E/R

Our Thanksgiving weekend was abruptly halted last night with a trip to the local Emergency Room. My hubby had some severe pain in his lower back and side that just took him by storm around 6pm last night. We rushed him over to the E/R which is literally around the corner from us, and found out that he had a kidney stone. So, we got him some medication and he's home trying to "pass" his stone. Hopefully he'll be as good as new soon!

The day after...

Well, since I vowed not to participate in Black Friday again, today the family went bowling! We had a great time and laughed a lot. Chris insists on carrying his ball to the line and rolling it all by himself and he will tell you in no uncertain terms that he does not need your help. He did great (with the help of bumpers). After that we all went out for lunch because no one wanted to see the leftovers. It's been another great day. I'm hoping to redeem myself at Scrabble tonight.

A Thanksgiving Blessing

After we consumed our fair share of food, my sister-in-law, Shirley, and I would normally play a good game of Scrabble. We both share a love of the game and it's one of those things that we try to do each time we are together. Since moving to NJ, however, my Scrabble game is "in a box" in the garage. Tonight we felt like we might get lucky and actually be able to locate the Scrabble game in the garage. So, we headed downstairs and started tackling boxes.

Within a few minutes, believe it or not, we found the rest of my winter wardrobe!!! I was so excited I can't even begin to tell you. Then, a few minutes later the box with the Scrabble was found. So, we are extra thankful today for nice warm clothes and a good family game to play.

Seriously, we had a wonderful thanksgiving and are enjoying just spending time together. Hope you are enjoying yours as well.

"Oh Give Thanks to The Lord, For He Is Good"

Christopher learned this scripture in preschool this month. I'm so thankful for many things this year. A year ago, my husband was unemployed and now he is happily employed with a wonderful church where he serves as Media Director. We are blessed with one handsome little boy who is the joy of our lives. We are healthy and, after living apart for 6 months earlier this year (Steve started his job in NJ in January and did an "extreme commute" between NJ and Florida until June), we are all living together in NJ in a nice townhouse. We have food on our table, family and friends who love us and support us in prayer, and even though a box of clothes are missing, we are not running around town naked.

Seriously, God never ceases to amaze us and even though there are still some things that we are waiting for God to work through on our behalf, we are choosing to follow the Bible by "Considering it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance." James 1: 2-3. We have no doubt that God is allowing some of these trials to strengthen our faith and also to be able to speak into the lives of other people who are suffering with similar issues. God is bigger than our biggest problem, fear, concern and worry. We are most thankful for salvation and for a God who never sleeps or slumbers.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

I've Been Tagged

Okay, so my friend Sue tagged me on her blog today. She asked me to go into my picture folder, and to select the fourth folder and the fourth picture in that folder. So here it is... It's a picture of Christopher riding his Jeep in our backyard in Florida. This jeep has been well used. It originally belonged to Rachel and Matthew (Christopher's cousins) and moved with them from NJ to FL in 2004. So, now it has gone full circle and has returned with us to NJ. Chris still enjoys riding it around in the nice weather. Ok, so I'm supposed to tag a few people so I'll tag Natalie and Michelle.

Holiday Tradition

With Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, I find myself thinking of Mom more often... it's just natural for people who have lost a loved one to reflect on them during these special occasions. I must admit the one tradition I miss the most was one that she and I shared every year exclusively. The day after Christmas she and I would head out right after breakfast to the Hallmark card store. All cards, holiday wrapping, bows, etc. were at least 50 - 75% off and we stocked up on all of it for the following year. (This was definitely in the pre Wal-Mart, Target years). We hit that Hallmark store rain, shine, sleet or snow. It didn't slow us down. We were going. It was such fun to shop together and hunt for the best bargains. Often our trips would end at our favorite German Bakery, Kopp's. I looked forward to that every year since as long as I can remember.

For years after mom passed away, the day after Christmas was hard for me. I missed our tradition and going by myself wasn't as fun or meaningful. I missed being joyful on that day. Isn't it just like our God to orchestrate the birth of my one and only son on the day after Christmas!? There is so much joy in my heart on that day once again and I know that it is not a coincidence that Christopher was born that day. A new tradition, a special birthday is celebrated every December 26th.

Five On Friday

Five Favorite Holiday Foods:

1) Rouladen (German dish which we usually had a Christmas when I was growing up -- Note to Liz... please, please email me your recipe!! I don't have my Mom's)

2) Baked Ham (usually for Easter)

3) Pernil - Spanish pork roast (what we are having for Thanksgiving this year... Yummy!)

