Welcome Abigail!!!!

I want to welcome Abigail Faith to the world!! She was born July 30th at 9pm. She came in at 9lbs 3 oz. and her proud family is Nathaniel, Lisa, and big brother Abraham!! Welcome Abigail!!!!!!

I'm Back!

So I'm back after a one month hiatus from blogging. I don't know what happened to the month of July but it went by so fast with everything going on that I didn't even have time to blog!!!! We went to Illinois the first week of the month and spent some time there with Nathan's parents. It was good to be away from the hubub of city life, but it was busy week in and of itself! We drove down on a Wednesday and went to visit old friends on Thursday, to Nathan's aunt and uncle's on Friday, into Chicago on Saturday and finally on Sunday we got a chance to rest!! This was all while I was trying to recover from my wrist surgery! It was very painful at first, but by the end of the second week I was feeling much better. I wasn't able to care for Derek at all the fist week, and the beginning part of the second week. I felt so bad, but I tried to play with him a ton and let him know that I was still around! Nathan was so great helping me and my mom and sister helped a lot too!! So anyway, the rest of the month is pretty much a blur and now it is August. Derek will be 6 months old on Tuesday. I cannot believe how fast this time is going!

Guest Post

This is a guest posting by my husband. Check out the rest of his blog by clicking on the link!!!

King of kings vs. king of pop

It is a sad day when a 50 year old man dies leaving behind three kids, an estranged wife, sisters, brothers, both parents and tons of loving caring friends. A man of great influence, a man that helped shape peoples beliefs and opinions, a man that worked towards breaking down racial barriers and a man that gave millions towards charity.

It is a sad day when a 33 year old dies one of the most horrific deaths known to man, leaving behind sisters, brothers, parents and tons of friends who loved and cared for Him. A man of Great influence, a man that is totally responsible for shaping lives along with mountains, stars, and knitting together our very being, a man who is the only answer to breaking down racial barriers, a man that gave his life in the ultimate charity freedom from sin and a man that conquered death to prove his Lordship over all things including death.

It is another sad day when both are counted as kings and only one can actually stand as King, the king of pop is not dancing now, the king of pop is not singing now, the king of pop is realizing one thing and one thing only. He is no king; there is no other king but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The saddest thing of all is the fact that as the king of pop realizes he is nothing, as he confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. Is that the millions who still idolize his life, have no clue what they are doing, and saying. There is only one king and Michael Jackson is not him. There is but one God and Jesus the Messiah is his name. There is but one man who can break down barriers, change the lives of billions, form the mountains, knit the cells in our body, create music from nothing, and dance on the stars, that Man is the word from before time, the King of ALL ages, the King of all ethnic bodies, the king of all countries, continents, Worlds, galaxies and universes, the King of music, the Lord of the dance, the King of the sun, moon and stars, the King from before the foundation of the world, the King of every government, every religion, every business. The King who will be declared LORD by every slave, peasant, lay person, politician, Businessman, CEO, king, president, false claiming deities, and all those who worship those false deities. JESUS. He is my KING OF KINGS and LORD of LORDS.

Oh King that is above all kings, oh Lord that is above all lords. Be magnified and lifted high as you claim the glory, as you are worshipped, as you are raised higher then any earthly king, as you are worshipped with song and dance more so then any other earthly or heavenly false king. Lord renew in all of us a right sense of who you are, a right attitude of worship and give us the strength to stand out above the crowed and sing your praise and sing glory to your name and lift your name above all names.

Just Wondering...

The extent of human pride never ceases to amaze me. I am always astounded when parents do things that could be harmful or fatal to their children and when someone tries to tell them that they say "don't judge me! I'm a good mom! Just because I don't do things the way you do them doesn't mean I'm wrong and you're right!" Um, yikes!!!!!! Okay, Here are some things that I have heard on my moms message board (I've thrown a few real life things from friends too...)

"I have a two week old and I feed her solids to make her sleep through the night. It's totally fine!"

"Sometimes I just didn't want to mess with the car seat so I just rode with my son in the Baby Bjorn."

"I put my newborn to sleep on her tummy. It doesn't cause SIDS. Those scientist people don't really know anything about what prevents SIDS. Back-to-Sleep is a marketing campaign."

"I just let my son cry it out in his crib. Sometimes he cries for an hour. Once he cried so hard he threw up, but he has to learn how to 'self-soothe'."

"I turned my 5 month old forward facing in her car seat. She didn't like being rear facing."

"If I tighten the car seat straps as tight as they should be they will be too tight for my son so I just leave them loose. It's no big deal."

