a shoe eulogy (spell?)

Amidst the hustle of life, there are few things that stick by your side - and even fewer things that stick close to your feet. Ah, yes, shoes. Our dear friends, shoes. No one thinks twice about stepping on them or stepping in something yucky while wearing them. And still, our shoes go on being shoes. Faithful, dependable....shoes. Today, we remember my shoes mary and jane. They have been so good to me. I was a wee Sophomore in college when I met them. Dr Marten highly recommended them to me. Said they would bring long life and good wear - comforting, yet stylish - -AND oil, fat, and acid resistant:) So much has taken place in my shoes. I wore them through final exams, soccer games, dates with Ben - honey moon with Ben :) :) :) I wore them to the hospital and home from the hospital with both kids. I've worn them in the rain, in the cold, in the snow (yes they have seen snow:) and still they look good. Sadly, my shoes took a turn for the worst tonight. My strap elastic broke!!!! Sorrow to my heart!!!! I have chosen to remember the good days.....the 9 long years of good days and fun times. Mary and Jane will be missed, but hopefully replaced quickly!

Ewa!

That's how Abigail is pronouncing "Eli". It's really sweet to see her run (or walk as fast as she's able to right now) to his bed, peek over the side as he sleeps and say with excitement, "Ewa!" Abigail just loves her baby brother!

We think she's adjusting really well to having a new baby be part of the family. She's been more emotional lately, but overall she's doing really great and we're really proud of her!

The first several days we had to keep reminding her to be "gentle" with Elijah. She would be so excited to see him and touch him that sometimes she'd fall on him or almost step on him. Thankfully, he isn't crushed yet and has survived her many "pokings" as she points out his mouth and eyes and pinches his nose. He often turns his head in her direction when he hears her, that's fun to see him responding to his big sister!

Eli's first couple weeks

(I posted this on the other blog as well, but don't have time to write a more personal one! Sorry!)

We've been adjusting to life as four these past couple weeks. We're so blessed to have such an easy-going baby. He hardly ever cries, (so far!!) and really enjoys sleeping, bath time with Dada, cuddle time with Mama and listening to Sister talk and talk and talk!

We're still trying to figure out who the little guy resembles, he's looking more and more like Abigail did when she was a newborn, so that's fun to see.

Mostly, we've just been at home, figuring out new routines and schedules. Here in Slovenia, you're expected to be at home the first 6 weeks or so, recovering, resting and adjusting. No going to the store, cafe's, church, and for the most part, people don't even come to visit you, especially in the winter when colds are so common. So it's been pretty quiet around here. Most Slovenes, however, live nearby or with grandparents or other relatives and are not just a Mom, Dad, Sister and Baby. So it makes it more convenient to just be indoors for 6 weeks.

He and I had an appt last Thursday for him to make sure his infection was cleared up and I had baked some loaves of banana bread for the nurses and hospital staff as a way of saying "thank you" for everything. Everyone was amazed that 1. I was 'alone' without Joel at that appt and 2. that I had already been doing some baking. One lady asked, "Is that how it is in America?! women just do things by themselves?!"

So "Hurray for you, Mothers in America!!" Good job for doing things, "by yourselves!" over there!

I must say though, that it is really nice that I'm "expected" to be at home, resting and recovering and adjusting but that I can go out if I want to. I know one Slovene woman who said, "I wish I could go out, but I know what people would say if I did, so I won't." In some areas it's nice to live "outside" of the culture and not even know when we're offending people. : )

We have had one outing though...Elijah applied for his American passport last week. We wanted to get a picture of him at the Embassy on "American Soil" but it's actually illegal or something like that/a security hazard, etc. to take a picture of the Embassy. We did with Abigail and the guards came over and told us we couldn't...after we already had. So....no pictures. But it was a fun outing anyway, even without the photo!

Here are some other photos though! Hope you enjoy!

Yeah, he looks really freaked out...dunno!First bathAbigirl!My two menAbigirl loves time with the Jackson girls!Playing the piano at the JacksonsI love seeing Joel hold his boy

Erin and I both had the day off of work so we went out to play in the snow again. We ended up with close to 11 inches yesterday and last night. We may even get a little more tonight. This morning reminded me of our back yard in Ohio with all the snowball fights and snow caves. Good memories! We'll see how long the fort stays up. There are alot of kids in the neighborhood with nothing to do :)

new threads yo

Here are the boys in their 'new' clothes! A girl from work gave us a bunch of clothes from her son. I was really excited to get them. We are all fighting a cold here in Pensacola. Ben actually stayed home from church last night with the boys. It was weird to go by myself! I'm taking Matthew in to the doctors today. I think he's the most sick. I can hear the doctor now..."it's just a cold" but I always take him anyway, just in case. Hope everyone else is feeling better than us:)

A great weekend

Jon wrote about the snow that has made everything so beautiful but he didn't say anything about our trip to go swimming yesterday. I just had to add it. We've had a great weekend hanging out, playing in the snow and going swimming. Noah hasn't been at our pool (where I work) yet to really try swimming. He had soooo much fun splashing and didn't mind getting his face and head wet. He slept a bit better after all that activity. Maybe we need to go more often.

