Waaaa, Waaaa, Waaaaa!!!!!!!

I haven't written a "real" post in a while so I thought I would hop on here and share what I have been thinking about lately.

Confession time: I am a whiner! I mean, no kidding, I could make a career out of whining I do it so well.

Like most parents, we try hard to teach our children valuable life lessons. We look for teachable moments where we can help our kids see God in real and tangible ways. One of the things we have noticed our kids doing (like all children are prone to do) is complaining. And oh how it irks me! It especially gets under my skin when we are out doing something fun and they are complaining. Here's how a typical conversation may go.

Mom: We are going out for dinner tonight.
Child # 1: I want to go to McDonald's.
Dad: Sorry, we have already decided we are going to Chick-fil-A
Child #1: Waa, waa, waa, I want to go to McDonald's.
Child #2: Waa, waa, waa, I want to go to Don Pablo's.
Child #3: Waa, waa, waa.
(Okay-he has an excuse, he's allowed to whine at 7 months).
Mom: Are you whining about a blessing?

Are you whining about a blessing? That question usually straightens them out. If not we will remind them that we can stay at home and eat peanut butter and jelly.

A similar scenario happened today. One of my dear friends got married today and we went to her wedding. She was so beautiful and the day was just gorgeous. But on the way home I heard "waaa, waaa, waaa, I'm hot". Now before you go criticizing me for being an insensitive mother consider this: if it is cold, if it is snowing, if it is raining, if it is windy, if it is foggy, if it is sunny, if it is cloudy, if it is dark, my children will complain about it. I was at my wits end with the whining today, so being the mature 30 year old that I am, I asked them if we could find anything else to complain about and began whining right along with them. That was actually rather effective as well, as they were so humored by mommy's whining that they forgot that they were hot. In fact, child # 2 said, "Mommy, you're not supposed to whine."

Are you whining about a blessing? We have all heard the saying, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", right? Well, as I have been particularly convicted about my own whining lately, I really wish my children were not imitating me in this area. But after looking at my heart, I know they are. I set the example and the tone in our household. And I am a whiner! Waa, waa, waa!

This was really brought to my attention most recently with our vacation to Florida. My husband hinted at this a couple of posts back but didn't share the whole story. I will spare you the details and will just give you the highlights.
#1-we missed our first flight-wa!
#2-we missed our second flight-waa!
#3-we got on the third flight but it was a really small plane and we couldn't all sit togehter-waaa!
#4-we got separated at O'hare-waaaa!
#5-I flew by myself with 3 kids (thank goodness they are angels!)-waaaaaa!
#6-My darling husband, flew first class by himself, eating chilled salmon, warmed nuts, and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies-waaa-aaaaaaa-waaaaaa!!!!
#7-we spent an entire day (and $1300) in the ER-wawawa!!!!!
#8-we didn't get to go to the beach-WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

You can hear it now can't you? Well, my parents (who were housing us for free) did. And my husband (who was on his first vacation in three years because he works two jobs so I can be at home) did.

Most devastating of all? God did. Are you whining about a blessing? You are on vacation with the family with which I have blessed you. Are you whining about a blessing? You are in beautiful Fort Myers. Are you whining about a blessing? I have provided the means for you to be here and for you to relax and rest because I love you and know you need it. Are you whining about a blessing? You have wonderful parents who are willing to take care of these precious little ones I have given you so that you can enjoy the husband I have given you. Are you whining about a blessing? See I am giving you beautiful weather and you are in the water every day. Are you whining about a blessing? You have not had to cook or clean for an entire week. Are you whining about a blessing?

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5. 16-18

Do everything without complaining or arguing. Philippians 2.14 (ouch)

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100.4-5

We had a great time on our vacation and enjoyed each other immensely. After the crazy day at the airport just trying to get there we were all very pooped. I slept soundly but was awake for some unknown reason at 6:30 am the first day of our vacation. Then I put my glasses on and walked out to my parent's lanai which overlooks the pond and what did I see but the most beautiful sunrise. I woke Rick up and we just sat there together marveling at the beauty of our great big God. And you didn't hear me complaining!

YES!!!!!!!!

That prospective pastor I was talking about??? Well, he just agreed to be called to be our new senior pastor! So cool! We will have a vote in a couple of weeks, so please be praying for our church.

Click here to hear him preach: http://www.indynaz.org/ (Troy Hochstetler)

Laughter

A couple of Sundays ago, we had a guest pastor speak at our church. For those of you who don't know, we have been without a pastor since last August and we have FINALLY gotten to the point in our search process that we have started interviewing prospective pastors. Well, two weeks ago we heard the first candidate preach. He preached a great sermon out of Genesis 22 where Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his only son Issac. He also referenced back to when God fulfilled His promise to Abraham to give him a son. He had a lot of us laughing hysterically as he made the comment, "They were so OLD!" Maybe you had to be there, but he said it in such a way that it was so funny. Then he painted a picture for us of how laughable it really was. Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 89. And it was so humorous to them, that what did they decide to name their son, but Isaac, which literally means laughter in Hebrew. Now, you may have thought that this was going to be some deeply, well-thought out post about the significance of Abraham's faith or something of that sort. Well, I am not feeling that deep this morning. However, I do love to laugh. I mean, is it not one of the greatest feelings when you are laughing so hard your stomach hurts (hey, it's one way to work out those muscles right?). I love inside jokes. I love contagious laughter. I love to hear my kids giggle when they think no one is around. Pure joy! There is nothing quite like it. Well, I am going to share some laughter with you this morning. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU3qT05Q-is&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Rw_3ky-uo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM&NR=1

Oh yeah, by the way, that last post of my darling husband's was pretty laughable too. Those of you who know me even a little bit know what I am talking about. But, he sure is sweet ain't he?

