Somersaults and missing friends

We have had a pretty good Labor Day today. We didn't really do a whole lot other than play and have fun which was so nice. Asher had a little bit of a rough day because he wanted Seth to come play SO badly. It was really sad. The second he woke up he started asking if Seth could come over to play today. We kept telling him that since it's a holiday Seth and his parents might have plans to do something already. The pleas continued so I pretended to call his mom and ask her if Seth could come over. Really I texted her, but he wasn't satisfied with just that. She wrote me back to say that they had plans already, but if something changed she'd let us know. Even after telling Asher that Seth couldn't come over because he already had stuff to do, he still harassed us about it. It was pathetic. We had gymnastics this morning, and the second we got in the car he started asking again. Then he cried the whole home when I told him Seth couldn't today. Like I said, so hard! From that point on, though, things improved. He still asked many more times about it, but he didn't ever get that upset again when we told him no.

Later in the day we went to Lifeway to get some things Jon needed for church. We also went to Target to walk around and let Asher look at the toys which he loves doing. It also gives me ideas for Lorelai's birthday next month. When we came home I started dinner. We had chicken casserole, brown rice, lima beans, and chocolate chip cookie cake. Afterwards we went on a walk and played on the swing swet some more.

I talked to Jon's mom on the phone for literally the entire walk explaining to her how to download and install Skype and then how to get an account. When it was finally done the kids were able to see their Grandma and Grandpa through the computer. This started the "I want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house!!!" That lasted until bedtime. :)

Sweet Blessings

Today has been long and tiring for sure. We had church this morning, of course, and we had to pick up donuts on the way for the youth. That is definitely one of the highlights of Asher and Lorelai's weeks. They never get stuff like that, but on Sunday mornings they get one if the youth are getting them. They seriously go crazy over them. During the service I kept Asher's preschool/nursery class. He is in there with his buddy Seth, and I took some pictures of them to make up for not taking any last night.

After the service I stayed at church with all the girls in the youth group. They planned (all on their own) a girl's fellowship to mainly grow closer with each other and more specifically the new girls who have moved up into the youth group. We did manicures, pedicures, and facials. They also made baked ziti, lasagna, bread, brownies, and brought some other treats. We then had "talking" time where we just discussed how our weeks were and gave prayer requests. After everyone had participated in that I realized that it had been a little over 3 hours already, and Jon was needing me to get home to take care of the kids so he could get ready for church. I couldn't believe we had already been there for 3 hours!! Thankfully, Heidi (the pastor's wife) had recently joined us and was willing to stay with the girls so they wouldn't have to end it. I later found out that they didn't leave until Jon kicked them out so he could do praise band practice 2 hours later! Wow! I'm so happy they had a good time and so thankful for the girls who participated and especially the ones who put it all together! :)

The kids and I later went back to church. The kids went to nursery while Jon and I played ultimate frisbee with the youth. Jon started this ministry called "Calvary at Borden Park" at the park down the street from the church. It's meant to reach out to the kids and their families in the neighborhood surrounding the church. They play games, have snacks, do a Bible lesson, etc. Anyway, we went to that park to play ultimate frisbee which allowed Jon to be there in case they needed him as well.

Afterwards we went back home and played outside for a little bit with bubbles that Asher's buddy Jordan (he is one of our new youth - 7th grade) gave him. Jordan is such a good friend/help to Asher! We started noticing that the mosquitoes were beginning to get Lorelai so we told them we needed to go in before the mosquitoes got us. Actually JON told them this. I think I would have known better. :) Asher is so sensitive and was genuinely concerned and worried. He ran to the door trying to get in as fast as he could. We told him the mosquitoes wouldn't get him because they only get Lorelai (which is actually true - she ALWAYS gets eaten alive by mosquitoes while Asher doesn't get touched), and he started screaming, "Oh no! Hurry Lorelai!! Get inside quick!!" Of course Lorelai couldn't have cared less. Jon took Asher outside and did the mosquito dance to get rid of them all. He was satisfied with that and decided that all the mosquitoes went home. It was so sad to see his worried face like that!

