts I want to bring to my sponsor child and her family
• learn more words
  
• find out who I am staying with in LA the day before our flight leaves.

The last item I am really not sure what to do about, especially since one never knows what the weather will do in February. I purposely bought my ticket to LA for a day and a half early, in case the weather didn't cooperate. We know two people who live close to LA, but I'm not sure who I will end up staying with or if I'll even need to stay with anyone (depending on the weather). So I would appreciate your prayers these next two months. For peace, sanity, God's leading, wisdom, and that I wouldn't leave everything till the last minute, which I am known for. This causes me to have nervous breakdowns... Yoikes!

NYC Then and Now

This is Central Park last Sunday as we were walking through the park.

This is Central Park today, when we are no longer in NYC.

I'm glad we went last week and not this week. Yup, I'm not disappointed that we missed the big snowstorm. Not a fan of walking through the snow.

Merry Christmas from my family to you!

David Phelps singing "O Holy Night"

A Kitchen Ooops

I've been meaning to make more Christmas cookies. About a week and a half ago, we hosted a Christmas party and I made my favorite Christmas cookies, Russian teacakes. This is how they looked when they came out. I think I laughed out loud. This had never happened to me before, but then I have never let the cookies sit on the counter for 20+ minutes before baking them. I suppose the butter had warmed up too much to hold them in their circular form. Needless to say, these cookies went "right in the garbage". Thankfully it only takes a few minutes to whip up another batch and I was able to make some more. But they are gone now. Can we have Christmas next week, so I have time to make more cookies first?

Another Out of Town Adventure

Let me start by saying that it is unhealthy to eat greasy potato chips at quarter after 10 at night. Not only that, but they are not very tasty. :P

*Adam and I in Central Park*

Last Thursday, Adam, Jim, Wilson and I went on an adventure. We drove seven hours to stay in a city that is noisy, dirty, packed with people, and extremely prone to visitors. The place was New York City. It was my second visit. My first visit was last year. Last year we seemed to do more things, so I am trying to decide if this was a more relaxed visit or more stressful because we did less. We went with a small list of places to go or things to see, but we crossed Ellis Island off before we even got into the city. I still want to go there, but the consensus was that Ellis Island was more of a summer kind of thing to do. And since it was not summer... *duh*. But we did get everything else crossed off our list by the end of two and a half days. We visited Santa Land at Macy's, saw the King Tut exhibition, walked through China Town, got lost on the way to our favorite restaurant, admired the store windows along Fifth Avenue, and went to the Top of the Rock all on the first day in the City. The second day we split up, Jim and Adam going their way and Wilson and I going our own way. We wanted to be able to do girly things without the guys getting in our way. ;) The boys found their way to the "flat iron building" and Katz's Deli. Us girls went uptown to Alice's Tea Cup for breakfast tea. The tea was most enjoyable, although they lost our order and we waited for one hour for our food and drink. To make up for their mistake, we were given double scones, which made for good breakfast the next day. The two of us took our time getting back to the guys, and we leisurely strolled through the little shops on the street and in Grand Central Station. The rest of our day was spent waiting in line at TKTS, shopping at the Bryant Park shops, "oohing" and "ahhing" over the New York Public Library, and seeing the amazing Broadway show, Mary Poppins. Our last day in the city, we managed to squeeze in Jim's request, going to the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. They currently have a very interesting display of "green", earth friendly, economically friendly ideas and designs. Quite fascinating, the things that people have come up with or done in recent history.

When I get to it, I'll share some more photos and tell more about our adventure. Now it is bed time. Good night!

Only Half of Me Wants to be Normal

So an update about my appointment with my Doctor...

I felt almost like I had wasted my time going to see her, not because I didn't have lots of questions to ask her, but because she couldn't answer any of my questions. It went kinda like this:

Me: "I have low progesterone and no ovulation, so if I change my diet and maybe take herbal supplements, will that help increase my progesterone levels?"

Dr: "Well, you don't get hormones from the food you eat..."

Me: "This sort of problem runs in my family and my Aunt said to try A, B and C foods. What do you think of those?"

Dr: "Well, all of those things are really good for all parts of your body, and if your Aunt had the same problem, so maybe she would know."

I asked her about wild yams, about chasteberry, about soy and various other foods. I was hoping that as a very experienced gynecologist, she would know something more about wild yams than just that her husband bought some for her when she was having hot flashes! She knew nothing about using your diet to influence hormonal balance in your body. It was very frustrating. And since taking anything drug related is out of the question at least until I get back from Indonesia, she said, "Well, it doesn't hurt to try those things for the next few months and if you get pregnant, great! And if not, we can see you when you get back in March." She couldn't give me any warnings about taking herbal supplements, as in what not to take, how long to take, what not to take together, what sort of influence they would have on my moods, etc, etc, etc. So I'm left flying blind. (If you know of a good herbalist, let me know! I feel as if I could use one!)

I don't want this to become a "preoccupation" in my life or even a stress hazard. All I really want is... Well, I am not even sure. I want to know what God has for me. Is another baby in my future? Cause if it's not, I sure will be happy with my malfunctioning body. I love not having monthly mood swings, absent cycles, and the "happy norm" my body is in. Unless the lack of those things are not really healthy for my body, which is one question I forgot to ask my Dr. and one she didn't volunteer information for. I'd also love to know if mood swings often accompany the initial intake of herbal supplements such as chasteberry and wild yams, because I'd love to blame my volatile outbreaks on them.

To sum all of this ranting up, I need prayer. I need guidance. Half of me wants to be normal and half of me likes the way I am. Lord, what do you have for me?

In It Together

Adam and I hit five years last Friday. It's hard to believe that we've been married for that long. That's 1/5 th of my life you know! We have had good times and bad times, rough times and sad times, but we're in this together. I know I can count on him to be there and he's a pretty forgiving guy, which is really good. I'm loving him more and more and I suppose he tolerates me pretty well too. We're making a good team. I love you Adam. :)

Adjusting My Diet

This morning is my Dr.'s appointment with my GYN. We will hopefully be able to discuss getting my body to function as it should, as naturally as possible. At the moment, I feel like getting pregnant again is a figment of my imagination and I think I am just going through the motions of pretending it's a possibility. For the last month I have adjusted my diet slightly, with the hopes of "kick-starting" (jump-starting?) my body into regularity. I have been substituting soy milk for regular milk and I have been drinking raspberry leaf tea. (I know raspberry leaf tea is to be avoided in early pregnancy, in case you are concerned.) This week when I went grocery shopping, I picked a pomegranate and some flaxseed, both of which I hear are very good for you. I typically eat pretty healthy otherwise, so I'm not sure what else I should add in or take out. I know my Dr. isn't a nutritionist, but maybe she can point me in the right direction. As of right now, taking drugs is out of the question, at least until after I get home from Indonesia and after I have done some research of my own. I really want to leave it in God's hands and trust that He knows what is best for me and my family. I'll update you later on anything else my Dr. has to say to me.