4) Mashed potatoes - the creamier the better

5) Homemade Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream

Black Friday

One thing I have vowed never to do again is shop on Black Friday. Two years ago, my sister-in-law and I thought we would give it a go. We are the queens of bargain shopping and would never miss a "too good to be true" sale of any kind. So, we set our alarms, got up VERY early in the morning, threw on some clothes and off we went to Kohls which was literally 5 minutes from my house in Florida. The parking lot was packed and it took us a long time to find a spot. By the time we got a spot (a pull in spot, not parallel thank God) and worked our way into the store it was already 6:00 am.

As we were pulling bargains off the shelves, I couldn't get over the fact that there were tons of little kids (5 and younger) in the store with either one or both of their parents. It's one thing to drag myself out of bed at that ungodly hour, but there is no way I would take my son - he would be miserable which would in return make me miserable. No sensible person wakes a toddler from a sound sleep unless there is an emergency... I don't count Black Friday as an emergency.

Anyway, We grabbed all kinds of bargains and, feeling quite accomplished, we headed for the cashier line. The line went back as far as the eye could see and wrapped around the corner. By the time we got to the end of the line, we were back where we started from... The approximate wait.... TWO hours!! We looked at each other... dropped all the stuff we had in our arms and headed out the door, down the street to buy bagels and were back home before the guys were even awake. The words Never Again were uttered more than once. Some bargains are just not worth that type of wasted time.

So this year, I am happy to report that 85% of my shopping is already finished so on Black Friday I can pull out my Christmas decorations, have some hot chocolate and just enjoy a nice day with my family.

Pranks

I love a clean, gentle spirited and funny practical joke, and that's a good thing considering I come from a family of practical jokers. There were a few times when the joke was on me. The one that stands out in my mind was the practical joke that awaited Steve & I when we returned from our honeymoon. Unbeknownst to us, while we were enjoying our honeymoon, Glen & Ruth and Steve & Sara and the kids were very busy back home in NJ. My first mistake was asking Glen to check on our house while we were gone. So, yes, I set myself up for a prank by giving him the house key. I honestly was so distracted with wedding stuff, I didn't think of the consequences.

You can imagine how excited we were when we got back from our trip to spend our first night at our home. We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked into our home. There was a big "Welcome Home" sign in the dining room/living room which was perched on our bed! Yes, they moved our queen size bed from the 2nd floor to the first floor. They made the bed up with clean sheets (short sheeted of course) complete with rice and saran wrap all over the inside of it. So, our first night as a married couple in our home we had to sleep on an extremely small bed in our guest room because we were too tired to try to take apart the master bed, carry it upstairs and reassemble it.

Every room we walked into had a booby trap. As soon as you closed the door, a cup full of rice would either fall on you or fall to the floor. What a mess!! Our toilets were wrapped with Saran Wrap or Vaseline, our entire CD collection was not in their proper CD case (that was Rachel and Matthew's contribution) and there was rice in every pair of socks we owned. It honestly took us months to get rid of all the rice. In fact, my brother taunted me for months telling me that I did not find all of the rice and there was one more "treat" left. Sure enough, about 3 months later, I found the cup of rice when we pulled down the stairs to go to the attic.

It was really funny at the time. The best part of the whole story was that our neighbors thought someone was robbing the house.. but then they saw pizza being delivered to the house and called my father in law to describe Glen's vehicle to make sure that it was my family and not a robber. HILARIOUS! Only my family would pull a prank and order pizza while doing it!

I have plenty more stories to share... stay tuned.

Oh Where Oh Where Can My Wardrobe Be?

I'm a little frustrated this morning. I know I shouldn't be because I am truly blessed. I just am a little annoyed because I can't find the majority of my winter wardrobe. Not that I had an extensive one because we did live in Florida for 4 years. But, I did have some nice sweaters and a cozy bathrobe that just can't be found. I've searched our house and have gone through almost every box and tub imaginable and still no luck. I'm sure it's here somewhere and I really hope we are able to locate it in the next several weeks. Like I said, I know I'm blessed and there are many people who have far less and have lost everything in fires, etc. I guess my prayer should be not to find my clothes, but to be content with what I do have.

Five on Friday

Five Things I Have Vowed Never To Do Again:

1) Shop on Black Friday (full story to follow)

2) Ask Christopher to keep a secret

3) Parallel park our minivan (see previous post)

4) Go back to school (let's just say I was done after my bachelor's degree)

5) Go to the Caribbean and think that NOT using sunblock would be a good idea (can you say sunstroke?)

Two for Two

For the last two days I have cuddled with Christopher in bed in hopes that he would take an afternoon nap. Guess which one of us took a nap. I'm 2 for 2 and he's 0 for 2.