Winter Wonderland!

Erin and I woke up this morning to a nice wintery picture outside our back door. We have almost 9 inches and it is still falling. We went out to the soccer field down the street to go sledding and let Bree run. She loves the snow soo much! Too bad she doesn't have any body fat to keep her warm though. Well, we just wanted to let you in on our fun day. Hope you all are doing well.

Matthew

Hey guys, please remember Matthew in your prayers. He has his tubes put in on Tues morning at 7am Mommy is nervous! Ryan is sleeping over at 'mom' and 'pop's' house tonight. We have to be at the hospital early, so goodnight!

Eli

So we have gotten through our first few nights home. Amy and Eli came home Friday. He has been so easy, we thought Abigail was easy. I think I've heard him cry maybe a dozen times. He eats pretty well, sleeps good and is just kind of laid back. The first night Amy was home we put him down at 10:30 and he slept until 2:30, ate and then slept in our bed til 5:30! not to shabby for the new guy. Here is a pick of him in a bean bag chair while we were all eating dinner.
Enjoy, I'm going to watch the NE game.

rethink

Dad and I had the opportunity to attend a satellite conference Friday (6:30-9:30) and Saturday (9:30-4:30) with some of the thinkers, innovators, and leaders from the Christian and global arenas. Part of it was live and some taped from earlier in the week. We listened to 20 different speakers: Bishop Charles Blake, Kathy Ireland, John Townsend, Gary Smalley, Lou Holtz, Erwin McManus, Robert Schuller (Jr. and Sr), Lee Strobel, Former presiden George Bush, George Barna, Dr. Ben Carson, Rupert Murdoch, George Foreman, Ben Stein, Chuck Colson, Larry King, Miles McPherson, John Ortberg, and Kay Warren. They each spoke 20-30 minutes on what they are rethinking. Some of them were incredible, like Gary Smalley talking about how in the last couple years he has learned the value of hiding God's Word in his heart to build a strong foundation for his beliefs. Lou Holtz was probably the funniest speaker but also had some really good points about interpersonal relationships. Lee Strobel was I think my favorite. He talked about changing the projectory of how churches reach people. He raised the question - do our churches usher people into an experience with God? George Barna of course talked alot about trends and the church. He says that America has become addicted to media - in all forms. He stated that we have to recognize and admit an addiction before it can be fixed and alot more. Someone I'd not heard of was Miles McPherson (Former NFL player) pastor of The Rock Church in CA. He talked about taking time to listen to peoples cries and their pain and taking hope to the hopeless.

I won't bore you with more, but it really was interesting. There were several books mentioned that I want to look into.

Enought of that. Dad and I cast the last 2 votes last night in SC (probably not, but it was 6:45 when we found our polling place). We are anxious to see more pictures of Elijah and to do a web cast so that we can see him. Let us know when a good time to do it is. I'm off tomorrow too for MLK's bday so tomorrow will work to.

Love all 15 of you!
Mom

LET IT SNOW

We actually have snow on the ground. Look at the top of car (pic).

Everyone's doing good

I was able to go visit Amy and Eli for a couple hours today. I had Anja and Tjasa watching Abigail. It was so great to be able to hold Eli for the first time and I just held him for an hour. They only have visiting hours for 2 hours a day, but it gives more time for Amy to sleep and relax so that's good. Abigail is doing better today and we have been spending some good time together. I got someone else to preach for me sunday and I'll be taking Abigail to all the places with me tomorrow. Here's some more pics from today.

He's here

He finally made his appearance at 11:08 today, this morning our time. Amy did great, there are so many other cultural, language stressors that go on top of just delivering that I have to say Amy is one of the strongest women I know. She did absolutely great. She didn't tear, except for one stitch inside. She is already walking and talking like she just walked around the block and is back, no sweat! She really did do great. We feel like we have hardly seen him though. He was in intensive care, (debbie you might laugh if you saw it here) so he wasn't in the room with us. We would go and see him and then Amy would need to sit and Abigial would want to explore more.

He was being monitored until 5 and not given anything to eat to get clear results from all the tests but at 5 amy went in to breastfeed and he caught on right away. That is a big relief, for me, I want Amy to really feel successful and she is doing great.

Abigail saw Elijah got a big grin and pointed at him and told me something. It was cute, she is going to be a great sister. We are having the most problem because of the lack of mommy at home. She just misses her so much. When we go to visit her, Abigail will just give her the longest tightest hugs. I think for her all she knows is that something is going on with mommy and she was crying more. It's hard on amy too.

We've been trying to figure out which side of the families he looks like. We kind of decided it was a little too soon to tell for us. What do you think?

Amy is stuck in the hospital until saturday afternoon, so that means daddy duty for me 24/7. Abigail will probably get the nice privaledge of standing in lots of lines as we renew all our paperwork. Also I'm trying to get someone to preach Sunday for me so that i can just be home with the family. so here are some pics. love you guys, and we are so happy/content/satisfied/joyful etc in our hearts to be where we are now. The Lord has sure allowed us to taste sorrow, but it makes this sweet times taste even sweeter.
Love and going to bed,

not today

we went in and the doctor said that she is still 2 cm. So she is going through the same long day that we did wednesday. they are giving her some hormones that will soften the cervex. The doctor keeps saying that it is softer and looks good, so that is good. Amy has to stay in the hospital tonight and then they will induce her early in the morning. So hopefully tomorrow.

This comes at a very busy week. all our docs for living here expire friday. So that means all day in the government offices, reregistering our cars, insurance, statement of residency perits, etc. Also I am supposed to preach on Sunday. Gonna be a crazy week but i can't do anything about it until the days comes.

Digital Frame

I got the disk yesterday and downloaded almost 300 pictures on the frame! This morning I downloaded about 3hours worth of music to it too! I am so excited to take it to work. This is definetly a gift that will keep giving - as long as you keep the pictures coming! It is so nice to have. Thank you again for getting it for me (and dad). I told him I would alternate weeks if he wanted. :) Now, can someone help me figure out how I can transfer pictures on to it with out bringing it home? I don't have a place on my hard drive to put the scandisk. Just haven't quite figured that one out yet. Can hardly wait to get pictures of grandson #4 on it!

The same old stuff

We haven't posted for a while because there really isn't much to tell. I'll do my best though. Noah had a fever for 4 days and now is fussy and I don't have a explanation. He has only slept about 2 hours at a time for the last 2 nights and when he wakes up he isn't happy. That means we're tired over here. He's been eating a lot at night too. Maybe he's growing or teething (not drooling though). Where did our happy and better sleeping boy go? He was happier when he had a fever! He has started taking a few steps here and there but is content to crawl and climb over everything...coffee table, couch, dog, play table etc. Bree just gets up and leaves when she has had enough.

I've been picking up more hours at the pool to make up for Jon's lack of consistent work. I like being at home a LOT more. It's a blessing to have the option though. Jon will be starting back with his boss full time doing drywall at his house. Mitch (his boss) had money set aside for a drywalling company to do the work but since his employees need the work they'll do it. They will probably be taking a pay cut though because it will take them longer to do the job. We figured it's better than nothing. Jon will most likely be putting in 50 hour weeks so we're bracing for a long month.

It's been raining here FOREVER! It's been hard rain too not the normal Oregon drizzle. We're ready for sunshine and for all the mud to dry out. The carpet is a mess so I think we'll be cleaning it today only to clean it again in a few months.

That's all the excitement here. Other than work and Noah, Jon and I have been playing video games whenever there is a chance. Amy, we hope your little boy come soon. We can't wait to hear the good news. I added a picture just for fun. Bath time with Daddy is a favorite pastime here.

Christmas Eve Service

If you have time and are interested, they have put the video of our Christmas Eve Service on the COP web site. It was really an incredible service and I thought you might enjoy watching - but it is long so I understand if you don't take the time. Of course it's hard to capture with a video the lighting and sound but it's pretty good. Here's the link: http://cathedralofpraise.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=15007. For your late Christmas enjoyment! :)

Rebublican Debate

William and I were able to attend the Republican Debate last night. A friend of mine had tickets and was willing to get us tickets. It was very cool! I am not a huge political fan but it was so neat watching the debate and seeing the guys in person. We spent the night at a beautiful hotel on the beach and came back this afternoon. William's parents kept the girls and stuart. Its fun to listen to the comentators and see the pictures and know the behind the scenes.
Erin- Your necklace was perfect. It matched perfectly to a pair of earings I got a while back but did not have a necklace to go with it. I was stylin'. :)

Joel

We haven't ignored your Lost and American Idol request but we are waiting to see what night and time they come on. We may have a conflict with our previously scheduled shows we tape. NCIS, CSI, CSI Miami, etc. We'll let you know what we find out. Sorry for the scheduling difficulty. :)

wipes

Even though I've been skeptical until now.... I tried making my own wipes. It actually turned out okay, so I thought I'd pass it on. I had a bunch of these plain dryer-sheet-like wipes from the hospital when Matthew was born. Soo.... You take 2cups water, 2 TBSP baby soap, and 1 TBSP baby oil. Buy the bounty paper towels - big roll, select-a-size is best, cut it in half with an electric knife, take out the core and pour the mix over one of the halves in a ziplock bag or rubbermaid bowl. Pull from the middle of the roll. I tried the mix, but haven't tried it with the paper towels. It was a little soapy for me, but It might not be with more wipes. I liked it because it smelled as good as baby soap and wasn't irritating to baby's bottom. I haven't figured out if it's any cheaper though. Bounty towels are expensive.... Let me know if you try it. I guess you could use baby washcloths and wash and reuse - very earth friendly, but isn't that the point of wipes?? To wash it away and get rid of it?

Amy.... May your water break quickly and contractions come even quicker - but may they not be painful:) I know it's frustrating to wait - hang in there, we are praying for you! (I told you boys are stubborn:) Meanwhile, get some sleep - me and Erin wish we could!!

Still waiting No. 2

I'm still just 1 cm along and waiting, waiting, waiting. I'm going to try doing my walking exercise dvd to see if that gets things moving along. We'll see!

Some friends of ours are losing a baby tomorrow, so in some respects, I hope our little guy waits to make his arrival in respect of theirs. It's a similar situation we had with Isaac, their baby was 18 weeks along and had a growth on his abdomen and died a couple days ago and now she'll be delivering him tomorrow. So maybe with our baby taking his time, it's a good thing right now.

We'll definitely let you know when the time comes though.

Sunny Florida??

It's supposed to be 17 degrees tonight!!!! BRRrrrrr!!!! What's the deal?? 90% of the state will be at or below freezing tonight.

waiting and request

I told myself last year that I wasn't going to do any more "all nighters" I'm just getting too old. We'll as we were prepping for a multi-youth group new years eve celebration transportation was a problem so it ended up becoming an all-nighter because the train didn't leave until 5:50 the next morning. So hopefully that will be my last. It was fun and I managed to stay up all night. So I'm a little tired today.

So sometimes we head to our little mall just for a place to walk around. Amy normally likes to look in all the stores and Abigail and I are usually found walking around. Behind one of the store displays were these nice pretty red balloons! Abigail likes balloons so she was excited to get her very own red balloon. What she didn't realize is that glass, although invisible, is hard. She reached down to grab the balloon and cracked her head on the glass and it layed her out flat! She started crying and looked at us like, "what the heck was that?" It's kind of hard to explain glass to a one year old child. You can't see it and at any minute when you are just going about your business grabbing a balloon WHAAAM! this invisible force field appears and lays you out. I think she was a little nervous walking around the rest of the day afraid of the invisible field that appears out of nowhere!

We are still waiting on the baby boy to come, we've been taking walks everyday but he is cozy and not moving yet.

Will could you start recording American Idol, and Lost for us when they start? Thanks and amy said you can delete the musical stuff. Thanks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The egrets and ducks have taken up residence around our pond in great numbers. I believe they are nesting there. They seem to hide in the brush around the edges. They are on all sides and some are quite large.

I spend a couple hours yesterday going through pictures and getting a folder ready to download onto the memory card I ordered for the photo frame. It is going to be such fun having it at work. The remote that came with it works great for controling the veiw and also for turning it off and on. Thank you all so much. It will definetly be the gift that gives all year - and then some!

The fireworks were still going at 3am - not as many, but still some. I was close to the end of a trilogy Marie got me for Christmas so when I couldn't sleep I got up to read. No big plans today - basicly get ready for going back to work tomorrow. It's been a nice break and it will be hard to get back into the swing of things - but we must.

The first big event for our family this year will be the birth of grandbaby #7! 3 grandsons in a year - pretty good! Will the end of 2008 hold any new births? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I have a prayer request - please pray that I find a walking partner. I really need to walk but am very unmotivated on my own. I'm sure there is someone like I had in Augusta who also needs the encouragement. (preferrably without a dog - right Katelyn?)

We pray that you each have a year filled with special blessings and opportunities to grow - spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally! May God bless you with His grace and peace.

And Amy, we're praying for you this week as you anticipate the arrival of your son!