Big lessons for a little boy

The other day Isaac got a hold of the hair stick that Jacob uses for his new do. Here is the result! lol!

Here is a conversation I had with Isaac on Wednesday.

Isaac: God can see me, but I can't see him right?

Mama: Yep, that's right

Isaac: God is watching me and taking care of me right?

Mama: You bet he is!

Isaac: thinking thinking thinking Well, then why....when I fall off my bike doesn't he reach down his hands and catch me?

Mama: thinking thinking thinking Well, God doesn't have arms and hands like we do (pitiful answer!...sigh and eye roll)

Isaac: Oh, Yes He does!! I saw it in a book. His arms and hands were reaching down out of the sky

Mama: thinking thinking thinking...some time passes Well God always knows what is best for you. He knows that you are learning to ride your bike without the training wheels. If he caught you every time then you would never learn how to ride your bike. When you fall you are learning. (feeling much better with that response...proud of myself ;) )

Isaac: with extreme frustration and disgust....huge sigh and eye roll....both hands on chin...adamantly No, I don't think I was ready!!....I was not ready to ride my bike without training wheels....He should have caught me!!! I didn't want him to let me go!

Mama: But, God DOES know what is best for you....even when you want something different, he knows what is best. He knows that you can't learn to ride your bike without falling sometimes. He is always taking care of you. You fell, but did not get hurt because God was watching over you.

Isaac: Hmmmmmm? Thinking, thinking, and still thinking.......

My prayer is that from this day forth Isaac's faith will grow and flourish.....for the rest of his life!!!!!! Such a basic truth to us as Christians. So simple, but still so difficult at times even for us as adults! God knows best......no matter what happens...He IS in control! At times he allows us to fall to make us stronger! He is there to pick us up......he is reaching down his arms from the sky to pick us up.

Love,

Wendy

ps This whole conversation was interesting for us to have at this time because Isaac has not ridden his bike in months!

pss. I apologize for the spacing of this post. For some reason blogger is not allowing me to space this on the page how I would like. It is all running together. I've changed the colors to make it a bit easier to read...I hope!

More Catchin' Up

Here are a few photos from recent weeks.

The joys of a big sis! ;) Gracie busy at work!

What Isaac thought of it! LOL! .......I can see this photo popping up somewhere in his future..senior wall or something. ;)

Oh my goodness did Gracie LOVE doing her Valentine cards! The girl was all about that! :)

Gracie's creativity never ends! Here she is with her turkey at breakfast the other day. :)

Isaac has begun helping with dishes. I'm enjoying the fact that he LOVES to do it right now! :) He usually helps with the lunch dishes because there is not nearly as many at lunch since it is just me and him.

Jacob's new haircut before and after. It's "spiked"! It's actually quite cute. Gracie's all about her Valentine's.........well, Jacob's all about this new haircut. ;) Remember just a while back I was talking about him wanting to let his hair grow down into his eyes?? I said something to the effect of..."over this Mama's dead body" lol!! Well, he mentioned spike....and ......well, this Mama wasn't born yesterday.....I was all about this new haircut! lol! It fits his personality very well!

This is not a great photo, but you can see his haircut a bit better because there is a shadow on the photo about....sorry! You get the idea!

That's all for now.

Love,

Wendy

Just Get a Hammer

First thing this morning
Isaac (through very sleepy eyes and tosseled hair): Mama, I want to stay in my bed and sleep

Momma: You know what? Me too! I did not want to get out of my nice warm bed this morning either!

Isaac: Well, you should just get a hammer and bang that clock!!

Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!! Oh, if life were just that simple! ;)

Love,
Wendy

Movin' on Up!!!!!

Can't believe I forgot to share this exciting tidbit of info. in my catching up post! I'm tellin' ya that we are movin' on up big time in our sleepy little town! On the morning of my nephews gymnastics meet I swung by our bank's atm machine. It's an inside atm machine where you park the car and walk into the building........well, not anymore!!! :) I walked into the building and found a little note on our atm machine saying that we now have a drive up atm. WHAT??? SERIOUSLY???? :-O I headed back to my car and another lady had pulled up and saw me heading back to my car without using the atm and rolled down her window asking me if the atm was broke? I explained what the note said. Her reaction...WHAT? SERIOUSLY??? :-O "Oh my! I'll let you go first since you were here first" YEEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWWW!!! It's true! A drive-up atm machine! And guess what else? The receipt includes your account balance! We are big time now.......BIG!!! We can never move now that we have a drive-up atm here! ;)Terrie and my nephews got a big kick out of my excitment!! LOL!!! I'm HAPPY! :)

Proud Big Sis!!

She's In!!!!! :) My little sis, Terrie has been accepted into the Nuclear Medicine Program at Ball State University. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of her!!! Terrie is a single Mom of her five awesome kiddos! Can you tell I'm a proud aunt! ;) Terrie has been working her little hiney off going to school ful time while being a great Mom at the same time. She just found out yesterday that she has been accepted into this program next semester. I was lucky enough to be on the phone with her when she received the news!! :) CONGRATULATIONS TERRIE!!!!! I love you and am so very proud of you! :) YOU GO GIRL!!!

Cathing Up

Whew! It's been a busy couple of weeks and my blogging has suffered. So, I'm just going to hit the highlights here and then move on! :)

*My Mom and Dad came for Fred's funeral. It was so good to have them here! Thanks Mom and Dad!

*My sister was here this past weekend from Indy. with her five kids. They came for a gymnastics meet that her boys, Josh and Garett, participated in. It was awesome to be able to watch them. They both went home with a slew of medals. :)

*We attended our first hockey game ever........soooo much fun!! Want to do it again!

*We've looked at a few houses. Considering moving closer to school and work.

*Jacob to the rescue twice in a week. I took Mom and Dad out driving around the morning of the funeral and managed to get the van stuck when going off the beaten path. Talk about stress on the morning of the funeral.. ugh! Jacob was all about coming with Tom to "rescue" us! ;) Then Terrie's tire blew out on the highway shortly after she left to return home...Daddy and Jacob to the rescue once again! LOL!! They stayed another night and returned home with a brand new tire....two actually.

*The weather has been CRAZY!! Freezing cold with good snow accumulations for a few days followed by 50 degree weather for a day or two. This pattern keeps repeating itself........water is HIGH!

*Made a trip to Chicago to pick up Mike, Tom's brother , from the airport....Tom just took him back to Chicago this morning....Bad weather both trips! It was great to have Mike here for the past few weeks!

*Tom went to Louiville, KY for work and was able to visit the place where they make the Louiville Slugger bat while he was there. The boys would have LOVED it. They ARE enjoying the little miniature bat he brought home.

*Isaac just visited the doctor yesterday and has very enlarged tonsils and fluid on both ears. They did an X-Ray to check out his adenoids yesterday. We will likely be referred to a ENT specialist and will probably be facing surgery for him soon. Adenoid and/or Tonsil removal and possible tubes in his ears. Glad we have an answer though to what is affecting his speech!

*The kids have been on numerous field trips these past few weeks. Heidi spent a day at the high school she will attend next year. They matched each visiting student up with a freshman and they spent the day together....attending all classes with them. She will sign up for her freshman courses on Monday....:-O

*Jacob is enjoying basketball. He will play at the halftime of the JV Game on Thursday night.

Those are the highlights! :)
Love,
Wendy

Love and Loss

I really don't know where to begin with this post. How can I put into words the emotions that we have been feeling this past week?....the feelings are so deep and raw that it would be impossible to put into words. I just can't describe the pain it brings my heart to watch a mother who has lost her life long love try to comfort her son, who has just lost his father at the vulnerable age of 18. No words. How can I describe the pain it brings me to watch my husband stand on a hill at a cemetary between two graves...a fresh grave ready to receive the body of his big brother.....and a grave that is now 24 years old, that holds the body of his big sister lost in a tragic auto accident at the young age of 21....Tom was then at the vulnerable age of 18 himself. No words. How can I put into words the pain it brings me to watch a mother have to say good-bye to a second child? No words. Just a deep and raw sense of loss.

Along with that deep and raw loss comes another emotion that is just as strong...probably even stronger.....LOVE! We have felt God's love in it's purest and truest form this week! Wow!.....the love we feel for Fred, the love we feel for each other, the outpouring of love expressed to our family this past week has just been overwhelming. Fred was definitely a loved man! And, we are loved by so many good good people! What a blessing all of our friends and family are to us! I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart! Thank you for engulfing us with your love! As hard as times like these are, it's time like these when we do most of our learning and growing in life isn't it? We forget all of the trivialties of life and remember what is REALLY important! I know I'm hugging the necks of all my loved ones a little tighter these days.