Thoughts

I have the best wife in the world. I know that most husbands think that they have the best wife, and while I am sure all are wonderful they are indeed not the best. I truly get reminded of this fact everyday. Here is a little of what I am talking about. Two weeks ago yesterday my family was going on our first full family vacation in at least two years if not longer. I will spare you the details of flight delays and what not, but we were halfway through our flights and in Chicago. The flight to Ft Myers only had three seats left so Lisa and the kids jumped on the plane and flew down with a promise that once I got there that she would pick me up. While I know that our kids have some kind of sleep gene when it comes to flying, I am sure that flying with three children all five and under is not what she had in mind. Mean while after my exhausting flight to Miami in first class I got to Fort Myers where as promised Lisa was waiting on me (Those that had heard the story about the flight know what a great time I had in first class).

The next day was a great day except for the fact that I forgot that it was Sunday and thus Mother's day! (Guys please once you have kids never forget Mother's day!!!) Lisa was very nice about the fact that I was (and still am) the biggest dope on the face of the planet with no Mother's day anything for her. Then skip forward to this weekend (we will skip all the dumb things that I did this week). I slept most of the day Saturday since I had worked the night before. There was a party for a good friend of ours that is getting married very soon (next Saturday) and she set things up so that I could go. After the dinner part of the party I needed to leave to get back home see the family for a couple of seconds and get ready for work. Now I will tell you that every time my wife goes out to eat without me she always asks if she can bring anything home for me. With that in mind and the fact that she has had our crazy kids all day to herself since I slept I never thought about asking if I could get her anything from the restaurant. Again she was very (and I mean very) nice about this thoughtless act on my part. Now if you know us very well you know that, again, I am the biggest dummy around and the fact that she puts up with me makes her the best wife ever. Now I could go on and tell you more stories about times that I have been dumb but that would just take up too much time so I will close this thought by saying that she is the best mother to our three little ones as well. The reason that our children are so nice and polite goes no further than Lisa. In addition Lisa has taught me that reading things other then the sports page can be fun and exciting. She has opened the world up to me to explore, and I hope that she will let me explore with her. I am truly blessed to be able to call her my wife and best friend.

Other thoughts since my last blog a long time ago. One I am still working on deepness in my relationships. In fact the number of relationships that have gone deeper than when I last wrote about going deep is zero. sometimes I think that maybe I need to be less of a dummy first, but that will take a bunch of time. Also, one of the things that I realized on vacation was that it seems to me that a lot of people that work hard to have the finest things often do not get to enjoy them. While on vacation a couple weeks ago we stayed at Lisa's parents condo. It is a very nice area and has a golf course, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. Now I can probably count on one had the number of people that swam the entire week we were at the pool (which was just about everyday). As you drive through the community you see beautiful homes but seemed to me that everyone was so hard working to pay for these houses that they did not get to enjoy them. Others things that I kept thinking about writing about have slipped my mind (and yes I am writing at 3am again so sorry if I ramble). So with that I will say TTFN and I will write again soon. Thank you again for reading this.

How Time Flies!

OH BABY!!! I can hardly believe it; our little guy is six months old already! My how time flies! I can seriously just sit and watch him grow. He is truly a miracle. Though the smallest of all of our precious ones (at a whopping 8 lbs. 6 oz.) he is now the biggest, weighing in at almost 22 pounds. Our doc says there is no chart for a kid like this. He is one big boy! It is amazing to see all of the things he can do now. He is sitting and drooling and babbling and laughing and squealing. He says "mama" but usually only when he is displeased with something I have done-or not done. And what a smile-he will melt your heart in an instant!

If anyone wonders if miracles really do happen just look at that face. My pregnancy was a little scary this time around. Diagnosed with gestational diabetes at about 26 weeks, despite my best efforts to control things with diet, I became insulin dependent and was giving myself shots in the stomach three times a day. I was losing weight the entire pregnancy-a fact that did not make my doctor all too happy. I was in the hospital because of decreased fetal movement and while there I was having some pretty hard contractions. I amazed the nurses when I assured them I was not in labor (these contractions were an every day occurrence for me)-they appeared a lot harder on the monitors than what I felt. If only it would be that easy. I had to have weekly non-stress tests to monitor baby's progress. I had to have regular visits with my nutritionist and endocrinologist. During one of my visits to the hospital we were given a tour of the NICU, where we were told our baby would spend his first few hours of life. All in all it was a pretty stressful time. But oh God is faithful and oh so good! For just look into the eyes of my boy and you will know that He is real! I love you my baby boy and I praise the Lord daily for the gift of your life. Lord, please give us wisdom to raise this son to know and love you all the days of his life.