I do want to take a minute to mention what a sweet blessing Heidi (again, the pastor's wife) is to our family. Not only is she so amazing with our kids (who both love her more than you can imagine), but she really touched our family with two gifts yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Heidi came over yesterday morning and took the kids out to play. She treated them to McDonald's and gave Jon and myself a little break which gave me a chance to clean the house without little hands pulling out everything I put away. :) Jon and I have recently made the decision to cut back on our spending pretty much completely. We no longer have allowed ourselves spending money. We have our money to pay bills, get groceries, gas, etc. Our only spending is for the kids to continue in gymnastics and Lorelai in dance. We figured they should in those because of how much they love them both and to get them out of the house more. We're also going to let our family know to not expect gifts for Christmas because we're saving the money. Only our kids will get Christmas or birthday gifts, and we're even cutting back on what we normally get them. The reason we're doing this is because of medical bills. We have a lot of medical bills mainly from my pregnancy with Lorelai because of the many complications and also from when Asher had his seizure. We are cutting back on everything in order to get these bills paid off ASAP. Our goal is to have them paid off by next January which should be completely possible if we can keep on track. Anyway, my point in saying that is because I mentioned something to Heidi yesterday about how we were saving money (however, I didn't mention why or any other details - it was only in passing). After she dropped the kids off she slipped Jon $20 for us to "do something fun." We also found out this morning on the way to church that she filled our gas tank up while she was out - she took our van since it was easier for keeping the car seats in it. I can't even tell you how much what she did meant to us especially while we're being so tight on money. Heidi has been such a joy to our family, and we're so thankful to have her in our lives! We're most importantly thankful for how much she means to our kids. They truly adore their DiDi and anyone who has even met her can see why!

We love you, and thank you DiDi!

Fun Saturday!

Today has been such a fun day! We started our day having breakfast at the church, and it was delicious! The kids got to see their "DiDi" and were so excited about it! DiDi (Heidi) is our pastor's wife, and the kids ADORE her. She is our go-to babysitter because they absolutely love playing with her. She has more energy than anyone I've ever seen before! Shortly after we got home from the breakfast DiDi called wanting to know if she could take the kids out to play. So she picked them up around 10:30, and they spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon together. I think they mainly ran errands, but they also went to McDonald's and had lunch together. Of course while they were they played on the playground. After they came home Lorelai took a nap, and I cleaned up in the house.

After Lorelai's nap we went outside to play on the swingset. We had a great time out there as usual. It got really funny, though, when I sat down underneath the slide. The kids would slide down the slide and then come under the slide with me. Of course there would be a ton of static from the slide after they'd slide under it so their hair was sticking up everywhere when they came under it with me. Here are some pictures of them.

When we came inside we figured it was time for baths so I shot a few pictures of them during bathtime tonight. Unfortunately Asher hit his head on the side of the tub when he was trying to sit down, and he just fell apart so I took one picture of him crying and that was all I got. I also wanted to get a picture of her hair when it was really wet to show how long it is when the curls aren't all over it.

This is a video of Asher saying his memory verses today. He says Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth) and Genesis 1:3 ("And God said let there be light and there was light"). He gets so excited about saying them, though, that he says them super fast, and you can barely tell what he's saying.

Shortly after our baths tonight we got a message from Michelle who is Asher's friend's (Seth) mommy. Seth got a new toy today and was really wanting to play it with Asher so they came by for a couple of hours, and it was so much fun! Asher had a blast! Poor Lorelai didn't know what to do with herself with two rambunctious boys. :) They played with Seth's new toy, the train sets, the swingset, and tons of other toys. I told myself that I needed to take some pictures of them playing, but as soon as they got here I forgot.