Good-bye Uncle Fred. We love you and miss you! We know with time God will help our tears of loss more often become smiles as we remember happy times we spent with you.
Taken at the Detroit airport while awaiting Jacob's arrival home from Korea. Heidi picked out this hat for Jacob, which Uncle Fred is modeling here.

Heavy Hearts

We are all deeply saddened that Tom's brother, Fred, passed away at 5:10 am this morning. Please pray for our family as we grieve the loss of Uncle Fred! Pray for comfort for Fred's wife, Tammy and boys Randy & Ethan. We love you Uncle Fred. We miss you already!

The above photo is one of my all time favorite pictures of Fred. It was taken at Heidi's 5th birthday party. He is wearing her new fairy costume! :) The picture below goes back even further than that....Heidi and her Uncle Freddy.

Love,

Wendy

My Eager Beaver

I woke this morning thinking about these things....and talking to God about these things, so decided to blog a bit about my thoughts. I think perhaps recently I have been guilty of.........good grief Wendy!!..listen to yourself..."I think perhaps recently"....I KNOW that I have recently been guilty of viewing my son's excess energy in less than a positive light.....well, truth be told...a negative light. Ok, I confess ....the boy can drive me CRAZY at times....to the looney farm!! LOL! There it's out...I said it!! Guilty...GUILTY as charged!!! I'm talking about my sweet Jacob here. This post is coming after an unusual week....we had two snow days this week. I absolutely LOVE snow days...love em...most of the time! But this week, the constant spinning, moving, saberlight fighting, sound affecting, handstanding, kung fuing, karate chopping, airplane flying, snowball flinging, speed car racing, somersaulting, roughhousing and chandelier swinging (ha ha.. just kidding that one is exaggerated..hee hee) has left this Mama's head SPINNING!!!! It hasn't helped that my Mama head has also been aching, throat scratching and body chilling!! ....Calgon take me AWAY!!!!

When I was lying in bed thinking and praying about all of these things I began thinking that I often take the positive aspects of Jacob's personality for granted. He is such a DOER...and is so energetic and ready to help. I decided a long time ago that I would view my son's excess energy in a positive light! That was hard this week! The truth is though his zest for life and eagerness is a VERY positive thing!! I mean channeling all of that in the right direction I KNOW will serve him very well in his life! The boy is almost always UP!! Yes, he can be a "drama king" lol!!, Yes, he can overreact...big time!, Yes, he does have meltdowns....BUT, all of that is extremely short lived!! As quick as it happens it is over and he is back to his bouncy, happy self!! :)

Here is an example of how Jacob is....an example of what I appreciate so very much about my sweet boy...I just LOVE his eagerness and zest for life!!! Yesterday afternoon, the snow stopped and the roads looked clear...so we decided to head to town (uh..hem...GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! ;) ). All I said was "let's go to McDonalds"....Jacob's coat,hat, gloves and boots were on practically before the words left my mouth. lol! "I'll start the van, Mom" (He loves that job!). Soon after he was back in the house heading to the door with the battery charger. "Mom, the van battery is dead, but I can take care of it!" :) (sidenote..that van battery is a whole other story. The battery is not really dead, but due to some electronic glitch the computer 'thinks' it's dead????) So, while we are in the house busily getting ready, Jacob is outside with the hood up hooking up the battery charger. He started the van and the heater, cleared off the mountain of snow on the van and was "ever so happy" (Gracie's term :) ) while he was doing it! Normally he would have a path shoveled to the van for us too, but the shovel was buried somewhere beneath all of that snow.......ugh! (Still working on channeling all of that energy in the direction of "responsibility" ;) ) Now, I'd call that eagerness a POSITIVE wouldn't you?! :)

Now, the fact that he wants to grow his hair so that it is hanging in his eyes "like his friends"......well, finding anything positive about that would require some SERIOUS reaching for me......SERIOUS reaching!! So, his hair will remain above those most beautiful and perfect almond eyes. In other words...over this Mama's dead body will your hair hang over your eyes!! LOL!!! Jacob's response to that a very happy "Oh, ok Mom".......enjoying that response big time right now...he's only 10!! :)

I love my eager beaver......I love him with GUSTO, I love him with ZEST, I love him with every ounce of my ENERGY!!!!!!!!! :)

Love,
Wendy