Vacation!!!!

Three weeks ago Nathan and I dropped Derek off with my parents for "Camp Grandparents" and ran away to Hawaii for a week! It was fantastic to reconnect with each other, and to not have to be parents for a week. We spent a lot of time at the beach, went to Pearl Harbor, climbed up Diamond Head, and visited the Dole Plantation! The best part about being there (besides it being a tropical island of course) was the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. Nathan would not agree with me on that, but I LOVE places like that. There were interesting people to watch, high end retail stores to look at (only pretending to be actually serious about buying that $500 belt), and plenty of restaurants to eat at! Every night everyone gets dressed up to go out to dinner. The nights are warm and dark, but Waikiki is brightly lit. There’s a soft glow of torchlight amongst the brightness of the lights in the stores. Every restaurant has live music and a gorgeous patio to sit on. Everything is open air. The malls, hotel lobbies and even the airport have a gorgeous tropical breeze blowing through them. There are palm trees everywhere and the Pacific Ocean is a beautiful opal blue. Everything about Hawaii is perfect.

The day we got there we FINALLY landed (after a grueling 8 hour flight) and we had thought we would be able to do so much stuff that day! We landed at 3:30pm Hawaii time which is 8:30pm our body time. Then we waited forever for our luggage, and waited for a shuttle bus. Then spent an hour and a half on the shuttle bus. We checked into our hotel and finally got to our room and discovered we were exhausted. We were undeterred. We were determined to stay up until 9pm Hawaii time so that we could get acclimated. We took showers and got dressed up a little to go out for dinner. By the time dinner came I was so tired that I was sick to my stomach. The food looked fantastic, but I just couldn’t eat it. I couldn’t even muster the energy to pick up a fork! I made it until 8:30 that night before I crashed. Then we were up at 4:30 in the morning (which was of course 9:30am central time). Since we were up so early we decided to go to Pearl Harbor that day. So we got dressed ate breakfast and hopped a city bus. I love Pearl Harbor. There’s so much history there. It’s like discovering that this place really exists and these things really happened. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been there (3 now) the feeling is the same each time. (Ok, the last two times because the first time all I remember is getting my picture taken in front of the Arizona’s anchor. I was 4 years old.) The Arizona Memorial is such a powerful place. Knowing you are standing in the very spot, over the very ship where over 1700 men died is a very sobering thing. Seeing their names on a wall is even more sobering. This visit I took the time to really read each of the names. Two stand out to me. W.H. Hurd (Hurd is my mother’s maiden name) and A.F. Power (Power is my maiden name). It’s crazy to see your own last name up on that wall, even if the person had no close relation to you, somewhere down the line they are your kin. It’s a bit freakish to see that. There was even a Metcalf on the survivors list. I guess he got lucky. We also made our way over to see the battleship Missouri. That was pretty cool! We spent our second day on the beach. The whole day. It was great! Our third day we hiked up Diamond Head and went out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We did the big pineapple maze and saw some of the pineapple plants. We shopped a lot there. They have everything pineapple you can imagine! Of course we had some straight from the source Dole Whip (pineapple ice cream). I was sooooooooooo good! As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to have more when we go back to Minnesota next week for the State Fair! We spent all day the next day shopping, and then hit the beach, and out last day we literally rented a cabana and sat on the beach from breakfast until dinner! I have seriously never relaxed so much on a vacation! It was great!!!!!

Since we got back I’ve been going stir crazy. Life has just been too slow in our little town. I’m really not used to the slow paced life of small town America yet. Coming from a relatively large metropolitan area and moving here was a bit of a culture shock. Not welcome culture shock. Going on vacation reminded me of how much I liked my old hustle and bustle life, and coming back to the slow life has been difficult. I miss being able to run out and do things. I used to think, gee I really need to run over to Old Navy. I’ll go, it’ll only take 20 minutes. Now it’s a whole day trip to go because I’m not going to drive an hour to Old Navy for a 20 minute errand, so I have to be planning to do multiple things while I’m “in the city”. I know that eventually I will get used to the pace of life here, but I also battle with not wanting to slow down. I like a fast paced daily life. Fortunately, I have an 18 month old, so life won’t slow down for a while!

So, tonight I'm going to do something I have never done on my blog. I'm going to complain for a minute. I'm going to complain because it will make me feel better. There is a purpose, it's not just complaining for the sake of complaining. Once I get this off my mind I will feel better and be able to go on with life.

Ok, here goes...

I was rear ended yesterday. And, frankly, I'm mad about it. Here's what I'm mad about, it should have never happened! I was doing everything right. I was at an intersection where the light was green. I was turning left so I was stopped, yielding to oncoming traffic. I had my blinker on. The pick up truck behind me just simply didn't see me, or so he said. Chances are he was texting or messing with his phone or the radio or reading something. Something distracted him because he had been behind me at the previous stoplight. He knew I was there, but he didn't see me slow down and stop to turn left?? Anyway, The car is crunched, and the appraiser hasn't been out to look at it yet, so we are in limbo with the car, and Derek's $300 Britax Advocate car seat is junk now because any time you get in an accident you have to toss the car seat. So today we trekked down to Wichita to buy a new car seat. (we borrowed one from a friend for the trip down there.) Only to find, of course, that we would be unable to purchase the same car seat as a replacement. Apparently the Advocates are only sold online, well we don't have time to wait around for them to ship one to us because we need it in 3 days to drive to the airport. We couldn't keep the one we borrowed for 2 weeks, so we were stuck. So, we bought a Boulevard instead. I'm mad about that too. Here's the deal, I did a lot of research on car seats before I bought the Advocate. The reason I chose the Advocate over the Boulevard is because of the side impact cushions. The Advocate has them, the Boulevard doesn't. I'm mad because I feel like now my son isn't as safe as he was in the other car seat. And, while this may seem petty, I'm mad that they didn't even have a good fabric pattern in the Boulevard. They had this color that they said was "tan" but it looked like newborn baby poop. And then they had this kinda navy blue colored one with beige designs on it, and trust me it's not as nice as it sounds. It's kinda strange looking actually. But, this one was definitely the lesser of the two evils. So, now we have an ugly car seat that doesn't have the same safety features as our last one all because some moron was too busy with something else to concentrate on driving. Lastly, I'm mad at him. He was nice at the scene (he better have been) he took the tongue lashing I gave him pretty well. The police gave him a couple tickets, which was nice. But I'm still mad. I have a crunched car and an ugly car seat and a ruined weekend, and he wasn't even in his own car. It was a company car! Grrrrr.

Ok, thanks for putting up with that. I'm done complaining now.

This Past Week

We've had a doozy of a week! Nathan left last Monday for a trip to Colorado with the youth group. I thought that the week he was gone would be a breeze. I had a full day of work on Monday (which I hadn't had in over a year!) and it made the day go by quickly. Then Tuesday I had planned to take Derek to the pool, we have a standing play date on Mondays that we were going to move to a different day, I was planning to take Derek to the children's museum and we were going to have a really fun week. All my plans were shot to heck on Tuesday morning when Derek woke up with a fever. I figured no problem, so we would spend the day (which was rainy anyway) inside letting Derek rest. He sometimes gets low grade fevers when teething and they're always gone the next day. It wasn't gone on Wednesday. So we spent another day inside (gorgeous day this time). His fever was still sticking around on Thursday so we were inside again. I made a doctor's appointment for Friday since by now I knew it wasn't just teething. Nathan finally got home Thursday night, but he was exhausted. I took Derek to the doctor on Friday morning and discovered he had a "virus". Nothing specific, just a virus. So, he slept all day on Friday. Yesterday he finally felt better, but we took him to the all church picnic and today he is absolutely exhausted. He has been taking only one nap a day since he was 12 months old, and today he is on his second nap!! Continued prayers for his recovery would be appreciated!

Scripture Memory for Babies??

Nathan and I were discussing the other day an idea that has been on my mind for a while. I started thinking about it months ago when I ran across a friend of mine's child, about 3 years old, who could sing every single word to a popular secular song that was on the radio. My friend (who is a Christian) was very proud of her child. There was a video that went viral not long ago of a toddler boy singing to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (you know the one where he melts down when his father tells him "you're not a single lady buddy"). And these experiences got me thinking. If our two and three year olds can sing the words to the secular songs we hear on the radio in the car (I'll talk about my opinion on that in a minute) why do we think they are too young to start memorizing Scripture?

Here's the deal. If you want your young child(ren) to learn Scripture from a young age, the key is music!! So, turn off the GARBAGE that is on secular radio (trust me on this guys. There is nothing good on it anyway. Any of you heard Usher's "OMG"? Case and Point.) just turn it off. Why are we pumping our kids' heads full of this crap? Why are they learning the lyrics to "Single Ladies"? Good grief people! Have you ever listened to the lyrics of these songs yourself? I'll tell you what, there is no way my son is gonna hear this stuff at his age or any other age that I control what is listened to in the car. Yuck. Instead, find some Scripture memory program that puts Scripture to music. I grew up listening to G.T. and the Halo Express. It's a series of 7 CD's (now a days. Back then they were cassette tapes!) that have a story and verses set to music to go with the story. I hadn't listened to G.T in years (up until Christmas of last year) and I could still sing you the verses I learned listening to it. I want that for my son. I want my son to learn Scripture and hide it in his heart. I want my son to get to be an adult and still know all the Scripture he learned as a little child. I want to be the kind of parent that points him toward God this way. So it's settled. Who's with me on this? Let's abandon the music of the world and trade it for Christ Centered music. Let's pump our children full of Scripture so that they can grow up wielding the Word of God which is sharper than a double edged sword. And while we're at it, let's learn some Scripture ourselves.

Here are a couple resources if you are interested in helping your children memorize Scripture:
G.T. and the Halo Express- www.gthalo.com
Children Desiring God, Fighter Verse Program- www.childrendesiringgod.org/resources/resource.php?id=2

A Bunch of Thoughts

I need to blog, but I don't have any one particular topic rolling around in my head, so I guess I'll just write down all the little snippets.

-I bought Derek a leash today. We are headed to an amusement park on Monday with the youth group, and after Derek threw fits about sitting in the stroller in the mall I figured he's not going to be any more inclined to sit in a stroller at an amusement park. Today I read on Facebook that leashes are "for lazy parents who don't exercise and can't keep up with their children." I walk 5 miles every single day. Believe me, I can keep up with my child. What I don't like are shrill screaming fits because he doesn't want to sit in the stroller, or him dropping to his knees every foot and a half because he's ticked that he has to hold my hand. Besides, when he holds my hand he has to hold his arm way up to reach me, and would you want to walk around with your arm in the air all day? I think not. So, I bought a leash. I think it makes me a responsible mother who wants to start teaching her son about freedom with limits. If you think it makes me lazy then I will gladly accept your criticism and say sweetly to my son right in front of you, "Awwwww Derek, look at the judgy lady(/man). Isn't she cute when she's being condescending? I can be adorable when I'm being condescending too!" Ok, I won't really say that, but I'll think it!

-We are going to Hawaii soon. I am so excited!!! I have a lot to do to get ready to go. Yikes!

-I read an article today from a natural parenting source (that I do respect mostly actually) about glucose testing. It said that glucose testing is ridiculous and that Gestational Diabetes is a crock of crap. Tell that to my two close friends who have had GD. Tell that to the one of them for whom it didn't go away after pregnancy. Tell her that GD is a load of nonsense. Sometimes I have to shake my head and move on to the next topic on that site.

-I love the Liberty Mutual Insurance commercials that show strangers doing random acts of kindness for each other. There should be more of that in the world, especially from Christians.

Ok, I'm out of thoughts for the night, but at least I put something on the page right? :)

Memorial Day

So, Memorial Day tomorrow has me thinking about my grandparents. My mom's parents were amazing. I have such awesome memories of them. Fishing off my grandpa's boat and eating lunch on the dock. Grandma pressing a $20 into my little hand before we left for the airport and whispering "don't tell your mother!" with a smile on her face. The basket on the coffee table that was ALWAYS filled with candy. Not the nasty hard candy either, the good stuff like peanut butter Twix and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and mini Nestle Crunch bars. Yum! The house that was always warm and in the old days smelled like cigarette smoke, and in the latter days smelled just faintly like the smoke but more like the roast in the rotisserie oven. Even the TV always being on is a fun memory. It was the only time we were allowed to watch TV all day, and CABLE at that!! :) I remember the bed in the middle room. The middle room used to be a dining room in the compartmentalized style of those little saltbox houses. It still had a dining room table in it, but it was never used. The bed in there was one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept on. And, I could see the TV from the door at the end of the bed that was always open a crack. As a kid I would lay at the opposite end of the bed and watch it until I was too tired to watch anymore. :) There were trophy fish mounted on the walls. There was a pretty little (ok, not so little, but in comparison with some of the others it was) blue fish that I wish I had. For some reason I liked that fish. It was my favorite. I loved lunches from Wegman's that Grandma would go with us to get. She would always make sure we got to Bill Gray's and Abbott's. SUPER YUM! I remember her saying at Abbott's "forget my diabetes! I'm having some frozen yogurt!" Haha! I remember Grandpa's huge metal belt buckles with deer or fish on them. He would always forget to take them off at the airport and would set the metal detector off. I remember the way he would say "hi honey!" to me and my sister. They were the same words Grandma would say but said totally different. I remember the flat feeling in my heart the day I was told Grandpa had lung cancer. It was not a surprise, he had been a heavy smoker, but it was horrible nonetheless. I remember the last time I saw him. Spring break (March??) 1999. I was 15. I wanted to go to Florida and was mad I had to be in New York. I will never fully forgive myself for that. The cancer was spreading and he was sometimes not in his right mind. I remember talking about going to Wegman's for lunch and him saying "Barbecue? We're having barbecue??" And Grandma, lol, just went off; "We're not having barbecue!! Who said anything about barbecue? Nobody said anything about barbecue!" We had to laugh or we would cry. We still laugh about it. I remember the day I found out he died. I was at school. Mom and Dad didn't call me to tell me. I happened to call after school to ask a question and pulled it out of Dad. I cried in the bathroom for 20 minutes. I'm sure people thought I was crazy or something. I don't remember much about Grandpa's funeral. I remember thinking that his casket was so "him". I remember the internment being so final. I remember Grandma looking frantically for Aunt Sandy who's headstone had been accidentally covered by the green fake turf carpet spread over the opening of Grandpa's grave. We pulled back the carpet so Grandma could see her oldest daughter, and could be assured Grandpa was being buried in the right place. I remember how three years after Grandpa died, Grandma got on a plane for the first time in many many years and flew out to see me graduate from high school. It was June 2002. It was so precious. When it was time for her to leave the ticketing agent at the airport asked me if I wanted a special pass so I could accompany her to the gate. (This was after 9/11 so the rules had changed.) I got to go to the gate with her and sit with her until they boarded her onto the plane. Just her and me time. She pressed a $20 into my hand as they were wheeling her away and advised "don't tell your mother." :) 5 months later Dad called me at college to tell me she had passed suddenly. The tears came freely. They still do when I think about it. So did the words "I see the Lord seated on the throne, exalted. And, the train of His robe fills the temple with glory!" I thought that is what Grandma is seeing right now!! How blessed is she! I also barely remember Grandma's funeral. I remember "Old Rugged Cross." The song still brings tears to my eyes. I remember the rain the next day during the internment. It was very fitting. I remember pulling back the green carpet to make sure Aunt Sandy and Grandpa were there and that we were burying her in the right place. It's what she would have wanted done. I wish I could go this year and lay flowers on their graves. Oh how I miss them. They would have loved Nathan. They would have adored Derek. They would have pressed $20's into his little hand and told him not to tell me. They would have kissed his little dimples. He would have called them grandma great and grandpa great. Someday he will see them in heaven I am convinced of it. But for now he will hear stories about them so that he will know that they lived and that they were loved by their oldest granddaughter. They were both World War II vets, but that is not how I remember them. This is how I remember them, how I will always remember them.

Baby(not so)Wise

I forget if I have mentioned the dangers of the book On Becoming Babywise in this blog or not. It has been linked to failure to thrive infants, and other developmental issues. The Christian Research Counsel has published an article regarding the dangers of Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo both technically (as far as their sketchy parenting information) and theologically. This is a fantastic article and I highly recommend my Christian parent readers check it out!

The Cultic Characteristics of Growing Families International