Hiss

I don't know if you have ever had experience with Aerobeds. It's a great concept. You have an inflatable mattress so when guests come over, you get out the bed, plug the cord into an outlet, and presto... in a matter of minutes you have a twin or queen size bed ready to go. When these mattresses work, they are great and pretty comfy if you throw some comforters on them. However, if you get a leak, especially one you can't find, it can be very frustrating.

My sister-in-law, Shirley, has a queen size aerobed that she graciously uses whenever we stay at her house. It's huge.. it truly blows up to the size of a full size queen size bed and it has gotten quite a little work out since it was purchased earlier this year. These things are not cheap, so you can imagine how frustrating it is when you realize that the mattress has a slow leak in it. We were all sleeping in Shirley's room and, in the middle of the night, I would hear her with the remote, pumping more air into the mattress. The poor thing, if she didn't do that, she and Christopher (her bunk mate) would have wound up on the floor by morning. There was definitely a slow leak.. we just didn't know where.

Anyway, not long ago, we were at her house and she was getting the bed set up. She had the television on in her room and as soon as I walked in, I said to her "What's that noise?" I hear a hissing. Which honestly, with the TV on, I'm surprised I heard anything. She didn't know what I was talking about, but I walked over to the air mattress and literally within a matter of 5 seconds, I had located the small hole by the hiss it made (and then I felt the air coming out). She laughed at me and said she couldn't believe it, because she literally just prayed that God would make this air bed work because it was really frustrating that we couldn't find out where the hole was. So, how funny is that!?

God can use you in strange and unusual ways sometimes.

Quote of The Day

Chris & Steve are up in our bedroom having a little heart to heart when Chris bursts out with "Dad, you smell like a Happy Meal." Just in case you are wondering.. a cheeseburger happy meal to be precise.

Driver's Ed 101

Apparently I need a refresher course in driving... more specifically, parallel parking. I was horrified yesterday to discover that my superb parking skills had greatly diminished in the four years since I last lived in an urban setting. Most places in Florida, and where we live now, only require straight, pull-in parking. But the parking lot near our church in Montclair has only limited pull-in parking and it was full. We typically parallel park on the street, but Steve is usually the driver. Yesterday I had to park the car. I didn't even occur to me that this would be a problem. I didn't give it a second thought. I just proceeded with backing into the spot.

I don't think I had ever attempted to parallel park a minivan in my life and let me tell you, it takes a lot of precision in estimating the length of your vehicle and how close you are to the curb. Thankfully, Christopher really didn't realize mommy's total frustration about having to try four or five times before getting it right. Thankfully, the street wasn't very busy and there were no spectators to laugh at this crazy lady with Florida plates trying to park her big minivan. I'm sure it was quite the scene. Let's just say, I was a minute away from parking far away from the church in a pull-in spot and just walking it.

Let's hope they don't ask me to parallel park when I get my NJ license.

What Am I Praying For Anyway?

We just hired a new realtor and our Florida home is actively on the market again. We originally put our house on the market in January 2008. We were totally dissatisfied with Realtor #1 and did not renew our contract with her in June. We tried selling the house on our own for a few months, but that was just too difficult with us being out of state. So, we are thrilled that the Lord let us to an awesome realtor in Florida who has been giving us not only wonderful advice, but agreeing with us that God is greater than the real estate market. It's made a huge difference in our outlook and, although we have to do a short sale, we know God is still guiding this process and the house will sell in HIS timing. Not ours. (A short sale basically means that you are listing your home for less money than what you owe on your mortgage because the value of the home as plummeted beneath what it originally was worth).

So, what can YOU do to help us??? PRAY. Every time you pass a for sale sign near your home or neighborhood, maybe that will prompt you to say a prayer for us and anyone else you know trying to sell a home in this economic nightmare. Not everyone got themselves into a house they couldn't afford. People like us had to relocate for job opportunities and need to sell this house to move on with their future.

I thought I'd put a photo of the house so you can SEE what you are praying for. Thanks everyone. Praise report to follow!!

Suggestions

Earlier in our marriage, Steve would often have "suggestions" about how things could be done around the house. Some of them were good ideas and some of them... let's just say, were not always received with love. Come on ladies, you know what I mean. Everyone has their own way of doing things, especially for us couples who married later in life (in our 30s). We both came set in our way of doing things and didn't always warmly receive the other person's comments or advice.

After several such "suggestions", I came up with a Suggestion Box. That way, anytime Steve had a suggestion (that I didn't want to hear at that particular moment), there was a place for him to put it without getting a reaction (or grief) from me. I know, you are thinking "Great Idea!". The cool thing is, every house already has a suggestion box.. you were just misusing it. Here's a picture of sample suggestion boxes.