There are so many more I can't even remember them all! Oh my gosh!!!! How are people living with themselves? I get it, some things are a personal decision like the decision to use controlled crying or not, or the decision to co-sleep or not. But there are things you can do that can put your child into harms way. Believe it or not, all the mothers who said these things got angry when people on the message board tried to correct them!!!! They spouted off crap like "It's my decision as a mother!" and "Don't judge me! I'm a good mom!" Sorry ladies. Mothers who turn their 5 month olds forward facing, let their baby scream until he throws up, ride around in the car with their baby in the Bjorn, disregard medical advice not to feed solids until at least 4 months for the sake of a good night's sleep, and don't properly restrain their babies in their car seats are NOT good mothers. Believe me, I hate it too when Derek cries when I tighten the car seat straps, but I know that's because he doesn't like to be restrained not because they are too tight. I too can't stand it when Derek is calling for me in the car and he can't see me because he is rear facing. Sometimes I want to scream when Derek wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to eat (although he's to the age where he doesn't do that too much anymore.). I get frustrated when he wakes up as soon as I put him in the crib and I have to stand and pat him until he nods off. I HATE toting his infant carrier around because he is soooooo heavy in it now. I am at the same place all these other mothers are/were but the difference is that I recognize that we do those things for the safety and good of our children. Most people recognize that we should do those things for our children's safety and health. I wish that mothers wouldn't get so defensive. I understand that being a mom is a competitive scene. I recognize that there are people out there who are ridiculously judgmental about things that are your personal decision. I had an incident a few months ago where a woman scolded me in the mall for bottle feeding instead of breast feeding. It's people like that who make moms overly sensitive to critiscm. But sometimes we need to lay aside our pride and realize that there is such a thing as contructive critiscm and be willing to consider the good of our children above our own convenience.

Car Seat Safety

One of my passions is the safety of children, especially infants and older babies. I've run across so many people (friends included) who do not know how to properly restrain their babies and toddlers in the car. I am at a loss as to how to gently tell some of my friends that they need to tighten the straps on the car seat among other things. So, in hopes that people will read this I have included the following link to this blog. It has an article about car seat safety as well as a couple videos of crash tests with car seats! Hope everyone takes this into account!!


http://prayerofhannah.blogspot.com/2009/06/rewind-to-car-seat-safety.html

Also, here are a couple more awesome car seat safety links!

www.cpssafety.com
www.nhtsa.gov
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm (To find a safety seat installation inspector near you!)
http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm

A New Experience

Well, I'm about to have a new experience!! Thanks to my wrist deciding to grow a ganglion cyst I will be having surgery in a week and a half. I've never had surgery before. The first time I was ever in the hospital was when I had Derek. So, needless to say I'm a little nervous. The cyst is no big deal, in fact the doctor said if I wanted to I could leave it be, but it's starting to gross me out big time so I decided to go ahead and have it removed since we havae met our insurance deductible this year with Derek's birth. So, in case anyone was freaking out about me having surgery, I'm ok and it's no big deal. They won't even have to put me under, they'll just use a block for my arm so I'll be awake the whole time! I can even watch if I want (which I don't!! EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!). The whole procedure will take 20 minutes. I just can't wait to have it gone, because like I said, it's really gross!!!!

10 Things...

Normally I wouldn't clutter up my blog with things like this but I really liked this one so here it is!


10 things you wish you could say to 10 different people

1 –I'm still so very in love with you especially after 4 years!!!
2 – I love you so very much!!!
3 – I'm still mad at you.
4 – you are selfish and self centered (two different things in my opinion) and you need to get over yourself.
5 – Love your wife as Christ loves the church!!!!
6 – I wish you would just apologize to me and get it over with.
7 – I want to be better friends but I'm really bad at getting to know people! I need your help.
8 - Sometimes when you say things exactly as you're thinking them it comes off as rude.
9 – I miss you so much and wish we could live near each other again.
10 - I'm sorry.

9 Things About Yourself:

1 - I am disorganized and it sometimes drives me crazy that I'm like that.
2 - I have a mean streak that I'm not proud of.
3 – My family is from the east coast and although I was raised in the midwest I find alot of the midwestern culture strange.
4 – I love my husband and my son more than life itself.
5 – I love to travel and I miss being able to soooooooo much.
6 – I love to shop.
7 – I am best friends with my mom.
8 – If you ask me at any time if I'd rather be at the beach I would say yes, except if I'm already at the beach.
9 – I love airplanes and wish that I could fly them for a job! What could be better than getting paid to travel??

8 Ways to Win my heart
1 – My love language is gift giving and receiving, so let me give you stuff and make a big deal out of it, and be sure to send me stuff too!! :)
2 – Tell me you love me often!
3 – Be romantic!!!
4 – Allow me to have my feelings and don't make me feel bad for feeling them
5 – Show interest in the things I like to do and I will equally compromise on the things you like to do
6 - Love my family for who they are and the fact that they raised me to be the woman you love.
7 - Don't be afraid to stand up for me and be ready and willing to protect me.
8 – Let me cry when I need to without saying a whole bunch of stuff to try to get me to stop. (That just ticks me off!)

7 Things That Cross my Mind A lot:

1 – Derek
2 - Nathan
3 – the beach
4 – housework
5 – the beach
6 – Derek
7 – family


6 Things I Have to do Before I Die:

1 – Write a book
2 – Go to Hawaii again
3 –Go to Normandy (France)
4 – See my son get married
5 – fly an airplane
6 – learn to be content in all situations

5 People Who Mean A Lot to You:

1 – Nathan
2 – Derek
3 – Mom Dad and Bekah
4 – Nana and PopPop and Aunt Tina
5 –Brittany, Casey, Caleb, and Isaac

(What the heck! There are a lot more than 5!!)


4 Things You Can See Right Now:

1 –TV
2 – Derek's jumper
3 –our unity candle
4 – clock

3 Bands You Listen to Often:

1 – Le Crae
2 – Nickleback
3 – Whatever is on the radio

2 Things You do Before Bed:

1 – Kiss my son
2 – Pray with Nathan

1 Confession:

1 – I am still in my pjs. I need to go get ready for the day!!