After Seth and his mommy left Lorelai went straight to bed, but Asher stayed up for a bit. He wanted to "read" a couple of books. I was so proud of him as he read to us! He knew to read the words from left to right and up to down. He used his finger to skim across the words on the page as he "read" them. Every time he turned the page he would study the pictures to decide what the story was about and what the words said. It was so much fun listening to his own version of the stories! One of the books was by Max Lucado and called "Just In Case You Ever Wonder." The book is speaking from a mother's point of view to her child. At one part of the book the mom tells her child that on dark nights if she hears noises in her closet to call her and she'll be there for her. In the picture it shows the girl hiding under her covers in the dark. At this page I got worried because Asher isn't afraid of the dark, and I don't want him to think he should be. He kept talking about how the girl was scared in the dark and was hiding. He didn't seem too upset about it, but he did stare at that page and the next page longer than usual. The next page said "When you see monsters in the shadows, call me." It is a picture of a big scary looking tree with facial features. Oh boy! Asher called it a talking tree so I'm hoping the image wasn't too much for him. We got that book as well as a bunch of others from the library so I hadn't screened them all yet. The book was on a list of suggested reading for him for school and it's by Max Lucado so I figured it was OK, but I think he's a little young for it still. :)

Go Indians!

Today was pretty uneventful for the most part. The kids and I played together while Jon mowed the yard and pulled some weeds. Later we went to the grocery store and did our shopping for almost the next two weeks (until we go to Augusta). We mainly hung out around the house, took walks, played, the normal stuff.

At the end of the day we got a message from one of our youth saying that her mom wanted to offer us her tickets for the Dobyns-Bennett High School homecoming football game tonight. She wasn't going to be using them so she wanted to let us use them. So that's what we did tonight. All four of us got in the van after dinner and headed over to our first football game since coming to TN. It was the first football game for the kids ever. Lorelai had a ball as she always does. She clapped constantly, and every time the band finished a song she'd say, "They're done!" Asher was much more skiddish about the whole thing (another example of their huge personality differences). He sat in my lap for a while at first. I think the band had him a little worried. But when I pulled out a cookie for him he got over it real fast. He started clapping with Lorelai and having a good time. We saw a lot of people we knew while we were there, and Lorelai met everyone else she didn't already know. She is the most friendly child! I joked with Jon tonight that I'm almost a little worried about her as she gets older and learns more personal info like her address and phone number. I'm afraid of what she'll tell perfect strangers! Right now she tells them anything she can about herself. She just talks and talks and talks. :)

We didn't stay for the whole game because Asher was ready to go by half-time, and since by then it was already almost 9 PM we were fine with leaving - it was already well past bedtime. Tomorrow morning we're going to the Brotherhood breakfast at church, and I'm not looking forward to waking the kids up for it. It starts at 8 AM. Normally they wake up around 8ish, but since they went to bed later it would probably be a little later. Poor things! Lorelai won't mind, but Asher can be very grumpy if you wake him up before he's ready. Maybe a nice, warm breakfast will make up for it.

Here is a picture of the kids at the game tonight. It really shows how much fun they were having. It also shows a little bit of the cookie Asher ate on his face.

Lately.....

I figured there wasn't much point in waiting until tonight to write a new blog (I was planning on waiting in case anything happened that needed to be included in the post today) because it's been so long since I've written that there's already more than enough to write. Jon, the kids, and I are living in Tennessee now and are really loving our new church. We started in February and can genuinely say that we love the church and people in it. We are really amazed at how God brought us out of our last situation and put us here. It's so humbling. The kids are also making friends here very quickly. Asher's "best" friend goes to our church, and his name is Seth. They have so much fun together in Sunday School, and I'm sure they give their teachers a hard time because they're wild together! Seth's mom told me the other day that when he sings "Ring Around the Rosy" he'll sing "Asher, Asher, we all fall down!" I thought that was really funny. :)

The kids are also in gymnastics here together. They go two times a week (Monday mornings and Thursday evenings). Next week we're trying Asher out in the 4/5 year old gymnastics class. Last night they told us they felt like he was ready to move up even though he's still 3. We'll see how that goes. Lorelai also does dance on Thursday mornings. It's actually a mommy and me class that we do together and it's really just a movement class. Some weeks they'll make their own costumes out of scarfs or something. She has a great time, but it's a new class so there are only a couple of us in it. I'm hoping that more will join soon especially since she's by far the oldest in the class - she's the only one walking. Next year she'll be able to join in the 3 year old class. We had Asher enrolled in soccer because he'd been asking if he could play baseball. Since baseball season isn't until Spring we decided we'd try soccer. Unfortunately he wasn't loving it. I think it was a mixture of it being so hot outside and all the strangers (there were almost 40 kids in his group alone plus all the parents and people on surrounding fields). He told us he didn't want to do soccer and just wanted gymnastics and baseball which was fine with us. We weren't going to push him to do something he didn't ask to do since we were the ones who decided to sign him up.

We also started "school" at home this year. Obviously before we had learning time, but this year we're doing a more structured learning time complete with desks and a whiteboard. Lorelai doesn't really participate, but I got her a desk anyway because I knew we would have fights otherwise. Asher really loves school, though. He's always really excited about doing it every day. Last weekend he asked to do school (on Saturday morning), and we had to explain to him that we don't do school on the days that daddy is home from work. Since starting school 2 1/2 weeks ago he has memorized Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3. He has learned to read the words airplane, apple, and Asher. He gets very distracted during the time that we work on reading so we're working on it. He has also learned to do more complex math sheets like where he'll be given a picture of a bunch of alligators and mutiple choice answers on how many alligators there are. At first he got confused and thought that they were all the right answer because there would be like 5 alligators and the numbers were 2, 4, and 5 or something. Well, technically there were 2 alligators, 4 alligators, and 5 alligators so he thought they were all right. :) He now understands. He can also read most letters of the alphabet and can read all numbers up to 10 (and some beyond that). He knows all his colors and shapes. Most of the stuff we've been doing in school is review for him (other than the memory verses and reading), but soon we'll be learning more new stuff. I'm excited about seeing his progress!

Lorelai is just a wild and crazy girl! Her and Asher are complete opposites. While he is more shy and reserved (at times anyway), she is outgoing and super friendly no matter who you are (most of the time - she still has very clingy moments). She talks so much and speaks in complete sentences. And there is no doubt that she is all girl. She loves to wear her princess high heels and sometimes makes us let her wear them out. She'll go out with a dress, big bow, purse, high heels, and beaded necklace. And she picks it ALL out. She also makes sure that people compliment her on her outfits and shoes. It's really insane - I didn't think 23 month olds could be like this! The other day we were at the doctor's office with her, and while the doctor was trying to listen to her breathing she kept trying to get him to look at her shoes. She kept yelling at him to look, but he was just paying attention to listening to her breathing. Man, did she get mad! I finally had to tell him he better look and compliment her because she would never stop.

That's about it for us. We're just staying busy between church, school, gymnastics, dance, friends, etc. We'll be going to visit our parents (both Jon's and mine) and friends back home in 2 weeks, and we're really excited. Asher keeps asking about it every day. Here are some pictures of the kids from this morning.

This is Lorelai's pouting-about-to-cry face:

This is the crying face:

For Kathy :)

My sweet friend, Kathy, who lives in Canada, has asked me several times now why I'm not updating my blog anymore so tonight I told her I hadn't because I felt like no one was reading it and didn't see much point. She assured me that she checks it to look for updates and also said that I need to blog, if for no other reason, for myself. She pointed out that it's a good way to get things down that I might forget later. So, Kathy, you have motivated me to give this a go again. Hopefully it'll stick this time. :) Tomorrow will be my first official post back in the blogosphere, but for now I'm going to upload some recent pictures of the kids just for Kathy!