Seriously though, I had a little sign on the outside of our trash can that said, Suggestion Box. We both laughed over it and it really lightened the moment. Now we can just laugh and say... "just go ahead and put that idea in the suggestion box".

Lost and Found

Ugh.... After reading my cousin Liz's blog about how her son had wandered off at the beach this summer (and thankfully was found again), my stomach has been in knots KNOWING that this could happen to anyone, anywhere.

Sure enough, we had our own little episode with Christopher. I took him to an Autumn Fest at our old church in NJ for a night of fun because Steve had to work late. I was weary about going by myself with Chris, but now that he is older, I figured I wouldn't have to chase him down like I did in the mall that one time.

So, we were having a ball. They had an inflatable slide and a Spiderman obstacle course that hey absolutely loved. He waited so nicely in the long lines and was having a great time. We even went on a hayride.

Finally, I had reached my exhaustion limit and we still had a 50 minute ride home (and I'm not famous for my wonderful night time driving). So, I told Chris that he could go into the Spiderman obstacle (which had a slide) one last time and then we were heading home. He excitedly bounded into the obstacle and I walked around to one of the obstacles two exits to wait for him. I waited and waited and, after several minutes, he did not come out! I initially thought that maybe he went around to the other exit and perhaps I had looked away for a split second and he got by me. So I ran to the other exit and no sign of him. I spoke to both of the ride workers and no one had seen him (there were hundreds of kids so that was no surprise). I frantically ran around the gymnasium looking and searching for my little boy. There were literally hundreds of people in this place and very hard to focus so I climbed onto the platform in the gym to look all around. All I could think of was where could he have gone... did he perhaps run outside into the dark parking lot... what in the world was my husband going to say?

After my failed search from the platform, I ran over to the guy running the music and he put me in touch with the children's pastor and they started making announcements with Chris' description. Several frantic minutes passed and still nothing. I was really freaking out and just running around yelling, Jesus, Jesus help me.

At long last, one of the worker's on the Spiderman ride told me they found him. HE WAS STILL INSIDE THE OBSTACLE. My little man thought that since I said we were going home after this "last time" he would linger and make his "last time" last for as long as possible. I was so relieved to see him and yet so annoyed that he had outsmarted me. I didn't even think of looking inside the obstacle and none of the hundreds of kids who went through the course said anything about seeing a little 4 year old just hanging out at the bottom of the obstacle.

Thank God he was fine and all turned out well. Needless to say we had a long talk about the incident and I had more than enough adrenaline for the long ride home.

Tricky Tray

For the last month or so, everywhere I drive, I see signs for Tricky Trays being hosted by schools, churches, and fire houses. I have never in my life heard of this term before and every time I see the sign, I think to myself, "I've got to find out what that means." Such an odd name.

Anyway, I finally got around to doing some research and found out that it's basically another name for a silent auction. It would have so much easier for them to put Silent Auction on the sign. I would have gotten that right away. Maybe they figured they'd have a better turn out with the "tricky tray" name.

So, for anyone else who is driving around New Jersey scratching their heads when they see these advertisements, you heard it here first. It's just a silent auction.

What's That Noise?

God bless my husband. He, unfortunately, has to live with me, a very light sleeper. He has a very difficult time falling back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night, which is exactly what happened last night. Around 3:00 am, I heard a noise... it was the chirping of one of our smoke detectors. The kind of chirp that reminds you that it's time to change the battery. It only beeps once every few minutes. Just a long enough interval so you think you heard something, turn over to go back to sleep, and then it beeps again just as you are drifting off to La La Land.

After the 3rd chirp, I was fully awake and irritated. Part of the problem is locating the culprit. Which one of the smoke detectors was making the noise. Steve had just changed several of the batteries during our black out last week when some of them starting chirping. So, here we are with round two, at 3:00 am. Steve hears me up and about and he got up, went all the way to the basement to grab a step stool, batteries and a screw driver and set about changing the batteries. Part of the problem in finding the right detector was that sound truly travels in our townhouse because the upstairs is sort of like a loft that overlooks the kitchen, so there's an echo. Just when we thought we got the right one, we'd hear another chirp. I think by the 3rd detector we finally got it right. So, while he was up, Steve changed the batteries on the carbon monoxide detectors too.

So, thankfully, my loving husband took care of the chirps and I drifted off to sleep and he went downstairs to watch some of his favorite shows on TiVo to help him fall back to sleep. I know he was up for a long time and he has a very long day ahead of him at work.

Thanks, honey, for all you do. We love you!! And yes, Chris did manage to sleep through the whole thing... whew!!