Tidbits

I must apologize to my countless (;o) readers for my lack of posts lately. I have been doing this single mother thing for the past couple weeks and believe me, it is challenging. It amazes me how much of a relief it is to have Graham come home after work and change a diaper or two, give El a bath, and read her books. It really doesn't seem like a lot less work for me but somehow it is. The end is in sight although his training in Denver has been extended so next week he will be spending Tuesday through Friday there. That will make it 4 weeks that he will have been gone. His job is a blessing, though, and he seems to be enjoying it so far!

After his first week, El and I decided to head over the mountains to spend a weekend with him. We went to the Denver Zoo and El sure enjoyed looking at all the animals. We also learned that a half day at the zoo is very sufficient for a 22 month old and her parents!
Back at home, we have been enjoying warm temperatures and time spent outdoors. The wind often threatens to keep us from journeying out, but most of the time doesn't win out. El enjoys pretending to water all of our and our neighbor's plants. After she is done doing our neighbor's (Phyllis and Reid: aka surrogate grandparents) plants, she must knock on the door to let them know and be rewarded with a graham cracker; she knows exactly in which cabinet they store them.
We just returned from a couple night sleepover at Papa and Meema's house! I wasn't feeling too well, but she had so much fun playing on the swing set with them, marching with the nutcrackers and going on a long ride on the lawnmower with Papa. He even let her take over the steering wheel, to which she screamed, "Wheeeeeee Wheeeee!" Now we are back at home and just can't wait to see Graham come Friday night.

Protected (once again)

It seems like I have had some really close encounters with death or serious injury lately- 3 to be exact, if you include the furnace incident. Obviously, because I am sitting here typing, everyone is fine and God's hand has protected us. Isn't it amazing how much we take life for granted the majority of time? I was struck by that today when Ellie and I came inches away from being run over by a large, Dodge Ram truck. This only happened about an hour and a half ago so it still has me shaken up.

We were going about our normal, daily routine of going to the fitness club in the morning for me to get a workout in and some 'sanity time', while allowing Ellie to play with other children in the nursery. On our way out to the car, Ellie had just finished saying her loud, enthusiastic "bye's" to all the nursery ladies and friends. As we came outside, there was a group of 3 men walking into a door nearby and Ellie greeted them with her equally enthusiastic "hi's" to which they laughed and responded to her. I helped her down off the curb, and noticed a large, blue Dodge truck parked in the middle of the lot. I vaguely remember glancing at the driver who was reading something and didn't look like she was going anywhere. With Ellie's hand in mine, we started walking a short distance behind the truck. All of the sudden, I heard tires screeching as the driver had floored the gas IN REVERSE! All I remember is screaming, backing up as fast as I could, while dragging Ellie by her hand back with me. The truck had missed us by inches. I just stood there with Ellie in my arms while the lady from the truck got out and came towards us. I couldn't even say anything except, "I'm still scared." The driver simply looked at us, started crying and grabbed Ellie's hand saying that she was so glad we were okay. I didn't feel mad at her because I had a sense of how horrible it would be to be on her side as well.

Thinking about this has allowed me to ponder my own driving. How often am I unaware of who or what is around me? I think that because we drive so much, we often go into autopilot mode and go through the motions. Accidents happen in the blink of an eye.

I have no doubt that it is the Lord who is protecting us and getting us out of the way of possible tragedies. Thank you, Lord! Life is precious...

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Craft and Furnace Time!

In light of the beautiful, 60 degree weather that we are experiencing today, I thought I would share a craft project we did (we meaning Graham and I with Ellie playing with wooden beads). We are getting spring fever and are absolutely ecstatic with the hope and promise of warmer days.
In other news, our 28 year-old furnace finally had to be put to rest. In the past couple of weeks it has been overheating, causing a lovely burning odor to come into the house and shutting down. Finally I called a heating company to come out and look at it yesterday. What they found was a huge, gaping hole behind the burners. The flames were not being contained and the heating guy said that it is a house fire waiting to happen and that we have been pumping our house full of carbon monoxide. We do have a carbon monoxide detector in our home but they said that those only go off when there is a level that can be really dangerous. There can still be unsafe levels of carbon monoxide without the alarm going off so I guess it is important to err on the side of caution when it comes to furnaces.

Anyhow, we had to have a new furnace that was installed this morning (we used space heaters last night). A couple hours after the installation, I went into the garage and smelled a strong natural gas smell. Immediately, I called the company and they sent the same guy out who found that there was a crack in our gas hose in the garage. The Lord has really been watching out for us! So all is well at The Shire now; fortunately for us they are giving us a year to pay off the furnace without interest- yet another blessing. We have a lot to be thankful for as we go into this Easter weekend!

March Madness

For the past two years, March and April seem to bring about big changes in our lives, specifically in our employment. Last year it was Graham's transition from Crossroads to ServiceMaster and me starting my Arbonne business, allowing me to stay at home with Ellie as of October 2007. The year before that was the closing of The Little Gym and our getting hired on at Crossroads Fitness. This year is the same but also different in other ways. Graham got hired on as an Auto Adjuster with Farmer's Insurance after a very grueling testing and interviewing process! It feels different to us this time because it seems like a career that Graham is excited about and has a lot of promise in the benefits such as paid vacation (what is that?!?!?), a group health insurance plan (woohoo!), pension, profit sharing, retirement, and a company car! This truly is proof that when you wait on the Lord-as Graham is very good at, (and as hard as those waiting times are- especially for me) He knows the timing and has a plan for that which we can't even imagine!

As I look back on the past four years, after we moved from Chicago, I am amazed at God's faithfulness even in the midst of uncertainty and financially hard times. There is a lot to be said for those times when we feel completely dependent on Him for provision. The lack of control is an invaluable lesson in the fact that we are called to become dependent on Him and give up the false idea that we can be in control of our lives. As wonderful as all of the benefits Graham is about to get from this new job, we know that worldly security is fleeting and false. The only true security we can have is through the promises of the Lord, and I have been (and still am) in the process of realizing that those are more than enough! What a faithful, good God we serve! I am in awe.

I thought I would also share some photos of what we have been up to so far in March.

Sleeping (this is how El sleeps at night)

Holding Babies (Wyatt is Laura Ensor's new baby)


Making basketball cookies


Coloring


Learning how eat like a big girl (unsuccessful so far)

Eating cake batter (yummy!)

Good: Baby chicks

Better: Baby chicks at a farm

Best: Baby chicks at a farm supply store ;)

My husband vs. Rivaldo

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs

They say that my hubby looks like Rivaldo?

This is weird...

I found this website through someone else's blog and just played with it for a minute. Basically they said that I most look like Kelly Hu- never heard of her. I didn't believe them so I decided to morph myself- if nothing else it is somewhat amusing.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities